Latest news with #JeffreySmith
Yahoo
05-08-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Watertown City Council delays vote on Olney ethics complaint
Aug. 4—WATERTOWN — The City Council on Monday night held off on deciding whether the ethics complaint against Councilman Cliff G. Olney III should proceed. Council members unanimously agreed to table a resolution to move forward with holding a hearing on the ethics complaint against Olney. The complaint was filed by then-Mayor Jeffrey M. Smith in September 2023. Councilman Benjamin P. Shoen suggested tabling the matter, saying he "wanted one question answered." He later explained it had to do with "disclosure." A vote on the resolution is now expected to be held Aug. 19. Council members discussed the matter for about an hour Monday night before deciding to delay the vote. Councilwoman Lisa A. Ruggiero said she'd like an attorney to determine whether the ethics complaint was handled correctly and legally. "Was the process followed?" she said, "whether was it legally done. Definitely, mistakes were made." She stressed that the city's current law firm, Bond, Shoeneck & King, decided to recuse itself last year because it was named in the ethics complaint, while the previous city attorney, Harris Beach, failed to do that after it also was named in the complaint. Two Harris Beach attorneys wrote the complaint for former Mayor Smith, she said, adding "how is that not a conflict of interest?" The original ethics complaint, filed on Sept. 11, 2023, was drafted privately with the assistance of Harris Beach attorney H. Todd Bullard, using city legal resources without any formal authorization from the City Council, Ruggiero said. City Manager Eric Wagenaar said one of the law firms representing the city in the ethics complaint, Hancock Estabrook, has ensured that the city followed proper procedure and should proceed with a hearing. Council members were being asked to consider a resolution authorizing a limited waiver of attorney-client privilege and testimony by Harris Beach attorneys Bullard and Miller in regard to their involvement in the ethics complaint. On Monday night, Councilman Robert O. Kimball said he still maintains that the ethics compliant needs to go through to its conclusion — it needs to be determined whether Olney violated city ethics. Mayor Sarah V.C. Pierce said the City Council owes it to the city's ethics board to conclude the complaint. Bond Shoeneck & King attorney Tim McMahon told Olney on Monday night that he should recuse himself from the vote because the matter involves him. Olney ignored his advice and voted to table the resolution. Solve the daily Crossword
The Star
03-07-2025
- Business
- The Star
Activist Starboard Value takes stake in online travel company Tripadvisor, stock jumps
FILE PHOTO: Tripadvisor app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken February 27, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo (Reuters) -Activist investor Starboard Value has built an over 9% stake in online travel firm Tripadvisor, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. News of Starboard's stake, which is valued at roughly $160 million, pushed Tripadvisor's share price up 7% in after hours trading. The company, which offers search tools to find and review hotels and restaurants, has seen its share price drop roughly 15% in the last 12 months. In early 2024, Tripadvisor's board formed a special committee to explore options, including a possible sale. Tripadvisor and Starboard, which often presses for operational changes at its targets, did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news on Wednesday evening. Starboard is one of the industry's busiest activist investors, and its chief executive officer, Jeffrey Smith, recently joined the board of consumer healthcare company Kenvue, the maker of Band-Aids and Tylenol. The firm has also pushed for changes at pharmaceutical company Pfizer and design-software maker Autodesk. The Wall Street Journal reported Starboard will likely make a 13D regulatory filing as soon as Thursday, a requirement for asset managers whose holdings exceed 5% in a particular company where they plan to push for changes. (Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru and Svea Herbst-Bayliss in New York; Editing by Alan Barona and Sonali Paul)
CBS News
03-07-2025
- CBS News
Widow of D.C. officer who died by suicide after Jan. 6 says $500,000 verdict was "a relief that all the fighting was worth it"
Washington — Jeffrey Smith, one of the D.C. police officers beaten and injured during the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, was left traumatized and changed by the events of that day, his widow, Erin Smith, says. "The man that left on January 6 was not the man that came home in the early hours of January 7," Smith told CBS News this week. "He was a different person. His personality changed. His demeanor changed. He was there, but the man that I knew was not in the same body." The 35-year-old Smith died by suicide on Jan. 15, 2021, as he was driving to work for the first time since the Capitol riot. In 2022, Erin Smith filed a wrongful death lawsuit for assault and battery against 69-year-old chiropractor David Walls-Kaufman, alleging that he had assaulted her husband during the Capitol riot. In January 2023, Walls-Kaufman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor federal count of "parading, demonstrating and picketing in a Capitol building" in connection with the insurrection. At the time, he acknowledged that he had "scuffled" with law enforcement, but did not face any federal assault charges in the case. He served 60 days in prison on that misdemeanor charge. He was one of hundreds of Capitol insurrectionists pardoned by President Trump in January. Despite the pardon, Smith's lawsuit went to trial in June. After a lengthy civil trial and just two hours of deliberations, a jury last week ordered Walls-Kaufman to pay her and her late husband's estate $500,000, finding that Walls-Kaufman had assaulted Jeffrey Smith on Jan. 6. In a statement to CBS News, Walls-Kaufman denied striking Smith and called the lawsuit and the verdict "sadistic." "It felt like a relief, a relief that all the fighting was worth it, everything that I had done was worth it, and it proves that he was injured," Smith said of the jury's decision. Following her husband's death, Smith became a reluctant but impactful advocate. She successfully lobbied Congress to pass a bipartisan law in 2022 to allow some police deaths by suicide to be designated as "official line of duty" deaths. In March of that year, Washington's Police and Firefighters' Retirement and Relief Board officially ruled that Smith's death was in the line of duty. Body camera footage obtained by CBS News appeared to show that Jeffrey Smith was the target of multiple assaults on Jan. 6. Those images helped Erin Smith have her husband's designation changed. Now, Smith is pressing the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington to add her late husband's name to its wall and include him in an honorary ceremony next May. She is also calling for the memorial to open eligibility for others for whom it's been officially determined to have died by suicide because of injuries on the job. "Getting his name on there is not just for me," Smith said. "It's also for his family, his friends, his partner, the people at the Metropolitan Police Department, his colleagues. And it's also for other officers who have died by suicide due to injuries that they also received at work." If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here. For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@
CNA
02-07-2025
- Business
- CNA
Activist Starboard Value takes stake in online travel company Tripadvisor, stock jumps
Activist investor Starboard Value has built an over 9 per cent stake in online travel firm Tripadvisor, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. News of Starboard's stake, which is valued at roughly $160 million, pushed Tripadvisor's share price up 7 per cent in after hours trading. The company, which offers search tools to find and review hotels and restaurants, has seen its share price drop roughly 15 per cent in the last 12 months. In early 2024, Tripadvisor's board formed a special committee to explore options, including a possible sale. Tripadvisor and Starboard, which often presses for operational changes at its targets, did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news on Wednesday evening. Starboard is one of the industry's busiest activist investors, and its chief executive officer, Jeffrey Smith, recently joined the board of consumer healthcare company Kenvue, the maker of Band-Aids and Tylenol. The firm has also pushed for changes at pharmaceutical company Pfizer and design-software maker Autodesk. The Wall Street Journal reported Starboard will likely make a 13D regulatory filing as soon as Thursday, a requirement for asset managers whose holdings exceed 5 per cent in a particular company where they plan to push for changes.
CTV News
30-06-2025
- CTV News
Hamilton police conclude search of landfill site where missing woman's remains were found
Shalini Singh is seen in this undated image. (Hamilton Police) Hamilton police say they've finished their search of a landfill site after locating the remains of a missing woman and charging her common-law partner with second-degree murder. Last week, investigators announced that they had positively linked the human remains found at the Glanbrook Landfill Site in May to Shalini Singh, who was last heard from on Dec. 4 and reported missing by her family on Dec. 10. Her common-law boyfriend, 42-year-old Burlington resident Jeffrey Smith, was arrested and charged in connection with her death on June 20. In an update on Monday, police said that on Friday June 27, officers completed their search and say no further human remains have been located. 'At this time, the Hamilton Police Service has no information to support a continued search of the landfill site and no information to indicate any other locations to search. The Hamilton Police Service will initiate further searches should new information become available,' they said in a news release. Police had previously said they hoped to conclude their search last week after laying the second-degree murder charge against Smith. The human remains were first discovered on May 21 after a search began on Feb. 24. The remains were subsequently confirmed to belong to Singh.
