CANDIDATE QUITS RACE AFTER REMARKS
MAINE» A Republican SABATTUS, Maine House candidate who called a Florida high school shooting survivor a “skinhead lesbian” and called another a “bald-faced liar” is quitting the race.
Leslie Gibson was widely criticized for insulting the survivors of last month’s shooting, which killed 17 people. The Portland Press Herald reports Gibson said Friday he’s walking away with his “head held high.”
One of the teenage students Gibson attacked online was Emma Gonzalez, a leader in student efforts to combat gun violence. He said there was “nothing about this skinhead lesbian” that impressed him.
Fred Meyer store to stop selling guns.
PORTLAND, Superstore company Fred Meyer will stop selling guns and ammunition.
In a statement Friday, the Portland, Ore.-based chain said it made the decision after evaluating customer preferences. The company sells guns at nearly 45 of its 132 stores in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska.
The company, a subsidiary of Cincinnati, Ohiobased Kroger Co., didn’t give a timeline in the statement.
Texas arrests in ritual sacrifice.
SAN ANTONIO, Authorities in Texas have arrested at least a dozen people for animal cruelty after interrupting what they believe was ritual sacrifice.
The San Antonio Express-news reports that Bexar County sheriff’s deputies found dead and dismembered animals in a San Antonio-area home Friday night after receiving calls that animals were being sacrificed.
Sgt. Elizabeth Gonzalez says that deputies saw more than a dozen people inside a garage where a woman was cutting up animal parts while another person was draining the blood of a chicken into a container.
“It appears that they were having some sort of unknown ritual,” Gonzalez said.
Deputies found additional mutilated animals in the residence, including goat heads and more chickens.
Streisand: Only abused by media.
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Barbra Streisand said she’s never suffered sexual harassment but has felt abused by the media.
During a tribute to Streisand’s decades of TV music specials and other programs, producer and longtime admirer Ryan Murphy queried her about her career, the #Metoo movement and her aversion to interviews.
“Never,” she replied when asked if she had been sexually mistreated. “I wasn’t like those pretty girls with those nice little noses. Maybe that’s why.”
She acknowledged the power of protests against gender inequality sweeping through Hollywood and society.
“We’re in a strange time now in terms of men and women and the pendulum swinging this way and that way, and it’s going to have to come to the center,” Streisand said during Friday’s Paley Center for Media event held at a packed theater.
Teacher sorry about gun incident.
SEASIDE, A teacher at a northern California high school has apologized for accidentally firing a gun inside his classroom, causing minor injuries to three students.
Dennis Alexander, who is also an elected member of the Seaside City Council and a reserve officer for a nearby police department, apologized and thanked community members for their support at a council meeting Thursday night.
“I can’t find the words to say how sorry I am for the incident,” he said at the packed meeting attended by about 100 students who supported Alexander.
Students also have organized a petition to keep him on as a teacher. Alexander has been placed on administrative leave from his job at the school and his role at the Sand City Police Department.
Police have said Alexander was pointing the gun at the ceiling Tuesday to make sure it was not loaded when it discharged inside his classroom at Seaside High School. He was not authorized to have a gun on the campus in the coastal community about 115 miles south of San Francisco.