A former chief of staff goes to jail for deleting emails, Sears stores are being auctioned off online, and the Humboldt Broncos GoFundMe campaign makes history.
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The gas scandal has concluded. David Livingston, chief of staff for ex-Liberal Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, has been sentenced to four months in jail for illegally deleting emails related to the cancellation of two Ontario gas plants in 2011. An Ontario judge also ordered Livingston to serve a 12-month probation period and perform 100 hours of community service. Livingston, McGuinty’s chief of staff from 2012-2013, was sentenced for one count of an unauthorized use of a computer. The news quickly started trending on Twitter, and shortly after the sentencing, Ontario’s finance critic Vic Fedeli released a statement saying the news represents a, quote, “pattern of political corruption in this Liberal government.” The sentencing comes just a few months before the provincial general election June 7.
Sears is doing everything it can to sell its stores. Real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield is partnering with online auction site Real Insight Marketplace to help the troubled department store chain sell 16 stores. Sears announced in January it would close 39 stores by April, and over the past six years, has closed more than 2,000 stores. The stores, located in the U.S., are as high as three stories and span up to 236,000 square feet.
And lastly, more than 100,000 have helped raise $7.7 million for the Humboldt Broncos GoFundMe campaign, making it the largest online fundraising campaign in Canadian history, and fifth largest in GoFundMe history. The money has been raised just days after a bus crash killed 15 people, including 10 young hockey players, in Saskatchewan. Thousands of people have also taken to social media to pay their respects with the #SticksOutForHumboldt and #putyoursticksout hashtags.
Well that’s what’s trending today. Hashtag Trending is produced by the ITWC Podcast Network. You can also check out our weekly podcast, Tech in Sports, for all your updates on technology within the realm of sports and health and fitness. You can find it on your podcast service of choice or as a daily version on Alexa and Google Home devices.