Hah

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

Cuban's heros

I knew this would happen:

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball has eliminated its requirement that Cuban players obtain a license from the U.S. government before they are eligible to sign with big league teams.

The decision could speed the negotiating process for Yoan Moncada, a well-regarded 19-year-old infielder who left Cuba last year with permission from Cuba’s government.

MLB Executive Vice President Dan Halem sent a memorandum to teams Tuesday, saying the new policy was warranted following changes made last month by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to Cuban Assets Control Regulations. That followed President Barack Obama’s announcement in December that the United States and Cuba were re-establishing relations.

A Cuban player previously had to obtain an unblocking license from OFAC before he could sign a contract. Halem told clubs that under the new rules “all Cuban national prospects must provide a sworn statement.”

I don’t know exactly what this means

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Obama Urged to Work Closely with People Suing Him

But it’s always fun to see Democrats grow a spine:

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked Republicans from taking up a bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security but roll back the President Obama’s recent executive actions on immigration, setting up a showdown over the agency — and the administration’s immigration policies — before money for the department runs out at the end of the month.

Senate Republicans had hoped to take up House-passed legislation that would fund the department through the fiscal year. But the $40 billion spending bill also would revoke legal protections for as many as five million undocumented immigrants, including children. Democrats said that was unacceptable and Mr. Obama has promised a veto of any legislation that guts his executive immigration actions.

Republicans blamed Democrats for using a procedural maneuver to block the bill from coming to the Senate floor. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, warned that the president had executed a partisan “power grab” on immigration.

But Congressional Republicans now find themselves scrambling to fund the agency before it runs out of money on Feb. 27, while also placating their most conservative members, who believe the president has overstepped his constitutional authority and that the homeland security bill is their best leverage to fight back.

He walks 21 miles a day to work and back and people want to help him

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

I know it’s predictable, but I love how willing people are to help an individual overcome obstacles:

After the Detroit Free Press published Robertson’s story, thousands responded on Facebook, asking how they could help. Evan Leedy, a student at Detroit’s Wayne State University, decided to set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for Robertson to buy a car.

Leedy told The Huffington Post in a phone call Monday he was inspired by Humans of New York photographer Brandon Stanton, who raised more than $1 million to send schoolkids from a crime-stricken neighborhood in Brooklyn on a trip to Harvard.
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Near miss

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

CP 550

When I saw this, I just assumed it was an old story. There was another one? WTF?

Over the weekend, 11 cars from an 111-car CSX train derailed in South Philly. The cars were carrying crude oil, but there were no leaks, no deaths and no injuries.

This time.

But the incident happened almost exactly a year after seven crude-oil-carrying cars on a CSX train derailed over the Schuylkill River, raising questions — never entirely answered — about whether Philadelphia citizens are adequately protected from the possibility of an oil catastrophe as the city grows into a possible “energy hub” future.

“Both accidents were predictable, preventable, and a near miss from potentially catastrophic impacts,” activist Iris Marie Bloom blogged on Saturday. “There must be no third derailment. That no rupture occurred is extremely lucky. We can’t leave prevention to luck.”

She is right to be concerned. Where there are oil shipments, there are frequent — if frequently minor — incidents: ProPublica’s Isaiah Thompson reported in November that “in at least 65 cases over the last two years, tank cars bound for or arriving in Philadelphia were found to have loose, leaking or missing safety components.”

And while catastrophic events involving crude don’t happen every day, they can be devastating. In 2013, an oil-train derailment in Quebec set off an explosion that killed 47 people. There have been several more huge explosions in recent years, albeit with fewer casualties, but even federal regulators think there is good reason to be concerned.

Good shot

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

Stippled NiBX Glock 23 and Custom Canik Stingray

When will these so-called adults take responsibility for keeping guns away from little kids? Why is that so hard to do?

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A 3-year-old boy found a handgun in his mother’s purse and fired just one shot that wounded both his parents at an Albuquerque motel on Saturday, police said.

According to investigators, the toddler apparently reached for an iPod but found the loaded weapon. Police believe the shooting to be accidental.

The bullet first struck his father in the buttock and then hit the right shoulder of his mother, who is eight months pregnant, police said. His 2-year-old sister was present but unhurt.

Both injuries are non-life threatening, authorities said.