Taco Bell wants to cancel the trademark “Taco Tuesday.” The trademark has been owned by rival Taco John’s based in Wyoming for 34 years, while Gregory’s Restaurant and Bar owns it in Ocean City, New Jersey. Taco Bell is asking the U.S. Trademark office to cancel the smaller rivals trademarks. Taco Bell argues the phrase should be freely available to all who make, sell, eat and celebrate tacos.
Former President Obama says he’s worried Americans are in “different realities.” Speaking on CBS, he said a divided, “splintered” media is what concerns him most. He said that compared to the past when Americans may disagree on how to solve issues, they at least agreed on what the issues were. Now many will claim that they don’t believe in things including science, or are convinced that experts are biased. Obama added that one of his missions of the Obama Foundation is to have Americans agree at least on “a common set of facts.”
A popular prepackaged Starbucks drink is being recalled due to possible contamination. Pepsico has issued a recall for the Starbucks Vanilla Espresso Triple Shot Energy Coffee Beverage sold in 15-ounce cans at retailers across the country. The recall is due to the drinks possibly containing metal fragments. The affected drinks were sold in seven states — Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Oklahoma and Texas. Anyone who may still have cans of the beverage is urged to return the drinks to where they were purchased.
Apple logo, session for Apple Bookazine taken on September 7, 2011. (Photo by Philip Sowels/Apple Bookazine via Getty Images)
Apple is announcing its new iPhone models. The company says iPhone 13 has a bigger battery and brighter screen and comes in two sizes — five-point-four and a six-point-one inches. The iPhone 13 Mini starts at six-hundred-99 bucks and the regular iPhone 13 starts at seven-99. The company also unveiled its iPhone 13 Pro which has more features with a starting price of 999 bucks. The new iPhones go on sale Friday, September 17th and ship on Friday, September 24th.
The two dated briefly in the early 2000s. In 2001, they were photographed together (above) at the Eighth Annual Race to Erase Multiple Sclerosis at the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, California. Williams’ daughter, Ashley Williams, was also present. In 2019.
After waiting nearly a week, China congratulated President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris today. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said China “respected the choice of the American people.” During the regular Friday press briefing, the official said, “We congratulate Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris.” The spokesman had dodged questions Monday on when China would congratulate Biden, prompting speculation that China might be waiting for President Trump to concede.
[anvplayer video=”4229272″] A Black conservative pastor who advised President Donald Trump died Monday, his church announced. Bishop Harry Jackson “transitioned to be with the Lord,” the announcement said. It was unclear how old Jackson was and the cause of his death was not immediately disclosed.
Jackson was a senior pastor at Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Maryland.
Religion News Service reported that Jackson was one of the people in attendance at a White House ceremony in September held in honor of then-Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett — an event labeled as a so-called “superspreader” incident that resulted in numerous people contracting the coronavirus. At least two different evangelical leaders who also advise Trump contracted Covid-19 following that event.
Jackson joined Trump in April to deliver an Easter blessing that was heavily focused on the coronavirus pandemic. He thanked Trump for his “insightful leadership” before going on to pray for “a mitigation of this plague, this disease. Let medical science come forth.” He closed his prayer by asking God to “give this great man, our President, and give the Vice President wisdom beyond their natural limitations. Give them insights so they can cover us, lead us, and bless us.”
Jackson, who was also a past guest on NewsOne Now with Roland Martin, never formally endorsed Trump. However, he consistently supported him. Jackson was among a group of Black pastors who banded together to support then-Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions‘ nomination to become Trump’s U.S. Attorney General in 2017. At the time, Sessions’ racist civil rights record was being challenged by opponents of his nomination.
Back when Trump was first running for president, Jackson suggested his endorsement would be conditional.
During one of his appearances on NewsOne Now a few months ahead of the 2016 presidential election, Jackson and two other conservative Black pastors — A.R. Bernard and Mark Burns — were pressed by Martin about their support for then-candidate Trump. Martin asked: Do they endorse him?
Jackson responded, “No, it is not an endorsement. It is an opportunity to influence the campaign and get some benefits for Black people.”
Though Jackson said he was not endorsing Trump, he did agree with the notion of supporting him by way of “putting forth some agenda items,” which he said included education, jobs and criminal justice reform.
Jackson added: “These are issues that Black people need to have Hillary [Clinton] step up and put some concrete things on the table, and so we want to help Trump get it right about the issues.”
Martin pressed him again on whether he was supporting Trump’s presidential candidacy. Jackson responded, “At this particular time, I’m advising Trump and I will support him if he follows through with all of the things that he is promising to do.”
Jackson is pictured with Trump and Pence at the White House for an Easter Blessing in April 2020. | Source: JIM WATSON / Getty
According to his bio on Hope Christian Church’s website, Jackson was “a leading researcher on the black church” and co-author of “High Impact African American Churches,” a book nominated in 2005 by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association’s Gold Medallion award.
It was at his Hope Christian Church where Jackson hosted Vice President Mike Pence in June in the wake of George Floyd‘s police killing in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. The Washington Post reported that Jackson said his father was also the victim of police violence and told Pence “he believes there has been an awakening to racial injustice across America following the killing in police custody.” The Post listed Jackson’s age as 67 in that report.
Jackson, who has also staunchly opposed same-sex marriage, said he was deeply affected by the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. That prompted him to be an early supporter of defunding police departments “with bad track records, reprogram how police officers do their job and educate Americans on civic engagement.” Jackson was also a critic of what the Post described as “some conservative leaders” who “have minimized the deaths of black Americans at the hands of police.”
Reacting this past summer to the ongoing protests against racism, police violence and what is often the deadly combination of the two, Jackson had some choice words for America’s political system.
“I feel like blacks feel like they’ve been misused by the culture, Democrat and Republican, black, white and every other group has misused them,” he told the Post. “This is a deep wound in the soul of African Americans.”
U.S. Housing Secretary Ben Carson is the latest senior Trump administration official to test positive for the coronavirus. Carson is a retired neurosurgeon who was at the White House during a packed election night rally in the East Room last week. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is also recovering from the coronavirus. A statement from Carson’s office says the secretary is in good spirits and “feels fortunate to have access to effective therapeutics” that will hopefully “aid and markedly speed his recovery.”
White-on-white violence is likely not the kind of post-election bloodshed that pundits imagined ahead of Donald Trump losing to Joe Biden. But in typical 2020 fashion, here we are.
A driver who crashed at the scene of a Trump “stop the steal” rally found out just how angry the president’s supporters are after a group of MAGA mafia minions responded in part by playing the role of judge, jury and nearly executioner. And, of course, the politically-fueled confrontation stemming from a protest over the election’s verified results was all captured on a viral video by a ready and willing bystander.
The unfortunate scene unfolded Sunday afternoon in Santa Maria, California, where an unidentified 20-year-old driver “was antagonizing some participants and throwing objects at the rally,” law enforcement told local media outlet KSBY News. That’s when police said the driver entered an “intersection without yielding, crossing through the rally and then colliding with a vehicle heading the opposite direction.”
There was seemingly some additional context missing from this story because the video from the scene opens abruptly and shows a group of white men surrounding another white man — the driver — who is being violently restrained by a separate man as they both struggled in the middle of a street.
The bystander filming the episode got close enough to see the driver in a tightening headlock causing his face to turn an alarming shade of purple while he appeared to be gasping for breath. A different angle showed the driver with a mouthful of blood and an open wound on his face.
“How does it feel now?” one person can be heard asking the driver.
“Welcome to MAGA country, motherfucker,” another said.
A woman walked up and started screaming at the driver, prompting one of the men restraining him to demand he apologize to her.
“Tell her you’re sorry!” the man who put the driver in a headlock said.
The driver responded by making an unintelligible sound likely caused by the headlock constricting around his windpipe. Then a group of other men moved to hold the driver down until police arrived.
In the end, the driver was only cited for a misdemeanor, no one was arrested and responding officers didn’t even pull a gun.
Imagine that being true if the parties involved were any color but white.
Watch the video below and be warned that foul language is used.
The mother of Nicole Brown Simpson — the ex-wife of O.J. Simpson who was killed in a murder that he was infamously acquitted of more than 25 years ago — has died, the former football star-turned actor-turned commercial pitchman said in a video he tweeted Sunday night. Simpson said Juditha Brown died Sunday.
Simpson made the announcement during a video that began with his camera trained on a photo of him and some of his football teammates, many of whom he said had died. That led him to talk about Juditha Brown’s death.
“Today I lost someone that was incredibly special to me,” Simpson said. “Her name was Juditha Brown, the mother of Nicole Brown.”
He did not say what was the cause of her death.
Simpson described a mutual, close relationship between the two “no matter what the situation was.” He called her “a kind and considerate person” who was always there to help him, even as a single father “trying to raise two kids by myself.”
Simpson said he was grateful his children got a chance to see Juditha Brown this weekend before she died.
“God bless her family,” Simpson said before adding later: “The world lost a special person. We all did.”
The details of the relationship shared between Simpson and Juditha Brown up until her death were not widely known. The Detroit Free-Press reported in June that Nicole’s youngest sister, Tanya, said the murder trial is still “especially hard” for her mother.
For those who may not be old enough to remember, Simpson’s ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman were both found dead from multiple stab wounds at her southern California home on June 12, 1994. Five days later, Simpson caught the country’s attention by leading police on a slow, lengthy car chase that many found incriminating before he was arrested and taken into custody as the prime suspect for the killings.
He was ultimately charged with both murders before being acquitted on Oct. 3, 1995.
On right, Juditha Brown wipes tears next to daughter Denise during opening statements in the O.J. Simpson murder trial. | Source: POOL / Getty
The Los Angeles Times described in a 1996 report how Juditha Brown during the trial believed Simpson murdered her daughter. While testifying against Simpson, she was “throwing him hard glances as she described him as nervous, upset and so angry he stared right through her when they met a few hours before Nicole Brown Simpson was killed.” She told jurors that “when she asked O.J. Simpson whether he had anything to do with her daughter’s death, he refused to answer the question directly.”
However, one of Simpson’s defense attorneys “played a snippet of a television interview in which Brown says that Simpson had in fact answered her question ‘No,’ then went on to tell her, ‘I loved your daughter.’ After watching the video, Brown agreed that her testimony on the witness stand had been inaccurate.”
According to Simpson’s video eulogy, the two went on to have a good relationship.
As much of America experiences a range of emotions anxiously waiting for every presidential vote to be counted, there seems to be a growing sense of satisfaction from civil rights advocates as final results in certain statewide elections have provided somewhat of a silver lining to the national political fray.
The race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump to secure 270 electoral college votes has dominated the news cycle amid an election whose results have been delayed in part because of a record number of absentee ballots cast during a pandemic. But other items on various ballots across the country were decided in no uncertain terms, prompting civil rights groups to rejoice over the bright spots in an otherwise stormy political forecast.
Criminal justice reform advocates were delivered several key victories, including the election loss for a Georgia district attorney who investigated Ahmaud Arbery‘s killing earlier this year. Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson — who recused herself from the case of racist vigilantism after it was discovered her office worked with one of the three jailed white men charged with playing separate murderous roles in the killing the Black jogger racially profiled, chased down, trapped and shot dead in the middle of a road in February — came up short against Keith Higgins, an independent candidate who qualified for the race at the last minute. Prior to Higgins’ candidacy, Johnson, a Republican, was running unopposed.
Voters in Glynn County have voted out DA Jackie Johnson, who headed up the Ahmaud Arbery investigation. pic.twitter.com/nHWhzZTuZm
Voting rights advocates saw their hard work pay off in California when the state’s voters approved a measure to allow parolees cast ballots in elections. In addition to restoring the right to vote for people on parole, Proposition 17 also lets parolees run for public office. The measure means that an estimated 50,000 people will be able to participate in the democratic process.
“Let’s not overlook the huge win in California tonight for voting rights,” Color of Change President Rashad Robinson accurately tweeted Tuesday night while most eyes were watching presidential election results tricking in.
Let's not overlook the huge win in California tonight for voting rights. Prop 17 passed, meaning parolees have their right to vote restored. With this vote, the people of CA have re-enfranchised nearly 50K voters. #YesOn17#FreeTheVotehttps://t.co/txZBtU19Nm
Prior to Tuesday’s vote, Californians on parole and in state prison had their voting rights revoked. The Los Angeles Times reported that Proposition 17 earned 59 percent of the statewide vote.
In Mississippi, voters passed a measure to end an electoral system that originated in the Jim Crow era and was designed “to dilute the Black vote and ensure white voters would be able to choose governors and other statewide officials,” the Mississippi Free Press reported. The electoral-college style system was created in 1890 as an amendment to the state constitution because the state’s “constitutional convention was held for no other purpose than to eliminate the nigger from politics—not the ignorant, but the nigger,” Mississippi House Rep. James K. Vardaman — a white supremacist — said at the time.
BREAKING: Mississippi overwhelmingly voted to end a Jim Crow-era "electoral college"-like system for picking governors, which was intended to dilute the power of Black voters.
Trump may have won the state, but election advocates won the right for the state to move to a more conventional system based on the popular vote. In another win for human decency, Mississippi voters also approved a new state flag design that will eliminate its existing Confederate theme.
Lastly, marijuana advocates declared cannabis as the real winner of Tuesday’s elections as voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota moved to legalize the plant in some way, shape or form. The move is a significant step in addressing the racial disparities in the criminal justice system as Black and brown people remain disproportionately suffering the brunt of related arrests.
After Tuesday’s election, there are now 15 states that have either enacted or voted to enact adult-use marijuana legalization laws. Thirty-six states have either enacted or have voted to enact medical marijuana access laws, too.
Erik Altieri, the executive director of NORML, said the federal government needs to listen to what voters are saying about marijuana.
“The public has spoken loudly and clearly. They favor ending the failed policies of marijuana prohibition and replacing it with a policy of legalization, regulation, taxation, and public education,” Altieri said in an emailed statement. “Elected officials — at both the state and federal level — ought to be listening.”
While the world patiently waits on the results of the 2020 election there is some good news to report. One state had made the right decision regarding an issue that wrongfully imprisoned thousands.
As spotted on Raw Story Oregon has made a power move in regards to true criminal justice reform. On Tuesday, November 3 the Beaver State became the first ever in United States history to decriminalize hard drugs. The new ruling will ease the penalties on small amounts of heroin and cocaine. Additionally it will legalize magic mushrooms; or commonly known as “Shrooms”, for therapeutic use.
Under Measure 110, possession of small amounts of the aforementioned illegal substances would be considered a civil violation with no jail time. Additionally city officials have earmarked more funding for addiction treatment and other programming to assist individuals with addiction disorders. “This groundbreaking initiative imagines a better way forward – instead of arresting and jailing people for drugs, it will offer help to those who need and want it,” the Drug Policy Alliance said in a statement.
The decision is also supported by the Oregon Nurses Association, the Oregon chapter of the American College of Physicians and the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians. “Punishing people for drug use and addiction is costly and hasn’t worked. More drug treatment, not punishment, is a better approach,” the groups said in a joint press release.
Individuals who manufacture or distribute illegal drugs are still subject to a criminal penalty. The Oregon Criminal Justice Commission estimated that convictions for possession of a controlled substance would decrease by 3,679 or 90.7%.
Burger King is urging its customers to do something rather unexpected in the UK: Order from McDonald’s. And KFC, Subway, Pizza Hut, and Five Guys too. The fast food giant’s arm in the United Kingdom asked customers to support local fast food outlets during the ongoing COVID crisis as England prepares to go into another lockdown this week. Meanwhile, in North America, B-K is offering a free Whopper to consumers who drive within 300 feet of a shuttered McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Sonic, or Jack in the Box. The abandoned locations, as well as the coupon for the free burger, can be found on the app.
Candace Owens may want to think twice before appearing on live TV again after uttering a very telling Freudian slip during an interview with Tucker Carlson Monday night. The conservative pundit who makes a living from going out of her way to prove just how much she really hates her Black self presented further evidence of that truth while discussing the prospects of election-related violence breaking out across the country.
Only when she tried to vilify “mob” protesters and predict worse case scenarios to spark fear in white voters in a very transparent effort to bolster support for Donald Trump‘s re-election bid, Owens actually told on herself and all but admitted she wants to see rioting and looting so she can blame Antifa — whether its truly the culprit or not — in an effort to stick to a favorite talking point from conservative media. It was seemingly the first time Owens admitted what people have long suspected of her con artistry, whether she meant to or not.
A brief clip of Owens’ self-confessing exchange with Tucker was going viral Monday night after she let Fox News viewers know how she really feels about what she called “mob rule.”
She warned Tucker, “They’re gonna come for you too.”
That’s when she went out on a very weak limb that son came crashing down.
“And they’re gonna move past businesses, they’re gonna move into the suburbs, they’re gonna move into homes,” she said while borrowing a similarly pathetic and disproven threat that Trump regularly uses to scare white women who don’t live in urban areas into voting for him.
“There is no way to stop that,” she continued, “so you think about that when you head to the polls.”
That paved the way for her money quote before she pledged to vote for Trump.
“You are either on the side of mob rule or you are on the side of law and order,” she lectured Carlson. “And I am on the side of mob rule.”
Carlson, with that perpetual look of confusion glued to his face, praised Owens.
“Nicely put,” he said.
Watch the clip below.
Welp.
Looks like Candace Owens flubbed her talking point.
Owens: "You are either on the side of mob rule or you are on the side of law and order. And I am on the side of mob rule. Tomorrow, I'll be casting my ballot for Donald J. Trump."
Owens, who is prone to severe hyperbole, has previously gone on record as calling Antifa “the new KKK.” She has also said the NRA is “the nation’s oldest civil rights organization” and was founded “to train Black Americans to use guns to defend themselves against the Ku Klux Klan, a Democrat terrorist group.”
All of which explains why Monday wasn’t the first time Owens has been exposed on live TV as the confused soul that she clearly is.
It was only last year when, during her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee about white nationalism and hate crimes, California Rep. Ted Lieu let everybody in the chamber know that Owens has a history of sympathizing with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
“Of all the people that Republicans could have selected, they picked Candace Owens,” Lieu said referencing the irony of her testifying about white nationalism. “I don’t know Ms. Owens, I’m not going to characterize her. I’m going to let her own words do the talking.”
Lieu then played audio from a speech Owens gave last year in London where she offered a strange supposition about how “Hitler just wanted to make Germany great.”
Owens’ facial expression showed she was mortified as the entire episode aired live on C-SPAN.
If you need to see more receipts exposing Candace Owens for who she truly is, click here and please allow NewsOne to do the honors.
As it turns out, Owens’ tap dancing for the Republican Party has been anything but reciprocated. She was snubbed as a speaker at the Republican National Convention and her so-called Blexit platform trying to get Blck people to leave the Democratic Party has backfired spectacularly as data shows a record number of Blck folks supporting Joe Biden for president.
