Free Republic

Los Angeles' political and community leaders were stunned by the corruption indictment handed down Wednesday against Mark Ridley-Thomas, one of the city's best-known and longest-serving officials. Ridley-Thomas is accused of conspiring with Marilyn Louise Flynn, who at the time was dean of USC’s School of Social Work, to steer county money to the university in return for admitting his son Sebastian into the graduate school with a full-tuition scholarship and a paid professorship. Ridley-Thomas was on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors at the time... ...Ridley-Thomas, 66, is the third L.A. City Council member to face federal corruption charges...

Usually, three brushes with the law can invoke serious punishment. Not for Caroline Biden, 33, who is the niece of presumptive President-elect Joe Biden. On Dec. 3, she pleaded to a charge of driving under the influence and driving without a license after she slammed her car into a tree in Pennsylvania in August 2019. According to the New York Post, the official record of her case says she faced “confinement” that could range from 20 days to six months. But Biden, 33, won’t actually be locked up, the Post reported. She instead faces five-plus months of probation, according to...