Mayor De Blasio Cartoon

Authorities say cop killer wanted retaliation for Michael Brown, Eric Garner deaths

The gunman who ambushed and murdered two NYPD officers as they sat in their squad car Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn vowed to kill police in a number of social media posts that vowed retaliation for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, authorities said. 
Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, wrote on his Instagram account: "I'm putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours, let's take 2 of theirs," hours before the killings, two city officials with direct knowledge of the case confirmed for The Associated Press. He used the hashtags Shootthepolice RIPErivGardner (sic) RIPMikeBrown. The post also included an image of a silver handgun and the message, "This may be my final post. The post had more than 200 likes but also had many others admonishing his statements.
Police said Brinsley, who was black, approached the passenger window of a marked police car at approximately 2:45 p.m. local time and opened fire, striking Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in the head. The officers -- one Hispanic, one Asian -- were on special patrol doing crime reduction work in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.
"They were, quite simply, assassinated -- targeted for their uniform," said Police Commissioner Bill Bratton during a news conference at Woodhull Medical Center, where the officers were pronounced dead Saturday evening. 
"Our city is in mourning. Our hearts are heavy," said Mayor Bill de Blasio, who spoke softly with moist eyes. "It is an attack on all of us."
Scores of officers in uniform lined up three rows deep at the hospital driveway. The line stretched into the street. Officers raised their hands in a silent salute as two ambulances bore away the slain officers' bodies. The mayor ordered flags at half-staff.
Brinsley fled to to a nearby subway station, where he shot himself in the head as a subway train door full of people closed. A silver handgun was recovered at the scene, Bratton said. The New York Post reported that the recovered gun matches the one in the Instagram picture. 
A second Instagram post dated just after the shooting showed the same camouflage pants and distinctive blue sneakers worn by the gunman as his body was carried from the scene on a stretcher.
Late Saturday, authorities in Baltimore County, Md. said that Brimsley had shot and wounded his ex-girlfriend at an apartment complex in Owings Mills early in the morning before traveling to New York. County police told The Baltimore Sun that the unidentified woman was in serious condition, but was expected to survive. 
The Washington Post reported that authorities in Maryland became aware of the threatening Instagram posts by Brimsley at around 1:30 p.m. local time. They were able to trace the posts and Brimsley's phone to a location in Brooklyn and contacted the NYPD's 70th Precinct to alert them that he was in the area. At the same time, authorities faxed a "Wanted" poster to the NYPD with more information about Brimsley. Around the time of the shooting, another message with the same information was sent to New York's "real-time crime center."
"The tragedy here was that just as the warning was coming in, the murder was occurring," Bratton said Saturday evening. 
Brinsley had a history of arrests in Georgia for robbery, disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon. Bratton said his last-known address was in Georgia, but he had some ties to Brooklyn.
Ramos was married with a 13-year-old son and had another in college, police and a friend told the Associated Press. He had been on the job since 2012 and was a school safety officer. Liu had been on the job for seven years and got married two months ago.
Rosie Orengo, a friend of Ramos, said he was heavily involved in their church and encouraged others in their marriages.
"He was an amazing man. He was the best father and husband and friend," she said. "Our peace is knowing that he's OK, and we'll see him in heaven."
The shooting comes at a time when police in New York and nationwide have been criticized by some over the circumstances surrounding the death of Garner, who was stopped by police for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. Amateur video captured an officer wrapping his arm around Garner's neck in what some have described as a chokehold and wrestling him to the ground. Garner was heard saying, "I can't breathe" and later died.
Demonstrators around the country have held protests since a grand jury decided on Dec. 3 not to indict the officer involved in Garner's death, a decision that closely followed a Missouri grand jury's decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Brown, 18.
Several New York officers were assaulted during demonstrations, including one event that drew thousands to the Brooklyn Bridge and at which two lieutenants were attacked.
"I have spoken to the Garner family and we are outraged by the early reports of the police killed in Brooklyn today," civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement. "Any use of the names of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, in connection with any violence or killing of police, is reprehensible and against the pursuit of justice in both cases."
The president of the police officers union, Patrick Lynch, and De Blasio have been locked in a public battle over treatment of officers following the decision not to indict the officer in Garner's death. Just days ago, Lynch suggested police officers sign a petition that demanded the mayor not attend their funerals should they die on the job. De Blasio was also criticized for not speaking out about the two lieutenants who were assaulted in the protest at the Brooklyn Bridge.
"Had Mayor Bill de Blasio been forceful from the onset when the two lieutenants were attacked, one has to question as to whether this murderous psycho would have been compelled to target our heroic brother and sister in New York's Finest," Jon Adler, National President of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association told Fox News in a statement.
 "That blood on the hands starts at the steps of City Hall, in the office of the mayor," Lynch said late Saturday. "After the funerals, those responsible will be called on the carpet and held accountable."
The last shooting death of an NYPD officer came in December 2011, when 22-year veteran Peter Figoski responded to a report of a break-in at a Brooklyn apartment. He was shot in the face and killed by one of the suspects hiding in a side room when officers arrived. The triggerman, Lamont Pride, was convicted of murder and sentenced in 2013 to 45 years to life in prison.

EPA coal ash standards setback for environmental groups

NASHVILLE, Tenn. –  Six years ago, there was a massive spill of coal ash sludge in Tennessee. Three years later, tons of coal ash swept into Lake Michigan. Last February, there was another spill and gray sludge spewed into the Dan River in North Carolina.
With each disaster, environmentalists sounded alarms and called for the byproduct of burning coal to be treated as hazardous waste. On Friday, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the first standards for the coal-burning waste, but they were hardly what environmental groups were hoping for.
The EPA ruled that the ash can be treated like regular garbage, meaning regulating the stuff will be left up to states and watchful citizens.
"We had to go to court to force EPA to issue this first-ever coal ash rule, and unfortunately, we will be back in court to force coal plants to clean up their ash dumps and start disposing of their toxic waste safely," said EarthJustice attorney Lisa Evans.
Added Scott Slesinger of the Natural Resources Defense Council: "Unlike the majority of environmental standards — which are backstopped by federal enforcement — this rule all but leaves people who live near coal ash dumps to fend for themselves."
The coal industry supported the less strict classification, arguing that the ash wasn't dangerous, and that a hazardous label would hinder the ash recycling market. About 40 percent of coal ash is reused, in products such as cement.
In Tennessee, the spill happened when a containment dike burst at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant, releasing more than 5 million cubic yards of ash from a storage pond. The sludge flowed into a river and spoiled hundreds of acres in a riverside community 35 miles west of Knoxville.
A couple of dozen families used to live on a peninsula near the plant, but now the sole resident is Tommy Charles and his wife.
Charles said on the night of the rupture, he was awakened by a phone call from a friend who was checking on them.
He took a flashlight and went outside. "I didn't know what I was seeing," he said Friday. "It was just a mess of goo."
The Tennessee Valley Authority is spending $1.2 billion to clean up the mess. Since the December 2008 disaster, the EPA has documented 132 cases in which coal-fired power plant waste damaged rivers, streams and lakes, and 123 where it has tainted underground water sources, in many cases legally.
The EPA said the steps they were taking would protect communities from the risks associated with coal ash waste sites and hold the companies operating them accountable.
"It does what we hoped to accomplish ... in a very aggressive but reasonable and pragmatic way," EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said.
The rules will increase monitoring for leaks and control blowing dust, and require companies to make testing results public. They also set standards for closing waste sites, and require those that are structurally deficient or tainting waterways to close.
The new rules apply to closed coal ash ponds at sites where utilities still have active operations, such as the Duke Energy plant in Eden, North Carolina, where the sudden collapse of a drainage pipe triggered a massive spill in February that coated 70 miles of the Dan River in gray sludge. Duke was operating a new natural gas plant on the property at the time of the spill, and no longer creating coal waste.
Prior to the spill, tests showed it was among 32 unlined pits being operated by the company in the state and tainting groundwater in violation of state standards. The new rule requires new waste pits to be lined.
The regulations do not cover sites at shuttered power plants. And in some cases, they would allow existing landfills that do not meet the new standards to continue to operate.
State officials were still interpreting the new rules.
Tony Hatton, Kentucky's solid waste division director, said it's still unclear how long states have to draft their own plans following the EPA guidelines. He said utilities in Kentucky have been moving away from "wet-handling" of the ash in recent years, where the waste is stored in ponds and instead dumping it in dry landfills.
With a dry landfill "you're less likely to get into compliance problems from a groundwater perspective and it's a lot more protective of groundwater," Hatton said.
Coal ash has been piling up in ponds and landfill sites at power plants for years, an unintended consequence of the EPA's push to scrub air pollutants from smokestacks.
In volume, it ranks only behind household trash in quantity, and it is expected to grow as the EPA controls pollutants like heat-trapping carbon dioxide and mercury and other toxic air pollutants from the nation's coal fleet. On the upside, a switch from coal to natural gas-fired power plants in recent years has generated less ash.

High School: Islamic vocabulary lesson part of Common Core standards

Parents in Farmville, North Carolina want to know why their children were given a Common Core vocabulary assignment in an English class that promoted the Prophet Muhammad and the Islamic faith.
“It really caught me off guard,” a Farmville Central High School student who was in the class told me. “If we are not allowed to talk about any other religions in school – how is this appropriate?”
The Islamic vocabulary worksheet was assigned to seniors.
“I was reading it and it caught me off guard,” the student told me. “I just looked at it and knew something was not right – so I emailed the pages to my mom.”

I asked the school district to provide me with a copy of vocabulary worksheets that promoted the Jewish, Hindu and Christian faiths. The school district did not reply.

“In the following exercises, you will have the opportunity to expand your vocabulary by reading about Muhammad and the Islamic word,” the worksheet read.
The lesson used words like astute, conducive, erratic, mosque, pastoral, and zenith in sentences about the Islamic faith.
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“The zenith of any Muslim’s life is a trip to Mecca,” one sentence read. For “erratic,” the lesson included this statement: “The responses to Muhammad’s teachings were at first erratic. Some people responded favorably, while other resisted his claim that ‘there is no God but Allah and Muhammad his Prophet.”
Another section required students to complete a sentence:
“There are such vast numbers of people who are anxious to spread the Muslim faith that it would be impossible to give a(n)___ amount.”
I spoke to one parent who asked not to be identified. She was extremely troubled by what her child was exposed to in the classroom.
“What if right after Pearl Harbor our educational system was talking about how great the Japanese emperor was?” the parent asked. “What if during the Cold War our educational system was telling students how wonderful Russia was?”
The parent said the material was classwork disguised as Islamic propaganda.
“It’s very shocking,” she said. “I just told my daughter to read it as if it’s fiction. It’s no different than another of fictional book you’ve read.”
A spokesman for Pitt County Schools defended the lesson  – noting that it came from a state-adopted supplemental workbook and met the “Common Core standards for English Language Arts.”
“The course is designed to accompany the world literature text, which emphasizes culture in literature,” the statement read.
The problem is it’s emphasizing a specific culture and religion – and the school district acknowledged there were concerns “related to the religious nature of sentences providing vocabulary words in context.”
“Our school system understands all concerns related to proselytizing, and there is no place for it in our instruction,” the statement goes on to say. “However, this particular lesson was one of many the students in this class have had and will have that expose them to the various religions and how they shape cultures throughout the world.”
I asked the school district to provide me with a copy of vocabulary worksheets that promoted the Jewish, Hindu and Christian faiths.
The school district did not reply.
I also asked for the past or future dates when the students would be given those vocabulary worksheets.
The school district has yet to reply.
The student I spoke with told me they have not had any other assignments dealing with religion – other than the one about Islam.
Why is that not surprising?
Based on its official statement, Pitt County Schools seems confident that the vocabulary lessons are in compliance with three Common Core standards related to literacy. If you want to look up those standards, reference CCSSELA-Literary L11-12.4.A, 12.4.D and 12.6.
Since the Common Core folks seem to be infatuated with sentence completion – let me try one out on them.
Use “Islamic” and “proselytizing” in the following sentence: Somebody got their ____ hand caught in the ____ cookie jar.
UPDATE: I asked the school district if there had been similar vocabulary assignments about Judaism, Christianity or other religions. I also asked for the exact dates of those assignments. Here’s the reply I received from the school district:
"The class recently finished reading Night by Elie Wiesel. As part of the study of this book, students were exposed to Judaism. I'm told that one of the next couple of lessons that will be taught in this class includes an examination of Psalm 23 as part of the lesson. Additionally, the workbook in question has another vocabulary lesson with words used in a passage about India's three great beliefs (Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism). Keep in mind that this workbook is just one of numerous resources used in the course. Students are exposed to various cultures, values, and beliefs through the reading of multiple types of literature, but teachers certainly aren't advocating for any of them.”
Notice how the school district dodged my question?

US reportedly asks China to help curb North Korea's cyberattack abilities

Another Fool of the Week.

The Obama administration has asked China for help with curbing North Korea's ability to launch cyberattacks like the one federal officials say crippled Sony Pictures, according to a published report. 
The New York Times reports that the White House requested help from Beijing in recent days, but the Chinese have not responded. However, a senior Obama administration official claimed to the Associated Press that the U.S. and China have shared information about the Sony attack. The official also says China agrees with the U.S. that destructive cyberattacks violate the norms of appropriate behavior in cyberspace.
The United States has previously attempted to use China as a channel for influencing North Korean policy, particularly on matters such as nuclear tests, weapons launches, and relations with South Korea. However, successes have been rare and fleeting. In the specific case of the hack on Sony Pictures, The Times reports that Chinese cooperation would be the key to blocking North Korea's cyberwarfare capabilites, since virtually all of the country's telecommunications run though Chinese operated networks. 
However, Washington and Beijing have their own cybersecurity issues to work through. This past May, the Justice Department indicted five hackers working on behalf of the Chinese military on charges of trying to steal sensitive data from American companies. The Chinese government denies any wrongdoing. 
U.S. officials blame North Korea for the Nov. 24 hacking, citing the tools used in the Sony attack and previous hacks linked to the North, and have vowed to respond. The break-in resulted in the disclosure of tens of thousands of confidential Sony emails and business files, and escalated to threats of terror attacks against U.S. movie theaters that caused Sony to cancel the Christmas Day release of "The Interview," a comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
An editorial in the Global Times, a newspaper published by China's ruling Communist Party, said that any civilized country will oppose hacker attacks or terror threats, but it also condemned the movie. "The vicious mocking of Kim is only a result of senseless cultural arrogance," it said.
Meanwhile, The Times reports that U.S. officials are weighing what options to present to Obama that would constitute the "proportional response" to the Sony hacking that the president promised in his year-end press conference Friday. The paper reports that among the options being discussed are economic sanctions against high-ranking North Korean officials, similar to those levied against Russian officials close to that country's president, Vladimir Putin. 
Another option being discussed is a propaganda campaign designed to make use of the North's internal computer and radio systems to relay messages inside the country, along the lines of similar South Korean initiatives. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the U.S. is also considering returning North Korea to a list of countries deemed to be state sponsors of terrorism, which would also bring heft sanctions. 
One option that appears not to be a serious consideration at this point is a retaliatory cyberattack against North Korean military facilities or communications networks, with a senior official telling The Times that the U.S. does not want to risk escalating the situation and increasing the possibility of a retaliatory attack against a vulnerable U.S. target. 
"There are a lot of constraints on us," the official said, "because we live in a giant glass house."

Fool of the Week: Stephen Colbert

He won us over with his parody of your typical talking head cable TV host. Stephen Colbert is a brand. A successful, popular brand.
He took shots at conservatives through parody and pun.
I loved his humor even though he took several personal shots at me.
He was that good.
Colbert will take over "The Late Show" from David Letterman in 9 months.
And the character that was "Colbert" will go away.
And the real Stephen will host that show.
So why would he give it all up?
Well, for the fame and the money of course!
That’s where you lost me Stephen.
A bigger name -- Jon Stewart -- is sticking around for now, after getting bigger offers than "The Late Show."
That’s commitment!
Stephen Colbert, for abandoning what made you a star, you've earned yourself "The Fool of the Week" title.