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06-07-21  08:24am - 1200 days Original Post - #1
LKLK (0)
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The first episode was released on Epix (available through Amazon) on June 6, 2021.
The series has 8 episodes.

I saw the first episode, thought it was very good.

I'm guessing the series will have 1 new episode released each week.
They don't make the release schedule information in the news release available, as far as I can tell.

"Domina follows the rise of Emperor Augustus Caesar’s third wife, Livia Drusilla. The series will bring to life the exploits, affairs, and battles for political clout that surrounded this power couple who sat at the heart of the Roman Empire."

06-03-21  09:22am - 1204 days Original Post - #1
LKLK (0)
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Unfortunately for the man, there was surveillance footage that showed the man tormenting the lizard for 32 minutes before the lizard finally died.

So the judge didn't buy the man's story of self-defense.
The man could have killed the iguana legally in different ways. The law allows people to kill iguanas.
But not with cruelty.
Freezing, drowning and poisoning is illegal.
The man should have talked with a lawyer, before he killed the lizard.
Or made up a better story, instead of saying the lizard attacked him.
He should have killed the lizard, where no one could videotape the death.
It's his word against a dead lizard, after all.
Who are you gonna believe?
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Florida man tries to use ‘stand your ground’ defense after beating iguana to death
NY Daily News
KATE FELDMAN
June 2, 2021, 1:00 PM
Scroll back up to restore default view.

A Florida man argued that he feared for his life before violently bashing a three-foot iguana to death. A judge didn’t buy it.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Dana Gillen ruled against PJ Nilaja Patterson’s “stand your ground” defense in the standoff, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Tuesday.

Patterson, 43, was charged with animal cruelty for the brutal beatdown in Lake Worth Beach in September. According to his lawyers, Patterson rescued the iguana from the middle of the road, after which the animal allegedly bit Patterson, requiring 22 stitches.

But prosecutors painted Patterson as the aggressor, pointing to surveillance footage that showed the 32-minute attack, during which Patterson “savagely beat, tormented, tortured, and killed” the iguana.

Patterson “clearly tormented the iguana” and reacted in “a violent rage,” Animal Care and Control Sgt. Adam Moulton wrote in an arrest report obtained by the Sun Sentinel, claiming the man “chose to stalk the helpless iguana and deliver vicious strikes to the animal.”

The iguana suffered a lacerated liver, broken pelvis and internal bleeding, according to the necropsy.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission allows residents to kill iguanas, but it must be done humanely, such as shooting them with a pellet gun, stabbing them in the brain or decapitating them in a way that they do not feel pain. Freezing, drowning and poisoning is illegal.

If convicted, Patterson faces up to five years in prison.

06-03-21  08:53am - 1204 days Original Post - #1
LKLK (0)
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This girl, only 3 years old, is a genius.
She understands how people behave.
And will become President of the United States, bypassing kindergarten and elementary school and maybe even college.
The girl is that smart.
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Girl, 3, requests morbid 'Lion King' scene on birthday cake so she can have it all to herself
NBC Universal
Hayley Vaughn
June 1, 2021, 2:23 PM


A request from a 3-year-old girl celebrating her birthday went viral when pictures of her birthday cake were posted online by her family.

The special request from the birthday girl, Leona, was that her cake depict the scene from "The Lion King" where Mufasa, Simba's father, dies.

And Leona had a reason for such a seemingly morbid request.

“Everyone will be too sad to eat the cake and it will be all for me,” she said, according to a Twitter post by her uncle, Casey Feigh.

"Leona is hilarious and quirky,” her mother, Alison Feigh, explained in an interview with "TODAY." “She's also a very empathetic, sweet kid.”

The 1994 Walt Disney classic is apparently still a hit with a new generation of young kids. Leona was thrilled that her cookies-and-cream-flavored cake, custom created by Thirsty Whale Bakery in Minneapolis, was designed to show her favorite scene, claw marks and all.

Alison Feigh told "TODAY" that Thirsty Whale Bakery not only agreed to the request, but offered her different 3-D options for cake décor based on which part of the scene she wanted.

The final product, showing a young Simba looking down over the edge of the "cliff" and an edible version his dead father lying below, left Leona grinning with excitement.

Feigh describes the moment she put in the cake request for her daughter comically, saying, "I actually emailed them because I was too embarrassed to call," she told "TODAY."

"I was like, ‘I’ll just put it in writing and click send. The worst they can say is no.’”

06-01-21  10:29pm - 1206 days Original Post - #1
LKLK (0)
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Amazon says its Prime Day promotion will run from June 21-22

By Aimee Picchi

June 2, 2021 / 1:01 AM / MoneyWatch

Amazon is bringing back its annual Prime Day as a mid-year event, aiming to juice sales during the typically slower summer period for retailers. The change comes after the ecommerce giant in 2020 postponed the two-day event until October due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Day will kick off June 21 at midnight Pacific time (3 a.m. Eastern) and run through June 22, the company said Wednesday in a statement. Since debuting in 2015, Prime Day has generally taken place in mid-July, which means Amazon is holding the event earlier this year after last year's delay.

While the pandemic shuttered many brick-and-mortar retailers, Amazon enjoyed a surge in sales last year as consumers switched to online shopping to avoid leaving their homes or because local shops were closed. But the company has also come under increasing scrutiny for everything from its treatment of warehouse workers and delivery drivers to concerns from lawmakers over Amazon's growing size and dominance over smaller businesses.

Amazon's sales jumped 34% last year to more than $215 billion. This year, the retailer said it will aid small businesses that sell through its website by spending more than $100 million on promotional Prime Day events to support them. As part of that promotion, Amazon said it will offer a $10 credit to use on Prime Day to members who spend at least $10 with some small businesses that sell through Amazon from June 7 through June 20.

Critics say Amazon's online dominance hurts local businesses, which generally can't compete on price with the larger retailer. For Amazon, Prime Day is an opportunity to attract consumers for its $119-per-year Prime service, with only members being allowed to take part in the sale.

The company said it has more than 200 million Prime customers, or more than double its membership when Prime Day launched six years ago.


Here are a few things to know about Prime Day 2021:

Amazon said its Prime Day event will offer discounts on 2 million products across the two-day sale.
As always, some of the best deals will be offered on Amazon's own products, such as 50% off four months of Audible and discounts on Fire TVs.
Amazon said it will give Prime members a $10 promotional credit if they buy $40 or more in select Prime-branded Amazon Gift Cards from June 2 through June 20.
Unlike in the U.S., Amazon said Prime Day will be postponed in Canada and India "due to the increasing impact of COVID-19" in those countries.

First published on June 2, 2021 / 1:01 AM

© 2021 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

06-01-21  10:08am - 1206 days Original Post - #1
LKLK (0)
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Car insurance companies have looked at Vin Diesel's driving records.
And have decided he is a reckless driver, who is un-insurable.
This means Vin Diesel will have to take the bus.
Or get a friend to drive him around.
See the latest You Tube clip that decided insurance companies Vin is a terrible driver.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1_6yEtrlpw

05-29-21  02:53pm - 1209 days Original Post - #1
LKLK (0)
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We live in a free country.
So people are free to do what they like.
Here is a cafe where they charge you an extra $5 if you're wearing a mask.
Since most places in California require you to wear a mask if you're entering a public place, I thought it was very funny the owner is charging people $5 to wear a mask.

Castleman said in a phone interview, "I don't force anyone to pay. I give them the freedom of choice, which seems to be a foreign concept in these parts of the country."

My guess is this guy is a Trump supporter, and he's thumbing his nose at the requirement of wearing masks.

Also, who is going to audit the guy, that all the $5 fees he collects will go to charity?
Trump is famous for collecting charitable donations, that wind up for his personal benefit.
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California cafe owner charges customers $5 fee for wearing masks
NBC Universal
Wilson Wong and Bianca Britton and Dennis Romero
May 28, 2021, 8:53 PM


Diners are mostly free to speak their mind at a Northern California cafe, but doing so through the protective confines of a mask will cost a cover charge of $5.

Fiddleheads Cafe in Mendocino on Sunday put up a sign announcing the fee for customers who wear masks while ordering. In March, the cafe announced an ongoing 50 percent discount for those who throw their face coverings in the trash, said owner Chris Castleman, 34.

"I don't think $5 to charity is too much to ask from mask wearing customers who claim to care so much about the community they live in," he said by email.

Proceeds will go to Project Sanctuary, a local domestic abuse organization, for two weeks before a new nonprofit enters the rotation, Castleman said. (Project Sanctuary did not immediately respond to a request for comment).

"It's about time that the proponents of these ineffective government measures start paying for the collateral damage they have collectively caused," the owner said.

The restaurant also planned to charge an additional $5 fee to those "caught bragging" about being vaccinated, according to a couple of the posted signs.

But Castleman said in a phone interview, "I don't force anyone to pay. I give them the freedom of choice, which seems to be a foreign concept in these parts of the country."

In June 2020, Castleman temporarily closed the cafe 200 miles northwest of Sacramento after Mendocino County officials warned that masks weren't optional at restaurants during the pandemic.

"The government shut everything down," he said Friday. "Everyone wearing a mask is complicit."

He abided by temporary mandates requiring curbside service only, but requiring masks for servers and other workers, he argued, is too much.

"I don't believe in mask-wearing," Castleman said. "Our customer base has been strongly aligned with our beliefs, but I think some are really angry at our cafe."

"It's their choice," he continued. "They can choose what business they support. They can go to any other business in my county, state."

05-28-21  06:37am - 1210 days Original Post - #1
LKLK (0)
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An apparently unarmed woman was shot by an off-duty officer.
The officer was off-duty.
But everyone knows that off duty cops are still on duty. This is an important legal distinction that is very important, but meaningless.
Did the cop have the right to defend himself?
Obviously, he thought the woman was attacking him.
She might not have had a gun, but she was still a danger.
The cop fired once, after she got out of her car to speak to the cop, who had been tail-gating her.
The cop missed.
Once the woman realized the cop was shooting at her, she ran back to her car.
The cop kept shooting, hitting her six times (because he thought she was still a danger, and should be eliminated from the streets, to make people safer).
The woman was able to drive to the hospital for treatment.
The cop did identify himself as a cop, after he shot the woman.
And an expert on criminal justice said that you can't know what happened until you've heard the cop's side of the story.
Which won't be released until the investigation has finished.
And the cop needs to be lawyered up, to make sure his rights are upheld.
Plus, the cop's union needs to stand behind the cop, to make sure his right to be heard is upheld.

Support your local police.
They are there to support you.
And to shoot down any criminal suspects they encounter.
Whether the criminals are armed, or only suspected to be armed.
(Flashlights, cell phones, and anything held in your hand is evidence of being armed with a dangerous weapon. Walking canes are also considered dangerous weapons, if held by a suspect, I've read.)

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Woman shot by off-duty officer in Cove says she was going to a hospital

By Thaddeus Imerman | Herald staff writer May 25, 2021

Texas Rangers are investigating a officer-involved shooting that happened on the 1500 block of Robertson Avenue over the weekend.

The woman who says she was shot by an off-duty police officer in Copperas Cove said she was attempting to get to a nearby hospital when she was shot.

Lacresha Murray, a Copperas Cove resident, told two TV outlets (KWTX and KXXV) that she was on Robertson Avenue near her home when she began to feel ill.

She made a sudden U-turn on the residential street in front of a silver truck, she told KXXV. She said she was attempting to get to AdventHealth-Central Texas in Killeen.

According to her account of the incident, Murray said the driver of the truck went around her vehicle and slowed down. She told KXXV that she went back around the truck. After that, the driver of the truck began to tailgate her.

At a stop sign in the 1500 block of Robertson Avenue, she said she got out to approach the driver with her hand clutching her hip area, which she said was in pain.

She said he shot at her and she ducked as she ran back to her vehicle.

“I ran back to my truck to get in and drive out,” she told KXXV. “He just started shooting, all I could do was lean over and he hit me six times.”

Murray told KWTX that the man did not identify himself as an officer until after she had been shot.

The incident happened around 12:45 p.m. Sunday, police said in a news release.

Tammy Bracewell, an associate professor of criminal justice at Texas A&M University-Central Texas, said there are no laws or standards that require officers to act in an official capacity when they are off duty.

“Even though you’re always considered ‘on duty,’ what that really means is you’re responsible for your actions on and off duty,” Bracewell said. “It doesn’t mean you’re always required or expected to act.”

She said that the expectation is that an off-duty officer calls something in to an on-duty unit and acts as a witness.

Bracewell still holds an active Master Peace Officer license and served 10 years as a police officer.

“Now, there are times when — particularly in situations that have the potential to turn violent — where you may see an off-duty officer act in a capacity of an officer,” Bracewell said Tuesday.

She also said shooting incidents involving off-duty officers cannot be lumped in, or compared, with other officer-involved shootings involving on-duty officers, because some situations involving off-duty officers may be instances in which the officer is acting under his/her own volition.

The Texas Rangers, a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety, are investigating the shooting.

The Copperas Cove Police Department has directed all questions go to the Texas Rangers. Neither law enforcement agency has substantiated Murray’s version of events, saying the case is still under investigation.

Bracewell emphasized that Murray’s account of the incident is just one part of the story. She said she is confident the Texas Rangers will determine the facts of the case and determine whether the off-duty officer was acting within the letter of the law or not.

Officials with the DPS said the incident is still under investigation and no further information is available.

Lt. Kevin Miller, a spokesman for the Copperas Cove Police Department, said the officer is on administrative leave. He did not specify whether the leave is with or without pay.

05-26-21  10:10pm - 1212 days Original Post - #1
LKLK (0)
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Look at the photo of this monster.
This is a creature only a mother can love on payday.
I've never had turtle soup.
But I've heard it can be tasty.
Can we all get together and celebrate Memorial Day at Jack in the Box with a bowl of turtle soup for takeout?
Who wants to come?
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https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/26/americas/...-intl-hnk/index.html


Giant tortoise thought extinct 100 years ago is living in Galapagos, Ecuador says

Story by Reuters

Updated 12:13 AM ET, Thu May 27, 2021
2019: 'Extinct' Galapagos tortoise believed to be found

The rare Fernandina Giant Tortoise believed extinct was seen earlier this week for the first time in 100 years.

'Extinct' Galapagos tortoise believed to be found

Ecuador confirmed on Tuesday that a giant tortoise found in 2019 in the Galapagos Islands is a species considered extinct a century ago.

The Galapagos National Park is preparing an expedition to search for more of the giant tortoises in an attempt to save the species.

The turtle was found two years ago on Fernandina Island, one of the youngest and most pristine in the archipelago, during a joint expedition between the Galapagos National Park and the Galapagos Conservancy.

Scientists from Yale University then identified it as the Chelonoidis phantasticus species, which had been considered extinct more than a century ago.

"Yale University revealed the results of genetic studies and the respective DNA comparison that was made with a specimen extracted in 1906," the Galapagos Park said in a statement.

A tortoise of the Chelonoidis phantasticus species, which had been considered extinct more than a century ago, is seen on the Galapagos Islands in July 2019.

In the Galapagos Islands, which served as the basis for the British scientist Charles Darwin's theory of the evolution of species in the 19th century, many varieties of tortoises live together with flamingos, boobies, albatrosses and cormorants, a family of species of aquatic birds.

It also houses a large amount of flora and fauna in danger of extinction.

"It was believed extinct more than 100 years ago! We have reconfirmed its existence," Environment Minister Gustavo Manrique wrote on his Twitter account.

The current population of giant tortoises from various species is estimated at 60,000, according to data from the Galapagos National Park.

One was known as "Lonesome George," a male Pinta Island tortoise, the last known of the species, who died in 2012 without leaving any offspring.

05-26-21  01:40pm - 1212 days Original Post - #1
LKLK (0)
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Jeff Bezos is stepping down as Amazon CEO.
Will the stock market crash and burn?
Will Trump's supporters unite to take down the Federal Government, and place Trump back in the White House?
Will Walt Disney rise from the grave, and lead the Disney universe to greater glory?

Enquiring minds want to know: what happens to porn when Bezos steps down?
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Jeff Bezos is stepping down as Amazon CEO
By Clare Duffy, CNN Business

Updated 7:08 AM ET, Wed February 3, 2021

Andy Jassy will be Amazon's CEO. In 2019, CNN asked him if he wanted the job

New York (CNN Business)Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will step down from his role as chief executive later this year and transition to the role of executive chair, the company said Tuesday. He will be replaced by Andy Jassy.
Bezos has been Amazon's CEO since its founding in 1995. He oversaw its growth from an online bookseller into a $1.7 trillion global retail and logistics behemoth, which has also made Bezos into one of the world's richest people. Jassy has worked for Amazon since 1997 and currently serves as CEO of the company's cloud business, Amazon Web Services, its biggest profit driver.

"This journey began some 27 years ago. Amazon was only an idea, and it had no name," Bezos wrote letter to employees Tuesday. "The question I was asked most frequently at that time was, 'What's the internet?' ... Today, we employ 1.3 million talented, dedicated people, serve hundreds of millions of customers and businesses, and are widely recognized as one of the most successful companies in the world."

The news came as part of Amazon's fourth-quarter earnings report. The company handily beat Wall Street analysts' projections for both sales and profit, capping a banner year as the pandemic boosted its retail and cloud businesses.

The company's shares were essentially flat shortly after the market closed Tuesday, but gained almost 1% two hours after the closing bell. Amazon's stock has grown nearly 69% over the past year.

Andy Jassy, who currently heads Amazon Web Services, will take over as Amazon CEO from Jeff Bezos later this year.

Massive earnings beat
Amazon (AMZN) posted quarterly net sales of $125.6 billion, up 44% from the same period in the prior year and well ahead of the $119.7 billion Wall Street analysts had projected.
Net income in the quarter hit $7.2 billion — nearly double the $3.7 billion Wall Street predicted and more than double the $3.3 billion in income the company earned in the year-ago quarter. Earnings per diluted share were $14.09.
The quarterly results include sales from Prime Day, which was held October 13-14 after being postponed over the summer because of the pandemic. Sales from Prime Day, as well as continued demand for online shopping as Covid-19 cases surged, contributed to 40% year-over-year growth in Amazon's net sales in North America, which totaled more than $75 billion. International sales jumped 57% to nearly $37.5 billion.
Amazon said it delivered more than a billion products to customers worldwide during a "record-breaking holiday season."
Revenue from Amazon Web Services grew 28% from the prior-year quarter to more than $12.7 billion, which the company attributed to "significant customer momentum," including new commitments and migrations to the cloud by the likes of JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Twitter (TWTR), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, among others. AWS posted full year revenue of more than $45 billion and operating income of $13.5 billion.
"AWS is well on its way to creating an annualized $50 billion revenue company," Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, said in an emailed statement. "This makes AWS larger than Salesforce.com and SAP combined. Equally impressive is that AWS delivered over half of the company's operating profit."

Amazon to Biden: Prioritize our workers for the vaccine
A key growth area for Amazon is its advertising business. The company's "other revenue," which primarily includes advertising, grew 64% during the quarter, an acceleration in growth from the two previous quarters, CFO Brian Olsavsky said on a call with analysts Tuesday.
Amazon's strong overall sales performance "may obscure the more important story of Amazon's surging ad business," eMarketer Principal Analyst Andrew Lipsman said in a statement. "Two consecutive quarters of huge bottom-line beats in the face of rising operational costs and softening AWS growth points to a much more profitable ads business than previously appreciated."
As for the full year results, Amazon reported total net sales increased 38% to $386.1 billion, more than $6 billion more than analysts had projected. Net income for 2020 reached $21.3 billion, or $41.83 per diluted share, an increase of nearly 84% from a year earlier.
The strong growth in profit came even as Amazon spent more than $11.5 billion on pandemic-related costs in 2020, Olsavsky said on the call. That includes $2.5 billion in additional Covid-related employee pay and ramping up in-house employee testing. Despite those efforts, Amazon has faced intense scrutiny over its warehouse safety during the pandemic.
Nucleus Research analyst Daniel Elman said he's "not entirely surprised" to see the huge jump in annual sales "given the worldwide shift to e-commerce in light of the pandemic."
"With this change in consumer behavior likely to remain permanent, and Amazon's accelerating shipping and fulfillment speeds, the company's dominance as the go-to platform for e-commerce will remain unchallenged," Elman said.
For the current quarter, Amazon anticipates revenue will grow between 33% and 40% compared to the prior-year quarter to between $100 billion and $106 billion. The company also expects to incur approximately $2 billion in costs related to Covid-19 during the current quarter, putting quarterly income guidance at between $3 billion and $6.5 billion, compared to the $4 billion Amazon earned in the first quarter of 2020.

Bezos stepping down
Bezos said in his Tuesday letter that he is excited for the transition, which will free up more time for him to work on outside projects. As executive chair of Amazon, he will focus on "new products and early initiatives," he said.
"Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it's consuming," Bezos wrote. "When you have a responsibility like that, it's hard to put attention on anything else. As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions. I've never had more energy, and this isn't about retiring. I'm super passionate about the impact I think these organizations can have."

One of Big Tech's top moneymakers is getting a pandemic boost
He added that Jassy "will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence."
Jassy is an obvious choice for the top job, especially after Jeff Wilke, the head of the company's worldwide consumer division and another veteran Amazon leader, announced his retirement in August. Jassy is a longtime member of Amazon's elite leadership group, the "S-team," and has overseen the growth of AWS into a cash cow and the world's biggest cloud computing provider.

The cloud computing market is expected to expand even further in coming years as the pandemic accelerates companies' adoption of cloud, as they aim to be more effective in an era of digital-first interactions.

"Andy Jassy stepping into the CEO role at Amazon is a natural fit," Tim Hubbard, assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business said in an emailed comment. "Amazon Web Services is a powerhouse within the company, driving a lot of profitability. The transition may indicate that for the core of the company, it's going to continue down the path it's going."

05-24-21  04:19pm - 1214 days Original Post - #1
LKLK (0)
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Black woman trash talking a white coach who said she weighed 300 pounds.
The black woman is a basketball play who weighs "235 pounds and I'm very proud of being a big bitch, big body, big Benz, baby. So don't ever try to disrespect me or another woman in the league."

The white coach was suspended and fined $10,000 for his comment.
So it can pay to be an aggressive black woman.
Especially when she is calling Whitey a "little sir man".
Power to the people.
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Sun coach Curt Miller suspended, fined for 'offensive' weight comment toward Aces' Liz Cambage
Yahoo Sports
Cassandra Negley
May 24, 2021, 10:20 AM

As soon as Liz Cambage began jawing at the Connecticut Sun bench on Sunday night, her Instagram Story became a must-watch.

Cambage said on Instagram after her Las Vegas Aces took the 72-65 loss that Sun coach Curt Miller — identified as "little sir man" by Cambage — disrespected her by saying she weighed 300 pounds.

The Instagram went live after 10 p.m. ET on Sunday. Miller released a statement through the team apologizing around 10 a.m. ET. on Monday. The WNBA has since suspended Miller and fined him $10,000. He'll miss Tuesday's game against the Seattle Storm.
Cambage calls out Miller for weight comment

It's unclear when in the game the comment occurred. But seconds into the fourth quarter of a four-point contest, Cambage drew a foul, hit both shots and stuffed DeWanna Bonner's attempt on the other end.

Miller is on the sideline yelling toward the referee and Cambage said something toward the bench's direction.

Cambage's full remarks:


"Something went down in today's game and I need to speak on it, because if there's one thing about me is that I will never let a man disrespect me. EVER. Ever. Ever. Ever. Especially a little white one.

"So to the coach of Connecticut — I'm sorry, little sir man, I do not know your name. But the next time you try to call out a referee trying to get a call being like, 'C'mon, she's 300 pounds,' I'm going to need you to get it right baby. Because I'm 6-8. I just double-checked because I love to be correct and get facts. I'm weighing 235 pounds and I'm very proud of being a big bitch, big body, big Benz, baby. So don't ever try to disrespect me or another woman in the league.

"I don't know if that's how coaches run, like you just try to disrespect women like that, from the sideline? You're so lucky it was during a game. That whole part, you were so lucky that I was doing my job. Anyway to that little man — whole little, tiny, like where is you? — stop trying to project your insecurities baby. Pick up the phone, call the pysch, because you projecting some bulls*** right now. And next time you try to disrespect me, remember, I'm 235. It might seem like 300 pounds to your little ass. I'm 235, baby."

She jumped back on to say there's a difference between players "talking s***" on the court and a coach getting involved because players "can't do nothing back." Cambage, 29, is a noted trash talker and outspoken presence who has called out organizations, teams and players prior to this for comments made on the court or decisions made off of it.
Miller releases apology
Liz Cambage
Liz Cambage uses her size to gain advantage against the Connecticut Sun's Beatrice Mompremier. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Miller, the Sun's coach since 2016, issued a statement through the Sun on Monday morning acknowledging his remarks and apologizing.

"During last night’s game, while arguing a call with an official, I made an inappropriate and offensive comment in reference to Liz Cambage’s height and weight. I regret what I said in the heat of the moment and want to sincerely apologize to Liz and the entire Aces organization. I understand the gravity of my words and have learned from this."

Cambage is a matchup problem given her 6-foot-8 height that few can match. She's a full foot taller than most of the Sun's stars with the exception of 6-foot-6 Jonquel Jones and 6-4 DeWanna Bonner. She can shut down the paint with her wingspan, helping the Aces (2-2) force teams into shot clock violations like they did against the Sun (5-0).

She finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and four blocks in 21 minutes, but the Sun out-rebounded Vegas, 44-26, for second-chance opportunities.

The WNBA schedule changes to minimize extra travel as much as possible means these two will turn around and play again next week on June 1.

05-22-21  03:21am - 1216 days Original Post - #1
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But Bouchard has his own slant on the story:
It was not evil or dirty. It was like Romeo and Juliet. Full of sweet music and the sounds of erotic sex.
Don't say this man is bad. He was only 18.
And now the evil, dirty press is hounding him for being a human being.

Forgive and forget.
And make him your next U.S. Congressman from the great state of Wyoming.

He married the girl when she turned 15. Because he knew it was the right thing to do.
And got divorced a few years later.
And the girl committed suicide soon after.
Was it because she missed him so much?
He is a hero, a young man who stepped up and took responsibility by marrying the girl.
And now he wants to help people in his state, and the nation, by being the wonderful, honest, hard-working Republican that will make America great again.
Hail, Bouchard.
Hail, Trump, the real President of the United States of Trumpland, who will once again assume office after the Supreme Court orders the Department of Justice to drag Joe Biden from the White House in shame.
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Wyoming senator discloses impregnating 14-year-old at 18
FILE - In this Jan. 12, 2021, file photo, Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Cheyenne, chats with Wyoming State Troopers while taking a break during a virtual session of the 66th Wyoming Legislature inside the Senate chamber in Cheyenne, Wyo. Bouchard, a Republican trying to unseat U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney next year, disclosed to supporters in a Facebook Live Video on Thursday, May 20, that he impregnated a 14-year-old girl when he was 18, describing the relationship as “like the Romeo and Juliet” story and saying it was coming to light because of "dirty politics." (Michael Cummo/The Wyoming Tribune Eagle via AP, File) ORG XMIT: WYCHE502
FILE - In this Jan. 12, 2021, file photo, Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Cheyenne, chats with Wyoming State Troopers while taking a break during a virtual session of the 66th Wyoming Legislature inside the Senate chamber in Cheyenne, Wyo. Bouchard, a Republican trying to unseat U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney next year, disclosed to supporters in a Facebook Live Video on Thursday, May 20, that he impregnated a 14-year-old girl when he was 18, describing the relationship as “like the Romeo and Juliet” story and saying it was coming to light because of "dirty politics." (Michael Cummo/The Wyoming Tribune Eagle via AP, File) ORG XMIT: WYCHE502
Michael Cummo, AP
Associated Press | 15 hours ago

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, a Republican trying to unseat U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney next year, disclosed that he impregnated a 14-year-old girl when he was 18, describing the relationship as “like the Romeo and Juliet” story and saying it was coming to light because of “dirty politics.”

Bouchard initially disclosed what he described as a typical teenage relationship in a Facebook Live video to supporters Thursday. He later confirmed the girl’s age to the Casper Star-Tribune.

“So, bottom line, it’s a story when I was young, two teenagers, girl gets pregnant,” he said in the video. “You’ve heard those stories before. She was a little younger than me, so it’s like the Romeo and Juliet story.”

Bouchard married the girl when she was 15 and he was 19, when both were living in Florida. They divorced three years later, he told the newspaper.

Bouchard’s ex-wife killed herself when she was 20, he said. Online records list a woman with her name as being buried at a Jacksonville, Florida, cemetery in 1990.

The newspaper chose not to identify the woman.

Bouchard is among at least eight Republicans running against Cheney in 2022 after her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Bouchard said he decided to post the video to get ahead of a story about his previous marriage. In the video, Bouchard claims an unnamed reporter and a “political opposition research company” were driving the effort together.

Bouchard said he didn’t think Cheney was involved in the disclosure and Cheney spokesman Jeremy Adler denied any involvement.

Bouchard and the girl were able to legally marry because Florida at the time allowed marriage at any age with a judge’s approval if a pregnancy was involved and a parent consented.

“A lot of pressure. Pressure to abort a baby. I got to tell you. I wasn’t going to do it, and neither was she,” Bouchard said. “And there was pressure to have her banished from their family. Just pressure. Pressure to go hide somewhere. And the only thing I could see as the right thing to do was to get married and take care of him.”

His son has become “almost” estranged from him after making “some wrong choices in his life,” Bouchard said.

Bouchard, a gun rights activist who co-owns a septic system servicing business with his wife, said the disclosure wouldn’t stop him from seeking higher office.

“Bring it on. I’m going to stay in this race,” he said. “We’re going to continue to raise money because my record stands on its own.”
Originally Published 15 hours ago

05-19-21  07:48am - 1219 days Original Post - #1
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Reuters
May 18, 2021, 6:45 AM

By Brittany Hosea-Small

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When California stripper Brittney, 26, walked into San Francisco’s reopened Gold Club stripping venue again in April after a year, she was confronted with masked-up dancers and just a clutch of patrons.

“My heart just sank. This is just so, so sad,” said Brittney, who asked that her last name not be disclosed to protect her 6-year-old son. An hour of that four-hour shift was spent just waiting for customers and she earned $150, less than a third of what she would have made pre-pandemic.

“A lot of times you'll see a lot of girls just sitting around,” said Brittney, who started stripping around two years ago to supplement income from two other jobs. “It’s just not fun anymore.”

As some of the United States’ estimated 3,821 strip clubs start to open up again, women who work as strippers are confronting a transformed industry. Revenue in the industry is estimated to have decreased 17.4% in 2020 and is forecast to fall another 1.5% this year, according to research by IBISWorld.

Under guidelines in San Francisco, for instance, strip clubs such as Gold Club that offer food are able to reopen, but strippers and patrons must keep their masks on. Performances are limited to stage dances, with no physical contact with customers. Lap dances and private “VIP” rooms, the source of the majority of a stripper’s income, are still prohibited.

During the pandemic, strippers in states with stronger anti-coronavirus measures migrated to ones with laxer ones, such as Texas and Florida, according to dancers and club owners. Bob Tapella, the co-owner and manager of Cheetahs Gentleman’s Club in Sunnyvale, California, estimated nearly 60% of his dancers left the state to find work elsewhere.

“I think we’re going to have to start all over from fresh,” said Tapella, whose club was closed for a year and survived partly thanks to a pandemic relief loan. “We had a special place. It’s going to be a lot of years before we get back to that.”

Strippers who have stayed put cannot fully make it work yet.

Brittney, who drives to San Francisco to work from her home in Sacramento, some two hours away, is not sure it even makes financial sense for her to strip in California anymore. She is considering occasionally traveling to Las Vegas, where she hopes she can earn more.

Some strippers, including Sunnyvale, California-based April Haze, turned to online work when clubs closed. She made $400 in her first month on the content-sharing site OnlyFans, far less than the over $700 she would make per night stripping at Cheetahs in Sunnyvale.

“At the club, people realize that I'm working, whereas with OnlyFans, a lot of people think, ‘Oh, it's just a side hustle’ or ‘I'm doing her a favor by subscribing,’” said Haze, 25, who asked to be identified by her stage name.

Savannah Rain, a 23-year-old stripper, went on paid dates with “sugar daddy” clients and stripped online through Only Fans over the past year, but still ended up draining her savings. The reopening of clubs means she can cover rent again. And returning to live stripping also allowed her to reconnect with part of herself, Rain said.

“I feel like the most whole version of myself when I'm in the club,” said Rain, whose stage name is Sage. “It's a safe space for me to express my femininity and my sexuality.”

(Reporting by Brittany Hosea-Small in San Francisco. Writing by Alexandra Ulmer. Editing by Donna Bryson and Lisa Shumaker)

05-16-21  07:06am - 1222 days Original Post - #1
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9GaVBdrZ78

The girl is now 18 years old, which makes her barely legal.
But I'm guessing she was out there before her 18th birthday.

Vote on whether this girl is legal or not, and send your complaints to SNL.

Olivia Rodrigo - good 4 u (Live From Saturday Night Live/2021)

05-16-21  06:41am - 1222 days Original Post - #1
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A nine-month-old baby tiger was almost shot and killed in Houston, Texas.
The alleged owner of the tiger does not have a licensed for exotic animals.
Also, the lawyer of the alleged owner has reported the tiger does not have a birth certificate or title.

Will the tiger be able to sue the city of Houston for unwanted publicity, since the tiger is a minor, who's illegitimate birth has been exposed?

Enquiring minds want to know: who will protect the tiger, who is still being fed with a baby bottle?
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Police: Missing Texas tiger has been found safe, healthy
AOL Associated Press
JUAN A. LOZANO
May 16, 2021, 2:14 AM

HOUSTON (AP) — A tiger that frightened residents after it was last seen briefly wandering around a Houston neighborhood has been found after a nearly week-long search and appears to be unharmed, police announced Saturday evening.

In a short video tweeted by Houston police, Cmdr. Ron Borza can be seen sitting next to the tiger, petting the animal and saying it has been a long week searching for it.

“But we got him, and he’s healthy,” Borza said as the wife of the man police allege is the animal's owner sat next to him and fed the tiger with a baby bottle. The tiger was being held at BARC, the city of Houston’s animal shelter, but was expected to be taken Sunday morning to the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch, an animal sanctuary in Murchison, Texas, located southeast of Dallas.

Authorities had been searching for the tiger, a 9-month-old male named India, since it was spotted May 9 in a west Houston neighborhood. At the time, it was nearly shot by an off-duty deputy before being whisked away in a car by Victor Hugo Cuevas, who police allege is the owner.

At a news conference later Saturday evening, Borza said that Cuevas' wife, Giorgiana, turned over the tiger to police on Saturday after a friend of hers reached out to officials at BARC.

“It is Victor’s tiger. That’s what I was told by (Giorgiana Cuevas) ... She says they’ve had that animal for nine months," Borza said. He alleged that the tiger was passed around to different people but that Cuevas' wife knew where the tiger was at all times this week as authorities searched for it.

Police are still trying to determine where exactly the tiger was held this week and if any charges related to having the tiger will be filed. Tigers are not allowed within Houston city limits under a city ordinance unless the handler, such as a zoo, is licensed to have exotic animals.

But Cuevas’ attorney, Michael W. Elliott, on Saturday night continued to insist his client doesn’t own the tiger, saying, “I am not sure it makes any difference who technically owns India as he does not have a birth certificate or title."

“Victor was not the primary owner of India nor did India stay with him the majority of the time," Elliott told The Associated Press. “Victor was however involved in the caretaking of India often. Victor loves India as anyone else would love a favorite pet ... He treated India with love and fantastic treatment in all respects."

Cuevas was arrested Monday by Houston police and charged with evading arrest for allegedly fleeing his home with the tiger after officers had responded to a call about a dangerous animal.

At the time of his arrest by Houston police, Cuevas was already out on bond for a murder charge in a 2017 fatal shooting in neighboring Fort Bend County. Cuevas has maintained the shooting was self-defense, Elliott said.

Cuevas was released on a separate bond for the evading arrest charge on Wednesday. But prosecutors in Fort Bend County then sought to have him held with no bond on the murder charge. After an all-day hearing on Friday, a judge revoked Cuevas’ current $125,000 bond on the murder charge and issued a new bond for $300,000. He remains jailed.

During Friday’s court hearing, Waller County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Wes Manion, who lives in the Houston neighborhood where the tiger was seen, testified he interacted with the animal for about 10 minutes to make sure it didn’t go after someone else. He said Cuevas came out of his house yelling, “Don’t kill it,” grabbed the tiger by the collar and kissed its head before leading it back inside his home. Various videos of the tiger's encounter with Manion were posted on social media.

Elliott has said Cuevas did nothing illegal because Texas has no statewide law forbidding private ownership of tigers and other exotic animals.

Borza said that an exotic animal like a tiger should never be kept in a home. While India seemed domesticated, the tiger already weighs 175 pounds (79 kg), it can “do a lot of damage" and will only get bigger, he said.

“He will be going to a sanctuary ... where hopefully he’ll live the rest of his life in a very safe environment," Borza said.

05-07-21  10:30am - 1231 days Original Post - #1
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Not all porn stars submit to the demands of the director.
Here is a young porn star who turns violent when her director gives her instructions.
Only for people with a strong stomach.
The porn star is fighting mad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNCuQTS-HKE

05-06-21  10:50am - 1232 days Original Post - #1
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A woman was expected to give birth to 7 babies.
Instead, she drank the water in Morocco, and had 9 new babies.
Stay safe. Drink only bottled water, that has been purified of all drugs.
Also, there were five girls and four boys.
More girls than boys means the population explosion could continue.

Since Mali is such a poor country, and the level of health care in the country is so low, I doubt the woman used fertility treatments, or could afford them.
Which is further evidence not to drink the water in either Morocco or Mali.
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Woman from Mali gives birth to 9 babies in Morocco
AOL Associated Press
BABA AHMED and TARIK EL BARAKAH
May 6, 2021, 5:53 AM

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — A Malian woman has given birth to nine babies at once — after expecting seven, according to Mali's Minister of Health and the Moroccan clinic where the nonuplets were born.

It appeared to be the first time on record that a woman had given birth to nine surviving babies at once.

The five girls and four boys, and their mother, “are all doing well,” Mali’s health minister said in a statement.

The mother, 25-year-old Halima Cisse, gave birth to the babies by cesarean section on Tuesday in Morocco after being sent there for special care, Mali’s top health official announced.

Associated Press reporters saw some of the babies wiggling their hands and feet inside incubators Wednesday in the private Ain Borja clinic in Casablanca. Medical staff checked their status regularly in the neonatal ward wallpapered with cartoon characters.

Cisse had been expecting seven babies. Malian doctors, under government orders, sent her to Morocco for the births because hospitals in Mali, one of the world's poorest countries, are ill-equipped to provide adequate care for this exceptional multiple pregnancy.

The Casablanca clinic's director Youssef Alaoui told Moroccan state TV that they had been contacted by Malian doctors about the case a month and a half ago. They were not expecting nine babies, he said.

Cisse gave birth prematurely at 30 weeks and is now in stable condition after heavy bleeding for which she was given a blood transfusion, he said.

The cesarean was ordered after Cisse had “birth pains,” Alaoui, the clinic director, said. The babies weigh between 500 grams and one kilogram (1.1 and 2.2 pounds).

The Guinness Book of World Records said in an email to The AP on Wednesday that its current record for most living births at once is eight, and that it is verifying the Morocco birth.

The current holder of the Guinness record is American Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to eight premature but otherwise healthy children in 2009.

Alaoui, the clinic director, told The AP that as far as he was aware Cisse had not used fertility treatments. The Malian health ministry did not provide any other information about the pregnancy or births.

Yacoub Khalaf, a professor of reproductive medicine at King’s College London, said that such births would be extraordinarily unlikely without fertility treatment, and noted the dangers involved with such multiple births.

The mother “was at severe risk of losing her uterus or losing her life,” he said. The babies “could suffer physical and mental handicaps. The risk of cerebral palsy is astronomically higher.”

He urged more awareness worldwide about monitoring fertility treatments and about the risks and costs of having so many premature babies at one time.

05-05-21  08:18am - 1233 days Original Post - #1
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WB’s New ‘Superman’ Film Reportedly Will Feature A Black Clark Kent & Could Be A Period Piece
Charles Barfield
May 5, 2021 10:34 am

When it was announced that JJ Abrams was set to produce a new “Superman” film with acclaimed writer Ta-Nehisi Coates set to pen the script, the reports said that the film would actually include a Black actor as the superhero. But without much more information, fans were a bit confused. Does this mean Henry Cavill would continue as Clark Kent and a new actor would take the role of Calvin Ellis, a Black character from the comics that is another version of Superman from the multiverse? Or is this new film going to be a full reboot? Well, according to THR, we are getting a better idea about what’s going on.

The report claims that the “Superman” film that is being written by Coates and produced by Abrams is currently in the early stages of finding a director. And it appears that Warner Bros. is interested in finding a Black director for the film, with Abrams most likely sticking to his producer role. Who the studio might hire is still a question, but the hunt is on. However, what we do know is the film is likely going to be a full reboot of the character and will exist in its own universe.

THR says the script that Coates is currently working on probably won’t be ready until the end of the year, but the plan, as of now, is to have “Superman” exist in its own universe, not connected to anything from the Snyderverse or even “The Batman.” In fact, the report claims the film might be a 20th Century period piece. But is this going to be a story about Kal-el, aka Clark Kent? The answer seems to be yes, as the script that Coates is crafting is said to feature the classic version of Superman, hailing from Krypton and coming to Earth.

Honestly, this is definitely the way to go, as it means the “Superman” film that Coates is working on isn’t just about Black Superman. It’s Superman, just played by a Black actor. And it appears that WB isn’t interested in being beholden to what Henry Cavill and Zack Snyder did with the character in the past, which means Abrams and Coates can craft a story that isn’t shackled by continuity. It’s hard not to be optimistic about this.

Obviously, if the script isn’t going to be finished until the end of the year, filming won’t begin until well into 2022 at the earliest. So we’re still quite a ways away from seeing this new “Superman” film. But if WB does this right, we could be in store for something special.

05-02-21  04:56am - 1236 days Original Post - #1
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Donald Trump, the bravest, most heroic president of the United States we've ever had, said in February 2018 "that he would have rushed in to save the students and teachers of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School from a gunman with an assault weapon, even if he was unarmed at the time of the massacre."

Trump doesn't need a gun to be brave.
But his adult children are different.
And Trump is willing to demand that they be protected, even after he's left office.

How many millions will it cost the US taxpayer to protect Trump's adult children?
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Here’s How Much It Costs for the Secret Service to Protect Trump’s Family
Yaёl Bizouati-Kennedy
January 21, 2021, 6:41 AM

In the days leading up to his departure, former President Trump requested Secret Service security protection to be extended for the next six months to Trump’s adult children, according to a Washington Post article.

Under federal law and under the Former Presidents Act, which was enacted to “maintain the dignity” of the Office of the President, former presidents are provided certain benefits, including Secret Service protection for themselves, their spouses and their minor children under the age of 16, according to the United States Secret Service website.

Under the law, only Trump, his wife and their 14-year-old son would then be entitled to the protection. However, because of the former president’s unusual request, “the expensive, taxpayer-funded security will continue for his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner; son Donald Trump Jr.; son Eric Trump and his wife, Lara Trump; and daughter Tiffany Trump,” according to The Washington Post.

The extended protection could cost taxpayers millions of dollars because of how many people are being protected and how often they travel, The Post says.

For example, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Secret Service incurred about $396,000 in expenses, “primarily for temporary duty costs, while protecting Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump during three international trips taken in January and February 2017. Eric Trump traveled to Uruguay and the Dominican Republic and Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, and their spouses traveled to the United Arab Emirates.”

The Post also reports that from 2017 to 2019, Trump family members took more than 4,500 trips requiring the Secret Service to travel alongside them, at a cost of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.

In Trump’s first four trips to Mar-a-Lago in 2017, the Secret Service alone spent about $1.3 million on each visit, and for just one month in 2017, Trump’s travel costs totaled $13.6 million, including expenditures by the Secret Service, the Department of Defense and the cost of renting space and equipment, The Post notes, adding that Trump had made 22 more trips to Mar-a-Lago since then, at a cost of an additional $28 million if the Secret Service’s costs remained constant.

In 2017, the Secret Service asked Congress for an additional $60 million for its 2018 budget to cover presidential travel, according to The Post.

04-25-21  01:15am - 1244 days Original Post - #1
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https://www.aol.com/sports/dog-hilarious...chool-200759531.html


Dog hilariously enters high school relay event, wins with ease
Yahoo Sports
Ryan Young
April 23, 2021, 3:07 PM

Gracie Laney thought she was going to win her heat in the 4x200 meter relay last weekend in Logan, Utah.

The Logan High School senior was all alone in the final stretch on the track while anchoring her relay team. The win was hers.

What she didn’t account for, however, was a late entry into the race.

A dog, after breaking away from her owners who were sitting on a hill, sprinted down onto the track and quickly claimed the race for herself in hilarious fashion.

“I’d say probably about the 50-meters [mark], I could feel something coming on me, and I thought it was a person. I thought it was the runner,” Laney said, via The Salt Lake Tribune. “And then I kind of realized that it was really small.”

The dog — Holly, who belonged to another student’s family — flew. She closed the gap instantly. Had she not slowed down upon reaching Laney, she could’ve competed for a serious record.

“After watching the video, I thought, ‘Holy cow, that dog is so fast,’” Laney said, via The Salt Lake Tribune. “So I thought it was kind of funny I got beat by a dog.”

Laney, however, did leave the meet with one regret.

“I really wish I had gotten a selfie or something with it,” she said, via The Salt Lake Tribune.

04-23-21  04:32am - 1245 days Original Post - #1
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Real life.
Here is captured a giant pittbull, examining which pussy will be the next victim.
Do not see, if you are offended by blood.
These are real virgins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OT8BEindwQ

04-21-21  08:05am - 1247 days Original Post - #1
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No syringes have been made yet.
No syringes have been approved yet.
Lots of questions of when the syringes will be approved, when they will be made.
A year after the $1.3 billion loans and contracts were made, the company is still working to clear the land to build a plant to make the syringes.
Of course, it still needs the syringes to be approved for manufacture.
How much money was paid to the company?
No one knows.
When will the syringes be approved for manufacture?
No one knows.
What pharmaceutical companies are working with the company to test and fill the syringes?
No one knows.

This is a fine business to be in: Get $1.3 billion in loans and contracts from Trump, and tell everyone what a great job you're doing: but don't reveal any details on what you're doing to fill the job.
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The Trump admin awarded a firm $1.3 billion to make Covid vaccine syringes. Where are the syringes?
NBC Universal
Andrew W. Lehren and Laura Strickler
April 21, 2021, 3:31 AM

WASHINGTON — A year after a Connecticut company was awarded almost $1.3 billion in federal loans and contracts to supply an essential syringe for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, no syringes have been made. The syringe hasn't received even the first of a series of approvals it needs from the federal government before it can be manufactured, and a factory promising 650 jobs remains unbuilt.

ApiJect Systems Corp. positioned itself as the company that would make the difference between a stumbling rollout and delivery of lifesaving vaccines. But as the U.S. vaccine rollout hits full stride, with about half of adults in the U.S. having already received at least one injection, the need for ApiJect's device has waned, leaving the contracts and loans in question.

The company said in a statement to NBC News that it "is working with several vaccine pharmaceutical companies to conduct the testing and regulatory reviews of Covid-19 vaccines in the ApiJect syringe."

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

However, a spokesperson for one of the vaccine makers Pfizer, said that even if ApiJect's syringe got all the necessary approvals from the Food and Drug Administration, it would "not have any impact on our output or process." Moderna didn't respond to a request for comment, and Johnson & Johnson declined to comment.

According to ApiJect, two vaccine makers have requested FDA approval to use its syringe with their products, but neither federal regulators nor any of the vaccine makers would confirm any approval requests. ApiJect didn't provide the names.

ApiJect's plant is supposed to be built in an industrial park in North Carolina, but Morgan Weston, a spokesperson for the foundation that runs the park, said that the plant hasn't been built and that "they have not moved their operation in on any level." She referred all other questions to the company.

ApiJect spokesperson Steve Hofman said the land in North Carolina has been cleared and graded for construction. He wouldn't elaborate further about when construction would begin.

When President Donald Trump triggered the Defense Production Act to fight the pandemic in May, he established new authority to finance U.S. companies that wanted to make much-needed medical supplies — an effort that quickly stumbled. A $765 million loan to Eastman Kodak stalled in August after it was announced prematurely. An inspector general's report found no misconduct, but Congress continues to investigate the loan, said a spokeswoman for Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., chair of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. The project was never restarted.

The Trump administration also approved a Defense Production Act loan for ApiJect of up to $590 million. In all, the administration awarded the company nearly $1.3 billion in loans and contracts last year. In addition to the Defense Production Act loan, there was a Department of Health and Human Services contract at the end of January worth up to $453 million, just as the pandemic was emerging, and then a Defense Department contract in May worth up to $251 million.

When the Pentagon announced the ApiJect contract, it said the contract would "enable the manufacture of more than 100 million prefilled syringes for distribution across the United States by year-end 2020."
Image: ApiJect syringe (NBC)
Image: ApiJect syringe (NBC)

The Defense Department also touted its pandemic relief work with a timeline that gave the same time frame and volume for ApiJect's syringe production.

The company maintains that it was committed only to ramping up the capacity to make that many syringes, but in a news release in May, it said it would use the government money "to Supply 100 Million Prefilled Syringes for COVID-19 Response by Year-End 2020." The release also said it would "create a surge capacity to supply ... more than 500 million in 2021."

While ApiJect didn't deliver 100 million syringes by the end of the year, it has met its obligations under its federal contracts and loan commitments, in part by lining up a subcontractor that promises to be able to produce the syringes if they are approved by the FDA.

Both the Pentagon and HHS have said ApiJect is compliant with the terms of its contracts, and the agencies have set aside $147.6 million in federal funds, which could rise with FDA approval.
No syringe shortage

The loans and the contracts came about when alarms were being raised inside and outside the federal government about whether the U.S. would face a syringe shortage when vaccines became available. As NBC News has reported, HHS whistleblower Rick Bright warned colleagues in an email March 12, 2020, that "It could take two plus years to make enough [syringes] to satisfy the U.S. vaccine needs for a pandemic."

But the vaccine rollout wasn't stymied by a lack of syringes.
AdChoices
Image: Jay Walker (NBC)
Image: Jay Walker (NBC)

Meanwhile, the $1.3 billion in federal loans and contracts to ApiJect haven't led to any ApiJect syringes' entering the country's medical supply, because the company doesn't yet have any of the FDA approvals for its needles to work with coronavirus vaccines.

The company's syringe is more complicated than a typical needle. Unlike syringes that are filled by doctors or nurses just before patients are injected, ApiJect's device would be prefilled with a vaccine before being shipped to hospitals, pharmacies and vaccination centers.

The technology hasn't been approved in the U.S. for any use. The FDA must approve not only the device's needle design, but also the needle's use with specific Covid-19 vaccines. The FDA would have to determine that storing vaccine in ApiJect's syringe didn't cause problems, such as corroding the syringe's plastic. The approvals are requested by the vaccine maker, not by ApiJect. According to ApiJect, two vaccine makers have submitted the syringe for approval for use with their vaccines, but NBC News couldn't confirm that.

A senior HHS official in the Trump administration said it was surprising that the FDA hadn't approved the device yet, because approval of the vaccines had been expected to be quick.

An FDA spokesperson declined to comment on ApiJect's proposal, referring to a policy of not issuing public statements about medical device applications.

Exact records of how much ApiJect has gotten aren't yet public. Hofman, the ApiJect spokesperson, said ApiJect has invoiced HHS for $1.3 million and declined to say how much it has billed the Pentagon, which has set aside $138 million under the contract. Neither HHS nor the Pentagon would say how much they had been billed.

Meanwhile, ApiJect needs to raise about $197 million to help secure the additional $590 million federal loan. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. is working to raise the money through private sources. Hofman said the loan is close to being finalized but declined to predict when it would be completed, citing ongoing due diligence by the federal government.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Although ApiJect got its federal loan and contracts as part of efforts to increase domestic production of medical supplies, if the FDA approves its syringes, they would first be produced by the Chinese-owned company Ritedose's facility in South Carolina.

Ritedose, which is owned by the Hong Kong-based private equity fund AGIC Capital and the Chinese pharmaceutical company Humanwell Healthcare (Group) Co., referred questions to ApiJect.

The federal loan to ApiJect is through the U.S. Development Finance Corp., an agency the federal government established to help developing countries pay for needed projects, like low-income housing in Costa Rica and small-business microloans in Cambodia. The agency declined to comment about the loan specifically, but it said the Defense Production Act loan program "has a pipeline of applications for critical projects."

"These applicants are in various stages of our stringent diligence process," it said.

Hofman said it's important for a company like ApiJect to be supported in the U.S. to expand the country's domestic production of syringes so it can rely less on overseas manufacturers. Last year, "there was a concern that we would run short in these things," he said, adding, "Everybody was highly critical, rightly so, of the lack of planning on other elements of the response to the pandemic."

And ApiJect syringes could still play a key role in getting vaccines to Americans, especially if booster shots are needed.

"We do not know, sitting here today, what demand for injectables in this pandemic will be, not only in the United States, but in the rest of the world," Hofman said. "So the idea that the United States supported an option to create significant new domestically based capacity with a very, very strong supply chain — we have always thought as a public policy matter that was absolutely the right thing to do.

04-20-21  01:52pm - 1248 days Original Post - #1
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I just noticed that Pornhub, the infamous adult tube site, has changed their logo:
they replaced the "o" in Pornhub with an image of a marijuana plant.
Not only that, but they have replaced the white background of the "hub" portion of their name with a green background.

This is an obvious cash grab by the owners/operators to suck viewers into smoking, chewing, drinking Mary Jane while watching porn, to increase Pornhub profits and to make watching Pornhub videos more stimulating and erotic.

Does Pornhub have any decency left, or are they trying to drag American youth into the swamp that our dearly beloved President-Trumperland-For-Life has vowed to destroy?

Remember, fellow PU members: our President Trumperland vowed never to play golf while acting as President, because the job was too important to waste time on golf.

Trump spent nearly 22 percent of his days in office at one of his golf properties for some portion of the day.
But not all the time was he actually playing golf: almost all the time he spent on the golf courses, he claimed he was conducting business To Make America Great Again.

So put that in your pipe and smoke it!!!!

04-20-21  12:59pm - 1248 days Original Post - #1
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But after saying he was in agony and could barely crawl out of bed, he changes his story:
maybe some people died, after all.
You can't tell when the fucked-up govt is lying: they do it all the time.
Trust Trump, he's the Man.
-----------------
Ted Nugent, who once dismissed COVID-19, sickened by virus
AOL Associated Press
The Associated Press
April 20, 2021, 11:51 AM


Rocker Ted Nugent is revealing he was in agony after testing positive for coronavirus — months after he said the virus was “not a real pandemic.”

"I thought I was dying," Nugent says in a Facebook live video posted Monday. “I literally could hardly crawl out of bed the last few days," adding: "So I was officially tested positive for COVID-19 today.”

In the video shot at his Michigan ranch, the “Cat Scratch Fever” singer repeatedly uses racist slurs to refer to COVID-19 and reiterates his previous stance that he wouldn’t be getting the vaccine because he claims wrongly that “nobody knows what’s in it.”

Nugent, a supporter of ex-President Donald Trump, previously called the pandemic a scam and has railed against public health restrictions. He has repeated a narrative pushed by conservative media and disputed by health experts that suggests the official death count from the coronavirus is inflated.

A poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in late March found that 36% of Republicans said they will probably or definitely not get vaccinated, compared with 12% of Democrats. The seven-day national average of cases remains over 60,000 new infections per day.


Drinking bleach might be the best defense against the virus: it will clean out your insides.
I've heard that from our dear President-For-Life Donald Trump.
However, weak-livered Democrats have warned that drinking bleach is harmful, and can even kill you.
Who you gonna trust, our glorious ex-President Trump, or a bunch of lying Democrats?

04-15-21  02:52am - 1253 days Original Post - #1
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Coming next week, to movie theaters and HBO Max:
Mortal Kombat, the newest vision of how Warner Bros Superheroes will protect us from the evil monsters who want to destroy all life on Earth and enslave our lovely females for terrible sex.

The Superheroes are a mixed team of both males and females: the males to provide strength and courage, the females to comfort the males when the males have been weakened by serious wounds.

Can the Superhero team overcome the evil monsters and save humanity?

Unfortunately, I don't have HBO Max, and I don't want to go to a movie theater, because I don't want to catch the covid virus.

But if some PU members watch this movie, will they report their experiences and views on this thread, for the rest of us?

04-15-21  12:34am - 1254 days Original Post - #1
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https://www.aol.com/lifestyle/hayley-has...curvy-164830809.html

Hayley Hasselhoff makes history with curvy 'Playboy' cover: 'Your body does not define you'
Yahoo Life Pop Culture
Elise Solé
April 14, 2021, 9:48 AM

Hayley Hasselhoff — the daughter of former Baywatch star David Hasselhoff — is making Playboy history.

On Wednesday, the 28-year-old proudly posted an image of the German cover on Instagram. "I am deeply humbled and honored to be the first ever curve model on a European cover of PLAYBOY @playboygermany," she wrote. "I am overcome with emotion around what this cover signifies for inclusivity and its greater purpose towards female empowerment. I wanted to use this platform to express that you have the power to love your body without hesitation because of societies’ standards of beauty."

Hayley, who recently launched a mental health space called "Check in With You from Hayley Hasselhoff" added, "My relationship with my body has always stemmed from my relationship with my mental wellbeing. With May being Mental Heath Awareness month, I feel empowered to be able to wake up and know that I get to live unapologetically myself. I hope to inspire women to face their fears of the unknown and to lead a life of purpose in which your body does not define you."

In a January article for Marie Claire UK, Hayley, who signed with Ford Models at age 14, reflected on her private struggle with childhood anxiety, as the topic was not normalized in her social circle. "
I didn’t know how to categorize it. It felt scary, unfamiliar and I would blame myself for not being able to be okay all of the time," she wrote. But her initiative seeks to create a judgement-free dialogue on mental health.

"If there is one thing I would tell my younger self it would be that you are worthy just as you are," Hayley wrote on Instagram. "Now, more than ever, we should be grounded in the exploration of self and feel encouraged to celebrate ourselves in ways that feel most authentic. I can only hope this cover will allow women to know that they are loved, valued and desired just as they are — right here, right now."

But what does David, who made a career out of sprinting down a California beach in red swimming trunks, think of his daughter's Playboy debut? "My dad is very supportive in the choices I make for my own career," Hayley told the Daily Mail. "My mom and my dad are always very supportive in everything that I have done." (Actress Pamela Bach is Hayley's mother).
She added, "To see the progression of where I've gone, to where I am today, I think they're both very, very supportive and they believe in me and all the choices I make in my own career, just like I do for them."

Hayley told the outlet that she wore her own lingerie for the Paris shoot after her stylist could not find clothing in her 16-18 size. "I am very, very proud of the photos — I think they look gorgeous."

04-15-21  12:21am - 1254 days Original Post - #1
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The Democratic Party has figured out that the United States of America needs more Supreme Court Justices.
This is because, under Trump, he packed the federal judicial system, including the Supreme Court, with conservative justices.

So the Democrats are fighting to pack the Supreme Court with justices that will vote Democratic instead of Republican.
(The Supreme Court is supposed to be non-partisan, favoring no political party. But any politican, and some of the public, realizes that is pure legal bullshit.)

So, can the Democrats expand the Supreme Court with judges that will favor the Democratic Party? To offset the judges that ex-President Trumpland Senator Mitch McConnell pushed through?
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Democrats to unveil bill to expand U.S. Supreme Court by 4 seats
Reuters
Andrew Chung
April 14, 2021, 11:12 PM


By Andrew Chung

(Reuters) - Congressional Democrats plan to introduce legislation on Thursday to expand the U.S. Supreme Court by four justices, a proposal aimed at breaking the conservative grip on the court that promises to draw fierce opposition from Republicans.

Senator Ed Markey and House of Representatives members Jerrold Nadler, Hank Johnson and Mondaire Jones have scheduled a news conference for Thursday to announce the introduction of the legislation in both chambers. The measure would expand the number of justices from the current nine to 13, according to a copy of the Senate bill reviewed by Reuters.

President Joe Biden announced last Friday the formation of a bipartisan commission to study potential Supreme Court changes including expansion or imposing term limits on the justices instead of the current lifetime appointments.

The number of Supreme Court justices has remained at nine since 1869, but Congress has the power to change the number and did so several times before that. Imposing term limits would likely require a constitutional amendment, though some scholars have proposed ways to accomplish it by statute.

Republicans oppose the idea of what is sometimes called "court packing." Some Democrats and liberal activists have said all options including expansion must be considered to counter an entrenched conservative majority that could threaten abortion rights, civil rights, gun control and access to healthcare in the coming years.

Republican former President Donald Trump was able to appoint three justices during his four years in office, giving the court a 6-3 conservative majority.

Thursday's news conference will include representatives for liberal groups including Take Back The Court, which has advocated for court expansion.

Democrats accused Republicans of "stealing" a Supreme Court seat in 2016 when the Senate, then controlled by Republicans, refused to consider Democratic President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to fill a vacancy left by the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. Trump in 2017 was able to fill the vacancy with a conservative jurist.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

04-13-21  01:05pm - 1255 days Original Post - #1
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PBOMoI_Ah4

The girls have funny accents, but that's the not point of the video.

04-13-21  12:58pm - 1255 days Original Post - #1
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Lincoln Park, Old Town
ArcLight Movie Theater In Lincoln Park Won’t Reopen, Company Announces

The Clybourn Avenue theater, which shut its doors in March 2020, will remain permanently closed due to financial loss from the pandemic.

Jake Wittich
11:43 AM CDT on Apr 13, 2021
Facebook/ArcLight Cinemas Chicago

LINCOLN PARK — ArcLight Cinemas’ theater in Lincoln Park, which has been closed since March 2020 due to the pandemic, won’t reopen.

Pacific Theatres, the parent company for ArcLight Cinemas, announced late Monday on its website that its theaters will close permanently. This includes the Lincoln Park theater at 1500 N. Clybourn Ave. and another theater in suburban Glenview.

“This was not the outcome anyone wanted, but despite a huge effort that exhausted all potential options, the company does not have a viable way forward,” company officials said in a statement.

Although other theaters reopened their doors under coronavirus-related capacity limits, ArcLight theaters never reopened since closing in March 2020. The theater chain also operates six theaters in Los Angeles, as well as theaters in Boston, San Diego and Washington, D.C. that will also remain closed.

“To our guests and members of the film industry who have made going to the movies such a magical experience over the years: our deepest thanks,” the company stated. “It has been an honor and a pleasure to serve you. “

04-12-21  10:57am - 1256 days Original Post - #1
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The cop did not mean to shoot the black man.
The cop thought he was drawing his Taser, not a handgun.
So when the cop shot the black man dead, it was an accident.
If the cop had drawn his Taser, it would have been ok.
Instead, the cop drew his handgun by mistake, and shooting the black man was an accident.
Police Chief Tim Gannon described the shooting as “an accidental discharge.”
The black man died because he was in front of a bullet that came out of handgun.
Do not put yourself in front of a speeding bullet, or you might get hurt.
You could even die, if you're not wearing bullet-proof protection.
And bullet-proof protection might be criminal.
The black man was stopped for a traffic violation:
He was driving with air fresheners hanging from his rear-view mirror, which is illegal in Minnesota. So the black man was a criminal.

A criminal who put himself in front of a speeding bullet.

Support your local police.
Guns kill people. Not cops. So the cop should be given further training, to help him know the difference between a Taser and a handgun.
--------
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News conference on fatal police shooting in Minnesota

Police: Minnesota officer meant to draw Taser, not handgun
AOL Associated Press
MOHAMED IBRAHIM
April 12, 2021, 1:21 PM
Scroll back up to restore default view.

BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (AP) — Police in a Minneapolis suburb where a Black man was fatally shot during a traffic stop say the officer who fired intended to use a Taser, not a handgun.

Police Chief Tim Gannon described the shooting as “an accidental discharge.”

The man identified by relatives as 20-year-old Daunte Wright died Sunday in Brooklyn Center, a city of about 30,000 people on the northwest border of Minneapolis. His death sparked violent protests, with officers in riot gear clashing with demonstrators into Monday morning.

The Minneapolis area was already on edge because of the trial of the first of four police officers charged in George Floyd’s death.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (AP) — A Black man died after being shot by police during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb, sparking violent protests that lasted into Monday as officers in riot gear clashed with demonstrators and the man’s mother called for calm.

The man was identified by family as 20-year-old Daunte Wright, who died Sunday in a metropolitan area that was already on edge because of the trial of the first of four police officers charged in George Floyd’s death. The judge in that case refused Monday to sequester the jury after a defense attorney argued that the panel could be influenced by the prospect of what might happen as a result of their verdict.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz tweeted that he was praying for Wright’s family “as our state mourns another life of a Black man taken by law enforcement.”

Speaking before the unrest, Wright's mother, Katie Wright, urged protesters to stay peaceful and focused on the loss of her son.

“All the violence, if it keeps going, it’s only going to be about the violence. We need it to be about why my son got shot for no reason,” she said to a crowd near the shooting scene in Brooklyn Center, a city of about 30,000 people on the northwest border of Minneapolis. “We need to make sure it’s about him and not about smashing police cars, because that’s not going to bring my son back.”

Protesters who gathered near the scene waved flags and signs reading “Black Lives Matter.” Others walked peacefully with their hands held up. On one street, someone wrote in multi-colored chalk: “Justice for Daunte Wright.”

Officers stopped a motorist shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday for an unspecified traffic violation, police said in a statement. Authorities planned to provide an update later Monday.

Katie Wright said her son called her as he was getting pulled over.

“All he did was have air fresheners in the car, and they told him to get out of the car,” Wright said. During the call, she said she heard scuffling and then someone saying “Daunte, don’t run” before the call ended. When she called back, her son’s girlfriend answered and said he had been shot.

After determining the driver had an outstanding warrant, police said they tried to arrest him. Then the driver reentered the vehicle, and an officer fired, striking him, police said. The vehicle traveled several blocks before striking another vehicle.

Wright’s family offered a different account, with Katie Wright saying her son was shot before getting back into the car.

A female passenger sustained non-life-threatening injuries during the crash, authorities said. Katie Wright said that passenger was her son’s girlfriend.

Court records show Wright was being sought after failing to appear in court on charges that he fled from officers and possessed a gun without a permit during an encounter with Minneapolis police in June. In that case, a statement of probable cause said police got a call about a man waving a gun who was later identified as Wright.”

Shortly after the shooting, demonstrators began to gather, with some jumping atop police cars. Marchers also descended on the Brooklyn Center Police Department, where rocks and other objects were thrown at officers, authorities said. The protesters had largely dispersed by 1:15 a.m. Monday.

President Joe Biden was briefed on the shooting, and the White House has been in touch with the governor, mayor and local law enforcement, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

“We were incredibly saddened to hear about the loss of life at the hands of law enforcement in Minnesota yesterday,” she said.

National Guard troops and law enforcement officers continued to guard the front of the police department on Monday morning. Police were erecting a concrete barrier as Minnesota State Patrol officers joined the line in front of the precinct.

Several people and reporters watched from across the street as traffic returned to normal on the street where protesters were met with tear gas the night before. One man yelled at the officers using a megaphone as others flew Black Lives Matter flags.

About 20 businesses were broken into at the city’s Shingle Creek shopping center, Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said at a news conference.

The National Guard was activated, and Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott announced a curfew that expired shortly before daybreak.

Police said Brooklyn Center officers wear body cameras, which they believe were activated during the traffic stop. The department said it has asked the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to investigate.

The trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer charged in Floyd’s death, continued Monday. Floyd, a Black man, died May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck. Prosecutors say Floyd was pinned for 9 minutes, 29 seconds.

More National Guard members and state law enforcement personnel were to be deployed around the Twin Cities and in Brooklyn Center in addition to teams already in place for Chauvin’s trial at the Hennepin County courthouse in Minneapolis, Harrington said.

There was no visible increase in the already high security presence on Monday morning outside the courthouse, which was fortified ahead of Chauvin’s trial with tall fencing topped with barbed wire and coils of razor wire between the fences and concrete barriers. National Guard troops with military vehicles, sheriff’s deputies and county security guards continued to stand watch.

Meanwhile, all Brooklyn Center students were to attend online classes Monday because school buildings were closed, Superintendent Carly Baker said.

___

Mohamed Ibrahim is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

04-12-21  09:19am - 1256 days Original Post - #1
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This is the true story of a girl who was forced into sleeping with Hugh Hefner.
She had no place to stay.
And he took advantage of her.
Forcing her to have sex with him.
Shameful behavior on Hugh Hefner's part.
He was a monster.
And this innocent woman (she's still innocent, after Hefner forced her to have sex) is trying to warn other girls and women to stay away from Hugh Hefner.
She was violated and forced to sign contracts under duress.
-------
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'Girls Next Door' star Holly Madison reveals the reason she left Hugh Hefner and the Playboy mansion
Yahoo Life Pop Culture
Kerry Justich
April 7, 2021, 2:31 PM


Holly Madison still has secrets to spill when it comes to her time at the Playboy mansion.

Over a decade after the final episode of Girls Next Door aired on E!, the television series that seemingly pulled back the curtain on the life of Hugh Hefner and his three girlfriends at the time — Madison, Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt —the 41-year-old continues to open up about her "horrendous" experience at the mansion, explaining on the Call Her Daddy podcast that she felt stuck in a toxic environment.

"I was kind of desperate. I was sleeping on somebody's couch. I just felt like I need a minute to reset my life and I felt like if I could stay at the mansion and just have a minute to kind of not worry about bills," Madison told host Alex Cooper about her struggle after moving to Los Angeles, prior to moving into the mansion. Still, while contemplating that decision, she hadn't known what to expect of becoming a member of the house nor what Hefner had expected of her.

"I had to sleep with him first," she said. "I’m not trying to slut-shame anybody or anything, but nobody ever got asked to move in unless they had slept with him. No way."

Madison went on to explain the night that it happened, saying that she went out with Hefner and his other girlfriends before he, who she refers to as "Hef," offered her quaaludes — a sedative and hypnotic medication that he called "thigh openers." And although she didn't accept the pills and wasn't under the impression that she'd be expected to sleep with him that night, she was "so wasted and just kind of thrown into it, that once it was done there was something about the experience that made me feel very out of control."

Nonetheless, she stuck to her plan of moving into the mansion, despite the negative experience. "I felt like I was just internalizing all of this shame and I felt like by sticking it out I was fighting for myself and fighting to get something out of this experience, I guess," she shared. "Living at the mansion was something I thought would just be a super fun crazy experience in my twenties that I'd look back on. I knew it wasn't gonna be conventional and I was excited about it and I wanted to stay and get that full experience. ...Everything about the experience was completely different."

Madison explained how she went from one of many girlfriends to Hef's main girlfriend, living in his room and giving up all privacy. It was then that scrutiny from the other women and the disconnect from the outside world led her to have "pretty heavy suicidal ideations." Even when it came to filming the reality show with Wilkinson and Marquardt, Madison said "we signed those contracts under duress."
Bridget Marquardt, Hefner, Madison and Kendra Wilkinson attended red carpets as a foursome. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for AFI)

Despite what she called red flags and overall discomfort with her living situation, as well as her relationship, Madison stayed at the mansion until she was 29 years old and even tried to get pregnant with Hefner.

"I feel like it was a very Stockholm syndrome type of thing," she said. "I just couldn't really imagine a life outside of there. I thought, 'OK, this is my last stop. I want to have kids, I’m gonna try.' And then when I knew that wasn’t going to be a possibility with him, like we'd tried in vitro [fertilization] and everything, it didn’t work, I was like, 'OK, well if I'm not going to have kids here, that's something I need to think about. This is really like a death sentence in a way.'"

In hindsight, Madison said that she's happy to not have had children with Hefner and recognizes many of his actions as "super clicheĂ© for groomers," while acknowledging that her own behavior was as a result of that environment. "When I look back at Girls Next Door, especially the first few seasons, I see myself just coping," she said. "I was really stiff and not open and just like a robot and just saying the type of things that I felt like Hef would want me to say and things that made him look good, and I almost can’t really regret that because I don’t know how else I would've coped."

As for her relationships with Wilkinson and Marquardt, Madison said she has none with Wilkinson while revealing that she's still close with Marquardt. "We've always been friends since day one. She is [the sweetest]."

04-11-21  04:12am - 1257 days Original Post - #1
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Dakota Johnson says we shouldn't call vibrators sex toys. Here's why she may be right.
Elise Solé
Fri, April 9, 2021, 3:15 PM

More than 50 percent of women have used a vibrator in their lifetime, but the topic is frequently cloaked in shame or reduced to a kink. Now, sexual wellness company Maude, backed by Dakota Johnson, is pushing the necessity — not novelty — of vibrators by ditching the word “toy.”

"For too long sexual health has been poorly marketed, hyper-aggressive and highly gendered," Johnson, a co-creative director and investor for Maude, told InStyle, promoting the brand’s “This Is Not a Toy” campaign, which encourages women to post photos of their vibrators on social media. "Often the use of language surrounding sexual products is antiquated, gender-specific and belittling."

“Vibrators and devices have been called ‘toys,' a connotation that trivializes their basic benefit: to provide stimulation that improves sexual wellness and feelings of well-being,” Maude founder Éva Goicochea tells Yahoo Life in a statement. “By reducing them to juvenile novelties, people’s needs and satisfaction are often being unmet and overlooked. Moreover, stigmas are being perpetuated (and yes, they’re banned from being advertised on Facebook). Maude is taking a stance against this outdated language furthering our commitment to creating safe, inclusive sex essentials for all.”

(A spokesperson from Facebook tells Yahoo Life that advertising guidelines prevent companies from monetizing sexual products that enhance pleasure, reflecting its policy that “ads must not promote the sale or use of adult products or services.” The platform does allow contraception and family planning ads if targeted to people 18 years or older that don't "focus on sexual pleasure.”)

The reported history of the vibrator dates back to the Victorian era when doctors treated female anxiety and depression (then known as “hysteria”) with genital stimulation via vibrating devices — although in 2018, two historians claimed there was no evidence for the widely-popularized anecdote.

But Maude wants sexual wellness taken seriously. “Our take is, sex products are basic and here to help you have a healthy sex life and if you treat devices like novelties, you’re saying they are not necessary and that women’s pleasure is secondary,” says Goicochea.

Research on the female orgasm could settle this argument: According to the Kinsey Institute, a world-renowned research center on human sexuality located at Indiana University, “Women are much more likely to be nearly always or always orgasmic when alone than with a partner," and "Men are more likely to orgasm when sex includes vaginal intercourse; women are more likely to orgasm when they engage in a variety of sex acts and when oral sex or vaginal intercourse is included." In 2011, a viral study published in the journal Hormones and Behavior introduced a theory for the pleasure disparity: When the clitoris is spaced less than 2.5 centimeters from the urinary opening, female orgasm through intercourse is likelier.

Study co-author Elisabeth Lloyd, a science historian at Indiana University, Bloomington, tells Yahoo Life that only eight percent of women can orgasm during intercourse without manual assistance. "Our research also explains why lesbians have higher orgasm rates than straight women," she says. But the findings shouldn't feel discouraging, Lloyd's co-author Kim Wallen, a professor of psychology and behavioral neuroendocrinology at Emory University, told the Los Angeles Times in 2008. “Maybe it could allow couples to be a bit more inventive in how they have sex.”

That’s where sexual props — and their legitimate purpose — could shine. Last year, online sales of vibrators and other sexual props boomed, according to the New York Times. And 2009 research by Indiana University found that using a vibrator was associated with improved sexual health and "more positive sexual function" relating to desire, arousal and lubrication, for example.

According to Lloyd, understanding the complexity of female orgasms (the facts of which are the antithesis to Hollywood depictions) are good for both men and women. "I want to get the word out."

04-08-21  01:18pm - 1260 days Original Post - #1
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmtBQhZNKHM

"Becki Farris: A Former Actress in the Porn Industry Shares Her Story"

That's the title of a YouTube video, posted Apr 22, 2015.
She was a porn star for about 3 years, starting around December, 2008 when she was 22.
Her stage name was Brooke Lee Adams.

She was on the cover of and the centerfold in the November, 2009 issue of Hustler.
In 2011 Brooke was nominated for both an AVN Award for Best New Starlet and an XBIZ Award for Best Starlet of the Year.
She seems to have retired from porn in early 2012.

She was in over 80 porn videos.
Her photosets and videos were released from 2009 through 2017, even though she retired in early 2012.

This is a talk by a former porn star (and she was a star, having made at least 80 videos/photoshoots, plus a Hustler centerfold and Hustler cover).
She is talking at a Christian college, so you can expect that she will be negative on the porn industry.

But she seems to be very honest in what she's saying.
And she admits that she was using cocaine during her porn career.

I found the YouTube video very interesting.

And more believable than some of the interviews of porn stars who are still in the business.
Because if they are still in the business, they are basically promoting their porn careers.

04-08-21  07:53am - 1260 days Original Post - #1
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The real story of the superheroes is coming to Netflix on May 7.
These are the children of the old-time superheroes.
Not everyone loved the old-time superheroes.
Will the new superheroes, Jupiter's Legacy, be more widely loved and respected?
Or will they have to fight the evil Republicans who tried to bring down the USA under the tyrant President-For-Life Donald Trumperland?

Sign on to Netflix to find out what happens, as the children of Donald Trumperland battle with the Jupiter's Legacy superheroes to dominate the USA and the rest of the world.
What happens in the USA no longer stays in the USA.
It can be exported to the rest of the world, including Scotland, the home of Mark Millar, the evil genius behind Kingsman, Kick-Ass, and other scurrilous writings and films about world domination by British forces. (Scotland is part of Britain, even though true Scots desperately want their freedom from Britain.)

04-06-21  01:19pm - 1262 days Original Post - #1
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He says he is not a criminal. He is not a monk.
He can fuck whoever he wants.
He is co-operating with a federal investigation into sex trafficking, because he holds extensive knowledge about sex. And trafficking.
And women's vaginas.
That is why the FBI and the Justice Department are talking to him: since he is an expert on a woman's vagina.
And Gaetz has never paid for sex.
Although he was generous with his girlfriends, paying for hotel rooms and other gifts.
But that's because Gaetz is a warm-hearted man, like his hero, Donald Trump.
Both Trump and Gaetz know the fastest way to a woman's heart is to grab them by the pussy.
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'Absolutely not resigning': Gaetz blasts Justice Dept. probe — and critics
NBC Universal
Dareh Gregorian
April 5, 2021, 4:44 PM

A defiant U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz said in an op-ed article published Monday that he's "not a criminal" and is "absolutely not resigning" despite an investigation into sex trafficking allegations against him.

"Since I’m taking my turn under the gun, let me address the allegations against me directly. First, I have never, ever paid for sex. And second, I, as an adult man, have not slept with a 17-year-old," the Florida Republican wrote in the Washington Examiner, where he described himself as the victim of a diverse group of enemies.

"Folks won’t be surprised that bizarre claims are being made about me shortly after I decided to take on the most powerful institutions in the Beltway: the establishment; the FBI; the Biden Justice Department; the Cheney political dynasty; even the Justice Department under Trump," he wrote.

The inquiry into Gaetz, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, was opened under then-Attorney General William Barr during the Trump administration, two sources told the New York Times.

The congressman also denied the allegation when the story was first reported last week. He has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Probe into whether he trafficked a 17-year-old girl

Law enforcement officials confirmed to NBC News that the Justice Department probe started as a result of an investigation into a former Seminole County tax collector and friend of Gaetz named Joel Greenberg, who's since been charged with sex trafficking. Greenberg has pleaded not guilty.

Investigators are looking into whether Gaetz trafficked a 17-year-old girl, the officials said. The Times, citing people close to the investigation and text messages and payment receipts, reported that investigators also looking into allegations Gaetz and Greenberg recruited women online to have sex in return for cash and gifts.

In the op-ed article, Gaetz portrayed that as an "allegation that I, a grown man, paid for an adult girlfriend’s expenses."

"I am a representative in Congress, not a monk, and certainly not a criminal," he wrote.

"My lifestyle of yesteryear may be different from how I live now, but it was not and is not illegal," the 38-year-old added. "My personal life is and always has been conducted on my own time and my own dime."

Though the probe originated under Barr, Gaetz singled out President Joe Biden's attorney general in his article.

04-06-21  01:02pm - 1262 days Original Post - #1
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Republican tells big biz to stay out of politics.
He wants their donations, because that is hundreds of millions of dollars.
But biz is too stupid to tell politicians what to do.
So pay up and keep your mouth shut.
Except we will listen to your lobbyists, because that's why you donate the big bucks.
But keep it silent: don't tell the public what you want: tell us in secret, through the lobbyists.
That's the way it's done.
So the public doesn't know what's going on.
The great unwashed masses should be kept in the dark.
They are stupid, and should remain stupid.
Go, Republicans, the only party that knows how to rule the country.
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McConnell warns biz off political speech, says it's 'stupid'
Associated Press
LISA MASCARO
April 6, 2021, 10:16 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday “it's quite stupid” for corporations to speak out politically, intensifying his warnings for big business to stand down as Congress delves into voting rights, President Joe Biden's infrastructure package and other defining issues.

Speaking in Kentucky, the GOP leader said he still wants companies to give freely to political campaigns. But as lawmakers wrestle with big issues, he warned CEOs off the kinds of public statements made by Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola and Major League Baseball in opposition to Georgia's new restrictive voting laws.

“It's quite stupid to jump in the middle of a highly controversial issue,” he told reporters.

“Republicans drink Coca-Cola too, and we fly and we like baseball,” he said. “It’s irritating one hell of a lot of Republican fans."
AdChoices

The colorful language from the typically reserved Republican leader shows the dilemma ahead for the party in the post-Trump era. Many Trump-styled lawmakers are bucking big business and leaning more heavily into the populist, working-class themes championed by the former president — even as they rely on deep-pocketed business donors to fuel their political campaigns.

By wading into the debate, McConnell is situating himself in the emerging culture wars with the progressive groups that are pressuring business not to sit silently on voting rights, gun violence and other big issues before Congress.

Congress will take center stage in many of these battles, the Senate in particular, as Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure package and other priorities head for votes.

“They have the right to participate in the political process,” McConnell told reporters. But he said, “If I were running a major corporation, I'd stay out of politics.”

04-06-21  04:30am - 1262 days Original Post - #1
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Great news, movie theater owners.
The newest edition of the movie featuring King Kong and Godzilla has amazed audiences across the world.
The two Super-Heroes are fighting it out, to see which is the Biggest, Baddest, Bestest Champion of the World.
And audiences around the entire world are cheering and watching at real movie theaters.
Godzilla, the radioactive Super-Lizard that has been hidden from the world for centuries, has now emerged from hiding, once he heard that King Kong had claimed the title of World's Baddest in 2021.
You can see the movie on HBO Max for free (if you're an HBO Max subscriber), or you can see it in a movie theater with hundred of other fans on the big screen, where the sound effects can push you out of your seat so you can start running from the big-screen monsters.

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‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Smashes Pandemic Record With $48.5 Million Five-Day Domestic Opening; Continues To Roar Overseas
April 4, 2021 13:24 PDT - By Chris Nashawaty - Box Office News

After a long year of gloom and doom at the box office, the Easter holiday weekend finally offered a giant ray of hope for movie theaters thanks to two of cinema’s most iconic characters. Godzilla vs. Kong, Warner Bros.’ big-budget kaiju grudge match, smashed pandemic-era records left and right in North America: The PG-13 extravaganza opened in the largest number of theaters since the COVID-19 outbreak (3,064); it had the largest opening day during that period ($9.6 million on Wednesday); it had the highest single-day gross ($12.5 million on Saturday); and it had the biggest three-day and five-day opening weekends ($32.2 million and $48.5 million respectively). In other words, it was just the kind of monster weekend that Hollywood’s been waiting for.

The eagerly-awaited tentpole, which pits the 67-year-old radioactive lizard against the 88-year-old giant ape, roared past the previous opening weekend record holders from the past year—Tenet, which pulled in $20.2 million over Labor Day weekend, and Wonder Woman 1984, which earned $16.7 million in the first three days of its Christmas release. With its muscular $10,509 per-screen average, Godzilla vs. Kong represented the first real sign of normalcy in a year that has been anything but normal. The blockbuster’s $48.5 million domestic haul in its first five days was especially impressive considering that the title is also available to HBO Max subscribers for no additional charge. And while Warner Bros. has not released streaming numbers for the title yet, it did say that Godzilla vs. Kong had a “larger viewing audience than any other film or show on HBO Max since launch.” The film received an ‘A’ grade from CinemaScore.

Overseas, Godzilla vs. Kong continued to rampage at the box office, too. After raking in $121.8 million abroad last weekend, it added another $115.1 million this week, bringing its two-week international total to $236.9 million and its cumulative global haul to $285.4 million so far. By far, the biggest overseas market was China, which was responsible for $44.2 million of its total worldwide gross. And while it would be premature to read too much into the film’s success, it does hint that audiences may finally be getting more comfortable with the idea of returning to theaters thanks to increased vaccination rates, easing restrictions, and pent-up demand for the kinds of movies that play especially well on big screens. It will be interesting to see how the other major studios interpret the film’s numbers with regard to their own potential blockbusters currently slated for release this summer.

While Godzilla vs. Kong hogged all of the headlines, there was another newcomer to the Top 5 this weekend—Screen Gems’ occult horror film, The Unholy. Despite middling-to-poor reviews, the PG-13-rated chiller starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan debuted in second place with a more down-to-earth $3.2 million. Opening in 1,850 theaters, The Unholy scored a $1,729 per-screen average. It has not opened internationally yet.

In third place was last week’s champion, Nobody. Universal’s bullet-riddled action flick about a suburban dad-turned-vigilante (Better Call Saul’s Bob Odenkirk) added $3.1 million its second frame. The PG-13-rated film dropped off -55% from the previous weekend and managed a $1,195 per-screen average in 2,567 theaters, bringing its domestic box office total to $11.9 million. Outside of North America, the movie has tacked on $9.2 million, bringing its cumulative worldwide gross to $21.1 million.

In fourth place was Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon. In its fifth week in theaters, the PG-rated computer-animated adventure added $2.1 million domestically, slipping -45.4% from the previous session. Despite also being available as a premium VOD rental on the Disney+ streaming platform for a $30 fee, the film had a $1,011 per-screen average in 2,031 theaters, bringing its domestic box office total to $32.2 million. Overseas, Raya has racked up $54.2 million to date, pushing its current worldwide total to $86.4 million.

Rounding out the top five was Warner Bros.’ Tom and Jerry, which piled on another $1.4 million in its sixth week in multiplexes. The PG-rated ‘toon starring the iconic, squabbling cat-and-mouse team dipped -44% from last weekend and scored a $615 per-screen average in 2,273 locations. Its six-week domestic total now stands at $39.5 million. Abroad, the film has added $54 million thus far, bringing its worldwide tally to $93.5 million.

Landing just outside of the top five was the weekend’s last rookie of note: Atlas Distribution Company’s The Girl Who Believes in Miracles. The religious-themed drama about a young girl who seems to be able to heal the sick, bowed in sixth place with $580,068. The PG-rated indie, which stars Austyn Johnson and Mira Sorvino, opened in 640 theaters and had a $906 per-screen average. Edited on Apr 06, 2021, 05:01am

04-04-21  04:22pm - 1264 days Original Post - #1
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How Much Is Former President Trump Still Costing Taxpayers?
Gabrielle Olya
April 4, 2021, 8:00 AM


Being president comes with perks that extend past your time in the Oval Office, so even though former President Donald Trump is no longer in the White House, he’s still getting benefits courtesy of your taxpayer dollars. Here’s a look at the post-presidential perks taxpayers foot the bill for — plus, other ways Trump is still costing American taxpayers.

Find Out: How Much Is Former President Donald Trump Worth?
An Annual Pension of Over $200,000

The Former Presidents Act of 1958, which provides several benefits and perks that are available to presidents after they leave office, entitles former presidents to an annual pension equal to the pay for a cabinet secretary, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. In 2021, that amounts to $221,400.

Office Space and Staffing

Starting six months after a president leaves office, the General Services Administration (GSA) provides funding to establish, furnish and staff an official office anywhere in the country. Trump will be allotted $96,000 a year for staffing costs, WCNC Charlotte reported.

Trump has established his office in Florida, though it’s unclear how much it will end up costing taxpayers. For perspective on how much office rent typically costs taxpayers, former President Bill Clinton’s rent in New York is about $429,000 and former President George W. Bush’s Texas office space costs taxpayers $434,000 a year.

Travel Expenses

The former president can be reimbursed for up to $1 million in costs for security and official travel each year.

Secret Service Protection

Former presidents and their spouses are eligible for lifetime protection from the Secret Service, though the related costs are classified, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. The protection also applies to a former president’s children until they are 16, Business Insider reported, so security for Barron Trump would be provided until he is that age.


Just before leaving office, Trump extended post-presidency Secret Service protection to his four adult children and two of their spouses, as well as three key officials, for six months following his White House exit, The Washington Post reported. The added security perk for the Trump family is expected to cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

Other Miscellaneous Expenses

Taxpayers foot the bill for a number of other miscellaneous expenses related to a former president’s official business, including phone bills, mail, satellite TV packages and office supplies, WCNC Charlotte reported.


Trump’s Claims of Election Fraud Have Cost Taxpayers Over a Half-Billion Dollars — And Counting

According to The Washington Post, Trump’s falsehoods about the November 2020 election have left taxpayers with a large and growing bill that totals $519 million as of Feb. 6. That number accounts for the legal fees prompted by dozens of lawsuits, heightened security in response to death threats against poll workers and repairs needed after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. More than $480 million of the total cost is attributable to estimated expenses for the deployment of National Guard troops on the streets of Washington, D.C. through mid-March following the Capitol attack.


The official costs of Trump’s election fraud claims are still being tallied and may never be fully known, The Washington Post reported.

04-04-21  07:22am - 1264 days Original Post - #1
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They are telling residents to leave their homes.
But authorities said they were not planning to open shelters.
This is the Republican way: if toxic water floods your house, get out: but you're on your own about where to stay, or how to eat.
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Leak at wastewater pond prompts evacuations in Florida
AOL Associated Press
ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON
April 4, 2021, 5:47 AM


MIAMI (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency Saturday after a significant leak at a large pond of wastewater threatened to flood roads and burst a system that stores polluted waters.

Officials in Florida ordered more than 300 homes to be evacuated and closed off a highway Saturday near the large reservoir in the Tampa Bay area north of Bradenton.

Residents who live around the Piney Point reservoir received an alert via text saying to leave the area immediately because the collapse was “imminent.” Authorities expanded the evacuation area later Saturday to include more homes, but said they were not planning to open shelters.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection says a break was detected Friday in one of the walls of a 77-acre (33-hectare) pond that has a depth of 25 feet (8 meters) and holds millions of gallons of water containing phosphorus and nitrogen from an old phosphate plant.

Officials brought in rocks and materials to plug the hole in the pond late Friday into Saturday, but the attempt was unsuccessful.

Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes said at a press conference Saturday that the most pressing concern is that the water could flood the area, which he said was agricultural and low in population density.

“We are talking about the potential of about 600 million gallons (2.3 billion liters) within a matter of seconds and minutes leaving that retention pool and going around the surrounding area,” Hopes said.

Workers have been pumping out thousands of gallons per minute at the site to bring the volume down in the event the pond bursts. Pumping the entire pond would take 10 to 12 days. Others have been working to chart the path to control how the water flows from the pond into the Tampa Bay.

DeSantis' declaration of a state of emergency allocates more pumps and cranes to the area. The owner, HRK Holdings, did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

The pond where the leak was discovered is at the old Piney Point phosphate mine, sitting in a stack of phosphogypsum, a waste product from manufacturing fertilizer that is radioactive. It contains small amounts of naturally occurring radium and uranium, and the stacks can also release large concentrations of radon gas.

Hopes says that if the pond collapses, there is a risk it could destabilize the walls of other areas in the plant.

“The pond is basically salt water. We saw ducks yesterday, there are snooks swimming in there. It’s sustaining wildlife. That’s not the case for the other two pools,” he said, adding the wastewater in the other ponds would need to be treated to reduce ammonium content and other materials.

The executive order declaring the state of emergency said the breached structure has 480 million gallons (1.8 billion liters) of seawater mixed with process water and the embankment materials from the old fertilizer manufacturing plant.

Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried urged the governor in a letter to convene an emergency session of the state cabinet to discuss a plan, adding that this property has seen similar leaks in the past.

“The immediate evacuation of residents, disruption of families during Easter weekend, and potential environmental catastrophe requires the attention and action of Florida’s statewide elected leadership,” Fried said.

In 2016, more than 200 million gallons of contaminated waste water from another fertilizer plant in central Florida leaked into one of the state’s main aquifers after a massive sinkhole opened up in a pond of a phosphogypsum stack.

There are at least 70 gypsum stacks in the United States and about 27 in Florida, mostly in the region of west-central Florida. The wastewater stored in the gypsum stacks can’t be seen from the ground as the piles surrounding the structure can go as high as 500 feet (150 meters).

04-01-21  08:01am - 1267 days Original Post - #1
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Biden singles out Amazon for not paying federal taxes
Reuters
Nandita Bose
April 1, 2021, 7:37 AM


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden on Wednesday singled out Amazon.com Inc for not paying federal taxes during his address in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as he spoke about raising the burden of taxes on multinational companies and hiking the corporate tax rate.

Biden's infrastructure plan unveiled earlier in the day increases the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% and changes the tax code to close loopholes that allow companies to move profits overseas, according to a 25-page briefing paper released by the White House.

Biden said Amazon was one of 91 Fortune 500 companies that "use various loopholes where they pay not a single solitary penny in federal income tax," in sharp contrast to middle class families paying over 20% tax rates.


"I don't want to punish them but that's just wrong," he said.

In response, an Amazon spokeswoman pointed to tweet on research and development tax credits by Jay Carney, the company's public policy and communications chief and a former White House press secretary under former President Barack Obama.

"If the R&D Tax Credit is a 'loophole,' it's certainly one Congress strongly intended. The R&D Tax credit has existed since 1981, was extended 15 times with bi-partisan support and was made permanent in 2015 in a law signed by President Obama," Carney tweeted.

After paying $0 in federal taxes for two years, Amazon started paying federal income tax in 2019.

This is not the first time Biden has gone after Amazon. In June 2019, he named Amazon and said no company making billions in profits should pay a lower tax rate than firefighters and teachers.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

03-30-21  01:30am - 1270 days Original Post - #1
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The shoes were released on Monday, March 29, 2021.
Only 666 shoes (actually 1,332 shoes, but they were sold in pairs, one for each foot), were sold. And they sold out in hours at $1,018 a pair (I don't know if that includes sales tax or shipping charges.)

But there is a clip on YouTube of Lil Nas X who fell into Hell and gave Satan a lap dance.
Lil Nas X is a guy. Lap dances are usually given by women.
But maybe Satan and Lil Nas X are playing around?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA6wcKXZ-54
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Nike sues over Lil Nas X 'Satan Shoes' with human blood in soles
NBC Universal
Doha Madani
March 29, 2021, 2:23 PM




Nike filed a federal trademark infringement lawsuit Monday against the company that released a controversial customized version of its sneakers in collaboration with the rapper Lil Nas X.

The "Old Town Road" artist worked with MSCHF to release "Satan Shoes" on Monday. The sneakers are modified Nike Air Max 97s — decorated with a pentagram pendant and a reference to Luke 10:18, a Bible verse about Satan's fall from heaven.

MSCHF, a company known for creating controversial and viral products, confirmed Sunday that the shoes contained a drop of human blood inside the sole, drawn from members of the MSCHF team.

All 666 pairs of the modified Nikes, priced at $1,018, sold out shortly after they went on sale Monday.

Nike filed the suit — Lil Nas X was not named as a defendant — after many people said they believed it was involved with the shoes, even though it released a statement over the weekend saying it had nothing to do with them.

The lawsuit argues that Nike must maintain control over its brand "by setting the record straight" about what products bear its distinctive "swoosh" logo.

"In fact, there is already evidence of significant confusion and dilution occurring in the marketplace, including calls to boycott Nike in response to the launch of MSCHF's Satan Shoes based on the mistaken belief that Nike has authorized or approved this product," the lawsuit says.

In a statement after the complaint was filed, Nike reiterated that it is in no way affiliated with the Satan Shoes.

"We don't have any further details to share on pending legal matters," Nike said. "However, we can tell you we do not have a relationship with Lil Nas X or MSCHF."

MSCHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Lil Nas X tweeted about the news with a short clip from the cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants," in which a character says: "I was just kidding. ... You guys know I was just kidding, right?"

The release of the Satan Shoes coincides with Lil Nas X's latest single, "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)," and its accompanying music video. In the video, Lil Nas X is seduced out of what appears to be the Garden of Eden, falls into hell and gives the devil a lap dance.

The rapper, whose real name is Montero Lamar Hill, put out a short YouTube video Sunday titled "Lil Nas X Apologizes for Satan Shoe." While holding the sneaker, Lil Nas X begins speaking — and before he gets to the advertised apology, the video cuts to the clip from "Montero" of him giving the devil a lap dance.

03-30-21  12:05am - 1270 days Original Post - #1
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I haven't seen a listing by Porn Users or Rabbits Reviews, but Easter is this Sunday, April 4.
So a lot of porn sites should be having holiday specials.

I've seen some MetArt sites advertising $9.98 for the first month.

So Rabbits (and PU) should list a lot of discounted porn site membership offers soon.

At PU, it should be a new thread, to make finding the discounts easy. Easy is always better.

03-28-21  09:40pm - 1271 days Original Post - #1
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Trump Reacts to ‘Sad’ Biden Press Conference

Published 2 days ago

on March 27, 2021

By Eric Wright

Donald Trump has called President Joe Biden’s press conference on Thursday”very sad” and accused the press of fielding softball questions at his successor.

He later added: “It’s very sad to watch actually. They’re feeding him questions. They’re easy questions—I notice [Fox News reporter] Peter Doocy didn’t get to ask a question today—and there could be no difficult questions. They’re ready to rip the microphone away if somebody did get a little bit testy. The whole thing is ridiculous.”

Pool photos of this press conference revealed that Biden employed a”cheat sheet” that seemed to include the names and images of reporters. The reference sheet placed circled numbers beside the pictures of the reporters.


Biden’s”cheat sheet” ignited a row on social media as liberal and conservative commentators offered contrasting takes on the president’s performance. Some said the use of notes was a professional decision while others argued that it was a mark of decline.

03-28-21  07:31am - 1271 days Original Post - #1
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Republicans know how tricky the Democrats can be.
Republicans want to make it illegal to bring food to voters standing in line to cast a ballot.

Many homeless people could be bribed with food to vote Democratic.
Republicans have enough money to buy their own food.
You shouldn't use tax-payer money to feed the homeless.

Shame on Democrats, who want to destroy the very fabric of Democracy.

Shame on Democrats, who want to hand out bottles of beer to the homeless, to cloud their brains and trick the homeless to vote for Democrats.

Republicans hate all Commie-loving Democrats who want to destroy Trump's legacy of Making America Great Again.

Republicans know that the only good Indian is a dead Indian.

That's why they are pushing for a national holiday, where it's open season to bag a local Indian on Red Indian Day. Indian are red, which means they support the Commies.
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The article below shows that Republicans support the police.
The police are guardians of democracy.
That means they have the right to abuse citizens who break the law.
Here is an article where 2 cops are screaming at a 5-year-old boy, who was caught breaking the law.
They should have shot him, because this youngster will obviously grown up to be a hardened criminal.

The two officers are black. And the 5-year-old boy is black.
So let the blacks settle the matter among themselves.

Also, the police department investigated the incident, and found the officers acted appropriately.
Police have the power to scream at 5-year-old boys, and to handcuff them if the boys appear to be a threat.
Police live in fear of their lives. They should have pulled their handguns and gunned the boy down, if he made threats against the police officers.
Support your local police.
They are the first line of defense again dangerous criminals.
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Body camera video shows officers berating 5-year-old boy
Associated Press
March 27, 2021, 4:04 PM
Scroll back up to restore default view.

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — A police department in Maryland has released body camera video that captured two of its officers berating a 5-year-old boy who had walked away from his elementary school, calling him a “little beast” and threatening him with a beating.

The video released Friday by the Montgomery County Police Department shows one of the officers repeatedly screaming at the crying child, with her face inches from his.

“Oh, my God, I’d beat him so bad,” the officer said in the child's presence before telling him, “You do not embarrass me like this at school.”

The boy's mother has filed a lawsuit over the January 2020 interaction. Lawyers for the child’s mother, Shanta Grant, said the video shows the officers treating her son “as if he were a hardened criminal.” They said Grant is seeking “justice and fair compensation for the trauma he endured.”

“She also hopes that the incident will lead to changes in policy and training, both with the school and the police,” the attorneys, Matthew Bennett and James Papirmeister, said in a statement.

The Washington Post reports that the police department and the county's public school system declined to address the incident in detail, citing the mother's pending lawsuit. But the school system issued a statement describing the video as “extremely difficult” to watch.

“There is no excuse for adults to ever speak to or threaten a child in this way,” the school system said. “As parents and grandparents, we know that when families send their children to school, they expect that the staff will care for them, keep them safe and use appropriate intervention processes when needed.”

A police department spokeswoman told the newspaper that the two officers in the video remain employed by the department after an internal investigation.

“A thorough investigation was conducted of the entire event,” the department said in a statement.

The officers found the boy about one block from East Silver Spring Elementary School and drove him back to the school, where they were met by a school administrator. The video shows an officer forcing the crying child onto a chair in the principal's office.

“Shut that noise up now!” the other officer shouted near the boy's face. “I hope your momma let me beat you.”

One of the officers pulled out his handcuffs and closed one of loops around the child’s right wrist.

“You know what these are for?” he asked the boy. “These people that don’t want to listen and don’t know how to act.”

Both of the officers involved in the incident are Black, and so is the 5-year-old boy, according to police department spokesman Rick Goodale.

Montgomery County Council member Will Jawando said the video “made me sick.”

“We all saw a little boy be mocked, degraded, put in the seat of a police car, screamed at from the top of an adult police officer’s lungs, inches from his face. This is violence,” Jawando said.

03-25-21  08:35am - 1274 days Original Post - #1
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‘Black Widow’ Move Delivers Warning to Movie Theaters: Recovery Will Be Slow
by Jeremy Fuster | March 25, 2021 @ 6:00 AM

Without a Marvel movie in May, the box office is facing a far more gradual recovery over the next three months

Box office optimism is faltering after significant changes made to Disney’s movie slate, headlined by the two-month delay of “Black Widow,” have significantly soured the short-term outlook for the industry.

Much of the reopening plans for theaters were built on the expectation — or at least the hope — that a long-anticipated Marvel blockbuster would be around in May to help bring audiences back to theaters. Now, that early May boost is gone, and it’s too late for any blockbuster from another studio to take its May 7 slot. Studios typically need more than six weeks to prepare marketing campaigns and ensure their advertising for a film is in place.

Meanwhile, the threat of COVID-19 variants – and possible rollbacks on reopening and capacity limits — still hangs over cinemas. While COVID-19 infection rates in Los Angeles and San Francisco remain low — Los Angeles could even raise movie theater capacity limits to 50% next week — infections are starting to rise again in 27 states, including New York, as the more infectious variants begin to spread.

On Thursday, Regal Cinemas parent Cineworld announced it was raising an additional $213 million as cushion for future pandemic-related disruptions to its global business — which had $3 billion in operating losses in 2020.

Though vaccination rates are significantly increasing, many states may force theaters to close again in April or May if vaccine efforts cannot contain the spread and the public abandons social distancing. Disney declined to comment on whether concerns of a spring COVID resurgence in the U.S. played a factor in its release date changes.

But Daniel Loria of Boxoffice points out that Disney isn’t just looking at the U.S. when it comes to “Black Widow.” He notes that several major portions of the international market are still struggling with the virus, particularly Europe, where countries like Italy and France have recently issued new lockdown orders to combat spreads of COVID-19 variants.

“This couldn’t have been too much of a surprise for a multinational chain like AMC or Cineworld, which has theaters in Europe,” Loria said. “When you’re looking at a four-quadrant blockbuster like a Marvel movie where the international gross is just as important as the U.S., the outbreaks in Europe and Latin America had to have been a major factor in Disney’s decision.”

While Disney isn’t leaving May behind entirely, its Memorial Day weekend release, “Cruella” will also now be a hybrid theatrical/PVOD release. Even worse for theaters is that Disney has pulled the Pixar film “Luca” from theaters entirely, instead making it available at no extra charge on Disney+ this June in the same way Pixar’s last film, “Soul,” was released last June.

Instead of “Black Widow” in early May, theaters will have holdover screenings of “Godzilla vs. Kong,” which will be released this Friday, and “Mortal Kombat,” which will be released April 16. Both films will only be available in theaters by mid-May as Warner Bros. is only making them available on HBO Max for the first 30 days of release. But while that may be a boost for Warner Bros., it is still not what theaters were hoping for in the early summer.

And once “Cruella” and “Black Widow” arrive, there will be questions over whether theaters will play hardball on box office terms because of Disney’s decision to make them available via its Premium Access program. Cinemark refused to play “Raya and the Last Dragon” without receiving a larger slice of ticket sales, but unless multiple major theater chains block out “Black Widow,” it’s hard to envision exhibitors having any leverage on terms for the most anticipated blockbuster of the summer, particularly since Disney has more incentive to continue its PVOD experiments with a Marvel Cinematic Universe installment that has far more buzz than “Mulan” or “Raya.”

“It’s going to be interesting to see how the relationship between Disney and theaters changes and if it can stay positive going forward,” Loria said. “The importance of ‘Black Widow’ to the box office is going to be a major factor in any talks between the two sides, and it’s an example of what happens when one franchise and one studio take up such a large share of the box office.”

And while AMC, Cinemark and Regal have already committed to reopening, the question remains whether these release date changes alter how smaller chains approach their reopening strategies. As TheWrap noted last week, a major factor in the decision of many smaller theaters to reopen weeks after being allowed to do so by health officials is because there weren’t enough strong titles to bring in audiences. For these theaters, the “Black Widow” move may make “Godzilla vs. Kong” and “Mortal Kombat” even more important to their business.

“The value of the agreements that Warner Bros. and Universal has made with theaters has become even more valuable,” Loria said. “It speaks to the work that those studios have done to keep their connections to theaters positive after making initial dramatic moves that prompted a lot of outcry.”

Loria also believes that those deals are a reminder that cooler heads must prevail as theaters try to navigate Disney’s latest moves.

“We have to remember that even now as we’re looking towards theaters reopening, there’s still a lot of instability and studios are still trying to navigate it to meet the needs of different films,” he said. “There’s a lot of factors at play for a box office landscape that continues to become globally connected.”

03-22-21  04:17am - 1277 days Original Post - #1
LKLK (0)
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I used to be a fan of Sports Illustrated.
But today, my illusions have been destroyed.
MILFs are taking over the world.
My favorite niche, Teen Models (and maybe early 20-year-olds) are being replaced by a MILF on the Sports Illustrated Swim Suit issue.

A 57-year-old model has just debuted on the Sports Illustrated Swim Suit issue.
Is the World Stock Market about to crash next?
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57-year-old Kathy Jacobs makes Sports Illustrated Swimsuit debut: ‘There’s no wrong way to age’
Yahoo Life Pop Culture
Kerry Justich
March 17, 2021, 1:40 PM

Kathy Jacobs is serving as a reminder that age is just a number after making her debut as a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit rookie for 2021 at 57 years old.

The model and actress was revealed to be a part of the magazine in July 2020 after winning the publication's open casting call, SI Swim Search. On Wednesday, the magazine announced Jacobs as the latest rookie and explained just why she was chosen.

"There has never been a more prolific team player than Kathy! She is constantly making time for others while forging her own career," editor MJ Day wrote about Jacobs. "She is a living proof that we need to stop putting limits on ourselves and celebrate the non-traditional ways we can reach our goals and push ourselves. She wholeheartedly stands for what SI Swimsuit represents and we are thrilled she feels empowered to share her message with us."

Day also shared that Jacobs has "championed the fight against ageism" in addition to lifting up women around her. Jacobs herself explained that empowering other women is a large part of what she stands for.

"Beauty means different things to me. I’ll be 57. There’s tons of things about my body I struggle to love," the latest rookie said in her introduction video. "There’s no wrong way to age, there’s no right way to age. There’s no handbook. And I think that if you want to put other women down, then you’re the problem too. We need to judge each other less because I think everybody has their own definition of beauty."

She even posted to her own social media account, where she goes by the handle @ageisbeauty, where she further explained her philosophy around aging.

"You can get Botox, fillers, plastic surgery, lasers, color your hair etc. and that’s fine! You can do nothing and that’s fine! You can be somewhere in the middle and that’s fine too!" she captioned her post. "I have in the past judged others and now make a conscious effort not to! You can’t too!! Cause you know what.,, it ant my business!!"

Jacobs additionally thanked Sports Illustrated for "giving me the platform to talk about how amazing women my age and beyond are!" By the looks of her comment section, she's already inspired many women of all ages.

"Love that we are living in an age where we get to decide what 'age' means to us and not give a care what others think - we are in our 20s and 30s for a blip, to continue to self- idealize that as prime is silly and self-harming - love love love your posts," one person wrote.

Another commented, "You are such an inspiration to woman everywhere. For woman over 50 you are showing them how sexy you can still be."

Christie Brinkley remains the oldest woman to be featured in the magazine, appearing on its pages in 2017 when she was 63 years old (while Tyra Banks remains the oldest model to be featured on the issue's cover, in 2019 at age 45). Still, Jacobs owns her role in allowing the publication to "showcase all types of beauty."

03-21-21  05:44am - 1278 days Original Post - #1
LKLK (0)
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Republican stands by his record.
Says that anyone guilty of sexual misconduct is not fit for public office.
But Reed says he is innocent until proven guilty.
No proof, so he gets a free pass.
And what's a little foreplay among friends, anyway?
Trump says a man is entitled to grab women by the pussy.
And Reed only unhooked the woman's bra, and touched her back and thigh.
Reed was trying to be friendly. Nothing more. Unless the woman wanted to have sex with him, of course.
And then it would have been consensual.
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Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Reed accused of sexual misconduct
AOL Associated Press
CAROLYN THOMPSON
March 21, 2021, 5:37 AM


U.S. Rep. Tom Reed, a Republican from western New York, is accused of rubbing a female lobbyist's back and unhooking her bra, without her consent, at a networking event in a Minneapolis pub in 2017.

The lobbyist, Nicolette Davis, told The Washington Post that Reed appeared to be drunk as he pawed her back and leg as the two were seated next to each other during a networking trip.

Reed fumbled with her bra before pinching the clasp through her blouse and unhooking it, then moved his hand to her thigh, she said.

A frightened Davis, who was 25 and on her first trip as a junior lobbyist for insurance company Aflac, texted a friend and co-worker that “a drunk congressman is rubbing my back.”

"HELP HELP,” she texted, before the person seated on her other side responded to her request by pulling Reed out of the restaurant, according to her account, published Friday.

Reed, elected to Congress in 2010, declined to be interviewed by The Associated Press. In a statement released by his office, he said, “This account of my actions is not accurate.”

Reed has been among the members of Congress calling for the resignation of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo over sexual harassment allegations. In late February, Reed said he was seriously considering running for governor against Cuomo.

Davis, now a 29-year-old second lieutenant in the U.S. Army at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, contacted The Post through a tip line Feb. 11, the newspaper said.

Davis said she is speaking out as she thinks about the kind of platoon leader she wants to be after graduating from field artillery school later this month.

“I need to always act in good conscience and set the right example for the soldiers I will lead, including younger females,” she said. “I hope it will allow people who have endured similar experiences to feel confident enough to say something.”

Her story was corroborated by the friend whom Davis texted from the restaurant, Jessica Strieter Elting, who runs Aflac’s political affairs team in Washington, D.C.

Strieter Elting told The Post that Davis was shaken by the encounter.

“I felt horrible for her, being in that position while trying to do her job,” said Strieter Elting.

Davis also reported the incident, at the time, to her supervisor at the company, then-vice president and counsel Brad Knox.

Knox said he recalled Davis telling him that Reed had been drinking and had undone an article of her clothing. He said she declined when he asked if she wanted to file a complaint with the House Ethics Committee.

Reed is a former mayor of Corning, New York. In Congress, he co-chairs the Problem Solvers Caucus, whose 24 Republican and 24 Democratic members meet weekly on issues.

In response to the #MeToo movement, Reed said sexual harassment training was a basic requirement in his office, and that he had taken it. He also backed bipartisan legislation in 2018 requiring lawmakers to be personally liable for settlements resulting from harassment.

The statement provided by Reed's office said: “I stand by my record.”

Commenting on the allegations against Cuomo last month, Reed had said, “these incidents of sexual harassment and pattern of abuse are abhorrent and have absolutely no place in our society, let alone the highest rungs of government.”

03-17-21  12:49am - 1283 days Original Post - #1
LKLK (0)
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ChimpanZoom? Primates at Czech zoo go wild for video calls

To make up for lack of interaction under Covid-19 restrictions, apes at zoos 150km apart can now watch each others’ daily lives on big screens

Reuters

Tue 16 Mar 2021 20.41 EDT

Humans might be tiring of video calls, Zoom birthdays and streamed performances, but the chimps at two Czech zoos are just starting to enjoy their new live online link-up.

To make up for the lack of interaction with visitors since the attractions closed in December under Covid-19 restrictions, the chimpanzees at Safari Park Dvur Kralove and the troop at a zoo 150km away in in Brno, can now watch one another’s daily lives on giant screens.

There are no mute-button disasters because the sound is off, but there has already been plenty of interest in what the distant cousins are up to since the project got under way last week.

“At the beginning they approached the screen with defensive or threatening gestures, there was interaction,” said Gabriela Linhartova, ape keeper at Dvur Kralove, 135km east of Prague.

“It has since moved into the mode of ‘I am in the movies’ or ‘I am watching TV’. When they see some tense situations, it gets them up off the couch, like us when we watch a live sport event.”

The chimpanzees have also adopted other human behaviours such as grabbing snacks like nuts to chew on while watching the action.

The video conferences, also aired on the safari park’s website, will run daily from 8am until 4pm until the end of March when keepers will evaluate whether they should continue.

03-17-21  12:41am - 1283 days Original Post - #1
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The Guardian
FBI facing allegation that its 2018 background check of Brett Kavanaugh was ‘fake’
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington
Tue, March 16, 2021, 12:00 AM


The FBI is facing new scrutiny for its 2018 background check of Brett Kavanaugh, the supreme court justice, after a lawmaker suggested that the investigation may have been “fake”.

Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic senator and former prosecutor who serves on the judiciary committee, is calling on the newly-confirmed attorney general, Merrick Garland, to help facilitate “proper oversight” by the Senate into questions about how thoroughly the FBI investigated Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing.

The supreme court justice was accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford and faced several other allegations of misconduct following Ford’s harrowing testimony of an alleged assault when she and Kavanaugh were in high school.

Kavanaugh denied the claims.

Related: Bob Woodward story on Kavanaugh's veracity 'pulled' during Senate hearings

The FBI was called to investigate the allegations during the Senate confirmation process but was later accused by some Democratic senators of conducting an incomplete background check. For example, two key witnesses – Ford and Kavanaugh – were never interviewed as part of the inquiry.

Among the concerns listed in Whitehouse’s letter to Garland are allegations that some witnesses who wanted to share their accounts with the FBI could not find anyone at the bureau who would accept their testimony and that it had not assigned any individual to accept or gather evidence.

“This was unique behavior in my experience, as the Bureau is usually amenable to information and evidence; but in this matter the shutters were closed, the drawbridge drawn up, and there was no point of entry by which members of the public or Congress could provide information to the FBI,” Whitehouse said.

He added that, once the FBI decided to create a “tip line”, senators were not given any information on how or whether new allegations were processed and evaluated. While senators’ brief review of the allegations gathered by the tip line showed a “stack” of information had come in, there was no further explanation on the steps that had been taken to review the information, Whitehouse said.

“This ‘tip line’ appears to have operated more like a garbage chute, with everything that came down the chute consigned without review to the figurative dumpster,” he said.

He also criticized FBI director Chris Wray, who Joe Biden has elected to remain in place, for not answering questions about the investigation.

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment. The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.

While it is unclear whether the FBI would re-open an investigation into Kavanaugh, who is now one of nine justices on the supreme court, the letter could push Garland to force the DOJ to respond to questions about the investigation into Kavanaugh.

Whitehouse said he is seeking answers ab out “how, why, and at whose behest” the FBI conducted a “fake” investigation if standard procedures were violated, including standards for following allegations gathered through FBI “tip lines”.

03-15-21  07:17am - 1284 days Original Post - #1
LKLK (0)
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Italian volleyball club suing former captain for allegedly breaching contract with pregnancy
Yahoo Sports
Ryan Young
March 11, 2021, 7:30 PM

An Italian volleyball club is suing its former team captain, alleging that she broke her contract by getting pregnant, according to The Guardian.

Volley Maniago Pordenone claims in its lawsuit that former player and team captain Lara Lugli, 41, did not tell them that she was planning to get pregnant when she signed a contract to play for them in the 2018-19 season, per the report.

She was fired in March 2019 after she informed the club about her pregnancy, though she suffered a miscarriage a month later.

Lugli asked the club to pay her the nearly $3,000 she was owed in salary for the time she played, though it declined and instead took legal action against her. It accused her of “disproportionately selling her experience” and “hiding her desire to be a mother” in court documents, per the report.

“When I read the legal document, I was so angry,” Lugli told the Guardian. “I’ve been playing volleyball for 25 years and had given it everything – they knew this. They said a 38-year-old woman should have known whether she wanted to have a baby and therefore should have said something. Not only did they call into question my professionalism but they are comparing pregnancy to illicit and malicious conduct – it’s a very serious thing.”

The head of the club, Franco Rossato, said they only opted to make a legal move against Lugli after she requested to be paid, per the report. He also said the contract was ended mutually.

“Suddenly, many months later, we received a message from her lawyer for the presumed entitlement,” Rossato said, via The Guardian. “Only then did we object and so activated the clauses of the contract.”

03-07-21  07:37am - 1292 days Original Post - #1
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Posts: 1,583
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Nicolas Cage weds Riko Shibata: Inside their Las Vegas wedding
ET Online
Desiree Murphy‍ and Jackie Willis‍
March 6, 2021, 10:05 AM

Nicolas Cage is officially a married man again!

ET has learned that the 57-year-old actor said "I do" to 26-year-old Riko Shibata. According to court documents, the two wed at the Wynn Las Vegas on Feb. 16, with Shibata taking Cage's last name.

A source tells ET that the couple chose that date to honor the birthday of Cage's late father, August Coppola. For the ceremony, the bride wore a handmade Japanese bridal kimono from Kyoto that had three layers. As for the groom, he sported a Tom Ford tuxedo.

Shibata walked down the aisle to her favorite song, Winter Song, by Kiroro, and the two exchanged traditional Catholic and Shinto vows that included poetry by Walt Whitman as well as a haiku.

After the wedding, the happy couple was joined for a small celebration attended by Cage's ex-wife and good friend, Alice Kim, and their 15-year-old son, Kal.

"It’s true, and we are very happy," Cage said of tying the knot in Las Vegas.

The couple first met in Shiga, Japan, over a year ago, and Cage first announced his engagement during a radio interview with his brother, Marc "The Cope" Coppola, for Q1043 New York. Of how the proposal came to be, the Leaving Las Vegas actor explained, "She left New York and went back to Kyoto, Japan, and I went back to Nevada."

"I hadn't seen her for six months, and we [were] really happy together ... really excited to spend that time together," he continued. "So I finally just said, Look, I wanna marry you,' and we got engaged on FaceTime."

Cage revealed at the time that he bought his then-fiancée a black diamond engagement ring. "Her favorite color is black, so she wanted the black gold, and the black diamond," he shared. "So I found it and customized and personalized it. And I actually sent it to her Fedex. So we're engaged!"

This marks the fifth marriage for Cage, who was previously married to Patricia Arquette (1995-2001), Lisa Marie Presley (2002-2004), Alice Kim (2004-2016) and Erika Koike (2019).

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