Kevin Clash, the voice of Sesame Street’s Elmo, agreed to pay his accuser $125,000, under one condition – that Sheldon Stephens retract the allegation that he was underage. Stephens alleged he was only 16 when Clash began an affair with him. Clash admits an affair , but insists it started when Stephens, now 23, was an adult. Stephens recanted his allegation days later, but only after a secret settlement was struck between the two parties. Under the terms of the settlement: Clash agreed to pay Stephens $125,000 . He releases a statement saying he [Stephens] wants it to be known that his sexual relationship with Mr. Clash was an adult consensual relationship. If Stephens is asked by anyone about his relationship with Clash, he must only repeat the statement in the settlement that recants his story. Although Sheldon Stephens signed the document, he insists Clash, now 52, had sex with him when he was a minor and was pressured into signing the settlement. According to TMZ, Stephens was crying during the final negotiations with Clash’s lawyer and repeatedly insisted he didn’t want to sign; he did, however. It’s unclear who leaked these details to the celebrity gossip site, but it makes you wonder.
Never before have officials been so celebrated. The NFL and its referees union signed an eight-year contract Wednesday night, ending their surprising labor stalemate in time for this week’s contests. Replacement Refs Screw the Green Bay Packers The regular NFL refs are back on the job today, scheduled to work Thursday’s Browns-Ravens as well as the week’s remaining games Sunday and Monday night. Their pending return was a source of jubilation among players and fans. If you haven’t been following it, the worst call in NFL history Monday night (above) sums it up. Incredibly, it took a full three-month lockout and three regular season weeks of bumbling replacement officials to compromise on a deal that should’ve been worked out ages ago. The two big sticking points: Referees’ pensions. The NFL’s desire to add a “taxi” squad of additional officials that could ostensibly be called in to replace underperforming regulars. Ravens Crowd Bullshit Chant Both were settled without the other side fully blinking, and the whole thing came down to incremental amounts of money relative to the NFL’s $9 billion business. The compromises they came up with in the end were pretty simple, which just makes the last month more ridiculous. But in any case, welcome back, zebras!
Hong Kong’s Cecil Chao Sze-tsung announced he would offer HK $500 million (about $65 million U.S.) to the man who can woo and marry his 33-year-old daughter, Gigi Chao. The challenge? The younger Chao is a lesbian. “It is an inducement to attract someone who has the talent but not the capital to start his own business,” the elder Chao, a property and shipping magnate, told the BBC. “I don’t mind whether he is rich or poor. The important thing is that he is generous and kind-hearted,” he added. “Gigi is a very good woman with both talents and looks.” “She is devoted to her parents, is generous and does volunteer work.” According to the South China Post, the announcement came just one week after Chao’s daughter revealed she married her female partner of seven years, Sean Eav, in France. The tycoon, 76, called this “false.” According to the article, same-sex marriage is not legally recognized in Hong Kong, although civil unions are performed in France. Chao, whom the newspaper describes as “Hong Kong’s pre-eminent playboy tycoon,” told the BBC that Gigi Chao was single and needed a “good husband.” Chao has never married himself, and once claimed to have slept with 10,000 women. According to the BBC, Chao said he wouldn’t force Gigi to marry a man against her will. Gigi Chao runs Haut Monde Talent, a modeling and public relations company. She is the first of three children that Chao had with different women.
The University of California will pay about $1 million to 21 UC-Davis students who were pepper-sprayed during a peaceful campus protest last November. Police Pepper Spray UC-Davis Students A viral video showed an officer casually walking up to and aiming a thick stream of pepper spray directly into the faces of seated students at close range during an Occupy rally. The incident triggered outrage and an investigation. In the settlement, each student who filed suit against the college will each receive $30,000 and a handwritten apology from UC-Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi . In addition, the university system will pay $250,000 for the students’ legal fees. The university set aside $100,000 for additional students who wish to join the class-action suit. Students are set to receive up to $20,000 each depending on how many come forward. In the agreement obtained by ABC News, students will also receive ” reasonable assistance and counseling” for the “academic performance issues that arose as a result of the incident.”
Panera Bread Franchise Settles Discrimination Suit For $76K Looks like that shady Covelli Enterprises is going to pay up for telling this young brotha that he had to be a cook so “no blacks were in public view”… Via ABC News: An Ohio franchisee who runs several western Pennsylvania Panera Bread stores has agreed to pay more than $76,000 to settle discrimination claims by current and former black employees. Chief U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster on Monday told attorneys for Guy Vines, the black worker, and the company he sued in January, Warren, Ohio-based Covelli Enterprises, to advertise the settlement in newspapers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Kentucky and West Virginia, where Covelli operates Panera stores. Vines sued claiming he was denied promotions and made to work in the kitchen because company owner Sam Covelli didn’t want black employees in areas where the public was served. About 200 to 300 black workers may be entitled to money, Vines’ attorney, Samuel Cordes told the judge. According to online court records, Vines will receive $10,000 for being the lead plaintiff and Cordes will receive $66,000 in legal fees. In addition, Covelli must pay a yet-to-be determined amount based on how many current and former employees respond to the advertisements and file claims. Those workers will get 70 cents an hour for each hour they worked in excess of one year at any of Covelli’s Panera’s stores. That’s based upon how much money Covelli’s workers stood to gain had they been promoted after their first year. The settlement covers all current or former black employees who worked for Covelli for at least a year between Jan. 11, 2008 and Jan. 11, 2012 — the day Vines filed his lawsuit. Vines contends he was hired in November 2009 and quit in August 2011 over his alleged mistreatment. Cordes, who represented both men, said in Vines’ lawsuit that “African Americans were routinely assigned to jobs either in the back of the store washing dishes or doing food preparation so customers would not see them” and that top Covelli managers dictated that “people who are ‘Black, Fat, and/or ugly’ should never be permitted to work the cash registers.” SMH. Sounds like this azzholes need to cough up more than $76K to us!
Bishop Eddie Long’s wife Vanessa addressed the New Birth congregation recently about why she stayed by his side despite the allegations he was chopping down boy backs: HUH??? So basically she didn’t leave so that she could teach other women how to be doormats for their gay teenage boy lovin’ husbands? Can somebody who is buyin’ this isht she’s sellin’ please esplain!? We have a much simpler explanation actually, like maybe after he paid those boys their settlement gwap, there was still enough money left over to make it worth it for her? Just sayin’.
The non-governmental group B’Tselem released footage Sunday of a seemingly deadly stand-off that occurred Saturday between Israeli settlers and Palestinian men near the settlement of Yitzhar and the town of Asira al-Qibliya. In the video, a group of presumed Palestinians is throwing rocks at what… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Blaze Discovery Date : 20/05/2012 22:58 Number of articles : 3
Sketchers is being sued for putting it’s foot in its mouth for some sketchy advertising Skechers USA Inc. has reached a settlement of $40 million for charges filed by the Federal Trade Commission for false claims about weight loss. Skechers claims its Shape-Ups shoes help people lose weight, along with its Resistance Runners, Toners and Tone-Ups shoes: The settlement also bans Skechers from falsely representing studies on the shoes in the future, including the following: *claims about strengthening; *claims about weight loss; and *claims about any other health or fitness-related benefits from toning shoes, including claims regarding caloric expenditure, calorie burn, blood circulation, aerobic conditioning, muscle tone, and muscle activation. Part of the settlement also includes allowing any consumer that purchased these shoes to be eligible for a refund. Skechers is disputing the charges and currently seeking additional studies to validate their representation of the effectiveness of their shoe line. SMH!! What happened to good ole’ fashioned diet and exercise? You don’t see people suing the Jordan brand because they can’t dunk? Plus, no matter horribly shaped you are, even if you’re shaped like a stadium, you should never, ever, feel bad enough to wear shoes that look like this. They’re way more uglier than rolls or stretch marks could ever be. Source Continue reading →
Sketchers is being sued for putting it’s foot in its mouth for some sketchy advertising Skechers USA Inc. has reached a settlement of $40 million for charges filed by the Federal Trade Commission for false claims about weight loss. Skechers claims its Shape-Ups shoes help people lose weight, along with its Resistance Runners, Toners and Tone-Ups shoes: The settlement also bans Skechers from falsely representing studies on the shoes in the future, including the following: *claims about strengthening; *claims about weight loss; and *claims about any other health or fitness-related benefits from toning shoes, including claims regarding caloric expenditure, calorie burn, blood circulation, aerobic conditioning, muscle tone, and muscle activation. Part of the settlement also includes allowing any consumer that purchased these shoes to be eligible for a refund. Skechers is disputing the charges and currently seeking additional studies to validate their representation of the effectiveness of their shoe line. SMH!! What happened to good ole’ fashioned diet and exercise? You don’t see people suing the Jordan brand because they can’t dunk? Plus, no matter horribly shaped you are, even if you’re shaped like a stadium, you should never, ever, feel bad enough to wear shoes that look like this. They’re way more uglier than rolls or stretch marks could ever be. Source Continue reading →
The bad news is, if you already lost your home you’re not gonna get more than two stacks for your sorrows… The good news is, if your loan is bigger than what your house is worth, the bank has to restructure your loan and help you out! Here’s the details: Federal officials announced Thursday that 49 states have accepted a $25 billion foreclosure-abuse settlement with the five largest mortgage lenders — a deal that primarily helps underwater homeowners but pays just $2,000 to those already wrongly foreclosed upon. The bulk of the deal requires the banks to reduce some loans and refinance mortgages for underwater borrowers. Oklahoma was the lone holdout to the agreement. President Obama described the deal as a “landmark settlement” that would “begin to turn the page on an era of recklessness” while speeding relief to hard-hit homeowners. It is the biggest settlement involving a single industry since a 1998 multistate tobacco deal. Under the agreement, five major banks — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial — will reduce loans for nearly 1 million households. Those who lost their homes to foreclosure are unlikely to get their homes back or benefit much financially from the settlement. For those improperly foreclosed upon, the banks will cough up checks of $2,000 to about 750,000 Americans. The banks will have three years to fulfill the terms of the deal. The deal was geared more toward homeowners who are struggling to make payments now, yet still have possession of their homes. The agreement requires the banks to commit a staggering amount of money toward changing loan terms. At least $10 billion will go toward reducing the principal for borrowers who are delinquent or underwater borrowers at risk of default. At least $3 billion will go toward refinancing. Other payments will go toward state governments, and the federal government, to “repay public funds lost as a result of servicer misconduct,” according to the Justice Department. Obama, noting the damage the housing bubble did to the broader U.S. economy, said no single action would heal the housing market. But he described the settlement as an important step, one which would address alleged abuses by mortgage lenders — like using fake signatures in the foreclosure process. “These practices were plainly irresponsible, and we refused to let them go unanswered,” Obama said. All but one of the 50 states agreed to the deal. Oklahoma, the lone holdout, will receive no money. That state’s attorney general had opposed the massive fine included in the settlement, and reportedly was concerned the penalty went beyond the scope of the original investigation. Attorney General Eric Holder said the deal would “hold mortgage servicers accountable for abusive practices.” The conditions will be overseen by Joseph A. Smith Jr., North Carolina’s banking commissioner. Lenders that violate the deal could face $1 million penalties per violation and up to $5 million for repeat violators. During the financial and housing crisis, home values sank and millions edged toward foreclosure. Many companies processed foreclosures without verifying documents. Some employees signed papers they hadn’t read or used fake signatures to speed foreclosures — an action known as robo-signing. Under the deal, the 49 states have said they won’t pursue civil charges related to these types of abuses. Homeowners can still sue lenders in civil court on their own, and federal and state authorities can pursue criminal charges. Bank of America will pay the most to borrowers as part of the deal — nearly $8.6 billion. Wells Fargo will pay about $4.3 billion, JPMorgan Chase will pay roughly $4.2 billion, Citigroup will pay about $1.8 billion and Ally Financial will pay $200 million. This does not include $5.5 billion in federal and state payments. The deal also ends a separate investigation into Bank of America and Countrywide for inflating appraisals of loans from 2003 through most of 2009. Bank of America acquired Countrywide in 2008. The banks and U.S. state attorneys general agreed to the deal late Wednesday after 16 months of contentious negotiations. New York and California came on board late Wednesday. California has more than 2 million “underwater” borrowers, whose homes are worth less than their mortgages. New York has some 118,000 homeowners who are underwater. In addition to the payments and mortgage write-downs, the deal promises to reshape long-standing mortgage lending guidelines. It will make it easier for those at risk of foreclosure to make their payments and keep their homes. The settlement would apply only to privately held mortgages issued from 2008 through 2011. Banks own about half of all U.S. mortgages — roughly 30 million loans. Seems like Barry O meant what he said in his State of the Union Address after all. It’s not gonna make him too popular with the Wall Street cats, but he prolly lost that battle a long time ago. Hopefully this helps get America closer to where we need to be. Source More On Bossip! For The Conspiracy Theorists: A History Of Alllll The “Evidence” That Bey Was Never Carrying A Gut Full Of Anything Ho Sit Down: The Most Hated Sports Wives And Girlfriends Of All Time Are You My Daddy? Khloe Heats Up The DNA Debacle By Posing With Kris Jenner’s Ex-Jumpoff Hairdresser The Side-Eye: Ne-Yo Makes It Rain In An Atlanta Strip Club With His Baby Mama To Convince Us That He Isn’t Rooty-Tooty Fresh And Fruity [PICS]
