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Florida Woman Faces Fines Over $100,000 For Parking On Part Of Her Lawn Sandy Martinez said she lives with other family members at her home in Lantana, Florida. The homeowner said they all own cars and work hourly jobs, and they try their best to make their vehicles fit in the driveway. Because there's not enough room, Martinez said she chooses to park on her walkway and part of the grass of her property. As a result, the city of Lantana has been penalizing her $250 a day. "If I park over the sidewalk, then we’ll get a ticket. We can’t park
on the street, because obviously it’s a roadway. We can park in the
swell, but it’s very dangerous, so that leaves us no choice but to park
in the driveway on my grass," she said in a IJ video.
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HSBC says customers who refuse to wear a face mask will have their accounts withdrawn The lender - which also owns First Direct and Marks & Spencer bank - said customers who break the law could forfeit their bank account. A spokesman said face masks are mandatory in all branches as per government
guidelines. Those who refuse to comply will be refused service and could
have their bank accounts withdrawn.
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Mr. Potato Head goes gender neutral, will now be called Potato Head; Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head will live on in some form Hasbro, the company that’s made the potato-shaped plastic toy for nearly 70 years, is giving the spud a gender neutral new name: Potato Head. The change will appear on boxes this year. Many toymakers have been updating their classic brands in recent years, hoping to relate to today’s kids and reflect more modern families. “It’s a potato,” said Ali Mierzejewski, editor in chief at toy review
site The Toy Insider. “But kids like to see themselves in the toys they
are playing with.”
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Vaccine Site Uses Credit History to Verify Patients’ Identities She received an error message that her identity couldn't be verified through Experian, a credit monitoring company. She said she's felt "horrified" at the amount of info needed from vaccination scheduling sites before users can even see when there are open slots. "This one wins, though," she said.
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After Coca-Cola Backlash, LinkedIn Removes Diversity Lesson Telling Employees to 'Be Less White' "The Confronting Racism course featuring Robin DiAngelo is no longer available in our course library, at the request of the 3rd party content provider we licensed this content from," LinkedIn vice president of corporate communications Nicole Leverich told Newsweek in an email on Monday. "We provide a wide variety of learning content, including more than
270 courses on the topics of diversity, inclusion and belonging," Leverich
said. "We will continue to add new courses to help people learn the
skills they need to be more successful in their career, including the
foundational skills we all need to be effective allies and help build
a more equitable future.".
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Justice Department investigating Elon Musk’s SpaceX following complaint of hiring discrimination The DOJ’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section received a complaint of employment discrimination from a non-U.S. citizen claiming that the company discriminated against him based on his citizenship status. “The charge alleges that on or about March 10, 2020, during the Charging
Party’s interview for the position of Technology Strategy Associate,
SpaceX made inquiries about his citizenship status and ultimately failed
to hire him for the position because he is not a U.S. citizen or lawful
permanent resident,” DOJ attorney Lisa Sandoval wrote in a court document.
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More proof that the COVID vaccine rollout is a complete mess Rather than continue the practice of the Trump administration, of
holding back enough coronavirus vaccine to guarantee the second “booster”
shot to everyone who got the first vaccine dose, the Biden team plans
to just release as much coronavirus vaccine as possible to everyone.
The thinking is that it doesn’t make sense, to use a military analogy,
to worry about conserving ammunition in this war, at a time when more
people than ever are dying from the COVID-19 virus.
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Student 'Suspended' For Carrying Classmate Suffering Asthma Attack To Nurse's Office Anthony Ruelas, Cortes’ son, was suspended for disobeying his teacher.
He had chosen to help a classmate who was having an asthma attack by
carrying out of the class and into the nurse’s office. Ruelas stated
that it seemed like he had spent an eternity watching his classmate
wheeze and gag as she struggled to breathe.
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Schererville, Indiana Family Is Poised To Be Evicted For Having Too Many Children But as CBS 2’s Jermont Terry reported Tuesday night, one family in Schererville, Indiana is in fear of losing their home – even though they can pay their rent. Comforting her 18-month-old while holding her 9-month-old, Julius,
is routine for Deborah Rangel. All four of Rangel’s children keep her
busy these days, yet keeping a roof over their heads worries the mother
most.
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‘Climate Czar’ John Kerry Owns an $12 Million Beachfront Home “Former Secretary of State John Kerry will fight climate change full-time as Special Presidential Envoy for Climate and will sit on the National Security Council,” the Biden-Harris transition team announced on Monday on its website. “This marks the first time that the NSC will include an official dedicated to climate change, reflecting the president-elect’s commitment to addressing climate change as an urgent national security issue.” A major tenet of the climate changers is that sea levels are going
to rise dramatically, with one estimate saying the levels will jump
by six feet or more by 2100.
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Oregon health official dressed as clown while announcing coronavirus deaths Doctor Claire Poche, a senior health adviser for the Oregon Health Authority, donned white and red clown makeup and a red tie with a polka dot shirt in the sombre clip. In the bizarre video, Dr Poche announces statistics on recorded cases
of the virus and deaths while wearing the costume and maintaining a
straight face. “As of today, there have been 38,160 cases of Covid-19
in Oregon, with 390 new cases being reported today,” she said.
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Nurse placed on leave for bragging on TikTok she doesn’t wear a mask The since-deleted post from user @Loveiskind05 showed the nurse wearing scrubs and a stethoscope, with the caption, “When my coworkers find out I still travel, don’t wear a mask when I’m out and let my kids have play dates.” A “duet” of the original TikTok remains online. Users apparently identified the nurse and then alerted her employer, Salem Health. In a Facebook post Saturday, the hospital thanked community members
for reaching out and announced that she had been “placed on administrative
leave pending an investigation.”
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Deep Run High School student suspended after protesting against social injustice during virtual class He saw the ultimatum as “good trouble,” a nod to civil rights pioneer and Rep. John Lewis, who died in July. The administration called his 55-page slideshow a disruption. “I’ve been at Deep Run for three years and I’ve seen all of the issues
there. How administrators just completely ignore racism and write it
off as instances that are untrue,” said Vizdos, who is white. “Or, [they]
don’t even follow up at all.”
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Pennsylvania Democrats caught on hot mic laughing about wearing masks as 'political theater' Rep. Wendy Ullman and Gov. Tom Wolf, both Democrats, held a press conference on Tuesday to discuss the future of the Affordable Care Act as the Supreme Court is poised to take up a legal challenge to the healthcare law later this fall. Before the event began, a livestream caught Ullman and Wolf discussing their plans for wearing masks. "So Wendy, I'm going to take, I'm going to take my mask off when I
speak," Wolf said. "I will as well. I'm waiting so that we can do a
little political theater," Ullman said as the two laughed. "So that
it's on camera."
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Colorado town threatens a year in jail for residents who refuse to wear masks The emergency order, issued by City Manager J. Shawn Lewis and approved by the city council Monday, went into effect Thursday. It states that everyone over the age of 6 will be required to wear a mask while outside their homes. Face masks must be worn inside any retail or commercial business,
governmental office, or health care facility, including veterinary offices,
officials say.
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Parents upset over survey given to students at a Las Vegas high school Parents say students at West Technical and Career Academy were asked to answer some pretty controversial questions while in class. The principal at West Tech in Summerlin says they’re making changes to prevent this type of content from being used in the classroom again. Some of the questions of concern including how warm or cold the student
felt about white people, and if the student would be willing to have
a sexual relationship with a black person.
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An Online Student Attended a Rooftop Party. He Was Reported to NYU and Suspended Indefinitely The party was consistent with New York City's Phase 4 COVID-19 guidelines, which allow events of up to 50 people. Many attendees went mask-less, but Andy says he didn't stand in close proximity to anyone other than his roommates—who are also students—and they left after a short while. But unbeknownst to Andy—whose name has been changed for this article
to protect his privacy—someone at the party posted a video of the event
on social media. Andy never saw this video, but he knows that he was
visible in it. The video was reported to NYU administrators via the
university's COVID-19 compliance system.
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Harvard professor wants to ban homeschooling because it’s ‘authoritarian’ Elizabeth Bartholet told Harvard Magazine that it gives parents “authoritarian” control over their kids — and can even expose them to white supremacy and misogyny. “The issue is, do we think that parents should have 24/7, essentially
authoritarian control over their children from ages zero to 18? I think
that’s dangerous,” Bartholet said. “I think it’s always dangerous to
put powerful people in charge of the powerless, and to give the powerful
ones total authority.”
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Shelby County woman who passed away 6 months ago gets letter saying she is COVID-19 positive His mother died six months ago, but the health department just sent her a letter saying she is COVID-19 positive. Troy Whittington said he was surprised when he opened the letter this week from the Shelby County Health Department. He knew what was in that letter was false. "I'm just having a hard time understanding how they can say someone
has COVID-19 when they are not even alive," said Whittington. Whittington
said a letter arrived from the Shelby County Health Department for his
mother, Sandra Whittington. The letter says she has been diagnosed as
COVID positive and needed to isolate.
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Hair salon banned from advertising job for 'happy' stylist - because it 'discriminates against unhappy people' Alison Birch listed a job ad looking for a part-time qualified hairdresser at her AJ's Unisex Hair Salon in Stroud, Glos. The position called for someone with five years experience of working in a salon, who is "confident in barbering as well as all aspects of hairdressing". And the advert stated: "This is a busy, friendly, small salon, so only
happy, friendly stylist need apply." But yesterday (Weds) Alison says
she received a call her local job centre informing her they could not
run her advert - because the word 'happy' is considered 'discriminatory'.
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Parler, the "free speech" alternative to Twitter, keeps banning people Parler began banning people almost immediately. “If you can say it on the street of New York, you can say it on Parler,”
CEO John Matze told CNBC last week, just days before declaring that
you can’t repeatedly say “fuck you” to people or threaten to kill them,
two things that happen daily on the streets of New York City. Other
stuff that can get you banned: Pornography, obscene usernames like “CumDumpster,”
and “pictures of your fecal matter.”
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12-year-old suspended over toy gun seen in virtual class Isaiah Elliott attends Grand Mountain, a K-8 grade school in the Widefield District #3, just south of Colorado Springs. On Thursday, Aug. 27, the seventh grader was attending on online art
class when a teacher saw Isaiah flash a toy gun across his computer
screen. The toy in question is a neon green and black handgun with an
orange tip with the words “Zombie Hunter” printed on the side. The teacher
notified the school principal who suspended Isaiah for five days and
called the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office to conduct a welfare check
on the boy without calling his parents first.
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Employees need masks even for at-home Zoom calls, Wisconsin agency says. In an email to employees sent out on July 31, the head of Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources not only reminded employees of Gov. Tony Evers’ mask order going into effect on Aug. 1, he also said that every DNR employee must wear a mask ... even while on a teleconference. “Also, wear your mask, even if you are home, to participate in a virtual
meeting that involves being seen — such as on Zoom or another video-conferencing
platform — by non-DNR staff,” Preston Cole said, according to the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel. “Set the safety example which shows you as a DNR public
service employee care about the safety and health of others.”
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Louisiana man serving life for $30 marijuana sale set to be released under deal with DA Prosecutors in Vermilion Parish on Thursday agreed to cut Derek Harris loose after nine years, following a decision last month by the Louisiana Supreme Court to grant him a new hearing over his sentence. Cormac Boyle, an attorney with the Promise of Justice Initiative who
represents Harris, said 15th Judicial District Attorney Keith Stutes’
office agreed that Harris had received ineffective assistance of counsel
at his sentencing hearing.
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Remote learning dress code has some parents frustrated The handbook says kids are not allowed to wear pajamas while doing classes online at home. Some parents are angry saying the district shouldn’t be telling them what they can’t do in their own homes. Elizabeth Ballinger says, “I made the decision for my kids to be at
home and I don’t really see how any district can come in and say what
my kid can’t wear in my house. I don’t think they have any right to
say what happens in my house. I think they have enough to worry about
as opposed to what the kids are wearing. They need to make sure they’re
getting educated.”
More
Destruction of ancient Aboriginal site sparks calls for reform in Australia Caves used as Aboriginal shelters in Western Australia's Pilbara region were legally demolished by Rio Tinto on Sunday, prompting outcry and reigniting national debate on the protection of indigenous heritage sites. The blast came days before Australia's national Reconciliation Week,
which aims to strengthen relationships between First Nations people
and non-indigenous people.
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Top L.A. Democrat Pushed To Cut LAPD Funding While Having Private LAPD Detail At Her Home Since April Spectrum News 1 journalist Natalie Brunell reported that the unit,
which guards Martinez’s home, usually includes two police officers and
has been in place for the last two months.
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Woman Set Up a Little Free Pantry Without a Permit, County Threatened Criminal Charges "For 16 years, our family struggled with food and security, and a lot of people don't understand how hard it is if they don't struggle with that," says Kathy Hay, who notes she is in a much better financial place now. "I'm always looking for ways to help people that are having a hard time." Inspired by the leftovers from a pot of chicken soup she'd made, Hay
started researching ways to start a little free pantry in her Asotin
County, Washington, neighborhood. In December she set one up in her
backyard, replete with refrigerated food, canned goods, and produce—all
available for free to those struggling to make ends meet.
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State investigates dozens of car dealerships for possibly violating stay-home order Most vehicle dealerships across the state have been collecting dust the past six weeks to comply with the stay-home order, with some reporting its sales have dropped more than 90 percent. Dealerships were allowed to sell vehicles on a very limited basis during this time. But the Department of Licensing confirmed it is looking into about
25 dealerships where the number of title transfers raised red flags.
Those dealerships processed more than 100 vehicle title applications
between April 1 and April 16.
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Tanzania president angry as pawpaw and goat test positive for coronavirus Reports say the country’s health officials had randomly obtained several non-human samples, including from pawpaw, a goat and a sheep, but had assigned them human names and ages before submitting them to Tanzania's laboratory to test for the coronavirus. Interestingly, the lab technicians had not had any clue about the
origins of the samples submitted to them for testing. To the surprise
of the government, samples from the pawpaw and the goat tested positive
for COVID-19, making the president suspect that some people who were
being tested positive for the deadly virus may not have been infected
after all.
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Baltimore boy's BB guns seen during virtual class sparks police visit Courtney Lancaster, a Navy veteran, told a local Fox affiliate that her 11-year-old son, a fifth-grader at Seneca Elementary School, is a Boy Scout who is trained in archery and firearm safety and owns several BB guns. Ms. Lancaster said her son keeps his bow and BB guns displayed on
a wall in his bedroom, which was apparently within view during a recent
Google Meet class, in which he had been enrolled since March due to
the coronavirus pandemic.
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Cuomo gave immunity to nursing home executives after big campaign donations Less than two years after that flood of cash from the Greater New
York Hospital Association (GNYHA), Cuomo signed legislation last month
quietly shielding hospital and nursing home executives from the threat
of lawsuits stemming from the coronavirus outbreak. The provision, inserted
into an annual budget bill by Cuomo’s aides, created one of the nation’s
most explicit immunity protections for healthcare industry officials,
according to legal experts.
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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Warns Stay-At-Home Violators: 'We Will Take You To Jail, Period' She then proceeded to yell at a small group of teens who were hanging out in a parking lot across the street. It was a moment that brilliantly captured the collapse of common sense among government officials trying to enforce an extreme and increasingly unreasonable form of social distancing. Lightfoot's press conference on Saturday addressed the news that Chicago
police had broken up several social events with more than 50 people
in attendance on Friday. The authorities had learned that more parties
were expected to take place on Saturday and Sunday.
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What Is A “Pearl Clutcher?” Society was in perfect harmony. Men worked, while women made babies
and sandwiches. There was no confusion. People knew their places. If
a woman tried to disrupt societal balance by thinking, that impulse
was promptly squashed by the neighborhood gossips. These fine ladies
clutched their pearls and shamed any free-thinking hussies right back
into the kitchen. All shoes were removed from the hussy’s house. Shamed
and shoeless, women had no choice but to return to the kitchen barefoot,
and hopefully, pregnant. The system worked.
More
Facebook’s ‘fact checkers’ are the real fake news after censoring Post story The piece was widely read online — until Facebook stepped in. The social media giant’s “fact checkers” decided this was not a valid
opinion. If you tried to share Mosher’s column on Facebook, the social
network stuck a “False Information” alert on top, saying that finding
was “checked by independent fact-checkers” and preventing your friends
from clicking to connect to the original article to see for themselves.
More
Former police officer arrested in park for throwing ball with daughter due to coronavirus social distancing rules The department apologized Tuesday afternoon, calling the incident an "overreach by our police officers." Matt Mooney, 33, told ABC News he walked with his wife and daughter from their home to a nearby park Sunday to play softball. "We're just having a good time, not near anybody else. The next closest
person is at least 15 feet away from me and my daughter at this point,"
Mooney told ABC News.
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A Litany of Useless Laws Have Been Exposed By the Coronavirus This allows goods to get to the public quicker at lower cost, more
service providers to enter struggling industries, and the market to
respond to the crisis in countless other ways.
More
Nevada governor limits malaria drugs for coronavirus patients Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak’s emergency regulation limits the prescription of the drugs in outpatient settings — not in hospitals or emergency rooms — to a 30-day supply, to ensure they’re available for “legitimate medical purposes.” The action also aims to prevent stockpiling the meds, which are also used to treat arthritis and lupus. “While these drugs serve necessary medical purposes, this regulation
protects the Nevadans who need them and prevents unnecessary hoarding,”
Sisolak tweeted.
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Discussing Coronavirus Response, Sanders Accidentally Calls it Ebola and Biden Accidentally Calls it SARS Sanders accidentally called it ebola and Biden mistakenly referred to it as SARS. "No one is in a position where they have a significant financial disability as a consequence of this SARS, of this particular crisis," Biden said during the 11th Democratic debate, hosted by CNN Sunday night. During a follow-up segment, Sanders also misnamed the novel coronavirus
that has resulted in the death of more than 6,500 individuals and infected
over 150,000 people around the globe.
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UC Berkeley Instructor Says Rural Americans Are Bad People Who Deserve "Uncomfortable" Lives Kernion believes that "City Americans" should not have to bear the
cost of providing healthcare to rural America. "Rural Healthcare should
be expensive! And that expense should be borne by those who choose rural
America!" he wrote. In addition to this, he argued that rural Americans
should be instructed to pay higher taxes to cover healthcare and broadband
among others, as they rejected the "efficient" city life consciously.
"Same goes for rural broadband. And gas taxes. It should be uncomfortable
to live in rural America. It should be uncomfortable to not move," added
the instructor.
More
Finland’s Oulu city council roasted online for feeble “no-no square” dance to combat rape A video from the account @sannanopsa, representing the Finnish city of Oulu, was created to raise awareness of child sexual abuse and empowering people to be aware of rape. The video, in which five representatives do a brief dance to the lyrics,
“Stop, don't touch me there. This is my no-no square,” has been ridiculed
online for being a weak attempt to deal with a serious issue.
More
Our crazy farm subsidies, explained It’s just a matter of figuring out how to make it work — and that’s where things get tricky. Right now in the U.S., we subsidize certain crops pretty heavily. These are things that can be shipped and stored easily, and traded in international commodity markets. But because of the way we manage our subsidies, we end up with A LOT
of corn. In 2010, U.S. farmers produced 32 percent of the world’s corn
supply on 84 million acres of farmland, raking in a cool $63.9 billion.
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Welfare fraud in Sweden by Iraqi MINISTER? The scandalous story made the headlines in Sweden this weekend, after
several news outlets reported that Iraqi Defense Minister, Najah al-Shammari,
is also known as a Swedish citizen named Najah al-Adeli. The man is
said to have emigrated to Sweden in 2011, becoming a citizen in 2015,
and is still registered as living in one of Stockholm’s suburbs. Both
‘al-Adeli’ and his wife had allegedly been receiving child and housing
support for years, before getting reported for benefits fraud two weeks
ago. A preliminary probe into the scheme has been launched both by the
country’s police and welfare watchdog.
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It’s Now ‘Transphobia’ to Refuse to Date Trans People, Say Twitter Experts The bulk of social media users who do not belong to a sexual or hard-left political community dismiss the condemnation of “transphobia.” But the term has become increasingly thrown around to malign people
who are strictly heterosexual–and even a large portion of homosexual
men, who wouldn’t consider dating a trans person.
More
Racial hatred message daubed on park wall The massive graffiti which takes aim at people of colour reads ‘it’s ok to be white’ was painted on the side wall adjacent to Bedford Park in Southport overnight. Shocked residents in the area said they were appalled to wake up to face the graffiti and have called the police and council to sort it out. As yet it’s believed police don’t have any suspects for the racially
aggravated graffiti and there are no witnesses due it being painted
overnight.
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ACLU calls for tampons in men's rooms in order to achieve 'menstrual equity' "While free menstrual products are not uniformly provided in women’s restrooms, they are almost never available in men’s restrooms, even for pay," the group said in a statement Tuesday. "Men’s restrooms are also less likely to have a place to dispose of
these products conveniently, privately, and hygienically."
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MPs not running again will get paid around $1.6M in severance Thirty-nine sitting MPs have declared they won’t run again in the next election, of whom 18 are eligible for severance payments totalling an estimated $1,618,850, according to an analysis by The Canadian Press. Sitting MPs who have served for less than six years are not eligible
for pensions, and instead receive a lump severance payment worth half
their annual salary. They also get back any pension contributions they’ve
already made, plus interest.
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Identity and algebra: Seattle schools incorporate ethnic studies into math class "Math, in case you didn’t already know, is racist," said an article from conservative website The Daily Wire. The framework lays out a structure of learning themes like "Origins,
Identity, and Agency" and "Power and Oppression," which are meant to
be taught side by side in a math class.
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Trans women and cervical cancer screening If you’re a trans woman and have not had bottom surgery, you aren’t at risk for cervical cancer. If, however, you’re a trans woman who has had bottom surgery to create
a vagina (vaginoplasty) and possibly a cervix, there’s a very small
risk that you can develop cancer in the tissues of your neo-vagina or
neo-cervix. The risk depends on the type of surgery you had, the type
of tissue used to create your vagina and cervix and your personal health
history. Talk to your healthcare provider to figure out your specific
cancer-screening needs as part of your overall pelvic health following
surgery.
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Legislator Who Argues Housing Is a Human Right Also Suing to Stop Affordable Housing in Her District Take New York Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou (D–Lower Manhattan) who just co-wrote an op-ed arguing that every New Yorker should be guaranteed a home—while also suing to stop the construction of an affordable housing complex in her district. In a Wednesday piece for the New York Daily News, Niou and activist
Feliz Guzman argue that the Saturday murder of four homeless people
in New York City could have been prevented by more government spending
on housing and social services.
More
A Utah Woman Is Facing Criminal Charges for Going Topless in Her Own Home Tilli Buchanan and her husband were installing insulation in their
garage when they shed their itchy clothing and stripped down to their
underwear, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. When Buchanan’s stepchildren
came into the garage and saw her topless, she said that they shouldn’t
be embarrassed, because her husband—the children’s father—wasn’t wearing
a shirt either.
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Woman dies at 102, DirecTV charges early termination fee Yet, ironically, she didn't outlive her satellite TV contract. And that was a problem. "Everything was fine until we went to disconnect and that's when all
the surprises happened,'' said her son-in-law, John Manrique. More
City Shuts Downs Preschoolers’ Farm Stand Citing Zoning Violations Alas, this is not satire. It’s the current predicament facing the
Little Ones Learning Center in Forest Park, Georgia, just outside of
Atlanta. In an area where access to fresh fruits and vegetables can
be limited, this preschool has stepped up to prioritize growing and
selling fresh produce from its school gardens. According to recent reporting
in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Little Ones has often sold its
produce with generous discounts to local food stamp recipients and other
neighbors and has been acknowledged as a leader in the farm-to-school
healthy food movement.
More
Teacher tells class demonic energy coming from bathroom, Dept. of Education says Edward Tardif, 46, was also accused of holding meditation in his criminal justice classroom during the 2017-2018 school year as well as trying to smoke with a student and contacting students on social media at inappropriate times. Tardif said the district did not welcome him back to the classroom
following that school year and he has not been a teacher since.
More
A Man Spent 82 Days in Jail on Meth Charges. The Meth Was Actually Honey Maryland Transportation Authority Police then arrested him, telling him that the bottles in his bag labeled "honey" had tested positive for methamphetamine. A police dog sniffed Haughton's bag raising suspicion that he had drugs, and a field test at the airport yielded positive results for meth. He spent the next 82 days in jail. Except the bottles really were full of honey. Maryland State Police
lab test results confirmed that on January 17, and prosecutors dropped
three felony drug counts six days later.
More
Why a county councilwoman was sworn into office on a Dr. Seuss book Her 5-year-old son, Liam, and her 7-year-old daughter, Bella, held the book in their small hands as their smiling mother was sworn into office Aug. 13. It was a choice with personal meaning. Dunaway said her single mom
was a coal miner who would say if she believed in herself and worked
hard, Dunaway could achieve anything.
More
A governor intervened so this mom could keep her hilarious license plate "Pee before we go!" Wendy Auger, a New Hampshire mom of four, is all too familiar with telling her kids to use the bathroom before leaving the house (or the store, or the restaurant, or any other location). So she put it on a license plate. Auger has had the plate for 15 years, and said that before now, she's gotten nothing but positive reactions. "(People) think it's funny," she told TODAY Parents. "I get thumbs-ups,
honks on the highway, people yelling 'Awesome plate!' in drive-through
lines. It brings a chuckle and a smile to the people who can figure
it out." More
Michigan council candidate wants to keep her town ‘as white as possible’ But that thread was momentarily marred with shock following a racist statement from one City Council candidate in response to a question about diversity. “Keep Marysville a white community as much as possible,” said newcomer
Jean Cramer, one of five candidates vying for three open council seats
in November. The question: “Do you believe the diversity of our community
needs to be looked at, and if so, should we be more aggressive in attracting
foreign-born citizens?”
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YouTube Removes Robot Fighting Videos After Declaring Them 'Cruelty to Animals' To be fair, YouTube blames a new algorithm that flags robot fighting
videos as animal cruelty because it can't distinguish between real animals
and robots shaped like animals. As to be expected, robot enthusiasts
are not happy. According to The Daily Mail, a robot enthusiast that
goes by the alias Maker's Muse pointed out that "I do not support animal
cruelty in the slightest. But what's happening is that it's false flagged
robots smashing each other as animal cruelty."
More
Police Ask Public to Report ‘Non-Crime Hate Incidents’ Because #HateHurts The way that the department has phrased tweets about this has varied from tweet to tweet, but one of them in particular asking the public to report “non-crimes” was lambasted more than others. “In addition to reporting hate crime, please report non-crime hate incidents, which can include things like offensive or insulting comments, online, in person or in writing. Hate will not be tolerated in South Yorkshire. Report it and put a
stop to it #HateHurtsSY,” police said.
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Berlin choir accused of gender discrimination by nine-year-old girl Next week, Berlin’s administrative court will hear that the decision of the State and Cathedral Choir Berlin (SDB) to reject the girl after an audition in April this year was discriminatory because it infringed on her right to equal opportunities in state support. The girl’s mother, who is bringing forward the complaint on her behalf,
argues the choir’s girls-only partner choir at the Berliner Singakademie
could not have provided her daughter with training of a similar quality.
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Police say trolls who mocked drug dealer’s ‘receding hairline’ could be prosecuted A mugshot issued by officers for Jermaine Taylor, 21, from Newport, Wales attracted a staggering 76,000 comments, poking fun at his bonce. Taylor is wanted by police on recall to prison. He was released on licence after being jailed for three years for being concerned in supplying cocaine after being sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court in September 2017. One Facebook user posted: ‘That hairline goes further back than Woolworths.’ While Matt Price added: ‘Push his release date back further than his hairline, that should teach him.’ Lea Hook said: ‘He was last seen in town; police are combing the area’,
while Lawrie Hillman joked: ‘He’s vanished into thin hair.’
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London Bridge attack hero on anti-terror watch list after far-right yobs contacted him But Roy has since been placed on the Government’s Prevent programme amid fears he could become an extremist after he was contacted by anti-Islam supporters. He has had to attend de-radicalisation classes and is being monitored by cops. Roy said: “They treat me like a terrorist but I’m not political at
all.”
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Pakistan govt accidentally turns ‘cat’ filter on during FB Live, leaves everyone in splits A user pointed out the gaffe and asked the administrators of the page
to turn the cat filter off. “Filter hata lo. Banda billi bana hua hai
(Remove the filter, the man has been turned into a cat),” the eagle-eyed
viewer warned. Although it was switched off pretty quickly, it was enough
for the ever-vigilant Twitterati to take screenshots and have fun at
its expense.
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Oregon governor sends police to find missing Republicans, bring them to Capitol All 11 Republican senators are in hiding, at least some of them out
of state, in order to prevent the Senate from having the quorum it needs
to operate. They can’t abide the Democrat-backed carbon cap and spend
bill that is up for a Senate vote today.
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A girl at mom’s, a boy at dad’s: ‘Transgender’ Texas child caught in custody battle Divorce is tough on children, but especially so for six-year-old James Younger. When he’s with his father, Jeff Younger, James is a normal boy. He dresses like a boy, hangs out with other boys, and refers to himself as a boy. When he’s with his mother, Anne Georgulas, James lives as a girl called Luna. Since he expressed an interest in wearing girls’ clothes, Georgulas
a pediatrician, began referring to him exclusively as ‘her,’ enrolled
him in school under his female name, encouraged him to cross-dress,
and took him to a sympathetic “rainbow counsellor” who lists working
with transgender children as one of her specialities.
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Journalist Criminally Investigated for Allegedly Using the Wrong Pronoun in Tweet In a series of tweets, Farrow noted that the police had told her she
would “need to be interviewed under caution for misgendering Susie Green’s
child.”
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High School Suspends 2 Students for Posting Gun Range Photos on Snapchat, ACLU Files Suit The photos were not taken at school. They were not taken during school hours. They did not reference a school. They auto-deleted after 24 hours,
which was well before the school became aware of them. And yet, administrators
at Lacey Township High School suspended the boys for three days, and
also gave them weekend detention.
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Scholar makes ‘moral case’ for letting people decide their own age The piece, by Joona Räsänen of the University of Oslo in Norway, titled
“A Moral Case for Legal Age Change,” concludes that there are three
scenarios when a change to one’s legal age should be allowed: When “the
person genuinely feels his age differs significantly from his chronological
age,” when “the person’s biological age is recognized to be significantly
different from his chronological age,” and when “age change would likely
prevent, stop or reduce ageism, discrimination due to age, he would
otherwise face.”
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Man investigated by police for retweeting transgender limerick Harry Miller, 53, from Lincoln was contacted on Wednesday by a community cohesion officer following a complaint that had been made about the plant and machinery dealer’s social media posts. Citing 30 potentially offensive tweets, the PC singled out a limerick Mr Miller had retweeted which questioned whether transgender women are biological women. It included the lines: "Your breasts are made of silicone, your vagina goes nowhere." No crime was committed, yet sharing the limerick online was recorded
as a ‘hate incident’.
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Democratic Socialism: Who Knew That 'Free' Could Cost So Much? However, the democratic socialist agenda will face resistance not
only from other lawmakers but from basic math. Their promises, which
include free college, a single-payer health care system, guaranteed
jobs, and more, would require astonishingly high expenditures that would
cause the federal deficit to skyrocket. Once the costs become clear,
most mainstream politicians and voters will surely balk. Making big
promises is one thing; paying for them is another.
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What Will the U.S. Government Do With 1.4 Billion Pounds of Cheese? The nation eating this much cheese is not only mind-boggling: It's
growing less and less likely. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture
data, Americans have cut their milk consumption down from 35 pounds
to an average of 15 per person annually. The excess is turned into cheese
for storage and longevity (and the enjoyment of delicious cheese products).
At the same time, government subsidies have continued to support dairy
production, buying up surplus to keep prices steady. That leaves us
with more cheese than anyone, even the experts, knows what to do with.
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6th Grade Girl Leaves School In Tears After Being Kicked Out For Not Wearing Her ‘Natural Hair’ In the case of Faith Fennidy, public opinion seems pretty clear. The 6th grader attends Christ the King Parish School, a private school in Louisiana, and was recently pulled from class and kicked out of school for having hair extensions, which is apparently against school policy. The entire ordeal was captured on video by Faith’s brother. He shared
it on Facebook, where it’s been commented on upward of 23,000 times.
In the clip, you can hear parents and school administrators continuing
to argue as Faith gathers her belongings and walks outside, crying the
entire time. More
A tale of two Bills: Cosby goes to jail for 30 years for sexually abusing women but Bill Clinton can rape them and remain free Following the verdict, District Attorney Kevin Steele said the disgraced star “was a man who evaded this moment for far too long.” Cosby, now 80 and married for 54 years, was at one time accused of
drugging and sexually violating scores of women (as many as 60 came
forward with accusations) throughout the course of his career. During
this latest legal effort to hold him accountable — this week’s trial
was actually a retrial — the prosecution put five of those women on
the stand.
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Student with banned Trump shirt to get apology, $25,000 from school district Addison Barnes, an 18-year-old senior, was suspended for wearing the shirt backing Trump's immigration and Homeland Security policies. He then sued the high school, the principal and the Hillsboro School District, arguing they violated his First Amendment rights. In late May, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order,
essentially barring the school for the remainder of the school year
from enforcing its earlier decision prohibiting Barnes from wearing
the shirt. On Tuesday, Barnes' lawyers announced they reached a settlement
with the district: Principal Greg Timmons will issue a letter of apology
and the district will pay $25,000 for Barnes' attorney fees.
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Electronics-Recycling Innovator Going to Prison for Extending Computers’ Lives Known for building an electric car out of “garbage” that outlasts a Tesla, his company processes more than 41 million pounds of e-waste a year. Lundgren has received international praise for slowing the stream of harmful chemicals and heavy metals into the environment, and counts IBM, Motorola and Sprint among clients grateful for his cheap refurbished products. Unfortunately, Microsoft is not such big a fan of Lundgren’s work.
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Police Allege Mice Ate Half a Ton of “Missing” Weed Over half a ton of cannabis was found to be missing from a police warehouse in the town of Pilar, about 50 miles outside of the Argentine capital city of Buenos Aires. While the eight Argentinian cops claimed that mice had eaten it, and
surprisingly mice eat cannabis a lot more often than one might think,
forensic investigators report that they checked out the scene and found
no evidence that the mice consumed the missing weed.
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Alberta man legally changes sex for cheaper car insurance: 'I didn't feel like getting screwed over any more' “I didn’t feel like getting screwed over any more,” the man, identified only as “David,” said this week. For more than three years, Alberta has been among several provinces
in which residents can legally change the sex on their birth certificates
without providing evidence of genital surgery.
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Alaska Airlines Had to Choose Between an 'Emotional Support Cat' and a 15-Year-Old Passenger With Allergies. Want to Guess Who Won? Can you guess which one had to leave the plane? The story takes place on Alaska Airlines, and it comes to us from The Arctic Sounder, a weekly newspaper serving the extreme northern parts of Alaska, where the girl lives. The Arctic Sounder in turn got it from the girl's mother, who posted
it on Facebook. Here's what happened according to the mom.
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White Liberals Present Themselves as Less Competent in Interactions with African-Americans According to new research by Cydney Dupree, assistant professor of
organizational behavior at Yale SOM, white liberals tend to downplay
their own verbal competence in exchanges with racial minorities, compared
to how other white Americans act in such exchanges. The study is scheduled
for publication in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
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Dear Moms, Do You Want Your 35-Year-Old Living in Your Basement? Because This Is How You Get That Well, the reason for the manager's phone call can be summed up in two words: helicopter moms. Yes, I know the term should be "helicopter parents" but it's the moms
in this story. See, the manager was checking to make sure that a four-
to five-hour shift wouldn't be too hard on Pam's daughter. She was tired
of moms calling to complain that their little darlings were tired. She
was even more tired of finding mom behind the counter, having sent the
child home because the shift was too long.
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Kids treated after being served Pine-Sol instead of apple juice at preschool A state Health Department investigation found that a classroom assistant preparing morning snacks for children at Kilohana United Methodist Church Preschool served the cleaning fluid — even though it was in the original Pine-Sol container and properly labeled. The assistant apparently “saw the yellow/brown colored liquid container
on a clean-up cart in the kitchen and returned to the classroom” with
it, the Health Department said in its review.
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Guess Which Congressman Thought a Malfunctioning iPhone Was Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s Fault Rep. Steve King (R–Iowa) did not disappoint. He related an anecdote involving his 7-year-old granddaughter, who was playing with an iPhone when an image of King accompanied by crude language appeared on the screen. "How does that show up on a 7-year-old's iPhone who's playing a kid's game?" Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who had been summoned to Capitol Hill to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, matter-of-factly answered, "Congressman, iPhone is made by a different company." King then attempted to save face by suggesting, "maybe it was an Android."
More
'Complete idiot' Cop Steals Hash Chocolate During Drug Bust, Eats it, Halucinates, Freaks out, Forces Suspects Release Vittorio Dominelli, one half of a police duo who rose to notoriety earlier this year after they consumed cannabis-infused chocolate on duty, pleaded guilty in a College Park courtroom Friday to attempting to obstruct justice. The married father of three, who had been with the Toronto police
for 13 years, resigned in the wake of the incident, which saw him accused
of breach of trust, a charge withdrawn Friday.
More
Amazon's patent for caging workers was "bad" idea, exec admits The patent was highlighted in a recent article by two AI researchers, who wrote that the design illustrated "an extraordinary illustration of worker alienation, a stark moment in the relationship between humans and machines." While the optics of placing a worker inside a cage certainly aren't good, the patent's purpose was geared toward employee safety, rather than confinement. The caged mobile workspace was designed to keep humans safe as they entered warehouse floors where robots zoom around, pushing towering shelves of goods ordered by Amazon customers. More![]()
2 Kentucky high school students suspended after dressing as Columbine shooters for Halloween The two girls in Adair County, about 120 miles south of Louisville, decided to dress up as Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, the two teenagers who carried out the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. The girls probably didn't get the reaction they wanted. After their
photo went viral on Halloween, the girls were suspended for three days,
according to WLEX-TV. The photo showed the girls on the floor in the
school's library, WLEX reported, which mimicked the eerie photo of the
two Columbine shooters after they killed themselves in the Columbine
library.
More
Roy Group to Start its First All-Girl Boy Scout Troop “I was in Girl Scouts for a couple years but it only taught how to sweep the floor and how to set the table,” said Hailey Van Elsacher, 17. “I was like, ‘I don’t need these things. I can learn them at home.’” She said that she wanted more exciting trails in her future, and this was her vehicle to do it. “I’m looking forward to new adventures, because I am a very adventurous
person,” Van Elsacher said. “So hopefully I’ll get to have more fun
going on more camping trips and going hiking, fishing, things like that.”
Not so long ago, girls weren’t allowed in the Boy Scouts of America,
but nearly two years ago, all that changed.
More
PETA claims milk a 'symbol of white supremacy' PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is making the claim that milk is the perfect tipple for racists. The assertion first appeared in a blog post last yea,r but slipped under the radar. Last week, PETA doubled down. PETA points to Christopher Waltz’s Nazi character in the film Inglourious Basterds knocking back a glass of milk in a French farmhouse as he hunts for Jews. The organization tweeted: “Cows’ milk has long been a symbol used by
white supremacists.”
More
Mandatory presidential text alerts violate freedom of speech, according to a new lawsuit Three individuals filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court
in New York City Sept. 26 against President Donald Trump and Federal
Emergency Management Agency administrator William B. Long, arguing that
the presidential alert messaging system violates the First and Fourth
Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The presidential alerts — which,
unlike Amber alert or other emergency messages, phone users cannot opt-out
of — is a “national public warning system” that allows the president
to issue messages in the case of a national emergency.
More
A Mathematician Says Activists Made His Paper Disappear Because Its Findings Offended Them The Greater Male Variability Hypothesis, first proposed by Charles
Darwin, suggests that there are more men than women at both the bottom
and the very top of the distribution for intelligence scores. More men
than woman are Nobel Prize winners and chess grand champions, and more
men than women are homeless, unemployed, and in prison. Men as a group
express greater variability in aptitude and ability.
More
5th Grader Punished at School for Calling His Teacher ‘Ma’am’ ABC7 reports that 10-year-old Tamarion Wilson, a fifth-grade student
at North East Carolina Preparatory School, was punished by his teacher
for saying “yes, ma’am.” The teacher made him write the word “ma’am”
on a sheet of loose-leaf paper, four times per line on both sides of
the page.
More
Feminists Say New iPhones Are Sexist and Threaten 'Women's Hand Health' The biggest phone that Apple sells will now be the 6.5-inch-wide iPhone Xs Max and the smallest phone will be the 4.7-inch-wide iPhone 7. That means women, who have smaller hands than men ?on average, will have to stretch their tiny fingers an extra 0.7 inches. British feminist activist Caroline Criado Perez worried that the new
iPhones would cause her to injure herself. Prior to the advent of the
iPhone SE, she said, she had developed repetitive strain injury from
operating her Apple device.
More
Only Black People Should Be Allowed to Vote Lisa Bloom, whose mother, Gloria Allred, also represents several Trump
accusers, tweeted the results of the ABC News/Washington Post poll on
Sunday, and quipped “only black people should be allowed to vote.”
More
DCFS called after mom allows 8-year-old girl to walk dog alone Eight-year-old Dorothy Widen was walking her dog around the block when someone called the police and told them they spotted a 5-year-old walking a dog alone. Police immediately went to the family’s home and when they were told
Dorothy was 8, her parents say the officer said that was fine and left.
More
‘Racist’ Gorilla Statue Removed From Playground The gorilla, nicknamed Dobby, was taken from the Community Park following concerns from some citizens that it was potentially racially insensitive. The freestanding statue was placed inside a cage at the park over fears
it could topple over and hurt children if they climbed on it. However,
after Corsicana Mayor Don Denbow received 45 complaints that the gorilla
was offensive, the decision was made to remove it entirely.
More
How Companies Like JPay Are Making Millions Charging Prisoners to Send An Email There, under fluorescent lights, she scanned rows of brightly colored birthday cards to pick out the perfect greeting for her son—let’s call him Tim—who is imprisoned more than 100 miles from his mother’s home just outside New Orleans. The card she settled on was dark brown with trees and a birthday message
that read, “For the best son in the world.” Tim was in his 10th year
of a 30-year prison sentence for an armed robbery he committed at age
17; he would not be able to see, let alone sit under or touch, a tree
for the next 20 years. After Jones, her daughter, and her three grandchildren
signed the card, she mailed it off, happy that Tim would know that his
family was thinking of him.
More
‘We’re very sorry.’ Wells Fargo admits error that cost hundreds of people their homes In yet another apology for the San Francisco-based bank, Wells said a calculation error involving a mortgage underwriting tool resulted in 625 customers being incorrectly denied or not offered modifications to make their loans more affordable. In about 400 of those cases, the homes were ultimately foreclosed on. The bank said the error affected customers in the foreclosure process between April 2010 and October 2015, when the problem was corrected. The error was uncovered in an internal review, Wells said. The bank
also said it has set aside $8 million for customers who were caught
up in the problem.
More
Roofer fined £300 for carrying sandwich wrappers and crisp packets in his van Roofer Stewart Gosling, 43, was punished with the on-the-spot penalty after a stash of waste he kept in a plastic commercial waste bag was found in the back of his vehicle. Waltham Forest Council workers told Mr Gosling he was breaking the law for carrying the rubbish without permission when they carried out spot checks in east London. Mr Gosling has tried to appeal the fine but has been told he will
end up in court if he doesn't pay the penalty issued at the roadside.
More
PayPal tells deceased customer that being dead is a breach of its rules In response to this documentation, PayPal sent a letter with the headline: “Important: You should read this notice carefully." It read, “This is a default notice served under section 87(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Your account has an outstanding balance of £3,240.72.” “You are in breach of condition 15-4(c) of your agreement with Paypal
Credit as we have received notice that you are deceased. In accordance
with condition 15-4(c), we are entitled to close your account, terminate
your agreement and demand repayment of the full amount outstanding.”
More
Latino student expelled over photos that sparked racism accusations In one photo, it shows Ruiz and three of his friends posing in front
of a mirror with a plastic gun and the word “chuuch” – slang for “amen”
– captioned on it and pointing to a well-dressed black doll. Another
showed an edited image of a black male’s face over a gorilla, according
to a memo from the school obtained by Campus Reform, which first reported
the issue.
More
Facebook flags Declaration of Independence as hate speech The Liberty County Vindicator, a community newspaper between Houston and Beaumont, had been posting the whole declaration in small daily chunks for nine days on its Facebook page in the run-up to July 4. But the 10th excerpt was not posted Monday as scheduled, and the paper said it received an automated notice saying the post “goes against our standards on hate speech.” Part of the standard notice, Vindicator managing editor Casey Stinnett
wrote, included a warning that the newspaper could lose its Facebook
account, on which it depends for much of its reach, if there were more
violations.
More
Cops Arrive after Maryland Man Posts Photos of Non-Psychedelic Mushrooms on FB The cop's agenda? He was apparently there to conduct an investigation into the man and his girlfriend, Hope Deery, for possessing psychedelic psilocybin mushrooms. The only problem: they weren't magic mushrooms. "We let them in and as soon as the police officer walked in he asked
us why we were eating mushrooms and posting about it online," the man
posted.
More
Black Pregnant Woman Jailed For Using Gun To Defend Family From Attacker, Silence From The NRA Siwatu-Salama Ra, a 26-year-old environmental activist in Detroit, used her weapon to fend off an angry neighbor – with whom she had a dispute – after she deliberately crashed her car into Ra’s home while Ra’s two-year-old child was playing inside. Fearing for her family’s life, Ra, a legal gun owner in an open carry
state, pulled out an unloaded handgun and pointed it at the assailant,
identified as Channell Harvey, who then fled.
More
Child with Autism Arrested for Firing 'Imaginary Rifle' David Sims, 12, was talking with his friends about BB Guns at Conroe Independent School District’s Bozman Intermediate School in Texas when he allegedly pointed the imaginary gun at his art teacher. His hand gestures made the teacher feel uncomfortable, which led to the 12-year-old boy being arrested by authorities on Monday. “They just said, 'We don't tolerate that. We take it as a threat.'
A threat? He didn't threaten anyone. He didn't do anything but play,"
according to David’s mother, Amy Sims.
More
Ask Your Baby's Permission Before Changing Diaper, Says Sexual Consent Expert Deanne Carson, who works for an organization which teaches children about consent, appeared on Australia’s ABC news network to comment on Saxon Mullins, whose rape case sparked a national debate on sexual consent laws. Carson argued that parents should teach their children about consent as early as possible. “We work with parents from birth...Just about how to set up a culture
of consent in their homes. ‘I’m going to change your nappy now, is that
OK?’ Of course a baby’s not going to respond ‘yes mum, that’s awesome
I’d love to have my nappy changed'.
More
British schools are removing analog clocks from classrooms because kids can't read them Officials have begun replacing the traditional clocks with digital ones as children have been unable to tell the correct time on analog clocks, The Telegraph reports. “The current generation aren’t as good at reading the traditional
clock face as older generations,” Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary
at the Association of School and College Leaders in England, told the
publication. “Nearly everything they’ve got is digital so youngsters
are just exposed to time being given digitally everywhere.”
More
Nurses are subject to a new code where they must announce their 'white privilege' before treating Aboriginal patients The term 'white privilege' defines the unearned social and cultural
advantages awarded to people with white skin which are not enjoyed by
people of colour or non-white backgrounds. The Nursing and Midwifery
Board believes the cultural safety of Indigenous or Torres Strait Islander
patients is just as important as their clinical safety.
More
West Hills High student arrested after posting LEGO rifle photo with threat The 14-year-old ninth grader was arrested at his home Tuesday, said Catherine Martin, a spokeswoman with the Grossmont Union High School District. “We thank law enforcement for their quick action,” Martin said on
Twitter. School officials told deputies of the post about 10 p.m. The
student had posted to Instagram what appeared to be an AR-15 rifle out
of LEGO pieces along with the caption, “Don’t come to school tomorrow.”
More
No One Mentions That The Russian Trail Leads To Democratic Lobbyists Washington lobbyists trade on their access to power. Many are former
administration officials or members of Congress. If Trump fulfills his
promise to “drain the swamp,” these influence peddlers would have nothing
to sell. They are under attack.
More
Service Canada's gender neutral directive is 'confusing' and 'will be corrected' says minister The directive, obtained by Radio Canada, the French-language arm of
CBC, instructs Service Canada employees who interact with the public
to stay away from terms such as Mr., Mrs., father and mother, and to
"use gender-neutral language or gender-inclusive language."
More
Gallery removes naked nymphs painting to 'prompt conversation' Manchester Art Gallery has asked the question after removing John William Waterhouse’s Hylas and the Nymphs, one of the most recognisable of the pre-Raphaelite paintings, from its walls. Postcards of the painting will be removed from sale in the shop. The painting was taken down on Friday and replaced with a notice explaining
that a temporary space had been left “to prompt conversations about
how we display and interpret artworks in Manchester’s public collection”.
More
Ryan Zinke: Too Many Americans Are Enjoying National Parks For Free Who gets into national parks for free? Veterans, disabled Americans, senior citizens, and children. Zinke assured the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on
Tuesday that he would not impose new fees on veterans, but he did propose
raising vehicle fees from at some of the busier national parks, such
as Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Zion, which currently charge
between $20 and $30 per car.
More
Planned Parenthood taps into sex-change ‘therapy’ for minors as new revenue source "We had a lot of parents actually reach out to us wanting to get care for the young people in their lives," said Dr. Suzie Prabhakaran, Vice President of Medical Affairs for Planned Parenthood. "So we decided it was time for us to expand the care that we were providing to minors." Planned Parenthood has been providing transgender hormone therapy
since October of 2016, but up until now that was for those 18 and older.
They say transgender patients have a difficult time accessing care because
a lot of doctors can be judgemental of those who are transgender. At
Planned Parenthood, it all starts with an initial consultation.
More
#MeToo movement lawmaker investigated for sexual misconduct allegations In December, when Time magazine announced that “Silence Breakers” who spoke out against sexual harassment were its Persons of the Year, Garcia’s face was prominently included in the art accompanying the cover story. But Daniel Fierro of Cerritos told POLITICO that in 2014, as a 25-year-old
staffer to Assemblyman Ian Calderon, he was groped by Garcia, a powerful
Democratic lawmaker who chairs the Legislative Women’s Caucus and the
Natural Resources Committee. He said she cornered him and that Garcia
appeared inebriated, began stroking his back, then squeezed his buttocks
and attempted to touch his crotch before he extricated himself and quickly
left.
More
Why This Mom Is Selling Fake Penises for Kids Under 5 And while Deysach sells these products with the intention of helping
trans kids better express their gender, she's facing a strong pushback
online from people who think she's way out of line.
More
Norway Olympic ski team under fire for sweater’s symbol used by Nazi Germany The black and grey sweaters feature a symbol known as the Tyr rune, representing the team’s theme for the Olympics, “the Attacking Viking.” The symbol is associated with Viking and Norse mythology and stands for heroic glory. But the symbol has also been hijacked by extreme right-wing groups.
For example, Tyr was also the official emblem for Adolf Hitler’s leadership
school in Nazi Germany.
More
'The Bachelor' Creator Blames Fans' Racism, Trump For Show's Low Ratings From New York Times: In 2017, the first “Bachelorette” chapter to star an African-American woman — Rachel Lindsay, a lawyer from Dallas — drew precipitously fewer viewers than the season before it. “I found it incredibly disturbing in a Trumpish kind of way,” Mr. Fleiss said. “How else are you going to explain the fact that she’s down in the ratings, when — black or white — she was an unbelievable bachelorette? It revealed something about our fans.” You're a racist if you don't want to watch my crappy TV show.
More
Washington state sues Motel 6 over cooperation with immigration authorities The office began investigating Motel 6 after two of the low-cost chain's locations in Arizona provided its guests' personal information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. Six additional locations in Washington provided the same information covering more than 9,100 guests to ICE agents, Ferguson's office said. "Washingtonians have a right to privacy, and protection from discrimination,"
Ferguson said in a statement announcing the lawsuit, filed in King County
Superior Court. "I will hold Motel 6 accountable and uncover the whole
story of their disturbing conduct."
More
James Damore just filed a class action lawsuit against Google, saying it discriminates against white male conservatives His claims: that Google unfairly discriminates against white men whose political views are unpopular with its executives. Damore is joined in the 161-page suit by another former Google engineer
named David Gudeman, who spent three years with Google working on a
query engine. According to Gudeman’s LinkedIn profile, he left the company
in December 2016 and has been self-employed since.
More
White noise video on YouTube hit by five copyright claims Sebastian Tomczak, who is based in Australia, said he made the video in 2015 and uploaded it to YouTube. The claimants accusing him of infringement include publishers of white
noise intended for sleep therapy.
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Professors claim farmers’ markets cultivate racism: ‘Habits of white people are normalized’ Pascale Joassart-Marcelli and Fernando J Bosco, two geography professors at SDSU, criticized the “whiteness of farmers’ markets” in a chapter for Just Green Enough, a new anthology published by Routledge in December. The anthology, which features contributions from a variety of professors,
aims to highlight the harms of “environmental gentrification,” a process
in which “environmental improvements lead to…the displacement of long-term
residents.”
More
Texas Dad Confiscates 12-Year-Old Daughter's Phone As Punishment, Gets Arrested By The Cops In 2013, Ronald Jackson discovered a text message on his daughter's phone that he found to be "rude." He took the phone away from his daughter, who was 12-years-old at the time, to teach her a lesson. "I was being a parent..." Jackson told KDVR. "...A child does something
wrong, you teach them what’s right. You tell them what they did wrong
and you give them a punishment to show them they shouldn’t being doing
that"
More
Prominent lawyer sought donor cash for two Trump accusers California lawyer Lisa Bloom’s efforts included offering to sell alleged
victims’ stories to TV outlets in return for a commission for herself,
arranging a donor to pay off one Trump accuser’s mortgage and attempting
to secure a six-figure payment for another woman who ultimately declined
to come forward after being offered as much as $750,000, the clients
told The Hill.
More
Students who shut down University of Oregon president’s speech panic after they’re charged A week after they received formal charges of “disruption of university” and “failure to comply” for shutting down the State of the University speech by University of Oregon President Michael Schill, participants warned Schill that he had “escalated tensions” by holding them accountable (!). Student, faculty and union leaders signed an open letter to Schill
and the board of trustees, posted on the activist UO Student Collective
Facebook page, that blames Schill for comparing the protesters to the
fascists they claim to fight.
More
On YouTube Kids, Startling Videos Slip Past Filters When Ms. Burns walked over, Isaac was watching a video featuring crude renderings of the characters from “PAW Patrol,” a Nickelodeon show that is popular among preschoolers, screaming in a car. The vehicle hurtled into a light pole and burst into flames. The 10-minute clip, “PAW Patrol Babies Pretend to Die Suicide by Annabelle
Hypnotized,” was a nightmarish imitation of an animated series in which
a boy and a pack of rescue dogs protect their community from troubles
like runaway kittens and rock slides. In the video Isaac watched, some
characters died and one walked off a roof after being hypnotized by
a likeness of a doll possessed by a demon.More
Transgender reveal in kindergarten class leaves parents feeling "betrayed" "These parents feel betrayed by the school district that they were
not notified," said Karen England with the Capitol Resource Institute.
More
Russia Wants Bulgarians to Stop Painting Soviet Monuments To Look Like American Superheroes Russia is demanding that Bulgaria try harder to prevent vandalism
of Soviet monuments, after yet another monument to Soviet troops in
Sofia was spray-painted, ITAR-Tass reported. The Russian Embassy in
Bulgaria has issued a note demanding that its former Soviet-era ally
clean up the monument in Sofia’s Lozenets district, identify and punish
those responsible, and take “exhaustive measures” to prevent similar
attacks in the future, the news agency reported Monday..
More
Rick Perry Just Said That Fossil Fuels Help Prevent Sexual Assault During an energy policy discussion, he said: “From the standpoint of sexual assault. When the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will, on those types of acts… fossil fuels is going to play a role in that. I think it’s going to play a positive role.” It’s a little difficult to try and work out what he means by this.
Is he trying to say that when you have lights on, the perpetrators of
sexual assault are easier to see? This is obviously true - but studies
show that it has little effect on such crimes being committed. Either
way, to use such a horrific issue to tout the benefits of oil, gas,
and coal is mindblowingly strange. More
EU Study Showing Piracy Doesn't Affect Game Sales Was Shelved Companies chose to ignore this information, and it’s easy to understand
why. It sounds like the logical thing to imagine, but it’s not backed
by science. Nevertheless, the European Commission wanted to know what
is the effect of piracy on copyrighted material and ordered a study.
The results were never made public.
More
FBI finds FEMA supplies in Trash Container Supplies mismanagement or theft, for being federal property, will
be investigated by the FBI and can lead to a penalty of up to 20 years
if any individual is found to be violating the distribution guidelines.
More
Schools are banning best friends to protect students' feelings Thomas's Battersea, the school George attends, bans kids from having best friends, Marie Claire reports. Instead, teachers encourage all students to form bonds with one another to avoid creating feelings of exclusions among those without best friends. Jane Moore, a parent whose child attends the school, explained the
idea on a recent episode of the British talk show "Loose Women." "There's
a policy," she said, "that if your child is having a party — unless
every child is invited — you don't give out the invites in class." More
Oxford University "Doctor Stabby" avoids jail because of her ‘extraordinary’ potential Aspiring heart surgeon Lavinia Woodward ran out of court with a big smile on her face Monday after being handed a suspended sentence. Wearing a black suit and white blouse, she appeared in the glass-paneled dock before the judge at Oxford Crown Court. Flanked by a female security guard, she wept and dabbed her eyes with
a tissue as the judge sentenced her to 10 months in prison, suspended
for 18 months.
More
Australian Professors Claim Boys Are Better Than Girls At Physics Because They Play With Pee Some of you will think we’re daft. Some will wonder what kind of jobs we have if we have enough time on our hands to dream this kind of thing up. Some of you may even think we’re having you on. Our intentions, however, are honourable. Playful urination practices – from seeing how high you can pee to
games such as Peeball (where men compete using their urine to destroy
a ball placed in a urinal) – may give boys an advantage over girls when
it comes to physics. And we believe there’s something we can do about
it.
More
How a 5-year-old's 'pretend play' resulted in a school suspension Jackson Riley attends the Great Valley Academy public charter school in Modesto and was suspended for a day for making terrorist threats, TV station Fox 40 reported. The incident occurred Aug. 31, Jackson's father, Ian Riley, told The Bee. He got a call from the school saying the kindergartner had refused to take off his backpack and, when asked why, said there was a bomb in it that would explode if he did so. Riley said Jackson loves his teachers, as do he and his wife, Michelle.
"We have two kids there and the teachers are amazing," he said. "Our
issue is with the administration's knee-jerk reaction."
More
"Meathead" Launches Committee To Investigate Russian Election Meddling Reiner announced the CIR on Tuesday, posting to Twitter that he wants Americans to " “understand the gravity of Russia’s invasion of our democracy," adding that he intends on using his resources to truly solve the mystery of how Donald Trump won the 2016 Presidential election. The group launched their website, InvestigateRussia.com, on Wednesday.
It has a few fancy videos - one of which stars Freeman, who warns that
Russia is waging a war on the United States that we can no longer afford
to ignore. "We have been attacked," bellows Freeman. "We are at war."
More
Democrat candidate for NY City council lives in Section 8 housing, hides photos of husband on yacht The Facebook photos showed city council candidate Carlina Rivera’s husband, attorney and Community Board 3 Chairman, James Rogers, sailing on his wealthy father, William Rogers’, yacht as they competed in boating competitions, the New York Post reported. The Facebook page “Big Boat,” which is the name of the yacht, removed
the photos ahead of New York City’s primary elections on Tuesday but
the damage was done.
More
Florida gun owners encouraged to 'shoot the storm' and fire their guns at Hurricane Irma Hurricane Irma is due to hit Florida on Saturday, and the state is
currently experiencing the largest ever mass evacuation due to a hurricane
in American history. But Ryon Edwards, 22, came up with a novel way
of amusing himself during the storm: firing bullets into it. He started
a Facebook "event", and as of Friday evening 46,000 people say they
are interested.
More
College tells students to ‘rub one out’ to prevent rape As part of an “Alcohol and Chill” session during orientation, students discussed “awareness, prevention, bystander education, and risk reduction,” according to a statement from the school’s senior vice president for student affairs. An image obtained by Campus Reform shows that during said session,
participants were told to “Rub One Out,” with a notation at the bottom
of the slide explaining that “self-gratification can prevent sexual
assault.”
More
Why the Do Not Call list doesn't work anymore “I’m getting inundated,” the frustrated woman said. Multiple times a day, live or automated robocallers ring her home phone—to sell her vacations, lower her credit card rates, or ask for donations. “Somebody will be saying I’ve got a vacation package for you, that
we thought you might be interested in, and I just hang up. Because I’m
not interested in it,” she said. It’s gotten so bad that she checked
to see if her name is still on the National Do Not Call List that she
signed up for more than a decade ago. She learned she is still on the
list. But it’s not doing a thing for her.
More
Man Builds Park Stairs for $550 After City Gives $65,000 Estimate Retired mechanic Adi Astl says he took it upon himself to build the
stairs after several neighbours fell down the steep path to a community
garden in Tom Riley Park, in Etobicoke, Ont. Astl says his neighbours
chipped in on the project, which only ended up costing $550 – a far
cry from the $65,000-$150,000 price tag the city had estimated for the
job.
More
Renowned Harvard Psychologist Says ADHD is Largely a Fraud So it may be surprising to learn that he believes the diagnosis of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) is an invention — and only benefits the pharmaceutical industry and psychiatrists. “That is the history of humanity: Those in authority believe they’re
doing the right thing, and they harm those who have no power”, says
Jerome Kagan.
More
These Coloradans say Earth is flat. And gravity’s a hoax. Now, they’re being persecuted. They have no leaders, no formal hierarchy and no enforced ideology, save a common quest for answers to questions about the stars. Their membership has slowly swelled in the past three years, though persecution and widespread public derision keep them mostly underground. Many use pseudonyms, or only give first names. “They just do not want to talk about it for fear of reprisals or ridicule
from co-workers,” says John Vnuk, the group’s founder who lives in Fort
Collins.
More
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop responds after NASA calls BS on ‘healing’ stickers Sometimes they go on benders, or buy a private island, but in Gwyneth
Paltrow’s case, she started a “wellness” company that is now trying
to help sell special stickers that it claims can cure you of anxiety,
balance your body’s “natural frequency,” and even relieve pain. Now,
NASA — you know, that little group that does actual science — is calling
BS on the whole thing.
More
Portland Burrito Shop Forced to Close After Getting Hounded for ‘Stealing From Mexico’ “I picked the brains of every tortilla lady there in the worst broken Spanish ever, and they showed me a little of what they did,” Connelly told Willamette Week. “They told us the basic ingredients, and we saw them moving and stretching the dough similar to how pizza makers do before rolling it out with rolling pins. They wouldn’t tell us too much about technique, but we were peeking into the windows of every kitchen, totally fascinated by how easy they made it look. We learned quickly it isn’t quite that easy.” Whelp, apparently this interview sparked an Internet shitstorm, which
ended in Kooks Burritos shutting down and the two white women who owned
it scrubbing social media of the business’ existence. Wilgus and Connelly
were accused of cultural appropriation by the Internet mob, and even
the theft of PoC’s recipes.
More
School district slams sixth grader with suspension over haircut Xavier is a sixth grader at Cedar Bayou Junior High School in Baytown. When he walked into class last Thursday, he said he was promptly sent to the office. "I was walking into class, and she saw my hair and said, 'You can't have two lines in your hair. Go to the office,'" Xavier said. The school, he said, ordered him to fix the haircut by Monday, or be punished with in-school suspension. "I don't think it's fair," Xavier said. "He's had his hair cut like
this for six months and now all of a sudden it's a problem?" said his
father, Matt Davis.
More
Canada Man Ordered to Surrender ‘Offensive’ Star Trek License Plate Manitoba local Nick Troller was informed by an agent from Manitoba
Public Insurance on Wednesday that they had received complaints from
two people about the word “assimilate,” which they claimed is offensive
to minorities. He was then served a letter informing him that “it has
been brought to the attention of this office that the personalized plate
ASIMIL8 is considered offensive,” and was ordered to surrender it immediately.
More
Lookalike Foods: DNA test finds Subway sandwiches may be just 50 percent chicken According to the CBC Marketplace DNA test, the pieces of chicken tested in Subway sandwiches contained just 50 percent chicken DNA, with the rest containing soy. The study tested Subway's Oven Roasted Chicken Sandwich and the Sweet
Onion Chicken Teriyaki. The results showed the oven roasted chicken
had only 53.6 percent chicken DNA while the chicken strips in the sweet
onion chicken teriyaki had just 42.8 percent chicken DNA.
More
No soda tax for diet drinkers? Seattle’s plan excludes drinks favored by rich and white The 2-cents-an-ounce tax would apply only to sugary beverages, such as regular sodas, energy and sports drinks, and bottled teas and coffee that are sweetened with sugar. For a 2-liter bottle of Coke, the tax could add $1.35 to the cost. Money raised — estimated at $16 million per year — would be used to
support various programs aimed at reducing disparities between white
students and black and Latino students. But this proposed tax could
also place a heavier burden on the very groups it’s aiming to help.
More
Single dad furious after teen daughter reveals why her friends can't stay over at their house The anonymous man, writing on Kidspot, revealed how he was the girl's primary carer for five years of her life before his wife ran off with another man and took their child with her. After years of fighting for custody of his "wonderful" daughter, the pair moved to Australia together four years ago. He struggled to get on school records as her primary carer as the
system "wouldn't accept it" and, bizarrely, ended up being listed as
her mother.
More
Chelsea Clinton Gets Another Award For Doing Nothing Special Not content with just her Variety-sponsored “achievement award,” Chelsea on Tuesday night accepted the annual City Harvest Award for Commitment in fighting hunger in New York City, as reported in Mail Online. Before we claim that she’s done nothing to earn a major award, aside
from sitting in a privileged position atop her family’s namesake foundation,
or say that she has few actual commitments aside from spending her family’s
money and attending a single board meeting for Expedia lest she forfeit
the several hundred thousand dollars she earns in her honorary position,
in this case, it appears Chelsea did do at least something to earn her
award.
More
School Officials Shamed A Teenage Girl For Bringing "Too Much Food" For Lunch Sounds like a pretty reasonable lunch to us. But when a student brought this exact lunch to school one day, she was told that she had packed too much food, her mom wrote on a parenting blog. School officials have been monitoring what the students bring for lunch
every day at this girl's secondary school, her mom said in the post.
"DDs [dear daughter's] secondary school has started checking all the
packed lunches at registration," she wrote. "I know lots of secondary
school students buy sweets and chocolate etc on the way to school but
surely at that age it's their choice."
More
New bill takes aim at men's masturbation habits The satirical House Bill 4260 would encourage men to remain "fully abstinent" and only allow the "occasional masturbatory emissions inside health care and medical facilities," which are described in the legislation as the best way to ensure men's health. A man would face a $100 penalty for each emission made outside of
a vagina or medical facility. Such an emission would be considered "an
act against an unborn child, and failing to preserve the sanctity of
life," according to the legislation.
More
Kurdish healer: Trump is possessed; I can cure him by beating soles of his feet Known as Mala Ali Kalak and based in a small town outside Erbil on the road to Mosul, he says he has treated many cases of cancer and HIV, including government officials. “Trump is possessed and I need to beat him on the soles of his feet
to get the jinni out of his body,” Mala Ali told Rudaw in an interview.
“He has lost his mind and oversteps his boundaries all the time. He
needs help. Unless he is cured he will continue to act like he does
now.”
More
Atlanta welfare bums battling state over right to name daughter Allah But, in the eyes of the state of Georgia, the 22-month-old child has no name. According to Handy and Walk, the Georgia Department of Public Health refused to issue the infant a birth certificate with the last name the couple chose for their daughter: Allah. The ACLU of Georgia has filed suit on behalf of the couple, who say
they can't get a Social Security number for their daughter because they
don't have a birth certificate. They also anticipate problems with access
to health care, schools and travel.
More
'Bread war': Venezuela arrests brownie and croissant bakers in effort to tackle food shortages Maduro has sent inspectors and soldiers into more than 700 bakeries around the capital this week to enforce a rule that 90 percent of wheat must be destined to loaves rather than more expensive pastries and cakes. It was the latest move by the government to combat shortages and long
lines for basic products that have characterised Venezuela's economic
crisis over the last three years.
More
American Legion Riders say they were harassed by staff at Michigan Dave & Busters location According to biker Victor Murdock a general manager at the location
told the group of bikers that they had to remove their riding vests,
or colors, turn them inside-out or leave the premises. The bikers’ attire
apparently violated the chain’s dress code policy which prohibits clothing
that promotes “evidence of gang affiliation,” according to MLive.
More
School apologizes for fried chicken menu for Black History Month The Feb. 16 lunch menu at Hopewell Valley Central High School also listed corn bread, sweet potato casserole, sauteed spinach, mac & cheese and peach and apple crisps. It's not clear who complained about the menu. "The decision to include these items without any context or explanation,
reinforces racial stereotypes and is not consistent with our district
mission and efforts to improve cultural competency among our students
and staff," Superintendent Thomas A. Smith wrote in a message to the
community.
More
Absurd State Licensing Rules Could Send A Woman To Jail Just for Touching a Horse Not because she would hurt the animal—she'd never think of doing such a thing—but because of an anonymous complaint submitted to the state's licensing board that governs veterinary medicine. Wheeler has been studying horse massage since 2010, when she adopted an abandoned horse suffering from a potentially life-threatening neurological condition known as equine protozoal myeloencephalitis. Her horse, Jazz, was treated with a mix of medication and massage
therapy, and Wheeler became interested in the practice. Since then,
she's twice been certified in equine massage by an Indiana-based animal
therapy school, and, in 2016, successfully obtained a license from the
state of Tennessee, where she lives, to practice massage therapy on
humans.
More
Teen Girl Sent Teen Boy 5 Inappropriate Pictures, Faces Lifetime Registry as a 'Violent Sex Offender' or 350 Years in Jail About two years ago, when Zachary was a 17-year-old high school senior
in Stafford County, Virginia, a girl in his computer club invited him
over to visit. She introduced him to her younger sister, age 13. This
younger sister told Zachary he reminded her of a friend: this friend,
also a 13-year-old girl, shared Zachary's love of dragons and videogames.
More
Grad Student Exposes Massive Network Of Over 350,000 Fake Twitter Accounts On Twitter, bots are accounts that are run remotely by someone who automates the messages they send and activities they carry out. The network of 350,000 bots stood out because all the accounts in it shared several subtle characteristics that revealed they were linked. It was "amazing and surprising" to discover the massive networks,
said Dr Shi Zhou, a senior lecturer from UCL who oversaw Mr Echeverria's
research.
More
Utah’s Anti-Porn Crusade Has Entered a Crazy New Phase There is, of course, no evidence of a “pornography epidemic” with any measurable toll on society. Yes, a lot of people view porn, as has been the case ever since porn was easily viewable, and as will likely be the case forever. But the sorts of things you’d expect to be associated with a hypothetical porn epidemic, like people having tons of reckless sex, don’t appear to be happening. The only thing anti-porn zealots can point to as evidence of a dangerous
“epidemic” is that a lot of people are watching porn. There’s no credible,
empirically backed second half to the sentence “Tons of people too much
porn, and it’s causing X.”
More
Who got rich off the student debt crisis In its place, lawmakers created another profit center for Wall Street and a system of college finance that has fed the nation’s cycle of inequality. Step by step, Congress has enacted one law after another to make student debt the worst kind of debt for Americans – and the best kind for banks and debt collectors. Today, just about everyone involved in the student loan industry makes money off students – the banks, private investors, even the federal government. Jessie Suren is an energetic 28-year-old who wanted a career in law
enforcement. Albert Lord is a 70-year-old former accountant who became
a multimillionaire executive. The two have never met, but their stories
tell the history of America’s student debt crisis.
More
Facebook 'fact checker' who will arbitrate on 'fake news' is accused of defrauding website to pay for prostitutes Snopes.com will be part of a panel used by Facebook to decide whether stories which users complain about as potentially 'fake' should be considered 'disputed'. But the website's own troubles and the intriguing choice of who carries out its 'fact checks' are revealed by DailyMail.com, as one of its main contributors is disclosed to be a former sex-blogger who called herself 'Vice Vixen'. Snopes.com will benefit from Facebook's decision to allow users to
report items in their newsfeed which they believe to be 'fake'.
More
When Food Is Expensive, We Assume It’s Healthier, Too And as a forthcoming study in the Journal of Consumer Research illustrates, the same thing can happen with price. More expensive foods benefit from the health halo of a higher cost, while affordable items are seen as junky — even if neither is true. Konchinsky is now suing the police officers, alleging they violated her constitutional rights. What's the basis of her lawsuit? Konchinsky's suit alleges that the officers' actions violated her First
Amendment right to freedom of speech.
More
No Evidence of Aloe Vera Found in the Aloe Vera at Wal-Mart, CVS Samples of store-brand aloe gel purchased at national retailers Wal-Mart, Target and CVS showed no indication of the plant in various lab tests. The products all listed aloe barbadensis leaf juice — another name for aloe vera — as either the No. 1 ingredient or No. 2 after water. There’s no watchdog assuring that aloe products are what they say
they are. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t approve cosmetics
before they’re sold and has never levied a fine for selling fake aloe.
That means suppliers are on an honor system, even as the total U.S.
market for aloe products, including drinks and vitamins, has grown 11
percent in the past year to $146 million, according to Chicago-based
market researcher SPINS LLC.
More
Trudeau says Canada has no ‘core identity’ The consensus from Canada’s elites has been to condemn the very idea of listing our values, let alone asking newcomers to respect and adhere to them. But a far more controversial idea about Canadian values and identity was recently proposed by our very own prime minister. And the media barely batted an eyelash. Late last year, Justin Trudeau
told the New York Times that Canada is becoming a new kind of country,
not defined by our history or European national origins, but by a “pan-cultural
heritage”.
More
Professor attacks political correctness, says he refuses to use genderless pronouns Peterson, a white male in his mid 50s, also decries what he claims are attempts by the university to transform its human resources department into “a politically correct institution.” Gender identity is defined by the Ontario Human Rights Commission
as “each person’s internal and individual experience of gender. It is
their sense of being a woman, a man, both, neither, or anywhere along
the gender spectrum.” The commission defines gender expression as “how
a person publicly presents their gender,” which can include behaviour
and outward appearance such as dress, hair, make-up, body language and
voice, as well as a person’s name and the pronouns they use.
More
Court Rules That Medical Marijuana Card Holders Can't Buy Firearms The court ruled 3-0 on Wednesday that a ban preventing medical marijuana card holders from purchasing firearms is not in violation of the Second Amendment, the Associated Press reports. There are nine western states under the appeals court’s jurisdiction, including Nevada, where the case originated. A lawsuit was filed in 2011 by Nevada resident S. Rowan Wilson after
she tried to purchase a gun for self-defense and was denied based on
a federal ban on the sale of guns to users of illegal drugs. Though
marijuana has been legalized in some places on a state-by-state basis,
it remains illegal under federal law. The court maintained that drug
use “raises the risk of irrational or unpredictable behavior with which
gun use should not be associated.”
More
We’re All Guinea Pigs in a Failed Decades-Long Diet Experiment If you're like most Americans, you either aren't sure how to answer, or you're very sure—but very wrong. And it's not your fault. It's the fault, experts say, of decades of flawed or misleading nutrition advice—advice that was never based on solid science. The US Department of Agriculture, along with the agency that is now
called Health and Human Services, first released a set of national dietary
guidelines back in 1980. That 20-page
booklet trained its focus primarily on three health villains: fat,
saturated fat, and cholesterol.
More
School bans clown costumes from Halloween celebrations “With the current issues about the clowns we are going to avoid that this year,” said Wilson. After recent clown sightings across the nation, the school said some of their students are afraid. Wilson said after hearing concerns from parents, they have chosen to ban happy and scary clown costumes altogether. They hope to present this to the children in a way that will not evoke more fear. “The principal is very good about being sensitive to how she presents
that,” said Wilson. “It’s going to be something to the effect of, even
though clowns are funny and cute, we’re not going to do any this year
because we want to be a little bit different.”
More
City school admins fined for big spending on parties, food The city’s Conflict of Interest Board slapped the education administrators with the fines, saying they had all violated rules that prohibited using their cards for non-city purposes. The largest fine went to Patrick Fagan, a deputy Cluster Leader for
the Children First Network, a now-defunct network of educators who were
supposed to help principals.
More
African students speak out against anti-African school dress code Gibbs High School Senior Jelani Masozi was forced by a school administrator, accompanied by a resource officer, to remove her head wrap on Thursday, August 25th, 2016. The intimidating presence of the officer, armed to the teeth with a gun, taser, and pepper spray––identical to the police officers that murder us in the streets––caused Jelani to feel like she had no other option but to remove her headwrap. This humiliating, demoralizing request caused her to call the President
of the African National Women’s Organization (ANWO), Yejide Orunmila,
who directed her to put her headwrap back on.
More
Judge Rules Government Can Ban Vegetable Gardens Because They’re ‘Ugly’ The ruling was a whopping ten pages long as it was filled with legal
analysis and definitions of what constitutes a vegetable. Even though
she ruled in favor of the ban, Judge Monica Gordo acknowledged that
she wasn’t quite sure how a vegetable garden can ruin the aesthetics
of one’s property.
More
A history of undiplomatic insults Well, he regrets at least how the comment was received. “We regret [that] it came across as a personal attack,” Duterte said through a spokesman. The White House canceled a meeting with Duterte after the outburst. The Philippines' leader is mounting a controversial campaign against
drug dealers and users, which has already led to thousands of extrajudicial
killings.
More
India To Bring Back Workers Facing 'Food Crisis' In Saudi Arabia Low oil prices have forced the Saudi government to slash spending since last year, putting heavy pressure on the finances of local construction firms which rely on state contracts. As a result, some companies have been struggling to pay foreign workers and have laid off tens of thousands, leaving many with no money for food let alone for tickets home. Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday said over 10,000 Indians
in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were facing a "food crisis" because of economic
hardships, while appealing to an estimated 3 millions Indians living
in Saudi Arabia for help.
More
Yale Student Petition: Too Many Major English Poets In ‘Major English Poets’ Class Specifically, the aggrieved students want to abolish the storied Major English Poets courses that have long been staples of the university’s English department. Why? According to a petition posted online, the students believe that the
courses feature too many “white male authors,” such as Geoffrey Chaucer,
William Wordsworth, Edmund Spenser, Alexander Pope, John Milton, and
T.S. Eliot. In other words, too many major English poets.
More
F-35 Delayed Again: Defective Ejection Seat Would Likely Snap Pilots’ Necks Ejection seats hold a special importance for pilots of the $250 million
fighter jet in light of recent tests that show the fifth-generation
fighter spontaneously shuts down mid-flight due to ongoing software
malfunctions.
More
Why police were called to a South Jersey third-grade class party A third grader had made a comment about the brownies being served to the class. After another student exclaimed that the remark was "racist," the school called the Collingswood Police Department, according to the mother of the boy who made the comment. The police officer spoke to the student, who is 9, said the boy's mother, Stacy dos Santos, and local authorities. Dos Santos said that the school overreacted and that her son made a comment about snacks, not skin color. "He said they were talking about brownies. . . Who exactly did he
offend?" dos Santos said.
More
Texas congressman wants magic to be recognized as a national treasure To fix this, Sessions wants the House of Representatives to declare
magic a "rare and valuable art form," and pledge to support efforts
that ensure magic is "preserved, understood, and promulgated." To this
end, the resolution cites a number of magic's appealing qualities (including
its ability to inspire young children), and praises American magicians
like Harry Houdini and David Copperfield.
More
Children to be Expelled for ‘Microaggressions’? The Board of Education of Lawrence Public Schools will soon vote on a proposal to update its discrimination and harassment policy. It would impose stiff penalties on those who commit a microaggression or tout an offensive symbol. The vote on whether to enact this policy, originally scheduled for June 27, was recently pushed back to allow for more discussion. “Any student or employee who violates the Discrimination and Harassment
Policy is subject to disciplinary action,” said Julie Boyle, communications
director of Lawrence Public Schools, noting that each of the 21 schools
in the district issue their own handbooks for students and staff.
More
McDonald’s “Summer Camp” Exposes Youth to Fast Food Culture While Training Kids to Sell Their Food McDonald’s Kiddie Crew Workshop is a 5-day summer program designed for kids ages 6-12 years. During the program, Kiddie Crew members experience on-floor restaurant activities like greeting customers and assisting the crew at the drive-thru and front counters, plus, according to McDonald’s Philippines, get to “showcase their skills through creative art workshops, and learn the importance of hard work, discipline and teamwork, through values formation lessons.” You might think a program like this, based around fast food, would
be frowned upon, but the camp has been around since the early 90s and
is hugely popular. In fact, during 2012 about 30,000 kids took part
in the summer workshop participating in activities like burger-making,
the Ronald dance, apron-making, singing of the Kiddie Crew song and
a talent workshop. In recent years, the workshop has added additional
activities such as Kiddie Crew Dance-exercise. At the end of the summer
McDonald’s Philippines holds a series of workshop graduations in major
cities all over the country—Manila, Cebu, Bacolod and Davao – to recognize
the achievements of all Kiddie Crew members and their families by treating
them to a day filled with activities and prizes.
More
This High School Senior Got Called Out for Not Wearing a Bra to School Principal Steve Thennis told KRTV that someone in the school building complained that the way Kaitlyn was dressed made them "uncomfortable," so she was asked to either cover up or put on a bra. The Helena High School handbook does not specify that students must wear bras. "I'm not going to check students' undergarments," he told KRTV. "We are going to ask them to dress appropriately and if we feel it is inappropriate, male or female, we are going to ask them to cover up." Kaitlyn says there's no reason a student should have to wear a bra
to school. More
Mexican Congresswoman Declares War on Memes Martha Orta Rodriguez suggests a penalty of up to four years in prison and a fine of nearly US$2,000 for those responsible for creating these often humorous and satirical images on the Web. Orta said she is trying to prevent “harmful" and “humiliating” images
from being circulated on the Internet, but unsurprisingly her proposal
was not received well online.
More
Plano Senior High School Students Will Not Be Allowed To Display Honors During Graduation Because it might make other students feel excluded, students won’t be able to wear their National Honor Society stoles during graduation ceremonies next month at Plano Senior High School. Students are not allowed to wear National Honor Society regalia (or any other club or organizational regalia) during graduation ceremonies, according to school practices. Apparently, students and Plano East High School and Plano West High
School will be able to wear the NHS stoles.
More
Lunchroom Lunacy: Cops investigate $2 bill spent on school lunch Not for some local school cops. For one day, public enemy number one when it came to forgery was 13-year-old eighth grader Danesiah Neal at Fort Bend Independent School District's Christa McAuliffe Middle School. Now 14, Daneisha was hoping to eat that day's lunch of chicken tenders with her classmates using a $2 bill given to her by her grandmother when she was stopped by the long arm of the law. "I went to the lunch line and they said my $2 bill was fake," Danesiah
told Ted Oberg Investigates. "They gave it to the police. Then they
sent me to the police office. A police officer said I could be in big
trouble."
More
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