Articles

Below are segments of recent articles written by Amanda Mason and to view the whole article click on the button below. 



Park Predator

By: Amanda Mason - Topic: Crime

 

       Anthony Beccera, 21, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday, after pleading guilty to four counts of sexual abuse and other sex crimes against three minors in Tempe, AZ.

       Beccera has been in jail since his arrest on May 13, 2015, after the parents of the 14-year-old victim called the police to report sexual abuse and threats.

       According to court documents, the 14-year-old, investigators name victim number three, met Beccera online and started a conversation over text from August 2013 to May 2015 and they periodically met. During this time Beccera coaxed the young girl into meeting him at a park. According to court documents, he locked her in his car and raped her on two separate occasions while allegedly holding a knife to her throat. During both assaults, he was a legal adult at 19-years-old.

       When the victim refused to meet Beccera at a park near her home after the incidents, court documents state, that in response Beccera texted her a picture of guns lying on a table and said “are you trying to make me come after you? These are all mine, don’t f--- with me, I can be your worst nightmare.”


A Deadly Trend: The Flu

By: Amanda Mason - Topic: Health

      Influenza trends can become a matter of life or death and this year in Arizona, we are seeing the flu occur earlier than the previous year and doctors are concerned.

      Since October 1, 2017, there have been 20 cases confirming the flu in Maricopa County, according to Maricopa County Public Health Documents, compared to the previous season it’s a 70% increase in the county.

      “This season [in Arizona] we have 92 cases so far in 10 different counties, compared to last year we had 20 cases in five different counties,” said Shane Brady, Infectious Disease Epidemiology Program Manager at Arizona Department of Health Services.

      Which equals to a 64% increase, in early detection of the influenza virus across the state.

      “We are seeing a lot of flu cases earlier in the year and now in October. It was previously closer to December and January, when it became much more prevalent,” said Dr. Mary-Katherine Harper, Medical Director for Emergency Department at Banner Baywood Medical Center.

      The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports, that the flu kills 36,000 people every year in the United States.