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Yahoo
19-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Vital California newspaper archive is in danger of going offline. How you can help
History, when well researched and written is not just a desiccated collection of musty dates and facts. It is the living context of how we got here. Almost every week an email or phone call arrives offering critical and constructive responses to a previous Photos From the Vault column. Frequently it is a request to help find information. And judging from the thoughtful and kind conversations I have in the community, readers find the stories entertaining, edifying and important. One of the bedrock sources I consult is the California Digital Newspaper Collection. It is an indexed digital archive of newspapers across the state from the earliest United States days of California to about 1925. If the time scope of research is more recent, then a subscription to is another alternative. CNDC is a free encyclopedia of California history. Every year the archive grows through grants and partnerships. And today that vital resource is endangered. Brian Geiger, director of the Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research at University of California Riverside writes that this year there is no funding in the budget from the State Legislature. This will force CDNC to go offline. The line item is a microscopic $439,000 within a budget of $320 billion. (Only 0.00013% if I used the percentage calculator correctly.) No one else does this specialized work — and without state support, no one will. It is the largest archive of its kind in the United States with 40 million pages of digitized papers from throughout California. The site has also had to fend off bot-driven cyber attacks that crash it. The large volume of information might be valuable to someone who is building an AI machine learning model. Defending the site takes extra effort. Geiger asks that if you value this vital resource, please take the time to contact State Senator John Laird and let him know that CDNC is essential and needs to be funded. Senator Laird is our local representative. If you are involved in research or a historical society now is the time to make your voice heard. Now on to some history. With all the bicycle lane construction in San Luis Obispo, I decided to take a survey of the early newspapers to see how far back coverage went and what types of stories were published. Story categories included comic yarns, bicycle race results, sales and cyclists as a hazard. Conflict between cyclists and street traffic goes back to horse and buggy days. There was a comic story in on the front page of the newspaper's second edition. Unlike today when breaking news is reserved for the front page, in 1869, The San Luis Obispo Tribune assembled the hand-set front page type well in advance of the weekly print date. It was almost always a reprint from another source with a long shelf life, sometimes credited, sometimes not. Breaking and local news ran on page two and three. The story titled 'On A Bicycle' is in the style of a Mark Twain comic and it spilled over a full column. It follows a novice rider to an inevitable crash. The Aug. 16, 1869, story concludes with the humiliated and bruised rider and writer reexamining his life choices. 'I ran over in my own mind the list of my enemies, being at last fully determined to send my compliments to the gentleman who cut up my last book, and with my compliments, the gift of the bicycle,' the cyclist wrote. 'Humbly and sincerely I trust he will not break his neck.' By April 4, 1903, the Morning Tribune was putting local news on the front page and it ran a story advising cyclists to stay in the street. Marshal Johnson Will Soon Give Notice and Devotees of Wheeling Must Look Out. It is up to all of us now to break the pernicious habit of riding bicycles on the sidewalk. The edict has gone forth, the result of a general awakening of the public convenience, and Marshal Johnson will soon publish notices to all bicyclists to keep off the walks, after which, look out. Johnson says he will not be any respector of persons or of walks. The sidewalk habit is getting altogether too strong among wheelmen and needs checking. Better begin learning taking the middle of the road before it is too late.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fact Check: Robin Williams didn't once say, 'A hungry stomach, an empty wallet and a broken heart can teach you the best lessons of life'
Claim: Oscar-winning actor Robin Williams once said, "A hungry stomach, an empty wallet (or 'empty pocket') and a broken heart can teach you the best lessons of life." Rating: A rumor that users circulated online in April 2025 claimed Oscar-winning actor Robin Williams once said, "A hungry stomach, an empty wallet and a broken heart can teach you the best lessons of life." For example, on April 7, a Reddit user posting on the quote-collecting subreddit r/QuotesPorn shared a meme attributing the quote to Williams. (Melodic_Abalone_2820/Reddit) However, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo, as well as the Google Books literary archive and the newspaper-archiving website, yielded no results credibly tying the quote to Williams, who died in 2014. In past months and years, numerous users posted the quote with Williams' name on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Threads, TikTok and X. Searches for the quote produced results at least as far back as March 1, 2018, including popular posts on the History In Pictures Facebook page and its associated Instagram and X accounts. Some posts featuring the quote included the words "empty pocket" instead of "empty wallet." The user behind the Instagram account @robinwilliams, which appeared to likely be a fan account because it had no verification badge, also posted (archived) the quote on April 10, 2018, likely further leading users to believe the famous actor once expressed the quote. (The account's owner did not yet respond to a request for more information about the nature of the account. They listed a potentially abandoned and inactive Telegram account in their bio as their only contact method.) Many other posts appearing before and after March 1, 2018, also simply featured the quote without attribution to Williams or anyone else. Some users mentioned Pakistani humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi as a possible source for the quote, sometimes citing his 1996 book, "Abdul Sattar Edhi, an Autobiography: A Mirror to the Blind." The relevant passage (on Page 245) presented similar phrasing but did not exactly match, reading as follows (emphasis ours): I understood that my daughter wanted her husband to measure up to me. I agreed that Altaf did not have extraordinary ambitions, but I questioned Bilquise, "What is her ambition? If she has it she should instill that in him? If she is searching for me, she will find me in a hungry stomach, in a broken heart, an empty pocket and at the doorstep of a shack." A search of yielded several results for similar quotes from past centuries. For example, on Dec. 8, 1939, Robert A. Crump with the Associated Negro Press (ANP) — a publisher in operation from 1919 through 1964 — reported a story about Black autoworkers involved in a labor dispute. Crump wrote that one unidentified man working at a Dodge plant had said, "A hungry stomach and an empty pocket with families to feed and clothe, winter coming and the Christmas holidays approaching, would cause a man to resort to almost anything." On Feb. 14, 1935, The Northwest Enterprise, also a Black newspaper — in circulation from 1931 through 1952 and based in Seattle, Washington — featured an article reading, "A hungry stomach and an empty pocketbook may cause American to find its soul. If that is possible, let the depression continue. We prefer an empty pocket to the egotism and superiority complex with paraded in former years as Americanism." Other search results from newspaper archives featured various sayings combining "hungry stomach" and "empty pocketbook" as far back as 1877. Searches of Google Books also located several noteworthy quotes bearing similarities to the one shared with Williams' name. In 1911, the Fleming H. Revell Company published Baptist preacher A.T. Robertson's book, "The Glory of the Ministry: Paul's Exultation in Preaching." Robertson wrote (on Page 228), "That is a blessed secret when the preacher learns how to carry a high head with a hungry stomach, an upright look with an empty pocket, a happy heart with an unpaid salary, joy in God when men are faithless." Noteworthy author James Fenimore Cooper also wrote in his 1825 novel "Lionel Lincoln" (on Page 373), "An empty stomach is like an empty pocket — a place for the devil to play his gambols in." "A. T. Robertson." The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Cooper, James Fenimore. Lionel Lincoln, Or, The Leaguer of Boston. Collier, 1901. Google Books, Crump, Robert A. "Believe Colored Workers Used As Pawns In Strike." Atlanta Daily World, 8 Dec. 1939, p. 1, Dailey, Haven, and Hillel Italie. "Robin Williams, Boisterous Comedy Star, Dead at 63." The Associated Press, 12 Aug. 2014, Edhi, Abdus Sattar. Abdul Sattar Edhi, an Autobiography: A Mirror to the Blind. National Bureau of Publications, 1996. Google Books, "Editorials: Depression Results." The Northwest Enterprise, 14 Feb. 1935, p. 1, Google Books. "Historical Newspapers from the 1700's-2000s." Hogan, Lawrence Daniel. "Associated Negro Press." Encyclopedia of Chicago, Robertson, A. T. The Glory of the Ministry: Paul's Exultation in Preaching. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1911. Google Books, Washington State Library. "The Northwest Enterprise." Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Humanities,
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fact Check: Fake Fox News chyron claims 'border czar' was offended by Taco Bell menu with items in 'Mexican, not English'
Claim: An image circulating online in early April 2025 authentically showed a screenshot from a Fox News interview with U.S. President Donald Trump's "border czar" Tom Homan that displayed a chyron reading: "Homan: 'I find it offensive that Taco Bell has items in Mexican, not English." Rating: In April 2025, an image circulated online allegedly showing a screenshot from a Fox News interview with U.S. President Donald Trump's "border czar" Tom Homan. The screenshot included a chyron at the bottom of the screen that read: "Homan: 'I find it offensive that Taco Bell has items in Mexican, not English." The image appeared on X, Facebook, Threads, Reddit, Bluesky, Tumblr and TikTok, where social media users appeared to take it at face value. For example, one X user captioned the screenshot: "NEW: Border Czar Tom Homan says Taco Bell's menu is offensive to 'real Americans.'" (X user @Roshan_Rinaldi) However, the image was manipulated. It originated as a screenshot of a genuine Fox News interview with Homan, but the chyron displayed at the bottom of the screen featuring the alleged quote had been superimposed onto the screenshot. Therefore, we have rated the image as fake. The interview was published on Fox News' website on Nov. 18, 2024. In the footage, Homan laid out the immigration policies of the then-incoming Trump administration. During the discussion, he made no mention of the fast-food chain Taco Bell. At the 4:37 mark of the authentic footage, Homan's facial expression, his clothes, the background, the wording of the red news ticker and the time (12:07 CT) all matched up with the corresponding details in the fake screenshot, as shown below: (Fox News / social media) As the image shows, the Fox News chyron actually read: "Homan on border priorities in first 100 days." In the fake screenshot, the format of the chyron and the font of the text were different from what appeared in the authentic coverage. Though it was not possible to definitively state the source of the manipulated version of the screenshot, the earliest example found online was posted on TikTok on March 31, 2025. Later X posts then shared the image, which included a watermark for the TikTok account. Further, numerous online searches produced no credible evidence that Homan complained that Taco Bell has items listed in "Mexican not English." Searches on Google News and produced no matching results. Snopes contacted Homan via the Department of Homeland Security's media team to ask if he had ever made such a comment in any interview and will update this story if we receive a response. Snopes has previously reported on rumors involving Taco Bell, including a claim that Fox News opted to report on Taco Bell's menu instead of Trump's guilty verdict at his New York trial in 2024 and the assertion that the "Bell Beefer" burger was among the fast food chain's first offerings. Fox News. "Tom Homan Lays out Trump Immigration Priorities: "Take the Handcuffs off ICE."" Fox News, 18 Nov. 2024, Accessed 8 Apr. 2025.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Yahoo
Two Minnesota women escaped prison and hid for months as 'husband and wife'
Feb. 18—SHAKOPEE, Minn. — They didn't hit the road in a convertible and most likely didn't pick up a charming drifter who looked like Brad Pitt. Nonetheless, Edna Larrabee and Beulah Brunelle might be the closest thing Minnesota has ever had to Thelma and Louise. The two women were the bane of existence for law enforcement authorities in the 1940s. Between 1946 and 1949, the pair broke out of Minnesota's Shakopee State Reformatory for Women not once, not twice, but five times. Most of their flights to freedom ended within days, but their fourth attempt was the charm — a cross-country adventure during which they evaded law enforcement for eight months by posing as husband and wife. Getting the lowdown on Edna Larrabee isn't easy. Searches on and proved challenging. A prison record from Washington State spells out her many aliases, including Edna Larrabee, Edna Schoenborn, Lee Myers and Gail Norcross. However, it seems pretty certain that Edna Larrabee was born in Peever, South Dakota, in 1921. After two years of high school, she married Elmer Schoenborn in Mahnomen, Minnesota. He was 24, and she was 18. The marriage was short-lived. Edna had plans for another kind of life. Following her divorce, her life of crime began. At 19, she and an accomplice stole a car in Perham, Minnesota, and were later arrested in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Larrabee was also convicted of grand larceny for writing bad checks. During her first prison stint, from 1940 to 1942, she gained notoriety for her "boyish mannerisms" and relationships with other inmates. In a paper titled "Homosexuality at the Shakopee State Reformatory for Women and St. Peter State Hospital," researcher Lizzie Ehrenhalt and writer Sarah Pawlicki concluded: "Edna could be a thorn in the side of the reformatory staff. One frustrated staff member wrote that Edna was a 'spoiled brat' decidedly willful who has grown up with the idea that she is 'different' therefore is answerable to no laws, no authority and will continue in this way, taking every advantage possible as long as she can get by with it." Larrabee was also resentful because she believed the parole board paid too much attention to her "tomboy" tendencies and not whether she might be a successful parolee. When she was sentenced again in 1946, Larrabee, now 25, met Beulah Brunelle, a 20-year-old Ojibwe woman from Belcourt, North Dakota, who was serving time for stealing clothes, shoes and a ring. The two women quickly became partners in crime who refused to stay behind bars. Together, they staged three failed escapes. In their first attempt Nov. 18, 1946, they were joined by a 20-year-old prisoner named Virginia DeRosier. According to newspaper reports, they were captured just two days later in Minneapolis. They told law enforcement officials they escaped from Shakopee because there wasn't enough recreation at the reformatory and they didn't like that they were only allowed to smoke two cigarettes a day. In January 1947, Brunelle and Larrabee tried again. Larrabee was eventually caught in Minneapolis and Brunelle in Chicago. They were recommitted to the Shakopee reformatory. In November 1948, they escaped a third time, slipping out of the reformatory's religion class and out a restroom window. They were captured again in Des Moines, where they posed as a married couple. After the botched attempt in 1948 left Larrabee in despair, she tried — unsuccessfully — to take her own life. When that didn't work, she took out her frustration on the prison, flooding her cell and smashing a window. Her rebellion landed her in St. Peter State Hospital for electroshock therapy and psychiatric evaluation. That hospital stint only strengthened her resolve. Her fourth escape with Brunelle launched them into a fugitive road trip straight out of a Hollywood action film. On Feb. 2, 1949, Larrabee and Brunelle donned overalls and farm jackets, pried open a nailed-shut basement window, and disappeared into the night. They hit the road under new identities — Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Farrell. Shakopee's superintendent, Clara Thune, had a hunch that the pair was headed to California, either the northern or southern part of the state. Historian Ehrenhalt noted in a Minnesota Historical Society publication, "MNopedia," that during World War II, Larrabee had worked as an arc welder in San Francisco, and Thune stated that Larrabee was "acquainted with the colony of homo sexuals [sic] in Los Angeles" and could show up there as well. Thune reached out to law enforcement officials from San Diego to San Francisco. But the pair threw authorities off the scent, heading first to Sacramento, where Larrabee's sister sheltered them. From there, they drifted to Seattle, where they settled for a while, Larrabee running a gas station, Brunelle sewing in a dress shop. It could have been their happily ever after, but visiting an old friend in Minneapolis spelled their downfall. The friend tipped off police, who traced their black 1936 Plymouth coupe — hubcap missing — to Sioux City, Iowa. On Oct. 3, 1949, their road trip ended abruptly as officers swooped in, sending them back to Shakopee. They gave it one last shot later that year, but their fifth escape was short-lived. After being recaptured once more, they finally resigned themselves to finishing their sentences. By 1952, they were both paroled and heading in different directions — Larrabee to Washington, Brunelle to Minnesota, where she married a man named George Venne. But their story didn't entirely end there. In 1953, Brunelle made one final, defiant move — leaving her husband behind in St. Paul and driving more than 1,600 miles to Seattle, where she and Larrabee found each other once again. Records indicate that the couple lived together there and later in Minneapolis. It's difficult to tell whether Larrabee and Brunelle stayed together after the 1950s. They couldn't be legally married, and detailed census records after 1950 are not readily available online. (According to the National Archives, 1960 Census records will not be released until 2032.) However, several newspaper stories throughout the 1960s show Larrabee once again running afoul of the law on charges of writing bad checks. Records indicate Larrabee died in 1995, while Brunelle appears to have survived well into the 21st century.
