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

Demovictory9

Demovictory9's Journal
Demovictory9's Journal
December 25, 2019

Notre Dame Rector: 50% Chance It Can Be Saved 'The building is still very fragile,

https://www.newser.com/story/284794/notre-dame-rector-50-chance-it-can-be-saved.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_world_img_b

Notre Dame Rector: 50% Chance It Can Be Saved
'The building is still very fragile,' in danger of scaffolding collapsing onto vaults

The rector of Notre Dame Cathedral says the Paris landmark is still so fragile that there's a “50% chance” it might not be saved, because scaffolding installed before the April fire is threatening the Gothic monument's vaults. Monsignor Patrick Chauvet said restoration work isn't likely to begin until 2021—and described his "heartache" that Notre Dame couldn't hold Christmas services this year, for the first time since the French Revolution. "It is not out of danger," he told the AP. "It will be out of danger when we take out the remaining scaffolding. Today we can say that there is maybe a 50% chance that it will be saved. There is also 50% chance of scaffolding falling onto the three vaults, so ... the building is still very fragile." The 12th-century cathedral was under renovation at the time of the April fire, which destroyed its roof and collapsed its spire. With no roof to keep the massive stone structure stable, the cathedral's surviving vaults are crucial to keeping it standing, but they are vulnerable.
December 23, 2019

drunk nypd cop kicks down door and terrorizes family

https://newsone.com/3896759/racist-nypd-cop-jailed-nashville-break-in/

‘F–king N–gers’: Racist NYPD Cop Jailed For Breaking Into Black Woman’s Home

As many horror stories start out nowadays, an Airbnb was involved. Reynolds was renting one for a friend’s bachelor party in September when, according to the Tennessean, he began “kicking in the front door of [Halliburton’s next door] 12 South-area home and charging in in the middle of the night. Video surveillance taken from a neighbor’s RING camera showed Reynolds screaming and threatening the family and using racial slurs.”

After the break-in, Halliburton said that her dogs tried to bite Reynolds but that he would not be deterred.

“He kept coming down the hall,” she said. “Nothing was holding him back. He was like, ‘This is my mother f—ing house’” before the surveillance footage showed Reynolds threatened them with racist, physical violence.

“Try to shoot me, and I’ll break every f—ing bone in your f—ing neck,” Reynolds said before calling them “fucking niggers.”

https://twitter.com/Scot_Blog/status/1206246012752474113



Authorities would interview the officer later that night but did not arrest him. It wasn’t until days later that Metro Nashville police got involved and began investigating. By then, Halliburton had already confronted Reynolds and his friends over the incident.

Neighbor Joetta Alderson was there when Hallibuton approached the cop and the six or seven others he was sharing the Airbnb with. She said Reynolds expressed remorse over the incident, but his other buddies didn’t think it was a big deal.

“The one that did a whole lot of talking, it’s like he kept trying to incite some type of altercation between us and them,” Alderson testified, referring to Reynolds best friend and mouthpiece of the group Thomas Geberth. He suggested, “that if the police [were] called, it’s not going to be a big issue because they were policemen from New York.”

“It made it seem like there was no justice to me,” she added. “What had happened to [Halliburton] could happen to anybody. But as long as they were policemen, then it was OK.”

https://atlantablackstar.com/2019/12/16/his-jail-time-is-a-joke-nypd-cop-who-burst-into-black-nashville-familys-home-in-a-drunken-rage-gets-two-week-sentence-three-years-probation/
December 22, 2019

Young Children Ask Alexa for Toys. Guess Who Pays

https://www.newser.com/story/284678/young-children-ask-alexa-for-toys-guess-who-pays.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_top

Young Children Ask Alexa for Toys. Guess Who Pays
Parents find out the hard way that you don't need to spell to order

Children too young to spell are finding Alexa to be more efficient than Santa Claus: They're asking her to find the items on their wish lists and tapping "buy" on their parents' devices. That means moms and dads now have to find ways to block the little hackers. One woman discovered the issue when she received texts from Amazon telling her that more than two dozen "Paw Patrol" toys were headed to her house, the Wall Street Journal reports. "It was one after another," she said. She had let her 4-year-old son play with her iPad that morning; he tapped the microphone icon in the Amazon app, said "Paw Patrol," and started adding items to the shopping cart.

By the time his mother was texted, it was too late to cancel the shipments. "Boxes and boxes arrived," she said. "He was jumping up and down with excitement." At a home near Detroit, a woman was baffled when a driver dropped off a Barbie Dreamhouse, PJ Masks figurines, and dolls, per the New York Post. "Who sent all these great gifts?" she said she wondered, according to her Facebook post. Her 6-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son had asked Alexa for the presents, to the tune of $400. "They ordered their own Christmas!" their mother wrote. There are steps parents can take to prevent the self-gifting; the Journal discusses them here.

https://nypost.com/2019/12/18/kids-use-alexa-to-order-700-worth-of-toys-on-moms-credit-card/
December 22, 2019

Compassion alert! sheriff sergeant cares for a dog that had been stuck by a vehicle.

https://twitter.com/NYSheriffs/status/1208074263116308486

Compassion alert! Sergeant Chris Howlett, from the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office, cares for a dog that had been stuck by a vehicle.

Howlett with the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office recently cared for a dog that had been struck by a vehicle.

A photo shows the pup with the officer’s coat on him and Sergeant Howlett is petting the dog to comfort him.

According to WKBW, the dog suffered only minor injuries and was reunited with his owners soon after.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EMPxIYQX0AElaXO?format=jpg&name=medium

https://fox8.com/2019/12/21/officer-comforts-dog-after-pup-was-struck-by-car/
December 22, 2019

Church to pay off $5.3M in medical debt for thousands of poverty-stricken households in California

https://abc7ny.com/society/church-to-pay-off-$53m-in-medical-debt-for-5000-local-residents/5774995/

A gift from Christian Assembly Church is wiping out $5.3 million of debt for the poor in 28 communities.

"I would love to be a fly on the wall for someone whose receiving a notification like this," church member Blythe Hill said.

The more than 5,000 impacted households will receive a letter with the news just in time for Christmas.

"There is 5,555 people that will benefit from this and they will all be receiving letters in the mail this week," Pastor Tom Hughes said.

The church partnered with the organization RIP Medical Debt. A letter from RIP Medical Debt states "you no longer owe the balance" and "no strings attached."

RIP is a national nonprofit agency that bundles unpaid medical debt. Entities like Christian Assembly can then buy that debt.


Church members are overwhelmed by the impact.

"Just to open that envelope and be like, 'Oh my gosh, my debt's been paid,'" one woman said.

The church collected about $50,000 in the past year. The members were unaware of how it would be used, but the big reveal is now planned for Christmas services.
December 22, 2019

Police slammed a man's head into a car that they thought he had stolen, video shows. The man died.

David Glen Ward, 52, was the victim of a carjacking Nov. 24 and somehow got the vehicle back, police said. Ward, however, did not tell law enforcement that he had recovered the car.

A Santa Rosa police detective called the sheriff’s office around 5:40 a.m. Nov. 27 to say that the Honda had been spotted. When Deputy Jason Little tried to stop the car minutes later, police said Ward started to pull over but then led police on a five-mile pursuit that reached speeds of more than 70 mph.

Police said Little tried to stop Ward with a PIT maneuver — a tactic in which officers ram their vehicles into a fleeing vehicle to force it to swerve sideways. Little ordered Ward to show his hands but then continued driving, telling a dispatcher that Ward had kept moving his hands toward his waist.

Blount then arrived and ordered Ward to unlock his car door with one hand. Ward moved his hand toward the lock button, but the door did not unlock. Ward rolled down the window.

“I can’t believe this. I’m the injured party in this,” he said. He asked the deputies why they were “harassing [him] all the time."

The deputies tried to pull Ward out of the window while Ward yelled, “My legs! My legs!” Blount pointed out that Ward’s leg was under the steering wheel.

“He bit me!” Blount cried out. A few seconds later, Little said Ward had bit him, as well.

That’s when Blount pulled Ward’s head out of the window by his hair and slammed it into the car’s frame. A crunching noise rang out as Ward moaned.

-----------

Deputy Nick Jax then arrived and told the other officers that the man lying unconscious in front of them was the car’s owner.

-----------

That’s David Ward,” Jax said.

“Then why did he run?” Little asked.

“I don’t know why he ran,” Jax replied. “You have every — All this, it’s legit. He had no reason to run. But I was out with him earlier, like two hours ago, at his house. The car wasn’t there at the time. Obviously, he somehow, he made contact with the guy and got it. But he was here two hours ago, and this is him."

“Oh well,” Blount said.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/12/21/police-slammed-mans-head-into-car-that-they-thought-he-had-stolen-video-shows-man-died/

December 22, 2019

Cats' Poor Reception Prompts Universal to Send an 'Improved,' Updated Version to Theaters

https://www.thewrap.com/cats-poor-reception-prompts-universal-to-send-an-improved-updated-version-to-theaters/

After Universal Pictures’ new film “Cats” was clawed and torn to shreds by critics last week, the studio told movie theaters on Friday that it would be sending a new version of the film with “some improved visual effects.”

The move of replacing a film already in theaters with an “improved” version is unheard of But according to a copy of a memo obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, director Tom Hooper has been upfront about the fact that he barely finished the CGI on the film in time for the world premiere in New York City last week, and the switch is at his request.

Critics have disparaged “Cats,” which stars Francesca Hayward, Taylor Swift, Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson and Idris Elba, among others. The film received a C+ CinemaScore and was slapped with a 19% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The updated film is expected to be available for cinemas to download on Sunday via a satellite server, but for exhibitors that don’t have access to the server, they are expected to receive a hard drive by Tuesday, according to Universal. The studio is asking that theaters replace the current print of Cats as soon as possible.

Universal didn’t immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment
December 21, 2019

anyone going to see Cats?

Profile Information

Gender: Female
Hometown: California
Member since: Tue Feb 27, 2018, 10:32 PM
Number of posts: 32,449
Latest Discussions»Demovictory9's Journal