Source: ABC News

A Los Angeles jury has found former "That '70s Show" actor Danny Masterson guilty of two counts of forcible rape in a retrial of a case involving three women.

The third count against Jane Doe 3 has been declared a mistrial.

The jury reached its verdict Wednesday afternoon after deliberating since May 17, over the course of six days total.

Masterson, 47, pleaded not guilty to three counts of felony rape following accusations by three different women, including a former girlfriend. The alleged attacks took place between 2001 and 2003.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Entertainment/jury-finds-danny-masterson-guilty-2-counts-rape/story?id=98936910

One of the largest LGBTQ pride parades in Florida is implementing a dress code as organizers fear an ounce of excessive cleavage or an errant gesture near a performer's undercarriage could catch the watchful eye of Gov. Ron DeSantis and his decidedly drag-wary administration.

The Stonewall Pride Parade and Street Festival in Wilton Manors is scheduled for June 17 with a new code of conduct for parade participants, performers, and vendors to ensure that the event's organizers are not penalized under the newly signed SB 1438.

While the new law does not specifically mention drag shows, its conception was part and parcel of DeSantis' and his allies' response to videos of children attending drag performances in South Florida. The law provides for misdemeanor charges against organizers and event permitholders who "knowingly admit a child to an adult live performance." LGBTQ advocates see it as a continuation of the governor's attack on the LGBTQ community and drag queens.

The Wilton Manors parade organizers have responded by proposing restrictions on nipple pasties, prosthetic breasts, sexualized language, and provocative dancing and gestures. The rules would apply to those in the parade, not the 50,000 observers expected to attend.

More: https://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/florida-pride-parade-creates-dress-code-to-avoid-desantis-crackdown-15442430

Source: Salt Lake Tribune

U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart plans to resign his seat in Congress, possibly as soon as this week.

Multiple sources have confirmed to The Salt Lake Tribune that Stewart announced his plan to resign, citing ongoing health issues with his wife. It was unclear what those health issues may be.

First elected by Utahns in 2012, Stewart is serving his 6th term in Congress. In 2022, he won reelection over Democrat Nick Mitchell by over 30 percentage points.

Stewart will be the second member of Utah’s Congressional delegation to resign mid-term in the past six years. Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz gave up his seat in Congress in 2017 to become a pundit on Fox News Channel.

Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2023/05/30/rep-chris-stewart-plans-resign/

Source: CBS News Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS -- The DFL Party is apologizing after a fight broke out at the Ward 10 endorsing convention on Saturday afternoon in Minneapolis.

According to the Minneapolis Police Department, officers arrived at the Ella Baker Center shortly after 2 p.m. to a large crowd and heard reports of people fighting, but says it did not observe any physical altercations.

A video shows the fight breaking out as Councilmember Aisha Chughtai takes the stage. The convention was immediately adjourned due to safety concerns.

In a statement released late Saturday night, the DFL said that "it is clear that the conflict was instigated by supporters of city council candidate Narsi Warsame."

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/minnesota/news/minneapolis-ward-10-convention-fight-dfl/

Source: The Hill

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Twisted Sister’s 1980s rock classic, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” has been dropped as the unofficial anthem of this year’s SF Pride Parade & Celebration in San Francisco following a controversial tweet from the band’s lead singer, the festival confirmed to Nexstar’s KRON.

The festival was on the cusp of officially announcing the song as Pride’s “unofficial rallying cry” and Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider was due to perform the song on the festival’s main stage.

However, the relationship between the flamboyant rocker and the festival broke down after Snider tweeted his support for a statement from KISS frontman Paul Stanley that’s been widely panned as transphobic.

On Sunday, Stanley tweeted out a lengthy statement that read in part, “With many children who have no real sense of sexuality or sexual experiences caught up in the ‘fun’ of using pronouns and saying what they identify as, some adults mistakenly confuse teaching acceptance with normalizing and encouraging a situation that has been a struggle for those truly affect and have turned it into a sad and dangerous fad.”

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/homenews/3986981-80s-rock-anthem-dropped-as-sf-prides-theme-after-singers-controversial-tweet/amp/

Source: The Daily Beast

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and American “NeoCons” of intentionally provoking Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Monday. In a paragraph-long tweet, the Democratic presidential candidate claimed that Zelensky could have prevented the invasion by just saying the five words “I will not join NATO.” Instead, Kennedy said, Zelensky cozied up to NATO, bowing to alleged pressure from “NeoCons in the Biden White House” and “fascist elements” in his own government. The anti-vaccine activist claimed this military realignment, along with the positioning of nuclear-capable missile launchers along the Russian border, were purposeful “provocations” designed to cross well-known “red lines” established by the Russian government. Kennedy brought his diatribe home with a comparison to the ill-fated U.S. intervention in Iraq, claiming the same “NeoCons” were responsible for both conflicts.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-blames-zelensky-for-russian-invasion-of-ukraine

Source: Gizmodo

When the city of Berkeley, California passed the country’s first ban on the use of natural gas in new buildings in the summer of 2019, environmental advocates celebrated the move as an important precedent for other cities to follow. And follow they did: There are now at least 99 similar ordinances in place across the country, the vast majority of which require appliances like stoves and heaters to be electric. But on Monday, a federal appeals court threw many of those bans into question.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that Berkeley’s ban is preempted by a federal law, and is therefore illegal. The decision marks a victory for the California Restaurant Association, the organization that sued the city shortly after it passed the ordinance banning the use of natural gas in new construction, claiming that such a measure would damage the restaurant industry.

“Many restaurants will be faced with the inability to make many of their products which require the use of specialized gas appliances to prepare, including for example flame-seared meats, charred vegetables, or the use of intense heat from a flame under a wok,” the lawsuit read.

But advocates argue that those concerns are dwarfed by a growing body of research that has found natural gas use in buildings not only releases huge quantities of greenhouse gasses, but also threatens people’s health. Studies have found that gas stoves are responsible for approximately 13 percent of childhood asthma cases in the U.S.; they also leak the potent greenhouse gas methane and the cancer-causing chemical benzene even when they’re turned off.

Read more: https://gizmodo.com/the-first-natural-gas-ban-in-the-u-s-just-got-shot-dow-1850352032

Source: CNN

(CNN)Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist and environmental lawyer, described himself as a truth-teller who will "end the division" as he launched his bid for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday in Boston.

Kennedy used his campaign launch speech to lambast school and business closures during the coronavirus pandemic and to insist that government and media "lie to us."

"My mission over the next 18 months of this campaign and throughout my presidency," he said, "will be to end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power that is threatening now -- threatening now -- to impose a new kind of corporate feudalism in our country; to commoditize our children, our purple mountain's majesty; to poison our children and our people with chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs; to strip-mine our assets; to hollow out the middle class and keep us in a constant state of war."

The 69-year-old Kennedy is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and son of former US attorney general and assassinated 1968 presidential candidate Robert Kennedy.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/04/19/politics/robert-f-kennedy-jr-2024-announcement/index.html

Source: The Daily Beast

A key figure in the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” campaign has apologized after being accused of asking teenage boys for sexual pictures.

Ali Alexander has become one of the most ubiquitous figures in the MAGA movement. Trump himself reportedly requested that Alexander speak at his rally before the riot, with his appearance only quashed by a last-minute intervention from Trump’s aides. But this week, Alexander stands at the center of a scandal that raises questions about how powerful men in the far-right treat their younger acolytes.

“This is so gay,” Alexander said in a statement issued Friday night that addressed the allegations in broad terms.

Alexander, who has described himself as bisexual in the past, added that he was “battling with same-sex attraction.”

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/stop-the-steal-organizer-ali-alexander-apologizes-after-being-accused-of-asking-teen-boys-for-sexual-pics

Source: ABC News

The Federal Reserve's staff is more worried about the U.S. economy tipping into a recession after the recent banking crisis, the minutes from the central bank's meeting in March reveal.

Economists at the Federal Reserve said they expect a "mild" recession later this year, an escalation from their previous assessment.

"Given their assessment of the potential economic effects of the recent banking-sector developments, the staff's projection at the time of the March meeting included a mild recession starting later this year, with a recovery over the subsequent two years," according to the publicly posted minutes from the meeting, which took place over March 21-22 right after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

The comments from economists on staff within the Federal Reserve reflect a dimmer outlook than public statements from Chairman Jerome Powell, who said after that March meeting "we don't know" whether there will be a recession.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fed-staff-expects-banking-crisis-cause-recession-year/story?id=98540661

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As far as politics goes, it is better to have a recession this year rather than next year when President Biden is up for reelection.