News I USed to Eat Brains Now I Eat Kale Ryan Gosling to Produce Zombie Comedy, I Used to Eat Brains, Now I Eat Kale His job is eat (brains) By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on June 25, 2024 Screenshot: Warner Bros. Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Warner Bros. Amazon MGM Studios and Ryan Gosling’s new production company, General Admission, which he runs with partner Jessie Henderson, is diving into zombie fare. Today, The Hollywood Reporter shared that the two studios have picked up rights to a feature film based on an unpublished short story by twin brothers, Adam and Daniel Cooper. Details of the tale, which is called I Used to Eat Brains, Now I Eat Kale, are under wraps, but THR said it’s a “post-post-apocalyptic” story, where the undead have to integrate into a non-human-eating society (and likely, as the title suggests, have to eat kale instead of brain matter). The Cooper Twins, as THR calls them, have several short films under their belt and are known in Hollywood for directing and editing marketing content and trailers for many major studios. Their work has earned them Clios and Golden Trailer Awards. Things are still very much in the early days for I Used to Eat Brains; the Cooper Twins still have to pen a script from their own short story. And while Gosling is producing the movie, he’s currently not attached to star in it. There also isn’t a director attached yet. Gosling, who recently played Ken in Barbie (pictured above), has other projects on his plate in the interim. He’s currently set to star in the adaptation of Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary, which should go into production soon. No news on if/when this movie will make its way past the development stage. [end-mark] The post Ryan Gosling to Produce Zombie Comedy, <i>I Used to Eat Brains, Now I Eat Kale</i> appeared first on Reactor.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Jeremy Story, a dad in the Austin, Texas, area, who is suing his local school board and superintendent after police arrested him for speaking out at a board meeting in 2021, has uncovered what he claims to be more evidence that bolsters his case. Round Rock Independent School District has its own police force, and school district police removed Story after he spoke at a school board meeting, raising concerns about the school superintendent facing allegations that the superintendent had assaulted and threatened a former girlfriend. Police later arrested Story on charges of hindering proceedings by disorderly conduct—though after he was released, he never faced formal charges. According to records Story obtained via the Texas Public Information Act, Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez hired two leaders of the school district police force despite failing to go through the proper appointment process. The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement sent Azaiez a letter on Dec. 20, 2023, noting that he had hired Chief of Police Dennis Weiner and Assistant Chief of Police Rosemarie White without completing the full review of personnel files and other employee records. The school district had not completed a background check for White before hiring her, the commission stated. Story claims the district never went through the full process to obtain licenses for Weiner and White. “The uncovering of these licensing violations and the superintendent’s … malfeasance demonstrates a clear abuse of power,” Story told The Daily Signal in a statement Tuesday. “This lawsuit is not just about my wrongful arrest. It is about protecting the constitutional rights of all parents and community members. We must hold school boards and our public officials accountable.” “America must never become a banana republic, where district attorneys, politicians, and government bureaucrats use the criminal justice system to persecute and silence those who expose or disagree with them,” he added. Story also cited two other incidents involving the school district’s police department. Last month, Weiner parted ways with the Round Rock Independent School District and submitted a letter to Azaiez. In that letter, he alleges that the school district failed to notify police when a student suffered a sexual assault on April 12. Weiner’s letter points to broader concerns with Azaiez’s leadership of the school district police department. “Since joining the Round Rock ISD …, I have experienced numerous practices of non-reporting and delayed reporting of crimes, and interference with police operations and investigations by district staff,” he writes, noting his suspicion that Azaiez himself might be responsible. Story also highlighted a report into the “culture and climate” of the Round Rock ISD police department, which Story received in April via a public records request after appealing to the Texas Attorney General’s Office. The report, conducted by Patricia Linares at the school board’s request and resolved on Sept. 22, 2023, found that “the culture and climate are extremely negative, and there is little to no cohesiveness in the department.” The report found that staff had a “prevalent sense of favoritism” among leadership, a “fear of retaliation if someone disagrees with leadership,” and a sense that “they have ‘no voice.'” The report found that claims of “willful misconduct” on the part of Weiner had been “substantiated.” Story told The Daily Signal that these scandals bolster his case against Azaiez. “It establishes a trend of the administration, specifically Azaiez and other top administrators, interfering with and using the police force,” he said. “It refutes [the school district’s] claim in our case that their police department has no systemic or organizational cultural issues and thus my incident was just a one-time ‘mistake’ they can’t be held accountable for.” “It shows when it suits Azaiez’s purposes he is willing to ignore requirements and look the other way,” Story added. Anne Drabicky, chief of public affairs and communications at the school district, declined to respond to concerns about the “culture and climate” report and also declined to comment on Story’s claims regarding the lawsuit. She did, however, dispute Weiner’s claim that he experienced non-reporting and delayed reporting of crimes, and interference with police operations. “This is inaccurate,” Drabicky told The Daily Signal. Mary Nix, a lawyer who represents Azaiez, did not immediately respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment. What Happened to This Texas Dad? The case dates back to Sept. 17, 2021, when police arrested Story on a misdemeanor charge of hindering proceedings by disorderly conduct. That charge related to Aug. 16, 2021, when Story raised concerns at a school board meeting about Azaiez, who at the time faced allegations of family violence in an application for a protective order sought by a former girlfriend against him (redacted version available here). According to publicly available footage of the meeting, Amy Weir, then president of the Round Rock Independent School District Board of Trustees, warned Story not to speak about “something other than” items on the meeting’s agenda. Story responded: “I will show you how what I’m about to comment on is related to that.” Weir twice interrupted Story, saying, “No, I do not want you to demonstrate.” However, she agreed to let him speak. Yet as soon as Story said, “Our superintendent has a protective order,” Weir nodded to Round Rock school district police officers, who escorted Story out of the building. Story argues that Weir was intending to silence him. Weir categorically denied that claim. Weir told Fox News, “There has never been an attempt to silence Mr. Story.” Following normal procedure, she said, Story wrote on a card indicating what he would say in the meeting, and he wrote that “unlike the board, citizens are not required to speak on items on the agenda,” indicating that “he was planning to speak on a topic not listed for the meeting.” Story filed a grievance with the school board on Sept. 4, 2021. The board noted it as “filed” on Sept. 16, the day before police arrested Story. The board rejected the claim more than a year later. Jeremy Story (@jeremywstory) got escorted out of a school board meeting in Aug 2021 & filed a grievance with the district in Sept. A few days later, he got arrested. Last week, the school board finally agreed to hear his grievance, and then this happened. https://t.co/yfGcRjqksZ pic.twitter.com/xpNAZ42vRQ— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) October 18, 2022 In a Sept. 14, 2021, school board meeting, the district set up 18 chairs in a room that accommodated 300 people and prevented members of the public from entering. The school board passed a tax increase at that meeting. Police prevented Story from entering that school board meeting. According to Story, the school district police forcibly held him back and injured him. The Lawsuit Story filed a lawsuit against Azaiez, the district, five of the seven trustees on the school board, and police officers. Last July, U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra upheld many of Story’s claims, allowing his lawsuit to proceed. Ezra rejected motions to dismiss claims that the school board violated Story’s First Amendment rights by limiting seating capacity in one school board meeting, by retaliating against him for engaging in constitutionally protected speech, and by barring him from a meeting that was open to public participation. The judge also upheld Story’s claim that police violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable seizure and false arrest. He upheld Story’s claim that the school board president violated his right to equal protection of law under the 14th Amendment, and that school officials violated the Texas Open Meetings Act. The Protective Order Story referenced a “protective order” to discuss the claims of a woman who identified herself as Azaiez’s girlfriend from September 2018 to December 2020 and then from February to June 2021. In her application for a protective order, the woman claimed that when she told Azaiez that she was pregnant with his child, he demanded that she get an abortion. When she refused, she said, he assaulted her in her home, which put her in danger of miscarrying. The woman also claimed that she overheard Azaiez “plotting” with Weir about hiding certain things from other school board members. In a text message chain about the situation included in the application for the protective order, Azaiez wrote: “For the last time, I am telling you, please get an abortion; you don’t know what you are getting yourself into. I will make you pay this; you will not make me lose everything. … Don’t make me go after you and make you pay the consequences for you and this baby.” Nix, the lawyer representing Azaiez, noted that “all applications for protective orders, including the one to which you refer, contain ‘allegations’ which are unproven and are not ‘facts.’” The school board temporarily suspended Azaiez in 2022 amid a Texas Education Association investigation into the family violence allegations. Investigator Ann Dixon wrote an independent report into Azaiez. Dixon previously told The Daily Signal she stood by her findings and her conclusion, which noted “the divisiveness created in the community by Dr. Azaiez’s behavior and the lack of Dr. Azaiez to be forthcoming” in stating that, in her opinion, he “could not come back into his position and be effective.” Even so, he remains the superintendent since his reinstatement in March 2022. What’s Next? Story told The Daily Signal that Ezra referenced a recent Supreme Court decision in the last hearing regarding Story’s case. In Gonzalez v. Trevino, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Sylvia Gonzalez, a Texas city council member, could sue for retaliatory arrest after authorities arrested her on what she called a “sham charge” in apparent retaliation for gathering signatures to remove the city manager. A lower court ruled that Gonzalez could not sue for retaliatory arrest because authorities had probable cause to suspect she had violated the law. The Supreme Court ruled that the existence of probable cause does not by itself invalidate a legal claim involving retaliatory arrest. According to Story, Ezra “expressed a desire to expedite proceedings, citing the recent Supreme Court ruling in Gonzalez v. Trevino, which supports claims of retaliatory arrest even when probable cause exists.” “This ruling is pivotal for Story’s case, reinforcing the protection of free speech and Fourth Amendment rights against retaliatory actions by government officials,” Story wrote in a news release. It remains unclear when the case will proceed to trial. The post EXCLUSIVE: Texas Dad Arrested for Speaking Up at School Board Meeting Uncovers Evidence of Superintendent’s Malfeasance appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The topic of infertility has received unprecedented attention in national politics since February, when the Alabama Supreme Court held that for the purposes of the state’s wrongful death of a minor statute, frozen embryos are considered persons. Until now, Congress has focused primarily on in vitro fertilization—where egg and sperm are combined to create an embryo in a lab. For many couples, however, one or both persons have suffered many years with reproductive health conditions, which are the leading cause of infertility. On June 13, Republican Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi and James Lankford of Oklahoma introduced the Reproductive Empowerment and Support Through Optimal Restoration Act, which aims to ensure that women (and their doctors) have the tools they need to understand their reproductive health conditions. The RESTORE Act offers a dual approach to reproductive health care in the United States. First, given the lack of research and information about restorative reproductive medicine treatments, the legislation directs the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health to conduct research and provide ongoing reports on the use and effectiveness of restorative reproductive medicine to treat reproductive health conditions and infertility. Second, the RESTORE Act would expand existing grant eligibility under Title X and the HHS Office of Population Affairs to medical students and practitioners who are interested in—or already practice—restorative reproductive medicine. Such grants often exclude or fail to offer medical professionals’ adequate access to training and resources on how to diagnose and treat reproductive health conditions and infertility. Restorative reproductive medicine is an umbrella term that refers to any medical treatments that aim to identify, diagnose, and treat the underlying causes of infertility. Infertility is not a disease in and of itself, but rather, one symptom of reproductive health conditions. Restorative reproductive medicine treats endometriosis, adenomyosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, uterine fibroids, blocked fallopian tubes, hormone imbalances, low sperm count, and low sperm motility. Typically, a couple’s infertility is the result of four or more of these overlapping conditions. The Restore Act is important because the state of restorative reproductive medicine in America today is dismal. Right now, it takes an average of 6 to 12 years for a woman to receive a diagnosis for endometriosis, one of the leading causes of infertility in the United States. Polycystic ovary syndrome affects about 15% of all women and a much higher percentage of women with a diagnosis of infertility. These women are often prescribed oral contraceptives that suppress, rather than heal, the disease. Similarly, researchers estimate that 1 in 4 women with a diagnosis of infertility have blocked fallopian tubes, rendering it difficult or impossible to conceive and gestate a child. These are only three of the most common conditions, and yet, few women (or men) are even aware of them, much less empowered with the tools that they need to understand and treat these reproductive health conditions. It’s time for that to change. Restorative reproductive medicine shouldn’t be a partisan issue. In the post-Dobbs abortion landscape, the RESTORE Act represents a rare opportunity for Republicans and Democrats to work together to support women and the babies they are eager to bring into the world. Editor’s note disclaimer: The author co-wrote model legislation on which the bill mentioned is loosely based. The post Women’s Reproductive Health Shouldn’t Be a Partisan Issue appeared first on The Daily Signal.

'Circumstances Have Now Changed': Merchan Partially Lifts Gag Order on Trump

The AP's Analysis of This Week's Debate is Really... Something

At first glance, hyraxes might be mistaken for rodents, given their size, shape, and continuously growing incisors. Their small, furry bodies and nimble movements contribute to this misconception. However, the surprising truth is that hyraxes are more closely related to elephants and sea cows than to rodents. This connection might seem odd, but it’s a... The post Adorable critter that looks like a ‘furry potato’ is an evolutionary marvel appeared first on Animal Channel.

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Monday June 24, 2024 marked the two year anniversary of the Dobbs decision when the Supreme Court of the United States decided to overturn Roe v. Wade. On Monday, both pro-lifers and pro-aborts gathered in front of the Court to share their opinions. The pro-aborts, in partnership with the Women’s March, put on an event called DC Women’s Strike. They demanded that abortion was part of "reproduction" and "healthcare." MRCTV spoke to some attendees. They insisted that those who thought abortion was murder, who know that life begins at conception and who care about both babies and their moms are the ignorant ones. On the other side, pro-lifers emphasized that there are two-lives at stake when it comes to abortion and that both need to be loved, protected and respected. It was rather comical to see the pro-aborts get caught up in their words and confused when challenged. It really seems that they’re just walking bumper stickers with no actual knowledge of what happens during an abortion but, what’s new!? Check out the video!

Congressional representatives working on the future of social media regulations have seemed completely oblivious to the groundswell of support for protecting free speech on the internet. Media Research Center Vice President of Free Speech America Dan Schneider has issued a call for them to wake them up.  In an exclusive Op-Ed for The Washington Times published Monday, Schneider called out House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) for not prioritizing the free speech rights of Americans. The two presided over a May 23 hearing on Section 230 that ignored free speech concerns and featured three pro-censorship witnesses. These included the Executive Director of an organization funded by Big Tech giant Google and a plaintiff’s lawyer. Finally, the committee heard from Organization for Social Media Safety CEO Marc Berkman, a former Democratic staffer who shamelessly belittled the concerns of any members who did speak up for free speech.  In this article, Schneider covers the state and future of the battle for free speech in Congress and across the nation from the perspective of a participant who has fought and testified to defend the right to free speech. A link to the article can be found here.

On Saturday’s episode of MSNBC’s The Saturday Show, host Jonathan Capehart interviewed California Democratic Representative Maxine Waters about her experience receiving death threats from a Texas man and predictably hijacked this into an absurd conversation about the threat of violence posed by a second Donald Trump presidency. Capehart opened with a comment on the rise in threats against lawmakers since 2022, citing a report from Capitol police who “investigated more than 8,000 threats against members of Congress,” Of course, that included members of both parties. Before introducing Waters, he noted that she had attended the trial of a Texas man, sentenced to 33 months in prison and a $10,000 fine, who had made several threats against her life. Waters said the man had threatened “not only…to put a bullet between my eyes, he was going to cut my throat,” adding that “he had people in the Los Angeles area, some of his friends or groups of people that he works with that were going to get me, that they had a contract out on my life.”     The MSNBC host completely omitted mentioning that Waters infamously called for harassing Trump officials in public spaces, which could have led to violence, in her frame of theorizing. In 2018, she told supporters, “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere.” Ironically enough, Capehart showed little sympathy for the congresswoman’s case but instead pounced on the opportunity to redirect the conversation to a ludicrous suggestion about a possible second Trump presidency, asking her, “How concerned are you, Congresswoman, about your safety, if Donald Trump is reelected?”  Waters responded with a claim that Trump was specifically appealing to racists with his rhetoric and, consequently, puts the safety of people of color at risk: So, I say all this talk is motivational with many of those who are racist, who are sitting at home listening to him, and they are taking him up on his threats even before the elections take place. And, so, it's about thousands, maybe millions of people, you know, being threatened and being at risk because of Donald Trump and his desire to wreak revenge on anything and everybody. Capehart took everything just one step further with an outrageous allusion to three civil rights activists, Mikey Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman, who were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, prompting Waters to declare that “we could be in for more killings like that.” This accusation unsurprisingly corresponded with the habitual bias of most leftists who, like Capehart, focus only on death threats to leftists. Back in 2022, his weekly PBS segment didn’t find the assassination threat to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sufficiently newsworthy. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: MSNBC’s The Saturday Show 6/22/2024 06:41:13 PM EST JONATHAN CAPEHART: Threats against lawmakers are on the rise again after hitting an all-time high in 2021, when Donald Trump's followers stormed the Capitol on January 6th. Last year, the Capitol police investigated more than 8,000 threats against members of Congress, an increase from 2022. A spokesman for the department predicted 2024 will be "A very busy year for our special agents.”  This week, a Texas man who vowed to kill Congresswoman Maxine Waters, was sentenced to 33 months in prison and a $10,000 fine. The man left Waters voicemails with violent and racist threats in 2022 and doubled down when police warned him to stop. Congresswoman Waters attended the man’s sentencing hearing. She told the court the threats gave her nightmares and made her and her family fear for their lives. The Los Angeles Times reported that the congresswoman described herself as “haunted”. Joining me now is Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California. She’s the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee. Congresswoman Waters, as always, thank you for coming to The Saturday Show.  You've been in the public eye for decades. Why were these threats particularly painful? REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): Well, you know, it was sinister. He was a man who continued to call four times, and he made racial comments. He basically said, not only was he going to put a bullet between my eyes, he was going to cut my throat. And I want to tell you it did get to me. I’m not someone who walks around, you know, just fearful all the time, but this was more sinister, again. It was deadly. And, so, I’m haunted by those kinds of comments coming from him. CAPEHART: Congresswoman, what made you want to face your harasser in court? WATERS: I wanted to see who this human being was, and when he saw me, what was it about me that made him want to kill me? What did I say? What did I do that made him want to slit my throat, to put a bullet between my eyes? And, so, I listened to him, and I hope he listened to me. I had my children in court with me. My daughter was there, my son was there, and they’re always fearful that I’m going to be killed. And of course my staff has to endure these kinds of threats.  This isn’t the first one we've had. We've had some others sentenced and put in jail, but this one seems more consistent and seemed more serious. Again, it seems as if this man was intent on not only threatening me, but he said he had people in the Los Angeles area, some of his friends or groups of people that he works with that were going to get me, that they had a contract out on my life. CAPEHART: Mmm. How concerned are you, Congresswoman, about your safety, if Donald Trump is reelected? WATERS: Well, I'm very concerned. Not only about my safety and not only about the safety of members of Congress, I’m concerned about the safety of so many people in this country, particularly people of color. Donald threat–Donald, you know, Trump has said that if he does not win it's gonna be fraud. And because it's gonna be fraud, there's gonna be blood in the streets. He threatens about a civil war, and he threatens there’s going to be violence.  So, I say all this talk is motivational with many of those who are racist, who are sitting at home listening to him, and they are taking him up on his threats even before the elections take place. And, so, it's about thousands, maybe millions of people, you know, being threatened and being at risk because of Donald Trump and his desire to wreak revenge on anything and everybody. CAPEHART: You know, Congresswoman, real quickly–in the less than two minutes we have left–you know, 60 years ago this week, three activists, Mikey Schwerner, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, they were murdered for trying to register black Mississippi residents to vote during Freedom Summer. What do you see as their legacy today, especially as the nation faces more threats of political violence like the ones you’ve faced? WATERS: Well, first of all, I want to thank all those who joined in the Civil Rights Movement who were not black, who were not people of color, who joined with us to try and get justice and equality in this country.  But we see they were killed, they were murdered, and I do believe that, you know, having listened to Donald Trump so many times, and having the attack–the insurrection that took place on the House of Representatives in Congress, on the Capitol, on the Capitol grounds, that we could be in for more killings like that. And I think Donald Trump has to take responsibility for what he’s saying about blood in the streets and violence if he's not elected to be the President of the United States of America. CAPEHART: As always, California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, thank you for coming to The Saturday Show. WATERS: Well, thank you so very much. (...)