Since the nose doesn’t know pot is now legal, K-9s retire


RICHMOND, Va. — Asking dogs to follow their noses won’t work anymore in states that have legalized marijuana.
As Virginia prepares to legalize adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana July 1, drug-sniffing police dogs from around the state are being forced into early retirement, following a trend in other states where legalization has led to K-9s being put out to pasture earlier than planned.

In Virginia, the rush to take marijuana-detecting dogs out of service began even before lawmakers voted last month to accelerate the timetable for legalization. A separate law that went into effect in March prohibits police from stopping or searching anyone based solely on the odor of marijuana.

Virginia state police are retiring 13 K-9s, while many smaller police departments and sheriff’s offices are retiring one or two dogs. Most are in the process of purchasing and training new dogs to detect only illicit drugs, including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Some departments are unable to afford up to $15,000 to buy and train a new dog, so they are disbanding their K-9 units.

The dogs trained on multiple drugs alert in the same way for all of them, so it’s impossible to tell whether they are indicating the presence of marijuana or an illicit drug. The dogs also cannot distinguish between a small, legal amount of marijuana or a larger, still-illegal amount of the drug. For police, that means they can no longer be used to establish probable cause for a search.


https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-05-29/marijuana-pot-legal-k-9s-retire

Faced with anti-vaccination parents, teens are helping one another get Covid shots
The dilemma for some teenagers is "I know vaccines are lifesaving, but I don't want to become homeless" by defying their parents' wishes.

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Nearly all states require consent from a parent or guardian to administer a Covid-19 vaccine shot to children ages 12 to 15, the group the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved for shots this month, according to a recent CNN analysis.

There are exceptions in just five states: In North Carolina, teenagers can receive vaccinations without parental consent; in Tennessee and Alabama, teenagers 14 and older don’t need consent; in Oregon, the age is set at 15; and in Iowa, it’s up to the health care provider to decide.

In all other states, those 12 to 15 are required to have parental approval before receiving the Covid-19 vaccination. For teenagers 16 to 18, though, it’s all over the map.

In California, for example, minors can’t get the Covid-19 vaccination without their parents’ consent, according to the vaccine information website VaxTeen. But a 16-year-old in South Carolina can do so without parental permission.

Just how many teenagers are in this predicament remains unclear. But Kelly Danielpour, who runs VaxTeen, said that among the dozen or so queries she gets every day, many are from teenagers contending with parents opposed to them getting vaccinated against Covid-19.


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/faced-anti-vaccination-parents-teens-are-helping-each-other-get-n1268093

Authorities are hunting for a clueless tourist who came within feet of a massive grizzly bear just to snag a souvenir photo in Yellowstone National Park.



The intense viral footage — shot earlier this month by another tourist in a parking lot at Roaring Mountain inside the Wyoming park — shows an unidentified woman holding her phone as she stands close to the female grizzly.

The grizzly charges at the woman, appearing ready to pounce, before turning away. Nearby witnesses were left breathless after the frightening encounter, video shows.

“Oh my God, oh my God,” one startled woman said. “Holy f-ck!”

“I got that on video!” another shocked witness said.

National Park Service rangers want to identify the woman as part of an investigation into the May 10 incident for disregarding rules to stay at least 100 yards away from bears, Yellowstone Park officials said this week.

https://nypost.com/2021/05/28/tourist-sought-for-approaching-bear-with-phone-at-yellowstone/

Gavin MacLeod, ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ and ‘Love Boat’ Actor, Dies at 90
After years as a journeyman with a long list of credits but little name recognition, he found stardom on two of the biggest television hits of the 1970s and ’80s.






Gavin MacLeod, who tasted stardom after years as a journeyman actor when he landed roles on two of the most successful television series of the 1970s and ’80s — as the news writer Murray Slaughter on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and Capt. Merrill Stubing on “The Love Boat” — died on Saturday at his home in Palm Desert, Calif. He was 90.

His nephew Mark See confirmed the death. He said that the cause was unknown, but that Mr. MacLeod had recently had health issues.

When Mr. MacLeod was invited to audition for the pilot of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in 1970, he was almost 40, a recovering alcoholic and still looking for a breakthrough role after more than a dozen years as a working actor with a string of modest stage, film and television credits — notably on the sitcom “McHale’s Navy” — but little name recognition.

The audition was for the role of Lou Grant, the gruff newsroom boss of Ms. Moore’s character, Mary Richards, a sweet-natured associate news producer at a fictional Minneapolis television station. But Mr. MacLeod asked instead if he could read for the more understated role of Murray, saying he felt more comfortable playing Mary’s co-worker than her superior. (The role of Lou Grant went to Ed Asner.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/29/arts/television/gavin-macleod-dead.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

An Anaheim man was charged with three counts of attempted murder Friday in connection with a BB gun shooting on the 91 Freeway, where recently there have been a rash of such shootings across the region, authorities said.









Jesse Leal Rodriguez, 34, also was charged with three counts of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, Riverside County Dist. Atty. Mike Hestrin said in a statement.

“Shooting at moving vehicles with a BB gun or pellet gun while traveling at high speed on our roads or freeways is incredibly dangerous,” Hestrin said. “Shooting out windows of cars could easily startle drivers in traffic and cause a major accident. We are all relieved that no one was seriously injured by these crimes.”

The charges involve three occupants of a vehicle that was shot at on Tuesday, authorities said. Rodriguez is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday. If convicted of all charges, he faces a sentence of 90 years to life in prison, the district attorney said.

Rodriguez was arrested Wednesday morning after motorists in the Riverside area reported being shot at the night before. He was booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside and is being held on $750,000 bail, arrest records show.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-05-28/man-charged-in-bb-gun-shootings-on-91-freeway


Shot at a Tesla...all those cameras... Tesla caught pic of car of bb shooter

original thread: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215464823

https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1397367632966324226?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

fired by her law firm then hired by a new one.

Although after the footage went viral, Lovett Law Firm in Texas where Rae used to work fired her, she appears to have picked up a new gig at the Mark Davis Law Firm.

On Tuesday, Mark Davis reposted the statement from Lovett Law Firm on Facebook, writing, 'Shame on you and your cancel culture attitude!'

Davis went on to bash the rival law firm before referring to Rae as 'my new paralegal.' 'She was jobless because of your hatefulness, now a proud member of my law firm,' Davis wrote.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9629479/Woman-jumped-barrier-spider-monkey-enclosure-El-Paso-Zoo-arrested-trespassing.html

https://twitter.com/MailOnline/status/1398406269715820552

https://twitter.com/lmtnews/status/1398254963369951234

Authorities have identified the suspects’ vehicle involved in a road rage incident on the 55 Freeway in Orange last week in which a 6-year-old boy was fatally shot.

California Highway Patrol posted a picture on Twitter showing a white Volkswagen Golf SportWagen on the freeway. A woman is suspected of driving the vehicle, authorities said, and a man sitting in the passenger seat is believed to have fired the shot that killed Aiden Leos.

Anyone with possible information about the shooting should contact California Highway Patrol at (714) 567-6000 or visit www.aiden-reward.com.

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Aiden’s mother was traveling north on the 55 Freeway May 21 around 8 a.m. when her son was fatally shot from the back while sitting in his booster seat.

The mother told Reyes Valdivia, a commuter who stopped to help, that she and her son were traveling in the carpool lane, and when she tried to switch lanes to exit, a white sedan with a man and woman inside cut her off. She gestured to them and proceeded into the exit lane, and that’s when the shooting occurred, Valdivia said.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-05-28/vehicle-identified-road-rage-shooting-that-killed-6-year-old-boy

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-elderly-woman-punched-queens-20210528-6olw5antqzdo3mpsoqxsxxrteq-story.html

https://twitter.com/CeFaanKim/status/1398054537999654914

A man sucker-punched an elderly woman carting groceries down a Queens street, breaking her nose and eye socket in a caught-on-video attack, police said.

The woman, 75, was walking along 57th Ave. near 97th Place in Corona at about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday when the attacker, who was headed in the opposite direction, hit her in the face with a quick sideways punch.


She collapsed to the ground, and her attacker walked away as if nothing happened.