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Sex charges dismissed against reality TV doctor and girlfriend

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:48:51 GMT

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A California judge has dismissed sex charges against a reality TV show doctor and his girlfriend who had been accused of drugging and raping women in a case that drew international attention.Court records show that charges of assault with the intent to commit a sexual offense were dismissed Friday against Dr. Grant Robicheaux, a surgeon who previously appeared on a Bravo TV show called “Online Dating Rituals of the American Male,” and girlfriend Cerissa Riley. The decision came after a preliminary hearing before Superior Court Judge Michael Leversen, who determined there was not sufficient evidence on the sex charges to proceed to trial, the Orange County Register reported. The pair also faces drug charges and is due to appear in court July 19. Robicheaux is also charged with possession of an assault weapon. They previously pleaded not guilty.The state attorney general’s office, which has been prosecuting the case, said the agency is reviewing the ...

James Lewis, the suspect in the 1982 Tylenol poisonings that killed 7 in the Chicago area, has died

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:48:51 GMT

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The suspect in the 1982 Tylenol poisonings that killed seven people in the Chicago area, triggered a nationwide panic, and led to an overhaul in the safety of over-the-counter medication packaging, has died, police said on Monday.Officers, firefighters and EMTs responding to a report of an unresponsive person at about 4 p.m. Sunday found James W. Lewis dead in his Cambridge, Massachusetts, home, Cambridge Police Superintendent Frederick Cabral said in a statement. He was 76, police said.“Following an investigation, Lewis’ death was determined to be not suspicious,” the statement says. No one was ever charged in the deaths of seven people who took the over-the-counter painkillers laced with cyanide. Lewis served more than 12 years in prison for sending an extortion note to manufacturer Johnson & Johnson, demanding $1 million to “stop the killing.” He and his wife moved to Massachusetts in 1995 following his release. Listed numbers for his wife were not in servi...

Stock market today: Wall Street ticks higher ahead of updates on inflation, profits

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:48:51 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks ticked higher on Wall Street Monday ahead of a week with updates on where inflation and corporate profits are heading.The S&P 500 rose 10.58, or 0.2%, to 4,409.53, coming off just its second losing week in the last eight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 209.52, or 0.6%, to 33,944.40, and the Nasdaq composite added 24.77, or 0.2%, to 13,685.48..FMC, which sells herbicides, insecticides and other products to the agricultural industry, tumbled 11.1% for the biggest loss in the S&P 500 after it warned of a sudden drop in business around much of the world toward the end of May as partners burned through inventory levels. It said the “unforeseen and unprecedented” declines would hurt its results for the spring and full year.On the winning side of Wall Street was Helen of Troy, which said profit and revenue fell by less last quarter than analysts expected. The company behind OXO, Hydro Flask and other brands jumped 18.5%. But it also warned of expect...

Sheriff’s deputy dies following assault by jail inmate after hospital visit in Indianapolis

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:48:51 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An sheriff’s deputy died Monday after being assaulted in a transport van by a jail inmate whom he had just taken to a hospital visit in Indianapolis, authorities said.Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy John Durm, 61, died at Eskenazi Hospital, following the attack, Sheriff Kerry Forestal said.The inmate, Orlando Mitchell, 34, assaulted Durm while the van was inside the sally port, or fortified entrance, of the Adult Detention Center on the city’s south side, police said.Mitchell then stole the van and crashed into a utility pole before other deputies returned him to custody. Mitchell was reported in stable condition at Eskenazi Hospital. Indianapolis police are investigating the incident as an “intentional act of homicide,” Officer Shane Foley said.Mitchell has been jailed since September 2022 awaiting trial for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Krystal Walton. A telephone message seeking comment was left for an attorney representing Mitchell.Durm wa...

Insurer Intact Financial reports $421 million in catastrophe losses in second quarter

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:48:51 GMT

TORONTO — Intact Financial Corp. estimates its catastrophe losses for the second quarter were around $421 million on a pre-tax basis.The property and casualty insurer says in a news release the loss amounted to $1.79 per share after tax. Intact says nearly half of the $252 million losses from Canada were attributable to wildfires, with the biggest financial impact coming from Atlantic Canada. Intact says other notable losses included an ice storm and a flood in Quebec. CEO Charles Brindamour says in a news release that Intact’s teams are working to get customers back on track amid a “very active season for catastrophes.”He says this season is a reminder of the growing impact of climate change on forest fires and severe weather events. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:IFC)The Canadian Press

Ukraine war proves value of LNG Canada, CEO tells global gas conference in Vancouver

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:48:51 GMT

VANCOUVER — The head of the LNG Canada export facility in British Columbia says price and supply volatility worldwide since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows the value of his company’s project as a source of “affordable, reliable” and “responsibly produced” liquefied natural gas.Project CEO Jason Klein has told the LNG 2023 conference in Vancouver that the project is close to 85-per-cent complete and will aim to compete globally, not only on price but also its environmental and social track record.He says the best example of the value of Canadian energy can be seen in the conference itself, which was originally planned to place in St. Petersburg in Russia, but was moved to B.C. because of the war in Ukraine.Klein says the event offers an “amazing opportunity to reflect” on the upheaval in global natural gas markets since the invasion, which caused Russia, the world’s largest exporter of the commodity, to vanish from global suppl...

Pilot charged for illegal Grand Teton National Park landing blames bad weather

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:48:51 GMT

A helicopter pilot faces up to $10,000 in fines and a year in jail for making an illegal lakeside landing in Grand Teton National Park. But whether he was justified by a weather emergency or set down just to have a picnic is in dispute.Peter Smith, owner of air tour company West Elk Air, landed June 24 on the western shore of Jackson Lake, the National Park Service said in a statement Monday.Landing a helicopter just anywhere, without good reason, is against Grand Teton rules to protect the park’s wildlife and serenity.Smith landed at an area inaccessible except by boat or by hiking at least 10 miles (16 kilometers) round trip. Park rangers who heard about the landing reached the site at the foot of the craggy Teton Range by boat.They arrived to find Smith and a female companion having a picnic, according to the Park Service. Park officials declined to comment on any other reason Smith might have given for landing.Reached by phone, Smith said bad weather forced him to land, an...

Kansas City Chiefs superfan accused in bank robbery and suspected in many more across central U.S.

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:48:51 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A rabid Kansas City Chiefs fan known on Twitter as “ChiefsAholic” is accused of robbing a bank in Iowa, and federal authorities suspect he’s responsible for bank and credit union robberies throughout the central U.S.Federal prosecutors on Monday announced that 28-year-old Xaviar Michael Babudar of Overland Park, Kansas, was charged with one count of bank theft and one count of transporting stolen property across state lines. It wasn’t immediately clear if Babudar had an attorney.Babudar had a strong following on social media and often wore a full-body wolf costume to games. His Twitter handle has been taken down.He was charged in December with robbing a credit union in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was released on bond in February but prosecutors said he removed an ankle monitor and fled until his arrest Friday near Sacramento, California.An affidavit accuses Babudar of a robbery that netted nearly $70,000 from the Great Western Bank in Clive, Iowa, in Marc...

Following Uvalde shooting, Democrat Roland Gutierrez becomes Ted Cruz’s latest challenger

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:48:51 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Democratic Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who has pushed for police accountability and tougher gun laws after the Uvalde school shooting, announced Monday he will run for U.S. Senate in 2024.He becomes the second Texas Democrat to embark on what will be a longshot bid to deny Republican Sen. Ted Cruz a third term representing the nation’s biggest red state. In a three-minute video, Gutierrez launched his campaign focusing on resources for rural Texas and telling his immigrant story while making his way through Uvalde. He showed the faces of parents of children killed in the May 24 school massacre who have supported his legislative efforts for accountability following the shooting. “Out of one of the darkest days, the people of Uvalde became more than constituents, they became family,” Gutierrez said in his announcement.In May, Rep. Colin Allred became the first to enter the race. He says his campaign has since raised more than $6 million. It sets up a ...

Giraffe named Twiga, who was among the oldest cared for by humans, died at age 31 at East Texas zoo

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:48:51 GMT

LUFKIN, Texas (AP) — A giraffe named Twiga who died over the weekend at an East Texas zoo at the age of 31 was among the oldest giraffes being cared for by humans.Twiga was found dead Saturday morning at the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin, a city of about 34,000 about 170 miles (273 kilometers) southeast of Dallas, said the zoo’s director, Gordon Henley.Twiga would have turned 32 on Oct. 1. She was born at the Los Angeles Zoo. She then went to the Racine Zoo in Wisconsin before coming to the Ellen Trout Zoo in June 2008.“She had provided company and companionship to our other giraffes as they came in and kind of guided them along,” Henley said.Twiga was a Masai giraffe. Henley said that their life expectancy is usually around 25 to 26 years.Henley said Twiga had been showing some signs of age, and she occasionally walked with a bit of limp. But he said she had been getting “a lot of TLC from the keeper staff and from our veterinarian.”“We knew based on her age that it w...