Local

Adam Gentile Pelton, a Cottage Grove police officer and former school resource officer at Park High School, has been charged with seven counts of criminal sexual conduct for inappropriately sexually touching at least seven female high school students. The accusers are all students at Park High School, and were all juveniles at the time of their harassment. Each accuser shares a similar story of Pelton hugging them inside of his office at the Park High School, a room with no cameras, and proceeding to inappropriately touch them in that hug. Some of the students also claimed that Pelton communicated with them through Snapchat, calling them things like ‘beautiful’ or ‘sweetheart,’  and even, in one case, asking for nudes. Many students at Park High School backed up the accusers’ story claiming that they have witnessed Pelton’s inappropriate behavior themselves.

(Source: Kare 11)

National

On Monday night, the Iowa Caucus took place. The counting of caucus votes ended up being a mess. The app that was supposed to count the votes failed, which led to volunteers being brought in to count the votes and enter them into a secure system. But the volunteers realized they needed a code from their smartphones to gain access to the system, but they had all been instructed to leave their phones outside of the “boiler room.” The volunteers ended up asking precinct leaders to send the volunteers pictures of their worksheets, but that proved to be an inefficient and confusing way to count the votes. Based upon interviews with many volunteers, the failure of the system in Iowa calls into question the history of the management of the caucus. And even with results in, the New York Times found inconsistencies in at least one of six of the precincts’ reported data. The data found does show Pete Buttigieg leading with Bernie Sanders following by less than one tenth of a percentage point.

(Source: The New York Times)

After a recent series of inmate deaths and continuous claims of inhumane conditions in several Mississippi prisons, the Justice Department has announced that they will be doing a full investigation into the prison’s living conditions for prisoners. The main prisons that the Justice Department will look at will be the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, the South Mississippi Correctional Institution, the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility and the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility. The investigation will look at systems in place to protect prisoners from attacks from other prisoners, suicide prevention programs and mental health facilities, an a proper use of isolation. In the past month, nine inmates have died at Parchman, and within all of these prisons, prisoners have claimed inhumane treatment. That treatment includes sewage on cell floors, little access to showers, and the prison being overrun by gangs and violence.

(Source: CNN)

International

Maesaiah Thabane, the first lady of Lesotho, has been charged with the murder of her husband’s former wife, Lipolelo Thabane, and the attempted murder of  a woman with the former wife the night of the 2017 murder. Maesaiah Thabane was a prime suspect because she failed to show up to questioning, and she turned herself in on Tuesday. The Prime Minister, Thomas Thabane, will resign from office at an unconfirmed date.

(Source: CNN)

Sgt. Jakrapanth Thomma, a Thai soldier, is suspected of shooting 29 people at a military base and a shopping mall in Nakhon Ratchasima on Sunday. After entering the mall, Thomma stayed inside for over 10 hours with hundreds of hostages. Police entered the mall after hearing a burst of gunshots and Thomma was shot and killed by law enforcement. When in the mall, Thomma used social media to taunt police. 23 of the victims were civilians, three were police officers, and the last three were army officers. 27 victims are still in the hospital with injuries.

(Source: NBC News)