Author: Darby Jones

  • Wisconsin Bar That Let Patrons Buy Beers for Betty White is Now Donating All Profits to Animal Shelters
  • Commerce Street Brewery in Mineral Point, Wisconsin has raised more than $1,680 for a local animal shelter — all thanks to Betty White.
     
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    White’s third husband, Allen Ludden, grew up in Mineral Point, and was buried here in 1981. While rumors occasionally spread that White may visit, she had not been back to the town since her late husband’s burial. The brewery gives patrons the option to pre purchase drinks for their friends, and Betty White became the most popular recipient in case she ever returned to Mineral Point.  Starting with just 41 beers, the brewery has since collected more than 336 beers since her passing. The business announced it would be donating the $1,680 in proceeds to local animal shelters. The Beers-For-Betty initiative will continue through the end of January. Image source: NBC15
  • Timothée Chalamet Partners with Haider Ackermann to Design Hoodie for Afghan Women’s Rights
  • Timothée Chalamet and Haider Ackermann joined forces by creating a charitable hoodie that benefits Afghanistan Libre, an organization that fights for women’s and children’s rights. The partnership was announced on Instagram. “So for a couple of years now @h.a and I have been wanting to make something,” Chalamet wrote in an Instagram caption. “Together, in August, we were horrified to learn of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and decided to design a hoodie where 100% of the proceeds will go to @afghanistanlibre, a relief organization with boots on the ground that fights to safeguard women’s and children’s rights — as those atrocities continue to spread, we should amplify the voices of those silent soldiers.”
     
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    The white hoodie features a photograph of a young child in a blue paint-splatter design. The hoodie also includes the words “Silent Soldier” and “HA+TC A Common Thread.”  Ackermann has long been Chalamet’s go-to designer for red carpet appearances and movie premieres.  The hoodie retails for 175 pounds on hatc2021.com. Image source: Russh  
  • Willie Stokes Freed From Pennsylvania Prison After Federal Court Throws Out 1984 Murder Conviction
  • A Philadelphia man was freed from prison last week after he was sentenced to life in prison for the 1980 murder of Leslie Campbell that he insists he never committed.  Willie Stokes was convicted of murder 37 years ago. Days after the hearing, the key witness in the case, Franklin Lee, admitted that his testimony was false and was charged with perjury. However, Stokes did not learn of the perjury plea until 2015, decades into a life sentence. Lee was in jail facing murder and rape charges in 1984 when two homicide detectives offered him “sex, drugs, and a deal” in exchange for a false statement. So, Lee claimed that Stokes, a neighborhood friend, confessed to killing Campbell during a dice game. Lee has apologized to Stokes, saying during a teleconference: "And I'd like to for the record, if I can, apologize to Mr. Stokes and the family for the problem I caused, sincerely.” Stokes, 61, walked out of a state prison last week eager to hug his mother and eat a corned beef hoagie.  "Today is a tremendous day. We're all very thankful," said his lawyer, Michael Diamondstein. "However, it's also a sad day, because it reminds us of how lawless, unfair and unjust Philadelphia law enforcement was for so long." Image source: Associated Press
  • Pakistan Confirms First Female Supreme Court Judge
  • Pakistan just cleared the way for the first woman in the country’s history to become a Supreme Court justice as the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) approved Justice Ayesha Malik by a vote of five to four. This nomination marks a rare victory after women have struggled for decades to secure significant representation in a largely male-dominated society. “This is historic,” said Aliya Hamza Malik, a member of parliament from the governing Tehreek-e-Insaf bloc. “It is a defining moment for women’s empowerment in the country.” Malik’s historic nomination will now go before a parliamentary committee, which is expected to confirm a 10-year term.  After being first voted on by the JCP in Sept. 2021, there was a split vote, which rejected Malik's candidacy. According to the Supreme Court Bar Association, there were reservations regarding her seniority.  Malik became a high court judge in 2021, and she is currently fourth on the Lahore High Court seniority list. She will likely work as a Supreme Court judge until her retirement in 2031, and she is poised to become the Chief Justice of Pakistan in January 2030. Image source: The Week
  • Car Dealership Surprises Teen with New Car After His Paid-In-Cash Ride was Repoed
  • Jonathan Fredericks, a 16-year-old boy from Dallas, Texas, spent a year working at Chick-Fil-A to save up enough money to purchase a car. When his grandfather took him to the Fort Worth dealership I Drive-DFW, they did not see a car they liked on the lot. However, the salesperson helping them out, James Steelman, offered them his Mazda CX5. Jonathan paid Steelman all $9,800 in cash for the vehicle. Five months later, the car was towed back to I Drive-DFW, where the manager said he had sold the Mazda SUV to Steelman just months prior, but had stopped receiving payments for it. While the dealership and Steelman determine who owns the car, Jonathan was left without a ride or his hard-earned money. “I worked at Chick-fil-A for about a year saving up for that car,” Jonathan told CBS 11. “That’s the most frustrating part is how long I worked saving up for it.” Recently, Frank Kent Motor Company saw Jonathan’s story and decided they wanted to make things right for him. “After seeing the story initially on CBS Dallas – we at Frank Kent knew we had to do something to take care of this kid and show him that not all dealers are sleazy like the one he had previous dealings with! So we reached out to the news station to get us in touch with him and, after getting in contact, let him know that we would like to donate a vehicle to him at no cost,” said the dealer’s marketing director, Aaron Hoernke. The dealership donated a Kia Soul to Jonathan, making things right for a kid that was treated unfairly. Image source: Jalopnik
  • Rookie Lifeguard Saves Kangaroo in First-Ever Rescue
  • Lillian Bee Young, 17, had just begun her new job as a lifeguard on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve when a kangaroo jumped into rough waters at Iluka, a village in Australia in north-eastern New South Wales. "My other workmate, Carissa and I, we were sitting on the tractor and she goes, 'Oh my God, there's a kangaroo jumping off the rocks!' and we were just figuring out what we should do … because we've never had that happen before," Lillian told ABC Australia. Onlookers witnessed the incident, when an eastern grey kangaroo hopped over a rock platform and fell into the ocean. A video taken by a beach-goer captures the entire incident. "We get quite a few kangaroos around," Lillian said. "I guess it just hopped out of the bushes and there were fishermen on the rocks … so it sort of wanted to jump back and steer clear of them and then just got wiped out by a set. It was just drifting out and didn't want to come in [to the beach] because it was sort of scared." Lillian quickly decided to grab her rescue board and swim out to rescue the kangaroo, which was able to keep its head above water but was struggling to get back to shore. "I was trying to figure out how, if I needed to, get it on the board … but also it's a wild animal … even though you're helping I wouldn't want it to hurt me or make it more stressed out," said Lillian.  "It was quite a windy day, very choppy," she said. "I paddled behind it and sort of guided it into the beach." When the pair finally made it to shore and the kangaroo hopped up the sand, there were smiles all around. Lillian is finishing her final year of school and is an aspiring professional surfer. "I didn't think that was gonna ever be my first rescue … a kangaroo at my local, but it's pretty special!” she said. Image source: ABC Australia
  • Pets in Spain Become Legal Members of Family
  • As of Jan. 5, pets in Spain will now officially be considered sentient beings under the law and will no longer be classified as ‘objects,’ meaning animals will be legitimate members of the family — a trend that was already underway before the formal law was passed. This decision follows similar moves in France and Portugal. "Animals are part of the family and when a family decides to separate, the fate of the animal must be regulated with the same importance as the fate of other family members," said lawyer Lola Garcia, 42. In October, a Madrid judge granted joint custody of a dog to an unmarried couple who sought a court ruling on the matter. The dog spends a month with each of them, and both are considered legal responsible.  Garcia’s firm, Rights&Animals, handled the case and considers this reform a major first step in future legal changes regarding people’s relationships with animals. Spain’s left-wing coalition government plans to further legislation to strengthen animal rights, including a ban on wild animals in circuses and halting the sale of pets in shops. The law does not include animals from livestock, industrial or recreational farms as they are not considered companion pets. Image source: Expatica
  • Truckers Share Food, Supplies with Other Drivers While Stranded on Icy Interstate for More Than 24 Hours
  • Hundreds of travelers were stuck on Virginia’s I-95 highway Monday following a crash involving six tractor-trailers that took place during a snowstorm— some were stranded for more than 24 hours.  Truckers began sharing supplies with fellow drivers who were stuck and concerned about running out of food and water. The temperature in Fredericksburg, Virginia early Tuesday morning was approximately 16 degrees Fahrenheit.   Jim DeFede, a reporter with CBS4 News in Miami, said that a truck driver came to him with a case of water from his own supply. The driver was “tapping on car windows and offering folks water,” said DeFede. “He wasn’t an official. I think he was a Good Samaritan.” DeFede said he had been trapped with his vehicle for more than 24 hours as of 10 a.m. local time on Tuesday. Truck driver Michele Rusher said that many trucks have food and water specifically for situations similar to this, emphasizing that people should not be afraid to ask for help, water or food.  Another truck driver, Jean-Carlo Gachet, keeps a two-day supply of food and a microwave in his truck. He hopped out of his truck to offer another driver a hot meal: a drink and a Jimmy Dean bacon, egg and cheese breakfast bowl. "He was shocked when I -- when he opened the door at first, and you know, I was saying, 'hey, I just made you a hot breakfast and a cup of fruit punch,'" Gachet told CNN. “It was him and his mother, and both of them were really appreciative. It was a really nice moment.”  Image source: Insider, CNN
  • Brain Chip Allows Paralyzed Man to Post First-Ever Tweet Using Only His Thoughts
  • Philip O’Keefe, a 62-year-old man from Australia who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), has made the first “direct-thought tweet,” having composed and posted it using only his thoughts due to a brain computer interface developed by neurotech startup Synchron. “No need for keystrokes or voices. I created this tweet just by thinking it,” stated the tweet, which was posted to the account of Synchron CEO Thomas Oxley.  O’Keefe then posted seven tweets replying to questions from Twitter users. “My hope is that I’m paving the way for people to tweet through thoughts,” the final one stated. The Stentrode device was first implanted in April 2020 after O’Keefe’s condition worsened, leaving him unable to engage in work-related or other independent activities.  The device was inserted through the jugular vein to avoid invasive brain surgery. It has since allowed him to reconnect with friends, family and colleagues via email. He can also play simple computer-based games, such as Solitaire. “When I first heard about this technology, I knew how much independence it could give back to me,” said O’Keefe, according to a press release from Synchron. “The system is astonishing, it’s like learning to ride a bike – it takes practice, but once you’re rolling, it becomes natural. Now, I just think about where on the computer I want to click, and I can email, bank, shop, and now message the world via Twitter.” Once the device was placed, it took four hours for O’Keefe to be able to use it to input text on a computer. The Twitter takeover on Dec. 23, 2021 was an opportunity to promote the life-changing technology.  “These fun holiday tweets are actually an important moment for the field of implantable brain computer interfaces,” said Oxley. “They highlight the connection, hope and freedom that BCIs give to people like Phil who have had so much of their functional independence taken away due to debilitating paralysis.” Synchron is one of several neurotech startups making huge strides in BCI technologies, with Elon Musk’s Neuralink also planning to begin human trials in 2022. Musk claims that Neuralink devices will be able to do everything from restoring full-boy functionality to quadriplegics, to streaming music directly to the brain.  Image source: India Times
  • Terminally Ill Grandfather Graduates College Alongside Granddaughter
  • Melanie Salazar, 23, and her grandfather Tene Neira, 88, graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Dec. 11, 2021. Neira started school in the 1950s, but fell in love and started a life for his family rather than finishing school in the traditional four-year timeframe. Taking classes occasionally throughout the years, Neira decided to gradually work towards his goal of earning a college degree. Neira enrolled in college again in 2016, the same year Salazar began her freshman year. "It just so happened that he wanted to go back to school again at the same time that I was starting." Salazar told CNN. "It wasn't intentionally planned, but it just worked out that way that we were in school at the same time." The pair started classes during the 2016 spring semester at Palo Alto College, but later transferred to UTSA together. They never shared classes together because of their differing majors — Salazar received her Bachelor of Arts in communications, while Neira got a degree of recognition in economics — but they would meet up to study, share lunch or carpool to campus.  Neira suffered a stroke just before the pandemic began, which forced him to take a medical leave from school. Then, the transition to digital learning was too difficult for him to navigate. However, he only had a few classes to go to earn his degree, so his family was determined to help him finish. "We, as his family, were able to advocate for him and request to see if there was any way that he could be recognized or honored for all the work that he had done." Salazar said. The week of graduation, the family found out Neira would be honored. "It was definitely an early Christmas miracle that they were willing to recognize him." Salazar said. As Salazar pushed her grandfather across the stage, family, friends and classmates cheered them on.  "When we walked past the curtains onto the stage, I was overcome with emotion and started to tear up because I didn't know that we would actually get to share that moment together." Salazar said, "I told him afterwards, 'You did it, grandpa! College is over!'" Sadly, Neira is now terminally ill and in hospice care. "It's never too late to go back to school." Salazar adds. "Whatever your circumstance, there's people that are ready and willing to help you follow your dreams." Image source: CNN