A lawyer for suspected terrorist Salah Abdeslam says his client, who is currently in custody in Brussels, would very much like to be extradited to France, where he intends to “explain himself.”
Abdeslam was arrested last week in Brussels, after more than four months on the run as the “most wanted man in Europe.” Authorities reportedly honed in on him after finding his fingerprints in an apartment in Molenbeek, the Brussels neighborhood where several of the attackers, including Abdeslam, lived and plotted.
Abdeslam initially indicated he would fight extradition but reversed his position this week after an attack on Brussels left more than 30 dead and hundreds more injured. His lawyer’s take, via the New York Times:
Asked why Mr. Abdeslam had changed his mind, Mr. Mary said that his client understood that “the case here is just a small piece,” and that he wanted to “explain himself in France.”
Asked what his client had said about the attacks, Mr. Mary replied, “He didn’t say, because he didn’t know it.” Asked if Mr. Abdeslam had reacted to the attacks, Mr. Mary responded, “He had no reaction.”
Either way—there are worse places than Paris in the spring to await trial for killing and wounding hundreds of people.
The Department of Justice has announced an indictment against seven government-sponsored Iranian nationals accused of internet-based attacks against the United States, including one who managed to gain control of a picturesque Westchester dam’s flood release controls.
The town of Rye Brook is small (a population of roughly 10,000), and its Bowman Avenue Dam is even smaller, at about 20 feet high. But according to the DOJ, Iranian hackers were on the verge of unleashing a flood that would have been, if not catastrophic, at least ugly and dangerous. The remote intrusion occurred in 2013 and was first reported by the Wall Street Journal two years later, but now the feds are confirming details of the hack:
Between August 28, 2013, and September 18, 2013, FIROOZI repeatedly obtained unauthorized access to the SCADA systems of the Bowman Dam, in Rye, New York, which allowed him to repeatedly obtain information regarding the status and operation of the dam, including information about the water levels and temperature, and the status of the sluice gate, which is responsible for controlling water levels and flow rates. Although that access would normally have permitted FIROOZI to remotely operate and manipulate the Bowman Dam’s sluice gate, unbeknownst to FIROOZI, the sluice gate had been manually disconnected for maintenance at the time his intrusion.
Had the sluice gate not been fortuitously “disconnected,” Rye Brook could’ve been flooded. More disturbingly is that the network-connected floodgate systems of the relatively tiny Bowman Dam aren’t fundamentally different from those of much larger dams with a much bigger potential for destruction if sabotaged.
If there’s any silver lining here, it’s that our national infrastructure is in many parts too shitty and dysfunctional to even hack; in a 2015 statement from the town of Rye Brook, it’s made clear that the sluice gate was never fully functional to begin with:
In or about June 2013, a sluice gate was added to the Dam, in order to help control the flow of water and assist with flood mitigation during storm events. The gate was designed to be opened and closed via computer; however, despite a ribbon cutting ceremony, the gate was never fully operational, and remained non-functioning through the DHS investigation. In any event, based on information provided to us, at no time was the sluice gate ever manipulated by unauthorized users outside of the City.
Emphasis added. The best cyber defense may not be a solid cyber offense, but governmental neglect.
Wisconsin’s primary elections next month will mark the first time voters will be required to present a government identification at the polls since Governor Scott Walker signed a voter ID bill into law in 2011. That legislation also requires the state to fund an educational campaign about what forms of ID are acceptable—and the state hasn’t done it.
Voter ID laws are ostensibly intended to combat voter fraud, but there’s a reason they enjoy support among conservatives and are reviled by liberals: They lead to lower turnout among poor people and minorities, who are more likely to vote Democrat. (The conservative activist and big-time Trump fan Phyllis Schlafly openly copped to the importance of voter restrictions for suppressing Obama voters a few years ago.)
Wisconsin’s law is anti-democratic, in both the big D and little d senses. But under the letter of the law, voters would at least be exposed to a public information campaign about it. If you’re a veteran but don’t have a driver’s license, for instance, it would be enormously helpful for you to know that your VA card is also accepted.
With primaries less than two weeks away, the state has not yet appropriated funds for such a campaign, ProPublica reports today. The Republican-controlled state government engages in this sort of fuckery all the time: Just last week, Walker signed a bill that will eliminate community voter registration drives. The net effect of that move, just like this one, is that fewer poor people will be permitted at the polls.
If you use a desktop computer at home, you’d be foolish not to connect it to a UPS battery backup, and a great entry level model from CyberPower is on sale, today only from Amazon
This CyberPower UPS will of course keep your machine running without any interruption in the event of a power outage, which means you won’t lose any unsaved work. But even if you only use laptops and mobile devices at home, this could still run LED lights, phone chargers, or even your router and modem for a few hours until the power is restored.
Just note that this is a Gold Box deal, meaning this price is only available today, or until sold out.
This skillet features a durable stainless steel cooking surface, an even and rapid-heating aluminum core, and a beautiful stainless exterior, all sandwiched together to create the ultimate pan. And, like all All-Clad items, it comes with a lifetime warranty, though you probably won’t need it as long as you treat it well.
The major caveat here is that this particular item doesn’t include a lid. The version that includes the lid is currently selling for $120, but it occasionally dips below $100. If you don’t typically use a lid with your skillets though, a set of cheap universal ones should suffice.
If you’re not a fan of your current comforter, or if you just want a backup for when it’s getting dry cleaned, Amazon will sell you a reversible down alternative comforter for just $18-$24, today only.
These comforters come backed by a 4.3 star review average, and you can choose from over a dozen colors, many of which are reversible. Just note that this is a Gold Box deal, meaning this price is only available today, or until sold out.
This vacuum is about as simple as they come. You won’t find any hoses, detachable hand vacs, or battery packs. That being said, I’ve owned it for years, and absolutely love it. Its suction power is great, I’ve never had to replace any belts, and it’s incredibly light and maneuverable. For a smallish home, you could do a lot worse for $55.
If you have any home improvement projects on the horizon, this discounted Lowe’s gift card is like $10 in your pocket. I suggest spending it on a six pack to consume while you operate power tools. [$100 Lowe’s Gift Card, $90]
The new DJI Phantom 4 sure looks impressive, but for $1000 less, you can pick up the still-completely-amazing Phantom 3 Standard today. You’ll lose out on features like the (finnicky) accident avoidance, indoor positioning, and 4K video, but the camera still boasts an impressive 2.7K resolution, and it’ll last over 20 minutes on a single charge. At $400, it probably won’t even eat up your entire tax refund.
If you have a yard, you need an edger. If you need an edger, you should buy a battery-operated electric one. And when you can pick one up for just $60, there’s really no reason not to.
$23 is a very good price for any 20,000mAh USB battery pack. But when you consider that this one includes Quick Charge 2.0 for your newer Android devices, it’s a no-brainer. Conservatively, you should get 4-5 phone charges out of this thing, making it perfect for sharing during a long flight or camping trip.
We know you guys like Velcro cable ties, but if you’re interested in a different option for keeping your wires organized, these neoprene zip-up sleeves seem like a great deal.
Mpow brought affordable Bluetooth headphones to the mainstream, and today, they’ll sell you a pair with active noise cancellation and IPX4 waterproofing for $27. Awesome haircut not included.
On paper, it’s every bit the equal of the SB6141; it has the same number of upstream and downstream channels, and the same maximum speeds. Just check with your ISP to make sure it’s compatible before you purchase; most maintain lists on their websites.
If you ever drink red wine, there’s literally no reason not to buy an aerator. This model from Wuudi plugs right into the top of the bottle, and is cheaper than a lot of bottom shelf merlots.
If you’re looking to bring your older car into the modern age, this clip-on rear view mirror includes a dashcam on the backside, plus a rear view camera and an integrated screen to view it, all for just $58. We see lots of deals for dash cams, rear view cameras, and camera viewing screens, but I’ve never seen one product incorporate them all.
If Cards Against Humanity is feeling a little stale, here’s another inexpensive party game with the strong possibility of offending your friends and/or forcing your parents to make sex jokes in front of you.
Beauty Brands, $9 haircare products. Use code EC12490 to get $3.50 a purchase of $10+.
Beauty Brands has a selection of dry shampoo, hairspray, and styling products starting at $9/bottle. Use code EC12490 to get $3.50 offa purchase of $10 or more.
50% off everything at J.Crew Factory. Use code HEYSPRING to take $20 off $100+
In my time as an obsessive shopper and dedicated deal hunter I’ve come to agree with Lifehacker: cheap clothes are [generally] too expensive. However, I’ve actually been quite happy with the various articles I’ve picked up for a song at J.Crew Factory over the years.
Update: Code HEYSPRING takes $20 off $100+ [h/t Bradley’s Balls]
Through March 27, save 50% on basically everything they sell, with free shipping over $100. Prices as marked.
Well here’s a low-risk, no brainer deal to wrap up your afternoon. If you buy a “luxury beauty” sample for $1-$3, you’ll get the equivalent amount as an Amazon credit to spend on a future luxury beauty item. Your options here include balms, lotions, fragrances, and more, so head over to Amazon before the best samples sell out.
If you’re still listening to any of your TVs through their built-in speakers, here’s an easy fix for $70.
This Vizio Sound Stand pumps out up to 95 dB of crisp stereo sound, which needless to say is a lot louder than your TV’s build in speakers. Plus, you won’t even need to find a place to put it, because your TV sits right on top. This might not be ideal for for your main home theater setup (personally, we’d recommend this 5.1 channel Vizio system), but it’s a perfect little integrated system for your other TVs around the house.
$8 is a solid price for any 3600mAh battery pack, but it’s especially noteworthy when the pack uses a Lightning input for all the Apple devotees out there. Obviously, this won’t appeal to Android users, but if you’re an Apple devotee, it means one less cord to carry around.
Cooking is all about temperatures, and both of these thermometer deals deserve a place in your utensil drawer. The Dr. Meter meat thermometer will let you know when your food is done, while the IR thermometer can tell you when a pan or oil is hot enough to start cooking. It’s also really fun to just mess around with.
We’ve all heard that watching TV in the dark can be pretty tough on the eyes, but an ambient bias lighting setup can make the experience much more palatable, and improve your TV’s perceived contrast levels to boot.
Bias Lighting deals sell out pretty much instantly when we post them, so be sure to jump on this one, which includes dimming and a Velcro securing system.
If you’re a weather buff, and want to know the precise conditions outside your house, this $35 AcuRite Weather Station can track temperature, humidity, air pressure and more via a wireless probe. On the right side of the display, you’ll also see your indoor conditions, so you can appreciate the miracle of modern climate control.
$600 gets you roundtrip air from Boston or Baltimore, air and hotel taxes covered, daily breakfast, and more. This is a 3-night trip, but you can extend for around $100/day, and you do not need more than 4-5 days at the most.
The package includes a trip out to see the Northern Lights, and other excursions in the country are relatively cheap.
The flight is short, everyone speaks English, and the country is very tourist-friendly. Feel free to hit me up with questions! - Shane
You’ll find Amazon “insets” across much of the content on our network. These modules provide readers with the name of an item, the price, and the retailer (we hope to support more in the future).
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The green text in the full size insets is “social proof”, a counter for how many of a product has been purchased through links on Gawker sites. This counter tracks all-time purchases, not purchases from a single post, and is delayed 24 hours.
We’ve recently added a promo code field to our insets, so Kinja Deals readers can now get everything they need to take advantage of a deal in one place.
Finally, you may have noticed in the past that the pricing in our insets could lag behind the current price on Amazon. We’ve made inset prices editable, so let us know if something’s wrong and we can fix it right away! This also means our insets will now take into account promo code discounts when displaying a price.
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If you want to go to college, try community college. Try public college. Try the school of hard knocks. Do not, however, pay money for a degree from an online, for-profit school. Studies say: no!!!
A new study in the American Economic Review examines the question: These degrees—are they worth a shit, or nah? Researchers applied to a variety of entry-level jobs with fictitious resumes that were identical except for the schools that the applicants had degrees from. Some were public colleges, some were regular for-profit schools, and some were online for-profit schools. The results: applicants with degrees from regular, brick-and-mortar colleges got 10% fewer callbacks than those with degrees from public colleges; and applicants with degrees from online for-profit schools got 25% fewer callbacks than those from public colleges.
“In many cases,” the study notes, “a for-profit associate’s degree did not result in higher call back rates than for applicants with no college experience listed at all.”
Would you like these researchers to put in terms that even a moron child can understand? Okay!!! They will! “[Because] yearly tuition at a for-profit college typically greatly exceeds that at a public university and for-profit degrees seem to be less valued by employers, the for-profit degree appears to be the less attractive investment.”
Before we get down to business, here is a TL;DR version of this post:
On today’s episode of The View, Whoopi Goldberg (and some of her fellow panelists) pummeled presidential candidate-turned-Donald Trump-endorser Ben Carson for getting in bed with a racist. Carson framed his endorsement as a way to hit back at the establishment, which doesn’t appreciate “people who are not beholding to them, and people who are not controlling to them coming into Washington D.C.”
OK, but you’re black, Ben Carson, and you’re effectively co-signing racism.
“Well, you have to look at the good and the bad, and there’s no perfect person,” explained Carson, who went on to cite the inclusion of blacks and Jews at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, as evidence of Trump’s balanced racial politics. (He was actually just parroting a talking point that Trump himself trotted out earlier this month.)
“I have met a lot of his employees, including African Americans,” Carson explained further. “And they have nothing but good things to say. Somebody who’s hired as many people as he’s hired and you can find very few people who have anything negative to say...”
Wow, a fresh spin on a hot take: Donald Trump, you see, can’t be racist, for he has black employees.
Whoopi then launched into full-on rant about Trump’s racism that she punctuated with, “You’re Ben Carson! You’re so much better than this!” A rare miss for Goldberg.
Joy Behar pointed out that Trump compared Carson to a child molester. “If it were about me, I would be offended, but it’s about America, we have to save this nation,” said Carson, as the world around him shattered, and he found himself in a Christopher Guest mockumentary. When Behar called Trump a liar, Carson replied, “Tell me a politician who doesn’t tell lies.”
So vote Trump, because we live in a garbage can and those who thrive need to not just get used to the smell, but start loving it more than they love their favorite flowers, even.
Later, Carson said he didn’t condone Trump’s retweeting of a picture that mocked the appearance of Ted Cruz’s wife, Heidi. “Implicit in endorsement is not an endorsement of anything that anybody has said or done throughout their lives,” he said, words flying from his mouth like the maggots you spit out when dining at the bottom of the garbage can.
Carson claimed that as a result of his endorsement, “nothing was promised, nor would I accept anything.” All this? It’s from the goodness of Carson’s heart. Regarding Trump’s more callous tactics, Carson said, “When you’re very nice, you’re very respectful, you talk about the real issues and not get into all these issues, where does it get you? It gets you where it got me: nowhere, OK?”
This morning in a Toronto court, popular ex-CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi was cleared of four counts of sexual assault and one count of choking to overcome resistance.
The three complainants in the case alleged that Ghomeshi had been violent with them during romantic encounters, pulling their hair, slapping and hitting them. One—Lucy DeCoutere, an actress in the comedy Trailer Park Girls and captain in the Royal Canadian Air Force—alleged that Ghomeshi had choked her and left her nearly unable to breathe.
The verdict was decided by Ontario Court Justice William Horkins, who bluntly stated in his written verdict that he felt Ghomeshi’s victims had been untruthful under oath because he felt their testimony was “inconsistent,” and insincere.
[138] The success of this prosecution depended entirely on the Court being able to accept each complainant as a sincere, honest and accurate witness. Each complainant was revealed at trial to be lacking in these important attributes. The evidence of each complainant suffered not just from inconsistencies and questionable behaviour, but was tainted by outright deception.
[139] The harsh reality is that once a witness has been shown to be deceptive and manipulative in giving their evidence, that witness can no longer expect the Court to consider them to be a trusted source of the truth. I am forced to conclude that it is impossible for the Court to have sufficient faith in the reliability or sincerity of these complainants. Put simply, the volume of serious deficiencies in the evidence leaves the Court with a reasonable doubt.
According to the Toronto Star, Ghomeshi defense attorney Marie Heinen used text messages and other communication between Ghomeshi and his accusers to tarnish their testimony. The judge, evidently, found it convincing.
Nonetheless, Horkins applied a strict reading of the law in deciding Ghomeshi’s fate, stating that his conclusion that there was reasonable doubt of Ghomeshi’s innocence was not a determination that the attacks never took place.
Ghomeshi, who was fired in October of 2014 after the CBC saw “graphic evidence” that he had “caused physical injury to a woman,” faces another trial in June on a final count of sexual assault regarding an incident that occurred in the workplace.
Well, okay, I have done Jell-O shots before. Obviously! But this is my first time ever eating plain Jell-O, and, quite frankly, it will probably be my last.
Every day the media officers of the Islamic State wake and give thanks for the candidacy of Donald Trump, which delivers one propaganda coup after another for global jihad. Today’s video celebrating the Brussels attack, prominently featuring Trump’s face and words, is no exception.
You couldn’t create a better mascot for anti-West radicalism from scratch if you tried. Trump is the best imaginable caricature of decadent, stupid Western values and mores—and now that he’s jumped headlong into Islamophobia, echoing the exact “clash of civilizations” West-versus-Islam philosophy that ISIS subscribes to, he makes for a pitch-perfect recruitment tool. A famous, wealthy, grotesque American man who wants to bomb the Middle East and subjugate Muslims, and who loudly proclaims any and all adherents of Islam are unwelcome in the United States, is simply a gift to ISIS and its sympathizers.
The clip above is from a video produced by the al-Battār Media Foundation, a propaganda office of the Islamic State, and distributed across Twitter, YouTube, and Telegram. It begins with a newscaster: “That is the problem inherent with attacks like this, you can talk about increasing security but there is a limit to how far you want to go.” Then, to illustrate that ominous “too far” point, we get the face of Donald Trump, lamenting about how lovely Brussels once was before it was ruined by Muslims.
This was all predicted by experts including Malcolm Nance, a Navy intel veteran who runs the Terrorism Asymmetrics Project:“Good God, they’re probably cutting videos of this right now,” Nance told MSNBC after reviewing Trump’s Brussels comments.
If jihadi propaganda is working, the United States has itself in part to blame.
Bernard Cazeneuve said “there were no links “at this stage” between the plot and the attacks against Brussels this week or Paris in November.
Cazeneuve said bomb squads were on site. The raid took place in Argenteuil, on the northern outskirts of the French capital. He noted that the person arrested was implicated at a “high level” in the plot, but offered no details.
The man has not been named but is, according to ABC, a French national.
Actor and comedian Garry Shandling died Thursday in Los Angeles. Shandling, 66, was among the most influential figures in modern American comedy and television, thanks to two brilliant shows he co-created and starred in in the 1980s and 1990s.
This 2010 profile of Shandling in GQ is a decent introduction to Shandling’s personality and his philosophy of comedy (or, often, anti-comedy), but the best way to understand both is to binge on It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, in which Shandling played (a heightened and surreal version of) himself, and The Larry Sanders Show, in which Shandling played a vain and insecure talk show host clearly based (in part) on himself.
The Larry Sanders Show, which ran on HBO from 1992 to 1998, is, I think, about as good as TV comedy gets, and it is safe to say Shandling, along with his collaborators (including a young Judd Apatow), invented the form of the postmodern, laugh-track-free single-camera sitcom; there’s no The Office (British or American) without Larry Sanders, let alone 30 Rock, or even Louie.
It’s not entirely clear that he appreciated his influence. In 2006, Office creator Ricky Gervais met Shandling, at Shandling’s home, for an episode of an television series in which Gervais would meet and interview his funny comedian heroes. The interview became, almost immediately, incredibly tense and nearly hostile—because, as Shandling later explained, Gervais was too “on” and Shandling wanted to see what would happen if he threw the supposed master of cringe comedy completely off his game. Gervais promptly ended his interview series.
According to TMZ, which first reported the news, Shandling died of a heart attack. He was 66.
A new report from the Wall Street Journal says that Playboy Enterprises Inc. might be sold soon.
According to sources, the investment bank Moelis & Co. is “advising” the company, which went private a few years ago for a deal that valued the company at $207 million:
Playboy could fetch north of $500 million, and potential buyers could include companies that would license the brand for use in consumer goods, new media outfits and trophy buyers, the people said.
This news—which Playboy hasn’t commented on—makes sense, given their recent shift away from nudity; what better way to make your company more attractive than to get rid of the one thing that defines it, but also makes it less appealing to the average buyer.
The report also suggests that the sale wasn’t even really on the table until Playboy put up the Mansion, which brought bidders who were interested in the whole company out of the woodwork. There’s no deal done yet; the company could divide and sell portions of itself (remember, a huge percentage of their revenue is merchandising, separate from their editorial operations) or could not sell at all.
Throughout all these changes, founder Hugh Hefner has remained mostly silent. His son Cooper, once the heir-apparent to the company throne, has said that he’s been pushed out from decisions by company CEO Scott Flanders. “I was essentially asked to no longer participate in the board meetings because I didn’t agree with his vision for the company,” Cooper said in an interview last month.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released photographs from the scene of the month-long standoff at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, showing that the armed occupiers, who claimed to be acting on behalf of the citizenry, to protect their land from federal overreach, left the place a godforsaken mess.
The photos were taken after the FBI removed evidence from the site pertinent to the 26-person criminal conspiracy case. “These pictures are a microcosm of how bad it really was,” Jason Holm, assistant regional director for the Fish and Wildlife Service, told the Guardian.
As for the federal employees returning to their workplace, Holm said, “It brings out some emotions and some anger.”
“They are thrilled to be back. These are people who generally don’t become biologists to be in the public sphere. They love creatures and places and are passionate about doing their jobs.”
According to the Guardian, USFWS officials said that the cost of the occupation is already at least $6 million.
“Why don’t you report [on Donald Trump’s demagoguery and racism] honestly?” Sean Hannity asked Univision’s Jorge Ramos in an interview Wednesday night. “I don’t need a lecture from you,” Hannity pouted. “You’ve got an agenda.”
Last Wednesday, O’Reilly wondered aloud how Ramos could cover Trump when “you’re on the record as calling him an anti-immigrant bigot?” Ramos referenced Trump’s famous comment from his campaign kickoff announcement last June: “When you say that Mexican immigrants are criminals or rapists, that is, for many people, a racist remark.” O’Reilly lashed back: “But he didn’t say all of them were.”
An identical defense pathetically turned up last night on the set of “Hannity.”
The always-fiery host blasted Ramos on two fronts: “When you go out there and say that he wants to ban 1.5 billion people from coming into the United States because of their religion or when you said that he’s calling all Mexicans criminals and murderers and rapists, that is a false characterization on your part.”
Actually, it’s not. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” was Trump’s exact quote, last June. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.
On April 15, Politico reports, George and Amal Clooney will host a fundraiser for the Hillary Victory Fund at the Bay Area-home of venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar, of “Uber for Planes” notoriety. To sit at the head table, a couple must contribute or raise $353,400.
If a couple only hits $100,000, they get into the “host reception,” featuring the Clinton and the Clooneys. Individual tickets cost $33,400 and get you a photo with the Democratic frontrunner.
Funds raised by the event don’t go directly into Clinton’s coffers: The Hillary Victory Fund (despite its rather specific name) is a joint fundraising committee that technically includes the Democratic National Committee and 32 state party committees.
Those committees joined up at Clinton’s behest. “It’s time to rebuild our party from the ground up,” she said at the DNC’s summer meeting in Minneapolis last August. “When our state parties are strong, we win.” As the Washington Post reported last month:
A record 32 state parties signed on to the fund, allowing the committee to solicit donations 130 times greater than what a supporter can give to Clinton’s campaign for the primary.
But the states have yet to see a financial windfall. Meanwhile, Clinton’s campaign has been a major beneficiary, getting an infusion of low-dollar contributions through the committee at a time when rival Bernie Sanders’s army of small donors is helping him close in on her financially. The fund is run by Clinton campaign staff, and its treasurer is Clinton’s chief operating officer.
By the end of 2015, the Hillary Victory Fund had raised nearly $27 million, the Post reported. Two thirds of the fund’s $6.4 million operating costs went to two Washington, D.C.-based vendors that work for Clinton. When and how money is transferred from the fund to the DNC and the states is at the “sole discretion” of the fund’s treasurer, Elizabeth Jones, who is also the Clinton campaign’s COO.
“When we started, there were 17 candidates in this race,” Ted Cruz told WTMJ radio host Charlie Sykes on Wednesday. “It was a wonderfully diverse, talented, dynamic, young field. It had really incredible talent. If you look at a number of the candidates that took on Donald Trump early on, they ended up as roadkill.”
Just a few months ago, Cruz was sucking up to the Republican frontrunner.
But after Trump started talking smack about Heidi Cruz, Ted’s wife, the Texas senator got tough: “It’s not easy to tick me off. I don’t get angry often. But you mess with my wife, you mess with my kids, that’ll do it every time.”
Cruz explained that his early deference was simply a matter of strategy. “Our objective was simple from the beginning, it is to win this race, to win the nomination and then beat Hillary Clinton and turn this country around,” he said Wednesday. “And not be roadkill,” he added. “I am very strongly committed on the anti-roadkill approach.”
The NBA released a statement tonight criticizing the recently signed North Carolina House Bill 2, and implicitly throwing Charlotte’s hosting of the 2017 NBA All-Star Game into doubt:
“The NBA is dedicated to creating an inclusive environment for all who attend our games and events. We are deeply concerned that this discriminatory law runs counter to our guiding principles of equality and mutual respect and do not yet know what impact it will have on our ability to successfully host the 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte.”
House Bill 2 is a measure that prevents North Carolina cities from passing anti-LGBT discrimination laws of their own. It was written in response to a recently passed anti-discrimination ordinance in Charlotte that prevents business from discriminating against gay, lesbian, and transgender customers, and among other provisions allows transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender they identify as. Charlotte’s ordinance was scheduled to go into effect April 1, but is now superseded by House Bill 2.
The NBA’s implicit threat to pull the All-Star Game piles more pressure upon the North Carolina legislature to repeal the legislation. The NCAA has said they are monitoring the situation, and large corporations with offices in North Carolina like PayPal, Dow Chemical, Google, and American Airlines have condemned the law.
Last year the NCAA joined a similar grouping of corporations in speaking out against an anti-gay law in Indiana, which was ultimately overturned. This weekend the NFL said that if Georgia passes an under consideration anti-gay bill, the Falcons won’t be allowed to host the Super Bowl.
According to TMZ, Jared Fogle has been assigned to cafeteria duty at Federal Correction Institution Englewood—serving sandwiches. Fogle was moved to the correctional officers’ cafeteria after receiving a beating from an inmate who objected to the former Subway pitchman having hired “paid protection.”
Steven Nigg “couldn’t help himself,” hitting Fogle “5 or 6 times” at the Colorado prison, the inmate’s brother, Jimmy, told Radar Online.
“Jared has money and you can buy inmates to protect you—that set Steve off,” Jimmy said. “He has paid protection, he had bodyguards around him. One of them or another child molester must have been the witness [to the fight].”
“This isn’t the first time [Steven has] hit a child molester,” Jimmy told Radar. “It’s just the first time he got caught.”
