Tag: CNN
University of Kentucky fires cheerleading coaches after hazing and nudity investigation
The University of Kentucky fired its entire cheerleading coaching staff after an investigation into alleged inappropriate conduct, including hazing, alcohol use and public nudity on the team.
The three-month investigation found that four coaches and an administrative assistant “failed to provide reasonable oversight during off-campus events,” the university said in a press release. The investigation revealed alleged misconduct at a retreat and other off-campus events, ranging from cheerleaders being encouraged to perform stunts and chants while partially nude to excessive consumption of alcohol that required medical treatment for several cheerleaders.
At a team retreat in Lake Cumberland, some cheerleaders performed gymnastics routines known as “basket tosses” that included hurling teammates from a dock into the water while either topless or bottomless, the investigation found. The routines were performed within the view of at least some of the coaches, according to the investigation.
In another incident, at a cheerleading camp in Tennessee, some cheerleaders were directed by other members to perform lewd chants and wear outfits that did not include underwear, according to the university.The investigation found no evidence of sexual assault or sexual misconduct.
“The advisor and the coaches failed to stop a culture of hazing, alcohol use and public nudity at off-campus activities where they were present,” Eric N. Monday, UK’s executive vice president for finance and administration, said in a release. “Our students deserve more responsible leadership and the University of Kentucky demands it.”
Head coach Jomo Thompson and assistant coaches Ben Head, Spencer Clan and Kelsey LaCroix were dismissed. The investigation also found “lax oversight and poor judgement” by T. Lynn Williamson, the program’s advisor and the university’s principal deputy general counsel. He retired days after learning of the investigation, UK said.None of the coaches nor Williamson have responded to CNN’s requests for comment.The investigation began in February after a cheerleader’s family member alleged inappropriate conduct by squad members and inappropriate oversight by coaches at off-campus trips, according to Monday.
Kentucky’s cheerleading team is one of the most successful programs in the country and has won 24 national championships in the past 35 years, including four straight from 2016 to 2019.
“A commitment we make and renew every day at the University of Kentucky is that the success of our students is at the center of everything that we do. But for that sentiment to be more than words, we must always act in ways that honor that commitment — especially when we discover rare instances where those who supervise and guide our students don’t meet the standards of integrity we expect of each other. This is one of those times,” said UK President Eli Capilouto.
“The University of Kentucky has built the nation’s premier collegiate cheerleading program. But regrettably, the integrity of the program has been compromised by inappropriate behavior by some squad members on off-campus trips and by lax oversight by the program’s coaches and advisor.”
Article via CNN
Meet Adonis, Drake’s Son
Canadian rapper Drake has shared his first pictures on social media of his two-year-old son, Adonis Graham. The “God’s Plan” hitmaker took to Instagram Monday with an emotional post about missing his family and friends as the coronavirus lockdown restrictions continue to affect billions across the globe.
“What is most important for you right now is to connect to your own inner light,” he captioned a series of pictures of his loved ones, including the curly-haired toddler.
“This will create the biggest opening of all. Trust that you have all of the power within to make this happen, and in order to do that connect to the people and things that bring you a lot of joy. When the mind starts to move into overthinking or fear, shift your attention right away to something bright.”
The 33-year-old musician, whose real name is Aubrey Graham, went on to urge his 64.5 million followers to “break free of the wheel of suffering and panic and open up to your own light” in his philosophical message, adding: “We are powerful manifestors.”
He concluded his online outpouring by declaring: “I love and miss my beautiful family and friends and I can’t wait for the joyful day when we are all able to reunite. Until then please keep your lights on.”
In one image, Drake is seen holding the little boy in his arms. Another shows Adonis being embraced by both Drake and his mother, former porn star Sophie Brussaux.Brussaux announced the birth of Adonis in October 2017, but Drake initially kept it a secret. He hinted that he had fathered a child following the brief romance in his 2018 track “Emotionless,” rapping the lines: “I wasn’t hidin’ my kid from the world. I was hidin’ the world from my kid.”
A representative for Drake confirmed to CNN that the child pictured in the photos was his son.
Article via CNN
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A kayaker vanished last month in the Florida Everglades. Days later, his phone washed ashore with clues
A Virginia kayaker who vanished during a solo trip in the Florida Everglades has been found after his cell phone washed ashore and authorities used it to recover data on his location.
Mark Miele, 67, was last seen on January 22 when he left for his kayaking trip, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office said.
He was supposed to return seven days later, but his family did not hear from him. On Sunday, park rangers found his belongings, including his wallet and phone, on the bank of the Lopez River near the Monroe County line, authorities said.
“By downloading the data on Mark’s phone Sunday night, deputies found his most recent coordinates logged on January 31 and our aviation unit began a targeted search of the area,” the sheriff’s office said.Shortly before noon Monday, the aviation unit located him and provided his location to a Marine Unit along with officers from the National Park Service. He was found a few miles from where his phone had washed up wearing a life jacket and floating faceup in the river. Rescuers in boats rushed to the area and plucked him from the murky waters. “First concern when we found him it didn’t look like he was moving and we didn’t know if it was going to be a recovery or a rescue,” Cpl. Ed Henderson, who helped find him, told CNN affiliate WINK News. “He’d been in the water for two solid days and it’s been really cold.”
Miele was dehydrated and hypothermic, and was convulsing when he was found, authorities said. He is hospitalized in stable condition, and his family thanked local and state authorities for rescuing him.
“It’s a miracle he’s alive and in the condition he is in,” his family said in a statement. No more information was immediately available.
Article via CNN
Michael Strahan talks tensions with Kelly Ripa
Michael Strahan wants to make it perfectly clear how he feels about Kelly Ripa.
“I don’t hate her. I do respect her for what she can do at her job,” he told the New York Times Magazine in a recently published interview.
“I cannot say enough about how good she is at her job.”Not that there weren’t tensions.
Strahan famously left their daytime talk show “Live! with Kelly and Michael” in 2016 for a gig with “Good Morning America.” Ripa complained she was the last to know about his planned departure.
Now the former NFL player turned TV host is talking a bit about what he joked was an “experience.”
“I learned so much from Kelly, so much from Michael Gelman (the show’s longtime executive producer),” Strahan said.
“When it was time to go, it was time to go. Certain things that were going on behind the scenes just caught up.
“He also discussed the selfishness he saw in both professional sports and working in television.
Strahan formerly played with the New York Giants.
“In sports, you can put as many great players as you want on a team, but if one guy out there is worried about himself, it will not work,” Strahan said. “Then on television, I’ve had jobs where I got there and felt like: Wow, I didn’t know I was supposed to be a sidekick. I thought I was coming here to be a partner.
“Strahan said he tried to have meetings with Ripa regarding the issues going on behind the scenes.”We met a few times, and that was fine,” he said. “But then eventually she said she didn’t need to meet. Can’t force somebody to do something they don’t want to do.
“He admitted that his exit probably wasn’t handled the best way.Ripa ended up staying off the show for a few days, reportedly in protest for how ABC handled the situation.
“I didn’t wake up and say, ‘I want a job at ‘G.M.A.’ I was asked to do it by the people who run the network,” Strahan said. “It was really not a choice. It was a request.”
Strahan said the whole thing was “treated as if I was the guy who walked in and said, ‘I’m leaving.'”
“That part was totally misconstrued, mishandled in every way,” he said. “People who should have handled it better have all apologized, but a lot of the damage had already been done.
“But Strahan said he kept a particular attitude about it.”For me, it was like: Move on. Success is the best thing,” he said. “Just keep on moving.”
The show is now “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” which Ripa cohosts with Ryan Seacrest.
A rep for Ripa declined to comment.
Article via CNN
Scientists discovered four new species of sharks that walk
So — some sharks walk. Just not the scary ones. While great whites haunt the deep, walking sharks are content to scuttle in the shallows.
They’ve been walking, or something close to it, for at least 9 million years. They’re evolutionary superstars, too: Walking sharks could be the most recently evolved shark on Earth. That’s according to findings published this week in Marine and Freshwater Research.
Shark scientists spent years sampling the DNA of the only known walking shark species to estimate when they evolved. They found four new species while they were at it.
The youngest species might’ve evolved less than 2 million years ago. And by evolutionary standards, that’s recent — and a major contradiction to the widely held belief that sharks are slow to evolve. “The discovery proves that modern sharks have remarkable evolutionary staying power and the ability to adapt to environmental changes,” said Mark Erdmann, the paper’s co-author and Conservation International Vice President of Asia-Pacific marine programs. Sharks are older than dinosaurs, dominating the seas for as long as 400 million years (the oldest dinosaur fossil is thought to be about 240 million years old, by comparison). So the fact that sharks continue to evolve as recently as 399 million years later is pretty remarkable.
How they walk and where they do it
Walking sharks, also called “epaulette” sharks for their spots that resemble the military decor, “walk” on their muscular fins to forage for small fish along shallow reefs and sea grass. It’s a behavior partially driven by changing sea levels and shifting landscapes, which ultimately influenced where most of the nine known species settled — eastern Indonesia and neighboring islands, New Guinea and parts of Australia. Based on differences in the sharks’ DNA, scientists created estimated evolutionary timelines. They found walking sharks started to split off from their evolutionary relatives around 9 million years ago.
This walking shark, which resides in a shallow ocean off New Guinea, uses his fins to “walk” along the sea floor in search of food. During mass extinction events, carpet sharks, the group that includes walking sharks, were among the “most affected” animals, researchers wrote. Sea levels rose and ocean temperatures dropped, pushing the sharks to migrate to warmer waters. Sharks off the coast of Australia “hitched a ride” on moving tectonic plates all the way to New Guinea, researchers said. When the plates stopped shifting, the land settled, creating barriers for species to migrate. This might be why the sharks’ habitat rarely overlap, they wrote.
Hope for walking sharks’ future
Erdman said the group hopes their research could encourage conservationists to add a few of the sharks to the IUCN Red List, a global inventory of threatened species, based on how little is known about them. “A global recognition of the need to protect walking sharks will help ensure they thrive providing benefits for marine ecosystems and to local communities through the sharks’ value as tourism assets,” he said. “It’s essential that local communities, governments and the international public continue working to establish marine protected areas to help ensure our ocean’s biodiversity continues to flourish.”
Article via CNN
California is suing a Silicon Valley billionaire for blocking public access to a beach
For nearly a century, people flocked to Martin’s Beach, a picturesque stretch of sand just south of Half Moon Bay in the San Francisco Bay Area, to swim, surf and dig their toes into the sand.
Then in 2008, Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla, through two limited liability companies, bought two large pieces of land next to the popular beach, which happened to contain the only viable public path to the shore. For more than a decade, Khosla has fought numerous legal battles to keep the public off the beach — and has shown no signs of giving in.
Now the state of California is the latest player to take on the venture capitalist, in a challenge that could set a precedent for whether the public is entitled to have access to the state’s coastline.
The California State Lands Commission and the California Coastal Commission announced Monday the state has filed a lawsuit to restore full public access to Martin’s Beach.
“This case goes to the heart of California’s public access mandate,” California Coastal Commission Chair Steve Padilla said in a statement. “We cannot allow this to be chipped away each time someone purchases beachfront property — it’s a dangerous precedent for the future of public access in California.”
State argues beaches belong to the public
California argues in the lawsuit that because the public has used Martin’s Beach since at least the early 1900s, they have the right to access it under a doctrine called implied dedication. The state’s constitution mandates that the public be allowed to access all coastal beaches below the mean high tide line. The California Coastal Act of 1976 builds on this, requiring that the state “maximize public access” to coastal areas while staying consistent with the “constitutionally protected rights of private property owners.
“The lawsuit alleges that Khosla closed the gate to Martin’s Beach and has largely blocked public access to it, arguing that unless ordered otherwise by a court, he will “continue to deny, impair and obstruct the public’s right to use” the beach.
Dori Yob Kilmer, an attorney for Khosla, said in a statement to CNN that the property is private and the state’s claims “have been extensively litigated and repeatedly rejected by the courts” in a previous lawsuit.”Since the property was purchased by our client, the state, and small activist groups, have endeavored to seize our client’s private property without compensation,” Kilmer wrote.”While such tactics are commonplace in communist systems, they have never been tolerated in the American system where the US Constitution precludes the government from simply taking private property and giving it to the public.”
Other groups have fought for public access
Khosla, who co-founded the technology company Sun Microsystems, bought the property encompassing Martin’s Beach from a local family who had owned it since the early 1900s. The previous owners charged a fee to park at the beach, but the public was otherwise able to access the coastline for free.Khosla sued San Mateo County in 2009 through his LLC companies after it warned that they would need to continue providing public access to the beach, but a judge ultimately ruled in favor of the county.
Since Khosla’s property managers eventually closed the gate and cut off access to the beach, a number of organizations have filed lawsuits challenging the move. In 2018, the US Supreme Court declined to take up Khosla’s appeal to keep Martin’s Beach to himself. Khosla had contested a ruling by a California appeals court, which had sided with the non-profit group Surfrider Foundation in arguing that he needed a permit from the California Coastal Commission to restrict public access to the beach. But just two months ago, an appeals court in San Mateo County sided with Khosla on a legal challenge brought on by a group called Friends of Martins Beach, ruling that there was not enough evidence to show that the property’s previous owners had dedicated the beach for the public’s use.
Article via CNN
Kirby Jenner, ‘fraternal twin’ of Kendall Jenner, lands a show
LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 08: Kirby Jenner attends Christian Cowan x The Powerpuff Girls at City Market Social House on March 8, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Phillip Faraone/FilmMagic)You might follow Kirby Jenner, who pretends to be Kendall Jenner’s fraternal twin brother on Instagram.Well, he’s just landed his own series produced by none other than Kendall herself and “momager,” Kris Jenner.Brilliant. The parody reality show, “Kirby Jenner,” will follow his life and air on Quibi, a mobile-first platform that launches in 2020, founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman.Kirby has made a name for himself on Instagram since 2015 for hilariously editing himself into Kendall Instagram posts.
He’s also edited himself into posts from other members of the Kardashian/Jenner family, along with their magazine spreads and even paparazzi photos. At times it can be belly-laugh funny, like this photo of Kirby and Kanye West “having breakfast.”
A press release for the show states that Kourtney, Kim, Khloé and Kylie will also appear on the show, alongside Kendall and Kirby. “I’m thrilled that Quibi viewers will get an inside look at the life of my twin brother and he’ll finally have the opportunity to shine in this series,” Kendall said in a statement.It’ll be interesting to see how these photos come to life but Kirby has just proved that Instagram can be a vehicle to make your wildest dreams a reality.
A press release for the show states that Kourtney, Kim, Khloé and Kylie will also appear on the show, alongside Kendall and Kirby. “I’m thrilled that Quibi viewers will get an inside look at the life of my twin brother and he’ll finally have the opportunity to shine in this series,” Kendall said in a statement.It’ll be interesting to see how these photos come to life but Kirby has just proved that Instagram can be a vehicle to make your wildest dreams a reality.
Article via CNN
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How Bitcoin transactions were used to track down the 23-year-old South Korean operating a global child exploitation site from his bedroom
For almost three years, “Welcome To Video” was a covert den for people who traded in clips of children being sexually assaulted. There, on the darknet‘s largest-known site of child exploitation videos, hundreds of users from around the world accessed material that showed the sexual abuse of children as young as six months old.
Then it all began to unravel.
On Wednesday, the United States’ Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed how it had followed a trail of bitcoin transactions to find the suspected administrator of the site: A 23-year-old South Korean man named Jong Woo Son.
But the case is much bigger than just one man. Over the almost three years that the site was online, users downloaded files more than one million times, according to a newly unsealed DOJ indictment. At least 23 children in the US, Spain and the United Kingdom who were being abused by the users of the site have been rescued, the DOJ said in a press release. “Children around the world are safer because of the actions taken by US and foreign law enforcement to prosecute this case and recover funds for victims,” said Jessie K. Liu, an attorney for District of Columbia where the US case was filed. “We will continue to pursue such criminals on and off the darknet in the United States and abroad, to ensure they receive the punishment their terrible crimes deserve.”
In total, 337 people from at least 18 countries who used Welcome To Video have been arrested and charged, the DOJ said. And in a statement Thursday, South Korea’s National Police Agency (NPA) said 223 of them were South Korean.
Many Welcome To Video users likely thought they were untraceable.The site was on the darknet, the underbelly of the deep web which cannot be accessed by a regular browser. According to authorities, some customers paid for the explicit images of child sexual abuse in bitcoin, a digital currency that can be spent without users disclosing their true identity.But the downfall of Welcome To Video shows that bitcoin isn’t as private as some cybercriminals might have thought.
At the time, bitcoin still wasn’t a widely used payment method. The non-profit Internet Watch Foundation, which works to remove images and videos of child sexual abuse from the web, found that some of the most prolific commercial child sexual abuse sites first started accepting bitcoin as payment in 2014. According to the DOJ, Welcome To Video was “among the first of its kind to monetize child exploitation videos using bitcoin.” Bitcoin can be attractive for people hoping to slip under the radar. Bitcoin is decentralized, meaning there is no company or official bank which oversees transactions. Users store their bitcoin in a virtual account — known as a digital wallet — without having to prove their real identity, as they might for a regular brick-and-mortar bank. From about June 2015 to March 2018, Welcome To Video received at least 420 bitcoin through 7,300 transactions with users in numerous countries including the US, the UK and South Korea, the indictment released Wednesday shows. Those transactions were worth over $370,000 at the time. Some of those transactions would ultimately help bring about the site’s collapse.
How authorities brought down Welcome To Video
To get on the site at all, users had to have special software. Because Welcome To Video was hosted on the darknet, it couldn’t be accessed by browsers like Google Chrome or Safari. Users needed to download software — such as Tor — that concealed their Internet Protocol address (IP address), a unique number assigned to every device connected to the internet. But in September 2017, authorities did something simple, according to the indictment: they right-clicked on Welcome To Video’s homepage and selected “view page source.” When they did that, they discovered an unconcealed IP address. That IP address and another found in the same way October 2017 were both traced to a residential address in South Korea — Son’s alleged home. At the same time, US investigators were carrying out an undercover operation. Once in September 2017 and twice in February 2018, an undercover agent sent bitcoin to an account provided by Welcome To Video. Each time, the funds were later transferred into another bitcoin account — in Son’s name, and registered using Son’s phone number and email, US authorities alleged in the indictment.
In March 2018, authorities searched Son’s house and found the server for Welcome To Video was hosted in Son’s bedroom. Authorities also seized eight terabytes containing 250,000 sexual assault videos. In total, 45% of the videos analyzed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children contained images not “previously known to exist.” From there, authorities were able to track down other suspects. “(This case) involved a lot of cooperation between a lots of different people,” said Urszula McCormack, a partner at the King and Wood Mallesons law firm in Hong Kong who specializes in blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin. “Often it’s those weak links that expose the whole.”Data from the server was shared with law enforcement officials around the world, who used it to track down and prosecute customers of the site in 18 countries, according to a DOJ statement. In March 2018, Son was arrested in South Korea, and found guilty of producing and distributing child pornography, a charge that carries a possible 10 year jail term under South Korean law. In May this year, he was sentenced to 18 months in jail, South Korea’s NPA said. But Son could still face more prison time.In August of last year, Son was indicted on a number of child pornography charges in the US, including advertising child pornography which carries a possible 30 year sentence. In order for him to face those charges, Son would need to be extradited to the US — which has an extradition treaty with South Korea. He could be arrested if he travels there of his own accord. One of the reasons the US is interested in prosecuting Son is that the content was accessed in the country. CNN has reached out to the DOJ to ask if they will request an extradition. South Korean police told CNN they haven’t received an extradition request from the US — and while he’s in prison, Son cannot be affected by the US indictment.
Read more via CNN