Latest news with #Deming
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Court briefs: 19 years for child porn; restitution dropped in murder sentence
A LaPorte man was sentenced to 19 years Thursday for trading child pornography online. A federal jury convicted Ron Deming, 38, in April in the U.S. District Court of South Bend of receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography, according to a news release. He will also serve 10 years on supervised release and repay $148,500 in restitution. Court filings show authorities opened an investigation in March 2024 after Deming sent and received child porn on a file-sharing site, BitTorrent. They traced his IP address. Federal prosecutors alleged after a search warrant, Deming said he collected child porn for 20 years. They found 30,000 images and over 400 videos on seized devices. Court records note Deming has a degree in elementary education. It was not immediately clear where he may have worked in the past. 'He was previously employed as a teacher and most recently as behavior technician teaching life skills to children with disabilities, some nonverbal,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Hannah Jones wrote. His defense lawyer Kurt Earnst painted a different story, noting his client has been unable to maintain regular employment as an adult. The Indiana Appeals Court said Thursday that a man convicted in a brutal killing at a Planet Fitness in Valparaiso no longer has to repay $5,000 to a Victim's Assistance Unit fund. Jordan Andrade, now 26, of Porter Township, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to the October 2023 murder of Valparaiso University computer science graduate student Varun Pucha, 29. He was sentenced to 60 years. His conviction stands. His earliest release date is in 2068. Appeals Judge Robert Altice wrote prosecutors filed the day after sentencing to add the $5,000 payment. They didn't 'have the authority' to do it, he concluded. The plea agreement did not specify what he should owe, only saying that '[r]estitution (was) to be determined by the Victim's Assistance Unit within thirty (30) days' of the plea. The unit 'neither determined the amount of restitution within this timeframe nor provided the trial court with this figure at or before the sentencing hearing,' he wrote. Andrade stabbed Pucha in the head as he was sitting on a massage chair. Pucha's parents from India could not make it to the Fort Wayne hospital before he died about a week later.
Boston Globe
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
As Harvard battles Trump, its undergraduate college quietly undergoes a leadership transition
While Deming won't be leading the university's response to the Trump administration's pressure campaign against Harvard, his position will be more important than ever as he steers the college through uncertainty with the world watching. 'David is uniquely well suited to lead the college at this consequential moment in Harvard's history,' Hopi Hoekstra, Harvard's dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said when Deming was appointed in May. Advertisement Deming, who took office July 1, succeeds Rakesh Khurana, who said last fall that he would step down after 11 years in the role. Harvard's undergraduate college often bears the public brunt of conservatives' ire at the nation's oldest institution of higher learning. Right-wing lawmakers, activists, and President Trump himself have depicted the college as a hostile territory where Jewish students are constantly harassed and free speech is stifled by a left-leaning culture. Advertisement David Deming is the new Dean of Harvard College. Pat Greenhouse Deming is facing the enormous challenges of building community on a campus where both Jewish and Muslim students have John Friedman, a Brown University professor who collaborates with Deming on research, said his colleague's actions are grounded in economics. Deming knows how to calibrate his objectives while considering the constraints, Friedman argued, and his pragmatism is well suited to the task of reestablishing in the public's mind the idea that universities such as Harvard are 'national treasures.' 'I can't think of somebody who is going to do a better job in that role of representing the university, and trying to do their part to regain that broader trust,' he said. Typically, the dean of Harvard College flies under the public's radar. In the university's current fight with the Trump administration, university president Alan Garber is But on campus, Deming's predecessor has arguably been Harvard's most visible administrator. A sociology professor who studies organizational behavior, Khurana was first, like Deming, Michael Smith, a Harvard computer science professor who hired Khurana when serving as FAS dean, said Khurana's genuine engagement with students and belief that Harvard should not just help students 'grow intellectually and academically during those times, but grow as a citizen, or as a person,' made him stand out. As dean, Khurana's repeated description of education as 'transformative,' part of the college's mission that he cited at every meeting, Advertisement Omosefe Noruwa, 19, a rising junior at Harvard, said she didn't even know Khurana was dean when she first met him at a pre-orientation event. 'He just seemed so warm and welcoming,' she said. Rakesh Khurana delivered the Dean's Address during Harvard's Class Day ceremony on May 28 in Cambridge. Brett Phelps for The Boston Globe But Khurana's tenure also showed the immense challenges of working with a restive student population in a turbulent time. He oversaw undergraduates through the pandemic and during a period when the Supreme Court ended affirmative action at Harvard, and most recently, when protest over the war in Gaza raised concerns of antisemitism on campus that the Trump administration has used in its broader pressure campaign to transform the university. During Khurana's time as dean, Harvard's student body became more diverse, and Khurana sought to adapt. That included a controversial move to sanction members of Harvard's elite final clubs — mostly single-gender social organizations that he More recently, Khurana faced friction in his role leading the college's administrative board, which handles undergraduate discipline. Some faculty and students Advertisement The university announced plans in April to consolidate discipline for incidents such as protests that involve students from multiple Harvard schools under the office of the president in order to standardize penalties. Khurana declined Globe requests for an interview through a college spokesperson, but said in a statement it was one of his 'greatest honors' to serve as dean. 'The very idea that truth is worth pursuing and that it requires humility, courage, and community is being tested across our institutions,' he said. 'Yet I believe more than ever that knowledge and education are among humanity's best hopes for the future.' Deming, an economics professor with posts at both Harvard's Kennedy School and the Graduate School of Education, enters the job at a crucial moment. Harvard is now back to negotiating with the Trump administration and has made a series of A pedestrian passed through morning rain at Harvard University in Cambridge in April. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff While it's unclear how Deming will respond to the challenges of the moment, he brings a similar experience to the role. 'He's smart as a whip,' Thomas Dingman, a former freshman dean at Harvard, said of Deming. 'He's done a lot of thinking about the undergraduate experience, and Kirkland House quickly demonstrated how much credibility he has with undergraduates and how much at ease he is interacting with them.' Deming also declined an interview through a Harvard spokesperson. Matthew Tobin, 20, a rising Harvard junior, said Deming's face time with undergraduates and his research focus bode well for his new role. 'He seems like someone who's going to be very capable of leading the college, especially at this moment,' he said. In 2023, Deming coauthored a study raised the question of whether colleges should focus more on admitting more diverse classes of students. Advertisement 'It's not just good to make us feel better,' Friedman said in an interview. 'When you have innovators and entrepreneurs and leaders coming from a broader range of potential backgrounds, you get more innovation.' Deming's research has already had an impact on Harvard's admissions policies. The university reinstated standardized testing requirements last year, citing the 2023 study, which showed how test scores can be a fairer measure of student applicants than other application materials. The Harvard University admissions office, in 2018. NYT Deming has also been critical of the Trump administration, which Khurana had In his new role, Deming will have to contend with In a statement, Deming said he has 'benefited enormously from Dean Khurana's wisdom' and thanked him for 11 years of service. 'Harvard College has proudly symbolized American excellence for nearly four centuries, and I am deeply honored and excited to serve as its next Dean,' Deming added. Aidan Ryan can be reached at
Washington Post
26-06-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
New Mexico announces measles outbreak in a county detention facility
Five people who are incarcerated at a New Mexico county detention facility have measles, the state health department said Thursday. The Luna County Detention Center, located in the southwest New Mexico city of Deming, houses about 400 incarcerated people and has 100 staff members. State health officials say they are determining the vaccination status of people being held at the facility and are providing testing kits and equipment.
Al Arabiya
26-06-2025
- Health
- Al Arabiya
New Mexico Announces Measles Outbreak in a County Detention Facility
Five people who are incarcerated at a New Mexico county detention facility have measles, the state health department said Thursday. The Luna County Detention Center, located in the southwest New Mexico city of Deming, houses about 400 incarcerated people and has 100 staff members. State health officials say they are determining the vaccination status of people being held at the facility and are providing testing kits and equipment. As of Friday, the US has 1,227 measles cases nationwide as of Tuesday, including active outbreaks in 12 states. The highly contagious and vaccine-preventable illness has been spreading in New Mexico since February, starting first in Lea County – just across the border from the epicenter of the historic Texas outbreak that has sickened 750 people since late January. New Mexico had 81 confirmed measles cases Tuesday, with Thursday's announcement bringing the total to 86. One state resident died of measles in March. The adult was unvaccinated and did not seek medical care. 'The cases at Luna County Detention Center are a stark reminder that the measles outbreak in New Mexico is not over,' said Dr. Chad Smelser, a medical epidemiologist with the New Mexico Department of Health. 'We urge everyone in New Mexico, especially Luna County residents, to ensure that they are fully vaccinated against measles.' Health officials put out an alert June 17 about measles being found in Deming's wastewater system, an early sign that the virus was spreading. Pablo Montoya, the facility's warden, said in a statement that the first signs of illness started a week ago and all five incarcerated people who tested positive are now in quarantine. All in-person visits are suspended, and court hearings will be held virtually. New Mexico has seen a large increase in measles vaccinations since February. More than 37,500 doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine had been administered as of Monday, state data shows, compared to about 19,300 in the same timeframe of 2024. The measles vaccine is safe, and it is ninety-seven percent effective at protecting against measles after two doses. It is recommended as a routine vaccination for children across the US.
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New Mexico announces measles outbreak in a county detention facility
Five people who are incarcerated at a New Mexico county detention facility have measles, the state health department said Thursday. The Luna County Detention Center, located in the southwest New Mexico city of Deming, houses about 400 incarcerated people and has 100 staff members. State health officials say they are determining the vaccination status of people being held at the facility and are providing testing kits and equipment. As of Friday, the U.S. has 1,227 measles cases nationwide as of Tuesday, including active outbreaks in 12 states. The highly contagious and vaccine-preventable illness has been spreading in New Mexico since February, starting first in Lea County — just across the border from the epicenter of the historic Texas outbreak that has sickened 750 people since late January. New Mexico had 81 confirmed measles cases Tuesday, with Thursday's announcement bringing the total to 86. One state resident died of measles in March. The adult was unvaccinated and did not seek medical care. 'The cases at Luna County Detention Center are a stark reminder that the measles outbreak in New Mexico is not over,' said Dr. Chad Smelser, a medical epidemiologist with the New Mexico Department of Health. 'We urge everyone in New Mexico, especially Luna County residents, to ensure that they are fully vaccinated against measles.' Health officials put out an alert June 17 about measles being found Deming's wastewater system, an early sign that the virus was spreading. Pablo Montoya, the facility's warden, said in a statement that the first signs of illness started a week ago and all five incarcerated people who tested positive are now in quarantine. All in-person visits are suspended and court hearings will be held virtually. New Mexico has seen a large increase in measles vaccinations since February. More than 37,500 doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine had been administered as of Monday, state data shows, compared to about 19,300 in the same timeframe of 2024. The measles vaccine is safe and it is 97% effective at protecting against measles after two doses. It is recommended as a routine vaccination for children across the U.S. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
