[FOXNEWS] A disbarred New York attorney is accused of stealing more than $925,000 that had been rewarded to a former New York City police officer and 9/11 first responder by the Victim Compensation Fund, officials recently announced.
Gustavo Vila, 62, was barred from practicing law in New York State in 2015 but kept working for at least one client -- a retired NYPD officer who was suffering from "very serious" 9/11-related illnesses, including cancer -- purportedly to help the man file a claim through the Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) in May 2013, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced late Thursday.
The fund is dedicated to providing financial relief to heroes who were harmed or killed as a result of their service during and after the 2001 terror attack.
But Vila arranged to have any potential reward deposited into his Westchester-based law firm’s own bank account. When his client was awarded $1,030,622.04 in September 2016, Vila kept nearly all of it for himself, according to a criminal complaint pertaining to his Thursday arrest.
"Vila allegedly lied to his client, telling the client for more than three years that the money Vila stole had yet to be released by the Fund," Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss, who represents the Southern District of New York, said in a prepared blurb. "Further, Vila lied to his client about his standing, continuing to hold himself out as an attorney even after he had been disbarred."
Vila was disbarred in December 2015 after he was arrested and charged with grand larceny earlier that year, an offense to which he pleaded guilty.
When the VCF deposited the full relief amount meant for the victim in October 2016, "Vila was required to distribute all of that money, less than 10% for his purported attorney’s fees, to" the victim, court papers state.
Instead, one week later, he allegedly told the man he would be receiving a check for $103,062.20 -- about 10% of the actual reward total -- and the claim had been "paid in full," court papers further allege. As of the Aug. 20 criminal complaint for Vila’s arrest, the victim had not received even a cent more, records stated.
Vila is accused of stealing approximately $927,559 from his seriously ill client.
He instead used the money to pay his taxes — writing a check for $16,429 for 2015 taxes, according to court documents -- and allegedly made another unspecified payment of $190,000. On Oct. 14, 2016, he allegedly wrote his then-wife two checks for a combined $182,270.95, and later sent her another check for $103,062.20, the document states. He also allegedly paid himself $6,000.
Vila allegedly maintained the lie to his client until February this year, roughly a month after the victim first learned that he had been disbarred years earlier.
In the beginning of February, the victim "contact[ed] VCF, which informed [him] that his entire reward had been released in 2016, with no restrictions on its immediate distribution." He confronted Vila, who confessed.
Vila was charged with theft of government funds and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
Training schedules override regulations on wet-bulb warnings. There are no snow days heat days in the schedule*. Command is more than happy to accept the casualties. The casualties not so much. Heck even if you relieve them of their command they have a good retirement awaiting.
*not that they'd sacrifice the graduation ceremony for a day (plus a day of rehearsal) to make up for a heat casualty.
#4
The Daily Mail print article says - The team says action from governments, media attention, and the lack of feeling in control may be influencing the perception of risk.
Maybe.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/05/2020 7:54 Comments ||
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President Trump has demanded federal agencies identify training sessions on 'critical race theory' so that they can stop being subsidized by the taxpayer
The issue came via a memo released by the White House Office of Management and Budget on Friday
Critical race theory specialists argue that all people are inherently racist and that U.S. government institutions privilege white people
Trump has called such teachings 'a sickness that cannot be allowed to continue'
One lecturer, Howard Ross, who reportedly 'billed the feds more than $5 million for training since 2006'
He is described as a 'seminal thought leader on identifying and addressing unconscious bias'
Trump's demand comes following months of Black Lives Matter protests that have led to a racial reckoning in the United States
#1
Tucker Carlson did this, because he knows Trump watches him daily and his long piece about critical race theory in federal agencies was tailor to make Trump aware of how outrageous it is as government policy!
[Although this occurred on Easter Sunday 2020, the police officer who shot the nut job dead was cleared....body cam video in link]
[Epoch Times] A police officer has been cleared following a fatal shooting that showed a Florida woman stabbing her in the arm with a knife.
The State Attorney for the Fourth Judicial Court in northeast Florida ruled that the shooting of the woman, identified as Leah Baker, was justified, WEAR13 reported. The incident occurred on Easter Sunday in 2020.
In the clip, the female officer arrives at the door, and Baker is seen rushing out with a large knife. She is then seen stabbing the officer in the arm.
"I’ve just been [expletive] stabbed," the officer said over her radio as she backed away.
The officer then tells Baker to drop the knife and get on the ground before she fired two shots. The woman then attempts to pick up the knife as the officer fires the shots and stands unmoving. She is then seen picking up the knife again and runs at another officer before the officer fires more shots.
According to News4Jax, as Baker was still on the ground, a police K-9 grabs hold of her leg and she started hitting the dog. An officer can be heard yelling "stop hitting my dog," as another officer rushes to grab the knife.
Officials said the woman was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Family members told local news outlets that Baker suffered from mental illness.
"I can't condone my daughter's actions, but at the same time I have fought with different hospitals to get the help she needed," Charity Baker, the mother of Leah Baker, told News4Jax. "I had her in what I thought was a safe house," she said in July. "She did suffer from mental illness. I never thought the police would kill my daughter."
#2
People who are mentally ill do not react in predictable ways, Canuckistan sniper, nor are they necessarily stopped by things that would stop the sane, like broken arms or being shot repeatedly.
[MYFOX8] A boy received a week’s suspension after a teacher spotted a toy gun during an online class, KDVR reports.
On Aug. 27, 12-year-old Isaiah Elliot, a Grand Mountain student, was in his online art class when he allegedly flashed a toy gun across his computer screen.
It was neon green and black with an orange tip. On the side were the words "Zombie Hunter."
According to the sheriff’s report, the teacher said she assumed it was a toy gun, not a real gun.
When the principal found out, Isaiah was given a five-day suspension.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office was also asked to do a welfare check at the boy’s home without notifying his parents beforehand.
"It was really frightening and upsetting for me as a parent, especially as the parent of an African-American young man, especially given what’s going on in our country right now," Curtis Elliott, Isaiah’s father, told KDVR.
The district refused to give the family the recording of the virtual class, but a deputy, who recorded the video on his body camera, showed the video to the family.
Curtis Elliot says Isaiah was sitting on the sofa when he moved the toy gun from the right side of his seat to the left. He says the boy did not know that the toy was visible on camera when he moved it.
"He was in tears when the cops came. He was just in tears. He was scared. We all were scared. I literally was scared for his life," said Curtis Elliot.
The school administration told KDVR that the district follows all school board policies in both in-person and distance learning.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
Official school policy is "No critical thinking allowed!"
#7
I would have also shown them my indoor gun range and my collection of guns. (If I had them). Maybe have the son give a demostration of his marksmanship.
#9
Sue the teacher, not the school, for Slander. If you "can't shout 'Fire!' in a crowded theater" then you shouldn't be able to accuse people of child abuse like she did.
[BenarNews] China is set to greatly increase its military presence in the South China Sea, according to a new U.S. Department of Defense report.
China’s neighbors can expect to see its newest aircraft carrier, ship-killer missiles and Marine Corps wade into disputed waters more boldly as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) focuses on an "expeditionary" capability, facilitated by the increasing militarization of its outposts in the Paracel and Spratly Islands.
China has strengthened and modernized its military capabilities to the point where its PLA is "already ahead of the United States" in some areas, the Pentagon said in its annual China Military Power Report published on Wednesday.
Continued on Page 49
[ALMASDARNEWS] Twitter was abuzz on Friday when video footage showing a crashed Chinese military aircraft first surfaced on the social media platform.Rumors began to quickly spread that the Chinese aircraft was an Su-35 jet that was shot down over the Strait of Taiwan by the Taiwanese air defenses.
However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense responded a few hours later, stating that all claims about their air defenses shooting down a Chinese aircraft are untrue.
The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense issued the following announcement on its official website:
"In response to the Internet spread of ’Taiwan shot down a CCP SU-35 aircraft?’ The Air Force Command solemnly refuted this (4) day that this is false information and completely untrue.
The Air Force Command pointed out that it strongly condemns such malicious acts by deliberately creating and disseminating false information on the Internet in an attempt to confuse the audience
The Air Force Command emphasized that in order to maintain airspace security, the headquarters will continue to closely monitor the conditions of the sea and airspace around the Taiwan Strait, and provide accurate information in a timely manner to prevent the spread of fake and false news, and to avoid social unrest, and appeals to people to rest assured."
The Chinese government has yet to comment on the claims that one of its military aircraft has crashed.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
I believe that the plane crashed some 500 miles inland.
Long 'glide'?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
09/05/2020 8:39 Comments ||
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I suspect it has the glide characteristics of a brick.
[Jpost] - Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center in Be'er Ya'akov and Wolfson Medical Center in Holon received the new respiratory device called "AnapoGuard," produced by Hospitech Respiration, an Israeli startup company.
The device has been in use since March at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
...One of the risks of prolonged reliance on respiratory support system in coronavirus patiets is a lung infection, caused by an accumulation of excess fluids in the lungs. AnapoGuard helps remove these excess fluids, which often indicate that a patient is in the early stages of pneumonia.
Medical experts who are on the frontlines of the fight against coronavirus have welcomed this latest addition to their arsenal. One of them, Professor Gil Bolotin, Director of the department of Cardiac Surgery at Rambam, described his experience:
"My department has been using the AnapnoGuard system when treating high-risk ventilated patients. During this time, we have seen a significant reduction in the number of patients who developed lung and pulmonary infections following intubation."
#4
If I recall correctly, your chances of coming out alive after being placed onto a ventilator were quite low. Boris Johnson, if the story is true, came out o.k. Ukraine's Oil Baroness, Yulia Tymoshenko, was purported to be placed onto one about a week ago or so.
Heh. A funny reminder that all systems leak. Despite your genius plans and intricate rule-sets, stuff happens, events transpire, things that you never thought of appear before your eyes. It's like nailing jelly to a tree.
Many things are not as simple as reported.
[AIER] Going into the corona pandemic of 2020, Sweden already had an abundance of vulnerable elderly who would not have survived a harsher flu season – and whose Danish, Norwegian and Finnish counterparts did not survive the previous years' flu seasons in those countries.
Even if one disregards new research suggesting that lockdowns don't work (here, here and here), it is improbable that Sweden's light lockdown is one of the main possible reasons for Sweden's high COVID death rate. But we go on to list 15 other factors. The single-minded story that Sweden's high death rate, relative to the other Nordics, stems from its relatively liberal corona policy lacks nuance. There are many other differences between Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, including differences specific to the present. Compared to its neighbors, Sweden would have had a much worse death toll regardless of the policy measures it took in March 2020. Lots of charts at the link, with some interesting arguments.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/05/2020 11:16 ||
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#2
So does the #1 link invalidate the original article? Limit its application? Or suggest it's even more complicated that the posted article?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/05/2020 14:41 Comments ||
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#3
Look, you all think of Sweden as some sort of Libertarian heaven - just as your opponents thought of it as a Socialist heaven a decade ago.
It's neither.
The real story is that Tegnell, being an bureaucratic idiot i.e., somebody who doesn't understand the basis of his putative profession (that's the link that I've provided) made a wrong decision*. And, because of the bureaucratic structure of Swedish government, he wasn't overruled when the bodies started piling up.
*More precisely, he accepted WHO's recommendations**. Lots of bureaucrats did: Italy, France, Belgium, your own USA's Fauci (look it up). However, when the bodies started piling up, they were overruled by the elected politicians.
**We know now that WHO's recommendations came fro m China.
p.s. Don't quote me current Covid numbers from Sweden, because they're exactly the same as their Scandinavian neighbors (except for 6000 bodies at the onset). It has to do with the fact that Scandinavians have natural distancing habits (40% of households are single person, look at pics how close they stand to each other) that is not applicable in USA.
[BenarNews] The Philippines is not a "vassal state of any foreign power" and won’t cut business ties with Chinese firms that Washington has blacklisted for their roles in Beijing’s militarization of the South China Sea, a front man for President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday.
The Philippine government will work with these Chinese companies because it is in the "national interest" to complete flagship infrastructure projects in the country involving these firms, presidential front man Harry Roque said during a virtual press briefing. Both the Philippines and China are among countries with contending territorial claims in the South China Sea.
"I will be categorical. [The] Sangley project will continue [and] all other projects involving Chinese companies that are banned in the U.S. can continue in the Philippines," Roque said. "We are not a vassal state of any foreign power and we will pursue our national interest."
The construction of an international airport in Sangley, a project valued at U.S. $10 billion, involves the Beijing-controlled China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), one of 24 Chinese firms and individuals that were placed on a list of sanctions by the United States on Aug. 26, for what Washington said was their role in constructing artificial islands in the South China Sea.
According to the Philippine government, in addition to the Sangley project, the CCCC has secured memorandums of understanding for five other local infrastructure projects in Davao, Cebu and the former Clark U.S. Air Force base north of Manila.
Duterte’s decision to keep business relations intact with U.S.-blacklisted Chinese firms came after Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said on Friday he would "strongly recommend" that the government cut links with Chinese firms, if they were found to be linked to Beijing’s efforts to expand its military footprint in the South China Sea.
Apart from the Philippines and China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan have territorial claims in the South China Sea.
In July, the U.S. declared that Beijing’s claims to nearly all of the South China Sea on the basis of "historic rights" were unlawful.
The Chinese firms and individuals that were blacklisted last week are involved in reclamation activities in the waterway, the U.S. said when announcing the sanctions.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[FOXNEWS] A disbarred New York attorney is accused of stealing more than $925,000 that had been rewarded to a former New York City police officer and 9/11 first responder by the Victim Compensation Fund, officials recently announced.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Twitter was abuzz on Friday when video footage showing a crashed Chinese military aircraft first surfaced on the social media platform.Rumors began to quickly spread that the Chinese aircraft was an Su-35 jet that was shot down over the Strait of Taiwan by the Taiwanese air defenses.
