Trevor Bauer will not face criminal charges following sexual assault allegation

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After a five-month review of the Pasadena police investigation into allegations of sexual assault against him, Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer will not face criminal charges, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office announced Tuesday.

That the district attorney decided criminal charges were not warranted does not mean Bauer has been cleared to rejoin the Dodgers. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred retains the right to suspend Bauer.

Manfred is widely expected to do so, but not soon. MLB issued a statement moments after the district attorney decision: “MLB’s investigation is ongoing, and we will comment further at the appropriate time.”

Bauer had two sexual encounters with a San Diego woman last year at his Pasadena home. The district attorney opted not to file assault charges in the first encounter in April and domestic violence charges in the second encounter in May, determining there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bauer committed a crime.

The district attorney’s office made the decision after reviewing electronic messages between Bauer and his accuser, the Pasadena police investigation and a transcript of the civil restraining order proceedings in August, according to two people with detailed knowledge of the review.

The declination of charges by the district attorney’s office included the following: “After a thorough review of all the available evidence including the civil restraining order proceedings, witness statements and the physical evidence — the People are unable to prove the relevant charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Those charges were assault by means likely to cause great bodily harm, sodomy of a sleeping person and domestic violence.”

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Americas Worst Fast Food Brand at it again with it’s employees

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Even though it’s a fairly big fast food brand, Jimmy John’s has had its share of controversies. For instance, the company was forced to cough up $1.8 million a few years ago in a settlement after concerns were brought up by several employees who cited the Fair Labor Standards Act. The workers said that they weren’t given overtime pay by the company (via Restaurant Dive).

The restaurant was also called out for forcing its employees to sign “a non-competition clause” that prevented its workers from joining the brand’s competitors for a period of two years after leaving Jimmy John’s, per The Huffington Post. This rule was applicable to the delivery workers and sandwich artists and was highly restrictive because it stated that former employees couldn’t work for any company that was getting 10 percent of its revenue from selling sandwiches.

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Astronomers spot mysterious object ‘unlike anything seen before’ – and it’s sending signals our way

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A mysterious object unlike anything that astronomers have seen before has been discovered in our “galactic backyard”.

In research published Wednesday, scientists described the strange, spinning mass, which is said to release an enormous burst of energy every 20 minutes.

That radiation, which crosses the line of sight of telescopes on Earth for 60 seconds at a time, is one of the brightest radio sources in the sky.

It was detected by a team at the Australia-based International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, who were mapping radio waves in the Universe.

An artist’s impression of what the object might look like if it’s a magnetar, an incredibly magnetic neutron star

They believe that the cosmic flasher could be a super-dense star or a white dwarf – collapsed cores of stars – with a powerful magnetic field.

“This object was appearing and disappearing over a few hours during our observations,” said Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker, an astronomer from Curtin University in Australia who led the team.

“That was completely unexpected. It was kind of spooky for an astronomer because there’s nothing known in the sky that does that.

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What is ‘stealth Omicron’? The rise of the subvariant is alarming some scientists who say it needs its own Greek letter

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The Omicron subvariant BA.2, nicknamed the “stealth Omicron,” appears to be outpacing other substrains of Omicron in some regions of the world, raising fears that the even more transmissible version of Omicron could spark larger COVID-19 waves globally.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that Omicron, which is also referred to as B.1.1.529, has three main substrains: BA.1, BA.2, and BA.3. As of Dec. 23, the WHO reported that over 99% of the cases it sequenced were BA.1. But now the rise of BA.2 in Denmark and elsewhere suggests that BA.2 may outcompete BA.1.

On Thursday, Denmark reported that the BA.2 substrain of Omicron accounts for almost half of the country’s cases and is quickly displacing BA.1, the original Omicron strain. Denmark reported that in the two weeks from late December to mid-January, BA.2 has gone from accounting for 20% of Denmark’s COVID-19 infections to making up 45%. Over that same period, Denmark’s COVID infections have shot to record highs. Denmark is recording over 30,000 new cases per day this week, 10 times more cases than peaks in previous waves.

Denmark’s government also said the strain is spreading quickly in countries like the U.K., Norway, and Sweden. Meanwhile, scientists in places like France and India warn that the BA.2 variant is quickly spreading and may outpace other Omicron strains.

But Danish authorities also urged the public to not read too much into BA.2’s rise at this point.

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Security deposit alternatives offered for Florida renters

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As rents skyrocket, startup companies are touting what they consider to be a helpful solution to hefty security deposits pricing Floridians out of apartments.

Instead of forking over an upfront security deposit, tenants can agree to pay a monthly fee — typically about $25.

But there’s a catch: The money isn’t refundable at the end of the lease like a traditional security deposit, and renters are still on the hook for damage beyond ordinary wear and tear.

State lawmakers are considering legislation that would create regulations for such
agreements that offer security deposit insurance instead of a traditional lump-sum
deposit.

But advocates for Florida tenants have concerns. They say the proposed regulations lack important safeguards to protect renters from predatory practices.

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