Solwd

Charles McGonigal pleaded not guilty in an alleged payment scheme involving a former Albanian intelligence operative who was also an FBI informant.

     

http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~/725497373/0/usatoday-newstopstories~Charles-McGonigal-exFBI-official-accused-of-taking-secret-cash-payments-pleads-not-guilty/

Amazon is deepening its ties to hit Dungeons & Dragons actual play series Critical Role, entering a multiyear deal with the growing role-playing content empire that will see any new adaptations spring up under the Amazon Studios umbrella.

The company will also bring Critical Role’s second campaign to life, showcasing the ragtag fantasy group of reluctant adventurers known as the “Mighty Nein” in its own animated series. The campaign two adaptation will begin production soon but there’s no firm release date yet.

Under the deal’s terms, Amazon will get first-look rights for any movie adaptation of Critical Role’s sprawling original fantasy world, crafted by dungeon master Matt Mercer. Critical Role’s episodes have aired on the big screen before — including the animated “Vox Machina” season 3 debut and a two-part live play special that served as an epilogue for campaign two, which wrapped up in 2021 — but to date Critical Role has yet to produce a feature-length movie adaptation.

“With the success of our animated series ‘The Legend of Vox Machina,’ we are looking forward to continuing our relationship with Critical Role and expanding its universe with ‘Mighty Nein,’” Amazon Studios Head of Global TV Vernon Sanders said. “Expanding these iconic franchises for our global Prime Video customers continues to be an ambitious and rewarding journey and we are eager to see where this new series takes us.”

As far as adaptations go, Critical Role is pretty safe territory for the tech giant’s experiments in original content. The show, which streams weekly on Twitch, boasts a famously committed community that buys up its books and merch, celebrating the group’s creative endeavors in whatever form they take. According to Twitch data that leaked in 2021, Critical Role was the highest paid streamer on the platform, with the long-form D&D actual play show beating out even the most popular pro gaming personalities.

Critical Role’s second campaign could also bring new fans into the franchise. While the group’s first campaign followed a more traditional fantasy trajectory — hero archetypes, dragons and the like — the “Mighty Nein” campaign offers quirkier characters and an at-times subtle exploration of political intrigue and spirituality in an imagined world that often defies expectations.

Critical Role, which began as a casual home game among friends in the voice acting community, has grown into an entertainment behemoth in a few short years. Amazon picked up Critical Role’s first campaign, “The Legend of Vox Machina,” in 2019 after the roleplaying crew smashed Kickstarter records by raising $11.3 million for an animated adaptation. The second season of “The Legend of Vox Machina” debuted on Prime Video this month and Amazon Studios ordered a third season of the show last year.

Critical Role’s second campaign will get its own Amazon animated series by Taylor Hatmaker originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/25/critical-role-mighty-nein-c2-amazon-prime-video-show/

“We’re letting the legal process take care of itself, so if he’s healthy, he’ll play this week,” San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan told media on Wednesday.

https://nypost.com/2023/01/25/49ers-charles-omenihu-will-play-vs-eagles-despite-arrest/

Wash-Out, Rinse Weak-Hands, Repeat The Squeeze: Gold Rips As Equity Traders Buy The F**king Dip

Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/25/2023 – 16:01

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/wash-out-rinse-weak-hands-repeat-squeeze-gold-rips-equity-traders-buy-fking-dip

Airlines owe you whenever a flight is canceled, and sometimes when a flight is delayed. Here’s how to find out what you’re entitled to.

     

http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~/725497298/0/usatoday-newstopstories~How-to-find-out-what-airlines-owe-you-when-your-flight-is-canceled-delayed/

Longtime friend and “Hairspray” composer Marc Shaiman said working with him “was a total joyfest.”

https://nypost.com/2023/01/25/rocky-horror-icon-dead-at-71-sal-piro-was-role-playing-superfan/

A police K-9 named Officer Ice was recently “under investigation” for allegedly stealing from one of his own colleagues.

This month, the Wyandotte Police Department (WPD) in Wyandotte, Michigan, shared a now-viral image of Ice’s mugshot following his recent criminal charges.

As the post stated, Officer Barwig was in the middle of his lunch when he was called into the WPD jail for assistance.

NYC DOG TRAPPED IN HOT CAR ENDURES MONTH-LONG RECOVERY, FINDS HOME WITH POLICE OFFICER

Upon his return, Barwig’s lunch had vanished and Ice was seen leaving the break room while “licking his chop,” according to the WPD’s post, which was shared on Facebook 11,000 times.

The presumed guilty party, Ice, has garnered quite the following since his story spread across social media platforms.

“The response from the Facebook post was great,” Chief Brian Zalewski of the WPD told Fox News Digital. “There was an immediate defense of Ice and calls for the department charges to be dismissed.”

VAN GOGH, A ONE-EARED DOG IN DESPERATE NEED OF A NEW HOME, ‘PAINTS’ HIS WAY TO ADOPTION

“Since Ice has been with our police department for so long, he is well known and loved in our community,” Zalewski added. “People coming to his defense was immediate.”

Many Facebook users came forward saying they would defend the pup “pro-bone-o.”

One person commented, “Sounds like circumstantial evidence. He does not look guilty so thus must be presumed to be innocent.”

Another added, “I’ll be this officer’s attorney pro bono if need be. If the teeth don’t fit you must acquit.”

On Jan. 18, the department posted an update on Facebook, sharing that they have been “threatened with massive protests” if they move forward with the investigation on Ice and/or charges.

“Plus the overall public just doesn’t believe he is guilty. No video has been produced,” the WPD wrote in a caption beneath a photo of Ice and a tray of sandwiches. “That being said Ofc Ice will not face any internal discipline or criminal charges.”

The post went on, “The public has spoken. #nochargesforIce.”

Detective Sergeant Kenneth Groat is Ice’s handler. Groat and Ice have been working together for more than 10 years, since Ice was six months old, Zalewski said.

“Although Ice is getting a little gray in the beard and not on everyday patrol, he is still very much a part of our department,” Zalewski said.

“Ice is extremely well trained and still maintains his K-9 certifications. Ice has assisted dozens of law enforcement agencies over his decade of service,” he added. “He was one of the most requested Police K-9’s for drug search warrants, vehicle searches and suspect tracking.” 

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Zalewski said Ice is a “very well socialized police dog.” He’s also calm, loves to be pet and enjoys playing with his toy ball. 

Sgt. Groat brings Ice to community events and school-associated activities. “People love seeing him,” Zalewski ntoed.

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/michigan-k-9s-mugshot-goes-viral-police-accuse-pup-stealing-officers-lunch

Aides for former Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton say they’re not searching for classified files because those items were turned over when they left office.

     

http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~/725463602/0/usatoday-newstopstories~Aides-to-expresidents-Obama-Bush-Clinton-say-they-dont-have-classified-files-live-updates/

If you recently made a purchase from an overseas online store selling knockoff clothes and goods, there’s a chance your credit card number and personal information were exposed.

Since January 6, a database containing hundreds of thousands of unencrypted credit card numbers and corresponding cardholders’ information was spilling onto the open web. At the time it was pulled offline on Tuesday, the database had about 330,000 credit card numbers, cardholder names, and full billing addresses — and rising in real-time as customers placed new orders. The data contained all the information that a criminal would need to make fraudulent transactions and purchases using a cardholder’s information.

The credit card numbers belong to customers who made purchases through a network of near-identical online stores claiming to sell designer goods and apparel. But the stores had the same security problem in common: any time a customer made a purchase, their credit card data and billing information was saved in a database, which was left exposed to the internet without a password. Anyone who knew the IP address of the database could access reams of unencrypted financial data.

Anurag Sen, a good-faith security researcher, found the exposed credit card records and asked TechCrunch for help in reporting it to its owner. Sen has a respectable track record of scanning the internet looking for exposed servers and inadvertently published data, and reporting it to companies to get their systems secured.

But in this case, Sen wasn’t the first person to discover the spilling data. According to a ransom note left behind on the exposed database, someone else had found the spilling data and, instead of trying to identify the owner and responsibly reporting the spill, the unnamed person instead claimed to have taken a copy of the entire database’s contents of credit card data and would return it in exchange for a small sum of cryptocurrency.

A review of the data by TechCrunch shows most of the credit card numbers are owned by cardholders in the United States. Several people we contacted confirmed that their exposed credit card data was accurate.

TechCrunch has identified several online stores whose customers’ information was exposed by the leaky database. Many of the stores claim to operate out of Hong Kong. Some of the stores are designed to sound similar to big-name brands, like Sprayground, but whose websites have no discernible contact information, typos and spelling mistakes, and a conspicuous lack of customer reviews. Internet records also show the websites were set up in the past few weeks.

Some of these websites include:

• spraygroundusa.com

• ihuahebuy.com

• igoodlinks.com

• ibuysbuy.com

• lichengshop.com

• hzoushop.com

• goldlyshop.com

• haohangshop.com

• twinklebubble.store

• spendidbuy.com

If you bought something from one of those sites in the past few weeks, you might want to consider your banking card compromised and contact your bank or card provider.

It’s not clear who is responsible for this network of knockoff stores. TechCrunch contacted a person via WhatsApp whose Singapore-registered phone number was listed as the point of contact on several of the online stores. It’s not clear if the contact number listed is even involved with the stores, given one of the websites listed its location as a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Houston, Texas.

Internet records showed that the database was operated by a customer of Tencent, whose cloud services were used to host the database. TechCrunch contacted Tencent about its customer’s database leaking credit card information, and the company responded quickly. The customer’s database went offline a short time later.

“When we learned of the incident, we immediately contacted the customer who operates the database and it was shut down immediately. Data privacy and security are top priorities at Tencent. We will continue to work with our customers to ensure they maintain their databases in a safe and secure manner,” said Carrie Fan, global communications director at Tencent.

Read more:

• New York payments startup exposed millions of credit cards
• MoviePass exposed thousands of unencrypted customer card numbers
• Hackers stole passwords for accessing 140,000 payment terminals

A network of knockoff apparel stores exposed 330,000 customer credit cards by Zack Whittaker originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/25/apparel-designer-goods-credit-cards-exposed/

In response to rent payments soaring across the country in recent years, the Biden administration unveiled new actions Wednesday to protect tenants, make renting more affordable and improve fairness in the rental housing market.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/25/homes/biden-tenant-protection-renters/index.html