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Review: ‘Flash’ starts with much promise before fading to cliche

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 09:55:52 GMT

By Jocelyn Noveck | Associated Press“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature,” went a famous ’70s commercial catchphrase. But we learn in “The Flash” — the much awaited, long gestated new DC Studios offering — that it’s Father Time one musn’t cross. Because trying to change the past can really mess you up when you get back to the future and realize you’ve inadvertently changed that, too.But of course, we already knew that. We learned it from Marty McFly, immortalized by Eric Stoltz in “Back to the Future.”Relax! Of course it was Michael J. Fox, though Stoltz was initially cast in the role. But in “The Flash,” Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) realizes just how badly he’s messed up the space-time continuum when he arrives back from changing the past — just one teensy little thing, really — and learns that in his current world, Fox never replaced Stoltz. “I’ve destroyed the universe,” he frets in...

Suspect arrested after body of woman found on California freeway

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 09:55:52 GMT

A Downey man was arrested Wednesday night, June 14, on suspicion of killing a woman whose body was found on the eastbound 60 Freeway in Diamond Bar earlier that day.Authorities found Sercan Naldoken, 32, at John Wayne Airport and took him into custody, a California Highway Patrol statement said.The coroner’s office identified the victim as Lisa Renee Conduff, 56. She lived in Downey.The CHP did not say how it identified Naldoken as the suspect and whether he knew the victim. The agency didn’t disclose how the woman died, either, or if it believes the suspect was catching a flight to flee.A CHP officer saw an Acura sedan on the right shoulder of the eastbound 60 Freeway, east of Diamond Bar Boulevard, around 10:45 a.m. and stopped behind it to offer help, said Officer Joseph Davila, a CHP spokesman. There was no one in the car. The officer looked around and found the body.It wasn’t clear who had driven the car.Naldoken was being held Thursday at the Inmate Reception Center in Los Ang...

California woman charged after pit bull attack sent 2 people to hospital

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 09:55:52 GMT

Police arrested a 32-year-old woman on suspicion of felony child abuse after her pitbull bit two people, including a minor, earlier this month in Fountain Valley, police said Thursday.Around 10:14 p.m. on June 1, officers responding to Brookhurst Street and Talbert Avenue found a man and minor with dog bite injuries. The minor, described only as older than 10, suffered severe injuries, Police Sgt. Henry Hsu said.The victims were transported to a local trauma center. Their current conditions were not available on Thursday. A pitbull described as vicious by police later was euthanized by Orange County Animal Control, Sgt. Hsu said.Jessica Gallegosparrilla was arrested on a charge of felony child abuse on June 6. Two days later, she was charged with two additional felony counts of mayhem and assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm and pleaded not guilty, court records show.Details on the circumstances of the attack and the relationship between Gallegosparrilla and the two vic...

Photos: Mariah Carey shot ‘I Don’t’ music video at this California mansion listed at $28.8 million

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 09:55:52 GMT

A glimpse of the living room from the foyer. (Photo by The Luxury Level)The kitchen. (Photo by The Luxury Level)Another view of the kitchen. (Photo by The Luxury Level)The dining room. (Photo by The Luxury Level)The shower in the primary bathroom. (Photo by The Luxury Level)The tub in the primary bath. (Photo by The Luxury Level)The sauna. (Photo by The Luxury Level)The back patio. (Photo by The Luxury Level)A view of the house and the infinity pool lit up at twilight. (Photo by The Luxury Level)The gazebo and waterfall light up at twilight. (Photo by The Luxury Level)Show Caption of ExpandA palatial Calabasas estate where Mariah Carey set a wedding dress ablaze in the break-up music video for her 2017 hit “I Don’t” is on the market for $28.75 million.Designed in a classic French chateau style, the ornate 16,850-square-foot residence clad in solid limestone has seven bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and a grand foyer with twin floating staircases topped by a 30-foot-high dome.Dallas-based arc...

As migrants get humanitarian aid in Los Angeles, Texas Gov. Abbott vows to continue busing ‘effort’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 09:55:52 GMT

Dozens of Latin American migrants placed on a California-bound bus from Texas at the behest of that state’s governor and dropped off in Downtown Los Angeles appeared Thursday to have found new accommodations after relief and humanitarian groups descended on the church that briefly housed them.Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday he was planning to continue such actions, even as local officials continued to criticize them as political stunts while vowing to welcome those seeking sanctuary.The 42 migrants — among them an estimated 16 children, including some infants — were taken from the Union Station depot on Wednesday to St. Anthony Croatian Catholic Church in nearby Chinatown, where they got immediate attention from aid groups and public safety teams who knew they were coming. Officials said the migrants came from countries including Guatemala, Honduras and Venezuela.Most spent the night at the church, although officials said some were picked up by relatives, and others ...

Californian man stands trial for killing his lover’s husband

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 09:55:52 GMT

Trial began Thursday for a man accused of killing his lover’s husband, who was found beaten and stabbed at a Westminster apartment in 2014 in what prosecutors allege was a murder for financial gain.Roberto Saavedra-Gallardo is charged with conspiring with Olga Vasquez-Collazos in order to carry out the special-circumstances murder of 58-year-old Adrian Zapata.Prosecutors allege that Saavedra-Gallardo and Vasquez-Collazos wanted Zapata out of the way so that they could carry on their own relationship, and to obtain a penthouse condominium Zapata owned in his native Peru, along with his retirement and insurance money.Deputy District Attorney Janine Madera told an Orange County Superior Court jury that Saavedra-Gallardo was the one who actually killed Zapata, who was found dead in his bed. The prosecutor alleged that Saavedra-Gallardo hit Zapata at least twice in the back of his head, fracturing his skull, before stabbing him at least seven times in the neck and shoulder.Saavedra-Galla...

California pair found dead at luxury Mexico hotel

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 09:55:52 GMT

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico — A man and woman from Newport Beach were found dead in their luxury hotel room in Baja California Sur, authorities in Mexico said.Their bodies were discovered at the Hotel Rancho Pescadero in El Pescadero on Tuesday. The town is located between Todos Santos and Los Cabos.The victims were from Newport Beach, Baja prosecutors said. Local media gave their names as Abby Lutz, 28, and John Heathco, 41. The nutritional supplements company LES Labs, based in Covina, lists Heathco as its founder.Their cause of death was “intoxication by substance to be determined,” the Baja attorney general’s office said in a statement.The pair had been dead for about 10 hours when they were found, prosecutors said. Their bodies reportedly bore no signs of violence.“We can confirm the death of two U.S. citizens in Baja California Sur, Mexico on June 14. We offer our sincerest condolences to the families on their loss,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson said Thursday.“We are closel...

Mathews: Nation needs Newsom’s gun amendment to the Constitution

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 09:55:52 GMT

Gavin Newsom’s new campaign for a 28th Amendment is the most important political idea in the country today.But you wouldn’t know that from reading media reports following the California governor’s proposal to enshrine four popular gun control measures in a new federal constitutional amendment.Instead, political opponents dismissed Newsom’s proposal in several ways — as a distraction from his job, as a stunt in his rhetorical war with red states, and as crazy because it’s so hard to change the constitution.In truth, such objections are far crazier than Newsom’s amendment. The governor is doing his job, with urgency — by taking on both violence and a U.S. Constitution that limits his ability to keep Californians safe.It’s hard to think of a policy this country needs more than constitutional controls on firearms. The United States is awash in guns — Americans own nearly half of the 800 million civilian-held guns on earth. The U.S. has a gun homicide rate more than 25 ...

Opinion: By U.S. treasury secretary’s definition, we’re in recession

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 09:55:52 GMT

Last month, the Department of Commerce released troubling data on the anemic economy, showing that gross domestic income (GDI) shrank in the previous six months. That’s no surprise to half of Americans who believe we’re currently in a recession, but the data refute President Joe Biden’s claim that the economy is “strong as hell.”And according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s own words from last year, the economy is back in recession.There are different ways of measuring the health and size of the economy, like gross domestic product (GDP) and GDI. While GDP measures total production, GDI measures total income. In theory, GDP and GDI should be the same because they measure the two sides of every transaction. In practice, though, there are slight differences in how the data are collected, which leaves some room for interpretation.In the first half of last year, GDP shrunk for two consecutive quarters — a classic recession indicator — but Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen...

City of Miami Police need public’s help identifying hit-and-run driver

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 09:55:52 GMT

The City of Miami Police Department’s Traffic Homicide detectives have thoroughly investigated an incident and now need the public’s help in identifying the driver behind the wheel of a hit-and-run crash that left one man critically injured. According to a news release from the department’s public information officer, around 1:30 a.m. on July 23, 2022, police responded to a call of a pedestrian that was hit by a car on Northwest 20th Avenue and 36th Street. Surveillance video showed the man who crossed Northwest 36th Street getting struck by an SUV that was headed west without making any attempt to stop after the collision. The victim was seriously injured and taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. The victim is still slowly recovering from his numerous injuries.