There were an astounding 23 triple stumpers or clues to which no contestant correctly responded, which is close to an all-time record

DELAWARE CITY, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 25, 2023--

Travis Ikeguchi had been spewing anti-LGBT+ content on social media for quite some time. Behind his keyboard, the 27-year-old California man was posting images of burning Pride flags and lashing out at the LGBT+ community as well as law enforcement. Then, he came out from behind his online persona and murdered a mother-of-nine fashion entrepreneur over the Pride flag she had dared to hang outside her own store, according to authorities. On Friday, Ikeguchi went to the Mag.Pi store on Hook Creek Road owned by Laura “Lauri” Ann Carleton, according to police in San Bernardino. He confronted her about the rainbow flag, tearing it down while screaming homophobic slurs at her. Then he pulled out a gun, shooting the 66-year-old. Officers arrived on the scene to find Carleton suffering a single gunshot wound before she died in the street. By this time, Ikeguchi had fled the scene before he was tracked down by police. A standoff ensued and he opened fire on the officers before he was shot and killed by law enforcement. Carleton’s senseless murder has since led to an outpouring of grief and anger from her children and family members, Hollywood stars and the LGBT+ community members who have warned that her killing is a marker of the anti-LGBT+ hate currently being spread across the US. Now, officials have confirmed the killer’s history of anti-LGBT+ comments on social media. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said that Ikeguchi – from Cedar Glen, California – had made many posts online that were critical of the LGBT+ community and law enforcement. Public information officer Mara Rodriguez said that the posts were made on multiple different social media platforms, including X, formerly known as Twitter, and the far-right platform Gab. “The content of Ikeguchi’s social media posts contained posts critical to the LGBTQIA community,” said the officer. Accounts on X and Gab under Ikeguchi’s name, reviewed by The Independent, appear to match the hateful posts referred to by authorities. In one post, dated 13 June and pinned to the top of the X account, Ikeguchi appeared to post an image of a burning rainbow flag. “What to do with the LGBTQP flag?” the chilling post was captioned. In another post on 28 June, the user took aim at same-sex marriage and abortion. “Abortion and same-sex marriage are both immoral and are design to destroy humanity one by one,” the tweet read. “So if someone is pro-abortion and pro-LGBTQP, they are at war against the foundation of family values. –Travis Ikeguchi 6/23/2023 6:39am.” In a post the same day, he revealed a deep-rooted paranoia for law enforcement. “Do not follow their traps they want to know everything about you to catch you and used against you in court and lie about you. Watch out their sociopathic schemes,” the post read. Over on Gab – the site popular with extreme right-wing figures – the account believed to belong to Ikeguchi regularly shared anti-LGBT+ and anti-law enforcement rhetoric. One harrowing post shared on Friday – the day of Carleton’s murder – read: “America must repent for a lot of things we allow; abortion/baby killing, sexual immortality, pornography, same-sex marriages, LGBTQP/pedophilia, freemasonry, religiosity, politics, wars, colonialism, the federal reserve.” The anti-LGBT+ content went back as far as two years, with a 2021 post reading: “We need to STOP COMPROMISING on this LGBT dictatorship and not let them take over our lives!” In another violent post also from 2021, the user spoke of killing police officers. “I know it’s controversial for me to mention the option to kill a police officer, but these police officers are not the servants for the people they are the servants for the laws,” the post read. The Independent has reached out to San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department for comment on the accounts. A sheriff’s spokesperson told NBC News that Carleton’s murder is now being investigated as a hate crime. The Californian community has been left reeling from the mother-of-nine’s murder, which comes at a time of increased anti-LGBT+ right-wing rhetoric. Friends have said that Carleton had been faced with people ripping down the Pride flag hanging outside her Cedar Glen clothing store ever since she opened the store two years ago. But, the well-known LGBT+ ally refused to be undeterred, and would simply get a new flag and hang it right back up. Never did anyone expect that her bravery in the face of hate would end with her brutal murder. Her daughters Ari and Kelsey released a statement on Instagram saying that their mother, who was married to husband Bort for 28 years, was “murdered over a pride flag that she proudly hung on her storefront”. They remembered her as a “fearless, cool and compassionate” human being. “Make no mistake, this was a hate crime,” they wrote. “We find peace in knowing she passed quickly in a place she cherished, doing what she loved while fiercely defending something she believed in. She was fearless, cool and compassionate – always putting others first,” the post read. “We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support that our family has received from loved ones and strangers alike, it has provided hope and light in our darkest days. We will continue to advocate for love, equality and acceptance in everything that we do. Love will always triumph over hate.” Many other friends and Hollywood celebs echoed their sentiments. Hollywood Director Paul Feig, whose works include Bridesmaids and The Heat, posted a tribute on Sunday in memory of his very close “wonderful friend”. “We are all devastated for her husband Bort and her family and the LGBTQ+ community, for whom Lauri was such a true ally,” he wrote. “This intolerance has to end. Anyone using hateful language against the LGBTQ+ community has to realize their words matter, that their words can inspire violence against innocent loving people. “Let’s all keep moving forward with tolerance and love. Let’s not let Lauri’s tragic death be in vain.” Sex and the City actress Kristin Davis, Star Trek actor George Takei and Jamie Lee Curtis also echoed these words. Meanwhile, outside the store where she was killed, loved ones, allies and community members showed their own defiance in the face of hate. As well as flowers, cards and photos of the popular store owner and mother-of-nine, multiple rainbow flags are now proudly on display. Read More Laura Carleton shooting – latest: Travis Ikeguchi named as gunman who killed mother-of-nine over Pride flag A murder over a Pride flag is sadly no surprise to anyone paying attention When people ripped her store’s Pride flag, Laura Carleton hung up another. This time it ended with her murder

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A federal judge in Arkansas has permanently struck down the state’s first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, finding that the law violates the constitutional rights of trans patients, their families and health providers. The law – the first-such ban on affirming healthcare for trans youth in the US – is permanently enjoined following a weeks-long trial, marking the first such ruling in the country. A decision from US District Judge Jay Moody, who was appointed to the federal judiciary by Barack Obama, joins a wave of legal victories in federal courts for transgender rights and the rights of trans youth to access medically recommended and potentially life-saving care. The law prohibited doctors from providing hormone therapies, puberty blockers or affirming surgeries to anyone under 18 years old. It also barred state funds or insurance coverage for affirming care for people under 18 and allowed insurance companies to refuse to cover affirming treatment for people of any age. Judge Moody had temporarily blocked the law in 2021 as a legal challenge from a group of families with trans children played out. In his ruling on 20 June, Judge Moody determined that the law unconstitutionally discriminates against transgender people and their families by infringing on their due process and rights to equal protection under the law. He also determined that the law violate the First Amendment rights of doctors by prohibiting them from referring their patients elsewhere. Judge Moody argued that attorneys for the state of Arkansas failed to contest the “extensive clinical experience” from doctors who testified in the case and the “decades of clinical experience demonstrating the efficacy of gender-affirming medical care.” He also debunked the state’s medical claims by pointing to testimony from its own witness and ruled that the state failed to prove any of its claims that affirming treatment is “ineffective or riskier than other medical care provided to minors,” among other statements. Arkansas “failed to prove that its interests in the safety of Arkansas adolescents from gender transitioning procedures or the medical community’s ethical decline are compelling, genuine, or even rational,” Judge Moody wrote. He determined that plaintiffs proved that they would “suffer immediate and irreparable harm” if the law was allowed to take effect, “outweighed by any potential harm to the State of Arkansas caused by the entry of a permanent injunction.” “I’m so grateful the judge heard my experience of how this health care has changed my life for the better and saw the dangerous impact this law could have on my life and that of countless other transgender people,” said Dylan Brandt, a 17-year-old transgender boy who joined the lawsuit challenging the law. “My mom and I wanted to fight this law not just to protect my health care, but also to ensure that transgender people like me can safely and fully live our truths,” he said in a statement through the ACLU of Arkansas. “Transgender kids across the country are having their own futures threatened by laws like this one, and it’s up to all of us to speak out, fight back, and give them hope.” Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice at the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said the judge’s deicision provides “enormous relief” to trans youth and their families in the state. “In state after state, transgender people are being forced to fight for our most basic rights, including access to the health care many of us need to live,” he added. “This victory shows that these laws, when tested by evidence, are indefensible under any standard of constitutional review.” The ruling comes days after a federal judge appointed by Donald Trump temporarily blocked a similar ban on affirming healthcare in Indiana law. Another federal court ruling in Florida also partially blocked state law impacting access to such care, delivering a ruling that eviscerated the state’s anti-trans policies and condemned the bigotry that fuelled such legislation. Over the last year, state lawmakers across the country introduced a historic number of bills targeting LGBT+ Americans, including hundreds aimed at young trans people, as part of a growing campaign among Republican lawmakers wielding anti-trans attacks now dominating their platforms and right-wing media campaigns. Children’s hospitals and health providers offering care for trans youth also have faced an unprecedented wave of harassment and threats. At least 20 states have enacted laws or policies banning affirming healthcare for young trans people. But an increasing number of state-level and federal court decisions have blocked them from going into effect, for now. Read More Trump-appointed federal judge blocks Indiana’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth Pioneering transgender lawmaker has advice for pushing back against transphobic bills Neo-Nazis can’t stop Pride in Montana: ‘Yes, we are under attack. But we will not be quiet’

Astronomers have discovered a key ingredient for life at the edge of our Milky Way galaxy. A team from the University of Arizona detected the presence of phosphorus while studying molecular clouds on the outskirts of the galaxy using giant radio telescopes in the US and Spain. Phosphorus is one of the so-called NCHOPS elements that make up the critical ingredients for life on Earth – nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur. All of the others have already been found on the edge of the galaxy, so the discovery of phosphorus has direct implications for the search for Earth-like planets around distant stars. Their observations of the chemical 74,000 light-years from the centre of the Milky Way calls into question our fundamental understanding of the universe, the researchers said. “The phosphorus we detected is at the edge of the galaxy, where it shouldn’t be,” said Lilia Koelemay, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona who led the research. Theories that could explain its presence include supernova stars, which are typically not found on the edge of galaxies, and low mass stars generating excess neutrons that are then added onto silicon atoms to create phosphorus. “To make phosphorus, you need some kind of violent event,” said Lucy Ziurys, Regents Professor of chemistry and biochemistry and astronomy at Steward Observatory. “It is thought that phosphorus is created in supernova explosions, and for that, you need a star that has at least 20 times the mass of the Sun. In other words, if you’re going to have life, you better be near a supernova, if that’s indeed the only source where phosphorus is created.” The detection of phosphorus at the edge of the galaxy could motivate studies of distant exoplanets, the researchers hope, which have not been properly considered until now due to the assumed lack of the chemical. The research team now plans to examine other molecular clouds in the far reaches of the Milky Way to see if they contain phosphorus. Their discovery was described in a paper, titled ‘Phosphorus-bearing molecules PO and PN at the edge of the galaxy’, in the scientific journal Nature. Read More Astronomers find unprecedented ‘disc’ around distant planet Astronomers discover new six-planet system China unveils ‘foldable’ Mars helicopter in mission to return samples to Earth China unveils ‘foldable’ Mars helicopter in mission to return samples to Earth New images of Mars released by Nasa’s Odyssey orbiter Scientists find planets moving around in strange ‘rhythm’

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