Democrats are seeing a fresh opportunity for an upset in a northeast Ohio congressional seat. The Republican incumbent is facing mounting pressure over domestic abuse allegations in a bitter and drawn-out dispute with his ex-wife. The allegations against the congressman, Max Miller, have been public for years. But they've recently drawn increased media scrutiny. Democrats are calling for a congressional ethics investigation and have suggested more help could be directed toward their candidate, union ironworker Brian Poindexter. Miller has denied the abuse allegations. Miller was a White House adviser during President Donald Trump's first term.
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The Trump administration is packing immigration courtrooms and giving less lead-time on hearings in an effort to clear a decades-long backlog. The result is a historic rise in the number of people missing court dates and being immediately ordered deported as the system struggles to keep up, new data from Mobile Pathways shows. Supporters of the new strategy say it's helping judges use their time more efficiently. In the courthouses, judges are spending an average of five minutes or less on cases and still not working through all the cases of people who showed up.
AP Wire
The Justice Department has moved to dismiss a criminal case charging a former Olympian with deliberately damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Government lawyers said in a 20-page court filing Friday evening that information provided since the indictment of David Hearn shows that the damage was the result of a “flawed installation by the contractor” as well as “the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.” Hearn’s lawyers say the case against him should never have been brought.
Migrant children who came to the U.S. alone could soon face immigration court without legal representation. The Trump administration is allowing a contract with legal service providers for these children to end. Friday marks the last day of the contract, which supports roughly 20,000 children. Providers warn that without lawyers, children are more likely to be deported. They say the government has withheld payments for over six months, demanding client information they can't ethically provide. The Health and Human Services Department, responsible for these children, didn't respond to requests for comment.
The parents of four teenagers who died by suicide are suing Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube. They claim the platforms caused “years of escalating harms” leading to their deaths. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Delaware. The Social Media Victims Law Center represents the families from Texas, North Carolina, Minnesota, and Tennessee. The teens reportedly suffered from social media addiction, sleep deprivation, depression, and anxiety. The complaint alleges the companies knew they were causing harm. Meta, YouTube, TikTok, and Snap face numerous lawsuits over harms to minors.
An Australian jury has convicted the British social media celebrity and rapper Yung Filly of assaulting a fan following a music performance two years ago. The jury did not find him guilty of allegations that he raped and choked her. The 30-year-old entertainer, whose real name is Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, wept after the verdicts were delivered Friday in a Perth court. He had pleaded not guilty to six charges of rape, three charges of assault occasioning bodily harm and one count of choking in a Perth hotel room in September 2024. The accuser cannot legally be named. She was 20 at the time.
The last person known to have seen a Navajo elder alive has been arrested in an unrelated incident, raising questions about whether he will be sent back to federal prison. Preston Tolth is the only person ever charged and convicted in connection with the 2021 disappearance of Ella Mae Begay. He was released early from federal prison in June and was on supervised release at a transitional housing facility in Phoenix. According to court records, Phoenix police arrested him this week, and he faces a home burglary charge. Under the terms of his federal plea agreement, he is not to commit any additional crimes. Tolth's federal public defender didn't respond to a request for comment Thursday from The Associated Press.
Australia’s online safety watchdog has taken legal action against Telegram for what the watchdog says is a failure to remove extremist content. The platform allegedly failed to take down videos of mass shootings and Islamic State beheadings. The United Arab Emirates-based app could face a fine of up to 54.6 million Australian dollars, or $38 million, if convicted. Telegram denies the claims and plans to contest them in court. The case tests Australia's 2021 law requiring tech platforms to keep illegal material off their networks. The watchdog says Telegram remained noncompliant despite being alerted. Telegram claims it has blocked over 150,000 “terrorist-related communities” this year.
Bullets recovered from two bystanders killed during a shootout at a Seattle festival last weekend do not appear to have come from the gun that a 15-year-old arrested at the scene was firing, police said in court documents filed Wednesday. The King County prosecutor’s office filed charges of first-degree assault with a firearm enhancement as well as unlawful possession of a handgun by someone under 18. In a statement supporting the charges, police said the teen was seen firing an untraceable ghost gun into a crowd, but preliminary testing of bullets recovered from two bystanders killed showed they did not match that weapon. Shell casings found at the scene of Sunday’s shooting indicate four weapons were fired during the shootout.
A man has been convicted of federal terrorism charges in the 2022 stabbing of author Salman Rushdie. A jury delivered its verdict Wednesday in Buffalo, New York. Jurors found Hadi Matar guilty of all the charges against him, including engaging in an act of transnational terrorism. The 28-year-old had pleaded not guilty. Matar already is serving a 25-year New York state prison sentence on an attempted murder conviction in the August 2022 attack. Rushdie has faced a decades-old death threat over his novel “The Satanic Verses.”