Ellen D. Runs Into LEGAL Trouble After $212,500 California Giveaway
The California Lottery thought gifting the audience of Ellen DeGeneres’s daytime talk show $212,500 worth of scratcher tickets was a good way to drum up publicity, but now state lawmakers are investigating whether it was a misuse of funds.
A report by The Los Angeles Times Thursday said that State Sen. Ling Ling Chang (R-Diamond Bar) has asked an auditor to look into the California State Lottery’s giveaway after a whistleblower complaint raised concerns about “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” promotion.
In early December, the lottery gifted the show 425 packets that each included 72 scratchers tickets with a face value of $500 per packet for an audience giveaway.
The giveaway was part of DeGeneres’ “12 Days of Giveaways” holiday promotion, during which she was joined by late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel to reveal the gifts. In addition to the scratchers, DeGeneres and Kimmel gave the audience a $500 Visa gift card, $500 in beauty products, $300 in new clothes and a trip to a beach resort.
In 1984, California voters approved the lottery with the stipulation that 34% of sales revenue would go toward education. The whistleblower complaint was filed by employees at the California State Lottery. Chang said the lottery should have been reimbursed by “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” for the tickets.
“This concerns me because, bottom line, the mission of the California Lottery is to provide supplemental funding to California public schools,” Chang said. “I want to know how this contribution affects supplemental funding to California public schools. Does it help? I don’t think so.”
The complaint comes just a week before an auditor is set to release a report into the lottery. Chang requested the audit last year after the state lottery was accused of wasteful spending, improper gifts and nepotism.
Article via TheWrap
Bernie Madoff says he’s dying and wants out of prison
Bernard Madoff says he is dying and is asking a judge for compassionate release from prison, where he is serving 150 years for orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history, according to a Wednesday federal court filing. Madoff, 81, has terminal kidney failure and a life expectancy of less than 18 months, according to the filing.
He was arrested in December 2008 on allegations that the prestigious asset management firm he ran in Manhattan was in fact a pyramid-type scheme that swindled billions of dollars from thousands of people. He pleaded guilty to 11 felony charges related to money laundering, perjury and falsifying financial documents. He began his prison term in July 2009.
Madoff has been serving his sentence at a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina. When the court sentenced him, “it was clear that Madoff’s 150-year prison sentence was symbolic for three reasons: retribution, deterrence, and for the victims,” the court filing states. “This Court must now consider whether keeping Madoff incarcerated … is truly in furtherance of statutory sentencing goals and our society’s value and understanding of compassion.”Madoff said in the request for compassionate release that he “does not dispute the severity of his crimes.”
In September, Madoff submitted a request to the Bureau of Prisons for compassionate release, according to a letter from his attorney, Brandon Sample, to a warden at the Butner Federal Correction Complex. The letter states that Madoff had been living in the prison’s hospice facility.
The request was denied on December 5. In a letter detailing the denial, the warden did not dispute Madoff’s condition or his life expectancy, but noted that Madoff has refused dialysis. “Mr. Madoff was accountable for a loss to investors of over $13 billion,” the warden’s letter states. “Accordingly, in light of the nature and circumstances of his offense, his release at this time would minimize the severity of his offense. Therefore, although he meets the criteria for a (compassionate release), his (reduction in sentence) request is denied.” Madoff is now asking a judge to reverse that decision, saying in the Wednesday filing that he presents “extraordinary and compelling reasons” for compassionate release. He has also asked President Donald Trump to commute his sentence.
In June, it was reported that Madoff filed a clemency petition, though it is unclear when the request was submitted. The petition is still listed as “pending” on the Department of Justice website. Madoff’s health has been in the news for years. In January 2014, CNBC reported receiving an email from him in which he said he had a heart attack a month earlier and was suffering from stage 4 kidney disease. Madoff’s son Mark died by suicide in 2010. His other son, Andrew, died of cancer in 2014.In a rare 2013 interview, Madoff told CNN from prison that he was “responsible for my son Mark’s death and that’s very, very difficult.”
“I live with that. I live with the remorse, the pain I caused everybody, certainly my family, and the victims,” he said.
Following his arrest, the Madoff family’s assets were auctioned off, and the government appointed a trustee who worked to recoup the $17.5 billion in principal investments that Madoff’s firm made. The Madoff Recovery Initiative has so far paid out nearly $13 billion, and another fund has paid out more than $2 billion to tens of thousands of victims, according to the funds’ websites.
Article via CNN
Nick Gordon, the former boyfriend of Bobbi Kristina Brown, died from a heroin overdose
Nick Gordon, the former boyfriend of Bobbi Kristina Brown, died from a heroin overdose, according to Florida’s Districts 5 & 24 medical examiner’s office. The cause of his death was ruled as heroin toxicity, according to the autopsy report.Gordon died in Seminole County on January 1 at the age of 30. The autopsy was performed the following day.
He died three years after he was found liable in a civil case for Brown’s death. He was was taken in by Whitney Houston when he was 12 years old and raised alongside the singer’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown.
Gordon and Brown became romantically involved after Houston’s death in 2012, and tensions between the Gordon and Houston families over the relationship were part of the storyline on Lifetime’s short-lived reality show “The Houstons: On Our Own.”Their relationship was thrust into the spotlight after it became public, followed by the death of Brown after she was found unresponsive in a bathtub in January 2015. She remained in a coma until her death six months later.
An autopsy declared that drug intoxication and immersion in water were the cause of the pneumonia and brain damage that ultimately led to Brown’s death.
No criminal charges were filed against Gordon, but he was found legally responsible for Brown’s death in a civil case and in 2016, was ordered to pay $36 million to the estate of his late girlfriend. Gordon failed to appear for two hearings in the civil case in Brown’s death, and her family won by default.Randy Kessler, an Atlanta attorney who represented Gordon during his civil case, said his heart sank when he heard the news of his death.”This is a tragic end to Nick’s troubled life,” he said.
Gordon’s attorney, Joe Habachy, last month said despite Gordon’s turbulent last few years, he was trying to stay away from drugs.”He worked hard to hold his head up and stay sober and … he genuinely wanted a happy healthy life with his family more than anything else,” Habachy said. “My heart goes out to the family and friends Nick leaves behind and to any other families dealing with the losses and heartache caused by drugs.”
Article via CNN
Check out some Lovelyti videos:
Nick Gordon’s Friends Dumped Him At The Hospital And Drove Off #fullbreakdown
Bobby Brown responds to Nick Gordon being found ‘legally responsible’ in Bobbi Kristina’s passing
A CEO was forced out after video showed him calling an Uber driver the n-word
The CEO of an Arizona company is no longer at the helm after using a racial slur during a disagreement with an Uber driver.The incident unfolded after Hans Berglund, then-CEO of Tempe fertilizer company Agroplasma, insisted on sitting in the front seat next to the driver when he was picked up January 31 at a Scottsdale home.Randy Clarke, an Arizona State University student who’s been an Uber driver for four years, asks Berglund instead to sit in the back, video Clarke provided to CNN shows. Clarke, who has two video cameras in his car, hasn’t let lone riders sit next to him since he was groped in 2018 by a drunken client, he said.Berglund asks again about sitting in front, then, after being rejected, tells Clarke to cancel the ride and says he’ll order another one, according to the video. Clarke agrees, but Berglund curses, slams the door and gets in the back seat.”Are you f**king serious with me?” Berglund says, the video shows. The passenger tells Clarke he’ll ride in the back and later file a complaint with Uber.Clarke then asks Berglund to get out of his car, the video shows.”Is this because I’m white? Berglund asks.”No, sir,” Clarke says.Berglund responds, “You’re a f**king n****r.” You’re f**king unbelievable.”
Clarke mentions his dashcams, then Berglund curses again at Clarke before getting out of the car, the video shows. As Berglund leaves, Clarke says, “Thank you so much. You got it on camera,” the video shows. “Whoo-hoo, this is good. This is perfect.”The video begins before Clarke stops to pick up Berglund and ends after the two part ways, as Clarke calls Uber to lodge a complaint about the rider.Berglund’s attorney told CNN of the scene captured on video: “This is extremely out of character for him.”Berglund “is extremely apologetic and embarrassed and wants to do everything he can to make this as right as he can,” his lawyer, Scott Zwillinger, said.To Clarke, the episode “just came out of nowhere,” he told CNN. “It was quite shocking. I didn’t expect that.”Uber officials told CNN that the passenger in the incident no longer has access to the Uber app.
Activist wants potential civil rights violations probed
Clarke had never experienced anything like that, he said, and he didn’t immediately know much about his would-be passenger. He continued driving for the ride-share company that weekend, he said, because he wanted the business.”We had the big PGA tournament up in Phoenix,” he said, “and I didn’t want to miss that.” But the exchange stayed on Clarke’s mind, and he decided on Sunday to try to find out more about the rider. “This man probably does something big in society and employs people of color,” Clarke recalled thinking. “There’s just no way somebody with a business should be acting that way.”He confirmed Berglund’s identity and sent the video to local news media, which reported the story.Agroplasma is now investigating and has appointed an interim CEO, it said in a statement.”In light of the recent incident involving Hans Berglund, Agroplasma is conducting a thorough investigation of our company’s anti-discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunity practices, culture and policies,” it reads. “We are a small business that prides itself on providing equal opportunities to all employees and candidates, and we firmly believe Mr. Berglund’s actions are not reflective of who we are as a company or member of the community. “We are committed to performing a full and honest assessment of the situation and taking the appropriate steps based on the findings of our investigation.”Berglund apologized earlier this week in a statement to CNN affiliate KNXV, saying, “I deeply regret and apologize for the hurtful and derogatory language I used during the altercation with Mr. Clarke. I firmly believe that there is no excuse for the use of racial slurs under any circumstance, so I will not offer any. It is my sincere hope that Mr. Clarke hears and accepts my apology and believes me when I say it is honest and heartfelt.”Berglund later told KNXV that he was fired.”I’m taken away as CEO from the company. I don’t have anything to do with the company anymore. I’m fired,” he told the station. “I founded the company, but I’m gone. I’m history.”KNXV talked to Berglund outside his home.”It’s so blown out of proportion, and it’s ruined my life. It’s ruined my company. It ruins everything about my situation right now,” said Berglund.Civil rights activist Rev. Jarrett Maupin and Clarke’s attorney, David Dow, are asking the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and the city of Tempe, where Agroplasma is based, to investigate possible civil and human rights violations, Maupin told CNN.Any complaint filed to the state’s top legal department would be confidential, office spokeswoman Katie Conner said. CNN has reached out to Tempe officials. Maupin also hopes to arrange a meeting with Berglund and the company, he said.
Article via CNN
Dragon Ball Z Abridged Comes To An Abrupt End
I’ll never forget the period of time during which a bunch of my friends got super into Dragon Ball Z Abridged, a YouTube series that cuts up episodes of Dragon Ball Z and stitches them back together with loads and loads of jokes. It was a different era of YouTube, the internet, and my life; back when the series first debuted in 2008, I was a teenager. DBZA has been an internet fixture for ages. Now it’s over.
Fans were not expecting series creators Team Four Star to bring the series to a sudden close yesterday. As far as anybody knew, at least one more season—this one focused on Dragon Ball Z’s final arc, the Buu saga—was on the way. But Team Four Star decided that, after completing their homage-parody of DBZ’s Cell saga last year and spending some time away from the series, their hearts weren’t in it anymore.
“Many shows lose steam as time goes on as the creators extend their work far beyond its natural lifespan; we’re feeling that with this, and that’s a scary, depressing thought,” wrote director and editor Scott “KaiserNeko” Frerichs in a post on Patreon, noting that the team doesn’t just want to tear down and mock an arc of the show. “We don’t want to end up like The Simpsons, Dexter, Scrubs, just to name a few. And yes, we know, there’s more story to work with. But in all honesty… there just isn’t the emotional attachment and passion for the arc that drove the last three seasons.”
Frerichs and his fellow creators are also at their wit’s end with the process of creating the show. “We’re burned out on the original method, in general,” he said. “It’s been an absolute blast to bring DBZA to life, but after 11 years of the same project… it’s gotten oppressive. Which, again, is a scary thought.”
On top of all that, in the current, copyright-claim-happy era of YouTube, Dragon Ball Z Abridged poses an existential risk to Team Four Star that it didn’t back in the day.
“Copyright claims have put us at risk of losing that channel, and our livelihoods in jeopardy,” wrote Frerichs. “We have our employees to look out for; our friends, our colleagues, and doing right by them—by striving to create original, monetizable, copyright friendly content, that also carries our heart and soul as creatives—is undeniably important. We’ve thought about hosting DBZA on other sites, but nowhere has been safe, and worse, it would serve to draw attention away from our hub, which ultimately could lead to less views, less support, and either the scaling back or collapse of our company.”
Team Four Star has, so far, managed to avoid major clashes with big companies, but Frerichs said that he and his co-workers want to “live in a less gray area, without the Sword of Damocles above our heads.”
Some fans have reacted with the requisite “But they promised another season!” complaints, but many just seem thankful for all the episodes they did get, especially given that the Cell saga finale already felt like a proper sendoff. Some have also observed the impact that the series had on the internet comedy and voice acting scenes over the years, paving the way for countless other scenes to emerge. Ultimately, what began as a Dragon Ball-flavored knockoff of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series—widely regarded as the first “Abridged” series on YouTube—took on a life of its own and spawned an entire fandom that helped keep Dragon Ball relevant during a spell when it wasn’t quite as entrenched in the cultural zeitgeist.
“I first discovered DBZA in 2008 while trying to find full episodes of DBZ on YouTube,” wrote one fan on the Team Four Star subreddit. “Ever since then it’s been consistently the best piece of entertainment on the internet for me. Kaiser, Lani, Taka, and the rest created something truly incredible, and they gave it to us for free. It was fun while it lasted, but it was always going to end, and at least it ended on such a high. From the bottom of my heart, I want to say thanks and good luck to the whole TFS team. Ignore the people throwing hate at you. The overwhelming majority of your fans support your decision and your right to make it.”
Article via Kotaku
TSA Agent Fired, Arrested After Allegedly Tricking Traveler Into Baring Breasts During Security Screening
A federal Transportation Security Administration agent tricked a traveler into twice showing him her breasts as she went through security at one of the world’s busiest airports, California’s attorney said.
Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Johnathon Lomeli, 22, was working at Los Angeles International Airport in June when he used fraud or deceit to falsely imprison the woman. Lomeli was arrested early Thursday at his home.
He first said he had to look inside her bra to make sure she wasn’t hiding anything, then had her hold her pants away from her waist so he could look inside, she told investigators. He subsequently took her to what he said would be a private room for more security screening, according to an arrest affidavit. But once they were alone on an elevator, she said he told her he could do the screening right there.
The woman said Lomeli told her he had to make sure she still had nothing in her bra, requiring her to lift her shirt “to show me your full breasts.” He also again looked down her pants, she said, before telling her she was free to go and adding that she had nice breasts.
He was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail and was expected to make an initial appearance Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Officials with the union representing TSA employees, the American Federation of Government Employees, did not respond to requests for comment, and officials could not say if Lomeli has an attorney.
“There is no excuse for this kind of alleged behavior,” Becerra said in a statement.
The TSA initially brought the case to the FBI and Lomeli was let go from his airport job months ago, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller. She said the initial complaint involved “improperly screening at least one woman in a private area of the airport.”
The TSA in a statement called the alleged behavior “unacceptable and an affront to the hardworking and committed members of our workforce.”
Article via TIME
Men Are Experiencing Days of Weird Vision After Taking Erectile Disfunction Drugs
Doctors are finding yet more men with strange episodes of vision problems after taking the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil citrate, better known by the brand name Viagra. A new case study this week from Turkey details 17 men who took sildenafil and developed light sensitivity, blurred eyesight, and even blue-tinted vision—symptoms that were thankfully only temporary and likely very rare.
The report, published Friday in Frontiers in Neurology, is a review of the cases of 17 men who had visited a specialty eye clinic at the Dünyagöz Adana hospital in Turkey. The men, who visited between August 2017 and March 2019, had all taken sildenafil for the first time. Almost immediately, they experienced various visual disturbances and other symptoms that lasted up to one or two days before they sought care at the clinic.
The list of symptoms ranged from headaches and heartburn to blurry vision and cyanopsia, otherwise known as seeing the world in blue. Those with blue-o-vision also had red-green colorblindness, such that anything red or green just looked brownish. Half of them had light sensitivity, with one case characterized as “very severe.”
Sildenafil is known to sometimes cause vision problems, including blue-tinted vision, but the symptoms usually last only a few hours, not days. Still, the doctors advised the patients that their eye ills would most likely go away without any intervention. And sure enough, by the time of a followup visit three weeks later, all the patients had recovered fully.
This isn’t the first time that people taking sildenafil have been reported to have startling eye problems. A 2018 case study from New York last year, for instance, detailed a man who took a lot of sildenafil and ended up with permanently red-tinted vision. The new report also references another case of a man taking sildenafil and other related drugs to prepare for the removal of his prostate, who also experienced temporary colorblindness.
Still, these incidents seem to be incredibly rare, and there are probably some extenuating circumstances. For one, the patients in the report had all taken the maximum recommended dose of sildenafil. In the New York man’s case, he likely took much more than recommended, having chugged down a liquid version bought online. Like the New York case, the 17 men in the new report all took the drug without a prescription.
We also know that sildenafil and other similar drugs work by affecting blood circulation, which accounts for the visual side effects they can sometimes cause. But in these men, their genetics might make them worse at breaking down sildenafil, leaving it in their system for longer than is safe; they might also have mutations that make their eyes more vulnerable to the particular way sildenafil affects the body, the doctors say.
“Although these drugs, when used under the
control of physicians and at the recommended doses, provide very
important sexual and mental support, uncontrolled and inappropriate
doses should not be used or repeated,” said study author and eye doctor
Cüneyt Karaarslan in a statement released by the journal’s publishers.
So while these cases might be scary, there’s probably no need to worry for anyone who’s already been taking sildenafil without any trouble. At the very least, though, you might want to avoid gulping down a large dose of any erectile dysfunction drug, especially without a doctor’s supervision.
Article via Gizmodo
Judge: Kesha falsely accused Dr. Luke of raping Katy Perry
Pop singer Kesha made a false claim that Dr. Luke raped Katy Perry when there’s “no evidence whatsoever” that he did, a judge ruled this week while sending a long-running clash between Kesha and her former mentor toward trial.
Kesha’s lawyers said in a statement that they plan to appeal Thursday’s ruling, which also says she owes the prominent producer over $373,000 in interest on royalties she paid him years late.
The decision isn’t the final word in Dr. Luke’s wider-ranging defamation and breach-of-contract suit against Kesha, but his lawyer said the ruling “brings him closer to the justice that he seeks.”
“Dr. Luke looks forward to the trial of his case, where he will prove that Kesha’s other false statements about him were equally false and defamatory,” said the attorney, Christine Lepera.
Kesha, known for such hits as “TiK ToK” and “Praying,” and Dr. Luke have been locked in court battles since 2014, when she filed a lawsuit alleging that he drugged and raped her in 2005 and emotionally abused her for years.
He denied it and sued her, saying she was smearing him with fabrications to try to get out of her record deal.
A New York court later dismissed Kesha’s sexual abuse-related claims because of time limits and other legal issues, without ruling on whether the allegations had merit.
Meanwhile, Kesha claimed — in a 2016 text message to Lady Gaga — that “Firework” singer Katy Perry “was raped by the same man.”
Dr. Luke, born Lukasz Gottwald, denies it, and Perry said it was “absolutely not” true during sworn questioning in 2017.
“There is no evidence whatsoever that Gottwald raped Katy Perry,” Manhattan judge Jennifer Schecter wrote in Thursday’s decision, calling Kesha’s remark a false statement that meets legal standards for being defamatory.
The finding is helpful to Dr. Luke. But the judge noted that many aspects of the suit remain to be decided, including the question of whether Kesha’s allegation of her own rape is true.
“Kesha and Gottwald have very different accounts of what happened on the night at issue. This court cannot decide, as a matter of law on papers and without any assessment of credibility, who should be believed,” the judge wrote. “That is a decision for the jury.”
The singer, born Kesha Rose Sebert, released her latest album, “High Road,” last week. Her emotional performance of “Praying” at the 2018 Grammy Awards marked a memorable moment as the ceremony gave voice to the #MeToo movement against sexual assault.
Dr. Luke has produced some of the biggest pop hits of the 2000s, working with stars including Perry, Miley Cyrus, Kelly Clarkson and Nicki Minaj.
The Associated Press does not generally name people who report being sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Kesha has done.
Article via ABC
Taylor Swift gives Kesha $250k + Dr. Luke FINALLY Speaks Out
Mother upset after being told son can’t wear earrings at Texas elementary school
(Meredith/CNN/KTRK) — A Texas mother is upset after her six-year-old son was told he can’t wear earrings to school.
Officials told her it’s against school policy, which hasn’t been updated in more than a decade. Now, Natasha Valdivieso is on a quest to make sure the district changes the policy.
“Why are they making him feel so different, like wearing earrings is bad, like it’s a crime,” Valdivieso said to KTRK. She said her son’s school, Heflin Elementary School, told her that her son, Pedro, had to either take the earrings off or place Band-Aids on them.
“It made my son so unsure of himself,” Valdivieso said. She also said that she let her son do it because he wanted to be like his big brother.
After looking into the policy further, Valdivieso said she found out girls are not banned from wearing earrings.
“I found out girls can wear earrings. I was under the impression that no child can wear earrings to school so I said if girls can wear them, why can’t boys? So now, you guys (referring to the district) are doing gender discrimination as well.”
The school district sent a statement to KTRK saying that male students in high school could wear earrings as long as it’s not a distraction. However, students younger than high school age are not allowed to have them. It also said that it will “review the rule during our annual student code of conduct committee review as we begin preparing for the 2020/2021 school year.”
Photo Credit: kmov.com/KTRK via CNN
Man tossed stranger’s 4-year-old son in the air, kissed him on cheek
TEMPE, Ariz. (KTVK) – Police said a man threw a stranger’s 4-year-old son in the air and then kissed him at an Arizona restaurant.
The bizarre incident happened Tuesday afternoon at the Hummus Xpress in Tempe.
Police said the suspect, identified as 30-year-old Ian Morris, picked up the boy and tossed him in the air while the parents watched.
The man then sat the boy back down and kissed him once on the cheek, according to court documents. Morris didn’t know the boy or his parents.
Morris then left the restaurant and went to a convenience store across the street, where the boy’s father confronted him. Police showed up while the two were arguing.
The parents said they wanted to press charges, and Morris was arrested. Police said he admitted to throwing the boy into the air and kissing him.
Morris was booked into jail on one count of aggravated assault and one count of disorderly conduct. Police said he’s homeless. His bond was set at $5,000.
Photo Credit: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office