Is Taco Bell Roy Moore's Main Financial Backer?
In November 2017, calls for a boycott of Taco Bell spread on Facebook, claiming that the fast food chain was the financing the Senate run of embattled Alabama politician Roy Moore: Roy Moore   One group post read: group post After finding out that Taco Bell's a major supporter for Roy Moore, I Googled their corporate office contact info and created a screenshot of it. Feel free to call, fax, tweet and email them that you're going to boycott their restaurants until they withdraw their support for this pedophile. A 27 November 2017 Daily Beast article reported that newly accessed records had revealed that one of Moore's donors is a businessman named Peter Nicholas. According to reports, an unknown number of Taco Bell franchises are among Nicholas' ventures: article Newly released documents show Illinois businessman Richard Uihlein is the moneyman behind a group seeking to send Moore to the Senate The chief financier of a leading pro-Roy Moore super PAC is a deep-pocketed Republican businessman who dropped eight figures on 2016 races alone and is looking to continue propping up the partys most conservative candidates. Illinois businessman Richard Uihlein provided $100,000 to the group, Proven Conservatives PAC, since September, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission, making him by far the groups top donor. That money, which hadnt been previously disclosed, has financed a host of ads boosting Moores candidacy in the face of widespread sexual assault and harassment allegations. The group has also run ads attacking Moores primary opponent, Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL), and his Democratic general election rival Doug Jones. Proven Conservative PAC officially formed in late August, as the Alabama Senate primary contest heated up. The only major financial support it had previously reported came from a company owned by the family of Alabama timber executive Guice Slawson. In addition to Uihlein, Proven Conservative received money in September from Peter Nicholas, a Florida-based businessman whose chain of Taco Bell franchises has also donated to the campaign of Omar Navarro, a quixotic Republican challenger to California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters. Taco Bell is under the ownership of parent company Yum! Brands, which does donate to political candidates but which does not appear to have donated to Moore's campaign: Yum! Brands donated   Nicholas is not the owner of either Taco Bell or Yum! Brands; according to reports, he only owns Taco Bell franchises in Florida. How many and which franchises is not immediately apparent, but the majority of Taco Bells are neither owned nor operated by Nicholas. Calls for a boycott or an appeal to the chain's corporate offices appear to be misguided. franchises Markay, Lachlan.  "Roy Moore Super PAC Financier Finally Revealed."
  The Daily Beast.  27 November 2017.
On 27 May 2016, President Obama became the first sitting president to visit Hiroshima, Japan since the end of World War II. While some media outlets painted the historic visit as another stop on Obama's "apology tour," the president did not actually apologize. apology tour Still, social media users were outraged at the President's supposed apology:    On 26 May 2016, the New York Post published an article criticizing the president for his "shameful" apology tour. While the author assumed that Obama would apologize (despite the White House saying that an apology would not be forthcoming), the article came out a day before Obama's speech and therefore did not serve as evidence: article An American presidents highest moral, constitutional and political duty is protecting his fellow citizens from foreign threats. Presidents should adhere to our values and the Constitution, and not treat Americas enemies as morally equivalent to us. If they do, they need not apologize to anyone. The White House says that President Obama wont apologize as he visits Hiroshima Friday. But who believes his press flacks? The president did make an apology while he was in Japan, but it wasn't for the atomic bomb. On 25 May 2016, the President offered his "deepest regrets" for the death of a Japanese woman who reportedly had been murdered by a former U.S. Marine: murdered "The U.S. will continue to cooperate fully" and will continue to ensure "justice is done under the Japanese legal system," Obama said. While critics of President Obama preemptively condemned him for apologizing for the United States' 1945 actions (which collectively killed more than 100,000 people), and while the President did apologize for an unrelated incident, he did not actually offer an apology during his speech. Obama did offer condolences for the loss of those who died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but nowhere in the full text of his remarks did he offer an apology: actions apology ull text Seventy-one years ago, on a bright cloudless morning, death fell from the sky and the world was changed. A flash of light and a wall of fire destroyed a city and demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself. Why do we come to this place, to Hiroshima? We come to ponder a terrible force unleashed in a not-so-distant past. We come to mourn the dead, including over 100,000 Japanese men, women and children, thousands of Koreans, a dozen Americans held prisoner. Their souls speak to us. They ask us to look inward, to take stock of who we are and what we might become.  NY Times.  "Text of President Obamas Speech in Hiroshima, Japan."
  27 May 2016 . Spitzer, Kirk.  "Sympathy for victims but no apology as Obama makes historic Hiroshima visit."
  USA Today.  27 May 2016. Bolton, John.  "Obama's Apology Tour Lands In Hiroshima."
  NY Post.  26 May 2016. On the heels of the longest federal government shutdown in United States history, and on the potential precipice of another shutdown in February 2019, Facebook users started to share a meme about how the country of Australia handled their own government shutdown back in 1975:   The text of the meme stated: "In 1975 Australia had a government shutdown. In the end, all the members of Parliament were fired and then elections were held to restart from scratch. They haven't had another shutdown since." This meme is largely accurate. Australia's government was effectively shutdown due to a budget impasse in October 1975, the prime minister was dismissed, both houses of Parliament were dissolved, and a new election was held. Since then, Australia has not had another government shutdown. However, Australia's constitutional crisis in 1975, often referred to as "The Dismissal," was a bit more complicated than portrayed in this meme. Furthermore, the meme is often offered up on social media as a solution to government shutdowns in the United States, but Australia's government doesn't function in the same manner as the U.S. government. Some of the key differences that enabled "The Dismissal" to occur in Australia is that the country is both a representative democracy and a constitutional monarchy, which means that despite Australia's having elected officials, the head of state in Australia is still the Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, as represented by the governor-general). While the Queen rarely exercises her power and is often viewed as a mere figurehead in Australia, the monarch (and in turn the governor-general) is afforded some powers in the country's constitution. During the constitutional crisis of 1975, Governor-General Sir John Kerr used his constitutional authority to dismiss Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. constitutional monarchy Australia's constitution also permits a "double dissolution" procedure to resolve deadlocks between the House and Senate: The Australian Constitution gives almost identical powers to the House of Representatives and the Senate. A bill (proposed law) must be agreed to by both houses in order to become law. The drafters of the Constitution saw the possibility of a deadlock occurring between the two houses, in which there may be disagreement over a bill. Section 57 of the Constitution provides a mechanism to resolve the disagreement, by dissolving both houses of Parliament and calling an election to let the voters decide what the outcome will be. The double dissolution mechanism only relates to a bill that originates in the House of Representatives. While the viral meme states that members of parliament were "fired" due to the government shutdown, that isn't exactly accurate. Both houses of parliament were dissolved, so all of the seats in the House and Senate went up for election again. The "fired" lawmakers therefore still had a chance to retain their seats by winning them back in a subsequent election. In 1975, Prime Minister Whitlam and the Australian Labor Party (ALP) held a majority in the House of Representatives, but the Opposition controlled the Senate. When the two parties failed to pass appropriations bills to fund the government, Governor-General Kerr dismissed the prime minister and commissioned Malcom Fraser of the Liberal Party as the caretaker prime minister. Fraser then passed an appropriations bill, and Kerr dissolved Parliament, setting up a double dissolution election to be held the following month. Here's a summary of what took place from the Australian Broadcast Corporation: Australian Broadcast Corporation The Dismissal of the Whitlam Government by the Governor-General, on November 11, 1975, still stands as the most dramatic and controversial event in Australias political history. The decision of the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, to dismiss the Labor Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, and install the Liberal Opposition Leader, Malcolm Fraser, as caretaker prime minister, on condition that he called an election, was a sensational development that ended a three-week parliamentary stand-off. The crisis began on October 15, when the Opposition parties announced they would block the governments Supply Bills in the Senate, as a means of forcing the government to an election. Whitlam refused to call an election and three weeks of parliamentary debate and public campaigning convulsed the political system. On November 11, Whitlam sought a half-Senate election from the Governor-General. Kerr rejected the advice and dismissed Whitlam. He commissioned Malcolm Fraser as caretaker prime minister. Fraser immediately secured the passage of Supply through the Senate and recommended a double dissolution of the parliament. The election was held on December 13, 1975. The Fraser-led Coalition won the largest victory in Australias federal history. The Parliament of Australia website provided some additional context to this historic event: context Several weeks later, and after intense negotiations and a third attempt to enact the appropriation bills, the new Governor-General took the extraordinary and unprecedented step of acting at his own initiative to invoke his power under sec. 62 of the Constitution: There shall be a Federal Executive Council [in practice, the Government] to advise the GovernorGeneral in the government of the Commonwealth, and the members of the Council shall be chosen and summoned by the GovernorGeneral and sworn as Executive Councillors, and shall hold office during his pleasure. (emphasis added) Governor-General Kerr dismissed the Whitlam Government, even though it still enjoyed majority support in the House of Representatives to which, by constitutional convention, it was responsible. To replace it, Kerr appointed a caretaker Liberal Government with Fraser as prime minister. In justifying his decision, the Governor-General argued that, in the Australian system, the confidence of both Houses on supply is necessary to ensure its provision: When ... an Upper House possesses the power to reject a money bill including an appropriation bill, and exercises the power by denying supply, the principle that a government which has been denied supply by the Parliament should resign or go to an election must still applyit is a necessary consequence of Parliamentary control of appropriation and expenditure and of the expectation that the ordinary and necessary services of Government will continue to be provided. (quoted in Odgers Australian Senate Practice 2001: 104) In this position the Governor-General was supported by the Chief Justice, who wrote that: the Senate has constitutional power to refuse to pass a money bill; it has power to refuse supply to the Government of the day. ... a Prime Minister who cannot ensure supply to the Crown, including funds for carrying on the ordinary services of Government, must either advise a general election (of a kind which the constitutional situation may then allow) or resign. (quoted in Odgers Australian Senate Practice 2001: 105) Not surprisingly, the two houses reacted very differently. The Senate acted almost instantaneously to pass the stalled appropriation bills. The House agreed to a motion expressing its lack of confidence in the newly-designated prime minister and requesting the Speaker to ask the Governor-General to have Whitlam again form a government. But before the Speaker was allowed to deliver this message, the Governor-General declared, at Frasers request and by pre-arrangement, a double dissolution of both houses. As Solomon put it: In the 1975 double dissolution, the Governor-General had to dismiss a Prime Minister (who controlled a majority in the House of Representatives) and appoint another (who lacked the confidence of that House) to find an advisor who was prepared to recommend to him the course he wished to adoptnamely the dissolution of both Houses of Parliament under section 57. (Solomon 1978: 169) While some Americans may look at Australia's constitutional crisis of 1975 as a "solution" to modern U.S. government shutdowns, "The Dismissal" remains one of the most controversial events in Australia's history:  Australia.gov.au.  "How Government Works."
  Retrieved 14 February 2019. AustralianPolitics.com.  "Comparing the American and Australian Political Systems."
  Retrieved 14 February 2019. Whitlamdismissal.com.  "What Happened."
  Retrieved 14 February 2019. Barnett, Bronwyn.  "The Dismissal: Through the News Camera Lens."
  National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.  Retrieved 14 February 2019. Fisher, Max.  "The Crisis of 1974-75."
  Parliament of Australia.  Retrieved 14 February 2019. ABC.Net.Au.  "The Dismissal, Australia's Constitutional Crisis."
  Retrieved 14 February 2019. Fisher, Max.  "Australia Had a Government Shutdown Once. In the End, the Queen Fired Everyone in Parliament."
  The Washington Post.  1 October 2013. Scam:  Vendors have been duped into shipping large orders to Nigeria, only to find they've been paid with stolen credit cards.  REAL FRAUD WHICH COSTS ITS VICTIMS HUNDREDS TO THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS Origins:  Nigeria is recognized as one of the most corrupt places on Earth, having become notorious as a hotbed of international theft, chicanery, and fraud. Within that country almost no business transaction is free from the taint of bribery, and it has been estimated that seventy percent of the goods entering Nigeria are smuggled in.  This West African country gained its dubious international reputation in the 1980s after government corruption and a fall in oil prices crippled its economy. It is crushed under an estimated $30 billion debt, soaring unemployment, and galloping inflation. According to the United Nations Development Program, seven of every ten Nigerian citizens earn less than $1 a day. In this environment, chicanery has become a way of life because very little else pays nearly as well. Although the country's leaders have pledged to tackle the international fraud rings and clean up the graft that thrived during the lawless years of military dictatorships, theft has  become so much a part of Nigerian culture that those who perpetrate it do so with little fear of punishment, let alone possess any real sense of wrongdoing. Many of those Nigerians who make their living through larceny believe that if caught they need only return a part of what they've taken for the matter to be fully resolved  the concept of going to jail for having victimized others is just not a part of the thought process.  Nigerian scam artists are masters at defrauding those who live in other nations. They have been highly successful at this endeavor through the venerable Nigerian scam, and they just recently have begun scalping many via the cashier check scam. But of late they have seemingly also discovered the potential of "card not present" (CNP) credit card transactions. CNP sales offer enterprising thieves the opportunity to have the goods they are stealing shipped directly to them  all it takes are seemingly valid credit card numbers and less-than-savvy merchants to victimize. Given that Nigeria is host to a thriving black market that makes disposing of ill-gotten goods not only an easy but lucrative undertaking, CNP theft is a natural for that land's swindlers to have turned their hands to. Nigerian scam cashier check Prior to the Internet, CNP (card not present) transactions were termed MOTO (Mail Order/Telephone Order) sales. CNP sales differ from point of sale (POS) transactions in that merchants do not ever see the actual cards or the persons proffering them. Whereas charge card sales made in stores conclude with prospective buyers presenting themselves and their chargeplates to the vendors, credit card purchases made over the phone, through the Internet, or by mail are effected merely by providing the data printed on the cards. These transactions are thus far less secure undertakings for merchants to engage in, given that the information being provided can't be even somewhat confirmed by a glance at the cards, or the identities of the buyers established by having them show additional proofs of who they are.  The CNP scam works like this: A retailer is contacted by phone or through e-mail by a prospective buyer looking to purchase a largish quantity of goods with a credit card. Often these goods are to be shipped to Nigeria, with the buyer unconcerned about the tremendous cost of transporting the order. In some cases, the buyer will look to split the cost of the order across a number of credit cards.  In a number of cases, Nigerians looking to disguise their identities have taken to placing calls through relay telephone systems that had been set up to assist the deaf. (As to how that works, hearing-impaired phone users type text messages on teletypewriters [TTY]. These text messages are relayed to specialized call centers where they are converted into spoken word for the people at the other ends of the phone lines. When these other parties reply, their messages are converted into text and relayed back to the hearing-impaired users.) Such "relaying" disguises what would have been otherwise telltale accents. Also, because there is no cost for this service, Nigerians can make these calls to businesses in the U.S. without racking up international phone charges.               Only after the goods have been shipped does the seller come to the realization that the credit card used to effect the transaction was stolen. By then it is too late  the goods are gone, as is the "buyer."  Merchants have to be especially wary of fraudulent credit card purchases because they bear the financial burden of any losses so incurred. Whereas a shopper who is robbed of his chargeplate is liable for only the first $50 of charges subsequently made against it, the merchant who accepts a purloined card is left holding the bag. If a thief uses hot plastic to "buy" thousands of dollars worth of goods from an overly trusting shopkeeper, that shopkeeper is out the value whatever the thief left the store with or had shipped to him  there is no $50 cap on the seller's losses. We've grown accustomed to thinking of "businesses" as large financial entities, the sorts of mercantile behemoths that can easily weather a little theft here, a little fraud there. However, often the retailers who fall victim to this form of theft are small businesses run by single proprietors dependent on their shops' income for their livelihood. In those instances, there is no big, thick cushion of profits piled on profits, no built-in allowance for "shrinkage" (the retail term for losses due to pilferage)  the theft is a direct blow to people struggling to make a go of it. Indeed, larger businesses are less likely to fall prey to such fleecings in that their employees responsible for dealing with credit card transactions have been trained in what to look out for. In Mom 'n' Pop stores, training often amounts to only whatever instructions the person doing the hiring comes up with; if that person isn't savvy in fraud circumvention, the clerks he or she trains won't be either. Also, those operating or working for small outfits are far more likely to let desire to make sizable sales temporarily blind them to the dangers inherent to big CNP orders. Larger sales mean more in small shops, and they mean more not just to the owners but also to the employees involved because, being fewer of them, they are far more likely to benefit from the shop's success vis--vis more money being available with which to fund raises or underwrite improved incentive and benefit plans. Here is a sampling of some Nigerian-run CNP frauds that successfully scammed small businesses out of their goods:  In December 2003, an Omaha firm that made Christmas lights and decorations found itself taken to the tune of about $10,000  it had shipped goods to a buyer in Nigeria who had used a stolen card. The defrauded company became suspicious only when the buyer then looked to order American flag displays and five expensive Sony telephones, the latter not even being something the company vended.  In April 2004, a Lancaster, Pennsylvania, man who ran his own computer business was defrauded of $15,000. He filled and shipped three orders (including one for 65 ink-jet cartridges) before being asked by his customer for one hundred disc drives which the buyer planned to pay for by dividing the bill among eight credit cards. The proposed transaction raised enough of a red flag for the man to realize what had been going on. The thief had taken the added precaution of covering his tracks well: because the calls had been placed through a relay operator, they could not be traced and no voice was heard. (Such calls are typically placed by the deaf.)  In the summer of 2002, a bookstore owner in Richmond, Virginia, was duped out of $9,200 worth of goods when she accepted four orders in August and September via the Internet for a total of 270 Bibles and 31 electronic hand-held Bibles to be mailed to Nigeria. The loss put the bookstore into further financial distress  sales had been languishing before that, and the owner hadn't taken a salary since May of that year.  In April 2003, a non-profit organization in Albuquerque lost close to $1,000 in goods when it accepted a credit card charge for a large number of T-shirts. Its losses could have been far greater in that the thief was attempting to place a further 12 orders when the first theft was discovered. (Even then, the "buyer" had the gall to call the non-profit to insist the bad credit card number was simply a mistake.) Sometimes those looking to move stolen merchandise to Nigeria do so by way of having the goods first shipped to U.S. addresses before being repackaged for transit to their final destination of the black market in Nigeria. They position innocent parties in the U.S. to act as temporary guardians of the incoming bounty, an act that gives vendors the false security of their goods being delivered to American addresses (from which they would assume they could be reclaimed if anything went wrong with the sale). Those desperate to make a bit of money will find themselves approached by Nigerians who will claim they are in the business of provisioning shops in that faraway land, but that their having to ship items piecemeal is killing their bottom line because the freight charges are murder. Would the dupe consent to their using his house as a central collection point where they could assemble their various purchases into one super shipment, or even doing the repackaging and shipping on their behalf? But of course they would be willing to pay a fee for the use of the premises for as long as their consignments were taking up space and to recompense him for his trouble. The best such unwitting dupes can hope for are understanding police officers, in that sooner or later the boys in blue are bound to come knocking as one defrauded vendor after another reports having shipped goods to that address. In a worse scenario, those whose homes are being used as way stations will be assumed to have been in on the racket and will find themselves charged with receiving stolen goods:   In January 2004, a Mishawaka, Indiana, man fell in with such a scheme, storing items for a Nigerian woman who had convinced him she was starting up a business in her land and needed him to serve as a central collection point for her purchases prior to mailing them to her. The dupe met the woman (known only as "Brown Sugar") in an Internet chat room. Computer company Hewlett-Packard twigged police to what was going on after two computers bought from it with stolen cards showed up as having been shipped to the Mishawaka man's address. Police recovered DVD players, cameras, boots, clothing, and herbal and sexual supplements from the man's home. No charges were laid against the man because the investigation into the matter showed him to be a victim, not one of the perpetrators.  In July 2003, 42-year-old Leonett G. Knoll of Albany, New York, was charged with receiving stolen property after police discovered $50,000 worth of purloined goods at his house that he was preparing to ship to a confederate in Nigeria. Like the unnamed Mishawaka man, he too had been befriended in a chat room and persuaded to serve as a collection point for items to be freighted to Nigeria.  In February 2003, a New Hampshire couple were arrested after local police and U.S. Postal inspectors found a large amount of stolen merchandise in their home that they intended to reship to Nigeria.  A December 2003 news story out of Anchorage, Alaska, reports that at least two people in that city were roped into becoming receivers of stolen goods via a newspaper ad looking for folks interested in making money at home using the Internet. On the promise of being paid later by check, these folks received goods from local companies and shipped them off to Nigeria, only long afterwards realizing they'd been part of a crime. Most of the time those who are using stolen credit cards to move goods to Nigeria are operating from that distant land and thus lie well outside the grasp of U.S. law enforcement. It is the sad reality of such thefts and frauds that they go unpunished because their perpetrators are safe in another jurisdiction. But sometimes the perpetrators make the mistake of operating where American justice can get its hooks into them. In March 2003, 19-year-old Ikemefuna Iwunoh was arrested in Wichita on federal charges for his part in such thefts. The young man had been part of a group of Nigerian nationals who had hacked into computer systems to steal credit card numbers from across the country and had used some of the numbers so collected to order a variety of goods delivered to his home (for later reshipment to Nigeria, where they would fetch double their value on the black market). Some days as many as 40 boxes (containing computers, printers, shoes, and clothing) were delivered to his door. Three others in Pittsburgh were charged along with Iwunoh: Itobore Oshobe, 24; Ote Kadana, 23; and Andrew Ikepeme, 19. Investigators estimated that the apartment in Wichita was the base for about $100,000 in fraudulent charges between August 2002 and March 2003.  Barbara "charge of the light-fingered brigade" Mikkelson How To Avoid Falling Victim To CNP Scams: Always keep in mind that electronic approval of a credit card vets only that the charge account itself is valid; it does not guarantee that the person presenting it to you is its legitimate holder. Verify with the issuer that the card has not been reported stolen before proceeding with any large order.   Be wary of any CNP transactions (Internet, mail, telephone order) where one or more of the following indicators are present:  Larger than normal orders. Orders placed where card numbers used are similar and/or sequential. Orders going to international addresses. Orders consisting of several of the same item. Many orders shipped to a single address. Orders shipped rush or overnight. Orders originating from free e-mail addresses. Orders where the "ship to" and "bill to" addresses are different. Orders with requests that costs be split on one card or across several cards.  When faced with a suspect order, verify the customer's billing address, either electronically or by an automated phone system via accessing an Address Verification System (AVS).   Turn down orders which involve shipping goods to Nigeria.   Stop believing in the chimera of "something for nothing."  Additional Information:       Foiling Credit Card Fraud   (Bankrate.com)   Last updated:  11 July 2011    Johnson, May Lee.  "Internet Fraud Reported."   South Bend Tribune.  10 January 2004  (p. A1).     Jordon, Steve.  "Nigerian Scam Fools Omaha Firm."   Omaha World Herald.  12 December 2003  (p. B1).     King, Ronette.  "Scams Thrive on Corruption, Rampant Poverty."   [New Orleans] Times-Picayune.  9 June 1996  (p. F1).     Murphy, John.  "Reform in a Country of Cons."   The Baltimore Sun.  20 February 2004  (p. A2).     Tsong, Nicole.  "Internet Scammers Succeed in Schemes Duping Alaskans."   Anchorage Daily News.  15 December 2003  (p. B1).     Albuquerque Journal.  "AG Warms of Net Scam."   10 April 2003  (Business Outlook, p. 20).     Associated Press.  "Former Community College Student Arrested in Black-Market Scam."   7 March 2003.     Associated Press.  "Arrests in Wichita and Pittsburgh in Credit Card Scam."   7 March 2003.     Lancaster New Era.  "Business Here Loses $15,000 in Scam."   5 April 2004  (p. B1).     The [Albany] Times Union.  "Cops Link Scam, Web, Nigeria."   25 July 2003  (p. B14).     WMAQ-TV, Chicago.  "Caller Gives Two Credit Card Numbers."   26 April 2004. Claim:  A Texas business provides big game hunters with an opportunity to participate in "horse hunt adventures."   Example:  [Collected via e-mail, May 2013] There's a blog going around about "Texas Horse Hunts" where horses are hunted on paid hunts....could this possibly be true?   Origins:  In May 2013, social media were abuzz with chatter regarding (and at least one petition calling for the shutdown of) a three-month-old blog site for an outfit advertising Texas Horse Hunts, presented as an opportunity for big game horse hunters to bag themselves some equines:  petition blog site If youve dreamed of big game horse hunting in Texas and are interested in a superior, top quality, exciting and successful horse hunting experience, join Texas Horse Hunt Expeditions, LLC and Master Guide Tom D. Welderman IV on your next horse hunt adventure. Youll enjoy some of the most dynamic and beautiful wilderness in the world! We guide areas within National Wildlife Refuges and receive the  finest guiding expertise, personal service and attention to detail found anywhere. Im a guide because I love horse hunting, Texas, the outdoors and because I enjoy sharing these things with other humans who appreciate what horse hunts have to offer. Our goal, aside from helping you harvest a magnificent trophy horse, is to share with you this incredible state and all that it has to offer. When you leave one of our camps as a friend, we want you to take home fond lifetime memories of your horse hunt experience. The quality of your horse and your whole experience is my primary concern. We are not narcissistic; your hunt with us is not about us but about you and your horse. This is your horse hunt and we want to help fulfill all of your expectations. Multiple factors pointed to the whole thing being a satirical hoax, however, including:  The lack of any previous news coverage or any effort to publicize the business beyond a single blog entry.  The photographs on the Texas Horse Hunts blog site were all lifted from other web sites.  The picture of the dead equine in the back of a truck was taken from a May 2009 blog entry for Rogues Gallery Kennel (a  rescue kennel for sled dogs) about the picking up of a naturally deceased horse in Alaska; the photo of a pair of horses lying dead on the ground was taken from a 2010 news article about San Joaquin County Sheriffs Office investigating five dead horses believed to have died of thirst in a field off Interstate 580 in California; and the picture of a single (apparently undead) brown horse lying on the ground is a stock photo from 2004. Rogues Gallery Kennel lying dead news article stock photo Joseph Robertia, the rightful owner of the first photograph penned an article for The Redoubt Reporter describing the harm the theft of his photo had caused for him and his family, saying (in part): article Hi, my name is Joseph, and I hunt horses with sticks, crossbows and firearms. And if you believe this, Ive got some prime swampland in Florida to sell you. Sadly, though, several people do believe it, thanks in part to a photo stolen from my personal blog, https://www.rogueskennel.com, and used out of context on a site proclaiming to be for Texas Horse Hunts. Not hunting on horseback, but actually hunting and killing horses. It's left me having to assert and explain something so bizarre I never thought Id have to utter these words  I have not, do not and would not ever hunt horses. The photo they found on my site and reposted was taken in Alaska, after my wife and I retrieved a horse that died of natural causes from Sterling residents who had no way to bury it and didnt want it to attract summer bears. The part that really smarts is that the most extensive damage to our reputations was not done by the initial website post. Rather, it was from the dozens of outraged animal rights activists on Facebook pages and other social media sites who began spreading the photo with lightning speed. (A week after we published this article, all the photos and descriptive information were removed from the Texas Horse Hunt page.)  The promotional material in the Texas Horse Hunts blog states that "All horse meats will be processed at our facilities," but laws forced the shutdown of the last remaining horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. (including two in Texas) back in 2007, and no such facilities are currently legally operating in the U.S. horse slaughterhouses  We could find no record of "Texas Horse Hunt Expeditions" being registered as an LLC (limited liability company) in Texas or any other state.  The blog site contains obvious jokes such as "You will have the option of killing your horse traditionally (with a stick)," and a "Brief History of Horse Hunting" article describing  Henry VIII as a horse hunting enthusiast who "instituted a policy of horse hunting exclusively by club" and referencing a "Back to the Future lead actor who's a vocal supporter of the sport." article  One of the best ways of determining whether web-advertised businesses of suspect nature are legitimate is by attempting to purchase what they're supposedly offering for sale (because the whole point of businesses to make money by servicing customers). But the Texas Horse Hunt Expeditions page includes neither a physical address nor even a general indication of where in the world the supposed hunts take place (somewhere in Texas, presumably), key pieces of information which any prospective customer would want to know.  And none of our e-mails or phone calls to Texas Horse Hunt Expeditions expressing interest in participating in one of their "adventures" was returned. Last updated:  29 May 2013 Claim:  McDonald's will stop serving overweight customers beginning 1 January 2015.  Example:  [Collected via e-mail, December 2014] Is this article true? "McDonald's Will Stop Serving Overweight Customers Beginning 1/1/15"   Origins:  On 4 December 2014, Daily Buzz Live published an article claiming the McDonald's fast food chain would stop selling food to overweight customers as of 1 January 2015: article Obesity in America has more than doubled over the last 2 decades and has become the leading public health issue in the U.S. With more than two-thirds of the adult population overweight, McDonald's has decided to become part of the solution  not the problem. According to reports, beginning January 1, 2015, McDonald's will no longer serve customers with a weight capacity over 170 lbs for women and 245 lbs for men. Children's weight restrictions will vary depending on age and height. McDonald's is currently running campaigns to shake its "junk food" image, insisting they sell nothing but good quality food. They are are branding themselves from "A dining experience of fast food" to "Good food served fast." McDonald's has taken a few steps to make its menu healthier, but the restaurant chain has not announced any plans to stop serving customers based on their weight. In addition to the logistical menu  impossibilities of weighing drive-thru customers, the potential lawsuits for discriminating against obese people, and the likelihood of McDonald's losing millions of dollars in profits, the article can be debunked simply by considering its source:  According to the Daily Buzz Live disclaimer page, all articles published on the site are meant for "entertainment purposes only." Some articles are inspired by "real news events," but the content of these articles is "complete fiction." disclaimer Last updated:  5 December 2014 On 15 January 2018, DailyWire.com, the right-wing web site headed by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, posted an article falsely reporting that "Mohammed" was the most popular name given to baby boys born in the Netherlands in 2017: article The mainstream media in the Netherlands reported last week that "Noah" was the most popular baby name for boys in the small European nation. "Noah and Emma were the most popular children's names in the past year," reported Nos.nl. "This is evident from the annual list of names of the Social Insurance Bank, which pays out the child benefit. Boys were named Noah 635 times, while 755 girls went through life as Emma since last year." The year before, "Daan" and "Anna" were the most popular names, the site said. But a journalist at Powned.tv did a little research on the report and found something completely different. Checking for "Mohammed"  and all its alternative spellings  the writer found that 636 babies had been given that name last year. PowNed.tv, the web site DailyWire.com aggregated their story from, is a Dutch blog owned by GeenStijl, a right-leaning site that boasts about being "needlessly offensive." Both GeenStijl and PowNed.tv have been criticized for posting anti-Muslim and anti-migrant content. criticized Baby names in the Netherlands are recorded by the Social Insurance Bank (SVB) for social service purposes, and each year SVB releases a list of the most popular names and ranks them. (For example, Noah and Emma were the most popular boys' and girls' names in 2017, while Daan and Anna were the most popular in 2016.) PowNed arrived at their conclusion that Mohammed was the most popular boys' name for 2017 by tallying all of that name's variations and then weighing that total against the number of newborns who were named Noah in 2017, a methodology that's flawed, for obvious reasons. SVB ranks names by specific spellings, so if the variant spellings of any one name are tallied together, that approach changes the ranking order. Thus, "Mohammad" may be a less popular name on its own than "Morris" or "Moos," but when all the different spellings of "Mohammed" are considered together, that name is more popular than either: ranks  It's true that if multiple variant spellings of the name "Mohammed" are entered into the SVB database, then the results document that 636 of the babies born in the Netherlands in 2017 were given that name. But if the same rule were applied to, for example, the names "Lucas" and "Daniel," it would be clear that Mohammed was hardly the most popular boy's name in 2017. Almost 2,000 Dutch children were named for some form of "Lucas," while more than 1,000 were given a variation of the name "Daniel" in 2017. The topic of migration in Europe has attracted the attention of nationalists and white supremacists, particularly since 2015, when the number of people seeking refuge from places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria spiked. European countries have been the targets of false stories claiming that migrants are creating rape capitals and "no-go zones." attention spiked rape capitals no-go zones DailyWire.com has a tendency to share stories that are taken out of context or not verified. For example, in the days after a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017, the site helped spread a false rumor that "leftists" were digging up Confederate graves. In March of that year, the site spread a false claim that Democratic lawmakers refused to stand for a fallen Navy SEAL's widow. In May 2017, the site falsely reported that Harvard University was holding segregated commencement ceremonies.  DailyWire.com spread false claim segregated The site was embroiled in another racial controversy after posting a video disparaging Native Americans in October 2017. After removing the video, Shapiro responded by apologizing but called the video 'satire.' controversy DutchNews.nl.  "Noah and Emma Top the List of Most Popular Dutch Baby Names."
  12 January 2018. Al Jazeera.  "Rise of the Right: 'Anarchist' Media in the Netherlands."
  27 November 2016. GeenStijl.nl.  "LOL. Real Donald Trump Retweet Dumpertvideo."
  29 November 2017. O'Donnell, Katie.  "Anti-Immigrant Forces Gain Ground in Europe."
  Politico.  22 October 2017. Hinshaw, Drew.  "Polish Nationalist Youth March Draws Thousands in Capital."
  The Wall Street Journal.  11 November 2017. Snopes is still fighting an infodemic of rumors and misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, and you can help. Find out what we've learned and how to inoculate yourself against COVID-19 misinformation. Read the latest fact checks about the vaccines. Submit any questionable rumors and advice you encounter. Become a Founding Member to help us hire more fact-checkers. And, please, follow the CDC or WHO for guidance on protecting your community from the disease.  fighting Find out Read Submit Become a Founding Member CDC WHO In March 2020, cities across the United States started to implement various orders to "shelter in place," "stay at home," or "self-quarantine" in an attempt to stop the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new strain of coronavirus that emerged in 2019. While these measures appeared to work in helping to "flattening the curve" of cases, they also caused a dramatic economic downturn and caused millions of people to lose their jobs.  work flattening the curve millions In mid-April 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump and the White House started working on a plan to "re-open America." Around the same time, cities such as Lansing, Michigan, started to see small, anti-quarantine protests that Trump gave verbal support to on his social media account, tweeting "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" and "LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" and "LIBERATE VIRGINIA and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege." As Trump worked toward easing social distancing measures and re-starting the economy  a decision that worried many health experts  an old tweet started to recirculate on social media that supposedly showed him criticizing governors for relaxing quarantine rules during the Ebola outbreak in 2014: worried   This is a genuine tweet from Trump. It is still available on his Twitter timeline here. An archived version of this tweet can be seen here.  here here Trump's old tweets are frequently shared on social media along with the message "There's a tweet for everything," a phrase meant to encapsulate the idea that for every current Trump statement there is an equal and opposite statement of his from another time. While many of the "there's-a-tweet-for-everything" messages point to genuine and seemingly contradictory tweets from the president's past, we've also encountered quite a few fake tweets supposedly sent from Trump.  fake tweets It should also be noted that the quarantines in 2014 during the Ebola outbreak were much different than the quarantines put in place during the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic. In 2014, no state-wide "shelter-in-place" orders existed. Rather, a handful of states required people who had come in contact with someone infected with Ebola to quarantine for 21 days.  quarantine Trump, who was the host of the television show "The Apprentice" during the Ebola outbreak, frequently criticized President Barack Obama during that epidemic. On Oct. 23, 2014, for instance, he said it was "Obama's fault" after a case of Ebola was confirmed in New York.    Conversely, in March 2020, Trump said "I don't take any responsibility" when he was asked about a lack of testing to deal with the spread of COVID-19. said Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone saw more than 11,000 die from Ebola between 2014 and 2016. In the United States, two people died from the disease. 11,000 die two people Infectious Disease Society of America.  "Ebola Facts."
  Retrieved 21 April 2020. Fantz, Ashley.  "'Doctor's Death Marks Second U.S. Ebola Fatality."
  CNN.  17 November 2014. Oprysko, Caitlin.  "'I Don't Take Responsibility at All': Trump Deflects Blame for Coronavirus Testing Fumble."
  Politico.  13 March 2020. Kenen, Joanne.  "Trumps Plans to Reopen the Country Face Major Obstacles." 
 Politico.  18 April 2020. Beauont, Peter.  "WHO Warns of 'Deadly Resurgence' if Coronavirus Controls Lifted Too Soon."
  The Guardian.  10 April 2020. Lambert, Lance.  "The Worst Part About the U.S. Losing 10 Million Jobs in Two Weeks? The Real Number May be Much Higher."
  Fortune.  2 April 2020. Karni, Annie; Lovett, Kenneth; Otis, Ginger.  "Travelers in Contact with Ebola Patients, Including Returning Nurse with Fever, Now Face Mandatory 21-Day Quarantine in New York, New Jersey."
  New York Daily News.  25 October 2014. Shesgreen, Deirdre and Maureen Groppe.  "Anti-Quarantine Protests, Trump Pressure Put Governors on Political Tightrope Over Coronavirus."
  USA Today.  22 April 2020. Forgey, Quint.  "Trump breaks with his own guidelines to back conservative anti-quarantine protesters."
  Politico.  17 April 2020. In October 2022, Facebook users copied and pasted posts that claimed, "Facebook will start charging this summer." The copy-and-paste posts, which we refer to as copypasta, claimed that the news was "official" and that the posts had been "signed" by the users, a word that was sometimes misspelled as "signal." The posts claimed the news had even been broadcast "on TV." However, this was nothing more than a repeated iteration of a long-running Facebook hoax. copypasta To be clear, Meta has never announced any plans to charge Facebook users money in order for them to be able to use the platform. We found no shortage of these posts being copied and pasted in mid-October. A search for "Facebook will start charging this summer" returned a seemingly endless number of results. a seemingly endless number of results The copy-and-paste post usually read something like this, with the time changed in some posts depending upon when the user shared the text:  It's official Signed at 10:33. It's even passed on TV. Facebook will start charging this summer. If you copy this to your wall your icon will turn blue and your Facebook will be free for you. Please pass this message, if not your icon will be deleted. P.S. this is serious, the icon will turn blue (Copy and paste to your wall) Mine really turned blue. After the "Facebook will start charging this summer" text, some of the posts that we found then continued by including words from previous iterations of this same hoax: continued Don't forget tomorrow starts the new Facebook (akanew name, META) rule where they can use your photos. Don't forget the Deadline is today!!! I do not give Facebook or any entities associated with Facebook permission to use my pictures, information, messages or posts, both past and future. With this statement, I give notice to Facebook it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action against me based on this profile and/or its contents. The information: The violation of privacy can be punished by law NOTE: Facebook is now a public entity. All members must post a note like this.If you prefer, you can copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once it will be tacitly allowing the use of your photos, as well as the information contained in the profile status updates.DO NOT SHARE. Copy and paste.Their new algorithm chooses the same few people - about 25 - who will read your posts.Therefore:Hold your finger down anywhere in this post and "copy" will pop up. Click "copy". Then go to your page, start a new post and put your finger anywhere in the blank field. "Paste" will pop up and click pasteThis will bypass the system. We previously debunked this rumor in 2009, then published another story about it in 2020. The version of the hoax that uses the words "this summer" had apparently been going around since at least 2011. debunked this rumor in 2009 another story since at least 2011 Despite being well over a decade old, Facebook users often share various posts that ask others to copy and paste the text, as if doing so would establish precautionary measures against a future development. ask others to copy and paste the text However, as Jerry once told Kramer on the "Seinfeld" TV series, "I don't know if what you have here constitutes a legally binding document." told Huberman, Bond. "Is Facebook Charging a User Fee?" Snopes.com, 22 May 2020, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/is-facebook-charging-a-user-fee/. Huberman, Bond, and David Emery. "Snopestionary: What Is Copypasta?" Snopes.com, 19 Sept. 2021, https://www.snopes.com/articles/369246/what-is-copypasta/. Mikkelson, David. "Is Facebook Implementing User Fees?" Snopes.com, 31 Dec. 2009, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/facebook-implementing-user-fees/. ---. "Will Posting This Notice Stop Facebook from Making Your Posts Public?" Snopes.com, 4 June 2012, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/facebook-posts-made-public/. Tim. "Its Official...Signal at 12:20 It Even Passed on Tv. Facebook Will Be Charging This Summer - Viral Hoax!"Facecrooks, 3 July 2011, https://facecrooks.com/Internet-Safety-Privacy/Its-official-signal-at-1220-it-even-passed-on-tv-Facebook-will-be-charging-this-summer-Viral-Hoax.html. After the police shooting of 20-year-old Latrell Allen in Chicago's Englewood community on the afternoon of Aug. 9, 2020, unrest in that city extended through that night and into the early morning hours of the following day, with looters hitting some stores in Chicagos wealthiest shopping district on North Michigan Avenue. Latrell Allen extended The following evening, members of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement held a solidarity rally in that city with some of the people who had been arrested for looting the night before. Shortly after those events, social media users began circulating a meme stemming from that event, quoting a "BLM leader & organizer" named Ariel Atkins as saying, "I don't care if someone decides to loot, because that makes sure that person eats or has clothes. Anything they want to take, they can, because these businesses have insurance":  That was an accurate quote, according to Chicago NBC affiliate WMAQ-TV, who reported on the Aug. 10 event: reported Members of Black Lives Matter held a solidarity rally on Monday night [August 10] with the more than 100 individuals who were arrested after a night of looting and unrest in Chicago. The rally was held at the South Loop police station where organizers say those individuals are currently being held in custody. I dont care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macys or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats, Ariel Atkins, a BLM organizer, said. That makes sure that person has clothes. Black Lives Matter Chicago organized the rally after overnight unrest throughout the city, with police saying that more than 100 individuals were taken into custody for a variety of offenses, including looting. That is reparations, Atkins said. Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance. Atkins said essentially the same thing a few days later, when she was interviewed by Chicago NPR station WBEZ on the subject of "why she supports looting": interviewed A lot of people are really attacking our pages. Theyre like, Oh, you support the looters. And yeah, we do, 100%. Thats reparations. And like however people choose to protest, especially if it was definitely in line with what happened with the shooting, which would be powerful to see people reacting ... without organizers just being like, Were angry and this is what were gonna do. Were gonna take the power back. I feel like these stores, these Macys, these Guccis, the PNC Banks, theyre not here for us. The city puts way more money and investment into spending time and protecting their spaces and making sure that they exist. And yet our people are constantly being pushed out of the city ... Unemployment is incredibly high, like we are in an incredible situation, and the fact that anybody gives a s*** about these businesses over what is happening in this city right now and the pain that people are in and the suffering that is taking place, I dont care. I will support the looters till the end of the day. If thats what they need to do in order to eat, then thats what youve got to do to eat .... The whole idea of criminality is based on racism anyway, because criminality is punishing people for things that they have needed to do to survive or just the way that society has affected them with white supremacist B.S. So its like her deciding what is criminal and what isnt. WMAQ-TV [Chicago].  "Black Lives Matter Holds Rally Supporting Individuals Arrested in Chicago Looting Monday."
  10 August 2020. Black, Curtis. &nbps; "Latrell Allen Police Shooting Exposes Gaps in Body Camera and Foot Pursuit Policies."
  The Chicago Reporter.  14 August 2020. Yoon-Ji Kang, Esther.  "Officers Disrespected Englewood Residents Following Police Shooting, Activists Say."
  WBEZ [Chicago].  10 August 2020. Wildeboer, Rob and Chip Mitchell.  "Officers Disrespected Englewood Residents Following Police Shooting, Activists Say."
  WBEZ [Chicago].  12 August 2020. FACT CHECK:  Are minimum wage Seattle workers asking for fewer hours in order to retain welfare benefits?  Claim: Minimum wage workers in Seattle are asking for their hours to be cut so they can retain welfare benefits.   : WHAT'S   Five full-time Seattle caregivers may have asked to adjust their hours in order to remain in subsidized housing.     WHAT'S UNPROVEN:  More than five to seven workers have deliberately reduced their working hours to retain subsidized housing, workers are spending fewer hours on the job to retain benefits other than subsidized housing, the Seattle minimum wage law has caused an reduction in overall hours worked by low-wage workers. Examples: [Collected via Twitter, June 2015] Workers Now Requesting To Work Less Hours In Order To Still Qualify For Welfare https://t.co/IzHMno6bJD #fightfor15 pic.twitter.com/KiC53fO12c https://t.co/IzHMno6bJD #fightfor15 pic.twitter.com/KiC53fO12c  The Patriot (@ThePatriot143) July 25, 2015 July 25, 2015 In Seattle, which now has a $15 minimum wage, workers are now demanding fewer hours to remain eligible for welfare. Obama's America.  Ken Gardner (@kesgardner) July 25, 2015 July 25, 2015 <!--Hey #Fightfor15 if workers just want to get out of poverty, why are they asking for fewer hours to stay on WELFARE? https://t.co/2MIvc3QQLf el Sooper  (@SooperMexican) July 25, 2015This is just pathetic: Workers making $15 min wage in Seattle are asking for fewer hours just to stay on WELFARE: https://t.co/2MIvc3QQLf el Sooper  (@SooperMexican) July 26, 2015-->   Hey #Fightfor15 if workers just want to get out of poverty, why are they asking for fewer hours to stay on WELFARE? https://t.co/2MIvc3QQLf #Fightfor15 https://t.co/2MIvc3QQLf  el Sooper  (@SooperMexican) July 25, 2015 July 25, 2015 This is just pathetic: Workers making $15 min wage in Seattle are asking for fewer hours just to stay on WELFARE: https://t.co/2MIvc3QQLf https://t.co/2MIvc3QQLf  el Sooper  (@SooperMexican) July 26, 2015 July 26, 2015 -->   Origins: On 22 July 2015, Fox News published an article titled "Seattle Sees Fallout from $15 Minimum Wage, as Other Cities Follow Suit." Credited to correspondent Dan Springer (who also recently reported that Oregon was providing 15-year-olds with sex change surgeries), the article lamented what it claimed were "unintended consequences" resulting from a Seattle law raising the minimum wage there to $15 per hour. article Oregon The Fox News article and video reported that "evidence is surfacing" to suggest Seattle workers have begun to work less in order to claim a higher hourly wage while still qualifying for government assistance: Evidence is surfacing that some workers are asking their bosses for fewer hours as their wages rise  in a bid to keep overall income down so they don't lose public subsidies for things like food, child care and rent. Full Life Care, a home nursing nonprofit, told KIRO-TV in Seattle that several workers want to work less. "If they cut down their hours to stay on those subsidies because the $15 per hour minimum wage didn't actually help get them out of poverty, all you've done is put a burden on the business and given false hope to a lot of people," said Jason Rantz, host of the Jason Rantz show on 97.3 KIRO-FM. Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com  video.foxnews.com However, if Springer found "evidence" of such a trend, he did not include it in his 22 July 2015 article (claims from which have since been aggregated to multiple web sites). While Springer pointed to a Seattle home nursing nonprofit (Full Life Care), he only vaguely referenced a statement an unidentified individual there made to a third party, then quoted an opinion provided by a local radio host who speculated upon what might happen if workers opted to cut their hours based on a higher minimum wage in order to retain government assistance. Lacking from this narrative was any actual evidence that such claims were rooted in any measurable labor trend in Seattle. aggregated multiple sites It appears Springer's entire premise was lifted from an 8 June 2015 report by television station KIRO which provided additional context that painted the claim in a slightly different light: report Nora Gibson is the executive director of Full Life Care, a nonprofit that serves elderly people in various homes and nursing facilities. She is also on the board of the Seattle Housing Authority. Gibson told KIRO she saw a sudden reaction from workers when Seattle's phased minimum-wage ordinance took effect in April, bringing minimum wage to $11 an hour. She said anecdotally, some people feared they would lose their subsidized units but still not be able to afford market-rate rents. For example, she said last week, five employees at one of her organizations 24-hour care facilities for Alzheimer's patients asked to reduce their hours in order to remain eligible for subsidies. In that same article, Full Life Care's executive directly explicitly stated that the issue was not one of worker laziness or an intent by employees to "game the system" for additional "welfare benefits," but rather one of necessity due to Seattle's exceptionally high market rate for private housing: "This has nothing to do with people's willingness to work, or how hard people work. It has to do with being caught in a very complex situation where they have to balance everything they can pull together to pull together a stable, successful life," Gibson said. Gibson said she fully supports a minimum wage increase but was not surprised when her employees asked for fewer hours. "The jump from subsidized housing to market rate in Seattle is huge," she said. While two other Seattle residents spoke to KIRO about the specter of being shut out of subsidized housing by earning a slightly higher wage, a Seattle city council member told the outlet that the accounts did not reflect any measurable trend of which he was aware: Seattle Councilmember Nick Licata said he hadn't heard of purposeful reduction of hours before. "We need more information, for one thing. This is anecdotal," Licata said. Still, he said people need more options, especially after breaking the threshold that pushes them out of public housing. "We do not want this to be an improvement on one side of the scale, and then decrease in living conditions on another," Licata said. "We should not be using this as an excuse not to address the overall problem." What has been reported is that several full-time workers at a single Seattle non-profit may have expressed a desire to adjust their hours to retain subsidized housing, but more "evidence" of workers requesting fewer hours on the job after the minimum wage increase hasn't turned up yet. Moreover, the source originally quoted about the issue stated that workers earning the higher hourly rate would likely be unable to afford private housing in Seattle due to market conditions, but they were not seeking other "welfare" benefits nor unwilling to work. Last updated: 28 July 2015 Originally published:  28 July 2015