ONLINE. A Yelp! employee who posted an open letter to the company’s CEO about how her wages were not enough for her to live on was fired two hours after she posted the letter: “The CEO offered a statement which said in part: ‘I’ve not been personally involved in Talia being let go and it was not because she posted a Medium letter directed at me. Two sides to every HR story so Twitter army please put down the pitchforks.'”
MUSIC. 70s group The Sequence say Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson ripped off “Uptown Funk” from them.
RAGE. Charlie Sheen says that crazy period of his life where waxed poetic about having tiger blood in his veins was caused by over-using testosterone cream.
INK. Adam Levine shows off his massive new back tattoo.
GITMO. President Obama announced his plan to close the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba: “The plan involves transferring remaining prisoners to other countries and moving the remaining prisoners to another location within the United States. The plan faced opposition from congressional Republicans before the details were even released.”
HEALTH. CDC investigating 14 potential cases of sexually-transmitted Zika. All of those cases appear to involve heterosexual partners: “In at least two of these U.S. cases, infection was confirmed in women whose only known risk factor was sexual contact with an ill male partner who recently had returned from one of the approximately three dozen countrieswhere the virus has now spread. Four other women have tested positive for Zika in preliminary lab tests but are awaiting final confirmation. The CDC said the eight other cases remain under investigation.”
SCOTUS. All of the Republican members of the Senate judiciary committee have vowed to not hold any hearings on a replacement for Antonin Scalia until President Obama leaves office: “Because our decision is based on constitutional principle and born of a necessity to protect the will of the American people, this Committee will not hold hearings on any Supreme Court nominee until after our next President is sworn in on January 20, 2017.”
LIFEGUARDS. More photos of Zac Efron looking buff as ever while filming the Baywatch movie.
VOICE OVER. You can now have Morgan Freeman as your GPS navigation voice.
TROUBLE IN THE PALACE. Staff at Kensington Palace in London, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge live, threaten to strike over proposed pay cut: “The workers who would be largely effected are those who work in ticket offices or show visitors around the grounds. This all stems from the fact that they were asked to take reduced hours, which would thus cut their wages.”
WE WERE ROOTING FOR YOU. America’s Next Top Model will return but without Tyra Banks as host and on VH1.
PrEP. Small loss in bone density among young adults taking PrEP appears to be reversed once Truvada is no longer being taken.
POLITICS. Gay lawmakers form LGBT political action committee: “Reps. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Mark Takano (D-Calif.), the first openly gay Asian-American in Congress, announced Tuesday they will co-chair the Equality PAC. The Equality PAC is endorsing Minnesota congressional candidate Angie Craig, an executive at St. Jude Medical who is running to fill the seat of retiring Rep. John Kline (R). It is also backing the reelection bids of Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) — the first openly bisexual lawmaker in Congress — and Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), who is also gay.”
AUSTRALIA. PM Malcolm Turnbull orders a review of a school program aimed at promoting acceptance of LGBT students: “The move was immediately hailed by the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) as a win against ‘rainbow ideology,’ while Labor and the teacher’s union slammed Mr Turnbull for buckling to the conservative wing of the Liberal Party. The Safe Schools teaching manual, set up by Labor but launched by the Coalition in 2014, has been under fire in recent weeks from conservative politicians, the ACL and News Corp newspapers.”
RIO 2016. Tom Daley qualifies for synchro dive competition at upcoming Olympic games.
