The Texas A&M University professor had just returned home from giving a routine lecture on the opioid crisis at the University of Texas Medical Branch when she learned a student had accused her of disparaging Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick during the talk.

In the few hours it took to drive from Galveston, the complaint had made its way to her supervisors, and Alonzo’s job was suddenly at risk.

A priest was arrested on the Greek island of Rhodes earlier this week after a tourist claimed he anointed his genitals, a local outlet reports.

On Friday, Dimokrati News reported that a 49-year-old priest from Orthodox Church in Rhodes was arrested after a 30-year-old Estonian tourist filed a complaint alleging he was molested by the priest who used holy oil to anoint his genitals.

The Hellenic Police, Greece's national police service, and representatives for Rhodes District Court did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

According to the outlet, the tourist said the incident occurred Thursday morning after he returned to the monastery a day prior with his girlfriend to collect a crucifix he'd forgotten. Upon his return, the tourist said the priest told him he had a "special gift" for him in another room, per the outlet.

Once in the room, the tourist — who initially believed the interaction was routine procedure — said the priest asked him to remove his clothes to "anoint" him with holy oil, Dimokrati News reports.

A man who found fame after a dress worn by his mother-in-law at his wedding went viral due to its unusual colour properties has reportedly appeared in court charged with the attempted murder of his wife.

Keir Johnston, 38, from the Isle of Colonsay in Scotland, appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show after his bride’s mother wore a dress that sparked an online debate over its correct colours – black and blue or white and gold, the Times reported.

Johnston, who attended the high court in Glasgow on Monday, is alleged to have conducted an almost 11-year campaign of serious domestic violence and coercive control which resulted in him attempting to kill his wife.

The next role for “The Good Doctor’s” Hill Harper is as a real-life political candidate: The actor has announced he’s running for the Senate in Michigan.

“Without energized, bold leadership in the U.S. Senate, our state will continue to be held back from achieving its full potential,” Harper said in a Monday statement to The Detroit News.

“We deserve a better brand of politics than politics as usual, and that’s why I’m running for the U.S. Senate,” said Harper, who’s seeking the Democratic nomination.

Harper, who plays Dr. Marcus Andrews on the CBS series and has also starred on “CSI: NY,” is running for Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s (D) seat. Stabenow announced in January that she wouldn’t run for reelection in 2024.

The 57-year-old actor, who has never made a political bid, faces a primary battle against Rep. Elissa Slotkin. The Michigan Democrat launched her Senate campaign in February. The Senate seat is considered a key pickup opportunity as Democrats and Republicans vie for control of the upper chamber in the 2024 race.

A judge ordered former Trump White House aide Steve Bannon to pay a New York law firm $480,487 in unpaid legal bills.

And that amount could grow.

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arlene Bluth also awarded the law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron fees it incurred from having to sue Bannon to collect what it was owed for work performed from November 2020 through November 2022.

Bluth’s six-page decision brushed aside Bannon’s arguments against the bill, which suggested Davidoff Hutcher’s retainer was not entitled to charge for work related to four different legal cases, and that he never “personally received” the firms’ bills or paid their invoices himself.

The judge noted that Davidoff Hutcher had been paid $375,000 for work for Bannon before he stopped paying the firm.

“Clearly someone affiliated with defendant was getting these invoices and defendant admits he instructed his team to pay plaintiff,” Bluth wrote.

Bannon “cannot receive the benefit of plaintiff’s legal representation and then insist he need not for it,” the judge wrote.

Bannon’s current lawyer, Harlan Protass told CNBC on Monday: “The judge’s decision was clearly wrong and we intend to immediately appeal.”

The order comes as Bannon — now represented by a different law firm — faces a May 2024 criminal trial in the same court for allegedly defrauding donors to a purported effort to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. He has pleaded not guilty in the case.

Former President Donald Trump pardoned Bannon just before leaving office in January 2021 in connection with a then-pending federal criminal prosecution for the same alleged “We Build the Wall” scam, in which three co-defendants all later pleaded guilty or were convicted.

Bannon also is appealing a Washington, D.C., federal court conviction and related four-month jail sentence for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify to the special House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, after it issued him a subpoena.

Bannon’s former lawyer, Davidoff Hutcher partner Robert Costello, told CNBC that if Bannon “appeals, of course, the meter is running” on the unpaid fees he owes the firm.

Bluth tacked on a rate of 1% interest prejudgment on the legal fees she awarded Davidoff Hutcher on Friday.

But Costello said that will spike to 9% annually once his firm files post-judgment court documents, with the potential for Bannon to owe Davidoff Hutcher even more in legal fees if he loses on appeal.

“This is a lose-lose proposition for him,” said Costello. “But he has to make his own business decisions.”

Costello, who represented Bannon in the “We Build the Wall” and Jan. 6 cases, described Bannon as effectively ghosting him nine months or so ago.

“Mr. Bannon, unfortunately, just stopped paying our bills,” Costello said. “And I communicated with him constantly about it, and he decided just not to respond.”

Asked if Bannon failed to answer Costello at all when the lawyer contacted him about the unpaid bills, Costello said, “Correct. Silence, crickets.”

“I don’t know what his personal problems or issues” were, Costello said when asked why he believed Bannon did not respond or pay his debt. “Honestly, I don’t know. I can’t read minds.”

“It’s unfortunate,” Costello said, referring to the lawsuit to recoup the legal fees. “I didn’t want to sue the guy. Personally, I like the guy.”

Bannon alleged in his response to the lawsuit that he told Costello and his firm to stop working for him in January 2022, and that Costello performed work for him that was unrelated to the retainer agreement that was the subject of the suit.

“In reply, [Costello’s firm] argues that defendant is attempting to manufacture an issue of fact where none exists and that documentary evidence shows that defendant was actively accepting plaintiff’s legal representation well after January 2022,” Bluth noted.

Costello appeared with Bannon in federal court in Washington on June 15, 2022, for Bannon’s arraignment in the contempt of Congress case. That was more than four months after Bannon later claimed he had instructed the lawyer to cease work on his behalf.

The sole suspect investigators believed was responsible for the 1982 Tylenol murders in Chicago has died, police said Monday.

James Lewis, 76, was never charged in the seven murders but was the only person targeted by law enforcement as a suspect for more than 40 years in the case.

Police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, confirmed that the department and EMS workers responded to Lewis' suburban Boston home for a call of an unresponsive person on Sunday afternoon. He was later declared deceased.

"Following an investigation, Lewis’ death was determined to be not suspicious," the department said.

Seven people in the Chicago area were killed, ranging in age from 12 to 35, after ingesting extra-strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide. Lewis, who was in his 30s at the time, denied any involvement in the deaths.

But Lewis was convicted of attempted extortion after writing a ransom note to Johnson & Johnson, the parent company that manufactures Tylenol. Lewis demanded $1 million from the company "if you want to stop the killing," according to The Chicago Tribune.

The Chicago Tribune revisited the case last year in an eight-episode podcast series, which included a review of documents and video evidence sourced by law enforcement. NBC News has not reviewed that evidence.

The postmark on the letter appeared to show Lewis wrote the letter before the public knew the deaths were linked to the tainted Tylenol pills, the Tribune reported.

Even 40 years later, the impact of the Tylenol murders is still obvious in homes and pharmacy shelves across the country. The Food and Drug Administration passed regulations on tamper-proof packaging as a direct response to the 1982 deaths, according to the agency's website.

And in 1983 Congress passed the Federal Anti-Tampering Act, which made tampering with consumer products punishable up to 20 years in prison. The sentencing increases to a lifetime maximum if someone dies as a result.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge nominated by former President Donald Trump gave a “break” Friday to a man who used bear spray during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, saying he did not deserve the prison sentence requested by prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden sentenced Tyler Bensch, who pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts in connection with the riot, to two years of probation and 60 days home incarceration. Prosecutors had requested nine months in federal prison.

“You participated in a national embarrassment,” McFadden said before imposing the sentence. “You came ready for trouble.”

But, he added, Bensch's involvement was “pretty minor” when compared to others, while noting that his age was a mitigating factor. Bensch was 19 years old on Jan. 6, 2021.

“I am giving you this break because of your age” at the time and a lack of criminal history, McFadden said. “This doesn’t need to define you or your life.”

Bensch was arrested in August alongside members of the "B Squad" who were associated with the far-right Three Percent movement and "Guardians of Freedom," as well as Jeremy Liggett, a far-right extremist who ran unsuccessfully for a congressional House seat last year.

Bensch pleaded guilty to disorderly and disruptive conduct on restricted grounds along with theft of government property, admitting that he helped carry a stolen police shield from the grounds of the Capitol. In an interview with the FBI after his arrest, Bensch said B-Squad members took part in firearms training and hand-to-hand combat training ahead of the attack.

In their sentencing memo, federal prosecutors said Bensch “helped push others towards the violence” and carried a chemical irritant spray, which prosecutors said in court was bear spray. Bensch deployed the spray “against another rioter” that day.

A tearful Bensch did not speak during Friday's sentencing hearing, but his court-appointed attorney Peter Cooper said the Florida man deeply regretted his actions. Bensch, Cooper said, "didn't have the maturity to understand what he was getting into" and "carries great remorse for what he did that day."

Cooper went on to say that Bensch hopes to start a career in law enforcement, adding that it's "not beyond the realm of possibility" that he could do so even with his misdemeanors. Bensch is currently working for a pool cleaning company, and the conditions of his sentence will allow him to leave his home for employment during his 60 days of home detention.

Bensch's case was the impetus for the departure of a self-proclaimed FBI whistleblower to take his complaints to Republican members of Congress. Steve Friend, a former FBI special agent who was based in Florida at the time of Bensch's arrest, had been scheduled to transport Bensch but refused to do so.

Twitter sent Meta a cease-and-desist letter over the newly launched Threads app, sources familiar with the letter's existence told ABC News.

The letter was sent by Twitter's legal team Thursday, the sources said.

The letter accused Meta of misappropriating Twitter's trade secrets and said Meta hired former Twitter employees who retained proprietary information, the sources said.

"Over the past year, Meta has hired dozens of former Twitter employees," the letter, signed by lawyer Alex Spiro, reads. "Twitter knows that these employees previously worked at Twitter; that these employees had and continue to have access to Twitter's trade secrets and other highly confidential information; that these employees owe ongoing obligations to Twitter; and that many of these employees have improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices."

It continues, "With that knowledge, Meta deliberately assigned these employees to develop, in a matter of months, Meta's copycat 'Threads' app with the specific intent that they use Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property in order to accelerate the development of Meta's competing app, in violation of both state and federal law as well as those employees' ongoing obligations to Twitter."

Twitter, in an effort to significantly slash costs, cut roughly 75% of its 7,500-person workforce not long after Musk acquired the company last year.

In response to a tweet about the cease-and-desist letter, Elon Musk wrote on Twitter, "Competition is fine, cheating is not."

Threads, which is built off the existing Instagram app, has been extremely popular in its first 24 hours since release.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday morning the app had already signed up 30 million users.

Social media stars began flocking to the platform late Wednesday when it launched. Kim Kardashian had amassed 1.7 million followers by Thursday afternoon, while singer Shakira had 1.4 million and Zuckerberg himself also had 1.4 million as of Thursday afternoon.

Threads has been seen as a top rival to Twitter, which was purchased by Elon Musk in October 2022 for roughly $44 billion, and has been embroiled in controversy ever since.

In his latest controversial decision, Musk announced July 1 that Twitter would be limiting the number of tweets people can view each day.

Men’s lifestyle and culture magazine GQ has pulled from its website an article that was critical of David Zaslav, the media titan and CEO at conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery.

The article, authored by freelance Hollywood film critic Jason Bailey, painted Zaslav in a negative light, referring to him at one point as “the most hated man in Hollywood.”

The article cited tensions between Hollywood filmmakers and members of the industry’s largest writers guild, which is currently on strike, and recent cuts the media company made to Turner Classic Movies, which falls under the Warner Bros. Discovery umbrella.

Warner Bros. Discovery is also the parent company of CNN, and Zaslav was instrumental in the hiring and firing of the network’s former top executive Chris Licht.

After the article published Monday, representatives for Zaslav pushed back on it. The publication then made a series of edits to the piece.

Bailey, the author of the article, told The Washington Post he requested to have his byline taken off the story after the edits were made.

“I wrote what I felt was the story I was hired to write,” Bailey told the Post. “When I was asked to rewrite it after publication, I declined. The rewrite that was done was not to my satisfaction, so I asked to have my name removed and was told that the option there was to pull the article entirely, and I was fine with that.”

A representative for GQ did not immediately return a request for comment.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has repeatedly been late to pay taxes on personal property items and real estate in recent years, records reviewed by NBC News showed.

Just last week, Manchin paid off nearly $700 he owed to Marion County, West Virginia, in back taxes accrued over the past three years on a pontoon boat and multiple trailers. In 2020, he made nearly $630 in back tax payments to the county for taxes he owed on cars, boats and trailers from 2016, 2017 and 2018.

“Like most West Virginians, Senator Manchin has always paid every tax bill he’s received in full and any lapse in payment has been quickly rectified as soon as he has been made aware,” a Manchin spokesperson said in a statement to NBC News.

At times, the late payments, which were detailed in records stretching back to 2009, were made within days of their due dates. Others were made months, if not years, later. In some cases, fines or other accumulated interest payments were attached to them.

“Joe Manchin voted to raise West Virginians’ taxes with the so-called Inflation Reduction Act but refuses to pay his own,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Tate Mitchell said in a statement. “Manchin is a complete hypocrite.”

Marion County Clerk Julie Kincaid, a Democrat, said the late payments were “tremendously overblown,” pointing to the small amount of money he owed.

“I’m pretty sure this is something that just has not been brought to his attention or merely slipped off the radar,” she said. “It’s probably one of those mountain-out-of-a-molehill situations. I mean, I get it, he’s very high-profile.”

Manchin potentially faces a brutal re-election campaign, though he has not yet committed to running for another term in the Senate. If he does run, he is likely to face GOP Gov. Jim Justice or GOP Rep. Alex Mooney.