March 16, 2021

The CEO of Amtrak Thinks Americans Are Ready for Trains Again

The CEO of Amtrak Thinks Americans Are Ready for Trains Again
And he says sleeper cars are making a comeback.

BY HENRY GRABAR
MARCH 15, 2021




(Slate) William J. Flynn took over as CEO of Amtrak at the worst possible time. It was April 2020—one month after the country locked down—and ridership on the quasi-public passenger rail network was down by 97 percent. Two recovery bills later, Amtrak’s finances have been shored up. Though business remains way down, vaccines are rolling out, and Flynn aims to double Amtrak’s pre-pandemic ridership in the next two decades. We spoke last week about what America’s interstate rail system could look like after COVID. We discussed major undertakings like the Gateway Project, the new tunnel beneath the Hudson River connecting New York and New Jersey, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has called the most important infrastructure project in the country. Flynn told me he does not pay attention to the astronomical cost of rail construction in the United States relative to peer countries. He also outlined his beef with freight railroads, explained why he welcomes private-sector competition, and showed me where he thinks Amtrak has room to grow after its 50th birthday next month. Our conservation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Henry Grabar: Looking forward to a post-COVID world, where do you see the places where Amtrak can compete? What sort of trips—by car, by plane—and between which cities? What are the circumstances outside of the Northeast Corridor where you think Amtrak has room to grow?

William J. Flynn: For Amtrak, if you look at the network that we run today, it looks a lot like the network we had in 1971, 50 years ago, when we were created, but boy, population and demographics have changed, right?

There’s 100 million more people in the United States today than there were when Amtrak was created in 1971. And if you look about the shift of where people moved to and where they have moved from, there are 20, 25 dense corridors across our nation where Amtrak has little to no service. And that’s where people have moved to. Think about the corridors in Arizona, between Phoenix and Tucson and Flagstaff, and the route between Las Vegas and Southern California. Look at the growth that we’ve experienced in the Carolinas, for example, from Raleigh to Charlotte and Greensboro and Winston-Salem—we started the service there a couple of years ago with two trains a day, and we’re looking to grow that to six trains a day along that route.

....(snip)....

There’s been a return of low-cost sleeper trains in Europe, where they’re catching on with young people who don’t want to fly, and maybe want the romance of the experience or something like that. Is that something that you have looked at for Amtrak?

Right now, our sleepers are essentially fully utilized. I told you that our ridership is in the low 20s right now, compared to pre-COVID times. But our sleepers, when we look at our long-distance trains, we’re actually operating not at 20 percent of demand, we’re operating at 34 to 35 percent of normal on three-day-a-week service down from seven. Several months ago, we had to bring sleeper cars out of storage and put them in service because our sleepers are simply sold out. Travelers like the sleeper product. They find it to be a good deal and they like the fact they can get in a sleeper car and close the door. ...............(more)

https://slate.com/business/2021/03/amtrak-ceo-interview-trains-coronavirus.html

March 16, 2021

Mercers, Peter Thiel drop millions to back "Hillbilly Elegy" author's possible Senate run

Mercers, Peter Thiel drop millions to back “Hillbilly Elegy” author's possible Senate run
Billionaires who bankrolled Trump donate more than $10 million to super PAC supporting J.D. Vance's Ohio campaign

By IGOR DERYSH
MARCH 16, 2021 10:00AM


(Salon) The Mercer family and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel are backing a possible Senate run by "Hillbilly Elegy" author J.D. Vance after bankrolling former President Donald Trump.

Bob Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, who were instrumental in Trump's 2016 rise, made a "significant contribution" to Protect Ohio Values, a super PAC formed last month to back Vance's likely bid, Bryan Lanza, a spokesman for the PAC and a former Trump aide, told the Cincinnati Enquirer. The Mercers have also funded the far-right news outlet Breitbart, the far-right social network Parler, the Brexit campaign and such right-wing lawmakers as Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, who pushed false claims about the election ahead of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Thiel, a Facebook board member who also co-founded the controversial data firm Palantir, which has been used as a surveillance tool by law enforcement, gave another $10 million to the PAC, Lanza told the Enquirer. Thiel, a major Republican donor, donated $1.25 million to back Trump in 2016 though he reportedly turned against him by 2020. Thiel's contribution to Vance is his biggest disclosed donation ever.

Vance, a Yale Law School-educated venture capitalist from Middletown, Ohio, is best known for his 2016 bestseller that was later turned into an Oscar-nominated Ron Howard film. "Hillbilly Elegy" drew national acclaim for its depiction of Appalachian life and his mother's Kentucky family and some Democrats pored over the book for insights into working-class voters in rural America after Trump's 2016 election win. But it has also drawn criticism on the left as "poverty porn" that "does not sufficiently account for the ways institutions and broader social structures impact life outcomes," as Salon's Chauncey DeVega wrote. "'Elegy' is little more than a list of myths about welfare queens repackaged as a primer on the white working class," Sarah Jones wrote in The New Republic. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/16/mercers-peter-thiel-drop-millions-to-back-hillbilly-elegy-authors-possible-senate-run/

March 16, 2021

Florida man accused of spitting at Disney security guard who asked him to wear face mask

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A Florida man was arrested last month after a Walt Disney World resort security guard told deputies he spat at her after she asked him to wear a face mask.

According to an arrest report, the security guard said she approached Kelly McKin, 51, of Palm Beach, on a golf cart as he tried to enter the convention center area of Disney’s Contemporary Resort.

The security guard told deputies that when she asked the man to wear his face mask, McKin told her that he would put it on when he got inside. When she informed him of Disney’s policy of wearing masks at all times on property, she told deputies he told her to leave him alone and then spit at her. .............(more)

https://www.wftv.com/news/local/orange-county/florida-man-accused-spitting-disney-security-officer-who-asked-him-wear-face-mask/BPQ5LLY2NJEN5H7VN4KAHAIBBQ/

March 15, 2021

The Silent Trial of the Century

The Silent Trial of the Century
In southern Italy, a historical event is going unnoticed. That’s partly by design.

BY GRETA PRIVITERA
MARCH 15, 2021


(Slate) In Lamezia Terme, an industrial southern Italy city overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, a historical event is going unnoticed. Between the cultivated fields and factories, the first so-called “maxi trial” of the ’Ndrangheta, the Calabrian criminal organization, began on Jan. 13. With 335 defendants (almost all men) and 600 lawyers dealing with 400 counts of murder, drug trafficking, money laundering, and more, it’s one of the largest criminal prosecutions in recent history.

Expected to last at least two years, the trial is known as “Rinascita-Scott,” or “Rebirth Scott.” Nicola Gratteri, the prosecutor driving the case, explained that its name refers to a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who spent eight years in Italy fighting against narco-’ndranghetist organizations and died upon returning to the United States in a car accident. The trial is dedicated to his commitment. It’s been called the trial of the century in some Italian newspapers, but curiously, no television news stations are reporting on it, it never ends up on the newspapers’ front pages, and it’s not even creating political controversy.

This despite its huge scale and dramatic scenes: Everything takes place in a bunker built just for the occasion, at a cost 4.7 million euros. It was an abandoned call center transformed over five months into a record-breaking courtroom that belies the fame of Calabria, which is known as the region of unfinished work. It is a structure of 35,500 square feet, where 947 people can sit at a safe distance, in compliance with COVID regulations. It is a maxi trial via Zoom, because many defendants follow the hearing from their prisons, dressed in overalls, carefully taking note of names and villages—all, strictly, with masks.

This giant event is observed in silence in Italy. The reasons are many. For one, the fight against organized crime has long ceased to be a priority of the Italian government. In recent months, COVID has consumed all interest and public debate. And there is also a certain amount of inurement among the Italian people to news about the mafia. This is partly by design: After the attack season of the ’90s, with the killing of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the two Sicilian magistrates on the front line in the fight against the Cosa nostra Sicilian mafia, these criminal organizations have believed that it is better to avoid sensational actions that bring the focus on them, and it is usually better to work under the radar. Crime in Italy has also changed its face: Previously mainly in the southern regions, it has spread throughout Italian territory, concentrating in the richest part of the country, in the north. There, it has abandoned the somewhat folkloric characteristics of its origins and has camouflaged itself in the wealthy modern northern entrepreneurship and in politics. It has used the proceeds of drug trafficking to invest in legal activities, from finance to catering to construction. During COVID, its involvement in the funeral business made headlines. ..................(more)

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/03/italy-mob-trial-rinascita-scott-history.html

March 15, 2021

MAGA, the Proud Boys and the police: Biden's DOJ must drain Trump's swamp

MAGA, the Proud Boys and the police: Biden's DOJ must drain Trump's swamp
Attorney General Merrick Garland is taking seriously the threat from the Proud Boys — and the police

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
MARCH 15, 2021 1:13PM


(Salon) Back in July of 2016, not long after he had clinched the nomination, Donald Trump made an important declaration. "We must maintain law and order at the highest level or we will cease to have a country, 100 percent. We will cease to have a country. I am the law and order candidate." Lest you think he was advertising himself as a hardcore authoritarian, he set us straight by adding, "not only am I the law and order candidate, but I am also the candidate of compassion, believe it. The candidate of compassion." That was very reassuring.

As I have discussed here many times, Trump has never had an original idea when about politics so that catchphrase, "law and order," like all of his, came from a previous president: Richard Nixon used it in his 1968 campaign. Trump probably had no idea that it had that association but he would have been fine with it in any case. Nixon's "law and order" theme was a thinly veiled appeal to white, conservative voters angry about the Vietnam protest movement, the social unrest in the inner cities and the counterculture that was challenging all the existing mores of bourgeois American life.

Trump was also planning to "clean up the streets," particularly focusing on undocumented immigrants and cities with large Black populations. But he was doing something else, as well. He was openly courting the support of law enforcement as a political constituency.

....(snip)....

The Times interviewed one Proud Boys member who is a police officer himself and Fresno police in California just suspended an officer who was featured in protest footage posted by a Proud Boys member who filmed himself raiding the Capitol. The founder of the group, Gavin McInness, is quoted saying, "I have a lot of support in the N.Y.P.D. and I very much appreciate that." Cops in Philadelphia were observed hanging out with Proud Boys after a Mike Pence rally last year. In fact, according to their leader, Enrico Terrio, the FBI would contact them and warn them of "leftist" threats against law enforcement. Trump confidante Roger Stones has been using the Proud Boys as "bodyguards" for several years and is credited with bringing some of the leadership together. As journalist Marcy Wheeler has reported, when he stepped in to help Stone evade justice, former Attorney General Bill Barr dismissed concerns about Stone's involvement with the Proud Boys and threats they made against a federal judge, behavior that would undoubtedly have been taken very seriously if they weren't MAGA.

With Trump gone, President Biden's Department of Justice, led by Merrick Garland, is finally taking these people seriously now. After all, they turned on the police themselves. You have to wonder what the rank and file police are thinking these days. Donald Trump unleashed a violent mob on the Capitol and they assaulted police at every turn. The great defender of law and order took hours to say anything and when he did all he had to offer was a weak little tweet that said "Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!" The "law and order" president later released a video telling the thugs who were beating cops over the head with flagpoles that they should go home. And then he told those violent rioters he loved them and believed they were "very special." ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/15/maga-the-proud-boys-and-the-police-bidens-doj-must-drain-trumps-swamp/

March 13, 2021

Rep. Paul Gosar's siblings say he's a white supremacist -- but his GOP colleagues stay silent

Three siblings of Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., have renewed their push to remove their brother from Congress, accusing him of being a white supremacist following his speech last month at a conference hosted by a notorious white nationalist.

Gosar, who allegedly helped organize the "Stop the Steal" rally that preceded the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, skipped a late February House vote on the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill to headline the America First Political Action Conference organized by right-wing extremist Nick Fuentes. Fuentes gained prominence in the deadly 2017 Charlottesville white nationalist march and was later banned by YouTube for violating its hate speech rules. At the February conference, he lamented that America was losing its "white demographic core," and praised the Capitol riot as "awesome" after previously musing about murdering lawmakers.

A day later, during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida, Gosar interrupted a panel discussion, seemingly to distance himself from Fuentes' comments.

"I denounce when we talk about white racism. That's not appropriate," he said at the event, later telling the Washington Post that he was referring to Fuentes' remarks.

Gosar's siblings, who launched campaigns to defeat him in 2018 and 2020, rejected his feeble attempt to distance himself from Fuentes, who Gosar met with again after the CPAC event. ..................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/13/rep-paul-gosars-siblings-say-hes-a-white-supremacist--but-his-gop-colleagues-stay-silent/

March 13, 2021

The Skyrocketing Homeless Population of Sao Paulo

The Skyrocketing Homeless Population of São Paulo
Teachers, white-collar workers, single mothers: The Brazilian middle class is collapsing amid the crisis brought by the coronavirus, and many are landing on the streets of São Paulo. But there may be a solution in sight.

By Nicola Abé in São Paulo, Brazil
28.01.2021, 12.33 Uhr


(Der Spiegel) The day that Tiago Ferreira de Almeira's normal life came to an end, he packed some clothes and his most important documents into a suitcase. He walked out the door, leaving behind his bed, his television and the rest of his belongings. It was the day when Ferreira lost his apartment in Bela Vista, a middle-class neighborhood in São Paulo.

Ferreira didn't know where to go. Ultimately, though, he says, he walked to the square in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral in the heart of the city, a place where a lot of homeless people sleep. He spread out a blanket and lay down.

It rained that first night, and Ferreira's clothes were drenched when he woke up. And his suitcase with his extra clothes and ID was gone. It was still dark, and he found a dry spot to stay out of the rain, hungry and afraid. He met a woman the next morning, who bought him a burger at McDonalds. "That's when I started crying," he says. "Her name was Maria."

....(snip)....

Volunteers estimate that the number of homeless people in São Paulo, the largest and economically most powerful city in South America, has jumped by 60 to 70 percent. Official numbers are not yet available, but anecdotal evidence can be seen at soup kitchens for the homeless, where the number of people waiting for a meal has more than tripled in some cases. One NGO employee calls it a "horror scenario." Another says: "We are now constantly being asked basic questions, with people wanting to know what corners are safe for sleeping or whether they can show up again tomorrow for a meal." ............(more)

https://www.spiegel.de/international/tomorrow/consequences-of-corona-the-skyrocketing-homeless-population-of-sao-paulo-a-bc469f46-1ac1-4a2c-a4a6-e39418bb9ece

March 13, 2021

Puerto Rico sees a surge in tourism - and a rise in aggressive tourist behavior

(Guardian UK) At the Condado Vanderbilt hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Christian Correa clocked in to work the night-shift as a doorman and braced for the worst.

Correa, who is also a bellman at the hotel, has seen a surge in American tourists coming to the US territory in the last three months and the hotel has been busy. Although he used to enjoy high season before the pandemic, recently, many tourists arriving to Puerto Rico have enraged local residents and hospitality workers as the island eases its Covid-19 restrictions.

“The tourists think they can do whatever they want,” says Correa, 24, who is also a student at the University of Puerto Rico. “We’ve seen fights, parties in the rooms and aggressive behavior.”

Low-cost flights to Puerto Rico have enticed many travelers to choose the island as a vacation spot during the pandemic. A one-way flight to Puerto Rico from Florida booked two days in advance could be as low as $62. ...............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/12/puerto-rico-tourists-aggressive-behavior-coronavirus

March 13, 2021

Florida man killed after motorcycle crashes into bear

OCALA, Fla. - Florida Highway Patrol troopers are investigating after a motorcyclist was killed in a crash involving a bear.

Troopers say the accident occurred around 11 p.m. Thursday on State Road 40 at State Road 19 just south of Lake George and near the Ocala National Forest. They said the 42-year-old man, who was not identified, was heading west when the front of his motorcycle struck a bear that was in the westbound lane.

Investigators said the motorcycle overturned. The Ocala man was not wearing a helmet when the crash occurred. .................(more)

https://www.fox13news.com/news/florida-man-killed-after-motorcycle-crashed-into-bear

March 12, 2021

Florida man pulls out 'Dank Gummies' instead of ID after nearly hitting gas pump, deputies say

COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. – A Florida man who nearly hit a gas pump pulled out a package of “Dank Gummies” instead of his driver’s license to show a deputy who was trying to help him, according to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies said they were called to a gas station on Pine Ridge Road in Naples shortly before midnight on March 1 because witnesses said a suspicious man had nearly hit a gas pump and appeared to be under the influence.

Records show Demecio Lopez saw the deputy and immediately asked for help calling AAA because his car wouldn’t start, even though the keys were not in the ignition at the time.

Lopez said he didn’t have the keys to the vehicle but then rummaged through his pockets and pulled out the keys, according to the report.

The deputy then asked Lopez for his driver’s license so he started rifling through his pockets again and this time pulled out a small green package labeled “Dank Gummies” with “cannabis-infused” written on it as well, records show. ............(more)

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2021/03/09/florida-man-pulls-out-dank-gummies-instead-of-id-after-nearly-hitting-gas-pump-deputies-say/#//