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narcrx · 8 months

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Long Beach renters will likely soon have more legal protections against landlord harassment.

The City Council voted 5-3 during its Tuesday, Oct. 20, meeting, with Councilmember Al Austin absent and Councilmembers Suzie Price, Daryl Supernaw and Stacy Mungo dissenting, to direct the City Attorney to write an ordinance to address tenant harassment in the city.

The ordinance will likely come back to the panel for approval at a special meeting on Nov. 2 or soon thereafter.

The item was brought forward by Vice Mayor Dee Andrews, who represents Long Beach’s Sixth District in Central Long Beach. Andrews cited renters in his district who have reported having security fences removed from their building in retaliation for not signing a lease with a rent increase so high that it would violate the state’s Tenant Protection Act, among other alleged abuses.

If approved, the ordinance would bar landlords from, among other actions:

Failing to timely perform repairs and maintenance required by law or a lease;

Abusing the right of access into a dwelling unit;

Trying to persuade a tenant to move out through fraud, misrepresentation, intimidation or coercion;

Providing false written or verbal information regarding any local, city, state, federal, or other tenant protections;

Violating a tenant’s right to privacy, including by requesting their citizenship or protected class status; and

Interfering with tenants’ rights to organize and engage in concerted activities for the purpose of mutual aid and protection.

Multiple renters and housing advocates spoke during the meeting about how the protections are needed.

“Tenant harassment is real and is happening all across the city,” Elsa Tung, a research and policy analyst with Long Beach Forward, said. “This is a matter of basic human decency. If you are a kind, decent landlord, you have nothing to worry about. This ordinance will not impact you.”

But Fred Sutton, the L.A. regional spokesman for the California Apartment Association, said that state law already prohibits many of the actions listed in the proposed city law.

“Residents are protected from harassment and wrongful eviction,” he said. “Any meaningful protections this law can impose have already been imposed.”

Deputy City Attorney Rich Anthony, though, clarified that the suggested ordinance would go further than state law. While state law does guard against retaliation from landlords, he said, it does not include specific provisions to address harassment.

Still, Anthony had questions about certain aspects of the ordinance.

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Though there was some confusion among council members about his questions — such as whether the law would apply to commercial tenants, whether the city would be tasked with enforcing the law and what type of penalty should be imposed for landlords found in violation — it seemed a majority of the panel was able to agree. (On those three questions, the council decided that commercial tenants would not be included; the law would be enforced through the courts; and the City Attorney will determine the penalty, which will be written into the ordinance based on similar ordinances in other cities.)

The council members who dissented had varying reasons for voting against the motion.

Price pushed for the law to include a way for landlords to cure the harm before being found in violation; she also expressed concern about the ongoing confusion of what the law would or would not include.

Supernaw did not speak specifically on his reasoning for voting against it, but he did ask about how much crossover the ordinance would have with laws already on the books. He was also interested in how the city would enforce it.

Enforcement was also a sticking point for Mungo. She suggested creating an administrative position to adjudicate cases stemming from the proposed law rather than going through the courts.

“I’m just looking to figure out what’s the issue,” she said. “There’s a perception that people are being harassed. How do we stop people from being harassed?”

She was not convinced, based on the protections that already exist, she said, that more laws that still rely on the court system to be enforced would suffice.

“Court processes take a long time,” she said.

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birminghamlawattorney · 11 months

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Types of Damages Explained by a Personal Injury Attorney in Long Beach

When you are first faced with the process of making a personal injury claim, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. This is a complicated area of the law and the nitty-gritty of how a case proceeds and how damages are awarded can vary state by state. Of course, your personal injury attorney in Long Beach is there to take on all of the elements and manage all the details for you, but at the same time, it is good to have a broad understanding of what is happening in the case, particularly in respect of the damages they are pursuing on your behalf. Here are some of the most common types of damages, explained by professional personal injury lawyers. Compensatory Damages These are damages that are intended to result in you being compensated for your losses. In a sense, these are the opposite of punitive damages, which are damages that are awarded not to provide compensation but rather to assign punishment to a guilty party. In most cases, an accident victim will seek only compensatory damages, but your lawyer will be able to recognize when something is serious or clear-cut enough to want to pursue punitive damages as well. Economic Damages Economic damages are classed as a subset of compensatory damages, as they are losses that can be reduced down to the simple factor of monetary loss. They are the types of damages that are attributed by providing evidence of bills, invoices, and other specific documentation that reflects financial status. You might want to consider opting for an economic damages claim if you want to fight for things like medical expenses, the cost to replace or repair a vehicle from an accident, any future or current income that has been lost by having to miss work, or any losses incurred by things like forced transportation alternatives if you are unable to drive through injury or a ruined vehicle. Non-Economic Damages Non-economic damages are another common subset, and as the name implies, they are designed to cover losses that are not as easily identifiable as monetary amounts. This will include things like a chronic struggle with physical pain, an ongoing problem with mental health or anguish, a period of emotional distress resulting from a key incident, or the loss of consortium. For example, families or individuals who are hoping to pursue a wrongful death claim will be able to take action for things like loss of companionship and loss of support, as well as things like loss of future income and financial support. If you should ever find yourself in need of a personal injury attorney in Long Beach, then don’t hesitate to get in touch with the best in the business at Belal Hamideh Law. Feel free to contact any one of our experienced and highly qualified team members and they will be more than happy to answer any questions that you have and take down the particulars of your case. We look forward to being able to help.

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legaladvicerstexas · 1 year

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Houston, Texas - A Global Renaissance

Houston is a great place to call home. It's got a world-class culture and an eclectic mix of international appeal and Southern charm that has captured the imagination of tastemakers from around the globe.

This energy-rich city is a global renaissance in a landlocked state, boasting a rich industrial base and an expanding international community. Its economy is based in energy, aeronautics and healthcare, with 25 companies on the Fortune 500 list calling it home.

It's also known for its many cultural attractions and museums, including the Museum District, which houses 19 of them. This neighborhood is also home to Hermann Park, which features a beautiful zoo and an array of other fun activities, from paddle boating on McGovern Lake to watching a show at the Miller Outdoor Theatre.

The Museum of Fine Arts is an excellent place for art lovers. It displays paintings and mixed media works from artists spanning six continents and more than 6,000 years of art history. It also houses a number of impressive collections, including Bacchanale by Picasso, Nympheas by Monet and a collection of gold from Africa.

Another of our favorite places to check out is the Houston Zoo, which has over 6,000 animals on 55 acres. It has an educational center and a children's zoo, and is the perfect destination for families or groups of friends.

One of the best places to get a feel for the city's culture is the Museum District, which contains 19 museums, most of them free to the public. These include the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Menil Collection, the Holocaust Museum and more.

If you're a fan of beer, then Saint Arnold Brewing Company is an excellent place to try local brews and sample some of the latest trends in craft brewing. It has a fantastic tasting room where you can sample different beers with food or snacks, and is the oldest craft brewery in the area.

Memorial Park is a huge urban park that covers more than 1,466 acres and has plenty of attractions, such as the 155-acre Houston Arboretum and Nature Center, Eastern Glades and a new Land Bridge and Prairie. It also has a golf course, a fitness center and swimming pool.

You can play a round of golf or just take a long walk at this gorgeous place, which has many picnic areas and shady spots to relax. It's also a great spot to go for a run, as it features crushed granite running trails.

Away from the main tourist hubs, there are several lovely beaches in Houston. Some are secluded and romantic, while others are more lively and full of people.

The beaches of Houston are a beautiful way to spend the day, and they are all within an hour or so drive from the city. They range from secluded coves to party-friendly beaches with a variety of amenities, so you can choose what's right for you.

Truck Accident Attorney in Houston TX

If you were involved in a truck accident caused by the negligence of a negligent driver, it is important to contact an experienced truck accident attorney Houston TX as soon as possible. There is a limited amount of time to file a claim after the crash and if you delay, you may lose your right to receive compensation.

Depending on the circumstances of your truck accident, one or more parties may be held responsible. For example, if the driver of your vehicle was speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or violating federal or state laws, you may be entitled to file a claim against him or her.

After the trucking company learns about your accident, they will send their own investigators to the scene of the crash to gather evidence and interview witnesses to defend your claims. This investigation is critical to proving that the trucking company or its driver was negligent and that you were injured as a result of their actions.

In Texas, there are many state and federal laws that apply to commercial truck drivers and the companies that employ them. These laws are designed to protect people on the road and prevent accidents from occurring.

As with any type of injury claim, your priority should be receiving the medical care you need for your injuries. An experienced truck accident attorney Houston can help you make sure that you get the medical care that you need to recover as quickly as possible from your injuries.

Rose Sanders Law Firm, PLLC 1 Greenway Plaza Suite 100, Houston, TX 77046 (713) 221-3773 https://www.rosesanderslaw.com/

#Truck Accident Attorney Houston TX #Accident Attorney Houston TX #Auto Accident Attorney Houston TX

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illionoisprelawland-blog · 2 years

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The Law Of Advertising A Party On TikTok

By Morgan Fahey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Class of 2023

June 2, 2022

With the temperature on the rise, summer is starting to look a bit more normal this year compared to the last couple of years. Massive crowds gathered in the Long Branch area of New Jersey on Saturday, May 21st. The crowds had gathered for a beachfront pop-up party that was advertised on the social media app, TikTok. The large-scale gathering was encouraged by a flyer posted on the app. The beach party spiraled out of control when chaos erupted after thousands of people showed up.

The party was held on a day that broke high temperature records across the United States. Fights had broken out, police were forced to break up the crowds and an emergency curfew was put in place at 9:00PM for the rest of the evening. The footage from the scene shows wild behavior and people fleeing as sirens are heard in the background. Eleven adults and five juveniles were arrested as a result of the fights that broke out. The Long Branch Police Department estimates that 5,000 people showed up to Pier Village, which is an oceanfront development that consists of 500 residences, about 30 restaurants and shops and two hotels. Most people who attended the party had arrived by train.

This isn’t the first time that the Long Branch area has seen a party like this. A little less than a year ago, a similar event was held that resulted in a large-scale police presence. These parties have been a problem for law enforcement for at least the past two years with increasing severity. City Officials are getting tired of the chaos in the area and are starting to look at every possible angle in putting a stop to these pop-up parties, including legal action.

In addition to the arrests made on the scene, the Long Branch Police Department has successfully located the organizers of these parties and plans to “prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law,” says Long Branch Mayor John Pallone. The city was also looking into legal action against social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram for allowing these unauthorized large-scale gatherings to be shared so publicly. None of these pop-up parties had received a permit ahead of time, which is required by law. The online flyers also promote drinking and smoking in public areas, which is illegal.

The huge pop-up party in Long Branch’s pier village also badly hurt the upscale Jersey Shore destination’s shops and restaurants, said Governor Phil Murphy. All of the small businesses in the area had to close for the day, which is a big price to pay. The Governor said he understood people wanted to get together again and have fun as the state emerges from the coronavirus pandemic, but he stressed that it needs to be done in a responsible way.

There’s awareness about future similar events that are being held in the area, and the city is looking into it. State Senator Robert Singer has asked Governor Murphy and the state Attorney General’s office to create a task force to prevent closely related incidents this summer.

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unholyhelbig · 4 years

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Bellmare | Chapter One

Ship: Beca Mitchell/ Aubrey Posen

Read on Ao3 here

Summery: Aubrey Posen is used to the brutal cold of the city- so after an attempt is made on her life and she has to forcibly relocate to a small southern town seemingly stuck in the 1950s, she's surprised to stumble upon a new case, and an annoying clingy FBI agent who she can't seem to shake.

Aubrey Posen hated the crown molding in her apartment. It clashed abrasively with the dull gray that slathered the walls and descended in four even steps. She thought it was ugly when she found the place but the hardwood floors made up for the inconsistency in eras. So she ignored it and signed the yearlong lease. She never tended to look up anyway, so what was the harm?

The crown molding was the only thing that she could focus her stare on now. She had read through the paperwork and she couldn’t take a sledgehammer to it even if she wanted to. It made her angry, and she thought she was frowning but couldn’t be sure, because that hideous crown molding wouldn’t be the last thing she saw before everything went dark.

She could smell the greasy odor of the sesame chicken she had ordered from the restaurant down the street as it wafted from the counter. It mixed nicely with a new metallic kind of scent- and Aubrey didn’t’ realize what it was at first.

Getting shot didn’t hurt.

Not the pure action of a lead bullet entering the soft area of her stomach, or the one that hit her knee. It felt like the time right before Christmas when her family took photos on the beach, before dusk. There were horseflies that had no mercy for them- and their bites stung, but they weren’t debilitating. Not in the slightest.

But now her stomach burned and her mouth filled with blood, and she was staring at that stupid crown molding. So it wasn’t an insect with a vengeance, not in the dead winter in New York City. It couldn’t be; so the logical connection was that she had been shot. Twice.

There was broken glass from her balcony and a draft. She felt cold and tired and the front door was left open to the hallway because that was the way that the man had exited. He had missed her the first time, but she was an easy target, standing still in nothing but shock.

She flexed her fingers and wiggled her toes and realized that she wasn’t paralyzed. She could feel every breath move through her lungs and the discomfort of her spine pressing against the wood floor. Aubrey was in and out of consciousness and she couldn’t’ tell for how long. Not initially.

Aubrey had memorized her neighbor’s habits; what times she came and went from classes at the local community college. It wouldn’t be long before she padded up the stairs, refusing to take the elevator, no matter how secure, and found her door open. But she wondered half-heartedly if she would make it that long.

Had she done everything she hoped for in life? She had gotten good grades, had gone backpacking around Europe a year after she graduated college with a bachelor's, traveling was always good. And she had powered through all three years of law school. She hadn’t gotten married, but that was fine. Not many people do, and nowadays something like that didn’t last.

Aubrey had graduated to a prosecuting attorney and had convicted so many people; including the Ripper of Manhattan- that was her golden case, the one that put her in the running to become a DA. One more case and she had it in the bag, one high profile case.

She supposed, as she lay on the hard wooden floor staring at the spotty architecture, that this was a possibility. Something that wasn’t quite a robbery, something that was intentional. Aubrey Posen wasn’t dense, she knew that she had made enemies, that this last court case was a rough one, the whole city was watching.

Her consciousness wavered again and she felt a cold puddle of blood soak into her shirt. She had hung her blazer against the back of the chair. But she was oddly content- tired if anything. But she was sure that had to do with the 60 hour work weeks.

There was a jingle of keys and the muffled sound of music. Jessica was home and she had removed a headphone. The girl was probably staring tentatively at the open door and Aubrey hoped desperately in her solitude that her fingers were visible. That any part of her was.

“Bree?” She called out, her words strung together. “I have mace!”

Mace. Aubrey would have scoffed if she could, but everything was becoming harder to do and that acid burn in her abdomen hissed with every breath. She listened as her neighbor walked cautiously into the apartment. It wasn’t long before she spotted her.

“Holy shit, Aubrey!” She felt Jessica drop to her knees, felt her hands, cold from the winter night, on the side of her face, and then on her neck as she pressed for a pulse. She didn’t mind the blood or the fluttering of Aubrey’s eyes “Help! We need help in here!”

She scrambled for her phone, dialing 911 fast. There were more footsteps and the scent of chicken still lingered like a bad hangover. Jessica stayed by her side, and a male voice countered her own. She swore she felt someone pushing down on her chest but latched onto the familiar voice instead.

“…719 East Ord Street- yes, we’re on the second floor. My neighbor has been shot I don’t know how long she’s been here I just found her. Yes, she has a pulse, it’s weak. Please- you have to hurry.” There was a hand on her shoulder, squeezing “You’ve got to keep your eyes open for me, okay? Someone will be here soon.”

When was this place built? The molding shouldn’t be this out of style. It doesn’t match the stainless steel of the appliances or the nice wooden floor. It clashed with her throw pillows, and she’s bought at least seven different ones just to make it acceptable. But nothing was.

She doesn’t remember waking up. It’s not something Aubrey put too much thought into until it came into question whether she would or not. There was an uncomfortably bright light that buzzed like a trapped fly above her head and a television in the corner of the puke-colored room that played soap operas.

Aubrey could tell from the bad acting and the grainy quality of the scene in front of her. She knew she was in a hospital room; the beeping of the monitors and the IV that was taped roughly to the top of her hand gave that away. They could never find a vein in her arm because it was right on top of a nerve. She hated getting blood drawn, and hated ones lodged into her tendons even more.

She blinked a few times, focusing on the dotted ceiling tiles as she moaned. Not so much from the pain, which was ever-present, but from the stiffness of her body. The heart monitor picked up, and whoever had turned on the television in the first place flicked it off.

“Easy,” Jessica’s voice came from the side of the bed, and an instant wave of calm washed over her body. “You’ve been through a lot.”

Her bed was somewhat propped, facing the busy hallway. It must be evening, she assumed. From the lack of nurses at the station directly across from them. There was a guard sitting in a metal chair in front of the glass windows, skimming through a magazine that she couldn’t’ quite read.

A cynical part of Aubrey expected more people to be here. There was a vase of purple flowers on a side table that had begun to welt and a card that had her practices logo on the side of it. Jessica had her laptop open to a school assignment- and she didn’t’ know what else to expect. She didn’t’ have very many friends in the city unless the wardens at the prison counted. She became well acquainted with them each time she walked through the doors to speak to a client.

“Where am I?” She asked, regardless.

“A Hospital in Baltimore, you had an accident.”

An accident? She supposed that was the simple way of putting it. It had been no accident, though. Someone was sitting on her couch when she walked through her front door. They knew where she lived when she would get home. Who she was, and they easily raised a 9mm and fired off three rounds.

“How long have I been here?”

“Three weeks.” Jessica frowned, trying to remember the exact time “You’ve had twelve surgeries. It’s a miracle that you’re even here right now.”

Aubrey didn’t’ think it was quite a miracle, but she still held her life in her hands. What a life it was, so focused on trial after trial. She lifted her chin weakly at the guard “Who’s that guy?”

Her neighbor hesitated and then let out a small breath “He’s here for your protection. They still don’t know who shot you.”

There was a thick form of tension in the room and Aubrey felt her fingers curl around the fabric of the bed. The needle in her hand tugged so she unwound them. “What are you not telling me, Jess?”

Her neighbor stepped away from the bed and flicked on the television again. This time she changed the channel to the news; a generic reporter stood in front of their apartment building. His eyes were dark and tired, a hat pulled down over his hair, and his nose red and raw. She struggled to focus her eyes on the moving text at the bottom of the screen. It used to be so easy to listen to the monotone words and the flashing subtitles.

MANHATTAN PROSECUTOR FOUND SLAIN. KILLER STILL AT LARGE.

She didn’t’ understand; the television continued to drone on but she wasn’t listening. Had this been a serial attack? Was she a lucky one out of all of the lawyers in the city? She wasn’t aware of anyone else in their building having a background in law.

Her heart monitor must have picked up its pace because Jessica’s hand was wrapped around hers, calming and warm and grounding. “Hey, hey, relax. You’re here, okay?”

“They’re talking about me?”

She nodded “Aubrey, you were the last on a long list of people. The case you’re working on, all of the witnesses… they weren’t as lucky as you.”

She swallowed the cotton taste in her mouth and made a small noise. There was always a danger to her job, angry people with access to firearms. She didn’t flinch at the profanities shouted at her as she walked down the halls of the state facility, or the horrible articles spread about the people she put away being innocent. But she never expected this, never wanted this.

“I don’t understand” She whispered, frowning.

“They needed to make it look like you died, Aubrey.” Jessica explained, her voice was soft and sad “for your protection, you can’t stay in Manhattan. Not anymore.”

#Beca Mitchell #Aubrey Posen #Mitchsen #mitchsen fanfiction #Pitch Perfect #Pitch perfect au #pitch perfect fanfiction

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artificialqueens · 4 years

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Heart of Glass, Mind of Stone, 1/? (Jiji, Methydoll) - Ella

summary - When Crystal envisioned her life as a law student, she daydreamed of topping her classes and the inevitable sleepless nights that it would come with. What she didn’t expect was to be so tied up to a high-profile murder case that it was next to impossible to get herself out of it.

a/n - welcome to my first ever multichap! ive been planning this for almost a month now, so glad that it’s finally out here! thank you so much to the amazing and talented @imalwaysaslutfordrag for beta-ing! thank you to v as well for helping me sort out some concerns, she’s really really cool :>

feel free to hmu here on tumblr @dawningofdrag or maybe, if you have the time, give this a read on ao3 as well! enjoy some lawyer gays, folks

There was a dead body lying on the floor and nobody. dared. to move.

“We killed her,” Crystal spoke, voice so hoarse from the screaming just moments ago that her throat ached.

Her eyes were blown wide- just like everyone else’s -as she stared at the corpse lying lifeless on the dark herringbone floorboards. The bright fluorescent light of the lamp posts that stood outside the property peeked through the sheer curtains of the living room they stood in, almost perfectly framing the bleak expression of the cadaver resting in the middle of the circle the Latina and the rest of the group had created.

A breathy scream broke the silence and Crystal traced the sound back to Gigi, who dropped to the floor in sheer terror. Her green eyes barely broke contact with the body, short erratic breaths escaping her bare pink lips through the pale hand that covered it. Crystal instinctively ran over to where the blonde now sat on the floor, wrapping her arms around her lean frame in an attempt to calm her down.

“She’s dead,” Gigi gasped out, bloodshot eyes still refusing to tear away from the body laid out in front of her. The Latina grasped the blonde’s hand, squeezing it to offer some sense of comfort despite the horrifying circumstances.

The room fell silent, a thick, heavy air resting on their shoulders as they all collectively just stood there, allowing their actions and its repercussions to settle into their conscience.

“We’re murderers,” Gigi whispered through her hiccups, and all Crystal could do was nod. They killed her. They committed murder, and all of a sudden it felt like it was much, much harder to breathe.

- three months before -

Crystal shot the rest of her now lukewarm coffee down her throat in a quick motion, slamming the warm thermos down on her incredibly small desk with a loud thud. She exhaled, setting her bag on the floor next to her chair before inserting herself in it. Her hands grazed the chipped wood that made up her armrests, a soft smile appearing on her painted lips.

First day of law school, totally not the scariest thing in the whole world. Not like she dreamt of this day since she was a little girl, you know?

Crystal could now proudly declare to the world (and her extremely judgemental tia’s and tio’s) that she was studying law at the best law school in the country, sitting in a lecture hall ready to attend a class spearheaded by the sole individual who made her realize she wanted to pursue a law career in the first place. How she wasn’t fully freaking out right now was just as much of a mystery to her as it was to everyone else.

She set her laptop on the desk attached to her assigned chair, flipping through the thin folder of her academic roster with curious eyes. She quickly glanced over her classes, the professors teaching them, taking into account the buildings they were held in and when they started.

The sound of a cough diverted the Latina’s attention, bright green eyes meeting hers.

The woman was clad in an olive green pantsuit and a plain black blouse that seemed to fit her like a glove. It seemed perfectly tailored, almost as if the suit was custom-made. Her short blonde hair was styled to be pin straight, meticulously tucked behind one ear to show off her strong jawline. Her green eyes were narrowed, staring into the Latina’s eyes as if she was guilty of a crime she didn’t commit.

Crystal almost laughed at how hard the woman tried her best to look intimidating.

“Can I help you?” She questioned in a sing-song tone, a perfectly shaped eyebrow raised in confusion. The blonde rolled her eyes.

Crystal narrowed her own. Okay, Elle Woods.

“You’re sitting in my seat.” The woman tapped the sole of her black Louboutin on the tiled floor repeatedly, impatiently waiting for a response.

“Pretty sure I sit here, Ms. Woods.”

“How original.” The blonde scoffed, pulling out a digital image of the assigned seating from her phone to show the Latina who still sat comfortably in her seat, showing no willingness to move whatsoever.

“I sit in the sixth chair from the right.” She stated matter-of-factly. Crystal didn’t even bother hiding her amusement.

She chuckled, turning her body to point at the vacant seat next to her. “I sit in the fifth seat from the right.” Crystal grinned a mischievous smile. “You’re one off, Woods.”

She watched as the blonde woman’s cheeks flared up in embarrassment, quickly taking a seat next to her while keeping her head hung low.

“You’re a law student and you can’t even like, count correctly?” The brunette mocked the woman next to her, nudging her side softly to lighten the mood.

“I’m smart in other ways.” The blonde rolled her eyes once more, but her cold facade faded away just moments after doing so, and a grin started to creep up on the edges of her glossed lips.

“Georgina Goode, Columbia.” She greeted Crystal’s lighthearted gaze with an extension of her arm, hand out for her to shake. “Guess I should master the art of counting before I try to act like I know my shit.”

“Well, you learn new things everyday.” The brunette grinned. Of course she was a Georgina. She reeked of water polo lessons and summers in a beach house in Miami. It further supported Crystal’s initial hypothesis that Ms. Goode, she was definitely an Elle Woods type. You know, the privileged but woke white kid who believed they deserved a medal for recognizing their privilege. She met a couple of them back in pre-law, and they were all so incredibly annoying.

Gigi seemed slightly less annoying though, so she’ll reserve the need to have an opinion until she actually got to know her.

“Just call me Gigi, though.”

Crystal nodded at the information, extending her arm out to receive the open hand.

“Crystal Harness, Yale.”

Their hands collided, a firm couple of shakes and soft smiles before they both pulled away, shifting away from each other to set up their table (seriously though, why were they so small? She wasn’t paying forty grand a semester for her lecture desk to support the weight of half her laptop).

“So, what brings you here?” Crystal couldn’t help but question, starting a conversation between the two and sparking the interest of the woman next to her. It never hurt to make friends in law school.

“I mean, if you were already in Columbia. Don’t they like, top the bars all the time?”

“Oh, easy.” Gigi scoffed at the question as if her answer was so painfully obvious, briefly pointing to the professor’s desk situated just a couple of rows in front of them. “Her.”

I mean, that reason was fair enough. Crystal would be lying if she told you she didn’t also take the attorney into mind when choosing a law school. If she really had to tell the truth, then yes, Attorney Jaida Essence Hall’s teaching position was the sole reason she chose Middleton for law.

Could you blame her though? She was Black, gay, female, and an absolute fucking legend. Harvard Law Valedictorian, record-breaking LSAT score, and built her whole reputation from the ground up. She was a whole ass celebrity in Crystal’s eyes, and hearing that Jaida had a teaching position in Middleton was all the information she needed to choose the university.

“I get it.” Crystal replied after a brief moment, finally relaxing against the back of her chair’s deflated cushions. “I kind of wanna be her.”

“You and every other woman in this class, Crystal.” The blonde mumbled, smirking at her snide remark. “You’re not special.”

Well, she wasn’t wrong.

The booming sound of high heels clicking against the tiled floor almost startled Crystal, immediately turning her attention towards the woman who just entered the room.

“Good morning class, my name is Jaida Essence Hall-”

She set her black Hermes bag on top of the wooden professor’s table with a loud thud, flipping her long dark hair past her shoulder so effortlessly that she had Crystal, Gigi, and the rest of the class absolutely mesmerized.

Professor Hall turned to face the class in one swift motion, sporting a welcoming grin before continuing her entrancing introduction.

“- and welcome to Criminal Law 100.”

Crystal swore under her breath, taking everything in. The reason she wanted to pursue law was standing twelve feet away from her, leaning against the table with her arms crossed around her chest.

The Latina couldn’t even force herself to focus on the rest of Jaida’s probably really inspiring opening monologue, mind still busy trying to wrap about the idea of breathing the same air as Jaida Essence Hall. Was she overreacting? Probably. Did she care? Absolutely the fuck not. Let her have this.

“If you have been keeping yourselves updated on local news, I’m certain that you have crossed the ongoing case regarding the murder of Brianna Heller.”

That sentence pulled Crystal out of the trance she found herself in, the wording of her statement incorrect in her honest opinion. You didn’t need to watch the local news to know about it. If you lived in Philadelphia for a solid five minutes you’d know about the case of Brianna Heller. She was a Middleton undergrad who went missing for a whole month before her body was found two days ago in the basement of an abandoned warehouse, a spot frequented by undergrads looking for their dose of illegal thrill. Each and every aspect of the case felt like it was pulled right out of a murder mystery book, down to the alleged suspects and their relationships with each other. The press was having a field day milking the case dry for any information they could publish.

Jaida went back and forth across the platform, one hand on her hip as she continued. “Just this morning, I was asked to represent one of the main suspects, Jamie McKenna.”

The woman clicked on her remote, displaying a photo of the woman on the projector screen.

I mean if you were gonna ask Crystal, she thought Jamie did it. After quickly scanning the case a couple of nights ago when she had absolutely nothing better to do, she had a gut feeling the blonde committed the murder. They both had rather large online followings due to their theater backgrounds, but Brianna had much bigger numbers in comparison to Jamie, even though in Crystal’s opinion, Jamie was a much better singer.

There was a very clear motive and intent. All they needed was to find the murder weapon and the case was closed.

The class erupted in loud whispers once the photo displayed itself on screen, Gigi visibly unfazed next to her. Everyone has had a conversation about the case with friends, family, strangers. Talking about it felt redundant and unnecessary, and if you were going to ask Crystal, the conversation was getting really boring.

Jaida paused for a brief moment, allowing the murmurs to die on their own before speaking further. “And although both my associates are very capable individuals, the publicity surrounding the case is unbearable, which means I cannot make one single mistake.”

Crystal narrowed her eyes, confused as to the relevancy of her announcement until it hit her.

Oh my fucking God.

Jaida’s gonna need a team.

“Which means I’m gonna need a team.”

Holy shit.

“For the next week, I will be paying close attention to how you all work during my lectures. My associates will be in attendance, watching from the sidelines, and observing each and every one of you. We need the best of the best so that those chosen will be more of an asset rather than a burden.”

Crystal’s eyes were blown wide at Jaida’s words, her head still spinning as she tried to grasp how big of a deal this actually was. Her eyes met Gigi’s, who was equally as taken back as the Latina, jaw slacked open in shock.

“You will be meeting my associates tomorrow, but make a lasting first impression on me and you might find yourself in the list of people I consider. Am I clear?”

Crystal nodded absent-mindedly, her mind sprinting a million miles a minute as she automatically started to come up with ways to stand out of a class of sixty people.

“Alright, now that that’s all cleared up,” Jaida turned on her heel to fiddle with her laptop, displaying the assigned reading on screen before turning to face the class once more.

“Does anyone want to summarize the case of Commonwealth v. Polachek for me?”

Crystal had never raised her hand quicker in her entire life. It was game on, I guess.

Crystal fumbled to pull out the keys of her front door from the pocket of her cross-body bag, feeling the contents with her fingers until she felt the metal touch her skin. She walked past her neighbor, flashing a nervous smile the woman’s way before she stopped just in front of her apartment.

“Weren’t you in Professor Hall’s class today?”

Crystal’s head whipped around to face the woman who stood a couple of feet away from where she stood, leaning against the doorway of the apartment just next to hers.

The Latina’s eyes met the other girl’s equally dark ones, wavy dark hair framing the woman’s face perfectly. She was clad in a tight-fitting black turtleneck tucked into a high waist black pant, dark plaid blazer and gold jewelry breaking the monochromatic fabrics and causing her jet-black hair to stand out against the blazer’s tweed fabric.

“Yeah. ” Crystal stumbled over her words, running her free hand through her thick curls. How was every single woman in her Criminal Law class so fucking pretty? “Middleton Law too?”

“Mhmm.” Her neighbor smiled, taking a couple of steps forward to close the rather large distance between them both.

She reached out her hand. “Jackie Cox. Harvard Medicine.”

Crystal has never shaken so many hands in such a small period of time. The second they all entered law school everyone became so pathetically professional that it almost humored her.

“Crystal! NYU.” She grinned, shaking her hand before catching onto the words that filled Jackie’s introduction.

“Wait, medicine?” Crystal questioned, pulling her arm back and tucking it into her jean pocket.

“Yeah.” Jackie shrugged the question off with a rather confused tone, acting as if her circumstances were a normal occurrence. “Medicine got really boring, so did Harvard, so I thought I’d give law a shot.”

The Latina didn’t know how to respond. “Woah that’s uh, really cool.”

Crystal wanted to wince at herself for sounding like a fucking four-year-old. She stepped back, shifted her body away, and lifted her key to the lock. Her mind ran in circles, deciding whether or not to invite Jackie to the dinner she and her roommate planned to have later that night. Making friends in law school had many more benefits than it had consequences, and having an incredibly smart medical student-turned-law student on your side sounded like an incredible asset to have in future study groups. Plus, Jackie just seemed really fucking cool.

“Well, uh, my roommate Heidi is coming tonight and we were planning to get to know each other over dinner at 8 o’clock.” The Latina smiled, meeting Jackie’s eyes once more. “Do you maybe wanna join?”

As if on cue, Crystal’s front door burst open to reveal her roommate, who greeted her and Jackie’s startled dispositions with a toothy grin and bare arms spread wide, ready to envelop the Latina in a warm hug.

“Oh my god, Crystal it’s so nice to finally meet you!” Heidi ran a couple of steps to tackle the smaller woman into a tight hug, rocking from side to side as if they were long lost sisters who had finally been reunited. “I can’t believe we’re here!”

A laugh escaped from deep in Crystal’s chest after her new roommate knocked the wind out of her with an overexcited hug. She paused for a quick moment, still taken back by the sudden action, before wrapping her arms around the shorter woman. “Hi!”

“It’s so nice to finally meet you!” Crystal pulled back a couple of inches, reciprocating the infectious energy her new roommate put out for her to receive.

Crystal had never met Heidi before, they’ve only been exchanging a handful of texts and semi-professional emails just to get their living situation all sorted out before they moved in. The brunette never would have thought that the woman behind the meticulously worded emails she was receiving over the week was an extrovert who would rather give out hugs over a professional handshake. The duality of man, I guess.

She and Heidi exchange introductions, Jackie joining in on the conversation after a while as they talk about their dinner plans together.

“That sounds great!” Jackie grinned at the invitation, beamed almost, unlocking her door with a twist of a key, pushing it open with force. “I’ll bring some baklava for dessert.”

“I have never heard of baklava! Is it like a Middle Eastern thing or sum’n?” Heidi questioned, her fingernails mindlessly picking on the lint of her wool sweater.

Jackie nodded, a soft laugh coming out of her mouth as she did so. “Yes it is, you hit the nail on the head.”

“Well, it sounds delightful.” The Black woman smiled, arm wrapped around Crystal’s waist like they were all of a sudden the bestest of friends. She honestly didn’t mind having someone like Heidi as a roommate, the loving and positive energy just radiating off of her warm skin was a great juxtaposition from the cold and professional people she was probably going to encounter throughout her law student experience.

They bid their goodbye’s, setting up their final dinner plans before they entered their respective apartments, Heidi already chatting up a storm as they turned to leave.

Crystal waved as Jackie disappeared into her apartment, a small grin resting on her painted lips as she turned to swing her front door open. “See ya, Doc.”

“Gigi, if you fucking scream one more time I swear to god-” Jackie spoke through gritted teeth, knuckles turning white at how tight she gripped the metal bat in her hand.

Her dark eyes scanned the room, pausing at the surrounding windows to check if anyone was peeking through them. Jackie dropped the bat with caution, afraid that the collision of metal on wood would startle anyone that was currently inside the house. She crouched down to inspect the lifeless corpse that separated her from the rest of the group, delicately grazing the pale skin and dead blue eyes with her trembling fingers. She closed the body’s eyes before meeting Crystal’s brown, much more alive ones.

“We have to get rid of the body.”

“Are you fucking insane?” Crystal scoffed, guiding a very distraught Gigi to sit against the armrest of a lounge chair not far by. She made sure the blonde was much calmer than she was just moments ago before shifting her gaze to the Persian across the room.

“You want us to go out on a Friday night? after finals week?” The brunette spat out, her uncontrollable fear turning itself into annoyance and frustration at the sound of her friend’s suggestion.

“Are you dumb?” Jackie hissed, the heels of her boots clicking against the wood as she looked around for a way to clean up the blood slowly pooling around the corpse’s body. “Our DNA is on her skin, Crystal. Under her nails, on her clothes, on the fucking gun.”

“We go to an incinerator and burn the body.” Jackie reasoned, pulling a handkerchief from her bag and getting on her knees as she soaked up the blood from the floor like it was nothing serious. “We’ll classify the remains as animal carcass.”

Crystal stood in place, jaw slacked open in awe of Jackie’s lack of disgust towards the corpse as she dragged the previously clean fabric across the wooden floorboards. “Get rid of any evidence. We can say she ran away. They’ll believe it, her case was a clear loss anyway.”

The Latina groaned in defeat, pulling a handkerchief from her winter coat as she crouched down to join Jackie in cleaning up the mess they had made together. “Fuck you, Doc.”

“Can’t help that I know my shit, Mistress.”

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Headlines

Americans support Black Lives Matter but resist shifts of police funds or removal of statues (Washington Post) A majority of Americans support the Black Lives Matter movement and a record 69 percent say black people and other minorities are not treated as equal to white people in the criminal justice system. But the public generally opposes calls to shift some police funding to social services or remove statues of Confederate generals or presidents who enslaved people, a Washington Post-ABC News poll finds. These findings underscore the mixed fallout after the brutal killing of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police in May. There is increased public scrutiny of police treatment of black Americans, but less unity on broader questions about how to address the country’s treatment of black Americans since its founding. Americans’ confidence in police appears shaken after a wave of national protests following Floyd’s killing. Compared with 2014, fewer Americans say they are confident that police are adequately trained to avoid using excessive force. Meanwhile, more people say recent police killings of black people are “a sign of broader problems” in police conduct.

Opposition grows to US agents in cities (AP) The Trump administration is facing growing pushback—in the courts and on the streets—to sending federal agents to Portland, Oregon, where protests have spiraled into violence, and vowing to do the same in other Democratic-led cities. Far from tamping down the unrest that followed George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, the presence of federal agents on the streets of progressive Portland—and particularly allegations they have whisked people away in unmarked cars without probable cause—has energized two months of nightly protests that had begun to devolve into smaller, chaotic crowds. President Donald Trump’s administration also faces multiple lawsuits questioning its authority to use broad policing powers in cities. One filed Tuesday says federal agents are violating protesters’ 10th Amendment rights by engaging in police activities designated to local and state governments. Oregon’s attorney general sued last week, asking a judge to block federal agents’ actions. The state argued that masked agents have arrested people on the street, far from the U.S. courthouse that’s become a target of vandalism, with no probable cause. The use of federal agents against the will of local officials also has set up the potential for a constitutional crisis, legal experts say. It could escalate if Trump sends federal agents elsewhere, as he says he plans to do, including to Democratic-led Chicago.

New Yorkers ditching city for elbow room fuel housing boom (AP) If the outbreak roars back in New York City, Anil and Joyce Lilly will not be sheltering again in their Bronx apartment. They just bought a house an hour north in the Hudson Valley. “We need more elbow room,” said Joyce Lilly, explaining their move to Washingtonville, New York. “Because we were locked into the apartment for three months, a solid three months, I feel like I’m getting out of prison and I want to run as far away as possible.” New Yorkers anxious after weathering the worst of the coronavirus pandemic are fueling a boom in home sales and rentals around the picturesque towns and wooded hills to the north. Real estate brokers and agents describe a red-hot market recently, with many house hunters able to work from home. “There has been a big uptick from Manhattan people, no doubt about that,” said Steven Domber, president of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Hudson Valley Properties. “Number one, it’s cabin fever, which is wanting to get out of an apartment and having some land if, God forbid, there’s a lockdown again.”

Powerful 7.8 quake hits Alaska isles (AP) A powerful 7.8 earthquake struck the Alaska Peninsula late Tuesday, triggering a tsunami warning that sent residents fleeing to higher ground before it was called off without any damaging waves. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the 7.8 magnitude quake struck Tuesday at 10:12 p.m. local time. The quake was centered in waters 65 miles (105 kilometers) south-southeast of Perryville, Alaska at a depth of 17 miles (28 km), deeper than an earlier estimate. According to the USGS, since 1900 there have been six other earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 and higher within 155 miles (250 km) of Tuesday’s quake. The largest of those was a 8.2 quake in 1938.

US Navy problems (Bloomberg) The inferno on the $4 billion USS Bonhomme Richard caps a dismal few years for the U.S. Navy, James Stavridis writes. The retired admiral and former NATO supreme allied commander points to a litany of black eyes, including a series of corruption scandals; two deadly collisions involving $3 billion Arleigh Burke-class destroyers; the mishandled prosecution of an accused war criminal; and the coronavirus outbreak on a nuclear aircraft carrier in which one crew member died, the commanding officer was relieved of duty, and the acting secretary of the Navy quit under pressure.

U.S. seeking arrest of Venezuela chief justice, offers reward for info (Reuters) The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Venezuelan Chief Justice Maikel Moreno and announced a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction for allegedly participating in transnational organized crime. In a statement, Moreno said Venezuela’s judiciary would not accept “tutelage” from a foreign government. The United States charged Moreno in March with money laundering under a round of indictments against Maduro and more than a dozen other top Venezuelan officials on charges of “narco-terrorism” in an escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign aimed at ousting the socialist leader.

Nearly 40% of Europeans in their late 20s still live at home (Quartz) Do you have fond memories of living with your parents? An attachment to the neighborhood where you grew up? For two in five Europeans in their late 20s, the four walls of their parents’ home is their daily reality. In 2017, 39.3% of young adults in the 28 countries of the European Union still lived with at least one parent, according to data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey. The proportions varied wildly between countries: While only 4% of Danes between 25 and 29 still lived at home in 2017, 75.4% of their Croatian peers did. Economists blame the phenomenon on the 2008 recession and the following European debt crisis, which created a “boomerang generation” that moved back home because they either couldn’t find jobs or were the first to lose them.

Fearing new coronavirus wave, Barcelona limits number of beach-goers (Reuters) Barcelona authorities on Tuesday cut the number of people allowed on to the city’s beaches to 32,000 from 38,000, after crowds flocked to the sea at the weekend despite advice to stay home to curb a local rise in coronavirus infections.

Ukrainian president ends hostage crisis (Foreign Policy) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was forced to record a video recommending a 2005 Joaquin Phoenix-narrated documentary on animal cruelty in order to help free 13 citizens being held hostage in the town of Lutsk. The demand was made by Maksym Kryvosh, an animal rights activist who had seized a bus and began an armed standoff with police with the 13 hostages on board. Shortly after the hostages were all freed, Zelensky deleted the video.

U.S. tells China to shut Houston consulate in move China calls ‘unprecedented escalation’ (Reuters) The United States has told the Chinese consulate in Houston to shut down in three days, citing a need to protect American intellectual property and information, amid a sharp deterioration in relations between the two countries. Beijing condemned the order and threatened retaliation. A source said China was considering closing the U.S. consulate in the city of Wuhan. Ties between the United States and China have become increasingly tense since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan at the beginning of the year.

Hong Kong orders masks indoors in public as daily cases hit record (Reuters) Hong Kong will extend strict social distancing measures from midnight on Wednesday, ordering masks in all indoor public areas including malls and markets, as the global financial hub reported a daily record increase of novel coronavirus cases. Hong Kong tightened social distancing measures in July after a spike of locally transmitted cases and as authorities warned about a third wave of infections. The new order for masks in indoor public places would be for two weeks.

Taiwanese rebranding (Foreign Policy) Taiwan’s legislature has voted to rename the country’s main flight carrier, currently known as China Airlines, and to remove the phrase Republic of China from Taiwanese passports. The increasingly anti-China mood in Taiwan is likely to produce more such rebrandings: The country’s official name, the Republic of China, is now seen as a holdover from a different era. Such moves are likely to produce hysterical reactions from Beijing, reemphasizing the need for Taiwan’s long-term national strategy of decoupling from its largest trade partner.

Crisis hits Lebanon’s hospitals, among the best in Mideast (AP) Lebanon’s hospitals, long considered among the best in the Middle East, are cracking under the country’s financial crisis, struggling to pay staff, keep equipment running or even stay open amid a surge in coronavirus cases. Private hospitals, the engine of the health system, warn they may have to shut down. Chronically underfunded public hospitals, which have led the fight against the virus, fear they will be overrun. Across the country, hospitals and doctors are reporting shortages in vital medical supplies such as anesthesia drugs and sutures. With power cuts that run through most of the day, they pour money into fuel for generators, and many are turning away non-critical cases to conserve resources. “The situation is really catastrophic, and we expect a total collapse if the government doesn’t come up with a rescue plan,” said Selim Abi Saleh, the head of the Physicians Union in northern Lebanon, one of the country’s poorest and most populated regions.

Aid from top donors drops even as need soars (AP) A new snapshot of the frantic global response to the coronavirus pandemic shows some of the world’s largest government donors of humanitarian aid are buckling under the strain: Funding commitments, for the virus and otherwise, have dropped by a third from the same period last year. At a time when billions of people are struggling with the pandemic and the ensuing economic collapse—on top of long-running disasters like famine, drought or unrest—more, not less, money is urgently needed. New virus protection equipment must be bought for almost everything, from maternity wards in African villages to women’s shelters in Syrian refugee camps. During the first five months of this year, overall aid commitments from the largest government donors were $16.9 billion, down from $23.9 billion in the same period last year, according to the new analysis, which drew on data from the United States, the United Kingdom, European Union institutions, Germany, France, Canada and others. Many of these donors—notably the U.K., whose aid commitments have dropped by nearly 50% from last year, according to the analysis—are struggling as their economies contract. The sheer magnitude of the crisis is another challenge as every part of the world needs help—and now.

Power cuts return, adding to frustrations in COVID-weary South Africa (Reuters) Keitumetse Modise was already struggling to juggle her appointments as a freelance beautician while home-schooling her daughter during South Africa’s nearly four-month-old COVID-19 lockdown. The last thing she needed was the lights going out. But after being forced to turn kitchen tables into classrooms and bedrooms into home offices, pandemic-weary South Africans now face an added challenge in the form of a familiar headache: rolling blackouts. Months of pandemic-induced shutdown and reduced demand had actually resulted in uncharacteristically reliable electricity for those stuck at home, as South Africa’s creaking grid was given some respite. Since last week however, with restrictions easing and businesses cautiously reopening, planned blackouts—known locally as loadshedding—are back and with them the frustration of unstable internet, lost revenue and disrupted schedules.

#headlines #news

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brien-odylan · 6 years

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Risky Business [Stiles Stilinski] - Chapter One

Summary: Y/N never wanted to be in the place she was. All she wanted to go was go back to her home and get back to work, but how when she was the most wanted woman to Phil Adams, Chicago’s most corrupt man?

Now, facing her new life in a new town, under the 24/7 surveillance of her designated FBI agent, Y/N has to deal with the terror of being found, the struggle to live another life and the urge of handling things herself.

World count: 2.4k

Warnings: mild violence, badass reader, corruption mentions and I guess that’s it...

A/N: This is... This is nervewrecking. Ok! First series with Stiles. Ever! I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m happy, I’m worried. I’ve been planning it for a while now and I just want to thank @redstringlovers, @stephobrien25, @disbestiles and for being so wonderful and giving me the thumbs up for this first chapter! Also @itsbilescallmebiles for encouraging me to write this story when I first got the idea, threatening to kill me if I didn’t and proof reading it for me! Thank you so much, girls!!! I hope you all enjoy what’s to come and... If you wanna be tagged, hit me up!

Series Masterlist | Masterlist

(gif not mine)

What determines one’s success and others’ failures? Could it be riches and gold, a beach house, a brand new car in the garage and international trips four times a year? Is it being proud to be in a high position at a company while knowing that that other person, who worked harder than you but didn’t have the chance to compete, is still struggling to make it out in the world? Not for Y/N Y/L/N.

For the 27 years old woman, being successful meant finally landing that job as D.A. in Chicago, the city where she had lived her entire life. It had always been her dream, ever since she was little girl watching criminal shows and seeing how they dealt with everything, from leading the case to a courthouse to convincing the jury that the defendant was guilty. Everything aside from that seemed meaningless. That was why, as she grew up, she found herself at the top of her classes, making way for a future career as a lawyer. It wasn’t easy and she had to make a lot of compromises, but it paid off as soon as she received her degree. The day she finally managed to get her dream job, she felt like her heart would explode; all the nights staying up and studying, all the family parties she didn’t attend because of a test or simply for a project. It felt rather minuscule at that moment, something so insignificant compared to what she just had conquered.

There was a long way to being one of the most prestigious D.A.’s, Y/N was aware of it, and there were a lot of people who seemed to envy the fact that such a young girl had managed to work for the city so early in her career, but it only worked as way for her to push herself harder and show them she meant business, that she didn’t get that job out of luck and that she was there to do her job properly. Her 88% rate of winning was showing that in plain sight to anyone who was willing to see. Of course there were those who still believed that a pretty face was enough to move mountains, but Y/N was so much more than that. She was intelligent, witty, fierce when she had to and gentle when needed. She had a way with words that made everyone pay attention to what she was saying; she had the power to make everyone believe what she was saying was how it actually happened. She was born to that job.

Maybe that was why she was chosen to lead that big case that had everyone on the edge of their seats as they waited for results to come. It had been an exhausting week, with evidences piling up against the defense and they still managing to make it look refutable. That is, until that morning.

The day had started out grey and chilly, nothing uncommon for December. As Y/N made her way to the courthouse, the pavement covered in dirty snow and slippery ice, all she had in mind was the final piece of evidence she had just found, something that made sure to win the case against the infamous Phil Adams, owner of a shady enterprise involved in a lot of corruption and extortion cases throughout the city, and it stunned Y/N how he could always get away with anything. But not this time, she thought to herself as she made her way through the marble halls, her high heels clicking against the floor and echoing off the walls. Her erect posture and serious face meant business and she wasn’t going to walk out of that court without another win on her resume.

As the room started filling in, she looked around and recognized the face of her boss, his head looking firmly at her, and she took a deep breath. It was all or nothing and she wasn’t going down without a fight.

Phil Adams showed up with his lawyer, his expression blasé, looking around as if it was a waste of his precious time, which he used to commit several crimes, his beady eyes stopping directly at the young D.A. with a wicked smirk. There was no way that little attorney was going to get him caught. He ran his business way before she was even born, his mind worked on its own accord, light years ahead of hers. She was going to lose so catastrophically it would be impossible to ever find a job in any of the 50 states of the country. And he couldn’t wait to see it happening.

However, what no one expected happened. In an amazing turn of events, Y/N stood up and dropped a thick stack of paper onto her desk, all eyes turning to the action, as she went on and on about those new-found evidence, linking the defendant to a series of corruption encounters. The defense bellowed, claiming that those evidences were never showed to them and that it could only be a farce coming from the prosecution trying to incriminate Adams, but as soon as Y/N showed them a video with the defendant making his so called business and how those evidences were just found the prior day, there was an uproar in the courthouse.

Phil stared at her angrily, his face contorting in a scowl as he watched the woman walk up to the judge, along with his lawyer, thinking of everything he would do to her once this was over. He had no idea how she had found all that evidence, but once he did, whoever had made that mistake was going to be terribly sorry. It was one thing to have all the stupid evidence she had before, but the video she had showed incriminated him in far more things than she was capable of knowing and could put him back on the federal’s radar, something he couldn’t have.

Whether the prosecution knew about it or not, they had enough to make Adams go straight to jail and as soon as the judge declared the defendant guilty. Y/N watched as the man looked at her darkly, but her smile never faltered. He was just another criminal who was sure he was going to get away from everything he had done just because she was new to this job, but, once more, she had proved them wrong. There was a double sense of justice to what she was doing, like proving everyone she was capable of everything and sending bad guys away just for a change.

And after another victory, she felt lighter; it was like the cold weather couldn’t get to her, it was like everyone could say what they wanted about her. Y/N felt like anyone could throw anything at her and she would still be able to dodge it, invencible. Maybe that was why she decided to go out with her friends, the first time she was treating herself in the past four months.

The bar was packed, there was no denying. It was a friday night and even though it was snowing outside, everyone seemed to be out of their houses and out in the street, meeting friends or just spending time in the company of a balcony surrounded by strangers and the constant smell of beer.

Y/N was no different. She was sitting by the further booth having a great time with her friends, her laugh echoing around the table as she tilted her head back, her eyes closed in pure delight. She couldn’t remember the last time she had had this much fun, her working consuming most of her time. It didn’t use to be like that. There was a time she used to have a time to spend with her closest friends, drinking, going to parties, talking nonsense into the late hours of the night or just heading out for dinner. That was until she got that job. She struggled to balance her social and professional life and, sometimes, she wished she could have those days back. She missed seeing her best friend for casual lunch dates, gossiping about everyone they knew; she missed spending time with her brother and annoying him, asking all about his girlfriend; she missed seeing her parents almost every night, their place being close to hers.

And it was sitting there, seeing everyone by her side and laughing with her that Y/N decided that she would compromise on having more time to the people she loved. She couldn’t be a career driven person like she had seen other become, she couldn’t let her life pass her by as she focused on winning cases.

The night, however, went away in a blur, but time flies when you’re having fun, Y/N thought when she checked her watch, her brain going all kinds of crazy when she saw it was nearly 2am. She still had three blocks to walk until she got to her building and judging by the looks on her friends’ faces, they weren’t in much better shape than her to offer her any kind of company.

That was why she found herself on the sidewalk all alone, a black thick coat wrapped around her frame as she made her way down the car free street, the lamps glowing dimly in the coldest night they had had so far. The chilly wind hitting her face served to wake her up a little bit, sober the attorney up and put her thoughts in the right track.

Carefully and hurriedly, her heels clicked against the dark pavement, leading her way to the brick building in front of her, the reception’s lamp glowing invitingly, welcoming her in the warm air inside.

What startled her the most, when she thought back about it, was that nothing was out of place. Everything was tied up and in the exact place she had left when she left for the court that morning; the dishes in the sink, the cardboard box of chinese take out on the coffee table, the rolled carpet by the wall - she had to fix it soon -, the chair she had left fallen to the ground when she grabbed her purse, but failed to get back in place when she saw she was going to be late, the light on her room was still on. Everything seemed in the most perfect peace, her apartment engulfed in the dim illumination coming from the moon shining over the living room window, making her avoid turning the lights on. And maybe that was her first mistake, because had she done it, she would have seen that she wasn’t as alone as she thought she was.

Hiding in the shadows, there he was, wearing all black, his feet stepping soundlessly on the tiles, his breath low enough so he couldn’t be heard. He had to be quiet and quick, that was his only thought as he attached the silencer to the gun, following her footsteps through the house. And maybe that was his first mistake, because Y/N Y/L/N wasn’t as defenseless as he presumed.

At first it seemed like she had imagined things, a trick of her mind as she walked further into the apartment, something that always happened when she was younger. And even if she had cursed herself throughout the day for leaving the lights on in her room, Y/N would have to thank herself later, because it’s possible that it was that infuriating light was the thing that saved her.

The corridor had a window in the end, viewing the patio in the back of the building, something she had never cared much about, but not this time. Because it was through it that she saw someone behind her, a large silhouette moving in the back, approaching her with something that resembled a gun in his hands. Y/N knew right then that if she ever made it out alive, if she lived to see another day, she would accomplish all the resolutions she had made through the years. She would leave on vacations and buy the first ticket to Greece. She would start eating healthy. She would start jogging with her brother’s girlfriend every morning. She would recycle. She would take shorter showers.

But it all happened so fast, she barely had time to realize everything. One minute she was slowly turning around to see her attacker, face to face, and the other she was on the ground, her head heating the floor with a rather loud crack, her vision blurring , her mind going blank for a couple of seconds. She could feel someone hovering over her, his face hidden in the shadows, his breath hitting her skin. It was only possible to see his eyes, cold and lifeless, as if he had done it countless times and this was just another job to be finished soon.

Y/N couldn’t allow it. She hadn’t made it this far in life to be attacked inside her own house and end up dead.

Summoning strength from somewhere she had never seen before, she fought back, her hands grabbing the man’s hands and pushing it away from her, her entire body shaking and convulsing trying to get him off her, his weight holding her down. She could hear him grunting over her, his hands trying to shake hers off as he struggled to keep the aim at her, the gun dangerously slipping from his fingers as she kicked and turned, trying everything she could to get out of his hold.

And then she finally managed it, but she wasn’t exactly sure how it happened. She brought her knees up, hitting his back in the process rather forcefully, stunning the man a little bit, but it was enough to allow Y/N knock the gun out of his hand and bash his head with it, his body falling to her side as she struggled to get up and run out of the apartment, her steps erratic, her head pounding against her skull.

Running for her life, stumbling over her own feet, Y/N darted out of the building and into the street, her feet leading her to the closest police station in the dead of the night, her body screaming in pain now that the adrenaline had ran out of her body.

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wikifoxnews · 2 years

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Who was Alicia Reynaga ( Girl , 15, stabbed outside her California high school ) Wiki, Bio, Age, Crime, Arrest, Incident details, Investigations and More Facts

Alicia Reynaga Biography Alicia Reynaga Wiki

A man dubbed an "intruder" was arrested Monday in connection with the fatal assault of a 15-year-old girl outside her California high school in a "random act" of violence, police said. Police in Stockton, Calif., say a man parked his car in the parking lot across from Stagg High School around 11 a.m. and approached the student. He stabbed her multiple times before being "quickly apprehended by a Stockton Unified School District police officer," the Stockton Police Department said in a statement on Facebook.

Victim Identified

The girl, identified by family in local media as Alicia Reynaga , 15, was taken to hospital where she succumbed to her injuries, according to police.

Suspect Identified

Authorities say Anthony Gray, 52, is being held without bail at the San Joaquin County Jail in connection with the fatal stabbing, according to online records. Police said he was charged with murder. Police have arrested a 52-year-old man in the stabbing death of a 15-year-old girl on a California high school campus. A police statement says detectives believe it was a random act and are trying to determine the motive. https://t.co/f1Ev8AoH7f — The Associated Press (@AP) April 19, 2022 Stockton police spokesman Joe Silva told the Washington Post that the fatal stabbing "appears to be an accidental act" and that police are still investigating why the student was targeted. "We have no initial evidence that they knew each other," said Silva. Police stressed that "this is still an active investigation and we will release more information as it becomes available." It's unclear if Gray, who appears to live in Stockton, about 40 miles from Sacramento, has an attorney. Gray is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday afternoon, Silva said. The teen's fatal stabbing comes as classroom violence and safety remain a major issue for families and educators across the country. Gun violence in schools has received most of the attention, with more than 290,000 children in the United States having been exposed to gun violence during their school years since the Columbine High massacre in 1999. This has intensified as schools resumed in-person classes. back to school during the coronavirus pandemic with an increase in firearm-related incidents. Other examples included chilling reminders of how tragedy can strike outside or near a school. In Long Beach, California, Mona Rodriguez died last fall after a school security guard shot her car twice, hitting her in the back of the head, leaving her 18-year-old mother brain dead. . School warden Eddie F. Gonzalez was fired and pleaded not guilty to one murder charge. At a press conference Monday, Stockton Unified School District Superintendent John Ramirez Jr. prayed for the victim's family and district staff and said he "can't even imagine" what the girl's family is going through.

Additional safety measures

"It was a sad day for SUSD," the district wrote on Facebook. The district announced that additional safety measures will be taken on campus and that counselors, psychiatrists and psychologists will be at Stagg High throughout the week. "Security will continue to be a top priority," SUSD wrote. Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln (right) promised the district and city will work together to "identify additional actions and resources" to improve school safety. "My heart is broken by the violence that ended the life of a young student today," Lincoln said in a statement to KXTV in Sacramento. "No child should ever experience or witness such senseless acts of violence." On Monday night, many in the community mourned the loss of Alicia, whom her father Manuel Reynaga remembered as "an amazing girl" at a vigil outside the school. Reynaga told KCRA that her daughter was a strong student and a looker for the high school softball team. Alicia, who teammates and coaches called "Lala," was loved "more than anyone in the world" by those who knew her, Vincent Enriquez, a softball travel coach, told KOVR. "Who would want to do that to the boy?" says Enriquez. The father told local media he didn't know Gray, the man suspected of killing his daughter, and said Alicia had "no enemies." While Reynaga was overwhelmed with love and support for those who came out to honor her daughter, she said tragedy has yet to sink in. "I feel like a dream," he told KCRA. "We're just trying to wake up." Read the full article

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tyuiopsd · 3 years

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shunlongwei · 3 years

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AVX Corporation Https://www.slw-ele.com; Email: [email protected]

AVX Corporation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVX_Corporation AVX Corporation, is an American manufacturer of electronic components headquartered in Fountain Inn, South Carolina. It is the largest industrial employer in Horry County, South Carolina, with almost 1000 workers in Myrtle Beach and Conway. AVX has 9,900 employees and operates in the United States, Europe and Asia. AVX is a subsidiary of Kyocera Electronics Corporation.

2012 sales were $1.545 billion. Capital expenditure for the year 2010 was at a five-year low of $28.888 million 34.6% lower than the year before and sixty percent less than in 2008, earnings per share grew 78.7% even though total sales fell (although revenue grew with each successive quarter since April 2009)

Products

AVX has three business units. Passive Components includes electrical components for automotive braking, cell phones, copiers, hearing aids, and locomotives. KED Resale sells Kyocera products including ceramic and tantalum Capacitors. Connectors are used in the automotive and medical industries

Major customers of AVX include Motorola, Nokia and Robert Bosch GmbH.

Asia accounts for 45 percent of AVX sales.

Litigation

In 2007, Myrtle Beach property owners near the AVX plant filed suit, claiming trichloroethylene (TCE) used at the plant until the 1980s has polluted their neighborhood and lowered property values. Another lawsuit claimed the pollution had stopped a condominium development in the area. A consultant for one of the land owners, Horry Land Co., discovered the pollution in 2006 while doing environmental testing prior to development of a portion of the land. In 2009, AVX claimed Myrtle Beach Air Force Base caused at least part of the pollution, and the company added the air force to one of several lawsuits. A geologist for AVX claims the pollution could be cleaned up in five years and Horry Land is not entitled to compensation, while the consultant for Horry Land claims there is no way to tell how long cleanup will take, since AVX has been trying to clean up its own pollution for 28 years.

On February 22, 2010, federal judge Terry Wooten ruled that evidence in the Horry Land suit showed the plaintiffs were entitled to a trial. On February 23, 2011, the trial began in Florence, South Carolina. In May 2011, Wooten ruled that AVX caused the pollution, and county property records show that AVX purchased 21.5 acres of contaminated land for $4.6 million.

AVX appealed Wooten's 2011 decision on whether the air force should help with the cost of cleanup. S.C. DHEC stated in a March 13, 2012 letter that pollution in some areas came from AVX, but in one area another source was responsible. AVX argues that the government's expert, who said groundwater from the base flowed away from the polluted areas, was not qualified to testify about groundwater. The findings could influence an upcoming class-action lawsuit by property owners.

On Oct. 25, 2012, The Sun News reported that a panel of federal appeals court judges had indicated that they would not overturn a lower court's ruling, thereby granting the electronics components manufacturer a new trial on its groundwater contamination case. AVX claimed that U.S. District Court Judge Terry Wooten made a legal error in its 2011 trial by allowing an unqualified expert witness to testify.

On July 22, 2013, a jury was selected for the second of three lawsuits regarding pollution on land owned by JDS Development of Myrtle Beach LLC, which asked for damages and lost income from condominiums that were never built. AVX counters that the economic downturn caused the failure of the Southern Pines project, and blames the air force for part of the pollution. The suit was filed in 2008 and the trial was scheduled for 2012, but insufficient jurors led to a delay. The jury awarded $500,000 in actual damages and $250,000 in punitive damages to JDS, but AVX wanted that amount reduced to no more than $397,500, claiming JDS did not provide "expert testimony" to support its views, or evidence Southern Pines would have been a success.

On October 8, 2014, it was announced that AVX agreed to pay $1.2 million to the owners of 42 properties with TCE contamination. Property owners still needed to approve the settlement, which attorney Gene Connell called "reasonable." The agreement would mean the dismissal of a class-action suit filed nearly seven years earlier.

Documents filed August 5, 2015 show that property owners could sue AVX after a majority of the S.C. Supreme Court reversed a decision by Circuit Court Judge Benjamin Culbertson to dismiss their case. The ruling allows the determination of whether the facts of the case will result in a "stigma damages" policy.

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socialjusticeartshare · 3 years

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When Will the US End Magdalena Hernández’s Family Separation Nightmare?

She arrived at the border with two of her daughters in 2017. They haven’t seen each other since.

In the summer of 2019, Magdalena Hernández Pérez and I were outside her home on the edge of Cubulco, a small city four hours north of Guatemala City. As her grandkids played on the patio, Hernández, looking burdened beyond her 39 years, sat on a teal chair that matched the wall behind her. “Why didn’t they respect my rights?” she asked in Spanish, her voice shaking, her cries evoking the distinct guttural sounds I’d heard as my grandmother’s children stood over her casket.

The “they” Hernández was referring to were US border officials. Two years before we met, in December 2017, they put her in a frigid holding area at a detention center with her two youngest daughters, Mariana, who was 9 years old at the time, and Julieta, who was 16. (Their names are pseudonyms.) A week later, the family was transferred to a room at a second detention facility. The next afternoon, a border official called Hernández’s name and she raised her hand. Three officials then took her outside the room she’d been in with her daughters. A female guard shackled Hernández by the legs and hands as Julieta and Mariana looked on. When Hernández asked why she was being shackled, one of the officials said that if she resisted, she’d be treated “like she should be treated.”

Mariana cried and screamed, demanding that her mom be let go; border officials still took Hernández away. “It’s never left my mind,” Julieta said about that moment. “It was a horribly traumatic because I never thought I’d see my mom like that.” The two girls began to feel better after two officials reassured them that it was only a matter of time before they were going to be taken to join their mother. “They tricked us,” Julieta said. They ended up at a shelter in California with no idea where their mother was.

They haven’t seen her since. After being pulled away from her daughters, Hernández was led to a bus that transferred her to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Arizona, about two hours north of the border. Along the way, she couldn’t stop wondering where her daughters were: How were they? Who was taking care of them now that she couldn’t? During parts of the ride, she wanted to die. During others, she felt like she’d already been killed.

For the next month or so Hernández had no idea where her kids were, despite her pleas for information from immigration officials. In February 2018, after two months of detention in Arizona, ICE deported Hernández. She left the United States by herself. When she got off the plane in Guatemala City, she still hadn’t been able to talk her daughters. “I returned to my country destroyed,” Hernández said.

“I returned to my country destroyed.”

Hernández’s family is one of thousands that was separated during the Trump administration. Many have been reunited in response to a class-action lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2018. But Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s lead attorney in that lawsuit, said there are more than a thousand parents like Hernández who were deported without their kids and have yet to be reunited. And yet, even within that group, Hernández’s situation is unusual. Separated children whose parents were deported alone were usually released from government shelters to live with relatives or family friends who were already in the United States. Ending up as Mariana and Julieta did, was rare.

In that first conversation, when I asked Hernández where Mariana and Julieta were now, she took out her phone and pulled up a photo. It showed Mariana looking happy on a California beach next to a few other Latin American children. She was living with foster parents in what had become her new family. Photos like this one and phone calls were the only threads that kept Hernández present in Mariana’s life. Hernández had more contact with Julieta, who’d left the foster family she and Mariana were placed with when she turned 18, joining relatives in Tennessee. She too lost touch with her sister. The Hernández family that arrived at the border together was split between two coasts and two countries.

Now, as the Biden administration has made family reunification a priority, they finally have some hope of being reunited—although what that will look and when it will happen remains to be seen. In early February, it created a task force to figure out how to reunify separated families to “the greatest extent possible.” Soon after, the administration announced that Michelle Brané, a highly respected advocate for migrant women and children, would serve as the task force’s executive director. The group’s initial report and recommendations are due by June. For parents like Hernández, they will be long months. And even with seamless logistics, no government action will undo the years of trauma that parents and children have now endured.

“This case perfectly exemplifies all of the trauma and the pain and the years of recovery that family separation is going to cause,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, the executive director of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, a Los Angeles nonprofit that has represented Julieta and Mariana. “It’s a microcosm of what happened to hundreds and thousands of people.” Toczylowski stressed that people like Hernández absolutely should be allowed to return to the United States for the opportunity to reunite with their kids.

Making matters all the more frustrating is that Hernández still does not have a clear explanation for why her children were separated from her. What she does know is that if immigration agents had dropped her and her daughters off at a shelter three years ago, the family would be together right now. “For the past three years, it’s felt like they killed me,” she said. “Because I haven’t been able to be close to my little girl.”

“I want to see Mariana because she’s the youngest,” Hernández said. “I want to be with her and hug her and tell her how much I love her.” She prays to God that, one day, there will be justice.

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#separating migrant chlldren #separated familiies

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