A series of earthquakes in Puerto Rico on Thursday ranged from magnitude 2.1 to a preliminary magnitude of 4.8 on the Richter scale.
The Puerto Rico Seismic Network, Red Sísmica, has recorded earth movements in the south since early Thursday morning. None caused a tsunami alert, but island residents have shown concern about the earthquakes that began in December 2019 and have not stopped since then, although they did decrease in intensity.
The first tremor occurred at 1:02 a.m. local time with a magnitude of 3.3 in the Guánica area. The epicenter of this natural phenomenon was about 6 miles southeast of Guánica with a depth of about 7 1/2 miles.
The earthquake with the highest intensity was reported at noon with an intensity of 4.8, according to the Red Sísmica. The epicenter was located in the south of the Caribbean island, near the seismic zone where the earthquakes have been concentrated.
The movements on the island began almost a year ago on Dec. 28 when a 4.7 magnitude earthquake was recorded in the same geographical area as the tremors that were reported Thursday. On Jan. 6, when the island was celebrating Three Kings Day, there was an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 in the southern area. The following day, a 6.4 second earthquake caused the collapse of the island’s electrical system, heavy landslides and great destruction in multiple areas.
— Orlando Sentinel
An autopsy shows that a hunter whose body was found Wednesday on the grounds of a Boy Scouts reservation in Pine Hill, New Jersey, died of multiple stab wounds, as well as a beating.
The autopsy was conducted Thursday, according to the Camden County prosecutor’s office, which is investigating the homicide with Pine Hill police.
The victim was identified as Joseph Bottino, 54, of Gloucester Township, New Jersey. Authorities say Bottino left home Wednesday and never returned. His body was discovered about 6:30 p.m. Eastern time on Watsontown-New Freedom Road in Pine Hill.
A medical examiner who performed the autopsy determined the death was a homicide based on the injuries.
Family members told detectives Bottino was in the area to hunt. They said he had hunted in the location often.
The reservation, owned by the Boy Scouts of America Garden State Council, is a wooded camping facility for scouts, the closest to Philadelphia.
— The Philadelphia Inquirer
BALTIMORE — Federal prosecutors are seeking two years in prison for the last person to be sentenced in the case against former Democratic Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, according to a sentencing memorandum filed this week.
Roslyn Wedington, 51, is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 8 after pleading guilty to tax fraud in 2019 for crimes related to a nonprofit job training center where Pugh served on the board of directors.
Prosecutors asked in their filing Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore that Wedington receive the lowest sentence of the three people convicted in the Pugh case.
Prosecutors say Wedington “abused her position as the executive director of a not-for-profit organization, the Maryland Center for Adult Training (MCAT), in order to avoid paying taxes and having her wages garnished and did so over a number of years.” She managed to avoid paying $120,000 to the government during that time.
Gary Brown, a former Pugh aide, was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for his role in the MCAT scheme, as well as a fraud scheme related to Pugh’s Healthy Holly children’s books. Pugh, meanwhile, was sentenced to three years.
Pugh sat on MCAT’s board of directors from 2001 until 2017, including serving as its chair.
Wedington’s attorney, Brandon Mead, told The Baltimore Sun Thursday that he plans to ask that she not be incarcerated and instead serve a sentence of supervised release.
Mead previously said that Wedington was consumed by debt, including student loans and health care bills, and “she unfortunately made some wrong decisions.”
— The Baltimore Sun
LOS ANGELES — The case of the “jetpack man” flying over Los Angeles has taken another turn with a new video purporting to show an object flying off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
The latest sighting occurred Dec. 21 but only added to the mystery. According to the Drive website, the jetpack was seen by people on an instructional flight out of Torrance airport. Someone with Sling Pilot Academy took a video of the object, which flies at a high rate of speed for several seconds before going out of frame.
The FBI is already examining two earlier sightings. As for the Palos Verdes Peninsula incident, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said: “We’re aware of it and are continuing to investigate the reports.”
In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration said it had not “received any recent reports from pilots who believe they may have seen someone in a jetpack in the skies around Los Angeles.”
“The FAA has taken the sighting reports it has received seriously, and has worked closely with the FBI to investigate them,” the statement added. “However, the FAA has been unable to validate the reports.”
The first sighting occurred Aug. 30, when an American Airlines pilot radioed in with an unbelievable report. “Tower, American 1997. We just passed a guy in a jetpack,” the pilot said. Minutes later came another report, this time from a pilot approaching LAX in a Jet Blue airliner: “We just saw the guy pass us by in the jetpack.”
Then in October, a China Airlines pilot approaching LAX reported seeing a jetpack flying at an altitude of 6,000 feet. That’s more than a mile up.
— Los Angeles Times
