Judge rejects plea deal for funeral home owner accused of stashing nearly 190 decaying bodies

DENVER (AP) — A Colorado judge has rejected the plea agreement of a funeral home owner accused of stashing nearly 190 decaying bodies in a bug-infested building. The judge ruled Monday after family members of the deceased said the deal’s 15- to 20-year sentence for Carie Hallford was too lenient. Both Carie Hallford and her husband, Jon Hallford, owned Return to Nature Funeral Home. They are accused of dumping bodies and giving families fake ashes between 2019 and 2023. Last year, both pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse. Jon Hallford’s plea deal was rejected in August, and he then withdrew his guilty plea. Carie Hallford withdraw her guilty plea Monday, and is scheduled for trial next year.

Two men accused of plotting terror attacks at LGBTQ+ bars in the Detroit area

DETROIT (AP) — Two men have been charged with terrorism-related crimes in the Detroit area after federal authorities made arrests and seized a cache of weapons last week in a storage unit and elsewhere. According to a 72-page criminal complaint unsealed in federal court, the men had scouted LGBTQ+ bars in Ferndale, a Detroit suburb. FBI Director Kash Patel had announced arrests Friday, but no other details were released at the time while agents searched a home in Dearborn and a storage unit in Inkster. The court filing says the two men who were charged and other co-conspirators were inspired by the Islamic State group’s extremism.

Courts order ICE not to deport man who spent 43 years in prison

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two courts have ordered immigration officials not to deport a Pennsylvania man who spent four decades in prison before his murder conviction was overturned. Relatives say 64-year-old Subramanyam Vedam is currently detained at a holding facility in Louisiana with an airstrip for deportations. Both an immigration judge and a U.S. district court have since stayed his deportation until the Bureau of Immigration Appeals decides whether to review his case. The Trump Administration believes he should be deported over a long-ago drug conviction. Vedam’s lawyers say the 43 years he wrongly spent in prison should outweigh that.

First clinical trial of pig kidney transplants gets underway

WASHINGTON (AP) — The first clinical trial is getting underway to see if transplanting pig kidneys into people might really save lives. United Therapeutics, a producer of gene-edited pig kidneys, announced Monday that the study’s initial transplant was performed successfully at NYU Langone Health. It’s the latest step in the quest for animal-to-human transplants. A second U.S. company, eGenesis, is preparing to begin a similar trial in the coming months. A handful of experiments led up to these more rigorous studies. The longest-lasting known so far was 271 days, when a New Hampshire man resumed dialysis as his declining pig kidney was removed.