‘Whites only’ graduation party in South Africa sparks mass protests
Police and activists clashed in South Africa Friday during a protest against a graduation party allegedly organized for “whites only.”
Nearly 2,000 members of the Economic Freedom Fighters, a radical left political party, rallied around Brackenfell High School in Cape Town as police fired tear gas and water cannons at the crowd, Al Jazeera reported.
Police later told protest organizers that only 100 people were allowed to demonstrate, but the group accused the cops of being heavy-handed.
The confrontation stemmed from outrage over an off-site graduation party organized by parents. A flyer for the bash was disseminated to a WhatsApp group that included several teachers but not shared with regular class groups, one student told local news site IOL, adding that it was clear black students were not invited.
“We have class WhatsApp groups where information is usually shared, but it was not the case on the event which clearly shows we were meant to be excluded,” the student told IOL.
The event, called the Masquerade Ball MX’20, was held at a winery in Stellenbosch on Oct. 17.
School officials said the party was a “private event” and not organized by the school.
EFF protesters and white parents scuffled over the party on Nov. 9, with videos showing them punching each other on the streets, Al Jazeera said.
South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa called for an investigation, calling the dispute “deeply regrettable,” saying it brings back “hurtful memories of a past we should never seek to return to.”
“The spectacle of parents and protesters coming to blows at the school gate is deeply unfortunate,” he said.
Apartheid in South Africa ended three decades ago, though the country remains divided by racism.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/11/20/whites-only-graduation-party-in-south-africa-sparks-mass-protests/
Photo Credit: EPA
Washington man arrested for child rape during interview for a job with state police
A Washington man applying for a job with the state’s police force got arrested mid-interview.
The 31-year-old admitted something that set off alarms as he was going through the background check and polygraph test process for a gig with the Washington State Patrol on Tuesday, local outlet KING-TV reported.
“A person in the application process for a civilian job with the WSP disclosed information that raised concerns of criminal activity,” a police spokesman said in a statement.
Officials didn’t divulge exactly what the man said — but it resulted in him getting cuffed on two counts of child rape.
Investigators said the incident happened years ago, but didn’t provide more details.
The creep’s name wasn’t released.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/11/19/washington-man-arrested-mid-interview-for-a-job-with-state-police/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Drug trafficker executed for kidnapping and raping teen, burying her alive
A marijuana trafficker convicted of kidnapping and raping a teen – and then burying her alive – was executed this week at an Indiana prison, becoming the eighth federal inmate to die this year.
Orlando Cordia Hall, 49, was put to death via lethal injection late Thursday at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, where he was pronounced dead at 11:47 p.m., the Department of Justice announced.
Court documents show Hall, who ran a marijuana trafficking operation in Arkansas with several accomplices, drove to Arlington, Texas, in September 1994 after a botched drug deal worth $4,700.
Prosecutors said Hall and his accomplices went to the man’s home because they thought he stole their money and instead kidnapped his 16-year-old sister, Lisa Rene, after she refused to let them inside.
Hall then raped the teen — an honors student and aspiring doctor — in a car and later drove her to a hotel in Arkansas, where he and his accomplices bound and repeatedly raped her, prosecutors said.
The following morning, Hall said the teen had known “too much” and took her to a park where he and another man dug a grave earlier that afternoon, but were unable to find the site.
One day later, on Sept. 26, 1994, Hall and two other men took the teen to Byrd Natural Lake Area in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where Hall placed a sheet over her head and whacked her with a shovel, prosecutors said.
“Rene screamed and tried to run away, but the men tackled her and took turns beating her with the shovel,” the Justice Department said in a statement. “After soaking her with gasoline, they dragged her into the grave and buried her alive.”
A federal jury convicted Hall in 1995 of kidnapping resulting in death and unanimously sentenced him to die by lethal injection.
In his final statements, Hall encouraged others to become followers of Islam, the Tribune-Star reported.
“Thank you for giving me this opportunity for forgiveness,” Hall said. “Thank everyone who’s here – my family and my loved ones. I love you.”
Hall also had one final message for his children.
“I’m OK,” he said. “Take care of yourself. Tell my kids I love them.”
One of Hall’s co-conspirators, Bruce Webster, was also sentenced to death, but a court vacated the punishment last year due to his intellectual disability. Three others, including Hall’s brother, cooperated at his trial and received lesser sentences.
Rene’s sister, meanwhile, said the execution capped a “very long and painful chapter” in the family’s lives, the Tribune-Star reported.
“We have been dealing with this for 26 years and now we’re having to relive the tragic nightmare that our beloved Lisa went through,” Pearl Rene said in a statement. “Ending this painful process will be a major goal for our family. This is only the end of the legal aftermath. The execution of Orlando Hall will never stop the suffering we continue to endure. Please pray for our family as well as his.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/11/20/drug-trafficker-executed-for-raping-teen-burying-her-alive/
Photo Credit: Attorneys for Orlando Hall
Tyson Foods manager had betting pool for how many workers would get COVID-19
The manager of a Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Iowa organized a winner-take-all betting pool for supervisors to wager on how many workers at the facility would contract COVID-19 around the start of the pandemic, a new lawsuit charges.
The manager of the Waterloo pork plant, Tom Hart, allegedly set up the sadistic wager as coronavirus spread through the company’s facilities around the globe and workers crowded into the Iowa plant without face masks or other protective equipment.
In the federal lawsuit filed in Iowa, the son of a plant worker who died of coronavirus, alleges Hart and other supervisors steered clear of the plant floor in late March and early April “because they were afraid of contracting the virus.”
“Around this time, Defendant Tom Hart, the Plant Manager of the Waterloo Facility, organized a cash buy-in, winner-take-all betting pool for supervisors and managers to wager how many employees would test positive for COVID-19,” the suit states.
On April 12, more than two dozen workers at the plant were hospitalized with coronavirus, according to the suit.
The plant remained open despite repeated calls from local officials to stop production, the suit states, and supervisors were encouraged to work even if they had symptoms of the deadly virus.
On one occasion, a top plant official, “intercepted a sick supervisor en-route to get tested and ordered the supervisor to get back to work, adding, ‘we all have symptoms—you have a job to do’,” the suit alleges.
The plant is the company’s largest pork plant in the US and employs some 2,800 workers.
In May, the Des Moines Register reported more than 1,000 workers at the facility tested positive for the virus.
The son of the worker who filed the suit, Oscar Fernandez, is seeking unspecified damages for gross negligence.
Tyson Foods and Hart did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/11/18/tyson-foods-boss-had-betting-pool-for-worker-covid-19-cases-suit/
Photo Credit: AP
COVID-19 stricken mom gives birth to premature twins while in coma
A English woman gave birth to premature twins while in a coma with the coronavirus, a report said.
Perpetual Uke delivered the babies — a boy and a girl — via caesarean section on April 10 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Sky News reported. The twins were just 26 weeks old and each weighed under two pounds.
Just weeks earlier, Uke was admitted to the hospital, hooked up to a ventilator and placed in an induced coma.
“By the time I woke up, I was so disorientated,” the mother told the outlet. “I thought I’d lost my pregnancy because I couldn’t see my bump any more. I was really worried.”
The babies, named Palmer and Pascal, were cared for in the hospital’s neonatal intensive unit — and their mother spent 16 days in critical care before seeing them.
“They were so tiny they didn’t look like my older kids, I couldn’t touch them, I felt so emotional,” she told the outlet.
Uke’s husband, Matthew Uke, recalled the mixed emotions the day his wife gave birth.
“I had mixed feelings when the twins were brought out”, he said. “My wife was still in a coma, sick, I couldn’t talk to her. I was happy the twins were delivered but the thing is, is my wife coming home?”
Perpetual and her twins were eventually released from the hospital and the mother said they are doing “wonderfully.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/11/18/covid-19-stricken-mom-gives-birth-to-twins-while-in-coma/
Photo Credit: Youtube
Gonorrhea infections increasing in Michigan
Gonorrhea infections are increasing in Michigan, according to state health officials.
By the end of October, cases of gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease (STD), had surpassed those reported in 2019, the Detroit News reported, citing the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Last year, an estimated 18,264 gonorrhea infections were reported in Michigan. The state this year is on track for a 22 percent increase in infections.
The uptick in cases is “even more alarming as it is likely an underestimate of the actual burden of disease due to decreased testing for sexually transmitted diseases during the pandemic,” health officials said in a statement, per the outlet.
“A shortage of testing supplies during a significant statewide increase in cases presents an alarming potential for a host of negative health outcomes for (Michiganians),” Joneigh Khaldun, the department’s chief medical executive and chief deputy for health, said in a statement, according to the Detroit News. “Because laboratory testing is challenging at this time, it is imperative that medical providers continue to clinically diagnose and treat suspected cases of gonorrhea to slow the spread in our state.”
Gonorrhea – colloquially referred to as “the clap” – is an STD that can affect both men and women, typically causing “infections in the genitals, rectum and throat,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most people become infected with gonorrhea after having intercourse with someone who has the disease.
Men who have the STD can experience a burning sensation when urinating, discharge from the penis – it’s usually green, yellow or white in color – and swollen testicles. For women, however, symptoms are less obvious – if they’re apparent at all.
“Even when a woman has symptoms, they are often mild and can be mistaken for a bladder or vaginal infection,” the federal health agency says, noting women with gonorrhea “are at risk of developing serious complications from the infection, even if they don’t have any symptoms.”
If a woman does experience symptoms, however, they typically include a burning sensation when urinating, increased vaginal discharge and bleeding between periods, among other signs.
The disease can cause serious complications if left untreated. The gonorrhea bacterium is capable of spreading through an untreated person’s bloodstream and eventually infecting other parts of the body, causing joint pain and a skin rash, according to the Mayo Clinic.
If the disease is left untreated altogether, it can also lead to infertility in both men and women.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/11/19/gonorrhea-infections-increasing-in-michigan/
Photo Credit: iStockphoto
Deputy fired for post depicting Kamala Harris as watermelon jack-o’-lantern
A Michigan sheriff’s deputy has been fired for posting a “disgusting” photo of a carved watermelon intended to depict Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, department officials said.
The part-time Oakland County Sheriff’s Office deputy, Sherry Prose, was terminated immediately once department officials learned of the vile Facebook post, officials told The Post in a statement Thursday.
“We are outraged by this former employee’s actions and condemn the behavior she chose to engage in,” Undersheriff Michael McCabe said in a statement. “These types of incidents are disgusting and will never be tolerated or pushed aside at the sheriff’s office. Behavior such as this brings tarnish to the badge and is not representative [of] all those in law enforcement who protect and serve.”
The post, first reported Monday by WXYZ, features several carved pumpkins meant to depict several political figures, including President Trump, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President Mike Pence.
A second photo, however, shows Harris as a carved watermelon.
“Trump, Biden, Pence and Kamala,” the post read. “Happy Halloween.”
Prose had worked for the agency since 1994, according to a screenshot of her Facebook profile. She was fired on Oct. 27, four days after putting up the hateful Halloween-themed post, sheriff’s department sources told The Post.
A message left for Prose was not immediately returned Thursday, but she insisted to WXYZ that she isn’t a bigot.
“I worked hard in my law enforcement career and I am proud of the reputation I earned in my 30 plus years of service,” the former deputy told the station in a text. “I am not racist and never will be.”
Correlating watermelons to blacks is a relic of the “past” and is “linked to buffoonery and to ‘less than’,” the Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony, president of Detroit’s NAACP branch, told the station.
“I believe that the intent was purposely structured to diminish and to dilute the significance of the first African American … as vice president of the United States,” Anthony said. “To some people, ignorance is bliss.”
McCabe said the post had already been removed when sheriff’s officials learned of it.
“The employee was terminated immediately by us for this post,” his statement continued. “With over 1,400 employees, we expect all of them to have integrity and good moral values. However, when they do not, it is addressed immediately with discipline and/or termination.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/11/19/deputy-fired-for-depicting-kamala-harris-as-a-watermelon/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Big Mouth Season 4
This cartoon is back for a fourth season (despite its scary looking characters) so watch the trailer below!
Tom and Jerry: Official Trailer (2021)
Our favorite childhood cartoon Tom & Jerry is back for a animation/live action movie! Check out the trailer below:
Walmart partners with other companies to offer free Thanksgiving dinner for families in need
Article via KTLA
Walmart is partnering with several companies, including Butterball and Coca-Cola, in an effort to feed hungry American families on Thanksgiving.
The Free Thanksgiving Dinner program by Walmart and mobile rewards app Ibotta, along with partners Campbell’s, Butterball and Coca-Cola, aims to help families nationwide by giving them a traditional holiday meal without the financial burden.
The items included in the Free Thanksgiving Dinner program are:
- Campbell’s condensed cream of mushroom soup (10.5-ounce can)
- 2-liter bottle of Coke
- All varieties of Butterball 3-pound turkey roast or $9.98 cash back on all Butterball whole turkeys
- McCormick turkey gravy seasoning packet (0.87-ounce package)
- French’s crispy onions (2.8-ounce package)
- Idahoan instant mashed potatoes (8-ounce package)
- Great Value stuffing (6-ounce package)
- Great Value cranberry sauce (14-ounce can)
- Great Value frozen green beans (12-ounce bag)
To get your free Thanksgiving dinner, you have to download the Ibotta app or Ibotta’s web browser extension, click on the “Free Thanksgiving Dinner” offer and shop for your Thanksgiving items at any Walmart or at Walmart.com.
Once purchased, you can scan your receipt into the Ibotta app or link your Walmart Grocery account to verify the purchases, and you’ll earn cash back for your entire purchase (approx. $20.27). Shoppers have seven days to redeem the purchases.
The offer is available while supplies last and will run no later than Nov. 25.
Ibotta says the company is also donating to Feeding America this holiday season.
“While this year has been trying for so many Americans, Ibotta’s ‘Free Thanksgiving Dinner’ program is our way of making them feel extra supported this holiday season,” said Bryan Leach, CEO and Founder of Ibotta.
Ibotta, which has its headquarters in Denver, is a free app that provides cash back rewards at “more than 1,500 leading brands and retail partners,” according to a news release.