Phone sex line number printed as suicide hotline on middle school student ID cards
Lancaster (KCAL/KCBS) — A suicide prevention effort at a Lancaster middle school ended up inadvertently printing the number of an adult chat line on the school’s student ID cards.
Lancaster school district superintendent Dr. Michele Bowers issued a letter Monday apologizing for the move after officials at New Vista Middle School became aware that “the wrong phone number” was listed after two digits were transposed.
“This is a mistake,” Bowers wrote. “The number listed on the card is actually a sex line.”
An image of the card was posted to social media.
School administrators were set to collect all ID cards from students and print new replacement cards, according to Bower.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Juul Shipped One Million Contaminated Pods, Says Former Exec
“Half our customers are drunk and vaping like mo-fos, who the fuck is going to notice the quality of our pods,” the former CEO allegedly said.
SAN FRANCISCO — A former Juul executive is alleging in a lawsuit that the fast-growing startup shipped out 1 million contaminated e-cigarette pods earlier this year — but did not tell customers or issue a recall.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by Siddharth Breja, a former senior vice president of global finance who worked at the San Francisco–based company from May 2018 to March 2019. In the lawsuit — filed in US District Court for the Northern District of California on the same day that Juul confirmed its plans to lay off about 500 people — Breja claims he was retaliated against for raising concerns about the contaminated shipment.
In another instance, Breja says he was worried when the company, in February 2019, wanted to resell pods that were at that point almost one year old. He protested their resale and urged the company to at least include an expiration or “best by” date, or a date of manufacture, on the packaging.
The lawsuit claims that then-CEO Kevin Burns shot down that idea, saying, “Half our customers are drunk and vaping like mo-fos, who the fuck is going to notice the quality of our pods.”
Burns, who was replaced by Altria executive K.C. Crosthwaite in September, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Mr. Breja became aware of very concerning actions at the company, and he performed his duty to shareholders and to the board by reporting these issues internally,” Harmeet Dhillon, an attorney for Breja, told BuzzFeed News when reached for comment. “In exchange for doing that, he was inappropriately terminated. This is very concerning, particularly since some of the issues he raised concerned matters of public safety.”
A Juul spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Juul is fighting off a firestorm from government agencies, public health advocates, and clinicians, who blame the e-cigarette giant for addicting millions of teens to nicotine. A nationwide lung injury outbreak, now standing at 1,604 cases and 34 deaths, is being investigated by public health agencies, which have primarily linked the illnesses to vaping black-market THC. But the connection to nicotine-containing devices, such as Juul, has not been fully ruled out, either.
Breja alleges that on March 12, in an executive team meeting, he learned that some batches of mint e-liquid had been found to be contaminated. Approximately 250,000 mint refill kits, the equivalent of one million pods, were manufactured with the contaminated e-liquid, shipped to retailers, and sold to customers.
Breja was concerned about the public’s safety, the lawsuit alleges, especially in the wake of consumers recently having reported seizures after Juuling.
And he was asked to charge the supplier of the e-liquid, Alternative Ingredients, Inc., for $7 million for the contaminated batches. (That company did not immediately return a request for comment.) Breja was concerned by “this hypocritical approach of not informing the customers about the contamination on one hand (claiming it was not a serious issue) and charging the supplier for it on the other hand,” according to the lawsuit.
That same day, Breja “protested Juul’s refusal to issue a product recall for the contaminated pods, or at a minimum issue a public health and safety notice to consumers.” Tim Danaher, the chief finance officer at the time, reportedly “questioned his financial acumen,” since these suggestions would lead to billions of dollars in lost sales and hurt Juul’s then–$38 billion valuation, according to the lawsuit.
Danaher, whose departure was announced by the company on Tuesday, allegedly told Breja that he should remember his loyalty to Juul. (Danaher did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
According to the lawsuit, Breja was terminated on March 21, just over a week after he raised concerns about the contaminated pods. He was told it was because he had misrepresented himself as the chief financial officer at Uber. Breja says that he never made that claim, but had accurately stated that he was the chief financial officer of a division of Uber. Juul’s claim is “preposterous” and “intentionally invented” to hurt Breja’s reputation and employment prospects, the lawsuit alleges.
Article via BuzzFeedNews
Massachusetts high school teacher swapped nude photo with teen student
A Massachusetts high school teacher allegedly exchanged nude photos with a 15-year-old student on Snapchat, authorities said Tuesday.
Prosecutors say 42-year-old Dorothy Bancroft Veracka “actively” solicited lewd images from the teenage boy and sent him skin pics as well between September 2018 and March 2019, MassLive.com reported.
The student saved images of Veracka and some of their Snapchat conversations that he handed to police, according to court documents.
The Nashoba Regional High School teacher admitted receiving nude photos from the boy, the documents say.
She was arraigned in Clinton District Court Tuesday on charges of child pornography, distributing obscene matter to a minor and posing or exhibiting a child in the state of nudity. She was released without bail.
“Everyone is entitled to the presumption of innocence,” her defense attorney, Frank McNamara, told WBZ-TV, adding that his client is married and has three children.
She was placed on administrative leave from the school in Bolton Sept. 30
Photo Credit: WBZ-TV/YouTube
Mom charged with killing baby after admitting she hit him over dirty diaper
A Georgia woman has been charged with killing her 1-year-old child, telling investigators she hit the boy because she was angry that he’d soiled his diaper, according to local reports.
Trinity Pittman of Palmetto, faces murder and child cruelty charges in the death of her 20-month-old son, Conner Perry.
Pittman, 23, took her son to the emergency room on Friday night, telling medical staff he had been injured after falling off a trampoline. The staff became suspicious and reported that the injuries were not consistent with a fall; his abdomen was full of blood and his lungs were filling up with fluids, 11 Alive reported.
Police reportedly said they interviewed Pittman and her boyfriend, Jeremy Davis, 24, and their accounts of what had happened did not align.
Pittman later admitted that she had lied about Perry falling off a trampoline and confessed that she was angry at her son because he had soiled his diaper, the television station reported, citing warrants.
She reportedly admitted to police that she had hit her son several times after he did not obey her demands and at one point, Perry fell on the floor and hit his head after she hit him.
Pittman went to work hours after the episode and left her son and her 4-year-old daughter in her boyfriend’s care, the news outlet reported, saying she also told him Perry had fallen off the trampoline earlier.
Davis later called Pittman and told her that Perry was having trouble breathing and was throwing up, the station reported, adding that Pittman then came home and took Perry to an Atlanta children’s hospital. He died at the hospital.
Pittman has been jailed without bail. It’s unclear if she has a lawyer.
Pittman’s daughter was placed with relatives.
Photo Credit: nypost.com
McDonald’s removes Halloween decoration that included person hanging from tree
A McDonald’s restaurant in Massachusetts came under fire last week for displaying Halloween decorations that included a person hanging from a tree, reports said.
Customer Erik Pocock sounded the alarm last Tuesday after noticing the display while ordering food at the North Andover franchise.
He described the sight to WCVB as “more like a lynching” than a Halloween decoration.
Pocock initially thought the haunted tree and spiderwebs on the display were festive.
But when he looked closer he witnessed the figure hanging and thought, “that’s not cute. That’s not right.”
After Pocock posted a video of the decoration to Twitter, McDonald’s removed the display and issued a public apology, according to Patch.com.
Pocock, who has since made his account private, mentioned the official McDonald’s account and asked, “can you explain this?” the new site said.
Franchise owner Chuck Lietz said in a statement, “We deeply regret that these decorations were on display, and as soon as we identified the inappropriate content, we immediately removed the decorations display.”
“We apologize for any unintended offense they may have had on our community.”
Other customers WCVB spoke to had mixed feelings on the image.
One man said, “Anything hanging with a kid is offensive.”
A woman told the outlet: “It’s pretty graphic. I think people might be sensitive to the topic.”
Another customer didn’t see an issue, saying, “I think it’s alright.”
Photo Credit: twitter
School bus aide charged with striking special needs child, knocking out 2 teeth
GENEVA, ILL. (AP) — A former northern Illinois bus aide is accused of striking a special needs student, knocking out two teeth.
Jean M. Micklevitz, who worked for the Burlington Central School District, is charged with aggravated battery to a child for allegedly dragging him to a seat after he refused to move from the bus steps. Kane County prosecutors say the 63-year-old Burlington woman then struck the boy several times in the face.
At the time of the Oct. 2 incident, Micklevitz was a helper on a bus for special needs students. She was arrested Wednesday and a Kane County judge ordered Micklevitz held in lieu of $30,000 bond. She posted bond and was released. It wasn’t immediately known if she has legal representation.
District Superintendent Todd Stirn says Micklevitz and the bus driver were suspended after the school learned of the incident. Stirn wouldn’t say how the driver was involved in the incident.
Photo Credit: Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office
Boston College student accused of driving boyfriend Alexander Urtulam to suicide
A Boston College student repeatedly urged her boyfriend to kill himself — telling him the “world would be better without him” before he jumped to his death on the morning of his graduation in May, according to a new report.
Suffolk County prosecutors on Monday announced Inyoung You, 21, had been charged with involuntary manslaughter over the suicide of her boyfriend, fellow Boston College student Alexander Urtulam, the Boston Globe reported.
The suspect psychologically and physically abused Urtula during their 18-month relationship — repeatedly encouraging him to kill himself despite being aware of his “spiraling depression,” District Attorney Rachael Rollins said at a press conference.
The pair exchanged 75,000 text messages in the two months before Urtula took his own life, with You telling him “go die” and “go kill yourself,” prosecutors said.
The 21-year-old has returned to her native South Korea but will be extradited to the US if she does not voluntarily return to face the charges, Rollins said.
“This case is a tragedy but it’s just one example of a systemic epidemic [of domestic violence],” Rollins said.
“Domestic violence may not look the same [in every instance] but it is always about power and control,” she added.
Urtula, of Cedar Grove, NJ, jumped to his death from the Renaissance parking garage in Boston on May 20, the same day he was supposed to graduate with a biology degree.
You isolated her boyfriend from his family and friends and tracked his location on her phone. Chillingly, You was present at the parking garage when Urtula leaped to his death, Rollins said.
A grand jury handed up the indictment on Oct. 18, finding You was “wanton and reckless” and created “life-threatening conditions for Mr. Urtula that she had a legal duty to alleviate,” according to court documents obtained by the Globe.
The case echoes “suicide text” girlfriend Michelle Carter, the Massachusetts woman who was convicted of urging her boyfriend via text messages to kill himself in July 2014.
According to the Boston Herald, You sent Urtula, 22, more than 780 “manipulative and threatening” text messages each day in the months leading up to his death.
The suspect also used threats of self-harm to control her boyfriend and manipulate him.
Urtula killed himself just two hours before he was supposed to walk in his graduation ceremony — his family traveling from New Jersey to Boston for the event.
“His family never got to do so,” Rollins said Monday.
His girlfriend was studying economics and was scheduled to graduate in May 2020 but withdrew from classes in August, three months after Urtula died, a Boston College spokesperson told The Globe.
Urtula was remembered as a “gifted student” and was involved in many groups, including the Phillippine Society of Boston College.
He had been working as a researcher in a New York hospital and according to his LinkedIn, also worked as a researcher at a women’s hospital in Boston in the hematology department.
Rollins told reporters domestic violence “does not discriminate” — noting it affected people regardless of their race, sexual orientation or age.
“Domestic violence may not always looked the same, but it is always about power and control,” she added.
Photo Credit: Suffolk County District Attorney
Doctor pleads guilty to sending 9,000 threatening texts to ex-Tinder date
A jilted Australian doctor pleaded guilty Monday to sending 9,000 abusive and threatening messages to her former Tinder date, according to a new report.
Radiologist Denise Jane Lee, 40, of Sydney, copped to four of 10 charges against her ahead of a scheduled five-day hearing in the Downing Centre Local Court, the Australian Associated Press reported.
Lee, who was arrested in February 2017, copped to three counts of using a carriage service to harass, menace or offend and one count of intimidation, according to the report. Six additional charges were withdrawn.
The doctor was accused of becoming obsessive and sending thousands of abusive, threatening texts and emails to Matthew Holberton, his new girlfriend and their relatives, according to the report.
Some of the alleged threats included: “Whatever you value most, I’ll target,” “I will make you pay,” and “You deserve everything you’re going to get,” according to the report.
Lee and Holberton had four dinner dates between July and September 2015, as well as two sexual encounters, before Holberton ended things and moved to Melbourne, the outlet reported.
Earlier this month, Magistrate Michael Barko refused to dismiss the charges against Lee on mental health grounds.
Lee’s admission came after hours of negotiations between the doctor’s lawyer and the prosecutor.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Retired doctor, 67, gives birth in China after getting ‘pregnant naturally’
A 67-year-old retired doctor has given birth in China — potentially making her the country’s oldest new mother.
The woman, surnamed Tian, gave birth to a girl on Friday at Zaozhuang Maternity and Child Health Hospital, where she had worked as a doctor before retiring, in the country’s northeastern Shandong province.
A hospital spokeswoman told CNN that Tian fell pregnant naturally after using her medical knowledge to self-administer traditional Chinese fertility treatments.
The baby was delivered via a cesarean section. “We were quite lucky, given that the mother was at an advanced maternal age and had a variety of complications,” Liu Wencheng, the physician in charge of the delivery, told state-run broadcaster CCTV. The baby reportedly weighed 2.56 kilograms (5.6 pounds) at birth.
Liu said that “during the cesarean section, we found that Tian’s ovaries were just like the ones of a 40-year-old woman. They hadn’t shrunk like a 60-year-old’s ovaries would have, which might explain how she got pregnant naturally.”
Tian and her child were transferred to an intensive care unit immediately after the delivery, but their vital signs were at normal levels as of Monday, the hospital spokeswoman told CNN.
‘Gift from heaven’
Speaking to the Qilu Evening News, Tian’s husband, a 68-year-old surnamed Huang, said the couple had decided to name their new baby Tianci, which means “gift sent from heaven.”
The elderly couple already have two grown children, a son and a daughter, and several grandchildren, he told the paper. Their eldest grandchild turned 18 this year.
The two children had objected to their parents having another baby. “My daughter even said that if I gave birth to this little baby, she would sever all ties to us,” Tian told CCTV.
Many older women are striving to have more children in China since its one-child policy was lifted in 2016, leading to a surge in demand for fertility treatments
Tian may now be the oldest woman to give birth in the country. According to the state-run China Daily, the previous record was held by a woman from Changchun, in east China’s Jilin province, who gave birth to a baby boy in 2016 at the age of 64.
In September, a 73-year-old woman in India gave birth to twin girls, conceived through IVF. Erramatti Mangayamma, a farmer from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, is believed to be the oldest person to give birth.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
A jury awarded $20 million to a police officer who said he was told to tone down his ‘gayness’
A jury has awarded nearly $20 million to a police officer in Missouri who alleged that his department discriminated against him over his sexual orientation and said he was told to “tone down your gayness.”
St. Louis County Police Sgt. Keith Wildhaber was performing a routine security check at a local restaurant in 2014 when the owner offered up some surprising career advice, according to a 2017 lawsuit.
Wildhaber was applying to be promoted to lieutenant, the lawsuit said, and word had gotten around to owner John Saracino, who was also on the St. Louis County Board of Police Commissioners at the time.
“The command staff has a problem with your sexuality,” Saracino allegedly told Wildhaber, according to the lawsuit. “If you ever want to see a white shirt (i.e., get a promotion), you should tone down your gayness.”
Saracino has denied the conversation took place.
Wildhaber, then a 20-year veteran of the department, didn’t get that promotion. And despite stellar performance reviews and the support of his supervisors, the lawsuit alleged, he was passed up for numerous other promotions because “he does not conform to the County’s gender-based norms, expectations, and/or preferences.”
A month after Wildhaber filed a complaint to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Missouri Commission on Human Rights, he was reassigned from his afternoon shift to a midnight shift in a precinct that was about 27 miles from where he lived, according to the lawsuit.
Following his reassignment, Wildhaber filed another discrimination charge, this time alleging unlawful retaliation. The lawsuit states the department discriminated against him because it believes he “does not fit the stereotypical norms of what a ‘male’ should be.”
After the jury’s decision Friday, county officials called for police department leadership to step down.
St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said in a statement Sunday that the county would soon begin appointing new members to the police board, which oversees the police chief. An announcement on the changes would be forthcoming, he added.
“The current police board and current police chief have served the county faithfully for years,” Page said. “The time for leadership changes has come and change must start at the top.”
The St. Louis County Police Department did not return multiple calls and emails from CNN on Monday.
The St. Louis County Police Association, the union that represents St. Louis County police officers, said in a statement on Facebook that contract negotiations with the department had been delayed over its “unwillingness to agree to protect our organization’s ability to fight against and remedy internal discrimination and retaliation.”
“The St. Louis County Police Association has a long history of fighting for equality for all of our members,” the post read. “While we are extremely embarrassed of the alleged actions of some of our Department’s senior commanders, we look forward to the healing process that can begin to take place now that this has been heard in open court.”
Sam Moore, Wildhaber’s attorney, applauded the jury’s decision in a statement to CNN.
“We are ecstatic for our client, and it has been an honor and a privilege to have been part of this historic verdict,” Moore said. “This has been a long and difficult road for Keith. His bravery and courage in standing up for what is right should be an inspiration for employees everywhere.”
via: https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/jury-awarded-20-million-police-234041126.html
Photo Credit: St. Louis County Missouri / St. Louis County Missouri