Latest news with #Bedell
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Mass. man and woman face kidnapping charge after teen tells police they locked her in a closet
An Orange man and woman are facing kidnapping and other charges in connection with trying to keep a 16-year-old girl in their apartment against her will earlier this month, according to court documents. Zachary Bedell, 24, and Alison Blauner, 31, have both been charged with kidnapping and witness intimidation in connection with the incident, according to the statement of facts in the case. Bedell was also charged with disseminating obscene material to a minor and buying alcohol for a person under 21. Both Bedell and Blauner pleaded not guilty to all charges during their arraignments in Orange District Court on May 16, according to court records. Orange police began investigating Bedell and Blauner after the teen's aunt asked them to do a welfare check on the girl at 13 Prospect St. Apt. 3 shortly after 3 a.m. on May 14, according to the statement of facts. They were soon informed that, while on the phone with the teen, a man and woman were heard telling the girl that she couldn't leave and threatening to throw her phone out the window. When officers got to the scene, they heard shuffling inside the apartment and voices quieting down, according to the statement of facts. Shortly after they arrived, the teen's aunt called 911 again to tell police that, while on the phone with her, people could be heard whispering about not answering the door and saying 'that the officers will leave.' Eventually, Bedell and Blauner answered the door and spoke to officers, telling them that the girl had left their apartment an hour and a half earlier, according to the statement of facts. Bedell initially told officers the girl was 19, but Blauner corrected him, saying that she was 16. When pressed by police, Blauner told them the teen had just shown up at the back door of their apartment, according to the statement of facts. The girl then emerged from the rear of the apartment and was separated from Blauner and Bedell. The teen told police she didn't feel safe in the apartment, according to the statement of facts. While at the scene, both the girl and Bedell made 'numerous odd statements' to officers, including that her mother gave permission for her to be there, and that Bedell and Blauner now had parental rights over her. Orange police interviewed the teen at the police station while she waited for her mother to pick her up, according to the statement of facts. She told officers that she'd been communicating with Bedell via phone for four years, and on that night, he paid for an Uber to take her to his apartment. Bedell also bought the teen at least five nips of alcohol to drink while she was there, and she drank three, according to the statement of facts. She showed police a nude photo of Bedell with the nips that she said he'd texted her before her arrival at the apartment. The phone number from which the texts were sent matched the phone number police had on file as belonging to Bedell, according to the statement of facts. The teen told police that Bedell and Blauner did not let her leave the apartment when she decided she wanted to go. When the girl told them she was going to call her friend or the police because they wouldn't let her leave, Blauner told her she would take her phone and throw it out the window, according to the statement of facts. When Bedell and Blauner saw through a window that officers were coming to their apartment, they 'put her in a closet to hide from police,' the teen said. The girl told officers that she believes Bedell communicates with many underage girls via Discord and Instagram, according to the statement of facts. She also said she saw nude photos of underage girls she knows on Bedell's phone. Bedell was arrested later that day and held on $50,000 cash bail until his arraignment, according to court records. He was released with conditions after posting $1,000 cash bail following his arraignment. Blauner was also arrested later that day and held on $25,000 cash bail until her arraignment, according to court records. She was released with conditions after posting $1,500 cash bail following her arraignment. Bedell's lawyer declined to comment on the case when reached by phone Thursday evening. Blauner's lawyer could not be reached by phone. Both Bedell and Blauner are due back in court on July 21 for pretrial sessions, according to court records. Central Mass. firefighter arrested on child sexual abuse material charges Western Mass. man found guilty of murder in woman's 2021 fatal stabbing DoorDash stops offering restaurant linked to drug trafficking — after MassLive ordered lunch No jail time for rock guitarist previously charged with vehicular manslaughter 'Den of iniquity': Springfield mayor calls for shutdown of market after being identified as drug front by law enforcement Read the original article on MassLive.
American Military News
28-04-2025
- American Military News
Cybertruck vandal captured on camera in California, latest in spate of violent Tesla attacks
Ring camera footage captured the moment a masked vandal threw a rock at the windshield and slashed the tires of a Cybertruck in Novato, one of the latest in a string of nationwide attacks on Tesla vehicles and the second such incident in the small Bay Area city. The vandal struck around 4:22 a.m. Saturday, appearing to case the truck, which was parked in a private driveway, before returning at 5:41 a.m. to stage an attack, according to the Novato Police Department. The person covered one surveillance camera with duct tape but was filmed by a separate camera throwing a chunk of concrete at the car multiple times and cutting the tires, police said. The person left a handwritten message warning the driver to replace all tires as the car was unsafe to drive. The incident was the second recent attack on a Cybertruck in Novato. The prior Saturday, a different truck was vandalized around midday in a shopping center parking lot, according to Navato Police Sgt. Wes Carroll. The department does not believe the same person is responsible for both incidents, he said. With Elon Musk's controversial rise to power in the White House and subsequent gutting of government departments, his futuristic vehicles have gone from being largely adored by the left and clean-energy advocates to becoming a political punching bag and target of violence. In recent weeks, cars have been set ablaze with Molotov cocktails, shot with guns and defaced with spray-paint. U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi has called these acts of violence and vandalism 'nothing short of domestic terrorism' and threatened harsh consequences. 'The Department of Justice has already charged several perpetrators with that in mind, including in cases that involve charges with five-year mandatory minimum sentences,' she said in a statement. 'We will continue investigations that impose severe consequences on those involved in these attacks, including those operating behind the scenes to coordinate and fund these crimes.' Jason Bedell, who owns the Cybertruck attacked in Novato on Saturday, told local TV station KTVU that he believes the vandal's anger is misdirected. 'All these people who have frustration against the government and Tesla and DOGE are taking it out on the wrong people,' Bedell told the station. 'They're taking it out on their neighbors. They're taking it out on just working people. Most of these people are Democrats that even bought these EV vehicles.' He is now personally offering a $25,000 cash reward for information that leads to the arrest of a suspect, the station reported. The Novato Police Department is also seeking the public's help in identifying the vandals who targeted the local Cybertrucks and is asking Bedell's neighbors to check their cameras for any suspicious activity or vehicles between 4 and 6 a.m. Saturday. As of Monday morning, the department was reviewing and following up on tips submitted by the public and had yet to make any arrests in connection with either incident, said Sgt. Carroll. In the nearby city of San José, a man was arrested March 17 for allegedly keying a Tesla parked in a Costco lot. San José Mayor Matt Mahan criticized the use of vandalism as a tool of political activism. 'If this crime was politically motivated, our residents can't be held accountable for something Elon Musk is doing 3,000 miles away,' he said in a statement on X, urging residents to voice their opinions at the ballot box and not in a parking lot. The Federal Bureau of Investigations issued a warning to would-be Tesla attackers after a man threw Molotov cocktails and shot at a Tesla service center in Las Vegas, setting multiple vehicles ablaze. 'Specifically to those who might think that something like this is justifiable or potentially even admirable, we want to let you know it's a federal crime,' said Spencer Evans, FBI special agent in charge of the Las Vegas bureau. 'We will come after you, we will find you, and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.' Musk, for his part, called the attacks 'insane and deeply wrong' in a statement on X. 'Tesla just makes electric cars and has done nothing to deserve these evil attacks,' he said. ___ © 2025 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Not Just in April: A Call to End Distracted Driving Every Day
WACO, Texas (FOX 44) – April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, shining a spotlight on thousands of preventable crashes and fatalities that happen on roads across the United States each year due to driver inattention. Jake Smith, with the Texas Department of Transportation's (TxDOT) Waco District, explained how distracted driving is a leading contributor to accidents in the Lone Star State. 'Last year, we saw distracted driving contributed to over 91,000 crashes in the state of Texas, and, unfortunately, almost 400 of those resulted in deaths,' he said. Smith echoed the importance of being aware year-round and not just during April. 'Not just this month, but any time you drive. Be sure to take care of your business that you need to before you start operating your vehicle. Everyone likes to think that maybe they're good at multitasking, and multitasking is great at home and maybe even at your work, but don't do it while you're operating on a two-ton vehicle.' He also added that with major construction projects underway across Central Texas, including the I-35 South Waco Project, officials are urging drivers to be especially alert. Lane shifts, speed changes, and the presence of road workers add to the risk when drivers aren't fully focused. Common distractions range from texting or glancing at a rearview mirror to adjusting GPS systems, eating, or changing music. Each can be enough to cause a crash, say driving experts. 'Looking at yourself in the mirror, eating, drinking, messing with the radio, maps—anything that takes your attention off the road can be dangerous,' said Larry Renfro, a manager with the Austin Driving School in Waco. 'It's like driving with your eyes closed.' Dillon Bedell, a Baylor University student, knows that risk all too well. In December of 2024, he was the victim of a multi-car collision caused by a distracted driver. 'I was just sitting at the stop sign, waiting to go home,' Bedell said. 'Somebody hit me, and it turned into a three-car wreck. My car got totaled, I think another car got totaled. It was just a very unfortunate situation.' Months later, the impact of that moment still lingers. 'I still think about it today,' he said. 'Especially because my car was totaled. It's just something I wish could have been avoided—and it could've been, so easily.' Despite the ordeal, Bedell is thankful he walked away from the crash and was able to replace his vehicle in time to finish the school year and compete in his track season. As state and local officials continue efforts to reduce distracted driving incidents, they're encouraging all motorists to put their phones down, stay focused, and make safety a priority —every month of the year. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Problem With Abe Lincoln's Face
This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic's archives to contextualize the present and surface delightful treasures. Sign up here. Looking at a picture of Abraham Lincoln in October 1860, the 11-year-old Grace Bedell claimed to have solved the problem of Lincoln's face and wrote him a letter to tell him about it. The presidential candidate was well aware of the problem. As he came into public view in 1860, jokes about Lincoln's appearance abounded. A popular anti-Lincoln song imagined his supporters begging not to have his picture shown. Bedell, of Westfield, New York, offered a solution: Lincoln should grow a beard. 'If you will let your whiskers grow,' she wrote, 'you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin.' Bedell's observation was shaped by a medium that wasn't all that much older than she was. Photography had come to America scarcely two decades earlier, and in that short span of time, it had transformed people's sense of themselves, their relation to society, and their practice of politics. What Frederick Douglass called 'the age of pictures' began in 1839, when the Frenchman Louis Daguerre's photographic process, the daguerreotype, came to the United States. Americans were fascinated by the new technology above all as a medium for portraiture. It was the dawning 'age of the first person singular,' as Ralph Waldo Emerson called it, and people wanted pictures of themselves. The market answered. As studios opened in towns and cities across the country and the technology evolved, people sat for portraits in droves. 'What a vast branch of commerce this business of sun-picturing has grown,' Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. wrote in The Atlantic. Not everyone enjoyed the sun-picturing right away. Those having their likeness taken for the first time did so with some combination of wonder and trepidation. Posing before the camera, early sitters said they felt drafts of air on their face or tingling in their cheeks. The process was orchestrated by a camera operator under a blanket—whom Holmes described in another article as a chemical-wielding 'skeleton shape, of about a man's height, its head covered with a black veil.' The experience seemed to partake of the occult. And the results, often ghostly because of the long exposure times required, only strengthened such feelings. These early sitters weren't entirely wrong. There was no sorcery involved, but something was happening to them in front of the camera. Becoming an image, reckoning with an entirely new form of self-presentation, introduced an intense awareness not just of the self, but of the face. 'Here,' Holmes wrote of the photographed face, 'is the nest of that feeble fowl, self-consciousness, whose brood strays at large over all the features.' The flip side of self-awareness was scrutiny. People weren't just looking at themselves; they were also looking at others, especially as technological advancements increased the circulation of photographs. Whereas the daguerreotype produced a one-off image, printing photographs on paper from negatives extended the reach of images infinitely beyond the original, and improved printing techniques helped put ever more inked engravings of photographs in popular publications. Photographs and photographic images were everywhere, and by 1860, even an 11-year-old knew instinctively how to look. Confronting this new reality, you just might feel your cheeks tingle—and you just might grow a beard. As it happens, the return of facial hair to Western societies correlates with the advent of photography. Beards can be highly photogenic, defining and framing the lines of the face for the camera. If it was true, as one of the earliest reflections on photography said, that in this new age everyone must become their 'own caricaturist,' the beard was not a bad prop. In Lincoln's case, the iconic bearded visage is so indelibly stamped in our minds that it seems to befit the leader who endured the breakup of the Union, the death of his third son, and all the horrors of the Civil War—the figure who fought to end slavery and who, in the stirring Old Testament strains of his second inaugural address, uttered the most haunting words ever said by an American president. But Lincoln's venerable, bearded face was first and foremost a product of the anxious new realities of the photographic age. All of the private imperatives to look good were only magnified for public figures—more so for a public figure not known to be terribly good-looking. One image helped fight the idea that Lincoln was irredeemably unattractive. When he visited New York in February 1860 to deliver at the Cooper Union the most important speech of his life to date, Lincoln also went to Mathew Brady's studio for a portrait. The resulting photograph—by Brady's own account procured with much difficulty and extensive stagecraft—helped create a favorable public image of Lincoln. Standing at three-quarter length, hand resting on two books, Lincoln appeared not awkward and gangly but commanding and dignified. In the coming months, the image circulated in different formats and engraved variations. Grace Bedell was likely looking at a print version of the Cooper Union portrait when she wrote to Lincoln. Looking at it now, you can see her point. In that image, as in others from 1860, Lincoln's prominent cheekbones make the cheeks appear hollow to the point of gauntness, exactly as Bedell said. Others came to the same conclusion. Three days before Bedell wrote her letter, a group of 'True Republicans' writing from New York City tendered the same suggestion to Lincoln. After careful consideration of the pictures of Lincoln on the buttons they were wearing, they concluded that he would look much better with a beard to bolster his face, as well as a standing collar to shorten his neck. ''Our candidate,'' they said, 'should be the best looking as well as the best of the rival candidates.' Although Lincoln asked Bedell in his reply if a beard might not be 'silly,' he began growing one soon after the exchange. The first patchy shoots were visible after he won the election in November 1860; it was fully grown as he prepared to journey to Washington in February 1861, during which he would stop to greet and embrace Bedell at a whistle-stop in western New York. Lincoln had come into his face—the one that would be regularly and repeatedly seen in pictures through the Civil War and beyond. When Nathaniel Hawthorne gained an audience with Lincoln on assignment for The Atlantic in 1862, he was entranced by the real face. In the initial draft of his essay 'Chiefly About War Matters,' he described Lincoln as 'about the homeliest man I ever saw, yet by no means repulsive or disagreeable.' Atlantic editor James T. Fields asked Hawthorne to cut the description. 'Considered as a portrait of a living man,' Fields said years later in the magazine, 'it would not be wise or tasteful to print.' Hawthorne complied, but he didn't like it. 'What a terrible thing,' he complained sardonically, 'to try to let off a little bit of truth into this miserable humbug of a world.' The truth that Hawthorne wanted to express—that Lincoln's looks were redeemed by his kindness and sagacity—is visible in one of the president's last portraits. Taken by Alexander Gardner in February 1865, it is a close-up. Lincoln looks off to the side. You can see the strain of his presidency in every line in his face, but out of the shadows rises a slight smile. Much of the beard is gone. There is little left but a graying goatee. The same hollowness Grace Bedell saw is there in his cheeks, deeper and more profound. After nearly four years of war, he'd given those depths meaning. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
The Problem With Abe Lincoln's Face
This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic 's archives to contextualize the present and surface delightful treasures. Sign up here. Looking at a picture of Abraham Lincoln in October 1860, the 11-year-old Grace Bedell claimed to have solved the problem of Lincoln's face and wrote him a letter to tell him about it. The presidential candidate was well aware of the problem. As he came into public view in 1860, jokes about Lincoln's appearance abounded. A popular anti-Lincoln song imagined his supporters begging not to have his picture shown. Bedell, of Westfield, New York, offered a solution: Lincoln should grow a beard. 'If you will let your whiskers grow,' she wrote, 'you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin.' Bedell's observation was shaped by a medium that wasn't all that much older than she was. Photography had come to America scarcely two decades earlier, and in that short span of time, it had transformed people's sense of themselves, their relation to society, and their practice of politics. What Frederick Douglass called 'the age of pictures' began in 1839, when the Frenchman Louis Daguerre's photographic process, the daguerreotype, came to the United States. Americans were fascinated by the new technology above all as a medium for portraiture. It was the dawning 'age of the first person singular,' as Ralph Waldo Emerson called it, and people wanted pictures of themselves. The market answered. As studios opened in towns and cities across the country and the technology evolved, people sat for portraits in droves. 'What a vast branch of commerce this business of sun-picturing has grown,' Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. wrote in The Atlantic. Not everyone enjoyed the sun-picturing right away. Those having their likeness taken for the first time did so with some combination of wonder and trepidation. Posing before the camera, early sitters said they felt drafts of air on their face or tingling in their cheeks. The process was orchestrated by a camera operator under a blanket—whom Holmes described in another article as a chemical-wielding 'skeleton shape, of about a man's height, its head covered with a black veil.' The experience seemed to partake of the occult. And the results, often ghostly because of the long exposure times required, only strengthened such feelings. These early sitters weren't entirely wrong. There was no sorcery involved, but something was happening to them in front of the camera. Becoming an image, reckoning with an entirely new form of self-presentation, introduced an intense awareness not just of the self, but of the face. 'Here,' Holmes wrote of the photographed face, 'is the nest of that feeble fowl, self-consciousness, whose brood strays at large over all the features.' The flip side of self-awareness was scrutiny. People weren't just looking at themselves; they were also looking at others, especially as technological advancements increased the circulation of photographs. Whereas the daguerreotype produced a one-off image, printing photographs on paper from negatives extended the reach of images infinitely beyond the original, and improved printing techniques helped put ever more inked engravings of photographs in popular publications. Photographs and photographic images were everywhere, and by 1860, even an 11-year-old knew instinctively how to look. Confronting this new reality, you just might feel your cheeks tingle—and you just might grow a beard. As it happens, the return of facial hair to Western societies correlates with the advent of photography. Beards can be highly photogenic, defining and framing the lines of the face for the camera. If it was true, as one of the earliest reflections on photography said, that in this new age everyone must become their 'own caricaturist,' the beard was not a bad prop. In Lincoln's case, the iconic bearded visage is so indelibly stamped in our minds that it seems to befit the leader who endured the breakup of the Union, the death of his third son, and all the horrors of the Civil War—the figure who fought to end slavery and who, in the stirring Old Testament strains of his second inaugural address, uttered the most haunting words ever said by an American president. But Lincoln's venerable, bearded face was first and foremost a product of the anxious new realities of the photographic age. All of the private imperatives to look good were only magnified for public figures—more so for a public figure not known to be terribly good-looking. One image helped fight the idea that Lincoln was irredeemably unattractive. When he visited New York in February 1860 to deliver at the Cooper Union the most important speech of his life to date, Lincoln also went to Mathew Brady's studio for a portrait. The resulting photograph —by Brady's own account procured with much difficulty and extensive stagecraft—helped create a favorable public image of Lincoln. Standing at three-quarter length, hand resting on two books, Lincoln appeared not awkward and gangly but commanding and dignified. In the coming months, the image circulated in different formats and engraved variations. Grace Bedell was likely looking at a print version of the Cooper Union portrait when she wrote to Lincoln. Looking at it now, you can see her point. In that image, as in others from 1860, Lincoln's prominent cheekbones make the cheeks appear hollow to the point of gauntness, exactly as Bedell said. Others came to the same conclusion. Three days before Bedell wrote her letter, a group of 'True Republicans' writing from New York City tendered the same suggestion to Lincoln. After careful consideration of the pictures of Lincoln on the buttons they were wearing, they concluded that he would look much better with a beard to bolster his face, as well as a standing collar to shorten his neck. ''Our candidate,'' they said, 'should be the best looking as well as the best of the rival candidates.' Although Lincoln asked Bedell in his reply if a beard might not be 'silly,' he began growing one soon after the exchange. The first patchy shoots were visible after he won the election in November 1860; it was fully grown as he prepared to journey to Washington in February 1861, during which he would stop to greet and embrace Bedell at a whistle-stop in western New York. Lincoln had come into his face—the one that would be regularly and repeatedly seen in pictures through the Civil War and beyond. When Nathaniel Hawthorne gained an audience with Lincoln on assignment for The Atlantic in 1862, he was entranced by the real face. In the initial draft of his essay ' Chiefly About War Matters,' he described Lincoln as 'about the homeliest man I ever saw, yet by no means repulsive or disagreeable.' Atlantic editor James T. Fields asked Hawthorne to cut the description. 'Considered as a portrait of a living man,' Fields said years later in the magazine, 'it would not be wise or tasteful to print.' Hawthorne complied, but he didn't like it. 'What a terrible thing,' he complained sardonically, 'to try to let off a little bit of truth into this miserable humbug of a world.' The truth that Hawthorne wanted to express—that Lincoln's looks were redeemed by his kindness and sagacity—is visible in one of the president's last portraits. Taken by Alexander Gardner in February 1865, it is a close-up. Lincoln looks off to the side. You can see the strain of his presidency in every line in his face, but out of the shadows rises a slight smile. Much of the beard is gone. There is little left but a graying goatee. The same hollowness Grace Bedell saw is there in his cheeks, deeper and more profound. After nearly four years of war, he'd given those depths meaning.
