A monthly US jobs report due Friday is set to show wage growth continued to moderate in July,

Rudy Farias' mother Janie Santana allegedly used fake profiles on Facebook for 'personal gain'

New Jersey Democratic Rep. Andy Kim announced on Saturday a 2024 Senate challenge to Sen. Bob Menendez in the wake of the senator's indictment and refusal to step down.

Former attorney Corey Fleming was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges that he conspired with his longtime friend Alex Murdaugh to steal millions of dollars from trusting clients. Fleming previously pleaded guilty to the financial fraud charges that stem from Murdaugh’s alleged scheme to steal money from the estate of his dead housekeeper Gloria Satterfield. Satterfield died in a fall on the Murdaugh property in 2018. He was also involved in stealing money from the family of Hakeem Pinckney – a man whose family Murdaugh represented after he was killed in a car crash in 2009. While Fleming knew Murdaugh was asking him to do wrong, he previously said he didn’t realise the depth of his old friend’s depravity. The sentencing was handed down on the same day Fleming’s longtime friend Murdaugh appeared in court for his own hearing on financial fraud charges for the first time since he was sentenced to life in prison in the murders of of his wife Maggie and son Paul. Judge Clifton Newman set a trial date for 27 November. On 15 August, Fleming pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges and was sentenced to nearly four years (46 months) in federal prison. He is housed at the Charleston County jail awaiting a prison assignment. On 23 August, he pleaded guilty to all state charges. Judge Newman scheduled Fleming’s sentencing for today in Beaufort so that the court could hear from friends and family members, as well as victims. At the hearing on Thursday, prosecutor Creighton Waters urged the judge to not be fooled by Fleming’s claims that he was “recruited” by Murdaugh into stealing from the families of Satterfield and Pinckney. Mr Waters argued that Fleming, who was an attorney at the time, was hired to represent the families but then “behind the scenes colluded with the defendant”. “What Mr Fleming wants the court to believe is… that he was tricked and fooled by Mr Murdaugh like everyone else,” Mr Waters said. The prosecutor then pointed to the fake Forge scheme in which Murdaugh allegedly set up a firm called Forge - a fake company with the name of a real one, which was used to siphon off money from clients. Murduagh and Fleming are accused of securing payouts from insurance companies in Satterfield’s case and then sending nearly $4m in stolen money to the fake company. “It was a shakedown, plain and simple,” Mr Waters said of Fleming and Murdaugh’s treatment of the Satterfield family. At the hearing on Thursday, several people addressed the court on behalf of the victims. Tony Satterfield, the son of Gloria Satterfield, told the court, “I still forgive Mr Fleming.” Satterfield’s sister also addressed the court and said that the family forgives Fleming. “Gloria did not die in vain as her case brought out other corruption and dishonest misdeeds being done to others,” she said, adding that it brought corruption “to light”. Attorney Eric Bland, who represents the Satterfield family, spoke at the hearing and said the law profession is “stained” by Fleming’s crimes. Fleming surrendered his license to practice law in both Georgia and South Carolina, saying he dishonored the profession. “The profession we love has been stained,” he said. “Mr Fleming knew exactly what he was doing. He is a plaintiff lawyer... it is impossible.” He said the debacle involving Murdaugh, Fleming and Laffitte, has “stained our state.” Mr Bland said the judge and court will hear how Fleming is a good guy, but that “good guys can still do criminal things.” “I’ve been suing other lawyers for 30 years. Never seen a case where the lawyers took every single dollar. But that’s what Fleming and Murdaugh did. Every single dollar.” Mr Bland also went over several examples of violations and irregularities in how Fleming handled and filed the Satterfield case to show the depth of the conspiracy and the criminal behaviour. He says Fleming and Murdaugh sat on the $4.3m settlements knowing that Gloria Satterfield’s son Brian, a vulnerable adult, was being put out on the street because his mom’s trailer was being foreclosed on. Mr Bland called it “blatant thievery”. Fleming is the second Murdaugh associate ordered to prison since investigators began scrutinising every aspect of Murdaugh’s life in June 2021 after his wife and son were shot to death at their South Carolina home. Russell Laffitte, who was convicted of federal charges in November, appeared for a status conference on Thursday in his state case. One of his attorneys, South Carolina State Rep Todd Rutherford, asked the judge to delay a trial until the fall of 2024. Judge Newman said that he would make a ruling at a later date. Last month, Laffitte was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to helping Murdaugh steal money from settlements for clients after vehicle wrecks or work injuries. Laffitte is appealing his conviction and sentence. Read More Smiling Alex Murdaugh appears in court in shackles as trial date set in financial fraud case Outrage as South Carolina lawmaker stands to shake hands with convicted killer Alex Murdaugh in court Alex Murdaugh’s friend pleads guilty to helping steal from dead maid’s family

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood's TV and film actors have been striking for 100 days now, and there's no end in sight.

By Steven Scheer RISHON LEZION, Israel On Sunday, Audrey Panitch Levin was at home in Philadelphia. On Wednesday,

More than 9700 pounds of cocaine were seized by the Mexican Navy after a high-speed chase across the Pacific Ocean resulted in a huge drug bust. Footage captured by the Mexican Navy shows two operations taking place off the Pacific coast of Mexico near Oaxaca, chasing down the boats at rapid speed. The Navy then used helicopters to lower down to board and take control of the vessels. After a two-day operation that took place last week on 22 and 23 August, the Navy secured three boats. Eleven people were detained and turned over to the prosecutors. Along with the large quantity of cocaine, 1,300 gallons of fuel was also found on the boats. According to the UN, the global production of cocaine has dramatically increased over the past two years since its downturn during the Covid-19 pandemic. When cocaine is imported into Mexico, it is often trafficked inland toward the United States concealed in vehicles, although maritime vessels have also been used as well. Drug-related violence has increased recently, with convenience stores, trucks and cars being set alight by drug cartels in Michoacan to block roads and enforce extortion demands. Three men and three youths aged 16 and 17 were arrested during the attack. 1,200 troops were sent by the Mexican Government after the weekend to disperse the cartels from blocking the roads. Read More Help us find loved ones missing after decades of violence in Mexico, mothers tell government Mexico sends 1,200 more troops to Michoacan state after weekend of cartel violence Mexican Navy hopes to expand net-snagging hooks to protect endangered vaquita porpoises

Egypt looked past a pick-up in inflation to keep interest rates unchanged for a second month, with the

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New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticised Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday, after the high court jurist claimed the US court was above any regulation from Congress. Democrats in the Senate have been pushing for a new law that would require the Supreme Court to adopt a binding ethics code and new enforcement regulations to assure justices stick to it, after a bruising series of ethics scandals on the nation’s top appellate court. “What a surprise, guy who is supposed to enforce checks and balances thinks checks shouldn’t apply to him,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez wrote on social media. “Too bad! Corruption and abuse of power must be stopped, no matter the source. In fact, the court should be *most* subject to scrutiny, bc it is unelected & life appointed.” The pushback was in response to recent comments Mr Alito gave in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, where the right-leaning judge said, “I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it...No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court – period.” “The court’s financial disclosure requirements are a law, passed by Congress; its recusal requirements are a law, passed by Congress; and the body that implements financial disclosure and code of conduct issues is the Judicial Conference, a body created by Congress,” Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse said earlier this month. “Please let’s not pretend Congress can’t make amendments to laws Congress has passed or oversee agencies Congress has created,” he said. Mr Alito was in the spotlight last month after ProPublica revealed the justice had travelled to a fishing trip in a remote part of Alaska onboard a private jet belonging to billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer, a wealthy Republican donor who’s had cases before the Supreme Court. The trip wasn’t disclosed on Mr Alito’s yearly financial forms, a potential violation of federal law, though he disputes he did anything wrong. Earlier this year, another Republican-appointed judge, Clarence Thomas, found himself facing similar allegations of improper conduct. ProPublica detailed longstanding ties between him and Harlan Crow, another conservative-leaning billionaire. Mr Crow took Mr Thomas around the world on lavish vacations, and bought over $133,000 dollars’ worth of property from the justice. These ties were also not disclosed. The ensuing scandal, in which Mr Thomas insisted he did nothing wrong, seemed to trigger an avalanche of issues at the court. Jane Roberts, wife of Chief Justice John Roberts, has also come in for scrutiny for her business activities. Between 2007 and 2014, she made more than $10m working as a legal recruiter, matching attorneys with top firms, at least one of which argued before her husband, Insider reported, citing information from a whistleblower complaint. The windfall made her one of the highest-paid legal recruiters in the country at the time. “When I found out that the spouse of the chief justice was soliciting business from law firms, I knew immediately that it was wrong,” the whistleblower, former colleague Kendal B Price, told the outlet. “During the time I was there, I was discouraged from ever raising the issue. And I realized that even the law firms who were Jane’s clients had nowhere to go. They were being asked by the spouse of the chief justice for business worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and there was no one to complain to. Most of these firms were likely appearing or seeking to appear before the Supreme Court. It’s natural that they’d do anything they felt was necessary to be competitive.” Ms Roberts’s firm at the time said in a statement to the outlet she maintained “the highest standards: Candidate confidentiality, client trust, and professionalism”. One of the high court’s liberals has also come under fire. Elena Kagan was a speaker at a 2017 event in Aspen, nicknamed “billionaire mountain”, where members of the Aspen Institute could pay $10,000 a year for a membership in the Justice Circle, where high-profile legal minds would speak at exclusive conclaves. At these events, corporate executives and lawyers, some of whom had business with the court, interacted with the justices, reported the outlet. Read More Harlan Crow says the Constitution bars investigation into his relationship with Clarence Thomas Senate Judiciary panel to consider ethics rules for Supreme Court Senators call for Supreme Court to follow ethics code like other branches of government Automaker Tesla is opening more showrooms on tribal lands to avoid state laws barring direct sales Justice Alito says Congress lacks the power to impose an ethics code on the Supreme Court Brazil's Indigenous chief fighting to save Amazon urges President Lula to defend people's rights

'I didn't want to go to school, I was ready to leave. I left school. I didn't take any midterms and I just left,' shared Dwayne Johnson