FAIRFIELD, CT — A 59-year-old Fairfield woman was arrested on a warrant by Fairfield police Friday, charging her with 48 counts of animal cruelty after police had seized dozens of dogs and cats from her Steep Hill Road home last month.

The seized animals were found in what police called “uninhabitable” living conditions in the home. All the animals, 26 dogs and 22 cats, survived and are being carried for by the town’s Animal Control unit, under a court order.

Arrested was Glorianne Marie Lagnese, who was released after posting a $5,000 bond. She is scheduled to appear in Bridgeport Superior Court on May 19.
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Minoru Suzuki will make his return to Impact Wrestling against KENTA as part of this month's Multiverse United.

Suzuki debuted for Impact in late-October 2021, culminating in a match with Josh Alexander. KENTA debuted for Impact in a Bullet Club trios match at last month's No Surrender and was also part of their subsequent TV tapings.

The show is set for Thursday, March 30th in Los Angeles, California, and is a co-branded PPV with New Japan Strong, NJPW's U.S. arm.

The Impact X-Division title will be also on the line in a six-way scramble match.

Also announced Thursday, the match will include current champion Trey Miguel, Rich Swann, Kevin Knight, Frankie Kazarian, Clark Connors and Rocky Romero.

Miguel may not make it to the PPV as champion as he will defend against a challenger of Santino Marella's choosing at Sacrifice on Friday, March 24th.

Here's the current card:

Impact World Champion Josh Alexander defends against KUSHIDAX-Division Champion Trey Miguel defends against Rich Swann, Kevin Knight, Frankie Kazarian, Clark Connors and Rocky Romero in a scrambleMinoru Suzuki vs. KENTA"Speedball" Mike Bailey vs. Will OspreayJeff Cobb vs. MooseClick Here: new york gaa jerseys

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It seems as if I have been waiting for these all my life. Not in any existential sense, but in a literal, practical way: The arrival of the Blade Two Meta is the culmination of a lifelong fascination with KEF. As a teenager, I was introduced to founder Raymond Cooke and his innovative “race-track” woofer, Mylar tweeter dome, and Bextrene cones in Bud Fried’s IMF Newsletter. Shortly thereafter, I commenced decades of building loudspeakers, mostly with KEF drivers, and, beginning with the 104 in 1973, pining for their Reference speakers. They always seemed to strike the right balance of intelligent engineering, solid construction, and domestic suitability. Regrettably, they were always priced out of my reach.

The project Cooke started has been sustained by a succession of notable designers and engineers (Laurie Fincham; Andrew Jones), and it seems to be flourishing under the current VP of technology, Jack Oclee-Brown. During his tenure, we have seen the maturation and refinement of the Uni-Q coaxial driver, the development and implementation of Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT), the use of force-canceling woofers to minimize cabinet vibration and coloration, and the introduction of stiff, glass-reinforced composite cabinet material shaped to reduce diffraction. These technologies and others combine in what KEF calls a “Single Apparent Source.” All are incorporated in the new Blade Meta speakers.

When the original Blade was released in 2009, I was fascinated but also intimidated. They looked like no other speaker, and they were tall. The latter is significant because I enjoy the view from my Manhattan apartment, unobstructed on the inside, at least. Still, I was jealous when John Atkinson reviewed the smaller com/Blade Two in 2015. This time, anticipating updates to the Blades (and the Reference line) for KEF’s 60th birthday, I presumptuously requested a pair of the new Blade Twos well before they were announced. It worked.

Superficially, the Blade Two Meta looks just like its predecessor: same shape, same dimensions, same weight, a single Uni-Q driver on the front, two pairs of force-canceling woofers mounted on the cabinet’s two sides, and two large ports, each venting a separate chamber for each woofer pair. Even the speaker terminals look the same. Yes, the price is higher, but taking inflation into account, the new speaker is actually about 10% cheaper.

So, what’s new in 2022? Uni-Q, KEF’s unique, concentric tweeter/midrange driver, is now in its 12th generation; as the “Meta” name indicates, it incorporates Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT) to reduce the influence of the reflection of the tweeter’s backwave back onto its own diaphragm. This 12th generation technology has already appeared in the LS50 Meta, and John Atkinson said that in comparing it to its predecessor, it “improves on its presentation of low-level detail and … presents a more transparent window into the recorded soundstage.” (footnote 1)

The Uni-Q in the Blade Two is a bit different. The LS50 is a two-way loudspeaker, its Uni-Q is a tweeter/midwoofer combination, while in the three-way Blade, the Uni-Q is a tweeter/midrange combination, so it’s free to operate over a narrower bandwidth.

The Meta Uni-Q’s midrange also operates over a narrower bandwidth than the Uni-Q in the original, crossing over to the woofers at 450Hz and to the tweeter at 2.2kHz, compared to 320Hz and 2.4kHz in the original Blade Two. The increase in the lower-limit frequency should improve power handling. Frequency-response linearity and dispersion control have been enhanced by a redesign of the crossover, which now incorporates a polarity inversion for the midrange. A fascinating and comprehensive document on the technical development of the Blade and Reference series is available from KEF (footnote 2).

Setting up the Blade Two Metas
Oh, my, these are lovely speakers. Our room style might be described as transitional, with traditional elements and far from modern. Yet, the Brâncusi-inspired Blades fit right in. Yes, they are tall and deep, but they are so narrow, gracefully shaped, and finished that they do not dominate the space visually no matter where they are placed.

These Charcoal Grey and Bronze Blade Two Metas were trucked in from KEF America in New Jersey and installed by a team headed by Ben Hagens, KEF’s product training manager. It was the swiftest installation of a pair of large speakers that I’ve witnessed. The KEF guys knew what they were doing, the packaging was uncomplicated, no assembly was needed, and for all their size, the Blades are relatively light, at 78lb. What’s more, Ben was happy to let me deal with the fine-tuning. We were all standing, behind the sofa where I normally sit while listening. I connected speaker cables to the upper pair of terminals on each Blade and hit Play. The sound that emerged was immediately appealing, so, after exchanging a few stories and anecdotes, Ben and his team took their leave and headed back to NJ, taking the boxes with them.

All this was in stark, welcome contrast to many lengthy, micromanaged installations in the past.

When I sat down to listen seriously, I found that the bass from the Blades was uncritical of placement: As long as each Blade remained within the magic 1m circles where almost all speakers end up, the bass was full, deep, and tight. Otherwise, the heard sound was clean and well-balanced but a little bit diffuse: A snapped-in center image was lacking.

Using Scenes in Tin Can Alley, a delightful new recording of piano music by American composer Florence Price performed by Josh Tatsuo Cullen (24/96 download, Blue Griffin), I moved the Blades around their end of the room. They were fine wherever I put them; however, to optimize the initial sense of the acoustical space of Blue Griffin’s Studio, “The Ballroom,” and to solidly place the piano in the center, the Blades needed to sit a few inches farther apart and closer to the wall behind them—farther from the listening position—than my Revel Studio2s did. Like the Studios, they were best toed-in, aimed directly at the listening position.

Now, from the listening position, I was able to enjoy the well-defined image of the piano as Cullen romped through Price’s often bluesy melodies, the ambience spread wide and deep but with little echo to obscure the music’s delicacy.

Listening
Once I had the setup I wanted, I switched to Gottlieb Wallisch’s set of four (so far) discs 20th Century Foxtrots. I had acquired the first volume (16/44.1 download, Grand Piano) out of curiosity, immediately became addicted, and grabbed the three (so far) succeeding issues as soon as they appeared.

Footnote 1: See JA’s review for a description of the MAT technology.

Footnote 2: KEF offers a comprehensive document on the Blade and Reference technical development. See shop.us.kef.com/pub/media/reference/KEF_Blade_Ref_Meta_Tech_Paper.pdf. The link is a bit wonky, so keep trying if it doesn’t work

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KEF, GP Acoustics (UK) Ltd.

US distributor: GP Acoustics (US) Inc.

10 Timber Ln.

Marlboro, NJ 07746

(732) 683-2356

kef.com

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GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ — It’s been nearly a decade since Carol Reiff was found dead. But authorities say they finally have a suspect, charging a man Wednesday with first-degree murder.

Joseph Grisoff, 59, of Mount Laurel, was arrested Wednesday morning in Moorestown and remanded to the Camden County Jail. Advances in DNA testing allowed detectives to connect Reiff’s former neighbor with the 2013 killing in Gloucester Township, according to the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office.

Police discovered on June 21, 2013, that Reiff was missing from Gloucester Township’s Lakeview Apartment Complex, where she lived. They found her body three days later in a wooded area behind an old maintenance building for the complex.

Unauthorized use of cellphones by Russian soldiers led to a deadly Ukrainian rocket attack on the facility where they were stationed, according to the Russian military, as it raised the death toll from the weekend attack to 89.

Gen. Lt. Sergei Sevryukov said in a statement late Tuesday that phone signals allowed Kyiv’s forces to “determine the coordinates of the location of military personnel” and launch a strike.

The Russian military is taking unspecified measures to “prevent similar tragic incidents in the future,” Sevryukov said, and promised to punish officials responsible for the blunder.

The attack, one of the deadliest on the Kremlin’s forces since the start of the war over 10 months ago, occurred one minute into the new year, according to Sevryukov.

It was the latest blow to the Kremlin’s military prestige as it struggles to progress with its invasion of its neighbor, and stirred renewed criticism inside Russia of the way the war is being conducted amid a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Ukrainian forces fired six rockets from a multiple launch system at a building where the soldiers were stationed. A knowledgeable official confirmed to CBS News that American-supplied HIMARS systems were used in the attack on the base. Two rockets were downed but four hit the building and detonated, prompting the collapse of the structure.

Details of the strike have trickled out in recent days.

U.K. intelligence officials said Wednesday that Moscow’s “unprofessional” military practices were likely partly to blame for the high casualty rate on the troops.

“Given the extent of the damage, there is a realistic possibility that ammunition was being stored near to troop accommodation, which detonated during the strike, creating secondary explosions,” the U.K. Defense Ministry said in a Twitter post.

In the same post, the ministry said that the building struck by Ukrainian missiles was little more than 7.5 miles from the front line, within “one of the most contested areas of the conflict,” in the Donetsk region.

“The Russian military has a record of unsafe ammunition storage from well before the current war, but this incident highlights how unprofessional practices contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate,” the update added.

The Kremlin is preparing to step up its use of Iranian-made exploding drones after the Russian soldiers were killed, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

“We have information that Russia is planning a prolonged attack by [exploding drones]” Zelenskyy said Monday in his nightly address. He said Russia’s goal was “exhausting our people, our air defense, our energy sector,” but that Ukraine must keep fighting back.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin-appointed leader of the Donetsk region, one of four that Moscow illegally annexed in September, on Wednesday praised the “courage and true heroism” of the dead Russian soldiers.

Denis Pushilin said in a Telegram post that some of those killed tried to pull their comrades from the burning building.

In Samara, in southwestern Russia, locals on Tuesday gathered for an Orthodox service in memory of the dead. The service was followed by a minute’s silence, and flowers were laid at a Soviet-era war memorial, the state RIA Novosti agency reported. Unconfirmed reports in Russian-language media said the victims were mobilized reservists from the region.

The Russian Defense Ministry, in a rare admission of losses, initially said the strike killed 63 troops. But as emergency crews sifted through the rubble of the building, the death toll mounted. The regiment’s deputy commander was among the dead.

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Unconfirmed reports put the death toll much higher.

The Strategic Communications Directorate of Ukraine’s armed forces claimed Sunday that around 400 mobilized Russian soldiers were killed in a vocational school building in Makiivka and about 300 more were wounded. That claim couldn’t be independently verified. The Russian statement said the strike occurred “in the area of Makiivka” and didn’t mention the school.

An official told CBS News the true death toll was likely somewhere between the figures offered by Ukraine and Russia.

“On the one hand, they don’t like to ever admit to taking military casualties. On the other hand, by publicizing these numbers and keeping them relatively high but not admitting to the full amount, they can instead try to rally public support,” Jeff Hawn, a Russia expert at the London School of Economics, told CBS News’ Ian Lee.

The attack on the base brought a wave of criticism of Russia’s senior military commanders, both online and from nationalist commentators who have long been largely supportive of the Kremlin’s Ukraine strategy. Some commentators said many more soldiers could have been killed in the attack than the defense ministry admitted, and that it showed Russian commanders had not learned from past mistakes.

Ukraine’s presidential office said Wednesday that at least five Ukrainian civilians were killed and 13 others were wounded in the country over the previous 24 hours, as Russian forces struck at nine regions in the country’s south and east.

Ukraine continues to seek Western help in its fight against the invasion.

At a European Union-Ukraine summit on Feb. 3, Zelenskyy is due to hold talks with EU Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen about continued European support.

The summit will not include the EU’s 27 national heads of state and government, officials say. The summit location has not been revealed.

Haley Ott contributed to this report.

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OAK FOREST, IL — A manager on duty at Oak Forest Bowl was in the office finishing up around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, when he heard screams from a coworker.

Ed Cubillan thought he was kidding—they have a playful dynamic, he said—and was at first in no hurry to leave the office. His coworker smelled smoke, he told Cubillan, and the two began looking for the source. As he neared the double doors leading from the pub into The Park, Cubillan saw the flames just outside. He thought, at first, he could try to put the fire out, he told Patch.

But a second look showed him the flames had grown, and time was running out.

The Earth’s ozone layer is expected to recover within the next 40 years as ozone-depleting chemicals are being phased out of use, a panel of international experts backed by the U.N. says. The panel, which publishes a new ozone layer report every four years, credits the phasing out out of nearly 99% of ozone-depleting chemicals for the improvement.

The agency said the Montreal Protocol, a landmark global agreement to phase out harmful chemicals, has significantly aided the recovery of the ozone layer. The Montreal Protocol entered into force in 1989 and regulates nearly 100 manmade chemicals that damage the ozone layer.

“The impact the Montreal Protocol has had on climate change mitigation cannot be overstressed,” said Meg Seki, the executive secretary of the U.N. Environment Programme’s Ozone Secretariat. “Over the last 35 years, the Protocol has become a true champion for the environment.”

The U.N. also noted that a 2016 amendment to the measure, the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, is helping to significantly reduce climate change. The amendment requires global powers to reduce the production and consumption of many hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs. While these types of chemicals don’t directly affect the ozone layer, they’re considered potent greenhouse gases.

“Ozone action sets a precedent for climate action. Our success in phasing out ozone-eating chemicals shows us what can and must be done — as a matter of urgency — to transition away from fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gases and so limit temperature increase,” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas.

Research from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that was published in 2022 found that global concentrations of ozone-depleting chemicals had declined just over 50% in the mid-latitude stratosphere, to levels observed in 1980. NOAA scientists said that the continued decline “shows the threat to the ozone layer receding below a significant milestone in 2022.”

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Seoul, South Korea — South Korean police are seeking criminal charges including involuntary manslaughter and negligence against 23 officials, about half of them law enforcement officers, for a lack of safety measures they said was responsible for a Halloween crowd surge that killed nearly 160 people, including at least two Americans, both college students.

Despite anticipating a weekend crowd of more than 100,000, Seoul police had assigned 137 officers to the capital’s nightlife district of Itaewon on the day of the crush. Those officers were focused on monitoring narcotics use and violent crimes, which experts say left few resources for pedestrian safety.

Son Je-han, who headed the National Police Agency’s special investigation into the incident, said Friday his team will now send the case to prosecutors. Those recommended for indictment include Park Hee-young, who is mayor of Seoul’s Yongsan district, and the district’s former police chief Lee Im-jae – two of six who have been arrested.

Lee has also been accused of falsifying a police report to disguise his late arrival at the scene. Two other police officials have been arrested over suspicions they attempted to destroy computer files and other potential evidence tied to the incident.

The results of the 74-day police investigation announced by Son mostly confirmed what was already clear – that police and public officials in Yongsan failed to employ meaningful crowd control measures for the expected numbers of Halloween revelers and essentially ignored pedestrian calls placed to police hotlines that warned of a swelling crowd hours before the surge turned deadly on Oct. 28.

Officials also botched their response once people began getting toppled over and crushed in a narrow alley clogged with partygoers near Hamilton Hotel around 10 p.m., failing to establish effective control of the scene and enable rescue workers to reach the injured in time, Son said.

“(Their) inaccurate judgement of the situation, the slow distribution of information about the situation, poor cooperation between related institutions and delays in rescue operations were among the overlapping failures that caused the high number of casualties,” Son said at a news conference in Seoul.

Son said his team questioned nearly 540 people and collected 14,000 pieces of evidence from central and municipal government offices and transportation authorities. He said police investigators studied more than 180 video files recorded on security cameras or taken by journalists and pedestrians, and jointly inspected the scene with forensic experts to analyze the density of the crowd.

Police said the crowd packing the corridor-like alley between the hotel and a dense row of storefronts grew into an unstoppable wave around 9 p.m., with people unable to dictate their movement once they got swept in. At around 10:15 p.m., people began falling and toppling on one another like dominos, leading to the tragedy that resulted in 158 deaths and 196 injuries.

Analysis of security camera footage and simulations by the National Forensic Service indicate the crowd density at the alley was around eight people per square yard at around 10:15 p.m. The density grew to eight to nine people occupying the same unit of space as of 10:20 p.m. and around nine to 11 people as of 10:25 p.m., police said.

Paramedics struggled to reach the scene because the area was so densely packed. Those who arrived were so overwhelmed by the large number of people lying motionless on the ground that they asked pedestrians to help them perform CPR. Most of the deaths were caused by suffocation or brain damage, police said.

It’s unclear whether the results of the police investigation would be enough to calm the public’s anger and demands for government accountability as the country continues to cope with its worst disaster in nearly a decade.

Opposition lawmakers and some relatives of the victims have demanded investigations into more high-profile figures, such as Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min and National Police Agency Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun, who have faced calls to resign.

However, Son said the special investigation team will close its probes on the Interior and Safety Ministry, the National Police Agency, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, saying it was difficult to establish their direct responsibility.

Some experts have called the crush in Itaewon a “manmade disaster” that could have been prevented with fairly simple steps, such as employing more police and public workers to monitor bottleneck points, enforcing one-way walk lanes and blocking narrow pathways or temporarily closing Itaewon’s subway station to prevent large numbers of people moving in the same direction.

The Americans who lost their lives were University of Kentucky student Anne Gieske and Kennesaw State University student Steven Blesi, their schools said in statements.

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Gieske was a nursing student in her junior year, University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto said in a letter to the community. Gieske was from Northern Kentucky and had been studying abroad in South Korea for the semester, Capilouto said.

CBS Lexington affiliate WKYT-TV reported that Gieske was a member of her school’s Korean Language and Culture Club.  

Blesi was an international business major at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, and was one of 11 students studying in South Korea as part of a study abroad program, the school said.   

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LONG BEACH, CA — A Long Beach Man drove 750 miles to the home of his estranged brother in northern Utah where he killed his brother, shot his brother’s wife, and set the home on fire last week, according to Utah law enforcement officials.

Jeffrey Roberts, 66, was caught on his brother Scott Roberts’s Ring doorbell camera pulling out a gun and shooting into the home on April 27 while Scott and his wife Jodilyn Roberts were eating dinner alone.

Editor’s Note: The video linked below in this article contains graphic footage of two fatal shootings.

RESTON, VA — Four Democrats running to represent Reston in the Virginia House of Delegates squared off Tuesday night during a candidate forum at the Reston Community Center – Lake Anne.

Hosted by the Reston Citizens Association, the forum included the four candidates running in District 7 race and competing in the June 20 Democratic Party Primary: Mary Barthelson, Paul Berry, Shyamali Hauth, and Karen Keys-Gammara. Dennis Hays, RCA’s at-large director, moderated the forum.

After each of the candidates had a chance to discuss their platforms and reasons for running, they fielded questions posed by Hays and then members of the audience. Below are some of the candidates’ responses to the audience’s questions.