American Pacific Mortgage Picks Fee Chaser by LenderLogix to Collect Upfront Borrower Fees (2024)

Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in New Jersey.

Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in the District of Columbia.

MLB

HARTFORD, Conn. — TaShun Bowden-Lewis’ term as the state’s first Black chief public defender ended Tuesday with her dismissal for misconduct by an oversight board she had accused of racism and with which she was in near continuous confrontation over two years in office.

Columbia University has agreed to take additional steps to make its students feel secure on campus. It is part of a settlement reached Tuesday with a Jewish student who had sought a court order requiring the Ivy League school provide safe access to the campus. Called a “first-of-its-kind agreement to protect Jewish students from extreme on-campus Gaza war protestors” by the law firm representing the student plaintiff, the legal settlement creates a new point of contact for students worried for their safety. Academic accommodations are also made for students who couldn’t access campus to complete assignments or exams, among other provisions.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California is one step closer to building its largest water storage facility in nearly 50 years, after a court ruled in favor of the Sites Reservoir project following a challenge by environmental groups.

Erich Anderson, a veteran working actor who found his breakout role in “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter” and was a recurring character in shows including “Felicity,” “Bosch” and “Thirtysomething,” has died. He was 67.

SAN DIEGO — A prosecutor told jurors Monday that a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to allow drugs and undocumented migrants through the San Ysidro Port of Entry, while a defense attorney said the officer was being scapegoated by …

Animal control officers in Michigan are struggling to capture an elusive peaco*ck that has been on the loose for at least two days. Mlive.com reports that a student discovered the peaco*ck on Monday as he was driving to Valley Lutheran High School in Saginaw County. The bird fled into the surrounding neighborhood. Animal control officers almost captured Tuesday morning, but it got away, leaving the officers with scratches and the county's animal control center seeking donations for a $150 capture net. The center's director, Rachel Horton, says the bird is surprisingly agile and fast. It's unclear who owns it.

An investigator has provided a New York jury a riveting account of an evening in Washington, D.C., in 2019 when an FBI surveillance team came across Sen. Bob Menendez and his girlfriend at a fancy Washington restaurant. Investigator Terrie Williams-Thompson told the jury on Tuesday at Menendez's bribery trial that she overheard Menendez's future wife ask what else the love of her life could do for someone they were with. Prosecutors claim that the senator and his wife accepted valuables in return for aiding three New Jersey businessmen in their business pursuits. Menendez has pleaded not guilty.

A new agreement between Alaska’s capital city and major cruise lines seeks to cap the daily number of cruise ship passengers arriving in Juneau starting in 2026. But a critic of the cruise industry says the planned limits do not do enough to address residents’ concerns that current tourism levels are unsustainable. The agreement finalized late last week seeks a daily limit of 16,000 cruise passengers Sundays through Fridays and 12,000 on Saturdays. Cruise passengers numbers ramped up rapidly after two, pandemic-stunted years, and that’s caused tension between businesses that rely on tourism and residents fed up with increased traffic and noise.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lawmakers are jockeying over the chance to ask voters for billions in bond dollars, leading to a potential conundrum for leaders: seek money through the ballot or allocate it in the budget?

Top scientists calculate that the rate Earth is warming hit an all-time high in 2023 with 92% of last year’s surprising record-shattering heat caused by humans. A group of 57 international scientists examining what’s behind last year’s deadly burst of heat say that even with a faster warming rate they don’t see evidence of significant acceleration in human-caused climate change beyond increased fossil fuel burning. Last year’s record temperatures were so unusual that scientists have been debating what’s behind the big jump and whether climate change is accelerating. The study's lead author says temperatures are alarmingly increasing exactly as predicted.

A second Florida resident has been arrested in connection with alleged election fraud in Johnson County, Kansas.

DETROIT — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office said Tuesday it's looking into an "inappropriate and disturbing" social media post by an assistant attorney general who shared a meme that said, "f--- America, f--- anyone who shares ... Zionist propaganda."

BASEBALL

A young black bear that roamed into a suburban Pennsylvania neighborhood took a dive from a tree into a waiting tarp after being tranquilized. The bear showed up around lunchtime Tuesday near a school in Camp Hill, outside the capital of Harrisburg. Pennlive.com reports that officials used a ladder truck to get close to and tranquilize the bear. The sedated bruin fell about 20 feet into a large blue tarp held up by several wildlife officials, police and firefighters. The animal was tranquilized again and moved to a bear trap that had been placed on a trailer. Game wardens told the news outlet the bear would likely be moved to state-owned land.

An oversight commission has fired Connecticut’s top public defender after having accused her of a range of misconduct. The state Public Defender Services Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to fire TaShun Bowden-Lewis, the first Black person to serve as the state's chief public defender. Bowden-Lewis and her lawyer did not immediately comment after the vote. The commission accused her of leveling unfounded racism allegations against those who didn't agree with her, mistreating employees and improperly accessing the emails of staff and the commission chairman. She had denied 16 misconduct allegations and accused the commission of interfering with her lawful authority to run the office.

NEW YORK — Lamor Whitehead, the politically connected “Bling Bishop” of Brooklyn who was convicted on a slate of fraud charges last month, is pleading for his release from the borough’s infamous Metropolitan Detention Center, where his lawyer alleges he has been deprived of food and kept in …

BOSTON — The Celtics are heavy favorites to win the NBA Finals.

MINNEAPOLIS — Justin Jefferson's parents, oldest brother and agent filed into the Vikings' media room, taking seats reserved for them by placards on the chairs along the side of the room. Jefferson held up the No. 18 jersey that by now has become a touchstone for Vikings fans, smiling as he …

Seven years ago after the Henrik Lundqvist-led New York Rangers lost in the second round of the playoffs to Ottawa, there was talk of the team’s veteran core soon being dismantled. None of that chatter existed Tuesday as the Rangers vowed to return next season to finish the mission of their just-completed season which ended with a six-game defeat to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final. Despite winning the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's best team in the regular season, they failed to reach the Cup final for the first time since 2014.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis accused the federal government Tuesday of not doing enough to help the state recover from hurricanes, as he urged Floridians to take advantage of a sales tax holiday on emergency supplies for the storm season.

North Carolina Democrat Josh Stein’s campaign is out with a million-dollar ad buy in the governor’s race against Republican candidate Mark Robinson, focused on abortion using Robinson’s own words.

BOSTON — Families in Massachusetts struggling to make ends meet will have a bit less to worry about this summer when school lets out, as Gov. Maura Healey announced her administration will provide food assistance payments to families who need it.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Hunter Biden was not on the witness stand, but his voice filled the courtroom.

A student-run legal journal has been taken offline by its board of directors after it objected to the publication of an article that accused Israel of genocide. Editors at the Columbia Law Review said the move marked an unprecedented breach of editorial independence by the board made up of alumni and faculty. The board said in a letter to student editors that it had process concerns about how the piece was accepted and the fact that not everyone involved in the legal journal had reviewed it. They said they had taken the website down to give students “some window of opportunity to review the piece."

HARRISBURG, Pa. — House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a sweeping bill to change how Pennsylvania funds public education — with proposals to pour billions into underfunded schools over the next seven years and slash payments from school districts to cyber charters.

Kyrie Irving is healthier and happier as he prepares to help lead the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics. Irving says it wasn't his best look when he directed obscene gestures and profanity at a hostile Boston crowd in the playoffs two years ago when he was with the Brooklyn Nets. The reflective side of the polarizing Irving has surfaced throughout the deepest playoff run for Dallas in 13 years. The change of scenery to Texas has been a boost for Irving after a tension-filled tenure in Brooklyn.

PHILADLEPHIA — Longtime Philadelphia-based artist and inventor Remo Saraceni, best known for his giant piano that skyrocketed in popularity after it was prominently featured in the 1988 film "Big," died at the age of 89 Monday from heart failure.

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Jaylen Brown has a $300 million contract, and Jayson Tatum is expected to get one, too. But, neither player seems to care who's considered Boston’s best player. And with the Celtics back in the NBA Finals for the second time in three years, they have another chance to finally win a ring that has alluded them. To do it, they know they'll have to continue to block out outside voices and the perception that two very similar players can't work together to overcome their past postseason shortcomings.

When Stefon Diggs was dealt to Houston from Buffalo in April, many believed the addition of the superstar receiver vaulted the Texans into Super Bowl contention. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday for the first time since the trade, Diggs said it’s far too early to be talking about winning a ring. Diggs says he's going to take things “one day at a time.” He's joining a dynamic offense in Houston led by second-year quarterback C.J. Stroud and featuring standout young receivers Nico Collins and Tank Dell. He says he's thrilled to be playing with Stroud.

ATLANTA — Reality stars Kim Zolciak and Kroy Biermann have been fighting off foreclosure of their Milton mansion for several months and were able to do so again, according to court paperwork procured by People magazine.

New York lawmakers say they are finalizing legislation aimed at giving parents more control over what their kids see on social media. The bill would allow parents to block their children from getting social media posts curated by a platform’s algorithm, a move to rein in feeds that critics argue keep young users glued to their screens. But opponents warn that it could make things worse for children, by leading internet companies to collect more information about users. With the legislative session ending this week, Albany lawmakers are making a final push to get the legislation passed.

PHILADELPHIA — As members of the Philadelphia Proud Boys muscled their way onto the upper west terrace of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021 — the scene of some of the most intense fighting that day — chapter member Freedom Vy had reservations.

The Seattle Storm have signed forward Ezi Magbegor to a contract extension, locking up the All-Star who currently leads the WNBA in blocks per game. Terms of the contract were not announced by the team. Magbegor is averaging 13.6 points, 8.6 rebounds and three blocks per game early in her fifth season with Seattle. Magbegor was a first-round pick by Seattle in 2019 but didn’t make her debut in the WNBA until 2020. She’s twice been named second-team all-WNBA defensive team and last year was an All-Star for the first time in her career.

DeAndre Hopkins is a three-time All-Pro wide receiver who built a strong connection with a rookie quarterback last season. Calvin Ridley turned his big season into a big contract. And there’s Tyler Boyd who's a proven slot threat familiar with Tennessee coach Brian Callahan’s offense after five seasons together in Cincincinnati. The wild card is Treylon Burks. He may be best known as the other half of the trade that sent A.J. Brown to Philadelphia. Ridley calls Burks a physical freak who will prove what he can do. The Titans have done everything to give Will Levis help for his second season.

Donald Trump’s lawyers are asking a New York judge to lift the gag order barring the former president from commenting about witnesses, jurors and others tied to the criminal case that led to his conviction for falsifying records to cover up a potential sex scandal. In a letter Tuesday, Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove asked Judge Juan M. Merchan to end the gag order. They argued there is nothing to justify “continued restrictions on the First Amendment rights of President Trump” now that the trial is over. Messages seeking comment were left Tuesday with the Manhattan district attorney’s office and a spokesperson for the state’s court system.

Grayson Murray remains part of the official world ranking since he died May 25. He is expected to be removed after another few weeks. It's similar to how officials handled the death of Payne Stewart in 1999. It's relevant because the U.S. Open takes the top 60 in the world after this week. There's a mathematical chance Murray could move from No. 61 into the top 60. The USGA is planning to remove him from consideration if it comes to that. Elsewhere, in golf, Charley Hull had a big week at the U.S. Women's Open, all because of a cigarette.