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By Evan Burgos, NBC News

A former U.S. congressman from Arizona was sentenced to three years in prison Monday for convictions of public corruption.

Rick Renzi, once a three-term Republican in the House, was fined $25,000 in addition to the prison sentence.

Renzi’s co-defendant and business partner, James Sandlin, a 62-year-old real estate investor, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.  Both men are scheduled to begin their sentences in January.

U.S. District Judge David C. Bury levied the sentence in a federal courtroom.

"I'm not wise enough to know why good people do bad things — I think character and avarice have something to do with it," Bury said. "That's what happened here. Two good men committed bad acts."

In June, Renzi, 55, who represented Arizona's first Congressional District from 2003 to 2009, was found guilty on 17 felony counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy, extortion, racketeering, money laundering and making false statements to insurance regulators. He was acquitted on 15 other charges.

The charges stemmed from various dealings involving real estate deals, financial kickbacks and fraud.

Included in the case against Renzi is a transaction from 2005, when the then-congressman stipulated that any proposal for a federal land exchange — a real estate deal in which a property owner exchanges privately owned land for federal land of equal value — would have to include land owned by Sandlin, according to the indictment.

Renzi is quoted in court documents as telling private investors, “No Sandlin Property, no bill.”

An investment firm agreed to a deal involving Sandlin, paying him $4.6 million. For forcing Sandlin’s inclusion, Renzi received a kickback of $733,000, according to the indictment.

Additionally, the indictment said that Renzi embezzled $460,000 from a family-owned Arizona insurance firm to his congressional campaign fund in 2002.

Renzi was indicted in 2008 and did not seek re-election when his term was up the following year. He faced a maximum of 100 years in prison, according to wire reports.

The U.S. Probation Office recommended that Renzi be sentenced to 33 months in federal prison, be fined $20,000 and serve three years of supervised release.

Mr. Renzi abused the power - and the corresponding trust - that comes with being a member of Congress by putting his own financial interests over the interests of the citizens he had sworn to serve," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman. 

"He fleeced his own insurance company to fund his run for Congress, and then exploited his position for personal gain.  Mr. Renzi's conviction and today's sentence demonstrate the Justice Department's commitment to fighting corruption at the highest levels of government."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.

In a stunning move, a federal judge Monday ruled that abortion restrictions authorized by Texas lawmakers in July are unconstitutional, and will not be implemented as scheduled on Tuesday, according to court documents obtained by NBC News.

Eric Gay / AP file

Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, filibusters in an effort to stamp out the abortion bill, June 25, in Austin, Texas.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel decided Monday that the regulations requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital impeded on the rights of physicians to do what they judge is best for their patients and would unreasonably limit a woman's access to state abortion clinics.

"The admitting-privileges provision of House Bill 2 does not bear a rational relationship to the legitimate right of the state in preserving and promoting fetal life or a woman's health and, in any event, places a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus and is thus an undue burden to her," Yeakel wrote in his decision.

Although Yeakel ruled that Texas could regulate how a doctor prescribes an abortion-inducing pill, he said the law did not allow for a doctor to alter treatment taken in order to best safeguard the health of the woman taking it.

Therefore, he barred the provision of the law mandating that doctors abide the Food and Drug Administration’s procedure for drugs in all cases, according to the Associated Press.

He wrote: "The medication abortion provision may not be enforced against any physician who determines, in appropriate medical judgment, to perform the medication-abortion using off-label protocol for the preservation of the life or health of the mother.”

Two other contentious provisions of the law — a prohibition on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and a requirement beginning in October 2014 that doctors perform all abortions in surgical facilities — are still slated to take effect, according to the AP.

Yeakel's decision comes four months after Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis, now a candidate for governor, staged a dramatic 13-hour filibuster against the proposed restrictions, widely considered among the most stringent in the country.

The filibuster forced Gov. Rick Perry to order a second special legislative session for the Republican-dominated Legislature to pass the controversial law.

In a statement, Davis said she was “not surprised by the judge’s ruling.”

“As a mother, I would rather see our tax dollars spent on improving our kid’s schools rather than defending this law,” she said.

Last week, Yeakel heard three days of testimony and oral arguments in Austin about the hot-button law, which opponents and abortion-rights advocates had sued to prevent from taking effect.

Those opponents, including lawyers for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, contended that the rule that doctors have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion clinic would force a third of the clinics in the state to shutter. 

Phelan M. Ebenhack / AP file

Texas Gov. Rick Perry addresses attendees of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation's Defending the American Dream Summit in Orlando, Fla., Aug. 30.

The Texas attorney general's office, on the other hand, contended that the restrictions protect women and the life of the fetus.

Attorney General Greg Abbott was widely expected to file an emergency appeal of Yeakel's order to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, according to the AP. Abbott, a Republican, is also running for governor.

In a statement, Gov. Perry said that Monday’s ruling “will not stop our ongoing efforts to protect life and ensure the women of our state aren't exposed to any more of the abortion-mill horror stories that have made headlines recently. We will continue fighting to implement the laws passed by the duly-elected officials of our state, laws that reflect the will and values of Texans.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

• Abortion debate plays out in crowd at Texas Capitol
• After epic Lone Star filibuster, Gov. Perry calls for new special session
• Texas abortion bill fails to pass after epic filibuster
• Perry signs Texas abortion restrictions into law

Matt Rourke / AP file

Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, seen here while being taken from the Centre County Courthouse after being sentenced on Oct. 9, 2012.

Penn State announced Monday it will pay $59.7 million to settle claims by 26 young men who said they were sexually abused by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, capping a year of negotiations.

News of some of the settlements has been trickling out in recent months. The university said six claims are still outstanding. It has rejected some of them and is in talks to settle the others.

“We hope this is another step forward in the healing process for those hurt by Mr. Sandusky, and another step forward for Penn State,” University President Rodney Erickson said in a statement.

“We cannot undo what has been done, but we can and must do everything possible to learn from this and ensure it never happens again at Penn State.”

Sandusky, 69, is serving 30 to 60 years in prison after being convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse last year. He is appealing.

During the trial, jurors heard from eight victims, who described how Sandusky lavished them with gifts, trips and attention before molesting them.

In statements earlier this year, several victims who had just settled said the college did not deserve praise.

"Penn State is not great for settling something that could have been stopped years ago," a man known as Victim 3 said.

"What makes a school great is stopping these things no matter what negative effect it has on their reputation or what bad press it might bring."

The victims who have made deals include Sandusky's adopted son, who stood by his father until the first day of trial, when he suddenly told prosecutors he had been abused for years.

Also settled is the well-known case of Victim 2, who was 10 years old when assistant Mike McQueary saw him in a team shower with Sandusky in 2001.

McQueary reported what he saw, but police were never told. A decade later, legendary head coach Joe Paterno was fired over the incident and accused of turning a blind eye to the abuse. Paterno died five months later.

While most of the suits against Penn State have been put to rest, the legal fallout from the scandal is far from over.

Former university president Graham Spanier, former vice president Gary Schultz and former athletic director Tim Curley are awaiting trial on charges they took part in a coverup of complaints about Sandusky. They deny the allegations, and Spanier has sued the university's investigator, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, for defamation.

Paterno's family is suing the NCAA over penalties it imposed on Penn State, including the elimination of 112 wins by the Nittany Lions, a $60 million fine and a four-year-ban on post-season play.

Penn State is also fighting with its insurers about whether the settlements should be covered. In its statement, it said insurance will cover much of the cost and that tuition, donations and taxpayer funds will not be used for the 26 payouts.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Mon Oct 28, 2013 1:43 PM EDT

Dominick Reuter

Mourners pay their respects as the casket bearing slain teacher Colleen Ritzer arrives at St. Augustine's Parish in Andover, Massachusetts.

The 24-year-old Massachusetts math teacher allegedly murdered by one of her charges in a school bathroom was laid to rest Monday in a funeral service in her hometown of Andover.

An estimated 1,000 people — including some 400 students — crowded into St. Augustine Church just after 10 a.m. Monday to pay their respects to Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzer, whom family and friends alike described as vivacious and enthusiastic, the Boston Globe newspaper reported. 

Gina McDaniel, Ritzer's cousin, delivered a prepared eulogy in which she praised Ritzer for inspiring her students. She said Ritzer fostered confidence in pupils.

“Colleen’s passion in life was to be a teacher,’’ McDaniel wrote in her remarks, which were given to the Boston Globe by a Ritzer family spokesman. Ritzer was a “bright light in our lives who just wanted to make this world a better place by focusing on the adults of the future.’’

A post on Ritzer's Twitter account was printed on the front of the funeral service program, according to the newspaper.

"No matter what happens in life, be good to people," Ritzer tweeted Aug. 11. "Being good is a wonderful legacy to leave behind."

A law enforcement source told NBC News on Friday that Ritzer’s throat was slit from the back with a box-cutter in a second-floor bathroom at the school. Her body was wheeled out of the school in a recycling bin, dumped in the woods and covered with leaves, the source said.

Philip Chism, a freshman, was charged as an adult with first-degree murder and has been ordered held without bail. A surveillance camera caught the suspect following Ritzer into the bathroom and then leaving, covered in blood, the source said.

Ritzer's family has set up a memorial scholarship fund to benefit Andover High School graduates who also pursue teaching careers, according to the AP.

Courtesy of the Ritzer family

Colleen Ritzer, 24, was allegedly killed by one of her students.

In a homily at Monday's service, the Rev. Peter G. Gori called Ritzer’s death “a great tragedy’’ that has “shocked and horrified’’ Danvers and the surrounding community.

In his remarks, which were provided to the Globe, Gori said: “We are naturally inclined to ask, ‘Why?’ It is immensely frustrating when, like now, there is no satisfactory answer to that question."

"We have names for a death like Colleen’s, words that burn our lips. Yet, no amount of evidence or facts can ever justify it, or explain it, and that too hurts.’’

The funeral service followed a Sunday wake at the same church.

NBC News' Erin McClam and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Students and faculty returned to class at a Nevada middle school Monday for the first time since a 12-year-old boy fatally shot a teacher in the schoolyard one week ago.

A large contingent of police were on hand to meet the students, family and staff as classes resumed at Sparks Middle School in Sparks, Nev.

Mathematics teacher and former U.S. Marine Michael Landsberry, 45, was shot in the chest by a seventh-grader who also wounded two students during Monday's attack before taking his own life.

The boy is thought to have brought the gun, a Ruger 9mm, from his home, Sparks Deputy Police Chief Tom Miller said. 

The two students wounded in the shooting were transported to a local hospital and are recovering.

Some students speculate that bullying may have played a role in the shooting, but police say they have no evidence of that and have refused to comment about anything that might have provoked the attack, the Associated Press reports.

Landsberry was taking his turn greeting middle schoolers as they headed into class after a week-long fall break when the shooting started, students told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

"We know the healing process is going to take a long time," Washoe County School District Superintendent Pedro Martinez told the newspaper.

"It's not all going to happen today," Martinez said. "Today is a beginning."

NBC's Matthew DeLuca contributed to this report.

Sheriff's deputies removed more than a dozen patients from a Northern California assisted living facility in Saturday after it was determined that they had been left "abandoned" there by the owners and staff, a department spokesman said.

The State Social Services shut down the facility Thursday, but 14 elderly residents were still there more than two days later, Alameda County Sheriff's Office said

The Sheriff's Office was called Saturday afternoon to the facility on Apricot Street, which appears to be listed variously as Valley Springs Manor, Valley Manor Community Care Home or Valley Manor Residential Care, after a medical call, Sgt. J.D. Nelson said.

Responding paramedics became concerned after they found that most of the staff had left and only a skeleton crew remained, Nelson said.

Authorities said patients at the facility were left with only a cook, a janitor, and a caretaker for two days. The rest of the employees left after the state ordered the facility to be temporarily shutdown.

In addition, the state Department of Social Services had posted a notice on the door stating that the facility was to be closed on Oct. 24th, Nelson said. The sign on the front door read, "NOTICE: CLOSED FOR BUSINESS."

Nelson said the patients were elderly, some bedridden or in wheelchairs.

Sheriff's Office officials are searching now for the owners of the facility, Nelson said. The owners could be facing jail time for elderly abuse.

Relatives said they did not know where their loved ones were or that they have been living at the facility without most staff.

One woman, whose husband's mother was living in the facility, said she was shocked to find out what happened.

"It's brutal and horrific to know," she said. "It's not even just her. There were over a dozen people that were left behind that couldn't fend for themselves."

She said she still has no idea where her mother is.

"I'm actually pretty upset because we have no idea where his mom is," she said. "The officers are trying to figure out where they relocated her to, so it's really infuriating."

The Social Services web site showed Valley Springs as still licensed, but there were no details about why the state shut down the assisted living facility.

But a review on Caring.com, which claims to be from a resident written over a month ago, said:

"This place has been fined several times for several things...We have no nurses, and the food is not conducive to balanced nutrition or diabetic needs."

The case will be handed to the district attorney to determine if there are any criminal charges.

The patients are being medically evaluated, while deputies continue their investigation. A man whose parents were in the facility says the owner should face charges.

"What they've done is negligent, and they should be prosecuted for what they've done at this facility and other facilities," Burton Nash said. "Abandoning elderly people and elderly abuse is just criminal."

State officials said the owner of the assisted living facility also owns facilities in Oakland and Modesto. Those facilities were temporarily shut down last week as well.

All three have had violations dating back to 2008.

— NBCBayArea.com and wires

Police say loud barking might have led a 56-year-old man to kill four of his neighbors and two dogs before turning the weapon on himself over the weekend at a central Phoenix town house. 

There is "some indication that perhaps that was a problem," Phoenix police Sgt. Tommy Thompson said Sunday of the barking. But he added a motive might never be known because of the deaths. 

Michael Guzzo, 56, killed four members of a family in the confrontation Saturday. The victims were identified as Bruce Moore, 66; his daughter, Renee Moore, 36; her husband, Michael Moore, 42, who took his wife's name; and Renee's son, Shannon Moore, 17. 

After the killings, Guzzo shot at another town house before returning to his unit and killing himself, police said. 

Police said they found a pump shotgun, apparently the weapon used in the killings, next to his body. Thompson said there was no indication he had a violent past. 

A neighbor said Guzzo usually kept to himself. 

"I've seen him every morning — come in quiet every morning," Donald McKenzie told Phoenix television station KSAZ-TV. "Never would expect him to be the guy who did this at all." 

Another neighbor, Barry Hatchett, told Phoenix station KNXV-TV he was friends with Renee Moore. Hatchett said he had planned to take his dog to the Moores' home for a grooming appointment later Saturday. 

After shooting the Moores and the dogs, Guzzo walked across the large complex and shot at the door and second floor of another town house, police said. 

KNXV-TV reports the second home belongs to Libni DeLeon, who said bullet holes are now scattered around his house. 

DeLeon told the station he heard a knock Saturday morning before the gunman shot through his front door. 

"I ran upstairs and when I got there I got a glance at him, and I yelled at him, and he turned around and shot two more rounds upstairs," DeLeon said. 

No one was injured at the home. 

The United States is scrambling to soothe some of its closest allies, angered as one report after another details vast American spying — including gathering data on tens of millions of phone calls in Spain in a single month.

The latest report, published Monday in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, said that the National Security Agency had collected information on 60 million calls in that country last December.

It followed reports in the last week that the United States spied on leaders of at least 35 countries, and even bugged the personal cellphone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said Monday that a White House review of intelligence-gathering would be complete by year’s end, and that it would address how to balance national security and privacy.

But he stressed: “The work that’s being done here saves lives and protects the United States and protects our allies, and protects Americans stationed in very dangerous places around the world.”

“We don’t just do it because we can,” he said. He declined comment on stories about specific NSA spying activities.

German intelligence chiefs are preparing to visit Washington this week to demand answers, and the German Parliament on Monday called a special session for Nov. 18 to talk about NSA spying.

At the Capitol, a delegation of European Parliament officials met with Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, to discuss the spying reports. Several who spoke to reporters later voiced frustration, and questioned whether the United States was legitimately trying to fight terrorism.

“If we don’t get the explanations, I don’t think we can trust on the reliabilit yof the U.S. in these questions,” said Axel Voss, a German member of the European Parliament. “But if they are now starting to talk to us and explaining to us why and how and what data and so on, then it might be very helpful, and we can regain trust and reinstall trust again.”

He added: “But it’s getting more and more difficult.”

President Barack Obama has had to apologize to Merkel and to the presidents of France and Brazil. The Brazilian president was so angry she canceled a state visit.

The Obama administration and its defenders say that most of the spying is legitimate, for the protection of the United States and its allies.

In a statement Sunday night, U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said that a White House review is examining “the way that we gather intelligence to ensure that we properly account for the security concerns of our citizens and allies and the privacy concerns that all people share, and to ensure that our intelligence resources most effectively support our foreign policy and national security objectives.”

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. and a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the administration should not apologize or be defensive.

“The reality is the NSA has saved thousands of lives, not just in the United States but in France, Germany and throughout Europe,” he said. “We’re not doing it for the fun of it. This is to gather valuable intelligence, which helps not just us but also helps the Europeans.”

The reports have come from documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the fugitive former NSA contractor. The only clear denial from the NSA has concerned a British report that said that Obama was told three years ago that the agency was eavesdropping on Merkel.

The German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that Obama told Merkel that he would have halted the hacking if he had known about it.

Juan Medina / Reuters

The U.S. ambassador to Spain, James Costos, leaves the foreign ministry after being summoned to a meeting with Spain's European Secretary of State in Madrid on Monday.

The consequences may be economic, not just diplomatic. The European Union, the United States’ largest trading partner, is threatening to cancel trade talks over the revelation.

In the meantime, the U.S. is left to deal with furious allies without knowing what Snowden will reveal next.

“When we’re doing this on Germany, on France, on Great Britain and other nations that we’ve been allied with in fighting Al Qaeda, in invading Libya together, these kinds of things just trample trust,” said Steve Clemons, who writes frequently on foreign policy.

Robert Gibbs, a former press secretary for the Obama administration, told TODAY on Monday that “clearly, damage has been done.”

“I think we have to evaluate whether the costs of the methods of gathering some intelligence greatly exceeds the benefit of that intelligence, particularly when we’re listening in to, apparently, some of our very closest allies,” he said.

This story was originally published on Mon Oct 28, 2013 8:38 AM EDT

Louis Lanzano / AP

Mingdong Chen, a suspect in the murder of five people in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood, is taken by police from the 66th precinct on Sunday.

When relatives of a Chinese immigrant mother of four young children banged on the family's door, it opened to a grisly sight: a man dripping with human blood who is now charged with stabbing the five to death with a butcher knife.

Mingdong Chen, 25, faced five counts of murder Sunday, a day after the brutal killings of his cousin's wife and her four children in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood. 

Two girls, 9-year-old Linda Zhuo and 7-year-old Amy Zhuo, were pronounced dead at the scene, along with the youngest child, 18-month-old William Zhuo — all found in a back bedroom, police said. Their brother, 5-year-old Kevin Zhuo, and 37-year-old mother, Qiao Zhen Li, were found in the kitchen and taken to hospitals, where they also were pronounced dead. 

The five "were cut and butchered with a kitchen knife," said Chief of Department Philip Banks III, the New York Police Department's highest-ranking uniformed member. 

The victims died of stab wounds to their necks and torsos, and Chen has implicated himself in the killings, Banks said. 

"It's a scene you'll never forget," he added. 

Chen had been staying with the family on the first floor of the two-story brick house for about a week. 

He was unemployed after being fired from a string of restaurant jobs he couldn't hold down for more than a few weeks at a time, according to neighbors and relatives in the working-class neighborhood dominated by a large community of immigrants from China. 

Almost a decade after coming to the United States as a teenager, he still was fluent only in Mandarin Chinese, Banks said. 

"He was bouncing around," said Banks. 

Chen apparently was jealous of fellow immigrants' successes in America. 

"He made a very soft comment that since he came to this country, everybody seems to be doing better than him," Banks said. 

The children's father, his cousin, was not home late Saturday evening; he was working at a Long Island restaurant, one neighbor said. 

Kathy Willens / AP

Crime scene detectives investigate the scene of a multiple fatal stabbing on Sunday in New York.

The mother tried to call him because she was alarmed about Chen's "suspicious" behavior earlier in the evening, Banks said. 

When she couldn't reach her husband, Li called her mother-in-law in China, who also could not immediately reach her son. The mother-in-law then reached out to her daughter in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, Banks said. 

The sister-in-law and her husband went to the house at about 11 p.m. and kept banging on the door till someone answered, police said. 

It was Chen, "and they see that he's covered with blood," Banks said. "They don't know who this person is." 

The couple fled, called 911, and detectives investigating another matter nearby responded quickly, Banks said. 

Yuan Gao, a cousin of the mother, came by the house Sunday and stood on the tree-lined street with well-tended row houses, half a block from the neighborhood thoroughfare, its open air markets, Chinese restaurants and shops bustling with Sunday morning shoppers. Many walked over to the house, milling around and discussing the most horrible crime they could remember. 

But almost none spoke English, and the few who did remained tight-lipped. 

Some said that at Chen's last temporary home, days before the killings, late-night arguments were loud enough to be heard outside. 

Gao said Chen was emotionally unstable — a factor contributing to his repeated firings. 

"He's crazy," she said. 

She said he had moved to the area recently and was staying with whoever would take him for brief periods of time. 

Bob Madden, who lives a block away, was walking his dog on Saturday night when he saw the young man being taken away in a police cruiser. 

"He was barefoot, wearing dungarees, and he was staring, he was expressionless," Madden said. 

The suspect was in custody Sunday, but is still awaiting arraignment. It was unclear whether he had an attorney. 

Banks said Chen had at first resisted arrest and, while being processed, assaulted a police officer. 

Neighbor May Chan told the Daily News it was "heartbreaking" to learn of the deaths of children she often saw running around and playing. 

"They run around by my garage playing. They run up and down screaming," Chan said. 

"The father was freaking out," she said. "He just came home from work and saw the police and they told him. He was hysterical."

Related:

• Cousin charged in stabbing death of NY woman and 4 children