big mad

https://old.reddit.com/r/news/comments/17cb7j6/us_judge_declares_californias_assault_weapons_ban?sort=controversial

This b-word is fricking just lucky she survived.

"Look, a cave!"

Started: No Place Like Home

» Clear the homeless camp.

Homeless people in California were found living in dangerously constructed riverside caves — outfitting the trash-filled dwellings with furniture and other supplies before they were cleared out by police and volunteers over the weekend.

The 20-foot-deep underground digs were tucked along the Tuolumne River in Modesto, accessible by makeshift stairs carved into the hillside.

During a sweep of the living quarters, 7,600 pounds of trash — filling up two trucks and a trailer — was removed, police said.

"I am sworn to carry your burdens..."

Photos from inside one of the caves obtained by CBS 13 show a table, crates filled with supplies, and even a couple of shelves with food and condiments. Another has a chair and other belongings in bins.

Tracy Rojas, who lives near the subterranean encampment, told CBS 13 that if the caves were to collapse, it would be “devastating.”

She said some of the caves appeared to be fully furnished with bedding as well as drugs and other contraband.

“You can see the hooks on the wall where they had bottles and stuff hanging down,” Rojas said. “I think there needs to be more emphasis on the homeless. They are at the point where you can see they are desperate.”

Guptill said they cleared out eight caves during the cleanup — but he presumes the residents will return, as he has moved them out before.

Police said they're continuing to work with local services to get the homeless people out of the caves and into proper housing.

!g*mers

An Albuquerque sophomore was seriously and permanently injured in 2022 after a former Volcano Vista High School teacher brought two swords to class and encouraged students to fight with them, a lawsuit alleges.

Identified only as a 16-year-old sophomore at the time, the student injured in the incident still suffers from physical and mental scars, said plaintiff's attorney Jessica Hernandez.

“Parents, when they send their kids to school, they think, ‘The school going to take care of my kid during the day until my child comes back to me,'” she said. “And the last thing you expect as a parent for the teacher to be the one that puts this deadly weapon directly into a child's hands.”

The suit filed in 2nd Judicial District Court on Friday alleges teacher Loviata Mitchell — and Albuquerque Public Schools — violated the sophomore's constitutional rights.

It also alleges negligence by them, as well as by Volcano Vista assistant principal Manuel Alzaga for a report he wrote after the incident. The suit seeks undetermined damages and attorney fees.

APS spokeswoman Monica Armenta said Mitchell was terminated in July 2022, though she still appears to have her teaching license, according to an online state Public Education Department database.

In response to questions about the incident, Armenta said the district does not comment on pending litigation. An attorney representing the district could not immediately be reached for comment.

Roxie De Santiago, an attorney for Mitchell, also said her client could not comment on the suit because it was pending, but wrote in an email that “generally, we believe in the justice system and trust (that) the truth of this situation will be revealed through that process.”

Alzaga still listed as working at the school on its website. He also could not immediately be reached for comment.

‘I'm in trouble'

During a morning chemistry class in May 2022, Mitchell announced she had a “surprise” for her students, according to the suit.

She pulled out two swords — one a katana, and the other a rapier-style sword — that the suit said she'd snuck into the West Side Albuquerque school. She told her students they were props, and had them rearrange their desks into a ring to fight in.

Students pulled out their phones and recorded as a pair of their classmates dueled with the swords, the metal clinking as they parried and jabbed at each other in the makeshift sparring ring while a timer on a TV monitor ticked down.

But the next duel turned bloody, according to the suit. After being chosen by Mitchell to fight another student, the suit said, the sophomore's opponent cut her with the katana, opening a deep gash across her right hand, wrist and forearm. She started bleeding profusely.

“I'm in trouble,” Mitchell said right after the sophomore was cut, according to the suit. She then told the students to delete any video recordings they'd taken and to not tell anyone about what happened.

While the sophomore bled, the suit said Mitchell tried to call the school health office, but could not figure out how. The sophomore “began to feel nauseous and weak from blood loss,” prompting another student to run to the health office.

A health assistant came to the classroom and provided the sophomore first aid and called 911. About half an hour elapsed before anyone called first responders, the suit says.

In a student accident report after the incident, according to the suit, Alzaga said Mitchell had “brought a ‘prop' to school to show a lesson on metal and melding,” and that a student accidentally cut the other student with the prop sword.

Alzaga further noted the injury did not violate school rules.

When asked if Mitchell violated either school or district policy, Armenta again replied only that the district does not comment on pending litigation.

Citing APS' employee handbook, the suit says the district flatly prohibits anyone from bringing guns, knives or other weapons to school unless authorized to do so.

Since the incident, the now 17-year-old teen who was injured has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and still faces lingering pain in her hand and wrist, which suffered permanent damage, according to the suit.

She also struggles with basic tasks, including writing, preparing food and buttoning buttons.

“This injury has changed her entire life,” Hernandez said. “... As a 16-year-old, when you get hurt like this, and all of a sudden you can't do the same things that you used to do — it's really discouraging. It's depressing. It's olating.”

This really called the cops over a phone call from dailymail

Javier Milei's minister of economy just announced an "emergency package" of measures to completely balance the budget in 2024 equivalent to over 5% of GDP.

This would be equivalent to a $1.4 trillion austerity package in a single year in the U.S. economy.

The measures include:…

— Daniel Di Martino 🇺🇸🇻🇪 (@DanielDiMartino) December 13, 2023

!neolibs !latinx

Something something STAY IN POD something something EAT THE BUGS

E U R O S E E T H E A N D C O P E

Is there a more tired meme than a jury of one's peers

🚨#BREAKING: Mass Casualty has been Declared after a Large Container Ship Collides with Key Bridge Causing it completely Collapse⁰
📌#Baltimore | #Maryland

Currently, numerous agencies, including the Coast Guard and fire department have just declared a mass casualty incident as… pic.twitter.com/wvOTOVbvHE

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) March 26, 2024

wild vid

Earlier this month, Zoom followed in the footsteps of many of its peers in the tech industry and laid off 150 employees---about 2% of its workforce---in an effort to redirect its resources and invest in what the company described as "critical areas for the future." One of the teams that Zoom deemed superfluous was the group of employees working on diversity, equity, and inclusion, according to a Bloomberg report this week.

In an internal note to employees, chief operating officer Aparna Bawa claimed that, in lieu of an internal team, Zoom would bring on DEI consultants who would focus on inclusion. Per Bloomberg, Bawa also said that Zoom had to "change its approach to DEI." In a statement to Fast Company, a Zoom spokesperson said, "Zoom remains committed to DEI and ensuring its principles remain firmly rooted in our DNA across our entire company."

As Fast Company reported last year, this decision is in line with a broader trend across the tech industry---and other sectors, too---that has led companies to quietly disinvest from the very public commitments they made in 2020, in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder. Too often, when companies are forced to trim headcount, DEI jobs are among the first to go. As the tech industry cut over 400,000 jobs between 2022 and 2023, many DEI teams were gutted; Twitter's 30-person DEI team, for example, was reduced to just two employees after repeated layoffs and Elon Musk's acquisition. In other cases, at companies like Amazon, former employees have reportedly been replaced with cheaper, less-experienced hires.

Like so many companies, Zoom brought on its first chief diversity officer, Damien Hooper-Campbell, in June 2020 and published its first diversity report in 2022. But Hooper-Campbell left within 22 months and was never replaced. (As Fast Company reported in 2021, Zoom did not have Hooper-Campbell report to the CEO or head of operations.) Over the past few years, many DEI leaders have left their posts due to burnout or opted to start their own consulting practices, often in response to shrinking budgets and the exhausting pace of their work---which is all the more challenging when corporate DEI commitments are constantly in flux.

While DEI practitioners have long had to contend with cyclical investment in their work, the Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action last year has sparked an especially strong backlash from politicians and business leaders. More recently, the issue has become the target of outspoken executives including Musk and Bill Ackman, who have openly derided DEI initiatives. And while the affirmative action ruling did not apply to private employers, Edward Blum---the conservative lawyer driving much of the anti-affirmative action movement---has brought lawsuits against such organizations as the Fearless Fund, a VC firm that invests in underrepresented founders.

Even beyond cutting jobs or trimming budgets, it's clear that this broader cultural pushback is impacting how companies are approaching DEI. As conservative activists have threatened legal action, companies including JPMorgan Chase and Tesla have already altered the language of their diversity initiatives or revised their DEI goals.

!chuds !nooticers

>Qi entered the school in 2022 and listed his previous education as Louisiana State University and Wuhan University, the page said.

BREAKING: South Korea’s parliament has passed a landmark bill that outlaws the consumption of dog meat, a centuries-old practice. https://t.co/8wWgv54GfU

— The Associated Press (@AP) January 9, 2024

Please congratulate @KoreanStragKing on his people becoming slightly less of an embarrassment.