February 15, 2022

Disney World to drop indoor mask rule for vaccinated guests

https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/attractions/2022/02/15/disney-world-to-drop-mask-rule-for-vaccinated-guests

ORLANDO, Fla. — Disney World has updated its face mask policy again and it will no longer require fully vaccinated visitors to wear masks indoors.

The update will take effect Feb. 17, according to a notice on the resort’s website.

“Face covering will be optional for fully vaccinated Guests in both outdoor and indoor locations,” the notice said.

Although Disney will not require visitors to prove they’re vaccinated, the resort says it expects visitors who are not vaccinated to continue to wear face masks in all indoor locations.

(Excerpt)

February 15, 2022

Convicted killer 'Pretty Boy Floyd' escapes again from Mississippi prison

https://www.wlox.com/2022/02/14/manhunt-underway-pretty-boy-floyd-after-he-escapes-central-mississippi-correctional-facility/

RANKIN CO., Miss. (WLOX) - For the second time in just under four years, a man convicted of murdering two people in Biloxi has escaped from a Mississippi prison.

Michael Floyd Wilson, who is also known by the moniker Pretty Boy Floyd, escaped from Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County on Sunday.

On Sunday night, officials set up roadblocks at Monterey Road, the Outpost, and the railroad tracks in Rankin County, and had notified the sheriff’s department to search the trailer park behind the prison.

Wilson, 51, is currently serving two life sentences for beating two men to death in Biloxi and Gulfport in 2014. In addition to those charges, he was also convicted in two burglaries and for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

(excerpt)

February 15, 2022

Eight people, including four teenagers, on a hunting trip have been killed in a plane crash (NC)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10512151/Search-underway-eight-passengers-downed-airplane-crashed-North-Carolina-coast.html

There were no survivors in a private plane crash off the North Carolina coast Sunday that killed eight people, including four teens, and a successful businessman.

One body has been recovered from the area and there's 'no indication any of the people onboard survived the crash,' the Carteret County Sheriff confirmed Monday afternoon.

Recovery efforts continued after the Pilatus PC-12 airplane went down four miles east of Drum Inlet. Before it disappeared, the single-engine aircraft was spotted on radar 'behaving erratically,' the US Coast Guard said.

Among its occupants was a group of high school friends and entrepreneur Hunter Parks.

(excerpt)

Sad story.

February 15, 2022

Russian units near Ukraine moved into "attack positions," official says

Source: CBS News

Russia has moved some long-range artillery and rocket launchers into firing position, threatening Ukraine, according to a U.S. official.

Some Russian units have left their assembly areas — the bumper-to-bumper formations seen in satellite photos — and are beginning to move into "attack positions," according to the official. This movement marks a change since Sunday, when some of the units had left the assembly areas but had not yet taken what could be viewed as attack positions.

The U.S. believes Russia will attack Ukraine by the end of the week, although it's not yet certain what form it will take, the official said.

Once the Russian attack begins, U.S. knowledge of what is happening will dramatically decrease. Americans will have no troops on the ground and no reconnaissance planes over the air, and Russian cyber attacks and electronic warfare will blot out communications.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-ukraine-attack-by-end-week/

February 14, 2022

Colorado governor calls for 'civility and respect' as blue states ease mask mandates

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/594033-colorado-governor-calls-for-civility-and-respect-as-democratic-led

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) called for "civility and respect" for individuals' choices on mask-wearing on Sunday as fellow Democratic governors around the U.S. have begun to lift or ease mask mandates.

Fox News Channel anchor Sandra Smith asked Polis whether or not the recent actions by Democratic governors to lift mask mandates were confusing, given conflicting guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and differing opinions coming from the White House.

"Well, in Colorado we haven't had a statewide mass requirement for close to a year. What the CDC puts out, Sandra, is guidance, they're recommendations on science. the CDC doesn't mandate anything. It's really been up to local governments and ... in some states governors to determine when or if people need to wear a mask," Polis said.

Some states led by Democrats, including Connecticut, New Jersey and Massachusetts, moved last week to ease statewide mask requirements, such as mandates in schools.

(Excerpt)

February 13, 2022

Ominous Russian movements in Black Sea raise alarm

Source: Yahoo! News

The Ukraine crisis entered a new state of intensity over the weekend, as the U.S. warned that movement by Russian troops — now numbering well over 100,000 along the Ukrainian border — and unspecified intelligence has led Washington to believe Moscow is on the brink of an invasion.

“We are in the window. And an invasion could begin — a major military action could begin — by Russia, in Ukraine, any day now,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday on CNN.

But it’s not just Russian troop movements that are setting off alarm bells. A large naval buildup in the Black and Mediterranean seas has created another threat to Ukraine near Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia invaded and annexed in 2014.

“This is an unprecedented Russian naval presence,” Andrii Klymenko of Ukraine’s Institute of Black Sea Strategic Studies told Yahoo News via a translator, adding that 12 landing ships had appeared in the Black Sea on Friday. Such a concentration, he said, hasn’t been seen since the Cold War ended three decades ago.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-ukraine-black-sea-naval-blockade-175148404.html

February 13, 2022

'Speechless.' Middle-schoolers assault high school baseball coach, Texas video shows

https://www.yahoo.com/news/speechless-middle-schoolers-assault-high-163024358.html

A Texas baseball coach was chased and beaten by a group of middle-school students in an act of retaliation against him, news outlets report.

The attack was captured on cell phone video now circulating on social media, and shows a Houston high school employee running from four students, who can be seen punching the man and knocking him to the ground.

Officials with Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District confirmed to TV station KTRK that the assault took place at Langham Creek High School on Feb. 10.

The attackers are students at Aragon Middle School, the outlet reported, and the victim is Michael Shott, an assistant baseball coach and physics teacher at Langham Creek High School.

(Excerpt)

It seems he'd told the students they couldn't ride dirt bikes or ATVs on school grounds.

February 13, 2022

Man accused of blasphemy stoned to death by mob in Pakistan

https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-accused-blasphemy-stoned-death-082512565.html

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — An enraged mob stoned to death a middle-aged man for allegedly desecrating the Quran in a remote village in eastern Pakistan, police said Sunday.

The custodian of a local mosque said he saw the man burning the Muslim holy book inside the mosque Saturday evening and told others before informing police, according to police spokesman Chaudhry Imran. The violence took place in a village in the district of Khanewal in Punjab province.

Imran said police rushed to the scene, where a man was found surrounded by an angry crowd. Officer Mohammad Iqbal and two subordinates tried to take custody of the man but the group began throwing stones at them, seriously injuring Iqbal and slightly injuring the other two officers.

Munawar Gujjar, chief of Tulamba police station, said he rushed reinforcements to the mosque but they did not arrive before the mob had stoned to death the man and hung his body from a tree.

(Excerpt)


“Of all the strange “crimes” that human beings have legislated out of nothing, “blasphemy” is the most amazing—with “obscenity” and “indecent exposure” fighting it out for second and third place.”

― Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

February 12, 2022

(AK) Ketchikan pep club apologizes after students dressed as cowboys for a basketball game

against Metlakatla, Alaska’s only Native reserve

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2022/02/11/ketchikan-pep-club-apologizes-after-students-dressed-as-cowboys-for-a-basketball-game-against-metlakatla-alaskas-only-native-reserve/

Members of Ketchikan High School’s pep club apologized for “cultural insensitivity” after dressing up as cowboys for a high school boys basketball game against Metlakatla last weekend.

The pep club’s decision to dress in a “country” theme for Saturday’s game in Ketchikan was widely seen as an affront to players and parents from Metlakatla, an Indigenous community in Southeast Alaska that is the state’s only Native American reserve.

Metlakatla Indian Community Mayor Albert Smith, in a letter to the Ketchikan schools superintendent Wednesday, called the pep theme “hurtful and emotionally violent” — recalling a time when, 77 years ago, signs in Ketchikan storefronts read “No dogs or Natives allowed.”

The outfits and other actions “created a racially charged environment directed towards our Metlakatla players, the majority of whom are of Native Alaskan (Tsimshian) descent,” Taw Lindsey, superintendent of Annette Island School District, wrote in a letter to the Metlakatla and Ketchikan communities on Thursday. Metlakatla High School is part of the district.

(Excerpt)

February 11, 2022

Wild modified firearm recovered in Calera, AL

https://mynbc15.com/news/local/wild-modified-firearm-recovered-in-calera-al

CALERA, Ala. (ABC3340) — A modified firearm is off the street after Calera AL police officers noticed someone acting strange.

The Calera Police Department says the firearm, which is a .22 caliber bolt action rifle that has been modified into a handgun, appears to be functional.

Officers approached a person who was acting strange in a neighborhood Tuesday afternoon. The person ran from officers, but was later located at a gas station. It was then discovered that he had the firearm and is a convicted felon with two active arrest warrants from separate cities.

"I’m proud of our officers for actively patrolling our neighborhoods and preventing crimes. This happened at a time when we are extremely short staffed. Convicted felons, drug dealers and gang members should not have firearms regardless of the quality."

.......

Not the most, um...impressive example of home gunsmithing I've ever seen.