Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, greets a baby during a campaign event at Sun Valley Barn in Pella, Iowa on Wednesday.

Nearly three years after Danny Masterson was first arrested on three counts of forcible rape — and six months since the first trial ended in a mistrial — the That ’70s Show star was convicted on two of the three charges Wednesday, according to TMZ.

The jury first started deliberations on May 17, before reaching a verdict two weeks later time later on May 31, a similarly lengthy deciding process to the first trial, which took nearly two weeks of deliberation before the jury declared it was deadlocked. Masterson faces up to 30 years in prison on the two convictions, Variety reported, with jury voting guilty on the first two charges but deadlocked on the third, voting 8-4 in favor of conviction but unable to reach a unanimous decision.

The decision follows a month of emotional testimony from the three women whose allegations are linked to the charges, recalling violent allegations that Masterson drugged them before raping them, and that the Church of Scientology protected Masterson while discouraging the women from coming forward with their allegations.

A notable change compared to the first trial is that during the retrial, prosecutors told jurors directly that Masterson drugged the three women who accused him of rape; in the initial trial, the prosecution and witnesses described symptoms that could line up with date rape drugs but stopped short of directly labeling the symptoms as a result of being drugged. Prosecutors had no evidence of the drugging claims but brought in a toxicology expert witness to describe symptoms.

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/danny-masterson-convicted-guilty-rape-retrial-1234736587/

Disney's new 'Little Mermaid' swims to the top of the holiday box office with $95.5M

"The Little Mermaid" made moviegoers want to be under the sea on Memorial Day weekend.

Disney's live-action remake of its 1989 animated classic easily outswam the competition, bringing in $95.5 million on 4,320 screens in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday.

And Disney expects the film starring Halle Bailey as the titular mermaid Ariel and Melissa McCarthy as her sea witch nemesis Ursula will reach $117.5 million by the time the holiday is over. It ranks as the fifth-biggest Memorial Day weekend opening ever.

It displaces "Fast X" in the top spot. The 10th installment in the "Fast and Furious" franchise starring Vin Diesel has lagged behind more recent releases in the series, bringing in $23 million domestically for a two-week total of $108 million.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2023/05/28/disney-new-little-mermaid-movie-tops-box-office/70265331007/

🚨 BREAKING: House Republicans have an agreement in principle with the White House on a debt-limit deal.

Member call at 9:30 p.m.

White House, Republicans Reach Deal to Avert US Default

White House and Republican negotiators reached a tentative deal to raise the US debt ceiling and avert a default that threatened to send tremors through the global economy, according to people familiar.

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy must now shepherd the framework deal, negotiated in extended discussions, to final legislative passage over the objections of hardline lawmakers in both parties. There’s little margin for error, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warning that an extension must be finalized by June 5 to avoid a historic default that would send borrowing costs soaring.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-28/white-house-republicans-reach-deal-to-avert-historic-us-default

QUEENS (WABC) -- An NYPD police cruiser used several unauthorized and dangerous maneuvers to force a scooter rider off a Queens highway.

In video posted to social media, the cruiser is seen swerving in front of, behind and almost into the moped - forcing the operator to take an exit ramp.

It appears to have happened in the southbound lanes of the Whitestone Expressway in Queens.

Former NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said the video raises a number of issues.

https://abc7ny.com/nypd-scooter-traffic-queens/13299147/

The unexpected opening of an emergency exit door on an Asiana Airlines plane making its landing on Friday in Daegu, South Korea, left passengers shaken, and nine of them were hospitalized after they experienced difficulty breathing.

The police arrested a man in his 30s on suspicion of forcing open the door. The suspect, who could face charges of violating aviation security laws, did not reveal a motive, said Kim Hyeong-su, an officer in the criminal affairs division of the Daegu Dongbu Police Station.

The plane, which left Jeju Island at 11:58 a.m., was at an altitude of 700 feet and minutes from landing at 12:38 p.m., when a man seated in the emergency exit row next to the door forced it open, a spokesman for the airline said. According to FlightAware, the plane was traveling about 170 miles an hour at that point in the flight.

Normally when a plane is mid-flight, the difference in air pressure inside and outside the cabin prevents the doors from opening. But the plane was so close to the ground that the difference was negligible, allowing the door to be unlatched, said the airline spokesman, Baek Hyunwoo.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/26/world/asia/plane-door-open-asiana.html