Latest news with #Perla
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Tallahassee ICE raid sparks questions, but still no answers from feds
A week after federal immigration agents detained more than 100 people at the construction site of a student housing complex in Tallahassee, authorities are declining to discuss why they targeted the site. The warrant for the raid, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida and signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin A. Fitzpatrick, is still sealed. Many questions remain unanswered, among them: Who was the warrant for? What was the probable cause for the warrant? How many people were detained? Where were they taken? There also has been little information given by the companies who employed the detained workers taken from their job site on May 29. While some workers have already been removed to their countries of origin, there are still friends and family members of those who were handcuffed or zip-tied and led onto buses who say they are still awaiting phone calls from their loved ones. One laborer at the construction site said people were afraid to come back to work this week, and those who did in the days after the raid all had work permits or documentation. Questions sent to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement by the USA TODAY Network about where the detainees have been sent and other details about the raid have gone unanswered. The site of the raid is a construction site for Perla at the Enclave, a student housing complex that will contain 218 units, according to Zimmer Development Co. of North Carolina. The company touts more than 260 projects across more than 150 cities in the United States with more than $4 billion in developed assets, according to its website. As previously reported, the $100 million Perla project in Florida's capital is located a short walk from Doak Campbell Stadium, the football stadium for the Florida State University Seminoles, and is the sixth project for Zimmer in Tallahassee. Questions emailed to Zimmer Development executives have not been answered, and when a reporter called and identified herself on the phone, the company's in-house counsel hung up. A spokesperson for Hedrick Brothers Construction, another company involved in the Perla project, said in an email that a representative of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations told the company neither it nor the project site were the focus of the investigation. The company also had no prior knowledge of the raid and has been told little about it: "We understand the operation was part of a broader criminal investigation unrelated to our company or the project, but that is all of the information we have been provided." None of Hedrick Brothers' employees were detained, and the company requires all independent subcontractors to use E-Verify, a web-based system that allows companies to confirm the eligibility of employees to work in the U.S. But the spokesperson did say people employed by one of its subcontractors were detained during the raid. "We remain committed to ethical business practices, full legal compliance, and transparency as this investigation unfolds," the spokesperson said. At the same time of the raid at the construction site, federal and local law enforcement descended on a gated home a few miles away on the north side of Tallahassee. The home has the same address as a business listed as Nino's Carpentry Shop. A spokesperson for the Leon County Sheriff's Office called it an an 'active and fluid' investigation and said the operation was not an immigration enforcement issue, but declined to comment if the raid was linked to people associated with the raid at the construction site. Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@ This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Families still await answers after Tallahassee immigration raid
New York Times
18-04-2025
- Lifestyle
- New York Times
With a Long-Awaited Kiss, ‘the Crowd Went Crazy'
Gianna Isabella Lozano and Nicholas Benjamin Perla looked forward to their April 6 wedding with the same high hopes and excitement as many engaged couples. If their sense of anticipation was above average, that was because the two hadn't yet kissed on the lips. Ms. Lozano, 24, and Mr. Perla, 23, met in September 2021 on the way to a 5K race in Midtown Manhattan sponsored by their church, the nondenominational New York City Church of Christ. Both were members of the college ministry but in different locations. She lived in New City, N.Y.; he in Yonkers, N.Y. 'I had heard he drove some of my friends to church events in the city,' said Ms. Lozano, now a campus minister at the New York City Church of Christ's Bronx location. 'So I orchestrated a car pool.' The same friends Mr. Perla had been driving had thought the two would hit it off. They were not wrong. In the car, 'we had a simple conversation that turned into effortless laughter,' Ms. Lozano said. 'It was an instant connection.' [Click here to binge read this week's featured couples.] At the time, both were navigating the terrain between college and what might come after. She was soon to graduate from Manhattan University with a bachelor's degree in engineering. He was completing a bachelor's degree in exercise science at Lehman College. For her, the 5K was less about crossing the finish line than showing up for the event the college ministry had helped organize. Mr. Perla, now a technician at an orthopedic clinic in Harrison, N.Y., was more invested in the race. 'I walked and he ran,' she said. Their uneven pace along the Henry Hudson Parkway didn't undo a shared impression that their values and personalities were in sync. On subsequent car pools, their friends made a practice of leaving the front seat of his RAV4 S.U.V. vacant for Ms. Lozano, who was usually last to be picked up. 'They heard our conversations,' she said. 'I guess they thought we made a good pair.' For almost a year, they saw each other only in group settings. That suited them. Mr. Perla had joined the church with his parents, Luz Zuniga and Benjamin Perla, a few years earlier to fend off a creeping sense of purposelessness and was still immersed in spiritual self-discovery. Ms. Lozano, who had been attending with her parents, Beatriz Munoz and Giovanny Lozano, since she was 7, was in what she called 'a phase of, I don't want to be in a relationship.' 'Most of my friends were starting to date, and I wanted to be different,' she said. When Mr. Perla asked her to join him for dinner the Orangetown Classic Diner in Orangeburg, N.Y., in July 2022, he was hoping their connection would turn romantic. 'I had a growing interest in her,' he said. 'Gigi was very genuine, and she loved to let people into her life, which was something I didn't know how to do.' To him, the invitation was a date. She thought he was just asking for a more intimate than usual hangout. That perception changed a couple of months later on a bike ride around Central Park that he had arranged. 'He was really attentive,' she said. 'I realized it was a date.' In January 2023, over dinner at an Italian restaurant in Yonkers, he presented her with a bouquet of peonies and a heart-shaped cake. 'It had red icing and said, 'Will you be my girlfriend?'' They left the restaurant a couple, their new commitment sealed without a kiss. A peck on the cheek would come months later. The decision to forgo physical intimacy before marriage 'was just a choice we made' from the beginning, Ms. Lozano said. 'A lot of other couples kiss on the lips while they're dating and there's nothing wrong with it. We wanted to save our first actual kiss for something special, something sentimental.' By the time they got engaged, on Sept. 14, 2024, at the Scenic Hudson RiverWalk Park in Tarrytown, N.Y., abstaining from locking lips had become a challenge. 'It's been difficult,' Ms. Lozano said, just before the wedding. 'For me as well,' Mr. Perla said. Support among family and friends helped. Ms. Lozano's mother channeled hers into a prizewinning appeal to an audio guest book company running a wedding giveaway. 'I'm so proud of her,' Ms. Munoz told After the Tone earlier this year in her bid for the free audiobook. 'She can't wait to kiss her husband on the lips for the first time.' On April 6, Rob Novack, a pastor at the New York City Church of Christ, put an end to the wait. At the IronSpire Complex, a banquet complex in Adamstown, Pa., he pronounced Ms. Lozano and Mr. Perla married in front of 128 guests; almost all knew their first smooch as husband and wife would also be their first in general. When the two leaned in to make it official, 'the crowd went crazy,' Ms. Lozano said. 'People were shouting and screaming.' For the couple, one kiss proved insufficient. Before they left the altar, 'I had to kiss him again,' she said.
Yahoo
16-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Demonstrators hold rally to protest Trump policies in downtown Los Angeles
Demonstrators held a rally in downtown Los Angeles Saturday to protest the Trump administration's policies which they say are failing to protect citizens and immigrant communities. Protestors said they were denouncing the dismantling of federal departments and programs that support communities in need. 'Even though things are not looking very good, we've got to make the best [of it],' said a protestor named Perla who works as a special education assistant for the Los Angeles Unified School District. 'Do not cut our medical, do not cut our Social Security, please do not do that. Our kids are in need. Our parents are in need, even our elders.' Perla said she's concerned the administration's focus on cutting federal programs will significantly harm underserved communities. 'We're here to fight because we cannot settle,' she said. 'Trump has changed so many things when he became president. Immigrants, we have our children, our students who are afraid to come in. For parents, we've been passing out little purple cards that let them know to not open the door.' President Donald Trump has made sweeping changes since he began his second term in January. The Elon Musk-led advisory body, the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), has been working to drastically reduce the federal workforce and cut government spending. At the same time, the Trump Administration has said it will not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits, but instead focus on cracking down on fraud, immigration, international tarriffs and wasteful government spending. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Puppies were in peril as snowstorm rolled in. So shelter 5 hours away hatched a plan
When six puppies and their mother could no longer be cared for with frigid — and dangerous — temperatures about ready to plummet in the area, rescuers with a Vancouver, British Columbia, shelter jumped into gear even though they were hours away. Food was skimping away as a snowstorm was getting ready to roll in when a guardian made the unfathomable decision to ask for help with a mama dog who had delivered six puppies, according to a news release from the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 'Over the weekend, the BC SPCA Animal Helpline received a desperate phone call from a distraught pet guardian struggling to care for a litter of puppies and their caring mum,' the organization said in a Feb. 6 Facebook post. 'The dog food bag had run dry and extreme cold—plunging to -30°C (minus 22 Fahrenheit)—was putting their lives at risk. They made the right decision to reach out for urgent help.' The shelter said it put together a risky plan to travel over 10 hours round trip in order to save the bundle, 'braving treacherous conditions to bring this little family into care.' When they finally reached the group, it was almost too late. 'You can count the puppies' bones beneath their patchy, crusted coats,' the shelter said. 'Three of the most concerning wee ones are less than half the size of their littermates. These puppies needed to see a vet, fast.' The dogs had eye and ear infections and skin issues and were malnourished and underweight. The vet team said they are taking things 'day by day' when it comes to the mother — named Perla — who was showing signs of a 'life-threatening infection' called pyometra. The infection needs to be managed with urgent surgery, but Perla is currently too weak to undergo the procedure. 'Now, this little family is in intensive care. They are receiving a strict schedule of meals to help them to slowly gain weight at a healthy speed. That means small meals of specialized food every two hours,' the shelter says. 'It's a lot to manage, but extremely important to ensure their bodies aren't overwhelmed and begin shutting down.' Regardless of their ailments, the puppies still ask for affection and cuddles from the staff while Perla is continuing to grow 'stronger every day.' For future updates on the group, visit the shelter's Facebook page. With the help of a child's shirt, puppy survived being stabbed twice. He needs a home Cat was in 'agony' with a horrifying leg injury. Now, she's healed and needs a home
