Plot Twist: Kavanaugh Accuser Sued Her Former Employer for Sexual Harassment. But That’s Not All.

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By Townhall. Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s third sexual assault accuser, Julie Swetnick, seems to have a few skeletons in her closet.

Swetnick, who accused Kavanaugh of gang raping her in high school, sued her former employer, New York Life Insurance Co., for sexual harassment, the Daily Wire reported. Her attorney was none other than Debra Katz, who is currently representing Kavanaugh’s initial accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. The company ultimately settled with Swetnick.

According to the Daily Caller News Foundation, she has had financial issues over the last few years:

Swetnick also claims to have a security clearance with the IRS despite having recently had a $40,000 judgement against her for unpaid taxes. She settled a $40,303 IRS judgement on March 23 of this year, according to a public records search. Maryland court records show a $62,821 tax lien filed against her on Oct. 2, 2015.

And, the icing on the cake? Swetnick’s ex-boyfriend, Richard Vinneccy, filed a restraining order against her. She allegedly threatened to kill him after he broke up with her, POLITICO reported. (Read more from “Plot Twist: Kavanaugh Accuser Sued Her Former Employer for Sexual Harassment. But That’s Not All.” HERE)

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Ex-Boyfriend Filed Restraining Order Against Third Kavanaugh Accuser

By Politico. Julie Swetnick, the woman who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and a friend of attending house parties where women — including herself — were sexually assaulted, had a restraining order filed against her years later in Miami by her former boyfriend.

A Miami-Dade County court docket shows a petition for injunction against Swetnick was filed March 1, 2001, by her former boyfriend, Richard Vinneccy, who told POLITICO Wednesday the two had dated for four years before they broke up. . .

According to Vinneccy, Swetnick threatened him after they broke up and even after he got married to his current wife and had a child.

“Right after I broke up with her, she was threatening my family, threatening my wife and threatening to do harm to my baby at that time,” Vinneccy said in a telephone interview with POLITICO. “I know a lot about her.”

“She’s not credible at all,” he said. “Not at all.” (Read more from “Ex-Boyfriend Filed Restraining Order Against Third Kavanaugh Accuser” HERE)

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Children’s Hospital Drops Gender Markers From Patient Wristbands

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Children’s Hospital Colorado has removed gender markers from patients’ wristbands as part of an effort to support their “unique gender identity.”

The hospital said its staff understands that it’s “not easy growing up with an expansive gender identity or expression,” and “believe[s] gender-diverse children need a stable support system as they navigate their transition.”

The idea was implemented on Sept. 20 after the hospital started a gender diversity task force, KUSA reported last week. The identifying markers were removed from wristbands in its Aurora hospital. . .

One patient, a teenager named Ben, said the change is “huge” for him, as he’s been going to the hospital for roughly two years and identifies as a female to male transgender person. . .

Ben is part of a group of around 800 patients at the hospital’s TRUE Center for Gender Diversity, which stands for trust, understand, respect and emerge. The hospital described the group as a “safe space.” (Read more from “Children’s Hospital Drops Gender Markers From Patient Wristbands” HERE)

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Army Col. Awarded $8.4 Million After Woman’s Sex Assault Allegations Blown Apart

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As official Washington is captivated by the drama surrounding decades-old allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, a former soldier whose career was cut short by similar allegations is trying to get out a message that accusations are not the same as the truth.

Back in 2013, Wil Riggins was an Army colonel who had been nominated for general, when Susan Shannon wrote on her blog that Riggins raped her at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point back in 1986, according to the Daily Mail.

Four years later, after Riggins had been denied his promotion based on the claim, a jury heard Riggins’ suit against Shannon and awarded him $8.4 million in damages, according to The Washington Post.

With that as the background, Riggins has been using his Twitter account to remind those rushing to judgment in the Kavanaugh case that regardless of what an accuser says, the truth may be very different.

Most of his posts are retweets of others who cite his case as a cautionary tale against believing any accuser at face value.

Riggins said that even though he was exonerated, he still suffered irreparable damage from the false claim.

This journey we’ve been on the last four years,” Riggins said, “it’s been a nightmare. … The large dollar amount is meaningless. All I was looking for was the opportunity to be vindicated, to set the record straight, to take every action to get my reputation back to where it was before the 15th of July, when she published that false accusation.”

Shannon entered West Point in 1983 and resigned in 1986. She never mentioned being raped until 2013. In a blog post, she named Riggins as her rapist and said she was drunk at the time. Despite Riggins’s denials, she has maintained that she told the truth in her blog post.

“Frankly the day I started saying his name was the day I started blaming him instead of myself,” Shannon told WJLA.

Riggins admitted he and Shannon had a sexual encounter in 1983, but had no relationship after that time. Shannon called that “a compete fabrication” and said Riggins “smugly admitted he did indeed rape” her.

However, after the verdict she did take down the posts she made about Riggins.

Stephen Horvath, Riggins’s lawyer said Riggins was able to win because, “Everything in that blog post was provably false and could not have happened.”

Riggins said that his effort to fight back was aimed at sending a message to those who make false accusations.

“This will discourage other false accusations but would not discourage legitimate accusations of sexual assault,” he said. (For more from the author of “Army Col. Awarded $8.4 Million After Woman’s Sex Assault Allegations Blown Apart” please click HERE)

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Mega-Pastor: Ten Commandments No Longer Applicable

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A mega-pastor of one of the largest “evangelical” churches in the U.S. is attacking the Old Testament again, this time insisting Jesus rendered the Ten Commandments null and void, issuing one new law “as a replacement for everything.”

Andy Stanley, pastor of the 34,000-member North Point Community Church in suburban Atlanta, who famously advised his flock to “unhitch” from the Old Testament in a sermon last spring, has now penned an article promoting his new book saying laws such as “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” and “Thou shalt not kill” are no longer relevant to Christians living in the New Covenant era.

“You’ve heard the story before: A group of Christians puts up a monument of the Ten Commandments in a public space or on government property,” begins Stanley in his article titled, “Why do Christians want to post the Ten Commandments and not the Sermon on the Mount?” “Someone says it violates the separation of church and state. The Christians say taking it down would violate their freedom of speech. There’s some back and forth in court and both sides say some not-so-great things about the other. Rinse and repeat. But how many times have you seen Christians trying to post the text of the sermon on the mount in a public place? Or the all-encompassing commandment Jesus gave us? ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another — John 13:34 The one commandment! Doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it? But if we’re going to create a monument to stand as a testament to our faith, shouldn’t it at least be a monument of something that actually applies to us?”

Stanley goes on to write that the Ten Commandments are from the Old Covenant, which he says “played a significant role in God’s creation of the nation of Israel. It gave them moral guidelines and helped separate this new nation from their neighbors. This was part of the formal agreement (or covenant) God created with his people, but Jesus’ death and resurrection signaled the end of that covenant and all the rules and regulations associated with it. Jesus didn’t issue his new command as an additional commandment to the existing list of commands. He didn’t say, ‘Here’s the 614th law.’ Jesus issued his new commandment as a replacement for everything in the existing list. Including the big ten. Just as his new covenant replaced the old covenant, Jesus’ new commandment replaced all the old commandments.”

The implications of that unequivocal statement have been staggering to other Christians who point out how the words of Jesus and the apostles seem to contradict them flatly and reject such a conclusion. (Read more from “Mega-Pastor: Ten Commandments No Longer Applicable” HERE)

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Bill Cosby Time Behind Bars Dramatically Cut After Deal Made

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By The Daily Caller. Bill Cosby will face a maximum of 10 years behind bars after prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to combine the counts against him into one after he was found guilty of sexual assault in April.

The 81-year-old disgraced actor appeared Monday in a Pennsylvania court room for his sentencing where he was facing a maximum of 30 years behind bars after a jury decided he was guilty on three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in Philadelphia in 2004, according to CNN.

“This is about a person who put himself in a situation of being a mentor, but we know he had other intentions just from the beginning,” District Attorney Kevin Steele explained during the hearing. “We know that from the statements he made.”

“What he saw in Andrea the first time he laid eyes on her. What his plan was,” he added. “To get to the point they were going to get to. And that didn’t involve consent.”

But Cosby’s defense lawyer Joseph P. Green argued that the actor was “not dangerous.” (Read more from “Bill Cosby Time Behind Bars Dramatically Cut After Deal Made” HERE)

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Bill Cosby Sentencing: Psychologist Says Threat to Women Remains

By The New York Times. In the first of two days of hearings to determine Bill Cosby’s sentence for sexual assault, a psychologist for a state panel testified that Mr. Cosby deserved to be categorized as a “sexually violent predator” because he had a personality disorder that pushed him to have sex with nonconsenting partners.

The finding by the psychologist for Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offenders Assessment Board can be a factor in sentencing and in the conditions imposed on a person found to be a predator, both in prison and afterward. But the final decision rests with Judge Steven T. O’Neill who is presiding over the hearing that could end Tuesday with one of the world’s best-known entertainers entering a prison cell.

Mr. Cosby’s lawyer, Joseph P. Green, had argued that Mr. Cosby’s age, 81, and legal blindness meant he was no risk, especially since there have been no new allegations of sexual abuse leveled against him since 2004. (Read more from “Bill Cosby Sentencing: Psychologist Says Threat to Women Remains” HERE)

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Woman Who Sheltered Hurricane Florence Animals Is Arrested

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A North Carolina woman was arrested Friday after 27 dogs and cats she took in during Hurricane Florence were confiscated from her shelter, investigators revealed.

Tammie Hedges, founder of Crazy’s Claws N Paws animal rescue, has been charged with practicing veterinary medicine without a license. She’s also charged with soliciting a donation of tramadol, a prescription painkiller sometimes used for dogs and cats. . .

In a statement, Wayne County officials said animal control officers had “serious concern regarding the practice of veterinary medicine without a license and the presence of controlled substances.”

Supporters are rushing to her defense. An online fundraising page has collected more than $11,000 for her legal defense as of Sunday night. (Read more from “Woman Who Sheltered Hurricane Florence Animals Is Charged With Practicing Veterinary Medicine Without License” HERE)

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Senator Took Money From Democrat Who Admitted to Hitting Wife

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Hawaii senator Mazie Hirono (D.) has stepped into the spotlight this week following sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, blaming “men in this country” for perpetuating sexual assault and telling them all to “just shut up.”

Hirono’s Democratic colleague in the Senate, Tom Carper (Del.), who has admitted to punching his wife hard enough to give her a black eye, appears to be getting a pass from Hirono, who, even since his admission was revealed last January, has taken campaign money from him.

Neither Hirono nor any of her Democratic colleagues have commented on the record since the Free Beacon uncovered a 1998 interview, in which Carper said, “Did I slap my wife 20 years ago? Yes.” . . .

Hirono’s campaign took $1,000 from Carper’s First State PAC in June of this year, according to Federal Election Commission records. . .

Also taking money from Carper since his admission was revealed last December: Democratic senators Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Tim Kaine (Va.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), John Tester (Mont.), Bob Casey (Pa.), Bill Nelson (Fla.), and Joe Manchin (W.V.). (Read more from “Senator Took Money From Democrat Who Admitted to Hitting Wife” HERE)

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Ben and Jerry Targets Seven Congressional Districts With a Spoonful of Sugar

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Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the founders of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, launched a new campaign aimed at flipping seven Congressional districts across the country. The effort, known as “Ben and Jerry (the people, not the corporation) Take Back Congress, Flavor by Flavor,” is a contest the two launched on MoveOn.org.

“We’re teaming up with MoveOn to help 7 of the best progressive candidates running for Congress. We need a Democratic majority to check President Trump’s unrestrained power,” the contest on MoveOn.org said. “And we also need to send progressive champions to Congress who will fix our health care system with Medicare for All, protect clean air and water, and get big money out of politics.”

Average Americans have the opportunity to create seven flavors and names that “capture the essence of what each candidate stands for.”

The duo plans to make a limited, homemade batch of the winning flavors and raffle off the pints to supporters, similar to what they did for Bernie Sanders during the 2016 election, POLITICO reported.

The seven chosen candidates include:
• Jess King who’s challenging Rep. Lloyd Smucker (PA-11)
• Ammar Campa-Najjar, who’s challenging Rep. Duncan Hunter (CA-50)
• Lauren Underwood, who’s challenging Rep. Randy Hultgren (IL-14)
• Aftab Pureval, who’s challenging Rep. Steve Chabot (OH-01)
• J.D. Scholten, who’s challenging Rep. Steve King in (IA-04)
• James Thompson, who’s challenging Rep. Ron Estes (KS-04)
• Stephany Rose Spaulding, who’s challenging Rep. Doug Lamborn (CO-05)

(Read more from “Ben and Jerry Targets Seven Congressional Districts With a Spoonful of Sugar” HERE)

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Here’s How Much Miami’s New Restroom for the Homeless Cost – Complete With Needle Exchange

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By The Blaze. Homeless advocates are praising Miami for the installation of the first public restroom in the downtown area – complete with a needle exchange. . .

The $300,000 project was spearheaded by the Downtown Development Authority, a “semi-autonomous tax-funded agency.” . . .

The restroom will be open 12 hours a day, and will have attendants during those hours hired from a Miami homeless shelter.

The city is gearing up to end an agreement to protect the homeless from law enforcement, and the bathroom is one way to manage the homeless population as they pursue the new policy.

The agreement came as a result from a lawsuit by the ACLU that accused police of acting unconstitutionally when arresting homeless people for “life-sustaining” activities like urinating in public or sleeping on a sidewalk. (Read more from “Here’s How Much Miami’s New Restroom for the Homeless Cost – Complete With Needle Exchange” HERE)

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Seattle Homeless-Services Providers See Mixed Results, Some to Face Penalties

By The Seattle Times. eattle homeless-service providers are helping more homeless people off the streets this year than last, but 35 percent fell short of new performance targets in their contracts, according to data released on Friday.

City officials said Friday that Seattle would impose financial penalties for missing contracted goals intended to boost the number of people who found “permanent exits” from homelessness, ending months of speculation among service providers, some of which have previously asked city officials to reconsider how performance figures are calculated. . .

Earlier this year, the city announced $34 million in new contract awards, marking the first time homeless-services contracts were competitively rebid in a decade. In another important development, the city tied pay to performance and set an ambitious goal to double the number of people who would be moved out of homelessness and into permanent housing. All told, Seattle has planned to spend more than $86 million on more than a dozen departments to address the homelessness crisis this year. (Read more from “Seattle Homeless-Services Providers See Mixed Results, Some to Face Penalties” HERE)

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White Male Dem Calls on House Females to Protest ‘White Men Senators’

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Rep. John Garamendi, a California Democrat with white skin, went on a curious rant against his congressional white male colleagues, calling out the senators in charge of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination proceedings as — what, racism against Christine Blasey Ford? Misogyny? . . .

“Women for decades have faced this situation,” Garamendi said, Breitbart reported. “They have always when they come forward with an accusation of assault or rape. They become the victim in the hearing. And we have to put a stop to that. Women across this nation should be outraged at what these white men senators are doing to this woman. This woman needs a fair hearing, as every woman does who brings forth a charge such as professor Ford is bringing forth.”

Joy Behar, co-host of “The View,” made a similar charge against the senators on the Judiciary Committee, calling them out for being “white men, old by the way,” protecting a man, Kavanaugh, who’s “probably guilty,” she said.

But Garamendi is a white guy — taking political potshots at his fellow white guys. Odd argument to make, it would seem. Moreover, he’s calling on his female House mates — ostensibly, the white ones, too — to mount a sort of rebellion against these white senators. (So perhaps it is misogyny, not racism, that he’s alerting to here?) . . .

His words: “I would expect to see the women representatives in the House of Representatives rise up in anger and disgust at what the Senate Republican men are doing. Ramming through this hearing without an adequate opportunity for professor Ford to gather together the witnesses that she may need, that the public needs, that the Senate needs, and the investigation that can be done by the FBI. I would expect the female members of the House … joined in by members such as myself to march over to the Senate and to protest loudly and clearly on behalf not only of professor Ford, but on behalf of the women of America.” (Read more from “White Male Dem Calls on House Females to Protest ‘White Men Senators'” HERE)

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