"Engineer in N.Y derailment had sleep disorder" | Associated Press April 08, 2014
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The engineer on a New York commuter train that derailed at high speed last year, killing four people, had a serious sleep disorder that interrupted his rest dozens of times each night, federal investigators disclosed Monday.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s medical examination of engineer William Rockefeller uncovered ‘‘severe obstructive sleep apnea,’’ according to documents released by the agency. Rockefeller told investigators he felt dazed and hypnotized just before the crash.
The documents did not say whether the disorder contributed to the Dec. 1 crash on the Metro-North railroad. The NTSB said its analysis of the information and any determination of the cause would come in a later report.
Rockefeller’s lawyer and union leader have suggested the engineer nodded off on the morning of Dec. 1 as his train raced toward a sharp curve in the Bronx, where it derailed. The curve had a 30 mile-per-hour speed limit; the train was going 82.
Attorney Jeffrey Chartier said a few days after the accident that Rockefeller experienced a nod or ‘‘a daze,’’ almost like road fatigue or the phenomenon sometimes called highway hypnosis. Anthony Bottalico, leader of the rail employees union, said Rockefeller ‘‘basically nodded.’’
The NTSB report said a sleep study was ordered because Rockefeller ‘‘did not exactly recall events leading up to the accident.’’
The test found that while Rockefeller slept, he had about 65 ‘‘sleep arousals’’ per hour. Scientists say as few as five interruptions an hour can make someone chronically sleepy. The report said Rockefeller’s apnea apparently was undiagnosed before the accident.
The NTSB noted that sleep apnea is not mentioned in Metro-North’s medical guidelines.
Metro-North spokesman Aaron Donovan said the railroad was reviewing the documents.
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Oh, sorry to nod off there.
Related: Rockefeller Fell Asleep at Switch
Also see: Parade of NTSB Articles
Better try another mode of transportation.
"NTSB: Captain’s error led to 2013 ferry crash" by Michael R. Sisak | Associated Press April 09, 2014
NEW YORK — A captain’s error, compounded by confusing controls and lax safety regulations, led to the January 2013 ferry crash that injured 80 people in Lower Manhattan, federal investigators said Tuesday.
See:
High-speed ferry strikes N.Y. dock; dozens hurt
National Transportation Safety Board investigators said the ferry’s captain, Jason Reimer, lost control of the Seastreak Wall Street after ‘‘inadvertently’’ leaving the vessel running on a rarely used backup system.
So the captain lied and the boat was on autopilot.... which oddly enough describes the current U.S. $hip of $tate and its captain.
The veteran mariner scrambled to regain control of the 131-foot vessel, but had little time and no visual or audio cues to quickly alert him to his error, investigators said.
Investigators, discussing the findings at a safety board hearing in Washington, D.C., blamed ferry operator Sea-streak LLC, for ‘‘ineffective oversight’’ and said Reimer was hampered by a lack of training and a lack of familiarity with the backup system.
A message left at a number listed under Reimer’s name was not immediately returned.
Reimer switched to the system after sensing a vibration in a propeller just north of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, about halfway in the commuter ferry’s midmorning run from Atlantic Highlands, N.J. to Lower Manhattan.
The switch should have been temporary, but Reimer left the ferry on the backup system for the rest of the voyage and it slammed into a dock near the South Street Seaport, sending passengers into walls and knocking them to the floor.
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Maybe we should take to the sky:
"Balloon helps take measure of NYC" | Associated Press April 21, 2014
NEW YORK — The Police Department said a large balloon flew over the city Sunday, the first day of a two-day project to measure the heights of the city’s buildings.
Is that the excuse they hopped out to conduct surveillance?
Jeeees!
Police said the balloon was aloft about nine hours in lower Manhattan and is expected to fly more than 13 hours Monday in midtown.
Police said the balloon would be about 800 feet in the air as it collected data for a private architectural firm that is conducting height surveys of Manhattan buildings.
Sunday’s flight came on the clear day when many New Yorkers were showing off their best spring outfits in the annual Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue. The New York parade began in the 1880s as a strolling display of Easter finery.
Attire included pastel suits and dresses, and traditional hats, as well as some zany costumes. Yeah, that's all nice and good but I would like to know when spring is going to arrive up here.
It's still cold as s***, today was more like early March than late April, and the Red Sox are playing in sub-40 degree temperatures the other night -- something I'll remember when the fart-mi$ters start belching about global warming.
On Sunday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York celebrated Easter Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral amid massive construction scaffolding at the altar. The church is undergoing a $175 million project to fix cracks and clean walls darkened by decades of soot and pollution.
Dolan prayed for the young people who died in the South Korean ship sinking, as well as two New York children who perished in a fire on Saturday.
Related: The Face of Grief in Asia
Also see: Hope is fading in S. Korea ferry disaster
He then went a played a game of golf.
The Easter weekend observances started Friday when Dolan, bearing a wooden cross, led thousands of faithful across the Brooklyn Bridge.
And the balloon was in the air.
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Another house of wor$hip seen on the way:
"Iconic pavilion from 1964 World’s Fair is named a national treasure" by Lisa W. Foderaro | New York Times April 23, 2014
NEW YORK — Fifty years after the 1964 World’s Fair opened, the New York State Pavilion, one of the last architectural vestiges of the fair, was named a “National Treasure” on Tuesday by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit organization.
The Pavilion, which consists of a cluster of curvaceous towers reminiscent of the television cartoon “The Jetsons,” has deteriorated over the decades, and the structures are permanently closed off, their surfaces marred by rust....
Demolition, which would cost $14 million, was considered as an option. But while the structures need extensive rehabilitation work, they are fundamentally sound, parks officials say. And the public responses ran overwhelmingly in favor of preserving the Pavilion.
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Time to grab a bike:
"Hotel, NYC tangle over bike-sharing rack" by Jennifer Peltz | Associated Press April 23, 2014
NEW YORK — A landmarked space across the street from the legendary Plaza hotel is no place for the city’s popular bike-sharing system to park some of its electric-blue rides, the hotel’s lawyers told a judge Tuesday.
Is it popular?
But city lawyers said Grand Army Plaza is just right for Citi Bike, the 11-month-old, short-hop bike rental program that has become a part of the streetscape in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, to the delight of some and the laments of others.
Those critics include the Plaza, the landmark hotel and condominium made famous in films, plays, and books.
The Plaza says the 147-foot-long bike station is an advertising-laden eyesore that causes limousine backups in front of the hotel during major events, as the bike rack is in a former traffic lane. The city didn’t ‘‘adequately consider the environmental impact, the aesthetic impact, of anything like this,’’ said the hotel’s lawyer, Stephen Orel.
Then the rack needs to be moved. The elite should be catered to because this world is theirs.
The city disputed that notion.
‘‘This is not only a good location; it’s an ideal location. . . . It’s centrally located, with numerous attractions nearby,’’ said Nicholas Ciappetta, a city attorney.
Noting that the Plaza owners apparently don’t mind a line of black cars in front of its entrance but object to a row of blue bikes, Ciappetta suggested the complaints were a bike-rack version of not-in-my-backyard.
Yeah, what's your point?
Related: Exxon CEO Joins Suit Citing Fracking Concerns
He wants to live in a Shell?
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And now comes word Citibike needs a bailout?
"More hurdles for plan to retire NYC’s horse carriages" by Jonathan Lemire | Associated Press April 23, 2014
NEW YORK — Mayor Bill de Blasio is pulling back the reins on his plans to quickly get rid of New York City’s horse-drawn carriage industry, stung by a recent outpouring of support for the colorful coaches that have clip-clopped through Central Park for over 150 years.
That's only his latest broken promise.
A campaign vow to take on the industry in his first week as mayor was eclipsed by other issues. And as he nears his fourth month in office, he has encountered enough resistance from the usually compliant City Council to slow his plans again, now saying an industry he calls cruel and inhumane will be gone by year’s end.
What changed?
For one, a media blitz led by actor Liam Neeson has portrayed the industry as an iconic, romantic part of New York that provides about 400 jobs, many to Irish immigrants. In a series of editorials and TV interviews, he has said the operators treat their 200 working horses like their own children.
‘‘I can appreciate a happy and well-cared-for horse when I see one,’’ Neeson wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times. ‘‘It has been my experience, always, that horses, much like humans, are at their happiest and healthiest when working.’’
I think all animals and people would prefer to be cared for rather than neglected. I like Liam and all, but he's one of them.
The next blow came when a series of city unions — which usually are de Blasio’s staunchest allies — broke with the mayor, urging him to reconsider his decision in order to save jobs and a big source of tourism.
A recent poll revealed that nearly two-thirds of New Yorkers were in favor of keeping the horses at least in Central Park and were lukewarm on de Blasio’s plan to put the horse drivers to work instead giving rides in old-timey electric cars.
What about climate change?
For now, de Blasio and the animal rights activists who donated to his campaign and the campaigns of anticarriage City Council candidates are standing firm in the belief that the city is no place for horses. People for Ethical Treatment of Animals launched a campaign with celebrities of its own.
Celebrities, while well-meaning, don't convince Americans of anything and usually send us the other way.
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Looks like he gets around easy enough.
Speaking of horse shit, you may want to watch where you step:
"NYPD effort to put smiling face on Twitter account backfires" by Tom Hays and Jake Pearson | Associated Press April 24, 2014
NEW YORK — To put it in social media terms, New York’s Police Department got trolled.
The nation’s largest police force learned the hard way that there are legions online devoted to short-circuiting even the best-intentioned public relations campaign — in this case, the NYPD’s Twitter invitation to people to post feel-good photos with New York’s Finest.
What #myNYPD got instead was a montage of hundreds of news images of baton-wielding cops arresting protesters, pulling suspects by the hair, unleashing pepper spray, and taking down a bloodied 84-year-old man for jaywalking.
Yeah, tough guys taking down an old man for jaywalking!
Maybe the new mayor can balance the budget on his back.
It was an epic failure, with the hashtag among the most-trafficked in the world Tuesday, and a public relations nightmare for a new leadership.
The arrogance of AmeriKa's oppressive and repressive leaders is stunning, topped only by their delusional view of a public that is fed up with being abused by authority.
‘‘We’ve seen instances before where a hashtag can become a bash-tag,’’ said Glen Gilmore, who teaches social media marketing at Rutgers University. ‘‘When you’re in the social space, it’s tough to predict what’s going to happen.’’
A similar meltdown came last November when investment giant JP Morgan Chase, which had been paying billions in fines stemming from the financial crisis, asked followers on Twitter to post career advice questions. Among them: ‘‘Did you have a specific number of people’s lives you needed to ruin before you considered your business model a success?’’
I think those looters are even more out of touch than the cops. At least the cops just bash you in the face; the bankers put their arms around you like a friend and then pick your pocket.
The #myNYPD misfire comes as new Commissioner William Bratton is trying to re-brand the department to counter criticism it has been trampling people’s civil rights. Last week, it disbanded an intelligence unit that spied on Muslim neighborhoods, and it has promised reforms to the crime-fighting tactic stop and frisk.
Well, they told us they stopped spying on Muslims but I don't think anyone believes them.
As for stop-and-frisk, de Blasio ran on abolishing it. Oh, well.
Bratton acknowledged the Twitter campaign may not have been fully thought through.
Ya think?
‘‘Was that particular reaction from some of the police adversaries anticipated? To be quite frank, it was not,’’ Bratton said. ‘‘But at the same time It’s not going to cause us to change any of our efforts to be very active on social media. . . . It’s an open, transparent world.’’
Still, there was evidence the outreach could bear fruit.
(Blog editor sighs at the attempt to scrub and polish this log)
One person posted a picture of two smiling officers. ‘‘These guys put their lives on the line every day. They deserve our respect and gratitude.’’
Especially when they are beating the hell out of you or shooting you.
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It's a worldwide force now (it wasn't just Muslims they were spying on?):
"NYC officer gets July court date in India | Associated Press April 18, 2014
NEW DELHI — An Indian court said it will not rule before July 1 in the case of a New York City police officer arrested on a weapons charge.
The New York Police Department said Manny Encarnacion was arrested in March after Indian authorities discovered three bullets he had accidentally packed in his luggage. He is out on bail, but has been barred from leaving India until the case is resolved.
Encarnacion’s attorney said Judge Sunil Gaur extended the officer’s bail until July 1, the next hearing date in the case.
Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said, ‘‘We are currently working with the State Department in an effort to resolve this situation.’’
Encarnacion has been detained under the Indian Arms Act. If convicted, he can be sentenced to up to three years in prison, his attorney said. He was arrested in New Delhi, where he was visiting his wife.
He had gone to the department firing range before he left for India and put the bullets in a coat pocket, according to New York police. He packed the coat for the trip, forgetting the ammunition.
Great. The cop can't keep track of his bullets and they want to take yours away.
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