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19 Jan 2012 14:25

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U.S.: DC Metro workers accused of robbing fare machines to buy lottery tickets

  • Stealing to gamble: Two DC-area Metro workers have been arrested, accused of a scheme to steal coins from fare machines and spend them on lottery tickets. Federal prosecutors allege the duo, John Haile and Horace McDade, defrauded the machines while on shift together; the investigation was launched after a source reported that Haile would regularly buy lottery tickets using bags of $500 or so, all in coins. Is it that hard to find a Coinstar, man? Haile’s records, and this is the crazy part, show $150,000 in unexplained income since 2008. As lottery officials told the authorities, to secure even just the winnings confirmed to them, he had to have been buying “an extraordinary amount of tickets.” (Photo by Eric Fisher) source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Jan 2011 12:19

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Offbeat: The Washington Post agrees: The DC Metro makes free-jazz music

  • We’ve been saying for months that there is a great found-sounds album to be made from the incidental noises from the DC Metro’s escalators. Some of the escalators sound like they’re performing free-jazz. It appears the Washington Post agrees with us, because they wrote an article about it. Nobody steal our idea, OK guys? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 20:26

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Politics: DC Metro numbers suggest huge “Rally to Restore Sanity” crowds

  • 350,000 number of trips the DC Metro has on an average Saturday
  • 825,437 number of trips the DC Metro had yesterday source
  • » To put it in perspective: The rally had the highest Saturday ridership ever – passing the record set in June 1991, when a rally was held for Operation Desert Storm. That rally gave Metro around 786,358 trips that day. And assuming the riders went round-trip yesterday, that means 237,719 extra riders were on the Metro yesterday. That doesn’t mean 237,719 extra people – the tally doesn’t account for multiple trips by the same rider – but suffice it to say that the crowd was really huge yesterday. And no, the Beck rally (which also took place on a Saturday) didn’t even rate in the top five (which is what we know you were really wondering).
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Oct 2010 10:49

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U.S.: What does the DC Metro terror plot mean, security-wise?

  • Metro, like any other transit system in the world, has a high level of vulnerability. There is no getting around that. You do your best with dogs, police and cameras.
  • DC council member (and DC Metro board member) Jim Graham • Offering a little bit of insight into the metro system’s security processes. Obviously, this is of major concern considering that some guy was trying to plot terror attacks against multiple metro stations. Graham, who says that bag checks may not be out of the question in the future (and who wears a pretty impressive pair of glasses that we’ve always admired from afar), notes that when they’ve been tried in the past, such as during George W. Bush’s second inauguration, the process has been very cumbersome. “The entire system was jammed,” he said. “People just could not move, because of the necessary slow pace of checking everybody.” We hope that, if it is in fact necessary, they can find an easy way to do it. Wonder how much it costs to install full-body scanners at every single station? It must be cheap, and the DC Metro clearly has the money to spend! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Oct 2010 22:50

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U.S.: Metro opens doors, sure, but they closed on DC terror suspect

  • dumb You’re a guy who has a crazy idea to blow up parts of the DC Metro system, because that’s a good idea and stuff.
  • dumber You end up working with people you think are members of al-Qaeda, offering up significant details on your plans.
  • dumbestYou find out that they’re members of the FBI. Farooque Ahmed, this is your life. Don’t mess with the DC Metro. source
  • » And yes, we know: This is a serious situation. Lots of people could have died. But here’s our feeling on the matter. We’d rather be brash and fearless-sounding than give into the kind of FUD that these sort of threats encourage. That’s what terror suspects want.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Mar 2010 11:37

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Politics: A couple quick thoughts on John Patrick Bedell and extremism

  • Let’s face it. Extremism isn’t right-wing or left-wing. A Christian Science Monitor article from today referred to John Patrick Bedell (along with anti-tax plane crasher Joe Stack) as a right-wing extremist. We’re not comfortable trying to tie these guys to any political leaning or political party. It creates a sucking sound that ties their opinions up in politics rather than focusing on the big issue, which is that there’s enough dischord in our country that random dudes are willing to attack parts of the government singlehandedly. Let’s get away from the politics and worry about the root problem we keep seeing. Extremism. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Mar 2010 11:27

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U.S.: Pentagon shooter John Patrick Bedell: Anti-government stoner

  • Given my belief that cannabis prohibition is the least defensible and most unjust aspect of the prohibitionist regime existing throughout the world today, I decided in March 2006 to cultivate cannabis in full view of the world.
  • “JPatrickBedell” • In an internet post which happens to be strongly anti-government. He apparently did this a lot, between YouTube and Wikipedia and other sites. When he attacked last night, he reportedly showed “no real emotion in his face” in captured video surveillance just before the shooting. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

05 Mar 2010 01:13

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U.S.: Pentagon shooting: The dude pulled out a gun at random

  • One second, John Patrick Bedell looked innocent. The next, he was firing. The Pentagon Metro station, which is designed to be incredibly secure, was the scene of a shooting which was not the result of terrorism. How’d it happen? Well, Bedell calmly grabbed into his pocket as if he was grabbing a pass. Then he pulled out a gun, and grazed the two officers. The entrance to the station was closed for two hours as a result of the shooting, but officials are glad that the incident was otherwise handled well. source
  • UPDATE (1:13 a.m.): Bedell has died from his injuries.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Mar 2010 20:14

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U.S.: Pentagon Metro shooting: Just be glad you don’t need a train

  • This floor looks overloaded with people. It’s a freaking mess, and it’s all caused by one guy who decided to shoot a couple of Pentagon police officers. The injuries to the officers weren’t life-threatening, by the way. Careful out there, guys. (Photo by @whrobinson) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Mar 2010 19:54

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U.S.: The Pentagon shooting has the D.C. metro area in a tizzy

  • two Pentagon police officers were shot and wounded in the attack
  • one suspect is in police custody; nobody can leave the Pentagon source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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