The California Assembly has advanced legislation to impose harsher penalties for soliciting and buying sex from 16- and 17-year-olds. The bill also would create an exemption for cases where the offenders are within three years of the victim's age. The vote came after Democrats got caught in a public dispute earlier this month and prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom and other prominent Democrats in the state to weigh in. Republicans called the vote Thursday to advance the legislation a victory for California children. The bill now heads to the Senate, where a similar bill was rejected last year.

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The R&B singer Cassie has testified that her ex-boyfriend Sean 性视界传媒淒iddy性视界传媒 Combs' raped her in 2018 and kept control over her life by threatening to release recordings of her with male sex workers during encounters he arranged. Cassie testified for a second day at Combs' sex trafficking trial. Combs is accused of exploiting his status as a powerful music executive to coerce women including Cassie into drugged-up sexual encounters he watched. He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers say all sexual acts were consensual. The 55-year-old Combs faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

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A federal prosecutor says the public knew Sean 性视界传媒淒iddy性视界传媒 Combs as a larger-than-life music and business mogul, but in private he was coercing women into drug-fueled sexual encounters and using violence to control them for years. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson made the accusation Monday during opening statements in Combs' sex trafficking trial in Manhattan. One of Combs' lawyers, though, says the trial is a misguided overreach by prosecutors who see consensual sex between adults as prostitution and sex trafficking. Combs has pleaded not guilty. Witness testimony began later Monday and the jury saw footage of Combs attacking his then-girlfriend at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.

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A federal judge in New York has ruled that the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch is unfit to stand trial on sex trafficking charges. The judge ordered Michael Jeffries to be hospitalized for up to four months to see if his mental condition improves. Jeffries' lawyers sought the ruling last month, writing in a letter to the court that the 80-year-old requires around-the-clock care because he has Alzheimer性视界传媒檚 disease, Lewy body dementia and the 性视界传媒渞esidual effects of a traumatic brain injury.性视界传媒 Jeffries has been free on $10 million bond since pleading not guilty in October to federal charges of sex trafficking and interstate prostitution.

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Authorities say more than 100 immigrants suspected of being in the United States illegally were taken into custody during a raid at an illegal after-hours nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Video posted online by the Drug Enforcement Administration showed agents announcing their presence outside the building early Sunday. DEA special agent in charge John Pullen says the club has been under investigation for several months for alleged activities including drug trafficking, prostitution and 性视界传媒渃rimes of violence.性视界传媒 Pullen says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took the immigrants into custody. Also among those detained were a dozen active-duty military service members who either were patrons or were working as armed security.

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FILE - The chair for Minnesota state Sen. Justin Eichorn, a Republican from Grand Rapids, sits empty in a Senate hearing room in the State Capitol complex in St. Paul on March 18, 2025, a day after his arrest in Bloomington for allegedly soliciting a minor for prostitution. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski, File)