Joshua Dean, a Boeing whistleblower and former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, who alleged gross misconduct in quality management by the company, died after a short illness.

He is the second whistleblower to die this year. Joshua Dean had reported manufacturing defects in Boeing’s 737 Max.

Second Boeing Whistleblower, Joshua Dean, Passes Away

Joshua Dean was a former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which makes the fuselage of the 737 Max, had filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and charged the senior quality management of the 737 production line at Spirit of gross misconduct on adhering to security protocols by Boeing.

Dean had also alleged that Spirit AeroSystems management had made false or misleading claims and when he reported the problem with the aft pressure bulkhead on the Boeing 737, a critical piece of the plane’s infrastructure he was ignored.

Two 737 Max aircraft were involved in fatal crashes, which killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019. Dean was fired from his post by Spirit last year and had filed a complaint with the Department of Labor alleging that his firing was a consequence of hum raising safety concerns.

Joshua Dean was hospitalized after he had breathing problems. He later became infected and developed pneumonia and a serious antibiotic-resistant infection called MRSA before dying two weeks later.

Dean’s aunt, Carol Dean Parsons, said via Facebook,

“He passed away yesterday morning, and his absence will be deeply felt. We will always love you, Josh.”

Another Boeing whistleblower John “Mitch” Barnett was found dead in March with gunshot wounds in what appeared to be a suicide. Barnett was represented by the same law firm which was also representing Dean.

Barnett, who worked for three decades at Boeing, stated in 2019 that he had uncovered instances where he found “clusters of metal slivers” hanging over the wiring of flight controls, which could have precipitated “catastrophic” damage if they had penetrated the wires. Barnett alleged that his complaints were ignored by Boeing management, and later he was transferred to another section of the plant.

Another Boeing whistleblower, Sam Salehpour, told Congress that there was no safety culture at the Boeing plant. He also alleged that any worker who raised these safety issues was overlooked, marginalized, made vulnerable, sidelined, and worse, threatened with physical violence if they went public with their concerns. U.S. regulators have now opened an inquiry after an incident of a mid-air door-panel blowout in January on a Boeing 737 Max 9.

According to a report by Reuters, the Justice Department is now contemplating whether Boeing had violated an agreement that protected it from criminal prosecution over the fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019.

Also Read: WATCH FULL INTERVIEW VIDEO: Who is David Grusch? Former US intelligence agent and UFO whistleblower shocks the world

Trouble for Microsoft and OpenAI over copyright infringement is not coming to an end, as they face several lawsuits for violating copyrights.

On Tuesday, eight US newspaper publishers sued Microsoft for illegally reusing articles in AI products.

The 98-page long lawsuit further accused the tech companies of attributing erroneous information to the publishers.

The eight newspapers that have filed the lawsuits include the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune.

They allege that OpenAI’s ChatGPT used their copyrighted articles to perfect its language models without permission.

The lawsuit was filed in a New York federal court on Tuesday. The publishers claim that OpenAI’s large language models, GPT-2 and GPT-3, were perfected using datasets containing text from their newspapers.

The language models are designed to produce text based on human inputs and reproduce copies of the publishers’ works. Microsoft has been indicted for using newspapers for its Bing search index but seldom provided links to the original articles. Four months ago, The New York Times also filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the tech giant of using data from its past content. It also asked for consent for usage, criticizing the use of full article excerpts in chatbot responses.

The latest lawsuit filed by the eight news outlets also demanded consent and fair value for using their content to perfect the AI language models. The lawsuit alleged that the AI tools literally regurgitate their content without directing users to the content source.

The lawsuit filings stated, “This lawsuit arises from defendants purloining millions of the publishers’ copyrighted articles without permission and without payment to fuel the commercialization of their generative artificial intelligence products, including ChatGPT and (Microsoft’s) Copilot.”

The eight newspapers that instituted the lawsuits are as follows:

• The New York Daily News and The Chicago Tribune, both owned by Alden Global Capital
• The Orlando Sentinel
• The Sun Sentinel
• The San Jose Mercury News
• The Denver Post
• The Orange County Register
• The St. Paul Pioneer Press

OpenAI’s Response

OpenAI did not directly respond to the accusations but stated that it takes great care to support the news and media outlets. It also stated it is in continuous partnerships and conversations with various news outlets around the world to explore new opportunities, discuss problems, and seek out solutions.

Microsoft also stated that OpenAI has entered into fruitful partnerships with a number of publishers, which includes The Financial Times, The Associated Press, Spanish conglomerate Prisa Media, and Germany’s Axel Springer.

Heather Pressdee, the Pennsylvania nurse connected to the deaths of 17 patients will be spending the rest of her life in prison. The 41 year old nurse had pleaded guilty for three counts of 1st-degree murder and other charges and this helped her avoid the death sentence.

Heather Pressdee while working as a nurse had administered lethal doses of insulin leading to the death of 17 patients had pleaded guilty in a Butler County courtroom to three counts of first-degree murder and 19 counts of criminal attempt to commit murder. Heather Pressdee was working as a nurse at Quality Life Services before her arrest in May 2023.

Investigations revealed that Pressdee’s killing spree began in 2020 when she started administering “lethal and potentially lethal doses of insulin” to at least 22 patients at facilities in Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler and Westmoreland counties. Of these 17 patients died soon or after some time after receiving the insulin doses according to prosecution.

Heather Pressdee will be serving three consecutive life sentences after pleading to the three counts of first-degree murder. She is also sentenced an additional 380 to 760 years of consecutive jail terms after being found guilty for 19 counts of criminal attempt to commit murder, according to prosecutors.

Attorney General Michelle Henry said, “The defendant used her position of trust as a means to poison patients who depended on her for care. This plea and life sentence will not bring back the lives lost, but it will ensure Heather Pressdee never has another opportunity to inflict further harm. I offer my sincere sympathy to all who have suffered at this defendant’s hands.”

Kings of Pressdee’s victims who were present at the nurse’s sentencing hearing recounted the “pain and anguish caused by learning their loved one’s death was not natural, but was caused by a criminal act,”

Sister of one of the victims, Nicholas Cymbol, Melinda Brown said that the nurse was pure evil. She added that this is not complete justice and justice will be delivered when she meets her maker. Daughter of another victim Irene Simons said that she will never forgive Pressdee. She added that she is angry because Pressdee disguised herself as a caring nurse and she tried to play God and take the life of someone from the world that she had no right to take.

Attorney General Michelle Henry first became aware of Pressdee’s crimes when her office received a referral in late 2022 regarding a patient under the nurse’s care. A thorough investigation was launched which revealed the full extent of Pressdee’s horrific actions.