The rents for these units will range from $833 for a studio to $1,082 for a two-bedroom. The building has drawn controversy for its separate entrances, one for the low-income residents and the other for the rest. In fact, the two parts of the building will even have separate street addresses. However, those differences didn’t seem to discourage many from applying for one of the affordable dwellings. As of Monday, more than 88,000 people had asked for one of the units,   read more

The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office charged Domanik Green, an eighth-grader at Paul R. Smith Middle School in the town of Holiday, with an offense against a computer system and unauthorized access, a felony, after Green accessed the system on March 31 with a password he’d seen the teacher type in. Green then substituted the teacher’s screen background with a picture of two men kissing.   read more

Some experts wonder if the Arctic Ocean will really be free enough of ice in just two years to allow for the unusual competition. “Although end-of-summer ice conditions in the Amundsen route of the Northwest Passage (the route they would take) have become milder over the past decade, ice conditions have been, and will remain, highly variable,” said Mark Serreze. “At the end of summer 2017 the route might be more-or-less completely ice free. [Or] it may be choked with ice."   read more

In New York City, a light projection group—the Illuminator Art Collective—lit up a hologram of whistleblower Edward Snowden atop a column in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn. The likeness of the former NSA contractor was projected to replace an actual four-foot-tall, 100-pound bust of Snowden that was taken down by authorities. “To me it's about, if someone removes the statue, that the idea and the conversation can still take place, even though that material structure is gone,” said Grayson Earle.   read more

The incident began in 2010 when Lakeland Eye Clinic hired a new employee named Michael Branson. Six months into his employment, Branson began appearing at work wearing makeup and women’s clothing, saying he was transitioning and should be called Brandi. The company terminated Branson, claiming the position was being eliminated. But Lakeland Eye Clinic then hired a replacement for Branson two weeks later. The EEOC settled its case against the Florida health clinic for $150,000.   read more

Although Puerto Rico is an American territory, the predominant language there is Spanish. This fact appears to have been lost on the Social Security Administration (SSA), which has declared some Puerto Ricans who don’t speak English to be disabled for the purpose of receiving government payments.SSA’s inspector general found 218 cases in Puerto Rico from 2011 to 2013 in which disability status had been given to those because of their limited English skills.   read more

The largest of the flipped counties is California’s San Diego County, which was 55.4% non-Hispanic white in 2000. By 2013, only 47.2% of its 3,211,252 residents were in that category. The next largest is neighboring Orange County, California, long seen as a bastion of white privilege and power. The greatest percentage shift was seen in Rockdale County, Georgia. That county, which is east of Atlanta, went from 72.8% non-Hispanic white in 2000 to only 37.8% in 2013.   read more

Servers are required to wear at least bikini bottoms and pasties, so they’re not so much X-rated as a hard R. In addition, partitions are placed between the building and the street to protect children and others who don’t want to see the servers. Coffee stands whose workers wear regular clothing often declare themselves to be “family friendly.”   read more

Judge Richard Griffin wrote that St. Johns’ ban “implies, without any evidence, that charities would be negligent in failing to conduct timely pickups of donated goods, in maintaining the appearance of the bins, etc.” Charity bins are a form of communication, said the court. “A passer-by who sees a donation bin may be motivated by it to research the charity to decide if he wants to donate [and] will gain new information about the social problem the charity seeks to remedy."   read more

The group Women on 20s says Andrew Jackson is the perfect candidate to be replaced on paper money. Although he was a great military leader, Jackson was also a slave trader and responsible for the forced resettlement of Native Americans from the Southeast United States to Oklahoma on the “Trail of Tears.” Coincidentally, he also favored the use of gold and silver over paper money, which makes his presence on U.S. currency somewhat ironic.   read more

The first-ever murder trial to come out of the nation’s highest-security prison has prompted the judge in the case to assign jurors special anonymous identifiers as a security precaution. After a juror asked if it was safe to be involved with the trial, District Judge Robert Blackburn remarked: “Our security protocol is robust and comprehensive both inside and outside of court.” He added: “Without trying to sound immodest, our security record is impeccable.”   read more

Campbell was not participating in the Zombie Walk, but was taking photographs of the undead while standing in a crosswalk. Pocci, who is deaf, found his car blocked by the zombie walkers. When he began to get rattled by the strange scene in front of him, he blew his horn and tried to drive ahead. That angered the zombies, who jumped on his car and broke his windshield. Becoming even more concerned for his safety and that of his passengers, he inched forward, struck Campbell and ran her over.   read more

The U.S. Postal Service just unveiled a stamp intended to honor poet Maya Angelou. It ended up quoting another writer’s work. The stamp features the quote: “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” The line was written, not by Angelou, but by Joan Walsh Anglund. USPS officials didn’t discover their mistake until the stamp was already printed and The Washington Post informed them of the error.   read more

The federal government abolished the civil service exam in 1981 following multiple discrimination lawsuits that claimed the test was biased against minorities. But with so many people applying to become federal employees, some agencies decided to bring back the civil service exam, albeit in a much newer and modern format that tries to avoid being unfair to blacks and Hispanics. About 10% of would-be bureaucrats at three dozen government agencies will take the USA Hire test.   read more

The problem, critics say, is the face. It features jagged teeth and a crazed expression, prompting comparisons to everything from zombies and Yoda to Joseph Stalin, and actor Steve Buscemi. “If he’s the artist and the sculptor, you would think he would take some pride in his work and say, ‘Yeah, that’s probably not up to par and I should make it right,’” said Mayor Schrecengost. “But his last statement to me was, ‘If nobody likes it...just take it down and put it in storage.’”   read more

Linda Thomas was moved from her office to a converted cell in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago after she reported mismanagement and financial waste in June 2014. The “office” had no phone, computer or other equipment necessary for her work and she was forced to climb staircases through inmate areas to reach her desk.   read more