Wyclef Jean’s former lawyers have filed a six-figure legal judgment against the musician after he failed to make agreed-upon payments to reduce his debt, according to court filings that include a recent e-mail from Jean’s business manager claiming that his client was broke.
“there ain’t no money,” Jean’s accountant declared in a terse January e-mail to his creditors.
Other records show that federal and state authorities have, since mid-2012, hit the performer with nearly $2.9 million in tax liens (which remain outstanding).
According to New York State Supreme Court filings, Jean last year agreed to pay the law firm Shukat Arrow Hafer Weber & Herbsman $100,000 to settle an outstanding bill topping $133,000.
As part of a confidential settlement agreement, Jean was required to pay the firm $10,000 by August 1, 2013, and $50,000 by year’s end. The agreement stipulated that if Jean made those two payments, the firm would waive the remaining $40,000 it was owed by the musician. However, the agreement notes, if Jean failed to make the payments, he would be on the hook for the entire $100,000, plus 10 percent annual interest.
So this is what they have resorted to. Having all their other Obamacare horror stories debunked as partisan hypocrisy, Republicans are now hiring actresses to act in their an – Obamacare ads.
An Americans for Prosperity attack ad directed at Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) over Obamacare purports to feature a voter for Alaska, but the woman is actually an actress who lives in the state of Maryland, according to The New York Times.
In the ad, a woman criticizes Begich, who is up for re-election in 2014, and President Barack Obama for the “promises they made to pass Obamacare.”
“They knew the real truth,” the woman said in the ad. “Some are even losing their jobs. For too many of us costs are going way up. Senator Begich didn’t listen. How can I ever trust him again? It just isn’t fair. Alaska deserves better.”
In fact, the woman speaking is an actress Connie Bowman, who regularly does voiceovers as well as appearances in print ads.
The Koch brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity ad doesn’t explicitly say the woman is an Alaskan, but the Begich campaign slammed the spot for the implication.
“Today’s misleading ad from the Koch brothers is just more evidence that even billions of dollars can’t buy integrity,” Begich spokeswoman Rachel Barinbaum told the Times.
KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has informed families of passengers on board missing flight MH370 that the plane is assumed to have crashed with no survivors.
The airline said this in a message to the families on Monday night, ahead of a press conference by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
“It is with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean,” Mr Najib told a press briefing shortly after the news broke.
He said based on new analysis, it is concluded that MH370 flew along the southern corridor, last position in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
The area is in a remote location, far from any land sites, he added.
He said MAS has briefed the families and Malaysia will hold another press conference on Tuesday.
The investigation was done by his own people. They found nothing wrong and that’s their final answer.
With his office suddenly engulfed in scandal over lane closings at the George Washington Bridge, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey two months ago summoned a pair of top defense lawyers from an elite law firm to the State House and asked them to undertake an extensive review of what had gone wrong.
Now, after 70 interviews and at least $1 million in legal fees to be paid by state taxpayers, that review is set to be released, and according to people with firsthand knowledge of the inquiry, it has uncovered no evidence that the governor was involved in the plotting or directing of the lane closings.
The review is the first of multiple inquiries into a scandal that has jeopardized Mr. Christie’s political future. It will be viewed with intense skepticism, not only because it was commissioned by the governor but also because the firm conducting it, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, has close ties to the Christie administration and the firm’s lawyers were unable to interview three principal players in the shutdowns, including Bridget Anne Kelly, the governor’s former deputy chief of staff.
They were up by as many as 17 points, but these Knicks still found a way to end their 8 game winning streak and lose a very winnable game against a very subpar team. And the playoff season quickly approaches.
With the eighth-place Hawks coughing up a double-digit lead and losing to Toronto earlier on Sunday, the Knicks squandered a chance to move back within two games of a playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
They greatly damaged their playoff hopes by flushing a 17-point lead and falling to undermanned Cleveland, 106-100, at the Garden, halting their season-best win streak at eight games and putting their season back on red alert.
There have been too many of these squandered opportunities this season. With games like this, these guys don’t deserve playing in the playoffs.
The doctor traded prescription for Sex about 150 times with 16 different patients.
Joshua D. Baron, 40, pled guilty Friday in federal court to a charge of illegally distributing a prescription drug in exchange for sex in 2009. He was freed on his own recognizance as he awaits sentencing on June 30.
Baron faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $1million fine. Due to his plea, however, he will likely get between 9 and 11 years, according to federal sentencing guidelines.
Baron, a former pediatric neurologist who lives in Oak Park about 10 minutes from downtown Chicago, was first licensed by the state in 2006. He treated patients until 2011 at several Chicago hospitals, including the prestigious Rush University Medical Center.
He also gave up his medical license and Drug Enforcement Agency registration in 2011.
The father who police said fatally shot a 17-year-old boy in his daughter’s bedroom should be charged with murder, the victim’s distraught mother says.
Johran McCormick’s mother said she can’t believe her son was killed while sneaking around with the 16-year–old girl he was apparently dating, the Houston Chronicle reported Saturday.
Zakia McCormick also can’t understand why the man accused of firing the fatal shot Thursday is not behind bars.
“If you take a life, you give your life,” the newspaper quoted a teary Zakia McCormick as saying. “We’re suffering. Why isn’t he suffering too?”
She and the teen’s father Shawn Curley said the man should be charged with murder and sentenced to life behind bars.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the shooting and has said a grand jury will determine if charges are warranted.
Although a grand jury will review the case, prosecutor Warren Diepraam told MyFoxHouston.com Friday that it is unlikely that the father will be charged.
The father told investigators he heard noises coming from his daughter’s bedroom around 2:30 a.m. He went to investigate and found Johran in the room. The boy was shot once.
Fortune Magazine put together a list of today’s 50 greatest leaders and in a list consisting of people from all walks of life including, Pope Francis I (number 1), Apple CEO Tim Cook (number 33), and the Dalai Lama (number 9). Fortune Magazine tabbed our Yankee captain as number 11 on the list.
As he begins his 20th and final season in pinstripes, Jeter remains that type of role-model player that even a Red Sox fan must grudgingly respect. it’s not the five World Series rings he’s won or his team record for career hits. in a steroid-tainted, reality-TV era, Jeter, the son of two Army veterans, continues to stand out because of his old-school approach: Never offer excuses or give less than maximum effort.
It is enough of an honor that Fortune Magazine decided to name Jeter to this list, but Fortune felt Jeter was the only athlete deserving enough to make this list. Jeter has always been viewed as an above average player, but as far as his skill level goes, he has never been the undeniable best. That’s not what made him great. The thing that made Jeter great is a word that is so often associated with him: The intangibles.
Jeter was able to come into a starting role on the 1996 Yankees in his rookie season and by half way through that year, he was leading the team straight up to their first World Series title since 1978. Jeter did not relinquish that leadership role and in June of 2003, Jeter was named the 14th captain of the Yankees and has held that title for 11 years making him the longest tenured yankee captain.
It’s a great honor for Jeter to be named to Fortune’s 50 greatest leaders list, but it is also very much deserved.
Perhaps it’s just me, but this time of year seems to be the boring period between the fun of a nasty winter and the beginning of a well-earned spring. And I’m not just talking about the weather. American politics is on hiatus at this moment because it’s too early to get too riled up by the prospect of electing another do-nothing Congress, and since the one we have now is essentially done for the year, what else is there to talk about? The Affordable Care Act? Boring. Marriage equality? Done. The lost Malaysian plane? Probably found and the story will make a great movie one summer. Ukraine? Potentially deadly and maybe the foremost threat to world peace presently in the news.
This is not to say that these stories are not important because they are, but there doesn’t seem to be any movement or progress or yes-we-canism alive at the moment. The Republicans are still trying to figure out what it believes in and how it can appeal to groups that have shunned its message so far. The House will most likely remain in their hands, which guarantees us another two years of bills that will not become law until a GOP president is elected (shudder). And the Senate will probably also go red, but I’ve already treated that scenario.
I am not, though, down in the dumps. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments about whether religious companies can stop providing certain forms of birth control the ACA requires because it would be a violation of their religious rights. I’m thinking that Justice Roberts is aching to get back on the conservative horse he dismounted two years ago in the health care law case, but Justice Kennedy might be the wild card in this one. It is certain that Justice Scalia will lament the end of the republic if he’s on the losing side.
And the health care law will survive because about six million people will have signed up for insurance through the exchanges or Medicaid and throwing them off the rolls is just too mean for even today’s Republican Party. The law needs fixing and that’s where the focus is going to be in 2014 and 2016 and 2018 as companies and states decide that insurance is too expensive and want employees to sign up for the policies on the website. This will be revolutionary and the effect will be profound. I’m not surprised that neither party is really talking about this out loud, but it’s almost certain to come to pass sometime within the next five years.
As for Vlad the Invader, I’m not ruling out a bit of shooting in Ukraine or areas local to it. It will depend on whether he heeds the economic warnings his aides are no doubt giving him. My sense is that Putin will ask for something big in return, negotiate, and take something smaller that gives him a say in Ukraine, but not the whole country. In the end, Ukraine will make a deal with the EU, but will always need to watch its eastern back.
All of this is in the future, and you can feel free to pay attention to it since you’re obviously not winning $1 billion dollars on March Madness because nobody has a perfect bracket left. The best we can hope for is common sense and pride in a job well done. Some things never change.
(AP) — President Barack Obama isn’t giving up his BlackBerry — at least not for now.
The White House is shooting down the notion that Obama’s device is caught up in a pilot program designed to transition away from BlackBerry smartphones.
The pilot program is being carried out by the White House Communications Agency. It’s part of the Defense Department and is responsible for making sure Obama has communications capabilities wherever he goes.
But White House spokesman Jay Carney says the Executive Office of the President isn’t participating in any pilot programs affecting their hand-held devices.
U.S. government agencies have been one of the last bastions for BlackBerry Ltd. The company pioneered the smartphone in 1999 but has since been hammered by competition from the iPhone and Android-based rivals.
And while they advised people to take the penalty instead of getting health care, you can bet that all the nuts at Fox News have health care.
On Saturday’s episode of Cashin’ In, Fox News host Eric Bolling encouraged young Americans to “take the penalty” they’ll have to pay if they don’t sign up for the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
“With the deadline for signing up for Obamacare just a week away,” Bolling said, “selling it might not be a slam dunk, even for LeBron James.”
Bolling then played a pitch for the ACA featuring James, before cutting to “new goofy videos to push healthcare.” He then complained that the Obama administration is spending “$17 million of our tax dollars, per a month, to get young people to buy into Obamacare.”
His guest, Jonathan Hoenig of Capitalistpig.com, replied that he found the advertising campaign “just so uncouth, not just the fact that we’re spending $20 million a month on it, but that we’re trying to convince young people that statism is good — that self-sacrifice is good.”
“What does the president think of young people?” Hoenig asked. “That they’re knuckleheads, that they don’t know a good deal, that they’re idiots. In fact, almost 90 percent of young people find it’s cheaper not to sign up for Obamacare and take the penalty, and of course, none of it has anything to do with free markets or a free society.”
“Fiscally speaking,” Bolling replied, “young people probably should take the penalty.”
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