ruet
ruet's JournalJudge Rules Breonna Taylor's Boyfriend Caused Her Death, Throws Out Major Charges Against ex-Louisville Officers
Source: CBS News
A federal judge has thrown out major felony charges against two former Louisville officers accused of falsifying a warrant that led police to Breonna Taylor's door before they fatally shot her.
U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson's ruling declared that the actions of Taylor's boyfriend, who fired a shot at police the night of the raid, were the legal cause of her death, not a bad warrant.
Federal charges against former Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany were announced by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 during a high-profile visit to Louisville. Garland accused Jaynes and Meany, who were not present at the raid, of knowing they had falsified part of the warrant and put Taylor in a dangerous situation by sending armed officers to her apartment.
But Simpson wrote in the Tuesday ruling that "there is no direct link between the warrantless entry and Taylor's death." Simpson's ruling effectively reduced the civil rights violation charges against Jaynes and Meany, which had carried a maximum sentence of life in prison, to misdemeanors.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/breonna-taylor-kenneth-walker-judge-dismisses-officer-charges/
Terrible decision.
Morgan Spurlock, 'Super Size Me' Director, Dies at 53
Source: Variety
Morgan Spurlock, a documentary filmmaker who captured his own psychological and physical symptoms from eating McDonald’s every day for a month in the Oscar-nominated 2004 feature “Super Size Me,” died Thursday in upstate New York due to complications of cancer. He was 53.
Spurlock’s family confirmed his death.
“It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan,” says Craig Spurlock, who worked with his brother on several projects. “Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas and generosity. Today the world has lost a true creative genius and a special man. I am so proud to have worked together with him.”
Spurlock rose to prominence for “Super Size Me,” in which he conducted an experiment involving consuming only food from McDonald’s for a 30-day stretch. The rules also included the stipulation that Spurlock could not refuse the “super-size” option if prompted during the transaction. The filmmaker also exercised less to match the average American’s physical activity. By the end of the experiment, Spurlock claimed that he gained 25 pounds and suffered from depression and liver dysfunction.
Read more: https://variety.com/2024/film/obituaries-people-news/morgan-spurlock-dead-super-size-me-1236015338/
53 is way to fing young.
Steve Albini, US Alt-Rock Musician and Producer, Dies Aged 61
Source: The Guardian
Steve Albini, the vocalist, guitarist and producer who was at the helm of a series of the most esteemed albums across the US alternative music scene, has died aged 61 from a heart attack suffered at his recording studio. Staff at his studio, Electrical Audio, confirmed the news to Pitchfork.
As well as fronting the bands Big Black, Rapeman and Shellac, who all pushed at the boundaries of post-punk and art-rock, Albini also produced – or, to use his preferred term, engineered – albums for dozens of artists including Nirvana, Pixies, PJ Harvey and Page and Plant. He was noted for his DIY and punk ethos, resisting streaming services and refusing to take royalties from the recordings he produced for other artists.
Shellac were preparing their first album since 2014, To All Trains, for release next week.
Born in California in 1962, Albini’s musical inspirations came from the punk movement, chiefly the Ramones but also the weirder end of the genre with bands such as Devo and Pere Ubu. He moved to the suburbs of Chicago to study journalism, and was drawn into the fertile underground music scene in the city, contributing to zines and working for the punk label Ruthless Records.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/may/08/steve-albini-us-alt-rock-musician-and-producer-dies-aged-61
Dude was a true music legend. Fucking heart attacks man.
I fully expect to see this locked just as my post about the passing of Ken Block was.
FTC Announces Rule Banning Noncompetes
Source: FTC
Today, the Federal Trade Commission issued a final rule to promote competition by banning noncompetes nationwide, protecting the fundamental freedom of workers to change jobs, increasing innovation, and fostering new business formation.
“Noncompete clauses keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism, including from the more than 8,500 new startups that would be created a year once noncompetes are banned,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The FTC’s final rule to ban noncompetes will ensure Americans have the freedom to pursue a new job, start a new business, or bring a new idea to market.”
The FTC estimates that the final rule banning noncompetes will lead to new business formation growing by 2.7% per year, resulting in more than 8,500 additional new businesses created each year. The final rule is expected to result in higher earnings for workers, with estimated earnings increasing for the average worker by an additional $524 per year, and it is expected to lower health care costs by up to $194 billion over the next decade. In addition, the final rule is expected to help drive innovation, leading to an estimated average increase of 17,000 to 29,000 more patents each year for the next 10 years under the final rule.
Noncompetes are a widespread and often exploitative practice imposing contractual conditions that prevent workers from taking a new job or starting a new business. Noncompetes often force workers to either stay in a job they want to leave or bear other significant harms and costs, such as being forced to switch to a lower-paying field, being forced to relocate, being forced to leave the workforce altogether, or being forced to defend against expensive litigation. An estimated 30 million workers—nearly one in five Americans—are subject to a noncompete.
Read more: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-announces-rule-banning-noncompetes
New Videos Contradict NYPD Account of Lead-Up to Times Square Attack on Cops
Source: The City
The district attorney’s office declined to provide additional comment on the videos, and a spokesperson for the NYPD didn’t return a request for comment.
Robert Gangi, the director of the Police Reform Organizing Project, said the more complete picture of the encounter shown on the videos raised questions about why the police had approached the men in the first place, and then physically accosted Brito as he was walking away.
“Why were the cops giving them a hard time, when they didn’t seem to be doing anything that calls for that?” he wondered. “It does not justify the men throwing them on the ground and kicking them. But it seriously calls into question the behavior of these cops.”
The sequence of events captured on the videos is “not what was portrayed or presented when we first got the story,” Gangi said.
Read more: https://www.thecity.nyc/2024/02/08/times-square-migrants-arrests-body-camera-footage-contradicts-nypd-account/
I fvc#ing told ya'll and you fomented a conservative anti-immigration wet dream anyways.
White House Clarifies Biden's Claim He Saw Photos of Terrorists Beheading Children in Israel-Hamas..
Source: NBC News
After the comments, the White House clarified that Biden had read news reports.
President Joe Biden painted a vivid picture of the horrors of the Israel-Hamas war in remarks to Jewish community leaders Wednesday — but the White House later had to clarify his claims.
“I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children,” Biden said in broader remarks about his administration’s support for Israel amid its war with Hamas and efforts to free American hostages.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for further details about Biden’s remarks. Two senior administration officials said Biden was referring to reports from Israel about beheaded children and cited several media reports of beheadings.
NBC News has not confirmed those reports. IDF Spokesperson Maj. Doron Spielman told NBC News: "That specific report and that number I can’t confirm."
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-deliver-remarks-roundtable-jewish-community-leaders-rcna119865
Record Chicken Prices Squeeze US Shoppers, Benefit Tyson Foods
Source: Reuters
Chicken prices at U.S. grocery stores have hit record highs and should stay elevated as Tyson Foods and other companies dial back poultry production to boost margins while inflation-weary shoppers buy chicken instead of beef and pork.
Higher chicken prices should improve earnings at top producers Tyson (TSN.N) and Pilgrim's Pride (PPC.O), but will pinch consumers' pockets as they try to save money by turning away from higher-end proteins. One index shows chicken producer profit margins at their highest in a year.
U.S. consumption of chicken is expected to exceed 100 pounds per person this year for the first time ever, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows.
Beef consumption is forecast to drop to its lowest since 2018, as prices climb due to dwindling cattle supplies. Meanwhile, consumer spending cuts have knocked pork consumption to the lowest since 2015.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/record-chicken-prices-squeeze-us-shoppers-benefit-tyson-foods-2023-10-05/
Someone tell me about this whole "supply and demand" thing. Dead-end Capitalism strikes again.
Small Town Cops Raid Newspaper and Reporters' Homes
Frackers Can Use Dangerous Chemicals Without Disclosure Due to "Halliburton Loophole"
Frackers can use dangerous chemicals without disclosure due to “Halliburton loophole”
The so-called Halliburton Loophole, named after the oil and gas services company once headed by former Vice President Dick Cheney, means that the industry can use fracking fluid containing chemicals linked to negative health effects including kidney and liver disease, fertility impairment, and reduced sperm counts without being subject to regulation under the act.
While environmentalists and public-health campaigners have long called for closing the loophole, they haven’t known how many of the regulated chemicals are used by the industry, how often the industry reports their use in its fracking disclosures, what quantities of the chemicals are used, and how often the industry chooses not to identify its chemicals on the grounds that they are proprietary.
Now, some of that data is publicly available in a study by researchers at Northeastern University and three other colleges. The paper, published in its final form in February, reports that the industry uses 28 chemicals regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act and discloses them in up to 73 percent of its reports of fracking activities to FracFocus, an industry-sponsored database.
Between 2014 and 2021, the industry used 282 million pounds of the regulated chemicals, a number dwarfed by the 7.2 billion pounds of chemicals that were reported but not identified on the grounds that they are proprietary or trade secrets, the paper said.
Fired, Jailed, Sued - Can NEVER Be A Cop Again
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