August 18, 2015

mutant daisies growing near Fukushima power plant

https://mobile.twitter.com/san_kaido/status/603513371934130176

August 18, 2015

14 cops take down homeless one legged man, mistake his prosthetic limb for weapon

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/throng of San Francisco cops detained a man with one leg by sitting on his prosthetic limb after they mistook his crutches for weapons, witnesses said.

At least 14 officers helped in the takedown earlier this month, said Chaédria LaBouvier, a journalist who filmed the incident.




The officers held down the man, who appeared to be homeless, for at least 30 minutes, LaBouvier wrote in a Monday post on Medium. He lay on the ground half-naked, his pants slipping off as he struggled with cops, and repeatedly asked, “What are you doing this for?”

LaBouvier said she was on her way to the Medium office to discuss a new project on police brutality when she noticed the cops corner the unidentified man.

Witnesses told her the officers were responding to call about someone waving sticks downtown — the “weapons” turned out to be the man’s crutches, she said.

“These are my crutches. I use these to walk,” the man explains in the video as the cops take them away from him. Then, several officers wrestle him to the ground.-francisco-cops-detain-man-leg-article-1.2329163

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In further efforts to subdue a man already on the ground with four people on top of him, the officers stood on his prosthetic leg and “twisted it around even after they had cuffed him and pinned him to the piss-stained concrete,” LaBouvier noted.

Beaten to the ground, the suspect at one point said, “what the f**k is you doing this to me?” as more officers arrived to form a cordon around the incident area.“Is this respectable? When I say ‘no’, is this what you do to me?” the man said.

Witnesses spoke out against police brutality from the start of the video but to no avail as cops continued to abuse the one legged man. The camera operator especially noted the “lack of respect” for the suspect as clothes were pulled off the man during the incident. First one can see the man’s buttocks being exposed, and minutes later his entire back.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/video-catches-14-cops-gang-homeless-amputee-armed-crutches

August 18, 2015

UCF fraternity member who chants 'rape' in video is suspect in sex assault

F fraternity brother identified as chanting "rape" in a video recorded in June is the same man accused of sexual assaulting a woman at the fraternity's off-campus apartments last year, according to the victim's complaint released by the university.

In a text message Monday, the woman who reported being assaulted confirmed to the Orlando Sentinel that she recognized his voice in the video. Another woman who recorded the scene June 9 at the Sigma Nu apartment also identified the man, according to the university complaint.


On Monday, the University of Central Florida released the recording that appears to depict several Sigma Nu fraternity members laughing and talking in an expletive-laced conversation.

"Let's rape some b------," a man's voice can be heard saying before someone chanted "rape" several times in a row.

It was recorded by a woman who is not a UCF student. That woman, who was dating one of the fraternity members at the time, knew about the open sexual-assault case against the man and was friends with the victim. She gave the recording to the victim, who later filed the student-conduct incident report based on the contents.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-sigma-nu-video-follow-20150817-story.html

August 18, 2015

Calling Police 'Pigs' from passing car Lands Teen in Jail

Tennessee teenager allegedly squealed “pigs!” at police officers Friday and wound up being the one confined to a pen. The First Amendment generally protects such insults but the pig-caller made a critical error, legal experts say.

William Reece, 19, was riding in a Honda Accord traveling at most 40 miles per hour when he cracked a rear passenger door and yelled the insult at officers performing a traffic stop, according to a police report.

The unamused patrolmen with the Newport Police Department caught up with the car and arrested Reece for disorderly conduct "due to creating a hazardous condition that served no legitimate purpose."

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“If the arrest had occurred for shouting through an open window, it probably would have been unconstitutional,” says Vanderbilt University Law School professor Christopher Slobogin.

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Timothy Zick, a law professor at the College of William and Mary, says it's curious that Reece faces a charge for disorderly conduct, rather than for committing a traffic violation.



Zick, like other experts, says opening the door was a poor decision.
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/08/17/calling-police-pigs-lands-teen-in-jail

August 18, 2015

KFC replaces Darrell Hammond with Norm MacDonald in those stupid unpopular ads

The sky is falling, and KFC is trying to make chicken salad out of chicken scratch.

KFC, a unit of Yum Brands, has switched the actors who portray company founder Col. Harland Sanders, swapping in marginally talented Saturday Night Live alum Norm Macdonald to replace marginally talented Saturday Night Live alum Darrell Hammond.

It's is an odd move. The idea that an actor change will make the ad campaign any easier to swallow is nonsense, since it isn't the actor but the role that so many consumers don't like. The real-life Harland Sanders was complicated, and he was authentic. Yes, Sanders lived his life as if he were in character, but he played that part well, far better than Hammond could and MacDonald can.

The new Colonel is a caricature, carefuly choreographed by the company and its creative hired hands. Instead of resurrecting the Colonel to lead KFC's sales back to their former fried glory, the company has instead unleashed a childish pantomime that people old enough to remember Colonel Sanders don't like and people too young to know him can't possibly understand.

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Bad ad campaigns have lasting impressions. The Colonel Sanders reboot is rapidly becoming the most ridiculed fast-food campaign since the "Where's Herb?" fiasco of the mid-1980's. There, Burger King spent $40 million, including a Super Bowl advert, to create "Herb," a bald, middle-aged geek who had never been to Burger King. You got discounts if you ordered your Whopper and informed the counter worker that you weren't Herb. (And fast-food workers nowadays think they're overworked and underpaid?) You could win prizes if you found Herb in a restaurant. Trouble was, no one looked for Herb because smart families tended to avoid middle-aged, creepy men who hung out in Burger Kings. The campaign lasted three months, and they're still teaching its lessons in college today.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/KFC-Doubles-Down-on-a-Dumb-Ad-Campaign-6448968.php

August 17, 2015

Shady tow truck biz owner charged, would tow legally parked cars to nearby lot & demand $120 cash

Has your car been held for ransom? Predatory tow truck crackdown continues


The owner/operator of a Van Nuys towing and storage business accused of illegally towing cars and then charging the owners high fees to recover their vehicles is facing 60 criminal counts, City Attorney Mike Feuer announced Monday.

“Holding vehicles ransom and charging excessive fees for their release is an outrageous and unscrupulous business practice,” he said. “My office will continue to crack down on predatory businesses, hold their operators accountable and protect Los Angeles drivers.”

Valley Impound Garage allegedly targeted motorists who used a lot at 9241 Reseda Blvd. in Northridge, towing vehicles within an hour of when they were parked.

One woman told Los Angeles Police Commission investigators that she parked at the lot before visiting a nearby beauty salon. About 25 minutes later, she found that her car had been towed to a lot across the street, where the tow truck driver demanded that she pay $120 cash on the spot or $280 at the company’s Van Nuys tow yard, according to the city attorney’s office.

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VIG’s owner, Steven Garcia Sr., 60, was charged with operating without a state motor carrier permit, unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, charging an excessive rate for towing and storage, refusing to accept payment by credit card and vehicle tampering, among other counts.

http://mynewsla.com/crime/2015/08/17/has-your-car-been-held-for-ransom-predatory-tow-truck-crackdown-continues/?google_editors_picks=true

August 17, 2015

Trump: "Heidi Klum. Sadly, she's no longer a 10."

The real estate mogul sat down with The New York Times' Maureen Dowd to talk about everything from his attitude to his political platform, but somehow managed to insult a woman along the way—even though he said he finds them "to be amazing."

The woman in question this time around was supermodel Heidi Klum. "Sometimes I do go a little bit far," he admitted, before adding, "Heidi Klum. Sadly, she's no longer a 10."
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Heidi Klum tweeted a video response to Trump's dig, with footage of the model posing for photos while wearing a sign that reads "10." Unfortunately, a version of Trump appears and rips the sign off of her, reducing her to mere 9.9. She captioned the video, "#TrumpHasSpoken #sadly #9.99 #NoLongerA10 #IHadAGoodRun #donaldtrump #HeidiTrumpsTrump #BeautyIsInTheEyeOfTheBeheld."

http://www.eonline.com/news/686993/donald-trump-rates-heidi-klum-s-looks-says-she-s-no-longer-a-10

Trump sitting in Jury duty room today:

August 17, 2015

Thanks, Obamacare: America's Uninsured Rate Is Below 10% For First Time Ever

For the first time in more than 50 years of surveys, the CDC on Wednesday reported that more than 90% of Americans — 90.8% of us, to be specific — have health insurance.

Until now, no major survey had ever found that the uninsured rate in America has hit single digits.

The data comes from the National Health Interview Survey, which the CDC and the Census Bureau have been conducting for more than 50 years. The questions have sometimes changed, but until this year, the answers haven’t: More than 10% of respondents, and sometimes as many as 18% of Americans, have reported that they’ve been uninsured.



http://www.forbes.com/sites/dandiamond/2015/08/12/for-first-time-americas-uninsured-rate-is-below-10/

August 17, 2015

'Batman' who visited children in hospitals killed when car hits Batmobile

Source: CNN

Lenny B. Robinson, the Good Samaritan who visited children in hospitals dressed as Batman and entered the public spotlight after police pulled him over in costume, died Sunday after a car hit his custom Batmobile on a Maryland interstate.

Medical personnel pronounced Robinson, 51, dead at the scene, Hagerstown State Police said in a statement.

His custom Lamborghini broke down while he was driving east on I-70 in the fast lane. He got out to check the engine while still in the lane, and a Toyota Camry struck his car, which in turn hit him, the statement said.

The Camry driver was not injured, the police statement said.

On top of the cost of his Batmobile and Caped Crusader suit, Robinson said, he spent tens of thousands of dollars each year on coloring books, sunglasses and other gifts for children he visited in hospitals across Washington and Maryland.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/17/living/route-29-beltway-batman-lenny-robinson-dies-feat/index.html

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Remember this guy? He got lots of press a few years ago when a pic of cops stopping his car went viral. It's then we learned that he spends 1000s of his own money to visit kids in the hospital as Batman. This is really sad.

This is the photo that made him famous.

August 17, 2015

Poll: GOP establishment candidates falling

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/16/politics/gop-poll-jeb-bush-scott-walker-marco-rubio-drop-2016/index.html

A trio of Republican establishment favorites -- Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Marco Rubio -- are all losing ground in the party's 2016 presidential field, a new Fox News poll shows.

Donald Trump, meanwhile, continues to dominate the race, earning 25% support nationally, while another outsider, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, is running second at 12%. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, known for locking horns with Republican congressional leaders, is third at 10%.


Bush, the former Florida governor, has dropped to 9% -- fourth place, down from 15% and second place in a Fox News poll conducted earlier this month, before the first GOP presidential debate.