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OnlyFans erotic star ‘flees to Switzerland owing Italian tax officials £1.25million after they probed her lavish lifestyle on social media’
- Tax officials scrutinised Madalina Ioana Filip’s lavish lifestyle on social media
By Elena Salvoni

Published: 11:17 EDT, 8 October 2024 | Updated: 12:06 EDT, 8 October 2024

An OnlyFans star who fled to Switzerland after being accused of owing £1.25million in taxes has hit back at claims that she is on the run.

Italian officials say Madalina Ioana Filip, known as Mady Gio, owes them a fortune after allegedly evading tax by claiming she was paying it abroad.

The 27-year-old is believed to have left Italy while the inquiry was ongoing and says she plans to stay in Switzerland.

She told her 1.5 million Instagram followers that Italian taxmen have demanded 1.5 million euros after accusing her of not declaring all her earnings in 2021.

Authorities reportedly looked into the lavish lifestyle she displayed on social media and spoke of in interviews, and found that the earnings she declared were not proportionate.

The 27-year-old left Italy while the inquiry was ongoing and says she plans to stay in Switzerland

She told her 1.5 million Instagram followers that Italian taxmen have demanded 1.5 million euros after accusing her of not declaring all her earnings in 2021

Mady was therefore reported to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Busto Arsizio for the crime of false declaration, according to Italian media.

Investigators reportedly said that she decided to move her residence to Switzerland in early 2022.

She allegedly did so to obtain a more favorable tax situation, declaring just over 50 thousand euros of income.

Her case is reportedly being handled by the public prosecutor’s office in Busto Arsizio, Lombardy.

But the adult content creator shrugged off the demand saying simply: ‘I now live in Switzerland.’

She added: ‘I have always paid taxes, both in Italy and Switzerland.’

Taking to Instagram on October 7, Mady raged against claims that she’s a tax cheat.

She said: ‘I read newspaper articles accusing me of tax evasion.

‘My right to privacy and, above all, the inviolable principle of innocence until proven guilty have been violated.

Mady, who is believed to hold joint UK-Italian nationality, left Rome while the inquiry was ongoing

‘These are just accusations for which I have already instructed my lawyers to defend me in all appropriate places.’

According to Italian news agency ANSA, her lawyer Riccardo Lanza said: ‘We will challenge every provision.

‘My client has relied on professionals who at this point will have to answer for any errors. She has always acted according to the law’.

The star, who is of Romanian origin, reportedly moved to Italy aged 12 and grew up in Varese.

She previously worked as a waitress for ten years in her family’s restaurant and bars for around 1,000 euros a month.

Since moving into OnlyFans content, she says her highest paying clients pay an average of 7,000 euros each per month, and last year she was listed as the woman who earns the most on the site in Italy.

The 27-year-old adult content creator shrugged off the prosecutor’s demand saying simply: ‘I now live in Switzerland’

Mady has made a number of TV and radio appearances and recently spoke in an interview with talk show La Zanzara.

She said of her job: ‘It’s not a walk in the park: you always need a new idea to earn the figures I earn. It’s a job like all the others, it’s a job I like and it’s almost a blessing.

‘Before I was a nun, thanks to OnlyFans I’ve opened up my mind.’

Asked whether she’d ever reconsider her dramatic life change with her move into adult content, she said: ‘Second thoughts? None, on the contrary. I wish I had done it before.

‘I was a waitress for 10 years in the family restaurant. At home everyone is happy, even the great-grandmother.

‘She says that as long as I don’t kill anyone and I pay taxes, you can do anything’.

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OnlyFans erotic star ‘flees to Switzerland owing Italian tax officials £1.25million after they probed her lavish lifestyle on social media’
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October 8, 2024
The US and Microsoft disrupt a Russian hacking group targeting American officials and nonprofits

WASHINGTON — A hacking group tied to Russian intelligence tried to worm its way into the systems of dozens of Western think tanks, journalists and former military and intelligence officials, Microsoft and U.S. authorities said Thursday.

The group, known as Star Blizzard to cyberespionage experts, targeted its victims with emails that appeared to come from a trusted source — a tactic known as spear phishing. In fact, the emails sought access to the victims’ internal systems, as a way to steal information and disrupt their activities.

Star Blizzard’s actions were persistent and sophisticated, according to Microsoft, and the group often did detailed research on its targets before launching an attack. Star Blizzard also went after civil society groups, U.S. companies, American military contractors and the Department of Energy, which oversees many nuclear programs, the company said.

On Thursday, a U.S. court unsealed documents authorizing Microsoft and the Department of Justice to seize more than 100 website domain names associated with Star Blizzard. That action came after a lawsuit was filed against the network by Microsoft and the NGO-Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a nonprofit tech organization that investigated Star Blizzard.

Authorities haven’t gone into details about Star Blizzard’s effectiveness but said they expect Russia to keep deploying hacking and cyberattacks against the U.S. and its allies.

“The Russian government ran this scheme to steal Americans’ sensitive information, using seemingly legitimate email accounts to trick victims into revealing account credentials,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in announcing the U.S. actions against Star Blizzard. “With the continued support of our private sector partners, we will be relentless in exposing Russian actors and cybercriminals and depriving them of the tools of their illicit trade.”

Star Blizzard has been linked to Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB. Last year, British authorities accused the group of mounting a yearslong cyberespionage campaign against U.K. lawmakers. Microsoft said it has been tracking the group’s activities since 2017.

Microsoft said it observed Star Blizzard attempt dozens of hacking efforts targeting 30 different groups since January 2023. The tech giant’s cybersecurity experts say Star Blizzard has proven to be especially elusive.

“Star Blizzard’s ability to adapt and obfuscate its identity presents a continuing challenge for cybersecurity professionals,” the company wrote in a report on its findings.

U.S. authorities charged two Russian men last year in connection with Star Blizzard’s past actions. Both are believed to be in Russia.

Along with American targets, Star Blizzard went after people and groups throughout Europe and in other NATO countries. Many had supported Ukraine following Russia’s invasion.

A message left with the Russian Embassy in Washington was not immediately returned Thursday.

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October 3, 2024
Bensouda to my rescue as TSC officials snub me!

Following the cold reception I received upon returning to school after a long recovery, I planned to travel to Nairobi this weekend and face the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) leadership head-on. I was ready to even meet the TSC CEO, Nancy Macharia, look her in the eye, and ask her a simple question: What is going on?

I wanted her to explain why even junior teachers were ignoring my orders. If you remember, the day I returned, I had called for a staff meeting that everyone ignored.

I wanted to know if Kuya was the substantive HOI or if he was just acting in my absence. I wanted to know who would appoint Nzomo as acting deputy, yet there were so many other qualified teachers, including Lena, her bad hair notwithstanding.

I talked to Pius the Sunday before I booked the Msamaria Mwema night bus. “Do not come to Nairobi before you exhaust all local means. Do not go to the county offices before you clear with the sub-county office,” he advised, adding that he knew how the government operates.

I decided to heed his advice. Even before going to the sub-county, I decided to again try to assert my power in the school. On Sunday, I wrote to the staffroom WhatsApp group calling for a meeting the next day at 9am.

Whenever I wrote such, I would receive responses, mainly one-word replies like noted, sawa, or ok, but this time there was no response.

No one turned up for the meeting. In fact, teachers were not even bothered by my presence. They avoided the staffroom as long as I was there, except Lena. I asked her if she had read my message calling for a staff meeting. “Which message?” she wondered, and I could tell she was genuine.

“Oh, Kuya created another group and asked us to exit the other one, so you were speaking to yourself,” she said. Indeed, when I checked, the group had only me and another number that Saphire owned at some point. If you know Saphire, he has a new number every three months.

Later on, as I was leaving the school, I heard Nzomo laugh with other teachers at tea break. “Why remove people from a WhatsApp group and give them a reason to complain when you can exit the group, leave them there alone, and form another group?”

The next day, I was at the sub-county offices. The sub-county TSC director was a friend who had once admired me. She loved how I dressed and generally looked. She greeted me when she saw me and asked how Mwisho wa Lami was doing.

“Well, I don’t know, and that’s what I have come to discuss with you,” I answered.

“Well, we will talk. You wait here,” she said as she entered the office. I waited and waited. Several times I peeped into her office, and she would tell me that she was busy and that I should keep waiting.

At lunchtime, I was so hungry I left to have a quick bite – it did not take me 20 minutes. She came out at around 2.30 pm.

“You are still here?” she asked. “I came looking for you at around 1 pm and was told you had left. Looks like all was okay.”

“No, madam, I had rushed for lunch,” I said.

“Oh, lunch is that important, I see,” she said. “Anyway, see me tomorrow. I have to rush somewhere.”

“Why can’t we talk now? My issue is short…”

She cut me short. “Your issue is not short, Dre, and if it was important, you would not have gone for lunch. See me tomorrow at 11am.”

I was there the next day at 11 am. I waited and waited. That day I did not leave for lunch. Other HMs, all my juniors, would come and see her and leave me. At 2.30 pm, Kuya arrived. He pretended not to see me. He was ushered into her office a few minutes later and spent about 30 minutes there.

To my shock, as he left, the sub-county director of TSC opened the door for him, told him goodbye, asked him to take good care of the school and closed it behind her. I kept waiting. I waited and waited, and an hour later, I was told she had left. I wondered how, and that’s when I was told that she had a back door. “She had asked that you come back tomorrow.”

I called Pius that day to express my frustrations. He told me to rest on Wednesday and go to the county office on Thursday. I did exactly that and was in Kakamega early Thursday morning. That was a bigger office, and getting help was a problem, but two officers I met referred me back to the sub-county TSC director. “This is a matter to be resolved at the sub-county level. I don’t know why you have brought it here.”

As I travelled back home, I remembered one person who understood the workings of TSC like the back of her hand. I called her.

“Hello, Dre, how have you been?” Bensouda greeted me gleefully when I called her. “How is the school taking you? Have you taken it to the next level you kept talking about that I never understood?”

I told her that it was in progress but that I was facing some challenges.

“I know, kuja tuongee kesho,” she said.

I visited her the next day at her home. She was excited to see me.

“Umekonda sana Dre, kumbe ni ukweli Elkana karibu akumalize?” she asked as she warmly and tightly squeezed me. I actually disappeared in her tight hug. She seemed well-updated with matters at Mwisho wa Lami, even as I explained to her.

“Wewe relax,” she said. “It is not the best time to start making noise. Just wait for Kuya to make a mistake – which he will – and you pounce. Everything is about timing,” she said, adding that her contacts in TSC told her that Kuya was in good books and I wasn’t.

“So what do I do?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she answered.

“Are you still getting a salary? Have you been fired?” she wondered. “Tulia. You are not the only one eating free government money.”

“But how can I relax when no one seems to want me at school, at the sub-county office, and the county office?”

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked again. “The Swahili saying goes, ‘akufukuzae hakwambii toka,’” she told me. “But when it comes to TSC, the correct saying is ‘Asiyekuambia toka hajakufukuza.’ Relax!” I relaxed, took the juice and groundnuts she had prepared for me, and forgot all my problems. I left her place late at night that day, very late. Relaxed!

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September 29, 2024
Bensouda to my rescue as TSC officials snub me!

Following the cold reception I received upon returning to school after a long recovery, I planned to travel to Nairobi this weekend and face the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) leadership head-on. I was ready to even meet the TSC CEO, Nancy Macharia, look her in the eye, and ask her a simple question: What is going on?

I wanted her to explain why even junior teachers were ignoring my orders. If you remember, the day I returned, I had called for a staff meeting that everyone ignored.

I wanted to know if Kuya was the substantive HOI or if he was just acting in my absence. I wanted to know who would appoint Nzomo as acting deputy, yet there were so many other qualified teachers, including Lena, her bad hair notwithstanding.

I talked to Pius the Sunday before I booked the Msamaria Mwema night bus. “Do not come to Nairobi before you exhaust all local means. Do not go to the county offices before you clear with the sub-county office,” he advised, adding that he knew how the government operates.

I decided to heed his advice. Even before going to the sub-county, I decided to again try to assert my power in the school. On Sunday, I wrote to the staffroom WhatsApp group calling for a meeting the next day at 9am.

Whenever I wrote such, I would receive responses, mainly one-word replies like noted, sawa, or ok, but this time there was no response.

No one turned up for the meeting. In fact, teachers were not even bothered by my presence. They avoided the staffroom as long as I was there, except Lena. I asked her if she had read my message calling for a staff meeting. “Which message?” she wondered, and I could tell she was genuine.

“Oh, Kuya created another group and asked us to exit the other one, so you were speaking to yourself,” she said. Indeed, when I checked, the group had only me and another number that Saphire owned at some point. If you know Saphire, he has a new number every three months.

Later on, as I was leaving the school, I heard Nzomo laugh with other teachers at tea break. “Why remove people from a WhatsApp group and give them a reason to complain when you can exit the group, leave them there alone, and form another group?”

The next day, I was at the sub-county offices. The sub-county TSC director was a friend who had once admired me. She loved how I dressed and generally looked. She greeted me when she saw me and asked how Mwisho wa Lami was doing.

“Well, I don’t know, and that’s what I have come to discuss with you,” I answered.

“Well, we will talk. You wait here,” she said as she entered the office. I waited and waited. Several times I peeped into her office, and she would tell me that she was busy and that I should keep waiting.

At lunchtime, I was so hungry I left to have a quick bite – it did not take me 20 minutes. She came out at around 2.30 pm.

“You are still here?” she asked. “I came looking for you at around 1 pm and was told you had left. Looks like all was okay.”

“No, madam, I had rushed for lunch,” I said.

“Oh, lunch is that important, I see,” she said. “Anyway, see me tomorrow. I have to rush somewhere.”

“Why can’t we talk now? My issue is short…”

She cut me short. “Your issue is not short, Dre, and if it was important, you would not have gone for lunch. See me tomorrow at 11am.”

I was there the next day at 11 am. I waited and waited. That day I did not leave for lunch. Other HMs, all my juniors, would come and see her and leave me. At 2.30 pm, Kuya arrived. He pretended not to see me. He was ushered into her office a few minutes later and spent about 30 minutes there.

To my shock, as he left, the sub-county director of TSC opened the door for him, told him goodbye, asked him to take good care of the school and closed it behind her. I kept waiting. I waited and waited, and an hour later, I was told she had left. I wondered how, and that’s when I was told that she had a back door. “She had asked that you come back tomorrow.”

I called Pius that day to express my frustrations. He told me to rest on Wednesday and go to the county office on Thursday. I did exactly that and was in Kakamega early Thursday morning. That was a bigger office, and getting help was a problem, but two officers I met referred me back to the sub-county TSC director. “This is a matter to be resolved at the sub-county level. I don’t know why you have brought it here.”

As I travelled back home, I remembered one person who understood the workings of TSC like the back of her hand. I called her.

“Hello, Dre, how have you been?” Bensouda greeted me gleefully when I called her. “How is the school taking you? Have you taken it to the next level you kept talking about that I never understood?”

I told her that it was in progress but that I was facing some challenges.

“I know, kuja tuongee kesho,” she said.

I visited her the next day at her home. She was excited to see me.

“Umekonda sana Dre, kumbe ni ukweli Elkana karibu akumalize?” she asked as she warmly and tightly squeezed me. I actually disappeared in her tight hug. She seemed well-updated with matters at Mwisho wa Lami, even as I explained to her.

“Wewe relax,” she said. “It is not the best time to start making noise. Just wait for Kuya to make a mistake – which he will – and you pounce. Everything is about timing,” she said, adding that her contacts in TSC told her that Kuya was in good books and I wasn’t.

“So what do I do?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she answered.

“Are you still getting a salary? Have you been fired?” she wondered. “Tulia. You are not the only one eating free government money.”

“But how can I relax when no one seems to want me at school, at the sub-county office, and the county office?”

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked again. “The Swahili saying goes, ‘akufukuzae hakwambii toka,’” she told me. “But when it comes to TSC, the correct saying is ‘Asiyekuambia toka hajakufukuza.’ Relax!” I relaxed, took the juice and groundnuts she had prepared for me, and forgot all my problems. I left her place late at night that day, very late. Relaxed!

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September 29, 2024
Officials warn that EVs could catch fire if inundated with saltwater from Hurricane Helene

Electric vehicles can catch fire if they are inundated by saltwater, so owners who live in the path of a major storm like Hurricane Helene should take precautions and prepare for the possibility that they’ll be unable to charge their cars during a power outage.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged EV owners this week to get their vehicles to higher ground before Hurricane Helene arrived. Although the problem is rare, there have been a number of instances in recent years of electric vehicles igniting after hurricanes.

Keeping electric vehicles out of standing water is the best way to avoid the possibility of a fire.

Tesla offers similar advice about avoiding letting its vehicles become submerged if at all possible, but if that does happen the carmaker suggests towing the vehicle at least 50 feet away from structures or anything combustible until it can be inspected by a mechanic.

The best way to get through a power outage is to follow the same kind of advice your dad may have given you about keeping your gas tank full to make sure you wouldn’t be stranded. Keeping your electric vehicle charged offers the most flexibility.

Of course, electric vehicle owners won’t be able to charge their cars during a power outage, so they may need to watch how much they drive. But EVs aren’t any worse off than conventional vehicles because gas stations can’t pump fuel in a power outage either.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been researching this problem since it was first seen after Hurricane Sandy struck the Northeast in 2012. But no one seems to have detailed statistics on just how often this happens.

Two years ago, Hurricane Ian compromised the batteries of as may as 5,000 electric vehicles, and 36 of them caught fire.

Several more electric vehicles caught fire in Florida last year after Hurricane Idalia, although that storm was weaker than Ian. Researchers at NHTSA speculated that it may have also helped that more people were aware of the problem and moved their vehicles to higher ground before that storm.

But it happens often enough that Florida officials were worried about the possibility before Hurricane Helene arrived because they were expecting a potentially devastating storm surge up to 20 feet deep in the northwestern part of Florida.

These fires do seem to be linked specifically to saltwater because salt can conduct electricity. Similar problems haven’t been reported after freshwater flooding in California that was driven by heavy rains early this year.

Electric vehicles with lithium ion batteries can catch fire if the batteries short circuit and start to heat up. Tom Barth with the National Transportation Safety Board said that if the heat starts to spread between different cells in the battery back it can cause a chain reaction called thermal runaway.

“If the saltwater is able to bridge the gap between the positive and negative terminals of battery, then it can cause a short circuit,” said Barth, who is chief of the special investigations branch of the NTSB’s office of highway safety.

Carmakers do design their batteries to try to prevent this problem. There are often separations or insulation barriers between different cells in the battery pack, and manufacturers take steps to keep moisture out. But they do have to include ways for the batteries to vent heat.

“Where it begins to be a problem is if you have the batteries submerged in standing water. That’s where it starts to overcome the moisture seals in the battery,” Barth said.

Sometimes electric vehicles can catch fire long after the floodwaters have receded because even after the water evaporates salt that can conduct electricity may be left behind. So it’s important to have them checked out if they are submerged.

“It’s not like every vehicle that gets flooded is therefore going to ignite and catch fire,” Barth said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is working to improve battery safety as officials learn more about the problems. The agency has proposed updating some of the safety requirements for electric vehicle batteries to reduce the risks.

Follow AP’s coverage of tropical weather at https://apnews.com/hub/hurricanes

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September 27, 2024
One of Titan submersible owner’s top officials to testify before the Coast Guard

One of the top officials with the company that owned the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic is scheduled to testify in front of the Coast Guard on Tuesday.

Amber Bay, OceanGate’s former director of administration, is one of the key witnesses Tuesday. OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among the five people who died when the submersible imploded in June 2023.

The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month that is part of a high level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some of the testimony has focused on the troubled nature of the company.

The co-founder of the company told the Coast Guard panel Monday that he hoped a silver lining of the disaster is that it will inspire a renewed interest in exploration, including the deepest waters of the world’s oceans.

Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Rush, ultimately left the company before the Titan disaster.

“This can’t be the end of deep ocean exploration. This can’t be the end of deep-diving submersibles and I don’t believe that it will be,” said Sohnlein.

Earlier in the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money. “The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”

Sohnlein said Monday he had the opportunity to dive in Titan “many times” and he declined. He said his reasons included not wanting to take space away from potential customers. He also said when Rush reached a point when it was “time to put a human in there,” he wanted to do it himself. Rush felt it was his design and said “if anything happens, I want it to impact me,” Sohnlein said.

But Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a troubled company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.

The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include several more witnesses, some of whom were closely connected to the company.

Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.

During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.

One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual re-creation presented earlier in the hearing.

When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.

OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.

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September 24, 2024
HBCU Athletic Conference appoints Dr. Adrienne Barnes as Softball Coordinator of Officials, Chris Booker as Baseball Coordinator of Officials
NEW ORLEANS- September 19, 2024- The Historically Black Colleges and Universities Athletic Conference (HBCUAC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Adrienne Barnes as the Softball Coordinator of Officials and Chris Booker as the Baseball Coordinator of Officials, beginning in the 2025 season.

SOFTBALL COORDINATOR OF OFFICIALS DR. ADRIENNE BARNES
Dr. Adrienne Barnes brings over a decade of experience in coordinating and assigning softball officials at various levels, making her an excellent fit for the role of Softball Coordinator of Officials for the HBCUAC. Since beginning her officiating career in 2009, Dr. Barnes has served as the Umpire-in-Chief (UIC) and assignor for several fastpitch organizations, including high school, collegiate, and recreational leagues. Her expertise in managing officials and her passion for developing young talent have earned her a respected reputation in the softball community.

In addition to her officiating roles, Dr. Barnes has an extensive background in education, having worked as an educator from 1996 to 2017. She currently runs ThinkRtI Educational Consulting, and she collaborates with EdFirst Consortium in Educational Leadership, serving as an external evaluator and IT consultant. Her experience in both education and sports officiating will bring a strong organizational structure to the conference’s softball program.

Postseason Accomplishments of Adrienne Barnes Include:
- 2017- SCAC conference tournament (NAIA); SWAC conference tournament- Alabama State
- 2018- DII Regional and Super Regional -Southern Arkansas
- 2019- SWAC Conference tournament-Alabama State
- 2021- SWAC conference tournament -Gulfport
- DIII Regional/Super Regional- ETBU
- 2022- DIII Regional-ETBU
BASEBALL COORDINATOR OF OFFICIALS CHRIS BOOKER
Chris Booker, a veteran umpire with more than 20 years of experience, will take on the role of Baseball Coordinator of Officials. Booker’s distinguished career began in 2003, and since then, he has officiated across various levels, including NAIA, NCAA D-I, D-II, and D-III events. A graduate of the Jim Evans Umpire Academy (Class of 2011), Booker has been a fixture at multiple Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), Sunbelt, and American Athletic Conference (AAC) championship tournaments.

His impressive resume includes officiating several high-profile tournaments, such as the 2019 NCAA D-I Regional Championship and the 2015 NCAA D-II National Championship, where he served as a crew chief for the South Central Regional. Booker’s dedication to the development of baseball officials aligns with the HBCUAC’s mission of providing continued professional growth and opportunities for postseason consideration within the NAIA.

Postseason Accomplishments of Chris Booker Include:
- 2024 AAC Conference Tournament Umpire
- 2023, 2022, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 SWAC Conference Tournament Umpire
- 2021 Sunbelt Conference Tournament Umpire
- 2019 NCAA D-I Regional Championship Umpire
- 2015 NCAA D-II National Championship Umpire (Crew Chief)
Leadership and Vision
The HBCUAC is confident that Dr. Barnes and Chris Booker will elevate the conference’s officiating standards and ensure consistency and excellence across softball and baseball programs. Both coordinators bring a wealth of knowledge and a commitment to mentoring the next generation of officials, aligning with the HBCUAC’s goal of fostering leadership and professional growth throughout collegiate athletics.

For more information about the appointments and upcoming events, please contact the HBCUAC at communications@hbcuac.org.
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September 19, 2024
Dozens wounded after pagers detonate in Lebanon, media and security officials say

BEIRUT — Dozens of people were wounded in Beirut’s suburbs and other parts of Lebanon after their handheld pagers exploded Tuesday, Lebanese state media and security officials said. It wasn’t immediately clear if people were killed.

A senior military intelligence official and an official with a Lebanese group with knowledge of the situation, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation said that pagers carried by Hezbollah members were detonated. The second official said it was believed to be an Israeli attack.

The Associated Press reached out to the Israeli military, which declined to comment.

Photos and videos from Beirut’s southern suburbs circulating on social media and in local media showed people lying on the pavement with wounds on their hands or near their pants pockets.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously warned the group’s members not to carry cellphones, saying that they could be used by Israel to track their movements and to carry out targeted strikes.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry called on all hospitals to be on alert to take in emergency patients and for people who own pagers to get away from them. It also asked health workers to avoid using wireless devices.

AP photographers at area hospitals said the emergency rooms were overloaded with patients, many of them with injuries to their limbs, some in serious condition.

The state-run National News Agency said hospitals in southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs — all areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence — had called on people to donate blood of all types.

The news agency reported that in Beirut’s southern suburbs and other areas “the handheld pagers system was detonated using advanced technology, and dozens of injuries were reported.”

A Hezbollah official said that at least 150 people, including members of the group, were wounded in different parts of Lebanon when the pagers they were carrying exploded. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the explosions were the result of “a security operation that targeted the devices.”

“The enemy (Israel) stands behind this security incident,” the official said, without elaborating. He added that the new pagers that Hezbollah members were carrying had lithium batteries that apparently exploded.

Lithium batteries, when overheated, can smoke, melt and even catch on fire. Rechargeable lithium batteries are used in consumer products ranging from cellphones and laptops to electric cars. Lithium battery fires can burn up to 590 C (1,100 F).

The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between Lebanon and Israel. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been clashing near-daily for more than 11 months against the backdrop of war between Israel and Hezbollah ally Hamas in Gaza.

The clashes have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border.

___

Abby Sewell and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, and Josef Federman, in Jerusalem, contributed to this report.

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September 17, 2024
Officials Confirm Three Terrorism Plots Directed at Olympic/Paralympic Games Were Foiled

According to new reports, French authorities foiled three different terrorism plots to attack the Olympic and Paralympic Games, both within Paris and in other host cities around the country.

Five people, including one minor, were arrested in connection to the planned attacks, with the suspects facing various charges. Their identities have not been released at this time.

French anti-terror prosecutor Olivier Christen said that at least one of the three attacks was directed at “Israeli institutions or representatives of Israel in Paris” amid the Israel-Hamas war. However, Christen reaffirmed that Israeli athletes were not the target of the planned attack.

Both before and during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the country of France was under strict security measures, many of which were directed within the city of Paris. In the center of the city, many roads and walkways were heavily restricted, with a QR code required to enter past certain checkpoints.

At the national level, other significant security measures took place before the Games, including a significant increase in house searches and house arrests by French police forces. Recent numbers indicate that over 936 house searches have occured in France so far in 2024, up significantly from the 154 reported over the same time period last year.

In addition, the nation saw a sharp increase in its airspace defences, with the government deploying war planes, attack helicopters, surveillance aircraft, military drones, and police drones to patrol the skies around Paris and the other host cities for the Games. According to recently released numbers the French Air and Space Force recorded over 750 flight hours in 350 missions, resulting in 90 interceptions.

With the large increase in security measures, both the Olympic and Paralympic Games managed to proceed safely, with the Paralympic officially wrapping up last week. However, there were certainly points where security concerns remained high. On the eve of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies, a coordinated arson attack on a high-speed railway just outside of Paris left many skeptical about the security of the Games. Fortunately, nobody was harmed in the attack, though it caused a large disruption to the country’s transportation system. In addition, back in May, police foiled a terrorist plot in which an 18-year-old had been planning to attack crowds at the Olympic soccer stadium in Saint-Etienne.

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September 15, 2024
A tech company hired a top NYC official’s brother. A private meeting and $1.4M in contracts followed

NEW YORK — Ahead of the 2022 school year, the education technology company 21stCentEd was seeking to expand its presence in New York City’s public schools. So they turned to a man, Terence Banks, whose new consulting firm promised to connect clients with top government stakeholders.

Banks wasn’t a registered lobbyist. His day job, at the time, was as a supervisor in the city’s subway system. But he had at least one platinum connection: His older brother, David Banks, is New York City’s schools chancellor, overseeing the nation’s largest school system.

Within a month of the hire, 21stCentEd had secured a private meeting with the schools chancellor. In the two years since that October 2022 meeting, more than $1.4 million in Education Department funds have flowed to the company, nearly tripling its previous total, records show.

The siblings — along with a third brother, Philip Banks, who serves as New York City’s deputy mayor of public safety — are now enmeshed in a sprawling federal probe that has touched several high-ranking members of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.

Federal investigators seized phones last week from all three brothers and at least three other top city officials, including Police Commissioner Edward Caban, who resigned Thursday.

The exact nature of the investigation — or investigations — has not been disclosed. Among other things, federal authorities are investigating the former police commissioner’s twin brother, James Caban, a former police sergeant who runs a nightclub security business.

On Wednesday, a city operations coordinator was fired after a bar owner in Brooklyn told NBC New York that he had been pressured by the aide into hiring the police commissioner’s brother to make noise complaints against his business go away.

Federal investigators are also scrutinizing whether Terence Banks’ consulting firm, the Pearl Alliance, broke the law by leveraging his family connections to help private companies secure city contracts, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose information about the investigations.

All three Banks brothers have denied wrongdoing. David and Terence Banks have said they don’t believe they are the target of the investigation. But government watchdogs say the family’s overlapping work in the private and public sector may have run afoul of conflict of interest guardrails as well as city and state laws on procurement lobbying.

“It has the appearance of Terence Banks using his family connections to help his client and enrich himself,” said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, a good-government group.

Timothy Sini, an attorney for Terence Banks, did not respond to specific questions about the consulting firm. But he wrote in an email, “We have been assured by the Government that Mr. Banks is not a target of this investigation.”

Speaking at a news conference Friday, David Banks said FBI agents had not returned his phone, and he declined to answer questions about his relationship to his brother’s consulting firm. “We are cooperating with a federal investigation,” he said.

City ethics rules ban relatives from lobbying each other. At minimum, David Banks would be required to secure a waiver from the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board before meeting with a company represented by his brother, according to John Kaehny, the executive director of the good-government group Reinvent Albany.

“It’s surprisingly arrogant or obtuse that David Banks, one of the city’s top government officials, would ignore this basic, commonsense, conflict of interest rule,” Kaehny said in an email.

Neither the Department of Education nor the Conflicts of Interest Board would say whether a waiver was requested.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education, Nathaniel Styer, said all spending linked to 21stCentEd had come from individual schools and districts, which can make purchases of less than $25,000 without the agency’s approval.

The Utah-based company trains teachers and provides curriculums focused on artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation.

Dylan Howard, a spokesperson for the company, said Terence Banks was hired “to help 21stCentEd present our STEM solutions and services to decision makers within New York City public schools.” He said they learned of his consulting firm through a 21stCentEd employee who has since left the company.

The spokesperson could not say how the meeting with the school’s chancellor came about or whether Terence Banks attended. He added that Terence Banks had provided “no value” to the company and that his contract was terminated last December.

21stCentEd was one of several companies with city contracts that hired Terence Banks’ consulting firm, according to a website for the Pearl Alliance that was taken down after news of the federal investigations emerged last week.

Another listed client, SaferWatch, sells panic buttons to schools and police departments. Since August of 2023, it has been awarded more than $67,000 in city contracts, according to city records.

The third Banks brother, Philip Banks, maintains wide influence over the NYPD as deputy mayor for public safety. A spokesperson for SaferWatch, Hank Sheinkopf, declined to comment. The NYPD did not respond to email inquiries.

In total, the Pearl Alliance listed nine clients with millions of dollars in city contracts, including a software business, a grocery delivery start-up, and a company that specializes in concrete. At least seven of the companies have past or current contracts with the city.

It wasn’t clear whether the federal inquiry into the consulting firm run by Terence Banks was part of the investigation into the police commissioner’s brother.

Ray Martin, the city official who was said to have pressured a bar owner to hire James Caban, was “terminated for cause” Thursday after the mayor’s office learned of the allegations, according to Fabien Levy, the deputy mayor for communications.

The bar owner, Shamel Kelly, told WNBC-TV that Martin gave him what felt like an ultimatum last year to either pay James Caban or risk having his business shut down. Kelly said James Caban demanded an upfront fee of $2,500. He said he had been interviewed Thursday by federal investigators and the city’s Department of Investigation. Messages seeking comment were left with those agencies.

Attempts to reach Martin were not immediately successful. A cellphone number listed in his name was no longer working.

A lawyer for James Caban said he “unequivocally denies any wrongdoing” and has cooperated fully with law enforcement. Once the investigation is complete, lawyer Sean Hecker said, “it will be clear that these claims are unfounded and lack merit.”

Both David and Philip Banks remain in their government positions. An attorney for Philip Banks, Benjamin Brafman, declined to comment.

At a press briefing Tuesday, Adams noted his relationship with the Banks family dates back decades, to when he served in the police department under the brothers’ father. He said he never met with Terence Banks about city business.

“I’ve known the Banks families for years,” Adams said. “And my knowing someone, I hold them to the same standard that I hold myself to.”

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September 13, 2024