Thursday Reads: Winter Storms, Political and Corporate Corruption, and Other News
Posted: February 13, 2014 Filed under: morning reads, U.S. Politics | Tags: Comcast Corp., Georgia, monopolies, National Corvette Museum, New Orleans, North Carolina, nuclear fusion, Peter Galvin, Ray Nagin, sinkhole, snowstorms, Time Warner Cable Inc., weather 77 Comments
Good Morning!!
Snow began falling here before 7AM, and there is already a coating over everything. Of course we already had a around a foot of the stuff on the ground, so whatever we get will pile on top of that. Depending on where the rain/snow line falls, everything may be coated with ice by tonight.
Once again the South has been hit hard with winter weather. The Washington Post reports: Winter storm headed toward D.C. knocks out power across the Southeast U.S.
A powerful winter storm dropped a coat of snow and freezing rain across the Southeast on Wednesday, leaving almost 300,000 customers without power, forcing the cancellation ofmore than 3,600 flights, and creating gridlock on roadways in North Carolina.
In Atlanta, where another recent snowstorm had caused massive traffic jams, people seemed to have learned their lesson. Schools were closed. Workers stayed home. The city turned into a kind of wintry ghost town.
But in North Carolina, drivers didn’t seem to have learned the lesson at all.
In both Charlotte and Raleigh, news outlets reported that people headed out onto ice-covered roads in mid-afternoon. The result was the same it had been in Atlanta two weeks ago: creeping traffic, abandoned cars and folks offering stranded motorists a place to stay the night….
As Wednesday went on, the storm swept from Alabama, across Georgia and up into the Carolinas on its way toward Virginia and the Washington area.
CBS Atlanta warned Georgians to stay off the roads today if possible.
Georgia Department of Transportation officials said they are expecting road conditions to remain treacherous into Thursday morning as sleet and freezing rain is expected to continue. GDOT is urging the public to avoid all but emergency travel until at least mid-day Thursday
Forecasters at the National Weather Service said they are expecting falling pieces of melting ice to pose threats to drivers and pedestrians near overpasses and tall structures on Thursday.
Forecasters are also anticipating wet roads to refreeze Thursday night, which could lead to patches of black ice.
Several inches of snow could accumulate in North Georgia while the area across the state between a line just north of Columbus, Macon, Warner Robins and Statesboro and extending northward to above Interstate Highway 20 are experiencing icing roadways, power lines and trees. Moreover, winds gusting to as much as 30 m.p.h. could cause limbs and trees to fall on power lines and roads. A State of Emergency remains in effect for 91 counties in this region.
Traffic in Charlotte, NC
NPR: Winter Storm Paralyzes Roads In North Carolina, Despite Warnings
They knew it was coming. But drivers in North Carolina still fell prey to the winter storm that the National Weather Service predicted would be “potentially crippling” to the area. Even those who left just after noon have been trapped by the heavy snow that arrived today.
“Snow arrives in the Triangle as expected but causes gridlock anyway,” reads the headline in the Raleigh News Observer, referring to the Research Triangle of the cities Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. The intense traffic came one day after Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency ahead of the winter storm.
From what we’re seeing, people are blaming the problem on two factors: The snow came on fast and immediately stuck to roads; and most commuters who worked Wednesday tried to leave at the same time, adding to the gridlock.
The worst of the conditions may be yet to come, as officials expect freezing rain and sleet to hit the area as the storm moves out.
From NBC News: ‘Very Rough Commute’ Looms as Snow Blankets Much of Northeast.
The winter storm that tore through the American South, knocking out power to a half-million people, has marched up the East Coast to terrorize the morning commute Thursday.
More than 150 million people remain under a winter storm warning or advisory as snow falls in some Northeast cities at a rate of 1-2 inches per hour.
“The rate of snowfall will be hard to deal with,” said Kevin Roth, a forecaster with the The Weather Channel. “It will be a very rough commute. The may have enough plows to deal with normal storms but with two inches an hour the they drive by and the snow just builds back up. This will affect any roadways or airport runways in the region.”
It could be a very long weekend for many parents. Since Monday is a holiday, schools may just decide to close tomorrow as well as closing or letting out early today.
Down in New Orleans, it was a bad day for former Mayor Ray Nagin and former St.Tammany coroner Peter Galvin, but a good day for a city that has endured more than it’s share of political corruption. From Nola.com’s James Varney: Ray Nagin convicted, Peter Galvan sentenced – a good day for Louisiana.
Wednesday was a very good day at U.S. District Court in New Orleans for those who favor good government in Louisiana. Or maybe simply for justice.
Either way, when a former mayor of New Orleans gets convicted on 20 of 21 corruption counts in one federal courtroom, and a crooked coroner is sentenced to two years in another, it at least means the bad guys don’t always get away with it.
Who knows what Ray Nagin, New Orleans’ mayor during its darkest hour of Katrina, will be sentenced to? He faces up to 20 years in prison, and I’m hard pressed to come up with many reasons he should get much less….
Meanwhile, disgraced former St. Tammany coroner Peter Galvan, who managed to make himself the highest paid official in the state and sweeten his pension pot while also raking in undeserved sick pay and other goodies, got off with a 2-year sentence when he could have gotten five.
From the Christian Science Monitor summarizes the evidence against Nagin:
The case against the former mayor was towering. In the nine-day trial, prosecutors summoned many co-conspirators to the stand who testified to the pay-to-play schemes Nagin orchestrated, plus the bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that he sought and then redirected to Stone Age, a granite countertop business operated by custom countertops seattle wa, who were not charged.
In addition to the witnesses, prosecutors presented jurors with a mountain of evidence – e-mail correspondence, business contracts, credit card and bank statements, and more – that they said proved the mayor was a willing participant in wielding power for personal profit.
Nagin was convicted on five counts of bribery, nine counts of wire fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy, four counts of filing false tax returns, and one overarching count of conspiracy. Jurors acquitted Nagin of a single charge of bribery related to a $10,000 bribe that prosecutors said he accepted through the family business.
“The physical evidence was so overwhelming that for Ray Nagin to have successfully defended this case, he would have had, in some way, to refute these documents and use his credibility,” says Michael Sherman, a political scientist at Tulane University in New Orleans and a former legal adviser to current mayor Mitch Landrieu.
Now if we could just get the Federal government to stop letting corporations to get away with murder. My jaw dropped when I saw this headline at Reuters: Comcast to buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion.
Comcast Corp said on Thursday it would buy Time Warner Cable Inc for $45.2 billion in an all-stock deal that combines the two largest U.S. cable operators.
The friendly takeover comes as a surprise after months of public pursuit of Time Warner Cable by smaller rival Charter Communications Inc, and immediately raised questions as to whether it would pass regulatory scrutiny.
Comcast will pay $158.82 per share, which is roughly what Time Warner Cable demanded from Charter.
The combined company would divest 3 million subscribers, about a quarter of Time Warner’s 12 million customers. Together with Comcast’s 22 million video subscribers, the roughly 30 million total would represent just under 30 percent of the U.S. pay television video market.
The new cable giant would tower over its closest video competitor, DirecTV, which has about 20 million video customers.
WTF?! Comcast already owns broadcast giant NBC, and now they will essential control the distribution of TV and internet cable? If the feds let this go through, it will be another huge step backward to the Robber Baron days. Whatever happened to the Sherman AntiTrust Act, anyway?
This news out of Kentucky is just unbelievable: Sinkhole ‘erupts’ inside National Corvette Museum. From the Autoblog:
A 40-foot sinkhole (see photo at left) developed inside the National Corvette Museum overnight in Bowling Green, KY, swallowing up eight vehicles, including two Corvette models on loan from General Motors. No one was in the museum at the time of the incident, which happened early this morning.
According to the NCM, motion sensors were set off at 5:44 AM, leading museum authorities to discover a 25 to 30-foot deep chasm, that Executive Director Wendell Strode called “pretty significant.” The sinkhole developed in the museum’s Skydome, although it can’t be seen on any of the museum’s webcams (the Enthusiast cam is the closest look we can get to what’s going on).
The Louisville Courier-Journal reports emergency personnel remain on the scene, and have only allowed museum employees to remove a single vehicle – the only remaining 1983 Corvette, which was part of a mere 44-vehicle run.
The two cars on loan from GM were a 1993 ZR-1 Spyder and a 2009 ZR1 “Blue Devil,” while the damanged museum-owned cars included a 1962 Corvette, the millionth Vette ever built (a 1992), a 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 and the 1.5 millionth car produced. None of the damaged vehicles were on loan from private individuals. The extent of the damage to these vehicles remains unclear at this time.
Finally, some science news: Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory claim to have achieved nuclear fusion. From the LA Times: Nuclear fusion reactions mark a ‘milestone’
It took 192 lasers and a building big enough to contain three football fields, but physicists have finally produced a pair of nuclear fusion reactions that created more energy than was in the fuel to start with.
The reactions lasted less than a billionth of a second, and they released only a few thousand joules — enough to power a 100-watt light bulb for less than three minutes. But it marks the first time scientists have been able to harness the power of stars here on Earth.
“This is really an important milestone,” said Warren Mori, a plasma physicist at UCLA who was not involved in the effort.
The experiment, conducted at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the Bay Area, is still a very long way from “ignition,” the point at which the reaction generates more energy than was required to kick it off with lasers. Scientists agree that significant hurdles remain before that goal can be reached.
But the tests, described Wednesday in the journal Nature, give researchers a promising sign that they’re finally on the right path to reaching this goal — one that could ultimately lead to cleaner nuclear energy, safer weapons arsenals and a more profound understanding of astrophysics.
So . . . what stories are you following today? As always, please post your recommended links in the comment thread and stay safe and warm where ever you are!
peej
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Sky Dancing 
Bob Costas had to take the day off broadcasting the Sochi Olympics yesterday because he has pinkeye.
The Daily Beast: Everything You Wanted To Know About Bob Costas’s Olympic Pinkeye
Great post! Fusion news is always exciting even baby steps are big.
The DOJ should try and kick back that Comcast buyout. If there is any business in the US which needs more not less competition it’s the TV/Internet sphere. It’s almost a series of local monopolies now and that merger will only make the situation worse, if history is any guide.
I remember when they took the Bell Systems apart, but it feels suspiciously like it never happened and now they call it AT&T. There’s really no viable competition for ISP, Cable, cell or landline all the prices and services are nearly identical. Even the outliers aren’t far off the rates of the big boys. I suppose they figure, if you want it bad enough you’ll pay whatever price they agree upon. I know there isn’t suppose to be price fixing among the different providers, but it’s hard to believe it isn’t happening.
Sure it’s happening, even if it’s an informal setting of prices they’re too close for comfort. I saw some graphs which showed the increase in technology and the pricing both before and after the AT&T breakup. If previous history held, we would have better tech and service now for less money if the old monopoly had remained in place.
The breakup did away with some utility type regulations and essentially let more companies into the non-competition to take the public’s money.
Remember when we were in school and were taught about “trust busters”? Seems like that too went out of fashion since most of what we know of the corporate world most companies are owned by about 6 giant corporations these days.
Everybody seems to be in the pockets of these greedy guts from the local level on up to the US congress.
Like almost everything else good in government, anti-trust enforcement seemed to die out in the 1980s and has never strongly returned. Thanks, fk’ing Ed Meese.
NPR Marketplace: Scrutiny meets Comcast bid for Time Warner Cable
This is true and part of the main problem. Decreasing the number of possible competitors cannot possibly make it better!
To go along with the anti-competitive nature of the Comcast/TWC merger.
arstechnica: ISP lobby has already won limits on public broadband in 20 states
Fine kettle of fish we have here.
Further perspective…
yahoo finance: Why Your Phone, Cable & Internet Bills Cost So Much
Thanks for all that, Ralph.
Awesomely bad aren’t we? Murka, fk yeah!
Convicted felon from North Dakota conned his way into LA art scene, and is now accused of cyberstalking
Lucky Ducky; Tom Perkins edition…
http://boingboing.net/2014/01/28/tom-the-dancing-bug-lucky-duc-4.html
🙂
Ha ha. Perfect!
NBC News Exclusive: Snowden Swiped Password From NSA Coworker
Rand “CopyCat” Paul, just can’t keep from lifting the work of others. The man is incapable of original thought.
From RawStory: “Rand Paul accused of plagiarizing lawsuit against the NSA”
“According to the Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank, the suit alleges that the National Security Agency’s domestic phone surveillance program is unconstitutional, but that neither Cuccinelli nor Paul did the bulk of the legal work on the suit. The majority of the suit’s verbiage was lifted verbatim from the work of former Reagan administration attorney Bruce Fein.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/13/rand-paul-accused-of-plagiarizing-lawsuit-against-the-nsa/
Bruce Fein is extremely pissed off about it too. He said he hasn’t even been paid for the work he did.
He certainly is…
Rand Paul just needs to put a bag on his head and be like Shia already…both of them are assholes.
I hope Janicen is OK. Has anyone heard from JJ?
Thank you for asking, but we’re fine here. We got about 4 or 5 inches of snow which then turned to freezing rain which was what was supposed to cause the power outages. We got “saved” by the fact that in most areas, the temp is just above freezing so we have only about an eighth of an inch of ice on top of the snow. They are telling us that another storm will be coming through this afternoon giving us another potential 3 inches of snow so we don’t know what to expect from that. This immediate area seems to be right on the cusp of the warm/cold line. My daughter’s school is a little more than an hour to the west, and they are getting just the snow in quantities expected to reach 10 inches when all is said and done. Only around 1500 without power in the area right now.
Oh good. I’m glad you’re OK. They keep changing our forecast. I don’ think we’ll know anything for sure till it happens. They don’t really know where the rain/snow line will be.
My brother is in northern MD, close to the PA border and he got 15 inches and more expected today so it seems a little shift to the west or the east can make a big difference in what you get from this storm.
Wow.
Glad you’re ok. Stay safe and warm Janicen.
Glad you’re doing OK. Hang in there.
Our internet has been out most of the day, but things are fine…hope you all up Northeast are ready for it.
Rawstory: “Bob Jones University stifled sex abuse claims: ‘If you report it, you hurt the body of Christ’
“The person who supposedly counseled me told me if I reported (another fundamentalist Christian) to the police, I was damaging the cause of Christ, and I would be responsible for the abuser going to hell,” said Catherine Harris, who attended the university in the 1980s. “He said all of my problems were as a result of my actions in the abuse, which mostly took place before I was 12, and I should just forgive the abuser.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/12/bob-jones-university-stifle-sex-abuse-claims-if-you-report-it-you-hurt-the-body-of-christ/
Holy Bullshit!!! Looks like the Catholic Church has some formidable competition in the child molestation and rape cover-up business. And all in the name of “Christ”.
Never put anything past true believers. Any action can be justified, no matter how heinous, in the name of ‘God’.
The more that gets revealed the sicker I feel. I’m guessing this crap is a lot more prevalent than we would like to believe.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Aqua Buddha
wonkette: Rand Paul Using Civil Lawsuit To Defend Constitution From Obama, Spy Agencies, Hated British Redcoats
RS: “Idaho bill would allow doctors or cops to refuse service to LGBT people on religious grounds”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/12/idaho-bill-would-allow-doctors-or-cops-to-refuse-service-to-lgbt-people-on-religious-grounds/
Ugh!!!!
Mouse, that’s the Lynn Luker bill – he got the cemeteries on lockdown, no gays same sex marriages allowed to be buried together. He’s the Mormon among the Mormons, and he grosses me out. People have been lashing back, and protesting on the steps of the capitol, and arrested. Many people are silent, and just seem to be accepting this.
Yup, it’s a cult of Mormons running Idaho.
Oh Fannie, the bill and the mean spirited people who support it are hideous. And I thought the South was bad. I hope that idea doesn’t trickle over to the other hyper-religio-conservanut states.
OMG, that’s horrendous! Of course it’s completely unconstitutional.
Wasn’t that area of the country settled by former southerners who fled the south after the civil war? Just saying…
CNN: “Kansas House passes bill allowing refusal of service to same-sex couples”
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/13/us/kansas-bill-same-sex-services/
So, when do they put their signs out saying:
No Queer Served Here
Or
Heterosexuals Only
…and how will they test people? Any two people who come in together who happen to be the same sex will be what, questioned? Quizzed? “Quick! What’s this color, “Gray” or “Mushroom”?” “Pink or Mauve?”
🙂
That’s a good question janicen. How will they know? Perhaps they’ll know if they ask and we “the dreaded gay” dare to answer honestly. I know I have no intention of hiding my sexual orientation in order to satisfy the comfort level of those around me, and the sooner that stops being an expectation of L/G’s the better off society will be.
Quite honestly I hope L/G’s in KS press the envelope on this issue and I hope straight people step up and refuse to do business with those businesses that discriminate. A good start would be if businesses who support L/G’s post a sign at their establishment doors that say ALL PEOPLE WELCOME HERE, (providing you wear a shirt and shoes.) 🙂
Completed genome from Clovis-era skeleton proves Native American origins, scientists say
Of course, the Euro-origination people aren’t satisfied yet.
I loved that story Ralph, got me into some readings on Native Americans. Can’t help but mention a woman just died on the Res in ND, she was found frozen, her propane heat had run out. Sad, Sad.
Native Americans are the most mistreated and screwed over people in the country. Completely shameful!
They’re not only all white, they’re all blonde…
https://twitter.com/KhaledBeydoun/status/433651182309888000
Gee, I wonder what message this COMMUNICATION company is sending?
I’m not certain but that’s a pretty Aryan group they’ve got there.
I wonder how many are natural blondes?
I would guess 2 or 3, maybe.
Snow is blowing almost directly sideways east to west here now. We’ve gotten quite a bit of snow and no rain yet, but the snow looks heavy and wet. I can’t believe the drifts out there. Of course we already had so much on the ground.
Bummer! Take care.
Thanks. I’m fine so far. I have enough food to last awhile….
Steve Stockman Files Libel Suit Alleging He Was Never Arrested for Smuggling Drugs in His Underpants
http://thedailybanter.com/2014/02/steve-stockman-files-libel/
Maybe they were in his socks?
Rand Paul might want to take note of this:
UPDATE 3-Blast rocks Kentucky natural gas pipeline amid storm
He’s too busy suing NSA and Obama.
Cause nothings more important than stoking his base with a bunch of nonsensical bullshit.
I hear you all are taking a pounding back east………….800 car crashes in Va. Stay safe and off the roads.
Justice, finally
A sane media person in Texas:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/michael-sam-texas-sportscaster
Dale Hanson is a fixture in the DFW media and an absolute jewel. The response he’s gotten has been almost universally positive which is probably a surprise, even to him.
Somewhat related…
Damon Linker story in The Week: “Is opposing gay marriage the same as being a racist?” John Cole: I Have Your Answer
It gets much better from there.
It all boils down to one thing. Marriage in this country is a civil contract between 2 people and no one has the right to deny 2 same gender people access to that contract. That is where we are going to end up and those who don’t like better get on board or get the hell out of the way.
And the “icky” factor is the same thing that caused some NFL Team Officials to anonymously say to ESPN that they don’t feel the NFL is ready for an openly gay man (Michael Sam, All American, SEC Defensive player of the year) in the locker room. In other words, “just shut the fuck up Michael Sam and stay in the goddam closet so you don’t make us feel Icky”. They’re trembling at the thought that an openly gay man might get a birds eye view of another man’s penis while in the locker room? Well duh!!!! Is that penis insecurity or what? Really, I’m astonished that some straight men are so damned vain and ignorant that they allow themselves to believe that gay men want to get the hell beat out of them playing football in a clandestine attempt to get a peek at another man’s penis. We need to take these men to a gay bar and let them see how easy it is for L/G’s to hook up without getting the hell beat out of them in the process.
For anyone who’s never been to a gay bar, especially one with a drag show, I’d suggest you visit one time, otherwise you’re going to die without experiencing the most fun you’ve ever had.
Or maybe I should say, You’re going to die without experiencing the most fun you COULD ever have.
🙂
I doubt that 99% or more of the players care at all, if not for pleasing some homophobic old coach.
“Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis today endorsed same-sex marriage and called on her election opponent, Texas AG Greg Abbott, to stop defending the state’s ban.”
You go Girl!!!!!
Indeed. I can’t wait to see how that plays out.
Texas Tribune: Rush to Altar Not Expected if Texas’ Gay Marriage Ban is Lifted
AFA (American Family Association) AFA: Impeach Eric Holder
“United States Attorney General Eric Holder, this week, has again overstepped the boundaries of the law when he arbitrarily ordered that homosexual couples will now receive government benefits reserved only for natural marriage status. This applies even in states that have laws defining marriage as only between one man and one woman.”
There ain’t gonna be none of that he-ing and he-ing and she-ing and she-ing in this country,
If benefits are allowed/restricted on the basis of who is having sex with whom, I think it’s high time hetero couples were forced to prove they are actually engaging in sex acts in order to qualify for benefits.
Of course, my vote goes to extending benefits to registered family groups, regardless of bloodlines and bonking interests.
And then there’s this….”Many opponents of LGBT rights think marriage should only be between one man and one woman. But not Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS). As he told his colleagues on the floor of the House Tuesday evening, “There’s a third person in your marriage.” He was, of course, referring to God.”
And everyone knows god doesn’t want to be the middle man between two men, Now, Two women? Well god might go for that. Brghahahahahahaha!
These people are just plain evil. If there were a god, he or she would send them to hell.
Texas Tribune: Obamacare Enrollment Continues Steady Climb
Remember that mailbomb from a few days ago in Lebanon Tenn?
Son-in-law charged in fatal Tennessee package bombing – CNN.com
BREAKING: Richard Parker Was Sunday School Teacher, Hosted Children at Lebanon, Tennessee Home – WZTV FOX 17 – Top Stories
Both the man and woman died…
Oh no. How awful. I was reading about it yesterday.