Mobsters, killers, rapists seeking prison release because of coronavirus
Thousands of local, state and federal inmates are pushing to get out from behind bars, calling the jails and prisons “petri dishes” for the coronavirus.
Everyone from killers, drug traffickers and gang members to mobsters, fraudsters and accused rapists are making a bid to get out of the clink.
They are aided by defense lawyers suing for their release, usually citing underlying health issues that make them at risk of catching the deadly disease in crowded conditions.
One inmate at the state prison in Sing Sing died and at least eight federal prisoners in different facilities have fallen victim to the virus, prompting US Attorney General William Barr to push officials to increase the use of home confinement.
Defense attorneys argue coronavirus could be a death sentence for inmates like 81-year-old Rosie Baker, who has kidney disease and diabetes and has been incarcerated for nearly 23 years. Baker and her son Vance were convicted in the June 1997 murder-for-hire of her lover, Dr. Daniel Hodge, as the mother and son’s $2 million Medicaid fraud scheme was unraveling in Brooklyn.
Also seeking release is accused killer Ramzidden Trowell, 42, an HIV-positive asthmatic who is being held at Rikers Island on charges he fatally stabbed a straphanger in the Bronx who opened a subway gate for him.
A judge approved 75-year-old businessman Morris Zukerman’s bid to serve out his tax evasion sentence at home. Zukerman, convicted of dodging $45 million in taxes over 15 years, was sentenced in 2017 to nearly six years in prison.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered the release of 1,100 parole violators last week, while the city has let 300 inmates out of Rikers and put them up in hotels. Lawyers are seeking the release of at least another 530 from federal facilities, and public defenders are seeking to get approximately 400 more out. While the city’s district attorneys have consented to the release of some inmates — 272 in Manhattan; about 200 in Brooklyn; 80 in Queens and 63 in the Bronx — prosecutors aren’t giving a thumbs up to every prisoner who is seeking home confinement or outright freedom.
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Peru enforcing lockdown by gender to curb coronavirus spread
Peru will begin restricting public movement by gender on Friday in an additional effort to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Following in Panama’s footsteps, the Peruvian government said it will only allow women out Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Men are permitted outside Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Everyone must stay home on Sunday, according to the BBC.
“The (existing) control measures have given good results, but not what was hoped for,” President Martín Vizcarra said, the outlet reported.
By enacting gender-based restrictions, he hopes that the restriction will halve the number of people out on any given day.
“We have to get fewer people on the streets every day,” Vizcarra added.
The new measures will be enforced by authorities, Interior Minister Carlos Morán warned.
“On Sunday everyone has to be at home,” he said, noting that all stores will be closed regardless. “No one has justification for leaving.”
The restrictions extend until April 12, when the original lockdown, imposed on March 16, is set to end. As of Thursday, over 1,400 people had tested positive for coronavirus and 55 people had died, according to the outlet.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/04/03/peru-enforcing-lockdown-by-gender-to-curb-coronavirus-spread/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
French doctors blasted for saying coronavirus vaccines should be tested in Africa
Two French doctors have been blasted for racism after one of them suggested trialing a tuberculosis vaccine in Africa to determine whether it could combat the coronavirus, according to a new report.
The comments came during a debate on the French TV channel LCI, the BBC reported. Camille Locht, head of research at the Inserm health research group, had mentioned conducting a trial of the BCG vaccine in Europe and Australia.
“If I can be provocative,” responded Jean-Paul Mira, head of intensive care at Cochin Hospital in Paris, “shouldn’t we be doing this study in Africa, where there are no masks, no treatments, no resuscitation?”
“A bit like as it is done elsewhere for some studies on AIDS,” the doctor added, according to the report.
“In prostitutes, we try things because we know that they are highly exposed and that they do not protect themselves.”
Mira had earlier suggested that the study might not work as planned on health care workers in Europe and Australia, because they have access to personal protective equipment, guarding them from the contagion.
“You are right,” Locht responded.
“We are in the process of thinking about a study in parallel in Africa,” he said, referencing the studies underway in other continents.
Two former soccer players in Africa blasted the doctors for their comments.
“It is totally inconceivable we keep on cautioning this,” Didier Drogba tweeted. “Africa isn’t a testing lab. I would like to vividly denounce those demeaning, false and most of all deeply racist words.”
“Africa is not your playing ground,” Samuel Eto’o wrote on Instagram.
But in a statement obtained by the BBC, Inserm said the recorded debate was “the subject of erroneous interpretations.”
“Clinical trials to test the efficacy of the BCG vaccine against COVID-19 are… about to be launched in European countries and in Australia,” it said.
“If there is indeed a reflection around a deployment in Africa, it would be done in parallel with these. Africa must not be forgotten or excluded from research because the pandemic is global.”
More than 7,000 coronavirus cases, and 290 deaths have been confirmed in Africa — though there are concerns many more have been infected.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/04/03/doctors-say-coronavirus-vaccines-should-be-tested-in-africa/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Two kids hospitalized after eating pot gummies from Utah food bank
Two children have been hospitalized after eating marijuana gummies they got at a food bank.
“An 11-year-old and a 5-year-old were taken to a hospital Friday night after consuming ‘Medicated Nerds Rope’ candy given to their families as part of a food distribution effort from a church working with the Utah Food Bank,” according to NBC.
And there’s more candy out there — according to the Roy City Police, “more than 60 bags contained three to four servings of the candy rope [were distributed].”
The candy is particularly potent as “labels in the candy indicate that each one contains 400 milligrams of THC. Adults are normally prescribed between 15 to 45 milligrams of the psychoactive marijuana component.”
The “donations” appear to have been made by accident, and Utah Food Bank president and CEO Ginette Bott apologized “to any families who may have received this product,” adding, “we are absolutely horrified that this product went out to any of our partner agencies, and can easily see how volunteers would not have known what to look for,” she told a local NBC affiliate.
Three other children also consumed the candy, but were not taken to a hospital.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/04/04/kids-hospitalized-after-eating-pot-gummies-at-food-bank/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Bill Withers- Still Bill Documentry
I had and I have much respect for Mr. Withers He was not going to sell his soul just to be on A list celebrity. FAME AINT for everybody. Bill wanted to be HIMSELF!
Elfen’s EXTRA!! EXTRA!! DOPE TRACK WEEKEND Jarrod Lawson!!! REPOST
I could listen to Jarrod Lawson ALL day! Jarrod has a voice and sound all his own. His voice is like Cookies N’ Cream While we sit and quarantine ourselves. Go to Spotify and give a listen to Jarrod Lawson Self titled album from 2014 My favorite track is Gotta Keep.
HBO documentary sheds new light on ‘Atlanta Child Murders’
Anthony Terrell believes an imprisoned man currently serving two life sentences may not have been the person who murdered his brother as part of a killing spree that rocked Atlanta four decades ago.
Terrell hopes new light can be shed nationwide on the murders that terrorized the African American community in the city within a two-year time span with the HBO documentary “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children.” The five-part series, which begins Sunday, will explore how the victims’ family members and others remain skeptical about Wayne Williams being the sole killer, despite evidence linking him to those murders and 10 others.
“I really want them to find out who did it,” said Terrell, whose 12-year-old brother, Earl, was one of the 29 abducted and killed between 1979 and 1981. “It would be closure to a lot of parents and others who want answers. It’s more than just blaming Wayne Williams. His name was embedded in everybody’s heads. Let us be focused on something else. He was convicted of two adults, but the rest were children. What about them?”
Williams was convicted in 1982 in the deaths of two adults, who were thought to be among 29 black children and young adults killed by the same person. After Williams’ conviction, police closed the rest of the cases, blaming them on Williams without formally charging him.
The 61-year-old Williams says in the documentary that he never killed anyone. He has appealed his convictions, but they have been denied several times.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Police Chief Erika Shields are leading a charge to reopen the investigation. The series kicks off with Bottoms’ announcing the city’s effort to re-examine evidence.
Terrell said the reopening of the case is long overdue, but hopes the documentary can show the black community’s plight while enduring the tragedies in their neighborhoods in Atlanta.
“This documentary could enlighten a lot of curious people,” he said. “I want people to know what happened in Atlanta. Why don’t people know? They need to know.”
John Legend is one of those interested in the case. The renowned singer said he didn’t know much about the child murders in Atlanta while growing up in Ohio as a kid.
“I didn’t hear one thing about it,” said Legend, an executive producer of the project with Mike Jackson through their film company Get Lifted, in association with Roc Nation. “I was born in 1978, so I was very young when all this was happening. But it wasn’t a part of our folklore. It wasn’t a part of the things we talked about. … I think there’s a lot of folks around the country that this would be new to them.”
Filmmaker Sam Pollard said the documentary touches on the racial and political tensions between black locals and the Ku Klux Klan along with the Atlanta Police Department. He said the series will point toward other possible suspects, thanks to an anonymous source who had new evidence connecting members of the KKK to the murders.
“We walked into this project thinking Wayne was the killer,” Pollard said. “But as we started to dig into the research, educate people and connect the dots. … there may have been a rush to judgement in this trial. For me personally, I came to the conclusion that Wayne didn’t kill anybody.”
Retired journalist Monica Kaufman, who reported on the murders, said the case was mishandled by officials at a time when Atlanta was on the rise after Maynard Jackson was elected as the city’s first black mayor in 1973. The city has had a black mayor ever since then, becoming known for its thriving black business ownership, hip-hop and film scene, and having one of the largest airports in the world.
Kaufman said the rise of Atlanta would have been “sullied” if the cases were solved 40 years ago.
“The city was up and coming, and we didn’t want anything to tarnish that image,” she said. “I think that if those cases had been solved in some ways, if there had been more than one murderer, it would have changed the political structure. It would have affected the business in Atlanta. It would have changed this city forever.”
Article via ApNews
Frank Ocean Just Released Two New Songs and Fans are Going Insane
Article via CheatSheet
If ever there was a time that fans were in need of some new Frank Ocean tunes, it’s now that the majority of the population is stuck inside their homes due to coronavirus (COVID-19). Not one to disappoint, Ocean released not one but two new songs and fans are absolutely losing it.
Frank Ocean’s new songs
The artists newest releases are “Dear April” and “Cayendo.” They may sound familiar to some fans as he previewed both songs during an appearance in October in New York.
Ocean teamed up with Daniel Aged for both songs. “Cayendo” is reminiscent of Ocean’s Channel Orange days with its heartfelt ballads. Cayendo opens up with Ocean crooning in Spanish before switching to English.
“Dear April” continues the emotional journey of “Cayendo.” Genius describes the song as a “love ballad.”
“‘Dear April’ is an emotional love ballad from Frank, featuring him explaining to his significant other how their relationship will never be the same. The track features a backing from an organ instrumental and has Frank’s vocals coming in and out of the forefront of the track.”
Both songs are available on Vinyl.
Fan reactions to the new music
Fans were obviously excited to wake up to new music from Ocean and they immediately took to social media to express their feelings.
“Big plans for tonight, gonna be crying uncontrollably to Frank Ocean,” one person tweeted.
“Thank you #FrankOcean for releasing those vinyl tracks on digital,” another person said. “A gift to us all on this Friday.”
“So far the only good thing that’s happening in April is this new #FrankOcean,” one fan wrote.
“I feel like I died, went to heaven, and came back after hearing both tracks,” another person said.
And others used Ocean’s actions as a way to call out other artists.
“Quarantine got Frank Ocean releasing sh*t???” one person said. “Rihanna you have no excuse now.”
For some, the songs turned their whole mood around.
“Woke up to not one but TWO #frankocean songs… today is gonna be a great day,” one fan tweeted.
When will Frank Ocean release a new album?
It is unknown whether these new songs will be on Ocean’s third album. Fans have been waiting on a new Ocean project since Blonde in 2016.
In an interview with W Magazine, Ocean shed some light on what his next album will be like.
“I believed for a very long time that there was strength in vulnerability, and I really don’t believe that anymore,” he said. “‘Strength’ and ‘vulnerability’ sound opposite as words. And so to combine them sounds wise, but I don’t know if it is wise. It’s just this realization that hit me: ‘Oh, right, it’s a choice whether you will be truthful or a liar.’”
“The expectation for artists to be vulnerable and truthful is a lot, you know,” he continued. “When it’s no longer a choice. Like, in order for me to satisfy expectations, there needs to be an outpouring of my heart or my experiences in a very truthful, vulnerable way. I’m more interested in lies than that. Like, give me a full motion-picture fantasy.”
Selena Gomez shares that she has bipolar disorder in conversation with Miley Cyrus
Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus had a moving virtual conversation on Friday in which Gomez revealed that she was recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
The two former Disney stars appeared on Cyrus’ Instagram show “Bright Minded,” where Gomez talked openly about her health.”Recently, I went to one of the best mental hospitals in America, McLean Hospital, and I discussed that after years of going through a lot of different things, I realized that I was bipolar,” Gomez said. “And so when I got to know more information, it actually helps me. It doesn’t scare me once I know it.”
The two singers reconnected, they said, after Gomez left Cyrus a butterfly emoji in the comment section of an Instagram post.”I’m just really happy that we did this new DM. It was very sweet because you just sent a butterfly emoji,” Cyrus recalled. “And that’s enough, connecting with people and letting them know that you’re there. A butterfly emoji is totally enough.”
Cyrus added that during the coronavirus pandemic, she’s found herself “writing a lot” to help her process what’s going on.
“A lot of it is connecting with people that maybe you haven’t been the greatest to that you may not have thought about,” she said. “I feel like there’s been a lot of people I’ve gotten to do that with not necessarily saying it was bad, but just saying, ‘Hey, I hope you’re safe. I hope you’re doing okay,’ and that you know you’re on my side. I’m only sending you love from this end.'”Gomez advised people who are not taking social distancing seriously to please think of those “sacrificing their lives, adding that she has donated money to hospitals.The two sent a message of love and encouraged others to donate to non-profit organizations aiding in the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic. “I’m so happy to have you on the show and got to reconnect,” Cyrus told Gomez. “Send me butterflies any time. When all this has moved on and we can connect, we’ll just hug.”
Article via CNN
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