Whoa!
Would you legally change your name for free stuff?
Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- A 24-year-old Swede officially added Klaus Heidi to his name to enter a Lufthansa contest promoting German culture in Scandinavia. He beat 41 of his countrymen who also legally changed their names and is now living rent-free for…
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One person dead, man in custody after shooter with rifle reported at Purdue Univ.
At least one person was in custody on Tuesday after reports of shots being fired at Purdue University in Indiana.
According to campus officials, the shooting occurred in the Electrical Engineering building and a shelter in place order was given at around 1:30 p.m.
Multiple tweets from Purdue students showed a light-skinned man with short hair carrying a rifle. An expert told Raw Story that the firearm appeared to be an AR-style rifle, but it was impossible to confirm if the images were authentic.
News crews captured video of a man being taken away in handcuffs. Another person was taken to a local hospital for medical attention, according to reports.
University officials had planned to provide more information at a 2:30 p.m. news conference.
Update (2:55 p.m. ET): Police confirmed that there was at least one male fatality. Purdue Police Chief John Cox said that the shooter appeared to have targeted the victim.
Watch this video from WTHR, broadcast Jan. 21, 2013.
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Ten-year-old wows MLK event with 'Jesus Wept' speech: I'm 'scared to wear my hoodie!'
A 10-year-old in North Carolina has been praised for embodying the spirit of Dr. Luther King in a speech on Monday.
Donovan Summers, who attends Rand Road Elementary School in Garner, told the Triangle Interfaith Prayer Breakfast that he had based his speech on the shortest verse in the Bible, "Jesus wept," because both King and the Christian savior had tried to teach people to love one another and had "both met their deaths because of haters."
"If Dr. King was here today in 2014, he would have wept," Summers said. "And sometimes I feel like weeping too. Because when I think about some of these kids trying to be bullies, threatening their teachers and bringing guns to school, you see, I'm halfway scared to go to school because I might get shot."
"I'm halfway scared to play in my own backyard because some fool might take me hostage," he continued. "I'm halfway scared to go down to the store and get a pack of Now and Later's and I'm halfway scared to wear my hoodie because some neighborhood watch person might think I look suspicious."
"Y'all know what I'm talking about. Jesus wept. Martin wept. And so have I."
Watch this video from WRAL, broadcast Jan. 20, 2013.
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Michigan GOP official: 'Herd all the Indians' to Detroit, build a fence and throw in corn
A Republican county official in Michigan is in hot water after making racial comments about Detroit, including the idea that the city should be turned into a detention center for "all the Indians."
In a recent interview for a profile by The New Yorker titled "Drop Dead, Detroit!" Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson admitted, "Anytime I talk about Detroit, it will not be positive. Therefore, I'm called a Detroit basher. The truth hurts, you know? Tough sh*t."
Patterson recalled telling his children to "get in and get out" if they needed to go to Detroit.
"And, before you go to Detroit, you get your gas out here. You do not, do not, under any circumstances, stop in Detroit at a gas station! That’s just a call for a carjacking," he said.
Patterson also proposed a fix to Detroit's financial problems: Turn the city into a reservation for Native Americans.
“I made a prediction a long time ago, and it’s come to pass. I said, ‘What we’re gonna do is turn Detroit into an Indian reservation, where we herd all the Indians into the city, build a fence around it, and then throw in the blankets and the corn.’”
After Detroit officials and activists reacted with outrage, Patterson's office released a statement accusing The New Yorker of having an "agenda."
"It is clear Paige Williams had an agenda when she interviewed County Executive Patterson," the statement said. "She cast him in a false light in order to fit her preconceived and outdated notions about the region."
Activists with Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network had planned a news conference on Tuesday to call for Patterson to apologize.
National Action Network’s Michigan chapter president Rev. Charles Williams II said that the comments were "repulsive" because they were an insult to the city's African-American population and "a direct slight to the American Indians who occupied the land before Detroit was Detroit, and Oakland County.”
In recent years, Patterson has also come under fire for comparing Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger to Hitler and for suggesting that Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano kill himself.
Watch this video from WXYZ, broadcast Jan. 20, 2014.
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Rafael Cruz: Sarah Palin was right about the tyrannical dictatorship of death panels
Conservative pastor Rafael Cruz warned Monday that "tyrannical dictatorship" was coming to the United States in 2017 in the form of "death panels."
"You know those death panels that Sarah Palin talked about?" he said at a Tea Party event in Fairfield, Texas. "Finally this administration admitted those death panels do exist. You know, in fact, they're called IPABs."
"But let me tell you something most people do not know: By February of 2017, IPAB will be totally independent of government," the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) continued. "No oversight whatsoever. Not under the control of the president or of Congress. It will become another tyrannical dictatorship with no control by anyone, and that will occur -- according to Obamacare -- it has a date set February of 2017. You better have gotten rid of Obamacare by then, because otherwise it's total control."
The IPAB, or Independent Payment Advisory Board, is a 15-member independent government agency tasked with finding and recommending ways to reduce Medicare spending. The recommendations made by the advisory board can be modified or rejected by Congress on a fast-track basis before they are implemented by the Department of Health and Human Services.
"It's forbidden from submitting 'any recommendation to ration health care,' as Section 3403 of the health care law states," PolitiFact explained in 2012. "It may not raise premiums for Medicare beneficiaries or increase deductibles, coinsurance or co-payments. The IPAB also cannot change who is eligible for Medicare, restrict benefits or make recommendations that would raise revenue."
"What it can do is reduce how much the government pays health care providers for services, reduce payments to hospitals with very high rates of re-admissions or recommend innovations that cut wasteful spending. Some argue that because the IPAB can reduce the money a doctor receives, this could lead to an indirect form of rationing."
Watch video, uploaded to YouTube, below.
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GOP Florida House candidate on Obama: 'It's time to arrest and hang him high'
Joshua Black, a candidate for Florida House District 68, said on Monday that the time had come to "hang" President Barack Obama.
In a tweet on Monday afternoon, Black wrote that he was "past impeachment."
"It's time to arrest and hang him high," he added.
Republican candidate for House District 67 Chris Latvala replied in shock.
"You aren't seriously calling for the killing of Obama are you?" he asked. "I know you are crazy but good heavens.U R an embarrassment."
"Execution is the appropriate punishment for traitors," Black shot back in another tweet.
At that point, Latvala recommended that the "tin foil hat crazy" candidate take his medication.
"I don't do drugs," Black insisted. "Not intimidated by the secret service, or #criminalpoliticians like you."
In a Facebook post later that night, Black cited the administration's actions against terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, Army whistleblower Bradley Manning and former NSA contractor Eric Snowden as the reason that Obama should be executed.
"I make no apologies for saying that the President is not above the People. If ordinary Americans should be executed for treason, so should he," he explained. "So, don't stop at impeachment. Remove him. Try him before a jury (the very right that he arbitrarily denied to al-Awaki and his 15-year-old son), and, upon his sure convictions, execute him. Thus has he done, thus it should be done to him."
He later added: "I guess that makes me a racist, according to the President's latest speech."
Democratic state Rep. Dwight Dudley, who is running against Black in the House race, told the Tampa Bay Times that his opponent had gone too far.
"It's dangerous and unbecoming for someone who wants to lead to call for such violence and extremist action," Dudley said. "Wow. I'm stunned."
On Black's campaign website, even he seemed to argue that Republicans were making a mistake by using extremist rhetoric.
"Republicans have a serious communication problem," the self-proclaimed evangelist wrote. "Everything we say sounds like spears. We find ways to energize our core supporters, the people who will always only ever vote Republican, but we have a hard time explaining to anyone else why they should listen to our solutions."
[Photo credit: JoshuaBlack2014.com]
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Colorado GOP rep. tells Fox News: 'Matter of time' before legal pot turns violent
Colorado state Rep. Jared Wright (R) warned on Tuesday that it was just a "matter of time" before marijuana legalization started causing violence and increased crime.
In an interview with Fox News' Brian Kilmeade, Wright said that he was sponsoring a bill to make it illegal for food stamps recipients to use their electronic benefits cards (EBT) to access funds at ATM machines in marijuana dispensaries.
Wright explained that homeless people he spoke to around the state Capitol agreed that his bill was reasonable.
"As a lower-middle class American myself, I think it's unfair to be encouraging a lot of these folks who are coming off of addiction, who we should be encouraging to come out of their addictions," the Colorado Republican noted.
"Overall, Representative, how is it going in Colorado with pot being legal?" Kilmeade wondered.
"We've had reports from our law enforcement officials. Recently, the Denver police chief commented that the roll-out has gone smoothly," Wright admitted. "As a couple of days ago, they hadn't attributed any acts of violence or increased crimes to the facts that we have these shops on our street corners."
"I think it's a matter of time though," he added. "I think it's a matter of time before we start seeing some problems."
Wright introduced his legislation banning the use of EBT cards in marijuana dispensaries after the satirical website, National Report, published a fake report claiming that food stamps were being used to purchase weed.
A similar bill was also introduced by Sen. Vicki Marble (R).
Watch this video from Fox News' Fox & Friends, broadcast Jan. 21, 2013.
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Florida man mistakenly shoots himself during road rage incident
A Florida man is under investigation after he told Orlando police that he accidentally shot himself during a road rage incident on Monday.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the man said he had been driving toward Orlando on Interstate-4 when another driver allegedly flashed a weapon after the two had some type of altercation.
To protect himself, the man brandished his own handgun, causing it to discharge into his leg.
The man was expected to recover from the wound after being treated at a local hospital. Because of some confusion about where the shooting occurred, the case was handed over to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office and then to Orange County Sheriff's Office.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration advises motorists to move out of the way of aggressive drivers, avoid eye contact and not to return offensive hand gestures. In 1997, the department found that 13,000 people were injured or killed in the U.S. over a seven year period due to aggressive driving.
At least 13 injuries in the Orlando area last year were linked to road rage.
[Photo credit: Road Rage via Shutterstock.com]
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Arizona bill allows businesses to discriminate against unmarried women, non-Christians
Experts are warning that a bill making its way through the Arizona legislature would allow businesses to discriminate against LGBT people, unmarried women or even non-Christians.
Republican state Sen. Steve Yarbrough has said that he introduced Senate Bill 1062 because a "modest clarification" was needed in the state's religious-freedom law, according to The Arizona Republic.
Among other things, the bill would expand those protected by the religious-freedom law for religious assemblies and institutions to "any individual, association, partnership, corporation, church, religious assembly or institution, estate, trust, foundation or other legal entity.”
The conservative advocacy group Center for Arizona Policy has been pushing the measure as a way to protect photographers and bakers from having to provide services for same-sex weddings, which are not even legal in Arizona.
And Yarbrough told The Seirra Vista Herald that the bill would allow hotel owners to refuse to rent rooms to LGBT people and would protect businesses that had a religious objection to hiring unmarried women.
But the lawmaker also insisted to The Arizona Republic that "[p]rohibited discrimination remains prohibited."
“In no way does this bill allow discrimination of any kind," he said.
A similar bill was passed by both the Arizona House and Senate last year before being vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer (R), who refused to sign any bills until the legislature acted on expanding Medicaid.
Watch the video below from The Arizona Republic, broadcast Jan. 19, 2014.
[Photo credit: YouTube]
(h/t: Friendly Atheist)
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GOP candidate turns Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech into anti-abortion rant
A candidate in South Carolina who hopes to defeat Sen. Lindsey Graham in the Republican primary said Monday that he "has a dream" to outlaw abortion.
"Today is Martin Luther King Day," Richard Cash said at the South Carolina Tea Party Convention in Myrtle Beach. "Martin Luther King did a lot to help us as we struggled with racial equality and justice, friendship and kindness between the races, and we celebrate that achievement. What I want to say to you today is, I too have a dream."
Cash then denounced the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade ruling and called for legal personhood rights for embryos.
"When we consider the 55 million unborn children that have been killed in this land since 1973, I too have a dream," he remarked. "When we consider that one-third of the generation since 1973 is not with us because of abortion, I have a dream. And what it is? I have a dream that one day each and every unborn baby created in the image of God will enjoy the same constitutional protections that you and I receive."
"That's our promise. That is what the Republican Party stands for."
According to his campaign website, Cash is a corporate computer analyst and "full time pro-life missionary" who previously ran for a congressional seat in 2010.
Watch video below.
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Fox News host: Solution to high minority arrest rate is for them to smoke less pot
Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Monday asserted that the solution to the arrest gap between black and white Americans was for African-Americans to smoke less marijuana.
In a recent interview with The New Yorker, the president had said that marijuana use was not "more dangerous than alcohol," but he discouraged its use because "it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy."
On Monday, conservative radio host Michael Graham told Fox News that the Obama administration "is screaming at me, 'Put down the ice cream, stop eating those cookies!'" while he said the president was also "telling me, 'Dude, pick up a bong, what's the big deal.'"
"Of course the problem is, the more pot you smoke, the more you want the cookies and the ice cream," he opined.
But liberal radio host Richard Fowler pointed out that the president had never advocated legalizing marijuana nationwide.
MacCallum suggested that the high incarceration rate among African-Americans and other minorities could be solved if those groups used less drugs.
"The reason he believes that it should be legal, and that the experiment in Washington in Colorado is a good one is that he says that minorities are incarcerated at an unfair rate compared with non-minorities who are smoking pot," she noted. "And that may be true in the numbers."
"Maybe there should be a campaign to discourage pot use among minorities, to say that there's a better way to make it in your future and to take better care of your body," the Fox News host added.
Graham, however, argued that Obama's recent comments were more about politics than inequality.
"President Obama and the Democrats know they have a problem with young voters," he said.
A 2013 study from the ACLU found that whites ages 18-25 consistently used marijuana at higher rates than African-Americans in the same age group.
Watch this video from Fox News, broadcast Jan. 20, 2014.
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Arizona teacher forces developmentally-delayed 6-year-old girl to remove shirt as punishment
A kindergarten teacher in Arizona is facing 26 counts of indecent exposure and one count of child abuse after he stripped off the shirt of a developmentally-delayed 6-year-old girl in a crowded classroom.
Police arrested Adams Elementary School teacher Thomas Washburn last Wednesday. According to police, the female student became agitated when the classroom she was in began to fill up. To relieve her anxiety, she pulled the neck of her shirt over her head in order to hide her face.
Officers claim that Washburn told her to "take her face out of her shirt" multiple times, and when she steadfastly refused to do so, he removed her shirt. She sat in front of her classmates, naked from the waist up, for about 10 minutes before she began crying.
At that point, Washburn returned the shirt to her. When her parents arrived, Washburn informed them of what he had done. Her mother immediately contacted the school's principal, who then called the police.
He was initially charged with one count of child abuse and one of indecent exposure, but the next day, authorities filed an additional 25 counts of indecent exposure, one for each child present in the room at the time.
The Mesa Public School district offered the following statement last Thursday: "Thomas Washburn has been placed on paid administrative leave and is assigned to home. The district will use the police findings as the basis for any future employment action against Washburn. Our first priority is the safety and security of our students. Mesa Police Department is leading the investigation, and we are working cooperatively with them."
Watch a report from ABC15 below.
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