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Former paraprofessional sentenced in child sextortion scheme

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

A former paraprofessional in the Anoka-Hennepin School District who admitted to a child sextortion scheme has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison and 12 years of supervised release.Glen Robert Anderson, 24, of Coon Rapids, pleaded guilty in June to two counts of production of child pornography and one count each of enticement of a minor and interstate communications with intent to extort. He was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.Anderson worked as a substitute paraprofessional for Anoka-Hennepin schools between May 2019 and March 2022, when the district learned he was under investigation by the FBI, a district spokesman said.According to the charges, between April 2016 and August 2021, Anderson used his position as administrator of an online gaming forum to groom minors to produce child pornography and engage in sexual acts with him, and that he provided the children with in-game perks, privileges and other gifts.When one of his victims — who w...

New York authorities prepare for unprecedented arrest of an ex-president

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

NEW YORK — He would be fingerprinted. He would be photographed. He could even be handcuffed.And if Donald Trump is indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in the days ahead for his role in a hush money payment to a porn star, the former president of the United States of America will be read the standard Miranda warning: He will be told that he has the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney.These are among the routine steps for felony arrests in New York. But the unprecedented arrest of a former commander in chief — one whose devoted supporters once staged a violent attack on the Capitol — will be anything but routine.Last week, senior officials from the district attorney’s office and the state agency that runs the courts had preliminary discussions to plan for a possible indictment and arraignment. So did officials from the Police Department, which patrols the streets outside the lower Manhattan courthouse, and the court officers, who handle security inside the Criminal Cour...

Hastings strangling charge upped to 1st-degree murder. Pattern of domestic abuse, premeditation alleged.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

A grand jury has indicted a man for first-degree murder, alleging a pattern of domestic abuse and premeditation in the killing of his 36-year-old girlfriend in Hastings.The Dakota County attorney’s office previously charged Kyle Steven Williams, 34, with second-degree murder in the death of Kelly Jo Marie Kocurek. She was found unresponsive, bloody and bruised May 18, 2021, in a room at Coratel Inn and Suites on Vermillion and 25th streets. She was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul and was in a coma before dying May 23, 2021, according to a criminal complaint filed against Williams.Kyle Steven Williams (Courtesy of Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)Williams told Hastings police officers that Kocurek strangled herself with a cord, but an autopsy determined her manner of death was homicide. She was also found with numerous traumatic head injuries attributed to physical assault, including bruises on her face, head and ear, in addition to fractures on both sides of her jaw....

Missouri, Kansas utilities back bills to reestablish monopoly on transmission projects

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

Missouri’s largest electric utility believes a bill aimed at reducing competition and giving monopoly providers an advantage in building transmission lines will avoid cost overruns and deliver better results for customers.In its home state, where it stands to benefit, Ameren Missouri has offered its full-throated support to legislation aimed at giving the company the right of first refusal to build transmission lines, and argued opponents’ worries about limiting competition are “disingenuous at best.”“Do you want local companies with roots in our state and communities, with a vested interest in our future, who build infrastructure for the long term interest in Missourians, who live here building these major transmission projects?” Warren Wood, Ameren Missouri’s legislative and regulatory vice president, asked in a Missouri House committee hearing earlier this month. But in 2016, when Kansas considered similar legislation — which would have cut Ameren out of bidding in favor of ...

Debate over transgender health care threatens to upend Missouri legislative session

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

Lawmakers return to the Missouri Capitol Monday to kick off the second half of the 2023 legislative session with a laundry list of priorities and a constitutional deadline to get them done. Legalizing sports betting, changing the initiative petition process, education policy shifts, tax cuts, banning foreign land ownership, expanding postpartum health care and a litany of other high-profile issues are jockeying for position — all while legislators wrestle with what will be the largest state budget in Missouri’s history. But hovering in the background is a specter that has haunted the General Assembly for the last two years and threatens to once again upend the legislative process. GOP infighting in the Missouri Senate has largely subsided this year, save for a pair of flare ups just before last week’s spring break. But that uneasy truce is teetering. A group of eight Republican senators are vowing to “use whatever tools and procedures necessary under the Mis...

Rockies spring training report: Bud Black unconcerned with closer Daniel Bard’s World Baseball Classic struggles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

Symptoms of the yips returned for Daniel Bard in the World Baseball Classic, but Rockies manager Bud Black isn’t worried about his closer.Bard was erratic in his outing for Team USA in the quarterfinals of the WBC over the weekend. In the Americans’ 9-7 win over Venezuela, Bard was pegged for four earned runs on two walks, a hit batsmen, a single and a wild pitch while not recording an out.It was the sort of outing that had Rockies fans wondering if the 2020 MLB Comeback Player of the Year, who posted a reliable 1.79 ERA in 57 games with 34 saves last year, is struggling with the same yips that kept him off a big-league mound from 2014-19.Black told MLB.com’s Manny Randhawa he doesn’t believe that’s the case, even though Saturday against Venezuela hasn’t been Bard’s lone ugly outing of the tournament. The 37-year-old also gave up four runs on four hits and a walk in two-thirds of an inning in a pool play game against Mexico. His 43.20 ERA ov...

Frozen strawberries recalled over Hepatitis A risk

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

Frozen organic strawberries sold at Costco, Aldi, Trader Joe’s and other retailers have been recalled after the products were linked to five cases of hepatitis A in Washington state, the Food and Drug Administration said.The administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in partnership with state and local agencies, are investigating the cases, which included two people who were hospitalized.“Consumers, restaurants and retailers should not sell, serve or eat recalled frozen strawberries,” the FDA said in a statement. “These recalled products should be returned or thrown away.”Investigators found that five people who became ill and provided information about what they ate all reported to have consumed the strawberries, the FDA said.The strain of hepatitis A is genetically identical to a strain that caused an outbreak of hepatitis A infections in 2022, which was linked to fresh organic strawberries also imported from Baja California, Mexico.The two vendors in the l...

Ja Morant ready to rejoin Grizzlies, NBA suspension over

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

By TERESA M. WALKER (AP Sports Writer)Ja Morant’s eight-game NBA suspension is over, and the two-time All-Star may rejoin the Memphis Grizzlies.The dynamic guard is expected to be on the bench Monday night when Memphis hosts Dallas, though it’s unclear exactly when he’ll play, with the earliest being Wednesday. The Grizzlies announced Sunday that Morant would not play against the Mavericks because of a “Return to Competition Reconditioning.”“He is going to be part of practice (Tuesday), and obviously we’re hopeful for Wednesday so long as everything medically clears out,” Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins said, adding the delay is part of the “ramp-up process.”The Grizzlies host Houston on Wednesday in the first of two consecutive games against the Rockets in Memphis.The Grizzlies know Morant has been working out, trying to be ready for this moment. Memphis was off Sunday after back-to-back wins, and Jenkins said he would like M...

A historic Denver theater is getting a $9.3 million renovation — and that’s just the beginning for new arts campus

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

Denver will pay an architecture firm just shy of $9.3 million over the next three years to lead the design and engineering work that will turn a midcentury theater on the Loretto Heights campus in southwest Denver into the centerpiece of the city’s next cultural hub.The City Council on Monday unanimously approved the contract with Perkins Eastman Architects. The firm has a studio that specializes in working on theaters on college campuses. It’s the first piece of a multi-phase effort that would see the city take over the theater and a neighboring library building on the campus and turn them into cultural amenities for a part of the city that officials say has never seen a public investment of this scale.The funding was provided by a $30 million bond approved by voters as part of the city RISE bond package in 2021.Councilman Kevin Flynn, whose District 2 includes the Loretto Heights campus, called Monday’s contract “the start … of the single largest city...

Crypto wants its shine back

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

By David Yaffe-Bellany and Erin Griffith, The New York TimesSAN FRANCISCO — At a cryptocurrency conference in Denver this month, a group of singers clad in bright orange onesies took the stage to perform what one industry website later described as an anthem for the crypto faithful, a “blockchain ‘Blowin’ in the Wind.’”The chorus was a list of crypto’s most notorious villains, from trash-talking entrepreneur Do Kwon to disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, punctuated by four-letter expletives.“In the next bull market, we promise not to use,” the song continued, “centralized exchanges run by these toxic dudes.”After a disastrous 2022, when a procession of prominent crypto firms imploded, the industry is angling for an audacious rebrand. Executives like Kwon and Bankman-Fried — once beloved crypto celebrities, with hundreds of thousands of devotees hanging on their every tweet — are now personae non gratae. Their former admirers argue that these crypto villains never tr...