Does anyone here even know what a prisoner is?

This might beat OpenAI

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15976653

Man with suspended license appears in Michigan court over Zoom while driving

Yes, this article is from 2024

Judge stunned when man with suspended license joins court Zoom call while driving.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15940107

Dennis Falaschi charged in multi-million dollar scheme as records show he wasn’t only one to take water from California’s farm region

A former California water official has pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal water in a deal with federal prosecutors in the state’s crop-rich central valley.

The Los Angeles Times reports Tuesday that 78-year-old Dennis Falaschi, who used to head the Panoche water district, entered the plea in federal court in Fresno. He also pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return.

Falaschi was accused in a case that alleged that more than $25m in water was stolen over two decades when it was siphoned from a federal irrigation canal through a secret pipe and sold to farmers and other water districts. The Panoche water district supplies irrigation for farmland in Fresno and Merced counties – much of it from the federal Delta-Mendota canal.

Authorities said in court documents that Falaschi wasn’t the only one taking water, but did not specify who else was involved. They estimated Falaschi stole less than $3.5m in water, a small portion of what they initially alleged had been stolen.

Thirteen counties in Oregon have voted in favor of measures to begin negotiations on seceding from the state and joining neighboring Idaho.

The latest county to endorse the initiative was Crook County, where voters approved the “Greater Idaho Measure” on Tuesday. The proposal aims to move Oregon’s border approximately 200 miles to the west, which would place 14 counties and several partial counties under Idaho’s jurisdiction.

“The Oregon/Idaho line was established 163 years ago and is now outdated,” the movement’s website says. “It makes no sense in its current location because it doesn’t match the location of the cultural divide in Oregon.”

The organizers of the Greater Idaho movement argue that residents in eastern Oregon feel increasingly alienated by the state’s progressive policies, which they say contribute to high crime rates. Their website says becoming part of Idaho would offer lower taxes and improved representation and governance for the communities.

“We want an economy that is not held back by Oregon regulations and taxes, including environmental regulations,” Greater Idaho executive director Matt McCaw, said, according to the Daily Mail. “We’ll still have federal and Idaho regulations, and that’s plenty. Idaho knows how to respect rural counties and their livelihoods.”

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