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CREWS REMOVE BARRIERS, MEMORIALS AT GEORGE FLOYD SQUARE
Crews on Thursday removed the concrete barriers that blocked traffic at a Minneapolis intersection where a memorial to George Floyd was assembled after his death last year, but community activists quickly put up makeshift barriers and resumed chanting the name of the Black man whose killing galvanized the racial justice movement. It took the crews less than four hours to clear the barriers, artwork, flowers and other items from 38th Street and Chicago Avenue where Floyd was killed, informally known as George Floyd Square. City spokeswoman Sarah McKenzie said a fist sculpture, which stands several feet tall, will remain. The city said the effort was led by a community group known as Agape and several city departments were involved. The intersection had been closed to traffic since Floyd’s death in police custody on May 25, 2020, but some residents and businesses expressed frustration that it had been closed for so long. Traffic briefly flowed through the intersection Thursday morning after the concrete barriers were removed, but community members quickly erected new makeshift barriers. Dozens of people gathered near the intersection, singing, chanting Floyd’s name and giving speeches expressing frustration and urging people to continue organizing. Police were not seen at the intersection on Thursday morning and there was no visible police presence later in the day. Mayor Jacob Frey said avoiding clashes between activists and police was of utmost concern, and going forward, the police will patrol the area just like any other neighborhood in the city.
[SOURCE: msn.com – ENGAGEMENT: 27.82%]
AMC SHARES GIVE UP 20% PREMARKET GAIN AND DROP FOLLOWING NEW STOCK SALE ANNOUNCEMENT
AMC Entertainment shares ended a rollercoaster trading session down 18% on Thursday after the company announced a stock sale. The wild trading day is the latest in the theater chain meme stock’s movement driven by retail investors banding together on Reddit. The stock price dropped as low as $37.66 during the session after AMC said it may offer and sell “from time to time” up to an aggregate of 11.55 million shares of its Class A common stock. Additional shares dilute the value of the existing stock for existing shareholders. Then, AMC shares rallied off their lows and turned green after the company said it had already completed the offering just a few hours later, raising about $587.4 million. The stock closed Thursday at $51.34. Retail investors — many active on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum — have been leading the AMC rally, and AMC executives have taken note. On Wednesday, the company announced a new portal to connect with individual investors and offered free popcorn, exclusive screenings and other perks to those who hold its stock. JPMorgan noted that in the last week, retail order flow into AMC jumped to $583 million, 6.9 standard deviations above the average level of the last one year. According to their quantitative strategy, this kind of imbalance can lead to more outperformance by the stock in coming weeks.
[SOURCE: cnbc.com – ENGAGEMENT: 10.90%]
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DANISH RADIO JOURNALIST INTERVIEWED MAN WHILE HAVING SEX WITH HIM AT SWINGERS CLUB
A young Danish radio journalist has sparked moral panic after she recorded an interview while having sex at a swingers club – and it was broadcast on air. Louise Fischer, from Denmark’s Radio 4, could be heard moaning as she interviewed the man as they had sex. The reporter was covering the reopening of the club after Denmark loosened its Covid-19 restrictions when she had the encounter, which she says was not planned. The story first aired in March and the audio has since been posted on social media, where it has been shared widely. Fischer told German news outlet Bild that her efforts had received mixed reviews. “Most of them were very positive, they thought it was brave and cool. Others think that I’ve crossed a line in journalism. I don’t have a boyfriend, that definitely made it a lot easier. My mother just thinks it’s funny and laughs, my father thought it was really cool. I enjoyed it. Even though it wasn’t the best sex of my life. But the men in this club are very polite and very considerate. I felt like a goddess. They make you feel very special. For me, it’s very natural. It is part of my job to give an insight into a world that not everyone has access to.”
[SOURCE: nzherald.co.nz – ENGAGEMENT: 7.17%]
REP. MO BROOKS IS AVOIDING AN INSURRECTION LAWSUIT. REP. ERIC SWALWELL HIRED A PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR TO FIND HIM.
Republican Rep. Mo Brooks is avoiding a lawsuit from his Democratic colleague Rep. Eric Swalwell that seeks to hold him accountable for the January 6 Capitol insurrection — so much so that Swalwell’s attorneys hired a private investigator to find him. The detail comes in a court filing Wednesday in which Swalwell’s attorneys describe difficulty in serving Brooks with the lawsuit. CNN has reached out to Brooks’ office for comment. Federal Judge Amit Mehta, after learning of Swalwell’s inability to serve Brooks with the lawsuit, gave the Democrat’s legal team another 60 days to get to Brooks with their formal notification. The judge, however, won’t allow the US Marshals to deliver the lawsuit to the Republican congressman “due to separation of powers concerns,” Mehta wrote, after Swalwell asked for the US Marshals Service’s help. After Swalwell — a California Democrat — sued in March, his attorneys tried to reach the Alabama Republican through calls to the congressman’s office and by sending a letter to formally provide him notice he had been sued, a necessary step in this type of court proceeding. When they couldn’t get the lawsuit to Brooks, the Swalwell legal team hired a private investigator to find him — only to be hampered in April and May partly by the visitor lockdowns around the US Capitol complex, which were put in place for Congress’ protection after the siege, according to their filing Wednesday. “Counsel spoke to two different staff members on two separate occasions, and each time was promised a return call that never came,” Swalwell’s attorneys wrote on Wednesday. Following the Swalwell team’s calls, they emailed, too. “Neither Brooks nor any member of his staff has responded to his request,” their filing said. “Plaintiff had to engage the services of a private investigator to attempt to serve Brooks personally — a difficult feat under normal circumstances that has been complicated further in the wake of the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol that Defendants incited,” Swalwell’s court filing continued. “Plaintiff’s investigator has spent many hours over many days in April and May at locations in multiple jurisdictions attempting to locate and serve Brooks, to no avail.” Other defendants in the suit, including Trump, Trump Jr. and Giuliani, have already responded with their arguments in court, saying they cannot be blamed for the actions of the rioters.
[SOURCE: cnn.com – ENGAGEMENT: 6.60%]
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JEFF BEZOS AND LAUREN SANCHEZ’S PHILANTHROPY PUSH A ‘BRIGHT SPOT’ IN RELATIONSHIP
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez are embracing their shared love for helping others. A source close to the couple tells PEOPLE that Bezos, 57, and Sanchez, 51, have been heavily involved with their philanthropic efforts recently. “Both Jeff and Lauren are really energized by the work they are doing in philanthropy,” the source says. “It’s been a focus and bright spot for them, particularly over the last year.” The couple — whose relationship went public in January 2019 — was dedicated to making an impact even before the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the last meetings they attended together before the lockdown was in Paris, where they met with French President Emmanuel Macron to talk about climate and sustainability related to Bezos’ Earth Fund. At the time, the Amazon founder posted about their meeting on Instagram, sharing a photo of him and Sanchez chatting with Macron in Paris. But their desire to help others has only gotten stronger in the last year, says the source. In recent months, the couple has visited Bezos Academy, their first tuition-free Montessori-inspired preschool for underserved children in Des Moines, Washington, and hosted Gov. Jay Inslee for a tour of Mary’s Place, a homeless shelter on Amazon’s corporate campus in Seattle that opened last year.
[SOURCE: people.com – ENGAGMENT 4.30%]
ELEPHANT HERD RAZES 500-KILOMETER PATH OF DESTRUCTION AFTER ESCAPE FROM CHINA NATURE RESERVE
A herd of 15 elephants has wreaked havoc in China, trampling crops and causing more than a million dollars’ worth of damage, after the animals escaped from a nature reserve last year. The elephants have made a 500-kilometer (311-mile) journey through the southwestern province of Yunnan from the nature reserve in Xishuangbanna to Yuxi, a city of 2.6 million people, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake, according to state news agency Xinhua. It is unclear why they left their nature reserve home, but on their travels, the elephants have caused 412 separate incidents of damage, with financial losses amounting to around 6.8 million yuan ($1.1 million), Xinhua reported. They destroyed 56 hectares of farmland in the counties of Yuanjiang and Shiping alone, the agency said. The creatures have also caused significant disruption to locals. Last Thursday, residents were told to stay indoors and pedestrians and vehicles evacuated in the town of Eshan after the elephants roamed the streets for six hours. Authorities established a 24-hour command center to monitor the animals after they were seen in the Hongta District of Yuxi on Monday, with over 360 people, 76 police cars and dirt trucks and nine drones mobilized for the task, and 18 tonnes of elephant food prepared. No casualties have been reported, according to Xinhua. Monitoring images show the herd is comprised of six female adults, three male adults, three sub-adults and three calves. Asian elephants are the largest land mammal on the Asian continent, according to the World Wildlife Fund. They are considered a protected species in China, and around 300 of them live in Yunnan, according to Xinhua.
[SOURCE: cnn.com – ENGAGEMENT: 2.77%]
AVENGERS READY TO WELCOME MARVEL FANS AT NEW DISNEYLAND CAMPUS
Spider-Man will fly high above Disneyland Resort’s new Avengers Campus in California when it starts welcoming the public on Friday, tumbling through the air as guests below meet Iron Man, Black Panther and other Marvel superheroes. The six-acre (2.43 hectares) Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim is the Walt Disney Company’s latest redesign of its popular theme parks, which were closed for extended periods during the coronavirus pandemic. Highlights include an aerial Spider-Man robot that performs somersaults while flying 60 feet (18.3 m) in the air. A human dressed as Spider-Man will greet visitors at ground level. Guests also can ride a Spider-Man attraction called Web Slingers, where they team with the character to battle out-of-control Spider-Bots. Physical sets and virtual environments will blend to make visitors feel like they are slinging their own webs, designers said. Fan favorites from Disney’s blockbuster Marvel movies, from Black Widow to Captain America and Ant-Man, also will roam the area and interact with guests. Food options include a cart offering shawarma, a nod to a scene at the end of the 2012 “Avengers” movie when various superheroes ate the Middle Eastern dish together after saving the world. The Disneyland Resort, which includes the original Disneyland and adjacent California Adventure, re-opened to the public on April 30 after being closed for more than a year due to the pandemic. The Avengers campus had originally been set to open in July 2020. It was built in an area that previously celebrated the animated movie “A Bug’s Life.”
[SOURCE: reuters.com – ENGAGEMENT: 2.68%]
F. LEE BAILEY, DEFENSE LAWYER FOR THE FAMOUS AND INFAMOUS, DIES AT 87
F. Lee Bailey, one of the nation’s most storied criminal trial lawyers and a tenacious defender of O.J. Simpson, Patty Hearst and a host of other famous and infamous clients in a tumultuous career punctuated by his own collisions with the law and his eventual disbarment, died June 3 at a hospice center in the Atlanta area. He was 87. His son Bendrix Bailey confirmed the death but did not cite a specific cause. Mr. Bailey was celebrated in some corners and scorned in others as he represented deeply unpopular suspects ranging from mutilation murderers and international drug lords to get-rich-quick-scheme artists. In the courtroom, he fascinated the public with his cool, pointed oratory and prodigious memory, as well as his relentlessness. He avidly sought the limelight — even appearing in a Smirnoff vodka ad — and in his give-no-quarter advocacy for his clients, he rarely acknowledged defeat. Steven Brill, founder of Court TV and the American Lawyer magazine, once called him “an enduring legal figure in the sense that he’s been willing, and in fact relished, taking on clients that were the demons of society.” A former private investigator, Mr. Bailey was regarded as a master of pretrial preparation — meeting with key witnesses, collecting pictures and documents and visiting locations relevant to the crime. The purpose, he said, was to “stuff my head with enough facts for when the action starts.” Mr. Bailey could question witnesses for hours without notes and was likened by colleagues to such superstar 20th-century courtroom advocates as Clarence Darrow, Edward Bennett Williams and Percy Foreman, who defended James Earl Ray following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The jury was not the only audience Mr. Bailey played to. He championed his clients in an almost constant barrage of commentary to reporters and appearances on “The Tonight Show,” “The Mike Douglas Show” and other television talk programs.
[SOURCE: msn.com – ENGAGEMENT: 2.49%]
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