Over 100 CNN Employees Take Voluntary Buyouts - Just Don't Call It A Layoff

CNN admitted that around 100 employees accepted voluntary buyout offers amid a company-wide restructuring by parent company AT&T, according to Deadline, which added that according to a spokesperson "the exits are purely related to the buyouts and do not involve any layoffs, contrary to a press report earlier on Monday.

The buyouts are consistent with similar offerings at HBO and Turner and will see dozens of seasoned employees leave the news brand. WarnerMedia parent AT&T is looking to restructure and reduce what was $170 billion in net debt as of the end of 2018.

The news comes the same day CNN began broadcasting some of its shows from its new WarnerMedia digs at 30 Hudson Yards, with about 1.5 million square feet of office space putting the WarnerMedia divisions under the same New York roof for the first time. Office workers, including many at CNN, had already made the move from Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, but the new studios are now lighting up on Manhattan’s Far West Side.

AT&T/WarnerMedia have been executing on their restructuring plans since the federal government lost a legal appeal challenging AT&T's $81 billion takeover of Time Warner. The company is also attempting to unload its 10% stake in Hulu- which is deep in the red.

In April, the company finalized a $2.2 billion with 'Related Companies' for its Hudson Yards space which will keep them there through early 2034, while in March HBO announced the closure of Long Island-Based Hauppage Communications Center, which will include the elimination of around 75 out of 200 employees at the 35-year-old broadcast operations facility.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-07/over-100-cnn-employees-take-voluntary-buyouts-leave-just-dont-call-it-layoff

Kek!

They won't be 'here' in 6 more years…

ARIZONA’S DEPARTMENT OF CHILD SAFETY HAS A PATTERN OF SENDING SWAT TEAMS FOR ‘MEDICAL KIDNAPPING’

An Arizona judge’s order was all it took for a SWAT team to enter a private Chandler home in March, take a child and deliver that child into the custody of the Department of Child Safety (DCS).

The raid is an example of something that has come to be known as “medical kidnapping,” which has raised eyebrows nationally but seems to be especially prevalent in Arizona.

Medical kidnapping is the phenomenon of the state taking children away from their parents and putting them into foster care, “simply because the parents did not agree with a doctor regarding their prescribed medical treatment for the family,” according to the book, “Medical Kidnapping: A Threat to Every American Today.”

Members of the group Arizona DCS Oversight Group (ADOG), a watchdog of Arizona’s DCS, say the SWAT team raid is one of many in which Arizona DCS “legally kidnaps,” or takes children for no good reason.

Worse yet, federal funding streams may be motivating these child renditions.

Medical Kidnapping

The most notorious case of alleged medical kidnapping nationally involved Justina Pelletier, who had a rare mitochondrial disease. When doctors at one hospital determined it was psychosomatic, her parents tried to send her to a different hospital. The first hospital called in Massachusetts Department of Child Welfare case workers, and a judge’s order kept Pelletier away from her parents for 16 months.

The most notorious case of medical kidnapping in Arizona was Melissa Diegel.

Diegel was accused of something very similar to Munchhausen by proxy, a condition in which a caregiver makes up, or causes “an illness or injury in a person under his or her care, such as a child, an elderly adult, or a person who has a disability,” according to the University of Michigan School of Medicine.

Except she didn’t have Munchausen, said Sherwyn.

Diegel’s case was featured on the website Medical Kidnap (which tracks these kinds of cases nationally), as well as covered locally.

Diegel told The Daily Caller that she has not seen her two children since 2016; she said she has spoken to numerous parents who have had their children taken in similar fashion by Arizona DCS.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/06/arizonas-child-safety-department-medical-kidnapping/

Disturbing…

Senate's McConnell to declare 'case closed' on Mueller report as Democrats eye contempt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The divided U.S. Congress’ fight over the Mueller report intensified on Tuesday as the U.S. Senate’s top Republican sought to shut the door on congressional probes while House Democrats pushed ahead with efforts to gather testimony from top administration officials.

U.S. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, in a speech set for later Tuesday, planned to declare the "case closed" after Special Counsel Robert Mueller here released his findings on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump.

“This investigation went on for two years. It’s finally over,” McConnell said in prepared remarks. He called Mueller’s work “exhaustive” and chided elected officials for failing to unify in its aftermath.

“Would we finally be able to move on from partisan paralysis and breathless conspiracy theorizing? Or would we remain consumed by unhinged partisanship,” McConnell said in excerpts of his planned speech. “Regrettably, I think the answer is obvious.”

Meanwhile, House Democrats prepared to meet with Justice Department officials on Tuesday over Attorney General William Barr’s failure to release the full unredacted Mueller report as they prepared to cite him for contempt.

The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a Wednesday vote on a contempt citation for Barr, who missed a second deadline to give lawmakers the full report and failed to appear at a hearing before the panel last week.

The full Democratically controlled House would then vote on the rebuke.

Former White House counsel Don McGahn could also face a contempt citation if he misses today’s deadline to respond to the judiciary committee, CNN reported, citing an unnamed source. The panel has subpoenaed him for documents and called for him to testify later this month.

A contempt citation could lead to a civil court case, raising the possibility of fines and even imprisonment for failure to comply.

The judiciary panel is among several congressional committees investigating Trump and his administration on multiple issues, including the Russia investigation and Trump’s personal and business tax returns.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-congress/senates-mcconnell-to-declare-case-closed-on-mueller-report-as-democrats-eye-contempt-idUSKCN1SD1K9

"Dystopian Approach": SEC Blesses MasterCard's Idea Of Cutting Off Customers With Right-Wing Views

Blocking payments to individuals or groups by financial service firms impedes freedom of speech in a free society, journalist Ben Swann has told RT, following reports that MasterCard is allegedly on course to censor the far-right.

The New York-based firm is reportedly being forced by left-leaning liberal activists to set up an internal “human rights committee” that would monitor payments to “white supremacist groups and anti-Islam activists.”

“The problem is that everyone has their own views and, in a free society, the idea of a free society is that you are free to have your belief systems, as long as you’re not harming anyone else physically,” Swann told RT America.

“But your belief system belongs to you and you have the right be wrong. White supremacists have the right to be wrong.”

MasterCard is not the only holder of purse-strings that is mulling the selective banning of individuals from their services and funds. Patreon and PayPal have previously barred individuals from receiving payments using their platforms, due to their extreme views.

But unlike crowdfunding platforms, being cut off from one of the leading American multinational financial services corporations will, most likely, have a much greater impact on the financial stability of an individual or a group, especially after the US Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly blessed MasterCard’s undertaking.

By doing this, Swann believes the government granted “big corporations the ability to control what voices are heard.”

The issue with such an approach, the investigative journalist argues, would lead to a wider crackdown on financial payments to anyone who the government would see as unfavorable.

“The fact that the SEC has given a green light to this essentially says the SEC supports the idea of censoring these groups in order to freeze out essentially anyone you don’t agree with,” the journalist said.

“It is such a dystopian 1984 world view and yet we’re living through it right now,” the journalist observed.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-07/dystopian-approach-sec-blesses-mastercards-idea-cutting-customers-right-wing-views

This can become a 2-edged sword…

>>6436817

More like Estonia…

Italian secret service agent with Presidency Council business card found dead in Paris hotel

An Italian secret service operative was found dead in a Paris hotel on Sunday night with a business card from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers – the highest public office under the control of Italy’s prime minister.

The agent was discovered lying in a pool of vomit with blood under his chin. The business card that was found on the deceased bore his name, Massimo I., and the employer’s name: ‘Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri’.

Neither Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte nor any other public official in Italy has yet released a public statement on the incident. The local scientific police have determined that an investigation is needed to establish the cause of the man’s death, but embassy sources have already said that the agent died of “natural causes”, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported.

French police also found an encrypted security key in a safe, along with with a folder containing 85 tickets for €20 ($22.40), a USB key, an SD card, and an adaptor. The man had arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris from Rome on May 3, and was staying at a residential hotel in Montmartre.

https://www.rt.com/newsline/458567-italian-agent-dead-paris/

Wondering if this had anything to do with the Italian participation into SPYING on candidates for POTUS… maybe not.

Former Banker Extradited from Malaysia to United States to Face Charges in Multi-Billion Dollar Money Laundering and Bribery Scheme Relating to the 1MDB Fund

Malaysian National to be Arraigned on FCPA and Money Laundering Conspiracy Charges in Relation to Three Bonds for 1Malaysian Development Berhad

A Malaysian national, Ng Chong Hwa, 46, also known as “Roger Ng,” has been extradited from Malaysia to the United States to face charges of conspiring to launder billions of dollars embezzled from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Malaysia’s investment development fund, conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by paying bribes to multiple government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, and conspiring to violate the FCPA by circumventing the internal accounting controls of a major New York-headquartered financial institution (Financial Institution).

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue for the Eastern District of New York, Assistant Director in Charge William F. Sweeney Jr., of the FBI’s New York Field Office and Acting Special Agent in Charge Ryan L. Korner of the IRS Criminal Investigation (CI), Los Angeles Field Office announced the extradition.

In a three-count indictment unsealed last year, Ng, of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was charged with crimes he allegedly committed while employed as a Managing Director at the Financial Institution, which underwrote more than $6 billion in bonds issued by 1MDB in three separate bond offerings in 2012 and 2013. Ng was arrested in Malaysia on Nov. 1, 2018, pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant issued at the request of the United States, later waived extradition to the United States, and is scheduled to make his first appearance today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

As alleged in the indictment, between approximately 2009 and 2014, Ng conspired with others to launder billions of dollars misappropriated and fraudulently diverted from 1MDB, including funds 1MDB raised in 2012 and 2013 through three bond transactions 1MDB executed with the Financial Institution. As part of the scheme, Ng and others conspired to bribe government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi to obtain and retain lucrative business for the Financial Institution, including the 2012 and 2013 bond deals. They further conspired to launder the proceeds of their criminal conduct through the U.S. financial system.

Court filings further allege that Ng, Low Taek Jho, also known as “Jho Low,” and the co-conspirators used co-defendant Low’s close relationships with high-ranking government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi to obtain and retain business for the Financial Institution through the promise and payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes. In the course of executing the scheme, Ng and others at the Financial Institution conspired to circumvent the Financial Institution’s internal accounting controls. Through its work for 1MDB during that time, the Financial Institution received approximately $600 million in fees and revenues along with increased reputational prestige. At the same time, Ng and other co-conspirators at the Financial Institution received large bonuses and enhanced their own reputations at the Financial Institution. In total, more than $2.7 billion was misappropriated from the 1MDB bond proceeds. Low remains at large.

The charges in the indictment are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The investigation was jointly conducted by the FBI’s International Corruption Unit and IRS-CI. The government’s criminal case is being handled by the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS) and Fraud Section and the Business and Securities Fraud Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. MLARS Trial Attorneys Jennifer E. Ambuehl, Woo S. Lee, Mary Ann McCarthy and Kyle Freeny, Fraud Section Trial Attorneys Katherine A. Nielsen and Nikhila Raj and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jacquelyn M. Kasulis, Alixandra E. Smith and Drew G. Rolle are prosecuting the case. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided critical assistance in this case. Additional Criminal Division Trial Attorneys and Assistant U.S. Attorneys within U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern District of New York and Central District of California have provided valuable assistance with various aspects of this investigation, including with civil and criminal forfeitures.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-banker-extradited-malaysia-united-states-face-charges-multi-billion-dollar-money

Schumer: McConnell trying to 'whitewash' Mueller report findings

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday fired back at comments made by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), saying the Senate leader was trying to "whitewash" the findings from special counsel Robert Mueller's report.

"So our leader says let's move on. It's sort of like Richard Nixon saying let's move on at the height of the investigation of his wrongdoing," Schumer said from the Senate floor.

Schumer's remarks come after McConnell blasted Democrats in his most extensive remarks to date on Mueller's report on the 2016 election and Russian meddling. The GOP leader accused Democrats of having an "absolute meltdown" over Mueller's findings and urged them to "come back to reality."

Schumer, however, dismissed McConnell's speech as an "astounding bit of whitewashing" and the GOP trying to "circle the wagons" around Trump and "silence" the threat of election interference.

"He doesn't want to move on. He wants to run away from these awful facts that relate to the wellspring of our democracy—foreign interference in our election and a president who is lawless" Schumer said. "That's what he wants to push under the rug."

Schumer knocked McConnell saying he hadn't batted down attempts by some of Trump's allies, on and off Capitol Hill, to undercut Mueller over the past two years and that he had failed to bring up election security legislation.

A bill from Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has stalled and top GOP senators said last week that they did not expect the Senate to take up election security legislation in the lead up to the 2020 election.

"The leader sits on his hands, does nothing, creates a legislative graveyard for these and every other issue and then says let's move on," Schumer said. "No way."

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/442477-schumer-mcconnell-trying-to-whitewash-mueller-report-findings

>"astounding bit of whitewashing"

Kek! New talking point?

>>6437081

If you want your water ration for next week the Ayatollah demands you have at least 64 posts in every bread.

>>6437132

>Also, it is also a verifiable fact that Israel steals US tech and passes it to China.

And so did a previous POTUS, Secretary of State(s) and…oh yeah Feinstein.

Black hats in every gov.. don't be silly.

Those that sold Chinese our tech should pay the ultimate price…

>>6437232

The implication was you are either an Iranian or paid to take attention away from the bribery that took place with the EU to accept the Hussein nuclear deal.

At least Muslims believe in the Creator.

Chinese (Chicoms) believe the state is the Creator.