Tag: corruption

Cleveland mayor allegedly prevented gang-member grandson’s arrest for murder

Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson allegedly used his influence to protect his grandson — a reputed gang member — from being arrested in connection to a fatal shooting that still remains unsolved two years later, according to a report. The New York Post reported that Frank Q. Jackson, a suspected member of violent street gang No-Limit 700, was the prime suspect in the broad-daylight August 28, 2019 shooting of 30-year-old Antonio “Bisket” Parra.

Jackson, who is now being sued by the murdered man’s family, is accused of preventing the arrest of his grandson when cops went to the 74-year-old Democrat’s house the night of the shooting. According to  documents, police intended to take his grandson into custody, but they stood down after a conversation the mayor had with Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams, according to the New Republic.

It’s unknown what took place during the encounter at the mayor’s house, since the elder Jackson apparently told the cops to turn off their body-worn cameras, in violation of department policy, a local TV station reported in September 2019.

The mayor, as part of the wrongful death lawsuit proceedings, claimed ignorance about why his grandson wasn’t arrested that night.

“I do not know,” Jackson said, according to the New Republic, “however, to the best of my recollection while outside my house … [police] spoke on the phone with Frank Q. Jackson’s lawyers.”

In addition to the circumstances surrounding cops backing away from arresting Frank Q., a local councilman claims the mayor — who has led the Ohio city since 2005 — has repeatedly provided cover for his grandson’s gang.

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Epstein guards admit to falsifying records, will skirt jail time in deal with prosecutors

The two jail employees tasked with guarding pedophile Jeffrey Epstein the night of his suicide in a Manhattan jail have admitted to falsifying records — but will skirt time behind bars under a deal with prosecutors.

Tova Noel and Michael Thomas admitted that they “willfully and knowingly” lied on forms stating that they’d made the required rounds checking on inmates the night of Epstein’s August 2019 suicide

Prosecutors said the guards were sleeping and surfing the web when they should have been monitoring the maximum security federal prisoner, who had recently been on suicide watch at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Under a plea deal announced Friday, they will avoid jail time in connection with their misconduct.

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How Facebook uses ‘fact-checking’ to suppress scientific truth

At the end of a recent 800-meter race in Oregon, a high-school runner named Maggie Williams got dizzy, passed out and landed face-first just beyond the finish line. She and her coach blamed her collapse on a deficit of oxygen due to the mask she’d been forced to wear, and state officials responded to the public outcry by easing their requirements for masks during athletic events.

But long before the pandemic began, scientists had repeatedly found that wearing a mask could lead to oxygen deprivation. Why had this risk been ignored?

One reason is that a new breed of censors has been stifling scientific debate about masks on social-media platforms. When Scott Atlas, a member of the Trump White House’s coronavirus task force, questioned the efficacy of masks last year, Twitter removed his tweet. When eminent scientists from Stanford and Harvard recently told Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that children should not be forced to wear masks, YouTube removed their video discussion from its platform. These acts of censorship were widely denounced, but the social-media science police remain undeterred, as I discovered when I recently wrote about the harms to children from wearing masks.

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NYC PBS Airs Children’s Show Where “Drag Queens In Training” Learn To Swish Their Hips

Taxpayers are funding a NYC PBS show where a drag queen named “Little Miss Hot Mess” teaches “drag queens in training,” also known as children, how to shake their butts.

The program, “Let’s Learn,” is a collaboration between PBS and The New York City Department of Education aimed at children ages 3-8.

The episode “The Hips On the Drag Queen Go Swish Swish Swish” first aired March 31.

Little Miss Hot Mess, who is allegedly a founding member of Drag Queen Story Hour, is the author of the book “The Hips On the Drag Queen Go Swish Swish Swish.”

“I wrote this book because I wanted everyone to get to experience the magic of drag and to get a little practice shaking their hips or shimmying their shoulders to know how we can feel fabulous inside of our own bodies,” Little Miss Hot Mess told kids on the PBS show.

After singing and dancing along with the book, the drag queen said, “I think we might have some drag queens in training on our hand.”

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CNN acknowledges Chris Cuomo joined his brother’s strategy calls on sexual harassment accusations

CNN acknowledged Thursday that anchor Chris Cuomo joined strategy sessions with his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in the wake of sexual harassment accusations against him, through a statement to the Washington Post.

Why it matters: Although CNN said Cuomo has not been involved in the outlet’s coverage of the allegations, the calls detailed by the Post show that the anchor advised his brother’s staff on how to respond to the accusations — which “cuts against the widely accepted norm in journalism that those reporting the news should not be involved in politics,” the Post writes.

What they’re saying: “Chris has not been involved in CNN’s extensive coverage of the allegations against Governor Cuomo — on air or behind the scenes,” the network’s statement to WashPost reads. “In part because, as he has said on his show, he could never be objective. But also because he often serves as a sounding board for his brother.”

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