Deadly attack on sleeping children
Deadly attack on sleeping children
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A man high on PCP-laced marijuana stabbed two neighborhood children in their home while they slept, killing a 6-year-old boy and critically wounding his 12-year-old sister, authorities said.
Osvaldo Rivera was found hiding between a mattress and a bedroom wall Sunday afternoon inside a Camden apartment and was charged Monday with murder and attempted murder, said Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County prosecutor’s office.
The attack was the second recent one in Camden, an impoverished city across the river from Philadelphia, involving a child and a suspect said to be high on PCP and marijuana.
Rivera, 31, was being held in jail awaiting arraignment, which Laughlin said will likely be held today. Laughlin didn’t know if Rivera had an attorney.
Police found blood-stained sneakers inside the apartment where Rivera was arrested that matched bloody footprints in the home where Dominick Andujor was stabbed to death, Laughlin said. The boy’s 12-year-old sister had her throat slit while she slept in another room. She remained hospitalized Monday at Cooper University Hospital in Camden. The hospital, though, has declined to discuss her condition, citing privacy reasons.
While being questioned by investigators, Rivera said he had smoked a combination of marijuana and the hallucinogenic drug PCP before the attack, Laughlin said.
Tax strategy by firms questioned
New York Times News Service
The New York attorney general is investigating whether some of the nation’s biggest private equity firms have abused a tax strategy in order to slice hundreds of millions of dollars from their tax bills, according to executives with direct knowledge of the inquiry.
The attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, has in recent weeks subpoenaed more than a dozen firms seeking documents that would reveal whether they converted certain management fees collected from their investors into fund investments, which are taxed at a far lower rate than ordinary income.
Among the firms to receive subpoenas are Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., TPG Capital, Sun Capital Partners, Apollo Global Management, Silver Lake Partners and Bain Capital, which was founded by Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for president. Representatives for the firms declined to comment on the inquiry.
Some executives at the firms said they feared that Schneiderman, a first-term Democrat with ties to the Obama administration, was seeking to embarrass the industry because of Romney’s roots at Bain. Others suggested that the subpoenas, which were issued by the attorney general’s Taxpayer Protection Bureau, might be part of an effort to recover more revenue for New York under state tax law. The attorney general’s office does not have the power to enforce federal tax laws.
Actor Crowe gets lost kayaking
NEW YORK (AP) — Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe lost his way kayaking in the waters off New York’s Long Island and was picked up by a U.S. Coast Guard boat and ferried to a harbor, officials said Sunday.
The 48-year-old actor was kayaking with a friend and launched from Cold Spring Harbor Saturday afternoon on the Long Island Sound, according to U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Robert Swieciki. As it got dark, the two got lost and eventually headed for shore, beaching their kayaks in Huntington Bay, nearly 10 miles east from where they had set out.
The U.S. Coast Guard was patrolling the area, and heard Crowe call out to them from the shore around 10 p.m., Swieciki said. The “Gladiator” actor and his friend, who Swieciki didn’t recognize, paddled over to the boat. The Coast Guard officers pulled them up and, along with their kayaks, gave them a ride to Huntington Harbor.
“He just needed a little bit of help, he just got a little lost,” Swieciki said. “It wasn’t really a rescue, really, more of just giving someone a lift.”
Swieicki said no one was injured, and the two men were wearing life vests. He said the actor, who was grateful and friendly, seemed like he was a fairly experienced kayaker.
Small earthquake jolts Beverly Hills
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. Geological Survey is reporting an earthquake early Monday in the greater Los Angeles area. The magnitude-3.3 quake was centered in Beverly Hills at 3:26 a.m.
There are no immediate reports of damage.
Beverly Hills police watch commander Sgt. Michael Publicker said his station has been getting numerous calls from anxious citizens. He said, “Every alarm in the city is going off.” But he added that his patrol officers had seen no signs of structural damage.
An officer at the nearby West Los Angeles police precinct said there had been no calls about the quake. The Los Angeles Fire Department says its survey found no significant damage, injury or loss of life in the city.