TV News LIES

Just as the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans was beginning to ask victims of clergy sexual abuse to approve a settlement plan assuring them of $180m, the church has now guaranteed $230m – enough to persuade certain attorneys who were opposed to striking a deal to instead favor settling.

The church’s largest insurer, Travelers, for now has evidently held out against a settlement. However, the Guardian and local reporting partner WWL Louisiana understand that the insurer is in active talks to contribute an amount of money that could substantially increase the worth of the proposed settlement.

Either way, Monday’s higher offer was a long-rumored move by the archdiocese to appease a sizable bloc of sexual abuse victims who had been advised by their attorneys to reject the smaller offer in a voting process that runs through 29 October.

Some of those attorneys issued a statement on Monday saying their “dogged efforts” had produced a “superior deal … to resolve this bankruptcy at long last”, and that they would be encouraging all of their clients “to vote in favor of this amended plan” thanks to the “current and certain funding now in place” for it.

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Davey Johnson, an All-Star second baseman who won the World Series twice with the Baltimore Orioles as a player and managed the New York Mets to the title in 1986, has died. He was 82.

Longtime Mets public relations representative Jay Horwitz said Johnson's wife, Susan, informed him of his death after a long illness. Johnson was at a hospital in Sarasota, Florida, when he died Friday, Horwitz said.

Johnson played 13 major league seasons with Baltimore, the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs from 1965-78 and won the Gold Glove three times while being voted an All-Star four times. He managed the Mets, Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Dodgers and the Washington Nationals during a span from 1984-2013.

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Ticket sales at the Kennedy Center have continued to plummet following Donald Trump’s takeover of Washington DC’s premier performing arts venue, with the prestigious Stuttgart Ballet expected to dance next month to houses less than 20% full.

Audiences are “voting with their feet to skip out” on shows that would once have been packed, in protest at the US president inserting himself into the center’s management and operations as its new chairman, amid discussions around the notion of renaming it after Trump, according to an analysis by the Washingtonian magazine.

The outlet said the Stuttgart Ballet’s series at the Kennedy complex’s Opera House in October is only “between 4 and 19%” full based on reservations so far, and BodyTraffic, a Los Angeles troupe booked for two performances in the smaller Eisenhower Theatre at the end of the month, is only booked so far at 12% capacity.

“Big yikes,” one current Kennedy Center staffer told the outlet, having been granted anonymity to speak for fear of retaliation by its new leadership team of Trump-installed loyalists and acolytes.

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Donald Trump’s plan to deploy national guard troops and federal immigration agents to Chicago is already having an impact on the city’s Mexican community.

Organizers have canceled several local events tied to Mexican Independence Day, which occurs on 16 September.

People of Mexican descent constitute about 21% of the city’s population, according to census data, and hold annual events around the holiday that attract thousands of people.

But Trump recently inaccurately described Chicago as “the most dangerous city in the world” and said: “We’re going in.”

The administration plans to send 230 agents, most of whom work for Customs and Border Protection, to Chicago from Los Angeles as part of an increased effort to make immigration arrests, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

At least three events connected to the holiday have been canceled or postponed. Organizers decided to cancel El Grito Chicago, an event that drew 24,000 people last year, and was scheduled for 13-14 September.

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Donald Trump told reporters that he might send national guard troops into Portland, Oregon, apparently because he was misled about the scale of small protests there by a TV report that incorrectly presented video recorded in 2020 as having taken place this summer.

“I will say this, I watched today, I didn’t know that was continuing to go on, but Portland is unbelievable, what’s going on,” Trump said. He then claimed, incorrectly, that he had seen video evidence of “the destruction of the city”.

Trump, apparently misled by video of 2020 protests, threatens to send troops to Portland

Donald Trump told reporters that he might send national guard troops into Portland, Oregon, apparently because he was misled about the scale of small protests there by a TV report that incorrectly presented video recorded in 2020 as having taken place this summer.

“I will say this, I watched today, I didn’t know that was continuing to go on, but Portland is unbelievable, what’s going on,” Trump said. He then claimed, incorrectly, that he had seen video evidence of “the destruction of the city”.

In fact, a handful of protesters have demonstrated outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in a remote area of Portland along the south waterfront this year, but the scale of the protests, which attract dozens at most, is nothing like the 2020 protests following the police killing of George Floyd that regularly drew thousands to tens of thousands of demonstrators to a central part of the city for months.

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A Minnesota man wrongly convicted of murder who spent nearly three decades in prison after being falsely implicated by a woman who has since confessed to the crime has been released.

State district court judge Marta Chou had vacated Bryan Hooper Sr’s first-degree murder conviction the day before. He was released on Thursday morning from Stillwater correctional facility, a Great North Innocence Project spokesperson said.

“Today, the courts have affirmed what Bryan Hooper, his family, his loved ones, and his advocates have always known: Mr Hooper is an innocent man,” Hennepin county attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement. “It is our duty as prosecutors to hold the correct individuals responsible for their actions, and that duty demands that we acknowledge our mistakes and make things right as quickly as we can.”

Hooper reunited with his children and planned to enjoy a meal with them and spend time with family, Project spokesperson Hayley Poxleitner said. He also plans to make his home for now in the Twin Cities area, where his children live.

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