Percifield

​Last week, Runnin' Scared brought you news of Leif Percifield, a Parsons grad student who's working diligently to develop a phone app, DontFlushMe, that could prevent 27 billion gallons of shit from flowing into New York's waterways yearly. A lot of this raw sewage enters the City's harbors as overflow -- concisely, when the system gets backed up and people continue to flush. So Percifield's basic idea is this: He wants to hook up sensors to the plants where this excess travels, that would send text alerts to people notifying them of potential overflows. That way, they can change how they use water, preventing pollution. We had a chance to catch up with the Bushwick resident and chat a bit about his aqueous ambitions.

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​Bed bugs, we haven't heard much of you this summer. So, you had a party in a Staten Island jail. At least you aren't invading our (well, the tourists') clothing stores. But now we find you're running rampant in schools? Don't you have hearts in those little, brown, blood-sucking bodies? (No.) The Daily News reports that your appearances in public schools have tripled this past school year from the one before. As if attempting to latch your gross selves onto children isn't enough, classrooms, their libraries, and "teaching materials" have all become victims of the methods of your eradication. Think of the children, bed bugs! Think of them! They need to learn! A Department of Education spokeswoman told the Daily News that schools are "not hospitable environments" for you. Hear that? They don't want you! [NYDN]

​Finally some potentially good news in the ongoing war against bed bugs: insurance. According to a press release issued yesterday, Aon Risk Solutions, Global Excess Partners, and Terminix have joined forces to provide bed bug insurance for "hotels, landlords, student housing, corporate businesses, and leisure travelers." Look what you can get: "discounted rates for mattress encasements and bed bug kits for greater peace of mind." Peace of mind is exactly what we need.

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Cops have released a startling video of a savage, slashing attack March 22 inside a Bronx bodega that left a 26-year-old woman with 40 stitches in her face. "My face will probably never heal up," the victim told the Post.

The victim says it started the day before the attack when one of the women yelled at her about her clothes.

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Daily News

Dead: Kymell Oram, 17 months.

​Kymell Oram, the 17-month-old toddler who was severely beaten a couple of weeks ago in his East New York foster home, has died of his injuries, cops said today. The chief suspect all along, Kysheen Oliver, 19, whose nickname is "Killer," likely faces murder charges. The alleged scumbag, the boyfriend of Kymell's foster mom, Teyunna Cummings, 32, had already been charged with second-degree assault and lesser counts.

The Times's Elissa Gootman notes this afternoon:

According to court papers and testimony, Kymell had been beaten so severely that a doctor told the police he had suffered "repeated serious blows from an adult, possibly with a metal rod or a bat," and was "likely to die."

​The world is slightly less into killing people, according to Amnesty International -- or at least, less into killing people by way of official state execution. Approximately 527 people were executed last year around the world, which represents a decrease from the 714 executed the previous year. In terms of scope, however, 23 countries executed people, which is four more than the year before. China is kind of a wild card in this scenario, as they keep their executions quiet, and are believed to have killed "thousands more."

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Pamela Schmidt. (via)

​A 22-year-old New Jersey man charged with killing his girlfriend was allegedly high on bath salts at the time. Rutgers student Pamela Schmidt was found beaten to death in the basement of her boyfriend William Parisio's home. Her death has led New Jersey legislators to push for a ban on bath salts, which have already been outlawed in three states. Schmidt's father, Werner Schmidt, wants the new bill to be named "Pamela's Law" in honor of his daughter. More >>

In perhaps the final chapter of a bloodstained saga, convicted killer Shamduh Wilson got another prison term last week for conspiring to murder the prime witness to his first killing.

Still only in his mid-twenties, Wilson is already serving a 38-year sentence for manslaughter in that original case, in which he shot an innocent bystander in 2005 in a Brooklyn bodega. The new sentence, 12 to 25 years for trying to kill the witness — who was Wilson's original target in the first place — will run consecutively.

Unlike at his conviction last month, Wilson uttered no fearsome comments to the prosecutor. He was tight-lipped. But the tragedy of errors speaks for itself.

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Federal prosecutors just announced they've charged four New Yorkers -- including two current city employees -- with mail fraud for stealing more than $8 million in food stamp benefits from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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​Ralph Johnson, a "Wall Street financier," has filed a lawsuit against the NYPD, the AP reports. And if you've been paying attention, Johnson's claims might sound a bit familiar: He says that he, too, was sodomized by NYPD officers using a police baton when they responded to a domestic complaint back in 2004.More >>