“They are so naive. They think we are not aware of their crimes. We know be we are just not ready to act. The storm isn’t in the air. It’s inside of us. I want to tell you about love and loneliness. But it’s getting late now. Can’t you hear outside of your Supreme hoodie the wind that’s beginning to howl?”
Not everyone is coming to the future
Not everyone is learning from the past
Not everyone can come into the future
Not everyone that’s here is gonna last
https://www.foxnews.com/us/ex-obama-staffer-tina-tchen-dodges-subpoena-in-smollett-foxx-case-process-server-says
Onetime Michelle Obama staffer evades subpoena in Smollett-Foxx case, process server says
Tina Tchen, the former chief of staff to first lady Michelle Obama, declined Wednesday to be served with a subpoena by a retired Illinois judge seeking the appointment of a special prosecutor in the Jussie Smollett case, according to the process server.
In an email to former Illinois appellate judge Sheila O'Brien obtained by Fox News, the process server wrote that a security guard at the Chicago law firm where Tchen is a partner "called up to her and spoke with her and she said that she in [sic] never going to accept service and to not allow me up to their Law firm.
"She knows all about this Subpoena," the server added.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/5/22/18636253/tina-tchen-kim-foxx-jussie-smollett-refuses-subpoena
Tina Tchen refuses subpoena about her role in Jussie Smollett case, process server says
The former chief of staff to Michelle Obama evaded a subpoena Wednesday from retired Illinois Appellate Judge Sheila O’Brien. O’Brien wants Tchen to hand over records related to her conversations with Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx regarding the ‘Empire’ actor.
Chicago attorney Tina Tchen — who was in contact with Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx before the charges were dropped against former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett — refused to be served with a subpoena on Wednesday, according to the process server.
Tchen, who previously served as former First Lady Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, refused to accept a subpoena that was issued by former Illinois Appellate Judge Sheila O’Brien.
O’Brien is petitioning for the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into the state’s attorney’s office’s handling of the Smollett case. She is calling for Tchen to attend a May 31 hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse and bring with her copies of “any and all documents, notes, phone records, texts, tape recordings made or received at any time, concerning [Tchen’s] conversations with Kim Foxx in re: Jussie Smollett.”
Edward Ryan, who operates a private investigation firm in the southwest suburbs, said one of his process servers went to Tchen’s law firm in River North on Wednesday, but she refused to come to the lobby to accept the subpoena.
Ryan said the security guard in the building’s lobby would not let the process server upstairs. The guard called Tchen in her office and “she said she knew about” the subpoena, but refused to come down.
“I don’t know why she’d turn it down. She’ll be served eventually,” Ryan said.
Neither Tchen nor the law firm she works at responded to requests for comment Wednesday.
Tchen has previously denied any effort to sway the outcome of the Smollett case. In a statement in March, she said: “Shortly after Mr. Smollett reported he was attacked, as a family friend, I contacted Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who I also know from prior work together. My sole activity was to put the chief prosecutor in the case in touch with an alleged victim’s family who had concerns about how the investigation was being characterized in public.”
O’Brien is requesting a special prosecutor to look into the state’s attorney’s decision to abruptly drop disorderly conduct charges against Smollett, who, police said, staged a hate crime attack against himself as a way to enhance his own public profile.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported in in February that Tchen passed Foxx’s number to a relative of the actor before the charges were dropped. Foxx has acknowledged that she tried to persuade Police Supt. Eddie Johnson to turn the investigation over to the FBI after the family member expressed concerns regarding leaked information about the investigation — information that media outlets attributed to “police sources.”
After police determined that Smollett was not a victim and allegedly staged the attack, Foxx cited her conversations with the family member and other communications as the reason she recused herself from Smollett’s prosecution.
>Edward Ryan, who operates a private investigation firm in the southwest suburbs, said one of his process servers went to Tchen’s law firm in River North on Wednesday, but she refused to come to the lobby to accept the subpoena.
>Ryan said the security guard in the building’s lobby would not let the process server upstairs. The guard called Tchen in her office and “she said she knew about” the subpoena, but refused to come down.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/05/baltimore-ransomware-nightmare-could-last-weeks-more-with-big-consequences/
Baltimore ransomware nightmare could last weeks more, with big consequences
Houses can't be sold, bills can't be paid while city networks are shuttered.
https://www.carrollcountytimes.com/news/state/bs-md-fitzgerald-20190520-story.html
Former Baltimore Police Commissioner nominee Joel Fitzgerald fired from Fort Worth chief job
Fort Worth Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald — who was nominated in November to be Baltimore’s top cop but withdrew his name less than two months later — was fired Monday amid questions of his “judgment and leadership,” Texas officials announced.
Fitzgerald had been former Mayor Catherine Pugh’s choice to oversee the Baltimore police department but withdrew his name from consideration when he said his son became ill. Fitzgerald remained as the chief in Fort Worth until Monday when City Manager David Cooke announced Fitzgerald’s termination.
In a letter to Fitzgerald, Assistant City Manager Jay Chapa wrote that Fitzgerald has “a track record of making decisions that are more focused on your best interest instead of the best interest of the city, the organization or department as a whole.”
Fitzgerald had a “heated encounter” with a police union representative at a National Police Week gathering May 12 in Washington, D.C., according to a Fort Worth Star-Telegram news story. Sgt. Todd Harrison, president of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, told the newspaper “there was no physical contact in the dispute, just inappropriate behavior from a leader in front of a large crowd that was at [an] event honoring police officers and survivors.”
Chapa wrote that during that event, Fitzgerald’s conduct “escalated, rather than deescalated, the conflict between you and the state police union.”
The confrontation came after Fitzgerald was suspended from a state police union. The state union said it was because he’d joined the state police union without being a member of his local union.
Cooke said the incident, in addition to Fitzgerald being nominated by Pugh, left the community and some within the department with questions about his “commitment and leadership.”
Chapa wrote that Fitzgerald also failed to develop relationships with department officials and employees, accepted the position of Baltimore’s police chief “without considering how that news would impact your organization and the community,” and alleged discrimination while “refusing to move forward with investigations to address your allegations.”
“In determining what is best for the City of Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Police Department I have decided to remove Chief Fitzgerald as Police Chief effective today,” Cooke said in a statement.
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said in a statement that she supported Cooke’s decision.
“Our citizens deserve a police chief who is committed to building relationships in all communities, by furthering trust and transparency,” Price said. “Our police officers, who risk their lives daily for our community, deserve a leader who will be present, active, and engaged.”
After Fitzgerald withdrew his name for the Baltimore job, then-Mayor Pugh selected Michael Harrison to serve as Baltimore’s 41st police commissioner and the department’s third leader in just a year. Baltimore’s spending board approved a five-year contract for Harrison in February and he was confirmed by the City Council in March. Pugh, who brought Harrison to Baltimore, has since resigned amid a children’s book scandal.
https://abc13.com/judge-expected-to-decide-if-records-in-jussie-smollett-case-will-be-released/5313749/
Jussie Smollett update: Judge expected to decide if records in 'Empire' actor's case will be released
A judge is expected to decide Thursday whether documents in the Jussie Smollett case will be released.
The records were sealed in March shortly after charges against Smollett were abruptly dropped by prosecutors.
The "Empire" actor faced several charges for allegedly staging a racist and homophobic attack on himself in January.
The TV actor claimed he was the victim of a vicious hate crime in the Streeterville neighborhood on January 29. He said two men physically attacked him while yelling racist and homophobic slurs, threw a chemical liquid on him and looped a rope around his neck.
Two days after the alleged attack, Chicago police released surveillance images of two people they said they considered persons of interest in the attack.
But the investigation turned on Smollett. He was accused of allegedly orchestrating the attack with the Osundairo brothers, who he knew. One brother was an extra on "Empire" and the other was Smollett's personal trainer.
Prosecutors said Smollett paid the brothers to pull off the staged attack.
Smollett had also reported a threatening letter sent to him on the "Empire" set containing a white powder, a week before the alleged attack. The letter is currently in the FBI crime lab for analysis, sources said, and experts believe Smollett could face federal charges for allegedly sending the letter.
All charges against Smollett were dropped in late February in exchange for community service and forfeiture of his $10,000 bond payment.
Smollett has maintained his innocence. The City of Chicago is suing the actor for the costs of the investigation and damage to the city's reputation.
https://apnews.com/1d048bd381314970bbb830f2f7fc70d6
Theresa May hunkers down as premiership enters its end stage
British Prime Minister Theresa May was hunkered down with close allies on Thursday as she considered whether to give in to relentless pressure to resign, or fight on to save her Brexit plan and her premiership.
May was due to meet senior ministers to discuss her Brexit bill as plans to put it to a vote in Parliament were thrown into doubt.
May’s fate looked sealed after the resignation late Wednesday of House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, who said she could not support May’s European Union withdrawal bill.
Leadsom had been due to announce in the Commons on Thursday when a vote on the bill would be held.
But Leadsom said May’s Brexit plan did not “deliver on the referendum result” that saw voters in 2016 opt to leave the EU.
“No one has wanted you to succeed more than I have, but I do now urge you to make the right decisions in the interests of the country, this government and our party,” Leadsom wrote in a resignation letter to May.
May moved quickly on Thursday to replace Leadsom with former Treasury minister Mel Stride.
But she was forced to delay plans for the bill, which is May’s fourth and likely final attempt to secure Parliament’s backing for her Brexit blueprint.
The draft legislation contains measures aimed at winning support from the opposition, including a promise to let Parliament vote on whether to hold a new EU membership referendum.