Multiple passengers were injured when two Metro-North trains collided near a station Friday night.

The "major train derailment" happened when a Metro-North train, which left New Haven and was headed to Grand Central Station, collided with a westbound train, which was also out of New Haven, on adjacent track around 6:10 p.m.

Multiple cars from each train were derailed.

Police said 22 people were transported to the hospital with four of them having serious injuries. There were no reported fatalities.

Passengers told Eyewitness News there were some people complaining about neck and back pain.

There is no Metro-North service between Stamford and New Haven. Trains are being stopped at the nearest station.

Sources told Eyewitness News Metro-North service will likely be impacted for several days, will have to set up some sort of shuttle system.

Service on Amtrak Acela and Northeast Regional between New York and Boston has been suspended indefinitely.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy headed to the derailment Friday night. The National Transportation Safety Board gathered information and sent a team of investigators to Connecticut for the collision.

Eyewitness News talked to at least one passenger that said the train was traveling around 50 mph. The collision was "loud" and "jolted" people out of their seats.

"Tracks looks like twisted ribbons of metal," Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch tweeted.

Passengers were held for about 15 minutes until smoke cleared.

Metro-North officials said they will continue to update their customers as more information becomes available.

Source: KLTV CT

CT rail Twitter has updates
saw live coverage on TV. apparently they are doing bridge repairs in this area, so ALL train traffic for the NY/Boston corridor is passing on two parallel lines at this choke point. The derailment occurred there, blocking BOTH lines.

The Missouri legislature has allowed an anti-bullying bill (HB 134) to die, and its Republican sponsor is blaming her gay colleagues for killing it. For all of the effective anti-bullying measures Rep. Sue Allen’s bill included, it specifically banned the creation of enumerated lists of identities to protect, such as sexual orientation and gender identity. Enumerating protections has helped guarantee that anti-LGBT bullying does not go unreported, but according to Allen, they’re too “partisan”:

I typically try to keep partisanship out of my message, but this is an issue for the Democrats who wish for certain students (GLBT –gay, lesbian, bisexual, & transgender) to be “enumerated” within school policies. [...]

What “they” don’t seem to understand is that any stronger policies help ALL students, even those they would have categorized.

So….it seems some people care more about arguing points to make some students more protected when what they’ve really done is to NO better protect ANY student.

The “they” Allen refers to are openly gay lawmakers Sen. Jolie Justus (D) and Rep. Mike Colona (D), who Allen encourages her supporters to contact and blame for the bill’s failure.

Allen clearly does not understand the purpose and function of enumerating groups, calling it “discriminatory” to specify some groups for students and not others. Speaking with the Riverfront Times, she added, “Why are we always segregating?” Of course, enumerating groups does nothing of the sort; instead, it ensures that groups known to be targeted for bullying are specifically listed so that such harassment can be more easily identified. No student is excluded from a bullying policy because they don’t belong to one of the enumerated groups; instead, the groups serve to raise awareness about forms of bullying that are already problematic.

It would also be different if Allen’s bill simply did not address enumerate groups, but it specifically bans them. The only purpose for such a limitation is to ensure protections for the LGBT community are never extended. This is particularly problematic given the incredibly high rates of anti-LGBT bullying that take place in Missouri.

With a bullying epidemic like that, Allen should better appreciate that enumerating protections to groups like LGBT students would actually better protect all students. Instead, she’s encouraging people to bully her gay colleagues for wanting to fix her problematic bill.

source

http://welshyca.tumblr.com/post/5065...-take-my-stand

... Didn't even do the James Bond retrospective you British son of a bitch. *Salutes and breaks down*

TRANSCRIPT
HARI SREENIVASAN: Xeni Jardin has been following the story in Guatemala and was the producer on Miles O'Brien's earlier report. [triggers for rape, genocide, and violence. PBS does NOT sanitize genocide]

So, Xeni Jardin, give us an idea, how significant was this trial for the people there?

XENI JARDIN: This is huge.

This is the first time in modern history that a domestic court has convicted a former head of state on these kinds of charges, genocide, crimes against humanity. But for both sides in this case, for the people who support the military, who support Rios Montt, and for the nation's majority indigenous population, this is huge.

This -- you know, it's fair to state that for many people this reopens old wounds. The country's 36-year civil war is not that long ago. And literally everyone in this country is still touched by that legacy in one way or another, some people very directly.
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source: PBS Newshour

companion piece, the forensic science used in the court cass: TRIGGER WARNINGS for violence, rape, genocide, killing of children this is an excellent report including excavation of mass graves, satellite photos of the devastation, statistics and even documentary footage shot at the time, but it is a TOUGH piece to watch.

France's constitutional court on Friday approved a gay-marriage bill passed by parliament on April 23. President François Hollande is expected to sign the bill into law next week, legalising marriage and adoption for same-sex couples.
By FRANCE 24 (text)


France's Constitutional Council on Friday approved a gay-marriage bill passed by parliament on April 23, rejecting a challenge to the legislation launched by the main opposition party.

France's parliament approved the bill in a third and final vote on April 23, but the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy immediately launched a challenge to the bill on constitutional grounds.

President François Hollande is expected to sign the bill into law next week, marking the final step in legalising marriage and adoption for same-sex couples in France. Hollande, who promised to support "marriage for all" throughout his presidential campaign, has said he would sign the bill as soon as the court had ruled.

A Constitutional Council statement added a caveat, however, saying the legality of gay adoption did not establish the "right to a child" and emphasising that the interests of the children involved would continue to be the overriding consideration.

The ruling comes after months of controversy and protests both for and against the bill that saw thousands taking to the streets and sporadic outbreaks of violence. France is secular but also overwhelmingly Catholic, and demonstrations against the bill drew tens of thousands ahead of the final parliamentary vote.

Overall, however, surveys indicate that almost 60 percent of the French population support Hollande's vision of "marriage for all".

France24

For those who read French, more info at Le Monde

I think all that's left now is for Hollande to sign it, and it's the law!

WASHINGTON -- Since mass shootings in places like Aurora and Newtown, lawmakers have been searching for answers for how to stop future massacres, examining issues like gun control and mental health. But in a speech this month, Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) pointed to different culprits: the legalization of abortion and a demise in religious values.

Cramer made his remarks during a commencement address at the University of Mary on May 4. He decried a local TV anchor who was fired after accidentally swearing on air and then became an internet sensation, as well as the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision.

From his speech:

"Just in the last several days, a Bismarck news anchor mistakenly uttered vulgarity on live television. He's been heralded by celebrities from New York to California as some sort of pop icon. His bosses have been called goons because they fired him.

We learned this week that the Pentagon is vetting its guide on religious tolerance with a group that compared Christian evangelism to rape, and advocated that military personnel and colluding chaplains who proselytize should be court-marshalled.

Forty years ago, the United States Supreme Court sanctioned abortion on demand. And we wonder why our culture sees school shootings so often."

Cramer also mentioned the 9/11 and Boston Marathon attacks, saying, "Innocent people in New York have airplanes flown into their places of work, and marathoners in Boston are victims of bombs, yet Christianity is singled out as bigotry in our public institutions because politicians and academics lack the courage to speak truth. We've normalized perversion and perverted God's natural law to the point where the only thing not tolerated anymore is a stand for truth."

He added that he expected to face criticism for his remarks, stating, "I was asked recently by a reporter if I'm afraid that some people would attack me if I speak like this. And I said, 'No, I'm not afraid they will, I'm quite certain they will."

Cramer's office declined to comment further.

James Dobson, evangelical pundit and founder of Focus on the Family, made comments similar to Cramer's in December after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

"I mean millions of people have decided that God doesn't exist, or he's irrelevant to me and we have killed fifty-four million babies and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition," he said, adding, "I think we have turned our back on the Scripture and on God Almighty and I think he has allowed judgment to fall upon us. I think that's what's going on."

In March, Cramer attracted attention for getting into a heated discussion with Native American victim assistance leaders during a conversation about the Violence Against Women Act. The congressman reportedly said he wanted to "wring the Tribal council’s neck and slam them against the wall". Cramer later apologized for his remarks.

By Amanda Terkel. Posted: 05/16/2013 12:08 pm EDT. Updated: 05/16/2013 8:33 pm EDT.

Source. Full video of Cramer's remarks here, with the aforementioned portion starting around 1:13:00.

More controversy for Japan party as lawmaker accuses Koreans of involvement in prostitution

An emerging Japanese nationalist political party whose co-leader outraged many with remarks about Japan’s wartime and modern sexual services became embroiled in more controversy Friday when a party lawmaker accused ethnic Koreans of involvement in prostitution.

The Japan Restoration Party urged the lawmaker, Shingo Nishimura, to retract his comments suggesting many ethnic Koreans are engaged in prostitution in Japan. Nishimura withdrew his remarks, but the party forced him out anyway.

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, a founder and co-leader of the party, angered Japan’s neighbors by saying this week that the Japanese military’s wartime practice of forcing Asian women into prostitution was necessary to maintain discipline and provide relaxation for soldiers. He also angered the U.S. by suggesting that American troops based in southern Japan should patronize legal adult entertainment establishments to reduce sex crime there.

The uproar over Hashimoto’s comments, and Nishimura’s predicament, typify the difficulties Japanese politicians can create for themselves when commenting on sensitive topics without considering how those outside their own circles might react.

Nishimura made the comments during a Restoration Party meeting Friday that was discussing the remarks made by Hashimoto, who continues to insist that other countries also commonly impressed women into military brothels during World War II and that Japan is being unfairly singled out.

Defending Hashimoto, Nishimura objected to media reports describing the women impressed into wartime military brothels as “sex slaves.” Video footage of the meeting was broadcast by the TBS TV network.

“’Comfort women’ is erroneously translated as ‘sex slaves,’ which might encourage anti-Japanese riots and conspiracies,” Nishimura said. “We better fight back by telling them that the words ‘comfort women’ and ‘sex slaves’ are completely different and that there are numerous South Korean prostitutes roaming around Japan.”

( Nishimura said jokingly that he might return to his hometown of Osaka, go to crowded entertainment districts and tell them, 'Hey, you South Korean comfort women!'Collapse )

--

OH MY GOD, EVERY MEMBER OF THE ISHIN NO KAI NEEDS TO SHUT UP.

CRACK COCAINE
JOHN COOK
Yesterday 8:28pm

For Sale: A Video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Smoking Crack Cocaine
Rob Ford, Toronto's conservative mayor, is a wild lunatic given to making bizarre racist pronouncements and randomly slapping refrigerator magnets on cars. One reason for this is that he smokes crack cocaine. I know this because I watched him do it, on a videotape. He was fucking hiiiiigh. It's for sale if you've got six figures.

It began like this: We've made fun of Ford before for his bizarre pronouncements and nude pictures. Last week, we got a tip from someone claiming to have a videotape of Ford smoking crack. Would we like to buy it?

The tipster made the following claims:

• Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smokes crack cocaine.

• There is a video of Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine, taken within the last six months.

• Rob Ford purchases his crack cocaine from a crew of Toronto drug dealers that service a veritable who's who of A-list...Torontonians? Torontites? Anyway, a lot of prominent people in Toronto purchase and enjoy crack and powder cocaine, and they all buy it from the same folks. The same folks Ford buys it from. Ford's longtime friend, people on his staff, his brother, a prominent hockey analyst, and more.

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Gawker Media 2013

Source


I was aware that he had an alcoholism issue, but this? I hope he can be talked into rehab. He needs to step down and go to rehab.