Detroit Free Press News Services

Even the U.S. Navy is abandoning Bill Cosby.

The Navy announced it is revoking Cosby's title of honorary chief petty officer because of multiplying allegations of sexual abuse going back decades that were recently reignited.

On Tuesday, Cosby was sued in civil court by Judy Huth, a woman who claims he molested her at the Playboy Mansion 40 years ago when she was 15. Cosby's lawyers, meanwhile, struck back at the accuser in court, declaring that she tried to extort him for a quarter-million dollars and that she attempted to sell her story to a tabloid a decade ago.

Looking to erase the past

Actor Mark Wahlberg is asking Massachusetts for a pardon for assaults he committed in 1988 when he was a troubled teenager in Boston, saying he has dedicated himself to becoming a better person in his adult years so he can be a role model to his children and others.

The former rapper known as Marky Mark and a star of movies including "The Departed" and "The Gambler," set to open in theaters Dec. 19, filed a pardon application with state officials Nov. 26. New England Cable News first reported on the application Thursday.

Wills and Kate's big adventure

Among the roughly 5 million visitors expected in New York this holiday season, at least two are certain to get the royal treatment: Britain's Prince William and his wife, Kate. They are due to arrive Sunday for the first trip either has made to the United States' biggest city, and William also is set to visit the nation's capital for the first time. A few things to know:

Properly known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the royals are making their first official visit to the U.S. since a 2011 jaunt to California. (William made a personal trip to a friend's Memphis, Tenn., wedding this May with his brother, Prince Harry.)

The duke and duchess have been looking forward to a three-day trip involving issues "close to both of their hearts," a spokeswoman said.

Kate is expecting their second child in April, but the royals' schedule is packed with plans ranging from paying respects at the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum to taking in a Cleveland Cavaliers-Brooklyn Nets game.

Other events promote British involvement in New York's technology and creative sectors and spotlight the couple's charitable interests in wildlife conservation and child development. Among other commitments, William will head to a World Bank conference in Washington to discuss fighting illegal trade in wildlife parts, while Kate will tour a New York child development center with the city's first lady, Chirlane McCray.

William and Kate also are due to join Tom Hanks, opera singer Renee Fleming and others at a black-tie, up-to-$10,000-per-seat scholarship fund-raiser for the University of St. Andrews, the Scottish institution where the royal couple met and earned degrees.

The couple's 17-month-old son, Prince George, isn't making the trip.

Briefly

■ Rapper Beanie Sigel was shot in the abdomen outside a home in New Jersey on Friday, police said.

Authorities and Sigel's lawyer initially called the wound life-threatening, but hospital officials told police that the 40-year-old rapper was awake Friday afternoon after surgery, Pleasantville police Chief Jose Ruiz said.

■ Veteran newswoman Candy Crowley is leaving CNN after 27 years.

Crowley, the network's chief political correspondent and anchor of "State of the Union," will exit at the end of this month, she said Friday.

■ Comedy Central says President Barack Obama will be on hand next week as Stephen Colbert begins his final two weeks as the fake cable news bloviator on "The Colbert Report."

Obama is scheduled to appear on Monday during Colbert's one-day visit to Washington. Colbert is taking over for David Letterman on CBS's "Late Show" next year and his last appearance in character on Comedy Central will be on Dec. 18.

Compiled by Janet Graham

from Free Press news services.