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'Fat Leonard' seeks new attorneys ahead of sentencing in Navy bribery case, causing another delay

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:12:33 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Defense contractor Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis, who fled to South America weeks before he was scheduled to be sentenced in one of the biggest bribery schemes in U.S. military history, said Thursday that he wants new attorneys now that he is back in U.S. custody after a Venezuelan prisoner swap.An enigmatic figure who was 6-foot-3 and weighed 350 pounds at one time, Francis was visibly thinner at the hearing in U.S. District Court. He told the judge he has agreed to end his relationship with Warren & Burstein, the law firm that has represented him during much of the decadelong salacious saga involving dozens of American Navy officers. The change was initially requested by the firm, which made the decision with a “heavy heart,” attorney Jeremey Warren said. “We have a loyalty to our clients. We don't like to step away.”Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Sheppard objected to the change, saying it would set back Francis' sentencing yet again because it would take time f...

Toronto Crime Stoppers celebrating 40th anniversary with boost in tip numbers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:12:33 GMT

Over 40 years after its inception, Toronto Crime Stoppers is proving its value once again with a significant increase in tips.According to Toronto police, there were over 7,000 new tips and 15,000 follow-up tips provided in 2023 leading to 106 arrests, 720 charges and the clearing of 148 cases. Five homicides were solved, 42 vehicles recovered and 30 illegal firearms were seized. The tips represent a 17 per cent increase over the year prior and 42 per cent increase in follow-up tips.Sean Sportun, Toronto Crime Stoppers Chair, attributes the jump to their revamp of the program after 2019.“We started looking at a new way to manage our program and that’s where we removed individual reward payouts and replaced it with a reward program, a community reward program that we give back to the community, if you will.”He adds they also weren’t able to do much outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic. “People are [now] back out in their communities, crime is now happening an...

Sudan paramilitary leader says he’s committed to cease-fire, but no progress on proposed peace talks

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:12:33 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Sudanese paramilitary leader Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo said Thursday he was committed to a cease-fire to end the devastating war that has wrecked his country, even as fighting continues and there has been no progress on proposed peace talks between Dagalo and Sudan military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan.Dagalo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces, said in a statement following a meeting in Pretoria with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa that he had briefed Ramaphosa on the “considerable efforts taken to end this war.”“I emphasized our unwavering commitment to cease hostilities,” Dagalo said, although he didn’t say if or when he would meet with Burhan. The warring generals agreed last month to a face-to-face meeting and to start talks over a possible cease-fire, according to the East African regional bloc IGAD.No date or location for the talks have been announced.During Thursday’s meeting with Dagalo, Ramaphosa said he hoped there wo...

Terminally ill Connecticut woman ends her life on her own terms, in Vermont

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:12:33 GMT

MARSHFIELD, Vt. (AP) — A Connecticut woman who pushed for expanded access to Vermont’s law that allows people who are terminally ill to receive lethal medication to end their lives died in Vermont on Thursday, an event her husband called “comfortable and peaceful,” just like she wanted.Lynda Bluestein, who had terminal cancer, ended her life by taking prescribed medication.Her last words were ‘I’m so happy I don’t have to do this (suffer) anymore,'” her husband Paul wrote in an email on Thursday to the group Compassion & Choices, which was shared with The Associated Press.The organization filed a lawsuit against Vermont in 2022 on behalf of Bluestein, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Diana Barnard, a physician from Middlebury. The suit claimed Vermont’s residency requirement in its so-called patient choice and control at end of life law violated the U.S. Constitution’s commerce, equal protection, and privileges and immunities clauses. The state agreed to a settl...

UC Berkeley walls off People’s Park as it waits for court decision on student housing project

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:12:33 GMT

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Police officers in riot gear removed activists from Berkeley’s People’s Park and crews began placing double-stacked shipping containers to wall off the historic park overnight Thursday as the University of California, Berkeley waits for a court ruling it hopes will allow it to build much-needed student housing.The project has been ensnared in a legal challenge that claims the university failed to study the potential noise issues caused by future residents and to consider alternative sites. The park has also been the scene in recent years of skirmishes between activists opposing the project and police trying to help clear it.Authorities arrested seven people Thursday on misdemeanor trespassing charges, and two of them had additional charges of failure to disperse after they refused to leave the park, which is owned by UC Berkeley, university officials said in a statement. Those arrested were booked, cited and released, they said.The university wants to use the...

Federal agency blames ‘poor safety culture’ for 2021 DC Metro train derailment

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:12:33 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top federal transportation safety official on Thursday harshly criticized Washington’s regional transit agency, saying a “poor safety culture” led to an October 2021 derailment that caused hundreds of new Metro railcars to be pulled from service.A final National Transportation Safety Board report on the incident concluded that the Washington Area Metropolitan Transit Authority had been aware for years of a safety issue that caused the wheels on the new 7000-series Metro cars to expand wider than the tracks. However, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said that information was poorly communicated within the organization and not acted upon with the proper urgency. “This incident was 100% preventable,” Homendy said at a news conference. “We’re absolutely lucky that this did not end in a tragedy.” On Oct. 12, 2021, an eight-car train slipped off the tracks on the Metro’s Blue Line near Arlington National Cemetery. Some passengers were trapped in a tunnel in a dark tra...

The AP Top 25 remains a college basketball mainstay after 75 years of evolution

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:12:33 GMT

When he first moved from coaching into broadcasting in the early 1980s, Dick Vitale would keep track of what was happening across the college basketball landscape by picking up the newspaper every morning.Just about every score would be listed there. Important games might have box scores, giving Vitale a little more information. And the biggest games of the day might have full stories, providing a more rounded picture of what had transpired.“People stayed up late to publish that stuff for the next morning,” Vitale recalled.These days, just about every Division I men’s college basketball game is available to watch somewhere, whether broadcast on television or streamed on an app. Highlights rip across social media the minute they happen, and forums provide fans a chance to not only rehash what happened but discuss the finer points of their favorite teams.All of which makes voting for the AP men’s college basketball poll easier. And at times harder.The Top 25 is celebrating...

New York City suing charter bus companies for transporting migrants from Texas

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:12:33 GMT

New York (AP) — New York City is suing more than a dozen charter bus companies for their role in Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s operation to send tens of thousands of migrants to urban areas. The lawsuit claims the 17 bus companies “knowingly implemented” Abbott’s busing plan in violation of a New York law that sets limits on transferring “needy persons” across state lines. It seeks more than $700 million in damages to recoup the cost of caring for an estimated 33,000 migrants that have arrived in the city on charter buses since April 2022. Filed in state court Thursday, the lawsuit marked the latest effort by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a moderate Democrat, to turn back the busloads of migrants sent from Texas each day. Abbott, a Republican, has said his goal is to draw attention to President Joe Biden’s border policy. After 14 buses arrived in the city last month, Adams announced an executive order restricting when the buses could drop-off passengers and requiring advanced notice of...

Canadian safety watchdog pitching in on probe into fatal Japan Airlines crash

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:12:33 GMT

GATINEAU, Que. — The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says it is taking part in an investigation by Japanese authorities into a fatal crash on a Tokyo runway that involved two airplanes, including one made in Canada.In an email, the safety watchdog says a representative along with technical advisers from Transport Canada, De Havilland Canada and Pratt & Whitney Canada will offer up information on the destroyed Dash 8 aircraft and its engines.A Japan Airlines jet caught fire after slamming into the Bombardier-made coast guard aircraft Tuesday evening as the passenger plane was landing at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. An orange fireball erupted as Japan Airlines Flight 516 tore down the runway, swathed in flames and spewing grey smoke.Within 20 minutes, all 379 passengers and crew members slid down the Airbus A350 jetliner’s emergency chutes and survived.The pilot of the coast guard plane — a Dash 8 turboprop that had not yet received permission to use the runway — evac...

Neo-Nazi podcasters sent to prison on terror charges for targeting Prince Harry and his young son

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:12:33 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A neo-Nazi podcaster who called for the deaths of Prince Harry and his young son received a prison sentence Thursday along with his co-host Thursday. The sentencing judge in London called the duo “dedicated and unapologetic white supremacists” who encouraged terrorism. Christopher Gibbons and Tyrone Patten-Walsh espoused racist, antisemitic, Islamophobic, homophobic and misogynistic views and encouraged listeners of their “Lone Wolf Radio” podcast to commit violent acts against ethnic minorities, authorities said. Using aliases on their show, the pair said “the white race was likely to be ‘genocided’ unless steps were taken to fight back.” They approved of a day when so-called race traitors would be hanged, particularly those in interracial relationships. Prince Harry’s wife, Meghan, is biracial. On one episode, Gibbons said the Duke of Sussex should be “prosecuted and judicially killed for treason” and called Harry’s son, Archie, who is now 4, a “cre...