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Author: Jason Free

Former Yale ADMINISTRATOR STOLE $40 MILLION, pretending to buy computer equipment for the university. Instead, she bought a fleet of luxury cars, and several houses

By Lukas I. Alpert

A former administrator at the Yale University School of Medicine has pleaded guilty to stealing $40 million from the school in a nearly decade-long computer and electronics purchasing fraud.

Federal prosecutors say Jamie Petrone, 42, used the money to buy a fleet of luxury cars including Mercedes, Land Rovers and Cadillac Escalades, numerous properties in several states and to pay for lavish trips.

She pleaded guilty on Monday to wire fraud and filing false tax returns and faces up to 30 years in prison when she is sentenced in June. Until then, she is free on a $1 million bond. Her attorney didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.

Petrone began working for Yale in 1999 and for the medical school in 2008. She had most recently served as the director of finance for its emergency medicine department. As part of her job, she was able to authorize equipment purchases without additional approvals as long as the orders were below $10,000, prosecutors said.

Starting in 2013, prosecutors said Petrone began making numerous small orders of tablet computers and other equipment that were billed to the school. She would then sell them to a business in New York state and have them send money to the account of a wedding photography and videography company she controlled.

Prosecutors say that in 2021 alone, she purchased more than 8,000 tablet computers, all in orders smaller than $10,000. In one 10-week period that year, she ordered $2.1 million worth of equipment. 

Read the full article here:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/former-yale-administrator-stole-40-million-pretending-to-buy-computer-equipment-for-the-university-instead-she-bought-a-fleet-of-luxury-cars-and-three-houses-11648578254?siteid=yhoof2

It’s obvious no one else at Yale had anything to do with this crime spree.

Everyone knows how god damn dumb people at Yale are.

None of them could’ve possibly seen anything over the past decade that suggested $40 million was being stolen.

Again, over a decade.

$40 million.

At Yale.

Yeah, no one.

“Ms. Petrone will be punished for this selfish act of disloyalty and dishonesty. Thank you for coming. There’s nothing else to see here. We won’t be answering any other questions at this time. Thank you. The door is just behind you. Goodbye.”

The vast majority of young Americans likely to vote want Biden to act on student debt ‚Äî but MANY DON’T BELIEVE THEIR VOTES MAKE ‘A REAL DIFFERENCE,’ Harvard poll finds

Read the full article by Ayelet Sheffey HERE.

If you don’t believe your vote will matter, then what do you do?

Are you going to give up all control over your life and your future?

Are you going to follow the people who don’t give a fuck about you?

You could find other ways to be heard.

You could find ways to disrupt the bullshit.

You could push back.

You could, but most of you won’t.

And you will deserve exactly what they give you.

 

From school boards to statehouses, conservative Moms for Liberty PUSH TO GROW INFLUENCE

By James Oliphant

Last month, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds surrounded herself with members of the conservative parents-rights group Moms for Liberty when she signed a bill that outlawed transgender students from playing girls’ sports.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis invited a member of the group to stand alongside him weeks later as he signed a bill that allows parents more say in public school teaching materials.

Just over a year ago, Moms for Liberty formed with a few parents upset over their school districts’ COVID-19 mask mandates and raced-based equity initiatives. The group has since grown in size and influence, capturing the attention of Republican officials who recognize it has become a fulcrum for culture war issues that dovetail with education.

Moms for Liberty says it now has 80,000 members in 34 states, figures Reuters could not independently verify. Its leaders are looking to move beyond local school-board tussles and become a force in bigger political battles.

Read the full article here:

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2022-04-06/from-school-boards-to-statehouses-conservative-moms-for-liberty-push-to-grow-influence

Teacher who TRIED TO FORCE STUDENT to write Pledge of Allegiance settles lawsuit for $90,000

By Marina Pitofsky

A teacher who tried to force a student to write the Pledge of Allegiance settled a lawsuit with the former high schooler for $90,000.  

American Atheists, the organization that represented the nonreligious student, confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that the student‚Äôs 12th-grade sociology teacher at Klein Oak High School, located north of Houston, agreed to settle the case. The Texas Association of School Boards paid the settlement to resolve the case. 

“Nonreligious students often face bullying or harassment for expressing their deeply held convictions,” Nick Fish, president of American Atheists, said in the statement. “No one should have to endure the years of harassment, disrespect and bullying our client faced. The fact that this happened in a public school and at the hands of staff who should know better is particularly appalling.”  

The student in the case, identified as Mari Oliver in multiple reports, declined to recite the Pledge of Allegiance throughout her time in high school, objecting to the words ‚Äúunder God.‚Äù She also cited her ‚Äúbelief that the United States does not adequately guarantee ‚Äòliberty and justice for all,‚Äô especially for people of color,‚Äù according to the Tuesday statement.  

American Atheists said the teacher in the case, identified as Benjie Arnold, required Oliver and other students to write out the pledge in 2017, and, after Oliver refused, he told her she would be failed on an assignment. The organization said he also offered to pay students to move abroad if they had criticisms about the United States, but they would have to pay him double if they came back to the country.

According to the lawsuit filed by Oliver, Arnold compared people who refuse to say the pledge “to Soviet communists, members of the Islamic faith seeking to impose Sharia law, and those who condone pedophilia.”  

Read the full article here:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2022/03/30/pledge-allegiance-texas-lawsuit/7219791001/