Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday his office arrested Carl Ferrer, CEO of the embattled online ad website Backpage, on California felony pimping charges, including pimping a minor. Ferrer is being held in lieu of a $500,000 bond and will face an extradition hearing before he can be returned to California. In Texas, he will face additonal charges of money laundering related to human trafficking. Michael Lacey and James Larkin, controlling shareholders of Backpage, have also been criminally charged with conspiracy to commit pimping, a felony in California.

In Daniel Chapter 9, the Prophet Daniel came to understand his people and Jerusalem were in the midst of a 70-year judgment. This realization caused the exiled Israelite to fall on his face in prayer and confession:

“We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. … To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.”

An investigation by the private advocacy firm Professional Investigators International (Pii) has concluded former missionary surgeon Donn Ketcham sexually abused more than 20 minors and four adult women in Bangladesh between 1966 and 1989. Many of his victims were the children of fellow missionaries. 

The 280-page report also claims leaders with the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE) repeatedly “mishandled” abuse allegations. 

A Chicago judge today sentenced former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert to 15 months in prison after describing him as a “serial child molester.” Hastert pleaded guilty in October to trying to hide hush-money payments to a man he abused decades ago.

During today’s hearing, Hastert told the judge he was “deeply ashamed to be standing before you” and admitted that he “mistreated” some of the athletes he coached.

“I am sorry to those I hurt and misled,” he said. “What I did was wrong and I regret it.”

The day before Easter, members of Covenant Life Church learned police had arrested one of their former children’s ministry volunteers on charges of child sexual abuse. The news cast a familiar pall over the Gaithersburg, Md., congregation already struggling under the cloud of past child sex abuse allegations within its membership.

A U.S. federal court has sentenced a former missionary from Oklahoma to 40 years in prison for sexually abusing children at a Kenyan orphanage. His arrest and conviction—one case among several recent instances of overseas abuse—highlights the need for more vetting procedures in international volunteering, experts say.