brandycavalli

Happy Birthday Frank Lucas

The real American gangster — Frank Lucas turns 86 today, September 9, along with ME!

Happy birthday to us!🎉
https://twitter.com/brandycavalli/status/774335575096692736
Read more about Frank Lucas’ life in my post: “Hollywood vs The Mob“

Kentucky Teen Gives Homeless Man Shoes Off His Feet In Act Of Kindness

A Louisville, Kentucky, teenager spent the Labor Day holiday feeding the homeless, and one small act of his that day is inspiring people around the world.

LaRon Tunstill was with a group of volunteers handing out soup and hamburgers to homeless people when a man sitting on the corner sparked his interest.

“You could tell like he’s been hurt so many times,” Tunstill told CNN affiliate WAVE.

The 14-year-old started a conversation with the man and noticed his tattered shoes.

“The soles were completely gone,” said Jason Reynolds, founder of PurpMe, the nonprofit Tunstill was working with that day. “His toes literally touched the ground.”

Without hesitation, Tunstill took the brand new Nike Air Jordans off his feet and handed them to the man. He had owned the sneakers for only a day.

“At first he was like ‘no I can’t take these because these are too expensive.’” Tunstill told WAVE. “I told him, ‘take it’ because it’s what God wanted me to do.” Overwhelmed with gratitude, the man began to pray. That’s when Reynolds captured an image that has now been viewed online more than a million times.

The photo shows the man’s head bowed over clutched hands while Tunstill’s arm hovers over him in comfort.

The man appeared emotional in a video posted on PurpMe’s Facebook page.

“That’s crazy how one person and another person can be completely different,” he said in the video before his thought trailed off in silence.

“It was life-changing to see that powerful moment,” said Reynolds, still in awe of the exchange. “Just a year before, he (Tunstill) was getting into trouble and now you see that he’s changing.”

Crime surrounds Tunstill in the rough part of Louisville where he lives. At one point, Reynolds feared the young man was headed down the wrong path.

“Every day we see shooting. Kids robbing people, kids breaking in and vandalizing. It’s a lot right where we live,” Tunstill’s mother, Camille Carter, told WAVE.

“He used to get in a lot of trouble when I first met him,” said Reynolds. It wasn’t until Tunstill joined PurpMe that his life geared in another direction.

PurpMe was designed to help young people discover their purpose through encouragement. Reynolds said the nonprofit served as a vehicle for Tunstill to give his shoes away.

When Tunstill came home that day, his mother admits she was displeased to see him shoeless.

“At first I was upset because we just bought these shoes a day ago for him for school and then I just realized that’s what God told him to do,” said Carter to WAVE. “I’m very proud.”

Since then, a donor bought new shoes for Tunstill. Reyonlds created a GoFundMe page to support the PurpMe movement. One-hundred percent of funds raised will go to help children in the Louisville community.

“I always tell the kids one simple act is all it takes,” said Reynolds. “Maybe you can’t change the world but you can change someone’s world.”

5,300 Wells Fargo Employees Fired For Creating Millions Of Phony Accounts

Well..well..well…

According to FOX 5 San Diego:

Everyone hates paying bank fees. But imagine paying fees on a ghost account you didn’t even sign up for. That’s exactly what happened to Wells Fargo customers nationwide.

On Thursday, federal regulators said Wells Fargo employees secretly created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts — without their customers knowing it — since 2011.

The phony accounts earned the bank unwarranted fees and allowed Wells Fargo employees to boost their sales figures and make more money.

“Wells Fargo employees secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses,” Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said in a statement.

Wells Fargo confirmed to CNNMoney that it had fired 5,300 employees related to the shady behavior.

The scope of the scandal is shocking. An analysis conducted by a consulting firm hired by Wells Fargo concluded that bank employees opened up 1,534,280 deposit accounts that may not have been authorized, according to the CFPB.

The way it worked was that employees moved funds from customers’ existing accounts into newly-created accounts without their knowledge or consent, regulators say.

Additionally, Wells Fargo employees also submitted applications for 565,443 credit-card accounts without their knowledge or consent, the CFPB said the analysis found.

Wells Fargo is being slapped with the largest penalty since the CFPB was founded in 2011. The bank agreed to pay $185 million in fines, along with $5 million to refund customers.

“We regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request,” Wells Fargo said in a statement.

Wells Fargo confirmed to CNNMoney that the firings represents about 1% of its workforce.

“At Wells Fargo, when we make mistakes, we are open about it, we take responsibility, and we take action,” the bank said in a memo to employees on Thursday.