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☆ Kobe Bryant's daughter Natalia, 19, seeks restraining order against alleged stalker
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Marlene Lenthang | Marlene Lenthang Is A Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Natalia Bryant, the daughter of the late basketball legend Kobe Bryant, has filed a request for a restraining order against an alleged stalker in Los Angeles, court records show. The 19-year-old University of Southern California student filed for a civil harassment restraining order on Monday against Dwayne Cortez Toliver Kemp, 32, of Sun Valley, California. The filing states that Kemp allegedly started to harass her on social media in 2020 when she was just 17-years-old and he was 30. "Thankful For Him Birthing You, Hopefully We Can Birth Him… ‘Kobe,’” he wrote, the filing said. Vanessa Bryant and Kobe Bryant with daughters Natalia Bryant and Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant, right, at a 2018 premiere in Los Angeles.

☆ Nigeria: TikTokers caned and ordered to wash toilets as court rules they defamed Nigerian governor
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Nimi Princewill | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Abuja, Nigeria CNN —Two TikTok comedians have been publicly whipped in Nigeria for making a video that a court in the northern Kano State ruled had defamed the state Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, according to a judicial spokesperson. The two friends, according to Ibrahim, were sentenced on Monday after being brought before a magistrate’s court on Friday. They didn’t even ask or beg for a lawyer to stand for them,” Ibrahim told CNN. “They were arraigned before the Kano State Magistrate Court for defaming the character of Governor Umar Ganduje on their TikTok social media account. They were also ordered to make a video on social media to publicly apologize to Governor Ganduje.

☆ Newly released Uvalde video shows officers discussing need to confront gunman, concerns about being shot
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Minyvonne Burke | Minyvonne Burke Is A Senior Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Newly released body camera video shows Texas law enforcement at the scene of the Uvalde school massacre discussing the need to confront the gunman, but expressing concerns about being shot. I wonder if we can get in there ... and maybe open that door," a trooper says in the video. People mourn at a memorial at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 28, 2022. During Thursday's public meeting in Austin, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw said that he does not believe the agency failed the community. Someone is heard in the video saying how there have been no attempts to negotiate with the gunman.

☆ Driver dies after getting pinned to a ticket machine while trying to leave an Atlanta parking garage
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Julianne Mcshane | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

A driver died in a freak accident Thursday morning after getting pinned to a ticket machine while trying to exit an Atlanta parking garage, police said. Police said the driver forgot to put his truck in park as he opened his door to reach the machine that operates the exit gate. The parking garage is used by The Starling Atlanta Midtown hotel, NBC affiliate WXIA of Atlanta reported. When she opened her door and leaned over to pick up the card, she inadvertently accelerated and hit the parking kiosk, according to police. Strauss, who became pinned between her car door and the door frame, died on the scene, police said.

☆ Officer who responded to Uvalde shooting has been fired, first from Texas state police
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Department of Public Safety fired an officer Friday who was at the scene of the Uvalde school massacre and becomes the first member of the state police force to lose their job in the fallout over the hesitant response to the May attack. Nearly 400 officers in all eventually made their way to the scene, including state police, Uvalde police, school officers and U.S. Border Patrol agents. But the Uvalde mayor, parents of the victims and some lawmakers have accused the Department of Public Safety of trying to minimize its own failures. One of the state troopers put under internal investigation was Crimson Elizondo, who resigned and later was hired by Uvalde schools to work as a campus police officer. She was fired less than 24 hours after outraged parents in Uvalde found out about her hiring.

☆ A GOP-backed Arizona college board candidate, who once said he wanted to protect children from 'the progressive left,' was charged for masturbating near a preschool, according to a police report
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

When confronted by the officer, Kaufman said "I'm sorry. On Tuesday, Kaufman told a KTVK local news outlet in a statement that he would be suspending his campaign. In a now-deleted post, according to HuffPost, Kaufman wrote about his desire to keep "our children protected [from] the progressive left." Kaufman's campaign Facebook page also previously showed that he was supported by local Republican groups, including the Republican Liberty Caucus of Arizona. Another organization, The Republican Party of Arizona, told local news station KNXV in a statement: "Every American citizen has the right to fair treatment throughout the judicial system.

☆ Ex-classmate convicted of murdering long-missing California student Kristin Smart
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 18 (Reuters) - A former classmate of Kristin Smart, the California college freshman whose 1996 disappearance long stood as one of the state's most sensational unsolved crimes, was found guilty on Tuesday of murdering her, prosecutors said. The guilty verdict against Paul Flores, who was arrested and charged with Smart's death in April 2021, almost a quarter-century after she vanished, was returned by a jury in Monterey County Superior Court. A separate jury found his elderly father, Ruben Flores, not guilty on a charge of helping to hide Smart's body. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterThe murder verdict was announced on the Facebook page of the San Luis Obispo County district Attorney, Dan Dow. The trials were moved from San Luis Obispo County in a change of venue requested by defense lawyers because of intense pretrial publicity surrounding the investigation.

☆ Stanford students call for accountability after second alleged rape reported in two months
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Julianne Mcshane | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Stanford University officials must do more to prevent sexual violence, support victims and hold perpetrators accountable, sexual violence prevention advocates on campus said this week, in the wake of the second alleged rape reported in as many months at the school. Student activists have also planned a protest for Friday afternoon, sponsored by the group Sexual Violence Free Stanford. The group also sponsored the resolution passed Thursday, along with two executive members of the Associated Students of Stanford University, which represents the student body. "Sexual violence is a very challenging issue that we and all universities have been working aggressively to address," Mostofi said. Thirteen percent of all students experience sexual assault, according to RAINN, which characterizes sexual assault on campuses as "pervasive."

☆ Twitter 'official partner' Dataminr, which police used to monitor Black Lives Matter protests, will soon get a surveillance contract for the White House
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Dataminr has a contract for surveilling social media and providing news alerts for the White House. Dataminr is in Twitter's official partner program, which gives it more access to Twitter data. Dataminr, one of Twitter's official partners, will soon get a new social-media-surveillance contract for the White House, according to a newly published government document. A contract justification document mentions that Dataminr would be used on a "Watch Floor," which refers to the watch floor of the White House Situation Room, Dataminr said. The DISA contract is the latest contract in Dataminr's controversial history.

☆ Stanford investigating report of a rape in basement of a university building
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-09 | by ( Julianne Mcshane | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Stanford University is investigating after a woman reported having been raped in the basement of a campus building Friday, the school announced Saturday, marking the second report of a rape on the elite Northern California campus in as many months. The alert indicates that the woman had made a report not with police but instead with a "mandated reporter," who then notified campus police. The university defines mandatory reporters as certain employees or people affiliated with the university, including contractors and volunteers, who are legally obligated to report specific crimes. Friday's reported assault follows another rape alleged to have occurred in a campus bathroom in August, according to an alert from that time. A spokesperson for the university did not respond to a question about whether the reported assaults Friday and in August might be connected.

☆ Democrats try to pre-empt the GOP's 'soft on crime' attacks. It may not work.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-09 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Jonathan-Allen-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Jonathan Allen | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

The rush to flash pro-cop credentials shows that Democrats anticipated a fresh wave of Republican attacks on crime and policing that are landing in House, Senate and state-level races. During the 2020 election, then-President Donald Trump warned voters that Democrats would be soft on crime and endanger communities. His aides said that the line of attack motivated base Republican voters and helped swing voters — particularly Latino voters in Florida and Texas — in the GOP’s direction. But some Democrats have decided the best answer this year is silence: Polls show crime just isn't a good issue for their party. Many Democratic candidates continue to focus on policy areas where more voters trust Democrats than Republicans to do a better job, including abortion, education and protecting democracy.

Administration officials are particularly worried that the tens of thousands of children at al-Hol are especially vulnerable to being recruited by ISIS or forced to join. Members of the Syrian Kurdish Asayish security forces inspect tents at the al-Hol camp in August during a security campaign against ISIS sleeper cells. U.S. officials have said that there is no military solution to al-Hol and that instead they are trying to stop the growth of ISIS through diplomatic outreach. The camp’s size and makeup dramatically changed in March 2019, when the Syrian Democratic Forces defeated ISIS fighters at Baghouz, Syria. The battle there was seen as ISIS’ last stand, and ISIS’ defeat marked the fall of its self-proclaimed caliphate.

Prosecutors with the 18th Judicial District and DEA agents seized 114 pounds of pure fentanyl in Colorado. A spokesman for the Colorado State Patrol, which made the initial discovery of the fentanyl, provided a blunt account of the botched operation. But after this story was published, a DEA official confirmed the seizure of 114 pounds of fentanyl. "DEA is relentlessly pursuing the individuals that were involved in the trafficking of the seized fentanyl and will continue to do so." “We’ve got a record amount of fentanyl involved here, in fact, enough fentanyl to kill everyone in the state of Colorado,” Figliuzzi said.

☆ Iran death toll rises as protests intensify
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Rights groups reported at least one more person was killed on Tuesday, which would take the death toll to least seven. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterAfter beginning on Saturday at Amini's funeral in Iran's Kurdistan province, protests have engulfed much of the country, prompting confrontations as security forces have sought to suppress them. Hengaw, the Kurdish rights group, said internet had been cut completely in the Kurdistan province, where protests have been particularly intense and Iran's Revolutionary Guards has a history of suppressing unrest. The governor of Kurdistan province has blamed the deaths of three men in Kurdistan province on unspecified terrorist groups. Hengaw has said they were killed when security forces opened fire.

☆ Beyond Meat COO Doug Ramsey arrested for allegedly biting man's nose after Arkansas college football game
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Amelia Lucas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Beyond Meat Chief Operating Officer Doug Ramsey was arrested this weekend after allegedly biting a man's nose in an Arkansas parking garage following a college football game. The altercation happened in a parking garage near Razorback Stadium after the University of Arkansas football game, according to a preliminary police report. Ramsey allegedly punched through the back windshield of a Subaru after it made contact with the front tire of Ramsey's car. The Subaru owner then got out of his car, and Ramsey allegedly started punching him and bit his nose, "ripping the flesh on the tip of the nose," according to the report. Prior to joining the maker of meat alternatives, Ramsey spent three decades at Tyson Foods, overseeing its poultry and McDonald's businesses.

☆ Washington, DC's police force is offering $20,000 bonuses to attract new officers amid labor shortage hiring struggles
▼ + stars: | 2022-06-21 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Washington, DC is giving new cops a $20,000 hiring bonus amid a "very challenging job market." New starters will be given $10,000 as an initial hiring bonus and a further $10,000 once they complete a 24-week training program at the police academy. The starting salary at the DC MPD is $60,199, which rises to $65,863 after an 18-month probationary period. The $20,000 hiring bonus effectively means an increase of 33% to the basic first-year salary. DC's bonus is part of Bowser's budget for the 2023 fiscal year, which includes an investment of around $30 million for MPD hiring, recruitment, and retention incentives.

☆ Research shows there are at least 5 proven ways to reduce police brutality — and 2 strategies that don't work
▼ + stars: | 2020-06-03 | by ( Michelle Mark | Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Here are five proven, data-based changes that could make a difference, and two approaches that don't seem to work, according to Campaign Zero. Track complaints about officers' use of forceMost complaints against officers aren't public, making them hard to track. These changes, along with requiring departments to report and publish online data on all uses of force, could reduce police violence. Body cameras are another method that haven't been proven effective when it comes to excessive force instances. Research has even shown that 93% of prosecutors' offices have used body cameras mostly in cases against citizens, not against police.

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