"FEMA opened its first COVID-19 mass vaccination sites Tuesday, setting up in Los Angeles and Oakland as part of an effort by the Biden administration to get shots into arms more quickly and reach minority communities hit hard by the outbreak. In the early morning in Los Angeles, several dozen cars were already lined up with people sitting inside reading newspapers and passing the time, a half-hour before the 9 a.m. opening of the country’s first mass vaccination site run with assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Troops in camouflage fatigues stood around the sprawling parking lot at California State University Los Angeles, where some 40 white tents were erected and dozens of orange cones put in place to guide traffic. The site, set up in heavily Latino East Los Angeles as part of an effort to reach communities that have suffered disproportionately from the coronavirus, aims to vaccinate up to 6,000 people a day. Another such site opened at the Oakland Coliseum, near working-class Black and Latino neighborhoods."
Well, can't call it a conspiracy anymore but who will care when we are hollering it in the halls of the camps?
Related:
"Farmers won’t see another year as profitable as 2020 for at least a decade, the US Department of Agriculture projected Tuesday. Farm profits soared to their highest level in seven years amid a flood of government aid related to the pandemic and the trade war, with direct federal assistance payments accounting for more than a third of US farmers’ $121.1 billion in net income last year. Despite a continuous rise in sales through 2030, the USDA forecast profits would be lower, dropping to $100.1 billion this year and then fluctuating in a range between $99.3 billion and $109.8 billion through 2030. The USDA projections assume no change in current government policy, though the Biden administration has suggested it is considering payments to farmers to encourage climate-friendly practices. The trade bailout isn’t scheduled to continue without new action from the president or Congress, nor are the pandemic relief measures. US agricultural exports are forecast to rise 12 percent for the federal fiscal year ended Sept. 30, driven by higher prices and larger quantities as global demand strengthens. Shipment value is projected to surpass a record set in 2014 by the following year and continue upward for the remainder of the decade."
Profitable for whom as Biden pays farmers to NOT PLANT CROPS, and the next question becomes how long until we are rounded up like the you-know-(rhymes with)who's and forced to march 6 miles through a foot of snow to the gas chambers (at least 13 children were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, so they are doing it to themselves to stay warm in an era of alleged global warming)?
How odd that after an all-night negotiating session, European Union leaders agreed Friday morning to cut net carbon emissions by 55% in the next decade from levels measured in 1990, overcoming the concerns of nations still heavily dependent on coal in the effort to become climate-neutral by 2050 as leaders are keen to position themselves as at the forefront of the global fight against climate change, the decision on the new target comes just in time for the United Nations climate summit Saturday (must have been a freak accident) while the cold weather puts a temporary freeze on oil production -- although I'm told that there will be no deep freeze here?
The situation out there begins to look very frightening indeed; however, my roots and faith tell me that I must not be afraid because we believe not in death, but in life, and there is no object more valuable than a man's life.
Btw, I swear I am who I say I am, a white man, and who would want to be one of them these days, 'eh?
I mean, what kind of a city are they inheriting from Walsh anyway?
A brief look finds that he botched(?) the appointment of the police commissioner in a major embarrassment after Gross delivered an emotional farewell, and says the police department is working to build community’s trust amid the mounting criticism because “people should trust the police.”
Of course, it all depends on who you call after the "security failures," as the police reform effort set a new political tone during the election season, although they are not letting up on the pressure as the lawsuit from Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson is part of an expected wave of litigation that traces the drawn-out effort by President Trump and Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to cast doubt on the election results even though courts across the country and state election officials repeatedly rejected their baseless allegations of fraud, and despite evidence to the contrary, the suit says, the men portrayed the election as stolen and while presidents are historically afforded broad immunity from lawsuits for actions they take in their role as commander in chief, the lawsuit filed Tuesday was brought against Trump in his personal, not official, capacity and alleges that none of the behavior at issue had to do with his responsibilities as president.
Well, the election WAS stolen from him, we all saw it, TIME admits it, and Thompson is reaching back to a provision of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 in bringing the case against Trump -- at a time when, you know, SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS were the PARTY of SLAVERY and SEGREGATION -- as well as WAR (Biden has kept in place Zalmay Khalilzad, the longtime diplomat who had negotiated the peace agreement under former president Donald Trump, in hopes of continuity in dealing with the Taliban and the Afghan government but he could be gone in the Blinken of an eye as they beg Yemen for a peace agreement)!
The genocidal totalitarianism and ob$e$$ion to control are buried deeply in their DNA, but that's a far cry from Bo$ton where they are releasing cop killers!
Nevertheless, the new mayor is on the verge of making history and is excited about what that means as Walsh leaves City Hall for a post in the Biden administration and she undergoes on-the-job training in her new digs.
Finally, black lives will matter more than whites in Bo$ton, or am I just beating a dead horse with the hung jury?
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Looks like I missed your train:
"MBTA weighs service cuts against an unknowable future; At the heart of the service cut debate is a murky outlook on transit ridership in a post-pandemic world" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, December 13, 2020
The MBTA’s oversight board will consider a package of service cuts at its final meeting of the year Monday, though the scale of the reductions was unclear as officials scrambled to finalize the proposal into the weekend.
After months of reduced ridership and fare revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority plans to reduce transit service in the first half of 2021, but the process has been complicated by a challenge not unique to public transportation: Nobody knows what to expect next year.
Among the many questions: How optimistic should the MBTA be about ridership, especially if a vaccine is widely available in the coming months? Will work habits that dramatically changed during the pandemic have long-lasting impacts on commuting? Will Congress approve aid to fill transit agencies’ budget gaps, and would the very act of reducing service ultimately stunt ridership long-term?
“Trying to predict human behavior is very difficult, particularly when it involves a very high degree of uncertainty,” said Kurt Forsgren, a managing director at S&P Global who focuses on transportation. “I think it’s been compounded by uncertainties about safety.”
In November, the MBTA proposed a package that would reduce frequency on trains and most bus routes; eliminate weekend commuter rail, ferry service, and a handful of bus lines; shorten part of the Green Line; and close the system earlier at night.
After weeks of pushback, the MBTA last week said it would likely scale back its plan, acknowledging it has enough room in its budget to stave off some of the proposed changes. Frequencies may still be reduced, but the T indicated it would try to avoid closing services altogether. The details of the new proposal have still not been made public, and were not finalized until the weekend. Further service decisions may also come next year.
As Congress continues to debate a stimulus package that could include more money for transit agencies, US Senator Edward Markey and Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Stephen Lynch are scheduled to hold a press conference opposing the cuts on Monday, but state officials have said that even with federal help, they may still cut some service to better match frequencies to ridership. That seems to be a priority of Governor Charlie Baker, who has lamented “running empty buses and trains” as poor public policy. Systemwide ridership is currently about 25 percent of its pre-pandemic rate, though with significant differences among routes.
Lynch tested positive after both shots (she is worth far more than a penny), and the Globe says he caught it from Trahan (corruption must make one susceptible).
Baker’s comments perturbed transit advocates, who say riders on little-used routes still rely on them. They’ve also argued the cuts are poorly timed, set to mostly take effect next spring and summer — which may closely align with vaccine distribution.
Stacy Thompson, director of the Livable Streets Alliance, warned that the T should not cut buses and trains now, because it may need them as more riders return.
“It’s about having a boatload of flexibility for the next six months, and yes, that may cost some more money,“ she said. “If for some reason there is a mythical bus the governor has found that is empty, you can move it somewhere else in the system.”
Future ridership will not just depend solely on the end of the coronavirus crisis. Some passengers may remain fearful of crowds. Others may take to driving or biking.
The biggest variable is white-collar workers who have telecommuted since March. Their return will depend on whether they want to continue working remotely — and if their bosses allow that. Surveys show many commuters may like to work from home a couple days a week and that employers will be amenable.
“There will not be a five-day work force as we’ve known it for a very long time,” predicted Jim Rooney, president of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
Still, Rooney has said the MBTA should delay the decision until the outlook is more certain. Commuters will face another important post-pandemic consideration, he said: whether transit is easily available.
“It would be a shame if the T’s decisions had the effect of influencing demand by reducing the supply too much,” Rooney said.
MBTA workers, who could face layoffs, have voiced similar concerns.
Jim Evers, president of the Boston Carmen’s Union, said drivers are willing to work with the MBTA on tactics to quickly restore service as ridership returns, but “the best way to restore service to a route is to not cut the route to begin with,” he said.
Riders already are seeing temporary service reductions, though these are for public health rather than budgetary reasons. The agency recently announced a sharp reduction in weekday commuter rail service, after a COVID-19 outbreak caused staff shortages and a series of train cancellations. Subway service will also soon be adjusted slightly downward for similar reasons.
The T’s longer-term service plans are based on an internal forecast suggesting ridership will return to 55 percent of prior levels by June 2022. The agency has also presented more optimistic forecasts, however, including one estimating a 76 percent return by that time.
Even that would represent a huge drop compared to the crowded days earlier this year, when transportation officials and elected leaders were highly focused on increasing transit service to fight auto congestion and pollution, but it would yield significantly more revenue than the more pessimistic outlook.
Some MBTA board members have said the T should rely on that optimistic forecast and use the added budget cushion to maintain service. One member, Brian Lang, acknowledged that any ridership estimate is deeply uncertain.
“Nobody has a crystal ball, and any decision we make is going to have to be as informed as we can possibly be,” Lang said.
Actually, the Globe does as well as certain other mon$ters who are quite brazen about it.
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Related:
It's stop and go:
"MBTA service will be cut significantly in early 2021; The agency’s final package removed some parts of a more drastic proposal from last month, but would still substantially scale back public transit" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, December 14, 2020
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will curtail service next year after the agency’s oversight board finalized a plan Monday to reduce subway frequencies and eliminate weekend commuter rail trains on several lines in response to low ridership during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The package, approved 3-2 by the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board, is more limited in scope than a plan the agency had presented in November that frustrated advocates and political leaders, but still represents a considerable reduction in service.
The MBTA described the budget cuts as a short- to medium-term measure to take advantage of unprecedented declines in ridership, with most changes taking effect between January and March, but with ridership forecasts murky at best, officials said they have not developed plans for service levels during the fiscal year that begins in July, when coronavirus vaccines may be widely available.
Those plans will be sorted out during the agency’s budget discussions in the coming months and could result in either further cuts or the restoration of some service, MBTA general manager Steve Poftak said.
“We want to see what we learn over the next few months,” Poftak told reporters Monday, citing uncertainty on a range of issues, from vaccine distribution to future work-from-home habits and the prospect of federal stimulus aid to transit agencies. “I don’t know that they’re going to resolve themselves definitively, but we will have a lot more information in February and March than we do right now.”
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The Globe is of the idea that public transit should be free(?) and that lawmakers should be spending more money on America’s crumbling transit systems to protect essential workers by protecting service because service cuts are bad public policy that will hamper the state’s recovery and undermine long-term goals for the region.
"The T may get millions from Congress. Will service still be cut?" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, December 27, 2020
The new federal coronavirus relief bill includes $14 billion to help transit systems fill huge gaps in fare revenue, a lifeline to agencies planning service cuts because of the financial crisis brought on by the pandemic, but don’t expect to see that money at work at the MBTA just yet.
Just a few days after joining a nationwide lobbying campaign urging Congress to approve aid for public transit, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officials indicated yet again they do not plan to use the money to immediately reverse service reductions planned for early 2021. Instead, officials have said they plan to bank any new federal aid as a sort of savings account, using it to restore service when the public health crisis subsides, the economy revs up, and ridership returns.
Meaning they want to keep it for themselves!!
Agency officials affirmed last week that, as they review the terms of the congressional bill, they are proceeding with service reductions scheduled to take effect mostly from January to March. The MBTA would probably receive at least $250 million — far more than the savings expected from cutting service.
The agency has presented a shifting and at times confusing rationale as it developed the service cuts over the past several months. At first, officials argued the reductions were a necessary budgetary measure in the face of a massive fiscal deficit; later, officials cast the cuts as primarily in response to the deep drop-off in ridership, which remains at about a quarter of pre-pandemic levels.
A coalition of transportation, environmental, and business groups said the funding approved by Congress would negate the need for cutting service and called on the MBTA’s oversight board to rescind the plan.
“Relief funds provided by Congress will allow the MBTA to stave off cuts that would be devastating for frontline workers and others that rely on transit,” the coalition, called Transit Is Essential, said in a statement.
It had been unclear through the weekend if the MBTA and other transit agencies would even receive the money. After Congress passed the measure a week ago, President Trump raised objections, including calling for larger checks to individuals, before finally signing the bill Sunday night.
He said he would never sign another bill like that, but did anyway.
The MBTA service changes, meanwhile, are aimed at preserving transit levels on routes that have higher ridership during the pandemic, such as parts of the bus system, while reducing frequency on lower-ridership buses and most of the subway. Most commuter rail lines will lose weekend service, as well, and ferry service will be sharply reduced.
Related:
Also see:
"Saturday marked the first day of service changes on commuter rail and ferry lines operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which has seen a steep drop in revenues and passengers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Weekend service will be offered only on the Newburyport/Rockport, Framingham/Worcester, Fairmount, Providence, and Middleborough lines, according to the MBTA. All other lines will operate only on weekdays, the agency said in a post on its website. “Ridership has remained low during the pandemic with approximately 8% of regular weekday ridership in the fall of 2020 compared to fall 2019,” the agency wrote. The agency said that the lines still operating on weekends run through “transit-critical communities” and saw a growing number of riders in the last several months. Direct ferry service to Charlestown and Hingham, along with weekend service on the Hingham/Hull ferry, is temporarily suspended. The weekday Hingham/Hullferry will also run at reduced rates, the agency said."
At least they opened another bus lane.
The MBTA said these cuts are a short-term measure for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends June 30. The federal funding, then, may play a greater role in planning for the second half of the 2021 calendar year.
No longer medium, huh?
The T would say only that the use of federal funds is likely to be discussed at a meeting of its oversight board in January. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is also expected to receive a separate block of money from the bill, and plans to publicly review its use next month.
General manager Steve Poftak has previously said that the MBTA postponed decisions about long-term service levels in part because of the uncertainty about federal aid. The implication was that the T may take dramatically different steps in its next fiscal year depending on whether it received aid, and how much. The MBTA has also previously said federal funds could be used to “restore some service sooner than anticipated” or to invest in system improvements.
It’s not clear how much money the MBTA would receive because it depends on a complex formula, but industry analysts estimate $250 million to $300 million.
The MBTA has not put an exact figure on the expected savings from the short-term reductions. The figure may depend on whether drivers and operators are laid off — a decision that has not yet been made, spokesman Joe Pesaturo said.
Labor costs would account for most of the savings in any service cut, but layoffs would also hinder the T’s ability to quickly bring back service; officials have suggested it could take months, if not years, to restore parts of the system if workers must be hired and trained.
Even without layoffs, reduced service could be difficult to restore promptly because of complexities involved in scheduling so many routes, which usually takes place months in advance. Some MBTA board members have said they are hopeful that process could be expedited in recovering from the pandemic.
Jim Evers, president of the Boston Carmen’s Union, which represents drivers and operators, argued the T is making a penny-wise, pound-foolish decision.
“Cutting the routes adds costs, because of the expenses of rehiring and retraining,” Evers said, adding that federal funding “is one more reason to delay these premature cuts,” and Stacy Thompson, executive director of the transit advocacy organization Livable Streets Alliance, said the MBTA is essentially choosing between cost savings and the ability to quickly restore service. The service cuts “really put us at risk of not having flexibility or increasing service when we need it.”
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Fortunately, Biden pulled into the $tation:
"Biden puts more stimulus funding on the table for MBTA" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, January 15, 2021
In reality, the usually cash-strapped agency is flush with money: With some $1.1 billion in federal pandemic aid over the past year, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is in the rare position of expecting a surplus of tens of millions of dollars by summer, and that’s not counting the T’s share of President-elect Joe Biden’s stimulus plan, yet the T remains cautious, hedging against the possibility that pandemic trends such as remote work and telemedicine will suppress ridership — and fare revenue — for years.
It’s continuing with plans to reduce service and cut other expenses, while banking most of the federal money to fortify its financial standing and long-term capital spending program for the coming years, but with Biden signaling more aid is on the way, transit advocates argue the T should spend the federal money now, preserving the services it plans to cut.
“It would be telling about what the [Baker] administration thinks about mass transportation, if the administration doesn’t reverse all of these cuts,” said Jarred Johnson, director of the nonprofit TransitMatters. “This is the time to say, ‘Let’s use these resources. Let’s put service where it needs to be.’ ”
The T plans to reduce the frequency of subway, bus, commuter rail, and ferry service, while eliminating weekend service on some commuter lines, with the first set of cuts starting this month; however, it’s keeping more service on routes and lines that have remained more popular during the pandemic.
The T has said these cuts are short-term, and that service levels for the fiscal year that begins July 1 will be sorted out this spring.
Systemwide, ridership remains at about a quarter of pre-pandemic levels, but the rate is much higher on buses and lower on the commuter rail; there are also significant differences route by route.
Federal funding has staved off a severe budget crisis so far. While the T originally cited a bleak financial picture for the service cuts, it later became clear that with the federal aid, it could afford to keep operating service near normal levels. Officials then argued their goal was to better match service to low ridership, while setting aside the savings to address future shortfalls.
What would be the carbon footprint on the unneeded routes?
Critics, including the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, have worried the reduced service could prevent people from returning to the system as the economy comes back online. Others have said that even if the MBTA can justify reducing service on parts of the system, the outright elimination of weekend commuter rail on several lines, for example, will strand the riders who depend on it.
Biden’s proposal — which must get through a Congress with slight Democratic majorities — would provide transit agencies with enough of a financial cushion to confidently run normal service throughout the pandemic, said Beth Osborne, director of the national organization Transportation for America. “It means they can be a little more aggressive about managing their service to a high level,” she said.
When does it reach the end of the line again?
Depending on how it’s structured, the Biden package could yield another half-billion dollars or more for the MBTA, enough to mitigate most of the lost fare revenue next fiscal year, but it’s unclear how the T would use that money.....
Oh, yeah, you are also being a$ked to pay more for the ride.
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"In push for clean transportation, Mass. focuses on electric cars over public transit" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, January 31, 2021
There are two major strategies in the quest to eliminate climate-changing pollution from personal vehicles: Either get people to drive less and switch to public transit or other ways of getting around, or make the cars and trucks themselves less dirty — as in replacing them with electric vehicles.
Where do they get the power for the electricity?
The Baker administration is firmly embracing the latter option, with its latest climate plan focusing on vastly expanding the sale of electric vehicles, to at least 750,000 electric vehicles by the end of the decade. That would be a monumental increase, given that there are fewer than 18,000 all-electric vehicles registered in the state today, but the plan takes only fleeting interest in policies that would increase public transit, walking, and bicycling.
This divergent approach was in sharp relief when a state environmental official briefed the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s oversight board last week on climate strategies for transportation. Notably missing was much discussion about public transit.
David Ismay, undersecretary of climate at the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, told the MBTA’s overseers that convincing more commuters to use buses, subways and trains, or to bike or walk, wouldn’t have nearly the same environmental benefit as huge growth in electric vehicles.
“We didn’t find a lot of bulk benefit there,” Ismay said. Even aggressive strategies to get people out of cars, he said, aren’t “capable of, by themselves, driving the kind of deep emission reductions that we need on the pace that we need them.”
He soon found himself in hot water for that.
Transportation is the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts, and cars and light trucks account for the bulk of those. The state’s 2030 climate plan, released in draft form in December, calls for transportation emissions to drop by about a quarter over this decade, with electric cars doing most of the work.
That is BULL$HIT!
One plane ride belches more spew than your average citizen produces in a year.
There is little debate that achieving this goal will require mass adoption of zero-emission vehicles, most likely battery-powered, but considering the seemingly endless debate over how to improve the MBTA, the lack of interest in transit has frustrated some advocates, especially since a 2018 Baker administration report on the future of transportation emphasized moving “more people in fewer vehicles.”
Ruling cla$$ and War Machine exempted!
There are also implications for income inequality and social equity, given the high upfront costs to buy a car, especially an electric one.
“We need to be doing a whole host of things, and making sure that for every policy that is going to require families to spend a lot of money to gain access to a cleaner source of transportation, that there are similar options for people who can’t make that choice,” said Staci Rubin, a senior attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation. “I’m hoping the final plan reflects the ability for high-functioning and frequent public transit to get people out of cars and on trains and buses.”
Critics also argue that simply swapping gas-powered cars for electric ones wouldn’t address other transportation issues that have public health consequences, including traffic congestion, road safety, and runoff water polluted with tire particles, but others see the state’s auto-centric approach as appropriate, reflecting a plain reality: Even in Massachusetts, home to one of the nation’s most widely used transit systems, most people get around by car.....
Related:
It will be paid for with an increase in Uber and Lyft fees (at lea$t, that's the plan).
Now about that traffic:
"Driving decreased in Mass. last year, but not traffic deaths; Speeding on uncrowded roads may be to blame" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, February 7, 2021
The coronavirus made Massachusetts roads noticeably more empty during 2020, but did little to stem another public health issue: the number of people killed by car crashes.
There were 334 deaths on Massachusetts roads in 2020, according to a state database. Although that is slightly fewer than 2019′s total of 337, it came despite significant reductions in roadway traffic and overall crashes, and while the number of pedestrians killed in crashes is down, the number of motorcyclists and bicyclists who died increased.
The death figures are all the more remarkable because the number of total crashes in the state during 2020 fell by more than 40,000, according to the database, meaning those crashes that did occur were more likely to be deadly. Traffic specialists have theorized that, with the roads emptier, more motorists were driving faster, increasing the risk of fatalities. Indeed, the number of tickets for high-speed driving was also on the rise.
Wet work being done?
The crash and fatality numbers are preliminary and subject to revision, but they reflect a trend that played out across the country last year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that, after three straight years of declines, fatal crashes were up by more than 4 percent in the first nine months of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019. After adjusting for the fewer overall miles driven, the fatality rate actually increased 23 percent in 2020.....
For once, the pre$$ is “honest and surprised deaths went up so significantly.”
Related:
"The traffic-choked tangle of Charlestown’s Sullivan Square could undergo major changes if plans for a development project filed with the city come to fruition. Development firm Fulcrum Global Investors said Tuesday that it wants to build a 29-story apartment tower on a dilapidated corner of Mystic Avenue, just south of the Somerville line. It would be the tallest building north of downtown Boston. Fulcrum wants to build a “striking, elegant” tower 334 feet high on the site of a towing company’s shuttered office, according to a letter it sent to the Boston Planning & Development Agency. The ground floor would feature a “European-style market hall.”
It would reflect the rapid change of another formerly industrial section of the city, and there are more changes in store for Harvard Square:
"Pandemic or no, it’s a safe bet that the nation’s oldest and most prestigious university will keep on going, and that makes a building across the street from Harvard Yard a good investment, no matter what’s going on in the world. That’s the thinking of Jeff Mooallem, chief executive of Gazit Horizons, a New York-based real estate firm that closed Tuesday on a $45 million deal to buy the College House building, at 1430 Mass. Ave., in the heart of Harvard Square. The 50,000-square-foot building, with storefronts on the ground floor and office space above, is the latest in a string of properties to trade hands in the landmark square in recent years, giving rise to concerns its retail base is hollowing out, but in this case, with two of the building’s main retail tenants — a CVS and a Santander Bank branch — both set to vacate the building’s storefronts in 2021, it’s really a chance to bring in something new, Mooallem said. “We see this as an opportunity to reposition it,” he said. “We could really create something exceptional.”
Changing lanes never helps, especially when they have you on video.
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Finally, your car is here
"If a new Red Line train rolls into town, is anyone there to ride it?; One of the MBTA’s most anticipated updates is arriving as COVID-wary riders avoid the subways" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, February 7, 2021
It’s one of Greater Boston’s most highly anticipated transit improvements in years, sent to unspool years of wound-up frustration that only intensified with every breakdown or delay, yet when it finally hit the rails, the MBTA’s first new Red Line train in a generation found few riders around to welcome it.
One day, presumably, new cars will be packed to the gills, but for now, with transit ridership way down during the pandemic, the first new train is more like a secret treasure for the smattering of masked riders who happen upon it.
“With nobody on it, it really feels like a luxury ride. It feels like we’re on a train from the future,” Red Line rider Johain Ounadjela said on a nearly empty car during what was once considered rush hour.
After the Great Cull.
After a little more than a month in service, the new six-car train is still clean and shiny. The cars have wider doors than previous models, as well as digital screens that provide service announcements and other information. The vehicles also feel more spacious than the old cars because of new seating arrangements.
So far, that space is largely unfilled, though.....
There was a bit of a slow stretch near BU as Baker again tries to set up a new board to oversee the MBTA.
Next stop, Newton!
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"The coronavirus has brought the travel industry to its knees. With hotels at record-low occupancy, some airports running on skeleton crews and fairgrounds emptied of guests, many domestic travel companies and operators have begun donating their resources and newly vacant spaces to help get the pandemic under control. Disneyland has been shuttered since mid-March, but on Wednesday, a section of its Toy Story parking lot was full. Emergency medical workers and local residents over the age of 75 queued for the first of five Orange County, Calif., “Super POD” (Point Of Dispensing) sites, and Andrew Do, chairman of Orange County’s board of supervisors, says they will soon be able to inoculate 7,000 people a day there. The site is being run by the county, but in addition to providing space, Walt Disney Co. is providing some staffing assistance. More than a dozen U.S. airports now double as virus testing sites, including Chicago O’Hare and Chicago Midway, Los Angeles International, Tampa, Newark and Minneapolis-St. Paul......"
"Travelers from any foreign country flying into the United States must now present proof of a negative test for the coronavirus. Many other countries have been requiring negative test results for months, but the United States had been less strict. While travel globally will be affected, especially in light of the Biden administration’s decision to bar travelers (excluding American citizens) from Brazil, Britain, Ireland, South Africa, and 26 countries in Europe that allow travel across open borders, the biggest impact of the testing rule will be for destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico, which have continued to attract American leisure travelers who cannot go to other parts of the world. “We keep getting curveballs thrown at us in our whole industry,” said Jason Kycek, senior vice president at Casa de Campo, a golf-and-beach resort in the Dominican Republic that is expanding its onsite testing facilities. “The finish line keeps moving, but we are staying on top of things and making sure our guests have what they need and can travel safely.” Mexico and countries in the Caribbean have remained popular destinations for American travelers, even as other destinations closed their borders, in part because of their proximity to the United States, making them relatively easy and affordable to reach. Under the new requirement, travelers will need to be tested no more than three days before their scheduled flight, showing a negative result to the airline before boarding. Those who have already had the virus will need to show documentation of recovery in the form of a recent positive viral test and a letter from a health care provider or a public health official stating they are cleared to travel. The United States will accept results from rapid antigen tests, while other countries have been asking for what are known as polymerase chain reaction tests, or PCR tests. Antigen tests have been found to be less reliable than PCR tests....."
Never mind the false positives that were reported months ago.
"Investors allege Boeing board of directors misled public about company’s safety oversight after crashes" by Douglas MacMillan Washington Post Feb. 16, 2021
New details in a Boeing investor lawsuit claim to shed light on how the company’s directors neglected their duty to provide safety oversight before and after the two deadly crashes of 737 Max jets and then deliberately misled the public through interviews with The Washington Post and other media.
The 120-page complaint, made public by a Delaware judge earlier this month, quotes internal company emails and board meeting records to make the argument Boeing directors repeatedly moved in lockstep with the company’s management instead of challenging it on safety.
For example, while Boeing directors have publicly said they deliberated over whether to ground the entire fleet of 737 Max jets after a crash killed 189 people in Indonesia, Boeing emails and board meeting minutes and agendas contain no evidence the board ever discussed grounding the airplanes in the months between that incident and another crash that killed 157 people in Ethiopia, according to the lawsuit.
Beyond exposing current and former board members to legal liability, the shareholder action raises questions about the truthfulness of David Calhoun, a Boeing director who took over as chief executive of the aerospace giant last year after the board ousted his predecessor, Dennis Muilenburg. The lawsuit accuses Calhoun of leading a dishonest public relations campaign in the wake of the second crash, including potentially misleading claims during a May 2019 interview with The Post.
In a statement, Boeing spokesman Bradley Akubuiro said the lawsuit presents “a distorted account” of public comments given by directors in the wake of the crashes.
“Boeing’s senior management and its board engaged in robust safety oversight during the time period in question, including through extensive reviews of Boeing’s engineering processes, airplane development programs, and production system,” Akubuiro said in the statement.
Ok, captain, we have clear $kies ahead with no turbulence from homicide charges. Have a good flight. Roger out.
A corporate board of directors serves on behalf of the shareholders, hiring and firing the chief executive, setting the pay of top executives and setting up guardrails for the CEO. In their lawsuit, investors argue Boeing failed to serve these roles, missing red flags about potential safety problems with the 737 Max and failing to question Muilenburg on his handling of the crisis.
Other than Muilenburg, a dozen people served on Boeing’s board throughout the 737 Max crisis, including Lynn Good, CEO of Duke Energy; Robert Bradway, CEO of biotech giant Amgen; and the former chiefs of Allstate, Continental Airlines, Medtronic, Aetna and Nortel.
The shareholder lawsuit seeks to hold these individuals personally responsible for paying Boeing back for damages the company sustained through their breach of duties.
How odd is it that the Globe censors cut Caroline Kennedy, the former U.S. ambassador to Japan and daughter of John F. Kennedy, joined Boeing in 2017 but left earlier this year, and that Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who served on Boeing’s board from 2019 to 2020, was not named as a defendant in the suit?
It's the women clo$ing ranks over there, isn't it?
Related:
"Tribune Publishing Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News, agreed to be acquired by Alden Global Capital LLC for about $430 million, putting a hedge fund known for firing journalists atop one of the nation’s largest newspaper companies. Alden, which already holds a 32 percent stake in Tribune, agreed to pay $17.25 a share for the stock it doesn’t already own, according to a statement Tuesday. The investment group inquired about an acquisition at $14.25 a share in a letter sent to Tribune’s board in December. Shares of Tribune weren’t available for trading after hours in New York. The price was 8 percent above Tuesday’s close of $15.97. The loss of readers and advertisers to online media has delivered many newspaper into the hands of new owners — from hedge funds like Alden to benefactors like billionaire Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post......"
Or Johh Henry, and does it really matter which billionaire oligarch brings you the new$?
Btw, they have a bug up their a$$ regarding the police, so you better change your footwear and put on your pinch-running cleats (the former Michigan State University track star who played for parts of two seasons with the Oakland Athletics in the mid-1970s NEVER made an at-bat), and I've always been a football man anyway).
The allegations focus partly on representations Calhoun made to the press following the second crash of a 737 Max jet in March 2019 that threw the company into crisis. Speaking to The Post less than two months after the crash, Calhoun and one other director, Lawrence Kellner, made the case they had carefully considered the circumstances of the first crash of a Lion Air plane in Indonesia before deciding the evidence did not warrant a decision to ground the jets. Both said because the Federal Aviation Administration was not calling for a grounding, they felt less pressure to do so.
That is NOT how you end a sentence, per Comp101!
Yeah, it does bother me!
They can't even get the grammar correct, why should I believe a word or not look for ulterior, agenda-pu$hing motives that are evident and obvious if one reads between the lines.
The Post quoted these comments — the first on-the-record interviews of Boeing directors since the crashes — in a story about the growing scrutiny of the board’s decision-making. Extended versions of their comments follow.
The board did not call for an investigation into the circumstances of the crash or the safety of the planes and did not question Muilenburg’s repeated assertions that the company’s entire fleet of 737 Max airplanes was safe, the shareholders allege.
The board ultimately fired Muilenburg last year, giving him $62 million in severance benefits. In December, the 737 Max had its first flights since the worldwide grounding.
Try to think of it as a reward(?).
Earlier this year, the Justice Department said Boeing had agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion to resolve a criminal charge that it conspired to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration during its review of the 737 Max.....
Not that I'm defending Boeing because I am not; however, it needs to be noted that it was the GOVERNMENT ITSELF that PUT BOEING IN CHARGE of APPROVING ITS OWN PLANE!
Then they turn around and charge the company with a crime that they themselves aided and abetted either through collaboration (corporate lobbying) or negligence as a regulator (criminal in any code).
Sorry to cut that flight short, but at the airport of the future there will be no need for passenger flights.
Related:
"Three sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for COVID-19, the Navy said Monday, less than a year after a massive outbreak on the ship sidelined it in Guam for nearly two months. The Navy said the three sailors have not had any symptoms, and they and others who were exposed to them are currently isolated on the aircraft carrier, which is conducting operations in the Pacific. They tested positive Sunday. In a statement, the Navy said it is “following an aggressive mitigation strategy," including masks, social distancing, and proper handwashing and hygiene measures.
The outbreak on the ship last year was the largest the military has seen so far, with more than 1,000 sailors testing positive. One sailor died. Eventually all of the 4,800 crew members were sent ashore in Guam for weeks of quarantine, in a systematic progression that kept enough sailors on the ship to keep it secure and running......"
COVID doesn't seem to slow down the wars, and they are literally f**king you:
The badger and shield statue outside the governor's Capitol office in Madison, Wis. (Todd Richmond/Associated Press).
Also see:
"The number of people in the United States who have died of COVID-19 is now greater than the number of US service members who died in combat during the second deadliest war in American history. More than 291,500 US soldiers died in battle during World War II, the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates. Coronavirus-related deaths surpassed that total Thursday to reach more than 291,800, according to The Washington Post’s tracker. The coronavirus death toll is also higher than the combat deaths in the Civil War, more than five times as high as those in World War I and nearly half as many as the roughly 651,000 combat deaths in all US wars since 1775. For further comparison, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between 12,000 and 61,000 people in the United States die of influenza each year."
I will stop badgering you now.
