Latest news with #FordF-150
Boston Globe
6 hours ago
- Boston Globe
New trial ordered for former Boston police officer convicted of driving drunk
The trial judge should have held a hearing before deciding to dismiss the juror, the panel ruled. A spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden said Friday the office will make a decision on whether to retry Columbo after it reviews the ruling. (Columbo's trial was handled by the Essex District Attorney's office due to conflict of interest concerns) Columbo's attorney, John T. Diamond III, did not return a request for comment. Advertisement Columbo was convicted of one count of operating under the influence of alcohol causing serious bodily injury and two counts of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, records show. He was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Peter B. Kruppto serve two-and-a-half years in the House of Correction in 2022. It wasn't immediately clear from court records if Columbo has served that sentence. While granting Columbo a new trial, the appeals panel judges rejected the defense's claim that there was not enough evidence to convict him of any crime. Advertisement 'Ample evidence enabled jurors to conclude that alcohol diminished the defendant's ability to operate his vehicle safely,' they wrote. 'He consumed alcohol in the hours preceding the crash, he approached an intersection at high speed, he drove at a speed that exceeded the speed limit, he failed to yield to a vehicle passing through an intersection, he failed to apply the brakes before the crash, he smelled of alcohol, and his blood alcohol content exceeded the legal limit.' According to court records, Columbo purchased a 30 pack of beer and began drinking with other officers at the Youth Violence Strike Force's office around 11:45 p.m. on New Year's Eve. Around 3 a.m. on New Year's Day, he got into his Ford F-150 and within 20 minutes crashed into another vehicle in Dorchester after driving into an intersection at 65 miles per hour, according to court records. The driver was injured and a passenger sustained catastrophic injuries and had to learn to walk, talk, and read again, according to court records. Columbo had a blood alcohol level of .11 and .12 during post-crash testing, which is above the legal limit of .08, records show. state's police oversight agency in 2023, records show. John R. Ellement can be reached at
Los Angeles Times
15 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
More L.A. car washes targeted in immigration raids, some closed amid fears of further sweeps
These days, Alejandro Cabrera doesn't do much work in his office. The manager of Touch and Glow Car Wash in Whittier instead stays outside, where his workers are, keeping his eyes peeled for approaching vehicles. If he glimpses a white Ford F-150, the type of vehicle federal law enforcement agents often use, or a gray suburban — or any car with tinted windows — his heart begins to pound. Cabrera has been on edge ever since June 9, when immigration agents raided the car wash and took three workers, although he said one was later released. His fears were only confirmed when agents returned five days later and snatched another worker. 'All the time, I'm always looking for those cars,' Cabrera said. The rash of immigration raids at local car washes have created stressful environments at the businesses that have been targeted and forced others to temporarily close out of fear of future raids. Two dozen car washes in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas have been the sites of immigration sweeps this month, according to CLEAN Carwash Worker Center, a labor advocacy nonprofit that said it has been able to verify these raids through community reports and footage on social media. Some car washes that have been targeted, such as the one that Cabrera supervises, have remained open. Others have lost enough workers — either because they were detained by immigration officials or because they're staying home, fearing future raids — that they have been forced to shut down. Misael, the owner of a car wash in Marina Del Rey, said he had to close his doors for four days straight because his employees weren't coming in. He opened the business seven years ago to pursue the American dream, he said. Misael, who declined to share his last name and asked The Times not to name his car wash out of fear for his employees' safety, is a legal immigrant from Mexico, but many of his workers don't have legal status. 'Everybody's scared. I'm scared too. But what can I do?' he said. 'I have to pay the bills, I have to pay the rent.' Misael said on Wednesday that business has been particularly slow after the raids, which could be due to the fact that customers at car wash locations have also been detained by immigration officials in prior hits. Car washes are nearly ubiquitous in the car-dependent Los Angeles, with CLEAN estimating that there's roughly 500 businesses in Los Angeles County employing about 10,000 people. The economic fallout of some of these businesses closing, even temporarily, is likely to have ripple effects. 'This is going to affect us all,' said Flor Melendrez, executive director of CLEAN. 'Because our restaurants are not full, our stores are not full, our car washes are not full, that means the workers in our communities who are not going to work, they're also not going to be spending. Those businesses that usually make a profit are not going to make a profit.' While some car washes that closed have since opened back up, Westchester Hand Wash, which was hit by raids on consecutive days earlier this month, has remained closed. Mehmet Aydogan, the car wash's owner, said of the seven workers who were picked up by immigration agents earlier this month, five have already been deported. Other workers are lying low, and several quit outright, said Aydogan, who took over the business two years ago. 'Everyone is really afraid to come back to work,' Aydogan said. 'They want to go back to Mexico, they told me. They don't even go outside the house. They are waiting until things calm down to leave.' Aydogan wants to reopen soon, but he said he does not want to convince workers to come back, just in case agents return once again. And he worries that in addition to the federal government crackdown driving away workers, customers will be frightened too — especially if the enforcement actions continue for weeks or months. 'This will be very bad. I will lose all the guys, and no one will come to the business as customer or employee. And everyone will think something is wrong with this car wash,' he said. 'It's destroying the business.' Early Thursday morning, several potential customers drove up to the lot where Westchester Hand Wash sits. About six cars pulled up to the normally bustling location, confused as to why their regular spot wasn't attracting a long line of sap-covered cars, as it usually would on a spring morning. Cynthia Bell, a 59-year-old resident of Playa Vista and regular customer, got out of her car to take a closer look at the sign that read, 'Sorry, we are now closed.' 'My car needs a good wash and they'll clean your mats and everything, but just looking at it, it looks kind of deserted,' Bell said. 'I've never seen it like this.' A handful of other hopeful customers asked Bell, who was standing near the sign, to confirm whether the location was closed. One man, who now lives in Seattle, stopped by while he was visiting in hopes of buying the air fresheners he used to love from the spot he once frequented. A small crowd of customers began to gather around 8:45 a.m., and Bell said she wondered whether they'd be open at 9 a.m. 'They're always open early,' another said. Minutes before 9 a.m., Bell drove away, seeing no signs the business would be up and running anytime soon.
AsiaOne
2 days ago
- Politics
- AsiaOne
Soldiers, Strykers and 100-degree temps: Inside Trump's border military zone, World News
SANTA TERESA, NM — The weapons system atop a drab green US Army Stryker swivels, its camera shifting downward toward a white Ford F-150 driving slowly along the US-Mexico border. Under the watchful eye of the 26-ton armoured vehicle perched on a sand dune above them, humanitarian volunteers are driving the dirt road next to the border wall to see if they can continue to search for migrant remains inside one of two military zones established along the border by the Trump administration in April and May. Soon, they get their answer. It's not long before an unmarked gray pickup appears, makes a U-turn in the sand, and puts on its siren, here in the desert 5.6 miles (9km) west of the Santa Teresa, New Mexico border crossing. The driver pulls alongside, introduces himself as a US Border Patrol agent, and tells the volunteers they can no longer be there. James Holman, founder of the Battalion Search and Rescue group, whose volunteers also hand water to migrants through the bars of the barrier, acquiesces. Then he vents his frustration. "We're ramping up all this military and taking this public land away, it doesn't make sense, and it's theatre, it's deadly, deadly theatre," says Holman, 59, a former Marine, who is concerned the military zone will push migrants west into even more dangerous desert crossings. They are in one of two so-called "National Defence Areas" set up along 260 miles (418 km) of the US southern border in New Mexico and Texas as part of the Trump administration's military buildup on the border. US President Donald Trump has long shown interest in using the military for civilian law enforcement, sending Marines to Los Angeles this week in their first domestic deployment in over 30 years. The border military zones are one of his most audacious attempts yet to use troops trained for overseas combat in roles normally carried out by Border Patrol or local police. The Army has not made public the zones' boundaries. The New Mexico area may run over three miles into the United States, in places, based on "restricted area" warning signs in English and Spanish posted along State Road 9 parallel to the border. The zones are classified as US Army installations, giving troops the right to temporarily detain and question migrants and other civilian trespassers caught in the areas. Their primary mission is to detect and track illegal border crossers as part of the Trump administration's quest for "100 per cent operational control" of the border at a time when migrant arrests are near an historic low. Along the international boundary, Reuters saw warning signs posted inside the United States around 45 feet north of the border barrier around every 100 metres, facing south. That meant if you had crossed the border and could read them, you were already in the zone. Migrants caught illegally crossing the border into the zones face new trespassing charges on top of unlawful entry to the country, with combined penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment. Attempts to prosecute them for trespassing have floundered. Starting in May, federal judges in Texas and New Mexico have dismissed trespassing charges against migrants caught within the area and acquitted a Peruvian woman brought to trial, ruling there was no evidence they saw signs before entering the zone. Illegal border crossings fell to a record low in March after the Biden administration shut down asylum claims in 2024 and Mexico tightened immigration controls. Trump, who banned people from claiming asylum on the southern border shortly after starting his second term in January, nonetheless says the military areas are needed to repel an "invasion" of human traffickers and drug smugglers. Border buildup In the past four months Trump raised the number of active-duty troops on the border to 8,000 from 2,500 at the end of the Biden administration, according to the US Army. Presidents since Richard Nixon have used regular troops and reservists for support roles on the border. Trump has taken it a step further. The Bureau of Land Management in April transferred 110,000 acres of land in New Mexico, an area seven times the size of Manhattan, to the US Army for three years to establish a first zone. A second was created in May with a transfer of International Boundary and Water Commission land in Texas. The areas are satellites of the Fort Huachuca and Fort Bliss Army bases in Arizona and Texas, respectively. That gives troops the right to hold and question civilian trespassers without the need for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. The law lets a president deploy federal forces domestically during events like civil unrest. Some 105 Stryker combat vehicles and around 2,400 troops from the 4th Infantry Division deployed from Colorado Springs in March. They rove in armoured personnel carriers across New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. Reuters saw Strykers concentrated in a roughly 20-mile ribbon from El Paso west to Santa Teresa, one of the 2,000-mile border's busiest and most deadly areas for migrant crossings. The 8-wheeled vehicles, used by Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now by Ukraine in its war with Russia, can be seen parked under a bridge to Mexico, atop a landfill and on a ridge above a gap in the border wall. Their engines run 24/7 to cool crews in the 100 °F (38 °C) plus heat. Vehicles are unarmed but soldiers have personal weapons. Crews take shifts operating the joystick-controlled camera systems that can see for two miles (3.2 km) and have night vision, according to the Army. A person familiar with Strykers, who asked not to be named, said the work was "monotonous" but said it gave soldiers "a sense of purpose." Troops have alerted Border Patrol to 390 illegal crossings in the nearly two months since the first zone was established. They made their first detentions on June 3, holding 3 "illegal aliens" in New Mexico before handing them over to Border Patrol, according to Army spokesperson Geoffrey Carmichael. Border Patrol arrested 39,677 migrants in the El Paso sector in the fiscal year to April, down 78 per cent from the year-earlier period. 'Covered by desert sand' Sitting outside his juice bar in Sunland Park, Harold Gregory says he has seen a sharp drop in migrants entering his store or asking customers for a ride since Strykers arrived. "We feel safer," said Gregory, 38. "They do kind of like intimidate so there's not so many people come this way." In neighbouring Santa Teresa, trade consultant Jerry Pacheco says the optics of combat vehicles are not good as he tries to draw international firms to the town's industrial park. "It's like killing an ant with a sledgehammer," says Pacheco, executive director of the International Business Accelerator, a nonprofit trade counselling programme. "I think having the military down here is more of a political splash." About 90 miles (143 km) west, New Mexico rancher Russell Johnson said he saw five Strykers briefly positioned in a gap in the border barrier on his ranch. [[nid:719122]] He welcomes the zone as an extra layer of security and has testified to the US Congress on illegal border crossers destroying barbed wire fences, cattle thieves driving livestock into Mexico and a pickup stolen at gunpoint by drug smugglers. He is unsure if his home, or over half his ranch, is inside the area but has been assured by US Border Patrol he can continue to work land ranched by his family since 1918. "I don't know, I don't think anyone knows," says Johnson, 37, a former Border Patrol agent, of the zone's boundaries. He says the Army has not communicated rules for hunters with permits to shoot quail and mule deer this fall in the military area, or hikers who start or end the 3,000-mile (4,800km) Continental Divide Trail within it. The Army has been seeking memoranda of understanding with local communities and agencies to continue activities in the New Mexico zone, said Nicole Wieman, a US Army spokesperson. "The MOU process for commercial and recreational activities, such as hunting, mining and ranching, is complex," Wieman said. Jenifer Jones, Republican state representative for Johnson's area, said Americans can keep doing what they did before in the zone. "They can carry their firearms as they would have prior," said Jones, who welcomed the troops to her "neglected" area where only a barbed-wire fence separates the two countries in places. To the east in Las Cruces, the state's second largest city, State Representative Sarah Silva, a Democrat, said the zones have created fear and apprehension "I see this as an occupation of the US Army on our lands," said Silva. Back in desert west of Santa Teresa, Battalion Search and Rescue leader Abbey Carpenter, 67, stands among dunes where the group has discovered the remains of 24 migrants in 18 months, mostly women. She is concerned the area could be absorbed into the military zone. "Who's going to look for these remains if we're not allowed out here," she said, showing the jaw and other uncollected bones of a woman her group reported to local authorities in September. "Will they just be covered up by the desert sands?" [[nid:719147]]
New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
Wealthy Hamptons exec stole $141 in fish, sandwiches: cops
Now she's on the hook! The wealthy founder of a posh Hamptons concierge service was busted for stealing salmon and fluke from a beloved local market — after a fishy history of allegedly swiping other culinary goodies, cops said Wednesday. Jenene Ronick, 52, who runs the high-end firm Luxury Attache, allegedly stuffed her bag to the gills with a $74 wild salmon steak, a $67 cut of fresh fluke and two deli sandwiches at the upscale Red Horse Market in East Hampton on June 10, police said. 8 Jenene Ronick, the founder of a Hamptons concierge service, was caught stealing fish from an East Hampton market. Getty Images for Hamptons Magazine Ronick — who lives in a palatial $7 million, seven-bedroom abode in nearby Amagansett — allegedly then dumped the seafood haul in her electric pickup truck and went back for more, according to police and a shop worker. The sticky-fingered foodie — whose concierge company boasts swanky clients such as Dior, Sotheby's and Cartier — was then spotted by a worker allegedly trying to snatch a $100 porter steak, the employee said. 'She was acting dumb,' Anthony Pineda, whose dad owns the market, told The Post. 'She was pretending she was on the phone, and I see her with a giant bag of groceries.' 'I asked everyone, did you, did you ring her up? And everyone's like, 'no.'' 8 Ronick's 2024 Ford F-150 electric pickup during the April incident. Obtained by NY Post Cops tracked down Ronick, using a description of her 2024 Ford F-150 electric pickup and license plate, and charged her with petit larceny. The alleged seafood snatcher has been in a sea of trouble in recent months for allegedly making off with items from at least two other businesses, police said. 'It's part of a pattern,' East Hampton Village police Detective Sgt. Jennifer Dunn told The Post. 8 Ronick allegedly swiped $141 in merchandise from the Red Horse Market in East Hampton on June 10. Tom McMorrow for the NYPost 8 Police claims Ronick stole items including wild salmon steak and fresh fluke form the market's fish counter. Tom McMorrow for the NYPost Ronick was accused of stealing dozens of eggs from a roadside stand in East Hampton Town on several occasions last year, according to cops. She was also accused of swiping household items in from a CVS in February. Her company, which boasts an office on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, provides concierge service, travel planning and destination management to well-heeled New Yorkers and companies. The firm serves residents of luxury condos by assisting them with a 'wide range of lifestyle requests,' according to its website. It also helps commercial properties recruit 'top talent,' and has provided 'high-end' corporate travel planning to firms ranging from Adidas to UBS. Luxury Attache bills itself as 'redefining the hospitality industry' with 'sophistication and bespoke service that is unrivaled.' 8 Ronick allegedly stiffed a Hamptons egg stand in April. Obtained by NY Post 8 Ronick driving her Porsche in 2023 during another alleged theft at the egg stand. Obtained by NY Post During the other incidents of alleged theft, Ronick repeatedly stiffed the egg stand — which uses a box for cash and the honor system — before zipping off in her late-model Porsche convertible sports car, according to police. The egg-stand owners began tracking her after-hours visits early this year, using surveillance cameras, and determined she had cheated them out of at least $30, cops said. The owners told police they just wanted the eggs paid for — and for Ronick to never come back — but ultimately didn't press charges, according to police. 8 Ronick started the high-end firm Luxury Attache. Kevin Czopek/ / Shutterstock 'They paid. They apologized. It's not like she's going to do it again,' one of the stand's owners said at the time. When police visited the address connected to the vehicle caught on camera by the farm stand, they were greeted by Ronick's husband, author and entrepreneur David Ronick, at the couple's sprawling seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom estate with a pool on Bluff Road. He immediately forked over the $30 for the eggs, when cops told them why they were there, according to police. 8 Ronick also allegedly stole from a local CVS in February. Google Maps Ronick was also accused of stealing items, including toilet paper, cough drops and dish detergent, from a CVS near Red Horse Market on Feb. 10, according to police. She was later forbidden from returning to the store. Ronick, who is scheduled to be arraigned June 25, told The Post she took the items from Red Horse Market because the store's Apple Pay wasn't working. 'It was a misunderstanding and it was taken care of the next day,' she said. She claimed the egg theft and CVS incidents were also both misunderstandings that 'never turned into anything.' Asked about the alleged pattern of theft, she said, 'None of that is true.'
Motor 1
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Motor 1
‘I Have No Idea How We're Gonna Get Out:' Vegas Hotel Guests Park Ford F-150 In Garage With 6'10' Clearance. It Backfires
Big trucks often solve big problems, but what happens when the big truck gets stuck in a big problem because it is too big? In a viral TikTok that has more than 732,400 views as of this writing, Stephanie (@faststeph) reveals how her Ford F-150 truck got stuck in a Vegas hotel parking garage. So, How Did the Truck Get Stuck in the Parking Garage? 'Just a word of advice, if you are staying in a Vegas hotel, don't bring a big truck. I have no idea how we are going to get out,' she begins. Stephanie shows how her Ford F-150 got stuck when trying to exit the parking garage. As she attempted to exit, her truck met the ceiling of the clearance, which brought it to a halt. This put the content creator in quite a dilemma, trying a variety of maneuvers to get her truck to fit under the clearance. She began by deflating all tires to drop the height, but this wasn't enough. The next move was to load up the bed of the truck with random people who were walking by to lower the truck. They packed eight people in the bed, and while it seemed strange, it did the trick. With enough weight in the bed, the truck was able to move past the clearance and escape the parking garage. 'The group of people that walked by offered to get into the bed of the truck. It was amazing and they were such sweet people,' Stephanie told Motor1 . Once the truck passed through the clearance, everyone cheered and celebrated the effort of teamwork. How Did the Truck Even Get Into the Garage? So, if the truck got stuck leaving the garage, how did it even fit going in? In the caption, Stephanie writes, 'The sign said 6'10'. We are 6'10'. The math should've math'd. Spoiler: it did not.' She also notes that she's aware oversized parking exists, but it was late and her truck technically should have fit, so she parked in the smaller garage, leaving many commenters wondering how she got in in the first place. 'She has no idea how they are going to get out. We have no idea how she got in,' one TikTok commenter shared. 'Was the truck assembled in the garage?' another commenter joked. In a follow-up TikTok , Stephanie addresses the comments. According to Stephanie, the parking garage functioned as a one-way in and one-way out in two different directions. Going in, the clearance was allegedly higher, and she had no issues entering the garage. Due to the flow of hotel traffic with taxis, Ubers, and valets, going out the entrance wasn't an option. She did mention she got valet parking, and asked about oversized parking options when booking. The hotel informed her that the parking garage would accommodate her truck. The valet drivers found a way to get the truck in, but getting it out was a different story. Many of the comments continued to hammer the idea of reading the clearance sign and knowing your truck height. 'Aww pavement pwincess can't navigate the parking garage,' one troll shared. 'Or read the clearance sign and know your truck height,' another added. Stephanie told Motor1 , 'The sign was wrong. I measured the truck and it's under 6'10 (without passengers and luggage), and it should've fit. This particular beam of cement had marks on it from others hitting it.' When the Math Doesn't Add Up, Who's Responsible? Typically, when a car hits the clearance ceiling, the driver is responsible for knowing the height of the vehicle, Penske reports—especially if the garage is marked with the maximum clearance height, which this Vegas hotel's garage was. However, what if the sign is incorrect? The hotel garage claimed to have a maximum clearance of 6'10', and the truck measured in at 6'9.5' once the tape measure got pulled out. On paper, the truck should have fit under the clearance. However, this is a tight squeeze to pull off in the game of inches. Trying to slide this one by is definitely ambitious, to say the least. In general terms, the driver would be responsible for any damages that occurred. The hotel becomes responsible for damages if the clearance sign is incorrect, which may have been the case. According to the American Concrete Institute , concrete beams can lower and become defective over time. This is referred to as creep, and this happens when concrete is under stress and weight. Parking garages are always dealing with various weights on a daily basis. Depending on the age of the parking garage, the concrete may be dealing with creep. Over time, the concrete beam in the garage may have lowered, making the maximum height sign incorrect. The only way to verify this is to measure the concrete beam that stopped the truck from exiting at the Vegas hotel. 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,' the concrete beam tried to enforce. Luckily for Stephanie, the truck was able to escape the parking garage with the help of eight people in the bed of the truck and deflated tires. 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