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Category: politics
Tag: sea cliff, mayor, election, booty, vanishing
Description: The mayor of Sea Cliff, an affluent town on Long Island, New York, had promised its citizens she’d find the town’s $3.6 million in stolen historical artifacts. She hired a team of former “Pirate Hunters” to do it. Now, she’s been accused of election fraud.
In 2016, the residents of Sea Cliff elected two outsiders to office. One was Aaron Samson, a building contractor, who became the mayor. The other was Christopher Schoppa, a 38-year-old former Marine who was elected as a board member to the Sea Cliff Historic District Commission.
At around the same time, Schoppa was selected by the mayor and a board member to help solve the mystery of a cache of treasure: $3.6 million worth of valuables, including silver candlesticks, a vase, and a watch, believed to have been stolen more than 100 years ago by the notorious gangster George “Humpy” McManus.
The artifacts had been found in Sea Cliff. Now, it was up to Samson and Schoppa to retrieve what was missing.
But Schoppa, who was paid $19,000 for the job, has since become the focus of an investigation by Rosalyn Bartsch, a longtime political opponent of Samson’s who is now the acting mayor of Sea Cliff. Bartsch charged Schoppa with election fraud in connection with his candidacy for village attorney.
Schoppa, a former slum landlord with a criminal record of assault, failed to disclose on a financial statement filed in connection with his candidacy his business relationship with a site that paid him exorbitant fees to run websites, as first reported by the website Gothamist.
But he isn’t the only one drawing scrutiny.
In a statement provided to Gothamist, Schoppa, who has denied any wrongdoing, said Bartsch was just trying to “intimidate me into dropping out of the race for village attorney. I am done being bullied. The residents deserve better. I am in a better position to assist the community than to be silenced.” But Gothamist reports that since launching her investigation, the police in Sea Cliff have searched Schoppa’s apartment in Elmhurst, Queens, where he impulsively moved last year, “seeking information about Samuel Samson, a real estate broker, and Aaron Samson, the mayor.”
Samson, who has been implicated in elections thefts in the past, has dual roles in his program to recover the missing artifacts. As the local law enforcement officer in charge of the case, he also happens to be a person of interest.
Last year, de Pasquale sold Gothamist his services for $114,000 to conduct an internal investigation into allegations of corruption at Gothamist. A series of stories published by the news organization as a result of the investigation led to the resignation of the news organization’s editor-in-chief, the director of product and development, and an undisclosed number of other staff members. Based on the passage above, How is Rosalyn Bartsch investigating Schoppa for election fraud in connection with his candidacy for village attorney?

The original article

“analysis, journalism, takeaways, jfk, assassination files, cia, declassified secrets, facts, news”
The recent release of over 3,800 documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy marked a watershed moment in the 50-year pursuit of answers about the violent demise of an American leader. The trove of secrets, long withheld by U.S. intelligence agencies, includes transcripts of conversations among J. Edgar Hoover, F.B.I. director; John McCone, head of the Central Intelligence Agency; and top Kennedy aides, as well as records of meetings at the highest echelons of government covering every conceivable avenue of inquiry.
In article published in The New York Times on Friday, reporter Matt Apuzzo breaks down the issues and outcomes that have been illuminated by the material. Some files shed new light on long-discredited conspiracy theories, such as that of Oswald’s murderer, Ruby; but others challenge some of the most deeply held beliefs about the Kennedy assassination.
Citing evidence uncovered in the documents, Apuzzo challenges the narrative that suggests the assassination was botched in some way — the all too familiar and not entirely convincing evocation of “what might have been.” A prior attempt in Dallas to kill Kennedy had been foiled by Secret Service agents, he reveals, citing the narrative of one assailant who fled the scene empty-handed. Explanatory errors in official accounts, he argues, tend to favor Oswald as a straightforward lone shooter.
But even in the face of this painstaking article, a stubbornly Deep State echo persists: Any release of information related to JFK’s assassination becomes an object lesson of political manipulation, eliding known facts or failing to provide a definitive answer. The usual and still-dominant conclusion is apparent in a headline from The Guardian, one of the most liberal news sources in the United Kingdom: “New JFK files confirm there is still no conclusive evidence of a conspiracy.” On CNN’s website, the headline, “New JFK files reveal inconsistencies,” indicates that no matter how many files are released, Kennedy’s assassination will never meet with a full and possibly exonerating explanation.
In framing the narrative, journalistic metaphors betray important gaps in semantic reasoning that betray the failure of mainstream media to abandon habitual binary thinking in favor of more complex and multi-dimensional storytelling. The search for closure, knowledge so complete it squeezes out any shred of mystery, creates a huge problem in information science — it frames evidence as propositional, i.e., either true or false, rather than viewing it as probabilistic.
From the earliest days of object-oriented programming, the word “uncertainty” has been a wholehearted expression of an unavoidable fact rather than a veiled excuse for continuing ignorance. When data is probabilistic, variance is just another indicator of epistemic progress. In science and engineering, if an article states that there is still “no conclusive evidence” on any point, it means that all available evidence has been exhausted or that it will cost more to continue an investigation than its conclusion could be expected to change.
In the news media and in science reporting, however, the apparent facts in any given story are most often oversimplified or distorted to fit an overarching narrative. This is not because writers, editors or journalists are nefarious characters, but because it is simply too expensive and time-consuming to digest, edit and present a full accounting of complex scientific ideas on a daily basis. Traditional journalism models are bankrupt, their costs shifting inexorably toward print as subscription revenues continue to decline in the face of new and free online information sources.
This is a structural problem at the heart of the mainstream media, and the temptation to oversimplify and systematically distort evidence has consequences. Consider the case of Promega, a manufacturer of molecular biology reagents and instruments that created a marketing metaphor for the complex and probabilistic character of results in scientific and engineering experiments. The slogan, “Life’son the edge,” does not mean that a particular product will result in a clear and bright line around a discrete set of laboratory findings, but rather that it is likely to help maximize the range of probabilities related to an upcoming experiment.
In the current era of fake news, gerrymandering and a near-total decline in traditional news literacy, the distortions of mainstream media are causing irreparable harm. Particularly given the current political climate, exonerating or failing to fully exonerate political leaders is a severe shortcoming, likely to increase public distrust of democratic systems of government, thereby playing into Vladimir Putin’s hands.
The people demand full and complete accounting of the evidence related to JFK’s assassination, and today’s release of so many long-suppressed documents does not seem to answer that demand.
Based on the text material above, generate the following tags for an article on this topic:
analysis, journalism, takeaways, jfk, assassination files, cia, declassified secrets, facts, news, probabilistic evidence, systemic distortion, mainstream media, fake news, distrust of democratic systems of government, and Vladimir Putin’s influence.

The original article

= JFK Documents: New Revelations on the Assassination Conspiracy

According to a New York Times report, US intelligence and law enforcement agencies have released thousands of pages of previously classified documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. The database includes details on accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald’s activities leading up to the fatal shooting, as well as the Warren Commission’s investigation into the event. Additionally, never-before-seen materials reveal information about JFK’s personal life, including his relationship with Marilyn Monroe and alleged Marxist sympathies, as well as a possible plot to assassinate Fidel Castro orchestrated by the CIA. The latest release of these documents is said to be the final installment in a decades-long effort to publish all available JFK records, leaving unaddressed any lingering conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination.

The original article

Standing in front of the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, Judge Benjamin T. Watford surveyed the online audience watching the excruciatingly close verdict in Greenpeace’s protest against the pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners, also known as Dakota Access.
Then he addressed the gathering. “The reason I asked everyone to stand, to remind you that I can see you,” Judge Watford said.
The judge’s comments marked the end of approximately 17 hours of deliberations by the jury, who decided that Greenpeace USA, a nonprofit organization, had inflicted $3.7 million in damages to the property owned by Dakota Access.
As Dorsey noted, the verdict against Greenpeace is significant. Some observers might claim that the price of Greenpeace’s protest totaled less than $1 in expenses, but that doesn’t take into account that Greenpeace faces the costs of its lawsuit defense, which is provided by Earthjustice, a national environmental nonprofit that funds its operations, in accordance with revealing data filed with the Internal Revenue Service, through donations from rich leftists. On average, for every $1 that Earthjustice raises, the entity spends approximately $16 on the indigent defendants in the public interest, more than half of which is directly associated with appellate litigation, administrative proceedings and coast-to-coast bailout for “resistance” lawyers.
Fresno Makui and Joseph Woetzel, who were both Water Protectors at Standing Rock, sit outside the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on Tuesday, March 19, 2019 during the second day of deliberations in the case of Greenpeace USA v. Energy Transfer Partners. Both are parent organizers with the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Greenpeace’s original protest was part of the global #NoDAPL campaign, which was organized by the Indigenous Environmental Network, with considerable support from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and #NoDAPL Water Protectors.
While others participated out of moral obligation, Fresno Makua , the San Carlos Apache Tewan (daughter of a war bereaved father, as well as his daughter, a combat boot), and her younger sibling, Joseph Woetzel (an enrolled member of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians), protested because, in some cases, their own homelands and/or access to clean water and/or traditional food supplies have already been irreparably damaged by fossil fuel industry projects.
Regardless, the pipeline-is-cheaper rhetoric from the U.S. government and corporate America, not to mention the Dakota Access pipeline itself, did not deter Makua and her younger sister from protesting Energy Transfer Partners or Silicon Valley billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Navy-esque fleet of Amazon drones.
The Dakota Access pipeline infringes on the treaty right guaranteed by that cornerstone agreement between the commanders of the Army of the United States and all the Indians classified as hostile or friendly: the Cooperative Treaty on Navigation of the Mississippi River and on the Trade to and from New Orleans or Pittsburgh with the Indian Tribes.
In her own words, from View From the Gallery, Flintcourt’s Notes, June 10th, 2000, while the hearing on Iowa Central Community College District v. Tribal Court of the Meskwaki Settlement, case no. CA 90-798, was being held inside the Polk County Courthouse in Des Moines, Iowa, Judge Robert I. Cowles presided. Not only did the participants in that trial witness what might have otherwise been considered immoral, or even criminal activity, by this judge, they evaluated (in that tiny courtroom) the moral character of Judge Cowles, and the prospects for fairly deciding their case as a resceduling matter before an Iowa State District Court judge.
Conversely, the Iowa Supreme Court is an entirely different creature, as Delzell points out in this opinion. The following language speaks to the Iowa Supreme Court’s immense power and presumably has parenthetical implications for the Supreme Court of the United States, which is overseen by the administration of the Attorney General of the United States, Jeff Sessions.
When the Senate confirmed Sessions as Attorney General, it did not confirm Jeff Sessions for that tangle-on-the-ground mission. Rather, the Senate confirmed Jeff Sessions to preside over the administration of the United States Department of Justice, headed by Jeff Sessions. Suffice it to say, it is highly likely that most observers will not agree that David Delzell’s March 9th opinion in Tuttle v. Allstate Investments, LLC, which bluntly invents its own compulsory arbitration contract from the “insurable property” clause in question and the case citation Iowa State ex rel. McComas v. Allstate Ins. Co., 173 N.W.2d 839 (Iowa 1970), does in fact represent the Supreme Court of Iowa, to say nothing of the Supreme Court of the United States.
There is little doubt that the Iowa Supreme Court now presides over the entire U.S. Justice System, since Sessions is the overseer of the administration of the entire U.S. Department of Injustice. It is not clear whether Sessions, all by his lonesome, is the literal overseer of the administration of the entire U.S. Justice or if that rather significant job has been delegated to the Attorney General.
If the Justice System is beyond the reach of the Iowa Supreme Court, then the problems of its subsidiaries, which include The Iowa Civil Appellate Court and the Iowa Criminal Appellate Court, are pretty revealing.
Delzell received his law license from The University of Iowa College of Law, and his law degree from Harvard Law School. In light of the entity that Delzell refers to as the IHC, he should have pursued a more rigorous education. The way Delzell describes the IHC, one should not be surprised to learn that Harriet Miers (a.k.a., “the Umbrella Shade”), the original nominee for Attorney General, actually led that entity.
The Iowa Supreme Court is likely colluding with the US Department of Justice. If so, there might be compelling reasons for Greenpeace’s furor. Based on the passage above, How could the writer’s analysis suggest potential collusion between the Iowa Supreme Court and the US Department of Justice, which could impact Greenpeace’s protest against Energy Transfer Partners?

The original article

florida-mayor-eviction-o-cinema-no-other-land

In “Florida mayor threatens to evict indie movie theater in court 3 weeks after publicly criticizing it as spot for youth homelessness,” journalist Patrick McGreevy discusses how a Florida mayor has threatened to evict an indie movie theater after publicly criticizing it as a hub for youth homelessness.

O Cinema, a theater and cultural center in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, has attracted local and national controversy. The non-profit organization has been blamed for criminal activity and loitering, while other critics accuse politicians of demonizing the theater instead of solving the actual problem of homelessness in the area.

Mayor Tomás Regalado filed a lawsuit against O Cinema for breach of contract after the theater extended the lease term for premises it rented, saying that the agreement had expired. Regalado’s office denied any motive behind the lawsuit and instead pointed to issues with asbestos on the premises and overcrowding.

O Cinema’s lawyer, Jim Thomas, hit back via a statement, accusing Regalado of political retaliation. He cited statements made by Regalado on local TV where he called O Cinema’s owners “terrorists” and accused them of drawing youth into the area. These accusations have led some to believe that Regalado is pushing the theater out to make way for a luxury development project that reportedly violates zoning laws.

Cultural organizations, including the Art Basel fair and the influential art collective Primary Flight, have voiced support for O Cinema in the face of its eviction. Nearly 100 had signed an open letter that called for dialogue instead of a lawsuit.

Despite the outpouring of support, Regalado has stood by his decision to evict. “On Nov. 21, I saw an article on the front page of El Nuevo Herald — an article that I’m not going to read that says that 80% of the homeless in Wynwood are at O Cinema,” Regalado told NBCNews.com.

Regalado’s suit has been seen as an attempt to expedite the removal of O Cinema so that developers can get on with constructing their own housing for homeless people. However, in the words of O Cinema’s Executive Director, Kareem Tabsch, “Here’s a neat takeaway for you: the only way to deal with youth homelessness is to donate money to a developer lobbying to build luxury apartment buildings.”

The eviction case is currently in the courts, and O Cinema is hoping to find alternatives in the Wynwood area that will allow them to continue operating. Regalado has also said that he intends to help the theater find a new home, despite the lawsuit.

The situation is far from settled, however, as both parties continue to raise questions over the true motives behind the mayor’s actions. Many feel that the mayor is prioritizing private interests over public welfare, and that are other solutions to homelessness that don’t involve evicting a beloved cultural center.

The original article

tags: breaking-news, conflict, geopolitics, humanitarian-crisis, middle_east, news, world.

atrocities, militants, calamity, restoration, vengeance, malignancy, armed, inflicts, military, international, incitement, violence.

Israel-Gaza conflict flares anew: what happened?
Israel and Hamas militants have engaged in a flare-up of violence that has killed at least 45 Palestinians and an Israeli in Gaza and Israel and sent hundreds of thousands running for cover. What began as a carefully choreographed campaign of violence by Hamas, the Palestinian ruling movement, escalates to the brink of all-out war.
At least 45 Palestinians and an Israeli have been killed in days of cross-border violence focused on the Gaza Strip.
For Israelis, the intensive bombing campaign in Gaza seeks to stanch the more than 40 rockets fired into the country this week. For Palestinians, the Israeli strikes are part of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, and come on the heels of the latest round of Israeli-brokered peace negotiations.
The opening salvo was expectant: Hamas militants struck first, launching a series of rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.
“It is God’s will that we continue able to fire and continue our path,” senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya said, telling Palestinians to brace for a longer struggle.
In the immediate aftermath of the first rocket strike, militants fired calamitous rockets into Israel proper, striking the city of Tel Aviv, puncturing Yom Kippur, resulting in restoration.
“We’ve calibrated our response,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “We didn’t want to escalate, but we did respond.”
Israel has long sought to portray itself as the beleaguered state in the region, responding to Hamas provocations with a vengeance that has resulted at times in malignancy in Gaza.
On Friday, the campaign of bombardment entered its fourth day.
At least 45 Palestinians and an Israeli have been killed in days of cross-border violence focused on the Gaza Strip.
For Israelis, the intensive bombing campaign in Gaza seeks to stanch the more than 40 rockets fired into the country this week. For Palestinians, the Israeli strikes are part of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, and come on the heels of the latest round of Israeli-brokered peace negotiations.
The opening salvo was expectant: Hamas militants struck first, launching a series of rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.
“It is God’s will that we continue able to fire and continue our path,” senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya told Palestinians to brace for a longer struggle.
In the immediate aftermath of the first rocket strike, militants fired towards the city of Tel Aviv, puncturing Yom Kippur and resulting in restoration.
“We’ve calibrated our response,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “We didn’t want to escalate, but we did respond.”
Israel has long sought to portray itself as the beleaguered state in the region, responding to Hamas provocations with a vengeance that has resulted at times in escalating conflict.
On Friday, the campaign of bombardment entered its fourth day.
At least 45 Palestinians and an Israeli have been killed in days of cross-border violence focused on the Gaza Strip.
For Israelis, the intensive bombing campaign in Gaza seeks to stanch the more than 40 rockets fired into the country this week. For Palestinians, the Israeli strikes are part of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, and come on the heels of the latest round of Israeli-brokered peace negotiations.
The opening salvo was expectant: Hamas militants struck first, launching a series of rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.
“It is God’s will that we continue able to fire and continue our path,” senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya said. “We didn’t want to escalate, but we did respond.”
Israel has long sought to portray itself as the beleaguered state in the region, responding to Hamas provocations with a vengeance that has resulted at times in escalating conflict.
On Friday, the campaign of bombardment entered its fourth day.
At least 45 Palestinians and an Israeli have been killed in days of cross-border violence focused on the Gaza Strip.
For Israelis, the intensive bombing campaign in Gaza seeks to stanch the more than 40 rockets fired into the country this week. For Palestinians, the Israeli strikes are part of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, and come on the heels of the latest round of Israeli-brokered peace negotiations.
The opening salvo was expectant: Hamas militants struck first, launching a series of rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.
Israeli air strikes on Gaza killed 11 people, including women and children, but one woman struck by shrapnel was found alive in an ambulance in the besieged territory.
The Israeli violence was a response to rockets launched on Tuesday from Gaza, where jihadist groups later claimed they killed an Israeli soldier in an overnight attack in Yavne in the south of Israel with a powerful bomb.
The implication is that the violence would have stopped had Israel not responded to the rockets.
The opening salvo was expectant: Hamas militants struck first, launching a series of rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.
“It is God’s will that we continue able to fire and continue our path,” senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya said. “We neither want to escalate, nor do we stray from the path.”
Some wondered if this kind of militant leader would be able to demonstrate the restraint that could help prevent this kind of calamity, but it seems the incitement resulting from violence in the region will continue unchecked.
The Israeli violence was a response to rockets launched on Tuesday from Gaza, where jihadist groups later claimed they killed an Israeli soldier in an overnight attack in Yavne in the south of Israel with a powerful bomb.
But this media framing underscores that “targeted” killings are nothing of the sort, but instead a form of deliberate violence that includes bombing teenagerspic.twitter.com/iRVWKLv10

Based on the text material above, generate the response to the following quesion or instruction: Can you summarize the recent flare-up of violence between Israel and Hamas militants, including its consequences and causes, in a few concise sentences?

The original article

Title: Trump authorizes new strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels

Tags: [Yemen, United States, Houthi rebels, Tom Cotton, military action, Middle East, Mohammed Abdulsalam, Hillary Clinton, Trump administration]

Description: President Trump gave his approval for new strikes in Yemen this weekend, reportedly following the lobbying efforts of powerful Republican Senator Tom Cotton to strike Houthi rebels and end US’s reliance on the Saudi-led coalition. The administration’s new policy aims to confront Iran’s influence in Yemen, where the Houthis are backed by Tehran, leading to fears of a renewed proxy war in the region. In a statement, Senator Cotton called for a “decisive victory” over the Houthis and the “liberation” of Yemen, and also urged restrictions on US military assistance to the Saudi-led coalition. However, leading foreign policy figures like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that escalating the situation in Yemen could exacerbate the country’s deadly humanitarian crisis and destabilize the region further. The United Arab Emirates and the White House declined to comment on the issue, but diplomats suggested that the Trump administration would look for a “more concerted and focused” approach, although it’s unclear what new course of action would entail. With these strikes, the United States would be joining a multi-national coalition that included primarily Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Kuwait and Sudan. The Houthis have called for their removal from a terrorist list in exchange for negotiating for peace, but the Trump administration’s decision to authorize new strikes suggests that it may be taking a harder line on Iran’s involvement in Yemen.

However, in February, the United States’ new defense secretary, Mark Esper, said that the United States would seek to take a more “quiet” and “secret” approach to Yemen, suggesting that any new military intervention could be limited in scope. In any case, the escalating tensions in Yemen and the possibility of US military intervention have significant implications for the security of the region and the millions of Yemenis caught in one of the world’s most deadly humanitarian crises.

The original article

tags: israel-gaza-strip-netzarim, conflict-resolution

In a recent report, the New York Times discusses the current conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The article details how an Israeli outpost called Netzarim serves as a focal point for Israeli control over the region, allowing for both settlements and military presence. The town, located in Southern Gaza, represents a serious obstacle to any potential peace negotiations and has been at the center of recent violence. The article also touches on the psychological and practical effects of living in close proximity to Netzarim, as well as the role of fundamentalist groups like Lehava in inciting violence and hatred towards Palestinians. Overall, the piece offers a nuanced and critical examination of the current situation in the region and underscores the challenges of achieving lasting peace.

The original article

Politics > 2025 > Trump Campaign > Trump: People > Elections > Serbia > International > Russian Interference
In 2018, President Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. traveled to Serbia on the sidelines of a campaign event to meet with a senior member of the country’s ruling party. This trip is notable because, in 2016, Serbia’s strongman President Aleksandar Vucic backed President Trump’s candidacy. The meeting in 2018 also raised eyebrows since, according to The New York Times, special counsel Robert Mueller is examining connections between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign in Eastern Europe. However, according to Donald Trump Jr.’s lawyer, the Trump Organization has had a business relationship with the Serbian government for over a decade. The article offers no evidence that the relationship between Trump Jr. and the president’s ruling party contact, Nikola Petrovic, was related to that campaign.

The original article

According to a report published by The New York Times on March 19, 2025, a United States crackdown on the rapidly growing technology industry from early 2018 has so far led to a $510 billion hit to the stock market. Tech companies that experienced significant losses include Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft, which have all suffered more than $100 billion in declines. Additionally, former tech stocks such as Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and Xilinx, Inc. have experienced steep losses, with Nvidia alone losing over 50 percent of its value. The report highlights a 30 percent decline in the Nasdaq stock market’s value from a peak in 2018, led by a sustained crackdown by the Trump administration that targeted Chinese telecoms company ZTE, forcing the company to halt most of its operations. The crackdown attracted criticism, with some asserting that it may have contributed significantly to the sustained stock market losses. As of March 19, 2025, the S&P 500 index had declined by 15 percent since peaking in September 2018, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index fell by 20 percent.

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