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      Man Who U.S. Says Faked Death to Avoid Child Support Gets 81 Months in Prison

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      The man, Jesse Kipf, hacked into state death registry systems to fake his own death in part to avoid paying more than $100,000 in child support, federal prosecutors said.A Kentucky man who prosecutors say hacked into state death registry systems to fake his own death — in part to avoid paying more than $100,000 in child support — was sentenced on Monday to 81 months in federal prison, the authorities said.According to federal prosecutors, the man, Jesse Kipf, 39, of Somerset, Ky., hacked into the Hawaii Death Registry System in January 2023 with the username and password of a doctor living in another state to create and certify his own death certificate.“This resulted in Kipf being registered as a deceased person in many government databases,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky said in a news release on Tuesday. “Kipf admitted that he faked his own death, in part, to avoid his outstanding child support obligations.”In an arrangement with prosecutors, Mr. Kipf pleaded guilty in April to one count of computer fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Under the deal, other charges against him were dropped.Prosecutors, who cited Mr. Kipf’s criminal history, recommended a sentence of 84 months in prison, while his lawyer recommended 72 months. Both sides agreed that Mr. Kipf should pay $195,758.65 to cover child support he had failed to pay as well as damages related to government and corporate computer systems.Mr. Kipf, who was born in Hawaii, was divorced in 2008 in California and owed more than $116,000 in child support obligations to his daughter and her mother, according to court documents.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in US Politics

      Kentucky’s governor clears schedule for Harris VP announcement, stoking speculation

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      Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, canceled a planned appearance in the western part of his state on Friday with no official explanation, intensifying speculation over whether Kamala Harris might choose him as her running mate.Beshear’s schedule change is far from a guarantee that Harris will select him considering that Pennsylvania’s governor, Josh Shapiro, another name on the shortlist of potential running-mates, also canceled a fundraising trip planned for this weekend amid reports that Harris was interviewing a number of vice-presidential candidate contenders over the weekend.Shapiro is widely viewed as a frontrunner in the veepstakes, as Democrats hope he could help deliver the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, but Beshear’s supporters insist he is best positioned to sway independent voters in the presidential race. According to a recent Morning Consult survey, Beshear has the highest approval rating of any Democratic governor in the country, with 67% of Kentuckians holding a favorable impression of him.Beshear’s popularity is all the more astounding given the political leanings of his state. In 2020, Donald Trump defeated Joe Biden by 26 points in Kentucky, and no Democratic presidential candidate has carried the state since 1996.Despite those significant hurdles, Beshear won re-election to a second term last year by five points, besting the then Republican attorney general, Daniel Cameron. The victory came four years after Beshear defeated a deeply unpopular Republican incumbent, Matt Bevin, by just 0.4 points. The surprise victory was made possible in part because of Beshear’s high name recognition, as his father, Steve Beshear, served as Kentucky’s governor for two terms.Beshear’s strong performance last year was credited to his consistent leadership of the state through the coronavirus pandemic and multiple natural disasters. The governor pitched himself as a hard-working executive capable of rising above politics to do what is right for his state, an argument that he has reiterated at Harris campaign events in recent days.At a rally in Georgia last weekend, Beshear contrasted himself with Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance, who grew up in Ohio but touted his family connections to Kentucky in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy.“I mean, there’s a county that JD Vance says he’s from in Kentucky – and I won it by 22 points last November,” Beshear said.While Beshear emphasized his experience as he sought re-election last year, he also cast a spotlight on one of the social issues that may decide the presidential race: abortion access. A year after Kentucky voters rejected a ballot measure stipulating that the state constitution did not protect reproductive rights, Beshear capitalized on his opponent’s anti-abortion views in a searing campaign ad.The ad featured a woman named Hadley Duvall, who shared that she was raped by her stepfather when she was 12. Duvall condemned Cameron’s support for an abortion ban as a severe threat to Kentuckians.“Anyone who believes there should be no exceptions for rape and incest could never understand what it’s like to stand in my shoes,” Duvall said in the ad. “To tell a 12-year-old girl she must have the baby of her stepfather who raped her is unthinkable. I’m speaking out because women and girls need to have options. Daniel Cameron would give us none.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionEven though Beshear leaned into the issue of abortion access during his campaign, reproductive rights groups have questioned his record. They note that Beshear often focuses on pregnancies involving rape or incest when he discusses abortion and that his lieutenant governor, Jacqueline Coleman, previously described herself as “a pro-life compassionate Democrat”. (Coleman has more recently endorsed Harris and condemned the overturning of Roe v Wade.)Speaking to reporters in Georgia last weekend, Beshear forcefully rejected any suggestion that he was weak on reproductive rights. He reminded them of his multiple vetoes of anti-abortion bills, even though some of those proposals were enacted anyway because of the Republican supermajority in the state legislature.“I’m the first Democrat in Kentucky that has ever run an abortion ad​​ during an election,” he told reporters. “I’ve stood up every single time, knowing that it would be one of the No 1 attacks on me.”Questions over Beshear’s stance on abortion could play an important role in Harris’s deliberations, as she has placed a heavy emphasis on the issue since formally launching her campaign last week. But if Beshear joins Harris’s ticket, he will probably follow the example of his predecessors by embracing the agenda of the presidential nominee.Harris’s announcement is expected no later than Tuesday, when she will appear at a rally in Pennsylvania with her new running mate. More

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      Supreme Court Will Hear Challenge to Tennessee Law Banning Transition Care for Minors

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      The move comes as states around the country have pushed to curtail transgender rights.The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether a Tennessee law that bans certain medical treatments for transgender minors violates the Constitution.The move means the court will for the first time hear arguments on the issue of medical care for transgender youth.The Biden administration had asked the justices to take up the case, United States v. Skrmetti, arguing that the measure outlaws treatment for gender dysphoria in youths and “frames that prohibition in explicitly sex-based terms.”In the government’s petition to the court, Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar wrote that the law bans transgender medical care but that it “leaves the same treatments entirely unrestricted if they are prescribed for any other purpose.”Federal courts have splintered over laws aimed at blocking transition care, intensifying pressure on the Supreme Court to intervene. The justices have considered whether to take up the appeals at their private conference each week, but they had repeatedly postponed making a decision.The move comes as states around the country have pushed to curtail transgender rights. Conservative lawmakers have prioritized legislation in recent years that targets gender-transition care and at least 20 Republican-led states have enacted measures restricting access to such medical care for minors.It is also part of a broader effort at legislation aimed at regulating other parts of life, including laws about which bathrooms students and others can use and which sports teams they can play on.This spring, the justices temporarily allowed Idaho to enforce a state ban that limited medical treatment for transgender youth. The law, passed by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature, makes it a felony for doctors to provide transgender medical care for minors, including hormone treatment.The decision in that case, which came to the justices as an emergency application, appeared to split largely along ideological lines, with the court’s liberals dissenting.Along with Idaho, the justices had been asked to weigh in on legislation in Kentucky and Tennessee.The Tennessee measure bans health care providers from offering transition care to minors, including puberty blockers and hormone treatments.The Kentucky law, known as S.B. 150, bans doctors from providing gender-transition surgery or administering puberty blockers or hormone therapy to people under 18.In June 2023, federal judges in both states, in separate rulings, temporarily blocked the laws days before key parts of the laws were set to go into effect.Shortly after, a divided panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned the lower court decision, reinstating the bans. Plaintiffs in Kentucky and Tennessee appealed to the Supreme Court. More

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      Tornado Devastates Arkansas Town

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      Rogers, Ark., was one of many places hit hard by the rash of storms over Memorial Day weekend across the South.Melisa Swearingen woke up early on Sunday morning as a tornado bore down on her home in the northwestern corner of Arkansas. As she raced down the stairs with her toddler, she looked out the window and saw a 40-foot tree falling toward the house.“The whole house was shaking like a roller coaster,” Ms. Swearingen said in an interview outside her home. “I thought, This was it.”But the tree smashed through a room above the family’s garage, giving her time to gather her 7-year-old son. As another tree crushed the other side of the home, she, her husband and their children huddled in a first-floor bedroom. “I thought the house would be torn open and we’d get suctioned up,” Ms. Swearingen, 35, said.Nearby, Byron Copeland, 38, had sent his wife, their three children and the family dogs to the basement, while he monitored the storm. Then came the terrifying booms of exploding electrical transformers. “I ran toward the basement like a little girl,” Mr. Copeland said. As they waited for the weather to pass, he said, the family sang the lullaby “Jesus Loves Me.”The Swearingens and the Copelands were among the millions of families whose lives were upended by the rash of tornadoes that ravaged parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend. At least 23 people were killed, including eight people in Arkansas. Melisa Swearingen, second from left, stood amid debris being removed from her front yard on Monday.Melyssa St. Michael for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What to Watch in Primaries in Georgia, Kentucky, Idaho and Oregon

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      Voters are headed to the polls on Tuesday in several states. In California’s 20th Congressional District, the most conservative in the state, two Republicans will face off in a special election to determine who will temporarily fill the seat of Representative Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted as House speaker last year and then resigned. The winner will serve until January, when the next Congress is sworn in. Vince Fong, a state lawmaker and onetime aide to Mr. McCarthy, had a significant lead in the primary. He will face Mike Boudreaux, the longtime sheriff of Tulare County. (They will face each other again in the fall in the quest for a full term.)Georgia, Kentucky, Oregon and Idaho have primary contests today. In Kentucky and Oregon, voters will also weigh in on the presidential primaries, raising the possibility of protest votes against both President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump.Here is what else to watch.The Trump prosecutor Fani Willis will be on the ballot in Georgia.Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, will face a challenger in the Democratic primary for her position. Her opponent is Christian Wise Smith, a lawyer who placed third in the primary against Ms. Willis in 2020 and was defeated in the 2022 Democratic primary for attorney general in Georgia.Scott McAfee, the judge overseeing Mr. Trump’s trial in Georgia, is also in a competitive race against Robert Patillo II, a civil rights lawyer and radio host. A third candidate, Tiffani Johnson, was disqualified and is fighting that decision.A progressive vies for a rematch in a swing district in OregonJamie McLeod-Skinner, a progressive challenger, knocked out a moderate seven-term Democratic representative in Oregon’s Fifth Congressional District during the 2022 primaries, but ultimately lost to her Republican opponent, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, by a two-point margin — a result that contributed to Republicans’ taking a thin majority in the House that year.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      At the P.G.A. Championship, Club Pros Get a Chance to Play

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      They have the opportunity to play their way into the field. Michael Block did it last year and impressed the sport by finishing 15th.Michael Block, the club professional from Southern California, electrified the crowds at last year’s P.G.A. Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., holding his own against the best touring professionals in the world.But after making the cut, his first hole didn’t bode well for a successful weekend.“I had 25 feet — the easiest two-putt in the world — and I three-putt it,” Block recalled last week. “I started to think, ‘Oh no, this is how it’s going to go today.’ As we’re walking off the green, Justin Rose puts his arm around me and said, ‘Let’s settle in, Blockie, and have a good day.’ For him to say that?”Rose, a major champion and Ryder Cup stalwart, was like so many other people at last year’s P.G.A.: supportive of a magical, if improbable run.Block, 46 at the time, did settle in and eventually finished tied for 15th, which got him an automatic invitation into this week’s P.G.A. Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. But more than the highest finish for any country club pro in the modern era of the P.G.A. Championship, he captivated the audience, inspired other club pros and earned the respect of touring pros who saw how well Block, who had been running his pro shop a week earlier, could play.“Watching Michael Block do what Michael Block did gave all of us this inner sense that it’s doable,” said Matt Dobyns, the head golf professional at the Meadow Brook Club in Jericho, N.Y., who will be making his sixth start in the P.G.A. Championship this week. “That’s part of the challenge for us — believing you can do it. I’ve played with Michael. He’s a great player, but I can play with him.”“His play gives you this glimmer that it’s possible,” Dobyns added. “It’s tough when you have a full-time job and playing golf is just one part of it.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Best Hats at the 2024 Kentucky Derby

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      America’s most famous horse race may be celebrating a milestone this year, but the hats are the real stars of the show.There are many associations that come to mind with the Kentucky Derby. Horses, naturally. Mint juleps too. But to be a true participant in the Derby spectacle, one needs a proper Derby hat.The tradition for wearing eye-catching attire to America’s most famous horse race began in the 1870s. The founder of the Kentucky Derby, Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., was inspired by the fashionable dress codes at events like Ascot in Britain and Paris’s Grand Prix. Creating his own, he figured, would transform his racetrack from a place of ill-repute to one for well-heeled high society.On a sunny spring Monday in 1875, more than 10,000 spectators attended the first Kentucky Derby and The New York Times reported on the fashion as well as the racing, noting that “the grandstand was thronged by a brilliant assemblage of ladies and gentlemen.” His plan worked, and this collective passion for horses, gambling and partying — even in smart seersucker suits or a spectacular feathered fascinator — has endured as a cornerstone of the Derby to this day.This year marked the 150th running of the race at Churchill Downs, won this year by Mystik Dan in a photo finish. As expected nobody held back both on and off the track, from wide-brimmed styles adorned with spring florals and soft feathers paired with tasteful pastel-colored dresses to jockey helmets adorned with plastic stallions and straight up horse heads. Hats off to this crowd.A coordinated pair in pink and blue. More is more on Derby day. Quiet pastels work too.It’s never a bad idea to match your hat with your cocktail. The winner by a nose. A dashing suit for Derby day. The view from the top. Riders up! Derby bling means feathers, sequins and a unicorn.Proving you can still look fantastic during a Derby nap. The hats may get all the attention, but the dresses also deserve their due.A cowboy and his bow-tie.A magenta moment that is both practical and festive. This duo had us at yellow with their coordinating sunny standout looks.Can you spot the floral accent in this red, white and blue ensemble?A coordinated pair.Yay or neigh? This fan was happy to horse around when it came to his head gear. David Kasnic for The New York TimesAnd they’re off! The Kentucky Derby is often described as “the most exciting two minutes in sports.”Pastels for the paddock (and flat shoes for a long day).The mad hatter?A dapper look for a day at the Derby.Wide-brimmed straw hats continue to be a winner for many racegoers — and the bigger the better.David Kasnic for The New York TimesYou can never go wrong with the classic straw hat.Thinking pink.One fan in full bloom.Ahoy sailor!David Kasnic for The New York TimesIt wouldn’t be the Derby without the mint juleps.David Kasnic for The New York TimesPearls, posies and lots of layered netting here for a millinery delight.David Kasnic for The New York TimesAn eye-popping race day outfit missing its owner. More

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      Severe Weather Tears Through Midwest

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      A storm, believed to be a tornado, ripped through a mobile home community in eastern Indiana. Ohio and Kentucky were also hit.Tornadoes were reported as storms tore through Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio on Thursday, according to news reports.Local officials believe a tornado hit a trailer park in Winchester, in eastern Indiana, according to 13 WTHR, an NBC News affiliate. However, meteorologists said they were still working to confirm that a tornado had touched down there.Tornadoes in the MidwestLocations of tornado sightings or damage reported by trained spotters. More