DL Open Thread: Wednesday, January 1, 2025
Day 1 of our Dry January. Which will mostly be spent working off the effects of the three glasses of champagne we had last night. Wonder if my prose will become more lucid. I mean, it almost has to, doesn’t it?
At least 10 people have been killed and 30 injured after a pickup truck drove into a crowd in Louisiana state’s New Orleans, the city’s emergency preparedness agency says.
“It did involve a man driving a pickup truck down Bourbon Street at a very fast pace, and it was very intentional behavior,” Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told reporters.
“This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could.”
Earlier, CBS News, citing witnesses, reported that a truck had crashed into the crowd at high speed, and then the driver got out and started firing a weapon, with police returning fire.
New Orleans mayor said the incident was a “terrorist attack”.
A federal judge has granted bond to a Virginia man accused of holding extremist views and amassing what prosecutors say is the largest ever cache of homemade explosives found by the FBI. The judge stayed the order pending government appeal.
Agents found the weapons, including more than 150 pipe bombs and explosive devices, during a 17 December raid on a 20-acre property in Isle of Wight county, according to court documents.
Authorities initially arrested the 36-year-old owner, Brad Spafford, on a single charge of possessing an unregistered short-barrel rifle. But as bomb squads swept the property, they found explosive devices marked “lethal” in a detached garage, according to court documents.
Inside the house, investigators discovered more pipe bombs packed into a backpack bearing a hand grenade patch and a logo for “#NoLivesMatter”, a slogan linked to a far-right extremist movement that promotes violent acts on encrypted online channels, according to a recent New Jersey homeland security assessment.
“One study found reforms such as setting maximum time periods for insurers to respond and standardizing requests would help give patients needed care.
Several states and Washington DC have passed laws to reform prior authorization practices.”
The $25 million project, including $15 million in state funding and an additional $10 million in federal support from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, aims to stabilize the severely eroded beach and dune system that safeguards Route 1.The state highway plays a vital role as an evacuation corridor for the region, including nearby Ocean City, Maryland. As of Dec. 22, contractors from DredgIt Corp. have dredged and placed over 130,000 cubic yards of sand toward the project’s target of 380,000 cubic yards, which is on track to be completed by late February 2025.
I wrote about this 9-10 years ago and apparently things haven’t changed much. Many of those “Evacuation Route” signs on state highways guide motorists to the nearest state line. Once you’re in Maryland or Pennsylvania, you’re on your own.
Haven’t been in Ocean City for a while, but let’s hope their Evacuation signs don’t point you back to Fenwick.
Right. So the area most likely to be unavailable in the event of the most likely event–a coastal storm that causes flooding, would be the evacuation route itself.
Hey, at least it might work if we suffer an ‘Airborne Toxic Event’ (h/t to Don DeLillo).
Airborne Toxic Event is a great band!
They took their name from Don DeLillo’s ‘White Noise’, one of my all-time fave novels ever. Highly-recommended!
Carney has an opportunity to do the right thing, again I’m a cynic but there seems to be some solid momentum in the faith community to push for progress. As we head into the coldest months the pressure needs to stay on and maybe, just maybe, progress can be made.
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2025/01/02/new-wilmington-mayor-change-homelessness/76863373007/?tbref=hp