New York Mourns The Death Of Trailblazing Black Muslim Judge

Justice Sheila Abdus-Salaam, the first African-American woman and Muslim to serve on the highest court in New York, was found dead on Wednesday afternoon.

Abdus-Salaam’s husband had reported her missing earlier in the day, according to CBS New York. Police said her body, which they found on the shore of the Hudson River near Harlem, had no obvious signs of trauma and officials believe her death was not criminal in nature. The medical examiner has not yet determined the cause of death.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) appointed Abdus-Salaam, a veteran judge and lawyer, to be an associate judge on the Court of Appeals in 2013. In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Cuomo called his colleague a “trailblazing jurist” who fought for a fair and just New York.

“As the first African-American woman to be appointed to the state’s Court of Appeals, she was a pioneer,” Cuomo said of the 65-year-old judge. “Through her writings, her wisdom, and her unshakable moral compass, she was a force for good whose legacy will be felt for years to come.”

Abdus-Salaam grew up in a poor family of seven children in Washington, D.C., according to the New York State Bar. She went on to graduate from Barnard College in 1974 and received her law degree from Columbia University in 1977.

She started her impressive legal career as a staff attorney at East Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation, before going on to serve as an assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Bureau of New York State’s attorney general’s office and, later, as general counsel for the New York City Office of Labor Services.

As an assistant attorney general, Abdus-Salaam won an anti-discrimination lawsuit involving more than 30 female New York City bus drivers who were denied promotions, The New York Times reported.

In 1991, Abdus-Salaam was elected as a Civil Court Judge for New York City and served there until she was elected in 1993 to the Manhattan Supreme Court, where she served for 15 years. At that time, she became the first female Muslim judge in the U.S., according to the Times. 

She was appointed by Gov. David Paterson as associate justice of the appellate division in 2009. Cuomo appointed her four years later to serve as one of seven judges on the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals.

“Throughout my legal career, I have sought to uphold the laws of our state and treat all those who appear before me fairly and with respect and dignity,” Abdus-Salaam said at the time. 

Last August, Abdus-Salaam helped to expand the definition of parenthood and allow LGBTQ parents to seek the same parenting rights as biological parents, according to Lambda Legal, a New York-based nonprofit civil rights organization.

Judge Abdus-Salaam saw clearly how damaging it was to keep LGBT parents from their children,” Lambda Legal wrote in a blog post. “We owe her a tremendous debt of gratitude. She touched the lives of many New Yorkers; her legacy will live on.”

Carl Heastie, the first African-American to serve as the speaker of New York State Assembly, said in a statement Wednesday evening that Abdus-Salaam was “highly respected” and an “inspiration to many.”

“Her passing leaves a void that will be difficult to fill,” Heastie said. “This is a sad day for all New Yorkers.”

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This GOP Lawmaker Was Just Booed For His Bizarre Planned Parenthood Proposal

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MOUNT OLIVE TOWNSHIP, N.J. ― Constituents are happy to give Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.) some credit: He was one of the very few swing-district Republicans to come out of hiding and talk to voters after the GOP’s failed repeal of Obamacare.

But his ideas about women’s health care ― which he touted in front of hundreds at a town hall event Wednesday night ― provided little comfort and often led to cries of outrage or looks of bewilderment.

Lance had a hard time dodging one constituent’s question regarding whether he’d continue working to defund Planned Parenthood. Instead of a straight answer, the lawmaker offered his own plan: Break Planned Parenthood into two businesses. One would offer women’s health care that he likes, and the other would provide women’s health care that he doesn’t like.

What I have suggested to Planned Parenthood is that it have two separate organizations ― one organization that deals in the services regarding women’s health and another organization that performs the abortion procedure,” he said. “I would hope that Planned Parenthood might look at that.”

To say he was met with boos would understate the cacophony of cries that came from his audience (video above).

But Lance was prepared to go further down the rabbit hole by echoing a bizarre and repeatedly disproven theory circulating among some Republican lawmakers: That other medical facilities could easily pick up the slack if Planned Parenthood suddenly ceased to exist.

Last year, Florida legislators were raked over the coals after they offered a list of medical offices that women could turn to for reproductive services. The list included dozens of schools, dentistry offices and even an optometry center. Lance mentioned a similar list of facilities in his district during a town hall in February; several attendees told The Huffington Post that two of the six facilities on his list were dentistry offices.

On Wednesday night, he doubled down. Again.

In the district that I serve, there’s a Planned Parenthood facility, and there are several federally qualified health care facilities,” he said. “Some deal with a whole panoply of service, and some are dental facilities but —”

He was interrupted.

“If I’m pregnant, I don’t need a dental plan,” a constituent said, garnering cheers.

Christine Sadovy, advocacy director of Planned Parenthood in New Jersey, told HuffPost that she was disheartened to hear Lance separate women’s health care from abortion services. She and other attendees noted, however, that some of the congressman’s stances on health care coverage were a step in the right direction. He did, after all, oppose the final version of the GOP plan to replace Obamacare, saying that it would raise costs and reduce coverage for his voter base.

“Nobody in our society should ever be denied health care coverage based upon a pre-existing condition,” Lance said to reporters after the town hall.

Lance and Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) were two swing-district Republicans who actually hosted town halls on Wednesday ― a dozen others have been criticized for avoiding the public. Lance and Lamborn both fielded questions about health care, Syria, President Donald Trump’s elusive tax returns and the environment, and both got quite the verbal beating from their audiences. 

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Google's Areo app can order a plate of food or a plumber

Google has a new app you can’t access unless you live in Bangalore and Mumbai, India — and it’s a shame, because it sounds pretty darn useful. The app called Areo combines food delivery and home services in one. You can use it to order meals from yo…

Women of Star Wars Get Highlighted in New Series of Animated Shorts

Disney and Lucasfilm have started this year’s Star Wars Celebration on the right foot, announcing a new series of animated shorts called Forces of Destiny… all about some of Star Wars’ most iconic female characters, with several of the actresses reprising their starring roles.

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GOP Congressman Endures Verbal Beating At Colorado Springs Town Hall

COLORADO SPRINGS ― This city has long been a bastion of conservatism in a solidly purple state: Visitors drive into town on the Ronald Reagan Highway and pass Focus on the Family. So it was a bit of a surprise that liberals so clearly controlled the room at a town hall Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) hosted on Wednesday.

Health care dominated the discussion ― which at times devolved into a loud, chaotic affair ― while environmental issues, foreign policy and President Donald Trump’s tax returns all earned notable mentions.

After a brief introduction, wherein Lamborn gave an overview on what he’s been up to in Congress and earned boos for saying “I believe that Obamacare is failing,” the congressman turned the floor over to the audience.

“I look forward to your questions and comments,” he said, prompting laughter across the room.

One of the first people to speak was Dr. Kristine Hembre, who held up a homemade graphic detailing the country’s growing health care costs and how the middle class bears an unfair share of the burden.

“I appreciate a lot of the work you’ve done for veterans, and I’m glad you’re here listening to us,” she told Lamborn, but said the working middle class can’t thrive in an unfair system.

“We’re allowing a system that allows extraordinary corporate profits,” she added. “What we’re experiencing is pretty close to extortion.” 

Later, Hembre told The Huffington Post that she supports Medicare for all. “Everyone else is [already] getting government assistance,” she said.

Another woman, who identified herself only as Christine, told Lamborn she has a son with a “complex, significant, rare disability,” and that she’s concerned the health care changes the lawmaker champions “would have a devastating effect on my son.”

Christine said she’d previously discussed the issue with the congressman in private and felt dismissed. 

“You and I have different ideas,” she said, noting that she still hadn’t been expecting how he responded to her. 

“I was surprised by your indifference,” Christine said. “You didn’t care. You walked away while I was speaking. … I have to choose between paying my mortgage and paying my son’s medical care.”

Lamborn responded by saying it was “simply not true” that he doesn’t care about the issue. He went on to advocate for state-managed health care programs and so-called high-risk pools, prompting someone in the crowd to yell incredulously, “Are you in a high-risk pool?”

The congressman’s dismissal of Christine’s characterization of him prompted a response from another woman. 

“I’m really getting tired of you guys treating us like we don’t have eyes, and ears, and that we can’t think for ourselves,” she said. “For you to stand here and treat her like she didn’t see is a real insult.”

Even some conservative members of the at-capacity crowd came with sharpened questions.

One man, who self-identified as a Republican who had voted for Lamborn, pressed the representative on his logic regarding tax cuts for millionaires. 

“Tax cuts should go to whoever pays taxes,” the congressman replied. “If you’re not paying taxes … a tax cut may not help you.”

The man continued to press Lamborn. 

“Are you wiling to stand on the floor of the House of Representatives and call on the president to release his taxes?” he added, as the crowd cheered. 

“I’m not happy telling the IRS to go after people,” Lamborn said. 

A crowd of about 50 people gathered outside the venue as well, expressing displeasure that they weren’t permitted into the full meeting and also that it had been held in such a small space at such an inconvenient time. 

Betty Field stood outside with a list of names of people who couldn’t make the town hall because it was held in the middle of a workday. She wrote a zip code next to each name to demonstrate that these people are some of Lamborn’s real constituents. 

She told HuffPost she thought it was absurd to hold a town hall in the second largest city in Colorado in a venue with a maximum capacity of 100 people.

Back inside, Sally Vitamvas, who recently moved to the state from Iowa, told HuffPost she attended the town hall because she’s been “really upset watching the deconstruction of parts of government by Trump’s nominees.”

“I’m here because I don’t agree with any of Lamborn’s positions, regardless of how benignly they’re stated” on his website, she said. 

Vitamvas had fashioned a protest sign with Velcro, so she could add any other grievances that crop up in the future. “I left 25 other signs in the car,” she said with a laugh. 

Even if she alone can’t make much of a difference, she said, “I felt I needed to come.”

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GOP Lawmaker Compares 'Tyrant' Abraham Lincoln To Adolf Hitler

A Republican member of North Carolina’s House of Representatives on Wednesday compared President Abraham Lincoln to Adolf Hitler and called the 16th president of the U.S. a “tyrant.”

Larry Pittman also blamed Lincoln for the U.S. Civil War, which he called “unnecessary and unconstitutional.”

The remarks appeared in the comments section of a Facebook post Pittman wrote last month. Pittman began arguing with commenters on a number of issues, including his support for a law to make the Supreme Court ruling that legalized marriage equality “null and void” in North Carolina.

Pittman wrote this now-deleted post in one of his replies: 

The comments drew swift rebuke, first within Pittman’s Facebook page and then well beyond.

“When American ultra-conservatives have come to believe beloved Abraham Lincoln is equivalent to Hitler, their politics have jumped the shark and gone from eye-rolling to dangerous for our democratic republic,” North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Goodwin wrote on his on Facebook page.

Pittman has made national news before, for cracking birther jokes about President Barack Obama and calling Planned Parenthood “murder for hire.” 

His Lincoln comments came just one day after White House press secretary Sean Spicer claimed Hitler never used chemical weapons, a comment he later apologized for making. 

Pittman has not yet addressed his own Hitler comments.

H/T Raw Story

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Well

During Japan’s version of the Nintendo Direct held earlier today, a new game in the Senran Kagura series—Refure—was announced for the Switch.

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Report Claims iOS 10.3.2 Will Render The iPhone 5 Obsolete

We know that Apple has plans to eventually move its users and apps into 64-bit territory, with reports claiming that iOS 11 will kill off support for 32-bit apps completely. However that might actually be happening a bit earlier than expected, or at least that’s according to a post on Forbes which claims that Apple could obsolete the iPhone 5 with iOS 10.3.2.

As it stands, iOS 10.3.2 is currently in beta but according to the report, the update is only for 64-bit devices which the iPhone 5 is not, thus leading to speculation that maybe Apple could end up obsoleting the iPhone 5 as a result of the update. Now for iPhone 5 owners before you guys get too worked out, there seems to be a general consensus that will not be happening.

According to the folks at Gizmodo, they have been informed by their tipster that the iOS 10.3.2 update was successfully installed on the iPhone 5. They then reported that a separate source has confirmed to them that the iOS 10.3.2 update will continue to support devices like the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c, so for now it seems that iPhone 5/5c owners have nothing to worry about.

No word on when iOS 10.3.2 will be released so we guess we’ll have to wait and see if this update will truly end up obsoleting the iPhone 5 or if it will be business as usual, but like we said for now it seems that maybe iPhone 5 owners needn’t get too worried yet.

Report Claims iOS 10.3.2 Will Render The iPhone 5 Obsolete , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

TP-Link Unveils The Own Mesh Router With The Deco M5

Back in the day if you wanted to blanket your entire home with WiFi that had equal strength regardless of which room you were in, you’d either have to have a strategically placed router, a router that offered up very strong signal strengths, or rely on WiFi extenders. However these days mesh routers are becoming increasingly common.

In fact last year Google launched their own mesh router with the Google Wifi, joining the likes of Netgear, Linksys, Plume, and more. Now it seems that TP-Link wants in on the action as well as the company has announced the Deco M5, the company’s take on mesh routers. With the Deco M5, it will allow three access points for your WiFi devices to switch between depending on which access point is offering the best speeds at that moment.

According to TP-Link, they claim that the Deco M5 three-pack will be enough to cover 4,500 square feet which should be more than enough for most users, but for those who have a larger space to cover, they will be able to hook up to 10 Deco M5 devices together. The router will also come with an accompanying software that lets users prioritize services or devices.

In terms of pricing, TP-Link has priced the three-pack for $299 which isn’t too bad and puts it in line with Google Wifi. For those who are interested, the Deco M5 should be available for purchase later this week.

TP-Link Unveils The Own Mesh Router With The Deco M5 , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Alleged Moto Z2 Render Leaked

With the launch of the Moto Z handsets last year, Motorola introduced a new lineup to their handsets. It also saw the introduction of the Moto Mods which was Motorola’s take on modular smartphones. That being said, we expect that Motorola will probably be back again this year with a new Moto Z, and thanks to a leak we might know what it looks like.

As you can see in the image above posted onto Slashleaks, it shows us a very familiar Motorola design. The side profile of the handset has revealed that it will be incredibly thin, thinner than its predecessor, but apart from that we’re not sure what else is different. The bottom front portion of the phone shows that there will be a home button/fingerprint scanner, and the back reveals the connector pins for Moto Mod support.

As to what kind of specs we can expect, it is unclear. It might still be a bit too early for Motorola to launch the Moto Z2, but presumably if this will be Motorola’s flagship handset then we can expect some flagship specs. Last year’s Moto Z saw the use of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, so presumably this year we can expect the Snapdragon 835.

In any case take it with a grain of salt, but hopefully additional details of the Moto Z2 will be revealed in due time.

Alleged Moto Z2 Render Leaked , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.