October 31, 2019

Blue pumpkins help kids on the autism spectrum navigate Halloween

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For three years as a toddler, Caleb Lytle wore a Spider-Man costume everyday. He called it his “super suit” and wore it until the elbows and knees had holes and the suit had to be retired, his mom, Holly Lytle, said.

With that love for costumes, the now 11-year-old Caleb’s favorite holiday is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Halloween. And that love is shared by his 16-year-old step-brother, Cooper, who loves candy but hates costumes. Cooper doesn’t even like it when his siblings wear them around the house. Both brothers are on the autism spectrum.

That can make Halloween hard for Cooper. But this year it should be easier when the brothers go out trick-or-treating, this time carrying blue pumpkin candy buckets.

The blue pumpkin is a way to subtly indicate that a child is on the autism spectrum and may react differently to situations that arise while trick-or-treating.

“It gets tiring at every single door to say, ‘I’m sorry, he has autism,’ ” Lytle said. “He doesn’t need to hear people apologizing all the time.”

Lytle is the founder of the Isaac Foundation, a nonprofit that provides educational information grants, and support for the friends and families of people affected by autism.

The blue pumpkin movement has been floating around social media for a few years, Lytle said.

The national organization Autism Speaks shared the blue bucket idea ahead of Halloween last year, and the idea has grown in popularity since.

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/oct/30/blue-pumpkins-help-kids-on-the-autism-spectrum-nav/

October 31, 2019

Indiana woman found dead with snake around her neck in 'reptile home' , 8 foot python

Indiana woman found dead with snake around her neck in 'reptile home'
There were approximately 140 caged snakes in the home, an Indiana State Police sergeant said, adding that no one lived at the residence.

An Indiana woman was found dead Wednesday night with a snake around her neck in a residence that Indiana State Police are describing as a "reptile home."

The 36-year-old woman, whose name has not been disclosed, was found at 8:51 p.m. at the home in Oxford, Indiana, Sgt. Kim Riley told NBC News.

There were approximately 140 caged snakes in the home, Riley said, adding that no one lived at the residence.

"She was apparently there checking on her snakes," he said. "For whatever reason, she apparently got the snake out and she was doing what people do with snakes."

Riley said the individual who found the woman did not want to be identified, but was able to remove the snake from her neck.

An autopsy will be performed to determine the exact cause of death, Riley said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/indiana-woman-found-dead-snake-around-her-neck-reptile-home-n1074826
https://abc7chicago.com/ind-woman-found-dead-with-8-foot-python-around-her-neck/5662232/

October 31, 2019

Fox News departure: Catherine Herridge joins CBS News, saying 'facts matter'

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/31/media/catherine-herridge-fox-news-cbs/index.html

New York (CNN Business)In another major defection from the newsroom of Fox News, Catherine Herridge is joining CBS News as a senior investigative correspondent.

Herridge, Fox's chief intelligence correspondent, was a founding employee of Fox News in 1996 and a leader in the network's Washington bureau.
She was in talks to join CBS before Shep Smith, also a founding Fox employee, resigned on October 11 in the middle of a multi-year contract, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

Herridge's Fox contract expired over the summer. Fox wanted her to renew, but knew her exit was a possibility, one of the sources said. Friday will be her last day.

October 31, 2019

woman on probation for arson caught setting brush fire in California

CORONA, Calif. - A 27-year-old Corona woman was caught red-handed starting a brush fire and attempting to ignite a second Wednesday morning, police said.

The Corona Police Department says they received a call reporting a brush fire in the 4000 block of Prado Road on Oct. 23 at about 10:40 a.m. The caller told police he watched a woman burn dry brush using a flammable liquid before walking away, according to authorities.

Officers located the suspect, identified as Aysah Magierek, 27, with the help of the caller. Corona PD says officers found Magierek at a nearby site where she was trying to ignite a second brush fire but were able to take her into custody before she could succeed.

Magierek is currently on probation for arson in Riverside County, police said. Magierek was arrested for probation violations, arson, and providing false information to police officers.

https://www.foxla.com/news/woman-caught-red-handed-starting-brush-fire-in-corona-police-say

October 31, 2019

a herd of 500 hungry Goats help save Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

California fires: Goats help save Ronald Reagan Presidential Library


Goats from a ranch near the Reagan Library were also rescued from the Easy Fire





A hungry herd of 500 goats has helped save the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library from the California wildfires.

In May, the library hired the goats to clear flammable scrub surrounding the complex as a preventative measure.

The goats ate the brush, creating a fire break that slowed the flames and gave firefighters extra time to react.

The library near Los Angeles was threatened by the Easy Fire, the latest in a spate of fires causing evacuations and power cuts across the state.

The caprine contractors included Vincent van Goat, Selena Goatmez and Goatzart. They helped save exhibits including an Air Force One jet and a piece of the Berlin Wall.

"We were told by one of the firefighters that they believe that fire break made their job easier," Melissa Giller, a library spokeswoman, told Reuters.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50248549

October 31, 2019

Trump's Ukraine dishonesty barrage continues. He made 96 false claims last week

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/30/politics/fact-check-trump-96-false-claims-ukraine/index.html

President Donald Trump was relentlessly dishonest last week about the scandal over his dealings with Ukraine, making false claims about just about every component of the story.

Trump made 96 false claims last week, the second-highest total of the 16 weeks we've counted at CNN. He made 53 false claims last Monday alone -- a remarkable 31 in rambling comments at his Cabinet meeting and 22 more in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity.
Fifty-three false claims is by far the most Trump has made in any day in the 16 weeks we've tracked, beating the previous high of 41. Trump has averaged about 68 false claims per week over the 16-week period -- just shy of 10 false claims per day.

October 31, 2019

It's Worse Than Lies: There's No Word in the English Language for What Trump & Co. Are Doing

It’s Worse Than Lies: There’s No Word in the English Language for What Trump & Co. Are Doing
A lie is when you cover up or deflect. But proclaiming the opposite of the truth to be true is something else.


Michael Tomasky
Special Correspondent

In 2010, researchers from Harvard and Google put their heads together to determine that there are roughly 1,022,000 words in the English language. The Oxford English Dictionary lists around 600,000.

Either way, that’s a lot of words. But there isn’t a word in the English language for what Donald Trump and the Republicans are doing.

They are no longer merely lying. Lying is covering up the truth. Lying is, No, Mom, honest, I didn’t break Aunt Donna’s Hummel. Or: No, Your Honor, I did not bilk my investors out of $4 million and abscond to Grand Cayman.

What these people are doing goes way beyond that. It’s a direct nuclear assault on the truth. It’s not: I didn’t break the figurine. Instead, it’s:

Mom, not only did I not break it, but Susie broke it, and I painstakingly glued it back together after she did so, and the facts that a) Susie has been away at camp all this time and b) you’re looking at it there on the dining room table in 37 pieces are tricks, delusions—manifestations of a vast, fake-news conspiracy against me orchestrated by Susie and Aunt Donna. They’ve met together recently on more than one occasion, after all, and people are saying that Aunt Donna bought two boxes of Samoas and one box of Tagalongs from Susie; and that, dear Mother, is proof of the cabal!

For this, we do not have a word. In the entire English language. Chew on that for a minute.

October 31, 2019

dog doing well after 45 minute drive in bumper

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ROTTERDAM -- A Shiba Inu named Coco survived being struck and embedded in a car grill in Albany, and then traveled all the way to Rotterdam like that with relatively minor injuries, according to police and veterinary officials.

The dog was hit on North Manning Boulevard just before noon Monday, police said. The driver realized the car had hit something, but thought it was a ball, Rotterdam police Lt. Jeffrey Collins said Tuesday.

After stopping and seeing damage but nothing else, the driver left, headed for a body shop in Glenville. But as the driver drove along Helderberg Avenue in Rotterdam, she heard noises from the front of her car, Collins said.

This time when she stopped and looked, she saw a dog staring out from below the license plate, Collins said.

The driver, whom police would not identify, immediately called police. One of the responding Rotterdam officers was able to free the dog.

Amazingly, despite her 45-minute ordeal, the dog appeared largely OK, Collins said. Police released a photo of the dog stuck in the car, editing out the car's plate number to protect the driver's identity.

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Police called in an animal control officer who took the dog to Hernas Veterinary Clinic in Schenectady for treatment. The officer also tracked down the dog's owner in Albany.

Workers at Hernas checked the dog out and X-rays revealed the dog had a broken elbow. She was obviously also sore, but otherwise OK, Hernas employee Tammy Van Valkenburgh said Tuesday. The dog weighs about 16 pounds, she said.

October 30, 2019

Donald Trump's Sons Have Sold More Than $100 Million Of His Real Estate Since He Took Office

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2019/10/02/donald-trump-has-sold-more-than-100-million-of-real-estate-since-taking-office/#771d4ddb1090

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In some ways, the Trump fortune could use a risky bet or two: The president is worth $3.1 billion (good for No. 275 on The Forbes 400), the same as a year ago and down $400 million from when he took office. But Don Jr. and Eric are playing things conservatively, tending to their properties, paying down debt and stockpiling a hoard of cash. Since their father’s inauguration, they have sold off $110 million of the president’s real estate holdings—through more than 100 tiny transactions that have mostly flown under the radar.

In the Dominican Republic, the younger Trumps sold a piece of land in January 2018 for $3.2 million. It was the clearest violation of their father’s pledge to do no new foreign deals while in office. (The Trump Organization would not comment for this story.) In other cases, they’ve done business with wannabe influencers who seemingly recognized an opportunity to line the president’s pockets. They sold Trump’s mansion in Beverly Hills for $13.5 million to a company tied to Indonesian billionaire (and Trump business partner) Hary Tanoesoedibjo. They off-loaded a Manhattan penthouse to a woman who runs a business selling access to Chinese officials.

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Other deals wouldn’t turn heads if the seller were anyone but the president of the United States. With Trump in the Oval Office, however, things can get strange. Take the roughly $900 million sale of Spring Creek Towers, America’s largest federally subsidized housing complex. Trump owned a 4% stake, a remnant of his father’s outer-borough empire. Secretary of Housing & Urban Development Ben Carson had to give his approval to make the deal happen, according to property records. That put Trump’s subordinate in the awkward position of having to green-light a transaction that paid his boss an estimated $33 million.

October 30, 2019

fat cat made to exercise