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Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Comply or Die, the racehorse who won the 2008 Grand National has died at the age of 17. His death was announced by his former trainer, David Pipe. He died over at the weekend in Gloucestershire, where he had been staying with jockey Timmy Murphy. He was cremated on Monday and his ashes will return to Murphy.

Murphy was the jockey in the saddle when Comply or Die won the 2008 Grand National. Speaking to the Press Association, he spoke about the horse’s death. He said, “He was part of the furniture at home so it’s very sad. He gave me the greatest day of my career, obviously that can never be taken away. He paraded at Cheltenham and Aintree and was getting ready to do some dressage in the summer. I’m not actually sure how he died, to be honest, but it wasn’t nice to come home to. He was cremated on Monday. He was a happy horse and he was also very clever.”

During his racing career he made £798,809 in prize-money after winning a total of eight races.

The 2008 Grand National victory was his greatest achievement and he almost matched it when he came second place in 2009. He retired in 2011 but remained active, often being paraded at race grounds such as Aintree and Cheltenham. He also participated in some hunting activities. Pipe said, “Since his retirement he had been a lead-horse at Timmy Murphy’s establishment before trying his hand at dressage, a discipline in which he had proven very successful”.

Tributes have been paid to Comply or Die on social media by horse racing fans with several tweeting their appreciation and memories.

December 25, 2004

Officials in Mumbai, India, demolished over 6,000 shanties today in a push to eradicate the capital city’s slums. In total, 39,000 shanties have been flattened, displacing over 200,000 people, in the city’s biggest-ever demolition drive, which began in early December.

When complete, over 2 million people are expected to be displaced. After wiping out the least desirable shanties, next in line for demolition are the illegal ‘well-off’ shanties and neighborhoods, according to the legal and bureaucratic motions that have been executed toward cleaning up Mumbai’s appearance by lowering the dominance of shanties, which make up 62 percent of Mumbai’s housing.

“As far as eye can see, there are mounds of wood, tin and tarpaulin, the remains of 6,200 illegal homes, flattened by a heavy excavator running on tank-like tracks and giant motorised claws,” the Indian Express reported about today’s destruction. [1]

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said that citizens would see a change within six months. “Every chief minister likes to be remembered, and I’m no exception,” said Deshmukh, who despite having an empty exchequer, also announced that Rs 31,000 crore will be spent on new roads, sea links and rail lines. [2]

Monday, May 14, 2007

Buffalo, New York —A massive warehouse complex of at least 5 buildings caught on fire in Buffalo, New York on 111 Tonawanda Street, sending a plume of thick, jet black colored smoke into the air that could be seen as far away as 40 miles.

As of 6:40 a.m., the fire was under control, and firefighters were attempting to stop it from spreading, but could not get to the center of the fire because of severe amounts of debris. Later in the morning, the fire was extinguished.

“The fire is mostly under debris at this point. It’s under control, but it’s under some debris. We really can’t get to it. We’re just going to have to keep on pouring water on it so it doesn’t spread,” said Thomas Ashe, the fire chief for the North Buffalo based fire division who also added that at one point, at least 125 firefighters were on the scene battling the blaze. One suffered minor injures and was able to take himself to the hospital to seek medical attention.

Shortly after 8:00 p.m. as many as 3 explosions rocked the warehouse sending large mushroom clouds of thick black smoke into the air. After the third explosion, heat could be felt more than 100 feet away. The fire started in the front, one story building then quickly spread to three others, but fire fighters managed to stop the flames from spreading onto the 3 story building all the way at the back.

According to a Buffalo Police officer, who wished not to be named, the fire began at about 7:00 p.m. [Eastern time], starting as a one alarm fire. By 8:00 p.m., three fire companies were on the scene battling the blaze. Police also say that a smaller fire was reported in the same building on Saturday night, which caused little damage.

At the start of the fire, traffic was backed up nearly 4 miles on the 198 expressway going west toward the 190 Interstate and police had to shut down the Tonawanda street exit because the road is too close to the fire.

At one point, traffic on the 198 was moving so slow, at least a dozen people were seen getting out of their cars and walking down the expressway to watch the fire. That prompted as many as 10 police cars to be dispatched to the scene to force individuals back into their cars and close off one of the 2 lanes on the westbound side.

One woman, who wished not to be named as she is close to the owner of the warehouse, said the building is filled with “classic cars, forklifts, and money” and that owner “does not have insurance” coverage on the property. The building is not considered abandoned, but firefighters said that it is vacant.

Officials in Fort Erie, Ontario were also swamped with calls to fire departments when the wind blew the smoke over the Niagra River and into Canada.

It is not known what caused the fire, but a car is suspected to have caught on fire and there are reports from police and hazmat crews, that there were also large barrels of diesel fuel being stored in one building. Firefighters say the cause of the blaze is being treated as “suspicious.” The ATF is investigating the fire and will bring dogs in to search the debris.

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Sunday, September 30, 2007

Evan Wolfson, the founder of the modern gay marriage movement, tells the waiter he would like an iced decaf and “the usual.” Wolfson, one of Time Magazine’s Most Influential People in the World, is a man who unflinchingly knows what he wants and stays his course, whether it be in his choice of restaurant or in his choice of battle. And others always know when they see Evan coming what it is that he wants.

Since his time at Harvard Law School when he wrote a paper on the topic, what Wolfson wants is the right for gay people to marry. The issue gained national prominence in 1993 when the Hawaii Supreme Court held in Baehr v. Lewin that the government had to show a reason for the denial of the freedom to marry, not just deny marriage licenses to the plaintiff gay couples. Wolfson was co-counsel in the historic 1996 Hawaii trial in which he argued that the government does not have a sufficient reason for excluding same-sex couples from marriage. In 1999, Wolfson contributed to Baker v. Vermont, the case that led to the creation of civil unions; advised the lead attorneys in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the case that led to same-sex marriage in Massachusetts; and since 2003, when he founded the primary umbrella organization coordinating the efforts to win marriage for gay people, Freedom to Marry, Wolfson has played a role in every marriage equality case in the United States. He is the movement’s founder and leader, and his focus remains square on winning that right. “For years,” said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, “many of us were saying to him, ‘We’re not ready. The country’s not ready. And, by the way, you’re crazy.'”

When I make a statement to him about his devoting his life to gay marriage, he corrects me: “I’ve played a part in cases that span the entire spectrum of eliminating gay people’s exclusions and limitations on who gay people are, and I’ve also written on immigration and economic justice, and I have worked on cases involving race discrimination in jury selection and women’s inequality. I don’t think one has to pick one of these things; they work together.”

Indeed, he has. Wolfson was lead counsel before the Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, the case arguing against the expulsion of gay scoutmasters. As an intrepid young assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, Wolfson worked on People v. Liberta to end the exemption that allowed women to be raped by their husbands legally, a right in New York State as early as 1984. And he helped end the practice of choosing jurors based upon their race.

Wolfson’s entire career has been at the center of the most explosive legal and cultural issues of the last 30 years in the United States, and his influence has been profound. David Shankbone sat down with him to discuss some of the recent decisions affecting gay marriage, gender in marriage and reactions in the gay community to his fight for their rights.

Monday, September 30, 2019

Friday, the United States House of Representatives issued a subpoena for documents from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as part of its impeachment investigation into alleged misconduct by sitting President Donald Trump. On the same day, Kurt Volker, the United States special envoy for Ukraine negotiations, resigned without public explanation. The House issued a deposition request for Volker, scheduled for this week.

Volker’s resignation was the first since details emerged about Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Volker’s position as special envoy, an unpaid part-time role, put him in center of the Trump administration’s affairs in Ukraine. In July, he helped facilitate a meeting between Giuliani, claiming to represent the State Department, and Andriy Yermak, one of President Zelensky’s aides. Volker also worked to arrange a meeting between Zelensky and Trump himself during President Trump’s planned trip to Warsaw, which was cancelled.

The subpoena was issued jointly by Representatives Eliot Engel, Adam Schiff, and Elijah Cummings, who serve as chairmen of the House’s committees on Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and Oversight and Reform, respectively. It follows repeated failed attempts to obtain documents from the State Department through previous document requests. Among other things, the House subpoenaed a full transcript of a call between Trump and then-newly elected President Zelensky in late July. It also called for records relating to the Trump administration’s temporary withholding of security aid to Ukraine, as well as files relating to attempts by Rudy Giuliani to encourage investigations into Democratic challenger former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden is one of the front runners for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in the upcoming 2020 race. Giuliani was serving as Trump’s personal lawyer at the time. The New York Times reports that more subpoenas are likely to be issued in the coming week.

According to a whistle-blower complaint, Trump may have misused his office. Last week the White House released a summary of a phone call made by President Trump late last July to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In it, Trump asks Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Shortly before the conversation, Trump had ordered his staff to delay around US$400 million in military aid that had been slated for Ukraine, which is currently in a military conflict with Russia.

The accusation against Biden is that, during his time as President Barack Obama’s vice president, he called for the government of Ukraine to reduce corruption but at the same time interfered with an investigation into Burisma Holdings; Hunter Biden was on the board of the company at the time. An investigation by PolitiFact found no such action on Joe Biden’s part, and the investigation into Burisma had already been inactive for more than a year before Biden involved himself in Ukraine’s politics in this way.

Trump said that he did indicate to the Ukrainians that the aid was contingent on their addressing corruption but denied that he made any specific deal about the Bidens. “I put no pressure on them whatsoever,” he told the press. “I could have. I think it would probably, possibly have been OK if I did. But I didn’t. I didn’t put any pressure on them whatsoever.”

While in New York City to attend the United Nations General Assembly, President Zelensky told reporters, “Nobody can put pressure on me because I am the president of an independent state. The only one person by the way who can put pressure on me […] is my son, who is six years old.”

Regarding Trump’s phone call, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig said via Twitter: “If I got a transcript like the Trump-Ukraine call in a regular criminal case for bribery or extortion, I’d think, ‘Wow, I’m surprised they’re discussing this so openly and clearly.’ “

“The only conclusion I can reach after reading that devastating call summary is that Trump’s White House staff want him to resign or be impeached,” tweeted former thinktank executive Ken Gude. “That’s the only explanation I can come up with for why they would release this call summary.”

According to a poll published by NBC News last week, over 220 members of the House of Representatives favored some form of impeachment. One of the Representatives was an independent; the rest were from the Democratic Party. Together, the number of members is enough for the simple majority vote required by the United States Constitution to impeach an official. Some reported wanting to draft articles of impeachment, while others preferred an investigation by either the House Judiciary Committee or another body. Since then, a Republican, Mark Amodei, has publicly voiced support for the impeachment inquiry, telling the Nevada Independent: “I’m a big fan of oversight, so let’s let the committees get to work and see where it goes.” He continued by noting that “Using government agencies to, if it’s proven, to put your finger on the scale of an election, I don’t think that’s right […] If it turns out that it’s something along those lines, then there’s a problem.”

Under the U.S. Constitution, the House of Representatives impeaches the official and then the impeachment trial is conducted in the Senate. The only punishments an impeachment trial may lay down are removal from office and prohibition from holding office in the future. They do not impose fines or prison terms. No U.S. president has ever been removed by impeachment, but eight federal judges have. Two-thirds of senators must vote to convict in the trial for removal from office.