Woman falls asleep on flight, wakes up ‘alone’ and ‘locked up’ in empty plane
Tiffani Adams was on her way home to Toronto after visiting a friend in Quebec when “one of the best weekends I’ve ever had” turned into a nightmare.
She woke up in a cold, dark Air Canada jet a few hours after it landed at Toronto International Airport to discover she was left sleeping on the plane.
“I think I’m having a bad dream,” she recounted in a Facebook post. “When my seat an inch back or my tray down flight crew take notice but yet you missed a person still strapped into her seat and just all go on home?!?!”
Adams described the harrowing experience in which she was unable to recharge her phone while stuck inside the parked aircraft, which sent her into a panic attack.
Left to grope around the plane for some way to alert someone she was still on board, Adams eventually found a flashlight in the cockpit, and opened one of the plane’s doors. Hanging 40 or 50 feet above the pavement, she flashed the light at distant ground crews until someone driving a luggage truck saw her and came to the rescue.
Air Canada officials gave her a ride home and have been in contact with her since, but Adams is still recovering from the ordeal.
“I haven’t got much sleep since the reoccurring night terrors and waking up anxious and afraid I’m alone locked up someplace dark,” she wrote in her post.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Husband-and-wife duo convicted of conspiracy to commit $3.4 million in food stamp fraud
Dayton (WCPO) — The husband-and-wife duo behind a Findlay Market business that prided itself on family values was convicted Friday of leading a scheme to commit $3.4 million in food stamp fraud over the course of eight years.
Michael and Amanda Jo Busch, who ran Busch’s Country Corner until federal investigators raided it in May 2018, were each convicted on 25 charges, including conspiracy to steal government funds, submitting false claims, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) fraud and wire fraud.
According to the office of U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman, the Busches began exchanging cash for SNAP benefits in 2010. Investigators found that, in the eight years that followed, they recorded an average of 2,167 SNAP transactions each month — more than twice the number conducted by similar businesses in the area.
Altogether, Busch’s processed 195,113 SNAP transactions totaling $5.4 million between 2010 and 2018. Federal agents estimated only about 36 percent were authentic.
Co-conspirator Randall Busch, Michael’s brother, pleaded guilty to 19 counts of SNAP fraud in April and was sentenced to five years probation.
Busch’s is no longer listed on Findlay Market’s roster of vendors, but an archived snapshot of the site from early 2018 describes it as a family business run by high school sweethearts. Its owners wrote they chose Findlay because it is “a constantly interesting place to be.”
Photo Credit: kmov.com/WCPO
Texas mom playing ‘chicken’ game with Lincoln Navigator fatally strikes 3-year-old son, officials say
HOUSTON (AP/Meredith) — Authorities say a 26-year-old Houston woman who was driving an SUV toward her children in an apparent game of “chicken” struck and killed her 3-year-old son.
Harris County prosecutors said Friday that Lexus Stagg is charged with criminally negligent homicide in the June 11 death of her son.
They say surveillance video from an apartment complex shows Stagg getting into a Lincoln Navigator, then backing up. As her three young children began running after her, she drove the SUV forward. Two children moved out of the way, but the 3-year-old was caught under a tire.
District Attorney Kim Ogg said, “Cars aren’t toys and playing chicken with your kids isn’t a game.”
Stagg was booked into the Harris County jail but was no longer being held Saturday.
It’s not clear whether she has an attorney to speak on her behalf.
Photo Credit: kmov.com/CNN Wire
Airplane Crew Discovers Fetus Abandoned In Airplane’s Waste System, Prompting Flight’s Cancellation
A flight departing from Durban, South Africa was halted on Friday after flight crew members discovered a fetus had been left in the plane’s waste management system.
Flight FA 411 had been scheduled to depart Durban for South Africa’s capital city of Johannesburg at 6:15 a.m. local time. The flight was operated by FlySafair, an airliner known for cheap flights in the African nation.
FlySafair initially did not confirm that a fetus had been abandoned on the plane, saying only that the aircraft had been delayed due to a “finding which requires formal investigation from technical teams and police authorities,” the company said via a statement on its website.
However, passengers booked on the flight tweeted about the situation, which was later confirmed by authorities called to investigate at the scene.
Kirby Gordon, head of sales and distribution at FlySafair, later told News24 that a fetus had been found on the plane and that police were conducting an investigation. Gordon added that all passengers scheduled for Flight FA 411 had been accommodated by moving to other flights, at no additional expense.
“We will be doing everything in our power to aid authorities in the necessary investigations and thank our loyal customers for their patience with the resultant delay,” FlySafair said in its statement.
While the circumstances regarding the fetus’ abandonment are unknown, The South African reports that it could prove difficult for authorities to charge a parent or other individual with a crime.
“Section 113 of the General Law Amendment Act 46 of 1935[15] criminalises concealment of birth. It provides that a person commits this offence if he or she disposes of a body of a newly born child without a lawful burial order, and does so with the intention of concealing its birth,” Lorraine du Toit-Prinsloo, a professor at University of Pretoria’s Forensic Medicine Department wrote in a study on the country’s laws surrounding fetus abandonment and disposal told the newspaper.
“The offence stands regardless of whether the child was born alive or died before, during or after birth. The Act does not define ‘child’. However, S v. Molefe[12] provides that ‘child’ refers to a fetus that has reached at least 28 weeks’ gestation. One will therefore not commit this crime if one’s conduct involves a fetus of less than 28 weeks’ gestation,” Du Toit-Prinsloo wrote.
In South Africa, abortion is legal until 13 weeks into a pregnancy, though Metro reports that some medical professionals refuse to perform the procedure as it goes against their religious beliefs, making abortions difficult to obtain in some parts of the country.
Still, South African Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele urged pregnant women who felt they could not care for a child to contact social services rather than abandon a fetus.
“If they have a problem, there are social workers, or they can go to the police, who can advise them where to go. There are social workers who can assist if you think you’re not ready for the pregnancy,” Mbele said, according to Metro.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
FL Man Throws Feces At Judge, Says ‘It’s Protein, It’s Good For You’ Before Jury Acquits Him Of Charges – Witnesses on hand at the time said that man also ate some of the excrement
A Florida man’s courtroom antics didn’t seem to deter a jury who later cleared him of burglary charges.
The trial for 33-year-old Dorleans Philidor was delayed on Friday morning after Philidor defecated on himself in the courtroom and proceeded to throw his feces towards Miami-Dade Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Lisa Walsh, the Miami Herald said.
The excrement did not reach Walsh, but the move sent lawyers scattering out of Philidor’s reach as law enforcement members and corrections officers hurried in to stop the man from continuing with his actions. According to the Herald, Philidor told Walsh “It’s protein! It’s good for you!” as he threw the feces her way.
“It was intense. The corrections officers and police officers were swarming. Like 60 of them. They told everyone to leave and you couldn’t go back in. It was a hazardous area,” witness Allen Rios told the Herald.
Rios posted a short video of part of the encounter on his Instagram account.Philidor’s move came during the morning docket routine, when no jurors were present in the courtroom. However, the courtroom was evacuated so that the area could be cleaned and sanitized while proceedings continued in a different room.
Philidor’s appearance on Friday was in connection to a burglary charge, where he is accused of breaking into a home in North Miami Beach while the owner was home. The homeowner called police after the break-in, and Philidor was captured afterward. He was acquitted by a jury later in the day on the burglary charge. However, he still faces charges of grand theft auto for which a separate trial will be held at a later date, the Herald said.Philidor exhibited similar behavior to his courtroom actions on Thursday when he defecated on himself in his holding cell next to a courtroom, smearing the feces on himself over the walls of the cell. Afterward, he was escorted out of the cell and into the hallway, where the smell was noticeable.That courtroom, as well as half of the second floor of the building, was shut down so that it could be cleaned and disinfected, the Herald said.
Photo Credit: start.att.net
Video shows baby being thrown from a car seat, landing on concrete during fight at a Milwaukee gas station
MILWAUKEE, WI (CNN.com) — Disturbing surveillance video shows a baby being thrown from a car seat and landing on concrete during a fight at a gas station in Milwaukee.
Video surveillance obtained by WISN shows a man and a woman holding her 10-month-old baby in a car seat as they walked into the BP gas station at Farwell and Maryland early Friday morning.
They all go into the bathroom to change the baby’s diaper but as they came out, you see the man, identified as Ronald Ziedman Jr. with his arms around the woman as she falls to the ground.
In the video, the woman is seen holding onto the carrier, then watch from the outside angle but as Ziedman grabs the car seat, and the baby flies out onto the concrete.
Ziedman picks her up and put her in the car, then goes back inside where the video shows him continue to attack the woman, even ripping off her clothes.
She told police at one point she said she “lost consciousness as a result of the punching.”
Prosecutors say the suspect had been drinking and drove off with the baby from the gas station to Potawatomi Casino, where a security guard saw the man with the baby and called police
When police arrived, they say he failed a field sobriety test.
According to the criminal complaint, the woman told police she had only known Ziedman for a couple of days and was staying at his mother’s house with her daughter.
He faces several felonies, including child abduction and substantial battery.
WISN said Ziedman is a convicted felon.
If he’s convicted on the new charges, he could spend more than a half century in jail.
As for the baby, she had bruises to her ribs and arm but is doing OK. The mother also suffered swelling and bruises on her face.
Photo Credit: WISN via CNN
U.S. Soccer, women’s team tentatively agree to mediate gender discrimination lawsuit
REIMS, France — U.S. Soccer and players for the women’s national team have tentatively agreed to mediate a lawsuit that accuses the federation of gender discrimination and seeks equitable pay.
The federation and representatives for the players confirmed the agreement, first reported in the Wall Street Journal, to pursue mediation following the Women’s World Cup.
“Here to win a World Cup, lawyers are at home to do their thing, so we both have our jobs,” defender Kelley O’Hara said Saturday. “This team has always been good at compartmentalizing. We focus on the task at hand and I haven’t paid any mind on anything that’s been going on. That’s something we’ll pick back up when we get home but right now my only focus is winning the World Cup.”
The United States, the defending champion and three-time World Cup winner, won its first three games of the tournament and is set to play Spain on Monday in the knockout stage. The championship game is set for July 7 in Lyon.
Twenty-eight members of the current player pool filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in March. The lawsuit alleges “institutionalized gender discrimination” that includes inequitable compensation when compared with their counterparts on the men’s national team.
“While we welcome the opportunity to mediate, we are disappointed the plaintiffs’ counsel felt it necessary to share this news publicly during the Women’s World Cup and create any possible distraction from the team’s focus on the tournament and success on the field,” U.S. Soccer said in a statement.
The federation has maintained the differences in pay are the result of different collective bargaining agreements that establish distinct pay structures for the two teams. Those agreements are not public. Court documents said decisions surrounding the teams have been made for “legitimate business reasons and not for any discriminatory or other unlawful purpose.”
The lawsuit was an escalation of a long-simmering dispute over pay and treatment. Five players filed a complaint in 2016 with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that alleged wage discrimination by the federation. The lawsuit effectively ended that EEOC complaint.
The federation and the team reached a collective bargaining agreement in April 2017. The agreement, which runs through 2021, gave the players higher pay and better benefits.
Defender Ai Krieger said she hasn’t given the lawsuit any thought.
“Right now we’re so focused on the game against Spain, and that’s what’s important for us right now,” she said.
Article via NBCNews
She knows you think her name is different. But Dr. Marijuana Pepsi’s work speaks for itself.
Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck knows what you probably think of her before you read another word.
She knows, too, the value of letting her work do the talking.
Yes, Marijuana Pepsi is the name she was given at birth. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, her mother thought the name would take her around the world.
She’s made just two changes — taking her husband’s surname and adding three more letters to the end: Ph.D.
In May, Vandyck, 46, earned her doctorate in educational leadership from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee. Her story went somewhat viral this week when Twitter users picked up on her unusual name.
The topic of her dissertation? “Black Names in White Classrooms.”
But rather than draw on her own experiences as a student, she said she was driven by the prejudice she witnessed as a teacher in Georgia, when a co-worker complained that her class grades would suffer that year based on nothing more than a list of her students’ names.
The students’ names sounded black, other teachers told Vandyk.
“I knew what I’d gone through, but it wasn’t until then that I thought, ‘I’m probably not the only one,’” she told CNN.
She interviewed black students at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where she earned her bachelor’s degree, about the impact their names had on their treatment by professors and how their treatment affected their academic achievement.
Soon, she’ll convert her findings in to journal articles—that is, when she finds the time in her jam-packed itinerary.
When she’s not busy earning an advanced degree, she’s the director of a program for first-generation college students at Beloit College in Wisconsin.
Oh, and she lives on a 3-acre farm in Illinois with her husband, where she raises 15 ducks, some chickens and two pigs named Sausage and Link (this doesn’t bode well for their futures).
She’s the mother of a 16-year-old son, and is a motorcycle enthusiast, real estate agent and business owner.
Now, she’s a doctor, too.
But she didn’t achieve all of that to please anyone but herself, especially not those who judge her by her name.
“What they think about my name has no impact on me whatsoever,” she said. “My name does not make me, and I did not make it.”
She’s never considered her name an impediment, but she “cringes” at the prospect of meeting people and the inevitable questioning that follows, she said.
The self-proclaimed introvert prefers to stay under the radar and let her work leave a legacy.
“They have a preconceived notion of who I was before even meeting me. It caused me to already be prepared for that and be one step faster, three steps better and really put my best foot forward.”
When she’s not helping first-generation and low-income college students navigate higher education or showing houses or performance coaching or earning an advanced degree, she’s making her own yogurt or finishing the last of her home-tapped maple syrup. She might talk her husband into getting his own motorcycle one of these days, too, she said.
Balance is key, she said. She doesn’t stress herself out, and she definitely doesn’t smoke marijuana.
She doesn’t drink Pepsi — or alcohol either. In fact, her first sip of alcohol happened by accident during Communion. She choked when she realized the church used wine instead of grape juice, she said.
Next up, work on her book proposal that centers on how students overcome implicit bias and stereotyping—a subject she knows well.
Are all of her accomplishments enough to silence critics who make snap judgments?
Maybe not, but she’s done just fine.
Photo Credit: fox2now.com
Couple convicted of murder after 4-year-old PA boy beaten to death over spilled cereal
WILLOW GROVE, Pa. (AP) — A suburban Philadelphia couple has been convicted of murder in the death of a 4-year-old who was beaten for spilling his breakfast cereal.
A jury returned the verdict Thursday night against the boy’s mother, Lisa Smith, and her boyfriend, Keiff King. The Abington couple also was convicted of child endangerment and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault.
Montgomery County prosecutors say an autopsy showed Tahjir Smith’s January 2018 death was the result of a violent, sustained beating. Investigators say Smith and King used their hands and a sandal to give Tahjir a “butt whooping” for spilling the cereal, then put him in the shower which was running scalding water.
Lawyers for Smith and King said there was no murderous intent in their actions, describing their conduct as negligent and reckless.
Photo Credit: kmov.com/Montgomery County Correctional Facility
Man Arrested After Brandishing Shotgun Over Food Dispute With Roommates
A man who brandished a shotgun after accusing his roommate of eating the last of his food was arrested in Fillmore, officials said Wednesday. His two roommates were also booked for allegedly being under the influence of a controlled substance during the dispute.
Jesurun Cyrus, 65, had accused his roommate, 59-year-old Travis Collett, of finishing his food on Tuesday afternoon at their home in the 700 block of Fourth Street, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.
Collett tried to make peace with Cyrus by making dinner for him with help from their other roommate, 55-year-old Dawn Allen, the Sheriff’s Office said.
This move “was not received well by Cyrus,” the department said. Cyrus allegedly pointed a shotgun at Collett as he asked him and Allen to leave their residence.
Collett called the authorities, who responded to the scene at around 4:30 p.m. and set a perimeter around the home.
Deputies called Cyrus and persuaded him to exit the home unarmed, the Sheriff’s Office said. Officers took him into custody without incident.
Authorities searched the home and found a loaded 12-gauge shotgun in his bedroom, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Cyrus was booked on $10,000 bail.
Deputies determined that his roommates, Collett and Allen, were under the influence of a controlled substance, the Sheriff’s Office said. They were also arrested. They were both cited and released, according to county inmate records.
Photo Credit: ktla.com/Ventura County Sheriff’s Office