Chicago prosecutors are investigating a VHS tape of what appears to be, according to lawyer Michael Avenatti, singer R. Kelly raping a girl.

“My client knows the identity of the girl and R. Kelly,” Avenatti, who previously represented Stormy Daniels, told CNN. “He identified the two of them on the videotape. He worked for and has known R. Kelly for decades and he met the girl on a number of occasions. Avenatti turned the tape over to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in Chicago last weekend, CNN reports.

When authorities responded to an alleged domestic violence incident near Fort Worth, Texas, on Tuesday morning, they found a disturbing scene.

According to a police report first obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a couple had allegedly gotten into a fight. While authorities began investigating it, they heard children crying inside.

A 5-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl were allegedly found locked inside a dog kennel inside the family home, police say. The kennel was approximately 3 feet by 3 feet. They appeared to be malnourished. Two other boys, ages 3 and 1, were also found malnourished, according to police. The younger children were not in kennels, according to WFAA-TV.

America is, quite famously, a nation founded on the principle of freedom of religion. As a result it is easy to understand why many people would be uncomfortable with certain kinds of religious practices (mostly notably prayer) and education in public schools. A little over a week ago President Trump tweeted his support for the introduction of Biblical literacy classes in schools, drawing attention to efforts by a variety of Christian groups to put the Bible back on the high school agenda.

Following Trump’s statement there was a flurry of media coverage of the issue. Fox News reported that “at least six states, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia have introduced legislation this year pushing for public schools to offer Bible literacy classes,” noting that these classes would be electives. (The Indiana bill is not actually a Bible course bill at all. It demands that the previously existing world religions electives class has to include a conversation about the Bible).

There is a strategy here: Project Blitz, an initiative sponsored by the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation, the National Legal Foundation and the WallBuilders ProFamily Legislative Network, has been orchestrating the push to create these bills.

As prominent SMU religious studies professor Mark Chancey has written, it’s actually already legal to teach the Bible in schools, so in some sense these bills are unnecessary. Courses like the one Trump is tweeting have been around for a century. Chancey told The Daily Beast that “it is important to recognize that Bible course bills and their sponsors may have different motivations…sometimes a bill is clearly about more than just biblical literacy, and that's definitely the case with Project Blitz bills.” Other measures that Project Blitz has called for includes the promotion of the motto “In God We Trust,” the introduction of a “year of the Bible” and the limiting of the rights of same-sex couples and transgender people. Chancey told me, “Project Blitz is weaponizing Biblical Literacy for the cultural wars.”

Ellen Page on Thursday criticized Chris Pratt for attending a “infamously anti-LGBTQ” church after he appeared on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and discussed his religious side.

The “Guardians of the Galaxy” star sat down with Colbert to promote “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part,” and Pratt said he just finished a 21-day Daniel Fast that he took part in through his church and that his pastor encouraged. He also said the pastor shared with him words of wisdom about balancing fame and his inner self.

“If the spotlight that is shining on you is brighter than the light that’s within you, it will kill you,” Pratt recounted to Colbert.

Page tweeted about the appearance and the pastor shortly after, writing, “Oh. K. Um. But his church is infamously anti lgbtq so maybe address that too?”

A Chicago public school teacher is accused of enlisting the help of a friend to beat one of her 9-year-old students with belts, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the student's mother Thursday.

Asia Gaines filed the suit against the Chicago Board of Education; her son's homeroom teacher, Kristen Haynes; and Haynes' childhood friend, Juanita Tyler.

The suit alleges that Haynes, 50, invited Tyler, 56, to George W. Tilton Elementary School "for the purpose of corporally punishing" Gaines' son, identified only as JC, on Sept. 20, 2018.

A gay police sergeant from Chicago has resigned in disgrace after finding himself at the center of a criminal investigation.

45-year-old Eric Elkins, who has been with the department nearly 20 years, officially stepped down from his post last week, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department says.

Elkins made headlines last September when he and a gang of three other men allegedly beat Thomas Stacha and his boyfriend John Sherwood outside of the popular Chicago gay bar @mosphere.

According to The Chicago Tribune, a fight between the men started inside the club and continued outside. The beating left Stacha with broken cheekbones and a perforated trachea and Sherwood with a compound leg fracture.

Elkins was placed on paid leave after the incident. That is, until now. A spokesperson for the department says that since he has “resigned under investigation,” he will be ineligible for retired police credentials.

Squirming in his seat, Michael Jackson is asked directly on camera whether he's a pedophile in newly unearthed video footage obtained by DailyMailTV.

The King (Perv) of Pop is quizzed by lawyers about allegations of child sexual abuse in what's understood to be the only time he was ever filmed being questioned on the subject during his life.

The iconic singer, who at the time was 37, appears nervous and laughs, giggles and jokes his way through questions about molesting children in the astonishing footage dated March 1, 1996.

A Colorado teen who molested his 10-year-old stepsister before bludgeoning her to death in 2017 acknowledged his guilt in court recently, and learned a life sentence will be imposed during his sentencing hearing next month.

Aidan Zellmer, 16, pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Kiaya Campbell on June 7, 2017, in the city of Thornton, Colorado, PEOPLE confirms.

A white Detroit police officer has been demoted from his rank of corporal and reassigned from his precinct after posting Snapchat videos mocking a Black woman who walked home in subzero temperatures after having her car impounded.

Steele thought it was a good idea to pull up his Snapchat and record footage of the woman walking away as he and his colleague start quipping, “Priceless,” “Walk of shame…in the cold,” and “Bye, Felicia.” The videos were first uncovered by news station WXYZ. To make matters worse, he used premade filters on the social media app, including “What Black girl magic looks like,” and “Celebrating Black History Month in the captured footage.

Allegations that four black middle school girls in upstate New York were strip-searched has sparked calls for a state investigation.

The four 12-year-old students and their parents say the girls were questioned and forced to disrobe by the assistant principal and school nurse at East Middle School in Binghamton on Jan. 15 on suspicion of drug possession because they were acting "giddy."

The school district announced this week that it has hired an independent firm to review the allegations.

An unhinged woman was kicked off a recent United Airlines flight after going on a fat-shaming tirade about her two seatmates – calling the passengers on either side of her “two big pigs.”

“Oh my goodness! I don’t know how I’m going to do this for the next four hours!” the woman barks into her cellphone on the Las Vegas-to-Newark flight.

“This is just impossible ’cause they’re squishing me. Like, just unbelievable. At least they’ll keep me warm,” she fumes. “I can’t sit here because they’re both so big on left and right. I can’t even sit here.”

Norma Rodgers, an award-winning nurse from New Jersey sitting next to the obnoxious woman, captures her on video as she continues her rant.

“Bitch, please! OK?” Rodgers finally says.

Don Omar is facing backlash over homophobic social media posts seemingly directed at Ozuna, his longtime rival.

Pratt attends Hillsong Church, the same church as pop-star Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and Kendall Jenner. But Hillsong has a history of child sexual abuse and supporting so-called conversion therapy.

The megachurch began in Australia and has since spawned outposts across the world, including New York City. New York City’s Hillsong Church is led by Carl Lentz. In a 2015 GQ interview, Lentz said he considers homosexuality a sin and would never allow an openly gay member to hold a church leadership position.

In August 2015, when the New York City church learned that two of its male choir members were married, it released a public statement against them.