Police have responded to an uptick in gun violence in downtown Denver by banning food trucks on the weekend. Cops say people tend to gather near the food trucks after leaving nearby bars and night clubs. City officials have offered the trucks other places to park, but owners say the proposed locations aren't as good and have less foot traffic.
In Wales, farmer Howard Walters has been sentenced to 12 months probation and ordered to pay £3,500 ($4,619) after a neighbor videotaped him allowing one of his grandchildren to ride in the cab of his tractor with him. Walters had already received an official warning from the Healthy and Safety Executive after he admitted allowing his grandchildren to ride with him in his tractor.
A federal appellate court has ruled that Judith Maureen Henry, who spent two weeks in jail in a case of mistaken identity, cannot sue the U.S. Marshals who arrested her. The marshals arrested Henry on a warrant for a woman of the same name who skipped out on parole in Pennsylvania in 1993. Henry protested her innocence and asked for her fingerprints to be compared to those of the woman named in the warrant. That did not happen until after she was transferred from the jail in New Jersey, where she was living, to Pennsylvania. The court ruled that since the marshals were acting on a lawful warrant, they had qualified immunity.
Freshmen at North Carolina's Riverside High School got something extra when they received their school-issued Chromebooks recently. The Chromebooks, which had been stored in the school's storage shed over the summer, were infested with bed bugs. The school has asked students to return the devices and recommended that parents inspect their home for bed bugs.
The British government plans to give workers the right to request a four-day work week. Under the proposal, workers would still have to work a 40-hour week. A government spokesperson said that employers would not be required to grant those requests. Joe Ryle, the director of the 4 Day Week campaign, welcomed the government's proposal as a first step, but he said his organization's ultimate goal is to reduce the number of hours worked each week.
Susie Holland faces potentially thousands of dollars in fines—officials won't say how much—for giving people rides to Burning Man. The 61-year-old was among more than a dozen people caught in a sting by the Nevada Transportation Authority (NTA) and charged with violating various state laws, including one requiring a certificate to transport people for money. Giving rides to and from Burning Man is quite common—in fact, Holland got the idea to offer rides for a fee at last year's festival, after she picked up a friend and a few other attendees who'd gotten stuck in the mud. Holland's car was impounded and she faces $30,000 in total fines. NTA officials assured her that because it is her first offense, that amount will be reduced, though they haven't said what the penalty will be.
Sandy Snakenberg, a street performer whose act involves
The Carlsbad, California, city council has banned smoking and vaping in apartments, condos, and other multi-unit residential buildings. Starting in January, residents cannot light up, even on their balconies and decks. Officials say that the police don't have the resources to enforce the law, but landlords and neighbors will be able to take legal action against those who violate the ban.
An employment tribunal in the United Kingdom has ruled that the Next clothing chain should not pay its retail workers,
In Norwood, Massachusetts, 12-year-old Danny Doherty set up a
In Wales, Michael O'Brien spent 11 years and 43 days in prison for murder. A U.K. appellate court eventually tossed out his conviction after all the witnesses recanted their testimony and a police department investigation found that officers committed more than 100 breaches of law or department policy while investigating the case. O'Brien received more than £600,000 ($785,910) in compensation from the government for his wrongful conviction. But the government first deducted £37,000 ($48,464) for food and lodging, for the time he spent in prison.
Officials in Atlantic City, New Jersey, have banned snakes and other reptiles from its iconic boardwalk from Memorial Day to Labor Day. For the past few summers, Jason Wilson has allowed visitors to the boardwalk to pet and hold his Burmese pythons, which he says has been educational for those people and helped some ease their fears of snakes. But some council members expressed concern about how safe it is to have snakes interacting with the public.
England's Home Secretary Yvette Cooper plans to "crack down on those pushing harmful and hateful beliefs and violence" in the aftermath of riots that followed the stabbing deaths of three girls in Southport. Almost 500 people have been charged so far in connection with the riots, and while many are charged with violent crimes or property damage, some have been charged with making offensive statements or posting material the government says could stir up racial hatred.
In England, the Harrow council has
Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto's push for criminal charges against a man she suspected was among protesters caused friction between her office and the Los Angeles Police Department, according to a memo by one of her deputies. Feldstein Soto told then-Police Chief Michel Moore to assert that Ricci Sergienko was involved in the protest, in which activists sprayed red paint and set off smoke devices at the home of a prominent Jewish civic leader. But police officers said Sergienko could not be identified in video footage from the scene. "For reasons unknown, the City Attorney expressed inordinate interest in the progress of a mass protest investigation, going so far as to suggest the identification of a specific individual for prosecution to the Chief of Police," wrote Dennis Kong of the city attorney's office. In a meeting with police officials, members of Feldstein Soto's staff admitted she may have implicated Sergienko without probable cause. Sergienko is an activist with the People's City Council, a left-wing group that has long been critical of Feldstein Soto.
Former Centre, Alabama, police officer Michael Kilgore has pleaded guilty to
Mayor Skip Hall of Surprise, Arizona, had Rebekah Massie removed from a City Council meeting when she attempted to raise concerns about the city attorney's salary. Hall cited a section of the council's public comments policy that bars speakers from making complaints about city employees or council members. When Massie protested that the policy violates the First Amendment, Hall had police officers remove her. She has been charged with suspicion of trespassing, obstructing government operations, and resisting arrest—all misdemeanors.
Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza has stopped state funding to the city of Dolton after Mayor Tiffany Henyard refused to turn over financial reports and a financial audit, as required by state law. Mendoza said she may fine the city if it fails to turn over the reports. Henyard is under fire for what critics call extravagant spending, which allegedly included spending $40,000 on Amazon in a single day. In April 2022, the city had a $5.6 million budget surplus. But an investigation by former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot found the city now has a $3.6 million deficit.
The U.S. Secret Service has apologized after agents assigned to protect Vice President Kamala Harris taped over the security camera of a Massachusetts hair salon,
In Belfast, Northern Ireland, Judge Francis Rafferty says he will deny bail to everyone arrested near a riot, even if they did not take part in violence or property damage and were there only as a "curious observer." "Anybody involving themselves in this type of behaviour, this type of disorder, as an active participant or a curious observer can expect to be, save for the most exceptional circumstances, remanded into custody," he said when denying bail to Cameron Armstrong, who claimed to have been at a riot in east Belfast only to "have a look" and left when explosives were thrown.
Iran's parliament is set to pass a bill regulating how men dress in public, banning apparel that "is against public modesty, such as clothing that does not cover a part of the body lower than the chest or higher than the ankle." But the Basij, the nation's morality police, is already enforcing the law. They have been beating and arresting men caught wearing shorts in public, at a time when temperatures reaching 45° Celsius (113° Fahrenheit) and frequent power outages have led many men to wear shorts outside.
In Buffalo, New York, city officials say they will pause efforts to collect amusement license fees from local music venues. A law allowing the city to collect the fees has been on the books since 1927, but the city only began attempting to collect the money earlier this month. The fees are charged per event, based on the price of tickets. Some venue owners told local media the fees could cost them $10,000 to $25,000 a year, and larger venues said the fees could cost them as much as $100,000. Some city council members said they were caught off guard by the move to collect the fees and plan to address the issue when the council meets again in September.
Electric school buses that were supposed to cut one Maryland county school system's transit costs in half actually cost the system millions of dollars. A report by the Montgomery County Office of the Inspector General found the buses were often delivered late and frequently had mechanical issues that "rendered them inoperable for extended periods." As a result, the school system had to spend more than $14.7 million to buy 90 diesel buses to cover routes. The delays and repair issues entitled the school system to more than $372,000 in penalties from the contractor, but no administrator ever pursued it.
Vera Liddell, former director of food services at Harvey School District 152 in Illinois, has been sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to
A federal judge has ruled that California's Clovis Community College violated the First and 14th Amendment rights of three conservative students when it took down fliers they had posted with anti-communist and pro-life messages. Judge Jennifer Thurston of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California ordered the college to pay Alejandro Flores, Juliette Colunga, and Daniel Flores $20,000 each, plus $250,000 in fees for their attorneys. Thurston also ordered the State Center Community College District to develop a policy to protect the First Amendment rights of students and ordered administrators to undergo First Amendment training for two years.
Dayton, Ohio, is now
An Israeli team was barred from taking part in the
German law requires retail stores to close on Sundays and Christian holidays to give employees days of rest. Supermarket chain Tegut has gotten around this by fully automating its stores, and it gets 25 percent to 30 percent of its sales on Sundays. But a court ruled that the supermarket must give its robots Sundays off as well. A shop workers' union filed suit to force the stores to close, saying it fears the company's success could undermine support for the nation's blue laws.
An internal investigation found that four Connecticut state troopers logged hundreds of fake tickets in 2018 in order to appear more productive. Investigators found the officers' actions may have been felony crimes, but they did not alert prosecutors. Chief State's Attorney Patrick Griffin opened a criminal investigation in late 2022 after learning about the investigation from a reporter, but the troopers will not face charges because the statute of limitations ran out. Two of the troopers retired without punishment and each collects nearly $70,000 in annual pension; the other two received brief suspensions before being transferred to new units.
When federal agents arrested Penny McCarthy at gunpoint outside her Phoenix home, they insisted that she was Carole Anne Rozak, a fugitive wanted on a 1999 warrant for a probation violation in Oklahoma. The U.S. Marshals Service said McCarthy's fingerprints matched Rozak's, but they later admitted the prints did not match and blamed a computer glitch for the misidentification. A judge dropped all charges against McCarthy.
Police in Scotland received thousands of complaints under the nation's new hate crimes law just in the first few days after it took effect. Former Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf said "a tiny percentage" of the numerous complaints are "turning into actual investigations," but staff is running up overtime weeding through them. Yousaf, who backed the law, said that even if complaints start to dwindle in the future, it will take "weeks or months" and cost "hundreds of thousands of pounds" to work through the backlog.
An Iranian court sentenced rapper Toomaj Salehi to death after finding him guilty of "corruption on Earth." Salehi has been arrested multiple times for his songs about the government's misconduct and stifling of dissent.
Chechnya's minister of culture required all music in the country—vocal or instrumental—to fall between tempos of 80 and 116 beats per minute, to preserve the "Chechen mentality and musical rhythm" and "the cultural heritage of the Chechen people." After backlash, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said the requirements were just "recommendations."
In Italy, the Milan City Council is considering a law that would ban the sale of ice cream, pizza, and other takeout food and drinks after 12:30 a.m. on weekdays and 1:30 a.m. on weekends and holidays. The move is aimed at reducing the noise generated by people congregating in the streets. The law is particularly unpopular among gelato merchants, who have long sold the treat late at night.
Justin Champlin, the former chief deputy tax assessor in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, was arrested on two counts each of injuring public records and computer tampering, as well as malfeasance in office. Police said that on two different occasions, Champlin illegally reduced the assessment on his property to lower his tax obligation. Champlin was fired from his job in early April following an internal audit.
The families of six people who died in Alabama prisons have sued the commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, the University of Alabama System, and others, claiming their family members' bodies were returned to them after state-mandated autopsies with missing organs. The autopsies were performed at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
President Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan has imprisoned Aftandil Sabyrbekov, his niece's fiancé, on drug charges, after Sabyrbekov arranged an "embarrassingly ostentatious" marriage proposal and refused to apologize. Sabyrbekov and Japarov's niece videotaped themselves flying to a mountain location in a Kyrgyz Emergencies Ministry helicopter as deadly mudslides hit the south of the country. Japarov said Sabyrbekov did not really love his niece and only wanted to use her connections "to protect himself and to hide his illegal activities."
John Codd, an 88-year-old former British Army colonel, fell getting out of a taxi in St. Austell, England, fracturing his right femur and suffering a rectus sheath hematoma. It took an ambulance more than two hours to arrive and take him to Royal Cornwall Hospital, where he then had to remain in the ambulance for almost five more hours because no beds were available. An hour after he was finally admitted, he was found on the floor of his room and could not be revived, having suffered a heart attack. A doctor with the National Health Service said Codd should have been seen within an hour of arriving at the hospital—in which case they may have been able to save him—but delays with ambulance response and hospital admission are common, not just at Cornwall but hospitals across the country.
The United Kingdom's new Labour Party government has confirmed that it will start charging a 20 percent value-added tax on private school tuition in January 2025. It promises to use the money to fund 6,500 new teachers in state school. Treasury official James Murray said the government is looking at how to address the impact this will have on "pupils with the most acute special educational needs," who depend on private schools for specialized education.
The Houston Police Department halted more than 260,000 investigations between 2016 and 2023 because of a lack of personnel. Now, department leaders say they will try to catch up on those investigations, especially the 4,017 rape cases that were put on hold. Police officials said they did not realize just how often the "S.L." tag, for "Suspended–Lack of Personnel," was applied to cases until a home invasion and sexual assault in September 2023. Physical evidence recovered from that scene matched that of a rape kit from a September 2022 assault. Detectives found that the earlier case had been marked S.L. even though the victim gave police her attacker's name, description, and vehicle description.
For the past year, New York City-based political strategy firm Mercury Public Affairs has lobbied Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on economic and labor issues. And beginning in 2024, it has also consulted for his political fund. According to the Chicago Tribune, there are no state or city ethics rules that prohibit a political group from helping an elected official raise money at the same time it is lobbying him.
In the United Kingdom, a National Health Service survey found that 26 percent of people in Cheshire and Merseyside who tried to
In California, Cajon Valley Union Superintendent David Miyashiro ran up nearly $400,000 in
A federal judge in Texas has sentenced a civilian employee of the U.S. Army to 15 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to five counts each of mail fraud and filing a false tax return. Janet Yamanaka Mello, who worked as a financial program manager at Fort Sam Houston, submitted fraudulent paperwork to receive grant funding for Child Health and Youth Lifelong Development, an organization she controlled which she claimed provided services to military members and their families. She stole almost $109 million over six years and used that money to buy real estate, vehicles, and high-end jewelry.
A court in Milan has ordered journalist Giulia Cortese to pay Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni 5,000 euros ($5,411 U.S.) after Cortese mocked Meloni on social media. In 2021, Cortese tweeted a fake photo showing Meloni and the late Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, igniting a war of words between the two. The court also handed Cortese a suspended fine of 1,200 euros ($1,300 U.S.) for another tweet it deemed "body shaming." "You don't scare me, Giorgia Meloni. After all, you're only 1.2 metres [4 feet] tall. I can't even see you," Cortese wrote.
Colorado plumbers and local water districts say they were caught off guard by a new law that could send consumer prices soaring. The law requires anyone inspecting, testing, or repairing a backflow prevention device to have a plumbing license. The devices keep used water from entering the water supply and are common in commercial buildings and on residential sprinkler systems. Previously, state law only required a license to install or remove the devices. Some water districts require that they be checked frequently. Both the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which regulates water quality, and the Department of Regulatory Agencies, which licenses plumbers, have come out against the change. Rep. Sheila Lieder (D–Littleton), who sponsored the law, said this was an unintended effect. "Unfortunately, during the legislation's five public hearings held last March and floor debates, none of these concerns were brought forward, making it difficult to incorporate feedback until the next legislative session," she said in a statement.
St. Louis firefighter Arnold Britt has pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property and fraudulent use of a credit/debit device. Britt asked a
Seattle interim Police Chief Sue Rahr has fired Officer Daniel Auderer, the vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, for "cruel comments and callous laughter" while speaking to another officer about a civilian death. Officer Kevin Dave reached speeds of up to 74 mph while responding to an overdose call, but he "chirped" his siren instead of running it continuously. He struck and killed graduate student Jaahnavi Kandula in a crosswalk in an area where the speed limit is 25 mph. Auderer was caught by his own bodycam in a phone conversation with union President Mike Solan in which Auderer laughed and called Kandula a "regular person" whose life had "limited value." The King County Prosecutor's Office declined to file criminal charges against Dave, saying it "lacks sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Officer Kevin Dave was impaired by drugs or alcohol, driving in a reckless manner, or driving with disregard for the safety of others."
The city of Memphis, Tennessee, lost $773,000 in a phishing scam in 2022, but officials did not disclose the loss until a local media outlet asked about it recently. The city was making regular payments to a local construction company. "Following a request from who they believed to be Zellner Construction, they changed the account details and wired $773k to an account that was, indeed, not Zellner," city media affairs manager Arlenia Cole said in a statement. Officials said that by the time they discovered the error the time period to reclaim the money had expired.
The Los Angeles Times, citing sources close to the investigation, reports that a disciplinary board found former Los Angeles assistant police chief Alfred Labrada secretly tracked a fellow officer he was romantically involved with, lied to internal affairs detectives investigating the matter, and tried to persuade a witness not to testify at the board hearing. Officer Dawn Silva said Labrada placed an Apple AirTag under the bumper of her car to track her movements. Labrada told investigators he had bought AirTags to track his luggage while he was on a cruise but denied using them to track her. But investigators found evidence on his city-issued phone indicating he had used the devices to monitor Silva's movements over several months. Labrada retired after the panel reached its decision but before he could face disciplinary action.
Minnesota State Trooper Shane Roper has been charged with manslaughter, criminal vehicular homicide, and several counts of criminal vehicular operation. Prosecutors say Roper was traveling 83 mph in a 40 mph zone when he T-boned the passenger side of a Ford Focus, killing a high school cheerleader and injuring two passengers as well as three people in another vehicle. An investigation revealed that earlier in the day, Roper "engaged in high-speed driving without emergency lights, in one instance reaching a speed of 135 mph, other times over 99 mph." At the time of the crash, Roper was "attempting to catch up to a traffic violator."
City officials in Marion, Kansas, have agreed to pay $235,000 to
David O'Connor is a Navy veteran who spent many years as a commercial truck driver. He's had standard and commercial driver's licenses in New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, and for the past eight years, in Tennessee. But when he went to renew his license and get a REAL ID, Tennessee Driver Service Center officials not only refused to issue a REAL ID but also canceled his existing driver's license, citing a state law prohibiting licenses for noncitizens. O'Connor has been a U.S. citizen since birth: His Navy discharge papers say so, and he's also collecting Social Security. The problem is that O'Connor was born in Canada, where his parents—both U.S. citizens—were living temporarily. When employees at the Driver Service Center saw his birth certificate, they assumed he was Canadian, and refused to believe otherwise; their only recommendation was that he apply for citizenship.
Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters recently told members of the state legislature that he has been locked out of the state Department of Education website for two years. In a video posted to X, Walters and another man, who wasn't identified, said that employees created individual websites during a previous administration, and they did not leave the information on how to access those sites when they left. But some lawmakers wondered why the issue hasn't been solved in two years.
