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☆ Ex-producer Harvey Weinstein faces sentencing for Los Angeles rape conviction
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LOS ANGELES, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Harvey Weinstein, the onetime Hollywood titan who came to epitomize a culture of pervasive sexual misconduct by powerful men that ignited the #MeToo movement, is to be sentenced on Thursday for the 2013 rape of an actress in Los Angeles. Whatever sentence is pronounced should be served once the former movie producer and Miramax co-founder has completed the 23-year sentence imposed for a sexual misconduct conviction in New York, prosecutors argued in their sentencing memorandum. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench declared a mistrial on the deadlocked charges. The producer of "Pulp Fiction" and "Shakespeare in Love" was convicted of sexual misconduct in New York in February 2020, and extradited from New York to a Los Angeles prison in July 2021. In New York, Weinstein is appealing his conviction and prison sentence.

☆ Accused Colorado LGBTQ club shooter back in court for preliminary hearing
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Keith Coffman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

One of the men pistol-whipped Aldrich as others pummeled the accused assailant, leaving the suspect with multiple injuries that required hospitalization. Aldrich's lawyers have asserted in court filings that their client identifies as "non-binary" in gender and prefers them/they pronouns. At a previous court hearing, a defense lawyer intimated that Aldrich may have been in the club previously, including on the night of the massacre. El Paso County District Judge Michael McHenry was assigned to preside over the preliminary hearing, which was scheduled to run for three days, according to the court docket. The Q nightclub shooting is not the defendant's first brush with the law.

☆ California farm worker pleads not guilty to 7 murder counts
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The next hearing in the case was set for May 3, the district attorney, Steve Wagstaffe, confirmed to Reuters. Zhao is charged with seven counts of premeditated murder and a single count of attempted murder in a criminal complaint that also cites "special circumstance" allegations accusing him of "personally and intentionally" shooting to kill. read moreUnder California law, defendants convicted of murder with "special circumstances" are eligible for the death penalty, though Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019 declared a moratorium on executions. Authorities said the Monterey Park assailant, Huu Can Tran, 72, shot himself to death the next day as police closed to make an arrest. Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles Editing by Alistair Bell and Aurora EllisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Arizona truck spill of toxic acid closes interstate highway
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 14 (Reuters) - A tanker truck hauling nitric acid overturned on an interstate highway near Tucson, Arizona, on Tuesday, causing a leak of its highly toxic, volatile cargo in a fiery wreck that shut down the road for hours, authorities said. The Arizona Department of Public Safety urged residents nearby to remain inside and said first responders were working to evacuate a perimeter around the incident "out of an abundance of caution." It said state police anticipated an "extensive" closing of Interstate Highway 10 after the "injury collision," which disrupted the major east-west traffic artery and truck route that crosses much of the U.S. Southwest. The Tucson Fire Department said it was helping "control the hazmat and brush fire incidents" at the crash site. The extent of injuries and whether other vehicles were involved were not explained, nor was the accident's cause or scope of the spill.

☆ Hollywood actress Raquel Welch dead at age 82
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LOS ANGELES, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Actress Raquel Welch, who helped redefine the traditional image of the Hollywood sex symbol with her portrayals of strong women in dozens of movies in the 1960s and '70s, died on Wednesday at age 82. Her death following a brief illness was confirmed in a statement released by Jane McKnight, her Los Angeles-based manager. She won a Golden Globe Award for best actress in a musical or comedy for her performance in the 1973 swashbuckling romp "The Three Musketeers." [1/3] Actress Raquel Welch poses at the 2014 Carousel of Hope Ball at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California October 11, 2014. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo 1 2 3Her portrayal of strong, willful women was credited with reshaping stereotypes.

The Detroit News reported one confirmed fatality on campus, inside Berkey Hall, citing Michigan State University (MSU) spokesperson Emily Guerrant, but Reuters could not independently verify that information. "There are multiple reported injuries," MSU said on its official police and public safety Twitter feed. Several campus building had been cleared and secured nearly two hours after the gunfire was first reported on campus, MSU police said. MSU is a major public institution of higher education whose flagship East Lansing campus accounts for 50,000 graduate and undergraduate students. Governor Gretchen Whitmer said on Twitter that she was being briefed on the East Lansing shooting.

[1/4] Emergency personnel respond to a shooting at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, U.S., February 13, 2023. Few official details about the gun violence were immediately available, but Chris Rozman, interim deputy chief of the university police, said shots were fired in two locations - at an academic building called Berkey Hall and the Michigan State University (MSU) Union building. He also said the university was not aware of any threats made to the campus before Monday's bloodshed. Four classmates were killed and six students and a teacher were wounded in that attack, the deadliest U.S. school shooting that year. Governor Gretchen Whitmer said on Twitter that she was being briefed on the East Lansing shooting.

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force general overseeing North American airspace said on Sunday after a series of shoot-downs of unidentified objects that he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation yet, deferring to U.S. intelligence experts. It was the third unidentified flying object to be knocked out of the sky by U.S. warplanes since Friday, following the Feb. 4 downing of a suspected Chinese weather balloon that put North American air defenses on high alert. "We're calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason, said VanHerck, who is head of the joint U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the U.S. Air Force Northern Command. However, the government's effort to investigate anomalous, unidentified objects — whether they are in space, the skies or even underwater — has led to hundreds of reports that are being investigated, senior military leaders have said. But so far, the Pentagon has not found evidence to indicate Earthly visits from intelligent alien life, those officials have said.

☆ New York U-Haul truck strikes 8 people, driver arrested
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Tyler Clifford | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Police in New York City have arrested a U-Haul truck driver accused of deliberately plowing into pedestrians on Monday, injuring at least eight people before officers chased him down and stopped the vehicle, authorities said. But the New York Times, citing two senior law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity, gave the driver's name as Weng Sor. [1/3] A New York Police Department vehicle blocks a U-Haul rental vehicle, where according to media reports a man struck multiple people and the NYPD took the driver into custody, near the Battery tunnel in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, U.S., February 13, 2023. A video clip aired on WABC-TV showed a truck narrowly missing a pedestrian on a sidewalk, with a police cruiser in pursuit. Attorneys at the Saipov penalty proceedings briefly discussed the Brooklyn U-Haul rampage while the jury was out of the courtroom.

WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Blue Origin, the private space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was awarded its first interplanetary NASA contract on Thursday to launch a mission next year to study the magnetic field around Mars, the U.S. space agency and company said. Blue Origin has flown previous NASA missions with its smaller, suborbital New Shepard rocket, which can carry research payloads on short, microgravity trips to the edge of space and back. Blue Origin, known for its astro-tourism business for wealthy customers and celebrities, is one of 13 firms NASA chose last year for its Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare missions (VADR) program. VADR essentially is intended to spur private development of private space launch vehicles by assigning lower-cost NASA science missions to new rockets with an unproven record and higher chance of failure. Blue Origin also declined to discuss financial details.

☆ U.S. snowboarders sue former coach alleging sexual abuse
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Daniel Trotta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 2 (Reuters) - Three former U.S. snowboarders sued their former coach, the national snowboarding federation and the U.S. Olympic Committee on Thursday alleging sexual abuse that was covered up by the two sporting bodies, court documents showed. Rosey Fletcher, Erin O'Malley and Callan Chythlook-Sifsof sued former coach Peter Foley, U.S. Ski and Snowboard (USSS), and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) in U.S. District Court for the central district of Los Angeles. The suit alleges Foley exploited his position of trust with the athletes to "coerce sexual acts through force, manipulation, emotional abuse, intimidation, and retaliation". The U.S. Olympic Committee said at that time it had followed protocol and reported the allegations to the U.S Center for SafeSport, which handles reports of sexual abuse within the Olympic movement.

☆ Roadkill rate for California cougars puts population at risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] National Park Service photo of the Griffith Park mountain lion known as P-22 is shown in this remote camera image set up on a fresh deer kill in Griffith Park in this November 2014 photo. P-22, a radio-collared puma that became a wildlife celebrity, was one of the many mountain lions struck by a car in California. The data adds to research showing mountain lions, also known as cougars or pumas, are under growing pressure from traffic and urban sprawl that have left their territories increasingly isolated from one another, shrinking their gene pools. The study cataloged a total of 535 mountain lion deaths on some 15,000 miles (24,140 km)of state-managed highways over eight years, from 2015 through 2022. A public celebration of P-22 is planned for Saturday in Griffith Park.

☆ Tyre Nichols funeral draws civil rights leaders, U.S. vice president
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Alyssa Porter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Al Sharpton will eulogize Nichols, and another prominent civil rights leader, attorney Ben Crump, will deliver a "call to action" during a funeral at the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Nichols' adopted hometown of Memphis. Among those planning to join the mourners was U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Crump said the Nichols family invited. Harris spoke with Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, in a private telephone call on Tuesday, he said. Two other officers implicated in the events leading to Nichols' death have been relieved of duty - effectively suspended - and are under investigation. "What happened to Tyre Nichols here is a disgrace to this country," Sharpton told reporters, flanked by Nichols' mother and his stepfather, Rodney Wells.

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Jan 27 (Reuters) - The police department in the city of Memphis was set on Friday to release body-camera video of a violent confrontation between a Black motorist and five police officers charged with murder in his death earlier this month. Nichols succumbed to injuries he sustained from his encounter with police and died while hospitalized on Jan. 10, three days after he was pulled over while driving. The last words heard on the video were Nichols calling out for his mother three times, Crump said. Two members of the Memphis Fire Department involved in the response have been relieved of their duties pending a separate inquiry. PUBLIC OUTRAGE EXPECTEDAdditional Memphis police officers remain under investigation for policy infractions, Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said on Thursday in a message posted to YouTube.

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Jan 27 (Reuters) - Tyre Nichols repeatedly cried, "Mom! The first video released on Friday shows officers dragging Nichols from the driver's seat of his car stopped at an intersection as he yells, "I didn't do anything ... Other footage shows a subsequent struggle after officers catch up with Nichols again in a nearby neighborhood. "No mother should go through what I am going through right now, no mother, to lose their child to the violent way that I lost my child," said Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells. Nichols' family and Biden appealed for calm in Memphis, a city of 628,000 where nearly 65% of residents are Black.

☆ Suspect in Half Moon Bay shooting rampage appears in California court
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Jorge Garcia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/6] A suspect is arrested by law enforcement personnel after a mass shooting at two locations in the coastal northern California city of Half Moon Bay, California, U.S. January 23, 2023 in a still image from video. The hearing was held at the San Mateo County Superior Court in nearby Redwood City, California. The complaint against Zhao also alleged "special circumstances" accusing Zhao of "personally and intentionally" shooting to kill. IMMIGRANT VICTIMSHalf Moon Bay, a community of about 12,000 residents south of San Francisco, is home to both a luxury resort and a low-income farming community. Two days before the Half Moon Bay killings, another gunman 380 miles to the south opened fire at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, a club frequented mostly by older patrons of Asian descent in Monterey Park.

☆ Suspect in California's latest shooting rampage due in court
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Alexandra Ulmer | Thomson Reuters | U.S. National Affairs Correspondent Who Spent Four Years In Venezuela Covering President Maduro'S Administration | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/3] A suspect is arrested by law enforcement personnel after a mass shooting at two locations in the coastal northern California city of Half Moon Bay, California, U.S. January 23, 2023 in a still image from video. HALF MOON BAY, Calif., Jan 25 (Reuters) - The man accused of shooting and killing seven farm workers near San Francisco in the latest of two back-to-back gun rampages in California that claimed 18 lives overall was due in court on Wednesday for his initial appearance before a judge. Chunli Zhao, 66, the lone suspect in Monday's massacre at two mushroom farms in the seaside town of Half Moon Bay, is expected to be formally presented with murder and other charges at the San Mateo County Superior Court in nearby Redwood City. The suspect was described as a resident of Half Moon Bay, a community of about 12,000 residents known for its foggy weather, fishing, and agriculture. San Mateo County jail records showed Zhao was booked on suspicion of premeditated murder, attempted murder and firearms offenses.

[1/5] Police officers detain a man, believed by law enforcement to be the Half Moon Bay mass shooting suspect, in Half Moon Bay, California, U.S., January 23, 2023, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. California Governor Gavin Newsom said he was visiting wounded survivors from Saturday night's massacre in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park when he was informed of Monday's killings in northern California. A semi-automatic handgun was found in his car, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus told an evening news conference. It ranked as the deadliest mass shooting ever in Los Angeles County, according to Hilda Solis, a member of the county Board of Supervisors. Monterey Park Police Chief Scott Wiese said investigators were looking into unconfirmed reports that the violence may have been precipitated by jealousy or relationship issues.

☆ Colorado police, paramedics plead not guilty to homicide in Elijah McClain death
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Keith Coffman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Attorneys for all five defendants entered pleas of not guilty to manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and other charges. Police restrained the slight-of-built McClain in a carotid neck hold, commonly known as a choke hold. A public outcry over the McClain death prompted Colorado's governor to order the state attorney general to review the case. Rosenblatt was fired after he responded with a "Haha" text message to photos taken by uninvolved officers mocking McClain's death. In addition to homicide charges, the two paramedics under indictment, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, were charged with assault for their role in administering the drug injection.

[1/3] People walk along a rocky beach caused by high surf following winter storms in San Diego, California, U.S., January 17, 2023. The White House said Biden, who on Saturday authorized federal disaster assistance for three hard-hit counties in northern and central California, would be joined by Governor Gavin Newsom and other elected officials. Twisted wreckage of wooden piers torn up along the waterfronts at both locations vividly illustrated the storms' destructive force. The high winds wreaked havoc on the state's power grid, knocking out electricity to tens of thousands of Californians. Reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Katherine Jackson in Washington; Writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles.

☆ British actor Julian Sands reported missing in California mountains
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] The 76th Venice Film Festival - Screening of the film "The Painted Bird" in competition - Venice, Italy September 3, 2019 - Actor Julian Sands poses before an interview. REUTERS/Piroschka van de WouwLOS ANGELES, Jan 18 (Reuters) - British-born film actor Julian Sands, known for his starring roles in such films as "A Room with a View" and "Warlock," has gone missing in the mountains of Southern California, media outlets reported on Wednesday, citing local authorities. The Baldy Bowl, about 50 miles northeast of Los Angeles just below the Mount Baldy ski area, is a popular destination for skiers, climbers and hikers. Sands' Los Angeles-based representative could not immediately be reached for comment. Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Neil FullickOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ No sign of British actor Julian Sands after 6 days missing in California mountains
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"We had an air crew up today and there were no signs of Mr. Sands," Rodriguez told Reuters by email. The Baldy Bowl, a large sloping area below the crest of the Mount Baldy ski area, is a popular destination for skiers, climbers and backpackers. Cellphone signals detected on Sunday, Jan. 15, showed Sands was then heading to the Mount Baldy area, apparently the latest indication he was still on the move. The Sheriff's Department has warned that severe winter weather, following weeks of storms that dumped heavy snow in California mountains, has made the Baldy area dangerous for outdoor recreation. Sands' Los Angeles-based representative could not immediately be reached for comment.

[1/4] Traffic navigates around downed tree limbs along 19th Avenue after a new bout of rainstorms threatens to flood San Francisco, in California, U.S. January 4, 2023. Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, and state officials urged Californians to avoid travel during the storm. Crews in San Francisco spent the night cleaning up debris from felled trees that blocked roadways. The area lies in the heart of the Sonoma Wine Country, a tourist magnet just north of San Francisco. Nearly 100 flights were canceled at San Francisco International Airport on Wednesday, and an additional 15 had already been canceled on Thursday.

[1/5] High water levels caused by stormwater flood Discovery Park, located in the convergence of the Sacramento River and the American River, in Sacramento, California, U.S. January 4, 2023. The latest "atmospheric river" - an airborne current of dense moisture flowing from the ocean - was expected to drench much of California ahead of a Pacific storm front bringing additional showers to low-lying areas and more snow to the Sierra Nevada Mountains through Thursday. Authorities warned that heavy downpours would likely unleash flash flooding and mudslides, especially in areas where the ground remains saturated from rains that soaked northern California days earlier. Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Wednesday to support the state's winter weather hazards response, and activated California's flood operations center. A separate storm system hovering on Wednesday over parts of the Midwest was forecast to drift off the East Coast by Friday.

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