Weird News of the World Thread - Part 2

[KevanG]

Alaska town has a cat mayor for 15 years

Mayor Stubbs has been at the helm of the small town of Talkeetna, Alaska for 15 years - an impressive feat for any elected official, but even more so considering Stubbs is a cat.

The part-manx is popular among residents, who voted him into office in a write-in election a decade and a half ago when he was a kitten, after rejecting the human candidates on the ballot.

"Lo and behold, Stubbs the cat won the write-in that year," one resident told NBC affiliate WBBH. "And he's been our mayor ever since."

Stubbs was named Talkeeta’s honorary mayor, giving him what’s really a figurehead role since the 900-person town is a “historical district,” Chamber of Commerce president Andi Manning explained to CNN.

Town residents are perfectly happy with their choice, and had nothing but praise for his record in office.

"He's good. Probably the best we've had," Laurie Stec told WBBH.

Stubbs won the mayoral election as a write in candidate in a small Alaska town
Stec manages Stubbs’s main haunt, Nagley’s General Store, and says the cat has been a good leader when it comes to local small businesses.

"He doesn't raise our taxes - we have no sales tax. He doesn't interfere with business,” she told CNN. “He's honest.”

Yet Stubbs has exhibited some diva behavior, such as drinking water out of a wine glass laden with catnip every afternoon.

“All throughout the day I have to take care of the mayor. He's very demanding," Nagley’s employee Skye Farrar told CNN. "He meowed and meowed and meowed and demanded to be picked up and put on the counter. And he demanded to be taken away from the tourists. Then he had his long, afternoon nap."

Despite his high-maintenance habits, the mayor is well-loved in the town and online - he already has more than 10,000 subscribers on Facebook. Nagleys staffers say they’re flooded with cards and letters for him, and that 30 to 40 people come in each day hoping to meet “the mayor.”

"His biggest political rivals would be other local businesses that would hate that he comes over and takes a nap and leaves fur everywhere. They aren't big fans of him," Farrar told CNN. "We usually say, 'You have to deal with it. He runs the town.'"

I'd vote for a cat over my current mayor. 15 years though, that's awesome.

 

[Teelie]

I was going to say I think I remember hearing about this years ago and it turns out I had, and he's still the mayor and has been his entire life.

 

[KevanG]

Satanist church offers help to protect Muslims from bigoted violent christians

The Satanic Temple has responded beautifully to the Right’s Islamophobic hatefest that has followed the terrorist attacks in Paris. Using fake Syrian passports in an effort to discredit refugees attempting to flee to France, the United States, and other countries where they can be safe from ISIS, the terrorist death cult murdered and injured hundreds of people as part of the groups’ propaganda ploy. Though some, like France, saw through the ploy, the United States has become a minefield of bigotry since last Friday night.

While “Christians” across the nation are working around the clock to demonize all Muslims because of the actions of a few extremists, with our frenemies on the Right plotting to bomb mosques, threatening to murder Muslims en masse, leveling direct threats at people they think are Muslims, and generally acting exactly like ISIS, a group of Satanists are demonstrating to Christians how to be Christians.

The Minneapolis, Minnesota chapter of the Satanic Temple announced Wednesday that they are offering escorts to Muslims who are afraid to leave their homes because of the violent threats from the Right.

“If there is anyone in the Minneapolis area who is Muslim and afraid to leave their home out of fear for some kind of backlash, don’t hesitate to reach out to us,” the Temple wrote on its website. “We would be glad to escort you where you need to go without advertising our presence – just big dudes walking you where you need to be. We would also happily accompany you so you can get some groceries.”

Honestly can't tell if it's real or not but I find it hilarious anyway.

 

[DarkKnight]

satanist church offers help to protect muslims from bigoted violent christians



honestly can't tell if it's real or not but i find it hilarious anyway.

lol

 

[Teelie]

Probably a satire but I could also sadly believe it is true.

 

[Teelie]

Spider causes man to trash flat, scream death threats -- police called

Anyone else reminded of Ned Flanders?

"Come on mate, what have you done to her?"

Police were questioning a "flushed" and "out of breath" man who had answered the door to a flat in Wollstonecraft, a small harborside suburb of Sydney, Australia.

The booming sounds of a man shouting "I'm going to kill you" and a "woman screaming hysterically" had earlier echoed through the apartment block, sometime before 2.00am, Saturday November 21. The commotion disturbed neighbors, who were quick to alert the local police force.

"Where's your wife?" asked one of the policemen.

"I don't have one," the homeowner responded, after inhaling some air.

"Where's your girlfriend?" the officer continued.

"I don't have one," he said.

Unsatisfied, the same policeman pressed: "We had a report of a domestic and a women screaming, where is she?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I live alone," the man protested.

The officers then told the man that neighbors had heard death threats, screams and the crash of furniture being flung around the apartment.

"It was a spider," the man tentatively explained.

"A really big one."

Incredulous, the policeman asked: "What about the women screaming?"

"Yeah sorry that was me," he said. "I really, really hate spiders."

A new theory had emerged -- the man was indeed alone in the apartment, he was responsible for both the "womanly" screams and the threats to kill. They were not aimed at a woman, but an eight-legged arachnid.

Conscious that this could just be an audacious lie, the police searched the trashed apartment. However, they found just one victim, a "rather large" spider.

After deliberating, the cops concluded that the disturbance was indeed caused by an arachnophobic man wildly chasing a spider around his home, while desperately clutching a can of Mortein insect spray.

After an awkward pause broken by relieved laughter, the police left.

The morning after, the local force posted a transcript of the bizarre conversation to their Facebook Page (scroll to the bottom of the post to read).

Who said the police don't have a sense of humor?

CNN

 

[Teelie]

Chinese woman, 24, who was missing for a decade and presumed dead is found living in an internet cafe after playing games for 10 years

Take this one with a hefty dose of salt. Verifying this will be somewhat difficult given the sources.

A Chinese woman, who was missing for 10 years and - at one point - presumed dead by her parents, has been found living in internet cafe for a decade.

The woman, known under the pseudonym of Xiaoyun, was found by police at a cyber cafe in the city of Hangzhou, east China, reported the People's Daily Online.

She said she had been supporting herself by playing games at internet cafes.

Police found Xiaoyun on November 20 during a spot check at an internet cafe in the Kangqiao district of Hangzhou.

The woman, now 24, used a fake ID and was taken back to the police station for investigation.

After checking the missing persons database, police officers realised Xiaoyun matched the descriptions of a woman from nearby Dongyang city, who was reported missing 10 years ago.

Xiaoyun later confessed to the fact. She said she was a rebellious teenager and decided to leave home after an argument with her father.

She told Qianjiang Evening News: ' had ran away from home before. And at that time when I tried to ask my dad for some money, [my parents] wouldn't give it to me, saying I must be lying.

'So I decided to run away for good.'

Xiaoyun said during the decade she had lived in several places including Jinhua, Jiangxi and Hangzhou.

She made a living by working at different internet cafes.

She was particularly good with an online game called Cross Fire, so other gamers would pay her to play the game for them.

Xiaoyun said she usually spent the night at internet cafes, or sometimes public bathhouses.

Her parents had presumed Xiaoyun was dead for a long time. They had even had her name removed from their household registrations at the local police station.

However a few years ago, Xiaoyun reached out to her mum on social media.

Xiaoyun's mother told Qianjiang Evening News: 'I haven't changed my mobile number in the past 10 years. I thought she might get in touch when she thought of me.

'Afterwards, WeChat (a Chinese chatting app) got popular, so my daughter added me by searching for my mobile number. But she never let me find her.'

With Xiaoyun's permission, police arranged her parents to meet their daughter who they hadn't seen for a decade.

During the emotional reunion, her mum said: 'I have a quicker temper and a strong character. I had indeed scolded her before.

'But after 10 years, she is a grown-up now. I will not tell her off again.'

Xiaoyun was fined 1,000 Yuan (£103) for using a fake ID.

However, it remains unclear if she will go back to live with her family.

Daily Mail

 

[Teelie]

Air India employee dies after being sucked into plane engine at airport

Sounds like something out of a movie, only this time it was real and someone died.

An engineer at Mumbai airport died after being sucked into the engine of an Air India plane, the company said.

The deadly incident happened late Wednesday as the Airbus A319 was being towed backward from the parking bay in preparation for taxiing out, said Anil Mehta, an Air India official.

The engineer, Ravi Subramanian, was standing near the landing gear under the plane's nose as he supervised the process, Mehta told CNN.

Passengers had boarded the aircraft for a flight to the city of Hyderabad. It wasn't clear if any of them saw what happened.

Air India officials declined to give any further details, saying the country's civil aviation regulator is investigating the engineer's death.

Airline insists it follows safety procedures

"We are deeply saddened and regret the tragic incident at Mumbai airport yesterday evening," Air India Chairman Ashwani Lohani said in a statement, offering his condolences to Subramanian's family.

The Times of India newspaper cited airline sources as saying that Air India staff had followed an irregular engine start-up procedure because the plane's auxiliary power unit wasn't working.

"Air India follows all standard safety procedures and parameters," Mehta said in response to the report.

The incident is believed to be the first of its kind involving an aviation worker in India.

The only remotely similar case was 20 years ago, according to the Times of India, when a man used a borrowed airport pass to ride his moped across the runway in Hyderabad and was sucked into an aircraft engine.

CNN

 

[Teelie]

Eggless condiment can still be called mayo says FDA

There was a post about this a few months back when it was initially declared "illegal" to call this stuff mayo but now that has changed, again.

Mayonnaise, the creamy, fatty condiment often slathered on sandwiches and fries, may now have a looser definition—at least in the eyes of the Food and Drug Administration.

Generally, mayonnaise is an emulsion of oil and vinegar or lemon juice, and classic recipes use egg yolk as the emulsifier. But on Thursday the agency backed off on the requirement for mayonnaise products to contain eggs, allowing a formerly contested vegan condiment to keep ‘mayo’ in its name.

In August, the FDA sent a warning letter to Hampton Creek Foods, a San Francisco-based startup, over its vegan products “Just Mayo” and the spicy version “Just Mayo Sriracha.” The egg-less condiment, now sold at Whole Foods, Target, Walmart and others, has a cracked egg on the label.

“The use of the term "mayo" in the product names and the image of an egg may be misleading to consumers because it may lead them to believe that the products are the standardized food, mayonnaise, which must contain eggs as described under 21 CFR 169.140(c),” the FDA warning letter read.

But, on Thursday, Hampton Creek announced that the FDA would allow the company to keep the name, as long as it altered the labeling.

Hampton Creek CEO Josh Tetrick told Quartz that the new labeling would emphasize that the product does not contain eggs. And, he said, the label would emphasize that the word “just” in the “Just Mayo” name is intended to mean “guided by reason, justice, and fairness,” not as “simply” or “only.”

In a statement to Quartz, the FDA said: “The FDA and the company met to discuss the issues cited in the warning letter and worked together to address them. The company committed to making labeling changes to ensure its products are labeled in a manner that is truthful and not misleading. Therefore, the FDA considers the issues cited in the warning letter to be resolved and will issue a close out letter soon.”

The New York Times reports that consumers will start seeing the new labels in stores starting in about 60 days.

Ars Technica

 

[Teelie]

Woman claims her body brews alcohol, has DUI charge dismissed

I've read about this before in reference to a man whose gut was brewing alcohol but this is the first I've seen details like just how much of a functional "alcoholic" a person can be.

Imagine being charged with a DUI when it's been hours since you've had a drink, only to later discover that your body brews its own alcohol.

That's what happened to an upstate New York woman when she blew a blood alcohol level more than four times the legal limit. Just before Christmas in Hamburg, New York, a judge dismissed the charges after being presented with evidence the woman suffers from "auto-brewery syndrome."

"I had never heard of auto-brewery syndrome before this case," attorney Joseph Marusak told CNN on the condition his client's identity remain anonymous. "But I knew something was amiss when the hospital police took the woman to wanted to release her immediately because she wasn't exhibiting any symptoms."

"That prompts me to get on the Internet and see if there is any sort of explanation for a weird reading," adds Marusak. "Up pops auto-brewery syndrome and away we go."

"I'm in touch with about 30 people who believe they have this same syndrome, about 10 of them are diagnosed with it," said Panola College Dean of Nursing Barbara Cordell, who has studied the syndrome for years. "They can function at alcohol levels such as 0.30 and 0.40 when the average person would be comatose or dying. Part of the mystery of this syndrome is how they can have these extremely high levels and still be walking around and talking."

Extremely rare condition

Also known as gut-fermentation syndrome, this rare medical condition can occur when abnormal amounts of gastrointestinal yeast convert common food carbohydrates into ethanol. The process is believed to take place in the small bowel, and is vastly different from the normal gut fermentation in the large bowel that gives our bodies energy.

First described in 1912 as "germ carbohydrate fermentation," it was studied in the 1930s and '40s as a contributing factor to vitamin deficiencies and irritable bowel syndrome. Cases involving the yeast Candida albicans and Candida krusei have popped up in Japan, and in 2013 Cordell documented the case of a 61-year-old man who had frequent bouts of unexplained drunkenness for years before being diagnosed with an intestinal overabundance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or brewer's yeast, the same yeast used to make beer.

Flat tire a blessing

It was a beautiful fall afternoon in 2014 when Marusak's client met her husband at a restaurant for food and drinks. She consumed "four drinks between noon and 6 p.m." says Marusak, "less than one drink an hour. We hired a local pharmacologist who said that a woman of her size and weight having four drinks in that period of time should be between 0.01 and 0.05 blood alcohol levels." That would be beneath the legally impaired level of 0.08 BAC in New York state.

And here's the "crazy thing," says Marusak. "Her husband drives to meet friends and she is driving home. She gets a flat close to home but doesn't want to change the tire so keeps on driving. Another driver sees her struggling with the car and calls it in as an accident. So if she hadn't had that flat tire, she'd not know to this day that she has this condition."

Because she blew a blood alcohol level of nearly 0.40, police procedure is to take the accused to a hospital, as that level is considered extremely life-threatening.

Instead of allowing his wife to be released as the hospital recommended based on her lack of drunken symptoms, the husband asked for tests to be run. Sure enough, Marusak says, the results showed a blood alcohol level of 0.30, hours and hours after her last drink. That prompted Marusak to do his own sleuthing.

"I hired two physician assistants and a person trained in Breathalyzers to watch her and take blood alcohol levels over a 12-hour period and had it run at the same lab used by the prosecution," said Marusak. "Without any drinks, her blood level was double the legal limit at 9:15 a.m., triple the limit at 6 p.m. and more than four times the legal limit at 8:30 p.m., which correlates with the same time of day that the police pulled her over."

Even more strange, says Marusak, is the fact that the woman exhibited no signs of the levels until she reached a blood alcohol level of between 0.30 and 0.40.

"That's when she started to feel a bit wobbly on her feet." Marusak explains that by pointing to the world of alcoholism, where the bodies of "functioning alcoholics" adapt to the high levels of booze in their blood.

Even though the Hamburg judge dismissed the case against his client, Marusak says it's not over yet.

"I've heard the DA's office says they plan to appeal. I'll know more by the middle of January."

Assistant Erie County District Attorney Christopher Belling confirmed a review of the judge's decision is underway but declined to comment further.

In the meantime, Marusak's client is treating her condition with anti-fungal medications and a yeast-free diet with absolutely no sugar, no alcohol and very low carbs. While that works for some, Cordell says, others relapse or find little relief.

CNN

 

[nite-owl]

This mother knitted a life-size doll after her son said he might not want to hug her anymore.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopo...n?bffbtrending&utm_term=.hlPnxVEG3#.gkJwGbzx2

 

[nite-owl]

City Official Quits After Asking Male Bus Driver to Dress Up as Adorable Little Old Lady.

A recent scandal out of Cranston, Rhode Island, is rocking the small New England city to its core. Sue Stenhouse, executive director of Cranston’s Senior Enrichment Center, resigned last week after asking a male bus driver to don a wig, earrings, and a really quite flattering shade of pink lipstick so that he would appear to be an elderly woman when he stood behind Stenhouse at a press conference.

That’s right: the charming old lady with a “Cranston Senior Home Resident” sticker on her lapel you see above is not in fact Jonah Hill auditioning for the title role in a Mrs. Doubtfire reboot, but a senior center employee named David Roberts. Before we go any further, let’s explore the depths of Roberts’ visible discomfort to be playing the role.
According to local NBC affiliate WJAR, which broke the story, Stenhouse held the press conference last week to announce a new program that would have students shoveling snow for the elderly. WJAR’s sources said the plot was meant to convey a positive image to the media.
Cranston director of administration Rob Coupe told the Associated Press that Stenhouse resigned last week, but did not offer further comment, saying it was a personnel matter. “I’ve been in a meeting all night being a great public servant for the city of Warwick,” Stenhouse said when confronted by a WJAR reporter at her home. “And now I get this bulls**t.”

Roberts, who drives a van that transports senior citizens, picked up the wig from a local beauty salon, according to the salon’s owner. “He says to me, ‘Elaine, do you have a wig that I could borrow? I have to get dressed as a senior,’” Elaine Mancuso told the AP. “I said, ‘Oh, my God. He wanted it for that.’ I probably would have given him a better wig if I had known.”

http://gawker.com/city-official-qui...m_source=gawker_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

 

[Duke]

Air India employee dies after being sucked into plane engine at airport

Sounds like something out of a movie, only this time it was real and someone died.

CNN

You can say his job sucked.

 

[nite-owl]

Net closes on 'Croydon Cat Killer' amid hopes that decapitated cat scratched villain.

A pet charity has gathered what may be DNA from under the claws of tortoiseshell moggy Amber and the Met Police is prepared to accept it as evidence.

The net is closing in on the ‘Croydon Cat Killer’ suspected of slicing off heads and tails of more than 30 felines after new DNA evidence emerged, police say.

A pet charity has gathered what may be genetic material from under the claws of one of the alleged crook’s victims and the Met Police is prepared to accept it as evidence.

South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (SNARL) has raised £5,000 to carry out its investigation alongside the police into the deaths of dozens of pet cats in the Croydon, south London, area.

Boudicca Rising, SNARL’s co-founder, says vets may have found DNA beneath the claws of tortoiseshell moggy Amber who was found without its head or tail.

She said: “We think there may be DNA on Amber. There’s material under her claws and the vet is testing to see if there is DNA there.

“The one thing she hated was being picked up and she may have scratched the attacker.

“I bloody well hope it will lead to a criminal conviction.”

Dad-of-two Wayne Bryant, 47, was left distraught after his wife found Amber in a wooded area opposite their home in Croydon in October.

A Met spokesman said: “A local animal charity are arranging DNA testing on one of the deceased animals.

“The borough commander is happy to discuss the results of the DNA testing with them.

“This is an ongoing investigation and as such it would be inappropriate to comment further until all of the facts have been established.

“Police in Croydon are investigating a number of incidents relating to cat deaths in the Croydon area.

“We are currently working to establish the facts.”

SNARL has used online fundraising site gofundme.com to carry out post-mortems and DNA tests using a private lab.

The DNA results will be passed directly to police, who say the evidence could be used to get a criminal prosecution.

Three post-mortems have been carried out so far and while one appeared to indicate a car accident, the other two appeared to have been decapitated with the same cutting pattern, according to Boudicca.

The Met Police have not yet confirmed what has been gleaned from the slain cat’s post mortem, but have vowed to examine any DNA evidence found.

The post mortem results could take up to eight weeks to get back from the lab.

Meanwhile, PETA have offered a whopping £2,000 reward for information to convict the killer.

The charity is also advising pet owners to keep their animals indoors under a “watchful eye”.

Elisa Allen, PETA associate director, said: “The pain and fear that any of these cats experienced is unimaginable, so it’s imperative that any community faced with such sadistic and violent acts take measures to find the culprit and bring him or her to justice.

“Animal abusers are a danger to everyone - they take their issues out on whoever is available to them, human or non-human, and must be caught before they act again.”

Surrey Police are also investigating the latest cat death, of a family moggy named Missy.

Sergeant Ross Spanton described Missy’s decapitation as a “disgusting and horrifying incident which has understandably left the family extremely distressed.”

He added: “I would like to reassure the local community that active enquiries are underway to identify those responsible and I would urge anyone with any information to contact police.”

The RSPCA are also investigating, but at the moment they suspect the cats were already dead before they were mutilated.

A spokesperson said: “We will be surveying any evidence we are given to see if there is deliberate cruelty involved here.

“Thankfully acts of deliberate violence against dead cats are rare and thorough research has shown that these kind of injuries can be caused by wildlife after death.”

Killing small animals is one of the traits that make up the Macdonald triad - a set of three behavioural characteristics that, if two or all three are present, could indicate an individual may be a sociopath.

The three signs are cruelty to animals, an obsession with setting fires and persistent bedwetting past a certain age.

American serial killer Edmund Kemper, who was convicted of eight murders but suspected of having more victims, exhibited extreme cruelty to animals at an early age before going on to shoot his grandparents and murder hitchhikers.

Another person who killed a number of animals before moving onto human victims was Richard Chase, also known as the ‘Vampire of Sacramento’, who killed six people in the space of a month in the late 70s.

John Duffy and David Mulcahy, known as the Railway Killers, committed three murders in and around London in the 1980s and a number of brutal rapes, are also thought to have exhibited cruelty towards animals.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/net-closes-croydon-cat-killer-7031474

Well this is f**ked up.

 

[rogbngp]

Saw this featured on Tru Tv's 10 Things You Didn't Know:

[YT]umHfb1JHovA[/YT]

 

[Victarion]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_facto...nst_chester_the_cheetah_in_junk_food_sex.html

Furries have been tweeting pornographic images at Tony the Tiger.

 

[blueharvest]

Do they not realize he's a fictional character?

 

[Marvolo]

They are flurries. They dress up as furry animals to get their jollies off. Them fantasizing about ****ing a cartoon character isn't a huge jump for these weirdos.

 

[Victarion]

They are flurries. They dress up as furry animals to get their jollies off. Them fantasizing about ****ing a cartoon character isn't a huge jump for these weirdos.

[YT]GihuUYmoMXU[/YT]

 

[Teelie]

Washington state may implement genital inspection law for public restrooms

If this passes into law then it can be shunted over to the "Abuse of Power" thread because, "Ew, transgender people are sexual perverts with cooties."

Transphobia is such a major phenomenon in some areas of this country now that genital inspection may be required in Washington state. That would be the end result of several laws now under consideration in the Evergreen State by certain conservative lawmakers thanks to their irrational fear of allowing transgender individuals to use gender segregated restrooms.

The public restroom argument has been one bandied about by those who think that people only become transgender to spy on others who are urinating. Apparently, they believe that everybody who is transgender is actually secretly a coprophiliac in disguise who wants to get their kinks by listening to other people defecate and urinate. Presumably, these bigoted individuals also do not understand that genitals can be used for purposes other than sexual function, or simply believe that everybody is as sexually obsessed as they are. Perhaps their constituents could send them copies of “Everybody Poops” in order to educate them.

The bills in question would require that anybody who desires to relieve themselves in a public restroom would be forced to use the restroom that matches the genitals they were born with. Hopefully they would put up helpful penis and vagina sigils on the door to replace the standard male and female ones in use. What the bill does not do, however, is include a method of enforcement or inspection, leaving that to business owners instead. If you see the problem here, you are about five steps ahead of Washington Republicans already.

The only way to enforce such a law would be to have mandatory genital inspections prior to entering a restroom.

That’s right, under the law, were it to be enacted, ol’ Chet at the local 7-11 would need to have every guy and gal unzip and show him the goods before he can give them the key attached to that wooden plank he keeps behind the register. After all, if he were to allow a female who was born genetically male make a tinkle in the ladies’ room he could be in violation of the law.

While it may sound ridiculous, this is exactly what the result of silly discrimination laws would be. How these lawmakers live in homes and have brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, etc. share restrooms is probably best left to the imagination. We’re guessing they just assume everybody in their home is listening to them take the browns to the bowl for the sexual thrill, since that’s their assumption of the public at large.

In reality, the people most likely to be harassed in a public restroom are not cisgender individuals, but transgender. The weird prudishness about public restrooms says a heck of a lot more about the bathroom habits of the bigots who support such legislation than it does about anybody who simply wants to pee in peace; whether they sit, stand, or squat.

Laws like this are discriminatory, harmful, and serve no purpose but to further stigmatize those who are different from the ones who want to put them in. While this one appears destined for failure, it seems likely that backwards folks who use gender identity as a means of prejudice (and apparently assume bathrooms are a place of sexual gratification for most people) will continue to bring them forward.

Examiner

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

^^
« Duos habet et bene pendentes! »

 

[Teelie]

“Drop Comcast today,” Yankees network tells baseball fans
Comcast won't pay for Yankees games, so network urges viewers to switch.

If only it were as simple as that. Most places don't get a choice in their broadband options so it's kind of pointless. But I totally understand and agree with the sentiment. Just not so sure it applies to a Yankees game.

New York Yankees fans opening the newspaper this week may see an unusual full-page advertisement urging them to "Drop Comcast today and find another TV provider." The ad points fans to a website that suggests DirecTV, Frontier, and Verizon as alternatives.

It's the latest punch thrown in a fight between Comcast and the YES Network, which broadcasts about 130 Yankees games per season and is owned by Fox and Yankee Global Enterprises. When negotiations for a new carriage deal broke down in November, Comcast dropped the regional sports network, affecting about 900,000 homes in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, the New York Post reported at the time.

Since there's still no deal and regular season baseball starts in less than a month, the YES Network took out the full-page ads in The New York Times and other newspapers and is also urging fans to drop Comcast with "radio and TV spots, outdoor placements, and an aggressive social media strategy," Variety reported this week.

“They dropped us,” YES CEO Tracy Dolgin told Variety. “We didn’t drop them. We decided we needed to inform viewers about their alternatives before they miss Opening Day.”

Comcast has argued that based on viewership data, "the price/value proposition for the YES Network did not justify the price that Fox was asking for the network." More than 90 percent of subscribers "didn't watch the equivalent of even one-quarter of those games during the season, even while the Yankees were in the hunt for a playoff berth," Comcast has said.

The YES Network says that it was the top cable network and third-most-viewed network overall in the New York area on the nights the Yankees played. The network reportedly asks TV providers to pay $4.89 per subscriber per month.

The YES Network also televises basketball games played by the Brooklyn Nets, soccer games played by New York City FC, and various other sports shows.

The Comcast/YES Network battle is similar to one that has kept Los Angeles Dodgers games off several cable and satellite networks in the LA area for the past two seasons.

Ars Technica

 

[Teelie]

Former College Student Wins Lawsuit After Being Told Men Were ‘Turned On’ By Her Pregnancy

I know there are some men (and likely women) who get aroused by the sight of a pregnant woman but I doubt that was the case here and it was just plain old "pregnant women have no place here" discrimination instead.

A former social work student at Wayne State University, who says she was prevented from graduating due to discrimination during a Salvation Army internship, will receive $850,000, thanks to a federal appeals court that recently upheld the jury award in U.S. District Court.

The graduate student, Tina Varlesi, was assigned to work with men at a Salvation Army rehab center who were struggling with substance abuse. She was pregnant at the time.

Varlesi said her supervisor made inappropriate comments to her during her internship. She was instructed to stop rubbing her belly and to wear looser clothing to prevent the men at the rehab center from being “turned on by her pregnancy,” according to the Detroit Free Press.

According to the ruling, her supervisor also gave her many instructions about how she should behave during her pregnancy, telling her when she should drive, asking her probing questions about whether she was married, and telling her that men at the rehab center “can look but they cannot touch.” Varlesi was not alone during these conversations with her supervisor. Other students were present during these personal inquiries.

After Varlesi filed a complaint about her supervisor with the university, she was called into a meeting with the supervisor and the school’s administrators. Instead of intervening on her behalf and suggesting she wasn’t responsible for the libidinous feelings of the men at the center, however, the university administrators agreed that Varlesi should wear looser clothing.

She eventually received a failing grade for her internship, which prevented her from being able to graduate from the masters program. But when she made a formal complaint against the university, Wayne State denied the claim. (Varlesi settled with the Salvation Army.)

Unfortunately, pregnancy discrimination is not entirely rare in education settings — whether in higher education or K-12 public schools — although the women discriminated against are usually teachers, not students.

Last summer, for example, an assistant professor filed a $650,000 lawsuit against Northwest Christian University, claiming that supervisors fired her after she told them was pregnant out of wedlock. She alleges supervisors told her that she had a choice — she had to get married or say her pregnancy was a mistake and end her relationship with her partner of 12 years, according to OregonLive.com. A pregnant teacher at Marian High School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a parochial high school, had been married to her female partner for two years when was told she either had to be fired or resign from her job because she was not a role model for students. Other women married to women who have become pregnant at Catholic schools have also been fired under similar circumstances, The New Republic reported.

But religious schools certainly aren’t the only perpetrators of pregnancy discrimination in education. Last December, eight Chicago teachers who said they were discriminated against while pregnant split a $280,000 payout for damages and backpay from Chicago Public Schools. A school principal threatened to fire pregnant teachers, and teachers say he gave them poorer performance evaluations while they were pregnant.

Think Progress

 

[Teelie]

Baltimore woman 'blown off' her own toilet files lawsuit

It doesn't get much weirder than this. A reverse toilet situation where it spews **** instead of flushing it.

The attorney says it all.

BALTIMORE (WBFF) -- A Baltimore woman says she was injured both physically and emotionally from an exploding toilet.

"She was blown off that toilet that day," says attorney Louis Glick.

The woman is now filing a lawsuit more than a year after the day it happened. Angela Wright says she still suffers psychologically and her home hasn't been repaired.

"I was literally covered in feces. Are you kidding me who wants that?" Wright said.

Wright spoke with FOX45 about the ordeal in November 2014, right after it happened.

"She had to clean it up herself," Glick says. "Can you imagine doing that?"

Named in the lawsuit are Baltimore's mayor and City Council along with two city contractors -- Heitkamp Incorporated and Spinello Companies.

"She still has enormous emotional stress and she's still under treatment," Glick says, "for post-traumatic stress disorder."

In 2014 FOX45 was told the city contracted the company Spinello, to use high-pressure hoses to clean out the sewer line in Wright's neighborhood.

She says she was sitting on her toilet when it backed up and she was blown off.

"The Spinello men came in here," she told us that day. "Once they stopped the machines and I showed them I was covered in feces and they were blown away."

Glick says property damage is significant.

"We have an estimate of $14,000 just to repair the bathroom," he says, adding that day wasn't the first time that waste backed up into Wright's home.

"It happened also in August 2014. Fortunately she wasn't sitting there."

"I would probably seek $250,000 if we go in front of a jury to compensate her properly for the enormous blows to her psyche and physical self."

FOX45 reached out to all those named in the lawsuit late Thursday afternoon, and are still waiting to hear back. A court date for the case has not been set.

Fox Baltimore

 

[Teelie]

Home of Chumlee from 'Pawn Stars' searched; police find drugs, 12 guns

They arrested him and did a search after he was accused of rape.

Among the drugs found were Pot, Meth, Xanax and evidence he snorted cocaine although they did not explicitly state that. They did not state what type of guns were found although he had something even more insidious, something listed as a "Chum Chum Room with Dance Pole."

Shuddering at the thought.

When authorities searched reality star Austin Russell's home last week after sexual assault allegations, they found 12 guns and assorted drugs, an arrest report shows.

Las Vegas police arrested Russell, who is known as "Chumlee" on History Channel series "Pawn Stars," last week on weapon and drug charges.

Investigators initially went to his Las Vegas home to recover evidence after a woman alleged Russell had sexually assaulted her, according to the report.

They seized items such as bedding, clothes and home surveillance video.

"During the course of the search warrant service, several illegal items including methamphetamine, marijuana and firearms were located," said Officer Larry Hadfield of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

He has not been charged with sexual assault, and the investigation is ongoing, Hadfield said.

Report: Guns and drugs

In an arrest report released Tuesday, investigators detailed what led to the narcotics and firearm charges.

During the home search, police found a floor vault that Russell did not want to open because it had "private things," according to the report.

Authorities threatened to call a locksmith, forcing Russell to open it. In it, police found about 4 ounces of marijuana, 12 guns, methamphetamine and Xanax prescription pills, the report said.

Russell told investigators that he's not a drug dealer, but he buys marijuana in bulk to avoid numerous small purchases, according to the report.

It added that he asked investigators for "leniency" because he cooperated in opening the vault.

Other searches

During a search of other rooms, police also found drugs-related paraphernalia, including plastic baggies and rolling paper, the report said.

Investigators also listed a "Chum Chum Room with Dance Pole," in which they said they found a clear baggie and a dollar bill -- both with white residue. The report did not provide any more details on the room.

Russell was arrested March 9 and charged with illegal possession of a firearm and numerous narcotics charges.

The firearm charge was because a person who unlawfully uses a controlled substance is banned from possessing firearms, the report said.

In a statement to CNN affiliate KSNV, the reality star's attorney said his defense team will address the evidence in court.

"We will be analyzing what was allegedly found and whether the alleged seizure was lawful in a courtroom, not in the media," David Chesnoof said.

His next court date is May 23.

Russell is a regular cast member on "Pawn Stars," which features the employees of the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas.

CNN has reached out to his attorneys and the pawn shop for comment.

CNN