Tag: Pulse Nightclub

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News Round-Up: May 8, 2018

Birthday boy Nyle DiMarco

Some news items you might have missed:

• Happy, happy birthday to Nyle DiMarco! The DWTS/ANTM champ turns 29 today! The handsome model and actor is currently working as a producer on Broadway repping the revival of the hit play, Children of a Lesser God.

• An 88-year-old grandmother shut down her son’s homophobia in two sentences.

• Madonna served up fashion in a dramatic vein last night at the annual Met Gala where she sang “Like A Prayer,” “Hallelujah” and debuted a new song apparently titled, “Magic.” The theme for the evening was Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.

• Raul Castro’s daughter is making the push for marriage equality in Cuba.

• House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi says if there are Democratic House candidates who want to say they won’t support her as House Speaker, she’s fine with it. “I think if they have to do that to win the election, I’m all for it. Just win, baby.”

• Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has questioned a Russian oligarch about hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments funneled through his company to President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, after the election. #RuhRoh #DidHeSayRussia?

• The new interim memorial for the victims and survivors of the Pulse Nightclub shooting was unveiled today in Orlando, Florida. This tribute will remain until a permanent memorial can be built.

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News Round-Up: April 6, 2018

(image via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• Max Emerson and Abram Hodgens (above) know how to April in style! Oh, to be in Park City right now…

• Ok, so now I have to watch the upcoming all-athletes edition of Dancing with the Stars because oh-so-awesome Olympic bronze medalist Adam Rippon will be taking part in the reality competition. Two Olympic skaters have won in the past, so, just saying… 🙂

• Fitness model Quin Bruce is giving you “off-duty Superman”… #woof

A post shared by Quin Bruce (@quin_bruce) on Apr 6, 2018 at 1:36pm PDT

• HuffPost: Everyone got the Pulse massacre story completely wrong. Available evidence now suggests Pulse Nightclub was “chosen at random.”

• Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego on Donald Trump: “I will gladly work with the President when his ideas aren’t stupid and detrimental to the United States.” #SoundsAboutRight

 • Hawaii has become the 7th state to legalize the right to medically assisted suicide. #Good #Dignity

• For a little #TBT action, I’m digging re-visiting American Idol alum Frenchie Davis’ single “Love’s Got A Hold On Me” from back in 2012. Oh – and are those hot, shirtless guys in there…?

I met and interviewed the openly bi singer during the promo for the single and she was an absolute doll.

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Widow Of Pulse Nightclub Shooter Found Not Guilty

Noor Salman (L) with Pulse gunman Omar Mateen (R)

In what will likely be the only court proceeding in relation to the deadly Pulse Nightclub shooting in June of 2016, Noor Salman, widow of the shooter Omar Mateen, was found not guilty of the two charges brought against her.

From NBC News:

Salman, 31, was accused of helping her husband plan his terror assault on the Orlando, Florida, nightclub and of falsely denying her role afterward.

The government equated Mateen’s actions with supporting terrorism, because he repeatedly pledged allegiance to ISIS before and during the attack that left 49 people dead and 53 injured. For that reason, Salman was charged with aiding him in providing material support to a terror group.

She was also charged with obstruction of justice, accused of misleading police and FBI agents by making contradictory statements about whether she knew what he was planning.

But after a two-week trial, a federal court jury acquitted her on both counts.

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Orlando: Pulse Nightclub Survivors Greet Parkland Shooting Survivors

After spending several days in Tallahassee, Florida, lobbying state lawmakers to take steps that could stop violent gun massacres in the future, students who survived the gun massacre at a Parkland high school two weeks ago made a stop in Orlando to meet with survivors of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in 2016.

Standing together, the survivors read the names of the 49 Pulse shooting victims and place a rose in a wire fence in tribute. They then added the names of the 17 killed in the Parkland shooting.

Neema Bahrami, who was an event manager at Pulse at the time of the attack, told the press, “We’re all family.”

Watch the local news report below.

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Pulse Shooter’s Wife: I Knew He Was Going To Attack Nightclub

Just hours after the deadly shooting massacre at the Pulse nightclub on June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen’s wife, Noor Salman was questioned by the FBI. According to reports, Salman hand-wrote a 12-page statement providing specific details of the attack.

Salman’s statement was quietly released in a batch of records from the case at the end of December 2017.

Via USA Today:

The 12-page statement, quietly released by federal authorities at the end of December in a batch of records in the case, was taken hours after the June 12, 2016 shooting. The attack left 49 dead and dozens of others injured.

Noor Salman was questioned for hours, without a lawyer, after authorities learned her husband was the gunman behind the attack.

She was arrested last year on federal charges of providing material support to a terrorist and tampering with evidence but has pleaded not guilty, claiming she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. She said Mateen abused her and claims she did not know of his plot.

But her defense conflicts with the signed statement she gave to the FBI, which details her knowledge of Mateen’s planning and his path to carry out an attack on behalf of the Islamic State.

She told agents multiple times she knew his plans and that he was going to attack the Orlando club when he left their home.

On June 12, 2016, Salman’s husband killed 49 people at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. He was eventually shot and killed by police after a three-hour standoff.

Salman faces charges of aiding a foreign terrorist organization and obstruction of justice.

In her written statement, Salman told investigators:

• Mateen bought a rifle just days before the attack. When she saw it in his car trunk he told her not to say “anything to anybody.”

• Driving by heavily populated areas like Disney World and Pulse Nightclub, he told her, “How upset are people going to be when it gets attacked?”

• Two days before the massacre Salman noticed Mateen looking at the Pulse Nightclub’s website. When she asked what he was doing, he replied, “This is my target.”

• The night before the shooting Mateen was “pumped up” wearing a handgun in a holster and a backpack full of ammunition. “I knew when he left the house he was going to Orlando to attack the Pulse nightclub,” she wrote.

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News Round-Up: December 27, 2017

(via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• It’s Hump Day – Do I really need to explain why actor/model Trevor LaPaglia (above) is here? #woof

• Who could possibly be a big enough star to headline the Sydney Gay & Lesbian 40th Mardi Gras celebration the year that marriage equality becomes a reality? Word is it’s the one and only Cher.

• Donald Trump’s lawyers are telling the Trumpster the Robert Mueller investigation will soon come to an end, but those in the know say that’s “fanciful” thinking as Yahoo News reports Mueller has just collected “a mountain of new evidence.”

• Kansas City weatherman Gary Lezak came out to the world and introduced his longtime partner in a moving Facebook post last week.

• An Orlando police officer who saved lives the night of the Pulse Nightclub shooting is being fired just months before his pension would kick in.

• Apple is facing at least 8 lawsuits over iPhone software updates that slowed down phones without informing customers.

• And here’s the always fun round-up of Best News Bloopers of 2017, just to show you folks on TV are human like all of us:

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Judge Denies Request To Move Trial Of Pulse Nightclub Shooter’s Widow

The widow of the Pulse Nightclub shooter, who killed 49 people at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub in June of 2016, has seen her request for a change of venue for her upcoming trial denied.

Via The New York Times:

U.S. District Judge Paul Byron ruled Wednesday that attorneys for Noor Salman did not prove that she cannot get a fair trial in Orlando. Salman was married to Omar Mateen, who died in a shootout with police at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub in June 2016.

Prosecutors charged Salman with obstruction of justice, saying she knew of her husband’s plans. She denies that.

Her trial is set for March.

Salman’s attorneys argued she could not get a fair trial in Orlando because of constant media coverage and statements made by the Orlando Police chief. But the judge concluded those statements were not inflammatory or prejudicial.

Until the recent shooting in Las Vegas, the Pulse massacre was the deadliest shooting event in American history.

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Daily Dance: “Had She Never Asked Me”

Powerful and compelling original spoken word poem written & performed by Daniel J. Watts (currently appearing in Hamilton), choreographed by Cindy Salgado.

From the official website:

Had She Never Asked Me was written by Daniel J. Watts in response to the June 12, 2016 shooting that killed 49 people and wounded 58 others inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Choreographer Cindy Salgado, having been commissioned to choreograph a new piece for Barton Movement, chose Daniel’s original text as the foundation of her new piece. The original work premiered at Axis Connect in Los Angeles, CA in 2016.

Eager to reach a broader audience with this piece, Cindy Salgado and Charissa Barton set out to capture it on camera, the result of which is this film.

Watch below.

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Orlando: Pulse Nightclub Massacre One Year Ago Today

It was one year ago today that a lone gunman, Omar Mateen, pledged his loyalty to ISIS, walked into a gay nightclub in Orlando armed with an assault rifle and killed 49 people in the worst gun massacre in American history.

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News Round-Up: May 4, 2017

Some news items you may have missed:

• If I can’t start my day looking LIKE Alex Abramov, at least I can start my day looking AT Alex Abramov.

• Pulse Nightclub, the site of the largest mass murder of LGBTQ people in the history of the United States, will become a permanent national memorial.

• Two 16 year old high school students pretended to be a 35 year old man on a dating app to get a North Carolina teacher to send a naked pic to them, and then they sent the pic to classmates.

• After Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi said that those who dress outside of traditional gender norms are asking for violence, citizens of the Equality State began protesting his comments by wearing tutus and tweeting the hashtag #LiveandLetTutu.

• The Tony Award nominations are out, and lots of folks are thrilled to be on the list. There were, however, some rather egregious oversights. Check out who got overlooked here.

• Team Trump is furious that CNN refused to air his new campaign ad, which included a graphic calling CNN “fake news.” Check out CNN’s response below: