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Woman 'raped' on train while other passengers stood by and did nothing

A woman has been allegedly raped on a train with police baffled why other passengers did nothing to help her.

Police in Upper Darby, in Philadelphia, were called to the 69th Street terminal on Wednesday about 10pm after reports of an assault on a train, Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt of the Upper Darby Police Department said.

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Pennsylvania Gun Laws Stricter Than Most Other States’

Since 2004, the Brady Center to Prevent of Gun Violence, a gun-control advocacy group, has issued an annual 100-point scorecard ranking states on how stringent their gun laws are. According to the Brady Center’s most recent rating, Pennsylvania has the 10th most strict gun laws in the U.S. Pennsylvania residents should be aware of the laws regarding buying, owning and using guns in the state.

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So many states have restricted access to abortion so severely that people in large swaths of the country feel they have no options if they want to terminate a pregnancy. But technically, those who want an abortion still have options. It’s just that few have heard of them.

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Pregnant people in Texas, or in any other U.S. state, can visit an array of websites that will mail them two pills—mifepristone and misoprostol—that will induce a miscarriage when used in the first trimester of pregnancy and possibly even later. The so-called self-managed abortion is therefore an option at least six weeks further into a pregnancy than the controversial new Texas law’s six-week “heartbeat” cutoff for an abortion at a clinic. Though people in other states have several websites to choose from, Texans can visit Aid Access, a website that provides the pills for $105 or less based on income.

Only 5 percent of Americans have heard of Aid Access, though, and only 13 percent have heard of Plan C, a website that provides information on different mail-order-abortion services by state, according to a new Atlantic/Leger poll. Some people may vaguely know that medication abortions exist, but don’t know the names of the organizations that mail them. However, most poll respondents said that they weren’t aware of any backup options for abortion if a clinic is not accessible. The poll surveyed a representative sample of 1,001 adults across the country from September 24 to September 26, and its results mirror my experiences interviewing two dozen random young Texans recently: None had heard of Aid Access, and the few who had heard of Plan C were confusing it with Plan B, the morning-after pill.

The results also jibe with the experiences of Plan C’s founders. Though they’ve seen a large increase in web traffic, particularly from Texas, since Texas’s abortion restrictions went into effect, “we know that the biggest challenge is to try to get this word out,” says Francine Coeytaux, one of the site’s co-founders. The doctor behind Aid Access, Rebecca Gomperts, told me that according to her own research, 60 percent of her clients did not know about abortion pills before they found her service.

Nationwide, opponents of abortion rights appear to be winning. Though a federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of the new Texas “heartbeat” law, Texas appealed, and the law remains in effect—at least for now. Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently signed another bill that narrows the window for medication abortions from 10 weeks to seven weeks and bans the mailing of abortion-inducing medications. The Supreme Court is composed predominantly of abortion-rights opponents, and states have enacted 106 different restrictions on abortion this year, the most in one year since 1973, according to the pro-abortion-rights Guttmacher Institute.

Many people in these states, upon getting pregnant, will simply track down a mail-order-abortion service through the internet. But the picture is more worrisome for those who lack internet access or proficiency. “Being in that state of desperation and feeling like you have no options” exacts a mental toll, says Abigail Aiken, a University of Texas professor who has researched self-managed abortion. Some number of those people might harm themselves in a misguided attempt to end the pregnancy. “It would be remiss of us to underestimate the lengths people will go to sometimes when they can’t access the care they really need,” Aiken says.

Abortion pills work best in the first trimester of pregnancy, but it takes time to find the service and order the pills, and for them to arrive and make their way through customs. This is one reason Aid Access is now allowing people who aren’t pregnant to order the pills to have on hand and use later if they experience an unwanted pregnancy. The pills don’t expire for about two years.

Aiken wants Texas schools to start teaching about abortion as part of health class. However, this is unlikely to happen in a state that still does not mandate any kind of sex education.

Coeytaux, from Plan C, suggests that something darker is at work: that abortion clinics and funds are not sufficiently promoting self-managed abortion, either out of a lack of trust or because they fear it will quell the sense of emergency over the war on reproductive rights. Indeed, when I visited the website of one Texas abortion fund recently, it said, “We do not provide advice on self managed abortion care.” (The fund did not respond to a request for comment.) Whole Woman’s Health, an abortion clinic with sites in Texas, does have a page on self-managed abortion, but in an email, its CEO, Amy Hagstrom Miller, said that because Texas does not allow the dispensing of abortion pills by mail, medical professionals “cannot advise Texans how to obtain self-managed abortion medications in Texas.”

The struggle for abortion rights has been about proving that restrictions are an “undue burden” for women—a burden that mail-order abortions arguably lessen. “The strategy of the lawyers and the providers and everybody who’s fighting for our rights … is ‘Oh my God, look what happened. In Texas, there are no options anymore,’” Coeytaux says. “If you come along and say, ‘Maybe your problems of access have just been solved, because you don’t have to travel, you don’t have to pay that much,’ that undermines the Oh my God, this is really terrible.”

Of course, other factors might be discouraging people from pursuing self-managed abortions. The procedure involves severe cramping and heavy bleeding, and in the states that are most hostile to abortion rights, women who self-induce their own abortions must rely on hotlines and text support from faraway doctors if they get scared or experience complications. Aid Access is based in Austria, beyond the reach of Texas law enforcement and the new abortion-medication measure, but the site still inhabits a legal gray area: Four states have criminalized managing one’s own abortion, and about two dozen people have been prosecuted for self-managing an abortion since 2000. Mainstream medical research generally suggests that self-managed abortions are safe and effective, but anti-abortion-rights groups vehemently disagree and have published their own reports saying they are dangerous. Whatever the reason, far fewer women in the U.S. have medication abortions than in some other countries: Medication abortions accounted for 40 percent of all U.S. abortions in 2017, compared with more than 90 percent in Finland and more than 80 percent in Mexico City, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Sites like Aid Access are quickly becoming the sworn enemies of abortion opponents. “At a minimum, the FDA should warn women, as it has in the past, that it is not safe to use imported drugs bought off the internet that have not undergone agency scrutiny and evaluation as to purity, safety, and efficacy,” Randy O’Bannon, the director of research at National Right to Life, told me via email. “And those entities illegally importing and selling those unauthorized drugs should be prosecuted for those violations and they should certainly be held criminally and financially responsible for any injuries associated with their products.”

Aiken and others, though, doubt American laws will affect Aid Access, because the organization already operates in countries where abortion is illegal. When I asked Gomperts if she feels like she’s under threat from the Texas laws, she said, “Aid Access is serving women who need access to safe abortions. It doesn’t matter where they live or what the legal situation is in that country.” Unfortunately, few Americans know that she’s available to serve them.

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The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii is seeking half a million dollars in damages on behalf of a Black 10-year-old girl who drew a cartoon some found offensive.

A bullied Black girl at Honowai Elementary School on Oahu drew a portrait of one of her alleged aggressors in January 2020. When the parent of the alleged bully saw the picture, she demanded the police get involved.

The Black girl, who is diagnosed with ADHD and only identified by the initials N.B., got arrested and taken to a station – the Pearl City Police Station.

According to the report by the ACLU, Business Insider cited, N.B. was handcuffed in front of her classmates, taken into custody, and interrogated by law enforcement without her mother present.

N.B. did not get charged with anything, and she got released to her mother, Tamara Taylor.

"A parent of one of the kids who received this drawing, was very upset and essentially demanded that they call the police," Mateo Caballero, an attorney for the child's family, told Hawaii News Now.

"She didn't bring any weapons to school, she didn't make any explicit threats to anyone," he added.

"That's just straight up wrong," ACLU of Hawaii Legal Director Wookie Kim told Hawaii News Now. "And there's nothing that condones or justifies that."

Keith Hui, who serves as the Leeward District Complex Area superintendent, which includes Honowai Elementary School, could not be reached for comment by Insider. A Hawaii Department of Education rep also declined to comment.

Initially, Taylor was blocked from seeing her child, and Taylor, herself, got detained at the school, according to the DailyMail.

“I was stripped of my rights as a parent and my daughter was stripped of her right of protection and representation as a minor. There was no understanding of diversity, African American culture and the presence of police involvement with African-American youth,” Taylor wrote in a letter to the school a few days later.

“My daughter and I are traumatized from these events and sure that there is no future for us at Honowai Elementary. I'm disheartened to know that this day will live with [N.B.] as a memory forever,” she added.

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A former top executive at a North Carolina-based health care system has won $10 million in a legal battle over his claim that he lost his job because he is a white man.

David Duvall, a former senior vice president of marketing and communication at Novant Health, was awarded the money by a federal jury in Charlotte on Tuesday.

In his lawsuit, Duvall had alleged that he was pushed out of his job without warning or explanation in July 2018 as the company tried to diversify top leadership positions.

“We are pleased that the jury agreed that Duvall’s race and gender were unlawful factors in his termination — that he was fired to make room for more diverse leaders at Novant,” his attorney, S. Luke Largess, said in a statement to the Winston-Salem Journal.

“Duvall was a strong advocate of diversity at Novant. We believe the punitive damages award is a message that an employer cannot terminate and replace employees in order to achieve greater diversity in the workforce,” he added.

The healthcare company had argued that Duvall was fired because he had poor leadership skills.

A rep for Novant Health said the company was disappointed by Tueday’s verdict.

“We are extremely disappointed with the verdict as we believe it is not supported by the evidence presented at trial, which includes our reason for Mr. Duvall’s termination,” spokeswoman, Megan Rivers, told the newspaper. “We will pursue all legal options, including appeal, over the next several weeks and months.”

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Talk about a meal ticket.

Hungry for financial flexibility, a California man named Dylan shelled out a measly $150 a year to eat every meal at Six Flags Magic Mountain in order to save thousands, pay off his student loan debt, get married and purchase a house in Los Angeles.

“You can pay around $150 for unlimited, year-round access to Six Flags, which includes parking and two meals a day,” Dylan, 33, explained to Mel Magazine Monday. “If you time it right, you could eat both lunch and dinner there every day.”

The theme park offers guests a “premium season dining pass” which allows visitors to enjoy lunch and dinner items, as well as a snack and unlimited drinks during every visit on any regular operating day, per Six Flags Magic Mountain’s website. The deal, which doesn’t include alcoholic beverages, is listed on the site at $109.99 plus tax.
Dylan, a 33-year-old electrical engineer in Santa Clarita, California, took advantage of Six Flags’ $150 yearly meal plan to pay off debt.

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And in 2014, when Dylan learned of the cost-effective food frenzy being offered just minutes away from his internship in Valencia, California, he boogied on down to the amusement park with moves faster than Six Flags’ dancing old man mascot.

“One of my co-workers said she spent $1,500 a month on eating out. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not going down that road!,’ ” said Dylan, who works as an electrical engineer. He’s eaten an estimated 2,000 meals at around 50 cents per sitting at Six Flags for the past seven years.

“That entire first year, I don’t think I ever went to the grocery store,” he said. “I timed it so I was able to go there during my lunch break, go back to work, then stop back for dinner on my way home.”

And all the while he was able to stash his cash.

“It was crazy — I was saving money, paying off student loans,” Dylan claimed. But while his pockets were getting fat, so was he.

“The first year, the menu was kind of lame — all you could get was a burger and fries, or a pizza and breadsticks, or this pathetic sandwich and a refillable soda cup,” he said. “It wasn’t healthy at all, which was rough.”
Six Flags offers guests a cost-friendly dinning pass.
Six Flags offers guests a cost-friendly dinning pass.
Six Flags

The premium dining pass also includes typical funfair snack treats like ice cream, funnel cakes and cookies.

“That’s where it got dangerous,” Dylan admitted. “Separate from the meal, you could get Dippin’ Dots, sundaes, churros, pretzels — all that type of stuff. That’s when I started adding weight.”

But, much to Dylan’s digestive delight, Six Flags began introducing healthier delicacies to its menu.

“They’ve got decent options now,” the cheap-eating enthusiast explained. “Still a lot of bad food, I mean it’s theme park food so you can’t expect too much from them. But you find the options that aren’t terrible — stuff like tri-tip sandwiches and vegan options like black bean burgers and meatless meatball subs.”
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And in effort to eat lighter and burn calories, he’ll often take the 5,000-step trip from the Six Flags parking lot to its Hurricane Harbor water park division in order to grab a carne asada or chipotle chicken salad.

But Dylan — who’s also chowed down the play park’s seasonal entrees like the “Thanksgiving Dog,” which he says is a “turkey dog topped with cranberry sauce, stuffing and a slathering of mayonnaise, which I know sounds awful, but it was so good” — regrettably has to settle for the entertainment venue’s deep fried, bacon and nacho cheese-smothered chicken balls on busy days.

“I got so sick of those chicken balls,” he said. “I’d estimate I got them around 150 times, and at five [chicken balls] per meal, that’s around 750 balls. I don’t know that I could ever eat them again.”
Dylan ultimately had to stop feasting on the sweet snacks that come free with his dining pass in order to maintain a healthy weight.
Dylan ultimately had to stop feasting on the sweet snacks that come free with his dining pass in order to maintain a healthy weight.
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Since meeting his wife six years ago, Dylan — who’s as much of a rollercoaster fanatic as he his a thrifty eater — has scaled back on his Six Flags feasting, dialing it down to a mere three or four lunches at the theme park per week.

“My wife moved in and I stopped doing dinners and weekends, too, since she’s not as big into roller coasters as I am,” Dylan said.

But he’s not ready to fully kick his low-budget banqueting habit just yet.

“We just bought a house here, so I’m not really going anywhere,” Dylan insisted. “As long as they keep changing the menu, I’m happy.”

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Afghanistan Wedding Ends With Alleged Taliban Gunning Down Guests Due to Music Being Played

A wedding in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province turned deadly on Friday after alleged Taliban members shot and killed three people during a fight concerning whether music could be played, according to local town residents.

At least 10 others were injured during the altercation, which took place after three gunmen demanded that the wedding party stop playing music, NBC News reported. Two residents of the area said they recognized the gunmen as local Taliban members.

The gunmen "were harsh in their arguments with the family holding a marriage ceremony and local residents," one of the residents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told NBC. "Their arguments led to an armed clash," he added, stating that the gunmen "opened fire and killed three people and injured 10 others."

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied that the three attackers were members of the group, but confirmed that the incident took place over a music dispute. Mujahid said the Taliban has so far arrested one person, with efforts underway to arrest the other two suspects.

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The UN says $6B from the world's billionaires could solve the current hunger crisis. Elon Musk says he will sell Tesla stock and donate proceeds if the UN can prove that.

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Billionaire Elon Musk said he would sell Tesla stock and donate the proceeds if the United Nations could prove that just a tiny percentage of his wealth could solve the world's hunger crisis.

Musk was responding to comments by David Beasley, director of the UN's World Food Programme, who told CNN's Connect the World last week that a $6 billion donation from billionaires like Musk and Bezos could help 42 million people who are "literally going to die if we don't reach them."

Musk is currently the world's richest man and the first person ever to be worth north of $300 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The Tesla CEO currently has a net worth of $311 billion, so $6 billion would be 2% of his wealth, and such a donation would still leave him besting the second richest man, Jeff Bezos, by at least $100 billion.

But Musk is challenging the claim that the amount will solve the current hunger crisis, saying on Twitter that if the World Food Programme can prove that, he will "sell Tesla stock right now and do it." He also demanded accountability about how the money would be spent.

Beasley responded to Musk by tweeting: "I can assure you that we have the systems in place for transparency and open source accounting. Your team can review and work with us to be totally confident of such."

He also clarified that the UN World Food Programme has never said $6 billion would solve world hunger. "This is a one-time donation to save 42 million lives during this unprecedented hunger crisis," he tweeted.

World Food Programme's Beasley has been repeating his call to billionaires, asking them to step up to the task of solving world hunger.

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