Kansas
Miss Kansas called out her abuser in public. Her campaign against domestic violence is going viral
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A newly posted video of Miss Kansas calling out her domestic violence abuser from the stage the night she was crowned is whipping up a maelstrom of support on social media.
Alexis Smith, who works overnight shifts as a cardiothoracic intensive care nurse in Wichita, was crowned Miss Kansas on June 8, but posted the video of her on-stage comments just this past week on the platform now known as X. Her comments are resonating with thousands in part because she called out her own abuser from the stage while she said the perpetrator was sitting in the audience.
The video Smith posted July 16 has been viewed more than 60,000 times and generated a rash of news stories.
“My vision as the next Miss Kansas is to eliminate unhealthy and abusive relationships,” Smith said during the interview portion of the pageant last month. “Matter of fact, some of you in this audience saw me very emotional because my abuser is here today. But that’s not going to stop me from being on this Miss Kansas stage and from representing as the next Miss Kansas.”
Smith just recently started her reign and began raising concerns about the issue in interviews and social media posts. Her bold pageant statement against domestic abuse and her courage to speak out is being praised online by dozens of people as her video gets shared again and again.
The beauty queen cares deeply about domestic violence issues because not only was she a victim, but so were many of the other women in her family, she has said.
“My family, every single woman in my family, was impacted by domestic violence,” she said in an interview with Wichita television station KSN. “At the age of 14, I got in my first relationship, but it was also an abusive relationship that I was in until about 2018, 2019. It’s something that I’m still experiencing and dealing with today.”
Smith said she even moved to Texas for a couple years after she escaped the relationship. She returned to Wichita to study nursing at Newman University.
Massachusetts
Pediatric anesthesiologist accused of possessing, distributing child sexual abuse material
A pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist at Boston’s Children’s Hospital has been arrested on charges of possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material, federal prosecutors said.
The 35-year-old physician made an initial appearance in court Friday and was detained pending a hearing Tuesday, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release.
The charges follow a search of his home and phone. He is alleged to have knowingly distributed and possessed videos between July 1 and July 18.
A phone number for the anesthesiologist could not be found. An email seeking comment from his attorney was left Saturday.
Boston Children’s Hospital said in statement that it had terminated the man’s employment following his arrest.
The anesthesiologist had started a fellowship at the hospital on July 1 and had previously worked at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, according to a police affidavit filed in court.
A federal investigation began in Baltimore in May into a member of a group on an encrypted messaging app that required users to upload nude imagery of children. The anesthesiologist was identified as that user, the affidavit said.
Illinois
A judge adds 11 years to the sentence for a man in a Chicago bomb plot
CHICAGO (AP) — A man convicted of plotting to blow up a Chicago bar will have to spend another 11 years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly resentenced Adel Daoud to 27 years in prison on Friday, the Chicago Tribune reported.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman originally sentenced Daoud to 16 years in prison in 2019 but a federal appellate court threw that sentence out in 2020, saying the punishment wasn’t tough enough, and ordered him resentenced.
Daoud, of suburban Hilldale, was arrested in an FBI sting in September 2012 after pushing a button on a remote he believed would set off a car bomb outside the Cactus Bar & Grill.
Daoud said he wanted to kill at least 100 people, according to government court filings. He was 18 years old at the time.
Daoud entered an Alford plea, a legal maneuver in which a defendant maintains innocence but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him if he were to go to trial. He also entered Alford pleas to charges that he solicited the killing of an FBI agent who participated in the sting and that he attacked a person with whom he was incarcerated with a shank fashioned from a toothbrush after the person drew a picture of the prophet Muhammad.
The Chicago Tribune reported that Daoud represented himself at the resentencing on Friday but online court records indicate attorney Quinn Michaelis is representing him. Michaelis didn’t immediately respond to an email early Friday evening from The Associated Press seeking comment on the resentencing.
The AP called Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, where the Chicago Tribune reported Daoud is being held, in an attempt to reach him and offer him an opportunity to comment, but the phone there rang unanswered.
California
Officials say largest trial court in U.S. victim of ransomware attack on network
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A ransomware attack has shut down the computer system of the largest trial court in the country, officials with the Superior Court of Los Angeles County said.
The cybersecurity attack began early Friday and is not believed to be related to the faulty CrowdStrike software update that has disrupted airlines, hospitals and governments around the world, officials said in a statement Friday.
The court disabled its computer network systems upon discovery of the attack, and it will remain down through at least the weekend. A preliminary investigation shows no evidence that users’ data was compromised, according to the statement.
The Superior Court of Los Angeles County is the largest unified superior court in the United States, serving the county’s 10 million residents over 36 courthouses. Nearly 1.2 million cases were filed and 2,200 jury trials were conducted in 2022.
Miss Kansas called out her abuser in public. Her campaign against domestic violence is going viral
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A newly posted video of Miss Kansas calling out her domestic violence abuser from the stage the night she was crowned is whipping up a maelstrom of support on social media.
Alexis Smith, who works overnight shifts as a cardiothoracic intensive care nurse in Wichita, was crowned Miss Kansas on June 8, but posted the video of her on-stage comments just this past week on the platform now known as X. Her comments are resonating with thousands in part because she called out her own abuser from the stage while she said the perpetrator was sitting in the audience.
The video Smith posted July 16 has been viewed more than 60,000 times and generated a rash of news stories.
“My vision as the next Miss Kansas is to eliminate unhealthy and abusive relationships,” Smith said during the interview portion of the pageant last month. “Matter of fact, some of you in this audience saw me very emotional because my abuser is here today. But that’s not going to stop me from being on this Miss Kansas stage and from representing as the next Miss Kansas.”
Smith just recently started her reign and began raising concerns about the issue in interviews and social media posts. Her bold pageant statement against domestic abuse and her courage to speak out is being praised online by dozens of people as her video gets shared again and again.
The beauty queen cares deeply about domestic violence issues because not only was she a victim, but so were many of the other women in her family, she has said.
“My family, every single woman in my family, was impacted by domestic violence,” she said in an interview with Wichita television station KSN. “At the age of 14, I got in my first relationship, but it was also an abusive relationship that I was in until about 2018, 2019. It’s something that I’m still experiencing and dealing with today.”
Smith said she even moved to Texas for a couple years after she escaped the relationship. She returned to Wichita to study nursing at Newman University.
Massachusetts
Pediatric anesthesiologist accused of possessing, distributing child sexual abuse material
A pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist at Boston’s Children’s Hospital has been arrested on charges of possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material, federal prosecutors said.
The 35-year-old physician made an initial appearance in court Friday and was detained pending a hearing Tuesday, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release.
The charges follow a search of his home and phone. He is alleged to have knowingly distributed and possessed videos between July 1 and July 18.
A phone number for the anesthesiologist could not be found. An email seeking comment from his attorney was left Saturday.
Boston Children’s Hospital said in statement that it had terminated the man’s employment following his arrest.
The anesthesiologist had started a fellowship at the hospital on July 1 and had previously worked at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, according to a police affidavit filed in court.
A federal investigation began in Baltimore in May into a member of a group on an encrypted messaging app that required users to upload nude imagery of children. The anesthesiologist was identified as that user, the affidavit said.
Illinois
A judge adds 11 years to the sentence for a man in a Chicago bomb plot
CHICAGO (AP) — A man convicted of plotting to blow up a Chicago bar will have to spend another 11 years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly resentenced Adel Daoud to 27 years in prison on Friday, the Chicago Tribune reported.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman originally sentenced Daoud to 16 years in prison in 2019 but a federal appellate court threw that sentence out in 2020, saying the punishment wasn’t tough enough, and ordered him resentenced.
Daoud, of suburban Hilldale, was arrested in an FBI sting in September 2012 after pushing a button on a remote he believed would set off a car bomb outside the Cactus Bar & Grill.
Daoud said he wanted to kill at least 100 people, according to government court filings. He was 18 years old at the time.
Daoud entered an Alford plea, a legal maneuver in which a defendant maintains innocence but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him if he were to go to trial. He also entered Alford pleas to charges that he solicited the killing of an FBI agent who participated in the sting and that he attacked a person with whom he was incarcerated with a shank fashioned from a toothbrush after the person drew a picture of the prophet Muhammad.
The Chicago Tribune reported that Daoud represented himself at the resentencing on Friday but online court records indicate attorney Quinn Michaelis is representing him. Michaelis didn’t immediately respond to an email early Friday evening from The Associated Press seeking comment on the resentencing.
The AP called Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, where the Chicago Tribune reported Daoud is being held, in an attempt to reach him and offer him an opportunity to comment, but the phone there rang unanswered.
California
Officials say largest trial court in U.S. victim of ransomware attack on network
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A ransomware attack has shut down the computer system of the largest trial court in the country, officials with the Superior Court of Los Angeles County said.
The cybersecurity attack began early Friday and is not believed to be related to the faulty CrowdStrike software update that has disrupted airlines, hospitals and governments around the world, officials said in a statement Friday.
The court disabled its computer network systems upon discovery of the attack, and it will remain down through at least the weekend. A preliminary investigation shows no evidence that users’ data was compromised, according to the statement.
The Superior Court of Los Angeles County is the largest unified superior court in the United States, serving the county’s 10 million residents over 36 courthouses. Nearly 1.2 million cases were filed and 2,200 jury trials were conducted in 2022.
