Author: Mandy Nagy

After the story went viral recently that a gay waitress at a NJ restaurant was left a hateful note about her lifestyle in lieu of a tip, a family has come forward to say that they did in fact tip that waitress and never left...

After insurance policy cancellations and the botched launch of healthcare.gov, the political fallout from the rollout of Obamacare seems to be having an impact for Democrats in general and Obama, according to recent polling conducted by CNN and ORC International. From a CNN post this morning...

New York has provided its state police 32 tall unmarked sports utility vehicles so they can more easily peer in on motorists who might be texting while driving. From the Associated Press/News 12 Hudson Valley: Even for a state trooper, it's not easy to spot drivers who...

Tricia Norman, the mother of Rebecca Sedwick, said on Monday while accompanied by her lawyer that she intends to file wrongful death lawsuits in a civil court in relation to the alleged bullying endured by her daughter.  She and her lawyer also said they will pursue...

Organizers of demonstrations in Egypt will now be required to provide advance notice to police and face other restrictions on demonstrations, according to a new law passed this weekend. From Reuters: Egypt's president passed a law on Sunday making it illegal to hold demonstrations without the approval...

A first grade boy who suffers from a speech impediment got a big surprise when members of a Williams Intermediate School football team in Bridgewater, Massachusetts banded together to support him after it became known the child was being bullied. Danny Keefe, who is a waterboy...

Against the recommendation of elders, Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai said on Sunday that he would not immediately sign a security deal with the US, according to the Associated Press.  The news comes after a six-day showdown between Karzai and the US. From the Associated Press (via...

A detailed report from the Washington Post on Saturday, titled HealthCare.gov contractor had high confidence but low success, revealed more information about some of the troubles behind the scenes during the development of the healthcare.gov website.  It's a lengthy read, but it's recommended you read the full article to get the full scope of the story. The report provides further background on the work performed by the project's primary contractor, CGI, and the growing concern from federal officials that the work was not proceeding as expected in the months and weeks leading up to the launch. The article begins:

At 9 a.m. on Aug. 22, a team of federal health officials sat down in a Baltimore conference room with at least a dozen employees of CGI Federal, the company with the main contract to build the online federal health insurance marketplace. For six weeks, the federal officials overseeing the project had become increasingly worried that CGI was missing deadlines, understaffing the work and overstating its progress. As the meeting began, one of the officials reminded the CGI employees that HealthCare.gov was “the president’s number one priority,” assured them that the discussion would be a “blame-free zone,” and then bored in. “We must be honest and open with each other,” the official said, according to documents obtained from participants in the session. “I have to know what I don’t know.”

The Wall Street Journal came out with this report late yesterday afternoon that Obama Personally Lobbied Senators to Curb Filibuster: President Barack Obama personally lobbied three Democratic senators who were unsure about a proposed ban on filibusters of presidential nominees, an 11th-hour effort earlier this week...

Egypt expelled the Turkish ambassador Saturday, according to a report from the Associated Press (via NY Times): Egypt downgraded diplomatic relations Saturday with Turkey and expelled its ambassador from Cairo, a sharp escalation in tensions between the two countries that mounted after a military coup ousted...

With millions of fans on Facebook and over 900,000 Twitter followers, George Takei - probably known best for his role as Lieutenant Sulu on "Star Trek" - has a wide audience and is a very active, influential force online. Speaking in an interview with Al Jazeera America,...

It turns out that after the recent news that Democrats went the nuclear option route on the judicial filibuster, the hypocrisy isn't limited to politicians. Patterico dug up some interesting snippets yesterday from the NY Times (though at the time of this writing, the wording was...

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on the Florida bullying case of Rebecca Sedwick, the lawyers for both girls who had been charged with aggravated stalking have confirmed that charges have been dropped. From the NY Times: Prosecutors in Polk County, Fla., have dropped the charges against...

Charges have reportedly been dropped against the younger of two girls who were charged last month in the bullying case of Rebecca Sedwick. From CBS News:

The state of Florida has dropped all charges against the 12-year-old girl accused of bullying Rebecca Sedwick, a 12-year-old who committed suicide in September, according to a press release from Jose Baez, the attorney representing the defendant. Baez, who famously won an acquittal for Casey Anthony, is expected to hold a news conference later Wednesday to discuss the new development.

The 12 year old girl had been charged with aggravated stalking in October in connection with the case.  A 14 year old girl was also charged with the same at that time.  Authorities alleged that both of the girls harassed Sedwick for months before she took her own life.

Comedian Jack Vale is known for his hidden camera video pranks, which often capture reactions from unsuspecting participants. In his latest, he performs an experiment of sorts to show us that strangers can actually learn a lot from what we post on social media about ourselves. And that sometimes, our online world can collide with our IRL (in real life) world. The video opens: “Hi, I’m Jack Vale, and I wanted to see how easy it would be to get personal information from complete strangers. And while I’m at it, of course, freak ‘em out a little bit.  Keep in mind when you watch this video, I got all of this information just by searching their personal social media posts, and I got it by searching for the closest Twitter, Instagram and other social media posts to my current location.  Let’s go!”