Affluence v Effluent: Tijuana's Septic Assault on San Diego

The New York Times is grating its teeth over the prospect that a Christian-owned company is setting up shop in “liberal” Manhattan, as if having a business with religious morals would be a net negative for that God-forsaken city. “Hobby Lobby Is Opening Its First Manhattan Store. Not Everyone Is Happy,” cried Times reporter Jane Margolies in an April 9 item that was slapped onto the front page of the business section of the April 15 print edition. Margolies whined that the neighborhood of TriBeCa in Lower Manhattan, “known for its liberal politics and sky-high rents,” was bracing itself for the incoming of a new retailer “known for its conservative Christian convictions.” Oh how terrible. Rather than just reporting on the development, Margolies chose to elevate how “some residents” were supposedly “feeling affronted that Hobby Lobby is opening in their neighborhood.” Waah. Naturally, Margolies threw a tantrum over Hobby Lobby’s record of not genuflecting to the typical figureheads of wokeism: “Local groups and forums that are protesting the company’s arrival in TriBeCa point to Hobby Lobby’s work with organizations that oppose gay and transgender rights.” Then, she said the quiet part out loud: “They haven’t forgotten the private company’s lawsuit in 2014 to fight against having to provide insurance coverage for contraception for employees.” By “they” Margolies is more likely referencing how The Times still hasn’t gotten over the U.S. Supreme Court siding with Hobby Lobby in 2014 over its refusal to violate its Christian ethics by complying with the infamous Obamacare mandates. As The Times beta-energy-afflicted editorial board wailed during that time, “The Supreme Court violated principles of religious liberty and women’s rights in last week’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, which allowed owners of closely held, for-profit corporations (most companies in America) to impose their religious beliefs on workers by refusing to provide contraception coverage for employees with no co-pay, as required by the Affordable Care Act.” How dare a company’s owners have public Christian convictions that are known to their employees before they decided to work for them, right (sarcasm)? The owners of Hobby Lobby — the Green family — even “largely sponsored” the $500 million privately-funded Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C for goodness’ sake! In October 2022, Hobby Lobby CEO and founder David Green announced in a Fox News op-ed that he was giving up his company because he "chose God" over wealth. Margolies’ latest slant suggests The Times is more enraged over the fact that the paper and Hobby Lobby are now going to be neighbors: Over a decade later, it remains to be seen whether low prices and a staggering selection of products are enough to make residents in an area that has long been a liberal stronghold look past the company’s conservative bent. The whiny brats over at The Times sure can’t seem to get over it. That’s for sure. 

A woman who allegedly killed her 7-year-old daughter had been severely distraught over her immigration status, says the woman's fiancé. Thirty-seven-year-old Graciela Castellanos is the primary suspect in the drowning death of her daughter in a Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles on Friday. Castellanos' fiancé told KABC-TV that she had been a good mother but that she had episodes of mental illness. They overhead a girl yelling, 'Mommy, please no. Mommy, please no,' on the day of the incident. The grieving man didn't want to be identified and spoke in Spanish to KABC reporter Leo Stallworth. "First, I want to say that my wife was an almost perfect mom. She never told a bad word, yelled at the girl, didn't hit her," he said, as translated to English. "She was the sweetest mom in the world." The man said he arrived at the apartment at about 7 p.m. after police had already arrived. First responders had found the child's body in a bathtub and pronounced her dead soon afterward. Castellanos' fiancé said that she had suffered episodes that caused her to scream and isolate herself until they passed, but he claimed she had never been violent. He said that they were planning on getting married in about two months, and he was going to adopt the woman's daughter. The Los Angeles Police Department released few details about the case as the investigation is ongoing. The fiancé also said that Castellanos had fallen into deep depression after finding out that she may not become a legal resident. Castellanos was arrested and booked into jail on bail of $2 million. A resident of the Van Nuys neighborhood told KABC that they overhead a girl yelling, "Mommy, please no. Mommy, please no," on the day of the incident. Images of the victim and the interview with the fiancé can be viewed on the news video report from KABC-TV on YouTube. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

An adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was escorted out of the Pentagon as part of the investigation into the leak about a military operation against the Houthi terror group. Dan Caldwell, a Marine Corps veteran who was deployed to Iraq, was placed on administrative leave over "an unauthorized disclosure," according to a U.S. official who spoke to Reuters. 'We can confirm the Reuters reporting is accurate ...' Caldwell was included in the text chain, published by the Atlantic, of officials in the Defense Department and others who were planning the military attack. The text conversation was inadvertently leaked when the outlet's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was included as one of the text participants. Hegseth's chief of staff, Joe Kasper, called for an investigation into the embarrassing leak in a memo signed on March 21. Jennifer Griffin of Fox News confirmed the report through a top U.S. official. "We can confirm the Reuters reporting is accurate, but we do not comment on ongoing investigations," the official said to Griffin. Critics of the administration pointed out that sensitive and classified information should not have been sent over unsecured applications like the one used for the Houthi strike group. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that war plans were leaked and went on the offensive against Goldberg. "Jeffrey Goldberg is well known for his sensationalist spin. Here are the facts about his latest story," said Leavitt at the time. This is a developing story, and additional information may be added. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

If you’re a young woman who’s in a bit of a financial pinch, becoming an egg donor might seem like an easy, painless way to make some fast cash. But the emotional and physical cost is much more than what these egg donation centers let on — so much so that the executive director of the Center for Bioethics, Kallie Fell, thinks these young women desperately need to steer clear. “You have to start with thinking about what kinds of women are targeted to become egg sellers,” Fell tells Allie Beth Stuckey on “Relatable.” “These women are young, typically between 20 and 30 because those are our fertile years, that’s when we’re healthiest, our eggs are healthiest, our egg quality and quantity are the best,” Fell explains, calling the advertisements targeting these women “slick.” “‘Free tanning sessions,’ ‘pay for spring break,’” Fell mimics. “Often, too, the advertisements will list a higher amount than what they’re often given, because a woman might answer an advertisement and say, ‘Oh, I saw an advertisement for X amount.’ But then she might find out that she’s not quite what they’re looking for.” The women are also targeted for their empathy, as they believe they don’t need their eggs at that moment and would love to help out a family in need. “Their altruistic intentions are exploited,” Fell says, and Stuckey couldn’t agree more. “I mean, it sounds like the song ‘Fancy’ by Reba McIntyre. I mean, she’s talking about being a young prostitute because her mom is sending her out to help pay their bills. This is not sex, but it is selling your body for money, sometimes for desperation,” Stuckey says. “And not just your body,” Fell says, “You’re not just putting your health at risk, but you are in essence, as an egg seller, sperm seller, you are giving away your future child that is your genetic material that will make a future child. And I think that young women don’t always think that through.” “You are willing to give up your own child to someone else, and you have no idea how that child will be raised,” Stuckey agrees. However, it’s not just the future of the child or the “slick” advertising targeting young women that bothers Stuckey and Fell — but the fact that the advertising does not include the known health risks to the young women they’re targeting. “In nowhere on them do they include the known risks or even the statement that we don’t know what the risks are,” Fell explains, noting that she’s been speaking with an “egg seller” who’s trying to file a class-action lawsuit in Canada for the physical harm she experienced. “She just talks to me about how she called the clinic with pains, complaints of shortness of breath, and other side effects, and instead of talking to a doctor, she talked to a coordinator who just reassured her that it was normal. She never actually saw a physician or a provider of medical care until she was sedated on the table, ready to collect her eggs,” she continues. “These advertisements are very flowery, they use very cunning and slick language, and once they’re exploited for their eggs, they’re put on high doses of hormones and medications that have long-lasting side effects,” she says. In a film for the Center of Bioethics and Culture, the stories of these women who were harmed are told — and they face everything from strokes to ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome to losing their own fertility. “And those are just kind of immediate risks. We don’t know what happens to these women long-term, their risk for cancer later, or their children,” she adds. Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer (D) is walking back statements about half-heartedly enforcing Florida's immigration laws after a warning from Attorney General James Uthmeier (R). While Dyer had confirmed that Orlando's police department would participate in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's 287(g) program, as mandated by new state law, he added that officers would still follow the Trust Act, a sanctuary city policy that was voided under a law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis (R) in 2019. “So, if somebody is subject to a traffic stop or calls the police to report a crime, the police will not ask what their status is and will not be subject to any proactive activities of that sort," Dyer said recently, according to WESH 2.The implementation of the statewide requirement to be part of ICE's program has been rocky in some parts of Florida. "If the city enforces the policy as Mayor Dyer suggested, especially with [Orlando police] signing a 287(g) agreement with ICE, there will be consequences," Uthmeier said on Monday.The next day, Uthmeier posted a letter Dyer sent to him, which said that officers will be fully complying with state law and will be fully participating in the 287(g) program."I want to assure you that we take your letter, Florida law, and federal immigration law very seriously. Neither I nor the Orlando Police Department have any intention of violating federal or state law," Dyer wrote to Uthmeier. "We assure you we will continue to use our best efforts to support the enforcement of federal immigration law, as well as state law." — (@) The 287(g) program trains local law enforcement officers to be able to perform certain immigration enforcement duties while they are carrying out their daily duties. The federal program is different from joint task forces, where federal agencies such as ICE or Border Patrol are present with local law enforcement and solely focusing on immigration duties.The implementation of the statewide requirement to be part of ICE's program has been rocky in some parts of Florida. The Fort Myers City Council did not pass an ICE agreement when it was first brought up, but after public backlash and warnings from the DeSantis administration, members passed the measure. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

We can all be sure that as society evolves, many things that seem normal today will be cringeworthy to people in the future, whether it’s our fashion, politics, civility, or our treatment of the environment.If we look back just 30 years ago, same-sex marriage was illegal, people routinely smoked in bars and restaurants, and it was fashionable and cool to vogue.So, when we look back on the world of 2024, there are bound to be many things that we’ll be embarrassed about in 30 years, especially when we are forced to live with the repercussions of the decisions we make today. On a lighter note, we’ll all also have clouds full of photos of ourselves wearing hairstyles and clothes that look utterly ridiculous in hindsight.Last summer we asked the Upworthy community to share their thoughts by asking a big question on Facebook: "What's something that's accepted now that we'll be embarrassed about in the future?" Our readers responded with funny takes on current fashion and concerns about technology use and how we treat our fellow human beings.Here are 21 things we accept today that we’ll probably be embarrassed about in the future.More than a few current fashion trends will look silly in the coming years. Yoga pants.Image via Canva."Yoga pants. I love them to death, but I can easily see them as the parachute pants of tomorrow." — Deborah"Barn doors in your house." — Joyce"Tattoos all over the body." — Vicki"People wearing socks and sandals." — Jeremy"Wearing pajamas in public." — Ivy"Huge, over-sized false eyelashes." — Patricia Our natural lashes are nice just the way they are! i.pinimg.com Hopefully, people in the future will be more considerate when using technology than we are today."Walking around with your eyes locked on your phone. Or eating at a table with 4 people looking at their phone. One day, we will either fall off a cliff or realize life is what is happening off the screen." — Elise."Texting in the presence of another person." — KateWe can also hope that in the near future, we will be able to solve many of today’s pressing public policy issues so that the next generation will live happier and healthier lives."Lack of healthcare for everyone." — Sharon"Making the planet unlivable for human beings." — Karen"Spending hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer's money to build a sports arena for a billionaire. Then charging the taxpayers outrageous amounts to attend events there." — Stacy"How the US is systematically clawing back women's rights to decide what they do with their bodies. It's beyond shameful." — Jason. One step forward, many steps back. Image via Canva. "Allowing guns everywhere." — Amy"That we drive fossil fuel-powered vehicles." — HeidiSome people are concerned about the way students and their parents behave in modern-day America."Parents trying to run schools: yelling at teachers for their child’s poor performance, yelling at principals when their child gets in trouble, book banning based on an individual’s religious ideologies, etc." — Beth."Entitled children talking back to their parents and teachers." — Connie @theclassiiics Every generation has different types of teachers ??‍♂️??‍♀️??? #comedy #comedyvideos #funnyvideos #classiiic @summerrrwilliams #fyp #teacher #teacher #genz #genx #millennial "Cry rooms at universities where students can go and work out their anxiety and cry and be upset if their professor uses words that are too difficult for them. Universities are institutes of higher learning, not institutes of babysitting. That will be an embarrassment in the future, as it is an embarrassment to me and many others now." — DellaIn 30 years, we may be embarrassed to look back on the level of general civility in 2024."Panic buying of toilet paper during the pandemic." — Tony"Ageism. It’s everywhere, all the time, and no one seems to mind. No one is defined by the amount of time they’ve spent on the planet but it’s used as an identity and as a weapon (ask any teenager, 40-year-old woman, or retiree…). I can only hope that one day it will be a source of embarrassment that we were all so dismissive and judgmental." — Rosy."Human beings living on the street." — Andrea"Torturous killing of animals for food." — Mae Homelessness is especially rampant on the West Coast.Image via CanvaWhile this list may seem like a litany of complaints people have about living in the modern world, it should give people hope. If we’ve overcome past embarrassments, today’s can be fixed as well.This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

Everybody wants to see themselves in a positive light. That’s the key to understanding Jonah Berger’s simple tactic that makes people 30% more likely to do what you ask. Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the bestselling author of “Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way.”Berger explained the technique using a Stanford University study involving preschoolers. The researchers messed up a classroom and made two similar requests to groups of 5-year-olds to help clean up.One group was asked, "Can you help clean?" The other was asked, “Can you be a helper and clean up?" The kids who were asked if they wanted to be a “helper” were 30% more likely to want to clean the classroom. The children weren’t interested in cleaning but wanted to be known as “helpers.” - YouTube www.youtube.com Berger calls the reframing of the question as turning actions into identities."It comes down to the difference between actions and identities. We all want to see ourselves as smart and competent and intelligent in a variety of different things,” Berger told Big Think. “But rather than describing someone as hardworking, describing them as a hard worker will make that trait seem more persistent and more likely to last. Rather than asking people to lead more, tell them, 'Can you be a leader?' Rather than asking them to innovate, can you ask them to 'Be an innovator'? By turning actions into identities, you can make people a lot more likely to engage in those desired actions.”Berger says that learning to reframe requests to appeal to people’s identities will make you more persuasive. - YouTube www.youtube.com “Framing actions as opportunities to claim desired identities will make people more likely to do them,” Berger tells CNBC Make It. “If voting becomes an opportunity to show myself and others that I am a voter, I’m more likely to do it.”This technique doesn’t just work because people want to see themselves in a positive light. It also works for the opposite. People also want to avoid seeing themselves being portrayed negatively.“Cheating is bad, but being a cheater is worse. Losing is bad, being a loser is worse,” Berger says.The same tactic can also be used to persuade ourselves to change our self-concept. Saying you like to cook is one thing, but calling yourself a chef is an identity. “I’m a runner. I’m a straight-A student. We tell little kids, ‘You don’t just read, you’re a reader,’” Berger says. “You do these things because that’s the identity you hold.” - YouTube www.youtube.com Berger’s work shows how important it is to hone our communication skills. By simply changing one word, we can get people to comply with our requests more effectively. But, as Berger says, words are magic and we have to use them skillfully. “We think individual words don’t really matter that much. That’s a mistake,” says Berger. “You could have excellent ideas, but excellent ideas aren’t necessarily going to get people to listen to you.”This article originally appeared last year. It has since been updated.

One thing that people are becoming increasingly familiar with whether they want to or not is perimenopause. This refers to the several years to a decade before someone reaches full blown menopause, which is marked by 12 consecutive months without menstruation. One of the reasons people are much more aware of the biological condition is because of women like Ari who is speaking openly about her experiences with perimenopause. In a recent video, Ari, who goes by @Ari_Darling on social media, shared the frustrating experience of perimenopause related brain fog and forgetfulness. Upon sharing an amusing video of her seemingly starting to say something and forgetting what she was saying, women flocked to share their own stories of the phenomenon. What was I doing again?Photo credit: CanvaBrain fog and forgetfulness are common symptoms of perimenopause that can make someone feel as if they're developing a serious illness. It can be scary at times when the moments go from forgetting why you walked into a room to something that feels more serious, like forgetting words you use frequently and floundering while your brain searches for a placeholder. Dr. Hadine Joffe, executive director of the Connors Center for Women's Health and Gender Biology at Brigham and Women's ­Hospital and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, tells Harvard Women's Health Watch that decreasing estrogen is the culprit to perimenopausal brain fog and is usually one of the first indications that hormone levels have changed. "We don't know why this happens, because many things are happening across the menopause transition along with the drop in estrogen," Joffe tells the publication. @ari__darling I can’t believe how bad it is. We need to talk about this more. #perimenopause #forget #words ♬ original sound - Ari__Darling ?? No matter the reason people experience brain fog, it's pretty safe to assume that everyone going through it finds it to be quite annoying. In the moment it may be irritating and a little frightening but once it has passed and the panic has subdued, the inconvenient brain glitches can be amusing. That's exactly what the women who found Ari's video bonded over–the hilarity that comes with brain fog and all the wild things their brain shoved out of their mouths when they couldn't remember simple words. One woman was simply mortified when she couldn't remember an everyday phrase: "I couldn't remember 'flight attendant' but knew 'stewardess' was not pc, I could only remember that it was 2 words....I came up with "space waitress.' fml" A space waitress at work. Photo credit: CanvaIt's always a good day when potatoes have babies according to this woman's word flub: "The other day I was trying to think of the word “tater tots” and I asked my husband to get the potato children."You know, maybe we should petition for this particular change: "Couldn’t remember 'A-list' celebrities. Instead said “this movie has a lot of name brand actors”Well, you probably don't want to say this to an elderly relative: "Yep, i pulled out "coffin parking lot" the other day when I couldn't remember cemetery." Waking Up Funeral GIF Giphy "I forgot the word 'toiletries' and ended up saying 'human condiments,'" another shared. Who needs different words when lotion is essentially like like ketchup for your legs? Same thing, right?"Asking for tongs in the kitchen. My brain throws out food tweezers. I used to be a chef," said another woman. You can still be a chef and use food tweezers. This is a judgement free zone. Listen, words are hard sometimes and having hormonal fluctuations that make you forget what keys are called doesn't make it any easier. Thankfully, women no longer have to suffer in silence thinking they're alone in their struggles. Thanks to social media, women from all over the world have a better understanding of perimenopause because others refuse to adhere to the idea that "the change" is something private. If you're going through brain fog and forgetfulness related to perimenopause, rest assured you have an entire group of people experiencing the same thing and they're more than happy to commiserate with you.

What are the best Runescape Dragonwilds settings for PC and Steam Deck? For anyone who doesn't like the trial and error of figuring out which specific graphics settings to use, Jagex has created the perfect menu. This is because there are only a few settings you can change in Runescape Dragonwilds, with the heavy lifting left to an auto-detect benchmark. The Runescape Dragonwilds system requirements have already confirmed that you won't need the best graphics card to start playing this new survival crafting game. However, even if you're rocking an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, you won't get to pick which graphics settings the game applies. Continue reading Best Runescape Dragonwilds settings for PC and Steam Deck MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming