Viraldice

Source: Spencer Platt / Getty

Meanwhile, Government Officials Say A New Initiative Is Coming

It’s cold.

FREEZING.

And yet, some New York City Public Housing (NYCHA) residents still don’t have heat.

Now, plans to go on rent strike are swiftly approaching, according to New York Daily News.

Many NYCHA residents are spending their time at home in freezing temperatures as a polar vortex makes it’s way across the U.S.

“It’s a disaster,” said 76-year-old Bertha Spivey, a resident of NYCHA’s Soundview Houses in the Bronx. “You can’t take showers or do dishes. We have no heat or hot water. If one goes, both go. It happens every winter for last four years.”

Spivey’s neighbor Rachel Jean, 40, said she had to boil water to make it hot and bring some heat into her apartment. “We’re bathing with it,” Jean said. “When the water does come on it’s brown and then it shuts off. I have six kids. We’re just waiting for them to do something.”

Tenants at the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City are tired of waiting for the government to do something. Certain residents have already started laying the groundwork for a major rent strike, which could force NYCHA to make long-neglected repairs. Almost 70 people assembled at the Queensbridge complex on Monday where they received advice from housing advocates and lawyers.

Back in 2013, tenants of NYCHA’s Lexington Houses in East Harlem threatened the city with a rent strike after having no gas for more than two weeks. NYCHA made the repairs 24 hours later.

“I’m 100% behind a rent strike,” said Brooklyn City Councilman Rafael Espinal Jr., a candidate for public advocate, who showed up at the rent strike strategy session. “If you’re not getting adequate service you have every right to withhold your rent until the work is done.”

A NYCHA spokesman said repair crews arrived at various sites on Wednesday to restore heat. The agency also activated its situation room in Long Island City, Queens to prepare for dangerously low temperatures.

Meanwhile, City Hall is trying to convince federal housing officials and a federal judge that NYC is capable of running its own housing system without any takeover from the Trump administration. Last fall, U.S. District Judge William Pauley rejected a settlement between the city and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), saying the federal government was neglecting its responsibilities to NYCHA.

Both sides have since been discussing ways to address the various issues NYCHA residents face, including heating problems, mold and dangerous levels of lead.

HUD secretary Ben Carson is set to appear in New York on Thursday to make a “huge & historic announcement that will be great news for the residents of @NYCHA,” according to a tweet from Lynne Patton, the head of HUD’s federal housing programs in New Jersey and New York.

We’ll find out if they make impactful moves.

Or else…

They better gear up for that strike.

Source: asiseeit / Getty

Homeland Security Operated This Fake University For Years

It might just be easier to go to school where your parents or your older sibling did from now–that is, if you wanna make sure you’re attending a real college.

Newly unsealed court documents revealed that the University of Farmington Hills–which is advertised online even now as a “nationally accredited business and STEM institution” in a suburb of Detroit–was, in reality, a sting operation. The whole thing was run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement meant to lure immigrants on student visas into knowingly paying for fraudulent paperwork in order to stay in the country, the Detroit News reported on Wednesday.

This whole hoax began back in 2015 but later intensified in 2017 after Trump’s inauguration, which resulted in the arrests of eight student “recruiters.” These arrests follow said recruiters allegedly taking in a collective $250,000 in profit in exchange for finding and helping at least 600 other students—mostly from India—to get in on the scheme.

According to the federal grand jury indictments, both the recruiters and the students they found knew the university was operating an illegal scheme, but they did not realize it was actually run by ICE. These same student recruiters were also accused of helping the fraudulent students get the paperwork the students needed to be able to stay in the country from the university.

Starting in 2017, ICE agents began posing as officials at the university, which didn’t have a campus at all, but rather, a small office in a corporate park. The school was legitimized by The Department of Homeland Security, who named the University of Farmington on its list of certified schools for international students. “Our innovative curriculum combines traditional instruction and distance learning with fulltime professional experiences,” the website promises. “We offer flexible class schedules and a focus on students who do not want to interrupt their careers.”

A small number of students who joined in on the scheme asked to be paid for recruiting other fake students, and met several times with university officials who later turned out to be undercover ICE agents. Most of the students they recruited had actually arrived in the country on legal, valid student visas and then transferred to Farmington Hills. The students paid the university several thousands of dollars to get the paperwork proving they were full-time students and then proceeded to go along with their regular lives afterward.

The eight recruiters in question were charged with harboring aliens for profit and conspiracy to commit visa fraud and face a maximum of five years in prison. The other fraudulent students who were arrested are facing deportation.

As other reports point out, this is not the first time a fake university has been created as bait for visa fraud. Back in 2016, the Department of Homeland Security announced it had charged 21 people with student and work visa fraud after establishing a fake University of Northern New Jersey.

Legend of the Demon Cat (read our review), the latest feature from internationally celebrated filmmaker and Palme d’Or winner Chen Kaige, will receive a U.S. theatrical release from myCinema, timed to coincide with Chinese New Year, February 5, 2019.

The sweeping historical drama, based on the novel Gensoshin Kukai, by best-selling Japanese fantasy writer Baku Yumemakura, and filled with legendary Chinese characters, is a visual feast, and will be released in theaters nationwide, including Los Angeles and New York.

Interestingly, the Sino-Japanese co-production, featuring an ensemble cast of top talent from mainland China and Japan, was filmed on a lavish, sprawling set, which included the creation of an entire city, that took over five years and in excess of $250 million to construct (read more about it here). “I have yet to feel at ease making an entire movie using just a green screen,” said Kaige.

Legend of Demon Cat is set over a thousand years ago, during the imperial Tang Dynasty, considered by scholars to be a cosmopolitan period of exceptional cultural and literary flowering. A Chinese poet, Bai Letian (Xuan Huang) and a Japanese monk, Kukai (Shōta Sometani) join forces to investigate the case of a demonic cat who has possessed a general’s wife (Kitty Zhang Yuqi) and wreaked havoc on the imperial court. The investigation takes some gruesome and unexpected twists, leading the monk and the poet to unravel the mystery behind the decades-old death of the legendary, beautiful concubine Yang Guifei (Sandrine Pinna), one of the iconic Four Beauties of ancient China.

“Love After Lockup” Gets Dicey At The Altar

We’re just a day away from a new episode of “Love After Lockup” and we’ve got an exclusive clip!

Here’s what else you can expect from the episode:

Lizzie confesses $800K hustle. Megan expects proposal from Michael, while his wife expects him home. Matt’s temper flares at job interview. Brittany reveals secret to Marcelino. Clint reveals shocking details about the night Tracie went on the run.

LOVE AFTER LOCKUP – “THE $800K HUSTLE”– Airs Friday, February 1st at 9/8C on WE TV!

Following its Sundance premiere (read our review), Bloody Disgusting has the first clip from A24’s next horror title, The Hole in the Ground, about a child who vanishes into a sinkhole only to return…different.

Said to be in the vein of The Babadook, Lee Cronin’s horror film arrived today exclusively on DIRECTV, before opening in limited theaters on March 1, 2019.

In the film,

“Sarah and her young son Chris move to a new home in the Irish countryside, next to a forest that hides an enormous sinkhole. One night, Chris vanishes, and when he reappears he seems unharmed and unchanged. But, as his behavior grows increasingly disturbing, Sarah begins to fear that the boy who has returned may not be her son at all.

“The Hole in the Ground weaves suspense, terror, and supernatural folklore into a richly evocative story about the primal fears of motherhood.”

Seána Kerslake (A Date For Mad Mary) stars with James Cosmo, Kati Outinen, and James Quinn Markey.

Created by Nigel Kneale, the character Bernard Quatermass has appeared in a handful of projects over the years, including three 1950s TV serials as well as three films from Hammer: The Quatermass Experiment, Quatermass II, and Quatermass and the Pit (pictured above). Via Deadline, Hammer and Legendary are now bringing Quatermass back to life!

David Farr (“The Night Manager”) has been brought on board to script the new Quatermass movie, described as “a new take on the iconic British sci-fi hero.”

Quatermass is a pioneer of the British space programme, heading the British Experimental Rocket Group. He continually finds himself confronting sinister alien forces that threaten to destroy humanity.

The film will be produced by Hammer’s Simon Oakes, with Jon Silk and Jay Ashenfelter overseeing production for Legendary.

Ahead of the World Premiere of the stand-out period horror comedy Here Comes Hell at Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow 2019 (March 1st), director Jack McHenry has shared the first images and poster art for the £22,000 budget micro-indie in which a 1930’s dinner party descends into carnage, gore and demonic possession.

“The idea came about when I was watching David Lean’s Blithe Spirit and was like: what would happen if instead of his wife coming back and it being funny, it turned into a full-on horror picture?” Henry said about the “Downtown Abbey” meets Evil Dead comparison.

“I’ve always been a massive fan of Agatha Christie and early Hitchcock, but also at the same time I love horror movies like Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead and Peter Jackson’s Braindead and this movie allowed me to combine these two elements in a really fun way.”

In regards to the film’s gore, he adds:

“I wanted a lot of the gore and monster effects to be in camera, and have that old school feel about them. Nothing beats puppets and real blood.”

Check out the first images and poster art ahead of the FrightFest premiere.

One great thing about Stephen King is that he *never* stops writing, and in the wake of last year’s The Outsider, he’s already got another brand new horror novel on the way!

Announced today over on StephenKing.com, The Institute will be released on September 10.

As psychically terrifying as Firestarter, and with the spectacular kid power of It, The Institute is Stephen King’s gut-wrenchingly dramatic story of good vs. evil in a world where the good guys don’t always win.

Here’s the full plot rundown for the 576-page novel…

“In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out.”

In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.”

Did Drake Tip Two McDonald’s Employees 10K Each?

Rumor was Drake walked into an L.A. McDonald’s and was feeling “God’s Plan” generous. According to a fan by the name of AJ, who was there when Drizzy arrived, the 6 God tipped two employees 10K each. Only now, a CNN reporter claims that isn’t the case…

“I’ve just confirmed with the PR company who represents @McDonalds that @Drake did not tip $10,000 to employees,” @Chloe_Melas tweeted. “He gave them $100 each.” Of course trolls wasted no time hopping into AJ’s mentions to drag him, but the frequent McDonald’s customer says he isn’t lying.

“& since y’all want to believe a certain individual (who wasn’t there) who apparently contacted a McDonald’s “PR team” (who also wasn’t there) – this didn’t happen inside,” he tweeted. “He came through the drive-thru first & only came inside (with his security guards) to use the bathroom.”

“One of the employees (who I know since I visit that particular location often) turned to me as he and his security guards walked in (after going through the drive-thru) and whispered what just happened as the other female employee started crying hysterically in the back,” AJ recalled, adding “Now stay out of my mentions.”

Who are you more inclined to believe—dude who was actually in the building…or others? Regardless of the amount, it was a nice gesture on Drake’s part. Chime in.

Source: REVOLT / Revolt

Killer Mike On The Breakfast Club

Killer Mike made his presence known on the world’s most dangerous morning show, The Breakfast Club. During his interview the talked about his new Netflix series Trigger Warning, he addressed his feelings on interracial marriage, and finally got into a very heated debate with DJ Envy about public vs private schools.

Good, intense, talk by two brothas who mean well. Press play below to watch the coversation.

What are your thoughts on these topics? Do you understand why some parents choose public schools over private and vice versa?

“Extreme Love” Show Features Different Kinds Of Relationships

Your Friday night just got a lot more lit… WeTV’s spicy show “Extreme Love” introduces audiences with some pretty “non-traditional” relationships. ‘

Here’s the rundown on what you can expect from this week’s episode.

Sugar Baby trains daughter to get cash from men & spills secrets of her lavish lifestyle. A man who loves big beautiful women surprises his two girlfriends by moving in a third big beautiful woman. Wife learns her husband is asexual.

EXTREME LOVE – “SUGAR BABY & BIG BEAUTIFUL WOMEN LOVE TRIO” – Airs Friday, February 1st at 10/9C on WE TV

Source: Riccardo S. Savi / Getty

Lil Wayne  Is Suing His Ex-Lawyer For Allegedly Cheating Him Out Of Money

Lil Wayne is suing his former attorney, Ronald Sweeney, for allegedly swindling him out of $20 million while he represented the musician, according to reports from TMZ.

Sweeney acted as the rapper’s lawyer from 2005 all the way through September of 2018 and charged him 10 percent for every deal he closed–which Wayne argues is well beyond the industry standard of 5 percent. But in addition to charging Wayne for his services, Sweeney allegedly tried to squeeze more money out of the deal by seeking an additional 10 percent for all profits netted by his Young Money label. Luckily for Wayne, he prevented that from actually happening.

Beyond that, the lawyer managed to pull even more money out of Wayne’s pockets by enlisting the help of another law firm for the ongoing legal battles with Birdman and Cash Money Records along with Universal Music Group. Said firm allegedly took a whopping 23 percent from the settlement with Cash Money, and 15 percent from the latter settlement. Those percentages were added onto the 10 percent Sweeney was already expected to receive. Definitely seems like a a lot of money being moved around.

Initial reports regarding Wayne’s resolution with his label indicated that Universal cut a check for “well over $10 million,” but that amount has never actually been confirmed. “A portion of the information released today is true, a settlement has been reached, but the dollar amount being disclosed is false,” Karen Civil wrote in response to reports of the settlement.

“Per our settlement agreement, the matter has been amicably resolved to the satisfaction of all parties,” Sweeney commented at the time. “In terms of the particulars, we’re prohibited legally from saying anything further. I can say that my client is happy. He is his own man, a man that owns his assets, his music and himself. At some point, Wayne will let his fans know what’s going to happen next.”

Source: Stefanie Keenan / Gregg DeGuire / Getty

Tyga Dating Kylie Jenner’s Friend?

According to the Daily Mail, Tyga was spotted with Australian Instagram model, and Kardashian family friend Tammy Hembrow.

Tammy, a single mother of 2, was seen backstage cheering for Tyga at Rolling Loud Australia in Sydney on Sunday. According to witnesses, “Tammy spent all night backstage (or on the side of the stage) as if she was his girlfriend.” After Rolling Loud, she was spotted with Tyga for a second time, this time at a show in Brisbane.

“They traveled up to Brisbane separately and hooked up again later on,’ the insider claimed. ‘She’s basically doing his whole Australian tour with him.’

This is rumored romance is especially spicy since Tammy is a model for Khloe’s Good American company.

Hembrow is also cool with Kendall and Kylie, attending Kendall’s birthday bash. In August 2018, She was pictured being carried out of Kylie’s 21st birthday party in West Hollywood face-down on a stretcher, making headlines over it.

Are you shocked at all that Tyga is shacking up with Tammy? With the history of how fast these celebs move, their kids will be playing together in no time. Hit the flip to see more of his new fling and her adorable kiddies.