January 23, 2022

Alex Murdaugh stole mostly from minority, not well off. details about one theft of settlement funds

Friday's indictments include charges for Murdaugh's handling of the aftermath of a wreck that caused a deaf man to end up a quadriplegic. Murdaugh took a $309,000 check he was supposed to give to Hakeem Pinckney's family and instead bought money orders that went to cover money he took from the accounts of other clients, to pay down a loan, and get cash for himself and an unnamed family member, according to the indictment.

Then when Pinckney died in a nursing home from the lingering effects of his injuries, Murdaugh got an additional $89,000 settlement on Pinckney's behalf, but deposited that check in his account without ever telling the man's family, prosecutors said.

The lawyer for the Pinckney family said the transactions are complex and hard to follow and even more money may have been stolen.

Pinckney was Black, and most of the people Murdaugh stole from were like him—minorities and not well off, family attorney Justin Bamberg said. "Alex gave them just enough money so they would drop on their knees and say ‘thank you, Jesus’ and took the rest," Bamberg said. Another indictment Friday details how starting in 2013, Murdaugh collected 14 settlement checks totaling more than $1.3 million for a man whose wife died in a wreck and stole all the money for himself.

https://www.newser.com/story/315998/indictment-murdaugh-stole-400k-from-quadriplegic-man.html

January 23, 2022

Manatees fed lettuce for first time to stave off starvation,(seagrass is dying due to H2o pollution)

Manatees at risk of starvation because native seagrass is dying due to water pollution have for the first time started eating lettuce under an experimental feeding program, Florida wildlife officials said Friday. The test facility on the east coast's Indian River Lagoon had its first takers of romaine lettuce Thursday, leading more manatees to join in, said Ron Mezich, chief of the effort's provisioning branch at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"We think it's significant," Mezich said in a remote news conference, the AP reports. "When the animals are there, we will continue to offer food and hope they take advantage of that."

The program is adding cabbage and a second type of lettuce to entice the manatees, also known as sea cows. All are common foods given to manatees at rehabilitation facilities. The unprecedented feeding program is a state and federal response to last year's record number of 1,101 documented manatee deaths.

Many manatees are starving to death because pollution from agricultural, urban, and other sources has triggered algae blooms that have decimated seagrass beds on which they depend—especially in winter. About 25 to 35 manatees were seen Friday near the feeding site at a Florida Power & Light plant that discharges warm water that attracts them when water temperatures drop. Several hundred were spotted from the air nearby, said Tom Reinert, south regional director for the FWC.

https://www.newser.com/story/315966/at-risk-manatees-eat-lettuce-for-the-first-time.html

January 23, 2022

very isolated tiny island seeks someone to run pub - 10 year commitment wanted

?quality=75&auto=webp



English Island Seeks a Landlord-King Who Likes Solitude, Seals and Beer
On Piel Island, winters are wet, travel is limited, and the solitary pub crowns the landlord king or queen under a shower of beer.

“We’re not talking about St. Lucia or the Hawaiian islands,” said John Murphy, a 73-year-old resident of nearby Walney Island, and the guide of walking tours of the area for four decades. “We’re talking about a small and very isolated island in the north of England.”

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But she said the successful applicant would need to be dedicated to the task. “While there are periods when the pub and the island is bustling with people,” she said, “there will be periods of quiet too — something the successful applicant will need to embrace.” The council is seeking someone who will make a 10-year commitment.
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Mr. Murphy said the job requires someone who, at minimum, doesn’t mind a lot of time alone. He described the winter as “very harsh indeed,” with storms bringing heavy wind and rain. “You are virtually stuck on the island alone.”

And once you’re there, you have only so many ways to leave. When the tide recedes, it’s possible to walk — carefully, if you know the way — across two miles of sand. But when the tide returns, the only transport is a small ferry that Mr. Murphy described as “a rowing boat with a little engine on the back.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/22/world/europe/piel-island-uk.html

January 22, 2022

San Francisco tested a $1,000 guaranteed income pilot program. Here's how it went for two artists.

Modern ballet choreographer Marika Brussel, right, talks with dancer Vinnie Jones after working on a new ballet dance composition at a studio in San Francisco on Jan 19, 2022. Brussel was one of 130 artists in San Francisco who were selected to receive $1,000 of guaranteed income for 18 months. The money helps her pay the rent for her dance studio space.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE



SF poet Kevin Dublin was a recent recipient of a guaranteed income grant for artists.

Photo courtesy of Alexa Treviño/LexMexArt




In an effort to mitigate what appears to be an existential threat to the arts, in March 2021, the city of San Francisco partnered with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to launch a guaranteed income pilot, called the SF Guaranteed Income Pilot for Artists, or SF-GIPA, that gives 130 local low-income artists who have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic $1,000 a month, no strings attached, for 18 months. Dublin is among them.

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In order to sustain themselves, people like Dublin and Brussel have to work more, losing the time they would otherwise invest in their creative pursuits. This is what Jim Pugh, co-founder of the Universal Income Project, calls time scarcity. (While universal basic income would offer a set amount of money to everyone, guaranteed income programs target specific demographics, such as mothers or artists, but both emphasize the value of a “basic income.”)

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A recent paper by a team of academics out of the London School of Economics and Political Science found that escaping poverty is only possible when individuals are able to afford time off work to do more productive things, like attend job interviews, get more career training or work on something unique and innovative like a business or creative project. The London School of Economics paper emphasizes that moving people permanently out of poverty requires “big push policies” that help households reach a living wage.

This is essentially the same idea as an “income floor,” the basic principle behind guaranteed income. It’s about providing people with that Goldilocks threshold of income — not too little, not too much, but just enough to make permanently escaping poverty possible. Without an income floor, people like Dublin and Brussel have to stretch themselves to a breaking point.

https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/sf-tests-guaranteed-income-program-16791353.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-CP-Spotlight

January 22, 2022

Pennsylvania woman rescued a 'scared' animal. No one knows what it is

“I peeked outside the door and that’s whenever I noticed the animal on my left hand side and it was so scared and so cold and shivering,” Eyth recalled in an interview with NBC News. "... All I could think about is 'This animal needs help.'"

Rescuing the animal was one thing: Eyth was able to lure the animal into her basement and out of the cold. Since then, though, the animal has been a mystery.

Eyth said that first, she thought the creature might be a coyote or a dog. After calling Wildlife Works, a local rescue, and transferring the creature to their facility for care, there have only been more questions.

Morgan Barron, a certified wildlife rehabilitator at Wildlife Works, had trouble identifying what this animal could be and told NBC News she couldn’t “definitively say what it is.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/a-pennsylvania-woman-rescued-a-scared-animal-no-one-knows-what-it-is/ar-AAT2AMa?ocid=msedgntp

It will take two to four weeks before the results come in to ascertain if the animal is a dog or coyote, but in the meantime, rescuers are treating him with the same care and respect all animals deserve — just as Eyth had done.

"No matter the results to the test, I wouldn’t have changed anything I did to help him," Eyth said.

https://www.thedodo.com/daily-dodo/woman-rescues-mystery-animal

January 22, 2022

TN megachurch in turmoil - pastor blames nakedness with female on food spilled on clothing

When volunteers at Venue Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, arrived at their pastor’s house last November, they were hoping to raise his spirits with a surprise visit. Instead they got a shock: Pastor Tavner Smith alone with a female church employee—her in a towel, him in his boxers.

The charismatic 41-year-old hurried to explain that the two of them had been making chili and hot dogs and gotten food on their clothes, according to one volunteer who was present. But, as the volunteer put it, “I don’t think none of us was that dumb.”


“If she dropped chili on her clothes, why are you in your boxers?” she recalled thinking. “Was y’all like, throwing chili at each other?”

For the volunteer, the scene confirmed something she had long suspected—that Smith, then married with two children, was secretly carrying on an affair with the employee, who was married to another church staffer. Smith has denied any affair took place, but rumors about it have nonetheless led to something out of a daytime soap opera, involving two divorces, one secretly recorded video, and the departure of nearly all the church’s full-time staff.

And former staffers, members, and volunteers told The Daily Beast they are still struggling to come to terms with the maelstrom that left one of the country’s fastest-growing mega churches in shambles.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hipster-megachurch-in-shambles-over-pastor-s-alleged-affair/ar-AAT1HUO



https://www.alternet.org/2021/12/pastor-tavner-smith/

Several staff members at a megachurch based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have quit and are speaking out after their lead pastor was allegedly caught on video kissing a woman who is not his wife.

Eight employees resigned from Venue Church last week after confronting Pastor Tavner Smith about rumors he was having an affair with a longtime employee, The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.


Smith is currently in the process of divorcing his wife. He has three children.

The alleged affair is not the only allegation against Smith. At least one former church member has aired his grievances with Smith in a public Facebook post.

"I was hired by Venue church in its early days to set up its systems and structures and model anything an adult would experience on a Sunday morning. In hind sight I taught the 'Iranians how to make nuclear weapons' I gave a man who had very very bad intentions the ability to make a mega church," former Venue Church employee Colt Chandler Helton wrote.

January 22, 2022

vehicle's attempt to turn causes many motorcycles to crash

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/vehicle-s-attempt-to-turn-causes-multiple-motorcycles-to-crash/vi-AAT0UDc

January 22, 2022

stranger responds to facebook message calling for help. Rescues three stuck vehicles

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/stranger-rescues-three-vehicles-stuck-in-narrow-trail-after-responding-to-facebook-post/vi-AASZIM9

January 21, 2022

ARRESTED. the woman who spat on 8 year old. she's a 21 year old college student

Christina Darling, 21, is charged with aggravated harassment as a hate crime, endangering the welfare of a child and menacing
Darling, a psychology student at St. Francis College, is accused of approaching an eight-year-old boy and two of his siblings in Brooklyn on Friday, January 14
She is accused of spitting on the boy and telling the children, who are Jewish, 'Hitler should have killed you all'
She seen on surveillance footage as approached the children in Marine Park
After spitting at the children, she turned back and walked off

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10428375/Psychology-student-21-arrested-hate-crime-charges-spitting-Jewish-boy-Brooklyn.html

January 21, 2022

Celebrities call for action after brutal attack in Toluca Lake (upscale area of Los Angeles)

https://twitter.com/Kandi/status/1481811826044194816


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/celebrities-call-for-action-after-father-and-son-beaten-unconscious-in-toluca-lake/ar-AASZtXZ?ocid=msedgntp

After a father and son were left bloodied and unconscious in Toluca Lake in an apparent random attack, a mother was not giving up on finding the attackers, and some celebrities were even sharing the story on social media to find them.

Back in August, while Jay McLean was out getting a drink with his two sons at "Mrs. Robinson’s Pub," formerly known as "Timmy Nolan’s" in Toluca Lake, he was attacked and left unconscious.


While one of the sons stepped outside to call an Uber, he was attacked by three men, whose images were captured on surveillance camera footage. The father quickly stepped in to protect his son when he was hit by one of the attackers, and left unconscious on the floor.

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The family says the attack was completely unprovoked and would just like justice for what happened.

Jay and his oldest son were both knocked unconscious when they were found by the youngest son. Jay, who has worked for Disney Theme Parks for 40 years, suffered a bruised face, multiple broken bones, and anxiety from the attack.