The Daily Moth 11-15-19
House’s second impeachment hearing; Roger Stone found guilty on all counts | NFL player Myles Garrett suspended rest of season; Update on Santa Clarita shooting | “Egregious conduct”: Deaf woman ordered to pay at least $223k for stealing from Kendall PTA | Deaf American tourist’s account of Venice floods | Deaf Bing Icicles
[Transcript] Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Friday, November 15. Ready for news?
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House’s second impeachment hearing; Roger Stone found guilty on all counts
Here are two political news.
Today was the House’s second public impeachment hearing. The witness was Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. She was mentioned during the July 25 call between Trump and the new Ukrainian president Zelensky — Trump said “the woman” was “bad news” and that “she would go through some things.”
Zelensky said he agreed that she was a bad ambassador because she had a lousy attitude and wouldn’t accept him as a new president, that she preferred the previous one.
Marie worked in the State Department for 33 years until Trump removed her in May. She said Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani used a “smear campaign” to push her out of her job. She said she thinks Giuliani and his associates Mr. Parnas and Mr. Fruman, who were recently arrested by federal authorities and charged with campaign finance crimes, wanted her out so the “Ukrainian establishment” could do things that were not in the interests of the United States.
President Trump tweeted a criticism of Marie during the testimony by saying she did a bad job in Somalia and in Ukraine. Democratic lawmakers seized this moment to say it was illegal witness tampering / intimidation. Marie told the House Intelligence Chairman Schiff (D-Calif) that Trump’s tweet was very intimidating.
Republicans’ counsel Steve Castor asked Marie if there was any effort from Ukraine before the 2016 election to politically harm Donald Trump. Marie said she has no knowledge of any such efforts.
The House Intelligence Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif) read a newly-released rough transcript of a phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president that took place on April, three months before the second phone call that the whistleblower reported on. The memo, which is not a verbatim transcript, showed that Trump congratulated Zelensky on winning the election and invited him to the White House. There was no mention of an investigation and Republicans said this showed that Trump did nothing wrong.
On Thursday (yesterday), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump bribed Ukraine by granting or withholding military assistance in return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the elections.
The second news — Roger Stone was found guilty of lying to Congress, obstruction, and witness tampering by a jury in federal court in Washington D.C. He was accused of lying to Congress about his contacts with Wikileaks during the 2016 election. He was also accused of threatening another witness before he was to talk with Congress. Federal prosecutors said Stone lied to protect Trump from embarrassment.
Fox News reported that during the trial, several witnesses said Stone was an “access point” between the Trump campaign and Wikileaks. Before the 2016 election, Wikileaks released tens of thousands of emails that the U.S. said Russia hacked from the Democratic National Committee and from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta.
Stone will be sentenced on February 6. He faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, but he is expected to get less time because he is a first-time offender.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/impeachment-hearing-11-15-19/index.html
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ousted-ambassador-marie-yovanovitch-testifies-trump-impeachment-hearings
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/15/trump-friend-roger-stone-found-guilty-of-lying-to-congress.html
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/roger-stone-found-guilty-in-trial-stemming-from-mueller-probe
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/roger-stone-jury-weighs-evidence-and-a-defense-move-to-make-case-about-mueller/2019/11/15/554fff5a-06ff-11ea-8292-c46ee8cb3dce_story.html
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NFL player Myles Garrett suspended rest of season; Update on Santa Clarita shooting
Here are two top news briefs.
The first — Cleveland Browns defensive lineman Myles Garrett was suspended by the NFL for the rest of the season and the postseason without pay for ripping off Pittsburgh Steelers QB Mason Rudolph’s helmet and swinging it on his head at the end of a game last night. The NFL said in a statement that Garrett used the helmet as a weapon.
There was a brawl between Browns and Steelers players after the helmet-swinging incident. A Steelers offensive lineman was suspended three games without pay for punching and kicking Garrett, and one Browns defensive lineman was suspended one game without pay for pushing Rudolph to the ground. Both NFL teams were fined $250,000.
Garrett apologized today, saying he made a terrible mistake and that he lost his cool. He is 23 years old and is in his third NFL season. He will have to meet with the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell before he can be reinstated and pay an individual fine.
The second news brief — the suspected student shooter at a high school in Santa Clarita, California has been identified as Nathaniel Berhow. He is a sophomore at Saugus High School and yesterday, on his birthday, allegedly opened fire on his classmates before shooting himself.
Two students died, a 15-year-old girl named Grace A. Muehlberger, and a 14-year-old boy who has not been identified at the time of signing.
Three other students were injured but are expected to recover. One has been released from a hospital and two others are still at a hospital but is in good condition.
Berhow is still in critical condition at a hospital. Police said his father, who died in 2017, was a hunter and had firearms, and that police found several firearms in his home. Police also said he had knowledge on how to use weapons. It is not known what his motive was.
https://nypost.com/2019/11/15/myles-garrett-suspended-indefinitely-for-browns-steelers-fight/
https://nypost.com/2019/11/15/myles-garrett-apologizes-for-mason-rudolph-helmet-attack/
https://heavy.com/news/2019/11/nathaniel-berhow/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/11/15/santa-clarita-shooting-saugus-high-school-what-we-know/4197964002/
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/santa-clarita-high-school-shooting-11-15-2019/index.html
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“Egregious conduct”: Deaf woman ordered to pay at least $223k for stealing from Kendall PTA
A judge from the D.C. Superior Court has ordered a former Kendall Parent Teacher Association treasurer, Jenny Nygaard, to pay back at least $223,000 in compensatory and punitive damages and attorney fees to the KPTA.
The KPTA sued Nygaard about six months ago and accused her of stealing almost $80,000 from the KPTA’s bank account when she was a treasurer from 2011 to 2016. The lawsuit said Nygaard used the money in a myriad of ways, such as cruise vacations, flight tickets, mortgage payments, Starbucks gift cards, clothing, and tanning and nail salons. The lawsuit said Nygaard admitted to “financial mismanagement” after she was confronted in January 2017 by the then-KPTA president.
According to an online court filings, Nygaard did not show up for the initial scheduling conference on August 30, which resulted in the court ordering a default against her.
There was an ex parte (one party only) proof hearing on November 1st, and Nygaard did not appear.
At a status hearing on the same day, Judge Yvonne Williams accepted the KPTA’s investigation that found Nygaard stole $78,956.06 through 364 separate transactions and that because she provided false financial reports to the KPTA, the organization lost $30,000 in revenue.
On November 5, Judge Williams ordered a total of $108,956.06 in compensatory damages and then slapped another $108,956.06 in punitive damages for the “egregious conduct of the defendant” during her “multi-year fraud.” The judge also awarded over $5,000 in attorney fees, but allowed the KPTA to provide additional documentation to show additional attorney fees. So the total awarded comes up to at least $223,000.
On November 8, the KPTA asked for an additional $25,000 for attorney fees, but said the actual costs were higher than $40,000 and that Nygaard made it more costly and complicated because she did not respond “multiple attempts” by their attorneys to meet. The KPTA also requested post-judgment interest until the amount is repaid.
It is not clear when the judge will make a decision on attorney fees.
The Daily Moth reached out to the KPTA President Chad Taylor on what steps the KPTA will do to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again. He said that they completed a review and adopted new procedures to prevent and detect any attempt to misappropriate funds.
The KPTA is not able to provide comments on the case because litigation is still pending.
I reached out to a Facebook account with Jenny Nygaard’s name on it, but did not get an immediate response.
https://www.dailymoth.com/blog/kendall-pta-alleges-former-treasurer-stole-over-80000
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Deaf American tourist’s account of Venice floods
On Wednesday I reported that there were severe flooding in Venice, Italy from a 6 feet, 2 inches tide that caused widespread damage. A Deaf American tourist, Brandon Henry, was there and experienced the floods firsthand. He sent videos to describe it.
BRANDON HENRY:
Hey, I’m Brandon Henry. I’m here in Venice, Italy. I’ve been traveling for about a month and a half now. I thought it was time to visit Venice and hoped to meet some deaf people here, but unfortunately, I did not. I had arrived the night before the incident. I had spent the night and got up in the morning ready to explore Venice. When I went outside, I saw that there was flooding. People were wearing their rain boots, raincoats and protective coverings for their shoes. Even though this was surprising to me, I didn’t take it that seriously until I arrived at a bridge I wanted to across. The bridge was covered by the floodwater. I ended up having to buy something to cover up my shoes. There was one place I had really wanted to visit: the St. Mark’s Square. As I got closer, it became apparent that I wasn’t going to be able to get in. The flooding was so deep that I would’ve had to swim to get there. It took me awhile to consider it because I really wanted to go, but I eventually gave up on the idea. On my way back, I saw a lot of property damage and stores closing, but some of them were still in operation. Some people didn’t pay much mind to walking in the water while some of the stores were under duress, trying to pump water out of their stores. About half of them were affected by this while the other half weren’t. As I walked further, I saw even more damage and then I arrived at my hotel room to check the news. It was then I finally understood that an actual emergency had been declared. I was like, “Oh, no wonder!”
It was incredible spending my day seeing all these damages and seeing some stores reacting differently to this crisis. What a wild experience that was for me! But Venice is still a beautiful city! It’s still a must-visit!
Thank you, Brandon for sharing.
NPR reported that Venice has declared a state of emergency and that the Italian Prime Minister Conte and his administration has approved an emergency fund of 20 million euros.
Venice does experience flooding often, but not at this scale. The mayor of Venice said it was because of climate change. There is a large project called MOSE to build some kind of barrier against flooding, but it has been delayed and is expected to be completed in 2021.
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Deaf Bing: Icicles
ALEX:
Since I moved here in the Detroit area, I’ve noticed a Deaf Bing. It’s dangerous to sign. Look.
I grew up…
That! See! It’s very dangerous!
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That is all for this week. Thank you for watching “The Daily Moth!” Have a nice weekend and stay with the light!
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