Archives April 2018

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Witnesses heard gunshots in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Cedar Park, Texas, near Highway 183, on Sunday morning. Police arrested eighteen year-old Soloman Onwukaife at the scene. Four, including the gunman who had facial wounds unrelated to the shooting, are being treated for injuries after the incident. A fifth victim has been released.

Cedar Park Police Captain Mike Harmon said authorities arrived at the parking lot around 4:30 AM local time. There they arrested Onwukaife, who has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The Cedar Park Wal-Mart was closed down briefly on Sunday morning; however, no staff or customers were injured.

Police have released the names of the victims, eighteen-year-old Cody McGrath, nineteen-year-old Shayne Davis, nineteen-year-old Zacharia Gietl and 22-year-old Leland McGlocklin. As-of Monday, Gietl has been released from hospital whilst the others remain in critical, but stable, condition. Police informed media the incident occurred follwing a dispute which began at a nearby party where alcohol was being served. After moving the fight to the parking lot, Onwukaife is alleged to have shot the four victims.

Onwukaife was expected to be released on Monday, after which he would immediately be jailed. Police advised media the investigation is on-going and more charges may still be filed. Specifically, Police are trying to determine if any other participants in the fight were armed.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Seeking to stave off the forest fires that have blanketed five Southeast Asian countries with choking haze for the past two years, Indonesian environmental and forestry officials said yesterday they would be able to reduce the number of hot spots this year by more than half.

Meeting in Jambi, Sumatra, cabinet ministers from Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand heard what Indonesia plans to do this year to combat the illegal forest fires, which start each year during the August-November dry season.

“We are targeting a drop of about 50 percent in forest fires but we are entering the dry season between July and August so we have to increase our alertness,” Indonesian deputy environment minister Masnellyarti Hilman was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse. “We explained the efforts that we’ve taken to prevent a repeat of the choking haze…and they praised our efforts,” he said.

A statement issued by the ministers after the meeting said Indonesia’s efforts would reduce the number of hot spots by 58 percent from the previous year.

Caused by slash-and-burn cultivation on palm oil and timber plantations on Borneo and Sumatra, the haze has covered parts of the affected countries for the past two years. It was first problematic in 1997, due to the El Niño weather pattern.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to sue a police officer accused of creating a story about being shot by someone at El Camino High School, causing a costly search for the assailant by police.

The officer, Jeffrey Stenroos, who had worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District police for eight years, caused thousands of students to remain on lockdown for hours.

Traffic officers, county sheriffs, California Highway Patrol, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were involved in the search. The council voted to ask Stenroos to pay the city for the cost of the search. Council president Eric Garcetti said, “We had thousands of dollars spent on police overtime.”

Thursday, the Los Angeles Police chief announced Stenroos’ claim was false and he was later arrested and released on $20,000 (€14,600) bail, charged with filing a false police report.

Stenroos allegedly mishandled a firearm and shot himself in his bulletproof vest, according to an anonymous police official.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Last Friday, thousands of people, in a total of more than thirty US cities, took part in a protest against the economic policy of the US government.

The event, which was inspired by the Boston Tea Party, took place due to comments made by CNBC presenter Rick Santelli.

“This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbors’ mortgages, that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills?” said Santelli, speaking on-air to the television audience. “We’re thinking about having a Chicago tea party in July. All you capitalists that wanna show up at Lake Michigan, I’m gonna start organizing.”

The protest took place in anger against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Several protesters voiced their opposition to this act. “I’m sick and tired of it,” said protester Barbara Keeton, speaking to WYFF4.com. “That’s my money. That’s my grandchildren’s future. It’s down the toilet.”

“The debt that Obama’s got, is way higher now, less than 100 days after he’s been in office,” she continued.

Organizers of Friday’s protests have announced that they are planning a new series of protests on April 15.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

This week, the Public Broadcasting Service aired a NOVA program titled “Dimming the Earth”, which presented research by leading scientists on the complex systems of our global climate and human activity’s effect on it. One of the largest interactions (or “inputs”) humans have with the atmosphere is the ever-increasing use of fossil fuels. Consumption has risen 2% per year for this decade.

Fossil fuels burnt in factories and automobiles send their waste into our atmosphere in two forms. The first is CO₂ and other greenhouse gases, which have received substantial attention in the last few years because of the way they trap heat in the atmosphere. The second is the tiny particles of sulfur dioxide, soot and ash, which scientists call aerosols (basically smog). Research into understanding the negative health effects of air pollution has resulted in the development of catalytic converters for cars as well as devices to remove particulate solids from industrial waste before it reaches the air.

More recently, atmospheric scientists have come upon the phenomenon of the reduction of direct sunlight reaching Earth’s surface— observing a nearly a 5% decline between 1960 and 1990, with evidence of a recovery since then. This has been dubbed the “global dimming” effect, and is probably due to the way these aerosols act upon clouds. It is important to realise that this does not represent a net loss of this much sunshine to the climate system – if so, large temperature declines would have been observed. Instead, the sunshine is absorbed elsewhere in the system, with a much smaller net loss.

Clouds form when moisture gathers around airborne particles, such as pollen or dust. Clouds formed by the aerosol particles emitted by fossil fuel consumption are made of many more tiny droplets than “natural” clouds. These smog-created clouds have two notable effects: they shield sunlight from reaching Earth’s surface and, due to water’s reflective nature, the millions of tiny droplets suspended in them reflect light back into space, allowing even less light to reach Earth.

Many scientists now believe that global dimming caused by these pollutants has mitigated the temperature rises brought about by global warming. Over the last thirty years, Earth’s temperature has increased by about 0.5 oC.

In the absence of global dimming, however, the Earth might be 0.3 oC warmer than it currently is, suggesting that a “tug-of-war” exists between greenhouse gases and particulates released by burning fossil fuels. Efforts to mitigate the human health dangers of smog have allowed more heat into our atmosphere and brought about a sharper increase in global warming.

Dr. James E. Hansen, professor at Columbia University and the head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies [1], believes that if we continue on our current pattern, this warming could be as much as five degrees in the next thirty years and ten to fourteen degrees over the course of the century. Such a temperature rise would devastate life on Earth, likely bringing on a cascade of self-reinforcing warming effects. Earth’s forests drying and burning, a steady thawing of the Greenland and arctic ice sheets, and, most dangerous of all, a release of the methane hydrates that are now frozen at the bottom of the oceans, could remake the planet into something inhospitable to human life. Dr. Hansen warns that, according to his research, man has just 10 years to reduce greenhouse gases before global warming and other responses to human activity by Earth’s climate reach a “tipping point”, becoming unstoppable.

Thursday, February 2, 2006

In recent days, there has been a notable increase in nuclear attack drill activities in LA, Houston and the state of South Carolina.

Sources in the Houston Police Department have disclosed that they are running these nuclear disaster drills across the city of Houston, Texas.

“In the last week I have multi-checked with sources of mine in the Houston Police Department and confirmed that HPD has been running nuclear disaster drills,” said Capt. Eric May, as he warned of a possible nuclear attack that might occur in the Texas City or Houston metro area. Capt. Eric May also mentioned that a likely target could be the British Petroleum plant in Texas City, Texas.

Local citizens have also noticed ongoing SWAT exercises involving numerous government agencies in the area, including Homeland Security, the HPD and the Pasadena Police Department.

“After leaving the Texas City police station, I noticed one thing really strange, as I counted at least 11 different types of official police and government vehicles parked in the police lot. I have never seen this before and it has me a little worried. What are they planning?” said local resident John Watkins.

Besides this increased activity in the Houston area, there have been reports that the Bank of America has been in contact with Homeland Security officials discussing the topic of how to deal with customers in the case of a pending “national disaster.” Employees of the bank have been ordered to remain silent, as ones from all levels have been told of the proper procedures to take. Employees in both Houston and LA have disclosed they were recently told not to distribute certain things from safety deposit boxes in the event of a national emergency, including gold, silver and firearms. They were, however, allowed to hand out important papers to asking customers.

It seems as if British Petroleum may also be conducting nuclear disaster exercises in the Houston area, as an email from an alleged BP employee has surfaced on the internet. Although his identity has not been proven as of yet, he states that he holds the position of a “building monitor” and has never had any responsibilities before. However, on Friday, January 27th, he was called into a meeting and told that he had best get his men ready for some disaster drills to be starting in the next week.

The US government is also running a nuclear disaster drill in the Charleston, SC area from January 31st to February 2nd. The organizers said that nuclear drills should not frighten citizens, but should instead encourage them to learn how to protect themselves in the event of an attack. It should be noted that the government has run other nuclear disaster tests before, including one last summer called “Sudden Respond ’05.” Therefore, this increase of disaster drills may just indicate that the government is taking the threat of a nuclear attack seriously and not necessarily that there is one impending.

Friday, January 27, 2017

On Wednesday night more than 1,000 protesters, most of them part of the LGBT community, staged a dance protest they called the “Queer Rager” outside the Leows Hotel in Philadelphia’s Center City, where the U.S. Republican Party has arranged a retreat. Gay rights and health care featured amongst the issues raised.

Protesters expressed concerns about traditional gay issues, but Republican U.S. President Donald Trump’s impending repeal of the Affordable Care Act, law enforcement, climate change and other issues were also visible. Signs included “Health Care Is a Human Right,” “BROWN BLACK LGBTQ LIVES MATTER,” and “Trans Bodies Are Beautiful.”

Titled “Queer Rage(r): Guerrilla Dance Party,” participants were invited to dance and carry signs. Like the Women’s March last Saturday, this protest was organized partially through Facebook.

Event organizer Hanako Franz told ABC Channel 6, “The focus for tonight is to call attention to the ways in which queer and trans, especially queer and trans black and brown people, do not have access to a lot of healthcare.”

“Get ready to WERK it out,” reads the event’s official Facebook page. “As they try to take away our health care, to police Black, Brown, Trans and Queer bodies, to regulate our bodies, we’re here to say #WeAreQueer #WeAreHere #WeWillDance.”

This is part of several events, including a rally by health care professionals, expected to continue until today, when the retreat ends. One event, which has been given the go-ahead by the city of Philadelphia, is expected to draw 3,000 participants.