http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/female-marvel-comics-editor-harassed-online-milkshake-selfie/



Heather Antos, an editor for Marvel Comics, has been deluged with abuse online after posting an image of herself drinking milkshakes with six female Marvel employees, with a caption reading "It's the Marvel milkshake crew! #FabulousFlo" – the latter referencing the recent death of the legendary female Marvel publisher Flo Steinberg.

For the crime of consuming cold beverages while being female, Antos was then attacked across social media and via email and her Twitter direct messages by angry Marvel fans, who used the image as an opportunity to rant about "Social Justice Warriors", "fake geek girls" and feminism.

https://twitter.com/Iwishiwashim12/status/891846302144884738

https://twitter.com/DarkJesterofOz/status/891464900890968064

Antos condemned the abuse the following day, writing that "the internet is an awful, horrible, and disgusting place." She added, "Woke up today to a slew of more garbage tweets and DMs. For being a woman. In comics. Who posted a selfie of her friends getting milkshakes."

But the incident has once again ignited a firestorm of discussion about the prevalence of abusive responses to both gender and racial diversity in the comic book world, and the recent increase in female staffers.

Chelsea Cain, the writer behind the female superhero comic book Mockingbird, left Twitter in October 2016 following months of harassment, while Zainab Akhtar, a British-Muslim writer, closed her Eisner Award-winning comic book journalism site Comics & Cola last year after being deluged with racist, misogynistic abuse via email and social media.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/27/news/economy/puerto-rico-whitefish-montana-deal/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom

Whitefish Energy, a little-known energy firm based in Montana, has been stirring up controversy ever since it announced last week that it landed a $300 million contract to help restore Puerto Rico's electrical power.

The contract is the largest to be awarded since recovery efforts began over a month ago. And several lawmakers on Capitol Hill are calling for government reviews of how this small firm with only two employees at the time Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico was chosen over bigger, more established utilities.

The seeds of the deal were first sown after Hurricane Irma, which tore through the Caribbean and Florida in early September.

Ricardo Ramos, the CEO of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, recounted to CNN that he was actively looking for contractors for the repair effort. Whitefish was one of seven companies that was competing for the work.

Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski reached out to Ramos to tell him about his small firm's "special skills": repairing infrastructure in rural, rugged regions, according to Whitefish spokesman Ken Luce.

But Irma ended up skirting by Puerto Rico, inflicting minimal damage. There was no need to immediately strike a deal.

http://www.startribune.com/newly-resurfaced-1936-video-features-a-mpls-fire-cat-sliding-down-station-poles/453373383/

They don't make internet cat videos like they used to.

Can you see feline celebs Grumpy Cat or Lil Bub sliding down a two-story fire station pole? No way. But do you know who could attempt such a feat? Mickey the Minneapolis Fire Cat.

That's right, our great city was once home to a firefighting cat who would drop everything (including playing dominoes with fellow first responders) to rush out to a 4-alarm blaze.

Need evidence? Watch this newsreel video recently posted by the Facebook page, Old Minneapolis.

In it, a narrator details the life of Mickey the fire mascot in Station 10, which according to the post was located in downtown on N. 4th Street between Hennepin Avenue and 1st Avenue.

Mickey not only slides down the station's brass pole, but rides in the department's fire cruiser and -- wait for it -- wears a fire helmet. Safety first!

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/26/opinions/mark-halperin-women-should-not-stay-silent-mcmanus/index.html

The first 10 years of my professional career were spent at CNN. Beginning as a production assistant, I worked my way up to senior producer for "Larry King Live." I had the most amazing opportunities to work incredible news stories, and even met my husband at CNN. I loved everything about TV news -- the excitement, the ability to be part of breaking a story, the adrenaline, and the camaraderie of the entire news team.

But my career at CNN -- and in journalism, for that matter -- almost didn't happen.

When I was a 21-year-old student, I attended a political event in Boston. Present were several candidates running for president. It was interesting to see political leaders speak in person for the first time, but it wasn't the speeches that intrigued me -- it was the cameras in the back of the room. The media asking questions, trying to break stories, making their news reports -- that was most exciting to me.

So I worked up the courage to go to the back of the room to speak with one of the journalists. That's when I met Mark Halperin, who was at that time working for ABC News. He gave me his card, told me to give him a call and said he would help me understand how to get into the business.

Fast forward several months later to when I graduated and asked for an informational meeting. I reached out to Mr. Halperin and he asked me to come see him. I was thrilled that someone from ABC News was willing to meet with me -- perhaps that was my way in the door. It was my first official meeting; I even had to buy a suit for the occasion.

I don't quite remember what we talked about, but I do remember him asking me to sit down next to him on the couch. I thought it was awkward to sit on the couch when I was perfectly comfortable sitting in the chair across from his desk. But I complied, and I also remember him sitting a little too close to me.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/10/26/kelloggs-apologizes-for-lone-brown-corn-pop-on-cereal-box/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_with_top_mostshared_1_na&utm_term=.1dcd634517a4

https://twitter.com/saladinahmed/status/922840667277135872

Novelist Saladin Ahmed was looking at the back of a Corn Pops cereal box when he noticed a small but jarring detail.

The colorful illustration on the box depicted a chaotic scene of little yellow corn pop characters frolicking through a shopping mall.

But in the middle of the drawing, Ahmed spotted a lone non-yellow corn pop. The character looked as if it had brown skin. It also happened to be the only corn pop in all blue, and appeared to be waxing or scrubbing the mall’s floors.

On Wednesday morning, Ahmed tweeted to Kellogg’s: Why is “literally the only brown corn pop on the whole cereal box the janitor?”

It’s “a tiny thing,” he added, “but when you see your kid staring at this over breakfast and realize millions of other kids are doing the same…”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/i-dont-want-to-sit-on-your-lap-she-said-but-mark-halperin-insisted/2017/10/26/0baa883c-ba64-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.c73bc52c05fb

Dianna Goldberg was a young researcher at ABC News in 1994 when she asked a colleague, Mark Halperin, for some information about a story. He readily agreed to help her and asked her to come to his office.

Close the door, he said when she arrived. Come over here, he said, seated at his desk. Sit down and I’ll give you the information, he said. He motioned to his lap.

“What?” she remembers thinking. “I don’t want to sit on your lap.” But Halperin was the political director of the network, a rising star who was highly regarded by ABC’s management, including “World News Tonight” anchor Peter Jennings. Goldberg, who now goes by her married name, May, thought that refusing him could injure her career.

She reluctantly agreed and sat down briefly. Halperin, she recalled on Wednesday, had an erection.

The same routine happened on three or four other occasions, she said. Each instance left her confused, shaken and ashamed.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/25/technology/business/h1b-visa-renewal-uscis/index.html

The U.S. government is toughening up the process for renewing a popular foreign work visa. This week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services advised its officers to "apply the same level of scrutiny" to extension requests for the H-1B visa, among other sought after visas. In other words, officers are instructed to review requests for renewal as thoroughly as they would initial visa applications.

The H-1B is a common visa pathway for high-skilled foreigners to work at companies in the U.S. It's valid for three years, and can be renewed for another three years. It's a program that's particularly near and dear to the tech community, with many talented engineers vying for one of the program's 85,000 visas each year.

The directive rescinds the previous guidance, which gave "deference" to previously approved visas "as long as the key elements were unchanged and there was no evidence of a material error or fraud related to the prior determination."

"This updated guidance provides clear direction to help advance policies that protect the interests of U.S. workers," said new USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna, who was sworn in this month. President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Cissna last spring.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/wave-of-addiction-linked-to-fentanyl-worsens-as-drugs-distribution-evolve/2017/10/24/5bedbcf0-9c97-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html?utm_term=.718068f0cb2c



Michelle MacLeod died in a tough part of town known as the Tree Streets, where many of the streets have names like Ash, Palm, Chestnut and Walnut. Kevin Manchester, who provided the fentanyl that killed her, lived on Pine.

After MacLeod’s death, Nashua police wired her fiance and recorded him telling Manchester that MacLeod had overdosed and died. Manchester kept selling the powerful synthetic narcotic anyway.

Manchester, 27, went to prison for selling drugs that proved lethal — a “death-resulting” charge that prosecutors are using more frequently as they battle the opioid epidemic.

“He had no pause from what he had done, knowing full well he had killed that girl,” said Jon DeLena, the assistant special agent in charge in New Hampshire for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. “It didn’t slow him down at all.”

The DEA points to the Manchester case as a victory, but it also highlights the challenges for law enforcement agencies as they seek to curb the spread of fentanyl. Manchester, a small-time dealer who was using his own product, was part of a wave of addiction that has worsened as the drugs have evolved, with fentanyl posing special problems because it is extremely potent, easily transported and highly desired.