Hawaii
A former flight attendant posed as a pilot and received hundreds of free flights, U.S. authorities say
HONOLULU (AP) — A former flight attendant for a Canadian airline posed as a commercial pilot and as a current flight attendant to obtain hundreds of free flights from U.S. airlines, authorities said.
Dallas Pokornik, 33, of Toronto, was arrested in Panama after being indicted on wire fraud charges in federal court in Hawaii last October. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday following his extradition.
According to court documents, Pokornik was a flight attendant for a Toronto-based airline from 2017 to 2019, then used fake employee identification from that carrier to obtain tickets reserved for pilots and flight attendants on three other airlines.
U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday that Pokornik even requested to sit in an extra seat in the cockpit — the “jump seat” — typically reserved for off-duty pilots. It was not clear from court documents whether he ever actually rode in a plane’s cockpit, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to say.
The indictment did not identify the airlines except to say they are based in Honolulu, Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas. Representatives for Hawaiian Airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines — which are respectively based in those cities — didn’t immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The scheme lasted four years, the U.S. prosecutors in Hawaii said.
A U.S. magistrate judge on Tuesday ordered Pokornik to remain in custody. His federal defender declined to comment.
In 2023, an off-duty airline pilot riding in the cockpit of a Horizon Air flight said “I’m not OK” just before trying to cut the engines midflight. That pilot, Joseph Emerson, later told police he had been struggling with depression.
A federal judge sentenced him to time served last November.
The allegations against Pokornik are reminiscent of “Catch Me If You Can,” the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio that tells the story of Frank Abagnale posing as a pilot to defraud an airline and obtain free flights.
California
Conservative group lawsuit says school policy hurts white students
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A conservative group filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging a Los Angeles schools policy meant to address the harms of segregation, alleging that it discriminates against white students.
The 1776 Project Foundation, created by the 1776 Project PAC, targeted in its lawsuit a Los Angeles Unified School District policy that provides smaller class sizes and other benefits to schools with predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian or other non-white students. It dates back to 1970 and 1976 court orders that required the district to desegregate its schools.
The group said the policy amounts to racial discrimination and violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
The lawsuit calls for a permanent injunction to prevent the school district from using race preferences in “operating, funding, advertising, or admitting students into school programs.”
A district spokesperson said they were unable to comment on the specifics of pending litigation.
“Los Angeles Unified remains firmly committed to ensuring all students have meaningful access to services and enriching educational opportunities,” the district said in a statement.
More than 600 schools in the district are classified as predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian or other non-white, while less than 100 are not, the lawsuit said.
Students that attend a school under this designation receive extra points when applying to magnet schools, and they are required to have at least two parent-teacher conferences per year, according to the district’s Student Integration Services website. These schools are also required to have student-teacher ratios of 25 to 1 or less, compared to other schools that are allowed to have classroom ratios of as high as 34 to 1, according to the lawsuit.
The 1776 Project Foundation’s mission is to “create and disseminate policies that will promote academic achievement and revitalize our educational system for families and students across the nation,” according to its website. It does so primarily by putting money behind local school board candidates, pushing back against “progressive pedagogy” and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, its website said.
The group’s members include a parent whose children are enrolled in a Los Angeles school that is not classified as predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian or other non-white, according to the lawsuit. Because of the district’s policy, those children were denied certain benefits such as admission to a magnet program, the lawsuit alleges.
The filing comes as Trump administration officials have pushed for the lifting of Civil Rights Movement-era school desegregation court orders, calling them obsolete and unnecessary.
Civil rights groups say the orders are important to keep as tools to address the legacy of forced segregation — including disparities in student discipline, academic programs and teacher hiring — as well as segregation that is still actively happening.
Ohio
Suspect charged in vandalism of Vance’s home pleads not guilty
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The individual charged in connection with the vandalism of Vice President JD Vance’s Ohio home earlier this month pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.
William D. DeFoor, 26, entered pleas to three counts in federal court in Cincinnati. Prosecutors have charged DeFoor with damaging government property, engaging in physical violence against any person or property in a restricted building or grounds, and assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers.
The suspect faces up to 10 years in prison on each of the first two charges and up to 20 years on the third.
Federal prosecutors allege the Secret Service saw someone run along the front fence of Vance’s residence in Cincinnati’s upscale East Walnut Hills neighborhood just after midnight on Jan. 5 and then breach the property line. The person later identified as DeFoor was armed with a hammer and tried to break out the window of an unmarked Secret Service vehicle on the way up the driveway. The person then moved toward the front of the home and broke 14 historic window panes, according to a federal affidavit.
Damage done to security enhancements around the windows was valued at $28,000, according to the filing.
DeFoor’s attorney, Paul Laufman, has said in court that the situation represents “purely a mental health issue” and that his client was not motivated by politics.
Washington
High court likely to strike down restrictions on guns in stores and hotels in Hawaii
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seemed likely to strike down Hawaii restrictions on carrying guns into stores Tuesday in the justices’ latest firearm case since their landmark decision expanding Second Amendment rights.
The Trump administration backed the challenge to the law barring guns in places like malls and hotels unless the property owner specifically allows them. It’s sometimes referred to as a “vampire rule,” for its permission requirement.
Hawaii said the measure is aimed at ensuring private owners have the right to decide whether they want firearms on their property.
The conservative justices who form the court’s majority seemed roundly skeptical of the state’s argument, questioning whether Hawaii could make similar rules restricting First Amendment freedom of speech rights on private property.
“You’re just relegating the Second Amendment to second-class status,” Justice Samuel Alito said.
Very few people had concealed-carry permits to carry guns in Hawaii before the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that found the Second Amendment generally gives people the right to have firearms in public. The state has granted thousands since then, attorney Neal Katyal said.
Four other states have enacted similar laws, though presumptive restrictions for guns on private property have been blocked in places like New York.
If the court strikes the measure, Hawaii business owners could take their own steps to bar people from bringing in guns. The outcome won’t affect other state restrictions on guns in places like parks, beaches and restaurants that serve alcohol.
The case came before the court after it was challenged by a gun-rights group and three people from Maui. A judge originally blocked it, but an appeals court allowed it to be enforced.
The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision by late June.
The justices are hearing another gun case this term, about whether people who regularly use marijuana and other drugs can legally own guns.
In recent years, the justices have struck down a federal ban on gun accessories called bump stocks from Trump’s first term. They upheld regulations on ghost guns imposed under then-President Joe Biden, however, as well as a federal gun law intended to protect domestic violence victims.
North Carolina
Duke files a lawsuit against QB to enforce his contract and block a transfer
Duke has filed a lawsuit against quarterback Darian Mensah seeking to block his efforts to transfer and reach a contract with another school to play elsewhere next season.
The university filed its complaint in Durham County Superior Court on Monday, three days after Mensah reversed his previously announced plan to return to the Blue Devils after leading them to the Atlantic Coast Conference title. A hearing is now listed for the case on Feb. 2, according to the court system’s online portal.
The school argued that its two-season contract with Mensah — signed in July 2025 and running through 2026 — paid him for exclusive rights to market Mensah’s name, image and likeness (NIL) tied to playing college football. It sought a temporary restraining order from the court to prevent Mensah from entering the portal along with blocking him from taking additional steps in the process of reaching a deal with a new school, arguing that the contract requires parties to go through arbitration before any dispute can be resolved.
“This case arises out of the decision of a star quarterback in the increasingly complex world of college athletics,” the complaint states in its opening. “But at its core, this is a simple case that involves the integrity of contracts.”
In an email to The Associated Press on Tuesday afternoon, sports-law attorney Darren Heitner, who has worked with Mensah, said Duke’s request for a temporary restraining order preventing Mensah from entering the transfer portal at all had been denied. In a later social-media post, however, Heitner said Mensah “is not, for the time being” allowed to enroll or play football elsewhere before a decision by a judge set to preside over the next hearing.
Mensah, who transferred in from Tulane and even faced his former team, finished second in the Bowl Subdivision ranks by throwing for 3,973 yards while ranking tied for second with 34 passing touchdowns.
The Mensah-Duke case is the latest in what has is becoming a more frequent occurrence in the revenue-sharing era of college sports: legal fights over contracts between schools and players seeking to transfer.
Earlier this month, Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. announced plans to transfer before changing his mind two days later, coming amid multiple reports that the school was prepared to pursue legal options to enforce Williams’ NIL contract.
A former flight attendant posed as a pilot and received hundreds of free flights, U.S. authorities say
HONOLULU (AP) — A former flight attendant for a Canadian airline posed as a commercial pilot and as a current flight attendant to obtain hundreds of free flights from U.S. airlines, authorities said.
Dallas Pokornik, 33, of Toronto, was arrested in Panama after being indicted on wire fraud charges in federal court in Hawaii last October. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday following his extradition.
According to court documents, Pokornik was a flight attendant for a Toronto-based airline from 2017 to 2019, then used fake employee identification from that carrier to obtain tickets reserved for pilots and flight attendants on three other airlines.
U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday that Pokornik even requested to sit in an extra seat in the cockpit — the “jump seat” — typically reserved for off-duty pilots. It was not clear from court documents whether he ever actually rode in a plane’s cockpit, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to say.
The indictment did not identify the airlines except to say they are based in Honolulu, Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas. Representatives for Hawaiian Airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines — which are respectively based in those cities — didn’t immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The scheme lasted four years, the U.S. prosecutors in Hawaii said.
A U.S. magistrate judge on Tuesday ordered Pokornik to remain in custody. His federal defender declined to comment.
In 2023, an off-duty airline pilot riding in the cockpit of a Horizon Air flight said “I’m not OK” just before trying to cut the engines midflight. That pilot, Joseph Emerson, later told police he had been struggling with depression.
A federal judge sentenced him to time served last November.
The allegations against Pokornik are reminiscent of “Catch Me If You Can,” the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio that tells the story of Frank Abagnale posing as a pilot to defraud an airline and obtain free flights.
California
Conservative group lawsuit says school policy hurts white students
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A conservative group filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging a Los Angeles schools policy meant to address the harms of segregation, alleging that it discriminates against white students.
The 1776 Project Foundation, created by the 1776 Project PAC, targeted in its lawsuit a Los Angeles Unified School District policy that provides smaller class sizes and other benefits to schools with predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian or other non-white students. It dates back to 1970 and 1976 court orders that required the district to desegregate its schools.
The group said the policy amounts to racial discrimination and violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
The lawsuit calls for a permanent injunction to prevent the school district from using race preferences in “operating, funding, advertising, or admitting students into school programs.”
A district spokesperson said they were unable to comment on the specifics of pending litigation.
“Los Angeles Unified remains firmly committed to ensuring all students have meaningful access to services and enriching educational opportunities,” the district said in a statement.
More than 600 schools in the district are classified as predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian or other non-white, while less than 100 are not, the lawsuit said.
Students that attend a school under this designation receive extra points when applying to magnet schools, and they are required to have at least two parent-teacher conferences per year, according to the district’s Student Integration Services website. These schools are also required to have student-teacher ratios of 25 to 1 or less, compared to other schools that are allowed to have classroom ratios of as high as 34 to 1, according to the lawsuit.
The 1776 Project Foundation’s mission is to “create and disseminate policies that will promote academic achievement and revitalize our educational system for families and students across the nation,” according to its website. It does so primarily by putting money behind local school board candidates, pushing back against “progressive pedagogy” and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, its website said.
The group’s members include a parent whose children are enrolled in a Los Angeles school that is not classified as predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian or other non-white, according to the lawsuit. Because of the district’s policy, those children were denied certain benefits such as admission to a magnet program, the lawsuit alleges.
The filing comes as Trump administration officials have pushed for the lifting of Civil Rights Movement-era school desegregation court orders, calling them obsolete and unnecessary.
Civil rights groups say the orders are important to keep as tools to address the legacy of forced segregation — including disparities in student discipline, academic programs and teacher hiring — as well as segregation that is still actively happening.
Ohio
Suspect charged in vandalism of Vance’s home pleads not guilty
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The individual charged in connection with the vandalism of Vice President JD Vance’s Ohio home earlier this month pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.
William D. DeFoor, 26, entered pleas to three counts in federal court in Cincinnati. Prosecutors have charged DeFoor with damaging government property, engaging in physical violence against any person or property in a restricted building or grounds, and assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers.
The suspect faces up to 10 years in prison on each of the first two charges and up to 20 years on the third.
Federal prosecutors allege the Secret Service saw someone run along the front fence of Vance’s residence in Cincinnati’s upscale East Walnut Hills neighborhood just after midnight on Jan. 5 and then breach the property line. The person later identified as DeFoor was armed with a hammer and tried to break out the window of an unmarked Secret Service vehicle on the way up the driveway. The person then moved toward the front of the home and broke 14 historic window panes, according to a federal affidavit.
Damage done to security enhancements around the windows was valued at $28,000, according to the filing.
DeFoor’s attorney, Paul Laufman, has said in court that the situation represents “purely a mental health issue” and that his client was not motivated by politics.
Washington
High court likely to strike down restrictions on guns in stores and hotels in Hawaii
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seemed likely to strike down Hawaii restrictions on carrying guns into stores Tuesday in the justices’ latest firearm case since their landmark decision expanding Second Amendment rights.
The Trump administration backed the challenge to the law barring guns in places like malls and hotels unless the property owner specifically allows them. It’s sometimes referred to as a “vampire rule,” for its permission requirement.
Hawaii said the measure is aimed at ensuring private owners have the right to decide whether they want firearms on their property.
The conservative justices who form the court’s majority seemed roundly skeptical of the state’s argument, questioning whether Hawaii could make similar rules restricting First Amendment freedom of speech rights on private property.
“You’re just relegating the Second Amendment to second-class status,” Justice Samuel Alito said.
Very few people had concealed-carry permits to carry guns in Hawaii before the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that found the Second Amendment generally gives people the right to have firearms in public. The state has granted thousands since then, attorney Neal Katyal said.
Four other states have enacted similar laws, though presumptive restrictions for guns on private property have been blocked in places like New York.
If the court strikes the measure, Hawaii business owners could take their own steps to bar people from bringing in guns. The outcome won’t affect other state restrictions on guns in places like parks, beaches and restaurants that serve alcohol.
The case came before the court after it was challenged by a gun-rights group and three people from Maui. A judge originally blocked it, but an appeals court allowed it to be enforced.
The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision by late June.
The justices are hearing another gun case this term, about whether people who regularly use marijuana and other drugs can legally own guns.
In recent years, the justices have struck down a federal ban on gun accessories called bump stocks from Trump’s first term. They upheld regulations on ghost guns imposed under then-President Joe Biden, however, as well as a federal gun law intended to protect domestic violence victims.
North Carolina
Duke files a lawsuit against QB to enforce his contract and block a transfer
Duke has filed a lawsuit against quarterback Darian Mensah seeking to block his efforts to transfer and reach a contract with another school to play elsewhere next season.
The university filed its complaint in Durham County Superior Court on Monday, three days after Mensah reversed his previously announced plan to return to the Blue Devils after leading them to the Atlantic Coast Conference title. A hearing is now listed for the case on Feb. 2, according to the court system’s online portal.
The school argued that its two-season contract with Mensah — signed in July 2025 and running through 2026 — paid him for exclusive rights to market Mensah’s name, image and likeness (NIL) tied to playing college football. It sought a temporary restraining order from the court to prevent Mensah from entering the portal along with blocking him from taking additional steps in the process of reaching a deal with a new school, arguing that the contract requires parties to go through arbitration before any dispute can be resolved.
“This case arises out of the decision of a star quarterback in the increasingly complex world of college athletics,” the complaint states in its opening. “But at its core, this is a simple case that involves the integrity of contracts.”
In an email to The Associated Press on Tuesday afternoon, sports-law attorney Darren Heitner, who has worked with Mensah, said Duke’s request for a temporary restraining order preventing Mensah from entering the transfer portal at all had been denied. In a later social-media post, however, Heitner said Mensah “is not, for the time being” allowed to enroll or play football elsewhere before a decision by a judge set to preside over the next hearing.
Mensah, who transferred in from Tulane and even faced his former team, finished second in the Bowl Subdivision ranks by throwing for 3,973 yards while ranking tied for second with 34 passing touchdowns.
The Mensah-Duke case is the latest in what has is becoming a more frequent occurrence in the revenue-sharing era of college sports: legal fights over contracts between schools and players seeking to transfer.
Earlier this month, Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. announced plans to transfer before changing his mind two days later, coming amid multiple reports that the school was prepared to pursue legal options to enforce Williams’ NIL contract.
