Bed, Bath and Beyond Pulls Blackface Pumpkins From Shelves After Outcry
Bed, Bath & Beyond has pulled black jack-o-lantern pumpkins from their shelves after a Nyack community complained publicly about the pumpkins. The jack-o-lanterns, which are black and feature white paint for the grin, nose, and eyes, were placed out in front of a Nyack law firm Feerick, Nugent, and MacCartney. Within 48 hours, the law firm had gotten enough complaints about the pumpkins that they took the display down — but the firm also raised the question as to how the pumpkins got to Bed Bath & Beyond shelves in the first place.
When a local news crew investigated the incident, the law firm said that their intention was to never offend or exclude anyone — so as soon as they got complaints, they took down the display. Local NAACP Director Wilbur Aldridge said the pumpkins being displayed depicted an “extreme lack of sensitivity.”
Meanwhile, Bed, Bath & Beyond apologized for the fact that the pumpkins were on sale in the first place — and immediately removed the pumpkins from all store locations. This is not the first time that a company has been criticized for selling products that have a likeness to the racist image recently. Last year, Gucci and Adidas dropped products that had a striking resemblance to the image, and just this year, Prada got in hot water for a fictional animal that depicts blackface, and Katy Perry Collections pulled a shoe that depicted the same image. Clearly, major companies have a long way to go when it comes to making sure their designs are, well, not racist.
via: https://currently.att.yahoo.com/lifestyle/bed-bath-beyond-pulls-blackface-183855546.html
Photo Credit: twitter
Always takes female symbol off its packaging to be inclusive of transgender, nonbinary customers
(CNN) — Always sanitary products will remove the Venus symbol, historically used to represent the female sex, from its products to be inclusive of transgender and nonbinary customers.
Transgender activists and allies had publicly urged Proctor & Gamble to redesign its pad wrapper without the gender symbol, a circle atop a cross. Among their arguments were that not all people who menstruate are women and that not all women menstruate.
The change is the latest in a series of actions companies and governments are taking to affirm the identities of transgender people as transgender equality activism surges. Companies including Lyft, Mastercard, and Tinder are making similar moves.
“For over 35 years Always has championed girls and women, and we will continue to do so,” Proctor & Gamble said Tuesday in a statement. “We’re also committed to diversity & inclusion and are on a continual journey to understand the needs of all of our consumers.”
Getting periods can be a dysphoric experience for transgender and nonbinary people, especially because of the way that periods are generally discussed and addressed as something that only happens to people who are assigned women at birth.
Proctor & Gamble has not said when the design change will happen.
“We routinely assess our products, packaging, & designs, taking into account consumer feedback, to ensure we are meeting the needs of everyone who uses our products,” the company’s statement said.
Photo Credit: Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
Florida Uber Driver Charged After Allegedly Shooting Passenger While Trying to Secure Gun
A Florida Uber driver has been charged after accidentally shooting a passenger while he tried to secure his gun.
Hollywood police say 27-year-old Adrian Harper had stopped to pick up an additional passenger Sunday and was trying to put his gun in a holster while the person loaded their belongings into the trunk. The gun was lying in the seat beside Harper as he attempted to put it in a holster. The bullet hit a juvenile passenger sitting in the backseat.
Ebony Collins told police she was loading her belongings into the truck when she heard the gunshot. She ran to the police station to report the shooting.
The unidentified child was taken to the hospital.
According to an arrest report, Harper was issued a misdemeanor notice to appear in court for culpable negligence inflicting harm. Police also confiscated the gun.
Photo Credit: ktla.com
Pizza Hut Testing Their New Plant-Based Incogmeato Pizza
Incogmeato, Kellogg’s new line of plant-based protein, is coming to Pizza Hut.
Starting on Wednesday, the pizza chain will serve a new vegetable pizza topped with Incogmeato’s meatless Italian sausage at one location in Phoenix, Arizona. The test will last for a limited time. Pizza Hut will sell the pie in a new, round pizza box, which it is also testing at the Phoenix location.
Taken together, the Garden Specialty Pizza and the new packaging may attract customers who are concerned about the environment. Plant-based proteins use far less water and are responsible for fewer emissions than their animal protein counterparts. And the round pizza boxes use less packaging than traditional square boxes.
It took two years to develop the box, said Nicolas Burquier, chief customer and operations officer for Pizza Hut. He called the container “the most innovative packaging we’ve rolled out to date.”
While Pizza Hut may be leading the pack when it comes to pizza boxes, it’s following a more established pattern by testing out a product that features plant-based protein.
Dunkin’ recently announced that it is rolling out its Beyond Meat breakfast sandwich nationally in November, two months ahead of schedule, because its New York City test of the product exceeded expectations. And Burger King announced that it would make its Impossible Whopper available nationally after just one month of testing.
Plant-based proteins also sell well in the grocery aisle. US retail sales of plant-based foods have grown 11% in the past year, according to a July report from trade group Plant Based Foods Association and the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that supports plant-based businesses. Kellogg, which first announced Incogmeato in early September, isn’t the only big food company with a new line of meat substitutes. Nestlé, Tyson, Smithfield and Kroger are also launching their own plant-based products.
Kellogg is also not the first to partner with a restaurant to introduce a new product to consumers. Impossible Foods debuted its plant-based sausage with Little Caesars in May.
Kellogg and Pizza Hut recently partnered on another limited-time menu item, the Stuffed Cheez-It Pizza, which is designed to look like an oversized Cheez-It cracker. That collaboration led to a discussion about incorporating Incogmeato into the Pizza Hut menu, explained Marianne Radley, chief brand officer for Pizza Hut.
“Exploring plant-based options together was really just a natural conversation,” Radley wrote in an email to CNN Business. The Garden pizza and round box will be sold together for $10.
via: https://ktla.com/2019/10/22/pizza-hut-is-testing-out-their-new-plant-based-incogmeato-pizza/
Photo Credit: Pizza Hut
Black Apple employee says complaints about treatment by white customers got him fired
A black former Apple employee is suing the tech behemoth for $750,000, alleging he was discriminated against by customers and managers — and lost his job when he complained.
Joshua Holt, 32, claimed in a lawsuit filed last week that white customers “constantly asked” if he worked at an Apple store at the Washington Square mall in Tigard, Oregon, despite having just welcomed them into the location, The Oregonian reports.
Other white shoppers also referred to Holt as a “boy” and sometimes ignored or avoided him in favor of his white colleagues at Apple, his lawsuit claims.
“When Mr. Holt shared these experiences with his co-workers and management, he was often told to ‘assume positive intent’ or that he was overreacting,” the lawsuit reads. “Mr. Holt grew increasingly upset and demoralized by Apple not taking his concerns seriously enough to warrant a meaningful response.”
The alleged “barrage of racial discrimination” took such a toll on Holt that he needed medical leave and a doctor requested that he be transferred back to an Apple store in downtown Portland, where he previously worked and could enjoy a more diverse environment.
But Apple declined to transfer Holt, who was initially hired by the California-based company in 2011 and later helped open a store in Atlanta. Managers in Oregon suggested that he “work through the interactions” on his own, according to the lawsuit.
Then, in December 2018, a white customer who was looking at an Apple watch didn’t understand what Holt was trying to tell him and asked for a white Apple employee instead, the lawsuit claims.
“Mr. Holt politely asked, ‘Isn’t that what I just said?’” according to the lawsuit, which claims the white worker gave the same response. “Mr. Holt explained he was always trying to improve his communications. The customer threw his hand in Mr. Holt’s face.”
A co-worker then had to intervene when the customer “stepped into” Holt’s personal space, according to the lawsuit. Managers then sent Holt home before putting him on administrative leave. He was later fired in March for violating company policies, according to the lawsuit.
A message seeking comment from an Apple spokesperson was not immediately returned Tuesday, but company spokeswoman Rachel Wolf Tulley declined to comment when reached by The Oregonian, citing ongoing litigation.
Photo Credit: AFP
Mom who sold meth to put child through college gets 11 years
An Ohio mom of five sold several pounds of meth to buy her family a farm and to pay for the college education of one of her kids, her attorney claims.
Janet Gartner, 41, and her live-in boyfriend, Nicholas Tony Bair, 40, were not typical drug dealers because they allegedly didn’t use the 5 pounds of meth, along with cocaine and pot, found earlier this year in their rural farmhouse in Kimbolton, her attorney claimed to a judge on Monday, the Zanesville Times Recorder reports.
“She only wanted to sell enough to buy a farm and put one of her children through college,” attorney Nicole Churchill said, adding that the housekeeper for wealthy families in Licking County just wanted the best for her family.
“When the drugs were gone, it was going to be over,” Churchill said. “She would go back and be content on cleaning rich people’s toilets.”
But a prosecutor insisted Gartner and Bair wreaked havoc in central Ohio by selling 1-pound bags of meth for $6,500, including twice when authorities were watching them do so at a carwash in Dresden, officials said.
A subsequent search of the couple’s property revealed a trove of drugs and cash, including $160,000, hundreds of THC vape pens and hallucinogenic mushrooms, authorities said.
Judge Mark Fleegle was unmoved by Churchill’s emotional plea, sentencing Gartner to 11 years in prison on drug and corruption charges while ordering her to pay a $10,000 fine. Fleegle also told Gartner that her actions destroyed the lives of users and killed people, Y-City News reports.
“That can never be rationalized in my mind,” the judge said.
Bair, meanwhile, is expected to return to court to enter a plea on drug charges next month. Churchill’s attorney said he, too, just wanted what was best for Gartner’s family.
“I don’t believe anyone wakes up and goes, ‘You know, I want to sell meth,’” Churchill said in court, adding that a farm and college were the ultimate goals. “They would have had something they’d never had before.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/10/22/mom-who-sold-meth-to-put-child-through-college-gets-11-years/
Photo Credit: Police Handout
There is now a ‘sexy’ Popeyes chicken sandwich Halloween costume
NEW YORK — Popeye’s chicken sandwich is so popular it has inspired a “sexy” Halloween costume.
It’s called the “Sold Out Chicken Sandwich Costume,” clearly referencing Popeye’s hit sandwich, which sold out this summer.
Some people even waited in line for hours to get one.
But you won’t have to wait in line for the costume, which features a brown bodysuit, a ruffled bodice, and a white “sold out” stamp.
Yandy.com is selling the outfit for almost $80.
Get one before they’re gone, just like the actual sandwich.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/10/22/sexy-popeyes-chicken-sandwich-costume-being-sold-online/
Photo Credit: pix11.com
There are more wealthy Chinese than Americans for the first time
London (CNN Business)For the first time, there are more rich Chinese than Americans in the top 10%. A new report from Credit Suisse (CS) shows that wealth in China is ticking up, and the country now accounts for 100 million of the richest 10% of people in the world.
There are 99 million Americans in the same category.The United States still has many more millionaires — 18.6 million, or 40% of the world’s total, versus 4.4 million in China. It’s also adding to the millionaire count at a faster clip. The report credits low interest rates and Republican tax cuts for the country’s 11th consecutive year of rising wealth.
The average American is also still much richer than their Chinese counterparts, with US wealth per adult at $432,365 compared with$58,544 in China.
But China holds claim to a growing piece of the pie, replacing Europe as the principal engine of global wealth growth. That’s in spite of the trade war that’s weighing on the nation’s economy.
“Trade conditions and debt levels are causing concern, but signs for the coming years are otherwise fairly positive,” Credit Suisse observed in its annual Global Wealth Report.
The report highlights the extent to which global wealth is concentrated at the verytop.The bottom 50% of adults account for less than 1% of total wealth, while the top 10% own 82%. The top 1% alone owns almost half of all global assets, according to Credit Suisse.
Has the 1% peaked?
The threshold to make it into the top 10%, globally, is roughly $109,400 in net assets. To be in the top 1%, you’d need just above $936,400.
Still, the picture of wealth inequality since the 2008 financial crisis is complicated. While artificially low interest rates and bond-buying programs from central banks led to a boom in asset prices, raising the share of the top 1% of wealth holders, inequality “continued to decline for those below” that segment, Credit Suisse notes. The share held by the bottom 90% now accounts for 18% of global wealth, up from 11% in 2000. Since 2016, the share held by the top 1% has broadly eased back, per the bank.
“While it is too early to say that wealth inequality is now in a downward phase, the prevailing evidence suggests that 2016 may have been the peak for the foreseeable future,” the report’s authors write.
Article via CNN
Nicki Minaj marries Kenneth Petty after a year of dating: The ‘Clyde to my Bonnie’
Nicki Minaj, 36, announced her marriage to Kenneth Petty, 41, on Instagram late Monday night following nearly a year of dating. She shared her martial bliss with a video of matching “Mr. and Mrs.” mugs and coordinating “Bride” and “Groom” baseball caps.
“10•21•19,” the rapper captioned the footage, appearing to refer to the lovebirds’ official wedding date. USA TODAY reached out to Minaj’s rep for comment.
She hasn’t shared any more details about tying the knot, but Minaj revealed in August that she would have a big wedding celebration following their low-key nuptials.
“I have to work on my album and I have a lot to focus on that I don’t want to do the big wedding now,” she said on Queen Radio in August. “We’ll do the big wedding later.”
She continued: “Before the 90 days is over, yes, I will be married. I’m very happy about that because my baby makes me so happy.”
Minaj and Petty start dating last year before becoming Instagram-official in December 2018. Their relationship made waves after Petty’s criminal history came to light.
Petty is a registered, Level 2 sex offender on New York State’s Sex Offender Registry. He was assessed as posing a medium risk of committing another offense.
According to the registry, in April 1995, Petty was convicted of attempted first-degree rape for a 1994 assault that occurred when both he and the victim were 16. It also notes that he used a knife or cutting instrument during the commission of the crime. He was sentenced to between 18 and 54 months in state prison. According to New York State Department of Corrections records, he served just under four years and was released in January of 1999.
The DOC website says that in 2006, Petty went back to prison for first-degree manslaughter and served nearly seven years before being released on parole in May 2013.
When an Instagram commenter noted that he would have been a teenager at the time of the attempted rape and speculated the victim “must’ve been a white girl,” Minaj reportedly offered clarification, stating, “He was 15, she was 16… in a relationship. But go awf Internet. y’all can’t run my life. Y’all can’t even run y’all own life. Thank you boo.”
Earlier this week, Minaj called Petty the “Clyde to my Bonnie.” She updated her Twitter account to read “Mrs. Petty.”
via: https://currently.att.yahoo.com/entertainment/nicki-minaj-marries-kenneth-petty-050658807.html
Photo Credit: yahoo.com