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FLPD continues investigation into carjacking, kidnapping incidents

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:05:00 GMT

The Fort Lauderdale Police Department (FLPD) is still investigating two kidnapping and carjacking incidents that occurred in the downtown area last week after authorities apprehended a suspect on Friday. The first carjacking and kidnapping incident happened in a downtown parking lot on Saturday morning, where the subject robbed a couple at gunpoint while they were sitting in their car. The driver escaped while a woman in the passenger seat was driven away by the subject. A similar incident happened on Friday morning before police officers passed out flyers, featuring a sketch of the person of interest. Residents in the community were urged to contact Crimestoppers if they had any information about the incident. Although authorities have found similarities between the occurrences, definitive connections and the identity of the suspect remain uncertain at this time. Moments after police distributed the flyers, several police departments engaged in a pursuit of a vehicle that...

Miami man arrested in Key Largo for boat theft

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:05:00 GMT

A 22-year-old Miami man wanted for boat theft in Broward County, found himself in custody after an arrest by the Monroe County Sheriff in Key Largo on Sunday.According to MCSO, Cristian Urquiza Valdes is facing more than just the boat theft allegations. In addition to the Broward County warrant, he was charged with possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.Acting on received information that Urquiza Valdes might be located in Monroe County, the Sheriff’s Office conducted an operation leading to his arrest. The arrest occurred on U.S. 1 near Mile Marker 98.2, involving a Ram truck, around 3:50 p.m.During the investigation, authorities discovered a small quantity of marijuana inside the vehicle.Urquiza Valdes was taken into custody and subsequently transported to jail.

Driver dies in Belchertown crash that damaged home, parked cars

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:05:00 GMT

A 19-year-old man died Sunday after a crash that also damaged a home and multiple cars in Belchertown, state police said. State police in a statement said a trooper first tried to stop the 19-year-old driver of a Nissan Altima around 8:45 p.m. Sunday evening on the southbound side of Route 202. Police said the driver sped away.Citing a preliminary investigation, police said the car appeared to have later hit a mulch bed further down Route 202 and launched into the air before hitting a rock wall, a large tree and a light post. Police said the Altima hit another car parked in the driveway of a nearby house and ultimately came to rest outside the house after hitting one of the structure’s exterior walls. The crash, police said, ejected the driver from his car and threw the car’s engine block into the second floor of a second nearby home. A third car was also damaged.Police said the driver was pronounced dead at the scene. He had not been publicly identified as of Monday...

After 48 years and an author’s true crime book, police make arrest in Pennsylvania cold case

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:05:00 GMT

Amanda Yeager | The Baltimore Sun (TNS)BALTIMORE — Joanna Sullivan remembers the helicopter on a hot summer day.Sullivan was 9, going on 10 years old, on Aug. 15, 1975, when another young girl, Gretchen Harrington, went missing in her hometown of Broomall, Pennsylvania. Gretchen, who was 8, disappeared while walking from her house to vacation Bible school.Sullivan and her friends were at the pool when they heard the police helicopter whirring overhead. It was an unusual event in the Philadelphia suburb, also known as Marple Township, and 48 years later, she said, “the memory is so clear.”Gretchen’s body was found two months later and her death was ruled a homicide. But the case remained unsolved and the mystery stuck with Sullivan, now editor-in-chief of the Baltimore Business Journal, who decided during the coronavirus pandemic to dig deeper into Gretchen’s disappearance. Last October, she published a book, “Marple’s Gretchen Harrington Tragedy: Kidnapping, Murder and Innocence Los...

The Yankees are right where they’re supposed to be

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:05:00 GMT

The Yankees haven’t won in more than a week, are 11-22 in the second half and are on pace for their worst season since 1992.And they’re right where they’re supposed to be.That’s according to the Pythagorean winning percentage formula, the tried-and-true formula that uses a team’s run differential to calculate what its record should be. Following Sunday’s loss — the Yankees’ eighth in a row — they fell to 60-64, right in line with the Pythagorean expected win-loss record of 59-65.That formula has largely found the Yankees’ record to align with their offensive and pitching production all year. When Aaron Judge went down with a toe injury on June 3, the Yankees were 35-25 against an expected 34-26 record. On July 4, the Yankees’ actual 48-38 record again nearly mirrored their expected 47-39 mark.Coming off a 99-win season and an American League East title, the Yankees expected to be back in the World Series mix in 2023 w...

Parents see own health spiral as their kids’ mental illnesses worsen

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:05:00 GMT

Renuka Rayasam | (TNS) KFF Health NewsAfter her teenage daughter attempted suicide and began to cycle through emergency rooms and mental health programs during the past three years, Sarah Delarosa noticed her own health also declined.She suffered from mini strokes and stomach bleeding, the mother of four in Corpus Christi, Texas, said. To make things worse, her daughter’s failing behavioral and mental health caused Delarosa to miss hours from her job as a home health aide, losing out on income needed to support her family.“Access to help, when it’s needed, it’s not available,” said Delarosa, about the hopelessness she felt as she sought support for Amanda, 16, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Amanda has at times lashed out in anger or shattered light bulbs and used the broken glass to cut herself.Delarosa often feels overwhelmed, and she has noticed her youngest son acting out. “Now we have a w...

Gale-force winds are fanning dozens of wildfires across Greece, leaving at least 1 dead, 2 injured

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:05:00 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Gale-force winds fanned the flames of wildfires across Greece on Monday, including more than four dozen new blazes that broke out after midnight amid hot, dry and windy weather that has sucked moisture from vegetation. A nearly week-old fire blamed on arson raged in Spain’s Canary Islands.Greek officials said the body of a man was recovered in an area of the central Viotia region under evacuation orders, and local media reported he apparently died of smoke inhalation while trying to save his sheep. State-run ERT television reported late Monday that another man was found dead in a burned forest in the northeastern Evros region, and authorities said two firefighters were hospitalized for injuries suffered battling a fire in the northern Kavala region.European Union officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017.Evacuation or...

Quebec teachers’ unions call for better working conditions to address staff shortages

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:05:00 GMT

MONTREAL — Unions representing Quebec teachers are calling on the provincial government to address staff shortages by improving working conditions, after a recent report indicated as many as 5,000 positions were vacant ahead of the start to the school year. Labour leaders held a joint news conference on Monday morning to issue what they characterized as an urgent plea for the government to better support school employees, including teachers, administrators, psychologists, speech therapists and other professionals.The appeal came as teachers’ unions renegotiate a collective agreement with Quebec that expired at the end of March.Josée Scalabrini, president of the Fédération des syndicats de l’enseignement, an association of 34 Quebec teachers’ unions, told reporters that classrooms have become unmanageable due to chronic neglect by successive governments over the past two decades.“We’ve been saying for a long time that the composition of classes in Quebec no lo...

Dominican Republic offers economic aid to families of 32 killed in explosion as probe continues

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:05:00 GMT

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The Dominican government announced Monday that the families of the 32 people killed in an explosion last week will each receive a one-time payment of nearly $900 in economic aid and monthly payments of $350 until December.The Aug. 14 explosion occurred at a plastics factory in the city of San Cristobal, which lies just west of the capital of Santo Domingo. More than 50 people were injured, according to authorities.The average monthly salary last year in San Cristobal was around $440, the second highest in the country, according to the Ministry of Economy.An investigation is underway to determine what caused the blast in a busy commercial center. It took firefighters three days to extinguish the blaze.Authorities have said it could take up to three months to identify all those killed.The Associated Press

Boy, 14, arrested in carjacking, police say victim was pepper sprayed

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:05:00 GMT

Toronto police have arrested a 14-year-old boy in the alleged carjacking of a motorcycle that involved the victim being pepper sprayed after meeting a group of suspects through an online ad.Authorities were called to the Kingston Road and Celeste Drive area in Scarborough just before 9 p.m. on August 12 for reports of a carjacking.It’s reported that a man arranged to meet with the suspects to complete an online motorcycle purchase. Police said the victim arrived at the agreed meeting place when the three suspects approached him.One suspect allegedly sprayed the victim in the face with pepper spray while two fled the scene on foot. A third suspect fled the location on the victim’s motorcycle.Investigators say a youth was observed riding the stolen motorcycle by Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers on August 18. The boy evaded the police but was taken into custody two days later, on August 20.A 14-year-old boy faces multiple charges, including robbery with an offensive...