Starbucks has reversed its stance on customers carrying guns into its US stores, calling on them to leave them at home instead.
The coffee chain’s chief executive, Howard Schultz, requested on Tuesday that the coffee chain’s customers leave their firearms at home, shifting company policy amid an increasingly fractious debate over US gun rights in the wake of multiple mass shootings.
The request was made in part because more people had been bringing guns into Starbucks over the last six months, prompting confusion and dismay among some patrons and employees, Schultz said.
In an open letter to customers issued late on Tuesday, he said: “Our stores exist to give every customer a safe and comfortable respite from the concerns of daily life.”
Starbucks’ longstanding policy had been to default to local gun laws, including “open carry” regulations that allow people to bring guns into stores. It has nearly 7,000 company-operated US stores.
That policy had frustrated US gun-control advocates, who have persuaded many other restaurants and retailers to ban weapons in their stores and worked hard to get Starbucks to follow suit.
A Beverly Hills police sergeant snuck a peek at Whitney Houston’s naked dead body and made “inappropriate” comments about the pop icon after she was pulled lifeless from a hotel bathtub last year, a claim filed by a former Beverly Hills SWAT supervisor states.
“Damn, she’s still looking good, huh?” the sergeant allegedly said after lifting a sheet covering Houston’s corpse.
The sergeant knelt beside Houston to remove the sheet “to an area below the pubic region,” and also said she “looked attractive for a woman of her age and current state,” the legal claim filed by ex-SWAT officer Brian Weir and obtained by the Los Angeles Times states.
Weir filed his claim for damages against the police department and the city alleging that he was retaliated against after he reported the misconduct.
He said the sergeant acted with reckless disregard for the integrity of the potential crime scene and should have known his behavior “would outrage ordinary family sensibilities.”
Weir said that after he complained to his superiors, he was removed from the city’s elite SWAT and K-9 units, denied promotions and training and relieved of supervisory duties.
The shooting happened yesterday but already, Harry Reid is shutting down Senate action on gun control.
“We don’t have the votes. I hope to get them, but we don’t have them now,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday when asked if the Senate would revisit a bill to tighten background checks after Monday’s shootings. The Senate rejected a similar measure in April.
That measure failed by five votes — Reid switched his “yes” vote to “no” in a procedural move that permits him to bring the proposal up again. On Tuesday, Reid said that he might consider revisiting a separate, limited bill that would exclusively address mental health issues.
“Anything we can do to focus attention on the senseless killings that take place,” Reid said. “That’s something we will look at.”
On Monday, the tone of frustration with Congress’ inaction on gun legislation came from the very top, as President Barack Obama deplored that “we are confronting yet another mass shooting.”
“We’re going to be investigating thoroughly what happened, as we do so many of these shootings, sadly, that have happened, and do everything that we can to try to prevent them,” he added.
Obama made no mention of another push in Congress — and White House press secretary Jay Carney added to the impression of congressional stalemate at his briefing not long afterward.
“We will continue to work to take action to reduce gun violence in this country through executive action, and hopefully Congress will take action to reduce gun violence as well,” Carney told reporters.
This is a true story, inspired by you. Not only is this a true story that is inspired by you, but it’s a true story about you.
A story that you have given birth to, yet a story that you probably don’t even know.
It’s a story about your radiant exceptionalism though seemingly lost in the dullness of the mundane. It’s about your outstanding luminosity all but drowned in the in the fictitious myth of your common-ness.
A trashy common novel with no intrigue or plot has been written about you. All the while, a sparkling gem of an original and timeless classic remains buried in the bookshelves of your soul waiting to be born. This is a story about your brilliance.
The hidden jewel of our brilliance — a seed that is inherent in each of us — is a baby in its mother’s womb.
When mother reaches down deep to the part of the bookshelf of rarely read gems, she simultaneously reaches up to the poetic and enlightening words of that original and timeless classic that feeds the baby his true milk. You are what you eat and a sparkle of brilliance has just flickered in the eye of the child.
To be brilliant is to be you…uniquely you. Resist the invitation to be introduced as a character in that common novel written by other than your brilliant self.
Brilliance is the stars vivid light in the background of the night sky.
Brilliance dazzles. The same materials that illuminate the cosmos are the materials of which you are made…literally. So brilliance is yours by nature.
Be your brilliant self and find the radiant light in yourself. Use it to light the way as you travel on your path up the road from moments of slight brilliance to a lifetime of brilliance that can be studied by others and used as a light in their darkest hours. The same way we use the luminous radiance of the stars to see — so shall your brilliance light the way of those who will walk the path after you.
Frederick Douglass’ brilliance was a sparkle in the darkness of a Plantation and grew to be the brilliant star that moved a president towards emancipation.
Sir Isaac Newton saw brilliance in motion and attraction and became the embodiment of attraction. He became the brilliant twinkle that attracted the seeker of knowledge like moth to a flame.
The Son of Man says, “Know that the obstacles of life are only tools used brilliantly by Mother Nature and Father Time to apply pressure to forge the diamond that is you”. The facet of a diamond is but one side of a many-sided thing. The brilliance of the diamond is the light bouncing off of one facet at a time. Your brilliance may come in one moment, one action, one thought at a time, but the brilliance is yours.”
Read from the bookshelves of rarely read gems and be the original that stands out brilliantly from the rest. As stars shine in front of the dark blue skies, so can you shine in front of the dark blueprint laid by fools.
The Son of Man says, “Brilliance is a gift of itself to the darkness.”
Jonathan A. Ferrell was a 24-year-old former football player for Florida A&M University who worked two jobs and moved to North Carolina to be with his fiancée.
On Saturday, the car Ferrell was driving crashed into trees off a northeast Charlotte road. The wreck was so severe that Ferrell would have had to climb out of the back window to escape, the Associated Press reported.
An obviously shaken Ferrell walked about a half-mile to the nearest house and was “banging on the door viciously” to attract attention, police say.
The woman who lived there opened the door, and when she saw Ferrell, shut it and called police at about 2:30 a.m.
When officers arrived, Ferrell ran toward police, who attempted to stop him with a Taser. He continued to approach them when officer Randall Kerrick fired his gun, hitting Ferrell 10 times and killing him.
“I truly forgive him. I pray for him. And I pray that he gets off the police force,” said Georgia Ferrell, the victim’s mother. “You took a piece of my heart that I can never get back.”
Police determined the shooting was excessive and charged Kerrick with voluntary manslaughter. A police statement Saturday said the investigation showed “Kerrick did not have a lawful right to discharge his weapon during this encounter.”
Before we knew the names of the victims, the motive behind the attack, or even how many shooters there were, some conspiracy theorists thought they figured out what had happened at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday morning.
Alex Jones
Alex Jones, the antigovernment broadcaster who reaches millions every day through his syndicated radio show and Infowars Web empire, speculated the shooting may be a “false flag” operation intended to distract Americans from Syria, as well as the anniversary of the Benghazi attack and the simmering IRS scandal.
“You’ve got all the other scandals, so this is a great way to change the subject,” Jones said on his radio show Monday morning, which is broadcast on more than 80 stations across the country. “It’s a way to divert everyone.”
For Jones, the shooting may be the latest in a long line of “false flag” operations, in which the government allegedly stages phony terror attacks to gin up popular support for disarming Americans or taking away their civil liberties. He confidently labeled the Boston Marathon bombing a hoax within hours of the explosion, but was more circumspect Monday.
“It may be real crazies, but look at the timing. Obama rolling out a national campaign against guns yesterday, and then this happens,” he said.
For conspiracy theorists, the “why” for such tragedies is always the same. “We’ve all got to give up our rights because it’s so scary. It’s all about mind control,” Jones explained.
And he’s not alone. On conspiracy message boards and forums, users who see themselves as citizen journalists have cut together YouTube videos that they claim show possible “actors” at the scene. One video shows a near-victim laughing with a local TV reporter when the two didn’t realize they were on air. “One would think at a moment such as this, a reporter and a ‘near victim’ wouldn’t be laughing, especially when they didn’t realize they’d be caught on camera,” the conspiracy website Before It’s News explained.
Check the serial number on your $1, $5 or whatever bill you have. If the serial number is considered to be a “Fancy Serial Number,” there are people who will pay you thousands for that bill.
At CoolSerialNumbers.com, Nashville musician and currency collector Dave Undis brings together like-minded digit-heads who have little interest in the history of money or even the denomination of a given note. Instead they are after certain patterns and series that fall under the flexible heading of “fancy” serial numbers.
Low serial numbers, from 00000001 to 00000100, are sought after, as well as palindromes (23599532), solids (with a digit that repeats eight times), seven-of-a-kinds (66666665), ladders (45678901) and important dates (12071941). The criteria get even more obscure from there: Undis is seeking a pi note, with the number 31415927. But the more apparently jumbled the digits, the less likely it is that anyone with the bill in their wallet will ever notice.
Which is too bad when you consider how much these fancy numbers can sell for—quite a bit more than the bill’s face value, in some cases. Right now, on Undis’ website, you can buy a $1 bill with the serial number 00000002 for a whopping $2,500. If that sounds like chump change, consider that a $5 bill with the number 33333333 goes for $13,000.
Check out their wanted list. If your dollar has the combinations listed here, then lucky you!
The Washington Navy Yard gunman who killed 12 today has previously claimed to be suffering from PTSD after helping rescue efforts in New York following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Gunman Aaron Alexis was shot dead by responding officers after he opened fire inside a Navy facility around 8am on Monday morning.
Since he was identified as the shooter, reports have come out revealing that it was not the first time that he was involved in a shooting.
In 2004, he was arrested in Seattle for shooting the tires of someone’s car during an anger-fueled ‘blackout’.
‘He said that he didn’t remember pulling the trigger of his firearm until about one hour later,’ according to the Seattle police report.
Later he said that he felt the intended victim ‘disrespected him’.
The report states that his father said his anger issues stemmed back to his time in New York where he helped the rescue efforts following the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The shooter’s father told police ‘that his son had experienced anger management problems that the family believed associated [sic] with PTSD.’
He was arrested in relation to this instance but never charged, and the same outcome occurred in Fort Worth, Texas where Alexis was living in 2010.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Secret Service has arrested a man for tossing firecrackers over a fence at the White House.
A federal law enforcement official says the shoeless man was immediately arrested Monday. An Associated Press photographer heard what sounded like two gunshots outside the White House. Three uniformed Secret Service officers arrested a middle-aged man. The man was white, with dark hair, a blue shirt and white shorts. His white shoes lay on the ground near where the officer tackled him.
The incident happened just hours after at least one suspect opened fire inside the Washington Navy Yard, killing at least 12 people. The gunman was also killed.
Robin Williams admits his finances are far from a laughing matter.
The comedian has been left on the verge of bankruptcy after two costly divorces.
The 62-year-old is returning to TV and selling his $35 million house to help cover his debts.
“The idea of having a steady job is appealing,” Williams told Parade magazine.
“There are bills to pay. My life has downsized, in a good way. I’m selling the ranch up in Napa. I just can’t afford it anymore.”
The Mrs Doubtfire star divorced his first wife in 1988 and ended his second marriage with Marsha Garces in 2008 after 19 years.
“Divorce is expensive. I used to joke they were going to call it ‘all the money’, but they changed it to ‘alimony’. It’s ripping your heart out through your wallet,” Williams said.
He’s currently married to graphic designer Susan Schneider who he tied the knot with in 2011.
The Oscar winning actor will star alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar in a new TV show called The Crazy Ones which will debut in the US on September 26.
(AP) — In a blistering warning to congressional Republicans, President Barack Obama said Monday it would be the “height of irresponsibility” for lawmakers to cause a new economic crisis just five years after the near-collapse of the nation’s financial system.
“I cannot remember a time when one faction of one party promises economic chaos if it can’t get 100 percent of what it wants,” Obama said, contending that the stance of some conservative lawmakers amount to just that.
Some of those Republicans say they will vote to extend current spending levels or to increase the nation’s debt ceiling only if Obama delays putting in place his health care law, a condition Obama has rejected. Others say that scheduled spending cuts should stay in place to reduce the deficit, while Obama wants the “sequestration” cuts reworked.
The president spoke at a White House event pegged to the fifth anniversary of the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers investment bank, which marked the beginning of a global financial crisis. The White House used the anniversary to lay out the president’s markers for upcoming fiscal fights with Congress over funding the government and raising the nation’s debt limit.
Obama reiterated his refusal to negotiate with Republicans over the debt ceiling. And he called on Congress to “pass a budget without drama.”
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