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Longtime Chicago Alderman Ed Burke found guilty of corruption

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:58:16 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal jury convicted former Alderman Ed Burke on 13 corruption counts Thursday after hearing allegations the longest-serving City Council member in Chicago history with a 54-year tenure had used his power to win private law business from developers.The jury of nine women and three men deliberated for 23 hours over four days before returning its verdict after weighing the testimony of 38 witnesses and hearing more than 100 recordings. It acquitted Burke on one count of conspiracy.Prosecutors said Burke, who left office in May, used his political clout to pressure people into hiring his private property tax law firm. Burke “had his hand out time and again demanding money and benefits from the very people he was supposed to be working on behalf of,“ Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur said during closing arguments. Defense attorney Joe Duffy said, however, that prosecutors presented a “murky” case.“Fifty years on the job, (Burk...

Leap into winter

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:58:16 GMT

Disney on Ice hit the Frog Pond just a few hours before the Winter Solstice. It was perfect timing for all the kids who got to see a free performance.Disney On Ice member Jorge Chiarri skates with 8th grader Kelvin Morales at the Frog Pond on the Boston Common. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)Boston, MA - Disney On Ice member Lauren MacDonald skates at the Frog Pond on the Boston Common. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)Boston, MA - Sairka Joseph gets an assist from Olivia Prophete as students skate with Disney On Ice members at the Frog Pond on the Boston Common. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)Boston, MA - Havilah Nimako finds her footing as students skate with Disney On Ice members at the Frog Pond on the Boston Common. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)Boston, MA - Havilah Nimako finds her footing as students skate with Disney On Ice members at the Frog Pond on the Boston Common. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)Boston, MA - Disney On Ice member Jorge Chiarri watches as Sky Brutus learns to skate as students sk...

How realistic are Celtics guard Derrick White’s All-Star chances?

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:58:16 GMT

Moments after the Celtics’ big victory over the Kings on Wednesday night – in which Derrick White scored 28 points on 10-for-13 shooting, including 6-for-9 from 3-point range – a question was posed to Joe Mazzulla that suggested the guard was shooting like an All-Star.Mazzulla interrupted.“He is an All-Star,” Mazzulla said.Jayson Tatum stoked the flames more after the game, sharing a post about White’s performance to his Instagram story with a simple caption: “All star.”The campaign for White’s first career All-Star selection has begun inside the Celtics locker room. His value to the first-place Celtics has been undeniable, and bears repeating for this exercise. He remains among the best in plus/minus in the NBA. Entering Thursday, he ranked fourth in the league at plus-222 – only behind certain All-Stars Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.White is averaging career highs in points (16.5 per game), assists (5.1) and 3-point shooting percentage (42.9%), buoyed by a ...

Pornhub owner agrees to pay $1.8M and independent monitor to resolve sex trafficking-related charge

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:58:16 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The owner of Pornhub, one of the world’s largest adult content websites, has admitted to profiting from sex trafficking and agreed to make payments to women whose videos were posted without their consent, federal prosecutors in New York announced Thursday.Aylo Holdings, the website’s parent company, reached a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve a charge of engaging in unlawful monetary transactions involving sex trafficking proceeds, according to the office of Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.The deal calls for the Montreal-based company to pay more than $1.8 million to the U.S. government, as well as make separate payments to the individual women harmed by the trafficking. It also requires appointment of an independent monitor for three years, after which the charges will be dismissed.“It is our hope that this resolution, which includes certain agreed payments to the women whose images were posted on the company’s platforms and a...

Air Canada fined $97K for violating disabilities regulations

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:58:16 GMT

The Canadian Transportation Agency says it’s issued a $97,500 penalty to Air Canada for violating the Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations.The penalty of $97,500 is for several violations of the regulations.The agency says that on August 30, Air Canada failed to assist a wheelchair user to disembark its plane.The passenger, who has spastic cerebral palsy and can’t move his legs, was forced to disembark on his own.As well, the CTA says Air Canada failed to ensure that its personnel periodically checked in on the passenger while he was waiting in the terminal.Air Canada acknowledged in November that it violated Canadian disability regulations, and apologized to a British Columbia man who was forced to drag himself off a flight in Las Vegas this summer.

A New Hampshire man pleads guilty to threats and vandalism targeting public radio journalists

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:58:16 GMT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire man pleaded guilty to threatening public radio journalists and vandalizing their homes, prosecutors said Thursday.Tucker Cockerline, 32, of Salem, N.H., pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to conspiracy to commit stalking through interstate travel and the use of a facility of interstate commerce.The harassment and intimidation of the victims included the vandalism — on five separate occasions — of the victims’ homes and the home of one of the victims’ parents with bricks, large rocks and red spray paint, according to investigators.Sentencing is scheduled for March 19, 2024. Cockerline was initially arrested and charged in June along with two alleged co-conspirators. The defendants were subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury along with a fourth suspect in September.Prosecutors allege the men were involved in a plot to vandalize homes associated with New Hampshire Public Radio reporter Lauren Chooljian and news director Daniel Barrick ...

Jury acquits 3 Washington state officers in death of a Black man who told them he couldn’t breathe

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:58:16 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — A jury cleared three Washington state police officers of all criminal charges Thursday in the 2020 death of Manuel Ellis, a Black man who was shocked, beaten and restrained face down on a Tacoma sidewalk as he pleaded for breath.Two of the officers — Matthew Collins, 40, and Christopher Burbank, 38 — had been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, while Timothy Rankine, 34, was charged with manslaughter. The jury found the three not guilty on all counts.There was a gasp from the gallery when the first not-guilty verdict was read. Rankine sat forward in his seat and wiped his eyes, while Collins hugged his lawyer. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement that he was grateful for the jury, the court and his legal team “for their extraordinary hard work and dedication.”“I know the Ellis family is hurting, and my heart goes out to them,” he said.The Ellis family immediately left the courtroom and planned ...

A voter pushed Nikki Haley to call Donald Trump a ‘grave danger’ to the US. Here’s how she responded

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:58:16 GMT

ANAMOSA, Iowa (AP) — Nikki Haley stopped short Thursday of answering one Iowa voter’s question the way he’d hoped.Asked by 44-year-old Jacob Schunk to label Donald Trump a “grave danger to our country,” Haley ticked through criticisms of the former president ranging from foreign policy to government spending. And then the former United Nations ambassador addressed the challenge that she and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, her closest rival for second place behind Trump, are facing just weeks before primary voting begins. “The problem is, what I have faced is anti-Trumpers don’t think I hate him enough. Pro-Trumpers don’t think I love him enough,” Haley told Schunk at a town hall in eastern Iowa.Haley’s comment reflects one of the central challenges facing her campaign as she tries to win over those who still admire the former president without alienating them. It’s a balancing act that will likely intensify in final weeks ahead of the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses, where ...

REVIEW: The Zone of Interest is 2023’s most important film

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:58:16 GMT

It’s been nearly 80 years since the end of the Holocaust, the most infamous of all genocides. But in the 20th and 21st centuries, there have been many other genocides. The Tutsi in Rwanda, the Uyghur in China. For almost all points of history, in one of corner of the world there is a genocide occurring. It’s unfortunately becoming a defining aspect of humanity, but many humans think of those who commit genocide as not quite human. Who are those to choose to commit genocide? How do they live their day?Christian Friedel in the Zone of Interest, courtesy of Elevation Pictures.The Zone of Interest is a Holocaust film specifically concerned with this question. It stars Christian Friedel (from the White Ribbon and Babylon Berlin) and Sandra Hüller (from Toni Erdmann and Anatomy of a Fall) as the Commandant of Auschwitz Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig. The film doesn’t engage in the depiction of the atrocities, but instead concerns itself with the domestic life of the mar...

Movie Review: Clooney’s ‘Boys in the Boat’ is an underdog saga that’s both stirring and a tad stodgy

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:58:16 GMT

Director George Clooney both begins and ends “The Boys in the Boat ” on a sun-dappled lake. It’s a seductive sight, calm and soothing, and aptly reflects the ethos of a film that often feels like one has walked into an oil painting: well-crafted, lovely to look at, and rather old-fashioned.Telling the true-life story of the University of Washington rowing team, a scrappy group that — incredibly — reached the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Clooney has gone for stirring and a bit stodgy, pleasing and a bit predictable. Given the craft involved, this is hardly a fatal flaw. And yet, when Joel Edgerton’s coach character surveys his team at one point and remarks, “We need an edge, Tom,” we think: Ah, yes. A little edge here would be nice.In place of edge, we do get moments of beauty, especially when the boys get into those boats. Rowing is, though, the last thing on the mind of Joe Rantz (Callum Turner), a homeless college student, when we first meet him. We’re in 1936 Seattle, deep into the Grea...