Category: News

Apparently band trips are packed with excitement.

• A female band member told to suck on a sex toy in an apparent hazing incident.
• Women being forced to kiss other women in order to gain access to bus bathrooms.
• Women being forced to draw pornographic pictures for older male band members, recite obscene limericks or stories, and read aloud explicit accounts of their sexual preferences composed for them by others for older male band members.
• The practice of women swapping shirts with males.
• Demeaning and abusive demands for younger band members to run errands and refill beer cups for older members.
• Upperclassmen have been reported to have “taken over” the dorm rooms of freshman women, supplied alcohol and demanded they join in the drinking.
• In 2004, band behavior in a bus led to the driver pulling over and calling for police.
• forced to shave his head in a hazing incident
• semi-nude dancing

[Source]

NY Times says “Yankees Pitcher Cory Lidle Was Killed in the Plane Crash, High-Ranking City Official Says.” Lidle’s passport was found on the street. [Source]

With that I hand the updates over to Gothamist who is doing a far better job.

Look! I did a FauxNews headline with a question mark! The wife tells me a small plane or helicopter has crashed into a building in New York. The building is on fire.

This information is unconfirmed and could be inaccurate.

NEW YORK (AP) — Police say an aircraft has crashed into a building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side at 72nd Street and York Avenue. It is near Rockefeller Center. [Source]

Here’s a photo.

Update: Live video and another picture.

Update: MSNBC chimes in.

According to local affiliate WNBC, officials said the aircraft was a helicopter, not a plane. That had not been confirmed by any other sources.
…
Apartments occupy floors 22 through 50; a hospital is on the lower floors. … struck struck the 20th floor…
[Source]

At least they don’t have far to go to find doctors.

Update: "NORAD is launching fighters to several U.S. cities." – unconfirmed.

New York City Police said there was no indication from defense department officials that any suspicious aircraft were in the area.
Prior to the crash, some witnesses said the craft was flying erratically.
[Source]

Update: NPR blog lists the aircraft as "a small plane."

The address of the building is 524 E. 72nd Street [map] — a 50-story condominium tower built in 1986 and located nearby Sotheby’s Auction House. It has 183 apartments, many of which sell for more than $1 million. [Source]

Update: Here’s a good roundup.

Update: "The building is a 50-story condominium tower built in 1986 and located nearby Sotheby’s Auction House. It has 183 apartments, many of which sell for more than $1 million." [Source]

Update: Al Jazera is also reporting it as a small plane.

And for the best American news coverage, check out the BBC.

168 firefighters on the scene. 4 alarm fire.

You know. I don’t think I ever feared students shooting up the various schools I attended. I recall fights and stabbings, sex in the theatre sound booth, marijuana in the bathrooms, and cocaine on the desktops. I bought a 10 inch Rambo knife in highschool. But no one talked about having the school shot to pieces. When they talked of putting metal detectors in my middle school there was a public outcry against it. Now the public begs for it and the students practice lockdown drills where they hide under desks.

I would love to get a peek at the family lives of students that bring guns to schools. Their cries for attention are going to have terrible reprecussions on our already failing school systems.

If you got pregnant at 19 ½ when you had sex with a 13 ½ year old boy, at 22 don’t take him to court for child support because he can finally work at 16. Matter of fact, don’t ever ask him for child support.

“But for her having made the application in Family Court, we never would have known about this,” Warren County District Attorney Kate Hogan said. “It was such an unusual way to have a case come forward.” [Source]

Chlorine gas evacuates Apex, NC (relatively speaking, that’s just east of here – oh perhaps 3 to 500 miles east).

"This is the worst possible hazardous materials incident you could have," Radford said. [Source]

30 miles or so roughlly northwest of us they store the same stuff.

See also CNN coverage. This stuff makes me kick myself for letting my ARC training expire and for not having aquired Molly’s CD certification yet.

On a serious side, there was a shiooting at an Amish school in Pennsylvania with a number of fatalities.

The callous side of me wants to point out that no rail guns were used.

The personal connection side of me wants to point out that in high school I sold flowers outside an Amish market and the Amish are some of the nicest, down to earth people I have ever met.

The Harrison Ford reference for those that missed it.

Domestic terrorism is prevented by improving the quality of life in America not by bombing Iraq, Iran or anywhere. To have Congress take on the credit card companies that hold so many of the American people hostage would be a good place to begin the Domestic War On Terror. I missed a payment on a closed credit card and they charged me $165 per month in fees and penalties until I got caught up. That should be illegal!

The letter demanded a large sum of money and set a deadline for its delivery.

“The letter did communicate that if the city did not comply, Las Cruces residents will be shot at random,” Lara said.
[Source]

If I had to guess, these extortionists are on their last nickel and feel this is their only option. If people actually start getting shot, I will change that opinion to these extortionists not being extortists but sick cold blooded killers. More information.

9/11 hero raided by SWAT.

Major Mike McCormack is a hospital technician and civil air patrol pilot who worked the ground zero site for eight days after the collapse of the twin towers. He is one of the real heroes of 9/11 and was the man who found the American flag that was later displayed as a token of unity atop the rubble.
[Source]

"Numerous firemen were telling me that they heard numerous secondary explosions all over the building – these guys are seasoned firefighting professionals – a lot of them have military backgrounds and they’re not stupid." [Source]

Does this mean that the 80s videos on YouTube are doomed?

YouTube representatives have said that they are in talks with record labels about distributing official music videos online. But it’s the long-running trend of unofficial distribution that’s got Universal Music Group chief Doug Morris upset. Morris said at a conference this week that sites like YouTube and MySpace “are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars,” according to an Associated Press report. [Source]

I do think Morris is missing the big picture here. Let the videos be freely distributed on YouTube and watch the DVD and record sales. Maybe they simply require an ad at the end of the video promoting a Universal distributor. If they force the removal of the videos, I know I’d have no reason to seek them out but because someone linked to the video, I have a reason to watch it. To watch the video is a reminder that I liked the song. To be reminded that I like the song is an opportunity for me to consider purchasing the song.

the FTC alleged that Xanga, a rival to the popular MySpace.com, allegedly permitted creation of 1.7 million accounts by users who submitted birthdays indicating they were under 13. Social networking Web site Xanga.com will pay $1 million — the largest penalty ever issued for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. [Source]

Another CNN open mic faux pas.