List of All Articles with Tag 'americas'

“Dog the Bounty Hunter” Duane Chapman has joined the search for Rachel Morin’s killer in Maryland as detectives are tracking leads hundreds of miles away in Chicago. Mr Chapman appeared on NewsNation this week to offer his expertise on possible clues in the surveillance video footage previously released by the Harford County Sheriff’s Office showing the man they believe is responsible for the mother-of-five’s killing in Bel Air last month. The footage is from the scene of a home invasion and assault in Los Angeles, where DNA found matched DNA at the Morin crime scene. Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler has said the suspect might be a serial killer. He confirmed to Law&Crime this week that detectives are now in Chicago tracking leads. Several weeks have now passed since Morin was found dead on the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air in early August.She had set off on a walk along the trail on 5 August, with the alarm raised when she didn’t return home. Read More Rachel Morin was found dead on a popular Maryland hiking trail. Police finally have a break in the case Rachel Morin’s mother shares ‘unbearable’ pain as Bel Air killer still at large weeks after murder Rachel Morin killer ‘not going to stop’ unless arrested, police say as new clues dry up

A California equestrian was arrested for allegedly attempting multiple times to hire a hitman to kill her estranged husband. Tatyana Remley, 42, is accused of first offering a friend $2m to murder Mark Remley, and last month she allegedly met with an undercover police officer and asked him to kill her husband. She has been charged with solicitation of murder after meeting with an undercover detective last month and allegedly gave specific details on how she wanted her husband killed and his body disposed of, according to the San Diego Sheriff’s Office. Ms Remley came into contact with police after the sheriff’s office responded to a house fire on 2 July. She was arrested on firearms offences after she was found to be in possession of three guns and ammunition. Prosecutors say that in the month after the fire police received information that she was trying to hire someone to kill her husband. During a 2 August meeting with the undercover detective she brought three firearms and money as a downpayment for the killing, say officials. She is currently being held without bail at the Las Colinas Detention Facility in Santee, California and pleaded not guilty at a hearing last month, according to The Coast News. Solicitation of murder can carry a sentence of up to nine years in California and the firearms felony charge could add another year. The Remleys ran the production of an acrobatic equestrian show called Valitar at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in 2012, which was supposed to run for 45 performances but was cancelled after just a few. The couple, who lived in Del Mar, near San Diego, married in 2011 and have filed for divorce several times over the years, according to the outlet. The couple were in the process of divorcing when the alleged murder plots were undertaken. She is due back in court on 6 October. Read More 25,000 pounds of trash pulled from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch Powered by wind, this $10B transmission line will carry more energy than the Hoover Dam Billionaires want to build a new city in rural California. They must convince voters first

The Florida attorney general has defended Governor Ron DeSantis after he discouraged looters and referenced signs put up saying “you loot, we shoot”. On Wednesday, the governor said, “Just to remind potential looters … you never know what you’re walking into. People have a right to defend their property. This part of Florida, you got a lot of advocates and proponents of the Second Amendment”. “And I’ve seen signs in different people’s yards in the past after these disasters and I would say it’s probably here, ‘you loot we shoot’. You never know what’s behind that door,” he added. Attorney General Ashley Moody defended those remarks on Fox Business on Friday, saying: “This is a law and order state. We’ll enforce the law.” On 30 August, Mr DeSantis said: “There are reports of people trying to loot down in Steinhatchiee.” “I’ve told all of our personnel at the state level … protect people’s property and we are not going to tolerate any looting in the aftermath of a natural disaster,” he added. “It’s just ridiculous that you would try to do something like that, on the heels of an almost category four hurricane hitting this community.” “If you go break into somebody’s house, and you’re trying to loot. These are people that are going to be able to defend themselves and their families so I would not do it,” the governor warned. “We are going to hold you accountable from a law enforcement perspective at a minimum and it could even be worse than that, depending on what’s behind that door. So let’s all band together and lift people up and not try to take advantage of a difficult situation.” Ms Moody went on to say that “the reason why we have so few deaths is because folks in Florida heeded the warnings to evacuate when they were told to do so by local authorities”. “When people leave, they have to trust that their property is going to be safe because of our approach to law and order,” she added. “I’ve had discussions with all of the state attorneys that have been involved with the jurisdictions and the storm. They are committed to ensuring that if people loot and take advantage of folks in their time of need, they will be held accountable.” “Holding them during that pre-trial detention period is so important,” Ms Moody told Fox Business. “If they get back out, they go right back to the areas that have been affected. hat is dangerous for our first responders [who] are trying to manage things on the ground, to have them distracted like that.” “This is a way that Florida stands out from other states around the nation. We hold people accountable, and we enforce the law. It’s very easy to do if you’re committed to it,” she said. “And I would suggest other leaders and other states take a look at how they’re approaching criminal justice. They might see the strength of their cities and their states improve.” Read More Hurricane Idalia - latest: Biden requests billions more in disaster relief as photos show storm’s destruction Florida mural of murdered journalist is defaced with anti-LGBT+ graffiti Ron DeSantis goes to extreme lengths to dodge questions from 15-year-old

The group has moved from fighting left-wing activists to protesting outside drag shows.

A shooting outside a shopping centre in the Texas city of Austin left one victim dead and another with critical injuries. The incident, which also left the gunman dead, took place near The Arboretum on Thursday evening. Police say that any relationship between the gunman and victims was not immediately known, and Austin Interim Police Chief Robin Henderson declined to give more details about the shooting. Here is everything we know: Where and when did the shooting take place? The violence unfolded at The Arboretum, an upscale outdoor shopping mall on Austin’s north side. Authorities say that it started at 5pm on Thursday 31 August and that by 5.07pm responding police had found two people suffering from gunshot wounds. The shooting is believed to have taken place near the mall’s Teapioca Lounge. At 5.11pm, police, firefighters and medics began treating a victim, who was taken to a hospital at 5.17pm. Two other people were also evaluated for minor injuries. By 5.20pm, two people, one of whom was the gunman, had been declared dead at the scene. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire and Explosives (ATF) and the local bomb squad responded to the scene because of reports of an explosion being heard. However, no explosives were found at the scene, police said. “I would like to offer condolences to the families of the victims, in addition to the multiple witnesses that witnessed the tragedy here today,” said Chief Henderson. Who was killed in the shooting? Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services say that both people killed in the shooting were adults. Investigators say they do not yet know if there was any relationship between the gunman and the victims. The identity of the gunman has not yet been released, Reaction from the owner of the shopping mall A spokesperson for the Washington Prime Group, the owner of The Arboretum, released a statement following the incident. “We are deeply saddened by this senseless act. The safety of our guests, retailers and employees is our top priority. We are working closely with the Austin Police Department as they investigate this isolated incident,” the statement read.

The Rhode Island TF Green International Airport is on lockdown as a possible “security threat” is evaluated. Rhode Island State Police Col Darnell Weaver said that the threat “appears to be unfounded at this time”. The airport wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter on Friday morning: “Rhode Island T.F. Green Airport is currently in lockdown as law enforcement addresses a potential security threat. Travelers are asked to delay arrivals at the airport at this time. More information will be provided when available.” Both state and local police responded to the possible threat at the airport, according to WPRI. “We received a call of a possible threat at the airport, multiple agencies are investigating now and conducting a search of the parking lots,” Warwick Police Chief Bradford Connor told the local TV station. Col Weaver added that troopers have established a perimeter surrounding a parking garage, adding that a Warwick SWAT team was clearing that building. “Preliminary, what we have is the call came into Warwick police about a potential suspect with a rifle,” Col Weaver said, according to WPRI. “They responded to the area, it was isolated to the parking garage, not the actual terminal.” Police are telling travellers that the airport is closed and they have blocked the entrances. The Rhode Island Department of Transportation have said that all travel lanes going towards TF Green on the airport connector have also been blocked. More follows...

A possible road rage incident has left eight people hospitalised, after a car crashed into a nearby field north of Fort Collins in Colorado. The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a road rage shooting that happened on Thurdsay afternoon in the area of Owl Canyon Road and US Highway 287. Shots were allegedly fired from a car to another vehicle, which then crashed and caught on fire. Six people inside the car were shot at, but only received minor injuries that resulted from the crash. A ambulance that arrived at the scene to help the injured people also caught fire. After the shooting the suspect vehicle then fled the scene. Read More Inside the notorious Fulton County Jail where Trump and 18 allies were booked over Georgia election plot Louisiana professor asked students to paint their faces to fulfil his ‘clown fetish’ After nearly 30 years, Pennsylvania will end state funding for anti-abortion counseling centers

A Louisiana professor has been accused of using his students to fulfil a self-described “clown fetish” by painting their faces or asking them to paint their own. Joseph Tokosh would regularly post about his fetish on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Reddit and YouTube, while working as an assistant geography professor at Nicholls State University in Louisiana. In March, Mr Tokosh resigned from his position just before student journalists exposed his behaviour in their student-run newspaper, The Nicholls Worth. Sally-Anne Torres, managing editor for the newspaper, reported that six students had come forward to claim Mr Tokosh would offer them bonus points in class if they allowed him to paint their faces. A post on a Reddit forum also surfaced where Mr Tokosh, under the username Joeography, shared photos of several women wearing white face paint. In another Reddit post, seen by USA Today, Mr Tokosh wrote: “I have a facepaint fetish and convince the cute girls in my classes to let me paint their faces.” Before Mr Tokosh resigned from the university in late March, a few students had already reported his behaviour to campus police. Bradley Price, a student who took Mr Tokosh’s East Asia class online, alleged that the professor had set an assignment where all students had to paint their faces and take photos of themselves. “You had to send in multiple pictures of how you did it from multiple angles and also write down the process of it. The relevancy he gave it was that it was a Japanese style of makeup; it was for students to get a better understanding of their culture,” Mr Price said, according to USA Today. Mr Price said he completed the assignment by getting a female friend to help him and submitted it to Mr Tokosh. The professor came back and told Mr Price he would get bonus points if he could convince his friend to also paint her face. After learning about Mr Tokosh’s clown “fetish”, Mr Price said he was “disgusted”. “I feel frankly disgusted and disappointed that Nicholls couldn’t do a proper background check on this professor because this is unacceptable,” he said. “How could this have got past any reasonable check?” Mr Tokosh did have a police report on file before arriving at Nicholls State University, after pleading no contest to a theft charge at Kent State University in 2017 for entering a colleague’s office and taking a USB drive. The police report also detailed another incident of face paint fetishism. A Kent State student, who was 18 at the time, had reported seeing a post by Mr Tokosh on a Facebook group meant for new students to meet each other. In it, he had allegedly made a cash offer to anyone who would agree to let him paint their faces. The student said she agreed as she was in need of more money and had an interest in movie makeup, according to USA Today. Mr Tokosh then allegedly offered to pick her up and take her to the geography department at the university to paint her face. She told police she had stopped responding to his messages after becoming uncomfortable with the situation – which then caused Mr Tokosh to become annoyed and refuse to leave her alone. The student then filed a police report about the professor. “I felt like the school would want to know about it,” she said, according to USA Today. “I thought maybe they could prevent anything bad from happening since other girls would go with him.” However, she said that there was never a follow-up by campus police. Following that incident, the professor tried to defend his actions in a video interview with student-run KNSU TV at Nicholls. He said the face paint assignment was for students to “actually come up with their own face paint and makeup design inspired by a culture, and they implement it”. He left Kent State University following the theft charge. In a statement to Fox News Digital, a Nicholls State University spokesperson said about the latest allegations: “Nicholls State University is proud that our student journalists brought this situation to light. We take the safety and security of our student population very seriously. “Once this was brought to the university’s attention, we acted appropriately to remove Joseph Tokosh from the classroom and did not renew his contract. He is no longer affiliated with Nicholls State University.” Read More UNC shooting updates: Students demand gun control with powerful newspaper front page after Chapel Hill attack Mother convicted of killing malnourished baby by giving him cow’s milk could have life sentence commuted Louisiana woman arrested for stabbing grandfather in face because he asked her to take a shower

Elon Musk became vehemently “anti-woke” because of his daughter’s gender transition, according to a new book on the Tesla boss. The billionaire’s right-wing political leanings “were partly triggered” when his then-16-year-old child, Vivian Jenna Wilson, came out to her aunt. The claim was made by Mr Musk’s biographer, Walter Isaacson, in an excerpt from his book – entitled Elon Musk – published in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. “Hey, I’m transgender, and my name is now Jenna,” she reportedly texted her aunt. “Don’t tell my dad.” Ms Wilson was granted a legal name and gender change last June and has severed all ties with her famous father. According to the book, Mr Musk brands his daughter a “Communist” who ended her relationship with him because she was brainwashed into “thinking that anyone rich is evil” by her $50,000-per-year school in California. Mr Musk said he “partly” blames the Crossroads School for Arts& Sciences for his daughter’s change in attitude towards him. “She went beyond socialism to being a full communist and thinking that anyone rich is evil,” said Mr Musk, who has a personal worth of $257.5bn. Mr Musk has previously blamed “woke” schools for his daughter’s transition, but it is the first time that he has named Crossroads. Mr Musk said that the rift with his daughter is the most painful thing he has experienced since the death of his first child at 10 weeks old from sudden infant death syndrome. Her mother is the Canadian writer Justine Wilson, who was married to Mr Musk from 2000 to 2008. The Independent has reached out to Crossroads for comment. Read More Twitter/X indicates it will start collecting ‘biometric information’ and ‘employment history’ KSI reveals how much money he made from Elon Musk’s new Twitter monetisation in August Tesla under federal probe over mysterious project to build ‘glass house’ for Elon Musk, report says ‘San Francisco will end up like Detroit’: Why Elon Musk and tech CEOs are fighting lawsuit on homeless crisis Elon Musk booed at video games contest as crowds shout: ‘Bring back Twitter!’ Why Elon Musk and tech CEOs are backing a lawsuit against anti-homelessness advocates Elon Musk booed at video games contest as crowds shout: ‘Bring back Twitter!’ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis faces Black leaders' anger after racist killings in Jacksonville

One inmate has been killed in an ongoing mass stabbing at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta where former President Donald Trump was booked and had his mug shot taken earlier this month. More follows...

The former leader of a Philadelphia chapter of the neo-fascist gang the Proud Boys who stormed the halls of Congress on January 6 has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Zachary Rehl, the son and grandson of Philadelphia police officers who used pepper spray against law enforcement outside the US Capitol then lied on the witness stand about it, had called for “firing squads” for “traitors” who wanted to “steal” the 2020 election from Donald Trump. He was convicted of seditious conspiracy earlier this year alongside three other members and allies of the group for their roles in an assault that federal prosecutors said “unleashed a force on the Capitol that was calculated to exert their political will on elected officials by force” to “undo the results of a democratic election.” US District Judge Timothy Kelly determined that Rehl committed perjury during the trial when he denied assaulting anyone. Video evidence appeared to show him using a chemical spray against police as the mob broke through barricades and marched to the Capitol. Rehl’s sentence is among the largest against defendants connected to the attack on the US Capitol during a joint session of Congress as lawmakers convened to certify election results. Joe Biggs, a prominent figure within the Proud Boys who marched to the Capitol alongside Rehl, was sentenced to 17 years in prison on 31 August, now the second longest sentence for a January 6 defendant to date. Judge Kelly also issued that sentence. The sentences for Biggs and Rehl are 15 years below sentencing guidelines and roughly half of what prosecutors have asked in their cases. A jury had convicted both Rehl and Biggs on the treason-related charge of seditious conspiracy as well as conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to use force, intimidation or threats to prevent officers from discharging their duties; interference with law enforcement during civil disorder; and destruction of government property. Sentencing guidelines suggested Rehl could face 30 years to life in prison. Federal prosecutors sought 30 years. Prosecutors also had sought 33 years for Biggs and former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who is scheduled to be sentenced on 5 September. Co-defendants Ethan Nordean and Dominic Pezzola will be sentenced on 1 September. Proud Boys emerged as what one former member called the “foot soldiers of the right” using the guise of male-dominated drinking clubs to wield threats and physical violence against political enemies, particularly antifascist organizers, while rallying against LGBT+ people and employing white nationalist and antisemitic tropes. “They turned that vigilantism from antifa to law enforcement and the government itself,” Assistant US Attorney Erik Kenerson told Judge Kelly. “Mr Rehl embraced that vigilantism, and he eventually used it to try to impose his vision of America by force.” Pennsylvania-area Proud Boys played an outsized role in the attack, from planning in group chats to joining the mob that breached barricades and broke into the Capitol on 6 January, 2021. In messages on social media, Rehl called for “firing squads for the traitors that are trying to steal the election.” “F*** ‘em, storm the Capitol,” Rehl shouted into a video he recorded moments after breaching a police line. Minutes later, video captures him firing what appears to be chemical spray towards officers in his path. Pezzola seized a riot shield from an officer and used it to break a window, through which the first members of the mob entered the Capitol, according to an indictment. Once inside, Rehl posed for selfies with other members of the Philadelphia Proud Boys chapter and smoked cigarettes as rioters broke into the office of Democratic US Senator Jeff Merkley. “Looking back, it sucked,” Rehl wrote in a message to Philadelphia chapter members the day after the attack. “We should have held the Capitol … Everyone shoulda showed up armed and took the country back the right way.” During the trial, Rehl expressed regret for his actions that day, admitting that he felt much differently about the assault in the months that followed than he did in its immediate aftermath as he celebrated with other Proud Boys. At his sentencing hearing, he broke down in tears, pointing to the baseless narrative of election fraud and manipulation that fuelled the attack in the first place, and apologizing to his family who suffered in its wake. “Politicians spread lies about elections,” he said. “I fell for it hook, line and sinker … It cost me everything.” Read More Proud Boy Joe Biggs sentenced to 17 years in prison for Jan 6 seditious conspiracy Who is Enrique Tarrio? Ex-Proud Boys leader faces longest prison sentence yet for January 6 ‘Donald Trump’s army’: Proud Boys members face decades in prison for January 6 sedition

More than 9700 pounds of cocaine were seized by the Mexican Navy after a high-speed chase across the Pacific Ocean resulted in a huge drug bust. Footage captured by the Mexican Navy shows two operations taking place off the Pacific coast of Mexico near Oaxaca, chasing down the boats at rapid speed. The Navy then used helicopters to lower down to board and take control of the vessels. After a two-day operation that took place last week on 22 and 23 August, the Navy secured three boats. Eleven people were detained and turned over to the prosecutors. Along with the large quantity of cocaine, 1,300 gallons of fuel was also found on the boats. According to the UN, the global production of cocaine has dramatically increased over the past two years since its downturn during the Covid-19 pandemic. When cocaine is imported into Mexico, it is often trafficked inland toward the United States concealed in vehicles, although maritime vessels have also been used as well. Drug-related violence has increased recently, with convenience stores, trucks and cars being set alight by drug cartels in Michoacan to block roads and enforce extortion demands. Three men and three youths aged 16 and 17 were arrested during the attack. 1,200 troops were sent by the Mexican Government after the weekend to disperse the cartels from blocking the roads. Read More Help us find loved ones missing after decades of violence in Mexico, mothers tell government Mexico sends 1,200 more troops to Michoacan state after weekend of cartel violence Mexican Navy hopes to expand net-snagging hooks to protect endangered vaquita porpoises