Missing Hawaiian woman crossed freely into Mexico, Los Angeles police say
Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
(LOS ANGELES) — Hannah Kobayashi, a Hawaiian woman who has been missing for weeks, walked freely into Mexico just after noon on Nov. 12, the Los Angeles Police Department said on Monday.
The department said the case has been recategorized as a “voluntary missing persons” one and has been closed. Detectives said they believe she wanted to disappear.
The update comes after weeks of claims from family and friends that Kobayashi had been kidnapped and was in danger after she disappeared before boarding her connecting at Los Angeles International Airport in early November. She was heading from Hawaii to New York.
Kobayashi, 30, used her passport to buy a train ticket from L.A.’s Union Station to the San Ysidro point of entry, and from there walked into Mexico alone and with her luggage, police said.
Despite claims to the contrary from family, the LAPD said their evidence appeared to show that Kobayashi voluntarily did not board her flight to New York, that she had her airline give her bags to her in L.A. and that she roamed around L.A. before voluntarily heading to Mexico.
She also expressed a desire to disconnect from modern technology before she went off grid, police said on Monday. Detectives traveled to the border to look at surveillance video, which they said showed the woman crossing the border.
Kobayashi’s father, Ryan Kobayashi, died last month at a parking garage near LAX, after traveling to California from Hawaii to search for his daughter, according to the L.A. County Medical Examiner’s office.
LAPD authorities asked that Kobayashi contact her family from Mexico to let them she is OK. The department said it would try to contact Kobayashi if Customs and Border Protection alert the force that the Hawaiian native has reentered the United States.
(NEW YORK CITY) — A wildfire raging on the border of New York and New Jersey exploded overnight to 5,000 acres, prompting officials on Monday to postpone one of the oldest Veterans Day Parades in the nation.
As firefighters battled the Jennings Creek Fire straddling the border between Orange County, New York, and Passaic County, New Jersey, organizers of the 80th annual West Milford, New York, Veterans Day Parade, announced the event will be delayed until Nov. 24, due to the ongoing emergency.
“I cannot in good conscience detract from all the hard work our firefighters, police officers, first responders, DPW personnel and our community leaders are currently facing in dealing with wildfires along the East Shore area,” Rudy Hass, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7198 in West Milford, said in a statement.
Hass said many firefighters battling the Jennings Creek Fire are military veterans.
“Right now we need to keep them in our thoughts as they spend many hours, day and night, doing all they can in order to protect our great communities in that area,” Hass said.
The blaze broke out Saturday and burned drought-parched wildland stretching from the West Milford in Passaic County, New Jersey, to the Sterling Forest State Park in New York’s Orange County, and on both the New York and New Jersey sides of Greenwood Lake, officials said.
Despite the first measurable rain in the area in more than a month, the fire grew from about 2,500 acres on Sunday to over 5,000 acres, or about 4.7 square miles, by Monday morning, according to the New York Forest Fire Service.
The fire has burned about 2,500 acres on the New York and New Jersey sides of the fire, a forest ranger for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said at a news conference Monday.
Firefighters made progress battling the fire Sunday night, increasing containment from 0% to 20%, officials said.
At least 25 structures remain threatened by the conflagration, including eight historic structures in New Jersey’s Long Pond Ironworks State Park, a historic 175-acre village where iron was produced during the Revolutionary War, officials said.
A New York State Parks and Recreation aid was killed on Saturday helping the battle the Jennings Creek Fire, officials said. The deceased parks employee was identified Sunday by the New York State Police as 18-year-old Dariel Vasquez.
The New York and New Jersey forest services have teamed up to fight the fire on both sides of the state line.
Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus said numerous residents living near the fire have complied with voluntary evacuations.
“We had about 40 homes and residents that move out voluntarily, we really didn’t have to encourage them too much because they saw out their windows a major firestorm coming their way,” Neuhaus told ABC New York station WABC.
While Sunday’s light rainstorm was welcomed on the fire line, the precipitation did little to extinguish the fire, officials said. Overnight, about 0.25 inches of rain fell across the fire area.
“This provided an opportunity to rest several of the crews who have been working non-stop to contain this fire,” the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said in a social media post on Monday morning. “Today, crews are back on scene and will continue to improve containment lines and address area of concern.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Chief Bill Donnelly of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said at a news conference Sunday that it could take crews until the end of this week to extinguish the blaze.
The fire came amid blustery winds and drought conditions in New York and New Jersey, which before Sunday hadn’t seen any rain in more than a month, officials said.
Since Oct. 1, New Jersey firefighters have responded to 537 wildfires that have consumed 4,500 acres, including about 40 fires that ignited between Friday and Saturday, according to Donnelly. Forest Ranger Jeremy Oldroyd, of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, said New York fire crews have battled 60 wildfires since Oct. 1, and they have burned 2,100 acres.
At one point over the weekend, New Jersey firefighters were simultaneously battling at least six significant brush fires that ignited across the state, including a second large wildfire in Passaic County.
The “Cannonball 3” fire began on Friday afternoon near Passaic County’s Pompton Lake and grew to 181 acres. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service announced Sunday afternoon that firefighters had achieved 100% containment on the fire.
Another wildfire in New Jersey — the Shotgun Fire — started Wednesday and burned 350 acres of the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in Jackson Township before firefighters gained control of the blaze, officials said. Officials said the cause of the fire was arson.
Investigators concluded the fire began behind a berm at the Central Jersey Rifle & Pistol Club in Jackson, New Jersey, and was caused by magnesium shards of a “Dragon’s Breath” 12-gauge shotgun round, which ignited materials on the berm. Firing incendiary or tracer ammunition is illegal in New Jersey, authorities said.
Richard Shashaty, 37, of Brick Township, surrendered to the police on Saturday. He was charged with arson and violation of regulatory provisions relating to firearms, officials said Saturday.
(NEW YORK) — President-elect Donald Trump’s criminal hush money conviction in New York must be dismissed “to facilitate the orderly transition of Executive power,” Trump’s defense attorneys argued Wednesday in a letter to the court.
Defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove — both of whom Trump nominated last week to top DOJ posts in his new administration — sought the judge’s permission to file a motion to dismiss the case.
“Continuing with this case would be uniquely destabilizing,” the defense letter argued. “Just as a sitting President is completely immune from any criminal process, so too is President Trump as President-elect.”
The defense filing comes one day after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg opposed dismissing the case but consented to freeze of all remaining proceedings, including sentencing, until after Trump completes his term.
The defense sought a Dec. 20 deadline to file its motion to dismiss Trump’s 34-count felony conviction for falsifying business records.
Blanche and Bove said that would give Trump time to address “the positions taken by DOJ in the federal cases” Trump faces over the his election interference efforts and his handling of classified documents.
Both of the federal cases are currently paused while the Justice Department evaluates how to proceed.
Trump was convicted in May of all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to silence allegations about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
His conviction carries a maximum penalty of up to four years in prison, but first-time offenders would normally receive a lesser sentence.
(NEW YORK) — A type of baby powder distributed in 35 states and sold online through Amazon is being recalled due to potential contamination with asbestos.
The Dynarex Corporation said Monday that its earlier recall of Dynacare Baby Powder, initiated in September, had expanded from 12 states to 35, according to a company announcement on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website.
The company said the recalled Dynacare Baby Powder products were sold on or after Jan. 18, 2024, in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin and online through Amazon.com.
The recalled products include both 4-ounce and 14-ounce sizes, according to Monday’s announcement.
Dynarex has instructed customers to immediately discontinue use of recalled Dynacare Baby Powder products and return them for a full refund. There have been no illnesses or adverse events reported to date in connection with the recall, according to Dynarex.
Questions about refunds and returns can be directed to Dynarex Corporation at 888-396-2739 or 845-365-8200 during business hours of 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, or by email at recall@dynarex.com.
The company first announced the recall on Sept. 19 following “routine sampling” by the FDA, “which revealed that the finished products contained asbestos,” a known carcinogen, the company stated at that time.
“Upon further investigation, we have identified additional lots of products that may contain asbestos due to using the same bulk talc material,” Dynarex stated on Monday. “The company has ceased the distribution of the product as an investigation is proceeding to determine what caused the contamination of the talc.”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, asbestos “is a mineral fiber that occurs in rock and soil” that “has been used in a variety of building construction materials for insulation and as a fire retardant” and “in a wide range of manufactured goods.”
“Exposure to asbestos increases your risk of developing lung disease,” the EPA states. “That risk is made worse by smoking. In general, the greater the exposure to asbestos, the greater the chance of developing harmful health effects. Disease symptoms may take many years to develop following exposure.”
As Dynarex noted Monday, asbestos “is often found near talc, an ingredient in many cosmetic products.”
“If talc mining sites are not carefully chosen or if proper steps are not taken to adequately purify the talc ore, it may contain asbestos,” the company said.
