One of the Outrages of the Day -- Not Totally Tragic or Political

April 12, 2024

A high school teacher in Texas has been arrested and accused of child sex trafficking. Cosmetology teacher Kedria Grigsby, 42, allegedly offered vulnerable runaway students a place to stay before then luring them into prostitution.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez shared on X:

According to prosecutors, she was allegedly aided in her efforts by her 21-year-old son, Roger Magee, to build a “prostitution enterprise.”  The victims were 15, 16, and 17-year-old students and had been reported as runaways.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/texas-high-school-teacher-allegedly-targeted-vulnerable-students/

Jan 31 2024:  Employee accused of stealing $103 million from Army

In early December 2023, a federal grand jury indicted a former civilian government worker, Janet Mello, on charges that she stole more than $100 million intended for a 4-H program for children of military families. The IRS discovered the alleged scheme and partnered with the Army to investigate, according to court documents.

Jan 23, 2024  Indian American Uses Position in Community to Attract Fellow Indians to a Ponsi Investment Scheme

A former Chapel Hill transportation engineer was sentenced to nearly four years in prison and was ordered to pay almost $1 million to his victims Tuesday after pleading guilty in federal court to a Ponzi investment-fraud scheme.  Kumar Arun Neppalli, 57, pleaded guilty in September to 17 counts of wire fraud, committed between December 2017 and May 2021, according to court documents. He resigned from his traffic planning job with the town of Chapel Hill in November 2021, after filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

“Neppalli was a conman running a classic ‘affinity fraud,’ targeting Indian-American investors in the Triangle for their hard-earned savings,” U.S. Attorney Michael Easley said. “It was a pure Ponzi scheme — stoking false hopes of financial success, but using new investor money to pay off earlier investors, while masquerading those payments as legitimate profits.”

Neppalli had worked for the town since 2000 and was a widely regarded member of the Triangle’s Indian American community, previously serving as vice president and president of the Triangle Area Telugu Association, and as a former board member with the Hindu Society of North Carolina. He also served for 11 years as president of his Twin Lakes Master Association in Cary.  Federal investigators said Neppalli, who lived in Cary, used his position in the community to defraud his victims, telling them that he had connections to real estate developers in the Orange County area through his job with the town and that he would invest their money in real estate projects.

A News & Observer investigation in 2021 revealed that Neppalli, a native of India, was accused of bilking 15 investors out of $1.9 million in business loans that he acquired through his connections with the Triangle’s Indian community.  Federal investigators said Neppalli would ask interested investors to provide money in a short amount of time, sometimes on the same day, to help close the transaction, according to a news release.

Neppalli promised to return their principal investment plus a profit within a few months, and often asked his victims not to discuss the transaction with other members of the Indian American community, they said, sometimes mentioning a non-disclosure agreement.  He used money from subsequent victims to repay earlier investors, investigators said.

A town spokesman told The N&O that Chapel Hill staff investigated Neppalli’s work but did not find any irregularities.

Sept. 11, 2023 LAPD Officer Takes Debit Card When Used at Police Station.  Later Videoed Using Card

The Los Angeles Police Department arrested one of their own for allegedly stealing a woman's debit card and using it at a home improvement store. Internal Affairs detectives started their investigation after a woman raised concerns about her missing debit card. While she recalled having it while inside a station, she later noticed unauthorized transactions on her bank statement. (She had used the card to bail someone out?)

The woman did her own investigating and obtained photos of a man buying items with her debit card at a home improvement store. She later forwarded the photos to LAPD.  Internal Affairs identified the suspect as Officer Edmond Babains, who spent 16 years with the department. He was most recently assigned to the Custody Services Division of the department.  "The allegations of an officer breaking public trust are extremely troubling and there must be accountability," This Department will fully cooperate with the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office in this matter."  

Babians was booked into jail but was released on "Own Recognizance" in accordance with the Los Angeles Superior Court bail policy, the department stated. Following his arrest, Babaians was stripped of his police powers and "assigned home" as he waits for the department to finish their administrative and criminal investigation.

https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/lapd-officer-arrested-for-stealing-residents-debit-card/

July 28, 2023  Not One Student Has Passed 8th Grade State Math Exam in Three Years

Lebron James’ I Promise School in Akron, Ohio is facing major backlash from Akron Public School Board members after it was reported that the school hasn’t had one student from its 8th grade class pass a state math test in over three years.  

Akron Public School board member Valerie McKitrick was shocked by the new revelation and stated “Not one? In three years?” after she was presented with data that showed not one single student in the school’s fall 8th-grade class could pass a Ohio stated math proficiency test.

Keith Liechty-Clifford who serves as Akron’s district director of school improvement went on record saying the new finding “Is discouraging.”

Despite receiving massive funding from the James Foundation along with local, state, and federal funding, the I Promise school’s “Black students and those with disabilities, are now testing in the bottom 5% in the state.”

July 27, 2023 Judge Scrolls on Phone During Murder Trial 

CHANDLER, Okla. (AP) — A new judge in Oklahoma is facing scrutiny after courtroom video showed her scrolling through social media and texting on her cellphone throughout the murder trial for a man accused in the fatal beating of a 2-year-old, a newspaper reports.
      Security video obtained by The Oklahoman shows Lincoln County District Judge Traci Soderstrom texting or messaging for minutes at a time during jury selection, opening statements and testimony in the trial for a man in the death of his girlfriend’s son. At one point, Soderstrom searched for a GIF, an animated image.

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An Oklahoma judge may be forced to step down for allegedly exchanging over 500 text messages with a bailiff in which she mocked trial participants and talked offensively about the state’s attorneys while she presided over a murder trial in June, according to a petition filed Tuesday.

Texts cited in the filing described Lincoln County District Judge Traci Soderstrom making fun of attorneys, jurors and witnesses and showing bias against state prosecutors while also showing bias in favor of the defendant and complimenting the defense attorney.

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 July 26, 2023 Why do we allow this to continue? (Sacramento Burlington)

26, 2023

Why do we allow this to continue.