Write a summary based on this article:

Suburbicon is a peaceful, idyllic suburban community with affordable homes and manicured lawns... the perfect place to raise a family, and in the summer of 1959, the Lodge family is doing just that. But the tranquil surface masks a disturbing reality, as husband and father Gardner Lodge (Matt Damon) must navigate the town's dark underbelly of betrayal, deceit, and violence. This is a tale of very flawed people making very bad choices. This is Suburbicon. ||||| The talent in front of and behind the camera for George Clooney's latest directorial effort, the 1950's satire "Suburbicon," has accumulated heaps of Oscar gold. But talented, award-winning filmmakers can get it totally, embarrassingly wrong sometimes. There's no other way to say it — this movie stinks. It is irritating, faux-edgy, tonally wack, strained, unfunny, and such a colossally tone-deaf misfire.

 Clooney enlists Julianne Moore to trot out her tired Stepford wife routine, while Matt Damon phones in another iteration of his doltish dork character. But both of their performances just make us think of times when they've done this before, only better.

 "Suburbicon" is a grotesque Frankenstein's monster stitched together from parts of "Pleasantville," "Fargo," "Far From Heaven" and "The Informant!," which are all great films, but this meaningless pastiche has no idea what it actually wants to say. Opening with an advertisement for a cookie-cutter Levittown-style suburb called Suburbicon, we plunge into this world of big hair, big skirts, perfect lawns and nuclear families. It's picture perfection with diversity by way of white families from Ohio and Mississippi. But there's darkness underneath all that sameness.

 "Suburbicon" fundamentally fails in asking its audience to do two wildly different things at the same time. We're to laugh at a satirical family murder insurance scam, but we're also supposed to feel very sad and solemn about the evils of racism. But you can't mix nihilism and earnestness. It just doesn't work.

 Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/AP Julianne Moore plays another Stepford wife in “Suburbicon.” Julianne Moore plays another Stepford wife in “Suburbicon.” (Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/AP) (Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/AP)

 Bloody hijinks ensue in half of this movie. Rose (Moore), the wife of square businessman Gardner Lodge (Damon), is murdered in a terrifying home invasion. Her twin sister, Maggie (also Moore), moves in to care for their son, Nicky (Noah Jupe), but the relationship between his dad and aunt instantly seems fishy to the young boy, and things spiral out of control for Gardner.

 This absurdist, violent tale is classic Coen Brothers. They originally wrote the script, and their voice is obvious. Clooney and his writing/producing partner Grant Heslov also took a pass, and it's clear that the filmmaker who excels at straightforward, politically engaged efforts like "Good Night and Good Luck," couldn't resist shoehorning in some social commentary about the toxic hegemony of Suburbicon.

 Concurrent to the slow family annihilation, we witness the plight of the Meyers family, the first African-American residents in Suburbicon, who are tormented day and night by a racist mob of their neighbors. What is the point of this gross subplot? It's a condescending, critically uninterrogated take on old-timey racism — are we to feel better that racism is more nuanced and camouflaged now? Mr. Meyers doesn't even get a single line. He's completely voiceless, and we watch this family silently endure this burden for some futile reason.

 There are a couple of bright spots: Oscar Isaac brings the energy up as a skeptical insurance agent, while Jupe brings the heart and soul. There are moments where it seems they might have told the whole bloody tale from Nicky's perspective, which would have been interesting, but that's abandoned.

 Ultimately "Suburbicon" is woefully underwritten. Gardner and Maggie are mere sketches, a set of facial tics and accessories masquerading as real characters. The racism story is so broad it's essentially meaningless, and there are even some glaring continuity errors. "Suburbicon" is a shoddy, shameful showing, despite prestigious origins.

 "Suburbicon" — 1 star

 MPAA rating: R for violence, language and some sexuality

 Running time: 1:45

 Opens: Friday

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 Check out the latest movie reviews from Michael Phillips and the Chicago Tribune. ||||| The perfect veneer of 1950s suburban life is just a mask for the deep rot and hypocrisy festering underneath the trimmed lawns in George Clooney's "Suburbicon," a derivative and somewhat edgeless satire with some compelling performances nonetheless.

 Clooney directs a script credited to Joel and Ethan Coen, himself and Grant Heslov about a model community, Suburbicon, that promises a perfect suburban existence: a parcel of property for all, clean and well-stocked grocery stores, no traffic and friendly neighbors. But there's a catch and it is skin deep.

 This is a problem when the Meyers family (Karimah Westbrook, Leith M. Burke and Tony Espinosa) moves to town. They are black, you see, and the rest of the community is not thrilled about it — eyebrows are raised, meetings are held (with interchangeable middle aged white men in flat top haircuts and wire-rimmed glasses shouting at one another through Dutch angle shots). Crowds start to gather outside of the Meyers house until it becomes an all-out mob.

 The plight of the Meyers family is just the side story, though, a tacked-on and bluntly conceived commentary on how this community is too distracted by their racist fears to see what's going on next door, where Gardner (Matt Damon), his wheelchair-bound wife and his sister-in-law (both played by Julianne Moore) and his young son, Nicky (Noah Jupe) are terrorized in their own home by two goons with unclear motives.

 It's probably best not to say much about how this home invasion spirals and evolves, but it brings a fair amount of intrigue and terrific side characters into the strange orbit of the milquetoast Gardner. There's Gary Basaraba as the empathetic Uncle Mitch, a lumbering and sweet presence who just wants to look after his nephew Nicky. Oscar Isaac, too, steals the show in a brief appearance as a three-steps-ahead insurance agent. Westbrook does wonders as Mrs. Meyers with not much screen time or dialogue, especially in a particularly upsetting scene in a grocery store where a store manager tells her that the price of milk is $20 for her. And the young Jupe proves to be a fantastic and compelling find, carrying much of the film as the hyper-vigilant kid who is watching his world unravel and doing something about it.

 The leads are a little more underwhelming, which is perhaps a problem of the script. Damon plays Gardner as a kind of quiet everyman, the type who recedes into the background and goes unnoticed most of the time. Moore is more over-the-top, especially as the sister-in-law Margaret, who strains to be the perfect 50s woman. There are times when they're allowed to play a bit with quirky dialogue that I would assume is thanks to the Coens, like an amusing discussion about Aruba, but these moments are fewer than you might imagine from a Coen-crafted script.

 Of all the periods that Clooney could have chosen to skewer, it feels almost toothless to take on 50s suburbia, though. Certainly there are meant to be parallels with today, but it is too obvious to be particularly subversive or revealing, and doesn't even go far enough to satirize the hypocritical social mores of the time. Thus you're left with just the plot, which moves along in a fairly compelling, if predictable way. But what's the point of all this talent and originality and freedom if it's going to feel so much like something we've already seen before?

 "Suburbicon," a Paramount Pictures release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for "violence, language and some sexuality." Running time: 104 minutes. Two stars out of four.

 ___

 MPAA Definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

 ___

 Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr ||||| If there were a criminal charge for Grand Theft Feature Film, Oscar Isaac would be facing a long, long sentence. He pops up for a couple of scenes as an insurance investigator halfway through “Suburbicon,” evolves on the spot from mild patience to testy suspicion followed by snide cynicism, then departs with the movie stolen and stuffed into his back pocket.

 In a film running a brief 104 minutes, he supplies 90 percent of the entertainment in 5 percent of the time. As for the rest of the project, we’ll get to that. Let’s take a moment first to count our blessings.

 Retrofitted on the scaffolding of an old script by Joel and Ethan Coen, “Suburbicon” is a vision of 1950s-era Americana set in a hopeful, wholesome suburban community where everything looks absolutely peachy keen. (Spoiler: It’s not.) It features the Coens’ patented mix-and-match blend of shaggy dog humor and bloody violence, along with a high-minded subplot that aims to give the story contemporary relevance. Featuring Matt Damon and Julianne Moore as the lead actors and George Clooney as director, it’s star-studded top to bottom.

 And it’s strikingly bad, too somber to be a comedy and too dizzy to work as drama.

 An animated opening sequence introduces us to Suburbicon, an oddly named neighborhood where every new Eisenhower-era home looks like the one next door. Those cookie-cutter developments, made famous by the legendary Levittown, Pa., development of single-family tract houses, promised the returning veterans of World War II affordable tranquillity away from the pollution, noise and crime of the big city.

 A happy mailman (this is back when they were still called mailmen) demonstrates how cheery life is in Suburbicon. He smiles at every door — until he meets the newest residents, the hamlet’s only black family. He steps back with a forced, frozen smile and bids them farewell in a textbook case of passive aggression.

 Suburbicon ★ out of 4 stars Rating: R for violence, language and some sexuality.

 This is pretty accurate. By 1953, Levittown constituted the largest racially restricted community in the United States, with 70,000 people and no black residents. The policy of racial exclusivity came from the developers and remained in place until the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional more than a decade later.

 That being said, however, it matters not if the back story is true. A Coenesque crime comedy is an awkward venue for exploring weighty social issues, and it’s hard to watch this misbegotten farce without wishing that Clooney and collaborator Grant Heslov (who has assisted on the scripts of other Clooney projects, including “The Monuments Men” and “Good Night, and Good Luck”) had decided to focus exclusively on the caper or the commentary.

 The film is a collision of tones that would put a demolition derby to shame. Damon plays Gardner Lodge, a plain vanilla 1950s father with a secret life who is going through a midlife crisis and then some. His wife (Moore, who also plays the woman’s twin) is murdered. Their young son Nicky (Noah Jupe) gets even more traumatized when he concludes that his father and aunt (Moore again) are hiding something about the homicide. As usual in the Coen world, the best laid plans of imbeciles go awry, and characters are soon beating, stabbing, poisoning and killing one another in car crashes.

 As distressing as this all sounds, it’s the kind of foul play the Coens could turn to zany fun in their own film. But in Clooney’s hands (remember “Leatherheads” or “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”?), it’s even worse than it sounds.

 Yet, it’s the disconnected subplot about the suburb’s new black residents, menaced by mobs at their home, right across from the Lodge residence, that seems like the biggest strategic error. Both sides of the film lift up a rock to expose the wormy things crawling beneath, neither in a way that’s dramatically effective.

 Fortunately, we’ve still got Isaac (the title character in the Coens’ “Inside Llewyn Davis”) as the hilarious investigator. They’ll never take that away from us.

 Colin.Covert@startribune.com

 612-673-7186

 Twitter: @colincovert |||||

– You'd think only good fun could come from George Clooney directing Matt Damon in Suburbicon. Apparently not so. The satire touching on murder, fraud, and also racism in 1950s suburbia has just a 29% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Here's what they're saying. "There's no other way to say it—this movie stinks," writes Katie Walsh at Tribune News Service, throwing out a long list of adjectives: "irritating, faux-edgy, tonally wack, strained, unfunny," along with "shoddy, shameful." She complains in particular about a racism subplot that comes across as "condescending" and says the film fails by wanting us to do two things—feel upset about that subplot while finding hilarity in a "satirical family murder insurance scam. ... You can't mix nihilism and earnestness." Lindsey Bahr calls Suburbicon "a derivative and somewhat edgeless satire with some compelling performances nonetheless." Gary Basaraba and Oscar Isaac, specifically, are impressive, Bahr writes at the AP. But Damon and Julianne Moore aren't up to snuff. Nor is the story itself, which "doesn't even go far enough to satirize the hypocritical social mores of the time." The result feels "so much like something we've already seen before." Chris Klimek was impressed with Damon, Moore, as well as Isaac and child actor Noah Jupe. Too bad they're in a "tone-deaf” film that's "queasy to sit through," he writes at NPR. In condemning racism "in the most broad, perfunctory, awareness-ribbon-wearing way while barely allowing its black characters to speak … Suburbicon might be the biggest embarrassment to pious Hollywood liberalism since Crash won best picture in 2006," he writes. Colin Covert identifies the main problem as the reworking of Joel and Ethan Coen's script by Clooney and Grant Heslov, who should have made either a crime comedy or a piece of social commentary, but not both. Instead, Clooney made a film that's "strikingly bad, too somber to be a comedy and too dizzy to work as drama," Covert writes at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He does applaud Isaac, though. "In a film running a brief 104 minutes, he supplies 90% of the entertainment in 5% of the time."


Summarize this article:

For members of the deaf community, ordering food or drinks at a drive-thru can be a frustrating, or even impossible, experience. But as one deaf woman recently discovered, Starbucks is trying to make this feature accessible for customers with disabilities -- with the help of a little technology.

 On Tuesday, 28-year-old Rebecca King of St. Augustine, Florida, uploaded a video to Facebook which reveals what happened during her visit to a local Starbucks drive-thru.

 The video shows King driving up to the ordering kiosk. A woman’s voice emits from the intercom.

 "Hi, welcome to Starbucks," the woman says. "What can we get started for you today?"

 King does not respond and waits in her seat. A few moments later, a Starbucks barista appears on a monitor.

 King begins to communicate with the woman using sign language, and the barista signs right back.

 "Starbucks! This is what I’m talking about!" King wrote in her Facebook post, which has been watched more than 4.9 million times to date. "Share it away! We can change the world!" ||||| A new technology is getting a lot of attention — and for good reason — at the brand-new Starbucks by the outlet malls in St. Johns County.

 A video posted on Facebook shows a customer named Rebecca King using sign language for an order -- and barista, Katie Wyble, quickly signs back.

 Wyble says she's had a "passion for sign language since I first saw a teacher use it when I was in preschool." Wyble used a two-way video screen to see King, and the duo quickly completed an order for two coffees.

 King's video of the encounter went viral overnight. The video was just posted Tuesday, and it has more than 1 million views and over 65,000 shares.

 “Share it away," King said on Facebook. "We can change the world!”

 “I think more people need to know about what we’re doing because it moves customer service to a whole new level,” Wyble said. “I hope it helps make more people aware of what they can to do serve others in their communities.”

 St. Augustine is known to have a large deaf and blind community. Action News Jax spoke to Professor Tiri Fellows, who is deaf and teaches American Sign Language. She had a translator tell us what she thought about this technology.

 “I think it's awesome because it gives the deaf opportunity to order in a different way through the window,” Dr. Fellows said.

 Dr. Fellows says going through a drive-thru without a device like this is such a hassle for the deaf or hearing impaired.

 She says its about time someone created this device to help them.

 “It’s about time,” Dr. Fellows said. “My friends from Arizona saw that on Facebook, Illinois Texas — they all reposted that video.”

 Dr. Fellows hopes the video continues to spread on social media so other businesses will want to get the technology as well. |||||

– A Florida Starbucks has made it easy for deaf customers to order at the drive-thru—and video of one deaf woman's experience has been viewed more than 6.5 million times since she posted it on Facebook Tuesday. "Starbucks! This is what I'm talking about!" wrote Rebecca King. The 28-year-old tells First Coast News she was surprised on Monday when she drove up to the St. Augustine Starbucks ordering window and a barista appeared on a two-way video screen to take her order via sign language. She went back the next day to record video of her doing the same thing. "It is a big deal to (the) deaf community that Starbucks has one now. Nowhere else has that!" says King. "We all want to have that at every drive-thru in the world." The barista is 22-year-old Katie Wyble, who tells Action News Jax she's had a "passion for sign language since I first saw a teacher use it when I was in preschool"; she continued to study it in grade school, high school, and college. "I think more people need to know about what we’re doing because it moves customer service to a whole new level,” Wyble adds. “I hope it helps make more people aware of what they can to do serve others in their communities." St. Augustine has a large deaf community and the Starbucks in question is brand-new. It's not clear whether other Starbucks locations have the same capability, but the Huffington Post notes that at least two other chains, Culver's and Subway, have installed their own technology to help deaf customers order.


Here is a news article: FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016, file photo, model Kendall Jenner has makeup applied backstage before the Michael Kors Spring 2017 collection is modeled during Fashion Week, in New York. Pepsi... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016, file photo, model Kendall Jenner has makeup applied backstage before the Michael Kors Spring 2017 collection is modeled during Fashion Week, in New York. Pepsi is not saying whether it will continue to run an ad, featuring Jenner, that is being widely criticized... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016, file photo, model Kendall Jenner has makeup applied backstage before the Michael Kors Spring 2017 collection is modeled during Fashion Week, in New York. Pepsi is not saying whether it will continue to run an ad, featuring Jenner, that is being widely criticized... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016, file photo, model Kendall Jenner has makeup applied backstage before the Michael Kors Spring 2017 collection is modeled during Fashion Week, in New York. Pepsi... (Associated Press)

 NEW YORK (AP) — Pepsi on Wednesday pulled an ad after it was widely mocked and criticized for appearing to trivialize protests for social justice causes.

 "Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding," the company said. "Clearly we missed the mark, and we apologize."

 It said it was "removing the content and halting any further rollout."

 The ad shows Kendall Jenner, a member of the "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" reality TV family, stepping away from a modeling shoot to join a crowd of smiling, young protesters. The protesters cheer after Jenner hands a can of Pepsi to a police officer, who takes a sip.

 PepsiCo Inc. had previously said the ad was created by its in-house team and that it would "be seen globally across TV and digital" platforms.

 It initially described the spot as featuring "multiple lives, stories and emotional connections that show passion, joy, unbound and uninhibited moments. No matter the occasion, big or small, these are the moments that make us feel alive." That description was also derided on social media.

 The Purchase, New York, company had stood by the ad late Tuesday. By Wednesday, it was apologizing to Jenner for putting her "in this position."

 Critics say the image of Jenner handing the officer a Pepsi evoked a photo of Black Lives Matter protester Ieshia Evans approaching an officer at a demonstration in Baton Rouge last year. Others criticized the protesters' signs for being comically innocuous, with messages like "Join the Conversation" and heart and peace signs. The website Gothamist expressed a common sentiment online in calling the ad "gloriously tone-deaf."

 Among those mocking the ad was Bernice King, who tweeted a photo of her father, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., being confronted by a police officer at a protest march. "If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi," the tweet said.

 Larry Chiagouris, a professor of marketing at Pace University, said that the backlash was in part because Pepsi was a couple years "late to the party" with its message about unity, making its ad seem exploitive.

 Still, he also noted that the fallout wouldn't necessarily be that damaging, since a lot of the negative sentiment expressed on social media is "easily washed away overnight."

 It isn't the first time PepsiCo has backpedaled and apologized for an ad. In 2013, it pulled a Mountain Dew ad that was criticized for portraying racial stereotypes and appearing to make light of violence toward women. It pulled that ad from online channels, and said it was never intended to run on TV.

 ___

 Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi ||||| Yesterday, the Internet was devastatingly angered by Pepsi’s latest Kendall Jenner-starring advert that trivialised the Black Live Matter movement to promote their cola.

 While the company may have pulled the advert, claiming they “we missed the mark”, that didn’t stop late-night comedians ripping into Pepsi.

 Kicking things off was Stephen Colbert: “We have a deeply divided nation,” the Late Show host said. “But today, it seems that everyone has come together to join the protest against the new protest ad from Pepsi.”

 The 52-year-old then began to dissect exactly what happens throughout the advert, barely containing his own laughter: "It starts with a throng of beautiful, multi-ethnic people protesting in the streets of, I’m gonna guess Newport, Rhode Island.

 Pepsi and Kendall Jenner criticised over new advert that 'co-opts police brutality'

 “So far, we don’t know what has caused all of America’s hot extras to take to the streets. But I’m guessing it’s a protest for ‘Attractive Lives Matter.’”

 Black Lives Matter organizes march to Trump tower

 15 show all Black Lives Matter organizes march to Trump tower

 1/15 Kandy Freeman participates in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters

 2/15 People participate in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters

 3/15 Hawk Newsome, a Black Lives Matter activist, leads a protest outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images

 4/15 Hawk Newsome (C) leads a chant during a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, US. January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images

 5/15 People participate in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters

 6/15 An NYPD officer speaks with a Black Lives Matter leaders during a protest in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images

 7/15 Kandy Freeman participates in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters

 8/15 An NYPD officer speaks with a Black Lives Matter leaders during a protest in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images

 9/15 Carol Garza, a Black Lives Matter supporter, protests outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images

 10/15 People participate in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters

 11/15 A Black Lives Matter supporter protests in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images

 12/15 Black Lives Matter activists march in front of Trump Tower on January 14, 2017 in New York City. Kevin Hagen/Getty

 13/15 Black Lives Matter activists march in front of Trump Tower on January 14, 2017 in New York City. Kevin Hagen/Getty

 14/15 Black Lives Matter supporters protest in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images

 15/15 Black Lives Matter Kandy Freeman marches in front of Trump Tower on January 14, 2017 in New York City. Kevin Hagen/Getty

 Colbert then pointed to the signs each model was holding, commenting in particular on the “Join the Conversation” banner, calling it “the most corporate message ever,” adding it should have read: “We are all the corporate demographic.”

 One last target: the absurdity of Kendall Jenner doing a fashion shoot seemingly for “aluminium siding” and ripping off her wig. Colbert then zoomed in on the woman Jenner hands the wig too, who Colbert says “is not thrilled about being Kendall’s wig caddie.” Watch below.

 Meanwhile, Colbert recently had Louis CK on his show, the stand-up comedian calling President Donald Trump “a gross crook dirty rotten lying sack of sh*t” ||||| Uploaded on Apr 5, 2017

 Kendall Jenner stars in a Pepsi ad critiicised for co-opting the resistance movement for commercial use. The saccharine setting portrays Jenner as a model who turns into peace maker between smiling protesters and police by offering the beverage to restore harmony while being photographed by a woman wearing a hijab |||||
A summary of this is?

– Pepsi has given up trying to defend what some people are calling the worst ad of all time. The company has pulled its widely ridiculed ad featuring Kendall Jenner as a model who joins a protest and hands a can of Pepsi to a riot cop, the AP reports. "Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace, and understanding," the company said in a statement. "Clearly we missed the mark, and we apologize." Pepsi also apologized to Jenner for putting her "in this position." The ad, which showed protesters with signs like "Join the Conversation," was strongly criticized for hijacking the imagery of real protest movements like Black Lives Matter to sell soft drinks. Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., delivered one of the most powerful criticisms, tweeting a photo of her father being pushed back by police at a protest march and quipping: "If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi." Stephen Colbert was among the late-night hosts poking fun at the ad on Wednesday, the Independent reports. "We have a deeply divided nation," said the Late Show host. "But today, it seems that everyone has come together to join the protest against the new protest ad from Pepsi." He described the "Join the Conversation" banner as "the most corporate message ever."


– And the sure-to-be-constant stream of Brangelina Engagement Gossip continues. The latest, per a "confidante" in Us Weekly: Brad Pitt gathered the whole family together as he presented Angelina Jolie with her brand-new engagement ring, and she "cried and smiled" as he proposed. Their six kids were similarly excited, and "everyone hugged once she put [the ring] on," the source continues. "She went around and showed it to each of the kids." Though the Us article puts the proposal on "a recent spring day," Life & Style claims the pair got engaged over Christmas, and a source tells E! they decided to get hitched "last year." More burning questions: How much will their wedding photos go for? E! shoots high with $10 million, Huffington Post says maybe $5 million, but the Daily and Radar go lower—$2 million. How does Jennifer Aniston feel about all this? She was first said to be so delighted she might actually attend the wedding. Then a source told E! that, believe it or not, "she doesn't care. She really doesn't. She's happy with Justin [Theroux]," while another source tells People, "Jen is not a bitter person and she has always wanted Brad to be happy." And Vanity Fair asks the really important question: "Will Angelina Jolie’s New Job as a UN Special Envoy Put Her Engagement Ring at Risk?" What about a prenup? Click to see what the "experts" think…

Expand this summary.

Less than a week after Brad Pitt promoted Angelina Jolie from live-in girlfriend to fiancée, the United Nations has promoted the Academy Award-winning actress from goodwill ambassador to special envoy. Naturally, the second announcement raises a singular, pressing concern among the tabloid community, which has already devoted countless hours, magazine pages that double as coasters, and Web space to the humanitarian’s recently acquired jewelry: Will Jolie’s new U.N. standing put her engagement ring in danger?

 Because it would be a shame for something to happen to the ring that Brad Pitt painstakingly designed over a course of a year, even if renowned celebrity jewel appraiser Us Weekly guesses that it’s worth only $250,000, one half the estimated cost of Jennifer Aniston’s bauble. Perhaps Jolie’s new job description will give us some insight into the ring-endangerment risks of a special envoy: According to the less-renowned celebrity-ring-speculation source the Associated Press, “Jolie’s new position will focus on the complex crises that result in the mass displacement of people, such as in Afghanistan and Somalia. In addition, on special occasions she will represent the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres. That can mean conveying messages to governments. It can mean conveying messages to other people and partners that we work with.”

 We can assume that Jolie will likely continue to travel to refugee camps around the world and promote refugee causes, as she has done for a decade now. With that kind of traveling, we suggest that Jolie take a few jewel-safeguarding precautions, including: 1) Avoid sand, chlorine, or any substance that could damage the precious metal of your band; 2) Leave the ring in a safety security box and, as a James Bond-esque flourish, consider having a less expensive duplicate made; and 3) Dress inconspicuously to avoid attention, and turn the ring around so that the diamond is not showing. No one will ever know!

  ||||| Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie already hold the record for the most expensive baby pictures ever sold -- $14 million from People magazine for the 2008 images of their twins, Vivienne and Knox. Now, could they nab the same title with their wedding photos?

 “The weekly magazine market has changed beyond recognition since 2008,” one publisher told me. “Gone are the days when competing magazines would bid against each other, inflating the price of baby and wedding pictures. If Brad and Angie's twins were born today in 2012, they would be lucky if they got a third of what they got back then.”

 But a market decrease shouldn't affect Brad and Angelina's personal bank account too much. They donated 100 percent of the revenue from their twins' photos to charity.

 “In this market, the wedding pictures might be worth around $5 million,” one magazine insider tells me. “That would be for worldwide rights, so that whoever buys them in the USA could make money selling them to publications in other countries. Although the big question will be what sort of access will the couple allow? If it's just a few shots where you can’t see the dress or them kiss, then it could be lower.”

 And although many insiders think Brangelina's wedding will be a low-key affair, look no further than Angie’s infamous right leg to understand that this actress knows how to strike a pose.

 FOLLOW NAUGHTY BUT NICE ROB ON TWITTER

 Also on HuffPost: ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| By Radar Staff

 Wedding photos are considered priceless to most people, but Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s ceremonial snaps will be worth millions of dollars!

 The Hollywood couple, who announced their long-awaited engagement last week, will rake in an astounding amount of money when they walk down the aisle and say their ‘I dos’ according to a new report – and RadarOnline.com has the details.

 PHOTOS: Angelina Jolie Debuts Her Huge Engagement Ring

 “That’s going to be the wedding of the century,” Gary Morgan, CEO of Splash photo agency, told Flash of Brangelina’s big day.

 The longtime photo agency veteran, who estimates that the photos will demand more than $2 million in total agency sales around the world, believes that the shots will be ‘closely guarded and sold to the highest bidders in the U.S. and abroad.’

 PHOTOS: The 10 Hottest Engagement Rings Of The Moment!

 “They’ll revive the industry — for that week, anyway.”

 The first photos of Brad and Angelina as a couple, which were taken while the costars vacationed in Kenya together with Maddox, netted the couple $1 million.

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 Battle Of The Bling! Did Jennifer Aniston Or Angelina Jolie Get A Better Ring From Brad Pitt? ||||| Brangelina Quotes Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie open up about their romance. MORE >>

 The Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are finally tying the knot, but the burning question still remains: Will the longtime couple and parents-of-six have a prenuptial agreement?

 According to Forbes, Brad, 48, is worth an estimated $150 million, while Angelina, 36, is worth a whopping $120 million, a net worth equaling $270 million.

 “The chances of them not having a pre-nup is slim and zip,” Goldie Schon, Los Angeles Family Law Attorney, tells Celebuzz. “The fact that they waited this long to tie the knot, you can’t imagine that with this type of wealth and this type of stature that they’re not going to protect themselves so that they don’t have a situation in the future.”

 While signing a prenup in Hollywood is a pretty standard procedure, could this legal procedure ultimately doom Brad and Angie’s marriage from the start? Are they wishing it to fail?

 “[They] just to have something in writing, similar to a couple having a living trust or a will,” Schon explains. “It’s just a document that is going to outline for the two of them and for their family how things are going to be divided up or not divided if the two should separate.”

 Our expert predicts not much will change for the couple, who’ve already been together for seven years. “Nothing is going to change. The reason they are getting married is because of their children. Their children are growing up and they are becoming more knowledgeable of what mommys and daddys are supposed to be.”

 When and if a prenup such as this is drawn up, the kids will not be included. Schon explains, “You can’t put child support or child care into a prenuptial agreement because a prenup is between two people, the spouses to be. You can not contract away the rights of a child.”

 Schon’s advice for Brad and Angie’s possible prenup, “What’s yours is yours and what’s mine is mine,” she insists. “That’s how it’s going to stay.”

 She adds, “These two particular people are extremely affluent in their own right, when it comes to wealth, when it comes to celebrity stature and being a public figure. They are both pretty much of the same elite.”

 What do you think? Should Brad and Angie get a prenup, or is it jinxing the marriage from the get-go? Sound off in the comments. ||||| Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images; Dave Hogan/Getty Images

 There are many questions still unanswered about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's engagement.

 We all still want to know how the proposal went down, when and where they will say their I-dos and what the wedding dress will look like.

 And then there's Jennifer Aniston—what does she think of all this?

 Well, I can tell you...

 READ: Five Things to Know About Angelina Jolie's Stunning Engagement Ring!

 Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player

 She isn't thinking much about it—if she is at all.

 "She doesn't care," an Aniston pal tells me. "She really doesn't. She's happy with Justin [Theroux]. She'll probably marry him. She's moved on. People don't want to believe it, but she has."

 No doubt the celebrity tabloids are going to have a field day with Aniston and Brangelina, but be careful of what you read.

 Another source tells us Aniston found out about the engagement at home. "She was happy and hanging out with her man," the source said.

 Aniston recently opened up about Theroux to Marie Claire Australia. ""He's a protector, for sure," she told the mag, according to Just Jared. "He's just a good human being, and so funny."

 —Additional reporting by Ken Baker

 Now we want to hear from you. Do you think the Jennifer Aniston and Brangelina "love triangle" drama really exists or do you think all three moved on a long time ago? Chime in below.

 PHOTOS: Wedding Can Wait ||||| It wasn't your average Jolie-Pitt family meeting.

 On a recent spring day, Brad Pitt gathered his six kids -- Maddox, 10, Pax, 8, Zahara, 7, Shiloh, 5, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 3 -- as he presented love Angelina Jolie with a very special present: A tablet-shaped diamond engagement ring -- estimated at 16 carats and worth $500,000 -- which he helped design with jeweler Robert Procop.

 PHOTOS: A timeline of Brad and Angie's romance

 "Angelina cried and smiled" at the proposal, a confidante tells the new Us Weekly, out now.

 And the children, who had been extremely eager for their parents to wed after seven years together, were equally overjoyed, the source adds. "Everyone hugged once she put [the ring] on. She went around and showed it to each of the kids."

 PHOTOS: How the Jolie-Pitt kids have grown up

 As the world now knows, Jolie, 36, quietly debuted that long-awaited ring at an April 11 private viewing at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, with startling photos and a confirmation from jeweler Procop and then Pitt's manager emerging two days later.

 TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty Images

 "Angie considers herself bonded to Brad for life," adds the source.

 PHOTOS: Stars who haven't wed--yet!

 For much, much more on one of the biggest Hollywood engagements ever -- how son Maddox led the kids to pressure mom and dad to get hitched, their low-key wedding plans, and what Jennifer Aniston really thinks -- pick up the new Us Weekly, on stands Friday! |||||


Curious what people are up to when it comes to sex?

 For some of us, not much, according to a new report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics which painstakingly details the country’s sexual habits.

 Based on in-person interviews with approximately 13,500 men and women between the ages of 15 to 44, the report describes who’s having sex with whom, what kind of sex they’re having, and who has yet to become sexually involved.

 Yes, virginity is apparently making a comeback.

 Researchers found that between 2006 and 2008, the percentage of 15- to 24-year-old men who had never had any form of sexual contact with another person was 27 percent (up from 22 percent in 2002) while the percentage of 15- to 24-year-old females who had never had any sex whatsoever was 29 percent (up 7 percent points from 22 percent in 2002).

 Anjani Chandra, a health scientist at the NCHS and lead author of the study, says 15- to 19-year-olds made up the lion’s share of this category, a finding that seems to counter other reports regarding teen sex trends.

 “I think a lot of people misconstrue this as meaning they’ve never had vaginal sex,” she says. “But this is no sexual contact of any kind. They didn’t have oral sex or anal sex. They didn’t have anything.”

 Chandra says she couldn’t speculate as to why there appears to be more virgins in our midst, but said it could be due to sex education, messages about abstinence or that it might hinge on the truthfulness of the respondents.

 “It’s what they’re telling us and we have to take it on faith,” she says.

 Women more likely to have same-sex experiences

 Further data collected from the survey, which asked men and women about their sexual behavior, sexual attraction and sexual identity, found that among adults aged 25 to 44, about 98 percent of females and 97 percent of males have had vaginal intercourse; 89 percent of females and 90 percent of men have had oral sex with an opposite-sex partner; and 36 percent of females and 44 percent of males have had anal sex with an opposite-sex partner.

 The survey also found that women aged 15 to 44 were more than twice as likely to have had a same-sex experience as men of the same age (in 2006-2008, approximately 12.5 percent of women reported a same-sex experience compared with 5.2 percent of men).

 Other data showed that women with four or more sexual partners in their lifetime were more likely to have had a female sexual partner, compared with women who had had no male partners or women who’ve had only one male partner. While the percentage of men and women who reported they were either straight or homosexual was similar, the percentage of women who reported they were bisexual was more than three times as high as men.

 Chandra says one of the things that stood out for her in the report was the same-sex reporting for women.

 “There was speculation that it was possibly just experimentation among college girls but we didn’t see anything to support that,” she says. “We saw the opposite. When we look at college-degreed women, they were less likely to report same-sex activity than other educational groups. Among men, there’s more same-sex activity among higher-educated men. And for women, the highest level of same-sex activity was reported by those with less education.”

 Sexual categories more fluid than thought?

 According to Chandra, data from the survey — which tapped a general household population and did not include high-risk groups such as the homeless or incarcerated — will be used to provide better education and STD prevention efforts. But she says the data is also essential in order to better understand people’s sexual activities and proclivities.

 “It’s important to realize there are not separate groups of sexual people,” she says. “You can’t just think ‘Here are the heterosexual people; here are the homosexual people.’ People draw their partners from all different places. There are not necessarily clear boundaries between the population groups that engage in this behavior or that behavior.”

 Survey data was collected in person by about 40 female interviewers who met one-on-one with participants. Using a laptop, participants would see the question on the screen or listen to a question through a set of headphones. They would then type their answer directly onto the computer, a method that, according to the report, “has been found to yield more complete reporting of sensitive behaviors.”

 The audio for the interview questions – many of them quite explicit (i.e., “Has a male ever put his penis in your rectum or butt — also known as anal sex?”) — was recorded by a female employee of the University of Michigan.

 “We are considering whether we should use a computer-generated voice for future surveys, though,” says Chandra. “Or we might try out ways where a respondent could choose different voices.” ||||| Among the findings of a sweeping federal government survey of American sexual behavior is one that may surprise those bewailing a permissive and eros-soaked popular culture: More than one-quarter of people interviewed in their late teens and early 20s had never had sex.

 And the number was growing.

 The latest round of the quaintly named National Survey of Family Growth found that among 15-to-24-year-olds, 29 percent of females and 27 percent of males reported no sexual contact with another person ever - up from the 22 percent of both sexes when the survey was last conducted in 2002.

 "The public's general perception is that when it comes to young people and sex, the news is bad and likely to get worse," said Bill Albert, chief program officer of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, an advocacy organization in Washington.

 The seventh and latest round of the survey, first done in 1973, provides a corrective to that view.

 "Many, many young people have been very receptive to the message of delaying sexual activity," Albert said. "There's no doubt about it." He added that the nearly 40 percent reduction in teen pregnancy since the 1990s - which experts attribute to both increased condom use and increased abstinence - represents "extraordinary progress on a social issue that many once considered intractable."

 The uptick in abstinence is one of many revealing facts arising from structured interviews with a random sample of 13,495 Americans, ages 15 to 44, that were done from 2006 to 2008. The findings provide evidence for almost every theory and supposition about the nation's secret sex life.

 The survey results, released Thursday, suggest that oral sex may be a gateway to vaginal sex but that for some teens it is a stopping point. Most adults are monogamous. About 4 in 10 adults have had anal sex. Women are more likely than men to have same-sex liaisons. Or at least are more comfortable talking about them.

 Conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services, the survey provides basic information for public health policymakers concerned with such issues as sexually transmitted disease. There is no single fact that it is trying to ferret out or message that its 49 pages of text and tables seek to deliver.

 But Anjani Chandra, the demographer who is the lead author of the report, said that "for some people, it may be news that these behaviors exist at all in the general population."

 When first run, the survey queried only married and formerly married women. Single women and then men were later included, as were more detailed questions about sexual practices.

 Parts of the survey are now so explicit that even though the interviewer and subject are face to face, some questions are asked and answered using a computer screen so that the answers are completely private. |||||

Write a summary.

– A new federal study suggests more young men and women are remaining virgins longer. In the 15-24 age group, 27% of men and 29% of women say they've never had a sexual encounter of any kind, reports MSNBC. That's up from 22% for both groups from the last study in 2002. Other findings: In the 25-44 age group, 97% of men and 98% of women have had vaginal intercourse, and about 90% in both groups have had oral sex, notes the Washington Post. 36% of women and 44% of men in the age group have had anal sex. 12.5% of women reported a same-sex experience, vs. 5.2% of men. 21% of men say they've had at least 15 sex partners, compared with 8% of women. To read about Northwestern's hey-watch-this approach to sex ed, click here.


Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| High-profile Hollywooders, as well as several sports, business and political luminaries, are offering up a string of last-minute, big-dollar contributions both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

 Actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Zach Galifianakis, Renee Zellweger, Susan Saint James Ebersol and Amanda Seyfried are among the four-figure donors in recent days to Obama’s campaign, according to federal campaign finance disclosures.

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 reset PHOTOS: Stars hit up the swing states Play Slideshow POLITICO’s late night roundup

 Author Anne Rice, Disney TV Animation Executive Producer Dan Povenmire, and comedy writer Ian Maxtone-Graham are other notable Obama contributors.

 For Romney, actor Kelsey Grammer, Denver Broncos executive John Elway and former game show host Bob Barker have made 11th hour, four-figure donations.

 Sarah Palin’s political action committee, SARAH PAC, also chipped in $5,000 last week.

 Heritage Foundation Executive Becky Dunlop, American Beverage Association Chief Executive Susan Neely, former Mike’s Hard Lemonade President Philip W. O’Neil, the political action committee of the Consumer Electronics Association and the congressional campaign of Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) are among the recent donors of at least $1,000 to Romney’s campaign. ||||| The Obama campaign is using a mailer modeled after online cat memes as part of their final get out the vote push in the crucial battleground state of Ohio. On the mailer, there is a picture of a cat peeking out from behind a laptop decorated with Ohio-themed Obama campaign stickers highlighting the push to get people to vote early.

 “STOP LOOKING AT CATS ONLINE AND GO VOTE,” text on the flyer says.

 A user on the social news site Reddit with the handle MollyBloom11 posted a picture of the mailer on the site last night. They were clearly impressed with the campaign’s understanding of internet culture.

 “The Obama campaign sent me this today…They know their audience,” MollyBloom11 wrote.

 The Obama campaign confirmed the mailer was real and has been used in Ohio. They were not immediately sure whether similar imaging has been used for online ads or in other states.

 Follow Hunter Walker on Twitter or via RSS. hwalker@observer.com |||||

Write a summary.

– The stars are coming out in a big way as Election Day looms. The latest: Will Ferrell really, really wants you to vote—and he'll do anything to make sure you do, he promises in a new video for President Obama. "Hungry? How about a home-cooked meal? Hope you like angel hair pasta," he says. "You need a guy to help you move a couch? Done. I've even got my own van." But his promises get bigger—and weirder—from there. "If you vote, I'll eat anything you tell me to—garbage, hair, human toenails, underpants, whatever—I'll do it," he swears. The president's name stays out of it until the very end, when Ferrell concludes, while holding a football, "Vote Obama. It's a slam dunk." On Jimmy Kimmel's show last week, Chris Rock offered up a special message to white voters. "In times like these, you need a white president you can trust," Rock explains. "And that white president's name is Barack Obama." His evidence that Obama is actually white? The president used to be called "Barry," he likes to golf, he wears "mom jeans," and he has a Portugese water dog, among other things. Amy Poehler kept her endorsement brief and to the point: "If you can vote, go vote for Obama," she concludes. Obama himself is also urging voters to hit the polls ... and he's doing it cat-meme style. It's not just ads: Celebrities are making last-minute donations to both campaigns, Politico reports. Jake Gyllenhaal, Zach Galifianakis, Renee Zellweger, and Amanda Seyfried all recently made four-figure contributions to Obama's campaign, while Kelsey Grammer, Bob Barker, and John Elway did the same for Romney. Click here, here, or here to see previous celebrity endorsements.


Article:
Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| A baby in China went 10 days with a chopstick stuck up his nose, which punctured his brain and caused an infection because nobody noticed, Central European News reported.

 Hanhang, 1, was eating chow mein with his parents in Chaoyang City when he tripped and fell, sending the object up his nose, CEN reported.

 His parents removed the chopstick and rushed him to the hospital for further treatment where doctors failed to notice additional pieces of the object penetrating his brain, according to the report.

 “When we got home after our first visit to the hospital, my husband broke all the chopsticks in half and threw them away as we were worried something like this could happen again,” Yu Liao, Hanhang’s 25-year-old mom told CEN.

 “But we had no idea there was still one inside of his head,” she said.

 Hanhang began vomiting and showing signs of drowsiness, prompting his parents to bring him to the hospital for a second time, Liao told CEN. It was then that doctors noticed the piece of chopstick in his brain.

 “We were beside ourselves with worry,” Liao said.

 “After removing the remaining six centimeters his condition improved immediately, but he does have a brain infection so will be staying in the hospital for further treatment,” Dr. Li Shaovi told CEN.

 “Luckily it did not affect him much.” ||||| Family, doctors fail to notice chopstick stuck in boy's brain via @foxnewshealth http://t.co/3YSbWVAwXQ pic.twitter.com/uXOkgLGMuH — Fox News (@FoxNews) March 6, 2015

 The x-ray photo of a Chinese boy’s brain that was punctured by a chopstick is unsettling. Yet it’s this image that finally allowed a medical team to understand why the child was vomiting and fatigued and ultimately save his life.

 Hanhang, 1, was walking around with a chopstick when he tripped and fell, according to CEN.

 The long stick drove up his nose and his parents quickly removed the object and took him to the hospital.

 Doctors examined Hanhang and failed to notice that the chopstick had punctured the brain and small pieces were still lodged in his head.

 “When we got home after our first visit to the hospital, my husband broke all the chopsticks in half and threw them away as we were worried something like this could happen again,” Yu Liao, Hanhang’s 25-year-old mom told CEN.

 “But we had no idea there was still one inside of his head,” she said.

 At home, Hanhang’s condition worsened as he repeatedly vomited and was noticeably lethargic.

 His parents brought him back to the hospital where doctors ordered an X-ray and discovered the chopstick piece.

 “We were beside ourselves with worry,” Liao said.

 “After removing the remaining six centimeters his condition improved immediately, but he does have a brain infection so will be staying in the hospital for further treatment,” Dr. Li Shaovi told CEN.

 Kids and chopsticks can be a dangerous combination. A 2-year-old Chinese boy stuck a chopstick in his nose last year and it penetrated three inches into his brain. Doctors spent four hours carefully removing it. Also, last year a 12-year-old Chinese boy was running across a school playground when he fell over onto a pair of chopsticks in his hand. The sticks penetrated his neck and the boy underwent surgery to remove them.

 Note to parents: Chopsticks are to only be handled by children sitting at the dinner table. |||||Summary:

– He's OK now, but a toddler in China went 10 days with part of a chopstick in his brain. It seems young Hanhang tripped and fell with the chopstick in his hand, and it went straight up his nose, according to a report by Central European News spotted by Fox. His parents saw it happen, removed the chopstick—or so they thought—and took him to the hospital to be safe. Unfortunately, doctors sent him home without realizing that about 2 inches of the chopstick had broken off and was still inside. “When we got home after our first visit to the hospital, my husband broke all the chopsticks in half and threw them away as we were worried something like this could happen again,” says his mother, Yu Liao. When the boy grew increasingly lethargic and sick, his parents brought him back, and only then did an X-ray reveal the reason. Hanhang showed immediate improvement once it was removed. The Mommy Files blog at the San Francisco Chronicle rounds up two similar stories and concludes, "Note to parents: Chopsticks are to only be handled by children sitting at the dinner table." (The X-ray calls to mind another strange case, this one involving a nail gun.)


Summarize this article:

Cities across Oklahoma have been barred from setting mandatory minimum wage, vacation or sick-day requirements under a bill signed into law this week by Gov. Mary Fallin.

 Critics of the bill say it specifically targets Oklahoma City, where an initiative is underway to establish a citywide minimum wage higher than the current federal requirement of $7.25 an hour. Organizers have been gathering signatures on a petition to support raising the city's minimum $10.10 – a rate currently being advocated by President Barack Obama on the national level.

 David Slain, the lawyer who wrote the petition, said he is disappointed that the state’s legislature "would vote in such a way to take the right of the people to decide minimum wage." He said the grass-roots effort would continue, with hopes of getting 4,000 signature by the end of April. A total of 80,000 are needed to bring the initiative to a statewide vote.

 After the governor signed the law on Monday, her office released a statement that said raising the minimum wage is not an effective way to bring people out of poverty.

 "Most minimum-wage workers are young, single people working part-time or entry-level jobs," Fallin said. "Many are high school or college students living with their parents in middle-class families."

 Yet numerous studies have called this an untrue stereotype. It is a "common myth that very low-wage workers – workers who would see a raise if the minimum wage were increased – are mostly teenagers," according to a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute.

 Nearly 90 percent of workers who would be impacted by an increase in the federal minimum wage are older than 20, while the average age is 35, the institute said. It added that more than a quarter have children to support and more than half work full time.

 Supporters of the ban have also argued that it will help local businesses. Oklahoma state Rep. Randy Grau, R-Edmond, who carried the bill in the House, argued that "an artificial raise in the minimum wage could derail local economies in a matter of months."

 Sen. Dan Newberry, R-Tulsa, the Senate co-author of the measure, said it provides a safer business environment that will allow Oklahoma to remain economically competitive and see continued job growth. ||||| Oklahoma’s cities and counties are banned from setting their own minimum wage standards under a bill signed into law Monday by Gov. Mary Fallin.

 “Senate Bill 1023 protects our economy from bad public policy that would destroy Oklahoma jobs,” Fallin said in a prepared statement. “Mandating a minimum wage increase at the local level would drive businesses to other communities and states, and would raise prices for consumers.”

 Fallin’s action appears to thwart efforts by an Oklahoma City group that had been circulating a petition calling for a local vote on whether to increase the city’s minimum wage from the national standard of $7.25 an hour up to $10.10 an hour.

 Oklahoma City attorney David Slane, who serves as spokesman for the group circulating the petition, said his coalition is contemplating its next move.

 “Of course we’re disappointed that the governor and the Republican Legislature stood in the way of the people having the right to vote on whether they want to raise minimum wage,” Slane said. “We’re looking now at the possibility of a constitutional challenge to the law that was signed because we think that it abrogates the people’s right to have an initiative petition. ... We’re going to explore all options, including the possibility of a statewide initiative petition.”

 ‘Immoral’

 State Rep. Eric Proctor, D-Tulsa, argued against the bill on the House floor, contending it was “immoral” to have a minimum wage so low that a person could work full time and still be classified as living in poverty.

 Fallin, however, said that raising the minimum wage would hurt Oklahomans.

 She cited a February report by the Congressional Budget Office that indicated raising the minimum wage nationally could lead to a loss of a half-million jobs in the United States.

 “Most minimum wage workers are young, single people working part-time or entry-level jobs,” Fallin said.

 “Many are high school or college students living with their parents in middle class families. Mandating an increase in the minimum wage would require businesses to fire many of those part-time workers. It would create a hardship for small business owners, stifle job creation and increase costs for consumers. And it would do all of these things without even addressing the goal of reducing poverty.” |||||

– An initiative to raise the minimum wage in Oklahoma City has been thwarted by a new law banning cities in the state from setting their own minimum wages or requirements for vacation days. A petition being circulated in the city called for raising the local minimum wage to $10.10—the level President Obama is pushing—from the current federal requirement of $7.25, the Oklahoman reports. The coalition behind the petition says it is considering a constitutional challenge to the new law. Gov. Mary Fallin, who signed the bill into law, rejected the argument that allowing cities to raise the minimum wage would bring people out of poverty, saying having different minimum wages across the state could scare off businesses and a higher minimum wage would cost jobs. "Most minimum wage workers are young, single people working part-time or entry-level jobs," she said. "Many are high school or college students living with their parents in middle-class families." Numerous studies, however, have found this to be untrue, Al Jazeera notes. A recent Economic Policy Institute report found that almost 90% of minimum wage workers are over 20, a quarter have children to support, and more than half work full time.


News article:

Prepare to have your mind blown.

 In honor of Nicolas Roeg's 1976 sci-fi headscratcher "The Man Who Fell to Earth" being rereleased in New York, and the continuing national rollout of Terrence Malick's time-fracturing memory piece "The Tree of Life," Salon presents its list -- all right, fine, my personal list -- of great trippy movies.

 My list includes a couple of acknowledged, popular classics, a feature-length montage, two works by masters of experimental cinema, and an underappreciated recent film by a surrealist whose name rhymes with Wavid Clynch. Will you add your own picks to the Letters section? Or will you only think that you're adding them? What if you added them, and at the exact moment that you added them, in another universe an alternate version of you was adding the exact same titles? What if that alternate version of you had the same name as you, only spelled backward?

 Duuuuude.

 View the slide show ||||| "Fantasia" is a series of short films linked together by the framing story of an orchestra performing a concert (the conductor is Leopold Stokowski). The films within the film are hypothetical visions occurring in the mind's eye of the listener. But because the mind's eye in question belonged to Disney, the screen was filled with Disney imagery unmoored from a story -- an experimental film in kid-flick drag. It was all about how the music interacted with the images -- so precisely that it was as if the two art forms, instrumental performance and animation, were dancing together. The Sorcerer's Apprentice. The mushrooms. The centaurs. The dancing hippos. The volcanos. The dinosaurs. The demon. Parts of it are silly or cloying. Other parts are terrifying. And almost all of it is staggeringly beautiful. "Fantasia" was the first (and so far only) Walt Disney film to prompt viewers to ask, "What am I looking at?" and "What does it mean?" It's the Disney movie as powerful hallucinogen. For kids. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– If the goal of movies is to provide viewers with an escape from their everyday lives, then these movies offer that, with an extra hallucinogenic slap in the face. Salon set out to find the 10 Trippiest Movies Ever Made, and Matt Zoller Seitz's collection has everything from Disney to David Lynch to Porky Pig. Samples: Porky in Wackyland (1938): Here's one part: "In a field of towering mushrooms, Porky is menaced by a huge, fanged beast who suddenly starts traipsing about like a toddler, pealing, 'La la la! La la la!," writes Seitz. The Loony Tunes short is a true “mind-effer.” Fantasia (1940): Come on, dancing mushrooms? The psychedelic combo of instrumental music and choreographed animation—both dramatically horrifying and playfully silly—was probably pretty wicked for kids at the time. Yellow Submarine (1968): Another popular animation set to music, this movie follows the Fab Four on a journey to restore color to Pepperland…and that’s essentially all the plot you’ll find. The rest is stunning visual imagery to accompany Beatles’ classics like “Eleanor Rigby” and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Inland Empire (2006): This list wouldn’t truly be trippy without infamous surreal director David Lynch. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi classic, "a parable of evolution and the limits of imagination," plays with the mind’s concept of space, time, and human existence. After 43 years, it still lives up to its original promo, “The ultimate trip.” See the other trippy classics that made the list.


Article:

Dr. Fredric Brandt, who spent decades masking the aging process of celebrities with the promise of eternal youth, cut short his own life inside his Miami home. Friends and family attributed the death to an illness he couldn't kick.

 “He suffered from depression,” said Jacquie Tractenberg, Brandt’s publicist of 20 years.

 Brandt, the South Florida dermatologist dubbed “Baron of Botox” by W Magazine, a man who made his career ironing out celebrity wrinkles and who pioneered a line of skin care products to protect against the brutal Florida sun, was 65. The doctor’s clients included Madonna, Kelly Ripa and model Stephanie Seymour.

 Miami police ruled his death a suicide. Officers responded to a call placed by John Joseph Hupert, a friend who was staying at the Coconut Grove house with Brandt. According to the police report, Hupert was concerned that the doctor, who was under psychiatric care for depression, was suicidal.

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 He found Brandt hanging from a yellow cord with a white towel around his neck in the house garage around 9:15 a.m. Sunday. He last saw Brandt alive at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday.

 According to Miami Herald celebrity columnist Lesley Abravanel, Brandt, who had practices in Coral Gables and New York City, was reportedly "devastated" over comparisons to the protagonist played by Martin Short on an episode of Tina Fey’s new Netflix show, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

 The show’s Dr. Franff character shared Brandt’s lunar-white and smooth skin, platinum blond ’do and passion for plastic surgery but held the character to ridicule by flaunting an exaggerated speech impediment due to the overdoing of plastic surgery.

 “He did not commit suicide because of the show,” Tractenberg said. “The show didn’t help. It was mean. He felt bullied. It was mean-spirited picking at the way he looked for no reason at all. But he suffered from depression before that.”

 Netflix did not respond to a request for comment.

 Coconut Grove businesswoman and dancer Carolyn Weinkle Lamb, a longtime client, said the satirical TV portrayal didn’t reflect the true Dr. Brandt.

 “Some were put off by the way he looked. He was right off the runway of any fashion designer,” she said. “But inside he was just a beautiful guy and that had nothing to do with medicine.”

 Born Fredric Sheldon Brandt in June 1949 in Newark, New Jersey, to parents who owned a neighborhood candy store, the inquisitive kid, a self-described “science geek” and competitive swimmer, lost his father Irving at 15 and his mother Esther at 22 as he was entering Drexel University Medical School.

 “It was a lot to process, but you just have to forge ahead,” he reflected in a 2014 New York Times profile.

 He completed residencies at New York University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in numerous medical specialties — oncology, nephrology, hematology and cardiology — but aesthetics, physical beauty, held him in rapture. He completed his dermatology residency at the University of Miami.

 “The passing of Fredric Brandt, M.D., is tragic,” said Dr. Robert S. Kirsner, interim chairman of the Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “He was part of our voluntary faculty for years and taught a generation of dermatologists, including trainees in Miami and practicing physicians worldwide, about aesthetics. ... He will be missed. However, through his teaching and innovation, his legacy will live on.”

 In 1982, Brandt opened his dermatology practice in Coral Gables where he partnered with the manufacturers of leading injectables like Dysport, Restylane and Cosmoderm to run clinical trials at his Dermatology Research Institute on Ponce de Leon Boulevard. There, he worked to clear new technologies with the Food and Drug Administration.

 By 1989, Brandt, who authored 10 Minutes 10 Years: Your Definitive Guide to a Beautiful and Youthful Appearance and Age-Less: The Definitive Guide to Botox, Lasers, Peels and Other Solutions for Flawless Skin, opened a New York City practice. Three years later, he created a popular skin care line, Dr. Brandt Skin Care.

 In that realm, Brandt became international as his lines were sold at Sephora and 40 countries outside of the United States. He hosted the SiriusXM radio show, Ask Dr. Brandt.

 In 2013, Brandt released his most recent anti-aging lines, DNA and XYY. “My DNA (do not age) line of anti-aging products truly represents the next frontier of anti-aging.…” They “prevent future aging by teaching skin to act young at the cellular level,” he said in a 2013 Miami Herald feature.

 Said Jean Godfrey June, editor of Lucky, in an obituary released by the doctor’s publicist: “This was a brilliant man at the uncontested top of one of the most difficult and competitive professions, who took the crude science and turned it into something so refined, so subtle and so beautiful that it transformed literally thousands of lives.”

 But behind the beauty, apparently there was pain, masked by Brandt’s upbeat public demeanor. He sang show tunes in his office for his patients. He adored comedienne Phyllis Diller. He was an avid art collector who championed the works of Damien Hirst, Richard Prince and Anish Kapoor. He was his own biggest customer, frequently injecting himself with Botox.

 “Everybody wants to have radiant skin,” he said in a 2003 Miami Herald story.

 Brandt remarked in a 2014 New York Times profile that his goal was to “restore a face to harmony.” His skin care regiment for Madonna’s translucent skin was oft-commented upon, including by the singer. “If I have nice skin, I owe a lot to him,” she once said in an email to the Times.

 “Fred was as sweet as he was brilliant,” said Tara Gilani, South Florida entertainment and fashion Trend Tracker reporter with CBS4. “He loved his clients, his friends and his dogs. ... I was happy to bump into him on Jan. 23 at a Humane Society of Miami fundraiser. He was kind and complimentary, as always. I’m glad I got to hug him that night.”

 In fact, he was so loved by his patients, a group of eight tapped into Brandt’s love of show tunes and performed a musical Lamb wrote for the doctor’s 60th birthday.

 “Dr. Brandt: The Musical,” Lamb said through tears. “We got about seven or eight of his patients and we wore suits and top hats and did a musical in his office. Parodies of Broadway shows. One of the songs was I Could Have Waited All Day to the tune of I Could Have Danced All Night — because when you would go to his office you could expect to wait two hours. We used Hello, Dolly! for the way he greeted people.

 “Besides being an innovative and great doctor, he was just the nicest guy,” Lamb added. “My mom and I were clients of his since the late-’80s and he did a lot of innovative and experimental things on my mom. She passed away two years ago with pneumonia but when she was in the hospital she asked that we bring her Dr. Brandt products to her to put on her skin.”

 As to the circumstances of his death, “it almost doesn’t matter, the other stuff,” Lamb said. “The fact is, we lost a great guy.”

 Brandt is survived by his brother, Paul, and the dogs he cherished — Benji, Surya and Tyler.

 Miami Herald staff writer Chuck Rabin contributed to this report. ||||| Dr. Fredric Brandt, a celebrity dermatologist once called the “Baron of Botox” by W magazine, died Sunday at his home in Coconut Grove, Fla. He was 65.

 Frederica Burden, a spokeswoman for the Miami police, said the cause was suicide.

 Susan Biegacz, a publicist for Dr. Brandt, said he had been dealing with depression for some time and had recently been “devastated” by what is widely believed to be a parody of him on the Tina Fey comedy series “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” presented by Netflix.

 On the show, Martin Short portrays Dr. Sidney Grant, a wispy-haired plastic surgeon whose pneumatic features suggest experiments with Botox and facial fillers run amok.

 With his own wispy blond locks and pneumatic features, Dr. Brandt was a walking commentary on age-defying treatments and the products that have flooded the market since they were introduced as medical means of treating facial wasting among AIDS patients, and that he always tried first on himself. ||||| Tina Fey's New Show Is 'Not Why Dr. Brandt Committed Suicide': Source

 My heart is breaking for the loss of Dr. Fredric Brandt. My friend. You will be missed forever and in my heart even longer. — Kelly Ripa (@KellyRipa) April 6, 2015

 Dr. Brandt was one of the sweetest, nicest, most generous people I have had the good fortune to meet & work with. He will be sorely missed. — Joy Behar (@JoyVBehar) April 6, 2015

 Celebrity Dermatologist Fredric Brandt Found Dead in His Home

 Although celebrity dermatologist Dr. Fredric Brandt had been upset about comparisons to a character on Tina Fey 's Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, the show did not cause his apparent suicide Sunday, a source tells PEOPLE."He was depressed," the source close to Brandt says. "Did the show upset him? Yes. It was a mean characterization. He was a human being, no one would like that. It was making fun of him for the way he looked and it was mean and it was bullying. It was an illness, he suffered from depression. He always seemed like the life of the party, he would sing and rap his way through the day.""It wasn't the only thing troubling him, it was just one factor," the source adds. "It definitely hurt him. He was absolutely upset, who would want that? But that was not why he committed suicide. But it didn't help."In Kimmy Schmidt, released in March, Jane Krakowski's character Jacqueline Voorhees is a frequent client of plastic surgeon Dr. Grant (pronounced "Franff"), played by Martin Short , and the script ridicules his eccentric behavior and appearance."He was the nicest, kindest man alive, and they poke fun of him? Why? Because he looks different," the source tells PEOPLE. "Does Tina Fey teach her daughter to make fun of people? I don't think so. As a mother, I wonder if that's what she teaches her daughter. If someone looks different from you, do you make fun of them?"Another source confirms Brandt was "definitely hurt" by the characterization, and the dermatologist had told the source, "It wasn't nice, what they did."Fey, Netflix and Short have not yet returned requests for comment.Celebrities like Kelly Ripa and Joy Behar have Tweeted about the loss of Dr. Brandt. |||||
What is a summary?

– Dr. Fredric Brandt "was a huge pioneer" when it came to Botox and other anti-aging techniques, a fellow dermatologist says. In fact, he was once called the "Baron of Botox," and he boasted such celebrity clients as Madonna and Kelly Ripa. But on Sunday the 65-year-old died of an apparent suicide at his Florida home; a publicist tells the New York Times that he'd not only been struggling with depression, but was "devastated" by an apparent parody of him on Unbreakable Kimmy Schimdt. Martin Short played a character on the Netflix series who looks similar to Brandt, with features that make it seem the fictional doctor has been using Botox to excess on himself. Brandt was known for experimenting on himself before trying a new treatment on patients. Brandt was found hanged in his garage, the Miami Herald reports. Multiple sources who talked to People agree the show hurt him, but one says not to blame Short's character (Dr. Grant, pronounced Franff) for Brandt's death. "Did the show upset him? Yes. He was a human being, no one would like that. It was making fun of him for the way he looked and it was mean and it was bullying," the source says. But "it wasn't the only thing troubling him, it was just one factor. But that was not why he committed suicide. But it didn't help." The source blames the "illness" of depression. Meanwhile, Allure's editor remembers Brandt's contributions: "When he came into dermatology it was people treating sunspots and removing moles. Suddenly there were all these new substances and techniques that altered our relationship to age and aging, and he was at the absolute forefront of that."