Latest news with #Jupiter-based
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jupiter woman stole from one boss to pay restitution to another. Now she'll pay in prison.
A judge has sentenced a 63-year-old Jupiter woman to six years in prison after she pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $1 million from a former employer. Michele Nichols pleaded guilty May 13 to one count apiece of money laundering over $100,000 or more and of organizing a scheme to defraud. She also pleaded guilty to violating the terms of her probation in a 2023 fraud case. Nichols deposited some of the money she embezzled in a bank account she used to pay $550,000 in restitution in the first fraud case, according to her arrest report. Circuit Judge Daliah Weiss approved a plea deal for Nichols in the 2023 case. This time, Weiss immediately sentenced her to 72 months in prison. Real Madrid in Palm Beach Gardens: What we know about soccer club training in town Jupiter police previously alleged that Nichols used her position as a financial controller for Jupiter-based Fitzhugh Holdings LLC to steal about $1.2 million during nearly three years of employment. Online records indicate that Fitzhugh Holdings is a conglomeration of retail art dealers representing artists from various countries. Investigators said Nichols used her access to the company's payroll system to deposit money into six personal bank accounts. John Caldwell, the owner of Fitzhugh Holdings, told investigators a former company vice president hired Nichols in December 2021 after a recruiting company referred her, according to Nichols' arrest report. He said he contacted police in May 2024 after discovering inconsistent beginning and ending weekly balances while reviewing a budget analysis that Nichols had created. It's hot out there: Heat wave to bring temps in 90s for parts of Palm Beach County The arrest report said Caldwell learned through an online search that Nichols had previously been arrested and charged with embezzling funds from another company. In May 2023, Nichols pleaded to guilty to grand theft over $100,000 from American Tax Funding LLC, a Jupiter company where she worked for 11 years as a bookkeeper. In that case, Weiss placed Nichols on 10 years of probation and ordered her to pay $550,000 in restitution. Records show that, while employed by Fitzhugh Holdings, she fraudulently deposited money into a bank account that was used to repay American Tax Funding. Caldwell told investigators that Nichols also requested a $20,000 advance for a matter involving property taxes, but did not pay it back as agreed. He also noted that in 2024 Nichols had no deductions from her paychecks for health care. Nicholas received credit for 104 days of time served in the Palm Beach County Jail, court records show. Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@ and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Jupiter woman sentenced for stealing $1.2 million from employer
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Learn pain-relieving potential for dance, music, more from FAU neuroscience experts
When Dr. Jill Sonke first witnessed the potential pain-relieving power of the neuroarts, she was still in high school — and the term 'neuroarts' had yet to be coined. At the time, Sonke was an accomplished gymnast and dancer as a youth. A friend who was a singer had suffered second- and third-degree burns on her hand after a tea-making accident — and would require weeks of painful dressing changes. 'A few months earlier, I had given her a Joni Mitchell cassette tape,' explained Sonke. 'While she was in the hospital and going through very painful dressing changes and debridement procedures, she would play the tape, volume turned up, and sing at the top of her lungs. As she later described it to me, she transcended and survived her pain by singing. As an artist, that made perfect sense to me.' And it would be among the initial experiences that, decades ago, led Sonke to become one of the pioneering experts in how to use the neuroarts for improvement in all aspects of life — especially one's health. More Health Matters: Olympic gold medal gymnast Aly Raisman to talk mental health in West Palm Beach Today Sonke is a research professor and director of Research Initiatives in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida. And on Monday, she will be the guest of honor at a free symposium, "The Power of Arts & Science for Resiliency in Aging,' at Florida Atlantic University's Jupiter campus. The symposium is a collaboration of the Jupiter-based Mind, Music, and Movement Foundation for Neurological Disorders and FAU's Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute. "We are honored to host Dr. Jill Sonke, whose pioneering work in arts in medicine exemplifies the profound impact of creative expression on health and resilience," said Mind, Music, and Movement Foundation founder Beth Elgort. The aim of the annual event in its third year is to share neuroscience breakthroughs and offer opportunities for interactive demonstrations. Sonke will be one of a half-dozen panelists making presentations. Others include local neuroscience experts as well as those with experience in caring for folks as they age. Sonke's friend from high school was able to shift her state of consciousness and transcend the pain by singing. The singing wasn't merely a distraction: Science tells us that various arts can be an avenue to changing what's going on in the body and brain. "The fact is, we have limited cognitive capacity ― we can only pay attention to so much at one time," said Sonke. So when your brain is focusing on a mental or physical activity, it has less ability to focus on pain. Sonke also first experienced what experts call "transcendence" in her teens, as a competitive gymnast. "One day when I was in my junior year of high school, a dancer came into the gym to help with our floor exercise routines,' recalled Sonke. 'As she guided us, I found myself absorbed and lost in movement in a way I had never experienced. I felt a kind of energy and elation I had never felt. Although I didn't know the words or what they meant, I was experiencing both transcendence (a shift in my state of consciousness) and self-transcendence (an expansion of my conceptual boundaries). I knew I wanted to have that experience every day for the rest of my life. It was my first life epiphany.' However, she says that she didn't really think about transcendence or self-transcendence again until years later when, in 1994, she became a dancer in residence with the University of Florida Health Shands Arts in Medicine program. 'As a member of the hospital staff, I worked on the bone marrow transplant and pediatrics units, dancing with patients. Nurses and doctors wrote referrals for me to see their patients when they felt that the patients could benefit from movement or creative engagement,' she explained. That, she said, was when 'I really saw, through working with patients and delving into research, that arts engagement can make real changes in our brains and bodies. When we engage with the arts — either actively or receptively — we can experience a range of physiological and hormonal responses.' Among those responses, are a heightened flow of positive hormones — endorphins (our body's natural painkillers), dopamine (which elicits a feeling of joy when we anticipate or experience a reward), serotonin (a mood regulator and natural antidepressant that also heightens our sense of self-esteem) and oxytocin (our 'bonding' hormone) — as well as a reduction in the stress hormone cortisol, she said. Sonke will discuss how we can all reach the 'flow state'— which she explained is 'a state of consciousness in which our awareness is highly focused on the present moment and on the activity at hand. Flow state is a merging of action and awareness and often results in a sense of euphoria as well as a suspended awareness of time, or the sense that 'time flies.'' Two decades ago when Sonke needed back-to-back eye surgeries performed on the same day, she made music part of her treatment in between procedures. 'The day came, and the musicians — two guitarists — entered my room as I rested after the first surgery,' said Sonke. 'They asked if I had any requests but I didn't, so they chose two songs: 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' by John Denver and The Beatles' 'Here Comes the Sun.' As I listened, they transformed that moment of anxiety and pain into a moment of beauty and bliss. Tears flowed, not because I was afraid or in pain, but because I was wonderfully overwhelmed by the beauty of the music and the gift of presence, connection, and caring that the artists brought.' Sonke says both her own personal experience as well as the countless patients she's seen the arts benefit are the reasons why 'why medicine needs the arts. Art can't replace medicine. Art doesn't cure diseases. But artists are important members of our inter-profession healthcare teams.' If you go What: "The Power of Arts & Science for Resiliency in Aging' Where: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Florida Atlantic University, 5353 Parkside Drive, Jupiter When: 5 p.m. Monday, March 3 Admission: The symposium is free but registration is required. Info: This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Experts explain how neuroarts provide natural pain relief and other health benefits at FAU event
