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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20295975

Bumbling US cops who raided a medical diagnostics center thinking it was a cannabis farm got a gun stuck to the powerful magnets of an MRI machine, a California lawsuit has alleged.

The owners of the facility are claiming damages against the Los Angeles Police Department for an operation their lawyers describe as "nothing short of a disorganized circus."

Their lawsuit details how a SWAT team swarmed Noho Diagnostic Center after the squad's leader persuaded a magistrate to issue a search warrant.

Officer Kenneth Franco drew on his "twelve hours of narcotics training" and discovered the facility was using more electricity than nearby stores, the lawsuit said.

"Officer Franco, therefore, concluded (the facility) was cultivating cannabis, disregarding the fact that it is a diagnostic facility utilizing an MRI machine, X-ray machine and other heavy medical equipment -- unlike the surrounding businesses selling flowers, chocolates and children's merchandise," the suit said.

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Bumbling US cops who raided a medical diagnostics center thinking it was a cannabis farm got a gun stuck to the powerful magnets of an MRI machine, a California lawsuit has alleged.

The owners of the facility are claiming damages against the Los Angeles Police Department for an operation their lawyers describe as "nothing short of a disorganized circus."

Their lawsuit details how a SWAT team swarmed Noho Diagnostic Center after the squad's leader persuaded a magistrate to issue a search warrant.

Officer Kenneth Franco drew on his "twelve hours of narcotics training" and discovered the facility was using more electricity than nearby stores, the lawsuit said.

"Officer Franco, therefore, concluded (the facility) was cultivating cannabis, disregarding the fact that it is a diagnostic facility utilizing an MRI machine, X-ray machine and other heavy medical equipment -- unlike the surrounding businesses selling flowers, chocolates and children's merchandise," the suit said.

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams—who truly believes that God put him in that job—was indicted this week on five federal charges related to bribery, wire fraud, and accepting straw donations from foreign officials. The acts detailed in the nearly 60-page indictment from the Southern District of New York span a full decade of Adams’ political career, dating back to his tenure as Brooklyn borough president and extending up through his current mayoral reelection campaign. (He pleaded not guilty to the counts on Friday.)

Despite being the only mayor in NYC history to be charged during his tenure, Adams is still doing what he does best: refusing to budge an inch and clumsily making his case before a city that’s long tired of his shenanigans. “From here, my attorneys will take care of the case so I can take care of the city,” he declared during a rainy Thursday morning press conference, sheltering under a pavilion with members of the city’s Black clergy. “My day-to-day will not change. I will continue to do the job for 8.3 million New Yorkers that I was elected to do.”

It was another wild moment from a mayor who is perhaps best recognized outside the city for having a long history of wild moments. You know, like claiming his favorite concert experience was the 1990 Brooklyn live show where Curtis Mayfield was paralyzed, or downing two beers at a Midtown Irish pub before noon on St. Patrick’s Day and deeming himself “Eric O’Adams,” or wearing a lettered bracelet sporting the word HUSTLE while visiting holy sites in Israel.

Since he entered Gracie Mansion in 2022, Hizzoner has invited mass vitriol for slashing municipal public services while coddling the brutal, corrupt police department and demonizing the city’s immigrants. But now, with the feds pursuing several probes into his inner circle and spurring some of his highest-ranking lieutenants to step down … well, let’s just say it’s difficult to imagine how even a mayor as defiant as this one manages to last in the political realm.

We’ll probably learn a lot over the coming months about just how closely intertwined Adams was with Turkey’s government, which will surely provide us with much more fodder in evaluating the man’s legacy. But in the interim, let’s enjoy a trek down memory lane with a highlight reel of his most ridiculous moments.

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The MTA board on Wednesday approved a $68.4 billion blueprint for big-ticket upgrades in the transit agency’s new five-year capital program — even as billions of dollars in funding remain unaccounted for in the current plan and the next one.

The MTA board had until October 1 to submit the 2025-2029 plan for system upkeep and expansion to the state’s Capital Program Review Board, which has 30 days to review and approve it.

MTA board members signed off unanimously even though Gov. Kathy Hochul’s congestion pricing pause in June left a $16.5 billion gap in the transit agency’s capital budget. The vehicle-tolling initiative is legally mandated under a 2019 state law that aimed to raise billions for transit upgrades in the 2020-2024 plan.

“It’s the costliest plan yet, with the biggest funding question mark,” said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA.

Hochul’s indefinite delay forced the MTA to scale the plan back, slowing subway signal replacement projects, while also deferring the purchase of electric buses and legally binding accessibility upgrades at 23 stations.

And that’s before the MTA faces a projected $33 billion funding gap in the new plan.

“This is all on Governor Hochul — she made the mess, she has to fix it, yet she has brought no solutions to the table,” Jennifer Van Dyck, a member of the Elevator Action Group, which advocates for increased accessibility, said during the meeting’s public comments. “And you seem to be relying on Hochhul’s word, which we all can attest to, counts for nothing.”

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Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were briefed on Wednesday on the dangerous chemical leak from a railcar near Cincinnati, Ohio, that has prompted evacuations of school buildings and homes.

The White House announced that the US president had been briefed on the leak of styrene from a parked railcar in Whitewater Township, near Cleves, on the outskirts of Cincinnati, on Tuesday, saying: “Federal Railroad Administration and Environmental Protection Agency officials are on the ground assisting with hazmat operations and air quality testing.

“The president has directed his team to provide any resources that may be needed. We urge residents to heed the warnings of emergency personnel, especially those instructed to evacuate,” it added.

And a White House official said that Harris, the US vice-president and the Democratic party nominee for president in this November’s election, was coordinating with officials and she and Biden “urge residents to heed the warnings of emergency personnel, especially those instructed to evacuate”.

Aerial video showed firefighters spraying down the car, which was sitting upright on tracks between a highway and an asphalt plant.

Authorities said a pressure release valve on it was leaking styrene, a toxic and flammable chemical used to make plastic and rubber. It can cause headaches, nausea and respiratory issues, and long-term exposure can lead to more serious health problems including organ damage.

Anyone within a half-mile of the area was advised to leave immediately. Residents just outside the evacuation area were told by the authorities to stay inside and keep their windows closed.

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Bannister arrived at the trail around 11 a.m. and made her way to the lookout. As she headed back down, she made a misstep, and her foot got caught on a hole in the ground. She fell forward.

“By the time I sat up, my foot was pointing the wrong way. I knew right away I had broken my leg,” she said. “I tried to get up with my hiking pole and it collapsed on me.”

Bannister cried out for help, and before long, a stranger approached and called 911. They were told a search and rescue team would arrive in five hours.

“It wasn’t very encouraging,” Bannister said. “I asked this man to please ask anybody if they had pain killers, because at that point, the pain was pretty substantial.”

No one in the vicinity did. But two young men at the lookout came over to see what was going on. When they saw Bannister on the ground in agony, they immediately made an offer: They could carry Bannister to the bottom of the trail.

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TROY, Mich.—Despite US dominance in so many different areas of technology, we're sadly somewhat of a backwater when it comes to car headlamps. It's been this way for many decades, a result of restrictive federal vehicle regulations that get updated rarely. The latest lights to try to work their way through red tape and onto the road are active-matrix LED lamps, which can shape their beams to avoid blinding oncoming drivers.

From the 1960s, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards allowed for only sealed high- and low-beam headlamps, and as a result, automakers like Mercedes-Benz would sell cars with less capable lighting in North America than it offered to European customers.

A decade ago, this was still the case. In 2014, Audi tried unsuccessfully to bring its new laser high-beam technology to US roads. Developed in the racing crucible that is the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the laser lights illuminate much farther down the road than the high beams of the time, but in this case, the lighting tech had to satisfy both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Food and Drug Administration, which has regulatory oversight for any laser products.

The good news is that by 2019, laser high beams were finally an available option on US roads, albeit once the power got turned down to reduce their range.

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Everyone knows that electric vehicles are supposed to be better for the planet than gas cars. That's the driving reason behind a global effort to transition toward batteries.

But what about the harms caused by mining for battery minerals? And coal-fired power plants for the electricity to charge the cars? And battery waste? Is it really true that EVs are better?

The answer is yes. But Americans are growing less convinced.

The net benefits of EVs have been frequently fact-checked, including by NPR. "No technology is perfect, but the electric vehicles are going to offer a significant benefit as compared to the internal combustion engine vehicles," Jessika Trancik, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told NPR this spring.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19889325

Money that was supposed to fund educational trips for children without homes instead paid for vacations that New York schools staffers took with their families around the country, including a visit to Disney World, according to a recently released investigative report.

Investigators recommended firing employees after finding that the head of the Queens Students in Temporary Housing (STH) program, meant to reward hardworking unhoused students with educational excursions, was telling her staff they could bring their families instead. (Temporary housing status is for students living in shelters, cars, parks or abandoned buildings, according to the New York City Public Schools website.)

Staff families weren’t joining the trips under a misunderstanding of the rules, independent investigators wrote. In one instance, STH Queens regional manager Linda Wilson allegedly told her staff: “What happens here stays with us.” She denies saying it. ...

Money that was supposed to fund educational trips for children without homes instead paid for vacations that New York schools staffers took with their families around the country, including a visit to Disney World, according to a recently released investigative report.

Investigators recommended firing employees after finding that the head of the Queens Students in Temporary Housing (STH) program, meant to reward hardworking unhoused students with educational excursions, was telling her staff they could bring their families instead. (Temporary housing status is for students living in shelters, cars, parks or abandoned buildings, according to the New York City Public Schools website.)

Staff families weren’t joining the trips under a misunderstanding of the rules, independent investigators wrote. In one instance, STH Queens regional manager Linda Wilson allegedly told her staff: “What happens here stays with us.” She denies saying it. ...