Mobile phone

Federal prosecutors charged Anthony Daniel Palazzolo, 42, of Chesterfield Township, Michigan, with interstate communications involving threats after he allegedly sent Facebook messages threatening to kill FBI Director Kash Patel and an associate in October. Investigators traced him through his Facebook and TikTok accounts. After FBI agents interviewed him at his home, Palazzolo admitted sending the messages but denied intent to harm anyone. He later allegedly emailed and left voicemails threatening further violence against a task force officer and other federal entities. He appeared in federal court, was ordered temporarily detained, and did not enter a plea; a detention hearing is scheduled. A separate threat case against Patel's fiancée is pending trial.

An ad from Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas) in her competitive reelection race against Democrat Bobby Pulido featured "Deputy Garcia" of Goliad County, who criticized Pulido as "anti-cop." Reporting identified the officer as Zachary Garcia, who was fired from the Wilson County Sheriff's Office in 2024 after an internal investigation found he sexually harassed a female dispatcher and a female supervisor. Records describe him tracking the dispatcher's phone location, repeatedly calling her, and waiting outside her home in uniform after she ended their relationship. Garcia later took the same role in Goliad County, whose sheriff defended him and criticized the ad's critics as partisan.

De La Cruz's campaign says it filmed the ad before the allegations became public and stands by its content, pointing instead to Pulido's past social media criticism of police and his association with a convicted sex offender. Pulido's campaign disputes those characterizations. The race is rated a toss-up, and the dispute adds a new flashpoint to an already contentious contest.

Chief Medical Examiner Joshua Stephany, who led identification and autopsy efforts after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, said he deliberately kept gunman Omar Mateen's body in a separate, smaller morgue from the 49 victims. He said there was no legal requirement to do so, calling it a personal decision: "It's just what I felt was right." Stephany, filling in as medical examiner for Orange and Osceola counties with a small staff, set a goal of identifying and autopsying all victims by Tuesday, enlisting two state pathologists to help process the bodies.

Technicians used fingerprints, driver's licenses, tattoos, and other identifiers to confirm victims, with a final John Doe matched through a discarded wallet found at the club. Stephany personally conducted Mateen's autopsy along with several victims' autopsies, saying evidence suggested the victims did not suffer prolonged struggles. By Thursday, all victims' remains had been released to funeral homes; Mateen's body had not. Stephany was named permanent chief medical examiner the same week, amid an unusually heavy caseload including other high-profile Orlando-area deaths.

A Milwaukee County judge set $1 million cash bail for Casimer Kobylinski, 71, a Sheboygan chiropractor accused for the second time in a year of possessing child pornography. Authorities say hundreds of child pornography images were found on a USB drive seized from his Casey Chiropractic Clinic, including AI-generated images of underage girls. Prosecutors allege Kobylinski also took inappropriate photos of two girls, ages 2 and 10, while free on bail from his original February 2025 case.

Judge David Borowski forfeited Kobylinski's earlier $45,000 bail, ordered him to live in Sheboygan instead of Milwaukee, and barred him from having a cellphone. He separately faces 11 felony possession charges in Sheboygan County, where he posted $650,000 bail in September, plus multiple bail-jumping counts in both counties. He pleaded not guilty to 22 charges on September 23. His chiropractor license remains active, and his next Milwaukee County court appearance is scheduled for September 25.

A personal recollection describes the morning of September 11, 2001 from the perspective of a high school senior at Staten Island Technical High School, roughly 20 miles from the World Trade Center. Word of a plane hitting the towers first arrived as classroom rumor before spreading into confirmed reports of a second crash and an explosion at the Pentagon. Students watched the first tower collapse live from the school library; cell service failed locally even as long-distance calls occasionally connected. A classmate's father, working in one of the towers, could not be reached and later was confirmed to have died.

The account details the days that followed: a school counseling room filling with grieving students, many with ties to Staten Island's large firefighter and police community; the acrid smell over the borough the next morning; talk of war and a possible draft; and months of lingering trauma, including families waiting for word on missing loved ones and a neighbor who kept a nightly vigil for a firefighter husband who never returned. The essay reflects broader themes of loss, memory, and how the attacks reshaped daily life for New Yorkers.

Randon Alexander Sprinkle, 31, a former Democratic political strategist from Richmond, Virginia, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for distributing child sexual abuse material, the Department of Justice announced. FBI agents searching his Richmond residence in October 2025 seized two laptops and a cellphone containing dozens of CSAM files, including depictions of abuse of toddler-aged children.

According to the DOJ, Sprinkle used a dating app to contact a user he believed was the father of a young child, but who was actually an undercover FBI agent. After expressing sexual interest in minors and sending abuse material, Sprinkle allegedly discussed traveling to Washington, D.C., to sexually abuse the purported nine-year-old son. Photos have circulated showing Sprinkle alongside several prominent Democratic figures, drawing renewed political commentary online, though no evidence has linked those individuals to his crimes.

Alan Davis, the Seminole County, Florida, resident known for his junk-filled yard and decades-long feud with local code enforcement, was arrested Aug. 17 after a deputy said he ran a stop sign near Raymond Avenue and North Street in Longwood. Davis, 70, allegedly refused to provide a driver's license, then called 911 claiming he was being "carjacked" by the deputy. He also tensed and pulled away as the deputy tried to handcuff him, according to the arrest report. Records show his license was suspended in 2010 and later canceled indefinitely. He was booked into the John E. Polk Correctional Facility and released on a $1,500 bond, facing charges of driving without ever having obtained a license, misuse of 911 services, and resisting an officer without violence.

Davis's Alpine Street property has drawn code enforcement action since 2000, with fines exceeding $5.4 million, which he refuses to pay, framing the clutter as protected political protest. He has prior littering convictions and jail time. Officials say Florida's homestead protections limit their options absent changes to state law.