June 5, 2021

delivery guy is scared of dogs

June 5, 2021

This Northern California gas station has the most expensive fuel in the country $6.73

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/Northern-Calfornia-Mendocino-most-expensive-gas-16220638.php

Mendocino is known for its Victorian architecture and striking setting on the bluffs of the Pacific Ocean in rural Northern California, 155 miles and three and a half hours north of San Francisco. But its beauty is not the only thing that has put Mendocino in the national spotlight in recent months. Now the small coastal town of about 1,000 people has another distinction: the most expensive gas in the entire United States.

The sole service station in the tiny pastel-hued village, Schlafer’s Auto Body & Repair, is currently charging $6.73 per gallon of regular unleaded gasoline, according to the station’s owner, Judith Schlafer. According to Patrick De Haan, head of Petroleum Analysis at the travel and navigation app GasBuddy, which tracks fuel prices, that whopping per gallon figure makes Schlafer’s the single most expensive gas station in the entire country.

----------------

When I asked whether she’s received complaints about the cost of fuel at her station, which sells Chevron fuel, she laughed with barely concealed resentment. “They say, ‘you’re ripping us off,'” she said of her customer’s criticisms. “I tell them, ‘If you want to take my seat and my helm over, you're welcome to do so.’”

Running a small town, independent gas station is “a real hard business,” said Schlafer. Because she buys in comparably small quantities compared to high-volume stations in the city or places like Costco and Safeway, the price she pays, she says, has gone “sky high.” For years, she said, she carried up to $80,000 in debt for the Chevron gasoline she was buying. “I said, ‘I can't keep going like this.’” Now she prices it to pay for a truckload in 10 days.

June 5, 2021

Texas attorney under fire for racist comment on abandoned Tesla engineer's LinkedIn post

Charlie Liu quit his old job after he received and signed an offer letter to work at Tesla earlier this year.

But due to an odd string of events Liu recounted after his hiring — which began with a delayed start date and ended with the company telling him “that the position was no longer needed” — he said he was left out in the cold and out of a job.

He took his experience with Tesla to LinkedIn, where his tale received more than 50,000 reactions and 3,000 comments within a week of sharing.

“How can a company, especially one as large as Tesla, play with our lives like this?” he said in the post. “If anyone from Tesla wants to reach out and tell me how in the world this is ethical, I would love to hear it.”

But one comment on the post has elicited criticism on social media. Karan Joshi, an attorney for the Texas-based personal injury law firm Thomas J. Henry Law, commented: “Hey charlie, the Wuhan Lab may have an opening,” Joshi commented, “good luck.”

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/Kiran-Joshi-attorney-LinkedIn-Tesla-racist-covid-16217017.php

June 5, 2021

3,000 eggs abandoned after drone scares birds in California

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/3-000-eggs-abandoned-after-drone-scares-birds-in-16225410.php



This undated photo provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife show some 3,000 elegant tern eggs that were recently abandoned on a nesting island at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach, Calif., after a drone, prohibited in the area, crashed and scared off the would be parents. (California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP)AP


HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Some 3,000 elegant tern eggs were abandoned at a Southern California nesting island after a drone crashed and scared off the birds, a newspaper reported Friday.

Two drones were flown illegally over the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach in May and one of them went down in the wetlands, The Orange County Register said.

Fearing an attack from a predator, several thousand terns abandoned their ground nests, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Now, during the month when the white birds would be overseeing their eggs as they begin to hatch, the sand is littered with egg shells.

June 5, 2021

Road rage

June 5, 2021

Armed and drunk: Off-duty cops get into trouble drinking. LAPD rules fail to prevent it

Early one morning last month, off-duty Los Angeles police Officer Nicolas Quintanilla-Borja allegedly threatened to kill his cousin and another man with a handgun in Inglewood before being arrested by local police, prosecutors said.

Days later, LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the civilian Police Commission that the incident troubled him “a great deal,” in part because Quintanilla-Borja — a probationary officer with less than 18 months on the force — was allegedly “significantly” impaired by alcohol at the time.

------------

The LAPD has been struggling for years with how to deal with alcohol use by armed, off-duty officers, failing to develop clear policies despite a series of problems, The Times found. Other departments across the country have robust rules for carrying firearms while drinking alcohol or when intoxicated, but the LAPD’s rules remain vague even as serious cases pile up.

In a 2019 incident that resurfaced in state court in April, an LAPD detective who’d been drinking with subordinates for hours in downtown bars allegedly shot a homeless man on skid row before being badly beaten himself. The officer claimed self-defense.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-04/lapd-policy-mum-armed-off-duty-officers-drinking-alcohol

June 4, 2021

Amazon describes workers as 'industrial athletes', recommends shoes that accommodate swollen feet

"buy shoes at the end of the day when your feet are swollen to allow for plenty of room when they swell during work"

REVEALED: Amazon describes workers as 'industrial athletes', recommends they buy shoes that can accommodate their swollen feet and says 'wellness program' will help prep them for 'walking up to 13 miles a day' during a shift
Amazon says its warehouse workers must become 'industrial athletes' that have to prepare to 'walk up to 13 miles a day' or lift a total of '20,000 pounds in a shift'

This was described in a leaked 'wellness' pamphlet, obtained by Motherboard
News of the leaked pamphlet follows a recent report that shows Amazon workers suffered serious injuries at 80 percent higher than all other companies in 2020

------------

In a statement to Motherboard, Amazon claimed that the pamphlet was created in error and that it was immediately removed.



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9653309/Amazon-describes-workers-industrial-athletes-leaked-wellness-pamphlet.html

June 4, 2021

Did Mike Pence just doom his 2024 chances?

(CNN)At a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Thursday night, former Vice President Mike Pence defended his actions on January 6 and, in the process, may well have doomed (or at the very least hamstrung) his chances of emerging as the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.

"January 6 was a dark day in the history of our US Capitol," Pence said. "That same day we reconvened the Congress and did our duty. You know, President Trump and I have spoken several times since we left office and I don't know if we'll ever see eye to eye on that day."


https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/04/politics/mike-pence-donald-trump-2024/index.html

June 4, 2021

Venerated KTVU anchor Frank Somerville will be 'taking time away' after slurred weekend broadcast

&t=1s

Venerated KTVU anchor Frank Somerville, days after an odd Sunday broadcast in which he can be seen on-air slurring his speech while reading a teleprompter, will be on indefinite leave starting Thursday “to focus on his health.”

He can be heard mispronouncing words and slurring lines while reporting on the weather and a police attack in Santa Clara.

https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/KTVU-anchor-Frank-Somerville-time-away-health-16225504.php

June 3, 2021

Everything to know about catching a cold after not being sick for a year

A silver lining in the devastating COVID-19 pandemic was that nobody in my family of five caught a single cold for more than a year.

Wearing a mask and hibernating at home protected us from COVID-19 — but we also avoided the soup of germs that can set a throat on fire and turn a nose into a leaky faucet.


That is until late last month, when a nasty virus hit our household like a freight train, sparing no one from a backlog of mucous in the nasal passages.

The whole experience was manageable. Nobody became seriously ill or even feverish, but it reminded us all how much we hate colds and led us to ask many questions. Will we be slammed with a barrage of colds in coming months? Should we get tested for COVID (we did and were negative)?


For some answers to questions about colds, I checked in with some experts.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/cold-flu-symptoms-covid-should-i-get-tested-16217445.php