Free Republic

MIAMI – Did she see this coming? A federal judge sentenced a so-called psychic and fortune teller from Miami who prosecutors say swindled more than $3 million out of a woman by claiming she needed the money to break a family curse. Fifty-one-year-old Samantha Stevens was sentenced to spend 30 months in prison on fraud and money laundering charges, officials said Thursday. According to prosecutors, Stevens met the victim in 2012, gained her trust and convinced her that a curse had been placed on her family. Stevens claimed she needed to “perform rituals on large sums of money in order...

The 51-year-old Ozone Park woman gunned down in her own home was a tarot card reader who cops believe was slain by a disgruntled customer who thought she was a “witch” who had cursed him, sources said. Guiseppe Canzani, 41, who is facing murder charges in the broad-daylight shooting of 51-year-old Anna Torres on Wednesday, had gotten into a dispute with her outside the Queens home in recent days, the sources told The Post. He told cops he shot Torres “because she was a witch” and that she had put a spell on him and cursed him, one source said....

A fortune teller who used asparagus to predict England winning the Cricket World Cup says the US president is in for a rocky 2020. Jemima Packington interprets upcoming world events by chucking Vale of Evesham asparagus tips in the air and ‘reading’ how they land. The world’s only ‘Asparamancer’ thinks Donald Trump will be re-elected this year, but will be impeached again and kicked out of office. Last year Jemima, also known as Mystic Veg, correctly predicted a year of extreme temperatures across the globe. She thinks climate change will take centre stage again in 2020 but that more countries...

New York police arrested a fortune teller accused of scamming a woman out of more than $200,000 with claims of a curse that needed to be lifted. Investigators said Amanda Ufie, 26, a fortune teller operating out of a Manhattan storefront, convinced Jiawei Li, 22, that she was suffering from a curse in January 2012, and Li paid Ufie $217,040 in the ensuing 10 months to lift the curse, the New York Post reported Thursday. Police said their investigation, which began when Li filed a complaint against Ufie in January, discovered a "second individual" had been bilked of $1,400 when...

A Louisiana fortune teller feels vindicated after a federal judge struck down a city ordinance that banned fortunetelling, palm reading and astrology within the city limits of Alexandria. A Louisiana fortune teller feels vindicated after a federal judge struck down a city ordinance that banned fortunetelling, palm reading and astrology within the city limits of Alexandria. U.S. District Judge Dee Drell’s ruling Wednesday coincides with a magistrate’s findings that Alexandria’s city ordinance prohibiting such practices was unconstitutional in that it infringed on the First Amendment right to free speech. The ordinance itself not only prohibited psychic or Tarot reading for...

Fortuneteller, Daughter Killed Over Fortunetelling, O.C. Jury Told A prosecutor says murder-trial defendant Tanya Nelson was so angry at Ha Jade Smith [Pic in URL] that she flew from North Carolina to kill her. Also stabbed to death in 2005 was Smith's daughter, Anita Vo. By My-Thuan Tran February 12, 2010 Four years ago, a Little Saigon fortuneteller and her daughter were found stabbed to death. Their hands and faces were covered with white paint and the killer or killers fled with credit cards, jewelry and cash. Five weeks later, police arrested Tanya Nelson of North Carolina in the slayings...

MONTEREY BAY NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY, Calif. – Far from Copenhagen's turbulent climate talks, the sea lions, harbor seals and sea otters reposing along the shoreline and kelp forests of this protected marine area stand to gain from any global deal to cut greenhouse gases. These foragers of the sanctuary's frigid waters, flipping in and out of sight of California's coastal kayakers, may not seem like obvious beneficiaries of a climate treaty crafted in the Danish capital. But reducing carbon emissions worldwide also would help mend a lesser-known environmental problem: ocean acidification. "We're having a change in water chemistry, so 20...

A Norwegian politician has said she will not seek re-election after running up a large phone bill ringing fortune-tellers at parliament's expense. Saera Khan, an MP for the ruling Labour Party, admits calling pay-per-minute fortune-tellers 793 times in one nine-month period, for a total of 133 hours. In one three-month period, she spent 48,000 kroner (£4,590; $7,750), the daily Verdens Gang newspaper reported. Ms Khan, 29, who is on sick leave, has said she has paid the money back. Ms Khan's spending, which was more than twice as much as her parliamentary colleagues, became known after the parliament in Oslo...

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - If the historical performance of the Dow Jones industrial average is an indicator, John Kerry will be the 44th President of the United States. According to a study by the Hirsch Organization, publishers of the Stock Trader's Almanac, if the Dow loses more than 0.5 percent of its value from the end of September to Election Day, then an incumbent president is going to lose his job. The Dow has lost 0.75 percent of its value over the past month. This predictor has been true without exception every four years, from 1904 to the present, according...

The attack plans of 9-11-01 were well known since 1997. Many people were given precise, accurate details of those attacks. The warnings were derided and ignored.

Leave it up to San Francisco to possibly be the first city to implement legislation requiring psychics and fortune-tellers “to obtain permits, post their rates and stop tricking their clients.” The first two are mere technicalities, but that last one is the real clincher, because, unless you believe in the supernatural, psychics and fortune-tellers are by their very nature, tricking their clients. In covering this rather outlandish subject-matter, the Chronicle seemed to be taking an appropriately tongue in cheek approach, by beginning the article with “The future looked cloudy for dozens of fortune-tellers and psychics.” The legislation was put forward...