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Florida man comes home after being detained in Venezuela for more than a year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:21 GMT

A man from Florida will be able to celebrate Christmas with his family after he was released from Venezuela along with several other Americans, bringing a long and difficult journey of hope and despair to an end.Joseph Cristella was one of six U.S. citizens who stepped off a plane in Texas on Wednesday as part of a prisoner swap deal this week between the U.S. and VenezuelaHis cousin, Stephanie Cristella, spoke to 7News to recount the toll the ordeal took on him.“We were doing whatever we could to bring him home. So, finally, that’s happened. He is home,” she said. Stephanie said she is excited to see her cousin, whom she hasn’t seen since he was detained in Venezuela in September of last year. “He has a fiancée who was down – she had to go to Venezuela for a surgery, and her and her family live in Colombia, so he went there to try to be closer to her, from what I’m told, and then got detained,” she said. “They had conspiracy cha...

2 in custody, 1 at large after authorities track suspected robbers to Family Dollar in Pembroke Park

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:21 GMT

Authorities have apprehended two people in Pembroke Park and are searching for a third, allegedly in connection to a pair of robberies in Miami-Dade County.7Skyforce hovered above a Family Dollar store along Hallandale Beach Boulevard, near Southwest 40th Avenue, just after 6 p.m., Friday.A Miami-Dade Police cruiser and a Broward Sheriff’s Office cruiser were seen near the subjects’ silver Honda, which is parked feet away from the entrance to the store.The people inside the Honda are allegedly wanted in connection to two robberies. One of them allegedly occurred outside of a bank in Sunny Isles Beach, and the second allegedly took place at a TD Bank along Northeast 183rd Street and 15th Avenue in Northeast Miami-Dade.Authorities were able to track the subject through a tracking device that may have been put in a bag.After realizing they were being followed along Interstate 95, the subjects pulled into the Family Dollar, ran inside the store and exited through a back door...

Police investigating armed robbery at South End store

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:21 GMT

An investigation got underway Thursday night after an armed robbery in the South End that was caught on camera. A police spokesperson said officers responded to the Richdale Food Shops on Dartmouth Street after receiving an initial call around 10 p.m. Surveillance video later shared with 7NEWS showed the incident unfold, with a man in a black jacket with a fur-lined hood entering and going toward a refrigerator. The man appears to wait until another customer leaves. When he stepped up to pay, employees said, the robber pretended to buy a bottle of water. When the cashier opened the register to make change, though, he said the man flashed a gun hidden in his coat.The cashier is seen in video jumping back with his hands up. The robber, in turn, is seen reaching over the counter and taking cash. Boston police said the robber stole about $3,000 from the register. While surveillance cameras captured this incident, they did not catch the robber’s face, which was c...

Charlie Sheen’s neighbor arrested after being accused of assaulting actor in Malibu home

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:21 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Charlie Sheen’s neighbor was arrested after being accused of assaulting the actor in a Malibu home this week, authorities said.Electra Schrock was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement Friday. She was also taken into custody for force likely to create bodily injury and burglary.Authorities arrived at the residence Wednesday afternoon after receiving a battery-disturbance call.Schrock, 47, was expected to appear in court Friday.Representatives for Sheen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Sheen, 58, is known for his role on “Two and a Half Men.” He starred in films including “Wall Street,” “The Three Musketeers” and “Major League.”

Boston chamber chief blasts council for not freeing $13.3M anti-terror grant

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:21 GMT

The head of the Boston Chamber of Commerce is backing the call for the deadlocked City Council to back $13.3 million in federal counter-terrorism funding.In a letter obtained by the Herald, chamber chief James Rooney said delaying the cash as antisemitism and terrorism threaten the holidays is worry enough.He’s urging the council to “reassemble as soon as possible” and pass the multi-million dollar funding.As the Herald first reported, Boston City Council President Ed Flynn said he’s done with playing “politics with the safety of residents” and is asking the mayor to quickly resubmit her request to allocate the grant money. If not, he vowed to call an emergency meeting next week.Those dollars are for the Metro Boston Homeland Security Region, which includes Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Quincy, Revere, Somerville, and Winthrop.Rooney stressed in his letter supporting Flynn that “last week’s vote by the Boston City Council to reject the  $13....

Ticker: Bristol Myers Squibb acquires Karuna Therapeutics for $14B; Wall Street caps 8th straight winning week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:21 GMT

Drugmaker Bristol Myers Squibb is acquiring Karuna Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company that has developed a new antipsychotic, in a $14 billion deal.Bristol Myers Squibb and Karuna announced their merger agreement on Friday. The transaction, which amounts to $330 per share in cash, offers a premium of 53% over Karuna’s stock on Thursday. The deal was unanimously approved by both companies’ boards of directors.Karuna’s top asset is KarXT, an experimental antipsychotic with a promising novel mechanism. KarXT is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of schizophrenia in adults. The drug is also undergoing trials related to Alzheimer’s disease psychosis.“We expect KarXT to enhance our growth through the late 2020s and into the next decade,” Christopher Boerner, Bristol Myers Squibb CEO, said in a prepared statement, noting that the Karuna acquisition strengthens the company’s neuroscience portfolio. BristolR...

San Francisco jury finds homeless man not guilty in beating of businessman left with brain injury

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:21 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A San Francisco jury on Friday found a homeless man not guilty after being accused of using a metal pipe to beat a businessman who suffered a broken jaw, fractured skull and traumatic brain injury in an attack caught on video that fueled debate about crime and homelessness in the city.Garret Doty, 25, was charged with three assault and battery charges for the April 5 beating of Don Carmignani. Doty pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors said Doty beat Carmignani in an act of revenge. But Doty’s defense attorneys said he was acting in self-defense after Carmignani sprayed him with bear spray.The attack on Carmignani, a businessman who served briefly on a Fire Department commission, happened two days after the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee. Lee’s killing unleashed a wave of criticism against city officials by prominent tech leaders. Among the critics was tech billionaire Elon Musk, who took to Twitter to mourn Lee’s death and blame Sa...

Lightning tears through San Diego sky with Pacific storm

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:21 GMT

SAN DIEGO — Unlike the old adage, lightning struck dozens of times across San Diego County overnight Thursday as thunderstorms wrought by a Pacific storm system battered the region.The slow-moving system threw down more than 150 strikes of lightning throughout the night, according to the National Weather Service. Residents from the coast to the inland valleys took to social media to marvel at witnessing the flashes as wind and heavy rain also whipped the region.The vast majority of the recorded lightning strikes — about 133 — were accounted for about 60 miles off the county's coast where the system lingered for most of the evening, NWS said. Roughly 63 were reported on land within the San Diego County NWS warning area, which extends from the U.S.-Mexico border up to Orange County. According to NWS, 31 were recorded on land inside San Diego County's boundaries.Photos of the lightning captured off the coast can be found in the gallery below. A video from a FOX 5 viewer in La Mesa show...

Gas leak prompts evacuations, road closures in Carlsbad

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:21 GMT

CARLSBAD, Calif. -- A gas leak on Friday prompted evacuations and road closures near a major intersection in Carlsbad, authorities said.The road closure occurred around 3:23 p.m. at the intersection of Carlsbad Village Dr. and Carlsbad Blvd., the Carlsbad Police Department (CPD) posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. San Diego police sergeant shot in head transported out-of-state for treatment "Please avoid or choose an alternate route, as we are evacuating the area," CPD said. "We will provide additional information when it becomes available."Check back for updates on this developing story.

Inmates were locked in cells during April fire that injured 20 at NYC’s Rikers Island, report finds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:21 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Inmates at New York City’s Rikers Island were kept locked in their cells for nearly half an hour while a fire spread through one of the nation’s largest and most notorious jail complexes this past April, injuring some 20 people, according to a report released Friday by an independent oversight agency. The city Board of Correction also found that the water supply for the sprinkler system serving the affected jail unit had been shut off for at least a year and that jail staff had failed to conduct the required weekly and monthly fire safety audits for at least as long. In addition, the correction officer assigned to the area, at the direction of their supervisor, stopped conducting patrols some two hours before the fire was ignited in a unit that houses people with acute medical conditions requiring infirmary care or Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant housing, the board found. Spokespersons for Mayor Eric Adams didn’t reply to an email seeking comment Friday, bu...