Random News Stories

[LMNO]

Happened in Boston, too.

http://www.wbur.org/tags/drug-lab-scandal

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

When you make the War on Drugs the latest capitalist venture, of course you end up with conviction fraud.

[Vanadium Gryllz]

http://wlos.com/news/local/bogus-parking-tickets-surface-in-downtown-asheville

[Brother Mythos]

"Christian 'prophet' loses his buttocks to a hungry lion while trying to prove God would save him"

Here's the link, but be advised, the video is just a collection of unrelated big cat photos:

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/03/christian-prophet-loses-his-buttocks-to-a-hungry-lion-while-trying-to-prove-god-would-save-him/

The expression "getting one's ass handed to one" is popular. And, the expression "getting an ass chewing" used to be popular. But somehow, I don't think "getting one's ass clawed" has much of a ring to it.

[Junkenstein]

http://wtop.com/dc/2016/03/reagan-airport-says-1-person-filed-6500-noise-complaints/

Out of the 8,670 noise complaints Washington's Reagan National Airport received last year, officials say a whopping 6,500 of them came from the same person.

That's impressively insane.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/firms-pranks-bombs-and-feces/

Over the course of several years, an Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association employee played pranks on co-workers by building and detonating bombs near them, attempting to defecate on them while they worked, and placing bags of his own feces in their lunches.

The general manager of the association knew about the employee's behavior and, rather than discipline or terminate him, promoted him.

English admitted during the hearing he pulled pranks on co-workers for years, including shooting them with a "potato gun" he made out of PVC pipe on work time and building and detonating bombs on company time and with company materials. Some of the bombs were set to explode when his co-workers got into a work truck and turned the ignition switch on.

At one point, English was disclosing so much information about the bombs and how they exploded that the judge advised him of his Fifth Amendment rights about self-incrimination.

Bailey testified that in one instance, a bomb exploded with enough force to buckle the hood of a truck, and the explosion damaged his right ear. In another instance, he said he saw a pipe bomb explode while English was building it on a welding bench at work. He said the explosion sent shrapnel into the shop's ceiling, and that English laughed because he was "glad it didn't blow his arms off."

English admitted to other pranks. He filled milk jugs with an accelerant and hid them in ditch banks, so when co-workers were clearing brush from the banks using blowtorches the jugs would explode. He also placed bags of his own feces in co-workers' lunches and tried to defecate on co-workers as they worked in ditches.

Much of Fletcher's testimony indicated he was either unaware of many of English' pranks, or knew about them but did little to stem them. English testified that Fletcher approached him around 2009 when he was working as a ditch rider and asked him to stop building bombs because complaints had been filed.

[Cain]

http://wtop.com/dc/2016/03/reagan-airport-says-1-person-filed-6500-noise-complaints/

Out of the 8,670 noise complaints Washington's Reagan National Airport received last year, officials say a whopping 6,500 of them came from the same person.

That's impressively insane.

I'm pretty sure that's the guy I work with.

OK, he doesn't live in DC.  But he does have at least 20 current greivances put in against the company, and has put in greivances about how his greivances are being handled.  In the space of a week I saw him put in 4 greivances.  He totally has the motivation to put in 6500 noise complaints.

[axod]

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/firms-pranks-bombs-and-feces/

Over the course of several years, an Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association employee played pranks on co-workers by building and detonating bombs near them, attempting to defecate on them while they worked, and placing bags of his own feces in their lunches.

The general manager of the association knew about the employee's behavior and, rather than discipline or terminate him, promoted him.

English admitted during the hearing he pulled pranks on co-workers for years, including shooting them with a "potato gun" he made out of PVC pipe on work time and building and detonating bombs on company time and with company materials. Some of the bombs were set to explode when his co-workers got into a work truck and turned the ignition switch on.

At one point, English was disclosing so much information about the bombs and how they exploded that the judge advised him of his Fifth Amendment rights about self-incrimination.

Bailey testified that in one instance, a bomb exploded with enough force to buckle the hood of a truck, and the explosion damaged his right ear. In another instance, he said he saw a pipe bomb explode while English was building it on a welding bench at work. He said the explosion sent shrapnel into the shop's ceiling, and that English laughed because he was "glad it didn't blow his arms off."

English admitted to other pranks. He filled milk jugs with an accelerant and hid them in ditch banks, so when co-workers were clearing brush from the banks using blowtorches the jugs would explode. He also placed bags of his own feces in co-workers' lunches and tried to defecate on co-workers as they worked in ditches.

Much of Fletcher's testimony indicated he was either unaware of many of English' pranks, or knew about them but did little to stem them. English testified that Fletcher approached him around 2009 when he was working as a ditch rider and asked him to stop building bombs because complaints had been filed.

Yup, that delivery dude never lugged those 5 Gallon glass coolers right to my door, because of the incline.  The one time they did, shit blew up in my hands and flooded the living room.

[Junkenstein]

Have you been sniffing glue?

[Junkenstein]

Some HA?

http://conservativedisabilitygroup.org.uk/

This website is temporarily closed owing to Disability Cuts.

Needed to correct a misquote no other member of the group was involved in my action or was aware of it until after it happened

The domain name will be transfered when the group secure new hosting.

The owner of the hosting package Graeme Ellis has resigned over disability cuts from the group and will no longer develop or host this site

I laughed firstly because this even existed. Now I can't stop laughing.

[Junkenstein]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/03/31/mississippis-senate-just-approved-a-sweeping-religious-liberty-bill-that-critics-say-is-the-worst-yet-for-lgbt-rights/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link

Mississippi's House Bill 1523 says, among other things, that public employees, businesses, and social workers cannot be punished for denying services based on the belief that marriage is strictly between a man and a woman. Same goes for people who act on the belief that "sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage" and that gender is determined at birth. It says the government can't prevent businesses from firing a transgender employee, clerks from refusing to license a same-sex marriage, or adoption agencies from refusing to place a child with a couple who they believe may be having premarital sex.

Sen. John Hohrn (D-Jackson) told his colleagues that measures like HB 1523 were the reason people "think badly" of the state.

"Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?" he asked.

I suspect Hohrn was Sisyphus in a previous life.

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

What a bunch of bullshit. The government can prevent businesses from doing anything it wants. That's what makes it the government.

[minuspace]

When every interaction is commercially mediated, whoa.

[Junkenstein]

Today I again remind you all that Rope, Fuel and matches are all relatively inexpensive things.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36031743

Labour has called for Culture Secretary John Whittingdale to withdraw from press regulation decisions after news of his relationship with a sex worker.
Four newspapers knew about the relationship, which ended in 2014, but decided not to publish the story.

Mr Whittingdale, who said he had not known she was a sex worker, said it had not affected any of his decisions.

"This is an old story which was a bit embarrassing at the time. The events occurred long before I took up my present position and it has never had any influence on the decisions I have made as culture secretary."

The accusation from Labour and Hacked Off is that the reason newspapers chose not to publish was to keep it as a threat over the head of John Whittingdale to pressurise him against taking any further steps with the Leveson process.

Four newspapers - the People, part of the Mirror Group, the Mail on Sunday, from the Daily Mail group, the Sun, part of News UK, and the now-closed Independent - had investigated the claims but had concluded the story was not in the public interest, Newsnight reported.
James Cusick, a former Independent reporter who looked at the story for five months, said: "If this individual is making these decisions - decisions that would affect the way people look at newspapers, the way newspapers behave, the way the BBC is allowed to be - you have a right to know about this man's private life and whether there is something in it he is trying to hold back from you."
BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said the question for Mr Whittingdale was not about his relationship, but about his role in regulating the press when the newspapers had a story about his private life.

Diane Abbott said it had long been her view that Mr Whittingdale's close relationship with the Murdochs (whose company News UK publishes the Sun) made him an "unsuitable person to deal with press regulation".

However, Brian Cathcart, from the Hacked Off campaign group, insisted Mr Whittingdale was "compromised".
He believes the newspapers "stocked up" the story for future use and as a way to possibly put "pressure on him".
"Lo and behold, we see that he has made three really important decisions reversing government policy which work entirely in the favour of the press and, frankly, in my view at least, contrary to the public," he added.
Dr Evan Harris, executive director of Hacked Off, said: "John Whittingdale now needs to be clear about whether he knew that newspapers had this story and were not running it, and if so why he did not tell the prime minister on his appointment to the cabinet that this potential and glaring personal conflict of interest existed."

It's nothing particularly shocking or unusual. What it is, is yet another example of a horribly broken system that allows influence between parties where there should be none. It's obvious to anyone who has ever even read one of the 4 named papers exactly what the game was here, Blackmail is a favoured pastimes in the UK after all. You could also quite reasonably question what credentials the man actually has to hold the office that he does.

All I want you to do here is remember that my rule, while arbitrary and terrible, will also be hilarious and you won't see this kind of shit.

[P3nT4gR4m]

You could also quite reasonably question what credentials the man actually has to hold the office that he does.

Credentials? I'd figured the only credentials you need to hold any office is having fucked the right pig?