Kim Kardashian Admits Kanye’s Pro-Trump Stance Has Its Benefits
Hmm, Kim, do tell…
Despite Kanye West and President Trump’s increasingly chummy (and just plain baffling) relationship, West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, has spoken out numerous times about how she doesn’t agree with his political ideology. She previously said, for instance, how she “cried” and “fought” over West’s comments about slavery, and also asserted that West isn’t well-informed about the intricacies surrounding Trump’s administration. However, in a new interview with Richardson magazine, Kardashian admitted the men’s relationship has afforded her opportunities that wouldn’t be otherwise possible, so she’s just going to keep her head down and try to do good.
“I am aware that Kanye speaking out in favor of Trump got me through the door — got him to pick up my call,” Kardashian explained. “I’ve always had different opinions than Kanye. But when I went there, and when I saw what could be done, I realized that I could get more done if I just stayed focused on the issue I was passionate about instead of complaining.” While not directly naming it, Kardashian was referring to her White House meeting with Trump about prison reform earlier this year, where Kardashian plead her case to grant clemency to Alice Johnson — a 63-year-old who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense. Trump pardoned Johnson a week later, but not before the meme factory churned out some content to forever immortalize the tête-à-tête.
Article via Vulture
Dozens more infant corpses found as Detroit police widen investigation of funeral homes
Detroit Police Chief James Craig announced a “wide probe” into Michigan funeral homes Friday, after hidden caches of baby corpses were allegedly discovered at two unrelated businesses inside a week.
“This is deeply disturbing,” Craig said at a news conference, hours after police raided Perry Funeral Home and allegedly seized 63 fetus or infant bodies, more than half of which were packed together in unrefrigerated boxes. “We want to understand the reasons: Is it financial gain? If so, how? Who knew or who else is involved in this?”
The raid came a week after an anonymous letter led investigators to an abandoned funeral home on the other side of central Detroit, where they allegedly found nearly a dozen infant corpses hidden in a ceiling.
“I would like to look at you and tell you I hope … that this is isolated to these two. I can’t say that with certainty,” Craig told reporters, shortly after leaving a meeting with FBI and state investigators. “This is much larger than we might know.”
The police chief gave few details about the investigation, and declined to speculate as to what would motivate someone to keep tiny desiccated corpses long after they were supposed to have been interred. All the same, he described how the case escalated rapidly from a single anonymous tip into a full-blown investigative task force that could now probe businesses throughout the state.
The case began last week at Cantrell Funeral Home in east Detroit, which had been shuttered since the spring over accusations that adult corpses had been improperly stored to the point of growing mold.
An unsigned letter received on Oct. 12 urged investigators to return to the business and search it. The note led them to what police described as a hidden compartment in a ceiling — containing a casket, cardboard boxes, several trash bags and the remains of 11 dead infants.
Read more via TheWashingtonPost
Feds Launch Sex Abuse Probe Of Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic Church
The Department of Justice has launched an investigation of child sex abuse within Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic Church, sending subpoenas to dioceses across the state seeking private files and records to explore the possibility that priests and bishops violated federal law in cases that go back decades, NPR has learned.
In what is thought to be the first-ever such inquiry into the church’s clergy sex-abuse scandal, authorities have issued subpoenas to look into possible violations of the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, also known as RICO, according to a person close to the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The source did not elaborate on what other potential federal crimes could be part of the inquiry, which could take years and is now only in its early stages.
RICO has historically been used to dismantle organized-crime syndicates.
Officials at six of Pennsylvania’s eight dioceses — Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Scranton and Harrisburg — have confirmed to NPR that they have recently received and are currently complying with federal subpoenas for information. The two remaining dioceses did not return requests for comment.
A Justice Department representative in Washington, D.C., would neither confirm nor deny the existence of the investigation.
Legal experts said accruing enough evidence to build a RICO case against the Roman Catholic Church — basically treating the influential institution as a crime syndicate — will be a burdensome task.
Hamilton of Child USA, for one, said she thinks using federal RICO as a weapon against the church would be a stretch, since the 1970 law is not designed to deal with problems such as sex abuse and other personal injury cases. Instead, she said, most RICO cases involve financial crimes. “I hope that they can find a way to make it fit, but it will be challenging,” she said.
However, Hamilton said a federal statute called the Mann Act, which prohibits moving people across state lines for the purpose of illegal sex acts, could be a more promising legal avenue.
“As we know, there have been plenty of priests who took children across state lines,” she said.
Tobias, the law professor who specializes in federal courts, said whatever comes of the investigation, the issuing of the subpoenas has likely sent a jolt across the country. If the inquiry of the Pennsylvania church results in criminal charges, it could be used as a road map for federal prosecutors hoping to pursue abusers in other states.
“Pennsylvania might be the first state where the federal government does this,” Tobias said. “But then they build on the lessons they’ve learned there, as DOJ often does when they have a national issue, and go to the other states and use that template again.”
Article via NPR
Montana Greets Trump With Massive ‘LIAR’ And ‘IMPEACH’ Signs
The president received a less-than-warm greeting from protesters in Montana.
President Donald Trump was greeted with cheers from supporters on the ground at a campaign stop in Missoula, Montana on Thursday. From the air, however, he may have spotted a different kind of welcome.
Protesters transformed some local landmarks into anti-Trump messages, with “LIAR” and “IMPEACH” visible from the air ― and potentially from Air Force One, if the president happened to glance out the window.
Mount Jumbo, which overlooks the city, already had an “L” on it for the nearby Loyola Sacred Heart Catholic High School. Protesters simply added three more letters in honor of the president’s arrival:
Protesters hiked up Mount Jumbo Thursday morning, Oct. 18, 2018 in Missoula, Mont., to lay out letters spelling the word LIAR in protest of President Donald Trump’s visit. Using the permanent letter L on Mount Jumbo, protesters spread large pieces of fabric to complete the word LIAR. President Trump is visiting Missoula to campaign for Republican Matt Rosendale, who is challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester. (Kurt Wilson/The Missoulian via AP)
Mount Sentinel also received a modification. The “M” atop that peak was adorned with some extra letters to spell “IMPEACH.”
Although Trump won Montana by 20 points in 2016, the rally on Thursday night was held in Missoula, one of a half-dozen counties in the state that voted for Hillary Clinton.
Article via HuffingtonPost
Video Captures Plant Worker Urinating on Meat Processing Line
A Smithfield Foods employee has been suspended and 50,000 pounds of meat have been tossed in the garbage after surveillance video appeared to show the worker urinating on the production line at the Smithfield, Va., packaging plant.
The employee can be seen removing his gloves, apparently peeing while leaning up against the counter, then putting the gloves back on and going back to work, WAVY reports.
The incident happened over the weekend, and on Tuesday Smithfield released a statement saying an internal investigation “revealed an employee had urinated at his station” but assuring customers that “the facility immediately halted production, fully cleaned the processing line, and sanitized all equipment multiple times before resuming operations.” The employee’s fate will be decided after a company investigation is complete, the Virginian-Pilot reports.
Video captures mom whipping son with belt for stealing her BMW
A Texas high school freshman went on a joyride in his mom’s spanking-new BMW, but his badass mom chased him down — and whupped him with a belt, in a caught-on-video scene that has since gone viral.
Aaron Campero, 14, of El Paso, disconnected the WiFi in his home to disable security cameras before he took off in the BMW on Friday, his sister Liza Campero wrote on Twitter.
“I shouldn’t be laughing but damn,” she said.
Their mother, also named Liza, was at work when Aaron called to tell her their WiFi was down at home, KFOX-TV reported.
As soon as he said that, literally, I got a message instantly that my WiFi was down,” she told the station.
The Beemer bandit first drove the car to pick up his best friend, whose mother informed Aaron’s mom about his whereabouts, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Aaron’s sister also called their mother to tell her the BMW 3 Series was gone.
“That’s when she told me to grab the belt and I really just ran into the closet and grabbed the first belt I saw,” she said. “She wanted to find him before he wrecked the car and before the police did.”
The boy eventually aborted his ill-fated plan to visit his girlfriend, who was at home with her mom when Campero arrived.
According to his sister’s video, their mother pulled up next to Aaron and screamed, “Pull over now!”
She then stepped out of her car, flung open the BMW’s driver’s door and unleashed on the boy.
“My mom said once she opened the door, he had a smirk on his face until she started spanking him,” Liza said.
The mother said she didn’t know her daughter was recording the beatdown.
“It’s my son’s well-being, his livelihood, his best friend’s well-being, not to mention all of the people on the roadways,” the mom told KFOX-TV.
The video, which was posted on Twitter, had gained more than 41,000 retweets and about 144,000 likes by Thursday morning.
“I feel that I have a debt to society and my debt to society is to make sure my children are productive, law-abiding citizens,” Martinez said.
In addition to the public flogging, Aaron has been grounded “until 2019 or further notice,” his sis said.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/10/18/video-captures-mom-whipping-son-with-belt-for-stealing-her-bmw/
Secret camera found in NYPD women’s bathroom
A civilian security guard planted a cellphone in the ceiling of a women’s bathroom at an NYPD building in Brooklyn and recorded cops as they used the toilet, law enforcement sources said.
Pedro Rodriguez Sanchez, 34, was arrested on Wednesday.
He recorded multiple videos with his phone inside the NYPD Property Clerk Division ladies’ room at the Erie Basin Pound, sources told The Post.
The bust came after a female officer found the phone, left it and told a sergeant. But when they returned to retrieve it, it was gone.
Sources said Sanchez, who is charged with unlawful surveillance in the second degree, allowed police to search his phone. Investigators allegedly discovered that he deleted the footage but were able to get it back.
“Nothing’s ever really deleted on your phone,” a source said. “The computer-crimes unit can retrieve stuff.”
via: https://nypost.com/2018/10/18/secret-camera-found-in-nypd-womens-bathroom/
Man pleads guilty in elaborate cancer scam after fiancee turns him in to police
OKLAHOMA CITY – An Oklahoma man who pretended to have cancer and orchestrated an elaborate fundraising scheme has pleaded guilty and paid restitution to his victims.
Al Reynolds was arrested and charged in April of 2017.
Detectives with the Oklahoma City Police Department white collar crimes division spent months investigating Reynolds for preying on the sympathy of church members and raising tens of thousands of dollars for cancer he didn’t have.
Reynolds said he had suffered from several bouts of leukemia.
He’s never had cancer.
“This is what he does. He preys on people with money or Christian women or people who are compassionate and caring and giving,” said Reynolds’ fiancee Tracey LaValle who turned him into police. “He’s very charismatic.”
Reynolds appeared before Judge Cindy Truong in Oklahoma County District Court Wednesday.
“This defendant just defrauded good-hearted people who were very benevolent and loving and just wanted to help someone they didn’t even know who they thought had cancer,” said District Attorney David Prater at the time Reynolds was charged.
Reynolds pleaded guilty to five felony counts of obtaining money by deception and one computer crime.
He did a blind plea which means he pleaded guilty without a deal from the district attorney’s office.
Reynolds admitted his crime to the court.
He faces a maximum of fifty years behind bars for his role in the scheme.
His attorney, Keegan Kelley Harroz, is asking the court for a deferred sentence and no time in prison.
“All I can really say is he [pleaded] guilty because he is guilty and he is very remorseful for the events that did happen that did lead to this,” Harroz said. “However he has done everything in his power to make sure everyone will be reimbursed.”
Reynolds has paid the district attorney’s office $30,441, which is the amount of money detectives could prove he stole from his victims.
Judge Truong will decide his fate.
Reynolds’ sentencing is set for January 9.