BlueWaveNeverEnd
BlueWaveNeverEnd's JournalHighest earning NYPD cop with OT-fueled $400K salary retires following News expose
Lt. Special Assignment Quathisha Epps, with a salary of $406,515, was the highest earning cop in the entire NYPD in fiscal year 2024, city payroll records show, even though she worked in an administrative capacity for Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey. Sources say her earnings are under review, and late Wednesday Epps was suspended from her position.
Those earnings were detailed in The News’ report, which also reported a significant number of the top 400 overtime earners have administrative assignments as opposed to patrol responsibilities. For example, 13 of the top 400 earners were assigned to the police commissioner’s office.
Police sources say since The News’ Nov. 16 report, the department has embarked on a crackdown on administrative overtime. In addition, precincts are under increased pressure to track overtime. Borough commanders held meetings on Dec. 11 and Dec. 12
Lt. Special Assignment Quathisha Epps, with a salary of $406,515, was the highest earning cop in the entire NYPD in fiscal year 2024, city payroll records show, even though she worked in an administrative capacity for Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey. Sources say her earnings are under review, and late Wednesday Epps was suspended from her position.
Those earnings were detailed in The News’ report, which also reported a significant number of the top 400 overtime earners have administrative assignments as opposed to patrol responsibilities. For example, 13 of the top 400 earners were assigned to the police commissioner’s office.
https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/12/18/highest-earning-nypd-cop-ot-400k-retires-following-news-expose/
another citizen arrested for hurting a cop's feelings.. lawsuit filed
wow. All Party City stores shut . ending pay and benefits immediately (corp employees, right before Christmas. HARSH!!
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/20/business/party-city-shut-downParty City is closing down all of its stores, ending nearly 40 years in business, CNN has learned.
CEO Barry Litwin told corporate employees Friday in a meeting viewed by CNN that Party City is “winding down” operations immediately and that today will be their last day of employment. Staff were told they will not receive severance pay, and they were told their benefits would end as the company goes out of business.
“That is without question the most difficult message that I’ve ever had to deliver,” Litwin said at the meeting, which was held on a video conference call.
Party City’s “very best efforts have not been enough to overcome” its financial challenges, he added, resulting in the company’s collapse. Litwin said the company struggled to contend with inflation, which sent the company’s costs higher and dragged down consumer spending.
“It’s really important for you to know that we’ve done everything possible that we could to try to avoid this outcome,” Litwin said. “Unfortunately, it’s necessary to commence a winddown process immediately.”
Also on Friday, some of Party City’s store employees received letters that the company would close down stores on February 28, at which point store staff would be terminated.
“Although Party City believes these closings are in the best interest of the company, we regret that we have had to take this step and thank you for your valued contributions and service to the company,” the letter stated.
"critics of the world's richest man say he attained a new title: "shadow president" of the United States"
Elon Musk has never been elected to office. President-elect Donald Trump has not tapped him to serve in any role inside the government. Until the July assassination attempt, he never even publicly supported Trump.
But this week, critics of the world’s richest man say he attained a new title: “shadow president” of the United States.
In a matter of hours on Wednesday, Musk wielded his powerful X account to pressure House Republicans to torpedo a spending bill that would have kept the federal government open for three months. Musk’s rapid-fire messages — which included numerous false claims about the contents of the spending bill — ricocheted through Washington, where some lawmakers reported their phone lines were ringing all day with calls from constituents who saw Musk’s posts. More than 12 hours after Musk’s first post calling lawmakers to not pass the bill, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance also put out a statement opposing the legislation, and House Republicans scrapped the deal.
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Musk’s outsize role in sending the federal government careening toward a potential shutdown before Christmas has alarmed Democrats, academics and watchdog groups, while some Republicans said his intervention was uninformed.
The tech billionaire’s swift accumulation of political power has sparked criticism that the incoming Trump administration will function like an oligarchy, with Musk pushing for policies that will further enrich him and his companies.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/ar-AA1wbGZC
The outrage reverberated on X, which Musk owns and where “President Musk” became a trending topic.
Volunteer Gets Her Due for Helping Crack Delphi Case
https://www.newser.com/story/361378/volunteer-gets-her-due-for-helping-crack-delphi-case.htmlVolunteer Gets Her Due for Helping Crack Delphi Case
Retiree Kathy Shank alerted investigators to a tip sheet about Richard Allen, who was later convicted
It took police five years to make an arrest in the double murder of young teens Abigail Williams and Liberty German in Indiana. It may not have happened at all if not for a volunteer clerk in Delphi named Kathy Shank. Upon the sentencing of Richard Allen on Friday, authorities in Delphi praised Shank for her role in helping crack the case, reports the Indianapolis Star. In 2022, the retired state government worker was going through a box of tips on the case—she had volunteered to help organize them—when she came across the file for a "Richard Allen Whiteman."
Shank took a closer look and determined that the name was incorrect: It should have been just Richard Allen. And though his name had been marked as "cleared," she pulled his file and suggested to investigators that they re-examine him because he had acknowledged being on the same hiking trail as the girls that day in 2017.
"Without her, we would not be here," Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland said at a news conference. "Without her, we would not have an arrest, conviction, and a sentence." Shank testified during Allen's trial about her discovery, notes the AP. "I thought there could be a correlation," she told the court. On Friday, Shank reiterated the point to the Star: "As soon as I saw (the tip), I just thought this was something we'd been looking for."
President Musk Backs German Party With Ties to Neo-Nazis
https://www.newser.com/story/361374/musk-post-endorses-germanys-far-right-party.htmlElon Musk, already busy with US politics, stepped into Germany's on Friday, drawing the attention of millions of X users and leaders who don't share his support of the far-right Alternative for Germany party. "Only the AfD can save Germany," Musk wrote in response to a far-right video influencer, the New York Times reports, referring to the anti-immigrant party with connections to neo-Nazis. The AfD's candidate for chancellor welcomed the endorsement an hour later. "Yes! You are perfectly right," Alice Weidel posted.
Musk's post had more than 25 million views in the first 10 hours or so. Germany is headed for an election in February after the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition. Scholz acknowledged Musk's post Friday without directly attacking it, noting that free speech rights apply even to the wealthy. "Freedom of speech also means that you're able to say things that aren't right and do not contain good political advice," he said. A German former member of the European Parliament mocked Musk's post as one of "the world domination fantasies of the American tech kings," per the Guardian.
The AfD, which promotes populist and anti-immigrant "Germany first" policies, is riding an increase in popularity. It's been accused of returning to Nazi-era ideology and slogans, per CNN, and a judge ruled this spring that the nation's domestic intelligence agency can keep it under surveillance over concerns it's a threat to democracy. After the deaths Friday at a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg, Musk returned to German politics. In response to a post showing the chancellor speaking about the attack, the billionaire wrote: "Scholz should resign immediately. Incompetent fool."
update: Deputy pleads guilty, abandoned dom violence call to chase down and beat trans person who flipped him off
Big news story in 2023. the video the beating was widely spread.
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A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was supposed to respond to a domestic violence call — but chose to follow a man who flipped him off instead, then beat him in retaliation, according to federal prosecutors.
The man had a right to flash his middle finger at the deputy, as the expression is protected by the First Amendment, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said Dec. 18.
Joseph Benza III, 36, has agreed to plead guilty to using excessive force during the February 2023 beating, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was charged with one count of deprivation of rights under color of law on Dec. 17, prosecutors said.
Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article297369434.html#storylink=cpy
Los Angeles County deputy admits violating transgender man's civil rights
Joseph Benza III was headed to a domestic violence call when he saw a man flip him off, prompting him to follow and eventually assault him, officials said.
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Benza told three unnamed sergeants that Brock gave him the middle finger, and all three counseled him to leave that information out of the incident report, the plea agreement said.
With the help of an unnamed sergeant, Benza concocted a phony account that Brock was "a threat to his physical safety" and then falsely stated that the victim had "bit defendant’s hand," according to the court documents.
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Brock said Wednesday that when he got the news about Benza's plea, he started sobbing.
"I'm very pleased with this outcome," he said. "I'm still in shock, and I just feel very lucky to have gotten justice for this when there's a lot of survivors of that [who] don't, so I'm just greatly appreciative of that."
Three days after he was arrested in February 2023, Brock lost his job as a 12th grade English teacher at an alternative school for at-risk youths.
He was unemployed for eight months until his substitute teacher license was renewed and he got a job with the Whittier Union High School District in December 2023.
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In a plea agreement filed the same day, Benza said he would admit to a single felony charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/l-sheriffs-deputy-pleads-guilty-015621286.html
Federal court filings made public this week tell a different story. According to prosecutors, just after noon Benza had received a call for a potential domestic disturbance, but he abandoned it when he saw Brock flip him off. Then he followed Brock’s car for 1.8 miles, at some point reaching speeds over 50 mph without ever attempting to initiate a traffic stop, according to the plea agreement.
At one point, prosecutors said, Benza called another deputy and told him he planned to stop someone who'd flipped him off. Benza said on the call he intended to use force against the person and asked the other deputy to start driving to his location.
Meanwhile, Brock — unnerved and fearing he was being followed by someone impersonating a police officer — called 911 and asked what to do.
The dispatcher told him he didn’t need to pull over unless signaled to do so, but Brock eventually parked in a 7-Eleven parking lot on Mills Avenue in Whittier and stepped out of his car. Video of the incident shows that the deputy approached him and said, “I just stopped you,” offering no explanation as to why.
“No, you didn’t,” Brock replied, according to an audio recording captured by the deputy’s body camera. Federal prosecutors said Benza then “violently body slammed” Brock into the ground.
For the next three minutes, Brock struggled and screamed as the deputy held him down and punched him in the head.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/l-sheriffs-deputy-pleads-guilty-015621286.html
"President Musk made it clear that he doesn't want Republicans to pass this. Vice President Trump backed him up
Former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger told CNN: "President Musk this morning made it clear - with all his vast government experience, which is basically, he became rich on the federal government - that he doesn't want Republicans to pass this. And seemingly, Vice President Trump kind of backed him up at that point.
2 family annihilations by the father on the same day: California and Utah, both by handgun
But Texas has highest rate:
https://www.tpr.org/news/2023-08-05/texas-has-highest-rate-of-family-annihilation-cases-in-u-s-new-study-shows
Texas has highest rate of family annihilation cases in U.S., new study shows
Correction: Same day or family members found on that day:
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