"Outrage mounts as questions about cause of gas explosions go unanswered" by Michael Levenson, Milton Valencia and Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff September 15, 2018
LAWRENCE — With frustration mounting across the Merrimack Valley, Governor Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency Friday and called in another utility to handle the response to the series of gas explosions and fires that killed one and displaced thousands a day earlier.
Baker, facing growing outrage from the residents of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover, criticized how Columbia Gas, the utility that provided gas to the dozens of destroyed homes, had responded to the disaster and placed Eversource in charge.
“We believe that will make a big difference with respect to the relationship between what gets told to us and to what actually happens on the ground, and the representations that are made to people in these three communities, so we can do everything we can to ensure their homes and communities are safe,” Baker said at a press conference.
This could really rock his campaign!
Speaking publicly for the first time since the gas fires erupted, Stephen Bryant, president and chief operating officer of Columbia Gas, on Friday expressed his “sincere, deepest condolences” to family of Leonel Rondon, the 18-year-old killed when a chimney collapsed on the car he was sitting in, while defending his company’s performance.
Bryant said the company had 107 contractors and 189 employees in the field, and another 100 were expected from Columbia’s affiliates in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
“Generally, I would say we have advanced this as rapidly as it could possibly be advanced,” he said at a press conference. “I don’t think that anybody else managing this would have been further down the road than we are at the moment.”
The governor’s declaration came as the National Transportation Safety Board arrived in the Lawrence area to begin probing the cause of the fires. Hundreds of officials and utility workers began going house to house to shut off gas meters and conduct safety checks.
About 8,600 homes and businesses in the three affected communities had been evacuated after fires and explosions ripped through the region Thursday afternoon, sparking fear, confusion, and gridlock overnight.
Okay, for my two cents, I did go back and look at more video and reports. There is no doubt dome homes were destroyed by explosions. That's all we really know. The authorities and their mouthpiece pre$$ are telling us it was gas leaks, and maybe it is. It's just from what I saw from the helicopters or drones was scattered and sporadic smoke with not much fire. Reminds me of Westborough. What I can't get past is that when the earthquake hit Northern California and San Francisco in 1989, there were fires all over the city because of damaged mains. If the stuff is leaking all over the place, etc, where are the fires?
As many as 80 buildings burned. Lawrence General Hospital reported treating 13 victims with injuries ranging from smoke inhalation to blast trauma. One person remained hospitalized and was undergoing surgery Friday.
Officials said they believe the fires and explosions may have been caused by overpressurized gas lines but cautioned the investigation is just beginning. Columbia Gas, which serves about 50,000 customers in the Merrimack Valley, has said it was upgrading equipment in the area when the explosions and fires erupted.
“Our mission is to find out what happened so we can learn from it and keep it from happening again,” said Robert Sumwalt, the NTSB chairman. “We are conducting a safety investigation. We are not there to point fingers and lay blame.”
It's like a 9/11 thing, and why was NTSB called in? Shouldn't this be an OSHA issue? Or DoE?
On Friday, schools in the three communities were closed, stoplights were off, and streets were eerily quiet, as crews of law enforcement officials, aided by locksmiths, entered vacant homes to shut off the gas before allowing anyone to return. There was no estimate of how long it would take officials to clear all the thousands of affected buildings before residents would be allowed to move back in.
Oh, yeah?!!
Firefighters and law enforcement personel accompanied Columbia Gas workers on Pleasant Street, in North Andover, on Friday to gain access to homes via locksmiths and going in through windows, to get check for gas leaks and to lock down the gas meters (Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff).
Didn't need any kind of warrant, huh?
So what where they looking for?
The lack of clear information infuriated residents throughout the region, some of whom were staying in shelters and still rattled from the fires and explosions.
Do they know the police went through their homes?
At the First & Main Marketplace in North Andover, two Columbia Gas representatives who showed up late for a briefing for residents hustled back to their cars when they were peppered with questions they could not answer.
Baker had initially called Columbia Gas’s response to the disaster “adequate,” but as anger at the company mounted throughout the day, he accused the utility of not keeping its word.
Senators Edward J. Markey and Elizabeth Warren, who visited a command center in Lawrence on Friday, urged Congress to hold a hearing on the disaster, saying regulators and Columbia Gas executives must explain “how this incident occurred and what must be done to ensure these types of dangerous accidents do not happen again.”
I'm tired of Congre$$ional photo-ops after the horse has left the barn. They are the ones who left in unbarred.
They pointed out that Columbia Gas was responsible for a 2012 explosion in a Springfield adult entertainment club, in which 18 people were injured. That explosion was blamed on a worker who punctured a gas line while checking for a leak. Columbia Gas agreed to pay the city of Springfield a $850,000 settlement.
See: Gas explosion levels Springfield strip club
It's “not a very rare occurrence.”
Robert J. Chipkevich, a retired National Transportation Safety Board official who headed the pipeline accident investigation program for 15 years, said he was struck by the large number of building fires spread over such a large area.
He said if overpressurization was to blame, it could have been caused by human error — someone opening a valve — or a mechanical failure on a control valve.
He said once additional pressure enters a pipeline, it can quickly flood homes across the system with flammable gas, which can then be ignited by a pilot light on a stove, a hot-water heater, or an electric spark from a light switch. He said investigators will have to work methodically to trace the problem back to its source.
Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera, speaking in Spanish and English at a press conference, sought to reassure undocumented immigrants worried about the flood of state and federal agents responding to the gas explosion.
Rivera also told Lawrence residents not to suspect racial discrimination if they see residents of the wealthier, whiter communities of North Andover and Andover returning to their homes first. Rivera said it may simply take longer to ensure Lawrence is safe because of its density, large population, and older housing stock.
On Jefferson Street in Lawrence, neighbors gawked at a home that suffered catastrophic fire damage, the smell of smoke still lingering in the air.
“It’s so sad what happened here,” said Ricardo Favian, who lives nearby. He stayed in his home Thursday night, but questioned how Lawrence residents could feel safe when power is restored.....
How can any of us really feel safe if this is being reported as accurate?
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[flip to below fold]
"Columbia Gas faulted by federal investigators for major rupture in 2012" by Matt Rocheleau, Kay Lazar and Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff September 14, 2018
The utility at the center of Thursday’s catastrophe in the Merrimack Valley was in the midst of a massive effort to replace hundreds of miles of aging gas pipes in Massachusetts and head off persistent and potentially dangerous gas leaks.
While the catalyst for the explosion remains under investigation, records show that the company, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, has been fined tens of thousands of dollars by the state’s utilities regulator in recent years, and its corporate parent linked to serious blasts in at least two other states.
Since 2010, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities has fined Columbia Gas for safety violations that included faulty pressure testing and response procedures, insufficiently covering new service lines, improperly classifying leaks, and breaking rules around the use of leak repair kits.
You read this and you wonder why they were allowed to continue to do business in the state, which didn't seem to take the safety concerns very seriously.
I mean, if you are just going to fine 'em..... !
The state agency found Columbia Gas was slow to respond to a 2012 Seekonk fire fueled by a broken gas pipe, and ordered the company to update its emergency response plans and develop new training programs.
Sara Rollet Gosman, a University of Arkansas professor who specializes in environmental and energy law, noted Columbia Gas has been responsible for six of the 19 significant gas distribution incidents in Massachusetts since 2010. Prior to Thursday, the most serious was a destructive explosion in Springfield in 2012 that injured 18 people.
In that incident, a company worker investigating a gas odor at a downtown nightclub accidentally punctured a high-pressure gas line, triggering an explosion that leveled the building and damaged dozens of others, authorities said.
“It felt like a bomb fell in front of the building,” a neighbor told the Globe at the time.
The Massachusetts state fire marshal determined the Columbia Gas worker relied on incorrect sidewalk markings for the gas line’s location. The company reached an $850,000 settlement with the city and paid millions of dollars to settle other claims and lawsuits.
Springfield attorney Daniel D. Kelly, who has filed about two dozen cases against Columbia Gas, said workers at the nightclub had been smelling gas for months and still question the cause. He called for greater scrutiny of the company.
What?
Question authority in Massachusetts?
“Gas explosions shouldn’t be something you hear about every couple of years,” Kelly said. “Some independent review should be done.”
Maybe it's the "new norm?"
The company expressed condolences for Thursday’s explosion. In all, some 80 fires and explosions were reported, killing one resident and sending 13 people to the hospital.
On Friday, Governor Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency and directed another energy company, Eversource Energy, to lead the recovery.
Stephen Bryant, the local Columbia Gas executive, said Friday that he could not comment on the cause because the explosions are under investigation, but added: “I have no evidence or reason to take any action against any employees at this point.”
In the natural gas world, pipeline explosions are rare but carry major consequences, said Gosman, the University of Arkansas professor. While companies are required to abide by safety and risk management rules, and routinely analyze potential threats, she said, operators are given a lot of discretion in carrying out their work.
Like they are in their own universe, and maybe they are.
Columbia Gas is owned by NiSource Inc., a large utility based in Indiana that provides gas and electric service to nearly 4 million people in seven states. On Friday, NiSource’s stock took a major hit, declining 12 percent, as investors weighed the potential costs of the catastrophe.
“The liabilities could be massive,” said Shar Pourreza, an energy analyst with Guggenheim Partners who follows NiSource. “There is going to be a regulatory and liability overhang for a prolonged period of time.”
Across the country, utilities have been pushed by state and federal regulators to aggressively replace older, leak-prone equipment after a California pipeline explosion killed eight people in 2010.
In 2014, Massachusetts required local gas utilities to document and plug thousands of potentially dangerous gas leaks following studies that showed the problem was far more pervasive than previously thought.
Looks like way more of a threat than the "terrorists!"
Columbia Gas is one of a number of natural gas companies doing business in Massachusetts. Others include National Grid, Eversource Energy, and Unitil.
Like other companies, Columbia Gas had been working to address the new federal and state requirements. On Thursday — the same day as the explosions — Columbia Gas announced it had scheduled nearly a dozen upgrades to gas lines in the three Merrimack Valley towns.
Audrey Schulman, president of the Home Energy Efficiency Team, a Cambridge nonprofit that has mapped gas leaks around the state, said Columbia Gas has been at the forefront of statewide efforts to replace leak-prone infrastructure and has “a very good safety reputation.”
“They seem to be ahead of the other utilities in terms of dealing with gas leaks and infrastructure,” Schulman said.
That does not bode well for us, then, and she will come up again later.
Mark McDonald, president of NetGas Consulting, a Boston-based company that investigates gas explosions, said the sheer volume of work facing gas utilities across the country has sparked concerns that companies are tapping unqualified workers.
“The concern is a rush to replace this stuff with people who don’t know what they are doing or are not trained,” McDonald said. “There needs to be much more due diligence on people working in and around natural gas lines.”
More on the workers later, too.
On Friday, state and local officials criticized Columbia Gas and demanded answers on the cause of the explosion and the company’s response.
Gets the heat off their back.
A group of federal lawmakers — Representatives Seth Moulton and Niki Tsongas, and Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey — sent a sharply worded letter to Bryant, the company president.
Oooh, heavens to murgatroyd.
Among the questions was whether Columbia’s workers were adequately trained.
Earlier Friday, Bryant said company executives had constantly provided updates to Baker and other officials, but acknowledged: “This is the sort of a thing that a gas distribution company hopes never happens.”
Columbia Gas and its affiliates have also been blamed in recent years for other gas leaks and explosions.
In Ohio, state investigators ruled in 2015 that Columbia Gas of Ohio was at fault in a serious explosion that left eight homes “uninhabitable” and damaged more than 20 others. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio faulted an “improperly abandoned natural gas line” by Columbia Gas in the community of Upper Arlington.
In 2014, the National Transportation Safety Board accused a NiSource-owned gas transmission company of failing to detect corrosion in a pipeline that ruptured in West Virginia, and then of being too slow to act as the crisis unfolded.
The pipeline explosion destroyed three homes, melted the siding of nearby houses, and heavily damaged an interstate highway, according to the NTSB. The rupture was so powerful it launched a 20-foot segment of the high-pressure pipe more than 40 feet from where it had been buried. No deaths or serious injuries were reported, officials said.
“Remarkably, no lives were lost in this accident, but the potential for tragedy was clearly there,” NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman said in 2014.
And they have a good reputation!
NiSource has since sold the company in the 2012 West Virginia explosion, Columbia Gas Transmission Corp., which is now part of Calgary-based energy corporation TransCanada.....
Interesting twist at the end, 'eh?
--more--"
Related:
"There, in the heart of the Merrimack Valley, “the voting day back then was a monsoon.” Both candidates recall it vividly. After the race, Secretary of State William F. Galvin persuaded Massachusetts communities to adopt more modern techniques, such as optical scanner devices, and to abandon punch-card ballots — the same antiquated system used in Florida that came under scrutiny in the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential election. It means the same problems that plagued that vote are nonexistent now....."
Then why are the experts saying we need to return to paper??
Who is counting those votes, anyway?
"There, in the heart of the Merrimack Valley, “the voting day back then was a monsoon.” Both candidates recall it vividly. After the race, Secretary of State William F. Galvin persuaded Massachusetts communities to adopt more modern techniques, such as optical scanner devices, and to abandon punch-card ballots — the same antiquated system used in Florida that came under scrutiny in the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential election. It means the same problems that plagued that vote are nonexistent now....."
Then why are the experts saying we need to return to paper??
Who is counting those votes, anyway?
The winner gets to have their cake and eat it, too.
"In Lawrence, the things they carried" by Nestor Ramos Globe Staff September 15, 2018
"In Lawrence, the things they carried" by Nestor Ramos Globe Staff September 15, 2018
LAWRENCE — The roads back home were closed, so they walked.
One by one and two by two, alone and together, a steady caravan of residents-turned-refugees beat a path across the Merrimack River on Friday, returning to their homes to retrieve only what they could carry back by hand.
Medications packed into a black plastic toolbox. School supplies in a Sterilite bin. Children’s clothes in a gift bag covered in pink lettering: Sweet Baby Girl.
A day after their entire neighborhood seemed to burst into flames without warning, people struggled to describe the panicked scene that ensued without calling on scenes from Hollywood apocalypse thrillers, but Friday was what happens after the movie ends: The fires were out, but so were the power and gas.
It makes you wonder.
With no clear idea of when they’d get their homes back, and police barring nonemergency vehicles from entering the neighborhood, it was time to reclaim what they could carry: Clothes. Toothbrushes. Blood pressure pills. And, in the wake of a terrifying and deadly ordeal, each other.
This is the Lawrence you don’t hear much about — the Lawrence you don’t know unless you spend some time there. The Lawrence that walks in when the roads are closed. The Lawrence where people carry each other.
On Friday, during an hours-long exodus across the Merrimack River, you could see.
Lawrence is sometimes called the City of Immigrants, and the scene on the Joseph W. Casey Bridge on Friday recalled the huddled masses to which this country once beckoned, but the truth is that most of us are just one big disaster away from packing what we can carry and trudging to safety. A gas main, a hurricane, a market crash: Next thing you know, you’re wheeling your belongings across the sidewalk.
Not for those for whom the Globe is of and for.
So that is what is coming one of these weeks, huh?
In a city and a neighborhood where a week’s worth of groceries can’t be abandoned without straining the family budget, people hauled the contents of their warm refrigerators in wagons: fruit, milk, juice. A few men carried birthday cakes up the hill, from a bakery that had lost refrigeration, and began passing out the inventory.
Mostly, though, they carried clothes. Clothes in rolling suitcases and clothes in old shopping bags. Clothes in trash bags slung over tired shoulders and piled in wagons. Bernie Rosado lugged a suitcase loaded with his 3- and 6-year-old’s clothes across the bridge, back to his car and to the house in Methuen where they were all staying until it’s time to come home.....
--more--"
One guy won't be coming home:
"‘Yesterday he was celebrating.’ Today, friends and family mourn for Lawrence teen" by Emily Sweeney, Cristela Guerra, Globe Staff September 14, 2018
LAWRENCE — On Friday, the family of the 18-year-old high school student reeled from the shock and disbelief. His father stood outside his townhouse on Chestnut Street and embraced friends, neighbors, and loved ones.
He had dropped teenager Leonel Rondon at the Figueroa home to celebrate after the driving test, a family friend said. He later heard of an accident on Spanish-language television. And finally, in a devastating phone call, he learned that the victim, who had died, was his son.
Inside the family’s house, wailing could be heard Friday. People shuffled in and out with tears in their eyes.
“The family is broken apart,” said Luis Medina, a longtime friend. “This family just needs to mourn their son.’’
The lawsuit comes later.
Recalling the events a day later, Christian Caraballo, 19, said that he was with Rondon and their two friends, Christian and Sergio Figueroa, who were all sitting inside the car in the Figueroa family’s driveway and talking. The Figueroas’ mother had just gone inside the house to cook, he said.
“We heard a noise, then we felt it again and heard it,” Caraballo said. “I seen the front of the house explode to the street.”
The large brick chimney fell onto the roof of the car, on the driver’s side.
Rondon’s friends desperately tried to pull him from the car, but the damage was too great, and Rondon’s body was too entwined with the chimney bricks and the battered metal to wrest him free.
Only minutes before, Rondon had talked excitedly about the new car his mother had promised him, and the prospect of a new job. Now, his friends, bruised and shaken up, felt a whiplash of emotions as the tragedy continued to unfold.....
This is “crazy.”
--more--"
Related:
In explosions’ wake, get your insurance claim started promptly
Need to turn off the gas, or electricity, or water?
Globe shows you how.
Globe shows you how.
"In a catastrophe this big, why were there so few injuries and deaths?" by David Abel and Andy Rosen Globe Staff September 15, 2018
LAWRENCE — Although it remains unclear what caused the explosions, Bob Ackley, president of Gas Safety USA, a leak-monitoring company in Southborough, and others surmised that it was the result of too much pressure in the region’s gas mains. Natural gas often comes to communities via high-pressure pipes, often at around 60 pounds per square inch. From there, it’s routed through a substation that reduces the pressure to about a quarter of a pound per square inch.
If the gas wasn’t reduced in pressure before entering the affected homes, it may have been easier to detect.
“Those who survived or didn’t have a fire got very lucky that there wasn’t a spark,” Ackley said.
At the same time, it’s also possible that some homes were filled with too much gas to ignite. Methane, the principal component of natural gas, will only burn with a specific amount in the air. It also requires some kind of spark, which could be from a light switch, dryer, or even a ringing cellphone.
Another factor may have reduced the casualties: Many of the fires began in basements, where gas often enters a home from the utility’s network of pipes.
“People don’t tend to be hanging out” there, said Audrey Schulman, president of the Home Energy Efficiency Team, a Cambridge nonprofit that has mapped tens of thousands of gas leaks around the state.
She also believes the time of day helped. “Thank God it didn’t happen at night when people were sleeping,” she said.....
--more--"
The hospital was “expecting a lot more” injuries, but fire chief said they got “lucky.”
Time to get back on the job:
"State leaders increase focus on National Grid labor standoff" by Katie Johnston Globe Staff September 14, 2018
The state’s top union leader is calling for National Grid Massachusetts president Marcy Reed to resign from the board of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts in light of the fact that she cut off her employees from Blue Cross health insurance when the company locked out union gas workers nearly three months ago.
We have communities blowing up and these guys are worried about their health insurance!
The action is one of several by high-powered officials who stepped up their involvement in the National Grid labor standoff this week. On Tuesday, Governor Charlie Baker met with union leaders for the first time, and Attorney General Maura Healey’s office asked the Department of Public Utilities, which regulates gas work, to conduct a public investigation of safety issues during the lockout.
How prophetic!
You don't think the workers would sabotage.... no.
The actions of Baker and Healey came before Thursday’s gas explosions rocked three Merrimack Valley communities. An overpressurization of a gas main owned by Columbia Gas is the focus of the investigation.
The lockout of 1,250 members of two United Steelworkers unions by National Grid began the day after their contract expired in late June, as negotiations stalled. The unions offered to continue working without a contract, but National Grid shut them out instead, abruptly halting their health insurance on July 1.
Globe pretty much went off the grid after that.
In a letter sent to Andrew Dreyfus, head of the state’s largest insurer on Wednesday, Massachusetts AFL-CIO president Steven Tolman wrote that Reed’s actions were unethical and immoral, resulting in 3,000 workers and family members going without insurance. The move was also a conflict of interest, he said, considering her role on the board.
“She is cutting off health insurance for BCBS members, while also depriving BCBS of more than 3,000 members and their premium payments,” Tolman wrote. “An executive who is willing to use the health of her employees as leverage in a contract dispute is not fit to serve on the board of an organization that works tirelessly to expand access to health care. We have very serious concerns about her judgment and believe BCBS should demand her resignation.”
Massachusetts AFL-CIO executive vice president Francis Callahan Jr. is also on the Blue Cross Blue Shield board.
Blue Cross responded to the letter with a statement, saying that the insurer has done everything to “ensure the continuity of care for the workers affected by this dispute” and that it relies on a diversity of perspectives on its board from both management and labor.
“Marcy Reed has served on our board since 2016 and brings the important voice of employers to our board discussions,” the company said.
John Buonopane, president of United Steelworkers Local 12012, one of the locked-out unions, noted that several union members are dealing with serious medical conditions, including cancer, forcing some to resort to online fund-raising to pay for treatment.
The attorney general’s office weighed in with a call for a public safety investigation, noting in a letter to the DPU that her office had expressed concerns over National Grid’s “troubling safety record” long before the lockout began. Since the lockout, the unions have submitted nearly 100 complaints of safety violations to the DPU, including workers drilling over gas mains and failing to detect serious gas leaks.
They have had a troubling safety record, and are now using scabs?
I hope they haven't begun any repair work.
National Grid said in a statement: “Over the past 12 weeks, we’ve successfully completed more than 18,000 jobs without incident. . . . Safety is our top priority, regardless of the composition of the workforce that is serving our customers. The DPU has questioned us on alleged safety violations reported by union employees, and we will continue to work with the agency to address any safety concerns they may have.”
Now I feel better.
--more--"
"Editorial: Fires raged Thursday, questions rage now" September 14, 2018
Thousands of Massachusetts residents woke up Friday morning with the same urgent worry: Could the explosions that rippled through the Merrimack Valley on Thursday happen to me? Without warning, in the late afternoon, ordinary gas lines — the kind that fuel stoves and furnaces — suddenly turned into deadly hazards, spewing out overpressurized gas that triggered dozens of fires.
Yeah, it kind of knocks all the other concerns -- Trump, politics, wars, and all the other filler in my Globe -- away.
So what is going to happen, authority will need to get into all houses to check for gas leaks?
Is that the agenda here?
The first and most important step is for federal investigators to get to the bottom of how the explosions occurred, but that doesn’t mean state and local officials here should step back and wait. Quite the contrary, they need to play an active role supporting the NTSB investigation. That’s especially true for the state’s Department of Public Utilities. Being proactive would go a long way for an agency that has been criticized for being cozy with the industry.
What do you mean an agency cozy with industry?
This is Massachusetts, dammit!
Look at the Globe wanting to defer to the feds, too. Just showed their hand.
Longer-term fixes, including any needed regulatory or legal reforms, will depend on what NTSB investigators unearth. One topic likely to come under scrutiny is the sheer age of the Commonwealth’s energy infrastructure, some of which still consists of 19-century cast iron pipes. In a 2017 regulatory filing, Columbia Gas said it still had 471 miles of cast iron mains, which are intermediate-size pipelines, and at least 250 miles of mains dating to before World War II.
WTF?!!?
In 2014, the state passed a law designed to hasten replacement of old pipes. Columbia Gas was reportedly upgrading its lines on the day of the explosions. It filed plans for further upgrades under the 2014 law, but it’s worth asking whether that work needs to be sped up.
Or not!
Still, just age shouldn’t have caused the overpressurization. Even if the mains themselves are antiquated, the pressure control systems typically aren’t. If investigators determine safety measures were inadequate, the DPU will need to act. And if the fines and punishments available to the DPU are inadequate, the Legislature should explore stiffening them.
So far, at least the state is showing who’s boss.
OKAY, YEAH!
It’s a good first step toward ensuring that Massachusetts residents never have to go through this ordeal again, but if the San Bruno cataclysm is any indication, the recovery and reparations will take years. State and local officials will need to be vigilant and, if the facts warrant action, be ready to hit Columbia Gas where it hurts: the bottom line.....
OOOOH!
At least we know what is most important!
--more--"
I guess the Globe has already ruled out criminal negligence, huh?
Also see:
Looking for answers in aftermath of shocking explosions
The scientists says the wet weather trapped methane in the soil and oxygen couldn't get at it, or some such thing, and I'm wondering why gas mains aren't blowing up all winter long but I'm not a $cienti$t. The other letter is issuing a heads up, Boston.
"Two employees from a pharmacy in Duxbury were transported to a hospital with cardiovascular issues Wednesday because of a possible freon leak from a package shipped to the building, fire officials said. The employees complained about a burning odor before experiencing health issues, Duxbury fire officials said in a tweet around 1:30 p.m. The odor came from a breach in a refrigerated package shipped to Rite Aid on 28 Depot St. Freon is often used as a refrigerant. A state hazmat team was at the pharmacy assisting the Duxbury Fire Department in investigating the leak, Duxbury fire officials tweeted around 11:40 a.m. Rite Aid was closed. The hazmat team entered the building to conduct atmospheric monitoring. The two affected employees were taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth."
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"After slamming into the Carolina coast on Friday with powerful winds and torrential rains, Hurricane Florence left a trail of devastation as it crawled over the southeastern part of the state, posing what may be its greatest threat in the days ahead as it roars inland with what are shaping up to be record-setting quantities of water. The storm, whose destructive power was unlike any the area has seen in a generation....."
It was a Cat 4, or so we were told, booga-booga, but hit land as a Cat 1 so now the flooding is the real threat -- or so we are told.
In a storm, Trump is our 2-ply president
People don’t like President Trump
Says who?
The same people who were oh-so-certain Clinton couldn't lose?
People don’t like President Trump
Says who?
The same people who were oh-so-certain Clinton couldn't lose?
"Super typhoon makes landfall in the Philippines" by Richard C. Paddock New York Times September 14, 2018
MANILA — A powerful typhoon that packed winds as high as 170 miles per hour slammed the northern Philippines early Saturday with an intensity not seen since Typhoon Haiyan ravaged the center of the country in 2013, killing more than 6,000 people.
Heavy rainfall and whipping winds were reported on the island’s eastern coast as Super Typhoon Mangkhut, the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane, made landfall on the northern island of Luzon at 1:40 a.m. local time.
The maximum sustained wind speed of the typhoon slowed to about 120 miles per hour as it reached Luzon’s shores, weather bulletins said, but its power to destroy was no less lethal.
They gin up threats that dissolve while minimizing real threats (like the gas pipelines under your feet).
Thousands of people had evacuated their homes and stockpiled emergency supplies in frantic preparation for the possibility of a major disaster.
Let's hope it isn't, and if the weather was all the pre$$ lied about that would be fine. It's not.
The new storm hit a less densely populated, less vulnerable area than the one plundered by Haiyan. Still, government officials, hoping to avoid anything like that storm’s devastation, pleaded with vulnerable residents to move to shelters before the storm, fearing drenching rains and devastating mudslides along the island’s mountainous coastlines.
Remind you of anything, Amurkn?
Luzon is the Philippines’ largest and most populous island, but the northern tip is largely agricultural and is known as the country’s breadbasket.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines called on churches throughout the predominantly Catholic country to recite a prayer for deliverance from calamities.
I don't know if they are the right ones to be praying right now.
Given what they have done, God may not hear them too kindly.
The storm moved across the Sierra Madre, a Luzon mountain range, and over the Cagayan Valley, one of the country’s largest agricultural regions and a major producer of rice, corn and vegetables.
Heavy flooding or other damage could cripple the country’s food supply.
Hmmmm.
The Philippines’ benchmark stock index was the worst performer in Asia on Friday, as investors feared the storm would exacerbate inflationary pressures in the country.
I'm glad the pre$$ gets around to the truly important i$$ues.
Throughout the region, thousands of people took shelter in temporary evacuation centers, fortifying their homes by placing wood over the windows and stockpiling emergency food, water and medical supplies.
Aid groups such as Oxfam and Save the Children Philippines, which both have experience in Philippine disaster relief efforts, were also preparing to provide assistance.
Rhona Daoang, a spokeswoman for the Ilocos Norte provincial government, said it was taking measures to prevent widespread loss of life.....
--more--"
While we are over there:
"N. Korea says US ‘smear campaign’ over hacking undercuts Trump-Kim joint statement" by Simon Denyer Washington Post September 14, 2018
SEOUL — North Korea slammed the United States for circulating ‘‘preposterous falsehoods’’ and conducting a vicious smear campaign on Friday, after Washington charged an alleged hacker for the North Korean government in connection with a series of major cyberattacks, including the 2014 assault on Sony Pictures Entertainment.
He did it in the name of God.
The angry rhetoric against Washington came in stark contrast to the latest sign of warming ties between North and South Korea as they opened a new liaison office near the border, but the war of words over the hacking charges shows the huge gulf of distrust that continues to exist between the governments of both nations.
Let's hope it just stays a war of words, 'kay?
The Justice Department says North Korea-linked hackers wiped data from thousands of Sony computers in 2014 and stole confidential e-mails, while also targeting AMC theaters, which planned to show a satirical film depicting Kim’s assassination.
Like I would trust anything coming from the DoJ these days.
The North Korean statement said those incidents ‘‘had nothing to do with us.’’
Who do you believe?
Nevertheless, the fact that the statement was signed by a researcher rather than a Foreign Ministry official does somewhat lessen its impact.
Meanwhile, relations between North and South Korea continue their dramatic improvement.....
Yeah, what you are seeing is the Koreans going their own way and making peace. Trump is being dragged along in recognition as his Deep State, neocon Cabinet and pre$$ fights him every inch of the way.
--more--"
MANILA — A powerful typhoon that packed winds as high as 170 miles per hour slammed the northern Philippines early Saturday with an intensity not seen since Typhoon Haiyan ravaged the center of the country in 2013, killing more than 6,000 people.
Heavy rainfall and whipping winds were reported on the island’s eastern coast as Super Typhoon Mangkhut, the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane, made landfall on the northern island of Luzon at 1:40 a.m. local time.
The maximum sustained wind speed of the typhoon slowed to about 120 miles per hour as it reached Luzon’s shores, weather bulletins said, but its power to destroy was no less lethal.
They gin up threats that dissolve while minimizing real threats (like the gas pipelines under your feet).
Thousands of people had evacuated their homes and stockpiled emergency supplies in frantic preparation for the possibility of a major disaster.
Let's hope it isn't, and if the weather was all the pre$$ lied about that would be fine. It's not.
The new storm hit a less densely populated, less vulnerable area than the one plundered by Haiyan. Still, government officials, hoping to avoid anything like that storm’s devastation, pleaded with vulnerable residents to move to shelters before the storm, fearing drenching rains and devastating mudslides along the island’s mountainous coastlines.
Remind you of anything, Amurkn?
Luzon is the Philippines’ largest and most populous island, but the northern tip is largely agricultural and is known as the country’s breadbasket.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines called on churches throughout the predominantly Catholic country to recite a prayer for deliverance from calamities.
I don't know if they are the right ones to be praying right now.
Given what they have done, God may not hear them too kindly.
The storm moved across the Sierra Madre, a Luzon mountain range, and over the Cagayan Valley, one of the country’s largest agricultural regions and a major producer of rice, corn and vegetables.
Heavy flooding or other damage could cripple the country’s food supply.
Hmmmm.
The Philippines’ benchmark stock index was the worst performer in Asia on Friday, as investors feared the storm would exacerbate inflationary pressures in the country.
I'm glad the pre$$ gets around to the truly important i$$ues.
Throughout the region, thousands of people took shelter in temporary evacuation centers, fortifying their homes by placing wood over the windows and stockpiling emergency food, water and medical supplies.
Aid groups such as Oxfam and Save the Children Philippines, which both have experience in Philippine disaster relief efforts, were also preparing to provide assistance.
Rhona Daoang, a spokeswoman for the Ilocos Norte provincial government, said it was taking measures to prevent widespread loss of life.....
--more--"
While we are over there:
"N. Korea says US ‘smear campaign’ over hacking undercuts Trump-Kim joint statement" by Simon Denyer Washington Post September 14, 2018
SEOUL — North Korea slammed the United States for circulating ‘‘preposterous falsehoods’’ and conducting a vicious smear campaign on Friday, after Washington charged an alleged hacker for the North Korean government in connection with a series of major cyberattacks, including the 2014 assault on Sony Pictures Entertainment.
He did it in the name of God.
The angry rhetoric against Washington came in stark contrast to the latest sign of warming ties between North and South Korea as they opened a new liaison office near the border, but the war of words over the hacking charges shows the huge gulf of distrust that continues to exist between the governments of both nations.
Let's hope it just stays a war of words, 'kay?
The Justice Department says North Korea-linked hackers wiped data from thousands of Sony computers in 2014 and stole confidential e-mails, while also targeting AMC theaters, which planned to show a satirical film depicting Kim’s assassination.
Like I would trust anything coming from the DoJ these days.
The North Korean statement said those incidents ‘‘had nothing to do with us.’’
Who do you believe?
Nevertheless, the fact that the statement was signed by a researcher rather than a Foreign Ministry official does somewhat lessen its impact.
Meanwhile, relations between North and South Korea continue their dramatic improvement.....
Yeah, what you are seeing is the Koreans going their own way and making peace. Trump is being dragged along in recognition as his Deep State, neocon Cabinet and pre$$ fights him every inch of the way.
--more--"
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"Letter claims attempted assault by a teenage Kavanaugh" by Nicholas Fandos and Michael S. Schmidt September 14, 2018
At this late hour?
At this late hour?
WASHINGTON — A secretive letter shared with senators and federal investigators by the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee charges that a teenage Brett Kavanaugh and a male friend trapped a teenage girl in a bedroom during a party and tried to assault her, according to three people familiar with the contents of the letter.
Not another one!
Not another one!
The letter says that Kavanaugh, then a student at Georgetown Preparatory School in suburban Washington and now President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, had been drinking at a social gathering when he and the male friend took the teenage girl into a bedroom. The door was locked, and she was thrown on the bed. Kavanaugh then got on top of the teenager and put a hand over her mouth, as the music was turned up, according to the account, but the young woman was able to extricate herself and leave the room before anything else occurred, the letter says.
The woman says she considered the incident an assault. She has declined to be publicly identified, and she asked Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, not to publicize the letter.
BUT?!!
BUT?!!
In a statement shared by the White House, Kavanaugh said the charges were false.
“I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation,” he said. “I did not do this back in high school or at any time.”
The episode took place more than 30 years ago, when all three individuals involved were minors. The New York Times has not seen the letter, but its contents were described by the three people.
Meaning THIS IS CRAP!
I cannot believe how LOW the New York Times has sunk.
Now they are presenting an unseen letter that three people say they saw as news!!
I guess confirming stories went out with Iraq's WMD, huh?
Meaning THIS IS CRAP!
I cannot believe how LOW the New York Times has sunk.
Now they are presenting an unseen letter that three people say they saw as news!!
I guess confirming stories went out with Iraq's WMD, huh?
With speculation about the letter’s contents circulating this week, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, released a different letter Friday, sent to him and to Feinstein and signed by 65 women who say they knew Kavanaugh while in high school.
“Through the more than 35 years we have known him, Brett has stood out for his friendship, character, and integrity,” the women wrote. “In particular, he has always treated women with decency and respect. That was true when he was in high school, and it has remained true to this day.”
Did they put their names on it?
Did they put their names on it?
Grassley was still planning to move ahead with Kavanaugh’s confirmation. The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a key vote to advance the nomination Thursday, and Republican leaders hope to hold a final vote of the full Senate before the end of September to allow Kavanaugh to be seated before the start of the Supreme Court’s fall term next month. Grassley’s aides said Kavanaugh had been the subject of six FBI background checks since 1993, and none had turned up anything like the episode in question.
Then the FBI is in even worse shape than we thought, right?
In fact, they are not even investigating this. They threw it back to the White house.
Then the FBI is in even worse shape than we thought, right?
In fact, they are not even investigating this. They threw it back to the White house.
It was not immediately clear how, if at all, the accusation would influence senators who must decide whether to give Kavanaugh a lifetime appointment to the court. Only a small group of moderate senators remain publicly undecided about their votes, and objections from either one of two undecided Republicans, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, could thwart confirmation.
Collins spent an hour on the phone with Kavanaugh on Friday, shortly after details of the letter were first published. The call had been scheduled for days, and neither the White House nor Collins’s office would discuss what was said.
The White House and outside pro-Kavanaugh groups continued to accuse Democrats of playing dirty, withholding mysterious information until the eve of Kavanaugh’s confirmation in a last-ditch effort to derail a nominee they have always opposed.
More like they are desperate, and I hope they succeed in derailing Kavanaugh so we can shove a real hardline conservative up their ass rather than a guy who is going to protect the Clinton-Bush secrets.
Be careful what you wish for, Democrats (didn't they want to run against Trump?)
More like they are desperate, and I hope they succeed in derailing Kavanaugh so we can shove a real hardline conservative up their ass rather than a guy who is going to protect the Clinton-Bush secrets.
Be careful what you wish for, Democrats (didn't they want to run against Trump?)
“I do not intend to allow Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation to be stalled because of an eleventh-hour accusation that Democrats did not see fit to raise for over a month,” Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, said Friday. He added, “The claims are wholly unverifiable, and come at the tail-end of a process that was already marred by ugly innuendo, dishonesty, and the nastiest form of our politics. The American people deserve much better from the Senate as an institution.”
Who could ever vote for a party like that?
Who could ever vote for a party like that?
Tom Mentzer, a spokesman for Feinstein, released a statement Friday afternoon saying, “Senator Feinstein was given information about Judge Kavanaugh through a third party. The senator took these allegations seriously and believed they should be public. However, the woman in question made it clear she did not want this information to be public. It is critical in matters of sexual misconduct to protect the identity of the victim when they wish to remain anonymous, and the senator did so in this case.”
So not only did Feinstein betray the woman, she passed along heresy!
I hope she loses this fall.
So not only did Feinstein betray the woman, she passed along heresy!
I hope she loses this fall.
The woman’s letter first arrived on Capitol Hill in July, initially to the office of Representative Anna Eshoo, Democrat of California. It was quickly shared with Feinstein, as well, who from her senior position on the Judiciary Committee would lead Democratic questioning of Kavanaugh, but Feinstein was torn by competing concerns. The woman made clear that though she had shared the information because she felt it could be relevant to Senate consideration of Kavanaugh, she did not want to come forward or make the accusations public.
So she waited until the 11th hour, huh?
--more--"
They are behaving like children!
"Talking points: Katherine Clark embarks on quest for federal child care subsidies" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff September 12, 2018
If you’re raising kids in the Boston area, you probably won’t be surprised that this is one of the most expensive places for child care in the country.
It’s a vexing issue, one that exacerbates the region’s persistent income inequality. That’s one reason why US Representative Katherine Clark is promoting a possible fix, and is seeking support for it among her colleagues on Capitol Hill this fall.
Democrats would need to take back the House in November, of course. (Clark, it’s worth noting, is in a race of her own, against GOP candidate John Hugo, although it seems unlikely that her suburban district will turn Republican on her.)
Even if her party wins control in Congress, Clark is still embarking on a somewhat quixotic quest. She will need to jockey for attention amid a crowded list of priorities for the House Dems -- one that includes curbing drug costs, getting public infrastructure built, and reforming campaign finance rules. Clark will also need more allies in Congress, and in the business community.
They didn't mention IMPEACHMENT!
Then there’s the cost: an estimated $40 billion a year, or more.
Forget it.
Clark hinted that the recent corporate tax cut could be pared back to help pay for it, but it’s never politically easy to take back a tax cut. To Clark, it’s all about priorities. The staggering cost of child care comes up frequently on the campaign trail. She says investing in early childhood education can pay off in the end: Parents have more freedom to go back to work, children get enriching experiences in formative years, and lower-paid workers could see salary increases.
Maybe her idea gets scaled back, or incorporated in some form within someone else’s legislation. Maybe it doesn’t get much further than it did last year. It’s problematic that child care costs can add up more quickly than college tuition. At least, Clark says, she is getting people to talk about finding a solution.....
Maybe, Globe?
--more--"
Maybe she should speak with Ivanka.
Then it is off to work:
"Abby Johnson touts Fidelity’s tech push" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff September 14, 2018
Fidelity Investments remains one of the largest fund managers in the world, but CEO Abby Johnson believes it is imperative for many of the Boston company’s employees to think and act like they work for a startup, in an effort to stay ahead of industry trends as financial technology evolves.
That was the general theme of Johnson’s presentation on the final day of Boston Fintech Week, an industry-sponsored series of events looking at the next generation of startups and technology for the sector. Johnson spoke during a question-and-answer session on Friday with Sarah Biller, co-founder of the FinTech Sandbox, a local nonprofit, at Fidelity’s headquarters overlooking the Fort Point Channel.
Why did the Globe wait for the last day to cover this?
Johnson highlighted the work of two arms of Fidelity Investments, the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, or FCAT, and Fidelity Labs, its in-house incubator for fintech ideas. She noted that the company also invests in financial startups through its venture arm, F-Prime Capital.
Among FCAT’s more recent initiatives: a virtual reality experiment known as “Cora” — created in partnership with Amazon Web Services — that could provide assistance to investors.....
Of and for whom the paper is written.
--more--"
"FDA plans meeting to discuss safety data on breast implants" by Marilynn Marchione Associated Press September 14, 2018
US health regulators say they’ll convene a public meeting of medical advisers next year to discuss new science on breast implant safety that involves nearly 100,000 women and is the largest long-term safety analysis of silicone implants since 2006, when they were allowed back on the US market after a 14-year gap due to safety concerns.
‘‘We completely stand behind this study and we do feel it’s our best data to date,’’ said lead researcher Dr. Mark Clemens, a plastic surgeon at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Women need as much information as possible to make an informed decision about whether and what kind of implant to get, he said.
The journal Annals of Surgery plans to publish the report on Monday. Study leaders have no current ties to implant makers, although Clemens consulted for one in the past.
Each year in the United States, about 400,000 women get an implant and most choose silicone over saline; surgeons say it can give a more natural look. Three-fourths are for women who want bigger breasts; the rest are for reconstruction after cancer surgery.....
You would think this industry would crater with the rise of the #MeToo movement.
--more--"
Nipples getting erect:
"U.S. stocks hardly moved Friday as the market wrapped up a solid week. Smaller companies rose following signs of sustained economic growth and reports that more tariffs on Chinese goods could be on the way. Stocks rose in early trading after the Federal Reserve said production of cars and energy jumped in August. The Commerce Department said sales by retailers grew only slightly in August after a big gain in July. "It's a reflection of stronger economic growth," said Kate Warne, an investment strategist for Edward Jones. "It continues to bode well for strength going into the fall and later in the year. Warne said she expects the U.S. economy to grow about 3 percent this year, which is what most experts are forecasting....."
Hallelujah!
"$1.5m settlement for Muslim workers fired in prayer dispute" by James Anderson Associated Press September 14, 2018
DENVER — A big US meatpacker has agreed to pay $1.5 million to 138 Somali-American Muslim workers who were fired from their jobs at a Colorado plant after they were refused prayer breaks, a federal anti-discrimination agency said Friday.
Cargill Meat Solutions, a division of Minnesota-based agribusiness company Cargill Corp., also agreed to train managers and hourly workers in accommodating Muslim employees’ prayer breaks at its Fort Morgan beef processing plant, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said.
Cargill denied wrongdoing but agreed to settle to avoid further litigation, the federal agency said. The dispute dates back to the firings of the workers in late 2016 after management rescinded policies allowing Muslim employees to take short breaks for prayer.
In 2017, the agency found that the workers had been harassed and discriminated against for protesting the unannounced policy change that denied them opportunities for obligatory prayer. Hundreds of Somali-Americans work at the plant in Fort Morgan, northeast of Denver.
In a related announcement, a Teamsters union local that was supposed to represent the workers will pay them $153,000 to settle discrimination complaints.
The federal agency said it determined that Teamsters Local Union No. 455, based in Denver and in Fort Morgan, failed to advocate for the Muslim workers in their dispute with Cargill and harassed them because of their race, religion, and national origin. The workers were dues-paying union members.
They just suffered a huge setback, and not even the state can help them.
--more--"
To avoid any problems in the future they are now only hiring Cubans.
"Trump, Pompeo bash Kerry on Iran talks" by Matthew Lee Associated Press September 14, 2018
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unloaded Friday on his Obama-era predecessor John Kerry for ‘‘actively undermining’’ US policy on Iran by meeting several times recently with the Iranian foreign minister, who was his main interlocutor in the Iran nuclear deal negotiations.
Kind of like Obama unloading on his successor but in reverse.
In unusually blunt and caustic language, Pompeo said Kerry’s meetings with Mohammad Javad Zarif were ‘‘unseemly and unprecedented’’ and ‘‘beyond inappropriate.’’ President Trump late Thursday accused Kerry of holding ‘‘illegal meetings with the very hostile Iranian Regime, which can only serve to undercut our great work to the detriment of the American people.’’
Pompeo said he would leave ‘‘legal determinations to others’’ but slammed Kerry as a former secretary of state for engaging with ‘‘the world’s largest state-sponsor of terror’’ and telling Iran to ‘‘wait out this administration.’’ He noted that just this week Iranian-backed militias had fired rockets at US diplomatic compounds in Iraq.
Really?
Looks like another CIA destabilization effort to me.
‘‘You can’t find precedent for this in US history, and Secretary Kerry ought not to engage in that kind of behavior,’’ an agitated Pompeo told reporters at the State Department. ‘‘It’s inconsistent with what foreign policy of the United States is as directed by this president, and it is beyond inappropriate for him to be engaged.’’
Kerry, who is promoting his new book ‘‘Every Day is Extra,’’ tweeted a response to Trump that referred to the president’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who agreed on Friday to cooperate with the special counsel’s investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign.
‘‘Mr. President, you should be more worried about Paul Manafort meeting with Robert Mueller than me meeting with Iran’s FM. But if you want to learn something about the nuclear agreement that made the world safer, buy my new book,’’ Kerry said.
Everyone has a book out now!
He and the Globe are getting all worked up over Manafort agreeing to cooperate with the special counsel, but nothing in there is about 2016 and Russian interference or collusion (although there is a reference to Tony Podesta, a prominent Democratic lobbyist, and Gregory Craig, a former White House counsel in the Obama administration, which is why Mueller is shutting down -- that and the recent Strzok-Page texts.)
Pompeo also took to task former Energy Secretary Earnest Moniz and former Iran deal negotiator Wendy Sherman for joining Kerry at a meeting with Zarif and other Iranian officials earlier this year at a security conference in Munich. Along with Kerry, Moniz and Sherman played key roles in negotiating the 2015 agreement between Iran and several world powers that lifted sanctions against Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.
Such meetings, between a private US citizen and foreign official, are not against the law and not necessarily inappropriate or a violation of federal regulations, but Trump, Pompeo, and several GOP lawmakers say they are evidence Kerry and former Obama administration officials are trying to subvert Trump’s hard line on Iran.
The law Trump invoked in a tweet — the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA — requires registration and transparency by people or companies acting on behalf of foreign governments, political parties or individuals, but Josh Rosenstein, a partner with the Washington law firm Sandler Reiff and a specialist in lobbying compliance, said there are too many unanswered questions to know whether the law applies to Kerry’s interactions with Zarif. FARA’s provisions don’t extend to activities conducted entirely overseas, so where Kerry interacted with him matters. Also unclear is whether any Iranians specifically asked Kerry for advice.
‘‘The devil’s always in the details,’’ Rosenstein said. ‘‘Simply offering advice to a foreign government doesn’t make you a foreign agent.’’
When reports of Kerry’s contacts with Zarif first surfaced in May, Trump tweeted similar thoughts. ‘‘John Kerry can’t get over the fact that he had his chance and blew it! Stay away from negotiations John, you are hurting your country!’’ he said on May 8. A day earlier, he tweeted: ‘‘The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal. He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!’’
Trump and Pompeo’s criticism came after Kerry told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday that earlier reports of his meetings with Zarif were correct: They had met three or four times since Kerry left office but not since Pompeo took the job in April. One of those meetings took place in Oslo and another in Munich, he said. A third is reported to have occurred at the United Nations headquarters, which is not technically on US soil.
Kerry told Hewitt that he was not coaching the Iranians on how to deal with the Trump administration.
‘‘That’s not my job, and my coaching him would not, you know, that’s not how it works,’’ he said in the interview. ‘‘What I have done is tried to elicit from [Zarif] what Iran might be willing to do in order to change the dynamic in the Middle East for the better.’’
That very well may be, but.....
--more--"
Related: Far from Harvard, Bacow preaches the gospel of higher education
Poor Pontiac and Detroit, although the new leader and son of Jewish immigrants promises a more outward-looking Harvard.
--more--"
They are behaving like children!
"Talking points: Katherine Clark embarks on quest for federal child care subsidies" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff September 12, 2018
If you’re raising kids in the Boston area, you probably won’t be surprised that this is one of the most expensive places for child care in the country.
It’s a vexing issue, one that exacerbates the region’s persistent income inequality. That’s one reason why US Representative Katherine Clark is promoting a possible fix, and is seeking support for it among her colleagues on Capitol Hill this fall.
Democrats would need to take back the House in November, of course. (Clark, it’s worth noting, is in a race of her own, against GOP candidate John Hugo, although it seems unlikely that her suburban district will turn Republican on her.)
Even if her party wins control in Congress, Clark is still embarking on a somewhat quixotic quest. She will need to jockey for attention amid a crowded list of priorities for the House Dems -- one that includes curbing drug costs, getting public infrastructure built, and reforming campaign finance rules. Clark will also need more allies in Congress, and in the business community.
They didn't mention IMPEACHMENT!
Then there’s the cost: an estimated $40 billion a year, or more.
Forget it.
Clark hinted that the recent corporate tax cut could be pared back to help pay for it, but it’s never politically easy to take back a tax cut. To Clark, it’s all about priorities. The staggering cost of child care comes up frequently on the campaign trail. She says investing in early childhood education can pay off in the end: Parents have more freedom to go back to work, children get enriching experiences in formative years, and lower-paid workers could see salary increases.
Maybe her idea gets scaled back, or incorporated in some form within someone else’s legislation. Maybe it doesn’t get much further than it did last year. It’s problematic that child care costs can add up more quickly than college tuition. At least, Clark says, she is getting people to talk about finding a solution.....
Maybe, Globe?
--more--"
Maybe she should speak with Ivanka.
Then it is off to work:
"Abby Johnson touts Fidelity’s tech push" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff September 14, 2018
Fidelity Investments remains one of the largest fund managers in the world, but CEO Abby Johnson believes it is imperative for many of the Boston company’s employees to think and act like they work for a startup, in an effort to stay ahead of industry trends as financial technology evolves.
That was the general theme of Johnson’s presentation on the final day of Boston Fintech Week, an industry-sponsored series of events looking at the next generation of startups and technology for the sector. Johnson spoke during a question-and-answer session on Friday with Sarah Biller, co-founder of the FinTech Sandbox, a local nonprofit, at Fidelity’s headquarters overlooking the Fort Point Channel.
Why did the Globe wait for the last day to cover this?
Johnson highlighted the work of two arms of Fidelity Investments, the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, or FCAT, and Fidelity Labs, its in-house incubator for fintech ideas. She noted that the company also invests in financial startups through its venture arm, F-Prime Capital.
Among FCAT’s more recent initiatives: a virtual reality experiment known as “Cora” — created in partnership with Amazon Web Services — that could provide assistance to investors.....
Of and for whom the paper is written.
--more--"
"FDA plans meeting to discuss safety data on breast implants" by Marilynn Marchione Associated Press September 14, 2018
US health regulators say they’ll convene a public meeting of medical advisers next year to discuss new science on breast implant safety that involves nearly 100,000 women and is the largest long-term safety analysis of silicone implants since 2006, when they were allowed back on the US market after a 14-year gap due to safety concerns.
‘‘We completely stand behind this study and we do feel it’s our best data to date,’’ said lead researcher Dr. Mark Clemens, a plastic surgeon at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Women need as much information as possible to make an informed decision about whether and what kind of implant to get, he said.
The journal Annals of Surgery plans to publish the report on Monday. Study leaders have no current ties to implant makers, although Clemens consulted for one in the past.
Each year in the United States, about 400,000 women get an implant and most choose silicone over saline; surgeons say it can give a more natural look. Three-fourths are for women who want bigger breasts; the rest are for reconstruction after cancer surgery.....
You would think this industry would crater with the rise of the #MeToo movement.
--more--"
Nipples getting erect:
"U.S. stocks hardly moved Friday as the market wrapped up a solid week. Smaller companies rose following signs of sustained economic growth and reports that more tariffs on Chinese goods could be on the way. Stocks rose in early trading after the Federal Reserve said production of cars and energy jumped in August. The Commerce Department said sales by retailers grew only slightly in August after a big gain in July. "It's a reflection of stronger economic growth," said Kate Warne, an investment strategist for Edward Jones. "It continues to bode well for strength going into the fall and later in the year. Warne said she expects the U.S. economy to grow about 3 percent this year, which is what most experts are forecasting....."
Hallelujah!
"$1.5m settlement for Muslim workers fired in prayer dispute" by James Anderson Associated Press September 14, 2018
DENVER — A big US meatpacker has agreed to pay $1.5 million to 138 Somali-American Muslim workers who were fired from their jobs at a Colorado plant after they were refused prayer breaks, a federal anti-discrimination agency said Friday.
Cargill Meat Solutions, a division of Minnesota-based agribusiness company Cargill Corp., also agreed to train managers and hourly workers in accommodating Muslim employees’ prayer breaks at its Fort Morgan beef processing plant, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said.
Cargill denied wrongdoing but agreed to settle to avoid further litigation, the federal agency said. The dispute dates back to the firings of the workers in late 2016 after management rescinded policies allowing Muslim employees to take short breaks for prayer.
In 2017, the agency found that the workers had been harassed and discriminated against for protesting the unannounced policy change that denied them opportunities for obligatory prayer. Hundreds of Somali-Americans work at the plant in Fort Morgan, northeast of Denver.
In a related announcement, a Teamsters union local that was supposed to represent the workers will pay them $153,000 to settle discrimination complaints.
The federal agency said it determined that Teamsters Local Union No. 455, based in Denver and in Fort Morgan, failed to advocate for the Muslim workers in their dispute with Cargill and harassed them because of their race, religion, and national origin. The workers were dues-paying union members.
They just suffered a huge setback, and not even the state can help them.
--more--"
To avoid any problems in the future they are now only hiring Cubans.
"Trump, Pompeo bash Kerry on Iran talks" by Matthew Lee Associated Press September 14, 2018
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unloaded Friday on his Obama-era predecessor John Kerry for ‘‘actively undermining’’ US policy on Iran by meeting several times recently with the Iranian foreign minister, who was his main interlocutor in the Iran nuclear deal negotiations.
Kind of like Obama unloading on his successor but in reverse.
In unusually blunt and caustic language, Pompeo said Kerry’s meetings with Mohammad Javad Zarif were ‘‘unseemly and unprecedented’’ and ‘‘beyond inappropriate.’’ President Trump late Thursday accused Kerry of holding ‘‘illegal meetings with the very hostile Iranian Regime, which can only serve to undercut our great work to the detriment of the American people.’’
Pompeo said he would leave ‘‘legal determinations to others’’ but slammed Kerry as a former secretary of state for engaging with ‘‘the world’s largest state-sponsor of terror’’ and telling Iran to ‘‘wait out this administration.’’ He noted that just this week Iranian-backed militias had fired rockets at US diplomatic compounds in Iraq.
Really?
Looks like another CIA destabilization effort to me.
‘‘You can’t find precedent for this in US history, and Secretary Kerry ought not to engage in that kind of behavior,’’ an agitated Pompeo told reporters at the State Department. ‘‘It’s inconsistent with what foreign policy of the United States is as directed by this president, and it is beyond inappropriate for him to be engaged.’’
Kerry, who is promoting his new book ‘‘Every Day is Extra,’’ tweeted a response to Trump that referred to the president’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who agreed on Friday to cooperate with the special counsel’s investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign.
‘‘Mr. President, you should be more worried about Paul Manafort meeting with Robert Mueller than me meeting with Iran’s FM. But if you want to learn something about the nuclear agreement that made the world safer, buy my new book,’’ Kerry said.
Everyone has a book out now!
He and the Globe are getting all worked up over Manafort agreeing to cooperate with the special counsel, but nothing in there is about 2016 and Russian interference or collusion (although there is a reference to Tony Podesta, a prominent Democratic lobbyist, and Gregory Craig, a former White House counsel in the Obama administration, which is why Mueller is shutting down -- that and the recent Strzok-Page texts.)
Pompeo also took to task former Energy Secretary Earnest Moniz and former Iran deal negotiator Wendy Sherman for joining Kerry at a meeting with Zarif and other Iranian officials earlier this year at a security conference in Munich. Along with Kerry, Moniz and Sherman played key roles in negotiating the 2015 agreement between Iran and several world powers that lifted sanctions against Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.
Such meetings, between a private US citizen and foreign official, are not against the law and not necessarily inappropriate or a violation of federal regulations, but Trump, Pompeo, and several GOP lawmakers say they are evidence Kerry and former Obama administration officials are trying to subvert Trump’s hard line on Iran.
The law Trump invoked in a tweet — the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA — requires registration and transparency by people or companies acting on behalf of foreign governments, political parties or individuals, but Josh Rosenstein, a partner with the Washington law firm Sandler Reiff and a specialist in lobbying compliance, said there are too many unanswered questions to know whether the law applies to Kerry’s interactions with Zarif. FARA’s provisions don’t extend to activities conducted entirely overseas, so where Kerry interacted with him matters. Also unclear is whether any Iranians specifically asked Kerry for advice.
‘‘The devil’s always in the details,’’ Rosenstein said. ‘‘Simply offering advice to a foreign government doesn’t make you a foreign agent.’’
When reports of Kerry’s contacts with Zarif first surfaced in May, Trump tweeted similar thoughts. ‘‘John Kerry can’t get over the fact that he had his chance and blew it! Stay away from negotiations John, you are hurting your country!’’ he said on May 8. A day earlier, he tweeted: ‘‘The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal. He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!’’
Trump and Pompeo’s criticism came after Kerry told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday that earlier reports of his meetings with Zarif were correct: They had met three or four times since Kerry left office but not since Pompeo took the job in April. One of those meetings took place in Oslo and another in Munich, he said. A third is reported to have occurred at the United Nations headquarters, which is not technically on US soil.
Kerry told Hewitt that he was not coaching the Iranians on how to deal with the Trump administration.
‘‘That’s not my job, and my coaching him would not, you know, that’s not how it works,’’ he said in the interview. ‘‘What I have done is tried to elicit from [Zarif] what Iran might be willing to do in order to change the dynamic in the Middle East for the better.’’
That very well may be, but.....
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Related: Far from Harvard, Bacow preaches the gospel of higher education
Poor Pontiac and Detroit, although the new leader and son of Jewish immigrants promises a more outward-looking Harvard.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Meanwhile, there is no outrage regarding the civilian massacre in Iraq as the U.S. blessedly gets away with murder, nor is there any regarding the continuous attempt at regime change in Syria.
There is outrage in Spain over the prime minister’s plagiarism, but just sadness when it comes to Sudan.
"Citigroup pays almost $13 million to settle SEC dark pool probe" by Jesse Westbrook Bloomberg News September 14, 2018
Citigroup Inc. has become the latest bank sanctioned in a years-long crackdown on misconduct tied to dark pools, with an affiliate paying almost $13 million to settle a US regulator’s allegations that it misled customers about the presence of high-speed traders on a private trading platform.
The unit gave customers false assurances that high-frequency traders weren’t allowed on the bank’s Citi Match venue, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a Friday statement. In fact, two of the most-active users were high-speed traders who executed more than $9 billion in orders on the dark pool, the SEC said.
Citigroup also failed to disclose that for more than two years, almost half of Citi Match orders were routed to outside trading platforms, the SEC said. The bank settled the case without admitting or denying the SEC’s claims.
They can't see any further than that.
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Gee, you would think they are all a bunch of state troopers.
Now go enjoy the Good Life!
