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ansible's JournalTreasures worth 'up to a billion euros' stolen in Green Vault heist
Thieves have stolen three "priceless" ensembles of early 18th century jewellery containing diamonds, rubies and emeralds, German officials have said.
Security camera footage showed two men breaking into the Green Vault museum in Dresden, Saxony, via a grilled window.
They then smashed three display cases before removing the ensembles, or parures, that were kept inside.
The alarm sounded just before 5am local time (4am GMT) and officers arrived five minutes later but the burglars had escaped.
Volker Lange of Dresden's police force said earlier: "Two suspects can be seen on the recordings, but that doesn't mean there weren't other accomplices."
Museum director Marion Ackerman has described the stolen items as "priceless" and said it would be impossible to sell them on the open market.
When asked whether the jewellery might be broken up or melted down, she replied: "It would be a terrible thing."
She added that it's "cultural value far outstripped any material value".
https://news.sky.com/story/green-vault-heist-treasures-worth-up-to-a-billion-euros-stolen-dresden-in-museum-heist-11869948
American couple held captive in Mexican hospital unless they pay bill
Atlanta — Help is on the way for a couple from Georgia who said they're being held hostage in a Mexican hospital. Stephen Johnson went into diabetic shock while on a Carnival cruise. Doctors in the port city of Progreso treated him, but won't let him leave.
"I still feel like a captive now because I can't leave," Johnson told CBS News from the hospital.
He and his fiancée, Tori Austin, were on the cruise when he collapsed suddenly and was in danger of dying. At the hospital in Mexico, a team of doctors, dialysis and a ventilator helped him recover. But when he tried to leave three days ago, he said the hospital became a prison.
"It was three or four of them and they just kept pushing me and I had to hold on to the rail. I was going to start swinging and throwing and punching because I was scared," Johnson said.
The hospital wanted its money first, amounting to $14,000, paid in full. Johnson had no health insurance and the hospital refused his offer to pay over time. Hospital staff physically blocked them from leaving several times, once with a trash can lid.
Donors stepped in, including movie mogul Tyler Perry. He heard about Johnson's story and agreed to settle the bill.
"I owe him my life and I hope to get to meet him when I get back to Atlanta because he deserved the biggest hug," Johnson said.
But he will have to wait because the hospital said he's not well enough to travel.
The State Department's aware of Johnson's case. It has sent an official to help out the couple. Even if Johnson had insurance, he might be in the same predicament. Many health plans providers don't cover care outside the U.S. One option often recommended is travel medical insurance.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tyler-perry-helps-american-couple-held-captive-in-mexican-hospital-2019-11-22/
Trump likes the new "Joker" movie so much he's screening it at the White House
Funny, considering how the movie was a dig against rich assholes like him. He probably saw himself as a victim like Arthur in the movie.
AP sources: Epstein jail guards had been offered plea deal
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors offered a plea deal to two correctional officers responsible for guarding Jeffrey Epstein on the night of his death, but the officers have declined the offer, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
The existence of the plea offer signals the Justice Department is considering criminal charges in connection with the wealthy financier’s death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York in August. The city’s medical examiner ruled Epstein's death a suicide.
The guards on Epstein's unit are suspected of failing to check on him every half hour, as required, and of fabricating log entries to show they had. As part of the proposed plea deal, prosecutors wanted the guards to admit they falsified the prison records, according to the people familiar with the matter. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to publicly discuss the investigation.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan had no comment on the plea offer.
Both guards were working overtime because of staffing shortages. They have been placed on administrative leave while the FBI and the Justice Department's inspector general investigate the circumstances surrounding Epstein's death. The 66-year-old had been awaiting trial on charges of sexually abusing teenage girls.
Epstein was placed on suicide watch after he was found on his cell floor July 23 with bruises on his neck. Multiple people familiar with operations at the jail have said Epstein was then taken off suicide watch about a week before his death, meaning he was less closely monitored but still supposed to be checked on every 30 minutes.
Epstein’s death exposed mounting evidence that the chronically understaffed Metropolitan Correctional Center may have bungled its responsibility to keep him alive. Guards often work overtime day after day, and other employees are pressed into service as correctional officers.
Falsification of records has been a problem throughout the federal prison system. Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, who was named director of the Bureau of Prisons after Epstein’s death, disclosed in a Nov. 4 internal memo that a review of operations across the agency found some staff members failed to perform required rounds and inmate counts but logged that they had done so anyway.
“Falsification of information in government systems and documents is also a violation of policy, and may be subject to criminal prosecution as well,” Hawk Sawyer wrote in the memo to top prison officials, a copy of which was obtained by the AP.
https://news.yahoo.com/ap-sources-epstein-jail-guards-232232259.html
Teacher Facing 18 Felonies For Raping Student Gets Only 2 Years Under Plea Deal
Los Angeles, CA – A female Los Angeles high school teacher charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old male student by penetrating him with a foreign object will get only two years in prison under a plea deal.
Gina Murry, 33, was arrested in September of 2018 and initially charged with 18 felonies including unlawful sexual intercourse and sexual penetration with a foreign object, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Murry, a teacher at Esteban Torres High School’s Renaissance Academy, was later released on a $250,000 bond.
Prosecutors alleged that the sexual interludes between Murry and the student took place in May and June of 2018.
But in July, the victim filed a civil lawsuit against the former teacher and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) that alleged sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress actually went started in Augusts of 2017 when she became his mentor, KNBC.
According to the lawsuit, the school principal put the boy under Murry’s supervision after he had been bullied by other students his freshman year of high school.
The suit alleged that Murry groomed the student with lots of special treatment such as buying him gifts and playing video games with him.
The complaint said that when Murry and the student went on an overnight field trip, the teacher sexually abused him in her personal car and in a tent that she shared with him, according to KNBC.
In the lawsuit, the now-16-year-old victim claimed that Murry had also molested him many other times on school grounds and at school-sanctioned events.
The sexual assaults didn’t end until other students saw Murry sexually harassing their classmate and reported it to the school administrators, KNBC reported.
https://defensemaven.io/bluelivesmatter/news/teacher-facing-18-felonies-for-raping-student-gets-only-2-years-under-plea-deal-OTuMcSp-4kOgTJnj70RAfg/
How California Became America's Housing Market Nightmare
California, the land of golden dreams, has become America’s worst housing nightmare.
Recent wildfires have only heightened the stakes for a state that can’t seem to build enough new homes.
The median price for a house now tops $600,000, more than twice the national level. The state has four of the country’s five most expensive residential markets—Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Orange County and San Diego. (Los Angeles is seventh.) The poverty rate, when adjusted for the cost of living, is the worst in the nation. California accounts for 12% of the U.S. population, but a quarter of its homeless population.
How did we get here? Simply put, bad government—from outdated zoning laws to a 40-year-old tax provision that benefits long-time homeowners at the expense of everyone else—has created a severe shortage of houses. While decades in the making, California’s slow-moving disaster has reached a critical point for state officials, businesses and the millions who are straining to live there.
This fall, as President Donald Trump blamed Democrats for the situation on his swing through the state to raise money for his reelection, lawmakers in Sacramento passed some of the most sweeping legislation in years to address housing affordability. Google, Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc. are throwing billions of dollars at the issue. But nobody’s kidding themselves that it’s enough.
“Broadly speaking, there is no solution to the California housing crisis without the construction of millions of new houses,” said David Garcia, policy director for the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley.
McKinsey & Co. estimated in 2016 that California needed some 3.5 million more homes by the middle of next decade—a figure that Governor Gavin Newsom made a central part of his administration’s goals. A more recent analysis suggests it may take the state until 2050 to meet the target.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-california-housing-crisis/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Policeman who arrested El Chapo's son shot 155 times in brutal execution
An elite police officer who helped arrest the son of El Chapo was shot 155 times in a brutal car park execution.
The 30-year-old officer, identified only as Eduardo, is reported to have been killed outside a shopping centre in the city of Culiacan.
He had helped detain Ovidio Guzman, El Chapo's son, last month.
He was promptly released.
According to local media, the victim was a member of the operation launched by the Culiacan authorities to arrest El Chapo’s son and extradite him to the United States.
Reports said that Guzman was detained on October 17 during a confrontation between the police and supporters of the Sinaloa Cartel in the city of Culiacan.
Alleged gang members loyal to Guzman then caused chaos on the streets and El Chapo’s 28-year-old son was promptly released by the authorities, according to local media.
The footage shows the moment a red car follows a white car into the car park before at least two gunmen reportedly shoot the cop 155 times.
The local authorities are investigating the incident although they have yet to establish whether a criminal gang was behind the alleged assassination.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/policeman-who-arrested-el-chapos-20835972
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