Category: Opinion

A 72-year-old woman who is accused of hate crimes against her neighbor has agreed to sell her Seattle-area home as part of a civil agreement with the victim and her family.

As part of the agreement, Jan Myers, who is white, is expected to sell her home in Shoreline, Washington, within the next six months and pay the victim, Thi Pham, who is Vietnamese American $45,000 from that sale. If Myers does not move before the six months is up the case could be referred to a civil jury.

In April 2021 Pham said she was in her front yard when she noticed Myers in the road staring at her as she began to move her car back and forth. Fearful about what could happen next, Pham began recording Myers as she yelled several racial slurs and threats.

In the video, Myers is heard calling Pham “slant eye” and “Miss Vietnam” and threatening “you’re not going to live very long.” Pham told police that two weeks prior Myers had walked onto her patio naked from the waist down making obscene gestures in front of her two-year-old son.

Myers was charged with a hate crime in April 2021, but was released without bail shortly after. Pham and her husband, Bill Healy, filed a civil lawsuit in King County Superior Court in August 2021, claiming Myers had violated a no contact order and continued to harass them. The couple claim that Myers screamed at them and drove her car directly at Healy.

Attorneys for Pham and Healy announced the civil settlement Thursday.

“I am happy that I can safely live in my home without racial harassment,” Pham said. “We hope Jan Myers follows through the agreement and move quickly.”

“That was what made it very difficult, is when I realized my wife and my family, their physical well-being and their life was being threatened by this person,” Healy said.

“We need to make the people who are harassing people because of their race pay and make them pay the victim,” Pham and Healy’s attorney Jeffery Campiche added.

The next hearing in the criminal case is set for April 25. Myers’s trial is scheduled to begin on June 8.

President Joe Biden authorized $800 million in additional military assistance for Ukraine on Tuesday.

The latest military assistance brings the total aid money given to Ukraine since the invasion began to over $2.4 billion. The newly approved aid will provide “weapons, ammunitions, and other security assistance,” as well as “new capabilities” not previously given by the administration, Biden said in a statement.

“This new package of assistance will contain many of the highly effective weapons systems we have already provided and new capabilities tailored to the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine,” Biden said. “These new capabilities include artillery systems, artillery rounds, and armored personnel carriers. I have also approved the transfer of additional helicopters. In addition, we continue to facilitate the transfer of significant capabilities from our Allies and partners around the world.”

Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the latest package Tuesday, according to the White House.

“The Ukrainian military has used the weapons we are providing to devastating effect. As Russia prepares to intensify its attack in the Donbas region, the United States will continue to provide Ukraine with the capabilities to defend itself,” Biden added.

While speaking in Iowa on Monday Biden described Putin’s actions in Ukraine as “genocide” for the first time. He doubled down on his comment shortly afterwards, noting that they’d “let the lawyers decide, internationally, whether or not it qualifies.”

“The evidence is mounting,” the president said. “We’ll let the lawyers decide, internationally, whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me.”

Zelenskyy commended Biden’s declaration afterwards, tweeting that they were “true words of a true leader.”

On Thursday, Twitter employees learned that Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, had offered more than $43 billion to buy the social media behemoth, which he would then take private.

Twitter will conduct an all-hands meeting on Thursday to address the problem, according to Fox News Digital, since some employees are concerned about Musk’s potential takeover.

Many analysts predicted that the news would drive leftist Twitter staffers fleeing for cover. However, ex-Google consultant Joe Toscano, who was featured heavily in the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma,” has dealt with big tech employees for years and believes the news will polarize employees.

“I would bet there’s a good chunk of them that are super excited about it, because there’s probably a lot of them that have cool ideas for the platform but haven’t been able to do anything because of the stagnant leadership that Twitter currently has. So, I think there’s probably a lot of them that are excited, but I’m sure there’s also a large chunk of them who are scared because Elon Musk, all due respect to his work, represents a radical leader and could dramatically change their operation,” Toscano said

Toscano noted Musk could fire staff that he sees as “unworthy or nonfunctional,” which is a concern for employees.

“I’m sure there are people who are in fear,” he said.

Twitter employees, who were said to have had a “day of rest” on Monday, were “super stressed” to hear Musk decided not to take a seat on the company’s board of directors because he would be free to attack the platform.

Musk previously pitched the idea of turning Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters into a shelter for the homeless and staffers would be required to work remotely going forward.

The mayor of Mariupol, Ukraine, said on Monday that more than 10,000 civilians have already been killed by Russian forces.

Mayor Vadym Boychenko said he fears the civilian death toll could rise to over 20,000 in the coming weeks.

Boychenko said he believes the Russians are blocking humanitarian aid into the city to keep the outside world from seeing the carnage. Roughly 120,000 civilians in the city have been cut off from food, water, and communication with the rest of the world.

Russia has sent mobile cremation equipment to Mariupol to dispose of the bodies of the victims.

“Mobile crematoriums have arrived in the form of trucks: You open it, and there is a pipe inside and these bodies are burned,” Boychenko said.

Russian troops are confiscating Ukrainian citizens’ passports and moving them to “filtration camps” in eastern Ukraine. Only residents who pass through the “filtration camps” are allowed to flee the city.

Residents who do not pass through the “filtration camps” are sent to Russia or separatist territory in Ukraine while temporary prisons are being constructed.

Russian soldiers opened fire on a car of civilians on March 16 in Mariupol, shooting 11-year-old Milena Uralova in the face.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Russia had committed war crimes in Ukraine following Russian strikes on a Mariupol maternity hospital and theater. President Joe Biden said on March 16 that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is “a war criminal.”

The food crisis in Shanghai, China, deepens as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) enforces its “zero-COVID” policy.

The closure of dozens of cities owing to breakouts of the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron has hampered the country’s supply networks. As a result, millions of people are facing food shortages.

Since March 28, when CCP officials basically shut down the city to conduct mass testing of residents, Shanghai has been in lockdown. Individuals who tested positive, whether or not they were sick, were quarantined for up to two weeks. When quarantine facilities became overcrowded, many people who tested positive were compelled to stay in their homes or apartment buildings.

Food shipments and delivery have come to a halt due to the lack of economic activity in the city. Residents’ social media posts mention food shortages and trouble getting meals.

“It’s the first time in my life I’ve had to worry about securing food,” one Shanghai-based executive said. “Now, I’m worried we’ll run out of milk for our kids.”

Some residents have posted about bartering for food. One resident, Guan Zejun, posted a picture of an almost-empty box of supplies and begged the government for help. “I’m used to the feeling of being hungry now,” he said. “I never expected that in the 21st century, in a big city like Shanghai, I would experience what my grandparents’ generation lived through, of not being able to fill my stomach.”

Even the wealthiest residents in the global financial center are having difficulty finding groceries. On the social media platform WeChat, one of the city’s top venture capitalists stated that he was looking for bread anywhere he could find it.

Resistance to the CCP measures has developed and Shanghai residents have been filmed screaming out their windows at night in protest. Some have attacked the government medical workers who are conducting mass testing and enforcing quarantine. But the communist party continues to enforce its draconian “zero-COVID” policies with government drones flying through the city telling residents to remain calm and resist their “soul’s desire for freedom.”

A suspect in the Tuesday subway attack in Brooklyn was apprehended in the East Village on Wednesday afternoon.

Frank James, 62, has been apprehended by law enforcement officials, according to multiple reports.

Several police officers are seen taking James into a police vehicle with his hands cuffed behind his back, according to video released on Twitter during the arrest.

The circumstances underlying James’ arrest were not immediately known.

James had been declared a suspect earlier in the day when officials discovered he had acquired the gun found at the crime scene.

Authorities uncovered the keys to a U-Haul James had rented, as well as three extended magazines, four smoke grenades, and a hatchet, following the shooting.

At the Sunset Park 36th Street station, James used smoke grenades before starting fire. Twenty-nine individuals were hurt, with ten of them being shot.

The search continues for a lone gunman who was wearing a reflective vest and gas mask who threw smoke bombs on a subway car in Brooklyn and then opened fire, leaving 29 people shot or otherwise injured.

The NYPD has located a U-Haul believed to be connected to the shooting and detectives say they have a good idea who they are searching for.

Police say the suspect was seen mumbling to himself on a Manhattan-bound N train before he put on the gas mask and removed a canister from a bag and the car began to fill with smoke.

The suspect then opened fire with a handgun, striking several people on the train and the platform at the 36th Street subway station.

Shell casings were recovered on the train and on the platform along with a handgun that had three extended round magazines, one in the gun was jammed, likely sparing lives.

Multiple smoke devices, a bag of commercial-grade fireworks, and a credit card authorities say was used to rent the U-Haul were also recovered at the scene.

While the cameras in the station were inoperable, law enforcement was able to get an image of the suspect from a bystander’s cell phone video.

https://youtu.be/xbT7gqNd7Qc

Officials confirmed 10 of the victims, who range in age from 17 to 50, were shot and five of them are listed in critical but stable condition. None of the injuries are considered life threatening.

It is unclear if the gunman fled out of a station or into the subway tunnel.

Hospitals reported a total of 29 patients being treated for non-life threatening injuries they sustained during the shooting.

The suspect was described as a male, 5-foot-5 and 175 to 180 pounds, wearing a green construction vest and gray hooded sweatshirt.

“This morning, Sunset Park commuters were assaulted by a senseless act of violence,” Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso said. “As always in a time of crisis, Brooklynites experienced the swift reaction of our city’s first responders, including the MTA, NYPD, and FDNY. I am deeply heartened to see the Sunset Park community coming together during this time of tragedy – Brooklyn stands with you. I will continue to work with local authorities and elected officials as more details of the attack are confirmed and the perpetrator is found.”

This latest incident comes as New York City has faced a rash of shootings and high-profile incidents in recent months, including on the city’s subways. One of the most horrifying was in January when a woman was pushed to her death in front of the train.

New videos are circulating on social media purporting to show suicides and animal killings in China amid the country’s COVID-19 lockdowns.

Several videos have gone viral with one showing a couple falling from a building to their deaths in a suspected murder-suicide after the husband’s business went under due to COVID-19 lockdowns. Another video shows Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pandemic workers killing the household pets of infected residents.

CCP authorities began a two-stage lockdown of Shanghai and its 26 million residents on March 28 that was extended on April 5 as COVID-19 cases continued to rise. Many residents have been forbidden to leave their homes and have struggled to get food as mass-tests continue and strict quarantines are harshly enforced.

A video taken in Shanghai shows hundreds of people screaming out their windows at night in protest of lockdown measures. Another video compilation claims to show a number of suicides that were triggered by lockdown measures in the city.

One disturbing video posted to social media shows workers collecting the dead bodies of household pets. Several cities have ordered that pets belonging to COVID-19 patients are to be killed due to fears the animals could spread the virus further.

President Ronald Reagan’s shooter has traded his gun for a guitar and is now aiming for a music career.

John Hinckley Jr., who shot then-President Reagan and three others in a 1981 failed assassination attempt in Washington, D.C., is now scheduled to play a solo acoustic show this summer in a Brooklyn venue.

“Big news!! I will be performing on July 8 at the Market Hotel in Brooklyn, NY,” Hinckley tweeted on April 9. “Get your tickets while you can.”

Hinckley, 66, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982. He has been living as an out-patient from a mental health facitility for several years and in September 2021, he was granted an unconditional release, scheduled for June.

“There is no evidence of danger whatsoever,” his lawyer, Barry Wm. Levine, said.

Hinckley was committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., following the ’82 verdict.

Hinckley, expressed his “heartfelt” apologies and “profound regret” to his victims as well as actress Jodie Foster, whom he was stalking at the time of the assassination attempt.

Hinckley created YouTube and Spotify accounts for his music, which includes the songs “We Have Got That Chemistry” and “Dark is the Night.”

Not all music fans are happy about the show.

“Better cancel this,” said a commentator on Hinckley’s Twitter. “What are you thinking.”

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute is against Hinckley’s unconditional release.

The foundation “is saddened to hear of the decision to unconditionally release John Hinckley Jr., the man responsible for the attempted assassination of President Reagan, a shooting that gravely wounded three other brave men,” the statement said. “Contrary to the judge’s decision, we believe John Hinckley is still a threat to others and we strongly oppose his release.”

Last week police in Washington, D.C., discovered the bodies of five fetuses at the home of an anti-abortion activist.

The five fetuses were discovered in the home of Lauren Handy, but founder and director of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) Terrisa Bukovinac said they had taken 115 fetuses after they occupied a Washington Surgi-Clinic on March 25. Handy is a self-proclaimed “Catholic anarchist” who claimed she’d taken the bodies to provide them with a Catholic burial.

Handy and Bukovinac say they obtained the bodies from a Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services truck driver, who allowed them access to the remains. At a press conference on Tuesday, activists from PAAU showed a video of members cutting into a Curtis Bay box with a biohazard label, where they discovered the 115 fetuses, most of which were in the earliest stages of gestation.

Curtis Bay waste management lists fetal remains as “unacceptable waste,” and any fetal remains must be “segregated from the medical waste stream and buried or cremated.”

“On March 25, a Curtis Bay employee took custody of three packages from the Washington Surgery Center (Washington Surgi Clinic) and delivered all of them to Curtis Bay’s incineration facility. At no time did the Curtis Bay employee hand over any of these packages to the PAAU or other third party, and any allegations made otherwise are false,” a Curtis Bay representative said in a statement.

“As stated in client agreements and company policy, customers like Washington Surgi Clinic are prohibited from disposing of fetuses and human remains via Curtis Bay’s services. Curtis Bay provides its clients with medical waste bags and boxes to use in a manner that complies with applicable law, client agreements and company policy. Curtis Bay continues to fully cooperate with law enforcement.”

Police took the five late stage fetuses into evidence, they could potentially be used as proof that the Washington Surgi-Clinic violated both the federal Partial Birth Abortion Act and the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act.

The investigation is ongoing, but executive assistant Chief of Police Ashan Benedict said, “there doesn’t seem to be anything criminal in nature about the fetuses except for how they got into this house.”