[Yahoo] The Harahan Police Department is very concerned about Zika virus in your meth -- and would love for you to just stop on by to drop it off for testing.
The department in Harahan, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, made the tongue-in-cheek post late Saturday on Facebook.
"If you have recently purchased meth in any area of Louisiana it may be contaminated with the Zika Virus," the post read. "Please bring all of it to your local Police Department and they will test it for free. If you're not comfortable coming to us, an officer will be glad to come to you and test your Meth in the privacy of your home."
The post was shared about 2,000 times and had garnered about 1,200 reactions in the first 12 hours.
For the record, Harahan police officer Keith Moody -- who operates the department Facebook page -- told ABC News no one had taken them up on their offer for a trip to the county jail.
"Although the post was originally a lighthearted attempt at humor, a lot of great (and incredibly raw) intelligence can be cultivated from the comments," Moody told ABC News in a message.
There were in fact nearly 300 comments on the post overnight.
"There is a lot of great information obtained by reading threads," Moody said. "Criminals have a tendency to say/do some pretty incriminating behavior when given the opportunity to 'blow off.'"
Jokes aside, Moody told ABC News drugs continue to be a central fight for the department.
"The Methamphetamine and opioid epidemic is alarming and show no sign of slowing soon," he said.
Louisiana saw 7.7 opioid overdose deaths per 100,000 people in 2016, which is in the middle of the pack in the U.S. (36th), according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Methamphetamines were the fourth-highest drug involved in deadly overdoses in 2016, the most recent numbers available, according to a Centers for Disease Control report issued just three weeks ago.
The Harahan Police Department actually did collect 708 pounds of prescription drugs at a take back event last year, according to NOLA.com.
Looks like our boys are getting a well deserved rest day but by the look of the crane placements. Seem they’re going to have one busy day tomorrow and boy check out those buffs.😃📸🚀 pic.twitter.com/54VpThlnmg
#5
This is only a 3 or 4 Raptor engine device - test hopper - to evaluate the regime from ground to 5km. The Raptors are not the final form but the evaluation form and are much lower pressure (only 150 bar instead of 300 bar) and thrust. They are methane lox engines.
Diameter of rocket is close to 9 meters.
#6
It's a test form of the second stage of the Mars rocket.
The first stage will not be developed until the second is well on the way to perfected. The final form of the second stage will be capable of SSTO!
The first stage engine count will be huge. It keeps changing so no final count yet. Number of engine estimates for it run between 30 to 44.
#7
Have to redesign the bell of the engines to be more vacuum friendly for Martian operation, lower atmospheric pressure makes design pretty important. That will need to be tested in thinner air, probably boosted up then tested after ground level tests.
[Wash Examiner] Drug cocktails of cocaine and opioids have caused a surge in deaths since 2010, the Washington Examiner found in an analysis of mortality data.
More than 10,100 people died from mixing the drugs in 2017, according to the analysis based on data from death certificates assembled into an online database by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The combination of cocaine and the powerful opioid fentanyl proved particularly deadly, killing 7,241 people.
The latest figures show an increase in the number deaths caused by opioids and cocaine of nearly 76 percent since 2012.
Furthermore, deaths from cocaine and crack alone, not mixed with opioids, neared the same levels in 2017 that they were about a decade prior, following what had been a leveling-off period. In 2017, 3,811 people died from cocaine or crack.
Federal health officials have been closely watching drug death data, noting that while the opioid crisis involving prescription painkillers, heroin, and fentanyl has generated a lot of attention, many people are succumbing to other drugs or to mixtures of drugs.
"It reminds us we need to pay attention to these trends every year because they can change rather rapidly," Dr. Wilson Compton, deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said when shown a copy of the data.
The figures were obtained through the CDC’s Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research, or WONDER database. The database collects information about causes of death, such as the types of drugs found during an autopsy. In a smaller proportion of cases, alcohol and benzodiazepines, such as Valium, also contributed to cocaine deaths.
#2
Collect your data. Pause and ponder but the beat goes on. No end in sight. So much focus now here but this problem is all around the world. As the populations grow who would have thought we would terminate ourselves. I see no turning point as yet. The future is here and will be for years to come.
#3
You have a reason to get up tomorrow morning or you don't.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/30/2018 6:47 Comments ||
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#4
Self inflicted wound. At some point in life we all make free will choices. My only concern is for those victimized by the users to feed their habits.
#8
The coke you buy on the street is only a small % actual cocaine. The rest is...something else, and more frequently now, they're cutting it with fentanyl. Death wish to snort (or inject) something you don't know
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2018 10:57 Comments ||
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#9
Must be an awful lot of them who are eligible for Darwin Awards.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/30/2018 15:31 Comments ||
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#10
Have to say that the government making it illegal makes it more harmful to society.
Addictive personalities will get addicted to WHATEVER and minimising the harm of what they get addicted to is the best real outcome.
[INDEPENDENT.CO.UK] The school has been considering the change since 2014 I'm still trying to figure why we have women's schools but not all male schools.
Now that women’s schools are taking transgenders, they’ll be de facto co-ed as well.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2018 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11129 views]
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#14
So Princess Ida is not really out of date, where no men are allowed and they rise at cock crow every morning but this is done by an accomplished hen!. This scene came to mind.
During this, Melissa has entered unobserved; she looks on in amazement.
Melissa. (coming down) Oh, Lady Psyche!
Psyche. (terrified) What! You heard us then?
Oh, all is lost!
Melissa.
Not so! I'll breathe no word!
(Advancing in astonishment to Florian.)
How marvelously strange! and are you then
Indeed young men?
Florian. Well, yes, just now we are –
But hope by dint of study to become,
In course of time, young women.
Melissa. (eagerly) No, no, no –
Oh, don't do that! Is this indeed a man?
I've often heard of them, but, till to-day,
Never set eyes on one. They told me men
Were hideous, idiotic, and deformed!
They are quite as beautiful as women are!
As beautiful, they're infinitely more so!
Their cheeks have not that pulpy softness which
One gets so weary of in womankind:
Their features are more marked – and – oh, their chins!
(Feeling Florian's chin.) How curious!
Florian. I fear it's rather rough.
Melissa. (eagerly) Oh, don't apologize – I like it so!
[DAWN] The Balochistan National Party (BNP-Awami) split into two groups on Friday as both groups held their party conventions separately in Quetta and levelled serious allegations against each other.
Former senator Mir Israrullah Zehri, who is leading his own group, expelled Syed Ehsan Shah, senior vice president of the party, along with five other party leaders from the party, accusing Mr Shah and others of violating the party constitution and working to protect their own interests.
Mr Shah, the sitting MPA of the BNP-Awami, was elected the member of the Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Assembly on the party ticket in the July 25 general elections.
On the other hand, Mr Shah organised workers’ convention of his own group and announced that Mir Israrullah Zehri had lost the trust of party workers and majority of central councillors and was, therefore, no more the president of the BNP-Awami.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2018 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[SanDiegoUnionTribune] A cyberattack that appears to have originated from outside the United States caused major printing and delivery problems at the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers across the country Saturday.
Only about 15 percent of Union-Tribune subscribers got delivery on Saturday ‐ the biggest publishing disruption in decades.
The attack led to distribution delays at the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, and stymied distribution of the West Coast editions of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, which are all printed at the Los Angeles Times’ Olympic printing plant in downtown Los Angeles.
Technology teams for the Union-Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and their former owner, Tribune Publishing, worked feverishly to quarantine the computer virus, but it spread and re-infected systems crucial to the news production and printing process.
Multiple newspapers around the country were affected because they share Tribune’s production platform. The Union-Tribune and The Times were taken private in June by Los Angeles biotech entrepreneur Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, but the companies continue to share some computer systems.
By Saturday afternoon, the companies suspected the cyberattack originated from outside the United States, but officials said it was too soon to say whether it was carried out by a foreign state or some other entity, said a source with knowledge of the situation.
"We believe the intention of the attack was to disable infrastructure, more specifically servers, as opposed to looking to steal information," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. The source would not detail what evidence led the company to believe the breach came from overseas.
cyberattack that appears to have originated from outside the United States caused major printing and delivery problems at the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers across the country Saturday.
Only about 15 percent of Union-Tribune subscribers got delivery on Saturday ‐ the biggest publishing disruption in decades.
The attack led to distribution delays at the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, and stymied distribution of the West Coast editions of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, which are all printed at the Los Angeles Times’ Olympic printing plant in downtown Los Angeles.
Technology teams for the Union-Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and their former owner, Tribune Publishing, worked feverishly to quarantine the computer virus, but it spread and re-infected systems crucial to the news production and printing process.
Multiple newspapers around the country were affected because they share Tribune’s production platform. The Union-Tribune and The Times were taken private in June by Los Angeles biotech entrepreneur Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, but the companies continue to share some computer systems.
By Saturday afternoon, the companies suspected the cyberattack originated from outside the United States, but officials said it was too soon to say whether it was carried out by a foreign state or some other entity, said a source with knowledge of the situation.
"We believe the intention of the attack was to disable infrastructure, more specifically servers, as opposed to looking to steal information," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. The source would not detail what evidence led the company to believe the breach came from overseas. There is much, much more at the link.
Poor Mrs. Uluque was beside herself because her morning paper never came. Obviously the publisher did not listen to IT staff recommendations to beef up cyber security. You don't make profits that way. Better to gamble that it will never happen and, if it does, the losses won't be that bad.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/30/2018 11:53 ||
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#1
This is the third day of a major cyber attack.
Today, newspaper printing.
Yesterday, nationwide disruption of 911 services.
Before, electric arc in NY city.
"Twice is a coincidence. Three times is an enemy action." -Goldfinger
[CBS on Twitter]France's yellow vest protesters demonstrate outside leading broadcasters.
Paris -- Yellow vest protesters marched on the headquarters of leading French broadcasters Saturday, as small groups turned out in Paris and around France despite waning momentum for their movement. Hundreds of demonstrators - some chanting "Journalists - Collaborationists!" - gathered at the central offices of television network BFM and state-run France Televisions.
Some protesters hurled stones and other objects during scattered skirmishes with riot police firing tear gas.
Some members of the broad-based yellow vest movement accuse French leading news media of favoring President Emmanuel Macron's government and big business and minimizing the protests - even though the demonstrations have been the leading news story in France since they kicked off Nov. 17.
#2
I wish the day would come in the US. Putting the fear into the liberal establishment press might cause a few of them to realize just how badly they are hurting the country.
[PRESSTV] A number of vehicles were set on fire on Saturday, December 29, near the Le Gay Pareeien newspaper building in Gay Paree.
It was initially unclear who had torched them and whether it was directly linked to La Belle France's "yellow vest" protests.
The demonstrators kept numerous roads across the country blocked as groups of protesters marched in city centers on Saturday.
In Gay Paree, where protests turned violent in early December, police said by early evening that they had detained some 57 people after 800 demonstrators erupted into the streets, down from at least 109 arrests last week with a similar number of protesters.
[AlAhram] Police fired tear gas at "yellow vest" demonstrators in Gay Paree on Saturday but the turnout for round seven of the popular protests that have rocked La Belle France appeared low.
Several hundred people wearing the symbolic hi-visibility vests had gathered near the offices of La Belle France Televisions and the BFM TV channel in the centre of the capital shouting "Fake news" and calling for the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron.
Protesters spilled on to tram lines and lobbed projectiles at police who replied with tear gas grenades and detained several people.
Tear gas was also fired in Nantes, western La Belle France, and protests were expected in Lyon, Bordeaux and Toulouse ...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France... In the southern city of Marseille, police said 900 protesters turned out, amid cries of "Macron out".
The official turnout numbers have plunged with the passing weeks. The government recorded 38,600 demonstrators on December 22 compared to 282,000 for the first major demonstrations on November 17.
But leading figures within the movement that has flourished outside of trade union and political groups, say the low numbers are due to the holiday season and January will bring a resurgence of the street protests.
The focus of the protests has morphed from anger over fuel taxes to a broad rebuke of Macron, accused by critics of neglecting the rising costs of living for many in rural and small-town La Belle France.
"We want to get our purchasing power back and have a say in the decisions," said Priscillia Ludosky, who launched the yellow vest petition against fuel price hikes.
Government tax concessions to boost disposable income among the low paid "are not enough", Ludosky said in Marseille.
The movement has increasingly targeted Macron and 40 "yellow vests" on Thursday tried to storm the medieval fort of Bregancon that serves as his official summer retreat on the Mediterranean before being turned back by police.
Die-hard yellow vest supporters believe the movement will live on in 2019 and plans are underway for New Year's Eve protests.
Nearly 8,000 people are listed on Facebook as intending to attend, insisting it will be "festive and non-violent".
Gay Paree officials said preparations would continue for a fireworks display and sound and light show on the Champs-Elysee, the epicentre of repeated violent action against the government, with the Arc de Triomphe ransacked on December 1.
Tens of thousands of tourists and locals traditionally ring in the new year on the wide shopping boulevard, which rises to the Arc monument.
[Breitbart] Dutch police on horseback broke up a protest on Saturday by "yellow vest" demonstrators who threw rocks and fireworks at them, a statement said.
The police statement said the mounted officers "carried out several charges" to end the demonstration in The Hague, which had not been approved by authorities and had turned violent.
Eight protesters were detained for disturbing the peace after clashing with police, the statement said.
Around 150-200 demonstrators took part in the protest march near government offices, wearing the hi-vis jackets also worn by anti-government protesters in La Belle France.
Dutch TV showed footage of the protesters in front of parliament waving Dutch flags, screaming and hollering and later trying to break through a police cordon. Several mounted police and dozens of officers on foot could be seen.
“It is, in fact, a campaign slogan, that is a campaign item, and it’s completely inappropriate for the troops to do this,” Mr. Kirby said. “Not supposed to do this. And I’m sure their boss is seeing that. They’re not going to be happy about it.”
CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr called it “very much against military policy and regulation.”
“The pool reporters traveling said that the troops brought the hats with them, including one hat that said ‘Trump 2020,’” said Ms. Starr. “We will have to see if that actually proves to be the case. The question is, if they brought them or if the President brought them: What commander allowed that to really happen?”
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2018 11:04 Comments ||
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#3
CNN motto: "Nothing too trivial for us to hyperventilate over."
Posted by: Tom ||
12/30/2018 16:21 Comments ||
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#4
Presidents routinely bring and hand out and sign photographs for such events and that's ok. But for the audience to bring and present for signing objects they already have is an offense?
[DAWN] Chief Justice of Pakistain Mian Saqib Nisar on Saturday defended the apex court's judicial activism, explaining that the judiciary is the "guardian of the fundamental rights of the people of Pakistain" by the law and thus "duty bound to ensure that the rights of the people are protected".
The chief justice, during his speech at a graduation ceremony for medical students at the Islamia University Bahawalpur's historic Abbasia campus, discussed the areas the top court paid special attention to during his time in the office, which is set to conclude in January 2019.
Referring to his suo motu ...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard... notices regarding sky-high fees charged by private medical colleges and lack of facilities at several hospitals, the chief justice said that he was trying to "end the exploitation [of people]".
He said that it was his "judicial duty" to lay down a criterion for medical colleges to ensure that they don't exploit students and parents.
Chief justice says he's striving to "end the exploitation [of people]". ‐PID
"Did I exceed my jurisdiction by laying down criteria [which ensures] that tertiary hospitals have enough number of doctors, staff and drugs, in order to discharge the obligation of the guardianship [imposed upon the judiciary]?" he asked.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Washington Examiner] Concerned about U.S. Coast Guard forces losing a paycheck in the partial government shutdown, President Trump personally urged his team to find a solution that would allow the administration to make this week’s $75 million payroll, according to officials.
Trump stepped in on Wednesday, calling on top lawyers and staffers to determine if the Coast Guard could make payroll despite being included in the shutdown that has impacted about 25 percent of the government, including the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the Coast Guard.
Military personnel under the Department of Defense are not included in the shutdown, because their appropriations were approved earlier in Congress.
Officials said that Trump was keen to find a "way we can fix this" as news media stories about the Coast Guardsmen's plight started to pile up.
At his urging, the Office of Management and Budget, DHS and the Coast Guard determined that the rules governing pay to Coast Guard forces requires it be made through the end of the year. To make it, the lawyers said that unused funding could be tapped for pay. The service had a bit more than the needed $75 million left over from its past continuing resolution appropriation, enough to make this month’s last payroll check.
[CNSNews] The Internal Revenue Service had in its weapons inventory 4,487 guns and 5,062,006 rounds of ammunition as of late 2017, according to a report published this month by the Government Accountability Office.
Included in this arsenal, according to the GAO, were 15 "fully automatic firearms" and 56,000 rounds of ammunition for those fully automatic firearms.
The same report--"Federal Law Enforcement: Purchases and Inventory Controls of Firearms, Ammuntion, and Tactical Equipment"--says that the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services had 194 fully automatic firearms and 386,952 rounds of ammunition for those fully automatic firearms.
The guns in the IRS ...the Internal Revenue Service; that office of the United States government that collects taxes and persecutes the regime's political enemies... inventory also included 3,302 pistols, 623 shotguns, 543 rifles, and 4 revolvers.
The ammunition stockpiled by the IRS‐in addition to the 56,000 rounds for its fully automatic firearms--included 3,156,046 pistol and revolver rounds, 368,592 shotgun rounds and 1,481,368 rifle rounds.
The IRS’s firearms and ammunition are used primarily by its Criminal Investigation (CI) unit, which is manned by 2,148 federal law enforcement officers. But some of it also used by the IRS’s Police Officer Section, which includes only 9 federal law enforcement officers.
"IRS’ Criminal Investigation serves the American public by investigating potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes in compliance with the law," the GAO explained in the report it published this month.
"IRS’ Police Office Section," said the report, "provides protection for the people, property and processes of its Enterprise Computing Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia, which houses 10 of IRS’ 19 critical tax processing functions."
The GAO looked at how 20 federal agencies spent money on firearms and ammunition for the federal law enforcement officers (FLEOs) under their authority, whether they accurately reported those firearms and ammunition purchases, and how agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency and the IRS, practiced "inventory control" for their guns and ammunition.
A cute little table of their results can be seen at the link.
"Federal law enforcement agencies purchase firearms, ammunition, and tactical equipment, such as riot shields, to support their missions," the GAO said in summarizing its report. "GAO was asked to review these purchases for federal law enforcement agencies, and inventory controls at HHS, EPA and IRS specifically."
The report listed five members of Congress as the requesters: House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Trey Gowdy (R.-S.C.), Rep. Mark Meadows (R.-N.C.), Sen. Jim Inhofe (R.-Okla.), Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R.- Mo.) and Rep, Richard Hudson (R.-N.C.)
"The 20 federal law enforcement agencies in GAO’s review reported spending at least $38.8 million on firearms, $325.9 million on ammunition, and $1.14 billion on tactical equipment---at least $1.5 billion in total‐from fiscal years 2010 through 2017, based on data agencies provided to GAO," said the report.
#1
In my not very humble opinion, the only IRS employees that should have weapons are the folks that go to seize property, and no one else. These folks are usually accompanied by local law enforcement and / or Treasury Dept. employees, so part of the need for armed IRS folks is, to me, redundant. That, and knowing the temperament of some IRS employees (like to goons in collections), these are the last people that should have weapons of any kind, except maybe a set of nunchucks.
#2
By the way - if anyone needs help with an IRS matter, forget calling them and asking for help. Most IRS employees have been furloughed during the 'shutdown', except for the IT / systems folks.
#3
#1 - Not even then. They can get coverage from local LEOs. If they don't trust locals, there's a story there somewhere...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/30/2018 7:39 Comments ||
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#4
I may have told this story before, but here goes again. I worked with a lawyer whose client had property seized by the IRS. With two IRS agents, a Treasury agent, two local sheriffs and a state trooper (all armed), they seized from this client... one truck with 165,000 miles on it. I don't know if this is routine but if it is, disarm them all.
#8
Deserves better treatment, but what the heck...
Today, two thousand and eighteen,
To the tax man we're polite
When he takes our red, white, blue and green
From us without a fight,
So, come April next, why, pray, be vexed
Or moved to excess stress
As "investment" flies and prices rise,
By the rifles of the IRS?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Wash Examiner] Drug cocktails of cocaine and opioids have caused a surge in deaths since 2010, the Washington Examiner found in an analysis of mortality data.
France's yellow vest protesters demonstrate outside leading broadcasters.
