April 23, 2024

Gaza protests roil universities from California to New York; tensions grow at Humboldt, Berkeley

Officials shut down the campus of Cal Poly Humboldt on Monday night after masked pro-Palestinian protesters occupied an administrative building and barricaded the entrance as Gaza-related demonstrations roiled campuses across the nation.

Three students were arrested after law enforcement officers wearing helmets and riot shields descended on the public university in Arcata, in rural Northern California, and clashed with demonstrators who had set up tents inside Siemens Hall and erected a banner that said, “STOP THE GENOCIDE.”

“Free, Free Palestine,” supporters chanted outside the building. “Long Live Resistance!”

As sprawling pro-Palestinian protests and encampments escalate on university campuses across the United States, administrators are reacting with more forceful discipline as they try to balance pro-Palestinian students’ free speech rights with concerns for safety and other students’ counter claims of harassment and disruption.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-23/campus-protests-israel-gaza-palestinian-humboldt-closed

April 23, 2024

IVF clinic accidently kills embryos, implants them anyway as coverup

Nine couples are suing an Orange County IVF clinic after they claim the clinic killed their embryos and tried to cover up the mistake.

According to the couples’ lawyers at Marcereau Law Group and Ikuta Hemesath LLP, Ovation Fertility made mistakes at its Newport Beach laboratory, then “knowingly implanted dead embryos into would-be mothers and then tried to conceal the laboratory mistakes that had poisoned the embryos,” their lawyers said in a news release.

Specifically, the laboratory used “lethal hydrogen peroxide instead of distilled water during pre-implantation dethawing procedures in January 2024,” then “attempted a cover-up that sought to trick patients into signing waivers of legal claims and non-disparagement agreements,” the plaintiffs claim.

“Ovation Fertility only disclosed the incidents after the couples’ fertility doctors questioned why there was a 100 percent failure rate for the embryos that had been thawed over the two-week pre-implantation period, when the success rate was normally above 75 percent,” the release explained.

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/orange-county-ivf-clinic-accused-of-killing-embryos-implanting-them-anyway/

In the meantime, couples “blamed themselves and their bodies, some going so far as to endure risky and painful medical procedures, such as hysteroscopies and biopsies, to determine what went wrong,” the attorneys said.

Fullerton residents Brooke Berger and Bennett Hardy are among the plaintiffs after the error “destroyed our last two embryos,” Berger said.

April 23, 2024

Washington state: Former cop kills wife and 17 yr old rape victim. Believed headed for Mexico with son of rape victim.

A disgraced cop is on the run after he allegedly shot dead his ex-wife and his 17-year-old girlfriend in Washington state before abducting a one-year-old boy.

Amber Marie Rodriguez was killed outside Wile Elementary School in West Richland, 200 miles south east of Seattle, on Monday.

Police found another woman dead when they entered the home of 39-year-old suspect Elias Huizar.

Her family has identified the second victim as 17-year-old Angelica 'Jelly' Santos, the mother of the one-year-old child abducted, Roman Huizar.

Huizar, a former Yakima police officer, shared Roman with Santos, who was 15 year's old when she was impregnated, according to police.

Officers believe Huizar is headed for Mexico in a 2009 silver Toyota Corolla with WA plates CBZ4745. He is considered armed and dangerous.

The former school cop was due in court Monday to face child rape charges; he is accused of raping his underaged girlfriend and her 16-year-old friend.



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13339941/police-fear-killer-cop-shot-dead-kids-mother-armed-dangerous-fled-mexico-baby.html

April 23, 2024

Suburban dad scam artist sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for stealing $600K from jobseekers

Man admits to scamming hundreds of job seekers out of $638K
Charles Fields of Blaine pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in federal court for a pre-pandemic scheme featured on KARE 11 Investigates.



MINNEAPOLIS — While none of the fraud victims who talked to KARE 11 Investigates had ever met Charles Fields, they all knew his voice.

They took countless phone calls and recorded voice messages from a man who called himself Michael Brunn, convincing them the company Watertek Marketing was offering a great money-making opportunity selling water filtration systems.


While pleading guilty to wire fraud in federal court in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Fields admitted "Michael Brunn" was one of several aliases he used to falsely give his companies an air of credibility.

In one recorded voice message while posing as Michael Brunn, Fields said: "We're not like some company in a garage that said, 'Send us money.' That's not what it is."

At his change of plea hearing, however, Fields admitted that is essentially what his companies amounted to. He would frequently change company names — from Watertek Marketing to Water Innovations Group to Mile High H20 to The New H20.

In the end, Fields scammed 250 people out of $638,739 between 2015 and 2020, he admitted to Judge David Doty.

The victims responded to job postings on Craigslist that promised guaranteed salaries for selling Kangen water ionizers as sales representative

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/suburban-scam-artist-admits-to-bilking-638k/89-f25e57c0-3762-4a35-8cde-1d75fde40558

April 23, 2024

NC gov GOP candidate, Mark Robinson's whole family lived off a federal funded non profit

after his bankruptcies, non payment of taxes, and before his GOP grifting, Mark Robinson and his family sucked up federal dollars. the same guy who preaches how bad the civil rights movement was for Black people.


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While Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s wife told her nonprofit’s clients that she was shutting down because of her husband’s campaign for North Carolina governor, she told a state agency a different story.

For years, Yolanda Hill has led a nonprofit called Balanced Nutrition that helps childcare facilities apply for and receive federal funding for kids’ meals. Mark Robinson and the couple’s son and daughter have worked as employees of the Greensboro nonprofit.

Emails and documents obtained by WUNC through a public records request show the abrupt closure relates to an ongoing investigation by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the childcare center nutrition program.

One issue highlighted in the DHHS records was that Balanced Nutrition at one point didn’t have a balanced budget. On a budget spreadsheet for the nonprofit dated 2023, an entry in the document noted that the group’s expenses were higher than its income.

https://www.wunc.org/politics/2024-04-17/mark-robinson-nonprofit-election-dhhs-financial-issues-nc

Mark Robinson himself worked for the nonprofit in 2018 before he launched his campaign for lieutenant governor. He wrote in his autobiography that Hill’s success with the nonprofit allowed him to quit his job at a furniture company in 2018 and move toward becoming a candidate.

April 23, 2024

New poll shows AG Josh Stein widening gap over INSANE LOUDMOUTH Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson in NC's governor's race

GOP's Mark Robinson summary: LGBT are filth, men are to lead, not women, abortion for me but not you (wife had an abortion, now he's anti choice). lots of stupid anti Black statements although he is Black.

(2022) "We are called to be led by men"

(2020) “For me, there is no compromise on abortion. It makes no difference to me why or how that child ended up in that womb"





With six and a half months before Election Day, the latest Meredith College poll shows Democrat Josh Stein gaining a bit more ground over Republican Mark Robinson in North Carolina’s gubernatorial contest. Stein now leads Robinson 45%-36% — up from a five percentage point advantage in February.


Poll director and political scientist David McLennan says while Robinson gets a lot of support from conservatives in the state, Stein is growing his base among unaffiliated voters and those who say they are politically moderate.

“Robinson continues to get negative media coverage of his statements and actions from the past. This enhanced exposure of Robinson’s extreme statements, as well as concerns that some of Robinson’s policy positions, seems to be shifting the unaffiliated voters into Stein’s camp,” noted McLennan.

Most recently Robinson has drawn attention for failing to file federal income taxes for five years between 1998-2002. Robinson’s communications director Mike Lonergan told ABC News that Robinson’s made no secret of his past financial challenges and that it’s “old news recycled by Democrats.”

https://ncnewsline.com/briefs/new-poll-shows-ag-josh-stein-widening-the-gap-over-lt-gov-mark-robinson-in-ncs-governors-race/

April 23, 2024

rightwingers trying to get garbage PragerU into Arizona classrooms

A member of the Chandler Unified School District Governing Board is pushing for materials from the conservative PragerU Kids to be available for use in CUSD classrooms.

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“I would probably prefer, in schools, we try to stay away from political issues as much as we can,” Kurt Rohrs said. “But it does come up, and if it does come up and there’s a discussion in class, my view is that there has to be equal weight given to both sides, because we’re trying to teach our kids to think critically.”

PragerU Kids was started by conservative radio host Dennis Prager as part of Prager University. It has been adopted for use in at least five states.

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Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne placed videos from PragerU Kids on the state Department of Education’s website. He said because Arizona is a local control state, he can’t force school districts to use them. However, he is urging them to do so.

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Rohrs has asked district officials to place a debate on using PragerU Kids materials in classrooms on a future agenda. He said it would balance out some left-leaning teaching he claims is already in schools.

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“PragerU is not an approved supplementary resource in the Chandler Unified School District.”

Rohrs, who identifies with the parental rights movement in school boards, is often in the minority of CUSD Governing Board’s votes and it may not be possible for him to get his colleagues to approve allowing PragerU Kids materials in CUSD schools this year.

However, it is an election year and there are three seats available in November’s election. Parental rights candidates would only need to win two of those three to take the majority. At least three parental rights candidates have filed a statement of interest in running.

https://www.chandlernews.com/arizonan/citynews/chandler-unified-board-member-pushes-prager-u-videos/article_62a70866-ee08-11ee-8248-ab0311d704f5.html

April 23, 2024

Current Encampment list: Yale, Univ of Michigan, NYU, The New School, Tufts, MIT, Emerson, Rutgers, Columbia

'Campuses in revolt:' Columbia-like encampments emerge at US universities
Encampments were started at Yale, the University of Michigan, New York University, The New School, Tufts University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emerson College, and Rutgers University.

Anti-Israel protest encampments have emerged on at least eight American universities in emulation of the Columbia University campus occupation, following National Students for Justice in Palestine and several other pro-Palestinian groups calling to do so on Saturday night.

In addition to the Columbia encampment that had started on Wednesday, encampments were started at Yale University, University of Michigan, New York University, The New School, Tufts University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emerson College, and Rutgers University. An encampment was also established on Friday at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but the local SJP chapter said on Instagram on Monday that they had moved from the location.

In a social media post by NSJP entitled "campuses in revolt," the organization promised that more encampments would be established.

"Over the last 72 hours, the Students for Justice in Palestine chapters across the country have erupted in a fierce display of power and pressure targeted at their universities for their endless complicity and profiteering off the genocide on Gaza and the colonization of Palestine," said NSJP on Sunday. "The encampments transform mass mobilization into long-term sustained occupation, leveraging our tangible power as students to give our institutions no other option but to divest."

NSJP said in a Monday statement that there would be no classes or compliance with the administration until their demands to adopt Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions policies and support Palestinians were met.

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-798301

April 23, 2024

Rangers continue searching for 2 people found destroying boulders at Lake Mead

despite super clear video, they haven't found these guys yet.

https://www.fox5vegas.com/video/2024/04/23/rangers-continue-searching-2-people-found-destroying-boulders-lake-mead/

April 23, 2024

Column: Republicans aren't protecting elections. They don't want democracy

The next time Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) stands in front of a microphone to talk about election integrity, I want you to remember this: Nearly a third of voters in Louisiana are Black, and yet Black voters had control over less than 20% of the state’s congressional districts. White voters make up less than 60% of the electorate yet had control over more than 80% of the power.

When the Democratic governor vetoed attempts to suppress the Black vote, the Republican state Legislature overrode the veto. When a federal judge said another map should be drawn, the Supreme Court delayed action until it had decided a similar question about Alabama.

In that state, Black people are more than a quarter of the population but had control over just one of the state’s seven districts. For two years, Alabama fought to dilute the Black vote, until the highest court of the land rejected the state’s final plea for a gerrymandered map.

Johnson’s party has been working to suppress Black votes for decades, so what is he talking about when he trumpets “election integrity”?

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Those Southern states have been consistent in their agenda. In Rarick’s day some of the bad actors, including him, were Democrats, but now the cause has been taken up by Republicans. And why is today’s GOP so concerned about “protecting” elections? Why are they fighting so hard to stop democracy? Because they don’t want a democratic outcome. They want white control.

Johnson wants you to believe it’s the desperate migrants and asylum seekers at the southern border who are the greatest threat to democracy.

No, Mr. Speaker: It is and always has been racism. It’s baked into our nation.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-04-23/republican-election-integrity-bill-vote-fraud-democracy