#3
Reform and redirection programs show their value when dealing with adult crimes. 60 years of 'Great Society' programs to displace fathers bears its fruit.
[NYPost] Russian gangsters, MS-13 members, and a cadre of corrupt surgeons, lawyers and lenders are pulling off the latest big con in the city: bogus personal-injury lawsuits where immigrants go under the knife to help their twisted ruse.
Migrants and other desperate New Yorkers are pressured into getting unneeded spinal fusion surgery and other operations to boost the value of their fake-accident claims, according to court records, insurance investigators and law-enforcement sources.
Doctors cash in on the sick swindle by performing back and neck fusions, allowing fraudsters to swipe billions through bogus insurance filings, according to court filings and sources.
The racket typically involves a healthy person taking a seemingly minor tumble on the street or at a construction site, then claiming a devastating injury that requires multiple surgeries. A crooked surgeon fuses healthy vertebrae with screws and plates, leading to a lawsuit against a business or landlord or both. Settlements start at $1 million each but can go much higher.
“One-five is now on the cheap side,” said an insurance industry lawyer who asked for anonymity.
These scams rely on law firms that take on hundreds of such cases, along with high-profile doctors, sketchy lending firms that hard-sell migrants into borrowing to cover the costs, and an army of “runners” who recruit victims and orchestrate their falls, according to legal papers and sources familiar with the mix of schemes.
The set-up is fed by a seemingly endless supply of low-income dupes willing to risk their health for a quick score.
“They’re regularly recruiting migrants and homeless people and in some cases are proactively arranging for them to come to New York,” a private investigator told The Post.
So-called “shot callers” pocket most of the windfall settlements, while those who pose as injured receive as little as $1,000 each, according to testimony in one case. Their share gets shriveled by sky-high interest on loans they’re told they need for medical and legal expenses. Others can collect up to six figures.
Russian hoodlums are suspected of running lending firms that fund trip-and-fall lawsuits and surgeries — often at hugely inflated rates to goose settlement figures, sources told The Post. “They’re well-versed in this kind of thing,” said a recently retired NYPD supervisor.
MS-13 leaders provide a pipeline of Hispanic migrants, some who are brought to New York specifically to fake injuries, sources said. They said the gang ropes in unsuspecting border crossers with offers to drive them to the city, pay for meals and provide spending cash before pressuring them into phony accidents.
A private investigator said an MS-13 informant at a construction company revealed plans for a worker to fall off a ladder — and it happened just as the tipster said it would, said the sleuth, who declined to say where or when the fraud occurred to protect the identity of his source.
Setting up fake falls is “so successful for MS-13,” he said. “Rival gangs are now trying it.”
But MS-13 leaders are not experienced in white collar crime and don’t know how to pull off phony injury fraud, according to gang expert Lou Savelli, who founded the NYPD gang unit and now consults for police and other law enforcement agencies. “That’s where the Russians come in,” he said. “They have the lawyers.”
NYPD investigators found one integrated Russian-led operation — with doctors, lawyers, lenders and physical therapists all in the same office building, said a former police supervisor who declined to give further details. “It was one-stop shopping. Everyone was in the same place,” he said, adding that authorities were unable to build a case against the group.
The Russian-MS-13 partnership “is a perfect marriage for them,” said a second ex-NYPD source.
Insurance insiders claim losses have tripled since the pandemic, with payouts so massive they’re driving up the cost of living for all New Yorkers.
One insurer, Tradesman Program Managers insurance firm of Poughkeepsie, a carrier covering contractors and construction companies in the city, says it forked over $142 million in 2022, three times the $36 million it paid out in 2018. It claims it has been hit with 650 allegedly fraudulent suits over the last four years.
“We’re talking billions collectively across the city,” said an insurance executive who asked not to be identified.
Tradesman and its underwriter sued eight doctors and two law firms — Gorayeb Associates and Fogelgaren, Forman & Bergman — along with 36 lawyers, healthcare providers and companies in Brooklyn Federal Court in March, citing RICO conspiracy laws used to prosecute Mafia dons, in its civil action.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A popular haircut known as 'The Edgar' has sparked a major backlash - with some restaurants and schools seeking to ban those who sport it.
The bowl-shaped style - which has been compared to a modern Moe of Three Stooges and Spock of Star Trek look - is typically favored by Mexican-American young men who are known as 'Edgars'.
But the trend is causing widespread division in Hispanic communities as locals increasingly link the haircut to crime, while others accuse critics of being racist.
To me that’s a feminine style, but I admit to not being up on the latest gang aesthetic.
[GEO.TV] After authorities took notice of the gruesome incident wherein a camel's leg was allegedly amputated by a landlord, an official said that the maimed animal would get an artificial leg.
"The camel was shifted to Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... yesterday and will be fitted with an artificial leg," Sanghar Deputy Commissioner Imran ul Hassan Khawaja said, while addressing a presser on Sunday.
The development comes after the police apprehended five people for allegedly cutting the poor animal's leg.
The suspects were presented before a district and sessions court which then approved their four-day remand.
The incident occurred in Sanghar's Mundh Jamrao area on Friday after the camel had entered an agricultural land. In response, the landlord resorted to physical violence.
The landlord, along with his employees, physically tortured the camel as a punishment for entering the land for fodder and even amputated the animal's leg.
The incident's video went viral on social media with thousands of people condemning the brutal action.
Despite the uproar, the police only registered a first information report (FIR) against unknown people, Geo News reported, and not the landlord who was involved in the incident.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ijaz later said that the law enforcers have arrested five people in connection with the animal abuse of which two people have confessed to the crime.
Meanwhile,
...back at the saloon, Butch got the bill for the damage caused by the fist fight, the mirror broken in the shootout, and drinks for everyone...... Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori has announced to give two camels to the person whose animal was hurt.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2024 00:00 ||
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[FoxBusiness] CEO Alexandr Wang said Scale AI is a meritocracy and will remain so
The CEO of a hot artificial intelligence startup won praise from other chief executives, including Elon Musk, after he announced a hiring policy that focuses on merit.
Alexandr Wang, who founded Scale AI in 2016, shared on social media that his company has formalized an MEI hiring policy. That is, "merit, excellence and intelligence," in apparent contrast to DEI, or diversity, equity and inclusion policies popular at other companies.
"Scale is a meritocracy, and we must always remain one," Wang wrote in an X post on Thursday. "Hiring on merit will be a permanent policy at Scale."
Scale AI helps other businesses that want to deploy AI models by providing human workers and software services that label and test the data used to train those models. Without good data, generative AI will fail to deliver accurate responses to user queries — and Scale AI is a pioneer in the field of delivering good data.
The six-year-old startup, currently worth $14 billion, has partnered with OpenAI to develop GPT-2 with reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), won government contracts with the Department of Defense and every major AI lab, and powered breakthroughs in self-driving technologies, according to Wang.
Scale AI generated buzz last month after securing $1 billion in funding from longtime investors including Wellington Management, Y Combinator, Spark Capital, Founders Fund, Greenoaks and Tiger Global Management. New investors include DFJ Growth, Elad Gil, Amazon, ServiceNow Ventures, Intel Capital and AMD Ventures, Fortune reported.
On the heels of this success, Wang said he's received several questions about talent at Scale AI. He shared that he personally interviews every hire or signs off on every candidate packet at his company because, "Talent is our #1 input metric."
"It’s a big deal whenever we invite someone to join our mission, and those decisions have never been swayed by orthodoxy or virtue signaling or whatever the current thing is. I think of our guiding principle as MEI: merit, excellence, and intelligence," he wrote.
"That means we hire only the best person for the job, we seek out and demand excellence, and we unapologetically prefer people who are very smart."
The CEO emphasized that Scale AI treats candidates as individuals, not representatives of groups.
"We do not unfairly stereotype, tokenize, or otherwise treat anyone as a member of a demographic group rather than as an individual.
"We believe that people should be judged by the content of their character — and, as colleagues, be additionally judged by their talent, skills, and work ethic."
Widespread campaigns for social justice following the death of George Floyd in 2020 led to a boom in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the U.S. Supporters praise these initiatives as a means of ensuring representation of groups historically discriminated against in the workforce, though critics say hiring for diversity necessarily discriminates against other qualified candidates.
DEI-related job postings have recently fallen out of favor, declining by 44% in 2023, according to data from the job site Indeed. The decline has been attributed to a shift in priorities amid layoffs and the threat of discrimination lawsuits.
[GEO.TV] Prince Harry is reportedly starting to grow exasperated day by day, and this is in light of how his attempts at reconnecting with the Royal Family have been taken. Well, you know. Jimmy crack corn and all that.
Everything has been brought to light by an inside source close to Heat magazine. "I can say no more!"
The insider in question broke down all their claims regarding Prince Harry’s desperation, and began by highlighting how painful his father’s cancer has been for him. "I can say no more."
According to the source, "The lines of communication to Harry are limited, and are decreasing all the time." "Really, I can't."
"If he emails or calls to request a specific update, royal staff will eventually give him a generic response — but the details are scant." "We're sorry. The number you are calling is no longer listed."
"His father isn’t picking up the phone and Kate is in no position to update him," either the source noted. "Can't talk now, I'm busy!"
Mainly because "her time and recovery are obviously being very carefully managed." "It's whatsisname again. You want to talk to him?"
"Tell him sorry, I have to wash my hair."
"You told him that last time."
"Tell him I'm shaving my underarms and can't be disturbed."
"And the fact he sometimes reads about his family, rather than hear directly from them, hurts even more," too. Being a spare is tough. Being a dumbass is even tougher. Being a poozy whipped dumbass married to a shrew Shakespeare couldn't tame is toughest.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2024 00:00 ||
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#1
Excellent in-line comments Fred. Very amusing.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
06/17/2024 4:56 Comments ||
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#2
Being a spare is tough. Being a dumbass is even tougher. Being a poozy whipped dumbass married to a shrew Shakespeare couldn't tame is toughest.
On a smarter man, that would leave mark. On Harry however, none will be seen.
#3
Lessee. He aired his family's private matters - or so he claimed on payday - to the media and now he's upset he "has to read about" fambly goings on in - the media.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/17/2024 6:18 Comments ||
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#4
...HRH is dealing with a seriously ill father and wife, while dealing with the responsibilities of his job and three children.
Pretty sure the last thing he wants to deal with right now are his whiny kid brother's demands.
#11
America was founded on the idea there is no such thing as royalty. From People magazine to Bath House bowing to foreign rulers, some have forgotten that.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/17/2024 8:48 Comments ||
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#12
Don't call us we won't call you.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/17/2024 8:49 Comments ||
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#13
Here's they thing: When you've made bank telling the stories people have told you, they're going to stop telling you things, because you made bank.
Harry's an admirable guy in many ways. His problem is, he needs the royals, and they don't need him. (Anymore.)
Once William had a son, Harry became the 'extra' spare.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/17/2024 8:49 Comments ||
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#14
The problem is that they don’t want Harry to follow Prince Andrew’s path, so William and his dad need to manage this proactively.
#19
Relatives are funny people. Sent the sister, the last surviving blood adult of an age, an announcement of my grandson's arrival in existence. Ya should a seen the response. Guess I am an orphan now. Anyway, seems you can pick your relatives, cuz I love ❤️ my in-laws.
[AG] Dr. Anthony Fauci, longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), once paid a covert visit to the Central Intelligence Agency. Rep. Brad Westrup, chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, wants to know if Fauci succeeded in gaining CIA support for his contention that the pandemic arose naturally in the wild, what he calls "proximal origin." Sen. Rand Paul, a medical doctor who has called for a criminal investigation of Fauci, outlines the possibilities.
Dr. Fauci may have "convinced the CIA to dishonestly obscure the lab origin of COVID." It is also possible that "the CIA convinced Fauci to obscure the lab origin of COVID." Or, as Paul sees it, "An outside entity or person with unlimited monetary resources convinced Fauci to influence the CIA to obscure the lab origin of COVID." By now that should be obvious to all but the willfully blind. Even the FBI now inclines to the laboratory origin, and the evidence is strong. CIA needs to be "convinced" to be "dishonestly obscure." Absolutely the most ridiculous of concepts.
Dr. Fauci funded the Wuhan Institute of Virology to conduct gain-of-function research that makes viruses more lethal and transmissible. The WIV, in turn, received shipments of deadly pathogens courtesy of Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, the Chinese national who headed the special pathogens unit at Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory. In 2017 and 2018, Qiu made at least five trips to the Wuhan lab.
The lab origin was obvious to medical scientists such as Dr. Kristian Andersen of Scripps Research. Fauci pressured him into changing his view to the proximal origin theory, which is speculation, not science. Former CDC director Robert Redfield found evidence of a laboratory origin, he got death threats. No word of any investigation by the FBI, and no surprise that the CIA would collaborate with Fauci.
At the request of Antony Blinken and the Biden campaign, the "intelligence community," persuaded some 50 officials, including former CIA boss John Brennan, to say that Hunter Biden’s laptop was "Russian disinformation." According to Rep. Westrup, the agency offered six CIA analysts significant financial incentives to conclude that the result of its investigation was inconclusive. Some confusion in the above para; Brennan 'is' the Intelligence Community (IC). The clueless Blinken and the WH were provided the script and talking points by the IC.
Those funds could have come from Dr. Fauci, who commanded a budget in the range of $6 billion. As NIAID boss since 1984, Fauci controlled both public health policy and spending on medical research, a huge concentration of power. Consider the experience of Dr. Jonathan Fishbein, an NIH official fired by Fauci for exposing his dangerous drug experiments.
[JustTheNews] Detroit Pastor Lorenzo Sewell of 180 Church thanked former President Donald Trump for visiting what he called the "hood," and he pointed out that neither President Joe Biden nor former President Barack Obama made the trip.
"President Obama never came to the 'hood, so-to-speak, right? President Joe Biden, he went to the big NAACP dinner, but he never came to the 'hood. So thank you," Sewell said Saturday during a roundtable discussion that Trump had with black leaders in Detroit.
Trump announced multiple endorsements from high-profile black community leaders ahead of his meeting in Michigan.
Biden spoke at the NAACP's Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner last month in Detroit, according to Fox News.
Meanwhile, while Trump spoke Saturday in Detroit, Biden and Obama were in Los Angeles for a fundraiser that raised about $30 million for the Biden campaign, a record for a single Democratic Party fundraising event, according to CBS News.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/17/2024 8:29 Comments ||
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#2
Some will say this is Trump risking a JFK moment to address ALL Americans.
But, it is becoming clear for many minority groups.
Trump is sincerely interested in them, for more than their votes. Because, they are part of America and just as badly needed to make a UNITED MAGA work, as any other group is also.
Trump showing up, is in its self, and speaking with them and their community leaders. In ways, it demonstrates they have been fed a pile $%^& by the LSD's and the Liberal Media.
The icing on the cake is when a Real Black Reverend of a real church, points out Trump is doing something even the race pimping, Biden and Obama feared to do. Or were not interested in doing in the Black Community. Its called "Being Here".
BTW: Any one else notice the usual run to the camera $$$$$ Black Reverends have been super quiet lately.
[JustTheNews] A recent federal report shows areas of waste and duplication among federal agencies costing taxpayers big time.
The annual Government Accountability Office report on “fragmentation, overlap and duplication” has regularly highlighted major areas of federal waste. This time around, the report found 42 areas where waste could be cleaned up and billions saved.
The findings and recommendations vary widely, such as $2 billion in savings over ten years if the feds verified income data for income-driven student loan repayment plans. Another recommendation says $141 billion could be saved over ten years if “the Secretary of Health and Human Services to equalize payment rates between settings for evaluation and management office visits,” another of dozens of recommendations.
“Our oversight this Congress has uncovered different ways federal programs have fallen short in efforts to achieve their missions on behalf of the American taxpayer,” Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said at a committee hearing Thursday
Sessions also said that since the Congress began requiring the report, which GAO says has saved $667 billion since its inception.
GAO recommended 112 measures this year to improve efficiency and save tax dollars. So far, GAO says Congress has only fully addressed about two thirds of its recommendations since 2011.
“The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency should ensure its working capital fund cash balance is within its operating range, potentially saving its federal customers hundreds of millions of dollars through reduced prices,” GAO said. “Congress and the Internal Revenue Service should take action to improve sole proprietor tax compliance, which could increase revenue by hundreds of millions of dollars per year.”
From building maintenance to staff overlap and more, GAO found a litany of government waste.
From GAO:
"Agencies could save one hundred million dollars or more by using predictive models to make investment decisions on deferred maintenance and repair for federal buildings and could save ten million dollars or more over 5 years by setting building utilization benchmarks to help identify and reduce underused office space.
Congress should consider taking action that could help the Armed Forces Retirement Home address financial shortfalls to reduce the risk of exhausting the trust fund that supports it. This could potentially generate revenue of one hundred million dollars or more over 10 years. The Department of Defense should reduce the risk of overlapping management activities and potentially save ten million dollars or more over 5 years in medical facility management. It could do so by continuing its efforts to reevaluate its market structure and establishing performance goals."
Gene Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the GAO, said in the report’s release that if Congress followed this year’s recommendations as well as past recommendations that have not been carried out, tens of billions of taxpayer dollars could be saved.
“Implementation of these recommendations has also achieved additional benefits, such as improved interagency coordination and reduced mismanagement, fraud, waste, and abuse,” GAO said.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/17/2024 8:29 Comments ||
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#3
More than 50 years ago as a college freshman I wrote a paper for a Poli Sci seminar on the waste of gov't spending by identifying more than 30 separate programs for Rat Control.
[JustTheNews] Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk called for electronic voting machines to be eliminated over concerns related to hacking.
Musk's comments Saturday came in response to a post on X from independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who highlighted an Associated Press article about hundreds of voting irregularities in connection to electronic voting machines, and said that if he were elected president he would require paper ballots.
"We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high," Musk wrote on X in response to Kennedy's post.
In addition to paper ballots, Musk also suggested he supports voting in-person on one day, rather than early voting and voting by mail.
The Associated Press article said that Dominion Voting Systems machines had a software issue that caused them to reach incorrect vote tallies during the Puerto Rico primary earlier this month.
#7
The how of election fraud isn't the story. The why and who's doing it and who's looking the other way while it is done, those are the things that tell the story.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/17/2024 17:18 Comments ||
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#8
Brazil has a good 300 million people, and they have paper ballots and have the results that same evening.
[JustTheNews] California funded a $100 million bailout in 2021 for marijuana companies burdened by rules that have led users back to illegal dealers. Pot retailers got another $20 million boost in 2023.
#2
For the most part, when weed was legalized in Mass it cost $400 per ounce and you could buy it for $200 from your buddy / private growers. Legal prices have come down closer to the $200 / oz. level, thus the pinch in prices for the legal folks.
[Reuters] - Fourteen Jordanians have been reported dead during the annual Muslim haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, some of them due to heat stroke, while 17 others were reported missing, the Jordanian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
------------------------------------ Jordan has fewer than 10% of Hajj attendees so final death toll will likely be over 100, probably over 200. Last year the Hajj death toll was about 240.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
06/17/2024 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[LawEnforcementToday] WARNING: THAT KID IS MORE LIKELY TO KILL YOU
[GEO.TV] After authorities took notice of the gruesome incident wherein a camel's leg was allegedly amputated by a landlord, an official said that the 
[GEO.TV] 
