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California
California Sen. Leland Yee was arrested Wednesday after a series of raids by officials to crack down on public corruption, according to the Los Angeles Times. Also arrested was Raymond Chow, a San Francisco criminal known as “Shrimp Boy.” Chow had been involved in international gang activity from the 1970s to 2003. Before his most recent arrest, he had billed himself as a “reformed gangster who now advocates on behalf of children.” Chow had been at the center of organized crime in San Francisco’s Chinatown for decades, and longtime law enforcers were skeptical about his turnaround for decades, according to the article.
North Carolina
Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon was arrested on public corruption charges Wednesday after being accused of accepting $48,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen, according to USA Today. Cannon was in office for 114 days and now faces several charges, including theft and bribery. The bribe was allegedly accepted by Cannon in exchange for the privileges of his position as a public official, according to the article. The FBI said Cannon, who is free on a $25,000 bond, had multiple chances to return the money. If he were convicted on all charges, he would face 20 years in prison and more than $1 million in fines.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma County District Judge Patricia Parrish ruled that a secrecy statute regarding lethal injection drugs is unconstitutional, according to the Houston Chronicle. Inmates Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner requested information about the drug that would execute them and what company was providing it. Oklahoma promises confidentiality to companies that provide the drug and went so far as to withhold the information in court. Parrish ruled that this confidentiality violates inmates’ rights under the constitution. The ruling has no affect on the inmates’ sentences. Lockett and Warner are sentenced to die in late April, according to the article.
Washington
Twenty-four bodies have been found after a massive mudslide devastated Washington on Saturday, according to Reuters. The mudslide took place near the rural town of Oso. Gov. Jay Inslee said the death toll is expected to rise significantly. Search teams continued to search Wednesday for as many as 176 people who are still unaccounted for. The debris and muck from the mudslide covered one square mile. Inslee said officials were hoping to find survivors sheltered by structures or their cars, but the “force of the landslide defies imagination,” according to the article. He said search teams haven’t found any survivor for the past 36 or 48 hours.
