In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today!

[Content Note: Profiling] Here is some good news (contingent upon whether the change is actually implemented): "The Justice Department will significantly expand its definition of racial profiling to prohibit federal agents from considering religion, national origin, gender and sexual orientation in their investigations, a government official said Wednesday. The move addresses a decade of criticism from civil rights groups that say federal authorities have in particular singled out Muslims in counterterrorism investigations and Latinos for immigration investigations."

[CN: Rape apologia] Another Republican genius on rape: Virginia congressional hopeful Richard Black "opposed criminalizing spousal rape while he served in the Virginia state legislature. His reason? It would be impossible to prosecute a man for rape 'when they're living together, sleeping in the same bed, she's in a nightie, and so forth,' Black said in 2011. He also argued that men should not have to live with the 'emormous fear' of facing a false spousal rape accusation." He sounds terrific.

[CN: Gun violence] Last night in northern Indiana, a man shot and killed two people in a grocery store before he was killed by police: "Elkhart police received a call about a gunman at Martin's Super Market about 10pm Wednesday, Indiana state police sergeant Trent Smith said Thursday. The 22-year-old gunman used a semi-automatic handgun to shoot and kill a 20-year-old employee and a 44-year-old shopper, Smith said. The victims' bodies were found about 12 aisles apart." The shooting appears to be random, and "a large knife was also found near the gunman's body." Fucking hell.

An amazing cat saved his neighbor's life by warning him he was about to have a heart attack. Cats, man.

[CN: Rape] A woman who survived being raped and then was accused of lying by police who subsequently interrogated her into confessing to false charges has been exonerated and awarded a $150,000 settlement. The man who raped her, Marc O'Leary, "is currently serving a 327 1/2-year sentence in Colorado for raping multiple women."

(Just yesterday, I was talking to Lauren Chief Elk on Twitter about how one of the most detestable thing about Law & Order: SVU and similar police procedurals is that they give the erroneous impression that virtually all cops and prosecutors are keen to pursue rapists. This is, unfortunately, not the case.)

A funeral home in Clinton, Arkansas, is training a two-year-old King Charles Spaniel named Mollie to be a grief therapy dog. I love this idea!

[CN: Gun violence] Newtown shooter Adam Lanza reportedly called into an Oregon radio show, "Anarchy Radio," to discuss mass shootings a year before he went on his shooting spree.

Do you want to see Flula beatbox in slow motion? I can't imagine why you wouldn't!