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Post by mhbruin on Sept 21, 2022 7:58:35 GMT -8
I have a fear of over-engineered buildings. It's a complex complex complex. There Should Be a Special Place in Hell for People Who Steal From Hungry KidsUS prosecutors have charged 47 people in the largest Covid relief fraud scheme alleged to date. The suspects are accused of stealing $250m (£220m) from a government aid programme that was supposed to feed children in need during the pandemic. They allegedly spent the spoils on properties, cars and luxury goods. A Minnesota non-profit organisation, Feeding Our Future, is accused of orchestrating the plot. Founder Aimee Bock denies any wrongdoing. A lawyer for Ms Bock told the BBC: "We have maintained our innocence from the first day." He said the indictment was "merely the beginning of the criminal process" and represented a "mere allegation". FBI Director Christopher Wray said this "egregious plot" was the largest of its kind uncovered so far. The suspects are alleged to have issued bills for meals they did not serve to children who did not exist, said the Department of Justice (DoJ) in a statement. They allegedly did so by exploiting a government initiative through which private restaurants could claim funding to distribute food under the sponsorship of non-profit organisations. The defendants are said to have bribed employees of Feeding Our Future to sponsor numerous sham distribution sites. These sites claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children a day within just days or weeks of being formed, according to the DoJ. But they were instead submitting false paperwork using bogus children's names, some of which were taken from a website, www.listofrandomnames.com. |
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 21, 2022 8:04:51 GMT -8
They Don't Want to Join the Highway to Hell
One-way flights out of Russia are rocketing upward in price and selling out fast after President Vladimir Putin ordered the immediate call-up of 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine.
Putin’s announcement, made in an early-morning television address on Wednesday, raised fears that some men of fighting age would not be allowed to leave the country.
Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu said the call-up would be limited to those with experience as professional soldiers, and that students and conscripts would not be called up.
Gimme a Break!
The biggest spike in Google searches in Russia is how to break a hand, or arm, or anything that would get someone out of service, at least for a few weeks.
The Way is Shut
Some Western nations have suggested they will not provide asylum or refuge to people fleeing Russia after President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation of reservists.
Soon after, Latvia, which borders Russia, said it will not offer refuge to any Russians escaping Moscow’s mobilisation of troops.
Meanwhile, Finland’s defence minister said it was closely monitoring the situation in neighbouring Russia, adding there were grounds for tightening the country’s visa policy for Russian citizens.
Finland may soon have a larger Russian army than Russia.
More Poorly-Motivated, Poorly-Equipped, Poorly-Trained, Poorly-Led Soldiers Means More Grieving Mothers and Wives
Meanwhile, everyone else points out that Russia’s logistical nightmare won’t be solved by adding more people. Russia’s increasing shortage of modern weapons won’t be solved by Putin wagging his finger at factories and telling them to make more, when they don’t have access to microprocessors and other necessary components. And perhaps most of all, Russia’s top-down, 1950s-era tactics won’t be made better just by throwing in more people.
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 21, 2022 8:06:23 GMT -8
Quick! You Need to Scam More MAGAS.
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a sweeping lawsuit Wednesday against former President Donald Trump, his three eldest children and the Trump Organization in connection with her yearslong civil investigation into the company’s business practices.
In its 220-page suit, James’ office details efforts by the former president to inflate his personal net worth to attract favorable loan agreements. For Trump’s alleged wrongdoing, James seeks to bar the Trump family from being in the office of any New York-based company for five years. Additionally, James seeks to bar them from receiving loans from any New York registered financial institution for five years.
James’ office seeks approximately $250 million in penalties. The suit alleges more than 200 instances of fraud over 10 years.
James alleges years of large-scale fraud, saying the Trump Organization inflated the values of its properties in seeking bank loans or deflated them to pay less taxes. Her office has said in court filings that it “uncovered substantial evidence establishing numerous misrepresentations” in the company's financial statements to banks, insurers and the IRS.
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 21, 2022 8:07:50 GMT -8
This Lawsuit is a Whopper
McDonald’s Corp (MCD.N) has been ordered by a U.S. judge to defend against media entrepreneur Byron Allen’s $10 billion lawsuit accusing the fast-food chain of “racial stereotyping” by not advertising with Black-owned media.
In a decision on Friday, U.S. District Judge Fernando Olguin in Los Angeles said Allen could try to prove that McDonald’s violated federal and California civil rights laws by deeming his networks ineligible for the “vast majority” of its advertising dollars.
Allen accused McDonald’s of relegating his Entertainment Studios Networks Inc and Weather Group LLC, which owns the Weather Channel, to an “African American tier” with a separate ad agency and much smaller ad budget, depriving them of tens of millions of dollars of annual revenue.
While not ruling on the merits, Olguin cited allegations that Entertainment Studios had since its 2009 founding tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to obtain a contract from McDonald’s, whose “racist” corporate culture harmed Allen.
“Taken together, and construed in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, plaintiffs have alleged sufficient facts to support an inference of intentional discrimination,” Olguin wrote.
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 21, 2022 8:09:26 GMT -8
Speaking of Whoppers, ...
After Putin’s brief speech, it actually fell to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to fill in all the blanks. According to Shoigu, 300,000 people would be subject to the mobilization. Bizarrely, Shoigu said this while claiming that Russia has lost less than 6,000 soldiers while killing “half the Ukrainian military” or “over 100,000.” In fact, according to Shoigu, the whole Kharkiv counteroffensive has been a great success for Russia, as they have “killed more Ukrainians in the last three weeks” than Russia has lost in the whole war. (Bonus: Shoigu says Russia destroyed 208 Ukrainian tanks and 970 other vehicles during the Kharkiv advance. So big Russian win.)
So … Russia has lost fewer than 6,000. Has killed 100,000. Killed 7,000 Ukrainians in the last three weeks. And is now calling up 300,000 to fight the half of the Ukrainian military that remains? It doesn’t have to make sense. It’s Russia.
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 21, 2022 8:17:40 GMT -8
Are All QOP Candidates Taught How to Be Smug?
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 21, 2022 8:22:57 GMT -8
What Will Brett Kavanaugh Do?
Trump's threat did not sit well with his niece, Mary Trump. On her YouTube program, Ms. Trump put her uncle's threat in an entirely different perspective, saying that...
"Donald said recently that there will be 'big problems' if he's indicted, and he's right. There will be big problems. for him. I know that he was in his not-too-subtle way, threatening the rest of us with the violence of his insane followers. But, you know that's not going to happen. There is not going to be some mass uprising to protest the fact that Donald finally for once in his life is being held accountable. The real problem is that we're probably going to run out of beer."
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 21, 2022 8:26:27 GMT -8
Making Domestic Abuse Great Again
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 21, 2022 8:28:28 GMT -8
DeathSentence Spends Millions on a Problem That Doesn't Exist in Florida
And He Gets Sued For His Efforts
Migrants who were flown from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard under a new program by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Republican governor and other state officials alleging they were victims of fraud for political purposes.
Alianza Americas, a Chicago-based network of migrant-led organizations, and three migrants who landed in Massachusetts last week on flights chartered by Florida accused DeSantis and his co-defendants of executing “a premeditated, fraudulent, and illegal scheme...for the sole purpose of advancing their own personal, financial and political interests.”
In the lawsuit filed in Massachusetts federal court, the plaintiffs allege that the “ruse” -- which DeSantis claimed credit for as part of his effort to highlight illegal immigration -- violated constitutional protections under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments and several federal statutes.
In addition to seeking damages, they are also asking the court to block DeSantis and others named in the lawsuit from “inducing immigrants to travel across state lines by fraud and misrepresentation.”
The suit further argues that the money used by DeSantis was unauthorized because it “originated from the federal Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund and was therefore subject to its use restrictions.”
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 21, 2022 8:33:27 GMT -8
What's Wrong McFly? Chicken?The Food and Drug Administration has offered Americans some food for thought: It’s a bad idea to use NyQuil as a chicken marinade. The federal agency felt obligated to issue the warning in light of a social media challenge encouraging people to cook chicken in NyQuil and other cough medicine. The FDA’s release notes that the idea of cooking chicken in cough syrup is “silly and unappetizing.” But it is also potentially dangerous: Boiling a medication can make it much more concentrated and change its properties in other ways. Even if you don’t eat the chicken, inhaling the medication’s vapors while cooking could cause high levels of the drugs to enter your body. It could also hurt your lungs.
Put simply: Someone could take a dangerously high amount of the cough and cold medicine without even realizing it.www.bing.com/videos/search?q=marty+are+you+chicken&&view=detail&mid=482CEAACF8EA320D2175482CEAACF8EA320D2175&rvsmid=D0CAEA3FCC93E0AB99CAD0CAEA3FCC93E0AB99CA&FORM=VDRVRV
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 21, 2022 8:39:49 GMT -8
She Wouldn't Play For "Team Poisoning Children"
A jury awarded $100,000 to a woman who says she lost her job after refusing to falsify blood test results of children exposed to lead-contaminated water in Flint, her lawyer said Tuesday.
April Cook-Hawkins worked at the Genesee County health department for approximately four to five months before being forced to quit in 2016, said her attorney, Carol Laughbaum.
The department said Cook-Hawkins was ousted over her performance, but the jury didn’t accept that reason last Friday and awarded $100,000 for emotional distress, Laughbaum said.
“They (the health department) said she wasn’t a team player. Virtually nothing at trial showed she wasn’t a team player,” the lawyer said.
Cook-Hawkins told jurors that she was directed to record lead-level results that she knew were inaccurate.
“The county had two sets of records: Blue sheets with actual testing data and doctored versions, white sheets, with handwritten corrections showing perfect lead levels,” Laughbaum said.
That Toddling Town Is Not Great for Toddlers
One in twenty tap water tests performed for thousands of Chicago residents found lead, a neurotoxin, at or above US government limits, according to a Guardian analysis of a City of Chicago data trove.
And one-third had more lead than is permitted in bottled water.
This means that out of the 24,000 tests, approximately 1,000 homes had lead exceeding federal standards. Experts and locals say these results raise broader concerns, because there are an estimated 400,000 lead pipes supplying water to homes in the city, and the vast majority were not tested as part of the program.
Moreover, they say the city is not moving fast enough to eliminate the potential danger.
The Guardian worked with water engineer Elin Betanzo – who helped uncover the Flint water crisis that resulted in many, mostly Black residents being poisoned by lead in the Michigan city – to review the results of water tests conducted for Chicago residents between 2016 and 2021. Chicago itself has never released an analysis of the results.
The analysis found that nine of the top 10 zip codes with the largest percentages of high test results were neighborhoods with majorities of Black and Hispanic residents, and there were dozens of homes with shockingly high lead levels. One home, in the majority-Black neighborhood of South Chicago, had lead levels 1,100 parts per billion (ppb) – 73 times the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limit of 15ppb.
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 21, 2022 8:44:04 GMT -8
Iranian Women Have Had ItIn the video, a massive crowd cheers as a woman lifts a pair of scissors to her hair – exposed, without a hijab in sight. The sea of people, many of them men, roar as she chops off her ponytail and raises her fist in the air.  It was a powerful act of defiance Tuesday night in the Iranian city of Kerman, where women are required to wear hijabs (or headscarves) in public, as outrage over the death of a woman in police custody fuels protests across the country. Iranian authorities said Wednesday that three people, including a member of the security forces, have been killed in the unrest, which has stretched into a fifth day. Human rights groups have reported that at least seven people have been killed. The death last week of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested in Tehran by morality police – a dedicated unit that enforces strict dress codes for women, such as wearing the compulsory headscarf – has sparked an outpouring anger over issues ranging from freedoms in the Islamic Republic to the crippling economic impacts of sanctions. The protests are striking for their scale, ferocity and rare feminist nature; the last demonstrations of this size were three years ago, after the government hiked gas prices in 2019.
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