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Civil rights activists protested outside a Menchie’s frozen yogurt shop after the owner kicked out a black man because employees were “scared” of him. ....more at source

The Congressional Black Caucus signaled in a letter on Thursday that if Democrats win the majority in the House of Representatives, they would like African-American representation in at least one of the top two leadership positions for the party in the chamber. An African-American member has never served in either of the top two leadership positions. The private letter was sent from the chairman of the caucus, Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, and was prompted by "much speculation" about how Democrats will govern if they should assume the majority. Though Richmond praised current leadership, he states that the Congressional Black...

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Pizza mogul John Schnatter is making major moves to repair his reputation and regain his position on the Papa John's board. WAVE 3 News learned Schnatter has now hired Hollywood power lawyer Patricia Glaser, after he admitted to using the N-word during a conference call in a way he maintains was mischaracterized. Glaser has a lot of experience representing big names including disgraced movie executive Harvey Weinstein, Keith Olbermann, Conan O'Brien and celebrity chef Paula Deen after her N-word scandal. WAVE 3 News obtained a letter Glaser sent to the Papa John's Board of Directors on...

Pope Francis told leading oil executives Saturday that the transition to less-polluting energy sources “is a challenge of epochal proportions” and warned that satisfying the world’s energy needs “must not destroy civilization.” The Vatican said Francis held a two-day conference with the executives as a follow-up to his encyclical three years ago that called on people to save the planet from climate change and other environmental ills. Participants included the CEOs of Italian oil giant ENI, British Petroleum, ExxonMobil and Norway’s Statoil as well as scientists and managers of major investment funds. Their remarks on the first day of the...

Hillary Clinton headlined her first post-2016 fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee this week, which should help the DNC pay its bills to . . . her. Clinton, you see, is insisting the Democratic Party pay her group, Onward Together, $1.65 million for access to the Hillary for America email list, voter data and software from the 2016 campaign. And that, The Intercept reports, is on top of the more than $700,000 the DNC has already paid to rent the list. Indeed, the Republican National Committee notes (meow!) that Clinton only did this first fundraiser after the DNC stopped its payments to...

Starbucks has been accused of racism yet again after a Latino customer at a Los Angeles area store found a racial slur scribbled on his cup. The man, who would only be identified as Peter, told CBS Los Angeles he received a drink with the word “BEANER” on it at the Starbucks in La Cañada, California. “En español es ‘frijoleros,’ ‘beaner,’ you know, in English,” said the victim’s friend Miguel Acosta. “He went to Starbucks, and they asked for his name, and his name is ‘Peter,’ and they wrote this ‘beaner,’ And he’s saying that’s not fair.” Acosta added that...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two black men arrested for sitting at a Philadelphia Starbucks without ordering anything settled with the city Wednesday for a symbolic $1 each and a promise from officials to set up a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs. The men and their lawyer told The Associated Press the settlement was an effort to make sure something positive came out of the incident. "We thought long and hard about it and we feel like this is the best way to see that change that we want to see," said Donte Robinson, one of those arrested.

The coffee chain's anti-bias training is a potentially positive step. But white people need get real about the extent of racism in America. Can black folks do anything without scrutiny? The arrest of two black men sitting quietly in a Philadelphia Starbucks has set off a national discussion about whether there are any places or activities where race doesn’t color the experience. Even something as innocuous and common as waiting at Starbucks for a friend looks different when viewed through the lens of America’s ongoing race problem. And so well-meaning outrage aside, it’s time that white people in America get...

As civilization “grows more maudlin and hysterical” it tends “to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes,” argued H.L. Mencken. He added that “the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” It’s hard to argue with those points, especially in light of the latest court battle over California’s zany public-health laws. Last week, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle ruled that Starbucks and other coffee retailers are in hot water because they don’t slap labels on coffee...

If they’re a person of color, they pay $12. If they’re white, he’ll tell them they can either pay $12, or they can pay $30 — two and a half times the base price, which reflects the wealth disparity in New Orleans. He tells them the profits will be redistributed to people of color, but not as charity — just to any minority customers of his who want it, regardless of their income or circumstance. “When I tell black folks what’s happening, 90 percent of them start laughing, like, ‘For real?’ They’re tickled,” he said. “White folks, there’s this blank...

The Guardian bolstered the proliferation of lawsuits against governments and companies over climate change by portraying them as incredibly significant. The left-wing British newspaper asked in all seriousness on March 20, “Can Climate Litigation Save the World?” In it, environment editor Damian Carrington’s word choice revealed support for these efforts. He called courts the new “front line” against climate change and cited numerous instances where “groups and individuals seek to hold governments and companies accountable for the damage they are causing.”

A female technology startup founder filed a lawsuit Wednesday against a Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist for alleged sexual assault on an overnight flight from San Francisco to Minneapolis. Rachel Danae Vachata, a 29-year-old co-founder of technology companies, alleges that 73-year-old venture capitalist Lucio Lanza “preyed on” Vachata by threatening to use his position to make or break her companies and then repeatedly groped and attempted to kiss her during the flight last July, according to the complaint filed with the Santa Clara County Superior Court. Lanza is the founder and managing director of Lanza techVentures, based in Palo Alto. He...

Saudi Arabia seizes more than $100bn in settlements 30 Jan 2018 - 18:00 Saudi Arabia's Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said that the kingdom has seized more than $100bn in anti-corruption settlements. The amount - SAR400bn ($106.7bn) - represented various types of assets, including real estate, commercial entities, cash and more, Mojeb said in a statement released by the government's information office on Tuesday. He added that the total number of individuals summoned for questioning reached 381, while 65 remained in custody as part of a nationwide "anti-corruption purge". The statement came as Saudi authorities released all remaining detainees after...

Al Sharpton hit President Donald Trump for his weight during comments marking Martin Luther King Jr., Day in Harlem, quipping he should order three Big Macs instead of two. According to New York Times writer Shane Goldmacher, Sharpton complimented New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D.) as a "national celebrity" and, perhaps alluding to potential White House ambitions, said Trump should "get your best gloves out" before making the joke about Trump's fondness for fast food. It's a noteworthy comment from Sharpton, given his former obesity. The now slimmed down-Sharpton once weighed more than 300 pounds. In 2014, the New York...

California has sued the auto industry, utility companies, energy-producing businesses such as oil companies, and Republican Presidential administrations Environmentalists claim global warming can be mitigated, but only if humans are forced to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This pseudo-science is what California’s leftist politicians have adopted to control human activity, and the unelected bureaucrats at the California Air Resources Board based its cap-and-trade carbon auction program on. Now, seven California municipalities—four cities and three counties—are suing Exxon Mobil Corp. and other major oil producers to force those companies to cover the costs and hold fossil-fuel companies responsible for climate-change costs of...

American Airlines has announced an aggressive plan of action to improve diversity and inclusion... “We’re seeing individuals removed because they’re wearing a headscarf,” said NAACP Legal Defense Fund Senior Counsel Ajmel Quereshi... Thursday, the airline announced a plan of action to make American a more diverse and inclusive company....

ARTICLE DATE 11/24/16...............The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the most partisan agency in the federal government in terms of donations to candidates, according to campaign finance data. Employees at the CFPB, which was created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, contributed nearly $50,000 during the 2016 campaign with all of that money going to aid Hillary Clinton or her rival, the insurgent socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., VT). Agency employees made more than 300 donations during the campaign. Not one went to a Republican candidate. Rep. Sean Duffy (R., Wis.), a frequent critic of the agency,...

Extortion: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is diverting potentially millions of dollars in settlement payments for alleged victims of lending bias to a slush fund for poverty groups tied to the Democratic Party. We've seen this before at the Justice Department, which Congress earlier this year scolded for "shortchanging" alleged victims of Bank of America and Citibank the same way. Justice funneled at least $150 million into a slush fund for Democratic interests, unconstitutionally avoiding Congress. Now, a little-noticed item on the CFPB's website reveals the powerful new agency is launching its own scheme to provide backdoor funding for nonprofit...

(CNN) — Civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Friday that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. A neurological disorder with no cure, Parkinson's can cause tremors, stiffness and difficulty balancing, walking and coordinating movement. "My family and I began to notice changes about three years ago," Jackson wrote in a statement. "After a battery of tests, my physicians identified the issue as Parkinson's disease, a disease that bested my father." Jackson added that "recognition of the effects of this disease on me has been painful." He also said he sees his diagnosis as "a signal that I...

We all have a climate story to tell. As I head for the latest round of UN climate talks (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, relatives in Malaysia tell me that our home state, Penang, has been almost completely submerged by floods, killing seven people and displacing thousands. As with most disasters and shocks, the poorest are the worst hit. Climate-related migration is already hurting some of the most vulnerable communities. Clearly, the impacts these people are suffering are not their own fault, but the symptom of a crisis for which developed nations and multinational corporations are primarily responsible by relentlessly extracting...