In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; death] Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, a white man, has been charged with murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old black teenager Laquan McDonald. This is the first time in 35 years an on-duty Chicago police officer has been charged with murder. "Several people who have seen [dashcam video of the shooting] say it shows the teenager armed with a small knife and walking away from several officers on 20 October 2014. They say Van Dyke opened fire from about 15ft and kept shooting after the teen fell to the ground. An autopsy report says McDonald was shot at least twice in his back. ...'I can't speak to why the [other] officers didn't shoot,' the lawyer representing Van Dyke, Daniel Herbet, told reporters on Friday, according to the Chicago Tribune. 'But I certainly can speak to why my client shot, and it is he believed in his heart of hearts that he was in fear for his life, that he was concerned about the lives of [other] police officers.' Van Dyke was the only officer of the six present that night who fired his gun out as the teen was allegedly walking away, according to lawyers representing McDonald's family." Officer Van Dyke's heart of hearts can go fuck itself.

[CN: Police brutality; racism; death] It has been a year since Tamir Rice was killed by Cleveland Police Officer Tim Loehmann, and, over the weekend, Rice's "family and hundreds of supporters gathered in the park where he last played for a vigil in celebration of his life." They also presented petitions asking that Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty remove himself from the case. "Organizer Elle Hearns said at the vigil that today's action is 'an opportunity to join us as organizers, and as a family with demands of the city and of the prosecutor to do the right thing and to make sure that this family has an opportunity to heal and to have some peace.'"

[CN: War on agency] Imani Gandy has your latest update on the legal troubles the Center for Medical Progress is facing "in connection with its heavily edited undercover videos" of meetings with Planned Parenthood: "Lawyers for the National Abortion Federation (NAF) filed two whopping motions on November 13 against the anti-choice front group and its leader, David Daleiden." Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of folks!

[CN: White supremacy] Donald Trump has defended the crime stats he cribbed from a neo-Nazi by claiming, "I retweeted somebody that was supposedly an expert." This fucking guy.

[CN: 9/11; graphic imagery] In other Trump news, after lying about seeing people celebrating when the Towers fell on 9/11, he's now claiming, incredibly, that "he saw people jumping from the World Trade Center from his building in midtown Manhattan." The thing is, Trump Tower is "more than four miles away from where the World Trade Center towers once stood. ...The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment asking how Trump witnessed people jumping out of the Twin Towers from more than four miles away." I'll bet they didn't.

[CN: Privacy violations; disablist language] You know that "most-used words" word cloud thing on Facebook? Don't do it. Don't do any Facebook quizzes. I mean, unless you don't care how your personal information is used. Which is a valid choice! In which case, do all the quizzes you want!

Wowwwwww: "In its first three days of release, Adele's 25 has already sold at least 2.3 million in pure album sales in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music. And, at the present (Nov. 23), industry forecasters suggest the album could finish the week with 2.9 million sold. Thus, 25 is already only the second album to sell more than 2 million copies in a single week since Nielsen Music began tracking sales in 1991. Further, by the end of the day Monday, it should surpass the single-week sales record, currently held by *NSYNC's No Strings Attached, which debuted with 2,416,000 sold in the week ending March 26, 2000." Congratulations, Adele! Well deserved.

Amazing: After 6 Years, 4,200 hours, and 720,000 Attempts, photographer Alan McFadyen has finally taken the perfect photo of a kingfisher making a dive into the water. It is a pretty great goddamn picture!

[CN: Moving gifs at link] And finally! "The 38 Most Awkward Dogs of 2015." LOL! Clearly, whoever compiled this list hasn't met Dudley!