Downtown Portland Macy’s store has decided to forego years of tradition, booting out truly old Saint Nicks who have been posing as Kris Kringle for decades in favor of agency Santas.
The new Father Christmases come from a national vendor instead of the much beloved community Santas, and families who have been coming to get their holiday photos with the same Santas are livid.
The worst part – the agency Santas have costume beards.
Joe Hawes, 54, owns The Portland Santa Company, which outfitted Meier and Frank and Macy’s with authentic, beard-sporting Santas. He says the style the new East coast company does is a “caricature of Santa”.
“We’ve always had naturally bearded Santas who play the role of Santa for year after year. The experience is dramatically different.
“The children come in and identify with an individual rather than a costumed character.”
The two current Santas – Santa Tom and Santa Phil – have been working for the company for seven and twelve years, respectively, and have taken great pride in maintaining their festive personas all year round.
The men groom their white beards, are jolly throughout the year, and pretend to be “on vacation” when they run into youngsters during the summer months.
Families have been bringing their children to Santaland at Macy’s for years and have looked forward to seeing the same jolly and plump face during each Christmas
“I’ve been doing this my whole adult life, so it’s a real personal loss to me not to be involved with Santaland this year,” Joe Hawes told Today.com.
“This year they notified us that, for the sake of corporate uniformity, they’re going to have the Santas look like they do on the East coast – costume-bearded Santas, so every Santa can look the same in every Macy’s store.”
Families have been bringing their children to Santaland at Macy’s for years and have looked forward to seeing the same jolly and plump face during each Christmas.
“We’ve been visiting Santa every year for 18 years,” Portland resident Peggy Friedl-Yee wrote on Santaland’s Facebook page.
“first at Meier & Frank and then at Macy’s. Macy’s this is unbelievable! You have ruined a favourite family tradition. We’ll be seeing Santa at Pioneer Square. Shame on you.”
Nikki DeShane also took to Facebook to complain about the new, fake-bearded St Nicks.
“We have been taking our kids to see this Santa for 14 years, our oldest is 18 and youngest two. We will continue to see our “real” Santa on the bricks.”
Veteran Santas are setting up shop at a rival Santa display a block away from the Macy’s Santaland. The event will start December 14 in nearby Pioneer Square.
Macy’s told Today.com that the new Santaland “has a new look while retaining its holiday traditions”. They also said Santa is attired in “a classic St Nick suit”, but declined to comment on the lack of real facial hair.
Joe Hawes told Today.com that getting a portrait taken with Santa is “such a personal thing”.
Joe Hawes added: “It’s not just a public display that’s inanimate. It’s personal and emotional, especially for young children, and for people who have built this into their annual family traditions, it’s very significant.”
Heidi Damon from Florida, the victim of a brutal sexual assault confronted her attacker Javon Cooper in court and told him: “I am not the victim, I’m the victor.”
Heidi Damon, 40, waived her right to anonymity and allowed to be filmed in court unleashing her anger as her attacker Javon Cooper, 18, was jailed for 15 years after attempting to kill and rape her.
She told Javon Cooper: “I just want to tell you – and I want you to look at me when I address you – I woke up ecstatic today, happier than ever.
‘You know why? Because I’m alive. I’m alive, alive, alive.
“You have not broken my spirit. You have not changed my belief in God. If anything, you’ve strengthened both. I am not a victim. I am the victor, the stronger and the winner.”
Heidi Damon, 40, waived her right to anonymity and allowed to be filmed in court unleashing her anger as her attacker Javon Cooper, 18, was jailed for 15 years after attempting to kill and rape her
As Heidi Damon spoke, Javon Cooper, dressed in a prison issue orange jumpsuit, shifted uncomfortably and tried to avert his gaze from his victim.
Javon Cooper had pleaded guilty to attempted murder and attempted sexual battery.
The attacker was 16 when he pounced on Heidi Damon in a multi-storey car park in Ybor City, Florida, in August 2009.
Javon Cooper choked Heidi Damon until she blacked out, and stripped her off her trousers and underwear.
Such was the force of the strangling that her eyes turned red and she was covered in bruises.
Heidi Damon was out of work for a year and still suffers from chronic headaches. She told the court she is still afraid.
At his sentencing Heidi Damon stood a few feet from her attacker as she lashed out at him.
Heidi Damon told her attacker: “My desire to be all that I can be cannot be broken by you or anyone. I survived.”
The woman told Javon Cooper that he will always be a boy, that a man could never do what he had done.
Heidi Damon said: “I will never forgive you because what you have done to me is never forgivable.
“I contribute to my community. You help decay yours.
“My life will never be the same. You know why? It’s going to be better than itwas before.
“My tears are out of joy.
“Because I’ll never see you again. Ever.
“Oh and by the way, I do have one more thing.
“My name is Heidi Elizabeth Damon. I have a name. I have a name that will go on forever.
“You have a number and the title of the crimes that you’ve committed. Your name is Sex Offender, Attempted Murderer. Nice to put you away.”
Javon Cooper, 18, was jailed for 15 years after attempting to kill and rape Heidi Damon
Heidi Damon said she agreed to waive her anonymity as she wanted to speak out for other “silent victims” of rape.
“I feel proud because I was able to stand there and get what I wanted out and articulate it without falling apart.
“I’m satisfied with the fact that he’s going away. I’m ecstatic that I lived to tell the story, and he was caught and that I potentially saved someone’s life that day by being the one that was chosen to be attacked, and I lived through it.”
Javon Cooper was jailed for 15 years and ten years probation.
The judge told him he would have liked to lock him up for life.
Timothy Grimmer, the 10-year-old boy who was shot by his mother during a standoff at a Texas welfare office on Monday has died – 24 hours after his sister, Ramie Marie Grimmer lost her life.
According to Laredo police spokesman Joe Baeza, Timothy Grimmer died Thursday at a San Antonio hospital.
Timothy Grimer’ sister, Ramie, 12, died of her wounds the day before.
The children’s mother, Rachelle Grimmer, 38, was found dead on Monday inside the office in Laredo.
Authorities say Rachelle Grimmer killed herself after shooting her children during a seven-hour standoff with police, after she had been denied for food stamps.
The Texas Department of Health and Human Services said the agency rejected Rachelle Grimmer’s application because she did not submit enough information.
Rachelle Grimmer had been embroiled in a battle with the welfare department to try to gain benefits for her family since July.
The woman took her children to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission office in Laredo on Monday at 5pm and demanded to speak to a supervisor.
Rachelle Grimmer then pulled out a handgun and began threatening several employees, authorities said.
The mother held two employees hostage until a male supervisor stepped in and stayed with Grimmer while she released the other workers.
She took the man and her two children into another room while a SWAT team managed to evacuate 30 people.
Rachelle Grimmer released the supervisor at 7:45 p.m. but remained in the building with her children.
During the seven-hour stand-off, the apparent Facebook profile of Ramie Marie Grimmer was updated regularly.
Hostage negotiators were in communication with Rachelle Grimmer but it was intermittent as she frequently hung up, according to police.
Officer Joe Baeza said Tuesday: “About 11:45 last night, she hung up the phone with negotiators, and a little bit later, negotiators heard three shots.”
The SWAT team at the front of the building heard children crying and officers stormed in, finding the three in the front office.
The children were airlifted to a hospital in San Antonio in critical condition. The mother was dead at the scene.
Two days ago, the eccentric Irish singer Sinead O’Connor announced she would wed her unknown boyfriend of three months in a ceremony on Thursday.
Sinead O’Connor tied the knot for the fourth time in a quickie Las Vegas wedding on her 45th birthday yesterday.
The singer walked down the aisle with Irish therapist Barry Herridge, who she met online, at the famous Little White Wedding Chapel in Nevada’s Sin City.
The wedding ceremony lasted just 15 minutes and the couple invited no guests – even Sinead O’Connor’s four children – apart from the cameramen.
Sinead O’Connor dressed unusually girly and looked to have lost weight, looking more like her Nothing Compares 2 U heyday in the 1990s.
She wore a strapless pastel pink maxi dress and chunky pink metallic and silver heels.
Sinead O’Connor failed to conceal her numerous tattoos, including a massive design on her chest, and is still sporting her trademark shaved head.
Sinead O’Connor tied the knot for the fourth time with Irish therapist Barry Herridge in a quickie Las Vegas wedding on her 45th birthday
Barry Herridge wore a suit over a pink shirt that matched Sinead O’Connor’s dress and had a red rose in his lapel that matched her bouquet.
The couple looked smitten with one another, sharing a passionate kiss for the cameras and staring into each other’s eyes as they walked sown the isle after being pronounced husband and wife.
The newlyweds cuddled up on a pink Cadillac – reminiscent of Elvis Presley’s iconic car – before heading to a hotel in the gambling capital of America.
Sinead O’Connor even shed a few tears as she sat with her new husband before they headed to a hotel for their wedding night.
The singer has only been dating Barry Herridge, who works as a counselor for people with addiction problems in Dublin, for three months.
Barry Herridge replied after Sinead O’Connor wrote on her blog in September that she was “sex-starved” and asked potential suitors to apply online.
“Barry sent me this wonderful email, which just took my heart away,” Sinead O’Connor told the Irish Independent before flying out from Heathrow to the U.S yesterday.
“It had to be him… I had no intention of getting married again but Barry was extremely persuasive. He proposed to me on every single date we have had since August. He is extremely persuasive – and other unprintable things.”
Sinead O’Connor and Barry Herridge met up at a coffee shop and apparently “talked for hours”.
He revealed the contents of the email to the paper.
“I was getting off a train at Connolly Station one morning when I saw this woman acting strangely on the platform,” Barry Herridge said.
“At first I didn’t know what she was doing, and then I realized she was playing hopscotch. It wasn’t Sinead but a business woman in a suit and in her 30s, just having a bit of fun.
“I wondered why more women that age weren’t doing the same thing? And it struck me that this was exactly what Sinead was doing with her search for love, having fun, and I told Sinead about this woman in my first email.”
Barry Herridge added: “I love Sinead more than anyone I have ever met, or anybody I will ever meet. I am going to look after her.”
Sinead O’Connor said she didn’t want a big ceremony.
“I’ve been married before, but I’ve never had my dream wedding in Vegas. I wanted to do it there because it’s casual, quick, not religious and, most of all, very romantic.
“People always complain, <<you never invited me to your wedding>>, but I prefer casual weddings. I’m so happy.”
The newlyweds have no time for a honeymoon as Sinead O’Connor is due back in Dublin tomorrow to attend the aftershow party for a concert marking the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International.
The Little White Chapel has been the venue for several celebrity weddings, including that between Britney Spears and childhood friend Jason Alexander in 2004.
Other notable ceremonies include the wedding of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore in 1987, that between Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow in 1966, and Judy Garland and Mark Herron in 1965.
Sinead O’Connor announced on her blog on Wednesday she was marrying Barry Herridge in an “undisclosed location”, although reports speculated they would be walking down the aisle in Las Vegas.
The singer wrote: “With enormous joy myself and my beloved boyfriend Barry Herridge will be getting married tomorrow, December 8th 2011 at <<an un-disclosed location>> in my absolute dream wedding ceremony.
“We will post a photo or two here on the site as soon as possible afterward. Very happy girl. : )”
Sinead O’Connor also posted a picture up of the couple beaming at the camera.
She kept the happy news quiet when she appeared on the Ian Dempsey breakfast radio show on Today FM the day before, telling him she had no gossip to share.
But Barry Herridge rang back into the show on Wednesday morning to reveal all to the host about the wedding.
Ian Dempsey wrote on his Twitter page following their chat: “So Sinead O’Connor was holding back yesterday. Boyfriend Barry Herridge got back to us today to reveal that they will wed tomorrow.
“And it’s Sinead’s birthday tomorrow too. Congrats to them both. And Sinead’s new album is sounding great too.”
Sinead O’Connor shocked the nation by writing a series of candid blog posts on her website earlier this year, detailing specific requirements she was looking for in a man.
The singer wrote in September that she was in “desperate need of a very sweet sex-starved man”, but specified that they “must be no younger than 44, must not be named Brian or Nigel, must be blind enough to think I’m gorgeous, has to be employed and he has to like his mother”.
And it seems Sinead O’Connor is found her perfect partner in Barry Herridge after a whirlwind romance.
Sinead O’Connor has been married three times before – including to music producer John Reynolds, journalist Nicholas Sommerlad and most recently to Steve Cooney, who she wed in July 2010, but divorced in April this year.
Sinead O’Connor has four children from various relationships.
Angelina Jolie has confessed during an interview with U.S. Marie Claire that there is at least one thing missing in her life – female friends.
In the interview with the new issue of Marie Claire, Angelina Jolie spoke frankly to the magazine about her lack of female confidantes.
“It was nice for me to play with other girls; I don’t really have girlfriends in movies, if you’ve noticed,” she said.
“Well, I have a few girlfriends, I just… I stay at home a lot. I’m just not very social. I don’t do a lot with them, and I’m very homebound.”
Angelina Jolie, actress, director and mother-of six, who looks stunning in a blue top and gold statement ring, has previously bemoaned the fact that she really only chats with her partner, Brad Pitt.
“I’ll talk to my family,”Angelina Jolie said.
“I talk to Brad … But I don’t know, I don’t have a lot of friends I talk to. He is really the only person I talk to.”
Angelina Jolie‘s reputation as the ultimate man-eater and husband-stealer may account for her lack of gal pals.
The actress famously enticed Brad Pitt away from his wife, Jennifer Aniston, and her second husband Billy Bob Thornton broke off his engagement to Laura Dern to elope with his Pushing Tin co-star.
In the interview with the new issue of Marie Claire, Angelina Jolie spoke frankly to the magazine about her lack of female confidantes
One of the few close female friends that is not deterred by Angelina Jolie’s reputation is singer Gwen Stefani.
Earlier this year Angelina Jolie were spied with Gwen Stefani getting together at Gwen’s home in London for a fun-filled playdate .
“All of the kids are very close in age. They’ve attended each other’s birthday parties and gotten together several times at each other’s homes,” a source to Yahoo news at the time.
Angelina Jolie and Gwen Stefani have been friends since 1998.
“Somehow Gwen and I keep ending up pregnant at the exact same time,” Angelina Jolie has explained.
Best known for action films such as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Wanted, Angelina Jolie also reveals that she may want to move on from acting.
“I woke up one day realizing, God, I’m an actor,” she said.
“I don’t think I intended to be an actor. I think my mother wanted it for me.
“I loved telling stories, and I enjoyed the profession, but is it too late to be something else?”
When asked whether she and partner Brad Pitt were planning to extend their already considerable brood, she would only say: “Nothing planned at the moment, but we just don’t know. I could end up pregnant.”
Angelina Jolie credits Brad Pitt with helping her juggle her career with raising children.
“I have a wonderful partner in Brad and we take turns working always,” the actress said in the interview.
Angelina Jolie also touched on the subject of her children wanting her to marry long-term love Brad Pitt, 47.
“They have mentioned it, yes,” the actress admitted.
The star also opened up about her daughter Vivienne being a “girly girl”, divulging: “She is so elegant and delicate. Vivi will pick flowers from the garden and put them in her hair.
“She likes to get her nails done and collects stuffed animals.”
Angelina Jolie added: “It’s very funny for me to have to buy all things pink and watch princess movies!”
“Knox is very much a dude. Very physical, tough. He loves dinosaurs and swords.”
Angelina Jolie also gushed about her happiness saying: “Brad has expanded my life in ways I never imagined. We built a family. He is not just the love of my life, he is my family. I hold that very dear.
“I suppose what I’ve learned from Brad is to be able to have the kind of family whose happiness and well-being comes before your own.
“I’m very, very grateful to have such a loving family, and I wouldn’t have that without him.”
Speaking about the subject of her film Angelina Jolie said: “I think it’s still hard to understand what happened and how it could happen 40 minutes away from Italy in the ’90s at the time Schindler’s List came out.”
Explaining the inspiration for the movie Angelina Jolie said: “It began as a private exercise, an excuse to get out some of my frustrations with international community and justice issues.
“Some of the very darkest sections of the film were conceived in Shiloh’s art class; I was in the back waiting for the kids to finish.”
Angelina Jolie has also revealed she plans to do another war film focusing on Afghanistan, where she made humanitarian trips to recently.
In the Land of Blood and Honey is is scheduled to be released in the United States on December 23.
The new issue of Marie Claire is on newsstands Tuesday December 13.
High Court of Australia has decided to lift the ban on the sale of Samsung’s tablet, Galaxy Tab, in the country in time for the Christmas shopping season.
Apple won a ban on Galaxy Tab, claiming Samsung had copied its iPhone and iPad.
South Korean Samsung had been unable to sell products in Australia since July.
Apple and Samsung are engaged in legal battles in more than 10 countries since April accusing each other of infringing smartphone and tablet patents.
Apple won a ban on Galaxy Tab, claiming Samsung had copied its iPhone and iPad
Last month, Samsung won an appeal against a temporary ban on sales.
However, Apple was awarded a stay of the orders. On Friday Apple’s bid to extend the ban was turned down by the High Court.
The ruling is a rare win for Samsung as it allows the company to sell its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in time for the busy Christmas shopping season, a lucrative time for the industry.
The decision comes after a US court ruled against Apple’s bid to ban Galaxy phones and tablets, another win for Samsung. Apple has appealed against that ruling.
However, the legal tussle in other markets is not going as well for Samsung.
The company said on Friday that a French court had turned down its request to ban sale of the latest iPhone in that country.
Indian officials say at least 73 people have been killed in a fire that broke out in a hospital in the city of Calcutta (Kolkata).
Many of the dead people were patients who were trapped after the flames spread through the AMRI hospital in the southern part of Calcutta.
The fire started early on Friday in the multi-storey hospital’s basement, where flammable materials were stored.
Fire engines fought the blaze for five hours before bringing it under control.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the license of the hospital had been cancelled.
Mamata Banerjee said fire was an “unforgivable crime” and that those responsible would be given the harshest punishment.
Officials say the death toll is likely to rise as rescue workers are trying to reach the upper floors of the six-storey hospital in Dhakuria.
A Upadhay, a senior vice-president of the AMRI hospital company, told Associated Press there were 160 patients in the 190-bed hospital.
West Bengal Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim said many of the patients who died had suffocated on fumes.
A number were rescued. “We have taken 50 patients to an adjacent hospital. The situation is grim at the moment,” fire brigade chief Gopal Bhattacharya told Agence France-Presse news agency.
Bodies of patients wrapped in white sheets have been brought out by rescue workers, BBC reported.
Local people climbed into the hospital compound to rescue patients before fire engines arrived, our correspondent says.
The narrow surrounding streets made it difficult for the rescue service to arrive quickly.
The fire spread swiftly from the basement to the upper floors of the private hospital.
Television pictures showed patients being carried out on stretchers, with distraught relatives of trapped patients crowded outside the building.
One rescued patient said: “The attendants woke me up and dragged me down the stairs. I saw 10-15 patients at the top of the stairs trying to get down.”
Ananya Das, 35, who underwent surgery at the hospital on Thursday, said she was recovering when the fire broke out.
“I managed to walk towards an exit and then climb out of a window. I saw a lot of bodies,” she said.
More than 40 people died in a huge fire in a historic building in Calcutta in March last year.
Fires in high-rise buildings are fairly common in the city. There have been at least 10 major incidents since 2008.
Electrical short circuits have been responsible for most of these fires.
The first signs of the ultra-elusive Higgs boson particle have been detected by teams working at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland.
Existence of Higgs boson particle – believed to have given shape to the universe after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago – was proposed some four decades ago.
Two separate LHC teams – using the ATLAS and CMS detectors – have smashed protons in 350 trillion collisions this year, hoping to see the Higgs in the debris.
The CERN scientists are now reporting that “significant progress” has been made in tracking it down with a big press conference taking place next Tuesday in which the teams will announce what they’ve found.
Needless to say, the world of physics is breathless with excitement at this news.
The Higgs particle is essentially a missing piece of the “Standard Model” of physics jigsaw, which explains how the universe is glued together.
So far, it’s the only elementary particle predicted by this model that scientists have not been able to create with atom smashers.
Rolf Heuer, general director of CERN, said recently that he doesn’t think confirmation of Higgs boson particle’s existence will be made until around October 2012.
Two separate LHC teams – using the ATLAS and CMS detectors – have smashed protons in 350 trillion collisions this year, hoping to see the Higgs in the debris
However, reports from inside the LHC suggest that its scientists are on the brink of something monumental, with Professor John Ellis, a former head of theoretical physics at CERN, telling the BBC that he expects to see the “first glimpse” of the God particle next week.
Prof. John Ellis said: “There seem to be some hints emerging there… and that’s what we’re going to learn on Tuesday.”
The veracity of the results has been ensured by two separate teams, each comprising of hundreds of researchers, searching using different experiments.
One team, using scientists from 169 universities, has been working on the ATLAS detector, which at 148 feet long and 82 feet high, is the biggest ever constructed.
The other team is using the CMS – or Compact Muon Solenoid – a 13,000-ton detector that sits 330 feet underground.
However, there are some scientists, who have poured cold water on the news, with Nobel Prize winner Martinus Veltman from the Universities of Michigan and Utrecht telling the Guardian that “there is no Higgs”.
French television has broadcasted today the incredible live images of New York Sofitel’s chamber maid Nafissatou Diallo reporting Dominique Strauss-Kahn for alleged attempted rape victim.
The CCTV images were taken inside New York’s Sofitel hotel and show Nafissatou Diallo, 32, some 40 minutes after performing oral sex on Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62.
Pictures shot inside the Times Square hotel on May 14th shows a clearly shocked Nafissatou Diallo gesticulating wildly as she tells colleagues about what happened.
In turn, other images show DSK checking out of the hotel, and heading off for lunch with his daughter in a yellow cab.
Sofitel released the images through French TV news channel BFMTV because they want to put an end to conspiracy theories claiming DSK was set up by French government agents because he wanted to be the country’s next Socialist president.
Part of the footage shows two male hotel workers appearing to take part in some kind of “victory dance” before high-fiving each other in a 13-second segment.
It is not clear why Sofitel workers celebrate together, but reports of the episode fuelled speculation that DSK was set up by his political enemies.
U.S. investigative journalist Edward Epstein had claimed their “celebration” lasted some three minutes, and made it look as though they had executed a trap to perfection.
In fact the tapes show that the “victory dance” lasted less than 10 seconds, with the hotel staff allegedly celebrating a “sporting result”, according to a spokesman for the Sofitel.
Edward Epstein has since admitted a “mistake”, with the New York Review of Books, which originally published his conspiracy theory, publishing a correction.
Henri Leclerc, a lawyer for DSK, admitted today: “I have no proof that there is a conspiracy. I have no evidence that there is a conspiracy.”
DSK was arrested by U.S. police on May 14th and imprisoned, but after a lengthy legal process was finally cleared and returned home to Paris.
DSK admitted having a sexual encounter with Nafissatou Diallo, but said it was consensual.
Back in France, DSK was accused by writer Tristane Banon, now 32, of trying to rape her in 2001, but the statute of time limitations on the case meant it could not be reopened.
Last week, DSK claimed that his “uninhibited” sex life cost him his chance to become president.
He is at the centre of a judicial inquiry into a vice-girl ring operating out of a hotel in Lille, northern France.
DSK has admitted attending “sex parties” but said: “I have a horror of prostitution and pimping. Can you imagine the damage caused to my wife, our children?”
At the weekend, France’s Interior Minister Claude Gueant revealed that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was stopped by police in the Bois de Boulogne, a notorious red light area after dark, five years ago.
Claude Gueant also rubbished conspiracy theories linking President Nicolas Sarkozy with a bid to undermine his political rival.
Natalie Johnson, a Macy’s worker at a San Antonio store was fired for refusing to allow a transgender customer to use the women’s fitting room.
Natalie Johnson, 27, admits she was watching the customer from the start, claiming she could tell he was a man shopping for women’s clothes.
When the transgender tried to go into the women’s fitting room, Natalie Johnson stopped him from entering.
The woman told KSAT 12: “I had to just straight forward tell him, <<You’re a man>>, and of course that really got him steamed.”
Macy’s has a policy in place that allows transgendered individuals to use the fitting room of the gender they have chosen.
Natalie Johnson, a Macy’s worker at a San Antonio store was fired for refusing to allow a transgender customer to use the women's fitting room
Natalie Johnson was fired last week after telling her manager that she refused to go along with the policy, citing her devout Christian beliefs.
Natalie Johnson told KSAT 12 that she has filed a complaint with the federal employment commission, saying her views on religion prevent her from recognizing transgendered people.
“There are no transgenders in the world. A guy can dress up as a woman all he wants, that’s still not going to make you a woman,” Natalie Johnson said.
Liberty Council, a conservative Christian organization dedicated to religious freedoms, sided with Natalie Johnson, arguing Macy’s policy should be changed.
Matthew Staver, Liberty Council founder and CEO, said in a statement: “This policy will cause significant problems and will alienate the majority of Macy’s customers.
“Macy’s has essentially opened women’s dressing rooms to every man. The LGBT agenda has become the theater of the absurd.”
Macy’s would not comment on this specific case, but released a statement of their own that said: “At Macy’s, we recognize and appreciate the diversity of our customers and associates.”
12-year-old Ramie Marie Grimmer, who was shot by her mother during a standoff at a Texas welfare office, has died yesterday.
According to a Laredo police spokesman said Ramie Marie Grimmer died yesterday at a San Antonio hospital.
Her 10-year-old brother is still in a critical condition.
Rachelle Grimmer, 38, the mother of children was found dead on Monday inside the office in Laredo.
Rachelle Grimmer shot her children and then she killed herself during a seven-hour standoff with police, after she was denied for food stamps.
Ramie Grimmer’s Facebook profile had been updated to read “may die 2day” just hours before the shootings.
The Texas Department of Health and Human Services says the agency rejected Rachelle Grimmer’s application because she did not submit enough information.
Rachelle Grimmer had been embroiled in a battle with the welfare department to try to gain benefits for her family since July.
The woman took her children to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission office in Laredo on Monday at 5:00 p.m. and demanded to speak to a supervisor.
Rachelle Grimmer then pulled out a handgun and began threatening several employees, authorities said.
Rachelle Grimmer held two employees hostage until a male supervisor stepped in and stayed with her while she released the other workers.
The mother took the man and her two children into another room while a SWAT team managed to evacuate 30 people.
Rachelle Grimmer released the supervisor at 7:45 p.m. but remained in the building with her children.
Laredo police spokesman said Ramie Marie Grimmer died yesterday at a San Antonio hospital
During the seven-hour stand-off, the apparent Facebook profile of Ramie Marie Grimmer was updated regularly.
At 7:50 p.m., the girl wrote: “May die 2day” on her wall. She then accepted a friend request before writing “I’m bored” at 10:34 p.m. and tagged her location as Laredo, Texas.
The girl then “liked” the band Evanescence and wrote “ahhhhhhhhhhahhhhhh” at 10:52 p.m.
At 11:28 p.m., Ramie Grimmer wrote “tear gas seriasly”. [sic]
Hostage negotiators were in communication with Rachelle Grimmer but it was intermittent as she frequently hung up, according to police.
Joe Baeza of the Laredo Police Department reported on Tuesday: “About 11:45 last night, she hung up the phone with negotiators, and a little bit later, negotiators heard three shots.”
The SWAT team at the front of the building heard children crying and officers stormed in, finding the three in the front office.
The children were airlifted to a hospital in San Antonio in critical condition and the mother was dead at the scene.
Officer Joe Baeza said: “She had issues and felt that she had been let down by social services in general.
“She was making all sorts of outlandish claims.”
Authorities said Rachelle Grimmer, from Ohio, had arrived in Laredo about eight months ago and had lived with her kids in several locations around the border city.
The children’s grandmother, Mary Lee Shepherd said Rachelle Grimmer “was mentally ill” and she tried to get her help.
Mary Lee Shepherd said her son Dale Grimmer, the children’s father, was flying Wednesday from Montana to San Antonio hospital to be with the children.
Dale and Rachelle Grimmer divorced six or seven years ago, after she and the children moved from Montana to Ohio, Mary Lee Shepherd said.
Dale Grimmer also moved to Ohio and was able to visit the children from time to time, but Rachelle Grimmer moved and did not inform him or the court, Mary Lee Shepherd said.
The grandmother said she or her son contacted social workers in Montana twice and in Ohio once because they were concerned that Rachelle Grimmer could harm the children.
Mary Lee Shepherd declined to detail her former daughter-in-law’s mental problems or say what caused them to make those calls.
Her claims could not immediately be verified Wednesday with state child welfare officials in Montana and Ohio.
However, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services reported finding two cases Wednesday involving Rachelle Grimmer and her children.
In the first case, reported September 15, 2010, the department received a possible neglect report after Rachelle Grimmer and her two children were found living in a tent on a South Texas beach.
Investigators found no evidence of neglect and closed the case, spokesman Patrick Crimmins said.
In a report made last June, Corpus Christi police said Rachelle Grimmer had come to police headquarters with her two children and reported that she had been a domestic violence victim.
Caseworkers checked on her and the children, determined the children were not at risk and took no further action, Patrick Crimmins said.
Patrick Crimminis said the findings had been delayed until Wednesday because Rachelle Grimmer’s surname was spelled differently in the department database, and she was listed under a different first name.
Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Commission, confirmed that Grimmer applied for food stamps in July and was denied.
The spokeswoman said Rachelle Grimmer’s application was incomplete and that she was not sure whether the woman qualified for assistance.
Five people, including a pilot, died after a Sundance helicopter crashed Wednesday afternoon during a tour of Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam.
According to National Park Service spokesman Andrew Munoz, the helicopter crashed into the River Mountains surrounding Lake Mead just before 5:00 p.m.
A security guard from the national recreation area heard the crash and reported seeing smoke about four miles west of the lake’s edge.
Andrew Munoz told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he was “saddened” that a search-and-rescue mission turned into a “recovery investigation”.
He added that it was too early to release the names of the victims.
The crash site about 30 miles from the Las Vegas Strip is not accessible by road.
FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said several witnesses reported smoke and what appeared to be wreckage in the area where police were investigating.
Ian Gregor said police were having troubling reaching the crash site because it’s in a ravine.
The tour helicopter was an Aerospatiale AS350, which can hold up to six passengers and are often used for air tours.
A spokesman for Sundance Helicopters, who declined to give his name, said the tour was not full. He declined to answer further questions.
The tour helicopter that crashed in Las Vegas was an Aerospatiale AS350, which can hold up to six passengers and are often used for air tours
It’s unclear what may have triggered the crash.
The weather was mostly clear near Lake Mead yesterday, with a low temperature around 29 and winds around 5 mph.
Sundance Helicopters is no stranger to fatal accidents.
Seven people were killed in September 2003 when a helicopter hit a wall near the Grand Canyon.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s report into that accident determined that: “The probable cause of this accident was the pilot’s disregard of safe flying procedures and misjudgment of the helicopter’s proximity to terrain, which resulted in an in-flight collision with a canyon wall.
“Contributing to the accident was the failure of Sundance Helicopters and the Federal Aviation Administration to provide adequate surveillance of Sundance’s air tour operations in Descent Canyon.”
There was video evidence to support passenger complaints that the pilot was prone to veering close to canyon walls, and performing risky maneuvers.
Sundance Helicopters received two complaints about the pilot in 2001 and though it initially said it would suspend the pilot, the ban was never enforced.
One tourist who recently took a similar tour said that his pilot prompted him to pay a tip in exchange for a more exciting flight.
The tourist said: “The pilot told us that he was so low-paid that all tips were gratefully received, and that in exchange for the tip he would perform some low-level flying.
“He flew close to the ground and close to the walls, on the edge of things, for more excitement.
‘I didn’t feel I was in danger at the time but I did think he was taking more risks than he needed to.”
Sundance Helicopters’ website promotes only one local tour that flies over Lake Mead.
The 30-minute “Twilight City Tour” spans downtown Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam and the Las Vegas Strip.
Packages start at $210 per person.
“Fly in a state of the art luxury air-conditioned 6 passenger jet helicopter,” Sundance Helicopters says on its website.
A September 2003 crash of a Sundance Helicopters flight killed its pilot and six passengers in Arizona.
Unsafe flying procedures and misjudgment were cited as the probable cause of that crash.
Blowfish, the “hangover cure” from Rally Labs comes in two dissoluble tablets and will be available across U.S. store shelves.
Blowfish, the newly approved remedy by the Food and Drug Administration is the first specifically hangover targeted product, not containing an entirely new ingredient, but pain-relieving concoction.
Rally Labs founder Brenne Haysom explains on the product’s webpage:
“After some research, I found a combination that did the trick, fast.
“I started sharing it with my friends, and they kept asking for more.”
The “Alka-Seltzer”-like tablet is different from most other products on the market in that you dissolve and administer the brew the morning after a heavy night’s drinking, in comparison to other remedy’s that advise it to be taken before or between each glass.
“Out of personal experience, the worst hangover is the one you didn’t expect on a morning you have to do stuff,” Brenne Haysom told ABC News.
“It really came out of my own experience of wanting to go out but having to work really hard the next morning,” she explained.
Blowfish, the “hangover cure” from Rally Labs comes in two dissoluble tablets and will available across U.S. store shelves
While Blowfish’s active ingredients are aspirin and caffeine – two basic and wildly known remedies though usually taken and offered separately – the product is considered a new drug by the FDA because of its packaged combination.
Because of this, a product of similar nature must undergo FDA review before it can be stamped with their approval, according to the FDA’s website.
With 500 mg of aspirin and 60 mg of caffeine, Blowfish claims its combination “helps restore mental alertness or wakefulness when experiencing fatigue or drowsiness associated with a hangover”.
A similar product by Bayer called Bayer AM, however, advertises itself as “Asprin and Alertness air tablets”, containing the same amounts of aspirin and caffeine, however, it doesn’t offer the packaging devoted to fighting the morning buzz or Blowfish’s same guarantee.
Let them “make it up to you”, the company offers customers if they feel slighted or dissatisfied.
Rally Labs’ website invites users to give them call or email, once better, as well as share competing remedies that may have worked better.
Though if your hangover is severe enough to cause continuous vomiting, diarrhea and severe fatigue, this still may not be the “fast” or “guaranteed” cure for you.
Star magazine obtained a private diary purporting to have been written by Lindsay Lohan, in which is revealed she was “in love” with Brokeback Mountain star Heath Ledger at the time of his death in 2008.
The diary details the depth of Lindsay Lohan’s feelings for Heath Ledger and hints at a romantic relationship between them.
“Today Heath died,” she wrote on January 22.
“I’m in love with him… He was the love of my life.
“He taught me so much, and he was everything I’ve ever wanted and more. I want to hear him laugh and hold me. I crave his touch and care.”
Star magazine obtained a private diary purporting to have been written by Lindsay Lohan, in which is revealed she was “in love” with Brokeback Mountain star Heath Ledger at the time of his death in 2008
Star magazine writes Lindsay Lohan was even planning to visit Heath Ledger in New York City three days after he passed away, with the actress intent on introducing him to her mother Dina.
Lindsay Lohan is reported to have broken down in tears in the middle of a Los Angeles restaurant when she learned of Heath Ledger’s death.
“When a person dies the world stops. I’m numb,” Lindsay Lohan wrote in the diary.
“There’s an emptiness. And a desire to feel loved.
“A need to be held in the arms of someone who understands. But what do you do when the one who understands is gone?”
The new revelations add weight to rumours that Lindsay Logan and Heath Ledger were once romantically involved.
Indeed, in a 2008 phone conversation obtained by RadarOnline, Dina Lohan told Lindsay’s father Michael that Lindsay “was dating Heath when he died”.
Lindsay Lohan, who has struggled with addictions of her own, was also philosophical in the wake of Heath Ledger’s untimely death at 28-years-old.
“It’s like a game of Jenga, and when one piece slips, it all falls apart,” Lindsay Lohan wrote.
“One pill, one slip and it goes down the slope, crashes and burns and it’s over. Why? I ask myself over and over. Cry is all I can do.”
In an entry dated January 31, Lindsay Lohan wrote: “Heath is a prime example of what this industry can do to someone.
“It craves to see someone fail. It brings enjoyment to us to watch one die. The tragedy and cravings for it can kill. And will.”
Heath Ledger split from his actress girlfriend Michelle Williams around September 2007. They had together a daughter, Matilda Rose, now six-years-old.
Mike, a New York investment banker, met Lauren at the Philharmonic and he asked her to go on date; date didn’t go well, she ignored his incessant calls and psychotic emails, and she got fed up and posted his 1,615 word email on internet, and email goes viral.
When Lauren didn’t call Mike back, he felt the only course of action was to Google stalk her to find an email address and proceed to write a lengthy letter as to why she should agree to a second date.
Lauren was so appalled by the point-by-point reasons as to how she supposedly led Mike on, that she posted the letter on the internet.
According to Mike, Lauren played with her hair – a lot and she made eye contact – a lot. She also told him at the end of the date: “It was nice to meet you”. All sure signs she wanted to see him again.
Mike wrote: “You played with your hair a lot. A woman playing with her hair is a common sign of flirtation. You can even do a Google search on it.
“In my opinion, leading someone on (i.e., giving mixed signals) is impolite and immature. It’s bad to do that.”
Mike also believes that because he and Lauren like the Philharmonic, are both “intelligent people” of the same age, that surely they must be soul mates.
Mike tells Lauren: “I could name more things that we have in common, but I’ll stop here. I don’t understand why you apparently don’t want to go out with me again. We have numerous things in common.”
It seems glaringly obvious to Mike that he and Lauren should spend their life together, going to the Philharmonic.
“You said that you’re planning to go the NY Philharmonic more often in the future. You’re very busy. It would be very convenient for you to date me because we have the same interests.
“We already go to classical music performances by ourselves. If we go to classical music performances together, it wouldn’t take any significant additional time on your part.”
Luckily for Lauren, despite all his criticisms, Mike wants to give her another chance: “I suggest that we continue to go out and see what happens. Needless to say, I find you less appealing now (given that you haven’t returned my messages) than I did at our first date.
“However, I would be willing to go out with you again.”
Lauren was so appalled by the point-by-point reasons as to how she supposedly led Mike on, that she posted his 1,615 word email on the internet
Despite his method of communication, Mike would prefer it if Lauren called him, as he doesn’t like emails, feeling they can be “misinterpreted”. But if she doesn’t want to call, an email is acceptable.
“I hope you will call me back at xxx-xxx-xxxx (if it’s inconvenient for you to talk on the phone when you read this email, you can let me know via email that you are willing to talk on the phone and I’ll call you).”
When Lauren posted the email on the internet site Reddit, she gave a brief back story which said: “Friend couldn’t make it to philharmonic at last minute so I went alone, met this guy, went on ONE, HORRIFIC date. Then got this…”
Mike’s email to Lauren in full
“Hi Lauren,
I’m disappointed in you. I’m disappointed that I haven’t gotten a response to my voicemail and text messages.
FYI, I suggest that you keep in mind that emails sound more impersonal, harsher, and are easier to misinterpret than in-person or phone communication. After all, people can’t see someone’s body language or tone of voice in an email. I’m not trying to be harsh, patronizing, or insulting in this email. I’m honest and direct by nature, and I’m going to be that way in this email. By the way, I did a Google search, so that’s how I came across your email.
I assume that you no longer want to go out with me. (If you do want to go out with me, then you should let me know.) I suggest that you make a sincere apology to me for giving me mixed signals. I feel led on by you.
Things that happened during our date include, but are not limited to, the following:
– You played with your hair a lot. A woman playing with her hair is a common sign of flirtation. You can even do a Google search on it. When a woman plays with her hair, she is preening. I’ve never had a date where a woman played with her hair as much as you did. In addition, it didn’t look like you were playing with your hair out of nervousness.
– We had lots of eye contact during our date. On a per-minute basis, I’ve never had as much eye contact during a date as I did with you.
– You said, <,It was nice to meet you>> at the end of our date. A woman could say this statement as a way to show that she isn’t interested in seeing a man again or she could mean what she said–that it was nice to meet you. The statement, by itself, is inconclusive.
– We had a nice conversation over dinner. I don’t think I’m being delusional in saying this statement.
In my opinion, leading someone on (i.e., giving mixed signals) is impolite and immature. It’s bad to do that.
Normally, I would not be asking for information if a woman and I don’t go out again after a first date. However, in our case, I’m curious because I think our date went well and that there is a lot of potential for a serious relationship. Of course, it’s difficult to predict what would happen, but I think there is a lot of potential for a serious relationship developing between us one day (or least there was before your non-response to my voicemail and text messages).
I think we should go out on a second date. In my opinion, our first date was good enough to lead to a second date.
Why am I writing you? Well, hopefully, we will go out again. Even if we don’t, I gain utility from expressing my thoughts to you. In addition, even if you don’t want to go out again, I would like to get feedback as to why you wouldn’t want to go again. Normally, I wouldn’t ask a woman for this type of feedback after a first date, but this is an exception given I think we have a lot of potential.
If you don’t want to go again, then apparently you didn’t think our first date was good enough to lead to a second date. Dating or a relationship is not a Hollywood movie. It’s good to keep that in mind. In general, I thought the date went well and was expecting that we would go out on a second date.
If you’re not interested in going out again, then I would have preferred if you hadn’t given those mixed signals. I feel led on. We have a number of things in common. I’ll name a few things: First, we’ve both very intelligent. Second, we both like classical music so much that we go to classical music performances by ourselves. In fact, the number one interest that I would want to have in common with a woman with whom I’m in a relationship is a liking of classical music. I wouldn’t be seriously involved with a woman if she didn’t like classical music. You said that you’re planning to go the NY Philharmonic more often in the future. As I said, I go to the NY Philharmonic often. You’re very busy. It would be very convenient for you to date me because we have the same interests. We already go to classical music performances by ourselves. If we go to classical music performances together, it wouldn’t take any significant additional time on your part.
According to the internet, you’re 33 or 32, so, at least from my point of view, we’re a good match in terms of age. I could name more things that we have in common, but I’ll stop here. I don’t understand why you apparently don’t want to go out with me again. We have numerous things in common. I assume that you find me physically attractive. If you didn’t find me physically attractive, then it would have been irrational for you to go out with me in the first place. After all, our first date was not a blind date.
You already knew what I looked like before our date. Perhaps, you’re unimpressed that I manage my family’s investments and my own investments. Perhaps, you don’t think I have a ‘real’ job. Well, I’ve done very well as an investment manager. I’ve made my parents several millions of dollars. That’s real money. That’s not monopoly money. In my opinion, if I make real money, it’s a real job. Donald Trump’s children work for his company. Do they have ‘real’ jobs? I think so. George Soros’ sons help manage their family investments. Do they have ‘real’ jobs? I think so.
In addition, I’m both a right-brain and left-brain man, given that I’m both an investment manager and a philosopher/writer. That’s a unique characteristic; most people aren’t like that. I’ve never been as disappointed and sad about having difficulty about getting a second date as I am with you. I’ve gone out with a lot of women in my life. (FYI, I’m not a serial dater. Sometimes, I’ve only gone out with a woman for one date.) People don’t grow on trees. I hope you appreciate the potential we have.
Am I sensitive person? Sure, I am. I think it’s better to be sensitive than to be insensitive. There are too many impolite, insensitive people in the world.
I suggest that we continue to go out and see what happens. Needless to say, I find you less appealing now (given that you haven’t returned my messages) than I did at our first date. However, I would be willing to go out with you again. I’m open minded and flexible and am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. I wish you would give me the benefit of the doubt too.
If you don’t want to go out again, in my opinion, you would be making a big mistake, perhaps one of the biggest mistakes in your life. If you don’t want to go out again, then you should have called to tell me so. Even sending a text message would have been better than nothing. In my opinion, not responding to my messages is impolite, immature, passive aggressive, and cowardly. I spent time, effort, and money meeting you for dinner. Getting back to me in response to my messages would have been a reasonable thing for you to do. In addition, you arrived about 30 minutes late for our date. I’m sure you wouldn’t like it if a man showed up thirty minutes late for a first date with you.
If you’re concerned that you will hurt my feelings by providing specific information about why you don’t want to go with me again, well, my feelings are already hurt. I’m sad and disappointed about this situation. If you give information, at least I can understand the situation better. I might even learn something that is beneficial.
If you don’t want to go out again, that I request that you call me and make a sincere apology for leading me on (i.e., giving me mixed signals). In my opinion, you shouldn’t act that way toward a man and then not go out with him again. It’s bad to play with your hair so much and make so much eye contact if you’re not interested in going out with me again. I have tried to write this email well, but it’s not perfect. Again, I’m not trying to be harsh, insulting, patronizing, etc. I’m disappointed, sad, etc.
I would like to talk to you on the phone. I hope you will call me back at xxx-xxx-xxxx (if it’s inconvenient for you to talk on the phone when you read this email, you can let me know via email that you are willing to talk on the phone and I’ll call you). If you get my voicemail, you can a leave a message and I can call you back. Even if you don’t want to go out again, I would appreciate it if you give me the courtesy of calling me and talking to me. Yes, you might say things that hurt me, but my feelings are already hurt.
Sending me an email response (instead of talking on the phone) would better than no response at all, but I think it would be better to talk on the phone. Email communication has too much potential for misinterpretation, etc.
Ramie Marie Grimmer from Texas, the daughter of a woman who killed herself after being refused food stamps wrote “may die 2day” on her Facebook page during the seven-hour stand-off her mother had dragged her into with police.
Ramie Marie Grimmer, 12, and her ten-year-old brother were shot and critically wounded by their mother Rachelle Grimmer.
Rachelle Grimmer, 38, entered the Texas Health and Human Services Commission office in Laredo on Monday afternoon and demanded to speak to a supervisor after trying “for months” to gain benefits for her family.
She then pulled out a handgun and started walking through the office, threatening several employees, authorities said.
Rachelle Grimmer took a supervisor hostage in a room while a SWAT team managed to evacuate three dozen people.
Ramie Marie Grimmer wrote “may die 2day” on her Facebook page during the seven-hour stand-off her mother had dragged her into with police
After a seven-hour stand off, Rachelle Grimmer allowed the male supervisor to go free, but she remained in the office with her two children.
The apparent Facebook profile of Ramie Marie Grimmer is updated regularly on Monday.
At 7:50 p.m., the girl wrote: “May die 2day” on her wall.
Ramie Marie Grimmer then accepted a friend request before writing “I’m bored” at 10:34pm and tagged her location as Laredo, Texas.
The girl then “liked” the band Evanescence and wrote “ahhhhhhhhhhahhhhhh” at 10:52 p.m.
At 11:28 p.m., she wrote “tear gas seriasly”. [sic]
Joe Baeza of the Laredo Police Department reported on Tuesday: “About 11:45 last night, she hung up the phone with negotiators, and a little bit later, negotiators heard three shots.
“What had happened was that she had shot each of her children once and herself once.
“She had issues and felt that she had been let down by social services in general.”
Joe Baeza added: “She was making all sorts of outlandish claims.”
The children were airlifted to a hospital in San Antonio in extremely critical condition. The mother was dead at the scene.
There has been no updates on the children’s medical condition so far but Ramie Marie Grimmer had accessed her Facebook page 13 hours ago to take a quiz.
Joe Baeza said Rachelle Grimmer, who was from Ohio, arrived in Laredo about eight months ago and had lived with her children in several locations around the border city.
Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Commission, confirmed that Rachelle Grimmer applied for food stamps in July and was denied.
She said Rachelle Grimmer’s application was incomplete and that she was not sure whether the woman qualified for assistance.
“We’re still trying to track down exactly what happened with the case,” Stephanie Goodman told Reuters.
“As you can probably imagine, I think she had a lot of other issues she was dealing with as well.”
Joe Baeza credited the supervisor with remaining calm and allowing officers to evacuate the other employees and members of the public who were in the building.
He had been with the state agency for 24 years and had been a supervisor since 2000, Stephanie Goodman said. She said the commission will provide counselling for its workers.
“They go into this profession because they really want to help people, so when something like this happens, it’s doubly traumatic for them,” Stephanie Goodman said.
Stephanie Goodman also said the commission will look at what it needs to do to ensure its offices are safe for staff and the public. She said there was an unarmed security guard on duty on Monday at the Laredo office, where Texans can go to apply for food stamps and other programs.
“This is the kind of thing you hear of happening in other places, but not in our quiet home town,” Joe Baeza said.
The Mythbusters busted up a California neighbourhood yesterday evening when an errant cannonball crashed through a minivan and a house.
The Mythbusters crew had themselves a close call as they were filming their latest stunt at a California bomb range.
Producers for the Discovery Channel TV show were firing a cannon, which they had built themselves, at the range, which is located near the Santa Rita Jail in the city of Dublin.
J.D. Nelson, a sheriff’s department spokesman and a consultant for the show, told the Contra Costa Times that the cannon had been used more than 50 times prior and there had been no problems.
The sheriff also told the paper that the stunt intended that the cannonball to go through several water-filled barrels and blasting through a concrete wall.
Instead, the ball missed its mark, firing past the barrels and through the wall before taking a bad hop and going airborne, bouncing toward a home on Cassata Place – 700 feet away.
But the damage was not yet done as the cannon ball crashed through the house on one side and exited through another.
The Mythbusters busted up a California neighbourhood yesterday evening when an errant cannonball crashed through a minivan and a house
The occupants of the home were sleeping at the time, and were not hurt.
The cannonball then plummeted into the minivan, breaking one of its windows and finally coming to a stop inside.
Prior to the incident, the group’s robotic and electrical guru, Grant Imahara tweeted: “Today we’re working with heavy artillery.”
The statement was re-tweeted by the show’s official Twitter account, but both posts were later removed when news of the incident came to light.
The owner of the minivan, Jasbir Gill, is thanking his lucky stars that he and his children came out of the incident alive – they had been in the vehicle moments earlier.
Jasbir Gill told the Contra Costa Times: “It’s scary. I was in the van five minutes before this happened.”
The bomb range has been shut down as authorities investigate the incident and try to determine what exactly went wrong.
Jasbir Gill told Contra Costa Times that he wants producers of the show, which has been on the air since 2003, to pay for his van and the other damage the cannonball caused.
No Dublin residents, or anyone on the Mythbusters crew, were injured in the incident.
The Mythbusters show follows the exploits of special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who use their knowledge to prove or disprove different hard-to-believe aspects of films, TV, the internet and other rumours.
Amanda Price, wife of a Mississippi high school football coach was gunned down Monday night after she found a man lurking in the family house backyard.
Amanda Price’s husband, Ron, was also shot as he sprinted outside their New Albany home to help her, but he is expected to recover.
New Albany Police Chief David Grisham says the shooting happened just before 10:00 p.m. on Monday.
David Grisham said Amanda Price had gone outside to take their dog out and startled someone, who shot her in the chest when she screamed.
Hearing the screams and gunshots, Ron Price, who was inside the house, ran out to help when he was shot in the shoulder.
Amanda Price, her husband Ron and their 3-year-old daughter Molly
Ron Price, who was able to call 911 after he was shot, was treated and released early Tuesday morning from North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo.
The couple’s three-year-old daughter Molly, who was inside the house at the time of the shooting, was not hurt.
New Albany Mayor Tim Kent told WTVA.com that the couple was always willing to help in the community.
Tim Kent said: “They just have a soft spot in their heart for everybody.”
Police have few clues about the killer, but believe he may be linked to a series of car burglaries in the area at about the same time as the shooting.
Chief David Grisham told Fox 13: “The only description we have at this time is approximately 6 foot, dressed in dark clothing, with a mask over his face.”
Ron Price had recently completed his fourth season as head coach for the New Albany Bulldogs.
Amanda Price was a speech pathologist in the same school district.
A $20,000 reward has been offered for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer.
Mario Hernandez, mayor of San Fernando, California, turned his private life into public business late last month when he stunned residents at a city council meeting by announcing he was having an affair with a city councilwoman.
Mario Hernandez then horrified his constituents in the small town when he ordered police to escort away his wife, who was sitting in the front row, as she stood up to confront her adulterous husband.
San Fernando residents are now demanding the mayor and his lover, Maribel De La Torre, to resign.
Mario Hernandez, San Fernando, Maribel De La Torre
San Fernando, a city of just 25,000, has already been plagued by sex scandals among its leaders.
The police chief is being sued by a cadet who claims they had sex in a squad car, a police dispatcher was caught exposing himself in public and another councilwoman carried on an affair with a police sergeant while the city sparred with the police union, the San Fernando Valley Sun reported.
At the end of a November 21 city council meeting, Mayor Mario Hernandez announced that his business had gone under and he had declared bankruptcy.
And then he added: “I’d like to put out there, to squash the rumors, that yes, I have been in a relationship with Councilwoman De La Torre.”
Mayor Mario Hernandez claimed he was separated from his wife.
That’s when Anna Hernandez stood up from the front row: “I’m his wife… we weren’t separated.”
As the woman tried to publicly confront her adulterous husband, Mario Hernandez ordered the city’s acting police chief to step in.
The mayor told the officer that if Anna Hernandez tried to speak again, she must be escorted out, the Sun reported.
The pronouncement drew gasps from the crowd and scorn from fellow council members.
“Ghetto,” responded Councilwoman Sylvia Ballin.
“You’re a joke. Everyone knows you’re a joke, so just be a joke,” taunted Sev Aszkenazy, the publisher of the Sun and the mayor’s brother-in-law.
At the end of the meeting, Mayor Mario Hernandez and Councilwoman Maribel De La Torre quickly retreated from the council chambers.
At a follow-up meeting this week, 150 residents turned up to lambaste their soap opera mayor and call for his resignation.
Maribel De La Torre, who has two children in college, was conspicuously absent from the gathering.
Councilwoman Maribel De La Torre
“I’m sorry I voted for you,” Dee Akemon told the mayor.
“You ain’t got no shame at all,” 77-year-old Samuel Beltran said.
Residents said the city has real problems to worry about without being sidetracked by a philandering mayor – a massive budget deficit, a proposal to spend large amounts of city money on a private firefighting force and contract negotiations with the police union.
Vicky Bell from Tennessee and her boyfriend stood helplessly by and watched their home and valuables go up in flames because a team of firefighters refused to help – as they had not paid their “subscription fees”.
The couple managed to escape from their trailer home but did not have time to grab many personal belongings.
Vicky Bell said the blaze was terrifying – but almost as shocking was seeing fire trucks sitting in the distance and doing nothing to help.
Rural residents who want to be protected by the fire officers in their nearby town of South Fulton must pay a $75 annual subscription.
South Fulton Mayor David Crocker told Local 6 WPSD that if they don’t collect fire fees, the fire department can’t survive – and if they make exceptions to the rule, no one will ever pay the fee.
However, Mayor David Crocker added that they will always help when people are in danger.
The local fire department refused to comment on the fees.
Vicky Bell from Tennessee and her boyfriend stood helplessly by and watched their home and valuables go up in flames because a team of firefighters refused to help - as they had not paid their “subscription fees”
Vicky Bell said she did know about the fees but just didn’t think a fire would ever happen to her.
The woman told local TV station WPSD: “911 said they [the fire department] were in fact dispatched and they showed that they were on the scene.
“You could look out my mom’s trailer and see the trucks sitting at a distance.”
On the South Fulton Fire Department website their mission statement reads that “the mission… is to protect the lives and property of its citizens, and provide good public relations through fire safety education to all businesses and schools”.
October was fire awareness month at the station.
The home of Gene Cranick who also lives outside the city limits, burned down last October.
Gene Cranick said he had forgotten to pay the fee and begged firemen with money to put out the fire but they refused. His three dogs and a cat were killed and Gene Cranick and his wife Paulette lost their home.
Jorely Rivera, a 7-year-old girl, whose body was found in a Georgia dumpster, was bludgeoned, sexually assaulted and stabbed in a particularly vicious attack by a killer who police believe lives in her apartment complex.
The wounds to Jorely Rivera body were so severe Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vernon Keenan would not give any details.
Vernon Keenan would only say she had blunt force trauma to the head and stab wounds and that the crime as a “very horrific and brutal murder”.
Jorely Rivera was taken to a vacant apartment where she was sexually assaulted, stabbed and beaten to death, police believe.
The killer then threw little girl’s brutally disfigured body into a trash bin near her home in Canton, Georgia where it was found by police.
“It came about 60 to 90 minutes after she disappeared,” Vernon Keenan said.
“This was a very calculated and planned crime.
“A child who dies under extreme violence is absolutely the worst thing that can happen to a human being.”
Jorely Rivera was taken to a vacant apartment where she was sexually assaulted, stabbed and beaten to death, police believe
Investigators believe the killer either lives in the apartment complex or has regular access to it.
No suspects are in custody but investigations continue. DNA evidence has been collected from the child’s body and the vacant apartment.
Jorely Rivera was last seen on Friday afternoon, and her body was discovered around 12:30 p.m. on Monday.
Police and volunteers had spent the weekend combing the area around the apartment complex playground where the girl was last seen.
At the time of her disappearance, Jorely Rivera was being looked after by a teenage babysitter along with her two siblings.
She had left the park to go and collect drinks from home for her friends, and disappeared between the playground and her home at the River Ridge Apartments.
Police had sent several Coca-Cola cans found nearby for forensic testing to see if these are the drinks that the child had gone to collect for her friends.
Jorely Rivera’s mother, Joselin, had made an emotional plea for her return and her father, who lives in Florida, had flown to the city in Cherokee County.
A friend translated for Spanish-speaking Joselin Rivera to local TV station 11alive.com.
Joselin Rivera said her daughter was “friendly, sweet, had lots of friends and everyone just loved her”.
Vernon Keenan said investigators have received numerous tips from the public and said valuable evidence has come from residents at the apartment complex.
Several sex offenders living at the complex have been identified and interviewed, he said.
But Vernon Keenan added: “We have no reason to believe, at this point, that sex offenders are involved.”
About 65 local, state and federal investigators are working on the case and several hundred interviews have been conducted, authorities said.
Maria Rodriguez, a former resident of the apartment complex, said she works with Jorely Rivera’s mother at a nearby poultry plant.
“She was a very sweet girl,” Maria Rodriguez said as she held her own four-year-old daughter.
“She was the type of little girl who likes her presence to be known. It’s just so sad.”
Police have removed two other young children from the Rivera home over “concern about the supervision of Jorely,” said Lt. Jay Baker with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department.
He said no charges were expected against the mother or the baby sitter.
A prayer vigil was held late Monday at the playground, where people left flowers, balloons and stuffed animals at a makeshift memorial for Jorely Rivera.
A $15,000 reward has been issued for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the girl’s killer.
“We’re following up on every single tip,” Jay Baker said.
Alec Baldwin was thrown off an American Airlines flight for playing an iPhone game, according to some reports.
Alec Baldwin, 53, was spotted sitting at LAX airport, in the midst of what appeared to be an intense telephone conversation, after his trip back to New York had been cut short.
The 30 Rock star was then seen leaving an American Airline ticket counter after re-booking another flight home.
The ordeal had seemingly raised Alec Baldwin‘s temperature, as he appeared to have sweat stains on his T-shirt.
Alec Baldwin was thrown off an American Airlines flight for playing an iPhone game
Alec Baldwin’s obsession with a Scrabble-inspired iPhone game got him “reamed” out on an earlier AA flight yesterday.
After a flurry of reports hit Twitter, Alec Baldwin took to his own account to give his version of yesterday events.
“Flight attendant on American reamed me out 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS while we sat at the gate, not moving,” Alec Baldwin tweeted yesterday afternoon, along with the hashtag, “#nowonderamericaairisbankrupt”
Before adding: “#theresalwaysunited”
Alec Baldwin then updated his flight status, writing: “Now on the 3 o’clock American flight. The flight attendants already look…..smarter.”
Alec Baldwin took to his own Twitter account to give his version of AA events
The actor later tweeted that he was finally on his way, with a dash of satirical humour.
“#theresalwaysunited Last flight w American. Where retired Catholic school gym teachers from the 1950’s find jobs as flight attendants,” Alec Baldwin wrote.
Alec Baldwin was finally arrived at JFK in the evening, after what had this time appeared to be a drama-free trip home.
TMZ reports that Alec Baldwin got kicked off his earlier flight when the actor “slammed” the bathroom door so loudly the captain had to get involved.
According to passengers, after the confrontation over his iPhone, Alec Baldwin got up to go to the bathroom and angrily slammed the lavatory door and it was so loud the captain called back to flight attendants to find out what was happening.
That’s when the captain himself made the call to have Alec Baldwin removed.
Earlier, author Grant Cardone tweeted that he saw Alec Baldwin getting kicked off, and said he was “told by an AA authority” that the actor was booted because he “Didn’t have his Capitol One card and [was] Abusive to attendant.”
Alec Baldwin appears in commercials for Capitol One credit cards.
The actor has allowed his temper get the better of him in the past.
In 2007, Alec Baldwin horrendously left a voice mail for his young daughter calling her a “rude, thoughtless little pig”.
He later apologized and wrote a book inspired by the incident.
The gossip started when Michael J. Wolf, Founder and Managing Director at www.activate.com, tweeted:
“On an AA flight at LAX. Alec Baldwin removed from the plane We had to go back to the gate. Terrible that everyone had to wait”
One joked: “Alec Baldwin should never be allowed to fly quite frankly. His liberal politics represent a clear and present danger to the U.S.”
Before another added: “I was on the plane and yes Alec Baldwin was kicked off for grabbing 2 bags of peanuts and that is clearly an FAA violation. He may do time.”
Scientists have now revealed that children’s temper tantrums can be analyzed, as having a pattern and rhythm of their own that, when understood, may help many a long-suffering parent or teacher.
While tantrums generally involve shouting, kicking, screaming, crying and whining, a new study, published in journal Emotion, looked at the noises a child makes when going through a temper attack.
Co-author James A. Green of the University of Connecticut explained to NPR that the researchers developed a specially-modified onesie, with a microphone sewn to the fabric.
Scientists have now revealed that children’s temper tantrums can be analyzed, as having a pattern and rhythm of their own that, when understood, may help many a long-suffering parent or teacher
Parents dressed their children in the suits, then recordings of all of the child’s noises were collected over the next few hours – including tantrums, if they unfolded.
After collecting around 100 tantrum recordings, the team was able to analyze sounds and build up “the most quantitative theory of tantrums that has ever been developed in the history of humankind”, co-author Michael Potegal of the University of Minnesota told the station.
Results indicated a definite pattern of various audio signatures, revealing that tantrums are a complex mixture of simultaneous emotions, including sadness and anger.
“The impression that tantrums have two stages is incorrect,” said Michael Potegal, referencing the common, and now outdated, impression that attacks begin with shouts and anger and end in crying and sadness.
The picture is rather more complicated. “In fact, the anger and the sadness are more or less simultaneous.”
The team found that there are certain sounds that often go hand-in-hand. “Screaming and yelling and kicking often go together,” said Michael Potegal.
“Throwing things and pulling and pushing things tend to go together. Combinations of crying, whining, falling to the floor and seeking comfort – these also hang together.”
The trick, the co-authors say, is to avoid the “anger trap” by letting the storm melt away of its own accord, and simply do nothing.
Luckily, though, getting to that stage is rarely a long affair. James A. Green explained: “Tantrums tend to often have this flow where the build up is often quite quick to a peak of anger.”
Trying to help by asking questions will only add to the build up.
“You know, when children are at the peak of anger and they’re screaming and they’re kicking, probably asking questions might prolong that period of anger,” James A. Green said.
“It’s difficult for them to process information. And to respond to a question that the parent is asking them may be just adding more information into the system than they can really cope with.”
Once the peak of anger has been reached, the tantrum’s ebb is, thankfully, in view.
While there are families far and wide who could surely add data to the study, it’s hoped that the new findings may allow some parents to foster a sense of control when it comes to weathering out temper tantrums.
David Silverstein, a wealthy chiropractor from Seattle, and his wife were living in a $1.2million waterfront home while claiming almost $2,000-a-month welfare benefits and even food stamps, according to documents.
A civil lawsuit has been filed against David Silverstein and Lyudmila Shimonova, who are accused of making false claims which included more than $1,200 in public housing vouchers, plus state and government disability cheques and even food stamps.
Prosecutors are demanding they pay back more than $135,000 in federal housing assistance since 2003 and are seeking tens of thousands of dollars in fines.
It is thought the couple has spent some of the money they claimed over the last eight years flying to Moscow, Paris, Israel, Turkey, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
David Silverstein, a wealthy chiropractor from Seattle, and his wife were living in a $1.2million waterfront home while claiming almost $2,000-a-month welfare benefits and even food stamps, according to documents
All the while, federal authorities say, David Silverstein and Lyudmila Shimonova was collecting more than $100,000 in welfare.
Lyudmila Shimonova also received benefits under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, as well as Social Security cash reserved for people who can’t work due to age or disability and whose assets fall below a certain threshold – $3,000 for a married couple or $2,000 for a single person, the complaint said.
“Defendants have separately and, it appears, in conjunction with one another made false representations to various state and federal agencies in order to obtain federally funded benefits,” assistant U.S. attorneys Harold Malkin and Kayla Stahman wrote.
Meanwhile, David Silverstein and Lyudmila Shimonova were traveling the world, according to Department of Homeland Security records.
Michael Radyshewsky, a federal welfare fraud investigator, wrote in an application to search the couple’s home that they took week-long trips to Moscow in 2003, Dominican Republic in 2005, and Mexico and France in 2009.
In 2007, David Silverstein and Lyudmila Shimonova went for 12 days to Israel, and this past June they took a two-week trip to Turkey.
The investigation included surveillance of the three-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot home on Lake Washington, during which agents observed his black Jaguar parked there frequently.
Though Lyudmila Shimonova had claimed she was single and lived there alone, David Silverstein listed it as his residence on his driver’s license and passport application, the prosecutors said.
But in documents filed so that he could receive the housing assistance, David Silverstein listed his office as his residence to conceal that he was living with Lyudmila Shimonova – not her landlord, they said.
In addition to failing to disclose the marriage or living situation, Lyudmila Shimonova also failed to disclose bank accounts in her name containing tens of thousands of dollars, prosecutors said.
The lawsuit seeks to have the couple pay $11,000 in fines for each false claim the couple made. The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment on whether criminal charges are forthcoming.
According to Yahoo, the couple’s home includes gardens and a boat dock and that they accurately listed the address of the $1.2million property when applying for the benefits.
A federal official told the station that the couple likely took advantage of a loophole, which allows low-income individuals to receive financial assistance to help them pay their rent and move away from housing projects.
David Silverstein received the monthly benefits of $1,272 as Lyudmila Shimonova’s purported landlord, despite the fact he drives a Jaguar and has a successful chiropractor.
The government says that in gaining Section 8 housing assistance, Lyudmila Shimonova represented that she lived alone with her two children and that her household assets were less than $5,000.
On his website, David Silverstein states: “I am happily married with two children, whose careers are in medicine and Middle Eastern studies.
“As a family, we all enjoy snow shoeing, mountain climbing and ocean sports.”
At least 54 people have been killed after a bomb exploded at a packed mosque in Afghanistan as people celebrated a major Shi’ite festival in Kabul.
Bodies lie strewn on the ground after the powerful bomb killed the people at a shrine by the river in Kabul’s old city.
People rush to the scene to help those injured in the blast, people who moments earlier had been praying and chanting with scores of other worshippers.
Another 4 people were killed and 17 injured after a bicycle bomb exploded near the main mosque in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif shortly afterwards.
One witness said the bomber was at the end of a line and detonated his explosives near one of the gates to the shrine.
Bodies of the dead lay on top of one another where they fell.
At least 54 people have been killed after a bomb exploded at a packed mosque in Afghanistan as people celebrated a major Shi'ite festival in Kabul
It was the single deadliest attack in Kabul for more than three years.
Religiously motivated attacks on Shi’ites are rare in Afghanistan, although they are common in neighbouring Pakistan.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, reminiscent of the wave of sectarian violence that shook Iraq during the height of the war there.
The Ministry of Interior blamed the Taliban and “terrorists”. It said police had defused another bomb in Mazar-i-Sharif.
The Taliban strongly condemned the two attacks and said that they deeply regretted that innocent Afghans were killed and wounded.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said it was unprecendented and the first time one had been carried out during a religious event.
The blasts happened in the middle of the Ashura festival – which marks the martyrdom of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Hussein in the battle of Karbala in Iraq in the year 680 – at around 7:30 a.m. GMT.
It is the biggest event in the Shi’ite calendar and features large processions that are vulnerable to militant attacks.
Afghanistan has a history of tension and violence between Sunnis and the Shi’ite minority, but since the fall of the Taliban the country had been spared the large scale sectarian attacks that have troubled neighbouring Pakistan.
Shi’ites account for some 20% of the population in predominantly Sunni Afghanistan. The Taliban insurgency has largely avoided fanning secretarian strife.
The bombing is one of the deadliest in the ten years of war since the Taliban regime was ousted.
It comes a day after a major international conference in Bonn, Germany, on the future of international involvement in Afghanistan.
President Hamid Karzai warned representatives of 85 nations at the conference that his country would need their financial support for at least another decade beyond the 2014 departure of international troops.
Hamid Karzai said: “Together we have spent blood and treasure in fighting terrorism.
“Your continued solidarity, your commitment and support will be crucial so that we can consolidate our gains and continue to address the challenges that remain.”
The conference was overshadowed by a display of bad blood between the U.S. and Pakistan – both of whom have a stake in making Afghanistan safe and solvent.
Pakistan boycotted the conference to protest after an errant U.S. air strike last month killed 24 soldiers along the border with Afghanistan.
Participating nations pledged their support for an inclusive Afghan-led reconciliation process on condition that any outcome must reject violence and terrorism and endorse the Afghan constitution and its guarantee of human rights.
