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Tag: California

  • ‘It’s miraculous’: Stowaway, 16, survives flying 51/2 hours in Wheel Well

    ‘It’s miraculous’: Stowaway, 16, survives flying 51/2 hours in Wheel Well

    A 16-year-old stowaway has miraculously survived flying halfway across the Pacific in the wheel well of a flight from California to Hawaii – despite temperatures of -81F (-62C) at 38,000 feet.

    The teen was discovered on the tarmac at the Maui airport on Sunday carrying no ID or belongings – apart from a comb – and told the FBI he had run away from home after an argument with his parents.

    ‘Kid’s lucky to be alive,’ FBI spokesman Tom Simon in Honolulu said on Sunday night.

    Among those skeptical about his journey, medical experts said his body would have had to fall into a hibernation-like state – with his heart beating only a couple of times a minute – for him to survive.

    But Simon said security footage from the San Jose airport verified that the boy, who is from Santa Clara, California, hopped a fence to get to Hawaiian Airlines Flight 45 on Sunday morning.

    Simon said when the flight landed in Maui, the boy remained unconscious for about an hour, but eventually hopped down from the wheel well and started wandering around the airport grounds.

    ‘He was unconscious for the lion’s share of the flight,’ Simon said. The flight lasted about 5 1/2 hours.

    Hawaiian Airlines spokesman Alison Croyle said airline personnel noticed the boy on the ramp after the flight arrived and immediately notified airport security.

    A picture of the teen being taken away for medical care, looking awake and alert, was provided to the MailOnline by The Maui News.

    The boy was not charged with any crime and has been handed over to child protective services.

    ‘Our primary concern now is for the well-being of the boy, who is exceptionally lucky to have survived,’ Croyle said.

    Simon said the boy was medically screened and found to be unharmed.

    ‘Doesn’t even remember the flight,’ Simon said. ‘It’s amazing he survived that.’

    But news of the survival was met with suspicion, as most wheel-well stowaways don’t survive the freezing temperatures and lack of oxygen.

    Among the skeptics was ABC News aviation consultant John Nance, who said: ‘This is a first in medical science and a first in physiology. I just don’t believe it.’

    Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News’ chief health and medical editor, said to survive such conditions, the body has to fall into a hibernation-like state, with the heart only beating a couple of times a minute.

    ‘It’s near impossible, almost miraculous, and maybe there’s more to the story,’ Besser said.

    Another aviation expert, Peter Forman, said that he was staggered the boy survived.

    ‘The odds of a person surviving that long of a flight at that altitude are very remote, actually. I mean, you are talking about altitudes that are well above the altitude of Mt. Everest. And temperatures that can reach 40 degrees below zero,’ Forman said.

    ‘A lot of people would only have useful consciousness for a minute or two at that altitude.

    ‘For somebody to survive multiple hours with that lack of oxygen and that cold is just miraculous. I’ve never heard of anything like that before.’

    His misadventure also raised security questions. A Congressman who serves on the Homeland Security committee wondered how the teen could have got onto the airfield at San Jose unnoticed.

    ‘I have long been concerned about security at our airport perimeters. #Stowaway teen demonstrates vulnerabilities that need to be addressed,’ tweeted Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat who represents the San Francisco Bay Area’s eastern cities and suburbs.

    A call and email message to a Mineta San Jose International Airport spokeswoman were not immediately returned.

    Officials at Kahului Airport referred questions to the State Department of Transportation, which did not return a phone call seeking comment.

    Hawaiian Airlines Flight 24 to Oakland, California, was delayed nearly three hours Sunday due to the incident. The flight was scheduled to leave Kahului at noon and finally departed at 2:51 p.m.

    A male passenger who declined to be identified said that he was seated on the plane to Oakland with his family before he was notified of the delay. He said that flight attendants were told to disarm the doors and that the flight would be delayed 10 to 15 minutes.

    A Transportation Security Agency spokesman who declined to be named referred questions to the FBI and airport authorities.

    In August, a 13- or 14-year-old boy in Nigeria survived a 35-minute trip in the wheel well of a domestic flight after stowing away.

    Authorities credited the flight’s short duration and altitude of about 25,000.

    Others stowing away in wheel wells have died, including a 16-year-old killed after stowing away aboard a flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Boston in 2010 and a 26-year-old man who fell onto a suburban London street from a flight from Angola in 2012.

     

    Culled from Mailonline

     

  • California pension boosts rates

    The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest in the United States public pension, will begin phasing in higher contribution rates to account for the increased costs of retirees living longer.

    The board of the $282.5 billion fund voted yesterday to boost the state’s annual allocation to $5 billion over three years, from $3.8 billion now. Local government increases were postponed for two years.

    The vote represents a partial victory for Governor Jerry Brown, a 75-year-old Democrat, who urged the board to reflect the increased costs of increased longevity in three years. Cash-strapped local governments won a delay to help build a cushion before the higher payments kick in.

    “We have to be as aggressive as we possibly can without causing significant fiscal stress for our most challenged participants,” said Christopher McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, who argued for a delay on behalf of municipalities.

    Local governments may see costs rise as much as five per cent of payroll for typical state employees and as much as nine per cent of payroll for those in public-safety jobs, such as police and firefighters, at the end of a five-year phase-in, Calpers said in a statement.

    “No one likes to pay more for pensions, but ignoring their true costs for two more years will only burden the system and cost more in the long run,” Brown said Feb. 5 in a letter to Calpers.

    By 2028, men who retire at 55 are projected to live 2.1 years longer and women 1.6 years longer, boosting the state’s costs by $1.2 billion a year, or 32 percent, the governor said.

  • Man, animal marriage

    Man, animal marriage

    The debate on same-sex marriage has been ranging back and forth for some time. It gathered momentum recently when Nigeria passed a legislation which put a seal on the abnormal behaviour. Since then, different groups and governments, especially the United States of America, USA, and the United Kingdom, UK, have been very vociferous against the clampdown. The reason is simple: their laws support such inanities and, therefore, whoever goes against such moral absurdity is regarded as a ‘sinner’. At least, that is the unfolding scenario that is threatening to suffocate all of us and lead us through the path of evil and perdition.

    Now the United States, the self-acclaimed custodian of morality, has gone a step further. On Monday, February 3, the most obscene event took place. The venue was the Chapel of Our Lady at the Presidio in San Francisco, California State, where the first-ever state-recognised human-animal marriage took place. Paul Horner, a 35-year-old local resident, was the groom during the wedding ceremony. He was joined in ‘unholy’ matrimony with Mac, his faithful dog, who is 36 years old in dog years. Mac was to have been the groom, but the animal ended up wearing a white veil at the last moment.

    On hand to perform the marriage rituals at the outdoor wedding was Reverend Father McHale. Shortly after he had officiated, an obviously elated Fr. McHale told reporters that he was extremely happy to be a part of “this joyous moment of life”. According to him, “this is the definition of true love my friends. There is nothing more sacred than the bond between a man and his faithful dog. It’s a fantastic day to be alive.” Among those who witnessed this eye-sore of a union was Horner’s entire family who flew in from Hawaii for the event, while Mac also had her puppies in attendance.

    In the book of California’s State Laws and Regulations there is a little known law that was passed as the state was being formed in 1850.  Article 155, paragraph 10, clearly states: “If a man and a man can get married and a woman and a woman can get married, if ever comes that day, then a human and animal will have the exact same rights to marriage in every eye of the law. God help us if this ever is to happen!” Now, it has happened. Since it is recognised as a legally binding marriage by California law, “Horner and Mac will have all the same tax benefits and everything else coming to them that a regular married couple would receive.”

    However, Horner, the man of the moment, surprised many when, after the wedding, he quickly said that he would not have sex with the dog. According to him, “I just love my Mac so much; I can’t wait till we can finally get back to the honeymoon sweet in Montana where bestiality is legal… People keep asking me why I wanted to marry a dog. I told them I just want the same God-given rights that every person in California is allowed to have. Don’t tell me I can’t marry my dog. I don’t tell you that you can’t marry a 500 lb woman with gas issues. That’s your decision. Don’t tread on me. I love my dog and I know he loves me a hundred times more than any gay wedding out there.”

    With this strange wedding between a man and a male dog now officially consummated, the US must have wittingly opened a new vista in the journey to bestiality and amorous rascality. It is a one-way ticket to Sodom and Gomorrah. As usual, they may be too willing to export this strange union to other parts of the world. What this signifies is that we are seriously in trouble with this convoluted definition of human rights as espoused by the Americans and their cohorts in other parts of the world.

    Nigeria has been placed under the hammer since the country recently signed the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill 2013 into law. This action unsettled many gay-rights enthusiasts across the globe. When the Senate, the Upper House of the National Assembly in Nigeria, passed the bill on November 29, 2011, the international community greeted the move by launching a spirited campaign to stall the final passage of the bill into law. At the forefront of the international campaign were the UK, Nigeria’s colonial master, and the US. Since then, their resentment had multiplied not diminished.

    The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in Australia towards the end of 2011 provided an opportunity for David Cameron, the petite British Prime Minister, to assault the collective sensibilities of Africans when he veered off mark during his speech and launched himself into a sermon ostensibly targeted at Africans at the meeting. In the long speech, which betrayed his deep-seated anger and emotional stress, Cameron laboured hard to espouse the beauty of same-sex marriage. He said his country would not tolerate a law that seeks to punish people because of their preferred ways of life in accordance with their orientations and beliefs.

    He was not alone. Barack Obama, the US President, added his own voice by issuing an executive order through a memo personally signed by him, empowering US diplomats worldwide to advance the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, LGBT, persons. According to the memo, “the struggle to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons is a global challenge and one that is central to the United States’ commitment to promoting human rights. By this memorandum, I am directing all agencies engaged abroad to ensure that US diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons”. The release of that memo coincided with the day some handpicked Nigerians posing as gays, staged a protest against the same-sex bill in their country in front of the Nigeria House in New York.

    Homosexuality is illegal in most African countries, where sodomy laws were introduced during colonialism. In Uganda, punishments for homosexual acts range from 14 years to life imprisonment. By the new law, the gays in Nigeria risk 14-year jail terms if they do not retrace their steps and renounce such marriages. Also, any person who operates or participates in gay clubs, societies and organisations directly or indirectly will earn 10-year imprisonment. Those who administer, witness, abet or aid the solemnisation of a same-sex marriage are going to bag 10-year jail term. The signing of the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill into law has foreclosed any pressure on the Nigerian government not to assent to the bill.

    Indeed, this is a piece of legislation that is needed in this country to protect the traditional family and the future of our children because the African cultural values do not tolerate same-sex marriage. Like I said in my column on December 14, 2011, “Africans abhor same sex unions”. African culture revolves round their ancestors, the living and the unborn children. Not even the advent of the dominant religions – Christianity and Islam – has been able to interfere with that fundamental belief. Therefore, marriage in African context has never been seen as a private affair. Rather, it is a community affair, and that is what gives it essence and meaning. Christianity and Islam frown at homosexuality. So also is African traditional religion, wherever practised. In actual fact, African traditional religion does not only frown at it, it imposes severe sanctions on those involved and even their families. So, for all practical purposes, homosexuality is un-African; the society condemns it in its entirety and, in most cases, ostracizes anybody involved or passes a curse on such a person or persons”.

    Now that human beings are getting married to animals – and maybe trees and other objects much later – this satanic practice, rather than bring development, will only spell doom for those who engage in it or who tolerate it in the name of civilisation. However, in Nigeria and as a people, we must remain steadfast and undaunted as we move gradually and steadily to annihilate the vestiges of bad influence on our culture, beliefs, tradition and norms.

     

  • America’s new wave of secessionists

    America’s new wave of secessionists

    It seems to be sweeping the nation, with Texas seeking to become its own country and parts of Maryland, California, and Colorado trying to break off into new states. But do any of these movements have a chance? Caitlin Dickson reports

    Five counties in Maryland want to form their own state. So do eight in Colorado and one in Northern California. And the Lone Star State is on its way becoming an independent “island nation,” according to an influential Texas Republican.

    The wave of U.S. secession movements, the largest since the South tried to break up with the Union, is being fueled by a deep urban-rural split, said Frances Lee, a professor at the University of Maryland’s department of government and politics. The fault lines are partisan affiliations and social issues such as reproductive rights and gun control. So it’s no coincidence that the counties seeking to break free generally identify as conservative or libertarian, nor is it a coincidence that they tend to be in rural areas. “This has a lot to do with the current composition of the White House,” said Lee. “Rural counties want to secede from states where they’ve been on the losing side of politics—even at the state level.”

    In an interview with The Washington Post, Western Maryland Initiative leader Scott Strzelczyk said his region, along with several others across the country vying for the title of America’s 51st state, is determined to separate itself from “the dominant ruling class.” Strzelczyk, an information technology consultant, said he is frustrated with Maryland’s influential Democratic Party. “If you don’t belong in their party, you’ll never have your views represented,” he told the paper. “If we have more states, we can all go live in states that best represent us, and then we can get along.” Although the Western Maryland Initiative is little more than a Facebook page today, it’s gaining traction and support from members of the community eager to offer their services and suggestions for the formation of their dream state.

    The movement in Colorado has made a bit more headway. Officials from eight counties met in July to start drawing up boundaries for a state dedicated to bettering the lives of those living in rural northern and northeastern Colorado. “Our voices are being ignored in the legislative process this year, and our very way of life is under attack,” Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway said in July, adding that not only is the effort “not a stunt,” it is indisputably motivated by a feeling of disenfranchisement among people in rural communities. Weld County is one of six in Colorado that will vote on a secession initiative in November.

    Many of the rural counties itching for independence in northern Colorado are dependent on the oil and gas industry, said Kimberly Karnes, a professor of political science and geography at Old Dominion University in Virginia. So it stings when liberal politicians who live far from the range push for things like renewable energy. “Issues such as energy policy, gun control, taxes, and social issues often break on a rural-urban divide,” Karnes told The Daily Beast. “So if the state legislature produces a policy that a majority of residents in the urban and suburban areas prefer, it leaves the rural residents feeling like they are ignored, which over time can build to resentment and lead to the choice of extreme response, such as secession.”

    Just last week, the Board of Supervisors in Northern California’s Siskiyou County voted almost unanimously to make a declaration of its intention to break off from the state and invite neighboring counties in California and Oregon to join them in forming a new state called “Jefferson.” Ahead of the vote, more than 100 citizens gathered to debate, most of them apparently in favor of separating themselves from the regulations and values supported by their state’s more populous and liberal Southern region.

    The last time a state successfully sought approval from the state legislature and Congress for secession was West Virginia in 1863. And while clusters of counties have attempted unsuccessfully to form their own states over the years, social media and the Internet have allowed these movements to gain more traction than they may have in the past. Now, instead of simply commiserating with their neighbors about the liberals in the capitol and trying to get a representative with their values elected, disgruntled Californians can find and meet like-minded residents around the county, encouraging them to give secession a shot.

    And then there’s Texas. A couple of weeks ago, Texas railroad commissioner and aspiring attorney general Barry Smitherman declared that the Lone Star state has “made great progress in becoming an independent nation.” Smitherman, whose job is to regulate the state’s energy industry, not its railroads, argued that Texas’s “energy resources, fossil and otherwise, and our own independent electrical grid” make the state “uniquely situated” to “operate as a stand-alone entity” if the United States falls apart.

    Texas’s motivation for wanting to break free doesn’t fall along the same rural-vs.-urban pattern of the rest of the counties seeking secession. That’s hardly a surprise. In political science, “Texas is Texas. It doesn’t really follow what other states do,” said Karnes. “There’s really an independent political culture of that state that definitely identifies with its independence, the Republic of Texas. It doesn’t follow the trend of what these other states are doing. It’s in its own unique situation.”

    Still, that doesn’t mean Texas has a greater chance of seceding successfully than western Maryland or northern Colorado or “Jefferson.” Even if one of them were to get the approval of both Congress and their state legislatures, they’d be faced with a barrage of new issues such as how to collect taxes, provide education, or transfer public records from the original state to the new one. How would a new state—with a rural economy that in many cases has long been propped up by its state’s urban and suburban economies—fund all these programs?

    The list of issues Texas would face as its own country is even longer. Creating a military, setting up trade agreements, and finding a way to compensate for the federal funding it receives—whether or not its lawmakers want to admit it—only scratches the surface of what it takes to form a country. As for the counties seeking statehood, even if they accomplished their goal and became “the promised conservative or libertarian utopia these residents so often seem to want, the state is still a part of the United States of America, meaning it answers to and must work within the U.S. system, as it currently operates,” said Karnes. “For residents who want more personal freedoms and less government intrusion, they may find that even in a new state, Uncle Sam is still a frequent visitor in their community.”

    Courtesy: The Daily Beast