Monthly Archives: May 2017
From the big house to the ‘burbs: Scottsdale ‘Mafia’ family stars in reality show
Check out Monique Griego’s full story on the Cantarella family’s transition from a life of crime to life in the Sonoran Desert TONIGHT on 12 News at 10.
It’s a lifestyle most of us only know about from the movies: The Mafia life.
“It was a great life — there wasn’t anything we couldn’t have,” said Richard Cantarella.
As a former mobster with the Bonanno crime family, Cantarella and his son Paul grew up in the Mafia. But in 2002, their world came crashing down when the FBI came knocking.
“I got arrested in 2002 and I wound up cooperating with the government,” Cantarella told 12 News.
Cantarella faced life in prison for his alleged ties to a string of Mafia hits and Paul was looking at 20 years for racketeering.
Both decided to cooperate with Paul heading into witness protection as his father waited in prison.
“I chose to be loyal to my family rather than my boss,”
Back then, he never imagined he and his wife Lauretta would end up out west, far away from New York.
“My son picked the state. He flew here, found a home and loved it,” Cantarella said.
In 2004, Paul left witness protection for sunny Scottsdale.
“It was like paradise to me,” said Paul, “The palm trees and your pool was open all year.”
Cantarella later followed, leaving the big house for the Phoenix suburbs.
“You know what I notice out here? There’s a lot of money out here,” Cantarella said. “I’ve never seen so many Bentleys, Maseratis … This would actually be a haven for the Mafia.”
Once in Arizona, the Cantarellas traded a life of crime for a legit family business.
Their Valley car washes are also now serving as the backdrop for the family’s latest endeavor: Unprotected, a reality show on the Oxygen network.
Ja Rule on Fyre Festival Being Under FBI Investigation
BY TRACE WILLIAM COWEN
As expected, the Fyre Festival woes continue. A criminal investigation into the Fyre proceedings is reportedly being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, the New York Times reported Sunday. Federal authorities, according to a Times source, are looking into “possible” mail, wire, and securities fraud.
The Times report also adds greater context to the botched Great Exuma fest’s wide range of victims. Blink-182, who pulled out of their headlining Fyre slot in the nick of time “after much careful and difficult consideration,” still have tour equipment stuck in customs limbo. Festival employees are awaiting payment. One restaurant owner, who catered meals, told the Times she’s still waiting on her $134,000.
How celebrities’ ‘golden glow’ shines on public health
Updated 12:20 PM ET, Thu May 18, 2017
(CNN)When celebrities speak, it seems, the world listens — even when it comes to personal and public health.
Just look at what happened after Charlie Sheen’s HIV disclosure two years ago, said John Ayers, a research professor at San Diego State University.
Sales of in-home HIV testing kits reached record highs around the same time the actor announced that he had been diagnosed as HIV-positive in 2015, according to a study published in the journal Prevention Science on Thursday. Ayers was a co-author of the study.
About the same time, “in record numbers, people were going online, seeking out information on what the signs of HIV are, on how to find and appropriately prevent HIV with devices such as condoms and also how to get tested,'” Ayers said. “We’ve seen this … many times over.”
For the new study, Ayers and his co-authors monitored weekly sales of OraQuick, the only FDA-approved at-home oral HIV testing kit available in the United States, from 2014 to 2016.
The researchers found that there were 8,225 more sales than they expected the week of Sheen’s HIV status announcement. Elevated sales continued for four weeks after Sheen’s disclosure.
The findings show a correlation, not a direct causation. Yet in a previous study, Ayers and his colleagues also found that Google searches for HIV testing and related topics also spiked after Sheen’s announcement.
“The most common reaction is, ‘So what? What does a search really mean?’ Our new study shows not only did Sheen’s disclosure lead people to seek information about HIV prevention, it also corresponded with record levels of at-home rapid HIV testing sales,” Ayers said.
hey are not doctors, many celebrities have had both positive and negative ties to public health in recent years.
Luxury Italian shoe firm Gianvito Rossi accused of refusing to give Serena Williams a celebrity discount because ‘the company did not want African American women to wear its shoes’
- Gianvito Rossi managers have been accused of racism in a new lawsuit
- Allegedly refused to give tennis star Serena Williams a celebrity discount because ‘the company did not want African American women to wear its shoes’
- They also used ‘racially disparaging comments about Ms. Williams’, suit claims
- Whitney Wilburn, who is black, also claims her ex-manager Grace Mazzilli was ‘hostile to Wilburn based upon her race and age’
- She was later fired without warning, replaced with a younger, white employee
Bosses at luxury shoe company Gianvito Rossi have been accused of branding Serena Williams ‘disgusting’ and refusing to give her a celebrity discount because she’s black.
Whitney Wilburn, who went to work for the shoe firm’s Manhattan boutique in 2015, has filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against her former employer.
Wilburn claims her old boss Grace Mazzilli had a ‘racial animosity toward African Americans’, New York Post.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4520376/Shoe-company-accused-racism-against-Serena-Williams.html#ixzz4hg7djlNt
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