Matt Lauer fired from NBC for ‘inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace’
Matt Lauer has been terminated for “inappropriate workplace behavior,” NBC News chairman Andrew Lack wrote in a memo to staff that was read at the top of the Today show Wednesday.
Lauer has served as co-anchor of NBC’s morning news program since 1997. He joined Today in 1994.
Joined by Hoda Kotb, Savannah Guthrie announced that her former co-anchor had been terminated, reading a memo sent to NBC staff, which USA TODAY also obtained.
“On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer. It represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our company’s standards. As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment,” Lack said in the memo.
It continued, “While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over twenty years he’s been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”
Article via: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2017/11/29/matt-lauer-fired-nbc-inappropriate-workplace-behavior/904340001/
British Actress Accuses Harvey Weinstein of Sex Trafficking in Lawsuit
Kadian Noble revealed her encounter with the disgraced mogul to CBS News, alleging he sexually assaulted her in a bathroom.
Another layer into the Harvey Weinstein scandal continues to unfold. British actress Kadian Noble has filed a civil suit alleging that the mogul sexually assaulted her during the 2014 Cannes Film Festival in France.
Sharing similar sentiments as other Weinstein accusers, Noble told CBS News that Weinstein lured her into his hotel room, promising a movie role, and also claimed in her suit that the mogul “recruits, solicits and entices young female actresses.”
“I still can hear the rattle from his belt, like him undoing his belt while he had grip of me,” Noble recalled, revealing that she was forced into a hotel bathroom, where Weinstein sexually assaulted her.
Noble said Weinstein approached her during the film festival and invited her to his room to watch her audition reel, only to begin allegedly assaulting her. “It seemed like it went on forever and he basically took, just completely touched me inappropriately and got me to put — force my hand in places,” she recalled.
The actress is now suing The Weinstein Co. for damages from the assault, with Noble alleging that Weinstein told her, “Everything will be taken care of for you if you relax,” after attempting to fight back against the mogul. The federal lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, also claims that Weinstein took part in sex-trafficking, as he traveled between the U.S., London and France, where the assault occurred.
“Harvey was a legend. He was someone that I thought was going to make my dream a reality,” Noble said of her former thoughts of the mogul. The actress explained that she still harbors dark remnants from the attack and now feels like a different person.
“I’m not the same person, you know. I’ve had to have counseling. Just so much. But I’ve had to keep it to myself. I’ve kept it to myself,” Noble said, visibly emotional.
“Harvey wasn’t acting alone,” said Noble’s attorney Jeff Herman. “Harvey wasn’t allowed and enabled to do what he did to Kadian and other women without help.” A day prior, Herman told NBC’s Today he filed the suit under the federal sex trafficking law because he believes the alleged act falls within the statute. “The benefit of filing under this federal law is that it allows us to bring a claim in the United States for an assault that occurred overseas and it has a 10-year statute of limitations,” he said.
Weinstein has denied all allegations from the multiple accusers alleging the mogul sexually assaulted them, and a spokesman denied Noble’s claims.
Herman, a Florida-based attorney, also represents Weinstein accuser Dominique Huett, who accused the mogul of forcibly performing oral sex on her and is suing TWC for negligence for allegedly enabling his behavior.
Weinstein is currently under investigation by the Los Angeles, New York, London and Park City, Utah, police.
Article via: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/british-actress-accuses-harvey-weinstein-sex-trafficking-lawsuit-1062125
‘Celebrity’ elephant crushes owner to death in Thailand
Incident involving five-tonne elephant that has starred in films and commercials prompts fresh debate over use of animals in tourism
An elephant that has starred in feature films and commercials has crushed its owner to death in Thailand, zoo officials say, setting off fresh debate over the kingdom’s animal tourism industry.
With a mahout, or handler, on his back, Ekasit took a few steps before reversing course and attacking 54-year-old Somsak, who was on the ground.
“The elephant suddenly turned back and used his trunk to grab the victim. Then the elephant used his trunk to crush him,” Wuthichai Muangman, acting director of Chiang Mai zoo, told AFP.
The 32-year-old animal was being temporarily housed at the zoo under a contract due to expire in April.
Thailand is notorious for an elephant tourism trade, with the animals performing in circuses, giving rides, or being hired out for other forms of entertainment.
A July report by World Animal Protection found that twice as many elephants were pushed into Thailand’s tourism industry as in the rest of Asia combined, with most kept in “severely inadequate conditions”.
Out of 2,923 elephants documented as working in Asia’s tourism trade, 2,198 were in Thailand. Wuthichai said Chiang Mai zoo did not hold elephant shows but allowed tourists to feed the animals.
The animal rights campaign group Peta said that while the keeper’s death was a tragedy, it illustrated the potentially violent consequences of keeping elephants confined.
“Is it any wonder that some of these gentle animals eventually become fed up and fight back after being chained while confined to small enclosures that are a fraction of the size of their natural habitats?” a statement said.
Article via: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/28/celebrity-elephant-crushes-owner-to-death-in-thailand
National NYC subway to use gender-neutral terms during announcements
When it comes to the New York City subways, there’s no such thing as ladies and gentlemen.
Conductors on subway trains have been told to stop addressing passengers as “ladies and gentlemen” when making announcements about delays, detours or other things, and instead use the gender-neutral terms “passengers,” ‘’riders,” and “everyone.”
The new train announcement scripts are part of an effort by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to improve communication with passengers frustrated with having to deal with a system troubled with delays, mechanical failures and even derailments. Conductors have also been instructed to give subway riders more information about delays, departing from a longtime practice of making sparse announcements that sometimes obscure the real reason a train isn’t moving.
A lack of straightforward info, officials say, can leave passengers wondering if they should ride it out, transfer trains or get out and hail a cab.
“I have been in situations where they said it’ll be moving shortly or momentarily,” subway passenger Judith Mosh said as she waited for a train in a Manhattan station. “Sometimes momentarily means two minutes, sometimes it means 20 minutes.”
Knowing if a delay was likely to last could help riders make alternative plans, she said.
The new scripts were detailed in a bulletin sent out to all train service personnel earlier this month and are the first substantial change to the “blue book,” which governs how to communicate with riders, in almost 30 years, said Jon Weinstein, MTA spokesman.
Ohio governor candidate boasts of sexual history with ‘approximately 50 very attractive females’
An Ohio Supreme Court justice who recently declared his intention to run for governor is defending “heterosexual males” amid growing accusations of sexual misconduct.
Justice William O’Neill took to Facebook on Friday to make a statement on what he called the “national feeding frenzy about sexual indiscretions,” and in doing so he gave details about his sexual history.
“In the last fifty years I was sexually intimate with approximately 50 very attractive females,” O’Neill wrote. “It ranged from a gorgeous blonde who was my first true love and we made passionate love in the hayloft of her parents barn and ended with a drop dead gorgeous red head from Cleveland.
“Now can we get back to discussing legalizing marijuana and opening the state hospital network to combat the opioid crisis.”
O’Neill, a Democrat, drew swift, bipartisan condemnation from Ohio politicians and from the chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court.
“No words can convey my shock,” Ohio Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor said in a statement emailed to The Washington Post. “This gross disrespect for women shakes the public’s confidence in the integrity of the judiciary.”
Texas Sheriff Threatens To Charge Driver Over ‘F**k Trump’ Sticker
A Texas sheriff considering a run for Congress caused a social media firestorm on Wednesday after he threatened charges against the driver of a truck with a big anti-Trump sticker.
The sticker on the back window did not mince words. It read “Fuck Trump and Fuck You For Voting For Him,” and that rubbed Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls the wrong way.
Nehls, a Republican who the Houston Chronicle said is thinking about running for Congress, went to his personal Facebook page to suggest there might be a little problem with the truck’s political message.
“I have received numerous calls regarding the offensive display on this truck as it is often seen along FM [Farm to Market Road] 359. … Our Prosecutor has informed us she would accept Disorderly Conduct charges regarding it, but I feel we could come to an agreement regarding a modification to it,” he wrote.
Nehls later deleted the post, but not before the American Civil Liberties Union had helpfully saved it for posterity. The ACLU also offered a reminder that the Constitution that Nehls is supposed to defend allows for peaceful, if foul-mouthed protests:
No, Sheriff Troy E. Nehls, you can’t prosecute speech just because it contains words you don’t like.
The owner of this truck should contact the ACLU of Texas.
Article via: HuffingtonPost
‘Who are they gonna believe you or me?’: Texas prosecutor fired after drunken Uber tirade
In what is probably Exhibit A for a one-star passenger rating, a Dallas assistant district attorney was fired after she drunkenly insulted and threatened an Uber driver, then said police officers the driver summoned would believe her side of the story and “f— you up.”
In a flash, Jody Warner’s intoxicated tirade — recorded by the driver and shared widely — made the Dallas prosecutor the latest example of someone with a very public job who was suddenly humbled after demeaning a blue-collar worker.
Warner had worked for the Dallas County district attorney’s office for the past six years as a prosecutor in the crimes against children unit.
On Friday night, she was also an intoxicated fare who summoned an Uber for a ride home from a Dallas pub.
Shaun Platt, the 26-year-old driver who showed up, told ABC News that the ride soured after Warner told him to quit using GPS to get her home and to follow her directions instead — then abruptly stopped giving them.
They argued back and forth, he said, and he had enough when she started calling him names, including “retard.” He stopped the car, ended the ride on the app and told her she needed to get out.
4 dead after California shootings; gunman tried to enter school
A gunman killed four people in a remote Northern California community on Tuesday morning, but a much bigger death toll was averted when the killer was unable to break into an elementary school.
Liangelo Ball and Teammates are Back in the USA
LiAngelo Ball and his 2 UCLA basketball teammates are finally back on U.S. soil after getting the green light to leave China … one week after they were arrested for jacking sunglasses.
TMZ Sports has video of Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley leaving LAX moments ago following a 13-hour flight out of Shanghai … the guys stay straight-faced and mostly silent as they’re hit with a barrage of questions and camera flashes from reporters.
The players had been holed up at the Hyatt Hangzhou — while some of the most powerful people in the world, from President Trump to President Xi to Jack Ma, worked on their release.
Chinese officials reportedly dropped the shoplifting charges on Tuesday and allowed the guys to return home. UCLA says the school will launch its own investigation to decide whether or not to discipline the players.
Been a hell of a week. And with reports saying they could’ve faced 10 years in Chinese prison, guessing they’re all gonna sleep pretty well tonight.
Article via: http://www.tmz.com/2017/11/14/liangelo-ball-ucla-china-arrive-usa/
21 children injured after platform collapses at San Diego parkour gym for kids
21 children injured after platform collapses at San Diego parkour gym for kids
San Diego’s Vault PK is usually packed with bouncing and flipping children on Saturday evenings, when it hosts a “kids’ night out” for budding athletes ages 5 to 14.
This past weekend was especially packed, parents said, as people cashed in a Groupon that got three kids into the parkour facility’s open gym for just $30. The three-hour event is supervised by Vault PK staff members, so it doubles as a parents’ night out, too.
Some of the nearly 150 children present played on the obstacle course, styled similarly to those on “American Ninja Warrior,” but roughly a third had gathered on a 10-foot-by-30-foot wooden viewing platform, parent Cory Brizendine told San Diego ABC-affiliate KGTV. That’s where the pizza was being served.
“Once the majority of kids got up there, the whole platform collapsed,” he said.
The crumbling structure took a connected staircase with it, authorities and witnesses told reporters. Wood and little bodies tumbled to the ground — on top of children playing below — forming a heap of injured kids and gym equipment.