Over the weekend 70,000 strong gathered on the streets of Tel Aviv for the victims of a violent attack at an LGBT youth center last week which left two dead and several injured.

President Shimon Peres was among speakers at the meeting on Yitzhak Rabin Square outside the city hall.

“The shots which struck this proud community affected us all as human beings, as Jews and as Israelis. The man who targeted the two victims targeted all of us,” Peres said.

Two people died when a masked, black-clad gunman opened fire on the group of young gays and lesbians at the entrance to the community centre in the heart of Israel’s commercial capital late on Saturday August 1.

“Everyone has the right to be different and proud. No one has the right to interfere in other people’s lives so long as everyone respects law and order,” Peres said.

“I came to share your tears after the death of two young innocents. Be strong and courageous,” he said.

While the perpetrator remains at large, authorities are holding Shmuel Preimark, an Israel soldier who made threats toward those attending the rally.

The threats were made shortly before Saturday evening’s rally in Tel Aviv in memory of the victims of a shooting attack on a gay and lesbian youth club in the city one week earlier.

Several hours before the start of the rally, the suspect allegedly posted a message on a gay Web forum, threatening to hurt the rally’s participants.

The soldier is suspected of writing, “Expect more victims among the gays, this time something bigger” and “a second attack on the community soon. Be ready. Don’t say we didn’t know.”

Video from the rally below:

An internal affairs investigation has concluded that agents committed multiple violations in a raid at the Rainbow Lounge, a gay bar in Fort Worth, Texas, which left one man hospitalized with serious brain injuries.

Agent Christopher Aller and agent trainee Jason Chapman are accused of participating in the June 28 raid without their supervisor’s approval, disrupting the business during the raid and wearing improper attire in the beverage commission report obtained by The Associated Press under the Texas Open Records Act.

The investigation also found that one of the agents’ supervisors, Sgt. Terry Parsons, failed to ensure the agents submitted a report on using force during the arrest, did not take appropriate action after learning they didn’t wear proper attire during the raid and did not notifying supervisors multiple arrests had been made that night, the report states.

Aller and Chapman have been placed on desk duty pending the outcome of the investigation, and Parsons decided to retire. All three could face disciplinary action ranging from a verbal warning to job termination for numerous policy violations, but no decision has been made on any penalties, agency spokeswoman Carolyn Beck said.

News report form the local NBC affiliate below:

Right-wing mob mentality kicks into overdrive in Tampa, where nearly a thousand showed up to attend a townhall meeting on healthcare reform. From 10Connects.com in Tampa:

Angry protesters and strong supporters are clashing inside and all around a health care reform town hall meeting in Downtown Tampa. The meeting which was scheduled to begin at 6:00 at the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County drew hundreds of people who quickly began to overwhelm staff and event organizers at the front entrance.

As the building filled to capacity, angry protesters stuck outside began to scream, yell, and chant. At one point, those trying to get inside began banging on windows as Tampa Police officers quickly spread out guarding all entrances.

10 Connects photojournalist Kevin Carlson, currently inside the meeting reports at least one fist fight breaking out inside. Some other journalists remain outside.

Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor and State Representative Betty Reed were hosting the event.

Video outside the townhall below.

Filmmaker John Hughes, best known for his teen comedies in the 1980s, passed away today at the age of 59.

Hughes died of a heart attack during a morning walk in Manhattan, [spokeswoman] Michelle Bega  said. He was in New York to visit family.

A native of Lansing, Mich., who later moved to suburban Chicago and set much of his work there, Hughes rose from ad writer to comedy writer to silver screen champ with his affectionate and idealized portraits of teens, whether the romantic and sexual insecurity of “Sixteen Candles,” or the J.D. Salinger-esque rebellion against conformity in “The Breakfast Club.”

Hughes’ ensemble comedies helped make stars out of Molly Ringwald,Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and many other young performers. He also scripted the phenomenally popular “Home Alone,” which made little-known Macaulay Culkin a sensation as the 8-year-old accidentally abandoned by his vacationing family, and wrote or directed such hits as “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” “Pretty in Pink,” “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” and “Uncle Buck.”

Hugh’s films (and their soundtracks) are still loved and adored over 20 years later, particularly among the “sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies and dickheads.”  🙂 John, you were definitely a “righteous dude.”  RIP.

Below, a tribute film made in 1991 at the height of Hughes’s career when he was named Producer of the Year by the National Association of Movie Theater Owners.