WEINSTEIN IS SUED FOR ASSAULTING FEMALE PRODUCER
YORK» Harvey Weinstein NEW sexually assaulted a female employee, threatening her job and future in the industry if she reported anything, and continued the abuse for years, her attorney said in court papers.
Alexandra Canosa, a producer on Netflix’s “Marco Polo,” filed a lawsuit in December against Weinstein and his brother Bob as well as their company and board members. She detailed the allegations in a complaint filed Monday.
Canosa said she worked for the company for years and that Weinstein began sexually assaulting her in 2010 at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. The alleged abuse continued until September 2017 and took place in New York, Los Angeles and overseas in Malaysia and Budapest. She says he threatened that she would lose her job and he’d blackball her if she denied his advances. The mistreatment occurred until just weeks before the first news reports about his conduct with other women in the film industry.
Missouri House votes to legalize medical marijuana.
MO.» Missouri JEFFERSON CITY, voters may have the option to legalize medical marijuana this November. Lawmakers are rushing to get there first.
The Missouri House voted Tuesday to legalize medical marijuana and Republican Rep. Jim Neely, the bill’s sponsor and a physician, argued that it was important that the Legislature set the rules for the industry.
“If we don’t take action,” Neely said, “voters of this state may very well take the decision out of the hands of the politicians and put it in the hands of the voters.”
U.N. received 54 allegations of sexual misconduct in three months.
NATIONS» The UNITED
United Nations said Tuesday it received 54 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation against U.N. peacekeepers and civilian staff and groups implementing U.N. programs in the first three months of 2018, including one involving an 11-year-old girl.
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that 14 allegations involved U.N. peacekeeping operations, 18 involved U.N. agencies, funds and programs, and 21 were related to U.N. partner organizations. One allegation involved a member of a non-U.N. international force operating under a U.N. Security Council mandate, he said.
Haq said the allegations involve 66 victims, including 13 girls under age 18. He said two women and one girl were pregnant, and paternity was established in one case. The ages of 16 victims were unknown, he added.
Activity on Hawaii volcano could indicate new eruption.
HONOLULU» A series of earthquakes and the collapse of the crater floor at the Puu Oo vent on Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano could trigger a new eruption of lava.
Officials from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said Tuesday that activity over the past 24 hours could lead to a new breakout on the east side of the Big Island volcano.
USGS geologist Janet Babb says similar activity has been recorded prior to previous eruptions in the area.
Shooting victim’s dad sues deputy who didn’t enter school.
FLA.» The father FORT LAUDERDALE, of a student killed in a mass shooting at a Florida high school is suing the armed officer who stood outside the building as people were massacred within.
Meadow Pollack was among the 17 killed on Valentine’s Day in a freshman building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Her father, Andrew, said Scot Peterson, the former sheriff’s deputy and the school’s resource officer, is his main target in the wrongful death lawsuit filed Monday in Broward County.
“He let my daughter get shot nine times at point-blank range,” Pollack told the Miami Herald. “He had the opportunity to go in and, instead, let all those people get murdered.”
— Denver Post wire services