This news is actually a few months old, but it recently came up in a conversation with a friend and it deserves some comment. James Randi's longtime partner, known to everyone else as Jose Alvarez, has been arrested and charged with identity theft after decades of causing serious problems for the person whose identity he had allegedly assumed. The Sun-Sentinel reported this in September:

To federal authorities the 43-year-old Alvarez is a cipher, a man truly without any identity. they refer to him as "FNU LNU" — law enforcement acronyms for first and last names unknown.

Alvarez is now in federal custody, accused of stealing the identity of a new York man and misusing it for more than 20 years. Goateed and scholarly looking in hip eyeglasses, Alvarez — if that indeed is his name — had his first appearance Friday morning in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

"We don't know who this person is," Assistant U.S. Attorney Bertha Mitrani told a magistrate, while explaining that authorities would seek to hold Alvarez without bail at a hearing next week…

Alvarez's alleged alternate reality came apart Thursday morning, with the arrival at his door of an investigator from the U.S. State Department who specializes in fraudulent passports, visas and other travel documents. Alvarez initially said he was born in Venezuela, then said new York, according to court records. He was arrested on a charge of supplying false information to obtain a passport, a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The charge filed against Alvarez alleges he stole a new York man's date of birth and Social Security number, which he used to obtain a U.S. passport in 1987. He has since renewed the passport twice.

Outside court, one of Alvarez's attorneys said his arrest had been "totally out of the blue."

Alvarez has lived at Randi's home for at least two decades, has traveled the world for seminars and has established himself as an internationally renowned artist, said Susan Dmitrovsky, a defense attorney for Alvarez. she said everyone has known him as Jose Luis Alvarez for years.

A few weeks later, the same paper reported that "Alvarez" was really Deyvi Pena, who had been reported as Randi's companion before he assumed the fake name.

Before artist Jose Alvarez traveled the world with famed magician and professional skeptic James "The Amazing" Randi, he was Deyvi Pena, a young man from Venezuela with a student visa to study at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.

Mystery has shrouded Alvarez's true identity since he was arrested under the name "John Doe" at Randi's Plantation home on Sept. 8. The legal predicament swirling around Alvarez also raised questions in skeptic circles and beyond: How much is known by Randi, whose very reputation as a truth-seeker may now be jeopardized?

So far, neither Randi nor Alvarez and his attorneys have revealed the artist's identity, but the Sun Sentinel has learned that Alvarez initially went by the name Pena. as Alvarez, his colorful, modernist paintings have been shown in galleries in new York, San Francisco and Palm Beach.

The Sun Sentinel tracked down three people who knew Pena in the mid-1980s. they each said a photograph of the painter who now calls himself Alvarez was the man they knew as Deyvi or David Pena, who first appeared at Randi's side a year or so after the magician moved to Broward County.

He later revealed his real identity in court and was released on a sizable bail. Pena/Alvarez was also the one who helped Randi pull off the famous "Carlos" hoax more than 20 years ago. I don't know where the case stands now, but Pena likely faces deportation and quite possibly a prison sentence. And many have accused Randi of knowing about the identity theft, which means he could find himself in legal trouble as well. He has not spoken about the accusations on advice from his lawyer.

When a friend first emailed me about this around the time that it happened, I only briefly glanced at it and thought that they had just lied about his identity to avoid deportation, which frankly didn't strike me as a big deal. Faced with a similar situation, we would likely all do the same thing. But the accusation of identity theft is serious. The victim of the theft faced multiple legal and financial problems as a result of it and that is appalling. Pena faces significant punishment for it, as he should. And if Randi knew about it and aided in the deceit, whether directly or by covering it up, he must face the consequences as well (though it's unlikely, given the situation, that he would face jail time for it).

James Randi has long been a hero of mine. He was the very last guest I had on my radio show before I ended it a year ago and was one of four guests I had on that I considered a really, really big deal (Barry Crimmins, Paul Krassner and Nat Hentoff were the others). Randi is one of the primary influences on me becoming a skeptic. if the allegations are true, that makes me sad and disappointed.

What it does not do, as many of his critics have claimed, is discredit skepticism in general or the work that he did in particular. his efforts to expose con men and defend reason and science are no less valid or important because he may have done something wrong here, and the work that the James Randi Educational Foundation continues to do remains as valuable as it ever was. that foundation will continue to have my support and my membership, and I think it should have yours too.

Sometimes we find out that our heroes are human beings, just like us. That's often a good thing and it helps us. But this story is just sad for all involved.

The James Randi Problem

Filed under Hot News. Tags: amzn, ppo, rsh, sds, wag, xom

No, not the pink goo in the viral Chicken McNuggets pic, but the controversial McDonald's "pink slime" that goes into making their ubiquitous hamburger patties.

It's not officially called pink slime, because, ew, then who would eat it? But as we know, words often win over hearts and minds, and after Jamie Oliver dubbed the extra bits of cow laying around (treated with chemicals to kill bacteria and added to burgers to beef them up) pink slime, McDonald's announced that it would no longer be using the filler to stretch meat bits out- kind of like meatloaf, but with chemicals instead of breadcrumbs. Super ew.

So, you may not like the idea of ingesting the dirtiest parts of a cow, soaked in ammonia to keep it from making you sick because it's so potentially dirty. But the government has repeatedly denied McDonald's pink slime is a danger to people who eat food. The Huffington Post explains:

The USDA, for its part, approved of the ammoniated beef trimmings. In 2007, when it mandated increased testing for most ground beef, it specifically exempted "pink slime," even though the ammoniated beef comes from the parts of the cow most likely to harbor pathogens. The USDA argued that the beef's ammonia treatment would kill any bacteria lingering in the beef… And there's some evidence that the USDA wasn't wrong to call "pink slime" safe. Indeed, a Jan. 9 editorial in Food Safety News argued that the public backlash against pink slime had more to do with fear-mongering on the part of figures like Oliver than with any rational assessment of the product itself.

Despite the government's failure to strike McDonald's pink slime from the food supply, the company actually stepped up and removed it under public pressure- which is kind of a win for opponents like Jamie Oliver, who kicked off the pink slime outcry. Do you think things like ammoniated beef should allowed in food products?

The JREF is sponsoring a donation drive and the top donating skeptic group referred in the donation, will earn a free visit from James Randi himself!

Click here to donate

With the help of local skeptics groups this year, we've educated the public about all manner of pseudoscientific scams and quackery, put on a number of local workshops and lectures, facilitated appearances by James Randi and others, and coordinated grassroots campaigns in the name of reason. we have sponsored or helped fund a number of SkeptiCamps. we have provided free educational and outreach materials to dozens of local groups, as well as to teachers and others through new innovative outreach methods, including smartphone apps, classroom curriculum modules, digital publishing, and online podcasts and videos.

As skeptics working at the grassroots, your support and collaboration is especially important to us. we could not accomplish our goals with your your help.

To that end, we would be honored if the members of your skeptical organization could find it in their hearts to step up in this latter half of our Season of Reason and help make sure the JREF will have an even more successful 2012.

And we're offering a live appearance by our founder, the one and only James Randi, to the group that helps us out the most during the Season of Reason: the group with the largest number of individual donations to the JREF during this end year period. When you donate at this link ( https://secure3.convio.net/jref/site/Donation2?df_id=1433&1433.donation=form1&JServSessionIdr004=oze8g0ogg8.app340a ), you'll see a space for you to enter the name of your local group.

Just this year, Randi has wowed audiences all over the world with his fascinating and entertaining talks. He's performed for sold-out crowds in Norway, Spain, Canada, and here in the U.S., always receiving a standing ovation and a huge outpouring of love. should your group have the largest total number of donors, we will schedule a talk from Randi in your town at a mutually agreed-upon date in early 2012. Randi's talks have been booked for over $15,000 before, so you see how great an opportunity this is for your group. This is truly an amazing opportunity not only for your existing members, but also for attracting new people in your community to the skeptical fold.

Thank you again for your support. we couldn't be more excited to work with you in promoting science and reason for years to come. please take a moment to read some words from Randi himself below.

So if you decide to offer a donation to JREF, please note "Ann Arbor Science & Skeptics" in the appropriate field.  thanks!

Related posts: