A Middle Finger Cost Me My Livelihood as a Woman Athlete

It took a split second for my whole world to come crashing down.

My teammates on the University of Connecticut’s women’s soccer team were jumping and screaming and hugging each other. We had just won a championship game. It was one of the happiest moments of my life — my first championship win at the collegiate level. Without thinking, I flashed a middle finger in celebration as I embraced teammates on camera. I couldn't have known that split-second, mindless gesture of celebration would cause UConn to suspend me from the NCAA tournament, revoke my scholarship, and completely upend my life as I knew it. All for a stupid mistake.

Right away, UConn issued a press release calling the middle finger “unsportsmanlike” behavior. I cried the whole way home through the airport, and apologized to my team. Luckily, my teammates were so supportive. But UConn was not finished punishing me.

At that point, I knew I was suspended, but I didn’t really grasp what that meant until I tried to join my teammates in watching the NCAA selection show, which is always a big deal every year. I was essentially barred from seeing my team on campus. I wasn’t allowed to go to any team functions or even enter the locker room. I wasn’t allowed to wear any gear or to identify myself as a UConn athlete, either. And then over winter break, I learned that I had lost my full-ride scholarship. Without it, I could no longer afford to attend UConn. I had to transfer to another school with a partial athletic scholarship mid-year. That’s when I decided to take legal action against UConn. This was about more than a tournament, and even more than a lost scholarship. This was about discrimination on the basis of sex. UConn’s harsh punishment left me feeling ostracized. They attacked my whole identity as a career athlete. And I don’t think the same thing would have happened if I were a male athlete.




https://www.aclu.org/news/womens-rights/a-middle-finger-cost-me-my-livelihood-as-a-woman-athlete/?initms_aff=nat&initms_chan=soc&utm_medium=soc&initms=201219_blog_tw&utm_source=tw&utm_campaign=&utm_content=201219_womensrights_blog&ms_aff=nat&ms_chan=soc&ms=201219_blog_tw

3 People Arrested After Fight Over PlayStation 5 Running Out At Walmart

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Cameras were rolling at a South Florida Walmart when a fight broke out because the store ran out of a popular gaming system.

According to police in Doral, it happened Dec. 10 after a family got agitated because Walmart no longer had PlayStation 5’s in stock.

Police said the situation escalated to the point a woman holding a baby punched a female officer, causing her to fall to the ground.



https://miami.cbslocal.com/2020/12/18/caught-on-cam-3-people-arrested-walmart-fight-over-playstation-5-running-out/

Jeanine Pirro intervened with WH and got PPE sent to her favorite hospital without determining need.

Max Kennedy Jr., a senior associate at a private growth equity firm when he joined Kushner’s effort as a volunteer, was so alarmed by what he witnessed that he initially filed an anonymous whistleblower report.

Among his complaints was a culture that prioritized tips and leads from VIPs, which consumed an inordinate amount of the volunteers’ time and energy. Kennedy wrote in his report that Jeanine Pirro, a Trump booster who hosts a Fox News show, “repeatedly called and emailed until 100,000 masks were sent to a particular hospital she favored. No checks were completed to ensure that the hospital was in particular need of PPE.”

Kennedy, a lifelong Democrat and a grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, later revealed his identity and, in an interview with The Washington Post, described a group of smart and earnest volunteers who were, at best, out of their depth and, at worst, asked to do things they felt uncomfortable doing.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/trump-covid-pandemic-dark-winter/

United passenger who died may have had Covid-19 symptoms, airline says

(CNN)United Airlines is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to contact anyone who was on board a diverted flight from Orlando to Los Angeles after the death of a passenger who may have exhibited coronavirus symptoms.

On Monday, a man on board United Airlines flight 591 had a medical emergency, and the flight was diverted to New Orleans, according to a United Airlines statement.

At the time of the diversion, airline staff were told the passenger had suffered cardiac arrest, a spokeswoman for the airline told CNN.

Paramedics transported him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the statement.

The passenger's wife was overheard telling the EMT that her husband had Covid-related symptoms, including loss of taste and smell, according to the spokeswoman.

However, Covid-19 was never confirmed by the medical professionals at the time, the spokeswoman said.



https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/19/us/united-passenger-died-covid-symptoms/index.html

Trump 'interested' in Michael Flynn's martial law idea.

Senior Trump administration officials are increasingly alarmed that President Trump might unleash — and abuse — the power of government in an effort to overturn the clear result of the election.

Why it matters: These officials tell me that Trump is spending too much time with people they consider crackpots or conspiracy theorists and flirting with blatant abuses of power.

There are 32 days until President-elect Biden's inauguration.
The big picture: Their fears include Trump's interest in former national security adviser Michael Flynn's wild talk of martial law; an idea floated of an executive order to commandeer voting machines; and the specter of Sidney Powell, the conspiracy-spewing election lawyer, obtaining governmental power and a top-level security clearance.

A senior administration official said that when Trump is "retweeting threats of putting politicians in jail, and spends his time talking to conspiracy nuts who openly say declaring martial law is no big deal, it’s impossible not to start getting anxious about how this ends."

"People who are concerned and nervous aren’t the weak-kneed bureaucrats that we loathe," the official added. "These are people who have endured arguably more insanity and mayhem than any administration officials in history."



https://www.axios.com/trump-officials-alarmed-overturn-election-results-a844d1d2-acb2-47a9-87ce-ac579458b1ea.html?utm_campaign=organic&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=twitter

Joe Exotic sues Trump administration for denying his pardon request

Since finding fame with Netflix’s Tiger King Exotic has been relentlessly pursuing a presidential pardon from his fellow reality TV star Donald Trump. But with his many grovelling requests going nowhere, he’s decided to change his tactics.

Lawyers for Exotic have filed a six-page complaint in which they accuse acting pardon attorney Rosalind Sargent-Burns of not presenting the formal request directly to Trump – something they claim she was required to do.

Because of this, the complaint says the rejection of the request shouldn’t be valid, and it specifically names Donald Trump Jr as a supporter of Exotic’s cause.

“Many people have come out and publicly expressed their disagreement with Joe Exotic’s conviction and subsequent sentence. Among those, are members of the president’s own family,” it states. “Donald Trump Jr has been an advocate for Joe Exotic to be pardoned.”


https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/12/18/joe-exotic-sues-trump-administration-department-justice-pardon-request/

Henry Haller, Chef for Five Presidents, Dies at 97

Henry Haller’s entree to the White House came in late 1965, after the executive chef hired by the Kennedys had quit, finding it beneath his dignity at long last to prepare food like the spare ribs, spoon bread and mashed garbanzo beans requested by the subsequent White House occupants, Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson.

Mr. Haller, a pragmatic and versatile Swiss-born chef, had impressed Johnson by preparing meals for him at the Ambassador Hotel during the president’s trips to Manhattan as a senator. He got the job and would go on to become the longest-tenured executive chef in White House history.

From 1966 until his retirement in 1987, Mr. Haller catered to five presidents of varying politics, temperaments and palates, whipped up comfort food for their families, oversaw 250 state dinners and endured several tempest-in-a-fondue-pot controversies.

Mr. Haller, who lived in the Washington suburb of Gaithersburg, Md., died on Nov. 7, his family said. He was 97.

The White House kitchens were originally run by slaves, then an assortment of military stewards and mostly unremarkable professional chefs, each brought in by whatever president was in office. That all changed in 1961, when Jacqueline Kennedy reorganized management of the Executive Mansion to reflect its status as an international showplace. She hired the French-born René Verdon as White House chef, the one who lasted two years into Johnson’s presidency before resigning in frustration.




https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/18/us/politics/henry-haller-dead.html

This $2,800 bento box has nine pounds of wagyu beef

A demographic and geographic picture of who voted so far in Georgia

Demographics

Black voters and voters over 65 years old are showing up in large numbers.

About 32% of early and absentee voters whose race is known are Black, compared to 27% in the general election. Black voters overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates.

Older voters who tend to back Republican candidates are also casting many early ballots. About 44% of early runoff voters are over 65, a group that made up 25% of overall general election voters.

Over-65 voters are more likely to vote absentee, and they were eligible to be automatically mailed absentee ballots for the runoff if they requested them earlier in the year. About 57% of them returned absentee ballots, with the rest voting in-person this week.

Among all voters, 57% have voted in-person and 43% submitted absentee ballots.


Geography

Georgia’s most populated counties are recording the highest number of voters, including DeKalb, Cobb and Fulton counties in metro Atlanta. Overall, 15% of Georgia’s 7.7 million registered voters have already cast ballots.

Turnout lagged in other metro areas that tend to vote for Democratic Party candidates, including Gwinnett, Chatham, Muscogee and Richmond counties.

DeKalb voters have turned out in droves — more than 101,000 so far.

“For a runoff, it has been kind of historic,” said Erica Hamilton, the county’s elections director.

In rural areas that generally support Republicans, there’s no clear turnout trend.


When broken down by region, congressional districts that cover most of the Atlanta area and northeast Georgia have recorded the most voters so far. Districts including Gwinnett, southeast Georgia, northwest Georgia and Augusta lag behind.




https://www.ajc.com/politics/turnout-in-georgia-us-senate-runoff-approaches-presidential-levels/LAZJKUGNYBHRFIHVCNWXOLKAQM/

Georgia sets new voting record for runoffs

More people cast ballots on the first day of early voting in Georgia’s Senate runoffs this week than those that did so when early voting opened ahead of the 2020 general election.

Roughly 168,000 Georgians went to the polls on Monday, the first day to vote early in-person in the state’s two critical Senate runoff elections, according to numbers provided by the Georgia secretary of state’s office. By comparison, some 128,000 voted on the first day of early voting for the November general election.

Another 314,000 people cast absentee ballots on the first day of the early-voting period.

The first-day early in-person turnout broke a record previously set in October when early in-person voting began for the 2020 general election.




https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/530811-georgia-sets-new-voting-record-for-runoffs