Police chief arrested in nude photo exchange with teen
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – An Ohio village police chief has been detained on a federal arrest warrant for what authorities say was an exchange of nude photos with a 16-year-old girl.
Federal court records show that 36-year-old Andrew Soloman, of Warren, was arrested Thursday by members of a task force that investigates cybercrimes and child pornography. Soloman was placed on administrative leave as the Craig Beach police chief in early December after his initial arrest by Mahoning County sheriff’s deputies.
Suitcase with apparent human bones found in Georgia woods
BARNESVILLE, Ga. – A driver looking for a lost item near a Georgia interstate stumbled on a suitcase holding what investigators believe are human bones.
WGXA-TV reports that the suitcase held a skull and pelvic bones. Butts County Coroner Ralph Wilson says it appeared to have been lying near I-75 for months, and was too far from the road to have been thrown from a vehicle.
Baltimore Holds Vigil For Murder Victims As City Breaks Homicide Records
Baltimore residents gathered for a vigil Thursday to honor those who have lost their lives to the city’s gun violence as Baltimore breaks new homicide records.
The city recently reached 343 homicides for 2017 so far, breaking the city’s per capita record on killings, reports CBS Local Baltimore. In response, hundreds of people stood outside the Baltimore War Memorial Building, with some carrying signs with an inspirational word for the new year.
Attorney: Woman accused of dismembering husband was abused
AKRON, Ohio – A defense attorney says an Ohio woman accused of fatally shooting her husband in the head and dismembering his body had suffered physical and mental abuse in the relationship.
Authorities say 49-year-old Marcia Eubank told investigators that she shot 54-year-old Howard Eubank and put his remains in several containers around their home near Akron. She was arrested after their son found the remains in early December.
As flu epidemic spreads, 11 deaths reported in San Diego County, Calif.
Dec. 29 (UPI) — Laboratory-confirmed cases of contagious flu are on the rise in the United States, with 11 deaths attributed to the virus in San Diego County, Calif., alone.
County health officials said six more deaths were reported this week, as were 3,873 confirmed cases of the illness. At this time in 2016, only four deaths were attributed to the virus, they said Wednesday.
Illinois will ban the ‘gay panic defense’ in the new year
Illinois will ban the so-called “gay panic defense” in court cases this Monday, according to NPR, making it the second state to do so.
NPR on Thursday reported that the defense occurs when a murder defendant tries justifying their violence as a reaction to learning the sexual orientation of the victim involved.
The controversial legal move has several varieties, but it generally includes a person not realizing someone is gay or transgender before flirting with them.
The individual then discovers the other person’s sexual orientation, prompting an intense involuntary reaction, including murder.
Newly released video shows a younger resident beating an 86-year-old man at a retirement home
Newly released video from inside an embattled Williston, Florida, retirement home shows a younger resident mercilessly beating an 86-year-old man with dementia during an argument over a cupcake.
Government:
The State Department is set to release portions of 2,800 of Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s work-related emails and other documents, all recovered last year by the FBI on a laptop belonging to her estranged husband Anthony Weiner.
Tom Fitton, president of the center-right government transparency group Judicial Watch, tweeted on Thursday afternoon that State would publish ‘releasable portions’ of the documents on Friday.
Unsealed Court Docs Show How Prosecutors Tried To Rig Bundy Trial
Unsealed court documents detail how the team of prosecutors tasked with convicting Cliven Bundy and his sons of crimes relating to a 2014 armed standoff failed to turn over potential exculpatory evidence to the court, The Oregonian reports.
The Bundys’ case ended in a mistrial Dec. 20 after Judge Gloria Navarro ruled that prosecutors violated the civil rights of the defendants by withholding evidence supporting the Bundys’ case. Navarro is considering dismissing the case “with prejudice” and blocking prosecutors from retrying the case. Her decision will come Jan. 8, according to The New York Times.
Trump fires remaining members of HIV/AIDS advisory council: Report
The White House fired the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS in its entirety on Wednesday, informing the remaining 16 members of the council via a letter delivered by FedEx, according to a report.
The council was sent packing after six members walked away from the council this summer, announcing their resignation in a fiery opinion piece published in Newsweek.
Trump ramps up Border Patrol recruitment, in bid to hire thousands of new agents
President Trump doesn’t yet have his “big, beautiful” border wall, but the administration is ramping up recruitment of border agents going into the new year in a bid to enhance security with more manpower – if not bricks and barbed wire.
World News:
London Assembly Member Blasts City Police Over Muslim Rape Gangs
A London lawmaker urges the Metropolitan Police to crackdown on Muslim rape gangs in the city.
U.K. Independence Party leader Peter Whittle blasted the MET commissioner and London police for failing to handle a vast majority of child-rape cases.
He claims the majority of men involved in the gangs are of south Asian and Muslim decent, and often target underage European girls and force them into prostitution.
Berlin Creating ‘Safe Zone’ For Women During New Year’s Eve Party
Women celebrating the New Year in Berlin will have access to a “safe zone,” set up by organizers of the annual festivities in the German capital.
The new security measures are in response to a growing number of sexual assaults committed by migrants, most notably two years ago when hundreds of women reported attacks by roving gangs of migrant men in Cologne.
Israel gives notice of withdrawal from UN cultural agency
PARIS – UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay says she has received Israel’s official letter announcing its exit from the U.N. cultural body.
Israel previously said it intended to leave the Paris-based agency, citing “systematic attacks on the Jewish state.”
Israel’s decision came on the heels of the United States announcing its withdraw from UNESCO over similar allegations of anti-Israel bias at the agency, where the Jewish state and its allies are far outnumbered by Arab countries and their supporters.
Gunman kills 11 in attacks on Coptic church, Christian-owned shop in Egypt
CAIRO (Reuters) – A gunman killed at least 11 people on Friday in attacks on a Coptic Orthodox church and a Christian-owned shop near Cairo before he was wounded and arrested, the Egyptian interior ministry and church officials said.
Clashes in Gaza, West Bank injure 56 on Palestinian ‘day of rage’
Dec. 29 (UPI) — Clashes on Palestinians’ “day of rage” Friday resulted in more than 50 injuries to protesters, and Israeli attacks on two Hamas positions in Gaza.
Tensions in Gaza and the West Bank have increased since Trump’s controversial announcement, and they were ratcheted up Friday when three missiles were fired into Israel from Gaza.
The missiles marked the first attacks on Israel from Gaza since a two-week rocket barrage on Dec. 18.
Although the sources of the Friday missile launch remains unknown, officials said they were intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome defense system, and prompted an immediate reaction from the Israeli military.