In San Francisco Saggy pants arrest decried by protestors

Outrage erupted on the steps of City Hall on Tuesday as nearly two hundred people called for charges to be dropped against college football player Deshon Marman, a San Francisco native who is accused of resisting arrest after a confrontation over his sagging pants on a US Airways flight last month.

Speakers said while the protest was not meant to endorse low hanging pants as a fashion choice, they believe the 20 year old Marman was targeted because he is a young black man. That contention is underscored, speakers said, because a white man was previously allowed to travel on US Airways wearing purple lingerie.

The Rev. Amos Brown said from the podium, “You say you want the pants pulled up, we say, pull up justice in America.”

Donna Doyle, Marman’s mother, said she was contacted by US Airways and offered a free flight to see her son, but she declined. Doyle said she was offended that the company did not apologize.

US Airways spokesman Andrew Christie said the company is in open communication with Brown and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People regarding the case, but declined to elaborate. Christie said US Airways wants to do what it can to help Marman “land on his feet” and maintain his full football and academic scholarship at the University of New Mexico.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Tuesday he would possibly make a decision today on whether he will file charges against Marman. One report said no charges will be filed.

Marman was arrested on suspicion of battery on a police officer, resisting arrest and trespassing June 15 after a member of the flight crew at San Francisco International Airport asked him to pull up his pajama pants. According to Marman’s attorney, he told the fight attendant his hands were full and he would take care of it when he got to his seat on the Albuquerque, N.M.bound flight.

When he sat down, police said the flight captain argued with Marman for ten minutes about the pants and told him to leave the plane. When Marman was arrested, he allegedly scuffled with San Francisco police officers and injured one of them.

After Tuesday’s rally, protesters attended the Board of Supervisors meeting where Supervisor Malia Cohen introduced a resolution to address the incident and ask for US Airways to apologize.

Cohen said after the rally, “It is bulls--, and you can quote me on that.”

Christie said if The City decides to ask for an official apology, none will be offered.

“Pixie” for ‘Now Is Good’ Role Goes by Dakota Fanning

Twilight Saga actress Dakota Fanning is sporting a dramatic new look for her forthcoming movie project, “Now Is Good.”

Fanning, the 17 year old star who began acting at the age of 5, swapped her normally long, blonde locks for a super short pixie cut to more accurately portray her character.

In the Ol Parker directed film, which also features Jeremy Irvine and Kaya Scodelario, Fanning takes on the role of a leukemia patient who compiles a list of things that she wants to complete before she dies.

In addition to the Now is Good gig, Dakota also has several other new projects in the works. She will play one of the 2 teen girls who decide to lose their virginity after they graduate from high school in another drama “Very Good Girls”, and will also portray a girlfriend of a diamond thief in “Mississippi Wild”.

Chime in with your thoughts. While Fanning is sporting the dramatic new look for professional reasons, do you think she will keep the do now that it seems to be a trending style?

In case you forgot (or even care) how long her hair used to be, check out this video clip of Dakota’s appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon:

Last shuttle launch by NASA

Belle ville native Sandra Magnus is one of the astronauts assigned to the last space shuttle scheduled to launch today. Here are questions and answers about the mission:


When is the launch?

The Atlantis is scheduled to launch at 10:26 a.m. CDT today from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. However, poor weather may force a delay.


Where can I watch the launch?

> NASA will show the launch live on its website, www.nasa.gov.
> The St. Louis Science Center will air the launch at its planetarium.
> St. Louis television: KSDK TV, Channel five, will show the launch; KMOV and KTVI representatives didn’t immediately know if the launch would be aired live.


Will the shuttle fly over Illinois?

A NASA spokesman Joshua Buck said, “The Atlantis will take off in the direction of the Atlantic Ocean and will not fly over the United States.”

Buck said, the path of the Atlantis' return to Earth will be finalized closer to the landing date.


Where is the shuttle going?

Buck said, The Atlantis will bring supplies to the International Space Station, which is about 220 miles up.

It will take the shuttle one day, 23 hours and 43 minutes to get to the space station, arriving at 10:06 a.m. CDT Sunday.


Will I be able to see the shuttle?

Buck said, the space station and shuttle are visible to the naked eye at night if they're flying overhead, the spacecraft looks like a big, solid star with no blinking lights, streaking steadily across the sky.


When does the shuttle return?

The shuttle flight will last for twelve days. The Atlantis is scheduled to land at 6:06 a.m. CDT July 20 to the Kennedy Space Center.


What if the launch is delayed?

There is a 70% chance the launch will be delayed because of the weather, but NASA decided Thursday afternoon to continue with launch preparations.

Thunderstorms that produced lightning near the launch pad passed through the area about noon Thursday, according to NASA.

Mission managers will reassess the situation before it decides to fuel the Atlantis, which was scheduled to start at 1:01 a.m. CDT today.

The weather is expected to be slightly better on Saturday and Sunday. NASA has until Monday to launch the Atlantis, or else the launch may be postponed until July 16.


Fun Facts:-

> The space station and shuttle will circle Earth about every ninety minutes, and there's a sunrise and sunset each cycle.
> The shuttle will be filled with 500,000 gallons of fuel.
> The Atlantis crew will carry the first iPhone into space to help with experiments on this mission.
> The shuttle will bring eight thousands pounds of supplies, a year's worth, to the space station.
> Orbiters like the Atlantis are the length of about 3 forty foot school buses and weigh 178,000 pounds.

Launches as episode one of Food Investigations series by Pharmaburger documentary

The Pharmaburger mini documentary takes issue with the doctor from Imperial College London whose study, published in the American Journal of Cardiology, led him to recommend that stat in drugs be handed out like ketchup packets at fast food restaurants. This, he claims, would "counteract" the heart risk dangers of fast foods.

Just pop a pill every time you chow down a junk food cheeseburger, in other words, and the health risks will be cancelled out. It is a juvenile, short sighted point of view about health and nutrition, of course, but the idea has a surprisingly large number of followers among practitioners of mainstream medicine (many of which are arguably illiterate when it comes to nutrition in the first place).

Ultimately, the idea seeks to turn fast food restaurants into pharmacies, lining up gullible customers to be dosed with powerful prescription pharmaceuticals based on no diagnosis, no doctor visits, and absolutely no consideration of their current health condition or possible drug interactions. To call it "medicine" is an insult to the very definition of the word.

The sad truth of the matter is that some members of the medication profession want to intoxicate everyone with dangerous chemical medications, and they are hoping to use fast food restaurants to achieve that goal. This Pharmaburger mini documentary tells the rest of this story which will surprise most viewers.