Hamilton-area Today: Lack of parking is key criticism of brow park + Lower-city students missing ‘full school experience' without field
G
ood morning! It's May 12, here are the top stories today in the Hamilton area.
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Dog walkers, neigbhours and park regulars alike have few positive words for newly redesigned Sam Lawrence Park. Too few parking spots and strangely placed benches are some of the gripes on the first phase of a two-phase update.
Students at Bernie Custis are leading the way in destigmatizing mental health with a rubber-duck scavenger hunt that has spread to other schools across the city. The activity is meant to encourage, spark conversations and build community.
Hamilton's public school board is again trying to address a long-standing problem: a large, lower-city school with no sports field. When Bernie Custis opened in 2019, in one of the most economically disadvantaged areas of town, it was the only high school in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board without a real field.
In a matter of nine minutes, a 15-year-old Hamilton boy drew a loaded gun three times, including firing at a group of strangers who were trying to record his behaviour near Lime Ridge Mall last year.
Alessandro Giammichele repeatedly claimed he was a former member of the Italian military special forces. He said he owned a Ferrari — and got a Ferrari jacket from the owner of the company. Murder trial hears about Google Translate terms while man accused of killing Marko Bakir was in the Dominican Republic.
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USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Local protests build in response to Trump's stepped up immigration raids
Happy hour patrons blocked unmarked vehicles on a San Diego street. Crowds massed outside New York immigration court. Students walked out of a Massachusetts high school. Labor organizers and others gathered outside worksite raids in Los Angeles. As President Donald Trump delivers on his promise to deport millions of immigrants, the administration's tough, new tactics are increasingly being met with community resistance. The Department of Homeland Security has defended its workplace raids and individual arrests as necessary to get the job done. DHS leaders blame Democratic politicians and protesters for what described ‒ before the recent issues in Los Angeles ‒ as a more than 400% increase in assaults on agents. Immigrant advocates say the government's more aggressive tactics have gone too far and when agencies operate 'in a rogue fashion,' protesters will come out in force. That boiled over on June 7, when protests against heavily armed, masked agents raiding Los Angeles businesses turned violent. Trump deployed the National Guard to quell protests, a dramatic escalation. Raids in Los Angeles trigger tense standoffs The tensions in Los Angeles built slowly and then exploded. On Friday, June 6, there were small protests at several job sites where ICE was arresting immigrants. At one of the sites, the president of the Service Employees International Union, David Huerta, was arrested for allegedly interfering with federal officers. Police fired tear gas, pepper spray and flash-bang concussion rounds toward the crowd. The next day, larger protests, including members of Huerta's union, began in the town of Paramount, south of Los Angeles, linked to rumors of a possible immigration raid. As the protests grew in the county, where about 1 in 3 residents is foreign-born, Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to the region. The move drew condemnation from state and local officials, many of whom have long been at odds with the president. They feared the troops would escalate the situation, which had been contained to a few, isolated areas of conflict. By late morning on June 8, with dozens of National Guard troops in place near the Los Angeles federal complex, tensions rose even higher. At one point, a crowd of protesters walked onto the 101 Freeway, blocking traffic in both directions. Others burned taxis and hurled objects at officers, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. In the early evening, the police department declared an "unlawful assembly" for the Civic Center area and the historic Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles and cleared the protesters. The area was mostly quiet after about 8 p.m. local time. More protests are planned for June 9 and 10. Dinner parties take to streets in San Diego On May 30, agents in military gear and weapons descended on San Diego's trendy South Park neighborhood. Amid Friday evening dinner parties, officials arrested four workers at a popular Italian restaurant suspected of hiring workers without proper work authorization. The operation came as a result of a 2020 tip, followed by another in January 2025, court records show. A crowd of people poured out from bars and restaurants to stand in front of several unmarked cars near the Buona Forchetta restaurant. 'We all felt a collective anger because they're pulling busboys and dishwashers,' said José Díaz, who had been at a nearby bar when he heard agents were in the area. 'Nobody's committing a crime but going to work.' Díaz, 47, went to the street and began recording video on his phone. Agents tried to drive cars through the crowd. Then, they threw two flash-bang grenades into the crowd. One, a Defense Technology Low Roll Distraction Device, went off by Díaz's foot. As a former Army captain, Díaz said he had never seen soldiers use such tactics, even overseas. 'We had much stricter rules of engagement than these agents had,' he said. Eventually, the agents went backward, exiting the area, as people marched toward them shouting 'Shame.' On social media, San Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera called the agents 'terrorists" for exercising violent tactics. Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said on X that politicians like him are 'openly encouraging violence against law enforcement to aid and abet the invasion of America.' Elo-Rivera, who represents a nearby district, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been conducting raids in the border city's immigrant neighborhoods. The May 30 action occurred in a gentrified neighborhood that has become more white and monied, he added. 'The majority of Americans, and certainly San Diegans, do not want to factor into their dinner plans the possibility of a brigade of armed, masked men dropping into their evening of enjoying spaghetti and pizza,' Elo-Rivera said. Demonstrators block entrances in New York immigration courts Across the country, agents in recent weeks have also arrested people as they appeared in immigration court or had check-ins with officials. In New York City, protests have erupted outside of immigration court buildings, resulting in scuffles with officials and agents boarding up windows amid arrests. Protests have only grown after ICE detained a Bronx high school student, an asylum seeker from Venezuela, who had gone to immigration court in May. Like him, other migrants have been detained trying to appear in court or while checking in with immigration officials. The week of June 2, agents lined up inside of courthouse hallways to detain people. Images showed families cuffed and hauled into unmarked cars by agents. 'As we continue to see these agencies conduct themselves in a rogue fashion, people are going to continue to step up and fight back,' Murad Awawdeh, president of CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said. 'We have to fight for each other. If we don't, then we're going to continue to allow these authoritarian tactics to continue to peek their heads up.' School walkouts after student detained before practice In Massachusetts, Milford High School students organized protests after agents on May 31 detained a junior, Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, while he was going to volleyball practice. Agents said they meant to target his father but detained Gomes Da Silva, 18, instead. Gomes Da Silva was in the country illegally, having entered the United States on a visa as a young child that has since expired. After their June 1 graduation, Milford students walked from the school to protest outside the town hall. A day later, they walked out of class as they awaited Gomes Da Silva's immigration case. He was granted bail on June 5 and released. The student body was visibly upset, Nicholas Molinari, president of the Milford Teachers Association, said in an email. ICE has been present in Milford for several weeks, he added, causing fear in many students who have shared their feelings with teachers. Minneapolis residents question armored vehicles outside taqueria On June 3, masked agents in tactical gear and military-style vehicles amassed at a Minneapolis corner in the heart of the city's Latino community. They stood outside a taqueria, where federal agents investigated an incident related to a criminal search warrant for drugs and money laundering, not immigration enforcement, Mayor Jacob Frey later said on Facebook. He said agents made no arrests. In the pouring rain, few officials would respond to residents' questions, said the Rev. Ingrid Rasmussen, lead pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. The incident took place near a grocery store and preschool. In a viral video, Rasmussen questioned Minneapolis Police Chief O'Hara about local law enforcement's cooperation with agents, some of whom donned ICE badges. Local officials have said ICE had no presence in the operation, and local police only assisted in controlling the crowd. In a statement shared to news outlets, ICE celebrated its investigation. The answers to such contradictions have been insufficient and considered gaslighting to many residents, Rasmussen added. 'We can do better than this,' she said. 'I think our imaginations have somehow grown small if we think this is what community safety looks like, what it needs to look like, at this moment in history.' Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email at emcuevas1@ or on Signal at emcuevas.01. Contributing: Bart Jansen, USA TODAY
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Italy has ended spyware contract with Paragon, parliamentary document shows
By Giuseppe Fonte and Alvise Armellini ROME (Reuters) -Italy has terminated a contract with Israeli spyware maker Paragon, a parliamentary document showed on Monday, following allegations that the Italian government used its technology to hack critics' phones. Paragon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Meta's WhatsApp chat service said earlier this year Paragon spyware had targeted scores of users, including a journalist and members of the Mediterranea migrant sea rescue charity critical of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The government said in February that seven mobile phone users in Italy had been targeted by the spyware. Rome denied any involvement in illicit activities and said it had asked the National Cybersecurity Agency to look into the affair. A newly published report from the parliamentary committee on security, COPASIR, showed that Italian intelligence services had initially put on hold and then ended their contract with Paragon following the media outcry. The report said Italy's domestic and foreign intelligence agencies had activated contracts with Paragon in 2023 and 2024 respectively and used it on a very limited number of people, with permission from a prosecutor. The foreign intelligence agency used the spyware to search for fugitives, counter illegal immigration, alleged terrorism, organised crime, fuel smuggling and counter-espionage and internal security activities, COPASIR said. It said members of the Mediterranea charity were spied on "not as human rights activists, but in reference to their activities potentially related to irregular immigration", with permission from the government. Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano, Meloni's point man on intelligence matters, authorised the use of Paragon spyware on Mediterranea activists Luca Casarini and Beppe Caccia on September 5, 2024, the report said. Mantovano was not immediately available for comment. A Sicilian judge last month ordered six members of Mediterranea, including Casarini and Caccia, to stand trial on accusations of aiding illegal immigration, the first time crew members of a rescue vessel have faced such prosecution. All denied wrongdoing. The report found no evidence that Francesco Cancellato, a reported target and editor of investigative website Fanpage, had been put under surveillance using Paragon's spyware, as he had alleged to Reuters and other media outlets.
Hamilton Spectator
5 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Hamilton-area Today: Over $30 million fraud; only 4 years prison + ‘We weren't for sale in 1812 and we're still not for sale today'
G ood morning! It's June 9, here are the top stories today in the Hamilton area. Expect wet weather today. Environment Canada is forecasting a high of 20 C at the airport weather station with risk of an afternoon thunderstorm. There are no alerts. Find the latest provincial road closures and traffic incidents via Ontario 511 . Taking transit today? Find the latest GO Transit service updates here . The latest information on local bus services are available here: Hamilton , Burlington and Oakville . A Hamilton fraudster is heading to prison for a Ponzi scheme that ruined the lives of dozens of people. Some investors can't afford to retire, others were bilked out of money needed to care for children or ailing parents. Magok Lam Jock recounts being attacked in a carjacking that felt like something out of a video game or movie. More than 200 years after the War of 1812, the 'turning point' Battle of Stoney Creek has renewed significance. 'It's a chance to remember and to honour those who died defending our land from American invasion, and to remind the Americans of our sovereign future,' said Ward 5 Coun. Matt Francis. A judicial review involving a barred school board trustee revealed additional details about alleged violations that kept her from going to — or even watching virtually — more than a year of meetings. Hamilton public health has issued a drug alert after a recent spike in suspected overdoses. Paramedics responded to at least 39 calls for suspected drug poisonings between May 26 and June 2. Subscribe to our newsletters for the latest local content . Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
