MP for North West Leicestershire, 46, released on bail after arrest on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 29-year-old woman Andrew Bridgen, the Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, has been released on bail after being arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting of a 29-year-old woman. The 46-year-old newly-elected MP was arrested at an address in central London in the early hours of Thursday. It is understood the woman was an employee on the parliamentary estate, but not in Bridgen’s office. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan police said: “A 46-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault against a 29-year-old woman at an address in SW1 in the early hours of Thursday 9 June. The man has been bailed to return on a date in mid-July.” Bridgen – who is regarded as being on the right of the Conservative party – won the North West Leicestershire seat with a 12% swing from Labour at the 2010 election. A key marginal, it had been held by Labour since 1997. In 2010 there was also a sizeable Liberal Democrat vote. Bridgen has been a low-profile MP since he won the seat in May. He is a member of the regulatory reform committee and holds no other official posts in parliament. His most high-profile intervention came on Tuesday when he defended the Conservatives’ NHS reforms, saying: ‘If we fail to go through with these reforms, we are caving in to Stalinist protectionist elements.” On Tuesday he joined Twitter , where news of his arrest emerged. On his parliamentary website he lists business and enterprise, civil liberties, law and order and the armed forces as his interests. Bridgen is a married father of two. He trained as a Royal Marines officer before returning to his family’s successful agricultural business, which sells pre-washed vegetables. He is currently the non-executive chairman of his own company, AB Produce plc. He was previously the east Midlands chairman of the Institute of Directors, and served on the East Midlands Regional Assembly as a business representative. A spokesman for the Conservative party said: “This is a matter for the police.” Conservatives Crime Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …If you haven’t heard about the DropFox initiative , now is a good time to learn about it. It’s the same effort that was undertaken with the StopBeck campaign — pressure advertisers to drop their ads on Fox News in order to make their bias and hate cost something. Today, it has cost Fox something to continue down the path of right-wing lies and hate, because Orbitz has agreed to review their advertising across the entire Fox News network. As a pro-LGBT company, advertising on the notoriously homophobic Fox News is damaging their brand. Courage Campaign : After nearly 200,000 members of the Courage Campaign, Media Matters for America, Equality Matters, CREDO Action and the League of Conservation Voters asked Orbitz to stop funding Fox News’ homophobic rhetoric with their advertising, Orbitz agreed to become the first company in America to review their advertising on not just the worst Fox News programs, but the ENTIRE network. This sets the standard for other companies. Orbitz said their review will take weeks, not months. Can you sign up to help us “trust but verify” that Orbitz does not go on Fox News, and make sure more pro-LGBT companies do not fund Fox News? Let’s keep up the pressure on Fox. There’s a list of some of their major advertisers here , and you can send a letter asking them to drop Fox here . Update: Alternet reports that this is the first of several upcoming initiatives: Specifically, LGBT groups are asking organizations to drop their advertising from the network because of Fox’s acceptance of figures who have made grossly unjust anti-gay statements, and its far from fair-and-balanced reporting on “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” Environmental groups are making the same request, citing the network’s repeated parroting of scientifically disproven climate-change denial. Other issue-related campaigns will be rolled out in coming weeks and months , says Angelo Carusone at DropFox (a subset of Media Matters for America), which was behind the successful “Stop Beck” campaign and is spearheading the more recent efforts.
Continue reading …The American Values Network just produced an ad pitting Paul Ryan’s love of Ayn Rand against Christian values: GOP leaders and conservative pundits have brought upon themselves a crisis of values. Many who for years have been the loudest voices invoking the language of faith and moral values are now praising the atheist philosopher Ayn Rand whose teachings stand in direct contradiction to the Bible. Rand advocates a law of selfishness over love and commands her followers to think only of themselves, not others. She said her followers had to choose between Jesus and her teachings. GOP leaders want to argue that they are defending Christian principles. But, at the same time, Rep. Paul Ryan (author of the GOP budget) is posting facebook videos praising Rand’s morality and saying hers is the “kind of thinking that is sorely needed right now.” Simply put, Paul Ryan can’t have it both ways, and neither can Christians. This is turning into an interesting development. Conservatives that say they are part of the religious right and support the odious principles of Ayn Rand are starting to get called out on it by other Christians. You would then presume to believe that the Catholic Bishops would be also siding against Paul Ryan and Ayn Rand, but as I’ve written before, lookie here: It seems sacrilegious to suggest the leader of the America’s Catholic Bishops has made a deal with the devil. But his latest political gesture makes me wonder if he is in negotiations. Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York and president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops, sent a letter on Wednesday to House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan. The subject of the letter was the House Republican Budget, which Ryan wrote, and it was part of an ongoing dialogue between the two men. Dolan’s letter did not endorse the Republican budget per se. But it praised Ryan for his attention to the Church’s values and, if you read the text, you can see why Ryan has (according to Politico ) been brandishing it as a signal of support You can see why I believe the Conference of Catholic Bishops is more of a lobbying arm for the pro-life movement than anything else. I agree with Jonathon Chait that Dolan’s letter seems to try to ease the pain for Rep. John Boehner when this happened: Professors At Catholic Colleges Tell John Boehner: Your Budget Fails To Uphold Church Moral Teachings And then Ryan got called out over his budget a short time ago: by a ‘Catholic’ at Faith And Freedom Conference 2011 Let me remind you of this Amy Sullivan post in TIME : Across the street from the Faith & Freedom Conference Friday afternoon, a group of religious leaders continued the attack on what they now consistently refer to as “The Ayn Rand Budget.” Father Cletus Kiley, a Catholic priest, declared the Ryan budget “does not pass our test” of Catholic teachings, and suggested that supporters of the budget “drop Ayn Rand’s books and pick up their sacred texts.” Rand’s influence on Ryan’s politics is also the subject of a new ad produced by the religious group American Values Network, which hopes to run the spot in Ryan’s district. It’s a stinging attack, and again, one that was wholly unanticipated by the Republican rising star. ( Is Paul Ryan a coward? ) This ad isn’t for the hard core Religious Right that is embedded in the GOP, but Independent voters that work too hard to support their families to get involved in politics like we do. Will it be effective? One thing is for sure. It’s a message that Paul Ryan doesn’t want to hear.
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UPDATE: The search for Kristian Faith Ward, an 18-year-old model and mother from Phoenix, Ariz., who has been missing since late last month has ended with the young woman’s safe recovery, according to her father. “We are pleased to know that she is alive and thank the Phoenix police department for their help in finding our daughter,” Ward’s father, Stephen Ward, told The Huffington Post. He added: “This is a matter of family privacy and we thank you for all of your concern and prayers.” ———- Original Article: Kristian Ward, also known as Kristian Faith Stout, was last seen at the Paradise Valley Mall in Phoenix at about 1 p.m. on May 27. What happened to her after she left the mall remains a mystery, according to the Phoenix Police Department. “She went to pick up her check from work and has not been seen or heard from since,” Sgt. Trent Crump told The Huffington Post. Ward, who lives at home with her parents and her 2-year-old son, does not have a vehicle and was alone at the time of her disappearance. She had a cellphone with her, but attempts to reach her via the phone have been unsuccessful. Additional attempts to “ping” the phone — that is, to use satellites to trace her route and or current location — have also failed, according to police. “We were unable to locate it,” Crump said. Ward’s Facebook wall is set to private, so non-friends cannot view it. Some personal information, however, such as her schooling, Santa Fe College, and current job — as a model at Hollister Company — are visible. Her Facebook profile’s “about Kristian” section reads in part: “I have a son … he’s everything to me! I don’t have many friends because I trust very few. I like to get out and do things. Just enjoy life!” Police said Ward’s son is currently staying with his grandparents. Asked if investigators suspect foul play in Ward’s disappearance, Crump said, “There are things that you look at — she walked away from a 2-year-old and has never done that before and [she] did not take any belongings with her. So, there is great concern, but obviously we don’t have any … [proof of] an abduction or kidnapping.” Crump added: “We have no crime scene [but] the parents do feel something has gone wrong here.” Ward is described as a white female with brown hair and brown eyes. She is 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs 125 pounds. She has pierced ears, with an extra piercing in the top of her left ear. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is urged to contact the Phoenix Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit at (602) 534-2121 or (602) 262-6141. WATCH: Phoenix Parents Worried for Missing Daughter: MyFoxPHOENIX.com
Continue reading …Notre Dame Trustee Resigns; Chicago Trib Relays Claim She ‘Didn’t Realize’ Emily’s List’s Proabort Mission
June 9, 2011 No Comment
There must be something in Chicagoland's drinking water which causes either acute memory loss or a persistent inability to pay attention. First, we had presidential candidate Barack Obama, who sat in Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ for nearly two decades, but who supposedly had no idea Pastor Wright was so hostile towards America (” US KKK of A “), its history (we deserved the 9/11 attacks because of Hirsohima and Nagasaki ), and its white citizens (the ” white supremacy Rhetorical Ethic “). Now we have Roxanne Martino, a Chicago-area member of the University of Notre Dame's Board of Trustees, who resigned Wednesday after serving less than two months. The Cardinal Newman Society noted that Martino had made $27,150 in political contributions to Emily's List over a 12-year period. Her claim, relayed through the board's chairman and the university's president, is that she “didn't realize any of the organizations she supported also promoted abortion rights.” Uh, Roxanne — Emily's List has only one mission : “electing pro-choice Democratic women to office.” Here's some of the Chicago Tribune's skepticism-free take : A Chicago business executive resigned Wednesday from the University of Notre Dame's board of trustees after a conservative Roman Catholic watchdog group reported that she donated thousands of dollars to an organization that says it is “dedicated to electing pro-choice Democratic women.”
Continue reading …How do you soothe an angry shark? You can rock him to near-submission with heavy metal. That’s what one Australian charter boat operator has discovered after witnessing sharks blissfully rubbing their snouts against caged underwater speakers belting out the sounds. “I guess the visual people expect is that of a…
Continue reading …The 13-year cicadas are out in Missouri but an ice cream parlor’s attempt to turn the bugs into a seasonal treat has been thwarted. Health officials descended on Sparky’s Homemade Ice Cream after its first batch of cicada ice cream sold out and told them not to make any more,…
Continue reading …Virgin Mobile welcomes 4.1-inch Motorola Triumph, brings Froyo to the prepaid side
June 9, 2011 No Comment
Fear not, pay-as-you-go fans — Virgin Mobile saw a hat tip of its own at today’s Sprint / Motorola event in the form of the Triumph, a middling 4.1-inch Android 2.2 handset that perhaps doesn’t quite live up to it’s hyperbolic name. The device has 2GB of built-in storage, 512MB of RAM, a five megapixel camera, WVGA display, 1400mAh battery, A-GPS, WiFi a Qualcomm MSM8655 CPU and HDMI output. It also comes pre-loaded with Virgin Live 2.0, a musical social networking feature that gives users access to exclusive musical content — not quite the stuff victory laps are made out of, but it’s certainly a welcome addition to the prepaid market. Triumphant press release after the break, which is triumphantly devoid of any pricing / release information. Continue reading Virgin Mobile welcomes 4.1-inch Motorola Triumph, brings Froyo to the prepaid side Virgin Mobile welcomes 4.1-inch Motorola Triumph, brings Froyo to the prepaid side originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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A bumper crop of cabaret acts will take to the stage this year in the largest Edinburgh festival fringe ever announced The comedians, actors and street performers who dominate the Edinburgh fringe have a brash new competitor: cabaret shows featuring feminist burlesque, ukeleles, acrobats and mind-reading psychics. As the world’s largest arts festival gets even bigger – even though the number of venues is reduced – the fringe has opted to give cabaret its own space in the programme for the first time. The 65 cabaret events will feature a damsel slaying “inner dragons”, a rabbit-hating magician, nostalgic celebrations of jazz, swing and Judy Garland, a DJ playing “disco bingo” and somewhat saucier revues, many of which will carry an adults-only warning. But they will be competing for audiences with attractions such as a John Malkovich-directed celebration of playwright Harold Pinter (featuring Julian Sands), and the Soft Cell singer Marc Almond, who will appear at the Traverse theatre . There will also be shows by Diana Quick and Art Malik , and established comedians Sarah Millican , Al Murray , Mark Thomas and Phill Jupitus .The British Council has funded new shows from Brazil and South Korea, while the “international sex symbol” Paul Daniels will present a show with the lovely Debbie McGee. The actor and director Steven Berkoff, meanwhile, directs an acclaimed reinterpretation of the Greek tragedy Oedipus , with an ensemble cast. The fringe has again broken its own record for the number of shows, with a near 4% increase in the overall number of shows to hit 2,542, with more than 21,000 performers expected to perform more than 41,000 shows, including more than 930 comedy shows and 760 theatre productions. Audiences will, for the first time, be able to buy tickets using smartphone apps from early August. Kath Mainland, the fringe’s chief executive, said she was delighted with the scale of this year’s event. A recent economic impact report found the fringe, the world’s largest arts festival, was worth £141m to Edinburgh and the Scottish economy. “The fringe, over its 65-year history, has matured into an enormous, enormously important, world-class festival and arts market,” she said. The rise in cabaret “mirrors the fact that cabaret across the world is something of an art form in itself, is good and high quality, and not just a second cousin. We’ve been wanting to give cabaret its own space on the fringe for a number of years.” Despite the record number of shows, up from 2088 in 2008, there is growing criticism of the shrinking number of venues in Edinburgh and the increasing concentration of events around the Royal Mile and several sprawling sites south of the Old Town, dominated by the large venues. Tommy Sheppard, owner of the Stand Comedy club, said that the Fringe Society (the event’s governing body) and the city council needed to find more venues in other neighbourhoods. “The concentration of venues in one small part of the city is bad for the city and it’s also bad for visitors, because they get squeezed into one small [area] and don’t leave it.” Pip Utton, deputy chair of the Fringe Society, said these large sites at Bristo Square, George Square and the Royal Mile added to the intensity of the event, and that many venues in other areas were only a few hundred metres walk away. “I can understand the misgivings [but] it’s difficult to avoid the intensity; it’s just the nature of the beast. That energy is driven quite often by the performers and the visitors,” he said. • Tickets for the Edinburgh festival fringe 2011 go on sale on Friday 10 June at edfringe.com . Edinburgh festival Comedy Circus Burlesque Theatre Festivals Edinburgh Edinburgh Severin Carrell guardian.co.uk
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A bumper crop of cabaret acts will take to the stage this year in the largest Edinburgh festival fringe ever announced The comedians, actors and street performers who dominate the Edinburgh fringe have a brash new competitor: cabaret shows featuring feminist burlesque, ukeleles, acrobats and mind-reading psychics. As the world’s largest arts festival gets even bigger – even though the number of venues is reduced – the fringe has opted to give cabaret its own space in the programme for the first time. The 65 cabaret events will feature a damsel slaying “inner dragons”, a rabbit-hating magician, nostalgic celebrations of jazz, swing and Judy Garland, a DJ playing “disco bingo” and somewhat saucier revues, many of which will carry an adults-only warning. But they will be competing for audiences with attractions such as a John Malkovich-directed celebration of playwright Harold Pinter (featuring Julian Sands), and the Soft Cell singer Marc Almond, who will appear at the Traverse theatre . There will also be shows by Diana Quick and Art Malik , and established comedians Sarah Millican , Al Murray , Mark Thomas and Phill Jupitus .The British Council has funded new shows from Brazil and South Korea, while the “international sex symbol” Paul Daniels will present a show with the lovely Debbie McGee. The actor and director Steven Berkoff, meanwhile, directs an acclaimed reinterpretation of the Greek tragedy Oedipus , with an ensemble cast. The fringe has again broken its own record for the number of shows, with a near 4% increase in the overall number of shows to hit 2,542, with more than 21,000 performers expected to perform more than 41,000 shows, including more than 930 comedy shows and 760 theatre productions. Audiences will, for the first time, be able to buy tickets using smartphone apps from early August. Kath Mainland, the fringe’s chief executive, said she was delighted with the scale of this year’s event. A recent economic impact report found the fringe, the world’s largest arts festival, was worth £141m to Edinburgh and the Scottish economy. “The fringe, over its 65-year history, has matured into an enormous, enormously important, world-class festival and arts market,” she said. The rise in cabaret “mirrors the fact that cabaret across the world is something of an art form in itself, is good and high quality, and not just a second cousin. We’ve been wanting to give cabaret its own space on the fringe for a number of years.” Despite the record number of shows, up from 2088 in 2008, there is growing criticism of the shrinking number of venues in Edinburgh and the increasing concentration of events around the Royal Mile and several sprawling sites south of the Old Town, dominated by the large venues. Tommy Sheppard, owner of the Stand Comedy club, said that the Fringe Society (the event’s governing body) and the city council needed to find more venues in other neighbourhoods. “The concentration of venues in one small part of the city is bad for the city and it’s also bad for visitors, because they get squeezed into one small [area] and don’t leave it.” Pip Utton, deputy chair of the Fringe Society, said these large sites at Bristo Square, George Square and the Royal Mile added to the intensity of the event, and that many venues in other areas were only a few hundred metres walk away. “I can understand the misgivings [but] it’s difficult to avoid the intensity; it’s just the nature of the beast. That energy is driven quite often by the performers and the visitors,” he said. • Tickets for the Edinburgh festival fringe 2011 go on sale on Friday 10 June at edfringe.com . Edinburgh festival Comedy Circus Burlesque Theatre Festivals Edinburgh Edinburgh Severin Carrell guardian.co.uk
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