http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/transgender-teen-who-fought-bullying-commits-suicide-20150410

Taylor Alesena, a transgender teen that candidly documented her struggles with loneliness and bullying at a San Diego-area high school on YouTube, died April 2nd in an apparent suicide. The 16-year-old Fallbrook High student took her own life during spring break, the school district confirmed in a statement to San Diego's ABC 10.

Max Disposti, the executive director of the area's LGBTQ Resource Center, said that Alesena was frequently cyber-bullied and called names by her peers, even as her YouTube channel became an inspiration to others facing a similar ordeal. "[Alesena] felt unsafe, she felt beat up every day she needed to go to school," Disposti told ABC 10. Alesena's suicide comes one month after another transgender teen named Sage who frequented the LGBTQ Resource Center killed himself.

"Just a month after the loss of Sage, we have to say goodbye to another dear friend. We are sad and angry again," Disposti wrote on Facebook. "Taylor, you were a beautiful girl, we will never stop trying to make this world a better place." Hundreds of people showed up for a candlelight vigil for Alesena held Thursday night in Oceanside, California.

In one of her YouTube videos, Alesena told her viewers, "The biggest piece of advice I could give to someone who's transgender and struggling? You're becoming yourself." In a December video, Alesena said she was suspended from school for "name-calling" following an incident where she called another girl "homophobic."

Saturday is 7-Eleven's Bring Your Own Cup Slurpee Day



You can bring your own cup to 7-Eleven Saturday and get a Slurpee for a $1.49.

7-Eleven says an estimated 7,700 stores across the U.S. are expected to take part in the first “Bring-Your-Own-Cup Slurpee Day” Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

There are rules to follow and a garbage can is not a cup.

7-Eleven says the cup must fit upright through an in-store display with a 10-inch-diameter hole.

http://www.mynews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2015/4/10/saturday_is_7_eleven.html

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham may still be weighing whether to run for president, but he already has a strategy — distancing himself from fellow senator Rand Paul.

In TV appearances, on the campaign trail, and even in private fundraisers, Graham, an Air Force reservist and one of his party’s most prominent defense hawks, has gone after Paul repeatedly and by name, casting him as weak-kneed and unwilling to protect the country from aggressors.

In interviews, Graham aides said he was laying out a plan to position himself as Paul’s foil, and will repeatedly contrast his foreign policy positions to that of the Kentucky senator’s more isolationist views, especially in debates. They believe that going after Paul — or “putting wood on him,” in the words of one aide — drives attention to Graham and, at a time of rising concern about threats from abroad, helps establish himself as the hawk of the Republican field.

“It’s nothing personal, not at all,” Graham insisted in a telephone interview on Wednesday, one day before Paul stumped in his home state, pointing out that the two had once played golf together. “My problem with Rand Paul is foreign policy. He’s a libertarian and I come from a more traditional Republican perspective.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/lindsey-graham-rand-paul-2016-116837.html

KRISTEN DESILVA
REVIEWJOURNAL.COM



A video surfaced this week appearing to show a Texas police officer punching a 38-week pregnant woman in handcuffs.

Deanna Robinson told the attorney’s office that he beat her in her kitchen in her Quinlan, Texas, home, according to RT. Two officers are seen restraining her in the corner of her kitchen as she yells and tells them she’s pregnant.

They were in the process of removing a child from her home on March 4, according to WFAA. Toward the end of the video, an officer is seen punching Robinson twice.

Hunt Country Sheriff Randy Meeks said Wednesday the deputy isn’t facing any disciplinary action.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/trending/feed/video-appears-show-officer-punching-pregnant-woman

Rand Paul Campaign Sends Cease-And-Desist To Stations Running Iran Attack Ad



http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/rand-paul-campaign-sends-cease-and-desist-to-stations-runnin?utm_term=.ty1aOE1Oy#.hjxmDD26n

WASHINGTON — A lawyer for the Rand Paul campaign has sent a legal notice to TV stations that ran a hawkish attack ad based on Paul’s views on Iran, calling the ad defamatory and asking stations to stop showing it.

The letter is an objection to a million-dollar ad buy by a group called the Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, led by Republican operative Rick Reed. The ad, which launched in early primary states on the day of Paul’s presidential campaign announcement, accuses Paul of supporting President Obama’s policies on Iran and of opposing new sanctions.

“The Advertisement attempts to deceive voters regarding Senator Rand Paul’s position on U.S.-Iran relations through at least three false statements,” writes Paul campaign general counsel Matthew T. Sanderson in the letter dated April 7, which was obtained by BuzzFeed News on Thursday.

The letter advises television stations that they are “not protected from legal liability for airing a false and misleading advertisements sponsored by FSPA” and demands that they “immediately cease airing the Advertisement.”

Kentucky mother gets 20 years to life for salt-poisoning of son

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/04/08/da-seeking-life-sentence-in-new-york-mother-salt-poisoning-son/?intcmp=latestnews



A Kentucky woman convicted of murdering her son by putting salt in his hospital feeding tube was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years to life in prison.

Lacey Spears, 27, was found guilty last month of second-degree murder in the 2014 death of her 5-year-old son, Garnett-Paul Spears, at a suburban New York hospital.

Acting state Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary said Spears' crime was "unfathomable in its cruelty" and brought her son "five years of torment and pain." But he said he was not imposing the maximum 25 years to life because "one does not have to be a psychiatrist to realize you suffer from Munchausen by proxy."

He said he was offering "something you did not exhibit toward your son — mercy."

Watch a Kindergarten Teacher Ask Chris Christie to ‘Tone It Down’
by Josh Feldman | 3:13 pm, April 8th, 2015



http://www.mediaite.com/online/watch-a-kindergarten-teacher-ask-chris-christie-to-tone-it-down/

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has a notoriously confrontational style, getting in public fights with reporters and average people, even telling some of them to shut up. Well, during a town hall yesterday, a kindergarten teacher spoke up to ask Christie to maybe stop doing that so much.

Cheryl Meyer told Christie that it’s hard for her to talk to her students and her own children about their governor saying such things. She said, “You need to tone it down a little if you want to become President of the United States.”

Christie explained that he sometimes regrets getting tough with people, and acknowledged “differences of opinion on people’s style,” but at the same time, he says those things because he wants to be authentic.

The governor said he doesn’t want to just say “the blandest, most vanilla thing” he can think of, and rejects the idea that when you’re a public figure being pressed in a confrontational way, “you have to respond politely.”

Watch the video below, via NJ.com: