Northeast
Justin Timberlake’s DWI joke angers mom of drunken-driving victim: 'He lost a fan'
The mother of a drunken-driving crash victim is speaking out to express her disappointment after Justin Timberlake appeared to make light of his June 18 DWI during a Saturday show in Boston.
“So, uh, is there anyone here tonight that is driving — no, I’m just kidding,” he said during the show, seemingly joking that members of his own audience might be driving under the influence. He went on to thank his fans for 30 years of support.
The former *NSYNC star was charged with one count of driving while intoxicated along with citations for failure to keep right and failure to stop at a stop sign for the alleged drunken-driving that occurred after midnight in the Hamptons in New York last month.
Sheila Lockwood, whose 23-year-old son, Austin, was killed by a drunken driver in 2018, told Fox News Digital that Timberlake has one fewer fan after his comments in Boston.
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The Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) national ambassador said “there is nothing funny about” the charges filed against the international pop star.
“It’s very disappointing. He has a huge platform that he could be using to bring awareness to this,” Lockwood said. “It is a national crisis. Every 79 seconds, someone’s killed or injured from drunk driving, and he’s standing on stage making a joke of it. It’s not funny.”
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Lockwood noted that Timberlake’s legal case is still ongoing and added that he “should have not mentioned anything about it at all” or instead taken “the opportunity to make it a teaching moment and raise awareness and admit that his choices were not good that night.”
“It’s not funny, and as a mom that has lost a son, it’s very disheartening. He lost a fan here. I don’t think it was appropriate, and there’s nothing funny about it. What message does it send to young fans?” she said.
VIDEO SHOWS JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE DRIVING MOMENTS BEFORE DWI ARREST
Thirty-seven people die of drunken driving per day in the United States, Lockwood noted. Her son Austin became one of those 37 people on June 10, 2018. He left Illinois on June 8, headed for Wisconsin to clean out an acquaintance’s cabin because he “would do anything for anybody,” she said.
He was driving with a friend on June 10, a Saturday evening, when the friend “decided to go over 70 miles an hour on a very dangerous tree-lined narrow road and slammed into a tree and took Austin’s life immediately,” Lockwood said. The driver was sentenced to three years in prison and four years of extended supervision.
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE’S RESPONSIBLE DRINKING COMMERCIAL WITH *NSYNC RESURFACES AFTER DWI ARREST
MADD CEO Stacey Stewart similarly told Fox News Digital that the organization as a whole is “profoundly disappointed by Justin Timberlake’s recent remarks at a concert where he made light of drunk driving, which is a serious crime that has devastating consequences.”
“Drunk driving fatalities have increased by 33% since 2019. More than 13,000 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes in 2022,” Stewart noted. “Impaired driving is never a laughing matter. It is alarming and disheartening when a public figure trivializes such a critical issue. Timberlake has a significant platform and the opportunity to influence millions. Rather than making a joke, he could use his voice to educate his audience about the dangers of impaired driving and encourage everyone to prioritize a safe ride home.”
WATCH:
Stewart added that MADD is looking toward different solutions to “end this worsening public health crisis,” including “impaired driving prevention technology” in all new vehicles through the federal HALT Act.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Timberlake’s lawyer and his media representatives.
Read the full article from Here
Vermont
Advocates Push Metro and L.A. City for a More Multimodal Vermont Avenue; HLA Compliance Challenged – Streetsblog Los Angeles
This week saw the beginning of what could be the first legal challenge under the city’s half-year-old Measure HLA requirements. Metro is looking to make significant changes to Vermont Avenue, mainly new bus lanes. Advocates say Metro needs to think bigger; Streets for All says the latest plan falls short of complying with HLA.
Vermont Avenue has long been among Metro’s (and the nation’s) highest ridership bus streets. For at least a decade, Metro has been glacially slowly planning Vermont Avenue bus improvements. The project gained momentum with 2016 Measure M funding, but Metro studies in 2018 and in 2019 didn’t quite get the fiscally-cheap and politically-expensive project ready for its c. 2024 scheduled groundbreaking.
Recently Metro scaled back what might have been 12 miles of full-fledged Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) to about six miles of bus lanes and bus stop improvements (details below). Unspecified, unfunded future phases remain a possibility.
Advocates see Vermont as a key opportunity. If you can’t go big, be thorough, and make transit and transit riders a top priority on one of Metro’s and the nation’s highest ridership corridors, where can you?
The Alliance for Community Transit (ACT-LA) is currently circulating a letter (sign on as an individual or organization) in support of improving Vermont for people on bus, bike, and on foot – from Sunset Boulevard to the Metro C (Green) Line Athens Station. ACT-LA and two dozen organizations are calling for following features all along the nearly 12-mile-long project:
- uninterrupted bus lanes
- protected bike lanes
- pedestrian scrambles at high injury and bus transfer intersections
- tree planting, non-hostile shelters, signage, wayfinding, trash bins, and a bus rider bill of rights at every stop
- wait time displays and public water at all major intersections
- electrification of buses along the corridor
- preserving all street vending and expanding the sidewalk in areas with high vending concentrations
For the near term, Metro is looking to spend its Vermont Measure M funds on a much less expansive project.
According to a recent Vermont Transit Corridor presentation, Metro is looking to add about six miles of bus lanes (2.5 miles from Sunset to Wilshire Boulevard and 3.7 miles from Gage Avenue to the C Line). Metro would also add “light rail-like stations with enhanced shelters and more passenger amenities for comfort and safety,” featuring off-bus fare payment, all-door boarding, and “bus bulbs at stations [that] would extend the pedestrian area and shorten crossings with less exposure to vehicle traffic.”
Metro is including little for pedestrians, and nothing for cyclists.
In the same presentation, Metro asserts that the project is consistent with the city’s Mobility Plan and that it “helps support” the city’s Measure HLA.
Streets for All disagrees.
The city Mobility Plan 2035 [map] designates all 12 miles of the Vermont Transit Corridor project for bus, walk and bike upgrades. The entire length is designated to receive bus lanes and pedestrian enhancements. South of 60th Place (near Gage Avenue), the plan approved protected bike lanes, and from 60th Place north, unprotected bike lanes.
Measure HLA now requires that planned bus/bike/walk features are installed during nearly any city road work at least one-eighth of a mile long. Generally street resurfacing is what triggers HLA, but the law is a little broader than just resurfacing. HLA requirements are triggered by “any paving project or other modification” excluding really small stuff: “restriping of the road without making
other improvements, routine pothole repair, utility cuts, or emergency repairs.”
For about six miles of Vermont, Metro is planning new bus lanes, new BRT stations, while omitting planned bike upgrades.
This week, the advocacy group Streets for All, the main proponent of Measure HLA and one of the signatories of the ACT-LA letter, wrote to Mayor Karen Bass and Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins in support of Metro’s Vermont project proceeding in full compliance with Measure HLA. The letter states:
As designed, the BRT project brings (welcome) improvements to Vermont Avenue… Those trigger the City’s obligation to install Mobility Plan enhancements. Therefore, were the City to issue permits for the project without assuring implementation of its Mobility Plan enhancements at the same time, the City would violate its ordinance, waste public funds, and allow Vermont’s dangerous conditions to remain despite the voters’ mandate.
Streets for All notes that the project complies with the city’s plan for transit and pedestrian facilities, but not for bikeways.
It is not entirely clear what is behind Metro’s omission of planned Vermont Avenue bike lanes. The fiscal cost of adding bike lanes (contrary to pre-HLA fearmongering) is minimal, especially during any kind of restriping. There are political costs, though, in re-allocating car space to bikeways. Especially north of Gage, adding the approved bike lanes will mean reducing on-street parking (or narrowing/eliminating car travel lanes), which the city and Metro have been reluctant to do, even in population-rich, transit-rich locations like Vermont Avenue.
SFA’s letter notes that there are other projects that Metro is doing in L.A. City that don’t comply with Measure HLA. Sadly, Metro has a history of omitting planned bike facilities – from downtown L.A. subway stations to Rosa Parks Station to many other projects. Streetsblog has compiled a list of several future Metro projects that do not appear to be in compliance with the city’s Mobility Plan (it’s unlikely that this list is comprehensive):
105 Freeway Express Lanes
Metro and Caltrans planned 105 Freeway Express Lanes project includes widening several surface streets leading to the freeway: Central Avenue, Fir Street, Bullis Road, Harris Avenue, and Imperial Highway. Some of these are outside the city, but Metro plans to widen L.A.’s 90-feet-wide Central Avenue by 11 feet to add more car capacity. The Mobility Plan calls for narrowing Central to 70 feet and adding protected bike lanes, which are not in Metro’s plans.
East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor
MP2035 designates Van Nuys Boulevard for protected bike lanes for the entire 6+mile length of phase 1 of East San Fernando Valley light rail. Two miles of Van Nuys have existing unprotected bike lanes that appear to be slated for removal in Metro rail plans.
Florence Ave bus lanes
Metro plans to add about five miles of new bus lanes on Florence Avenue mostly in L.A. City (plus a short stretch in unincorporated L.A. County). The project was initially expected to be completed in 2023, but has been delayed multiple times. The project website now forecasts a Winter 2025 opening. Under Measure HLA, the L.A. City part of the project is now required to also add new bike lanes and pedestrian enhancements.
K Line Northern Extension
Planning is underway to extend the K Line north. Depending on the final alignment, the project will trigger numerous MP2035 upgrades, likely including:
- Crenshaw Boulevard: bus lanes, bike lanes, and walk enhancements
- Adams Boulevard: bike lanes and walk enhancements
- Venice Boulevard: bus lanes, bike lane upgrades and walk enhancements
- San Vicente Boulevard: bike lane upgrades and walk enhancements
- Fairfax Avenue: bus lanes, bike lanes, and walk enhancements
- La Brea Boulevard: bike lanes and walk enhancements
Wilshire D Line Subway
Prior to HLA, Metro asserted that D Line subway construction is not subject to the city’s Mobility Plan, as the full three sections of the project were environmentally cleared prior to 2015 MP2035 approval. Measure HLA makes no exceptions based on project approval dates, but applies to when street work (resurfacing, striping) takes place. Section 1 D Line subway construction street reconstruction (currently nearing completion) was perhaps too far along for HLA to trigger upgrades on Wilshire Boulevard, La Brea, and Fairfax. Section 2 construction could trigger Constellation Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars upgrades. Section 3 may trigger upgrades to Wilshire, Gayley Avenue, and Westwood Boulevard.
LinkUS Union Station Run-Through Tracks
Metro’s LinkUS project includes changes to North Main Street that appear to ignore Mobility Plan designations for bus lanes, protected bike lanes, and pedestrian enhancements.
Northeast
Soros-backed dark money network paid New York Dem candidate's salary: 'Incredibly problematic'
FIRST ON FOX: A top Democratic House recruit drew a salary worth tens of thousands of dollars from a left-wing dark money network heavily bankrolled by George Soros’ political empire, Fox News Digital has learned.
New York congressional candidate Laura Gillen, a town supervisor in the Long Island town of Hempstead, drew a $40,000 “fellow” salary with the group Our American Future Foundation (OAFF) in 2023, according to her financial disclosures. The group and a sister nonprofit, Our American Future Action, help pay expenses for individuals—overwhelmingly Democrats—who plan to run for office in the future.
According to the Open Society Foundations, the umbrella of groups founded by Soros, its Open Society Action Fund has donated more than $18 million to Our American Future Action “to support non-partisan policy advocacy and civic engagement.”
Tax filings show Our American Future Action is Our American Future Foundation’s “direct controlling entity.”
HOUSE OVERSIGHT PROBES FCC’S EXPEDITED APPROVAL OF SOROS PURCHASE OF 200+ RADIO STATIONS AHEAD OF ELECTION
A spokesperson for Our American Future Foundation told Fox News Digital the funding went to Our American Future Action and that Our American Future Foundation “has not received any funding from them.”
Our American Future Foundation also received direct support from the Soros empire. It got an undisclosed level of funding last year from the Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros Foundation, a charitable group run by one of the left-wing billionaire’s sons, tax filings show.
Jonathan and Jennifer Soros have also donated to Gillen’s campaign directly, each contributing $3,300 this year. Another Soros son, Robert Soros, donated $2,900 to Gillen’s unsuccessful 2022 campaign to unseat Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito.
“It is incredibly problematic that George Soros is paying candidates to run for office through a program disguised as a ‘fellowship,’” said Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of the nonprofit watchdog group Americans for Public Trust, in a statement to Fox News Digital.
WALZ BLASTED FOR HUDDLING WITH GEORGE SOROS’ SON AT NYC LUXURY APARTMENT: ‘BILLIONAIRE NEPO BABY’
“Voters should be seriously alarmed that Laura Gillen, who is claiming to run on ethics and transparency, is being personally propped up by a Soros group that is advocating for open borders, anti-police measures, and radical energy policies,” Sutherland continued. “This raises crucial questions about who Gillen will answer to if elected to Congress: the voters…or George Soros?”
Gillen has claimed that pointing out Soros funding for her campaign is responsible for “antisemitic violence.”
Rep. Dan Goldman, a fellow New York Democrat, has also accused D’Esposito, whom Gillen is challenging again this cycle, of “using a disgusting antisemitic trope” by pointing out Soros’ backing.
Soros’ groups have heavily funded organizations behind antisemitic protests since last year aimed at delegitimizing Israel and stopping U.S. support for its military campaign against the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
The Open Society Action Fund’s $18,055,000 in funding for Our American Future Action began in 2023 and was slated to finance activities stretching for 19 months, according to a grants database on the Open Society Foundations website. Tax filings indicate the Jonathan and Jennifer Alan Soros Foundation’s donation also came in 2023, the same year Gillen drew her fellowship salary.
The fellowship program is designed to provide aspiring political candidates, overwhelmingly Democrats, with money to cover basic living expenses while they focus on future political campaigns.
Several Democratic candidates in competitive 2024 contests have received funding from the group, including California’s Will Rollins, Nebraska’s Tony Vargas, Arizona’s Kirsten Engel and New York’s Josh Riley, according to the Washington Examiner.
In March, the Examiner first reported that the nonprofit watchdog group Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) was filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging OAFF’s payments to future House candidates violated federal law. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, OAFF is prohibited from spending money on political activity. However, FACT alleged its payments to eventual candidates for office were explicitly designed to advance their political prospects.
“The fellowship’s true purpose was explicitly described by its founder as a way to give money to failed candidates (or prospective candidates) for personal expenses in the brief downtime before they are able to file again to run for another office,” FACT wrote in its complaint. “Thus, the fellowship is directly tied to a federal candidacy and not for bona fide independent employment. Any claim otherwise would strain credulity.”
Soros has also poured millions into several other groups and committees backing Democrats throughout the 2024 cycle. His two super PACs – Democracy PAC and Democracy PAC II – have so far combined to shower left-wing groups with $53 million, Federal Election Commission records show.
Gillen recently benefited from one of the groups financed by the left-wing billionaire. On Aug. 2, Soros’ Democracy PAC sent $500,000 to the League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund, which weeks later spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on independent expenditures backing her candidacy in the form of digital production, ad buys, and other items. During that time, the group also backed Kamala Harris and a handful of other Democrats.
Gillen’s campaign and the Open Society Foundation did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Read the full article from Here
Boston, MA
Pot bot? Boston-based company sells AI robot that grows cannabis at your home
When someone told cannabis educator Casey Sanginario that a Boston-based company was selling a domestic robot that grows cannabis using artificial intelligence, she waived it off as entirely non-credible.
“My first thought was, there’s no way,” Sanginario said with a laugh after describing herself as a cannabis snob. “I’m in groves all the time. I have a lot of grow experience. Some of my best friends are growers. It’s a really complicated process – PH levels, humidity levels, temperature, regulation – bugs. The plant attracts bugs!”
Annaboto was founded two years ago with an aspiration to hydroponically solve food insecurity – allowing people to easily grow plant-based food at home. The uptake on that idea was slow so they pivoted to cannabis. Interest isn’t slow anymore. They’ve sold hundreds of units – shipping them around the country where cannabis is legal.
“People who use cannabis for health and wellness want something that’s clean – pesticide-free – and consistent so you can dose it accordingly,” said Annaboto Founder and CEO Carl Palme. “When you grow at home you get all those benefits, but growing at home is so challenging.”
The Justice Department officially proposed reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug. News4’s Jackie Bensen explains how it would ease restrictions on cannabis on the federal level if approved.
The promise of Annaboto is simplicity. All that’s needed are seeds and water. The robot does everything else: how much light to deploy, how many nutrients to dose – even when to turn on a fan to regulate odor. Plus, the robot’s artificial intelligence technology sends back lessons learned so the next 90-day harvest is supposed to be better than the last.
“We have machines all over the US and in Mexico. We’re learning from people growing in Arizona, Massachusetts and California and all of that information is being relayed back to us. The more data we get, the better the AI performs,” Palme said.
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