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Santa and Mrs. Claus hand out presents to patients at Holtz Children’s Hospital in Miami

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:29 GMT

Santa and Mrs. Claus delivered some presents to some of South Florida’s youngest patients.The Christmas couple visited Holtz Children’s Hospital in Miami, Tuesday.They handed out gifts that were gathered by the Mortgage Bankers Association of South Florida and handed them out to children undergoing treatment at the hospital to lift their spirits and spread some early holiday cheer.“A lot of them do have to be here for the holiday season, so they’re separated from their families, they’re not able to spend time doing all the things that they would do every year celebrating this special time,” said Talia Mor with Holtz Children’s Hospital. “And so to bring that level of normalcy, and to really bring them a time where they’re able to celebrate, feel love, and feel a sense of belonging with everyone, is really important.”The Claus’ also got a ride on a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue ladder truck and waved to the children inside.

Police: South Florida woman arrested for setting Tinder date and his car on fire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:29 GMT

A Miami woman is facing serious charges, including attempted felony murder and arson, after allegedly setting her Tinder date on fire inside his vehicle.Destiny Lenai Johnson, 25, is accused of igniting his car and him while he was inside of it outside of the Holiday Inn Express & Suites, located at 11520 N Kendall Dr., on Nov. 25. According to the arrest report, the incident unfolded when the victim received a message from Johnson on Tinder, requesting to meet up at the hotel. Upon arrival, Johnson reportedly approached the victim’s vehicle, carrying a gallon jug and seeking money to fix her own car. Despite the victim offering her $60 to fix her car, police said the victim claimed Johnson’s demeanor shifted suddenly, leading to her pouring a liquid, resembling gasoline, onto his car’s front seat.Johnson allegedly then produced a cigarette lighter, setting fire to the victim’s vehicle, himself and even herself. The victim managed to escape and extinguish...

Attorneys for family of absolved South Florida man killed by deputy seeking $16M from Georgia sheriff

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:29 GMT

WOODBINE, Ga. (AP) — Attorneys for the family of a Black man fatally shot by a Georgia deputy during an October traffic stop have given formal notice of plans to sue the sheriff’s office in a letter demanding $16 million in restitution.Civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels told reporters Tuesday that the sum represents $1 million for every year Leonard Cure spent imprisoned in Florida on a wrongful conviction. He was killed just three years after Florida authorities set him free.“Everything was going right for Leonard, things were looking up, until he had this encounter with this sheriff’s deputy,” Crump said during a news conference with members of Cure’s family.Camden County Staff Sgt. Buck Aldridge killed 53-year-old Cure during a violent struggle on the shoulder of Interstate 95 after pulling him over for speeding and reckless driving.Dash and body camera video of the Oct. 16 shooting show Aldridge shocking Cure with a Taser after he refused to put his h...

South Florida man, already facing death for a 1998 murder, now indicted for a 2nd. Detectives fear others

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:29 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A convicted murderer already on Florida’s death row for the 1998 slaying of one woman is now charged with a second killing that happened two weeks later, with investigators believing he may be tied to even more deaths.The Broward County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday that former mortician Lucious Boyd, 64, has been indicted for the murder of 41-year-old Eileen Truppner, a mother of two, a former businesswoman and native of Puerto Rico whose body was found along a highway west of Fort Lauderdale in December 1998. He is already facing execution for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 21-year-old nursing student Dawnia Dacosta earlier that month.Sheriff Gregory Tony, Detective Zack Scott and Capt. John Brown said that Truppner’s body had been unidentified until earlier this year when its DNA was matched to her family. DNA testing of evidence left by the killer matched Boyd, they said.“For 20 some years, there had been no justice, no clo...

Woman charged in connection with Kowloon fight appears in court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:29 GMT

A woman charged in connection with a fight inside the Kowloon Restaurant in Saugus last month appeared in court Tuesday, pleading not guilty. The fight happened on the night before Thanksgiving and was captured on camera. Authorities said Rosaria Sophia McCauly, 32, of North Reading turned herself into police earlier in the day Tuesday. As she faced a judge, prosecutors outlined allegations against McCauly, saying she used a bottle to hit two men over the head. “The defendant created an incredibly dangerous situation,” said prosecutor Kevin Hennessy. “This was a crowded night at the Kowloon the night before Thanksgiving.”“Things obviously got out of hand,” Hennessy continued. McCauly is one of four people charged in connection with the fight. She is facing charges including two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and one count of disorderly conduct.While prosecutors laid out aspects of their case, McCauly’s attorney said his client is a tra...

Harvard, MIT, Penn presidents face questions on Capitol Hill, defend actions in combatting antisemitism on campus

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Tuesday that they were taking steps to combat antisemitism on campus since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, including increasing security and providing additional counseling and mental health support.In testimony before a House committee, the university leaders said there was a fine line between protecting free speech and allowing protests, while also combatting antisemitism.“Harvard must provide firm leadership in the fight against antisemitism and hate speech even while preserving room for free expression and dissent. This is difficult work, and I admit that we have not always gotten it right,” said Claudine Gay, of Harvard. “As Harvard’s president, I am personally responsible for confronting antisemitism with the urgency it demands.”Gay, Liz Magill of Penn and Sally Kornbluth of MIT disavowed antisemitism and Islamophobia on their campuses, acknowl...

On his deathbed, Lynnfield woman’s father told her a secret: He was a fugitive and had robbed a bank in Ohio

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:29 GMT

(CNN) — Thomas Randele was dying of lung cancer and had a secret.In March of 2021, with his daughter at his bedside in suburban Boston after his first chemotherapy session, he made a stunning confession: He was a fugitive, and had been one for more than five decades. More than 50 years earlier, when he was 20 years old, he’d robbed an Ohio bank of $215,000. And his real name was not Thomas Randele but Theodore Conrad.He implored his daughter not to look into the case. But after this bombshell revelation, Ashley Randele didn’t sleep much that night. So she did what most curious people would do.“I’m alone in my childhood bedroom, and I Googled ‘Ted Conrad missing,’ and the first thing that came up said something like, ‘Vault teller robs bank.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is my dad,’” she told CNN. “And there were hundreds and hundreds of articles about him.”With every click, her father’s dark past unspooled before her eyes.In Lynnfield, Massachusetts, Thomas Randele w...

Babe Ruth card first collected by Baltimore paperboy sells for $7.2 million

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:29 GMT

A Babe Ruth rookie card first collected from a 1914 Baltimore newspaper sold for $7.2 million at auction.The card is the highest-selling Ruth item of all-time and the second-highest price realized at auction for a trading card, Robert Edward Auctions said on social media. The most expensive baseball card ever is a Mickey Mantle rookie card that sold for $12.6 million last year. The auction house did not identify the buyer.As a paperboy on Baltimore streetcars, Archibald Davis collected the baseball cards included in newspapers and found the Ruth card in 1914. It depicts George Herman Ruth as a 19-year-old pitcher for the minor league Orioles.Glenn Davis, Archibald’s grandson, said he remembered playing with them as he grew up in Towson in the 1950s and 1960s. The Davis family sold the card, which had been on loan at the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum in Baltimore since the 1990s, to a private collector in 2021.The auction started at noon Nov. 15 at $2.5 million, and the price rose ...

High-speed rail line linking Las Vegas and Los Angeles area gets $3B Biden administration pledge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:29 GMT

By KEN RITTER (Associated Press)LAS VEGAS (AP) — A planned high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area got a Biden administration pledge on Tuesday of $3 billion to help start laying track, Nevada elected officials said.The $12 billion project led by Brightline West has been talked about for decades, and U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen told reporters that it now has all required right-of-way and environmental approvals, along with labor agreements, for work to start on some 218 miles (351 kilometers) along the Interstate 15 corridor.No date was announced for work to start. But Rosen said electric-powered trains could be carrying passengers by the time Los Angeles hosts the Summer Olympics in 2028.“We’re ready to get to work,” Wes Edens, founder and chairman of Florida-based Brightline, said in a statement ahead of a Friday event in Las Vegas that may coincide with a visit by President Joe Biden.Rosen and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, both Democr...

With George Santos out of Congress, special election to fill his seat is set for February

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:29 GMT

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE (Associated Press)ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A special election to pick a successor to George Santos, the New York Republican who was expelled from the U.S. House last week, will be held on Feb. 13, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday.The race for a seat representing some Long Island suburbs and a small part of the New York City borough of Queens is expected to be a high-profile contest that will mark the start of a year of consequential congressional elections in the state. Both Republicans and Democrats are zeroing in on New York as a key battleground in the fight to control the House.For Democrats, the election will be a test of the party’s ability to flip districts around New York City that are seen as vital to their plans to retake control. Republicans are entering the contest with heavy momentum in the city’s suburbs and will fight to hold onto the district as they look to maintain their narrow House majority.Candidates in the special election w...