Neighbors pay tribute to victims
Neighbors in the Henderson county town of Zirconia pay tribute to 31 year old John Fink and his nine-year-old son, James. According to Spartanburg County Coroner, Fink was driving the tanker truck that overturned and caught fire Saturday morning. Neighbors say Fink was a nice person and that his son was “a little man” with intellectual curiosity. Fink is survived by his mother and several siblings, including a twin brother.
Proposes to Obama
During his weekly interview with the national radio station, Mugabe mocks America’s decision to legalise gay marriage by vowing to travel to the White House and proposing to Barack Obama.
I’ve just concluded – since President Obama endorses the same-sex marriage, advocates homosexual people and enjoys an attractive countenance – thus if it becomes necessary, I shall travel to Washington, DC, get down on my knee and ask his hand. I can’t understand how this people dare to defy Christ’s explicit orders as our Lord prohibited mankind from sodomy.
Wants to reduce flag flown by fans
France reiterates the sport’s policy preventing the use of the flag in any official capacity:
In all areas that NASCAR controls on a given race weekend, the flag has no presence,” France said. “We have been clear in support of this position throughout our industry and to those across the country who have called for the eradication of the Confederate Flag.
He also says the sport is looking into how it can reduce the flag’s presence among fans who might fly it in the infield.
We will be as aggressive as possible to disassociate NASCAR events from an offensive and divisive symbol. We are working with the industry right now to achieve that goal.
News conference
Prime Minister Essid, responds to the recent terrorist attack by announcing additional security measures and asking the people of Tunisia to work together to get through the crisis. According to the Prime Minister, crucial security upgrades that must be put into place immediately include:
examining the funding of organisations suspected of promoting radicalism, closing about 80 renegade mosques outside government control and declaring certain mountainous zones military areas and calling up army reservists…The fight against terrorism is a national responsibility. We are at war against terrorism which represents a serious danger to national unity during this delicate period that the nation is going through.
Gay marriage reaction
Cook welcomes the Supreme Court’s ruling allowing same-sex couples to marry:
Today marks a victory for equality, perseverance and love.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 26, 2015
‘Proud’ to celebrate ruling
Clinton says she is celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage.
Proud to celebrate a historic victory for marriage equality—& the courage & determination of LGBT Americans who made it possible. -H
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 26, 2015
Bans Univision staff from Miami golf resort
In response to being dropped by the network, Trump sends a letter to Univision CEO Falco informing him that “no Univision officer or representative” is allowed to use his Trump National Doral, the resort and golf club immediately adjacent to Univision offices in Miami.
Please be advised that under no circumstances is any officer or representative of Univision allowed to use Trump National Doral, Miami—its golf courses or any of its facilities. Also, please immediately stop work and close the gate which is being constructed between our respective properties. If this is not done within one week, we will close it…Please congratulate your Mexican Government officials for having made such outstanding trade deals with the United States. However, inform them that should I become President, those days are over. We are bringing jobs back to the U.S. Also, a meaningful border will be immediately created, not the laughingstock that currently exists.
Univision responds:
[Univision Communications Inc.] employees should not stay at Trump properties while on company business or hold events/activities there.
Calls West ‘poser’
When asked if he still believed his previous Tweet that West was “an idiot and a poser” Cosby says:
Yes, I said that! It all stands on what you produce, what you actually put down. Kanye West can’t write, sing, or play. So I have trouble with him as anything but a poser. Produce? That means he sits in a chair while the engineer does the work. He’s a poser! And I’m not backing off it.
Confirms Mitchell’s condition
Cosby confirms that Mitchell had an aneurysm and says she is currently unable to communicate.
I have not spoken with her. To my knowledge she is not speaking yet. She is home, she is in care, she is recovering. She took a terrible hit. She had an aneurysm, and nobody found her for a while. And she’s going to have to struggle back from it the way you struggle back from a traumatic brain injury…She’s a tough girl and very smart. So, how much she’s going to come back and when, I don’t know and I’m not going to guess. I love her… She’s probably the best of us — probably the greatest living singer-songwriter.
U.S unsure attacks are linked
Although attacks in Tunisia, France and Kuwait are linked by timing, and a claim of responsibility by ISIS, the U.S. states it is too early to tell if they were directly organized and managed:
If the assessment [finds] that the attacks were linked, officials [will] seek to determine whether the Islamic State had actively directed, coordinated or inspired them.
Gunman identified
Islamic State identifies Rezgui as the gunman by his jihadi pseudonym, Abu Yahya al-Qayrawani, while local authorities in Tunisia confirm his real name as Seifeddine Rezgui. Tunisian Prime Minister’s report:
Seifeddine Rezgui came from the town of Gaafour in the Siliana region and had been a student at the University of Kairouan. He was 23-years-old and studying aviation. Rezgui had never travelled abroad.
Witnesses added that Rezgui looked to be about 20 to 25 years old and had long black hair and a beard.
Delivers Rev. Pinckney’s eulogy, sings Amazing Grace
The President delivers the eulogy at the funeral of South Carolina State Senator Rev. Pinckney, who was also a personal acquaintance, which includes him singing Amazing Grace.
Reverend Pinckney embodied a politics that was neither mean nor small. He conducted himself quietly and kindly and diligently. He encouraged progress not by pushing his ideas alone but by seeking out your ideas, partnering with you to make things happen. He was full of empathy and fellow feeling, able to walk in somebody else’s shoes and see through their eyes.
Pre-trial summary letter
Both sides submit a letter (text) to the court summarizing the arguments they plan to raise in advance of a July 1 pre-trial hearing. Nungessers lawyer’s expand on their original claims, saying that despite Nuingesser being cleared by the University, Columbia did not curtail Sulkowicz’s activities, and actually honored her:
Emma’s time and indeed her academic work at Columbia has largely been defined by her part in the gender based anti-male discriminatory harassment campaign against Plaintiff Nungesser[;] these honors constitute yet another instant of Defendant Columbia directly rewarding, encouraging and celebrating Emma Sulkowicz’s role in the gender based discriminatory harassment.
They also say Columbia allowed Sulkowicz to display pornographic material that had Nungesser’s name attached to it in an art exhibition, and allowed Sulkowicz to carry the mattress to her (and Nungesser’s) graduation:
At the graduation ceremony, Emma Sulkowicz was given a special university privilege contrary to the rules by Defendant Columbia to carry the mattress to her and Plaintiff Nungesser’s graduation in another instance of Defendant Columbia perpetrated gender based discriminatory harassment of Plaintiff Nungesser
They also claim that Columbia allowed Sulkowicz to:
build a public persona surrounding her false allegations, which has led to the posting of videos and other proposed performances depicting Plaintiff Nungesser as a rapist.
Columbia’s attorneys do not rebut any of Nungesser’s claims, and while the school acknowledges that Sulkowicz’s campus activism made her a major figure in the sexual assault debate, it claims she was an independent third-party actor, and the school cannot be held responsible or liable for her conduct. The letter concludes by saying both sides are open to a pre-trial settlement.
Only seven black people hired in 2013
The social network company reveals that more than half of its US staff are white, with the proportion dropping slightly from 57% to 55%. The proportion of Asian employees increased by 2% to 36%, but the shares of hispanic and black people or those of “two or more races” remain flat at 4%, 2% and 3% respectively. Facebook’s senior leadership has 73% filled by white people. Facebook also made little progress increasing the proportion of female employees, 68% of its global employees are male – a decrease of 1%. Among its employees working on its core technology 84% are male, down from 85% last year. Facebook hired an additional seven black people out of an overall headcount increase of 1,231 in 2013. At that time Facebook employed just 45 black staff out of a total US workforce of 4,263. There are no black people in senior management.
Reacts to ‘Obamacare’ decision
Pres. Obama reacts to the Supreme Court decision on Affordable Care Act subsidies:
After multiple challenges to this law before the Supreme Court, the Affordable Care Act is here to stay.
He adds that, had the decision gone otherwise:
America would have gone backwards. That’s not what we do.
Upholds Fair Housing Act
In a 5-4 decision, justices re-affirm a 47-year-old federal law that cracks down on housing discrimination. They hold that the law allows for both claims for intentional discrimination, and claims on practices that are not intended to discriminate, but have a discriminatory effect. According to Justice Kennedy, writing on behalf of the majority, which includes Justices Ginsburg, Kagan, Sotomayor and Breyer.
Much progress remains to be made in our nation’s continuing struggle against racial isolation. The Court acknowledges the Fair Housing Act’s continuing role in moving the nation toward a more integrated society.
In dissent Justice Thomas said the court was in danger of constructing “a scheme that parcels out legal privileges to individuals on the basis of skin color.”
Calls Young a ‘hypocrite’
Trump says that, despite Young’s call for him to not use Rockin’ In The Free World, that the artist had recently come to him for funding for his streaming music service, Pono. He also says the song was just one of 10 songs used as background music. and that he “Didn’t love it anyway.”
For the nonbeliever, here is a photo of @Neilyoung in my office and his $$ request—total hypocrite. pic.twitter.com/Xm4BJvetIa
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 24, 2015
Young’s management confirms that the photo was taken during a meeting when Young was trying to raise funds for the music service.
Defends flag
Jones defends the Confederate flag in an all caps posting on Facebook:
I THINK ALL OF HAZZARD NATION UNDERSTANDS THAT THE CONFEDERATE BATTLE FLAG IS THE SYMBOL THAT REPRESENTS THE INDOMITABLE SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE WHICH KEEPS US “MAKIN’ OUR WAY THE ONLY WAY WE KNOW HOW. THAT FLAG ON TOP OF THE GENERAL LEE MADE A STATEMENT THAT THE VALUES OF THE RURAL SOUTH WERE THE VALUES OF COURAGE AND FAMILY AND GOOD TIMES.
OUR BELOVED SYMBOL IS NOW BEING ATTACKED IN A WAVE OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS THAT IS UNPRECEDENTED IN OUR NATION OF FREE SPEECH AND FREE EXPRESSION. ACTIVISTS AND POLITICIANS ARE VILLIFYING SOUTHERN CULTURE AND OUR HERITAGE AS BEING BIGOTED AND RACIST. WE KNOW THAT THIS IS NOT THE CASE. AND WE KNOW THAT IN HAZZARD COUNTY THERE WAS NEVER ANY RACISM.
WE ARE NOT RACISTS. WE DESPISE RACISM AND BIGOTRY. AND WE THINK THE PEOPLE WHO ARE CREATING THIS “CULTURAL CLEANSING” ARE THE REAL BIGOTS IN THIS STORY…WHEN WE SAY OUR FLAG STANDS FOR “HERITAGE, NOT HATE” AND “PRIDE, NOT PREJUDICE”, WE MEAN IT. AND WE BELIEVE THAT OLD SAYING, “YOU CAN’T KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING IF YOU FORGET WHERE YOU CAME FROM.”
COOTER’S IS GOING TO CONTINUE TO SELL OUR SOUTHERN SYMBOLS AS LONG AS THERE IS A COOTER’S. I WILL FIGHT THESE PEOPLE UNTIL HELL FREEZES OVER, AND THEN I WILL FIGHT THEM ON THE ICE.
Apologizes to victims
As part of the formal sentencing proceedings, 24 people give victim impact statements at the sentencing in federal court. After the statements, Tsarnaev apologizes to the victims and survivors of the terror attack:
I am guilty of the bombing, let there be no lingering question about that. After the bombing, i learned victims’ names and saw their faces. I also wish more people had the chance to testify. “I am sorry for the lives that I’ve taken, the sorrow I have caused. I have done irreparable damage. I pray for Allah to bestow mercy upon those I killed and their families. I ask Allah to have mercy upon everyone here today, on my and my brother…. Thank you
Releases Marikana report
Almost three years since 34 men were shot dead on a hillside by South African Police, following the death of 10 other people, including police officers and mine security staff, Zuma releases the Marikana Report. the report calls for an investigation into the National Police Commissioner’s fitness to hold office. The commission also recommends that the North West Provincial Commissioner Zukiswa Mbombo, be investigated as well.
I have written to the national commissioner to inform her of the recommendations pertaining to her…The commission recommends a full investigation…with a view to ascertaining criminal liability on the part of all members of the SAPS members who were involved.
The commission largely cleared members of the executive for their role in the shooting, saying Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa did not cause the shooting. Zuma:
The commission found that the executive played no role in the decision of the police to implement the tactical role.
It said the deaths of 10 people, ahead of the massacre should be criminally investigated. The Marikana workers are unhappy about being given such short notice of Zuma’s conference, but do not contest it as they want what they term the truth, to be released.
