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Former Jaguars financial manager pleads guilty to stealing $22M. He faces up to 30 years in prison

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:19:22 GMT

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A 31-year-old former Jacksonville Jaguars financial manager accused of stealing more than $22 million from the NFL franchise through its virtual credit card program pleaded guilty to federal charges Thursday and faces up to 30 years in prison.Amit Patel, wearing a dark suit and a burgundy tie, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of engaging in an illegal monetary transaction in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville. As part of his plea agreement, he will have to forfeit property and assets funded with the money he admittedly stole from the NFL franchise between 2019 and 2023. He also will be required to provide restitution to the victim.He will be formally sentenced at a later date.Patel and his attorney, Alex King of First Coast Criminal Defense in Jacksonville, declined comment after the hearing.King said last week that Patel had gambled away “approximately 99%” of the misappropriated money. Patel said in court he is undergoing weekly tr...

Fuming over setback to casino smoking ban, workers light up in New Jersey Statehouse meeting

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:19:22 GMT

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — With prospects for a smoking ban in Atlantic City’s casinos looking hazier than ever, workers who want smoking banned took matters into their own hands, lips and lungs Thursday.Members of the United Auto Workers union disrupted a meeting of a state Assembly committee that had been scheduled to take a preliminary vote on a bill to ban smoking in the casinos by lighting cigarettes and blowing smoke toward legislators.That vote was canceled Wednesday night when one of the main champions of workers who want smoking banned in the gambling halls gave up on a bill that would end smoking in the nine casinos, and embraced some measures the casino industry wants, including enclosed smoking rooms. That had some employees burning mad — literally.Seven members of the union, which represents dealers at three casinos in Atlantic City, began smoking in the meeting hall of the State House Annex, where, like virtually all other workplaces in New Jersey, smoking is pro...

A 4-month-old survived after a Tennessee tornado tossed him. His parents found him in a downed tree

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:19:22 GMT

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A 4-month-old boy has survived after a tornado in Tennessee sucked him up from his family’s mobile home, which was demolished in the storm.Sydney Moore told WSMV-TV that when the tornado hit their home in Clarksville on Saturday, it ripped off the roof and lifted the bassinet with her son inside. Her boyfriend, the child’s father, tried to grab the bassinet but was spun up into the twister as well, Moore said.“He was just holding on to the bassinet the whole time, and they went into circles, he said, and then they got thrown,” Moore said.At about the same time in another room, as the wind howled, Moore decided to jump on top of their other son, who is 1. She grabbed the child as the walls collapsed, she said.Moore and the 1-year-old were crushed under the trailer, but she said she managed to push them out.They searched for the younger son for 10 minutes, and ultimately found him lying in a fallen tree in the pouring rain.“I was pretty sure he wa...

Air Jordans made for filmmaker Spike Lee are up for auction after being donated to Oregon shelter

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:19:22 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The shiny, gold Nike sneakers were hard to miss in the donation pile at a shelter in Portland, Oregon, earlier this year.They were Air Jordan 3s, size 12 1/2, and one of just a few custom pairs that had been made for filmmaker Spike Lee. Now they’re up for auction, where they could fetch $20,000 to benefit the shelter.The shoes were anonymously dropped in the donation chute at the Portland Rescue Mission in the spring. A formerly homeless man in the mission’s long-term shelter program found them while sorting through donations and brought them to the attention of the staff, according to a blog post on the mission’s website this week.Nike designer Tinker Hatfield designed the kicks in 2019 for Lee, who wore his pair to the Academy Awards that year when he accepted an Oscar for his “BlacKkKlansmen” screenplay. The donated sneakers weren’t Lee’s personal pair, but were among a few made for him to give out to his inner circle, the Port...

Behind the sumptuous, monstrous craft of ‘Poor Things’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:19:22 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — “Poor Things” is a Frankenstein-esque fantasia about a young woman (Emma Stone) reanimated by a demented surgeon (Willem Dafoe), but the behind-the-scenes work that went into crafting the movie’s wildly warped world may be the film’s greatest act of mad science.Though Yorgos Lanthimos’ earlier films — at least leading up to “The Favourite” — were more spare productions, “Poor Things” fuses all the tools of classic Hollywood filmmaking — grand sets, miniatures, sumptuous costumes — with subtler touches of modern technology. The movie is, itself, a Frankenstein.Only the scars (not counting the ones on Dafoe’s elongated face) don’t show in the magpie design of “Poor Things.” The film’s style is rooted in an 1890s Victorian setting, but it expands surreally from there. “We were looking at the Victorian era as if it had been written about in a sci-fi movie,” says Shona Heath, one of the two production designers on the film along with James Price. “We basically gave ...

The Supreme Court refuses to block an Illinois law banning some high-power semiautomatic weapons

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:19:22 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to put on hold a new Illinois law that would ban high-power semiautomatic weapons like the one used in the mass killing of seven people at a 2022 parade in a Chicago suburb.The justices did not comment in refusing an emergency appeal from a gun rights group and others.The law prohibits the possession, manufacture or sale of semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines. It takes effect Jan. 1.Last month, a three-judge panel of the 7th District U.S. Court of Appeals voted 2-1 in favor of the law, refusing a request by gun rights groups to block it. The Illinois Supreme Court separately upheld the law on a 4-3 decision in August.At least eight other states and the District of Columbia have some sort of prohibition on semiautomatic weapons, and several cases challenging those laws are making their way through the federal courts, relying at least in part on the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 that expanded gun rights.The...

Police look to identify man in alleged sex assault against child aboard TTC bus

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:19:22 GMT

Police are looking to identify a man who allegedly sexually assaulted a child aboard a TTC bus earlier this month. Investigators say around 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 2 a 10-year-old was on a northbound bus on Pharmacy Avenue when a man inappropriately touched them. The man then made sexual gestures toward the child as he exited the bus at the southeast corner of the intersection at Lawrence Avenue East.The suspect is described as being in his 50s with a medium build, bald and a full beard. He was last seen wearing a dark jacket and dark pants with a light stripe down the side.

Miljenko ‘Mike’ Grgich, an immigrant who put Napa Valley on the world’s wine map, dies at 100

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:19:22 GMT

Miljenko “Mike” Grgich, a celebrated winemaker who helped establish Napa Valley as one of the world’s premier wine-making regions, has died. He was 100.Grgich died Wednesday, according to his Rutherford, California-based winery, Grgich Hills Estate.Grgich was born on April 1, 1923, in Desne, Croatia. His father was a winemaker, and one of his earliest memories was stomping on the grapes at harvest time. At the age of 10, he left his village to live with his sister and further his schooling. His father’s parting words to him became his life’s mantra: “Every day do your best, learn something new and make a new friend.”Grgich studied enology and viticulture at the University of Zagreb, but as communism gripped Croatia, he searched for a way out. In a whispered conversation with a professor, he learned of a place called “California” and made plans to go there through an exchange program in Germany.Grgich left Croatia in 1954 with a few U.S. dollars hidden in his shoe and a suitcase full...

NY doctor and wife who appeared on Bravo’s ‘Below Deck’ charged with fake opioid prescription scheme

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:19:22 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A doctor and his wife who appeared on the Bravo reality series “Below Deck” were arraigned on drug charges in New York on Thursday for allegedly filling out bogus opioid prescriptions using the names of fellow cast members from the show.Urologist Francis Martinis and his wife, Jessica Martinis, of Fort Salonga, New York, were each charged with criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance by a practitioner and falsifying business records.Francis Martinis, 55, and Jessica Martinis, 38, appeared in state court in Riverhead on Long Island after first being arrested in May. They were released without bail and are due back in court Jan. 25.Prosecutors said Francis Martinis transmitted prescriptions for the opioid drug oxycodone to Long Island pharmacies with the names of fellow “Below Deck” cast members listed as the purported patients. Jessica Martinis then picked up the drugs and paid in cash, prosecutors said. Jessica Martinis first raised red flags in Jan...

Senator’s son faces upgraded homicide charge in crash that killed North Dakota sheriff’s deputy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:19:22 GMT

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — New charges approved Thursday against the 42-year-old son of U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer included an upgraded homicide count in a crash that killed a North Dakota sheriff’s deputy.Ian Cramer initially faced a manslaughter charge related to the Dec. 6 death of Mercer County Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Martin on a highway near Hazen. A judge on Thursday approved new charges that amend that offense to homicide while fleeing a peace officer, and add drug charges.The homicide charge says the death was caused negligently rather than recklessly, and brings higher maximum penalties than manslaughter — up to 20 years in prison and a possible $20,000 fine.Cramer still faces counts of fleeing a police officer, preventing arrest and reckless endangerment. The drug charges include possession of methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia. He is charged with nine offenses, including four felonies.Cramer, who is in jail, is set for a court appearance on Monday. His ...