'Enron CEO' hit in the face with pie in New York City

NEW YORK — Connor Gaydos, a man connected to an apparent parody project to relaunch the energy company Enron and become its new CEO, was hit in the face with a pie this week as he was entering a building in New York City.

The incident was caught on video and went viral on social media Thursday. The clip shows Gaydos exiting an SUV shortly before an older man slams the pie into his face as two bodyguards intervene.

The bizarre incident mirrored one from more than two decades earlier, when a California woman tossed a pie into the face of Enron’s then-CEO Jeffrey Schilling.

Earlier this month, a group announced the scandal-plagued Texas company was returning exactly 23 years after filing for bankruptcy amid massive fraud.

An investigation by Houston station KHOU turned up a disclaimer on the company’s website that read, “The information on the website is First Amendment-protected parody, represents performance art and is for entertainment purposes only.”

—New York Daily News

California couple killed in Mexican violence were visiting for holidays

MEXICO CITY — A California couple with Mexican roots went south for the holidays to visit relatives, an annual tradition among many U.S. residents of Mexican ancestry.

But tragedy struck: Both were shot dead in Mexico's violence-plagued Michoacán state, Mexican authorities said Friday. The couple fell victim to the violence that has been pummeling Mexico.

Police were investigating but had no immediate word on a motive or possible suspects, said Magdalena Guzmán, a spokeswoman for the state prosecutor's office.

The two were shot just before midnight Thursday while inside a pickup truck on a road in rural Angamacutiro, a municipality of about 15,000 in northern Michoacán.

The victims were identified as Rafael Cardona Aguilera, 53, and his wife, Gloria Ambriz de Cardona, 50, according to authorities and a mourning notice posted on social media. Cardona was born in the United States and his wife was a naturalized U.S. citizen, Guzmán said.

—Los Angeles Times

Army, Navy team up for hypersonic missile launch in Florida

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — Cape Canaveral Space Force Station had a different kind of launch on its plate Thursday when the Army and Navy teamed up to complete a test of a hypersonic missile.

The launch of what is known as the Dark Eagle Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon system was an end-to-end test using Space Launch Complex 46, which hosted a pair of Astra Space rocket launches in 2022.

The launch apparatus used a battery operations center and transporter erector launcher sending the missile streaking east over the Atlantic in a successful test, according to a press release from the Department of Defense.

The conventional hypersonic missile test was performed by the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office with Navy Strategic Systems Programs. It was the second test of the year for the system, but the first “live-fire event,” the DOD stated.

The system is meant to be deployed on land or sea. Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound offering a much more difficult weapon to counter after launch.

—Orlando Sentinel

Woman who accused Duke athletes of rape says she 'testified falsely'

For the first time publicly, Crystal Mangum said she lied nearly 18 years ago when she accused Duke University lacrosse players of raping her.

Mangum, now 46, apologized to the men in an interview posted on letstalkwithkat.com and said that she lied about being raped by three players in March 2006.

“I testified falsely against them by saying they raped me when they didn’t, and that was wrong,” she said in an interview from a woman’s state prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she is serving on an unrelated second-degree murder conviction.

Mangum said she made up the story because she wanted “validation from people and not from God.”

In March 2006, Mangum accused three Duke lacrosse players of raping her at an off-campus party in Durham where she was hired to perform as an exotic dancer. The former students, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans, where charged with sexually assaulting Mangum.

The accusations drew international news coverage, but the men were fully exonerated after defense attorneys brought strong evidence contradicting the claims.

—The Charlotte Observer

_______