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There's been a natural gas explosion on Barksdale Airforce Base. Here's what we know
Makenzie Boucher
Shreveport Times
Around 11:40 a.m. Tuesday, Barksdale Air Force Base Emergency Response Personnel received a call to East Reservation.
Upon arrival, personnel discovered a gas well explosion.
Reports of injuries have been made, but at this time no information has been provided on how many.
First responders are on the scene and are currently assessing the situation.
The cause of the explosion is under investigation.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned for more information.
Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com.
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https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2022/04/19/natural-gas-explosion-barksdale-heres-what-we-know/7370163001/
| 2022-04-19T18:26:39
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https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2022/04/19/natural-gas-explosion-barksdale-heres-what-we-know/7370163001/
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(WIVT/WBGH) – A springtime winter storm that battered much of Upstate New York and Pennsylvania has prompted multiple schools and organizations to close or open late on Tuesday.
As of 9:00 a.m. on April 19, at least a dozen schools in the region announced they would be closed or be delayed by two hours after a system of heavy and wet snow blanketed much of the Twin Tiers overnight.
Full List of Closings & Delays
By late afternoon on April 18, the National Weather Service had placed most of the Southern Tier under a Winter Weather Advisory or Warning. Tompkins, Cortland, Tioga, and Broome were all under a Winter Weather Warning as of 6:00 p.m. on Monday. The warning will stay in effect until noon on Tuesday. The National Weather Service in Binghamton also placed all of the Southern Tier in a wind advisory until later in the evening on April 19.
Check back with NewsChannel 34 for a full list of closings as the weather progresses.
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https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/local/april-winter-storm-causes-closings-delays/
| 2022-04-19T19:17:46
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https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/local/april-winter-storm-causes-closings-delays/
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Trees and powerlines have been dropping around Broome County, as our first April snowstorm in a while, pounds the area.
Here are some photos highlighting the impact the storm has had on the community.
Trees and powerlines have been dropping around Broome County, as our first April snowstorm in a while, pounds the area.
Here are some photos highlighting the impact the storm has had on the community.
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https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/local/gallery-april-storm-pounds-area/
| 2022-04-19T19:17:52
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https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/local/gallery-april-storm-pounds-area/
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- Binghamton University has cancelled in-person classes.
- The SUNY Morrisville Norwich campus has delayed classes until 11 AM.
- SUNY Broome is closed due to the inclement weather.
- Tompkins Cortland Community College is closed. Classes may be held remotely at the discretion of the instructor.
This is a list of university and college closings for Tuesday, April 19th.
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https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/local/local-college-university-closings/
| 2022-04-19T19:17:59
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https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/local/local-college-university-closings/
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Cruise passenger search, Mims couple killed and new restaurants - News in 90
Rob Landers
Florida Today
Support local journalism. Unlock unlimited digital access to floridatoday.com
Looking for more information on the stories covered in today's News in 90 Seconds segment?
You can find the stories here:
Coast Guard suspends search for man who jumped from Carnival cruise ship Mardi Gras
Mims husband, wife killed in U.S. 1 motorcycle crash in Oak Hill in Volusia County
Here are 25-plus new restaurants to try across the Space Coast, plus a few coming soon
Rob Landers is a veteran multimedia journalist for the USA Today Network of Florida. Contact Landers at 321-242-3627 or rlanders@gannett.com. Twitter: @ByRobLanders
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/19/cruise-passenger-search-mims-couple-killed-and-new-restaurants/7370544001/
| 2022-04-19T19:53:25
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/19/cruise-passenger-search-mims-couple-killed-and-new-restaurants/7370544001/
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Rockledge police investigate deadly shooting in apartment complex parking lot
J.D. Gallop
Florida Today
Rockledge police were investigating the shooting death of a 29-year-old man at an apartment complex late Monday.
The shooting victim has not yet been identified by police. The Monday night shooting was the 15th reported homicide since January.
Police were called about 11:30 p.m. to a parking lot in the Hammock Harbor Apartments,1330 Naples Circle.
No arrests have been made in the case.
More:Crosley Green's attorneys file petition for rehearing in decades-old Titusville murder case
An investigation is ongoing.
J.D. Gallop is a Criminal Justice/Breaking News Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @JDGallop.
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/19/deadly-shooting-reported-rockledge-apartment-complex/7369374001/
| 2022-04-19T19:53:31
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/19/deadly-shooting-reported-rockledge-apartment-complex/7369374001/
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — A stop in Birmingham for the American Freedom Tour, featuring former President Donald Trump and others, has been canceled.
“Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, we have been forced to postpone the event in Birmingham, Alabama,” an email from the American Freedom Tour read. “We are very sorry for any inconvenience.”
The original rally was set for June 18 in Birmingham, but a venue had not been announced. The tour will now be held in northern Mississippi outside of Memphis.
Organizers did say that a secondary rally is planned to be held in Mobile July 9. The former president was expected to hold a rally in Mobile for the Fourth of July in 2020 before that was canceled as well. His last stop in Alabama was in Cullman last August.
Trump was set to be joined by his son, Donald Trump Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle, Dinesh D’Souza, Sheriff Mark Lamb and more for the event.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/birmingham-trump-rally-canceled-mobile-visit-set-for-july/
| 2022-04-19T19:55:44
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/birmingham-trump-rally-canceled-mobile-visit-set-for-july/
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NBC New York will no longer support Internet Explorer 11 as of June 2022. Below is a list of all the browsers you can use to view all of our content.
Google Chrome (Version 100.0.4896.75)
Firefox (Version 99.0)
Safari (Version 15.4)
Microsoft Edge (Version 100.0.1185.36)
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/browsers-supported-by-nbc-new-york/3652678/
| 2022-04-19T21:01:49
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/browsers-supported-by-nbc-new-york/3652678/
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DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowa-based MercyOne is set to be acquired by a Michigan-based Catholic health care system that already spans 25 states.
Trinity Health and CommonSpirit Health announced Tuesday that Trinity Health will acquire all facilities and assets of MercyOne.
MercyOne had operated under a joint agreement between Trinity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives, which is now CommonSpirit.
“True to our shared Catholic mission, our goal is to provide high-quality, compassionate care with the best patient/member experience possible. We will accomplish that goal through a holistic approach, with a range of health services and technologies that are fully connected and coordinated,” said Mike Slubowski, president and chief executive officer at Trinity Health. “This agreement creates a fully integrated MercyOne to care for more people in a unified way.”
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https://www.kimt.com/news/local/mercyone-to-be-fully-owned-by-michigan-based-trinity-health/article_f42f0a16-c012-11ec-99a9-5bf8f35696e0.html
| 2022-04-19T21:21:24
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https://www.kimt.com/news/local/mercyone-to-be-fully-owned-by-michigan-based-trinity-health/article_f42f0a16-c012-11ec-99a9-5bf8f35696e0.html
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A large wall map of the U.S. Mexico border with thousands of toe tags pinned to it will be on display at Portland State University.
According to PSU, the school’s anthropology department collaborated with the Undocumented Migration Project for the Hostile Terrain 94 exhibit.
The participatory art installation is composed of 3,200 handwritten toe tags that represent migrants who have died “during the crossing due to inhumane border policies between 1994 and present day,” the university said.
According to the school, volunteers have spent hours filling out these tags by hand — each one including the name, age, sex, cause of death, condition of body and location of recovery for each person.
“The tags are then pinned to a wall map in the exact location where those individuals were found,” their press release stated.
A Mexican ofrenda — also known as an altar– will be built to remember all those who have died.
The exhibit will be open on Wednesday, April 20 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at PSU’s White Gallery on the second floor of the Smith Memorial Student Union. It will be in place through June 15.
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/portland-state-university-exhibit-honors-migrants-who-died-at-u-s-mexico-border/
| 2022-04-19T22:59:16
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/portland-state-university-exhibit-honors-migrants-who-died-at-u-s-mexico-border/
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – After firefighters responded to two RV fires in Portland on Monday, police believe one of them was arson.
Investigators think the NE Portland RV fire may have been sparked after someone rolled an explosive device under an RV. Officials said a woman inside the RV was not hurt.
Meanwhile, firefighters said they are not investigating the RV fire in Southeast Portland as arson “due to resources and call prioritization.”
People who live and work around Southeast Division and 92nd told KOIN 6 News the motorhome was abandoned and has been parked on the side of the road for around two years.
Neighbors said sometimes people would live inside and noted it was commonly surrounded by trash.
Portland Fire & Rescue said the fire made the paint bubble on a nearby building. A KOIN 6 News crew also saw damage on a home by the RV.
Officials noted nearby power lines above the fire fell, making the situation more dangerous.
One witness said he ran out when he saw the fire.
“We went over to take a look, to make sure people were safe. We made it there before the fire department,” Steven, who works nearby, said.
He saw smoke billowing out of the motorhome then saw the flames.
“It was pretty warm, pretty intense, going around felt the heat,” Steven explained.
Steven says the fire department got there quickly and were able to put the flames out. Fortunately, fire fighters say no one was injured.
It is not known if the two RV fires are related.
Police are asking for anyone with information on the northeast RV fire to reach out to their detectives by calling the tip line at 503-823-FIRE or e-mail Detective Meredith Hopper at Meredith.Hopper@portlandoregon.gov and reference case number 22-102510.
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/rv-fire-investigations-underway-1-damaged-by-explosive-device/
| 2022-04-19T22:59:22
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/rv-fire-investigations-underway-1-damaged-by-explosive-device/
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Despite opposition, Palm Coast City Council votes to give itself raises of 151%, mayor 163%
Despite public opposition, the Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday increased its pay by 151% for council members and 163% for the mayor and added health benefits.
Vice Mayor Eddie Branquinho again was the only councilman to oppose the increases, which were backed by Mayor David Alfin.
Twenty residents spoke against raises during the public comment portion of the meeting. Some said smaller pay hikes would be acceptable, but disagreed with the salary increases that ultimately passed on Tuesday, according to a live webcast of the meeting.
Big raise tentatively approved:Palm Coast City Council tentatively approves giving itself about a $35,000 raise
Mayor backtracks on raises:Palm Coast City Council could put the brakes on proposed raise
Council raises proposed:Palm Coast City Council proposes raising council pay from $9,600 annually to $44,670 each
Previously, the City Council tentatively approved increasing the mayor’s pay from $11,400 to $46,470 and the City Council members’ pay from $9,600 to $44,670, increases of 365% and 307% respectively.
Instead, the City Council approved lower raises, bringing the mayor's pay to $30,039.47 and councilmembers' pay to $24,097.61.
Numerous residents spoke out against the increases at the first vote. Alfin noted the opposition, and at a recent workshop he suggested reducing the increase.
On Tuesday, City Councilman John Fanelli, who was recently appointed to fill the District 2 seat, made a motion to lower the increase. Fanelli, like other applicants for the District 2 seat, agreed not to run in November.
Fanelli said he had checked 16 cities with similar populations and came up with an average pay for elected officials.
Fanelli made the motion to increase the City Council pay to those averages: $30,039.47 for the mayor and $24,097.61 for City Council members.
Fanelli’s motion also called for the City Council and mayor to receive any cost-of-living increases approved for city employees by the council. It would not include any merit increases.
And Fanelli added health benefits for councilmembers and the mayor. They would have the option to turn down the health benefits and instead receive $750 annually, the amount the city would pay toward those benefits, according to city staff.
Fanelli stated that he had heard a lot from people about the 365% increase, but when he told them the current rate, they agreed it was low.
“When I share that with them, they do share that that seems a bit low for the responsibilities that are put on the position and the demands of time that are put on the position,” Fanelli said.
Councilman Nick Klufas seconded the motion and the City Council approved it later in the meeting by a vote of 4 to 1 with Branquinho opposed.
You should be 'ashamed,' Palm Coast residents say
But before the vote, the City Council heard an earful from residents.
Sue Urban, a Palm Coast resident, said the increase would eliminate her from running for the office because she is disabled and cannot earn that income. Urban said the City Council members and mayor are not city employees.
“You all knew your compensation when you ran for this office,” Urban said.
Another resident, Robert McDonald, said one of the council members was in his second term, so he ran again knowing the responsibilities and the pay.
“So he knew what the job paid; what the job required, but said, 'I’ll do it again,'” McDonald said.
McDonald did not name the person, but Klufas is in his second term.
“Five people are going to divide what 95,000 people are going to have to pay for. It ain’t right. And you know it ain’t right,” McDonald said.
Mike Martin of Palm Coast also criticized the council.
“The fact that you all are sitting there proves that people are willing to work for $9,600 a year,” Martin said.
Martin asked the council to exclude themselves from the increases, which will take effect after the November election.
“If you really believe this is about attracting better people, then you should not give this raise to yourselves, make it so only the people come after you,” Martin said.
Martin said the City Council should be “ashamed” of itself, noting that the council had recognized National Volunteer Week earlier in the meeting.
“Your jobs are about serving the city. Giving of yourselves,” Martin said. “You just said this is National Volunteer Week. You don’t practice what you preach.”
After the public comments, Vice Mayor Branquinho said that he would like Fanelli to withdraw his motion so he could make a motion for a smaller increase from $12,000 to $15,000 instead, which he said “would make everybody happy.”
Fanelli did not withdraw his motion.
Branquinho said the residents, not the council, should decide on the raises.
“I think that should go to the ballot. Let the people in the ballot tell us what we deserve. Not us telling us what we deserve,” Branquinho said. “The people should tell us what we deserve.”
Fanelli said the pay was in line with cities of similar size, with eight cities paying less and eight more.
“This is not a money grab. This is not out of the ordinary for what the position pays. This is an average,” Fanelli said.
Klufas said that the pay hike and benefits would help increase diversity and bring people from different stages of life to the council.
“It’s hard to form any type of diverse opinion when you have five individuals from the same background or retirees sitting up here in similar situations,” Klufas said.
City Councilman Ed Danko said he agreed with Klufas' comments.
“I’m just going to say to Councilman Klufas: ditto. I couldn’t express it any better.”
Danko later noted that the City Council had not received a pay increase, according to the city attorney, since 2007.
Alfin, who proposed the pay increases, has said at past meetings that his city calendar is filled with responsibilities as mayor. Alfin, who was elected in July, said serving on the council is a full-time job.
He said the council should not be restricted to only people who can afford to work for low pay.
Said Alfin: “Do we restrict our candidates from running for office and serving the community because we are tying it to their financial wealth and ability to serve without an adequate or actually limited compensation?”
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https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/flagler/2022/04/19/palm-coast-city-council-gives-itself-raise-despite-opposition/7365456001/
| 2022-04-20T00:11:32
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https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/flagler/2022/04/19/palm-coast-city-council-gives-itself-raise-despite-opposition/7365456001/
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A New Jersey Catholic diocese has agreed to pay $87.5 million to settle claims involving clergy sex abuse with some 300 alleged victims in one of the largest cash settlements involving the Catholic church in the United States.
The agreement between the Diocese of Camden, which encompasses six counties in southern New Jersey on the outskirts of Philadelphia, and plaintiffs was filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden on Tuesday.
The settlement must still go before a U.S. bankruptcy judge. If approved, the settlement would exceed the 2003 nearly $85 million settlement in the clergy abuse scandal in Boston, though it’s less than other settlements in California and Oregon.
“I want to express my sincere apology to all those who have been affected by sexual abuse in our Diocese," Bishop Dennis Sullivan said in a statement. “My prayers go out to all survivors of abuse and I pledge my continuing commitment to ensure that this terrible chapter in the history of the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey never happens again.”
Details about what the roughly 300 victims have alleged happened to them were not included in the proposed settlement, according to an attorney for some 70 of the victims.
“This settlement with the Bishop of Camden is a powerful advance in accountability,” said Jeff Anderson, an attorney representing 74 of the roughly 300 survivors. “The credit goes to the survivors for standing up for themselves and the truth."
The diocese said the deal calls for setting up a trust, which will be funded over four years by the diocese and “related Catholic entities” to compensate survivors of sexual abuse. Part of the deal also requires maintaining or “enhancing” protocols to protect children.
Abuse survivors who filed a claim in the bankruptcy could get $290,000, according to victims' attorneys Jay Mascolo and Jason Amala.
The agreement comes more than two years after New Jersey expanded the window of its civil statute of limitations to allow for victims of sexual abuse by priests to seek legal compensation. The legislation lets child victims sue up until they turn 55 or within seven years of their first realization that the abuse caused them harm. The previous statute of limitations was age 20 or two years after first realizing the abuse caused harm.
The diocese, like others across the country, had filed for bankruptcy amid a torrent of lawsuits — up to 55, according to court records — stemming from the relaxed statute of limitation.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nj-diocese-settles-sex-abuse-claims-with-87-5-million-deal-for-300-alleged-victims/3653067/
| 2022-04-20T01:03:51
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nj-diocese-settles-sex-abuse-claims-with-87-5-million-deal-for-300-alleged-victims/3653067/
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The warden who ran the federal jail where disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself was allowed to quietly retire from the Bureau of Prisons in February. His retirement came in the midst of an investigation examining how one of the government’s highest profile inmates could take his own life in custody.
Lamine N’Diaye retired from the Bureau of Prisons on Feb. 26, agency spokesperson Kristie Breshears told The Associated Press on Tuesday. He was most recently the warden at FCI Fort Dix, a low-security prison in Burlington County, New Jersey.
He had been put in that position despite the ongoing federal probe and in direct contradiction of a public pronouncement from the Bureau of Prisons that it would delay N’Diaye's transfer to run any prison until the inquiry by the Justice Department’s inspector general was finished.
FCI Fort Dix, located on the grounds of the joint military base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, is the largest single federal prison by population, with just under 3,000 inmates. An adjacent prison camp has 231 minimum-security inmates.
Under N’Diaye’s watch as warden, an inmate at Fort Dix was stabbed in the eyeball by a fellow prisoner, exemplifying the gruesome chronic violence that plagues the Bureau of Prisons and quickly added to calls from congressional lawmakers for the Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal to resign from his position. Carvajal announced in January he was resigning but has remained in place while the Justice Department searches for a replacement.
A handful of inmates — some of whom were believed to be friends and associates of the suspected attacker — have been held in segregated housing units for more than four months and some were threatened with transfers if they didn’t cooperate with the investigation into the stabbing, two people familiar with the matter told The AP. The people could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
N’Diaye was previously the warden at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the now-closed federal lockup in Manhattan. He was removed from that position after Epstein killed himself at the jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Prosecutors say the guards who were supposed to be monitoring Epstein were instead sleeping and browsing the internet. The Bureau of Prisons closed the jail in October for much-needed repairs after years of decay, though it may never reopen.
The Bureau of Prisons named N’Diaye as warden at Fort Dix in February 2021 despite an ongoing federal investigation into lapses that led to Epstein’s death and in contradiction of its pronouncement that the agency would delay any move until the inquiry was finished.
The bureau attempted to place N’Diaye in the Fort Dix job a year earlier, but the move was stopped by then-Attorney General William Barr after the AP reported the transfer.
The Justice Department’s inspector general has yet to complete the investigation. A spokesperson for Inspector General Michael Horowitz said Tuesday that the probe was still ongoing.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/warden-of-nyc-jail-where-jeffrey-epstein-killed-self-retired-quietly-amid-investigation/3653101/
| 2022-04-20T01:03:53
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/warden-of-nyc-jail-where-jeffrey-epstein-killed-self-retired-quietly-amid-investigation/3653101/
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With record snow-fall in Greater Binghamton, and thousands of houses without power, families have struggled to make-do.
With local schools and businesses closed today throughout the region, families are cooped up with no electronics. Not having internet access or a working TV is one thing, but not being able to cook and feed one’s family is far more serious.
With a family of his own, Binghamton resident Ernest Bryan says he’s losing patience with the lack of electricity. “Step up and do your job. That’s all I’m asking them to do. All the innocent people, innocent kids without no heat now, they don’t need to go through that. They just need to fix the electric and just move on.”
The Red Cross is opening two shelters; Trinity Memorial Episcopal Church at the corner of Oak and Main Streets in Binghamton, and the Deposit Fire Station on Second Street. The Tioga County Emergency Management Office announced that NYSEG will be distributing dry ice and possibly water this evening at the Public Safety Building parking lot at 103 Corporate Drive in Owego this evening until 7:30.
Updates can be found at NYSEG.com.
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https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/local/snow-day-with-no-power/
| 2022-04-20T01:14:50
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https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/local/snow-day-with-no-power/
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FORT SMITH, Ark. — The Fort Smith Police Department (FSPD) is investigating a shooting incident that occurred on N. 41st St. on Tuesday afternoon.
On April 19, at 4:30 p.m., FSPD said in a Twitter post it was called to a shooting incident in the 2600 block of N. 41st St.
FSPD say one victim sustained minor injuries from an unknown suspect and the investigation is ongoing.
If you have any information that can assist, please call 911 or contact FSPD at (479) 709-5000.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/fort-smith-police-shooting-incident-n-41st-st/527-132957f4-0872-4818-b285-2bb7577ce1ea
| 2022-04-20T01:23:18
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/fort-smith-police-shooting-incident-n-41st-st/527-132957f4-0872-4818-b285-2bb7577ce1ea
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Drought battle along Oregon-California line heats up as tribe decries water release for farmers
PORTLAND, Ore. — A Native American tribe in Oregon said Tuesday it is assessing its legal options after learning the U.S. government plans to release water from a federally operated reservoir to downstream farmers along the Oregon-California border amid a historic drought.
Even limited irrigation for the farmers who use Klamath River water on about 300 square miles of crops puts two critically endangered fish species in peril of extinction because the water withdrawals come at the height of spawning season, The Klamath Tribes said. This summer’s water allocation plan, released by the Bureau of Reclamation last week, will send about 50,000 acre-feet of water to farmers in the Klamath Reclamation Project — less than 15% of what they would get in a normal year.
An acre-foot is the amount needed to cover one acre of land with water one foot deep.
Dig deeper:Tensions rise in water battle along Oregon-California line
It’s the third year in a row that extreme drought has affected the farmers, fish and tribes that rely on the 257-mile-long Klamath River in a region where, even in a good year, there’s not enough water to satisfy competing demands. Last year, no water at all flowed through the Klamath reclamation project’s main irrigation canal, and the water crisis briefly became a political flashpoint for anti-government activists.
At the same time, critically endangered sucker fish central to the Klamath Tribes culture and religion didn’t have enough water to spawn and thousands of downstream juvenile salmon died without reservoir releases to support the Klamath River’s health.
The Klamath Tribes said in a statement that the decision to release any water to about 1,000 farmers in the massive, federal agricultural project was “perhaps the saddest chapter yet in a long history of treaty violations” and placed the blame for the current water crisis on “120 years of ecosystem mismanagement at the hands of settler society.”
The inland tribes, based in Chiloquin, Oregon, include the Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin peoples of southern Oregon and Northern California. The Klamath have fought to keep enough water in the reservoir and surrounding rivers for two distinct species of sucker fish to survive and breed, with limited success.
Parched lands:Indigenous lands in desiccated Northwest are being threatened by wildfires
The fish are important to the tribes’ cultural and religious practices and were once a dietary staple. The Klamath stopped fishing for the sucker fish in the 1980s as numbers dwindled. The Klamath Tribes now run a captive breeding program to ensure the species’ survival and note that no juvenile sucker fish have survived in the wild in recent years.
“We have nothing left with which to ‘compromise,’ ” the Klamath Tribes said in a statement. “Global warming is certainly a global problem, but thus far its local consequences appear to be exacerbating existing and systematic inequalities between ourselves and the larger society.”
A spokeswoman from the Bureau of Reclamation declined to comment Tuesday, citing the possibility of litigation.
The Klamath Tribes believe this year’s plan violates a biological opinion under the Endangered Species Act, which says that the bureau must maintain the reservoir, which is called Upper Klamath Lake, at a minimum depth for the sucker fish. The opinion acknowledges that in some cases — such as this year — maintaining even that minimum depth may be impossible, but in those cases the bureau must do everything it can to comply.
“We feel like Reclamation has pushed us into a corner by making this allocation decision that is so directly contrary to the requirements of the Endangered Species Act,” said Jay Weiner, a water rights attorney representing The Klamath Tribes. “For them to pull additional water out … is a risk to the very existence of the species that the tribes can’t live with.”
Last weekend, federal regulators also released a three-day pulse of water from the reservoir down the Klamath River to bolster the health of salmon populations in northern California that have been decimated by a parasite that thrives in slow-moving, warm water.
The amount was half of what would be released in a normal year, and the Yurok Tribe, which is trying to keep the salmon populations afloat, said it was also deeply disappointed by this season’s water allocations.
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https://www.redding.com/story/news/local/drought/2022/04/19/drought-battle-oregon-california-border-klamath-tribes-fight-water-release-farmers-endangered-fish/7373140001/
| 2022-04-20T01:34:29
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https://www.redding.com/story/news/local/drought/2022/04/19/drought-battle-oregon-california-border-klamath-tribes-fight-water-release-farmers-endangered-fish/7373140001/
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Louisiana to buy downtown Shreveport office building. Plans to move local state employees
After sitting vacant for a while, a downtown Shreveport building is getting a new lease on life.
500 Fannin Street commonly known as the Waggoner Building is set to be purchased by the state of Louisiana, Wednesday. This building will replace the aging Mary Allen State Office Building on Fairfield Avenue.
"We are pleased that we're gonna be able to move forward with this. The building that we're in right now we have had to pour a lot of money into it just to maintain it and the employees of Shreveport deserve a much better facility within which to work," Jay Dardenne, Commissioner of Administration for the State of Louisiana said.
The purchase is just the start of this project said Jacques Berry, Director of Policy and Communication for the state of Louisiana.
More:Shriners celebrates a 100 years and kicks off with the ribbon cutting of new playground
Once owned by the state they will have to remodel the more than 150,000 square foot building. The process is expected to take several years.
Dardenne said that state employees will continue to work in the existing Mary Allen State Office Building until the Waggoner project is completed.
The renovation involves gutting the building down to the concrete foundation and steel frame, and will result in a modern, state-of-the-art office space spanning across the eight floors.
This newly renovated building is intended to consolidate many Shreveport-area state employees. The current Mary Allen State Office Building houses 358 employees working for 10 state agencies.
Read:This carnivorous, nearly immortal worm is real, and it's in Louisiana. Here's what to know
Through this project, the 358 employees will move to the Waggoner location, along with the potential to add other state agencies currently paying commercial lease rates.
The state, through its capital financing and acquisition arm known, as the Office Facilities Corporation, is buying the Waggoner Building for $1.75 million, the initial listing price was $2,995,000.
"It's obviously considerably less than the original asking price and we think it's a fair price and particularly given the benefit of retaining the steel structure," Dardenne said.
Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com.
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https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2022/04/19/louisiana-buy-downtown-shreveport-office-building-move-local-state-employees/7372413001/
| 2022-04-20T01:36:57
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https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2022/04/19/louisiana-buy-downtown-shreveport-office-building-move-local-state-employees/7372413001/
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Two Northwest Louisiana mental health workers sentenced in Medicaid fraud case
Tuesday, two northwest Louisiana healthcare providers were sentenced in connection to healthcare and wire fraud.
Marty T. Johnson, 59, and Keesha Dinkins, 45, were sentenced on April 19, after pleading guilty to defrauding the Medicaid Program of $3.5 million.
Johnson of Shreveport, was sentenced to 60 months in prison, followed by 1 year of supervised release. Dinkins of Bossier City, was sentenced to 24 months in prison, followed by 1 year of supervised release.
In addition, Johnson and Dinkins were ordered to jointly pay restitution in the amount of $3.5 million.
According to information presented to the court, Johnson owned and operated Positive Change Counseling Agency (Positive Change) located in Shreveport from Jan. 2013 to Jan. 2018. Keesha Dinkins was a manager and supervisor at Positive Change.
More:There's been a natural gas explosion on Barksdale Airforce Base. Here's what we know
Positive Change provided mental health rehabilitation and related services to Medicaid beneficiaries in the Caddo and Bossier Parish areas.
From 2014 to Jan. 2018, Johnson submitted fraudulent claims for mental health rehabilitation and non-emergency transportation services on behalf of Positive Change.
Dinkins knew that Johnson submitted these fraudulent claims which were not performed or rendered. These fraudulent claims resulted in Positive Change receiving payments from Medicaid to which it was not entitled.
Johnson admitted to paying individuals money to enroll with Positive Change, increasing the capacity for Positive Change to bill Medicaid for services that were not rendered.
Johnson instructed employees, and Dinkins supervised those employees, at Positive Change to create false client files to conceal from Medicaid and insurance company auditors and inspectors that it had not performed the services related to its previously submitted claims which had already been reimbursed by Medicaid.
In order to create these false client files, sections from different client documents were physically cut to create inserts that were glued into blank client log templates. These templates with the glued inserts were then photocopied to create the appearance of legitimate documents.
Read:Court approves restitution amounts for Shreveport society swindler victims, some over $3 million
Johnson and Dinkins supervised and knowingly and willfully instructed the employees that were creating these false client files to place the false and fictitious photocopied, cut and pasted, documents into the client files.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services– Office of Inspector General, Louisiana State Attorney General’s Office-Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com.
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https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2022/04/19/shreveport-area-mental-health-workers-sentenced-medicaid-fraud-case/7370079001/
| 2022-04-20T01:36:59
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https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2022/04/19/shreveport-area-mental-health-workers-sentenced-medicaid-fraud-case/7370079001/
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Investigators looking into the mysterious murder of a Queens mother of two — found dumped on the side of a road inside a duffel bag — have not zeroed in on one specific person of interest, but instead are looking at multiple potential suspects, according to police sources.
The police sources also told NBC New York on Tuesday that they believe Orsolya Gaal knew her attacker, and there were no signs of a break-in at her Forest Hills home.
Detectives continue to interview those who knew her, while canvassing for more video. Forensic evidence gathered inside the house on Juno Street is also being analyzed.
Multiple law enforcement sources told NBC New York that a man who knew the 51-year-old Gaal and had access to her home was identified as a person of interest, but have not released a name or how he may have known her.
As police said they were searching for that man, gruesome details of the attack came to light on Monday.
Law enforcement sources said Gaal was stabbed some 58 times in the neck, torso, and left arm. The sources also said that she had wounds to her hands that were likely from her attempts to fight off the attacker.
Chilling surveillance video showed a person who may have killed her, according to police sources. That person was seen on home security camera footage wheeling a duffel bag down 75th Avenue, with Gaal's body believed to be inside.
Police made the disturbing discovery of her body Saturday morning after a 911 caller alerted officials to the roadside crime scene. The NYPD said Gaal's body was found along Metropolitan Avenue shortly before 8:30 a.m., about a half mile from her home, after a jogger spotted the blood-soaked duffel bag near a busy walking trail.
Law enforcement sources said a trail of blood led detectives back to her home.
News
Gaal's 13-year-old son who lives at the home was questioned by police and later released, sources said. Investigators believe that Gaal was attacked in her basement, while the teenage son was on the top floor of the home.
Police said her husband and another son were out of town, visiting colleges on the west coast, when her body was discovered. Sources told NBC New York that at around 5 a.m. Saturday, the killer is believed to have sent Gaal's husband a threatening text message from her phone.
Her husband and other family members did not respond to requests for comment.
The medical examiner's office confirmed Gaal's death was classified a homicide due to "sharp force injuries of the neck."
Posters offering $3,500 reward for any information leading to an arrest were posted for blocks throughout the neighborhood Tuesday. A growing tribute with flowers continued to grow in the front yard of Gaal's home, as police were still inside the home looking for any more clues. There were tributes pouring in on social media as well, with people noting Gall's kindness.
No arrests have been made, and police are still unsure of a motive behind the killing. Law enforcement sources have said the attack was not random and that the public is not in danger.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/police-eye-multiple-possible-suspects-in-killing-of-nyc-mom-found-in-duffel-bag-sources/3653151/
| 2022-04-20T02:35:07
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/police-eye-multiple-possible-suspects-in-killing-of-nyc-mom-found-in-duffel-bag-sources/3653151/
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A New Jersey man will stay behind bars after he was charged with attempted murder for allegedly running down a woman at least three times in a road rage incident caught on video.
Vincent Jean was ordered held without bail on Tuesday for the April 11 incident in Elizabeth that was filmed by a neighbor's surveillance camera. The footage shows a car on a residential street backing up before chasing a woman onto a front lawn, where she slips and falls in front of the oncoming vehicle.
Neighbors told NBC New York that the 56-year-old Jean was backing up on Salem Avenue, a one-way street, to avoid traffic at a light during the Tuesday morning rush hour and hit a woman's car in an intersection. Apparently, the minor crash upset the man so much, he began following her in his vehicle.
Police and prosecutors allege Jean began pursuing the woman after she began taking pictures of his car as he tried to flee. He allegedly drove over the victim after she fell down, then backed up and drove over her again, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Home surveillance video showed the moment Jean chased the woman and plowed into her.
"He ran over her. Ran over her again, three times," Isaac, a witness who did not want to provide his last name, told NBC New York. It was his home camera that caught the harrowing incident around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. "How could you do a thing like this? It was a fender bender, that's all."
Seconds after the first hit, a school bus showed up and blocked the driver, according to the witness. It was at this point that the driver turned around and allegedly plowed into the victim again. Prosecutors said that Jean then sped away as he left the woman injured on the ground.
Neighbors called 911 as Isaac and his wife ran over to help the woman.
"As my wife put a blanket on her to keep her warm -- it was raining and the grass was wet -- she told my wife, 'thank you,'" Isaac said.
The Union County prosecutor’s office charged Jean with attempted murder, aggravated assault and other offenses. A few hours later, police said they found Jean sitting in his damaged SUV a few miles from the scene.
The 23-year-old woman was taken to the hospital in critical condition, and suffered multiple broken bones.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/nj-man-accused-of-running-down-woman-with-car-in-road-rage-attack-held-without-bail/3653176/
| 2022-04-20T03:09:13
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/nj-man-accused-of-running-down-woman-with-car-in-road-rage-attack-held-without-bail/3653176/
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When Mahlet Berhanemeskel gets back to her New York City home from her 90-minute commute, she doesn’t feel like cooking. So instead she orders food like BLTs, Cheez-Its and cookies from an app called Gorillas. It's affordable and takes 10 minutes.
“It's instant gratification,” she said.
Gorillas is one of several companies that venture capitalists have poured billions into in the latest pandemic delivery craze: companies that promise to get you a bottle of Tylenol, an iced coffee, hummus, a cucumber or a roll of paper towels in 30 minutes — or even 15 minutes — or less. They typically deliver from mini-warehouses in residential and commercial neighborhoods.
Experts say they are unprofitable. Bigger companies are nonetheless muscling in. And officials in European cities and in New York, which has become the U.S. launching pad, have already started complaining about how they operate, saying it's bad for employees and residents.
“The problem I see is that quick commerce players, despite the huge valuations enjoyed and the seemingly unstoppable money flow that they get to grow, at some point they will have to find a path to profitability,” said Bain partner Marc-Andre Kamel, the co-author of a recent report on the online grocery market.
Services are already shutting down. One, 1520, closed in late December, and two more, Buyk and Fridge No More, shut down in March, apparently having run out of money. Buyk's Russian founders reportedly were not able to provide money due to restrictions put in place during the Ukraine war; it did not respond to questions. Fridge No More, in a tweet, said it was closing after two years “due to growing competition and other industry related issues.” Its founder did not answer questions.
Other delivery companies are having growing pains. Gorillas dropped its “10 minutes” delivery promise from its U.S. marketing — now it's just “in minutes.” Gopuff recently laid off 3% of its workforce — more than 400 people.
It's not a sustainable business model, says Len Sherman, an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s business school. “There is going to be a lot of consolidation on some very painful terms."
Getir, a Turkish company that operates in Europe as well as Boston, Chicago and New York, said the key to profitability is adding more mini-warehouses in the cities where it delivers.
“We're here for the long term,” said Langston Dugger, Getir's head of U.S. operations.
The company recently raised $768 million, valuing it at close to $12 billion, and plans to expand in the U.S. Customers range from people “ordering a late night ice cream to somebody who is doing a full grocery shop for the week for a family and everything in between," he said.
Lee Hnetinka, the founder of FastAF, a delivery company with a two-hour delivery model in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, said profitability is “just not a priority” right now as it invests in customer experience, saying their strategy is a long-term one and pointing to Amazon’s early beginnings when it too was unprofitable.
There are new competitive threats from established restaurant delivery companies DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber and grocery delivery service Instacart that have noticed the appeal of the fast-delivery apps.
DoorDash has three “DashMarts” in New York that promise delivery of groceries and convenience-store items within 15 minutes, and says more locations are coming; it also aims to deliver from Albertsons Cos. grocery stores in more than 20 cities in half an hour. But its president, Christopher Payne, said at a recent conference that it may not be possible to make 15-minute delivery profitable.
Grubhub delivers items from 7-Eleven and other convenience stores, usually in under 30 minutes. Uber is partnering with Gopuff and FastAF, letting people choose those companies' items inside the Uber app. Uber also delivers from local grocers, although the delivery times are often over 30 minutes. And Instacart is planning 15-minute delivery, starting with customers of grocery chain Publix in Atlanta and Miami.
It's unclear how fast the services could be outside of the densest U.S. cities, like New York, or the neighborhoods where they cluster in more sprawling cities.
“For this type of model to work — 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, you name it — you need density, right?" said Stanley Lim, a Michigan State University professor who specializes in supply chains. “In a rural area, you can service these customers but not profitably. That's going to be a limit to the spread that these companies can go for."
But in the bustling city, regulatory pressure may loom. New York City Council members have spoken out against the fast-delivery apps, saying they may be breaking zoning laws. The New York City Department of Buildings is working with other government agencies to “explore the appropriate zoning districts” for the mini-warehouses. The centers are not mentioned in existing city zoning regulations since they are a new type of business, said Andrew Rudansky, the agency’s spokesperson.
There are also worries about delivery apps offering discounts that will squeeze local businesses like bodegas and convenience stores as well as concerns about the safety of delivery people. Manny Ramirez, who works for DoorDash and a service called Relay and is an organizer for Los Deliveristas Unidos, which advocates for better conditions for app delivery workers, says he has been badly injured by a car while on his bike twice in the past year, and is still in physical therapy. And the bigger the order, the more dangerous it is for the rider.
“We don't have laws to protect bikers,” he said.
The lack of bike lanes throughout the city, time pressures and fear for their safety drives delivery workers onto sidewalks, advocates say. That leads to worries from city residents.
Deborah Koncius, who lives on Manhattan's Upper West Side, said she feels like her neighborhood has gotten more dangerous with delivery people riding e-bikes on the sidewalk. Although neither she nor any of her family members have gotten hit, “I kind of feel like it’s just a matter of time."
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/latest-grocery-apps-promise-ultra-fast-service-but-can-they-deliver/3653207/
| 2022-04-20T03:09:19
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/latest-grocery-apps-promise-ultra-fast-service-but-can-they-deliver/3653207/
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A woman was showering inside her New Jersey home when a naked man allegedly groped her from behind during a home invasion before running off, according to police.
The incident occurred just after 10 p.m. on April 14 in the area of Andria Avenue in Hillsborough, town police said. The woman told detectives that she was in the shower when the man made his way inside her home, then took off his clothes and allegedly attempted to join her in the shower.
The man grabbed her from behind, Hillborough Township Police said, but the woman was able to fight him off. The man then fled the bathroom and left the home, exiting possibly through a screen door, according to police.
The woman, who was not hurt, told police the man was between the ages of 18-24, thin with short dark hair, with no body or facial hair. She was able to provide a sketch to police, which they later released in hopes of getting a lead on the incident.
No arrests have yet been made, and an investigation is ongoing.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/woman-showering-gets-groped-from-behind-by-naked-man-during-nj-home-invasion-police/3653270/
| 2022-04-20T04:38:13
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/woman-showering-gets-groped-from-behind-by-naked-man-during-nj-home-invasion-police/3653270/
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A pregnant woman was left traumatized in her Brooklyn apartment after a knock at her door had her thinking a package was being delivered — but things took a terrifying turn when she answered the door.
The mother was expecting something to be delivered to her home in a second-floor apartment on East 18th Street in Flatbush Tuesday afternoon, according to her sister. She was there with her two children when she heard a knock, followed by someone claiming to be from UPS.
"She saw the guy with the UPS uniform. Next thing you know, she said she’s inside the apartment with the guy at gunpoint," her sister told NBC New York.
Police said that two men dressed as UPS workers shoved the woman inside, then took cash and jewelry from the apartment. The two robbers were said to be armed with a gun, according to police.
The building's superintendent said that detectives looked at video from hallway surveillance cameras to get a glimpse of the suspects, who he said had masks and gloves on as well.
"Hopefully they find them hopefully they can see behind the masks or something," the super said.
The victim's sister said they both grew up in the building, and are now raising their families there, too. Both now are questioning their safety inside their own building.
"We can’t even open the doors now. How are we going to trust packages now, we can't. We got to let them sit at the door," the sister said.
The woman was said to be resting and recovering after the incident, but is expected to be OK. Police are looking for more surveillance video to see where the two alleged robbers may have run off to, and to get a better look at who they are.
An investigation is ongoing.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/pregnant-mother-robbed-at-gunpoint-by-robbers-posing-as-ups-workers-at-her-home-police/3653219/
| 2022-04-20T04:38:19
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/pregnant-mother-robbed-at-gunpoint-by-robbers-posing-as-ups-workers-at-her-home-police/3653219/
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HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — According to the Arkansas State Police, an Amber Alert that was issued Tuesday morning for a 17-year-old has been inactivated.
In a statement, the Hot Springs Police Department said she was found after an "alleged abduction."
Police say the teen left work at a bakery around 9:15 p.m. on Monday, April 18.
She was with another female co-worker, walking to their vehicles parked a block away. Both were met with another unknown woman standing near a parked vehicle.
The woman asked the teen if she could use her phone to call her parents staying at a Hot Springs condo because she was lost. The woman then changed her mind, according to authorities, and asked her to come closer because she needed to use the GPS coordinates on the phone.
At the same time, police said the teen's friend left to go get her vehicle in a parking garage. When the friend arrived to pick the 17-year-old up, she was not there.
The friend attempted to call, but no one answered. The friend panics and called the teen's mother.
When the mom tried to call her phone, police said she answered and said “everything is fine,” before a male voice came over the phone. The man demanded $10,000 for her return or “they would kill and cut up the victim,” the AMBER Alert said.
The phone then went dead, according to investigators.
The phone was pinged and last located headed south on U.S. Highway 7 south of Hot Springs.
The vehicle of interest has been found Tuesday evening. There is no word on a suspect at this time, but police are questioning two people.
If anyone has any information, please contact the Hot Springs Police Department at (501) 651-7711.
After she was found, we have removed have any mention of the teen that was reported missing.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/hot-springs-teen-abduction-attempt/91-a5b88896-3bd9-409c-987b-91d8461ca251
| 2022-04-20T04:47:47
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/hot-springs-teen-abduction-attempt/91-a5b88896-3bd9-409c-987b-91d8461ca251
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Portland Public Schools announced they will carry Narcan, a drug that can reverse opioid overdoses, on its high school campuses.
On Tuesday night, PPS and Multnomah County held a virtual information session for parents and teenagers to talk about addiction issues and the dangers of fentanyl.
A young woman, Emily, spoke during the virtual event before educators, healthcare professionals, moms, dads, and other caregivers.
“Kids are scared and embarrassed of mental health and embarrassed to ask for that help,” Emily said.
Emily said she reached for illegal drugs when anxiety and depression became too much.
“Drugs were the fix for me for a bit until they weren’t,” Emily explained.
Emily is a student at Harmony Academy, a school that helps students recovering from substance use disorders.
“Isolation and extreme punishments and harsh language and attitudes towards addiction is the opposite of what we need,” Emily noted.
18-year-old Nora, who also spoke during the event, said she overdosed on fentanyl a year ago.
“I had no idea what I’d done was fentanyl until I woke up in the hospital 36 hours later,” Nora said.
Law enforcement say it’s nearly impossible to tell the difference between real and counterfeit pills and say nearly all pills on the street are made with fentanyl.
In 2017, Brenda Martinek, with PPS student support services, lost her son to a fentanyl overdose.
“Taylor was not aware of what he was taking. Taylor thought he was taking Oxy. They were pressed and looked exactly like Oxy. And he took a pill, and it was almost a hundred percent fentanyl and he died immediately,” Martinek said.
She works to get students with mental health and substance abuse issues the support they need and hopes there will be more conversations like the one on Tuesday night.
“I’m extremely concerned about this issue. I don’t want any other parents to have to bury their babies,” Martinek said.
Something the students and others brought up is that when it comes to prevention and treatment one size does not fit all. When it comes to Narcan in schools, they do not believe it is a preventative tool but say it can and will potentially save lives.
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/portland-schools-now-carrying-narcan-amid-fentanyl-surge/
| 2022-04-20T05:52:30
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/portland-schools-now-carrying-narcan-amid-fentanyl-surge/
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A Manhattan man insists he is staying put after his building was sold, refusing to move out and thereby stalling a major $70 million redevelopment plan.
There have been holdouts like him in the past throughout the city, but unlike many of the previous cases, his apartment on West 84th Street near Broadway isn't rent-controlled or stabilized — but COVID protections are keeping a roof over his head.
Ahmet Nejat Ozsu has shared his Upper West Side apartment with his dog, Penelope, for 15 years. But when new owners took over the building, his month-to-month lease expired.
Since then, Ozsu has been battling stay in the apartment, saying the COVID-19 pandemic is a unique circumstance.
"I need time. I need time to find a job and a place," he told NBC New York. "I didn’t have the income, a steady income. I hadn’t worked in two years."
Ozsu says COVID cut into his income as a self-employed software engineer, and says he hasn’t been able to qualify for a new rental. But the owner of the building said that Ozsu hasn’t had a lease since 2017.
A lawyer for the building’s owner says he owes rent since October — with the owner saying that without a valid lease and being many months behind on rent, Ozsu needs to go. The owner also filed a $25 million lawsuit against him, claiming the tenant is "maliciously trying to thwart and impede" the development, as they plan to redevelop and convert the property into condos.
"He has no legal right to be in that unit," said attorney David Scharf, who represents the building owner.
Ozsu disagrees.
"There’s two things that legally put me here: During the moratorium, there’s a moratorium. And then the ERAP, which is still open," he said.
ERAP stands for “Emergency Rental Assistance Program,” the federally funded New York state program to provide rent help for those affected by COVID. Ozsu filed a claim in January.
"He’ll wait months, many months, and then the money will come in. And he’ll have a safe tenancy for probably about a year. Now he has a retaliatory victim claim which will probably give him two years," said Ozsu's attorney, Adam Leitman Bailey.
Scharf said that the building's owner offered Ozsu an apartment in a comparable building at a comparable rent for two years, but said he hasn't responded to the offer yet.
All other tenants in the building have reached an agreement with the building management, making Ozsu the last tenant standing.
But his story as a holdout isn’t unique in NYC. When construction was underway at 15 Central Park West, one tenant holdout reportedly received a $17M payout in the end.
"I don’t look to the future, because that’s a future answer. I’m looking at what’s going on right now and what I need to do," Ozsu said.
"One day, they can make him an offer we can’t refuse, right? It could happen. I’m not counting that out," said Bailey. "But for today and tomorrow and right now, we’re fighting for his life and his ability to live peacefully & that’s all we care about now."
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/one-man-is-halting-nyc-buildings-renovations-and-says-he-has-every-right-to-stay/3653292/
| 2022-04-20T06:08:41
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/one-man-is-halting-nyc-buildings-renovations-and-says-he-has-every-right-to-stay/3653292/
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It is a mostly clear and cold morning across Central Alabama. Temperatures are in the 30s and 40s. You might want a jacket as you head out the door.
Today: The area of high pressure will move east of Alabama Wednesday as a weak upper-level wave/disturbance will move east just north of Alabama later today. This will be close enough to make it partly to mostly cloudy during the day. We could see a stray shower during the evening north of Birmingham. High temperatures will warm up into the lower to mid 70s.
Tonight: It will be mostly cloudy with a chance for a brief sprinkle across Northern Alabama. We will not be as cold with lows in the 50s.
Rest of the Week: Thursday and Friday will have some beautiful weather as the area of high pressure remains east of Alabama. This will block any weather systems from moving across the Southeast U.S. Thursday will start out with some clouds, but we will become mostly sunny during the afternoon. It will become warmer with high temperatures around 80°. Friday will be a beautiful and warmer day with plenty of sunshine. High temperatures will climb into the mid 80s.
Weekend Outlook: The area of high pressure will be parked off the East Coast on Saturday. This will continue to bring us warmer southerly winds and it will become a little more humid. High temperatures will be in the mid 80s. Sunday will become mostly sunny as a cold front moves toward Alabama late in the day. High temperatures will be in the mid 80s. This will be perfect weather for the Talladega Races all Weekend!
Follow Us on Facebook: Chief Meteorologist Ashley Gann, Meteorologist Dave Nussbaum, Meteorologist Michael Haynes and Meteorologist Alex Puckett
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/warming-trend-begins-today-with-summer-like-temperatures-by-this-weekend/
| 2022-04-20T09:41:53
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/warming-trend-begins-today-with-summer-like-temperatures-by-this-weekend/
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Providence is planning a $4M food and drink pavilion next to the new pedestrian bridge
The I-195 Redevelopment District Commission is looking to make another change to Providence’s waterfront space with the addition of a $4-million food and drink pavilion.
Details so far are sparse, as district leaders still need to find an operator and work out the design. But the idea is to bring year-round food service to Innovation District Park, the seven acres on both sides of the Providence River Pedestrian Bridge. The pavilion would take up about 4,000 square feet. Funding for the project was included in the beach, clean water and green bond that voters approved last year.
In a community meeting Monday, Ben Donsky of Agora Partners, which the commission hired as a consultant, said “our analysis shows that at least lunch and dinner seven days a week and breakfast and brunch on the weekends would all be viable, but in terms of any specific type of cuisine, we’re very, very open.”
Timeline for the Innovation District Park pavilion
According to a presentation, the pavilion may include sit-down and takeout food service, along with public restrooms. Outreach is being done among local businesses, and no national chains have been contacted.
Caroline Skuncik, the district’s executive director, said the goal is to break ground in spring 2023 and open the area to customers in 2024.
Several architects are in the running to design the pavilion: Architecture Research Office in New York, Mathison Mathison Architects in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Studio Luz Architects in Boston, Studio Cooke John in New York, and 3SIX0 Architecture, which has offices in Providence and New York.
Outdoor dining space inspired by other cities
The district is looking to multiple parks in New York City, including Madison Square Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park and Domino Park as inspiration for its concessions plan. It also pointed to other examples in Philadelphia, Detroit and Newark, all of which feature sleek outdoor dining space.
Discussion on the pavilion comes after district commissioners selected a developer for waterfront apartments on Parcel 2, a piece of land between South Main and South Water streets.
'Massive and intrusive':Providence locals double down on waterfront apartment criticism
Parcel 2:Providence neighbors scramble to soften impact of waterfront apartments
East Side residents' concerned about river views
In true not-in-my-backyard fashion, a handful of residents on the city’s East Side criticized the project as an obstruction of their views of the river. It remains to be seen whether any such opposition would crop up again. However, one resident, Michelle Barvich, whose home looks out onto the pedestrian bridge, wondered whether she would lose her view.
“I’m very curious as to where this is going to be positioned because I have a beautiful view of the bridge and the walkway,” she said, adding that “on both sides of the bridge … yes, there are some businesses, but a lot of the residents, we’re facing the bridge.”
Skuncik said the district has not yet determined an exact location for the apartments but would do so during the design phase.
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https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/providence-pedestrian-bridge-food-and-drink-pavilion-planned-195-land/7357357001/
| 2022-04-20T11:23:41
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https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/providence-pedestrian-bridge-food-and-drink-pavilion-planned-195-land/7357357001/
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'Home Town' happenings: Hattiesburg artist featured on popular HGTV show
No one can mistake Vixon Sullivan's artwork for anything other than Southern.
The Monticello native who now lives in Hattiesburg creates pottery with images of the South, from Mississippi magnolias to Tennessee irises to Virginia dogwood blossoms.
Bowls embedded with bolls or teapots with nesting bluebirds offer a clear sense of place.
Sullivan's Southern-centric pottery is what led the stars of HGTV's "Home Town" to feature the 32-year-old on a recent episode.
Erin and Ben Napier of Laurel rose to fame through their keen sense of creative placemaking and storytelling that grew out of a love for their hometown.
Here's how it happened:HGTV 'Home Town' features unique Hattiesburg home
In addition to hosting a TV show, the Napiers are partners in Laurel Mercantile Co., a 21st-century version of the store that sold "dry goods and work wares" from 1901 to the 1930s. Sullivan is a featured artist on the Laurel Mercantile website.
In the Season 6 episode "A House for Mom and Dad" that aired April 3, Sullivan talks with Erin Napier about the process. He made a vase decorated with hydrangeas to display for the homeowners.
In the episode, a couple wants to find a home for the wife's parents and grandmother, who want to be closer to their daughter and grandchildren.
"What I love about this episode is that we focus on multi-generational living under one roof and giving them all what they wanted in a home," Erin Napier wrote in an Instagram post.
Sullivan wanted to make a vase with magnolias because "I do those pretty well."
"They persisted. They wanted hydrangeas," he said. "I appreciated that a little bit because it kinda pushed me out of my shell. It was fun to do something a little bit different."
Erin Napier also gave the soft-spoken Sullivan advice to get through the show's taping.
"If you're giving a lot of energy, if you're thinking you're giving a 10, it's going to read as a three," she told him. "It really helped me through the process."
Sullivan and Erin Napier talk about how the vase was made during the shoot and how both of them studied art in college.
"We bonded over that," he said. "It was a good time."
Sullivan enjoys collaborating with other artists since he learns and grows from the experience. He's worked with other Mississippi artists, including his mentor and friend Peter Woods of Peter's Pottery in Mound Bayou, and sculptor Ben Watts of Columbia.
"When I get an opportunity to collaborate, it's always good," he said. "It's kinda like the marrying of what I like to do and integrating it into somebody else's home."
Vernon Dahmer:Sculpture of slain Mississippi civil rights leader installed at courthouse
One of Sullivan's favorite collaborations with Watts was a sculpture of slain civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer, which was installed in 2019 outside Forrest County Courthouse.
Sullivan got a lot of response from the show after it aired, which is good for business, but he wants to find a good balance between work and play so he can enjoy the experience.
He wants people to see him as someone who is encouraging, empowering and inspiring to others but he also wants those qualities to be reflected in his work.
"One thing I really appreciate about being on 'Home Town' is it kind of aligns with my message as well — it's like appreciating where you are from and the beauty in that," Sullivan said.
Do you have a story to share? Contact Lici Beveridge at lbeveridge@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @licibev or Facebook at facebook.com/licibeveridge.
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https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/hgtv-home-town-show-vixon-sullivan-hattiesburg-mississippi/9481208002/
| 2022-04-20T11:23:58
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https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/hgtv-home-town-show-vixon-sullivan-hattiesburg-mississippi/9481208002/
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23rd Downtown Crawfish Jam tickets, music lineup, parking: What to expect
Hattiesburg's Walthall Park will be alive with music and the smell of 6,500 pounds of boiled crawfish Saturday at the 23rd Annual Downtown Crawfish Jam Music Festival.
The festival is presented in part by Southern Beverage, is hosted by the Hattiesburg Historic Neighborhood Association and serves as the largest fundraiser for the Walthall Foundation.
Organizers expect between 1,500 and 1,800 people to attend.
"This is a family-friendly event and we understand the importance of community," said organizer Brian Saffle.
"With this event we try to mesh a few of the things that bring a community together, that being music and food. We also work very hard to keep the cost at a reasonable price, and for $50 you can come and enjoy just that for seven hours and not have to pull out your wallet once you enter the gates."
Music lineup
The festival will feature Jukebox Brass Band as well as Grits and Greens who bring their unique southern rock music featuring lyrics that tell personal and satirical stories.
Louisiana-based Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers will perform soulful music with a touch of blues and old-time zydeco feel. The band also incorporates rhythm and blues, funk, rock and roll, reggae and pop in its performances.
Hattiesburg-based Jake Stevens and the Trainwreck will play rock and roll.
Food and drinks
Admission to the festival includes all-you-can-eat boiled crawfish, burgers, sausage dogs, hot dogs and soft drinks. There will also be unlimited beer for those 21 and older.
No coolers or outside food are allowed.
Tickets
Tickets must be purchased in advance and are available until 4:30, Friday, at T-Bones Records and Cafe, 2101 Hardy St. and Signs First, 4400 Hardy St. They can also be purchased until 8 a.m., Saturday, online at Eventbrite.com.
Tickets prices are $50 for adults and $40 for those younger than 21. Children ages 12 and younger are free and admission includes limited burgers, hotdogs and soft drinks.
How to get there, parking
The festival will be held at Walthall Park, 600 Walnut Street, at the intersection with Rebecca Avenue.
There will be limited parking on the streets in the neighborhood.
Organizers recommend parking in the train depot parking lot or the Sacred Heart High School parking lot on Southern Avenue. A shuttle service will run every 20 minutes to take people to the main entrance.
Walnut Street will be closed off between Hall Avenue and Rebecca Avenue. Rebecca Ave will be closed between Walnut Street and Court Street.
Pets will not be allowed. For information, contact info@dcjhburg.com.
E-bikes:What to know about this unique outdoor activity in Hattiesburg
Contact reporter Laurel Thrailkill at lthrailkill@gannett.com or on Twitter.
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https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/news/local/hattiesburg/2022/04/19/23rd-annual-downtown-crawfish-jam-music-festival-set-saturday/7358466001/
| 2022-04-20T11:24:04
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https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/news/local/hattiesburg/2022/04/19/23rd-annual-downtown-crawfish-jam-music-festival-set-saturday/7358466001/
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State, Hattiesburg city officials turn dirt on Hall Avenue East overpass project
Hattiesburg Mayor Toby Barker was joined Tuesday by U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, along with U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo and city leaders to kick off construction on the Hall Avenue East overpass project.
"As we turn dirt today, we are reminded of where we stood just over two years ago, a few weeks before COVID hit, right across these tracks — behind that train," Barker said, followed by chuckles from those in attendance.
"On that Saturday morning, we announced we had received a $5.39 million Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grant. ... In about two years on this very spot, we will have an overpass that delivers motorists, cyclists and pedestrians over the Canadian National Line."
Funding secured for Hattiesburg overpass:Work begins to alleviate downtown train delays
This project was announced in February 2020 to help solve one of the city’s biggest transportation issues — blocked railroad crossings.
"Think of nearly 100 years where people in vehicles could not get across the tracks when a train was blocking a crossing. Consider ... how police officers couldn't access a neighborhood a quarter mile away because of the blocked crossings," Barker said.
The project is anticipated to take about two years to complete.
Contact reporter Laurel Thrailkill at lthrailkill@gannett.com or on Twitter.
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https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/news/local/hattiesburg/2022/04/19/dirt-turned-hall-avenue-east-overpass-project-hattiesburg/7372121001/
| 2022-04-20T11:24:10
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https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/news/local/hattiesburg/2022/04/19/dirt-turned-hall-avenue-east-overpass-project-hattiesburg/7372121001/
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This article was originally published on Apr 19 at 8:13pm EDT by THE CITY
Rikers Island is one step closer to being under total federal control.
The city’s jails “are in a state of crisis…and action is desperately needed now,” wrote Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in a scathing court filing to a federal judge on Tuesday.
Williams threatened to push for the entire city Department of Correction to be put under a court-appointed receiver, who would have power to totally revamp the agency and ignore existing union contract rules.
The lack of “dramatic systemic reforms” would leave his office with no other choice “but to seek more aggressive relief” like a court-appointed receiver given total control, he wrote.
Currently, only the jail facility itself is under federal watch. Williams noted that more than six years of oversight by federal monitor Steve Martin has led to few improvements.
“We remain alarmed by the extraordinary level of violence and disorder at the jails and the ongoing imminent risk of harm that inmates and correction officers face every day,” Williams wrote to federal judge Laura Taylor Swain, who has overseen the case for years.
News
In an unusual move, Williams asked the court to order Correction Commissioner Louis Molina and a representative from City Hall to attend the next meeting with the monitor and the feds on Thursday so they can directly respond to any questions.
Williams said neither Molina “nor department operational staff” attended meetings on April 5 and April 14 to discuss the city’s broader plans to improve conditions.
On April 15, the Department of Correction Twitter account touted how Molina attended the New York International Auto Show at the Javits Center to display some of the agency’s new vehicle fleet.
On Tuesday, when asked about the court filing, Mayor Eric Adams blamed his predecessors and made vague promises of reform.
“Rikers was a mess,” he told reporters. “And we need to be clear on that. It did not start in January. And we’re going to move forward to make it a humane place.”
A History of Violence
Martin, a corrections consultant from Austin, Texas, was appointed federal monitor in the summer of 2015 as part of a sweeping settlement tied to a class-action suit by a group of city inmates who alleged abuses by officers that included excessive solitary confinement and beatings.
Then-Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara later joined the so-called Nunez case, named after the lead defendant, citing a “deep-seated culture of violence” against teen inmates at Rikers Island.
Under the terms of the court settlement, the DOC has taken some measures intended to reduce the use of physical force by officers, such as revising policy in 2017 to order officers to avoid blows to inmates’ heads with fists or batons unless their lives are being threatened.
But escalating violence and inhumane conditions have persisted and spurred calls for change from decarceration activists and local politicians who have asked Gov. Kathy Hochul to bring in the National Guard and pleaded with President Joe Biden to intervene.
The department has also been plagued by a staffing crisis, with at least 1,000 officers calling out sick on average each day.
Martin’s monitoring team has itself hired an “independent expert in correctional staffing” to analyze how and where officers are deployed. A highly anticipated report on that analysis has taken more than a year to compile and there’s no target date for its release.
The Correction Officers Benevolent Association has contended the city should hire at least 2,000 new officers, bringing the systemwide total to approximately 10,000.
But Martin and former jail commissioners have pointed out that hundreds of correction officers are assigned to administrative tasks like data entry, secretarial support, time keeping, social services and analytics.
Michael Skelly, a spokesperson for COBA did not respond to requests seeking comment on the possible push for a court-appointed total takeover.
‘A Drastic Remedy’
The appointment of a receiver is rare and typically seen as a last resort but not unprecedented.
In 2007, Chicago’s Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center was put under a receiver. Earl Dunlap, a nationally recognized expert, stepped aside in 2015 after implementing a series of reforms.
In 2005, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was taken over by a court-appointed receiver. That takeover has had mixed results and remains partially in place.
Elizabeth Glazer, director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice from 2014 until 2020, told THE CITY last year that she believed the appointment of a federal receiver, with emergency powers to make unilateral decisions, was the only possible solution.
She and former Correction Commissioner Michael Jacobson, who served during the Dinkins and Giuliani administration, also recommended that takeover in a Daily News editorial last week.
“It’s a drastic remedy,” Glazer said Tuesday, “but I don’t see any other way out at this point.”
“It’s pretty powerful medicine,” she added.
THE CITY is an independent, nonprofit news outlet dedicated to hard-hitting reporting that serves the people of New York.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/court-should-consider-taking-over-nyc-dept-of-correction-warns-manhattan-u-s-atty/3653520/
| 2022-04-20T11:50:53
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/court-should-consider-taking-over-nyc-dept-of-correction-warns-manhattan-u-s-atty/3653520/
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The owner of a Queens pawn shop ,who was so savagely beaten in an attack last month that cops initially thought he'd been shot, has died of his injuries.
Arasb Shoughi, 60, passed Sunday morning, police said.
The violent incident occurred just before 1 p.m. on March 28, as the alleged attacker walked into the Global Pawn Shop on Jamaica Avenue, a well-known business in the neighborhood.
Shoughi was identified as neighbors as the owner of the Jamaica shop, and another nearby business owner was the first to find the victim after the attacker fled.
"He was lying there in blood ...(I) rushed there, saw him there and then tried to get something to stop the bleeding," said the other owner, who did not wish to be identified.
The victim, nearly beaten to death, was taken to Jamaica Medical Center. Due to the severity of his injuries, it wasn't until Shoughi reached the hospital that police realized he had been beaten, and not shot in the head as previously thought.
Many neighbors and customers stopped by the business to share their shock and grief.
News
"I'm very hurt because he always looked out for me. I don't know about everybody else, but me personally. I just want to give my prayers to him," said Hasan Campbell.
The suspect is still on the loose, and police haven't made any arrests in the case. Police said that the attacker was wearing a black jacket, black sneakers and a camouflage baseball hat. It was not immediately clear what kind of rod was used in the attack.
An investigation is ongoing.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-shop-owner-dies-weeks-after-gruesome-rod-attack/3653532/
| 2022-04-20T11:50:59
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-shop-owner-dies-weeks-after-gruesome-rod-attack/3653532/
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — A warning from several local law enforcement agencies after a rash of car break-ins in our area.
Multiple agencies are reminding people to lock their cars. This comes after numerous reports of car break-ins. The Cullman Police Department reports that a total of eight cars were broken into just last weekend.
This is something other areas including Fultondale, Hoover, Homewood and Shelby County are also dealing with.
Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Operations Commander Major Clay Hammac is urging you to lock your cars, keep valuables and firearms out of plain sight and to keep an eye out for suspicious activity.
“What you can do to help partner with us is be aware of your surroundings. Be aware of what seems to be out of place in your community,” Hammac said. “If you see a suspicious car that you’ve never seen before driving up and down or walking through driveways checking door handles on unlocked cars, call us. Make sure that you are reporting that. We want to be part of being proactive and identifying criminal activity before it takes place.”
Major Hammac said Shelby County has seen a 12% increase in car burglaries compared to this time last year.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/alabama-law-enforcement-agencies-warn-of-increase-in-car-break-ins/
| 2022-04-20T11:51:33
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/alabama-law-enforcement-agencies-warn-of-increase-in-car-break-ins/
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22-unit condo complex coming to High Street where Victorian house burned down
TAUNTON — Construction of a 22-unit condominium complex at 215 High St. will be allowed to begin if the property owners meet conditions approved by the Planning Board earlier this month.
Planning Department Director Kevin Scanlon said property owners Joe Meawad and Mirande Sidaros have until April 28 to appeal the board’s conditions.
"There is a 21-day appeal period, and they have two years to start the project in that timeframe," he said.
City councilors approved a special permit for the development on Jan. 25.
The special permit is required for any apartment or condo project in Taunton that includes four or more units.
A large Victorian-style house occupied the property until a fire destroyed it in August 2017.
The development will consist of six townhouse-style condominiums with three units inside each dwelling and two townhouses with two homes.
Each unit will be sold at the current market range price of $325,000-$335,000 and not be rented under the zoning provision.
Project engineer Frank Gallagher said access to the dwellings from High Street would be provided by a circular driveway that loops around the property and back to the roadway.
"The traffic circulates a grassy courtyard area that we proposed to be a recreation area,.. for kids or a picnic type area,” he said during the April 7 Planning Board meeting where the board approved the conditions.
Real estate report:'Castle' of a home on Tremont St., Taunton, sells for almost $900,000
Gallagher said the complex would have 53 parking spaces, “which is nine more than the minimum zoning requirement would be for the 22 units."
"We also have a building coverage of 19% on the lot, which is half of the maximum amount allowed under the zoning," he said.
Gallagher said the site could have had 38 units under the zoning provision.
Water flow prohibited from complex
The board’s conditions for the project forbid water to drain from the complex onto High Street.
Board Chairman Anthony Abreau said there is currently water “overflow on the city street.”
"We want to make sure there is no overflow," he said. "We have problems with drainage on High Street.
'Would you want to drink that water?':How much of these 'forever chemicals' is in the water in your Taunton-area town?
Gallagher said the construction plan does not allow “excess water to come onto the city street.”
“We should have enough storage to handle it all,” he said.
The board requires drainage pipes at the site to be 12-inches in diameter, and the property owners must assure the Department of Public Works that all water runoff won't' flow onto High Street.
A city engineering study must also be done to determine if the existing sewer main on High Street can handle sewerage flow.
Additional site plan conditions
Meawad and Sidaros must have a site plan that details wheelchair ramps and a sidewalk, which meets access requirements for disabled people.
The site must have dumpsters enclosed within a 6-foot stockade fence that is kept closed for appearance purposes.
Meawad and Sidaros will be required to keep the site clear of debris and not have lighting that illuminates any portion of nearby properties.
Gallagher said he submitted revised plans to the board that "incorporate all the comments made to us" concerning the site.
“Since I met with the Council, I submitted a set of revised plans for the site plan approval,” he said.
The board unanimously agreed to establish the site plan conditions for Meawad and Sidaros when the discussion ended.
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https://www.tauntongazette.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/taunton-high-street-planning-board-condominium-condo-complex-high-street/7372765001/
| 2022-04-20T12:24:58
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https://www.tauntongazette.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/taunton-high-street-planning-board-condominium-condo-complex-high-street/7372765001/
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — This Kohr Explores is going green! And we’re not talking about Earth Day or St. Patrick’s Day.
It’s 4/20 — a day which has become an unofficial holiday for cannabis producers, their consumers and advocates of legalized marijuana.
Kohr Harlan visited Chalice Farms Dispensary in southeast Portland to show how they’re celebrating.
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/kohr-explores-dispensary-celebrates-dopest-day-of-the-year/
| 2022-04-20T13:45:58
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/kohr-explores-dispensary-celebrates-dopest-day-of-the-year/
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A 12-year-old boy shot and killed in Brooklyn earlier this month as he sat in a parked car with family eating food will be laid to rest Wednesday, marking the latest -- and youngest, most recently -- mourning of an unintended victim of city gun violence.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who previously condemned the violence that claimed the innocent young life of Kade Lewin, had been among those expected to attend services for Kade Lewin at New Life Tabernacle on Avenue D.
The boy will be interred at Canarsie Cemetery later in the day.
Lewin was with his 20-year-old aunt and an 8-year-old relative around 8 p.m. on April 4 when the three pulled over near East 56th Street and Linden Boulevard in East Flatbush. That's when men exited a sedan, and numerous shots were fired.
It is believed that Lewin, who was struck in the head and chest while sitting in the passenger seat, was not the intended target of the shooting. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene, according to senior police officials.
The boy's aunt was also shot as she sat in the driver's seat, suffering gunshots to her head, right cheek, chest and upper left leg. She underwent surgery shortly after the shooting and was expected to survive, police said. The young girl wasn't hurt.
News
It was not immediately clear what prompted the shooting, or if the car that the woman and children were in was the target. Police said the victims live in the area.
The five suspects took off in a black Infiniti sedan with Connecticut license plates, as well as another black sedan. No arrests have been made in the case.
In the hours after the shooting, Adams called for an end to the senseless violence but acknowledged, "as long as we have guns and a revolving door system, we're going to continue to come to crime scenes like this."
"The question I continue to ask: What about the innocent people? The people that are sitting in their cars and are shot and killed." Adams said. "We hear so much about those who are fighting, but when are we going to start fighting for the innocent people of this city? I'm going to do that, and this police department is going to do that. we're going to catch this shooter ... Time for it to stop."
An investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/12-year-old-nyc-boy-gunned-down-in-parked-car-mourned-as-hunt-for-killers-continues/3653726/
| 2022-04-20T13:51:46
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — It's election season in Arkansas, which means the voter registration deadline is getting closer.
You have to be registered 30 days before the election if you want to vote and the state's first primary is Tuesday, May 24, so you still have time.
While that deadline is approaching the Secretary of State's Office is trying to get more people headed to the polls.
It's busy season for Suite 256 at the Arkansas State Capitol. As Secretary of State, John Thurston, is in charge of everything elections from voting systems to records to registration.
"We have around 1.75 million people here in Arkansas that are registered," he said.
For Thurston, that's a number he believes is trending up, but he always wants more.
"We do, historically, have low voter registration compared to some of the other states and so that's why it's important to have these voter registration drives," he said.
Voter registration drives like the one on Tuesday at the veterans hospital in North Little Rock.
It's a new initiative for Arkansas that other states have done according to Thurston to get local veterans to the polls, but also anyone can dedicate their vote in honor of a veteran.
"Not only do we want to honor veterans with our vote. This is a bold statement, but if you don't vote, you dishonor our veterans because they have paid the ultimate price," he said.
No one knows about paying the ultimate sacrifice like members of "We are the 22," which is a direct suicide prevention group that helps veterans in crisis.
Director of Personnel Tanya Fischer said the non-profit is partnered with the Secretary of State's office on the veteran voter registration initiative.
"It's important for them to be able to exercise their right to vote and vote on the platforms that are important to them, like more funding for the VA hospitals or things like that," she said.
The organization's name came from the amount of veterans a day who commit suicide, a problem Fischer said voters could weigh in on by casting a ballot.
"A lot of the reasons veterans end up in suicidal crisis is just because there aren't programs or funding for some of the things they need, or they don't know how to get to them, and we want to help help with that," she said.
Mark your calendars, the first voter registration deadline is coming up soon, it's actually Monday, April 25, for the primary election set for Tuesday, May 24.
The next voter registration drive is on Thursday, April 21 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock.
There's also one on Saturday, April 23, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Military Museum in Jacksonville.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/arkansas-registering-veterans-voting/91-41c380de-727a-40b2-a114-0fe95296b083
| 2022-04-20T14:48:26
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/arkansas-registering-veterans-voting/91-41c380de-727a-40b2-a114-0fe95296b083
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — On Tuesday, a ceremony was held to honor four Alabama airmen who died in the secret Bay of Pigs mission in Cuba 61 years ago.
During the ceremony at Forest Hill Cemetery, a wreath was laid at the Birmingham gravesite of Thomas “Pete” Ray, who was part of the 117th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing based in Birmingham. The mission was part of a CIA operation to overthrow Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. On April 19, 1961, Ray and other Alabama Airmen were shot down and killed before the mission could be carried out. It was almost two decades before their families were told the truth about what happened to them.
Ray’s daughter, Janet, joined CBS 42 Morning News anchor Andrea Lindenberg to talk about what the family went through after Ray’s death, as well as the year’s of not knowing the truth.
“The CIA told us that they were mercenaries and they drowned flying a plane in the Caribbean,” said Ray, who was 6 years old when her father died. “They did not tell us the truth.”
Ray said that right away, her family and the families of the other men killed in the operation knew that what they were being told was not true.
“My dad had always served in the military. He wasn’t a mercenary,” she said. “They made mistakes by saying things like, ‘Well, we saw the engine floating,’ and one of the widows said, ‘Engines don’t float.’ We knew immediately. It was right away.”
But why would the government deny this? Ray has her theory on the matter.
“I think everybody knew the United States was involved, but I think a lot of it was to protect the president (John F. Kennedy),” she said. “We need to destroy these men’s reputations and make them look like mercenaries so no one will ask any questions.”
Watch the full interview the video above.
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| 2022-04-20T15:44:56
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Two men found dead on subway tracks in Brooklyn after an operator on the No. 3 line called 911 to report an accident early Wednesday were already dead and may have been hit by another train the night before, police said.
The operator noticed the two people on the railbed north of the Sutter Avenue-Rutland Road station in Brownsville shortly after 6:45 a.m. and notified police and fire officials, who responded, according to MTA sources familiar with the case.
Both people were dead at the scene, the sources said, adding that their bodies were found in close proximity to one another. Both were men believed to be homeless.
Train service was shut down in the area for hours as authorities investigated. More than 1,000 passengers on the No. 3 train that stopped to call 911 had to be helped off via a rescue train that responded to the scene.
It wasn't immediately clear what the men were doing on the tracks when they died. No other details were known about them publicly by early Wednesday afternoon.
The investigation is ongoing.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/2-bodies-found-on-subway-tracks-in-brooklyn-after-911-call/3654239/
| 2022-04-20T16:54:20
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Police are searching for an individual they say assaulted a 72-year-old man in Brooklyn, ultimately slashing his victim in the face with a knife multiple times -- all before fleeing.
According to the NYPD, police received a report that an unknown man approached the septuagenarian from behind on Tuesday, shortly after 6 a.m., in the area of Beverley Road and East 16th Street. He, allegedly, went on to push and slash his victim multiple times in the face with a knife.
Following the attack, the unknown man subsequently fled on foot southbound on Marlborough Road towards Cortelyou Road, according to police.
Meanwhile, police say, the victim sustained lacerations to the face and was transported by EMS Kings County Hospital in stable condition.
Video and photos of the unknown man wanted in connection to the attack were provided by the police.
The NYPD urges anyone with information regarding this attack is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/nypd-man-slashes-72-year-old-in-face-during-morning-ambush-on-brooklyn-street/3654019/
| 2022-04-20T16:54:33
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/nypd-searches-for-man-wanted-for-allegedly-slashing-72-year-old-in-face-during-assault/3654141/
| 2022-04-20T16:54:39
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If you're looking to catch a free performance or enjoy what New York City can offer this summer, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) aims to take a new approach by hosting hundreds of free events under the "Summer for the City" initiative.
Launched by Shanta Thake, Lincoln Center's Chief Artistic Officer, the three-month program plans to engage the entire campus with over 1,000 artists, 300 events and 10 outdoor stages.
"We all seek a remedy for the upheaval and pain of the past two years. Art can
help provide it: from group sing-alongs to celebrations of important milestones missed or truncated. We must empower ourselves to let joy back in, together,” said Henry Timms, President and CEO of Lincoln Center.
The season runs from May 14 through August 14 with the theme "Rejoice, Reclaim, Remember," representing a city healing during the unprecedented COVID times.
This comes after last year's "Restart Stages", which created an outdoor performing space to lift the arts during the pandemic, as well as this spring's added "choose what you pay" model for ticketing.
"Earlier this year, we piloted 'Choose-What-You-Pay' with our American Songbook series, to help ensure greater access. The pilot has been very successful—70% have been first-time LCPA ticket buyers which is very exciting, and we are nearly completely sold out," Thake told NBC New York.
Performances include a variety of entertainment, such as large-scale sing-alongs, dance festivals, sculptural installations, films and pop-up shows.
News
For those wishing to strut their stuff, Lincoln Center plans to reinvent the Josie Robertson Plaza and open the city's largest outdoor dance floor, "The Oasis" complete with a 10' disco ball.
Entry to "Summer for the City" events will be available for free via general admission, first-come, first-served. A free advanced reservation service for certain exhibits will be an option, giving guests priority access to book ahead.
"Choose what you pay" tickets will also extend into the summer season.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/lincoln-center-to-offer-free-shows-in-new-summer-for-the-city/3654034/
| 2022-04-20T16:54:46
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HONOLULU (AP) — Ezra Miller was arrested on suspicion of assault early Tuesday, the second time the actor known for playing the Flash in “Justice League” films has been arrested in Hawaii in recent weeks.
Miller became irate after being asked to leave a get-together at a Big Island home and threw a chair, hitting a woman in the forehead, according to a news release from the Hawaii Police Department.
The woman refused treatment for a half-inch (1.3-centimeter) cut on her forehead, police said.
Miller, described by police as a 29-year-old visitor from Vermont, was arrested during a traffic stop and released pending further investigation.
About twelve hours after Miller’s arrest, the actor appeared via Zoom for a court hearing for an arrest last month at a Big Island karaoke bar.
Miller pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct and was ordered to pay a $500 fine and stay away from Margarita Village in Hilo.
Miller was also charged with harassment after police said the actor grabbed a mic from a singing woman and lunged at a man playing darts.
Miller was aggravated by a rendition of the Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper ballad “Shallow,” Hawaii Police Assistant Chief Kenneth Quiocho said.
As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped the harassment charge, along with an unrelated traffic charge.
Miller received a traffic citation after police were called to a dispute in downtown Hilo last month where Miller was uncooperative, refused to leave the area and obstructed a sidewalk, Quiocho said.
Miller’s Hawaii attorney didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment on the latest arrest. Another lawyer and a Miller representative also didn’t immediately respond to messages requesting comment.
There was no mention of the latest arrest during the court hearing.
Big Island attorney Francis Alcain had requested Tuesday’s court hearing, previously scheduled for next week, be moved up. Alcain said in a court filing his client “has various time sensitive work obligations in California and/or New York,” and needs an earlier hearing “to resolve this matter.”
The day after Miller was released on $500 bail for the karaoke bar arrest, a Big Island couple filed a petition for a temporary restraining order, claiming the actor burst into their bedroom and threatened them. A judge dismissed the case last week after an attorney for the couple requested it.
William Dean, an attorney for the couple, declined to say why his clients no longer wanted to pursue a restraining order against Miller.
Judge M. Kanani Laubach applied Miller’s bail to the $500 fine, leaving a $30 fee to pay.
Miller also has a key role in the third installment of the Harry Potter spinoff “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.”
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This story has been corrected to show that the injured woman refused treatment for a cut.
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| 2022-04-20T17:08:08
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FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Actor Johnny Depp told jurors Tuesday that he felt compelled to sue his ex-wife Amber Heard for libel out of an obsession for the truth after she accused him of domestic violence.
“My goal is the truth because it killed me that all these people I had met over the years … that these people would think that I was a fraud,” he said.
Depp flatly denied ever hitting Heard, calling the physical and sexual assault allegations against him disturbing, heinous and “not based in any species of truth.”
“Nothing of the kind ever happened,” Depp said in court.
Alluding to the fall his career has taken since Heard levied abuse allegations against him, the former “Pirates of the Caribbean” star said, “it’s been six years of trying times. It’s very strange when one day you’re Cinderella, so to speak, and then in 0.6 seconds you’re Quasimodo.”
For the first hour-plus of testimony Tuesday, Depp gave long, stream-of-consciousness answers to questions about his childhood and his early movie career, speaking in his signature deep baritone. After one long answer, he admitted: “I forgot what the original question was.”
Indeed, he acknowledged his meandering style, particularly as it relates to his writing style. He mentioned his long friendship and collaborations with the late gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, and said he sought to emulate a style that often incorporated brash language and embellishing thoughts.
He said that led him at times to write text messages that he now finds embarrassing, and he apologized to the jury for the vulgar language he used in text messages introduced as evidence to describe Heard.
“In the heat of the moment, in the heat of the pain I was feeling, I went to dark places,” he said.
But he said he’d been waiting for six years to tell his side of the story after Heard filed for divorce against him in 2016 and sought a restraining order against him.
The trial began more than a week ago, but, prior to Tuesday, jurors had only seen the Hollywood star sitting silently with his team of lawyers as each side has tried to embarrass the other in a trial that Heard’s lawyers accurately predicted would turn into a mudslinging soap opera.
After denying Heard’s abuse allegations, Depp spoke at length about a childhood in which physical abuse from his mother was “constant.” When he became a father, Depp said, he made sure his children didn’t experience that kind of upbringing.
Depp will continue his testimony Wednesday. In Tuesday’s session, he testified primarily about the early years of his relationship with Heard, saying she seemed “too good to be true” at first.
“She was attentive,” Depp said of the woman he married in 2015. “She was loving. She was smart. She was kind. She was funny. She was understanding … We had many things in common, certain blues music … literature.”
He said there were little things, though, that gave him indications of a rocky relationship ahead. She became upset, he said, when he broke an established routine in which she took off his boots for him when he came home. And he said she was angry when he wouldn’t go to bed when she was ready.
“I didn’t understand why, as a 50-some-year-old man, I couldn’t go to sleep when I wanted to.” he said.
Depp, 58, said he was cognizant of the age difference between him and Heard, 35.
“I acknowledge the fact I was the old, craggy fogey and she was this beautiful, creature,” he said.
But Depp said that within a year and a half, it was as if Heard had become another person.
So far, Depp’s friends, family and employees have testified that Heard was the aggressor in the relationship, physically attacking him on multiple occasions. Heard’s former personal assistant testified that Heard spit in her face in a fit of rage.
Heard’s lawyers have said Depp physically and sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions, often in situations where he drank so much he later blacked out.
Depp said Heard’s allegations of his substance abuse have been “grossly embellished” and that there have been no moments where he’s been out of control.
“I’m not some maniac who needs to be high or loaded all the time,” Depp said, though he admitted to doing “a line or two” of cocaine with Heard’s sister, Whitney.
The actor said he was addicted to pain medication, which stemmed from an injury on the set of the fourth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie. He also said he took his mother’s “nerve pills” when he was a kid.
But Depp said he detoxed from the pain medication and has experienced long periods of sobriety over the years.
“The characterization of my ‘substance abuse’ that’s been delivered by Ms. Heard is grossly embellished,” Depp said. “And I’m sorry to say, but a lot of it is just plainly false. I think that it was an easy target for her to hit.”
The lawsuit itself is supposed to be over whether Heard libeled Depp when she wrote a 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post about domestic violence. In the article, Heard referred to herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”
She never mentioned Depp by name, but Depp and his lawyers said it was a clear reference to accusations Heard made in 2016 when the couple divorced and she sought a restraining order against him.
Heard’s lawyers, who have filed their own countersuit against Depp, said nothing in the article libels him. They say the abuse allegations are true, and that the damage to Depp’s reputation — which he says got him booted from the lucrative “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie franchise — came from his own bad behavior.
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Associated Press writer Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia, contributed to this report.
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| 2022-04-20T17:08:15
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kris Jenner falsely accused Blac Chyna of physically abusing Jenner’s son Rob Kardashian in a broader effort to force the couple’s reality show “Rob & Chyna” to be canceled, Chyna’s lawyer said Tuesday during opening statements in a Los Angeles trial.
Chyna, a model and former reality star whose legal name is Angela White, is suing the “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” matriarch and her daughters Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner for lost earnings from the end of the 2016 spinoff after one season, and the loss of celebrity earning power that resulted from it.
“Kris Jenner set out to have ‘Rob & Chyna’ canceled,” Chyna’s lawyer Lynne Ciani told the jury, as Jenner and the other Kardashian women sat in the front row of the gallery. “And she brought in her three daughters to help accomplish that.”
The defendants’ attorney, Michael G. Rhodes, began his opening statement by introducing his clients and having them stand, saying that Kris Jenner “manages the vast empire that this family has built from scratch” and calling Kim Kardashian “one of the world’s most famous people.”
Chyna, he said, badly wanted what they have.
“The evidence is going to show you that Miss White would say or do anything to be part of this family,” Rhodes said.
He said the couple’s reality show was canceled by the E! Network not because of any machinations by the Kardashians, but because they broke up.
“There is no ‘Rob & Chyna’ show if there is no Rob and Chyna,” Rhodes said.
Ciani gave an account of the couple’s whirlwind relationship and wild year of 2016.
They met in January, announced their engagement in April, announced they were having a baby in May, and in November began their reality show and had a daughter, Dream.
“They really clicked, and it was one of those relationships that once they clicked, it really moved fast,” Ciani said.
Both sides agree that on Dec. 4, 2016, a day Chyna and Rob Kardashian celebrated the renewal of their show for a second season, the two got into a terrible argument that permanently damaged their relationship.
The differing accounts of that day will take up much of the trial that’s expected to last seven to 10 days. All four defendants are expected to take the stand.
Ciani said that in messages to the head of the show, Jenner said that Chyna beat Rob Kardashian with a pole and wrapped a phone-charging cord around his neck so tightly it left marks.
But Ciani said unaired footage from series would show that he had not been significantly injured.
And she said Kris Jenner used her daughters to spread word of the alleged abuse to key people with power over the show’s future.
Rhodes told the jury there was evidence of abuse, but said that more importantly the couple’s relationship effectively ended that day, as did any real future for the show, though he said it was months before any decision was made to scrap it.
Chyna took the stand in the last minutes of the day, describing her early life and big initial break when the rapper Drake saw her working as a stripper in a Miami club and named her in a song. She returns to the witness chair on Wednesday.
She is suing the Kardashian family for $100 million in the lawsuit first filed in 2017, alleging defamation and interference with contracts.
Earlier Tuesday, after a selection process that saw many prospective jurors air their disdain for the Kardashians and the world of reality television, the two sides settled on a panel of eight men and eight women for the trial.
Four of the jurors will be alternates, but Superior Court Judge Gregory W. Alarcon said he would not declare which ones until deliberations begin.
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
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| 2022-04-20T17:08:22
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man who admitted supplying the dealer who sold Mac Miller the drugs that killed the rapper has been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.
Ryan Michael Reavis, 39, pleaded guilty last year to a single count of distribution of fentanyl.
Reavis knowingly supplied counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl to co-defendant Cameron James Pettit, 30, of Los Angeles, according to a plea agreement. Pettit sold the pills and other drugs to Miller, who two days later suffered a fatal overdose, according to prosecutors.
Another co-defendant, Stephen Andrew Walter, 48, of Los Angeles, also agreed to plead guilty to one count of distribution of fentanyl. Prosecutors said Reavis supplied the pills to Pettit at the direction of Walter.
Reavis received a 131-month sentence on Monday, according to Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
Walter is scheduled to be sentenced May 16, McEvoy said.
The case against Pettit is pending.
Miller’s assistant found the rapper unresponsive in his Los Angeles home on Sept. 7, 2018, and he was declared dead soon after.
Miller was a Pittsburgh native whose real name was Malcolm James Myers McCormick. “Circles,” his sixth and final studio album, was released posthumously in 2020.
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| 2022-04-20T17:08:29
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NEW YORK (AP) — Rosalía spent three years working on her acclaimed third studio album, “Motomami.” Now she’s ready to take the music on an upcoming world tour, with stops in her native Spain, Mexico, Europe and New York’s famed Radio City Music Hall.
The Grammy- and eight-time Latin Grammy-winning sensation announced on Monday her “Motomami World Tour,” which will see her perform 46 concerts in 15 countries beginning July 6 in Almería, Spain, and includes stops in Barcelona, Madrid, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, Bogota, New York, Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Milan, Amsterdam, London and more, before closing in Paris on Dec. 18.
“There isn’t a day that I don’t train, there isn’t a day that I don’t study all of this,” the 29-year-old singer-songwriter told The Associated Press from Miami as she prepares physically and emotionally to spend almost half a year on the road.
“But I’m very excited. I’ve always really liked traveling, and in the end I feel that being able to go to other countries also keeps me inspired, keeps me making music, because I hope to continue writing songs during the tour,” she added.
“Motomami,” her follow-up to 2018’s “El Mal Querer,” was produced between Barcelona, Miami, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, New York and Los Angeles, largely during the pandemic.
With its combination of flamenco, reggaeton, bachata, salsa, electro-pop and hip-hop, and breakout songs like “Saoko,” “La Combi Versace” with Tokischa, “La Fama” with The Weeknd and “Chicken Teriyaki,” the eclectic 16-track album debuted at No. 1 on Spotify’s Global Album Chart (a first-ever accomplishment for a Spanish artist), and scored the strongest Billboard chart debut of any Latin album so far this year.
When asked about her influences and musical models, the first thing that Rosalía mentions is that she grew up surrounded by nature.
“In the end, nature is God’s most brilliant creation. That has been a reference for me, or rather an inspiration. That marked me since I was little,” said the artist, who was born in San Cucufate del Vallés, a municipality located in the Vallés Occidental region, in the province of Barcelona.
Then she highlights the great women in her life: “My grandmother took me to Mass and that marked me. My mother has always been a reference; she is a very strong woman, a very independent woman. Or my sister, who is a visual artist and has always inspired me a lot, too, a very intelligent woman.
“And, well, my mother always showed me Nina Hagen, Patti Smith, Janis Joplin, women who create,” she continued. “My mom showed me that because she really liked music, so all of that has been a reference for me.”
Transferring a project as ambitious and varied as “Motomami” to the stage has been “a very exciting challenge” for Rosalía. She said this stage show will be very different from her 2019 tour in support of “El Mal Querer”, which also included 40-plus concerts on both sides of the Atlantic.
On that occasion, in New York, she performed two nights at Webster Hall. This time, it will be at the massive and iconic Radio City Music Hall on Sept. 18-19.
“Two nights! Two nights! I can’t wait. New York is one of my favorite cities. I hope at some point in my life I can live there, but for now at least I can go sing,” said the singer behind hits including “Con Altura” with J Balvin, “TKN” with Travis Scott and “La noche de anoche” with Bad Bunny.
She said she is excited to play again in her native country, where she has 12 concerts scheduled, as well as in Mexico and Argentina “because the audience there gives you a lot of love; it is such a dedicated audience that it brings out the best in me.”
She’s also eager to get to the San Juan Coliseum because many of the artists who have inspired the project — such as Daddy Yankee, Tego Calderón, Zion and Don Omar — have filled that venue, and to La Romana in the Dominican Republic “because there is also bachata in ‘Motomami.’”
Tickets for the “Motomami World Tour” will be available starting Friday at rosalia.com.
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Sigal Ratner-Arias is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sigalratner.
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This story corrects the age of Rosalía to 29, not 28.
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| 2022-04-20T17:08:36
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NEW YORK (AP) — When Christo Grozev, executive director of the investigative collective Bellingcat, recently re-watched the new documentary “Navalny,” about the imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, he was struck by how much the film affected him differently since Vladimir Putin launched Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“Navalny,” directed by Daniel Roher, is a gripping portrait of the Russian dissident beginning with the 2020 poisoning that nearly killed him, and which Grozev traced directly to the Kremlin. Grozev uncovered that Navalny had been attacked with the nerve agent Novichok and that the alleged assassination attempt was the work of a Kremlin spy unit. (The Kremlin has denied it.) At the time, Grozev wondered if it would seem too far fetched that Putin would go to such Bond villain extremes.
“When we did the investigation in 2020, I struggled with: How am I going to convince Russian audiences and the world that what I’m saying is true — that the president of a large country that wants to be a moral leader in the world has been assassinating people?” Grozev said in a recent interview. “Now, it doesn’t seem like it’s such a big leap of faith.”
The war in Ukraine has rapidly recast “Navalny,” whichpremieres 9 p.m. Sunday on CNN and CNN+after a brief few days in theaters. Since Roher’s film premiered in January at a virtual Sundance Film Festival — where it won both the documentary audience award and the festival favorite award — the geopolitics that “Navalny” documents bracingly in real time have exploded in the open. The Ukraine war, which U.S. President Joe Biden has said constitutes genocide, exposed the grim horror of Putin’s politics to much of the world.
“Navalny” now plays like a prequel to Maria Pevchikh, head of the investigative unit for Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and an executive producer on the film. “It gives so much context to what’s happening now in Ukraine.
“The world could have and should have understood earlier. Putin could have been stopped in many points in history: after Crimea, after using chemical weapons, after running this assassination squad,” she said. “There have been so many awfully wrong things that we didn’t react strongly enough to.
“Navalny,” which will stream on HBO Max at a later date, was intimately filmed with the Russian opposition leader as he recuperated from the Novichok attack in Germany with his family, and resolved to return to Moscow despite the clear risks. In between, Navalny makes his case for an alternative to Putin while often comically sifting through the details of his near death. In one unbelievable scene — perhaps the first to ever fuse John le Carré and the Jerky Boys — Navalny calls Kremlin agents behind the attack while posing as a Russian bureaucrat filing a report, getting one to divulge plenty of details. With Roher’s fly-on-the-wall cameras, a real-life political thriller unspools starring a very charismatic Putin foe.
“Getting this film out in the world will help the world understand that Vladimir Putin is not Russia and Russia is not Vladimir Putin,” says Roher, the Canadian filmmaker of “Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band.” “What Alexei Navalny is an alternate vision of what the country could be.”
When Navalny landed in Moscow in early 2021, he was greeted by throngs of supporters — and quickly detained. After a year in jail, he was sentenced last month to nine more years for fraud in a case that the State Department condemned as a “sham ruling.” On Twitter, Navalny was characteristically undeterred.
“9 years. Well, as the characters of my favorite TV series ‘The Wire’ used to say: ‘You only do two days. That’s the day you go in and the day you come out.'”
As the war in Ukraine has dragged on and war crimes have been widely alleged against Russia, Navalny has spoken bluntly against the assault. On Tuesday, he claimed a distant relative of his, Ilya Ivanovich Navalny, had been killed in a Ukrainian village. Navalny suggested he had been targeted for his last name by Russia forces.
“It is now everyone’s duty to make at least some, even the smallest contribution to stop this war and remove Putin from power,” said Navalny on Twitter. “Protest wherever and however you can. Agitate however you can and whomever you can. Inaction is the worst possible thing. And now its consequence is death.”
With such stakes, the role of “Navalny” has only intensified, the filmmakers say.
“People are fighting. Navalny is fighting,” says Pevchikh. “We are convinced that it’s never too late to try to stop Putin. To stop him today would be better than stopping him tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.”
In a crackdown on opposition activists and independent journalists, Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation was last year labeled an extremist organization by the Kremlin. Now operating outside Russia, the group has continued running investigations into government corruption, even with its leader behind bars. (In March, its researchers linked a superyacht docked in Italy to Putin.)
Pevchikh hasn’t seen Navalny, himself, in more than a year. At every festival premiere and screening event, she happily stays to watch the documentary again.
“It’s nice to see Alexei out of prison, looking and behaving like he usually does,” says Pevchikh. “It’s always nice to spend an hour and half with your friend, even if it’s just in a movie.”
To help avoid potential sabotage from Russian operatives, the companies behind “Navalny” have kept release plans quiet until the last minute. The film was added to Sundance days before the festival began; its CNN broadcast was announced about a week beforehand. After the film first began screening Roher says he’s been depicted as CIA in Russian state media. He calls getting the film seen in Russia his number one prerogative.
“I wouldn’t want Russians to go on bit torrent sites and try to find it and download it and share it with their friends and families, and maybe set up screenings in their communities and their homes,” says Roher. “I would never suggest that.”
But as much has changed in the three months since “Navalny” first premiered, Roher says that Navalny’s unflinching confidence remains undimmed.
“When you work with Alexei and you spend enough time with the man, you can’t help but be optimistic,” says Roher. “This war that Putin is waging, the war crimes he’s committing, are perhaps the greatest political blunder ever. I would look to history. I would remind readers how quickly the Soviet Union fell. Things change overnight.”
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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/ukraine-war-recasts-navalny-as-a-prequel-to-putins-aims/
| 2022-04-20T17:08:44
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2022 Gaston Sports Hall of Fame: Eller's key to success? Close attention to the details.
Joe Eller spent much of his life playing or coaching football. His successes with Gastonia youth football and Cramerton and North Gaston high schools is the reason he's a part of the 2022 Gaston County Sports Hall of Fame induction class.
Just don't get the impression Eller has stopped coaching.
Now 88, Eller remains active in his profession as the organizer of the Gaston County Seniors Golf Association.
"A bunch of us started playing in 1951 when old Lakewood Golf Course opened in Cramerton and we sort of self-taught ourselves," Eller said. "The group kept growing and growing and growing over the years and finally we just created a club. We called it the '5 o'clock League' at Lakewood, which as the years went on and people started retiring, it became the 'Lakewood Lunch Bunch.' When they sold the golf course (in 2004 on the land where Stuart Cramer High School sits), we moved to other courses.
"Eventually, we got a schedule and organized our group and started keeping records on everything."
Eller is the current top organizer for a group that now plays at several courses. Those who know Eller best, say that attention to detail started with the football playing and coaching careers that made him famous.
"He was just an excellent teacher and a disciplinarian who knew the game and knew how to explain it to the players," said Art Shoemaker, a former assistant for Eller at Groves Threads in the 1960s. "He got information from all of the coaches he was around like Matt Matlock, Bennie Cunningham, Jack Huss and E.C. Duggins. That's why he was such a great teacher of fundamentals."
That started at an early age for Eller, as he played four years of Cramerton Bantam football under Matlock, then four years at Cramerton High School under Huss and four years at Appalachian State for Duggins. He was then hired by Cunningham at Gastonia's Groves Threads company to start his coaching career.
"All of the coaches I had taught the fundamentals of football every day," Eller said. "They all had a strict schedule that they followed every day."
Eller also learned multiple positions as he played fullback in Bantam football, fullback and tailback in high school and center and linebacker at Appalachian State.
At Cramerton, where he was a 1953 graduate, Eller helped the Eagles to 18 wins in four seasons and was the team's leading scorer in 1952. At Appalachian State, the Mountaineers won 23 games in four seasons, highlighted by an 8-3 overall record and 6-0 league mark to win the 1954 championship of the old North State Conference (now Conference Carolinas).
After college graduation in 1957, Eller spent two years in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany before he came back home.
Upon his return, Cunningham came looking for him.
"When I got out of the service, Bennie Cunningham was the athletic director at the Groves Threads Company and he came by my house to see if I would help head coach Earl Groves (and 1975 Gaston County Sports Hall of Fame inductee) with the Little Orangemen," Eller said. "It was an honor to be asked and I enjoyed it immensely."
The team also was incredibly successful as Eller helped the Little Orangemen go 106-3 overall in his nine years with the program, including postseason bowl games and three Pop Warner Football national titles.
That first world title left Eller a lifelong memory, but not just because of football.
"The most memorable trip was playing in the Disneyland Bowl in California," Eller said of a 1960 game in which the Little Orangemen routed Montebello, California, 47-7 for the national title. "We met Walt Disney and they were filming 'Zorro' at that time and we saw some of those actors. And our tour guide was (original Mouseketeer) Annette Funicello and we toured the Rose Bowl and a lot of other places.
"The biggest thing was meeting Walt Disney. He was one of the nicest men you would ever want to meet."
After the 1967 season with the Little Orangemen, Eller took on another challenge as an assistant coach for the final season of Cramerton High School football. Huss was then the school's principal and he hired Eller to join the staff of head coach Mickey Shellman and assistant coach (and 2019 Gaston County Sports Hall of Fame inductee) Gary Henry.
The Eagles would go 9-2-1, win their conference title and claim the school's first (and only) playoff victory; Cramerton and Belmont consolidated into South Point High School the following year, with many of Eller's Cramerton players (like 2013 Gaston County Sports Hall of Fame inductee Scott Crawford) helping South Point win a 1971 state title.
Eller would go on to a high school head coaching job for the next nine years at old Dallas High (1969-70) and at North Gaston (1971-77).
At North Gaston, Eller's 31 wins make him the second-winningest coach in school history. He guided the Wildcats to their only conference title and unbeaten regular season in 1972.
"We had some players that played for the Little Orangemen so they knew the system I was trying to use," Eller said. "But it was tough. We were playing 3A fotball with only one feeder school. We worked on fundamentals the whole time I was there every day in practice. I believed in that.
"And, as with all of my coaching, you're always so proud of the way the kids grow and improve. That was always really special for me."
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https://www.gastongazette.com/story/sports/local/2022/04/20/2022-gaston-sports-hall-fame-joe-eller/7354658001/
| 2022-04-20T17:15:32
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693 drivers fail road test in wake of Brockton RMV scandal
BROCKTON — The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles is providing an update on a situation that left a number of drivers frustrated.
On Feb. 15, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) reported that the RMV had determined 2,100 drivers were given road test passing scores by two road test examiners at the Brockton Service Center without taking the road test.
MassDOT said it first noticed suspicious activity regarding some customer accounts back in 2020 and launched a probe.
Two road test examiners and two service center employees were fired as a result of the internal investigation by MassDOT and the Registry.
The state also sent letters to those customers who did not complete the road test and notified them that they would be required to take and pass a road test within 10 days. Those who did not take the road test within 10 days would have their license suspended.
On Monday, the RMV told NewsCenter 5, The Enterprise's media partner, that it conducted a total of 1,074 road tests between Feb. 14 and Feb. 25 as a result of its internal investigation into the matter. During that period, the affected customers were able to call a dedicated phone line to schedule their road test pursuant to the letter they received from the Registry.
Brockton auto thefts surge:Here's what we know about Brockton-area spike in auto thefts and how to protect yourself
Of those who completed their road test requirement through this method, 381 people passed their exam while 693 failed.
In addition, the RMV said the number of special road tests administered between Feb. 14 and Feb. 25 does not include the following customers:
- A total of 60 customers who voluntarily chose to surrender their driver's license in exchange for a learner's permit and/or Massachusetts identification card after receiving the RMV’s letter notifying them of the special road test requirement. These customers either informed the RMV that they did not intend to take the required road test, or they requested an extension of time to complete the road test requirement due to extenuating circumstances.
- A total of 838 customers have failed to take the required road test, despite receiving the RMV’s letter notifying them of the special road test requirement. Thus, their right to operate a motor vehicle in Massachusetts has been suspended.
- A total of 75 customers who were required to take a motorcycle road test but have had their motorcycle endorsement removed from their license pending a road test. Some of these customers are, by agreement with the RMV, waiting for better weather and road conditions before taking their motorcycle road test.
- The RMV also said that since the end of the dedicated special road test scheduling option, and as of April 5, an additional 93 people have passed a Class D road test to operate a motor vehicle and one driver has taken and passed the Class M road test to operate a motorcycle.
Gov. Charlie Baker defended the RMV two months ago, saying that safeguards that were in place were how this particular problem was uncovered.
Real estate report:$13 million multi-family property in Plymouth
"There were steps in place to find this in the first place,” Baker said. "The reason they discovered this is they did a review and an audit on a regular basis of these types of transactions and figured there was something there that didn't make sense."
MassDOT said since making the discovery, additional preventative measures have been put into place, including instituting additional controls in the system used for license transactions.
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https://www.enterprisenews.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/brockton-rmv-fail-road-test-scandal-employees-fired-suspended-licenses-registery-motor-vehicles/7382748001/
| 2022-04-20T17:17:44
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https://www.enterprisenews.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/brockton-rmv-fail-road-test-scandal-employees-fired-suspended-licenses-registery-motor-vehicles/7382748001/
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Manatee County approves initiatives to address affordable housing and homelessness
As the cost of housing continues to strain local workers, Manatee County is taking steps to address the need for affordable housing to prevent homelessness.
Manatee County commissioners approved a slew of initiatives Tuesday that they hope will address both issues, creating a community land trust, a zoning district that allows more tailored restrictions, and a homelessness task force.
In case you missed it:Bradenton and Manatee propose changes to comprehensive plans to address affordable housing
More:Officials mull sale of waterfront Bradenton City Hall and downtown library properties
And:Community leaders advocate for strategic planning to manage population boom in Manatee
Community Land Trust
At the request of Commissioner George Kruse, the board voted to direct county staff to create a Manatee County-owned and operated Community Land Trust. Staff will present the concept to commissioners for approval at a future date.
A community land trust allows the county to own land while another owns the home built on top of it. It is a way for residents who rent their living space because they do not earn enough money to purchase a home without purchasing the land to bridge the gap into homeownership, which officials say is a better investment than renting.
The county will work with the Bright Community Trust, or another land trust manager, to establish a pilot program in north Manatee County.
More limits on zoning
Commissioners unanimously directed staff to begin work on creating a Standard Zoning Limited District in the land development code. The district allows more restrictions to be placed on properties that apply for a rezone to ensure they do not deviate from approved uses or maintain specific stipulations.
Examples presented during the meeting included ensuring a commercial property rezone into commercial use to build a pharmacy does not then build a liquor store because of the lack of restrictions in the new zoning. The new district also could be used to restrict common concerns often raised during the rezoning process, such as hours of operation, use of outdoor speakers, or creation of outdoor dining, among other things.
County-owned properties under review
Commissioners unanimously voted to research and advertise comprehensive plan amendments and rezone five county-owned tracts of land that could be developed as affordable homes.
In some instances, those parcels are located on land that only allows three homes per acre. Tuesday's vote would allow staff to increase density on those properties to increase the value of the land. In another instance, the county owns a tract of land zoned for light manufacturing that could be rezoned for residential use.
If successful, the effort would create either more homes that could be sold at an affordable housing price, or sold at the market rate with the proceeds being deposited into a dedicated affordable housing fund.
Creating half-dwelling units
The county is creating a new designation known as a half-dwelling unit in its land development code, following a unanimous vote during Tuesday's meeting. It would be defined as a multi-family residential unit measuring 750 square feet or less.
Residential zoning as of right, land banking, and density bonus buyouts under consideration
Manatee County staff is researching other initiatives pitched during Tuesday's meeting without formal votes.
Staff will research the potential effect of implementing residential zoning throughout all of Manatee County, including areas currently zoned for commercial or industrial use. The concept would allow employers to build housing on their properties for their employees, or to allow developers to build homes near industrial areas where market rates would likely be lowered because of proximity to those facilities.
More:Housing affordability crisis will be 'drag' on Florida's economy, expert says
Commissioners also asked staff to research ways to create an "aggressive" land banking initiative. The effort would allow the county to purchase land, rezone it for higher densities, implement deed restrictions that require affordable housing, then resell it to private developers.
Staff will also research ways to implement an effort to monetize density bonuses that are offered to developers in exchange for workforce housing. The concept would allow developers to build projects at densities that are typically only granted if a certain amount of workforce housing is constructed to instead build market-rate homes if they pay a fee. Proceeds would then be used by the county to fund affordable housing efforts.
New Homeless Program positions
Commissioners voted unanimously to create a homeless program coordinator position to help spearhead the county's efforts to address homelessness. The position would also facilitate communication between the county and local organizations that work to address homelessness.
The board also approved the creation of a grant writer position to capture federal and state dollars available to address homelessness.
Housing Crisis Response System
Commissioners directed county staff to coordinate with the cities of Bradenton and Palmetto and initiate a study with the Florida Housing Coalition to develop a housing crisis response system.
Homeless crisis task force
County commissioners asked staff to create a homeless crisis task force as a part of the existing Public Safety Council. The task force is meant to bring representatives from different entities that provide homelessness services together in a formal setting. Commissioners would give final approval of the task force at a future meeting.
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https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/local/manatee/2022/04/20/affordable-housing-homeless-crisis-programs-approved-manatee-county-florida/7371572001/
| 2022-04-20T17:33:37
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Sarasota neighborhood leaders, an incumbent and others compete in the City Commission race
Five people are vying for a spot on the Sarasota City Commission in this year's elections.
The commission’s two at-large seats are on the ballot this summer and fall. Those who have entered the race include incumbent Jen Ahearn-Koch, health care consultant Sheldon Rich, Planning Board chair Terrill Salem, Lido Key Residents Association president Carl Shoffstall and former Rosemary District Association president Debbie Trice.
The candidates will first compete in an election on Aug. 23, which will narrow the number of candidates to three, who will then compete in a runoff on Nov. 8, in which two will win seats on the commission.
Current at-large commissioner Hagen Brody isn’t running for re-election, as he is competing in the race for County Commission District 2 seat.
By the way, subscribers:DeSantis' redistricting map has big impact on seats covering Sarasota and Manatee counties
More:Manatee County School Board elections gain momentum as primary draws near
Jen-Ahearn Koch
Ahearn-Koch, who was elected commissioner in 2017, said she’s running again because she believes it’s important that the citizens’ voices continue “to be represented at the commission table.”
“As we grow as a city, the demands on our basic infrastructure increase,” she said, “and all of that impacts the quality of life of our citizens who live here, businesses’ viabilities and how we continue to define ourself as a city. And I think it’s really important that the citizens’ voice be a part of that discussion and decision-making.”
Ahearn-Koch said she has a “grassroots” style as a commissioner, as she listens to community members and gathers as much information as she can ahead of commission meetings.
She has voted against proposed developments in the city that received significant pushback from residents, such as the Marie Selby Botanical Garden’s expansion and a food court plan for Paul N. Thorpe Jr. Park.
Before joining the commission, she served on the city’s Planning Board and was a neighborhood leader. Ahearn-Koch also runs her own marketing company, JAK Consults.
Sheldon Rich
Rich, a health care consultant, said he’s running for City Commission because he believes the board could better hear the city’s citizens.
He spoke last year at a commission meeting about a rezoning request, and he said he “didn’t feel as a citizen that I was being heard by the City Commission” at that meeting.
He says public safety is an important issue. Rich, who serves on the city’s Independent Police Advisory Panel, wants Rex Troche to be promoted from interim chief of police to the permanent chief.
Rich also hopes to address traffic concerns in Sarasota and accelerate the city’s green initiatives.
He moved to Florida 16 years ago, first settling in Palm Beach Gardens and then moving to Sarasota over four years ago. He said he “can bring a new set of eyes and a new set of ideas to the city.”
Rich is the owner and president of health care consulting company SJR Associates, LLC, and has over 30 years of experience in the pharmacy field.
Terrill Salem
Salem is the chair of the city’s Planning Board, which makes recommendations to the commission.
"I started to see that a lot of the recommendations that were being made were not being adhered to or taken seriously by the City Commission," he said.
He believes the commission has made decisions that don't consider working class people of Sarasota.
Salem hopes to be a commissioner who will listen to and represent the people and will "protect and preserve Sarasota as we know it." He also wants to help make Sarasota a more affordable place to live.
Salem is a licensed general contractor with over 15 years of experience building and remodeling residential, commercial and light industrial structures, according to his LinkedIn page. He also has served as a medic in the Army National Guard and as a firefighter/emergency medical technician for Sarasota County Fire Department.
Carl Shoffstall
Shoffstall, a Sarasota neighborhood leader, said he’s running for an at-large seat on the commission because he believes he can bring “quite a bit of experience to the table with the other commissioners.” He has served as the president of the Lido Key Residents Association since 2012, was chair of the Coalition of City Neighborhood Associations for three years and has been a member of city advisory boards and committees.
Shoffstall also championed the Lido Beach renourishment project, in which workers dredged Siesta Key’s Big Pass and pumped recycled sand onto Lido Key. Shoffstall raised money to ensure that the renourishment of Lido was successful, as it faced opposition from Siesta Key residents.
Shoffstall also owns and manages a construction company that builds amenities such as neighborhood swimming pools and municipal playgrounds. As a business owner, he runs a budget and manages employees, skills he said he would “bring to the table” as a commissioner.
Shoffstall said he would work with Sarasota’s neighborhoods and city staff “for the betterment of the entire city.”
Debbie Trice
Trice, a leader in the Rosemary District, wants to address Sarasota’s housing crisis.
“There’s a mismatch between what we need and what is being built,” she said. “I didn’t really see the City Commission following up on their attempts to increase housing for the rest of us.”
She figured that running for the commission would, at a minimum, give her "more of a bully pulpit to get changes done.”
Trice worked in marketing and management positions at IBM and was recently president of the Rosemary District Association for two years. She also served on the Sarasota County Charter Review Board from 2006 to 2010.
Trice noted that each neighborhood of the city of Sarasota is unique.
“So often, when the city government puts through an ordinance, it’s as if one size fits all, and it really doesn’t,” she said. “So I want to try to introduce some variability based on the neighborhood that we’re dealing with, as appropriate.”
In case you missed it, subscribers:Sarasota, Charlotte homeowners in limbo over unfinished houses
Qualifying paperwork week
Candidates for City Commission have to turn in their qualifying paperwork the week of June 13. They will have between June 13 at noon and June 17 at noon to submit their paperwork to the city.
Anne Snabes covers city and county government for the Herald-Tribune. You can contact her at asnabes@gannett.com or (941) 228-3321 and follow her on Twitter at @a_snabes.
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https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/politics/elections/local/2022/04/20/sarasota-election-2022-five-people-enter-city-commission-race/7281460001/
| 2022-04-20T17:33:43
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — A year after pardoning over 15,000 citizens who were previously convicted of misdemeanor marijuana possession, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin is doing it again.
In a video posted to his Facebook page, Woodfin said he would pardon all simple marijuana convictions between April 20, 2021 to Dec. 31, 2021.
“I did it because it was the right thing to do,” Woodfin said. “So, before me is an executive order for the continuation of such work.”
The video of Woodfin shows him in a yellow T-shirt with “Legalize Alabama” written across the front alongside a marijuana plant. All while an instrumental version of “The Next Episode” by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kurupt and Nate Dogg plays in the background.
“This has an impact on not only young people but anybody who needs and deserves a second chance,” Woodfin said.
For the second year in a row, the mayor has signed executive orders on April 20, also known as “4/20,” which has become a widespread unofficial holiday that celebrates cannabis.
In March, Woodfin also pardoned all outstanding traffic and parking tickets prior to Jan. 11, 2011.
Woodfin ended the video by encouraging other mayors across Alabama to follow him in pardoning similar convictions.
“Do the right thing and legalize marijuana,” he said.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/happy-4-20-woodfin-pardons-more-simple-marijuana-convictions-in-birmingham/
| 2022-04-20T17:38:17
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/happy-4-20-woodfin-pardons-more-simple-marijuana-convictions-in-birmingham/
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Fire officials are telling drivers to avoid a stretch of Northeast Halsey Street after a natural gas line was broken Wednesday morning.
According to a Tweet from Portland Fire & Rescue, the natural gas line is on NE Halsey near 119th Avenue.
Fire crews and a NW Natural crew are on the scene.
This is a developing story.
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/drivers-told-to-avoid-stretch-of-ne-halsey-after-gas-line-broken/
| 2022-04-20T17:49:46
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/drivers-told-to-avoid-stretch-of-ne-halsey-after-gas-line-broken/
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A 22-year-old man who allegedly attacked two law officers, biting one of them and escaping when they tried to cuff him a day ago was captured Wednesday in Yonkers and will head to Pennsylvania to face sex crime charges in the toddler twins' case.
Isaiah Metz, also known as Decklyn McBride, had an outstanding Pennsylvania warrant out for him that was issued late last month charging him with multiple counts each of raping a child younger than 13, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse with a child and aggravated indecent assault, among other crimes.
Metz also faces 100 counts of child sex abuse in the case, a warrant for which was issued on March 30 out of Pennsylvania. He is expected to be extradited to the Keystone State to face those charges in fairly short order and also has the law officers' attacks to contend with on the docket in New York City, authorities said.
The two police officers were working with the Regional Fugitive Task Force in Manhattan Tuesday when they spotted Metz at a shelter on West 30th Street around 4:15 a.m. and tried to bring him into custody on two outstanding Pennsylvania warrants, authorities have said.
Cops say he resisted those efforts, allegedly punching both officers in the head multiple times and biting one in the arm before fleeing. It wasn't clear how authorities tracked Metz to Yonkers but that's where he was nabbed Wednesday.
The officers he allegedly attacked in New York City were treated at a hospital and released. They're expected to be fine.
News
Information on a possible attorney for Metz wasn't immediately available.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-wanted-in-rape-of-pa-toddler-twins-recaptured-after-nypd-attack-escape/3654324/
| 2022-04-20T17:56:42
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-wanted-in-rape-of-pa-toddler-twins-recaptured-after-nypd-attack-escape/3654324/
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A 27-year-old man was charged with federal hate crimes in connection to an antisemitic spree that targeted members of the Orthodox Jewish community around Lakewood, New Jersey, federal prosecutors said.
If he is found guilty of the charges, he could face life in prison.
Dion Marsh, of Manchester, is charged with four counts of violating the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and one count of carjacking, New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced Wednesday.
Marsh is charged with willfully causing bodily injury to four victims, and attempting to cause them injury with a dangerous weapon, because they were Jewish, according to prosecutors. Additionally, Marsh is accused of attempting to kill one of those victims after he stabbed the victim in the chest.
The charges stem from a series of incidents that took place April 8, prosecutors said. According to court documents, on that day, shortly after 1:18 p.m., Marsh allegedly forced an Orthodox Jewish man out of his car in Lakewood and assaulted him -- causing injuries. Then he got away with the man's car.
Hours later, at around 6 p.m., Marsh was driving a different car when he deliberately hit another Orthodox Jewish man with the vehicle, attempting to kill the man, prosecutors said, citing court documents. The victim suffered several broken bones.
Less than an hour later, at around 6:55 p.m., Marsh, this time driving the vehicle that he had stolen, allegedly tried to kill another Orthodox Jewish man by intentionally hitting the man with the vehicle. According to court documents, Marsh subsequently got out of the vehicle and stabbed the man in the chest with a knife.
News
Marsh continued his violent spree by driving the stolen vehicle and striking another Orthodox Jewish man at 8:23 p.m. in nearby Jackson Township. The man in this attack also suffered broken bones and internal injuries.
Officers finally managed to arrest Marsh at his residence at midnight.
The three hate crimes violations charging Marsh with attempting to kill the victims each carry a statutory maximum term of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. The hate crime violation charging Marsh with assaulting the other victim carries a statutory maximum term of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The carjacking charge carries a statutory maximum term of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Attorney information for Marsh was not immediately known.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/nj-man-charged-with-federal-hate-crimes-for-violent-attacks-on-orthodox-jewish-men/3654220/
| 2022-04-20T17:56:43
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/nj-man-charged-with-federal-hate-crimes-for-violent-attacks-on-orthodox-jewish-men/3654220/
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Stetson University will host 4 displaced Ukrainian students, 1 faculty member next year
DELAND — With millions of Ukrainian residents fleeing the war imposed upon them by Russia, many people around the world are asking what they can do to help.
Stetson University officials say they've launched a program and are raising funds to host four students and one faculty member from Ukraine for the 2022-23 academic year. Several faculty members have lived and worked in Ukraine, Eastern Europe and Russia and have been drawn to share their insights and to help.
“We have a lot of expertise in the region. We also have a lot of Hatter spirit of, like, reaching above and beyond what we may be seen as capable of doing," said Martin Blackwell, visiting professor of history. It’s a small school but it’s a historic place, an independent, private institution that’s been here a really long time, that has really good connections in Florida.”
Academic connections:Ukraine, Russia experts from Stetson fear worst, say U.S., allies should provide more help
Reaction from the Capitol:Congressman Michael Waltz: Biden's actions to support Ukraine have been 'heartless'
Prayers for Ukraine:Volusia resident from Ukraine shares fears during interfaith prayer vigil in Deltona
Stetson has begun raising funds toward a $250,000 goal.
Blackwell, who in 2016 wrote "Kyiv as Regime City: The Return of Soviet Power after Nazi Occupation," has lived and worked in the region.
"We do know there are over 4 million refugees. Of those 4 million, it’s quite possible thousands or a few thousand are already here," he said.
Blackwell and other Stetson officials were working on an application for the students and the scholar which will be posted on scienceforukraine.eu, where other opportunities for Ukrainians are posted.
“It’s open to people who are displaced by the war, and that’s an awful lot of people," he said. "And the numbers keep growing and there are a lot of internally displaced people within Ukraine, the further east (in Ukraine) you go.”
The four students will be undergraduates with the skill to communicate the context of Ukraine and the war there to the Stetson community and beyond.
“We’re going to look for people who can really tell the stories of their country and tell the stories of what’s happened there," Blackwell said. "I think people have seen what they’re doing in Ukraine is standing up for the same beliefs that we would stand up and fight for here if somebody invaded our country. It has been dramatic to see the Ukrainians come together and do what they’ve been doing."
The four Ukrainian students will receive travel expenses, as well as room and board, living together in a campus-furnished apartment so they will have a degree of comfort and respite.
The scholar will be a university faculty member or recent Ph.D. from Ukraine who will be appointed as a visiting scholar in the Brown Center for Faculty Innovation and Excellence.
Blackwell said there has been interest from other U.S. universities to participate in the process of identifying displaced Ukrainian students, although he said it was premature to identify the schools.
"We’ve had some contact with other universities. We’re spearheading the effort," he said. "What Stetson is trying to do here is very, very unusual. That’s the message that needs to get out to people.”
Why Stetson?
The Stetson Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies — or SPREES — has been a part of university since 1958.
It prepares students for careers in government, education, international business and nonprofit work.
“Our SPREES faculty have been speaking and engaging nationally and internationally on Ukraine, and they are uniquely positioned to advance this initiative thanks to their expertise and experience,” Elizabeth Skomp, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of World Languages and Cultures (Russian), said in a news release.
University President Chris Roellke is supporting the effort, as well.
“Stetson University has a long and impressive history of ‘stepping up’ in times of crisis, and SPREES places Stetson in a position to advance teaching and learning during the war in Ukraine,” Roellke said in a news release. “It is our responsibility to assist Ukrainian faculty and students who have been forced to become refugees. The deep connection and expertise of our SPREES faculty in Ukraine and Russia are making Stetson’s contributions to this global challenge a reality.”
Ukrainian-themed dinner will raise funds
Hari Pulapaka, an associate professor of math who doubles as a James Beard Award-nominated chef, offered to host a Ukraine-themed fundraising dinner.
He brainstormed menu ideas with some of the Stetson faculty familiar with Ukraine culture.
“We had a very productive meeting and are looking forward to trying a good simulation with a Ukrainian feast, with our own interpretation,” Pulapaka said. “We will be cooking with the Stetson dining staff.”
The dinner takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. May 4 in the Carlton Student Union. Tickets are $100.
Pulapaka is also hosting a fundraiser dinner at The Center at Deltona from 6 to 9 p.m. April 23, with 100% of proceeds directly benefiting the World Central Kitchen.
He has recruited five other renowned Central Florida chefs to help in preparing the feast:
- John Rivers, chef and founder, 4R Group, including 4Rivers Smokehouse
- Kevin Fonzo, James Beard-nominated chef/founder of Edible Education Experience
- Toni Elkhouri, JBF Blended-Burger Project winner, chef/owner, Cedar's Cafe, Melbourne
- Barry Honan, alumnus of 3-Star Michelin Le Bernardin in NYC and founder of Lotus Noodle Bar, St. Augustine
- Tonda Corrente, owner of La Femme du Fromage in Orlando and owner/culinary director at Tonda's Kitchen
Pulapaka is a Worldchefs Certified Master Chef who founded Global Cooking School LLC and with his wife Jenneffer, a certified sommelier, cofounded Cress, a restaurant they operated in DeLand from 2008 to 2021.
"It's my natural instinct if I can help through the medium of food," he said. "There is clearly a need and a need for humanitarian resources."
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https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2022/04/20/stetson-university-offers-4-ukraine-students-scholarships-2022-23/9465805002/
| 2022-04-20T18:50:34
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https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2022/04/20/stetson-university-offers-4-ukraine-students-scholarships-2022-23/9465805002/
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A possible double killer from Alaska was arrested Wednesday in Staten Island after Homeland Security Investigation and NYPD agents helped track his cross-country journey to a home in the borough of Staten Island.
Jalonni Blackshear, 39, had been labeled a person of interest in the deaths of 35-year-old Raechyl Blackshear and her 14-year-old daughter, Jayla, who were found dead in their Anchorage home on Friday. That person of interest was in the wind.
Law enforcement sources told News 4 New York, the teenager had gone to police to allegedly report that she had been raped and, subsequently, police took a DNA sample from Blackshear as part of the investigation. It was after this that the mother and daughter were found murdered in the Anchorage home, sources say.
Local cops in Anchorage had said they believed Jalonni Blackshear may have run to the East Coast and asked HSI agents and the NYPD to assist in the manhunt. They were seen Wednesday searching a home on Harold Street and later leading Blackshear away.
An NYPD spokesman had no immediate update.
An HSI spokesman referred calls to Anchorage Police, a spokesperson for the police department said they couldn't provide additional details at this time since the investigation is ongoing.
According to the Anchorage Daily News, Blackshear is a former corrections officer and the alleged killings were domestic in nature. Raechyl Blackshear was a nurse who didn't show up for work last week, leading concerned co-workers to alert the cops, the paper reported. That's when police went to the home for a welfare check.
Local
The bodies of both female Blackshears were found inside. The relationship between them and Jalonni Blackshear wasn't immediately clear, but the Anchorage Daily News says Jalonni and Raechyl were married at some point.
The nature of their current circumstances wasn't known. Anchorage police, when they started their manhunt, had warned Jalonni Blackshear should be considered armed and dangerous.
It wasn't immediately clear when Jalonni Blackshear would appear in court in New York to face extradition to Anchorage on the criminal charges.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-eyed-in-alaska-killings-of-mom-teen-daughter-nabbed-in-nyc/3654481/
| 2022-04-20T19:28:14
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-eyed-in-alaska-killings-of-mom-teen-daughter-nabbed-in-nyc/3654481/
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A Yonkers police officer was shot and taken to Jacobi Medical Center Wednesday afternoon, according to sources.
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano's spokesperson confirms an officer is being taken to the hospital.
A law enforcement source with direct knowledge said the shooting happened at near the vicinity of Elm and Linden streets around 2:30 p.m.
The suspect was also taken to a local hospital, Yonkers police said in a tweet.
Both the officer's and the suspect's conditions were not immediately known. It was also unclear the circumstances that prompted the shooting.
Law enforcement sources say that the injured officer is assigned to an FBI Safe Street Task Force.
According to the FBI website, "These task forces pursue violent gangs through sustained, proactive, coordinated investigations to obtain prosecutions on violations such as racketeering, drug conspiracy, and firearms violations."
News
Chopper 4 was over the scene where a large crowd that included, what looked like law enforcement agents and police cars, gathered at the intersection if the shooting.
This is a developing story.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/police-officer-shot-in-yonkers-sources/3654558/
| 2022-04-20T19:28:20
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/police-officer-shot-in-yonkers-sources/3654558/
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A vote is planned on Wednesday for Portland’s City Council to approve an event parking district in the Lloyd neighborhood.
It would hike parking rates during major events in the Lloyd District, similar to those in place near Providence Park in the Goose Hollow neighborhood.
More than 1,200 parking spaces are currently free in the area. But that will all change if the parking district is passed.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation would charge $3 an hour for parking during the 90 events a year that draw more than 10,000 visitors to the area.
Half of the extra income would reportedly go to transportation projects in the area, while Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty says the price hike will encourage the use of public transit.
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/city-leaders-to-vote-on-raising-parking-fees-in-lloyd-district/
| 2022-04-20T19:42:51
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/city-leaders-to-vote-on-raising-parking-fees-in-lloyd-district/
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Americas Best Value Inn & Suites police incidents drop in West Melbourne amid crackdown
Increased West Melbourne police patrols and improved company operations at Americas Best Value Inn & Suites have triggered a drop in criminal incidents amid an ongoing crackdown.
“I think we have good news. And it’s certainly not time to unfurl a ‘mission accomplished’ banner or anything like that. But we’re trending in the right direction," City Attorney Morris Richardson said during Tuesday's West Melbourne City Council meeting.
"Improvements have been made. The numbers back that up. I think the Police Department is satisfied — happy — with the level of cooperation they’ve received from the property operator," Richardson said.
"As you’ll see, there’s still problems. And there’s still a lot of room for improvement. But it is trending in the right direction," he said.
Richardson's remarks kicked off a follow-up discussion on first-quarter activities at Americas Best Value Inn & Suites at 4431 W. New Haven Ave. That's where West Melbourne police conducted 362 patrols last year — or 6.6 times more than the annual average of the other nine nearby hotels.
More:Fatal overdoses, police calls at West Melbourne hotel trigger City Hall crackdown
More:People at hotel near Satellite Beach concerned over sheriff's targeting site for crime
During an average three-month quarter in 2021, police responded to 71 incidents and service calls at the hotel. The City Council called for reforms at the hotel during discussions in December and January.
The results? That number tumbled to 32 during the first quarter (January, February and March) of this year.
Richardson said 10 of those 32 incidents were traffic-related, such as expired tags or driver’s licenses — he said police routinely patrol the parking lot and run license tags for potential offenses. Officers also fielded eight narcotics-related incidents.
“They’ve all involved personal possession of paraphernalia with residue on it. We’re not talking about arresting dealers with large quantities of drugs there,” Richardson said of the narcotics incidents.
Three people fatally overdosed last year at Americas Best Value Inn & Suites — more than at any other West Melbourne hotel. For comparison's sake, only 11 confirmed and suspected overdose deaths occurred last year across the entire city.
No overdose deaths happened at Americas Best Value Inn & Suites during the first quarter, Richardson said. Diwa Inc., the Fort Lauderdale company that owns the hotel, has implemented a list of security-focused reforms. The hotel has:
- Installed brighter LED exterior lighting.
- Installed two license plate-reading cameras.
- Stopped accepting cash payments for room rentals.
- Enforced a new parking pass system for guest vehicles.
Council Member Pat Bentley said city officials should extend thanks to hotel ownership.
“There’s a 50% difference between last year and this year — first quarter, I get it. But I think we owe him to say, ‘Hey, thanks. You did what we asked. And there’s measurable results today,’ " Bentley said.
In one noteworthy incident at the hotel, a Palm Bay resident was arrested Jan. 29 after he severely beat a man in the face with a silver handgun, an arrest affidavit said. He faces charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and grand theft.
Richardson told council members the November death of 34-year-old Palm Bay resident Antonia Crum in a hotel room has been ruled a homicide by West Melbourne detectives, and the case is closed. Two weeks after her death, a 35-year-old man who police considered a person of interest barricaded himself inside a southeast Palm Bay home and fatally shot himself with a handgun.
Council Member John Dittmore, a retired police officer, publicly called for the crackdown on Americas Best Value Inn & Suites in December. Tuesday, he said he had reservations about how effective the efforts would be, but he said the campaign could serve as a model to use elsewhere.
“This is phenomenal. I want to commend the chief and the police department," Dittmore said.
"The undertaking to do this is not easy. It takes a lot of manpower to do these things," he said.
Richardson said he plans to report back to the City Council in about three months to review second-quarter hotel activities.
Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/americas-best-value-inn-suites-police-calls-drop-west-melbourne/7351485001/
| 2022-04-20T19:56:16
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/americas-best-value-inn-suites-police-calls-drop-west-melbourne/7351485001/
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Brevard Zoo announces birth of new black-handed spider monkey
The Brevard Zoo has welcomed a new member to its large family.
Rochelle, a 31-year-old black-handed spider monkey nicknamed Shelly, had a baby on April 15. Though the sex of the baby has not yet been determined, zoo staff said the baby was healthy. It's her fourth baby.
With the new addition, the zoo is home to 10 black-handed spider monkeys, according to Lauren Delgado, communications manager.
She said the monkeys earned their name because of their prehensile tail which allows them to use their tail "as kind of like an extra limb." So the monkeys can be found using their tails to help them swing from tree limb to tree limb.
"They just had so many different limbs and they're dark so it looks like a spider," Delgado said.
According to zoo officials, each birth of a black-handed spider monkey is notable because they are "classified as vulnerable to extinction due to habitat loss as well as the illegal pet trade."
The International Union for Conservation of Nature that has an index of vulnerable and endangered species considers black-handed spider monkeys to be vulnerable to extinction. The classification of vulnerable is a step below the endangered category.
According to the International Union for Conservation, the population is decreasing and is expected to "undergo a reduction of a least 30% over the course of 45 years."
Laruen Delgado elaborated on the importance of the new birth.
"The population in zoos of every animal is kind of a safeguard to extinction, although black-handed spider monkeys are classified as vulnerable which is not the highest classification, there's always the chance that the zoo population will be needed to keep this species from complete extinction in the wild," Delgado said.
So far, the other black-handed spider monkeys have reacted positively to the new baby, said Delgado.
"I think some of the younger members of our troop, Matteo in particular, has been seen trying to groom the baby, which is a positive sign," Delgado said.
Visitors can see Shelley and her new baby in one of the many habits that are available to the black-handed spider monkeys in the Rainforest Revealed section of Brevard Zoo.
Amira Sweilem is the data reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Sweilem at 386-406-5648 or asweilem@floridatoday.com.
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/brevard-zoo-welcomes-new-baby-black-handed-spider-monkey/7381480001/
| 2022-04-20T19:56:22
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/brevard-zoo-welcomes-new-baby-black-handed-spider-monkey/7381480001/
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State DCF worker jailed in June 2021 case of 3-year-old West Melbourne boy who died
A former Department of Children and Families social worker has been charged with failing to follow through in the case of a 3-year-old child whose mother and her boyfriend were charged in his death.
It's the sixth arrest to be connected to the June 11, 2021 death of Jameson Nance, records show.
Melbourne police arrested 26-year-old Dallas Ray Jasper, of Cape Canaveral, and charged her with failing to report suspected child abuse. She was booked into the Brevard County Jail Complex and held on a $5,000 bond, records show.
Jameson had a history of injuries, including two broken legs that garnered attention in the past from DCF, detectives reported.
Anna Archambault, spokeswoman for the state agency, did not return calls for a statement or information on what other cases in Brevard that Jasper was connected to or handling.
The state Department of Children and Families has issued very few public statements over its involvement in investigating suspected cases of child abuse, and child homicides, in Brevard.
Jameson's death was one of 14 reported child homicides to take place in Brevard since 2021, records show.
Erica Dotson, 27, Jameson's mother and a certified nursing assistant who used the daycare, was charged by West Melbourne police with first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and aggravated child abuse in connection with Jameson’s death.
West Melbourne detectives charged the child's 25-year-old babysitter Joshua Manns, who is Dotson's boyfriend, with first-degree murder and neglect with great bodily harm after uncovering evidence of repeated abuse, records show.
Melbourne detectives said workers told Jasper the child showed up at the Health First daycare — a facility used by employees at Holmes Regional Medical Center — on June 2 with several injuries his mother explained were the result of an attack by ducks near a pond.
Jasper was at the daycare on an unrelated case.
One of the workers asked Jasper if she should report the incident to DCF. Jasper reportedly told the worker that if the child and his mother’s story were consistent, then there “was not much DCF could do,” reports show.
Later, Jasper told another DCF worker about what she heard at the daycare. She explained to the other DCF worker that there might be a call coming in about Jameson’s injuries. The call never came.
State law requires that certain workers – including teachers, daycare workers, and physicians – are required to report any incidents involving neglect, possible abuse, or abandonment to state social workers or to local law enforcement.
One of the methods set up by the state is a 24-hour toll-free phone number used to report suspected abuse, 1-800-962-2873. The reports are then given to local police or case workers to investigate. In this case, the call never came for Jameson, police said.
Last week, three workers at the daycare were arrested. Police said Jaymie Gaucher, 51, the daycare center’s director, and Kristal Samuel, 40, assistant manager, were charged with failure to report suspected child abuse in connection with the subsequent death of Jameson. Elizabeth Fowler, the lead teacher at the daycare, also was arrested and faces the same charge.
The Brevard County State Attorney’s Office has filed a notice of its intent to seek the death penalty for Dotson and Manns, if convicted.
J.D. Gallop is a Criminal Justice/Breaking News Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @JDGallop.
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/dcf-worker-charged-failing-follow-through-suspected-abuse-involving-west-melbourne-child/7382365001/
| 2022-04-20T19:56:28
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/dcf-worker-charged-failing-follow-through-suspected-abuse-involving-west-melbourne-child/7382365001/
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Second pedestrian killed by train in a week, Brevard officials confirm
An unidentified man was struck and killed by a train moving through Port St. John late Tuesday.
It's the second train-related death to take place in Brevard in a week, officials confirmed.
The crash happened about 10:44 p.m. Tuesday along the tracks just north of Faye Boulevard. Brevard County firefighters were alerted and responded within minutes.
The person, who initially suffered traumatic injuries, was airlifted to a nearby hospital. The remains were later taken to the medical examiner’s office where an autopsy will be conducted this week.
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office is reportedly investigating the death.
More:Pedestrian killed by train on U.S. 1 in Rockledge Tuesday morning
More:Vero Beach man struck, killed by train near Malabar Road during early-morning hours
On April 12, Rockledge police were called to investigate the death of a pedestrian fatally struck by a train at the intersection of Eyster Boulevard and U.S. 1.
Investigators have not yet released the names of those killed.
J.D. Gallop is a Criminal Justice/Breaking News Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @JDGallop.
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/pedestrian-killed-port-st-john-train-incident/7383038001/
| 2022-04-20T19:56:34
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/pedestrian-killed-port-st-john-train-incident/7383038001/
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TSA lifted its COVID mask mandate. What does that mean for the Shreveport Regional Airport?
The Transportation Security Administration announced Monday that they will no longer be enforcing the mask mandate.
This mandate was lifted immediately after the court ruling on April 18, which struck down President Joe Biden's mask mandate.
TSA said, "due to today’s court ruling, effective immediately, TSA will no longer enforce its Security Directives and Emergency Amendment requiring mask use on public transportation and transportation hubs."
What does that mean for the Shreveport Regional Airport?
Mark Crawford, Marketing and Public Relations Manager for the Shreveport Regional Airport said, "while we have not received anything official from TSA regarding the mask mandate, we have observed today that the TSA agents working the security checkpoint are no longer requiring passengers to wear a mask to go through the checkpoint."
More:Shreveport Regional Airport to begin terminal awning refurbishment
Although, TSA is not requiring face mask passengers should be prepared with a mask because some airlines may still require face coverings on flights.
"CDC continues to recommend that people wear masks in indoor public transportation settings at this time," TSA said.
Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com.
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https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/what-does-end-tsa-covid-mask-mandate-mean-shreveport-airport/7371634001/
| 2022-04-20T20:27:14
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https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2022/04/20/what-does-end-tsa-covid-mask-mandate-mean-shreveport-airport/7371634001/
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PINE BLUFF, Ark — Imagine moving hundreds of miles for a job promised to you, but when you arrive you realize there never was an opportunity.
That was the reality for a family who moved from Houston to Pine Bluff two weeks ago, and can't afford to move back to Texas.
Farangis Shah said she's been eyebrow threading for seven years, but she took a break after having a baby. Since her son is four years old now, she wanted to get back to it so she worked for a woman's salon in Houston.
She worked for two weeks when the woman who owned the salon allegedly offered her a job opportunity in Pine Bluff.
She said the woman claimed to have another salon in the city.
"She forced me. She was like 'Okay come here. I give you a job. I pay six month your rent. I give you better life, and then I buy this salon. I already buy it. Then she said, 'Your apartment is already ready for you,'" said Shah.
Shah and her family are originally from Afghanistan, but have been living in the United States for several years now.
Her husband, Khuwaja Azim, wanted to support his wife by allowing her to work. He offered to stay at home with their son, until he could get a job schedule that would allow them both to work.
"She promised us a lot. She said she would take care of us, but afterward [when] we moved, she blocked us on everything. We needed money, because we needed groceries for the baby," said Azim.
Shah trusted the woman.
Since it was a job opportunity, she gave the woman all of her personal information. She claimed the woman put an apartment in her name without her knowing.
She feels it's because of this that the woman took advantage of her, because she thought Shah was an easy target to scam.
"She take my ID. She take my everything. She thinks I'm illegal. I have citizenship over here. I lived in the United States for thirteen years, my husband's lived nine, and then my baby [was] born in the U.S.," said Shah.
After moving to Pine Bluff, Shah said the woman texted her that the salon was no longer hers and if she wanted to leave she could.
The only problem is Shah had uprooted her life for the opportunity.
Shah and her husband filed a police report, but because the woman was from Houston, they were advised to speak with Houston police.
"I was in Houston for nine years. I have everything in my life. A good job, good work, me and my wife and me and my baby. It was very bad. Especially, [because] it's okay, I am fine, but my baby though, you know?" said Azim.
The family's first glimpse into the new place they'd call home, happened when a Pine Bluff police officer offered to buy them groceries and take them back to Texas.
They declined the help, because they didn't want to be a burden, but it would be a domino effect with the kind of help the family would be offered from the Pine Bluff community.
The salon Shah was promised to work at, Angel Eyes Threads Beauty Salon, was real. It was owned by a man named Mr. Rocky who heard her story and hired her to work on the spot.
"He helped me a lot. In my apartment I don't have nothing. He came to my apartment and met my husband," said Shah.
Their apartment was completely empty aside from a pallet they put down for their son to sleep on.
Mr. Rocky would call Debra Allen with First Ward Living Grace's food pantry. They would give the family $200 worth of groceries.
Allen and Mr. Rocky then would both call Derrikka Matthews who is a silent servant community leader for the city.
"I go there to the eyebrow threading place to get my brows done," said Matthews, "Mr. Rocky tells me that they're in need. So I'm like okay, what are they in need of? He said everything."
Matthews is a collections manager for Aaron's sales and lease.
After talking to Azim she said she brought a furniture set for the family. She had a team of people she knew to deliver even more groceries and the set to the family.
The community came together to make sure that while here, the family would call Arkansas home.
"It feels good to be a blessing. Pass it on. So they can be able to help someone else when they get back on their feet. I just want them to be able to help someone else," said Matthews.
Tuesday, Matthews and Allen visited the family with a local pastor to check in on them and pray.
Azim said he couldn't be more grateful.
"Pine Bluff is my home right now. I'm a stay here with these people. With this family. It's all my family," said Azim.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/arkansans-help-immigrant-family-that-was-ghosted/91-064a7ead-eebe-497d-b318-6f1e1b166495
| 2022-04-20T20:27:45
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/arkansans-help-immigrant-family-that-was-ghosted/91-064a7ead-eebe-497d-b318-6f1e1b166495
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/person-of-interest-in-rape-murder-of-alaskan-teen-arrested-on-staten-island/3654708/
| 2022-04-20T21:03:56
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/person-of-interest-in-rape-murder-of-alaskan-teen-arrested-on-staten-island/3654708/
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Former student sues North Kingstown officials over Aaron Thomas 'fat-testing' scandal
NORTH KINGSTOWN — After months of disturbing revelations, a former high school student and his father are suing past and present school department officials alleging they failed to protect students from former boys' basketball coach Aaron Thomas and his practice of privately “fat testing” naked athletes.
The former student, who turns 21 Thursday, is identified as John Doe 42. He alleges that during one “sham” fat-testing incident in November 2015, Thomas had his face only a foot away from his exposed genitals “and placed his hands within inches of the boy’s genitals.”
“As a result of the forgoing harmful and offensive touching,” the suit says, the former student “sustained emotional distress and mental suffering, requiring mental-health counseling.”
More:Report: North Kingstown officials violated duty to protect children in 'fat testing' scandal
More:Second North Kingstown school administrator resigns amid naked 'fat-testing' scandal
What the suit alleges
The suit, filed Tuesday in Superior Court, Providence, alleges that school officials’ indifference to Thomas’ conduct effectively enabled him to continue his inappropriate conduct “with the tacit approval of the administration for the two decades of his employment.”
Among the defendants named are School Committee members, the town finance director, former Supt. Philip Auger and former high school principal and assistant superintendent Denise Mancieri.
Both Auger and Mancieri resigned in March after an independent lawyer’s scathing report faulted the pair in particular for not properly confronting or monitoring Thomas when complaints about his fat-testing program were raised in 2017 and 2018.
“Defendants exhibited the repeated and routine practice of avoiding complaints by ‘resolving’ such complaints so there was no formal process pursued, no record of a complaint [and] no predictable outcome,” the suit alleges.
Steeped in a culture that “prioritized loyalty to the school and athletic success over the safety of children,” the suit alleges school officials “marginalized complaining parents,” never warned students “about the utter lack of professional boundaries” and effectively signaled to “offending employees” that the school administration “could be counted upon to shield” them.
The former boys' basketball coach has not been charged with a crime
Thomas, who resigned last year as the School Committee prepared to fire him, has denied any wrongdoing. He has not been charged with any crime.
A criminal investigation is ongoing by the state attorney general, and the U.S. Attorney’s office is conducting a civil-rights investigation.
Former students last year told an independent investigator hired by the School Committee that Thomas would meet with them alone and have them strip out of their clothes to measure their body fat, ostensibly to help improve their athletic performance.
Sometimes, the students said, they were naked as Thomas used skin calipers on their upper thighs beside their genitals. Sometimes he would ask them to stretch while naked during the tests.
The suit alleges the testing “served no legitimate educational nor coaching purposes”
But Thomas used the fact that athletes would be competing against one another for team positions and that it wouldn’t be beneficial to them “to be seen as uncooperative, shy, afraid or distrustful of their coach.”
Through that manipulation, Thomas was able to “obtain compliance from children, which in this instance meant repeatedly getting children alone and naked with him.”
The suit alleges that school officials were negligent in numerous ways, including not informing the former student and his father that Thomas remained unsupervised and that his violation of boundaries between coach and athlete presented a danger.
The two plaintiffs are asking for unspecified damages and attorneys' fees.
Reached for comment Wednesday, Thomas' lawyer Timothy Dodd said. "There's a big difference between filing a lawsuit and proving the allegations contained in the lawsuit. It would be a mistake to rush to judgment based upon allegations versus what can be proved in court."
North Kingstown School Committee Chairman Gregory Blasbalg did not immediately return a phone call and email seeking comment.
Email Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com
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| 2022-04-20T21:23:11
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Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop issued a warning to the city's police force -- using marijuana, even off-duty, "will result in termination."
Fulop's position, which cites federal government policies, comes even though the state's acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin issued a memo last week, according to reports, that stated off-duty officers in the Garden State are allowed to consume cannabis products and not face discipline under the state’s legal marijuana law.
However, in a series of tweets, Fulop said the city disagrees with New Jersey's position on this, opting to adhere to federal standards.
"Our local police leadership will be issuing a directive today to the nearly 1000 police officers in #JerseyCity that we respect Nj’s position BUT to clarify in JC officers (on duty/off duty) will not be permitted to smoke marijuana," part of Fulop's tweet thread, published Wednesday, read.
"The fact is that all of the officers/recruits attest to the federal govt via DOJ + ATF paperwork when they receive their firearms that they will not use any federal prohibited drugs including marijuana," Fulop went on to say.
According to the mayor, the state's memo allowing for officers to consume cannabis will put "the community at risk."
"NJ’s policies allowing law enforcement to smoke is an outlier nationally and one that will put our officers + community at risk with impaired judgement. Unlike alcohol where there are tests + timelines that can create clear protection between consumption + duty, w/marijuana that doesn’t exist," Fulop said, adding that "it would be irresponsible to allow officers to work w/impaired judgment + it will only take one blood test after a car crash or discharged weapon where an officer tests positive for trust to erode."
News
Although Fulop explained that he has "been a staunch supporter of legalization," "responsible protections for our officer and community is important. The trust between police/community is fragile."
While Platkin's memo stated allowing police officers to use cannabis while off-duty, on Monday, Gov. Phil Murphy said he’s “open-minded” to changing the rules to effectively prohibit police officers in the state from getting high while they’re off duty, NJ.com reports.
This latest development coming from Jersey City follows Murphy's announcement last week that legal sales of marijuana in New Jersey are set to begin Thursday.
People aged 21 and over in the state will be able to purchase cannabis and cannabis products without a medical card on that date, the governor tweeted.
Voters approved the legal sale of marijuana in the state in 2020, but the state has taken this long to establish the rules governing its sale and approve companies to sell it.
Seven medical marijuana dispensaries in the Garden State were given the green light to sell recreational pot at 13 locations in a vote by the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission on April 11.
Before that ruling, there were only medical marijuana dispensaries operating in New Jersey. Seven of those medical marijuana companies received the first licenses.
Many more prospective recreational retailers are also trying to open in New Jersey.
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| 2022-04-20T21:28:40
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Bad Bunny -- the award-winning Latin singer-songwriter --- was seeing double when he came face-to-face with himself in New York City!
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known as Bad Bunny, was present Tuesday when Madame Tussauds New York unveiled two new wax figures in his likeness.
One of the lifelike wax figures dons the artist's iconic all-silver look, including his floor-length silver jacket, from his 2020 Super Bowl performance, in which he shared the stage with Jennifer López, Shakira and J Balvin.
Meanwhile, the second wax figure is wearing the all-black outfit from Bad Bunny's WWE Royal Rumble performance, which is also featured in one of his music videos.
The most-streamed artist in the world on Spotify worked closely with Madame Tussauds studio artists to perfect his figures which feature Bad Bunny's signature pose.
According to the world-renowned wax museum, the wax in the silver ensemble will remain at the museum's Times Square location and the other will go to Madame Tussauds Orlando.
“Bad Bunny is one of the world’s biggest stars; his incredible vocal talent and skills as an entertainer have led to a massive fan base around the globe. The figures in Orlando and New York City will allow his faithful fans to get up close and personal with him in a way that’s only possible at Madame Tussauds,” said Madame Tussauds Head of Marketing, Matthew Clarkson.
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| 2022-04-20T22:31:31
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — After taking a break amid sexual assault allegations, fashion designer Alexander Wang’s comeback to the runway was greeted with adoration during his highly anticipated show in Los Angeles.
Some shouted “This is amazing!” and “I love it!” while others cheered on Wang’s 50-look collection for his “Fortune City” runway show that celebrated Asian-American culture in the historic Chinatown area Tuesday night.
Wang held his first show since 2019, just before several people accused him of sexual assault and drugging male and transgender models.
Wang initially denied the allegations – which first came in late 2020 – calling them “baseless.” Last year, he said in a statement that he disagreed with some of the accuser’s details adding he would “set a better example” as a public figure. A lawyer for the alleged victims later said Wang had met the accusers, saying, “We acknowledge Mr. Wang’s apology and we are moving forward.”
The accusations tarnished Wang’s brand, but did not fully cripple it – especially in China. He still dressed popular figures like Rihanna and Julia Fox while releasing a recent campaign with Lucy Liu. His brand is still being carried in some major retailers.
Tuesday night’s event had the support of 800 invitees who lined up to enter Wang’s show, where a red flood light covered the Central Plaza area. It was a splashy event with stars like Kimora Lee Simmons and Lisa Rinna sitting in the front row while others such as rappers Gunna and Coi Leray, actor Harry Hamlin, K-pop singer CL and model Behtai Prinsloo-Levine watched the 15-minute show.
Wang incorporated models with different ethnic backgrounds and sizes – including a pregnant Adriana Lima who received most of the applause for prancing down the runway with her exposed baby bump. The models sported a variety of pieces with shades of indigo and brown, denim and leather coats, red velour sweat suit, heavy wools shrunken into bike shorts, crop tops and oversized wool coats.
Once the show finished, Wang ran onto the stage with a big smile, waved at attendees — who were mostly dressed in all black — before he darted backstage. The show closed out with a heavy dose of red-colored confetti cascading over everyone, creating a party atmosphere — especially for those who attended the Asian night party that featured a market with local food vendors.
In the market, Wang had cameras following him the whole time. He had numerous people who greeted him with handshakes, hugs and lauded him for his work.
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| 2022-04-20T22:41:40
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BOSTON (AP) — Haunted by the horrors of the war in Ukraine,the Boston Symphony Orchestra is sounding a decidedly somber note as it prepares for its 2022-23 season.
The orchestra usually gravitates toward traditional classical music with a big focus on young and current composers of our time and a wide-ranging scope of artists. But the renowned symphony said Wednesday it’s orchestrating a season in which art will imitate life, using classical music to address the tragedies of armed conflict.
The orchestra’s next series of concerts also will include a three-week festival in March dubbed “Voices of Loss, Reckoning and Hope” — a musical exploration of racial injustice, civil rights and gender inequity.
“We look forward to welcoming audiences to a season that reflects music’s profound ability to bear witness to the social and cultural issues of our time,” said Gail Samuel, the BSO’s president and CEO.
Notably, the orchestra under the direction of Andris Nelsons will perform works by prominent Soviet-era Russian composers as it explores the themes of war, including Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 — a five-movement denunciation of Stalinism based on poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. The first movement condemns Soviet revisionist history and antisemitism, invoking a Nazi massacre of Ukrainian Jews.
Omer Meir Wellber will direct the BSO in the American premiere of Israeli composer Ella Milch-Sheriff’s “The Eternal Stranger,” which captures the hostility and rejection experienced by refugees and others who frequently find themselves on the fringes of society.
Other concerts will feature Polish composer Henryk Górecki’s “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” with soprano Aleksandra Kurzak in the role of a mother who lost her child to war; and Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov’s “Falling Out of Time,” inspired by David Grossman’s experimental novel about the wartime death of a son — an agonizing loss Grossman himself experienced and wrote “now permeates every minute of my life.”
Nelsons, who grew up in Latvia near the end of the Cold War, said he hopes the season opening Sept. 22 will harness “music’s power to touch our hearts and reveal the many stories and emotions that bring us together as a human family.”
Featured in the March festival will be works by three important American composers, including Julia Wolfe’s “Her Story,” which broadly speaks to the continuing struggle for women’s rights.
Also highlighted: Anthony Davis’ clarinet concerto, “You Have the Right to Remain Silent,” with soloist Anthony McGill, about the emotional consequences of encounters with law enforcement; and Uri Caine’s “The Passion of Octavius Catto,” a reflection of the life of the titular 19th-century Philadelphia civil rights activist.
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| 2022-04-20T22:41:47
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former reality TV star Blac Chyna testified Wednesday that all was joyful between her, her fiancé Rob Kardashian, and his famous family before the day five years ago when everything went awry.
Chyna was on the stand for a second day in her $100 million lawsuit against Kardashian’s mother Kris Jenner and his sisters Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, who she alleges defamed her and ruined her TV career. All four watched her testify from the front row of the gallery in the Los Angeles courtroom.
Chyna described the gleeful celebration she and Rob Kardashian had on Dec. 14, 2016, when they learned their “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” spinoff “Rob & Chyna” had been greenlit for a second season.
“It was exciting, we were throwing money and having fun, being silly,” Chyna said. Footage shot for the show of the money-throwing was shown in court.
Other moments from the day would later be a source of controversy when the relationship went sour.
She testified that she ripped Rob Kardashian’s shirt, “from us like playing and trying to not be sexy and take the shirt off, but just doing silly stuff with my fiancé.”
Later, he was playing video games when she wrapped a phone-charging cord around his neck, she said.
“I came up behind him, doing that jokingly,” she testified. “I just went like this to get his attention.”
And at one point when he was on FaceTime with a friend, she picked up an unloaded gun that Rob Kardashian kept on his dresser, she said.
She said none of the moments were intended to do harm, and Rob Kardashian seemed to take them just as she meant them.
Chyna had just begun talking about the following day, Dec. 15, when the two would have a fight that would forever damage their relationship, leading to their show’s cancellation and the lawsuit, when the trial went on lunch break. She returns to the stand Wednesday afternoon.
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
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| 2022-04-20T22:41:54
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NEW YORK (AP) — Andrea Elliott’s “Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City,” an in-depth portrait of New York and the struggles and achievements of a Black girl from Brooklyn, has won the Gotham Book Prize for outstanding works about the city.
Elliott, whose book expands upon her investigative series which ran in The New York Times in 2013, will receive $50,000.
“I often felt during the years of reporting this book that New York City was a central character in the story” she said during a recent interview. “Any New Yorker knows this is many cities in one city. But I think ‘Invisible Child’ also shows it’s one city.”
Earlier this week, “Invisible Child” received the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, a $15,000 honor presented by the New York Public Library.
The Gotham Prize was established in 2020 by businessman-philanthropist Bradley Tusk and political strategist Howard Wolfson, who are funding the award themselves and have committed to it for at least 10 years. James McBride’s novel “Deacon King Kong,” set in Brooklyn in the late 1960s, won the prize in 2021.
“Last year, the jury picked an outstanding novel but one that could have come out at any time,” Tusk and Wolfson said in a statement Wednesday. “By picking ‘Invisible Child,’ the jury not only showed its willingness to embrace nonfiction, it also clearly wanted to add a spotlight to the extremely difficult issue of homelessness, which has gotten even worse over the past several years. We’re hopeful that Andrea’s success here incentivizes other writers to go deep into the public policy issues that matter so much to our city.”
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| 2022-04-20T22:42:01
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FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Actor Johnny Depp scoffed at the notion during court testimony Wednesday that his constant quarrels with ex-wife Amber Heard would ever prompt him to hit her, and insisted on cross-examination that her allegations devastated his career.
“Violence isn’t necessary,” Depp said from the stand during his libel lawsuit against Heard, his second day of testimony. “Why would you hit someone to make them agree with you?”
Heard has accused Depp of physically and sexually assaulting her on multiple occasionsbefore and during their brief marriage. The former “Pirates of the Caribbean” star sued after Heard, who is also an actor, made an indirect reference to those accusations in an op-ed piece she wrote for The Washington Post.
Depp addressed Heard’s accusations in detail Wednesday. Heard has said the first time she was assaulted was when Depp slapped her in 2013 after she made fun of a tattoo he had — one that used to say “Winona Forever” when he was dating the actress Winona Ryder that he altered to “Wino Forever” after they broke up.
“It didn’t happen,” he said of the alleged assault. “Why would I take such great offense to someone making fun of a tattoo on my body? That allegation never made any sense to me.”
Later, he addressed an alleged assault on a private plane flight in 2014 from Boston to Los Angeles. Heard has said Depp became blackout intoxicated and assaulted her on the plane ride.
Depp testified he took two oxycodone pills — an opiate to which he admits he was addicted at the time — and locked himself in the plane bathroom and fell asleep to avoid her badgering.
Depp testified he drank only a glass of Champagne as he boarded the plane. But according to evidence introduced at a similar trial in England where Depp sued a British tabloid — a lawsuit he lost — Depp texted his friend, actor Paul Bettany, and referenced drinking half a bottle of whiskey, “a thousand Red Bull vodkas” and two bottles of Champagne before the flight.
Depp also discussed a violent argument in 2015 — shortly after they were married — in Australia that resulted in the tip of his middle finger being cut off. He said Heard was irate that Depp’s lawyers had asked her to sign a post-nuptial agreement.
He said she threw two vodka bottles at him, the second of which exploded where he had placed his hand on a basement bar, severing the finger to the point where bone was exposed.
“I don’t know what a nervous breakdown feels like, but that’s probably the closest I’ve ever been,” he said.
Depp said he began to write on the walls in his own blood to recount lies in which he had caught Heard.
Depp told hospital doctors he had injured himself, and contemporaneous text messages introduced as evidence refer to Depp injuring himself. Depp testified he lied about the cause of the injury to protect her. Heard’s lawyers have said the laws of physics don’t support Depp’s story and they will introduce evidence to prove that.
Depp also gave a graphic description of a final fight as the couple drifted toward divorce, accusing Heard and her friends of pretending that he was assaulting her. Soon after, Heard sought a restraining order and was photographed with marks on her face.
He testified that Heard was on the phone with a friend shouting, “Stop hitting me Johnny!” even though he was standing nowhere near her.
The fight had started as Depp said he’d realized it was time for the couple to split. The argument intensified, he said, as Depp accused her of leaving human fecal matter on his side of the bed in the penthouse they’d shared. He said Heard kept denying it, blaming it on their small dogs, but he was convinced she was lying.
Depp met Heard on the 2011 film “The Rum Diary.” The two married in 2015 and she filed for divorce a year later.
Depp said things began to change in his marriage when he felt that he “was suddenly just wrong about everything” in Heard’s eyes.
Violence would often ensue, sometimes with a slap or a shove from Heard or his wife throwing a television remote control or a glass of wine in his face, Depp said.
“There were times when I would just go and lock myself in the bathroom or a place where she couldn’t get to,” Depp said.
Depp said he used drugs and drank alcohol as a way to cope with Heard’s abuse and said she was also a heavy drinker. Depp said he at one point stopped drinking to try to save the relationship, but Heard refused to abstain.
Depp sued Heard after she wrote a 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post in which she referred to herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”
She never mentioned Depp by name, but Depp’s lawyers said it was a clear reference to accusations Heard made in 2016 when she sought a restraining order against him.
Depp said the accusations and the article contributed to an unfairly ruined reputation that made him a Hollywood pariah and cost him his role in the lucrative “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie franchise.
He said he was pulled from the franchise just days after the Post piece ran. On cross-examination, Heard’s lawyer pointed to evidence that Disney made that decision months before the article’s publication.
Heard’s lawyers say the article is accurate and doesn’t defame him. They say Depp’s ruined reputation is due to his own bad behavior.
Depp was cross-examined only briefly at the end of the day Wednesday. Cross-examination will continue Thursday.
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Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia.
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| 2022-04-20T22:42:08
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NEW YORK (AP) — Lincoln Center will hold a series of more than 300 Summer for the City events both indoors and outdoors following two years of programing sharply curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic.
The performing arts institution first emerged from the pandemic last spring and summer with Restart Stages in outdoor areas at Lincoln Center, ending a 13-month period with no performances for an audience at its campus on Manhattan’s west side.
The Summer for the City festival announced Wednesday starts May 14 and runs to Aug. 14 and will include 10 outdoor venues and three indoors.
“It’s focused on getting people back together again, having people feel safe together again,” said Shanta Thake, who was hired last August as Lincoln Center’s chief artistic officer. “And then the return of things like social dance, doing rituals together, the sing-along, all of these ways that really address the question of what does New York need that only live performance can provide.”
Indoor events at Rose Theater and Alice Tully Hall will be on a choose-what-you-pay basis.
The festival starts with a sing-a-long on Lincoln Center Plaza with the Young People’s Chorus of New York and a speakeasy for the audience under the entrance driveway.
The Mostly Mozart Festival has not been held since 2019, but the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra will have six pairs of concerts, including Mozart’s Requiem. In addition, choreographer Kyle Abraham and composer Jlin will present an electronic version of the Mozart composition transformed into “Requiem: Fire in the Air of the Earth.”
Thake had been associate artistic director at the Public Theater before replacing Jane Moss.
“The hope is that we’ll find that balance of what is indoor and outdoor programing as we go into next summer,” Thake said. “How do we really recognize that this has been an incredibly traumatic time for the world, but certainly our city? And what is our role as a cultural institution to step into that and and address it, not just put on shows and pretend nothing ever happened.”
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| 2022-04-20T22:42:16
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former star of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” NeNe Leakes sued the companies behind the show on Wednesday, alleging that they fostered and tolerated a hostile and racist work environment.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Atlanta says Leakes, who is Black, complained to executives about years of racist remarks from fellow housewife Kim Zolciak-Biermann, who is white, but that only Leakes suffered consequences.
It names as defendants NBCUniversal, Bravo, production companies True Entertainment and Truly Original, executives from the companies and “Housewives” executive producer Andy Cohen, but not Zolciak-Biermann.
“NBC, Bravo and True foster a corporate and workplace culture in which racially-insensitive and inappropriate behavior is tolerated – if not, encouraged,” the suit says.
Emails sent to representatives of the defendants and Zolciak-Biermann seeking comment were not immediately returned.
Leakes, 54, a TV personality and actor whose legal name is Linnethia Monique Leakes, spent seven seasons as one of the central stars of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” between 2008 and 2020.
It alleges that during the first season, which aired in 2008, the cast was planning to attend a barbecue, and housewife Kim Zolciak-Biermann, responded to the idea with “words to the effect of: ‘I don’t want to sit around with NeNe and eat chicken.’” The suit says the statement “perpetuated an offensive stereotype about African-Americans.”
The suit says in 2012 during the fifth season, Zolciak-Biermann made “racially offensive and stereotypical” comments about the new home of housewife Kandi Burruss, calling her neighborhood a “ghetto” and perpetuating a racial stereotype in an offensive comment about whether Burruss needed a swimming pool.
That same year, the suit says, Zolciak-Biermann used the N-word to refer to Leakes and other of the housewives after a dispute with them, the suit alleges. It also alleges Zolciak-Biermann falsely implied that Leakes used drugs and called her home a “roach nest.”
The suit says after Leakes complaints to the executives overseeing the show, they “did not terminate their relationship with Zolciak-Biermann, nor take any other meaningful action to put an end to her racially-offensive behavior,” and if anything rewarded her by giving her her own spinoff show.
“From the day the series began filming, NeNe was the target of systemic racism from co-star Kim Zolciak-Biermann, which was tolerated by Bravo executive producer Andy Cohen and other executives,” Leakes’ lawyer David deRubertis said in a statement.
Joe Habachy, another Leakes’ attorney, said via email that “not a day goes by that NeNe doesn’t wake up with an onslaught of overwhelming emotions as a direct result of these unfortunate and avoidable occurrences.”
The lawsuit alleges that her complaints of racism led in part to Leakes being forced off the show in 2020 before its 13th season.
The suit says Leakes’ negotiations for the season came as the Black Lives Matter movement was gaining major momentum, with Leakes a vocal supporter.
Executives sought to sideline Leakes from talking about the cause, keeping her off early episodes in which the housewives would address BLM, the suit alleges.
“As the Black Lives Matter movement swept our nation, Mrs. Leakes — Bravo’s historically most successful Black female talent — should have been embraced by NBC, Bravo, and True,” the suit says. “Instead, NBC, Bravo, and True forced her out of the ‘house she built,’ denying her a regular role.”
The suit alleges that the defendants’ actions violate federal employment and anti-discrimination law, and it seeks monetary damages to be determined at trial.
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
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| 2022-04-20T22:42:22
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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico workplace safety regulators on Wednesday issued the maximum possible fine of nearly $137,000 against a film production company for firearms safety failures on the set of “Rust” where actor and producer Alec Baldwin fatally shot a cinematographer in October.
New Mexico’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau said Rust Movie Productions must pay $136,793, and distributed a scathing narrative of safety failures in violation of standard industry protocols, including testimony that production managers took limited or no action to address two misfires on set prior to the fatal shooting. The bureau also documented gun safety complaints from crew members that went unheeded and said weapons specialists were not allowed to make decisions about additional safety training.
“What we had, based on our investigators’ findings, was a set of obvious hazards to employees regarding the use of firearms and management’s failure to act upon those obvious hazards,” Bob Genoway, bureau chief for occupational safety, told The Associated Press.
At a ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe on Oct. 21, 2021, Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins inside a small church during setup for the filming of a scene when it went off, killing Hutchins and wounding the director, Joel Souza.
Baldwin said in a December interview with ABC News that he was pointing the gun at Hutchins at her instruction on the New Mexico set of the Western film when it went off without his pulling the trigger.
The new occupational safety report confirms that a large-caliber revolver was handed to Baldwin by an assistant director, David Halls, without consulting with on-set weapons specialists during or after the gun was loaded. Regulators note that Halls also served as safety coordinator and that he was present and witnessed two accidental discharges of rifles on set, and that he and other managers who knew of the misfires took no investigative, corrective or disciplinary action. Crew members expressed surprise and discomfort.
“The Safety Coordinator was present on set and took no direct action to address safety concerns,” the report states. “Management was provided with multiple opportunities to take corrective actions and chose not to do so. As a result of these failures, Director Joel Souza and cinematographer Halyna Hutchins were severely injured. Halyna Hutchins succumbed to her injuries.”
Rust Movie Productions said through a spokesperson that it would dispute the findings and sanction.
“While we appreciate OSHA’s time and effort in its investigation, we disagree with its findings and plan to appeal,” said Stefan Friedman. Any appeal would be heard initially by the state’s occupational health and safety commission.
Baldwin issued a statement from his attorney, asserting that the safety investigation “exonerates Mr. Baldwin.”
An attorney for Halls was not immediately available.
The state fine applies to a film with a budget of about $7 million. Baldwin was assigned a salary of $250,000 as an actor and producer and may have put some of that money back into the production.
At least five lawsuits have been filed over the shooting, including a wrongful death suit brought by Hutchins’ family against Baldwin and the movie’s other producers. The lawsuit on behalf of widower Matt Hutchins and his 9-year-old son alleges a “callous” disregard in the face of safety complaints on the set.
James Kenney, secretary of the Environment Department that oversees occupational safety, said the agency dedicated 1,500 staff hours to its investigation, examined hundreds of documents and conducted at least a dozen interviews with cast and crew members.
Investigators found production managers placed tight limits on resources for a small team that controlled weapons on set and failed to address concerns about a shotgun left unattended twice.
Armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the daughter of a sharpshooter and consultant to film productions, was limited to eight paid days as an armorer to oversee weapons and training, and was assigned otherwise to lighter duties as a props assistant. As her time as an armorer ran out, Gutierrez Reed warned a manager and was rebuffed.
Gutierrez Reed is both a plaintiff and a defendant in lawsuits seeking damages in the fatal shooting. In a statement Wednesday, her attorney highlighted findings that the armorer “was not provided adequate time or resources to conduct her job effectively.”
Safety investigators also note that the production company did not develop a process to ensure live rounds of ammunition were not brought on set, in violation of industry safety protocols. Safety meetings were conducted, but not every day weapons were used, as required.
Kenney said the separate investigations into possible criminal charges are still underway. The Santa Fe County sheriff and local prosecutors had no immediate comment.
Kenney said his agency received no direct safety complaints from cast or crew prior to the fatal shooting, even though anonymity is offered.
“This tragedy, this loss of life, it could have been prevented, and we want people to say something,” he said.
Kenney was appointed in 2019 by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a staunch advocate for the film industry who increased a state cap in industry incentives shortly after taking office.
New Mexico competes with non-Hollywood production sites in states such as Georgia, Louisiana and New York. Film productions have flocked to New Mexico in recent years to seize on its diverse outdoor scenery, moderate costs and generous state incentives, including a rebate of between 25% and 35% of in-state spending for video production that helps filmmakers large and small underwrite their work.
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This story has been updated to correct the state workplace safety fine to $136,793 instead of $139,793.
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| 2022-04-20T22:42:30
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Prince Harry is opening up about his life at home and his recent surprise visit with Queen Elizabeth II, saying he and his wife, Meghan, had tea with the monarch and shared laughs.
“It was really nice to catch up with her,” Harry told NBC’s ”Today” show in an interview that aired Wednesday. “She’s on great form. She’s always got a great sense of humor with me.”
Harry and Meghan visited the queen at Windsor Castle on Thursday for their first joint visit to the U.K. since they gave up formal royal roles and moved to the U.S. more than two years ago.
Harry said that, like a lot of working parents, he and his wife found it hard to separate work and parenting — they have two children, Archie, who is almost 3, and 10-month-old Lilibet — during the pandemic. “Archie spends more times interrupting our Zoom calls than anybody else,” he said, adding he also “gets us off them as well, which is a nice thing.”
The couple visited Harry’s 95-year-old grandmother on their way to the Netherlands to attend the Invictus Games. Harry is founder and patron of the international sports competition for wounded military veterans.
Harry said he wanted to return to the United Kingdom with his kids for the queen’s upcoming platinum jubilee, but warned that “security issues” could get in the way. “I don’t know yet. There’s a lot of things, with security issues and everything else,” Harry said, adding he was “trying to make it possible that I can get my kids to meet her.”
Harry is suing the British government for refusing to let him pay for his own police security on his visits to the U.K. His lawyers say Harry wants to bring his children to visit his home country but that it is too risky without police protection.
Harry and Meghan, also known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, stepped down as senior working royals and moved to Santa Barbara, California, in 2020, citing the unbearable pressure of their roles and racist attitudes of the British media.
“Home for me now is — for the time being — it’s in the States,” he said. “We’ve been welcomed with open arms. I mean, it’s got such a great community up in Santa Barbara.”
Harry has made solo trips to the U.K. to attend the funeral of his grandfather, Prince Philip, in April 2021 and to unveil a statue of his late mother Princess Diana last July.
He said he was enjoying fatherhood: “I’ve always wanted to have my own kids, and now I’ve got two little people who I’m responsible for.”
He also said he has found himself thinking of his late mother even more: ”I feel her presence in almost everything that I do now. But definitely more so in the last two years more than ever before, without question. So she’s watching over us.”
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| 2022-04-20T22:42:37
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rapper A$AP Rocky was taken into custody Wednesday morning at Los Angeles International Airport in connection with a shooting in Hollywood last year, authorities said.
The performer, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, was detained on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement Wednesday.
Mayers, 33, was wanted in connected with a Nov. 6, 2021 shooting after an argument escalated, authorities said. Mayers is accused of firing a handgun at an acquaintance, who sustained a minor injury and later sought medical treatment, police said.
Mayers and two other men ran after the gunfire, police said.
Mayers’ RCA Records publicist and attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
TMZand NBC News first reported the arrest and details of the 2021 shooting.
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Associated Press Writer Ryan Pearson in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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| 2022-04-20T22:42:44
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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Rio de Janeiro’s Mayor Eduardo Paes on Wednesday ceremonially handed control of the city to King Momo, a ritual representing the upheaval of the status quo — but it remains to be seen how much post-pandemic partying is in store during the first Carnival in two years.
Samba schools’ elaborate floats and feather-festooned dancers will parade between packed bleachers starting Wednesday night. As for the more than 500 street parties that usually run wild through the city, City Hall refused to grant them authorization, claiming it lacked sufficient time to prepare.
That dissonance has sparked debate over whether City Hall is stifling Carnival’s essence, and if denizens should seize the streets as their own. Some organizers couldn’t care less what is allowed; they will turn out anyway — part party, part protest — and Mayor Paes, a confessed Carnival enthusiast, has said he will refrain from deploying the Municipal Guard.
“City Hall won’t impede people from being in public spaces, from celebrating, but it’s impossible that it happen at such (large) size,” Paes said in response to a reporter’s question after giving King Momo the city’s key.
His statement echoed comments on Sunday while visiting samba schools that were putting finishing touches on their floats. The competing schools were corraled from the streets into the Sambadrome in the 1980s, and became Rio’s quintessential Carnival display for tens of thousands of attendees willing to shell out for tickets. Their parades will run through Sunday night.
In the Sambadrome’s shadow are the free parties known as “blocos”, which stream through streets and pour into plazas, many of whose members relish subverting established order. What blocos lack in glamour they make up for with glitter and grit. Costumes range from racy to outlandish, and are sometimes clever digs at authority figures.
Blocos had largely vanished as samba schools claimed the spotlight, but their resurgence in the 1990s dovetailed with redemocratization after two decades of military dictatorship, according to André Videira, a sociology professor at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro who has studied blocos.
Later, they began assuming forms akin to U.S. brass bands, without the need for sound trucks or drum sections that hindered mobility. Blocos were free to roam.
“They are important vehicles for the democratization of access to culture and access to the city,” Videira said.
Since 2010, more than 150 blocos have refused City Hall’s institution of a registration process, with many viewing it as an attempt to formalize something inherently informal, Videira said. They insist celebrating Carnival isn’t contingent on authorities’ consent — not this year, nor any other.
On April 13, dozens of musicians marched through downtown blasting their horns, banging their drums and demanding to be heard. The euphoric protest was organized by Ocupa Carnival, a group which days earlier drafted a manifesto denouncing perceived attempts to commodify and repress blocos that was signed by more than 125 of them.
“It’s important to be collectively pressuring the government, so Carnival is recognized and supported like it should be,” Karen Lino, 29, said while sporting a jaguar-print outfit that reflected her role as a dancer in theFriends of the Jaguar bloco. But she is also a member of the troupe that will lead the reigning samba school champion, Viradouro, through the Sambadrome this year. “It’s hypocritical of the government to not give attention to other sectors.”
On Tuesday, a columnist in the city’s main newspaper, O Globo, wrote that City Hall was washing its hands of policymaking duties by leaving blocos in legal limbo.
“Apparently prohibition didn’t make much sense, as the blocos bring the soul of carnival to the streets and are fundamental for the city’s spirit,” wrote Leo Aversa. “If he (Paes) thinks it can’t be done, isn’t possible, the coherent thing would be to prohibit it seriously. If he thinks there’s no problem, the right thing would be to free them with conviction.”
Paes fired back on Twitter: “The correct thing is not having blocos! They aren’t authorized and we won’t have the structure for the party.”
In Carnival’s 2020 edition, just before COVID-19 reached Brazil, more than 7 million people partied in the so-called “Street Carnival,” according to city figures. Crowds are densely packed, bottles are shared around and kissing is custom. Which is to say: a paradise for partiers, and a vector for viruses.
Blocos had little desire to turn out last year as Brazil’s catastrophic second COVID-19 wave took shape. It was the first time in a century Rio’s pre-Lenten festivities were canceled, and Paes bestowed the city’s key to health workers instead of King Momo. With the omicron variant spreading in January, Paes proposed blocos be relegated to enclosed, controlled spaces to check proof of vaccination upon entry.
That idea ran counter to blocos’ freewheeling nature, plus some organizers expressed worry it was a further attempt to “privatize” Carnival by yoking them with corporate sponsorship. Most demurred. But with daily COVID-19 deaths near-zero for over a month and the mask mandate lifted, people want to party. Some blocos played last weekend, and schedules of their unsanctioned performances are circulating widely on WhatsApp.
The spokesperson for Rio’s tourism promotion agency, Cecilia de Moraes, defended the city’s decision to deny authorization, saying it takes months to coordinate and contract provision of fencing, portable toilets and extra dump trucks to prevent street parties from becoming party fouls.
“When things (with COVID-19) improve and people survive, the blocos see it’s going well, they want to come out. But we can’t flick a switch,” she said.
Rio’s bigger blocos, which draw tens and hundreds of thousands of revelers, have fallen into line. They utilize sound trucks and rely on the city for traffic detours, garbage cleanup and more to limit disruption. Rita Fernandes, who leads the Sebastiana association of blocos, said they are holding fire for 2023.
“We don’t want to come out at any cost, our sponsor canceled, we were discouraged by omicron. In the end, everything was demobilized,” Fernandes said by phone. “We don’t think the city will support over four days the volume of blocos that there are. We don’t want to create chaos in the city.”
Others are unconvinced, like Tomás Ramos, a saxophonist and member of the group that organized the April 13 protest. He cited a municipal ordinance that came into effect last year determining support for Carnival as a “guaranteed right,” and said City Hall had no plan B to ensure that without its key sponsor, Brazilian brewer Ambev.
At the end of the protest, Ramos shouted to musicians and spectators gathered at the steps of Rio’s municipal theater, rallying them for full-bore Carnival festivities.
“Down with the turnstiles that transform the city into big business, where profit prevails over life, where money is freer than people!” he boomed, and the crowd echoed his words. “As they capitalize on reality, we socialize dreams! Long live the energy of rebellion!”
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| 2022-04-20T22:42:51
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LONDON (AP) — To run or not to run – that is the question troubling Donald Trump at the start of Mike Bartlett’s play “The 47th,” an audaciously Shakespearean take on recent and future U.S. politics.
The title of the play, running at London’s Old Vic Theatre, refers to the next president of the United States. The plot depicts a high-stakes 2024 election in which former Trump (the 45th), President Joe Biden (the 46th), Vice President Kamala Harris, and Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, are all key players.
The play opens with Trump in Mar-a-Lago retirement, hankering to return to his role as disrupter-in-chief, and asks whether he could succeed — and at what cost. It’s not so much docu-fiction as a fantasia on power, democracy and populism.
The theater piece is written in deliberately Bard-like blank verse and alludes to Shakespearean plots. One moment Trump is like King Lear, deciding which of his children deserves to succeed him; the next he is Richard III, scheming to seize the crown.
It’s a technique British playwright Bartlett previously used to powerful effect in “King Charles III,” his 2014 play that imagined a tumultuous future reign for the current heir to Britain’s throne, Prince Charles.
“I loved the daring and the audacity of the play,” said actor Bertie Carvel, who gives a compelling, and likely award-winning, performance as Trump. “It’s really funny and really fun, but it’s definitely not a comedy.”
It’s also “not a hatchet job” on Trump, said Carvel, who played another powerful figure, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, in James Graham’s 2017 play “Ink.” In that play, he pulled off the feat of getting audiences to root for the billionaire magnate as a plucky underdog.
He faces an even stiffer challenge playing Trump, someone few people are neutral about. “I know, you hate me,” Carvel’s Trump half-taunts, half-teases the audience in the opening scene.
Carvel says he’s an “advocate” for all the characters he’s played, which include the monstrous Miss Trunchbull in “Matilda the Musical” in London and New York, a cheating husband in TV thriller “Doctor Foster” and undead dinner guest Banquo in Joel Coen’s movie “The Tragedy of Macbeth.”
“You can mount a very worthy defense as an advocate without necessarily believing that the person is innocent,” said Carvel, who is set to play British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the fifth season of “The Crown.”
“My job is to give things a ring of truth and to create a credible, legible human being.”
He said Bartlett’s script “credits Trump and Trumpism with a serious hinterland. And also, I tried to make sure he has a serious emotional hinterland as well.”
In real life, the 44-year-old British actor looks nothing like Trump. Onstage, the likeness is astonishing. His first entrance, rolling onstage in a golf cart, draws gasps from the audience.
“What we wanted to achieve was to be able to put in front of an audience a version where they might go, ‘Oh! It’s him!’” said Carvel, who credits costume designer Evie Gurney for achieving the transformation with padding, prosthetics and a wig.
Lydia Wilson undergoes an equally compelling transformation into Ivanka Trump, with her perfect hair, sleek dresses and stiletto heels. In the play, Ivanka is her father’s favored child, right-hand woman — and potential rival.
Wilson, who plated Kate Middleton in “King Charles III,” said slipping into costume as Ivanka was transformative.
“The first dress rehearsal, I felt like I’d gotten into a Bentley or a Rolls-Royce,” Wilson said. “I was like, ‘Oh, there she is.’ It’s really fun to play with who or what is inside that silhouette.”
Wilson, whose credits include “Star Trek Beyond” and Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare film “All is True,” said she feels like she is having a “silent conversation” with the audience each night about the Trumps.
“There is an assumption that we know these people,” she said. “It is fun to try and riff and play with that.
“It’s different every night.”
London critics have praised the cast, which also includes Tamara Tunie as a resilient Harris, but differed on the play’s impact. The Daily Telegraph found a “lack of meaningful substance” beneath the surface polish, while The Guardian felt we are “still too close to the Trumpian moment” for true insight.
But The Times gave “The 47th” five stars, praising it for “jabbing the liberal, metropolitan Old Vic crowd” by showing Trump’s genius as well as his flaws.
“King Charles III” went from London’s small Almeida Theatre to Broadway. Could “The 47th” follow after its Old Vic run ends on May 28? Carvel, who secured a Tony Award nomination for “Matilda,” and won a Tony for “Ink,” thinks that would be “thrilling.”
“I think it would be electric to do it even closer to the center of the vortex,” he said.
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| 2022-04-20T22:42:58
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VENICE, Italy (AP) — Artist Pavlo Makov’s role representing Ukraine at the Venice Biennale has become an act of defiance against the Russian invaders, whose attacks on his adopted hometown of Kharkiv have grown more intense in recent days.
Not only do the Russians intend to take over his country, the Russian-born Ukrainian national says, but they are also bent on erasing Ukrainian culture.
“This war in Ukraine is not an ethnic conflict,’’ Makov, 63, told The Associated Press. “It is a conflict of cultures. They want to destroy, to demolish, to eliminate Ukrainian culture, so that Ukraine doesn’t exist.”
One of Ukraine’s most important living artists, Makov set off by car for the Biennale on March 2, squeezing in his wife, two female family friends and his 92-year-old mother. Missiles flew overhead as they left Kharkiv, he said.
Already, the center of the historic city, which was the first Soviet capital of Ukraine and is known for its 1920s and 1930s constructivist architecture, had been largely destroyed, including the oblast administrative building and parliament.
Makov left behind his grown son and daughter, who were working as volunteers to help the besieged population — and his lifetime production of artworks.
“There was no question about whether to take art, because there was no room for it,” he said. “Plus, we were leaving from the bomb shelter, we were not leaving from home or the studio.”
His works have since been evacuated to safer ground in western Ukraine. Some pieces have already been requested for exhibitions elsewhere.
The copper funnels that comprise his sculpture for the Ukrainian Pavilion were in Kiev, and were driven out of the country by one of the curators, Maria Lanko. Another curator, Lizaveta German, escaped with her infant son, who was born in a hospital in the western city of Lviv during a lull between air raid sirens. Now a month old, he nurses contentedly in the pavilion near the tinkling of falling water.
Makov’s sculpture, titled “The Fountain of Exhaustion. Acqua Alta,” assembles the funnels into a 3 1/2-meter (11 1/2-foot) tall cascading fountain against a concrete wall in the Arsenale, which houses the newer national pavilions participating the world’s oldest and most important contemporary art fair. The 59th Venice Biennale opens Saturday and runs through Nov. 27.
Makov’s project was inspired by the lack of vitality he felt as Ukraine transitioned to an independent nation in the early 1990s, and again as he traveled throughout Europe in the 2000s.
“I felt this lack of ability to protect ideas. I felt this dependence on the energy that Europe was receiving from not democratic societies was growing,’’ Makov said. This culminated with the pandemic, which the curators said came to represent “the accumulation of exhaustion,” and then the war with Russia.
Now in Venice, Makov finds he is speaking more about the war than about his art.
“It is like a diplomatic mission for us,’’ Makov said. “I see myself less as an artist and more as a citizen of my country.”
A short walk away in the Giardini, the Russian pavilion, built in 1914, is closed after the artists withdrew their participation, which had been protested by the Ukrainian artist and curators. A letter of protest signed just days after the Feb. 24 invasions underlines the irony that the Russian pavilion was built with money from a Ukrainian art collector, Bohdan Khanenko. His collection forms the heart of the country’s most important museum of European, Asian and ancient art, which Makov fears may be under threat in Kiev.
In the Giardini, the Ukrainian pavilion curators — German, Lanko and Borys Filonenko — have created a Ukrainian Piazza around a mound of sandbags, surrounded by posters made during the war by Ukrainian artists.
They include stylized renderings of soldiers using playground equipment for cover, babies whose worried parents have written their birthdates and names in indelible markers on their backs, should the war separate them, and the sinking of the Russian warship Moskva.
“You know, the only dialogue we have now with the Russian culture is on the front,’’ Makov said. “No other dialogue exists.”
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| 2022-04-20T22:43:00
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Crews knocked down a Portland house fire Wednesday morning after an unattended candle set the two-story home on fire.
Portland Fire & Rescue said calls came in around 11:15 a.m. reporting the doorway of the home was on fire. Crews arrived at the 6417 SE 84th Avenue home to find heavy smoke filled the home.
PF&R said crews attacked the fire quickly but it took longer to completely extinguish as the fire spread into void spaces in the second-floor loft and roof.
One resident in their 50s sustained minor burns on their hand and were treated by first responders.
Crews discovered an unattended candle sparked the fire after learning the house was deenergized and residents used candles to stay warm.
PF&R noted candles start thousands of fires every year and remind everyone to never leave burning candles unattended.
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| 2022-04-20T23:15:31
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Molalla High School is on probation for one year and required to take steps to ensure its students do not commit acts of racism in the future after an incident that happened at a boys basketball game in January.
The Oregon Student Activities issued a letter to the Molalla River School District on March 31 with details of its decision and what it determined took place.
In the letter, OSAA states, “Our collective goal has been to ensure that a restorative and educational process is used to support action and healing, as well as prevent reoccurrence.”
The district redacted parts of the letter before sharing it with KOIN 6 News, saying there are portions it cannot disclose in order to protect students’ identities.
The one finding that was not redacted stated that there was “Heckling from some people seated in the Molalla High School student section, which included some students from another school, was poor at times but was not determined to be racially motivated.”
On Jan. 28, Gladstone High School students say a woman pointed an image of an American flag and Confederate flag on her phone toward the basketball team as she escorted them to the visitor’s locker room. During the varsity game, Gladstone students say a Molalla student fan had his face and upper body painted black and that Molalla students were making monkey noises while Gladstone’s Black players had the ball or were shooting free throws.
The probation for Molalla High School begins March 31, 2022. OSAA says any violation the school commits during the probationary period will result in even more strenuous penalties.
In addition to the probation, OSAA is requiring Molalla High School to take the following steps to ensure such incidents don’t happen again.
- All administrators and event management staff must undergo training to protect the safety of spectators and guests and to understand the impact of hate symbols on people of color.
- The school must communicate with OSAA about how it is addressing the incidents that occurred at the January basketball game.
- The high school is required to review how its school spirit days and event themes are elected in accordance with guidelines from the Oregon Association of Student Councils.
- The school must implement the S.T.A.R. initiative to promote good sportsmanship and educate event attendees about how to report harassment. S.T.A.R. is an acronym and stands for safety, tolerance, acceptance and respect. The standards intend to provide “the safest and most welcoming environment to all who attend OSAA sanctioned events.”
- Molalla High School is also required to develop an incident response protocol to act quickly on reports of harassment and discrimination.
In a letter sent to families on April 19, Gladstone Superintendent Bob Stewart wrote, “No student should be subjected to racism, and we will not tolerate it. In each Gladstone school, we will continue our journey to evaluate and improve how we treat others, with the goal of building mutual respect, understanding, equity, and inclusion.”
Stewart said his district is also committed to working on the areas OSAA recommended Molalla make improvements in, such as staff equity training and the use of S.T.A.R. protocols at athletic events.
“Our hope is that because of the courage of the Gladstone students who reported their experience, those who inflicted harm can begin to understand the impact of their actions and change their behavior moving forward,” Stewart wrote.
The Molalla River School District also issued a statement in response to OSAA’s findings. In it, the district stated, “Molalla River School District respects OSAA’s findings and has already begun taking appropriate steps to develop and implement an action plan to address them.
“Creating an open and welcoming environment for all students, visitors and guests has always been a priority of every Molalla River school, and we will continue to honor that commitment as we move forward.”
In early February, OSAA told KOIN 6 News it had contracted a third-party investigator to look into the incident. The Molalla Police Department said it was also investigating the reported racism because it is a “potential crime and bias-based incident.”
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| 2022-04-20T23:15:33
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TUPELO • City officials have announced the hiring of a chief code inspector, capping off a series of division head hires for the Development Services Department.
The city hired David Shelton, a former manager at Carnes Frames of Pontotoc.
“He has an extensive management background and is a certified property maintenance inspector through the international code council,” Development Services Director Tanner Newman said. “We look forward to having his leadership within the department.”
Shelton, who was hired three weeks ago, said he was ready for a change and he found it in his new position. He worked for over three decades in furniture manufacturing as a manager.
Shelton said his main focus coming into the position is to build up his division and make sure they are on the same page.
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“I’m trying to build a team. It is going to take time, but I am looking forward to it,” he said. “My main thing is going to be 'work hard.' I’ve met and told my folks that I’m going to give a good day’s work, and I expect that out of them.”
Shelton is also the husband of Council Clerk Missy Shelton. He said she encouraged him to go after a job on the Third Floor, as the Development Services Department is known.
Newman said with the key positions filled, the department would focus on hiring additional code enforcement inspectors and move to a ward-based system of enforcement.
“With the hiring of Mr. Shelton, we now have our five division heads in place,” Newman said.
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https://www.djournal.com/news/local/tupelo-officials-hire-chief-code-inspector/article_f5f3c43a-5c80-523d-af44-fbf9f48c4a59.html
| 2022-04-20T23:21:44
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According to Broome County Executive Jason Garnar, ten thousand pounds of dry ice and forty-three thousand bottles of water were distributed throughout our area since the storm. Garnar also says that within the next 24 hours, the county should have another fifty thousand pounds of dry ice available for distribution.
Regarding power outages, as of 3pm Wednesday the 20th, NYSEG’s website indicated that over twenty-nine thousand customers were still without power in Broome County.
Garnar says that roughly a hundred people were working on power restoration Tuesday, compared to the four hundred working Wednesday.
County Executive Jason Garnar says, “My understanding is they have crews that they brought in from other states as well working on that. But, I would not be surprised to see that some people’s power will not get restored until Friday or even the weekend.”
Endicott Mayor Linda Jackson tells NewsChannel 34 that roughly a third of village addresses are still without power, although electricity was restored to the village’s main water well.
Johnson City Mayor Marty Meaney says about one thousand JC residents are still without power.
For those in need of a relief shelter, Trinity Memorial Episcopal Church, in Binghamton is open until 7PM, and then the shelter will be moving to the Baldwin Gym on the SUNY Broome campus.
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https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/local/broome-snow-briefing/
| 2022-04-20T23:26:17
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — As reports have shown President Joe Biden’s visit to Portland will highlight resiliency in the nation’s airports, local leaders are still hoping for a focus on large infrastructure projects that have been years in the making.
“The I-5 bridge replacement absolutely needs federal investment,” Lynn Peterson, the president of the Metro Council, said.
The latest bridge replacement estimate is pegged at around $4.5 billion dollars. Each state should commit $1 Billion towards the project, with Washington already dedicating its share.
“I think the federal government has the responsibility to the lion’s share portion of this bridge,” Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler said in an interview with KOIN 6.
Herrera Beutler, a Republican representing Washington’s third district in the southeast corner of the state, voted against the $1.2 Trillion infrastructure plan President Biden is expected to tout on his visit to the Rose City.
Her objections were over inflation concerns and money dedicated to transit projects outside of roadways. Non-vehicular transit (i.e. a light rail) has doomed a replacement for the I-5 bridge before and without a design, Herrera Beutler is skeptical of accountability for the project saying, “no one has shown me what they want to do.”
“Before this community is put on the hook for a lot of money, I want to know that the bridge design is going to meet our needs and our pocketbooks,” she said. “Part of that means don’t make the mistakes that doomed the last project.”
There have been concepts released for the project, but no final plan has been decided on.
Each state received hundreds of millions of dollars for infrastructure from the federal government in the infrastructure plan, but not enough to cover the cost of the project entirely.
During a press event last week, Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat representing Washington, said the replacement project should qualify for the money dedicated to larger projects.
“I think both sides of the river have respect and empathy to the different challenges that each side of our region faces in a way that maybe we did not before. So, I am optimistic,” Peterson said.
One-half of the bridge is over 100 years old, built in 1917 — the other half was completed in 1958. Both sides are at risk of collapsing if a large enough earthquake were to strike.
But outside of hypotheticals, there’s an everyday problem needing to be solved: congestion.
A study from the American Transit Research Institute, a trucking research firm, says over $1.2 million dollars is lost by commuters and shipping companies because of congestion around Portland. It identified the I-5 bridge as the 33rd worst spot for congestion in the country, and the I-5/I-84 interchange as the 28th worst.
The traffic holds up the estimated $188 million dollars of goods ODOT says traverses I-5 each day.
“Our region is growing and we’re going to need increased capacity. That capacity can come in several different ways, including high-capacity transit, as well as the ability to make the three thru lanes in each direction function better,” Peterson said.
Peterson says President Biden’s visit can spotlight regional issues to bring solutions to disagreements.
“It can help bring everybody together and just focus that light on those issues and build relationships so that when we need to pick up the phone and say we’re ready to move on a project, we know that we’ll have the Biden Administration behind us,” he said.
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https://www.koin.com/local/local-leaders-i-5-bridge-replacement-needs-federal-investment/
| 2022-04-21T02:31:27
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https://www.koin.com/local/local-leaders-i-5-bridge-replacement-needs-federal-investment/
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What we know about the natural gas explosion on Barksdale Air Force Base
Two Energy Transfer LP contractors were injured in an April 19, natural gas explosion on Barksdale Air Force Base.
Around 11:40 a.m., Barksdale Air Force Base Emergency Response Personnel received a call to the East Reservation.
Upon arrival, personnel discovered a gas well explosion.
The explosion led to a small fire that impacted approximately half an acre of land.
More:UPDATE: Two contractors injured, half-acre of land burned in Barksdale gas well explosion
Two contractors from Energy Transfer LP sustained injuries and were transported to a local hospital.
“The safety of all those in our community is a top priority. The swift response of our emergency management teams and our community partners played a critical role in minimizing the impact to the installation and local area," 2d Bomb Wing Base Commander Col. Scott Weyermuller said.
Just after 7:30 p.m. LifeShare Blood Center released a statement asking all who were able to donate blood after several friends and family members came to donate blood for one of the victims.
Adam Purland was working on the pipeline when it exploded. He received extreme burns.
The family set up a replenishment drive for people in the community to donate on Purland's behalf. Donors are asked to go to any LifeShare blood drive across the Ark-La-Tex to participate.
As of Wednesday afternoon, no information was available on the other victim.
Read:Worker injured in Barksdale gas explosion needs blood. Here's how you can help
The 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs office said at this time there is no new information on this incident.
The base has also said the incident was not connected with explosives training or nearby construction.
Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com.
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https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2022/04/21/what-we-know-natural-gas-explosion-barksdale-air-force-base/7383703001/
| 2022-04-21T02:50:42
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https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2022/04/21/what-we-know-natural-gas-explosion-barksdale-air-force-base/7383703001/
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A New Jersey man was arrested after he stole credit cards and other items from deceased individuals who he was bringing to the morgue, according to police.
Kevin Thomas Jr., of Sayreville, worked as a driver for a company that transports people to the morgue after they have died, and used that position to gain access to their belongings, according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office. The 43-year-old allegedly took credit cards, wallets and other possessions from people as he brought the bodies in.
Thomas Jr. then used the stolen credit cards to buy plane tickets, groceries, movie tickets and other items at businesses throughout Middlesex County, the prosecutor's office said.
He was arrested Tuesday following an investigation by Milltown Police and the prosecutor's office, and charged with credit card theft, identity theft, possession of prescription drugs without a prescription and possession of a credit card without consent.
He was being held at the Middlesex County Adult Correctional Center. Attorney information for Thomas Jr. was not immediately clear.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/nj-man-allegedly-stole-credits-cards-belongings-from-dead-bodies-he-drove-to-morgue/3655474/
| 2022-04-21T03:03:31
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/nj-man-allegedly-stole-credits-cards-belongings-from-dead-bodies-he-drove-to-morgue/3655474/
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he wants the city to promote its impending legal cannabis industry and assist people from minority communities most affected by marijuana-related offenses to become marijuana entrepreneurs.
Adams is set to propose Wednesday that the city spend $4.8 million to reach out to those most impacted by the so-called war on drugs. His plan would help them learn about the industry and set up their new small businesses — things like navigating the licensing process and obtaining financing, among other areas.
“Now is the time for our city to make proactive investments to ensure the people disproportionately impacted by the criminalization of these substances can reap the benefits of the new industry,” Adams said in a statement.
The mayor, a Democrat and former police captain, has said the legal marijuana industry could be a key driver for the city’s post-pandemic economic recovery, along with a revival in tourism, nightlife and people returning to offices.
The announcement coincides with April 20 — also known as 4/20 — the date known for celebrating marijuana, and a day before neighboring New Jersey begins its own recreational pot sales.
New York legalized adult recreational marijuana a year ago for adults 21 and over. Recreational sales are not expected to start until later this year or early next year as the state sorts out regulations for what's expected to be one of the biggest legal U.S. markets for the drug.
In New York City alone, the industry is expected to generate $1.3 billion in sales in its first year, according to estimates from City Hall.
New York was the 16th state to legalize marijuana for adults, and the second-most populous state after California to do so.
A key theme in marijuana legalization in recent years has been social equity, and New York's laws have built in ways to redress how the justice system locked up a disproportionate number of people of color for drug crimes. That includes the state's goal of awarding half of marijuana licenses to individuals from underrepresented communities. The state has also been expunging some past marijuana convictions.
Adams' plan continues in that vein, suggesting the city help those most impacted by the criminalization of the drug if they now wish to become marijuana entrepreneurs. The city's agencies devoted to small business services, economic development and criminal justice would work together to identify where to target the efforts, launch a public education tour and ad campaign and even help those setting up businesses find real estate to set up shop.
The proposal is part of the mayor's city budget plan that he's set to unveil next week. Along with the rest of the budget, the proposal will be negotiated with the city council and is expected to be agreed upon this summer.
New York City Councilmember Julie Menin, who chairs the council's small business committee, and Councilmember Amanda Farías, who chairs the council's economic development committee, both released statements supporting the mayor's plan to help marijuana entrepreneurs.
Menin said it was “of critical importance” for New York City to establish the legal pot industry “in neighborhoods that were devastated by the war on drugs.”
“We need to be mindful of marginalized communities that have been disproportionately incarcerated because of punitive marijuana laws,” she said.
Adams has separately said, in the absence of much available land in the city, he's exploring the idea of allowing the growing and cultivation of marijuana on the rooftops of the city's public housing buildings. But that idea is likely to run into major roadblocks because the housing is heavily subsidized by the federal government, which still criminalizes marijuana.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-wants-to-help-those-hit-by-war-on-drugs-sell-legal-weed-mayor-eric-adams-says/3655545/
| 2022-04-21T03:41:24
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-wants-to-help-those-hit-by-war-on-drugs-sell-legal-weed-mayor-eric-adams-says/3655545/
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A former New York state judge was sentenced Wednesday to a year and three months in prison after her conviction for obstructing a probe into financial wrongdoing at a credit union that provides banking services to tens of thousands of New York City employees, including police and firefighters.
Ex-State Supreme Court Justice Sylvia Ash, 64, was sentenced by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan after her December conviction on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making a false statement to a federal agent in an investigation of the Municipal Credit Union.
“These crimes struck at the heart of the criminal justice system,” Kaplan said of a judge who stepped down from her judicial position only last month.
The judge said Ash, born in London, impressively rose from modest origins to “one of the most important judicial positions in the state."
“But you lost it all,” he said, citing her “dishonest, corrupt and frankly outrageous actions.”
Before the sentence was announced, Ash said she felt “remorse, shame and embarrassment” after she “disappointed so many.”
She said she had “achieved the American dream” before the crimes “ruined my life.”
“Because of my actions, the reputation I spent a lifetime building has been destroyed and I have no one to blame but myself,” Ash said.
During Ash's trial, prosecutors said she took actions over many months to obstruct the investigation into financial misconduct at the credit union while she chaired its board of directors.
The credit union is a nonprofit financial institution headquartered in New York City with more than $4.2 billion in accounts as it provides banking services to over a half million members.
Authorities said the financial crimes occurred while Ash, a Brooklyn judge, was on the credit union’s board of directors from May 2008 to August 2016, when she resigned. She had served as the board’s chair from May 2015 until her resignation.
In a release, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said she committed her crimes as she tried to protect financial crimes carried out by the now-imprisoned former chief executive of the credit union who provided her with numerous benefits.
Prosecutors said Ash received tens of thousands of dollars in reimbursements and other benefits from the credit union from 2012 through 2016, including airfare, hotels and entertainment, along with annual birthday parties at a minor league baseball stadium and payment for phone, cable bills and electronic devices.
As a sitting state judge, Ash was required to report gifts and benefits from any outside sources on an annual state disclosure form, but prosecutors said she never reported gifts or benefits from the credit union between 2012 and 2018.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/former-ny-state-judge-sentenced-to-15-months-in-prison-for-obstructing-federal-probe/3655536/
| 2022-04-21T04:36:26
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/former-ny-state-judge-sentenced-to-15-months-in-prison-for-obstructing-federal-probe/3655536/
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11th annual Ormond Beach Celtic Festival set for Saturday and Sunday
Whether you're in the mood for live music, have a hankering for a cool pint of Guinness or just looking for an all-around family-friendly good time, the 11th annual Ormond Beach Celtic Festival is the place to be this Saturday and Sunday.
The festival, 25 Riverside Drive, will occupy Rockefeller Gardens and Fortunato Park along the Halifax River with five music stages, highland games, food, drink and a host of other activities.
There will be beer, of course, including Guinness on draft, the annual dog parade, a chance to watch traditional sheep herding and plenty of live music.
Also this weekend:Will Orange Crush Festival bring a crush of cars and people to Daytona this weekend?
Music scene:Country star Brian Kelley comes home for Daytona Bandshell concert
Julia D. Truilo, executive director of Ormond Mainstreet, the festival's organizers, said this is an opportunity for people to come together in everything Celtic and have a good time.
“We're anticipating about 10,000 guests over the two days,” said Truilo. “It’s supposed to be a beautiful weekend. This is a fun festival, where people end up staying the day giving it more of a community feel. So I'm sure that our numbers will be strong.”
The festival will offer music from 27 acts, two dance troupes, and two pipe and drum bands. Seven Nations, a Celtic rock group originally from New York City, will be the festival headliner on the Pavilion Stage at 5:30 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday.
“My favorite part about the festival is the ‘jam tent’,” said Truilo. “There are experts teaching folks who want to learn how to play their instruments better or just want to get together and jam with somebody. There are jam sessions so people can bring their instruments down and play. I used to be a fiddler. I’m also a singer.”
Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Advance tickets are $12 each day for adults or $15 at the gate. Children 12 and younger are admitted free. There is plenty of free parking, including off-site with free shuttle service.
And attendees are invited to bring their four-legged friends on Sunday for the festival's dog parade, which begins at 2:40 p.m.
Tickets are available at the gate or online at tickettailor.com/events/ormondbeachmainstreet. For more information, parking maps and schedules, go to OrmondBeachCelticFestival.com.
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https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2022/04/20/ormond-beach-celtic-festival-returns/7319251001/
| 2022-04-21T04:47:57
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https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2022/04/20/ormond-beach-celtic-festival-returns/7319251001/
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Police said Wednesday they now know the last place a Queens mother of two was seen alive before she was brutally murdered inside her own home and put into a duffel bag, and they are focusing on one person who knew her.
Orsolya Gaal was a regular at the Forest Hills Station House, a gathering spot popular with locals. A manager at the gastropub said Gaal always wore a smile, dined alone and was kind to employees — and said she was there on Friday night, around 11:45 p.m. until 12:30 a.m.
"She was here on Friday, right in the center of the bar. Had a Moscow mule, had a bite to eat. Spoke to a few of my staff members that know her, joking around in conversation," said Gabriel Veras. "She was a very, very sweet regular. She left alone and we were in shock the next day. Shock."
Meanwhile, law enforcement sources said they are still investigating several people of interest, but have focused their attention on one specific person who was known to Gaal and her family. They believe the man had access to the home, which is why there were no signs of forced entry. Police have not released the name of the man or how he may have known the 51-year-old Gaal.
Detectives continue to interview those who knew her, while canvassing for more video. Forensic evidence gathered inside the house on Juno Street is also being analyzed.
Police believe Gaal was killed after returning from the restaurant, but Veras said she was with no one and didn’t seem to be in any danger.
"She was composed, collected, in the middle of the bar, just keeping to herself and talking to staff," he said. "Nothing unusual. She didn’t seem frightened or scared or panicked. Just enjoying her one drink before going home."
Details of the attack are gruesome, as law enforcement sources said Gaal was stabbed some 58 times in the neck, torso, and left arm. The sources also said that she had wounds to her hands that were likely from her attempts to fight off the attacker.
Chilling surveillance video showed a person who may have killed her, according to police sources. That person was seen on home security camera footage wheeling a hockey duffel bag down 75th Avenue, with Gaal's body believed to be inside.
Police made the disturbing discovery of her body Saturday morning after a 911 caller alerted officials to the roadside crime scene. The NYPD said Gaal's body was found near Jackie Robinson parkway and Metropolitan Avenue shortly before 8:30 a.m., about a half mile from her home, after a jogger spotted the blood-soaked duffel bag near a busy walking trail.
Law enforcement sources said a trail of blood led detectives back to her home.
Gaal's 13-year-old son who lives at the home was questioned by police and later released, sources said. Investigators believe that Gaal was attacked in her basement, while the teenage son was on the top floor of the home.
Police said her husband and another son were out of town, visiting colleges on the west coast, when her body was discovered. Sources told NBC New York that at around 5 a.m. Saturday, the killer is believed to have sent Gaal's husband a threatening text message from her phone.
The medical examiner's office confirmed Gaal's death was classified a homicide due to "sharp force injuries of the neck."
The owner of the Forest Hills Station House, Stephen Elkins, said they are cooperating with police. They have handed over surveillance video of Gaal at the location, and the entire staff is hoping for an arrest.
"The streets are normally super safe and now it’s been made unsafe by this horrible crime. So it’s very important very important that they catch the person responsible," said Veras.
Posters offering $3,500 reward for any information leading to an arrest were put up for blocks throughout the neighborhood Tuesday. A growing tribute with flowers continued to grow in the front yard of Gaal's home, as police were still inside the home looking for any more clues. There were tributes pouring in on social media as well, with people noting Gaal's kindness.
No arrests have been made, and police are still unsure of a motive behind the killing. Law enforcement sources have said the attack was not random and that the public is not in danger.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/mom-found-dead-in-duffel-bag-was-last-seen-alive-at-queens-bar-cops-zero-in-on-suspect/3655599/
| 2022-04-21T05:15:20
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/mom-found-dead-in-duffel-bag-was-last-seen-alive-at-queens-bar-cops-zero-in-on-suspect/3655599/
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You won't have to go somewhere over the rainbow to get a piece of Hollywood history — but you may have to shell out some big bucks for it.
One of only four dresses worn by Dorothy in the 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz" is going on the auction block.
The blue and white gingham dress, along with the white blouse, was worn by Judy Garland during the scene where Dorothy faces the Wicked Witch of the West in the witch's castle.
The dress was gifted to Catholic University in Washington, D.C. in 1973, but went missing in the 1980s. It was discovered once again in 2021, and proceeds from the sale will benefit the school's drama department.
The dress can be viewed at Bonhams New York from April 23-29 before going to Los Angeles, where it will be sold. Bonhams said that it is estimated the dress will sell for anywhere between $800,000 and $1.2 million.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/dorothys-dress-from-the-wizard-of-oz-going-up-for-sale-after-lost-for-decades/3655631/
| 2022-04-21T05:15:27
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/dorothys-dress-from-the-wizard-of-oz-going-up-for-sale-after-lost-for-decades/3655631/
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Family and friends are grieving for a teenager shot and killed over the weekend as police are still looking for the killer.
Loved ones told KOIN 6 News the loss of 17-year-old Marcus Brazile has shattered many.
“He’s going to be missed,” said friend and neighbor, Patty. “He was a great kid, great football player. He was lovable like a teddy bear.”
The 17-year-old and three others — who family members say were related — were gunned down near SE 162nd and Stark on Sunday night. The other three teenagers are still recovering from their own gunshot wounds.
“The violence, he wasn’t violent,” said Patty. “It’s heartbreaking to see that we won’t see him anymore.”
So far, PPB hasn’t arrested anyone in connection to the shooting. Friends and family say they’re heartbroken and hope for justice.
“Hopefully, they catch whoever did it. It’s a war out here,” said Patty. “It’s a mother’s nightmare.”
Brazile played football and attended David Douglas schools since kindergarten. One of the other teenagers shot also attended schools there.
The district says they’ve made counselors available for the students and are thinking of the family during this time. The other two teenagers who were shot attended schools in the Centennial School District, who said they’re also in touch with their families and are offering counseling to anyone who may need it.
As police continue to search for a suspect, they’ve asked anyone with tips to contact the detectives on this case. They can contact Detective Michael Greenlee at Michael.Greenlee@portlandoregon.gov or 503-823-0871 or Detective Brad Clifton at Brad.Clifton@portlandoregon.gov or 503-823-0696.
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/family-and-friends-hold-vigil-for-teen-killed-in-se-portland-shooting/
| 2022-04-21T05:46:42
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/family-and-friends-hold-vigil-for-teen-killed-in-se-portland-shooting/
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A Marion County grand jury has found Salem police justified in using deadly force after shooting and killing a man earlier this month while investigating a stolen vehicle case.
According to authorities, around 6 p.m. April 11, police responded to a call of an occupied stolen vehicle in a parking lot behind Johnny’s Bar and Grill on 17th and Center Street in Salem.
The caller reported seeing a friend’s stolen Mazda Miata with two men, now identified as Matthew Calkins and Christopher Esman, inside. The caller said the men got out of the Mazda then got inside a Yukon parked next to it.
On the scene, officers asked the men to get out of the Yukon, which was driven by 28-year-old Tayler Osborne. According to Marion County District Attorney’s Office, as police made sure the car was clear, they found what they suspected was methamphetamine in the driver’s seat.
Police also reportedly saw what appeared to be a rifle between the driver’s seat and center console along with a Glock pistol under the passenger seat and an ammunition magazine.
Calkins told police that Osborne dealt drugs from the Yukon and had large amounts of meth and oxycodone pills and a 9mm pistol in the car. He also told police that Osborne smoked meth in the car before police arrived.
Authorities said Osborne denied he knew about the suspected meth and gave officers permission to remove the bag from the car, but didn’t allow them to search the rest of the car.
Police gave citations to Calkins and Enson, who were then released from the scene. Meanwhile, police arrested Osborne.
According to Marion County District Attorney’s Office, while Osborne was handcuffed in the back of a police car, he complained he was thirsty. Officer Susan Slivkoff opened the door to offer him water when she noticed his hands were no longer cuffed behind his back and he had slipped them in front of his body.
Authorities said Slivkoff began to re-handcuff him outside of the police car, but once one of his hands was released, he pushed Slivkoff and started to run towards the Yukon.
Another officer, Corporal Josh Buker, was parked nearby and ran to assist Slivkoff after he heard yelling.
Officials said Osborne fought with the officers — punching Buker in the face then grabbing Buker’s taser and shocked both Buker and Slivkoff.
Buker fired two gunshots at Osborne, believing he “posed an imminent deadly threat,” Marion County District Attorney’s Office said.
Buker and Slivkoff held him at gunpoint as other officers were called to the scene. First responders provided first aid and transported Osborne to Salem Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
On April 12, 2022, an autopsy found Osborne was shot in the chest and in his left shoulder. Officials said both gunshots passed through his left lung and were fatal.
The Marion County Grand Jury unanimously ruled the use of deadly force by Buker was justified.
Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson said “this incident highlights the dangerous work our law enforcement officers do every day. I am grateful they returned home to their families that night. The grand jury should be commended for their diligent and careful review of all the evidence. My heartfelt condolences go out to the family of Tayler Osborne. Nobody wants these outcomes.”
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https://www.koin.com/local/marion-county/grand-jury-finds-salem-police-justified-after-deadly-shooting/
| 2022-04-21T07:22:20
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https://www.koin.com/local/marion-county/grand-jury-finds-salem-police-justified-after-deadly-shooting/
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Police are looking for three people they say are connected to the theft of approximately $450,000 worth of rings in a Midtown jewelry store.
Investigators say during the afternoon on April 7, two women and one man went into a jewelry store on West 47th Street. While the store employee was in the back room, one of the women and the man acted as lookouts so the other woman could go behind the counter. Police say she took 112 white and yellow gold diamond rings, and then the three fled.
The group was last seen boarding a southbound F train at the 47-50 St Rockefeller Center subway station.
Investigators say one of the women is 40 to 50 years old and was wearing a tan/grey sweater and a gray knit cap. The other woman is 25 to 35 years old and was wearing a black baseball cap and a purple-and-white tie-dye "HOLLISTER” sweatshirt. The man is 30 to 40 years old. He was wearing black t -shirt and jeans with a grey baseball cap.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/jewelry-thieves-nab-450k-in-rings-at-midtown-shop/3655719/
| 2022-04-21T08:17:51
| 1
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/jewelry-thieves-nab-450k-in-rings-at-midtown-shop/3655719/
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