Tag: Michigan

Posted on

News Round-Up: January 8, 2020

Australia’s Human Nature (image via Instagram/Denise Truscello)
Some news items you might have missed: • Las Vegas: Australia’s biggest pop group, Human Nature, will be donating 100% of the ticket sales from their January 25 concert at The Venetian on the Las Vegas Strip to support victims of the Australian bushfires. • The Advocate: Preparing an end-run around Michigan’s Republican-controlled legislature, activists are getting ready to gather signatures for a ballot initiative that could codify employment and housing protections for LGBTQ residents. • NBC News: Prince Harry & Meghan Markle have announced they “intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent.” The couple says they plan to split their time between the U.K. and North America. • KIT212: Kenneth’s ‘Wrestle Wednesdays’ post might pose a challenge to ‘hockey butt.’ • USA Today: The head of ABC Entertainment confirmed today there will (again) be no formal ‘host’ at this year’s Academy Awards telecast. • Billboard: Check out this month’s edition of Queer Necessities, a monthly LGBTQ-driven playlist (via Spotify) from Billboard Pride catching you up on the latest and greatest bops by queer musicians and fierce allies.

Posted on

Grindr Hookup Gone Wrong Ends In Murder & Mutilation Charges

Kevin Bacon (image via Facebook)
Mark Latunski, 50, has been charged with one count of murder and one count of mutilation of the body of his alleged victim in a Grindr hookup gone terribly wrong. MLive.com reports that Kevin Bacon (not the actor), 25, of Swartz Creek, Michigan, told his housemate, Michelle Myers, he was meeting a man he’d met on the dating app around 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Bacon then texted Myers at 6:12 p.m. saying he would be out for a while and wasn’t sure when he’d be home. According to Myers, he indicated he was “having fun.” But when the 25-year-old hairstylist was a no-show at his family’s Christmas breakfast, they became concerned. Police eventually found Bacon’s car in a parking lot where a bag containing his phone, clothes, and wallet was discovered. Missing from the scene were his car keys. According to MLive.com, the young man’s body was found on December 28 at Latunski’s home in Shiawassee County’s Bennington Township, 25 miles west of Flint. Police were led to the suspect’s home after some Facebook posts about the home in question were relayed to the Clayton Township Police Department, according to Kevin Bacon’s dad, Karl Bacon. The medical examiner determined Bacon died sometime between late Christmas Eve and early Christmas Day. If found guilty, Latunski faces life in prison.
Mark Latunski (mug shot)
Bacon’s parents, Karl and Pamela Bacon, said at a press conference they didn’t know if their son had any previous contact with Latunski. But the father took issue with the folks at Grindr telling the press “They didn’t give us any info during the initial investigation.” Calling the people in charge at the dating app “rather uncooperative,” the father said,  “There’s no regulation of law on how they operate and how accountable they are to people’s activities on their apps.” “That was our biggest obstacle in this investigation,” said Karl Bacon. “We did not know where he was going and who he was meeting with. If he had relayed that information early on, it may not have been avoided, but it could have been accelerated a lot quicker if we knew who and where.” For its part,  a spokesperson for Grindr issued a statement which read: “We at Grindr are heartbroken to hear about this terrible tragedy, and share our condolences with Mr. Bacon’s family and friends. While for privacy reasons we do not offer public comment on individual user accounts, we remain fully committed to working with law enforcement in the event of any investigation.” The victim’s namesake – Kevin Bacon, the actor – expressed his own condolences on social media writing, “For obvious reasons I’m thinking this morning about the friends and Family of this young person Kevin Bacon. His life was taken from him much too soon. His love was hair dressing. I bet he would have done a great job on this mess on my head. RIP KB.”

This tragic incident, in the wake of previous reports of dating apps being used to lure gay men into dangerous situations, brings to bear the important topic of safety when meeting strangers on such apps. Grindr recently announced new features to protect users’ safety, but are they enough? Some years ago,  a friend told me he always left the web page of a dating website he used open on his laptop when he’d meet up with someone new. His intention was if he went missing people would find the info on his computer. Readers – do you take any specific measures when using dating apps? Tell friends where or who you are meeting? Does anyone have advice on how to help in these situations? Tell us in the comments section. (source: MLive.com)

Posted on

News Round-Up: September 11, 2019

Eliad Cohen relaxes on a big, inflatable pink flamingo.

Eliad Cohen relaxes on a big, inflatable pink flamingo. Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Some days you just want to ride a big pink thing. Just ask Eliad Cohen (above)…LOL • Bloomberg: The state of Michigan has approved a charter for the first-ever LGBTQ credit union set to open in 2020. • KIT212: Happy Hump Day! You know what that means over at kenneth-in-the-212… Wrestle Wednesday! • HuffPost: Talk about underhanded politics… After promising there would be no votes until Wednesday afternoon out of respect for 9/11, North Carolina GOP lawmakers in the state House took advantage of Democrats attending memorial ceremonies to push through an override of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the state budget.

• Washington Post: The Supreme Court has ruled the Trump administration’s policy to bar many Central American migrants from seeking asylum in the United States may go into effect while legal challenges move forward. Since 1980, the U.S. has said those who say they are fleeing persecution and violence in their home countries have the right to at least apply for asylum. • NY Times: The White House was directly involved in pressing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to denounce the weather forecasters who contradicted Donald Trump’s claim that Hurricane Dorian would probably strike Alabama. Mick Mulvaney, acting White House chief of staff, told Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, to have NOAA publicly disavow the forecasters’ position that Alabama was not at risk. • New Music: Tony Award winner drops his newest music video, the uptempo, pulsating “Rain,” from his album Sing To Me Instead. Platt’s upcoming September 29 concert at Radio City Music Hall is not only sold-out (huge place, don’t you know?) but it will be filmed for a future Netflix music special. And of course, there’s the upcoming Netflix series The Politician, by Ryan Murphy, which he stars in alongside Jessica Lange, Gwenyth Paltrow, and his Dear Evan Hansen co-star Laura Dreyfuss.

Posted on

Black Prospective Home Buyer Finds KKK Memorabilia While Viewing Cop’s Home

(screen capture)

A prospective African-American homebuyer in Michigan was touring a home when he came across Confederate flag placemats on the dining room table.

Taking a look at the NASCAR-inspired garage, he found two more Confederate flags.

According to the Washington Post, Rob Mathis said to himself, “Wouldn’t it be funny if this was a Klansman’s house?”

And just minutes later, he and his wife came across a plaque in one of the bedrooms. Mounted on wood was an application for membership in the Ku Klux Klan.

The home, about an hour outside of Grand Rapids, belongs to Muskegon police officer Charles Anderson, who has served on the police force there for more than 20 years.

Mathis posted a photo of the KKK application as he shared how the experience left him rattled.

“I feel sick to my stomach knowing that I walk to the home of one of the most racist people in Muskegon hiding behind his uniform and possibly harassing people of color and different nationalities,” he wrote in his post late Wednesday.

The city of Muskegon announced in a Facebook post that an investigation had been opened and Anderson is now on administrative leave.

When contacted by MLive.com, Anderson offered only a brief response saying, “They (his police union) said not to talk about it. That’s what they told me. Because it’s under internal investigation they said not to make a statement.”

Complicating things more, Anderson was involved in the shooting death of a black man ten years ago while on duty. At the time, he was acquited of any wrongdoing.

But, the Muskegon chapter of the NAACP is now asking that all cases involving Anderson and people of color be reviewed.

Posted on

There’s A Town In Michigan Called ‘Gay Hell’

YouTube personality Elijah Daniel, in an act of rebellion against the Trump administration’s ban on U.S. embassies flying the rainbow flag during Pride Month, decided to buy a town known as Hell, Michigan and renamed it ’Gay Hell.’
YouTuber Elijah Daniel bought a Michigan town and renamed it ‘Gay Hell’

I’ve been told a few times in my life that as a gay man I’m going to hell.

Well, at least now, I have directions to the place.

YouTube personality Elijah Daniel, in an act of rebellion against the Trump administration’s ban on U.S. embassies flying the rainbow flag during Pride Month, decided to buy a town known as Hell, Michigan and renamed it ’Gay Hell.’

Daniel followed up in another tweet, “Y’all told me I was gonna go to hell for being gay my whole life so I bought it and made it fully gay. F*ck you homophobes.”

In Daniel’s Gay Hell, the ONLY kind of flags allowed to be flown are Pride flags.

And don’t worry about getting bored – there’s stuff to do in Gay Hell.

Like, visit the local library (funded by ‘Damnation University’), or if you’re feeling amorous, get married at the local wedding chapel.

Even the weather seems to be cooperating with the new owner’s theme:

Daniel has nearly 600,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel and became engaged to his boyfriend, Sam, this past January.

Back in 2017, the 25-year-old shared on Twitter, “If Donald Trump, a REALITY STAR can be our president there’s no reason why I can’t be a politician.”

And so, after calling 50 different towns, he paid $100 to become ‘mayor for a day’ in Hell and ‘outlawed’ heterosexuality in an effort to mock Donald Trump’s treatment of Muslims.

“When I found out it was for sale, I was like ’sh*t, I’ve gotta buy this now,’” he told Sky News.

One couple who visited Gay Hell snapped a pic next to the town’s “love locks’ and tweeted, “Our gay love and legal marriage is forever cemented on the gates of Hell. It’s what @s8n would want.”

Daniel says most of the reactions he’s seen have been positive, and that folks understand it’s “just a fun joke.”

Posted on

News Round-Up: January 7, 2019

• The hunky Alex Landi, who plays out Dr. Nico Kim on Grey's Anatomy, tells Attitude Magazine that he just wants to do his best when portraying roles regardless of his sexuality or his character’s.
Alex Landi (promo photo: Grey’s Anatomy/ABC)

Some news items you might have missed:

• Buff Alex Landi, who plays out Dr. Nico Kim on Grey’s Anatomy, tells Attitude Magazine that he just wants to do his best when portraying roles regardless of his sexuality or his character’s.

• Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has signed a new directive banning LGBT-based discrimination in state services or by state contractors. The new executive order does not include a loophole exemption for religious organizations that receive state funds.

• Virulently anti-gay Texas Pastor Donnie Romero resigned last week after it was revealed he has a deep history of gambling, hiring prostitutes and smoking marijuana. At the time, Romero actually cheered the Pulse Nightclub shooting wishing the gunman had ‘finished the job.’ Ye who protesteth the loudest, do it the mosteth.

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has changed her position on healthcare for transgender people in prison saying she now supports access to all “medically necessary services, including transition-related surgeries.”

• Donald Trump may think Special Counsel Robert Mueller might wrap up his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election soon, but Mueller just extended his grand jury in Washington, D.C., for another six months.

• Tony Award winner (Kinky Boots) and Golden Globe nominee (Pose) Billy Porter dropped a new music video for “Love the Pain Away,” a song he wrote in 1999.

Billy shares he recently came across the song again and realized it still applies to what’s happening today in the U.S.

Note how Billy extends the video to give all of his band and chance to shine. #Class

Posted on

Michigan Judge Halts Recount After Two Days: “No Evidence Of Tampering”

Jill Stein’s recount of the Michigan presidential vote has been ordered to stop by a federal judge because there’s no “evidence of tampering or mistake.”

From Detroit Free Press:

In his eight-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith said “there is no basis” for him to ignore a state court ruling that said the recount should never had started. He was referring to the Michigan Court of Appeals 3-0 ruling, which said that Green Party Candidate Jill Stein, who requested the recount, never had a shot at winning with her fourth-place finish and 1% of the vote, and therefore was not an aggrieved candidate.

Goldsmith’s ruling also bolstered some arguments that were repeatedly made by the Michigan Republican Party: that there was never any evidence that hacking or fraud occurred at the polls, and that Michigan’s voting system is so secure that not even the “Gremlins, Martians or Russian hackers” could tamper with it. That argument appeared to carry some weight with the judge.

“To date, plaintiffs have not presented evidence of tampering or mistake. Instead, they present speculative claims going to the vulnerability of the voting machinery — but not actual injury,” Goldsmith wrote, adding the potential for fraud is not enough to continue to allow the recount to proceed.

(h/t JoeMyGod)

Posted on

Congressman Matt Cartwright Eviscerates Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Over Flint Water Debacle

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder had his butt handed to him today while testifying before the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the Flint water debacle that has left thousands with lead poisoning.

Check this one heated exchange via The Detroit News:

“I’ve had about enough of your false contrition and your phony apologies,” Rep. Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania told the governor.

“Plausible deniability only works when it’s plausible, and I’m not buying any of this that you didn’t know until October 2015,” Cartwright said. “You were not in a medically induced coma for a year.”

“People who put dollars over the fundamental safety of people do not belong in government, and you need to resign, too, Mr. Governor,” Cartwright said.

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));


Congressman Matt Cartwright: “Governor Snyder, plausible deniability only works if it’s plausible.” He goes on to say, “You need to resign, too.” Watch the complete Flint Water Crisis hearing here: http://cs.pn/1MnmC3z
Posted by C-SPAN on Thursday, March 17, 2016

Posted on

Pollsters Blindsided By Bernie Sanders’ Michigan Primary Win

The big story today is Sen. Bernie Sanders surprise win in the Michigan Democratic primary last night.

I say surprise because virtually every pollster and prognosticator in politics had pegged Hillary Clinton to win by double digits.

Check the screen capture above of the most recent polls aggregated by Real Clear Politics.

This morning, pundits are saying this will be remembered as one of the biggest upsets in electoral politics.

Posted on

“Little House On The Prairie” Star Melissa Gilbert Announces Run For Congress

More than “just an actress,” Gilbert has previously served as president for the Screen Actors Guild, as did former President Ronald Reagan.