FRESNO, California, April 30 -- The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California issued the following news release on April 29, 2024: Ruben Mireles, 48, of Clovis, was sentenced today to one year in prison for stealing $1.4 million in COVID-19 relief money, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. According to court documents, Mireles owned and operated a farm labor contracting business in Kings County. His business initially went by the name Vista Pacific Labor Soluti  more

FRESNO, California, April 30 -- The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California issued the following news release on April 29, 2024: Elias Soliz, 26, of Madera, was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for distributing fentanyl, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. According to court documents, on Aug. 3, 2023, Soliz knowingly distributed one fentanyl pill to J.M. in Madera. J.M. suffered a fatal overdose just a few hours later. Law enforcement searched Soliz' ph  more

SACRAMENTO, California, April 30 -- The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California issued the following news release on April 29, 2024: Murat Kurashev, 37, a Russian national who resided in Sacramento, was sentenced today to 12 years in prison for attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. "This sentence holds Kurashev accountable for attempting to provide material support to a desig  more

SACRAMENTO, California, April 30 -- The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California issued the following news release on April 29, 2024: A federal grand jury returned a four-count indictment on April 25, 2024, against Michael Andrew Scott, 38, of Fair Oaks, charging him with wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. The indictment was unsealed today following Scott's arrest. According to court documents, between June 2018 and June 2022, Scott devised a sche  more

FRESNO, California, April 30 -- The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California issued the following news release on April 29, 2024: Andrew Satariano, 43, of Modesto, was sentenced today to 19 years and seven months in prison for possessing with intent to distribute methamphetamine, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. According to court documents, on Sept. 4, 2021, police tried to conduct a traffic stop on a vehicle Satariano was driving. Satariano stopped briefl  more

WASHINGTON, April 30 -- The office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia issued the following news release on April 29, 2024: Mario Ernesto Benitez, 29, and Diamante Markell Hall, 29, both of Washington D.C., were sentenced today to 120 months in prison for their roles in a large-scale narcotics conspiracy that trafficked kilogram quantities of fentanyl and additional amounts of cocaine from Southern California to the metropolitan region. The sentences were announced by U.S. Attorn  more

WASHINGTON, April 29 (TNSrep) -- The Homeland Security Inspector General issued the following report (No. OIG-24-23) on April 18, 2024, entitled "Results of an Unannounced Inspection of ICE's Golden State Annex in McFarland, California." Here are excerpts: * * * MEMORANDUM FOR: Patrick J. Lechleitner, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement FROM: Joseph V. Cuffari, Ph.D., Inspector General SUBJECT: Results of an Unannounced Inspection   more

LIVERMORE, California, April 30 -- The U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory issued the following news: A new comic book from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) illustrator John Jett tells the story of how a Lab experiment at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) made history. This 2024 issue of Ignition is an exciting sequel to Jett's award-winning comic book, released in 2018, that made the scientific research conducted at NIF accessible to a broad rang  more

LIVERMORE, California, April 30 -- The U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory issued the following news: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) will provide technical assistance to 30 disadvantaged communities in west Fresno County to provide a future in clean-energy projects, including carbon capture and storage. The project is part of the Department of Energy's Local Energy Action Program (LEAP) that aims to facilitate sustained community-wide economic and   more

RALEIGH, North Carolina, April 30 -- The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina issued the following news release on April 29, 2024: Lawrence Levon Jones, age 45, of Raleigh, was sentenced to 480 months in prison for his role as a leader of a Raleigh-based drug organization that sourced drugs from Los Angeles, California, and Newark, New Jersey. Jones was convicted by a federal jury of drug trafficking and firearms offenses in December 2023. He has eight prior fe  more

WASHINGTON, April 30 (TNSres) -- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's West Coast Regional Office issued the following feature story: * * * U.S. Representative Jared Huffman and NOAA leaders recognize North Coast Coho Project. * * * A novel Trout Unlimited partnership to help save California's southernmost coho salmon from extinction has won national recognition from NOAA Fisheries. NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Janet Coit presented the Partnership in the Spotlight   more

SACRAMENTO, California, April 30 -- The Small Business Administration's Office of Disaster Assistance issued the following news release on April 29, 2024: Low-interest federal disaster loans are now available to certain private nonprofit organizations in Kansas following President Biden's federal disaster declaration for Public Assistance as a result of a severe winter storm that occurred Jan. 8 - 16, announced Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Pr  more

SACRAMENTO, California, April 30 -- The Small Business Administration's Office of Disaster Assistance issued the following news release on April 29, 2024: Low-interest federal disaster loans are now available to certain private nonprofit organizations in the Hoopa Valley Tribe following President Biden's federal disaster declaration for Public Assistance as a result of a severe winter storm that occurred Jan. 30 - 31, announced Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman of the U.S. Small Business A  more

SACRAMENTO, California, April 30 -- The Small Business Administration's Office of Disaster Assistance issued the following news release on April 29, 2024: Low-interest federal disaster loans are now available to certain private nonprofit organizations in Washington following President Biden's federal disaster declaration for Public Assistance as a result of severe winter storms, straight-line winds, flooding, landslides and mudslides that occurred Jan. 5 - 29, announced Administrator Isabella C  more

SANTA ANA, California, April 30 -- The office of the U.S. Attorney for Central District of California issued the following news release on April 29, 2024: Two men, one from Orange County and the other from Texas, were sentenced today to lengthy prison terms for using the darknet and encrypted messaging applications to sell more than 120,000 fentanyl-laced pills and other drugs to more than 1,000 customers across the country, causing several fatal overdoses in the process. Michael Ta, 25, of We  more

SANTA ANA, California, April 30 -- The office of the U.S. Attorney for Central District of California issued the following news release on April 29, 2024: The owner and operator of addiction treatment facilities in Orange County is expected to be arraigned today on a federal grand jury indictment alleging he paid nearly $175,000 in illegal kickbacks to so-called "body brokers" in exchange for finding him new patients. Scott Raffa, 57, of Newport Beach, was arrested Saturday at Los Angeles Inte  more