Image credit: Lawyer.com
Richard J. Breibart, an
attorney
in Lexington, S.C., for 33 years, specialized in litigating
high-profile criminal and civil cases. A once prominent member of the
community, he was known for throwing lavish Christmas parties for
hundreds of people, according to
The State newspaper.
But now, Breibart faces a 10-count federal indictment for extortion
and fraud, and a maximum of 20 years in prison on each count.
The saga has been a bizarre one, especially for an attorney
who once presided over a 14,000-square-foot office and employed about
two dozen lawyers.
But in recent years, according to the federal indictment, Breibart
started using his formidable legal talents to get people to pay him
enormous sums of money so he could make charges or investigations
against them go away. But the twist? There never were any charges or
investigations against these people. The cases were fake.
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - A Walterboro woman has been
sentenced to more than two years in prison for being the mastermind of a
scheme that took $680,000 in student loans.
Federal prosecutors said 48-year-old Lena Gant got about a
dozen friends, family members and co-workers to apply for online college
classes and get financial aid with no intention of taking the courses.
She was sentenced to 27 months in prison.
Lunsford Family via The Dominion Post / AP Photo
FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Lunsford family via
The Dominion Post shows 3-year-old Aliayah Lunsford of Bendale, W.Va.
Aliaya has been missing since she vanished from the family home on Sept.
24. 2011. "It just seems like everybody's forgotten her," says
great-aunt Vickie Bowen, "but we're never going to forget."
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/22/4844393/family-wants-answers-on-missing.html#storylink=cpy
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Her mother is in prison for
welfare fraud.
Her stepfather is lying low. Her six siblings, some just infants, are
in the custody of child welfare authorities. And Aliayah Lunsford, the
brown-eyed 3-year-old who vanished from her West Virginia home a year
ago Monday, is still missing.
"It just seems like everybody's forgotten her," said Aliayah's great-aunt Vickie Bowen, "but we're never going to forget."
In
the year since Aliayah disappeared from her family's rented house in
the Bendale section of Lewis County, Bowen has concluded the girl is
probably dead, though she avoids using the word.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/22/4844393/family-wants-answers-on-missing.html#storylink=cpy
New England nature photographer Kevin Talbot captures a spot of color in a sea of green.
(Kevin Talbot / September 21, 2012)
The first day of fall. Autumnal equinox. Whatever you want to call
it, we're starting a new season today. You might even say we're turning
over a new leaf.
Get it?
The autumnal equinox ushers in the
change from summer to fall. You've no doubt noticed the shift of late.
Dawn arrives later, making it harder to get out of bed in the morning.
Night falls much more quickly.
"The days are getting shorter, and day and night are approximately equal in length,"
explains the EarthSky website.
The
Earth orbits on its axis at a tilt. "We have an equinox twice a year --
spring and fall -- when the tilt of the Earth's axis and Earth's orbit
around the sun combine in such a way that the axis is inclined neither
away from nor toward the sun," the online science site says.
The result is that the sun shines directly on the equator, creating a nearly equal amount of day and night.
Science aside, the autumnal equinox marks a symbolic shift for many of us.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - As Americans debate what is most to blame for the
nation's obesity epidemic, researchers say they have the strongest
evidence yet that sugary drinks
play a leading role and that eliminating them would, more than any other single step, make a huge difference.
Everyday
we chow down on chemically produced foods that carry deadly poisons.
Today when we eat meat, poultry and dairy, we eat the residue of
everything the animal ate, including growth hormones, pesticides and
contaminants.
Following are some of the harmful chemicals commonly found in our
food and personal products, along with descriptions of what they are,
where they’re found and why they’re bad.
GMO Foods
Monsanto is an American multinational agricultural biotechnology
corporation responsible for hazards such as Agent Orange. They are
currently well known for Genetically Modified agriculture, owning nearly
90% of staple GMO crops such as corn, soy, and cotton. In independent
studies GMO food has been linked to organ failure, and a recent Russian
study has concluded near-total sterility in GMO-soy-fed hamsters by the
third generation.
The question of whether or not genetically modified foods (GMO’s) are
safe for human consumption is an ongoing debate that does not seem to
see any resolution except in the arena of public opinion. Due to lack of
labeling, Americans are still left at a loss as to whether or not what
is on the table is genetically modified. This lack of information makes
the avoiding and tracking of GM foods, very difficult. The top 10 worst
GMO foods for your “do not eat” GMO foods list include corn, sugar,
aspartame, papayas, canola oil, cotton oil, dairy, zucchini, and yellow
squash.
The best advice: steer clear of them altogether.
"Summer Nights in Michigan," by Michael A. Rosinski, was a
Highly Commended entry in this year's Astronomy Photographer of the Year
contest.
With so many eye-popping images coming from space-based
cameras on Hubble, Cassini and Curiosity, it's easy to forget that
ordinary humans can snap great astronomy photos from right here on
Earth. The 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition
celebrates these terrestrial shutterbugs, and we've compiled a slideshow
of the winners.
Prizes were awarded to amateur and professional photographers from 12 countries, including two who were only 13 years old.
Pat Carroll/New York Daily News
Valerie Spruill hopes talking publicly about her ordeal will help others in similar circumstances.
An Ohio woman who unknowingly married her father says she is unsure
whether he knew he was wed to his biological daughter before his death
in 1998.
"It is devastating. It can destroy you," Valerie Spruill, 60,
told CNN
of learning eight years ago that she had been married to her father. A
DNA test using hair from the late Percy Spruill's brush confirmed the
shocking news.
Valerie Spruill lived silently with the secret until this month, when she gave an
interview to the Akron Beacon Journal to try and help others dealing with similar circumstances.
"I want this to be more of an inspirational story," the 60-year-old
told the newspaper. "If I've come through this, anyone can come through
anything through the help of the Lord."
Spruill, who lives in Doylestown, Ohio, says other members of her
family knew the dark secret long before the news was revealed to her.
Spruill, who is now retired with eight grandchildren, thinks all people should know the truth about their families.
“"It needs to be told, because children need to know where they come
from," Valerie Spruill told th Beacon—Journal. "And I know it hurts,
because I have been devastated by this.”
