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The purported value of Ivanka Trump’s Park Avenue penthouse came under scrutiny this week during testimony at trial in the New York attorney general’s $250 million civil fraud case against the former president. Donald Bender, a former accountant for Donald Trump at the accounting firm Mazars USA, testified in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday that he saw errors between the value listed for the posh pad on financial documents and its potential sale price. Bender explained from the witness stand that, while he wasn’t in charge of auditing the company financials, he “from time to time” would tell Trump Organization...

Former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social early Tuesday that he will be back in a Manhattan courthouse Tuesday for the second day of the $250 million civil fraud trial brought against him by the New York Attorney General’s Office. “I’d love to be campaigning instead of doing this,” he had said Monday when proceedings finished for the day, insisting he “built a great company.” Outside the courtroom Monday, Trump reiterated claims he made earlier in the day that the charges against him amount to election interference in the 2024 presidential race. The fraud lawsuit brought by New York...

A British man who sparked a police manhunt after going missing in Nairobi has been found in a pub after a four-day bender, sharing a keg of beer with some newfound friends. Police from Kenya’s elite crime units had been deployed to find Nelson Newbery, 22, after his disappearance on December 6 caused panic among friends and family. Twitter posts suggest Mr Newbery was living and working in Nairobi when he disappeared. According to one post, his colleague Sebastian Gibaud at the company ChaiT said he had gone to buy a replacement sim card for his mobile phone when he...

Washington (CNN)Then-President Donald Trump told a number of his advisers in 2020 that whoever leaked information about his stay in the White House bunker in May of that year had committed treason and should be executed for sharing details about the episode with members of the press, according to excerpts of a new book, obtained by CNN, from Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender. Trump, along with then-first lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron, were all taken to the underground bunker for a period of time during the protests spurred by the police killing of George Floyd as protesters...

The Minneapolis City Council president will vote to abolish the city's police department for a "transformative new model of public safety." On Thursday, Lisa Bender, the Minneapolis City Council president, committed to abolishing law enforcement in the city, which is home to approximately 430,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. "Yes. We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department and replace it with a transformative new model of public safety," Bender said in response to Jeremiah Ellison, the son of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and another member of the city council. **SNIP** In an interview with local...

Jacob Bender, the non-Muslim Useful Idiot who heads up Hamas-linked CAIR’s Philadelphia chapter, boasted Wednesday on the organization’s website: “What CAIR can do, however, and what it has been doing superbly for 10 years now, is to oppose the anti-Muslim ideology of the Trumps, the Cruzs, the Pamela Gellers, the Robert Spencers…” Notice that he doesn’t say that Hamas-linked CAIR is opposing the ideology of the Syed Rizwan Farooks, the Mohammed Abdulazeezes, the Dzhokhar Tsarnaevs, the Nidal Malik Hasans.

Kate Bender loved to flirt. The beautiful young woman smiled and batted her eyes at male travelers who stopped during the early 1870s at the tiny inn where she lived in southeast Kansas. But those travelers were flirting with death. Kate and the inn's other keepers -- thought to be her father, mother and brother -- would rob and murder at least 11 people. Often, as a lone visitor sat at a dinner table with his back to a canvas curtain, a Bender man behind the curtain would use a hammer to bash the visitor's skull. The Benders would slash...

On June 20 Metro-North's New Haven Line was shut down for nearly three hours as a result of a junior high student's cardboard robot having been left on an overhead bridge near the Metro-North station at Fairfield, CT. At About 5:30 a.m., a town street sweeper saw it and alerted the Fairfield police who, in turn called in MTA police and a State Police bomb squad and helicopter to seal off nearby streets and investigate; this action also caused M-NR to suspend service. It took the investigators nearly three hourse to realize that the "suspicious object" was merely a homemade...

In 1870, Ma, Pa, Mary, and Laura Ingalls left their home in southeast Kansas, where they had lived for about a year, and headed back to Wisconsin. Their Kansas home was later the basis for Laura's book The Little House on the Prairie. That same year, a group of new families moved into the area. They were Spiritualists, a religion that was totally foreign to the homesteaders already in the new state. Two of the families moved away within a year. The others kept to themselves, with the exception of the Benders. John Bender, Sr., and his family settled in...

*Thursday, December 13* Cincinnati (7-6) at Philadelphia (4-9) - 8:20 p.m. (Line: Cincinnati by 3.5) Bengals WR A.J. Green is on pace for 97 receptions this season. The Eagles got their first victory since September last week. ---RJ's Pick: Cincinnati by 8 *Sunday, December 16* New York Giants (8-5) at Atlanta (11-2) - 1:00 p.m. (Line: ATLANTA BY 2) A matchup of division-leading teams. The Giants are just a game ahead of both Washington and Dallas in the NFC East. The Falcons have already wrapped up the NFC South, with a five-game lead over second place Tampa Bay. The Giants...

GREEN BAY (9-4) At CHICAGO (8-5) Sunday, 1 p.m., FOX OPENING LINE -- Packers by 3

Chicago (8-4) at Minnesota (6-6) - 1:00 p.m. (Line: Chicago by 3) The Bears have lost three of their last four games. Their lone victory in that stretch came against Minnesota. The Vikings are 5-1 at home this year. Quarterback Christian Ponder has thrown for more than 200 yards just twice in his last six games, and for more than 150 yards just three times in his last six outings. ---RJ's Pick: Minnesota by 3 New York Jets (5-7) at Jacksonville (2-10) - 1:00 p.m. (Line: New York Jets by 2.5) As of this writing, no one knows who will...

I went 10-6 last week straight up, and 12-3-1 against the spread. *Sunday, December 2* Indianapolis 7-4 at Detroit 4-7 - 1:00 p.m. (Line: DETROIT by 4.5) The outcome of this game doesn't really matter much to me, as a Lions fan. They ain't making the playoffs this year. But I am interested to see how many times Ndamukong Suh "accidentally" kicks Colts QB Andrew Luck in the nuts. ---RJ's Pick: Lions by 8 Jacksonville 2-9 at Buffalo 4-7 - 1:00 p.m. (Line: BUFFALO by 6) A crappy warm weather team going to play in a cold weather city in...

*Sunday, November 25* Minnesota (6-4) at Chicago (7-3) 1:00 p.m. (Line: No Line) The Vikings would move into a three-way tie for first place in the NFC North with a win here and a loss by the Packers on Sunday Night Football. There is no line for this game as of this writing presumably due to the fact that Jay Cutler's status is up in the air. I think he'll play. ---RJ's Pick: Bears by 9 Oakland (3-7) at Cincinnati (5-5) 1:00 p.m. (Line: Cincinnati by 7) The Raiders have lost three straight, while the Bengals have won two in...

Green Bay 6-3 @ Detroit 4-5 at 1:00 p.m. (Line: PACKERS BY 3.5) Packers LB Clay Matthews is out of the lineup this week with a hamstring injury. The Lions are the only team in the NFC North with a losing record, but they are 2-1 at home this season. ---RJ's Pick: Detroit by 2

I went 12-2 straight up last week, and 10-4 against the spread. What follows are my picks for the NFL's Week 10: *Thursday, November 8* Indianapolis (5-3) at Jacksonville (1-7) - 8:20 p.m. (Line: Colts by 3) The Colts have won three in a row. The Jaguars have dropped five straight. They are winless at home this season and have the most inept offense in the league in terms of points per game, passing yards per game, and total yards per game. - RJ's Pick: Indianapolis by 7

I went 10-4 straight up last week, and 7-7 against the spread. For the season, that puts me at 72-46 and 50-63-5 against the spread. For a comparison, check out the "experts" over at ESPN.com. What follows are my picks for the NFL's Week Nine: **Thursday, November 1** Kansas City 1-6 at San Diego 3-4 - 8:20 p.m. (Line: SD by 7) The Chiefs have lost four in a row. They are ranked 29th in the league in both points scored per game and points allowed per game. Matt Cassel has thrown 10 INTs and lost six fumbles so far...

I went 11-2 last week straight up, and 6-5-2 against the spread. Here are my picks for the NFL's Week Eight: Seattle 4-3 at Detroit 2-4 - 1:00 p.m. [Line: Lions by 2] I know I'm a total homer, but the Lions should really be at least 4-2 right now. They haven't lost a game by more than eight points this season. The only game where they were truly outplayed was a Week Two loss on the road to the 49ers. The Seahawks are just 1-3 on the road and have the second-worst offense in the league in terms of...

NC Senate candidate arrested on drug chargesThe Associated Press Modified Fri, Oct 19, 2012 04:07 PM ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. -- Authorities say a Democratic candidate for the N.C. Senate is in jail on charges that he sold prescription pills from his home. Castalia town commissioner Clarence Alexander Bender was arrested during a traffic stop Thursday by Nash County deputies. Bender is charged with three counts of trafficking opium or heroin and maintaining a place for keeping and storage of a controlled substance.

*Thursday, October 18* Seattle 4-2 at San Francisco 4-2 - 8:20 p.m. [Line: SF by 7] Two of the league's top defenses square off. The 49ers have a much better offense than the Seahawks, and they also have home field advantage. But don't expect a blowout. -RJ's Pick: San Francisco by 3