Shakira Appears in Spanish Court Over Tax Evasion Allegations
Article via EOnline
Shakira is denying any wrongdoing with regard to her tax evasion case in Spain.
In December, prosecutors charged the 42-year-old Latin pop star for allegedly failing to pay 14.5 million euros ($16.4 million) in taxes between 2012 and 2014, when she allegedly lived most of the time in Barcelona with husband and soccer player Gerard Piqué, and accused her of committing six counts of fraud. She could face a jail sentence if found guilty. Shakira testified before a judge about the case on Thursday and said that she began living in Spain in 2015 and currently has no debts to the tax agency, Spanish news channel 24 Horas reported.
“Shakira has always, including in the period between 2011 and 2014, met her tax obligations in every country she has worked in,” Shakira’s PR firm said in a statement on Thursday, according to reports.
The group also said, that “as soon as she was informed of the amount that according to Spain’s Tax Office she should pay… Shakira paid that amount in its entirety.”
The prosecution alleges that for tax purposes, Shakira pretended to live abroad while really residing with Piqué in Spain, and allegedly used shelter companies to hide her earnings in tax havens, Billboard quoted Spanish media as saying.
Shakira’s reps had said in the past that during the years examined by the court, the pop star was still a resident of the Bahamas, where she had bought a house with an ex-boyfriend, and legally changed her residency to Spain in 2015, Billboard reported. However, the singer did gush during an interview on a Spanish talk show in 2011 that she was already “officially living in Barcelona” at that time, the outlet added.
The outlet noted that in 2018, Shakira paid the Spanish tax agency more than 20 million euros (almost $25 million dollars) in back taxes for money owed for 2011, and also paid another 14.5 million euros for the years 2012-2014 as a good faith measure before the tax evasion charges became public.
Jada Pinkett Smith: Daughter Willow is ‘curious’ about polyamory
Article via PageSix
Jada Pinkett Smith is very open about her marriage, family, and escapades…
The actress and host of “Red Table Talk” appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Wednesday and revealed the next topic to be discussed on her Facebook show.
Pinkett Smith, 47, told the late-night host that it was her daughter and co-host Willow Smith, 18, who actually brought the idea of exploring a relationship between a man and two women to the table.
Details on the show’s guests were scarce, but according to the “Girls Trip” star, it was Willow who found them on social media.
“It’s a throuple that Willow was actually following on Instagram,” Pinkett Smith explained. “That’s how it all came to be. She became very curious about this whole polyamory thing.”
Kimmel asked the “Set It Off” actress whether or not Willow’s curiosity might push her into engaging in a polyamorous relationship of her own in the future, to which Pinkett Smith said that while it is a possibility, she is unsure of her daughter’s preferences.
“Possibly. I don’t know,” she said. “Listen, she’s 18 — who the heck knows what’s going to go down?”
Fans of “Red Table Talk” often praise Pinkett Smith for her willingness to ask her guests tough questions. In March, she sat down with Kylie Jenner’s former best friend, Jordyn Woods, in what was her first interview since the public scandal involving her and NBA star Tristan Thompson, the father of Khloé Kardashian’s daughter.
The 30-minute Woods episode, which also featured a video call from Will Smith from the set of “Bad Boys for Life,” has been viewed more than 32 million times.
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Florida man pours salt in Walmart to ‘get rid of evil spirits,’ sheriff says
Meredith) — A man in central Florida poured salt on the floor of a Walmart store and told deputies it was to “get rid of evil spirits” around him, according to the Pasco Sheriff’s Office.
Dameon Dean Cantrell, 38, was arrested early Sunday morning.
According to WPEC, a store manager told investigators that Cantrell poured salt on his feet and on the Walmart floor before walking into the woods nearby.
It is unclear if the salt he allegedly used was his own or if it was salt from the Walmart store’s shelves.
Police found Cantrell laying in the woods, but still on Walmart property. He was arrested and taken to the Land O’Lakes Detention Center, according to jail records. He was charged with misdemeanor trespassing on property other than structure or conveyance with a bond set at $150.
According to arrest records, this is the fifth time Cantrell has been arrested since Nov. 2017.
Pasco County is about 35 miles north of Tampa.
Photo Credit: kmov.com/Pasco Sheriff’s Office
Neighbors appalled after man builds large swastika in his front yard
EL SOBRANTE (BAY AREA NEWS GROUP/Meredith) — Twenty-four hours after local news reports first shined the spotlight on the giant swastika carved in his front yard, Steven Johnson just doesn’t get the commotion. But what Johnson calls a “design” sure does look like the Nazi symbol — and it has set his East Bay neighbors on edge.
“That Nazi (stuff) happened like 80 years ago,” Johnson said Wednesday, sitting on his Harley Davidson motorcycle in front of his home in this out-of-the-way neighborhood where a narrow road separates houses tucked together on both sides. “Get over it, I guess.”
That’s not about to happen.
Aerial footage from local news stations on Tuesday captured the cement swastika, which measures about 10 feet by 10 feet and sits adjacent to the walkway of Johnson’s home, taking up half of the front yard of the modest one-story house. A day later, media and gawkers continued to show up on the street, and drone used by a photographer for a national news company hovered above the house, snapping images of Johnson’s yard.
The uproar over the swastika comes just as the world is commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied Forces landed in Normandy, France on June 6, 1944, a battle considered one of the major turning points of World War II.
Speaking to a reporter and photographers after pulling up to his home Wednesday morning, Johnson was polite — and also showed zero remorse for his Nazi stone garden.
“I like swastikas,” he said. “I think they look cool. … I didn’t do it to get attention. I’m not a worshiper of Nazis. I just thought it’d be a cool thing to put in there.”
Calling the design a “Tibetan symbol,” Johnson said the swastika symbolizes “peace, tranquility and harmony.” But while the ancient symbol used in many eastern religions traditionally faced counter-clockwise, the symbol used by Nazi Germany — like the one in Johnson’s yard — turns to the right.
That swastika is widely recognized as a symbol of hatred, associated with the persecution and systematic murder of millions — including about 6 million Jewish people — under the Third Reich.
Johnson’s decision to build one has not inspired good feelings from neighbors, two of whom privately Wednesday expressed their disgust with his decision. And as images of the giant Nazi lawn art spread, others outside the community said they were deeply offended
“Personally, and professionally, I find it deeply deeply offensive,” said Nancy Appel, a spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League. “The thing is huge, it’s in concrete and symmetrical. It appears that a lot of effort went into it.”
Anti-Semitic incidents — including the appearance of swastikas in plain view of the public — have been on the rise in California since 2016, according to data from ADL, which tracks bias incidents nationwide. The group recorded 341 anti-Semitic events statewide in 2018, up from 278 the year prior and more than any other state in the U.S. How Data Visionaries Drive Better Outcomes See how today’s innovators are breaking barriers and transforming their organizations with data. Watch here to learn more. Ad By NetApp See More
“This is 2019 and it’s California,” Appel said. Addressing Johnson’s swastika, she added, “Despite the long heritage, I think we all know what that symbol has come to mean. It’s not just offensive to Jews, it’s offensive to African-Americans, it’s offensive to Asian Americans, Mexican-Americans. It’s offensive to pretty much everybody and has come come to be seen as a symbol of hate for everyone.”
To which Johnson’s response seems to be: Tough darts.
“I don’t feel bad about putting it in,” he said. “I feel bad about everybody making such a big deal about it.”
He also said he doesn’t plan to remove it.
‘It’s what America stands for. It’s my property, my choice,” he said. “A few people don’t like and now I have to remove it? I enjoy it.”
By RICK HURD, Bay Area News Group
Photo Credit: wpxi.com
Monster gets 120 years in prison for livestreaming sexual abuse of his daughter
A depraved Iowa man was sentenced to 120 years behind bars for repeatedly sexually abusing his daughter — from infancy to 6 years old — and even raping her live on the internet, according to authorities and new reports.
Steven Douglas Crook Jr., 29, of Bloomfield, pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual exploitation of a child and received the maximum penalty Monday in connection with the disturbing crimes, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa said in a Tuesday statement.
Crook sexually abused the girl — sometimes violently — from the time she was an infant until law enforcement rescued her from the home in March 2018, when she was 6, according to the statement.
He took photos and videos of the abuse, and sometimes livestreamed it using the popular app Live.me, prosecutors said. He even allegedly encouraged his followers to watch him rape the helpless girl online.
Authorities discovered electronic devices in Crook’s possession that held videos of the abuse, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Des Moines Register. Disturbingly, one folder on a storage card bore the label “child porn and baby rape,” the complaint said.
“Any time a child is abused in Iowa, if we have photographs or videos of the abuse, the defendant can be prosecuted in federal court, and face decades, if not life, behind bars,” US Attorney Marc Krickbaum said in the statement. “Steven Crook will spend the rest of his life in federal prison, where he belongs. We want to make sure that other defendants like him, who are a threat to our children, face the stiffest penalties federal law allows.”
“In this case, sexual abuse went undetected for years because family members failed to report it to authorities,” he added.
US District Judge Stephanie M. Rose described Crook’s crimes as horrific — and blasted his efforts to hide the crimes for years as “insidious,” “thoughtful” and “manipulative.”
Meanwhile, the little girl’s mom, Kendra Hoover, has also been charged — as prosecutors charge that she left her daughter alone with Crook even after she saw a video of the horrific abuse, local station KTVO reported.
Hoover faces more than a dozen state charges of neglect and child endangerment, and will go on trial in December.
Photo Credit: nypost.com/Davis County Sheriff’s Office
Mom gets probation for putting 8 month old baby in freezer
A young Tennessee mother, 19, has received two years’ probation for putting her 8-month-old baby in a freezer while allegedly under the influence, then closing the lid, according to a report.
FOX 35 ORLANDO reported that Brittany Smith was facing felony charges of aggravated child abuse and neglect. She pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of child neglect only.
Witnesses said they saw Smith holding her baby next to an unused freezer in their backyard.
The resident went outside to speak with Smith, and found her in the crawlspace under their home.
The baby was found in the freezer, which had about an inch of standing water inside.
The baby survived.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/06/05/mom-gets-probation-for-putting-baby-in-freezer/
Photo Credit: nypost.com/Washington County Detention Center
Mom wrapped daughter in plastic bag and left her in bushes to die
A mom in the UK who wrapped her baby in plastic bags and left her to die after forcing an object down her throat to stop her crying has been convicted of murder.
Hannah Cobley, 29, is facing life behind bars after inflicting severe head injuries on the premature baby before dumping her in the bushes.
The mom claimed she didn’t know she was pregnant after a one-night stand with a stranger, but cops learned she had searched phrases including “signs of stillbirth,” “how long a baby can survive without being fed” and “what happens when a newborn baby is dropped.”
And jurors today took just an hour and a half to convict the mom of murder.
Leicester Crown Court had previously heard how the unnamed child suffered a catalog of injuries including three skull fractures, bruising, cuts and a brain injury.
Shockingly, an object had been forced down the child’s throat after she had been born prematurely at 32 weeks.
The four-week trial heard that the baby girl was found in the bushes next to a shed outside Cobley’s parents’ farmhouse on April 30, 2017.
During her police interview, Cobley admitted she had given birth but said the baby was not crying or moving, so she put her in a bag and placed her in the garden.
“This is an extremely sad and tragic case which has resulted in the death of a newborn baby girl, born at 32 weeks. Hannah Cobley had previously denied being responsible for her baby’s death but, following this investigation, has today been found guilty of murder,” senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Jon Blockley said.
“Cobley could have sought help from her own family or professionals, but instead took actions into her own hands. This decision meant a newborn baby girl was denied her life.”
Cobley, of Stanton, will be sentenced on Friday at the same court.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/06/06/mom-wrapped-daughter-in-plastic-bag-and-left-her-in-bushes-to-die/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Xbox deodorant and body wash let you smell like a gamer
Game face, meet game scent.
A new line of grooming products called Xbox Lynx embodies a fragrance that some might rather avoid than apply: that of a gamer.
The collaboration between Xbox and Axe body spray parent companies Microsoft and Unilever, respectively, won’t flaunt the pheromones of a sweaty, unwashed video game addict. Nope, this scent features “top notes of kaffir lime and winter lemon, aromatic herbal middle notes of mint and sage, and woody bottom notes of patchouli and clearwood,” GameSpot reports.
Instead of three-day old trail mix and “Call of Duty” carnage, its ingredient list contains “a range of natural essential oils,” including a “pulsing green citrus.”
Colored the same radioactive green as Mountain Dew, this new body spray, deodorant and shower gel pack will be test-marketed beginning come July exclusively in Australia and New Zealand.
Is an expansion to the US market on the horizon? It sure doesn’t appear that the man behind the creation of the Xbox wants that to happen.
“I seriously and honestly have no comment,” says Xbox developer Seamus Blackley on Twitter of the new product line. “I have no idea what a comment would even be on this. I’m rankly thinking of just going and drinking heavily at this point.”
Upon hearing of the product launch, tech journalist Mike Murphy wittily weighed in with, “Microsoft to Xbox owners: You smell.”
Xbox rep Tania Chee puts a more positive spin on it.
“We see Xbox fans achieve incredible things every day, and we wanted to celebrate that elevated skill, passion and determination by creating something truly special,” Chee says. “Now, powering up can be as simple as a quick spray before you head out the door.”
Microsoft’s Senior Programming Writer Ted Hudek got the last laugh with his tweet: “Now, if I just had a waterproof controller.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/06/05/xbox-deodorant-and-body-wash-let-you-smell-like-a-gamer/
Photo Credit: nypost.com/Unilever/Lynx/Microsoft
Maine student teacher busted on charges he had sex with pupil
An anonymous letter sent by an “outraged citizen” tipped off cops in Maine about a student teacher accused of having sex with a female pupil he met in one of his classes, court documents show.
Eben Wight, a 21-year-old music teacher who started at Camden Hills Regional High School in January, was charged with gross sexual assault after Five Town Community School District officials got an unsigned letter last month from someone who said the University of Maine grad had gotten too close to an 18-year-old student, the Bangor Daily News reported.
“I am writing because of the gross immorality that Mr. Wight has shown as a student teacher in hopes that this man will not be able to abuse his authorities and power as a teacher in the future,” the message read. “I am writing to stop further female students from being trapped by his neediness and moral turpitude.”
The district’s superintendent relayed the letter to Camden police, prompting an investigation. Wight, who taught the school’s band and chorus, as well as a rock-and-roll history course, admitted to having sex with the girl, according to a police affidavit obtained by the newspaper.
The teen acknowledged to cops that she and the instructor had sex in a car multiple times between March and May, but claimed they didn’t get intimate on school grounds, the Courier-Gazette reported.
Wight, of St. George, did not return a message seeking comment Wednesday. He was released on $250 bail following a court appearance Monday, the Bangor Daily News reported.
The age of consent in Maine is 16, but any teacher or school employee can be charged with gross sexual assault if they have relations with a student over whom they have authority.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/06/05/maine-student-teacher-busted-on-charges-he-had-sex-with-pupil/
Photo Credit: nypost.com/Knox County Jail