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The Houston Fire Department Encourages Fourth of July Fireworks Safety
Multimillion dollar catalytic converter theft ring operated out of Philadelphia towing business, prosecutors say
A Philadelphia towing company has been accused of running an organized criminal enterprise which purchased millions of dollars’ worth of stolen catalytic converters from thieves to sell at a profit, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said TDI Towing purchased $8.2 million dollars’ worth of stolen catalytic converters from “cutters,” a name given to the thieves who steal them, and later resold them with an 8% markup.
The converters, which reduce pollution and toxic gas from a vehicle’s emissions, contain valuable precious metals such as palladium, platinum and rhodium.
Towing company by day, criminal enterprise by night, prosecutors say
In addition to the company, 11 people have been charged in connection with what prosecutors said was the stealing, buying and reselling of more than 25,000 stolen catalytic converters, in addition to other charges, according to Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub.
A nearly yearlong investigation found TDI Towing had been in the business of buying catalytic converters for at least three years, and during that time they bought an average of 175 catalytic converters a week, or 27,300 during those three years, the Buck’s County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. TDI employees paid an average of $300 per catalytic converter, the DA’s office said.
“While TDI Towing advertised itself as operating during daytime hours, people would arrive all throughout the night to sell catalytic converters,” according to the DA’s statement. “The tow yard was so popular with thieves that in one case, a catalytic converter was sawed off from a stolen vehicle right outside the yard.”
The investigation revealed that TDI Towing was controlled and operated by Michael Williams, 52, of Philadelphia, the DA said, adding that most of those involved in the alleged organized crime enterprise had a family connection to Williams.
Prosecutors characterized Williams as the “king pin” of the operation, paying the so-called “cutters” for stolen catalytic converters. According to prosecutors, at the height of the criminal operation, TDI Towing was spending approximately $10,000 each night on stolen catalytic converters.
Williams is facing several charges related to buying, possessing, and selling stolen catalytic converters, in addition to organized crime and corruption charges, according to court documents.
Williams is accused of purchasing stolen catalytic converters from “cutters” from 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic caused supply-chain issues, resulting in a market price increase for the precious materials inside, ranging from $1,000 to $7,000 per ounce, Weintraub said.
Williams’ defense attorney, Bruce Castor Jr., told CNN his client believes he’s been treated fairly by Bucks County authorities and will await the outcome of the criminal proceedings. Castor declined to comment further.
According to the DA’s office, the company, Williams, six TDI employees and four “cutters” were charged. Except for one person who is still at large, those charged were arraigned on June 22 and 23. The DA’s office said no one has been required to enter a plea ahead of preliminary hearings which are scheduled to begin July 5.
The arrests and charges were the result of thousands of hours of video surveillance, six controlled sales and the collaboration of 27 law enforcement agencies, according to the DA’s office. The initial investigation began in Bucks County after law enforcement began looking into the string of stolen catalytic converters there. The investigation led them to TDI Towing in Philadelphia and to other Pennsylvania counties, the DA’s office told CNN.
“Criminals don’t care about borders but when we work together, we’re not restricted by borders either,” Weintraub said during a news conference.
Surge in catalytic converter theft
Catalytic converter theft has skyrocketed around the country in recent years, according to a report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau. In May, the report found there were more than 64,000 catalytic converter thefts in 2022, based on insurance claims data.
It can cost between $1,000 and $3,500 or more to replace a stolen catalytic converter, depending on the type of vehicle, the bureau said.
Source: edition.cnn.com
First U.S. malaria cases diagnosed in decades in Florida and Texas
Five cases of malaria have been confirmed in Florida and Texas, the first time the potentially fatal mosquito-borne disease has been locally acquired in the United States in 20 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.
The four Florida cases, along with one in Texas, have been diagnosed over a period of two months, the agency said.
The state of Florida said that its first case was diagnosed on May 26 in Sarasota County, while officials in Texas said on June 23 that a Texas resident who worked outdoors in Cameron County had been diagnosed with the disease.
The CDC said in an alert released Monday that malaria is considered a medical emergency, and that anyone with symptoms should be “urgently evaluated.”
SpaceX rocket launches Euclid space telescope to map the ‘dark universe’ like never before
A SpaceX rocket launched a new space telescope into orbit Saturday (July 1) on a mission to map the “dark universe” like never before.
The European Space Agency observatory, called Euclid, soared to space today aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 11:11 a.m. EDT (1511 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 here at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Spectators here at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex cheered and applauded as the Falcon 9 booster carried Euclid aloft, with the first stage handily touching down just eight minutes later on a drone ship stationed nearby in the Atlantic Ocean.
“We have a mission,” ESA Director-General Josef Aschbacher said during a live webcast just after liftoff. “I’m so excited for this mission now, knowing its on its way to Lagrange point 2 … amazing, I’m very happy and very thrilled.”
The Euclid space observatory, which is designed to seek out invisible dark matter and dark energy, separated from its rocket about 41 minutes after liftoff and is now making the journey to the sun-Earth Lagrange point 2, which is roughly 1 million miles (1.5 million km) away from our planet on the opposite side of the sun. Lagrange points are relatively stable orbits where satellites use a minimum of fuel, and Euclid’s destination is a popular location: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope also orbits at L2, for example.
Unveiling the ‘dark universe’
Dark matter and dark energy are believed to make up most of the universe, but we can’t see these phenomena in wavelengths of light. Rather, we can track the dark universe through its effects on other objects. (Gravitational lensing is one example, when a massive object bends the light of a distant object behind through the force of gravity, bringing otherwise faraway stars or galaxies into sharp focus.)
Cosmologists — scientists studying the history of space — seek to understand how the dark universe behaves to chart the effects of time on our cosmos. The mergers of galaxies, the expansion of the universe and the movements of individual stars are all subject to the forces of dark energy and dark matter.
Euclid will aim its telescope eye to regions outside of the Milky Way, our own galaxy, to map over a third of the “extragalactic” sky. In its six-year mission, the deep space explorer will map billions of targets like galaxies and stars. Euclid’s two instruments, focusing respectively on visible and infrared (heat-seeking) light wavelengths, will record the information for scientists.
The long survey mission will uncover the movements of these distant objects, along with their chemical makeup. From space, Euclid’s sharp eyes will allow for images at least four times more clear than what telescopes achieve from the ground, given the spacecraft will be far away from Earth’s interfering atmosphere and stray light.
The 1.4 billion Euro ($1.5 billion USD) Euclid has been in the works for nearly two decades. It was forged from two mission concepts proposed in 2007: Dune (Dark Universe Explorer) and Space (Spectroscopic All Sky Cosmic Explorer), which used different but complementing ways of looking at dark energy. Given how well the two missions worked with each other, they were combined into one powerful observatory: Euclid.
The European Space Agency‘s (ESA) science program committee selected Euclid for space in 2011 and formally adopted the program in 2012. The larger Euclid consortium today includes more than 2,000 scientists from Europe, the U.S. (including NASA), Canada and Japan contributing both instruments and analysis. Thales Alenia Space was the satellite’s prime contractor, while Airbus Defence and Space contributed the payload module and 4-foot (1.2-meter) telescope.
Euclid’s work follows on from several ground-based and space-based surveys of the universe. Among them is the Chilean Victor M. Blanco telescope’s Dark Energy Survey that mapped 100 million galaxies; a 2022 study of that team’s work will serve as a pathfinder both for Euclid and for NASA’s Roman Space Telescope.
ESA’s still-active Gaia satellite (also at Lagrange Point 2) is another recent example, having mapped the movements of nearly 2 billion bright stars since 2015. Gaia, however, focuses on the Milky Way and that will make it a complementary mission to Euclid’s deep space focus.
A rocket swap for Euclid
Incidentally, Euclid was not supposed to launch aboard SpaceX at all. As late as February 2022, the mission was manifested upon an Arianespace Soyuz (provided by Russia) for a March 2023 launch in French Guiana. Russia’s unsanctioned invasion of Ukraine forced a stop to most such space collaborations aside from the International Space Station, pushing Euclid’s team to look for another ride to space.
Arianespace has been ESA’s launch partner for decades and as a French vendor, it is the preferred route for European space access. Yet there was no room left on the retiring Ariane 5 rocket line, and the new Ariane 6 was still in a late stage of development, reported SpaceNews, which was at the meeting.
Even U.S. options were few, as United Launch Alliance’s trusty Atlas V and Delta IV Heavy rockets also had full manifests ahead of their retirement. ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur will not fly until this year at least, leaving SpaceX as the only viable short-term option, according to ESA comments last year.
To get to its new site, Euclid made its way from Italy to its Floridian launch site under sail. It took roughly two weeks to voyage across the Atlantic by boat, yet just minutes to cross that same ocean again in the air by rocket.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched Euclid made its second flight to space with this launch. The mission marked SpaceX’s 44th mission of 2023 and 243rd mission to date. It was the also the 204th successful landing of an orbital class rocket by SpaceX.
Euclid will take about 30 days to commute to its deep-space site. Investigators have not yet released the date for the first science image, but say it will be in a few months.
Elizabeth Howell’s Florida coverage was co-sponsored by Canadian Geographic magazine and Canada’s University of Waterloo, where Euclid’s primary science coordinator (Will Percival) is based. Space.com has independent control of news coverage.
The Houston Fire Department Encourages Fourth of July Fireworks Safety
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Flight delays, cancellations continue during July Fourth weekend
According to airline tracker FlightAware, nearly 24,000 flights in the U.S. were delayed from Friday through Sunday. Additionally, about 1,400 flights were canceled during the weekend.
According to FlightAware, Monday is starting out with relatively few anticipated cancellations and delays. The website listed 521 cancellations for Monday as of early morning.
The worst of the cancellations on Sunday came in the New York City region, with over half of flights leaving LaGuardia and Newark Liberty being delayed or canceled. The New York region had some strong thunderstorms in the early evening Sunday.
The disruptions to air travel come as the Transportation Security Administration projects the July Fourth weekend being the busiest for air travel since 2019. TSA expected to screen over 2.8 million passengers on Friday. From June 28 through July 5, TSA expected to process 17.7 million travelers.
United Airlines’ performance appeared to improve after 45% of flights on the airline were postponed on Friday. By Sunday, that figure was down to 32%.
During a spate of delays on his airline, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby flew on a private jet from New Jersey to Denver. In a statement, Kirby said the move was “the wrong decision” and “insensitive to our customers who were waiting to get home.” He promised to “better demonstrate my respect for the dedication of our team members and the loyalty of our customers.”
United Airlines said passengers on flights heading to or leaving the Northeast could be eligible for travel waivers.
Source: www.10news.com
US Actors’ Union Agrees Contract Extension Until 12 July
On 30 June SAG-AFTRA, the US actors’ union, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) agreed a contract extension until 12 July so that negotiations on a new deal can continue. The current contract was due to expire at 11.59pm Pacific Time, risking a strike if a deal or extension was not agreed.
SAG-AFTRA members voted overwhelmingly to authorise a strike on 5 June with 97.91% in favour. This gave them additional leverage going into negotiations with the AMPTP, on top of the leverage from the WGA strike which entered its third month on 2 July.
Since then over a thousand SAG-AFTRA members have signed a “prepared to strike” letter to union leaders re-emphasising their willingness to strike. The letter has been signed by a number of A-List actors including Charlize Theron, Pedro Pascal, and Jamie Lee Curtis. This came shortly after a YouTube video on 23 June from SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland saying that they are “going to achieve a seminal deal.”
Key issues in the negotiation of a new contract are the use of AI in film and TV productions, “out of control” self-tape demands, and increased compensation. One particular sticking point, according to Variety, is demands for higher residuals from streaming services. Currently streaming residuals are done on a predetermined formula which decreases as a film or TV show ages, resulting in much lower residuals than from traditional network TV. Both SAG-AFTRA and the WGA want to move to a viewership-based residuals model with bonuses for the most-watched shows.
There would be huge ramifications for Hollywood if actors do go on strike after 12 July including delays to every film and TV production not already shut down by the WGA strike. There would also be delays to major awards shows like the Emmys with a decision by the end of July on whether the show’s September date is feasible. It would also be a huge boost to the WGA strike and show solidarity between the different Hollywood unions.
Source: www.indiependent.co.uk
Teen sentenced to 10 years after convicted in crash that killed 3 while working valet in W. Houston
A young valet driver who hit and killed three people while running from police could spend the next decade in prison.
Ahmedal Modawi pled guilty to murdering Fnan Meashos, Eric Orduna, and Nick Rodriguez back in 2021. The victims also worked as valet drivers outside the popular bar, Prospect Park the night they were killed.
Harris County prosecutors wanted Modawi to spend the next 35 years in prison, but Judge Chris Morton ultimately decided on a 10-year sentence on Friday in court. When that decision came down, our partners at The Houston Chronicle reported there was a gasp in the courtroom.
Some of the victim’s relatives said it was time to forgive while, others said they couldn’t yet.
“We want justice for them. For all three. For all three. This should not have happened.”
Amid their mourning back in the fall of 2021, relatives of the victims told Eyewitness News they wanted accountability for the actions that led to a horrific scene outside of Prospect Park in west Houston.
Three men valeting cars were walking down Fairdale when Ahmedal Modawi crashed into them during a chase with Houston police. They were trying to pull the 17-year-old valet over for doing donuts in someone else’s car.
In court documents considered during sentencing, Modawi’s defense attorney wrote, “For the complainants’ families, lengthy incarceration won’t give them answers to the questions of why, nor will it give them solace knowing a dangerous, career criminal is locked away. For society, likewise, there is no punitive goal achieved by lengthy incarceration. Ahmed is not a violent man with an extensive criminal history. Society is not made more secure with an excessive prison sentence.”
The attorney for Fnan Measho and Eric Orduna provided a statement that says in part, “We appreciate the DA’s office in prosecuting this individual, but there was more than one party responsible for their deaths. We want everyone held accountable.”
There is a pending civil case against other entities, including Prospect Park and Premium Parking Service. Modawi was too young to legally work as a valet in Houston when the crash happened.
“Nobody protected Eric, and I’m very upset with that. We don’t deserve this. Eric didn’t deserve this at all,” a relative said.
Since then, there have been two years of pain for them, leading to a 10-year punishment and the possibility of more accountability they’ve asked for.
Source: abc13.com
The Do’s and Don’ts of Fourth of July 2023
For many, the Fourth of July is a fun day full of festivities to show patriotic pride for the United States. However, it can be a rather hectic day for local law enforcement and fire protection personnel, responding to illegal fireworks reports and people firing guns into the air.
Shooting fireworks off in Houston and most other cities nearby is not legal. But, in most unincorporated areas across local counties, residents may be allowed to do so, said Justin Jurek, Fort Bend County Fire Marshal.
“We encourage everyone who wants to pop their fireworks to check the area where they are; if you’re in a neighborhood outside of city limits, your homeowners association may have rules and regulations to say you can’t use them,” he said.
In the areas where they are legal, state laws still require people firing them to be away from nearby churches, daycares and schools.
Jurek said fireworks should be lit on a flat surface, not close to any homes, buildings, vehicles, dry vegetation or flammable materials and a water source – like a hose or bucket – should always be nearby.
All used fireworks should be soaked for around eight to 12 hours before being placed in a garbage container. This reduces the risk of a fire starting from one that might still be smoldering.
“We saw an increase in vehicle fires last year during New Year’s because people put recently discarded fireworks in the back of their trucks,” Jurek said.
Tracee Evans, public information officer with the Spring Fire Department, said firefighters have responded to garage fires because people were improperly throwing fireworks in their trash cans.
“We’ve had many fires because people are disposing of fireworks wrong, or they are shooting them down the street where they get caught on neighbors’ roofs, fences, bushes or trees,” she said. “If a firework strikes something that can light on fire, chances are it will do that.”
Brandi Dumas, communications manager at the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office, said people who are not cautious risk burning their fingers, hands and faces.
She said one thing a person should remember when firing fireworks is to never look or lean over one that they might think is a dud, as this can lead to it blowing up in their face.
Parents should supervise their children, and be aware if certain kinds of fireworks are given to their kids.
“We should be very cautious about sparklers. They burn six times hotter than boiling water,” Dumas said. “That is something we want everyone to consider.”
Those firing fireworks should not be drinking, as they may have delayed reaction times during an emergency because they’re under the influence, Evans said.
Deputy Thomas Gilliland, public information officer at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, said rideshares such as Uber and Lyft are available and suggested designating a driver ahead of going out to avoid drunk driving.
Gilliland said the Fourth of July and Memorial Day Weekend are two weekends with the highest number of people picked up for drinking while intoxicated.
Law enforcement officers are also patrolling to look out for “celebratory gunfire” or people shooting up mindlessly into the air, “It is the deadliest type of thing that you can do because that projectile has to come down somewhere. It can go into someone’s home or strike and kill them,” he said.
The public should call 911 in emergencies, such as hearing this gunfire. For non-emergency firework complaints or reports, contact Harris County law enforcement through the non-emergency number: 713-221-6000.
Public firework displays handled by licensed technicians or pyrotechnics and shows that incorporate “digital fireworks” or drone displays are always safe alternatives to celebrate:
Houston
General Admission $10
Children 5 & under free w/ paid adult
When: Tuesday, July 4, 4 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Where: Eleanor Tinsley Park
18-3600 Allen Pkwy, Houston TX 77019
Fort Bend
Missouri City Independence Festival
Free Entry for all
When: Tuesday, July 4, 4 p.m. – 9: 15 p.m.
Where: Houston Community College-Southwest College
1600 Texas Parkway, Missouri City 77489
The Woodlands
South County Fourth of July Parade
When: Tuesday, July 4, starting at 9 a.m.
Where: Town Green Park
2099 Lake Robbins Dr,
The Woodlands, TX 77380
Sugarland
Free entry for all
When: Tuesday, July 4, doors at 4 p.m., event from 5 p.m.- 9p.m.
Where: The Crown Festival Park