TV News LIES

The Florida Department of Corrections has opened a criminal investigation into whether a public record provided by the agency to the Miami Herald was forged.

The document was a form, purportedly filled out and signed by inmate Harold Hempstead, the whistle-blower who in March leaked details to the newspaper about a gruesome death at Dade Correctional Institution, where inmate Darren Rainey collapsed while locked in a brutally hot shower.

General Motors Co (GM.N) began the new year by announcing three new vehicle recalls on Thursday, as the ignition switch crisis continued to dog the automaker after millions of vehicles were recalled in 2014.

No crashes or injuries were reported in the latest round of recalls involving 83,572 sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks. GM expects that fewer than 500 will be affected by the defect, an ignition lock actuator with an outer diameter that exceeds specifications.

A woman died in Cleveland police custody nearly two months ago because she was physically restrained in a prone position, and her heart condition and bipolar disorder were also factors, a coroner said Friday.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's office ruled that Tanisha Anderson's death was a homicide.

Anderson died Nov. 12 at hospital after being handcuffed, taken into police custody and then losing consciousness while having a mental-health episode. Relatives said the 37-year-old was schizophrenic, and they claimed an officer used excessive force.

The family of a man who died after a violent confrontation with Los Angeles County deputies in Compton won an $8 million jury verdict.

Long Beach jurors on Wednesday found deputies liable for negligence and battery in the death of Darren Burley, who died nearly two weeks after his 2012 arrest, the Los Angeles Times reported (http://lat.ms/1K3fjyT ).

Burley, 29, was zapped with a stun gun and handcuffed by officers after he allegedly tried to choke a pregnant woman.

As 2014 draws to a close, the United States will have executed the fewest inmates since 1994 as public views surrounding capital punishment continue to shift and the act of putting prisoners to death becomes more politically and practically difficult.

There were 35 inmates executed this year, in only seven states, with three — Missouri, Texas and Florida — responsible for 80 percent of them, according to the year-end annual report of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group that focuses on capital punishment. Moreover, the number of death sentences handed down this year, at 72, dipped to a 40-year low.

Three Florida counties will no longer perform courthouse weddings in response to a judge's ruling to allow same-sex marriages across the state, according to a news report.

The decision by Duval, Clay and Baker counties comes after Judge Robert Hinkle announced Wednesday that any court refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses would be in violation of the U.S. Constitution.