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Altamonte police search for missing teen girl with autism: Can you help find her?

Altamonte police search for missing teen girl with autism: Can you help find her?

Yahoo16-04-2025

The Brief
The Altamonte Springs Police Department (ASPD) is asking for the public's help in locating a 13-year-old girl with autism who went missing on Tuesday.
Police say Rachael Scott was last seen around 5:15 p.m. in the area of Wymore Road in Seminole County.
Anyone with information on Rachael's location is asked to call the ASPD at (407) 339-2441 or to dial 911.
ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. - The Altamonte Springs Police Department is asking for the public's help in locating a 13-year-old girl with autism who went missing on Tuesday.
What we know
Police say Rachael Scott was last seen around 5:15 p.m. on April 15 in the area of Wymore Road in Seminole County.
Officials say Rachael's family are concerned about her well-being, as she is unfamiliar with the area.
Rachael is described by investigators as a Hispanic female with black curly hair and brown eyes. Police say she is about 5 feet and 2 inches tall and weighs about 137 pounds.
Officials say Rachael was last seen carrying a pink backpack with a strawberry design.
What you can do
Anyone with information on Rachael's location is asked to call the ASPD at (407) 339-2441 or to dial 911.
Anonymous tips may also be called into Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS.
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The Source
This story was written based on information shared by the Altamonte Police Department in a Facebook post and in a press release on April 15, 2025.

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Brad Lander's Stand
Brad Lander's Stand

Atlantic

time4 hours ago

  • Atlantic

Brad Lander's Stand

As ICE agents dragged Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller and a candidate for mayor, down the hallway of a federal courthouse this week, he repeatedly—and politely—asked to see their judicial warrant. Lander had locked arms with an undocumented man he identified as Edgardo, and refused to let go. Eventually, the ICE agents yanked Lander away from the man, shoved him against a wall, and handcuffed him. Lander told them that they didn't have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens. They arrested him anyway. The courthouse is only a few blocks away from the one where Donald Trump was convicted last year of 34 felony crimes for falsifying business records. His supporters painted the criminal-justice process as a politically motivated witch hunt. But none of them seems to mind now that masked ICE agents are lurking behind corners in the halls of justice to snatch up undocumented migrants who show up for their hearings. This was not the first time Lander had accompanied someone to the courthouse, and it wouldn't be his last. The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Lander had been 'arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.' The whole thing is on video, so anyone can see that there was no assault. Lander is about as mild-mannered a politician as they come. Matt Welch, a libertarian blogger and no fan of Lander, wrote on X that the only things Lander had ever assaulted were 'Coney Island hot dogs and school-zone speed limits.' He's the kind of old-fashioned elected official who doesn't much exist anymore, the kind you see at public-library events or can call when your kid's day care is shut down and know he'll actually do something about it. A different kind of politician would have milked the attention for all it was worth. But if Brad Lander were a different kind of politician, he might be first and not third in the polls. 'I did not come today expecting to be arrested,' he told reporters after being released. 'But I really think I failed today, because my goal was really to get Edgardo out of the building.' People who are used to living in a democracy tend to find it unsettling when elected officials are arrested, or thrown to the ground and handcuffed for asking questions at press conferences. They don't like to see elected officials indicted for trying to intervene in the arrest of other elected officials. And they find it traumatizing when, as has been happening in Los Angeles and elsewhere, they see law-abiding neighbors and co-workers they've known for years grabbed and deported. The question now is what Americans are going to do about it. Los Angeles has offered one model of response. Although Trump campaigned on finding and deporting undocumented criminals, in order to hit aggressive quotas, ICE has changed its tactics and started barging into workplaces. Citizens have reported being detained simply because they look Hispanic. Residents of one Latino neighborhood recorded ICE officers driving in an armored vehicle. Many residents felt that the raids were an invasion by the president's personal storm troopers, and marched into the streets in response. The first groups of protesters were organized by unions, but soon, other Angelenos —of many ages and backgrounds—joined them. Most of the protesters were peaceful, chanting and marching and performing mariachi around federal buildings in downtown L.A. But others were not. They defaced buildings with graffiti and summoned Waymos, the driverless taxis, in order to set them on fire. The right seized on a chance to reinforce the narrative that California is in the grip of dangerous radical-left activists, categorizing the protests as 'violent riots.' Trump overrode Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, to deploy the National Guard, and sent in Marines to protect ICE officers. Of course, that meant only that more Angelenos came out to protest. There were arrests and rubber-coated bullets and clouds of tear gas. I would have thought that the reaction to the protests from anyone outside the MAGAverse would have been pretty uniform. Democrats have been warning Americans for years about Trump's descent into authoritarianism. Now it is happening—the deportations, the arrests, the president's face on banners across government buildings, the tank parade. 'Democracy is under assault right before our eyes,' Newsom said. And yet, so many Democratic leaders, public intellectuals, and members of the media seemed distinctly uneasy about the protests. Yes, they seem to say, ICE has been acting illegally, but what about the Waymos? In The Washington Post, David Ignatius fretted about protesters waving Mexican flags and wondered if the 'activists' were actually working for Trump. Democratic leaders were 'worried the confrontation elevates a losing issue for the party,' The New York Times reported. Politico raised a more cynical question: 'Which Party Should Be More Worried About the Politics of the LA Protests?' Many Democrats denounced vandalism while supporting the right to protest. But the Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was harsh in his criticism of the protesters, lamenting that the random acts of violence and property damage by a few bad actors would cause Democrats to lose the ' moral high ground.' There is a time for politicians to fine-tune a message for maximum appeal. But this is a case of actual public outrage against the trampling of inalienable rights. This is not a fight for the moral high ground; this is a fight against authoritarianism. Democrats made themselves hoarse warning against the threat to democracy Trump's second term would present. They invoked autocracy and even fascism to stir the public to keep Trump out of office. Obviously, it didn't work. But that threat is no longer abstract. It's now very real. And for all the speeches imploring Americans to save democracy at the polls, the Democratic establishment seems remarkably tepid about supporting Americans defending democracy in the streets. Yes, Democrats would have an easier time in the court of public opinion if no protester ever picked up a can of spray paint. And certainly, setting cars on fire is not good. I myself would love to have a nice, quiet summer. But I want to save our democracy more. We can't afford to get distracted for even a moment by the excesses of a few protesters, which are vanishingly small compared with the excesses of the president of the United States. Defending liberty is a messy business: You might remember all that tea tossed into Boston Harbor. The phrase 'Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God' was once considered for the Great Seal of the United States. (Thomas Jefferson adopted it for his own seal at Monticello.) And yet, although the civil-rights movement is remembered for Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil disobedience, the movement included riots and armed activist groups. Violent protests, such as the Oakland riots of 1967, were a significant part of anti-draft and anti–Vietnam War movements. Their violence did not invalidate the causes those earlier movements sought to advance, any more than the property damage caused by a few activists today invalidates the claims of the great majority of peaceful protesters. Historically, protest movements are seen as 'civil' only in retrospect. For a party that you'd think would be fighting with everything they're worth, Democrats seem remarkably focused on preserving the status quo. Even after the loss of the presidency and both houses of Congress, Democrats won't shake anything up. Despite her popularity, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been kept out of any committee-leadership position. David Hogg, the young anti-gun activist, was ousted from his position as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee after he announced his plan to back primary challengers against older Democratic incumbents in hopes of breathing new life into the party. Earlier this week, Trump announced on Truth Social that he had directed ICE to focus on what he sees as enemy territory: Democratic-leaning cities that have 'turned once Idyllic Towns into scenes of Third World Dystopia.' New York and L.A. are both sanctuary cities—they have passed laws pledging to limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities. We shouldn't be surprised to see more citizens of these cities stepping up to protect their neighbors and their communities. That is exactly what Lander was attempting to do when he was arrested. 'This is part of what authoritarians do,' Lander told Democracy Now following his release. 'Our challenge is to find a way to stand up for the rule of law, for due process, for people's rights, and to do it in a way that is nonviolent and insistent, demands it, but also doesn't help them escalate conflict.' Lander's clarity in this moment makes him a rarity, even in the highest levels of the Democratic Party. Last Saturday, when an estimated 5 million Americans protested the Trump administration and New Yorkers marched up Fifth Avenue, two of New York's most powerful elected officials, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, the minority leaders of the House and the Senate, were in the Hamptons, dining on bavette and chilled English pea soup to celebrate the marriage of the megadonor Alex Soros to Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's longtime aide. Meanwhile, Lander was out in the streets, side by side with his constituents. A few days later, leaving the courthouse, he assured New Yorkers that he was fine, his only lasting damage a button torn from his shirt as a result of ICE's rough treatment. But, he warned, 'the rule of law is not fine, and our constitutional democracy is not fine.'

Sherri Papini, who admitted to faking her own kidnapping, claims she actually was abducted
Sherri Papini, who admitted to faking her own kidnapping, claims she actually was abducted

New York Post

timea day ago

  • New York Post

Sherri Papini, who admitted to faking her own kidnapping, claims she actually was abducted

Sherri Papini, the California woman who was convicted of faking her kidnapping in 2022, now claims she actually was abducted — this time saying her ex-boyfriend was the culprit. Papini, 43 — who lied to the FBI in 2016 by claiming two Hispanic women had held her captive for three weeks — said she was in fact kidnapped during that time period by her former boyfriend James Reyes. Papini took a lie detector test for a documentary. ID Papini said she never told police the truth about her disappearance because she was afraid of Reyes and also afraid of her then-husband. 'I'm not actually asking anyone to believe anything,' Papini told ABC News in an interview promoting her memoir. Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here! 'I just am free now, and I have the capacity to speak for myself without being afraid and without having to lie and not being as fearful as I have been before.' Papini was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the hoax. AP During their investigation, the feds found that Papini was secretly staying with Reyes while her husband, two children and officials desperately searched for her. She pleaded guilty in April 2022 to lying to the FBI about the fake kidnapping and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Reyes could not immediately be reached for comment by ABC Friday.

ICE raids and their uncertainty scare off workers and baffle businesses
ICE raids and their uncertainty scare off workers and baffle businesses

The Hill

time2 days ago

  • The Hill

ICE raids and their uncertainty scare off workers and baffle businesses

WASHINGTON (AP) — Farmers, cattle ranchers and hotel and restaurant managers breathed a sigh of relief last week when President Donald Trump ordered a pause to immigration raids that were disrupting those industries and scaring foreign-born workers off the job. 'There was finally a sense of calm,'' said Rebecca Shi, CEO of the American Business Immigration Coalition. That respite didn't last long. On Wednesday, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin declared, 'There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine (immigration enforcement) efforts. Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability.'' The flipflop baffled businesses trying to figure out the government's actual policy, and Shi says now 'there's fear and worry once more.' 'That's not a way to run business when your employees are at this level of stress and trauma,' she said. Trump campaigned on a promise to deport millions of immigrants working in the United States illegally — an issue that has long fired up his GOP base. The crackdown intensified a few weeks ago when Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, gave the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement a quota of 3,000 arrests a day, up from 650 a day in the first five months of Trump's second term. Suddenly, ICE seemed to be everywhere. 'We saw ICE agents on farms, pointing assault rifles at cows, and removing half the workforce,'' said Shi, whose coalition represents 1,700 employers and supports increased legal immigration. One ICE raid left a New Mexico dairy with just 20 workers, down from 55. 'You can't turn off cows,'' said Beverly Idsinga, the executive director of the Dairy Producers of New Mexico. 'They need to be milked twice a day, fed twice a day.'' Claudio Gonzalez, a chef at Izakaya Gazen in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo district, said many of his Hispanic workers — whether they're in the country legally or not — have been calling out of work recently due to fears that they will be targeted by ICE. His restaurant is a few blocks away from a collection of federal buildings, including an ICE detention center. 'They sometimes are too scared to work their shift,' Gonzalez said. 'They kind of feel like it's based on skin color.' In some places, the problem isn't ICE but rumors of ICE. At cherry-harvesting time in Washington state, many foreign-born workers are staying away from the orchards after hearing reports of impending immigration raids. One operation that usually employs 150 pickers is down to 20. Never mind that there hasn't actually been any sign of ICE in the orchards. 'We've not heard of any real raids,'' said Jon Folden, orchard manager for the farm cooperative Blue Bird in Washington's Wenatchee River Valley. 'We've heard a lot of rumors.'' Jennie Murray, CEO of the advocacy group National Immigration Forum, said some immigrant parents worry that their workplaces will be raided and they'll be hauled off by ICE while their kids are in school. They ask themselves, she said: 'Do I show up and then my second-grader gets off the school bus and doesn't have a parent to raise them? Maybe I shouldn't show up for work.'' The horror stories were conveyed to Trump, members of his administration and lawmakers in Congress by business advocacy and immigration reform groups like Shi's coalition. Last Thursday, the president posted on his Truth Social platform that 'Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.' It was another case of Trump's political agenda slamming smack into economic reality. With U.S. unemployment low at 4.2%, many businesses are desperate for workers, and immigration provides them. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, foreign-born workers made up less than 19% of employed workers in the United States in 2023. But they accounted for nearly 24% of jobs preparing and serving food and 38% of jobs in farming, fishing and forestry. 'It really is clear to me that the people pushing for these raids that target farms and feed yards and dairies have no idea how farms operate,' Matt Teagarden, CEO of the Kansas Livestock Association, said Tuesday during a virtual press conference. Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, estimated in January that undocumented workers account for 13% of U.S. farm jobs and 7% of jobs in hospitality businesses such as hotels, restaurants and bars. The Pew Research Center found last year that 75% of U.S. registered voters — including 59% of Trump supporters — agreed that undocumented immigrants mostly fill jobs that American citizens don't want. And an influx of immigrants in 2022 and 2023 allowed the United States to overcome an outbreak of inflation without tipping into recession. In the past, economists estimated that America's employers could add no more than 100,000 jobs a month without overheating the economy and igniting inflation. But economists Wendy Edelberg and Tara Watson of the Brookings Institution calculated that because of the immigrant arrivals, monthly job growth could reach 160,000 to 200,000 without exerting upward pressure on prices. Now Trump's deportation plans — and the uncertainty around them — are weighing on businesses and the economy. 'The reality is, a significant portion of our industry relies on immigrant labor — skilled, hardworking people who've been part of our workforce for years. When there are sudden crackdowns or raids, it slows timelines, drives up costs, and makes it harder to plan ahead,' says Patrick Murphy, chief investment officer at the Florida building firm Coastal Construction and a former Democratic member of Congress. ' We're not sure from one month to the next what the rules are going to be or how they'll be enforced. That uncertainty makes it really hard to operate a forward-looking business.' Adds Douglas Holtz Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office and now president of the conservative American Action Forum think tank: 'ICE had detained people who are here lawfully and so now lawful immigrants are afraid to go to work … All of this goes against other economic objectives the administration might have. The immigration policy and the economic policy are not lining up at all.'' ____ AP Staff Writers Jaime Ding in Los Angeles; Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas; Lisa Mascaro and Chris Megerian in Washington; Mae Anderson and Matt Sedensky in New York, and Associated Press/Report for America journalist Jack Brook in New Orleans contributed to this report.

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