Beyoncé burns Jay Z in new video and album

By Hardeep Phull | New York Post |

Bey’s back, and if you think the “Formation” video caused a stir, then check out “Lemonade.”

Her long-awaited sixth album, “Lemonade,” was announced to the world on Saturday night via an hour-long video companion, which premiered on HBO. The central theme was her strained relationship with husband Jay.

A number of songs, including “Pray You Catch Me” and “Don’t Hurt Yourself,” alluded heavily to the rapper’s long-rumored infidelity. The video segment to “Hold Up” left even less to the imagination, as Bey is filmed cheerily walking down a street, using a baseball bat to smash up everything in sight. Too subtle? Well, try the next scene, in which she drives a monster truck over a row of cars, completely obliterating them.

The track “Sorry” even goes as far as throwing in names. Beyoncé wistfully sings, “He only want me when I’m not there/He better call Becky with the good hair.” Whether Becky is a fictional name or not, it seems we finally know what Jay’s 2014 showdown with Solange Knowles in a Standard Hotel elevator was all about.

Just as the HBO video seemed destined to end in divorce papers, the album’s narrative actually took a turn towards reconciliation, especially on the raw piano ballad “Sandcastles.” It featured accompanying footage of a reunited Jay and Bey tenderly holding and caressing each other.

The visual album also made a point of addressing the other main man in her life – father Matthew Knowles. The bluesy “Daddy Lessons” didn’t shy away from his own infidelity and his emotional mistreatment of Beyoncé’s mother, Tina. But the singer also paid homage to her father’s wisdom, included were scenes from a touching home video with Knowles and a pre-teen Beyoncé.

“Lemonade” also featured a string of cameo appearances from celebrities, including Zendaya, Amandla Stenberg, Quevenzhané Wallis and a twerking Serena Williams.

The album and its visual companion are streaming exclusively on the Jay Z-backed streaming service TIDAL, which describes “Lemonade” as a “conceptual project based on every woman’s journey of self-knowledge and healing.”

Here’s 18 Lemonade Lyrics That Seem to Confirm Jay Z Cheated on Beyoncé

As Beyoncé’s Lemonade special unfolded on HBO Saturday night, it became clear that Beyoncé was mad at someone. A lot of people thought it might be Jay Z, and that the special would end with the couple announcing their divorce. Spoiler alert — they reconciled by the end, but it’s clear there was some drama along the way. While some viewers thought Bey’s lyrics were directed at her father, Mathew Knowles, others thought they served to confirm rumors that Jay cheated on Beyoncé at some point (never forget the elevator). Below, 18 lyrics that seem to support the latter theory.

1. You can taste the dishonesty / It’s on your breath as you pass it off so cavalier. (“Pray You Catch Me”)

2. Can’t you see there’s no other man above you / What a wicked way to treat the girl that loves you. (“Hold Up”)

3. Something don’t feel right because it ain’t right, especially coming up after midnight / I smell your secrets and I’m not too perfect to ever feel this worthless / How did it come down to this, going through your call list? / I don’t wanna lose my pride but I’ma fuck me up a bitch. (“Hold Up”)

4. What’s worse, looking jealous or crazy? Jealous or crazy? / More like walked all over lately, walked all over lately, I’d rather be crazy. (“Hold Up”)

5. It’s such a shame, you let this good love go to waste. (“Hold Up”)

6. Who the fuck do you think I am? You ain’t married to no average bitch, boy. (“Don’t Hurt Yourself”)

7. I am the dragon breathing fire / Beautiful man, I’m the lion / Beautiful man, I know you’re lying. (“Don’t Hurt Yourself”)

8. I smell that fragrance on your Louis V, boy / Just give my fat ass a big kiss, boy / Tonight I’m fucking up all your shit, boy. (“Don’t Hurt Yourself”)

9. This is your final warning / You know I give you life / If you try this shit again you gon’ lose your wife. (“Don’t Hurt Yourself”)

10. Looking at my watch, he shoulda been home / Today I regret the night I put that ring on / He always got them fucking excuses. (“Sorry”)

11. He only want me when I’m not on there / He better call Becky with the good hair. (“Sorry”)

12. My daddy warned me about men like you / He said, “Baby girl, he’s playing you.” (“Daddy Lessons”)

13. I’ve always been committed, I’ve been focused / I always paid attention, been devoted, tell me what did I do wrong? (“Love Drought”)

14. Ten times out of nine, I know you’re lying /  But nine times outta ten, I know you’re trying. (“Love Drought”)

15. Are you aware you’re my lifeline, are you trying to kill me? /  If I wasn’t me, would you still feel me? /  Like on my worst day? Or am I not thirsty enough? (“Love Drought”)

16. Pictures snatched out the frame /  Bitch, I scratched out your name and your face /  What is it about you that I can’t erase, baby? (“Sandcastles”)

17. We built sandcastles that washed away  / I made you cry when I walked away  / And although I promised that I couldn’t stay, baby /  Every promise don’t work out that way. (“Sandcastles”)

18. Found the truth beneath your lies  / And true love never has to hide. (“All Night”)

Tens of thousands of people are calling for a Target boycott

More than 182,000 people have signed a pledge to boycott Target after the retailer said it would welcome transgender customers to use any bathroom or fitting room that matches their gender identity.

The boycott pledge was started by the conservative American Family Association (AFA).

“Target’s policy is exactly how sexual predators get access to their victims,” AFA President Tim Wildmon said in an open letter. “This means a man can simply say he ‘feels like a woman today’ and enter the women’s restroom … even if young girls or women are already in there.”

Wildmon urged people to sign the boycott pledge, claiming the policy “poses a danger to wives and daughters.” He also urged people to complain about the policy on Target’s Facebook page.

He suggested that Target should install separate unisex bathrooms instead of giving all genders access to facilities designated for women or men.

Target clarified its position on transgender bathrooms in a statement on Tuesday.

“We welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity,” the retailer said in the statement. “Everyone deserves to feel like they belong. And you’ll always be accepted, respected and welcomed at Target.”

Target’s statement included a redesigned version of its signature bull’s-eye logo to include a rainbow.

The move won Target a lot of praise on social media.

“You have, again, shown that your stores are inclusive and meant to be a safe haven, and I intend to repay your loyalty with my own,” one customer wrote on Target’s Facebook page.

Tens_of_thousands_of_people-3cfa98363584f60653f05814ea95db2f — Target redesigned its logo to include a rainbow

Another customer wrote, “I want to tell you that I will forever be a Target shopper.” A third said, “Thank you for always being a place I have felt welcomed.”

Not all the feedback was positive, however.

“I am appalled by your decision,” wrote one customer. “Shame on you.”

Dozens said they would never shop at Target again as a result of the policy.

“Shame on Target,” one critic wrote. “Restrooms have placards depicting gender on them for a reason. I will not step foot in another Target.”

Target is following in the footsteps of Kroger, which also recently clarified its policy on gender-specific bathrooms.

A Kroger in Athens, Georgia, posted a sign on its bathroom door saying: “We have a UNISEX bathroom because sometimes gender specific toilets put others into uncomfortable situations.”

A customer snapped a photo of the sign and posted it to Facebook, where the post went viral.

Companies are starting to weigh in on transgender issues after the governor of North Carolina signed a bill in late March forcing people to use the bathroom that corresponds with the sex listed on their birth certificate.

In Minnesota, where Target is headquartered, a Republican state senator proposed a bill that would limit access to restrooms and dressing rooms based on individuals’ “biological sex.”

Legendary Artist Prince Found Dead at 57

Seth Abramovitch | The Hollywood Reporter/

Prince, a dizzylingly prolific multi-instrumentalist and virtuosic performer, was found dead at his home and recording studio in Minnesota early on Thursday, his publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 57.

Deputies are on scene at Paisley Park in Chanhassen conducting a death investigation currently, authorities said. No further details were immediately available and the cause of death is not being released at this time.

The performer was born Prince Rogers Nelson June 7, 1958, in Minneapolis, Minn.

He released his debut album, For You, in 1978, followed by Prince (1979), Dirty Mind (1980) and Controversy (1981). All of them traded in his trademark sound – deep synth funk grooves with provocatively sexual lyrics and heart-piercing ballads sung in pure falsetto.

His mainstream breakthrough came with back-to-back albums with his backing band the Revolution: In 1982, 1999 launched several pop and dance floor hits onto the charts, including “Little Red Corvette” and the title song, a post-apocalyptic party anthem.

Two years later he released the album – a soundtrack, actually, to his movie-starring debut – that would launch him into the same superstar stratosphere of other 1980s pop titans like Michael Jackson and Madonna.

The soundtrack was 1984’s Purple Rain, a searing musical backdrop to a semi-autobiographical tale of “The Kid,” a Minneapolis rocker from an abusive family. The album launched five singles, two of which – “When Doves Cry” and Let’s Go Crazy” – went to Number 1 on the Billboard chart. The title ballad reached Number 2 and has gone on to become one of the most recognizable rock anthems in history. The soundtrack itself is frequently cited on music critics’ polls as being one of the best of all time, and Prince won an Oscar for original score in 1985.

Subsequent releases grew more experimental in nature, including the psychedelic Around the World in a Day (1985) and Sign “O” the Times (1987), a double-album recorded partly before a live audience in Paris that dispensed with the Revolution and which is widely considered to have been produced at Prince’s creative peak. (Among the compositions on it are “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker,” “If I was Your Girlfriend,” and “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man.”)

In between he starred in one more film, 1986’s Under the Cherry Moon, in which he played a gigolo wooing Kristin Scott Thomas in the south of France. The movie bombed, but produced a successful soundtrack album: Parade, which featured the hits “Kiss” and “Mountains.”

Throughout the 1990s, Prince was later backed by a large band known as The New Power Generation, and his sound moved away from synth and heavy rock guitars and into one of brassier R&B. In 1993, he famously changed his name to that of an unpronounceable glyph that melded the symbols for male and female.

The move was one of protest against his label, Warner Bros., leading him to shave the word “Slave” into his face at one point. Between 1994 and 1996 he churned out the five remaining records due on his contract and signed with Arista Records in 1998.

By the 2000s, the glyph was retired and he was once again referring to himself as Prince. In 2001, Prince became a Jehovah’s Witness and moved to Los Angeles to “better understand the music industry.” In a 2008 interview with the New Yorker, he compared his religious conversion to “a realization … like Neo in The Matrix.”

In that same interview he grew uncharacteristically political, saying, “So here’s how it is: you’ve got the Republicans, and basically they want to live according to this.” (He gestured at a Bible.) “But there’s the problem of interpretation, and you’ve got some churches, some people, basically doing things and saying it comes from here, but it doesn’t.”

“And then on the opposite end of the spectrum you’ve got blue, you’ve got the Democrats, and they’re, like, ‘You can do whatever you want.’ Gay marriage, whatever. But neither of them is right,” Prince said. The comments drew criticism from gay rights groups and fans, many of whom felt the musician had turned his back on them since the days of Controversy, when he toyed with ideas of gender and sexuality and sang on the title song, “Am I black or white, am I straight or gay?”

In the 15 years since, he’s released an astonishing 15 records and toured tirelessly. His latest tour, dubbed “Piano & a Microphone,” saw him criss-crossing the globe from Melbourne, Aus., to Oakland, Calif., cycling through an intimate, improvised evening of hits performed solo at a grand piano.

On the night he learned of his collaborator Vanity’s recent death, Prince told the crowd, “I just found out a little while ago that someone dear to us has passed away. So I’m going to dedicate this song to her.“

The song was: Little Red Corvette.”

US ups pressure on IS with first B-52 bomber strike

Washington (AFP) – The US Air Force for the first time deployed a B-52 bomber against the Islamic State, the Pentagon said Wednesday as it ramps up a 20-month campaign to smash the jihadists.

The bombing mission, in which a hulking B-52 destroyed a weapons storage facility south of Mosul, comes the same week that Defense Secretary Ash Carter visited Baghdad and announced extra US troops, cash and equipment for the anti-IS campaign in Iraq.

In other signs of an increasing tempo, US commandos working with Kurdish troops conducted a raid targeting a senior IS group figure and the Pentagon said it has changed how air strikes risking civilian deaths are approved.

Under the new rules, authority now comes from the commanding three-star US general in Baghdad, instead of going through a four-star at the US Central Command’s headquarters in Florida.

Baghdad-based military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren insisted the changes do not lessen oversight standards in determining when civilian losses are an acceptable risk.

“This does not translate to more civilian casualties, this translates to a more rapid execution of strikes,” Warren said.

The Pentagon has acknowledged 26 civilian deaths due to US-led coalition strikes since the campaign began in August 2014 in Iraq, and credits the use of guided missiles in keeping the number relatively low — though independent observers say the figure is far higher.

– More US troops –

Carter this week announced an additional 217 US forces would be deployed to Iraq as advisors, pushing the official count there past 4,000.

The Pentagon has also offered Apache attack helicopters for use in an eventual push on Mosul, Iraq’s second city and which is under control of the IS group.

Separately, Danish lawmakers have approved a plan to commit seven F-16 warplanes, a transport aircraft and 400 military personnel to expand its fight against the extremists.

Monday’s strike by a B-52 Stratofortress blew up an IS weapons storage facility in the town of Qayyarah, about 35 miles (60 kilometers) south of Mosul.

The enormous planes, originally designed in the 1950s, became a symbol of US might during the Cold War and the aircraft was used to conduct carpet bombing in Vietnam.

Warren said the B-52s are only being armed with guided bombs.

“There are memories in the collective unconscious of B-52s, decades ago, doing… arguably indiscriminate bombing,” Warren said.

“Those days are long gone. The B-52 is a precision-strike weapons platform and it will conduct the same type of precision strikes that we have seen for the last 20 months.”

Several B-52s arrived in Qatar earlier this month to replace a contingent of newer B-1 bombers that had been working in Iraq and Syria for about a year.

Warren also announced that US commandos in northern Iraq had targeted Suleiman Abd Shabib al-Jabouri, “one of ISIL’s military emirs and an ISIL war council member.”

The Kurdish regional security council said Jabouri was killed in the raid, conducted jointly with Kurdish fighters.

– ‘Shoving match’ –

The US military has since 2014 led an international coalition against the IS group in Iraq and Syria after the jihadists captured vast areas of territory across the two countries.

Despite major gains, including the recapture of the Iraqi city of Ramadi, the coalition has still not chased IS fighters from Raqa in Syria or Mosul, as well as several other important towns.

In Syria, vetted Syrian opposition fighters are clashing with IS fighters in the north, especially around the Manbij region, but have recently lost some ground to the jihadists.

It “has developed into a shoving match,” Warren said. “We will continue to pressure ISIL but we expect them to fight hard to hold their ground.”

Additionally, the IS group has tightened the noose on a regime-held enclave in eastern Syria, overrunning part of the city of Deir Ezzor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Elsewhere in Syria, a Russian- and US-brokered ceasefire grew ever more fragile as violence continued to flare up around Aleppo. IS and other jihadist groups are not party to the February “cessation of hostilities.”

U.S: Treasury Picks Tubman for $20 Bill, Hamilton to Stay on $10

Bloomberg | Abolitionist Harriet Tubman will appear on front of the $20 bill, replacing former President Andrew Jackson and becoming the first woman featured on U.S. paper currency in modern times, a Treasury official said, in a design overhaul that will leave Alexander Hamilton on the $10 note.

The decision is the latest chapter in a 10-month-old controversy that erupted after Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew tried to address gender imbalance on U.S. currency notes. He opened up the selection process to the public just as the current face on the $10 bill was enjoying a resurgence in popularity, and outrage ensued.

The move Lew is announcing Wednesday is intended as a way to thread the needle between women’s groups who have been advocating for gender diversity on U.S. currency and fans of Hamilton, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, the playwright and star of the hit Broadway musical about the nation’s first Treasury secretary. Miranda lobbied Lew to keep Hamilton on the $10 when he visited Washington last month.

To appease those who have been looking forward to a woman on the $10, Treasury will will change the back of the $10 – which now has an image of the Treasury Department – to include women suffragists, according to a person familiar with the plans.

Politico earlier reported details of the Treasury’s planned announcement.

In June, Lew announced the government’s plan to feature a woman on the $10 bill, the first time in more than a century a woman has graced the nation’s paper currency. But the search turned to debate after former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and others objected to the removal of Hamilton from the $10 note.

The popularity of the Broadway musical “Hamilton” provoked a wave of interest in the man who played a leading role in creating the U.S. financial system and helped the country repay the debt it amassed during the Revolutionary War.

Suggestions by Lew that a woman might not feature on the front of the new bill triggered a backlash among women’s rights activists. Lew suggested in an interview March 30 with Charlie Rose that the government might leave Hamilton on the bill’s front portrait, saying the former Treasury secretary is one of his heroes.

Promises Made

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” Lisa Maatz, American Association of University Women’s vice president of government relations, said last week, before the new bill was introduced. “A promise was made and it should be fulfilled. I don’t know any particular reason why they would back away from it.“

A group of women including feminist icons Gloria Steinem and Marlo Thomas and soccer star Abby Wambach sent a letter to Lew on Wednesday before his announcement urging him to put a woman on the front of the $10. They started a Twitter hashtag #NotGoingBack to urge him to keep what they said was a promise to replace Hamilton with a woman.

“As a country, it is about time we put our money where our mouth is in the fight to support women,” they wrote.

The politics of swapping out Jackson might be easier. He had been a slave owner and is not enjoying a renaissance like Hamilton. Jackson was put under the lens last year in a book by National Public Radio journalist Steve Inskeep, who examined Jackson’s role in forcing Native Americans from their homelands.

Women on 20s, the group that has led the charge to feature a woman on U.S. currency, sent a letter to Lew and U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios last week asking that they fulfill the promise to put a woman on the $10 bill.

In their letter to Lew, Women on 20s wrote that “relegating women to the back of the bill is akin to sending them to the back of the bus.” Analogies to Rosa Parks, a black woman whose refusal to sit in the rear of a city bus made her a symbol of and leading civil-rights activist, “are inevitable,” the group said.

Along with women’s rights activists, Hillary Clinton, who’s campaigning to become the first female U.S. president, has weighed in to the debate. Miranda, who performed for President Barack Obama and his guests last month in an intimate East Room performance, said on Twitter on March 16 that he had discussed the issue of Hamilton on the $10 and that Lew told him “Ham fans’ll be ‘very happy’ about the new $10.”

Bernanke wrote last year that it would be a shame to demote Hamilton, “the best and most foresighted economic policy maker in U.S. history.”

Lew last June announced that he would decide which woman should go on the $10 after a period of public input. The $10 already was due for a makeover to incorporate security and technological upgrades, a five-year process.

The new bill was set to be unveiled in 2020, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment extending voting rights to women.

While there have been Susan B. Anthony and Sacajawea dollar coins in limited runs, the last time women were pictured on U.S. currency was in the 1800s – Martha Washington on a $1 certificate and Pocahontas in a group engraving on some currency.

Megyn Kelly should learn from Glenn Beck’s failure

Megyn Kelly is a star.

The Fox News prime-time host runs a successful cable news show, has book publishers throwing millions of dollars her way, co-stars with Donald Trump in this season’s most compelling political soap opera, and is even starting to consider what life might look like after Fox News.

Kelly deserves whatever success comes her way. Few anchors in cable news history have been able to grab the number of viewers that The Kelly Files has garnered in two short years. Besides, who could fault a parent for tiring of a schedule that rarely allows her to sit down for dinner with her children or tuck them into bed at night?

If Kelly wants to leave Fox News for family reasons, good for her. But if Kelly is thinking of escaping Fox News because she thinks she has outgrown the man and his star-making machinery, I offer a suggestion: Call Glenn Beck.

From 2006 to 2008, Beck hosted a show on CNN Headline News. If that comes as a surprise to you, there is a reason. Few people watched the show, and it garnered even less buzz in the media world. Beck was making millions on his successful radio program, but few in politics knew or cared who he was.

Then Roger Ailes called.

Within months, Fox News introduced Beck to millions of TV viewers who tuned in every day. Within a year, Beck was holding political rallies on the Mall in Washington. Ailes’ wildly successful cable news platform even gave Beck the reach to launch a successful website called TheBlaze.

Beck began gracing the cover of magazines, raking in tens of millions of dollars a year, outpacing competitors on multiple media platforms, and, most important to him, controlling a central place in America’s political and cultural zeitgeist.

Beck began to believe he had outgrown Fox News. He was wrong.

After leaving Fox News in 2011, Beck quickly expanded TheBlaze into a multimedia platform. By 2012, he had signed a deal with Dish TV and reached into over 10 million homes. By 2013, he had expanded his operations in New York and bought a massive facility in Dallas. But the further he moved away from the shadow of the News Corp. empire, the less relevant he became.

Five years after his Fox News departure, Beck has been irrelevant to the 2016 campaign. That may be largely because his business has fallen apart since Beck left Fox News.

As he told staff members last year, “We are three million dollars in the hole! That means we are three million dollars from profit. That means I have to take three million dollars out of my wallet, and I have done this now for several years. I don’t have money left. I’m out . . . I need three million dollars by the end of the year. If we wait, it’s gonna be massive, bloody cuts.” Those massive cuts came later that year and the media empire Beck imagined creating while sitting comfortably in his Fox News anchor chair never materialized.

Perhaps Kelly could succeed where Beck has failed. But if I were Kelly’s agent, I would take a long hard look before telling my client to take that leap. Ailes’ media machine has few rivals in the United States. While broadcast outlets keep bleeding millions in revenue, Fox News rakes in more than $1 billion in profits a year as the channel grows in size and influence. And most important for hosts like Kelly, its audience is one of the most loyal. That means higher ratings, bigger book deals and more magazine covers.

Maybe the grass will be greener for Meygn Kelly than it was for Glenn Beck. But if history is any guide, Kelly’s smartest move may just be building on the remarkable platform Roger Ailes has handed to her.

Former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough hosts MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Republicans rallying behind Trump’s electioneering momentum

Reagan-Day Dinner photo form, left:, Dr. Elizabeth “Liz” Young, Secretary of Florida Conservative Republican Network, Florida State Governor Rick Scott, and Carol Jones, President, of Florida Conservative Republican Network.

By Anthony Ogbo | Guardian News, Houston TX/

Most conservative Republicans passionate about a new political era celebrated across the country yesterday as New York delivered big wins to a favorite son, Donald Trump who clinched nearly all the 95 delegates at stake in Tuesday’s primary election.

“I think that at this time, we have to respect the will of the voters and conjoin with Donald Trump to prepare for the general election in November,” said Dr. Elizabeth Young, Secretary of Florida Conservative Republican Network. Dr. Young was not alone. It may be recalled that in March, 2016, Florida Gov. Rick Scott handed down an endorsement to Trump, and called on party members across the country to come together and support him. “The voters are speaking clearly — they want a businessman outsider who will dramatically shake up the status quo in Washington,” he wrote

Gov. Rick Scott was the keynote speaker yesterday at the Reagan Day Dinner at the Spartan Manor, New Port Richey in Florida, where 400 party members of the Florida Conservative Republican Network gathered for a fundraiser. Dr. Young and Carol Jones, President, of Florida Conservative Republican Network also attended the event.

According to Governor Scott, “If we spend another four months tearing each other apart, we will damage our ability to win in November.” Dr. Young said that the Republican Party should start rallying around each other rather than the current in-house partisan fights. “We just have to face the ‘Trump reality’ and move on as a family, that is what democracy is all about,” she said.

Trump in addressing supporters after his victory said, “We don’t have much of a race anymore based on what I’m seeing on television. Senator Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated.”

Trump had held huge rallies across New York, focusing his campaign mainly upstate. He held big rallies in all the major upstate cities, including Long Island and Plattsburgh in northern New York. It was a big loss for Ted Cruz who came into New York facing an uphill battle after he said in a January debate that Trump represented “New York values.” Cruz’s comment was viewed as a slight on New York City and the state, and Trump has seized on this comments to provoke his chances.

“We don’t have much of a race anymore based on what I’m seeing on television. Senator Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated,” Trump said as he addressed his supporters after his victory. As of 12 a.m. ET, yesterday, Trump held 847 delegates, while Ted Cruz had 553 and John Kasich had 148, according to Guardian News approximation. A Republican candidate needs 1,237 delegates to take the nomination.

A student was removed from a flight after telling his uncle, in Arabic, about the question he asked the UN secretary general

Dan Turkel | Business Insider

An Iraqi student at UC Berkeley was removed from his Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Oakland earlier this month when a woman overheard him speaking in Arabic and reported him to a Southwest employee.

Khairuldeen Makzhoomi, a researcher at UC Berkeley’s Department of Near Eastern Studies who’s majoring in political science, had been speaking on the phone to his uncle, who lives in Baghdad, about a dinner he had attended the day before at the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had given a speech at the event and Makhzoomi asked Ki-moon about “Iraqi Popular Mobilization units,” anti-ISIS militias in Iraq.

A woman seated in front ofMakzhoomi — who also writes for the Berkeley Political Review andcontributes to the Huffington Post— apparently thought she heard him say “shahid,” the Arabic word for martyr, Makhzoomi later learned. In reality, he had told his uncle that “inshallah,” or god willing, he would call again when he landed.

Soon, an employee of Southwest Airlines escorted Makhzoomi off the plane, where he was confronted by airport security, Makzhoomi recalled to The New York Times. Makhzoomi and his luggage were publicly searched, he says, and FBI agents were called. The confrontation became heated as Makhzoomi accused the airline of Islamophobic bias.

Security wanted to know more about Makhzoomi’s family, which had fled Iraq for Jordan in 2002 and come to the US in 2010. Makhzoomi told The Times that his father was detained in Abu Ghraib under Saddam Hussein and later killed under Hussein’s rule.

Makhzoomi, who The Daily Californian called “a loyal Southwest premier rewards member,” was refunded the price of his ticket and traveled on a Delta flight to Oakland later that day.

In a statement, Southwest Airlines said that their flight crew had “decided to investigate potentially threatening comments” made on one of their planes and that the crew “made the decision to deny boarding to this customer.” The statement declines to “share specifics,” citing privacy concerns.

“We wouldn’t remove passengers from flights without a collaborative decision rooted in established procedures,” the statement continues. “Southwest neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind.”

The incident, however, was followed shortly by another bias accusation. Last Wednesday, a Somali woman and Maryland resident, Hakima Abdulle, was forced to leave another Southwest flight after attempting to switch into an aisle seat.

A flight attendant told police that Abdulle, who was wearing a headscarf and was on her way to Seattle to visit family, made her “uncomfortable.”

Zainab Chaudry, the Maryland outreach manager at the Council on American Islamic Relations, told The Independent that Abdulle “suffered acute distress and anxiety as a result of this experience. She was publicly humiliated before a plane full of passengers.”

Abdulle has not received an apology from Southwest Airlines, which said in a statement that “our employees followed proper procedures in response to this customer’s actions while onboard the aircraft.”

High School Band Director Allegedly Found Hiding in Teen Girl’s Closet

A Louisiana high school band director was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly hiding in a 16-year-old girl’s closet, PEOPLE confirms. Jeremy Conner, 30, of Baton Rouge, has been charged with indecent behavior with a juvenile, according to a statement from investigators in the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office.

The arrest caps an investigation authorities say began back on April 8, after the teen girl told police Conner had allegedly been communicating with her since last year. “Conner admitted to sending inappropriate text messages to the juvenile on various occasions,” the police statement reads. Conner is being held at the Ascension Parish Jail without bond. Police say additional charges could be forthcoming.

English Teacher Charged With Sexual Assault of a Student: ‘You’re My Baby Boo!’

A Wisconsin high school teacher is facing charges of sexual assault following an alleged sexual relationship with a student, including on the night of her husband’s bachelor’s party.
Sara Domres, a 29-year-old former teacher at the New Berlin West High School, was charged last week for sexual assault of a student by school staff following an alleged relationship with a 16-year-old lasting approximately ten months.

937c6b88acfca53cce45ed7e084590ff — Sara Domres, a 29-year-old former teacher at the New Berlin West High School, was charged last week for sexual assault of a student.

According to the criminal complaint, the sophomore was in Domres’ English class, where they became fast friends, and texted each other frequently, the police report stated.

During their relationship, lasting between April 2015 and January 2016, they reportedly exchanged over 1,100 messages. One of the many text messages said, “I love being your baby boo. (heart emoji) run away with me!!! I want you forever,” according to the criminal complaint.

According to the police statement, the boy was allegedly “a virgin prior to having sexual intercourse” with the teacher.

One of the counts she is being charged with was for an encounter in Domres’ car in a park-and-ride lot in July, according to the criminal complaint. The boy was 16 at the time.

The other count she is being charged with responded to their encounter in a Motel 6, where she had paid for a single bed with cash, and it was discovered that the boy’s phone was connected to the WiFi on the same day, authorities said.

According to police, a message was sent the night before: “You’re extremely attractive to me!!! I can’t wait for our night we are doing it no matter what!!!”

However, the boy as well as witnesses reportedly told the police that the couple had sex more frequently than the two instances. According to WISN, they even had sex on the night of Domres’ now-husband’s bachelor party.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Domres was married in August, in the midst of her relationship with the student.

The police report also said that the couple had passed handwritten notes “of a sexual nature” to each other. One of them allegedly read: “I want to do you (smiley face) NOW!!”

According to a police report, three juveniles reported the relationship on January 16.

Police later uncovered multiple Internet searches from the student’s phone from the previous day, the police report stated. One was a Yahoo search for, “how to delete a sent snapchat?” Another was a google search for “what evidence does a judge need to charge a teacher with sexual assault.”

The school had reportedly discovered the relationship sometime in January and she was immediately let go. Domres was released on $1,000 bail following the arrest, on the condition that she has “no contact with victim/witness/and family members, New Berlin West High School, students or staff listed in the Criminal Complaint,” the Wisconsin Circuit Court noted on their website.

She has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and her next hearing is on May 4. Her attorney has not yet provided a comment.

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