Bishop Lamor Miller-Whitehead, 46, was convicted in March of wire fraud, attempted wire fraud, attempted extortion and making false statements to federal law enforcement agents, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Miller-Whitehead, a bishop at the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries church in Canarsie, made headlines in July 2022 when armed assailants robbed him and his wife of $1 million worth of jewelry during a livestreamed service, police said.

“Lamor Whitehead is a con man who stole millions of dollars in a string of financial frauds and even stole from one of his own parishioners,” Williams said. “He lied to federal agents, and again to the Court at his trial. Today’s sentence puts an end to Whitehead’s various schemes and reflects this Office’s commitment to bring accountability to those who abuse their positions of trust.”

To read this article in its entirety, visit NBC News

The administration is describing the pardons as the largest state pardon to date. The governor’s action regarding cases relating to use of paraphernalia make Maryland the first state to take such action, his office said.

The pardons will forgive low-level marijuana possession charges for an estimated 100,000 people, according to The Washington Post, which first reported on the order Sunday night.

Moore plans to sign the executive order Monday morning in the state Capitol in Annapolis with Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown in attendance.

Recreational cannabis was legalized in Maryland in 2023 after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2022 with 67% of the vote. Maryland decriminalized possession of personal use amounts of cannabis on Jan. 1, 2023. Now, 24 states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational cannabis.

“The Moore-Miller Administration is committed to promoting social equity and ensuring the fair and equitable administration of justice,” the governor’s office said. “Because the use and possession of cannabis is no longer illegal in the state, Marylanders should not continue to face barriers to housing, employment, or educational opportunities based on convictions for conduct that is no longer illegal.”

Brown, a Democrat, described the pardons as “certainly long overdue as a nation” and “a racial equity issue.”

To read this article in its entirety, visit The Grio

Durbin, D-Ill., said Thursday the committee obtained information from Crow that Thomas took three trips, and at least six flights, on Crow’s private jet in 2017, 2019 and 2021. The panel also found evidence of private jet travel during trips to Indonesia and California that Thomas recently disclosed in an amendment to a 2019 financial disclosure report.

The Democratic-led Judiciary panel launched the investigation last year after several reports that Thomas had for years received undisclosed expensive gifts, including international travel, from Crow. The committee has since pushed the Supreme Court to adopt a stronger ethics code as trips by Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito came to light, along with six-figure book deals received by other justices.

The new information “makes it crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct, because its members continue to choose not to meet the moment,” Durbin said in a statement.

There was no immediate comment from the court on the Senate report. In the past, Thomas has maintained that he is not required to disclose the many trips he and his wife took that were paid for the Texas megadonor because Crow and his wife Kathy are “among our dearest friends,” Thomas said in an April 2023 statement that he was advised by colleagues on the nation’s highest court and others in the federal judiciary that “this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable.”

To read this article in its entirety, visit The Associated Press

Members of the group initially entered the US at the southern border and requested asylum under US immigration law. It’s unclear whether they entered at the same time and place.

By the time intelligence collected on overseas ISIS targets connected the men to the terror group, they had already been vetted by immigration authorities and allowed into the country, officials said.

Though there is no hard evidence indicating they were sent to the US as part of a terror plot, at least some of the Tajik nationals had expressed extremist rhetoric in their communications, either on social media or in direct private communications that US intelligence was able to monitor, three officials said.

That discovery set off a flurry of emergency investigative efforts by federal agents and analysts across the country, sources said, including physical and electronic surveillance of the men — a counterterrorism operation reminiscent of the years immediately following 9/11, when the FBI investigated numerous homegrown plots.

After a period of surveillance, federal officials in recent days faced a difficult decision: whether to continue surveilling the men in order to determine if they were part of any potential plot or wider terrorist network, or to move in and take them off the street. Rather than risk the worst-case scenario of a potential attack, senior US officials decided to move in and have the men apprehended by ICE agents, one source told CNN.

The men remain in federal custody on immigration charges and will eventually be deported following the counterterror investigation into them.

Tajiks recruited by ISIS

Of particular concern to US officials was that the men hail from Tajikistan, a corner of Central Asia that in recent years has been a source of steady recruitment by ISIS-K, the Afghanistan-based affiliate of the Islamic terrorist group. ISIS-K is led primarily by Tajiks, who have carried out a series of recent attacks in Europe on behalf of the group, including the Crocus Hall attack in Moscow in March that killed more than 100 people.

To read this article in its entirety, visit CNN

A gunman had hijacked a commuter bus with 17 people inside and shot one of them with the passenger’s own gun, authorities said, prompting others to frantically text loved ones and call 911 for help.

But as police arrived on the scene and tried to confront the gunman, identified as 39-year-old felon Joseph Grier, the suspect held the bus driver at gunpoint and forced him to speed away, according to Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum.

The ensuing rush-hour police chase zig-zagged across highway lanes and suburban streets as the bus led authorities across at least two counties, at times careening into other cars and crossing into opposing traffic.

Inside, a passenger surreptitiously stayed on the line with 911, allowing authorities to hear the commotion, Schierbaum said. Mayor Andre Dickens said the chaos sounded like a movie scene as the suspect had “a gun to the head of a bus driver saying, ‘Don’t stop this bus or else worse will happen.’”

When the bus finally ground to a halt on a tree-lined street in the suburb of Stone Mountain, passengers streamed out and Grier was arrested without incident, police said.

A passenger found shot aboard the bus was taken to a hospital, where they later died, officials said. He was identified Wednesday as 58-year-old Ernest Byrd Jr., according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office, which ruled his death a homicide.

The suspect – who, in a twist, was at the scene of Tuesday afternoon’s shooting downtown and spoke to local news outlets moments before the hijacking – now faces a slew of charges in connection to Tuesday’s incident, according to jail records.

They include one count of murder, 14 counts of kidnapping, 13 counts of aggravated assault, one count of first-degree hijacking of a motor vehicle, one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and one count of possession of a firearm or knife during the commission of or attempt to commit certain felonies.

Grier waved his initial court appearance, according to a spokesperson for the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.

He has 19 prior felony convictions, police said, though no further details were provided. CNN has been unable to determine whether the suspect has an attorney.

How the harrowing incident unfolded

_{Credit: Ben Hendren for the AJC}

The hijacked Gwinnett County Transit bus is part of a web of commuter routes that bring people to and from Atlanta’s sprawling suburbs, including passenger Paulette Gilbert, who called her husband from inside the bus as the chase began to unfold.

Paulette Gilbert seemed stunned and frightened as she described a man who had boarded the bus and began acting strangely, said her husband, Johnny Gilbert. She said the man got into a confrontation with another passenger and shot them, possibly in the leg.

“She said the guy got on the bus and seemed kinda crazy,” Gilbert said, recounting his wife’s story. “He was being disruptive or getting on people’s nerves,” he added.

Grier was “engaging with passengers” when he got into a fight with one of them, a male, who pulled a gun, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

“Grier took the gun from the passenger and began threatening passengers with it,” the GBI said in a news release, citing preliminary information from its investigation. “Grier then shot the passenger and ordered the bus driver to flee the scene while threatening passengers with the gun.”

At around 4:30 p.m., police received the first 911 call from a passenger reporting that a gunman was holding the bus hostage on Ivan Allen Boulevard and that there may have been shots fired, Schierbaum said. Then the line went silent.

To read this article in its entirety, visit CNN

Mark Prieto, 58, had seven guns when he was arrested on May 14 while driving east from Arizona through New Mexico, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona said in a news release Tuesday. He faces charges of firearms trafficking, transfer of a firearm for use in a hate crime and possession of an unregistered firearm, the release said.

The indictment against Prieto alleges he discussed his plans between January and May with two people whom he believed “shared his racist beliefs,” unaware they were working with the FBI, the US Attorney’s Office said. He then sold an AK-style rifle and an AR-style rifle to one of those individuals within the span of a month, all while under FBI surveillance, the release said.

Prieto was targeting a concert scheduled for May 14 and May 15 at State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta, according to a statement of probable cause attached to the federal complaint. While it does not specify whose concert Prieto allegedly targeted, a schedule for the venue shows Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny was slated to perform there on those dates.

After his arrest, Prieto denied he was going to Atlanta, but he did admit to knowing the two people who were working with the FBI, and told agents he had no intentions of carrying out the attack, the federal complaint states. CNN has reached out to Prieto’s public defender in New Mexico for comment.

If convicted, the charges of firearms trafficking and transfer of a firearm for use in a hate crime each carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the US Attorney’s Office said. A conviction for possession of an unregistered firearm carries a sentence of up to 10 years and a $250,000 fine.

Indictment outlines monthslong undercover operation

One of the individuals Prieto confided in was an undercover FBI agent, while the other was a confidential source who’d spoken with Prieto more than a dozen times at different gun shows over the last three years, according to the complaint. That source told the FBI in late 2023 that Prieto had made comments advocating for a mass shooting targeting “blacks, Jews, or Muslims,” the complaint says.

To read this article in its entirety, visit CNN

The suspect, Smiley Martin, was facing a murder charge, according to CNN affiliate KCRA. He was also charged with two felony firearms possession counts related to the April 2022 shooting that police say involved at least five shooters and left behind a chaotic crime scene littered with more than 100 shell casings. Two other people, including Martin’s brother, were also arrested in connection with the incident.

Martin’s attorney, Norman Dawson, said he was alerted of his death early Saturday.

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office announced on social media that a 29-year-old man had been found unresponsive in his cell around 2:15 a.m. Saturday, but despite life-saving efforts was ultimately pronounced dead. Though the agency did not name Martin as the inmate, it said the man had been in custody since Martin’s arrest date of April 20, 2022.

To read this article in its entirety, visit CNN

Cannon is planning on holding a sprawling hearing on Trump’s request to declare Jack Smith’s appointment as special counsel invalid, signaling she could be more willing than any other trial judge to veto the special prosecutor’s authority.

The planned hearing also adds a new, unusual twist in the federal criminal case against the former president: Cannon on Tuesday said that a variety of political partisans and constitutional scholars not otherwise involved with the case can join in the oral arguments later this month.

It’s an extraordinary elevation of arguments in a criminal case – filed a year ago this week – that likely won’t see trial until next year, if at all.

Wednesday, Cannon went further, adding a hearing on a gag order request from prosecutors to limit Trump’s rhetoric about law enforcement and allotting more time to hear arguments on the special counsel issue.

Cannon will hear arguments on those issues the week of June 21, as well as on the effort by Trump to throw out evidence in his case that was gathered by the FBI in its 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago or provided by his former attorney Evan Corcoran to a grand jury.

To read this article in its entirety, visit CNN

That was eight years ago. Back when she was still just a teenager. Still kind of “ditzy.”

Those days are long gone. The evidence isn’t just on Biles drivers’ license or her marriage certificate but in how the now 27-year-old is able to see beyond herself. The tunnel vision that most great athletes have in pursuit of greatness has fallen away.

And maybe that’s the biggest difference between the national title the gymnastics star won on Sunday night — her ninth, this one with an all-around total of 119.750 — and her first over a decade ago.

The defining moment of Biles’ victory wasn’t a twist, a turn or a jump, but a walk.

It came early on, when Biles watched 2020 Olympic champion and good friend Sunisa Lee spin awkwardly in the air during her vault and landed on her back, a mixture of surprise and fear spreading across her face.

“I was kind of thinking that this was over,” Lee said.

Then Biles appeared at her side, unprompted. She knew exactly where Lee was in that moment better than anyone.

Three years ago at the Tokyo Games, a similar wayward vault by Biles started a chain of events that led to her withdrawing from multiple competitions and dragging the discussion on the importance of mental health front and center.

Watching Lee, who has spent most of the last two years battling kidney issues that have made her weight yo-yo and complicated her training, try to gather herself, Biles left her World Champions Centre teammates and gave Lee the kind of support Biles relied on so heavily back in Japan.

“I know how traumatizing it is, especially on a big stage like this,” Biles said. “And I didn’t want her to get in her head, so we just went and talked about it.”

The two retreated off the floor to talk, with Biles reminding Lee she “could do hard things.”

To read this article in its entirety, visit The Associated Press

The possibility that the disqualification fight could stretch to October, as well as an ongoing question about how the Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling on presidential immunity could impact the prosecution, makes it extremely unlikely Trump will go on trial for election subversion in Georgia before Election Day.

Attorneys were informed of the tentative date after the case was officially docketed Monday with the appeals court, according to a notice obtained by CNN.

Briefs from defense attorneys in the case are due in 20 days.

While the court tentatively set an oral argument day, it is not guaranteed. A party to the case has to request an oral argument and the court then decides whether to grant that request. The panel could also decide to forgo oral arguments and rule on the matter based on filed briefs.

A panel of three judges – Todd Markle, Trenton Brown and Benjamin Land – is set to consider the case.

While the case against Trump and his codefendants is still allowed to proceed in the lower court, no trial date has been set.

A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office declined to comment.