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Grapevine: China fines filmmaker for one-child policy breach
Published May 10, 2017
And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...
Street Sweepers
Ex-New York City cops who claim to have been psychologically disabled on the job, were caught working other jobs -- flying a helicopter, traveling all over the world.
More than 100 people -- including 72 retired officers -- have been arrested in a sweeping disability fraud case.
Anecdotes are striking.
A retired officer -- supposedly too damaged to work -- ran a martial arts studio.
Another -- claiming depression kept him house-bound -- was photographed on a watercraft.
A third -- who said he was incapable of social interactions -- manned a cannoli stand at a street festival.
Prosecutors say four ringleaders coached former workers on how to feign depression and other mental health issues.
And this allowed them to get payouts as high as a $500,000 over decades.
The four staunchly deny the accusations.
Over 26 years, the workers arrested collected about $22 million in benefits, but prosecutors estimate hundreds more people and up to $400 million may be involved.
Payout
Now to another payout of another sort.
Famous film director Zhang Yimou must pay $1.2 million for having three children.
Chinese investigators found Zhang -- who directed "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" -- flouted family planning policies by having the kids without approval, before he got married.
China maintains a one-child policy for most urban couples.
Zero Tolerance
Finally, we've told you many times about kids suspended from school for doing things like chewing a Pop Tart into a gun, or bringing an invisible gun to school, and lobbing an imaginary grenade at bad guys to save the world.
Well, in the year after Newtown, that happened more than a dozen times.
Oklahoma Republican State Legislator Sally Kern has introduced a measure -- dubbed the Common Sense Zero Tolerance Act -- to counter school policies she believes are too strict or inflexible.
Under her bill, students would not be punished for possessing small toy weapons, using pencils or fingers to simulate a weapon, drawing weapons, or wearing clothes that support the Second Amendment.
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/grapevine-china-fines-filmmaker-for-one-child-policy-breach