From the AP
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is suing NBC Universal over a documentary that he says falsely accuses him of being a serial murderer who had sex with underage girls as he awaits trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in New York state court says the documentary, “ Diddy: Making of a Bad Boy,” included statements that NBC Universal either knew were false or published with reckless disregard for the truth in order to defame the founder of Bad Boy Records.
“Indeed, the entire premise of the Documentary assumes that Mr. Combs has committed numerous heinous crimes, including serial murder, rape of minors, and sex trafficking of minors, and attempts to crudely psychologize him,” the complaint reads. “It maliciously and baselessly jumps to the conclusion that Mr. Combs is a ‘monster’ and ‘an embodiment of Lucifer’ with ‘a lot of similarities’ to Jeffrey Epstein.”
in the garden
You’ve Seen One Snake Plant, You Haven’t Seen Them All
From the New York Times
The genus Sansevieria had never really spoken to the botanist Chad Husby, until it did — loudly.
But not in the way it usually ingratiates itself to potential adopters, who hear that the most familiar one of all, the snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata), with its vertical, swordlike succulent foliage, is indestructible, maybe the lowest-care of low-care houseplants.
Dr. Husby, chief explorer for Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Fla., heard Sansevieria’s call in 2019, during an International Palm Society meeting in the San Diego area. At a tour of a member’s garden, another attendee commented on a handsome, silvery Sansevieria growing there. The host gifted the man and Dr. Husby each a cutting of the rare plant, which looked nothing like the image of the genus he held in his mind.
The genus Sansevieria had never really spoken to the botanist Chad Husby, until it did — loudly.
But not in the way it usually ingratiates itself to potential adopters, who hear that the most familiar one of all, the snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata), with its vertical, swordlike succulent foliage, is indestructible, maybe the lowest-care of low-care houseplants.
Dr. Husby, chief explorer for Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Fla., heard Sansevieria’s call in 2019, during an International Palm Society meeting in the San Diego area. At a tour of a member’s garden, another attendee commented on a handsome, silvery Sansevieria growing there. The host gifted the man and Dr. Husby each a cutting of the rare plant, which looked nothing like the image of the genus he held in his mind.
The horticulture industry’s emphasis on the generic snake plant, he said, “leads people to totally misjudge the genus — which happened to me for most of my life as well.”
From the New York Daily News
The Trump Administration has revoked more than $80 million in funds from New York City bank accounts after Elon Musk earlier this week threatened to claw back FEMA funds used to house migrants in “luxury hotels,” prompting City Hall to raise the possibility of legal action.
The city received a payment of $80.5 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency funding Shelter and Services Program on Feb. 4. But Wednesday morning, City Comptroller Brad Lander discovered that FEMA abruptly cancelled the disbursement, making the money disappear from New York City coffers.
Liz Garcia, a spokeswoman for the mayor, confirmed the allocation was gone and said Adams’ office has “requested an emergency meeting with FEMA to try and resolve the matter as quickly as possible.”
“The Corporation Counsel is already exploring various litigation options,” Garcia added, referring to the city Law Department.
Adams told reporters on his way in to a town hall that his team had reached out to the White House and hoped to meet with the Trump administration to explain how the Biden administration had “left us with a huge price tag” that the city should not have to shoulder.
Musk, who under Trump has been given significant influence over federal government operations, wrote on X on Monday that the president’s administration was seeking to force the city to return $59 million in FEMA funding he claimed had been spent on housing migrants in “luxury hotels.” While some migrants, especially families with children, have been housed in hotels in the city, none are in the “luxury” category, city officials said.
According to Lander, the FEMA money was approved by Congress in 2023 while President Biden was in office. It was supposed to be distributed to the city for sheltering migrants and provide them with other services.
“This highway robbery of our funds directly out of our bank account is a betrayal of everyone who calls New York City home,” Lander said in a statement.
The Department of Government Efficiency, the task force Trump tapped Musk to lead, discovered the disbursement, Musk said. Musk said last week’s payment was in “gross insubordination to the President’s executive order,” appearing to refer to a January order directing Homeland Security to pause distribution of federal funding to nongovernmental organizations providing services to migrants.
About a year after becoming the first Native artist to ever singularly represent the United States at the Venice Biennale, Jeffrey Gibson will make his solo museum debut in Southern California this spring at the Broad Museum in Downtown Los Angeles through an adaptation of his pavilion presentation.
From Hyperallergic
Opening on May 10 and running through September 28, the Broad’s curation of the space in which to place me (2024) will showcase over 30 artworks by Gibson that debuted at the pavilion throughout the first-floor galleries. The presentation will also include the museum’s new acquisition, Gibson’s painting “THE RETURNED MALE STUDENT FAR TOO FREQUENTLY GOES BACK TO THE RESERVATION AND FALLS INTO THE OLD CUSTOM OF LETTING HIS HAIR GROW LONG” (2024). In it, the artist deployed his telltale colorful geometric patterning and stylized text to incorporate a direct quote from a 1902 letter by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to a superintendent of the Round Valley Indian Reservation in California, urging them to orderNative children to cut their hair and assimilate to White western attire and appearance.
Animal shelters offer Valentine’s Day sleepovers, sloppy kisses included
“If it doesn’t work out, you can kick them out in the morning,” said Julie Castle, CEO of the nonprofit Best Friends Animal Society.
Her organization’s no-kill animal shelters across the United States will provide pet food, beds, litter boxes, toys and heart-shaped treats during their first Valentine’s Day pet sleepover for homeless pets.
Pets provide the purest form of love without any judgments,” she said. “Hopefully, temporary will turn into permanent, and you’ll find your own true love on Valentine’s Day.”
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