"We can't provide all of them $600,000 apartments just yet, so we have to provide the rest a place to comfortably shi*t and steal" Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez

“Power to the Poopers!” Councilman Hugo

Los Angeles business owners, residents dismayed after city removes homeless encampment measures

Business owners and residents in Los Angeles criticized the city's decision to remove planters that locals said greatly reduced crime in the area. 

"I think it's a really terrible thing that they're doing because those planters were there to keep the encampments away," Hollywood resident Jacqui Antebi told NBC4 Los Angeles. 

Crews of workers removed the planters along Highland Boulevard in Hollywood on Monday after the city found that the planters were erected without proper approval from the government. Local business owners and residents initially put up planters in May to prevent homeless encampments from taking over the area, according to the report. 

"We understand the frustration that local businesses feel about this issue, and we encourage residents to follow the legal process and work with the city to obtain the proper permits to install community beautification projects in the public right of way," a spokesperson for Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez told NBC4. 

"This the first time I've been able to walk down the street in years because it's been filled with drug dealers, homeless people. It's been unsafe. I almost got ambushed once just trying to walk home," Antebi said of life after the planters were placed on the street. 

Some business owners pointed to the massive reduction in crime after the planters were erected in May. 

"We've seen at least a 90% drop in crime around here," business owner Andrew Monheim said. "And we're just trying to run our businesses and have safety for people." 

Well, of course she did: she's Alice Duff, and she practically invented this business

21 Dempsey Lane’s price has been cut from $5.495 million to $5.2 million after just 15 days on the market. (It’s Alice Duff’s listing, but I couldn’t readily find it on Sotheby’s page, so I’ve linked to Zillow). Over the decades, Mrs. Duff has probably sold more real estate than any 20 of us lesser agents combined, and she knows not to cling to a price that isn’t working.

Nice house, but definitely could use some updating.

Lower Stanwich Road Sale

21 Stanwich Road has sold for $2.270 million. It started at $2.850 million last August, which only goes to show that even in this market you can still overprice a house.

The listing photos have been yanked from most sites, and the few that still have them require the viewer to sign up for junk mail, so I’m just linking to a video that is still active as of this writing, and posting a sampling of photographs from the MlS realtors page.

"You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,"

Remember when the FBI shared photos of the docs at Mar-A-Lago? Apparently they added cover pages labeled "TOP SECRET" just for show

This is actually old news, because some sites were reporting essentially the same story months ago, but Special Counsel Jack Smith has just had to admit it in court. The goon squad took the supposedly secret documents out of their storage boxes, put the “Top Secret” placards they’d brought along with them on top, and then released the staged pictures to the media, which ate them up and regurgitated them:

From ABC News

Classified cover sheets

The photo shows numerous documents on the floor of Trump's personal office, including colored-coded cover sheets baring classification markings in big, bold lettering.

'An examination of these cover sheets alone tells you a lot,' Douglas London, a 34-year CIA veteran, told ABC News regarding the DOJ photo. 'As the most important intelligence customer, it should be no surprise that the president receives the most sensitive information -- and that's reflected in these documents.'

The markings on the cover sheets include "TOP SECRET/SCI," which refers to Sensitive Compartmented Information classified as national intelligence "concerning or derived from intelligence sources," according to a separate document from the Director of National Intelligence reviewed by ABC News. This material may come from allies or informants, or from spying or eavesdropping.

Ha! Seeing the headline below in Greenwich Free Press, I planned to write my own catchy lead, "What, two of them?" But then ....

who steals my purse steals trash, but it’s expensive trash!

It turns out, it was just two.

Couple Charged with Shoplifting Handbags on Greenwich Ave Worth $3,311

Investigation revealed that Sergio Valdes-Diaz, 41 and Michelle Quevedo, 33, both of the same address in Woodside, NY concealed two handbags and utilized a shoplifting device to defeat security sensors as they exited the retail store.

Who buys this stuff?

Sale price reported

43 Lafrentz Road, listed at $3.950 million, has sold to a Scarsdale buyer for $4.205. The owners paid $3.450 for it in September 2021.

Happy 148th!

Photo by fountain, who stopped by to pay his respects. The trees you see in the background mark the Big Horn river, where the sioux were encamped, and from where 2,000 warriors boiled out to take on Custer’s 210 — oops!

On this day in June 25, 1876, Custer made his last stand along the Little Big Horn; maybe our Sioux friends should mark this as Indigenous People’s Day?

Or at least go off the reservation for a cool ice cream treat.

The uber-queer students at this school got their wish, and Camille Paglia has been dismissed; of course, so has everybody else

Student Body Swan Song at the Philadelphia University of the Arts

In fact, the closure had nothing to do with whacky but interesting Ms Paglia, who “identifies” as transgender, but isn’t transgendery enough, and everything to do with finances, starting with the fact that there were 1,100 students enrolled and 700 administrators on the payroll. Finances have nowhere to go but down after that.

Still, there’s always something gratifying about watching leftists get their demands met, and discovering that the results aren’t exactly what they’d envisioned.

Since when does impossibility come into consideration when regulators and legislators put their heads together?

Automakers call for 'practically impossible' automatic emergency braking rule to be reconsidered

A trade group representing major automakers on Monday called for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to reconsider a new regulation issued this past spring that requires nearly all new cars and trucks to have advanced automatic emergency braking systems by 2029.

The group argues that the regulation, which was adopted in April and would require all cars and trucks to be able to stop and avoid hitting vehicles in front of them while moving at speeds of up to 62 mph, is "practically impossible with available technology."

The NHTSA rule came in response to direction by Congress, which included a provision in the 2021 infrastructure law that directed the agency to develop a regulation establishing minimum performance standards for automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems. AEB uses sensors like cameras and radar to detect when a vehicle is close to crashing and automatically applies the brakes if the driver hasn't done so.

The trade group said NHTSA's requirements at higher driving speeds will result in vehicles "automatically applying the brakes far in advance of what a typical driver and others on the road would expect" and would likely result in rear-end collisions.

It also argued that NHTSA "vastly underestimated the necessary and costly hardware and software change required for vehicles to comply with the rule (something that will increase the cost of vehicles for consumers)."

Alliance for Automotive Innovation CEO John Bozzella said in the letter to Congress that the rule "will require more costly systems that won't improve driver or pedestrian safety."

"Here's what I (regrettably) conclude will happen: driving AEB equipped vehicles in the U.S. under NHTSA's new standard will become unpredictable, erratic and will frustrate or flummox drivers," Bozzella wrote.

"Yes, this rule will make vehicles more expensive, but the real issue isn't cost – it's cost/benefit. NHTSA's action will require more costly systems that won't improve driver or pedestrian safety, which is why we are asking the agency to reopen the proceeding and make these necessary corrections," he added.

The NHSTA guestimates that its new rule will save 860 lives annually — there were 35,740 killed traffic accidents in 2023.

Just last month I posted on California’s insane new law that requires all freight trains switch from diesel to electric by 2035, despite the fact that no such engines exist, and won’t exist 2035, if ever — the physics don’t allow it. I suspect that some of the people behind these impossible mandates know that they can’t be met, and intend to use them to destroy the modern world, but Hanlon’s law is probably the real answer to this idiocy: never attribute to malice what can be explained through stupidity. Unfortunately for us, the result is the same, antidisirregardless.

Elon Musk to the rescue?

NASA astronauts 'STRANDED' in space due to malfunctioning Boeing Starliner - as experts say SpaceX could perform a rescue mission

NASA has delayed the return of two astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) for the third time, raising concerns the crew could be 'stranded.'

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were initially scheduled for a nine-day stay, which  was pushed back twice this month and now sits at an undetermined date.

The extended stay is to allow more time for review of technical issues encountered by the capsule as it traveled to the ISS, which included thruster failures and leaking valves, Boeing said in a statement.

Starliner took off at on June 5 at 10:52am ET from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida last week with the same leak that forced a scrub in May.

The capsule, however, launched with a known leak that was reportedly no larger than a shirt button and quite thin.

Stich said last month that he was confident 27 out of these 28 thrusters were working properly, free of leaks or other issues. 

However, Starliner encountered five failures of its 28 maneuvering thrusters, five leaks of helium gas meant to pressurize those thrusters and a slow-moving propellant valve that signaled unfixed past issues since launching.

When Starliner arrived in the space station's vicinity to dock on June 6, the five thruster failures prevented a close approach by the spacecraft until Boeing made a fix.

It rewrote software and tweaked some procedures to revive four of them and proceed with a docking.

Starliner's undocking and return to Earth represent the spacecraft's most complicated phases of its test mission.

Boeing has spent $1.5 billion in cost overruns beyond its $4.5-billion NASA development contract. 

Boeing’s ineptness in rocketry is neatly matched by its dismal inability to manufacture airplanes that are safe to fly, and its aviation sales have nearly collapsed. But not to worry: the company, whose troubles began when it replaced engineers with financial bean counters in the executive suite, is righting its ship: it’s expected to appoint a (biological, alas) female as its CEO and, although she appears to be a little on the white side, she’s unburdened with any scientific or engineering training that might otherwise distract her from her primary role of increasing the stock option prices for her fellow executives. And she also, mind you, “is a passionate advocate for developing and nurturing our talented Boeing teammates and creating a working environment where every person can thrive.”

Suppliers Think Pope Will Be Next Boeing CEO.

From her corporate bio:

Stephanie Pope is chief operating officer of The Boeing Company and executive vice president, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, with primary responsibility for leading the commercial airplanes business and strengthening safety and quality across its operations. Commercial Airplanes specializes in the design, production and delivery of airplanes to customers worldwide with more than 13,000 Boeing jetliners in service today.

Prior to this role, Pope served as chief operating officer for the company since January 2024. Before that, she was president and CEO of Boeing Global Services, from April 2022 to December 2023, with responsibility for leading Boeing’s aerospace services business supporting commercial, government and aviation industry customers worldwide.

Previously, Pope was vice president and chief financial officer of Commercial Airplanes, from December 2020 to March 2022, with responsibility for the financial management and strategic, long-range business planning for the business unit.

Earlier, Pope was vice president and chief financial officer of Boeing Global Services, where she oversaw all financial activities for the business unit and was instrumental in its establishment in 2017.

Pope also served as vice president of Finance and controller for Boeing Defense, Space & Security, with responsibility for the regulatory compliance of the business unit as well as ensuring the accuracy, transparency and timeliness of its financial disclosures.

In her three decades at Boeing, Pope has held several other senior leadership positions at the corporate and program levels.

Pope is also a passionate advocate for developing and nurturing our talented Boeing teammates and creating a working environment where every person can thrive. As a member of Boeing’s Executive Council, Pope serves as the executive sponsor of Boeing Women Inspiring Leadership, a business resource group dedicated to increasing gender diversity awareness and promoting diverse representation among women.

Pope was an Eisenhower Fellow in Brussels and Ireland in 2008 and has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Southwest Missouri State University and a Master of Business Administration from Lindenwood University.  Prior to this role, Pope served as chief operating officer for the company since January 2024. Before that, she was president and CEO of Boeing Global Services, from April 2022 to December 2023, with responsibility for leading Boeing’s aerospace services business supporting commercial, government and aviation industry customers worldwide.

Previously, Pope was vice president and chief financial officer of Commercial Airplanes, from December 2020 to March 2022, with responsibility for the financial management and strategic, long-range business planning for the business unit.