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Police: Hemet man posed as marshal to deport woman
A Southern California man posed as a U.S. marshal to kidnap a distant cousin's wife and falsely deport her to the Philippines, police said Tuesday.
Police arrested Greg Raymond Denny Jr. of Riverside County last month on suspicion of impersonating an officer and kidnapping Cherriebelle Hibbard.
Police said Denny, 37, barged into Hibbard's Hemet home on Jan. 15 wearing a fake badge and a shirt that said "U.S. Marshal." Denny handcuffed the woman at gunpoint and forced her husband to buy her a plane ticket. He then used a fake badge to get through San Diego airport security and put her on a plane to her home country, according to a police report.
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CRAIG A. COOPER
These girls call him Papa, everyone else knows him as Lieutenant Craig Cooper with the Department of Fish and Game.
Congratulations on your retirement!
We love you more!
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Snowboarder Kevin Pearce moved to Denver hospital
Snowboarder Kevin Pearce has been transferred to a Denver hospital specializing in brain injuries.
Pearce banged his head on the halfpipe during practice Dec. 31 and was taken to University of Utah hospital.
An update Thursday says Pearce is making "excellent strides" since the accident left him in critical condition. He has been moved to Craig Hospital - considered to have one of the top rehab facilities for people with traumatic brain injuries.
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'Avatar's' 3D effects will send you into space
Director James Cameron's "Avatar" is absolutely stunning - so visually grand that there's no way to fully appreciate the artistry.
Cameron's concern for detail in creating the alien world of Pandora includes even the tiniest of details, such as the insects that flit through its dazzling jungles of flora. This splendor is magnified by a 3D effect that's so lifelike, you can almost feel the breath of the massive beasts roaming the lush landscape.
This is the backdrop for Jake (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic war veteran recruited for a special avatar program on Pandora where humans can be mentally linked to Na'vi, the planet's inhabitants, who have been grown in a laboratory. It's like the ultimate computer role-playing game.
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Reviews of recent and upcoming DVD releases
A Serious Man (R, 2009, Universal/Focus)
Great movies express powerful emotions - heartbreak, joy, love, anger - in ways that resonate strongly with viewers. But it takes something truly special to convey the dull ache of fading dreams and encroaching irrelevance as masterfully as poor physics professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) does while his employers debate his value, his wife (Sari Lennick) kicks him out of his own house, his next-door neighbor (Peter Breitmayer) greets him with unsolicited death stares, and his friend of 15 years (Fred Melamed) so politely moves in on his wife. "A Serious Man" flies the dark and dry comedy flag with unbridled pride, but it also leapfrogs past those simple classifications by investing more care into a blank stare or idle twitch of the mouth than most dark comedies invest in their dialogue. Years of watching sympathetic heroes like Larry have trained us to wait patiently for the moment in which the hero angrily decides to reclaim his pride, but while the truth won
If the most recent forays into the James Bond universe -- with their horribly convoluted plots, far-fetched gizmos, campy scenarios, cheesy villains and Pierce Brosnan -- have disillusioned you about the possibility of a decent new film, then your worries are at an end. Bond enthusiasts now can die another day in peace, knowing the franchise is in good hands with Daniel Craig. His Bond is in dark contrast to the martini-sipping, tuxedo-wearing pretty boy often portrayed in recent films.
In the opening of "Casino Royale," we witness Bond's promotion to "00" agent, via two murders: one done in the typical, calculated Bond style, and the other in an undeniably un-Bond manner -- for your eyes only.
We see Craig beating the living daylights out of a henchman in a bathroom, ultimately drowning him in a sink, revealing the character's flaws as a ruthless and risk-taking thrill-seeker rather than the collected, logical and merciful agent his boss, M, wants him to be. That is the main attraction to Craig: His Bond makes mistakes, misjudges situations and even breaks a sweat more than once, making him a more realistic hero to vie for the audience's emotions.
The intriguing plot of "Casino Royale" also doesn't hurt its prospects as the best Bond movie in decades -- centering around a poker game with mounds of chips worth a million dollars each. Bond is entered into the game to win the money of Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), the new deformed,scar-faced villain, a personal banker to a number of world terrorist groups. Sent by M to keep an eye on Bond (isn't that always the case?) is MI6 treasurer Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), who, in addition, pretends to be his wife in order to distract the other card players.
While this card game may sound like a boring plot device, there still are explosions, fistfights, acrobatics and several exciting action sequences in which Bond uses his license to kill. The poker game provides an equally thrilling experience -- but in the form of suspense, not violence.
For those who disliked Brosnan's Bond, live and let die the past decade of Bond movies, for Daniel Craig should prove a satisfying 007 for years to come.
Chase Stubblefield attends Buchanan High School.
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