In the news
Pope Francis released his annual message for the Catholic Church’s World Day of Communications, in which he urged families to put aside their iPhones and Twitter feeds and learn to talk to one another again.
Christopher Lee Cornell, an Ohio man accused of plotting to “wage jihad” by attacking the U.S. Capitol with pipe bombs and shooting government officials and employees, faces a March 2 trial date in Cincinnati, a judge said.
Edin Sakoc, 55, who was accused of lying about his role in Bosnian war crimes when he applied for U.S. citizenship after moving to Vermont more than a decade ago, was convicted and faces the loss of his U.S. citizenship and deportation if the verdict is upheld.
Nelson Lavigne and wife, Sherry, both volunteers for an organization in Maine that delivers hot meals to elderly residents, are being credited with saving the life of 99-year-old Gordon Alcott, whom the couple found on his back porch, bleeding from the head, three hours after a fall in below-freezing temperatures.
Patrik Arsenault, 28, a former special-education teacher who videotaped his sexual abuse of three young boys, including two brothers with autism, was sentenced in Maine to 65 years in federal prison.
David Smith, a Jamaican financier convicted of running a Ponzi scheme that bilked $220 million from thousands of investors across the Caribbean and in central Florida, was released from prison in the Turks and Caicos Islands and is now the focus of U.S. officials seeking to extradite him.
Brad Deery, owner of an Iowa car dealership, agreed to remove a mannequin atop a billboard carrying the words “I can see Deery Brothers in West Burlington from here” after the mannequin prompted several 911 calls from people who feared someone was about to jump.
Larry Dean Winckler, 54, the former chief operating officer of a western Pennsylvania drilling company, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison for embezzling $9 million to feed his casino gambling habit.
David Bury, a federal judge in Arizona, ordered ex-congressman Republican Rick Renzi to surrender Feb. 13 to serve a three-year sentence on corruption, money laundering and other charges and said Renzi’s planned filing of an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t automatically block lower courts’ proceedings.