'Debtor's prison' lawsuit filed against St. Louis suburb resolved with $2.9 million settlement
Posted on January 5, 2024
| 2 minutes
| 361 words
| Tamela Phillippe
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri city will pay nearly $3 million to settle a lawsuit accusing it of violating the constitutional rights of residents by jailing them and forcing them to pay fines and fees amounting to millions of dollars, often for minor traffic violations.
The $2.9 million settlement with the St. Louis suburb of Florissant was approved by a federal judge on Tuesday and announced Wednesday by ArchCity Defenders, a St.
[Read More]'Fat Leonard' seeks new attorneys ahead of sentencing in Navy bribery case, causing another delay
Posted on January 5, 2024
| 3 minutes
| 532 words
| Ellyn Dora
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.
[Read More]'The Brothers Sun': Michelle Yeoh leads immigrant family with humor —again
Posted on January 5, 2024
| 6 minutes
| 1071 words
| Reinaldo Massengill
In 2021, Sam Song Li was cast in an independent film as the ancestor of a character played by a pre-"Shang-Chi” Simu Liu. To the general public, the non-speaking cameo might seem insignificant. But for Li, it was a seminal moment.
A producer told him she picked him after looking at more than 200 people for the role, for which he was “on screen for like a whole 30 seconds,” Li recalled to The Associated Press.
[Read More]"El Patrón" Norero, el capo ecuatoriano al mando de una trama corrupta expuesta en miles de chats
Posted on January 5, 2024
| 8 minutes
| 1615 words
| Lynna Burgamy
¿Cómo se dividen las 450 abdominales? 150 para cada juez.
No es que los jueces fueran a hacer ejercicio. “Es jerga criminal”, dice la fiscal general de Ecuador, Diana Salazar, sobre cómo se referían a los sobornos de miles de dólares con los que Leandro Norero, alias “El Patrón”, pretendía garantizarse salir de la cárcel.
Salazar es la cabeza detrás de una inédita investigación de la Fiscalía que reveló una trama delictiva sin precedentes en Ecuador, un país sumido en la violencia alimentada por grupos criminales ligados al narcotráfico y que lleva tres años superando sus propios récords de homicidios.
[Read More]“La sociedad de la nieve” presenta una nueva visión del accidente aéreo de los Andes de 1972
Posted on January 5, 2024
| 5 minutes
| 969 words
| Reinaldo Massengill
LOS ÁNGELES (AP) — Cuando Gustavo Zerbino vio “La sociedad de la nieve” (“Society of the Snow”), el sobreviviente del accidente aéreo de 1972 sintió como si lo estuvieran sumergiendo “en agua hirviendo”, reviviendo los más de 70 días que él y sus compañeros de equipo de rugby estuvieron varados en las montañas nevadas de los Andes.
Zerbino elogió la película cruda y sin filtros de J.A. Bayona, que se estrena el jueves en Netflix en Estados Unidos y Latinoamérica, pero también sintió las mismas ansiedades y emociones que experimentó mientras estaba varado como un joven atleta hace más de 50 años.
[Read More]1 soldier killed and 12 injured in attack in Colombia blamed on drug cartel
Posted on January 5, 2024
| 2 minutes
| 262 words
| Reinaldo Massengill
BUCARAMANGA, Colombia (AP) — One soldier was killed and 12 were injured Wednesday in an attack with explosives on a military unit in western Colombia that the army blamed on the notorious Gulf Clan drug cartel. The attack occurred early Wednesday in a military facility in the municipality of Turbo, about 480 kilometers (300 miles) northwest of Bogota, Colombia’s capital, the Defense Ministry said in a news release.
The ministry attributed the attack to a faction of the Gulf Clan, considered by authorities to be the country’s largest active drug cartel.
[Read More]12 people, mostly children, killed in Gaza zone declared safe by Israel
Posted on January 5, 2024
| 6 minutes
| 1135 words
| Enda Jantzen
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s defense minister on Thursday laid out his vision for the next phase of the war in Gaza, describing how Israeli forces would shift to an apparently scaled-down “ new combat approach” in northern Gaza, while continuing to fight Hamas in the south of the territory “for as long as necessary.”
Ahead of a visit by the U.S. secretary of state, Yoav Gallant also outlined a proposal for how Gaza would be run once Hamas is defeated, with Israel keeping security control while an undefined, Israeli-guided Palestinian body runs day-to-day administration, and the U.
[Read More]12 years after she vanished, divers believe they have found body of woman in submerged vehicle
Posted on January 5, 2024
| 3 minutes
| 479 words
| Lynna Burgamy
KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — The body of a woman who went missing 12 years ago appears to have been found in a minivan submerged in a central Florida retention pond near Walt Disney World, according to family members and volunteer divers who discovered the remains last week.
The family of Sandra Lemire told local media on Tuesday that they believe that the remains found in the vehicle are the central Florida woman who vanished along with her car in 2012 after leaving a restaurant in Kissimmee, Florida.
[Read More]2 arrested in killings of pregnant Texas teen and her boyfriend
Posted on January 5, 2024
| 3 minutes
| 566 words
| Lynna Burgamy
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A father and son in Texas have been charged in the killings of an 18-year-old pregnant woman who disappeared before Christmas and her boyfriend, who authorities say were fatally shot in the head before their bodies were moved and discovered days later in a car. The arrests Wednesday night came more than a week after the bodies of Savanah Nicole Soto, 18, and Matthew Guerra, 22, were found in the parking lot of a San Antonio apartment complex, a crime scene that the city’s police chief originally described as “very, very perplexing.
[Read More]2 Democratic incumbents in Georgia House say they won't seek reelection after redistricting
Posted on January 5, 2024
| 2 minutes
| 394 words
| Ellyn Dora
ATLANTA (AP) — Two Georgia House Democrats say they won’t seek reelection in 2024 after they were drawn into districts with fellow Democratic incumbents.
State Reps. Doug Stoner of Smyrna and Gregg Kennard of Lawrenceville made their announcements Tuesday.
Stoner was been placed into a district with Rep. Teri Anulewicz of Smyrna, while Kennard was put into the same district as House Democratic Whip Sam Park of Lawrenceville.
Their decisions came after a federal judge accepted new congressional and legislative maps.
[Read More]