Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

WhiskeyGrinder

WhiskeyGrinder's Journal
WhiskeyGrinder's Journal
July 3, 2018

Comedian Andy Dick charged with groping woman on Los Angeles street

https://apnews.com/2ea3c172d7fc46449a9aebb97e897903




LOS ANGELES (AP) — Comedian Andy Dick has been charged with groping a woman on a Los Angeles street earlier this year.

City Attorney’s spokesman Frank Mateljan, says misdemeanor sexual battery and battery charges were filed Wednesday. He is scheduled to be arraigned on July 18.

Mateljan says a woman reported that Dick groped her on April 5.

(snip)

He has been arrested and sued over several groping accusations, including a 2010 incident involving a bouncer and patron at a West Virginia bar. Criminal charges were dismissed after Dick completed a pretrial diversion program.



July 1, 2018

Survey: Students rely on alt-right internet sites as credible sources for their research papers

https://theconversation.com/schools-must-equip-students-to-navigate-alt-right-websites-that-push-fake-news-97166

More than 60 percent of America’s middle and high school students rely on alt-right internet sites as credible sources for their research papers. The students are using alt-right sites to write papers on topics that range from free speech and the Second Amendment to citizenship, immigration and the Holocaust.

These were among the key findings of a preliminary survey of 200 teachers I conducted recently to develop a snapshot of how common it was for middle and high school students to turn to alt-right websites.

As a researcher who specializes in teaching what is known as “hard histories,” including slavery, the Holocaust and other genocides, this finding is of concern, particularly as the nation approaches the one-year anniversary of the tragedy in Charlottesville, Virginia.

(snip)

Instead of ignoring these sites, I’d suggest teachers might do best to teach students how to critically examine the sites. In order to do that, however, teachers must know what is out there. While this is not an exhaustive list, the following six alt-right websites were most commonly cited by teachers as those that students use for their papers. They are: National Policy Institute, Radix Journal, American Renaissance, Taki’s Magazine and Voat.
June 27, 2018

Janus vs. AFSCME: Supreme Court Deals Blow To Government Unions

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/27/606208436/supreme-court-deals-blow-to-government-unions

In a blow to organized labor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that government workers who choose not to join a union cannot be charged for the cost of collective bargaining.

The vote was a predictable 5-to-4 margin. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion with the court's conservatives joining him.

"Under Illinois law, public employees are forced to subsidize a union, even if they choose not to join and strongly object to the positions the union takes in collective bargaining and related activities," Alito wrote. "We conclude that this arrangement violates the free speech rights of nonmembers by compelling them to subsidize private speech on matters of substantial public concern."

The decision reverses a four-decades-old precedent and upends laws in 22 states.
May 24, 2018

Women accuse Morgan Freeman of inappropriate behavior, harassment

(CNN)A young production assistant thought she had landed the job of her dreams when, in the summer of 2015, she started work on "Going In Style," a bank heist comedy starring Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin.

But the job quickly devolved into several months of harassment, she told CNN. She alleges that Freeman subjected her to unwanted touching and comments about her figure and clothing on a near-daily basis. Freeman would rest his hand on her lower back or rub her lower back, she said.

In one incident, she said, Freeman "kept trying to lift up my skirt and asking if I was wearing underwear." He never successfully lifted her skirt, she said -- he would touch it and try to lift it, she would move away, and then he'd try again. Eventually, she said, "Alan [Arkin] made a comment telling him to stop. Morgan got freaked out and didn't know what to say."

Freeman's alleged inappropriate behavior was not limited to that one movie set, according to other sources who spoke to CNN. A woman who was a senior member of the production staff of the movie "Now You See Me" in 2012 told CNN that Freeman sexually harassed her and her female assistant on numerous occasions by making comments about their bodies.


https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/24/entertainment/morgan-freeman-accusations/index.html
April 18, 2018

MN08 gets even more interesting.

Leah Phifer, top vote-getter at the District 8 convention this past weekend but who couldn't get enough for an endorsement, just announced she won't take it to a primary. Good riddance.

April 4, 2018

Native American Lacrosse Teams Reported Racial Abuse. Then Their League Expelled Them.

https://deadspin.com/native-american-lacrosse-teams-reported-racial-abuse-t-1824292659

Lacrosse was played by Native American nations across North America long before it was colonized by Europeans. But despite Native people’s historical and cultural connection to the game, they were periodically banned from playing before the 1973 American Indian Religious Freedom Act restored Native peoples’ right to practice religious and cultural ceremonies. Native Americans who play and coach lacrosse today have recent ancestors who were forced to play in secret.

Jeremiah Moreno, who coaches the 7 Flames youth lacrosse team in the Dakota Premier Lacrosse League (DPLL), says he views instilling a reverence for lacrosse and its history as a part of his job. “The game is a ceremony to us. I tell the kids, this game our ancestors played was a ceremony, so you have to respect it,” he said. “The Creator is the one looking down on you watching you play, with a good happy heart. So no matter what happens, no matter who says what to you, you always remember that.”

Until a few weeks ago, Moreno’s team was one of a few majority-Native lacrosse teams playing in the DPLL, the only lacrosse league in the Dakotas, which includes players from age 11 through high school. 7 Flames draws most of its players from two Lakota reservations, while two other Native-majority teams in the league, Susbeca (which means dragonfly in the Dakota language) and Lightning Stick Society, field mostly players from Dakota reservations.

Last month, these three Native American teams were suddenly expelled from the DPLL by league administrator Corey Mitchell, for reasons players and coaches say they still do not understand. Members of all three teams say they have experienced severe racial abuse from other DPLL players, parents, and referees, and they allege they were kicked out of the league because Mitchell was uninterested in addressing their allegations of racial abuse.
April 4, 2018

Inside a Private Prison: Blood, Suicide and Poorly Paid Guards

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/03/us/mississippi-private-prison-abuse.html

JACKSON, Miss. — On the witness stand and under pressure, Frank Shaw, the warden of the East Mississippi Correctional Facility, could not guarantee that the prison was capable of performing its most basic function.

Asked if the guards were supposed to keep inmates in their cells, he said, wearily, “They do their best.”

According to evidence and testimony at a federal civil rights trial, far worse things were happening at the prison than inmates strolling around during a lockdown: A mentally ill man on suicide watch hanged himself, gang members were allowed to beat other prisoners, and those whose cries for medical attention were ignored resorted to setting fires in their cells.

(snip)

The case, which has received little attention beyond the local news media, provides a rare glimpse into the cloistered world of privately operated prisons, at a time when the number of state inmates in private facilities is increasing and the Trump administration has indicated that it will expand their use.


A heartbreaking, harrowing read.
March 29, 2018

How my restaurant successfully dealt with harassment from customers

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-my-restaurant-successfully-dealt-with-harassment-from-customers/2018/03/29/3d9d00b8-221a-11e8-badd-7c9f29a55815_story.html



Erin Wade is a chef, restaurateur and co-author of “The Mac + Cheese Cookbook.”

We decided on a color-coded system in which different types of customer behavior are categorized as yellow, orange or red. Yellow refers to a creepy vibe or unsavory look. Orange means comments with sexual undertones, like certain compliments on a worker’s appearance. Red signals overtly sexual comments or touching, or repeated incidents in the orange category after being told the comments were unwelcome.

When a staff member has a harassment problem, they report the color — “I have an orange at table five” — and the manager is required to take a specific action. If red is reported, the customer is ejected from the restaurant. Orange means the manager takes over the table. With a yellow, the manager must take over the table if the staff member chooses. In all cases, the manager’s response is automatic, no questions asked. (At the time of our meeting, all our shift managers were men, though their supervisors were women; something else we’ve achieved since then is diversifying each layer of management.)

In the years since implementation, customer harassment has ceased to be a problem. Reds are nearly nonexistent, as most sketchy customers seem to be derailed at a yellow or orange. We found that most customers test the waters before escalating and that women have a canny sixth sense for unwanted attention. When reds do occur, our employees are empowered to act decisively.

The color system is elegant because it prevents women from having to relive damaging stories and relieves managers of having to make difficult judgment calls about situations that might not seem threatening based on their own experiences. The system acknowledges the differences in the ways that men and women experience the world, while creating a safe workplace.
March 27, 2018

Breaking: LA AG Jeff Landry declines to charge officers in Alton Sterling case, family says

http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/alton_sterling/article_ba6af8f0-2dfc-11e8-ae6f-4fa07b6300

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry declined to criminally charge the two white Baton Rouge police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, in July 2016 outside a convenience store, according to Sterling's family.

Veda Washington-Abusaleh, Sterling's aunt, confirmed that Landry will announce Tuesday he will not charge the officers.

Landry is expected to announce his decision at 10 a.m.

The U.S. Department of Justice last May rejected federal civil rights officers against the two officers, Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake III. Landry then took over the investigation to determine if any state charges should be filed against the officers.

Profile Information

Member since: Thu May 18, 2017, 10:20 AM
Number of posts: 22,323
Latest Discussions»WhiskeyGrinder's Journal