NY Woman Tries to ‘Save’ Parking Space By Standing in It, Refuses to Move for Actual Cars
A woman was recently caught via dashcam footage standing guard over a parking spot and refusing to leave even though a car was rightfully trying to claim the space.

In the footage posted on Facebook by Nicholas Chew, a car is seen attempting to drive into an empty parking space inside a packed garage in Flushing, Queens when, suddenly, a woman blocks the car by standing in the spot.

Refusing to allow the car to take the free space, she insisted that she save the spot for her father, who would show up any minute in a Blue Compass jeep.
Seeing that there was no jeep in the vicinity, the driver asked the woman to move so he can park his car.
“Are you serious?” Chew asked. “This is a car parking space, not a woman parking space, get out of here!”
As he started honking his horn, another woman, believed to be the woman’s mother, arrived and stood beside her in the parking spot.

FREEPORT, Maine (AP) — L.L. Bean’s generous return policy is going to be a little less forgiving: The company, which has touted its 100 percent satisfaction guarantee for more than a century, is imposing a one-year limit on most returns to reduce growing abuse and fraud.

The outdoor specialty retailer said returns of items that have been destroyed or rendered useless, including some purchased at thrift stores or retrieved from trash bins, have doubled in the past five years, surpassing the annual revenue from the company’s famous boot.

“The numbers are staggering,” CEO Steve Smith told The Associated Press. “It’s not sustainable from a business perspective. It’s not reasonable. And it’s not fair to our customers.”

A college student said she flushed her emotional support hamster down the toilet after Spirit Airlines refused to let her bring her furry pet on the plane.

Belen Aldecosea, 21, of Miami Beach, Florida, told the Miami Herald that she contacted Spirit Airlines before her flight from Baltimore to South Florida on Nov. 21, 2017, regarding traveling with her dwarf hamster, Pebbles. Aldecosea claimed the airline told her it was not a problem to bring her hamster on the flight.

However, when the student arrived at the airport she said the airline refused to let Pebbles on the plane. Aldecosea said she did not have many options since her family was in Florida and her friends were hours away. The student claimed a Spirit employee suggested she either flush Pebbles down the toilet or let the animal free.

Aldecosea skipped her flight and tried to rent a car instead, but said she was too young to rent one. So she did what she felt was the most humane choice.

“She was scared. I was scared. It was horrifying trying to put her in the toilet,” Aldecosea said. “I was emotional. I was crying. I sat there for a good 10 minutes crying in the stall.”

The student said she considered letting Pebbles run free outside but could not bear thinking of her hamster freezing to death or getting hit.

“I didn’t have any other options,” she said.

When Hawaii pushed out a ballistic missile alert earlier this month, Gov. David Ige knew within two minutes it was a false alarm. But he couldn't hop on Twitter and tell everybody -- because he didn't know his password.

"I have to confess that I don't know my Twitter account login and passwords," Ige told reporters Monday after giving his State of the State address. "I will be putting that on my phone."

The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency issued the alert -- sent to cell phones and broadcast on the airwaves there -- at 8:07 a.m. on January 13. A state official told Ige two minutes later it was false, CNN affiliate KHNL reports.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren joined the chorus of Democratic senators calling for Minnesota Democrat Al Franken to resign in the wake of new sexual harassment allegations, including fellow Senator Ed Markey.

Female Democratic senators lead the charge for Franken’s ouster Wednesday, but Warren was the last among them to speak out publicly against him, waiting until mid-afternoon to do so.

“I think he should resign,” Elizabeth Warren said in a statement put out by her staff. She did not elaborate.

Earlier in the afternoon, a Warren aide told the Globe that the senator had talked to Franken privately and told him he should step down

Accuser Scott R. Brunton says he was groped by the 'Star Trek' icon at the actor's Los Angeles condo.

A former model and actor is accusing Star Trek icon George Takei of sexual assault in 1981. The accuser, Scott R. Brunton, who was 23 at the time of the alleged incident, claims that Takei took advantage of him when he was most vulnerable.

"This happened a long time ago, but I have never forgotten it," Brunton tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. "It is one of those stories you tell with a group of people when people are recounting bizarre instances in their lives, this always comes up. I have been telling it for years, but I am suddenly very nervous telling it."

Snip........................

The two men went back to the actor's condo for a drink the same night. "We have the drink and he asks if I would like another," Brunton recalls. "And I said sure. So, I have the second one, and then all of a sudden, I begin feeling very disoriented and dizzy, and I thought I was going to pass out. I said I need to sit down and he said sit over here and he had the giant yellow beanbag chair. So I sat down in that and leaned my head back and I must have passed out."

"The next thing I remember I was coming to and he had my pants down around my ankles and he was groping my crotch and trying to get my underwear off and feeling me up at the same time, trying to get his hands down my underwear," Brunton says. "I came to and said, 'What are you doing?!' I said, 'I don't want to do this.' He goes, 'You need to relax. I am just trying to make you comfortable. Get comfortable.' And I said, 'No. I don't want to do this.' And I pushed him off and he said, 'OK, fine.' And I said I am going to go and he said, 'If you feel you must. You're in no condition to drive.' I said, 'I don't care I want to go.' So I managed to get my pants up and compose myself and I was just shocked. I walked out and went to my car until I felt well enough to drive home, and that was that."

Amazon specified it was looking for an area with a low cost of living, an educated and tech-savvy workforce, high incentives, at least 1 million people, and close access to an international airport, among other requirements.

A Sevier County Sheriff’s Office deputy opened fire without warning in a mobile home park, suffered an apparent panic attack four minutes later and was forcibly disarmed by a paramedic, body camera footage shows. Deputy Justin Johnson did not mention the panic attack in his report on the December 2016 incident, and he remains on active duty, court records show. Brian Keith Mullinax, 41, and his girlfriend, Tina Carrie Jo Cody, 37, spent 42 days in jail on felony charges, accused of causing what was described in court statements as a "panic attack" and which a detective called "some type of cardiac event." They remain under prosecution on misdemeanor charges, court records show. A spokesman for Sevier County Sheriff Ron “Hoss” Seals did not return a phone message. It’s not clear from court records whether the sheriff’s office conducted an internal investigation, ordered psychological testing for Johnson, or required him to undergo counseling or additional training. Cody was unarmed and being held on the ground by Johnson and paramedic Blake Gregg when Johnson fired four shots toward a set of mobile homes, paused and fired three more, the video obtained showed. He ran away from Cody and Gregg toward Sharp Road. “Shots fired,” he told dispatchers. “We need help.” Four minutes later, Johnson was kneeling over Cody, who had remained on the ground, with his gun still in his hand when the video showed he began hyperventilating and running backward away from the mobile homes and Cody. Paramedic Michael O’Connor ran toward Johnson. “Pull it together,” O’Connor told Johnson. “Look at me.” Johnson continued to hyperventilate while pointing his gun toward Cody, Gregg and the mobile homes.

A federal agency plans to repair a bronze statue of a soldier that was toppled over and decapitated early Tuesday by vandals at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery on the Hilltop.

When the statue was knocked over, its head was decapitated, likely from striking a column in the fall to the ground, said Columbus Police Lt. Clifton Dean. The vandals took the head of the soldier but left the hat, he said.

The vandalism occurred sometime between midnight and 6:30 a.m. Tuesday at the cemetery, where more than 2,000 Civil War soldiers are buried, most of them Confederate soldiers buried there after they died while imprisoned. Officers noticed the broken monument around 7:20 a.m. when doing a check of the cemetery.

Vandalism cases are difficult to prosecute because they are challenging to prove.