Newcastle composer Bob Ingalls up for international award
April 30, 2015
Bob Ingalls
Newcastle composer Bob Ingalls describes his version of “Ave Maria” as an experience.
The eight-minute piece, written for choir and strings, brings the music to its listeners, as three sopranos stand embedded in the audience. Read more
Newcastle woman charged with fraud in immigrant-investor visas
April 2, 2015
Authorities on March 17 arrested a Newcastle woman on charges she and her former husband fraudulently obtained EB-5 immigrant-investor visas to enter the United States and laundered money from China to buy a home on the Eastside.
Shilan Zhao, 51, and her ex-husband Jianjun Qiao, 51, knowingly made false statements to get visas through the federal program, according to a federal indictment unsealed March 17.
When the divorced couple applied for the investor visas, officials allege, they falsely claimed they were married and declared that the $500,000 they invested through EB-5 was obtained lawfully. Officials allege that Qiao embezzled the money from a Chinese grain warehouse he directed in Henan province.
Zhao appeared in federal court in Seattle on March 17 and was held without bond, officials said. Qiao, also known as Feng Li, is being sought by U.S. authorities. If convicted, they could be sentenced to federal prison. Read more
America the beautiful
July 31, 2014
Eastside residents become U.S. citizens at Newcastle Library
By Greg Farrar
Immigrants from around the world, who passed citizenship tests and renounced allegiances to the countries of their birth, take the oath of allegiance from officials of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services July 23 during a naturalization ceremony at the Newcastle Library.
