TYB
What a slow day, amirite?
kek
Yesterday DeSantis capitulated to Disney in a big way so this is confusing. Most of the articles from this source are, well NewsWeak
Ron DeSantis Accused of 'Massive Capitulation' to Disney Over Reedy Creek
February 7, 2023
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been accused of committing a "massive capitulation" by conservatives as he looks to limit Disney's special status in Florida law, as part of an ongoing row with the company.
A new bill introduced to the Florida state legislature on Monday hopes to limit the control the company is able to exert through the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a special government entity that oversees an area that has effectively been managed by the company for half a century and is home to its Disney World resort.
The bill would give DeSantis the ability to appoint the five board members who run the district, who must be confirmed by state senators. It also bars those who have worked for Disney within three years or their relatives from becoming board members.
Under current Florida law, Reedy Creek's administration is elected by local property owners, the vast majority being Disney and its subsidiaries, and provides municipal services for the area such as water, sewage and emergency services in the same way a local authority might. It gives the company unrivaled local powers, including eminent domain—the ability to requisition private property for public use.
The fresh legislation is the latest move in a clash between the entertainment giant and DeSantis. Last year, he signed a law that would have dissolved the special entity in response to public criticism from Disney about another law limiting teaching about gender identity in Florida elementary schools.
"Florida is dissolving the corporate kingdom and beginning a new era of accountability and transparency," Bryan Griffin, DeSantis' press secretary, told Bloomberg, noting that the established legislation "gifted extraordinary special privileges to a single corporation."
However, detractors have said that the new bill does nothing to change Disney's tax status within the district, and argue that it does not significantly alter its special status in Florida law.
"So basically Woke Disney gets to keep its nearly tax-free, regulation-free status—but with a different Board," Anthony Sabatini, a former Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives, tweeted. "What a massive capitulation this is. HUGE win for Woke Disney. BIG loss for conservatives."
Alex Bruesewitz, a conservative political strategist, wrote:"So Desantis' big stand against woke Disney amounts to: changing the name of Reedy Creek & DeSantis gets to appoint some of his donors to the board? But Disney gets to keep its nearly tax-free, regulation-free status."
Sauce: https://www.newsweek.com/ron-desantis-accused-massive-capitulation-disney-reedy-creek-florida-1779516
ABC producer choked to death while drunk as he and wife left kids alone in NYC hotel room
February 8, 2023
An ABC News producer who died after he left his kids at a hotel so he and his wife could go to a posh Midtown restaurant choked to death because he was drunk, officials revealed Wednesday.
New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner confirmed to The Post that Dax Tejera’s official cause of death was “asphyxia due to obstruction of airway by food bolus complicating acute alcohol intoxication.”
Tejera, who was the executive producer of ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” died suddenly on Dec. 23 at 37.
ABC News president Kim Goodwin had originally said Tejera died of a heart attack.
daxtejera/Instagram
Dax Tejera and his wife Veronica.
Instagram/Dax Tejera
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His wife Veronica was arrested just hours hours after he collapsed for leaving the couple’s young kids alone in a hotel room in the Yale Club that evening. The widow and mother of two was charged with child endangerment but has insisted she was monitoring her children.
Pushing back on the charges, the mom said she brought her husband to the hospital and asked her parents and a close friend to watch their 5-month-old and 2-year-old while she monitored them by camera.
“The hotel would not allow my friend in and instead called the NYPD,” she said in a statement after her arrest.
But sources told The Post the couple left their kids at home to go to dinner with friends at Bobby Van’s 230Park.
An employee there said that Dax seemed unwell shortly into the meal, prompting a server to check on him.
“So, before anyone ate, just after the server brought the orders, he asked, ‘Are you OK, sir?’” the staffer told The Post.
The inebriated producer then “got up and started walking like he was going to the men’s room, but he made a right instead and went out the front door and the server followed him outside.”
“The server said that he collapsed in the corner, right here outside the restaurant,” the employee said. “It was terrible and a terrible shame they left little, little children alone like that.”
Tejera joined ABC News in 2017 as a senior producer and moved over to Stephanopoulos’ show in February 2020.
He had previously worked at NBC News and graduated from Dartmouth College with a history degree and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Sauce: https://nypost.com/2023/02/08/abc-producer-dax-tejera-choked-to-death-while-drunk/
Moral of the story: When deciding to drink one's self to death, at least have a babysitter, don't leave those kids unattended when having a personal suicide weekend.
smdh
kek
Some migrants bussed to Canada already heading back to NYC
February 8, 2022
Blame Canada.
Overrun by asylum-seeking migrants sent to the city from southern border states, New York has been offering free bus tickets to the Canadian border for migrants wanting to start a new life up north, but some are turning straight back around.
Ilze Thielmann, the director of nonprofit Team TLC — which has been organizing busses to Plattsburgh, where there is an unofficial crossing to Montreal — said the reality isn’t as rosy as people expect.
She told CBS: “They think that there are all these jobs up there. They think they’re going to be able to get asylum very easily up there and that’s just not the case.”
The Post first reported about the controversial program last week, with migrants receiving free tickets at the Port Authority bus terminal courtesy of charities funded by taxpayers.
Despite the free ride, Thielmann said migrants are getting frustrated with conditions and opting to return to New York City, where shelters and services have been strained by 43,000 asylum seekers in the past year.
Colombian native Jose Liandro, 37, crossed into Canada last week but told the Post via text after settling at a Hampton Inn and Suites hotel on the outskirts of Montreal he wanted to return to the US.
Asked why, Liandro replied, “Mucha nieve,” Spanish for, “Lots of snow.”
Canada announced an ambitious plan to offer 1.45m migrants permanent residency between 2023 and 2025 to combat a labor shortage.
The unofficial border crossing at Plattsburgh has become a hotspot with nearly 4,700 people heading from the US to Montreal in December and surrendering themselves to authorities and claiming asylum, the CBS reported.
However, the influx appeared to take Quebec immigration minister Christine Fréchette by surprise and she called on her nation’s leaders to crack down on the crossing after finding out about New York’s busing program, calling it “surprising.”
The Quebec government announced on Monday that 12 organizations in the Quebec area would receive $3.5 million to support the migrants.
Adams has defended the busing program, claiming he is helping migrants reach their preferred destination.
“Those who are seeking to go somewhere else — not that we’re pushing or forcing — if they’re seeking to go somewhere else, we are helping in the re-ticketing process,” Adams told Fox 5.
“We found that people had other destinations, but they were being compelled only to come to New York City.
“Some want to go to Canada, some want to go to warmer states, and we are there for them as they continue to move on with their pursuit of this dream.”
Adams has also denied city officials were actively encouraging migrants to head to Canada.
“We are not coordinating with anyone to go to Canada. We’re not doing it,” Adams told reporters during an unrelated event. “There is no role that the city is playing to tell migrants to go to Canada.”
Adams has also said the now $4.2 billion estimated cost of the migrant influx was a “moving target” and costs associated with handling it would continue to mount up. Adams declared a State of Emergency over the migrant crisis in October and in December asked for $1 billion in federal funds to help cover costs.
Sauce: https://nypost.com/2023/02/08/migrants-bussed-to-canada-already-heading-back-to-nyc/
>Jeb is a Latin American expert
this he is, he married Imeda Marcos
Columba Bush's lavish spending habits scrutinized
Wife of Jeb Bush joins a long list of political spouses with a taste for extravagance
February 23, 2015
2012 Lincoln Center Institute Gala
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 07: Politician and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (L) and wife Columba Bush attend the 2012 Lincoln Center Institute Gala at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center on March 7, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Getty Images
The history of U.S. political spouses whose lavish spending habits have attracted public attention is about as old as the country itself.
First lady Mary Todd Lincoln was known as a compulsive shopper roundly criticized for her indiscriminate spending and shopping binges during the Civil War. Nancy Reagan’s expensive tastes and designer dresses earned her the derogatory nickname "Queen Nancy." Calista Gingrich owed as much as $500,000 to Tiffany’s, according to financial disclosures made during Newt Gingrich’s 2012 presidential run. First lady Michelle Obama’s taste for fashion — she once wore $540 sneakers to a food bank — is well-documented.
Add Columba Bush to that list.
The lavish spending habits of wife of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are the subject of an extensive piece published by the Washington Post on Monday, which details her expensive — and, on one occasion, problematic — tastes.
Between 1995 and 2009, Columba Bush financed at least five large purchases from Mayors Jewelers in Sunrise, Fla.
In 1997, she paid $31,000 for two pieces of jewelry ($15,000 for a Roman coin necklace and $16,600 for a diamond-studded Rolex) — both financed through the jeweler.
In 2000, she took out a loan "to buy $42,311.70 worth of jewelry on a single day," according to records filed with the state of Florida and obtained by the paper:
Uniform Commercial Code forms filed by the store with the Florida secretary of state’s office on May 3, 2000, indicate that Mayors arranged a loan under which Columba Bush bought four items. They were: a $25,600 pair of diamond stud earrings set in platinum; an 18-karat white-gold and diamond bracelet by the Italian designer Bulgari, priced at $10,500; an 18-karat white-gold and diamond necklace, costing $3,200; and another pair of diamond earrings, for $3,300. The records indicate that she received discounts and price adjustments totalling $2,780 and paid $2,491.70 in sales tax.
The year before, she was detained at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport after misleading federal customs officials about the amount of clothing and jewelry she had bought while on a solo five-day shopping spree in Paris." According to the then-governor, Columba said she did so because she didn't not want him to know how much money she had spent on the trip: about $19,000. She was fined $4,100 for the episode.
“It is a lot of money," Jeb Bush said at the time. "But look, that’s between her and me.”
As recently as 2009, Columba took out a loan for $17,600 for a Rolex Submariner watch ($11,700) and a $5,900 pair of earrings.
According to the Post, Columba is press-averse and "famously private." But with Jeb Bush considering a presidential run in 2016, her history of lavish purchases — like some of her diamonds — is likely to be magnified, especially if her husband advances past the primary stage.
During the 2012 campaign, a $990 silk T-shirt worn by Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann, during an appearance on "CBS This Morning" quickly drew criticism.
”Ann Romney’s $990 T-shirt is indicative of a tone-deaf campaign," Suzi Parker wrote in the Washington Post.
Sauce: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/columba-jeb-bush-expensive-tastes-gop-spouse-180229728.html
Beijing BUSTED! US intelligence confirms Chinese spy balloon WAS part of global surveillance operation to collect information on military sites across the world
Biden officials reportedly detected suspected Chinese surveillance balloons in 12 different countries across five continents before the recent incident
The latest balloon's slow track over the US gave officials unique time to study it
The three detected under Trump were called 'unidentified aerial phenomena'
February 8, 2023
China's suspected 'spy balloon' that unnerved millions of Americans across the country last week is seemingly part of a larger global surveillance plot by Beijing's authoritarian government, a new report claimed on Wednesday.
Citing three US intelligence sources, the New York Times reports that last week's diplomatic incident is part of a world-wide campaign of Chinese spying.
The likely goal is reportedly to gather more information about American military bases as well as other countries' military capabilities.
Such surveillance devices were reportedly detected in at least 12 different countries across five continents.
Air Force jets shot down the balloon which kicked off public furor over Beijing's brazen spying tactics on Saturday, just off the coast of South Carolina.
Sauce/more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11728557/US-intelligence-confirms-Chinese-spy-balloon-global-surveillance-operation-Report.html
(filed in No Shit Sherlock file)