A brand new report highlights how Jeff Bezos continues to “actively use his media properties” to side with Donald Trump by revealing that his Amazon film and tv studio pays $40 million to cover the to license rights to a documentary about Melania Trump.

“You're not the only one raising both eyebrows at Sunday's news that Bezos' Amazon will release a Melania Trump documentary directed by Brett Ratner,” Puck co-founder Matthew Belloni wrote in a report released Tuesday. Belloni said the $40 million payday was confirmed by three sources conversant in the deal.

Ratner happens to be the disgraced “Rush Hour” director, who hasn't directed a Hollywood film since 2018, when he was accused of sexual assault and harassment by multiple women, including actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge. the Los Angeles Times and other outlets reported. Melania Trump apparently has no problem confiding her life story to Ratner, perhaps because he has denied the allegations and has never been charged with against the law, or because she is married to a person who has also been accused of sexual misconduct by several women.

In any case, Belloni said the $40 million included the price of Melania Trump's “vanity documentary,” which can receive a small theatrical release after which appear on Prime Video. The costs also cover a previously unpublished two- to three-part follow-up documentary in regards to the former and future first lady. Melania Trump will participate in each projects and was given the title of executive producer.

Belloni said it was unclear how much Amazon was paying Melania Trump to take part in and “produce” the documentary while her husband was still in office. But he said, “I bet it's a big chunk of that $40 million.”

Belloni said Amazon declined to comment. The Daily Beast reported that the documentary, which began filming last month, is meant to supply an “unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at First Lady Melania Trump.”

In recent weeks, Ratner has been posting pictures of himself in Palm Beach, Florida. the Daily Beast reported. Melania and Donald Trump stayed on the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago estate before he returns to Washington, DC to assume the presidency later this month.

News of the Melania Trump documentary comes after Amazon founder and chairman Bezos and his glamorous fiancée Lauren Sanchez recently dined at Mar-A-Lago. Daily Beast media reporter Corbin Boilies noted that any exclusive insight into Melania Trump's life could be in great demand by many media outlets. On the opposite hand, Amazon's decision to pay a lot to supply the film represents the most recent public attempt by Bezos and his firms to “warm up” after years of feuds with Trump and his family.

Amazon reportedly plans to donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund. This news coincides with Bezos' Washington Post's killing of a cartoon by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes that depicts Bezos and other tech billionaires kneeling before Trump with bags of cash. In fact, Bezos is amongst quite a lot of executives who’ve visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago in recent weeks, as corporations and Wall Street have sought to influence the brand new administration. the Daily Beast said in one other report.

At The Washington Post, the cartoon controversy was preceded by Bezos blocking his newspaper from endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris before the election, saying he desired to end the paper's decades-long tradition of constructing presidential endorsements. More than 250,000 subscribers canceled their subscriptions as a result of Bezos' intervention.

Originally published: January 7, 2025 at 3:00 pm PST

Red Sox

Two days after agreeing to a lucrative contract extension, Alex Cora proved why he’s definitely worth the MLB's second-highest managerial contract.

His decision to make use of Wilyer Abreu as a pinch hitter as a substitute of Tyler O'Neill within the eighth inning was one in every of the explanations the Red Sox got here back and beat the New York Yankees on Friday night.

Trailing by one run firstly of the eighth after Ceddanne Rafaela hit a large home run within the seventh to chop the sport to 7-6, Cora decided to present Abreu a probability to bat against the Yankees' Clay Holmes. The decision got here after Connor Wong made a game-winning 10-pitch at-bat to get on base for the pinch hitter.

Abreu replaced O'Neill, who began Boston's scoring drive with a sacrifice fly in the primary inning. Cora preferred a duel between a left-hander and a right-hander; Abreu is left-handed, while O'Neill is right-handed.

Boston's manager typically benches Abreu against left-handed pitchers, which is why he was not within the starting lineup for Friday's game against New York's Nestor Cortes. The outfielder has a .277 batting average against right-handers this season and has hit all eight of his home runs against such pitchers in 2024.

Abreu continued his dominance against right-handers on Friday together with his RBI double against Holmes. He hit a line drive to center field on the second pitch of the at-bat to tie the sport at seven runs.

In the following at-bat, Masataka Yoshida hit a two-run single that gave the Red Sox the game-winning 9-7 lead.

Cora spoke about Yoshida's performance on the plate shortly after the sport.

“He swung the bat well,” he said. “He's healthy and rested. We know what kind of hitter he can be. … He swung the bat well in Colorado and we like the at-bats.”

The Red Sox finally scored five unanswered runs within the seventh and eighth innings on Friday, marking the team's sixth comeback after trailing greater than seven innings within the last 18 games.

SAN JOSE – The San Jose City Council has approved a $350,000 settlement for a girl who was brutally kicked and dragged by a police officer during a automobile stop 4 years ago. The encounter gained notoriety after an eyewitness video went viral on social media.

The payment was approved Tuesday to settle an excessive-force lawsuit filed in federal court by Guadalupe Marin. As the video shows, Marin passively resisted Officer Matthew Rodriguez before he kicked her within the stomach, handcuffed her after which dragged her across a McDonald's parking zone near the corner of East Santa Clara and twenty fourth Streets on July 22, 2020.

Marin and her attorney, Sarah Marinho, declined to comment on the settlement, under which town and San Jose police admitted no wrongdoing. A memo from City Attorney Nora Frimann described the payment as “a negotiated agreement between the parties to avoid the risks associated with litigation,” which is common in such agreements.

This is the second six-figure settlement town has paid in as a few years for Rodriguez's on-duty conduct. He, together with not less than three other officers, was sued by Anthony Cho for excessive use of force. Cho claimed he was hit with batons, punched and kicked during a traffic stop on July 18, 2020 – 4 days before the incident with Marin – where he was suspected of driving a stolen vehicle. His subsequent charge of resisting arrest was dropped, and in March 2023, town agreed to pay him $200,000 to settle his lawsuit.

Rodriguez is currently facing charges of assault under the guise of authority. He is on leave from the police until the criminal case is resolved.

Both the lawsuit and a police report accompanying Rodriguez's criminal criticism show that even before the viral video, a police supervisor had noticed discrepancies between Rodriguez's bodycam footage and his original report that the 39-year-old woman was not cooperating. The report and lawsuit suggest a communication gap when the driving force thought she was complying with the officer's command to get on the bottom by crouching down, while Rodriguez wanted her to get on the bottom and crawl toward him.

A moment later, Rodriguez was heard screaming, “I'm going to kick you in the (expletive) face!”, after which, in response to the prosecution, he “kicked Marin in the stomach with full force until the air went out of her lungs” before dragging her across the sidewalk.

Rodriguez and one other officer were also accused within the indictment of falsely claiming of their police reports that Marin resisted them; the one-minute eyewitness video showed Marin sitting passively next to a silver BMW while Rodriguez stood a couple of feet away.

The second officer, Tyler Moran, was a co-defendant within the lawsuit for allegedly failing to intervene and stop Rodriguez. Moran, who has since left the SJPD, was also a co-defendant in Cho's lawsuit.

Police said officers stopped the BMW since the vehicle had evaded two traffic stops up to now 4 days. However, the criticism states that considered one of the officers on the scene quickly realized that Marin was not the driving force within the previous cases and that Marin's sister, who was a passenger that day, had recently purchased the automobile from a neighborhood mechanic.

The lawsuit also stressed that Marin was clearly “unarmed, as he could see that she was holding nothing in her hands and was wearing form-fitting shorts and a tank top,” and that together with her 5'1″ height and soft voice, she objectively posed no threat to officers in any way.”

Three minor misdemeanor charges brought against Marin arising from her arrest that day were later dropped.

The Boston Globe

If you might have $600 million in your pocket and consistently have trouble budgeting, how do you solve your money problems?

If you're Gov. Maura Healey's latest transportation task force, hire a team of consultants who charge as much as $610 an hour.

Looking at a Budget gap of $628 million For the following fiscal 12 months, the MBTA signed a $450,000 contract in April with consulting firm Ernst & Young to check how transportation is and could possibly be funded in Massachusetts and the way other states and countries are doing so.

The hourly rate for the nine consultants ranges from $244 to $610.

The contract is considered one of the primary initiatives overseen by a brand new task force created by Healey to handle among the state's long-standing transportation problems. Consultants will prepare the Task Force's final report on sustainable financing for transportation in Massachusetts by December. According to the contract.

But some Task force members expressed concerns in regards to the reliance on expensive consultants, whose firms are sometimes hired by state agencies to do all types of presidency work.

“The last thing Massachusetts needs is another consultant-generated report,” said Brian Kane, who serves as executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board. “What we need is political action.”

State transportation agency MassDOT spokeswoman Amelia Aubourg said the brand new contract is an addition to an existing contract the consulting firm entered into with the MBTA and that MassDOT will reimburse the T.

“We value thought leadership and wanted to examine what is happening in the national landscape when it comes to transportation funding,” Aubourg said in an announcement. “It helps to have these economists who have analyzed the industry and have access to provide the full spectrum of what is possible now and in the future.”

Ernst & Young didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Much of the research into the issues and solutions of federal transportation financing that Ernst & Young consultants were hired to conduct has already been conducted by government agencies And outside Organizations in recent times. MBTA officials have also provided the agency's board with details about what other states are doing.

Healey founded the Transportation Financing Task Force in January when she released them Budget proposal for the fiscal 12 months starting in Julywhich provides $172 million to shut the T's estimated $628 million budget gap. The task force, Healey said, is predicted to submit recommendations to her by the tip of the 12 months for a statewide “long-term, sustainable transportation financing plan.”

Healey announced the duty force's 31 appointments in February, a few of whom are members of her government. The chair is Transport Minister Monica Tibbits-Nutt and the deputy chair is Administration and Finance Minister Matthew Gorzkowicz.

The MBTA pays Ernst & Young's senior managing director, Jon Godsmark and two other senior executives, Tom Rousakis and Andrew Phillips, were paid $610 an hour for his or her services. LinkedIn profiles of the advisers show that Godsmark and Phillips are based in Washington DC and Rousakis is predicated in New York.

For a task force meeting this month, consultants were tasked with preparing a “presentation of an analysis of current public transportation funding sources, projections of future revenues and key drivers,” in response to a duplicate of the contract. Next month, consultants are expected to organize a “presentation summarizing international and U.S. peer analysis to identify a number of potential new transportation funding sources.” In July and August they are going to present possible sources of revenue and the “potential economic and social impact” of those sources.

By October, consultants will draft a “technical report for review by task force members” after which submit a final report for review by task force members in the primary week of December, in response to the contract.

The contract requires consultants to satisfy weekly with MassDOT, Administration & Finance and the MBTA.

A Globe report earlier this 12 months found that Minnesota and New York Passed latest taxes to balance the operating budgets of its largest transit agencies for years to come back.

Last month, Healey told a business group that she “no plans to propose new taxes or increase existing ones” and destroying an idea popularized by Tibbits-Nutt to levy customs duties at state borders.

Some task members expressed frustration at the choice to have interaction the consultants without jointly determining what the scope of the contract ought to be. Members said they’d not seen the contract.

Member of the duty force Amie Shei, executive director of the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts, said there may be “no transparency” about what consultants are focused on.

“More transparency about what consultants are working on would be helpful so we don’t duplicate work,” she said. “For someone serving Central Massachusetts, I want to know that regional equity is a consideration and that consultants don’t just focus on the MBTA.”

Kane, of the MBTA advisory committee, said he doubts MassDOT will reimburse the MBTA for the contract, citing the proven fact that the department still hasn't reimbursed the T for $7 million in transportation mitigation costs in the course of the 12 months Closure of the Sumner Tunnel last 12 months. MassDOT's Aubourg said the MBTA shall be reimbursed once the consultants' work is complete.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this again,” he said of the research. The advisory board has prepared Dozens of reports about MBTA funds.

Task force member Jim Rooney, CEO of the Boston Chamber of Commerce and former general manager of the T, said he believes the duty force needs outside help and praised Ernst & Young's qualifications, saying it was useful having latest eyes is the issue.

However, the duty force's end product will likely look less like a path forward and more like a “menu of possible solutions.”

“I don’t think we can definitively say, here’s the plan,” Rooney said.