Society's Child

Ex-ABC News reporter James Gordon Meek hit with child pornography charge

Ben Feuerherd and Olivia Land
New York Post
Thu, 02 Feb 2023 17:18 UTC

© ABC via Getty Images
Former ABC News reporter James Gordon Meek was hit with child pornography charges by federal authorities in Virginia.

Former ABC News reporter James Gordon Meek was hit with a federal child pornography charge this week-almost ten months after the FBI raided his home and seized his laptop and other electronic devices.

Meek- who resigned abruptly from the network after the raid last spring- was arrested late Tuesday night and charged with one count of transportation of child pornography by federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia.

If convicted, he faces a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years, the Department of Justice said in a statement.

In an affidavit unsealed Wednesday, FBI Special Agent Tonya Sturgill Griffith explained that the investigation into Meek's online activities started in March 2021, when Dropbox alerted authorities to child porn stored in the veteran journalist's account.

A search warrant was executed at Meek's Arlington home on April 27, 2022, when investigators seized several devices including an iPhone 8.

Comment: It's worth noting this is Meek's last post on Twitter:

It's the land of the freebies for NYC's 'entitled' migrants

Michael Goodwin
New York Post
Tue, 31 Jan 2023 16:39 UTC

You can say this for the migrants demanding more free stuff from City Hall: They're fast learners about the new American ethos of endless entitlement.

Schooled and led by far-left activists, they arrive here within days of illegally crossing the southern border and claiming asylum, then start agitating for better accommodations in pricey neighborhoods.

Tents in the Bronx, barracks in Brooklyn or homeless shelters anywhere are not good enough. Only first-class Manhattan hotels, where the city pays upward of $500 a night per room, are acceptable.

The welcome wagon comes with free food, free cellphones, free transit passes, free school and free health care.

Comment: See also: Migrants turn NYC hotel into violent, drug-infested 'free-for-all': employee

Migrants turn NYC hotel into violent, drug-infested 'free-for-all': employee

Patrick Reilly
New York Post
Tue, 31 Jan 2023 15:06 UTC

A once-trendy Manhattan hotel has become a wild "free-for-all" of sex, drugs and violence after the city began housing migrants there, an employee claimed Tuesday.

Row NYC worker Felipe Rodriguez — who told The Post earlier this month that migrants were throwing away "tons" of prepared food at the hotel — said the facility has now descended into anarchy.

"Chaos, total chaos," Rodriguez told "Fox & Friends" when asked to describe conditions at the hotel. "There's no accountability.

"There is no daily supervision to show these people that ... 'You don't destroy your hotel. You are only there temporarily. This is not your home.'

"[The employees] endure a lot of disrespect from the migrants, and there [are] some nice migrants, but there's too much alcohol, too much drugs and too much violence, and you have teenagers ... going into the staircases and making out like it's Lover's Lane," Rodriguez said. "This is a free-for-all.

'A serious threat' or just blowing smoke?: Politicians calls grow for urgent review of England's wood-burning stoves

Helena Horton and Fiona Harvey
The Guardian
Thu, 02 Feb 2023 15:50 UTC

Politicians and campaigners have called for an urgent review of wood-burning stoves, which cause large amounts of pollution in urban areas.

The calls follow the admission by the environment secretary that the government had set weaker air pollution targets than it would like. The admission came as she announced a new environmental plan for England that held back from banning wood-burning stoves and settled instead for "educating" people on their use.

The Times subsequently reported that the government would encourage councils to use their powers to issue householders £300 on-the-spot fines for flouting air pollution rules by burning logs at home.

But the Green party co-leader Carla Denyer said the government should go further and potentially end the sale of log burners.

She said: "Local authorities have powers to create smoke control areas in cities under the Environment Act 2021. This goes some way to preventing homeowners and businesses releasing smoke from a chimney. However, there are exemptions for particular stoves and fuels which still mean dangerous particulates can be released into the atmosphere.

Comment: First they came for the gas stoves... and now the wood stoves...

Florida pride event includes 'kids' zone' featuring drag queen

Breitbart
Wed, 01 Feb 2023 15:06 UTC

A Florida pride festival featured a drag queen question and answer event in the "teen's zone" and a story hour in the "kids' zone," the Daily Caller reported.

The teen's portion consisted of a question and answer with a drag performer who goes by the name "Misty Eyez." The drag performer also took part in a drag queen story hour event in the kids' zone.

The festival, which was hosted by Hollywood, Florida, and Broward County, Florida, also included a "banned book nook" in the "kids' zone." The banned book area featured various controversial books and was hosted by the Broward County Hollywood Library and Safe Schools South Florida, a group working to embed gender theory in schools.

The organization explains that it hopes to mobilize students in service of leftist causes "through GSA (Gay/Straight Alliance) leadership training and diversity conferences." The group also "works on policy advocacy initiatives with schools, school districts and government agencies."

Ukrainian official alleges Twitter conspiracy

RT
Wed, 01 Feb 2023 15:30 UTC

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podoliak has blasted Twitter owner Elon Musk as a sympathizer for Russian propagandists, accusing the billionaire entrepreneur of "forcibly reducing" the reach of the Kiev government's accounts on the social media platform.

"Maybe you should stop pessimizing Ukrainian official accounts and forcibly reducing their reach," Podoliak told Musk on Wednesday in a Twitter post. "It's too obvious."

He went on to suggest that Musk has tried to help "talentless" purveyors of Russian propaganda. "It won't help them, and Twitter's reputation is dying," Podoliak claimed. "Maybe a regulator is needed to explain competition rules to the owner."

It's not clear which regulatory agency Podoliak wants to unleash on Musk or which antitrust law he has supposedly violated. Many Twitter users have complained in recent days of declining reach and engagement of their posts. The company's engineers are reportedly working to resolve a glitch that apparently arose when the platform tweaked some of its features last month.

Britain hit by biggest strike in more than a decade over cost of living

Jenny Reid
CNBC
Wed, 01 Feb 2023 15:21 UTC

© Kirsty O’connor - Pa Images | Pa Images | Getty Images
Union members gather outside Westminster Central Hall, in London, on Feb. 1 ahead of a march and rally against the Government’s controversial plans for a new law on minimum service levels during strikes.

More than half a million British workers are due to take strike action through Wednesday, with unions across a range of sectors in industrial disputes over pay and working conditions.

They include 300,000 teachers in England, who the National Education Union says have experienced at least a 23% real-terms pay cut since 2010; teachers across two unions in Scotland; around 100,000 civil servants across more than 100 departments, including driving instructors, coastguards and Department of Work and Pensions staff; 70,000 university workers, including lecturers and security staff; and roughly 100,000 train and bus drivers.

Such widespread strike action has not taken place since a dispute over public sector pay in 2011, when more than a million workers are estimated to have taken industrial action.

Tens of thousands of schools will be closed or partially closed, travel and other services will be disrupted, while workers will set up hundreds of picket lines and hold rallies.

Shell reports highest profits in 115 years

Simon Jack & Nick Edser
BBC News
Thu, 02 Feb 2023 14:35 UTC

Oil and gas giant Shell has reported record annual profits after energy prices surged last year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Profits hit $39.9bn (£32.2bn) in 2022, double last year's total and the highest in its 115-year history.

Energy firms have seen record earnings since oil and gas prices jumped following the invasion of Ukraine.

It has heaped pressure on firms to pay more tax as households struggle with rising bills.

Opposition parties said Shell's profits were "outrageous" and the government was letting energy firms "off the hook". They also called for the planned increase in the energy price cap due in April to be scrapped.

Energy prices had begun to climb after the end of Covid lockdowns but rose sharply in March last year after the events in Ukraine led to worries over supplies.

Comment: See also: Exxon posts record $56bn profit for 2022 in historic high for western oil industry

Testimony to Arizona Senate Election Committee reveals thousands of misdemeanors allegedly committed by Maricopa County in 2022 election

Rachel Alexander
The Arizona Sun Times
Tue, 31 Jan 2023 00:01 UTC

The Arizona Senate's Election Committee continued the second part of a hearing on Monday that began last week, featuring testimony from election integrity proponents. Shelby Busch, the co-founder of We the People AZ, and Heather Honey of Verify Vote, went over five areas where their team found apparent law violations by Maricopa County in the 2022 election.

Busch said during her presentation, "We want safe elections, not convenient ones," sparking applause from the audience. State Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff), the committee chair, kept a tight rein over the proceedings, often calling out the Democratic senators on the committee when they were out of line. One used the phrase "election denier," and Rogers told her it was inappropriate.

Busch explained that her team found many violations of the state's Election Procedures Manual (EPM), which are class 2 misdemeanors. The statute that addresses the EPM, A.R.S. 16-452(C), states that "A person who violates any rule adopted pursuant to this section is guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor."

Comment: See also:

Kiev's ombudsman calls for ban on Russian language on all university campuses

RT
Thu, 02 Feb 2023 10:07 UTC

Universities should set an example by ditching the use of Russian, the commissioner for protecting the Ukrainian language says

Speaking Russian should be banned on all university campuses in Ukraine, in and outside lectures, the ombudsman in charge of protecting the Ukrainian language, Taras Kremen, has said.

Last week the renowned "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy" (NaUKMA), one of the oldest universities in Ukraine, officially forbade students and educators from using Russian within its grounds. "While teaching in Russian hasn't been conducted at the university for a very long time, now the ban also applies to communicating with each other in the language of the occupiers," the head of the institution's supervisory board, Gennady Zunko, announced.

Kremen reacted to the move by NaUKMA in a Facebook post on Monday, saying it was "a rather powerful initiative, which I hope will be replicated by other universities in Ukraine."

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Society's Child

Ex-ABC News reporter James Gordon Meek hit with child pornography charge

It's the land of the freebies for NYC's 'entitled' migrants

Migrants turn NYC hotel into violent, drug-infested 'free-for-all': employee

'A serious threat' or just blowing smoke?: Politicians calls grow for urgent review of England's wood-burning stoves

Florida pride event includes 'kids' zone' featuring drag queen

Ukrainian official alleges Twitter conspiracy

Britain hit by biggest strike in more than a decade over cost of living

Shell reports highest profits in 115 years

Testimony to Arizona Senate Election Committee reveals thousands of misdemeanors allegedly committed by Maricopa County in 2022 election

Kiev's ombudsman calls for ban on Russian language on all university campuses

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