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.
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.
A man brandishing an assault rifle, shotgun and handgun opened fire Monday inside a building at the Washington Navy Yard — killing at least four people and wounding at least seven more, including two police officers, authorities said.
SWAT officers swarmed the building, the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command, and a shooter there was killed, sources told NBC News.
More than two hours after the first gunfire, there were reports that tactical teams were entering a second building at the Navy Yard, but there was no hard evidence of a second gunman.
Terrie Durham, who works at the Naval Sea Systems Command building, said the gunman appeared to be wearing dark fatigues. Another worker there, Todd Brundidge, said he heard a fire alarm go off, and later saw the gunman come around the corner.
“He turned our way and started firing, and we ran downstairs to get out of the building,” Brundidge said. “No words. He raised the gun and started firing.”
A naval security guard was among those shot and was hit in both legs, U.S. military officials said. Washington city police told WRC, the NBC affiliate in Washington, that one of their officers was also among those shot. It was not clear how many of the others shot were civilian and how many were military.
In case you missed it, there’s a terrific piece on Governor Christie in the New Jersey media. Written by columnist Tom Moran, it lays bare the basic fact that although Christie has benefited from disaster, he’s actually been a disaster as governor.
The basics:
Essentially, New Jersey has experienced failure at almost every level by which a politician is measured. And the one area where Christie got help from Democrats, on a pension and benefits bill that weakened collective bargaining and will eventually force public workers from their jobs, the economic effects will be devastating. In fact, many teachers will be bringing home less money three years from now than they are today. I’ve done the calculations: My take-home income will be going down over the next three years despite my actually getting a small raise. If you’re a teacher and you want very bad news, input your salary and insurance premiums on this site. Do not have anything breakable nearby when you do.
But the issues go beyond the eventual devastation of a few hundred thousand people. There are millions of people in this state who cannot find jobs because of the governor’s lack of leadership and the property taxes he promised to lower have actually gone up. Why? In the leafy suburbs where I live and work (for now), the governor slashed aid to schools and municipalities. More money has come from Trenton in the past two years, but the rest of the missing money had to be made up by a rise in local property taxes. For this past year, the district in which I work received one dollar ($1) more in state aid than last year. Meanwhile, salaries, supplies, state mandated testing, public safety and public accommodations still had to be paid for, not to mention basic municipal services.
The net effect of all of this is that people are making less money, costs are rising, jobs are not forthcoming and the governor is against common sense items such as raising the minimum wage, recognizing marriage equality, but he is in favor of protecting the wealthy by not asking them to contribute a little more to alleviate the pain.
And for this, Christie has a 20 point lead in the polls.
That’s because many Democrats in New Jersey have sold their souls for the primary reason that they see Christie as their gravy train. Not for state money, mind you, but for personal gain and power. How else to measure the utter lack of support for Democratic candidate, Senator Barbara Buono?
Here is a terrific, personable, dynamic, focused, humanistic candidate who is on the right side of the issues that New Jersey cares about. She stands up for women’s health in the face of Christie’s cuts to Planned Parenthood, supports marriage equality and has a plan to get the economy moving again. I saw Buono and her running mate, Milly Silva, speak at an event last week and I can say from personal experience that these are two highly intelligent, articulate people who act the opposite of the volatile, bullying, inappropriate antics of the present occupant in Trenton.
But the Democrats are split and President Obama is nowhere to be found. Still, Christie is only polling at 50%. Yes, he’s ahead, but if the left can get its act together and highlight what Moran has written, this race could get closer.
Which then brings us to Christie’s dream of a 2016 presidential run. If he wins with close to 50% of the vote, he can’t claim a mandate as a crossover candidate. Further, he won’t get much anything else done with a Democratic legislature. Where does that leave him? To bloviate and fuss about what he would do if he had the means, and that will force him to move farther to the right. The problem is that any right-wing opponent will only have to play the video of Obama and Christie at the shore after Sandy and the magic will seep out of his campaign. Along the way, he’ll also hurt himself by saying things that sound great to his supporters when you see them on YouTube, but will not play well at all with those who want a responsible adult as their leader.
Mark my words: Chris Christie will never be President of the United States. Let’s also try to make sure he isn’t reelected. We can’t afford even two more years of his misrule.
“…but he isn’t about to do it — and It can’t be done, obviously.”
A couple more faux pas like the one Secretary of State John Kerry made at a briefing on Syria earlier this week and we’ll have achieved World Peace in no time!
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s minimum wage would rise to $10 an hour within three years under a bill passed Thursday by the state Legislature, making it one of the highest rates in the nation.
Washington state currently has the top minimum wage at $9.19 an hour, an amount that is pegged to rise with inflation. Some cities, including San Francisco, have slightly higher minimum wages.
The state Senate approved AB10 on a 26-11 vote and the Assembly followed hours later on a 51-25 vote, both largely along party lines. Gov. Jerry Brown indicated earlier this week that he would sign the bill, calling it an overdue piece of legislation that would help working-class families.
The bill would gradually raise California’s minimum wage from the current $8 an hour to $10 by 2016.
Dr. Shiping Bao, was the Volusia County medical examiner in charge of handling slain-teenager Trayvon Martin’s body in February 2012. He now claims that Trayvon Martin was shot in his back.
Bao says that the Prosecution intentionally lost the case because Trayvon Martin fit the profile. According to Bao’s attorney, Willie Gary, the medical examiner’s office, the state attorney’s office and the Sanford Police’s “general attitude was that [Martin] got what he deserved.
According to the former assistant coroner, the results of Martin’s autopsy clearly showed that, despite Zimmerman’s statements regarding their altercation, there was no feasible way for Martin to have been on top of Zimmerman when the gun was fired, because the bullet entered Martin’s back.
Bao claims that the prosecution never actually asked him the questions that were crucial to the success in the case, and that he changed his opinion from the time he initially examined Martin and the time he was on the stand. Bao and his attorney say they believe he was fired for questioning the way the case was handled, and possibly for not going long with the desired narrative.
Bao testified in court that the amount of marijuana that was found in Martin’s system at the time of his death would have had little to no effect on his ability to reason—even though initiallyy he had stated that the drug could have possible impaired his mental state.
A 107-year-old man was shot and killed in a shootout with police in southeast Arkansas on Saturday.
Pine Bluff police say Monroe Isadore was shot dead after repeatedly firing at officers through a home’s closed bedroom door and refusing negotiations to surrender.
Pine Bluff Lt. David Price told KATV that officers were called to the scene around 4:25 p.m. after a caller reported Isadore was pointing a weapon at two people.
Officers reported hearing gunfire when they arrived at the home, prompting the safe evacuation of the other residents.
More officers were called, including a Special Weapons and Tactics unit that inserted a camera into the bedroom and confirmed Isadore had a handgun.
When the centenarian continued to refuse to relinquish his weapon, gas was pumped into the room through a window, prompting Isadore to return gunfire once more, police said.
“Shortly afterwards a S.W.A.T. entry team, inside the residence, breached the door to the bedroom and threw a distraction device into the bedroom,” according to a police statement obtained by CBS. “Isadore then began to fire on the entry team and the entry team engaged Isadore, killing him.”
The reason behind the initial incident among the three residents was not immediately reported by police.
An English man is literally shaking in prison awaiting test results to see if he contracted the HIV virus from woman he raped in her bed after breaking into her home in the middle of the night.
Karma is something, ain’t it?
From the British MailOnline.com:
A man who was put behind bars today for forced sex faces an agonizing wait to find out if he has caught HIV from his victim.
Richard Thomas, 27, collapsed when police informed him about the woman’s medical status and is still waiting to hear if he has contracted the incurable virus.
… His barrister, Virginia Hayton, said that he still cannot recall the attack but when told about it he said that the woman “would not lie, she tells the truth. If she says I have done it, I have done it.”
Police in Florida are investigating a Sunday shooting that left a 35-year-old woman and her 1-year-old daughter dead.
The Herald-Tribune reported that Sarasota police responded to a 911 call at around 9:45 a.m. on Sunday morning and discovered that 35-year-old Sarah Harnish had died of a gunshot wound. The woman’s 17-month-old daughter, Josephine Boice, later died at All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg.
Police said that the child’s father had gone for a ride on his scooter and returned to the sound of gunfire. Detectives concluded that the mother shot the child and then herself.
“Investigators are still trying to piece it all together,” Sarasota Police spokesperson Genevieve Judge told the Herald-Tribune. “We’re treating it as a shooting investigation and a death investigation.”
Authorities had not released information about the type of handgun or a motive for the shooting
It’s legal to light up in Colorado and Washington, and soon smoking pot could be legalized across the country following a decision Thursday by the federal government.
After Washington state and Colorado passed laws in November 2012 legalizing the consumption and sale of marijuana for adults over 18, lawmakers in both states waited to see whether the federal government would continue to prosecute pot crimes under federal statutes in their states.
Both Colorado and Washington have been working to set up regulatory systems in order to license and tax marijuana growers and retail sellers, but have been wary of whether federal prosecutors would come after them for doing so. They are the first states to legalize pot, and therefore to go through the process of trying to set up a regulatory system.
Consumption and sale of marijuana is still illegal in all other states, though some cities and towns have passed local laws decriminalizing it or making it a low priority for law enforcement officers. There are also movements in many states to legalize pot, including legalization bills introduced in Maine and Rhode Island, discussion of possible bills in states including Massachusetts and Vermont, and talk of ballot initiatives in California and Oregon.
But on Thursday, the Department of Justice announced that it would not prosecute marijuana crimes that were legal under state law, a move that could signal the end of the country’s longtime prohibition on pot is nearing. “It certainly appears to be potentially the beginning of the end,” said Paul Armantano, deputy director of the pot lobby group NORML.
The memo sent to states Thursday by the DOJ said that as long as states set up comprehensive regulations governing marijuana, there would be no need for the federal government to step in, a decision that will save the Justice Department from having to use its limited resources on prosecuting individuals for growing or smoking marijuana.
“This memo appears to be sending the message to states regarding marijuana prohibition that is a recognition that a majority of the public and in some states majority of lawmakers no longer want to continue down the road of illegal cannabis, and would rather experiment with different regulatory schemes of license and retail sale of cannabis,” Armantano said.
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