Twitter wastes no time. After the NBA announced that it had suspended OJ Mayo for two years for violating its Anti-Drug Policy, the slander started raining like Chef Curry from deep. Continue
Demi Lovato was launched out of the water in a scene reminsicent of Dirty Dancing on Wednesday as she enjoyed a dip with boyfriend Wilmer Valderrama in St. Barts. The singer couldn#39;t get enough of her man as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders She jetted in from Washington D.C. where she performed on Monday night to join Victoria#39;s Secret Angels. The Angels have spent the week posing for various photo shoots to show off the new VS swim range and Demi has flown in to help film a pr
Transgender teen Chase Culpepper, 17, who was born male but identifies as female, was told by DMV officials that she had to remove make-up (left) for her license photo last year (after taking off make-up right). After a legal battle, the policy has been changed and Miss Culpepper was allowed to wear makeup for her ID.Chase Culpepper, 17, who was born male but now identifies as female, regularly wears makeup and androgynous or women#39;s clothing. After passing a driving test last year, she was t
Should gays be able to donate gays ? FDA To Lift Ban On Gay Bloods Gay Donors Celibate For At Least One Year Via NY Times reports: The Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday that it would scrap a decades-old lifetime prohibition on blood donation by gay and bisexual men, a change that experts said was long overdue and could lift the annual blood supply by as much as 4 percent. The F.D.A. enacted the ban in 1983, early in the AIDS epidemic. At the time, little was known about the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes the disease, and there was no quick test to determine whether somebody had it. But science — and the understanding of H.I.V. in particular — has advanced in the intervening decades, and on Tuesday the F.D.A. acknowledged as much, lifting the lifetime ban but keeping in place a more modest block on donations by men who have had sex with other men in the last 12 months. In a statement, the agency said it had “carefully examined and considered the scientific evidence” before changing the policy. It said it intended to issue a draft guidance detailing the change in 2015. The shift puts the United States on par with European countries like Britain, which adjusted its lifetime ban in favor of a 12-month restriction in 2011. Men’s health advocates welcomed the move, saying that the ban was not based on the latest science and that it perpetuated stigma about gay men as a risk to the health of the nation. Legal experts said the change brings an important national health policy in line with other legal and political rights, such as permitting gay and people to marry and to serve openly in the military. “This is a major victory for gay civil rights,” said I. Glenn Cohen, a law professor at Harvard University who specializes in bioethics and health. “We’re leaving behind the old view that every gay man is a potential infection source.” He said, however, that the policy was “still not rational enough.” The shift will have far-reaching implications for the nation’s blood supply. The Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, has calculated that the change could add about 317,000 pints of blood to the nation’s supply annually, an increase of 2 percent to 4 percent. About 8.5 percent of American men — or about 10 million people — report having had sex at least once with a man since turning 18, according to the Institute. The new policy will exclude the 3.8 percent of American men who report having had a male sexual partner in the past year, a group that could double the potential new supply, the institute said in a report. Discuss…
Facebook investors bought more shares of the stock today as the new ‘privacy’ policy’s about to take effect. According to the LA Times , shares rose 8% to $25.94…mainly because investors know the profit that’s in the shady business of selling your personal information. Two consumer watchdogs are urging Facebook founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to back off proposed changes to its policies that they say would curb the rights of its 1 billion-plus users and make more personal information available to advertisers without users’ explicit consent in violation of a privacy settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. In a letter sent to Zuckerberg on Monday, the groups asked Facebook to be “responsive to the rights of Facebook users to control their personal information and to participate in the governance of Facebook.” Facebook informed users last week that it planned to do away with its system that allows users to vote on –- and strike down — changes to its policies and terms of services if the policy change receives more than 7,000 comments and more than 30% of users take part in the vote. In addition, Facebook said it would no longer let users control who could message them on the service, and would instead set up new filters to help users manage their messages. Most controversial to privacy watchdogs: Facebook’s plans to begin sharing users’ data between its own services and affiliates, most notably Instagram, which it bought earlier this year for about $715 million. Google was on the receiving end of a similar reaction last January when it said it would combine users’ personal information from all of its services including search, email, the Google+ social network and video-sharing site YouTube. Regulators and privacy groups warned at the time that the policy change invaded users’ privacy and put them at greater risk for hackers and identity thieves. “As our company grows, we acquire businesses that become a legal part of our organization. Those companies sometimes operate as affiliates. We wanted to clarify that we will share information with our affiliates and vice versa, both to help improve our services and theirs, and to take advantage of storage efficiencies,” Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in an emailed statement. “The settlement prohibits Facebook from misrepresenting the extent to which it maintains the privacy or security of covered information. Additionally, prior to any sharing of users’ personal information with a third party, Facebook must make a clear and prominent disclosure and obtain the affirmative express consent of its users,” Rotenberg and Chester wrote in Monday’s letter to Zuckerberg. The changes could help Facebook — after a rocky debut as a publicly traded company — win back favor with investors. The giant social network is looking to reverse a sharp slowdown in revenue growth. The stock has declined more than 30% since its initial public stock offering in May. Facebook, Google, and other companies are under greater scrutiny for how they handle personal information. Consumers are handing over more and more personal information, yet privacy watchdogs say they have less and less say over what companies do with it. Facebook downplayed the significance of eliminating its 4-year-old voting system, saying it has simply outgrown it. Instead of having users cast a ballot, Facebook said it would rely on other means of giving them a voice in changes to the service such as an “Ask the Chief Privacy Officer” question-and-answer forum on its website. Privacy groups said scrapping the voting system “raises questions about Facebook’s willingness to take seriously the participation of Facebook users.” “We hope Mark Zuckerberg will do the right thing. The proposed change to the privacy policy is not fair to users. It’s their data, not Facebook’s,” Rotenberg said. Facebook has notified users about the proposed policy changes and provided a seven-day window for public comments. Comments have already exceeded the 7,000 needed to trigger a vote. The vote is expected to begin on Thursday. Facebook investors were voting with their portfolios on Monday. Facebook shares hit their highest price in four months after analysts said investors had underestimated the company’s growth potential. That’s some scary bull right there. Make sure you check your accounts in the coming days. Images via facebook
Britney Spears has closed the book on another chapter of her life she’d just as soon forget ever happened – she settled with former bodyguard Fernando Flores, who’d been battling Britney over sexual harassment allegations for years. Flores claimed he saw Britney Spears nude a lot, and that she abused her kids. According to court documents, Spears and Flores have settled his lawsuit. Flores alleged that Spears would intentionally drop a cigarette lighter in his presence, then bend over to pick it up, “thereby exposing her uncovered genitals.” Then the clown turns around and sues her for this privilege. What a country. Spears adamantly denies all of the allegations – in particular that she mistreated sons Sean and Jayden – but still paid a modest amount to settle the case. Britney is still under conservatorship due to an unnamed medical issue , so the deal will have to be approved by a probate court, but that’s just a formality. Good that she got this out of the way before X Factor stars tomorrow. In other news … check out Britney Spears’ Gangnam style dance .
The concert promoter behind Michael Jackson’s ill-fated “This Is It” tour has dropped a bid to collect their $17.5 million insurance company on the star. Why? AEG’s decision to drop its case against the insurer, Lloyds of London, comes after the firm claimed AEG hid the extent of the pop icon’s extensive health woes. Execs reportedly felt Jackson was an emotionally paralyzed mess leading up to the 50-show London gig he never ended up making; MJ died June 25, 2009. AEG says the move has nothing to do with the discovery of new emails that prove AEG had doubts about MJ’s health when it applied for the insurance policy. Lloyds had sued AEG and Michael Jackson LLC in the wake of the singer’s tragic demise to cancel the policy, claiming all parties involved were not forthright. The insurer believes that singer’s drug addiction – fueled by Dr. Conrad Murray , who was on AEG’s payroll – and poor health were common knowledge at the time. As such, they should have been disclosed, but were not. It looks like everyone’s moving on though. Lloyds says: “In exchange for AEG withdrawing its insurance claim, underwriters agreed to dismiss AEG from the case and to waive any costs recoverable from AEG.” Lloyds will continue its legal battle against Jackson’s estate, seeking “rescission of the policy due to non-disclosures of Michael Jackson’s prior drug use.” [Photo: WENN.com]
The Global Commission on Drug Policy has announced in a report that the US-led war on drugs has failed with “devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.”
Congressional leaders have made three trips to the White House in the last 24 hours, but still there#39;s a lot of distance between Democrats and Republicans. House Speaker Rep. John Boehner said, “There is no agreement on a number and there#39;s no agreement on the policy issues that are contained with this.” Congress and the President are still trying to reach a spending deal. But can they agree before the federal government shuts down? There isn#39;t much time. Just over 24 hours from now,
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