Just When You Thought You Heard It All News (1-28-2017)

A Mississippi lawmaker really doesn’t want to see your underwear. 

Tom Weathersby, a Republican serving in the state’s House of Representatives, has proposed a law that could lead to fines and even counseling for people who wear “sagging” pants, or a style in which pants hang so low that underwear is exposed.

“Personally, I like to see people dressed when they’re in public and I like to see people with their pants up,” Weathersby told Mississippi Today.

Weathersby’s bill, introduced last week, would make it “unlawful for any person to wear pants, shorts or clothing bottoms that exposes underwear or body parts in an indecent or vulgar manner.”

The penalty for a first offense of the noncriminal citation is a warning, and ― for juveniles ― notifying their parents or guardians. After that, fines begin at $20 for a second offense and run up to $100 for a sixth offense. That sixth offense would also include “psychological and social counseling by the Department of Human Services and the Department of Mental Health.”

Both departments have faced budget cuts and staff shortages in recent years. Weathersby’s bill does not increase funding for either department in order to counsel people who wear sagging pants.

Several other communities have banned saggy pants over the years, including Opa-Locka, Florida, and Wildwood, New Jersey. In 2015, four high school students in Tennessee were charged with indecent exposure ― and two were jailed ― for wearing sagging pants.

You’ve heard of the naked truth. But what about naked “alternative facts”?

That could describe the excuse offered by a Florida man accused of being naked at a car wash.

Police in Pensacola arrested 52-year-old Charles William Raulerson early Sunday after getting a call about a naked man in the car wash parking lot. Responding officers reported seeing Raulerson standing around without pants blaring music from his vehicle, according to the Pensacola News Journal.

When deputies asked Raulerson to put his clothes on, he gave a response worthy of any “alternative fact” dished out by the Trump administration: “They took off running by themselves without me.” 

Deputies, suspicious that Raulerson possessed pants that could defy the laws of physics, asked him to sit in his car, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Raulerson then threatened an officer with a screwdriver, police said. When he tried to get out of his car again, the officer shocked him with a Taser stun gun, according to police. 

Paulerson was charged with aggravated assault on an officer, a second-degree felony, according to  WTSP.com. Jail records show he was held at the Escambia County Jail on a $500 bond.

It’s unclear whether his pants got away.

A teacher with the Dallas Independent School District is being investigated after video surfaced of her firing a toy gun at a projected image of Donald Trump and yelling “Die!” in front of her class. 

Payal Modi is a teacher at W.H. Adamson High School, and CBS DFW reports that the video surfaced on social media following Trump’s inauguration.

In the eight-second YouTube video, a video image of Trump is projected onto a whiteboard. Modi is shown holding a blue toy gun that she aims at Trump’s image; then she pulls the trigger multiple times and yells “Die!” at the screen. 

The school district said in a statement that Modi had been placed on administrative leave and the district has opened an investigation. 

“This is a personnel matter,” the statement said, “and, as such, we cannot comment.” 

According to CBS DFW, many people on social media have expressed outrage over the video. 

From the video, it doesn’t appear that the teacher is making threats at Trump; rather, she appears to be expressing a popular opinion that many people have: the wish that he would just go away. 

Nevertheless, she is a teacher, and how this will play into First Amendment-protected free speech versus her job as a public servant remains to be seen. 

She is not the first person to make remarks about getting rid of the president through violent means. As CBS DFW notes, Madonna landed in controversy last week after comments she made during the Women’s March on Washington. 

“Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House,” the veteran pop singer said. “But I know that this won’t change anything. We cannot fall into despair.”

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Just When You Thought You Heard It All News (1-21-2017)

A staff member for Frederick County Public Schools in Maryland was terminated after a tweet about a misspelling between a student and the employee went viral.

At the end of a four minute meeting, 34-year-old Katie Nash said she was terminated from her job.

A letter from Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS), read, "Dear Katie, this letter confirms our discussion today that your probation period as a Web Experience Coordinator for Frederick County Public Schools will not be extended. You will be terminated from your assignment effective January 13, 2017."

"We had received feedback from some students in a focus group that our tweeting was a bit flat, they were looking for some more engagement," Nash said. "They were looking for us to tweet back at them and I really took that to heart because I know that I am a little bit older and maybe not as hip as some of the students are, so I took that to heart and I took that feedback in."

On Jan. 5, Frederick County was preparing for snow, so one student tweeted, "close school tammarow PLEASE," but as you can see tomorrow is not spelled correctly. FCPS tweeted back, "but then how would you learn how to spell tomorrow :) ."

"It just sort of an opportunity to respond and do so in a fun lighthearted way," said Nash.

Most of the community thought the tweet was funny, but officials with FCPS told Nash to delete the tweet.

Michael Doerrer, the Director of Communications, Community Engagement and Marketing, said FCPS personally apologized to the student.

"When they had reached out and when the community overwhelmingly saw it, for what it was just lighthearted banter and trying to engage with the students on their level," said Nash.

Despite it all, Nash hopes that FCPS learns from what has happened and the power of social media.

"Out of this entire experience, that something really positive comes out of this because I think the community has sort of been looking at this and various reactions, most positive, but I really am sincere and I hope FCPS thinks how can we use social media to engage going forward," said Nash.

Nash said she will continue to be a part of schools functions like the school's PTA.

Fast-food lovers are likely in awe over the sheer courage of a crazy 13-year-old girl who reportedly smacked down a gun held by a boy demanding she give him a McDonald’s Chicken McNugget.

The girl told police that her 12-year-old schoolmate first asked her for a McNugget inside McDonald’s in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood on Tuesday When she declined, he allegedly followed her to a subway station, whipped out the weapon and held it to her head.

Even at gunpoint, the teen refused to hand over even one lump of breaded chicken paste, police said. The NYPD told the Daily News she knocked the gun away from the boy and told him to leave her alone.

Police didn’t recover the gun, but “numerous witnesses” reported seeing it, an NYPD spokesperson said..

The boy was charged as a juvenile with attempted robbery.  He will be prosecuted in family court.

The United States Mint just released an image of its latest commemorative collector’s coin ― and it features a black woman. 

On Thursday, the United States Mint and Treasury revealed the 2017 American Liberty High Relief Gold Coin, commemorating the 225th anniversary of the U.S. Mint. The coin has a depiction of Lady Liberty like we’ve never seen her: a black woman with twists in her hair, wearing a crown of stars.

Some social media users on Twitter questioned why Lady Liberty, who has traditionally been depicted as a white woman, appears as a woman of color on the new coin. The U.S. Mint explained on Twitter that the coin is part of a series to reflect America’s diversity: 

The 24-karat gold coin will be part of a series of future coins depicting Lady Liberty as Indian-American, Hispanic-American, and Asian American. The coins will be issued every two years. 

Soon, another black woman will grace U.S. currency: Harriet Tubman is set to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill by 2020.

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Just When You Thought You Heard It All News (1-14-2017)

A stolen bite out of his grilled cheese sandwich led a Maryland man to fire a shot inside his house and barricade himself for hours.

It had to have been aged cheddar or smoked Gouda!

Baltimore County police spokesman Shawn Vinson says the dispute began about 5 p.m. Sunday at a Dundalk home. He says the man was eating with his wife and daughter, and became angry when one of them took a bite from his sandwich, prompting him to fire a shot inside the house.

The wife and daughter fled the house, but the man barricaded himself inside. He surrendered peacefully shortly before 9 p.m.

No one was injured.

The department said in a news release Monday that 55-year-old Daniel Blackwell has been charged with attempted murder and other offenses. Online court records don't list a lawyer for Blackwell.

On Dec. 11, Nick Stafford pushed five wheel barrels full of loose coins into Department of Motor Vehicles in Lebanon, Virginia, according to a statement he made on his company’s website.

Stafford, who has been fighting with DMV for months, decided to pay $2,987.14 in taxes on his car with 298,745 pennies. The facility’s automated coin-counting machine couldn’t handle the load, and employees were forced to count the 1,548 pounds of change by hand. Stafford said that he arrived at the DMV at 9 a.m. Wednesday and staff was not done counting the pennies until early Thursday morning, the BBC reports.

The whole thing stemmed from a longstanding grudge against the department. 

Less than 24 hours later, he collected hundreds of rolls of pennies to pay his taxes at the DMV. He then hired 11 people at $10 an hour to help him break open the rolled coins. It took them four hours to do this, costing Stafford $440. He then bought the five wheelbarrows, which cost him another $400. All in all, Stafford spent $1,005 to get 10 phone numbers and drop off a bunch of pennies at the DMV. Which doesn't exactly sound like a genius move.

Not to mention the $2,987.14 he had to pay in taxes, which he happily brought to the DMV on Wednesday morning.

The DMV had to accept his form of payment because the US Coinage Act of 1965 says that coins are “legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes and dues.”

According to Stafford, the employees at the DMV did not cause a fuss.

“The DMV employees are being very respectful and accommodating considering the situation,” he wrote on his website.

If you have ever needed evidence that Fox News is filled with idiots, here it is!! Boxing loves a comeback story but no boxer has ever come back from the grave.

A Fox affiliate newscast in Philadelphia Wednesday wished deceased former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier a happy birthday and reported that he would appear at City Hall for a youth boxing event..........

And that’s not even the whole screw up. Frazier, who died Nov. 7, 2011 and has a statue erected in his honor in Philly, was actually born on Jan. 12, 1944. NOT THE 11TH!.

“He really is a legend,” “Good Day Philadelphia” co-anchor Thomas Drayton of Fox 29 gushed. “Such a force.”

If Smokin’ Joe, perhaps best known for his fights againist Muhammad Ali showed up at City Hall, we say book him for a fight immediately.

A Fox 29 spokesperson told Philadelphia Magazine that “Good Day Philadelphia” corrected the report in the newscast.

Good thing the station was able to avoid Frazier’s left hook.

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Disabled, Battered, & Abused

Indifference to human life, stupidity and heinousness know no color. No matter who the perpetrators are the outrage should be the same.

Four suspects are facing hate crime charges after an 18-year-old mentally disabled man was bound, beaten, taunted with racial slurs and forced to drink from a toilet in a disgusting video broadcast live on Facebook, prosecutors said Thursday......Yes, these morons actually posted this assault on Facebook live.

The disoriented victim was found wandering the streets of Chicago by police. He managed to escape his tormentors when a neighbor threatened to call 911 over noise coming from the apartment where he was held, authorities said.

“He was bloodied, he was battered,” said Officer Michael Donnelly. “He was very discombobulated.”

In the video, the man’s wrists are bound and his mouth taped shut as his captors shout racial slurs and slice at his clothes with a knife. One person taps ash from a cigarette on an open wound on top of the man’s head.

In the footage, someone shouts, “F--- white people!” and “F--- Donald Trump!”

Another video clip shows at least one of the attackers hovering above the teen, kneeling over a toilet. The suspect grabs the boy’s head and submerges it in the bowl.

Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Thursday that while the suspects, all of whom are black, made “terrible racist statements” against white people during the on-camera torture session, it did not appear to be racially motivated.

In addition to hate crimes, the four were charged with kidnapping, aggravated battery and aggravated unlawful restraint.

Three were also charged with burglary.

The bizarre incident began on Saturday, New Year’s Eve, when the victim and Hill met at a suburban McDonald’s for what both the teen and his parents believed would be a sleepover, police said.

Instead, Hill drove the victim around in a stolen van for a couple of days, ending up at a home in Chicago, where two of the other suspects lived, Detective Commander Kevin Duffin said.

The victim told police what began as playful fighting transformed into the hours-long torture session streamed on social media.

Meanwhile, the victim’s parents reported their son missing on Monday. They later received text messages claiming he was being held hostage, police said.

A downstairs neighbor, disturbed by noises coming from the apartment, threatened to call police on Tuesday. When two of the suspects went down and kicked in the neighbor’s door, the victim escaped.

A police officer later spotted him and he was taken to a hospital and reunited with his family.

All four suspects are expected to appear in court Friday.

Late Thursday, David Boyd, who identified himself as the victim’s brother-in-law, said the family was grateful for “all the prayers and efforts."

“He’s doing well, as well as he could be at this time,” Boyd said. "This should never have happened." 

Priscilla Covington, the grandmother to Brittany Covington couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the video. 

"I'm so upset, my head is about to bust open," the grandmother said. "I don't know if someone influenced her...She had her ups and downs. (She) was a good person. I'm so confused." 

PR