Hispanic, LGBTQ communities receive hateful emails after racist text surge
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(NEW YORK) — A week after cellphone users across the U.S. reported a flurry of racist text messages, members of the Hispanic and LGBTQ communities are now receiving text messages saying they have been selected for deportation or to report to a re-education camp, according to a new statement from the FBI.
The messages follow reports of African American and Black residents receiving racist texts in the days after the 2024 election that they were selected to “pick cotton on a plantation,” according to the FBI. Cellphone users in at least nine cities — New York, Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, Houston, Huntsville, Texas, Los Angeles, Norfolk, Virginia, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama — reported receiving the messages.
The new message also include some emails, the FBI said in its statement.
TextNow, a mobile provider that allows people to create phone numbers for free, said last week it discovered “one or more” of its users allegedly sending out racist text messages to phone numbers across the country and that the service quickly shut down the accounts.
The FBI has said it is in contact with the Justice Department and other federal authorities on the matter.
Recipients of these messages include high school and college students.
“Although we have not received reports of violent acts stemming from these offensive messages, we are evaluating all reported incidents and engaging with the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division,” the FBI said in its Friday statement. “We are also sharing information with our law enforcement partners, and community, academia, and faith leaders.”
Anyone who receives these messages — or any threats of violence — is encouraged to report them to the FBI.
In this photo released by the Raleigh Police Department, a thank-you present of pineapple-shaped cookies delivered to the Wake County Board of Elections is shown that prompted a hazmat response on Oct. 29, 2024, after election workers raised concerns about a suspicious package mailed from Hawaii. Image via Raleigh Police Department
( Raleigh, N.C. ) — No good deed goes unpunished for election workers in North Carolina.
A thank-you present of pineapple-shaped cookies delivered to the Wake County Board of Elections prompted a hazmat response on Tuesday after election workers raised concerns about a suspicious package mailed from Hawaii.
“We are just on high alert with these things automatically,” Wake County elections specialist Danner McCulloh told ABC News, who cited recent incidents of suspicious packages containing powder sent to election offices across the country.
The Raleigh Police and Fire Departments quickly responded to the incident — which was treated as a hazmat situation — and bomb technicians X-rayed the package, according to Lt. Jason Borneo of the Raleigh Police Department.
After the package was deemed to not be a threat, officials opened the package to learn it was full of pineapple-shaped cookies from the Honolulu Cookie Company. The package, which was mailed from a Hawaii address, also included a handwritten thank-you note, according to a Raleigh Fire Department spokesperson.
The operations at Wake County Board of Elections were not impacted during the incident, a county spokesperson said. According to McCulloh, a person who heard a radio story about Wake County decided to send the cookies unannounced to thank election workers.
“It was a kind gesture,” McCulloh said, though he recommended against others sending cookies to his office.
Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden departs the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 03, 2024 in Wilmington, Del. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — After hours of legal wrangling on Thursday, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to nine tax-related charges in a last-ditch bid to avoid a lengthy and potentially embarrassing trial in Los Angeles.
The president’s son initially offered a so-called “Alford plea,” in which he would agree to a guilty plea on the counts but maintain his innocence on the underlying conduct of the charges. But when prosecutors opposed that path – and U.S. Judge Mark Scarsi expressed some hesitation in granting it – attorneys for Hunter Biden said he would enter a traditional guilty plea.
“Mr. Biden is prepared to proceed today and finish this,” Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, said Thursday afternoon in court.
Wise had accused Hunter Biden of seeking special treatment with the proposed Alford plea.
Prosecutors alleged that Hunter Biden had engaged in a four-year scheme to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on exotic cars, clothing, escorts, drugs, and luxury hotels. He had originally pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment that includes six misdemeanor charges of failure to pay, plus a felony tax evasion charge and two felony charges of filing false returns.
All back taxes and penalties were eventually paid in full by a third party, identified by ABC News as Hunter Biden confidant Kevin Morris.
Thursday’s court appearance comes three months after Hunter Biden was convicted by a Delaware jury on three felony charges related to his purchase of a firearm in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs. His sentencing in that case is scheduled for Nov. 13.
What did prosecutors allege?
In their 56-page indictment, prosecutors alleged that Hunter Biden willfully avoided paying taxes by subverting his company’s own payroll system, that he failed to pay his taxes on time despite having the money to do so, and that he included false information in his 2018 tax returns.
“[T]he defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes,” the indictment alleged.
Prosecutors also highlighted millions of dollars that Hunter Biden received from overseas business in Ukraine, China, and Romania in exchange for “almost no work.”
Although Hunter Biden eventually paid back all his back taxes and penalties with the help of a third party, Judge Scarsi blocked defense attorneys from introducing that information to the jury.
“Evidence of late payment here is irrelevant to Mr. Biden’s state of mind at the time he allegedly committed the charged crimes,” Scarsi wrote in an order last week.
Last June, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor offenses, acknowledging that he failed to pay taxes on income he received in 2017 and 2018. The deal also allowed him to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement to avoid criminal charges related to his 2018 firearm purchase.
Had the deal worked out, Hunter Biden would have likely faced probation for the tax offenses and had his gun charge dropped if he adhered to the terms of his diversion agreement.
However, the plea deal fell apart during a contentious hearing before U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who took issue with the structure of the deal.
By September, the special counsel had unsealed an indictment in Delaware charging Hunter Biden for lying on a federal form when he purchased a firearm in 2018.
The federal indictment in Los Angeles for the tax crimes followed in December.
ABC News’ Olivia Rubin contributed to this report.
(MOUNTAINVIEW, Colo.) — A 17-year-old was shot in the face while he was looking for a location to take homecoming pictures in Colorado, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies responded to a report of two trespassers on a property at around 4 p.m. Tuesday. The homeowner also called her boyfriend to report the trespassers, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies arrived on the scene to find a teenager bleeding heavily from his face as his friend applied pressure to the wounds with a T-shirt. A man identified as Brent Metz, 38, was standing with the two boys, according to the sheriff’s office.
The injured boy told a responding deputy that Metz shot him in the face through the windshield of his car, the sheriff’s office said.
The teen told the deputy he and his friend had driven to the property to see if they could take their homecoming pictures there. The boys parked at the gate, jumped the fence and walked up to the driveway to speak to the homeowner, but it appeared no one was home, according to the sheriff’s office.
The boys then walked around the property trying to find the homeowner, but were unable to, authorities said. They then walked to their car and began writing a note to the homeowner asking for permission to use the property, according to the sheriff’s office.
As they wrote the note, a man they had never seen before pulled up next to them, exited the truck he was driving and fired a round through the windshield, striking the 17-year-old driver in the face, according to the sheriff’s office.
The boy was taken by ambulance to the hospital, according to the sheriff’s office. The teen’s current condition is not known.
Deputies found the weapon used in the shooting in Metz’s truck, according to the sheriff’s office.
Metz was arrested and transported to the sheriff’s office, where he was booked into jail for first degree assault, felony managing, illegal discharge of a firearm and reckless endangerment, according to the sheriff’s office.
