It's long been understood that dolphins and whales are incredibly intelligent, playful creatures. They regularly interact playfully with humans, and they've been seen doing the same with other species too.
However it's become apparent that all along the coast of Hawaii, bottlenose dolphins and humpback whales have formed a special kind of bond.
Lori Mazzuca. Marine Mammal Biologist at US Navy SPAWAR Systems Centre Pacific.
Joel Thrasymachus DahlThis show is surprisingly good.
First season on Netflix: http://www.netflix.com/search/Turn?jbv=70302007&jbp=0&jbr=0
Donald J. Trump‘s wealth is rising with his polling numbers, if his characterization of his own net worth is to be believed.
Mr. Trump issued a statement Wednesday saying that his net worth was now in excess of $10 billion, more than the $8.7 billion he said he was worth when he announced his presidential candidacy a month ago.
The statement noted that Mr. Trump had filed his financial disclosure report with the Federal Election Commission, a requirement of presidential candidates, and the commission confirmed his filing. The Trump statement was full of the bombast often associated with Mr. Trump, including an all-capitalization declaration of his wealth:
“Mr. Trump’s net worth has increased since the more than one year old financial statement produced at his presidential announcement. Real estate values in New York City, San Francisco, Miami and many other places where he owns property have gone up considerably during this period of time. His debt is a very small percentage of value, and at very low interest rates. As of this date, Mr. Trump‟s net worth is in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS.”
But Mr. Trump’s characterizations of his wealth have drawn skepticism in many quarters, partly fueled by his own statements.
“My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and with feelings — even my own feelings — but I try,” he once said.
Mr. Trump continues to do well in polls of the Republican field, with a nationwide survey released Tuesday putting him in a statistical tie for the lead with former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida.
Mr. Trump declared that he had an income of $362 million in 2014, not including dividends, interest, capital gains, rent and royalties. And he said that he had made $213 million during his 14 seasons hosting NBC‘s “The Apprentice.” NBC recently ended its relationship with Mr. Trump after remarks he made during his presidential announcement speech in which he referred to Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and “murderers.”
In filing his financial disclosure, Mr. Trump apparently followed through on a pledge that he made on June 16 when he announced his campaign, saying he would be making the submission without requesting extensions. “We don’t need extensions,” he said at the time.
During his speech announcing his candidacy, Mr. Trump waved a document that he said was a report on his finances, prepared by a large, respected accounting firm, reporting the $8.7 billion figure as his net worth. (He noted then that an updated accounting would probably show his net worth higher than $10 billion.)
He said that figuring out his finances was complicated. “My accountants have been working for months, because it is big and complex,” he added. Of his money, he said much was earning through real estate. “I made it the old-fashioned way,” Mr. Trump said.
The Trump campaign included in its news release a summary of stock transactions dating to January 2014, trumpeting Mr. Trump’s prowess as a stock-picker. The records showed that Mr. Trump had gains from sales of numerous stocks, including making $6.7 million on Bank of America and $3.9 million on the Boeing Company.
Mr. Trump’s current investment portfolio, according to his campaign, including investments in a series of hedge funds, including some managed by John Paulson.
The Trump campaign on Wednesday did not release the actual disclosure that it said had been filed with the Federal Elections Commission. A spokesman for the commission could not immediately confirm that Mr. Trump had filed a disclosure. The F.E.C. has up to 30 days to make such a disclosure public.
Steve Eder contributed reporting.
By WILSON ANDREWS and ALICIA PARLAPIANO
See how the latest fund-raising numbers from the campaigns and outside groups stack up.
Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.
Joel Thrasymachus DahlThis won't pass.
Opponents of SB 277, a recently signed law requiring almost all schoolchildren in California to be vaccinated against diseases such as measles and whooping cough, received permission Wednesday to begin gathering signatures that would qualify a referendum to overturn it.
Joel Thrasymachus DahlThis is wacky.
A protester detained by Pasadena police during the 2014 Rose Parade gained national attention Tuesday after an animal-rights organization alleged the man infiltrated its ranks as a spy for SeaWorld Entertainment Inc.
It's official: If you've got a brown lawn, cities can't force you to water it or fine you for it.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown's bill on Monday prohibiting municipalities from fining residents for not watering their lawns or having a brown lawn amidst the worst drought in the state's history.
Video via Mike Bartel, YouTubeA great white shark that became stranded on a Cape Cod beach now swims free thanks to beachgoers who kept the shark wet until rescuers arrived.
The shark, a 7-foot male juvenile, beached itself in the South Beach area of Chatham, Massachusetts on Monday. He was allegedly trying to catch seagulls on the sandbar, according to a witness who recorded the rescue. The shark became stranded as the tide went out, according to an Associated Press report.
Video shows beachgoers keeping the shark wet until rescuers arrived. The shark is splashed with buckets of water as it writhes in the sand.
Officials arriving on the scene tied a line to the shark’s rear fin and slowly towed the shark back out to sea.
Harbormaster Stuart Smith tells the Associated Press that nearly 40 people were crowded around the shark when he arrived and it appeared dead. However, officials say the shark was tagged and released back in the water.
Mobile users can watch the video here.
Copyright 2015 WVUE. All rights reserved.
Joel Thrasymachus DahlI realize there's a significant cost incurred in setting this up, but . . . oh, wait. I just answered my own question.
Los Angeles County beachgoers will still be able to rinse off the sand and salt after a day at the ocean even though state officials have ordered outdoor showers and rinse stations be shut off at all state parks and beaches.
Although the state owns Dockweiler and Will Rogers state beaches, both are managed by the county's Department of Beaches and Harbors, which is not required to comply with the water-saving measure.
SOMEWHERE ABOVE THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST — It was Saturday night aboard Donald Trump’s gleaming Boeing 757. An hour earlier, he had finished the most high-profile speech of his nearly month-old presidential campaign: a rally attended by thousands in Phoenix where he railed against illegal immigration and countless other targets — Macy's, NBC, NASCAR, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy — for 70 minutes. The billionaire real-estate mogul took off his jacket, clicked the oversized satellite television in his plush, cream-colored cabin over to Fox News and closely watched the channel’s coverage.
As shadowy images of Hispanic immigrants and criminal mug shots were interspersed with his remarks, Trump, 69, turned gleeful. "The only reason they’re talking about this is because of me," he said. "Look at that crowd, fantastic," he added. He sat down in his leather chair. His eponymous crest was woven into the headrest, and his plane was 30,000 feet above the border he had called so porous that illegal immigrants are able to "flow in like water."
In an expletive-laden interview over soft drinks — Trump sips from a small plastic bottle of Coca-Cola — the celebrity contender said he has no plans to change the way he’s running for the Republican nomination, which combines his trademark showmanship, an outsider-populist credo that resists ideological categorization and incendiary comments that have thrilled conservative activists.
Trump was most animated when analyzing the way the news media covered him and dishing with aides about the articles they had printed out. He was less excited discussing the process of presidential politics. When asked about the coming debate, set for Aug. 6 in Cleveland, he shrugged and said, “Whatever.” When asked about calls for him to tone down his fiery pitch, he shrugged again.
Following is a lightly edited transcript:
What’s next?
More of the same, I’ll keep doing my thing. I’ll go around to different places, get great receptivity. I get the biggest crowds. I get the biggest standing ovations. You saw that today, I could have been there for 20 minutes and they would have been cheering. So, you’ll see more of the same, getting the word out.
Will immigration remain your focus?
No. It’s just one of the things. It’s not only immigration. It’s about trade. They go hand in hand. Immigration is one of the things you have to do. I’m also a moralist. You heard what I said today about health care. I said, I’m sorry, folks, but we have to take care people that don’t have money. I know it’s not the conservative thing to say, but I got a standing ovation — and these were very conservative people. We can’t let people down when they can’t get any medical care, when they’re sick and don’t have money to go to a doctor. You help them.
So Trump has a heart?
A big heart, let me tell you. Too big.
When did you decide to seize on immigration and make it the thrust of your campaign?
They gave it to me. It wasn’t a big part of my announcement speech — a small paragraph. The Democrats and the enemies lined up and they criticized me for one line where I said Mexico is sending — I said Mexico is sending. I didn’t say people are coming over and they’re bad people. They would leave off the ‘Mexico is sending’ part, chop it and say I said ‘rapists’ when talking about people.
But when you use a word like rapist . . .
It is a very rough word. It’s okay to use.
[Eyeing the television, Trump gets up to watch another Fox News segment about his Arizona gathering. "Jeanine Pirro, let’s see what she has to say about me," he said as he settled into his couch. When a picture of the Mexican laborer accused of killing a San Francisco woman is put on screen, Trump said: "Look at that guy, look at what he did, killing that beautiful girl. [Expletive] animal." He returned several minutes later to continue the interview.]
[Read more: The 23 people and institutions Trump slammed in one speech]
Are you looking forward to the debate?
No, not one way or the other. Whatever. I don’t look forward or not look forward. It is what it is.
When are you going to file your financial disclosure with the Federal Election Commission?
This week. Do you think Jeb Bush [the former Florida governor] is going to file his statement? I don’t know what’s going on. I just heard it today that he hasn’t filed. I assume he would have been filed. His should be simple, you know, in comparison to mine. I have so many companies and corporations.
Many Republican officials have asked you to tone down your immigration comments. It doesn’t seem like you’re listening to their advice.
I respect the people in the Republican Party, but this is a very important issue and it can’t be toned down. It’s an issue that wants to be silenced. Remember I told you the story about the guy they were going after, that killer, and when they heard he was he was an illegal immigrant it was like he was protected? If he were a citizen, they’d put him in jail for life.
How did you come up with “the silent majority” as a theme for your Saturday speech?
I was just thinking about it today. When I heard about this overwhelming — I’m telling you, it was 500 people at the start and the hotel called us begging to be released. They said they never had anything like this and we had to move the venue. I said to myself, 'That’s the silent majority.'
You don’t care about the Nixon overtones?
Nah. Nobody remembers that. Oh, is that why people stopped using [the phrase]? Maybe. Nobody thinks of Nixon. I don’t think of Nixon when I think of the silent majority. The silent majority today, they’re going to vote for Trump. Remember, many Republicans didn’t vote for Mitt Romney. He didn’t inspire people. They’re going to vote for me. And I’ll also get the Hispanics, you watch.
What do they see in you?
They see somebody who’s going to turn the country around — somebody who has the ability to turn this country around. They’re tired of the incompetence. When you see my [financial] statement, you’ll be very impressed. That’s why it’s important. Let’s say I was worth $10. People would say, "Who the [expletive] are you?" You understand? They know my statement. Fortune. My book, "The Art of the Deal," based on my fortune. If I didn’t make a fortune, who the [expletive] is going to buy "The Art of the Deal"? That’s why they watched "The Apprentice," because of my great success.
Do you see your bid as similar to Ross Perot’s 1992 maverick presidential campaign?
No. I don’t consider Perot a movement. This is a movement. It’s a different movement than I think you’ve ever seen before. Angry, sad, disappointed, devastated by what’s happened to the country. Mourning. Some of these people who’ve lost their kids to [illegal immigrants], it’s mourning. I spoke to one of the mothers today who came to see me, lost her son five years ago. It was like it was yesterday. Their lives are [expletive] over. She’ll never be happy. This campaign is about making America great again. I copyrighted it.
What the [expletive] else do you have? Are you finished yet?
[Trump turns back to Fox, which is again covering the accused San Francisco killer. "Look at this animal. Now he’s claiming innocence. He’s got the lawyer now," Trump said. He stands up and opens another Coke, not to go on the record again.]
COLUMBUS, Ohio >> Doug Hamilton is just fine with plans to put a woman's portrait on U.S. paper money, but he'd prefer that the Treasury Department leave the $10 bill alone -- particularly the prominent visage of his great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Alexander Hamilton.
The 10-spot is a source of family pride in Hamilton's house in suburban Columbus, a dignified symbol of the historical importance of his ancestor, whose picture has been on it since 1929.
Let us run a headline by you.
"White Americans are the biggest terror threat in the United States."
That was the headline of an article we published in late June about
Two light-rail lines -- one on the east side of Los Angeles County and the other on the west -- have begun final testing, the penultimate step before connecting residents from far-flung parts of the county for the first time since the days of the Pacific Electric Red Car.
If test drives prove successful, electric rail cars along the base of the San Gabriel Mountains and the streets of Santa Monica will carry passengers the farthest east and west since the last Red Car train ride in 1961.
If I get the nomination, I’ll win the Latino vote.”
— Donald J. Trump, telling NBC News that he employs many legal immigrants from Mexico. He added that he loves them, and they love him.
A water district has sued Tom Selleck, claiming the veteran actor and star of the crime shows "Magnum, P.I." and "Blue Bloods" stole truckloads of water from a public hydrant and took it to his ranch in drought-stricken Westlake Village.
The Calleguas Municipal Water District in Ventura County claims a tanker truck filled up at a hydrant more than a dozen times and hauled water to a 60-acre ranch owned by Selleck.
Joel Thrasymachus DahlTOR couldn't capture the screen grabs of the tweets for some reason, so click-through. It's worth it.
Mantha, who runs an affordable couture company called Indira Collection but is also a physician, biotech consultant, and hedge-fund investor, told BuzzFeed News she decided to live-tweet what she heard on the cringeworthy date because “it’s the kind of thing my friends would find amusing had they been sitting there with me”.
Apparently his 3-Tinder record today is marred with an * because he saw the girl come in, decided she wasn't as cute as her pic & snuck out
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
It's really hard to believe this guy made it this far without anyone snatching him up. What a catch.
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
He's giving a rundown on what was wrong with prior Tinder dates. One girl was from Alabama and just wanted to watch FB all day (the horror!)
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
"And this one girl ate AN ENTIRE DESSERT before the date was over AND asked for a bite of mine." (Sadly, I am now officially not his type)
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
"I don't JUST fly around being a socialite, I also run a fund. I'm a serious investor." I assumed all serious investors were also socialites
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
Girl: "When did you become an investor?" Dude: "I've basically always been one" Girl: "What do you invest in? Dude: "Whatever I want"
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
You guys, HE'S SWIPING THROUGH TINDER WHILE SHE'S IN THE BATHROOM. I think he might actually be an addict. Appears to be all right-swipes.
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
Dude: "You like fighter planes? I know a lot about fighter planes" Girl: "Were you in the military?" Dude: "No I just like fighter planes"
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
Tinder dude just loudly referred to Obama as "the Trojan horse of Islam." Impressively synchronized choking-on-drink by couple next to him
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
Girl: "Have you been to Africa?" Dude: "I used to go on safari with my family, but that's how you get ebola - eating lion brains & stuff."
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
Tinder Dude: "I lead a really healthy lifestyle. I take a lot of naps and smoke a lot of weed." And, he's totally free from Ebola to boot.
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
Oh yes. He's considering having someone build an app. Wait for it...Uber for dog walkers. Tweet me if you want in on the round. No cap, obvi
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
"I've never done any drugs that aren't socially acceptable. I mean, I did snowcaps back in the day but whatever." Snowcaps?
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
Dude complaining that his brother is trustee of his mom's estate & won't release her money. "It's family money, it's not like it's hers" Wow
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
"Everyone knows I'm the best investor in the family. Two of my brothers already spent their entire inheritance." #lowbar
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
"I only have guns because all these derelicts out there have guns. And because they're fun." He is packing in the topics for a 1st date...
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
Oh lord... "Do you have any like old samurai swords that have been in your family for centuries?" (Girl is Asian) #cringing
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
"I have a huge wine collection if you want to see it. I hardly show it to any of my Tinder dates." #whitestthingsyoucansay
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
We're back on foreign policy... "These ISIS guys are already in the city. They're driving cabs everywhere." #hideyourkidshideyourwife
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
Date appears to be ending unceremoniously kids, but good news: I've talked the bartender into alerting me when Mr. Tinder comes in next. <img src="https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v1/72x72/1f389.png"> <img src="https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v1/72x72/1f38a.png">
— CarrieMantha (@Carrie Mantha)
“So many people were amused and the conversation kept getting funnier so I felt compelled to keep sharing,” she said. Mantha said she’s been receiving reactions and retweets from all over the world and that she found it amusing “to see people find the same humour in the situation regardless of where they were”.
Mantha said she felt the man embraced “every stereotype”, and that she hoped he wouldn’t notice she was “sitting by myself transcribing their conversation”.
“I’ve been happily married since the pre-Tinder days, so my experience with it has always been second-hand,” she said. “I think it’s fascinating how it’s lowered the activation energy for interactions and enabled a lot of people to be more social than they would have been otherwise.”
She added that “people are people” and that she had a feeling that the man “would have acted exactly the same way regardless of how he met his date – he just may not have been able to pull off three of them in a single day!”
TRENTON, N.J. >> It could trade for 400 times more than the price of crude oil and 2,000 times more than iron ore. If sold off the shelf, it could cost more than 150 times the price of a gallon of cow's milk and 15 times more than coffee.
Going for as much as $4 per ounce, breast milk is a hot commodity that is emerging as a surprisingly cutthroat industry, one that states are seeking to regulate amid a battle for control between nonprofit and for-profit banks that supply hospital neonatal units.
Joel Thrasymachus DahlThis sounds bad. At some point, everyone will figure "what's in it for me to conserve?"
Californian homeowners switching from sod to succulents or who are letting their lawns languish may earn a gold star for conserving water in a drought, but many will not be saving money on their water bills.
That's because water companies and city water departments are adding drought surcharges and imposing higher rates or one or the other to make up for millions of dollars in lost water sales.
Although Latin is considered a dead language now, there are still remnants of it in my professor.
Joel Thrasymachus DahlThis is going to get really entertaining soon, when people with proudly green lawns start getting fined.
This water thing is getting serious.
I live in Valencia and Valencia Water Co., which provides my water, has informed its customers that come July 13 they will begin conducting "visual inspections" to ensure that people aren't wasting water.
Now I understand that we all need to cut back and I realize that water has become an increasingly precious resource as California grapples with its fourth year of extreme drought.
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ELKHART, Ind. — Until one day in December, Zachery Anderson was a typical 19-year-old in a small Midwestern city.
He studied computer science at the local community college. He lived with his parents and two younger brothers in a sun-filled home on the St. Joseph River, where framed family photos hang from the walls and a pontoon boat is docked outside.
And he dated in the way that so many American teenagers do today: digitally and semi-anonymously, through apps where prospects emerge with the swipe of a finger and meetings are arranged after the exchanges of photos and texts.
In December, Mr. Anderson met a girl through Hot or Not, a dating app, and after some online flirting, he drove to pick her up at her house in Michigan, just miles over the state line. They had sex in a playground in Niles City, the police report said.
That sexual encounter has landed Mr. Anderson in a Michigan jail, and he now faces a lifetime entanglement in the legal system. The girl, who by her own account told Mr. Anderson that she was 17 — a year over the age of consent in Michigan — was actually 14.
The case came to the attention of the police after the girl’s mother contacted them, concerned about her whereabouts. They were at her home when the girl returned, according to The South Bend Tribune. A few weeks later, the paper said, the police visited Mr. Anderson, who cooperated and, in February, turned himself in. He was arrested and charged and, after pleading guilty to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, was sentenced to 90 days in jail and probation.
As an Indiana resident, Mr. Anderson will most likely be listed on a sex offender registry for life, a sanction that requires him to be in regular contact with the authorities, to allow searches of his home every 90 days and to live far from schools, parks and other public places. His probation will also require him to stay off the Internet, though he needs it to study computer science.
Some advocates and legal authorities are holding up Mr. Anderson’s case as the latest example of the overreach of sex offender registries, which gained favor in the 1990s as a tool for monitoring pedophiles and other people who committed sexual crimes. In the decades since, the registries have grown in number and scope; the nearly 800,000 people on registries in the United States go beyond adults who have sexually assaulted other adults or minors. Also listed are people found guilty of lesser offenses that run the gamut from urinating publicly to swapping lewd texts.
As Mr. Anderson’s defenders see it, his story is a parable of the digital age: the collision of the temporary relationships that young people develop on the Internet and the increasing criminalization of sexual activity through the expansion of online sex offender registries.
“The whole registry is a horrible mistake,” said William Buhl, a former judge in Michigan who has publicly argued that laws governing registries ought to be relaxed. “I think it’s utterly ridiculous to take teenage sex and make it a felony. This guy is obviously not a pedophile.”
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But once Mr. Anderson leaves jail in the coming week, he will be bound by the same restrictions that apply to more extreme sex offenders, tagged with a “scarlet letter” for life, as his father, Lester Anderson, put it.
“At the end of the day, he might be out of jail, but he’ll still be in his own jail,” his father said. “He has to walk down the street every day and think: ‘Am I too close to a school? Is there a child who’s close to me?’ ”
There are fledgling efforts in some states to change sex offender registries so that they do not include juveniles or those guilty of minor offenses. In California, the corrections department announced in March that the state would ease residency requirements for many sex offenders, allowing certain low-risk individuals to live in areas closer to schools and parks that were previously off limits. Many sex offenders have ended up broke and homeless, living in clusters under freeways because they are routinely rejected by employers and landlords, and because they are banned from living in so many neighborhoods that contain public places like parks.
Brenda V. Jones, the executive director of Reform Sex Offender Laws, an advocacy group, said cases like Mr. Anderson’s are common in many states. Frequently, a judge will give the lightest possible sentence, but cannot change the restrictions involving the offender registry.
“It’s like a conviction on steroids,” Ms. Jones said. “Being on a registry becomes a liability for employers, no matter how minor the offense was. Other people will say: ‘I saw your employee on the Internet. He’s a sex offender, and I will not come to your establishment.’ ”
Changing the laws has been a slow fight. “People talk about it, but when you actually try to introduce legislation, lawmakers start to get really nervous,” Ms. Jones said. “Because, oh, my God, we’re going to be soft on sex offenders.”
Mr. Anderson’s parents are fighting back on behalf of their son, saying that while they believe he made a mistake, his punishment is extreme. They have been joined by the girl, who is now 15, and her mother, who have also defended Mr. Anderson, appearing in a Federal District Court in Michigan this spring to ask a judge for leniency.
“I don’t want him to be a sex offender, because he really is not,” the mother said, according to court transcripts. Her daughter told the judge that she felt “nothing should happen to Zach,” adding, “If you feel like something should, I feel like the lowest thing possible.” The judge, Dennis M. Wiley of Berrien County District Court in Michigan, was apparently not swayed by their testimony. After Mr. Anderson pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree, the judge declined to grant him a special status intended for young offenders. The status, under the state’s Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, would have spared him inclusion on the sex offender registry and erased the conviction from his record if he did not violate probation.
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During a sentencing hearing in April, Judge Wiley criticized online dating in general and berated Mr. Anderson for using the Internet to meet women.
A small community known as Miracle Village, surrounded by sugar cane fields in South Florida, has become a refuge for more than 100 registered sex offenders who seek to rebuild their lives.
By Lisa F. Jackson and David Feige on Publish Date May 21, 2013.“You went online, to use a fisherman’s expression, trolling for women, to meet and have sex with,” he said. “That seems to be part of our culture now. Meet, hook up, have sex, sayonara. Totally inappropriate behavior. There is no excuse for this whatsoever.”
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The prosecutor, Jerry Vigansky, did not oppose a Holmes Act sentence, but noted that it had not been applied to two similar cases in recent months.
For some reason, Mr. Vigansky told the judge in court, this generation seems to think it is “O.K. to go online to find somebody and then to quickly hook up for sexual gratification.”
“That’s not a good message to send into the community,” he said.
Continue reading the main storyA simple, rational fix would be to revise statutory rape laws to apply only when one party is under 18 and one party is 21 or over.
This is a sad outcome of a good-intentioned policy gone bad. I must say, however, that men over 18 frequently have serious girlfriends in...
This is heart breaking. It seems to me to be cruel and unusual punishment. I've included Wikipedia content and the link below. The...
Mr. Anderson and his defenders say it is precisely that culture that makes it difficult to determine if a prospective sexual partner is under age, when introductions occur online and outside traditional social networks. It is also easy to misrepresent personal details, including age.
“When somebody impersonates an adult, that should be a factor,” said Scott Grabel, Mr. Anderson’s lawyer. “You could argue that he wasn’t negligent. I don’t think this kid should be labeled a sex offender: That outcome doesn’t do anybody any good.” Mr. Grabel declined to make Mr. Anderson available for an interview.
But Rick Jones, a state senator in Michigan and one of the authors of the state’s sex offender registry laws, dismissed that defense. The law requires people to be responsible for determining the age of their sexual partners, he said, and in a case like Mr. Anderson’s, the punishment seems appropriate.
“A 19-year-old knows that you have to be very careful, and you certainly should not be having sex with a 14-year-old,” Mr. Jones said in an interview. “In my opinion, society, over several decades, has become looser. People are meeting online, and that creates all sorts of problems. Now, people have all these crazy apps where you can locate people in your vicinity where people want to have a relationship. You should be very careful.”
He said he was not bothered by the terms of Mr. Anderson’s probation, which require him to stop using the Internet for five years.
“There are lots of jobs that don’t involve computers,” he said. “There are all sorts of trades. Truck drivers, welding. There are other opportunities.”
That kind of talk infuriates the Andersons. They said the terms of their son’s probation are unnecessarily severe and outdated, and would make it impossible for him to continue to attend college.
“No computer for five years, no smartphone? He can’t have an email address,” his father said. “To me, that’s wrong. That’s like taking away electricity or heat or gas to somebody, in today’s world.”
With their son’s release from jail set for Thursday, they were scrambling to find him a new place to live and satisfy the sex offender restrictions on housing. Their own house is less than 1,000 feet from a public boat launch, which is considered a public park under state law.
Continue reading the main story 473 CommentsSince they have shared their son’s experience with local newspapers and elected officials, they said, they have received emails and Facebook messages from parents whose children have been punished for similar offenses and are now on the sex offender registry for life.
Their lawyer has asked to withdraw his client’s guilty plea so he can argue for a lighter sentence. A hearing is set for Aug. 5.
“A young person, they make one mistake and all of a sudden they’re classified as a loser for the rest of their life,” Mr. Anderson’s mother, Amanda Anderson, said. “This scenario should never result in jail time or a life of anxiety.”
By ROSS PERLIN
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JULY is to internships what March is to college basketball. Tens of thousands of interns have descended on New York, Washington, Los Angeles and other internship capitals with the hope of showing off the talent needed to land a job — and in some fields, one’s chances are about as high as getting picked in the N.B.A. draft.
In the last few years, interns have been organizing against an exploitative system in which colleges encourage or even require students to join in a race to the bottom, working for free under the guise of training and recruitment. Lawsuits — more than 30 filed, and counting — have been a vital strategy for interns asserting their right to at least minimum wage. The most high-profile suit was brought by Eric Glatt and Alexander Footman, who as unpaid interns for Fox Searchlight Pictures did work like drawing up purchase orders and making spreadsheets for the movie “Black Swan,” which went on to make over $300 million.
Two years ago, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled in their favor, and it seemed to signal the beginning of the end of the unpaid internship. Some colleges and employers began privately voicing their unease about a “pay to play” system that drives entry-level jobs to the brink of extinction and excludes those unable to work for free.
Since a 1947 Supreme Court decision, the United States Department of Labor has used a six-factor checklist to determine whether an internship is legal. The internship must be similar to the training that would be given in an educational environment; it must be done for the intern’s benefit; it can’t displace regular employees; it can’t provide “immediate advantage” to the employer; and the intern must understand that no wages are being received and that no job is waiting at the end of the internship.
The judge, William H. Pauley III, found that Fox Searchlight had failed to meet this test. Sadly, on Thursday, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit eviscerated the six-factor checklist and replaced it with, in essence, a new legal theory of what internships are all about.
The appeals judges found, among other things, that an internship can be legal even if it doesn’t meet the traditional six-prong test, especially if it is tied to the receipt of school credit and helps the student fulfill academic commitments.
Even worse, the judges declared that “the proper question is whether the intern or the employer is the primary beneficiary of the relationship.” They ignored the legal standard and ethical principle that work merits pay.
The judges stressed that internships may be legal merely because they are supposedly being overseen by the interns’ schools. But these very same institutions have been complicit in the internship boom by ignoring abuses, requiring internships for graduation and charging students for academic credit when they go off campus to do unpaid work.
The “primary beneficiary” approach leads to the atomizing result that interns cannot unite to protect themselves. The judges write that “the question of an intern’s employment status is a highly individualized inquiry,” ignoring the low or nonexistent pay and shabby work conditions common to interns in many offices and industries. Thursday’s ruling all but destroys the basis for collective action through class-action lawsuits.
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At oral arguments in January — I had filed an amicus brief on behalf of the plaintiffs — it was evident that the three judges had no firsthand experience of what they call “the modern internship.” Focusing on “what the intern receives in exchange for his work,” the judges completely ignore the significant benefits that employers derive from their interns.
Yes, the best internships pay a living wage, teach real skills and can lead to permanent jobs, but the majority do none of the above. Without pay, interns lack the most basic workplace protections.
The new ruling makes it all the more imperative that states follow the recent lead of Oregon, Connecticut and New York, which have passed laws extending to interns safeguards from workplace discrimination and harassment. Legislation on intern pay should be next on the agenda. Organizing efforts on college campuses and in workplaces should intensify — the legal route alone is insufficient.
For the “Black Swan” interns, the battle is far from over. The next step may be to go before the Second Circuit en banc (all of the court’s judges, not just a three-judge panel) or eventually even before the Supreme Court, which has not delivered a major ruling relevant to interns since 1947. Despite its liberal recent term, this Supreme Court has been characterized by deference toward corporations and hostility toward workers. Still, surprises are possible. The careers of millions of young people may hang on the result.
Ross Perlin is the assistant director of the Endangered Language Alliance and the author of “Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy.”
A version of this op-ed appears in print on July 3, 2015, on page A21 of the New York edition with the headline: Interns, Victimized Yet Again. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
7:53am PT by Eriq Gardner
Interns suffered a big setback on Thursday when the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals decided to vacate a federal judge's summary judgment ruling in favor of two interns who both worked on Fox Searchlight's Black Swan.
Alex Footman and Eric Glatt brought suit in 2011 and contended that Fox's unpaid internship program violated minimum wage and overtime laws. In June 2013, a federal judge declared them the winner and also certified a class action over the internship programs of Fox Entertainment Group.
The ruling soon led to many other lawsuits against media and entertainment companies, and large ones including NBCUniversal and Viacom decided to pay millions of dollars to resolve claims made by former interns.
But today's appellate opinion says U.S. District Judge William Pauley erred by focusing too much on the Labor Department's six criteria for determining whether an internship might be unpaid. He believes that other factors such as an internship being part of classwork matter.
"In sum, we agree with the defendants that the proper question is whether the intern or the employer is the primary beneficiary of the relationship," states the opinion authored by 2nd Circuit judge John Walker.
Glatt was a highly educated finance pro who aimed to get into the entertainment industry at a late age in 2009 when he began interning in Black Swan's accounting department and in 2010 in the post-production department. His duties included copying, scanning, and filing documents, plus as today's opinion notes wryly, purchasing a non‐allergenic pillow for the film's director Darren Aronofsky.
Along with Footman, who interned in the Black Swan production department, Glatt decided to lead a social justice movement objecting to how companies were exploiting free labor from interns. Though internships have held a special place in the entertainment and media industry for decades, and Glatt found difficulties in finding lawyers to take up his case, the 2013 summary judgment ruling by Pauley signaled that unpaid internships weren't immune from legal scrutiny.
Besides Glatt and Footman, Eden Antalik also joined the fight. She worked as a publicity intern and had claims that moved the dispute beyond Fox Searchlight to how its corporate parent was using interns and possibly violating minimum wage and overtime standards.
The big controversy in the case was how to properly classify workers — were unpaid interns really just unpaid employees?
The plaintiffs relied on guidance from the Department of Labor, which in 2010, spelled out some criteria for how to determine an employment relationship. The factors include whether the internship is similar to training that would be given in an educational environment, whether it is for the benefit of the intern, whether the intern displaces regular employees, whether the employer derives immediate advantage, whether the intern isn't necessarily entitled to a job after the conclusion of the internship, and the understanding about no entitlement to wages.
Judge Walker writes today that the DOL's test, adopted from some old legal precedent, is "too rigid," and he doesn't find it persuasive. Instead, he likes the way that Fox urges an evaluation.
"The primary beneficiary test has two salient features," he writes. "First, it focuses on what the intern receives in exchange for his work. Second, it also accords courts the flexibility to examine the economic reality as it exists between the intern and the employer."
The 2nd Circuit also details a "non-exhaustive set of considerations" as judges focus on whose primary benefit an internship serves. Some of the considerations echo the DOL's six criteria, but they also include some examination into whether an internship ties into academic coursework, whether an intern is getting academic credit and whether the internship accommodates an intern's academic commitments by corresponding to the school calendar.
Here's the full opinion for more of what the 2nd Court envisions when evaluating the classification of internships.
Walker says no one factor is dispositive, but in remanding the case back to the district court for further proceedings, suggests that additional evidence about Glatt's and Footman's formal education be gathered.
Given Glatt's background (a 40-year-old who had completed his MBA when he started his internship), he still stands a good chance of winning on this point, but the bigger defeat is for the broader universe of unpaid interns. That's made even more clear by the 2nd Circuit's decision to vacate the class certification given to Antalik.
"As our previous discussion of the proper test indicates, the question of an intern’s employment status is a highly individualized inquiry," states today's opinion. "Antalik’s common evidence will not help to answer whether a given internship was tied to an education program, whether and what type of training the intern received, whether the intern continued to work beyond the primary period of learning, or the many other questions that are relevant to each class member’s case. Moreover, defendants’ undisputed evidence demonstrated that the various internship programs it offered differed substantially across the many departments and four Fox divisions included in the proposed class."
Going forward, the ramifications of today's decision could mean that it will be nearly impossible to bring class actions over the issue of unpaid internship programs. (The opinion leaves the door open, though it's hard to see how such a "highly individualized inquiry" would ever qualify for large numbers of interns at big companies.) As for individual claims, they might not be worth enough money in damages for lawyers to pick up as a cause.
Water conservation levels among California residential users reached an all-time high for May, sending a wave of optimism through state regulators who hope the savings could continue into the drier summer months.
Californians used 29 percent less water in May than in the same-month period in 2013, with Southern California saving 26 percent, holding its own against Northern California coast's 28 percent and San Francisco-Bay Area's 32 percent, according to figures released Wednesday by the State Water Resources Control Board.
CAIRO, Egypt -- Over the last 12 months -- the first year of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's rule -- the Egyptian police have been responsible for 272 deaths, according to a Cairo-based NGO.
Egypt's military government has been engaged in a crackdown on political opponents since it toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in a military coup that was backed by protests.
1.) Dancing, in general. “Christian teens stay away.” (1973)
2.) Twerking, by Miley Cyrus. “Shameless and tasteless display of...quite ordinary private parts.” (2015)
3.) Same-sex marriage.
4.) The Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. “Unconstitutional.” (Friday).
5.) President Obama's health-care law.
6.) The Supreme Court decision that saved President Obama’s health-care law. “Ignore[d] the Constitution.” (Thursday).
7.) The Supreme Court, in general. “They must be committed to...applying the original meaning of the Constitution.” (Friday)
8.) The Constitution, because it allows Supreme Court justices to serve for life. “I will fight for term limits.” (Friday)
9.) Pop music, in general. “A knuckle-dragging sub-pidgin of grunts and snarls.” (1998)
10.) Pop music, by Beyonce. “Mental poison.” (2015)
11.) President Obama, for letting his daughters listen to Beyonce. (2015)
12.) Republicans who criticize President Obama constantly. "It's hypocritical..to question every motive of Barack Obama." (2009)
13.) President Obama, for bowing too low when he met the Emperor of Japan. “That deep bow, to the waist...was offensive to me.” (2009, spoken roughly 50 seconds after #12).
14.) People who are constantly taking offense. “Being offended is a full-time job for many. It’s a tedious task, for it requires enormous amounts of imagination and creativity, [and] relentless pursuit of an audience willing to swallow the notion of the offense.” (2015)
15.) Biscuits and gravy. “My mortal enemy.” (2007, after Huckabee’s major weight loss)
16.) Restaurants that don’t serve biscuits and gravy. “How can an eating place that fancies itself fancy...not have biscuits and gravy?” (2015, in his book “God, Guns, Grits and Gravy.”).
17.) This list, which is an annotated catalog of things and people that Huckabee has over the last four decades decried as unwise, unhealthy, un-conservative, un-Biblical or un-American. It runs to 81 items. Which is not all of them. But it's enough to show the risk of a life spent passing moral judgments for political gain. “Governor is hard at work on the campaign trail today, talking to the people of Iowa about issues that are important to them...If you have a question about that, please let me know.” (2015, from a spokeswoman for Huckabee’s 2016 presidential campaign spokeswoman, describing why Huckabee would not talk about the list.)
18.) The actress Jamie Lynn Spears, for being pregnant and unmarried. “A tragedy.” (2007).
19.) The media, for criticizing Bristol Palin after she became pregnant while unmarried. “The most shameful thing I’ve ever seen in my life...Everyone understands that the basis of being a Christian is that everyone has fallen short of God’s ideal.” (2008)
20.) The actress Natalie Portman, for being pregnant and unmarried. “It gives a distorted image...most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can’t get a job.” (2011).
21.) Democrats, for intruding into the sex lives of women. “The Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control, because they cannot control their libido.” (2014)
22.) Bristol Palin. “Fair game.” (2012, after she failed to show up for an appearance on Huckabee’s radio show)
23.) Profanity, in general. “The forcible expression of a feeble mind.” (2015).
24.) People who write profanity on bathroom stalls. (1974, while he was a teenaged advice columnist for a Baptist newspaper in Arkansas, in a column found by BuzzFeed).
25.) People who write “Jesus Saves” on bathroom stalls. “I just can’t picture Jesus going into a restroom with a magic marker and writing his name all over the walls.” (1974).
26.) Profanity used by schoolchildren. “What happened in America between ‘Good Morning, Mrs. Jones,’ and ‘Shut up, b---h!’? And who is going to do something about it?” (1998)
27.) Profanity used by men in the presence of women. (2015)
28.) New York women, who use profanity in front of men. “In New York, not only do the men [curse] but the women do it.” (2015)
29.) Megyn Kelly, Fox News host and New York woman. Kelly: “I do have news for you...we are not only swearing. We’re drinking, we’re smoking, we’re having premarital sex with birth control before we go to work and sometimes [we] boss around a bunch of men.” Huckabee (laughing, mock-offended): “I just don’t want to hear that.” (2015).
30.) Crude sexual innuendoes. “Most comics just use them to get a cheap, easy, laugh because creating witty, original humor is hard.” (2015, in Huckabee’s book “God, Guns, Grits and Gravy”)
31.) Overbearing security at airports. “Bend over and take it like a prisoner!”(2015, in the same book).
32.) Profanity, as a root cause of mass shootings in America. “Mass profanity has always been a harbinger of mass violence.” (1998, in Huckabee’s book “Kids Who Kill.’”)
33.) Abortion, as a root cause of mass shootings in America. “Desensitizing.” (1998, same book)
34.) Violence on TV, as a root cause of mass shootings in America. “The average American child watches 8,000 made-for-television murders.” (1998, same book).
35.) Problems at the U.S.-Mexico border. “My plan to secure the border? Two words: Chuck. Norris.” (2007. Huckabee made that joke as he was being endorsed by action-movie legend Chuck Norris, who has killed at least 102 people onscreen).
36.) Lack of religion in schools, as a root cause of mass shootings in America. “Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage.” (2012)
37.) President Obama, for saying that U.S. gun laws were a root cause of this month’s mass shooting in Charleston, S.C. “It was disappointing to hear the president...immediately begin to say, ‘All right, this is a great opportunity for me to grandstand.” (2015)
38.) Very low-cut dresses on women at Huckabee’s Baptist college. (1974)
39.) Halter tops on women at his Baptist college. (1974)
40.) “Bra-less looks” on women at his Baptist college. (1974).
41.) Men at his Baptist college, for watching the women so closely. "They couldn’t help but look, but...they didn’t have much respect for the girl who left little to the imagination.” (1974)
42.) A mesh dress that singer Rihanna once wore on the red carpet. “I’ve seen dusty pickup windshields that were less see-through.” (2015).
43.) The outfit Miley Cyrus wore when she twerked. “Barely clad, barely legal-age.” (2015).
44.) The outfit Miley Cyrus wore in the video for “Wrecking Ball.” “She was completely naked.” (2015)
45.) Celebrity women who are “filling the Internet with topless photos of themselves.”(2015.)
46.) Men who go shirtless on the street, because it encourages women to go topless. “Put on a darn shirt!” (2015.)
47.) Allowing transgender people to choose which bathroom they use. “In high school...I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in P.E.” (2015)
48.) Dogs wearing clothes. "Most dogs hate wearing anything other than the fur God gave them.” (2012)
49. “The Exorcist.” (1973)
50.) “Monty Python’s Life of Brian.”(1979).
51.) The phrase “act of God.” “[It] would be violating my own conscience [to describe] a destructive and deadly force as being ‘an act of God.’” (1997, when Huckabee was governor of Arkansas. He refused to sign a bill that described natural disasters as “acts of God,” until it was changed it to“natural causes.”)
52.) “Beavis and Butt-head." (2007)
53.)“Two Broke Girls." (2015
54.) The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, for serving champagne during intermission. “Somehow, I fail to see the connection between symphony music and champagne.” (1975)
55.) Climate change. “It’s real.” (2007).
56.) People who insist that climate change is real. “One who questions the politically driven agenda of global warming is called ‘anti-science.’” (2015)
57.) People who criticize the “Common Core” education program. (2013).
58.) The “Common Core” education program. “Let me cut right to the chase: I don’t support what Common Core has become.” (2013, six months after #57).
59.) The trade embargo against Cuba. “Has certainly not helped the people of Cuba.” (2002, while governor, trying to get the embargo lifted so Arkansas farmers could sell rice in Cuba.)
60.) The idea of lifting the trade embargo against Cuba. “I...would veto any legislation that would lift the embargo.” (2007, while campaigning among anti-Castro Cuban Americans in Florida).
61.) Mitt Romney, for flip-flopping. “Here’s a man who didn’t hit political puberty...until 60 years old.” (2008, while running against Romney for the GOP nomination).
62.) An attack ad produced by Huckabee’s own campaign, because it called Mitt Romney “dishonest." “This is not how we run our campaign in this state. We’ve gotten here by being positive.” (2007. Huckabee said this at a press conference just before the Iowa primary, saying that he had decided not to buy air time for his own negative ad.).
63.) Mitt Romney. “Dishonest.” (2008. After denouncing the ad, Huckabee showed it to reporters and news cameras, thereby getting it on TV for free).
64.) The idea that there is a “secret” to losing weight and beating diabetes. "There isn’t one [just diet and exercise].” (2005, in a book about his weight loss).
65.) Doctors who won’t admit there’s a “secret” to losing weight and beating diabetes. “In a moment a free presentation is coming up...so you can discover all the natural secrets that are backed by real science that really work.” (circa 2015, in a paid appearance to advertise a cinnamon-based diabetes treatment.) “
66.) People who criticize rock n’ roller Ted Nugent. “The lyrics that are in some of the more explicit Ted Nugent songs are not explicit. They’re suggestive, highly suggestive.” (2015).
67.) “Cat Scratch Fever,” medical condition described by Ted Nugent. [Huckabee played bass guitar on television while Nugent sang] “Well, the first time that I got it I was just ten years old/I got it from some kitty next door...” (2011).Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
68.) Homosexuality, in general. “a SIN.” (1974, as a Baptist newspaper advice columnist).
69.) Allowing AIDS patients to live in the general population. “It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated.” (1992, as part of a Senate campaign.)
70.) Homosexuality, in general. "I’ve had people who are gay that worked on my staff. It’s not like I’m some homophobe. If you ask me is it the normal pathway? I don’t think so.” (2008).
71.) Gay parents. “The children...really cannot, get critical early-life lessons in how a heterosexual family functions successfully.” (2011)
72.) Same-sex couples in TV shows. “Of the seventy-three sex scenes shown that week...two involved male homosexual couples.” (1998.)
73.) Same-sex couples in TV commercials. “Every fear that people had has, in fact, come true...We’re now even seeing television commercials portraying same-sex couples.”(2013).
74.) Allowing heterosexual couples an easy path to divorce. “It actually became easier to get out of a marriage than to get out of a contract for the purchase of a used car!” (2007)
75.) States allowing same-sex couples to marry, after the Supreme Court said they could. “We must resist and reject judicial tyranny, not retreat.” (Friday).
76.) “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” “Absurd...allows for the recruitment of homosexual soldiers.” (2011)
77.) Repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell." “Using our servicemen and servicewomen as pawns in shoring up [Obama’s] political base.” (2011, in the same book as #67)
78.) The Secretary of Defense, for holding a gay pride event for gay servicemembers inside the Pentagon after “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed. “Enough is enough.” (2015)
79.) Liberals, for demanding greater and greater guarantees of protection for gays and same-sex marriage. “It won’t stop until there are no more churches.” (2015)
80.) People who wring their hands over the state of the country. “Far too many people are guilty of hand-wringing, worry and despair over the future of America. That’s not my theme.” (2011).
81.) President Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, for changing their minds and embracing same-sex marriage. “Do you want a president who follows? Or do you want a president who leads?” (Tuesday).
