$17 Million Awarded To Injured Woman At Walmart

A jury in West Virginia has returned a nearly $17 million verdict after a woman was injured when staffers tried to detain a shoplifter in Walmart.

A lawyer for 53-year-old Diane Ankrom says employees tried to detain the shoplifter when he ran into her shopping cart, in which she was pushing her granddaughter. Ankrom fell to the ground with the cart falling on top of her.

The jury found Walmart 30 percent responsible and the shoplifter 70 percent, though it's unclear how the money will be split.

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Will Marijuana Become Legal Nationwide?

Titled the Marijuana Justice Act, the bill is being co-sponsored by other candidates seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand.

Sen. Cory Booker introduced a bill Thursday that would legalize marijuana nationwide.

“The War on Drugs has not been a war on drugs, it’s been a war on people, and disproportionately people of color and low-income individuals,” Booker said in a press release. “The Marijuana Justice Act seeks to reverse decades of this unfair, unjust, and failed policy by removing marijuana from the list of controlled substances and making it legal at the federal level.”

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In recent years, 10 states and Washington, D.C., have passed laws legalizing marijuana use for adults over the age of 21. A total of 33 states have passed laws legalizing the drug for medical use. But marijuana is still considered a Schedule 1 drug by the Drug Enforcement Agency, setting up an enforcement conflict between federal and state law enforcement agencies.

President Trump offered his support in February to a separate bill introduced by Warren and Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., which seeks to block the federal government from enforcing federal drug charges in states that have legalized the drug.

Fight Breaks Out Over Crab Legs

These must be some really good Crab Legs. I want to try this restaurant. Hungry patrons at a local buffet in Alabama took hungry to a new level when a fight broke out allegedly over crab legs.

The unexpected brawl went down at Meteor Buffet in Huntsville as diners were waiting to feast on a freshly boiled batch of crab legs.

Among the restaurant goers was Huntsville police officer Gerald Johnson, who recalled hearing yelling and tongs clashing as he was just about to dive into his meal.

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“They’d been waiting there for the crab legs for a good 10, 20 minutes. When they finally came out, it’s very heated. Especially if someone is taking more than their fair share.”

Jenkins, who was at the eatery with her children, has been charged with third-degree assault and Chapman has been charged with disorderly conduct.

General Motors To Layoff 4,ooo Employees

General Motors is planning to layoff at least 4,000 salaried workers in North America starting Monday ahead of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report.

The reductions come as the largest U.S. automaker undergoes a massive restructuring announced by CEO Mary Barra in November. GM is halting production at five plants in North America and cutting 14,000 jobs as it realigns its workforce and plants to produce more electric vehicles.

Company executives want to complete as many of the layoffs as possible before the company reports its earnings Wednesday.

GM offered buyouts to 17,700 employees in North America with at least 12 years of service in November. The company was aiming for 8,000 voluntary buyouts, the company previously confirmed.

That leaves roughly 4,250 salaried workers and 6,000 hourly employees targeted for layoffs. The company said in November that half of the hourly workers were in Canada with the other half in the U.S.

The company has offered jobs to all 2,800 hourly workers affected in the U.S., and about 1,000 have accepted. The other 3,000 hourly workers located in Canada are getting help finding jobs and training.

Many of the cuts are planned at factories in the United States and Canada that make sedans and compact cars — vehicles that have not been selling well in North America, as customers turn toward trucks, sport utility vehicles and crossovers. These vehicles tend to be more profitable for automakers.

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Google+ Will Now Be Closing Its Doors

Now this is hurtful for some who use Google+ as one of primary ways of reaching out to people. For some people, Google+ is better than Facebook and Twitter when it comes to reaching out to a global market.

In December 2018, Google announced their decision to shut down Google+ for consumers. In April 2019, due to low usage and challenges involved in maintaining a successful product the company will be shutting down it's services.

On April 2nd, your Google+ account and any Google+ pages you created will be shut down and we will begin deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts.

Read More on Google Support

Photos and videos from Google+ in your Album Archive and your Google+ pages will also be deleted. Here is how you can download and save your content.

The process of deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts, Google+ Pages, and Album Archive will take a few months, and content may remain through this time. For example, users may still see parts of their Google+ account via activity log and some consumer Google+ content may remain visible to G Suite users until consumer Google+ is deleted.

As early as February 4th, you will no longer be able to create new Google+ profiles, pages, communities or events.

Half-naked Woman Caught Masturbating In Restaurant And Squad Car

I guess this lady was tired of all the guys hitting on her! The general manager of a JW Marriott Hotel reportedly notified staff members that he spotted Nickels “with her legs straight up in the air, spread open” and pleasuring herself with a silver object.

That manager told police “he could hear Nickels making moaning noises as if she was having an orgasm.” Police arrived on the scene where it appeared the 26-year-old woman was still getting it on.

Source: A Texas woman arrested for public masturbation

Police put Nickels in handcuffs and placed her in the back of a squad car, where she “began to repeatedly rub her groin back and forth on the plastic seat, moaning.” It was the arresting officers’ opinion that even without the use of her hands, Nickels was still trying to gratify herself.

Arresting officers did not recover the silver object reportedly seen by the hotel manager who first witnessed Nickels’ night out.

Man Does Doughnuts on Airport Before Being Arrested

Now this is how you go down in a bang. With the right move, this could plunged the young man into stardom if he know it or not.

A 20-year-old man has been arrested after ramming his car through a security fence at Pensacola International Airport in Florida, speeding down an active runway at around 100 mph, and then doing doughnuts with his vehicle.

Carlson drove his Ford Mustang from the runway to a grassy area, where he did doughnuts, before speeding into an open hangar, where he continued doing doughnuts until police arrived.

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Wood said that no air traffic was affected due to Carlson’s stunt, as no airlines were on the runway at the time.

Carlson was charged with criminal mischief and trespassing, though more charges may be added, Fox 10 reports. Authorities do not believe the man was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. They have also ruled out terrorism as a motive.

Minors Not Being Accepted At US Border

Now this is backwards, if anything we should be accepting the children with their parents first. The head of Mexico's immigration agency said Monday that his country won't accept migrants younger than 18 while they await the resolution of their U.S. asylum claims.

Mexican officials had previously said the United States expressed interest in extending the "remain in Mexico" policy to other border crossings. But Guillen said Mexico will accept only asylum seekers aged 18 to 60 at El Chaparral.

Mexico will accept migrants only from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, and will give them four-month visas. Guillen said that since Dec. 1, Mexico has given 3,983 transit visas to Central Americans, most of whom hope to reach the United States.

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Mexico will also extend other work-visa programs to apply to more Mexican states and more Central American countries. U.S. authorities plan to bus asylum seekers back and forth to the border for court hearings in downtown San Diego, including an initial appearance within 45 days.

The U.S. has witnessed a surge in asylum claims, especially from Central American families. Due largely to a court-imposed 20-day limit on detaining children, families are typically released with a notice to appear in immigration court. With a backlog of more than 800,000 cases, it can take years to settle cases.

See More Mexico News Here

Video Game Sales Soared In 2018

It seems as if everyone in America is playing video games these days. Overall, consumers spent $43.4 billion last year, according to The NPD Group, which tracks retail sales of video game hardware and software. That’s an 18% increase over 2017.

The big winner for 2018, though, was Nintendo. While the company didn’t have the year’s best selling game (though Super Smash Bros. Ultimate came in at number five), strong catalog sales of existing titles along with new titles helped it become the highest software revenue generating publisher of the year. That’s the first time it’s held that title since 2009.

“2018 was another record setting year for the U.S. video game industry.” “Console, PC, and mobile platforms all saw significant growth, while developing portions of the market like subscription and streaming services gave us a peek into a future full of possibilities for the industry and gamers.”

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Caught With An Airplane Full Of Coke!

Smuggler have just been caught by police with a airplane full of cocaine. Airline crew member tried to smuggle $160,000 worth of cocaine in his pants, prosecutors say.

Facebook's WhatsApp Limits Text Forwards

Facebook Inc's WhatsApp messenger service is globally limiting the number of times a user can forward a message to five, in a bid to fight "misinformation and rumors".

"We're imposing a limit of five messages all over the world as of today," Victoria Grand, vice president for policy and communications at WhatsApp, said on Monday at an event in the Indonesian capital.

Previously, a WhatsApp user could forward a message to 20 individuals or groups. The five-recipient limit expands globally a measure WhatsApp put into place in India in July after the spread of rumors led to several killings there.

Netflix Prices Set To Rise

Prices for its popular standard plan, which allows streaming on two devices at the same time, will be increased to $12.99 per month from $10.99. The company's top-tier plan, which allows streaming on four screens in high definition, will be raised to $15.99 from $13.99 per month, while fee for its basic plan will rise to $8.99 from $7.99.

Netflix is raising monthly fees for its U.S. subscribers by between 13 percent and 18 percent, the video streaming pioneer's first price increase since 2017 as it spends heavily on original content and international expansion.

Time Warner Inc's HBO Now streaming service charges $14.99 per month, while Hulu's no-advertisements plan is priced at $11.99 per month.

Netflix has been pouring money to bolster its original content, which boasts award-winning shows such as "The Crown", "Black Mirror" and "Wild Wild Country", to fend off intensifying competition from players such as Amazon.com's Prime Video service and Hulu.

The company is expected to have a debt level of $8.33 billion in 2018, according to Daniel Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Co, which owns 15,019 shares of Netflix.

"With Netflix frequently tapping the debt markets on several recent occasions, the price hike could help ease concerns with a growing deficit on free cash flow to fund a likely continued escalation in Netflix's content spending, which likely topped $13 billion in 2018."

Minimum Wage In Ohio Goes Up 25-cent

Here is another great way to bring in the new year for alot of Ohio residences. The Ohio minimum wage was last changed in 2008, when it was raised to $7.00. Ohio’s minimum wage is scheduled to increase on Jan. 1, 2019, to $8.55 per hour for non-tipped employees and $4.30 per hour for tipped employees.

This wage only applies to companies with annual gross receipts over $314,000. According to data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a single adult would need to make $10.15 an hour, or $21,112 a year, in Mahoning or Trumbull county to pay for bare necessities, assuming the person lives in a studio apartment, has a low-cost food plan and drives a used car or uses cheap public transportation. A family of two adults and two children with one of the parents working would need that person to make $22.57, or $46,945 a year.

“The living wage is the minimum income standard that, if met, draws a very fine line between the financial independence of the working poor and the need to seek out public assistance or suffer consistent and severe housing and food insecurity.”

“Most studies show that incremental increases in minimum wage do not have adverse impacts in terms of unemployment rates and do not cause inflation, which are the biggest concerns associated with increasing minimum wage.”

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When the minimum wage increases throughout a geographic region rather than one city, it’s less likely to impact local businesses in a negative way, Sumell explained. For example, if only Youngstown increased minimum wage, businesses there might be inclined to move to a neighboring municipality to decrease costs.

Trump Hits Twitter Before Leaving 2018

President Trump sticks to his border wall message as the partial government shutdown enters the new year; Kevin Corke reports from the White House in the visual video below.

Follow President Trump on Twitter

Kim's New Year Message To Trump

Kim's New Year Message To Trump

Kim said he was willing to meet the U.S. president at any time, mixing in conciliatory messages with his warnings of conflict to Washington and Seoul in his annual speech where he laid out policy priorities for his isolated and impoverished country.

Kim Jong Un said North Korea would take a new path if the U.S. insisted on keeping sanctions, delivering a pointed message to President Donald Trump in his New Year’s address.

In so many way's I feel Kim in his address. He is doing what he has to do for the survival of his country. Kim highlighted recent exchanges with socialist countries, speaking on his trips to China and the Cuban president’s visit to North Korea. China has been the key benefactor for North Korea’s economy.

Kim said he was willing to resume without conditions joint projects with South Korea that were frozen due to political tensions and North Korea’s weapon tests. So he lets things be known he is willing to work out differences.

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Kim called for increasing electricity power generation in the country that battles chronic power shortages. Kim also urged the North Korean people to strengthen their “self-reliance.”

Kim read his address in a suit and tie, in a departure from recent appearances in which he wore a black tunic. Instead of standing on a podium, Kim delivered a speech sitting on a couch in a Western-style room, illustrating an image of an approachable leader in a fireside chat.

Talks between the U.S. and North Korea have made little progress since Trump and Kim held an unprecedented summit in June and signed to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” without defining the term or setting a deadline. The two sides have clashed over the pace and sequence of talks, with North Korea demanding relief from international sanctions and the U.S. seeking more steps toward disarmament.

Mold Found In Staten Island Hospital

More than 50 nurses and other staffers sickened at Staten Island University Hospital after mold found in nursery.

Dozens of people working in the hospital’s maternity unit have reported getting ill with everything from headaches to dizziness to swollen throats in recent months, after air monitoring devices found the presence of mold and trace amounts of anesthetic gases, nurses and administrators say.

53 employees have reported getting sick in the unit, according to both nurses and hospital execs. A nursery has been relocated, but nurses are asking for their entire unit to be moved, something the hospital says is not necessary because tests show the air is safe.

After the odor was reported, babies were moved to a backup nursery in the unit and air monitoring began. Mold was detected at moderately elevated levels, similar to outdoor levels, hospital execs say. Workers found water-borne mold behind a sink wall and decontaminated the area.

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The hospital said in a statement that air monitoring this month detected “the presence of anesthetic gases sevoflurane and nitrous oxide, which are routinely used during surgical procedures.”


Those concentrations were “significantly below” the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s recommended exposure limit and pose “no risk to patients, staff or visitors,” the statement said.

A certified air gas specialist was brought in to inspect the gas system’s infrastructure and found zero leaks, hospital administrators say. The air is now being retested to see if the trace amounts still remain.

“Hospital administration has been directly communicating with staff multiple times a week, met with union representatives six times and notified the appropriate regulatory agencies to proactively address this matter,” the statement added.

Amercian Citizen Captured In Moscow

Russia's FSB state security service said on Monday it had detained an American citizen suspected of spying in Moscow and had opened a criminal case against him.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Russia had notified it that a U.S. citizen had been detained and it expected Moscow to provide consular access to see him.

"We have requested this access and expect Russian authorities to provide it," the spokesperson said, without providing details of the identity of the American or the reasons behind his detention.

The English-language service of TASS news agency named him as Paul Whelan but Reuters was unable to independently confirm the exact spelling of his name. The State Department did not identify him.

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Russia's relations with the United States plummeted when Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, and Washington and Western allies have imposed a broad range of sanctions on Russian officials, companies and banks.


Earlier this month Russian national Maria Butina pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to a conspiracy charge in a deal with prosecutors, and admitted to working with a top Russian official to infiltrate American conservative activist groups and politicians as an agent for Moscow.

Man Finds $10,000 In Chanel Hand Bag

Now this man is a good hearted person. Richard Taverna came into the possession of just such a "donation" on Thursday morning at the Lincoln Center-66th Street 1 train stop when he found a Chanel purse sitting unattended on the platform. The commuter scooped up the stray bag, saw a note inside written in Russian and took it home with him. That is, until he realized it was stuffed with $10,000 in cash.

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Taverna went to police with the bag, and the money, in order to reunite it with its rightful owner. "It wasn't mine. If someone lost $10,000, they're probably going through a lot of distress," Taverna said. A woman who lives in Manhattan but was traveling to Russia left the cash on the platform by accident, and came to the 20th Precinct looking for her bag.

She is a lucky woman. It's a good thing Taverna turn the bag in because the next person would not have.

Inmate Sentences May Be Getting Reduced

This is good news for those of you who have family members locked up in prison. The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a sweeping overhaul of the criminal justice system, after a remarkable political shift from Republicans who voted in large numbers to save money by reducing prison sentences, handing a rare bipartisan victory to President Trump.

The First Step Act passed on a vote of 87 to 12, with dozens of Republicans, including longtime holdout Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), joining all 49 members of the Democratic caucus to approve legislation that even some GOP supporters fear could leave them vulnerable to charges of being soft on crime.

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“This will keep our communities safer, and provide hope and a second chance, to those who earn it,” he wrote on Twitter. “In addition to everything else, billions of dollars will be saved. I look forward to signing this into law!”

The product of years of negotiations, the legislation represents a major pivot for the GOP, which decades ago embraced a law-and-order rallying cry and war on drugs campaign as crucial to winning votes. But as crime rates have dropped and states have pursued cost-effective ways to cut the prison population, Congress has favored changes to the system, with GOP lawmakers arguing for rehabilitating some offenders rather than longtime incarceration.

The bill would revise several sentencing laws, such as reducing the “three strikes” penalty for drug felonies from life behind bars to 25 years and retroactively limiting the disparity in sentencing guidelines between crack and powder cocaine offenses. The latter would affect about 2,000 current federal inmates.

It also overhauls the federal prison system to help inmates earn reduced sentences and lower recidivism rates. A different version passed the House this year, so the House would have to pass the latest draft before it can be sent to Trump for his signature. The House is expected to endorse that bill when it comes up for a likely vote later this week, and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has expressed support for the legislation.

The bill, which does not cover state jails and prisons, would through reductions in sentencing do the equivalent of shaving a collective 53,000 years off the sentences of federal inmates over the next 10 years , according to the Congressional Budget Office — though some advocacy groups dispute this figure. There were about 181,000 federal inmates as of Dec. 13, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

The bill received a major boost last month when Trump endorsed it as “reasonable sentencing reforms while keeping dangerous and violent criminals off our streets.” His thinking was heavily influenced by his son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner, who has long advocated sentencing restructuring and marshaled endorsements of the bill from a diverse coalition including law enforcement, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

See More Prison News

Over 300 Pounds of Marijuana Seized

A routine traffic stop in Missouri turned into police finding 301 pounds of marijuana in the back of a vehicle. Word is that a Missouri police stopped a vehicle for following too closely. From there, police conducted an inspection of the car and found 301 pounds of vacuum-sealed marijuana bags in the back of the truck.

There were two men in the vehicle, and both were arrested after the weed was found. CBS noted charges against the men are pending as the investigation into the matter continues.

Yesterday, a traffic stop for following too close on eastbound I-70 at the 101 mm in Cooper County, resulted in a seizure of 301 pounds of marijuana in vacuum sealed bags. pic.twitter.com/WTdUx9cmPB

— MSHP General HQ (@MSHPTrooperGHQ) December 14, 2018