October 13, 2021

Walgreens plans to close 5 San Francisco stores, citing rampant shoplifting & organized retail crime

https://news.yahoo.com/walgreens-plans-close-5-san-210652851.html

Walgreens will close five more of its San Francisco locations due to rampant shoplifting and "organized retail crime," a Walgreens spokesperson told SFGate on Tuesday.

"Organized retail crime continues to be a challenge facing retailers across San Francisco, and we are not immune to that," Walgreens spokesperson Phil Caruso said. "Retail theft across our San Francisco stores has continued to increase in the past few months to five times our chain average."

Walgreens locations in San Francisco have struggled with shoplifting for years, and ten Walgreens locations have been closed in the city since 2019. Community members said one closure left seniors, disabled residents, and low-income residents without a convenient local drugstore to go to, with the next closest location not being accessible to those with disabilities, according to a Change.org petition.

"During this time to help combat this issue, we increased our investments in security measures in stores across the city to 46 times our chain average in an effort to provide a safe environment," Caruso said.

October 13, 2021

Dean Cain Slams Superman Coming Out as Bisexual: "It Isn't Bold or Brave"

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/dean-cain-superman-bisexual-1235030248/



Former Superman actor Dean Cain has criticized DC Comics’ decision to have the current Superman come out as bisexual.

“They said it’s a bold new direction, I say they’re bandwagoning,” the 55-year-old actor told Fox & Friends on Tuesday. “Robin just came out as bi — who’s really shocked about that one? The new Captain America is gay. My daughter in [The CW series] Supergirl, where I played the father, was gay. So I don’t think it’s bold or brave or some crazy new direction. If they had done this 20 years ago, perhaps that would be bold or brave.

“Brave would be having him fighting for the rights of gay people in Iran where they’ll throw you off a building for the offense of being gay,” Cain continued. “They’re talking about having him fight climate change and the deportation of refugees, and he’s dating a hacktivist — whatever a hactivist is. Why don’t they have him fight the injustices that created the refugees whose deportation he’s protesting? That would be brave, I’d read that. Or fighting for the rights of women to attend school and have the ability to work and live and boys not to be raped by men under the new warm and fuzzy Taliban — that would be brave. There’s real evil in this world today, real corruption and government overreach, plenty of things to fight against. Human trafficking — real and actual slavery going on. … It’d be great to tackle those issues.”

The actor played Clark Kent/Superman on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman for four seasons starting in 1993.

(excerpt)

For clarity's sake, it should be pointed out that the version of Superman being discussed is 17 year old Jon Kent, the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane.

Cain can complain all he wants, but it's pointless. Inclusiveness in comics isn't going to go away.

October 12, 2021

NYPD closing in on $4 million jewelry robbery crew targeting ritzy Manhattan clubs, restaurants

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-nypd-closing-in-on-jewelry-robbery-crew-20211012-5zjqudgprrbx3caq6dh5btj24a-story.html

Cops are close to cracking a $4 million jewelry robbery ring that targets patrons at ritzy Manhattan nightclubs and restaurants, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said Tuesday.

“We’re working with all five district attorneys and multiple federal agencies on a task force on this,” Shea said on Fox 5?s “Good Morning New York.”

“You can absolutely expect more arrests as we get closer to bringing this to a conclusion,” Shea said.

A 19-year-old member of one gang believed behind the robberies — known as OED, or “Own Every Dollar” — was busted early Monday following a confrontation with police outside Pergola, a Chelsea hotspot on W. 28th St. near Sixth Ave. in which cops fired at least three shots at an escaping BMW.

(excerpt)

October 11, 2021

Auction for Chicago Outfit boss Al Capone's goods brings in at least $3 million

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-al-capone-auction-results-20211011-ojk5hl7wszgfdhhluibcxgw6mm-story.html

An unprecedented sale of Chicago gangster Al Capone’s belongings, which remained in the possession of his family for almost 75 years after his death, garnered more than $3 million Friday night.

“A Century of Notoriety: The Estate of Al Capone” was held at a private club in Sacramento, California, near where Capone’s three surviving granddaughters live and had almost 1,000 registered bidders — including 150 who were able to attend in person, according to Witherell’s, the auction house that hosted the event. Reporters and photographers were not allowed to observe the nearly four-hour-long event.

Own Al Capone: The Chicago gangster’s favorite gun, diamond jewelry, bear-shaped humidor, family photos and more to be sold by his granddaughters at auction.

The highest-priced item, “Scarface’s” favorite Colt .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol, sold for $860,000 — more than $700,000 above the highest estimate. Its buyer is unknown at this time, but whoever purchased the gun will pay $1,040,600, which includes the 21% buyer’s premium.

October 11, 2021

Winds delay Blue Origin's space launch with Shatner

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/winds-delay-blue-origins-space-launch-with-shatner-2021-10-10/



Oct 10 (Reuters) - Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin said on Sunday it had pushed this week's launch target of its New Shepard vehicle to Wednesday, delaying "Star Trek" actor William Shatner's sojourn to the edge of space by a day.

"Due to forecasted winds on Tuesday, October 12, Blue Origin's mission operations team has made the decision to delay the launch of NS-18 and is now targeting Wednesday, October 13," the company said in a statement.

Best known as Captain Kirk in the original "Star Trek" television series, Shatner will be part of a four-person crew aboard the suborbital NS-18 mission.

The 90-year-old actor is flying as a guest of Blue Origin, but the company has said that it has also sold nearly $100 million in tickets to paying customers.

(excerpt)

Looking pretty good for 90!

October 10, 2021

D.C.'s ghost-gun law faces legal challenge from Dick Heller, successful gun rights activist

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/10/09/dc-ghost-gun-law/

In response to the rising number of untraceable “ghost guns” on the streets of Washington, the D.C. Council last year passed a law banning the weapons. The guns are homemade, with a barrel, trigger and slide attached to a polymer frame — with no serial number, so police cannot track them when they are discovered after a crime.

But a new lawsuit argues that the city’s law is overly broad and outlaws all polymer-based guns, including the top-selling handguns made by Glock — which are issued to most D.C. police officers. (The law makes an exception for military and law enforcement users.)

The city has a poor track record in its attempts to restrict guns in the city, with its prohibition on gun ownership overturned by the landmark Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. Now a plaintiff in that suit, Dick A. Heller of Southeast Washington, is back with a challenge to the new ghost-gun law, as well as the District’s long ban on manufacturing weapons.

D.C. elected officials have long “adhered to a cynical policy of ‘self-government for me, but no self-defense for thee,’ ” wrote George L. Lyon Jr., Heller’s lawyer.

(Excerrpt)

October 8, 2021

Japan is converting its 2 biggest warships into aircraft carriers; US Marines are helping train them

https://www.businessinsider.com/marine-corps-f35bs-landed-on-japans-converted-aircraft-carrier-izumo-2021-10

As China increases the size and capability of its military, Japan has responded by adapting its Self-Defense Force to meet what it sees as a growing threat.

Japan has created its first amphibious military unit since World War II and launched a new class of high-tech frigates, and it's restructuring its tank force to be lighter and more mobile and building up its missile capabilities.

Perhaps the most eye-opening move, though, is the conversion of its two Izumo-class helicopter carriers into dedicated aircraft carriers.

On Sunday, two US Marine Corps F-35Bs landed on and took off from the deck of the Izumo, the lead ship of the class - the first time a fixed-wing aircraft has operated from a Japanese carrier in 75 years.

(excerpt)

October 7, 2021

Scientific American opinion piece: Star Wars & the Jedi are problematic, racist, sexist, and ableist

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-term-jedi-is-problematic-for-describing-programs-that-promote-justice-equity-diversity-and-inclusion/



The article starts out by discussing the use of the acronym JEDI (justice, equity, diversity and inclusion) as it pertains to programs promoting social justice, but the bulk of it is an attack on Star Wars, Disney and fandom.. Some quotes:

The Jedi are inappropriate mascots for social justice. Although they’re ostensibly heroes within the Star Wars universe, the Jedi are inappropriate symbols for justice work. They are a religious order of intergalactic police-monks, prone to (white) saviorism and toxically masculine approaches to conflict resolution (violent duels with phallic lightsabers, gaslighting by means of “Jedi mind tricks,” etc.). The Jedi are also an exclusionary cult, membership to which is partly predicated on the possession of heightened psychic and physical abilities (or “Force-sensitivity”). Strikingly, Force-wielding talents are narratively explained in Star Wars not merely in spiritual terms but also in ableist and eugenic ones: These supernatural powers are naturalized as biological, hereditary attributes. So it is that Force potential is framed as a dynastic property of noble bloodlines (for example, the Skywalker dynasty), and Force disparities are rendered innate physical properties, measurable via “midi-chlorian” counts (not unlike a “Force genetics” test) and augmentable via human(oid) engineering. The heroic Jedi are thus emblems for a host of dangerously reactionary values and assumptions. Sending the message that justice work is akin to cosplay is bad enough; dressing up our initiatives in the symbolic garb of the Jedi is worse.

........

Star Wars has a problematic cultural legacy. The space opera franchise has been critiqued for trafficking in injustices such as sexism, racism and ableism. Think, for example, of the so-called “Slave Leia” costume, infamous for stripping down and chaining up the movie series’ first leading woman as part of an Orientalist subplot. Star Wars arguably conflates “alienness” with “nonwhiteness,” often seeming to rely on racist stereotypes when depicting nonhuman species. The series regularly defaults onto ableist tropes, memorably in its portrayal of Darth Vader, which links the villain’s physical disability with machinic inhumanity and moral deviance, presenting his technology-assisted breathing as a sinister auditory marker of danger and doom. What’s more, the bodies and voices centered in Star Wars have, with few exceptions, historically been those of white men. And while recent films have increased gender and racial diversity, important questions remain regarding how meaningfully such changes represent a departure from the series’ problematic past. Indeed, a notable segment of the Star Wars fandom has aggressively advocated the (re)centering of white men in the franchise, with some equating recent casting decisions with “white genocide.” Additionally, the franchise’s cultural footprint can be tracked in the saga of United States military-industrial investment and expansion, from debates around Reagan’s “Star Wars” Strategic Defense Initiative to the planned Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (another “JEDI” program), sometimes winkingly framed with Star Wars allusions. Taken together, the controversies surrounding Star Wars make JEDI at best an inappropriate way to brand justice work—a kind of double-edged sword (or better yet, double-bladed “lightsaber”). At worst, this way of branding our initiatives is freighted with the very violence that our justice work seeks to counter.

.....

JEDI connects justice initiatives to corporate capital. JEDI/Jedi is more than just a name: It’s a product. Circulating that product’s name can promote and benefit the corporation that owns it, even if we do not mean to do so. We are, in effect, providing that corporation—Disney—with a form of free advertising, commodifying and cheapening our justice work in the process. Such informal co-branding entangles our initiatives in Disney’s morally messy past and present. It may also serve to rebrand and whitewash Disney by linking one of its signature product lines to social justice. After all, Disney has a long and troubling history of circulating racist, sexist, heterosexist and Orientalist narratives and imagery, which the corporation and its subsidiaries (like Pixar) are publicly reckoning with. Furthermore, Disney is an overtly political entity, critiqued not only for its labor practices but also for its political donations and lobbying. Joining forces with Disney’s multimedia empire is thus a dangerous co-branding strategy for justice advocates and activists. This form of inadvertent woke-washing extracts ethical currency from so-called “JEDI” work, robbing from its moral reserves to further enrich corporate capital.
.....

Aligning justice work with Star Wars risks threatening inclusion and sense of belonging. While an overarching goal of JEDI initiatives is to promote inclusion, the term JEDI might make people feel excluded. Star Wars is popular but divisive. Identifying our initiatives with it may nudge them closer to the realm of fandom, manufacturing in-groups and out-groups. Those unfamiliar or uncomfortable with Star Wars­­—including those hurt by the messages it sends—may feel alienated by the parade of jokes, puns and references surrounding the term JEDI. Consider, as one example, its gender exclusionary potential. Studies suggest that the presence of Star Wars and Star Trek memorabilia (such as posters) in computer science classrooms can reinforce masculinist stereotypes about computer science—contributing to women’s sense that they don’t belong in that field. Relatedly, research indicates that even for self-identified female fans of Star Wars, a sense of belonging within that fandom can be experienced as highly conditional, contingent on performances “proving” their conformity to the preexisting gendered norms of dominant fan culture. At a moment when many professional sectors, including higher education, are seeking to eliminate barriers to inclusion—and to change the narrative about who counts as a scientist, political scientist, STEMM professional or historian—adopting the term JEDI seems like an ironic move backward.

October 5, 2021

Missouri has executed Ernest Johnson for killing 3 during robbery in 1994

https://www.kctv5.com/news/local_news/missouri-has-executed-ernest-johnson-for-killing-3-during-robbery-in-1994/article_3bf6b91a-2627-11ec-a4cd-ebe5607e1a26.html?block_id=991162

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) -- 6:15 P.M. UPDATE: Missouri executes Ernest Johnson for killing three people while robbing a convenience store in 1994.

(Previous coverage below)

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request that it stop the planned execution of Ernest Johnson, clearing the way for the Missouri man convicted of killing three convenience store workers during a closing-time robbery nearly 28 years ago to die by injection Tuesday evening.

Johnson, 61, was scheduled for execution at the state prison in Bonne Terre, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of St. Louis. It would be the seventh U.S. execution this year.

Johnson's attorney, Jeremy Weis, said executing Johnson would violate the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits executing intellectually disabled people. On Monday, he asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution, which the court denied early Tuesday evening.

September 30, 2021

Smith & Wesson Moving From Springfield To Tennessee, Citing Proposed Massachusetts Gun Laws

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2021/09/30/smith-and-wesson-massachusetts-tennessee/

BOSTON (CBS) – Smith & Wesson, one of the oldest gun manufacturers in the country, announced Thursday it is moving operations from Springfield to Tennessee due to proposed gun laws in Massachusetts.

The company plans to move to Maryville, Tenn. In 2023 after being based in Springfield since it was founded in 1852.

“This has been an extremely difficult and emotional decision for us, but after an exhaustive and thorough analysis, for the continued health and strength of our iconic company, we feel that we have been left with no other alternative,” President and CEO Mark Smith said.

Smith said proposed legislation in Massachusetts would prevent the company from making certain kinds of guns.

(excerpt)

Given that S&W gets over 60% of their revenue from such guns, the move makes perfect sense.