Archive for April 13th, 2011

Living looking straight ahead.

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

I generally don’t like to blog two articles in a row from the same source, but this is too interesting for me to pass on.

The WP also has an article about Tomohiro Narita, who runs a motorcycle shop in Toyko. Narita-san is from Sendai.

…his Tokyo motorcycle business has taken a back seat to full-time relief work for the devastated communities 200 miles north.

Here’s what I find most interesting, though:

…Narita’s relief effort, dubbed “The Underground,” fills an unusual niche. Organized through motorcycle clubs, tattoo parlors and biker bars, it appeals to anarchists, outcasts, people who don’t trust the government’s efforts and who don’t donate to the Red Cross. In the past month, the group has sent $250,000 worth of food, supplies and gasoline to disaster-stricken areas.

The one frustrating thing about this article is the WP doesn’t give any contact information for Narita-san and “The Underground”. I know some of my readers are also motorcycle riders; if there’s a way to get donations directly to this organization from the United States, I would be delighted to hear about it.

Corruption and cronyism? In Louisiana?

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

According to the WP and ProPublica, lots of folks are getting rich off of BP money.

Unfortunately, it seems like many of those folks were, well…

…documents show that companies with ties to parish insiders got lucrative contracts and then charged BP for every possible expense. The prime cleanup company submitted bills with little or no documentation. A subcontractor billed BP $15,400 per month to rent a generator that usually cost $1,500 a month. Another company charged BP more than a $1 million a month for land it had been renting for less than $1,700 a month. Assignments for individual fishermen also fell under the control of political leaders.

More:

Some of the money also went to overtime pay for more than 40 parish employees, including three who claimed overtime for picking up dog food for the animal shelter. St. Bernard’s homeland security director, David Dysart, a salaried employee, got almost $23,000 for working 497 hours of overtime in less than seven weeks, a fact first reported by the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Dysart did not respond to a query about his overtime.

This is my shocked face:

Shocked face.

Random notes: April 13, 2011.

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

The Dallas Stars have fired Marc Crawford. I think I speak for many of my readers when I say “People still play hockey? That’s a thing?”

How much credence should you put in Restaurant magazine’s annual list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants?

The California Legislature is considering revoking the city charter of Vernon, a notoriously corrupt city in L.A. County. But business owners are worried