March 27, 2022

Los Angeles: New LAX people movers on track for 2023 completion

The end is in sight for a project that leaders hope will cut down on traffic outside one of the nation’s busiest airports.

Construction crews are nearing a milestone in a multi-billion dollar project to significantly upgrade public transportation at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). By next week, the concrete guideway that will eventually house a brand new Automated People Mover (APM) system will reach 99% completion, setting the stage for testing of train cars later this year. Construction is slated to wrap up next year.

The new system, which TPG first reported on in its early stages in 2018, has been under construction since its groundbreaking in March 2019. Once complete, the APM will connect rental car and parking facilities to the Central Terminal Area at LAX with hopes of significantly reducing congestion on roads outside the airport.

The new system

The new APM at LAX will span 2.25 miles with trains running on a concrete guideway between six stations. Three of the stations will be inside the Central Terminal Area and three will be outside of the terminals.

The trains will run 24 hours per day, seven days a week, with airport officials anticipating trains will be available every two minutes during peak hours between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. Trains will be able to reach a top speed of 47 miles per hour and will be free for passengers to ride. ...............(more)

https://thepointsguy.com/news/new-lax-people-movers-on-track-for-2023-completion/

March 27, 2022

Meet Scot, the 1,600-pound great white shark swimming off Florida's coast

(CNN) Florida’s got yet another spring breaker in town: Scot, a massive great white shark, has been recorded swimming off the Gulf Coast.

Scot, an adult male, measures just over 12-feet long and weighs 1,600 pounds, according to OCEARCH, the non-profit marine group that spotted the big fish Thursday.

Scot is the 74th great white shark tagged and released by the group in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, OCEARCH said. They fit each animal with an electronic tracker that pings whenever it breaks the ocean surface.

The tracker’s records show Scot is a dedicated traveler. He was first tagged in September of 2021 in Nova Scotia – where he was named in honor of the “welcoming and ocean first dedicated people” there by OCEARCH’s partners at Sea World. Scot then traveled a total of 3,910 miles down the East Coast in just 119 days. He has been relaxing around the Florida Keys and Gulf Coast since at least Valentine’s Day, according to OCEARCH data. ...............(more)

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/27/us/great-white-shark-florida-scn-trnd/index.html

March 26, 2022

FL: Man who took Pelosi's lectern in Capitol riot is hosting 'going to prison' party

Before surrendering to serve 75 days in prison for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection of the U.S.

Capitol, including taking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern, Adam Johnson is hosting a “going to prison” party. “Come help me celebrate my last Friday of freedom before I go to prison for the lamest charge in history,” the Facebook event states.

The event is scheduled for April 1 at Caddy’s Bradenton.

Johnson, 38 of Parrish, pleaded guilty in November to one count of entering or remaining in any restricted building as part of a plea agreement.

Last month, Senior U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton sentenced Johnson to 75 days in federal prison, with credit for time he has already served. Following his release, Johnson will be on probation for one year, have to complete 200 hours of community service, pay a $5,000 fine and pay $500 restitution — his share of the nearly $1.5 million in damage caused at the Capitol. .............(more)

https://www.bradenton.com/news/local/crime/article259664450.html#storylink=cpy

March 26, 2022

'We will SMASH you': Dropkick Murphys feud with neo-Nazis

Boston – The Dropkick Murphys are hitting back against a neo-Nazi group that used one of the rock band’s songs in a video posted on social media.

The rowdy rockers from Boston condemned the use of the song “The Boys are Back” in a tweet, while the band’s attorneys sent a cease-and-desist letter to the group as well as to the platform that shared the video.

After calling them “losers,” the band wrote “Stop using our song for your little dress up party video. We will SMASH you,” in response to a tweet from a man who confronted the group at South Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade last weekend.

About a dozen masked members of the group, known as NSC 131 or the Nationalist Social Club, attended Sunday’s parade as spectators and held up a banner that said “Keep Boston Irish.” Their appearance was denounced by the parade’s organizers and Mayor Michelle Wu. ..........(more)

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/music/2022/03/25/we-smash-you-dropkick-murphys-feud-neo-nazis/7167588001/

March 26, 2022

Scientists concerned after ice shelf collapses in colder area of Antarctica

An ice shelf the size of New York City has collapsed in East Antarctica, an area long thought to be stable and not hit much by climate change, concerned scientists said Friday.

The collapse, captured by satellite images, marked the first time in human history that the frigid region had an ice shelf collapse.

It happened at the beginning of a freakish warm spell last week when temperatures soared more than 70 degrees (40 Celsius) warmer than normal in some spots of East Antarctica.

Satellite photos show the area had been shrinking rapidly the last couple of years, and now scientists wonder if they have been overestimating East Antarctica’s stability and resistance to global warming that has been melting ice rapidly on the smaller western side and the vulnerable peninsula. ................(more)

https://www.wxyz.com/news/national/scientists-concerned-after-ice-shelf-collapses-in-colder-area-of-antarctica?

March 25, 2022

Southwest Airlines bans man charged in alleged attack on Atlanta gate agent

A man who allegedly assaulted a Southwest Airlines gate agent at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport earlier this week has been charged with battery and banned from flying with the carrier, authorities said.

Courney Drummond, 44, of Henderson, Nevada, was arrested Tuesday on charges of battery, simple battery and obstructing an officer, according to jail records and a news release from the Atlanta Police Department. ........(more)

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna21506

March 25, 2022

MAGA purge: Jan. 6 organizer labels former ally Rep. Mo Brooks as "LOSER" and "piece of crap"

(Salon) On Wednesday, shortly after news broke that Donald Trump had rescinded his endorsement of Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks, a right-wing Republican currently running for Senate, one of Brooks' former allies denounced him forcefully across right-wing social media. In what amounted to a MAGA excommunication, Ali Alexander, the self-proclaimed founder of the 2020 "Stop the Steal" movement and a key planner of the Jan. 6, 2021, protests, celebrated the "de-endorsement" on multiple conservative social media sites, writing on Telegram, "MO BROOKS is a LOSER."

"I haven't told the story to anyone except the President's team and my lawyers or how Mo Brooks and HIS STAFF betrayed our election integrity movement before he did so publicly," Alexander continued. "With President Trump withdrawing his endorsement, I can finally be public about what a piece of crap Mo actually is. He's no longer on the team. And his staff is worse and smells worse. I hope they didn't lie under oath to the J6 Committee like they lied to Mo in private. Stay tuned!"

In another message on the site, Alexander wrote, "This is what Mo doesn't get... the voters already left him. And keep leaving him. Trump is following what many of us in private and public have said. Mo Brooks has the dumbest staff on the hill and everyone knows it."

On the competing right-wing social media site Gab, Alexander continued, writing, "I'm proud to announce that @realdonaldtrump has WITHDRAWN his endorsement of Mo Brooks. I can now go on the record about him and his office and their attempts to BETRAY the Election Integrity movement." ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/03/25/maga-purge-jan-6-organizer-labels-former-ally-rep-mo-brooks-as-loser-and-piece-of-crap/

March 25, 2022

Michigan Democrats: House must launch ethics investigation into former Speaker Chatfield

(Detroit News) Lansing — Michigan House Democrats pressed majority Republicans Thursday to launch an investigation into former Speaker Lee Chatfield, saying the public's trust in state government was at stake.

Democrats formally introduced a resolution Thursday to create a bipartisan select committee to examine Chatfield's actions as the top lawmaker in the House. He left the chamber because of term limits at the end of 2020. Current House Speaker Jason Wentworth, R-Farwell, has the power to decide whether to act on the proposal.

Wentworth's leadership team directed the proposed resolution to the Government Operations Committee, a panel that rarely meets or takes up bills.

The push by Democrats came amid an ongoing criminal probe into Chatfield and accusations that he sexually abused his sister-in-law, Rebekah Chatfield, beginning when she was 15. Lee Chatfield has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged. ..............(more)

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2022/03/24/michigan-democrats-house-must-launch-ethics-probe-into-chatfield/7152946001/

March 25, 2022

Whitmer kidnap plotter: I joined the plan because I was on a suicide mission

(Detroit Free Press) A second convicted kidnap plotter took the stand Thursday with explosive testimony, telling jurors he joined the plan to snatch Gov. Gretchen Whitmer because he was on a suicide mission.

"I was hoping that I would be killed in the process," Kaleb Franks testified. "I no longer wanted to live."

Franks explained that he had mentally fallen apart following the deaths of three family members in one year: his mom, stepdad and stepbrother. He did not say how they died, only that he was looking for an escape, and so he joined a scheme that he believed would lead to his death.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Roth asked him to explain why he felt he would die in the kidnapping scheme. ............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/03/24/whitmer-kidnap-plotter-kaleb-franks-suicide-mission/7153894001/

March 24, 2022

Texas voting law hits Black voters hard

As it was intended to. -- OP's comment


The rate of rejected mail ballots soared in the March primary elections in Texas — and those rejections disproportionately affected Democrats, especially Black voters in the state's biggest county.

Nearly 23,000 ballots, or about 13% of all returned mail ballots, were thrown out across 187 Texas counties in the March primaries, according to an analysis by the Associated Press. In past election years, the rejection rate was around 1% to 2%, according to the Texas Tribune.

The rejection rate hit more liberal areas of the state with more than 15% of mail ballots thrown out in Democratic-leaning counties, compared to 9.1% in Republican-leaning counties. In Tarrant County, election officials rejected 813 ballots in the Democratic primary under the new voter ID rules, but just three ballots in the Republican primary, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/03/24/throwback-to-jim-crow-new-texas-voting-law-means-black-voters-ballots-get-tossed/