California man pleads guilty in migrant smuggling scheme that held victims for ransom
SAN DIEGO (CN) — A California man pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to his role in a smuggling scheme that held immigrants hostage in Mexico while demanding ransom payments from their families, the Department of Justice announced. Isaac Jimenez, 30, of...
Claims that Maui’s streetlights kill endangered seabirds head to trial
HONOLULU (CN) — Every night, endangered Hawaiian seabirds leave their mountain nests and head out to sea. Some of them never make it there, though. Conservation groups say Maui County’s streetlights are to blame, pulling the birds off course until they fall to...
Judge skeptical of economic espionage charges in ex-Google engineer’s AI secrets case
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A federal judge questioned government attorneys Tuesday for a second time over whether a former Google software engineer found guilty of stealing proprietary information on Google’s artificial intelligence technology for Chinese companies should...
Alaska tribes fight controversial gold mine project
(CN) — Alaska Native tribes asked a federal judge on Tuesday to toss the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of a gold mining project that would bring industrial suction dredging to a pristine northwestern Alaska estuary. The tribes — Village of Solomon, Native...
Judge questions probable cause for mass arrest of minors at San Francisco skateboarding event
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A federal judge probed San Francisco over a 2023 mass arrest after an unsanctioned skateboarding event known as the Dolores Park Hill Bomb, saying the plaintiffs’ movements prior to being detained seemed unlikely to be of one cohesive...
Floyd Mayweather faces felony charges in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Boxer Floyd Mayweather faces two felony charges in Las Vegas over allegations that he wrote a bad check to purchase a watch from a luxury resale store. Mayweather was scheduled for an initial appearance Monday in Las Vegas Justice Court. He was not...
California tribe can proceed with suit over cannabis raids under amended legal theory
(CN) — A federal judge on Tuesday rebuffed the bid by Mendocino County, California, to throw out an amended lawsuit brought by the Round Valley Indian Tribes over cannabis raids on their lands last year. While U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Illman in Eureka had...
Feds say NY home caregiver program used slanted bidding scheme
BROOKLYN (CN) — The federal government sued New York health officials Tuesday accusing the state Department of Health of costing taxpayers millions of dollars by favoring a Georgia-based vendor in its bidding process for a Medicaid home care program. The Health...
Pennsylvania Supreme cracks down on ‘skill’ games
Read the ruling here.