By PATRICK WHITTLE, Associated Press

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — James Talbot, a former Catholic priest convicted of sexually assaulting boys in Maine and Massachusetts after he was exposed by the investigation that led to the movie “Spotlight,” has died. He was 87.

Talbot, a former Jesuit, appeared on a list provided by the religious order of northeastern Jesuits who faced credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. Talbot died on Feb. 28 at a hospice center in St. Louis, said Mike Gabriele, a spokesperson for Jesuits USA East.

Talbot was one of the subjects of an investigation into priest sex abuse by The Boston Globe that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 and was adapted into the 2015 movie “Spotlight.” The investigation revealed widespread sexual abuse, and coverup of that abuse, within the Catholic Church. Jesuits USA East did not offer a comment about Talbot’s death.

Related Articles

Loretta Swit, Emmy-winner who played Houlihan on pioneering TV series ‘M.A.S.H.,’ has died at 87

Pardoned reality TV star Todd Chrisley says prison opened his eyes to injustices in the system

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ ex-personal assistant says she was too traumatized to answer his 2023 call

Dozens sickened in expanding salmonella outbreak linked to recalled cucumbers

FAA demands an accident investigation into SpaceX’s latest out-of-control Starship flight

He pleaded guilty in 2018 to gross sexual assault and unlawful sexual contact after charges that he sexually abused a 9-year-old boy at a Maine church in the 1990s. He was ordered to serve three years in prison for that conviction.

Prior to the Maine conviction, Talbot spent six years in prison after pleading guilty to raping and sexually assaulting two students in Boston. He has settled lawsuits with more than a dozen victims in addition to the convictions.

Talbot was a former teacher and athletic coach at Boston College High School from 1972 to 1980 who then transferred to Maine. He was at Cheverus High School in Portland, Maine, until 1998.

Former Boston College High School student Jim Scanlan, 63, reported Talbot’s abuse in Massachusetts. The Associated Press does not typically use the names of sexual assault victims without their consent, which Scanlan provided. His reports led to criminal charges against Talbot.

Scanlan said he has reached out to other survivors of Talbot’s abuse. He said he holds people in positions of power within the church accountable for allowing Talbot to continue committing abuse over many years.

Scanlan said he has tried to move on from his own anger at Talbot, but it’s a long process.

“The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference,” Scanlan said. “Maybe I just parked him away a long time ago, resolved I couldn’t change what happened.”

Jesuits USA East said Talbot had been residing at the Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer, Missouri, prior to entering hospice care. The center cares for sexually abusive priests as well as providing other health care services.

By MARK THIESSEN, Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska man who was pinned facedown in an icy creek by a 700-pound (318-kilogram) boulder for three hours survived the ordeal with only minor injuries, thanks in part to his wife’s quick thinking and lots of luck.

Kell Morris’ wife held his head above water to prevent him from drowning while waiting for rescuers to arrive after Morris was pinned by the boulder, which crashed onto him during a hike near a remote glacier south of Anchorage.

His second stroke of luck came when a sled dog tourism company that operates on the glacier overheard the 911 dispatch and offered up its helicopter to ferry rescuers to the scene, which was inaccessible to all-terrain vehicles.

Once rescuers arrived, it took seven men and inflatable air bags to lift the boulder off as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

Morris, 61, said he realizes he is probably the luckiest man alive. “And luckier that I have such a great wife,” he said Thursday.

This May 24, 2025, photo shows Kell Morris, upper right in a brown hat, trapped under a 700 pound rock near Seward, Alaska. (Jason Harrington/Seward Fire Department via AP)

His wife, Jo Roop, is a retired Alaska State Trooper. They moved to Seward, about 120 miles south of Anchorage, from Idaho last fall when she took a job with the local police department.

Last Saturday, they wanted to avoid the big crowds that converge on the Kenai Peninsula community during holidays and decided to hike near Godwin Glacier on an isolated and undeveloped trail behind a state prison, Seward Fire Chief Clinton Crites said.

Their trail was actually a rocky creek bed lined with large boulders deposited by the glacier.

Morris said he noticed dangerous boulders, some weighing up to 1,000 pounds, along the banks of the creek and avoided them the best he could, until he ran into an area he couldn’t pass.

“I was coming back and everything, the whole side slid out from under me,” he said.

This May 24, 2025, photo shows the creek near Seward, Alaska, where Kell Morris was trapped under a 700 pound rock. (Jason Harrington/Seward Fire Department via AP)

He said things became a blur as he tumbled down the embankment about 20 feet, landing face down in the water.

Then he immediately felt the boulder hit his back in what Crites described as “basically an avalanche of boulders.”

The way Morris landed, there were rocks under him, in between his legs and around him that caught the weight of the boulder, preventing him from being crushed, Crites said. But the massive rock still had him pinned, and Morris felt intense pain in his left leg and waited for his femur to snap.

“When it first happened, I was doubtful that there was going to be a good outcome,” Morris said.

His wife tried to free him for about 30 minutes, putting rocks under the boulder and trying to roll it off him, before she left to find a cell signal.

Amazingly, she only had to walk about 300 yards to connect with 911 and relied on her law enforcement experience to send exact GPS coordinates to dispatch.

A volunteer at the neighboring Bear Creek Fire Department heard the call while working at the sled dog tourism operation and diverted the helicopter used to ferry tourists to the scene. Ultimately, firefighters who couldn’t navigate their all-terrain vehicles over the boulder field jumped out of the helicopter.

By this time, Morris was hypothermic from the cold water running off the glacier, Crites said, and his wife was holding his head out of the water.

“I think if we hadn’t had that private helicopter assist us, it would have taken us at least another 45 minutes to get to him, and I’m not sure he had that much time,” Crites said.

Related Articles

Loretta Swit, Emmy-winner who played Houlihan on pioneering TV series ‘M.A.S.H.,’ has died at 87

Pardoned reality TV star Todd Chrisley says prison opened his eyes to injustices in the system

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ ex-personal assistant says she was too traumatized to answer his 2023 call

Dozens sickened in expanding salmonella outbreak linked to recalled cucumbers

FAA demands an accident investigation into SpaceX’s latest out-of-control Starship flight

The firefighters used two air bags normally reserved to extract people from wrecked vehicles to slightly lift the boulder.

“But then it just became an all-hands brute force of ‘one, two, three, push,’ ” Crites said. “And seven guys were able to lift it enough to pull the victim out.”

An Alaska National Guard helicopter lifted them out of the creek bed with a rescue basket.

Morris spent two nights at the local hospital for observation but walked away unscathed.

“I fully anticipated a body recovery, not him walking away without a scratch on him,” Crites said.

Morris, who is now reflecting on his ordeal at home, acknowledged it might have been a little wake-up call to stop doing things like this at his age.

“I was very lucky. God was looking out for me,” he said.

When he and his wife go hiking this weekend, they are going to stick to established trails.

“We’re going to stop the trailblazing,” he said.

By MIKE BALSAMO, SCOTT BAUER and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON, Associated Press

A claim by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that an immigrant threatened the life of President Donald Trump has begun to unravel.

Noem announced an arrest of a 54-year-old man who was living in the U.S. illegally, saying he had written a letter threatening to kill Trump and would then return to Mexico. The story received a flood of media attention and was highlighted by the White House and Trump’s allies.

But investigators actually believe the man may have been framed so that he would get arrested and be deported from the U.S. before he got a chance to testify in a trial as a victim of assault, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Law enforcement officials believe the man, Ramon Morales Reyes, never wrote a letter that Noem and her department shared with a message written in light blue ink expressing anger over Trump’s deportations and threatening to shoot him in the head with a rifle at a rally. Noem also shared the letter on X along with a photo of Morales Reyes, and the White House also shared it on its social media accounts. The letter was mailed to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office along with the FBI and other agencies, the person said.

Cain Oulahan, Ramon Morales Reyes’ immigration attorney addresses the media Friday, May 30, 2025 in Milwaukee about the detention of his client Ramon Morales Reyes. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)

As part of the investigation, officials had contacted Morales Reyes and asked for a handwriting sample and concluded his handwriting and the threatening letter didn’t match and that the threat was not credible, the person said. It’s not clear why Homeland Security officials still decided to send a release making that claim.

In an emailed statement asking for information about the letter and the new information about Morales Reyes, the Department of Homeland Security said “the investigation into the threat is ongoing. Over the course of the investigation, this individual was determined to be in the country illegally and that he had a criminal record. He will remain in custody.”

His attorneys said he was not facing current charges and they did not have any information about convictions in his record.

Kime Abduli, Ramon Morales Reyes’ attorney addresses the media Friday, May 30, 2025 in Milwaukee about the detention of her client Ramon Morales Reyes. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s records show Morales Reyes is being held at a county jail in Juneau, Wisconsin, northwest of Milwaukee. The Milwaukee-based immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera, which is advocating for his release, said he was arrested May 21. Attorney Cain Oulahan, who was hired to fight against his deportation, said he has a hearing in a Chicago immigration court next week and is hoping he is released on bond.

Morales Reyes had been a victim in a case of another man who is awaiting trial on assault charges in Wisconsin, the person familiar with the matter said. The trial is scheduled for July.

Related Articles

Trump says China ‘violated’ agreement on trade talks and he’ll stop being ‘nice’

Trump’s list of ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’ includes some that support his immigration policies

Trump gives Elon Musk an Oval Office sendoff, crediting him with ‘colossal change’

US government is investigating messages impersonating Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles

Trump holding Pennsylvania rally to promote deal for Japan-based Nippon to ‘partner’ with US Steel

Morales Reyes works as a dishwasher in Milwaukee, where he lives with his wife and three children. He had recently applied for a U visa, which is carved out for people in the country illegally who become victims of serious crimes, said attorney Kime Abduli, who filed that application.

The Milwaukee Police Department said it is investigating an identity theft and victim intimidation incident related to this matter and the county district attorney’s office said the investigation was ongoing. Milwaukee police said no one has been criminally charged at this time.

Abduli, Morales Reyes’ attorney, says he could not have written the letter, saying he did not receive formal education and can’t write in Spanish and doesn’t know how to speak English. She said it was not clear whether he was arrested because of the letters.

“There is really no way that it could be even remotely true,” Abduli said. “We’re asking for a clarification and a correction from DHS to clear Ramon’s name of anything having to do with this.”

NEW CASTLE, Del. (AP) — Former President Joe Biden delivered the first remarks since he announced he had an aggressive form of prostate cancer Friday, speaking in a steady voice during a somber Memorial Day gathering and later smiling and saying he’s “feeling good.”

Biden spoke at an annual gathering marking Memorial Day at Veterans Memorial Park in his home state of Delaware, not far from his home in Wilmington. The event coincided with the 10th anniversary of his son Beau’s death. It also comes amid renewed questions about Biden’s mental and physical health after the recent publication of a book about his fitness for office.

Speaking to reporters after the Memorial Day event, he said he was already undergoing treatment for cancer, which entailed taking a pill, he said.

“The expectation is we’re gonna be able to beat this,” he said. “I’m feeling good.”

Related Articles

Trump says China ‘violated’ agreement on trade talks and he’ll stop being ‘nice’

Trump’s list of ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’ includes some that support his immigration policies

Trump gives Elon Musk an Oval Office sendoff, crediting him with ‘colossal change’

US government is investigating messages impersonating Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles

Trump holding Pennsylvania rally to promote deal for Japan-based Nippon to ‘partner’ with US Steel

Biden dropped his reelection bid in July 2024 after a disastrous debate against Donald Trump, after which those in his party questioned whether he could continue as the party’s nominee. Questions about his decline and how the White House staff reacted to it are at the center of a recent book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, which has renewed the debate.

Asked Friday if he had a response to recent questions about his mental and physical health, he smiled and engaged with the reporter.

“You can see I’m mentally incompetent and I can walk and I can beat the hell out of both of them,” he said.

In response to Democrats who question whether he should have initially run for reelection at all, he said: “Why didn’t they run against me then? Because I’d have beaten them.”

During his formal remarks, he called upon the group to remember the sacrifices of those lost in battle, whose echoes he said can still be heard.

He also spoke of his son, Beau, who died at 46 of brain cancer. A twice-elected state attorney general, Beau Biden was considering a run for governor, and his death deeply affected the elder Biden.

“This day is the 10th anniversary of the loss of my son Beau, who spent a year in Iraq, and, to be honest, it’s a hard day,” the former president said. “Being with all of you, quite frankly, makes things a little bit easier, it really does. So, thank you for allowing me to grieve with you.”