Mom...

Connecticut  mom of five was last seen in May 2018, and police are still trying to find her body. 

 Her estranged husband,  Fotis Dulos, and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, have both been charged in connection with the case.

Dulos is charged with capital murder, murder and kidnapping in the apparent death of Jennifer Dulos of New Canaan. The two were in the midst of a contentious divorce and custody battle at the time.

Also arraigned in Stamford Superior Court : Fotis Dulos' former girlfriend, and his friend and former attorney Kent Mawhinney. Both are charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Mawhinney was arrested twice in 2019 in an unrelated case. The first was a domestic violence incident in January 2019 in which he was arrested on charges of sexual assault, disorderly conduct and unlawful restraint. The second arrest was for violating a protective order that was put in place as a result of the first arrest after he allegedly attempted to use a third party to contact the victim.

The company you keep.

Elsie...

Borden Dairy Co., one of America's oldest and largest dairy companies, became the second major milk producer to file for bankruptcy in the last two months.

Tumbling milk consumption combined with the rising price of milk have crippled the dairy industry with debt. 

The company's founder, Gail Borden, developed the first successful commercial method of condensing milk in 1856. 

By 1930, Borden had bought more than 200 other US dairy companies. In 1936, "Elsie the Cow" became the company's advertising mascot. 

The company went on another acquisition binge, buying 23 companies for $442.6 million in 1987 alone. But by the early 1990s it began to run into financial problems and in 1995 it was purchased by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for $2 billion and taken private. It sold off many of the other business, leaving mostly just the dairy business.

Carry...

Image is not related.

Two officers were patrolling the park when they heard shots being fired. Sources said Lacey and Reid, both gang members with multiple arrests on their records, didn’t know each other and had gone to the hookah bar nightclub with several friends.

At some point,  Lacey’s friend’s got into an argument with Reid’s friends. The fight continued outside with Lacey and Reid facing off. Lacey shot Reid.

The two officers tactically approached the location, where the observed a man shooting another man. The two officers engaged the armed suspect and gave numerous commands for him to get on the ground. It was then that the officers fired approximately three times at the man, striking him.

New York State has laws against guns in the hands of law abiding citizens. Others have no problem obtaining, carrying or using them.  Just a thought.

Wheel ..

An Air Canada Express flight lost a wheel shortly after takeoff from Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, forcing the plane to turn back.

One of the 49 passengers on board captured video of the wheel detaching from the plane's left main landing gear and shared it on social media.

The  passenger paired the video with a sarcastic caption: "I'm currently on a plane that just lost a wheel. 2020 starting off well."

Pilots were able to turn the Dash 8-300 around and land safely.

"The experienced pilots maintained complete control of the aircraft," Manon Stuart, a spokesperson for Jazz Aviation, the operator of the flight, said in a statement.

Badaboom...

The US economy added 145,000 jobs in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.

Although the headline number slightly missed economists' expectations, the unemployment rate remained steady at 3.5%, a historic low. Over the past three months, an average of 184,000 new positions were added per month.

While job growth on average slowed in 2019 relative to 2018, if employment continues to grow steadily after the tenth year of economic expansion, it would still paint a relatively robust picture, and support US consumer strength.

Forest.

Can't see the forest for the fire.

Gentry...

 Kentucky family court judge accused was temporarily suspended with pay this week while officials continue to investigate allegations of  ethics violations leveled against her last month.

Dawn Gentry was accused of having a threesome with her secretary, Laura Aubrey, and Penrose while in a courthouse office during work hours. She denied the allegationbut that is what's going to stick in the mind.

She also is accused of hiring other employees not based on merit and of making unwanted sexual advances toward others through the social media platform “Snapchat.”

Gentry faces disciplinary action for falsifying timesheets, delaying hearings for or dismissing attorneys who did not support her bid for Kenton County Family Court judge,

Hunter...

 There was always someone in Joe Biden’s life to help him out with Hunter.  But little boys have little needs, while big boys have bigger needs.

Soon enough, directionless Hunter has a six-figure job at a bank run by Biden supporters. When Hunter grows bored, there’s another lucrative job under the tutelage of a former Biden staffer. When Hunter wants a house he can’t afford, he receives a loan for 110 percent of the purchase price. And when he goes bust, another friendly banker mops up the damage.

Then his brother Beau contracts fatal brain cancer, and the last wobbly wheels come off Hunter Biden’s fragile self. At this point,  much of the story is narrated by Hunter himself — of hallucinations, a car abandoned in the desert, maxed-out credit cards, a crack pipe, a strip club and a brandished gun.

 By the time the senator was vice president, there was a Chinese businessman who, Hunter said, left him a large diamond as a nice-to-meet-you gift. And a Ukrainian oligarch who hired Hunter at a princely sum to do nothing much. (Neither the firm nor Hunter Biden identified any specific contribution he made).  

Less privileged Americans can’t be faulted if they wonder why their addicted loved ones are on the streets or in the morgue. Multitudes locked up for years under Joe Biden’s crime bill might ask why the author’s son traveled the world scot-free. And sober working people making $50,000 a year may be skeptical of a system in which a vice president’s addicted son reportedly collected that sum every month.

Memories...

Shining light directly into areas of the brain damaged in Alzheimer's may reverse the the course of the disease, scientists believe.  

Researchers are trialling a headset mounted with LEDs that beams pulses of gamma waves into the hippocampus, the region responsible for memory.  

The daily treatment is said to boost mitochondria – the cell's batteries, which sweep away toxic proteins that build up in the brains of patients.

A 12-week trial into its effectiveness has just begun after early results saw patients regain their memory, as well as reading and writing skills, in three months.

With no known Alzheimer's cure in sight, the headset offers a ray of hope for around 850,000 sufferers in Britain and nearly six million in the US.

Deepfake...

Facebook says it is banning “deepfake” videos, the false but realistic clips created with artificial intelligence and sophisticated tools, as it steps up efforts to fight online manipulation.

The social network said that it's beefing up its policies to remove videos edited or synthesized in ways that aren't apparent to the average person, and which could dupe someone into thinking the video's subject said something he or she didn't actually say.

Created by artificial intelligence or machine learning, deepfakes combine or replace content to create images that can be almost impossible to tell are not authentic.

The U.S. tech company has been grappling with how to handle the rise of deepfakes after facing criticism last year for refusing to remove a doctored video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slurring her words, which was viewed more than 3 million times. Experts said the crudely edited clip was more of a “cheap fake” than a deepfake.