Cheerios is refusing the let the bigots win. The brand found itself at the center of an unexpected controversy last week after an advertisement that featured a mixed race family was hit with racial epithets on YouTube. Controversial Cheerios Commercial But Camille Gibson – vice president of marketing for Cheerios – says the message of the spot fits in with the cereal’s Heart Healthy campaign and: “We felt like we were reflecting an American family.” The national commercial will continue running as scheduled for several months. And – despite the vocal minority online – overall, Gibson said, the feedback has been overwhelmingly supportive: “Consumers are actually responding very positively to the ad.” Thank goodness. It really is like Patton Oswalt said after the Boston bombing: the good people outnumber the bad people in this world by a large margin.
Selena Gomez may not be the hottest woman on the Maxim Hot 100 , but the young singer isn’t too distressed over her ranking. She is number-two, after all. And what does she think of the magazine’s top choice , Miley Cyrus? “She’s beautiful,” Gomez said Friday’s edition of “The TJ Show” on 103.3 in Boston, adding that she doesn’t understand why such a list even exists. So we can compare her and Cyrus, of course! D-uh! Do so now and decide whether Maxim got this ranking right. Who looks hotter? And the Winner is? Miley Cyrus Click Here To Vote for Miley Selena Gomez Click Here To Vote for Selena Miley Cyrus or Selena Gomez? Who is actually hotter in her Maxim photo? View Poll »
Fans of TV who love Twitter but hate spoilers, meet Jennie Lamere. The 17-year-old entered the TVnext Hack event in Boston and not only won her category, “Best Use of Sync-To-Broadcast,” but also won Best In Show. Her creation? Twivo, a TV spoiler blocker made for Twitter. An extension of Google Chrome, Twivo lets users type in key words they would like to block and for how long. Take the example of Game of Thrones spoilers . If you missed the episode but have it on DVR and still want to be on Twitter, enter keyword “Game of Thrones” and you won’t see any tweets about it! So for The Bachelorette spoilers , you’d have to start like two months before the premiere, since Reality Steve starts posting them then. Just FYI. The program is still in demo phase and won’t be ready to roll out for a few weeks, but it’s totally a thing – good enough to win a hack-a-thon no less! Lamere has already been approached by a tech company that wants to market the final product. Hopefully, this will shut down Spoiler TV for good. That site is just terrible.
The Boston Celtics shocked the basketball world last night by keeping their season alive in New York, defeating the Knicks 92-86 in Game Five of the NBA Playoffs. But the real fireworks were saved until after the game, when Celtics benchwarmer Jordan Crawford got into it with Raymond Felton and Carmelo Anthony. Watch the fracas below: Celtics vs. Knicks: Post-Game Shoving Match Did this beef have anything to do with Kevin Garnett telling Anthony awhile back that his wife tastes like Honey Nut Cheerios ? Crawford – who didn’t even play in the game – simply told The Boston Globe: “They was talking to me, baby. They was talking to me. Yeah, they like me. I think it’s that smile I keep carrying… “I don’t know what happened, you know what I’m saying? I was on the bench the whole game, I don’t know why they was talking to me. “They gotta be upset, their [expletives] tightening up. Of course they upset.” Well, okay then. That clears it all right up! Game 6 will be played in Boston tomorrow night.
Well this is good news … According to Fox Business: The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, offering reassurance that the bottom is not falling out of the labor market despite signs of slower growth. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 339,000 the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week’s number was revised to show 3,000 more applications than previously reported. Analysts had expected 351,000 new claims last week. A Labor Department analyst said there was nothing unusual in the data and no states had estimated their claims. The report runs counter to several weeks of signals that economic activity has softened over the last two months, a phenomena economists have dubbed the spring swoon because it also happened in the previous two years. The four-week moving average for new claims, a less volatile measure of labor market trends, fell 4,500 to 357,500. That could help to further ease concerns of a deterioration in labor market conditions after nonfarm payrolls posted their smallest increase in nine months in March. However, claims around this time of the year are difficult to adjust for seasonal swings, so analysts will be cautious about extrapolating too much from today’s data. Economists expect the government next week will report that employers hired 145,000 people in April. Employers added 88,000 workers to their payrolls last month after a solid 268,000 increase in February. It was unclear whether there was any impact in the claims data from a brief shutdown of offices in Boston area last week as police hunted for a man suspected of helping plant bombs at the Boston Marathon. State authorities asked hundreds of thousands of Boston-area workers to stay in their homes on April 19. Thoughts?? Shutterstock
You know its a bad day when you can’t give coochie away! Woman Attacks Man For Not Wanting To Have Sex With Her According to The Smoking Gun Meet Amanda Cantwell. The South Carolina woman, 27, is facing a domestic violence charge after allegedly attacking her boyfriend when he refused to have sex with her. According to a Charleston Police Department report, Jeffrey Chaffin, the 33-year-old victim, told investigators that he and Cantwell had been drinking Monday evening when the trouble started. Chaffin, who has lived with Cantwell for about 18 months, told officers that she “became extremely upset when he refused to have sexual intercourse with her.” Chaffin added that Cantwell slapped him in the head, jumped on his back, and “inserted her fingers in his mouth and clawed the inside of his cheeks with her fingernails.” After getting Cantwell off his back, Chaffin dialed 911. Police responding to his call noted that they “were able to observe fresh scratches and blood inside the victim’s mouth.” When questioned about the confrontation, Cantwell acknowledged that she and Chaffin had been “drinking alcohol at their residence all day and became involved in a verbal dispute.” She claimed that she only attacked Cantwell after he began choking her. Cops, however, “did not observe any marks/redness on or around the offender’s neck.” Cantwell was arrested for criminal domestic violence and booked into the county jail. Free on bond, she is scheduled to appear in court Friday. Chaffin, who declined medical attention, told cops that he did not want to be relocated, nor was he in “fear for his safety.” SMH! Sometimes it’s better just to pull out the old vibrator and do it yourself. Charleston Police Department
Mom at some point you have to wake up from the fog. Boston Bombers’ Mom Calls Bombing Fake According to The NY Post The father of the two Boston bombing suspects said Thursday that he is leaving Russia for the United States in the next day or two, but their mother said she was still thinking it over. Zubeidat Tsarnaev told CNN that she believed the terror attack was staged, calling it “a show.” “That’s what I want to know, because everybody’s talking about it — that this is a show, that’s what I want to know. That’s what I want to understand,” she said. The mother told the network she had watched a video about the conspiracy theory and said she hadn’t seen images from the bombings. The mother wildly claimed the blood on Boylston Street was paint but then cried for the victims of the brutal blasts. “I really feel sorry for all of them. Really feel sorry for all of them.” The parents of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev returned last year to Dagestan, one of several predominantly Muslim provinces in southern Russia, where they lived briefly before moving to the US a decade ago. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was killed in a gun battle with police, spent six months last year in Russia’s Caucasus, which has been ravaged for years by an insurgency led by religious extremists. They say a mother’s love is unconditional, but we think this mother’s love is just plain delusional. AP
The surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect says he and his brother discussed attacking NYC’s Times Square next, according to law enforcement officials. The surviving suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev , initially told investigators that they planned to go to New York to party after the Boston attack, the officials said. The New York police commissioner also gave a similar account. Under questioning, the officials said, Tsarnaev said that he and his deceased brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, discussed a follow-up attack on Times Square. The officials cautioned that the Tsarnaev’s idea was “undeveloped.” One senior official described the plan as speculative, and “aspirational at most.” Tsarnaev reportedly confessed to his role in the Boston blast, too. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly scheduled a press briefing later Thursday to further discuss this subject. Tsarnaev, wounded in a shootout with police (in which is brother died) before he was captured Friday night, is in fair condition at a Boston hospital. Three people were killed and more than 200 wounded when two bombs went off near the marathon finish line April 15, sparking a massive manhunt. A man who authorities say was carjacked by the Tsarnaevs before the shootout told police he heard one of the men say “Manhattan” before he escaped. Somewhere, Boston Marathon bombing conspiracy theorists are already discrediting this. In any case, the questioning happened before Tsarnaev was read his rights. The U.S. government had invoked an exception to the requirement that suspects be read what are known as their Miranda rights before questioning. The exception is applied in cases of public danger.
Don’t front, some of y’all azzes would be right in the front row trying to touch lil Marky abs. Mark Wahlberg Says He Would Reunite With The Funky Bunch For Boston Bombing Charity Concert According to TMZ reports : Feel it, FEEL IT … Mark Wahlberg just told TMZ he would REUNITE with The Funky Bunch to raise money for the victims of the Boston Marathon Bombing. Wahlberg — who was born and raised in Boston — was leaving T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, VA this morning when he told us he’s totally game to get the gang back together for a BMB fundraiser. Fun Fact — T.C. Williams High was the inspiration for the movie “Remember the Titans.” We already know The Funky Bunch would be down to perform — back in March, they told TMZ a reunion show would be “amazing.” Sound too good to be true? Hear it from the horses mouth below. Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames. We’re all for raising money for folks that have suffered great losses, but didn’t The Funky Bunch only have one hit song with “Good Vibrations”??? Image via tumblr
SMH! Thank God they took out the first Boston Bomber suspect Boston Bomb Suspect Eyed in 2011 Murders According to ABC News In the wake of the revelations about the violent nature of accused marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, investigators in the Boston suburbs tell ABC News they are probing whether he may have been involved in an unsolved grisly triple homicide of a former roommate and two others. The murders took place around the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. “We are looking at a possible connection with the suspect in the marathon atrocity and this active and open homicide in Waltham,” Stephanie Guyotte, a spokeswoman for the Middlesex County District Attorney, confirmed to ABC News. Tsarnaev, the alleged bombing mastermind who died in a fierce gun battle with police early Friday morning, had been training with one of the 2011 murder victims in an attempt to transition from boxing into a possible career in the brutal sport of mixed-martial arts. The victims were found in a Waltham, Massachusetts apartment. They had their throat slashed, their heads nearly decapitated. Their mutilated bodies were left covered with kush. It was a gruesome scene – but also perplexing to law enforcement. While drugs appeared to factor into the motive, the murderer left both the kush and thousands of dollars in cash behind in the Waltham apartment. While the investigation has been active for more than a year, authorities acknowledged they have had few leads. Two law enforcement sources told ABC News that may now change, with the bomb attack prompting a fresh look into Tsarnaev’s alleged penchant for violence. Even before the bombing, police records show, there was an indication of a rage growing inside of Tsarnaev. Court documents obtained by ABC News show in July 2009 he was arrested for domestic violence after his then-girlfriend made a frantic 911 to report she was “being beat up by her boyfriend.” The police report, which was redacted to hide the girlfriend’s name, says that Tsarnaev admitted to responding officers that he slapped her. The case was later dismissed. Tsarnaev had also been close to one of the murder victims, 25-year-old Brendan Mess, investigators told ABC. The two had been training together in a local gym –each helping the other with a missing element from their fighting arsenal. Tsarnaev, a golden-gloves heavy weight boxer, lacked martial arts training. And Mess, an experienced jiu jitsu competitor, lacked boxing experience. The two sparred together at an Allston, MA gym called Wai Kru. The gym’s head trainer, John Allan, provided a statement to the Boston Globe via Facebook message saying that Tamerlan “came into the gym to spar from time to time.” It was unclear if Tsarnaev knew the other men slain, Raphael Teken, 37, and Eric Weissman, 31. A Waltham investigator who called the murders “the worst bloodbath I have ever seen in a long law enforcement career” said Tsarnaev has now proven he had the propensity for the type of violence that unfolded two years ago. “There was no forced entry, it was clear that the victims had let the killer in. And their throats were slashed right out of an al Qaeda training video. The drugs and money on the bodies was very strange,” the investigator said. One of Mess’ relatives yesterday told investigators they thought it was odd that Tsarnaev did not attend the funerals for his slain friend. The Mess relative also described animosity between the two friends “over Brendan’s lifestyle,” two law enforcement sources said. Because it is an open homicide investigation the sources were not authorized to speak on the record. “Given how religious the older brother was, and we have heard information from the college about how the younger brother was ‘a drug head’ is there a chance that Tsarnaev was angry that Brendan was selling his brother drugs? We don’t know,” said one of those sources. “But we are certainly interested in finding out.” Tsarnaev and Mess had been socializing together in the months before the murder, according to a Massachusetts correction officer who met up with a group of fighters that included Tsarnaev and Mess at a June 2011 Mixed Martial Arts event run by Burlington Brawl, a Vermont-based fighting outfit. Tsarnaev impressed the group with his golden gloves status, but largely kept to himself during the evening. “We were all drinking beers, but not that guy. He was drinking water,” the correction officer said. Do you think people are born evil or is it a learned behavior? AP
