Waze, Google’s navigation app and slow-growing carpooling platform, will soon expand the latter feature to cover the entire state of California. Waze first introduced a limited carpooling feature for certain cities in California, such as San Francisco, and the results were largely favorable. In light of that, and starting in one week, everyone in California will be able to use … Continue reading
This week the folks at Nokia have revealed that they’re ushering in a new era for Nokia smartphone. This is the month where users can expect a set of new Nokia brand smartphones with Android inside to be released around the world. Much like we expected to launch all the way back at the dawn of Nokia X, the Android … Continue reading
North Korea has produced another tablet for its unfortunate citizens, one it calls the ‘iPad.’ Obviously not being an Apple device or anything like it, the tablet runs an unknown operating system and features bland, low-end specs, though compared to other limited offerings in the nation, it may be one of the more desirable consumer computing products. Apple hasn’t commented … Continue reading
PORTLAND, Ore. ― It’s easy to understand why Imam Mikal Shabazz doesn’t feel like Portland always loves people who look like him.
He remembers when cops choked an unarmed black man to death and then distributed T-shirts bragging about it. He lived here when a gang of neo-Nazis brutally murdered an Ethiopian student on the street. And he was here during the Northwest Imperative movement, when white supremacists moved to the Pacific Northwest to set up a white Utopia, terrorizing cities like Portland.
“All of that wasn’t too long ago in my time, on my calendar,” said Shabazz, 66. Portland, he said, shouldn’t think of that kind of terror as distant history. It’s very much still happening.
Last Friday, a white supremacist stabbed three men on the MAX train, two fatally, as they tried to protect a black teenage girl and her Muslim friend from his bigoted, anti-Muslim threats.
The murders grabbed national headlines with many asking: Portland? That liberal, progressive city in a blue state?
What people forget is that Portland is in Oregon, a “white state where most white people almost never interact with people of color,” Shabazz said.
“At the same time, there’s always been some of us here,” he added, referring to himself and other minorities.
Shabazz is an imam at the Muslim Community Center of Portland, which has almost completed a new one-story mosque just a few miles northeast of where the stabbing occurred. On Tuesday afternoon during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month dedicated to fasting and reflection, the sounds of construction could be heard inside the mosque as a typical soft Northwest rain fell outside.
When one of the contractors there to install a security system walked through the prayer room with his shoes on ― a no-no at mosques ― one of the parishioners asked him kindly to take them off.
“I’m not taking them off,” the contractor, a lumbering middle-aged white man, replied sternly.
Shabazz defused the situation, like he always does, and said, “It’s okay. We’ll clean it up. We’ve done it before.”
Portland, depicted in recent years as a quirky progressive urban Eden ― especially in the TV show “Portlandia” ― has a long history of racism. In the wake of Friday’s murders, America has rediscovered the city as a haven for hate, while local leaders like Shabazz try to reassure a very frightened community.
Oregon’s history reads like a timeline of white supremacy. Its indigenous peoples were massacred. The state’s original constitution had a complete ban on blacks living in the state. It became a home to thousands of KKK members in the 1920s. It was the scene of Japanese-American incarceration during World War II. In the Jim Crow era, whites-only signs adorned storefronts just as they did in the South. This history created conditions ripe for the evolution of a robust neo-Nazi culture in the 1980s and ‘90s.
“In the eyes of a skinhead, Portland, Oregon, looks like the city of the future,” Time magazine wrote about the movement in 1993. The article went on to describe the Northwest Imperative, which drew hundreds of white supremacists to the region to found a whites-only city.
Eric Ward, a longtime civil rights strategist and program officer for the Ford Foundation, lived in Oregon during this era and later worked with the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment. He remembers a constant stream of terror back then, he said. Organized neo-Nazi groups repeatedly attacked minorities.
One such example was in November 1988, when members of East Side White Pride beat 28-year-old graduate student Mulugeta Seraw to death with a baseball bat.
Now, Ward says, it feels like it’s happening all over again.
He says whenever people talk to him about Portland, they always ask about “Portlandia.”
“They want to know if it’s true and is it really that quirky? Is it really that progressive? Is the food amazing? And all of those things are actually true.”
But, Ward continued, “there’s another ‘Portlandia,’ and the other ‘Portlandia’ isn’t funny. It is a ‘Portlandia’ that has a white terror crisis.”
A series of horrifying hate crimes have occurred over the last year and a half in the Portland area. Earlier this month, a Latino family found both of their cars’ windshields smashed in. In one of the cars was an explosive device. Their neighbor’s car was also vandalized and contained a note that said, “#Trump AT ICE—See you soon—Sorry bout that—Sorry not sorry.”
In March, an Iranian refugee returned home to find a slew of anti-Muslim death threats written in all caps all over his house. “Terrorist” was written on the kitchen cabinet; “Fuck you terrorist” on a wall; “Muslim” and “Kill you” in the bedroom; “Die” on a mirror; and “Hate” on a door.
The day after the presidential election, just east of Portland, three men hit a black woman with a brick and beat her. One of the men reportedly said, “We got a president who finally feels how we feel and we’re going to make America great again by getting rid of n****rs like you.”
Two months before, a man on a bike pepper-sprayed a black family and screamed a racial slur at them. Across the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington, a member of the neo-Nazi prison gang European Kindred ran down a 19-year-old black man with his car, killing him. The list goes on.
There have been other unnerving developments, too: A KKK imperial wizard from Mississippi moved to the area, neo-Nazi fliers and swastikas have proliferated in public spaces, and a then-unknown Nazi-saluting Trump-supporter appeared at a rally earlier this month ― the stabber from Friday.
Randy Blazak, a professor and head of the Oregon Coalition Against Hate Crime, said this resurgence of white supremacist activity is undoubtedly linked to the political climate. White nationalists in Oregon and across the country have cheered Donald Trump’s rise.
The hate “was always there,” Blazak said, “but now it’s been given new permission.”
This latest wave of hate is different for a few reasons, Blazak said. It’s less structured than in the ‘80s and ‘90s, a time when he knew the locations of all the skinhead houses around Portland, where the neo-Nazis lived together and partied and fought.
It’s not as cohesive as it was back then, he said. White supremacists are largely radicalized online now, and the hate has a new flavor: It is increasingly directed at Muslims, something that began after 9/11.
“It’s become the convenient bigotry,” he said.
Now he’s nervous about an upcoming event: another alt-right rally on Sunday, where there’s set to be a showdown with sometimes violent anti-fascist protesters. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has called on the federal government to revoke the protesters’ permit, which provoked the ire of free speech defenders like the American Civil Liberties Union.
A “March Against Sharia” organized by the local chapter of the anti-Muslim hate group Act for America, scheduled for June 10, was canceled after public pressure and relocated to Seattle.
“It’s going to be another long, hot summer,” Blazak said.
To prepare, Imam Shabazz says he’s telling Muslims to be extra vigilant and for women not to leave the mosque unescorted.
Still, he’s also confident that the example set by the heroes on the train last Friday will inspire others to act similarly.
“Their lives certainly have not gone in vain, because now they have triggered in other people the same idea,” Shabazz said. “People can stand up for what’s right and refuse to give in under extraordinary circumstances.”
As the sun set Tuesday night over the Hollywood and 42nd Street station, people from all over Portland stopped by to pay their respects to Ricky John Best, 53, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23 ― who gave their lives protecting their neighbors ― as well as Micah Fletcher, 21, who survived.
Small children drew hearts in chalk on the station’s winding walkway up to the tracks. Adults wrote messages like, “This will not stop us” and “Your sacrifice will ignite change” and “wear your hijab with pride.” A middle-aged man in a suit pulled up in his car, laid down flowers, stood silently for a minute observing the scene and then just as quietly drove off.
A man who appeared down on his luck struggled to find the right words, until finally saying what was on everyone’s mind: “Muslims are good people, man.”
Others lit candles, and looking up at the sprawling memorial in its totality, almost everyone cried.
A young African-American man who would only give his first name, Mike, had tears streaming down his face. His girlfriend, Anna, who is white, hugged and consoled him.
“They were made of steel,” Mike said of the three heroes.
America does not do a good job of tracking incidents of hate and bias. We need your help to create a database of such incidents across the country, so we all know what’s going on. Tell us your 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.
Despite its positive early reviews, and high rating on Rotten Tomatoes, people living in Lebanon won’t be able to see “Wonder Woman” in their theaters anytime soon.
The film, starring Israel-born actress Gal Gadot, has officially been banned from screenings in the country, which is in a conflict with Israel, The Guardian reports. Gadot served in the Israeli Defense Force for two years and has publicly expressed support for the IDF.
Just hours before the ban went into effect, “Wonder Woman” was scheduled to premiere in Lebanon. Grand Cinemas, a Lebanese theater chain, announced the ban with a post on Twitter.
“Wonder Woman” passed Lebanon’s screening procedures, The Guardian notes, but the government reportedly responded to pressure from the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel-Lebanon to ban what they called “the Israeli Soldier film.”
Interestingly, Gadot’s “Fast and Furious” films, as well as “Batman v Superman,” have screened in Lebanon, though The Campaign tried to have the latter banned. Films starring fellow Israel-born star Natalie Portman have also screened in Lebanon.
“Wonder Woman” found itself in the middle of another controversy earlier this week when the Austin branch of the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater chain announced a women-only screening. Naturally, men responded with outrage.
Despite the ban and controversy over the woman-only screening, Warner Bros. is expecting “Wonder Woman” to make a whopping $175 million debut at the box office. As of right now, the film also has a 95 percent rating (down from 96) on Rotten Tomatoes, putting it ahead of Marvel films like “Iron Man,” “The Avengers” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
— 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.
If last summer’s ubiquitous “Arthur” memes didn’t leave you feeling old as dirt, imagine seeing the “Arthur” cast and your other animated faves as full-blown adults.
Welp, prepare to count your every crow’s-feet. Brandon Avant is reimagining characters from classic cartoon shows as grown-ups ― and the swag is unreal. Avant, a 29-year-old Mississippi native, began putting adult spins on classic cartoons when he drew a mature version of the “Peanuts” crew in February 2016.
The University of Portland fashion design student regularly posts his artwork ― everything from supernatural anime creatures to politically charged illustrations ― on Instagram. But his desire to reminisce on the days of dope cartoons by aging animated characters is what has really attracted thousands of double-tapping fingers to his work.
It wasn’t until March that Avant posted more of his recreated cartoon characters, this time a tatted-up version of the “Doug” gang.
After the “Doug” drawing, which garnered nearly 3,000 likes, Avant told HuffPost he decided to continue experimenting with the cartoon faves. He committed to doing at least 10 more drawings of the same concept because he saw it was so well-received.
“I like making people happy and making their day,” Avant told HuffPost.
He said he enjoys reminding his audience of the earlier cartoon days, especially those that helped black children understand their culture like “The Proud Family” and “The Boondocks.”
You can relive all the blissful days of aardvarks, recess and Penny Proud below.
If you feel he’s missing any classics *cough* “Hey, Arnold” *cough* or you’d take pride in a standalone Susie Carmichael custom drawing, Avant takes commissions.
— 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.
President Trump has officially declared June 2017 as African-American Music Appreciation Month.
On Wednesday, Trump continued the annual presidential tradition by issuing this year’s proclamation. In his announcement, President Trump credited the influences of black music pioneers for giving “all Americans” a better understanding of American culture.
“During June, we pay tribute to the contributions African Americans have made and continue to make to American music,” the statement reads. “The indelible legacy of these musicians who have witnessed our Nation’s greatest achievements, as well as its greatest injustices give all Americans a richer, deeper understanding of American culture. Their creativity has shaped every genre of music, including rock and roll, rhythm and blues, jazz, gospel, hip hop, and rap.”
The month-long observance, honoring the vast musical contributions of black artists, was first declared in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter. In 2000, President Clinton signed the African-American Music Bill, which formally established Black Music Month as a national observance.
In this year’s statement, Trump called out such greats like Chuck Berry, Dizzy Gillespie, and Ella Fitzgerald as black musicians who have exemplified how music can bring people together.
“These musicians also remind us of our humanity and of our power to overcome,” the statement reads. “They expressed the soul of blues, gospel, and rock and roll, which has so often captured the hardships of racism and injustices suffered by African Americans, as well as daily joys and celebrations.”
“Their work highlights the power music has to channel the human experience, and they remain a testament to the resilience of all freedom-loving people,” he continued. “We are grateful for their contribution to the cannon of great American art.”
Read more of President Trump’s Black Music Month Proclamation in its entirety here.
— 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.
A New York City police sergeant was arrested and charged with second-degree murder on Wednesday for the fatal shooting of a 66-year-old mentally ill woman in her apartment last year.
Sgt. Hugh Barry, an eight-year NYPD veteran, responded to a 911 call on Oct. 18 regarding an emotionally disturbed person in a Bronx apartment building. Minutes later, police say officers found a distressed Deborah Danner, who’d previously written about her struggles with schizophrenia, clutching a pair of scissors in a hallway.
When Barry ordered Danner to drop the scissors, she instead retreated into her apartment. Barry followed her in, and eventually convinced her to put down the scissors. But police say Danner then picked up a baseball bat and swung it at Barry. Barry claims he feared for his safety and responded by opening fire on Danner, striking her twice in the torso. She died at a nearby hospital a short time later.
In addition to second-degree murder, a Bronx grand jury also indicted Barry on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Wednesday afternoon and was released on $100,000 bail.
Barry is currently suspended without pay, an NYPD official told The New York Times.
“I want to express my condolences again to the Danner family for the heartbreaking loss they have suffered,” said Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark in a statement. “The men and women of the NYPD protect and serve us, and face the possibility of danger every time they respond to calls of emotionally disturbed persons, domestic violence incidents and other crises. They answer thousands of these calls each year without incident. I hope that measures will be taken to prevent another tragedy such as this.”
In his statement, Clark also claims “Barry did not avail himself of other options before using deadly physical force.”
If convicted of murder, Barry could face up to life in prison.
City and police officials were quick to criticize Barry’s handling of the confrontation. The day after the shooting, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) admitted that the sergeant had not followed proper protocol for dealing with individuals suffering episodes of mental illness. He added Barry shouldn’t have approached Danner without the support of officers specially trained to handle such situations. De Blasio also questioned why Barry hadn’t used his Taser.
“Deborah Danner should be alive right now. Period,” de Blasio said.
NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill responded swiftly after the incident by stripping Barry of his badge and gun. Barry had been sued twice before for alleged excessive force.
“That’s not how it’s supposed to go. That’s not how we train, our first obligation is to preserve life,” said O’Neill a day after the shooting. “What is clear in this one instance, we failed.”
Barry is white, and Danner was black. The October shooting touched off another round of protests from activists who saw Danner’s death as part of a pattern of police being too quick to use lethal force on mentally ill individuals, and especially those who are people of color.
That’s not how it’s supposed to go. That’s not how we train, our first obligation is to preserve life. What is clear in this one instance, we failed.
NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill
Barry is the second police officer so far this year to be charged with murder or manslaughter for a fatal on-duty shooting, Philip Stinson, an associate professor of criminology at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University, told HuffPost. According to his data, a total of at least 81 officers across the country have faced murder or manslaughter charges for on-duty shootings since the beginning of 2005.
Just 29 of those cases have ended in conviction, though a number are still pending. Among those was NYPD officer Peter Liang, who was convicted of manslaughter in 2016 for the killing of 28-year-old Akai Gurley in the stairwell of a Brooklyn apartment building in November 2014.
In a statement Wednesday, the New York City Sergeants Benevolent Association came to Barry’s defense, calling the charges an “absolutely travesty of justice.”
The union, which had previously criticized de Blasio and O’Neill for publicly criticizing Barry, said their comments had “poisoned the well” in favor of an indictment.
“They did not just throw Sgt. Barry under the bus; in the court of public opinion, they ran him over with a steam roller,” read the statement posted on social media.
The New York Times highlighted that Danner’s previous essay on living with schizophrenia called for improving the way law enforcement interact with people with mental illness.
“We are all aware of the all too frequent news stories of the mentally ill who come up against law enforcement instead of mental health professionals and end up dead,” Danner wrote. “We should all be aware that these circumstances represent very, very serious problems that need addressing.”
— 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.
Reece Park, a man living in Tasmania, got so drunk on Sunday night that he couldn’t remember how he got home.
But a photo he found on his cell phone the next morning left a pretty interesting clue.
The photo, which Park posted to Facebook and was shared by Tasmanian Police, featured two cops taking a selfie with Park in the background, doing the “hang ten” gesture in bed.
Park’s caption reads:
“So was just looking through my phone and turns out these good ***** took some banger selfies after they took my drunk ass home! Bloody legends.”
Constable Jeremy Blyth told Yahoo 7 News in Australia that he and fellow officer Natalie Siggins found Park in the back of a taxi after the company called the police for assistance. Blyth said that Park “didn’t know where he lived, he wasn’t saying much.”
Eventually the officers figured out where he lived and took him home.
“Because he was a bit worse for wear, our officers took the opportunity to record the moment with a selfie in the likely event he could not remember how he got home,” Senior Sergeant Craig Fox said in the Tasmanian Police’s Facebook post.
Blyth and Siggins also waited for a friend to come by Park’s house before they left to keep an eye on him.
Siggins said taxi companies occasionally call the police to assist with riders who are too inebriated to get home, but it’s part of the job.
“People’s friends put them in taxis thinking they’ll get home safe,” she told Yahoo. “But unfortunately they end up like Reece, asleep in the backseat, not able to get themselves all the way home.”
Fox advised that people make a plan before they drink.
“Then there’s no risk to you, your family, friends or others on the road,” he said on Facebook.
As for Park, the experience hasn’t exactly deterred him from getting completely tanked in the future.
When asked by Yahoo if this has sworn him off booze, he responded with, “Don’t know. I’ll soon find out, I reckon.”
— 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.
WASHINGTON ― House Republicans who vowed months ago to combat climate change have found themselves at odds with the most prominent member of their party: President Donald Trump.
Trump is reportedly close to announcing that he will withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement, which is aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. If Trump does pull out of the pact, it would make the U.S. one of only three countries to not be included in the historic agreement.
Three months ago, 17 House Republicans introduced a resolution attempting to steer debate away from whether climate change is real, and promising to do something about greenhouse gas emissions. There is also a Climate Solutions Caucus with 34 members, including 17 Republicans ― but that’s not enough to push through any kind of substantial climate change legislation in the House.
Four of the Congress members who signed the resolution spoke against Trump’s reported decision on Wednesday. Others remained silent, and a few said they would not comment until the president had formally announced that the U.S. would withdraw.
Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), who helped draft the resolution, said the Climate Solutions Caucus would need to amp up its efforts to get lawmakers behind policies to help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
Rep. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.) said the U.S. would fall behind on the world stage if Trump backed out of the pact, which nearly 190 nations signed.
“If these reports are accurate, it’s disappointing,” Meehan said in an emailed statement. “The result will be diminished American leadership and influence as the world works together to combat climate change.”
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) also said the U.S. should work to fight climate change around the world.
Rep. David Reichert (R-Wash.) issued the most detailed statement in response to the reports.
“The Paris Accord gives the United States a global platform to be a leading voice on international issues impacting our economy, security, and the environment,” he said. “Withdrawing from the agreement would cause us to lose this influence. I have always believed stewardship of our environment and sound economic policy are not mutually exclusive.”
The caucus appeared to gain support from a few other Republicans in the House.
The White House wouldn’t confirm or deny reports that Trump plans to back out of the climate deal. The president said Wednesday that people will “find out very soon” what he’s decided.
“I’m hearing from a lot of people, both ways,” Trump said, according to a White House pool report. “Both ways.”
— 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.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
