An employee who brought a gun to work at Disney World – claims he got canned because he wouldn’t let the park management into the trunk of his car, where the gun was located.
Edwin Sotomayor says in a Florida lawsuit that he showed up for work on July 4 with a handgun locked in his trunk and Disney peeps wanted to check it out. When he refused, citing a new Florida law allowing people to keep weapons in their car while at work, Edwin says he was suspended and then fired three days later.
Disney says they’re exempt from the law and they have a “zero-tolerance” for firearms in the workplace.
If it’s not Miley Cyrus and Vanessa Hudgens showing their Minnie bits, it’s Mickey packing a gun. What’s happened to the magic of Disney?
source: Ex-Worker — Mouse Wanted Junk in My Trunk! [tmz]
I love the “Charlie Brown” font they use in the image above… too funny!
The students, both juniors at Pennsauken High School, didn’t have any weapons on them. The note reportedly included the names of three students and, randomly, Norris.
The boys claim the list was a joke and the local prosecutor says “At this point we believe that this student did not pose any serious threat to any of the people on the list, especially to Chuck Norris.”
Oh, really? I’m sure that’s good enough for you, eh Chuck?
source: School Death Plot Targets … Chuck Norris?!? [tmz]
Tori Amos has always been an intense and passionate performer, but perhaps she’s going too far by pulling knives and guns out on stage?
Well, at least she’s not threatening anyone but herself — right, guys? Check out her prop play as she gets really serious with weapons while singing her song ‘Me and a Gun’.
Snoop Dogg pled guilty yesterday to one count of felony possession of a dangerous weapon and was sentenced to 160 hours of community service, three years’ probation, and ordered to pay a $10,000 charitable donation.
Snoop was arrested last September after the discovery of a collapsible baton in his computer bag at John Wayne Airport in Orange County. Despite his attempt to argue that it was a prop for a video he was filming in New York, authorities deemed the baton a dangerous weapon.
Snoop’s attorney, Donald Etra, said the felony conviction would be reduced to a misdemeanor after one year if he doesn’t violate the law.
“We are very pleased with the outcome,” Etra said. “Snoop’s goal is to make music, not make court appearances.
“He wants to get on with his life. He will continue his music and his filming and performing.”
Source: “Snoop Pleads Guilty on Weapons Charge” [BREITBART]
Image courtesy of Picture Perfect, for use on Gone Hollywood
Limp Bizkit lead singer Fred Durst was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and slapped with a restraining order after hitting two people with a car.
Documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on August 16 show that the rocker, whose full name is William Fred Durst, hit two L.A. residents with his vehicle “on or about October 26, 2006.â€
A criminal complaint filed in L.A. Superior Court on January 1, 2007, charges Durst with seven misdemeanor counts in total for the 2006 incident, including: two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, three counts of battery, one count of making a criminal threat and one charge of reckless driving on the highway.
Contained within the August 16 documents is a restraining order that instructs Durst not to “annoy, harass, strike, threaten…or otherwise disturb the peace of the [victims].â€
The singer, 37, is also ordered to surrender or sell to a licensed gun dealer any firearms in his possession and not come within 100 yards of the two alleged victims.
The particular charges against Durst include two counts of “assault…with a deadly weapon, to wit, VEHICLE, and by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury.â€
On August 16, Durst pleaded no contest to the seven misdemeanor counts, thereby avoiding a possible jail sentence and a $1,000 fine.
Instead, the singer received a suspended jail term of 120 days in exchange for agreeing to 20 hours of community service with Hollywood Beautification Team, a local community cleanup program, to be completed within 36 months.
Dusrt also has to pay almost $1,500 in fines and penalties and keep his nose clean by not using or possessing “dangerous or deadly weapons†or “threaten[ing] the use of force or violence against any person.â€
Source: “FRED DURST CHARGED WITH ASSAULT WITH DEADLY WEAPON” [CelebTV]
KPNX in Arizona reports that rapper DMX’s home in Maricopa County, Arizona was raided yesterday by the Sheriff’s Department and 12 distressed pitbulls were removed. DMX was not at home at the time. A large cache of weapons was found in the home as well.
DMX’s criminal history includes a 2002 guilty plea to animal cruelty charges.
Murray Richman, DMX’s attorney, said the incident was all the cause of the Arizona heat – someone reported that the dogs were at risk because of the extreme temperatures. He told TMZ,
“Earl [Simmons, a.k.a DMX] has a caretaker, who obviously wasn’t taking care. Earl loves those dogs.” Richman added that DMX isn’t even in Az and hasn’t been there for several months because he’s off working on a project.
So there were no reports of dogfighting, but 12 pitbulls in distress? Smells a little fishy to me.
Source: “Dogs Rescued from DMX’s House” [TMZ]; Photo: Amazon
After a quarter century in the spotlight, rap may finally be dying from its excesses.
To judge by their lyrics, gangsta rappers are adept at seeing off rivals with a bullet and their women with a slap.
But America’s rappers are now trapped in a corner they don’t seem able to shoot their way out of, with either weapons or words.
Confronted with haemorrhaging sales, the most assertive popular music movement since the Sex Pistols has lost its swagger and is suffering a crisis of confidence.
This year rap and hip-hop sales are down 33 per cent, double the decline of the CD album market overall, which is under pressure from music download sites such as iTunes, where fans can buy individual songs.
In 2006, rap sold 59.1 million albums, down 21 per cent from 2005. Not one rap album made the American top 10 sellers of the year – a list headed by the saccharine tunes of the soundtrack to Disney’s made-for-television High School Musical. The bad boys of rap are now trailing the cowboys of country and the headbangers of heavy metal.
[...]
Rap has been deserted by many white fans and middle-class blacks, apparently tiring of the “gangsta” attitude to women, racism, violence and bling – the gold rings and medallions that have made hip-hop a byword for -vulgarity.
“The public has made a choice. They’re saying, ‘We do not want the nonsense that we see and hear on radio, and we are not putting our money there’,” said KRS-One, a rap legend from the Bronx. “Rap music is being boycotted by the American public because of the images that we are putting forward.”
Tom Vickers, a former talent spotter for Capitol/Mercury records said: “Rap has gradually degenerated from an art form into a ring tone. That’s why we’re seeing this backlash. There’s only so much bling the public can take.”
It took long enough.
Source: “Gangsta rap on death row as the US tunes out” (Sunday Telegraph)
First it was reported that Joey Buttafuoco and Amy Fisher were splitting from their respective spouses; now the infamous pair are planning to reunite in what is expected to explode into a very profitable reality series.
Freshly out of a California jail having served time on weapons charges, Joey Buttafuoco was long ago dumped by wife Mary Jo — who survived a gunshot to her head by a then 17-year-old Fisher, and yet defended her erstwhile spouse in spite of the fact he had an affair with the girl.
Mary Jo was even instrumental in the release of Fisher from jail, showing her a great deal of concern and care, which resulted in Fisher being released early.
Buttafuoco re-married, and his current and second wife, Evanka, who is now to be pushed aside as Buttafuoco makes a grab for the girl he had an adult/child affair with in 1991, says she is “devastated.”
Fisher shot Buttafuoco’s wife Mary Jo in 1992 and served 7 years in jail, but Buttafuoco was not charged in the shooting.
The reunion is to be filmed by TV producer David Krieff as Buttafuoco and Fisher meet in a Central Park restaurant for a hopefully romantic candlelight dinner.
Krieff hopes to make the reunion into a reality show, and says Joey is “very happy” about the reunion, reports the New York Post.
“I still have feelings for her,” Buttafuoco says. “I can’t wait to have dinner with her. I can’t wait to be with her. I can’t wait to touch her.”
Michelle Manhart, the Air Force noncom who caused quite a splash by posing nude for Playboy, has been demoted and discharged from active service.
An Air Force drill sergeant who posed nude for Playboy magazine has been removed from active duty, she and the Air Force said Wednesday. Michelle Manhart, who appeared in a six-page spread in Playboy’s February issue, said she got word Friday that she was removed from “extended active duty” and was also told that she was demoted from staff sergeant to senior airman.
“I’m disappointed in our system,” Manhart told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “They went too far with it.”
Manhart said that she was reverted to her Air National Guard status and that she submitted a “resignation” to the Guard, which she said is pending. Manhart was a member of the Iowa Air National Guard before going on extended active duty.
Oscar Balladares, a spokesman for Lackland Air Force Base, confirmed that Manhart was removed from extended active duty Friday but said Lackland did not discharge her. “She was removed from active duty status, and thus reverted to National Guard status,” Balladares said. “It is not up to the Air Force — it is not our jurisdiction to discharge her.” Lt. Col. Greg Hapgood, a spokesman for the Iowa National Guard, said that because the Guard did not have “documentation of her separation” from the Air Force, it did not have her on duty status.
Manhart, a 30-year-old mother of two, said the military’s action against her hinged on the fact that she was pictured wearing her uniform. She was photographed in uniform yelling and holding weapons under the headline “Tough Love.” The following pages showed her partially clothed wearing dog tags and fully nude. After the pictorial hit newsstands in January, Manhart was relieved of her duties pending an investigation.
Manhart said she is looking forward to pursuing a modeling and entertainment career.
Manhart would have been discharged from the service outright if she were in the Air Force Reserves. As a National Guardsman, she is now technically an employee of the state of Iowa. Presumably, however, she would not be eligible to recall to active duty and therefore useless to the Guard; I suspect, therefore, that she will be discharged soon enough.
On a lighter note, Dood Abides has a rather amusing parody at Unconfirmed Sources.
In a quiet ceremony today, President Bush recognized the efforts of Air Force Staff Sergeant Michelle Manhart with a Medal of Freedom. Manhart will be appearing in the February issue of Playboy magazine due to hit newsstands this week. The magazine features a partially clothed as well as completely nude picture of Manhart in a feature article entitled “Tough Love”. As a result of the controversial spread, Manhart has been relieved of her duties at Lackland Air Force Base.
A tearful Bush apologized for the heavy-handed response of Manhart’s superiors and promised to make sure she was reinstated as the behavior of the commanding officer in question was investigated.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of our fine young men who are now serving their third and fourth tours in Iraq,” stated Bush. “The number one thing that virtually all of them have said that they enjoy the most in care packages from home is pornography. Sergeant Manhart has made a real personal sacrifice that should not go unrecognized, and my resolve has stiffened thanks to her.”
An Air Force staff sergeant who posed nude for Playboy magazine has been relieved of her duties while the military investigates, officials said Thursday.
In February’s issue, hitting newsstands this week, Michelle Manhart is photographed in uniform yelling and holding weapons under the headline “Tough Love.” The following pages show her partially clothed, wearing her dog tags while working out, as well as completely nude.
“This staff sergeant’s alleged action does not meet the high standards we expect of our airmen, nor does it comply with the Air Force’s core values of integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do,” Oscar Balladares, spokesman for Lackland Air Force Base, said in a statement.
Manhart told Playboy that she considers herself as standing up for her rights. “Of what I did, nothing is wrong, so I didn’t anticipate anything, of course,” Manhart, 30, told The Associated Press. “I didn’t do anything wrong, so I didn’t think it would be a major issue.”
Manhart, who is married with two children, joined the Air Force in 1994, spending time in Kuwait in 2002. She trains airmen at Lackland.
It’s rather difficult to be taken seriously as a military leader after appearing naked in a porno mag. That someone who has been in the Air Force thirteen years can’t figure this out is incredible. And the only reason a 30-year-old mother of two is in Playboy to begin with is because of the novelty of her being in (and out) of uniform.
She has a MySpace page with numerous photos. She has her clothes on in all of them.
Okay, so maybe her Air Force affiliation isn’t the only reason Playboy was interested. Still, what was she thinking?
UPDATE:Steven Taylor wonders whether “investigating, and likely castigating, someone over nude photos is a good use of time and resources” given the military’s recruiting issues.
The students, both juniors at Pennsauken High School, didn’t have any weapons on them. The note reportedly included the names of three students and, randomly, Norris.
“We are very pleased with the outcome,” Etra said. “Snoop’s goal is to make music, not make court appearances.
Freshly out of a California jail having served time on weapons charges, Joey Buttafuoco was long ago dumped by wife Mary Jo — who survived a gunshot to her head by a then 17-year-old Fisher, and yet defended her erstwhile spouse in spite of the fact he had an affair with the girl.
