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By John Fritze, CNN

(CNN) — Democratic officials in Virginia asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to reinstate a congressional map that would benefit their party ahead of this year’s midterm elections, the latest map drawing appeal to reach the high court amid a flurry of mid-decade redistricting.

The emergency appeal follows a decision from the state Supreme Court last week that voided Democrats’ attempt to redraw Virginia’s US House map via an April referendum in a way that would help Democrats pick up four additional seates. The Democrats are asking the US Supreme Court to effectively put that order on hold for this year’s midterm election.

The decision, the officials said, was “deeply mistaken on two critical issues of federal law with profound practical importance to the nation.”

The US Supreme Court is already deeply enmeshed in a flood of redistricting taking place in states across the country as both parties seek to eke an advantage out of House boundaries in the fall election. Several southern states have moved to redraw their maps following a blockbuster decision in late April that severely weakened the scope of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Virginia’s redistricting was seen by Democrats as a way to offset the advantage Republicans have picked up from that effort. But the state’s highest court ruled that the process state officials used to create the referendum violated the state constitution.

“The irreparable harm resulting from the Supreme Court of Virginia’s decision is profound and immediate,” Democrats told the US Supreme Court on Monday. “By forcing the commonwealth to conduct its congressional elections using districts different from those adopted by the General Assembly pursuant to a constitutional amendment the people just ratified, the Supreme Court of Virginia has deprived voters, candidates, and the commonwealth of their right to the lawfully enacted congressional districts.”

The redistricting in Virginia would have given Democrats the chance to win as many as four more seats, potentially reducing the state’s GOP representation to a single district.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Devan Cole contributed to this report.

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VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) – Jesus Gonzalez-Arteaga was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after he was convicted of six felony counts of sex crimes against a child he knew through family.

Gnzalez-Arteaga was also sentenced to additional consecutive prison terms that totaled more than 91 years to life and because of his conviction on the aggravating circumstance that he inflicted great bodily injury during a forcible rape, his sentence of life without parole was mandated by state law explained the Ventura County District Attorney's Office in a press release Monday.

Below are the charges and special allegations that Gonzalez-Arteaga was convicted of in April of this year.

Charges:

• PC 288.5(a)–Continuous Sexual Abuse
• PC 288.7(a)–Unlawful Act with a Child 10 Years and Under {Three Counts}
• PC 261(a)(2)–Forcible Rape
• PC 311.11(a)–Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material

Special Allegations:

• PC 667.6(d)(1)– Prior Consecutive Sentence Imposed
• PC 288.5(a)–Substantial Sexual Contact
• CRC 4.41(a)(3)–Victim was Vulnerable
• CRC 4.421(a)(11)–Defendant Took Advantage of a Position of Trust
• CRC 4.421(a)(8)–Manner in which the Crime was Carried Out Indicates Planning, Sophistication, and Professionalism
• PC 667.61(d)(6)–Personally Inflicted Great Bodily Injury
• PC 12022.8–Sexual Offenses Inflicting Great Bodily Injury
• PC 667.61(d)(7)–Sex Crimes Aggravated Circumstances
• PC 667.61(j)(1)–Victim Under the Age of 14

Between 2018 and 2024, Gonzalez-Arteaga repeatedly raped a child he knew through family and shared a home with starting when she was six years old noted the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

The child shared what had been happening with a trusted family member who then brought that information to law enforcement detailed the local prosecutor's office.

"The sentence imposed today reflects the devastating and lifelong harm caused by the defendant's
actions," said Senior Deputy District Attorney Twyla Atmore who prosecuted the case. "Even after being convicted, the defendant has refused to accept responsibility, continuing instead to blame the child he abused in a demonstration of his complete lack of remorse and accountability."

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CNN

By John Fritze, CNN

(CNN) — The Supreme Court on Monday extended a short-term order that will allow patients to continue to access the abortion pill mifepristone through telehealth visits while the justices deliberate over a high-profile emergency appeal.

Justice Samuel Alito issued a temporary order last week that allowed widespread access to the drug while it considered the case. That “administrative” order had been set to expire Monday evening. The new order extends that stay until Thursday at 5 p.m. ET.

The order keeps on hold a May 1 decision from the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals that had abruptly required women to obtain the drug through in-person visits.

Alito, a conservative, handles emergency appeals rising from the 5th Circuit. His order, as is typical with “administrative” stays, included no rationale or explanation.

The case is the most significant involving abortion to reach the high court since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 precedent that established a constitutional right to abortion. And both the case and mifepristone are heavily wrapped up in that decision. After the fall of Roe in 2022, many conservative states banned in-clinic abortions, which increased demand for mifepristone.

Louisiana sued the Food and Drug Administration last year over its policy allowing telehealth access to the pill, asserting in part that the Biden-era regulation undermined its abortion ban. A federal district court in April partly sided with the state, finding that the FDA’s policy was arbitrary and capricious because the agency did not have adequate data to judge the drug’s safety. But the district court held its own decision to give FDA time to complete a review of the drug.

But a 5th Circuit panel of three judges, all appointed by Republican presidents, put the FDA’s rule about mifepristone on hold immediately earlier this month. That meant that patients seeking to access the drug over the weekend were suddenly required to do so with in-person visits. Medical providers who spoke to CNN described the hours following that order as some of the “craziest” and most “chaotic” they’ve experienced.

Danco Laboratories, the maker of mifepristone, raced up to the Supreme Court on May 2 with an emergency appeal, warning of the chaos. GenBioPro, which makes a generic version of the drug, filed its own appeal asserting that the 5th Circuit’s ruling risked “cutting off access for patients nationwide.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

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By Henrik Pettersson, Renée Rigdon, Lou Robinson, Gillian Roberts, CNN

(CNN) — The hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship remains of low risk to the general public as 18 passengers from the vessel have arrived at specialized US facilities in Nebraska and Georgia on Monday, May 11.

Three ship passengers have died of the virus, which is typically tied to rodents, since April 11, and a handful of others are sick.

CNN is tracking what we know about the outbreak in maps and charts.

There have been at least nine reported cases – seven confirmed and two probable – including the three who have died, according to an update from the World Health Organization on Monday.

There is an ongoing investigation related to the more than 30 passengers who disembarked on April 24 at St. Helena and traveled to various countries, all before the outbreak was fully understood.

The outbreak was reported to WHO on May 2, the same day the third passenger died. WHO’s experts now believe the virus may have spread from person to person on board the ship.

After the Cape Verde disembarkation of three people in early May, WHO officials planned for the remaining 147 people — 87 passengers and 60 crew members — to sail to the Canary Islands. They docked there and began disembarkation on Sunday, May 10, under careful observation of medical personnel from WHO and various countries.

Of the 17 American passengers — plus one British national who resides in the US — now back in the US, 16 are in Nebraska and do not have symptoms. One of the Nebraska passengers did test positive, however. And two other people are in Atlanta at Emory University, and one has symptoms, health officials said.

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