What's in the News? 2.0

[Keelan]

17-year-old in 2021 attempted to buy alcohol from the bar of 'The Mark Hotel' in Manhattan using a fake ID. He apparently did this repeatedly, allegedly increasingly belligerently, and was eventually banned from the premise.

Two years later, the kid - now 19 - brought at least one 'John Doe' to assist him in standing out front and picketing, accusing the Hotel of spreading disease, denying the Holocaust, and supporting Jeffrey Epstein. This apparently lead to at least one brawl with members of Drake's entourage because - unsurprisingly - they were also harassing people on the street.

The Mark has now sued for defamation, and has filed a restraining order against him.

Obviously this information is through a lawsuit now, but I felt like sharing because legitimately I'm unsure if this is some stupid attempt at getting a payout from a hotel that has a $75,000/night penthouse (or had at one point), or if this is just some jackass being a jackass because the hotel had the 'audacity' to tell him 'no'...

https://archive.is/Uoqcq

[TheGlyphstone]

Sounds like a rich idiot teenager getting the Clue-By-Four of Life to the face, so Option 2.

[Oniya]

Since the young sir doesn't seem in need of a 'payout', considering his Daddums, I'm going with option 2 as well.  Dearheart had probably never been refused anything before.

[Al Terego]

https://archive.is/Uoqcq

Can you provide the original link?  archive.is refuses to let me in.

[Sara Nilsson]

Can you provide the original link?  archive.is refuses to let me in.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/nyregion/mark-hotel-lawsuit-teenager.html

[Oniya]

Can you provide the original link?  archive.is refuses to let me in.

Be aware that the original link, being the New York Times, may give you only a limited number of articles as a non-subscriber.

Here's the same story from the Independent:  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/mark-hotel-lawsuit-theodore-weintraub-b2391238.html

[Oniya]

Oh, and yesterday, little dude-bro was trying to evade the process server:  https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/ues-hotel-bully-hides-behind-park-ave-doormen-dodge-suit-lawyer

[Beorning]

Yeah, definitely seems like a spoiled brat... *groans*

Meanwhile, in Poland...

The leader of PiS calls for a "moral extermination of traitors", with the "traitors" being all of the opposition:

https://notesfrompoland.com/2023/08/14/tusk-is-personification-of-pure-evil-and-opposition-must-be-morally-exterminated-says-kaczynski/

He also says that the leader of the biggest opposition party, Donald Tusk, is "personification of pure evil". In some of his earlier speeches, he openly accused Tusk of being a German puppet and that Tusk should leave Poland.

As for the state of civili liberties in Poland, an major independent radio broadcasters gets slapped with a huge fine by the Polish equivalent of FCC:

https://notesfrompoland.com/2023/08/14/polish-broadcaster-gets-half-million-zloty-fine-for-zelensky-disinformation/

Why the fine? Because the radio reported on something that didn't make the PiS government look too good. So, the FCC chief unilaterally hit the broadcaster with a fine. Because, in his opinion, what the radio reported wasn't true and made the state institution look bad. Which is against "state interest", apparently...

[inkybus]

Why the fine? Because the radio reported on something that didn't make the PiS government look too good. So, the FCC chief unilaterally hit the broadcaster with a fine. Because, in his opinion, what the radio reported wasn't true and made the state institution look bad. Which is against "state interest", apparently...

Sounds like what a fascist would do.

Next, try to make fun of the state in a comedic setting: tyrants hate being made fun of. Humor is one of the top three ways to find out if who is governing is a tyrant.

[Sara Nilsson]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/us/kansas-marion-newspaper-raid-search-warrant/index.html

So back to the raid on the newspaper in Marion Kansas.

Marion County prosecutor Joel Ensey released a statement explaining why he asked for the seized items to be returned.

“On Monday, August 14, 2023, I reviewed in detail the warrant applications made Friday, August 11, 2023 to search various locations in Marion County including the office of the Marion County Record,” Ensey said.

“The affidavits, which I am asking the court to release, established probable cause to believe that an employee of the newspaper may have committed … Unlawful Acts Concerning Computers. Upon further review however, I have come to the conclusion that insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized,” the prosecutor said. 

You would think they would make sure of that BEFORE.. not after but hey what do I know?

https://www.kwch.com/2023/08/17/judge-who-signed-off-marion-co-record-warrant-has-dui-history/

So the judge has a DUI history, same as the original store owner that the whole case kicked off on. Probably unrelated, probably. But if you are going to raid a news paper you better have a squeaky clean record.

The question remains whether Viar’s history had an impact on obtaining the search warrant.

Jeffrey Jackson, the Interim Dean at Washburn Law School said he doesn’t think so.

“With search warrant validity, we don’t really look at well, the judge might have had ulterior, right? The question is just is there enough information there for probable cause or is there not?” said Jackson.

But, to search a newsroom, he said the probable cause is different.

“I think it’s important to understand that in situations like this, in fact, the threshold for probable cause is higher,” Jackson said. “The search warrant in order to be effective, must be framed with scrupulous exactitude.”

Jackson said law enforcement should not be given a general warrant to go out and search for a crime. In the case of the raid on the Marion County Record, he believes that’s what happened.

“It is incumbent on the judge to actually do some research to realize that we treat these things differently obviously. But as I said, it’s very unusual, it doesn’t happen,” said Jackson.

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article278318133.html

Before becoming police chief of Marion, Kansas, and leading a raid on the small town’s newspaper, Gideon Cody left the Kansas City Police Department under a cloud, facing possible discipline and demotion, police sources have told The Star. Cody, who was a captain in the police department’s property crimes unit, was under internal review for allegedly making insulting and sexist comments to a female officer. The day after making the comments, Cody reportedly phoned the female officer and acknowledged his behavior was unprofessional.

Seems like everyone has skeletons in the closet.

Good thing they all didn't do anything to bring international scrutiny on them.. oh wait...

[greenknight]

Marion County prosecutor Joel Ensey released a statement explaining why he asked for the seized items to be returned.

“On Monday, August 14, 2023, I reviewed in detail the warrant applications made Friday, August 11, 2023 to search various locations in Marion County including the office of the Marion County Record,” Ensey said.

“The affidavits, which I am asking the court to release, established probable cause to believe that an employee of the newspaper may have committed … Unlawful Acts Concerning Computers. Upon further review however, I have come to the conclusion that insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized,” the prosecutor said.

Translation: These jackasses just jeopardized every investigation and prosecution for events allegedly occurring before the raid by any agency that had any participation. Moving forward, every piece of evidence will have to be defended from any association with the paper's records. I have to do this RIGHT NOW to keep review of the warrant from a judge because they will quash it and evidence will be regularly suppressed as a result.

[Oniya]

The conspiracy theorists were almost right! 

Big Parma is putting microchips in its products!

Pity about that typo, though...

[GloomCookie]

So. Parmesan can only legally (in Europe, anyway) be called Parmesan if it's made in a specific way in a specific place, similar to Champagne or Tequila. And because other people know how to make it and do make it elsewhere, and then try to sell it as Parmesan, the people who make the 'real' stuff are pissed about it because they want the market all to themselves. Yeah I don't really give a damn.

Unlike certain products, I believe that food is something that can bridge people, not be exclusive to one particular group. Anyone can make a taco, so why should anyone who doesn't make it a particular way in Guadalajara be excluded from calling it such? Or what if you can only have "authentic" sushi in Japan and anywhere else is simply counterfeit?

The only reason they're upset here is because they only made $3.1 billion and not the entire $5.1 billion. Cry me a river. I can guarantee you that as long as the stuff tastes similar to Parmesan, 99% of consumers won't care if it was made in Northern Italy or Argentina.

[Oniya]

Yeah, I'm one of those people that thinks 'champagne' and 'sparkling wine' taste about the same.  The fact that the names of these foods frequently include the region's name might give them a bit of a talking point (unlike sushi and taco).  I even had to explain to Little Oni how one could counterfeit a 90-lb wheel of cheese.

However, we had a big laugh at the 'Parma'/'Pharma' thing, and every so often, the news should be funny.

[TheGlyphstone]

Behold the power of cheese.

[Beguile's Mistress]

Various food products have been created in certain locales and carry the name of that region or geographical location for a reason.  One thing is that there are controls over the quality of the product that is ignored by the counterfeiters and that leads to the real quality of the product being devalued. 

[Rinzler]

In the case of cheese, authenticity is contingent on things such as the milk from local herds, the local weather conditions and how they affect the ripening etc. So if you're looking for an authentic Parmesan, it's quite important to be able to distinguish it from a more generic version. Given how bloody wonderful a proper West Country farmhouse Cheddar is in comparison to the countless cheddars produced worldwide, authenticity often accompanies a much superior product.

So I must admit some sympathy for those producing the genuine Parmesan here.

[Al Terego]

I think it is similar to trade marks.

[Oreo]

Not sure if I should feel bad about Parmesan. I buy local artisan cheese for my dining pleasures.

[TheGlyphstone]

No idea bout cheese, but I know I've heard counterfeiting olive oil is a gigantic business to the point of something like 70-80% of the market supply is watered down or blended with lower-quality oils.

[Sara Nilsson]

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/rudy-giuliani-spotted-visiting-bail-bond-agency-191463494002

Short vid.. with caption only.

But looks like Rudy had to visit a bail bond agency for his bail. Guess he didn't have any money left.



Same building where you can see the signs.

Granted.. take it with a bit of salt I would say until we see better reporting about it. At least, I will, i would have to be disappointed.

[Al Terego]

That image kind of looks like a painting.

[Oniya]

The link gets you the full-motion video.

[Al Terego]

I know, I was just commenting on the quality of the still (a single frame)

[GloomCookie]

To be honest, who would have $150k in liquid capital available immediately for a bond? If he did go to a bail bondsman, it's a fairly safe bet that Rudy won't try to flee the country since he's too well known. So the bail bondsman gets free advertising, makes money off Giuliani, and Giuliani walks out to pull together the money to pay off the bondsman or he pays interest on the bond when it's given back and he reports to jail.