May 9, 2018

Pinata maker apologizes after facing backlash from community for hanging black dolls on his porch

Candace Thurman, who drove by the house said she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“I was a little upset about it,” Thurman said,” I just thought it was really inappropriate. It just brought back memories from slavery.”

However, even though photos appear to be racist, they come from a piñata maker. Victor Chavarria, runs a small piñata business out of his home. He said the piñatas were for a wedding.

After seeing the anger his photo caused he quickly apologized for his mistake.

“I deeply apologize. Effectively immediately, I changed my processes. I wouldn’t do anything to offend anybody, they gave me my feedback and of course, I listen,” Chavarria said. “I’m here to serve the community, not the opposite, and I am deeply sorry.”

Chavarria continued: “They have a point, perception is reality for people and I have to be very careful and sensitive to my community, and I deeply apologize to anybody who got offended. My processes changed immediately, and I won’t dry piñatas on my porch anymore.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/pinata-maker-apologizes-facing-backlash-community-hanging-black-dolls-porch/

May 9, 2018

'Fire him today': Viewers demand MSNBC drop Hugh Hewitt after unethical favors from Scott Pruitt

MSNBC viewers on Tuesday threatened to boycott MSNBC if the network does not fire conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt after a report revealed that he had received special favors from embattled EPA chief Scott Pruitt.

Politico reported on Monday that Pruitt “placed a polluted California area on his personal priority list of Superfund sites targeted for ‘immediate and intense’ action after conservative radio and television host Hugh Hewitt brokered a meeting between him and lawyers for the water district that was seeking federal help to clean up the polluted Orange County site.”

New York Times reporter Michael Barbaro pointed out the ethical problems with MSNBC continuing to allow Hewitt to defend Pruitt on the air.


Michael Barbaro
✔
@mikiebarb
Um, it's not okay for a cable news contributor to ask the EPA administrator for favors like this and still be on TV talking about him. At. All. CC: @MSNBC https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/07/pruitt-california-cleanup-hewitt-meeting-521215 …

8:19 PM - May 7, 2018
2,873
1,502 people are talking about this

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/fire-today-viewers-demand-msnbc-drop-hugh-hewitt-report-reveals-unethical-favors-scott-pruitt/

May 9, 2018

Trump is speedily pursuing a goal. Remove as many nonwhite immigrants as possible from US

Where Trump Succeeds
The administration continues to accomplish its central goal of maintaining white racial hierarchy.

It’s been lost in the frenzy over the Stormy Daniels affair, but in the past week, the Trump administration has sped its pursuit of a central goal: removing as many nonwhite immigrants as possible from the United States.

On Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced an end to temporary protected status for tens of thousands of Hondurans who arrived in the United States to live and work after a 1998 hurricane devastated their country. Now, these Hondurans—who’ve spent decades integrating into American society with homes, jobs, businesses, and native-born children—will be given just two years before they have to leave the United States.

This marks the latest round of expulsions. Last year, the Trump administration removed similar protections for 45,000 Haitians and 2,500 Nicaraguans. At the start of the year, Trump officials did the same for 200,000 Salvadorans. (Senior U.S diplomats objected at the time to Trump’s decisions to expel these immigrants, the Washington Post reported Tuesday, and warned his administration that the deportations could lead to instability in Central America and a surge in illegal immigration. They were ignored.) And just two weeks ago, the administration revoked status from 9,000 Nepalese immigrants. “By January 2020,” notes Dara Lind for Vox, “the Trump administration will have turned 400,000 people who are currently in the US legally into unauthorized immigrants.” At that point, those immigrants will be vulnerable to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency that, under Trump, has become a bona fide deportation force, utilizing draconian tactics to harass and detain people—including American citizens—who pose little threat to the United States.

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It may seem banal to focus on the president’s racism—since at this point in the Trump era, it’s a known quantity—but the racist nature of his policies and program are still, somehow, underplayed amid all the churning controversies. The move against immigrants with temporary protected status was joined, on Monday, with a speech by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who pledged to criminally prosecute every migrant who illegally crosses the southern border and split parents from children to do it. It’s a deliberately cruel change from the present procedure, where apprehended families are released to await civil deportation procedures.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/donald-trump-is-keeping-his-promises-on-race.html

May 9, 2018

A hotel clerk was caught on video calling a black customer a monkey. He's been fired

An employee at a Virginia hotel was fired this week after he was recorded on video using an expletive and a racial slur during a confrontation with a black customer.

The video shows the unnamed hotel clerk angrily walking from behind the reception desk, opening the door leading to the lobby and screaming at the customer to “get off my property” as he points his right arm in one direction.

“Why?” the customer asks, while recording the encounter.

“Because you are rude!” the clerk yells. As he walks back toward the door to the reception desk, he tells the customer again to get his family and leave. There’s more back-and-forth arguing between the guest and the clerk.

Then, as he is opening the door, with his back against the customer, the clerk muttered a curse word and said “monkey.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/05/08/a-hotel-clerk-was-caught-on-video-calling-a-black-customer-a-monkey-hes-been-fired/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d42372c3c5d1

May 9, 2018

animal advocates bottle feed kittens found in alley. "aggressive feeding style" lead to research

When a Northeast Side resident found a pair of striped kittens Saturday, she learned later that afternoon through a fierce attitude and more thana few scratches that it was a serious case of misidentified breed.

Following meows from the back alley of Good Hue Avenue, she found what she believed were Bengal kittens. Not seeing their mother, she carried them in her home to feed them. She and friends visiting from Austin, avowed animal advocates, fed the kittens from pet feeding bottles, filled with kitten milk replacement bought at a nearby store.

The first clue something wasn’t right was the kittens’ aggressive feeding style. It was so aggressive that the duo ripped apart the plastic casings in their frenzy to drink the milk. And that’s when each one of the three humans helping them were bitten several times on the hand as the kittens devoured the milk and destroyed the feeding bottles in the process.

This is when the people decided the kittens might not be Bengal kittens. They researched details about the kittens’ look, such as the distinct pattern of their fur, the tufts of hair coming out of their ears and snubbed tails that were much shorter than traditional domestic cats.

Sunday, the resident called Animal Care Services to report the bite incident. When an ACS officer arrived at the home, she recommended that the trio get medical attention and confirmed that the kittens were in fact baby bobcats.



https://www.sfgate.com/news/local/article/Found-San-Antonio-kittens-turn-out-to-be-baby-12898573.php#photo-15524471


Lynn Cuny, the wildlife organization’s founder and president, said that, sadly, the rescue receives bobcat kittens too often. She said people should know that wild animals belong in the wild and the bobcats should have been left with their mother.

May 9, 2018

As Lava Flows in Hawaii, 'This Is Not the Time for Sightseeing,' Agency Warns

The texts and calls to John Tarson, a tour operator in Hawaii who has taken thousands of visitors to see lava flowing from the Kilauea volcano over the years, began soon after last week’s spectacular eruptions.

There were expressions of concern for the residents on the island’s eastern edge who were forced to flee their homes, and about his own safety. There were exclamations of fear and awe at the lava spreading across the land. And then, some version of the question: “Can we go watch?”

To those, Mr. Tarson, 37, had an easy response. He was as compelled as anyone by the sight of lava, which he captured on video Saturday night spurting 230 feet into the air. There was something inescapably primal about it, he liked to say, a thrilling reminder that civilization sits on the crust of a planet made of molten rock.

But for now, business was closed, he replied to the avalanche of queries: “At this point our efforts are all going to be to help the community that is suffering losses.”

,,,,,

“On the one hand, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing you’re seeing in person,” said Ryan Finlay, an island resident and the administrator of the Hawaii Tracker Facebook group. “And then 10 minutes later, that lava is going into a person’s yard and burning their house down.” The Facebook group tracks lava flow and has been a home for videos taken by island residents in recent days.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/07/us/hawaii-volcano-kilauea.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

May 8, 2018

is Trump pulling US out of Iran deal to take attention away from his legal issues?

He doesn't have a current NFL - taking_knee or immigrant story to use

May 8, 2018

Nordstrom Rack apologized to three black men falsely accused of stealing

https://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/3-black-men-falsely-accused-of-shoplifting-at-12897512.php


Nordstrom Rack has apologized to three black shoppers who say they were falsely accused of stealing from a suburban St. Louis store.

Police were called to a Brentwood store Thursday while 19-year-old college student Mekhi Lee and high school seniors Eric Rogers and Dirone Taylor were shopping for prom clothes.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the three left the store and police pulled into the parking lot. Officers told them that police had gotten a call about three black men shoplifting. Lee and the others showed police the items they had bought and a store receipt, and they were allowed to leave.

Nordstrom Rack apologized in a statement, saying it is enhancing its practices and training. The company said its president, Geevy Thomas, met with the three shoppers' families Tuesday to listen to their concerns and express disappointment that the situation occurred.

May 8, 2018

It's not just you, we're all living in the United States of Anxiety

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-americans-more-anxious-20180508-story.html


A new survey from the American Psychiatric Assn. reveals that 39% of Americans feel more anxious now than they did a year ago. That's more than double the 19% of Americans who feel less anxious now than at this time last year. (Another 39% of survey respondents said their anxiety level is about the same, and 3% weren't sure.)

Worries about safety topped the list of anxieties, with 36% of Americans describing themselves as extremely anxious about "keeping myself or my family safe." About 31% said they were "somewhat anxious" on this score.

Financial fears were close behind. The prospect of paying bills and other expenses made 35% of survey respondents feel extremely anxious, and 32% said it made them somewhat anxious."

And then there were concerns about health. The 28% of Americans who reported being extremely anxious about their medical condition were joined by 39% who said they were somewhat anxious about it.

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The contentious political climate is a significant source of anxiety for a majority of Americans, the survey found. One in five respondents said they were extremely anxious about "the impact of politics on my daily life," and 36% said they were somewhat anxious about it.

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-americans-more-anxious-20180508-story.html

May 8, 2018

Lava vs car (mustang)

https://nypost.com/2018/05/08/creeping-lava-looks-straight-out-of-the-blob-as-it-devours-car/

Mesmerizing — and terrifying — timelapse video shows a wall of lava crawling across a Hawaii road and swallowing up a parked car.

The 30-second footage, taken by Brandon Clement, 38, captures the creeping mound of molten rock from the Kilauea volcano, advancing toward a white Ford Mustang in the Leilani Estates neighborhood Sunday.