Category: News

Scoring Updates: Central Valley vs. Blackhawk (Girls) February 25, 2019 at 6:00 p.m.

 

Score will be updated at the end of each quarter:

[table id=22 /]

Authorities say Kraft visited parlor for sex on day of AFC Championship game.

Authorities: Kraft visited parlor for sex on day of AFC game
By TERRY SPENCER, Associated Press
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft visited a Florida massage parlor for sex acts the night before and the morning of last month’s AFC Championship Game, which he attended in Kansas City, authorities said Monday in documents charging him with two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution.
The 77-year-old Kraft was chauffeured to the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in a 2014 white Bentley on the evening of Jan. 19, where police say they videotaped him engaging in a sex act and then handing over an undetermined amount of cash, Jupiter, Florida, police said in charging documents released by the Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office.
Investigators said Kraft was back at the spa 17 hours later, arriving at the upper-middle class shopping center where the spa was located in a chauffeured 2015 blue Bentley, the documents said. He was videotaped engaging in sex acts before paying with a $100 bill and another bill, police said.
Kraft, whose team won the Super Bowl earlier this month, has denied wrongdoing.
State Attorney Dave Aronberg said Kraft will be issued a summons that is similar to a traffic ticket and assigned a day to appear in court. Most people charged for the first time with soliciting are eligible for a diversion program where they pay a small fine, perform 100 hours of community service and attend a class where they learn about the dangers of prostitution and how it is often tied to human trafficking.
Kraft is one of hundreds of men charged in recent days as part of a crackdown on prostitution occurring in massage parlors between Palm Beach and Orlando. Ten spas have been closed.
Authorities investigated the parlors for months, gathering enough evidence through observation, interviews with men stopped leaving the spas, trash bin searches and surveillance of their owners. Judges then issued warrants allowing them to secretly install cameras inside the spas to record what transpired.
Aronberg steered a Monday news conference away from Kraft’s specific case to the larger issue of human trafficking, though no human trafficking charges have been filed against Kraft or any of the other defendants connected to the massage parlors.
“The larger picture, which we must all confront, is the cold reality that many prostitutes in cases like this are themselves victims, often lured to this country with promises of a better life, only to be forced to live and work in a sweat shop or a brothel performing sex acts for strangers,” Aronberg said.
Aronberg pointed out that Florida has particularly severe punishments for human trafficking and allows the workers to be treated as victims if they cooperate. He also said the federal government can offer visas for victims who are foreign nationals if they cooperate.
At least some of the people charged with operating the massage parlors were born in China and Chinese translators are being used to interview women connected with the businesses, according to court documents. Authorities have not said how many women worked at the parlors, where they are being housed since the spas’ closures and where they are from.
Before raids began last week, most of the women were living in the spas and were not allowed to leave without an escort, police say.

PennDOT Closes East Rochester-Monaca Bridge

PENNDOT HAS CLOSED THE EAST ROCHESTER-MONACA BRIDGE. BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO HAS MORE. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…

UPDATE: Power Back On In Aliquippa

WE HAVE AN UPDATE NOW ON THE POWER OUTAGES IN BEAVER COUNTY DUE TO HIGH WINDS IN THE AREA. BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO REPORTS THAT POWER HAS BEEN RESTORED IN ALIQUIPPA…

BF Jones Memorial Library Hosts Podcast On Black History Month

THE B-F JONES MEMORIAL LIBRARY IN ALIQUIPPA HOSTED A PODCAST ON BLACK HISTORY MONTH OVER THE WEEKEND. BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO HAS MORE…

Gov. Tom Wolf Going After Municipalities That Ditch Their Own Police Departments

Gov. Tom Wolf’s latest effort to impose a fee on municipalities that rely solely on state troopers, instead of local police, is generating new conversations, if not an embrace. The Democrat is trying for a third time to impose a fee on a lengthening list of municipalities that are ditching their own police departments. The issue has long been a sore spot, but even more so lately as a growing portion of highway funds are getting diverted, possibly unconstitutionally, to the state police budget.

Major Artery In Aliquippa Without Power Adds To Long List Of Power Outages In Beaver, Surrounding Counties

A MAJOR ARTERY IN ALIQUIPPA IS WITHOUT POWER THIS MORNING, THE RESULT OF SOME HIGH WINDS THAT PERSIST INTO THEIR SECOND DAY. TOPPLED TREES AND FALLEN BRANCHES TOOK OUT POWER LINES ACROSS THE REGION SUNDAY. BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO HAS THE UPDATE…

Niki Campbell, a spokesperson for Duquesne Light said that there are currently 5,300 customers without power in Beaver County

President Trump extends China tariff deadline, cites progress in talks

Trump extends China tariff deadline, cites progress in talks

By PAUL WISEMAN AND CATHERINE LUCEY, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday he will extend a deadline to escalate tariffs on Chinese imports, citing “substantial progress” in weekend talks between the two countries.
Trump tweeted that there had been “productive talks” on some of the difficult issues dividing the U.S. and China, adding that “I will be delaying the U.S. increase in tariffs now scheduled for March 1.”
Trump said that if negotiations progress, he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Florida resort to finalize an agreement.
U.S. and Chinese negotiators met through the weekend as they seek to resolve a trade war that’s rattled financial markets.
Trump had warned he would escalate the tariffs he has imposed on $200 billion in Chinese imports, from 10 to 25 percent, if the two sides failed to reach a deal. The increase was scheduled to take effect at 12:01 a.m. EST on March 2.
The reprieve is likely to be greeted with relief by financial markets.
The world’s two biggest economies have been locked in a conflict over U.S. allegations that China steals technology and forces foreign companies to hand over trade secrets in an aggressive push to challenge American technological dominance.
The two counties have slapped import taxes on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other’s goods. The conflict has unnerved investors and clouded the outlook for the global economy, putting pressure on Trump and Xi to reach a deal.
“Trump clearly wants a deal and so do the Chinese, which certainly raises the probability that the two sides will come to some sort of negotiated agreement, even if it is a partial one, in the coming weeks,” said Cornell University economist Eswar Prasad, former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division.
On Twitter, Trump said the two sides had made headway on issues including protection of trade secrets, forced technology transfer and U.S. agricultural sales to China. But the administration did not immediately provide details.
Business groups and lawmakers in Congress want to see a comprehensive deal that forces the Chinese to change their behavior and that can be enforced. The U.S. has accused China of failing to meet past commitments to reform its economic policies.
“Encouraging news from @POTUS that progress is being made in a trade deal with China. Hopefully this leads to an agreement that stops China’s theft of US intellectual property and avoids a full blown trade war,” tweeted Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania
But critics worry that the president has given up leverage. “They now have lost the advantage of a deadline,” said Philip Levy, a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a White House economist under President George W. Bush, adding that “I see the odds tilting” in China’s favor.