School superintendent charged with fraud for using own insurance to help ill student
ELWOOD, Ind. – An Indiana school superintendent faces several charges after police say she sought medical treatment for a student using her son’s name.
Charges against Casey Smitherman include official misconduct, insurance fraud, insurance application fraud and identity deception.
According to court documents, a 15-year-old student didn’t come to school on Jan. 9 because he had a sore throat. Smitherman picked him up and took him to the med check in Elwood so a doctor could examine him. However, she allegedly signed the student in under her son’s name and also had a prescription for Amoxicillin filled at CVS under her son’s name.
The teen tore the name off the bottle’s label because he “knew it was wrong” and “to have a prescription in his possession with a different name is bad,” court documents said.
Police received a tip about the situation and followed up with the teen’s guardian on Jan. 16. A day later, Smitherman talked to Elwood police about the situation.
During her statement, she told police she realized the student wasn’t at school on Jan. 9 and was worried about him. In the past, she’s bought clothes for him and helped clean his house, according to court documents.
She said she didn’t contact the Department of Child Services because she feared the teen would be placed in foster care, the documents say. She admitted taking him to the med check and signing him in under her son’s name.
She also said she’d taken him to CVS to get a prescription, authorities say, and had the prescription filled under her son’s name. She dropped the boy off at home with the prescription and said she didn’t realize he’d torn the name off the bottle.
Medical records obtained by subpoena showed a prescription was filled under her son’s name on Jan. 9. The total claim was $233, according to court documents. Police contacted the Department of Child Services to advise them that “financial help may be needed” for the teen.
Smitherman issued this statement:
Recently, I was given notice one of our students was not at school. I went to his home to check on him, and he told me that he had not felt well enough to come to school. After making sure he had eaten, I could tell he had some of the symptoms of strep throat. As a parent, I know how serious this illness can be if left untreated, and I took him to an emergency clinic.
After one clinic refused to give the boy necessary treatment, I took him to a different clinic and told them he was my son. I knew he did not have insurance, and I wanted to do all I could to help him get well. I know this action was wrong. In the moment, my only concern was for this child’s health.
I have been charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor, and I have cooperated with authorities every step of the way. I turned myself in to the Elwood police this afternoon and was immediately released on bail. It is my understanding the prosecutor has agreed to a diversion program and that should be finalized yet this afternoon.
The Elwood community has been welcoming since I started this position, and I am so grateful for your support. I am committed to this community and our students, and I regret if this action has undermined your trust in me. From the beginning, my ultimate goal has been to provide the best environment for Elwood students’ growth physically, mentally and academically, and I remain focused on that purpose.
School board president Brent Kane has issued a statement of support below, for which I am also grateful. I am continuing to work with appropriate authorities as necessary and want to be transparent about my work with the Elwood community.
The Elwood school board issued this statement:
Dr. Smitherman has tirelessly worked for the best interests of all students in Elwood Community Schools since she was hired. She made an unfortunate mistake, but we understand that it was out of concern for this child’s welfare. We know she understands what she did was wrong, but she continues to have our support.
It is our understanding that the prosecutor has agreed to a diversion program and that will be finalized this afternoon
HULU FYRE FRAUD
Watch HULU FYRE FRAUD. You will hear Billy McFarland’s excuses and defections on his life who,what where and when from him his family friends and others who tried to make it all possible. On Sunday January 27th our Miss Auntie Lovelyti will be having her documentaries and discussions episode 9. FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened. So pop your popcorn drink some tea. And watch Netflix Fyre The Greatest Party That Never Happened. Then watch HULU FYRE FRAUD. And then come join Ti on YOUTUBE LIVE on Sunday at 4pm y’all!! I know I’m gonna be in the first row to discuss sip some tea! And eat some chips and dip!!
Offset Slams Government Shutdown: “That’s Some Slave Sh*t”
Article via HotNewHipHop
Offset gets candid about the government shutdown.
Cardi B‘s rant towards Trump’s decision to shut down the government garnered a lot of traction from both Republicans and Democrats alike. Following her lead, Offset also shared his thoughts on the ongoing government shutdown during a recent interview with Esquire.
Offset rarely gets political, but it’s likely we’ll get a rare glimpse into that side of him on his forthcoming project, according to his interview. The rapper is getting ready to release his solo album which was initially scheduled to drop in December. The ongoing government shutdown seems to have sparked some inspiration with Offset who thinks America as a whole is going through a rough patch.
“We’re going through a fucked up time,” he said. “Both sides. Black and the white. You know why? The government shutdown. Black people aren’t working, white folks aren’t working. It’s everybody.”
Offset, who’s traveled across the globe with the Migos, said the reality of America is much sadder than the perception of the country from overseas.
“This ain’t supposed to be going down. Not in America. We got our chest out, we got the money, we got the cars, we got the celebrities, we got the stars, everybody wants to be like us. All these other countries when I go there, they’re inspired by us,” he said. “Seeing people talk about how they can’t pay their bills but they have to work. That’s some slave shit. I don’t really get into it politics because I’m usually on the other side of it. There’s black mothers with jobs, and now you take their jobs away. And then the president, I don’t really want to speak on him but he’s rich. Make a n*gga respect you, because a n*gga don’t respect you. He’s rich and has these folks struggling.”
The government shutdown is on its 31st day as of today (Jan. 22nd). According to CNN, there’s a very slim chance that the government will fully reopen at a quick pace.
Teen In MAGA Hat: ‘I Had Every Right’ To Stand There
Article via HuffingtonPost
Covington Catholic High student Nick Sandmann told NBC he was “not disrespectful” to Native American activist Nathan Phillips.
Nick Sandmann, the MAGA hat-wearing teen at the center of Friday’s highly publicized stand-off with Native American activist Nathan Phillips in Washington, D.C., believes his actions were “not disrespectful.”
Footage of the Covington Catholic High School student ― and his Kentucky peers ― went viral following the incident, showing the group surrounding Phillips on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as he performed an American Indian Movement song.
Sandmann, who is seen in the video smiling just inches away from the Native American elder’s face, told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie in an interview that aired Wednesday on the “Today” show that he “had every right” to stand before Phillips.
“My position is that I was not disrespectful to Mr. Phillips. I respect him, I would like to talk to him,” he said. “In hindsight, I wish we could have walked away and avoided the whole thing.”
Sandmann’s sit-down interview comes after an earlier statement was released on his behalf by a public relations firm in which he claimed to have been singled out by Phillips.
“I believed that by remaining motionless and calm, I was helping to [defuse] the situation,” it read. “I said a silent prayer that the situation would not get out of hand.”
Sandmann told Guthrie that removing himself from the situation would have been better in hindsight, but he claimed he didn’t want to be “disrespectful” to Phillips.
“I was surrounded by a lot of people I didn’t know that had their phones out, had cameras, and I didn’t want to bump into anyone or seem like I was trying to do something,” Sandmann said.
Asked about his facial expression during the encounter, which many viewers have perceived as a smirk, Sandmann said it was a “smile.”
“I see it as a smile saying that this is the best you’re going to get out of me, you won’t get any further reaction of aggression, and I’m willing to stand here as long as you want to hit this drum in my face,” he said.
The viral incident has prompted nationwide outrage at both ends of the political spectrum, with the situation becoming only more complicated after more than an hour of footage from the encounter emerged Sunday.
In various interviews, Phillips said he had approached the teens from the school group in an attempt to thwart any potential violence between them and a group of several black men identifying themselves as Hebrew Israelites. He has said he heard the teens shouting “build the wall,” a reference to President Donald Trump’s long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It was getting ugly, and I was thinking: ‘I’ve got to find myself an exit out of this situation and finish my song at the Lincoln Memorial,’” he told The Washington Post. “I started going that way, and that guy in the hat [Sandmann] stood in my way, and we were at an impasse.”
Sandmann denied blocking Phillips and said in a statement that he is “a faithful Christian and practicing Catholic, and I always try to live up to the ideals my faith teaches me ― to remain respectful of others and to take no action that would lead to conflict or violence.”
In his “Today” interview, Sandmann claimed none of his classmates are racist and that he never heard any of them say “build the wall” during the incident.
″We’re a Catholic school,” he told Guthrie. “They don’t tolerate racism. And none of my classmates are racist people.”
Article via HuffingtonPost
Trump backs students from Lincoln memorial confrontation
Article via CBSNews
President Trump has weighed in on the controversy surrounding a confrontation Friday at the base of the Lincoln Memorial involving three groups. The incident was caught on video that went viral. The story behind it has evolved several times since first coming to light, and accounts still differ.
The trouble involved a group of five black men shouting vulgar insults while protesting centuries of oppression, dozens of white Catholic high school students visiting Washington for a rally to end abortion and Native Americans marching to end injustice for indigenous peoples across the globe who have seen their lands overrun by outside settlers.
Mr. Trump tweeted his support Monday night for the students from Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills, Kentucky, as some news reports questioned whether early criticism of them was warranted:
Covington Catholic was closed Tuesday. A letter from the school’s president Robert Rowe, obtained by CBS affiliate WKRC, said the school would close “to ensure the safety of our students, faculty and staff.”
At the base of the memorial Friday, the three groups met for just a few minutes in an encounter that again cast a spotlight on a polarized nation.
At first the focus was on a short video showing one of the high school students, Nick Sandmann, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat and appearing to smirk while a crowd of other teens laughed derisively behind him as a 64-year-old Native American veteran, Nathan Phillips, played a traditional chant on a drum.
Pull back farther and a different view emerges, however, in a separate video showing members of a group calling itself the Black Hebrew Israelites taunting everyone on the mall that day, calling the Native Americans who had gathered there for the Indigenous Peoples March “Uncle Tomahawks” and “$5 Indians” and the high school students “crackers” and worse.
It was an ugly encounter of spewed epithets but one that nevertheless ended with no punches thrown or other violence.
“I would caution everyone passing judgment based on a few seconds of video to watch the longer video clips that are on the internet, as they show a much different story than is being portrayed by people with agendas,” Sandmann, a junior, said in a statement released late Sunday.
Sandmann’s statement does seem at odds with some video from the confrontation that showed students from Covington Catholic laughing at Phillips’ Native American group and mockingly singing along with him, as well as interviews with Phillips, who said he heard the students shout “Build that wall!” and “Go back to the reservation!”
The fullest view of what happened came from a nearly two-hour video posted on Facebook by Shar Yaqataz Banyamyan. It showed members of his Black Hebrew Israelite group repeatedly interacting with the crowd as people from the Indigenous Peoples March and the high school students vigorously argued with them for a few minutes.
Sandmann said in his statement the students from his all-male high school were waiting for their buses near Banyamyan’s group when the latter started to taunt them. One of the students took off his shirt and the teens started to do a haka – a war dance of New Zealand’s indigenous Maori culture, made famous by the country’s national rugby team.
Phillips, an elder of the Omaha tribe, and Marcus Frejo, a member of the Pawnee and Seminole tribes, said they felt the students were mocking the dance and walked over to intervene.
Phillips and Sandmann locked eyes, their faces inches apart. Both men said their goal was simply to make sure things didn’t get out of hand. But caught on video, the encounter still went viral.
The high school students felt they were unfairly portrayed as villains in a situation where they say they were not the provocateurs.
“I am being called every name in the book, including a racist, and I will not stand for this mob-like character assassination,” Sandmann said in his statement.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington apologized for the incident, promising an investigation that could lead to punishment up to expulsion if any wrongdoing by the students was determined.
The Indigenous Peoples Movement felt the encounter was a reminder the U.S. was founded on racism and Mr. Trump’s presidency is rekindling hatred based on skin color.
“Trump has riled up a reactionary voting block that reminds us that we are a nation founded on patriarchy, genocide and racism. Trump is clearly giving these archaic instincts license, encouraging the kind of aggressive goading that I witnessed,” movement spokesman Chase Iron Eyes said in a statement.
Phillips is now offering to travel to northern Kentucky to meet with the students for a “dialog about cultural appropriation, racism, and the importance of listening to and respecting diverse cultures,” according to the Lakota People’s Law Project.
“Race relations in this country and around the world have reached a boiling point,” the group quotes Phillips as saying. “It is sad that on the weekend of a holiday when we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., racial hostility occurred on the steps of the Lincoln memorial, where King gave his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.”
Banyamyan posted his own reaction on Facebook, referencing the dozens of high school students in their Make America Great Again gear coming over to his group of five and chanting. In a rambling video, he also praised Phillips and compared Sandmann to the devil.
After the sun set and the Covington high school students left, Banyamyan’s video showed a few police officers stopping by to check on his group as they were wrapping up their protest. One of the officers said they were worried by the number of people who briefly massed in that one spot. One of the Black Hebrew Israelites said there were no problems.
“We weren’t threatened by them,” he said. “It was an OK dialogue.”
Dragon Ball Super: Broly Review
Time and time again, Dragon Ball proves why it’s one of the greatest anime/manga of all time. It’s latest installment to the franchise, Dragon Ball Super: Broly proves just that.
This movie is definitely a rollercoaster from start to finish. Everything from the action to the emotional moments, this movie delivers. The change from Broly being an evil psychotic mass murderer to a more sympathetic lonely warrior was a well needed change.
It was also nice to get background information on the Saiyan race. While there are a few changes from the previously established lore of the series, it doesn’t bother me too much. Seeing how Planet Vegeta operates and how Frieza comes into power was a nice touch.
The main thing people love about this movie, as do I, is with no doubt the animation. This animation for this movie was nothing short of beautiful and deserves all the praise it gets. The art style is simple yet so fluid and it shows during the fight scenes in this movie.
This is probably hands down, my favorite Dragon Ball movie no question. If people think this series is burnt out and dead, they’re dead wrong. This series definitely has more to tell and I can wait to see what direction it’ll take.
As for my personal score of the movie, s definitely solid 9 out of 10 only because the transition scenes in the beginning are a little choppy for me. But other than that, awesome from start to finish. Dragon Ball Super, if you haven’t seen it, see it ASAP before it leaves theaters.
Man Allegedly Threatened Mass Shooting Against Women because he’ still a virgin.
A man, allegedly upset over not having a girlfriend who loved him, posted concerning remarks on Facebook, which prompted local police officers to partner with the FBI and arrest him for making terroristic threats.
Christopher Cleary was taken into custody in Provo, Utah, by Provo Police Department officers on Saturday and is still being held in the Utah County Jail. The 27-year-old is from Denver, according to the Deseret News, but was staying in an Airbnb in Utah while visiting the area.
Officers in Provo were alerted to potential dangers posed by Cleary by officers in Colorado after they were notified about a concerning Facebook post that was published ahead of several Women’s March events. The post said there’s “nothing more dangerous than [a] man ready to die,” KUTVreported.
Cleary, who allegedly admitted to officers to writing the now-deleted post, appeared to be upset over his lack of romantic relationships with women.
“All I wanted was a girlfriend, not 1000 not a bunch of hoes not money none of that. All I wanted was to be loved, yet no one cares about me I’m 27 years old and I’ve never had a girlfriend before and I’m still a virgin, this is why I’m planning on shooting up a public place soon and being the next mass shooter cause I’m ready to die and all the girls the turned me down is going to make it right by killing as many girls as I see,” Cleary reportedly posted on Facebook.
Provo police officers joined forces with the FBI and together the law enforcement agents found Cleary at a McDonald’s in Provo. He was escorted out of the establishment and read his Miranda rights, which is when the 27-year-old agreed to be questioned.
An arrest affidavit obtained by the Deseret News stated that Cleary said he wasn’t “thinking clearly” when he posted the messages and had a problem with impulse control. He also made suicidal comments, which, according to KUTV, included him saying he “thought it might be better if he died.” Officers searched his phone but found no further threats.
Along with facing a charge of threatening terrorism, which is a third-degree felony, Cleary was also booked for violating probation instituted in Colorado. A Colorado probation officer told the Provo Police Department that intimidating women is a “pattern of behavior” for Cleary, according to the affidavit. The probation officer said the 27-year-old was on probation for felony stalking and threatening of women.
Officers requested a large amount of bail, although, Utah County Jail Records don’t list a specific amount. Colorado probation officers want Cleary extradited for his probation violation.
Netflix Velvet Buzzsaw
This movie is about to lit!!! Streaming February 1st on Netflix
The Green Book A travelers guide for Negros
This is Black History that I knew nothing about.
