Latest news with #Peeler
USA Today
2 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Lakers jersey history No. 1 — Anthony Peeler
Through the 2024-25 season, the Los Angeles Lakers have had a total of 506 players suit up for them, going back to their days in Minneapolis. Some were forgettable, some were serviceable, some were good and a select few were flat-out legendary. As the Lakers approach their 80th season of existence (they were founded back in 1946 as the Detroit Gems in the National Basketball League), LeBron Wire is taking a look at each player who has worn their jersey, whether it has been a purple and gold one or the ones they donned back in the Midwest during their early years. We now take a look at Anthony Peeler, a guard who played for the Lakers during the 1990s. In 1992, the Lakers were in a depressing and daunting situation. Magic Johnson retired in November 1991 after testing positive for HIV, and while he tried to make a comeback during the 1992 preseason, he quickly changed his mind after multiple players around the league expressed fear about competing against an HIV-positive player. Therefore, the franchise was forced to start a rebuilding project. It needed to start collecting young, viable talent, and with the No. 15 pick in the 1992 NBA Draft, it took University of Missouri guard Anthony Peeler. Peeler was a stellar player in college and had been named the Big Eight Player of the Year in 1992 with an average of 23.4 points a game, but there were questions about his character, as he had been involved in multiple incidents with ex-lovers. With L.A., he quickly started to show promise, averaging 10.4 points a game as a rookie and 14.1 points a game the following year. By the 1994-95 season, Peeler was part of a promising young core that took the team to the second round of the playoffs. But his tenure with the team ended in the summer of 1996 when he was traded along with forward George Lynch to the Vancouver Grizzlies as a salary dump move. The trade cleared enough money for the Lakers to sign Shaquille O'Neal as a free agent that offseason, and O'Neal, along with Kobe Bryant, whom they acquired the draft rights to that summer, would lead the organization into its next era of success. Peeler would spend nine more seasons in the NBA with four different teams. His greatest strength was his 3-point shooting — he led the league with a 48.2% 3-point shooting percentage during the 2003-04 season, and he ended his career with a 38.4% accuracy from that distance.
New York Post
17-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Man convicted in 1999 killing of 8-year-old boy and mother in Connecticut released under Biden-clemency order
A man convicted in connection with the heartless murder of an 8-year-old boy and his mother in Bridgeport, Conn., has been released from prison after being granted clemency by former President Joe Biden. Adrian Peeler, 49, conspired with his brother Russell Peeler Jr. to shoot and kill 8-year-old Leroy 'B.J.' Brown and his mother Karen Clarke in 1999 and was sentenced to a combined 60 years in state and federal prison. 4 Adrian Peeler, now 49, was convicted for his role in the killing of 8-year-old Leroy 'BJ' Brown and his mother Karen Clarke in their Bridgeport apartment building to prevent them from testifying against his drug-dealing brother. Advertisement After completing his state sentence in January 2022, Peeler was granted clemency by the outgoing Biden administration for his 35-year federal sentence on separate drug charges, which would have had him wearing prison stripes until at least 2033, NBC Connecticut reported. The release has shocked state lawmakers, including liberal Democrat and Biden supporter Senator Richard Blumenthal, who was Connecticut's attorney general at the time of the ghastly crime. 'It seems to me that someone dropped the ball here to let this person get released,' Blumenthal said in a statement, the CT Post reported. Advertisement 'This was a really vicious murder that changed our laws. It also highlights how we need to take a look at the pardon system to see how it can be improved,' the senator added. 4 Even political allies have called out former President Biden's pardon of Peeler as a miscarriage of justice. AP Little BJ and Clarke, his mother, were slated to testify against Peeler's drug-dealing brother, who was on trial for killing Clarke's boyfriend Rudolf Snead, a fellow drug dealer, according to the Hartford Courant. BJ was prepared to testify that he was in the car when Russell Peeler Jr. shot Snead in a drive-by shooting in 1997. Advertisement But before that could happen, the Peeler brothers ambushed the mother and son at their Bridgeport apartment – shooting the boy to death at the top of the stairs and leaving his mother in a pool of blood in the bedroom where she attempted to call for help. 4 Leroy 'BJ' Brown was in the car when Russell Peeler Jr. shot his mother's boyfriend in a 1997 drive-by shooting. WFSB Both Peelers were charged by the state with capital felony and murder. Despite Adrian Peeler being the alleged shooter, a jury convicted him only of murder conspiracy, NBC Connecticut reported. Advertisement The horrific slayings inspired the Nutmeg State to create its own witness protection program. 4 Karen Clarke was gunned down in her bedroom as she attempted to call for help for her dying son. WFSB The family of Clarke and BJ was apoplectic when Peelers' release was announced. 'We've been blindsided. Where is the justice for my family?' Oswald Clarke, Karen's brother, told the CT Examiner. 'It's like we are hearing of BJ and Karen's deaths all over again — but this time their killer is going free.' Peeler previously sought to have his sentence reduced under 2018's First Step Act, but was excoriated by a judge in 2021 for lacking remorse. 'I take full responsibility for all my actions that led me to be here today,' Peeler told Judge Janet Bond Arterton during a 2021 hearing. 'I sold drugs to the community… It is something I think of every day,' he said. Advertisement Judge Arterton called the convicted conspirator out for failing to address the killings. 'Shockingly missing was an expression of remorse or apology to the families of Miss Clarke and B.J.,' the judge said. 'He didn't turn around to face them and simply say, 'I'm sorry.''
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Legal fees in city audit by Troutman Sanders cost Columbus taxpayers more than $450,000
COLUMBUS, GA. () — The Columbus city government has spent a lot of tax money to investigate claims of illegal activity and misconduct in the city's Finance Department. The legal fees paid to an Atlanta law firm to investigate the city's Finance Department cost taxpayers more than $450,000, according to information obtained by WRBL through Georgia's Open Records Act. The city has paid the money to Troutman Pepper since 2023. That is strictly funds for legal fees alone and not the cost of a forensic audit that accompanied the Troutman Pepper investigation, according to City Attorney Clifton Fay. It started in August 2023 when City Councilor JoAnne Cogle made a surprise motion at the end of a council meeting. The motion by the District 7 representative was specific, asking for a particular law firm. 'I would like to make a motion that we hire Troutman and Pepper to work alongside our internal auditor in a previously approved audit with the intention and goal of providing a detailed report of some of the concerns that have surfaced,' Cogle read. Hiring Troutman Pepper came on the heels of an internal city audit of the Finance Department. That audit suggested, without evidence, that 45 million dollars was missing from city coffers. That is a claim that has been repeated as recently as this week when Mayor Skip Henderson had to correct a citizen who regurgitated it at a public hearing Tuesday night. Troutman Pepper's detailed report found serious operational and organizational issues inside the Finance Department, but nothing rose to a criminal level.. Troutman Pepper partner Charles Peeler said when his work concluded, 'There is no evidence to support the claim that there is $45.1 million of revenue missing.' That wasn't the only investigation. The Muscogee County Sheriff's Office recently concluded a 16-month investigation that resulted in two misdemeanor arrests. Finance Director Angelica Alexander was charged with obstruction. Former Revenue Manager Yvonne Ivey was charged with two counts of simple battery. None of the charges were connnected to alleged financial misconduct. But according to one councilor, the investigations created a deeper divide between the mayor, city manager, and some city councilors. 'We brought in Troutman Pepper and Charlie Peeler to kind of protect the auditor,' District 5 Councilor Charmanine Crabb told WRBL in a May 20 interview. 'They weren't cooperating with her. They were kind of attacking her. And he was supposed to be working for council. And all of a sudden, this investigation comes into play, and he's working for Isaiah and the mayor.' In that Muscogee County Sheriff's Office investigation that Crabb referenced in an interview with WRBL last month, she called Peeler 'disloyal, lacking honor, integrity, and respect.' Peeler is a former U.S. attorney. The Troutman Pepper investigation cost taxpayers $456,221.40. Councilor Glenn Davis and Crabb contend that part of that money paid for investigative work requested by Mayor Skip Henderson and the city manager. The investigations into the Finance Department were one of the reasons given last week when the city council voted 7-3 to terminate City Manager Isaiah Hugley just seven months short of his retirement. Crabb made that motion to fire Hugley and pay him through the end of December. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Budget without earmarks could harm poor, rural parts of SC the most, some legislators say
Senate Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney, who announced the Senate's spending plan would include no earmarks for the coming fiscal year, talks with Senate Judiciary Chairman Luke Rankin, R-Myrtle Beach, in Senate chambers on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. (File/Mary Ann Chastain/Special to the SC Daily Gazette) COLUMBIA — The state's poor and rural districts stand to lose the most from a budget with no earmarks, some legislators said, while others celebrated a pause on spending long criticized for its lack of transparency. When the Senate Finance Committee advanced its spending plan for the coming fiscal year, Chairman Harvey Peeler made a stunning announcement: The budget will not include any earmarks — in other words, no spending requested by legislators to fund projects in their districts. The decision comes two years after total earmarks — what legislators have consistently called 'community investments' — soared to $713 million. While last year's tally was smaller, at $435 million, critics said the process still allowed unvetted spending of taxpayer dollars. Churches, charities with little track record among nonprofits in line for $90M in SC budget Peeler, the Senate's chief budget writer since 2022, made clear the tally this year will be zero. 'No more pet projects equals more money in your pockets,' the Gaffney Republican said in a statement April 9. Two hours later, a joint statement went out from Peeler and House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister agreeing to focus this year on 'tax reform.' (Typically, the House adds earmarks after the Senate passes its budget plan.) Exactly what that means remains to be seen. The House Ways and Means Committee meets Tuesday to take 'expert testimony' on options for changing the tax structure. The meeting comes three weeks after a fiscal analysis showed a House GOP proposal would result in most tax filers paying more in state income taxes initially, resulting in Republicans putting the skids on their own bill. The agenda clearly states, in bold and underlined, the committee will take 'no vote' Tuesday. Meanwhile, the full Senate will open floor debate Tuesday on its spending package. It includes a revenue reduction of $290.5 million to complete the Legislature's 2022 tax-cutting law, which phased in a reduction in income tax rates, a year ahead of schedule. The budget passed by the House in March planned to do at least that. Peeler's announcement surprised even legislators, including many who had already submitted the paperwork laying out their earmark requests. Poor, rural communities in particular will have to forgo improvements and new equipment they can't afford without help, legislators representing those areas said. That includes projects already underway that local governments need funding to complete, said House Assistant Minority Leader Roger Kirby. 'It is not conservative to waste money on restarting projects, and that's what we're going to have to do,' the Lake City Democrat said. In Williamsburg County, one of the poorest in the state, Kirby had asked for money to expand the water system, with the hopes of attracting bigger businesses to the area. Williamsburg County doesn't have the tax revenue to afford finishing the project. But without the expansion, the county won't be able to attract more economic development, Kirby said. SC lawmakers set to spend over $430 million on local projects That project and similar ones 'are not going to happen on their own,' Kirby said. 'They're just not.' Rural water system improvements were also among requests made by freshman Sen. Russell Ott. Ott asked for new water meters in Swansea, as well as improvements to water and sewer systems in Calhoun County and the stormwater system in Cayce. Those systems are in dire need of upgrades that the cities and counties can't afford, he said. 'Folks from my district need help, real help,' said the St. Matthews Democrat, who was the House's assistant minority leader before Kirby. Without extra money, cities in Marlboro County will continue driving firetrucks from the 1980s, said Sen. JD Chaplin, a Darlington Republican. The sheriff's department in Lee County will remain unable to fix its broken air conditioning unit. And law enforcement officers across the five counties Chaplin represents will continue using unreliable radios, he said. Chaplin, a freshman legislator, said he was disappointed to learn he wouldn't get to fund those projects. When he was running for office, he promised to better fund law enforcement and infrastructure in his area, which those earmarks could have done, he said. 'It's going to continue another year with patches and Band-Aids and not actually fixing the problems we have in South Carolina,' Chaplin said. That's not to say Chaplin opposes a tax cut, which was another of his campaign platforms, he added. Chaplin and Ott, who also said he'd support a tax cut, questioned why legislators couldn't figure out a way to do both. Relying on state money that may or may not come through on a given year has always been a bad idea, said Sen. Greg Hembree. Each year, the Little River Republican suggests to representatives of the local governments and nonprofits that come to him for funding to think of whatever they get as a gift: nice to have but not necessary to keep running, he said. Depending on earmarks is 'a risky place to live,' he said. Last year, at Hembree's request, North Myrtle Beach received $1.5 million to dredge sediment and debris from Cherry Grove Beach, and Sea Haven Youth Crisis Center got $65,000 to screen youth for medical and dental issues, according to budget documents. While Hembree would have liked to continue funding those causes this year, they won't end without it, he said. 'Nobody's closing their doors because the money isn't coming in,' Hembree said. Although earmarks are one-time spending, legislators have long used repeated requests to fund expensive projects in their districts or give annual allocations to nonprofits, amounting in some cases to millions of dollars over the course of several years. Spending on earmarks ballooned after the COVID-19 pandemic, when the state's budget was flush with federal assistance and sales tax collections spiked as South Carolinians spent their own federal relief payments. The budget passed in 2022 contained about $390 million in earmarks, after the Legislature upheld Gov. Henry McMaster's vetoes that struck $33 million worth, before hitting a record high $713 million in 2023. After such high amounts, taking a year off could help legislators take a step back and consider how they're spending that money, Hembree said. 'It'll be kind of healthy,' Hembree said. If the budget continues without earmarks in coming years, Hembree said he feared a return to secretive spending slipped into the budget with little-to-no oversight. For years, earmark spending was rolled together in vaguely worded line items in agencies' budgets that gave no clue as to where the money was going. That practice ended in 2021, when legislators began listing earmarks and who sponsored them. In 2023, for the first time, legislators began giving the governor's office paperwork explaining their requests before sending him their final spending plan. But eliminating earmarks won't eliminate requests for money, and the pressure will be on for legislators to fulfill them somehow, Hembree said. 'I fear (the process) could revert back to what it was,' Hembree said. Legislators might consider creating a grant program, as McMaster has advocated for years. Under his proposal, local governments and nonprofits could apply for a chunk of money for agencies to dole out. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey celebrated even a brief end to a process he has criticized for years over a lack of transparency. 'Hallelujah,' said the Edgefield Republican, who was part of a bipartisan duo that successfully pushed for the secrecy to end. Even after the changes in recent years, Massey has questioned the process and called for reviews on the back end, to be sure nonprofits were spending the money the way they said they would. 'Ultimately, I think we have to make a decision,' Massey said. 'Should we collect more money than we need and then dole it out in this process that really has little vetting? Or should we just not take any more money from taxpayers than we need?'
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Yahoo
Search for Asha Degree: New search on property formerly owned by Roy Dedmon, records show
LINCOLN COUNTY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Property records confirm a connection between property searched Friday in the case of 9-year-old missing girl, Asha Degree, and a person whose name has come up before in the Degree case. On Friday, Queen City News was there as investigators searched an old, abandoned school at the corner of Highway 274 and NC-182 in Lincoln County. Detectives and SBI agents wrapped up their search Friday, not revealing what they found. Past search warrants reveal that investigators believe Degree was killed, her death may have been concealed, and her body has never been found. PREVIOUS | The masses came out to search on Friday. 'I think they're putting a lot of pressure out there to get answers,' said Donnie Peeler, a neighbor. Investigators won't stop until they find the girl known as 'Shelby's Sweetheart.' 'You can't go anywhere in Cleveland County without somebody talking about the case,' said Peeler. Peeler and Dale Champion, another neighbor, remember the day 25 years ago on Valentine's Day when Degree went missing. 'We were on our way to work early that morning,' said Peeler. 'We went through the roadblock that morning and actually thought it was a license check, but they were looking for a little girl,' said Champion. Degree's disappearance has captured everyone's hearts. No one can fully grasp what her family is going through. 'Oh, I don't know if I'd been able to, to be honest,' said Michael Owens. Neighbors like Owens have been showing up every time investigators search. 'I just hope and pray that they will find her, whoever knows what happened to her, just come clean and tell the truth,' Owens said, on the verge of tears. Owens was out last September when deputies and the FBI scoured the properties of Roy and Connie Dedmon in Cleveland County. Detectives indicated later in search warrants that they did those searches because they believe Roy and Connie Dedmon may have helped conceal Degree's death. An attorney for Roy Dedmon denies his client had anything to do with Degree's death or disappearance. Friday's search was also tied to property formerly owned by the Dedmons. Records show Dedmon bought the property, an old school, in 1991 and sold it in October 2004, just over four years after Degree disappeared, leaving the community stunned. 'You just can't move on from it,' said Peeler. Neighbors believe detectives are getting closer to finding Degree. 'Her family can have peace and Cleveland County, and the rest of the counties around here can have peace,' said Owens. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
