In the latest case of Hollywood's spiralling sexual abuse scandal, Variety reports that a veteran 58-year-old Disney executive has been charged with three felony counts of child sexual abuse. Jon Heely, the longtime director of music publishing at Disney, was arrested nearly a month ago and charged with three counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child. One of the reported victims was 15. The other was abused for four years starting at the age of 11, according to the charges.

His attorney Robert Helfend said Heely "vehemently denies these allegations."

Heely, who oversees the licensing of music from Disney films, pleaded not guilty on Thursday. If convicted, he faces up to nine years and three months in prison according to The Daily News.

Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is, and you must bend to its power or live a lie. - Miyamoto Musashi

Writing about taxes is slightly less fun than being spit roasted by someone with cerebral palsy. Reading what someone wrote about taxes is probably akin to being tied to a chair with toothpicks holding your eyelids open and being forced to watch.

People used to like money. We all talk about the death of capitalism. Capitalism is dying, but not from flaws in its ideological substrata, but of fiscal ennui - no matter what the left says, greed is just too vital for modern capitalism. What we really have is the lethargic gluttony of crass consumerism. Can you blame the West? All those ratios and percentages, and progressive pass-through limited partnerships and blah blah blah. Greed used to be sexy, now whining about the 1% while twirling your dreadlocks in between puffs of medical marijuana is sexy.

Greed is dead.

Algerian customs authorities have seized a ship in the port of Algiers carrying three large containers loaded with Israeli made clothes and imported through a private company in Algiers from China, Echourouk newspaper reported.

The paper quoted customs sources as saying that they searched the containers after receiving information that a private importer had brought large quantities of Israeli made clothes for children, men and women.

According to the sources, the customs inspectors found clothes for children, men and women which had "Made in Israel" written on them in all the containers.

Editor's Note: Woody Allen, who declined to comment prior to publication, has long denied the allegations described in this Op-Ed. Dylan Farrow's allegations against Allen were investigated by sex-abuse experts at Yale-New Haven Hospital, who found no evidence of abuse.Some questioned their methodology. A state's attorney in Connecticut said he had "probable cause" to prosecute in 1993 but did not file charges.

We are in the midst of a revolution. From allegations against studio heads and journalists, to hotel maids recounting abuses on the job, women are exposing the truth and men are losing their jobs. But the revolution has been selective.

I have long maintained that when I was 7 years old, Woody Allen led me into an attic, away from the babysitters who had been instructed never to leave me alone with him. He then sexually assaulted me. I told the truth to the authorities then, and I have been telling it, unaltered, for more than 20 years. Why is it that Harvey Weinstein and other accused celebrities have been cast out by Hollywood, while Allen recently secured a multimillion-dollar distribution deal with Amazon, greenlit by former Amazon Studios executive Roy Price before he was suspended over sexual misconduct allegations? Allen's latest feature, Wonder Wheel, was released theatrically on Dec. 1.

Allen denies my allegations. But this is not a "he said, child said" situation. Allen's pattern of inappropriate behavior - putting his thumb in my mouth, climbing into bed with me in his underwear, constant grooming and touching - was witnessed by friends and family members. At the time of the alleged assault, he was in therapy for his conduct towards me. Three eyewitnesses substantiated my account, including a babysitter who saw Allen with his head buried in my lap after he had taken off my underwear. Allen refused to take a polygraph administered by the Connecticut state police.

Head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, said at a meeting with the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) leader Metropolitan Tikhon of America and Canada on Wednesday that bilateral relations between the Russian and American Orthodox Churches remain at a high level and continue to develop.

Contacts between representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Orthodox Church in America could "promote reconciliation and the establishment of good cooperation" between Russia and the United States, Patriarch Kirill said at a meeting with Tikhon of America and Canada.

"Given the complicated relations between Russia and the United States, the contacts of our churches are gaining special significance, because these contacts connect people who share a common faith, who have a common history, common spiritual values, and can, I am sure, serve as a link between our peoples, promote reconciliation and the establishment of good cooperation," Patriarch Kirill said at a meeting in his residence.

Metropolitan Tikhon, together with the heads of other local Orthodox churches, arrived in Moscow to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the restoration of the patriarchate in the Russian Church and the election of Holy Hierarch Tikhon as the Patriarch in 1917.

Walking into a Fort Lauderdale Pizza Hut, writer Adam Weinstein wasn't exactly looking to be a food industry whistleblower when he chose to pick up some grub that fateful day last Friday.

Written, all caps, and in red and black ink, Weinstein found himself before a sign that read, "We don't deliver to northwest (D-4) after 7 p.m., but any order taken before 7 p.m. must be delivered."


​Perhaps it's no coincidence that the ink chosen was red, of all colors: alongside the display is a map, which, incidentally, boldly outlines a predominantly African-American neighborhood with red lines.

"You can't tell in the photo, but Pizza Hut's redlined neighborhood is literally centered on Ft. Lauderdale's African American Research Library and Cultural Center," Weinstein wrote in a tweet.

Bad roads and other problems with infrastructure are the main reasons why the Russian economy doesn't grow as fast as it could, according to Economic Development Minister Maksim Oreshkin.

"I am convinced that infrastructure is one of the key problems of the Russian economy. We are underinvested here, the quality of infrastructure does not correspond to the level of Russia's development and is a serious obstacle on the way of economic growth," he said during a Q&A session on the Gazeta.ru news website.

The Treasury Department paid $220,000 in a previously undisclosed agreement to settle a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment that involved Florida Democrat Alcee L. Hastings, according to documents obtained by Roll Call.

Winsome Packer, a former staff member of a congressional commission that promotes international human rights, said in documents that the congressman touched her, made unwanted sexual advances, and threatened her job. At the time, Hastings was the chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, where Packer worked.

Hastings has called Packer's charges "ludicrous" and in documents said he never sexually harassed her.

"Until this evening, I had not seen the settlement agreement between the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) and Ms. Packer," the congressman said in a statement Friday night. "This matter was handled solely by the Senate Chief Counsel for Employment. At no time was I consulted, nor did I know until after the fact that such a settlement was made."

Hastings said that the lawsuit that Packer filed against him and an investigation by the House Ethics Committee were ultimately dismissed.

A US army convoy got stuck in the mud on a road in western Poland. Their colleagues who came to help then saw their own vehicle turning over, prompting the 'gallant' soldiers to eventually ask the locals for help.

The small US army convoy, consisting of what appears to be two heavy combat engineer support vehicles, experienced trouble on a road near the western Polish town of Lubin, when one of the trucks suddenly experienced problems with the brakes. The convoy pulled to the side of the road to examine the fault, only to find themselves stuck in a ditch.

It soon turned out that it was only the beginning of their troubles. The soldiers tried to get the trapped vehicles out with a military wrecker. Video taken at the scene shows that the towing truck managed to pull one vehicle out of the mud. However, the tow vehicle itself ended up flipping over on the other side of the road, as it fell into another ditch in a futile attempt to replicate its success with the second vehicle.

Venezuela's critical medicine shortage has spurred "medical flea markets," where peddlers offer everything from antibiotics to contraceptives laid out among the traditional fruits and vegetables.

The crisis-wrought Latin American nation is heaving under worsening scarcity of drugs, as well as basic foods, due to tanking national production and strict currency controls that crimp imports.

The local pharmaceutical association estimates at any given time, there is a shortage of around 85 percent of drugs.

Sick Venezuelans often scour pharmacies and send pleas on social media to find treatment. Increasingly, however, they are turning to a flourishing black market offering medicines surreptitiously bought from Venezuelan hospitals or smuggled in from neighboring Colombia.

"Here I can find the vitamins I need for my memory," said 56-year-old Marisol Salas, who suffered a stroke, as she bought the pills at a small stand at the main bus terminal in the Andean city of San Cristobal.

Around her, Venezuelans asked sellers for medicine to control blood pressure as well as birth control pills.

"People are looking for anticonvulsants a lot recently," said Antuam Lopez, 30, who sells medicine alongside vegetables, and said hospital employees usually provide him with the drugs.

Leftist President Nicolas Maduro says resellers are in league with a U.S.-led conspiracy to sabotage socialism and are to blame for medicine shortages.
Risks

In the middle of a market in the humid and sweltering city of Maracaibo, dozens of boxes full of medicines including antibiotics and pain killers are stacked on top of each other. The packaging is visibly deteriorated: The cases are discolored and some are even dirty.

Doctors warn these drugs -- usually smuggled in from Colombia, a few hours' drive from Maracaibo -- pose risks.

"We've found that a lot of them have not been maintained at proper temperatures," warned oncologist Jose Oberto, who leads the Zulia state's doctors association.

Still, some Venezuelans feel they have no choice but to rely on contraband medicine.

"I had to buy medicine from Colombia, and it worried me because the label said 'hospital use,'" said retiree Esledy Paez, 62.

But they are often prohibitively expensive for Venezuelans, many of whom earn just a handful of dollars a month at the black market rate due to soaring inflation.

Norkis Pabon struggled to find antibiotics for her hospitalized husband to prevent his foot injury from worsening due to diabetes.

"But the treatment costs 900,000 bolivars ($9.43; twice the minimum wage) and I do not know what to do," said Pabon, who is unemployed.