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HC Wake-Up Call: Judge Denies Trump’s Ban on Trans People in the Military, Reporter Who Brought Down Scaramucci Fired for Sexual Misconduct & Uber Charged Someone $14,000 for a Trip

Caroline Pirozzolo

Good morning Her Campus! With a break-neck news cycle, there is no possible way for you to stay on top of every story that comes across your feeds—we’re all only human, after all.

But, life comes at you fast. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for this quick and dirty guide to stories you might’ve been sleeping on (like, literally. It’s early.)

A Judge Has Denied Trump’s Ban on Transgender People in the Military

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected a request from the Trump administration to overturn an October ruling blocking Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military, the Huffington Post reports. As a result, transgender people will be able to enlist beginning on January 1, 2018. 

“Today’s legal victory is the latest step towards preventing Trump’s bigoted trans military ban from ever going into full effect,” Sarah Kate Ellis, president of GLAAD, an LGBTQ rights group, said on Monday. “The Trump administration is struggling to provide any evidence that open trans enlistment be must be delayed because none exists beyond their own hate-fueled anti-LGBTQ agenda.”

Ryan Lizza, the Reporter Who Took Down Scaramucci, Has Been Fired Over Sexual Misconduct

The New Yorker has fired Ryan Lizza, the reporter who infamously documented former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci’s crazy rant about the Trump administration (which resulted in Scaramucci’s firing days later), over sexual misconduct allegations. The magazine said it had learned Lizza, “engaged in what we believe was improper sexual conduct,” resulting in its decision to part ways with him. Meanwhile, Lizza has denied all allegations, characterizing the “relationship” in question as “respectful,” saying in a statement, “this decision, which was made hastily and without a full investigation of the relevant facts, was a terrible mistake.”

This Man Was Charged $14,000 for Taking an Uber for Five Miles

File under terrifying things we hope never happen to us: a Toronto man was really not happy with Uber when he used the app for a five mile trip — only to realize he’d been charged 18,518.50 Canadian dollars (or around $14,000) for his ride. Things got even worse when Uber somehow refused to refund the charge at first. (WTF?!) After a friend of his posted a photo of the charge to Twitter, an Uber spokeswoman later confirmed that the charge was real and that the customer had (finally) been refunded. “We have safeguards in place to help prevent something like this from happening, and we are working to understand how this occurred,” she said in a statement.

What to look out for…

Taylor Swift turns 28 tomorrow! Celebratory listening of Reputation, anyone?

Caroline is the Evening/Weekend Editor and Style Editor at Her Campus, a senior public relations major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a leather jacket enthusiast.  You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @c_pirozzolo.