Smollett Charges Dropped After “Emergency Court Appearance” 

Charges were dropped on Tuesday against Empire actor Jussie Smollett for disorderly conduct related to allegedly staging a fake hate crime attack and filing a false police report, according to the Chicago Tribune

According to reports, the state of Illinois filed the motion to dismiss the case, which the judge signed off on. The case has also been sealed, according to CBS Chicago‘s Charlie De Mar. 

There had been no clue that prosecutors planned the about-face move before the announcement. A publicist for Smollett’s attorney was the first to notify the news media Tuesday morning, issuing an alert that did not elaborate on the nature of the emergency.

The 36-year-old actor, who was free on $100,000 bond, has previously denied lying to police or faking the attack.

Smollett maintains that he was the victim of a predawn hate crime on January 29 in which two men assaulted him while he was on his way home after buying a sandwich; hurling racial and antigay slurs at him, dousing him in a liquid, placing a noose around his neck (which he was still wearing when police arrived later that morning), and punching him in the face. 

The incident sparked national outrage – with the left-leaning mainstream media and prominent Democrats uncritically supporting Smollett’s version of events; holding it up as a prime example of violent Donald Trump supporters

Two suspects in the case, Nigerian-American brothers Ola and Abel Osundario – one of whom has been an extra on Empire, told police that Smollett paid them a combined $3,500 to stage the “attack,” and that the three of them had practiced it beforehand. They also said that Smollett was involved in creating a racist letter containing a white substance that was sent to the actor on the Chicago set of Empire.

Developing…

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2HF80EV Tyler Durden

Wirecard Shares Soar After Internal Probe Clears Company Of Fraud Allegations

Wirecard bulls, and anybody who bought the dip in the German fintech darling’s shares after allegations of widespread accounting fraud surfaced earlier this year, can breath a sigh of relief – for now, at least.

In a final report on the allegations published by the renowned Asian law firm Rajah & Tann, which had been hired by Wirecard to conduct an external probe, R&T determined that the alleged accounting manipulation was isolated to the company’s Singapore operations, and that the company’s leaders in Germany weren’t involved and likely weren’t aware. This contradicts a report by the FT, which cited a whistleblower and leaked documents from the firm’s investigation to suggest that the deceitful practices were part of the firm’s global growth strategy as it sought regulatory approval from various governments across Asia.

The report acknowledged a number of accounting oversights, and said the allegations could potentially lead to criminal liability for some of the firm’s managers in Singapore. But the sums involved were not significant for a company with more than 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) in annual sales.

Here’s more from Bloomberg:

Wirecard employees “wrongfully” recorded 2.5 million euros of revenue in 2017 and improperly accounted for a 3 million-euro asset for one week in 2018, the company said, citing findings from Singapore-based firm Rajah & Tann. While dubious contracts were prepared, none of the funds — except for one transaction of 63,000 euros — flowed to Wirecard affiliates, the company said.

The company’s shares soared as much as 32% on the news, the largest one-day gain for the stock, which recently replaced Commerzbank in one of Germany’s most widely followed stock-market indexes, since October 2008.

WC

To be sure, this doesn’t mean Wirecard is out of the woods: Authorities in Singapore are still investigating the allegations, and recently raided the company’s offices. In an attempt to stop Wirecard from dragging down the broader European equity market, German regulators briefly prohibited short-selling in WC’s shares, in a move that many remarked was reminiscent of the selling bans enforced by Chinese authorities during a panic in their domestic market.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2HHC4zY Tyler Durden

Chick-Fil-A Barred From San Antonio Airport Over ‘Anti-LBGTQ Behavior’ 

The San Antonio City Council held a vote on March 21 to ban fast-food chain Chick-fil-A from opening a concession at the city’s airport, according to Out in SA.

The City Council voted 6-4 on the ban, citing the company’s extensive history of anti-LGBTQ donations.

“With this decision, the City Council reaffirmed the work our city has done to become a champion of equality and inclusion,” Councilman Roberto C. Treviño told the news outlet in a statement.

“San Antonio is a city full of compassion, and we don’t have room in our public facilities for a business with a legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior.”

Besides Chick-Fil-A, San Antonio International Airport will include concessions for The Luxury, Smoke Shack BBQ, Local Coffee, Boss Bagels & Coffee, Spurs, IStore, Sip Brew Bar and Market, and Adina’s Market.

“The press release issued by  the councilmembers was the first we heard of his motion and its approval by the San Antonio City Council,” Chick-fil-A told The Hill in a statement. 

We wish we had the opportunity to clarify misperceptions about our company prior to the vote. We agree with the councilmembers that everyone should feel welcome at Chick-fil-A. In fact, we have welcomed everyone in San Antonio into our 32 local stores for more than 40 years.”

Chick-Fil-A has had an extended history of anti-LGBTQ donations.

In 2012, Dan T. Cathy, an American billionaire and the company’s CEO, said he opposed gay marriage. Later it was revealed that the company’s non-profit arm, Chick-Fil-A Foundation, donated large sums of money to political groups that were hostile to LGBTQ rights. It was reported later that year, Chick-Fil-A published a statement that said it would leave same-sex marriage to the government.

Interesting enough, a 2017 tax filing showed the foundation continued to donate millions of dollars to three groups with anti-LGBTQ policies.

Chick-fil-A has taken a political stand for what its Bible-quoting CEO believes in, but over the last several years, mainly since the left-wing media has waged an all-out war on the Trump administration, the fast-food, conservative-loving, chicken-chain has been under an intense microscope from leftist organizations.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2WvUcAb Tyler Durden

As Vote Looms, Ron Paul Ravages ‘The Green Bad Deal’

As The Senate gears up to vote, as soon as today, on a motion to proceed on the Green New Deal – AOC’s broad climate-change bill that has divided Democrats, and which Republicans hope to use as a wedge issue in 2020 – Ron Paul has a few choice words for this “ready-made excuse to expand government and curtail liberty.”

As The Hill reports, Democrats are broadly expected to vote present on the legislation as a way of deflecting a political attack from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who scheduled the vote to put the minority in a difficult position.

They have sought to cast the scheduling of the vote as a political trick.

“This vote is a sham and little more than a political ploy to protect vulnerable Republicans from having to defend their climate science denial,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.).

Even though he is the Senate sponsor of the Green New Deal legislation, he will vote present on the legislation.

Groups supporting the Green New Deal are essentially giving members a free pass to not vote in favor of the measure, but Democratic polling shows the Green New Deal has strong support from likely Democratic voters in early primary and caucus states.

Ron Paul sees it for what it is…

The recently-proposed Green New Deal is proof that climate change is for progressive Democrats what terrorism is for neoconservative Republicans: a ready-made excuse to expand government and curtail liberty. This radical plan would authorize the US government to seize control of major sectors of the US economy, phase out gasoline-fueled cars, make buildings “energy efficient,” and even replace air travel with rail travel.

Supporters of the Green New Deal claim that the science regarding the risk of climate change is “settled.” However, the science is far from settled. Many of the claims regarding climate change have been debunked.

Some supporters of policies like the Green New Deal have actually supported criminalizing dissent from the so-called “settled” science of climate change. This reveals the authoritarianism of some people demanding Americans give up real liberty and prosperity because of phantom fears of impending environmental disaster.

Like all forms of socialism, the Green New Deal suffers from what Ludwig von Mises identified as the “calculation problem.” Knowledge of the most efficient use of resources is conveyed by prices set in a free market. Prices reflect individuals’ subjective preferences regarding the best use of resources. When government uses force to remove resources from the marketplace, it makes it impossible for the price system to function, leaving government officials and private citizens unable to determine the most efficient use of resources. That is why every attempt at government management of the economy inevitably reduces the people’s standard of living.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has dismissed concerns regarding the almost 100 trillion dollars ten-year cost of implementing the Green New Deal by suggesting that Congress simply make the Federal Reserve pay for it by creating new money. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s claim is rooted in Modern Monetary Theory. This theory states that, when government controls the currency, it need not worry about running up large debt for welfare and war; it can have the central bank print more money to pay for more government.

Modern Monetary Theory is not modern. The Federal Reserve has facilitated the growth of government by printing money since its creation. It is no coincidence the birth of the Federal Reserve was immediately followed by the rise of the welfare-warfare state.

Whether done to monetize the federal debt or to jump-start economic growth, the Federal Reserve’s creation of new money harms the economy. In fact, Fed-induced distortions, caused by actions including money creation and interest rate manipulation, are the root cause of the boom-and-bust cycle that plagues the American economy. The Green New Deal would, in addition to its other negative impacts, hasten and deepen the inevitable Federal Reserve-caused economic crisis facing America. It would also increase the hidden and regressive inflation tax.

Ironically, the Green New Deal also would likely damage the environment. History shows that the most effective way to protect the environment is with a free-market economy that respects property rights. Therefore, those concerned with protecting the environment should support the free market, along with a legal system that holds private property owners accountable when their actions damage the environment or harm other individuals or their property.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2CzsdHV Tyler Durden

Battering Ram-Wielding Chicago Cops Crash 4-Year-Old’s Birthday Party, Point Guns at Terrified Kids

With a battering ram and sledgehammer in tow, Chicago Police carried out a raid on a South Side home last month. There was just one problem (okay, maybe more than one): The suspect they were looking for hadn’t lived at that address in five years, claim the current occupants, who were celebrating a 4-year-old’s birthday.

It all went down February 10 during young TJ Boswell’s birthday party. His 7-year-old sister, Samari, told WBBM there was little to no warning before police officers entered the home and pointed their guns at party attendees. “They were saying F-words and stuff. It was horrible,” she said.

“All I heard was steps of like shoes coming down the stairs hard,” added their aunt, Kiqiana Jackson. “Get your fucking hands up,” Jackson recalled police saying. Jackson told WBBM she unsuccessfully asked for a search warrant multiple times, and was rewarded by being placed in handcuffs. She eventually saw the warrant, but not before police had trashed the home. A TV was broken as a result of the raid, and TJ’s cake ended up on the floor, the family says.

Police were searching for a suspect in possession of ecstasy, though TJ and Samari’s mother, Stephanie Bures, told WBBM that person hadn’t lived there in years.

“My law firm took 30 seconds to do a person search and came up with [the suspect’s] most current address, which is on 83rd street nowhere near the property,” the family’s lawyer, Al Hofeld Jr., told the outlet.

“I thought they was going to shoot me, and my brother, and everybody else,” added Samari.

The family plans to file a federal civil rights lawsuit.

Reason reached out to Chicago Police for comment, who responded with the following statement

While we do not comment on pending or proposed litigation, for all criminal investigations, CPD makes every effort to ensure the validity and accuracy of all information that is used to apply for and execute search warrants. Oftentimes this information comes from community sources and despite the vetting of material through a criminal court and the methodical process to authenticate addresses, errors can occur and we take them very seriously. The CPD and City of Chicago has a claims process for any property owner to reimburse for repairs as a result of an accidental search warrant.

This incident highlights a major policing issue, particularly in Chicago, but also around the country. If you type the phrase “Chicago police raid wrong home” into Google, you’ll find numerous accounts of police barging into homes and terrorizing the families inside without finding the suspect they were looking for.

It’s not even the first time they’ve been accused of crashing a child’s birthday party. Last month, WFLD reported on Chicago Police raiding a South Deering home during a party. Police believed a child was in danger, but they refused to immediately show a search warrant.

These sorts of raids can have consequences. In September, Maryland police in search of a drug dealer raided the wrong home, leading the resident, who thought they were home invaders, to shoot and wound two officers, according to The Washington Post.

In November, a North Carolina SWAT team pointed their guns at a 6-year-old boy with autism and forced him to sit outside in the cold while they searched the home for a robbery suspect who was not there. The child was “terrorized,” his mother later said.

It’s hard to see how this sort of thing does any good. Police need to stop treating law-abiding citizens, especially children, like dangerous criminals.

from Hit & Run https://ift.tt/2TwDSx7
via IFTTT

Hogwashed: A Sullen John Brennan Suggests He May Have Received “Bad Information” On Collusion

A somber looking John Brennan suggested on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday that “bad information” may be to blame after more than two years of being dead wrong about Trump colluding with Russia.

Brennan – the former director of the CIA – was so convinced of Trump’s collusion that he penned an angry Op-Ed in the New York Times after his security clearance was yanked, titled: “President Trump’s Claims of No Collusion Are Hogwash.

The article starts off with a picture of the very patriotic Brennan swearing in before some testimony we’re sure was truthful – unless he had bad information of course. 

Mr. Trump’s claims of no collusion are, in a word, hogwash.

The only questions that remain are whether the collusion that took place constituted criminally liable conspiracy, whether obstruction of justice occurred to cover up any collusion or conspiracy, and how many members of “Trump Incorporated” attempted to defraud the government by laundering and concealing the movement of money into their pockets. –John O. Brennan

Last April – after President Trump called former FBI Director James Comey a “proven LEAKER & LIAR,” Brennan dusted off his favorite thesaurus and tweeted “Your kakistocracy is collapsing after its lamentable journey.” 

And less than one year later – Trump has been vindicated of collusion by special counsel Robert Mueller, and all Brennan’s kakistocracy is in shambles – mumbling with a stone-face; “Well, I don’t know if I received bad information but I think I suspected there was more than there actually was,” adding – with a mouth full of crow “I am relieved that it’s been determined there was not a criminal conspiracy with the Russian government over our election.”

Sounds like hogwash… 

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2TZ0ECV Tyler Durden

Consumer Confidence Crashes Most Since Oct 2008

After a hope-filled rebound in February, Conference Board Consumer Confidence tumbled in March with Present Situation plunging to 11-month lows.

  • Consumer confidence in March fell to 124.1 vs 131.4 in prior month (that is below the forecast range 125.44 to 136.5 from 57 estimates)

  • Present situation confidence fell to 160.6 vs 172.8 last month

  • Consumer confidence expectations fell to 99.8 vs 103.8 last month

 

This is the biggest monthly collapse in ‘Present Situation’ since October 2008 to its lowest since April 2018…

And this has happened as stocks pushed back to near record highs.

Most notable is the plunge in the Labor Differential – (Jobs Plentiful – Jabs Hard to Get) which tumbled from 34.3 to 28.3 – the biggest drop since Feb 2009.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Wk8Iuo Tyler Durden

Texas House Passes Bill Legalizing Lemonade Stands Run by Children

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade—but don’t sell it in Texas. At least, not yet. Although state law currently prohibits the sale of homemade drinks, the Texas House of Representatives passed a bill last week legalizing lemonade stands run by children. It now heads to the state Senate.

The legislation would outlaw permit requirements for minors who wish to operate a temporary stand selling lemonade or any other nonalcoholic beverage. In doing so, it would overturn the Texas Food Establishment’s ban on the sale of unregulated drinks, which was enacted over health concerns.

“Yesterday was one small step for lemonade, today is one giant leap for young entrepreneurs,” Rep. Matt Krause (R–Fort Worth), who championed the bill, said after the House gave its final approval.

A similar law recently passed in Colorado after the police shut down a kid’s lemonade stand over licensing woes. The makeshift business was operating next to a festival where adults were selling the same beverage.

The Dallas Morning News highlights that several young lemonade vendors across Texas have met the same fate. Unaware that their business endeavors were in violation of state law, sisters Andria, 8, and Zoey Green, 7, had their stand shuttered in 2015 by police who noted that they were operating without a permit.

Krause’s bill has drawn cheers from Texas politicians, including Land Commissioner George P. Bush, who tweeted a video of him patronizing a lemonade stand outside of his office.

“Can’t think of anything more basic, more entrepreneurial, more creative for a child to begin the idea of learning the value of a dollar,” said Bush in the video. “I’m encouraging my fellow Texans to support this piece of legislation that goes far to build imagination and creativity in our great state.”

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott took to Twitter to voice his approval as well. “It’s a shame that a law for this is even needed,” he said.

from Hit & Run https://ift.tt/2TUKPNk
via IFTTT

OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma Reaches $270 Million Settlement With Oklahoma AG

In the first of what will likely amount to billions of dollars in legal settlements shelled out by the Oxycontin creator, Purdue Pharma has reportedly agreed to pay $270 million to settle claims brought by the Oklahoma attorney general that the company’s misleading marketing practices surrounding the powerful opioid painkiller helped spark the American opioid crisis, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited an anonymous source familiar with the settlement.

Opioid deaths have skyrocketed in recent years as the federal government has cracked down on overprescribing of pharmaceutical grade opioids, forcing more addicted users to turn to street drugs like heroin, which are increasingly cut with the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, causing a surge in overdose deaths that are presently killing more Americans a year than died during the entire war in Vietnam.

The settlement is the first to resolve one of the more than 1,600 lawsuits facing the privately held drugmaker, which is reportedly weighing a bankruptcy filing to avoid what’s expected to be an immense legal burden.

Perdue

Courtesy of Statista

The billionaire Sackler family, which own privately-held Purdue, have been subjected to widespread public scorn over revelations that members of the family pushed the company to misrepresent OxyContin’s addictive qualities in its marketing materials and research. The pill, which was prescribed to treat surgery and cancer pain, was widely prescribed during the 2000s, and quickly became the gold standard for pharmaceutical-grade opioids sold on the street in the US.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2HEQDUN Tyler Durden

Harris Would Hike Teacher Pay Across the Nation by 23 Percent: Reason Roundup

Raises would be kickstarted by $315 billion from feds. In a plan unveiled yesterday, Democratic presidential candidate and Sen. Kamala Harris (D–Calif.) said she would raise base public school teacher pay nationwide by 23 percent, a raise of about $13,500 per year for the average teacher. The proposal is not congressional legislation but part of the Harris 2020 campaign.

It’s a politically popular plank—perhaps. “Last year, a poll by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that almost 90 percent of Democrats, 78 percent of independents and 66 percent of Republicans thought teachers were underpaid,” notes HuffPost.

But part of the reason is that communities routinely vote not to raise their own local or state taxes in order to raise local teacher pay. And it seems like Harris’ plan would only overcome part of that problem: Community members would still see tax increases or other tradeoffs to cover the salary hikes, they just wouldn’t have a choice in the matter anymore.

Under the Harris proposal, “the Department of Education would work with states to set a base salary goal, which would vary by state depending on how much professionals with similar educational levels make there at the beginning of their careers,” write Rebecca Klein and Maxwell Strachan. “That pay level would then increase based on tenure and additional qualifications to keep up with the pay levels of people in comparable fields.” Schools would not be allowed to divert funds for existing programs to teacher pay.

In other words, the federal government would determine what teachers across the country get paid, and disallow variation between different communities.

Harris promises that the feds would provide much of the funds for this … you know, along with providing “Medicare for All,” reparations to black Americans, launching the Green New Deal (all campaign promises so far), and housing all the new federal prisoners a Harris presidency would surely create (this one not talked about so much).

Her campaign said federal contribution to the teacher raises would cost about $315 billion over 10 years. But federal funding would only cover the first 10 percent of the gap. States would then only get more federal funds based on how much they put into the teacher-pay fund.

Harris’ rationale for the teacher measure is telling. Here’s what she said at a campaign event in Texas last Saturday:

I’m declaring to you that by the end of my first term, we will have improved teachers’ salaries so that we close the pay gap. Because right now, teachers are making over 10 percent less than other college-educated graduates and that gap is about $13,000 a year. And I am pledging to you that through the federal resources that are available, we will close that gap.

Leaving alone the likelihood of that statistic being accurate, it showcases how Harris would sees salaries and fairness. Everyone who went to college, no matter what they studied or what jobs they went into after, should make around the same pay, like the strictly tiered federal government pay system writ large across all of U.S. industry.

FREE MINDS

Tech companies facing onslaughts from all sides. In the new Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart Baker and Amy Zegart “discuss the national cyber strategy and what’s wrong with it, besides all the bloviating,” as Baker blogged at The Volokh Conspiracy yesterday. More:

We also explore the culture clash between DOD and Silicon Valley (especially Google), and whether the right response to the Mueller report would be to conduct a thorough investigation into how the Intelligence Community and Justice handled the collusion allegations at the start of the Trump Administration. […] Apparently looking for Odd Couple of the Month coverage, Sen. Josh Hawley is sounding all Sen. Elizabeth Warren-y about Facebook and Silicon Valley. And Devin Nunes is renewing claims of social media bias against conservatives. Indeed, he’s putting his lawyers where his mouth is, suing Twitter and his fake Twitter Mom for defamation. It’s an uphill battle, but I would really love to read the internal Twitter emails about Nunes if his case gets to discovery. That’s his best chance to show actual malice.

FREE MARKETS

Affordable Care Act should be dismantled entirely says Justice Department. More from Reason’s resident health care expert, Peter Suderman, here. Comments Volokh Conspiracy blogger and lawyer Jonathan Adler:

The Justice Department’s change in position is astounding. It was remarkable enough that DOJ failed to question the states’ standing to challenge an unenforced and unenforceable mandate, and even more remarkable that the Department failed to defend a readily defensible federal law. It is more remarkable still that the DOJ is abandoning its position — and the position on severability advanced by the Obama Administration — in favor of a highly strained and implausible approach to severability with little grounding or precedent.

I was among those who cheered the selection of William Barr as Attorney General and hoped his confirmation would herald the elevation of law over politics within the Justice Department. I am still hopeful, but this latest filing is not a good sign.

QUICK HITS

  • Transparency win:
  • Here’s what celebrity (and lately, increasingly erratic) lawyer Michael Avenatti tweeted yesterday morning:
  • By the end of the day, Avenatti had been arrested by the feds on extortion charges, after Nike went to the FBI and it listened in on subsequent calls between Avenatti and Nike representatives.
  • It looks like the part of a Florida bill that would’ve created a Solicitation of Prostitution registry has been voted down.
  • Good news for D.C. drinkers:

from Hit & Run https://ift.tt/2uuVbV8
via IFTTT