CNN – National

Catfishing crimes have ensnared people for years.

By David Culver, Anna-Maja Rappard and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN From a deep fracture in Mauna Loa’s dark terrain, the volcano’s magnificent eruption sends geyser-like fountains of lava spraying into the sky. The fissure — cracked open on the northeastern slope of the world’s largest active volcano — feeds a searing flow of molten rock that

By Eric Levenson, Rosalina Nieves, Ray Sanchez and Ashley Killough, CNN The former Fort Worth police officer who fatally shot 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson in her own home in 2019 did not see her holding a gun in the split-second before firing at her through a back window, prosecutors said in opening statements of his murder

By Amanda Jackson and Dave Alsup, CNN Several school districts across Texas are encouraging students to wear pink Monday in honor of Athena Strand, the 7-year-old girl who was allegedly kidnapped outside her home and killed last week. More than 20 school districts, including Paradise Independent School District in the county where Strand was went

By Nouran Salahieh, CNN Power outages that left around 40,000 customers in the dark Saturday night in North Carolina and prompted an emergency declaration are the subject of a criminal investigation after crews found evidence that substations were “intentionally” damaged by gunfire, authorities said. The outage in Moore County was first reported around 7 p.m.

By Nouran Salahieh and Hannah Sarisohn, CNN With no suspects or motive announced, the FBI is joining the investigation into power outages in a North Carolina county believed to have been caused by “intentional” and “targeted” attacks on substations that left around 40,000 customers in the dark Saturday night, prompting a curfew and emergency declaration.

By Michelle Watson and Chris Boyette, CNN At a memorial service for four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death last month, a pastor from an Idaho church read aloud letters from the surviving roommates, recalling their memories of their friends and sharing their sadness. The service held Friday in Post Falls,

By David Williams, CNN A 2-year-old girl is recovering after being attacked by a coyote Friday afternoon in front of her house in a Los Angeles neighborhood, her father told CNN. Ariel Eliyahuo told CNN that his daughter, Ariya, had to have multiple rabies shots after the attack, which happened at about 3:45 p.m. after

By Keith Allen, CNN Tampa Police Chief Mary O’Connor has been placed on administrative leave after body camera footage taken from a traffic stop last month revealed she told a deputy she was “hoping that you’ll just let us go tonight” and flashed her badge. O’Connor was a passenger in a golf cart, which was pulled

By Rene Marsh, CNN A mom of three, Alicia Fout was going to college and working 30 hours a week but still often struggled to cover the cost of child care. The high price tag forced her to prioritize which monthly bills to pay, which meant frequent utility shut-off notices — and some extremely difficult

By Zoe Sottile, CNN An “amateur phone collective” in Philadelphia is working to bring back pay phones to the city — just without the actual payment. PhilTel, a volunteer organization that launched in June, is planning to open its first free-to-use payphone on December 17 at Iffy Books, a hacker-focused bookshop and workshop in the

By Andrew Torgan, CNN With the arrival of December, the year is drawing to a close — and some might say not a moment too soon. What does 2023 hold in store for us? Well, it appears the future looks bright … magenta to be exact. Here’s what else you need to know to Start

By Zoe Sottile, CNN Lava from the ongoing eruption at the Mauna Loa volcano is just miles away from a crucial highway on Hawaii’s Big Island. But despite the inconvenience of shutting down the highway, it’s unlikely any attempts will be made to redirect the lava flow, experts say. As of Saturday afternoon, the lava

By Emma Tucker, CNN The investigation into the murders of four University of Idaho students is entering a critical stage in its third week, as police are starting to receive forensic testing results from the crime scene, law enforcement experts tell CNN. Dozens of local, state and federal investigators have yet to identify a suspect

By Nicole Grether, Gloria Pazmino, Hannah Sarisohn and Tina Burnside, CNN Authorities have announced a mandatory curfew in a North Carolina county where around 40,000 customers lost power after two power substations were damaged by gunfire Saturday night. The county will implement a mandatory curfew from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m., starting Sunday night, Moore

By Nouran Salahieh, CNN As the world’s largest active volcano spews molten rock in Hawaii, the lava flow is inching closer to a major highway that serves as the shortest route between east and west sides of the Big Island. Over the past day, the lava’s advance from Mauna Loa slowed to an average rate

By Jay Croft and Hannah Sarisohn, CNN Bowling Green, Kentucky, has canceled its annual Christmas parade scheduled for Saturday due to threats against protests related to the notorious lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955. The city announced the cancellation in tweet. In a video posted on Facebook, Police Chief Michael Delaney said at least

By Jay Croft, CNN A fugitive charged with the “heinous” killing of his 11-month-old daughter last month has been found and arrested Friday, Connecticut police said. In November, authorities obtained an arrest warrant for Christopher Francisquini, 31, charging him with murder with special circumstances and risk of injury to a minor after his daughter’s dismembered remains were found

By Zoe Sottile, CNN Noodle, the geriatric pug who captured hearts across the internet for his “bones or no bones” ritual, has died at age 14, his owner says. Jonathan Graziano, Noodle’s owner, announced that his beloved dog died on Friday, in a tearful update posted to his TikTok and Instagram. “This is incredibly sad,

By Amanda Musa and Christina Maxouris, CNN The FBI on Friday arrested a Texas man who allegedly called and threatened a Boston doctor who was providing care to transgender individuals, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a news release. Matthew Jordan Lindner, 38, has been charged with one count of

By Tina Burnside and Alaa Elassar, CNN A driver working for FedEx was arrested and charged Friday in the kidnapping and killing of a 7-year-old girl who had disappeared from her home’s driveway in Texas earlier this week, police said. Athena Strand’s body was recovered Friday evening, Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin said at a

By Nicole Chavez, CNN. Photographs by Elijah Nouvelage for CNN Sitting in the back of a packed room in the Hamilton County Schools administration complex, Clara fought the urge to leave. She had taken the day off from her factory job to be there but was nervous to see a crowd of people supporting a

By Nicole Chavez and Justin Gamble, CNN Officials in Providence, Rhode Island, recently approved a $10 million budget plan for the city’s reparations program, but some are wondering who might end up benefiting from it. Like other communities across the country did in the wake of the 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis,

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN ‘Tis the season for gift giving — hunting down the perfect presents for family and friends, and tracking the best deals so all the holiday cheer still fits into our snug budgets. But many of us overlook the true cost of our gift giving traditions: Producing these goods and delivering them

By Zoe Sottile, CNN New York City is recruiting a new “director of rodent mitigation” to rid the streets of its most notorious furry inhabitants. The city’s Office of the Deputy Mayor for Operations published a job listing for the position, aka “rat czar,” on Wednesday. “Do you have what it takes to do the

By Artemis Moshtaghian, CNN An Indiana judge has denied an emergency motion that in part requested to block the state’s attorney general from accessing patient medical records in an investigation involving an Indianapolis doctor who provided abortion services to a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio, according to an order filed in Marion County Superior Court

By Kara Scannell, CNN Ibrahim Khan, the chief of staff to New York State Attorney General Letitia James, has resigned amid “misconduct” allegations, according to a source with the attorney general’s office. Khan was accused of “inappropriate touching and unwanted kissing by at least one woman,” and James hired a law firm to conduct an

By Amanda Watts and Barbara MacDonald, CNN Attorneys for the suspect in the 2017 killing of two teenage girls in Delphi, Indiana, said in a statement Friday that their client “has nothing to hide. “ Richard Allen, who was arrested last month in connection with the killings, will make “a vigorous legal and factual challenge”

By Taylor Romine, CNN Seven students who were hospitalized Thursday for a suspected drug overdose at a Los Angeles-area middle school are in stable condition, and have been discharged, the Los Angeles Unfied School District (LAUSD) said in a statement Friday. The students were sent to the hospital on Thursday after experiencing “mild-to-moderate distress” following

By David Culver, Anna-Maja Rappard, Aya Elamroussi and Mallika Kallingal, CNN As the world’s largest active volcano oozes molten rock here on the Big Island, a blend of concern and awe has emerged among visitors. People were pulling over in their cars throughout the night to get a glimpse of the striking scene — a

By Elizabeth Wolfe and Mallika Kallingal, CNN The Moscow Police Department said on Friday that they don’t believe a sixth person listed on the lease at the residence, where four University of Idaho students were killed last month, was involved in their deaths. “They have spoken to this individual and confirmed they moved out prior

By Ashley Killough, CNN A former San Antonio police officer has been indicted on attempted murder and assault charges after he shot an unarmed 17-year-old in a McDonald’s parking lot in October, prosecutors announced Thursday. A grand jury handed down the indictment for James Brennand, who was a San Antonio Police probationary officer with seven

By Mallika Kallingal, Jamiel Lynch and Melissa Alonso, CNN The Tampa Police Department has issued an arrest warrant for former NFL player Antonio Brown after a “domestic battery incident with a woman,” police said in a statement. Police say the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver was allegedly involved in a verbal altercation with the

By Nick Valencia, CNN The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has launched an investigation into an Atlanta public elementary school after allegations the principal was assigning Black students to certain classes. In the letter provided to CNN, the Office for Civil Rights said it will investigate allegations of discrimination based on race and

By Shimon Prokupecz and Matt Friedman, CNN The City of Uvalde has filed a lawsuit against Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell, alleging she is blocking the city’s independent investigator from accessing key evidence into the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School. The city is asking a judge for an injunction requiring the

By Nick Watt, CNN Ann Johnson gave birth in the spring of 1984 in the hospital at Camp Lejeune, the sprawling Marine base on the North Carolina coast. But doctors did not bring baby Jacquetta straight to her mom. “I guess they were trying to prepare me for what she looked like,” Johnson told CNN.

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN Extreme weather disasters so far this year have caused $115 billion in insured losses around the globe, with Hurricane Ian inflicting the largest insured loss of roughly $50 to 65 billion, new data from reinsurance company Swiss Re shows. The company’s preliminary analysis found that 2022 was the second year in

By Kiely Westhoff, CNN Indiana’s attorney general is asking the state medical licensing board to discipline an Indianapolis doctor who provided abortion services to a 10-year-old girl — a move the physician’s attorney has called an effort to “intimidate” abortion providers. Attorney General Todd Rokita in a complaint filed Wednesday alleges that Dr. Caitlin Bernard

By Aya Elamroussi and Holly Yan, CNN First, the good news: The lava spilling out of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano is slowing down, spreading out and not an immediate threat to people on the ground. Now the bad news: Possible health hazards remain as two volcanoes keep erupting on Hawaii’s Big Island, sending acidic gases

By Raja Razek, CNN An Ohio man accused along with his family members of the 2016 massacre of another family was found guilty of multiple murder charges Wednesday. A jury convicted George Wagner IV in the murders of eight people, seven of whom were members of the Rhoden family, who were all shot to death

By Joe Sutton, CNN Survivors of the fatal mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, have filed a $27 billion class action lawsuit against multiple law enforcement agencies in Texas, according to court documents. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Austin, names the city, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, the

By Liam Reilly, CNN A nine-figure settlement between the estate of Jeffrey Epstein and the US Virgin Islands has been signed, according to the islands’ attorney general. Epstein’s estate — as well as two co-defendants and 10 Epstein-created entities — will disburse over $105 million cash to the US Virgin Islands government, US Virgin Islands

By Andi Babineau, CNN Former US Army corporal and Medal of Honor recipient Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura has died, according to a news release from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. He was 97 years old. Miyamura was born on October 6, 1925, in Gallup, New Mexico. He joined the Army in January 1945 as part

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN Nearly 20% of California’s urban water agencies reported they could see significant water shortages in the coming months as the state braces for a potential fourth consecutive year of drought. After surveying urban water agencies representing roughly 90% of the state’s population, the California Department of Water Resources early this week

By Jalen Brown, CNN The United States Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) administered disability benefits in a racially discriminatory manner for decades, disproportionately rejecting Black veteran disability claims at a much higher rate than White veterans, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic. The lawsuit filed Monday

By Nicole Chavez and Rikki Klaus, CNN The killing of Shanquella Robinson is being investigated as a femicide, an unfamiliar term for many in the United States as this gender-motivated crime has not been defined by US legislation despite being a global issue. Robinson, a 25-year-old former student at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina

By Nicki Brown, CNN A man seen in surveillance video punching an elderly Asian woman more than 100 times and stomping on her body in Yonkers, New York, has been sentenced to more than 17 years in state prison, prosecutors announced Tuesday. “Today we close a chapter on one of the most violent and shocking

By Stella Chan, Zoe Sottile and Josh Campbell, CNN A woman whose parents and sister were killed last week in the alleged “catfish” triple homicide in Riverside, California, is urging families to speak to their children about online safety. Michelle Blandin, whose father, Mark Winek, 69, mother, Sharie Winek, 65, and sister, Brooke Winek, 39,

By Eliott C. McLaughlin and Andi Babineau, CNN A school board will pay a $10 million settlement in the death of 16-year-old Imani Bell, an Atlanta-area basketball player whose 2019 death from heat-related injuries led to murder charges against two coaches, the family’s legal team said. The payout from the Clayton County Board of Education,

By Chris Boyette and Zoe Sottile, CNN The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 Tuesday night to approve a controversial policy that would allow police to deploy robots capable of using lethal force in extraordinary circumstances. The vote came after heated debate on a policy that would allow officers to use ground-based robots to

By Holly Yan and Aya Elamroussi, CNN The world’s largest active volcano is shooting fountains of lava more than 100 feet high and sending a river of molten rock down toward the main highway of Hawaii’s Big Island. The leading edge of the lava flow gushing out of Mauna Loa is about 3.6 miles away

By Cheri Mossburg, CNN Closing arguments are expected Wednesday in the Los Angeles sexual assault trial against former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who faces two counts of forcible rape and five counts of sexual assault involving four women — a model, a dancer, a massage therapist and a producer. Jurors have been following the marathon

By Joe Sutton, Matt Phillips and Amir Vera, CNN Cecily Aguilar, who was arrested in 2020 in connection with the disappearance of Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen, pleaded guilty Tuesday to being involved in the cover-up of her death, according to CNN affiliate KWTX and an attorney for Guillen’s family. Aguilar pleaded guilty to one count

By Raja Razek, Drew Iden and Barbara MacDonald, CNN A .40 caliber unspent round that was found near the bodies of two teen Indiana girls was tied to suspect Richard Allen, who was arrested last month in connection with the killings, according to a probable cause affidavit. The affidavit, unsealed by a judge on Tuesday,

By Michelle Watson, CNN An employee at a Virginia Walmart where six of her coworkers were killed said she filed a written complaint to the company of the suspected gunman’s “bizarre” behavior months before the shooting, according to a Tuesday filing in Chesapeake circuit court. The filing alleges that Walmart management knew of suspected gunman

By Melissa Alonso, CNN Austin Harrouff, the 25-year-old accused of stabbing a Florida couple to death and biting the face of the male victim in 2016, will be sent to a mental hospital instead of prison, according to court documents. Harrouff was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the killings of John Stevens,

By Dakin Andone, CNN Kevin Johnson — a death row inmate who was convicted in the 2005 murder of a Kirkwood, Missouri, police officer but claimed racial bias in his prosecution — was executed Tuesday night by lethal injection. Johnson, 37, was pronounced dead at 7:40 p.m. CT. He didn’t give a final statement, according

By Alexandra Meeks, CNN A monstrous trio of tornadoes, damaging winds and hail are expected to create challenges across the Southeast and Mississippi Valley today as more than 40 million people are under severe weather threats. CNN’s storm tracker and current satellite images show areas of Mississippi and Louisiana have the greatest potential for severe

By Aya Elamroussi, Amanda Watts and Tina Burnside, CNN Roughly 10 days after a former Virginia state trooper was hired by a sheriff’s office in that state, he traveled to Southern California and allegedly killed the family of a teenager he had catfished online, officials said. Austin Lee Edwards, 28, died in a shootout with

By Steve Almasy and Nicole Barron, CNN The family of Eliahna Torres, who was killed in the massacre at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, filed a lawsuit Monday against nearly two dozen people and entities, including the gun manufacturer and store that provided the rifle used in the May 24 attack and law enforcement officials

By Kiely Westhoff and Tavleen Tarrant, CNN The 16-year-old Pennsylvania boy who allegedly confessed over Instagram video chat to killing a young girl told police when he was taken into custody that “it was an accident,” according to a criminal complaint. Police in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, responded Friday afternoon after a girl reported receiving a video