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Missouri man accused of recording sex with minor

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:10 GMT

ST. LOUIS - A northern Missouri man faces federal charges after he allegedly recorded himself having sex with a minor. Prosecutors have charged Russell Alan Pirkey, 52, of Linn County, with sexual exploitation of a child and accessing with intent to view child pornography in the investigation. According to a federal indictment, Pirkey coerced a minor into engaging in sexually explicit conduct in April with the intent to record it on video. The indictment accuses Pirkey of his cell phone to record himself having sexual contact with a 10-year-old girl. Father of teen killed in crash wants more transparency from police Pirkey is also accused of accessing child pornography between Jan. 1 and April 8, 2023, per the indictment. Before his federal charges, he was jailed in Linn County. If convicted, Pirkey could face up to 50 years in prison and $500,000 in fines for both charges. The case has also been brought to the attention of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to comba...

The best grape jelly is homemade

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:10 GMT

By Yewande Komolafe, The New York TimesFood memories can sometimes run backward, to a moment when we first experienced entirely new sensations. This is not that story.In the summer of 2010, I worked at Pies ’n’ Thighs, a Brooklyn, New York, restaurant focused on classic Southern comfort foods. One of my responsibilities was transforming that morning’s produce order into the basis for the day’s dishes. Over time, the fruits and vegetables that came my way helped me chart the changing season and experience the world outside our basement kitchen. And it was there that I first encountered Concord grapes, the deep purple fruit arriving in flats the very moment the season seemed to be peaking, the kitchen ovens making the mid-August humidity almost overwhelming.Although I had never seen Concord grapes, I knew them, or at least how they resembled that “grape” flavor of so many sweets and beverages I’d tasted growing up in Lagos, Nigeria. We had grape jellies, stocked in markets that sold E...

Bear may be inside Sierra Madre home after refrigerator ransacked

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:10 GMT

Police and wildlife officials were called to a home in Sierra Madre Wednesday morning where a bear was believed to have ransacked a refrigerator. Officers were dispatched to the home in the 100 block of South Hermosa Avenue shortly before 2 a.m. after the homeowners arrived and called 911, the Sierra Madre Police Department stated in a news release. “I was walking through my courtyard and I glanced to the left where my side door is and it was wide open,” homeowner Chelsea Mapanda said.Authorities respond to a possible bear intrusion at a home in Sierra Madre on Sept. 13, 2023. (KTLA)Mapanda also noticed through the window that the refrigerator door had been opened and food was scattered on the ground. “So, I automatically knew that a bear was in my house because we had been alerted that a bear was around,” Mapanda said.Officers arrived at the scene and heard grunting sounds while inside the home, the Police Department stated. The officers decided to exit and secure the area. Thus fa...

Social Security increases may be larger than previously expected

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:10 GMT

The next cost-of-living increase for Social Security recipients is projected to be slightly higher than estimated in previous months, though still dramatically less than the 8.7% beneficiaries received in 2023, the Senior Citizen’s League predicts.The Senior Citizen’s League (TSCL), a nonpartisan senior advocacy group, had previously estimated in mid-August that 2024’s COLA increase would be 3%, based on July data reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But as of Wednesday, that increase is estimated to be somewhere around 3.2%, thanks to “a jump in consumer price data through August,” TSCL wrote in a press release.In terms of benefits, that means the average monthly Social Security check, at $1,790, would increase to around $1,847.30.TSCL’s estimate comes after the most recent publication of the Labor Bureau’s Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners (CPI-W) — the same index used by the Social Security Administration to determine the annual COLA. TSCL warned, however, t...

Van Morrison at the Greek

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:10 GMT

Van Morrison at the Greek: Two living legends for the price of one up at the Greek Theatre, as Northern Irish singer and songwriter Van Morrison headlines over blues man Taj Mahal. Morrison has been remarkably prolific in recent years — he’s already released a skiffle album called Moving On Skiffle this year, and another called Beyond Words: Instrumental. Last year, he gave us What’s it Gonna Take?, and 2021 had Latest Record Project, Volume 1. The man never stops.“Van Morrison unveils his 45th studio album, Accentuate the Positive, which is now available to pre-order HERE ahead of its release on November 3rd,” reads the press release. “This electrifying homage to rock ‘n’ roll is launched alongside its first single, a new take on the Johnny Kidd classic ‘Shakin’ All Over’. Listen HERE. Like this year’s acclaimed Moving On Skiffle, Accentuate The Positive sees Van Morrisonreturning to one of his childhood passions: this time rock ‘n’ roll. Growing up in Belfast sho...

See the World: Arts Calendar September 14-20

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:10 GMT

See the world of art right here at home this week, as more than one new gallery opens their doors amid the already rather epic crush of a new art season. With fantastical stylization and a darker aspect of exuberance, photographers, painters, sculptors, and more explore themes of identity, history, politics, sexuality, rebellion, desire, destruction, natural phenomena, eco-consciousness, vulnerability, and nostalgia. Performance- and installation-based events unfold on museum grounds, in a parking lot, and across an art school campus explore personal, environmental, and societal actions; plus literature for humanity, dreamy classical in the forest, gender-fluid musical theater, design as cozy psychedelia, avant-garde cinema, and an arts-based celebration of the Bahia connection.Philippe Shangti at the Andaz HotelThursday, September 14Philippe Shangti at Andaz Hotel. Shangti’s art serves as a poignant commentary on the intricacies of our modern society, capturing societal flaws and h...

Classic loaded wedge salad is stacked with texture and flavor

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:10 GMT

Is there anything better than a well-built salad? And by salad, I mean a towering wedge of crunchy iceberg lettuce topped with a tangy yet creamy homemade blue cheese dressing and juicy chunks of ripe, diced tomato and crunchy bacon bits.A staple on steakhouse and some gastropub menus, the salad is thought to date back at least to the early 1900s, a few years after the first cultivar for iceberg lettuce was developed in California.Some say they called it “iceberg” because that’s what it looked like when it was transported on crushed ice; others attribute its name to its ice-white color of its inner leaves and crunchy texture.One early version of what cookbook author Marion Harris Neil dubbed “Lettuce Salad with Roquefort Dressing” appeared in “Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing Dish Recipes” in 1916 and by the mid 1920s, with bottled salad dressing being mass-produced by companies such as Kraft, the crispy, crunchy salad was growing in popularit...

‘Outrageous’: Kevin Costner’s ex demands he pay $855,000 for court fight she could lose

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:10 GMT

Some would say that Kevin Costner’s estranged wife, Christine Baumgartner, doesn’t know how to quit while she’s ahead.Baumgartner keeps losing key court rulings in her highly contentious divorce from the rich and powerful movie star, but she seems determined to press ahead with challenging a provision in their prenuptial agreement, which she signed before she married him in 2004. Even more “outrageous,” according to Costner’s attorney: Baumgartner wants him to pay the $855,000 she says her lawyers need to pursue this risky legal gambit, TMZ reported Tuesday. Costner’s high-profile divorce lawyer, Laura Wasser, has questioned in court documents whether Baumgartner’s legal team would even need close to $1 million to challenge the prenuptial agreement, TMZ reported. At that amount, her attorneys would have to put in more than 1,100 in billable hours to justify the fee. Wasser also said that Costner has already paid Baumgartner $300,000 in...

Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are meeting in Washington to discuss future AI regulations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:10 GMT

By Brian Fung | CNNWashington — Some of the most influential voices in the tech industry are meeting with federal lawmakers Wednesday as the US Senate prepares to draw up legislation regulating the fast-moving artificial intelligence industry.Among those attending the in-person event are the CEOs of Anthropic, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, Palantir and X, the company formerly known as Twitter. The guest list also includes Bill Gates, the former CEO of Microsoft, and Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, along with leading officials from the entertainment industry, civil rights groups and labor organizations.Today’s meeting and its expected all-star cast marks the first of nine sessions hosted by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has pledged to craft comprehensive guardrails regulating the AI sector in what he’s described as an unprecedented congressional effort.“With AI we can’t be like ostriches sticking our heads in the sand,” Schumer said, according to p...

Multiple people arrested in connection to various crimes including murder in Pittsburg 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:10 GMT

(KRON) -- Several people were arrested on Monday in Pittsburg for multiple crimes including murder, the police department said. A 19-year-old man is still being sought following a July 14 homicide.Back in July, several men shot into a moving car in the 2100 block of Crestview Boulevard. The shooting resulted in the death of a man and serious injury to another. Around 5 a.m. on Monday, a total of 10 search warrants were served in Pittsburg, Antioch, Oakley and Pleasant Hill. Nine people were arrested for various crimes including murder, firearms violations and narcotics-related offenses, police said. Bay Area college coach charged with pimping women into prostitution Many of those who were arrested are believed to be associated with an East Contra Costa County gang involved in criminal activity. There are also other multiple ongoing investigations involving one or more of these individuals, PPD said.Amen Syrius Allen, 19, of Pittsburg is wanted in connection to the July 14 murder....