Major warehouse fire in Queens is now under control

STATES CHRONICLE – A few hours ago, a huge warehouse was reported to be on fire, in Queens, New York City. It seems like there was heavy smoke in there, alongside bright orange flames which were shout out of the roof. More than 250 firefighters tried to put it out and now the major warehouse fire is under control.

There were no people injured in this incident, as the warehouse was closed at the time so, luckily, all the employees are safe. The business, New York Custom Interior Millwork Corporation,  was owned by a family. It was an interior design company, with many pieces of furniture made of wood. The material was the main reason why the fire was fueled so quickly. The FDNY Chief, named James Leonard, confirmed that it had a lot of wood and paints, so this way the fire spread. Moreover, it seems like the first units who got into the building where trapped there by the fire. They managed to get out and that was the moment when the firefighters went for an exterior attack. The smoke made by the fire was so big that it could be seen from Manhattan.

The major warehouse fire also scared the residents as the thick black smoke was more and more dangerous. Moreover, the smell was very intense so the residents were worried about their lives. The Chief of the firefighters advised all of them to stay away from the smoke and close their windows until there will be no danger. Although the material is probably the main reason for the fire, the official cause is still under investigation. Fire marshals will go inside the building to see what sparked the blaze and investigate. It was a huge intervention, with more than 250 firefighters and EMS workers and only four of them suffered minor injuries. Even the main factory was destroyed, they managed to save three businesses who were next to the big fire.

The fire was declared under control around 11:20 p.m., on Wednesday. All in all, it was a huge intervention for the firefighters. They tried to rescue as much as possible from the factory, but the fire was too huge. Even though the flames were everywhere and the thick smoke was making everything worse, no civilians were injured. The firefighters managed to take over and now the major warehouse fire is gone.

Image source: Wikipedia

This December is the warmest as it hit 6,000 record-high temperatures

STATES CHRONICLE – Scientists and weathermen have long warned us about the record-high temperatures of this holiday season and this year’s Christmas is the warmest.

For those of you who are still having a hard time grasping the very real concept of global warming, this is the final proof. It is almost hot in the winter and there’s no snow this Christmas. It looks like ice is melting rapidly in the Arctic which may cause precipitations but given the high temperatures we’re dealing with these days, we’re probably talking about rain and not snow.

According to weather data, December has gathered around 6,000 warm temperature records already. There is warm air constantly coming up from the Gulf of Mexico and towards the Great Lakes, taking its time on the East Coast. These days registered records in states like Florida, Virginia, Tennessee or Massachusetts. In Washington D.C. the temperature reached almost 70 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday, on Christmas Eve, which is 30 degrees more than the average for this time of the year. New York and Michigan are also caught up by the warm air, although temperatures are said to start dropping.

The warmest December ever happens in cities such as Portland, New York City, Boston, Vermont and others. Snow has also kept us waiting even in places where it usually comes early. For example, Buffalo has seen its first snow of this winter on December 18, while in other years the same city dealt with snow a lot earlier, beginning with October or November.

However, there are many cities which won’t even have snow this Christmas. Although drivers are definitely happy about it, the little ones will certainly be disappointed not to have Frosty the Snowman near them this year.

Of course, there is a scientific explanation for these unusual temperatures. The reason for them is the polar vortex. This vortex is a spinning of the cold air above the Arctic. When this circulation is strong, as it is now, the cold air tends to remain near the Arctic, without ‘dissipating’ towards the continents.

This means that the U.S. is not the only country affected by these high temperatures. The whole world is having a hard time choosing their daily outfit given the warm air and poor chances of snow, although rain might still be expected.

Image source: www.thiswarmdecember.com

Artist tried to blame DreamWorks for stealing his sketches.

STATES CHRONICLE – Animations are appreciated by both children and adults and some become so passionate that they cross the line like the artist accused of ‘Kung Fu Panda’ fraud.

Disney was the company who started the animated movies industry, the first feature film being ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ in 1937. Ever since then along with short cartoons, more and more animated movies appeared which despite being made for children, also appealed to grownups.

With the development of technology, animations also developed and in 1960 we already had an animated television series, ‘The Flinstones’ created by Hanna-Barbera. The way companies created the animations also changed and while at first they used figurines and stop-motion they now used advanced computerized techniques for different animated effects. But what everybody still uses are drawings. Manually or computer-made, drawings are the base of each animation.

So when the Kung Fu Panda animated movie was announced and some drawings resembling the movie characters were released by an artist who claimed DreamWorks was ‘stealing’ from him, a huge scandal started.

The artist, called Jayme Gordon claimed that the company has stolen from him the story as well as the characters they used for making the movie. However, it turned out that it was all a lie, and he was just trying to make everyone believe that he was actually the first and sole creator of the characters and story.

After years of trials, authorities have reached the conclusion that after seeing a trailer of the movie, Gordon got inspired and draw sketches of some characters meaning to make people believe that the Kung Fu Panda movie was actually based on his sketches and a previously written story, called “Panda Power”. He then decided to rename his story “Kung Fu Panda Power”. However, according to authorities, the stories had very little in common with the movie.

He proceeded on filing a lawsuit of copyright infringement against DreamWorks asking them for $12 million to drop the charges. The company refused to settle and the lawsuit continued for about two years.

Gordon kept submitting false evidence he fabricated to try and support the lawsuit. He finally gave up when DreamWorks confronted him about a coloring book which seemed to be a source of inspiration for all of the false evidence he’s been producing.

Because of orchestrating this scheme, the artist is currently facing 20 years in prison plus a $250,000 fine and he’ll probably also have to pay DreamWorks for committing fraud against them.

Image source: www.bing.com

Le Cordon Bleu schools to close due to low enrollment.

STATES CHRONICLE – CEO Tod Nelson has announced that Le Cordon Bleu schools will close in 2017.

The school that produced many a famous chef, like Julia Child, is going to shut its gates in September 2017 due to low enrollment.

Former students have complained that the school charges high fees but offers very little. They said that they have to pay off the huge school loans they took to study at Le Cordon Bleu, while working for $12 an hour at jobs that do not require qualifications.

Tuition fees at the school range from $ 16,000 to $ 42,550.

The graduates even filed a lawsuit against the school.

There are, however, also former students that are quite satisfied with the training they received.

Chris Aquino is such a student and he is currently working as a sous chef at 1300 Fillmore. He was devastated to hear that the school is going to close. He says that the school does indeed sell you the dream of success, but he also says that your success depends on how hard you work.

Aquino says he paid $50,000 in tuition fees to the school, but he says that studying there enabled him to fulfil his dream.

Le Cordon Bleu will stop enrolling students in January and will completely close down in September 2017. But the school management promises that the current students will be able to finish their studies and receive their degrees.

The school has also had trouble surviving with the new federal regulations that target for-profit schools. These regulations say that the students only have to pay back 20% of their wages, after tax has been deductions.

School management says that such laws make the future uncertain of for-profit schools that require higher operating costs such as cooking schools. Le Cordon Bleu has lost $100 million over the last two years and its enrollment dropped from 118,000 in 2010 for all of its 16 schools to just 38,000 in 2015.

The reasons they give for closing the school is the declining enrollment and the failure to reach a deal with prospective buyers.

Image source: www.upload.wikipedia.org

The number of capital punishments issued falls

STATES CHRONICLE – An annual report on capital punishment reveals that death penalties are at an all-time low in the U.S.

Over the last few years there has been a steady decrease in the number of death penalties in the United States. If in 2014, there were 73 death sentences given, in 2015, it is down to only 49.

Texas is still a leader among the states, but it has also decreased its passing of life-terminating sentences. For instance, in 2015, Texas executed 13 people. This is half of the national number of deaths by capital punishment, but it is less than th4 40 people it executed in 2000.

This is part of a general decline that has spanned several years. One of the reasons is that people are starting to lose faith in the infallibility of the justice system, as many people have been wrongfully sentenced to death.

There is also the debate surrounding the drugs used for the lethal injection. In June, three prisoners in Oklahoma questioned the sedative used before the administration of the lethal drug. They claimed that it did not effectively sedate the patient, but leaves them to fully experience the pain.

Following the uncertainties related to the drugs used in capital punishment, several states stopped passing the death sentence.

There is also much other evidence that forensic science is deeply flawed, that eye-witness accounts are very unreliable and that the sentencing tends to be race-biased, which have made the public less eager to see the death penalty carried out.

As a result, in Texas, four of the seven juries in cases where the prosecutors asked for the death sentence opted for more lenient alternatives. The most chosen one was life in prison.

But despite this significant drop in the number of death sentences, there are some who think that capital punishment will never be abolished in the United States. They say that there are many people who still feel that this is the only appropriate punishment for some crimes.

Public support for the death penalty has remained rather stable, at 61%, but the number of Americans who disapprove of the measure has risen to 37%. This data has been released by Gallup.

Image source: www.upload.wikipedia.org

The Department of Education intends to shut down three schools due to poor performance

The Education Department has announced that three public schools in Brooklyn, New York, might be closed as a result of unsatisfactory performance. This move is contrary to expectations from Mayor Bill de Blasio, who, up until recently, has been against such extreme measures.

The three schools in question are the School for an Urban Environment, the Peace Academy middle school and the Foundations Academy HS, all three located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. With a total of only 217 students between the three of them, the schools should not open their doors next school year, says the Department of Education.

Peace Academy has only 47 students, the lowest enrollment rate in the city and Urban Environment has only 57, the second lowest. Furthermore, only 2% of the Urban Environment students passed their English state exams in the last two years.

Foundations Academy didn’t do much better, as in the school year 2013-2014, it had only 22% of its students graduate. But it still came as a radical change for this school, as it had recently been lauded for its pro-active attitude to increase graduation rates.

This step was somewhat unexpected from Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had condemned his predecessor’s, Michael R. Bloomberg, shuttering of 150 schools. Mayor de Blasio had professed the plan to increase the funds of such challenged schools in order to improve their performance.

Many find his decision hasty, as the schools did not even know that they were at a risk of being closed, although Education Department spokesperson said that the mayor and chancellor had forewarned of this possibility on many occasions. It is also surprising especially since the Bloomberg administration had set the precedent of schools being “phased out” over a period of 2 or 3 years.

Carmen Farina, schools chancellor, has explained this decision by resorting to the reason of low enrollment. Schools with such low enrollment rates cannot provide the education that is needed by their students. She has also promised that all the students would be helped to find schools that could better meet their educational needs.

In the meantime, the mayor’s School Renewal Program that was supposed to turn around troubled schools has come under attack for not having clearly-set goals and for setting the improvement bar for schools too low.

Image source: www.dwellbrooklyn.com

SantaCon participants have been naughty in the past years

STATES CHRONICLE – Christmas is approaching and for NYC a major infamous event is taking place each year – SantaCon is coming to town.

SantaCon is going to take place this Saturday, December 12. People dress up as Santa or choose to wear other Christmas-themed clothing. What’s wrong with people enjoying the holiday spirit? Absolutely nothing. But in the past years they seem to have enjoyed the spirit in rather inappropriate ways, which made the citizens of New York fear the season to be jolly.

It looks like in previous years many SantaCon participants got very drunk in pubs and proceeded to urinate or vomit on the street. Some of them even made sexual public displays so you could imagine some people felt disturbed by the event to say the least.

The event organizers actually try to raise money for charity. If you want to participate to SantaCon and receive a pin, you should donate at least $10. Moreover, they say they will do their best to keep this year’s participants from being naughty.

Having received so many complaints, organizers decided to step up and make things a little more official. For example, this year the planned route was publicly released a few days before the event. Furthermore, organizers started talking with the police; they got a permit to gather in a park and all more than a month ago. Plus, they also agreed to tweet police about pedestrian safety.

However, many bars and even entire neighborhoods are banning the event from their area, in order to get rid of the nuisance. In 2012 and 2013, some Santas got into some street fights and got arrested while other 85 received summonses for misbehavior.

This year’s SantaCon is even more concerning for authorities in light of the recent events in Paris and California. Large groups of people can be risky if something happens as they could panic and injure themselves. Besides dressing up like a Santa could be a good way for criminals to hide themselves and to commit felonies.

All in all, the SantaCon this year will hopefully prove the organizers’ efforts weren’t for nothing and that the event is indeed what it was meant to be: a public display of joy in the name of Christmas.

Image source: www.bing.com

Michael Harding appeared to be a respectful man with wife and kids.

Based on recent reports, a former ‘Officer of the Year’ was arrested for child pornography after sharing video of an underage woman having sex. The first suspicions were raised when an undercover agent met the police officer on the online group Kik Messenger.

Nobody ever suspected Michael Harding from Port St. Lucie led two lives until federals found evidence on his personal devices. The man appeared to be happily married to his wife and devoted to his three children.

Harding has been working at the Police Department in Port St. Lucie since 2012. His colleagues were equally shocked to find out that the police officer, who was previously labeled as “officer of the year” was a perpetrator of child pornography.

The investigation was conducted by the Department of Homeland Security and it was started in July. The collected evidence has led investigators to arrest the police officer on Thursday afternoon. Many other charges have been brought against him, in addition to the child pornography accusations.

According to investigators, federal officers were working undercover on the online community Kik Messenger to identify potential child aggressors. Their attention was directed towards Michael Harding because a child pornography complaint was made against the man.

Police officers have carefully analyzed the data exchange between the police officer and underage users. They have found out that the man was using the nickname “desthfromabovee” to attract young women and convince them to send him pornographic materials.

Harding’s data was collected either through his IP address or through his cellphone interactions. Federal investigators have also asked the permission to look through the man’s personal computer. Police officers have found a large volume of pornographic images and videos of children. More child porn material was found in a special case that Harding was hiding in his closet.

The former “Officer of the Year” has been currently released from his position with the Police Department. If allegations turn out to be true, the man may be imprisoned for up to 20 years.

Image source: www.nydailynews.com

Teenagers can be both victims and perpetrators of child pornography.

STATES CHRONICLE – A new sexting case raises questions on child porn laws and the penalties that should be applied to teenagers considering that they are both victims and perpetrators of this trend. Discussions began after two young lovers in Texas were caught exchanging nude selfies of themselves, law authorities confirm.

Child porn laws get increasingly harder to apply due to constant technological progresses. A recent case in Texas has proven law makers something needs to be done to make rules more appropriate for the existing reality.

The 17-year-old high school lovers in Texas took naked pictures of themselves and sent them to each other using their smartphones. The news was rapidly spread and police officers showed up at their homes asking parents to allow them to search the teenagers’ phones. Parents have been very cooperative because they did not approve this type of conduct, either.

The search led to the discovery of the child porn images and determined authorities to intervene. The two lovers were trialed, but laws had to be bent to get the correct evaluation of their situation. According to judges, the lovers were regarded both as adults and children because they were victims, but also perpetrators of child pornography.

Debates vary considerably as some people consider rules against child pornography should not be modified in any way. Others, on the other hand, think regulators should be more permissive, especially when they are dealing with teenagers, who are about to turn the legal age.

Such positions have determined regulators in certain states to add new elements to the existing child porn laws. Thus, sexting is considered a case of misdemeanor in Texas, according to the new laws that have been adopted in 2011.

In spite the powerful criticism, psychiatrists think teenagers should not be punished for sexting. They believe such criticism could have negative impacts on young children, who use sexting as an expression of their feelings towards one another. According to psychiatrists, regulators should be able to distinguish between child pornography and sexting, which is a harmless activity.

Image source: www.rackcdn.com