December 28, 2018

Chris Burrous, Beloved KTLA Anchor, Dead at 43

Chris Burrous, a fixture on the KTLA 5 Morning News since 2011, passed away Thursday. He was 43.

The broadcaster was found unresponsive at a Days Inn in Glendale. His death is being investigated as a possible overdose, Glendale police said in a news release.

KTLA President and General Manager Don Corsini and News Director Jason Ball issued a statement Thursday night:

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Burrous family. Chris loved sharing the stories of Southern California and connecting with our viewers. He will be remembered as a great journalist and a wonderful friend to many. He brought a kindness to his work and will be deeply missed by the entire KTLA family."

https://ktla.com/2018/12/27/chris-burrous-beloved-ktla-anchor-dead-at-43/

For those in the LA area that watch KTLA, this is a real shock. He was a great on-air personality.

December 28, 2018

The government shutdown is keeping NASA's New Horizons spacecraft in the dark

It's official: The partial federal government shutdown will have interplanetary consequences.

As NASA's New Horizons spacecraft hurtles through the uncharted darkness of deep space, it's on target for a brief New Year's Day rendezvous with Ultima Thule, the most distant and primitive object ever to be explored by humankind.

The data gathered by the mission will help scientists understand what conditions were like when our solar system first formed billions of years ago.

But, due to the shutdown, those interested in tuning into the momentous event will be left almost in the dark: There will be no NASA-provided press releases, no social media updates and, perhaps most important to some, no live NASA webcast.

https://news.yahoo.com/government-shutdown-keeping-nasa-apos-005633902.html

December 28, 2018

Disruptive, disappointing, chaotic: Shutdown upends scientific research

A week after President Trump rejected a bipartisan spending deal because it did not allocate billions of dollars for a border wall between the United States and Mexico, the government shutdown continues. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors must stay at home without pay. The furlough will probably persist into the new year, which would mean a rocky start to 2019 for American science.

The partial shutdown has affected operations at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Agriculture Department. In Washington and around the country, thousands of furloughed government scientists are prohibited from checking on experiments, performing observations, collecting data, conducting tests or sharing their results. Not only does the government employ researchers, but also many scientists at academic and private institutions depend on federal funding for their jobs.

If the budget impasse extends into the new year, scientists say, it will harm critical research.

“Any shutdown of the federal government can disrupt or delay research projects, lead to uncertainty over new research, and reduce researcher access to agency data and infrastructure. .?.?. Continuing resolutions and short-term extensions are no way to run a government,” said Rush Holt, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in a statement.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/12/28/disruptive-disappointing-chaotic-shutdown-upends-scientific-research/

December 28, 2018

A fight over Republican leadership in Texas becomes a test of the limits of Muslims in the GOP

Muslim Americans will reach a milestone next week when Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar join the House of Representatives. The Democrats from Michigan and Minnesota will be the first Muslim women in Congress, and many have hailed their election as a sign of rising diversity in politics.

On the other side of the aisle, a brewing controversy over a GOP leader in Texas targeted by fellow party members because of his Muslim faith is also drawing national attention. It has become a test case for an issue the Republican Party struggles with as voters in Texas and beyond grow more racially and religiously diverse: Is there room for Muslims?

Members of the Tarrant County Republican Party will vote Jan. 10 on whether Shahid Shafi, a 53-year-old trauma surgeon and city councilman in the Fort Worth suburb of Southlake since 2014, should be removed as a vice chairman.

A precinct chairwoman forced the vote after making unproven claims that Shafi, who has served as a delegate to several GOP state conventions, has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorism and wants to impose sharia law. Other precinct chairs have joined in the calls to remove Shafi.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/nation-world/la-na-shafi-muslim-republican-20181228-story.html

Muslim or not, Shafi still is a Texas Republican.

December 27, 2018

Florida woman robs mailman with toy gun, flees on tricycle, deputies say

A Florida woman is behind bars after she allegedly held up a postal worker with a toy gun, WBBH reports.

Collier County deputies arrested Leida Crisostomo on charges including aggravated assault and armed robbery.

On Saturday, deputies responded to reports of a woman threatening people with a weapon and found Crisostomo riding a tricycle and holding what appeared to be a black and silver gun, which turned out to be a toy, officials said.

Witnesses said Cristomo used the weapon to force a mail carrier out of his truck, then she made him hand her a package out of the back.

https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/florida-woman-robs-mailman-with-toy-gun-flees-on-tricycle/1676772109

Just another day in Florida.

December 27, 2018

Man allegedly seen kicking, harassing alligator at Florida wildlife trail

A Central Florida couple spotted someone allegedly abusing an alligator.

It allegedly happened on Christmas Day when they saw what appeared to be a man kicking gators along Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive.

Tammy and Keith Lovelle of Volusia County are nature lovers.

The two often go to Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive, which is a one-way, 11-mile drive featuring some of Florida's most famous plants and animals.

https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/man-allegedly-seen-kicking-harassing-alligator-at-florida-wildlife-sanctuary/1676725598

December 27, 2018

A millionaire paid Jews to move to a small town in Alabama. Now, a couple struggle with their choice

She was already going to be late to the church, where once again she would try to explain her religion, even though it seems like most people in her town never really get it.

And now the latkes are burning.

Lisa Priddle wonders why she is trying so hard, why she is prepping and cooking and buying Hanukkah dreidels for people in the small Southern city that she and her husband moved to because a Jewish millionaire paid them to come build up the Jewish community there.

Given an offer of up to $50,000, she and Kenny picked up their lives and came to Alabama, but now they must think seriously about the anti-Semitism they’ve experienced, about moments you don’t forget, about that lingering feeling of being on the outside.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/a-millionaire-paid-jews-to-move-to-a-small-town-in-alabama-now-one-couple-struggles-with-their-choice/2018/12/26/19703dba-fd6e-11e8-83c0-b06139e540e5_story.html

December 26, 2018

After years underground, a Kentucky coal miner with black lung faces the future

When Danny Fouts was a young man, his daddy warned him about the dangers of working long hours in the mines. “You’ll end up killing yourself for nothing, just to make other men rich,” Vernon chided his son when he put in 16-hour shifts.

But Danny had always longed to work underground, just like his father and his grandfather. He took pride in taking on the heavy work other miners wouldn’t do, squeezing into a dusty 3-foot-high workspace and slicing through rock with a massive cutting machine shaped like a chainsaw.

He kept on — even when he began to get short of breath, even when doctors told him he had black lung disease, an incurable illness caused by inhaling coal mine dust.

Now 44 years old, Fouts is a young retiree.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/nation-world/la-na-kentucky-black-lung-20181226-story.html

December 24, 2018

Republicans in Congress fiddle while Trump burns

In a 1949 Supreme Court case, Justice Robert H. Jackson wrote a famous dissenting opinion warning that the Constitution’s Bill of Rights is not “a suicide pact.” He meant that the First Amendment does not absolutely protect speech and should not be seen as preventing the government from maintaining ordered liberty.

Whether or not Justice Jackson was right about that particular case or that specific understanding of the First Amendment, his words ought to serve as a practical reminder in other contexts as well. For instance, we are not compelled to play the role of passive spectators while unforced errors by one branch of the federal government create a national emergency. The Constitution provides tools necessary for national self-preservation and does not prevent us from taking the kind of action needed to respond to a crisis.

Americans face such a crisis today. Donald Trump’s presidency is careening out of control. U.S. markets are having their worst month in decades. Investors may be rattled by any number of events or concerns, including a government shutdown, reports that the president has considered firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, a strange Treasury Department statement that Secretary Steve Mnuchin has been checking in with the CEOs of major banks to confirm they have ample liquidity, and of course the ongoing trade war with China.

Investors and non-investors alike took notice when Secretary of Defense James Mattis resigned. Former George W. Bush aide Michael Gerson reports that one Republican senator said simply: “we are in peril”. Gerson tweeted that “many in DC, including [Republicans are] now unsure if [the Trump] administration can be relied upon to carry out its most basic [national security] duties.” Tom Nichols of the Naval War College wrote that “our enemies are [now] openly gloating.” In recent weeks, we have read publicly available excerpts from heavily redacted court filings related to the prosecution of Trump insiders Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen, and Paul Manafort. These documents make clear that the president faces the possibility of impeachment and legal jeopardy related to his involvement in criminal activity. We know that there is more to come, and that the president will continue trying to interfere with or even shut down Robert Mueller’s investigation.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/republicans-in-congress-fiddle-while-trump-burns-2018-12-24

December 23, 2018

LSU football player killed man trying to rob him and teammate, police say

Source: LA Times

Two Louisiana State football players were trying to sell an electronic item when one of them fatally shot an 18-year-old man trying to rob them, police said Sunday.

A statement released by Baton Rouge police does not identify the players, but a person familiar with the investigation told the Associated Press that the players are running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire and linebacker Jared Small. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because LSU and police have not released the players' names.

The man killed was identified by police as Kobe Johnson. He was not an LSU student and died at the scene Saturday.

LSU players called police, waited at the scene, were questioned and were released while the investigation continues.

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/sports/more/la-sp-lsu-shooting-20181223-story.html