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Dog in Oklahoma pretends to be stray to get free McDonald’s hamburgers, owner says

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A dog in Oklahoma has become a viral sensation after her owner caught her sneaking off to a local McDonald's to score free hamburgers.
DOG RETURNED TO ARIZONA SHELTER FOR BEING 'TOO GOOD'
Earlier this week, Betsy Reyes wrote on Facebook her dog, Princess, had been leaving her home at night and heading to the fast food restaurant. She acts "like she's a stray so people will feel bad for her & feed her burgers," Reyes wrote in the post, which had more than 290,000 reactions and 270,000 shares as of Thursday afternoon.
WARNING: POST CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
"If you see my dog @ the McDonald's on shields, quit feeding her fat a-- bc she don't know how to act & be leaving the house all the time to go walking to McDonald's at night. She's not even a stray dog," Reyes, of Oklahoma City, explained.

On Monday, Reyes decided to follow the pup to the McDonald's, where she caught Princess approaching a stranger's car and begging the driver for food, a video shows.
DOG'S COLOR LINKED TO HOW LONG THEY LIVE -- AND THEIR CHANCES OF SERIOUS ILLNESSES
In a separate video, Princess approaches Reyes' car. The pup seems to recognize Reyes and begins to wag her tail and jump on the car.

Betsy Reyes was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Fox News on Thursday.

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Dog in Oklahoma pretends to be stray to get free McDonald's hamburgers, owner says

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A dog in Oklahoma has become a viral sensation after her owner caught her sneaking off to a local McDonald's to score free hamburgers. DOG RETURNED TO ARIZONA SHELTER FOR BEING 'TOO GOOD' Earlier this week, Betsy Reyes wrote on Facebook her dog, Princess, had been leaving her home at night and heading to the fast food restaurant.

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Transgender lives remembered at Matthew Shepard vigil

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transgender lives remembered at matthew shepard vigil - cnn

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Transgender lives remembered at Matthew Shepard vigil

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Mourners gathered Thursday to remember the gay college student whose murder changed the way we think about hate crimes, and call attention to the battles that remain.

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The Trump Administration has announced that it is now working to reduce Prescription Drug Coverage. The proposal is based on international drug prices, but big Pharmaceutical companies argue that the proposal is the same as price controls.

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QB Deshaun Watson throws career high of 5 touchdowns and 2 were to his star receiver Deandre Hopkins. 16 out of the 20 were completed. he threw for 239 yards.

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HOUSTON - Deshaun Watson matched his career high with five touchdown passes to lead the Houston Texans to their fifth straight victory, beating the Miami Dolphins, 42-23, on Thursday night.

The Texans (5-3) have left their 0-3 start behind with their longest single-season winning streak since reeling off six victories in a row in 2012.

Watson threw touchdown passes of 13, 2, 73, 49 and 2 yards to give him 34 career scoring passes to move ahead of Dan Marino for the second-most through a player's first 15 N.F.L. starts. Marino had 32.

Miami's Brock Osweiler, who had a tough season in Houston after signing a $72 million contract in 2016, threw for 241 yards with an interception in his third straight start in place of the injured starter Ryan Tannehill.

Kenyan Drake ran for a touchdown and caught one as well for the Dolphins (4-4). They lost for the second straight week.

Rookie Jordan Thomas caught the first two touchdown passes of his career, DeAndre Hopkins had 82 yards receiving and two scores and Will Fuller added 124 yards receiving and a touchdown.

Texans running back Lamar Miller, who grew up in Miami and spent his first four seasons with the Dolphins, had 133 yards rushing and a touchdown, topping 100 yards for a second consecutive game.

Watson found the speedy Fuller in front of the defense for a 73-yard touchdown that left Houston up 28-17 late in the third quarter. It was the longest touchdown pass of Watson's career and the longest reception of Fuller's. Fuller has caught 11 touchdown passes in 11 career games with Watson.

The highlight of the day for the Dolphins came when they used some trickery in the third quarter. Osweiler pitched a lateral to Danny Amendola, who threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Drake to cut the lead to 21-17.

Hopkins scored his second touchdown on a 2-yard reception with about eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, but his most impressive play of the night came on a catch that didn't count. Hopkins reached back and grabbed the ball with one hand and weaved it between his legs in the air before crashing to the ground. The play was brought back after Hopkins was called for pass interference.

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Deshaun Watson Throws Five Touchdown Passes in Texans' Win

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HOUSTON - Deshaun Watson matched his career high with five touchdown passes to lead the Houston Texans to their fifth straight victory, beating the Miami Dolphins, 42-23, on Thursday night. The Texans (5-3) have left their 0-3 start behind with their longest single-season winning streak since reeling off six victories in a row in 2012.

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Former city commissioner charged with shooting an alleged shoplifter at his Army surplus store was released from prison on Thursday and he has hired a high-powered attorney to represent him in his case.

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The former city commissioner charged with shooting an alleged shoplifter at his Army surplus store was released from prison on Thursday and he has hired a high-powered attorney to represent him in his case.

Michael Dunn, who was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Christobal Lopez on Oct. 3, was released on $150,000 bail and literally sprinted from the Polk County jailhouse to an SUV late Thursday.

The former city commissioner for the Southwest district of Lakeland, Florida, has hired Mark O'Mara to represent him. O'Mara gained national attention in 2012 when he successfully defended George Zimmerman from a second-degree murder charge in the shooting death of teen Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida.

WFTS

Dunn, 47, appeared before a judge on Thursday where O'Mara argued the local politician was acting in self-defense when Lopez, 50, allegedly stole a hatchet from Dunn's store. According to an arrest affidavit, Dunn confronted Lopez at the front door and Dunn grabbed the other man's T-shirt before losing grip and opening fire. Lopez was struck twice and died on the scene.

The incident garnered national attention when police released surveillance footage of the confrontation on Oct. 15.

The city commissioner resigned from his position last week in a letter obtained by Tampa ABC affiliate WFTS, saying, "It is with a heavy heart that I submit this letter to you. Wherein I am tendering my resignation as Commissioner of the SW District of Lakeland effective October 20, 2018."

Florida State Attorneys Office

Dunn has always claimed he was acting in self-defense and raised the state's "stand your ground" law, famously used in the defense of Zimmerman.

"You look at that hatchet and you have to believe that, as everyone else who sees it, it's a deadly weapon and when he decided to arm himself with a deadly weapon, that things could happen to you," O'Mara said in court Thursday.

State Attorney Brian Haas refuted that defense in charging Dunn last week.

"I have determined that this case and the actions of Mr. Dunn fall outside the protection of the 'stand your ground' law," Haas said at a news conference Oct. 20.

Lawyer Adam Kemp, who is representing the family of Lopez, said his client was trying to get away, and posed no harm.

Lakeland Police Department

"Nobody deserves to lose their life over a $13 or $16 hatchet," Kemp said. "You should ultimately be held accountable for your decisions and we believe this was a senseless, preventable act."

Dunn was ordered not to contact Lopez's family and stay away from the Vets Army Navy Surplus store he co-owns and where the shooting took place. He also surrendered any firearms he owns.

He was placed under house arrest, which O'Mara lobbied unsuccessfully against in court.

Lopez's family did not attend Thursday's hearing.

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Former city commissioner who shot alleged shoplifter hires George Zimmerman's lawyer

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The former city commissioner charged with shooting an alleged shoplifter at his Army surplus store was released from prison on Thursday and he has hired a high-powered attorney to represent him in his case. Michael Dunn, who was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Christobal Lopez...

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"Dad-ifying" at its absolute best. A frustrated father wanted to figure out how he could prepare his child's food much faster. So, he used science to crack the code by designing a simple yet genius design.

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two dads hit it big with nanobebe baby bottle    - cnn

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A tired dad and his hungry infant led to a radical new baby bottle

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Founded by two dads, Nanobebe sells specially designed baby bottles that reduce the time to warm up breast milk for middle-of-the-night feedings.

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Trump administration considering action similar to travel ban for Mexican border

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san francisco chronicle: trump admin considering travel ban-like executive order for mexican border - cnnpolitics

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SF Chronicle: Admin considering action similar to travel ban for Mexican border

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The Trump administration is considering a travel ban-like executive action that would block certain asylum seekers at the Mexican border, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday.

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A Category 5 hurricane wiped an entire Hawaiian island off the map

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a category 5 hurricane wiped off an entire island off the map - cnn

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A Category 5 hurricane wiped an entire Hawaiian island off the map

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Hawaii's East Island was submerged by Hurricane Walaka.

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Yet another "challenge" has gone viral on social media. Construction workers across the world have been filming themselves trying to flip a hard-hat on top of their own head.

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FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports

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DENVER, Colo. -- Yet another "challenge" has gone viral on social media. Construction workers across the world have been filming themselves trying to flip a hard-hat on top of their own head.

The hard-hat is placed on the ground and positioned just right on a shovel; then they jump on the shovel. The hard-hat then catapults as it flips up into the air, with the ideal outcome of the hard-hat safely landing on its owners head.

More often than not, that doesn't happen and the internet reaps the reward of the aftermath.

"They might be good if they actually catch it the right way," said Jim McMillen, director of safety services for Pinnacle Insurance.

Hard-hats are not light for something being chucked at a human head: They weigh about 1 pound, like a can of soup.

The "hard-hat" challenge video fails are being watched by the millions all over social media and YouTube. The more fails, the better!

And therein, perhaps, lies the irony: The very object that is designed to protect heads is the same one injuring them.

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Construction workers' risky 'Hard-Hat Challenge' goes viral

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DENVER, Colo. -- Yet another "challenge" has gone viral on social media. Construction workers across the world have been filming themselves trying to flip a hard-hat on top of their own head. The hard-hat is placed on the ground and positioned just right on a shovel; then they jump on the shovel.

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Bombs have been sent to democrats that are highly influential. So far, no one has been hurt. 12 bombs have been sent. Robert de Niro, Clintons, and the Obamas have been among the multiple people who have received these bombs. For a second, Republicans blamed Robert de Niro on sending the bombs. Then they concluded that it wasn't true, obviously. He was targeted as well because he is an outspoken critic when it comes to Trump. Trump tweeted about this and said "Funny how lowly rated CNN, and others, can criticize me at will, even blaming me for the current spate of Bombs and ridiculously comparing this to September 11th and the Oklahoma City bombing, yet when I criticize them they go wild and scream, “it’s just not Presidential!” He continues to blame things on 'Fake News' and not addressing the actual problem, which is the legitimate threats towards people who have left-wing point of views. This has been happening on social media as well. Republicans threaten to 'shoot' democrats. These days the line between having a political opinion and hurting people over something they believe is 'facts' is a thin line.

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suspicious package intended for cory booker found in florida - cnnpolitics

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Suspicious package intended for Cory Booker found in Florida

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A suspicious package addressed to Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, was discovered in Florida Thursday night, multiple law enforcement officials told CNN.

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Murdered Unitversity of Utah student was extorted before her death.

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A University of Utah student police say was murdered by her ex-boyfriend told officers she wired $1,000 to an account earlier this month to prevent the release of "compromising pictures" of the pair, authorities said Thursday.

University Police Chief Dale Brophy told reporters that Lauren McCluskey, 21, reported the extortion to his officers on Oct. 13, nine days before she was found shot dead outside an on-campus dormitory. The suspect in her murder, 37-year-old Melvin Rowland, was found dead that same evening of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a Salt Lake City church.

Brophy said that McCluskey had ended her relationship with Rowland on Oct. 9 after she discovered that he had lied to her about his age and was a registered sex offender. McCluskey initially declined police assistance in dealing with Rowland, but later reported receiving numerous emails and messages using different names trying to lure her to locations in addition to the extortion attempt. Investigators now believe the messages all came from Rowland, who Brophy called a master manipulator.

"If his lips were moving, he was lying," Brophy said of Rowland. "I don't think he told the truth to anybody based on our investigation."

Rowland was spotted on surveillance video at various locations around the University of Utah's campus during the weekend before McCluskey's murder. Authorities believe he was trying to confront her. Hours before the killing, Rowland was in McCluskey's dorm building socializing with some of her friends. He later confronted McCluskey in the building parking lot, dragged her into a car he had driven to campus, and shot her multiple times.
UNIVERSITY OF UTAH STUDENT WAS ON PHONE WITH PARENTS BEFORE FATAL SHOOTING
After shooting McCluskey, Rowland was picked up on campus by a woman he met online. They went to dinner, visited the state Capitol and went to her apartment where Rowland took a shower.

The woman later called police when she saw photos of the man being sought for the campus shooting.

Later that night, after the woman dropped Rowland at a coffee shop, police tracked him to the church where he killed himself.

Rowland got the gun by telling an acquaintance that his girlfriend wanted to learn to shoot.

Brophy said it appears the woman who picked up Rowland on campus and the person who loaned him the gun had been duped and will not face charges.

Police knew Rowland was a sex offender but not that he was on parole, Brophy said. He added that police didn't start the formal extortion investigation until six days after her Oct. 13 report due to workload issues.

Kaitlin Felsted, a spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Corrections, said police didn't make parole officers aware of the complaint filed by McCluskey.

In the early stages of the investigation, officers didn't have enough information to pass on to any other law enforcement, Brophy said, adding that there were no indications from McCluskey that Rowland was threatening physical violence.

University of Utah president Ruth Watkins said outside investigations are being launched to assess campus security and police protocols to determine if improvements can be made to prevent future shootings.

Watkins said so far she has found no mistakes in how police handled the case. Brophy said he welcomes the reviews.

Earlier in the day, Gov. Gary Herbert said corrections and parole officials had launched investigations into the handling of the case.

"Clearly in hindsight, we're going to say, 'You should have done this, you should have done that,'" Herbert said during his monthly televised news conference at KUED-TV

He noted, however, "You never know when these things are going to occur."

Rowland was paroled in April when he told the parole board that he was a changed man after being a peer leader in prison had helped him tap into his empathy and learn to follow the rules.

He spent nearly a decade in prison after pleading guilty in 2004 to trying to lure an underage girl online and attempted sex abuse charges, according to court records.

After he was charged, a woman came forward to report he had sexually assaulted her after a separate online meeting a few days earlier.

Rowland, a native of New York, was twice sent back to prison for parole violations that included possessing pornography and failure to complete therapy.

He blamed his "thinking errors" for the actions that kept sending him back in prison, according to recordings of parole hearings from 2010 to 2018 released this week by the Utah Board of Parole and Pardons.

Rowland said at a hearing in 2012 that he was a womanizer who manipulated women to get what he wanted.

Brophy offered the same assessment. He said McCluskey met Rowland last month at a bar where he was working security and started dating him. He visited her often in her dorm and made friends with other students in the building.

"He was very, very good at getting people to trust him," Brophy said. "Lauren was no different."
Click for more from Fox13Now.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Murdered University of Utah student was extorted before her killing, police say

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A University of Utah student police say was murdered by her ex-boyfriend told officers she wired $1,000 to an account earlier this month to prevent the release of "compromising pictures" of the pair, authorities said Thursday. University Police Chief Dale Brophy told reporters that Lauren McCluskey, 21, reported the extortion to his officers on Oct.

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Florida's Democratic nominee believes that the police using any sort of force is going "too far"

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The Democratic nominee in Florida's gubernatorial race, Andrew Gillum, failed to dismiss rumors that he is the "anti-police" candidate after saying that law enforcement officers go "too far" whenever they draw their weapons.

Speaking on the podcast "Pod Save America," Gillum said he's not "anti-police" but rather for "police accountability," The Washington Free Beacon reported.

"Law enforcement society cannot work and, quite frankly, law enforcement cannot do its job if it does not have a trusting relationship with the community," Gillum said.

"At the time that a law enforcement official has to go to a weapon, to a gun, to a baton, to a Taser," then they've already gone "too far by their very presence," he added, according to The Beacon.

Gillum explained that the trust police instill in the community should "bring most situations to heel" alone.

Gillum, mayor of Tallahassee, is facing former U.S. Rep. Rob DeSantis, a Republican, in what has become a hotly contested and high-profile race involving allegations of race-baiting and corruption.

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Andrew Gillum: Police 'going too far' if they pull out gun, baton or stun gun

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The Democratic nominee in Florida's gubernatorial race, Andrew Gillum, failed to dismiss rumors that he is the "anti-police" candidate after saying that law enforcement officers go "too far" whenever they draw their weapons. Speaking on the podcast "Pod Save America," Gillum said he's not "anti-police" but rather for "police accountability," The Washington Free Beacon reported.

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Matthew Shepard: The legacy of a gay college student 20 years after his brutal murder

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Twenty years ago, Matthew Shepard was a "smart, funny" 21-year-old, no different than any other young man that age.

Interested in LGBT?

Add LGBT as an interest to stay up to date on the latest LGBT news, video, and analysis from ABC News.

He was an "ordinary kid who wanted to make the world a better place," his parents remembered.

But in October 1998, that all changed, when the openly gay college student was abducted, beaten and tied to a fence in Wyoming.

His life ended a few days later, and with it came a widespread awareness of the dangers that members of the LGBTQ community face every day. The homophobic brutal killing also served as a catalyst for progress in America's laws and culture.

In the two decades that have passed, however, it remains debatable how far the country has come since the shock of that crime.

A gruesome attack

Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, spent Oct. 6, 1998, at a meeting of the school's LGBTQ student group planning upcoming events for LGBTQ awareness week, Jason Marsden, executive director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, told ABC News.

He then grabbed coffee with friends before heading to a bar in Laramie in southeastern Wyoming.

Shepard was sitting alone at the bar, drinking a beer, when he was approached by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. They later confessed they had "developed a rouse in which they'd pretend to be gay to win Matt's confidence," Marsden said.

"They could offer him a ride home and rob him," he added.

McKinney and Henderson kidnapped Shepard and told him he was being robbed, Marsden said.

They "started physically assaulting him, first with fists and then with a .357 magnum pistol that Aaron McKinney was carrying," Marsden said.

McKinney and Henderson took Shepard to a prairie east of town, where they tied him to a fence, Marsden said.

McKinney hit Shepard about 20 times in the head and face with the end of the pistol, Marsden said, before the two stole Shepard's shoes, got in their truck and drove back to town.

Shepard was found the next day, 18 hours later, by a passing cyclist. He was taken to a Laramie hospital but his head injuries were so severe that he needed a neurosurgeon, so he was moved to a Colorado hospital, Marsden said.

Shepard's parents at the time were in Saudi Arabia, where his father worked. They flew back and were with their son at the hospital for his final few days, Marsden said.

When his mother, Judy Shepard, saw the badly beaten college student in the hospital, "he was all bandaged, face swollen, stitches everywhere," she told ABC News' "Nightline." "His fingers curled, toes curled, one eye was a little bit open."

Shepard died on Oct. 12.

The loss "never heals," his father, Dennis Shepard, told "Nightline." "He was just an ordinary kid who wanted to make the world a better place. And they took that away from him. And from us."

A promising young life cut short

Matthew Shepard was a mischievous, stubborn and argumentative child, his father said.

We didn't realize the amount of violence and discrimination ... against the gay community until after he died.

He grew up to become very interested in international human rights, particularly women's rights in the Middle East and Asia, and he studied political science, said Marsden.

"His goal was to work for the State Department to try to bring the same privileges and rights he thought he had in America to other countries," Dennis Shepard said.

A few years before his death, Matthew Shepard came out to his mother on the phone.

"He said, 'Mom I'm gay.' And I said, 'What took you so long to tell me?'" she recalled. "Rejection was not ever an issue in our family."

Their son was then living an openly out life.

"Everybody he met, he said, 'Just to let you know ahead of time, I'm gay,'" Dennis Shepard said.

"It was like, 'This is who I am, and that's the way it's going to be,'" added Judy Shepard.

Dennis Shepard wasn't worried about his son's safety.

"We didn't realize the amount of violence and discrimination ... against the gay community until after he died," he said. "We thought, he was born here ... he has all the rights, responsibilities, duties and privileges of every other American citizen."

The nation mourns

The shocking homophobic crime in the sparsely-populated state garnered national sympathy. The outpouring of love was immediate as flowers and stuffed animals filled the hospital.

"This is before the term viral existed, but it really did go viral," Marsden said.

"It spawned candlelight vigils all over the country. There was a mass protest on Fifth Avenue in New York in which almost 100 people were arrested," Marsden said, as well as a vigil at the U.S. Capitol with celebrities and members of Congress.

"All of these spontaneous vigils were organized by volunteers independently of one another. All of the calls to action for hate crime legislation were the work of individual civic and political leaders," Marsden explained. "It was a spontaneous outrage about the severity of this crime and the overall phenomenon of hate crimes against LGBT people, which were starting to get more social attention around this time than they had received in previous years."

But it wasn't all sympathy.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested the funeral, picketing with anti-gay signs.

Rev. Fred Phelps and his parishioners traveled from Kansas to Laramie for the funeral and trial, protesting with brightly colored signs and spewing hatred.

Friends of the slain student dressed in angel costumes and staged a counter-protest encircling the parishioners so their signs wouldn't be visible.

Two killers head to court

After McKinney and Henderson were arrested, Henderson waived his pre-trial investigation and took a plea agreement, agreeing to two life sentences.

McKinney went to trial, and defense attorneys argued his violent actions were "gay panic" -- a reaction to Shepard making a sexual advance.

"When the defense gets out there and starts talking out of, the victim's fault, you know, 'gay panic,' ... you just really want to scream," Judy Shepard said. "One of the portions of his statement was that Matt was coming onto him ... if that's your defense, then every woman in a bar who gets hit on, she has the right to murder the guy sitting on her? That's just absurd."

The "gay panic" defense is still legal in most states but has been outlawed in a few. It's been used since the 1960s in more than half of the states in the country, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.

McKinney was convicted on numerous kidnapping and murder charges. Before sentencing, his attorneys, the Shepards and the prosecutors agreed to two consecutive life sentences in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table.

McKinney has declined to speak to ABC News while Henderson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Change in Washington

Shepard's murder shined a light on the scope of federal hate crime laws, which at the time did not include sexual orientation or gender identity.

"Matt's murder immediately raised the visibility of that effort and, although it took until 2009, it did eventually pass and was signed into law by President Obama," Marsden said.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act added crimes motivated by the victim's gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability to the federal hate crime law.

James Byrd Jr., who was black, was murdered by three white supremacists in Texas in June 1998. Byrd was dragged behind a pickup truck, decapitated and dismembered.

The moment Obama signed the hate crimes law "was amazing," Judy Shepard said. "He understood social injustice. And to be there with James Byrd's sisters when they, when he actually signed, signed into law, it was an incredible experience. And it was a relief and it was also a total understanding that there was just really a lot more left to do."

"There's now been dozens of cases prosecuted against violent offenders who attack people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity or other characteristics that are now easier to prosecute than they were under the previous law," said Marsden. "Also several states either passed hate crime legislation for the first time or made their hate crime laws tougher."

Beyond the federal hate crime law, in the years since Matthew Shepard's death, among the most substantive legislative wins for the LGBTQ community were the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell in 2010, so gay military members can serve openly without fear of being dismissed, and the legalization of same-sex marriage across the country in 2015.

A shift in American culture

The tragic murder also led to the creation of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, the mission of which "is replacing hate with compassion, understanding and acceptance," Judy Shepard said.

"The core of what we do is trying to get individual people excited about making a difference," Marsden said of the foundation. "If millions of people wanted to act in tandem, we could make hate obsolete. We could define our social norms in such a way that this kind of behavior would start to go away."

For Judy Shepard, one of the best signs of cultural progress is seeing Gay Straight Alliance groups ramping up in schools. In Wyoming, where there's a population of just 500,000, she said there are 19 Gay Straight Alliances.

Matthew Shepard's story has also lived on through various creative works, including the "The Laramie Project" and "The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later" plays, which tell the story of how Laramie residents reacted to the murder.

They are among the most performed plays in American high schools, Marsden said, and have even been performed across the world in different languages, Judy Shepard said.

"It's a universal story," she said. "If you remove the sexuality from the story and insert race or religion, it's exactly the same story of intolerance in a community or intolerance of individuals and how it affects a community."

"Matt's story, I think, was inspirational to many people, especially people his age who had not previously been active in LGBT rights who started doing so. Some have gone on to be really prominent activists in the community," Marsden said.

Back to 'ground zero'

"I thought we were making such great progress in the Obama administration," Judy Shepard said, but after the 2016 presidential election, she felt the progress of the foundation was at "ground zero again."

The Trump administration has brought changes including an order to ban transgender troops in the military and a new "religious liberty task force" that advocates fear will provide an excuse for discrimination.

Just this month, a new policy went into effect in which the Trump administration will no longer provide visas for same-sex domestic partners of foreign diplomats and U.N. officials serving in the U.S.

"I'm just so mad that we are regressing," Judy Shepard said. "We're back on the road talking about hate and acceptance and loving your neighbor and, you know, all those things again."

During the Obama administration, the Department of Justice "was working with us."

"They would set up conferences to educate law enforcement, NGOs and nonprofits on how to deal with hate crimes. How to address them, how to identify them, how to work with victims. And they would invite us to come," Judy Shepard said. "We visited several countries, 25 countries with [the] State Department. Now we're not."

"Now the [Department of Justice] definitely does not want to work with us," she continued. "Civil rights is not an issue, a primary issue, for the DOJ anymore. ... So we don't get calls from them anymore."

To Marsden, the degrees of progress for LGBTQ rights in the past 20 years vary.

Especially in urban areas, Marsden said he thinks "LGBT people have a good deal more personal freedom, career opportunities, are much less subject to discrimination. I think a lot of our schools are safer, including bullying issues, which of course affect people way beyond the LGBT community -- they affect anyone who is different in some way or another than the perceived norm.

"However, if you look back in history every time there's great progress there's also a great backlash going on," he said, citing how the end of slavery prompted the evolution of KKK and Jim Crow, while the 1960s Civil Rights movement ignited racial violence.

"All of the advances we've made have been great but they haven't reached everyone. It's still a very hard time to be a [transgender] kid in America even in more enlightened parts of the country, certainly in more rural parts of the country."

A Gallup poll from May 2018 found that 31 percent of people don't think marriages between same-sex couples should be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages.

"The overall lesson about looking back on progress is you have to fight to keep it. It can be very easy politically in this time in America to reverse the accomplishments made in the last 10 or 15 years," Marsden said.

"I want people to be very conscious of their safety," said Judy Shepard, warning that hate is still very much out there and that women, people and members of the LGBT community are especially vulnerable. "Especially now, when we hear so much vitriol being shouted from our leaders."

"The number of hate crimes against LGBT people has gone up in the last two years, just like racial and religious hate crimes have," Marsden said.

Reported hate crimes in the nation's 10 biggest cities rose 12.5 percent last year -- the fourth consecutive annual rise in a row and the highest total in over 10 years, according to an analysis from California State University San Bernardino's Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism.

"Most hate crimes and discrimination are racial or religious -- LGBT is a smaller percentage," Marsden said. "We see, sadly, the kind of person who hates a certain race it's pretty likely you're the kind of person that hates a certain religion or a certain sexual orientation or gender identity, as well."

A legacy -- and life -- memorialized

To the slain student's mother, Matthew Shepard shouldn't just be remembered for his legacy -- he should be remembered for his life.

"I want people to remember that he was a person, that he was more than this icon in the photograph and the stories," Judy Shepard said. "He was just, he was a 21-year-old college student who drank too much, who smoked too much and didn't go to class enough. Just like every other 21-year-old college student. He had flaws. He was smart, funny. People just were drawn to him. And there was a great loss not just to us, but to all his friends. And people who hadn't met him yet."

ABC News' Meghan Keneally and Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.

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The legacy of a gay college student 20 years after his brutal murder

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Twenty years ago, Matthew Shepard was a "smart, funny" 21-year-old, no different than any other young man that age. Add LGBT as an interest to stay up to date on the latest LGBT news, video, and analysis from ABC News. He was an "ordinary kid who wanted to make the world a better place," his parents remembered.

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A knife-wielding assailant Injures 14 children at a western China school

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Associated Press 3 hrs ago

BEIJING (AP) - A knife-wielding assailant injured 14 children at a kindergarten in the western Chinese city of Chongqing on Friday, police reported. The attacker, a 39-year-old woman, was taken into custody and no motive for the assault was immediately publicized.

A report posted on the police force's microblog said the attack at the Xinshiji Kindergarten in the city's outskirts took place at 9:30 a.m. as the children were returning to classes.

It said all were receiving treatment in a hospital. A doctor who answered the phone at the city's Banan People's Hospital confirmed the children were there but declined to give any details or his name, referring questions to the local government.

No other information about the attacker was given, other than her surname, Liu. Video posted on social media showed injured children walking to ambulances from the school gate, with some being placed on gurneys.

China has suffered a number of such incidents in recent years, blamed largely on the mentally ill or people bearing grudges.

In June, a man used a kitchen knife to attack three boys and a mother near a school in Shanghai, killing two of the children. Police said the assailant was unemployed and carried out the attack "to take revenge on society."

Chinese law restricts the sale and possession of firearms, and mass attacks are generally carried out with knives or homemade explosives.

Almost 20 children were killed in school attacks in 2010, prompting a response from top government officials and leading many schools to add gates and security guards.

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Woman with knife injures 14 children at western China school

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Associated Press 3 hrs ago BEIJING (AP) - A knife-wielding assailant injured 14 children at a kindergarten in the western Chinese city of Chongqing on Friday, police reported. The attacker, a 39-year-old woman, was taken into custody and no motive for the assault was immediately publicized.

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A dad spent the day with his sons bully to see what the problem was. It turned out the boy was homeless, he went out and bought him clothes. The next day he adopted him and they are brothers now.

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When Aubrey Fontenot found out his son was being bullied, he, as most parents would got "a little hot." But what he did next makes him truly unique.

It had been an ongoing situation between his son Jordan and another boy at school.

"I urged him to talk about it, befriend the guy."

Jordan had already gotten in some hot water earlier in the year for defending himself, and the elder Fontenot said and he didn't want it to happen again.

Courtesy Aubrey Fontenot

"I had already been to the school and let them know there was a bullying situation," Fontenot told "Good Morning America." But then it happened again.

Things came to a head when Jordan's phone went missing.

Courtesy Aubrey Fontenot

Fontenot went to the school spoke the principal and a cop. And though they didn't come right out and say it, Fontenot got the feeling this kid needed help.

spent some time with my sons school bully yesterday .. just to dig a little deeper on"why?" .. come to find out he was being bullied for not having clean clothes n clean shoes.. I asked "why?" .. just to find out that his family is currently homeless???????????I had to do Something pic.twitter.com/IY29lgChqY
- TattooArtistAubrey (@illuminaubrey_) October 17, 2018

"They insinuated he was homeless. I was like 'Oh ok I didn't realize that, wow that makes a lot of sense." The boy's mother he said, confirmed the situation.

Fontenot told the boy if he would give Jordan's phone back, he would make it "all go away." But the phone had since been taken by someone else. So, the boy was suspended.

And what did he do on suspension day? He spent the day with Fontenot.

"I took him shopping and bought him some clothes. I talked to him about morals and principals and having self respect. He's not much of a talker, but I got him to open up."

Fontenot set up a meeting between the boy and Jordan. "They each got to talk and then I said, 'From here, this is nothing. Shake hands and from now on you are brothers and you protect each other.'"

The dad wanted his son to know "every war isn't won with your hands. It's easy to react to first emotions but sometimes you have to outsmart a situation."

Just weeks later, Jordan and his former bully are, according to Fontenot, "brothers."

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Dad confronts his son's bully and what happens next restores our faith in humanity

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When Aubrey Fontenot found out his son was being bullied, he, as most parents would got "a little hot." But what he did next makes him truly unique. It had been an ongoing situation between his son Jordan and another boy at school. "I urged him to talk about it, befriend the guy."

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The United Kingdom's Information Commissioner's Office announced the £500,000 ($645,000) fine on Thursday, saying that Facebook failed to safeguard user data and was slow to contain the leak.

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facebook's cambridge analytica data scandal leads to £500

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Facebook gets maximum fine over Cambridge Analytica

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UK authorities have hit Facebook with the maximum possible fine over its Cambridge Analytica scandal. Under GDPR it would have been much higher.

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A total of 12 bombs have been delivered to different Democratic political figures. Florida is the area of interest.

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A pair of suspicious packages addressed to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker -- the 11th and 12th such parcels sent to top Democratic political figures found in the last week -- were recovered in New York and Florida on Friday, according to an NYPD source and the FBI.

The package found in Florida on Friday appeared to be similar to the others that were sent, according to the FBI.

The NYPD said separately it was investigating suspicious packages at a location on 52nd street in New York City. At least one package there was addressed to Clapper, an NYPD source told Fox News.

The latest suspicious packages addressed to top Democratic political figures comes as federal investigators zeroed in on Florida as a "region of interest," two sources told Fox News on Thursday.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said on "The Story with Martha MacCallum" that some of the packages originated in Florida. But investigators wouldn't say whether they believe the suspect or suspects weres still in the state.

"As you know some of the packages went through the mail, they originated, some of them, from Florida," Nielson told host Martha MacCallum. "The president appropriately directed everyone within the United States federal government to work on this as quickly and expeditiously as possible to bring these people or person to justice."

New York and Maryland were also in focus, Fox News learned.

EarlierThursday, suspicious packages were sent to former Vice President Joe Biden and actor Robert De Niro. Biden's packages were found in Delaware, while De Niro's package was discovered outside his production company and restaurant in New York City.

The FBI Laboratory at Quantico, Va., has also been engaged, beginning forensic analysis of some of the packages addressed to former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, liberal billionaire George Soros, former Attorney General Eric Holder, former CIA Director John Brennan and California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters.

The FBI said Wednesday evening it had identified seven suspicious packages addressed to prominent Democratic figures over the last three days containing "potentially destructive devices." The packages discovered Friday would make it 11.

President Trump responded to news of the devices Wednesday, saying: "The safety of the American people is my highest and absolute priority." He continued, "The full weight of government is being deployed to conduct this investigation and bring those responsible for these despicable acts to justice."

But a joint statement from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., slammed the president's words as "hollow."

"Time and time again, the President has condoned physical violence and divided Americans with his words and his actions," the statement read.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders fired back on "Fox & Friends" Thursday, saying that Trump could not have been "more presidential" in his handling of the apparent bomb threats. She said whoever is behind the attacks is "ultimately the person that is responsible."
Fox News' Catherine Herridge and Bill Mears contributed to this report

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Suspicious package addressed to Sen. Cory Booker recovered in Florida

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A pair of suspicious packages addressed to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker -- the 11th and 12th such parcels sent to top Democratic political figures found in the last week -- were recovered in New York and Florida on Friday, according to an NYPD source and the FBI.

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A man in Kentucky tried to get into a primarily black church. He was unsuccessful. But he went to a nearby grocery store and killed two people.

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man who killed 2 at kroger tried to enter a predominantly black church minutes earlier

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Man who killed 2 at Kroger tried to enter a predominantly black church minutes earlier, police say

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A white man who allegedly killed two people at a Kroger grocery store in Kentucky tried to enter a predominantly black church nearby minutes before the fatal shooting, police said.

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At Bartow Middle School In Flordia, 2 Girls Were Arrested For A Plot To Murder Their Classmates And Drink Their Blood In Honor Of Satan

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Two Florida middle school students were arrested on Tuesday after they allegedly planned to murder their classmates as a part of a violent satanic ritual that involved drinking their victims' blood, police said.

Authorities at Bartow Middle School in Bartow, Florida, said two girls -- ages 11 and 12 -- were about to carry out the deadly ritual on Tuesday afternoon. A staff member, however, caught them hiding in a school bathroom with several weapons, according to police.

Investigators said the girls had a goblet, knives and several other weapons. When asked to explain the items, the girls told the school principal they were planning to murder at least 15 classmates who entered the restroom as a part of the ritual, according to Bartow Police Chief Joe Hall.

They were allegedly waiting for "smaller kids" that they could easily overpower and kill, Hall told "Good Morning America."

ABC

"They had a strong belief in satanism and they believed the more people they killed the faster they would go to hell," Hall said. "They were looking for easy targets that they could attack with little or no resistance."

Authorities did not disclose many details about the juvenile suspects. But police said they'd been planning the ritual since the past weekend. They were both charged with conspiracy to commit murder and it was unclear if they had obtained lawyers.

"There was essentially no reaction from either of these two girls. They were not happy. They were not sad," Hall said. "I would describe them as carefree and nonchalant about the process."

Investigators said they recovered text messages in which the girls allegedly discussed the details of the attack. They intended to eat the victims' flesh, place their body parts by the school's front entrance and kill themselves once it was over, police said.

"I can't say that I've ever seen anything like this," Hall said. "The fact is that we had other students that heard a rumor and reported that information."

The school said it had beefed up security ahead of the horrifying discovery.

As a precautionary measure, extra law enforcement officers would be on campus this week.

There were no injuries reported as a result of the thwarted plot, officials said.

ABC News' Victor Oquendo contributed to this report.

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2 girls arrested for plot to kill classmates: Police

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Two Florida middle school students were arrested on Tuesday after they allegedly planned to murder their classmates as a part of a violent satanic ritual that involved drinking their victims' blood, police said. Authorities at Bartow Middle School in Bartow, Florida, said two girls -- ages 11 and 12 -- were about to carry out the deadly ritual on Tuesday afternoon.

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Trump's phone was suspected to being spied on by China, China denies and suggests he should buy a phone from China's phone company "Huawei" said foreign ministry spokeswomen Hua Chunying

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Taking a page from the U.S. president's own playbook, China on Thursday denounced a U.S. newspaper report that it is listening to Donald Trump's phone calls as "fake news," and suggested he exchange his iPhone for a cellphone made by Chinese manufacturer Huawei.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying did not provide any evidence or cite any specifics in her dismissal of the report in The New York Times. China tightly censors domestic media and routinely rejects critical foreign media reporting about the ruling Communist Party as biased or fabricated.

Hua told reporters that the journalists behind the report "are sparing no efforts to win the Academy Award for best screenplay."

"Firstly, The New York Times should know that such a report just provides another piece of evidence that The New York Times is making fake news," Hua said.

In accusing the newspaper of fabricating news, Hua echoed language used by Trump, who has often accused the New York Times of making up stories.

"Secondly, I suggest they replace their iPhone with Huawei ones if they are really concerned about security issues," Hua said.

A 2012 report by a congressional panel said Huawei's equipment was a security risk and the U.S. has banned government personnel from using the company's devices.

If the U.S. is still concerned about security, Trump could "abandon all modern communication devices and cut off contact with the outside completely," Hua said.

The Times reported that American intelligence reports said Chinese and Russian spies are listening in when Trump calls friends on one of his iPhones and is using the information to try to influence him and impact administration policy.

Trump pushed back against the idea that he uses insecure cellphones, tweeting Thursday that he only uses government phones "and have only one seldom used government cell phone."

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley added that the Times report "presented inaccurate information about the President's cell phone and its usage."

The President's phone security "follows industry best practices and is closely managed under government supervision in conjunction with recommendations from industry partners," Gidley said.

"The phone is rotated on a regular basis and is constantly monitored for any security vulnerabilities and attacks, in accordance with recommendations from the intelligence community."

China has long been accused of efforts to target U.S. government, military and commercial entities with cyberattacks. In 2015, a massive hack of the federal Office of Personnel Management, widely blamed on China's government, compromised personal information of more than 21 million current, former and prospective federal employees, including those in the Pentagon.

Trump and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence have also recently accused China of seeking to interfere in the upcoming midterm election s. They say Beijing wants to undermine the president's campaign to force China to make concessions on trade and investment terms. The administration has not provided any evidence to back-up such accusations.

At a multinational defense forum in Beijing on Thursday, Defense Minister Wei Fenghe denied any implication of Chinese meddling.

"We strongly urge the U.S. to correct its wrongful statement and refrain from harming bilateral relations," Wei said.

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China denies spying on Trump's phone, suggests he use Huawei

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Taking a page from the U.S. president's own playbook, China on Thursday denounced a U.S. newspaper report that it is listening to Donald Trump's phone calls as "fake news," and suggested he exchange his iPhone for a cellphone made by Chinese manufacturer Huawei. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman...

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A man was arrested in Britain on Thursday for trying to steal one of the four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta from a British Cathedral in Salisbury. The Magna Carta dates back to the year 1215. The Weltshire police released today that the alarms went off Thursday afternoon.

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A 45-year-old man is in custody after he allegedly tried to steal one of the four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta from its display case at a British cathedral.

Wiltshire Police revealed on Friday that alarms went off at the Salisbury Cathedral on Thursday afternoon after a person tried to smash the glass box surrounding the medieval document dating back to 1215.

"A man matching the description given by witnesses was arrested on suspicion of attempted theft, possession of an offensive weapon and criminal damage," police said in a statement. "The Magna Carta has not been damaged and nobody was injured in the incident."

The suspected has not been identified or charged.

The Magna Carta - Latin for "Great Charter" - was granted by King John in 1215 during a time of political crisis in medieval England. The document has become an enduring symbol of the rule of law.

Only four copies of the Magna Carta remain, and Salisbury Cathedral claims to have the best preserved original manuscript. This copy of the Magna Carta was installed in a glass display cabinet marking the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta at Runnymede in 2015.

Salisbury Cathedral has been in the news recently because two Russians accused of carrying out the nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei and Yulia Skripal claimed during a TV interview in September that they had traveled to Salisbury to see its "famous cathedral," not to poison anyone.

In addition to the rare Magna Carta, the cathedral is known for having the tallest cathedral spire in Britain.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Man arrested trying to steal Magna Carta from Salisbury Cathedral

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A 45-year-old man is in custody after he allegedly tried to steal one of the four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta from its display case at a British cathedral. Wiltshire Police revealed on Friday that alarms went off at the Salisbury Cathedral on Thursday afternoon after a person tried to smash the glass box surrounding the medieval document dating back to 1215.

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On Thursday night, the Miami-Dade County Police Department (in Florida) said it was assisting federal agents who were at the facility as part of the ongoing investigation. Three more packages with potential bombs were discovered. A total of 10 devices have been found, including two packages addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden.

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florida mail facility searched in hunt for serial bomb maker - cnnpolitics

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Investigators search Florida mail facility for clues to bombmaker

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The nationwide manhunt for the person or people who sent 10 potential bombs to top Democrats, critics of President Donald Trump and to CNN's office in New York led authorities to a mail facility in South Florida on Thursday night.