Former Death Row Records chief Marion “Suge” Knight has pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges in connection to an incident where he ran over two men in January, killing one. He also faces charges of attempted murder and hit-and-run.
CNN reports that Los Angeles County Judge Ronald Coen placed his bail at $10 million. Knight faces a life sentence if convicted.
Now how in the world is this even possible? That Freddie Gray, the man handcuffed by Baltimore police and had to be taken to a police vehicle screaming in pain because he was physically unable to use his legs… how is it even possible that he was inside the vehicle, he was “intentionally trying to injure himself?”
This one does not pass the smell test.
A prisoner sharing a police van with Freddie Gray the night he died of spinal injuries while in police custody in Baltimore purportedly told investigators that Gray was “banging against walls” inside the vehicle and was “intentionally trying to injure himself,” The Washington Post reported Thursday.
The statement from the unidentified prisoner was contained in an application for a search warrant, the newspaper said. The warrant has been sealed by the court, but the Post said it had obtained the documents under the condition that the prisoner not be named.
The newspaper noted that the prisoner, al though sharing the police van, was separated from Gray by a metal partition and could not see him.
Police had weeks since Gray’s death to come up with a better story, you’d think they’ll have something better than this.
Your Thursday morning dose of good news.
First-time filings for unemployment insurance fell by 34,000 to 262,000 in the week ended April 25, the lowest since April 15, 2000, a Labor Department report showed Thursday in Washington. The figure was smaller than the lowest projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
With job openings at a 14-year high and prospects for stronger growth after the first-quarter setback, companies are intent on maintaining headcounts. The level of firings is consistent the Federal Reserve’s view of sustained progress in the job market.
“Claims have been quite steady, remaining below this key level of 300,000,” Thomas Costerg, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in New York, said before the report. “The U.S. labor market is in good shape and has been quite resilient.”
The median forecast of 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 290,000, with estimates ranging from 275,000 to 300,000. Claims in the prior week were revised to 296,000 from an initially reported 295,000.
Freddie Gray died on April 19th after being in police custody where it was eventually determined that his spine somehow became 80% severed. After his death, the word from police indicated that on Friday, May 1st, there will be answers on what exactly happened to Freddie Gray. But now, just two days before that information is supposed to be released, Baltimore City police Capt. Eric Kowalczyk said that report will not be made public.
“What we are going to do, which is unique, is turn over all of our findings, all of our investigative efforts to the State’s Attorney’s Office,” Kowalczyk said. “We have an obligation to be accountable to the people of Baltimore in this investigation. We know that there are a lot of people who want answers who have concerns they want addressed and we have an obligation to do our best to be accountable.”
However, Kowalczyk said because the integrity of the investigation has to be protected, “We cannot release all the information from the investigation to the public.” He said in being held accountable with the state’s attorney, the Police Department would be accountable to the public.”
While discussing the decay of society because of gay people getting married, a Texas House Republican lawmaker dropped this little nugget on Wednesday while talking to Tony Perkins of the very conservative Family Research Council…
But before I expose the nugget, a little background. The fight going on at the Supreme Court these days is whether gays or LGBT people should have the right to marry each other. No question where Perkins stand on this issue as he flatly chalks up much of the problems in today’s society to the breakdown of traditional marriage and families.
“A lot of these problems are created by the breakdown of the family, which the redefinition of would only accelerate,” Perkins said.
That’s when the Texas Republican lawmaker, Bill Flores, offered his two cents.
“You’re exactly right, Tony,” Flores said. “Let’s talk about poverty for instance… The single best indicator of whether or not a child is going to be in poverty or not is whether or not they were raised by a two-parent household or a single-parent household. And so the breakdown of the family has contributed to poverty.”
He continued;
“You look at what’s going on in Baltimore today, you know, you see issues that are raised there. And healthy marriages are the ones between a man and a woman because they can have a healthy family and they can raise children in the way that’s best for their future, not only socially but psychologically, economically, from a health perspective.”
“There’s just nothing like traditional marriage that does that.”
Audio
Once again, those in the Republican party are on the wrong side of the issue. Especially those who call themselves “Christian Conservatives.” It is no news to anyone that today’s Republicans strongly reject equal pay for women. They have actually gone on record crying foul at the president for his support of equal pay. And now, even the Pope is siding with the President, and calling for equal pay for equal work for women.
Pope Francis on Wednesday made an impassioned plea for an end to the salary gap between men and women, calling it “a scandal” that Christians should decisively reject.
“Why is it taken for granted that women must earn less than men? No! They have the same rights. The discrepancy is a pure scandal,” he told tens of thousands of people at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
Raising his voice for emphasis as he made some of his most forceful remarks on the subject to date, he said Christians should “decisively support the right to equal pay for equal work.”
Women in the European Union were paid 16.4 percent less than men on average in 2013, according to statistics agency Eurostat. United States Census Bureau data indicate women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns, based on annual median salaries.
Commenters all over the interwebs are saying she should get the mother of the year award. The woman is seen on video beating the living crap out of son who thought he was about to take part in some of the rioting, looting and destruction going on in Baltimore. Toya Graham completely lost it when she saw the figure of her son, dressed in all black with his face covered, joining the crowed of rioters.
“Take the motherf*cking mask off,” Toya screams as she smack her unsuspecting son, Michael, with both hands across his head. After taking some of the initial blows, the teenager began walking backwards trying to get away from his mother, but she wasn’t done yet as she continued going after the boy. “Get over here now!” She says, following the boy as he tried to make his escape, while getting a few more smacks in the head from his very irate mother.
Video
Politico is reporting that Bernie Sanders will announce a presidential bid on Thursday, a source close to the second-term senator confirmed.
The Vermont independent, a self-described democratic socialist, will run as a Democrat in a field that includes frontrunner Hillary Clinton. The launch will likely be a low-key announcement — no big rally or high-budget video. The senator is expected to have a larger campaign kickoff in a few weeks, most likely in Vermont, before heading to early presidential nominating states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.
Sanders, 73, has been openly considering a presidential bid for months, and in recent days has begun to focus his attention on staffing. Tad Devine, an informal adviser and longtime friend to the senator, has said that a Sanders campaign would focus heavily on three major issues — campaign finance reform, climate change and income inequality.
According to a new poll by Quinnipiac University, 58% of Americans stand with the president on the new Iran nuclear plan.
According to the new poll released earlier this week, a majority of Americans believe the new plan should get the approval of Congress, with 33% rejecting the plan altogether.
But 77% say they want to plan to succeed instead of a military intervention, as proposed by Congressional Republicans.
“Americans are worried about Iran, but not enough to send in the troops,” said Tim Malloy of Quinnipiac.
The poll was taken between April 16 and 21 and surveyed 1,353 registered voters.
Twenty four hours after Baltimore began burning due to riot activities related to the police killing of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, the President was asked about the incident today in a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Mr. Obama stressed that the problems of blacks and minorities being killed by police is not just a police problem or a community problem, but a problem the nation must face and correct.
“I think we as a country have to do some soul searching,” the President said. “This is not new. It’s been going on for decades.”
It was 10 years ago, and this was the first video uploaded to YouTube.
This is the police video showing the aftermath of another police beating of a black man named Floyd Dent.
The beating left Mr. Dent suffering from multiple head injuries and broken ribs, but those injuries were not serious enough for the officers involved to request medical attention for the man they are sworn to “serve and protect.” Instead, the guardians of the law are seen at the Precinct cleaning themselves of Floyd’s blood, fist bumping each other and laughing, while Mr. Dent sits off to the side.
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