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Raw Story By Travis Gettys A Southern Baptist youth minister from Arkansas is accused of sexually abusing more than two dozen boys. Keenan Hord, of Centerton, was arrested Wednesday in connection with investigations into sexual assault, sexual indecency and child pornography, although prosecutors have not formally charged the former youth minister who served at least two churches, reported the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “We have been devastated to learn that a former employee of our church has been credibly accused of abusing adolescents during his tenure at our church,” said First Baptist Bentonville s…
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New York Daily News Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s official congressional Twitter feed was briefly suspended over tweets denouncing a planned rally supporting transgender rights outside the Supreme Court. The right-wing firebrand said Wednesday the social media giant disabled the account for several hours and blocked access to tweets about the so-called “Trans Day of Vengeance” rally that is planned for Saturday. “My official Twitter account was temporarily suspended for warning about (the rally),” Greene tweeted. The lawmaker accused the leftist Antifa of being behind the rally even though the organizing Trans Ra…
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Reuters By Gram Slattery and Nathan Layne
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump warned of potential “death & destruction” if he faces criminal charges, hours after New York prosecutors probing his hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels said they would not be intimidated.
The early Friday post on Trump’s Truth Social media site was the latest in a string of verbal attacks on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg since last Saturday when Trump wrongly predicted he would be arrested three days later.
Trump falsely claims his defeat in 2020 was the result of fraud – a claim that inspired his followers to launch a deadly Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to stop Congress from certifying the election of Democratic President Joe Biden, who bested the Republican Trump by more than 7 million votes.
“What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting President in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?” wrote Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Bragg’s office, in a letter to Republican committee chairmen in Congress on Thursday, challenged their standing to investigate his office and said Trump had “created a false expectation that he would be arrested” in his Saturday post.
The letter called the chairmen’s request for communications, documents and testimony an “unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty.”
Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress and director whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she received the money in exchange for keeping silent about a sexual encounter she had with Trump in 2006.
Trump has denied ever having an affair with Daniels, and has called the payment a “simple private transaction.” He has said he did not commit a crime and has called the investigation politically motivated.
The Manhattan grand jury probing Trump is not due to reconvene until next week.
In other cases, Georgia prosecutors are looking into Trump’s attempts to overturn his election defeat there, and a federal special counsel is investigating both his attempts to overturn his loss and the removal of classified documents from the White House after Trump left office.
On Saturday, Trump will hold a campaign rally in Waco, Texas, 30 years after a raid on the Branch Davidians religious sect there by federal agents resulted in 86 deaths, including four law-enforcement officers.
The event has become a symbol of government overreach for some and is a seminal moment for some right-wing extremist groups.
In an e-mail, a Trump campaign spokesperson said Waco was chosen because it is situated between several major population centers and has the infrastructure needed to host a large event.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery and Nathan Layne; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)

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OK Magazine mega Who needs a formal dinner party, anyway? Poland locals couldn’t believe their eyes when none other than Prince William sat down for a meal at Warsaw’s Buetero Bistro, an eatery dubbed as a LBGTQ-friendly spot.
The father-of-three made the impromptu stop on the night of Wednesday, March 22, where a fellow guest snapped a photo to show the royal, clad in a white button-down shirt, speaking to a waitress.
mega An insider told a publication that William ordered the pulled pork sandwich with french fries, which rang in at just $10.
“The team from Kensington Palace booked a local restaurant near where they were working and the prince decided to join them,” the source spilled of the gatheirng. “He asked them what they were doing and then asked to come along.”
mega Shocking Fights: Prince William & Kate Middleton ‘Throw Things At Each Other’ During ‘Terrible’ Arguments, Claims Author Meghan Markle & Prince Harry Skipping King Charles’ Coronation Would Show ‘The Rift Will Never Heal’ Between Them & The Royal Family Kate Middleton All Smiles At Charity Appearance As She & Prince William Fight About Prince George’s Role In Coronation: Photos “It was a great night by all accounts,” added the insider. “The team really appreciated him asking to join them.”
Needless to say, the owner of the restaurant — which bills itself as “an inclusive space where everyone can feel good” — was over the moon to have such a famous face at his establishment.
Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for!
“We had absolutely no idea they were coming. We had a table booked for 12 people under the name of Daisy. It was supposed to be a Daisy birthday party,” Paweł Zasim told the outlet. “But then a bodyguard appeared and said that this wasn’t going to be a Daisy birthday party and then Prince William walked in.”
The restauranteur noted the group “spent three hours” at the eatery, and at the end of their night, “they said they had a good time.”
mega Zasim also humbly boasted about his food, revealing William “ate everything so I think he liked it.”
William was in town to pay tribute to those who lost their lives and spoke to Ukrainian refugees.
“The Prince of Wales took the opportunity to thank the President and the Polish people who have done so much to support the people of Ukraine who’ve fled here,” a royal spokesman said. “They discussed the importance of the need for ongoing support to Ukraine and its people.”
Daily Mail reported on William’s dinner.

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Reuters By Sharon Bernstein
(Reuters) – Florida is looking to expand its ban on teaching young children about sexual orientation and gender identity issues to include all students in its public schools under a new rule set for a vote by the state Board of Education next month.
The proposed rule is the latest move by the administration of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to seek his party’s 2024 nomination for president, to limit or prohibit instruction on topics conservatives consider inappropriate for the state’s classrooms.
Last year, DeSantis signed a Republican-backed measure that banned classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for students in kindergarten through third grade. Critics denounced what they dubbed the “don’t say gay” bill.
The Florida Department of Education’s new proposal, which would not require legislative approval, would extend the ban through the 12th grade.
The proposal drew swift criticism on Wednesday from Democrats and LGBTQ rights activists, with White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre calling the proposal “completely, utterly, wrong.”
Equality Florida said the rule was advancing DeSantis’ political agenda at the expense of diverse families and educators.
Under the rule, teachers could face disciplinary action if they discuss sexual orientation or gender identity outside of mandated curriculum or health courses that parents have been briefed on and given the option to keep their children out of class for those lessons.
“There is no reason for instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity to be part of K-12 public education. Full stop,” DeSantis spokesperson Bryan Griffin tweeted on Wednesday.
The state Board of Education is scheduled to vote on the rule at its April 19 meeting.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Lincoln Feast.)

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Al-Araby With a South-Asian background, upbringing in the Gulf and ultimate relocation to the United States, Lamya (a pseudonym) deeply self-reflects about identity in her memoir,Hijab Butch Blues, while anchoring the coming-of-age tale in stories from the Quran. She reimagines Prophetic tales in contemporary, colloquial language, and interweaves lessons she extracts from the Quran with her daily life experiences. “Time and again, Lamya challenges readers to reject longstanding, culturally-informed binary ways of thinking. She writes about the uniquely heart-breaking homophobia of Muslims, who are also…
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Reuters By John Kruzel
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a traveling Christian evangelist’s free-speech challenge to a University of Alabama requirement that he obtain a permit before handing out religious pamphlets and preaching from a sidewalk adjacent to its campus.
The justices turned away an appeal by preacher Rodney Keister of a lower court’s ruling rejecting his claim that the university’s permit requirement violated free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
Keister, founder of a Pennsylvania-based group called Evangelism Mission, regularly visits U.S. university campuses in hopes of spreading his Christian message to students, according to court filings.
In 2016, Keister, along with a companion, preached using an amplifier and distributed Christian literature from a sidewalk adjacent to the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, trying to engage passersby. School officials told Keister he needed a permit for a public-speaking event, prompting him and his companion to leave.
The university’s policy at issue governed when, where and how a person unaffiliated with the school may engage in public speaking on campus including on sidewalks, other than “casual recreational or social activities.” It required a permit application 10 business days in advance – which has since been reduced to five business days – and sponsorship by a student organization or university academic department.
Keister in 2017 filed a civil rights suit against University of Alabama officials, arguing that the sidewalk’s status under the First Amendment is that of a “traditional public forum,” affording speakers the most robust protections available under the Constitution. Following losses in lower courts, Keister’s appeal in 2018 was turned away by the U.S. Supreme Court, prompting him to file an amended civil rights suit against school officials the next year.
A federal judge in 2020 ruled in favor of the school officials, finding that the sidewalk was a “limited public forum” – a status giving public universities and other government entities more leeway to regulate particular classes of speakers or kinds of speech. The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed last year.
The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, in recent years has taken an expansive view of religious rights, though this case came to the justices as a free speech dispute.
The high court is due to rule by the end of June in another free speech case involving religion. The court’s conservative justices during arguments in December appeared ready to rule that a Christian web design business owner named Lorie Smith has a right to refuse to provide services for same-sex marriages. Smith has said that under her Christian beliefs marriage should be limited to opposite-sex couples.
(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)

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Sports Illustrated By Madison Williams The 25-year-old admitted he initially didn’t intend to come out during his fighting career because of the possibility of negative responses. After an intimate video of UFC fighter Jeff Molina was posted without his permission on Thursday, the 25-year-old posted a statement on social media Friday revealing he is bisexual. In his statement, Molina said he preferred to come out on his own terms but stated that he wanted the news to come from him. Based on his statement, it sounds as if Molina didn’t intend to come out during his mixed martial arts career because he was worried…
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Al-Araby A transgender Saudi woman who was living in the US is feared dead after posting a suicide note in which she spoke of her trauma after American “fixers” allegedly entrapped her. Eden Knight shared on Sunday what she called her “final message” on Twitter, which has racked up 31 million views, telling her 21,900 followers “if you’re reading this, I’ve already killed myself”. In her message she claimed her family admitted to hiring “fixers” and a Saudi lawyer in the US, to bring her back to Saudi Arabia where transgender people face severe discrimination. The New Arab could not verify Knight’s cla…
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AlterNet In 2012, then-Vice President Joe Biden endorsed same-sex marriage as President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign was getting underway. Now, more than a decade later, Biden revealed to The Daily Show what led to his change of heart. “I’m curious what your evolution was like on marriage equality and what the federal government might be able to do to protect LGBTQ Americans, especially trans kids, who are dealing with all these regressive state laws that are popping up right now,” correspondent Kal Penn asked of the president. “I can remember exactly where my, uh, epiphany was,” Biden began. REA…
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Raw Story A northern Kentucky mother was banned from refereeing youth basketball games because she’s a lesbian. Ayanna Mckinney and her wife signed three or their six children up for basketball and cheerleading through Upward Sports, a nationwide nonprofit affiliated with Florence Baptist Temple, and she volunteered through six weeks of the season without incident — until two church officials came to her home and forbid her from calling games due to her sexual orientation, reported WCPO-TV. “I was just in disbelief,” she said. “I don’t know how they were that comfortable to come to our house and just t…
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TravelPulse Puerto Vallarta, on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, is nestled on one of the largest, deepest and most stunning natural bays in the world, Bahia de Banderas. The title of World’s Friendliest City has been awarded to Puerto Vallarta thanks to the warmth of its people and for welcoming visitors with open arms. For more than 60 years it has established itself as a premier destination for the LGBTQ+ community, and no wonder, because in addition to the warm hospitality, Puerto Vallarta offers a wide variety of attractions, from restaurants and bars to spas and exclusive tours. That’s not to mention almost …
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch There are a few political figures today more maligned by conservatives than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, mostly because she has been so effective. From her guidance of the Affordable Care Act through Congress more than a decade ago to her steady hand through the tumultuous Trump era, she built a legacy that history will treat far better than it will her detractors. But the 82-year-old Pelosi’s decision last week to step down as the House Democratic leader is the right one, handing off to a new generation during what is sure to be a confrontational reign by a slim Republican House majority. Whoe…
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AFP Pelosi rips up the State of the Union speech delivered by President Donald Trump in February 2020 Washington (AFP) – When Nancy Pelosi stunned the world by ripping up Donald Trump’s speech to Congress in 2020, the veteran lawmaker cemented the no-nonsense leadership style that made her perhaps the most effective US House speaker in history.
The longtime leader of Democrats in Washington has been a master strategist in the role, chastening the unbridled Trump and twice leading his impeachment, but also shepherding historic legislation as she navigated America’s bitter partisan divide.
As Pelosi announced she would be standing down from the leadership when Republicans take over the lower chamber, allies hailed her achievements as its first — and so far only — female speaker, while foes cheered her exit.
But there is little doubt the 82-year-old Californian has left an extraordinary mark over a career that established her as one of the most powerful, and polarizing, figures in American politics.
As a child, “never would I have thought that someday I would go from homemaker to House speaker,” Pelosi told fellow lawmakers Thursday, drawing applause from both sides of the aisle.
Come January, she said, it will be time to let “a new generation” take the reins.
San Francisco liberal
A San Francisco liberal and multimillionaire, Pelosi is far from universally popular.
She has long been a hate figure for the right — an animosity that seemed to reach shocking new levels when an intruder, apparently looking for the speaker, violently assaulted her husband in the runup to the November 8 midterms.
During the deadly 2021 assault on the US Capitol, supporters of then-president Trump ransacked her office, and a crowd baying for blood chanted “Where’s Nancy?” as they desecrated the halls of Congress.
The violence came after Trump refused to admit defeat and urged a rally to march on the Capitol to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s win.
Pelosi moved quickly after that to try to oust the man she called the “deranged, unhinged, dangerous president of the United States.”
Corralling Democrats with the tight grip she maintained on the party for two decades, she secured a second impeachment of the president days before he left office.
For as speaker, Pelosi was nothing if not effective.
She was instrumental in passing then-president Barack Obama’s key health care reforms as well as massive economic packages after both the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Pelosi’s goal may have been partisan but she succeeded thanks to cold-eyed realism, including working when needed with then-president George W. Bush even while fiercely opposing his invasion of Iraq.
Supporters believe she was vindicated on her anti-war stance and she was rewarded in 2007 when Democrats reclaimed the House and elected her speaker, making her the highest-ranking woman in US history until the inauguration of Vice President Kamala Harris in 2021.
“I want women to see that you do not get pushed around. You don’t run away from the fight,” Pelosi said in a 2018 interview — the year before she began her second term as speaker.
“If you’re effective as a woman, then they have to undermine you, because that’s a real threat.”
The one congressional job mentioned in the Constitution, the prestigious speaker position brings almost unfettered control over the day-to-day legislative process.
Pelosi had resisted Democratic calls to impeach Trump, the first time around, fearing the effects of overreach.
But she felt she had no choice after he was caught holding up US aid to Ukraine as he pressed a conspiracy theory about Biden.
That impeachment in 2019 poisoned her relationship with Trump, and as he wrapped up his State of the Union address later in the House chamber, Pelosi coolly tore up his speech — in an image that went instantly around the world.
Pelosi has often hit back at Trump rhetorically, and was captured on video reacting furiously to suggestions he might join his supporters during the Capitol insurrection.
“If he comes, I’m going to punch him out. I’ve been waiting for this,” she seethed.
“For trespassing on the Capitol grounds, I’m going to punch him out. And I’m going to go to jail, and I’m going to be happy.” 
Steeped in politics
The granddaughter of Italian immigrants, Pelosi was born in Baltimore where her father, Thomas D’Alesandro, was a mayor and congressman who schooled her in “retail politics” from a young age and staunchly backed Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Pelosi has said her family taught her two political lessons. “One is to know how to count — count your votes to win the election. The other is listen to your constituents.”
Pelosi attended her first Democratic National Convention before hitting her teens and was pictured with John F. Kennedy at his inaugural ball when she was 20.
She moved to San Francisco and raised five children with businessman Paul Pelosi while delving into Democratic politics before being elected to Congress at age 47.
Taking up causes important to a city with major LGBTQ and Asian-American communities, she fought to fund AIDS research and pressed human rights in China.
She remains a vocal ally of Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and won eternal antipathy from China’s communist leaders when, on a 1991 visit, she defiantly unfurled a banner in Tiananmen Square honoring pro-democracy students killed in a crushed uprising. 
While easily reelected to Congress every two years, the self-styled “mother, grandmother, dark chocolate connoisseur” became seen as a centrist by the standards of proudly left-wing San Francisco as she sought legislative compromise.
She will be stepping down at the end of a vexed congressional session in which she struggled to keep a lid on infighting between moderate and progressive Democrats.
This year she still managed to burnish her political legacy with a controversial trip to Taiwan — amid warnings from Beijing of “serious consequences.”
Defending the visit, she asked Americans to protect democracy worldwide and “make clear that we never give in to autocrats.”
And in her outgoing speech, Pelosi aimed once last barb at her presidential adversary. Saying she has “enjoyed working with three presidents,” Pelosi named George W. Bush, Obama and Biden — but left out Trump.

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Reuters By Heather Timmons
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The frequent targeting of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi by online extremists and political opponents likely contributed to the violent attack on her husband Paul, terrorism and extremism experts said.
The intruder at the Pelosis’ home yelled “Where’s Nancy?” before assaulting Paul Pelosi with a hammer, according to a person briefed on the incident. An internet user with the same name as the man arrested at the scene, David Depape, expressed support for former President Donald Trump and embraced the cult-like conspiracy theory QAnon in online posts that referenced “satanic paedophilia.”
Police have yet to comment on a motive in the attack.
But terrorism and extremism experts believe it could be an example of the growing threat of so-called stochastic terrorism, in which sometimes unstable individuals are inspired to violence by hate speech and scenarios they see online and hear echoed by public figures.
“This was clearly a targeted attack. The purpose was to locate and potentially harm the speaker of the house,” said John Cohen, a former counterterrorism coordinator and head of intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security, who is currently working with state and local law enforcement across the country on the issue.
“This is a continuation of a trend that we have been experiencing over the past several years. It is a threat dynamic that has law enforcement extraordinarily concerned.”
Pelosi has been demonized online and in public by both far right and far left-leaning political websites and figures. Graphics depicting her being beheaded, and a call to send immigrants to her home, with her address, circulated online this summer, according to Site Intelligence Group, which researches online extremism.
Rita Katz, executive director of Site, said the Speaker was a hate figure for much of the political right, and is the “face of the Democratic establishment and, as such, at the center of many QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories.”
Those theories and people who espouse them are sometimes promoted by more mainstream public figures, amplifying the threats, experts say.
“While the intent may be to mobilize one’s political base or generate ratings it also adds to the volatility of the threat environment,” said Cohen.
Individual attackers, sometimes known as “lone wolves” frequently combine personal with political grievances and are reinforced and radicalized by things they read online, the DOJ’s research arm The National Institute of Justice reports.
Attacks on political figures, places of worship and races or ethnicities have occurred in the United States for decades, but law enforcement professionals say the current environment is particularly dangerous.
“Today’s radical extremism threat has this powerful digital component that can really accelerate recruitment and activate violence across a broader threat landscape,” Aisha Qureshi, a social science analyst at the National Institute, said in an agency podcast before the Pelosi attack.
“Just the sheer volume and speed of misinformation spread through social media really exacerbates this problem,” she said.
Threats against political leaders are rising in the United States. Cases related to “concerning statements and threats” against members of Congress jumped from 3,939 in 2017 to 9,625 in 2021, according to the U.S. Capitol Police.
“Look at the FBI attack in Ohio,” said Todd Helmus, a senior behavioral scientist at security research firm Rand Corp., referring to an August incident when an armed man tried to break into the Cincinnati FBI headquarters.
Helmus linked that incident to rhetoric surrounding the FBI’s removal of classified documents from Trump’s Florida estate. Site said the Pelosi attack was being celebrated online by far-right supporters.
“We’re just waiting for more of these things to occur,” said Helmus.
(Reporting by Heather Timmons; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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Reuters By Paresh Dave and Steve Gorman
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -The man accused of bludgeoning U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer after breaking into the couple’s home threatened to take her hostage and break her kneecaps if she lied under his questioning, according to a federal criminal complaint filed on Monday.
David Wayne DePape’s alleged intentions emerged as federal prosecutors charged the 42-year-old suspect with assault and attempted kidnapping in Friday’s predawn break-in at the Pelosis’ San Francisco home.
Several state charges were filed separately in San Francisco Superior Court, including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, elder abuse and threatening a public official, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced at a news conference. An arraignment was set for Tuesday, her office said.
The 82-year-old speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a Democrat who is second in the line of succession to the U.S. presidency, was in Washington at the time of the assault. Her husband, Paul Pelosi, 82, a real estate and venture capital executive, has undergone surgery for skull fractures and injuries to his hands and right arm, and he remained hospitalized on Monday.
“Paul is making steady progress on what will be a long recovery process,” the speaker said in a statement on Monday.
The attack, which Jenkins called “politically motivated,” has stoked fears about partisan extremist violence just over a week ahead of the midterm elections, on Nov. 8, that will decide control of Congress during one of the most vitriolic and polarized U.S. campaigns in decades. Democrats’ continued control of both the House and the Senate is at stake.
As one of the highest-ranking Democrats in Washington and a longtime representative of one of America’s most liberal cities, Nancy Pelosi has been a frequent lightning rod for expressions of conservative criticism and contempt.
Her office was ransacked during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of supporters of Republican President Donald Trump, some of whom hunted for her during the melee, following a fiery speech by Trump featuring false claims that his defeat in the 2020 presidential election was the result of fraud.
AWAKENED BY STRANGER
DePape was arrested by police officers dispatched to the Pelosis’ home after Paul Pelosi placed an emergency-911 call reporting an intruder, according to an FBI affidavit filed as part of the federal criminal complaint.
The San Francisco Police Department recovered zip ties in the bedroom and in the hallway near the front door. Police also found a roll of tape, rope, a second hammer, a pair of gloves and a journal in DePape’s backpack, the affidavit said. The intruder had broken in through a glass door to the residence.
Paul Pelosi, who was initially left unconscious from the attack, later told police that he was asleep when a stranger, armed with a hammer, crept into his second-floor bedroom and awakened him, demanding to speak with his spouse, the complaint states.
According to Paul Pelosi’s account in the affidavit, he told the intruder that his wife would be away for several days and the intruder responded that he would stay and wait for her. Pelosi’s husband recounted that he managed to slip away to the bathroom to place the 911 call, the affidavit said.
The suspect told police in an interview following his arrest that he planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage for questioning, and that if she told the “truth” he would let her go but if she “lied” he would break her kneecaps, according to the FBI affidavit.
He told police he did not flee the Pelosi home after Paul Pelosi’s 911 call because, according to the affidavit, “much like the American founding fathers with the British, he was fighting against tyranny without the option to surrender.”
Authorities said police officers arriving at the Pelosi home saw DePape and Pelosi struggling over a hammer. As the officers shouted at both men to drop the tool, DePape yanked the hammer away and struck Pelosi in the head before officers subdued DePape and took him into custody.
DePape was charged in federal court with one count of assault on a family member of a U.S. official and one count of attempted kidnapping of a U.S. official. Prosecutors alleged the offenses stemmed from the suspect’s intent to retaliate against the House speaker for her “performance of official duties.”
The federal charges carry a combined maximum sentence of 50 years in prison, the Justice Department said in a statement announcing the charges. The state charges are punishable by a prison sentence of 13 years to life, Jenkins said.
Online messages recently posted to several websites by an internet user named “daviddepape” expressed bigoted sentiments against minorities, Jews, women and transgender people while embracing the cult-like, right-wing conspiracy theory QAnon.
Older online messages promoted quartz crystals and hemp bracelets. Reuters could not confirm the posts were created by the suspect charged on Monday.
Experts on extremist ideology have said Friday’s attack appeared to be an example of a growing trend they call “stochastic terrorism,” in which sometimes-unstable individuals are inspired to violence by hate speech and scenarios they see online and hear echoed by public figures.
(Reporting by Paresh Dave in San Francisco and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington, Brendan O’Brien in Chicago and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Howard Goller, Rosalba O’Brien and Leslie Adler)

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The Spun By Andrew McCarty On Tuesday afternoon, a former Kentucky star and current professional basketball player made a significant announcement. In a video posted to Twitter, former Kentucky standout Isaac Humphries announced he’s gay. The video shows Humphries addressing his teammates face-to-face. In the video, Humphries revealed he tried to take his own life because he was “disgusted” with himself before growing to love himself. “I decided that if I’m going to join a team, I’m going to come out publicly and just make sure people know that you can live and you don’t have to hide just because you’r…
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BANG Showbiz English Jesse Tyler Ferguson has welcomed his second child via surrogate.
The former ‘Modern Family’ star and his husband Justin Mikita “are overjoyed” to add another bundle of joy to their family, a son named Sullivan Louis Ferguson-Mikita on Tuesday (15.11.22).
In a joint statement, the 47-year-old actor and the 37-year-old producer said: “We are overjoyed to be a family of four.”
Jesse and Justin offered their gratitude to their “incredible surrogate” – whose identity they have not revealed – and the head of the California Reproductive Center in Beverly Hills.
They wrote: “A special thanks to @drshahinghadir for helping us grow our family and our incredible surrogate and all of the nurses and doctors.”
Jesse and Justin were “sad” to miss the latest string of performances of their smash-hit Broadway play ‘Take Me Out’ but will be back on the Great White Way next week.
They wrote: “Sad to be away from my @takemeoutbway fam tonight but we ran off to welcome our newest little one.”
The couple – who also have two-year-old son Beckett – were congratulated by some of their A-list pals, such as Sarah Hyland, whose August wedding to Wells Adams was officiated by Jesse.
His 31-year-old former co-star commented: “The sweetest!”
The couple shared the news they were “expecting” again back in May.
Jesse wrote: “@justinmikita and I have some exciting news, we’re expecting No. 2! Our growing family will be a family of four later this fall! We are so excited for Beckett to have a sibling.”
In March 2021, the ‘Ice Age: Collision Course’ star remarked he found parenthood “astonishing”.
Jesse said: “[Parenting is] astonishing. I can be in a bad mood and seeing [Beckett] super excited, kicking and smiling, it just immediately lifts my spirits. It’s so pure and sweet. And it gives me so much joy.”

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New York Daily News “Jeopardy!” champ Amy Schneider testified Wednesday against an Ohio bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth in the state. The Ohio native — who became a household name after winning40 consecutive games on the popular quiz show from November 2021 to January 2022 — opened up about life as a transgender woman, and the relief she felt after transitioning. Schneider, who came out as trans about five years ago, said that “from the moment that I was born, there was this quiet alarm going off at the back of MY head” that only stopped after she began transitioning. “After decade…
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Reuters By Richard Cowan and Moira Warburton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to step down from her leadership role after her fellow Democrats lost their majority in last week’s midterm elections positions Hakeem Jeffries – a liberal congressman from New York – as a likely top contender to lead the party for the next two years.
Jeffries, 52, would be the first Black House Democratic leader, representing both the party’s diverse voter base and bringing a new generation of leadership. Pelosi, the first woman to hold the job of speaker, is 82, and two other members of the party’s leadership are in their 80s. House Democrats are scheduled to vote on their leaders on Nov. 30.
Jeffries, who has held the leadership post of House Democratic Caucus chairman since 2019, also would represent a stylistic contrast to Pelosi, who made her announcement on Thursday. She has proven in two stints as speaker to be hard-charging whereas he is generally considered more reserved.
“It’s Jeffries’ to lose,” said one House Democratic aide keeping close watch of leadership jostling, who asked not to be identified.
Pelosi and other senior Democrats have been under pressure to give way to a younger generation of Democrats in the 435-seat House.
Some other top Democrats may also covet becoming the top House Democrat.
Current House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer, 83, said he would not seek a leadership position in the next Congress and backed Jeffries.
Also in the mix for the top leadership job might be the current No. 3 House Democrat, 82-year-old James Clyburn of South Carolina. Clyburn has been an important voice in the Congressional Black Caucus and played a major role in energizing President Joe Biden’s 2020 primary election campaign.
Clyburn told reporters ahead of Pelosi’s announcement that he intends to remain in the House Democratic leadership regardless of the path she takes.
“I plan to stay in leadership. I’ve been saying that all year,” Clyburn said, adding that he has “no idea” which leadership post he would fill in the next Congress.
“It’s up to the caucus,” Clyburn said.
Representative Katherine Clark, 59, of Massachusetts is likely to run for the No. 2 Democratic leadership job, a post known as “whip.” Clark has served in leadership positions and, like Jeffries, is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Moderate Californian Pete Aguilar could move up from vice chairman of the caucus to become chairman, the job Jeffries now holds.
THE MINORITY PARTY
The next House Democratic leader will be expected to work closely with others in party leadership on legislation, strategy and messaging.
Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, 62, has also risen in prominence over the past few years thanks to his leading role in the impeachment of Donald Trump and the subsequent investigation into the Republican former president’s role in the attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
But Schiff does not have his eyes on a House leadership position and instead is considering a run for the U.S. Senate, a source familiar with his thinking said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The post of minority leader wields far less clout that the speaker. The Democratic leadership team’s duty in the minority will be deciding if and when to help Republicans get essential legislation passed such as government funding bills, amid potential revolts from far-right Republicans.
Republican Kevin McCarthy, positioning himself to become speaker, will preside over a very narrow majority in the chamber, with no more than seven votes to play with, depending on the outcome of the few remaining House races still up in the air, with votes still being counted.
Top Democrats also will be responsible for promoting Biden’s agenda in the final two years of his term. And it would defend him during any Republican-led House investigations of his administration or his family.
The party leader also plays a key role in raising campaign funds for House Democratic candidates – a task at which Pelosi excelled, having raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in her two-decade run.
(Reporting by Moira Warburton and Richard Cowan; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott Malone)

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New York Daily News NEW YORK — Embattled actor Kevin Spacey took the witness stand Monday at his Manhattan trial, where he launched into his testimony by revealing his rocky relationship with a “neo-Nazi” father who verbally abused him because he suspected his son was gay. Spacey, who is being sued in Manhattan federal court by actor Anthony Rapp in a $40 million civil lawsuit that claims the older actor aggressively came on to him in 1986 when he was 14, told jurors that his father was a white supremacist who ”used to yell at me about the idea I might be gay because I was interested in theater, and he didn’t enc…
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Reuters (Reuters) -Angela Lansbury, the British-born actress whose career spanned eight decades and produced indelible portraits of a wide range of characters from villainesses to sleuths and light comic roles in movies, on stage and on television, died at age 96, her family said on Tuesday in a statement.
Lansbury, who played a crime-solving mystery writer in the long-running U.S. television series “Murder, She Wrote,” “died peacefully in her sleep” at home in Los Angeles, according to a statement from her children.
The actress was just five days shy of her 97th birthday, the statement said.
In movies, Lansbury turned in riveting supporting performances, including her film debut as a teenager playing the conniving Cockney maid in “Gaslight” in 1944, as the doomed Sibyl in “The Picture of Dorian Gray” in 1945 and as Laurence Harvey’s evil, manipulative mother in “The Manchurian Candidate” in 1962. All three roles earned her Academy Award nominations.
Nearly seven decades after her first film, she was awarded an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement at age 88 in November 2013. Academy Award winners Geoffrey Rush and Emma Thompson offered a tribute to Lansbury at the ceremony. Rush lauded her as the “living definition of range,” while Thompson recalled tossing a pie at Lansbury during the filming of the 2005 comedy “Nanny McPhee.”
(Reporting by Tyler Clifford, Lisa Richwine and Will Dunham; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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BANG Showbiz English Billy Eichner believes homophobia was a factor in the flop of his gay romcom ‘Bros’.
Although Billy deleted tweets in which he referenced homophobia as a reason for ‘Bros’ low box-office takings on its opening weekend, he insisted that it was one of the factors for the surprise flop.
Speaking at the New Yorker Festival, Billy said: “Homophobia is a bigger problem than as it pertains to this silly rom-com we made, you know what I mean? But do I think it’s a factor? Yes. I think in certain parts of the country, it probably was a factor.”
However, he admitted that there were other issues too, including the wide theatrical release and the marketing of the movie.
He said: “There’s a lot of factors to it. To open this movie, in this many theatres, a rom-com in 2022 — there are rom-coms with mega-stars, which struggle at the box office, and a lot of the biggest comedy stars are taking their movies to streaming. And for good reason. That seems to be where people want to watch these movies. I still love seeing these movies in the theatre. I grew up going to see all these romantic comedies at the movies with my parents.
“It was a bold swing to open this movie in this many movie theatres without big movie stars.”
He added about the marketing: “I think what we were doing is trying to find every which way to try to motivate people because the odds were so stacked against us for so many reasons.
“It’s just funny, you know, life is absurd. It’s just a rom-com. We wanted to make a Nora Ephron movie about horny gay guys, and it’s inspired a lot of thinkpieces and op-eds. I didn’t know people were so interested in me.
“I love the movie, and I just hope more and more people keep discovering it.”

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Raw Story By Matthew Chapman On Monday, The Daily Beast reported that Michael Flynn, former President Donald Trump’s short-lived first National Security Adviser and notorious conspiracy theorist, was just elected to a local GOP leadership position in Sarasota, Florida. “On Thursday evening, Flynn was one of several dozen new members of the local Republican executive committee elected by voice vote at the Morgan Family Community Center in North Port, Florida,” reported Michael Daly. “As if that were not scary enough, they also elected James Hoel, a local leader of the Proud Boys.” “Hoel and fellow Proud …
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Reuters By Michael Holden
LONDON (Reuters) – The crowning achievement of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, who died on Thursday after 70 years on the throne, was to maintain the popularity of the monarchy across decades of seismic political, social and cultural change that threatened to make it an anachronism.
A dignified, dependable figure who reigned longer than any other British monarch, Elizabeth helped steer the institution into the modern world, stripping away court ritual and making it somewhat more open and accessible, all in the glare of an increasingly intrusive and often hostile media.
While the nation she reigned over sometimes struggled to find its place in a new world order and her own family often fell foul of public expectations, the queen herself remained a symbol of stability. She also tried to transcend class barriers and earned the grudging respect of even hardened republicans.
To much of the world she was the personification of Britain, yet she remained something of an enigma as an individual, never giving an interview and rarely expressing emotion or offering a personal opinion in public – a woman recognised by millions but known by hardly anyone.
“I think she’s brought life, energy and passion to the job, she’s managed to modernise and evolve the monarchy like no other,” her grandson Prince William, who is now the heir to the throne, said in a television documentary in 2012.
THE YOUNG QUEEN
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born on April 21, 1926 at 17 Bruton Street in central London.
The young princess never expected to ascend to the throne: it was only after her uncle King Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 because of his love for American divorcee Wallis Simpson that the crown passed to her father, George VI, when she was 10.
She was just 25 when her father died and she became Queen Elizabeth II on February 6, 1952, while on tour in Kenya with her husband Prince Philip. Winston Churchill was the first of 15 prime ministers who served during her reign.
“In a way I didn’t have an apprenticeship, my father died much too young and so it was all a very sudden kind of taking on, and making the best job you can,” she said in a 1992 documentary.
“It’s a question of maturing into something that one’s got used to doing and accepting the fact that here you are and it’s your fate. It is a job for life.”
During her 70 years on the throne Britain underwent dramatic change.
The austere postwar 1950s gave way to the swinging 60s, the divisive leadership of Margaret Thatcher in the 80s, Tony Blair’s three-term New Labour era, a return to economic austerity and then the COVID-19 pandemic.
Labour and Conservative governments came and went, feminism changed attitudes to women, and Britain became a much more cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic society.
Elizabeth was on the throne for most of the Cold War from the death of Soviet leader Josef Stalin. During her reign there were 14 U.S. presidents, from Harry S. Truman to Joe Biden, and she met all bar Lyndon Johnson.
Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in 2016 exposed deep divisions in British society, while nationalists continued their push for a new referendum on Scottish independence that had the potential to rip apart the United Kingdom.
“As we look for new answers in the modern age, I for one prefer the tried and tested recipes, like speaking well of each other and respecting different points of view; coming together to seek out the common ground; and never losing sight of the bigger picture,” the queen said ahead of a 2014 referendum on Scottish secession, in what appeared to be a message to politicians. Scots voted to remain in the United Kingdom.
MORE EGALITARIAN
Over time, Britain evolved into a more egalitarian society, where the ruling class had to make way for a burgeoning middle class, where aristocrats no longer dominated the top universities and the majority of hereditary peers lost their seats in parliament’s House of Lords.
At first, Elizabeth relied heavily on her father’s old circle of advisers but gradually she brought in more career diplomats and business executives to the royal court as she and her husband Philip sought to modernise the monarchy.
“She’s shrewd, she’s compassionate, she has a good deal of insight, and she has the typical and traditional virtues that you associate with the British,” former Prime Minister John Major said amid celebrations to mark her 90th birthday.
“If you were designing someone to be monarch here in Britain, I think you would design someone exactly like Elizabeth II.”
In 1992, the queen responded to criticism about royal wealth by offering to pay income tax and cutting the number of her family members on the state payroll.
But her years on the throne were often far from smooth sailing.
She spent much of the early part of her reign saying farewell to the British Empire amassed under her forebears, from Kenya to Hong Kong. Barbados was the most recent country to dispense with her as head of state in November 2021.
However, she remained the monarch of 15 countries and head of the Commonwealth.
Her marriage to Philip, a Greek prince she wed aged 21, stayed solid for 73 years until his death in April 2021, but her sister, daughter and two of her sons were – very publicly – not so lucky in love.
She famously described as an “annus horribilis” the 40th anniversary of her accession in 1992 after three of her four children’s marriages failed and there was a fire at her Windsor Castle residence.
PRINCESS DIANA’S DEATH
The death in 1997 of Princess Diana, the divorced wife of Elizabeth’s eldest son Charles, inflicted even more damage on the family’s public prestige.
It was the only occasion during her reign when there was any serious suggestion that the monarchy’s days might be numbered. The period was famously captured in the 2006 Oscar-winning film “The Queen”, when Elizabeth was portrayed as earnest but misunderstood.
But while her children and other royals at times blundered in and out of tabloid headlines with marital woes and public indiscretions, Elizabeth’s own behaviour remained above reproach.
“It’s not that she’s never put a foot wrong, it’s more positive than that – she understands the British people,” said Professor Vernon Bogdanor, an expert in British constitutional history.
The main criticism levelled against her was that she was too solemn, distant and aloof.
Critics said the only time she had shown real emotion in public was when the royals bid a tearful farewell to their magnificent yacht Britannia, months after her stoical response to Diana’s death.
But according to those who worked closely with her, in private she was not the detached public figure most saw, but perceptive, funny, and keenly aware of the nation’s mood.
LESS FORMALITY
In the last 20 years, backed by a far more professional and sophisticated media operation, there was still pomp and pageantry, but less formality around the queen and her family.
Millions turned out for celebrations to mark her 50th, 60th and 70th years on the throne, while her starring role in a spoof James Bond film became the highlight of the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games.
In the short sequence she greeted Bond actor Daniel Craig at Buckingham Palace, uttering just four words before visual effects showed her apparently joining him on a helicopter and parachuting into the stadium.
A decade later at the start of a Platinum Jubilee pop concert, she again won huge plaudits for a pre-recorded comic sketch with Paddington Bear, in which she told the famous fictional character that she always kept his favourite snack – a marmalade sandwich – in her ever-present handbag.
The queen was said to crack jokes with world leaders, enjoy an easy familiarity with long-serving Commonwealth heads of government, and relish a wager on race horses. Racing was an enduring passion.
She was also accompanied for most of her reign by her corgi dogs, which earned a reputation for snapping at the heels of royal retainers and were descended from the dog called Susan she received as an 18th birthday gift from her parents.
“What we actually know about the queen is remarkably little,” said Matthew Dennison, a biographer of Elizabeth.
“We know that she enjoys racing. We know that she likes corgis. We know that she prefers blankets and sheets to duvets. But beyond that, we know almost nothing about her.”
During World War Two she learned to be a driver and a mechanic while serving in the women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service.
Her love of the outdoors and of animals was well documented and commentators said she came across as more at home in tweeds than tiaras.
“I do rather begrudge some of the hours that I have to do instead of being outdoors,” she once said.
Prince William’s wife Kate said that behind closed doors, the queen eschewed royal pomp.
“You would expect a lot of grandeur and a lot of fuss… but actually what really resonates with me is her love for simple things, the lack of fuss and I think that’s a special quality to have,” Kate told a TV documentary to mark Elizabeth’s 90th birthday.
CORONATION
Elizabeth became queen in 1952 and was crowned on June 2, 1953 in a televised ceremony in Westminster Abbey, becoming the first queen in her own right since Queen Victoria and the 40th monarch in a royal line that traces its origin back to William the Conqueror in 1066.
“Horrible,” she said of the carriage ride which took her from Buckingham Palace to the Abbey. “It’s only sprung on leather, not very comfortable.”
In September 2015, she overtook Victoria to become the country’s longest ever reigning monarch, an achievement to which she said she had never aspired, and the following year there were more celebrations for her 90th birthday.
She ascended the throne at the same age as Elizabeth I, but while the first Elizabeth saw her country attain the status of an important trading nation in the 16th century, her namesake presided over a Britain slipping from its position as a world leader in industry and technology.
As Britain’s place shifted, so the queen came to stand for unity, and the pomp around her family – with gilded carriages and spectacular royal weddings – a source of national pride for many.
Prince William’s marriage in 2011 to commoner Kate Middleton, which saw more than a million people throng London’s streets and drew an estimated two billion global viewers, was testament to that.
Opinion polls showed the country still largely believed in the hereditary monarch as head of state.
However, with her death, the monarchy’s future is set to face scrutiny like never before. Some commentators say the British public will not feel as strongly towards Charles, and polls suggest he is far less popular.
The decision of Prince Harry, William’s younger brother, and his American wife Meghan, a former actress, to give up their royal roles has also robbed the institution of two of its most popular global figures, while their accusations of racism against the institution linger.
The U.S. sex abuse civil lawsuit against second son Prince Andrew, which he paid to settle, has also inflicted damage on the family’s reputation. Andrew did not admit any wrongdoing in the case. He was not accused of criminal wrongdoing.
FAMILY LIFE AND PUBLIC DUTY
At her side for nearly all her reign was her husband, who she credited with being her “strength and stay”.
“I was blessed that in Prince Philip I had a partner willing to carry out the role of consort and unselfishly make the sacrifices that go with it,” she said in February 2022 when she marked 70 years on the throne.
The couple had four children: Charles born in 1948, Anne in 1950, Andrew in 1960 and Edward in 1964.
She had eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
During much of her reign she was often upstaged for attention by three flamboyant women – her popular mother, Elizabeth the Queen Mother, her younger sister Margaret and later Princess Diana.
But the personal sorrow of losing her mother and sister – who died within weeks of each other in her Golden Jubilee year of 2002 – helped the queen establish her own position, leaving her the undisputed matriarchal figure of the nation.
Her working life included thousands of official engagements, varying from trips to schools and hospitals, to the grand ceremonies of state visits and national occasions.
She was famous for wearing brightly coloured outfits with a matching hat on royal engagements, to ensure she stood out from the crowds on her many “walkabouts”.
“I have to be seen to be believed,” she is said to have quipped.
She also took her religious duties as Supreme Governor of the Church of England very seriously, saying in 2012 the established Church was “commonly under-appreciated”.
She travelled further than any previous monarch, undertaking more than 250 overseas visits to well over 100 countries. She was renowned for her stamina and began cutting back on a once hectic timetable of foreign tours only as she moved into her 80s.
Even in her 90s she regularly carried out engagements. On one such event at the age of 93, she told officials she was still capable of planting a tree before shovelling the soil into the hole, and it was another two years after that before she needed to use a walking stick in public.
When she was hospitalised in March 2013 with symptoms of gastroenteritis, it was the first time she had needed hospital treatment in a decade.
It was not until October 2021 that she next spent a night in hospital, and she doggedly carried on with light duties even after testing positive for COVID in February the following year.
Her enduring importance was demonstrated at the start of the pandemic in 2020. With an anxious nation under a rigorous lockdown, the government turned to the queen to provide reassurance in a televised broadcast. Usually she gave such addresses only in her annual Christmas broadcast.
The queen had a few notable security scares. In 1981, a British youth fired blank shots near her during the military Trooping the Colour ceremony. Her horse shied but she was unhurt.
The same year, a “severely disturbed” teenager tried to assassinate the monarch while she was on a visit to New Zealand but he missed with his rifle shot.
In July 1982, an unemployed labourer called Michael Fagan made his way into her Buckingham Palace bedroom. He spoke briefly to Elizabeth, who was in her nightclothes, before being hauled off by security guards.
THE FUTURE
“It has been said that ‘the art of progress is to preserve order amid change and change amid order’, and in this the queen is unparalleled,” then-Prime Minister David Cameron said in a speech to parliament in 2012.
“She has never shut the door on the future; instead, she has led the way through it.”
The queen’s family and Britain’s political elite spoke in admiration of her ability to adapt without losing any of the dignity of her role.
The future success of the monarchy could depend on how much Britons admire the next person on the throne.
“Monarchy is only as good as the people doing the job,” said royal biographer Robert Lacey, who was historical consultant to the Netflix drama “The Crown”.
“We are essentially, when you look at the structure and the way the country runs, a republic with this glorious bauble that we all enjoy on top. And we can always unscrew the bauble any time we want.”
Elizabeth herself set out her life’s goal at an early age.
“I declare before you all,” she said in a 21st birthday broadcast, “that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family.”
(Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Andrew Heavens and Frances Kerry)

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Raw Story By Travis Gettys A Southern Baptist youth minister from Arkansas is accused of sexually abusing more than two dozen boys. Keenan Hord, of Centerton, was arrested Wednesday in connection with investigations into sexual assault, sexual indecency and child pornography, although prosecutors have not formally charged the former youth minister who served at least two churches, reported the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “We have been devastated to learn that a former employee of our church has been credibly accused of abusing adolescents during his tenure at our church,” said First Baptist Bentonville s…
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