"Somerville is delaying its reopening. Will it make a difference?" by Zoe Greenberg Globe Staff, July 17, 2020
In 1666, the little English village of Eyam found itself ravaged by the bubonic plague. In the face of a mounting death toll, the villagers famously sealed their borders with a ring of stones: For months, merchants didn’t enter and villagers didn’t leave. Some historians credit that act of isolation with preventing the spread of the plague to surrounding villages, saving countless lives.
The Globe $kank is comparing this to the plague now!
Have they no shame?
Unfortunately, the city of Somerville does not have such a ring. Still, Mayor Joseph Curtatone is trying his best to keep the plague at bay.
The mayor announced on Friday that the city would be further delaying its implementation of Phase 3 — the reopening of gyms, museums, and movie theaters — until at least Aug. 3. He cited a range of concerns, including a slight rise in the seven-day average of new cases over the past two weeks in some counties in Massachusetts, including nearby Suffolk, as well as the downsizing of the state’s contact tracing efforts.
Whatever, and I don't buy the the pullback on the medical tyranny, either.
With the announcement, Somerville claimed its place at the leading edge of resistance to Governor Charlie Baker’s four-phased reopening plan. The mayor has argued in particular that schools should be the centerpiece of a reopening plan, not indoor gyms or entertainment complexes.
“Is our ultimate goal to open a casino here?” he said in an interview on Friday, referring to the fact that casinos were recently allowed to reopen. “Where does that stand in the pecking order?”
With the rest of the state moving confidently forward in reopening, Somerville’s move to stay shut raises questions about how much difference it makes for a locality to go its own way, especially when it is surrounded by other densely packed communities. Most of the state reopened on July 6; Boston did the same one week later.
Can you do that anymore?
As for the reopen, why is my area tightening up further?
F**king being constantly LIED TO by the PRE$$!
It is, of course, not the first time the lefty city has staked its own path — just a few weeks ago, it passed a first-of-its-kind ordinance recognizing polyamorous relationships in domestic partnerships, but the stakes are particularly high, both economically and health-wise, with the coronavirus.
Who would want to go to that filth trap anyway?
Somerville has taken a cautious approach throughout the pandemic, enacting a mask mandate at the end of April and becoming the first city in the state to provide free testing to all residents, regardless of symptoms. Some of those efforts appear to have paid off. Data from the first two weeks of July show the city had one of the highest testing rates in the state, with less than 1 percent of those tests coming back positive, but Somerville also saw 16 new cases in the past week, after days of almost no increases.
Uh-huh.
If so, WTF is the mayor doing?
“Maybe it’s some sort of anomaly,” Curtatone said in a press conference on Friday, “but we know from the very brief history of this pandemic small numbers can flash into big ones on a dime.”
Yeah, fine, f**k your f**king city.
Some public health experts said a delay now makes sense, both because of the length of time it takes for city and state data to reflect changes in people’s behavior, and because of warning signs from other states that are now having to roll back openings.
They never wanted the "reopen" we never had to begin with.
“It takes 10 days to two weeks before you really start to see the effects of a change in any kind of regulation or restrictions,” said Samuel Scarpino, an epidemiologist at Northeastern. “To me, I would see a prudent course of action being in line with what Somerville has decided to do.”
Asked about Somerville’s decision to delay Phase 3, Baker on Friday reiterated his mantra that cities and towns can craft their own safety protocols as long as they don’t “negate” the state guidance. The governor said the notion that “folks on the ground locally in many cases have a very important sense and appreciation for what’s going on in their communities is a critical element to how we think about this whole exercise.”
There he goes again with the Freudian slip regarding this massive f**king COVID fraud!
The drill is ongoing and is intended to be ceaseless.
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(flip to below fold)
"It’s a boom season for Cape rentals because of the COVID-19 pandemic; Homeowners fretted during a slow spring before getting flooded with requests in the past month" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff, July 17, 2020
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Massachusetts, the cancellation requests started streaming in for Jackie Ashe’s summer rental home in Edgartown.
“I thought the whole summer was going to be a washout,” Ashe said.
Then Governor Charlie Baker announced the start of Phase 2 in reopening the state’s economy on June 8, allowing hotels and short-term rentals to host leisure travelers after being closed to most business for much of the spring, and in a heartbeat, Ashe had the Edgartown home booked right back up.
The pandemic has brought a boom for short-term rentals on Cape Cod and the Islands as vacationers rush to book a cure for their cabin fever. In an unexpected twist for homeowners and agents who had braced for a bust, summer 2020 is turning out to be even stronger than previous years that did not have public health concerns or a recession hanging over the rental market.
Where are the workers coming from?
According to WeNeedAVacation.com, a local website that markets short-term rentals on the Cape and Islands, total bookings so far are 24 percent above last year. Vacancy rates are at or below 5 percent for most of the summer, well below levels of last summer.
Julie Jason, co-owner of Waterfront Rentals in West Yarmouth, said half of the 160 rental contracts her agency lined up earlier this year were canceled at one point; now, nearly every single week is booked again.
“The market right now, it just exploded,” Jason said. “I’ve been doing this for over 20 years, and I’ve never experienced the volume of inquiries and bookings for such a short period of time.”
That can be locked down any second.
Hotels on the Cape are also enjoying a modest boost after a tough spring, though nothing like short-term rentals. Wendy Northcross, chief executive of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, said the occupancy rate for Cape Cod hotels peaked at 91 percent on Saturday, July 4; however, hotel room prices are much lower than last summer, while rates for short-term rentals have remained relatively steady.
Northcross said many business owners feel the numbers are better than they feared, especially with fireworks and other big events canceled. Beaches are open, and many restaurants offer outdoor dining.
“Other parts of the country were not as fortunate as we’ve been,” Northcross said. “Knock on wood, our business is still OK, but it’s very uncertain.”
Homeowners and real estate agents say rental homes give vacationers more flexibility for social distancing than hotels and motels.....
The government just hasn't gotten to them yet.
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"Ginsburg says her cancer has returned but she is ‘fully able’ to remain on court" by Adam Liptak New York Times, July 17, 2020
If Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg were to die or step down from the court there is little question Senate Republicans would try to confirm a President Trump nominee even in the waning days of his first term.
“Oh, we’d fill it,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said last year.
Senate Republicans took a different approach after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, refusing to consider the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland in the last year of Barack Obama’s second term.
McConnell and his allies say the two situations are different. When one party controls the Senate and the other the presidency, as in 2016, they say, vacancies should not be filled in a presidential election year. When the same party controls both the Senate and presidency, they argue, confirmations may proceed.
Democrats say this is hairsplitting hypocrisy that damages the legitimacy of the court, but their power to stop a third Trump appointment was diminished after changes in Senate rules on filibusters on nominations. All it takes now is a majority vote to confirm judicial nominees.
During the Obama administration, some liberals urged Ginsburg to step down so Obama could name her successor. She rejected the advice.
“I think it’s going to be another Democratic president,” Ginsburg told The Washington Post in 2013.
Like now?
I guess that means she or her body double hang around a while.
Trump, whose election proved her wrong, has been critical of Ginsburg, saying in 2016 that “her mind is shot” and suggesting that she resign. His sharp words came after Ginsburg criticized Trump in a series of interviews. She later said she had made a mistake in publicly commenting on a candidate and promised to be more “circumspect” in the future.
More recently, he urged Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor to recuse themselves in all cases involving him.....
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What a ghoulish troll!
Also see:
"US Representative Justin Amash of Michigan, a former Republican who backed the impeachment of President Trump, is officially not running for reelection. Amash had suspended his congressional campaign in February and later explored seeking the Libertarian Party’s nomination for president. Thursday was Michigan’s deadline to run as an independent, though some were also holding out hope he might seek the Libertarians’ nomination at a state convention Saturday. Amash, 40, initially became an independent a year ago after becoming disenchanted with partisan politics and being the lone House Republican to support an impeachment inquiry. He was one of the founding members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. The Trump critic has represented Michigan’s 3rd Congressional district since 2011. The district has a five-way GOP primary set for Aug. 4....."
Maybe he should find another district in which to run:
"Oakland will pay $32.7 million to settle lawsuits filed over a 2016 fire at an illegally converted warehouse dubbed the Ghost Ship that killed 36 people, the city announced Thursday. The City Council authorized settlements of lawsuits filed by the families of 32 victims. The amount also includes more than $9 million for Sam Maxwell, who survived the blaze but “will live with severe, lifelong injuries and major medical expenses,” a city statement said. The settlement is one of the largest in city history but Paul Matiasic, an attorney for five families, called it “insignificant. There’s no amount of money in the world that can bring their loved ones back,” he told the East Bay Times. His clients contended the city was negligent and should have red-tagged the building. The city doesn’t acknowledge any liability in the agreement but decided to settle because of the possible legal costs, the statement said. On Dec. 2, 2016, fire swept through the warehouse during an electronic music party. The industrial building had illegally been turned into a residence for artists and an event venue. The building was packed with furniture, extension cords, and other flammable material but had only two exits and no smoke detectors, fire alarms, or sprinklers."
For course, it is the taxpayers own the hook, not the negligent and criminal grifters known as local politicians.
Keep heading north:
"Federal agents dressed in camouflage and tactical gear have taken to the streets of Portland in unmarked vans, seizing and detaining protesters and unleashing tear gas in what Governor Kate Brown of Oregon has called “a blatant abuse of power.” Since their arrival with the goal of tamping down persistent unrest, federal officers have shot one protester in the head with an apparent impact munition. On Thursday night and into Friday morning — the 50th straight day of demonstrations — a line of federal officers in gas masks walked down Portland’s Third Avenue. They filled downtown corridors with tear gas, which a federal judge has barred Portland police from using except in the case of a safety risk, and they also shot less-lethal munitions, which left people limping in pain. The aggressive federal posture has complicated the mission of the Department of Homeland Security, and it raises questions of whether it is appropriate for federal authorities to take up the policing of a US city against the wishes of local leaders. Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland, who is also police commissioner, said the federal response was “irresponsible” and asked for those deployed to stay inside federal buildings or leave the city, but federal officials, starting with President Trump, have continued to stake a claim to the city’s law and order. The acting Homeland Security secretary, Chad Wolf, arrived in the city Thursday, calling the protesters a “violent mob” of anarchists emboldened by a lack of local enforcement. Portland’s protests began in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Those mass demonstrations have waned, but hundreds have continued on, clashing with police almost nightly. They have set off fireworks, lit fires, and attempted to create an autonomous zone similar to one that existed up Interstate 5 in Seattle. City leaders have tried a variety of tactics to calm the tensions. Wheeler has pleaded for calm. The city’s police chief resigned, to be replaced with Chuck Lovell, who is Black. City commissioners have moved to cut some $16 million from the police budget, but the protests have continued....."
They were hit with gas as the locals demand the feds leave Portland to the mercy of the society-destroying Marxists and BLM.
Somebody's knocking at the door:
"A prosecutor announced Friday that he is dropping a felony charge against dozens of protesters who gathered at the Kentucky attorney general’s home to demand justice in Breonna Taylor’s death. David Cameron’s office is heading an investigation into the death of Taylor, who was fatally shot while police were conducting a no-knock warrant at her home on March 13. Among the 87 protesters who gathered at Cameron’s Louisville home on Tuesday were civil rights leaders, a reality TV star, and a professional football player. Louisville police said some of the protesters had threatened to burn down the house if they didn’t get justice, prompting the felony charge of “intimidating a participant in a legal process.” Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell said in a statement that Louisville police had probable cause for the felony charge, but “in the interest of justice and the promotion of the free exchange of ideas, we will dismiss that charge’’ for each of the protesters."
Pass complete!
Related:
"A Pennsylvania police officer was justified when he pressed his knee into a man’s head while restraining him outside a hospital, a prosecutor said Friday after reviewing an incident that was caught on video and generated allegations of police brutality. The officer and a second police officer used reasonable force to restrain the man, who was agitated, obviously intoxicated, and posing a danger to himself and others, said Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin. “I have concluded that there is absolutely no evidence to support filing criminal charges against either of the Allentown police officers involved in this incident,” Martin said in a news release. He said he didn’t believe disciplinary action was warranted, either. Surveillance video of the July 11 incident, released this week by Allentown police, showed the unnamed officer putting his knee on the man’s head and neck area twice while he was being restrained a few steps from the emergency room entrance, the first time for eight seconds, the second for 20 seconds. The man was identified as Edward Borrero Jr., 37, of Allentown. He was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, public drunkenness, and disorderly conduct. Borrero, who has yet to enter a plea, could not immediately be located for comment."
Nothing like living there in Allentown.
"Two men were charged Friday after a Black man said a group of white men assaulted him and threatened to “get a noose” after claiming that he and his friends had trespassed on private property as they gathered at a southern Indiana lake over the Fourth of July weekend. Monroe County prosecutors charged Sean Purdy with felonies of criminal confinement, battery resulting in moderate bodily injury, and intimidation. Jerry Cox II has been charged with felony criminal confinement and battery resulting in moderate bodily injury, as well as two misdemeanors. The charges follow weeks of protests demanding arrests in the assault on Vauhxx Booker, a local civil rights activist and member of the Monroe County Human Rights Commission. Booker said he called 911 after the men assaulted him and pinned him to a tree at the lake just south of Booker’s hometown of Bloomington. David Hennessy, a criminal defense attorney for Purdy, had no immediate comment on the charges. Hennessy previously said Booker has been “putting forth a false narrative” about what happened. Hennessy alleged that Booker “was the instigator and the agitator.” It wasn’t immediately known if Cox had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. Booker said the group of five men accused him of trespassing on private property. After he tried to apologize, the situation got physical. Booker said the men threatened to break his arms and said, “get a noose.”
I'm sorry, I no longer believe these self-serving, self-inflicted, narrative-enforcing, false flag fakeries.
Looks like the Zionists are losing the battle against the Globali$ts if the result of this election means anything:
"Progressive Insurgent Defeats Eliot Engel in New York House Primary" by Jesse McKinley New York Times, July 17, 2020
Jamaal Bowman, a progressive insurgent, has scored a stunning victory over Representative Eliot Engel of New York in a Democratic primary, beating back the efforts of the Democratic establishment to protect a 16-term incumbent.
Bowman, a middle school principal from Yonkers, was declared the winner Friday, after a count of absentee ballots verified what seemed clear on primary night, when he emerged with a commanding lead over Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The victory came with the help of an array of stars from the Democratic Party’s left wing, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
One wonders how Biden is the nominee.
As a first-time candidate with a fiery anti-establishment message, Bowman’s victory has echoes of Ocasio-Cortez’s own stunning win in 2018 over another entrenched incumbent in New York, Representative Joseph Crowley, then the No. 4 Democrat in the House.
In the closing weeks of the campaign, as Bowman gained momentum and prominent backers, members of the Democratic old guard tried to salvage Engel’s flagging campaign. Hillary Clinton endorsed the congressman a week before the primary, followed in short order by Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, a third-term Democrat, who said that Engel deserved a vote because “seniority matters.”
Those endorsements probably hurt more than helped!
Those pleas followed endorsements from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California; Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the House majority whip; and Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House Democratic Caucus chairman.
All was for naught, as Bowman bested Engel and two other Democratic challengers, embracing progressive plans like the Green New Deal and “Medicare for All,” while also preaching the need for broader social changes like criminal justice reform and addressing income inequality.
Such issues were given fresh emphasis and added urgency as the nation reeled in the wake of the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in late May. The subsequent demonstrations were broadly incorporated into, and invigorated, the Black Lives Matter movement, and gave a powerful talking point for Bowman, who is African American and said he had been physically attacked by police as a child.
In a statement released shortly after the Associated Press called the race Friday morning, Bowman referenced both his compelling biography and the continuing reckoning on race and policing in America.
“I’m a Black man who was raised by a single mother in a housing project. That story doesn’t usually end in Congress,” he said, “but today, that 11-year old boy who was beaten by police is about to be your next representative.”
The Black Lives Matter movement also served as backdrop for a cringe-inducing moment for Engel. At a news conference in New York City in early June, the congressman was caught on microphone suggesting that he was only there because of his contested race.
“If I didn’t have a primary,” he said, “I wouldn’t care.”
Engel, 73, was first elected in 1988 and had practiced a form of old-school politics: He slowly rose in party ranks, glad-handed a series of passing presidents, and boasted of perks he brought home to the 16th Congressional District, which includes the northern Bronx and portions of southern Westchester County.
Engel becomes the fifth House incumbent and second Democrat to fall in this year’s primaries; Daniel Lipinski of Illinois was the other. The three Republicans who lost were Steve King of Iowa, Denver Riggleman of Virginia, and Scott Tipton of Colorado.
Bowman received financial help from liberal groups like the Working Families Party and political action committees like the Justice Democrats, which jointly spent more than $1 million to oust Engel.
The coronavirus outbreak, which killed more than 4,500 people in the Bronx and Westchester, also profoundly changed the primary campaign, limiting in-person campaigning and forcing debates to be conducted via Zoom.
Bowman, who claimed 1 million calls to voters, also hammered Engel’s lack of presence in the district during the crisis, suggesting that the incumbent spent much of his time at a home he owns in suburban Maryland. Engel pushed back on this assertion, saying he was a steady presence in the district, including Riverdale, where he lives.
Like other closely watched races, the final result in the 16th District had been delayed for weeks, as election officials in Westchester County and the Bronx — the two counties that make up parts of the district — struggled to count tens of thousands of absentee ballots.
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Related:
"Joe Biden on Friday released a new plan on how public schools should approach reopening this school year, contrasting sharply with President Trump’s message that every school in the nation should reopen completely or risk having its funding cut. Biden urged caution, saying that each district should make its own decisions based on local conditions, and that schools in areas with high infection rates should not reopen too soon. He also called on Congress to pass new emergency funding to help the schools. “If we do this wrong, we will put lives at risk and set our economy and our country back,” the Biden campaign wrote in a plan released Friday afternoon. Biden also warned that without an infusion of federal funds, districts will struggle to pay for added health protections and may be forced to lay off teachers. He called on Congress to allocate emergency funding to help schools reconfigure classrooms, improve ventilation, and take other steps to allow for social distancing within their buildings. Biden’s plan lands a day after White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the online options that some districts are considering are not sufficient. “The science should not stand in the way of this,” she added, arguing that the data shows that children are less likely to be affected by the virus and that they benefit from being in the schools....."
"..... The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee also released a new video, recorded from his basement in Wilmington, Del. He was joined by his wife, Jill, a longtime educator. “This year, back to school is going to look very, very different,” Biden says in the video, “and we know how hard it’s going to be for families all across the country.” Jill Biden adds, “Teachers are tough, but it’s wrong to endanger educators and students. We need a better plan.” Biden’s plan is in line with the approach he has taken in recent days, suggesting that school districts are confronting different scenarios and should respond accordingly. It’s a notably different message from the one being sent by the White House, which argues that science and economic well-being dictate that all schools should reopen on time. Biden said each school district must evaluate its circumstances. “If you have the ability to have people wear masks and you have teachers able to be in a position where they can teach at a social distance — that, I think is one thing,” he said earlier this week in an interview with WBTV in Charlotte, “but it costs a lot of money to do that. If you don’t have that capacity, I think it’s too dangerous to open the schools. So it depends.” Biden said that he empathized with students in poorer communities, whose families rely on schools as a social safety net, but that a premature reopening could endanger health and safety. “You’ve got to make sure you’re not putting them back in the circumstance where they’re going to become ill with covid and/or bring that covid back home,” he said. “Many of them live in multigenerational homes. So they come home with covid and they may not get seriously ill, but their mom their grandmom, their grandpop — somebody ends up dying. So we end up with a circumstance where you’ve got to try to figure out what the mix is that you can afford to do,” he said. Biden’s plan blames Trump for the problems that school districts are confronting, saying that the president “has made it much worse. We had a window to get this right, and, Trump blew it,” his plan says. “His administration failed to heed the experts and take the steps required to reduce infections in our communities.”
I guess there is no blocking him now.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
To war!
"Family of late resident files $176 million suit against former Holyoke Soldiers’ Home leaders" by Matt Stout Globe Staff, July 17, 2020
The family of a late Korean War veteran on Friday sued the former head of the state-run Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, the state’s former veterans secretary, and three others, charging that scores of residents unnecessarily died at the facility because the officials showed a “deliberate indifference” to their care.
Good.
Something has to be done after the murder of our beloved heroes.
The federal lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Springfield, appears to be the first legal action taken by family of those who died at the home, where the coronavirus outbreak killed at least 76 elderly residents and sickened dozens more, including staff members and more than 80 other veterans.
Drawing heavily from a state-ordered investigation of the home, the complaint seeks $176 million and certification as a class-action civil rights lawsuit. One of the family’s attorneys said they expect to add more plaintiffs, and justified the financial demand as an appropriate amount that “takes care” of both the veterans who were sickened and the families of the 76 who died since the beginning of March.
Some would have thought they were useless eaters who didn't contribute to society.
“They’re certainly entitled to $1 million each,” attorney Thomas Lesser said during a news conference outside the courthouse Friday.
The lawsuit names Bennett Walsh, the home’s former superintendent; Francisco Urena, the state’s former secretary of veterans’ services, who resigned in June; and three other former medical leaders at the facility.
It does not name Governor Charlie Baker or current members of his administration who oversaw the home, but Lesser said that attorneys are considering adding other defendants.
They washed the blood off his hands.
“We named the five people we felt were primarily responsible,” he said of the initial filing.
Baker, whose administration appointed both Walsh and Urena and oversees the home, did not address the lawsuit Friday, and an administration spokesman said officials would not comment on pending litigation, but Baker said he has personally spoken with relatives of those who have died “over the course of many hours.”
“I am more than aware of the pain and the sadness and the loss that they feel,” the governor said at an unrelated news conference.....
He is an accomplice by placing sick people in care homes, and he didn't exactly show compassion , did he?
He's aware, but that doesn't mean he is sorry.
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Add another one to the rolls.
Related:
Commander John Benda (right), commanding officer of the USS Constitution, and Lieutenant Commander Andrew Boryles, executive officer of the USS Constitution (SN Alfonso Ortiz-Lopez/U.S. Navy).
"A public health emergency declared Friday by the city’s board of health requires people to wear face coverings in all public parks as well as the downtown business district. Coverings are required in “all places open to the public, whether indoors or outdoors,” according to the order posted to the city’s website. The areas include such popular seaside destinations as Salem Willows, Winter Island, and Forest River Park. The order covers the hours of 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. People do not have to wear the coverings when sitting or laying on a beach; eating; sitting in private cars. Children under age 2 are exempt, along with “persons for whom a face covering would cause impairment due to an existing health condition,” or are exempt under the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to the order."
That is sheer madness, and proves they are not interested in protecting your health at all.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"A federal judge has submitted final approval of a $14 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit against Dartmouth College that says the school ignored years of harassment and assault by former psychology professors. Of the $14 million, $5.1 million will cover lawyer fees and other expenses. Each named plaintiff will receive $75,000 for their contributions, and the remaining balance will be split among the plaintiffs and 65 other women who say they were affected by the misconduct, Valley News reported. An independent party will determine the individual sums awarded to each person, and any remaining money will be donated to the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. In addition, Dartmouth pledged to the pursuit and implementation of several reforms including hiring more diverse faculty and expanding its partnership with WISE, a Lebanon-based nonprofit that offers support to survivors of gender-based violence (AP)."
If the women are happy with it, who am I to gainsay them?
"The 21-year-old personal assistant of tech CEO Fahim Saleh was arrested Friday in the grisly slaying of the tech investor, an attack police said appeared related to the theft of tens of thousands of dollars. Tyrese Devon Haspil is accused of attacking Saleh, 33, at his luxury Manhattan apartment on Monday. New York police investigators say Haspil dismembered the body a day later with an electric saw and put the remains in trash bags. Saleh’s cousin discovered his body Tuesday, when she went to check after not hearing from him, Detectives Chief Rodney Harrison said at a Friday news briefing. Police earlier said she may have interrupted Haspil when she buzzed Saleh’s unit from the building’s entry, and suspect he escaped down a service entrance. Born in Saudi Arabia, Saleh was raised in upstate New York and earned a computer science degree in 2009 from Bentley University in Waltham. He started building websites as a child; his first, Salehfamily.com, was used by relatives to coordinate gatherings, according to a 2016 blog profile. During his years at Bentley, he canvassed Boston-area restaurants to create a Facebook food delivery app. He helped launch Pathao in 2015, which Forbes valued at $100 million. Gokada, launched in 2018 in Nigeria, is worth $150 million, according Complex magazine."
He Khashoggied him!
Related:
"Suspect is arrested in grisly killing of Fahim Saleh, tech CEO and Bentley grad; Saleh, 33, was found dismembered and decapitated inside his Manhattan apartment" by William K. Rashbaum and Michael Gold, The New York Times, July 17, 2020
NEW YORK — The personal assistant of a young tech entrepreneur who was found decapitated and dismembered in his Manhattan apartment this week was arrested early Friday and is expected to be charged in the grisly killing, according to two officials briefed on the matter.
The entrepreneur, Fahim Saleh, 33, was discovered dead Tuesday afternoon by his sister inside his $2.25 million condo in a luxury building on the Lower East Side, police said. She had gone to check in on him after not hearing from him for about a day.
She found a gruesome scene: Saleh’s head and limbs had been removed, and parts of his body had been placed in large plastic bags. An electric saw was still plugged in nearby.
The personal assistant, Tyrese Devon Haspil, 21, was expected to be charged in a criminal complaint with second degree murder and other crimes.
Haspil was 16 when he started "assisting" Saleh, and where will he now live?
Something stinks here.
Detectives believe that the motive for the killing stemmed from Saleh having discovered that the assistant had stolen tens of thousands of dollars from him, despite the fact that Saleh had not reported the man and had set up what amounted to a repayment plan for him to return the money, one of the officials said.
Police were expected to announce the arrest at a news conference later Friday.
Investigators have also concluded that Saleh was killed Monday, the day before his body was found, and that the killer returned the next day to Saleh’s apartment on East Houston Street to dismember the body and clean up the crime scene.
Detectives believe that the killer, dressed in a black three-piece suit, white shirt and tie, wearing a black mask and carrying a duffle bag, followed Saleh off an elevator in his building and into his apartment, a law enforcement official said. He used a Taser to immobilize Saleh and then stabbed him to death.
Security video taken from inside the elevator shows the killer later using a battery-operated portable vacuum cleaner in an apparent effort to remove any traces of his presence, the official said.
New York City’s medical examiner announced Thursday that Saleh had died from multiple stab wounds to his neck and torso. Initially, a law enforcement official had described the killing as a “hit” and said it looked “like a professional job.”
Detectives investigating the killing believe the killer’s work dismembering the body was interrupted when Saleh’s sister buzzed from the building’s lobby, another official said, prompting him to flee through the apartment’s back door and into a stairwell before the sister arrived.
Saleh’s family said in a statement Wednesday that the killing was so shocking it was unfathomable.
“Fahim is more than what you are reading,” the family said. “He is so much more. His brilliant and innovative mind took everyone who was a part of his world on a journey and he made sure never to leave anyone behind.”
I'm not liking the age difference.
Saleh was born in Saudi Arabia to Bangladeshi parents who eventually settled near Poughkeepsie, New York, a small city on the Hudson River.
After graduating from Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 2009, he built an app called PrankDial that allowed users to send prerecorded prank calls. Saleh said he eventually built PrankDial into a $10 million business.
??????
It's starting to smell like a Wayfair operation!
Saleh went on to found Pathao, a motorcycle ride-sharing startup in Bangladesh. He left that company in 2018 to begin a similar venture in Nigeria, an app known as Gokada.
At the time of his death, Saleh was the chief executive of Gokada and oversaw a shift in its business during a turbulent time. In February, Nigerian officials began enforcing a ban on motorcycle taxis in major commercial and residential parts of the country’s largest city, Lagos.
Gokada was forced to halt its ride-hailing business and laid workers off, but Saleh pivoted the company to focus on food and parcel delivery and business logistics.
“Fahim’s passion for Nigeria and its youth was immeasurable,” Gokada said in a statement. “He believed young Nigerians were extremely bright and talented individuals who would flourish if just given the right opportunity.”
Saleh was also the founding partner in a Manhattan-based venture capital fund, Adventure Capital, that invested in similar transit startups in Colombia and Bangladesh.
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Also see:
"A tech CEO — and Bentley grad — was dismembered in his Manhattan apartment in what ‘looks like a professional job’ " by Michael Gold, William K. Rashbaum and Daniel E. Slotnik, New York Times Service, July 16, 2020
NEW YORK — The killer, dressed entirely in black and wearing a black mask, followed the young technology entrepreneur from the elevator of his luxury condo building into his apartment.
Then he used an electrical stun gun to immobilize the entrepreneur, Fahim Saleh, detectives believe.
Some time after, the assailant killed Saleh, decapitated him and dismembered his body with an electric saw.
The investigation was in its early stages, but that was the chilling account that a law enforcement official briefed on the inquiry gave Wednesday as detectives continued scrutinizing evidence in the shocking killing of Saleh, 33. His body parts were found Tuesday in plastic garbage bags in his apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
On Wednesday, the police continued their investigation at the building and inside Saleh’s apartment, a seventh-story unit that he bought last year for $2.25 million, public records show, and for which he expressed his affection on Instagram.
The investigation included a review of surveillance video from Saleh’s apartment building and an interview with his sister.
Investigators believe the killer’s work dismembering the body was interrupted when the victim’s sister entered the apartment to check on him after not hearing from him for a day, another law enforcement official said.
Detectives think that the assailant fled through the apartment’s back door and into the building’s stairwell when she arrived, the official said.
A Police Department spokesman said he could not comment on how the killer entered the building. The property’s management company said that the building did not have a doorman but had extensive security in place.
The management company, in a statement, said Saleh was an active member of the condominium board.
“The unit owners, residents, board and management are all quite upset,” the statement said.
On Tuesday, a law enforcement official said that the electric saw was still plugged into an electrical outlet when the police arrived, and the killer had left some cleaning supplies behind. It appeared that some effort had been made to clean up the evidence.
The official who spoke Wednesday said that the killing “looks like a professional job,” referring to it as a “hit.” A Police Department spokesman said he could not comment on a possible motive or whether any suspects had been identified.
The prime suspect was MBS.
On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, detectives were scouring the neighborhood for surveillance video from outside local stores, residential and commercial buildings and area traffic cameras to see if cameras had captured the killer coming or going or waiting for his prey, several law enforcement officials said.
The grisly death has attracted international attention given Saleh’s global connections. The son of Bangladeshi immigrants, Saleh founded ride-hailing companies in Bangladesh and Nigeria as well as a venture-capital fund based in Manhattan that invested largely in companies in the developing world.
On Wednesday, Bangladesh’s minister for information and communication technology, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, expressed his condolences and said on Twitter that Saleh’s death was a great loss for the country.
Saleh’s family has declined to speak to the press.
Sumeet Rametra, who met Saleh in college and has been in close communication with his family since his death, described his friend as someone who indulged in kind gestures, like buying his parents a home and a Tesla.
On one recent occasion, Saleh asked Rametra to join him for a game of tennis, but Rametra said he didn’t have a racket, he recalled.
“He was like, ‘I already got you one, let’s go,’ ” Rametra said, crying. “I never got to play with him.”
Rametra, 31, also lauded Saleh’s business acumen, saying that his friend was a visionary who was always looking to his next idea.
“He was a machine, dude, he never stopped,” Rametra said. “He was always trying to make money.”
Saleh grew up near Poughkeepsie, New York, according to public records. As a teenager, he learned to code and began to develop websites, his friends said. He graduated from Bentley University, a small college in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 2009 with a degree in computer information systems, according to his LinkedIn profile.
On social media, in interviews and blog posts, Saleh depicted himself as an entrepreneur driven by passion.
“Entrepreneurs are the ones that really change countries, that really change cities,” Saleh said in a YouTube video in February. “They’re the ones that bring the vision.”
That is going to be locked down going forward.
After college, Saleh turned his love for practical jokes into a prank-calling app named PrankDial, which allowed users to buy prerecorded calls to send to friends.
Writing years later about the business, Saleh said that it eventually generated millions and led him to realize that he could keep turning his passions — in this case, for practical jokes — into big bucks.
“If you go into a project entirely focused on making money, you’re going to be disappointed,” he wrote in a post on Medium.
Still, PrankDial had its stumbles. On his LinkedIn profile, Saleh boasted that while his company had millions of downloads, it also drew more than 100 subpoenas.
At the time of Saleh’s death, PrankDial and its owners faced an active lawsuit from a New Jersey jail worker who was convicted in 2015 of using the site to illegally wiretap his co-workers.
He was only acting like the U.S. government.
After PrankDial, Saleh turned his attention to Bangladesh, where he co-founded the ride-sharing company Pathao in 2015. The business, which Saleh left in 2018, started as a bike-sharing company but now offers transportation, delivery and business logistics.
“Fahim believed in the potential for technology to transform lives in Bangladesh and beyond,” Pathao said in a statement.
Sadly, he won't be around to see the technological dystopia currently being constructed.
Fueled by his success in Bangladesh, Saleh tried to launch a similar venture in Nigeria. That company, Gokada, began operating as a motorcycle ride-hailing company in Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous city, in 2018.
Motorcycle taxis, called okada in Nigeria, have long been popular in Lagos and many other African cities as a way to circumvent traffic jams. Gokada raised $5.3 million in venture capital in June 2019, according to the website TechCrunch, but Saleh’s business hit a major stumbling block in February, when state officials banned motorcycle taxis from operating in major commercial and residential parts of Lagos.
Gokada was forced to halt its ride-hailing business. In a video discussing the ban, Saleh, the company’s chief executive, appeared crestfallen.
“This has definitely been a blow,” Saleh said in the video, which he posted to YouTube and social media platforms on Feb. 2 and titled “Gokada is not okada.”
Saleh was forced to lay off workers, friends said, but he tried to rebound, saying he still believed that Nigeria had enormous economic potential and that he could provide jobs to young Nigerians.
In February, Gokada pivoted quickly to a food and package delivery service. After the change, Saleh sounded an optimistic note.
In April, as the pandemic upended New York and Nigeria alike, he noted on Twitter that his company was well positioned to adapt to the economic shift.
“Now it seems like we had a two-month head start in one of the few thriving business sectors,” he said.
The law enforcement official said that investigators were exploring on Wednesday whether Saleh’s killing might be related to his business, noting the indications that his company had been hurting.
Even as his startup encountered setbacks, Saleh had remained both hopeful and persistent.
“Have a very good feeling about 2020,” he said on Twitter on June 2.
--more--"
Related:
"The Vatican has indicated its support for a campaign to provide a proper Christian burial for hundreds of babies and toddlers by first exhuming their bodies from the grounds of a Catholic-run Irish home for unwed mothers. Amateur Irish historian Catherine Corless has been campaigning since 2014 to give the babies a dignified burial after she tracked down the death certificates for nearly 800 children who died at the home in the town of Tuam, north of Galway, but couldn’t find corresponding burial records. Excavations of the site in 2017 showed “significant quantities of human remains” in a 20-chamber underground structure near a decommissioned sewage tank. Based on Corless’s research, the Irish government instituted a commission of inquiry in 2015 into the Tuam facility and several other mother and baby homes where unwed mothers, orphans, and children whose parents couldn’t care for them were housed. It was part of a process of reckoning in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Ireland to come to terms with a history of abuses in Catholic-run institutions, including the shunning and shaming of unwed mothers, many of whom were pressured into giving up babies for adoption....."
Sorry, that was the wrong religion for his services, and that ghastly discovery should put the Pope to the test.
Also see:
Alan Dershowitz defends op-ed suggesting that age of consent for sex should be lowered
The former passenger on Epstein's jets suggests that 15 is a reasonable age of consent, no matter how old the other partner was.
Related:
French Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet (center) said Monday that she thinks 13 years old could be a reasonable legal age for sexual consent (AFP/Getty Images)
I can see why she would want that, and some were even talking age 11, the sick fucking perverts settled on 15!
