January 14, 2022

California school district shuts down for a week to let students and staff "recoup and recover"

The Culver City Unified School District, the first K-12 public school system in the nation to issue a coronavirus student vaccination mandate, announced Friday that due to the spike in coronavirus cases, it will close all its schools next week to give students and staff time to “recoup and recover,” the superintendent said.

“Things accelerated too quickly,” Superintendent Quoc Tran said in an interview, referring to the surge of coronavirus cases that have over-taxed the district of 7,100 students and 900 employees. By taking a few days off, he said, “everyone will get the chance to be distant from one another, recoup and recover and come back Monday.”

Several other districts in Los Angeles County have delayed the start of the spring semester or shut down schools amid the surge, including Montebello Unified and two schools in San Gabriel.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-14/culver-city-unified-to-close-for-instruction-covid-coronavirus-surge

January 14, 2022

Chase let an elderly customer wire more than $600,000 to an overseas scammer

Lisa Spanierman contacted me recently to relate how her 81-year-old mother got fleeced to the tune of more than $600,000, and how Chase bank did precious little to prevent the theft of much of her life’s savings.


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Spanierman also said her mom’s memory has started to lapse, making it difficult at times for her to explain herself. A bank teller who pressed for details about the wire transfers probably would have seen that something was amiss, Spanierman told me.

“There should have been lots of red flags,” she said. “But the bank ignored them.”

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Regardless of how the con artist motivated Spanierman’s mom, bank records show that she visited a Chase branch on New York’s East Side and wired $45,000 to an address in Bangkok, Thailand. She wired another $45,000 from the same branch four days later.

Two days after that, she wired $300,000 from a different Chase branch. She then returned the same day to the first branch and tried to wire an additional $200,000. Although the transaction was approved, it didn’t go through for some reason.

A week later, Spanierman’s mom arrived at another Chase branch and attempted to once again wire $200,000. This time — finally — a teller was suspicious and refused to send the money.

So Spanierman’s mom returned to the first branch that same day and successfully wired $231,000 to Bangkok.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-01-14/column-chase-elder-financial-fraud

January 14, 2022

siblings fell 250 yr old tree located 7.5 ft outside property, sold it for $2K, could face prison

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/14/realestate/pre-covid-remodel.html


Pair Face Prison After Felling 'Irreplaceable' Tree
250-year-old black walnut tree, among Ohio's largest, was on park district land



A brother and sister in Ohio could face prison after cutting down what a prosecutor describes as an "irreplaceable" black walnut tree, one of the largest in the state and perhaps more than 250 years old. "This is so ridiculous that they're doing this," Todd Jones, 56, who felled the tree located 7.5 feet outside his property boundary on land owned by Cleveland Metroparks in the Cleveland suburb of Strongsville, tells Cleveland.com. Cuyahoga County prosecutor Michael O'Malley, however, says he takes seriously his office's duty to protect the 24,000-acre regional park system. "We will not ignore people trespassing onto park property and illegally cutting down irreplaceable trees for profit," he tells the New York Times.

A Metroparks employee was checking on saplings planted on land newly acquired by the park district when she noticed cages around the saplings had been smashed and at least one sapling had been destroyed, apparently by the falling of the massive black walnut tree, whose "freshly cut" stump stood nearby. A relative living at Jones' next-door property said the 56-year-old had planned to hire a logging company to cut down the tree so it could be sold for lumber to help pay off $15,000 in tax liens. The Cleveland Metroparks Police Department determined the tree, with a circumstance of 17.25 feet, was worth at least $28,800, though it was allegedly sold for $2,000. The two largest known black walnut trees in Ohio measure 17.5 feet and just under 19 feet around, per Cleveland.com.

Police say Jones claimed the tree was his, despite admitting to never seeing a boundary survey. They also say he initially denied knowing who removed the tree before claiming sole responsibility in an effort to protect his sister, Laurel Hoffman, who'd signed a contract with the logging company claiming a property survey showed her to be the tree's rightful owner. Both Jones and Hoffman are charged with grand theft and falsification, fourth-degree felonies, and face up to 18 months in prison on each count if convicted.

https://www.newser.com/story/315669/pair-face-prison-after-felling-irreplaceable-tree.html

January 14, 2022

Job opportunities have gotten worse for many Americans

January 14, 2022

Glenn Beck's 2nd Bout With COVID, getting into his lungs

Glenn Beck's 2nd Bout With COVID 'a Little Disturbing'
But conservative radio host says he's not concerned

After getting COVID-19 for the first time in December 2020, Glenn Beck has it again. The conservative radio host posted his positive test result on Instagram last week and discussed it on Mark Levin's radio show this week, the Hill reports. Initially, Beck said his second bout with the coronavirus was "just the worst ‘cold’ I have ever had," as compared to his first round, which "wiped me out for almost 3 weeks."

But on Levin's show Wednesday, he noted that this is in fact a "lighter case, but it's now starting to go into my lungs today, which is a little disturbing." He also noted he has "some other issues" including being overweight, but said he is still "not concerned."

https://www.newser.com/story/315641/glenn-beck-enduring-2nd-bout-with-covid.html

January 14, 2022

driver doing donuts in parking lot wrecks his car only.. caught on video

he didnt wreck during the donuts, he drove right into the pole preparing for another donut



https://twitter.com/AntiochPolice/status/1481035481659822082

The driver attempted to flee the scene but was later arrested on a charge of reckless driving, a misdemeanor punishable in the state of California with a fine of up to $1,000 or up to 90 days imprisonment.

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Bay-Area-driver-does-doughnuts-crashes-16773607.php

January 14, 2022

Canadian man on run with 7 year daughter. God wants him to protect her from Vax

Canadian man admitted on a right-wing talk show he is keeping his daughter away from her mother and is staying in an undisclosed location because he doesn't want his child to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Now, the mother is asking the public for help finding the two.

The story between the divorced parents was brought to light on the online show "Live With Laura-Lynn" on Jan. 7. The father, Michael Jackson, confirmed that he is on the run with his 7-year-old daughter.


He said on the show his wife indicated the child would get the vaccine once it was approved by government officials, but he "couldn’t let it happen. The daughter later stated on the show she didn't want to get the vaccine because it could "change your DNA" and "make you sick and kill you" despite those myths being debunked by numerous health organizations.


He added that he was supposed to return his daughter to the mother after a weekend together in early November, but decided to keep the child. He also didn't say where the two were now located.

"I had to protect my daughter from it," Jackson said. "I’m following God, and I’m doing what he wants me to do."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/canadian-father-on-the-run-with-7-year-old-daughter-to-stop-her-from-getting-covid-19-vaccine/ar-AASKH4r

January 14, 2022

weird and scary car jacking

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/nyc-driver-carjacked-in-broad-daylight-in-wild-video/vi-AASKDRq

January 14, 2022

shady, dirt bag student loan servicer Navient required to cancel debt for 66,000 borrowers

Navient, one of the nation's large student loan servicers, has settled allegations of predatory lending practices for $1.85 billion, Pennsylvania's attorney general said Thursday. The settlement requires the company to cancel the debt of 66,000 borrowers, a total of $1.7 billion, and to pay $95 million in restitution to 350,000 borrowers, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, per the AP and the Wall Street Journal. “Navient repeatedly and deliberately put profits ahead of its borrowers—it engaged in deceptive and abusive practices, targeted students who it knew would struggle to pay loans back, and placed an unfair burden on people trying to improve their lives through education,” Shapiro said.

The settlement involves 39 state attorneys general and resolves claims that Navient led student borrowers into long-term debt instead of giving them advice on less costly repayment plans. Navient said it did not act illegally, and it did not admit any fault in the settlement, per the New York Times. “The company’s decision to resolve these matters, which were based on unfounded claims, allows us to avoid the additional burden, expense, time and distraction to prevail in court,” says Mark Heleen, Navient’s chief legal officer.

Shapiro said the subprime loans were made “to borrowers they knew could not pay the money back,” a situation similar to the 2008 mortgage crisis. Additionally, he said, Navient misled "borrowers into forbearances ... and led many to accumulate more debt and never-ending interest payments.”

https://www.newser.com/story/315632/student-loan-servicer-must-cancel-debt-of-66k-borrowers.html?

January 13, 2022

pig heart recipient has criminal past. ethicist say that should have no bearing on worthiness

Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center made big headlines this week with the first-ever transplant of a genetically modified pig heart into a human. But all that attention has brought to a light a troubling aspect of the patient's past: He once nearly killed a man by stabbing him seven times in a bar, reports the Washington Post. David Bennett Sr., 57, served about five years in prison for the 1988 stabbing of 22-year-old Edward Shumaker. The story explores the ethics surrounding the selection of organ recipients, as summed up by Shumaker's sister, Leslie Shumaker Downey: "I wish, in my opinion, it had gone to a deserving recipient.”

Edward Shumaker survived the attack but was left paralyzed and died of stroke in 2005 at age 40. Bennett is "being given another shot at life,” says Downey. “But my brother Ed wasn’t given a shot at life. Ed was given a death sentence.” However, the Post notes that the general view of medical ethicists is that a person's criminal background should have no bearing on worthiness as a recipient. “The key principle in medicine is to treat anyone who is sick, regardless of who they are,” says Arthur Caplan, a bioethics professor at New York University.

The medical center in Baltimore where the procedure took place voiced a similar sentiment, though it is not saying whether it knew of Bennett's past. “This patient came to us in dire need, and a decision was made about his transplant eligibility based solely on his medical records," it says in a statement.

https://www.newser.com/story/315626/troubling-history-emerges-about-historic-organ-recipient.html