As Jeanine Pirro moves to drop charges, flawed work by Trump-connected contractor emerges as culprit

Donald Trump’s Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool saga appears to be winding down after prosecutors dropped vandalism charges against former Olympian David Hearn – but not entirely.

On Friday, Trump appointee and US attorney Jeanine Pirro and assistant US attorney Michael ⁠Spence petitioned a judge to dissolve the justice department’s case against Hearn, 67, who had been accused of pool sabotage, and instead blamed the “botched installation” of pool liner materials that caused it peel, and “less than fulsome information” offered by the Department of Interior.

Police also released notes received from presumed abductors of mother of Today anchor Savannah Guthrie

The family of Nancy Guthrie issued a new appeal on Saturday for information on the whereabouts of their missing grandmother, six months after she disappeared from her home in Tucson, Arizona, and a day after local investigators released two purported ransom notes.

“Six months ago, someone took her out of her bed in the dead of night. We have lived every moment, every breath, and every heartbeat in agony and despair ever since,” a post on Instagram said.

After declaring ‘anti-weaponization’ fund ‘dead’, Trump reverses and says he’ll revive it despite Senate opposition

The US Senate judiciary committee has scheduled a meeting early next week to consider Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general, as Donald Trump promised to revive the controversial $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund.

The meeting, set for Tuesday, comes as Blanche’s confirmation ​has stalled over a dispute between the president and outgoing Republican senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, who are seeking written confirmation that the justice department would not establish the proposed fund.

Lawyers now say damage to pool liner attributed to David Hearn instead is result of installation by contractor

The justice department has moved to dismiss a criminal case charging former Olympian David Hearn with deliberately damaging the Lincoln Memorial‘ reflecting pool, instead blaming damage to the pool liner as “the result of flawed installation by the contractor”.

Government lawyers said in a 20-page court filing in DC superior court on Friday evening that they had received information about a “rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026”.

Body of William Standish discovered in Teton mountains as investigators say fatal fall likely cause of death

A 28-year-old Australian hiker who lost contact with his family while hiking the Continental Divide Trail between Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks in Wyoming has been found dead, according to authorities.

The man, identified as William Standish, was discovered by rescuers on Wednesday morning in the Wigwams, a series of rocky peaks on the west slope of the Teton mountain range, the Teton county coroner said. Investigators say it was likely he suffered a fatal fall.

Lenita Moreno, 25, arrested over fire – which allegedly caused $108,000 in damage – at Mormon church in Kaysville

A Utah woman set fire to the church where she was scheduled to get married a day before the wedding, allege authorities investigating what may have been an extreme case of cold feet.

Lenita Moreno, 25, was arrested on a count of aggravated arson in connection with the 10 July blaze, which investigators say caused $108,000 in damage and was started using a tampon and other flammable items.

Three men were arrested for ‘repeated beatings with canes and paddles’ causing near-fatal injuries to two pledges

A US Secret Service agent and two others have been arrested after Florida state investigators uncovered evidence of “alleged hazing incidents involving prolonged and repeated beatings with canes and paddles” in Miami.

Investigators arrested Marquez Christopher Pinder, 29, on Sunday. Two other men – Jared Lamar James, 26, and Elijah Delano Dyous, 29 – were also arrested for allegedly helping to orchestrate the beatings, purportedly as part of a fraternity hazing ritual in April that left two people hospitalized with severe injuries.

Former Olympic canoeist Davey Hearn’s lawyers say testimony undermines felony charge

A witness in the case against a former Olympic canoeist accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool testified that the area of the pool liner was already damaged and would have required repairs regardless of David “Davey” Hearn’s alleged actions.

A court filing released on Monday contained that revelation – and in the document, lawyers for Hearn requested access to all grand jury testimony that led to his indictment, pointing to “irregularities” in those proceedings.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

Authorities say the killings fit the definition of family annihilation, one of at least eight in the US this year

Authorities in Michigan have identified a man they say fatally shot his wife and six children on Friday in a mass murder that fits the definition of a family annihilation.

Citing autopsy results, the Ottawa county sheriff’s office said in a news release Monday that Kristopher Karolkiewicz; his wife, Amanda; and their six children, aged five to 15, all died of gunshot wounds before their bodies were found in their burning home in Grand Haven Township. The agency noted that Kristopher Karolkiewicz shot himself to death – and said the deaths of Amanda and the children were ruled homicides.

Matthew Wolfe’s Fires in the Night examines Earth Liberation Front, a US eco-anarchist movement, and its legacy of radical environmentalism

Are echoes of 1990s radical environmentalism returning louder or fading away? It’s a question posed by Fires in the Night, a new book on the history of the Earth Liberation Front (Elf), a loosely grouped band of US Pacific north-west activists that used economic sabotage and arson to protest environmental destruction.

The members called themselves “the Family” and were known to the outside world as Elves, owed to the acronym for the group Elf. Unlike rightwing extremists of the era, they practiced non-violence toward life, though not property. They were labelled domestic terrorists and practiced “leaderless resistance”.

A tourist’s death has boosted animal advocates’ drive to end a trade supporters say provides jobs and treats horses well

New York city’s council chamber was packed, the debate wide-ranging and heated, but lacked one component – a talking horse. Many of the 200 people packed into the debating hall last week felt only they could speak for the interests of the equine species.

In one passionate camp, stable hands and drivers who attend to 160 horses that draw 68 carriages in the park, a business, they say, that has been operating since Central Park was created in 1858. On the other, a vigorous gathering of animal rights advocates who voiced that the carriage horse industry was a representation of man’s broad subjugation of animals.