Scandal

Dakota News Now reports: South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will not run for re-election in 2022, regardless of the outcome of his Senate impeachment trial. Ravnsborg first won the office in 2018 after winning in a crowded state Republican convention race. He would go on to defeat Democratic nominee Randy Seiler in the November general election. Ravnsborg’s tenure as …

The Associated Press reports: In response to an explosive investigation, top Southern Baptists have released a previously secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse. The 205-page database was made public late Thursday. It includes more than 700 entries from cases that largely span from 2000 to 2019. Its existence became widely known Sunday …

The New York Times reports: Five Republican candidates for Michigan governor were disqualified by a state canvassing board on Thursday for submitting nominating petitions that officials said had contained thousands of forged signatures. The decision sent the race, in a key battleground state, into chaos and dealt a serious blow to the party’s plans to challenge Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the …

And absolutely nobody was remotely surprised: Todd Chrisley’s former business partner testified in his federal fraud trial Tuesday that they paid a blackmailer $38,000 in cash after the anonymous person threatened to expose their intimate relationship. Mark Braddock, who turned Chrisley and his wife Julie into the FBI, told an Atlanta jury that he had an affair with Chrisley for …

Variety reports: Kevin Spacey has been charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of “causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.” The decision was unveiled today by the U.K.’s prosecution agency Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which has spent over a year reviewing a file passed to them by the Metropolitan Police. “The CPS …

Religion News Service reports: A former Southern Baptist Convention leader stepped inside the Florida beachside condo of a pastor’s wife, 24 years younger, pulled down her shorts, pinned her to the couch, got on top of her and pulled up her shirt. The assault on July 25, 2010, is one of the more graphic descriptions of sex abuse in a …

The Washington Post reports: The report describes how key Southern Baptist leaders engaged in a pattern of ignoring, stonewalling and even “vilifying” sex abuse survivors. The report details multiple instances when Southern Baptist leaders shot down requests by survivors and other concerned members to maintain a database of abusers. Publicly, the leaders said they couldn’t because of “church polity,” or …

The Voice Of OC reports: Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu abruptly resigned Monday, following a tough week that saw the Angel Stadium land sale temporarily halted following damning allegations stemming from the unveiling of an FBI corruption probe into city hall. In an official affidavit, FBI agents wrote that Sidhu shared city information with the Angels and tried to ram the …

The Washington Post reports: Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention on Sunday released a major third-party investigation that found that sex abuse survivors were often ignored, minimized and “even vilified” by top clergy in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The findings of nearly 300 pages include shocking new details about specific abuse cases and shine a light on how denominational …

The Daily Beast reports: Elon Musk responded to a bombshell allegation that he exposed himself to a flight attendant by daring the woman to describe something on his body that has not been made public. “She won’t be able to do so, because it never happened,” Musk tweeted in reply to a supporter early Friday. Hours before the Insider report …

The Hill reports: SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk late Thursday apparently responded to an article from Business Insider that says Musk was accused of sexually propositioning a SpaceX flight attendant, calling the claims not true. Musk on Thursday failed to cite the report, but tweeted “for the record, those wild accusations are utterly untrue.” “The attacks against me should …

The Insider reports: SpaceX, the aerospace firm founded by Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, paid a flight attendant $250,000 to settle a sexual misconduct claim against Musk in 2018, Insider has learned. The attendant worked as a member of the cabin crew on a contract basis for SpaceX’s corporate jet fleet. She accused Musk of exposing his erect penis …

The Hill reports: Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) announced on Tuesday that he is resigning from Congress, more than one year after a former lobbyist accused the congressman of sexual misconduct. “After almost 12 years in Congress, today is my last day,” Reed said in remarks on the House floor. “It has been an honor to serve with you all from …

ESPN reports: The Mississippi Department of Human Services on Monday sued retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre, three former pro wrestlers and several other people and businesses to try to recover millions of misspent welfare dollars that were intended to help some of the poorest people in the United States. The lawsuit says the defendants “squandered” more than $20 million in …

Columbus’s PBS affiliate reports: The Ohio Democratic Party has filed a lawsuit against Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration, saying they’re breaking the state’s public records law in turning over documents with information blacked out. Democrats are searching for connections between DeWine and two FirstEnergy executives who admitted bribing former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder. The company agreed to a $230 million …

City & State reports: Former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, while asserting his innocence on charges of corruption, said that he would “sign the necessary paperwork” to remove himself from the June 28 primary ballot. The comments, his first since his arrest and resignation, came as the state Legislature moved to approve a bill that would enable him to do just …

ESPN reports: Major League Baseball announced a 324-game suspension for Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer on Friday, the equivalent of two full seasons, making it by far the most severe punishment handed out under the sport’s domestic violence policy. Bauer promptly released a statement announcing he was appealing the suspension, thus becoming the first player to appeal punishment through …

The Associated Press reports: North Dakota’s longest-serving state senator announced Monday that he would resign following a report that he had traded scores of text messages with a man jailed on child pornography charges. Republican Ray Holmberg, who rose to become one of the state’s most powerful lawmakers in a career that spanned 46 years, said he would resign effective …

The Associated Press reports: A New Jersey Catholic diocese has agreed to pay $87.5 million to settle claims involving clergy sex abuse with some 300 alleged victims in one of the largest cash settlements involving the Catholic church in the United States. The agreement between the Diocese of Camden, which encompasses six counties in southern New Jersey on the outskirts …

The New York Daily News reports: Advocates and Democratic lawmakers have devised a way to boot recently indicted ex-Lieutenant Gov. Brian Benjamin from the ballot. Or at least prevent another problem like the one Dems will face in two months when Benjamin’s name will still appear on the June 28 primary ballot despite his resignation after being indicted earlier this …