Police in Charlotte, North Carolina are looking for the unidentified man filmed hanging onto the back of a car reportedly going at least 50 mph on a busy interstate over the weekend, the Charlotte Observer reported.
Several motorists contacted authorities after spotting the man clinging to a white vehicle while driving on Interstate 77 on Saturday. Though footage of the incident has been posted online, the car's license plate number is not legible. Witnesses said there were a woman and a child inside the car while the man was hanging on.
One witness, Brenda Cruz, told WSOC-TV she gave authorities the car's plate number after capturing the incident on her phone.
"All of a sudden the kids say, 'There's someone on top of the car on the trunk,' and I'm like, 'what?'" she was quoted as saying.
The video shows the man hanging on the trunk and reaching inside through a crack in the windshield. Cruz said the man eventually got inside. Her son, Samuel, said he appeared to make his way in using "something sharp."
The vehicle pulled off of the highway before police could arrive. No injuries have been reported in connection with the incident, but authorities suspect that the driver and the man know one another.
Watch footage of the bizarre incident, as posted by WSOC, below.
Texas Tech has announced on Sunday that it had cut football recruit Nigel Bethel II after he allegedly punched a female athlete in the face so hard that she will need surgery.
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journalreported that Nigel Bethel II punched basketball star Amber Battle on Saturday at Texas Tech’s recreation center.
In a message posted to Twitter, Battle asked her followers to “[p]ray for me y’all.”
A person posting under the name Nigel Bethel II wrote on Twitter that "[t]rouble always seems to find me."
In a statement released on Sunday, Texas Tech confirmed that Bethel had been released from the team.
"Nigel Bethel II, a Texas Tech football student-athlete, has been dismissed from the team due to his role in an incident at the Texas Tech student recreation center on Saturday, June 28. Texas Tech athletics has a zero tolerance policy on this type of behavior," the statement said.
Bethel was considered to be one of the top recruits of the 2014 class.
Battle averaged 16.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per game last season to lead Texas Tech's Lady Raiders basketball team. She was expected to be reevaluated for surgery later this week.
Watch the video below from KLBK, broadcast June 29, 2014.
An 12-year-old boy died on Monday after he reportedly shot himself in the head at a Boy Scouts camp on San Diego's Fiesta Island.
According to KNSD, paramedics tried to revive the child after police responded to a 7:35 a.m. call about a suicide attempt. The child was declared dead at the scene.
A firearm was recovered from the scene, police said. But no additional information about the shooting was released.
Investigators were interviewing the child's father, who was at the camp at the time of the shooting.
KNSD reported that the camp would remain open, and parents had not been told to pick up their children. The camp planned to make counselors available.
One counselor confirmed to parents that there were no firearm programs for students at the camp.
Watch the video below from KNSD, broadcast June 30, 2014.
The chairman of the Mississippi Federation of College Republicans (MFCR) said on Monday that he had resigned, and was in the process of switching his party affiliation to Democrat because of the extremism of Tea Party members.
In a resignation letter obtained by The Clarion-Ledger, Evan Alvarez says that the Republican Party had allowed Tea Party members too much control, "and because of that, the platform of the Republican Party has shifted too far to the right in my opinion."
The trouble began last month when MFCR member Kolby Busby broke the rules by using the organization's name in campaign robocalls for tea party-backed U.S. Senate candidate Chris McDaniel. The MFCR has a strict policy of not taking sides in Republican primaries.
The MFCR Executive Board voted to move forward with the impeachment of Busby after charging him with negligence in the performance of his constitutional duties.
But the Saturday impeachment hearing turned to chaos when 35 tea party and McDaniel supporters showed up and started yelling, according to Alvarez. Eventually the mayhem forced the meeting to be postponed, even though MFCR leaders had decided to only ask for an apology from Busby.
"When I ran for Chairman in the spring, I ran to be Chairman of the Mississippi Federation of College REPUBLICANS, not the Mississippi Federation of College 'Tea Partiers,'" Alvarez wrote in his resignation letter. "Also, I believe that the Republican Party has allowed these groups of extremist to have too much of a voice and because of that, the platform of the Republican Party has shifted too far to the right in my opinion."
Alvarez pointed out that society would be "crippled" if the Tea Party succeeded in enacting the "drastic cuts" in federal spending that it wanted.
He also said that the "hatred and cruel words and actions of the far right extremists" would continue to hurt the party's chances with "Women, African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities in our country."
"I simply cannot be apart of organization that have members who support these far right extremist views, much less be the Chairman of the organization," he concluded.
In an ad for his campaign to be chairman earlier this year, Alvarez had said that the "party must focus on unity."
"Such unity is essential for a thriving community within the Republican Party," he asserted.
The leaders of Primitive Baptist Churches are considering whether to revoke the credentials of a Nashville pastor because he went against 100 years of church tradition by licensing women as ministers.
Pastor Frank Stevenson told WTVF that he broke St. Luke's Primitive Baptist Church's "don't ask, don't tell policy" when he licensed 15 women to be ministers earlier this month.
That decision prompted church elders and pastors in the Cumberland Association of Primitive Baptist Churches to call a meeting on Thursday to discuss Stevenson's future. In the end, they decided to put the fate of Stevens in the hands of a committee, which will consider the case over the next few weeks.
Stevenson argued that the 100-year-old tradition of not allowing women in the ministry had no basis in scripture.
"I was actually preparing for this before we licensed the ministers," he explained to WTVF. "I knew that there were some that would again hold to tradition versus the spirit of God. So we had already been praying and looking at all the avenues and aspects that we needed to address this very biased way of trying to orchestrate ministry."
Stevenson said that his congregation backed the decision to license women ministers.
"The congregation is still in the mode of celebration, they still feel that we did the right thing," he noted. "And we're standing together even if we have to stand by ourselves."
Watch the video below from WTVF, broadcast June 30, 2014.
A Texas gun store owner has responding to a fatal shooting at a weekend gun show by saying it was "no different" than dying while not wearing a seatbelt.
According to KTBC, Cedar Park Police said that they found 59-year-old John Glover Warden with a single gunshot wound in the parking lot of the Austin Premiere Gun Show on Saturday.
Officers said that Warden's son-in-law, Jared Priddy, was 'manipulating' a firearm, and reloading it in his car when the gun accidentally discharged.
Warden was taken to St. David's Round Rock Medical Center, where he later died.
Democratic consultant Jason Stanford told KTBC that the incident was further proof that gun laws needed to change. He said that he would like to see expanded background checks, including checks for gun show attendees.
"Some people say that guns don't kill people, the person pulling the trigger does," Stanford observed. "They can kill you a lot easier with a gun. And what we need is for gun owners to take it upon themselves to work with us to be safer on this. Because right now the status quo sure ain't working."
But Central Texas Gunworks owner Michael Cargill argued that the "nay-sayers" should not use this shooting as an example to push for gun control.
"This is not 'I told you so' this is not 'I gotcha,'" Cargill insisted. "This is no different than this little incident we saw a day or so ago where two kids were ejected from a vehicle because they weren't wearing a seatbelt. We don't blame the vehicle for that incident so we're not gonna blame the guns for this incident."
After the shooting on Saturday, Premiere Gun Shows rescheduled Sunday's event for August 2nd and 3rd. Premiere Gun Shows owner Tim Finucane told KXAN that nothing like this incident had ever happened in the show's 42-year history.
“It’s a tragic event,” he said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family.”
Cedar Park Police said that they did not believe that the shooting was intentional, but an investigation was ongoing.
Watch the video below from KTBC, broadcast June 30, 2014.
A conference to teach teenage boys about government in Texas was criticized for sexism last week after reports surfaced that the event included photos and speeches that were degrading to women.
Jess Stoner at the Burnt Orange Report obtained photos of materials that attendees of this year's Texas Boys State conference used to campaign for office in a mock government.
One of the campaign posters shows a woman in a bikini with the word "Feds" written across her breasts. The Federalist Party is one of two fictional parties that the boys are assigned to.
Another bikini photo had the slogan, "Feds support transparent policies."
A cell photo also showed part of the platform of the Nationalist Party, which says that women must "notify their community" if they are pregnant and on welfare.
"So you know how sex offenders have to go door to door, basically it's the same concept except the teen pregnant mom has to go door to door," a party leader reported told the attendee who took the cell phone photo. "We're not trying to shame them, we're just trying to get them help from the community."
And during a mock county convention, one candidate hoped that a very short speech would convince the boys to vote for him.
"He just said 'Cold Beer and Titties' and sat down," an attendee recalled.
But Stoner pointed out that the Girls State conference, which is also sponsored by The American Legion, had a much more serious tone.
"The young women I spoke with said they had an empowering experience and felt inspired to run for public office," Stone wrote. "Even though they didn't have a single member of the state legislature speak to them, while more than 30 state representatives, senators, and current and former statewide elected officials visited the boys."
During the conference, the girls legalized same-sex marriage, passed legislation to address rape on college campuses, and debated raising the minimum wage.
"Encouraging more young women to pursue public service in the future is just one way to combat the sexist attitudes of our society and state legislature," Stone observed. "Supporting the young men who speak out against inappropriate behavior and the demeaning treatment of women is another."
Fox News reported on Monday that feminists could be waging a "war on men" after attendees of a men's rights conference in Detroit were accused of hate speech.
At what was advertised as the first International Men's Rights Conference in Detroit last week, A Voice For Men founder Paul Elam called for feminism to be defeated.
And National Post columnist Barbara Kay told the men that the "vast majority of female students allegedly raped on campus are actually voicing buyer’s remorse from alcohol-fueled promiscuous behavior involving murky lines of consent on both sides."
After a group of feminists showed up to protest the event, Fox News host Steve Doocy asked on Monday, "Who are the one's being intolerant?"
"Does the intolerance show there's really a feminist war on men?" co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck suggested.
Democratic strategist Zerlina Maxwell pointed out that the Southern Poverty Law Center had classified many of the men's rights websites has hate speech.
"I think that it's important not to scapegoat feminism and say feminism is to blame for many of the legitimate concerns that A Voice for Men and other MRA groups raise, like child custody and the court system being unfair to men," Maxwell explained. "But I think largely they are scapegoating feminism instead of looking at the real core of the problem, which is that traditional gender roles have made it so that men are more actively engaged in child rearing, and the court system needs to catch up to that reality."
Hasselbeck, however, said that "some would argue... that feminism is actually the cause of men having less rights in the courtroom as it pertains to violence against them."
Maxwell insisted that feminists were willing to listen to the concerns of men's rights groups, but they should not tolerate hate speech.
"For example, the founder of A Voice for Men has said women are begging to be raped if they go out and drink and flirt, then they're asking for it," she noted. "That, I have a problem with."
Watch the video below from Fox News' Fox & Friends, broadcast June 30, 2014.
If you believe cancer is a disease that strikes from nowhere with little in your control to prevent it, you’d be mistaken on both counts. Most cases of cancer are considered preventable by positive nutrition and lifestyle choices.
Cancer is a big killer of Australians, and is responsible for 30% of all deaths each year. The “big five” in order of incidence are prostate, bowel, breast, melanoma and lung cancer. Our love of the sun and smoking mostly explain the last two, but it is food, exercise and other lifestyle choices that explain much of a person’s risk of cancer.
So what do these six new cancer prevention recommendations tell us? And how much notice should we take?
1. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables
Unfortunately, there is no “cancer prevention superfood”; it is a combination of food variety that gives the greatest benefit.
Why are fruit and vegetables so good? Take you pick from any and all of the following: antioxidants, fibre, phytochemicals and weight control.
One group of vegetables you may care to give a closer look at during your weekly shop, are the dark leafy greens. These include broccoli, spinach, leaf lettuce and kale – foods that are true nutrient powerhouses.
2. Limit or avoid alcohol
When it comes to alcohol, forget about justifying drinking because it is good for your heart. Alcohol is strongly linked to cancer of the mouth, oesophagus, breast, colon and liver; the more you drink, the greater the risk.
Alcohol through conversion to acetaldehyde can directly damage cellular DNA. It can also damage the liver, increase the solubility of other cancer-causing chemicals, increase the level of estrogen, and decrease the levels of some beneficial nutrients such as folate.
Risk, though, needs to be balanced with lifestyle and enjoyment. There are many other positive things you can do to reduce cancer risk without giving up your favourite drink altogether.
3+4. Avoid red and processed meat
The advice on avoiding processed meat is well supported by evidence. This agrees with the biggest voice in the cancer prevention business, the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) which rates the link between red meat and colorectal cancer as “convincing” – the highest level of evidence possible.
Meat lovers can take some solace though. The WCRF recommends keeping consumption of red meat to under 500 grams of cooked meat per week. Fish and chicken are good alternatives if the thought of missing a daily steak is too much for you.
Following on from the advice on limiting red meat, is a recommendation to avoid overcooking meat; especially from grilling and frying. When meat, chicken and fish is overcooked at high temperatures for a long time, natural reactions in the food can produce heterocyclic amines (HCAs).
HCAs are considered potent causes of breast, lung, colon, stomach and prostate cancer – at least in animal models.
5. Women: eat soy foods to reduce your risk of breast cancer
This is a surprising recommendation, more so that when groups such as the WCRF have looked at the evidence, it barely made it to the “limited” level of evidence.
Soy contains a class of phytochemicals called isoflavones which have chemical structures similar to estrogen. These isoflavones are thought to partly inhibit a woman’s own natural estrogen in stimulating cell growth. That’s the theory at least.
Soy foods are a staple of vegetarian diets and the recommendation advises choosing natural soy foods such as edamame, tempeh or tofu and to steer clear of protein concentrates often found in supplements.
Women who are being treated for estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer should avoid soy supplements because they contain high concentrations of isoflavones.
6. Men: limit or avoid dairy products to reduce your risk of prostate cancer
This certainly stands out as the most controversial recommendation and the one that could grab the headlines.
This recommendation is a good example of needing to balance risk when it comes to lifestyle choices in preventing cancer. While there is some limited evidence that dairy products can raise a man’s risk of prostate cancer, there is also a higher level of evidence (which the WCRF classifies as “probable”) that milk and calcium can lower the risk of colorectal cancer.
A diet high in calcium can lead to a decrease in vitamin D production. Vitamin D is an important regulator of cell growth and proliferation so less of it may lead to prostate cancer cells growing unchecked.
In the colon, though, it’s a different matter. Calcium can bind to potentially carcinogenic compounds in the intestine, making them insoluble and easily excreted. Calcium can also directly influence cell development, slowing down proliferation.
What’s a guy to do? If you enjoy dairy foods, there is no need to avoid them. If you have a family history of prostate cancer, you may want to have a bit less. If colon cancer runs in your family, a bit more could help.
Other ways to reduce your cancer risk
While not part of the nutrition recommendations, physical activity is now recognised as a potent “cancer-preventing” habit. Estimates link regular physical activity to a 20-40% lower risk of colon and breast cancer.
How much physical activity is enough? All physical activity is beneficial, but for cancer prevention up to one hour of moderate activity or 30 minutes of vigorous activity daily gives the greatest benefit.
Carrying too much weight, especially around the middle, is a known cancer risk, especially for breast and colon cancer risk. Men should aim for a waist circumference below 94cm. For women it’s below 80cm.
Regular physical activity reduces your risk of cancer.
Cancer prevention guidelines reflect the current state of scientific evidence, and change over time as evidence changes. The core of the guidelines though have changed little and can be summed up in single sentence. Eat mostly plant foods close to their natural state, keep active, drink responsibly, stay safe in the sun, and don’t smoke.
For some people, a complete lifestyle overhaul can be a difficult thing to manage in one go. Instead, focus on one change at a time like building more activity into your day and then following this up with eating five different types of vegetables and two of fruits each day with the emphasis on colour as your best guide to variety.
Prevention guidelines shouldn’t be seen as a prescription for restricting your life, but a series of small changes to how you eat and live now that will build the framework for a long, healthy and cancer-free life.
Tim Crowe does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.
CNN guest host Jeffrey Toobin and two of the network's military analysts concluded on Sunday that America should be "grateful" that former Vice President Dick Cheney was doing interviews, and calling for military action in Iraq even though he had been so wrong about invading the country in the first place.
After an al Qaeda splinter group used the power vacuum created by the Iraq war to begin taking over large parts of the country, Cheney started to show up on various news programs this month to say that President Barack Obama was "determined to leave office ensuring he has taken America down a notch."
"Is Cheney a reliable source on Iraq? Should you listen to what he says?" Toobin asked CNN analysts Rick Francona and Philip Mudd on Sunday.
"The former vice president is seen as someone who's seen as always claiming the sky is falling," Mudd admitted. "That said, as I said, when I talked to him in government, and he was very tough for me to deal with in the vice president's office, he visited at CIA headquarters when I was there, we had exchange, very thoughtful guy, very smart. So, I'm not saying I'm Republican, I'm not saying a Democrat, I'm just saying let's be careful about ignoring the message because we don't like the messenger."
Francona argued that people were free to question Cheney's credibility, but "if you look at what he's saying today going back to, say, 2008 to 2011 and then 2011 to where we are now, I think he makes some valid points and I think they need to be listened to."
"What about the argument that, look, you know, these people are -- were involved in making the policy?" Toobin remarked. "They are taking responsibility. Cheney is stepping up saying, yes, I was involved. And we can learn for better or worse from their experience and the only way we can challenge them is if they speak out."
"Shouldn't we be grateful that Cheney is making himself the target that he is?" the CNN host wondered.
"I saw a lot of heat, a lot of heat," Mudd explained. "There are two kinds of people in circumstances like that, those who reflect it down to the workplace and those who absorb it."
"If you reflect it, the workforce is going to tense up and respond. If you absorb it, the workforce will maintain focus."
Watch the video below from CNN's Reliable Sources, broadcast June 29, 2014.
With no sense of irony, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan on Sunday slammed former Secretary of State Hillary for what she said was "banal" writing.
In her column last week, Noonan had attacked Clinton's roll out of her book, "Hard Choices," saying that the former first lady's "scripted answers were tiring."
"The old trick of answering the question you wish you'd been asked instead of the one you were is weary to the point of antique. So is her tendency to filibuster," Noonan wrote. "It was sad. She was almost interesting! Her tendency to check herself comes across more as a tic she can't control than an attempt to maintain discretion."
Speaking to CBS News host Bob Schieffer on Sunday, the Wall Street Journal columnist opined that Clinton and her team had made mistakes in rolling out the book.
"The impression was not so great, the book got almost universally panned, it does not appear to be selling well or according to expectations," she declared.
"It was essentially a banal piece of work," Noonan laughed. "You know, it wasn't really riveting like some former secretary of state memoirs and histories."
Noonan, however, usually finds herself on the other side of the charge of "banal" writing.
Glenn Greenwald has referred to her column as "banal, malicious meanderings," and Andrew Sullivan wrote that Noonan "swings between banal experience and platitude" in her own book, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Watch this video from CBS' Face the Nation, broadcast June 29, 2014.
The Nation's Katrina Vanden Heuvel on Sunday challenged neoconservative Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol to join the Iraqi Army if he felt so strongly about the U.S. taking more military action in the country in response to recent violence.
During an ABC News panel discussion about House Speaker John Boehner's threat to sue President Barack Obama for executive overreach, Vanden Heuvel agreed that there were times that Congress should question the president's authority.
"For example, the president should go to Congress if he's going to take military action in Iraq," she explained. "There's no military solution to Iraq, and I have to say, sitting next to Bill Kristol, man -- I mean, the architects of catastrophe that have cost this country trillions of dollars, thousands of lives -- there should be accountability."
"If there are no regrets for the failed assumptions that have grievously wounded this nation -- I don't know what happened to our politics and media accountability, but we need it, Bill," she continued. "Because this country should not go back to war. We don't need armchair warriors, and if you feel so strongly, you should, with all due respect, enlist in the Iraqi Army."
"That's a very cute line," Kristol shot back.
"But it's real!" Vanden Heuvel insisted. "Millions of Iraqis have been displaced... What we have done to that country is a crime."
"What we have done to that country?" Kristol exclaimed. "President Bush made mistakes, he was punished for those mistakes electorally as he should have been in 2006, and perhaps in 2008. He also had the courage to order the surge in 2007, which made up for those mistakes, and left things peaceful."
"This president pulled out of Iraq in 2011, he let the Syrian civil war explode, and now we have a terrible situation," he opined.
After reminding Kristol that it was President Bush who had signed the status of forces agreement (SOFA) to withdraw from Iraq, Vanden Heuvel concluded by asserting that Iraq "needs diplomacy, it needs tough political resolution, and bringing the region together."
Watch the video below from ABC's This Week, broadcast June 29, 2014.
Former President Bill Clinton recently suggested that the federal government should legalize medical marijuana because there was "a lot of evidence" that it helped patients.
During an interview at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Colorado, NBC's David Gregory asked the former president if giving "pot a chance" would help government raise needed revenue.
"Rocky Mountain high?" Clinton quipped. "Look, I think there's a lot of evidence to argue for the medical marijuana thing."
"I think there are a lot of unresolved questions, but I think we should leave it to the states, if there really is a time when there should be laboratories of democracy because nobody really knows where this is going," he added. "Are there adequate quality controls? There's pot and then there's pot. What's in it?"
"There's all these questions, and I think that I like where it is now. If a state wants to try it, they can. And then they'll be able to see what happens."
While campaigning for president in 1992, Clinton had famously said that he "didn’t inhale" when he tried marijuana in college.
Update: Marijuana Majority Chairman Tom Angell told Raw Story that Clinton's remarks showed just how much times had changed since he had been in office.
"These comments from a skilled politician who knows how to stake out positions that resonate with the majority of voters show just how far the politics of this issue have shifted in favor of legalization," Angell wrote in an email. "When Bill Clinton was president his administration tried to punish doctors just for discussing medical marijuana with their patients. Now he not only says that there's a lot of evidence to support medical marijuana, but he thinks states should be able to legalize marijuana outright without the feds standing in the way. Whereas this issue was once seen as a political third rail, there's no question it has now emerged into the mainstream. Polls show that the majority of voters support legalization, and today's politicians have no choice but to catch up or get left behind."
Watch the video below from NBC's Meet the Press, broadcast June 29, 2014.
