Burglar's kids get early start in crime
HARRISON, Ohio (AP) — Authorities say a nine-month pregnant Ohio woman accused in several home burglaries left her son waiting in her car while committing at least one of the alleged crimes.
Hamilton County Municipal Judge Russell Mock set bond Thursday at $275,000 for 26-year-old Samantha Brewer of the Cincinnati suburb of Cleves.
Harrison police Lt. Steve Wilson says Brewer was arrested Wednesday night on charges of burglary, attempted burglary and child endangering.
Wilson did not know the age of Brewer's son.
Ex-boyfriend admits killing investigator
NEW YORK (AP) — The ex-boyfriend of a forensic investigator for the New York Police Department has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in her death.
Gary McGurk pleaded guilty Thursday in Queens state supreme court in the death of Michelle Lee. The 24-year-old McGurk faces between 29 and 37 years in prison.
Lee was stabbed to death in her bed in April 2009. She was 24.
McGurk also pleaded guilty to three counts of tampering with physical evidence.
Canada's Prince of Pot taken to Seattle
SEATTLE (AP) — After a yearslong battle to avoid extradition, Canada's so-called Prince of Pot was brought Thursday to Seattle, where he is expected to plead guilty to a charge that he sold millions of marijuana seeds to U.S. customers.
Marc Emery, wearing a V-neck sweater over a collared shirt, appeared in U.S. District Court and agreed to remain in custody pending his plea hearing on Monday. Canada's justice minister signed off on Emery's extradition to the United States on May 10.
Emery, 52, of Vancouver, British Columbia, claimed to have made $3 million a year before his arrest in 2005, when a grand jury in Seattle indicted him on marijuana conspiracy and money laundering charges. He operated his mail-order business for about a decade.
Powder scare at Liberty Bell building
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Investigators are trying to identify a white powder found inside a balloon at the downtown Philadelphia building that houses the Liberty Bell.
The Liberty Bell Center and part of a street next to it have been evacuated.
A guard found the balloon inside the visitors entrance to the Liberty Bell Center on Thursday afternoon.
FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver says testing is being done on the substance. He says it's not explosive or radioactive but is what he calls a "biological substance."
Klaver stresses investigators don't know what the substance is.
N.Y. bomb suspect waived rights daily
NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors have released a letter saying the Times Square bomb suspect waived his rights daily as he was questioned by investigators trying to identify associates and to prevent future attacks.
Faisal Shahzad was brought to court Tuesday for the first time to face five charges accusing him of driving an SUV rigged with a homemade bomb in Times Square on May 1. He was arrested on May 3 at Kennedy Airport as he was about to leave the country.
The letter from prosecutors was sent to a federal judge and a federal magistrate judge on May 12. It was partially redacted when it was released on Thursday.
Bail denied for son, father in tax fraud
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Bail has been denied for a father and son who ran international hotel development businesses and are facing U.S. tax fraud charges involving the $33 million sale of a New York hotel.
A Florida federal magistrate judge agreed Thursday with prosecutors that 77-year-old Mauricio Cohen Levy and 46-year-old Leon Cohen Levy will remain in custody because they would flee prosecution. They were living in the principality of Monaco before their arrests last month in New York.
The Cohens are charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. over the New York hotel sale. Prosecutors say they also hid assets in the hundreds of millions of dollars around the world and lived lavishly.
Kidnap-hoax mom suspected in thefts
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Authorities say a suburban Philadelphia mother at the center of an abduction hoax last year now faces charges in connection with the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients and colleagues at the law office where she worked.
Thirty-nine-year-old Feasterville resident Bonnie Sweeten was charged Thursday with fraud, money laundering, identity theft and other crimes.
Federal prosecutors say she stole more than $700,000 from clients, the law office and co-workers.
Sweeten called 911 last year to falsely say she and her daughter had been kidnapped. But she actually fled to Orlando, Fla., and Disney World.
She was sentenced in August to nine to 23 months in prison after pleading guilty to identity theft and filing a false police report.