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Church’s executive pastor gets 18-month prison sentence for stealing $130,000 to pay gambling debts

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:38:41 GMT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire executive pastor has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing about $130,000 from his church to pay off gambling debts and make purchases.Gregory Neal, of Barrington, 45, was sentenced in federal court Wednesday and ordered to pay back the Journey Baptist Church and the insurance company that covered a portion of the losses.He pleaded guilty in April to one count of wire fraud.“A man who abused his position of trust — as a leader of his church — and stole from his congregation to support his gambling habit has been brought to justice,” U.S. Attorney Jane Young said in a statement.Prosecutors said that between January 2017 and March 2020, Neal made unauthorized withdrawals of the church’s funds to pay off his debts and made unauthorized purchases with church credit cards.His lawyer asked for a sentence of five years of probation to allow Neal to continue running his carpentry business so he can pay back the church and support his family....

New Hampshire State Police boat capsizes, officers thrown overboard after Lake Winnipesaukee boat collision

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:38:41 GMT

A New Hampshire State Police boat capsized and officers were thrown overboard before being pinned under the boat after a collision on Lake Winnipesaukee Wednesday night, according to police.Two victims from a serious boating crash ended up being rescued by Marine Patrol officers, and they were transported to Concord Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Both of the officers from the capsized boat were also evaluated at the hospital as a precaution, and neither was injured.On Wednesday at around 10:25 p.m., police received a report of a person in the water on Lake Winnipesaukee, yelling for help while a runaway boat was circling in the area. The call came from the area of Round Island in Gilford.Two Marine Patrol officers responded to the area, and found the boating crash with two victims in the water. The officers were able to rescue the victims from the water, helping them onto the patrol boat. The victims were then transferred onto a Gilford Fire Department boat.At the same...

RFK Jr. defends himself against complaints of racist and antisemitic online misinformation

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:38:41 GMT

By LISA MASCARO and ALI SWENSON (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended himself Thursday against accusations that he traffics in racist and hateful online conspiracy theories, testifying at a House hearing on government censorship despite requests from outside groups to disinvite the Democratic presidential candidate after his recent antisemitic remarks.The Republican-led Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government is amplifying GOP claims that conservatives and others are being unfairly targeted by technology companies that routinely work with the government to try to stem the spread of disinformation online.In opening remarks, Kennedy invoked his famous family’s legacy in decrying the complaints of racism and antisemitism against him.“This is an attempt to censor a censorship hearing,” said Kennedy, the son of Roberts F. Kennedy and the nephew of President John F. Kennedy.Kennedy defended his social media p...

‘A big opportunity’: 12-year-old boy from Chicago prepares to compete at Baseball World Cup in Taiwan

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:38:41 GMT

Paris Head admits he wasn’t very good when he started playing baseball at 5 years old for the Garfield Park Little League.But Head said he put in the work to get competitive. He practiced fielding and hitting with his little brother. He studied hours of training programs on YouTube. And he enjoyed watching his favorite professional teams — the Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles — on television.Now, the 12-year-old Humboldt Park resident is preparing to compete later this month at the U-12 Baseball World Cup in Tainan, Taiwan. He’s the only player from Illinois who qualified for the 18-person roster.“It’s a big opportunity to go to a different country,” Head said. “I want to have fun, but I still want to win.”The World Baseball Softball Confederation, a governing body for the two sports that’s recognized by the International Olympic Committee, runs the tournament. Athletes from a dozen countries will flock to the Asia-Pac...

This rooftop restaurant in Oceanside just received a Michelin star

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:38:41 GMT

OCEANSIDE, Calif. -- There's only one restaurant in all of Oceanside that's received a Michelin star and it has a rooftop view made for dinner sunsets. Valle -- a contemporary Mexican kitchen -- sits atop the Mission Pacific hotel in coastal downtown, an area that has been on the rise in recent years.Led by Chef Roberto Alcocer, this restaurant is known for fusing together fresh ingredients to create authentic flavors inspired by Baja Mexico’s Guadalupe Valley wine region with a California twist. From Oceanside to Valle de Guadalupe: This private jet wine-tasting day trip is luxury On Tuesday, the restaurant received a Michelin star at a California awards recognition ceremony. This accolade may come as no surprise to those who know Chef Alcocer, who's acquired more than 20 years of experience cooking in Mexico, along with some time in Michelin-starred kitchens in both France and Spain.“I've dreamt of this moment since I started cooking in France 21 years ago, and today the dream h...

Russia bombards Odesa and other southern Ukraine port cities for 3rd night since end of grain deal

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:38:41 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia pounded Ukraine’s southern cities with drones and missiles for a third consecutive night Thursday, keeping Odesa in the Kremlin’s crosshairs after a bitter dispute over the end of a wartime deal that allowed Ukraine to send grain through the key Black Sea port.The strikes killed at least two people in Odesa. In Mykolaiv, a city close to the Black Sea, at least 19 people were injured, including a child, Ukrainian officials said.Russia has targeted Ukrainian critical grain export infrastructure since it vowed “retribution” this week for an attack that damaged a crucial bridge between Russia and the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula. Russian officials blamed that strike on Ukrainian drone boats.The strikes on Ukraine’s grain export infrastructure have helped drive up food prices in countries facing hunger. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the end of the deal Monday would result in more human suffering, with potentially millions of peop...

Oklahoma executes a man for the 1995 butcher knife slaying of a Tulsa woman

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:38:41 GMT

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for stabbing a Tulsa woman to death with a butcher knife in 1995 after his escape from a prison work center.Jemaine Cannon, 51, received a lethal injection at 10:01 a.m. and was pronounced dead 12 minutes later at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. It was the second execution in Oklahoma this year and the ninth since the state resumed lethal injections in 2021.Cannon was convicted of killing 20-year-old Sharonda Clark, a mother of two with whom Cannon had been living at an apartment in Tulsa after his escape weeks earlier from a prison work center in southwest Oklahoma. Cannon had been serving a 15-year sentence for the violent assault of another woman who suffered permanent injuries after prosecutors say Cannon raped her and beat her viciously with a claw hammer, iron and kitchen toaster.A federal appeals court late Wednesday denied Cannon’s last-minute appeal seeking a stay of execution in which Cannon claim...

Q&A: ‘Barbie’ filmmaker Greta Gerwig on art, commerce and embracing the mess

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:38:41 GMT

Barbie, the doll, may be 64 years old, but “Barbie,” the movie, is a pandemic baby. Greta Gerwig, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind “Little Women” and “Lady Bird,” started dreaming it up at a time when she wasn’t sure movies would ever come back.“I wanted to channel something that had that ache in it, but also something so wild and unruly and something that was so just spilling out over the edges of it that you want to be in a group and see it big,” Gerwig told The Associated Press this week. “Because I thought we’ll never make any movies again, but if they’re going to, I’d like this.”Her “Barbie,” which releases in theaters on Friday, is a joyful, maximalist, deeply weird, insightful and defiantly pink confection starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. She co-wrote it with her partner, Noah Baumbach, with whom she shares two sons — a toddler and a five-month-old whom they welcomed into the world while getting “Barbie” out to the world.Gerwig spoke to the AP th...

Florida school shooting reenactment set for Aug. 4 using live ammunition, judge told

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:38:41 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The reenactment of a 2018 mass shooting at a Florida high school will take place early next month as part of a civil lawsuit and will use live ammunition with a bullet safety device, a judge was told Thursday.Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips endorsed an agreement reached by attorneys for victims’ families and former Broward Deputy Scot Peterson to conduct the reenactment Aug. 4 at a three-story classroom building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. An ballistics expert for the families, former FBI agent Bruce Koenig, testified that live rounds make a different sound than blanks. A key issue in the lawsuit is what Peterson could hear during the shooting on Valentine’s Day 2018, in which 17 people died and 17 more were wounded with an AR-15-style rifle.“You want to imitate the situation as close as possible,” Koenig said. Blanks, he added, are “almost as loud, but there definitely is a difference.”Peterson, the school’s on-campus de...

Americans descend on New Zealand to cheer for the US women’s soccer team

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:38:41 GMT

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — The Americans are here.They may still be jet-lagged, they may still be wearing sweats, and they may have been stumbling through the streets of Auckland for the past few days, but some fans of the U.S. women’s national team broke through with their unmistakable red, white and blue costumes as part of a boisterous crowd at the opening match of the Women’s World Cup.The thing was, the Americans weren’t even playing.The U.S. women kick off Saturday against Vietnam. But David Tritz of Laguna Hills, California, wore a full-body, stars-and-stripes rain suit to see co-host New Zealand upset Norway 1-0 on Thursday.Tritz is just one of an estimated 20,000 Americans who have already traveled Down Under to support the reigning World Cup champions.“We flew all this way,” Tritz said at Eden Park, “you can’t not represent. You only live once.”Tritz came to New Zealand with his wife and five daughters, four of whom played soccer and range from 34 down to 21-year-old twi...