Washington state was given a C in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2013 infrastructure report card and a C- when it came to the state’s bridges. The group said more than a quarter of Washington’s 7,840 bridges are considered structurally deficient of functionally obsoleteNo fatalities in I-5 bridge collapse in NW Wash. - CBS News (via robot-heart-politics)
From the Seattle Times twitter page, another view of the bridge collapse in Washington. Check out more of the Times’ coverage over this way. (via @BreakingTweets)
Bridge collapses in Washington state — cars, people in water
(Photo: Gina Cole / Skagit Valley Herald)
A bridge along Interstate-5 in Washington State collapsed on Thursday evening, leaving at least two cars and some people submerged in water, according to Washington State Patrol.
The bridge had structural deficiency issues and was considered “functionally obsolete” twice in the past two decades. However, that’s not exactly a surprise, as 759 of the state’s bridges actually score lower on the deficiency scale than this one in the state of Washington.
I have asked the Department of Defense to designate a site in the United States where we can hold military commissions. I am appointing a new senior envoy at the State Department and Defense Department whose sole responsibility will be to achieve the transfer of detainees to third countries. I am lifting the moratorium on detainee transfers to Yemen so we can review them on a case-by-case basis.President Obama, during his lengthy speech today on counterterrorism. Obama also stated his continued support for shutting down the facility, saying that “there is no justification beyond politics for Congress to prevent us from closing a facility that it should — should have never been opened.” source
The Iowa Republican said immigrants that Ronald Reagan legalized by signing a 1986 “amnesty” bill were responsible for Obama’s election.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Thursday that President Obama would not be president if it weren’t for the 1986 amnesty bill that Ronald Reagan signed into law.
King is a leading GOP critic of efforts to pass an immigration reform bill, and has often said on the House floor that Republicans are overreacting to the 2012 election, which some Republicans saw as a sign that the GOP needs to get behind a reform bill.
Well, we certainly didn’t expect to see that headline when we woke up this morning…
President Obama just delivered a near hour-long speech on drone strikes and counterterrorism policy. There was a lot there; he announced, among other things, new steps the administration is taking to close Guantanamo Bay, changes in policies regarding drone strikes, and a more lenient policy for the transfer of Guantanamo detainees. He defended the strike that killed Anwar al-Awlaki and the practice of drone strikes in general, but also acknowledged their limitations. You can read the full text of the speech here (Photo credit: AP) source
The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! “Father, the atheists?” Even the atheists. Everyone!…We must meet one another doing good. “But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!” But do good: we will meet one another there.Pope Francis, proclaiming that even non-believers will be redeemed by Christ, as long as they “do good” (not all Christians subscribe to this theory). source
The Boy Scouts of America will vote on Thursday on a proposal to remove its ban on openly gay scouts that has been in place throughout the organization’s 103-year history.
The vote by more than 1,400 delegates comes amid intense lobbying by gay-rights activists and members of conservative organizations. The proposal would not remove the organization’s ban on gay adult leaders.
Representatives from both sides have rallied in Grapevine, Texas, near Dallas, where the scouting organization is hosting its national annual meeting.
While much of the BSA leadership apparently supports the rule change, recent polls show that many of the people directly associated with the Boy Scouts of America aren’t as supportive. According to Reuters, an online survey of roughly 200,000 BSA members, parents, and leaders showed that the majority opposed the changes at a nearly 2-1 ratio.
I started sketching it out, and I had this funny idea for Maeby. It doesn’t quite fit into the master family story, but it’s funny for Maeby, and I do have this funny bit for Tobias where he writes pop songs. He’s written a song called “I Kissed a Boy.” I just had all these crazy notions, and suddenly I was overwhelmed by the task of squeezing all these unrelated stories into a movie that has a central plot. So I met with Ron Howard to say, “Hey, is there any way we can turn this into a trilogy?” He’s such a good guy. He was like, “I think it might be hard enough to get one movie made.” It was a good point. A studio might not want to spend $150 million on an Arrested Development trilogy. I can see that argument.
‘Arrested Development’ Creator Mitch Hurwitz on His Two-Year Odyssey to Revive the Show
(via usnews)
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
“I think that’s a really bad mistake by the school board,” said Kwaku Agyeman, 18, an Eagles linebacker last season.
“Rob Ford made an extremely big impact on the team and on the players. I feel bad for the younger generation because they’re not going to have a powerful coach and powerful role model,” he added. “I talked to one of the captains on the team and he was just heartbroken. He can’t believe it happened.”
Agyeman said he believes the firing was in light of the alleged video of Ford smoking crack, but “it’s nonsense, because if the public can’t see the video, the allegations should not be there.”
But the school board contends Ford being sacked has nothing to do with the rumoured videotape, but rather remarks Ford made during a March interview on Sun News Network which negatively painted the Don Bosco community as “crime ridden” and the youth as “gang bangers.”
On a side note, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Gawker’s ongoing “Crackstarter” campaign, which is roughly two-thirds of the way to the $200,000 it needs to buy the video of Ford allegedly smoking crack to post it on Gawker.
Mailbox launches an iPad app, but Gmail poses a greater threat than ever
Awesome. I can finally delete the Gmail app on my iPad Mini.
So Kim Dotcom claims he invented two-step authentication, which might sound kind of hilarious on its face … until you realize, oh, there’s actually a patent for it under his name … well, the one he used before he changed his last name to “Dotcom.” So there’s that.
Grantland || May 22, 2013
Two months ago, I sat in a crowded banquet hall in Austin, Texas, as TMZ founder, managing editor, and TMZ on TV host Harvey Levin gave an impassioned, highly charismatic, completely unapologetic keynote about the invasive empire that he has steadily built since 2005.
Want to point you all to the journosofcolor Tumblr, which is exactly what it sounds like—a feed that surfaces smart, interesting stories written by journalists of color. (via the Online News Association’s Jeanne Brooks)
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