It's the Globe's lead story:
"Civil rights law protects gay and transgender workers, Supreme Court rules" by Adam Liptak New York Times, June 15, 2020
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a landmark civil rights law protects gay and transgender workers from workplace discrimination, handing the movement for LGBTQ equality a stunning victory.
“An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority in the 6-3 ruling.
That opinion and two dissents, spanning 168 pages, touched on a host of flashpoints in the culture wars involving the LGBTQ community — bathrooms, locker rooms, sports, pronouns, and religious objections to same-sex marriage. The decision, the first major case on transgender rights, came amid widespread demonstrations, some protesting violence aimed at transgender people of color.
Our culture is finished.
For three decades, Massachusetts has had similar protections for LGBTQ workers, joining several other states, but until Monday’s decision, it was legal in more than half the states to fire workers for being gay, bisexual, or transgender.
The vastly consequential decision thus extended workplace protections to millions of people across the nation, continuing a series of Supreme Court victories for gay rights even after President Trump transformed the court with his two appointments.
The decision achieved a decades-long goal of gay rights proponents, one they had initially considered much easier to achieve than a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, but even as the Supreme Court established that right in 2015, workplace discrimination remained lawful in most of the country. An employee who married a same-sex partner in the morning could be fired that afternoon for being gay.
Monday’s lopsided ruling, coming from a fundamentally conservative court, was a surprise. Gorsuch, who was Trump’s first appointment to the court, was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.
Looks like Gorsuch and Roberts have been outed.
Supporters of LGBTQ rights were elated by the ruling.
“This is a simple and profound victory for LGBT civil rights,” said Suzanne B. Goldberg, a law professor at Columbia. “Many of us feared that the court was poised to gut sex discrimination protections and allow employers to discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity, yet it declined the federal government’s invitation to take that damaging path.”
The question for the justices was the meaning of a statute, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars employment discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and sex. They had to decide whether that last prohibition — bias “because of sex” — applies to many millions of gay and transgender workers.
Gorsuch wrote that it did.
They co-opted your movement, ladies.
Obviously, no one should face discrimination for any reason (unless white), but this is going to open up a further thicket of divisive side issues (probably the point of the ruling).
Justice Samuel Alito, in a dissent joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, wrote that the majority had abandoned its judicial role. “There is only one word for what the court has done today: legislation,” Alito wrote. “The document that the court releases is in the form of a judicial opinion interpreting a statute, but that is deceptive.”
“A more brazen abuse of our authority to interpret statutes is hard to recall,” he wrote. “The court tries to convince readers that it is merely enforcing the terms of the statute, but that is preposterous.”
Related:
"The Supreme Court ruled Monday that insurance companies can collect $12 billion from the federal government to cover their losses in the early years of the health care law championed by President Barack Obama. Insurers are entitled to the money under a provision of the “Obamacare” health law that promised the companies a financial cushion for losses they might incur by selling coverage to people in the marketplaces created by the health care law, the justices said by an 8-1 vote. The program only lasted three years, but Congress inserted a provision in the Health and Human Services Department’s spending bills from 2015 to 2017 to limit payments under the “risk corridors” program. Both the Obama and Trump administrations had argued that the provision means the government has no obligation to pay, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her opinion for the court that the congressional action was not sufficient to repeal the government’s commitment to pay."
The Corporate Court comes together on something, but who was the dissenter and why?
Alito looks like the only judge who is not compromised -- at least for now, and I judge them as such: Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Sotomayor, Roberts, Gorsuch, Breyer, Kagan, Ginsburg.
The common understanding of sex discrimination in 1964, Alito wrote, was bias against women or men and did not encompass discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. If Congress wanted to protect gay and transgender workers, he wrote, it could pass a new law.
You see, he is right about that. Congre$$ needed to pass a law to fix it.
Alito added that the majority’s decision would have pernicious consequences.
He said the majority left open, for instance, questions about access to restrooms and locker rooms. “For women who have been victimized by sexual assault or abuse,” he wrote, “the experience of seeing an unclothed person with the anatomy of a male in a confined and sensitive location such as a bathroom or locker room can cause serious psychological harm.” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a concurring dissent.
Kavanaugh will elaborate later; however, how ironic it is that he rose to the defense of real women after what he went through! A fine justice he.
Gorsuch responded that the court’s ruling was narrow. “We do not purport to address bathrooms, locker rooms, or anything else of the kind,” he wrote. “Whether other policies and practices might or might not qualify as unlawful discrimination or find justifications under other provisions of Title VII are questions for future cases, not these.”
Like I said, all those cases will come up later.
This was my print version:
Nor did the majority address, Alito said, how its ruling would affect sports, college housing, religious employers, health care or free speech.
“Although the court does not want to think about the consequences of its decision, we will not be able to avoid those issues for long,” Justice Alito wrote. “The entire federal judiciary will be mired for years in disputes about the reach of the court’s reasoning.”
That was the point!
Justice Gorsuch added that Title VII itself included protections for religious employers and that a separate federal law and the First Amendment also allow religious groups latitude in their employment decisions.
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump’s other appointment to the court, issued a separate dissent making a point about statutory interpretation. “Courts must follow ordinary meaning, not literal meaning,” he wrote, adding that the ordinary meaning of “because of sex” does not cover discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
“Seneca Falls was not Stonewall,” he wrote. “The women’s rights movement was not (and is not) the gay rights movement, although many people obviously support or participate in both. So to think that sexual orientation discrimination is just a form of sex discrimination is not just a mistake of language and psychology, but also a mistake of history and sociology.”
You learn from mistakes, and that print was replaced by this in the web version:
In remarks to reporters, Trump said he accepted the ruling. “I’ve read the decision,” he said, “and some people were surprised, but they’ve ruled and we live with their decision.” He added that it was a “very powerful decision, actually.”
He doesn't have a choice! It's the Supreme Court. Case closed!
The Trump administration had urged the court to rule against gay and transgender workers, and it has barred most transgender people from serving in the military. The Department of Health and Services issued a rule on Friday that undid protections for transgender patients against discrimination by doctors, hospitals and insurers.
Those actions involved different laws from the one at issue on Monday, and the Supreme Court has allowed the military ban to go into effect while lawsuits challenging it proceed. Still, the court’s ruling suggested that a new era in transgender rights has arrived.
This society is being changed so rapidly one will not recognize it by next year.
The decision, covering two sets of cases, was the court’s first on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights since the retirement in 2018 of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinions in all four of the court’s major gay rights decisions. Proponents of those rights had worried his departure would halt their progress.
A large majorities of Americans oppose employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, and substantial ones oppose it when based on gender identity. More than 200 major corporations filed a brief supporting the gay and transgender employees in the cases before the court.
The decision was both symbolic and consequential, and it followed in the tradition of landmark rulings on discrimination.....
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You see the forces that can bend the court to its will. Once judicial independence is gone, the country is no more.
"Supreme Court refuses to reconsider immunity that shields police accused of brutality" by Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow Washington Post, June 15, 2020
So they stiffed BLM while dropping to a knee for the trannies, huh?
WOW!
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday refused to review a form of immunity that has shielded police officers from lawsuits alleging brutality and other civil rights violations, an issue that found renewed attention after nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody.
The justices declined to hear eight separate cases presenting reconsideration of the doctrine of qualified immunity that establishes protection from lawsuits for government officials, particularly police officers.
Oh, that's a BIG MIDDLE FINGER right there!
Government is ABOVE the LAW in AmeriKa!
So when does BLM light fire to the court (remember when protesters stormed the court doors a while back? Pathetic wretches whining and crying).
Justice Clarence Thomas issued a six-page dissent, calling on his colleagues to revisit the protections and expressing ‘‘strong doubts’’ about the court’s approach to qualified immunity.
Way to go, brother! Six pages!
The doctrine, created by the Supreme Court decades ago, allows civil suits only when it can be shown that an official’s actions violated a ‘‘clearly established’’ statutory or constitutional right. When determining whether the right was clearly established, courts consider whether a reasonable official would have known that the actions were a violation.
In practice, the ‘‘clearly established’’ test often means that for their lawsuits to proceed, civil rights plaintiffs must identify a nearly identical violation that has been recognized by the Supreme Court or appellate courts in the same jurisdiction.
Floyd’s death in Minneapolis on May 25 amplified calls for the court — and Congress — to act. Changing qualified immunity is part of the House Democrats’ policing reform legislation, and some senators have called for action as well. President Trump has opposed those efforts.
‘‘The Supreme Court’s deeply disappointing decision today to punt on the critical issue of official immunity, in this time of national reckoning over police violence, places the ball squarely in Congress’s court,’’ David Cole, national legal director for the ACLU, said in a statement Monday.
‘‘We have seen the deadly consequences play out on the streets, and Black Americans have largely paid the price,’’ he added.
The court’s qualified-immunity decisions have raised concerns among lawyers and academics for years. An extraordinary coalition of organizations on the left, right, and middle — one federal judge called it ‘‘perhaps the most diverse amici ever assembled’’ — has called on the court to revisit the issue, and so have two members of the court who represent its opposite ideological wings — Thomas and Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Way to go, sister!
Thomas, citing leading conservative academics, questioned in 2017 whether the doctrine was properly grounded in common law and the Constitution.
Sotomayor, who did not sign on to Thomas’s dissent Monday, has frequently dissented when her colleagues have granted or upheld qualified immunity in excessive-force cases and said the doctrine has grown from protecting officials from harassing lawsuits into something else.
The court ‘‘routinely displays an unflinching willingness’’ to reverse lower courts that do not give an officer qualified immunity, ‘‘but rarely intervenes where courts wrongly afford officers the benefit of qualified immunity in these same cases,’’ she wrote. ‘‘Such a one-sided approach to qualified immunity transforms the doctrine into an absolute shield for law enforcement officers.’’
Legal scholars have criticized the court for what they say is a rewrite of an important civil rights law meant to ensure that federal courts provide protection to all Americans.
Looks like they do that all the time.
The law is now known to lawyers as Section 1983 of the US Code, and it imposes liability on officials who use their positions to deprive anyone of ‘‘any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution.’’
So when do the flood of lawsuits against governors begin?
There is no exception in the law for police, but beginning in the 1980s, the Supreme Court began providing some immunity for officials, saying that the rights violation must be ‘‘clearly established’’ for a lawsuit to proceed.
They were protecting themselves and their own cla$$, and why must taxpayers always pick up the tab for criminal police conduct? Make them re$pon$ible for it and it will stop immediately!
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The court also flipped the bird to the right wing as well, readers:
"Supreme Court passes up challenges from gun groups on laws they say violate Second Amendment" by Robert Barnes Washington Post, June 15, 2020
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up new cases for next term that gun rights groups claimed denied Second Amendment rights.
The court did not accept a batch of cases that gun groups had hoped the court, fortified with more conservative members, might consider. Among them were cases involving restrictions in Maryland and New Jersey to permits for carrying a handgun outside the home.
What is it Jackson once said?
Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it?
The court earlier this term had dismissed a challenge from New York about transporting guns, and three justices objected, with the newest, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, adding that it seemed likely lower courts have been too quick to uphold state and local gun control measures.
Although he agreed the New York case was moot, he added that he shared the ‘‘concern that some federal and state courts may not be properly applying’’ the Supreme Court’s decision recognizing an individual’s right to gun ownership.
‘‘The court should address that issue soon,’’ he wrote.
He and Justice Clarence Thomas objected Monday.
‘‘This court would almost certainly review the constitutionality of a law requiring citizens to establish a justifiable need before exercising their free speech rights, and it seems highly unlikely that the court would allow a state to enforce a law requiring a woman to provide a justifiable need before seeking an abortion,’’ Thomas wrote, regarding the New Jersey case, ‘‘but today, faced with a petition challenging just such a restriction on citizens’ Second Amendment rights, the court simply looks the other way.’’
He has turned into such an outstanding justice! Incredibly, he is filling the huge shoes of Scalia, something I thought could never happen.
The court’s most conservative members at various times have expressed frustration that their colleagues have routinely turned down requests to evaluate laws that impose tough restrictions for permits to carry guns outside the home and ban certain types of weapons.
The reluctance to reenter the gun control debate was almost entirely due to retired justice Anthony Kennedy. He was part of the court’s 5 to 4 majority in 2008’s landmark District of Columbia v. Heller decision, which said the Second Amendment provided a right to gun ownership for personal protection apart from military service, but Kennedy had also insisted in language that presumed states and localities still had leeway to pass gun restrictions.
Lower courts have pointed to that to uphold many restrictions and overturn very few, but Kavanaugh’s replacement of his old boss Kennedy was thought to change the dynamic on the court. Kavanaugh was suspicious of gun restrictions while a judge on the appeals court, and the National Rifle Association was an enthusiastic backer during his selection and nomination by President Trump.....
Doesn't matter; they are standing on principle, the law, and the Constitution.
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"Supreme court won’t hear case on California sanctuary law" by Adam Liptak New York Times, June 15, 2020
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday turned down an appeal from the Trump administration seeking to challenge a California “sanctuary law.”
Well, they pretty much screwed everyone but the gays and trannies!
As is the court’s custom, its order declining to hear the case gave no reasons. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said they would have granted the administration’s petition seeking review.....
I've seen enough.
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They say mi$ery loves company, and they are not the only entity the court has $crewed lately:
"Supreme Court upholds federal response to Puerto Rico debt" by Adam Liptak New York Times, June 1, 2020
The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously upheld a key aspect of the federal response to the worst debt crisis in Puerto Rican history, one that threatened basic services like schools and hospitals, some $50 billion in public pension obligations, and more than $70 billion in debts to bondholders.
The crisis worsened after Hurricane Maria destroyed much of the island’s infrastructure in 2017, with the commonwealth estimating that recovery costs would exceed $139 billion. The court ruled that members of a government board created by Congress in 2016 to clean up the financial mess had been properly appointed.
Had the court come to the opposite conclusion, its ruling could have undone years of work on restructuring the commonwealth’s debts.
The 2016 law at issue in the case — the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act, or PROMESA — created an independent entity to restructure the commonwealth’s debt, the Financial Oversight and Management Board. Since then, the board has tried to resolve about 165,000 claims from creditors, not always to their satisfaction.
Aurelius Investment, a hedge fund that had bought distressed bonds, and a labor union representing employees of an electric utility objected to the board’s actions, arguing that its members had been appointed without following the procedures set out in the Constitution, which requires Senate confirmation of “officers of the United States.”
That was a curious case, one where the court has apparently stood up to one of the most ruthless vultures on the planet today.
The 2016 law took a different approach, using what Justice Sonia Sotomayor called in a concurring opinion “a labyrinthine procedure.”
The law let the president appoint one of the board’s seven voting members as he saw fit and choose six more from lists compiled by congressional leaders.
If the president followed those procedures, as President Barack Obama did, no Senate confirmation was said to be required.
The US Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, in Boston, ruled that the appointment procedure ran afoul of the Constitution’s appointments clause because the board members were federal officers.
Lawyers for the board argued that its members were mere territorial officers.
A different constitutional provision gives Congress power over territories like Puerto Rico.
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Closer to home, the Globe is praising the win for gay and transgender rights at Supreme Court while officials and LGBTQ leaders are lauding the Supreme Court decision, but say more work is ahead.
Also see:
"The US Supreme Court let the liquidator of Bernard Madoff’s investment firm press ahead with efforts to recoup $3 billion from European banks and other overseas investors. The justices, without comment on Monday, turned away an appeal by investors led by HSBC who said trustee Irving Picard was impermissibly trying to apply US bankruptcy law to foreign transactions. A federal appeals court let Picard sue the investors. The money is the biggest remaining bucket of cash being sought by Picard as he tries to compensate customers who lost $19 billion in principal after Madoff’s arrest. So far Picard has recovered more than $14 billion and distributed more than $13 billion to victims — significantly more than many predicted when he was appointed in 2008."
Madoff's $in was ripping off other Jews.
Go check the archives:
"Publishers sue Internet Archive, says its free online ‘library’ violates copyright law" by Hillel Italie Associated Press, June 1, 2020
NEW YORK — Four of the country’s biggest publishers have sued a digital library for copyright infringement, alleging that the Internet Archive has illegally offered more than a million scanned works to the public, including such favorites as Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon,” Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink,” and Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.’’
“Without any license or any payment to authors or publishers, Internet Archive scans print books, uploads these illegally scanned books to its servers, and distributes verbatim digital copies of the books in whole via public-facing websites,” according to papers filed Monday in federal court in New York. “With just a few clicks, any Internet-connected user can download complete digital copies of in-copyright books.”
In March, the Internet Archive said it had established a “National Emergency Library’’ in response to the coronavirus outbreak, which has shut down most of the country’s schools and libraries. According to the Archive, the emergency library would support “remote teaching, research activities, independent scholarship, and intellectual stimulation’’ with free digital materials.
“We hope that authors will support our effort to ensure temporary access to their work in this time of crisis,” according to a statement on the archive’s web site, www.archive.org. The emergency library is scheduled to last at least through the end of June. The archive also provides free access to more than 1 million older, public-domain books not bound by copyright law.
Founded in 1996 and based in San Francisco, the Archive has defended its recent actions by saying it operates like a traditional lending library, a nonprofit entity providing free books. The publishers have contended the archive does not work like a traditional library in part because it offers scans of paper books without reaching licensing deals with copyright holders. The Archive has said it acquires paperback and hardcover books through purchases and donations and then scans them.
On Monday, Internet Archive cofounder Brewster Kahle called the lawsuit “disappointing.’’
“As a library, the Internet Archive acquires books and lends them, as libraries have always done,” he wrote in an e-mail. “This supports publishing and authors and readers. Publishers suing libraries for lending books, in this case, protected digitized versions, and while schools and libraries are closed, is not in anyone’s interest. We hope this can be resolved quickly.”
The plaintiffs, including Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, and Wiley, are seeking a permanent injunction against the library and an undetermined amount of money for damages. Court papers refer to page views on the archive site, more than 50,000 alone in New York state, but not to how many books were actually borrowed.
“There is nothing in the copyright law which authorizes the mass copying of and distribution of 1.3 million scanned books to the public, regardless of whether those copies are downloaded by one person or millions,” said Maria Pallante, CEO of the trade group the Association of American Publishers.
Monday’s legal action continues a long battle between traditional publishers, for which copyrights are an underpinning of the business, and the Internet community, which has advocated making as much material as possible available for free. Authors and publishers condemned the March launch of the emergency library, but historian Jill Lepore praised it, writing in a New Yorker essay that “If the books you need aren’t in any bookstore, and, especially, if you are one of the currently more than one billion students and teachers shut out of your classroom, please: sign up, log on, and borrow!”
Over the past 30 years, publishers have battled Google, Amazon and others over digital content. In 2019, several sued Amazon-owned Audible.com over a planned audiobook program for schools that included captions the plaintiffs alleged violated copyright law. The case was settled earlier this year.
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Looks like an open-and-shut case, doesn't it?
UPDATE:
Supreme Court rejects Trump bid to end legal protections for DACA recipients
They have been completely coopted, and is it possible that Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Gorsuch are compromised?
Showing posts with label Madoff Scandal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Madoff Scandal. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Wednesday-Thursday Merger
Related: Monday-Tuesday Merger
GMO’s Just Got a Lot More Frightening with Approval of New Monsanto Product
What the Beef Industry Does to Bring You Cheap Burgers
Is that enough to make you smell the flowers?
Better get to work:
"Workers in the so-called gig economy, from Uber drivers to delivery cyclists, need greater labor protections, says a much-anticipated report published Tuesday that was commissioned by the UK government. The study, by Matthew Taylor, a former adviser to Tony Blair, concluded that a new category of worker — the ‘‘dependent contractor’’ — should be created to secure genuine flexibility for laborers. While some workers in the gig economy like the flexibility, others suffer from job insecurity in contracts that, for example, offer no guarantee on the number of hours to be worked. Such insecurity can make it hard, for example, to get a mortgage — even when someone is in regular work. Unions have sharply criticized the report, describing it as a lost opportunity to address inequity and a feeble response to the growing number of workers in delivery and ride-hailing firms such as Deliveroo and Uber. Union leaders wanted recommendations matched with legal sanctions."
Also known as $lave.
Also see: Takata adding 2.7 million vehicles to air bag recall
Pfffffffffffffffffffft.
DraftKings and FanDuel ask court not to block their planned merger
And regarding the soon-to-close Sears store at the Dedham Mall (how appropriately ironic):
Amazon, other tech giants see profit in shrewd moves downmarket
"Amazon used steep discounts to turn its Echo speaker line into a best-seller. Even if Amazon loses money on the device sales, it gets a toehold for its Alexa digital voice-assistant platform to become more connected to shoppers who can use it to check the weather, hail an Uber — and of course buy more from Amazon — by voice command....."
"Amazon.com Inc. used steep discounts to turn its Echo speaker into a bestseller on the company’s annual Prime Day, making good on a bet to use the marketing event to push its voice-activated technology into more homes. Even if Amazon loses money on the device, it gets a toehold for its Alexa platform to become more connected to shoppers who can use the devices to check the weather, stream music, hail an Uber, order pizza — and of course buy more from Amazon — by voice command....."
Which means it is listening to you all the time and the $hadow hackers can open it up with the "stolen" NSA tools, but no worry.
"Visa is looking to push more small businesses into updating their digital payment technology, offering up to $10,000 each to 50 US-based small business owners that are committed to going cashless. The program will focus on restaurants and food establishments, Visa said Wednesday, with the expectation that Visa will expand the program in the coming months and years to other industries and possibly other countries as well. Despite the proliferation of credit and debt cards, and the advent of technologies like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, cash remains a significant method of payment in many industries across the United States and around the world."
Forget the hackers; how will the politicians receive bribes?
Microsoft wants to bring 2 million Americans online by 2022
It's called the Rural Airband Initiative.
Tufts nurses set to strike Wednesday after talks between union, hospital break down
Hundreds picket outside Tufts Medical Center amid nurse strike
At Tufts Medical Center, pressure to cut costs in a city rich with hospitals
It an above the fold story now.
Boston’s labor mayor sidelined in Tufts’ nurses talks
So what is at the heart of strife?
Imagine Boston 2030
It's a 400-plus page document that has Walsh envisioning Boston’s future.
Boston pushes developers to create better public spaces
Target to open a small format store in Medford next year
"True Value is considering a sale that could value the home-improvement chain at about $800 million, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is working with an investment bank to examine strategic options, including a sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The process is expected to attract private equity firms, the people said. No final decision has been made and the company may elect not to pursue a sale. A representative for Chicago-based True Value didn’t respond to e-mails seeking comment. True Value, led by chief executive John Hartmann, is a cooperative of more than 4,000 stores across more than 58 countries, according to its website."
"A worker was killed late Tuesday morning after he was apparently struck by a piece of rock that had broken free at a construction site at the Woburn Public Library, officials said....."
Yes, a worker was killed.
18-year-old pleads not guilty in Roxbury murder
The show must go on, but where?
"Harvard-educated financier gets three years in prison for $23M fraud" Associated Press July 12, 2017
NEW YORK — An Ivy League-educated financier whose friends and family invested millions of dollars with her investment firms was sentenced on Tuesday to three years in prison after squandering more than $23 million, mostly through bad investments.
Haena Park, 41, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Ronnie Abrams, who said she had about as privileged a background as anyone she had ever sentenced.
She passed through the haze, 'eh?
‘‘You squandered it all,’’ the judge said of Park, whom the government described as having dangled her Wall Street success and Harvard degree to win the trust of relatives, close friends, and former classmates.
The judge called the money Park lost over a six-year period for more than 40 investors staggering after prosecutors said Park continued to solicit new investors with claims of annual returns up to nearly 50 percent and by churning out fictitious monthly statements that hid massive losses.
She $mall fry compared to Bernie, who was $mall fish in comparison to Wall $treet.
Assistant US Attorney Christine Magdo said Park’s victims included elderly people who lost their life savings, immigrants who worked multiple jobs for decades and a paraplegic who lost $4 million after telling Park he would soon retire because his health was deteriorating.
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Even worse, she was kicked out of the club.
At least she didn't kill anyone.
"Fidelity trims more jobs, this time through layoffs" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff July 12, 2017
Just weeks after more than 1,500 Fidelity Investments workers accepted voluntary buyout offers, the Boston-based mutual fund manager is trimming its payrolls again. And the departures aren’t voluntary this time around.
Katie Reichart, an associate director of research at Morningstar, said investors pulled about $4 billion from Fidelity’s mutual funds during the first five months of the year. Gains in Fidelity’s passive funds were more than offset by withdrawals from its active funds, she said.
“It’s been a tough environment for Fidelity,” Reichart said. “Investors often think of them as an actively managed shop. That’s worked against them. . . . .”
This in the face of a surging stock market, or so we are told.
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There are still has hundreds of open positions that the company is looking to fill, all part of chief executive Abby Johnson “new multiyear program to drive efficiency across the company.”
What Rick Perry really said about supply and demand
I didn't even consider reading it, sorry.
"US employers posted fewer job openings in May. But hiring picked up and more people are quitting their jobs — both positive signs for the economy. Job openings fell 5 percent in May to 5.7 million, the Labor Department said Tuesday. The setback occurred after advertised job postings nearly reached 6 million in April, a figure that has been revised downward from the initial report. Meanwhile, hiring climbed 8.5 per cent to just under 5.5 million. The data are a sign the economy at 4.4 percent unemployment is nearing ‘‘full employment,’’ when nearly all those who want a job have one and the unemployment rate mostly reflects the normal churn of people who are temporarily out of work. Typically, when unemployment falls that low, companies are forced to offer more pay, but that hasn’t yet happened."
These monthly reports from the government complete with pre$$ excu$es has become such a mind f*** it's no longer worth the time.
Speaking of mind games:
"FBI arrests US soldier on charges of pledging loyalty to Islamic State" by Audrey McAvoy and Lolita C. Baldor Associated Press July 11, 2017
HONOLULU — An active-duty US soldier has been arrested on terrorism charges that accuse him of pleading allegiance to the Islamic State group and saying he wanted to ‘‘kill a bunch of people.’’
Another FBI patsy set-up, and the military guys are already accessible for mind control so we know where this is going..... if it even happened.
The FBI took Sergeant First Class Ikaika Kang into custody over the weekend in a Honolulu suburb after a yearlong investigation involving multiple undercover officers and confidential informants. The 34-year-old from Hawaii made an initial appearance Monday in federal court.
Kang’s court-appointed defense attorney, Birney Bervar, said it appears his client may suffer from service-related mental health issues of which the government was aware but neglected to treat. Bervar declined to elaborate.
OMG!
He said Kang was ‘‘a decorated veteran of two deployments’’ to Iraq and Afghanistan.
A 26-page affidavit from FBI agent Jimmy Chen filed in court Monday detailed how Kang thought he was dealing with people working for Islamic State but who were actually undercover agents.
It's true of all of ISIS™, Al-CIA-Duh, Al-CIA-Bob, etc, etc, etc.
Paul Delacourt, the FBI agent in charge of the Hawaii bureau, told reporters the FBI believed Kang was a lone actor and was not affiliated with anyone who poses a threat.
On Saturday, agents arrested him after he pledged loyalty to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and said he wanted to ‘‘take his rifle, his magazines, and kill ‘a bunch of people.’’’
Also on Saturday, Kang and an undercover agent allegedly went shopping for a drone to give to Islamic State fighters. He used his debit card to pay nearly $1,400 for the drone, GoPro camera and related equipment. The agent paid him $700 to split the cost.
Now it looks like entrapment, and where did he get the gun?
A trained air traffic controller based at Hawaii’s Wheeler Army Airfield, Kang had his military clearance revoked in 2012 for making pro-Islamic State comments while at work and on post and threatening to hurt or kill fellow service members.
His clearance was reinstated a year later after he completed military requirements.
??????????????
They knew he was a terrorist in 2012, then reconditioned him for this?
That sure is what this pos story looks like.
However, the affidavit said, the Army believed Kang was becoming radicalized in 2016 and asked the FBI to investigate.
This smells like an Oswald-type frame up.
Kang’s father told Honolulu television station KHON and the Star-Advertiser newspaper his son may have had post-traumatic stress disorder. Kang told the newspaper he became concerned after his son’s return from Afghanistan. He said his son was withdrawn.
Kang has two firearms registered in his name, an AR-15-style rifle and a handgun. After the shooting last summer at a gay nightclub in Orlando he told a confidential source that the shooter ‘‘did what he had to do’’ and later said that America is the only terrorist organization in the world, according to the affidavit.
Not the only one, but it helps to mix in some truth to the cover story crapola or whatever agenda-pushing garbage is this.
The document alleges he also later told the same source that ‘‘Hitler was right’’ and that he believed in the mass killing of Jews.
HA-HA-HA-HA!
That instantly discredits the previous argument, a common pre$$ tactic.
Print left it in a good spot!
He told the source he was angry at a civilian who had taken away his air traffic controller’s license and that he wanted to torture him, the affidavit said.
‘‘Kang said that if he ever saw him again, he would tie him down and pour Drano in his eyes,’’ the affidavit said.
He enlisted in the Army in December 2001, just months after the Sept. 11 attacks. He served in South Korea from 2002 to 2003. He deployed to Iraq from March 2010 to February 2011 and Afghanistan from July 2013 to April 2014.
Kang was scheduled to appear in court Thursday for a detention hearing.
Red tape with the word ‘‘evidence’’ on it covered part of the door to the Kang’s apartment in the Honolulu suburb of Waipahu.
Dee Asuncion, a real estate agent who represented Kang when he bought his home less than a year ago, said he came across as a ‘‘very respectful guy.’’ She said he was ‘‘on the shy, quiet side.’’
But looking back, she said, there was one conversation that seemed strange to her. He talked about having respect for the ideology of Islamic terrorist groups.
‘‘It sounded like he was just curious,’’ she said, adding that in the same conversation he talked about helping his dad renovate his home.
‘‘I feel bad for him that he went down that road,’’ Asuncion said.
You guys really loading up the bathtub and kitchen sink on this one, huh?
--more--"
Yeah, Comey really let the FBI go to $h**.
"Oklahoma explosion not being called act of domestic terrorism" Associated Press July 12, 2017
BIXBY, Okla. — Federal authorities said Tuesday that they are no longer investigating a pipe bomb explosion that damaged a northeast Oklahoma recruiting station as a possible act of domestic terrorism, adding that the blast could be the work of a disgruntled employee or a prank.
FBI Special Agent Jessi Rice said the explosion in the Tulsa suburb of Bixby is not being called domestic terrorism because investigators have not determined a motive and have not identified a suspect. Rice said the blast currently is a criminal investigation into the use of an explosive device.
Give 'em a day. No crisis should go to waste.
A device was set off around 10:30 p.m. Monday in front of the recruiting center, which was closed, federal authorities said. No one was hurt.
Another false flag phony baloney!
Earlier, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said the blast was being treated as a possible act of domestic terrorism out of ‘‘an abundance of caution,’’ because of its proximity to the recruiting office.
The door of the recruiting station was blown off in the explosion and landed in a parking space in front of the storefront. The center is in a commercial area that also houses small businesses, restaurants and financial planning firms. There is also a movie theater nearby.
Maybe he/she/they hated the endless swill coming from Hollywood?
--more--"
"Military official: Oklahoma bomb suspect was in US Air Force" Associated Press July 13, 2017
TULSA, Okla. — A 28-year-old man facing federal charges in a pipe bomb explosion outside an Air Force recruiting center in Oklahoma had been enlisted in that branch of the military and was decorated for his service, a military official said Wednesday.
Oklahoma Air National Guard Captain Jennifer Proctor said that the suspect, Benjamin Don Roden, enlisted for Air Force active duty in April 2012 and joined the state’s air national guard in October 2014.
Proctor said Roden had been a senior airman whose job involved fire protection, but that he was discharged from the air national guard’s Tulsa-based 138th Fighter Wing in April.
That reminds me, where is the coverage of the hundreds of western wildfires?
According to the arrest report Tuesday, Roden faces federal charges of possession of explosive materials and destruction of government property in the blast Monday night in a commercial area in the Tulsa suburb of Bixby. The recruiting center was closed at the time and no one was hurt.
Roden received several decorations, including the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Proctor said. The medal is awarded to military members who have deployed overseas in direct service to the war on terror.
--more--"
Let's hope they don't find religion in prison.
Related:
"A town resident has gotten drivers to slow down for years with the help of a sign shaped like a police cruiser posted in his driveway. Kelly Tufts tells WFXT-TV he got the life-sized Crown Victoria sign from a friend who owned a salvage yard. He displays it on weekends and holidays (AP)."
It doesn't always work.
"A rep for Kiss 108 says station employees were never in danger during a bizarre standoff Monday afternoon during which a man with an ax barricaded himself inside his car and asked a woman who was smoking a cigarette nearby to “play the ax song.” The 38-year-old man, who has not been identified, was outside the Kiss 108 studio in Medford, but did not enter the building or contact the radio station in any way, said Kiss 108 marketing manager Joseph Mazzei. It’s possible that the distraught man was requesting “My Ax,” a song released in 2000 by the hip-hop duo Insane Clown Posse. The song includes the lyric: “My axe is my buddy, I bring him when I walk/ Me and my axe will leave your head outlined in chalk.” The man, who police say tossed “several edged weapons” from his car, finally surrendered to SWAT officers and was placed on a stretcher before being taken into custody."
I'd say so; looks like more mind games to me.
"A former architectural engineer who threatened to detonate a fake bomb when he robbed a bank in Brighton received a 51-month prison sentence on Monday, authorities said. Kenneth E. Denny, 61, learned his fate during a hearing in US District Court in Boston, according to a statement from acting US Attorney William D. Weinreb. Denny used subterfuge when he robbed a Citizens Bank location on Washington Street in Brighton on July 24, 2015, according to the statement. He handed a teller a note demanding cash and “removed what appeared to be a bomb from a newspaper he was carrying and placed it on the teller’s counter,” the statement said. The teller handed over a little more than $4,000, but Denny still issued another threat, according to prosecutors. As he was exiting the bank, Denny pulled out a white cell phone and declared, “I am going to blow it up,” the release said.
That's where the print brief ended; however, that's all he got for bank robbery?
Investigators later determined the bomb was phony. They were aided in their efforts to locate Denny by the fact that he left his wallet at the bank. The wallet contained his name and photo, the statement said. He was apprehended while heading down Washington Street, and bank employees identified him as the culprit, according to prosecutors. Denny is already serving a sentence for another armed robbery in New York, the statement said. His sentence in the Brighton case will run concurrently. His lawyer in the Boston case, Charles McGinty, said in a recent court filing that the fake bomb used in the Citizens heist was “made out of broomsticks and spray paint.” In addition, McGinty wrote, Denny “dropped the money and ran” when a bank manager confronted him. He said Denny holds degrees from the Wentworth Institute of Technology and Boston University and had a “successful career” as an architectural engineer. “His collapse, evident from his first criminal conviction occurring at age 58 (an OUI in 2013), begs the obvious question: why?” McGinty wrote. “Up to age 58, he was a successful and gainfully employed professional working, inter alia, as an architectural designer for BU and for Parsons Brinkerhoff, making significant money. Perhaps his difficulties started with neurological issues first apparent in 2006.” Those issues included complaints of double vision, headaches and blurred vision after an assault, and a battle with cocaine addiction, according to McGinty. “Certainly, there is some evidence of a brain abnormality, and he continues to suffer from seizures and memory loss consistent with seizure disorder,” the defense lawyer wrote. “But, whatever the cause, there was plainly a collapse, a pitiful decline of a human being into addiction, penury, and ultimately prison.”
Just wondering if he was involved in 9/11, and if not did his knowing the truth the immutable laws of physics drive him to such despair?
"Heroin and mental instability left her adrift in life. She sold her body to buy her drugs. She sold something else to win her freedom. Testimony during the trial revealed that she had five children by different men, Bella being the last, conceived in a tent during the Occupy Boston protest, when Bond was homeless. I feel slightly ashamed that I didn’t have more sympathy for Rachelle Bond. She has had a lousy life. But, like everybody else, I saw the photos of Bella. I heard the evidence and couldn’t believe any human being, much less a child’s mother, could do the things she did, no matter how lost to heroin she was. Everybody deserves a second chance. It’s hard to keep track of how many chances Rachelle Bond has had. But she’s got one more. And that’s one more than her daughter Bella ever got....."
Yeah, the 667 days of confinement will mess with some heads.
It was the cost of the child’s clothes that sent her over the edge.
"Marijuana billboard in South Boston called ‘insensitive’" by Katheleen Conti Globe Staff July 12, 2017
While waiting at a stoplight on East Broadway in South Boston last week, Sheila Greene looked up at a billboard and was stunned. In white letters against a black background, a message read: “States that legalized marijuana had 25% fewer opioid-related deaths.”
Greene was bothered by the fact that the advertisement — from Weedmaps, a California-based company that runs an online marijuana dispensary rating service and sells inventory software to pot shops — was placed in a neighborhood hard hit by opioid abuse. “I couldn’t believe it was being advertised,” she said.
Why would that bother her, other than irrational prejudice?
Or does she not care about addicts like Rachel Bond?
So she contacted a representative of Clear Channel Outdoor — which owns the billboard structure — to point out that the message violated the company’s own policy regarding “exclusionary zones.” Clear Channel’s website states that “advertisements of all products illegal for sale to minors that are intended to be read from places of worship, primary and secondary schools or playgrounds” are prohibited in such zones. Greene estimated there are about 24 places of worship, schools, playgrounds, and after-school and summer programs less than a mile from the site of the billboard at 613-617 East Broadway.
Soon after she lodged her complaint, the message was removed.
Sometimes authority acts instantly, other times they give you the finger.
“The ad was placed in error at a location not meant for the content displayed,” Jason King, a spokesman for Clear Channel, said in an e-mail.....
--more--"
Really puts 'em up a tree:
"An Attleboro man was arrested after he fled from a traffic stop and hid from authorities in a tree, Attleboro police said. An Attleboro police officer attempted a traffic stop on Paul Pereira, of Attleboro, around 1:40 a.m. Monday. The officer noticed Pereira speeding and crossing a marked lane and attempted to pull him over, according to Attleboro police Captain Brett P. Poirier said. Pereira did not pull over but drove onto Greenhill Avenue, where he pulled into a driveway and exited his vehicle. He acknowledged officers after they confronted him there before fleeing from the scene, Poirier said. Attleboro police, joined by a State Police K9 unit, searched the area. The trooper and K9 eventually located Pereira nearby at a property on Primrose Lane, at which point “the trooper removed Pereira from a tree,” Poirier said. Pereira was arrested and charged with a marked lane violation and speeding."
Should have hid on a farm:
"DA: Man held on $5M cash bail amid search for 4 missing men" Associated Press July 13, 2017
SOLEBURY, Pa. — A 20-year-old linked to a Pennsylvania farm at the center of a search for four missing men was arrested Wednesday on charges he tried to sell one man’s car after he went missing, even as it contained the man’s ‘‘life-saving’’ diabetic kit, authorities said in announcing the first big break in the case.
Cosmo DiNardo, described as a person of interest, was taken back into custody Wednesday on a stolen vehicle charge, and a judge ordered him held on $5 million cash bail. His parents, Antonio and Sandra DiNardo, own the sprawling farm property the FBI and police cadets have been methodically searching for four days.
‘‘The search at the scene is really intensifying,’’ Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said at an afternoon news conference. ‘‘I’m very encouraged . . . that we’re going to get some finality in this just prolonged ordeal.’’
According to a police affidavit, police interviewed a man who said DiNardo tried to sell him an old Nissan, the type belonging to Tom Meo, 21, on Saturday, one day after Meo went missing. Police found the car early Sunday on the DiNardo farm, with the keys and title hanging up in a garage.
The DiNardo farm alone covers 90 acres, much of it cornfields. They also own other nearby farm parcels, along with concrete and construction businesses based in Bensalem, about 20 miles away, where the son was arrested.
The FBI has been using heavy equipment to dig a deep ditch on the farm property, then sifting through each bucket of dirt by hand. The search has unearthed ‘‘important’’ evidence, but no human remains, Weintraub said.....
So what are they really looking for or doing?
--more--"
"High school students sue after anti-abortion club rejected" AP July 13, 2017
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Two Pennsylvania high school students have filed a federal lawsuit against their school district alleging discrimination and a violation of their free-speech rights after their failed attempt to start an antiabortion club.
Chicago-based law firm Thomas More Society filed the lawsuit on behalf of students Elizabeth Castro and Grace Schairer on Tuesday against the Parkland School District in Allentown.
The lawsuit alleges that Parkland High School denied the student’s proposal to start a ‘‘Trojans for Life’’ club in 2016 for being too political and controversial.
A spokesperson for the school district said it would have approved the club if the students changed its mission, abandoned certain activities, and gave up fund-raising rights.
In other words, all school activities must be pre-approved for political correctness by the perverts that infest the system.
--more--"
Related: ‘‘We’re not interested in getting rid of civil rights,’’ said Cynthia Garrett, co-president of Families Advocating for Campus Equality, a group founded by three mothers who said their sons were falsely accused of sexual misconduct on campus. ‘‘What we do oppose,’’ she said, is the Education Department’s ‘‘coercive and punitive attitude toward schools, because we believe it drove schools to decide that it was easier to find a student guilty and there would be fewer repercussions than finding a student not responsible.’’
Guess what I'm considering aborting soon?
"Iowa hospital unwittingly posts 5,300 patients’ data online" AP July 13, 2017
IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics said it accidentally posted online the names, admission dates, and medical records numbers of around 5,300 current and former patients for two years.
But we are going to an all digital world.
They can't even take care of the information they have, and we are $uppo$ed to tru$t them?
The University of Iowa Health Care said in a news release Tuesday that ‘‘a limited set of data’’ was inadvertently saved in unencrypted files posted online through an application development site. The release did not explain how it happened.
Spokesman Tom Moore said an online security expert reported the posting April 29. The files were deleted two days later. He said the website where it was posted confirmed the files were not copied. Moore also said the files didn’t contain clinical information, Social Security, or credit card numbers.
University of Iowa Health Care notified the patients through a June 22 letter.
And we are all just finding out now?
--more--"
"Scientists say massive iceberg has broken off in Antarctica" by Jugal K. Patel New York Times July 12, 2017
Why did the sentence "There is no scientific consensus over whether global warming is to blame. But....." get removed?
Larsen C, like two smaller ice shelves that collapsed before it, was holding back relatively little land ice, and it is not expected to contribute much to the rise of the sea, but in the late 20th century, the Antarctic Peninsula, which juts out from the main body of Antarctica and points toward South America, was one of the fastest-warming places in the world. That warming had slowed or perhaps reversed slightly in the 21st century, but scientists believe the ice is still catching up to the higher temperatures.
OMG!!!!!
Some climate scientists believe the warming in the region was at least in part a consequence of human-caused climate change, while others have disputed that, seeing a large role for natural variability — and noting that icebergs have been breaking away from ice shelves for many millions of years. But the two camps agree that the breakup of ice shelves in the peninsula region may be a preview of what is in store for the main part of Antarctica as the world continues heating up as a result of human activity.....
That is their religion.
--more--"
“Global warming is the canary in a coal mine,” and I was already preprogrammed for such an event.
Related:
That iceberg is 25 times the size of Boston
Hope it melts before getting here.
Also see:
"The US Army Corps of Engineers and the Massachusetts Port Authority, two agencies pursuing the $310 million dredging project, have reached a settlement with Eversource Energy and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority to resolve the power line issue....."
Why dredge the harbor if the sea levels are rising?
"Maine state rep: If Trump gets within 10 feet, he will be a ‘half-term president’" by James Pindell Globe Staff July 12, 2017
A Maine state representative is being chastised for comments he made on Facebook Tuesday night suggesting that if President Trump got within 10 feet of him, he would be a “half-term president.”
That is a THREAT, and I hope Trump's security is investigating!!
Of course, the placement of the piece -- page B3, lower left corner column -- shows the bias of the Trump-hating Globe.
State Representative Scott Hamann, a Democrat from South Portland, made the comment during a public Facebook exchange with someone he said is a longtime friend with whom he has “sarcastic” banter.
Maine Republican Party Chairwoman Demi Kouzounas called the remarks “unhinged and dangerous.”
Hamann, 36, later deleted the Facebook comment and released a statement saying his words were “inappropriate.”
“While the tone of the post was born out of frustration with the vile language currently surrounding politics, I should not have responded with the same language,” Hamann said in the statement. “This is not language I typically use; it does not reflect my personal values, and while misguided, it was intended to make a visceral point about the devolving political discourse in America.”
Are you sure he is not ill?
The problem is, it does reflect his personal values.
Hamann is not the first Maine politician to face a backlash after comments on Facebook about a president. In 2015, former state senator Mike Willette, a Republican, lost a committee chairmanship after inflammatory statements he made about then-President Obama and Muslims.
Yeah, he's up next with twice the print coverage.
--more--"
Btw, the killer of Trump will come from Massachusetts.
"Holliston man pleads guilty to ammunition charge after alleged threats against Obama" by Travis Andersen Globe staff July 12, 2017
A Holliston man who allegedly expressed a desire to kill then-president Obama, threatened to plant bombs in police stations, and said he would attack a mosque pleaded guilty Wednesday to illegally possessing ammunition.
I have said this before, and I'll say it again: don't waste your valuable time and energy. If he was coming to my town, I'm going to the other end of it. I don't think I could stand to be near such scum.
Joseph Gargiulo, a real estate appraiser in his 40s, entered his plea in US District Court in Boston.
??????
Blames him for the housing collapse?
Gargiulo, who has been in custody since his arrest last summer, wore green prison garb and nodded and winked at a small group of supporters before quietly pleading guilty.
“I’m more clear-headed now than I’ve been in a long time,” Gargiulo told Judge Douglas P. Woodlock during the brief hearing.
Gargiulo was barred from possessing guns or ammunition at the time of his arrest because his ex-wife had taken out a restraining order against him.
But when authorities executed a search warrant at his home on Aug. 26, they recovered hundreds of rounds of ammunition, component parts to assemble an AR-15 rifle, and a kit to assemble a 9-millimeter pistol, Assistant US Attorney Mark J. Grady said Wednesday.
Court records indicate that investigators also seized incendiary materials including aluminum powder, ammonium nitrate, and iron oxide.
Gargiulo’s former wife told the FBI last July that she was worried about him because he was stockpiling food and weapons and said “he will plant bombs in police stations . . . and kill as many homeland security officers as he can before they kill him,” according to an affidavit.
In addition, a friend of Gargiulo’s told authorities he said he planned to “chain a mosque closed and burn it down” and “burn every [expletive deleted] down in there,” the affidavit said.
Gargiulo also told the friend he wished he had killed Obama when the former president was golfing on Martha’s Vineyard, according to the affidavit.
A lawyer for Gargiulo, Mark R. Meehan, told reporters after a court hearing last summer that his client “denies making any threats to anybody” and suggested the allegations stemmed from “ongoing custody issues” involving his two children.
No!
On Wednesday, another lawyer for Gargiulo, Charles Rankin, asked Woodlock to free his client pending sentencing. He said Gargiulo is not a flight risk and presents no danger to the community.
Woodlock denied the request but said he will reconsider if Rankin files a written motion within 10 days. Rankin said he would do so.
Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 12. Gargiulo faces a maximum prison term of 10 years. In a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence at the low end of the guidelines.
Woodlock warned Gargiulo that Woodlock does not have to follow the recommendation. He said Gargiulo cannot withdraw his guilty plea if he is displeased with the sentence.
“You’re stuck with it,” Woodlock said.
He also explained that, according to standard procedure, Gargiulo would be surrendering his right to trial by pleading guilty.
Gargiulo, who has undergone mental health treatment, said he understood.
“You made it clear, your honor,” he said.
Grady, the prosecutor, made no mention of Gargiulo’s alleged threats against police stations and mosques during Wednesday’s hearing, and Gargiulo was not charged criminally with making threats.
Instead, Grady focused solely on the ammunition and firearm components that officials seized from Gargiulo’s home.
“Is that what happened?” Woodlock asked Gargiulo.
“That’s correct,” he replied.
--more--"
Turned out to be a hoax.
Object resembling a cannonball found in Concord
Now for the fun and games:
Julian Edelman, Aly Raisman spotted at ESPN party
The clothes will soon be off in ESPN's nudie magazine?
Gronk also appears in the spread, and he was compensated for it.
Drag queens host bingo fund-raiser for Concord Youth
"The Newton Centre college is trying new youth initiatives, such as becoming the regional host of a national program that teaches teenagers about Jewish values and philanthropy....."
Put white in there instead of Jewish or anything else and see what happens.
Flybridge Capital launches woman-only VC fund
$exi$m is okay!
Time to sweep this post clean, Chim chiminey (the ash is choking me), and failing that I'll have to amputate.
GMO’s Just Got a Lot More Frightening with Approval of New Monsanto Product
What the Beef Industry Does to Bring You Cheap Burgers
Is that enough to make you smell the flowers?
Better get to work:
"Workers in the so-called gig economy, from Uber drivers to delivery cyclists, need greater labor protections, says a much-anticipated report published Tuesday that was commissioned by the UK government. The study, by Matthew Taylor, a former adviser to Tony Blair, concluded that a new category of worker — the ‘‘dependent contractor’’ — should be created to secure genuine flexibility for laborers. While some workers in the gig economy like the flexibility, others suffer from job insecurity in contracts that, for example, offer no guarantee on the number of hours to be worked. Such insecurity can make it hard, for example, to get a mortgage — even when someone is in regular work. Unions have sharply criticized the report, describing it as a lost opportunity to address inequity and a feeble response to the growing number of workers in delivery and ride-hailing firms such as Deliveroo and Uber. Union leaders wanted recommendations matched with legal sanctions."
Also known as $lave.
Also see: Takata adding 2.7 million vehicles to air bag recall
Pfffffffffffffffffffft.
********************
DraftKings and FanDuel ask court not to block their planned merger
And regarding the soon-to-close Sears store at the Dedham Mall (how appropriately ironic):
Amazon, other tech giants see profit in shrewd moves downmarket
"Amazon used steep discounts to turn its Echo speaker line into a best-seller. Even if Amazon loses money on the device sales, it gets a toehold for its Alexa digital voice-assistant platform to become more connected to shoppers who can use it to check the weather, hail an Uber — and of course buy more from Amazon — by voice command....."
"Amazon.com Inc. used steep discounts to turn its Echo speaker into a bestseller on the company’s annual Prime Day, making good on a bet to use the marketing event to push its voice-activated technology into more homes. Even if Amazon loses money on the device, it gets a toehold for its Alexa platform to become more connected to shoppers who can use the devices to check the weather, stream music, hail an Uber, order pizza — and of course buy more from Amazon — by voice command....."
Which means it is listening to you all the time and the $hadow hackers can open it up with the "stolen" NSA tools, but no worry.
"Visa is looking to push more small businesses into updating their digital payment technology, offering up to $10,000 each to 50 US-based small business owners that are committed to going cashless. The program will focus on restaurants and food establishments, Visa said Wednesday, with the expectation that Visa will expand the program in the coming months and years to other industries and possibly other countries as well. Despite the proliferation of credit and debt cards, and the advent of technologies like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, cash remains a significant method of payment in many industries across the United States and around the world."
Forget the hackers; how will the politicians receive bribes?
Microsoft wants to bring 2 million Americans online by 2022
It's called the Rural Airband Initiative.
*******************************
Tufts nurses set to strike Wednesday after talks between union, hospital break down
Hundreds picket outside Tufts Medical Center amid nurse strike
At Tufts Medical Center, pressure to cut costs in a city rich with hospitals
It an above the fold story now.
Boston’s labor mayor sidelined in Tufts’ nurses talks
So what is at the heart of strife?
Imagine Boston 2030
It's a 400-plus page document that has Walsh envisioning Boston’s future.
Boston pushes developers to create better public spaces
Target to open a small format store in Medford next year
"True Value is considering a sale that could value the home-improvement chain at about $800 million, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is working with an investment bank to examine strategic options, including a sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The process is expected to attract private equity firms, the people said. No final decision has been made and the company may elect not to pursue a sale. A representative for Chicago-based True Value didn’t respond to e-mails seeking comment. True Value, led by chief executive John Hartmann, is a cooperative of more than 4,000 stores across more than 58 countries, according to its website."
"A worker was killed late Tuesday morning after he was apparently struck by a piece of rock that had broken free at a construction site at the Woburn Public Library, officials said....."
Yes, a worker was killed.
18-year-old pleads not guilty in Roxbury murder
********************
The show must go on, but where?
"Harvard-educated financier gets three years in prison for $23M fraud" Associated Press July 12, 2017
NEW YORK — An Ivy League-educated financier whose friends and family invested millions of dollars with her investment firms was sentenced on Tuesday to three years in prison after squandering more than $23 million, mostly through bad investments.
Haena Park, 41, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Ronnie Abrams, who said she had about as privileged a background as anyone she had ever sentenced.
She passed through the haze, 'eh?
‘‘You squandered it all,’’ the judge said of Park, whom the government described as having dangled her Wall Street success and Harvard degree to win the trust of relatives, close friends, and former classmates.
The judge called the money Park lost over a six-year period for more than 40 investors staggering after prosecutors said Park continued to solicit new investors with claims of annual returns up to nearly 50 percent and by churning out fictitious monthly statements that hid massive losses.
She $mall fry compared to Bernie, who was $mall fish in comparison to Wall $treet.
Assistant US Attorney Christine Magdo said Park’s victims included elderly people who lost their life savings, immigrants who worked multiple jobs for decades and a paraplegic who lost $4 million after telling Park he would soon retire because his health was deteriorating.
--more--"
Even worse, she was kicked out of the club.
At least she didn't kill anyone.
"Fidelity trims more jobs, this time through layoffs" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff July 12, 2017
Just weeks after more than 1,500 Fidelity Investments workers accepted voluntary buyout offers, the Boston-based mutual fund manager is trimming its payrolls again. And the departures aren’t voluntary this time around.
Katie Reichart, an associate director of research at Morningstar, said investors pulled about $4 billion from Fidelity’s mutual funds during the first five months of the year. Gains in Fidelity’s passive funds were more than offset by withdrawals from its active funds, she said.
“It’s been a tough environment for Fidelity,” Reichart said. “Investors often think of them as an actively managed shop. That’s worked against them. . . . .”
This in the face of a surging stock market, or so we are told.
--more--"
There are still has hundreds of open positions that the company is looking to fill, all part of chief executive Abby Johnson “new multiyear program to drive efficiency across the company.”
What Rick Perry really said about supply and demand
I didn't even consider reading it, sorry.
"US employers posted fewer job openings in May. But hiring picked up and more people are quitting their jobs — both positive signs for the economy. Job openings fell 5 percent in May to 5.7 million, the Labor Department said Tuesday. The setback occurred after advertised job postings nearly reached 6 million in April, a figure that has been revised downward from the initial report. Meanwhile, hiring climbed 8.5 per cent to just under 5.5 million. The data are a sign the economy at 4.4 percent unemployment is nearing ‘‘full employment,’’ when nearly all those who want a job have one and the unemployment rate mostly reflects the normal churn of people who are temporarily out of work. Typically, when unemployment falls that low, companies are forced to offer more pay, but that hasn’t yet happened."
These monthly reports from the government complete with pre$$ excu$es has become such a mind f*** it's no longer worth the time.
**********************
Speaking of mind games:
"FBI arrests US soldier on charges of pledging loyalty to Islamic State" by Audrey McAvoy and Lolita C. Baldor Associated Press July 11, 2017
HONOLULU — An active-duty US soldier has been arrested on terrorism charges that accuse him of pleading allegiance to the Islamic State group and saying he wanted to ‘‘kill a bunch of people.’’
Another FBI patsy set-up, and the military guys are already accessible for mind control so we know where this is going..... if it even happened.
The FBI took Sergeant First Class Ikaika Kang into custody over the weekend in a Honolulu suburb after a yearlong investigation involving multiple undercover officers and confidential informants. The 34-year-old from Hawaii made an initial appearance Monday in federal court.
Kang’s court-appointed defense attorney, Birney Bervar, said it appears his client may suffer from service-related mental health issues of which the government was aware but neglected to treat. Bervar declined to elaborate.
OMG!
He said Kang was ‘‘a decorated veteran of two deployments’’ to Iraq and Afghanistan.
A 26-page affidavit from FBI agent Jimmy Chen filed in court Monday detailed how Kang thought he was dealing with people working for Islamic State but who were actually undercover agents.
It's true of all of ISIS™, Al-CIA-Duh, Al-CIA-Bob, etc, etc, etc.
Paul Delacourt, the FBI agent in charge of the Hawaii bureau, told reporters the FBI believed Kang was a lone actor and was not affiliated with anyone who poses a threat.
On Saturday, agents arrested him after he pledged loyalty to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and said he wanted to ‘‘take his rifle, his magazines, and kill ‘a bunch of people.’’’
Also on Saturday, Kang and an undercover agent allegedly went shopping for a drone to give to Islamic State fighters. He used his debit card to pay nearly $1,400 for the drone, GoPro camera and related equipment. The agent paid him $700 to split the cost.
Now it looks like entrapment, and where did he get the gun?
A trained air traffic controller based at Hawaii’s Wheeler Army Airfield, Kang had his military clearance revoked in 2012 for making pro-Islamic State comments while at work and on post and threatening to hurt or kill fellow service members.
His clearance was reinstated a year later after he completed military requirements.
??????????????
They knew he was a terrorist in 2012, then reconditioned him for this?
That sure is what this pos story looks like.
However, the affidavit said, the Army believed Kang was becoming radicalized in 2016 and asked the FBI to investigate.
This smells like an Oswald-type frame up.
Kang’s father told Honolulu television station KHON and the Star-Advertiser newspaper his son may have had post-traumatic stress disorder. Kang told the newspaper he became concerned after his son’s return from Afghanistan. He said his son was withdrawn.
Kang has two firearms registered in his name, an AR-15-style rifle and a handgun. After the shooting last summer at a gay nightclub in Orlando he told a confidential source that the shooter ‘‘did what he had to do’’ and later said that America is the only terrorist organization in the world, according to the affidavit.
Not the only one, but it helps to mix in some truth to the cover story crapola or whatever agenda-pushing garbage is this.
The document alleges he also later told the same source that ‘‘Hitler was right’’ and that he believed in the mass killing of Jews.
HA-HA-HA-HA!
That instantly discredits the previous argument, a common pre$$ tactic.
Print left it in a good spot!
He told the source he was angry at a civilian who had taken away his air traffic controller’s license and that he wanted to torture him, the affidavit said.
‘‘Kang said that if he ever saw him again, he would tie him down and pour Drano in his eyes,’’ the affidavit said.
He enlisted in the Army in December 2001, just months after the Sept. 11 attacks. He served in South Korea from 2002 to 2003. He deployed to Iraq from March 2010 to February 2011 and Afghanistan from July 2013 to April 2014.
Kang was scheduled to appear in court Thursday for a detention hearing.
Red tape with the word ‘‘evidence’’ on it covered part of the door to the Kang’s apartment in the Honolulu suburb of Waipahu.
Dee Asuncion, a real estate agent who represented Kang when he bought his home less than a year ago, said he came across as a ‘‘very respectful guy.’’ She said he was ‘‘on the shy, quiet side.’’
But looking back, she said, there was one conversation that seemed strange to her. He talked about having respect for the ideology of Islamic terrorist groups.
‘‘It sounded like he was just curious,’’ she said, adding that in the same conversation he talked about helping his dad renovate his home.
‘‘I feel bad for him that he went down that road,’’ Asuncion said.
You guys really loading up the bathtub and kitchen sink on this one, huh?
--more--"
Yeah, Comey really let the FBI go to $h**.
"Oklahoma explosion not being called act of domestic terrorism" Associated Press July 12, 2017
BIXBY, Okla. — Federal authorities said Tuesday that they are no longer investigating a pipe bomb explosion that damaged a northeast Oklahoma recruiting station as a possible act of domestic terrorism, adding that the blast could be the work of a disgruntled employee or a prank.
FBI Special Agent Jessi Rice said the explosion in the Tulsa suburb of Bixby is not being called domestic terrorism because investigators have not determined a motive and have not identified a suspect. Rice said the blast currently is a criminal investigation into the use of an explosive device.
Give 'em a day. No crisis should go to waste.
A device was set off around 10:30 p.m. Monday in front of the recruiting center, which was closed, federal authorities said. No one was hurt.
Another false flag phony baloney!
Earlier, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said the blast was being treated as a possible act of domestic terrorism out of ‘‘an abundance of caution,’’ because of its proximity to the recruiting office.
The door of the recruiting station was blown off in the explosion and landed in a parking space in front of the storefront. The center is in a commercial area that also houses small businesses, restaurants and financial planning firms. There is also a movie theater nearby.
Maybe he/she/they hated the endless swill coming from Hollywood?
--more--"
"Military official: Oklahoma bomb suspect was in US Air Force" Associated Press July 13, 2017
TULSA, Okla. — A 28-year-old man facing federal charges in a pipe bomb explosion outside an Air Force recruiting center in Oklahoma had been enlisted in that branch of the military and was decorated for his service, a military official said Wednesday.
Oklahoma Air National Guard Captain Jennifer Proctor said that the suspect, Benjamin Don Roden, enlisted for Air Force active duty in April 2012 and joined the state’s air national guard in October 2014.
Proctor said Roden had been a senior airman whose job involved fire protection, but that he was discharged from the air national guard’s Tulsa-based 138th Fighter Wing in April.
That reminds me, where is the coverage of the hundreds of western wildfires?
According to the arrest report Tuesday, Roden faces federal charges of possession of explosive materials and destruction of government property in the blast Monday night in a commercial area in the Tulsa suburb of Bixby. The recruiting center was closed at the time and no one was hurt.
Roden received several decorations, including the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Proctor said. The medal is awarded to military members who have deployed overseas in direct service to the war on terror.
--more--"
Let's hope they don't find religion in prison.
*************************
Related:
"A town resident has gotten drivers to slow down for years with the help of a sign shaped like a police cruiser posted in his driveway. Kelly Tufts tells WFXT-TV he got the life-sized Crown Victoria sign from a friend who owned a salvage yard. He displays it on weekends and holidays (AP)."
It doesn't always work.
"A rep for Kiss 108 says station employees were never in danger during a bizarre standoff Monday afternoon during which a man with an ax barricaded himself inside his car and asked a woman who was smoking a cigarette nearby to “play the ax song.” The 38-year-old man, who has not been identified, was outside the Kiss 108 studio in Medford, but did not enter the building or contact the radio station in any way, said Kiss 108 marketing manager Joseph Mazzei. It’s possible that the distraught man was requesting “My Ax,” a song released in 2000 by the hip-hop duo Insane Clown Posse. The song includes the lyric: “My axe is my buddy, I bring him when I walk/ Me and my axe will leave your head outlined in chalk.” The man, who police say tossed “several edged weapons” from his car, finally surrendered to SWAT officers and was placed on a stretcher before being taken into custody."
I'd say so; looks like more mind games to me.
"A former architectural engineer who threatened to detonate a fake bomb when he robbed a bank in Brighton received a 51-month prison sentence on Monday, authorities said. Kenneth E. Denny, 61, learned his fate during a hearing in US District Court in Boston, according to a statement from acting US Attorney William D. Weinreb. Denny used subterfuge when he robbed a Citizens Bank location on Washington Street in Brighton on July 24, 2015, according to the statement. He handed a teller a note demanding cash and “removed what appeared to be a bomb from a newspaper he was carrying and placed it on the teller’s counter,” the statement said. The teller handed over a little more than $4,000, but Denny still issued another threat, according to prosecutors. As he was exiting the bank, Denny pulled out a white cell phone and declared, “I am going to blow it up,” the release said.
That's where the print brief ended; however, that's all he got for bank robbery?
Investigators later determined the bomb was phony. They were aided in their efforts to locate Denny by the fact that he left his wallet at the bank. The wallet contained his name and photo, the statement said. He was apprehended while heading down Washington Street, and bank employees identified him as the culprit, according to prosecutors. Denny is already serving a sentence for another armed robbery in New York, the statement said. His sentence in the Brighton case will run concurrently. His lawyer in the Boston case, Charles McGinty, said in a recent court filing that the fake bomb used in the Citizens heist was “made out of broomsticks and spray paint.” In addition, McGinty wrote, Denny “dropped the money and ran” when a bank manager confronted him. He said Denny holds degrees from the Wentworth Institute of Technology and Boston University and had a “successful career” as an architectural engineer. “His collapse, evident from his first criminal conviction occurring at age 58 (an OUI in 2013), begs the obvious question: why?” McGinty wrote. “Up to age 58, he was a successful and gainfully employed professional working, inter alia, as an architectural designer for BU and for Parsons Brinkerhoff, making significant money. Perhaps his difficulties started with neurological issues first apparent in 2006.” Those issues included complaints of double vision, headaches and blurred vision after an assault, and a battle with cocaine addiction, according to McGinty. “Certainly, there is some evidence of a brain abnormality, and he continues to suffer from seizures and memory loss consistent with seizure disorder,” the defense lawyer wrote. “But, whatever the cause, there was plainly a collapse, a pitiful decline of a human being into addiction, penury, and ultimately prison.”
Just wondering if he was involved in 9/11, and if not did his knowing the truth the immutable laws of physics drive him to such despair?
"Heroin and mental instability left her adrift in life. She sold her body to buy her drugs. She sold something else to win her freedom. Testimony during the trial revealed that she had five children by different men, Bella being the last, conceived in a tent during the Occupy Boston protest, when Bond was homeless. I feel slightly ashamed that I didn’t have more sympathy for Rachelle Bond. She has had a lousy life. But, like everybody else, I saw the photos of Bella. I heard the evidence and couldn’t believe any human being, much less a child’s mother, could do the things she did, no matter how lost to heroin she was. Everybody deserves a second chance. It’s hard to keep track of how many chances Rachelle Bond has had. But she’s got one more. And that’s one more than her daughter Bella ever got....."
Yeah, the 667 days of confinement will mess with some heads.
It was the cost of the child’s clothes that sent her over the edge.
"Marijuana billboard in South Boston called ‘insensitive’" by Katheleen Conti Globe Staff July 12, 2017
While waiting at a stoplight on East Broadway in South Boston last week, Sheila Greene looked up at a billboard and was stunned. In white letters against a black background, a message read: “States that legalized marijuana had 25% fewer opioid-related deaths.”
Greene was bothered by the fact that the advertisement — from Weedmaps, a California-based company that runs an online marijuana dispensary rating service and sells inventory software to pot shops — was placed in a neighborhood hard hit by opioid abuse. “I couldn’t believe it was being advertised,” she said.
Why would that bother her, other than irrational prejudice?
Or does she not care about addicts like Rachel Bond?
So she contacted a representative of Clear Channel Outdoor — which owns the billboard structure — to point out that the message violated the company’s own policy regarding “exclusionary zones.” Clear Channel’s website states that “advertisements of all products illegal for sale to minors that are intended to be read from places of worship, primary and secondary schools or playgrounds” are prohibited in such zones. Greene estimated there are about 24 places of worship, schools, playgrounds, and after-school and summer programs less than a mile from the site of the billboard at 613-617 East Broadway.
Soon after she lodged her complaint, the message was removed.
Sometimes authority acts instantly, other times they give you the finger.
“The ad was placed in error at a location not meant for the content displayed,” Jason King, a spokesman for Clear Channel, said in an e-mail.....
--more--"
Really puts 'em up a tree:
"An Attleboro man was arrested after he fled from a traffic stop and hid from authorities in a tree, Attleboro police said. An Attleboro police officer attempted a traffic stop on Paul Pereira, of Attleboro, around 1:40 a.m. Monday. The officer noticed Pereira speeding and crossing a marked lane and attempted to pull him over, according to Attleboro police Captain Brett P. Poirier said. Pereira did not pull over but drove onto Greenhill Avenue, where he pulled into a driveway and exited his vehicle. He acknowledged officers after they confronted him there before fleeing from the scene, Poirier said. Attleboro police, joined by a State Police K9 unit, searched the area. The trooper and K9 eventually located Pereira nearby at a property on Primrose Lane, at which point “the trooper removed Pereira from a tree,” Poirier said. Pereira was arrested and charged with a marked lane violation and speeding."
*****************************
Should have hid on a farm:
"DA: Man held on $5M cash bail amid search for 4 missing men" Associated Press July 13, 2017
SOLEBURY, Pa. — A 20-year-old linked to a Pennsylvania farm at the center of a search for four missing men was arrested Wednesday on charges he tried to sell one man’s car after he went missing, even as it contained the man’s ‘‘life-saving’’ diabetic kit, authorities said in announcing the first big break in the case.
Cosmo DiNardo, described as a person of interest, was taken back into custody Wednesday on a stolen vehicle charge, and a judge ordered him held on $5 million cash bail. His parents, Antonio and Sandra DiNardo, own the sprawling farm property the FBI and police cadets have been methodically searching for four days.
‘‘The search at the scene is really intensifying,’’ Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said at an afternoon news conference. ‘‘I’m very encouraged . . . that we’re going to get some finality in this just prolonged ordeal.’’
According to a police affidavit, police interviewed a man who said DiNardo tried to sell him an old Nissan, the type belonging to Tom Meo, 21, on Saturday, one day after Meo went missing. Police found the car early Sunday on the DiNardo farm, with the keys and title hanging up in a garage.
The DiNardo farm alone covers 90 acres, much of it cornfields. They also own other nearby farm parcels, along with concrete and construction businesses based in Bensalem, about 20 miles away, where the son was arrested.
The FBI has been using heavy equipment to dig a deep ditch on the farm property, then sifting through each bucket of dirt by hand. The search has unearthed ‘‘important’’ evidence, but no human remains, Weintraub said.....
So what are they really looking for or doing?
--more--"
"High school students sue after anti-abortion club rejected" AP July 13, 2017
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Two Pennsylvania high school students have filed a federal lawsuit against their school district alleging discrimination and a violation of their free-speech rights after their failed attempt to start an antiabortion club.
Chicago-based law firm Thomas More Society filed the lawsuit on behalf of students Elizabeth Castro and Grace Schairer on Tuesday against the Parkland School District in Allentown.
The lawsuit alleges that Parkland High School denied the student’s proposal to start a ‘‘Trojans for Life’’ club in 2016 for being too political and controversial.
A spokesperson for the school district said it would have approved the club if the students changed its mission, abandoned certain activities, and gave up fund-raising rights.
In other words, all school activities must be pre-approved for political correctness by the perverts that infest the system.
--more--"
Related: ‘‘We’re not interested in getting rid of civil rights,’’ said Cynthia Garrett, co-president of Families Advocating for Campus Equality, a group founded by three mothers who said their sons were falsely accused of sexual misconduct on campus. ‘‘What we do oppose,’’ she said, is the Education Department’s ‘‘coercive and punitive attitude toward schools, because we believe it drove schools to decide that it was easier to find a student guilty and there would be fewer repercussions than finding a student not responsible.’’
Guess what I'm considering aborting soon?
"Iowa hospital unwittingly posts 5,300 patients’ data online" AP July 13, 2017
IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics said it accidentally posted online the names, admission dates, and medical records numbers of around 5,300 current and former patients for two years.
But we are going to an all digital world.
They can't even take care of the information they have, and we are $uppo$ed to tru$t them?
The University of Iowa Health Care said in a news release Tuesday that ‘‘a limited set of data’’ was inadvertently saved in unencrypted files posted online through an application development site. The release did not explain how it happened.
Spokesman Tom Moore said an online security expert reported the posting April 29. The files were deleted two days later. He said the website where it was posted confirmed the files were not copied. Moore also said the files didn’t contain clinical information, Social Security, or credit card numbers.
University of Iowa Health Care notified the patients through a June 22 letter.
And we are all just finding out now?
--more--"
*******************************
"Scientists say massive iceberg has broken off in Antarctica" by Jugal K. Patel New York Times July 12, 2017
Why did the sentence "There is no scientific consensus over whether global warming is to blame. But....." get removed?
Larsen C, like two smaller ice shelves that collapsed before it, was holding back relatively little land ice, and it is not expected to contribute much to the rise of the sea, but in the late 20th century, the Antarctic Peninsula, which juts out from the main body of Antarctica and points toward South America, was one of the fastest-warming places in the world. That warming had slowed or perhaps reversed slightly in the 21st century, but scientists believe the ice is still catching up to the higher temperatures.
OMG!!!!!
Some climate scientists believe the warming in the region was at least in part a consequence of human-caused climate change, while others have disputed that, seeing a large role for natural variability — and noting that icebergs have been breaking away from ice shelves for many millions of years. But the two camps agree that the breakup of ice shelves in the peninsula region may be a preview of what is in store for the main part of Antarctica as the world continues heating up as a result of human activity.....
That is their religion.
--more--"
“Global warming is the canary in a coal mine,” and I was already preprogrammed for such an event.
Related:
That iceberg is 25 times the size of Boston
Hope it melts before getting here.
Also see:
"The US Army Corps of Engineers and the Massachusetts Port Authority, two agencies pursuing the $310 million dredging project, have reached a settlement with Eversource Energy and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority to resolve the power line issue....."
Why dredge the harbor if the sea levels are rising?
****************************
"Maine state rep: If Trump gets within 10 feet, he will be a ‘half-term president’" by James Pindell Globe Staff July 12, 2017
A Maine state representative is being chastised for comments he made on Facebook Tuesday night suggesting that if President Trump got within 10 feet of him, he would be a “half-term president.”
That is a THREAT, and I hope Trump's security is investigating!!
Of course, the placement of the piece -- page B3, lower left corner column -- shows the bias of the Trump-hating Globe.
State Representative Scott Hamann, a Democrat from South Portland, made the comment during a public Facebook exchange with someone he said is a longtime friend with whom he has “sarcastic” banter.
Maine Republican Party Chairwoman Demi Kouzounas called the remarks “unhinged and dangerous.”
Hamann, 36, later deleted the Facebook comment and released a statement saying his words were “inappropriate.”
“While the tone of the post was born out of frustration with the vile language currently surrounding politics, I should not have responded with the same language,” Hamann said in the statement. “This is not language I typically use; it does not reflect my personal values, and while misguided, it was intended to make a visceral point about the devolving political discourse in America.”
Are you sure he is not ill?
The problem is, it does reflect his personal values.
Hamann is not the first Maine politician to face a backlash after comments on Facebook about a president. In 2015, former state senator Mike Willette, a Republican, lost a committee chairmanship after inflammatory statements he made about then-President Obama and Muslims.
Yeah, he's up next with twice the print coverage.
--more--"
Btw, the killer of Trump will come from Massachusetts.
"Holliston man pleads guilty to ammunition charge after alleged threats against Obama" by Travis Andersen Globe staff July 12, 2017
A Holliston man who allegedly expressed a desire to kill then-president Obama, threatened to plant bombs in police stations, and said he would attack a mosque pleaded guilty Wednesday to illegally possessing ammunition.
I have said this before, and I'll say it again: don't waste your valuable time and energy. If he was coming to my town, I'm going to the other end of it. I don't think I could stand to be near such scum.
Joseph Gargiulo, a real estate appraiser in his 40s, entered his plea in US District Court in Boston.
??????
Blames him for the housing collapse?
Gargiulo, who has been in custody since his arrest last summer, wore green prison garb and nodded and winked at a small group of supporters before quietly pleading guilty.
“I’m more clear-headed now than I’ve been in a long time,” Gargiulo told Judge Douglas P. Woodlock during the brief hearing.
Gargiulo was barred from possessing guns or ammunition at the time of his arrest because his ex-wife had taken out a restraining order against him.
But when authorities executed a search warrant at his home on Aug. 26, they recovered hundreds of rounds of ammunition, component parts to assemble an AR-15 rifle, and a kit to assemble a 9-millimeter pistol, Assistant US Attorney Mark J. Grady said Wednesday.
Court records indicate that investigators also seized incendiary materials including aluminum powder, ammonium nitrate, and iron oxide.
Gargiulo’s former wife told the FBI last July that she was worried about him because he was stockpiling food and weapons and said “he will plant bombs in police stations . . . and kill as many homeland security officers as he can before they kill him,” according to an affidavit.
In addition, a friend of Gargiulo’s told authorities he said he planned to “chain a mosque closed and burn it down” and “burn every [expletive deleted] down in there,” the affidavit said.
Gargiulo also told the friend he wished he had killed Obama when the former president was golfing on Martha’s Vineyard, according to the affidavit.
A lawyer for Gargiulo, Mark R. Meehan, told reporters after a court hearing last summer that his client “denies making any threats to anybody” and suggested the allegations stemmed from “ongoing custody issues” involving his two children.
No!
On Wednesday, another lawyer for Gargiulo, Charles Rankin, asked Woodlock to free his client pending sentencing. He said Gargiulo is not a flight risk and presents no danger to the community.
Woodlock denied the request but said he will reconsider if Rankin files a written motion within 10 days. Rankin said he would do so.
Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 12. Gargiulo faces a maximum prison term of 10 years. In a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence at the low end of the guidelines.
Woodlock warned Gargiulo that Woodlock does not have to follow the recommendation. He said Gargiulo cannot withdraw his guilty plea if he is displeased with the sentence.
“You’re stuck with it,” Woodlock said.
He also explained that, according to standard procedure, Gargiulo would be surrendering his right to trial by pleading guilty.
Gargiulo, who has undergone mental health treatment, said he understood.
“You made it clear, your honor,” he said.
Grady, the prosecutor, made no mention of Gargiulo’s alleged threats against police stations and mosques during Wednesday’s hearing, and Gargiulo was not charged criminally with making threats.
Instead, Grady focused solely on the ammunition and firearm components that officials seized from Gargiulo’s home.
“Is that what happened?” Woodlock asked Gargiulo.
“That’s correct,” he replied.
--more--"
Turned out to be a hoax.
Object resembling a cannonball found in Concord
*****************************
Now for the fun and games:
Julian Edelman, Aly Raisman spotted at ESPN party
The clothes will soon be off in ESPN's nudie magazine?
Gronk also appears in the spread, and he was compensated for it.
Drag queens host bingo fund-raiser for Concord Youth
"The Newton Centre college is trying new youth initiatives, such as becoming the regional host of a national program that teaches teenagers about Jewish values and philanthropy....."
Put white in there instead of Jewish or anything else and see what happens.
Flybridge Capital launches woman-only VC fund
$exi$m is okay!
Time to sweep this post clean, Chim chiminey (the ash is choking me), and failing that I'll have to amputate.
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Feds Bury Madoff Boys
Gue$$ that means they are closing the file:
"Estates of Bernard Madoff’s dead sons reach $23 million deal with feds" by Erik Larson Bloomberg News June 26, 2017
NEW YORK — The estates of Bernard Madoff’s dead sons have reached an agreement with the US government to hand over a combined $23 million to victims of his Ponzi scheme, resolving an eight-year legal battle over the remnants of fortunes they amassed at their father’s bogus securities firm.
Mark Madoff committed suicide in 2010, and his younger brother, Andrew, died of cancer four years later.
Their estates were sued by the company’s court-appointed bankruptcy trustee, who accused the men of profiting from their father’s fraud for years and squandering more than $150 million of client money on their lavish lifestyles.
That's odd, because the way I saw it was some well-meaning people who searched their souls regarding all this.
Under the deal, the estates will transfer all cash, business entities, and business interests to funds set up for victims, leaving Mark Madoff’s family with $1.75 million and Andrew Madoff’s family with $2 million, the trustee said Monday in a court filing in Manhattan.
The estates will also withdraw their claims in the Madoff firm’s bankruptcy case, which total nearly $100 million.
The accord also resolves an investigation by the US attorney’s office in Manhattan, which oversaw a criminal investigation that led to a 150-year prison sentence for Bernard Madoff and a 10-year term for his brother Peter. Both men pleaded guilty.
Bernard Madoff’s sons were never accused of a crime. A civil suit against their mother, Ruth Madoff, is pending.
Michelle Pfeiffer going to star in the sequel?
The claims against the Madoff clan have been symbolically important for the trustee, Irving Picard, who is recouping cash for thousands of victims who lost $17.5 billion in principal when the fraud collapsed on Dec. 11, 2008.
So far, he’s recovered more than $11.5 billion, or almost 64 cents on the dollar, by suing banks and offshore funds that funneled cash into the scam. Picard has also sued investors who profited from the fraud by withdrawing more money than they deposited, including Madoff’s friends.
A fund overseen by the Justice Department has another $4 billion to distribute, but it hasn’t yet sent out checks. It’s unclear how much of the money from Monday’s settlement will go to the Justice Department and how much the trustee will get.
Andrew Ehrlich and Martin Flumenbaum, the lawyers for the estates with the firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in Manhattan, didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment.
Dawn Dearden, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, declined to comment until the settlement is approved by a judge. A hearing is set for July 26.
Madoff’s sons had said that they didn’t know about the Ponzi scheme and that they went to the authorities immediately after their father confessed to them. Madoff was arrested two days later.
The brothers had led Madoff’s market-making and proprietary-trading businesses for years, overseeing real trading activity that lent legitimacy to their father’s bogus investment advisory unit at the heart of the scheme.
--more--"
Related:
"In middle school, Seth Herzon wanted to be a paleontologist, but....."
He went to work for Bernie Madoff instead?
"Estates of Bernard Madoff’s dead sons reach $23 million deal with feds" by Erik Larson Bloomberg News June 26, 2017
NEW YORK — The estates of Bernard Madoff’s dead sons have reached an agreement with the US government to hand over a combined $23 million to victims of his Ponzi scheme, resolving an eight-year legal battle over the remnants of fortunes they amassed at their father’s bogus securities firm.
Mark Madoff committed suicide in 2010, and his younger brother, Andrew, died of cancer four years later.
Their estates were sued by the company’s court-appointed bankruptcy trustee, who accused the men of profiting from their father’s fraud for years and squandering more than $150 million of client money on their lavish lifestyles.
That's odd, because the way I saw it was some well-meaning people who searched their souls regarding all this.
Under the deal, the estates will transfer all cash, business entities, and business interests to funds set up for victims, leaving Mark Madoff’s family with $1.75 million and Andrew Madoff’s family with $2 million, the trustee said Monday in a court filing in Manhattan.
The estates will also withdraw their claims in the Madoff firm’s bankruptcy case, which total nearly $100 million.
The accord also resolves an investigation by the US attorney’s office in Manhattan, which oversaw a criminal investigation that led to a 150-year prison sentence for Bernard Madoff and a 10-year term for his brother Peter. Both men pleaded guilty.
Bernard Madoff’s sons were never accused of a crime. A civil suit against their mother, Ruth Madoff, is pending.
Michelle Pfeiffer going to star in the sequel?
The claims against the Madoff clan have been symbolically important for the trustee, Irving Picard, who is recouping cash for thousands of victims who lost $17.5 billion in principal when the fraud collapsed on Dec. 11, 2008.
So far, he’s recovered more than $11.5 billion, or almost 64 cents on the dollar, by suing banks and offshore funds that funneled cash into the scam. Picard has also sued investors who profited from the fraud by withdrawing more money than they deposited, including Madoff’s friends.
A fund overseen by the Justice Department has another $4 billion to distribute, but it hasn’t yet sent out checks. It’s unclear how much of the money from Monday’s settlement will go to the Justice Department and how much the trustee will get.
Andrew Ehrlich and Martin Flumenbaum, the lawyers for the estates with the firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in Manhattan, didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment.
Dawn Dearden, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, declined to comment until the settlement is approved by a judge. A hearing is set for July 26.
Madoff’s sons had said that they didn’t know about the Ponzi scheme and that they went to the authorities immediately after their father confessed to them. Madoff was arrested two days later.
The brothers had led Madoff’s market-making and proprietary-trading businesses for years, overseeing real trading activity that lent legitimacy to their father’s bogus investment advisory unit at the heart of the scheme.
--more--"
Related:
"In middle school, Seth Herzon wanted to be a paleontologist, but....."
He went to work for Bernie Madoff instead?
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Memory Hole Wednesday
Just some things I found cleaning up:
"State Police arrested a fugitive sex offender Tuesday morning at an apartment on Falmouth Street in Attleborough, police said. Caled Donatiu, 32, of Everett, was classified as a Level Three sex offender based on his 2008 conviction of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 in Salem, State Police said in a statement. Donatiu and an accomplice followed an 11-year-old girl for several blocks before forcing her into an alley and assaulting her, authorities said. Donatiu was wanted for failing to register as a sex offender and for failing to provide a DNA sample to law enforcement, police said...."
"Man allegedly walks into police station to say he killed his wife" by Laura Crimaldi and John R. Ellement Globe Staff August 02, 2016
SALEM — A turbulent relationship that lasted nearly 30 years ended violently Tuesday when Douglas A. Steeves Jr. allegedly strangled his wife in her home — and then confessed his crime to Salem police, authorities said.
Steeves, 50, was ordered held without bail for allegedly murdering Carmela Saunders, 48, inside her Chandler Street apartment, just hours after a family dinner, authorities said.
Steeves had been living with a friend, but was kicked out and had “nowhere to go,” Essex Assistant District Attorney A.J. Camelio said. On Monday night, Steeves was invited to his daughter’s apartment to take a shower and have dinner, Camelio said.
But the visit took a violent turn when Steeves received a phone call from a man who told him to “stay away from his girl,” according to a police report filed in Salem District Court. The call sparked a fight between Steeves and Saunders, police wrote.
“She scratched him, and at that point he put his hands on her throat and he strangled her,” Camelio said. “He left her on the bed, covered her body, and left the apartment.”
Around 3:44 a.m., Steeves walked into the Salem police station and told an officer what he did, Camelio said.
Steeves’s lawyer, Raymond Buso, said his client’s mental state at the time of the killing might be part of his defense. He said Steeves cannot remember all of what happened.
Saunders’ death followed years of alleged abuse in a relationship that dated back to her teenage years. The couple married in 1987 and had five children, the youngest of whom is 17, officials and friends said.
Saunders had filed for divorce twice since last September, citing abuse, and received two restraining orders against Steeves, most recently in May. That restraining order was still in effect, records show.
Maybe if she had a gun.
The May order was granted after Steeves allegedly followed her to Salem, N.H., where he “started to harass me, calling me dirty names” in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store, records show. Later that day, he bluntly threatened her.
“I will take care of you,” he said, according to an affidavit signed by Saunders. “I don’t care what happens to be [sic], but I will get you.”
The other restraining order was issued in 1994 after Steeves allegedly tried to strangle Saunders, Camelio said.
A friend of Saunders said she once told her that Steeves had tried to kill her.
“She told me that, a long time ago, Doug tried to kill her,” the friend said. “She told me he tried to strangle her so she broke up with him. She was afraid of him. She left him and he was a stalker. He stalked her all the time.’’
The friend asked to remain anonymous out of concern for her personal safety.
Lisa Vidinha, 49, who lives near the Chandler Street home where Saunders was attacked, said the couple’s relationship became strained soon after they moved into a second-floor apartment about six months ago.
Saunders moved in with relatives on the third floor, while Steeves was evicted for failing to pay rent, she said.
Even after Steeves moved away, Saunders complained that he would not leave her alone, often calling her and sending her text messages, Vidinha said. Sometimes, Steeves drove by and honked the horn on his blue Chevy Suburban, she said.
“I told him to leave. ‘You don’t belong here. You got a restraining order. Don’t you know that? I will call the cops,’ ” Vidinha said.
She said she heard screams overnight, but did not know who was in trouble. A police officer told her about the killing Tuesday morning, Vidinha said.
“My heart just like dropped,” she said. “If it was her screams I would have been over here. I know he’s abusive and he’s a bully.”
Vidinha said she last saw Saunders Saturday.
“She was fine,” she said. “She was a loving girl. She would help anybody.”
Saunders’ first divorce complaint was dismissed last November after Saunders said the couple reconciled, court records show. She initiated divorce proceedings again in February.
“Carmen had this thing — she loved him but she hated him,’’ said the friend. “It was like a love hate relationship. But she wanted to slip away, but she just didn’t know how to do it.’’
Please stop romanticizing the abusive relationship that had to have been pure hell for that woman.
--more--"
"Malden High staffer pleads not guilty to raping disabled student" by Laura Crimaldi and John R. Ellement Globe Staff August 09, 2016
WOBURN — An assistant teacher and coach at Malden High School pleaded not guilty Tuesday to accusations that he raped a 16-year-old disabled boy in a school bathroom and threatened to kill the teenager’s mother if he resisted.
Steven J. MacDonald, 46, of Malden, was released on personal recognizance following his arraignment in Middlesex Superior Court on charges of rape, indecent assault and battery on a disabled person, and assault with intent to rape.
Had a fire down below.
In court, Assistant District Attorney Courtney C. Linnehan said the attacks on the boy, who has “multiple disabilities,” began last September when MacDonald was assigned to work in the teenager’s classroom as a paraprofessional. MacDonald was responsible for taking the boy to the bathroom, she said.
The predator goes where is the prey. Sick.
Linnehan alleged that during trips to the bathroom MacDonald committed sex acts on himself, raped the student, and forced the student to commit other sex acts.
“The defendant continuously threatened to go to the victim’s home and kill his mother,’’ Linnehan said.
As the alleged assaults continued during the school year, Linnehan said, the student tried to avoid using the bathroom, but would sometimes have “accidents” and was left with soaked clothes in the hallways of the school.
Poor kid, and that means they are probably diagnosing him with some other illness. Good Lord!
MacDonald, she said, sometimes offered the student candy “to lure him into the bathroom.’’
She said the student told school employees that MacDonald was “mean.” He stayed home from school on March 24 and March 25 and reported the incidents to his mother on March 27.
“He did not return to Malden High School again,’’ Linnehan said.
MacDonald was placed on administrative leave March 29 after school officials were alerted to the allegations, said Malden Mayor Gary Christenson, who also leads the city’s school committee.
MacDonald also served as assistant football coach from 2012 to 2016 and coached freshman baseball from 2014 until he was put on leave, Christenson said.
The mayor called the indictment “deeply concerning,” but said he could not comment further, citing an ongoing criminal investigation and personnel matters. Licensure is not required for paraprofessionals, a state education official said.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan said Malden police and school officials helped to investigate the allegations against MacDonald. A grand jury indicted him Aug. 2, court records show.
“The defendant in this case was trusted to care for and assist the student that he allegedly sexually assaulted,” Ryan said in a statement. “Such allegations, if proven, violate the trust that parents and guardians place in their children’s educators.”
MacDonald appeared in court surrounded by about 10 relatives and friends. He declined to comment.
In an interview, defense attorney Alan Tuttman called the indictments against MacDonald “troubling,” saying the accuser’s allegations are not credible. “They’re not believable,” Tuttman said. “There’s nothing to substantiate it. There’s no physical evidence.”
MacDonald’s accuser uses a wheelchair and functions at a second-grade level, Tuttman said. “It’s pretty widely known that the alleged victim would fabricate,” he said.
Wow, that's a boomerang, dumping the kid out of the chair and then kick 'em!
Tuttman described MacDonald as a “well respected member of the Malden community” who has been married for 18 years and has two sons, ages 13 and 16. “He’s a little bit in shock,” Tuttman said.
After all the elite school abuse? Shocked?
MacDonald was initially ordered to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet while awaiting trial, but Tuttman successfully appealed the ruling during a hearing before Judge Bruce Henry, court records show.
Under the terms of his release, MacDonald is prohibited from having unsupervised contact with children 18 years or younger, excluding his own. He is also barred from holding a job or volunteer position with children under 18. MacDonald’s next court date is Sept. 15.
Joe Pappagallo, the former head football coach at Malden High, said he began coaching with MacDonald in 2000 and let him baby-sit his children.
“This is so out of character for him; it’s not even close,” Pappagallo said in a phone interview. “Nobody believes it. Everybody says there’s somebody bearing false witness here.”
--more--"
"15-year-old boy shot, critically wounded in South Boston" by Vivian Wang Globe Correspondent August 16, 2016
A South Boston housing development has seen more than its share of gun violence this summer, with a shooting Monday night leaving a 15-year-old boy critically wounded and residents reeling from what they say has become a regular occurrence.
“That’s been kind of a hot spot this summer,” Mayor Martin J. Walsh said of the Mary Ellen McCormack development, where the boy was shot just before midnight while sitting in a car near 24 Gavin Way. A woman was shot at the development in July but survived.
No arrests have been made in Monday’s shooting, and the victim has not been identified. Police said he was in critical condition but expected to survive.
“Right now it’s every night, disorder, disorder,” said Carlos Marrero, 46, who lives at 24 Gavin Way. “I’m scared to go out of my apartment. This street has a problem.”
He and his 19-year-old daughter spent the night sleeping on the floor, Marrero said, because he worried about bullets flying through the window.
City and housing officials say they understand that residents are worried. They are collaborating to bring tighter security measures to the development.
Meanwhile, gun violence across the city has fallen compared with last summer.
Whatever you say.
Bill McGonagle, administrator of the Boston Housing Authority, said he and Walsh have discussed installing security cameras along Gavin Way, as well as nearby Logan Way and Sterling Square.
“It’s been a difficult summer,” he said. “People are concerned, and we want to make sure that we’re responding to those concerns.”
McGonagle said he hopes the cameras will be installed by the start of next year, and he estimated they will cost between $500,000 and $600,000.
The housing authority has taken other steps recently to enhance safety. It installed exterior lighting throughout the development last year.
The Boston Police Department has also stepped up its presence. The Mary Ellen McCormack development has a fixed patrol for the first time this summer, meaning that officers are on site 24 hours a day, McGonagle said. The housing authority also has its own security force with about 20 officers.
Hours after the shooting, which was reported around 11:40 p.m. Monday, neighbors were still on edge.
Marrero said he wishes the police presence were more consistent and not just increased during times of violence.
Another woman in the same building, who asked not to be identified, said her children and grandchildren have all asked her to move out.
“My daughter told me, this is the end,” she said.
Neighbors were unable to identify the victim by name but said they had often seen him riding his bike around the development....
--more--"
Related:
"The Boston Housing Authority is seeking a one-time $4 million allocation from the city to keep public safety officers in buildings that house the elderly and disabled. The money would fill a federal funding gap and for one year cover the wages and benefits of 56 unarmed officers who check in guests and patrol the buildings, said Bill McGonagle, the authority’s administrator. The $4 million the housing authority is requestingwill pay the wages and benefits for 56 unarmed officers who carry radios on their patrols. The agency also spends another $3.1 million for 17 armed officers and about a half dozen dispatchers, McGonagle said. Nearly 30 violent incidents involving the elderly and disabled were reported from January through July, according to data the authority provided...."
Also related:
"$35 million. That’s how much the grand penthouse at the top of Millennium Tower sold for, apparently to billionaire investor Jonathan Grayken. A deed filed Wednesday in Suffolk County indicates that a holding company called Kilda LLC paid Millennium $35 million for the 13,000-square-foot condo, which, on the 60th floor of the new condo tower, is the highest residence ever built in Boston. Either way, he got a bit of a bargain. Millennium had listed the penthouse for sale at $37.5 million. So he paid 6.7 percent below the asking price. And according to the deed, his place comes with six parking spaces. Four of them are even reserved."
I wonder how much their $ecurity co$ts.
"Three charged with selling heroin out of convenience store" by John R. Ellement Globe Staff August 23, 2016
Three men were arrested in Holyoke for allegedly selling heroin out of a convenience store in the Western Massachusetts city, authorities said Tuesday.
The men taken into custody were involved in operating or managing the Holyoke Mini Mart on High Street, authorities said in a statement.
FBI agents, Holyoke police, and State Police assigned to the Hampden district attorney’s office raided three addresses in Holyoke on Saturday and seized 5,600 bags of suspected heroin and $19,000 in cash, officials said.
“The [search] warrants were the result of an investigation into the sale of illicit narcotics inside and around the area of the Holyoke Mini Mart Convenience Store,’’ authorities said.
Police identified those arrested as Charles Pedrosa, 48, Emiliano Santiago, 30, and his brother, Daniel, 29 of Holyoke.
The men were each arraigned in Holyoke District Court Monday on charges of trafficking in 100 to 200 grams of heroin, possession of cocaine, possession with intent to distribute, drug violation within 100 feet of a school or public park, and conspiracy, police said.
Prosecutors requested $100,000 bail for each of the suspects, but Emiliano Santiago was ordered held on $7,500 bail and both Pedrosa and Daniel Santiago were ordered held on $5,000 each.
The men are scheduled for pretrial conferences on Sept. 15."
Related:
"Investigators found drugs in a secret compartment inside the vehicle of a suspected drug dealer Monday night, according to Quincy police. Police had been investigating 41-year-old Andrew Costello for much of August for allegedly dealing drugs out of 22 Bigelow St., police said in a statement. At about 7:30 p.m. Monday, police saw what they believed to be a drug deal between Costello and Leudy Fernandez-Santiago, 25, of Lynn, inside Fernandez-Santiago’s gray Honda Accord. Once officers approached Costello, they found about 19 grams of fentanyl and $545 cash, police said. Costello said he had purchased drugs from Fernandez-Santiago. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that has been cited in many deaths associated with the Massachusetts opioid epidemic. It is thought to be about 50 to 100 times more powerful than heroin, and the two are frequently combined and sold. An officer pulled over Fernandez-Santiago and found about $6,911 in his car, police said. Once the car was taken to police headquarters, they found a hidden compartment inside the car that contained bags of fentanyl, crack cocaine, and cocaine. Costello is facing charges of trafficking in fentanyl and conspiracy to violate the controlled substance laws, police said. Fernandez-Santiago is facing charges of trafficking in fentanyl, conspiracy to violate the controlled substance laws, distribution of fentanyl, and possession to distribute cocaine."
About? That's pretty precise number.
"An online drug-tracking program aimed at curbing abuse of opioids and other prescription drugs is slated to launch Monday, but many health care providers still haven’t registered to use the system, prompting an urgent call to action Wednesday from the statewide physician’s association...."
The other drug:
Bard College sinks further into junk bond status
"A Yale-educated investment banker was convicted of insider trading charges Wednesday after a jury concluded he gave tips about mergers and acquisitions to his father, enabling over $1 million in illegal profits. Sean Stewart, 35, testified during the two-week Manhattan federal court trial, insisting he had no idea his father was sharing secrets with a broker to make trades ahead of public announcements on five separate deals that he oversaw while working at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Perella Weinberg partners LP. The father, Robert Stewart, was sentenced to one year of home detention after pleading guilty to an insider trading charge. Prosecutors said evidence, including the timing of pivotal meetings regarding the corporate deals and subsequent trades in securities by the father and communications between the father and son soon afterward, made it obvious the son tipped his father intentionally."
$mall fry Madoff.
"Four Weymouth residents are facing charges after they allegedly beat a 21-year-old autistic man, kicking him in the face and hitting him with a bottle before stealing his cellphone and wallet, police said. Christopher Keeley, 21, and Tiago Teixeira, 19, were charged with unarmed robbery, assault and battery causing serious bodily harm, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and conspiracy, according to a Weymouth police report. Both men appeared Monday in Quincy District Court. Two women, an 18-year-old and a 19-year-old, were also charged. Their names were not released because they haven’t been arrested yet, police said. They will face the same charges as Keeley and Teixeira, police said...."
He should consider himself lucky; he wasn't sexually abused.
NDU:
"Fessenden School official on leave amid sexual misconduct allegation" by Travis Andersen Globe Staff June 21, 2017
An administrator at the prestigious Fessenden School, a private school for boys in Newton, was placed on leave in December and barred from campus amid an investigation into a former student’s allegation of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1990s, the headmaster said Tuesday.
The allegations against Kenneth Howe, the school’s residential life director, were disclosed by headmaster David B. Stettler in a letter to the Fessenden community. The message was obtained by the Globe.
Howe is a former math teacher who “categorically denies that any misconduct occurred.”
The disclosure comes after a Globe Spotlight series revealed that at least 67 private schools in New England, including Fessenden, have faced accusations since 1991 that staffers sexually abused or harassed more than 200 students.....
--more--"
"State Police arrested a fugitive sex offender Tuesday morning at an apartment on Falmouth Street in Attleborough, police said. Caled Donatiu, 32, of Everett, was classified as a Level Three sex offender based on his 2008 conviction of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 in Salem, State Police said in a statement. Donatiu and an accomplice followed an 11-year-old girl for several blocks before forcing her into an alley and assaulting her, authorities said. Donatiu was wanted for failing to register as a sex offender and for failing to provide a DNA sample to law enforcement, police said...."
*****************
"Man allegedly walks into police station to say he killed his wife" by Laura Crimaldi and John R. Ellement Globe Staff August 02, 2016
SALEM — A turbulent relationship that lasted nearly 30 years ended violently Tuesday when Douglas A. Steeves Jr. allegedly strangled his wife in her home — and then confessed his crime to Salem police, authorities said.
Steeves, 50, was ordered held without bail for allegedly murdering Carmela Saunders, 48, inside her Chandler Street apartment, just hours after a family dinner, authorities said.
Steeves had been living with a friend, but was kicked out and had “nowhere to go,” Essex Assistant District Attorney A.J. Camelio said. On Monday night, Steeves was invited to his daughter’s apartment to take a shower and have dinner, Camelio said.
But the visit took a violent turn when Steeves received a phone call from a man who told him to “stay away from his girl,” according to a police report filed in Salem District Court. The call sparked a fight between Steeves and Saunders, police wrote.
“She scratched him, and at that point he put his hands on her throat and he strangled her,” Camelio said. “He left her on the bed, covered her body, and left the apartment.”
Around 3:44 a.m., Steeves walked into the Salem police station and told an officer what he did, Camelio said.
Steeves’s lawyer, Raymond Buso, said his client’s mental state at the time of the killing might be part of his defense. He said Steeves cannot remember all of what happened.
Saunders’ death followed years of alleged abuse in a relationship that dated back to her teenage years. The couple married in 1987 and had five children, the youngest of whom is 17, officials and friends said.
Saunders had filed for divorce twice since last September, citing abuse, and received two restraining orders against Steeves, most recently in May. That restraining order was still in effect, records show.
Maybe if she had a gun.
The May order was granted after Steeves allegedly followed her to Salem, N.H., where he “started to harass me, calling me dirty names” in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store, records show. Later that day, he bluntly threatened her.
“I will take care of you,” he said, according to an affidavit signed by Saunders. “I don’t care what happens to be [sic], but I will get you.”
The other restraining order was issued in 1994 after Steeves allegedly tried to strangle Saunders, Camelio said.
A friend of Saunders said she once told her that Steeves had tried to kill her.
“She told me that, a long time ago, Doug tried to kill her,” the friend said. “She told me he tried to strangle her so she broke up with him. She was afraid of him. She left him and he was a stalker. He stalked her all the time.’’
The friend asked to remain anonymous out of concern for her personal safety.
Lisa Vidinha, 49, who lives near the Chandler Street home where Saunders was attacked, said the couple’s relationship became strained soon after they moved into a second-floor apartment about six months ago.
Saunders moved in with relatives on the third floor, while Steeves was evicted for failing to pay rent, she said.
Even after Steeves moved away, Saunders complained that he would not leave her alone, often calling her and sending her text messages, Vidinha said. Sometimes, Steeves drove by and honked the horn on his blue Chevy Suburban, she said.
“I told him to leave. ‘You don’t belong here. You got a restraining order. Don’t you know that? I will call the cops,’ ” Vidinha said.
She said she heard screams overnight, but did not know who was in trouble. A police officer told her about the killing Tuesday morning, Vidinha said.
“My heart just like dropped,” she said. “If it was her screams I would have been over here. I know he’s abusive and he’s a bully.”
Vidinha said she last saw Saunders Saturday.
“She was fine,” she said. “She was a loving girl. She would help anybody.”
Saunders’ first divorce complaint was dismissed last November after Saunders said the couple reconciled, court records show. She initiated divorce proceedings again in February.
“Carmen had this thing — she loved him but she hated him,’’ said the friend. “It was like a love hate relationship. But she wanted to slip away, but she just didn’t know how to do it.’’
Please stop romanticizing the abusive relationship that had to have been pure hell for that woman.
--more--"
**********************
"Malden High staffer pleads not guilty to raping disabled student" by Laura Crimaldi and John R. Ellement Globe Staff August 09, 2016
WOBURN — An assistant teacher and coach at Malden High School pleaded not guilty Tuesday to accusations that he raped a 16-year-old disabled boy in a school bathroom and threatened to kill the teenager’s mother if he resisted.
Steven J. MacDonald, 46, of Malden, was released on personal recognizance following his arraignment in Middlesex Superior Court on charges of rape, indecent assault and battery on a disabled person, and assault with intent to rape.
Had a fire down below.
In court, Assistant District Attorney Courtney C. Linnehan said the attacks on the boy, who has “multiple disabilities,” began last September when MacDonald was assigned to work in the teenager’s classroom as a paraprofessional. MacDonald was responsible for taking the boy to the bathroom, she said.
The predator goes where is the prey. Sick.
Linnehan alleged that during trips to the bathroom MacDonald committed sex acts on himself, raped the student, and forced the student to commit other sex acts.
“The defendant continuously threatened to go to the victim’s home and kill his mother,’’ Linnehan said.
As the alleged assaults continued during the school year, Linnehan said, the student tried to avoid using the bathroom, but would sometimes have “accidents” and was left with soaked clothes in the hallways of the school.
Poor kid, and that means they are probably diagnosing him with some other illness. Good Lord!
MacDonald, she said, sometimes offered the student candy “to lure him into the bathroom.’’
She said the student told school employees that MacDonald was “mean.” He stayed home from school on March 24 and March 25 and reported the incidents to his mother on March 27.
“He did not return to Malden High School again,’’ Linnehan said.
MacDonald was placed on administrative leave March 29 after school officials were alerted to the allegations, said Malden Mayor Gary Christenson, who also leads the city’s school committee.
MacDonald also served as assistant football coach from 2012 to 2016 and coached freshman baseball from 2014 until he was put on leave, Christenson said.
The mayor called the indictment “deeply concerning,” but said he could not comment further, citing an ongoing criminal investigation and personnel matters. Licensure is not required for paraprofessionals, a state education official said.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan said Malden police and school officials helped to investigate the allegations against MacDonald. A grand jury indicted him Aug. 2, court records show.
“The defendant in this case was trusted to care for and assist the student that he allegedly sexually assaulted,” Ryan said in a statement. “Such allegations, if proven, violate the trust that parents and guardians place in their children’s educators.”
MacDonald appeared in court surrounded by about 10 relatives and friends. He declined to comment.
In an interview, defense attorney Alan Tuttman called the indictments against MacDonald “troubling,” saying the accuser’s allegations are not credible. “They’re not believable,” Tuttman said. “There’s nothing to substantiate it. There’s no physical evidence.”
MacDonald’s accuser uses a wheelchair and functions at a second-grade level, Tuttman said. “It’s pretty widely known that the alleged victim would fabricate,” he said.
Wow, that's a boomerang, dumping the kid out of the chair and then kick 'em!
Tuttman described MacDonald as a “well respected member of the Malden community” who has been married for 18 years and has two sons, ages 13 and 16. “He’s a little bit in shock,” Tuttman said.
After all the elite school abuse? Shocked?
MacDonald was initially ordered to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet while awaiting trial, but Tuttman successfully appealed the ruling during a hearing before Judge Bruce Henry, court records show.
Under the terms of his release, MacDonald is prohibited from having unsupervised contact with children 18 years or younger, excluding his own. He is also barred from holding a job or volunteer position with children under 18. MacDonald’s next court date is Sept. 15.
Joe Pappagallo, the former head football coach at Malden High, said he began coaching with MacDonald in 2000 and let him baby-sit his children.
“This is so out of character for him; it’s not even close,” Pappagallo said in a phone interview. “Nobody believes it. Everybody says there’s somebody bearing false witness here.”
--more--"
**************************
"15-year-old boy shot, critically wounded in South Boston" by Vivian Wang Globe Correspondent August 16, 2016
A South Boston housing development has seen more than its share of gun violence this summer, with a shooting Monday night leaving a 15-year-old boy critically wounded and residents reeling from what they say has become a regular occurrence.
“That’s been kind of a hot spot this summer,” Mayor Martin J. Walsh said of the Mary Ellen McCormack development, where the boy was shot just before midnight while sitting in a car near 24 Gavin Way. A woman was shot at the development in July but survived.
No arrests have been made in Monday’s shooting, and the victim has not been identified. Police said he was in critical condition but expected to survive.
“Right now it’s every night, disorder, disorder,” said Carlos Marrero, 46, who lives at 24 Gavin Way. “I’m scared to go out of my apartment. This street has a problem.”
He and his 19-year-old daughter spent the night sleeping on the floor, Marrero said, because he worried about bullets flying through the window.
City and housing officials say they understand that residents are worried. They are collaborating to bring tighter security measures to the development.
Meanwhile, gun violence across the city has fallen compared with last summer.
Whatever you say.
Bill McGonagle, administrator of the Boston Housing Authority, said he and Walsh have discussed installing security cameras along Gavin Way, as well as nearby Logan Way and Sterling Square.
“It’s been a difficult summer,” he said. “People are concerned, and we want to make sure that we’re responding to those concerns.”
McGonagle said he hopes the cameras will be installed by the start of next year, and he estimated they will cost between $500,000 and $600,000.
The housing authority has taken other steps recently to enhance safety. It installed exterior lighting throughout the development last year.
The Boston Police Department has also stepped up its presence. The Mary Ellen McCormack development has a fixed patrol for the first time this summer, meaning that officers are on site 24 hours a day, McGonagle said. The housing authority also has its own security force with about 20 officers.
Hours after the shooting, which was reported around 11:40 p.m. Monday, neighbors were still on edge.
Marrero said he wishes the police presence were more consistent and not just increased during times of violence.
Another woman in the same building, who asked not to be identified, said her children and grandchildren have all asked her to move out.
“My daughter told me, this is the end,” she said.
Neighbors were unable to identify the victim by name but said they had often seen him riding his bike around the development....
--more--"
Related:
"The Boston Housing Authority is seeking a one-time $4 million allocation from the city to keep public safety officers in buildings that house the elderly and disabled. The money would fill a federal funding gap and for one year cover the wages and benefits of 56 unarmed officers who check in guests and patrol the buildings, said Bill McGonagle, the authority’s administrator. The $4 million the housing authority is requestingwill pay the wages and benefits for 56 unarmed officers who carry radios on their patrols. The agency also spends another $3.1 million for 17 armed officers and about a half dozen dispatchers, McGonagle said. Nearly 30 violent incidents involving the elderly and disabled were reported from January through July, according to data the authority provided...."
Also related:
"$35 million. That’s how much the grand penthouse at the top of Millennium Tower sold for, apparently to billionaire investor Jonathan Grayken. A deed filed Wednesday in Suffolk County indicates that a holding company called Kilda LLC paid Millennium $35 million for the 13,000-square-foot condo, which, on the 60th floor of the new condo tower, is the highest residence ever built in Boston. Either way, he got a bit of a bargain. Millennium had listed the penthouse for sale at $37.5 million. So he paid 6.7 percent below the asking price. And according to the deed, his place comes with six parking spaces. Four of them are even reserved."
I wonder how much their $ecurity co$ts.
**********************
"Three charged with selling heroin out of convenience store" by John R. Ellement Globe Staff August 23, 2016
Three men were arrested in Holyoke for allegedly selling heroin out of a convenience store in the Western Massachusetts city, authorities said Tuesday.
The men taken into custody were involved in operating or managing the Holyoke Mini Mart on High Street, authorities said in a statement.
FBI agents, Holyoke police, and State Police assigned to the Hampden district attorney’s office raided three addresses in Holyoke on Saturday and seized 5,600 bags of suspected heroin and $19,000 in cash, officials said.
“The [search] warrants were the result of an investigation into the sale of illicit narcotics inside and around the area of the Holyoke Mini Mart Convenience Store,’’ authorities said.
Police identified those arrested as Charles Pedrosa, 48, Emiliano Santiago, 30, and his brother, Daniel, 29 of Holyoke.
The men were each arraigned in Holyoke District Court Monday on charges of trafficking in 100 to 200 grams of heroin, possession of cocaine, possession with intent to distribute, drug violation within 100 feet of a school or public park, and conspiracy, police said.
Prosecutors requested $100,000 bail for each of the suspects, but Emiliano Santiago was ordered held on $7,500 bail and both Pedrosa and Daniel Santiago were ordered held on $5,000 each.
The men are scheduled for pretrial conferences on Sept. 15."
Related:
"Investigators found drugs in a secret compartment inside the vehicle of a suspected drug dealer Monday night, according to Quincy police. Police had been investigating 41-year-old Andrew Costello for much of August for allegedly dealing drugs out of 22 Bigelow St., police said in a statement. At about 7:30 p.m. Monday, police saw what they believed to be a drug deal between Costello and Leudy Fernandez-Santiago, 25, of Lynn, inside Fernandez-Santiago’s gray Honda Accord. Once officers approached Costello, they found about 19 grams of fentanyl and $545 cash, police said. Costello said he had purchased drugs from Fernandez-Santiago. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that has been cited in many deaths associated with the Massachusetts opioid epidemic. It is thought to be about 50 to 100 times more powerful than heroin, and the two are frequently combined and sold. An officer pulled over Fernandez-Santiago and found about $6,911 in his car, police said. Once the car was taken to police headquarters, they found a hidden compartment inside the car that contained bags of fentanyl, crack cocaine, and cocaine. Costello is facing charges of trafficking in fentanyl and conspiracy to violate the controlled substance laws, police said. Fernandez-Santiago is facing charges of trafficking in fentanyl, conspiracy to violate the controlled substance laws, distribution of fentanyl, and possession to distribute cocaine."
About? That's pretty precise number.
"An online drug-tracking program aimed at curbing abuse of opioids and other prescription drugs is slated to launch Monday, but many health care providers still haven’t registered to use the system, prompting an urgent call to action Wednesday from the statewide physician’s association...."
The other drug:
Bard College sinks further into junk bond status
"A Yale-educated investment banker was convicted of insider trading charges Wednesday after a jury concluded he gave tips about mergers and acquisitions to his father, enabling over $1 million in illegal profits. Sean Stewart, 35, testified during the two-week Manhattan federal court trial, insisting he had no idea his father was sharing secrets with a broker to make trades ahead of public announcements on five separate deals that he oversaw while working at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Perella Weinberg partners LP. The father, Robert Stewart, was sentenced to one year of home detention after pleading guilty to an insider trading charge. Prosecutors said evidence, including the timing of pivotal meetings regarding the corporate deals and subsequent trades in securities by the father and communications between the father and son soon afterward, made it obvious the son tipped his father intentionally."
$mall fry Madoff.
********************
"Four Weymouth residents are facing charges after they allegedly beat a 21-year-old autistic man, kicking him in the face and hitting him with a bottle before stealing his cellphone and wallet, police said. Christopher Keeley, 21, and Tiago Teixeira, 19, were charged with unarmed robbery, assault and battery causing serious bodily harm, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and conspiracy, according to a Weymouth police report. Both men appeared Monday in Quincy District Court. Two women, an 18-year-old and a 19-year-old, were also charged. Their names were not released because they haven’t been arrested yet, police said. They will face the same charges as Keeley and Teixeira, police said...."
He should consider himself lucky; he wasn't sexually abused.
NDU:
"Fessenden School official on leave amid sexual misconduct allegation" by Travis Andersen Globe Staff June 21, 2017
An administrator at the prestigious Fessenden School, a private school for boys in Newton, was placed on leave in December and barred from campus amid an investigation into a former student’s allegation of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1990s, the headmaster said Tuesday.
The allegations against Kenneth Howe, the school’s residential life director, were disclosed by headmaster David B. Stettler in a letter to the Fessenden community. The message was obtained by the Globe.
Howe is a former math teacher who “categorically denies that any misconduct occurred.”
The disclosure comes after a Globe Spotlight series revealed that at least 67 private schools in New England, including Fessenden, have faced accusations since 1991 that staffers sexually abused or harassed more than 200 students.....
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