Wednesday, July 17, 2013

More calls for a federal trial of George Zimmerman and other eye-catching headlines

Mark Ridley-Thomas added his voice to the growing call for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to prosecute George Zimmerman under federal hate crime law.  I guess all these people aren't aware the FBI already investigate and concluded that there was no racial animus behind the shooting of Trayvon Martin.  The jury verdict might well be racially motivated, but the shooting wasn't according to three dozen witnesses interviewed by the FBI.

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner was going to get an award from a group of women veterans for championing the fight against sexual assault in the military.  But now the National Women's Veterans Association of America won't be giving him that award.  The change is due to allegations that he sexually harassed members of his staff.  However, he will still deliver the keynote address at the association's fundraising event in San Diego this August.

Former World and WWE champion wrestler Ric Flair is a wanted man.  He's wanted by the law in North Carolina for failing to pay $32,000 in spousal support to his estranged wife.  The estranged wife just surrendered to face charges of harassing Flair's current GF.  Flair claims he didn't pay because he was hospitalized in the wake of his son's death.  Sounds like a great story for a new soap opera.

A small town in Colorado is considering issuing hunting licenses for people to hunt and shoot down drones.  Yes, the federal government's drones.

Chris Reynolds of Philadelphia was, for a brief while, the richest man on the planet.  In fact, he had more wealth than the combined fortunes of the Forbes 400.  PayPal accidentally credited his account with over $92 quadrillion dollars.  By way of comparison, Bill Gates has a net worth of around $70 billion.  If Reynolds had really had $92 quadrillion dollars, he'd have had more than a million times as much money as Gates.

Asiana Airlines will not sue San Francisco TV station KTVU after all.  The station had aired what were supposed to be the names of the pilots of Flight 214, but the names were "prank" words rather than the real names of the pilots.

The "editors" of Rolling Stone magazine are not backing away from the controversy surrounding the cover of their latest issue, which features accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in a "flattering" light. 

As Nelson Mandela turns 95, his daughter says he is making "remarkable progress". 

That a woman at John Wayne Airport tried to run down a bicycle patrol officer with her SUV is not in question.  The question is, why?

In Washington, a 62 year old man was found lying in the road naked, with severed genitals.  Police recovered the severed "parts" and they were taken with the man to the hospital to see if they could be reattached.  No other information on his condition is available at this time.

If the servers who work at local restaurants in St. Paul seem to all be volunteering to work this coming Friday, there's a reason.   Seth Collins will be in town and he will be leaving a $500 tip for some lucky server.

In case anyone was wondering if Marissa Miller had managed to lose the "baby fat" following the birth of her son Gavin this past December, the answer is yes.  She showed off her impressive figure in a tight, see-through dress at Wednesday's ESPY awards in Los Angeles.