Hillary Clinton Promises To Tackle Campus Sexual Assault If Elected

Hillary Clinton tackled the issue of campus sexual assault for the first time since hitting the campaign trail this election cycle, calling for a crackdown on the "epidemic" at a Monday campaign event.

Clinton announced a three-pronged approach to combat sexual assault on college campuses at a "Women for Hillary" event in Cedar Falls, Iowa: create a stronger support network for survivors of assault, renew focus on the disciplinary proceedings for accusers and the accused and improve prevention efforts at schools.

"It is not enough to condemn campus sexual assault. We need to end campus sexual assault," she said at the event.

The proposal falls in line with President Barack Obama's "It's On Us" campaign launched in September 2014 with the goal of raising awareness of the largely sexual assault on college campuses. Specific details on how Clinton's plan would be implemented were sparse.

Clinton promised that, if elected, she'll "every campus offers every survivor the support she needs."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-promises-to-tackle-campus-sexual-assault-if-elected_55f70acee4b077ca094fd8d1?utm_hp_ref=politics

Liberty University revoked recognition of College Democrats in 2009.

From 2009:

Last week, Liberty University - the evangelical Christian mega-college founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell - made the national news when, while implementing a new funding scheme for student organizations, it revoked approval for the campus Democratic organization.

Liberty's Young Democrats club - the first in school history - was formed during last fall's election season, and was given an award for "Up-and-Coming Chapter of the Year" by the Virginia Young Democrats in April. But earlier this month, Liberty VP Mark Hine wrote to club president Brian Diaz that the club's status was being dropped because it had supported candidates whose views were "contrary to the mission of LU and to Christian doctrine," even though the club itself was officially pro-life and anti-gay-marriage. Following a maelstrom of criticism, Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. offered to reinstate the club, providing it aligns itself with a pro-life, anti-gay Democratic group, and not the Democratic Party in general. (Which is kind of like saying that you'll allow penguins at your zoo, but not the black-and-white kind that waddle.)

On one level, reading a news story about a fledgling chapter of the Young Democrats having its club status revoked by Liberty University is completely unsurprising. After all, since its founding in 1971, Liberty's mission has always been to cultivate generations of conservative Christian voters and activists. Before his death, Rev. Falwell often said that he wanted his school to be the "Harvard of the right," and to this day, Liberty's official brochure touts the school's "strong commitment to political conservatism, total rejection of socialism, and firm support for America's economic system of free enterprise."



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-roose/liberty-university-democr_b_207361.html

Dr. Phil: 'Nothing Creepy' In Trump's Jokes About Dating His Own Daughter

Television personality Dr. Phil said on Monday during an interview on "The View" that there's "nothing creepy" happening when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump jokes about dating his own daughter.

Trump most recently called his daughter, Ivanka, a "beauty" in an interview with Rolling Stone.

"Yeah, she's really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren't happily married and, ya know, her father?..." he said in the interview.

He had also said, among other comments about her appearance, that Ivanka had "the best body."

The co-hosts of ABC's "The View" discussed with guest Phil McGraw why Trump says the things he does.

“Well, you know, he doesn’t have an edit button, he doesn’t have a muzzle,” McGraw said. “I've known Donald for a long time. I know Ivanka. I've been around the two of them together. There’s really nothing creepy going on there.”


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/dr-phil-donald-trump-ivanka

Texas cheerleaders honor 9/11 with routine set to music, panicky phone calls, and news reports

A video uploaded to the Internet on Facebook and YouTube on Friday has been viewed over 18 million times and shows a cheerleading squad at a Texas high school performing a tribute to the victims of 9/11 accompanied by patriotic music interspersed with panicked phone calls from the day along with snippets of President George W. Bush addressing the nation.

Crystalynn Petoskey, a student at Lumberton High School, uploaded a video of the routine to Facebook on Friday, writing, “Cheerleaders 9/11 routine. So good, it’ll make you cry.”

The routine begins with some cheerleaders being held aloft to Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to Be An America” only to begin tumbling and doing gymnastic flips as audio describing the Twin Towers collapsing is played.

The bizarre routine ended on an unsurprising patriotic note with the cheerleaders holding up the letters U-S-A.


http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/watch-texas-cheerleaders-honor-911-with-routine-set-to-music-panicky-phone-calls-and-news-reports/comments/

A reminder of what kind of person Cornel West is.

But too many black people are niggerized. I would say the first black president has become the first niggerized black president.

CNN ANCHOR: What do you mean by that?

WEST: A niggerized black person is a black person who is afraid and scared and intimidated when it comes to putting a spotlight on white supremacy and fighting against white supremacy. So when many of us said we have to fight against racism, what were we told? 'No, he can't deal with racism because he has other issues, political calculations. He's the president of all America, not just black America.' We know he's president of all America but white supremacy is American as cherry pie.

We're talking about moral issues, spiritual issues, emotional issues. White supremacy has nothing to do with just skin pigmentation, it has to be what kind of person you want to be, what kind of nation we want to be. Democrats and Republicans play on both of those parties in terms of running away from the vicious legacy of white supremacy until it hits us hard. Thank God for Ferguson. Thank God for the young folk of all colors. Thank God for Staten Island and fighting there. Thank God in Baltimore, now the precious folk in Charleston.

BART, packed with record crowds, to expand service

A little relief for BART riders weary of packing onto trains and standing elbow to belly button will pull up at the platform Monday morning.

The regional transit agency — struggling to handle record crowds, especially during the commute — will run longer trains, run more a few more of them and operate some later into the evening.

It’s all part of an effort to cope with growing ridership that now stands at about 430,000 trips per weekday, as well as soothe commuter discontent.

BART has new trains on the way, but they won’t arrive in significant numbers until 2017. With few railcars to spare, the agency has beefed up its maintenance staff to get the cars out of the shop and on the tracks more quickly, and has repaired some damaged cars.
BART also completed a new set of crossover tracks in Contra Costa County that gives it more flexibility.

“This is just the last inch we can squeeze out of our existing fleet while we wait for the Fleet of the Future to arrive,” said Taylor Huckaby, a BART spokesman.


http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/BART-packed-with-record-crowds-to-expand-service-6499611.php

And they said Ant Man would flop.

Ant-Man may not have been the runaway success that Guardians of the Galaxy was last year, but the final Phase 2 movie is still doing pretty damn well! Hit the jump to find out the latest box office numbers for the hero Zack Snyder called the "flavour of the month"...

It remains to be seen whether or not Disney and Marvel Studios are happy enough with Ant-Man's box office performance to give a sequel the green light, especially as they're more than likely waiting to see just how much of a boost it gets from China, Japan, and its eventual home video release. There's no denying that the movie has done well (it's outgrossed Captain America: The First Avenger, and that still got a sequel), but probably not as much as Marvel were hoping for given the success of their other movies. Will this be the case for the likes of Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel? That remains to be seen. Regardless, Ant-Man is now closing in on $400 million worldwide with a $394.741 million haul. It opens in Japan next weekend and in China on October 16th, so it's going to be interesting to see how close to $500 million it gets. With a end figure like that, you can be sure that it will indeed receive a follow-up! How many times have you seen Ant-Man?


http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/JoshWildingNewsAndReviews/news/?a=125026

California Legislature votes to suspend high school exit exam

Thousands of students who failed the California High School Exit Exam over the past decade may finally be able to graduate under a bill now awaiting Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature.

The state Senate on Thursday approved Senate Bill 172, which would suspend the exit exam through the 2017-18 school year and retroactively since 2003-04, allowing students who completed all other graduation requirements to receive their diplomas.

With a contract for a provider recently expired, lawmakers had already planned to suspend the exit exam for the next three years to come up with a replacement more aligned with new Common Core curriculum standards. But after a test cancellation this summer stranded about 5,000 graduation-eligible high school seniors without a final opportunity to pass the exam, Brown requested that the requirement be suspended retroactively as well, according to Sen. Carol Liu, D-La Cañada Flintridge, who authored SB 172.

The bill passed 23-14, over some Republican objections it would remove accountability and devalue the California high school degree, especially for students who had passed the exit exam. According to an Assembly floor analysis, the pass rate reached 97.2 percent for the class of 2014.

In an interview, Liu countered that it was an issue of fairness for students still working to complete the exam requirement, who would have to wait at least three more years for another shot and could face entirely different standards by then.


http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article34724463.html

First trailer released for Marvel's Jessica Jones. (VIDEO)

Mary Landrieu Open to Donating Leftover Campaign Funds to Republicans

She recently hosted a fundraiser in New Orleans for Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, whose seat is up in 2018, and Ron Wyden of Oregon, who is up for re-election next year.

Landrieu said she also will contribute some leftover campaign money to Republicans.

“I’m not opposed to helping one or two of my Republican friends that have helped Louisiana — if they ask,’’ Landrieu said. “They haven’t asked yet.’’

She specifically named Rob Portman of Ohio, who is up for re-election next year, and Susan Collins of Maine, who is up in 2020.


http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2015/09/04/mary-landrieus-leftover-cash-will-aid-former-colleagues/71711158/