July 4, 2015

Florida Man Fired After Facebook Post Saying He Wants To Marry His Dog

Ryan Uhler thought he was being funny when he took to Facebook to compare marrying his dog to same-sex marriage, but he quickly found himself in the doghouse at work.

Uhler, 32, a resident of Cape Coral, Florida, posted the following message the day after the Supreme Court's June 26 ruling that gay marriage is legal everywhere, according to TheBlaze.com.

”How is marrying a dog different if you love them? Today I hope we can focus on doggy-style love. I love my dog Rocco, and he loves me. Hopefully one day we can be married.”

On Tuesday, his employer, Grace Investment Group, fired him from his position as a digital marketing specialist.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/02/ryan-uhler-_n_7717160.html

July 4, 2015

Politico: Red States are a millstone around America's neck.

Minus the South, the rest of the U.S. probably would be more like Canada or Australia or Britain or New Zealand—more secular, more socially liberal, more moderate in the tone of its politics and somewhat more generous in social policy. And it would not be as centralized as France or as social democratic as Sweden.

As a fifth-generation Texan, and a descendant of Southerners back to the 1600s, I don’t want to encourage lurid stereotypes of a monolithic South. The states of the former Confederacy include ethnic minorities like Louisiana Cajuns and Texas Germans, along with African Americans. And the dominant conservatives in the South have always been challenged from within the ranks of the white community by populists, liberals and radicals.

But the South really is different from the rest of the country. Here are some examples of how the South skews American statistics.

Today there is more inter-generational social mobility in Europe than in the United States, contrary to the American myth that the United States is still the world’s No. 1 land of opportunity. The Economic Mobility Project of Pew Charitable Trusts has shown that children are far less likely to rise above the socio-economic levels of their parents in the U.S. than are those in Britain, Canada and Australia, as well as Germany, France and the Nordic nations. The American South, with the lowest rates of intergenerational social mobility in the U.S., clearly skews the national statistics, creating an embarrassing and depressing version of American exceptionalism.



http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/how-the-south-skews-america-119725.html#ixzz3ex8mENnb

July 4, 2015

Trump weighs in on San Francisco shooting.

PERSONAL NOTE: People are shot regularly in the Mission or Bayview and the news media barely give it a minute of their time. But when someone gets shot along Fisherman;s Warf, it's a national story.


NEW YORK, July 3 (Reuters) - A random fatal shooting in San Francisco, allegedly by an immigrant, proves the United States must tighten its borders, according to a statement on Friday by U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is facing heavy criticism for his comments about Mexicans.

Kathryn Steinle, 32, was fatally shot as she walked with her father along the popular Embarcadero pier on Wednesday in what San Francisco police described as an apparent random attack.

Francisco Sanchez, 45, was quickly arrested nearby. He is on probation from Texas, police said.

He has a long criminal history and has been deported to Mexico five times, according to local media reports.

"This senseless and totally preventable act of violence committed by an illegal immigrant is yet another example of why we must secure our border immediately," Trump said in a statement.

"This is an absolutely disgraceful situation and I am the only one that can fix it. Nobody else has the guts to even talk about it," the billionaire developer and television personality said.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-3149035/Under-fire-comments-Trump-weighs-California-shooting.html#ixzz3etX6wRg8
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July 2, 2015

Josh Duggar likely to face civil suit from molestation victim

Although the statute of limitations has long passed in regards to prosecuting Josh Duggar criminally for molesting several girls a dozen years ago, he could still be headed to court.

In Touch is reporting that one of Josh's victims, not a member of his family, is set to file a civil suit against the "19 Kids and Counting" star.

If a suit is in fact filed, Josh's parents could be forced to give depositions about what they knew. It's been reported that the parents actually covered up Josh's molestations for 16 months even though they knew of the crimes.

The magazine said Josh's parents will have to answer every question as they will not be able to invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination because the criminal statute of limitations has expired. The statute of limitations has no bearing on civil suits in this matter, according to Arkansas law.


http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/josh-duggar-could-face-civil-suit-from-molestation-victim/ar-AAcrnyq?ocid=mailsignout

July 1, 2015

DOJ is finally going after the airlines

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is investigating possible collusion among major airlines to limit available seats, which keeps airfares high, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.

The civil antitrust investigation by the Justice Department appears to focus on whether airlines illegally signaled to each other how quickly they would add new flights, routes and extra seats.

A letter received Tuesday by major U.S. carriers demands copies of all communications the airlines had with each other, Wall Street analysts and major shareholders about their plans for passenger-carrying capacity, or "the undesirability of your company or any other airline increasing capacity."

The Justice Department asked each airline for its passenger-carrying capacity by region and overall since January 2010.



http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/justice-department-investigating-potential-airline-collusion-32159519

July 1, 2015

Greece has asked for a new 2-year bailout

And now Greece has proposed a two-year bailout extension.

According to headlines from Bloomberg and others, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has requested a two-year bailout program from the European Stability Mechanism.

The request is to cover all of the country's financial needs over the next two years, including a debt-restructuring plan.

On Tuesday, Greece is slated to miss a €1.6 billion ($1.79 billion) payment to the International Monetary Fund.



http://www.businessinsider.com/report-greece-has-proposed-a-2-year-deal-2015-6#ixzz3ec8wtlZg

July 1, 2015

Mexico Pulls Out of Miss Universe Pageant

Donald Trump called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and “drug dealers.” Now, the country’s pageant organizers have decided they won’t send contestants to Trump’s Miss Universe pageant.

Two weeks after the real estate mogul angered many Mexicans with inflammatory remarks about immigrants to the United States, Mexican media conglomerate Televisa, which sends contestants to the pageant for the country, said in a statement that it would not be taking part in Miss Universe.

But that’s not the only Trump beauty contest losing support from its participants. The hosts of the Miss USA pageant, Thomas Roberts and Cheryl Burke, quit on Tuesday. Burke, a former contestant on Dancing with the Stars, singled out Trump’s comments in a Facebook post.

The latest double blow to Trump’s beauty pageant franchise comes a day after NBC announced it was not going to air Miss USA “due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants.” Spanish language network Univision announced earlier it too would not air the pageant, for the same reasons.


http://time.com/3942024/mexico-donald-trump-cheryl-burke-miss-universe-nbc-univision/