https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/25/entertainment/hank-azaria-apu/index.html

(CNN)Hank Azaria says his "eyes have been opened" and he's willing to "step aside" from playing his controversial "Simpsons" character.

The actor appeared on Tuesday's episode of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and talked about the fallout surrounding the character he voices, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.
Comedian Hari Kondabolu's documentary "The Problem with Apu" debuted last November and looked at the character as a negative, stereotypical representation of South Asians.
Nahasapeemapetilon, a Indian-American character with a thick accent, operates the Kwik-E-Mart convenience store in the fictional town of Springfield. The show recently aired a response to complaints about him.

Azaria voices multiple characters on the show, including Moe Szyslak and Chief Wiggum. He told Colbert he just wanted to be funny.
"The idea that anybody, young or old, past or present was bullied or teased based on the character of Apu, it just really makes me sad," Azaria said. "It was certainly not my intention. I wanted to spread laughter and joy with this character and the idea that it's brought pain and suffering in any way, that it was used to marginalize people, it's upsetting."

http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/25/news/economy/immigration-h1b-eb5-investor-visa-india/index.html

Facing a crackdown on their favorite visa to enter the United States, hundreds of wealthy Indians are turning to another program that fast tracks immigrants to a green card. Applications from India for EB-5 visas -- which give immigrants a green card if they invest $500,000 and create 10 jobs in the United States -- have surged in recent months.

The US government issued 174 such visas to Indians in the year ended September 2017, an increase of about 17% over the previous year, according to State Department data. Interest has taken off since then. In October and November, the United States received another 307 applications from India for what is often referred to as the "golden visa."

Indian demand for EB-5 visas has "really become explosive in the past 12 months," Neil Weinrib, an immigration lawyer based in New York, told CNNMoney. The spike comes as the US government makes it harder to get H-1B visas, which allow skilled foreign workers to be employed in the United States. More than 70% of H-1B visas have been awarded to Indians in recent years.

Changes to the program -- like greater scrutiny of applications and a possible shortening of the three-year visa period -- threaten big Indian outsourcing firms such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys (INFY) and Wipro (WIT), which hire and send thousand of tech workers to companies in Silicon Valley. Those companies are now dialing back H-1B applications and hiring more Americans.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/24/us/goose-golf-attack-michigan-photos-trnd/index.html



(CNN)Geese are terrifying. Everyone knows this. Their bites hurt like hell and they have no respect for children or the elderly. In fact, they are the second-most terrifying bird behind turkeys (large, tenacious) and ahead of crows (eidetic, vengeful).

So this momentous trio of photographs showing a Canada goose absolutely trucking a high school golfer near Blissfield, Michigan, is just a reminder of the natural order of things. You can have, as one Twitter user put it, a "quiver full of bird maulers" and a whole high school athlete's worth of physical power, but the goose is going to win every time. It's science.
The unlucky human sacrifice here is Isaac Couling, a member of the Concord High School golf team. According to Blissfield Golf Coach Steve Babbitt, Couling, 16, was competing in the Madison Tournament at the World Creek Golf Course in Adrian, Michigan, when terror rained down.
"The group just finished teeing off on hole #7 and were walking down the fairway," Babbitt told CNN in an email. "They were aware of a goose nest on their left which they were looking at but not bothering when from behind them and to the right came the guard goose (protecting the nest)."

http://prospect.org/article/how-tax-bill-backfired-on-republicans

And why the new tax law will be an election winner for Democrats

Did you have a happy Tax Day? Are you feeling grateful for the Republican tax cut?

Evidently most American taxpayers are not.

In a sublime case of poetic justice, the so-called Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) is backfiring on the Republicans big time. Most voters are unimpressed, and Republicans themselves are ceasing to emphasize it in their campaign material.

In the March 13 special election for the Pennsylvania 18th House district, where Democrat Conor Lamb narrowly beat Republican Rick Saccone, Republicans actually pulled adsthat bragged about the tax act, because their polls showed that it was more of a target than an achievement.

Republican strategists who wanted President Trump to emphasize the tax cut this spring were initially annoyed that Trump was talking about trade, immigration and Korea instead. Now they realize that Trump may be onto something.

Even better, Democrats are sensing that the tax issue can be turned against the Republicans big time in the 2018 and 2020 elections. This outcome is the resultof Republican overreach, opportunism, and sheer greed.

Previous Republican tax cuts, under Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush, were also tilted to the top, but they made sure to include some real benefits for regular people. But this year’s bill was so heavily skewed to the wealthy that most people don’t seemore than trivial benefits in their paychecks.

https://www.boredpanda.com/fennec-fox-vegan-diet-animal-abuse-jumanji-sonia-sae/

Fennec foxes eat rodents, insects, birds, rabbits, and eggs, but this one doesn’t. For years, vegan blogger Sonia Sae has been raising her pet fox Jumanji on a vegan diet, and it has developed all sorts of health problems. Recently, however, a few people worked hard to spread the word about this behavior they call abusive, and the internet is infuriated.

According to experts, a fennec’s diet in the wild is comprised of about 90% animals and insects while the remaining 10% consists of various plants they dig up. Naturally, they need a lot of protein when living in captivity as well. Forcing her omnivore Jumanji on a vegan menu only, Sae has probably messed up its entire nutrition. For example, fennecs really need calcium and taurine. The latter is an organic compound that’s widely distributed in animal tissues. Without it, these big-eared creatures will probably develop reproductive and heart problems. And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Sae has already admitted that Jumanji is half blind, suffers from spontaneous convulsions and a severe skin condition. However, she refuses the idea that its diet is a cause of these problems. “They use the word ‘abuse’ to describe the act of feeding [it] food that no animal had to die for. Despite the obvious oxymoron, any other non-vegan alternative DOES involve abuse by default,” she said in a Facebook post.

People have already contacted local animal rights authorities and are waiting for their response.

In the surveillance video, the three women were dressed the part — with exercise clothes and sneakers — and asked the front desk clerk about classes at the Yoga Heights studio near the District’s Petworth neighborhood.

It seemed like a typical interaction at the time, but according to the video and D.C. police, two of the women distracted the clerk while the other stole $110, gift cards valued at nearly $500 and credit cards from unsecured cubbies in the studio’s lobby.

It’s a scheme much like others that have played out on at least seven occasions over the past three months at yoga studios in Northwest Washington, according to D.C. police reports. No one has been injured in the incidents.

In most cases, one person or a group of people enter a studio and ask about classes or register for a class, often while someone else distracts a front desk clerk and steals valuables from unlocked cubbies.