TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalFeds return $13 million to Sacramento Kings after bizarre theft by top team executive
Four months after a former top Sacramento Kings official pleaded guilty to siphoning off more than $13 million from the franchise to purchase beachfront homes, the team says it has been repaid in full.
The team said in a brief announcement the U.S. Justice Department has “granted full restitution to the Kings in the amount of $13.4 million, which was previously seized by the U.S. DOJ and is directly traceable to the fraud committed by former Kings employee Jeff David.
“This decision to return the funds owed to the team is the direct result of the timely filing and successful completion of a civil asset forfeiture case filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California in August 2018, just days after the investigation began,” the team said.
David, the team’s former chief revenue officer, is scheduled to be sentenced next month on two counts of wire fraud and one of aggravated identity theft. He could face up to 20 years in prison, but prosecutors are expected to argue for an 8½-year sentence and Sacramento defense attorney Mark Reichel is expected to argue for the minimum of two years.
Read more: https://www.sacbee.com/sports/nba/sacramento-kings/article230907078.html
UC Davis suspends marching band after Sacramento Bee investigation of raucous culture, hazing
The UC Davis Cal Aggie Marching Band was placed on interim suspension Wednesday pending an investigation into misconduct, university officials said.
The announcement comes less than a week after The Sacramento Bee published an investigation into allegations of hazing, binge drinking and sexual misconduct within the band.
“The Division of Student Affairs has placed the Cal Aggie Marching Band (CAMB) on interim suspension pending the completion of the independent review of recent allegations of misconduct,” said interim Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Emily Galindo in a statement.
The UC Davis Cal Aggie Marching Band Alumni Association was previously suspended in winter quarter 2018 due to allegations of misconduct against a member. The suspension was expanded to include the student marching band Wednesday.
Read more: https://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/article230956528.html
Anti-LGBTQ country rapper says he'll still come to Sacramento after shows canceled
The country/rap artist at the center of the Goldfield Trading Post controversy will still come to Sacramento during Pride weekend even after the midtown bar canceled his two shows, he announced in a Facebook video Wednesday.
Adam Calhoun had been scheduled to perform concerts on June 7 and 8 alongside fellow “hick-hop” artist Demun Jones at Goldfield. After social media backlash Tuesday and Wednesday, however, the bar canceled Calhoun and Jones’ sold-out performances and promised to refund all customers.
The Sacramento LGBT Community Center called Calhoun and Jones “openly racist and homophobic” in a statement Tuesday evening, a characterization Calhoun pushed back against in his video. A white man, he has used the N-word in past songs and repeatedly stated that transgender people are confused or delusional. He denied the accusations in the video Wednesday.
“They screamed enough to get our shows canceled in Sacramento. But unfortunately for those people, I was raised better than to become a homophobic racist,” Calhoun said. “So I will be there, and I will show you what type of person I am, and what I’m made of, and up for discussion with anybody.”
Read more: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article230968443.html
I have an aversion to both country and rap music, but I didn't know that "country rappers" existed. I don't think that going to a hick-hop concert will be on my bucket list.
Chicken slaughter due to Newcastle spread tops more than 1.1 million in Inland Empire
More than 1.1 million chickens have been euthanized at 10 egg farms in Riverside and San Bernardino counties since December in a fierce effort to eradicate the virulent Newcastle disease outbreak that started a year ago, state officials say.
Poultry owners in both Inland Empire counties are so outraged by the slaughter that they have started a Facebook page called Save Our Birds, posting videos and photos of California Department of Food and Agriculture workers clad in white biohazard suits showing up at homes in Perris and Jurupa Valley, among other places.
The videos capture workers pulling chickens from backyard coops, dumping them in trash cans and killing them with C02 gas pumped into the cans with a hose.
The main gripe is that chickens, pigeons and other species not tested positive for the deadly avian virus are being euthanized anyway, and that there should be a better way to corral and eradicate the virus without killing so many birds, which is traumatizing chicken owners who rely on the livestock for food or commercial purposes.
Read more: https://www.pe.com/2019/05/29/chicken-slaughter-due-to-newcastle-spread-tops-more-than-1-1-million-in-inland-empire
(Riverside Press Enterprise)/
Man in Donald Trump Mask Slashes Tires in Mission Viejo: Deputies
When we heard a man in a Donald Trump mask was slashing tires in Mission Viejo, we immediately thought of hunting for the fellow above.
As it turns out, a faux president was not on the loose as Orange County sheriff’s deputies already had placed 56-year-old Rory Thomas Zimmerman in custody as the alleged tire slasher and windshield smasher.
Deputies were patrolling the area around businesses near Cabot and Vista Viejo roads at about 4 a.m. Monday when they “had to do a double take” because someone resembling The Donald was damaging a parked vehicle, according to a Sheriff’s Department statement.
Zimmerman, the suspect, was also wearing body armor and had a helmet, a loaded handgun and an airsoft shotgun in his vehicle, which displayed fake license plates and had white/amber “takedown” lights attached to the windshield, write deputies on the Mission Viejo Police Services Facebook page.
Read more: https://ocweekly.com/man-in-donald-trump-mask-slashed-tires-in-mission-viejo-deputies/
Wealthy California Tax Cheat Gets Off Easy
While Americans who’ve hidden assets in foreign banks and lied to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) about related interest income have been sentenced to substantial prison terms, an Orange County man who cheated the IRS is breathing a sigh of relief.
Elie Waknine grew up in Casablanca with ultra-wealthy Moroccan parents, inherited a fortune, immigrated to the U.S. in 1971, placed at least $4 million in a secret Israeli bank account and, while making millions of dollars in interest, spent years pretending he earned less than $3,000 annually.
According to the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, D.C., Waknine—once self-employed in the fashion industry—falsified his federal income tax returns for a whopping 21 years.
DOJ also ultimately tracked how the Huntington Beach resident shuffled money in coded accounts around Israel and then to Switzerland to France in hopes of illegally dodge reporting requirements.
Read more: https://ocweekly.com/irs-offshore-assets-tax-fraud/
Charter-school network run by Australian and Long Beach man accused of stealing $50M from Calfornia
SAN DIEGO — A network of charter schools in California stole more than $50 million from the state by creating phantom institutions that enrolled unwitting students it found through other schools and youth programs, prosecutors said Wednesday.
A3 Education recruited small public school districts to sponsor the charter schools in exchange for oversight fees. Prosecutors say A3 enrolled about 40,000 students throughout the state, none of whom received any services. Prosecutors identified Sean McManus, 46, and Jason Schrock, 44, of Long Beach, as the ringleaders.
They didn’t immediately return phone messages seeking comment. McManus is believed to be in Australia.
The company that operated a network of 19 online-only schools is accused of paying sports leagues as little as $25 a student for information used for enrollment. School districts are funded by the state based on the number of students.
Read more: https://www.ocregister.com/2019/05/29/charter-school-network-run-by-australian-and-long-beach-man-accused-of-stealing-50-million-from-california/
Brea woman convicted in what prosecutors say was a $6 million therapy scheme
A Brea woman was convicted this week for her role in a multi-million-dollar Medicare fraud involving false billings for unneeded physical- and occupational-therapy services.
A federal jury found Grace Hong, 53, guilty on Tuesday of three counts of healthcare fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit health fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.
Prosecutors allege the scheme locally centered on a Walnut-based therapy clinic operated by Hong and her husband, Simon Hong.
From 2009 to 2012, prosecutors allege, Grace Hong and others billed Medicare for physical- and occupational-therapy services that were uneeded and hadn’t actually been provided. The financial reimbursements from Medicare were funneled to companies owned by Simon Hong, according to prosecutors.
Read more: https://www.ocregister.com/2019/05/29/brea-woman-convicted-in-what-prosecutors-say-was-a-6-million-therapy-scheme/
DOJ press release: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/therapy-clinic-operator-convicted-health-care-fraud-role-occupational-therapy-fraud-scheme
A devastating analysis of the tax cut shows it's done virtually no economic good
You may remember all the glowing predictions made for the December 2017 tax cuts by congressional Republicans and the Trump administration: Wages would soar for the rank-and-file, corporate investments would surge, and the cuts would pay for themselves.
The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has just published a deep dive into the economic impact of the cuts in their first year, and emerges from the water with a different picture. The CRS finds that the cuts have had virtually no effect on wages, haven’t contributed to a surge in investment, and haven’t come close to paying for themselves. Nor have they delivered a cut to the average taxpayer.
The negligible (at best) economic impact of the cuts shouldn’t surprise anyone, the CRS says. “Much of the tax cut was directed at businesses and higher-income individuals who are less likely to spend,” its analysts write. “Fiscal stimulus is limited in an economy that is at or near full employment.”
The CRS findings aren’t all that novel. The service, which is an arm of the Library of Congress, reports that the tax cuts contributed to a record-breaking surge in corporate stock buybacks, which has been documented by many other analyses. The continued stagnation of rank-and-file wages is visible in monthly data computed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-tax-cut-effects-20190529-story.html
Black market cannabis shops thrive in L.A. even as city cracks down
From the street, it looked like an old-school drug raid.
A half-dozen police and city vehicles sat near the entrance of the White Castle cannabis dispensary near the Los Angeles Harbor, where a sign bearing a giant green cross faced Pacific Coast Highway.
But the cops didn’t seize any marijuana from the illegal shop. No one was arrested, just detained briefly while utility workers moved to shut off power. The officers had been there before and would likely be back. One detective guessed the business would be up and running again in a week.
Amid growing complaints from lawmakers and cannabis lobbyists about the city’s teeming marketplace for unregulated weed, Los Angeles in recent months has ramped up enforcement against illegal pot dispensaries. But with so much money on the line, many violators are choosing to stay open even after the city has cut off their power or threatened them with arrests or fines.
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-weed-pot-dispensaries-illegal-marijuana-weedmaps-black-market-los-angeles-20190529-story.html
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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Current location: Bryan, Texas
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