Crime

Reuters reports: Donald Trump on Saturday defended his decision to settle lawsuits over his Trump University real estate seminars for $25 million, saying he does not have time to fight the fraud cases in court now that he is headed to the White House. The lawsuits cast a shadow over the Republican’s presidential campaign and led to one of the …

The New York Times reports: Donald J. Trump has reversed course and agreed to pay $25 million to settle a series of lawsuits stemming from his defunct for-profit education venture, Trump University, finally putting to rest fraud allegations by former students, which have dogged him for years and hampered his presidential campaign. The settlement was announced by the New York …

But only because the US hasn’t yet formally asked. ABC News reports: Ecuador’s Foreign Minister says WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should receive guarantees that he will not be extradited to the US if he faces justice in Sweden after four years of living in the South American nation’s embassy in London. Mr Assange, who enraged Washington by publishing a flood …

The New York Daily News reports: In a complete turnaround from his previous position, President-elect Donald Trump is nearing a settlement of the fraud cases brought in New York and California involving his now defunct for-profit Trump University, the Daily News has learned. Under the emerging deal being negotiated by Trump’s lawyers, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and …

USA Today reports: Flagstaff police officer has been placed on administrative leave after a video showing him punching a woman in the face surfaced Wednesday on Facebook, according to a police spokesman. The Flagstaff Police Department “became aware” of the video, which shows Officer Jeff Bonar striking the woman during a Wednesday afternoon arrest, about 7:30 p.m. MT, police Sgt. …

Via press release from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo: Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today launched a toll-free hotline to report incidents of bias and discrimination across the state. The hotline will bolster the state’s efforts to protect New Yorkers and allow those who are the victim of prejudice to file a complaint with the Division of Human Rights. Following an …

Via Breitbart: Lawyers for WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange are set to launch an appeal to US President-elect Donald Trump to end criminal investigations over the release of classified documents. Assange, who is currently seeking asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, is wanted by American authorities after releasing classified documents surrounding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan provided by former …

From Ohio State University’s student newspaper: As protests popped up across the country after Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election last week, Columbus has not been immune. The past week has seen multiple protests, both on and off campus. Locally, protests have not been violent — until Monday evening. During a protest that ended up concluding in the Ohio …

Via Politico: Donald Trump’s legal troubles in New York aren’t going away any time soon, even as he secured enough electoral college votes to become president elect of the United States Tuesday. According to a spokeswoman with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office, there’s no post-election change of plans for the case against Trump and his now-shuttered university. “The …

The Southgate News-Herald reports: A 56-year-old Allen Park man has been charged with seven felonies after he allegedly pointed a gun at six children he accused of destroying his Donald Trump lawn sign. Michael Robert Kubek was arraigned Nov. 1 before 24th District Judge John Courtright. He was charged with six counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and one …

CBS News reports: Two former allies of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have been convicted in a plot to use traffic jams at the George Washington Bridge for political retaliation. Bridget Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, a Christie appointee to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, were found guilty Friday of all …

Last weekend two performances of the Metropolitan Opera were canceled when a counter-terrorism response team evacuated Lincoln Center after a man scattered the ashes of his “opera mentor” into the orchestra pit. Yesterday the NYPD announced that the man will not be charged with any crime, even though his act cost the Met an estimated $500,000. The New York Times …

Buzzfeed reports: Yesterday, Robert McNees, a physics professor at Loyola University, was curiously scanning through the popular alt-right account @TheRickyVaughn when he came across a number of tweets apparently designed to spread misinformation about voting among African-American and Spanish-speaking citizens. The tweets told voters they could “avoid the line” and “vote from home” via text (which, to be clear, they …

The Atlantic reports: A black church in Greenville, Mississippi, was set on fire on Tuesday night. Fire fighters arrived to find Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church “heavily engulfed in flames,” Mayor Errick Simmons said in an interview; the fire took nearly an hour to contain. No one was in the church at the time, and no one was injured. On the …

The Des Moines Register reports: Authorities are investigating whether the suspect in Wednesday’s killings of police officers is tied to a man’s removal from Urbandale High School’s football stadium on Oct. 14 after the man claimed his Confederate flag was stolen by other spectators, police and school district officials said. The stadium is at the intersection where one of officers …

Yahoo News reports: A newly uncovered video appears to contradict Donald Trump’s claim that he never knew a high-stakes gambler who was banned from New Jersey casinos for alleged ties to organized crime. The reputed mob figure, Robert LiButti, can be seen standing alongside Trump in the front row of a 1988 “WrestleMania” match in Atlantic City, N.J. LiButti wasn’t …

Iowa Public Radio reports: A Des Moines woman has been charged with Election Misconduct, a Class D felony, after allegedly voting twice for GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. Terri Rote says she was afraid her first ballot for Trump would be changed to a vote for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. “I wasn’t planning on doing it twice, it was spur …

The Associated Press reports: A former Rutgers University student whose roommate killed himself after being secretly recorded on a web camera kissing another man pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted invasion of privacy. Dharun Ravi’s plea comes after a New Jersey appeals court last month threw out a 15-count conviction against him and ordered a new trial on other counts. The …

Voter fraud is REAL. The Des Moines Register reports: A Des Moines woman has been arrested on suspicion of voting twice this month in the general election, police and court records show. Terri Lynn Rote, 55, was booked into the Polk County Jail about 3:40 p.m. Thursday on a first-degree election misconduct charge, which is a Class D felony. Rote, …

NBC News reports: The Equality House in Topeka, Kansas, which stands directly across the street from the notoriously anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, has been a symbol of the LGBTQ rights movement since it was first painted Pride flag colors in March of 2013. This week, however, the colorful symbol of equality was subjected to hate when spray-painted slurs and bullet …