Maryclaire Dale, Author at The Rapid City Post

Attorney Michael Coard makes a social media post at the now removed explanatory panels that were part of an exhibit on slavery at President's House Site in Philadelphia, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Judge calls Justice Department’s statements on slavery exhibit display ‘dangerous’ and ‘horrifying’

January 30, 2026

A federal judge warned Justice Department lawyers that they were making “dangerous” and “horrifying” statements when they said the Trump Administration can decide what part of history to display at National Park Service sites. The sharp exchange erupted during a hearing in Philadelphia over the removal of an exhibit on the history of slavery on Independence Mall. The city and other advocates have asked Senior U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe to order the Park Service to restore the exhibit. She said she plans to rule quickly.

Courts order ICE not to deport man who spent 43 years in prison before murder case overturned

November 3, 2025

Two courts have ordered immigration officials not to deport a Pennsylvania man who spent four decades in prison before his murder conviction was overturned. Relatives say 64-year-old Subramanyam Vedam is currently detained at a holding facility in Louisiana with an airstrip for deportations. Both an immigration judge and a U.S. district court have since stayed his deportation until the Bureau of Immigration Appeals decides whether to review his case. The Trump Administration believes he should be deported over a long-ago drug conviction. Vedam’s lawyers say the 43 years he wrongly spent in prison should outweigh that.

A man who spent 43 years in prison before his conviction was overturned now faces deportation

October 29, 2025

A Pennsylvania man whose murder conviction was overturned after he served 43 years in prison hoped to walk free this month, but instead found himself in immigration custody. Subramanyam Vedam was an infant when his family moved to the U.S. so his father could teach at Penn State University. The Trump Administration plans to act on a 1999 deportation order despite his murder conviction being overturned because Vedam also has a drug conviction from the 1980s. His lawyers say the years he wrongly spent in prison should outweigh that. They have asked the Board of Immigration Appeals to reopen the case.

FILE - Sexual assault suspect Ian Cleary departs from the Adams County Court House in Gettysburg, Pa., May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)

Man who sent ‘So I raped you’ message is sentenced to 2 to 4 years for 2013 campus assault

October 20, 2025

A man who sent a Facebook message that said, “So I raped you,” to a woman he admits sexually assaulting in college has been sentenced to two to four years in prison. Ian Cleary faced up to 10 years for the 2013 attack at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. The judge took into account his guilty plea, his remorse and his history of mental illness in giving a sentence below state guidelines. Shannon Keeler shared her experience in an Associated Press investigation into the reluctance of authorities to prosecute campus sex crimes. She told the court on Monday the delays came at a cost.

University of Victoria postdoctoral fellow Nathaniel Brunt views an image from a collection of photos of the Yazidi people in their northern Iraq homeland in the 1930s, during an interview at the Penn Museum Archives in Philadelphia, Aug. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Iraq’s Yazidis rediscover lost history through photos found in a museum archive

September 13, 2025

A University of Pennsylvania researcher is leading an effort to connect photos taken of the Yazidi population in northern Iraq in the 1930s with descendants who lost much of their history in the 2014 Islamic State attacks. Penn doctoral student Marc Marin Webb and others have built an archive of nearly 300 photos taken by Penn Museum archaeologists in the 1930s. They are now sharing them with the Yazidi community to help them reclaim their heritage. Ansam Basher, now a teacher in England, says she was “overcome with emotion” seeing photos of her grandparents on their wedding day.

A man charged in a 2013 Pennsylvania campus sex assault hires a lawyer to review possible plea deal

May 29, 2025

An American who was extradited from France this year to face charges in a 2013 campus sexual assault case has hired a private lawyer to review a potential plea in Pennsylvania. Ian Cleary made his first in-person court appearance Thursday in Adams County, a half-mile from where the encounter occurred at Gettysburg College. Assistant Public Defender Joshua Neiderhiser says a plea had been in the works. He has been representing the 32-year-old Saratoga, California, man since he was brought back to the U.S. However, Cleary agreed after speaking with his parents to hire a lawyer to review the case, delaying a possible deal.