Ohio deputy fired for making inmates dance
Kantele Franko, Associated Press:
A northeast Ohio sheriff fired a deputy for ordering five jail inmates to dance to a song by Usher in exchange for privileges such as using a phone or microwave, the sheriff’s office said Thursday.
AAAAAARGH
Biden (mostly) endorses same-sex marriage
Nice to see the Obama camp coming out swinging like this. My hope is that this is to draw a strong contrast between Obama and Romney — basically campaign on social issues and not let Romney make the election a referendum on the economy.
Students’ racist tweets about Boston hockey game put schools in a bind
James Eng, msnbc.com:
Hordes of angry hockey fans – presumably Boston Bruins fans — unleashed a barrage of racist rants on Twitter and other social-networking sites after the Washington Capitals beat the defending champion Bruins a week ago Wednesday on an overtime goal by Joel Ward, the Capitals’ 31-year-old left wing. Ward is one of just a handful of black players in the NHL.
According to local media reports, several students at high schools in Gloucester and Danvers in Massachusetts, the Cumberland, R.I., School District, and Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire were among the tweeters.
What follows is a rather long discussion on free speech of students: what schools can and should do about what students say in and out of school, both legally and morally.
Gladstone Scientists Regenerate Damaged Hearts By Transforming Scar Tissue into Beating Heart Muscle
Cool medical news out of the Gladstone Institutes (affiliated with UC San Francisco):
“The damage from a heart attack is typically permanent because heart-muscle cells — deprived of oxygen during the attack — die and scar tissue forms,” said [Deepak] Srivastava, a UCSF professor who directs cardiovascular and stem cell research at Gladstone, an independent and nonprofit biomedical-research institution. “But our experiments in mice are a proof of concept that we can reprogram non-beating cells directly into fully functional, beating heart cells — offering an innovative and less invasive way to restore heart function after a heart attack.”
In laboratory experiments with mice that had experienced a heart attack, Qian and Srivastava delivered three genes that normally guide embryonic heart development — together known as GMT — directly into the damaged region. Within a month, non-beating cells that normally form scar tissue transformed into beating heart-muscle cells. Within three months, the hearts were beating even stronger and pumping more blood.
Next is to test if the technique scales up larger animals.
Olympics 2012: branding “police” to protect sponsors’ exclusive rights
The Guardian:
Fans in the crowd won’t be allowed to upload snippets of the day’s action to YouTube – or even, potentially, to post their snaps from inside the Olympic Village on Facebook. And a crack team of branding “police”, the Games organisers Locog have acknowledged, will be checking every bathroom in every Olympic venue – with the power to remove or tape over manufacturers’ logos even on soap dispensers, wash basins and toilets.
My response:
Police spot stolen truck being buried in giant sandpit in New York state
Sean Federico-O’Murchu, msnbc.com:
Thieves snatched a truck from a business in an Upstate New York town — and the evidence almost disappeared into the sands of time.
But a week after it was taken, the vehicle was discovered by eagle-eye investigators flying around Wayne County, according to local media.
“Jeffery Paul was in the process of burying the box truck,” Investigator Corey Black told the Batavia News, referring to the son of David Paul, who owns Country Construction, where the truck was spotted. “He was bulldozing it under in a sand pit.”
Article has a great pic. MY FLAWLESS PLAN HAS COME UNDONE
The AP published this photo by John Hanna. Caption & story:
Dennis Wilson, executive director of the Kansas Lottery, shares the spotlight with a poster depicting the anonymous winner of a share of a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot during a news conference, Friday, April 6, 2012, at lottery headquarters in Topeka, Kan. The holder of a winning ticket from Kansas has come forward but doesn’t want to be identified publicly.
I strongly disagree with the choice of placeholder image here.
Remembering Mike Wallace, Legendary ’60 Minutes’ Interrogator
PBS NewsHour had a nice retrospective of the career of Mike Wallace on Monday. It also had a long interview by host Jeffrey Brown with two of Wallace’s 60 Minutes co-workers, correspondent Morley Safer and executive producer Jeff Fager. Good stuff.
R.I.P. (report in peace) Mike Wallace
Commodore founder Jack Tramiel dies at 83
Bonnie Cha, CNET:
Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore International and former CEO of Atari International, died on Sunday at the age of 83. He was surrounded by family at the time of his passing, according to Forbes.
Famous for saying that computers should be built “for masses, not the classes,” Tramiel played an important role in the early days of personal computing and video gaming, as his company introduced a line of powerful but affordable home computers, including the popular Commodore 64.
I was honestly not familiar with Tramiel by name at all until reading this, but the Commodore 64 was a legendary computer. My older brother even had one, although I was only a few years old at the time so I sadly don’t remember a thing about it.
5 ex-cops sentenced in Katrina killings case
Last week, Judge Kurt Engelhardt sentenced five police officers for their roles in the Danziger Bridge murders of two men after Hurricane Katrina. This piece by Cain Burdeau for the AP quotes some of Judge Engelhardt’s unbelievably harsh remarks:
U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt expressed frustration that he was bound by mandatory minimum sentencing laws to imprison former Sgts. Kenneth Bowen and Robert Gisevius and former officers Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon for decades when other officers who engaged in similar conduct on the Danziger Bridge — but cut deals with prosecutors — are serving no more than eight years behind bars.
“These through-the-looking-glass plea deals that tied the hands of this court … are an affront to the court and a disservice to the community,” he said.
…
During a scathing lecture that lasted roughly two hours, Engelhardt questioned the credibility of officers who cut deals and testified against the defendants during last year’s trial.
“Citing witnesses for perjury at this trial would be like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500,” Engelhardt said.
Yowza.