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Jussie Smollett indicted on 16 counts of felony disorderly conduct

Jussie Smollett
© Agence France.PresseJussie Smollett
A Cook County grand jury has returned a 16-count indictment against "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett.

The Cook County State's Attorney's Office confirmed the indictment, which they said was returned by a grand jury on Thursday.

CLICK HERE to read the full indictment

Smollett was originally charged with one felony count of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report by the Cook County State's Attorney's Office on Feb. 20.

Now the grand jury has returned 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report.

The TV actor claimed he was the victim of a vicious hate crime in the Streeterville neighborhood on Jan. 29. He said two men physically attacked him while yelling racist and homophobic slurs, threw a chemical liquid on him and looped a rope around his neck.

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Chess

Syrian Defence Minister: Turkey & Russia have begun patrolling Idlib de-escalation zone

Idlib Syria
© REUTERS / Ammar Abdullah
Turkish and Russian servicemen began on Friday patrolling the Idlib de-escalation zone in northwest Syria, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said.

"Today, Russia will begin patrols in the border area outside of Idlib while Turkish Armed Forces patrols will start in the demilitarized zone," Akar said to the Anadolu news agency.

Akar said any Turkish contacts with the Syrian government were "out of the question." He added Ankara, which supports Syrian opposition, had been in talks with Russia and occasionally Iran on the matter of the Syrian peace.

Hourglass

'Release is best solution': Explorer Cousteau wants to save orcas & belugas from 'whale jail'

Whale
© Global Look Press / Michael Weberberger
French ocean explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau has accepted an invitation from the Russian authorities to visit the "whale jail" and help return captive orcas and belugas to the wild.

Jean-Michel Cousteau, who is the son of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, stressed that "the best solution for the orcas and belugas is their release into the wild, not a life in captivity in an aquarium."

"I hope to visit Srednyaya Bay... to examine the condition of orcas and belugas and to help the Russian authorities to rehabilitate and release them," he wrote in a letter to the governor of Primorsky Region in the Russian Far East, where the animals are currently held. Cousteau also called for prompt action amid media reports that their health has deteriorated recently.

People

Tory minister blasted on Twitter for referring to black people as 'colored'

Amber Rudd
© AFP / Tolga AkmenWork and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd
Amber Rudd, the work and pensions secretary, has been lambasted after referring to black people as "colored," on a day that saw two other UK government ministers manage to offend Muslims and the Irish.

In an interview for BBC Radio 2, Rudd, who has since apologized for her "clumsy language," was giving her views on the issue of abuse and online trolling MPs receive online, when she made the offensive remark.

"It definitely is worse if you're a woman. And it's worst of all if you're a colored woman. I know that Diane Abbott gets a huge amount of abuse."

Comment: 'Colored' is bad but 'people of color' is okay?


Pocket Knife

A bloodied man walks into hospital, says he killed his boyfriend

Matthew Van Zandt
© Charlotte ObserverMatthew Van Zandt, 30, is accused of fatally stabbing 31-year-old Ian Shannon in Manheim Township on March 6, 2019.
Authorities say a man covered in blood walked into a Pennsylvania hospital and told staffers he had just fatally stabbed his boyfriend.

Manheim Township police say 30-year-old Matthew Van Zandt is charged with homicide in the death of 31-year-old Ian Shannon, whose body was found Wednesday in a Lancaster home.

Authorities say Van Zandt walked into an Allentown hospital early Wednesday and told an emergency room nurse about the slaying. They say he also told a hospital security guard that the knife he used was in his backpack.

Authorities had gone to the Lancaster home shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday for a reported domestic dispute but got no response at the residence. They returned more than two hours later after learning of Van Zandt's statements.

It wasn't known Friday if Van Zandt has retained an attorney.

Comment: More from Pennsylvania Real-Time News, 3/7/2019:
A man was fatally stabbed earlier this week in Lancaster County after he reportedly mocked his boyfriend, Matthew M. VanZandt, who was trying to end their relationship, police revealed in charging documents. VanZandt, 30, of Monroe County later admitted to the stabbing while being evaluated at a Lehigh County hospital, the documents show.

According to a criminal complaint filed by Manheim Township police, officers were called about 12:48 a.m. Wednesday to a home at 417 Dickens Drive in Lancaster Township, where a domestic dispute was reported, but, when they arrived, there were no lights on in the home and no one answered the door.

A little less than three hours later, they got a second call to the residence. This time it was because VanZandt had arrived at St. Luke's Hospital in Lehigh County covered in blood, police said. VanZandt told hospital staff that he had just killed his boyfriend, according to the complaint.

Officers again arrived at the home shortly after 3:30 a.m., and they were able to get inside, when a neighbor, who knew a code to access its garage, let them in, police said. They searched the home, eventually making their way to a second-floor bedroom, where police said they found 31-year-old Ian Shannon lying dead and naked in a bed, with his head hanging off of the edge.

Shannon was covered in blood, police said, adding that he had suffered multiple stab wounds to his torso. They specifically pointed out one wound: "a large laceration that extended from the base of the victim's ribs to his nipples. Officers also noticed blood had covered the majority of the bedroom," police said.

Shannon was pronounced dead at the scene by the Lancaster County Coroner's Office.

Police then spoke with the neighbor who let them into the home. According to the complaint, the neighbor said he called in the earlier domestic dispute, and, at that time, he heard loud screaming coming from the home.

Police said the neighbor told them VanZandt and Shannon were boyfriends and they lived in the home together. The neighbor also reported that the men had a history of arguments, according to the complaint.

Hospital staff, who treated VanZandt, also were interviewed by police. According to the complaint, officers were told that VanZandt arrived at the hospital with a hand injury, and, when he arrived, he was covered in blood - blood that he said was not his own.

Online court documents show that VanZandt faces a single felony charge of criminal homicide.



Star of David

'To prison but never to the army!' shout Haredi men as Jerusalem police crush ultra-Orthodox Jews' protest

OrthodoxJewProtest
© Reuters/Ronen ZvulunIsraeli police spray water during a demonstration by ultra-Orthodox Jews
At least 30 ultra-Orthodox Jews have been arrested after police cracked down on hundreds of Haredi men blocking the streets of Jerusalem, with some demonstrators insulting the officers by calling them Nazis. ​

Some 500 people belonging to the Jerusalem Faction movement clashed with police on Thursday as security forces tried to clear the crowd that blocked traffic and light rail service, in protest at the detention of an IDF draft-dodger.

Dressed in black hats and long black jackets, members of the Haredi community accused the government of attempting to suppress religion. "The draft is religious persecution," they shouted. "To prison but never to the army!"



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Arrow Down

Whole Foods slashes workers' hours after Amazon introduces minimum wage

WholeFoodsSign
© Chain Store Age
In response to public pressure and increasing scrutiny over the pay of its warehouse workers, Amazon enacted a $15 minimum wage for all its employees on 1 November, including workers at grocery chain Whole Foods, which it purchased in 2017.

All Whole Foods employees paid less than $15 an hour saw their wages increase to at least that, while all other team members received a $1 an hour wage increase and team leaders received a $2 an hour increase.

But since the wage increase, Whole Food employees have told the Guardian that they have experienced widespread cuts that have reduced schedule shifts across many stores, often negating wage gains for employees.

"My hours went from 30 to 20 a week," said one Whole Foods employee in Illinois.

Workers interviewed for this story were reluctant to speak on the record for fear of retaliation.

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Megaphone

CNN 'practically defends' insurance companies by downplaying 'f***ed' healthcare system - Lee Camp

medicare protest
© Global Look Press / Dave Banks
CNN's coverage of a health insurance executive admitting to widespread malpractice essentially defends corporate greed by making it seem as if the "broken" industry only suffers from a few bad apples, RT's Lee Camp mused.

The host of Redacted Tonight took issue with the way CNN presented testimony from a former medical director at Aetna Insurance, who admitted that he never looked at a customer's medical records before deciding to deny coverage. In its report, CNN gently suggested that "patient advocates" have expressed concern about such practices - an angle that infuriated Lee, who said the network always finds a way to downplay any corporate malfeasance that seeps into the news cycle.

Cardboard Box

Couple and homeless man charged with creating fake story that made them $400k in donations on GoFundMe page - UPDATE: Grifters plead guilty

Johnny Bobbitt Jr.
FILE- In this Nov. 17, 2017, photo, Johnny Bobbitt Jr., left, Kate McClure, right, and McClure's boyfriend Mark D'Amico pose at a Citgo station in Philadelphia. When McClure ran out of gas, Bobbitt, who is homeless, gave his last $20 to buy gas...
A New Jersey couple and a homeless man who used a GoFundMe page to raise $400,000 now face criminal charges.

Prosecutors tell WCAU that Mark D'amico and Kate McClure conspired with destitute Johnny Bobbitt to create the get-rich-quick scheme in 2017.

The couple created a GoFundMe page, claiming homeless drug addict Bobbitt spent his last $20 to fill up McClure's empty gas tank after her car broke down.

The charity campaign exploded, raising tens of thousands of dollars from unsuspecting donors in a matter of days.

All three face charges of conspiracy and theft by deception for working together to create the alleged ruse.

Comment: Sheesh! One of the very few feel-good stories we've covered here over the past few years that sparks a little faith in humanity and - poof - it's a fake! But take heart dear reader, the many thousands of good and sometimes great articles posted here are a testament to the many, many people who care about our world, getting at something close to truth of things, and sharing it for the betterment and elucidation of all - even if they make a living doing it. Not to mention the items on all the countries standing up to Empire.

Update (March 8): Both the homeless man, Johnny Bobbitt, and the woman involved, Kate McClure, have plead guilty to federal charges related to this scheme.


Eye 2

Court weighs unsealing records that could reveal new details of Jeffrey Epstein sex abuse

Jeffrey Epstein
© Uma Sanghvi Palm Beach Post via APJeffrey Epstein is flanked by his legal team during a court hearing in the summer of 2008.
Privacy rights versus press freedoms took center stage Wednesday at an explosive federal appeals court hearing in New York, where lawyers argued to unseal confidential court files that could reveal evidence of an underage sex trafficking operation allegedly run by New York multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein and his partner, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reserved judgment in the case, but the panel suggested it was leaning toward the release to the public of vast portions of the court record. The file on the case, which was settled in 2017, contains more than 1,000 documents, lawyers said during oral arguments led by the Miami Herald, which seeks to open the entire file.

Most of the documents, including court orders and motions, were filed under seal or heavily redacted, similar to other cases in New York and Florida involving the wealthy, politically connected money manager. Epstein, now 66, was not a party to the lawsuit, which was filed against Maxwell in 2015 by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claimed she was recruited by the pair to perform massages on them when she was 16 and known as Virginia Roberts. Giuffre claims she and other girls were sexually abused and pimped out to a number of wealthy influential people from 1999 to 2002.

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