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2 SoCal suspects accused of stealing millions from elderly victims

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:26:11 GMT

Two L.A. County residents are accused of stealing over $2 million through “grandparent scams."The suspects were identified as James Wesley Jackson III, aka “Imperial,” 42, and Christopher Fagon, 45, who used several aliases, mostly variations of “Christopher Broker," according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.“Grandparent scams” typically involve convincing elderly victims to send money to help their relatives. Oftentimes, the victims are told their grandchildren are in legal trouble.Victims are told to send the money to bank accounts, business entities and addresses provided by the scammers through interstate wires and cashier’s checks, according to court documents.The stolen money is then handled by “money mules” who allow their addresses or bank accounts to be used to receive or negotiate cashier’s checks.Fagon was allegedly a manager of money mules, including Jackson, who then recruited his own money mules, officials said. Fagon is accused of creating businesses and opening bank ac...

Kurtenbach: Draymond Green is going to be suspended (again) and it raises some serious questions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:26:11 GMT

Five, 10, 15, or 20 games — no matter how long Draymond Green’s upcoming suspension is, it’ll be justified.For the second time in less than a month, Green was ejected for on-court pugilism Tuesday.In November, Green put Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert in an impressive headlock, resulting in a five-game suspension.At least that came amid a fracas.Tuesday, Green punched Suns center Jusuf Nurkić amid some routine jostling in the post.He wasn’t coming to the aid of his teammate. He wasn’t countering another dirty play.Green’s spinning hook punch was dumb, churlish, and exceptionally unnecessary. It was a cheap shot — indefensible, even for those like me who have gone to bat for Green time and time again.Green claimed he was merely trying to “sell” a foul. He blamed instant replay for how it looked. He agreed with the ejection, but claimed it wasn’t his intention to hit Nurkić.He said he isn’t sure the hit is worthy of a suspension.Al...

Goaltending, special teams come up huge for Sharks in win over Winnipeg Jets

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:26:11 GMT

SAN JOSE – William Eklund scored a power-play goal with 4:51 left in regulation time to help lift the San Jose Sharks to a 2-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday at SAP Center.Eklund took a pass from Mikael Granlund and ripped a one-timer past Jets goalie Laurent Brossoit for his seventh goal of the season. Granlund’s assist extended his point streak to six games as the Sharks improved to 4-1-1 this month.Goalie Mackenzie Blackwood finished with 36 saves, including eight while shorthanded as the Sharks were 5-for-5 on the penalty kill, which included killing off penalties to Henry Thrun and Mike Hoffman in the third period.The Sharks had given up a power-play goal in five of their previous six games and entered Tuesday with the 31st-ranked penalty-killing unit in the NHL at 71.9 percent.The Sharks went 3-2-1 on their road trip that started Nov. 30 and ended Sunday with a shootout loss to the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena.Center Nico Sturm was injured in the third period ...

Meeting held over smelly air and chemical release in Richmond

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:26:11 GMT

RICHMOND, Calif. (KRON) – The Richmond City Council spent hours questioning the Veolia Water company Tuesday night about a hydrogen sulfide emission at the water treatment plant. The odor was released from Dec. 4-6 and led to complaints by people living in Point Richmond.Tensions were high at the special council meeting. The community heard from executives with Veolia Water North America about the hydrogen sulfide odor emitted from the water treatment plant. SF tech exec forced assistant to sign sex ‘slave contract,’ lawsuit alleges The odor emission began the night of Dec. 4 after everyone had left the plant for the night.“That really sharp acrid smell of manure, that’s what it is. It’s like living on a manure pile. It is embarrassing,” said Edie Alderette-Sellers, who lives in the Port Richmond area. “I woke up the next morning spitting up blood because I have coughed so hard in my sleep that my tonsils started bleeding.”Representatives from the plant say there was a dip in the ...

COP28 ends with call to move away from fossil fuels

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:26:11 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Nearly 200 nations sealed an agreement Wednesday urging countries to begin “transitioning away from fossil fuels” — a hard-fought deal that makes this the first-ever climate accord to address the primary driver of warming temperatures.The outcome drew a standing ovation in the packed plenary hall, a sharp turn from two days of tense, round-the-clock negotiations pitting advocates of aggressive climate action against fossil fuel producers such as Saudi Arabia. The talks also featured complaints from developing countries that rich nations such as the United States were not doing enough to help them shift to cleaner energy sources.The deal is the first time any of the nearly three decades of annual U.N. climate summits has agreed to language explicitly curtailing fossil fuels.“We have delivered a paradigm shift that has the potential to redefine our economies,” summit president Sultan al-Jaber, the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ state-owned o...

Appreciation: A paperboy curiosity that lasted a lifetime

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:26:11 GMT

My dad would stop and scan the headlines while delivering the Boston Herald and his local Lowell Sun along his paper route in the factory city as the world tore itself apart.He told me about being fascinated by the evacuation of Dunkirk like it was yesterday. That memory was from late May of 1940 when he was 12 years old.He volunteered during the Korean War to rush wounded soldiers off helicopters flown in from M*A*S*H units at the hospital in Yokohama, Japan, where he was stationed. His college business courses kept him off the front lines. He never said much about it, but he was determined to help.He was a high school teacher, a professor, an author, a veteran, and a counselor ready with sage advice. He let us all stay up late while he was studying at the University of Illinois to watch the moon landing in July of 1969. It was a teachable moment I’ll never forget.Roland “Al” Dwinell died last Thursday night while in hospice care. His funeral will be held on his 95th birthday...

Chula Vista City Council moves forward with reopening plan at Harborside Park

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:26:11 GMT

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- Chula Vista City Council members were able to come to a unanimous consensus to move forward with a plan to reopen Harborside Park on the city's west side.Harborside Park had been closed since August 2022. The park, which sits near an elementary school, shops, and a trolley station, had become overrun with homeless individuals who continue to reside at the park even after it’s closure."Exponential growth of those camps and those areas are putting business owners in danger and just citizens that work in that area or they do shopping," said Roberto Ramirez, owner of nearby Strong Base Jiu Jitsu.On Tuesday night, city council was faced with the options of directing city staff to move forward with a re-opening plan or declaring Harborside “surplus land," which would open up the more than five acres of land for potential housing development and a recreation center."We don’t need that additional housing there. We’ve already exceeded what’s expected of the city, are w...

Stock market today: Asian shares are mixed ahead of the Fed’s decision on interest rates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:26:11 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares were mixed on Wednesday ahead of a decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve on interest rates. Benchmarks declined in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul but rose in Tokyo and Sydney. U.S. futures edged higher while oil prices slipped.The Bank of Japan’s quarterly “tankan” report, released Wednesday, measured business sentiment among major manufacturers at plus 12, up from plus 9 in October and plus 5 in June. It was the third straight month of improvement.The survey measures corporate sentiment by subtracting the number of companies saying business conditions are negative from those replying they are positive.“The continued improvement in the ‘tankan’ suggests that the drop in Q3 GDP was just a blip, but we still expect GDP growth to slow sharply next year,” Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics said in a commentary. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% to 32,926.35 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia was up 0.3% at 7,257.80. Shares in China declined on...

Missiles from rebel territory in Yemen miss a ship near key Bab el-Mandeb Strait, US official says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:26:11 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Two missiles fired from territory held by Yemen’s Houthi rebels missed a commercial tanker near the key Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Wednesday, a U.S. official said. An American warship also shot down a suspected Houthi drone flying in its direction during the incident, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. No one was hurt in the attack, the official said. The ship that was targeted, the oil and chemical tanker Marshall Islands-flagged Ardmore Encounter, was traveling north toward the Suez Canal in the Red Sea, satellite tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed. The vessel had been coming from India and had an armed security crew aboard it. The ship’s managers could not be immediately reached for comment. The Houthis did not immediately acknowledge the attack. The recent rebel assaults expand a campaign by the Iranian-backed rebels targeting ships close to the Bab el-Mandeb Strai...

Newly elected progressive Thai lawmaker sentenced to 6 years for defaming monarchy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:26:11 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Thailand convicted and sentenced Wednesday a recently elected lawmaker to six years in prison for defaming the monarchy under a controversial law that guards the royal institution. Rukchanok Srinork arrived at the court building in the capital, Bangkok, while her fellow lawmakers were convening in Parliament.“I submitted a request to postpone (the hearing) because today the new parliament convenes for its first session, but the court refused. So I came to hear the verdict,” she told reporters, standing next to her party leader who was there to lend support. She was charged over two posts she allegedly shared two years ago on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter: A tweet that reportedly defamed the monarchy over links to a coronavirus vaccine and a retweet of an anti-monarchy quote by 18th-century French philosopher Denis Diderot.Rukchanok was sentenced to three years on each count under Article 112 of Thailand’s Criminal Code which prote...