Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalTeen traveling alone on Frontier Airlines from Tampa accidentally flown to Puerto Rico
In what appears to be an ongoing theme this holiday season, a 16-year-old boy traveling by himself from Tampa, Florida, was accidentally flown to Puerto Rico, Frontier Airlines said, offering an apology to the family.
The teen was supposed to fly to Cleveland, Ohio, on a Dec. 22 flight out of Tampa International Airport but "mistakenly boarded a different flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico," a spokesperson for the airline company said.
Both flights departed from the same gate, with the San Juan flight departing first, Frontier said.
The teen was immediately flown back to Tampa and put on a flight to Cleveland the following day.
Ryan Lose told "NBC Nightly News" that his son, Logan Lose, was nervous about flying alone for the first time and checked with the gate agent before boarding his flight. Ryan Lose said the agent checked his son's baggage and looked at his boarding pass but did not scan it.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/teen-traveling-alone-frontier-airlines-tampa-accidentally-flown-puerto-rcna131691
So Frontier shares this week's "Shithouse of the Skies" traveling trophy with Spirit...who at least had the decency to fire the agent who put the 6 year old on the wrong flight.
The rules of the road are changing, but not fast enough for everyone
Matt Keenan was an experienced cyclist. He knew the best bike routes around San Diego, and bought the brightest lights for his bike.
None of that was enough to keep him alive.
Keenan was killed by a driver who crossed over the road's double yellow line and hit him head on in the opposite bike lane. His wife, Laura Keenan, found out the next morning.
"I then had to get my 15 month-old son out of bed and tell him that his dad was never coming home again," she said.
That was over two years ago. Since then, Laura Keenan has become an advocate for safer streets. She's convinced that a better road design would have made a difference for her husband.
"Oh, 100%," she said in an interview. "I'm confident that he'd be alive if there was a protected bikeway, or if the street was designed to prevent cars from going deadly speeds."
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/31/1222174861/road-street-design-traffic-mutcd
Colorado GOP Chair Takes Issue With Boebert's District Swap
The chairman of Colorado’s Republican Party isn’t a fan of Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) decision to forgo a reelection bid in her home district and instead move to a district on the other side of the state that’s considered much friendlier to Republicans.
“From a party perspective, we certainly don’t think it was the best move,” Dave Williamson told CNN Thursday. “We felt that she was best suited for Congressional District 3 and that she was in the best position to win reelection and retain that for Republicans.”
In 2022, Boebert eked out a win against Democrat Adam Frisch by a mere 546 votes out of more than 327,000 cast. Whereas Boebert’s current district—which has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+7—encompasses the western and southern parts of the state, including Aspen, the fourth congressional district is mostly to the East of Denver and has a rating of R+13—the most conservative in the state. That district’s current representative, Rep. Ken Buck, is retiring.
“Time will tell whether or not we’re right, but I think she’s got a serious challenge on her hands trying to explain to the voters of [Colorado’s 4th District] why she thought it was necessary to leave [Colorado’s 3rd District] and have a better chance at keeping her seat in Congress,” Williamson said. “It’s kind of a problematic proposition. But it’s… something for the voters to decide.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/colorado-gop-chair-dave-williamson-airs-his-doubts-about-boeberts-district-swap
Gypsy Rose Blanchard, abuse victim who plotted mother's murder, to be released from prison
Gypsy Rose Blanchard, the child abuse victim who was convicted of killing her mother, will be released early from prison to start 2024 as a free woman.
Blanchard, 32, has been granted parole and will be released from the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Chillicothe, Missouri, on Dec. 28, three years before her original release date, a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Corrections confirmed in an email to TODAY.
In 2016, Blanchard was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her role in the murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, who was stabbed to death the year before by Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard is believed to have been a victim of Munchhausen syndrome by proxy, a psychological disorder in which a caretaker makes someone ill or creates the illusion of them being ill in order to receive attention, the Springfield News-Leader reported.
On the stand, Gypsy Rose Blanchard described how her mother took her to doctors throughout her life to treat her for various conditions, including leukemia and muscular dystrophy, that she never actually had.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/gypsy-rose-blanchard-abuse-victim-plotted-mothers-murder-released-pris-rcna131313
I never thought she should have been convicted or imprisoned, any more than a woman who kills an abusive partner
Children with multiple food allergies may get relief with new treatment
For people with multiple food allergies, new research suggests that a drug already approved for asthma and chronic hives may protect against severe reactions to peanuts, eggs, milk and other foods.
In an early analysis of data from a clinical trial backed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, 165 children and adolescents who received injections of the drug Xolair were able to consume higher doses of the foods without triggering an allergic reaction, compared to those who treated with placebos, Dr. Alkis Togias, chief of the allergy, asthma and airway biology branch at NIAID, said.
“The major advantage of this medication is that it will cover more than one food and that it has been around for about two decades and we know its safety profile, which is pretty good,” Togias said.
The monoclonal antibody omalizumab, marketed as Xolair and developed by Genentech and Novartis, is already available as a treatment for asthma. The medication was shown to reduce allergic asthma attacks and hives in clinical trials.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/new-food-allergies-drug-may-prevent-severe-reactions-peanuts-egg-milk-rcna131194
Of course, the price....... 
Uruguay's green power revolution: rapid shift to wind shows the world how it's done
It was the 2000s, and fossil fuel prices were rising worldwide. After a period of volatility in the 1980s, the crude oil price per barrel had reached one its lowest points – $20 – at the end of 2001 but then, over the course of six years, it tripled before a new oil shock saw prices surpass those of the 1970s, reaching a record $145 a barrel on 3 July 2008.
Uruguay imports its oil, so it had a problem. Demand for energy in the country had grown by 8.4% the previous year and household energy bills were increasing at a similar rate. The 3.4 million-strong population was becoming restless. Lacking alternatives, President Tabaré Vázquez was forced to buy energy from neighbouring states at higher prices, even though Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay had a mutual aid agreement in case of emergency conditions.
To escape the trap, Vázquez needed rapid solutions. He turned to an unlikely source: Ramón Méndez Galain, a physicist who would transform the country’s energy grid into one of the cleanest in the world.
Today, the country has almost phased out fossil fuels in electricity production. Depending on the weather, anything between 90% and 95% of its power comes from renewables. In some years, that number has crept as high as 98%.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/dec/27/uruguays-green-power-revolution-rapid-shift-to-wind-shows-the-world-how-its-done
Stop whining, America...It CAN be done!
Trump Tears Into Lawmaker Over Her Husband's Funeral
Donald Trump lashed out at Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) on Tuesday evening, alleging that she wasn’t sufficiently thankful to him over arrangements he’d made for her husband’s funeral.
The former president did not say what had prompted his Truth Social tirade against the “LOSER” congresswoman, though his furious post came after she publicly criticized his “ROT IN HELL” Christmas message.
Earlier on Tuesday, Dingell said during a CNN appearance that Trump’s festive message was “one of the most pathetic Christmas greetings I’ve heard, when a former President of the United States who wants to return [to office] tells people on Christmas Day that they can ‘rot in hell.’” She went on to accuse Trump of contributing to the division in America and said that “there were men outside of my house with assault weapons” after the Republican previously “went after” her.
“Debbie Dingell of Michigan is a LOSER,” Trump wrote in his post Tuesday, accusing her of helping “Crooked Joe Biden” to “DESTROY our Country.” He went on to criticize the congresswoman for her actions following the February 2019 death of her husband, former Rep. John Dingell.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-claims-dem-congresswoman-debbie-dingell-wasnt-nice-enough-to-him-about-her-husbands-funeral
He's such a LOSER!
Police Didn't Breathalyze or Drug Test Cop Who Drove Into Gay Bar
St. Louis, Missouri police did not drug test or breathalyze the officer who crashed his car into a gay bar, eventually leading to the bar’s owner being arrested, the department told reporters.
A police SUV drove into Bar
M shortly after midnight on Monday morning; afterwards, police handcuffed one of the owners and arrested a second one, charging him with felony assault.
The co-owner who was arrested, Chad Morris, said police beat him, and had a black eye and scratches on his face when he was released from the St. Louis City Justice Center Tuesday. Prosecutors have downgraded his assault charge to a misdemeanor, but his lawyer said they must drop charges altogether.
According to the Riverfront Times, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Lieutenant Colonel Renee Kriesmann told reporters Wednesday police did not take a toxicology test or breathalyze the driver of the police SUV because there was no “reasonable suspicion” that they had been using drugs or alcohol.
But the police department’s story as to why the officer drove into the bar has changed multiple times. Initially, Bar M co-owner James Pence said the driver told him he had swerved to avoid a dog. Then, in a police incident report cited by a local Fox News affiliate, cops said the officer swerved to avoid a parked car. Kriesmann told media outlets that the driver was “distracted while attempting to change his in-car radio."
https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjvme3/st-louis-gay-bar-police-crash
Bad cop! No donut!
These kids want to go to school. The main obstacle? Paperwork
It’s unclear to Tameka how — or even when — her children became unenrolled from Atlanta Public Schools. But it was traumatic when, in fall 2021, they figured out it had happened.
After more than a year of some form of pandemic online learning, students were all required to come back to school in person. Tameka was deeply afraid of COVID-19 and skeptical the schools could keep her kids safe from what she called “the corona.” One morning, in a test run, she sent two kids to school.
Her oldest daughter, then in seventh grade, and her second youngest, a boy entering first grade, boarded their respective buses. She had yet to register the youngest girl, who was entering kindergarten. And her older son, a boy with Down syndrome, stayed home because she wasn’t sure he could consistently wear masks.
After a few hours, the elementary school called: Come pick up your son, they told her. He was no longer enrolled, they said.
Around lunchtime, the middle school called: Come get your daughter, they told her. She doesn’t have a class schedule.
Tameka’s children — all four of them — have been home ever since.
https://apnews.com/article/school-enrollment-atlanta-paperwork-22f4b2e1fc15f73f370da9f2679c02f1
Read on. The ridiculousness will astound you!
'You better pray': Christian nationalist groups are mobilizing before the 2024 elections
“In this diaper box are all the receipts for the illegal absentee ballots that were put into the Mark Zuckerberg drop boxes all over the state of Wisconsin,” said Davis.
Behind him, a long table stacked with papers, binders and a small pile of doorknobs stretched across the hall. They were for theatrical effect: the doorknobs were a tortured analogy for the multiple conspiracy theories Davis had floated, and the diaper box was a visual stand-in for the ballot drop boxes Wisconsin voters used across the state in 2020. The paperwork, Davis insisted, contained the evidence of an enormous plot to steal the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump in Wisconsin. His audience of more than 70 people, including local and state-level elected officials, sat rapt.
Davis was speaking at an event organized by Patriots of Ozaukee County, a rightwing group that vows to “combat the forces that threaten our safety, prosperity and freedoms” and compares itself to the musket-toting Minutemen of the revolutionary war.
The organization is one of more than 30 such “patriot” groups in Wisconsin identified by the Guardian which claim that the last presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. Many, including the Ozaukee county organization, openly embrace Christian nationalist rhetoric and ideology, arguing that the laws of the US government should reflect conservative Christian beliefs about issues like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights.
Their religious interpretation of the US’s founding has propelled these groups not only into fights over elections administration but also against vaccine requirements and protections for transgender people.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/24/christian-nationalist-patriot-groups-2024-presidential-election
These people are both crazy and dangerous. They will be the armed "watchers" at polling places in November.
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