All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

British flood chief returns from Caribbean holiday as thousands of homes evacuated

The man responsible for heading up the UK’s flood response has returned from a Caribbean vacation facing criticism. Britain has been hit by flooding as a third major storm pounds the Isles.

Ray Kelly Is A Greedy Liar: Gothamist

This fight isn’t a “spontaneous dispute over the veracity of the NYPD’s official tally of shootings and murders,” as the Times reports. It’s part of a decades-long dick measuring contest between two powerful men who hate each other, a feud that has wasted an untold amount of energy and public resources. (These two even fought over who was invited to their rival anti-terrorism conferences—Leonard Levitt has much, much more).The difference now is that Bratton is in charge of the NYPD, and Kelly isn’t.There are many issues Kelly could credibly raise to criticize the NYPD and inspire reform—on onerous quotas, on costly use of force, on its lack of female and black police officers, and yes, even on stat manipulation. This will never happen, because these are just as much Kelly’s problems as they are Bratton’s (he also seems to be missing some crucial emails).This is a man who continued to defend a Muslim surveillance initiative that generated no leads, who insisted on having free meals and membership at the Harvard Club, and who didn’t bother to defend his stop and frisk program in federal court but happily cut the ribbon at his friend’s new Applebee’s.

Source: Ray Kelly Is A Greedy Liar: Gothamist

(3/3) “I had one student who came to my school as an ‘emergency…

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(3/3) “I had one student who came to my school as an ‘emergency transfer.’ He was fourteen when he came into my class. He’d kick, bite, scream. He’d even pee his pants just to take them off and throw them at you. I taught him for several years. Recently he graduated, and to celebrate I took him to see The Minions. He stood in line to get his popcorn. He sat still through the entire movie. He was able to ‘be there.’ And that’s what gives me the most satisfaction. Getting my students to the point where they can be in this world.”

Rail Industry Again Given More Time to Install Safety System – The New York Times – Green light to risk killing more people in exchange for campaign funds!

When Congress in October gave railroads extra time to install a badly needed speed-control system, officials at the Federal Railroad Administration vowed to move aggressively to make sure the safety technology would be in place by the end of 2018, the new deadline.This month, Congress struck again. Tucked into a 1,000-page transportation law signed Dec. 4 is new language that could effectively extend the deadline until the end of 2020. And positive train control, a technology that safety advocates say could have prevented the deadly Amtrak crash in Philadelphia in May, could stay on the shelf even longer.

Source: Rail Industry Again Given More Time to Install Safety System – The New York Times