Latest news with #Mauga
The Hill
17-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
‘No Kings' protestor who died was ‘Project Runway' designer
(NewsNation) — The man who died after a 'No Kings' protest in Salt Lake City, Utah, has been identified as a fashion designer and former contestant on 'Project Runway,' according to reports. 39-year-old Arthur Folasa Ah Loo was killed by a stray bullet when shots were fired at the protest by a man who is believed to have had an AR-15 and another man believed to be part of a peacekeeping team. Police say Ah Loo died at the hospital. The volunteer told police that he had seen 24-year-old Arturo Roberto Gamboa acting suspiciously before he pulled out an AR-15, according to local station FOX 13. Two volunteers told Gamboa to drop the weapon, but he allegedly refused and began running toward the crowd. During a press conference on Sunday, Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said he is unsure why the man had a rifle, but he has been charged with murder, and they are accusing him of creating the situation that led to Ah Loo's death. Ah Loo reportedly dedicated his life to celebrating artists who are from the Pacific Islands. He has a wife and two children, according to the GoFundMe page that was started by his family. That fund has raised over $205,000 as of Monday afternoon. Ah Loo was born in Samoa and was known by most people as Afa. State Rep. Verona Mauga said that he was all about doing 'the good things for his neighbors and community.' Mauga was at the 'No Kings' protest in Salt Lake City, only a few blocks from the shooting. She told The Associated Press, 'If Afa was going to go out any other way than natural causes, it would be standing up for marginalized and vulnerable communities and making sure that people had a voice.' She also said that Ah Loo was great at bringing people together and connecting 'culture and diversity and service.' According to The Associated Press, Ah Loo had co-founded Create Pacific with a hair salon innovator from Fiji, Benjamin Powell. The organization is meant to help artists from the Pacific Islands. Powell talked to the outlet about Ah Loo's work, saying, 'You would know right away that it was an Ah Loo design.' Powell had been working with Ah Loo for an upcoming fashion show in August. Despite Ah Loo's death, Powell said 'the show will continue' and honor Ah Loo in the process. Ah Loo was a contestant on 'Project Runway' in 2017, a reality show where fashion designers create runway looks on deadline. Ah Loo had also recently designed an outfit for Hawaiian actor Auliʻi Cravalho, who is the star of 'Moana 2.' She wore that outfit on the red carpet premiere for the film in November. At the time, she said, 'This was the first time I was so active in helping to design a custom look, and Afa surpassed what I had envisioned.' Ah Loo also volunteered his time, creating clothing for people in need, according to Mauga. She also said that he wouldn't let people pay him a lot of the time. Ah Loo would make blazers and dresses on short notice for Mauga. 'Afa was so much a part of the community,' she said. Rep. Doug Fiefia wrote on social media, 'My prayers are with his family, friends, and all who knew him. He was a bright light in our Polynesian community and will be deeply missed. May his loved ones feel peace and comfort during this difficult time. Rep. Tyler Clancy also wrote on social media, saying, 'Afa was a wonderful man & father who looked out for his community. Sending all of the love & prayers.'
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
Protester killed at Utah 'No Kings' rally was fashion designer from 'Project Runway'
The 39-year-old man shot and killed at a weekend 'No Kings' protest in Salt Lake City was a successful fashion designer and former 'Project Runway' contestant who devoted his life to celebrating artists from the Pacific Islands. Arthur Folasa Ah Loo was killed when a man who was believed to be part of a peacekeeping team for the protest shot at a person brandishing a rifle at demonstrators, accidentally striking Ah Loo. Ah Loo later died at the hospital, authorities said. Detectives don't yet know why the alleged rifleman pulled out a weapon or ran from the peacekeepers, but they charged him with murder and accused him of creating the dangerous situation that led to Ah Loo's death, Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said at a Sunday news conference. Ah Loo leaves behind his wife and two young children, according to a GoFundMe for his family that raised over $100,000 in 48 hours. The 'self-taught' fashion designer born in Samoa, known to many as Afa, devoted his life to doing 'the good things for his neighbors and community," state Rep. Verona Mauga said. Mauga was at the 'No Kings Protest' a few blocks from where Ah Loo was shot. She said she only had a sense that something was wrong when she saw the crowd running. As tragic as his death is, she said, Ah Loo would have been proud that his last moments were spent fighting for what he believed in. 'If Afa was going to go out any other way than natural causes, it would be standing up for marginalized and vulnerable communities and making sure that people had a voice,' Mauga told The Associated Press on Monday. While he wasn't typically overtly political, Ah Loo had a knack for connecting 'culture and diversity and service,' and bringing people together, Mauga said. Ah Loo was a co-founder of the nonprofit Create Pacific, which celebrates and uplifts artists from the Pacific Islands. He was working on an upcoming July fashion show when he died. Ah Loo's vibrant work has earned numerous accolades over the years. He was a contestant in 2017 on Bravo's 'Project Runway,' a reality television show where fashion designers compete in front of celebrity judges to create runway looks on tight deadlines. Recently, Ah Loo designed a garment for the star of the Disney Channel animated movie Moana 2, Hawaiian actor Auliʻi Cravalho. Cravalho wore the outfit, which combined traditional and modern aesthetics from her culture, to the film's red carpet premiere in Hawaii last November. 'This was the first time I was so active in helping to design a custom look, and Afa surpassed what I had envisioned,' Cravalho told the magazine at the time. But not all of his work was high-profile, Mauga said. Ah Loo would volunteer his time and resources to tailor clothing for people who needed help, often refusing to let people compensate him for his work, Mauga said. Sometimes, Ah Loo would playfully criticize the outfits the newly elected Democratic representative wore on the campaign trail, and invite her to his studio so he could make her a new set of blazers. He would also make her dresses for events, sometimes just on a couple of hours notice. 'Afa was so much a part of the community,' she said.
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Overwatch 2 players are hoping that the upcoming perks will dissuade the heinous act of counterswapping
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. As part of Overwatch 2's big rework, every hero will be getting a set of perks—unlockable upgrades that can be chosen throughout the game. Every hero has different traits, but there's one throughline that some players hope means an end to counterswapping. Counterswapping is a pretty contentious subject in Overwatch. The actual definition is when players repeatedly switch their hero to one that counters someone specific on the other team, but a lot of players have watered this down and take it to mean anytime someone is playing a hero that counters something that they are playing, even if it's just a coincidence and not intentional. Despite the fact that countering enemy players is just part and parcel of what it takes to win in a hero shooter—it would be kind of pointless just to lie down and die instead of swapping to another character that is better suited for the match—I can understand why, at its worst, counterswapping is annoying. Because every perk is unique to each hero, they won't carry over if you switch mid-game. So, every time you pick a new character, you'll have to start back at level one. Even if perks unlock slightly faster for new picks, players are hoping that this disadvantage will work as a disincentive for those who spend too much time counterswapping. "Yep, probably a good thing, though the level of catchup mechanic is important," one player says. "And that initial meetup likely is still not so bad to stop first fight swaps, but it's a step forward. Remove some ult charge retention, and we're getting somewhere." While other players point out that this could specifically help with counterswapping tanks. Tanks in 5v5 Overwatch tend to have the hardest time when it comes to counterswapping, because they are often the lynchpin of a team, there's only one of them, and they have some very obvious counters. For example, if I went Hog, the enemy tank should probably go Mauga, then I would go then they'd go Sigma, then I'd go Doomfist, then they'd go Zarya, then I'd go Reinhardt, then they'd go Ramattra, and then I'd be back to Hog and the cycle begins anew. It's incredibly convoluted, and realistically, no one should be changing that much each fight, but as the only disincentive before was restricting ult charge, it was a possible strategy. It still is, even with perks, but now there's one more reason not to, and that may be enough for players just to switch things up a couple of times and then leave it at that. Blizzard has made previous changes to try to dissuade players from counterswapping as well. Season 13 introduced a small update to the scoreboard, which meant if you switched hero mid-fight, players on the enemy team can't see who you've picked for 15 seconds. "This change adds more friction to counterswapping, especially in the extreme case where two players on opposite teams are both sitting in spawn with the scoreboard open and rapidly switch their heroes in response to each other's choices," a developer commented. While this update was a small help, it didn't completely eradicate counterswapping from Overwatch 2, and it's pretty likely that this perk feature won't either. Swapping is just part of the game—it's why there are counters, there are so many heroes, and you can switch heroes mid-fight. So next time you get someone yelling about CounterWatch in your chat, just remind them that you wouldn't do it if it weren't a massive strategic part of the game.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kids are getting propositioned in virtual reality, and right now it's legal
In Utah, it is a felony for an adult to reach out to a minor via text to meet up for sexual relations. But if the adult propositions a minor in virtual reality, that isn't illegal. 'Many mistakenly believe that because something happens in the digital space, it isn't real or harmful, but for a child, these experiences are psychologically damaging,' Rep. Verona Mauga, D-Salt Lake County, said Thursday during the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee meeting. So far in this year's legislative session, bills regarding crimes against children appear to be highly unifying issues across party lines. Mauga's bill, HB358, was no exception. Passed with favorable recommendation by the committee, HB358 creates the following criminal offenses: Using virtual reality to participate in sexual activity with a child. Requesting sexually explicit conduct from an individual who is in custody. Mauga said the bill 'targets offenders hiding behind avatars' and 'makes it clear that virtual reality is not a loophole for predators, and it ensures real consequences for virtual crimes if an adult is knowingly using VR technology to engage in sexual activities with a child.' Because it is not always clear what age a person is when participating in VR, Mauga clarified that the bill applies to people who 'knowingly' engage in sexual acts with a minor. Brett Robinson, senior attorney in the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office, who spoke on the bill, shared a case where he had to seek a warrant for a Snapchat account. In this case, Robinson said a mother had found her 11-year-old daughter who had fallen asleep with her VR headset on. When she went to lift the headset off her daughter, she found messages sent to her daughter via Snapchat by an adult. The messages were along the lines of wanting the little girl to return to VR so they could participate in sexual relations again. Robinson said it was a 'friend of a friend' whom the girl had never met in person. He also spoke on the second criminal offense included in the bill. Robinson said that requesting sexually explicit conduct from an individual who is in custody was included in the bill because of a separate but similar situation where, under a technicality, it wasn't illegal. 'These are two ways where the laws don't protect the ways that people will use technology to harm vulnerable people.' According to a study that came out last year by Florida Atlantic University, significant numbers of minors have reported experiencing various forms of harassment while in virtual spaces. The study examined 5,005 13 to 17-year-old kids from the United States and found the following statistics: Nearly 19% encountered sexual harassment. Around 21% faced undesirable violent or sexual content. 18.1% encountered grooming or predatory conduct. 30% were targeted for characteristics including weight, sexual preference, sexual orientation or political affiliation. Girls were reportedly targeted more in terms of sexual harassment and grooming/predatory behavior. 'Right here in our state, in Utah and across the country, we are seeing adults engaging in cyber sex with children using virtual reality, and there is no legal mechanism to protect our children,' Mauga said. 'I think it would be prudent of us to do what we can to protect them.'
