Man admits to presence at Capitol riot
WASHINGTON -- A Missouri man who posted on Snapchat and Facebook that he was in the U.S. Capitol during the deadly Jan. 6 riot has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
Nicholas Reimler, 29, of Valley Park in St. Louis County, admitted Friday to one count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. As part of the plea agreement, two other misdemeanor charges were dropped.
The Kansas City Star reported that the plea makes Reimler the first Missouri defendant to plead guilty in the case. Fourteen of the more than 600 suspects in the case are from Missouri.
Reimler, a University of Missouri engineering graduate, was identified as the man seen in pictures entering the Capitol wearing a turquoise cap and a white "Trump" flag as a cape.
He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 10 and faces a maximum sentence of six months in prison, a year of supervised release and a $5,000 fine.
Deal reached in Arizona election review
PHOENIX -- Board members overseeing Arizona's Maricopa County reached an agreement Friday evening with the Republican-controlled state Senate that will end a standoff over a Senate demand that they hand over computer routers for use in a partisan election review.
The Board of Supervisors announced that a special master will take questions from the Senate's election review contractors and provide them with information contained on the routers that they say they need to finish the review.
Supervisor Bill Gates said the deal will protect sensitive information while avoiding a significant penalty the county faced if it had not complied. He called the deal "a win for transparency, and it's also a win for protecting sensitive data in Maricopa County."
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a decision last month that the county had to comply with the subpoena issued by Republican Senate President Karen Fann or lose about $700 million in annual state funding.
The county agreed to drop a $2.8 million claim it filed with the Senate after election equipment it handed over to the auditor was decertified and needed to be replaced.
Fann said the county settled under the threat of losing state money and called it "a victory for election integrity and the Arizona taxpayer." She also said there was no damage to the election machines and that they were improperly decertified by Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.
Hobbs said she concluded that the machines could no longer be used after consulting with experts, including those at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Man pleads guilty in synagogue shooting
SAN DIEGO -- A 22-year-old former nursing student pleaded guilty to the murder of one person and the attempted murders of 53 others in a 2019 shooting at a Southern California synagogue, avoiding the possibility of facing the death penalty.
John Earnest entered a similar plea on state charges in July and agreed to serve the rest of his life in state prison without the possibility of parole. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 30.
In the federal case, sentencing is set for Dec. 28. Defense attorneys and prosecutors are recommending life in prison plus 30 years, according to the plea.
Federal prosecutors had said previously that they would not seek the death penalty, and Friday's agreement finalized that decision.
In July, the Justice Department halted federal executions after an unprecedented run of capital punishment during the Trump administration, though the order didn't prohibit prosecutors from seeking the death penalty. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued the moratorium as officials review the government's policies and execution protocols.
Earnest opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle in April 2019, on the last day of Passover, at Chabad of Poway near San Diego. The attack killed 60-year-old Lori Gilbert-Kaye and wounded three others, including an 8-year-old girl and the rabbi, who lost a finger.
Earnest also admitted that he set fire to an Escondido mosque where seven people were sleeping, though no one was hurt, and that he carried out the attacks because he wanted to kill Muslims and Jews.
Korean War soldier's remains identified
OKLAHOMA CITY -- The remains of a U.S. soldier killed in the Korean War have been identified as those of an Oklahoma native, according to the Army.
The remains are those of Sgt. Billy Rodgers of Panama, who was 19 when he disappeared on Dec. 2, 1950.
Rodgers was a member of Company A, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 31st Regimental Combat Team, 7th Infantry Division, which was attacked near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.
The remains were returned to the U.S. by North Korea in 2018 and identified through evidence that included DNA testing, according to the Army.
Rodgers will be buried Sept. 27 at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
More than 7,500 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War, according to the Army.
