BOSTON (AP) — A Florida man convicted of stealing tuition in 2019 from hundreds of families who planned to send their children to sports camps and spending the money on plastic surgery, vacations and gambling was sentenced Tuesday to two and a half years in prison.

Mehdi Belhassan, 53, of Tampa, on two counts of wire fraud in October 2023. He was also sentenced Tuesday to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $575,427

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors filed murder charges Tuesday against five suspects in the at a remote dirt crossroads in the Southern California desert after what investigators said was a dispute over marijuana.

The suspects each face six felony counts of murder with a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. They were each also charged with six felony counts of robbery.

The DA’s office identified them as Jose Nicolas Hernandez-Sarabia, 33;

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday declined to reconsider its decision that would prevent private groups from suing under a key section of the Voting Rights Act, prompting a potential fight before the U.S. Supreme Court over a that civil rights groups say erodes the law aimed at prohibiting racial discrimination in voting.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals denied the for the case to go before the full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Several elected leaders in Oregon declared a state of emergency on Tuesday for downtown Portland over the public health and public safety crisis fueled by fentanyl.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson made the declaration for a 90-day period during which collaboration and response will come from a command center downtown. The three governments are directing their agencies to work with first responders in connecting people addicted to the synthetic opioid with resources including drug treatment

NEW YORK (AP) — A Russian billionaire art collector lost a legal fight with Sotheby’s on Tuesday, when a U.S. jury sided with the auction house in a lawsuit over while assembling a trove of works that included a

A New York federal jury deliberated for a few hours before reaching a decision in Dmitry Rybolovlev’s case against Sotheby’s, . The fertilizer titan alleged that the auction house helped a Swiss art dealer cheat him out of over $160 million by quietly imposing huge

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Former U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan, who became the first female senator to represent Missouri when she was appointed to replace her husband following his death, died Tuesday. She was 90.

Carnahan, a Democrat, was appointed to the Senate in 2001 after the posthumous election of her husband, Gov. Mel Carnahan, and she served until 2002.

“Mom passed peacefully after a long and rich life. She was a fearless trailblazer. She

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine Gov. Janet Mills called Tuesday evening for strengthening the state’s yellow flag law, boosting background checks for private sales of weapons and bolstering mental crisis care, telling lawmakers that there’s broad support for action to prevent future tragedies following the deadliest mass shooting in state history.

The Democratic governor delivered her State of the State address to a joint session of the Maine Legislature three months after Army reservist Robert Card and wounded 13 others in Lewiston, the state’s second

HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. (AP) — Residents of an east Arkansas town have been without running water for the past two weeks after the state was hit by below-freezing temperatures, and the outage has forced them to line up for bottled water, fill up jugs or take showers at a truck brought in by the state.

The outage affected about 1,400 residents of Helena-West Helena. It is the second in the past year for the town 52 miles (84 kilometers

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico is teaming up with Google to hunt for leaky water pipes using satellite imagery as the drought-stricken state prepares for a future in which growing demand puts more pressure on already dwindling drinking water supplies.

State officials made the announcement Tuesday as they rolled out a 50-year plan that includes nearly a dozen action items for tackling a problem faced by many communities in the western U.S., where has resulted in warmer temperatures and widespread drought.

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