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How brothers Lee and Tod Goldberg turned crime fiction into a family business

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:26 GMT

As light streams through the tree canopy at Descanso Gardens, brothers Lee and Tod Goldberg pause to survey the lush, sun-dappled landscape.“This,” says Tod as he takes in the idyllic view, “would be a great place to bury a body.”The brothers Goldberg agreed to meet on a July morning at the La Cañada Flintridge botanical garden, not to stash a corpse, but to discuss the new crime novels each will be publishing in the next few weeks.Lee Goldberg’s “Malibu Burning,” which lands Sept. 1, tracks a high-stakes heist going down during a massive Southern California wildfire, and Tod Goldberg’s “Gangsters Don’t Die,” in stores Sept. 12, is the final installment in a trilogy more than a decade in the making about a Chicago hitman who hides out in Las Vegas posing as a rabbi.Related: Sign up for our free Book Pages newsletter about bestsellers, authors and moreOver nearly two hours, the brothers, who are hilarious and quotable (as well as hilariously unquotable), walked the grounds, posed for...

Mutineers in Gabon appoint a military leader after detaining the president, alleging corruption

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:26 GMT

LIBREVILLE, Gabon (AP) — Mutinous soldiers in Gabon proclaimed the republican guard chief as their country’s leader Wednesday after placing the just-reelected President Ali Bongo Ondimba under house arrest, alleging betrayal and massive embezzlement during his long-time rule over the oil-rich Central African nation.The coup leaders said in an announcement on Gabon’s state TV that Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema had been “unanimously” designated president of a transitional committee to lead the country. Oligui is a cousin of Bongo, who earlier Wednesday had been declared the winner of the country’s latest presidential election following 55 years of rule by him and his late father. In a video from detention in his residence, Bongo called on people to “make noise” to support him. But the crowds who took to the streets of the capital instead celebrated the coup against a dynasty accused of getting rich on the country’s resource wealth while many of its citizens struggle.“Thank y...

From strikes to wildfire evacuations: How to manage a short-term income loss

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:26 GMT

TORONTO — Whether it’s wildfire evacuations, a labour strike or an unexpected illness, experts say Canadians facing a short-term loss of income should navigate the disruption differently than a longer-term income loss such as a layoff.“I’ve seen people give up a lot of short-term spending, knowing it’s going to be for a really brief time,” said Mark Kalinowski, a financial educator and credit counsellor at Credit Counselling Society.“If you know it’s short and you have a target of when you’re going to go back to work and things are going to return to normal, when you do your budget, you can say ‘you know what, I don’t need to have Netflix this month, I don’t need to go to the coffee shop to buy coffee … for now, I can put these things off.’”It’s a different strategy than a longer-term income change, when you still need to “have some happiness in your life,” he said, because you don’t know how long it could take to find your next job. In an emergency, every penny counts.T...

Prosecutors drop felony charges against Iowa man who had guns, ammunition in Chicago hotel room

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:26 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Prosecutors have dropped all felony charges against an Iowa man who was arrested in 2021 by Chicago police for having guns and ammunition in his hotel room overlooking a popular tourist attraction.Cook County prosecutors dropped the felony charges against Keegan Casteel on Monday after he pleaded guilty to reckless conduct, a misdemeanor, and was ordered to pay a $500 fine.The Ankeny, Iowa, man had faced two felony counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, but no evidence was ever produced in court files that Casteel had anything nefarious planned, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.Casteel was arrested on July 4, 2021, when a housekeeper found the guns and ammunition in his room at the W Hotel. The weapons — a rifle with a laser sight, a handgun and ammunition — were found on the sill of a 12th-floor window that had a view of Ohio Street Beach and Navy Pier, a major tourist attraction along Lake Michigan.Police video showed he told officers he “didn’t mean to startl...

Palestinians clash with their own security forces in a West Bank refugee camp, leaving 1 dead

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:26 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Fighting erupted in a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank on Wednesday between Palestinians and their own security forces, leaving a 25-year-old Palestinian dead, officials said. The unrest underscored the challenges facing Palestinian police trying to impose order in the restive territory.In Jerusalem, Israeli police said a Palestinian assailant stabbed an Israeli man near a light-rail station before the attacker was shot and killed by an officer. Israeli paramedics pronounced the attacker dead and said the Israeli man in his mid-20s was moderately wounded.The incident occurred along the invisible line straddling east and west Jerusalem. Police later released a photo of what they said was the knife, its tip stained with blood. Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli security forces shot a Palestinian man who they said tried to ram his car into soldiers at a military checkpoint, hitting and lightly wounding a soldier, authorities said. Wednesday’s inci...

Judge holds Giuliani liable in Georgia election workers’ defamation case for withholding information

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:26 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday held Rudy Giuliani liable in a defamation lawsuit brought by two Georgia election workers who say they were falsely accused of fraud, ruling that the former New York city mayor gave “only lip service” to complying with his legal obligations while trying to portray himself as the victim in the case.U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said the punishment was necessary because Giuliani had ignored his duty as a defendant to turn over information requested by election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea’ ArShaye Moss, as part of their lawsuit.Their complaint from December 2021 accused Giuliani, one of Donald Trump’s lawyers and a confidant of the former Republican president, of defaming them by falsely stating that they had engaged in fraud while counting ballots at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. In a statement Wednesday, the women said they had endured a “living nightmare” and an unimaginable “wave of hatred and threats” becaus...

N.W.T. extends state of emergency, premier tours Edmonton evacuation centre

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:26 GMT

EDMONTON — A state of emergency in the Northwest Territories has been extended until Sept. 11 and its premier says she understands the frustration of those forced from their homes. “I want to go home, too. We all want to go home. It’s hard being evacuated,” Premier Caroline Cochrane said Wednesday following a visit to an Edmonton evacuation centre alongside federal ministers Randy Boissonnault and Dan Vandal, Alberta Forestry Minister Todd Loewen and Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi.“We can’t control fire. We can’t control the wind and temperature, so we’ve got high temperatures still in the North,” said Cochrane.“What I’m telling people is as soon as it’s safe to go home, as soon as the fire’s in control, then it will take about four or five days at least.”The territorial government declared the state of emergency on Aug. 15 as wildfires threatened several communities, including the capital, Yellowknife. The ...

Canadian Armed Forces doing away with mandatory duty to report policy

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:26 GMT

The Canadian Armed Forces will end its “inflexible and inhuman” mandatory reporting policy this winter, its chief of professional conduct and culture said on Wednesday.Lt.-Gen. Jennie Carignan said military members will still be able to report misconduct, but they will no longer face possible penalties for failing to report something they experience or witness.“The repeal of duty to report will not limit a member’s ability to report incidents,” she said. “The intention is to remove the obligation to report.”The change is meant “to create space for members to exercise discretion” when it comes to incidents of an interpersonal nature.“In many cases (the duty to report) has caused survivors additional harm by taking away their agency and control over the reporting process,” Carignan said.Carignan said there have been lengthy discussions and consultations aimed at ensuring the changes don’t inadvertently make things...

Residents offered bus visits to burned homes in and around West Kelowna, B.C.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:26 GMT

Officials in British Columbia’s Central Okanagan say people whose homes were destroyed by the wildfire in and around West Kelowna are being contacted to schedule escorted bus visits to assess the damage.A statement from the regional emergency operations centre says only people whose properties are completely destroyed or damaged to the point they’re uninhabitable will be invited to participate at this time.It says the process is aimed at ensuring people who have lost their homes “have the privacy, time and space to be the first to see their properties.”It adds that bus visits are being offered before officials lift any further evacuation orders in neighbourhoods ravaged by wildfire nearly two weeks ago.The 126-square-kilometre McDougall Creek wildfire continues to burn out of control in the hills above the area, and is part of a complex of fires that destroyed or damaged nearly 190 properties.To the north, in the Shuswap region, the threat of the Bush Creek E...

Man charged, sexually assaulted women during job interviews in North York

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:26 GMT

A man has been charged after two women responded to online job postings, received an interview and were sexually assaulted as they performed breathing exercises in a North York office.Toronto police said that between March and August, two women responded to online job postings and attended an office space on the sixth floor at 1 Concorde Gate in North York.It’s reported that both women met with a man who portrayed himself as a business owner looking for employees.During the interviews, police said the man would ask the victims to perform breathing exercises and instruct them on how to meditate. The man sexually assaulted the two women during these job interviews.On Wednesday, police arrested and charged 55-year-old Ajay Gupta of Toronto with two counts of sexual assault. He was scheduled to appear in court this morning.Police believe there may be more victims.