Biden says it appears attack on Paul Pelosi intended for House Speaker

Speaker’s husband underwent surgery for skull fracture as political figures unite in condemnation of violence

A man accused of clubbing the husband of the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, over the head with a hammer and threatening his life while demanding “Where is Nancy?” now faces charges of attempted murder and other felonies a day after the violent break-in at the couple’s San Francisco home.

Paul Pelosi, 82, underwent surgery for a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm and hands, though doctors expect a full recovery. The 82-year-old House speaker herself was in Washington with her protective detail at the time of the assault, but she flew back to San Francisco on Friday afternoon and went to the hospital.

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Pamela Moses sues officials after voter fraud conviction overturned

Tennessee woman was serving six-year sentence before prosecutors’ withholding of crucial document came to light

A Tennessee woman who had a six-year prison sentence for voter fraud overturned this year is suing state and local officials for damages, claiming she was wrongfully prosecuted and incarcerated.

Pamela Moses, a 44-year-old Memphis activist, was sentenced to six years in prison in January after prosecutors said she tried to register to vote knowing she was ineligible because of a prior felony conviction. She was convicted even though two government officials, including a probation officer who conceded he made an error, signed off on a state form affirming her eligibility. The case prompted national outrage.

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Trump Organization to face criminal tax fraud charges in New York court on Monday

Former CFO is expected to testify about off-the-books compensation scheme to evade paying payroll taxes

The Trump Organization is set to face criminal tax fraud charges on Monday in New York in a trial that could start to tease out the many allegations against the company and by extension its patriarch, Donald J Trump.

It comes as the former US president faces a maze of legal troubles and mounting costs – by some estimates running at close to $4m a month to his leadership PAC – over his attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss, the removal of government documents from the White House when he left office and a defamation case relating to a rape allegation.

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Danny Masterson’s rape trial opens with tearful accuser testimony

That ’70s Show star faces three counts of sexual assault in case that also shines spotlight on Church of Scientology

The trial of actor Danny Masterson began this week with emotional testimony from one of the women who has accused the TV star of rape – marking the latest of several high profile cases now under way in Hollywood, and one in which the Church of Scientology has come under scrutiny.

Inside a Los Angeles courtroom, just down the hall from the trial of disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, the first of Masterson’s accusers took the stand on Tuesday and Wednesday. She tearfully recounted a 2003 incident when she says that the actor, best known for his role in That ’70s Show, raped her.

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Police investigate car buried in yard of Silicon Valley home in 1990s

Car was discovered Thursday morning by landscapers in affluent town of Atherton with unused bags of concrete inside it

Police are investigating why someone buried a car in the yard of a multimillion-dollar northern California home in the 1990s – and left unused bags of concrete inside.

The car was discovered on Thursday morning by landscapers in the affluent town of Atherton in Silicon Valley, police said in a news release.

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Washington state woman survives being stabbed and buried alive

Victim was able to alert contacts via smartwatch after attack by estranged husband, then escape from early grave to seek help

A woman in Washington state managed to escape after allegedly being bound, stabbed and buried alive by her estranged husband.

Thurston county police officers were dispatched to a home around 1am local time on Monday, where they found a distressed woman hiding behind a shed screaming, “My husband is trying to kill me,” reported NBC News, citing a court document.

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Police make arrest in suspected Stockton serial killer case

‘We are sure we stopped another killing,’ Stockton police chief says

A man suspected of killing six men and wounding a woman in a series of shootings in northern California was arrested before dawn on Saturday as he drove through the streets of Stockton, armed with a handgun and possibly searching for another victim, police said.

Investigators began watching the suspect after receiving tips and stopped him in a car at about 2am in the Central Valley city where five of the shootings took place, the police chief, Stanley McFadden, said at a news conference.

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Florida clown murder trial postponed after discovery of ‘clown sighting file’

In 1990 incident, Sheila Keen Warren is alleged to have dressed as a clown before shooting her employer’s wife in the face

The trial of a Florida woman accused of dressing up as clown in 1990 and fatally shooting the wife of a man she later married has been postponed, following the disclosure of a law enforcement file containing information about other clown-sighting leads at the time.

Prosecutors informed defense attorneys for Sheila Keen Warren last Thursday that they had found a “clown sighting file” which defense attorneys had been demanding but prosecutors had been saying they didn’t have, according to a court filing by defense attorneys in the Palm Beach county case.

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Juror in Gretchen Whitmer kidnap case dismissed for flirting with defendant

Judge acts after prosecutor says woman and Paul Bellar, 24, had ‘non-verbal communication’ in form of eye contact and smiling

A judge dismissed a young woman from the jury hearing the trial of three men in connection with a 2020 plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, after attorneys accused her of flirting with a defendant.

Judge Thomas Wilson announced on Friday that the woman had been removed from the jury, two days after attorneys raised concerns she was having too much non-verbal communication with the defendant Paul Bellar, the Jackson Citizen Patriot reported.

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Suspect, 15, in custody after North Carolina shooting leaves five dead

White juvenile male arrested with one survivor in critical condition after shooter opens fire on walking trail in Raleigh

Five people were killed by a shooter who opened fire along a walking trail in North Carolina’s capital city and eluded officers for hours before he was cornered in a home and arrested, police said.

A 15-year-old white male suspect is in custody and in critical condition, the Raleigh police commissioner, Estella Patterson, told a press conference on Friday.

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Convicted con artist Anna Sorokin released from jail, attorney says

Subject of Netflix drama known as the ‘SoHo grifter’ must refrain from posting on social media

Anna Sorokin, the convicted con artist who masqueraded as a German heiress and swindled wealthy New Yorkers, has been released from jail but must steer clear of social media, her attorney has confirmed.

The 31-year-old, who also went by the name Anna Delvey and is the subject of Netflix’s Inventing Anna, has been held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since March 2021.

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Suspect arrested after Las Vegas Strip stabbing attack kills two and injures six

A man with a large kitchen knife said he wanted to take a picture with showgirls but then started stabbing people, a witness said

An attacker with a large kitchen knife killed two people and wounded six others in stabbings along the Las Vegas Strip before he was arrested on Thursday, police said.

Three people were hospitalized in critical condition and another three were in stable condition, according to Las Vegas police, who said they began receiving 911 calls about the stabbings around 11.40am across the street from the Wynn casino and hotel.

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Kidnapping suspect’s brother arrested as California community mourns family

Merced officers suspect Alberto Salgado helped destroy evidence in the abduction and killings of four members of the Singh family

The younger brother of a man suspected in the kidnapping and killings of an eight-month-old baby, her parents and an uncle, was arrested on suspicion he helped his brother destroy evidence, authorities said on Friday.

Alberto Salgado, 41, was arrested late Thursday and accused of criminal conspiracy, accessory and destroying evidence, the Merced county sheriff’s office said. He is booked in the Merced county jail – the same place where Jesus Salgado, 48, is being held on kidnapping and murder charges. It was not clear whether either brother had a lawyer who could speak on their behalf.

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Trouser snakes: US man accused of smuggling three reptiles in his pants

New Yorker accused of hiding large Burmese pythons in trousers while crossing from Canada in July could face 20-year sentence

A New York City man faces up to 20 years in prison for allegedly attempting to smuggle three large snakes across the US-Canada border – in his pants.

Queens resident Calvin Bautista, 36, is accused of hiding three Burmese pythons while on a bus crossing into the US at the Champlain port of entry in New York state on 15 July 2018, the Associated Press reported.

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TV producer Eric Weinberg charged with multiple counts of rape and sexual battery

Scrubs and Californication producer accused of using ‘his Hollywood credentials’ to sexually assault women during photo shoots

Eric Weinberg, a veteran television producer and writer who worked on shows including Scrubs and Californication, has been arrested and charged with 18 counts including rape, sexual battery and false imprisonment by violence.

The 61-year-old was initially arrested at his Los Angeles home in July and released on $3.2m bond. On Tuesday, he was arrested again and later released on $5m bond.

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Suspect in California kidnapping is in custody as family is still missing

The man is suspected of abducting four, including an 8-month-old baby, and tried to kill himself before Merced police arrived

A man suspected of kidnapping a Sikh family, including an 8-month-old baby, in central California tried to kill himself Tuesday and is hospitalized in critical condition, authorities said. The family is still missing.

The Merced county sheriff’s office said in a statement that investigators identified Jesus Salgado, 48, after he used a victim’s ATM card.

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California serial killer appears to be ‘on a mission’, as police link seven shootings

Ballistics tests tie together fatal shooting in Oakland with killings of five men and the non-fatal shooting of a woman in Stockton

A California serial killer seems to be “on a mission” dating back to last year, which has seen the fatal shooting of at least six men and the wounding of one woman – but authorities have not figured out what’s behind the violence.

Ballistics tests and some video evidence linked the shootings in Stockton and Oakland, about 70 miles apart in northern California, police said.

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Oakland police search for two suspects after school shooting that injured six

Mayor Libby Schaaf calls for gun restrictions after shooting at Rudsdale Newcome high school for recently immigrated students

California authorities are searching for at least two people in connection with a shooting on a school campus in Oakland that left six people injured.

Wednesday’s shooting occurred at Rudsdale Newcomer high school, which serves students who are at risk of not graduating and have recently immigrated to the US after fleeing their home countries “because of violence and instability”. The school is one of four adjacent schools that serve middle and high school students on Fontaine Street just outside East Oakland.

This story was amended on 28 September 2022 to clarify that the shooting happened at a grade school, not a high school

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Kentucky man seeking parole says he still hears voices that led to school shooting

Michael Carneal was 14 years old in 1997 when he fired on a prayer group, killing three; his request has been delayed until Monday

A Kentucky man who killed three students and wounded five in a school shooting 25 years ago told a parole panel on Tuesday he was still hearing voices like the ones that told him to steal a pistol and shoot into a high school lobby in 1997.

The two-person panel hearing Michael Carneal’s testimony deferred a decision until Monday, when the entire state parole board could grant his parole request, defer his next parole decision or determine that he must spend the rest of his life in prison.

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California woman who admitted to faking her kidnapping sentenced to 18 months in prison

Sherri Papini’s case gained national attention when she went missing for weeks but was found staying with an ex-boyfriend

Sherri Papini, the California woman who admitted to faking her own kidnapping in 2016, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Papini’s case grabbed national attention when she went missing for several weeks, prompting a frantic search and widespread media coverage. She eventually reappeared with an elaborate story of being abducted by two “Hispanic women”, chained to a pole for three weeks, beaten and branded before being released by the side of a highway.

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