Arizona
Personal data for over 1 million people stolen in cyberattack on court system
PHOENIX (AP) — A cyberattack on Arizona’s court system stole personal information for more than a million people and is believed to have started when a court employee clicked a malicious link in an email.
The Arizona Supreme Court said the information was copied for 1.3 million people with unpaid court fees, fines and restitution payments for traffic and criminal violations dating back as far as 30 years.
Those leading the attack also took records of nearly 30,000 active and inactive orders of protection and 150,000 reports dating back to 2010 from a foster care board that makes recommendations in cases where parents are alleged to be unfit or unable to care for a child.
The court’s technology staff shut down the attack on a backup server about two hours after spotting it on Sept. 24. Since then, the court has notified those affected by the breach.
“We don’t have any evidence it has been used or shared” after the attack, state Supreme Court spokesperson Alberto Rodriguez said Tuesday.
The attack, which is under investigation, hasn’t affected or delayed any court cases, Rodriguez said.
No records were altered or deleted, and the attackers didn’t steal information about jurors, witnesses or court employees.
Mississippi
3 of Nolan Wells’ friends sue NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens for defamation
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Three friends of Nolan Wells, a Black college student who went missing from a Mississippi island during a Fourth of July celebration and was later found dead, are suing NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens for defamation.
The lawsuit was among a handful of defamation claims the friends filed this week against content creators. They also previously indicated their intent to sue the Rev. Al Sharpton and “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin for comments they made while discussing Wells’ death.
The fathers of the three friends, who are under 21 and considered minors under Mississippi law, filed the federal lawsuit Monday on their behalf.
The lawsuit alleges Owens defamed the three friends after posting on X: “ARREST THEM IMMEDIATELY!!” Owens’ post also linked to an Instagram video, which theorized the three friends killed Wells and tampered with his phone, according to the lawsuit. The post was made days after a Mississippi grand jury declined to recommend charges in Wells’ death.
Owens has 1.2 million followers on X and had previously pledged $25,000 to a reward fund for information leading to an arrest and conviction in Wells’ death.
“Not only is he defaming them, he’s basically saying to the mob, get your pitchforks, get your torches,” said Edward Paltzik, a defamation and media attorney representing the three friends.
The Associated Press attempted to contact Owens through social media and SMAC Entertainment, which, according to its website, manages Owens, but did not immediately receive a response.
The three were part of a group of 30 friends, including Wells, who rode to Horn Island on three boats on the Fourth of July. Wells’ friends said Wells did not return to the mainland with them, choosing instead to stay behind to talk with a girl, a claim his family has disputed. His body was found two days later off the island’s coast.
Neither state nor independent autopsies have not determined Wells’ cause of death, though the grand jury found his death was “consistent with drowning.” Wells’ family and their lawyers disputed the grand jury’s findings, pointing to unexplained bruising on the back of his head and noting that his airways and stomach were devoid of water.
Images showing Wells with white friends the day he went missing fueled online speculation that racial dynamics played a role in his death.
Two of the three friends who are suing Owens were singled out online in part because they appear in a photo with Wells and one other friend on a boat, which was circulated on social media after his disappearance. The third called Wells’ mother and the U.S. Coast Guard to report Wells missing.
Washington
Former CIA official accused of stealing $40 million in gold bars pleads guilty
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former senior CIA official pleaded guilty Tuesday in Virginia to a charge that he abused his position and government funds to enrich himself by acquiring Florida real estate and hundreds of gold bars worth over $40 million, according to court records.
David J. Rush fabricated a “highly classified” government program to justify the acquisition of luxury property in south Florida that he intended to resell for personal profit, according to a court filing. Rush separately concocted a bogus “sensitive government activity” to obtain the gold bars, the filing says.
Rush’s fraudulent conduct cost the federal government approximately $194 million in total losses, according to the Justice Department. The losses included over $1.8 million in privately chartered flights that Rush authorized for personal use at the government’s expense.
Under questioning from investigators, Rush admitted that he provided a foreign government official with information about the identity of a secret source for the U.S. government, a new court filing says. The filing doesn’t specify which country the foreign official represented.
Prosecutors also accuse Rush of lying to colleagues and government contractors about his military and academic credentials and the fake program that he invented, falsely claiming it was authorized by high-ranking U.S. officials.
“Rush used his legitimate government authority and manufactured personal bona fides to create confidence in his directions,” the court filing says.
Rush, 49, of Ashburn, Virginia, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, court records show. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff is scheduled to sentence Rush on Jan. 28 in Alexandria, Virginia.
Several months ago, Rush tried to fraudulently authorize the release of $100 million from a government contract, according to Tuesday’s filing. He directed somebody else to transfer approximately $145 million to a holding company formed at his direction, then used those funds to acquire four “luxury” properties in Palm Beach and Hobe Sound, Florida, the filing says.
In previous court filings, prosecutors said Rush stashed roughly $46 million worth of gold bars from the federal government at his Virginia home. They also accused him of fraudulently claiming tens of thousands of dollars in compensation for military leave after he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in 2015.
“Federal employees are entrusted with serving the American people, not themselves,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the agency immediately referred the matter to the FBI after an internal investigation turned up evidence of Rush’s crimes.
“David Rush abused his position and betrayed the public trust and should be held fully accountable for his actions,” Ratcliffe said in a statement.
Rush was arrested after investigators searched his home and seized approximately 300 gold bars, roughly $2 million in U.S. currency and about 35 luxury watches, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit. A judge ordered Rush to be held without bond after his initial court appearance earlier this year.
During a hearing in June, defense attorney Jessica Carmichael said Rush wasn’t charged initially with any crimes related to the discovery of the gold bars, which she referred to as “basically a nonissue” and “nothing more than a sensational tidbit.” She said her client properly obtained the gold bars and kept them locked in a safe in his basement.
“Mr. Rush never claimed they were his,” Carmichael said.
Carmichael declined to comment on Rush’s guilty plea after Tuesday’s hearing.
Authorities say Rush lied about his education and military background on job applications, falsely claiming to be a former Navy pilot who graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Clemson University in South Carolina and a master’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.
Investigators determined that he didn’t serve as a Navy pilot and didn’t attend either school. Rush enlisted in the Navy in 1997 and was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy Reserve as a lieutenant in 2015, according to the FBI affidavit.
Montana
State judge strikes down ballot envelope birth year requirement
An absentee ballot requirement that has resulted in thousands of Montana votes being thrown out since 2025 was ruled unconstitutional Monday by a state judge.
At issue is the requirement that voters write their birth year on absentee ballot return envelopes. In his Monday ruling, Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Mike Menahan said the requirement had disenfranchised nearly 6,000 Montana voters since it was created by the 2025 Legislature.
The ruling means that 2026 general election ballot envelopes missing the birth year won’t be rejected. The first day voters could walk into a polling place and receive an absentee ballot was Monday. Elections administrators will mail absentee ballots to voters on the absentee list on Friday, Oct. 9.
In making the birth year requirement law, legislators argued that the information would prevent voter fraud. Rep. Braxton Mitchell, R-Columbia Falls, proposed the requirement. Menahan ruled that the state failed to prove the requirement prevented fraud, even as voters’ ballots were being rejected for omitting their birth years.
The lawsuit was brought by Disability Rights Montana and Big Sky 55+, groups that represent people with disabilities and seniors. Montana Secretary of State Christie Jacobsen, the state’s top election official, defended the law on the state’s behalf in court.
“The state does not explain how or why the addition of a birth year promotes public confidence and does not offer any evidence in support of its position,” Menahan said in the order. “In response, Disability Rights argues the birth year requirement damages public confidence in elections because it has resulted in thousands of ballots being discarded due to missing or incorrect birth years.”
Quoting the U.S. Supreme Court, Menahan wrote that the “discarding of lawful (votes) erodes public confidence that the election results reflect the people’s will.”
Election administrators said the birth year requirement first disqualified ballots during municipal elections in fall 2025. At the time, Sarah Bell, Missoula County’s deputy elections administrator, told Montana Free Press that the requirement produced a tenfold increase in rejected ballots compared with the primary, which was held before the new rule took effect.
Some county election offices assigned employees to call, email or write voters whose mailed absentee ballots were missing birth years.
In some communities, the number of rejected ballots was large enough to potentially change election outcomes. In Billings, for example, the 2025 mayoral race was decided by 200 votes, while 627 ballots were not counted because they lacked birth years.
Personal data for over 1 million people stolen in cyberattack on court system
PHOENIX (AP) — A cyberattack on Arizona’s court system stole personal information for more than a million people and is believed to have started when a court employee clicked a malicious link in an email.
The Arizona Supreme Court said the information was copied for 1.3 million people with unpaid court fees, fines and restitution payments for traffic and criminal violations dating back as far as 30 years.
Those leading the attack also took records of nearly 30,000 active and inactive orders of protection and 150,000 reports dating back to 2010 from a foster care board that makes recommendations in cases where parents are alleged to be unfit or unable to care for a child.
The court’s technology staff shut down the attack on a backup server about two hours after spotting it on Sept. 24. Since then, the court has notified those affected by the breach.
“We don’t have any evidence it has been used or shared” after the attack, state Supreme Court spokesperson Alberto Rodriguez said Tuesday.
The attack, which is under investigation, hasn’t affected or delayed any court cases, Rodriguez said.
No records were altered or deleted, and the attackers didn’t steal information about jurors, witnesses or court employees.
Mississippi
3 of Nolan Wells’ friends sue NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens for defamation
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Three friends of Nolan Wells, a Black college student who went missing from a Mississippi island during a Fourth of July celebration and was later found dead, are suing NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens for defamation.
The lawsuit was among a handful of defamation claims the friends filed this week against content creators. They also previously indicated their intent to sue the Rev. Al Sharpton and “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin for comments they made while discussing Wells’ death.
The fathers of the three friends, who are under 21 and considered minors under Mississippi law, filed the federal lawsuit Monday on their behalf.
The lawsuit alleges Owens defamed the three friends after posting on X: “ARREST THEM IMMEDIATELY!!” Owens’ post also linked to an Instagram video, which theorized the three friends killed Wells and tampered with his phone, according to the lawsuit. The post was made days after a Mississippi grand jury declined to recommend charges in Wells’ death.
Owens has 1.2 million followers on X and had previously pledged $25,000 to a reward fund for information leading to an arrest and conviction in Wells’ death.
“Not only is he defaming them, he’s basically saying to the mob, get your pitchforks, get your torches,” said Edward Paltzik, a defamation and media attorney representing the three friends.
The Associated Press attempted to contact Owens through social media and SMAC Entertainment, which, according to its website, manages Owens, but did not immediately receive a response.
The three were part of a group of 30 friends, including Wells, who rode to Horn Island on three boats on the Fourth of July. Wells’ friends said Wells did not return to the mainland with them, choosing instead to stay behind to talk with a girl, a claim his family has disputed. His body was found two days later off the island’s coast.
Neither state nor independent autopsies have not determined Wells’ cause of death, though the grand jury found his death was “consistent with drowning.” Wells’ family and their lawyers disputed the grand jury’s findings, pointing to unexplained bruising on the back of his head and noting that his airways and stomach were devoid of water.
Images showing Wells with white friends the day he went missing fueled online speculation that racial dynamics played a role in his death.
Two of the three friends who are suing Owens were singled out online in part because they appear in a photo with Wells and one other friend on a boat, which was circulated on social media after his disappearance. The third called Wells’ mother and the U.S. Coast Guard to report Wells missing.
Washington
Former CIA official accused of stealing $40 million in gold bars pleads guilty
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former senior CIA official pleaded guilty Tuesday in Virginia to a charge that he abused his position and government funds to enrich himself by acquiring Florida real estate and hundreds of gold bars worth over $40 million, according to court records.
David J. Rush fabricated a “highly classified” government program to justify the acquisition of luxury property in south Florida that he intended to resell for personal profit, according to a court filing. Rush separately concocted a bogus “sensitive government activity” to obtain the gold bars, the filing says.
Rush’s fraudulent conduct cost the federal government approximately $194 million in total losses, according to the Justice Department. The losses included over $1.8 million in privately chartered flights that Rush authorized for personal use at the government’s expense.
Under questioning from investigators, Rush admitted that he provided a foreign government official with information about the identity of a secret source for the U.S. government, a new court filing says. The filing doesn’t specify which country the foreign official represented.
Prosecutors also accuse Rush of lying to colleagues and government contractors about his military and academic credentials and the fake program that he invented, falsely claiming it was authorized by high-ranking U.S. officials.
“Rush used his legitimate government authority and manufactured personal bona fides to create confidence in his directions,” the court filing says.
Rush, 49, of Ashburn, Virginia, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, court records show. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff is scheduled to sentence Rush on Jan. 28 in Alexandria, Virginia.
Several months ago, Rush tried to fraudulently authorize the release of $100 million from a government contract, according to Tuesday’s filing. He directed somebody else to transfer approximately $145 million to a holding company formed at his direction, then used those funds to acquire four “luxury” properties in Palm Beach and Hobe Sound, Florida, the filing says.
In previous court filings, prosecutors said Rush stashed roughly $46 million worth of gold bars from the federal government at his Virginia home. They also accused him of fraudulently claiming tens of thousands of dollars in compensation for military leave after he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in 2015.
“Federal employees are entrusted with serving the American people, not themselves,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the agency immediately referred the matter to the FBI after an internal investigation turned up evidence of Rush’s crimes.
“David Rush abused his position and betrayed the public trust and should be held fully accountable for his actions,” Ratcliffe said in a statement.
Rush was arrested after investigators searched his home and seized approximately 300 gold bars, roughly $2 million in U.S. currency and about 35 luxury watches, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit. A judge ordered Rush to be held without bond after his initial court appearance earlier this year.
During a hearing in June, defense attorney Jessica Carmichael said Rush wasn’t charged initially with any crimes related to the discovery of the gold bars, which she referred to as “basically a nonissue” and “nothing more than a sensational tidbit.” She said her client properly obtained the gold bars and kept them locked in a safe in his basement.
“Mr. Rush never claimed they were his,” Carmichael said.
Carmichael declined to comment on Rush’s guilty plea after Tuesday’s hearing.
Authorities say Rush lied about his education and military background on job applications, falsely claiming to be a former Navy pilot who graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Clemson University in South Carolina and a master’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.
Investigators determined that he didn’t serve as a Navy pilot and didn’t attend either school. Rush enlisted in the Navy in 1997 and was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy Reserve as a lieutenant in 2015, according to the FBI affidavit.
Montana
State judge strikes down ballot envelope birth year requirement
An absentee ballot requirement that has resulted in thousands of Montana votes being thrown out since 2025 was ruled unconstitutional Monday by a state judge.
At issue is the requirement that voters write their birth year on absentee ballot return envelopes. In his Monday ruling, Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Mike Menahan said the requirement had disenfranchised nearly 6,000 Montana voters since it was created by the 2025 Legislature.
The ruling means that 2026 general election ballot envelopes missing the birth year won’t be rejected. The first day voters could walk into a polling place and receive an absentee ballot was Monday. Elections administrators will mail absentee ballots to voters on the absentee list on Friday, Oct. 9.
In making the birth year requirement law, legislators argued that the information would prevent voter fraud. Rep. Braxton Mitchell, R-Columbia Falls, proposed the requirement. Menahan ruled that the state failed to prove the requirement prevented fraud, even as voters’ ballots were being rejected for omitting their birth years.
The lawsuit was brought by Disability Rights Montana and Big Sky 55+, groups that represent people with disabilities and seniors. Montana Secretary of State Christie Jacobsen, the state’s top election official, defended the law on the state’s behalf in court.
“The state does not explain how or why the addition of a birth year promotes public confidence and does not offer any evidence in support of its position,” Menahan said in the order. “In response, Disability Rights argues the birth year requirement damages public confidence in elections because it has resulted in thousands of ballots being discarded due to missing or incorrect birth years.”
Quoting the U.S. Supreme Court, Menahan wrote that the “discarding of lawful (votes) erodes public confidence that the election results reflect the people’s will.”
Election administrators said the birth year requirement first disqualified ballots during municipal elections in fall 2025. At the time, Sarah Bell, Missoula County’s deputy elections administrator, told Montana Free Press that the requirement produced a tenfold increase in rejected ballots compared with the primary, which was held before the new rule took effect.
Some county election offices assigned employees to call, email or write voters whose mailed absentee ballots were missing birth years.
In some communities, the number of rejected ballots was large enough to potentially change election outcomes. In Billings, for example, the 2025 mayoral race was decided by 200 votes, while 627 ballots were not counted because they lacked birth years.
