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The former president can add tax fraud to his accomplishments after his company was convicted of a 15-year criminal schemeWhen sorrows come, Shakespeare observed, they come not single spies, but in battalions. The same goes for former US president Donald Trump’s legal troubles.The latest trouble for Trump strikes at the heart of his identity as a wealthy businessman who wrote the bestselling book The Art of the Deal. On Tuesday his company was convicted of a 15-year criminal scheme to defraud tax authorities. Continue reading...

VM Wheeler, 64, admits indecent behavior with juvenile in latest twist to Catholic church’s molestation scandalThe clerical molestation scandal that for decades has engulfed the Roman Catholic church in New Orleans took another turn on Tuesday, when a suspended deacon pleaded guilty to charges that he sexually abused a preteen boy two decades earlier, before the defendant’s ordination as a clergy member.Virgil Maxey “VM” Wheeler III, 64, pleaded guilty to four charges of indecent behavior with a juvenile filed against him in state court in Jefferson parish, which neighbors New Orleans. He agreed to serve five years of probation in exchange for that plea, avoid contact with the victim for the rest of his life and register as a sex offender for 15 years, court records show.In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International Continue reading...

Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy denounced as ‘two-faced’ by Brian Sicknick’s mother at Congressional Gold Medal eventSenior Republicans Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy were snubbed by law enforcement leaders and a fallen officer’s family at Tuesday’s Congressional Gold Medal award ceremony for Capitol police who defended against the 6 January attacks.The pair were denounced as “two-faced” by the mother of Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after a mob of Donald Trump supporters ransacked the Capitol building and forced politicians to flee for their lives. Continue reading...

The ceremony will be a nod to the barriers broken by the two most powerful women in California politics and beyondUS vice-president Kamala Harris will swear in Karen Bass as Los Angeles mayor, marking the historic election of the first Black woman to lead the second largest city in the country.The swearing-in ceremony on Sunday will bring together two elected leaders who have repeatedly broken barriers in California politics and beyond. In 2020, Harris became the first woman, first Black person and first Asian person to be US vice- president. In 2008, as a California state assemblymember, Bass became the first Black woman to serve as the speaker of any US state legislature; she was elected to represent Los Angeles in the US congress in 2010 and later became chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Continue reading...

Representatives for those receiving an award for officers who defended the Capitol during the January 6 attack shook hands with the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, but walked past Republicans Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, video from the congressional gold medal ceremony shows

Targets and details of referrals in investigation of Capitol attack were not immediately clear but could follow two tracksThe House January 6 select committee will make criminal referrals to the US justice department in connection with its investigation into the Capitol attack, the chairman of the panel said Tuesday, heightening tensions ahead of the release of its final report expected to come later this month.

Anderson Aldrich, 22, accused of entering gay nightclub in Colorado Springs and killing five people with AR-15-style rifleThe suspect accused of entering a Colorado gay nightclub clad in body armor and opening fire with an AR-15-style rifle, killing five people and wounding 17 others, was charged by prosecutors on Tuesday with 305 criminal counts including hate crimes and murder.Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, sat upright in a chair during the hearing and appeared alert. In an earlier court appearance just a few days after the shooting, the defendant’s head and face were covered with bruises and Aldrich was slumped over and had to be prompted by attorneys to respond to questions from a judge. Continue reading...

Political action committee paid bills of former Trump adviser Kash Patel and valet Walt Naud, who told FBI agents he moved boxes at Trump’s directionA report published by the Washington Post claims that money from Donald Trump’s political action committee paid the legal bills of some witnesses involved in the US justice department’s criminal inquiry into the former president’s improper handling of classified documents.They include the former Trump adviser Kash Patel, who was granted immunity last month for his grand jury testimony, the newspaper says, citing anonymous sources said to be familiar with the matter. Continue reading...

John and Kathleen Santonastasso of Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, ordered to pay $57,332 after violating child labor lawsThe owners of several McDonald’s restaurants in Pennsylvania have been accused of violating child labor laws, with more than 100 children allegedly working excessive hours.The US labor department announced on Monday that 13 McDonald’s locations in the Pittsburgh area had violated labor laws designed to protect young employees. An investigation found that 101 child employees had been working excessive hours outside allowable time periods. Continue reading...

Best known for her role in the popular 1980s sitcom Cheers, the US actress Kirstie Alley died aged 71 after being diagnosed with cancer. During her career she won two Emmy awards, and a Golden Globe in 1991, and another Emmy in 1994. She also appeared in a string of movies including Star Trek II, Summer School and most prominently Look Who's Talking and its sequels

Republican David Rivera, arrested over consulting contract, also charged with acting as unregistered agent of Maduro governmentA former Miami congressman who signed a $50m consulting contract with Venezuela’s socialist government was arrested on Monday on charges of money laundering and representing a foreign government without registering.David Rivera, a Republican who served in the US House from 2011 to 2013, was arrested at Atlanta’s airport, authorities said. An eight-count indictment against him alleges he was part of a conspiracy to lobby on behalf of Venezuela to improve US-Venezuela relations, resolve an oil company legal dispute and end American economic sanctions against the South American nation – without registering as a foreign agent. Continue reading...

A new app allows users to upgrade where they sit – for a price. It is just another case of inequality being rubbed in your faceIt looks like the airline experience you know and hate may be coming to a restaurant near you soon. A new app called Tablz, which is being used by a handful of well-known eateries in the US, lets you pay extra to choose your table at a restaurant. Want a window seat? Well, everyone else wants it too, buddy, so you’d better pay up! How much depends on how many other people are interested: as with ride-sharing apps, prices on Tablz surge with demand.“The restaurant financial model is broken,” the Tablz co-founder Frazer Nagy told Fast Company. “You can upgrade your hotel room, your car rental … seats on a plane. Every other industry has figured out pricing through upgrades, except restaurants.” Continue reading...

Loan from Daewoo, a company with ties to North Korea, should have been reported in disclosures. Plus, mass strikes in Iran

The court is hearing a case that could allow the kind of naked discrimination that the gay rights and civil rights movements fought so hard to endIt’s not clear what, exactly, Lorie Smith’s problem is. The Colorado woman aspires to be a web designer; apparently, she’s also upset that gay people can get married. Smith is an evangelical Christian who says that her faith makes her object to same-sex marriage.This wouldn’t be anyone’s problem, except that Smith lives in a state with a robust civil rights law, one that forbids business owners who make their services available to the public from discriminating. But Smith really wants to discriminate: she hopes to be able to turn away gay clients from her as-yet-hypothetical wedding website business; she wants to put a banner at the top of her business homepage proclaiming her unwillingness to design websites for gay weddings. The law would forbid this if she ever went into business, so she’s suing.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Evangelicals show their true colors in voting for a Republican mired in unchristian scandalWhy do we have such low expectations for white voters? The midterm elections brought into stark relief just how many white voters are willing to make a mockery of showing any pretense of concern for democracy, good governance or even the barest qualifications for our country’s highest offices. As unfortunate as that behavior is, what’s even more dangerous for the future of the country is how resigned the rest of the country has become to the anti-democratic and intellectually unjustifiable voting patterns of much of white America.On one level, we shouldn’t be surprised because white Americans have been voting against whatever political party is aligned with Black people for more than a century – the civil war itself began when seven slaveholding states, all dominated by the Democratic party, refused to accept the outcome of the 1860 election, seceded from the Union and launched a violent and bloody war. While many would like to believe that such whites-first electoral decision-making is a thing of the past, the most recent midterm elections reveal just how little progress has been made. Continue reading...

A ruling in favor of a fringe legal theory would free the states to make their own rules on gerrymandering and voting proceduresIt was the winter of 2018, and Pennsylvania’s Republicans were desperate.A few weeks into the new year, the Pennsylvania supreme court had struck down the state’s congressional map. The districts, the court said, were so distorted that they “clearly and palpably” violated the Pennsylvania constitution. With their considerable advantage in the state’s congressional delegation at risk, Republicans launched a last-ditch effort to get the US supreme court to intervene. Continue reading...

The Hall of Famer’s success at Jackson State, a historically Black college, brought joy to many. His move to Colorado left even more feeling betrayedSay this much for Deion Sanders: He didn’t slink away under cover of darkness, quiet quit on the season or reach for another dog-eared page from the opportunist’s playbook.Instead, the 55-year-old coach gathered up his Jackson State Tigers players one last time over the weekend and told them that, indeed, the breaking news was true – that the University of Colorado had hired him away. “It’s not about a bag,” he told the somber room. “I’ve been making money a long time and ain’t nowhere near broke. It is about an opportunity.” Continue reading...

With lockdowns over and inflation rising, tips are shrinking in industries that depend on them – from gig work to restaurantsTipping has been essential in the US for generations, but it’s becoming increasingly rare to leave a few $1 bills out on the table – now when we pay for an Uber, buy a coffee or order takeout, a screen demands to know how much we want to tip, putting the ethical decision into clear focus. Thirty per cent? Twenty per cent? A measly 15%? Would anyone dare go lower than that?Before the pandemic, Carlos Tavares says, he got as much as $75 in tips a week driving his gray Toyota Camry for Uber – nothing life-changing, but a nice bonus after working long shifts in New York City. Now that’s fallen sharply, he says, to $20 to $30 a week. “I don’t really know why,” he says. “Maybe people are just trying to save money.” Continue reading...

Some of the Kremlin’s most blatant falsehoods aimed at undercutting US aid are promoted by major figures on the rightEver since Russia launched its brutal war in Ukraine the Kremlin has banked on American conservative political and media allies to weaken US support for Ukraine and deployed disinformation operations to falsify the horrors of the war for both US and Russian audiences, say disinformation experts.Some of the Kremlin’s most blatant falsehoods about the war aimed at undercutting US aid for Ukraine have been promoted by major figures on the American right, from Holocaust denier and white supremacist Nick Fuentes to ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Fox News star Tucker Carlson, whose audience of millions is deemed especially helpful to Russian objectives. Continue reading...

Donors like Peter Thiel poured millions into candidates that no amount of money could sell to voters while Mehmet Oz self-funded a failed runWith the power balance in Congress at stake in this year’s midterm elections, the GOP money machine kicked into high gear. Spending on advertisements and drumming up votes was fueled by hundreds of millions of dollars from the party’s mega-donors and Super Pacs. Many donors’ spending figures marked new records.Their return on investment, however, is probably not what they had hoped: some donors who spent eight figures notched zero wins in the Senate, while others spent far more money on losing candidates than winners. In the midterms, some of the biggest losers were Republican donors. Continue reading...

Lawyer known for representing Stormy Daniels also ordered to pay $7m on top of time he is already servingThe incarcerated lawyer Michael Avenatti was sentenced in southern California on Monday to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay $7m in restitution after admitting he cheated four of his clients out of millions of dollars.The sentence should run consecutively to the five-year prison term he is already serving for separate convictions in New York, the US district judge James V Selna said during a hearing in Santa Ana, California. Continue reading...

In a deal, James Howard Jackson pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder after he was accidentally released from custodyThe man who shot Lady Gaga’s dog walker and stole her French bulldogs in Los Angeles last year has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for the high profile robbery that saw the star offer a $500,000 reward for the return of her pets.James Howard Jackson, one of three men and two accomplices who participated in the violent robbery of dog walker Ryan Fischer, pleaded no contest to one count of attempted murder, the Los Angeles county district attorney’s office said on Monday. Continue reading...

Richard Cottingham sentenced to 25 years to life for killing Diane Cusick in February 1968A serial killer known as the “Torso Killer” already convicted of 11 homicides admitted on Monday that he also killed five women on Long Island in the late 60s and early 70s.Richard Cottingham was sentenced on Monday to 25 years to life for the killing of 23-year-old Diane Cusick, who was killed in February 1968 after buying shoes at the Green Acres Mall in Nassau county. Continue reading...

When I asked my husband whether we should stop using ‘foul’ language in front of the kids, he laughed

The Grammy winner’s family said they would support state legislation allowing authorities to withhold certain records

Whoever wins will be the first Black person elected from the state to a full Senate termThe winner of Tuesday’s midterm election runoff for one of Georgia’s two seats in the US Senate will make history.Raphael Warnock became the first Black senator from Georgia when he won the 2020 presidential election runoff that helped tip the upper chamber into Democratic control, boosting the party in its capture of the House, the Senate and the White House. Continue reading...

Secretary of state navigated rocky launch of new voting laws that resulted in thousands of discarded mail ballotsTexas’s top elections official resigned Monday after an intense year of trying to reassure election skeptics, navigating the rocky launch of new voting laws that resulted in thousands of discarded mail ballots and overseeing a limited audit of the 2020 election.Secretary of state John Scott, who was appointed by Republican governor Greg Abbott, came under immediate scrutiny from the moment he took the job in October 2021. He was briefly part of former president Donald Trump’s legal team that challenged the results of the 2020 election but said upon taking the job in Texas that he did not dispute that Joe Biden was the winner. Continue reading...

The loan from Daewoo, a company with ties to North Korea, should have been reported in public financial disclosuresDonald Trump failed to disclose a $19.8m loan from a company with historical ties to North Korea, while he was the US president, according to a new report.Documents obtained by the New York attorney general, and reported by Forbes, on Sunday indicate a previously unreported loan owed by Trump to Daewoo, the South Korean conglomerate. Continue reading...

The panel is considering charges that the former mayor’s actions after the 2020 election involved ethical violationsRudy Giuliani, who served as Donald Trump’s hard-charging attorney during failed legal efforts to overturn his presidential election defeat, was accused of “weaponizing” his law license during a turbulent first hearing of a disciplinary panel in Washington DC mulling ethics charges against him.The former New York mayor became argumentative on Monday as Hamilton Fox, of the DC disciplinary counsel’s office, suggested Giuliani had insulted the US constitution with a series of “frivolous” and ultimately futile lawsuits on the former president’s behalf. Continue reading...

Footage showed Mary O’Connor identifying herself as Tampa police chief and telling deputy she was ‘hoping that you’ll let us go’A Florida police chief has resigned after footage showed her flashing her badge and asking to be released during a traffic stop.Tampa police chief Mary O’Connor resigned on Monday after an internal affairs investigation, said Tampa mayor Jane Castor in a statement. Continue reading...

About 40,000 residents without power on Saturday night after two stations were struck with gunfireThe FBI is joining an investigation into what officials are calling a “targeted” attack on a North Carolina power grid that left about 40,000 residents without power on Saturday night.Rumors on social media suggest that the attack was carried out to stop a local drag show. But officials have said a motive for the attack is unknown. Continue reading...

Prosecutors say former president knew of and sanctioned alleged scheme that enriched executives with off-the-books benefitsJurors in New York were on Monday set to deliberate their verdict in the trial of the Trump Organization, accused of running a criminal tax fraud scheme enriching executives with off-the-books benefits including property and luxury vehicles.While Donald Trump himself is not on trial, prosecutors have said the former president knew of – and sanctioned almost every aspect of – the fraud, as head of the eponymous company handling his real estate and other dealings. Continue reading...

Cheryl Parsa, 61, tells NBC News that Walker threw punch that missed and put hand on her throat and chest in Dallas in 2005A former long-term girlfriend of Herschel Walker has spoken of the violence and abuse she says he subjected her to, a potentially devastating television interview airing just before the Republican candidate’s Senate runoff in Georgia on Tuesday.Cheryl Parsa, 61, told NBC News on Sunday night how the former football star, who has been accused by several girlfriends and his ex-wife of mistreating them, grabbed her throat and threw a punch at her when she found him with another woman at his apartment in Dallas. Continue reading...

Private autopsy says Kevin Desir’s death after struggle was homicide, undermining official investigation. Plus, Chinese ‘police stations’ uncovered

All states deny and suppress protests, but the government faces a rapid spread of public anger centred on a galvanising tragedy

The University of California is trying to divide and conquer the 48,000 workers on strike by acceding to the demands of some groups but not othersThe strike by unions representing 48,000 academic workers at the University of California stands at a perilous crossroads. It is by far the largest and most important strike in the history of American higher education, with the potential to transform both the status and income of those who work in an “industry” that now employs more workers than the federal government.Despite all the disruption, the strike has generated virtually no opposition from either the faculty or from most undergraduates. Indeed, student leaders at all nine University of California campuses have endorsed the demand by their graduate student teaching assistants and other academic workers for a substantial wage increase designed to offset the soaring cost of California housing as well as the larger inflationary riptide that has eroded even the paltry salaries, grants and fellowships upon which so many of them rely.Nelson Lichtenstein is research professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara Continue reading...

Arizona voters rejected key election deniers, but false conspiracy theories have maintained their powerThe lead-up to Arizona’s midterms saw tactics designed to disrupt the American democratic process in a battleground state where election denialism ran rampant. Though voters broadly rejected election deniers, the grip of their ideas remains strong among large portions of the right in the state, which is now at the forefront of the fight over democracy in the US.“Voters in swing states sent a message that they were not receptive to election denialism. They didn’t send that message everywhere,” said Daniel I Weiner, director of the Brennan Center’s elections and government program. Continue reading...

Did the US reach their potential in Qatar? Should Gregg Berhalter stay on as coach? And who will lift the trophy? Our writers have their sayProbably. Inexperience told in the end, as it usually does, and proved their undoing. By exceeding the expectations of a general public that leaned pessimistic after the Americans’ failure to qualify in 2018, yet falling short of what the team expected from themselves, I’d say they hit it right on the nose. BAG Continue reading...

This is the year to push back on all the old assumptions. There’s joy to be had if you pull yourself off the meathook of consumerismNot every relationship requires a gift. Not all gifts need to be new. Celebratory meals don’t have to be expensive. Affection and love don’t have to be shown through shopping.As the climate emergency and cost of living crisis finally gain a toehold in the public consciousness, this year feels like the time we might finally be able to push back on some outdated Christmas assumptions. You see, there is so much joy to be had at Christmas if you can somehow pull yourself off the meathook of consumerism. The tsunami of television adverts, magazine articles, radio features and advertising hoardings may try to undercut your resolve, but I promise you – there is another way. Continue reading...

A pop-up speakeasy evokes a particular nostalgia – perhaps because the chain was one of the first victims of ‘disruption’On an otherwise unremarkable Los Angeles street corner hangs a familiar blue and yellow logo, forcing passers-by to do a double-take.The image of a ripped ticket stub belongs to ye olde Blockbuster Video, the once ubiquitous US rental chain destroyed by Netflix. But the Blockbuster on Melrose Avenue isn’t actually a store at all – it’s a pop-up speakeasy. Continue reading...

Some believe Black lawmakers adapt to leadership by becoming more moderate – others disagreeDemocratic congressman Hakeem Jeffries first emerged in the mid-2000s as a former corporate lawyer homegrown from central Brooklyn. With his focus on criminal justice reform and housing affordability, he was seen as a progressive of the moment who took on the existing Democratic machine in New York.Now, as the newly-elected successor to House speaker Nancy Pelosi, Jeffries has graduated from state politics to the national stage with the opportunity to make an impression on American politics for years to come. Continue reading...

DoJ says Axel Cox ‘admitted he burned cross because of the victims’ race and because they were occupying a home next to his’A Mississippi man pleaded guilty in federal court to burning a cross in his front yard with the intent to intimidate a Black family, the US justice department said.Axel Cox, 24, of Gulfport in south Mississippi, mounted a wooden cross in his front yard on 2 December 2020, officials said. He then doused it with motor oil and lit it within view of his neighbors, who are Black. Continue reading...

Sacha Baron Cohen skit receives mixed response at ceremony for lifetime achievements in the artsThe British actor Sacha Baron Cohen reprised his character Borat and stole the show at the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors in the US on Sunday night, targeting the former president Donald Trump, the rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, and antisemitism.President Joe Biden smiled broadly and his wife, Jill, was in fits of laughter as Cohen told risque jokes in the comical accent of the Kazakh television journalist Borat Sagdiyev. Continue reading...