Reporter expelled from public university 'Black Lives' event for not being of 'African descent'

Reporter harassed by ‘Black Lives’ protesters at campus rally

A reporter was harassed at a “Movement for Black Lives” rally at Cleveland State University after an announcement to the crowd that “this is a peoples of African descent space. If you are not of African descent please go to the outside of the circle immediately.”

That according to a video circulating which shows reporter Brandon Blackwell, who is not of African descent, quickly retreat to the back of the gathering amidst cheers from activists surrounding him, seemingly in support of the banishment.

The video, recorded by Blackwell himself on Sunday, was posted on Cleveland.com, and captured the events that occurred on the steps of a Cleveland State University building while the university’s crest loomed above.

Reached for comment Tuesday by The College Fix, Blackwell stated via email: “I respectfully decline to comment. I’ll let the video speak for itself.”

Blackwell had continued to record after he moved to the back of the circle, to the disapproval of many in attendance. Shouts of “stop filming” can be heard echoing from those in attendance.

Members of the crowd took to blocking Blackwell’s camera with their hands, a traffic cone, and a T-shirt that reads “The Movement for Black Lives.”

Seen in the video is an aggravated crowd of primarily black activists. The group consists of all ages and genders and includes a small contingent of young children located close to the main speaker. Several in attendance are young adults, college aged, and wearing backpacks, presumably students at the university.

At points throughout the roughly 20 minute video, Blackwell is accused of being a federal agent and an agitator while he explains to them he is a reporter and identifies himself by name and occupation.

Activist: “That’s why you want to tell my story right? ‘Cause you know why I’m angry”

Blackwell: “I’m happy to talk to you, and hear your story, and tell your story.”

Activist: “I don’t want to talk to you.”

Toward the end of the video, Rosa Clemente, a speaker and a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, suggested the recording was not allowed due to the presence of children at the rally.

“Because the children become targets on YouTube, or whatever, by crazy supremacists and crazy people” explained Clemente on the video, to which Blackwell responds that he did not hear any sort of request to not tape children.

The video concludes with Blackwell repeatedly asking one activist to not touch his camera.

“I got 800 black people behind me, what the f**k are you gonna do?” replied the activist, while standing face to face with Blackwell.

According to Cleveland.com, “the three-day conference held at Cleveland State University kicked off a new campaign, Movement for Black Lives, which is fueled by national outrage over a series of deaths of minorities at the hands of police.”

Read More:http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/23550/

Average US vehicle age hits record 11.5 years

In the age of Apple's CarPlay, a lot of cars on the road still have tape decks.

The average vehicle in the U.S. is now a record 11.5 years old, according to consulting firm IHS Automotive, a sign of the increased reliability of today's vehicles and the lingering impact of the sharp drop in new car sales during the recession.

Drivers behind the wheel of older cars aren't enjoying some of the latest advanced safety features or infotainment systems that effectively turn cars into cellphones on wheels. Then again, they don't have to worry about hackers finding their way in to the car's computer network through the cassette or CD player.

IHS said U.S. registrations grew to a record 257.9 million cars and trucks this year, up 2 percent from a year earlier.

The average age of vehicles has been climbing steadily since IHS began tracking the number in 2002. As quality and reliability have improved, people have been holding on to their cars and trucks for longer. The average length of ownership for a new vehicle is now almost 6.5 years, IHS said. For a used vehicle, it's five years.

Cars and trucks now have the same average age, says Mark Seng, IHS Automotive's global aftermarket practice leader. For many years, cars had shorter lifespans than trucks, but their quality has now caught up.

Experts say there's no rule for how long to hold on to an old car or truck. A car with good reliability can go for 200,000 miles or more, which can easily last a decade for some motorists, says Doug Love, a spokesman for Consumer Reports.

The magazine doesn't recommend driving older cars without two key safety features introduced more than a decade ago: electronic stability control and side curtain air bags.

The aging car population could mean that Americans will be slow to adapt safety and semi-autonomous features that have car company executives and experts heralding a new age of the automobile. Adaptive cruise control arrived in the U.S. market in 2006, for example, but nine years later only 6 percent of all cars have it, according to a recent report from Boston Consulting Group. It will also take longer for much-hyped advances like CarPlay - which gives drivers access to their apps through the dashboard - to become commonplace.

But Seng says the auto industry should take heart. Even though the average vehicle age shows no sign of reversing, it is starting to plateau, since buyers have returned to the car market in big numbers. Sales of new cars rose from 12.7 million in 2011 to 16.5 million last year and are expected to reach or exceed 17 million this year. IHS thinks the average vehicle age will hit 11.6 years in 2016 but won't climb to 11.7 years until 2018.

This Powerful Homemade Light Saber Can Be Made For Less Than $100 (8 gifs)

Imgur user Lassann built this light saber all by himself for less than $100. He used a laser cutter and a diode to create a weapon that's almost as cool as the real thing.

"The United States ranks second worst in income inequality across developed countries," after taxes and transfers.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott has long complained about the gap between rich and poor in the United States.

"When measuring income inequality across the globe, after accounting for taxes and transfers, the United States ranks second worst in income inequality across developed countries," Scott, D-3rd, wrote in a June 12 statement.

Scott made the comment in explaining his vote against a sweeping trade agreement with Asian nations; he said thinks it would depress U.S. wages. The congressman has also cited income inequality in his calls to raise the minimum wage and increase taxes on the wealthy. We recently gave a Mostly True rating to his claim that U.S. income disparity is at it highest level since the 1920s.

This time, we wondered whether Scott is right about the United States’ global ranking.

DeMontre Boone, a legislative assistant to Scott, said the congressman drew his information from a December 2013 article by the Pew research Center headlined "Global Inequality: How the U.S. compares."

Pew defined developed countries as those belonging to the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation, a group of 34 democratic nations seeking to improve trade.

The OECD calculates the inequality of income distribution in terms of what’s called aGini coefficient that ranges on a scale from zero to one. Zero means there’s perfect equality and every household earns the same income. One means there’s absolute inequality and a single household earns a country’s entire income. All nations fall somewhere in between.

The Pew article, drawing mostly on 2010 calculations, has a chart placing the U.S. 10th highest among OECD nations in income inequality measured before taxes and transfers -- payments such as welfare and Social Security that a government makes to people without an exchange of goods or services. The U.S. Gini rating was .499, well behind the leader, Ireland, who came in at .591.

Scott, you’ll remember, focused his comments on earnings after tax and transfers. And when that bottom-line data was computed, the U.S. surged to No. 2 on the disparity chart, with a .38 Gini. Chile, with a .501 coefficient, had the greatest inequality.

So Scott cited information in the Pew chart correctly. But there are two issues still arise:

• The OECD has updated its figures since the Pew article was published, and
• Pew omitted three OECD nations from its chart -- Mexico, Turkey and Hungary -- because, unlike the other countries, their Gini figures were unavailable for 2009 or 2010.

So let’s look at this again, armed with data mostly from 2012 that includes all OECD nations. When it comes to income inequality before taxes and transfers, the U.S. ranked 7th. Here’s a list of those seven countries and the Gini coefficients:

• Ireland, .582
• Greece, .569
• Portugal, .536
• Chile, .532
• United Kingdom, .523
• France, .518
• United States, .513

Now, let’s examine income equality after taxes and transfers -- the core of Scott’s claim. The U.S. rose to fourth in the rankings here, suggesting that the redistributive effects of our tax and public welfare systems are weaker than some of our trading partners. Here’s the top four list:

• Chile, .503
• Mexico, .457
• Turkey, .402
• United States, .390

Of course not all industrialized nations belong to the OECD. The trade organization also computed Russia’s income inequality for 2012 and the post-tax and transfers rating of .396 was higher than the United States’.

If you’re wondering, the five OECD countries with the lowest post-tax and transfers income disparity -- all with a Gini around .250 --  were Estonia, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Norway and Finland. 

Girl Scouts Return $100,000 to Anti-Transgender Donor: ''We Won't Exclude Any Girl''

Girl Scouts is #ForEVERYGirl. That means transgender girls, too.

After a donor, who remains anonymous, asked Girl Scouts of Western Washington to ensure their $100,000 contribution would not be used to help transgender girls, the chapter of the national organization gave the money back.

In one day, they've made more than double that amount through a crowdfunding campaign that's garnered support from more than 4,000 funders.

"Girl Scouts empowers every girl, regardless of her gender identity, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, to make the world a better place. We won't exclude any girl," reads a video posted on the fundraiser's Indiegogo webpage.

"Every girl deserves access to a safe, friendly environment where she can stand up for what she believes in and be proud of who she is," it continues.

According to the campaign, the $100,000 would have been received by 500 girls who needed financial support. Now there's enough money to ensure that 1,000 girls can join a troop, go to camp and partake in a "multitude of life-changing Girl Scout experiences."

More than 100 donors have commented on the page.

For commenter Jennifer Leonard, the actions had a special significance: "From a lifetime member of Girl Scouts, Gold & Silver Award recipient, and trans masculine identified person I thank you very much for honoring GSUSAs mission to be for ALL girls by sacrificing such a huge gift. I am glad to see you are on track to be repaid 2 fold! Girl Scout Camp was such an important experience for me, I'm honored to enable a girl to attend."

Margaret Ragaisis kept her message short and sweet, "Proud to be a former Girl Scout from back in the 1970's," before posting a message anyone who's been a Girl Scout will recall:

"The Girl Scout Law:

I will do my best to be

honest and fair,

friendly and helpful,

considerate and caring,

courageous and strong, and

responsible for what I say and do,

and to

respect myself and others,

respect authority,

use resources wisely,

make the world a better place, and

be a sister to every Girl Scout."

Before the campaign took off, Seattle Met first reported this story. Their interviews and profile of the Girl Scouts of Western Washington is worth a read.

Source:http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/06/30/girl-scouts-raise-money-reject-donation-transgender/29543863/