Super rich party it up during COVID-19, calling it the ‘poor person’s virus’
While the rest of us hunker down, forgo our vacations and family reunions, and suffer from maskne (the acne that comes with wearing a mask) — in the world of the uber-rich, it’s very, very different.
Despite the coronavirus still killing 1,000 people a day in America and unemployment is at an all-time high, billionaires are throwing parties, traveling on private jets, luxuriating on yachts around the world, buying citizenship in “safe” countries and having fun on $12,000 motorized surfboards.
“Coronavirus is a poor person’s virus,” one wealthy Silicon Valley denizen told Vanity Fair.
And while the majority of the country is tightening their belts, the rich have become richer with billionaires becoming 10% wealthier during the COVID-19 crisis — and they’re starting to live in a parallel universe than the rest of us.
Among the worst violators is Travis Kalanick, the bro-founder of Uber, who has been throwing multiple outdoor parties at his $43 million Los Angeles estate (even at the height of the city’s outbreak) while another unnamed billionaire has also been partying but allows people inside — after they’ve taken a 15-minute, rapid fire COVID-19 test administered by a registered nurse.
Meanwhile, billionaire David Geffen has been hanging on his yacht, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are cruising Greece in another yacht after receiving “honorary” citizenship, Facebook overlord Mark Zuckerberg has been trolling the waters off Hawaii in a $12,000 surfboard, Jeff Bezos and his lady friend have been (multiple) house-hunting, buying up millions of dollars in property in Los Angeles to build a compound while traveling via private jet to several cities around the country, former Mayor Bloomberg splashed out $45 million on a Colorado compound (joining a host of other billionaires buying in that state as well as Montana and Wyoming); and others are spending millions to buy citizenship in “safe” countries like New Zealand.
Meanwhile, according to Vanity Fair, “one investor worth several billion who has several homes told a friend —who then parlayed the information to me in tones of shock and awe and more than a tinge of jealousy—that he was in Miami when the numbers were lowest at the start of the pandemic; hopped over to Los Angeles when Florida got a bit dicey; and now that California is a hotbed, is in New York enjoying the season’s outdoor dining.”
“All these rich people can’t stop themselves,” a person who is close to a number of wealthy tech CEOs and venture capitalists told the magazine. “They just can’t stop themselves from throwing parties and going on their jets and socializing as if everything was normal.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/08/15/super-rich-party-it-up-during-covid-19-the-poor-persons-virus/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Breonna Taylor billboard in Kentucky vandalized with red paint splattered across her forehead
A billboard of Breonna Taylor in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, was vandalized this week. The billboard, part of a larger campaign demanding justice for Taylor’s death, now features a large splatter of paint on her head.
On Tuesday, the billboard — which is near the area of Lexington Road and Spring Street, according to CBS Louisville affiliate WLKY-TV — featured red paint, splattered in the center of Taylor’s forehead, resembling a bullet wound.
The billboard is among 26 that represent each year of Taylor’s life and was erected in and around the city by Oprah Winfrey earlier this month. The image is the same one of Taylor used on the September cover of Winfrey’s magazine, marking the first time in the publication’s history that someone else other than Winfrey was featured on the cover.
The billboards all have the same clear call to action: “Demand that the police involved in killing Breonna Taylor be arrested and charged.”
A quote from Winfrey accompanies the message: “If you turn a blind eye to racism, you become an accomplice to it.”
The signs direct people to the social justice organization Until Freedom, which has taken up residence in Louisville to focus on getting justice for Taylor, O Magazine said in a statement on its website. The online statement also directs people to sign petitions that demand justice for Taylor, call Kentucky officials, donate to local bail funds and use #SayHerName on social media.
On March 13, police entered Taylor’s home with a no-knock warrant. The officers fatally shot Taylor, a EMT worker, while looking for illegal drugs, which were never found. Only one of the three officers involved in Taylor’s death has been fired, and none have been charged.
Taylor’s family filed a lawsuit against the officers in May, accusing them of wrongful death, excessive force and gross negligence. In June, Mayor Greg Fischer signed “Breonna’s Law,” which bans the use of no-knock search warrants and it requires officers to wear body cameras when executing search warrants.
The father of Michael Brown Jr., who was also shot dead by police in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, has also called for justice in Taylor’s case and traveled to Louisville recently to join a protest with Until Freedom.
On Monday night, former first lady Michelle Obama referenced Taylor’s death while delivering an impassioned speech during the first night of the Democratic National Convention.
“Here at home, as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and a never-ending list of innocent people of color continue to be murdered. Stating the simple fact that a Black life matters is still met with derision from the nation’s highest office,” Obama said.
“Sadly, this is the America that’s on display for the next generation,” she added.
Photo Credit: CBS AFFILIATE WLKY-TV
Sweetie Pie’s owner charged with conspiracy in alleged murder for hire plot in the death of his nephew
MADISON COUNTY, Miss. (WLBT) – James Timothy Norman owner of Sweetie Pie’s restaurant has been arrested on federal charges and is currently being held in the Madison County Detention Center.
Norman was charged with conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities (a cellphone) in the commission of a murder-for-hire, resulting in death.
According to the complaint, Norman, Terica Ellis and others conspired to commit a murder-for-hire in exchange for money.
Federal authorities allege that in 2014, Norman obtained a $450,000 life insurance policy on his 18-year-old nephew, Andre Montgomery. Norman was the sole beneficiary.
In the days leading up to Montgomery’s murder, Ellis told Montgomery that she was coming to St. Louis. On March 13, 2016, the day before Montgomery’s murder, Norman flew to St. Louis, Missouri from his home in Los Angeles, California.
On March 14, 2016, Ellis and Norman communicated using temporary phones activated that day. Ellis also used the temporary phone to communicate with Montgomery and learn his location. Immediately after learning Montgomery’s location, Ellis placed a call to Norman.
Around 8:00 p.m. that same day, Montgomery was shot and killed. Ellis’s phone location information places her in the area of the murder at time of the shooting.
Immediately following Montgomery’s murder, Ellis placed a call to Norman, and then began travelling to Memphis, Tennessee. In the days after the murder, Ellis deposited over $9,000 in cash into various bank accounts.
On March 21, 2016, Norman contacted the life insurance company in an attempt to collect on the life insurance policy he had obtained on his nephew.
Terica Ellis was also charged by complaint with conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, resulting in death.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Section and Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating these charges.
Photo Credit: Madison County Detention Center
Exclusive photo of man accused of fatally shooting Jam Master Jay
QUEENS — PIX11 News exclusively obtained a photo Tuesday of Jam Master Jay’s accused killer, Karl Jordan Jr.
Two law enforcement sources confirmed the picture’s authenticity.
Jordan, 36, is accused of firing two bullets at the popular DJ from iconic rap group Run-DMC on Oct. 30, 2002. Jay’s real name was Jason Mizell.
On Halloween eve that year, two men were buzzed into Mizell’s recording studio on Merrick Boulevard in Jamaica, Queens, as the DJ was playing video games with some of his assistants.
One of the men hugged Mizell before he was shot, the lethal bullet hitting the musician in the head.
Federal authorities and the NYPD accused Jordan and an alleged accomplice, Ronald Washington, with murder and narcotics trafficking Monday, nearly 18 years after Mizell was killed.
Officials said Monday that Mizell’s murder was drug related.
In court papers, the feds wrote that, “In addition to his music career, in or about and between 1996 and 2002, Mizell was involved in transporting kilogram-quantities of cocaine in the Eastern District of New York and elsewhere.”
Monday night, the DJ’s family and bandmate, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, released statements reacting to the break in the case.
Photo Credit: Law enforcement sources
11-year-old girl fatally shot 4 years after appearing in video praying for end to gun violence
An 11-year-old girl who was once featured in a video praying for an end to gun violence has died after being shot in Madison, Wisconsin.
Anisa Scott was riding in a car Tuesday morning when a shooter fired into the vehicle, striking her in the head. Police believe the driver of the car with Anisa in it was the intended target.
On Thursday, her family removed her from life support at 11:11 a.m., signifying the date the shooting occurred and her age.
In the wake of her death, an anti-gun violence video that she appeared in back in 2016 has received more than 30,000 views.
“I just want to go outside and play, like a 7-year-old is supposed to do. I don’t want to die,” Anisa said in the video. “They won’t stop killing. They won’t stop it. God, can you make it better?”
Rafael Ragland, a local filmmaker and father of Anisa’s 5-year-old half-sister Anija Ragland, said he filmed the video with then 7-year-old Anisa after she had just come back from a trip to Chicago with her mother and heard about all of the violence there.
“I’m so confused honestly because the same thing she was praying about, praying that it doesn’t happen to her, then it turns around and happens to her,” Ragland said. “It just devastates me.”
Two male suspects — one 16, the other 19 — have been arrested in Anisa’s death, Madison police said Friday.
The 19-year-old, Perion Carreon, was arrested Wednesday, while the 16-year-old, Andre Brown, was arrested Friday. Both are from Madison and were arrested on suspicion of first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide, both as a party to a crime.
If he’s charged with first-degree intentional homicide, Brown would be charged in adult court even though he is only 16. State law requires anyone 10 or older charged with first-degree intentional homicide to be charged as an adult.
Acting Police Chief Victor Wahl declined to go into detail about how the arrests were made, saying the investigation is continuing.
“There are lots of moving parts in a case like this, evidence, leads, that go into making the case that are still active, things to be done,” Wahl said. “So I’m not going to go into too much detail about what has connected us to these two at this point.”
He said the case has been a priority for the department’s investigators.
Police spokesman Joel DeSpain said when Carreon was arrested Wednesday he was driving a stolen car and had a gun in his waistband. DeSpain and Wahl declined to say whether the gun was related to the shooting of Anisa.
DeSpain also said surveillance video “played a key role in getting us to where we’re at,” along with community cooperation.
“I’d like to extend my condolences, and that of the entire Madison Police Department, to the family of Anisa, who suffered an unimaginable loss,” Wahl said. “I hope that the community continues to support them and that today’s arrests help their healing process in some small way.”
He also thanked community leaders for speaking out this week about gun violence, saying it was important to have a unified message.
Carreon faces tentative charges in several other cases in addition to Tuesday’s shooting. His arrest Wednesday was on a tentative first-degree reckless endangerment charge for another shooting in July. He is also alleged to have been involved in gunfire on Jackson Street, on Madison’s East Side, on July 5, and the June 11 robbery of a 51-year-old woman in the 200 block of North Thompson Drive on Madison’s Far East Side.
Dozens of friends, family members and supporters mourned Anisa’s death and released balloons Thursday over Brittingham Park at the moment she was due to be taken off life support.
Hundreds of people gathered Friday evening in Cannery Square in downtown Sun Prairie for a candlelight vigil to celebrate Anisa’s life.
Members of Anisa’s family addressed the crowd to say thank you to the community for supporting them. Classmates and friends of Anisa shared stories and memories as her young sisters cried and were comforted by their father.
Anisa’s mom, Ashley, addressed the crowd, thanking them for their support and love.
“I can only be strong because of y’all. I love her so much,” she said.
Attendees left notes of strength and messages of encouragement in a box to be shared with the family as dozens of paper lanterns were lit and released into the night sky.
Anisa’s family asked the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County to help make funeral arrangements for the 11-year-old.
On Friday, Amy Arenz, CEO of the Madison-based human resources consulting firm Concero, reached out to the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County to donate $10,000, which will cover funeral expenses to give Anisa the “going home celebration she deserves.”
Photo Credit: Photo, Handout
Mother left child in backseat of car while she was inside nightclub
PRICHARD, Ala. (WALA) — An Alabama woman was arrested after allegedly leaving her child alone in a car while she was inside a nightclub.
Eva Rudolph, 20, turned herself in to the Prichard Police Department early Tuesday.
Her arrest comes after a viral video captured images of a child sleeping in the back seat of a car that was parked outside the Lotus nightclub in the middle of the night Saturday. Police said Rudolph is the mother of that child and was inside the club when the video was shot.
It’s not clear how long the child was in the car before the video was recorded. The car was gone by the time police arrived.
Police said the video has been turned over to the Child Advocacy Center and the Department of Human Resources for further review.
Rudolph was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, which is a misdemeanor. She was booked into the Mobile Metro Jail and released soon after on bond.
Photo Credit: Mobile County Metro Jail
St. Louis couple charged for pulling guns on protestors to speak at Republican National Convention
Patricia and Mark McCloskey, the St. Louis homeowners who pointed guns at protesters earlier this summer, are scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention next week, an aide familiar told CNN on Monday.
News of the couple’s expected appearance, first reported by the Washington Post, comes as Republicans are gearing up for an unorthodox convention, as part of efforts to energize voters during a pandemic and going into the last three months of the campaign. Democrats kicked off their party’s national convention Monday in a night of programming headlined by former first lady Michelle Obama, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, among others.
A spokesman for Trump Victory and a Republican official confirmed to CNN later Monday that former Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann, Andrew Pollack, the father of Parkland shooting victim Meadow Pollack, anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Pennsylvania congressional candidate Sean Parnell will also be among the speakers at the Republican convention. The lineup, which is still being formed, was first reported by Breitbart News.
The McCloskeys drew national attention in late June after they were seen in a viral video brandishing guns outside their mansion at protesters walking on a private street en route to demonstrate outside the St. Louis mayor’s residence. The Missouri couple was charged in July with unlawful use of a weapon, a class E felony.
The White House has defended the couple on multiple occasions, with White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany telling reporters at the time that President Donald Trump “said it is absolutely absurd, what is happening to the McCloskeys.”
In videos obtained by CNN, Mark McCloskey holds a long rifle and Patricia McCloskey holds a handgun as demonstrators, protesting Mayor Lyda Krewson’s decision to publish the names and addresses of people in favor of police reform, walked outside the home. Portland Place, the private street where the McCloskeys live, is near Krewson’s home.
Daniel Shular, a local reporter, took one of the videos and said he watched the entire roughly 10-minute long incident unfold. About 500 protesters were cutting through Portland Place, according to Shular, to bypass road closures nearby that blocked access to the mayor’s home.
“A door next to the gate at Portland Place was unlocked and protesters went through it to cut through the neighborhood to get to Krewson’s house,” he told CNN.
That’s when Shular says the McCloskeys came out of the house with the firearms. At one point in Shular’s 31-second video, Patricia McCloskey points the handgun in the direction of protesters. In multiple videos, it appears the McCloskeys and protesters exchange words, but it is unclear what is said.
Mark McCloskey has defended his actions towards the protesters, saying last month that he was “in imminent fear they would run me over, kill me.”
“I was a person scared for my life, protecting my wife, my home, my hearth, my livelihood. I was a victim of a mob that came through the gate,” he told CNN’s Chris Cuomo at the time.
McCloskey asserted that it is “ridiculous” to consider him the face of opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement after the incident.
“I didn’t care what color they were. I didn’t care what their motivation was,” he said. “I was frightened. I was assaulted.”
Photo Credit: ktla.com
Man shoots woman with BB gun after she accidentally removed his pro-Trump yard sign
(WSOC/CNN/Meredith) – A North Carolina man is facing charges for shooting a woman in the arm with a BB gun after she removed his President Donald Trump campaign sign from his yard.
Peggy Fox was visiting her brother’s home in Lincolnton. When she arrived, she saw a Trump sign in what she thought was her brother’s yard. She assumed it was a prank, since her brother doesn’t express his political views, she said. Thinking it was a prank, she pulled the sign from the yard.
That’s when Fox was shot with a BB gun, with the pellet lodged in her arm close to the bone.
“It was very frightening, extremely frightening,” Fox said. “Excruciating pain.”
Worth McAllister, 76, admitted to WSOC that he shot Fox with a BB gun, which he said he also uses on stray cats in his yard.Discover a total, connected care experience.Discover a total, connected approach to your health. Aetna Medicare makes healthier easier so you can live your best life.Ad By Aetna See More
McAllister claims he first yelled at Fox to stop taking his yard sign before he fired the gun. Fox said, however, that McAllister gave no such warning.
Fox said she would have put the sign back if McAllister had told her it was his. Fox insists she has no objection to the sign itself, she just knew it couldn’t be her brother’s and thought it was on his property.
After the shooting, McAllister told Fox he believed it was his right to shoot her with the BB gun and encouraged her to call police. She did call police, and McAllister was charged with misdemeanor assault inflicting serious injury.
“He actually believed that he could shoot me if I was on his property, and to me that’s terrifying,” Fox said. “I think it speaks to the political divisions, and it’s really sad.”
McAllister is due in court Nov. 5.
Photo Credit: kmov.com
Illinois teens robbed at gunpoint at lemonade stand, police help replenish funds
Two Illinois teenagers who were running a lemonade stand were robbed at gunpoint, and local police stepped in to replenish the stolen funds.
Earlier this month Jude Peterson and his friend Tristan Charbonnel, both 13, set up a lemonade stand in Peterson’s Peoria neighborhood when police said two people, one of which had a gun, robbed the stand and the incident was reportedly caught by a neighbor’s surveillance camera.
Charbonnel told “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday that “last week two boys came up with a gun and took all the money.”
“It was really surprising, but there wasn’t really time to be scared,” he continued.
Peterson and Charbonnel were not injured and the thieves took off with the cash box, which contained about $30, the Peoria Journal-Star reported.
Peterson’s father Nathan told the news outlet that Peoria police officers who showed up to the scene “were buying $20 lemonades, which was really kind of them.”
“They were super-gentle with the kids and really seemed to care,” he added.
When people in the neighborhood learned of what had happened, they reportedly stopped by the lemonade stand to donate money and items, including candy and potato chips, to sell.
Chief Loren Marion with the Peoria Police Department told “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday that the community policing sergeant with his department “came up with the idea after the incident happened to do a fund-raiser for the kids.”
Marion said he sent out an email to the department and said, “‘Hey, we would like to try to replace the money with these kids and encourage them.’ And it took off from there.”
“There were so many people helping us out,” Charbonnel said on Sunday.
Marion said on Sunday that detectives assigned to the case are “making progress” and he believes they will make an arrest.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/08/16/illinois-teens-robbed-aat-lemonade-stand-police-help-replenish-funds/
Photo Credit: facebook
BLM mob beats white man unconscious after making him crash truck
A mob of Portland Black Lives Matter protesters forced a white man to crash his truck, then punched and kicked him unconscious, disturbing footage shows.
A series of clips on social media shows the victim being surrounded in his white Ford truck at 10.30 p.m. Sunday as others attacked a woman he was with, who was punched and even tackled to the ground during the violent melee.
“He didn’t do nothing!” someone could be heard calling as others punched the driver as he sat in his truck, which was also repeatedly kicked.
The unidentified driver eventually sped off, with the mob chasing him — with some heard loudly laughing when he crashed into a tree and then a building, according to the clips.
He was dragged from the truck and tackled to the ground as he begged for help — getting repeatedly punched as he tried to call his wife while pleading with his attackers as he sat on the ground, the videos show.
“I ain’t tryna hurt no one,” he told them, with the only unexplained accusation heard in the clips being that “COVID is real.”
“I was trying to get out the way,” he insisted of crashing his truck, as several of the group punched him in the face and repeatedly called the white driver the N-word.
As the mob dispersed to watch another fight, the main offender circled back around — kicking the defenseless driver in the face from behind, instantly knocking him out with his head cracking on the road.
“What the f–k is you talkin’ about n—er!” the attacker — wearing a shirt with “SECURITY” on the front and back — screamed after the thud of his victim’s head hitting the ground.
The victim was then shown bleeding from a large wound in the back of his head as he appeared unconscious throughout another almost 2½-minute clip. The woman was shown sobbing nearby as the mob held her back and appeared to rifle through his truck.
“Black live matter, n—er!” one man continually ranted as other people checked the victim was still alive. Even as he remained unconscious, a woman was heard taunting him, “Get your b-tch ass up!”
Police in riot gear had to assist ambulance crews helping him as they were confronted by “a hostile crowd,” Portland police said in a release.
The victim was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, police said. “The incident is under investigation and no arrests have been made,” the force said.
It was unclear what sparked the confrontation, but some witnesses tweeted that he had tried to intervene in an altercation between the mob and another person.
Police said that “protesters were chasing the truck before it crashed, and they assaulted the driver after the crash.”
Kalen D’Almeida, the co-founder of Scriberr News, who shared one of the videos. tweeted: “A man accused of trying to run over protesters crashed his vehicle. BLM & Antifa militants then pull him from the car and violently assault him.”
He claimed that it was “specifically a militant #BLM group that left the #BLM protest to intentionally incite violence tonight.”
The incident came days after Seattle BLM members marched through gentrified neighborhoods and demanded white people give up their homes.
And it came a day after Portland officials once again declared a riot as mobs once again brought violence while claiming to protest the death of George Floyd, as they have done nightly for almost two months.
Two cops were hospitalized overnight Saturday after protesters hurled a 10-pound rock at them during the 79th night of clashes in the City of Roses, according to reports.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/08/17/blm-mob-beat-white-man-unconscious-after-making-him-crash-truck/
Photo Credit: nypost.com