(Editor's Note: This is an updated version of Bill McEwen's Jan. 10, 2019, column on the financial challenges facing the Marjaree Mason Center.) Domestic violence again is sending tremors through our community. A day after she obtained a restraining order against the father of their 1-year-old daughter, a Fresno woman...
California Couple Who Shackled Children Face Life in Prison
LOS ANGELES — The desperate cry for help came from a girl who had lived in such isolation for 17 years that she didn't know her address, the month of the year or what the word medication meant. But after jumping out a window from the filthy home where she...
Johnny Depp's Ex-Wife Asks Judge to Dismiss His Lawsuit
FAIRFAX, Va. — Actress Amber Heard asked a judge Thursday to dismiss a $50 million defamation lawsuit her ex-husband Johnny Depp filed over an op-ed about domestic violence she wrote in The Washington Post, and provided new evidence toward her allegations of abuse. In the motion filed in the Circuit...
Show Up Drunk: Indictments Spotlight Prison Rehab Scams
It's a tip that has been passed onto convicts for years: On your way to federal prison, say you have a substance abuse problem, and you could qualify for a treatment program that knocks up to a year off your sentence. Federal prosecutors have long suspected abuses in the program,...
R. Kelly Out of Jail After Posting $100K in Sex Abuse Case
CHICAGO — R. Kelly walked out of a Chicago jail Monday after posting $100,000 bail that allows him to go free while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually abused four people dating back to 1998, including three underage girls. Hours earlier, the R&B star pleaded not guilty to the...
California Parents of 13 Plead Guilty to Torture, Abuse
RIVERSIDE — A California couple who shackled some of their 13 children to beds and starved them pleaded guilty Friday to torture and other abuse in a case dubbed a "house of horrors." David and Louise Turpin pleaded guilty Friday in Riverside County Superior Court to 14 counts that included...
Feds Create Hole in Marjaree Mason Budget. It's Up to Us to Fill It.
The first rule of government should be one that's in the Hippocratic Oath: "First, do no harm." I say that because the Marjaree Mason Center — one of Fresno's best-known and most-needed nonprofits — is dealing with the fallout of the federal government's effort to help the homeless. Center Lost $224,000...
'60 Minutes' Chief Fager Is Out at CBS
NEW YORK — CBS "60 Minutes" executive producer Jeff Fager says he's leaving the company, after being named in recent stories that accused him of fostering an abusive workplace. CBS News President David Rhodes announced the departure on Wednesday. It came only three days after CBS Corp. Chairman Leslie Moonves...
Church Sex Scandal: Abuse Victims Want a Full Reckoning
Six Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania joined the list this week of those around the U.S. that have been forced to face the ugly truth about child-molesting priests in their ranks. But in dozens of other dioceses, there has been no reckoning, leading victims to wonder if the church will...
Report Says PA Priests Molested More than 1,000 Children
HARRISBURG, Pa. — More than 1,000 children — and possibly many more — were molested by hundreds of Roman Catholic priests in six Pennsylvania dioceses, while senior church officials took steps to cover it up, according to a landmark grand jury report released Tuesday. The grand jury said it believes...