Category: News

Alejandra Silva is celebrating husband Richard Gere‘s first Spanish Father’s Day since leaving the U.S. and relocating to his wife’s native country.

On Wednesday, the publicist and political activist took to Instagram to share a series of rare family photos in honor of her husband and Father’s Day, which is observed on March 19, the feast of Saint Joseph.

The couple, who moved to Madrid about four months ago, could be seen spending time with their boys, including one photo where the acclaimed actor bends down to greet sons Alexander, six, James, four, and Albert, 12, who Silva shares with ex-husband Govind Friedland.

‘Happy 1st Spanish Father’s Day to the dad of the world,’ the native of A Coruña, Galicia, Spain wrote across the bottom of the sweet snap.

She also took to the caption and wrote, ‘Happy First Spanish Father’s Day! We love you!’ along with the hashtags: ‘#fathersday #diadelpadre.’

There’s also a couple of photos of the happy couple frolicking on a beach with Alexander and James.

One of the images partially captured the couple sharing a hug while standing in a few inches of water, while the other shows the four of them all running together along the shoreline.

The proud mother also posted an adorable photo on her Instagram Story of some pictures drawn by their youngest boys for their dad on his special day.

‘Happy Father’s Day!’ Silva, 42, wrote alongside the cute drawings of their family.

Along with his three young sons, the Pretty Women actor, 75, also has a son Homer, 24, whom he shares with his second wife Carey Lowell. 

He was also previously married to supermodel legend Cindy Crawford from 1991 to 1995. 

Gere and Silva, who tied the knot in 2018, moved to Spain this past November, in part, for humanitarian reasons.

‘The only reason why both Richard and I are here in Madrid is to be part of the board of the NGO Hogar Sí,’ the former Vice President of Real Madrid Football Club explained in an interview with ELLE España in January.

‘We want to help this country to end homelessness. Our goal is that, within 5 years, no one sleeps on the street.’

They would also reveal that they were motivated to make the move across the Atlantic so Silva could be closer to her family and culture after living together in the U.S. for seven years.

Silva went on compliment Gere on his parenting skills since making the transition to their new family life in Spain after selling their $10.75 million Connecticut mansion

‘Richard is a very devoted and present father,’ she gushed. ‘He loves to read them stories. It seems like an idyllic photo, but it’s true. He’s a great dad. He doesn’t cook. I do it, but when I cook, he plays the guitar.’

Gere, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania native, confessed to having a new sense of fulfillment since relocating during their joint interview a couple months ago.

‘The truth is that you are seeing us in our momentum. We are happier than ever,’ the star of An Officer And A Gentleman expressed. ‘[Alejandra], because she is at home and I because, if she is happy, I am happy.’

A Washington, D.C. teenager mysteriously vanished after a police car chase in January. Now, months later, his mother is demanding the truth about what happened, and is accusing authorities of withholding information.

Nyair Raymond, 17, left a family home at around 5 p.m. on January 15 before he became involved in the car chase, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

Officers reportedly chased down a black Kia Sportage for a traffic violation. When the car finally pulled over, both the driver and the passenger fled on foot, according to police.

The 18-year-old driver of car was arrested at the scene, but the passenger — who is believed to be Raymond — escaped and hasn’t been seen since. Raymond was listed as a missing person three days later.

His mother, Sharnell Ford, was told her son fled from the passenger side of a stolen vehicle during the police chase near the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, and was last spotted under the bridge.

Three days after Raymond’s disappearance, Ford told Fox5 that her son’s phone was recovered from the area.

His jacket was also recovered a week later, submerged in the Anacostia River — over an hour from where National Missing and Unidentified Persons reported that he was last seen.

A body was s found March 7 in that river, but police have not formally identified the remains, DC News Now reported.

Ford told Fox: “It’s an African American male, about six feet tall. It all fits the criteria of my son.”

Ford said she hasn’t been allowed to see the body. “They’ve had that body for over a week, and they’re telling me they won’t let me see it,” the mother explained.

“My son has been wronged somewhere,” she added.

Ford suspects that the Metropolitan Police Department is hiding the truth, and she’s demanding to see body camera footage taken on the evening of the car chase.

“I want to know what they did and what they didn’t do,” Ford told Fox5. “Something happened under that bridge.”

A GoFundMe page created by the family after Raymond’s disappearance described the teen as “a very outgoing young man with a promising future” who adored his family. The family is trying to raise enough money to offer a reward for information on the teenager’s whereabouts.

A police investigation is ongoing.

The Independent contacted Nyair’s family and the Metropolitan Police Department for comment.

The story of Natalia Grace, a Ukrainian-born American with dwarfism who was adopted by a family in the United States and then abandoned, has been at the center of not one, but two television series. There’s The Curious Case of Natalia Grace (which was retitled The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks for its second season) and the upcoming Hulu series Good American Family, starring Ellen Pompeo. But what really happened with Natalia Grace?

It’s been the question on a lot of people’s minds for years. The story is this: Natalia Grace was first brought to the United States as a child and adopted by parents who later abandoned her. She was adopted again, but her second set of adoptive parents claimed she was an adult posing as a child, so they abandoned her too. Natalia went on to be adopted a third time.

Who are Natalia Grace’s parents? Who adopted her when and why was she abandoned? Where are they now? Here’s everything we know.

Where are Natalia Grace’s parents now?

Birth mother: Anna Volodymyrivna Gava

Natalia Grace was born in Ukraine to Anna Volodymyrivna Gava. After her birth, she was placed in an orphanage in Ukraine. Details of her birth mother were only discovered after a case of neglect was brought up against her second adoptive parents and prosecutors investigated to try to determine her real age at the time she was abandoned to live on her own.

She was born in Latvia on April 20, 1979, and has spoken out about Natalia Grace since she was discovered, telling the Daily Mail she gave her daughter up for adoption because she couldn’t properly care for her disability.

“Daughter, forgive me for what happened 16 years ago. Visit soon for me to see you,” she said in a 2019 interview. “We are waiting for you. You have two sisters and two brothers.” She lives in Ukraine.

She also added, “I didn’t initially want to leave her, but the doctors said there is nothing you could do for her. ‘You are young,’ they said, ‘You are 24 years old. Don’t ruin your life, you will have other children.’”

As for Natalia Grace, the last she spoke about it, in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks, she said, “I get it, you probably do wanna see me and everything like that, but I have a family here. I have my parents who raised me.”

First adoptive parents: Dyan and Gary Ciccone

Natalia Grace was originally adopted by the Ciccone’s in New Hampshire. How she got from them to her second pair of adoptive parents it’s hard to tell, though it seems to have been a private adoption. Rumors have swirled that the Ciccones tried to “sell” Natalia to the next family, due to the fact that her medical needs were too expensive.

The Ciccone’s paid for one of Natalia Grace’s surgeries and afterward, were said to be looking for new parents for her. Reports even indicate there was one teacher who wanted to adopt her but couldn’t “afford” to do so. This raises the question of what exactly the Ciccones were asking for. Reddit even went as far as to suggest child trafficking.

One Redditor said, “So someone on Twitter posted a link to a ProPublica filing and Dyan Ciccone also appears to be running her own adoption agency out of New Hampshire. I think it’s possible these people were ‘flipping’ these foreign-born adoptees in private $$ adoptions- utilizing their own ‘adoption agency’ to facilitate these deals.”

No information about the Ciccone’s whereabouts is publicly available.

Second adoptive parents: Michael and Kristine Barnett

It was Natalia Grace’s second adoptive parents that brought her story into the spotlight. In 2010, Natalia was adopted by Michael and Kristine Barnett, who abandoned her just a couple of years later, with the two claiming she wasn’t a child. Kristine told the Daily Mail at the time, “Natalia was a woman. She had periods. She had adult teeth. She never grew a single inch, which would happen even with a child with dwarfism. The doctors all confirmed she was suffering a severe psychological illness only diagnosed in adults.”

The couple were charged with abandoning and endangering a dependent after moving Natalia Grace to an apartment by herself and then leaving the country for Canada. In 2012, they also successfully petitioned the court to change her birth date from 2003 to 1989. Prosecutors investigating the neglect case later found evidence that supported the 2003 birth date, including Natalia Grace’s birth mother. That meant Natalia Grace was only 10 years old when she was left to live on her own.

The two split up in 2014 and were already separated by the time they were charged. Michael Barnett was acquitted of the charges, and Natalia Grace says he reached out to her and during the conversation said he and Natalia had “the same monster” in Kristine. He lives in Indiana now. The charges against Kristine were dropped due to insufficient evidence. She is believed to be living in Florida.

Third adoptive parents: Cynthia and Antwon Mans

Cynthia and Antwon Mans brought Natalia Grace, 22, into their home after she was abandoned by the Barnetts and they discovered she was living alone. The adoption was apparently not made legal until 2023, but Natalia Grace lived with them and referred to them as her parents throughout The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks documentary.

But a new Investigation Discovery documentary called The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter set to air in January, showed the beginning of the issues between Natalia Grace and her third set of adoptive parents. A teaser for the documentary shows Antwon Mans telling producers “Something ain’t right with Natalia.” She also has not appeared in any family pictures with the Mans in some time and reportedly does not live with them anymore. The family has kept posting pictures without her and is active on social media.

Current adoptive parents: Nicole and Vince DePaul

Not that much is known about her relationship with the DePauls other than what’s been teased about the upcoming documentary, whose synopsis reads in part, “After the Manses phone call revealed a tense and potentially dangerous living environment for Natalia, the DePaul family launched an epic rescue mission to free her from the suffocating life with Bishop Antwon and Cynthia Mans. Confronted with the choice of staying or leaving her home with the Manses, Natalia must work to build a new life for herself while also healing from the emotional turmoil caused by both the Manses and the Barnetts.”

The DePauls both have a form of dwarfism and said they originally wanted to adopt Natalia Grace in 2009 before she was adopted by the Barnetts.

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LONG ISLAND – A Long Island man has been charged with murder after allegedly shooting and killing his father inside their Dix Hills home, according to Suffolk County police.

What we know:

Officials identified the victim as John “Jack” Miller Sr., a retired Suffolk County police detective and a Wyandanch Fire Department member.

The suspect, 43-year-old Christopher Miller, had recently moved back into his childhood home after a divorce and was living alone with his father, police said.

According to authorities, Christopher had gotten into a car accident earlier this week and ended up getting into a fight with the other driver and was taken to the hospital. At the same time, his father filed a missing persons report because he didn’t know where Christopher was.

Christopher was discharged from the hospital, came home, and Wednesday morning, after an argument with his father, shot his father with a shotgun multiple times, before trying to run away.

Officers later responded to a disturbance call about a man inside a shed on Seaman Neck Road. The same officer who had initially responded to the missing persons report recognized Christopher Miller and escorted him back home, where he found Miller’s father dead inside.

What they’re saying:

“Police officers responded to a call of a disturbance of a man inside a shed on Seaman Neck Road. The same police officer who responded to the missing persons report, which ended up not being a missing person, responded to the disturbance call,” said Det. Lt. Kevin Beyrer of the Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad. “He recognized Christopher Miller, brought him back to the house in order to turn him over to his father, at which time he saw that his father was dead.”

What’s next:

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Christopher Miller has been charged with murder. He will be arraigned at a later date.

HuntingtonCrime and Public Safety

I met a coyote once. I’ve talked about it before, but I think it’s worth a revisit.

It was 1986, and I was driving a cab at night. I’d given up around 2 a.m. and taken a night owl bus home. Home was a building north of the U that was cut into multiple rooms. Mine was 100 square feet and had a sloping ceiling so I could only stand by the entrance. Everywhere else I had to crouch.

Naturally, I didn’t enjoy winding down in my room after work. This night was a warm summer night, so I went down to the porch at the front of the house. I had my cheap cassette player and a tape I’d bought from a thrift store. The tape featured ragas performed by tabla, violin and sitar.

I started listening, wearing headphones so as not to disturb my fellow tenants, even though I didn’t think they deserved it.

You see, the building had been abandoned some months before by its landlord, so no one was collecting rent anymore. My loser neighbors reacted to this not by assuming ownership and responsibility for the building left in our hands, but by trashing it in every way imaginable.

They kicked walls in. They shot up rooms. They stopped flushing the toilets and let them fill up and overflow.

But still I wore the headphones. I started the first raga, and it began slow and easy, as they all tend to do. But it got faster and more vigorous as I listened more, and pretty soon it was completely alive.

Just as soon as the raga reached its peak, a coyote appeared in my line of sight, walking down the exact middle of the street in front of me. This was about 3 or 4 a.m. and dark but well lit by street lamps, so I could see it was a coyote and not just some domestic dog.

I get challenged on this point. I have to say I know enough to tell the difference. Domestic dogs are floppy and goofy. Coyotes are not at all floppy. Their backs hardly move as they walk. Their feet land one after another, and they seem to almost glide along.

I say “it” because I had no opportunity to turn it over for an inspection.

As soon as I saw it, we both froze. I stopped breathing altogether. The raga continued relentlessly in my ears. The coyote stared at me for about two seconds and then grinned at me.

Seeing it smiling relaxed me, and I blinked.

When I got my eyes open again, it had moved on down the street and was approaching some cars parked on the opposite side. Then it ducked between them, and that was the last I saw of it.

I didn’t tell anybody about it for a long while. Nobody asked. No one ever said, “Hey, Wes, seen any wild animals lately?”

The next spring, I quit driving cabs and became broke. I got down to three cents. A man observed that I was starving, so he offered to buy me sandwiches, and I accepted because starving isn’t fun. I knew the saying, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” but I’d figured I’d deal with the price later, whatever it was.

What it was, was I was supposed to join his religion. He wanted me to join his journey to heaven.

I didn’t want to be rude and say I didn’t want to follow him to heaven just like that, so I tried to think of a way to say it gentler.

What I did was I made up a story about how, overnight, Jesus came down from heaven in a VW bus, horn blaring, and said, “Hop in.” In the story, I did, and we drove around while he looked for more passengers, and pretty soon the bus was full of mostly homeless people, and he was about to haul us up to heaven — when I noticed a coyote looking for food in a trash can. I said to Jesus, “Please take the coyote,” and he said, “OK, but I’ll have to leave you.”

Next day I told my benefactor this story, and he was furious because it was not only sacrilege, but there are no coyotes in Seattle, he said. So the story was a total lie.

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Two families from Long Grove say their children have been suffering from health problems for years. They believe the cause is rooted in their kids’ public school.

Scarlett Strezewski, 13, says she first noticed symptoms when she was 12 years old.

“I would feel very dizzy and I would feel like the room was spinning. I would come down with these major headaches,” Scarlett told NBC 5 Responds. The symptoms began while she was a student at Woodlawn Middle School.

“It was a little bit scary not knowing what was happening with my body because I never experienced these symptoms before,” Scarlett explained.

Her parents say they watched their daughter’s condition deteriorate over time. Her father, John Strezewski, recalled, “At the end she was in there for 45 minutes to an hour and we just had to pick her up. So at that point, we knew we had to make other choices.”

So the Strezewskis set out to get answers. When Scarlett’s blood and urine were analyzed, the lab work showed she was found to be suffering from mold toxicity. The culprit: exposure to mycotoxins.

The World Health Organization says mycotoxins are toxic compounds produced by certain molds that can cause health problems. Scarlett’s doctor wrote a letter stating it’s “imperative” for Scarlett to be “excused from being physically present at school.”

The school district approved Scarlett for at-home learning. Her father said she was on homebound services for several months, and she received a tutor for one hour per day.

The Strezewski family requested a transfer to another school. They told NBC Chicago the process took five months. Ultimately, the transfer was denied by the school district. “We were just flabbergasted by that result,” said John Strezewski. They eventually moved Scarlett to a private school. She says she is no longer experiencing the symptoms.

Another Family Comes Forward

The Strezewskis learned their daughter wasn’t the only student at Woodlawn Middle School suffering from mold toxicity.

Patrick Lee says his son, Isaac, has aged out of Woodlawn Middle School. But while Isaac was there, he started experiencing symptoms similar to Scarlett’s. And Like Scarlett, Isaac tested positive for mycotoxin exposure.

Looking for Answers

The Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t have regulations or standards for levels of airborne mold or contaminants. But still, tests are available to analyze mold and mycotoxins.

The Lee and Strezewski families took it upon themselves to find a lab that tests for mycotoxins. They purchased a test and collected samples from an air vent at Woodlawn Middle School. John Strezewski said he swabbed an air intake vent in the school’s gym.

The test results found what the parents suspected to be true. They showed elevated levels of mycotoxins in the school. These are the same types of toxins found in Scarlett and Isaac’s blood and urine samples.

NBC Chicago wanted to talk with Kildeer Countryside Community Consolidated School District 96 about the test results. The school district declined to speak with NBC Chicago on camera, but it did direct us to results from its own mold testing. The assessment found “mold growth is not a concern in these schools.”

NBC Chicago took the test results from the school and from the families to the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology. The organization explained the school district’s tests were for mold and did not appear to test for mycotoxins. Those are the toxic substances believed to cause Scarlett and Isaac’s symptoms.

The AACT also noted: a sample that is collected by someone who doesn’t have training to do so may yield results that are not as reliable.

Response from the School District

We asked Kildeer Countryside Community Consolidated School District 96 if it tested for mycotoxins, and if so, where we can find those results. It didn’t respond directly to that question. Instead, it sent us a statement which reads:

“We believe these claims to be unfounded on the basis of thorough testing performed by independent, internationally recognized, third-party professionals following sampling methodologies accredited by the American Industrial Hygiene Association. As we have stated in the past, our district is committed to maintaining the highest standards for safety and ensuring our facilities are fully compliant with all federal, state, regional, and local environmental regulations. We have gone to great lengths to communicate with individual families, hear their concerns, and devote district resources to gathering the facts.

We are not authorized to publicly discuss any student’s particular circumstances due to federal and state privacy laws, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Illinois School Student Records Act (ISSRA) which protect the confidentiality of student education records. Disclosing any personally identifiable student information would violate these laws and compromise the student’s privacy.  The District is committed to maintaining a safe and respectful environment for all students and families, ensuring that individual student matters are handled appropriately and confidentially.

For transparency, we have made the findings of two independent environmental reports—both conducted through detailed evaluations—publicly available. You will also find our previously issued public statement from September 2024, along with the full environmental reports, please visit: https://www.kcsd96.org/finance/country-meadows-woodlawn-environmental-reports.“

What’s Next?

The school district says a third-party industrial hygienist and toxicologist will discuss their findings during the Board of Education meeting scheduled for April 1. Staff unions from the school district are also expected to speak at the meeting.

In the meantime, the Strezewski and Lee families hope sharing their stories will spark change. Scarlett’s mother, Lindsay, told NBC 5 Responds, “We’re very hopeful that as a community we can have more of us coming together and banding together and hopefully pushing the school into doing the right thing, which is really just doing a more in depth investigation into their air and really seeing, you know, first hand what’s happening that’s causing all of this.”

A harrowing limited series from the U.K. A spring debut on Netflix. A near-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. The creator-writer is also the star.

With Baby Reindeer making an indelible mark on the awards landscape last year, Netflix is employing a now-familiar playbook in the hopes the streamer’s latest buzz-worthy release, Adolescence, follows a similar trajectory to awards gold.

The launch

Baby Reindeer, which chronicled the real-life story of a struggling stand-up comedian (Richard Gadd, a comedian little known outside of his native Scotland) and his stalker (Jessica Gunning), seemingly came out of nowhere. Fueled by strong reviews (a 99 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and word of mouth, the seven-episode series became an instant must-watch breakout, jumping to No. 1 on the platform in its second week and acquiring 52.8 million viewing hours.

SEE ‘Adolescence’ receives rare 100% rating: Critics rave about Netflix’s ‘quietly devastating,’ ‘astounding,’ ‘must-watch’ limited series

A four-episode crime drama, Adolescence was co-created and co-written by Stephen Graham, a two-time SAG winner as part of the Boardwalk Empire ensemble, and Jack Thorne. Graham also stars as Eddie Miller, the father of 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), who is arrested for allegedly murdering a classmate. Each episode is directed by Philip Barantini and filmed in a single take as viewers follow Jamie’s path through the British legal system.

Although some TV critics were initially hesitant about the one-shot storytelling device, they came around, calling Adolescence “quietly devastating,” “astounding,” and a “must-watch.” The program launched with a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 90 score on Metacritic (based on 25 reviews). Since then, its Tomatometer score dipped to 98 percent, with a single top critic declining to give the series a fresh rating: The New Yorker‘s Inkoo Kang, who said Adolescence‘s “flashy, fragmentary approach undermines its attempts to illuminate.”

Adolescence dropped on March 13 and drew 24.3 million views in its first four days of availability to debut at No. 1 on the Netflix English TV charts, echoing the rise of Baby Reindeer. Adolescence also reached the top spot in 71 countries.

SEE The highest-rated Emmy contenders include ‘Adolescence,’ ‘Severance,’ ‘White Lotus’: Meet the 95-plus percent club

The campaign

Baby Reindeer failed to merit a mention on Netflix’s “For Your Consideration” listings when it premiered on April 11, 2023. It wasn’t even clear if Baby Reindeer would be submitted for the Primetime or International Emmys. Ten days after its hit debut, however, Netflix confirmed Baby Reindeer would compete at the Primetime Emmys. The series climbed into the No. 1 spot on Gold Derby’s charts for Best Limited Series in mid-June. It remained there throughout the rest of the season until its victory on Sept. 15.

While Adolescence might feel like it too materialized from nowhere, Netflix has always had Emmy hopes for the series and has positioned it as the next Baby Reindeer. As with that series, Adolescence is skyrocketing up Gold Derby’s Emmy charts, currently ranking in fourth place to win Best Limited Series. Expect that to change as more of our experts, editors, and users discover the Netflix series.

Besides Graham and Cooper, other Adolescence cast members with Emmy nominations in their sights include Erin Doherty as psychologist Briony Ariston and Ashley Walters as Detective Inspector Luke Bascombe.

The paydirt

Baby Reindeer went on an absolute heater during the awards season. It captured six Emmys (including three for producer-writer-star Gadd), two Golden Globes, two Critics Choice Awards, and one Screen Actors Guild Award; breakout star Gunning prevailed at every televised awards show.

With Adolescence, Netflix hopes to once again catch lightning in a bottle.

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Think Adolescence will repeat the success of Baby Reindeer? Give us your hot takes in the comments section below and in our TV forums.

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