National, Regional and Local News

[Charlie02123]

There's a bunch of states missing in the Northeast. Are all the congressmen and women Democrats in those states? It's also entertaining that the map is blue.

[MJ2004]

I wouldn't know. I live in MA

[Ti-Amie]

I wouldn't know. I live in MA

Also known as The Twilight Zone.

[MJ2004]

Also known as The Twilight Zone.

like

[Ti-Amie]

When Jonathan Frieman of San Rafael, Calif., was pulled over for driving alone in the carpool lane, he argued to the officer that, actually, he did have a passenger.

He waved his corporation papers at the officer, he told NBCBayArea.com, saying that corporations are people under California law.

Frieman doesn't actually support this notion. For more than 10 years, Frieman says he had been trying to get pulled over to get ticketed and to take his argument to court -- to challenge a judge to determine that corporations and people are not the same. Mission accomplished in October, when he was slapped with a fine -- a minimum of $481.

Frieman has been frustrated with corporate personhood since before it became a hot button issue in 2010, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporate and union spending may not be restricted by the government under the First Amendment.
At the heart of the high court ruling was the argument that corporations -- because they are composed of individuals – deserve protection under the First Amendment, which guarantees free speech.

At the heart of the high court ruling was the argument that corporations -- because they are composed of individuals – deserve protection under the First Amendment, which guarantees free speech.

Frieman, who faces a traffic court on Monday, plans to tell the judge that this isn’t about carpool lanes; it’s about corporate power.

"I'm just arresting their power and using it for my service to drive in the carpool lane," he told NBC Bay Area's Jean Elle.

University of San Francisco law professor Robert Talbot says Frieman’s argument may not hold up because it steers too far from the intent of carpool lane laws.

"A court might say, ‘Well, it says person, and a corporation is a person, so that'll work for the carpool lane,’” Talbot told NBCBayArea.com. “It’s possible, but I doubt it.”
In an opinion piece posted to the San Rafael Patch site on May 14, 2011, Frieman broke down his argument.

A carpool lane is two or more persons per vehicle, he said. The definition of person in California’s Vehicle Code is “natural person, firm, copartnership, association, limited liability company, or corporation.”
“Just imagine what THAT courtroom scene’ll be like,” he wrote.

He imagined what he might say to the judge: “Your honor, according to the vehicle code definition and legal sources, I did have a ‘person’ in my car. But Officer so-and-so believes I did NOT have another person in my car. If you rule in his favor, you are saying that corporations are not persons. I hope you do rule in his favor. I hope you do overturn 125 years of settled law.”

But before he can make grand proclamations, the officer who ticketed him must show up to court. Otherwise, his ticket may be thrown out.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...on-papers?lite

[mmmm8]

Brilliant

[dryrunguy]

WASHINGTON -- Sodium dichromate is an orange-yellowish substance containing hexavalent chromium, an anti-corrosion chemical. To Lt. Col. James Gentry of the Indiana National Guard, who was stationed at the Qarmat Ali water treatment center in Iraq just after the 2003 U.S. invasion, it was “just different-colored sand.” In their first few months at the base, soldiers were told by KBR contractors running the facility the substance was no worse than a mild irritant.

Gentry was one of approximately 830 service members, including active-duty soldiers and members of the National Guard and reserve units from Indiana, South Carolina, West Virginia and Oregon, assigned to secure the water treatment plant, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Sodium dichromate is not a mild irritant. It is an extreme carcinogen. In November 2009, at age 52, Gentry died of cancer. The VA affirmed two months later that his death was service-related.

In November, a jury found KBR, the military's largest contractor, guilty of negligence in the poisoning of a dozen soldiers, and ordered the company to pay $85 million in damages. Jurors found KBR knew both of the presence and toxicity of the chemical. Other lawsuits against KBR are pending.

KBR, however, says taxpayers should be on the hook for the verdict, as well as more than $15 million the company has spent in its failed legal defense, according to court documents and attorneys involved with the case.

KBR's contract with the U.S. to rebuild Iraq’s oil infrastructure after the 2003 invasion includes an indemnity agreement protecting the company from legal liability, KBR claims in court filings. That agreement, KBR insists, means the federal government must pay the company's legal expenses plus the verdict won by 12 members of the Oregon National Guard who were exposed to the toxin at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant.

The military disagrees. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contracting officer told KBR in November 2011 that litigation costs "are not covered by the indemnity agreement."

More at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_2436115.html

[suliso]

Unbelievable...

Chromium in high oxidation states is very toxic and it has been known for a long time now. Even in chemistry labs it is rarely used these days and whenever we really need to use it we do so with gloves/lab coats in the hood and dispose all residues for special waste treatment (burning followed by recovery of chromium).

[mmmm8]

CNN had to interrupt Biden's press conference on gun control to report on a school shooting. Apparently, at least 2 shot at a high school in Taft, California

[suliso]

It's becoming popular in America...

[Ti-Amie]

I understand that the high school where the shooting took place has an armed law enforcement person on site.

[Jessie181]

I was just about to post that.

Taft is just 15 minutes, at most, from me.

I was over there several times last month to sub at the elementary there.
The people shot have been apparently airlifted here.

Scary stuff.

[Jessie181]

Meant to add this. One of the victims was a student and the other was a teacher.

[Kirkus]

I thought of you, Jessie, when I saw where this happened.

[Ti-Amie]

A student opened fire in a central California high school on Thursday, critically wounding one student and narrowly missing another before being talked down by a “heroic” teacher, law enforcement officials said.

The teacher suffered a “pellet to the head” and is expected to recover, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said during a press conference. At least two other students were lightly wounded in the panic after shots erupted around 9:30 a.m. inside Taft High School, in Taft, Calif., about 40 miles south of Bakersfield.

The 16-year-old male shooter was in custody and a shotgun was removed from campus.

The wounded student, also 16, was airlifted to Bakersfield in critical condition after suffering a bullet to the upper right chest, Ryan Dunbier, a senior deputy with the Kern County Sheriff's Department, told the Daily News.

The gunman apparently had intended his targets, authorities said.

He walked in late to his first period class armed with a shotgun and “multiple rounds,” aiming and firing at the first student, Youngblood said.
The teen then “named a second (student)...he tried to shoot but missed,” the sheriff said.

The teacher, presiding over a class of about 28 students, “engaged” the student in conversation and a campus supervisor rushed into the room, urging the teen to lay down his weapon.

“He in fact told the teacher ‘I don’t want to shoot you,’” Youngblood said.
The "heroic" action of the teacher saved lives, he said. That teacher was not named.
The shooter and his first victim had a “dialogue” before Thursday’s incident, but the details were not known. Law enforcement declined to comment on rumors that the alleged shooter had put together a hit list last year or was the victim of bullying.


The FBI was also on scene to assist local authorities in Taft, a mostly agricultural town of about 10,000 people in Kern County, 125 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Local officers went room-to-room to clear the school, Dunbier told the News.

Law enforcement said the situation could have been worse.
“This is a tragedy,” Youngblood said. “But not as bad as it could have been.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...#ixzz2HbvpFr8W