The week at a glance...United States

United States

San Diego

High stakes: The former mayor of San Diego has admitted to taking more than $2 million from a charity set up by her late husband, after wagering more than $1 billion in the course of a decade-long gambling addiction. Maureen O’Connor, 66, mayor from 1986 to 1992, pleaded not guilty last week to money laundering, saying she turned to “grief gambling” in 2001 to deal with the death of her husband, fast-food tycoon Robert O. Peterson, the founder of Jack in the Box restaurants. O’Connor said that a brain tumor caused her to lose control of her actions. “There are two Maureens—Maureen No. 1 and Maureen No. 2,” she told a news conference. “Maureen No. 2 is the Maureen who did not know she had a tumor in her brain.” She has been given two years to pay the charity back, and will receive treatment for her gambling addiction.

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