GRIF MAG

Attorney New Jersey

A U.S. District Court judge issued a one-sentence order naming Robert Frazer as the top federal prosecutor in the state — the result of an agreement between federal judges and the U.S. Department of Justice.

"The Department of Justice thanks the district court for working with the Department to appoint Robert Frazer to serve as US Attorney so that once again criminal prosecutions can resume without needless challenge or delay on behalf of the people of New Jersey," the department said in a statement.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Matthew Branndisqualified three Justice Department officialswho were sharing authority over the office, saying they were appointed in an illegal power grab by the Trump administration. They replaced Trump's first choice for U.S. attorney, his former personal attorney Alina Habba, whom Brannbarred from the job last yearbecause she had stayed too long without Senate confirmation.

The three officials — Philip Lamparello, Jordan Fox and Ari Fontecchio — had been appointed to replace Habba indefinitely, in an unusual move by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

In a court hearing last week, another federal judge in New Jersey ordered the three to answer his questions under oath and threw another government official out of the proceeding in frustration over the Justice Department's chaotic oversight of federal prosecutions in the state.

Habba, who is now a senior adviser at the Justice Department, congratulated Frazer in a social media post Monday, saying "New Jersey deserves a great chief federal law enforcement official who is in line with President Trump's agenda of making this country safe and NJ great!"

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Frazer, who had been serving as senior trial counsel in the New Jersey U.S. attorney's office, did not immediately return an email message Monday.

The judiciary and Trump's administration have been odds over the process for selecting U.S. attorneys, who ordinarily must undergo Senate confirmation to stay in their positions.

Judges have ruled, in separate cases, that people installed as the top federal prosecutors for Nevada, Los Angeles and northern New York were all serving unlawfully.

Lindsey Halligan,who pursued indictmentsagainst apair of Trump's adversaries, left her position as acting U.S. attorney in Virginia after ajudge concludedin November that her appointment was unlawful. The judge also ruled thatindictments she broughtagainst New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey must be dismissed.

In some instances, judges have exercised their power under the law to appoint U.S. attorneys to oversee prosecutor offices until one of the president's picks is confirmed by the Senate. The Justice Department has responded by immediately firing those judicial appointees.

Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Diedrich Holgate, 47, was convicted and sentenced last July after making threats on social media and placing several direct calls to the U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Office, threatening to kill then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and then-PresidentJoe Biden.

In a June 2024 call to the Secret Service, Holgate said, "I have the right to kill the president."

"I will kill everyone," Holgate said, according to the federal indictment. "The president is going to die. I don't care if it is Trump or Biden. I will hang everyone for treason."

Man Accused Of Plotting Trump Assassination Claims Iran Forced Him To

Two months later, Holgate called the field office again, threatening to "hang his a** for treason" and saying that no one was safe from him, including the First Lady and Supreme Court justices.

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Holgate was released from custody on January 21 and was ordered to live in a halfway house.

Just weeks after being released from prison, Holgate's probation officer filed a petition to revoke his probation for several violations, including continueddeath threats toward the president.

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New Mexico Man Jailed For Threatening Trump On Social Media

"Holgate has made multiple threatening statements via text message to his probation officer," the petition alleged. "Probable cause has been established that aviolation of supervised releasehas been committed."

Holgate sent his probation officer several text messages that included "Trump's gonna fkn pardon me or I'll kill him!!!!"

"You're with me or You're a traitor & infidel that's taken the Mark of the beast. & Hell? That won't last forever. Second death. You'll be erased," Holgate wrote in another message to his probation officer.

Amagistrate judge ruledin a preliminary hearing that there was probable cause to believe Holgate violated the conditions of his release. In addition to making threats, Holgate failed to report to a meeting with his probation officer and left the halfway house. He also violated house rules by smoking a vape.

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Holgate will remain in custody until his next hearing is scheduled on March 26.

He was previously convicted in 2018 for sending threatening voicemails totwo Texas judges in Travis County.

Original article source:'I'll kill him': Convicted man back in custody after threatening Trump, then demanding pardon

Vatican US Father Flanagan

With Leo's proclamation, the priest commonly known as "Father Flanagan" is now officially declared "venerable." Later steps on a possible path of sainthood would include beatification and ultimately canonization.

Omaha Archbishop Michael McGovern said he is "overjoyed" with the news.

"We continue to pray that he will one day be beatified and ultimately declared a saint," the archbishop said in a statement. "In the meantime, may we work to affirm the dignity of every person created in God's image by serving the poor, the abandoned and the vulnerable, especially at-risk youth."

Flanagan was born in Ballymoe, Ireland, in 1886 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1904. He was ordained a priest in 1912 and began work in the Diocese of Omaha in 1913.

He provided shelter for homeless men, whose stories convinced him that many adult troubles are rooted in broken homes and parental neglect, according to his biography on the website of the Father Flanagan League, a society dedicated to promoting his cause for sainthood.

Flanagan began mentoring boys in the juvenile justice system and established his first home for boys in 1917 in downtown Omaha. In 1921, he bought a farm on the western outskirts of Omaha and began building what became the campus known as Boys Town, still located there in a village of the same name.

By the 1930s, hundreds of boys lived at the site, which included a school and dormitories where boys elected their own mayor, council and commissioners, according to the organization's website.

Flanagan traveled to postwar Japan to help develop a child welfare program. In 1946, he visited his native Ireland and criticized its system of putting children in industrial schools and reformatories, decrying them as exploitative.

Flanagan died of a heart attack in 1948 at age 61 while visiting Germany. His tomb at Dowd Memorial Chapel in Boys Town displays one of his most famous quotations: "There are no bad boys. There is only bad environment, bad example, bad thinking."

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His work was depicted in the 1938 movie, "Boys Town," starring Spencer Tracy as a heroic Flanagan and Mickey Rooney as one of the boys in his care. The movie yielded Oscar wins for Tracy (best actor) and for writing (original story).

The Boys Town organization has opened various locations around the country and began admitting girls to its residential programs in 1979.

The Boys Town organization applauded the Vatican announcement in a Facebook post Monday.

Flanagan "believed that children had the right to be valued, to have the basic necessities of life and to be protected," it said. "His lifesaving work continues across the country today."

Flanagan is the second U.S. cleric with Midwestern connections to be moved closer to sainthood this year under the pontificate of theChicago-born Pope Leo. In February, the Vatican approved the beatification ceremony ofArchbishop Fulton Sheenin his native Illinois after years of delays.

The Vatican's Dicastery for the Causes of Saints reviewed a lengthy dossier on Flanagan's life, writings and works. Leo on Monday signed the decree attesting that Flanagan lived a life of heroic virtue. Such a decree doesn't mean he was free of sin or mistakes, but it means he had a reputation of holiness by living all the Christian virtues in a heroic manner.

The next step toward possible sainthood is beatification. For Flanagan to be beatified, the postulator — the person responsible for advancing the cause — has to find someone who was miraculously healed by praying for Flanagan's intercession. The process involves vetting by theological and medical experts. If convinced, the dicastery sends the case to the pope, who signs a decree saying the candidate can be beatified.

A second miracle is needed to declare the candidate a saint. Martyrs — people killed for their faith — can be beatified without a miracle. A miracle is needed, however, for martyrs to be canonized.

A pope can also bypass the miracle requirements in declaring a saint, as Pope Francis did on occasion during his 12-year papacy. Francis canonizedSt. Junipero Serraduring a 2015 Washington, D.C., visit even though the Vatican hadn't confirmed a second miracle attributed to his intercession.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP'scollaborationwith The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

LaGuardia Crash

A United Airlines flight had twice aborted takeoff and reported an odor coming from the back of the plane. But with no gate immediately available, the pilot and controllers went back and forth over the radio as controllers tried to reach the airline and find a safe spot to put the plane.Audio recordingscaptured the chaotic conversation as the cockpit conveyed growing urgency.

"Flight attendants in the back are feeling ill because of the odor," the pilot can be heard saying. "We will need to go into any available gate at this time."

With no place to park the aircraft, air traffic control dispatched fire trucks to go to the plane instead and offered stairs to evacuate passengers, all while continuing to manage other traffic. Then a frantic warning cut across the radio: "Stop, stop, stop, Truck 1. Stop, stop, stop."

Moments later, the Air Canada flight landed and crashed into one of the fire trucks as it crossed the runway toward the United aircraft. The pilot and co-pilot of theregional jet flying from Montrealwere killed.

A system under stress

The collisionlate Sunday is putting a renewed focus on the pressures facing air traffic controllers in the United States, a workforce that has long grappled with staffing shortages, demanding schedules, outdated equipment and the lingering effects of government shutdowns.

About 40 passengers and crew members on the Air Canada jet and the two people in the fire truck were taken to hospitals, some with serious injuries. Most were released by Monday morning, authorities said.

While investigators work to determine what led to the runway crash, aviation experts say the incident highlights the demanding environment controllers navigate every day — managing planes landing and taking off, aircraft moving between gates and runways, and service vehicles ranging from emergency responders to maintenance trucks.

"In the best of times, air traffic controls and air traffic controllers are under a great deal of stress," said Alan Diehl, a former federal crash investigator. "These are people with very high cognitive levels. They're carefully selected, extensively trained. And one of the problems is there is a shortage of 3,000 of them in this country right now."

At a news conference Monday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, whose department oversees the Federal Aviation Administration, declined to say how many controllers were on duty at LaGuardia when the Canadian plane and the fire truck carrying Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police officers crossed paths. But he described the airport's tower as generally "well staffed" and just short of its target of 37 controllers. He said the airport currently has 33 controllers assigned to it, and seven more who are in training.

Duffy was confirmed as President Donald Trump's transportation secretary the day before an Army helicopter and a passenger plane collided over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, killing 67 people. Since taking office, he has pledged to improve air controller staffing and to upgrade traffic control equipment.

A longstanding problem

The FAA has been chronically understaffed for years. Air traffic controllers routinely work overtime and six-day work weeks, while dealing with outdated equipment.

Former FAA air traffic control chief Mike McCormick said that while LaGuardia is "not a control tower that has perennial staffing problems," the overnight shift — when the crash occurred — would typically be staffed more lightly. Investigators were expected to examine how much overtime local controllers were working and how many consecutive days they had been on duty to determine whether fatigue could have played a role.

Those questions are standard after crashes. John Cox, CEO of aviation consulting firm Safety Operating Systems, said National Transportation Safety Board investigators would closely examine the human factors surrounding the tower's operations.

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"The staffing issue and the controller's work schedule will certainly be something that they look at and only then can we determine if it's a staffing or fatigue issue," Cox said.

In a statement Monday, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association emphasized the weight of the job.

"Air traffic controllers work every day to keep passengers and cargo moving safely and efficiently," the statement said. "We serve quietly, but moments like this remind us of the responsibility we carry — and how deeply it stays with us when tragedy occurs."

Roughly 20 minutes after the crash, a controller appears to blame himself.

"We were dealing with an emergency," he said, "and I messed up."

Modernizing the FAA

The strain on the workforcehas been building for years. During a record U.S. government shutdown last fall that lasted 43 days, and a 35-day shutdown that spanned December 2018 and January 2019, controllers were required to continue working without pay, pushing some to quit or retire early. At the same time, training and hiring for new recruits was halted or slowed.

Because certification can take years, experts, union leaders and agency officials have warned that the effects would linger long after funding resumed, compounding attrition and making recruitment more difficult. Shutdowns also diminish morale, Diehl said.

Since becoming

Still, industry officials emphasize that moves to modernize the technology and equipment air traffic controllers use underway. Chris Sununu, CEO of airline trade group Airlines for America, said Congress has invested billions of dollars to upgrade aging technology and improve the system.

"I think the air traffic control system has been under a lot of strain for 30 years," Sununu said. "And that's why Congress has put billions of dollars behind rebuilding the entire system. And we've already seen some pretty good successes."

He pointed to the transition away from paper flight progress strips to digital tools at many airports, along with the purchase of hundreds of new radar systems nationwide. A new traffic flow system with upgraded back-end technology is expected to roll out later this year, he said.

"By and large, the air traffic controllers work really, really well with a very antiquated system and every day that goes by the system is now getting upgraded," Sununu said.

Associated Press reporters Mae Anderson in New York and Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.

Ngatikaura, who also appearson the Hulu reality show, filed for divorce earlier this month. On Friday, March 20, he also reportedly filed a temporary restraining order against Draper.

Draper, for her part, filed an opposition to the temporary restraining order the same day,TMZandPeoplereport, based on court documents. USA TODAY has reached out to a representative for Draper for comment.

A representative for Ngatikaura was not immediately available at the time of publication.

Ngatikaura filed for a legal split from Draper on Thursday, March 19, perPeopleandTMZ.

The pair, who share two children − son, Jagger, 5, and daughter, Jovi, 3 − have been separated for a year. Their marital troubles were documented on the most recentseason of "Mormon Wives,"a runaway success thatpremiered on the streamerin 2024.

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"This has not been an easy decision and it comes with a heavy heart," Ngatikaura said in a statement to People at the time. "I'm grateful for the shared memories and the lessons."

"While our paths are now moving in different directions, my priority remains my children and ensuring they feel loved, supported, and protected through this transition," he continued. "I am committed to handling this next chapter with kindness and respect."

Taylor Frankie Paul took the reality TV world by storm in 2024 when "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" became a cultural phenomenon. The "MomTok" influencer and most recent "Bachelorette" spoke candidly about her infamous "swinging scandal" and has faced legal troubles throughout the show.

See her career in the spotlight, beginning here backstage during the 98th Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026, in Hollywood, California.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Paul attends the 2026 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game at The Kia Forum on Feb. 13, 2026, in Inglewood, California.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Former NBA player Tacko Fall and Paul before the start of the game.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Paul was named ABC's "Bachelorette" for 2026. She is the first "Bachelorette" lead to helm the franchise despite never appearing on "The Bachelor".

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Paul attends the 2025 TIME100 Creators Launch Party at Gansevoort Rooftop on July 10, 2025, in New York City.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Paul at an event hosted by Hulu on April 22, 2025, in Los Angeles.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> "The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives" stars Layla Taylor, Miranda McWhorter, Jessi Ngatikaura, Mikayla Matthews, Mayci Neeley, Paul, Jennifer Affleck, Whitney Leavitt and Demi Engemann attend the Los Angeles Premiere of Season 2 at Paramount Studios on May 9, 2025, in Los Angeles.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> From left, Affleck, Paul, McWhorter, Neeley, and Matthews at SiriusXM Studios on May 8, 2025, in Los Angeles.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Mitchell Tenpenny and Paul speak onstage during The 58th Annual CMA Awards on Nov. 20, 2024, in Nashville.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Paul poses on the red carpet before the CMAs.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

See 'Mormon Wives' star Taylor Frankie Paul's life in the spotlight

Taylor Frankie Paultook the reality TV world by storm in 2024 when "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" became a cultural phenomenon. The "MomTok" influencer and most recent "Bachelorette" spoke candidly about her infamous "swinging scandal" and hasfaced legal troubles throughout the show.See her career in the spotlight, beginning here backstage during the 98th Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026, in Hollywood, California.

News of Draper's divorce comes amid a tornado of negative mediafor the ensemble show,which sees her and other youngMormon influences navigate marriage, motherhood and newfound fame.

Days prior, news broke thatpolice were investigating a domestic disputebetween her costar,Taylor Frankie Paul, and Paul's ex-partner,Dakota Mortenson.

Both have levied accusations of violence, and an impending season of "The Bachelorette," set to star Paul, was pulled by ABC in light of a video showing her alleged2023 assaultonMortensen.

Mortenson has since filed his own restraining order against Paul and asked for sole custody of their shared child, Ever.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Jessi Draper's ex seeks restraining order after divorce filing