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NASA employee admits to defrauding COVID-19 programs to fund illegal weed operation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:20 GMT

An employee at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena has admitted to defrauding pandemic-era protection programs aimed to help business and individuals survive the economic downturn caused by COVID-19.Armen Hovanesian, 32, of Glendale, agreed to plead guilty to defrauding a government sponsored loan plan in 2020, admitting to using some of the fraudulently obtained cash to fund an illegal marijuana cultivation operation. Woman who murdered mother sentenced for running COVID scam behind bars Hovanesian works as a cost-control and budget-planning resource analyst for the JPL, which is a federally funded research lab for NASA, according to the United States Department of Justice.From June 2020 to October 2020, Hovanesian submitted three loan applications to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program for businesses he operated. The program provided low-interest financing to small businesses, renters and homeowners affected by disasters, including the coronavirus pandemic.As par...

33-year-old man convicted of lewd acts on a child in Ventura County

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:20 GMT

A 33-year-old man from Oxnard has been convicted by a jury on three felony counts of lewd acts with a child, as well as the special allegation that he took advantage of a position trust to commit the offenses when the victim was particularly vulnerable, authorities announced Monday.  Victor Villanueva Legaria began abusing the victim when she was just 11 years old, according to testimony presented during the trial. At that time, the 33-year-old shared a home with the juvenile victim and abused her multiple times between 2016 and 2020.  In 2020, the victim told a family member about the abuse, who then reported it to the Oxnard Police Department, a news release from the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office stated. Detectives with Oxnard PD’s Family Protection Unit investigated the crimes.  Victor Legaria, 33, was convicted by a jury on July 20, 2023, of three felony counts of lewd acts on a child. (VCDA)“By its very nature, the sexual abuse of a child always occur...

Barbie‘s Existential Crisis Makes For Uneven Comedy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:20 GMT

In terms of hype, we can’t remember anything nearly as relentless and rampant as pop culture’s pink plunge leading up to the Barbie movie’s release this past weekend. For the past several months, the Barbonanza made the world acutely aware of the film, its stars, and its intent to challenge the stereotypes that critics of Mattel and its iconic blonde doll have been accused of promoting (namely, unrealistic beauty standards) for decades.Now that the numbers are in, the oversaturation clearly paid off at the box office, and it’s a historic triumph for female directors. But the girlie, glam, giggly glut of promo, pop-ups and product tie-ins, ultimately muddle the message the film’s going for. Barbie tries to have its pastel cupcakes and eat them too, as a vehicle for colorful escape, as a cultural commentary and as a meta-spin on product placement. It nearly succeeds with moments of empowerment shining as bright as the pearly white smiles of stars Margot Robbie (as “s...

Twitter sign X-ed out at San Francisco HQ

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:20 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO – Twitter on Monday began to shed its name and logo – both online and in the real world – but not before police questioned whether crews were cleared to dismantle the iconic signage that has long graced its headquarters in San Francisco.The signage removal work was paused while San Francisco police checked to see if a permit was in place to close the street. Unlike the signature blue bird, everything was on the up and up, and no tickets or citations were issued, police said in an email to the Bay Area News Group.Elon Musk is replacing the Twitter name and logo with a stylized X as he seeks to turn the 17-year-old service into an app that does everything, Bloomberg reported. According to the news agency, Musk on Saturday invited his followers to suggest an X logo, then chose one of the designs and made it the company’s new brand identity Sunday.About 24 hours later early Monday, the logo was projected onto the company’s headquarters on Market Street.The sudden cha...

Elderly woman assaulted in SF, 1 arrested: police

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:20 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- A man was arrested in San Francisco after he allegedly assaulted an elderly woman and spat on another person on Friday, police said. The victim is in the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police responded to Stockton Street between Ellis Street and O'Farrell Street for a reported assault at about 11:15 p.m. Officers found the victim at the scene, and she was taken to a hospital. Man shot dead in Santa Rosa Jack in the Box drive-thru The San Francisco Police Department officers also found the victim who was allegedly spat on. He told police the suspect was not provoked when he assaulted the elderly woman. The suspect was detained by good Samaritans and was arrested after police arrived. He was identified as James Ramsey, 27.Ramsey was booked into jail for assault likely to produce great bodily injury, crime against an elder, assault and battery, committing a felony while on bail and resisting arrest. He also had an outstanding arrest warrant out of A...

Firefighters safely rescue elderly woman trapped inside blazing home in Lauderhill

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:20 GMT

Fire rescue crews raced to rescue an elderly woman trapped inside a burning home in Lauderhill. A total of eight people, including children, were inside the home at the time of the fire on Monday night around 8 p.m. along the 3300 block on Northwest 8th Place. The daughter of the elderly woman said she has dementia and a hard time walking. Upon arrival, Lauderhill Fire Rescue found the home visibly in flames. The team pulled her out from the window of the room where she was trapped and extinguished the flames. “Fire in the back room on the bed, we tried to get water, by the time we started getting the water, the house was already consumed with smoke,” said Genevieve Sawyer, daughter of the elderly woman. Everyone else however was able to escape the home despite the heavy smoke. Neighbors reported that they sprayed water on the fire to keep it away from her before firefighters arrived. “So you know we had to get out and my mom, she got stuck in the back room and tha...

Precious is back home after 120 days

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:20 GMT

For 120 days, Miami-Dade County was fighting to euthanize a dog, its owners said was seized illegally.A judge agreed, ordering the county to release the dog. And then, the day after Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser aired last week, the county attorney’s office made a phone call. Louise had not seen her dog for 120 days until she walked out of animal services with Precious.Louise Davis: “I’m ecstatic to see that she’s in such good shape. Really?”Precious wearing a county-mandated nasal, putting her paw on Louise’s arm, not wanting to let go of her.Louise Davis: “Baby is coming home.” It’s a new beginning for Precious after a bizarre battle with Miami-Dade County, determined to euthanize her, and Louise and her husband Scott fighting to bring her home.Scott Davis: “Extremely difficult for both my wife and I.”Back in March, Scott opened the gate to move his boat in. A boy was riding his bike on the dirt road in the Red...

Fort Lauderdale house in flames, 1 cat rescued and no injuries reported

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:20 GMT

Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue units responded to the scene of a house fire at 2240 SW 33rd Terr in Fort Lauderdale.There was heavy fire through the roof when rescue units arrived but they were able to extinguish it in about 20 mins, Monday evening.One cat was rescued and treated from the home.One of the four residents was home at the time of the incident and escaped without any injuries. The house sustained damages deeming it unsafe to live in. As of Monday, the cause of the fire is under investigation.

The dead and missing along Europe’s migration routes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:20 GMT

Linda Caglioni is a freelance journalist based in Italy. Her work has been published in outlets including Espresso and Il Fatto Quotidiano.An entire sideboard is covered in photos of their missing son, Yasser. In a silver frame sits a picture of him as a child with short, cropped black curls, his embarrassed smile giving the impression that the camera caught him by surprise.I am in the living room of the Idrissi family, at their house in the center of Fes — Morocco’s second-most populous city — where Yasser’s mother, Haiat, recently spent months arranging her son’s funeral. There is ache in this house. But also the courage to confront it.In another picture, Yasser protectively rests his hand on his younger sister’s shoulder against the backdrop of a nature park, the acerbic features of an adolescent outlining his face. Another shows him wearing a ceremonial gown, embracing his father, Noureddine. The memories unlocked by these images are all that’s left for the family to...

Only dead people donate to the Scottish National Party

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:20 GMT

LONDON — When your most enthusiastic donors are dead people, you might have a problem.The Scottish National Party — the pro-independence outfit which has dominated Scottish politics for more than a decade — has suffered an exodus of big-money donors.Its finances are the subject of an ongoing police probe that’s seen the arrest of top party figures.Separately, subscription-paying members have deserted the party in their thousands, and a cut in taxpayer-funded support may be looming on the horizon. Most troublingly for SNP chiefs, the party is now struggling to raise money from any significant new donors at all, beyond those who are already deceased. Analysis of SNP donation figures shows that, in the last five years, the party has received just one donation worth £50,000 or more from a living person. Instead, it’s been increasingly dependent on bequests left by dead supporters in their wills.It’s not quite the image the nationalist party — which self-identifies as a...