Connect with us

Published

on

Plans by Chick-fil-A to open an outpost in gay-friendly Palm Springs, Calif. sparked intense backlash from angry residents looking keep out the famously devout the company once known for donating to anti-LGBTQ causes.

Matt Robinson, a Palm Springs resident, posted an image on his Facebook account earlier this week showing a sign in front of a small shopping center.

“PROJECT UNDER CONSIDERATION,” read the sign posted in front of 5200 Ramon Road, where Chick-fil-A plans to set up a 5,635 square-foot location with a three-lane drive thru as well as an indoor and outdoor seating area.

Robinson’s post generated more than 460 comments — the overwhelming majority of them negative.

“I prefer my chicken without the side of homophobia,” wrote Facebook user Brown Aneka.

Byron Winward, another Facebook user, said Chick-fil-A was showing “a lot of nerve” to locate one of its restaurants in an area where “11 out of 10 people are queer.”

“As a straight ally I will have to pass,” commented Peggy Killion, who vowed: “I won’t spend one dime there.”

The backlash prompted the Palm Springs Mayor Jeffrey Bernstein, to write a note of his own on Facebook.

Bernstein said that while the critical comments “have been heard and noted,” he pointed out that Palm Springs “does welcome new businesses and economic development.”

“Any concerns about a particular business should not be generalized,” he wrote.

Bernstein said that Chick-fil-A’s plans to move into Palm Springs are “currently on hold” while “the new tenant and the shopping center owner finalize lease terms.”

Calls to the manager of the property at 5200 Ramon Road went unanswered.

The Post has sought comment from Chick-fil-A.

Palm Springs’ chicken kerfuffle comes on the heels of a former opinion editor for the New York Times revealing that colleagues at Gray Lady shamed him for saying he loved the spicy chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A, with an HR rep claiming that owners of the fast-food chain hate gay people.

Adam Rubenstein, a New York City-based journalist who was hired in 2019 to work in the opinion section as a research assistant for columnists, said other Times staffers started snapping their fingers” at him to show their displeasure.

Palm Springs, which is about a two-hour drive from Los Angeles, has one of the nation’s largest gay and lesbian communities.

Chick-fil-A, the successful Atlanta-based fast food chain, has been the frequent target of liberals who point out that the company’s chief executive publicly expressed his opposition to gay marriage.

The company’s charitable arm has also donated millions of dollars to groups who have lobbied against same-sex unions.

In 2017 and 2018, the Chick-fil-A Foundation gave $2.4 million to the Missouri-based Fellowship of Christian Athletes for sports camps for underserved youth and $165,000 to the Salvation Army to buy Christmas gifts for needy children.

In 2019, Chick-fil-A said it would no longer contribute to those organizations. In 2012, then-Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy said in several interviews that he didnt support gay marriage.

In more recent interviews, Cathy the son of Chick-fil-As founder reiterated his personal beliefs but said he treats all customers with respect.

In 2019, city-owned airports in San Antonio, Texas, and Buffalo, NY, deliberately excluded Chick-fil-A from concession contracts due to the company’s past stance on LGBTQ issues.

A year later, Chick-fil-A announced that it was no longer seeking to open a restaurant in the San Antonio airport despite the fact that the city eventually relented.

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Rapper charged with GBH – after singer Chris Brown remanded in custody over ‘bottle attack’

Published

on

By

Rapper charged with GBH - after singer Chris Brown remanded in custody over 'bottle attack'

A second man has been charged with grievous bodily harm with intent after an incident at a London nightclub that allegedly involved US singer Chris Brown.

The Metropolitan Police said Omololu Akinlolu, 38, will appear at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Saturday.

Better known by his stage name HoodyBaby, the American rapper has been charged in connection with an alleged assault at the Tape nightclub in central London in February 2023.

Brown, 36, was charged on Thursday with grievous bodily harm with intent and was remanded in custody by judge in Manchester until 13 June.

He is accused of attacking music producer Abraham Diaw with a bottle during the incident in February.

During a hearing at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Friday, Brown watched intently as brief details of the case against him were outlined by prosecutor Hannah Nicholls.

She accused Brown of committing “an unprovoked attack with a weapon in a nightclub full of people”.

Brown spoke to confirm his name and date of birth, but did not enter a plea.

He will appear for a plea and trial preparation hearing in London on 13 June.

Read more from Sky News:
Trump says ex-FBI director’s seashells post ‘meant assassination’
Seven men on run after ‘Shawshank’ escape from jail

Brown – known for hits such as “Loyal”, “Run It” and “Under the Influence” – was arrested at a hotel in Manchester in the early hours of Thursday by detectives from the Metropolitan Police.

The Grammy Award-winning singer was due to tour the UK in June and July, with dates in Manchester, Cardiff, London, Glasgow and Birmingham.

Continue Reading

Environment

Bollinger Motors circles the drain as court cases, debts pull it down

Published

on

By

Bollinger Motors circles the drain as court cases, debts pull it down

A federal court judge in Michigan has placed the once-promising electric truck brand Bollinger Motors’ assets into receivership following claims that the company’s owners still owe its founder, Robert Bollinger, more than $10 million.

Bollinger Motors first came to fame in the “draw a truck, get a billion dollars” stage of the EV revolution that saw Nikola rise to a higher market cap than Ford for a brief time. Robert Bollinger wasn’t able to capitalize quickly enough to get his trucks into production, though – and a late stage pivot to sell the brand to Mullen Automotive and launch a medium-duty commercial truck doesn’t appear to have been enough to save it.

Now, Automotive News is reporting on some of the more convoluted details of the Mullen purchase deal, with Robert (for ease of distinguishing the man from the brand) claiming that Mullen Automotive owes him more than $10 million for a loan he made to the company in 2024.

Just how Robert ended up giving Mullen Automotive $10 million to take his eponymous truck brand off his hands is probably one of those capitalistic mysteries that I’ll never understand, but Mullen’s response was perfectly clear: they didn’t even bother to show up to court.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

Bollinger claims that at least two suppliers are also suing Mullen for unpaid debts. As such, the Honorable Terrence G. Berg has put the Bollinger brand into receivership, and its assets have been frozen in preparation for everything being liquidated. Worse, for Bollinger, the official court filings reveal a company that is really very much doing not awesome:

The testimony and evidence—which Defendant’s counsel conceded accurately reflected Defendant’s finances—showed that Defendant is in crisis. For months Defendant has owed more than twenty million dollars to suppliers, contractors, service providers, and owners of physical space. These debts are owed to parties who are critical for Defendant’s functioning. CEO Bryan Chambers testified that Defendant was locked out of its production facilities on May 5, 2025, and that the owner of the production facilities was seeking to permanently evict Defendant. The Court heard that Defendant had been prevented from accessing its critical manufacturing accounting system for a short time at the end of April 2025, before making a partial payment to restart services.

US DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN

I’m not sure if you caught all that, but Bollinger’s CEO has been locked out the company’s facilities and getting evicted, the company is more than $20 million in debt, and that debt is owed to people Bollinger absolutely needs in order to keep going.

You can read the full court decision, which I’ve embedded here, below. Once you’ve taken it all in, feel free to rush into the comments to say you told me so, since I really thought hoped the Bollinger B1 had a shot. Silly me.

Bollinger v. Bollinger case

SOURCES: Automotive News, Justia, Yahoo!.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Science

New Study Reveals Recent Ice Gains in Antarctica, But Long-Term Melting Continues

Published

on

By

New Study Reveals Recent Ice Gains in Antarctica, But Long-Term Melting Continues

Global warming and climate change have been subjects of major concern for a long time. One of the key indicators of this phenomenon is the melting of ice in the polar regions. Researchers from Tongji University in Shanghai have been using NASA satellite data to track changes in Antarctica’s ice sheet over more than two decades. Their newest study states that despite the increase in global temperature, Antarctica has gained ice in recent years. However, it cannot be considered as a miraculous reversal in global warming because over these two decades, the overall trend is substantial ice loss. Most of the gains have been caused by unusual increased precipitation over Antarctica.

About the New study

According to the new study , NASA’s Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow-On satellites have been monitoring this ice sheet since 2002. The ice sheet covering Antarctica is the largest mass of ice on Earth

The satellite data revealed that the sheet experienced a sustained period of ice loss between 2002 and 2020. The ice loss accelerated in the latter half of that period, increasing from an average loss of about 81 billion tons (74 billion metric tons) per year between 2002 and 2010, to a loss of about 157 billion tons (142 billion metric tons) between 2011 and 2020, according to the study. However, the trend then shifted.

The ice sheet gained mass from 2021 to 2023 at an average rate of about 119 billion tons (108 metric tons) per year. Four glaciers in eastern Antarctica also flipped from accelerated ice loss to significant mass gain.

General Trend in global warming

Climate change doesn’t mean that everywhere on Earth will get hotter at the same rate, so a single region will never tell the whole story of our warming world.

Historically, temperatures over much of Antarctica have remained relatively stable, particularly compared to the Arctic. Antarctica’s sea ice has also been much more stable relative to the Arctic, but that’s been changing in recent years.

Continue Reading

Trending