May 14, 2018

Parents go to court to evict 30 year old son

Camillus, NY -- Two Camillus parents are going to state Supreme Court to force their 30-year-old son out of the family residence.

"After a discussion with your Mother, we have decided that you must leave this house immediately," father Mark Rotondo wrote his son, in a letter filed with the court.

But son Michael isn't going anywhere without a fight.

The parents' lawyer, Anthony Adorante, said today that the couple is having trouble with their son and didn't know any other way to get him out. The couple declined comment for this story.

Michael has, so far, ignored their demand to leave, according to the court complaint.

https://www.syracuse.com/expo/erry-2018/05/ec96feccdd8142/camillus_parents_go_to_ny_supr.html#incart_m-rpt-1

May 2, 2018

Drug Users Take Over Corridors Of San Francisco Civic Center BART Station

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) — Shocking video is calling attention to what’s going on in one of the busiest BART stations in the Bay Area: drug users blatantly shooting up out in the open as commuters walk by, others slumped along filthy corridors. It’s a gauntlet commuters walk through every morning at the Civic Center BART and Muni station.

Regular commuter Shannon Gafford knows people have to see it to believe it. “One morning I said, ‘I got to pull out the camera and show my friends this. They’re not going to believe it,’” he said. And over the course of a week, Gafford documented his trip to work. His videos show dozens of people slumped along a hallway, open IV drug use, unconscious men and women, and piles of vomit on either side of the hallways. Some may find the video shocking. Others may find it routine.

“Every day. Every morning. 5:30 to 6 o’clock. You can see there’s dozens of them. Needles everywhere. Crack. Heroin.”

“It’s a real concern for our riders, and we appreciate that,” said BART spokesman Chris Filippi. “But what we have to do is make the most of the resources, the limited resources that we have.”

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2018/04/25/drug-users-san-francisco-civic-center-bart/

April 23, 2018

Florida police try to unlock phone with dead mans finger during funeral

LARGO, Fla. -- Florida authorities went to a funeral home and used a dead man's finger to try to unlock his cellphone as part of an investigation.

Thirty-year-old Linus Phillip was killed by a Largo police officer last month after, authorities say, he tried to drive away before an officer could search him.

At the funeral home, two detectives held the man's hands up to the phone's fingerprint sensor, but could not unlock it.

Phillip's fiancée, Victoria Armstrong, says she felt violated and disrespected.

Legal experts mostly agree that what the detectives did was legal, but they question whether it was appropriate.

Charles Rose, a professor at Stetson University College of Law, tells the Tampa Bay Times dead people can't assert their Fourth Amendment protections because you can't own property when you're dead. But those rights could apply to whoever inherits the property.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-use-dead-mans-finger-to-try-to-unlock-his-cellphone/

April 18, 2018

Fake Starbucks coupons circulate online promising free coffee for black customers

Fake Starbucks coupons have begun circulating on social media in the wake of protests over the arrests of two black men who had asked to use a Starbucks restroom.

The coupons, which feature images of Starbucks beverages, the brand's iconic color green and bar codes, appear to offer "people of color" or "African-American heritage" free drinks.

"This is completely false and in no way associated with Starbucks," a Starbucks spokeswoman told CNBC.

Business Insider was the first to report that the images were being shared on 4chan, a website that gained notoriety for spreading pro-Trump memes and messages during the 2016 presidential election.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/18/fake-starbucks-coupons-circulate-online-promising-free-coffee-for-black-customers.html

April 18, 2018

Trump's tax cut not for everyone: 1 million Californians will owe $12 billion more next year

President Donald Trump’s tax cuts will be anything but for about 1 million California taxpayers who will owe Uncle Sam more money a year from now. They’re the Californians who will lose a collective $12 billion because the new law caps a deduction they have been able to take for paying their state and local taxes, according to a new analysis by the Franchise Tax Board.

Very wealthy Californians earning more than $1 million a year will pay the lion’s share of that money, with 43,000 of them paying a combined $9 billion. But some middle-class Californians will pay more, too. About 751,000 households with incomes under $250,000 probably will owe more tax. All together, they’ll owe an extra $1.1 billion.

The FTB has been releasing reports on the new tax law in waves since December, explaining in detail how it differs from state regulations and analyzing how taxpayers might respond to the changes.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article209015539.html

April 15, 2018

California Bullet Train to be audited by US DOT

This is going to turn into a massive corruption case. Jesus Christ, what a huge waste of money with nothing to show.

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/04/13/us/ap-ca-california-high-speed-rail.html

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California's high-speed rail project is facing an audit from the U.S. Department of Transportation's as costs continue to climb. The inspector general's audit, announced Thursday, will examine the Federal Railroad Administration's oversight of nearly $3.5 billion in federal grant money awarded to the project.

It comes as the plan to bring travelers between Los Angeles and San Francisco in less than three hours faces growing scrutiny. A business plan released in March shows the state does not have the roughly $30 billion needed to complete the first phase of the project between the Central Valley and San Francisco. The entire project, meanwhile, is expected to cost $77 billion. State auditors are also conducting a review.

The authority's new chief executive has pledged more transparency about the project's troubles.

"We will cooperate fully in this and any other audit of our funding or program," Brian Kelly said in a statement. "We look forward to working closely with our federal partners to deliver the nation's first truly high-speed system."

April 13, 2018

Cops: Accused incest couple, their infant dead in apparent multi-state murder-suicide

Source: CBS



NEW MILFORD, Conn. -- Police in three states are investigating the apparent murder-suicide deaths of a father and daughter accused of incest, their infant son, and the woman's adoptive father.

Police in Knightdale, N.C. say they responded to a home around 9 a.m. where Steven Pladl, 45, and his biological daughter Katie Pladl, 20, were living when they were arrested on incest charges out of Henrico County, Va. in January. There, they found 7-month-old Bennett Pladl dead in a suspected homicide. No one else was in the home.

About 20 minutes earlier, 600 miles north in New Milford, Conn., police responded to a report of a shooting and found a man and a woman dead in a pickup truck with New York plates, the victims of a double homicide. Police developed information on a suspect vehicle, and when New York state troopers found the minivan several miles away across the state line in Dover, the suspected gunman was found inside -- dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, Knightdale Police Chief Lawrence Capps confirmed the victims killed in the pickup truck were Katie Pladl and her adoptive father 56-year-old Anthony Fusco, and that the man who killed himself in New York was Steven Pladl. Knightdale police confirmed to Crimesider that Steven Pladl is suspected in the death of his infant son in North Carolina.



Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-infant-death-at-n-c-home-of-accused-incest-couple-linked-to-ct-ny-shootings/

April 4, 2018

California proposal would limit when officers can open fire

Source: ABC

Several lawmakers and the family of a 22-year-old unarmed black man who was fatally shot by police proposed Tuesday that California become the first state to significantly restrict when officers can open fire. The legislation would change the standard from using "reasonable force" to "necessary force."

That means officers would be allowed to shoot only if "there were no other reasonable alternatives to the use of deadly force" to prevent imminent serious injury or death, said Lizzie Buchen, legislative advocate for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is among the groups behind the measure.

"We need to ensure that our state policy governing the use of deadly force stresses the sanctity of human life and is only used when necessary," said Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, a San Diego Democrat who introduced the bill. "Deadly force can be used, but only when it is completely necessary." The goal is to encourage officers to try to defuse confrontations or use less deadly weapons, said Democratic Assemblyman Kevin McCarty of Sacramento, who is co-authoring the legislation.

"We should no longer be the target practice or victims of a shoot first, ask questions later police force," said Assemblyman Chris Holden, chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/california-eyes-lethal-force-law-shootings-police-54201152

March 22, 2018

At Least 1 Dead, Water Rescues Reported as Torrential Rainfall Hammers Southern California

Source: Weather.com

Crews in Southern California conducted water rescues Thursday as deadly heavy rainfall continued, threatening mudslides and flooding.

A 19-year-old woman was killed Wednesday after she lost control of her vehicle in the rain on Highway 41, west of the city of Atascadero, according to the San Luis Obispo Tribune. The car slid roughly 10 feet down an embankment and struck a tree, breaking it in half.

Ten people were saved from the Salinas River in Paso Robles Thursday, the Tribune reports. Six were airlifted to safety by a state Highway Patrol helicopter and the other four were retrieved by firefighters who swam out to them. Two people were taken to a hospital for treatment.

Southern California authorities ordered the evacuations of residents living in burn areas at risk from the heaviest rainfall of the season. Evacuations ordered by the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department include areas burned by the Thomas, Sherpa and Whittier fires, according to a press release.



Read more: https://weather.com/news/news/2018-03-20-california-burn-areas-evacuations-storm

March 20, 2018

UK YouTube comedian Count Dankula convicted over 'grossly offensive' Nazi salute dog video

Source: Yahoo

A man who posted a video of his girlfriend’s dog doing a Nazi salute on YouTube has been been convicted over the “grossly offensive” footage. Mark Meechan, 29, who goes by the name Count Dankula, was arrested in April 2017 after footage of his girlfriend’s pug appearing to respond to Nazi slogans such as ‘gas the Jews’ went viral.

In a case that attracted widespread attention, Meechan was found guilty on Tuesday at Airdrie Sheriff Court of a charge under the Communications Act 2003. Sheriff Derek O’Carroll dubbed the video “grossly offensive” and said he did not believe Meechan’s defence that he had made it only to annoy his girlfriend.

Prosecutors accused Meechan of posting material that was ‘anti-semitic and racist in nature’ and was aggravated by religious prejudice. In a tweet on Tuesday, Meechan confirmed he had been convicted, later adding that he is due to be sentenced in April. Outside court, Meechan said: “There has been a huge miscarriage of justice.

“I think it’s a very, very dark day in regards to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.



Read more: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/youtube-comedian-count-dankula-guilty-hate-speech-nazi-dog-video-145920581.html