July 9, 2021

Swarm of earthquakes..largest 6.0 near lake tahoe

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/4-8-magnitude-earthquake-strikes-near-Stockton-16302419.php

https://twitter.com/brettdurrant/status/1413290613550682114?s=19

A series of 19 earthquakes struck along the California-Nevada border starting just before 4 p.m. Thursday, most of which struck with a magnitude of about 3.0. The largest reported earthquake struck with a magnitude of 6.0, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

People reported feeling the quakes as far west as San Francisco and as far south as San Jose.


The USGS had earlier reported an earthquake near Stockton, but that appears to be a false reading triggered by the quakes just south of Lake Tahoe.

Caltrans reported several rockslides in northern Mono County, resulting in the closure of U.S. Route 395 from Bridgeport to the Nevada State Line for about an hour to clear fallen rocks. State Route 89 remains closed.

July 8, 2021

Off-duty cop kept being racist to Black man at wedding -- and wound up getting knocked unconscious

Off-duty cop kept being racist to Black man at wedding -- and wound up getting knocked unconscious



Local news station WATE reports that 22-year-old off-duty Knoxville Police officer Tanner Holt last month was attending a local wedding reception when he began taunting a Black guest by telling him that he "didn't know they let Black people in the reception hall."

Holt then claimed that he was part of the "Black community" despite being obviously white, at which point the Black man asked him to stop talking about racial issues.

After making repeated pleas with Holt to stop being racist, the Black man apparently lost patience and slugged Holt, knocking him unconscious


"Four witnesses corroborated accounts of the incident," notes WATE. "All witnesses stated that Holt was very intoxicated when the incident occurred. Holt was transported to UT Medical Center for treatment. No charges have been filed in the incident."



https://www.rawstory.com/police-officer-racist/

July 7, 2021

$140,000 'dream job' is available again

East Brother Island, in the San Francisco Bay, is hiring an innkeeper


It’s been called a “dream job,” and when this Bay Area innkeeping position was last advertised, the listing went viral. The role, managing the five-room inn on East Brother Island in San Pablo Bay, drew media attention from around the world and created an onslaught of interest from applicants. Now, the unusual and highly coveted job is available again.

It’s easy to see the appeal of earning $140,000 a year — housing and health benefits included — to live on your own private island in the San Francisco Bay, one of the most expensive and spectacularly beautiful places in the world.


The headlines in publications like Travel + Leisure during the previous opening promised a big paycheck and a fantasy. But in reading the job description, the role is clearly not for everyone. First, the position is actually a job not for an innkeeper, but innkeepers — a couple who can share the non-stop work East Brother requires. The pair promote the inn, manage the day-to-day operations of the front desk and gift shop, prepare two hot meals a day for 10 guests, and do all the housekeeping, including dishwashing and cleaning rooms between guests. One person in the couple must have a Coast Guard captain’s license to shuttle visitors to and from the island, and one needs to have “high-quality culinary experience” befitting the inn’s room rates, which start at $345 per night.



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The tiny island is three-quarters of an acre with no Wi-Fi or television, and relies on a rain harvesting system and redwood tank for running water. Earnings are a percentage of the inn’s profits, which makes the whole proposition — a two-year commitment — a bit of a gamble, especially in uncertain times. The inn has been closed throughout the pandemic, but will reopen in September. The new innkeepers, whoever they are, will start next month.

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/San-Francisco-Bay-East-Brother-hiring-innkeeper-16294356.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-Editors-Picks

July 7, 2021

tossed from hotel balconies (plates, luggage racks, fire extinguishers) damage roof of nearby biz

Houston Comic Book Shop Sues Hotel For Negligence (In Graphic Novel Form)

When a Houston comic book shop sued the hotel next door for negligence, it did so in perhaps the most fitting way possible: with a 13-page graphic novel, officially filed in Harris County District Court last Wednesday.



T.J. Johnson, owner of Third Planet Sci-Fi Superstore, filed the lawsuit against the comic store’s neighbor, Crowne Plaza River Oaks, in February, for negligence, nuisance and trespass, alleging that the hotel allowed guests to throw “all manner of items” off of the building’s balconies, including plates, luggage racks, and ladders — all of which caused damage to the shop’s roof, the owner said.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ59pl_y09Uq_U5xL0Q29YryN9rVOLKv8Wfcw&usqp=CAU

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The book depicts the issues that allegedly plagued the comic shop for years, eventually leading Johnson to install a new roof in 2008 — which was damaged soon after installation due to more thrown objects, according to the lawsuit.

The comic book also details incidents where hotel guests started fires after throwing lit cigarettes at the store, and depicts a day in March 2019 when guests allegedly threw at least 14 fire extinguishers onto the store, causing irreparable damage.

That damage left the roof structurally compromised, which allowed rain to seep into the store and damage rare items that were worth thousands of dollars, according to the suit.



https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/arts-culture/2021/07/01/402067/13-page-comic-book-filed-as-lawsuit-in-harris-county-court/


https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Comic-store-Third-Planet-alleges-Houston-hotel-16285087.php

July 7, 2021

Dutch crime reporter De Vries fighting for his life after shooting

Celebrity Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, known for his work in exposing the criminal underworld, is fighting for his life after being shot on an Amsterdam street, officials said on Tuesday.

Three suspects were detained, including the possible shooter, police said. They declined to provide any details.

"He was seriously wounded and is fighting for his life," Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said in a televised news conference. "He is a national hero to us all. A rare, courageous journalist who tirelessly sought justice."

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De Vries won an international Emmy Award in the current affairs category in 2008 for his work investigating the disappearance of teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/07/europe/dutch-reporter-de-vries-fight-shooting-intl-hnk/index.html

July 7, 2021

you don't get to drive on the shoulder just because traffic is backed up

July 6, 2021

"Should we sell?" Anxious condo owners

SURFSIDE, Fla. — Ines Mason bought the 14th-floor condo, perched on an island in Biscayne Bay, five years ago as a getaway, lured by the captivating view of the water. “In the morning, the sun rises, you can see that,” she said. “It’s amazing.”

But after seeing another high rise similar to her own collapse nearly two weeks ago in the nearby city of Surfside, suddenly her Florida escape turned into a source of anxiety. She became concerned about the structural integrity of her building, which is about 30 years old. She also worried about the financial return on her investment; her family had recently been contemplating putting the condo on the market and buying a townhouse.

“Should we sell it?” said Ms. Mason, a project manager who lives in Northern Virginia and travels to South Florida several times a year. “Should we not sell it? What should we do? We’re kind of just holding on tight and waiting to see.”

The partial collapse on June 24 of Champlain Towers South in Surfside has touched off a mass of uncertainty for older beachside condos and high-rise buildings in the area. Local government officials and condo associations are rushing inspections, some of them long overdue. Insurance companies are demanding proof that aging buildings have been evaluated or are threatening to cut off coverage."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/us/florida-condos-insurance.html

July 6, 2021

Protesters surround home of NJ man who hurled racial slurs at neighbor

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Dozens of demonstrators showed up Monday at the home of a South Jersey man who was caught on video belligerently hurling racial slurs at one of his neighbors.

Edward Cagney Mathews, 45, attempted to address the crowd of around 100 people who gathered outside his Mount Laurel home before being forced back inside by police. He was eventually escorted to a waiting SUV, and protesters threw water bottles at the vehicle as it drove away.

Mount Laurel Police said they responded to a report shortly before 8 p.m. Friday from a resident who said she and her family were being “continually harassed” by Mathews.

In a video, which circulated widely on social media, Mathews repeatedly approaches his neighbor’s doorstep. At one point, he stands nose-to-nose with a black man and tells him to “learn your laws. This is not Africa … or wherever the f—k you were.”

“I was born in America,” his neighbor responds, “and I don’t give a s—t about you.”

During the argument, Mathews repeatedly uses the n-word and “monkey” to describe his neighbors.

https://nypost.com/2021/07/05/protesters-surround-home-of-man-who-hurled-slurs-at-neighbor/

New Jersey man’s racist rant dared neighbor to ‘come see me.’ On Monday, dozens did.


While a Mount Laurel man verbally attacked a neighbor with racist rants on Friday, he challenged his target to “come see me” and gave his address.

https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AALOJr2.img

His conduct and the challenge were captured on video and went viral. On Monday morning, as many as 150 demonstrators gathered outside his house and chanted for him to come out.

On Monday evening, police took the man, Edward Cagney Mathews, 45, into custody, clearing a path through the crowd and marched him out of his house in handcuffs. They took him away in a police cruiser to face what police said were a fourth-degree charge of bias intimidation and trespassing.

Mathews emerged briefly Monday morning and apologized, “but the damage was already done,” said Gary Frazier, 45, an activist from Camden who helped organize the protest after seeing the video Sunday night.


In a phone interview with The Inquirer on Monday evening, Mathews apologized again for his conduct and said it stemmed from a long-running housing dispute involving the homeowners’ association. Mathews also said he had been drunk.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/new-jersey-man-s-racist-rant-dared-neighbor-to-come-see-me-on-monday-dozens-did/ar-AALOSjx

July 6, 2021

They Were the Nice, Older Couple Next Door. Then the First Body Turned Up.

They Were the Nice, Older Couple Next Door. Then the First Body Turned Up.


Babak, left, with his parents Akbar Khorramdin and Iran Mousavi, on stage after the screening of his film. Credit...Yasaman Zohoortalab

An Iranian couple has confessed to murdering and dismembering their son, years after killing a daughter and her husband. They are not sorry.

The older couple first came to the public eye on a winter night in Tehran, when their film director son invited them to the stage after a screening. They were frail, and seemingly shy, and the younger man helped his mother up the stairs, then draped his arm around his father’s shoulder.

That was five years ago.

Now their son is dead, and Akbar Khorramdin, 81, and his wife, Iran Mousavi, 74, are back on the public stage, accused of his murder and, in a twist that has shocked and riveted Iranians, the killings of a daughter and a son-in-law over the course of a decade. The victims were drugged, suffocated, stabbed and then dismembered, the authorities say.

The couple has confessed to the crimes, but if Mr. Khorramdin, a retired army colonel, and Ms. Mousavi, a homemaker, are remorseful, they have done a good job hiding it.

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For Iranians, home is synonymous with sanctuary, and elderly parents, especially mothers, are revered as saint-like figures. And so they have reacted with bafflement and then outrage to every twist and turn of the case, and to the parents’ behavior after their arrests.

Photographs in Iranian media have shown Mr. Khorramdin clad in prison pajamas flashing a victory sign. He told the authorities that he would do it all over again — and might even kill his other two adult children, too, if he were released, according to news reports.


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/05/world/middleeast/iran-parents-murders.html?action=click&algo=bandit-all-surfaces-engagement-time-weight&block=trending_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=254700261&impression_id=6630c730-de1e-11eb-8e5a-8ffb1b5e62ef&index=0&pgtype=Article&pool=pool%2F91fcf81c-4fb0-49ff-bd57-a24647c85ea1®ion=footer&req_id=505707342&surface=eos-most-popular-story&variant=4_bandit-all-surfaces-engagement-time-weight

July 5, 2021

Atlanta Woman Startled By Wild Cat (serval) in Her Bed

Atlanta Woman Startled By Wild Cat in Her Bed
Serval that wandered into house likely someone's illegal exotic pet



Atlanta Woman Startled By Wild Cat in Her Bed

(NEWSER) – David Frank woke up before 7 one morning last week and opened the back door for the dog. That was the last normal thing to happen that morning. His wife, Kristine, felt a cat—a really big cat—jump up on the bed. But the Franks don’t have a cat. What they did have was an open door for a cat to explore, and a wild serval did just that, the Marietta Daily Journal reports. The big, wild cat—servals are native to Africa and can stand a couple feet tall and weigh 30-40 pounds—had been spotted in their Atlanta neighborhood a few times before turning up on the Franks’ bed.

Kristine’s understandably startled reaction scared the cat off the bed. She was able to inch out of the room and close the door behind her, CNN reports. "Afterwards I was like, 'Was that a bobcat? Was it a leopard? Was it a baby? Was it a mom?'" Kristine said. While there is no federal law against keeping a serval as a pet, it is illegal in Georgia. And not just because it’s dangerous for humans. Alicia Prygoski of the Animal Legal Defense Fund said that wild cats like servals shouldn’t be kept in homes because there’s no room for them to exhibit their natural behaviors. Authorities are trying to catch the big cat and take it to a sanctuary.

https://www.newser.com/story/308183/atlanta-woman-startled-by-wild-cat-in-her-bed.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_world_login

“I felt something jump on my bed, and I opened my eyes and it was a large cat on my bed,” Kristine said. “… I didn’t realize how big it was at the time, but it did jump off the bed. It was terrifying. When I looked, it was as tall as my bed, so I could see its head and ears. That’s when I knew it was not a normal house cat. I just froze and yelled for my husband. I said, ‘That’s not a cat and I don’t know what it is.’”


David then came into the bedroom and “locked eyes” with the serval, she said, and he told her to slowly get out of the bed and leave the bedroom. Once she did, he exited the room an closed the door. David then went around to the back of the house, where a door from the bedroom leads out to a deck, and opened that door to let the serval out.

As the cat exited the bedroom onto the deck and went down the deck stairs to the back yard, it hissed at David, who later took pictures of it.

https://www.mdjonline.com/neighbor_newspapers/exotic-cat-on-the-loose-in-atlanta-after-jumping-on-sleeping-woman-s-bed/article_6b7b8118-dad0-11eb-9205-afc9ac1bb2fd.html