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Thousands of Southern Californians targeted in ATM skimming theft

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:51 GMT

Federal authorities arrested nearly 50 people in connection with an ATM scam targeting thousands of victims in Southern California.On Nov. 23, Romanian law enforcement collaborated with the FBI’s L.A. office focusing on 84 locations throughout Romania. The locations were tied to an organized crime group known for ATM skimming and money laundering, authorities said.During the massive bust, 48 people were arrested and around $1 million in cash and cryptocurrency, along with 11 vehicles, were seized.Over 8,000 stolen credit card numbers belonging to U.S. citizens were recovered during the operation. Many of the arrested suspects worked directly or were associated with Florian Tudor, the alleged leader of the “notorious and violent ATM skimming organization known as the Riviera Maya Gang based out of Cancun, Mexico,” said the FBI.The suspects would steal funds through ATM skimming devices and send the money through Western Europe before it arrived in Romania. Christmas Grinches s...

Lyft Offers Discounted Holiday Rides To Seniors and Disabled Riders In L.A.

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:51 GMT

 With the end-of-year holidays approaching, Lyft will offer discounted rides to seniors and disabled riders in Los Angeles through December.The offer collaborates with the Southern California Resources for Independent Living and Self Help for the Elderly, who donated $20,000 worth of ride credits toward those specific riders in Los Angeles and San Francisco.“Transportation can be a major barrier for those living with disabilities,” Director of Southern California Resources for Independent Living (SCRS-ILC), Hector Ochoa said in a statement. “This holiday season, we’re excited to help make things a little easier by partnering with Lyft. Together, we can better empower people with any disability to live full and independent lives.”Offer codes for up to $10 off for two rides will be provided when qualifying riders contact the SCRS-ILC. With help from the organization, riders may also access wheelchair-accessible transportation, when needed.“Holiday travel is stressful ...

Los Angeles Scammer To Serve 8 Years For ‘SIM Swapping’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:51 GMT

After a series of social media hacks and fraud attempts, a downtown L.A. man has been sentenced to eight years in prison.Amir Hossein Golshan, 25, pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information, one count of wire fraud, and one count of accessing a computer to defraud and obtain value, between April 2019 and June 2023.“[Golshan’s] crimes demonstrate an utter lack of respect for the law and basic human dignity,” the sentencing memo said. “He showed little remorse for his victims or being caught during his years of crime, believing that he could hide behind the anonymity of online screennames or VPNs, and that his victims – who were on the other side of the computer – would never find him. Indeed, the defendant continued to commit these crimes, becoming more sophisticated and brazen in his actions, up until the FBI arrested him.”Among the tactics used by Golshan was “SIM swapping,” which involves the takeover of a user’s Instagram acco...

Charges Filed In Connection To Homeless Serial Killings

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:51 GMT

Jerrid Joseph Powell, 33, was taken into custody by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept. and faces murder charges for the alleged killings of three men, with suspicion of a fourth.Powell allegedly shot and killed the homeless men as they were sleeping on sidewalks or alleyways. The additional person shot was Nicholas Simbolon, an L.A. County employee believed to be the victim of a follow-home robbery attempt.Simbolon, 34, was followed to his San Dimas home after charging his vehicle in a West Covina station on Nov. 30. Simbolon was then shot and robbed as Powell allegedly fled the scene.“The cold-blooded manner in which he walks up and shoots this individual without any hesitation, no interactions, and then leave that location… to follow home an individual, a young father of two, who’s simply charging his car,” LAPD Cheif Michel Moore said in a Dec. 4 press conference. “It was chilling.”Powell was initially arrested for the Simbolon killing befor...

Topgolf in San Diego one step closer to reality

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:51 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Topgolf could make its way to San Diego. The Port of San Diego voted on a non-binding term sheet that allows them and Topgolf to negotiate a potential lease agreement.The topic has garnered a lot of attention in excitement and opposition.Topgolf is one step closer to possibly coming to San Diego’s bayfront. The Port of San Diego approved signing a term sheet with Topgolf.The board also voted to create an entertainment district to encourage other concepts, like Topgolf, to come to the area.The term sheet with Topgolf allows both parties to negotiate a potential lease agreement. The term sheet lays out a proposed lease of 20 years with options to extend up to 40 years.The proposed project is a three-story social driving range on 9.5 acres of East Harbor Island.Currently, rental car parking lots are at the location of the proposed Topgolf.“We believe we are a very solid natural fit to fulfill the goals of the east harbor re-development, to enjoy bringing the community toge...

Fire erupts in North County hoarder home

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:51 GMT

DEL MAR HEIGHTS, Calif. -- A fire ripped through a house on Portofino Dr. in Del Mar Heights, sending flames and smoke billowing into air. The San Diego Fire Department says they encountered a hoarder house stacked from floor to ceiling with personal belongings. Rescue crews made the dangerous decision to enter the house searching for bodies in the smoke, but found the house empty. “My wife started screaming, 'Oh my God, oh my God,' and there's just a little smoke and all of a sudden it went like boom, flames 20 feet in the air,” said Micheal Dender, a neighbor from across the street. Fire destroys Point Loma home, causing $800,000 in damages The flames were spreading to a next-door house, but fire crews from San Diego, Del Mar, Solana Beach and Encinitas helped stop the blaze. Early in the fire, neighbors did their best to stall the flames from getting out of control. “Emotionally I’m freaking out because I’m hoping they are going to let me live in my house tonight. My windows a...

Live updates | Dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza grow worse as Israel widens its offensive

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:51 GMT

Israel’s widening air and ground offensive in southern Gaza has displaced tens of thousands more Palestinians and worsened the enclave’s dire humanitarian conditions, with the fighting preventing distribution of food, water and medicine outside a tiny sliver of southern Gaza and new military evacuation orders squeezing people into ever-smaller areas of the south. The United Nations said 1.87 million people — more than 80% of Gaza’s population — have been driven from their homes since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, triggered by the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas assault on southern Israel. The U.N. also says that all telecom services were shut down due to cuts in the main fiber routes.On Tuesday, Israel’s military entered Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, in its pursuit to wipe out the territory’s Hamas rulers. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the military must retain open-ended security control over the Gaza Strip long after the war ends. Around 1,200...

The West has sanctioned Russia’s rich. But is that really punishing Putin and helping Ukraine?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:51 GMT

VERONA, Italy (AP) — Sitting on a terrace in Verona as the bells toll at a nearby medieval church, Igor Makarov sips coffee as he describes his life as a billionaire under Western sanctions.Most of his fortune earned doing business in Russia and the former Soviet Union is frozen, and his plans to develop his energy businesses are currently shelved. His yacht is seized and his two private jets are grounded, so he flew commercial from Cyprus to Italy on budget carrier EasyJet.“I ask the question, what is the meaning of these sanctions against me? What do they achieve? They don’t help Ukraine,” Makarov said in a rare interview, blinking in the Italian sunshine.Western governments have sanctioned scores of billionaires in order to isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin, choke off financial support for his war and turn them against him. They wanted the tycoons to “feel the consequences” of doing business with Putin unless they show “a change in behavior,” said Peter Stano, the European...

Under Putin, the uber-wealthy Russians known as ‘oligarchs’ are still rich but far less powerful

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:51 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — When Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the outside world viewed those Russians known as “oligarchs” as men who whose vast wealth, ruthlessly amassed, made them almost shadow rulers. A “government of the few,” in the word’s etymology.The term has persisted well into Putin’s rule, broadening in popular usage to refer to almost any Russian with a substantial fortune.How much political power any of Russia’s uber-rich now wield, however, is doubtful.A few hours after Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, a televised meeting he held in the Kremlin with top industrialists and entrepreneurs showed how the dynamics had changed: Putin simply told them he had no choice but to invade.Despite the harsh consequences to their wealth that the tycoons could expect from the war, they had to accept it; the power was his, not theirs.THE ORIGINAL OLIGARCHSAfter the collapse of the Soviet Union, astute businessmen who had already begun building operations as g...

When is St. Nicholas Day? And how did this Christian saint inspire the Santa Claus legend?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:51 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The white-bearded Christian saint whose acts of generosity inspired America’s secular Santa Claus figure is known worldwide — but Saint Nicholas’ origin story is not. The legends surrounding jolly old St. Nicholas — celebrated annually on Dec. 6 — go way beyond delivering candy and toys to children. WHO WAS ST. NICHOLAS?St. Nicholas was a fourth century Christian bishop from the Mediterranean port city of Myra (in modern-day Turkey). “Much of the rest is legend. There’s not really a lot of hard historical evidence about St. Nicholas,” said the Rev. Nicholas Ayo, author of “Saint Nicholas in America: Christmas Holy Day and Holiday.”But whether the stories are true is not so much the point, said Ayo, an 89-year-old retired Notre Dame University professor named after St. Nicholas. “There’s no Santa Claus that lands on the roof, but there’s a desire in people’s heart for an unconditional love that doesn’t depend on your behavior, but the fact that you’re somebody’s...