Fake-bomb TV crew held at New Jersey airport
Seven TV crew members have been arrested at a US airport after allegedly trying to film the smuggling of a fake bomb through security
The incident happened on Thursday at Newark Liberty in New Jersey.
Transport officials said a bag carrying an item with “all the makings of an improvised explosive device” was found before it had cleared security.
US media say the crew were part of a reality show being made by a production company for CNBC.
The production company, Endemol Shine North America, issued a statement saying it was investigating the incident and co-operating with the authorities.
“We sincerely apologise for any disruption caused,” the statement said.
Endemol Shine produces the show, Staten Island Hustle, which CNBC has taken up. CNBC has not yet commented.
The crew reportedly wanted to covertly film themselves going through a security checkpoint with the fake device.
Sources reported by the New York Daily News said the crew then wanted to film the reaction of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials and the possible public panic that would ensue.
Images of the device showed it apparently made of vacuum cleaner parts and wires.
A source told the New York Daily News: “The TSA bomb tech just happened to be [at the checkpoint]. He quickly looked it over, said it was nothing and they were taken in.”
The crew face charges of conspiracy to create a public alarm, among others, authorities say.
Lisa Farbstein, public affairs spokesperson at the TSA, said the crew members also faced civil penalties of up to $13,000 (£9,300) for each security violation.
Endemol Shine North America is behind such shows as Big Brother, MasterChef and Fear Factor.
Article via: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42743829
‘I just don’t like Muslim people’: Trump appointee resigns
‘I just don’t like Muslim people’: Trump appointee resigns after racist, sexist and anti-gay remarks
President Trump’s presidency surprised many, and one of the main concerns citizens had, beside the fact that he has had little political experience, is that Trump would bring his seemingly racist views into office- as well as invite others who share a similar outlook.
President Trump’s appointee has resigned from the federal agency that runs AmeriCorps and other service programs following his assertions he made disparaging Blacks, Muslims, gays, women, veterans with PTSD and undocumented immigrants surfaced in the news media.
Carl Higbie totaled six months as the chief of external affairs in the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Higbie’s Thursday afternoon resignation, which was prompted after CNN unearthed the comments he made, comes amid increased scrutiny of the president’s appointees for racist or anti-Muslim statements made in the past.
In November, the Department of Homeland Security’s Jamie Johnson, another Trump appointee, resigned after commentshe made that linked blacks to “laziness” and “promiscuity” came to light. Last week, Pete Hoekstra, the new U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands and a former Republican congressman, apologized after uproar over baseless anti-Muslim theories he had spread numerous times in past.
According to the reporting and audio clips published by CNN on Thursday, Higbie had a lengthy track record of making strongly racist and anti-Muslim statements before his appointment.
In 2013, he spoke about giving away free firewood while working in Virginia Beach on “Sound of Freedom,” an Internet talk radio show that he hosted, according to CNN. Higbie said that black women think “breeding is a form of government employment,” that blacks were “lax of morality,” and that culture “is breeding this welfare and the high percentage of people on welfare in the black race.”
On another talk show in 2013, he expressed dislike for the term “African Americans.”
“The whole African American thing gets me whipped up because it’s like 99 percent — and I’m paraphrasing here — of people who write down African American have never been to Africa,” he said.
He also spoke disparagingly of Islam, saying that he didn’t like Muslims “because their ideology sucks,” and that he was fine if his views caused him to be labeled a racist.
“I just don’t like Muslim people. People always rip me a new one for that. ‘Carl, you’re racist, you can’t, you’re sexist.’ I’m like Jesus Christ,” Higbie said on “Sound of Freedom” in 2013.
On another podcast, Warrior Talk Radio, in 2014, according to CNN, he struck a similar chord.
“I was called an Islamophobe, and I was like, ‘no, no, no, no, no, I’m not afraid of them. I don’t like them. Big difference,’ ” he said on the show. “And they were like, ‘Well, you’re racist.’ I was like, fine if that’s the definition of it, then I guess I am.’”
This is not the first round of controversy for Higbie, who worked as the spokesman for pro-Trump super PAC Great America before the 2016 election. During an appearance on Fox News shortly after the election, he cited Japanese internment camps during World War II as a “precedent” for some of the president’s potential immigration plans, and the remarks drew wide condemnation.
Nonetheless, he was appointed to the position at the CNCS, which runs AmeriCorps and other volunteering initiatives, and has programs dedicated to rebuilding after natural disasters and supporting veterans and their families, including helping them transition once they return home.
In other audio unearthed by CNN, Higbie, a former Navy SEAL, derided military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder as having “a weak mind” and said he thought a large majority of people with PTSD were being dishonest.
“I’d say 75 percent of people with PTSD don’t actually have it, and they’re either milking something for a little extra money in disability or they’re just, they honestly are just lying,” he said on another talk radio show in 2014.
Samantha Jo Warfield, a CNCS spokeswoman, declined to comment on the circumstances of Higbie’s resignation.
[‘Here is what my #shithole looks like’: African countries and Haiti react to Trump’s remark]
Of undocumented immigrants, Higbie, on another episode of “Sound of Freedom” in 2013, said that Americans with guns should be able to shoot undocumented immigrants who attempted to cross into the United States at the border.
“What’s so wrong with wanting to put up a fence and saying, ‘Hey, everybody with a gun, if you want to go shoot people coming across our border illegally, you can do it fo’ free,’ ” Higbie said. “You cross my border, I will shoot you in the face. I will go down there. I’ll volunteer to go down there and stand on that border for, I don’t know, a week or so at a time, and that’ll be my civil duty.”
He also spoke harshly about Sen. Dianne Feinstein on “Sound of Freedom,” calling the California Democrat a “bitch” and saying he’d love to smack her and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s heads together.
“Nothing gets me going like Ted Cruz, when he went off on that Feinstein bitch about the Second Amendment. And he put her in her place; that was just fantastic. I can’t stand that woman,” Higbie said. “Her and Pelosi. I’d love to just take both their heads and smack them together a couple of times.”
During another appearance on “Sound of Freedom,” he spoke about the legalization of gay marriage in Rhode Island.
“Congratuf’in’lations, you suck, Rhode Island. Why would you do that?” he said. “I mean, you are breaking the morals, the moral fiber of our country. You know, I don’t like gay people. I just don’t.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
She wore the weapon in a photo with a friend — then killed her with it
It was just past midnight when the two friends huddled for a photo in March of 2015.
Cheyenne Rose Antoine’s right arm is outstretched, but disappears at a sharp angle — the telltale sign of a selfie. Brittney Gargol, with auburn hair draped across her shoulder, produces an upturned smirk.
And in the left bottom corner, peeking just into the frame, Antoine captures what would become the main piece of evidence used to put her away for manslaughter.
Antoine, now 21, pleaded guilty to killing Gargol and was sentenced Monday to seven years in a Canadian prison. The decision came nearly three years after the body of Gargol was found dumped on a road outside Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
An autopsy revealed Gargol was killed by strangulation, and a belt found at the scene matched the one Antoine wore in the photo posted by Gargol just hours before she was killed, investigators concluded.
Two years passed before evidence against Antoine started to mount, eventually leading to her arrest.
A person had approached the Gargol family to tell them about an alcohol-fueled rant that included Antoine’s confession that she had a fight with Gargol and choked her, the Saskatoon Star Phoenix reported.
But police by then were already doubting Antoine’s explanation to them of what occurred that night.
The two women readied for a night on the town and snapped the photo before going out, prosecutor Robin Ritter told The Washington Post.
Antoine later told police that she left Gargol sometime after midnight and met up with her uncle before dawn, to walk along a river.
But after reviewing surveillance videos that would have verified Antoine’s statement, police questioned her uncle again, and he admitted he told a lie to protect his niece.
[Commit a crime? Your Fitbit, key fob or pacemaker could snitch on you.]
Investigators uncovered digital clues, too.
For one thing, prosecutors said, Antoine’s phone pinged WiFi signals at locations and times consistent with an investigator’s reconstructed timeline of the slaying.
Modern society is awash in smartphones, smartwatches and other devices that can track, tag and pinpoint their users at exact moments. That has been a boon to investigators who can confirm details in photos and videos posted to social media, but can also help the wrongly accused show they were somewhere other than a crime scene.
That was apparently understood by Antoine, though her attempt to create an alibi was poorly executed. After the slaying, Antoine wrote on Gargol’s Facebook page: “Where are you? Haven’t heard from you. Hope you made it home safe.”
Ritter said the Facebook comment showed a deliberate attempt by Antoine to dupe investigators about her involvement, with a conveniently time-stamped message of concern. But investigators concluded Antoine knew her friend was not home safe, because she had strangled her to death outside of town.
The photo of Antoine’s belt proved to be a cornerstone of the prosecution’s evidence. Prosecutors said the belt was found at the crime scene, and they believe Antoine killed her friend with it.
The belt’s weave and color, evident in the selfie, were consistent with marks inside her friend’s car and indicated a struggle, said Ritter, a senior Crown prosecutor.
What appears more elusive is the motive, which Ritter said may have started over an argument about a cellphone. “I don’t think we’re ever going to get the answer,” he said.
In a statement read in court by her lawyer, Lisa Watson, Antoine said: “I’ll never forgive myself. It’s wrong and shouldn’t have happened.”
Antoine maintained she did not remember what happened after she and Gargol left a house party the night of the slaying.
Gargol’s family offered emotional statements and sharp rebukes of Antoine.
Gargol’s father, Everett Hillbom, told the court he was shocked by the death of his young daughter, who was 18 at the time. He expected to repair her car the day after she died — “the last time I would have hugged her,” he said, according to the Star Phoenix.
“You were her friend. She trusted you,” Gargol’s stepmother, Kristi Wickenhauser, told the defendant.
Though the prosecution crafted a strategy of damning information about Antoine from publicly available Facebook posts, mining data through personal devices and social media are on the frontier of criminal justice. Laws on recovering private data have not caught up with the proliferation of devices that record them, privacy experts in both the United States and Canada have warned.
“We have recognized for some time now that new technologies have the potential to eviscerate privacy rights,” said Nader Hasan, a Toronto attorney focusing on criminal and constitutional law.
The business research company Gartner estimates that 8.4 billion devices were connected to the Internet worldwide in 2017, a 31 percent increase over the previous year. By 2020, the company estimates there will be roughly three smart devices for every person on the planet.
Andrew Ferguson, a University of the District of Columbia law professor, called this an era of “sensorveillance,” The Post’s Justin Jouvenal reported.
Crime scenes and criminals are covered with hair follicles, droplets of blood and now, in the 21st century, data from smart devices.
[A teen was found buried in a shallow grave. His former classmate is now charged with murder.]
In one instance, Connecticut police used multiple segments of data to bring in Richard Dabate for the alleged 2015 murder of his wife, Connie. His alibi, that a masked intruder tied him and killed his wife after he returned to inspect a home alarm signal, contradicted information harvested from Connie’s Fitbit wristband that recorded her movements after he said she was dead. Police later learned the alarm was triggered by his own key fob, and an email he claimed to send to his boss from the car was tied to an IP address associated with his home, The Post’s Jouvenal reported.
And in another case, an Ohio man in 2016 was charged with arson and insurance fraud after he claimed his house was ablaze as he slept. Police filed a search warrant for data from his pacemaker, and his heart rate and cardiac rhythms appeared to show he was awake at the time.
Social media appears to be a particularly malleable form of covering tracks, though it may not always be convincing: After Antoine’s sentencing, Ritter, the senior prosecutor, said it was “quite remarkable” how investigators used Facebook and other technology to build their case.
Six months after her friend’s death, Antoine was back on Gargol’s Facebook page, posting a comment on the photo that would ultimately help send her to prison.
“i miss you soo much bert! wish heaven had visiting hours so i could come see you,” Antoine wrote. “but i’m so glad you came & visited me in my dream lastnight.”
“i’m blessed to have met you & have you be apart of my life,still can’t believe those last two days were going to be the last 2 days i got to be able to hug you, talk to you & laugh with you , i will cherish && hold all our good memories,” she added.
Man sent to prison for biting off chunk of wife’s nose
HARTFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut man who bit off a chunk of his wife’s nose, permanently disfiguring her, will spend more than six years in prison following his Tuesday sentencing.
Rodwell Clay, 55, was sentenced after pleading under the Alford doctrine to a first-degree assault charge, the Hartford Court reported. That means while he does not agree with all the state’s allegations, he acknowledges there is enough evidence to convict him.
Clay bit the victim in their Bloomfield home in August 2015, prosecutors said. The couple has since divorced.
She now wants nothing to do with Clay, who stalked, harassed and threatened her during their marriage, she said in court. Every day she looks in the mirror she’s reminded of the attack and hopes to have surgery to further repair the damage, she said.
Clay told the judge he still loves the victim, still considers her his wife despite the divorce and compared his prosecution to the persecution of Christ. He apologized only after his attorney prompted him to do so.
That led prosecutor Christopher Pelosi to say Clay’s apparent lack of remorse makes him fear for the victim.
“The state has concerns for her life,” he said.
Clay was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with 6½ years to serve, and three years of probation. He also was also barred from contacting his ex-wife.
via: http://pix11.com/2018/01/18/man-sent-to-prison-for-biting-off-chunk-of-wifes-nose/
Pamphlets about sin sent to gay couple instead of wedding programs
A printing company accused of sending discriminatory pamphlets to a gay couple who ordered wedding programs says it has learned the pamphlets were intended to be printed for another customer.
Vistaprint’s CEO and founder sent a letter to its customers and partners on Wednesday in response to a federal lawsuit filed by the couple. The lawsuit says the pamphlets received by the couple before their September wedding included messages about temptation and sin.
Vistaprint later updated its letter to say that it has learned that the pamphlets were incorrectly sent to the couple by a third-party partner. The company says it will take “strong action” if it finds that any individual “played a deliberate role in this mix up.”
The Dutch company has a regional headquarters in Massachusetts.
Orlando Brown Arrested For Battery
Looks like Orlando Brown is coming out from the shadows, and not in a good way.
Brown was arrested Thursday on an old warrant, after a heated argument led police to his apartment. Brown was handcuffed in Barstow, California and is on $25,000 bond. He is charged with battery of a spouse, resisting arrest and possession of a controlled substance.
Looks like things are going from bad to worse for Orlando Brown. If he somehow manages to avoid time hopefully he gets his life and act together soon.
Teen Stabbed At New York School
It looks like the year is starting off badly for some, name a high school student at a Westchester County High School.
Police were called shortly before 9:00 Thursday after students reported hearing slashing sounds. They found a 16 year old boy with puncture wounds in his torso. He was was soon taken to the hospital with non life threatening injuries. The suspect was seen leaving the campus and no arrests have been made.
A little more than a week ago, on January 10th another student named Valaree Schwab, 16, was killed. Schwab was stabbed with a steak knife amid a wild lunch-hour fight at a local Dunkin Donuts, local police said. Z’inah Brown, 16, is charged with murder.
It’s sad this these actions are taking place so early in the new year. Hopefully the find the person who did it.
Stacey Dash Comes For Oprah, Meryl Streep, Seal And Everyone Else
Stacey Dash Says Oprah & Meryl Streep Knew About Harvey Weinstein, Plus She Claps Back At Seal For Saying She Lives In The Sunken Place
After Seal reposted a meme on his Instagram that suggested that Oprah purposely turned a blind eye to Weinstein’s sexually depraved behavior, Stacey Dash echoed his sentiments. However, Seal did not support Dash and went on to say “Don’t try and use me as a pawn against Oprah, or any of your political games,”.
“Stacey Dash, keep my name out of your mouth. Do not retweet [or] re-quote anything I said in order to reinforce your self-hating agenda. You live in the Sunken Place.”
Dash responded to Seal in an open letter, in which she also took the opportunity to cast shade towards Oprah and other celebrities that might have known of Weinstein’s sexual misconducts. Dash went on to deconstruct the #MeToo movement to nothing more than high school politics.
“I won’t walk back what I believe. Oprah the homecoming queen, prom queen and class president knew. Meryl, the high school drama star knew. Most of those women wearing black knew. The class clown, Seth McFarland knew. He joked about it a few years ago on the Oscars, Hollywood’s equivalent of the prom,” Dash writes.
“You know how I can say this? BECAUSE I KNEW. So how “clueless” am I? I knew enough when meeting Harvey Weinstein, to bring a male chaperone and it paid off as he did make a move on me. My chaperone blocked him and said, ‘Not this one.’ You can read all about it here. My chaperone knew.”
The actress continued, “As so many of my critics like to point out, aside from “Clueless” I am nobody. So how did this “nobody” know about Harvey Weinstein, and the popular, powerful mogul, Oprah Winfrey did not? How did the Oscar-laden “Iron Lady” Meryl Streep not know? Hollywood is one big, dark, John Hughes movie. Some of us sit with the regular kids. Some are the outsiders. However, the cool kids sit at the cool kids lunch table and they talk.”
“They talk a lot and they share their elite information among their members at that table. They know the deal. They know how it works and they know they have an image to uphold. From the popular crowd to the freaks and geeks, they all knew the faculty to avoid. Let’s just say right here, I am not judging nor am I condemning. I am simply doing the math and coming up with what appears to be an obvious answer. Occam’s Razor says the simplest answer is usually the correct one. I am writing this with Occam’s Razor.”
Read Dash’s full accusation here.
Model who unwittingly became the face of HIV can sue for defamation of character
A Brooklyn model who unwittingly became the face of HIV when a state agency used her stock photo in one of its ads can sue for defamation, a Manhattan appeals court says.
Like it or not, HIV is still considered “loathsome” by a “significant segment of society” — so model Avril Nolan, who does not have the virus, has every right to pursue her $1.5 million claim against the Division of Human Rights, the panel said in a unanimous ruling issued Tuesday.
The agency had used Nolan’s face in ads along with the words, “I am positive ()’’ and “I have rights,’’ in 2013 to promote the rights of HIV-positive New Yorkers.
The Court of Claims had previously ruled in 2015 that the virus still had enough stigma to allow Nolan’s suit to proceed. The agency appealed, arguing that “HIV is no longer a shameful condition” but lost again with Tuesday’s ruling.
“The very fact that DHR highlighted the need for people with AIDS to not feel stigmatized is recognition that they do,” Appellate Justice Angela Mazzarelli wrote in the new decision.
“This is not to imply that we in any way regard HIV or any other disease to be ‘loathsome,’ ” Mazzarelli added in her opinion on behalf of the panel.
But “a significant segment of society has been too slow in understanding that those who have the disease are entitled to equal treatment under the law and the full embrace of society.”
Nolan– who learned about the ads from her Pilates instructor– can now sue for emotional distress because the panel determined that people with HIV are “unfortunate targets of outmoded attitudes and discrimination.”
Nolan’s suit says she “became instantly upset” that “relatives, potential romantic partners and clients” would see the quarter-page, color ads featuring her in an image with the words “I am positive ().”
She had posed for a photographer friend who was shooting for an online music publication. The photographer later sold the shot to Getty Images, which settled with Nolan in 2015.
A lower court found that the DHR staffer responsible for the ad ignored the license agreement, which stated that Nolan’s image couldn’t be used in an “unflattering or controversial” campaign.
A spokeswoman with state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is defending the claim on behalf of the agency, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
Nolan told The Post, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
via: https://nypost.com/2018/01/16/model-who-unwittingly-became-the-face-of-hiv-can-sue-court/