Reporting on natural disasters is one of the most difficult things a journalist can do, and people screaming at you can only make it even more difficult. Which is why a video of one MSNBC reporter being confronted on live TV during his coverage of Hurricane Ida got a lot of attention in the wake of the storm pummeling the Gulf Coast.
Shaquille Brewster was on the ground covering the aftermath of the storm for MSNBC on Monday when a man pulled up in a truck and interrupted the broadcast from Gulfport, Mississippi. Brewster was on a beach giving an update on conditions there when a man got out of a truck and moved toward the camera, in the background of the live shot. Smartly, Brewster attempted to move with his camera operator so they could continue broadcasting without the man in the background.
Things looked OK for a moment, and the broadcast put up a split-screen of Brewster and footage from earlier in the storm’s landfall to further keep him off camera. But the man then suddenly moved toward Brewster, yelling about accuracy while making contact with a startled reporter trying to work on live TV.
It was a bizarre scene to say the least, and the in-studio crew at MSNBC appeared troubled about what happened to one of their colleagues on the scene. It’s unclear what the man in question was trying to accomplish interrupting the broadcast, but no harm appears to have been done to Brewster and his crew at his hand. Brewster tweeted on Monday that he and his crew were OK, but it was certainly a harrowing thing to cut away from quickly on live TV.
Appreciate the concern guys. The team and I are all good!
Some on social media hoped to find out who it was that confronted him. But in an era where we’ve seen reporters see on-camera violence from passersby, watching a reporter deal with a ranting stranger in an already dangerous circumstance is a tough watch for sure.
I started traveling to Northern New Mexico about five years ago. I wasn’t really sure what to do there, I just had a feeling it was a place I would connect with. From the minute I entered the state, I knew my instincts had been right. “The sky’s just different there,” you’ll hear everyone who’s ever visited say. And it really is.
The sky, the land, the people, the food — it’s truly… magical. Mystical even. “The land of enchantment” might be the most fitting state nickname I’ve ever heard.
Northern New Mexico, specifically, is my favorite long weekend destination. An easy drive from my home in Colorado, it provides a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of Denver.
There are nearly infinite places to explore and things to see in the northern portion of NM, but the places I’d start with are Taos and Santa Fe — with a couple of detours in between. Check my guide to the two stunning towns below!
PART I: Eat
Emily Hart
The food in New Mexico is an integral part of the experience. There are eclectic and interesting spots on every corner. I can truly say I’ve never had a bad meal.
In Santa Fe, I always stop at Chocolate Maven Bakery and Cafe for breakfast or brunch. The cafe is small and charming, with a glass panel that looks into the bakery side. It feels like you’re stepping into a secret. A cozy little secret with amazing eggs benedict.
For lunch, I recently discovered Tesuque Village Market. The atmosphere won me over right away and the food didn’t disappoint. Get the pork ranchero enchiladas or any of the New Mexican specialties that come topped with green chilies.
In Taos, I always stop at World Cup Cafe for a cappuccino and Antonios for lunch or dinner. The Chile Relleno en Nogada is seasoned with pear, walnut brandy, and raisins and is famous through the state. My favorite breakfast burrito on earth comes from Bode’s General Store in Abiquiu.
PART II: Sleep
One of the reasons I started traveling to Northern New Mexico was the abundance of unique AirBnb’s I found during my nightly scrolls through the app. I am always on the lookout for interesting abodes, and they are easy to find in this area.
I have stayed in domes, airstreams, yurts, casitas, and earth homes — all reasonably priced — in the area. From luxury to roughing it, there is a place for everyone.
Another great option is Hotel Luna Mystica — a vintage trailer hotel and campground right outside Taos Mesa Brewing. I’ve camped here and the location can’t be beat.
Emily Hart
For the wellness traveler, there are plenty of hot springs dotting the New Mexican landscape — some with adjoining accommodations. Ojo Caliente and Ojo Santa Fe are luxurious options for soaking and relaxing. Ojo Caliente is my personal favorite, tucked into the a rock-side outside of Taos with multiple soaking pools.
PART III: Drink
Emily Hart
When I’m near Taos I always stop at Taos Mesa Brewing. The “Mothership” is currently closed due to fire damage, but the downtown taproom location is serving up brews and vibes.
Santa Fe Brewing is a staple in Santa Fe. While there are multiple tap rooms, the Beer Hall at HQ has a great mountain view and food options.
I recently explored part of the New Mexico Wine Trail and I have to say, as a frequent winery visitor, I was impressed. Throughout the state there are 40+ wineries on the trail, with many in and around the Taos and Santa Fe areas. Some of my favorites are Black Mesa winery and Casa Abril.
PART IV: Explore
There is so much to explore in Northern New Mexico. I have visited a dozen times and find something new every time.
Emily Hart
The obvious recommendation is the original Meow Wolf. An immersive art installation set in an old bowling alley, Meow Wolf is hard to describe until you see it for yourself. I was lucky enough to visit the first week they opened several years ago and had it nearly to myself. I’ve been back several times since and am just as in awe as I was the first time. It is an experience like none other.
Unless you’ve spent time in New Mexico you may not realize how many diverse outdoor experiences there are in the state. Many of my favorite outdoor recreation spots are in and around Abiquiu — which is about an hour northwest of Santa Fe and an hour southwest of Taos.
Ghost Ranch is just outside of Abiquiu, and was famously Georgia O’Keeffe’s home and inspiration for many of her most famous works. There is a retreat center onsite with classes, museum and a horse stable. There is a campground and also day use for hiking. I recommended Chimney Rock Trail and Kitchen Mesa.
Plaza Blanca is another privately-owned recreation area that was an inspiration to O’Keeffe. The white rock formations are on the grounds of Dar Al Islam but they’ve opened the area to hiking, It is a truly otherworldly landscape.
Emily Hart
Around Taos you can take a dip in Manby Hot Springs on the Rio Grande or hike into the alpine to Williams Lake.
Drive between Taos and Santa Fe on the low or high road — stop in Chimayo — to take in the scenery and culture.
As The Guardian reports, the witness, who asked to testify anonymous, relayed how he was lured to Kelly’s house in 2007 where the singer asked “what I was willing to do for music.” The victim said he responded: “I’ll carry your bags… anything you need, I’ll be willing to do.” That was when Kelly brushed aside his offer for assistant work with “that’s not it, that’s not it,” asked if the victim had ever had sexual fantasies about men, and then proceeded to get on his knees and perform oral sex on the teenager. The victim said “he told me to keep [the encounter] between him and me,” and noted that he kept seeing the superstar after the incident because he was hopeful it would lead to success in the music industry.
Read more reporting on today’s testimony via The Guardian.
Gavin Grimm came out as a transgender male six years ago to his classmates at Gloucester High School in Virginia. The Gloucester County School Board retaliated by prohibiting students “with gender identity issues” from using the same common restrooms as other boys and girls.
Instead, Grimm was forced to use an “alternative appropriate private facility.”
Grimm was excluded from using the restroom that confirmed his gender even after undergoing hormone therapy which “altered his bone and muscle structure, deepened his voice, and caused him to grow facial hair.” He also obtained a Virginia state I.D. card and birth certificate that listed his legal sex as male.
To top it off, the school refused to designate him as a male on his transcripts after he graduated. As a result, whenever Gavin was required to provide a transcript to colleges or potential employers, he had to provide one that misidentified him as “female.”
via Wikimedia Commons
Grimm filed a lawsuit against the school district in 2015 when he was a sophomore claiming that that school’s policy violated Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause. Grimm was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in the lawsuit.
The ACLU announced on August 26 that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in favor of Gavin on all his claims and it was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
The case was sent to the Supreme Court, but it declined to review it in June, upholding the lower court ruling. Grimm was awarded $1.3 million in the lawsuit but the entire sum, minus $1, is going toward legal fees paid for by the ACLU.
BREAKING: After seven years of fighting and following the Supreme Court’s decision not to review his many victories… https://t.co/FDWXIgcmRz
“It’s absolutely vindication,” Grimm told Insider. “The court found that what they did was wrong and it was discrimination and it was not going to go without consequence, and I think that’s fantastic.”
The decision is a huge win for the LGBTQ community and it will also act as a deterrent for future anti-trans legislation.
“We are glad that this long litigation is finally over and that Gavin has been fully vindicated by the courts, but it should not have taken over six years of expensive litigation to get to this point,” Josh Block, senior staff attorney with the ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project, said in a statement.
“After a year in which state legislatures have introduced an unprecedented number of bills targeting trans youth, we hope that the fee award will give other school boards and lawmakers pause before they use discrimination to score political points,” he continued.
Grimm hopes that the decision will slow the tide of anti-trans legislation cropping up all over the country.
“Their hatred and discrimination is struck down in court over and over again,” he said of lawmakers pushing anti-trans bills. “I hope that they look at this and know that their time is coming to an end.”
Now that Kanye West’s Donda is finally released — whether he approved the final version or not — the armchair critics are emerging with their hot takes in hand. Whether it’s to declare the record awful, worship at the altar of Ye, or refuse to engage with the text, a whole spectrum of responses has emerged, as usual, to the latest Yeezy project. But one thoughtful, long-time Kanye fan has a fairly measured response, and ideas for how to make the record better.
On this morning’s episode of The Breakfast Club, DJ Envy noted that he won’t be listening to the album at all because of Ye’s recent flirtation with supporting the MAGA among us, but Charlamagne Tha God came through with some pretty good, honest insight. “Upon first listen, it was lackluster for me,” he said Charlamagne. “I like the joint with Westwide and Kanye, I like ‘Jesus Lord’ with the LOX and Jay Electronica…. I think if he just scaled the project down, to like 12-13 records, it could be a great album.”
The idea of scaling the project down is likely something plenty of people at the label had in mind, too, and would likely do a lot for its reception. The sheer volume is a dealbreaker, as Charlamagne notes: “But it’s an hour and 48 minutes long, so like Kanye West it can be very exhausting,” he said, noting the music itself sounds older, too. “28 songs with all the part twos, an hour and 48 minutes, it’s too long and it drags to me. And the music sounds kinda dated, man.”
So maybe, Kanye, release an edited version to win fans like Charlamagne back? Check out the full discussion above.
Ted Lasso‘s second season has sparked all kinds of internet discourse over its pacing, direction and just generally whether it’s OK for a show to have nice people doing nice things for each other as the general plot. Some of that talk has been in jest, but the conversations have been fairly consistent in recent days to say the least. But the latest episode of the Apple TV smash hit has some wondering if it’s actually revealed something even more interesting: an unreleased iPhone.
Apple is notorious about its secrecy when it comes to new technology, so the revelation would be a surprise. But a recent scene where Lasso, Keeley, his boss and another character were all eating lunch featured an Apple phone that appeared to lack the latest product’s signature notch. You can see two images of it below.
Apple TV+Apple TV+
Apple is certainly known for its product placement in its TV shows, as anyone who watched the first season of The Morning Show can attest. But Lasso, a show where a fake soccer team plays against real soccer teams and was filmed amid a pandemic, makes use of a good amount of CGI to make the show somewhat realistic-looking. So this may just be, well, a fake phone that wasn’t an exact model of a real Apple device. Or a computer-created device that simply doesn’t include all the quirks of the real deal.
Also, given how big a deal Apple makes out of new phone reveals, intentionally sneaking it into a show with little fanfare seems counterintuitive when it comes to marketing. Consider, also, that the phones traditionally get announced in the fall and Lasso‘s second season rollout technically saw it get pushed back a bit when it did not drop Season 2’s first three episodes all at once, as expected during its writing and filming.
In other words, is this a new iPhone reveal? Maybe! But it’s not like we’re getting specs of this bad boy until it’s on a slide above a very sleek stage, so perhaps it’s safe to assume this is a prop problem and not some kind of corporate espionage.
New Orleans and numerous other towns and cities along the gulf coast of Louisiana and Mississippi were devastated this weekend by Hurricane Ida, as the Category 4 storm ripped through the area causing flooding, physical destruction of homes and property, and widespread power outages.
As the storm passed and moved inland, the initial rescue efforts began in the areas that were hit the hardest, like LaPlace, Louisiana, as first responders and citizen groups like the Cajun Navy went out to try and rescue those trapped in their homes from rising floodwaters. In the coming days and weeks, a more full understanding of the devastation the region has faced from the storm will become clearer, but what is known right now is there is lots of work to do and many people who will be in need of significant assistance in rebuilding and recovering from another major hurricane.
On Monday, the New Orleans Pelicans and Saints released a statement offering support for the community and those who have been most effected by the storm, while also launching the Gulf Coast Renewal Fund, which will be seeded first by a $1 million donation from Pelicans and Saints owner Gayle Benson.
We want to do everything within our power to assist those who have been impacted by the storm and have activated our Gulf Coast Renewal Fund, with Gayle Benson making an initial donation of $1 million to support our community throughout Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Those wishing to donate can do so by going to Pelicans.com/hurricaneida. More details on the fund and other initiatives will be provided in the coming days.
The GCRF will allocate funds to local organizations working in the community to help with disaster relief, and they promise more information and details will come soon. The statement also says that the Saints and Pelicans physical facilities, including the Caesars Superdome and Smoothie King Center, sustained only “superficial” damage and the teams have offered up the facilities for any governmental relief efforts, with the Pelicans practice facility being used by FEMA for staging purposes.
Of the various ways to speak the English language, the Scottish dialects are some of the most fascinating to listen to. I’m apparently not alone in this thinking, as TikTok has exploded with Scottish people simply sharing Scottish things with their Scottish brogue and collecting fans hand over fist.
As an American, I don’t always understand what these TikTokers are saying, which is probably why some of them specialize in translating Scottish slang terms into non-Scottish English. But even when there’s no issue understanding, there’s something part-funny, part-sexy about the Scottish accent that gets me every time. If I could pay James McAvoy to read me a bedtime story every night, I would.
In fact, McAvoy shared a bit about his accent in this clip with Stephen Colbert, which was the first time I’d seen a Scot explain that the word “burglary” trips them up.
James McAvoy Plays Stephen Colbert’s Lightning Round
Apparently, it’s not just him. There’s a well-known phrase, “purple burglar alarm,” that is notoriously difficult for some Scots to say without tripping over their tongue. And watching some of them try is delightfully entertaining.
The only thing better than a Scot being unable to say “purple burglar alarm” is a Scot who is able to say it because somehow it still sounds like they’re drowning.
There’s definitely no bad blood between Lil Nas X and skating pro Tony Hawk, in case you were concerned. The “Montero” rapper recently shared a few Instagram photos and a TikTok where the two are holding up Hawk’s Liquid Death Mountain Water board and taking turns riding it. “That’s how you skateboard,” Nas says at the end, with the joke clearly being that Hawk was the one doing the heavy lifting.
This comes a week after Lil Nas X called out the double-standards surrounding his infamous “Satan Shoes” compared to Hawk’s limited-edition “Liquid Death” skateboard, which is made with paint that contains Hawk’s actual blood. (As a reminder, the sneakers were also made with real human blood, and, in addition to a public outcry, the rapper actually ended up getting sued by Nike. Not so much with Hawk’s skateboard, however.)
“Now that tony hawk has released skateboards with his blood painted on them, and there was no public outrage, are y’all ready to admit y’all were never actually upset over the blood in the shoes? and maybe u were mad for some other reason?” the “Industry Baby” rapper tweeted last week.
now that tony hawk has released skateboards with his blood painted on them, and there was no public outrage, are y’all ready to admit y’all were never actually upset over the blood in the shoes? and maybe u were mad for some other reason?
Earlier in the day, Lil Nas X shared his Montero parody of Drake’s meme-fied Certified Lover Boy album art. It’s basically the exact same look, except all the female heads have been replaced with male ones. You know, rather like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Junior.
For anyone that logs on to Twitch on September 1, they might be surprised to find it much less active than usual. That is intentional because streamers from all over will be boycotting Twitch for “A Day Off Twitch” in support of marginalized streamers that are facing growing harassment on the platform. A trend called “hate raids” have been increasing across Twitch where waves of people are being sent to active streams and harassing them with hateful messages.
For anyone in need of a refresher, a raid on Twitch is when someone has wrapped up their stream they will send their audience of viewers to a different stream. It’s a way the streaming community supports one another by spreading the wealth. To let the streamer know they are being raided it is usually accompanied by a wave of messages, in their chat, related to the stream everyone is coming from. These hate raids however are not about showing support for one another. It’s targeted harassment and the trend is, unfortunately, becoming more common.
Twitch’s response to the hate raids have so far been to encourage their community to not do this and to request that users report anyone taking part in this. They have said they’re working on a fix, but the response has been slow and many streamers feel that their voices have been going unheard as the hate raids continue.
No one should have to experience malicious and hateful attacks based on who they are or what they stand for. This is not the community we want on Twitch, and we want you to know we are working hard to make Twitch a safer place for creators. https://t.co/fDbw62e5LW
We’ve been building channel-level ban evasion detection and account improvements to combat this malicious behavior for months. However, as we work on solutions, bad actors work in parallel to find ways around them—which is why we can’t always share details.
While it may sound like Twitch is responding to something that is only just now happening, these hate raids have actually been increasing since summertime. One of the first people to call out the hate raids was a streamer named “RekItRaven.” She posted a clip on Twitter of her receiving a string of targeted harassment in her chat. When she did it went viral with others speaking up about how they’ve been receiving similar messages in their streams. Via Waypoint.
“Each account of hate was disgusting and it has become more and more prevalent,” Raven told Waypoint, “so I decided to speak up and so many others did as well.”
…
“I think [hate raids] are a fairly large issue especially right now,” Lucia told Waypoint. “It’s a sign that there is a huge uptick in unchecked harassment which is becoming a norm of the platform’s culture.”
With Twitch not responding in a way that streamers find adequate, they are choosing to use their platform in a way to be proactive. While hate raids may be the most recent trend, Twitch is a platform that has been seeing increased harassment on it over the years, especially for streamers who are not straight white men. This boycott on September 1 will be the Twitch community’s response to that increased harassment as they hope to encourage change on the platform and get a stronger response from Twitch.
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(@LilNasX) 
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