PHOENIX
IS sympathizer sent to prison
A man was sentenced to 30 years in prison Wednesday on charges that he provided support to the Islamic State group by helping two followers with an attempted attack on an anti-Islam event in Texas that resulted in a deadly shootout with police. Prosecutors were seeking a 50-year sentence for Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, an American-born Muslim convert. His friends, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, were the only ones killed in a May 2015 police shootout outside a Prophet Muhammad contest in Garland, Texas. A security guard was wounded, but no one else was injured. The contest featured cartoons that are offensive to Muslims.
BILLINGS, Mont.
Bison head toward slaughter
Yellowstone National Park on Wednesday started shipping wild bison to slaughter for disease control. More than 400 bison, also known as buffalo, have been captured this winter attempting to migrate out of the snow-covered park to lower elevations in search of food. More animals are expected to be captured and shipped to slaughter through March. Montana livestock officials and federal animal health agents oppose transferring bison to a quarantine site because the animals have not been certified to be free of brucellosis.
VICTORIA, Texas
Mosque fire is ruled arson
A fire that destroyed a mosque has been ruled arson, but there’s no evidence of a hate crime at this time, federal investigators said Wednesday. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Houston did not reveal what led to the arson conclusion in the Jan. 28 fire at the Victoria Islamic Center. ATF Senior Special Agent Nicole Strong said the motive remains to be determined. No one was hurt in the pre-dawn fire in Victoria, about 80 miles north of Corpus Christi. Authorities say the mosque was burglarized about a week before the blaze.
NEW YORK
Former DEA agent sentenced
A former high-ranking Drug Enforcement Administration agent was sentenced to one year of probation for concealing his double life as a manager of a New Jersey strip club where prosecutors say there was evidence of prostitution. David Polos wept and asked for forgiveness from his family and former DEA colleagues when he appeared in federal court Wednesday. He was convicted last year on charges he lied on national security forms.
Compiled from wire reports