TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalNurses at Tenet Healthcare hospitals in three states stage one-day strike over wages
Registered nurses staged a one-day strike Friday against Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare's hospitals in Florida, California and Arizona, demanding better working conditions and higher wages as the nation's labor movement has begun flexing muscles weakened by decades of declining membership amid business and government attacks.
About 6,500 National Nurses United members walked out at 12 Tenet facilities after working toward a first contract for a year in Arizona and under expired contracts for months in California and Florida, the union said. They plan to resume working Saturday. Members also passed out leaflets in Texas, where contracts at two Tenet hospitals in El Paso expire later this year.
The Tenet walkout is one of several strikes and organizing efforts nationwide as unions work to rebuild from a steep membership decline that began 50 years ago. Many are focusing on white-collar, female-dominated and service-sector industries such as health care, teaching and the media and not just blue-collar, male-dominated industries like manufacturing, where the United Auto Workers is striking against General Motors. A recent Gallup poll showed Americans support unions by a 2-to-1 margin, up from a near split 10 years ago and nearly the highest level since the 1960s.
About 30 nurses picketed outside Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah, Florida, during intermittent rain Friday morning. They waved red flags with a white N and carried signs with such slogans as "Happy RNs (equals) Healthy Patients."
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/health-care/2019/09/20/nurses-at-tenet-healthcare-hospitals-in-three-states-stage-one-day-strike-over-wages/
Gunman who triggered lockdown at Irving school turned out to be officer serving warrant, police say
An armed man seen in the parking lot of an Irving middle school on Thursday turned out to be a law enforcement officer serving a warrant for murder, Irving police said Friday.
"We want to inform everyone that there was never a threat to Austin Middle School," Irving police said Friday in a news release.
The school on Union Bower Road was locked down before classes started after a parent called 911 around 7 a.m. because she saw a man with a rifle and possibly a handgun in the school parking lot.
Police searched the school and did not find a suspect or a weapon, and the school was declared safe while a secondary search of the area was conducted.
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2019/09/19/gunman-who-triggered-lockdown-at-irving-school-turned-out-to-be-officer-serving-warrant-police-say/
This migrant mother and her child couldn't wait for their asylum court date anymore. They drowned
This migrant mother and her child couldn't wait for their asylum court date anymore. They drowned trying to enter the U.S.by Stacy Fernández, Texas Tribune
A Honduran mother and her 21-month-old son died near Del Rio earlier this month after trying to cross the Rio Grande into Texas, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson confirmed Friday.
According to CNN, Idalia Yamileth Herrera Hernandez had recently crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with her son, Iker Gael Cordova Herrera, and requested asylum. But under the Trump administration's "remain in Mexico" program, they were sent back to Matamoros, Mexico, to wait for an immigration court hearing. They grew more and more desperate while waiting for their hearing and died while it was still pending, CNN reported.
More than 20,000 asylum seekers have been returned to Mexico since the remain in Mexico program was launched in January. The program is a controversial partnership between the Trump administration and the government of Mexico. Migrants subjected to it are required to wait in Mexico, potentially for months or longer, while their asylum cases play out in U.S. immigration court.
CBP conducted an air and water search after Border Patrol agents alerted the agency to a possible drowning on Sept. 11 near San Felipe Creek, a statement from the agency says. Border Patrol agents recovered the bodies of a woman and small child by boat. Agents notified local authorities in the Val Verde County sheriff's office, who took custody of the bodies, according to the statement.
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/09/20/migrant-mother-and-child-drown-crossing-rio-grande-enter-us/
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Former CEO of Two Bellevue IT Companies Sentenced To 7+ Years in Prison for Mail Fraud and Failure
Former CEO of Two Bellevue IT Companies Sentenced To 7+ Years in Prison for Mail Fraud and Failure to Pay more than $1 Million in Employment TaxesMulti-Year Scheme using Forged and Fraudulent Documents to Get Visas for Specialty-Occupation Employment
The former CEO of two Bellevue, Washington information-technology (IT) firms was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 87 months in prison for mail fraud and tax crimes related to a multi-year visa-fraud scheme, announced U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran. PRADYUMNA KUMAR SAMAL, 50, a citizen of India, was arrested in August 2018 when he arrived on an international flight at Sea-Tac Airport. Prior to the arrest, SAMAL had fled the U.S. in the midst of the visa fraud investigation. He has been in custody since his arrest last year. At the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge James L. Robart said “Based on your time in the U.S. you have basically defrauded everyone you could defraud…. It is clear you have not followed the law since you came to this country. You engaged in an extensive scheme…. This was driven by greed: nothing more, nothing less.”
“This was the largest and most sophisticated H-1B visa fraud scheme we have prosecuted in Western Washington,” said U.S. Attorney Brian Moran. “The fraud harmed the workers who wound up far from home, essentially “benched” by the company, with no pay and no job. It harmed foreign workers who legitimately sought, but could not get visas, and it harmed U.S. workers who were excluded from employment opportunities.”
According to records filed in the case, two companies incorporated by SAMAL in 2010 and 2011, engaged in a scheme sometimes referred to as a “bench-and-switch” scheme, to exploit foreign-national workers, compete unlawfully in the market, and defraud the U.S. government. According to the investigation that began in 2015, SAMAL served as the Chief Executive Officer of ‘Divensi’ and ‘Azimetry.’ Both companies were in the business of providing information-technology workers, such as Software Development Engineers, to major corporate clients. SAMAL submitted, and directed his employees to submit, forged and false application materials to the United States government, making it appear as if foreign-national employees named in the petitions had been earmarked for projects contracted to SAMAL’s companies by end clients. In fact, these project assignments were fictitious. The forged documents included forged letters and fraudulent statements of work, which appeared as if they had been signed by senior executives at SAMAL’s clients. After USCIS relied on the false representations and approved the applications, SAMAL’s companies “benched” the foreign nationals – i.e., the companies left those foreign nationals unpaid, and forced them to submit phony sick and annual leave requests – until and unless they were able to place those employees at actual end clients.
More than 250 workers were brought in under the phony applications. The employees were forced to pay SAMAL’s companies a partially-refundable “security deposit” of as much as $5,000 for the visa filings, regardless of whether they were assigned to any projects that provided them with income.
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/former-ceo-two-bellevue-it-companies-sentenced-7-years-prison-mail-fraud-and-failure
Two Reagor Dykes Employees Plead Guilty To Bank Fraud Conspiracy
Two Reagor Dykes Auto Group employees pleaded guilty today for their role a $23 million “check kiting” scheme, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox.
Sheila Evans Miller, 52, and Diana Herrera Urias, 53, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud before Magistrate Judge Lee Ann Reno in Amarillo Friday morning.
Their CFO, Shane Andrew Smith, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in the check kiting scheme and a related floor plan fraud scheme.
In plea papers, Ms. Miller, an RDAG group controller, and Ms. Urias, an RDAG office manager, admitted that the auto group – which was struggling with ballooning expenses due to aggressive growth, above market compensation and unnecessary overhead – engaged in widespread, systematic check kiting, a ploy that involves concealing fraud by cross-depositing checks across several banks.
In fact, the company had an entire team at its headquarters specifically designated to kite checks, both women admitted.
Due to the kiting, RDAG checks that should have bounced instead cleared during banks’ float time, the period between the deposit in the recipient account and the deduction from the payer’s account, according to their plea papers.
At the instruction of RDAG Chief Financial Officer Shane Smith, Ms. Miller, Ms. Urias, and others would make up random amounts for each check to total the amount that needed to be kited for the day, often discussing the calculus over email, they said.
Ms. Miller and Ms. Urias each face up to five years in federal prison and may be required to pay at least $23 million in restitution. Mr. Smith faces up to 20 years in federal prison, and will be required to pay a mandatory restitution of more than $50 million, equal to the total amount of loss suffered by FMCC and victim banks.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua Frausto, Jeffrey Haag, and Sean Taylor are prosecuting the case.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndtx/pr/two-reagor-dykes-employees-plead-guilty-bank-fraud-conspiracy
Jimmy Kimmel Live: Trump's Promise to Foreign Leader Exposed
Jimmy Kimmel Live: Least Favorite Character in the Trump Universe
In Aurora, Beto O'Rourke says he's open to broadening gun buyback proposal
AURORA, Colo. — Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke says he’s open to broadening his proposal to require owners of AK-47s and AR-15s to sell them to the government.
During an emotional town hall Thursday in Aurora, a man who identified himself as a survivor of the 1999 Columbine massacre noted that the shooters there didn’t use the military-style weapons O’Rourke wants to take. They instead used regular semi-automatic weapons. He challenged O’Rourke to confiscate those arms as well.
O’Rourke told reporters afterward: “If there’s a way to improve what we proposed, I want to make sure we’re reflecting that.”
Most pistols and many rifles in the U.S. are semi-automatic. In contrast, there are about 10 million AK-47s and AR-15s out of more than 300 million firearms in private hands in the country.
O’Rourke may have unknowingly answered the question precisely how the Columbine survivor wanted him too. Multiple conservative operatives confirm the man who asked the question is a gun rights activist who has spoken out against gun control in the past.
Read more: https://kdvr.com/2019/09/19/in-aurora-beto-orourke-says-hes-open-to-broadening-gun-buyback-proposal/
In Aurora, Beto O'Rourke says he's open to broadening gun buyback proposal
AURORA, Colo. — Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke says he’s open to broadening his proposal to require owners of AK-47s and AR-15s to sell them to the government.
During an emotional town hall Thursday in Aurora, a man who identified himself as a survivor of the 1999 Columbine massacre noted that the shooters there didn’t use the military-style weapons O’Rourke wants to take. They instead used regular semi-automatic weapons. He challenged O’Rourke to confiscate those arms as well.
O’Rourke told reporters afterward: “If there’s a way to improve what we proposed, I want to make sure we’re reflecting that.”
Most pistols and many rifles in the U.S. are semi-automatic. In contrast, there are about 10 million AK-47s and AR-15s out of more than 300 million firearms in private hands in the country.
O’Rourke may have unknowingly answered the question precisely how the Columbine survivor wanted him too. Multiple conservative operatives confirm the man who asked the question is a gun rights activist who has spoken out against gun control in the past.
Read more: https://kdvr.com/2019/09/19/in-aurora-beto-orourke-says-hes-open-to-broadening-gun-buyback-proposal/
Climate strike: Thousands of students and workers walk out in Bay Area
Thousands of people across the Bay Area took to the streets Friday as part of a global “climate strike” to urge political leaders to do more to address climate change.
The demonstrations were led by students but included adult workers.
In San Francisco, a crowd estimated at roughly 8,000 people met at the federal building on Seventh Street, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein have their offices, and prepared to march 1.1 miles down Market Street, past the offices of Bank of America and PG&E before ending at Embarcadero Plaza near the Ferry Building.
Chanting and banging drums, the crowd, largely made up of young people, held signs saying “Grown-ups do something,” “There is no Planet B” and “Governor Newsom stand up to big oil.”
https://twitter.com/JordanForEarth/status/1175099351690964994
Read more: https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2019/09/20/climate-strike-thousands-of-students-and-workers-walk-out-in-bay-area/
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