One of the best parts of taking a road trip is the beautiful scenery, and these scenic drives are destinations in themselves if you love to drive. If you’ve been itching to hit the road, Travel+Leisure has a list of road trips you where you can take in the views.
Sell by, best if used by, expires on, display until; the shelf life of food seems like it’s a well regulated, concrete affair, but it’s not: It differs by region and type of food. In the end, those labels mean almost nothing, which leads to both food waste and an assumption of safety.
In Japan, soaking in natural hot springs is a treasured pastime that’s steeped in thousands of years of tradition, and during my stay there, I visited a few. The experience opened my eyes (and pores) to a world of good-feeling benefits, many of which (but not all) are backed by a plethora of research.
Pop quiz, hot shot: Can you answer these three questions that stump most Americans with college degrees?
Not all life hacks are created equal. In fact, some of them are downright terrible. This video puts 30 of them to the test so you know which ones are even worth attempting.
There’s a lot of fine print to read on your medicine labels, and among them is often the disclaimer to not take with grapefruit juice. What’s up with that? This video will tell you.
HYPOLUXO, Fla. (AP) — An animal rights group is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever dumped a live shark into the swimming pool at a South Florida condo complex.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals announced the reward Wednesday.
Florida wildlife officers responded to the Mariner’s Cay condominium in Hypoluxo this month after a woman found a 5-foot blacktip shark in the pool.
The woman told officers she saw two young men running from the pool, which is located near the shoreline of the Intracoastal Waterway. The officers removed the shark from the pool and returned it to the ocean, but there’s a good chance the shark later died from exposure to chlorine.
Blacktip sharks are among the most common species in coastal South Florida.
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COLUMBIA, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky State Police say four bodies have been found at the scene of a house explosion and fire in southern Kentucky.
Trooper William Gregory said Wednesday that two people were found inside the home and two outside. Police identified the four as 60-year-old Mitchell Coomer; his 52-year-old wife, Lori Coomer; their 1-year-old granddaughter, Kinley Rodgers; and 32-year-old Steven A. Keltner.
Police said identifications were made using evidence at the scene and from 34-year-old Jason Coomer, Mitchell Coomer’s son. Police said Jason Coomer was in the basement on the opposite side of the house when the explosion happened Tuesday and escaped with minor injuries.
Gregory says the cause of the blast remains unknown and under investigation.
The explosion happened at a log house several miles east of Columbia in Adair County.
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The district attorney in New Orleans says a grand jury has indicted 10 people in connection with a wild shootout at a city playground late last year.
Seventeen people were wounded and sent hundreds scrambling from Bunny Friend park in the city’s Upper 9th Ward on Nov. 22 during a block party attended by hundreds of people.
District Attorney spokesman Chris Bowman says the 15-count indictment was returned Wednesday. The charges including negligently discharging a firearm and obstruction of justice.
Eleven of the 17 shooting victims were younger than 21. The youngest was a 10-year-old boy. He was shot in the leg.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The utility that owns a natural gas well that has leaked uncontrollably in California for three months knew a devastating blowout was possible because of its age, design and the way it was being operated, according to state records and testimony.
And state regulators were aware of the situation at the largest gas storage field in the West, but they said they were limited in their ability to stop it.
“There are no rules that prevent it or no law that prevents you from doing what they were doing,” said Annaliese Anderle, a former inspector and supervisor at the state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, which regulates the field.
The blowout near Los Angeles has spewed more than 2 million tons of climate-changing methane and forced thousands of residents to flee their homes amid a sickening stench. Gov. Jerry Brown has declared an emergency and some environmentalists have called it the worst U.S. disaster since the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Southern California Gas Co. has apologized for the ongoing leak and defended its safety practices, though public records and testimony from executives show repeated gas leaks and corrosion in wells it operates that average more than a half-century old.
The wells in the Aliso Canyon facility near Porter Ranch were being taxed near capacity in the months and days before the blowout — even as the utility sought permission to increase the rate at which gas is pumped into a vacant oil field a mile-and-a-half beneath the Santa Susana Mountains.
The blown out well, Sesnon Standard-25, was drilled in 1953 to pump crude oil and found a second career when the field was converted in the 1970s to store gas when prices and demand were low and provide it to heat homes during cold months or fire gas-fueled electric plants when usage soared.
In addition to its age, several factors put the well in jeopardy of a blowout, said Anthony Ingraffea, a Cornell University engineering professor who worked in the oil and gas industry 25 years and studied the well’s records.
The well was built with two outer steel casings that surround and protect an inner steel pipe, or tubing, just under 3 inches in diameter, designed to carry gas in and out of the storage reservoir. However, SoCalGas was pushing gas through the 7-inch casing surrounding that pipe, enabling it to move large volumes.
The practice was risky because the casing was under pressures as high as 2,600 pounds per square inch with no secondary protection for more than a mile of its length, Ingraffea said. The metal was exposed to corrosive elements that could get between it and the rocky formation outside.
A casing failure allowed the gas to escape from the well and a safety valve that might have been able to stop it was gone, Ingraffea said. The valve was removed in 1979 and was not required to be replaced.
Anderle, who is now consulting for a law firm suing the gas company, and Ingraffea said the leak would probably not have happened if the entire casing was protected by cement.
The gas company, which is paying to relocate nearly 8,000 households and facing dozens of lawsuits, refused to answer questions about the blown-out well until it is plugged, which could take another month, and its cause investigated.
A spokeswoman said it plans to shut down 18 similar wells in the field for aggressive inspection.
While some states now require casings to be fully lined with cement, no such regulations are in place in California. And there’s no rule preventing the company from pressurizing both the casing and tubing to deliver gas, said Don Drysdale of the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources.
The practice is common throughout the state, the division was aware of it and could not have shut down the well under current regulations, Drysdale said.
“I didn’t think I could be surprised anymore,” said Bill Powers, a San Diego-based natural-gas analyst and investor. He said the practice of pumping gas at high pressure through the casing removed all “firewalls of safety.”
In 2014, the utility’s operation director noted corrosion and decades of use causing an increasing number of casing leaks and other major mechanical failures among SoCalGas’ 229 storage wells.
Major repairs for leaks and failed valves climbed from three in 2008 to nine in 2013, the utility executive, Phillip Baker, told regulators.
“The possibility of a well-related incident still exists, given the age of the wells and their heavy utilization,” Baker warned California’s Public Utility Commission, in written testimony.
At the time, the utility was asking regulators for rate increases to pay for stepped-up repairs at Aliso Canyon and its three smaller fields. The roughly $30 million a year rate-hike request is still pending before the PUC.
Despite the utility’s own safety concerns, SoCalGas got state permission for upgrades nearing completion that will allow them to inject gas at higher pressures to increase the rate it can fill Aliso Canyon by half.
In October, the time of the blowout, the utility had pumped Aliso Canyon to 93 percent of capacity, the utility said. State records show 2014 was a near-record year for injections, filling 71 billion of Aliso Canyon’s 86 billion cubic feet capacity.
Former PUC President Loretta Lynch said state regulators should have kept a tighter rein on storage amounts. The utility commission allowed SoCalGas operators “to run the hell out of those pipes, and found in the process it had endangered thousands of people.”
The PUC is now studying the possibility of how it will ensure a reliable gas supply if Aliso Canyon is shut down.
The oil and gas division has proposed emergency regulations for underground gas storage that would require a risk management plan and corrosion assessment of uncemented casings. Drysdale said the plan should identify if pressurizing casings and tubing is hazardous, though the language doesn’t specify that.
Ingraffea said the proposed regulations fall far too short because they don’t address the operation of wells where only a single barrier, such as a pressurized casing, stands between a smooth operation and a blowout.
“If there are any wells in any field in California where you have gas pressure one metal thickness away from a blowout, that is unacceptable,” Ingraffea said.
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FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A judge ruled Friday that a Texas teenager known for using an “affluenza” defense in a fatal drunken-driving wreck will remain at a juvenile detention facility until a hearing next month. Ethan Couch, 18, was deported a day earlier from Mexico, where authorities believe he and his mother fled as Texas prosecutors investigated whether he violated his probation in the 2013 wreck.
Here is a timeline of events in the case:
— June 15, 2013: Four people are killed when a pickup truck driven by 16-year-old Ethan Couch swerves off a road south of Fort Worth, Texas. Couch’s blood-alcohol level is three times the legal limit for driving. The victims are a woman whose vehicle was disabled on the side of the road and three people helping her. Two of the seven passengers in Couch’s truck are severely injured.
— Dec. 4, 2013 — Couch “admitted his guilt” in juvenile court in four cases of intoxication manslaughter and two cases of intoxication assault, according to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
— Dec. 10, 2013: A defense witness testifies during Couch’s sentencing that the teen’s wealthy parents coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility, a condition the psychologist termed “affluenza.” Couch is later ordered to rehab and sentenced to 10 years’ probation, which prosecutors and law enforcement blasted as too weak.
— Feb. 5, 2014 — A juvenile court judge sets probation conditions that include barring Couch from driving and from drinking alcohol or using drugs.
— August 2015 — Couch’s father files for divorce, a year after he and his wife stopped living together as a couple. Fred and Tonya Couch originally married in 1996. They divorced 10 years later, but then remarried in April 2011.
— On or about Dec. 2, 2015 — A video surfaces that shows Ethan Couch at a party where alcohol was being served. Drinking alcohol would be a violation of his probation.
— Dec. 3, 2015 — Couch is contacted by his probation officer and told to report for a drug test. His mother withdraws $30,000 from her personal account. On or around the same date, mother and son hold a gathering in which they talk about going to Mexico, and Fred Couch tells authorities that Tonya Couch had called to tell him he would never see their son again.
— Dec. 10, 2015 — Ethan Couch, who is now 18, misses a mandatory appointment with his probation officer.
— Dec. 11, 2015 — A directive to apprehend Couch for a probation violation is issued.
— Dec. 16, 2015 — Authorities publicly announce they’re investigating whether Couch fled with his mother in an attempt to avoid facing accusations that he may have violated his probation.
— Dec. 28, 2015 — Ethan Couch and Tonya Couch are taken into custody in the Mexican resort city of Puerto Vallarta, a few days after a call for pizza delivery tipped off authorities to their whereabouts. Texas authorities issue an arrest warrant for Tonya Couch.
— Dec. 30, 2015 — Tonya Couch is deported, but a Mexican judge decides to delay Ethan Couch’s deportation. Tonya Couch arrives on a flight early the next morning in Los Angeles, where she is taken to jail.
— Jan. 7, 2016 — Law enforcement officers accompany Tonya Couch as she is flown back to Texas. She is booked at the Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth.
— Jan. 8, 2016 — Tonya Couch is arraigned on a charge of hindering the apprehension of a felon. Her bond is set at $1 million.
— Jan. 11, 2016 — A judge lowers Tonya Couch’s bond to $75,000. She posts the bond the next day and is released to live with another son, after being fitted with an electronic ankle GPS monitor.
— Jan. 17, 2016 — Ethan Couch’s attorney in Mexico files a document seeking to lift the injunction that has kept him in Mexico.
— Jan. 25, 2016 — Ethan Couch formally ratifies his decision to drop an appeal against deportation.
— Jan. 28, 2016 — Ethan Couch is deported and flown on a commercial flight from Mexico City to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. He is booked at a juvenile detention facility.
— Jan. 29, 2015: A judge refuses to move Couch to an adult jail to await a February hearing that could determine whether his case is transferred to the adult system, where Couch could face time behind bars.
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BURNS, Ore. (AP) — FBI shows video of fatal traffic-stop shooting of armed occupier of Oregon wildlife refuge.
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FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Flint residents dealing with lead-contaminated water were warned Friday that water samples from more than two dozen locations have higher lead levels than can be treated by filters that have been widely distributed. They also will have more aid on the way after Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder earlier signed into law $28 million more in emergency funding. The Republican governor said the funding will provide immediate resources in Flint, but is not the end of state assistance.
The city is under a public health emergency that has led to local, state and federal emergency declarations. Its drinking water became tainted after the city, under emergency state management, switched from the Detroit system and began drawing from the Flint River in April 2014 to save money. The water was not properly treated to keep lead from pipes from leaching into the supply. Some children’s blood has tested positive for lead, which has been linked to learning disabilities and other problems.
Here are the latest developments in the Flint water crisis:
TESTS FIND SOME HIGH LEAD LEVELS
Dr. Nicole Lurie of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the lead level in some Flint locations has exceeded 150 parts per billion, which is the level for which water filters are graded. In one case, it was in the thousands. She said people with levels over 150 ppb were being notified and their water being retested.
“We aren’t completely sure” why the readings are so high, Lurie said.
Tests began in the last week in December, and 26 sites out of about 4,000 showed the higher levels. The water was tested by officials before it got to a filter, and Lurie stressed that the results do not mean officials think there’s a problem with the filters.
Officials stressed that pregnant women and children under 6 at the sites with the elevated lead levels should only drink and prepare food with bottled water. How many people in the city who have been using the tap water, even with filters, is unclear.
Marc Edwards, the Virginia Tech expert who had a critical role in uncovering the lead problem last year, said he’s not surprised by the high readings.
“They were without corrosion control for 18 months,” he said. “The system is still recovering.”
___
STATE WORKERS GOT BOTTLED WATER
Emails released by a liberal group critical of Snyder show the state was providing water coolers at a state building in Flint as far back as January 2015, though residents were told the tap water was safe to drink until last fall.
Lonnie Scott of Progress Michigan says Snyder’s administration was taking care of employees while Flint residents were being told to not worry about tap water. Snyder told WWJ-AM he had “no knowledge of that taking place.”
Snyder’s spokesman Dave Murray said Friday the water coolers placed near public drinking fountains on each floor were for both employees and visitors. Murray said he didn’t know if workers promoted that it was available, but no signs prohibited the public from drinking water from the cooler.
He said the water was first provided as concerns were rising about the city’s water system, but before lead was discovered in it. It was provided until early last summer, and then again in October after a public health emergency was declared, Murray said.
___
SNYDER SIGNS AID BILL
The $28 million in the bill Snyder signed Friday is intended to pay for bottled water, faucet filters, testing kits, additional school nurses, medical treatment and to help the city with unpaid water bills.
It’s the second round of state aid for the city since the crisis was confirmed in the fall, bringing the total allocated to nearly $39 million. The Republican governor said the funding will provide immediate resources in Flint, but is not the end of state assistance.
There also is funding to hire outside experts to assess whether Flint’s water system infrastructure must be replaced or repaired.
Democrats in the U.S. Senate have proposed up to $400 million in emergency federal aid for Flint — contingent on the state matching the funds dollar for dollar. The Senate could vote as early as next week on the proposal.
___
GOVERNOR UNDER PRESSURE
Snyder says he’s focused on resolving Flint’s crisis with lead-tainted drinking water, despite vocal critics saying his administration disregarded warning signs and didn’t act quickly enough.
Snyder told radio station WWJ-AM he was heckled Thursday night at a restaurant. Laura Tanner told The Ann Arbor News that she and a friend gave Snyder an earful at the Old Town Tavern. She says she yelled “How was your water? Was it clean?”
The Republican governor says “other things like that have been going on for some time now.” Protesters have also been rallying outside Snyder’s residence, and there have been longshot efforts to recall him from office.
Snyder has accepted responsibility for the emergency while also blaming state and federal environmental regulators, some of whom have resigned or have been suspended.
“It’s time to stand up and recognize that things could have been done differently,” Snyder said before signing the aid legislation Friday. “Mistakes were made. … We’re going to solve them.”
___
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WASHINGTON — The mastery of social media by the Syria-based Islamic State and the Levant (ISIL) terror organization to recruit members, supporters and lone wolves around the world has generated great concern among law enforcement authorities in D.C.
At the time of the interview in early January, Skule was special agent in charge of intelligence at the Washington Field Office of the FBI. He since has been elevated to FBI headquarters; and is now the assistant director for intelligence.
Skule says he believes the threat reporting his organization and all of its partners around world see is more than wishful thinking. ISIL has successfully recruited people in the national capital region to work on its behalf.
On June 11, 2015, 17-year-old Ali Shukri Amin pleaded guilty to providing material support to a terror organization. Amin, now serving 11 years at a federal prison in North Carolina, admitted to using Twitter to provide advice and encouragement to ISIL and its supporters.
“Amin used the Twitter handle @Amreekiwitness, to provide instruction on how to use Bitcoin, a virtual currency, to mask the provision of funds to ISIL, as well as facilitation to ISIL supporters seeking to travel to Syria to fight with ISIL,” the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
Additionally, Amin admitted that he facilitated travel for Reza Niknejad, an 18-year-old Prince William County, Virginia, resident who traveled to Syria to join ISIL in January.
“They are prolific on the web. Their propaganda message on social media has been consistent and it has resonated, as our director [James Comey] has said, with lost souls looking for a place to go,” Skule said.
“Their foreign fighter flow into that region is something we, the world, has never seen to the volume that the world has seen today.”
It’s not just ISIL’s aggressive recruiting that worries authorities. ISIL’s systematic deterioration has blunted the flow of fighters into Syria. It has given others reason to try to escape the organization.
U.S. intelligence sources tell WTOP it could open D.C. and other major U.S. cities up to fleeing foreign fighters seeking revenge.
Withering airstrikes and suffocating ground assaults in Syria have forced ISIL fighters to hide in tunnels. But according to U.S. intelligence sources, many have given up the fight and are trying to return to their homes countries or sneak into others.
The FBI believes the D.C. area is high on their list of desired destinations.
“There’s always concern about foreign fighters coming back to the U.S. — specifically to D.C. to do harm,” said Skule.
“What we’ve seen is this enemy has begun to resort to conscription, forcing people to fight for them,” said Colonel Steve Warren, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve — the official U.S. military name for operations against ISIL.
There are daily reports from inside Syria and neighboring countries of ISIL fighters being executed after trying to escape.
“Also, we’re beginning to see them use more and more child soldiers — teenagers or even younger people. Perhaps they’re having trouble refilling their ranks with experienced foreign fighters,” Warren said.
The exodus of ISIL fighters also is driven by another factor: U.S.-led airstrikes have sabotaged ISIL’s ability to pay it fighters.
According to Warren, tens of millions of dollars ISIL was counting on to pay it fighters has been destroyed in coalition airstrikes on the group’s cash depots. Unconfirmed reports have emerged from the region that ISIL has forced its fighters to accept a 50 percent pay cut, which has led to the exodus of fighters.
Still, according to European intelligence sources with whom WTOP spoke, more fighters and recruits are headed to the region from all over the world. However, the flow is not as brisk as in 2014, when ISIL began operations.
Still, says Skule, “ISIL is the most prolific threat we have faced.”
“Their call to jihad and their message to kill at every turn is something we have never undertaken or faced even with core al-Qaida. It would give a terrorist organization no greater benefit than to attack the seat of power in the U.S.”
Aggressively trying to keep up appearances, even though it’s losing momentum on the ground in Syria, ISIL continues to churn out English-language propaganda, urging it’s follows to attack any place they can — frequently mentioning D.C.
The post Exclusive: FBI worried ISIL-recruited terrorists headed to D.C. appeared first on WTOP.
MONTOURSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Police searched Friday for the adult daughter of a couple who were robbed at gunpoint and bound with duct tape before their home was set ablaze. The missing woman’s boyfriend and another man are in custody in the attack.
State police said 33-year-old Michelle Inch hasn’t been seen since Tuesday, a day before her parents were robbed by two masked men at their home about 90 miles north of Harrisburg. Her black 2002 Honda Accord was found Thursday near Canton, about 50 miles north of her parents’ home. Calls to her cellphone weren’t going through.
Brian Vroman and Michael Houseweart, both 27 and of Canton, were accused of breaking into the home early Wednesday. Both men were arraigned Thursday morning on a long list of charges, including robbery, arson and attempted homicide. They were jailed without bail. No attorney information was available for either in online court documents. No phone numbers were listed for them.
Police said Michelle Inch had a relationship with Houseweart. They had been living with her parents but had a falling out with them recently, police said.
According to the state police criminal complaint, Houseweart confessed to the crime during an interview.
A search of Vroman’s car turned up two ski masks like the ones used in the robbery, the complaint said. Surveillance video from a Montoursville-area Wal-Mart appeared to show the men arriving in Michelle Inch’s car and purchasing duct tape and gloves less than two hours before the attack.
Trooper Angela Bieber said Friday that police are concerned because it is unlike Michelle Inch to go so long without contacting friends or family. Bieber wouldn’t offer more details on the search.
Linda Inch, 66, managed to free herself from the duct tape as smoke filled the home Wednesday and ran to the neighbors for help, police said. Firefighters had to break down the front door to get 71-year-old Gary Inch out. He was found unresponsive on an upper floor, and both he and his wife were taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation.
Gary Inch remained hospitalized late Thursday.
A flat-screen TV, a poker set, cash and two cellphones were stolen, according to the arrest affidavit.
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CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) — Six members of a Virginia family that friends and neighbors called religious and hard-working were killed in an apparent murder-suicide after a failed negotiation, police said Thursday.
Chesapeake police said they believe Cameron Dooley, 26, killed his parents, brother, sister and another relative before killing himself after an hours-long negotiation with officers.
The other dead were identified as Steven Todd Dooley, 50; Lori Dooley, 54; Landon Dooley, 22; and Brooke Dooley, 17. The name of the sixth family member, a woman, was not immediately released. Their deaths were ruled homicides.
The Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Thursday all five homicide victims died of gunshot wounds. Cameron Dooley was shot in the chest and his death was ruled a suicide, while the other Dooleys were shot in the head, spokesman Arkuie Williams said.
Police said all were shot with a handgun.
Steven Todd Dooley, who went by his middle name, retired Nov. 1 after 25 years as a Chesapeake Police Department officer, police spokeswoman Kelly O’Sullivan said. Several neighbors said Todd Dooley’s father, the Rev. Allen Dooley, led the nearby Temple Baptist Church before dying in 2010 and leaving behind a large family that was widely viewed as the cornerstone of the neighborhood.
“They were just really good Christian people,” neighbor Desiree Darst said in a telephone interview. “I knew them my whole life. We’re all in shock.”
Police said in a news release that officers responded to a call to check on a person and found Landon Dooley dead inside a house Wednesday afternoon. Their investigation led them to another home a couple of blocks away, where they found an armed man barricaded inside. After negotiating for several hours, police said officers entered the home and found the other five people dead, including the man they had been negotiating with.
O’Sullivan said Todd Dooley was “very well respected” in the police department. “He was just very easygoing — a nice guy,” she said.
He was active with the police department’s dive team and marine patrol, which led him to an after-retirement job as a service technician at Lynnhaven Dive Center in Virginia Beach.
“Todd was a good man and a hard worker — a family man and a very religious man,” said Blake Hughes, the dive shop’s service manager. “It’s sort of hard to wrap our brains around what happened.”
Hughes said his wife is a nurse, so Dooley talked to him about daughter Brooke’s participation in the nursing education program at Deep Creek High School. Dooley never mentioned any problems with any of his children, Hughes said.
Neighbors also said they never had any hint of trouble in the Dooley family.
“The family had a wonderful reputation,” said Judith Styron, who has lived in the neighborhood for 21 years.
Timothy Casteen, a retired teacher who lives two doors down from Todd and Lori Dooley’s home, said the late Rev. Allen Dooley established a strong family presence in the neighborhood that was carried on by his surviving family members.
“They were people we all looked up to,” he said.
Darst said she had many conversations with Cameron Dooley, who helped take care of his grandmother after his grandfather died.
“He was a very nice boy,” she said. “I don’t understand.”
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WASHINGTON — Several dogs have been successfully placed into homes, but many still remain at the shelter.
Some of them have additional medical or behavioral needs, and will require adopters who are able to invest time and resources to help them manage these issues.
“In the past, we have seen Montgomery County residents really step up and provide loving homes for our ‘special needs’ animals,” said shelter manager Kate Walker.
Potential adopters are encouraged to visit the Montgomery County Animal Services and Adoption Center at 7315 Muncaster Mill Road, Derwood, MD 20855.
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WASHINGTON — The D.C. fire lieutenant charged with neglect in the death of a 1-year-old last year must appear before a review panel before he can retire with benefits, NBC Washington reports.
An ambulance from farther away nearly was sent to the boy because the lieutenant at the Wisconsin Avenue station didn’t tell dispatch that the computer system had disconnected from the network and that his paramedics were available to help.
The boy died a few days later in a hospital.
He was charged in July neglect of duty, incompetence and unreasonable failure to assist the public and announced his retirement last month.
Earlier this month, it was announced that the lieutenant, whose name has not been released, would retire with full benefits because the fire department had not adopted regulations to implement a law passed last March preventing the retirement of firefighters under disciplinary investigation.
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For decades, Mattel’s famous line of Barbie dolls has been heavily criticized for perpetuating an unrealistic and unobtainable image of the female figure. And for some reason, the dolls’ feet were perma-slanted so that Barbie had to wear heels all the time. But today Mattel has announced that Barbie will come in a variety of sizes and skin tones.
Mattel says it is keeping the traditional Barbie, but that its Fashionistas line of Barbie dolls will include three new body types – tall, curvy and petite – that more accurately reflect human proportions. The dolls will also be available in seven different skin tones, with two dozen hairstyles, and 22 eye colors available.
“Barbie reflects the world girls see around them,” explains Richard Dickson, President and Chief Operating Officer of Mattel, in a statement. “Her ability to evolve and grow with the times, while staying true to her spirit, is central to why Barbie is the number one fashion doll in the world.”
The new dolls will go on sale online at Barbie.com starting today, with the goal of getting them into stores this spring.
It’s been a strange few years for Barbie, as Mattel has simultaneously tried to update the 55-year-old toy to reflect modern tastes, while continuing to reinforce age-old stereotypes that have landed Barbie in hot water time and again.
There was the time in 2014, when Barbie starred in a book about being a computer engineer… but an incompetent one who needed the help of boys to turn her game idea into a real piece of software.
Mattel recently flattened Barbie’s perma-angled feet, which had long required that she always wore heels or walked on her tiptoes, but the company also paid to have Barbie featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue.
In each of the last two years, a Barbie product has made an annual list of the year’s worst toys from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. In 2014, it was for the Barbie Girl Scout program, which included an actual Barbie merit badge for young scouts to earn. Literature for that promotion also continued to play up the character’s sexiness in arguably inappropriate settings, like the Barbie Veterinarian who does sport a white coat… over a skirt that barely reaches her thighs.
More recently, Barbie took home the worst toy award for the new Hello Barbie doll, which can not only record things your child says to it, but can transmit it to third parties.
Officers found that the devices posed a health risk, reports the Chicago Tribune. Many came from China and had false safety marks of approval from Underwriters Laboratories, a company that tests products for safety and certification. Thus far, UL has not approved any hoverboard brand or model as certified safe. Some scooters also had fake Samsung logos.
Seeing those fake UL markings gives consumers “false sense of security,” William Ferrara, director of field operations for the Chicago Customs and Border Protection office said at a news conference Wednesday.
“The batteries do not meet safety standards, and the chargers as well,” Ferrara said at a news conference Wednesday. Some chargers don’t shut off automatically when the lithium batters are charged up, which could lead to an explosion.
Some hoverboards were found in an ocean container, while others were seized from air shipments, he added, with several shippers and importers involved. That number of 16,000 is expected to rise in the coming weeks due to the massive amount of shipments still being processed.
“Due to the work of our officers and import specialists, word got around the smuggling community,” and shipments to Chicago have stopped, he said. Those counterfeit scooters will now be destroyed, he says.
Officials suggest looking at a hoverboard’s power adapter before buying it — if it has a UL mark, note the file number and search for it on UL’s online certifications directory. You should also check to make sure the battery pack is well-anchored.
UL recently accused hoverboard manufacturer Swagway of violating its trademark, by putting the UL mark on its products. Again, UL hasn’t certified any hoverboards for safety whatsoever, the company says.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is currently investigating 13 hoverboard companies for safety issues, as well as looking into reports of fires related to hoverboards in 19 states.
There are a lot of spotlight-chasers who have made headlines for proving that yes, you can lose weight eating only [pick a fast food chain], but those “dieters” also tried to change things up with their weight-loss plans — a chicken sandwich for lunch, a burger for dinner, self-loathing for dessert. But some poorly worded healthy eating recommendations from Chick fil-A suggests that you eat some of the chain’s chicken nuggets every few hours.
SBnation’s Rodger Sherman was reading the “Great Ideas for Healthier Living” tips on the back of his Chick fil-A bag and noticed that the top tip is to “Kick off the New Year by adding one healthy habit to your routine,” with the suggestion to “Eat smaller meals (like an 8-count pack of grilled nuggets) every three to four hours.”
Chick-Fil-A suggests adding "one healthy habit" to your day, like eating chicken nuggets every three hours pic.twitter.com/PO3ADjyWUZ
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger_sherman) January 27, 2016
We’re assuming that Chick fil-A didn’t intend for their back-of-bag message to imply that you should only eat its nuggets — especially since the fast food chain isn’t open on Sundays — but there is an implication that the nutrition provided by the 8-piece nuggets would suffice for a full meal.
Figuring that you sleep for eight hours a day, this means you would eat 4-5 of these nugget meals each day. That means you would only consume between 560 and 700 calories daily, far short of the 1,500 to 2,000 calorie range recommended for most adults. Even if you add in 60 calories per meal for dipping sauce, you’re still looking at between 800 and 1,000 calories a day.
While the grilled chicken nuggets are low in carbs and fats, they don’t skimp on the sodium. At 530mg per serving, you’d likely reach the upper safe limit (around 2,300 mg) of daily sodium intake every day.
This according to research from trade group the Consumer Technology Association (formerly the Consumer Electronics Association), which found that 50% of all Americans with online access are turning to their secondary screens at some point while they watch TV and other video content.
The most popular second screen use is to get more information about the show or movie currently being watched. This is also known as “look up the really attractive actor/actress on IMDB to see what else they’ve been in.”
Another popular behavior that should be of concern to advertisers is the use of second screens to avoid watching commercials. Some 48% of survey respondents say they’ve picked up their phone or other device so they would have something to do during the ad breaks.
As you’d probably expect, a lot of people (43%) are simultaneously watching TV or streaming video and going on social media. This is why you increasingly see TV programming, especially reality shows and live competitions, trying to encourage viewers to use show-related hashtags or engage in discussions about a topic on Facebook. They know you’re already on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook while you’re watching, so they hope they can convince you to do some free promotion for them.
And it’s the millennials (people currently between the ages 18 and 34) that these social media engagement efforts are hoping to cash in on, since 71% of them are using social media while also watching video content.
These younger adults are also much more likely to use their second screens to ignore ads (70%, compared to 38% for consumers 35 and older), meaning social media is the primary way that advertisers can reach this demographic.
There also appears to be a gradual shift away from televisions for some video content. When it comes to streaming video, a narrow majority (57%) of consumers currently prefer using some sort of non-TV device. That may be because a lot of viewers haven’t yet upgraded to web-connected TVs; some that have may have found that the built-in apps for streaming services are lacking compared to the apps built for phones and tablets. As TVs improve in their connectivity and picture quality — 4K TV is becoming increasingly popular and affordable — they may become the preferred way to watch streaming content.
One thing that phones and tablets can’t provide that TVs can is screen size. Some 80% of survey respondents said the size of their TV screen was the most important factor, followed by picture quality at 62% and cost at only 29%.
TVs will need to become high-performance streaming machines, as a growing number of consumers drops traditional pay-TV.
The CTA survey found that 11% of respondents had dropped a TV subscription in the last year, with 27% of them saying they were switching to less expensive streaming options. Twenty-one percent of consumers now say they have gone without cable or satellite for at least a year. A third of those people explained that they simply weren’t getting enough content to justify the monthly expense.
Mayor Muriel Bowser will wipe away 2,800 parking tickets issued to residents and visitors who parked on snow-emergency routes before last week’s blizzard, her office announced.
The Washington Post reports that Bowser will toss fees for all tickets handed out on Friday, because some drivers might not have been aware they’d be subject to the $250 fine.
“I understand that some who received citations that Friday may not have known about the parking restriction, or may have been running errands in preparation for the storm,” Bowser said in a statement. “This ticket dismissal is one small way that we can continue to help each other recover from the storm.”
D.C. issued a total of around 5,500 tickets, worth about $1 million during last weekend’s storm, and towed almost 700 vehicles over the five and a half days the area was under a state of emergency.
D.C. to forgive thousands of parking tickets issued during snowstorm [The Washington Post]
WASHINGTON — D.C. issued more than $1.3 million worth of tickets to more than 5,400 drivers who the D.C. Department of Public Works says parked in the District’s snow emergency routes.
To accommodate for the snowstorm that dumped feet of snow in the region, D.C. issued a snow emergency that took effect at 9:30 a.m. Friday and ended at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. In a snow emergency, cars parked along snow emergency routes will be ticketed and towed.
By the time the snow emergency ended Wednesday evening, 5,479 vehicles were issued tickets for parking in the snow emergency routes, says DPW spokeswoman Linda Grant. Also, 690 vehicles were towed during the same time period, Grant says.
Drivers face a $250 fine, a $100 towing fee and a $20 impound fee for violating the emergency declaration.
When DPW comes across a vehicle parked in a snow emergency route, either DPW tow truck drivers or D.C. parking enforcement officers can issue a ticket. If the parking enforcement officer writes the ticket, it has to wait for a private company to move the vehicle. This results in the difference in ticketed versus towed vehicles, Grant says.
“A vehicle must be ticketed before it can be towed,” Grant said in an email.
DPW could not project how much revenue it will make from the snow emergency infractions.
“Since a snow emergency ticket may be adjudicated and dismissed, revenue projected based on this ticket number can be erroneous,” Grant said in an email.
If the more than 5,400 ticketed drivers received the $250 fine alone, D.C. issued more than $1.3 million worth of tickets.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the latest towing and ticketing numbers as of 6:30 p.m.
The post D.C. has issued more than $1.3M worth of snow emergency tickets appeared first on WTOP.
Washington Post |
DC hands out more than $1 million in tickets for Snowzilla parking violations Washington Post Since enacting a snow emergency Friday, the District has handed out tickets totaling more than $1 million in fines for violators of its parking ban. That translates to thousands of pink violation slips slid under windshield wipers, and hundreds of cars ... DC issued $1M in parking tickets during snow stormThe Hill DC Issues $1 Million Worth of Parking Tickets After BlizzardNBC4 Washington D.C. has issued more than $1.3M worth of snow emergency ticketsWTOP Daily Caller -WSAV-TV all 21 news articles » |
Betta fish are widely known as fighting fish. Frequently sold in individual containers, you might believe all Betta fish have the same general appearance and demeanor. Regardless of what you see at pet stores, male and female Betta fish are quite different. Subtle differences in their appearance and behavior can help you differentiate their sex. Knowing the sex of a Betta fish is critical when deciding if and when to breed a pair of Betta fish.
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If you’ve always had a dream of owning a DeLorean just like the one Doc Brown and Marty McFly use to travel through time in the Back to the Future franchise, you’ll soon have better odds of getting your hands on one: DeLorean Motor Company says it’s restarting production to make about 300 replica DMC-12 cars, which it hopes to sell for less than $100,000.
It’s been 34 years since the last DeLorean was built, but the company’s factory in Humble, TX will soon start rolling new DMC-12 cars off the line. DeLorean CEO Stephen Wynne tells KPRC-2 the company is hoping it has enough supplies in stock to build about 300 cars, and wants to start building one a month, then move up to making one a week.
The goal is to have the first car completed by 2017, with the new cars selling for less than $100,000. The price will depend on which modern engine the company chooses to use. Refurbished DeLoreans cost anywhere from $45,000 to $55,000.
“It’s huge for us. It means we’re back as a car company again,” Wynne said.
So why now? Until recently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration treated small companies and large ones the same, whether they were making millions of cars or only a few, making it harder for businesses like DeLorean to just make a limited amount of vehicles.
New language was recently added to the federal highway bill that was signed into law in December 2015 that allows small companies to produce a limited number of completed replica motor vehicles that resemble the appearance of cars produced 25 years ago or more, DeLorean explains on its company site.
“It’s fantastic. It is a game-changer for us. We’ve been wanting this to happen,” Wynne said of the new regulations. “That was a green light to go back into production. That was prohibited. It was against the law to do it.”
Under the new law, the vehicles have to meet current Clean Air Act standards for the model year in which they’re produced, and any replica vehicles will be subject to equipment standards, recalls, and remedies. The companies that make them are required to register with NHTSA and EPA, and file annual production reports, as well.
DeLoreans have never been made at this particular Texas plant before: as the Detroit News notes, the company was founded by John DeLorean in 1975, and declared bankruptcy a short time later. Wynne started a new company in 1995 with the DeLorean Motor Name, and purchased the parts and logo of the original company. Since then, it’s been restoring original cars and has a few authorized dealerships.
DeLoreans to go back to the future and into production [KPRC-2]
You can’t say that the team taking over the brand lacks consumer electronics sales experience: the newly zombified brand’s CEO has worked in e-commerce for years, and the business development VP was president of New York City electronics store DataVision for 21 years.
Their launch plan, as described to TWICE, the publication that broke this story, will begin this summer with a website and one location in Dallas, and as many as 100 stores across the country in major yet affordable metropolitan areas over the next year.
In addition to corporate-owned stores, the brand would also franchise. They also plan to develop kiosks and displays that would have a selection of items under $30, like headphones or cables, and fit right inside an existing store. They have college bookstores in mind, but convenience stores or supermarkets could already have them too.
The regular stores would be 2,000 to 4,000 square feet, and smaller mobile-only locations maybe 1,500 square feet.
Circuit City Set To Return This Spring [TWICE]
McDonald’s recently announced that it would be adding mozzarella sticks to menus nationwide in 2016, as part of its McPick $2 menu. They’re also available on their own at a price of $1 for three sticks.
Customers who were, understandably, expecting cheese to be a part of the menu item have been airing their grievances on Twitter with photos showing orders of mozzarella sticks without that one very important ingredient (h/t Business Insider).
They’re ticked because no one wants to pay for fried air, at least not when you’re expecting ooey, gooey, fried cheese.
Just a few examples:
@McDonalds is this what the mozzarella sticks are supposed to look like?. There's nothing in there pic.twitter.com/g1uchnZJTF
— Jo-Anna Perez (@Turtlejars) January 27, 2016
@McDonalds what is this lol no cheese in my mozzarella sticks pic.twitter.com/y4tQw4Fxfv
— Jonathan Lee Dai (@JoeNaeThin) January 27, 2016
Where's the cheese?😳 @McDonalds maybe stick to burgers & fries. New mozzarella sticks were a let down. #disappointed pic.twitter.com/0Pc9VL2lUy
— Abbie Burke (@AbbieBurke21) January 20, 2016
When you decide to try the @McDonalds mozzarella sticks but there's no cheese in them??? pic.twitter.com/UdYClSEhml
— Marimar Herrera (@funkymarimar) January 19, 2016
When you decide to try the @McDonalds mozzarella sticks but there's no cheese in them??? pic.twitter.com/UdYClSEhml
— Marimar Herrera (@funkymarimar) January 19, 2016
My girl got mozzarella sticks from McDonald's and they gave her them with no cheese 😂😂😂😂 @McDonalds y'all slacking pic.twitter.com/0JD6njZeQr
— Twan (@AntoineFulton) January 17, 2016
So far, it seems McDonald’s is going with the boilerplate Twitter response of, “sorry you were disappointed, give us some more information,” but if this is a wide-ranging issue, it could be related to how the sticks are made.
@TIMSG0TGAME Sorry you were disappointed! Can you provide some more info in this link https://t.co/iGjyyWjcVW so we can address this? Thanks
— McDonald's (@McDonalds) January 27, 2016
We’ve reached out to McDonald’s regarding the cooking procedures for mozzarella sticks, and what customers should do if they find their sticks are cheeseless. We’ll update this post if we hear back.
