A Southern California jeweler allegedly stole nearly $1.5 million from customers through a fraud scheme involving Rolex watch sales. Nelson Andres Holdo is accused of scamming 22 victims in Orange and Los Angeles counties from 2021 to 2026, according to the California Attorney General’s Office. Prosecutors said Holdo specifically targeted buyers who wanted to purchase […]

An 18-year-old man was arrested for alleged human trafficking, kidnapping and attempted murder in San Bernardino County. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department identified the suspect as Isaiah Banks Rupert, 18, of Apple Valley. On May 19, deputies responded to reports of a female in distress near Yuma and Sago roads around 11 a.m. Authorities […]

A Glendale doctor has been convicted by a jury in what federal prosecutors describe as the largest Botox fraud scheme in the nation’s history. Violetta Mailyan, 45, was found guilty Wednesday in connection with a $45 million scheme that involved billing Medicare for thousands of unnecessary Botox injections, including treatments prosecutors say were never actually […]

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner this week ruled that a 12-year-old San Fernando Valley girl who died days after an alleged bullying incident at school died of natural causes. Khimberly Zavaleta Chuquipa, a Reseda High School student whose death sparked protests and a police investigation earlier this year, died from a “spontaneously ruptured cerebellar […]

On Tuesday, six states held primary elections to select which Republican and Democratic candidates will advance to the general election in November. The primaries were seen not only as contests within the states, but also as potential referendums on President Donald Trump’s staying power within the Republican party. By Wednesday morning, it was clear that Trump’s […]

A wave of wildfires over the past few days has stretched fire crews across several counties as the flames destroy structures and drive thousands of residents to evacuate. In Simi Valley, tens of thousands remain evacuated as firefighters work to make progress on the Sandy Fire, which erupted late Monday morning and destroyed at least […]

This story was originally published by Popular Information, a substack publication to which you can subscribe here. On March 11, President Trump took a tour of a manufacturing facility in Reading, Ohio, owned by Thermo Fisher Scientific, a medical supply company. During the tour, Trump lavished praise on Thermo Fisher which uses the facility to manufacture prescription drugs on a contract […]

This story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Video courtesy of the CDT Coalition. Before the Trump administration decided the country urgently needed to erect a hulking steel wall in southern New Mexico’s bootheel, only a three-strand barbed wire fence separated the United States from Mexico in this […]

There’s supposed to be a line between investing and gambling. Congress might have to define the difference.