ALBANY, N.Y. – Allison Mack, the actress who spent years as a key member of the cult-like NXIVM organization, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for her role in a master-slave group whose followers were branded.

Mack, 38, pleaded guilty in April 2019 to felony counts of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy for her actions in a master-slave group within NXIVM, the Albany self-help group led by since-convicted leader Keith Raniere, 60, known by his followers as “Vanguard.”

The actress, best known for playing Chloe Sullivan on the CW’s “Smallville,” was a top-line master in the all-women subgroup known as DOS or “The Vow,” in which “slaves” were branded with Raniere’s initials on their

NEW YORK – Stanley Richards long faced the label of “formerly incarcerated person.” 

For decades, he’s also worked to help others return home from jails and prisons. He’s served on an oversight board for New York City’s jail system, and the Obama administration named him a “champion of change.”

“None of us are the worst things that we’ve ever done,” Richards said.

Richards is the first person on the senior staff of the city’s Department of Correction  who was formerly incarcerated in its jails. As first deputy commissioner, Richards will oversee  programs and operations at a crucial time as the city moves toward closing the Rikers Island.

In an interview with USA TODAY on Tuesday, Richards

The Trump Organization, the namesake enterprise founded by former President Donald Trump, and its chief financial officer are expected to be charged as soon as Thursday with tax-related offenses as part of a long-running inquiry headed by the Manhattan district attorney and New York’s attorney general into the operations of the family real estate business, a person familiar with the matter told USA TODAY.  

Allen Weisselberg, the company’s CFO, is expected to face charges for allegedly failing to pay taxes on fringe benefits from the company, including school tuition.

Weisselberg’s attorney declined comment.

The timing and nature of the charges were first reported earlier Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal.

The district attorney’s office declined comment

A raging industrial fire at an old paper mill in Illinois has prompted at least 1,000 home evacuations as toxic fumes spew into the air.  

For the second day, clouds of smoke filled the air in Morris as 180,000 to 200,000 pounds of lithium batteries continue to explode. 

“The biggest hazard we have is the smoke and fumes as well as the gas from the fire. Highly poisonous and very deadly,” Chief Tracey Steffes, with the Morris Fire Protection & Ambulance District, told ABC 7 Chicago. 

The fire started before 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday at the old Federal Paper Board building where batteries ranging in size from cell phones to bigger than car batteries were located.  

“As they get wet, they short out and they ignite and explode. That is the problem we are having,” Steffes

SURFSIDE, Fla. –  A week after a 12-story condo building outside Miami collapsed, search officials vowed to press on with the rescue effort around the clock as the death toll rose to 16.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced at a Wednesday news conference that four additional victims had been identified, bringing the total to 16 people dead and 147 still missing.

She said the families of 12 victims had been notified and that four families were still waiting to hear news of their loved ones.

As families cling to fading hope, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said Wednesday that many have asked him when efforts will turn from a rescue to a recovery mission and wondered how long