Senator Richard Burr's potential insider trading issues, for which he's being investigated, may have gotten quite a bit worse this week. A new report notes that on the same day Burr sold off a "significant percentage" of his stock holdings (while also telling the public not to worry about COVID-19), it turns out his brother-in-law just coincidentally decided to dump a bunch of stock too. Amazing!

Sen. Richard Burr was not the only member of his family to sell off a significant portion of his stock holdings in February, ahead of the market crash spurred by coronavirus fears. On the same day Burr sold, his brother-in-law also dumped tens of thousands of dollars worth of shares. The market fell by more than 30% in the subsequent month.

Burr’s brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, who has a post on the National Mediation Board, sold between $97,000 and $280,000 worth of shares in six companies — including several that have been hit particularly hard in the market swoon and economic downturn.

Could this actually be a coincidence? Sure. Maybe. But the timing (the very same day...) does seem notable. As the ProPublica report notes, Fauth "is not a frequent stock trader." Burr insists that his sales were based on public information, though it's difficult to see how he could simply ignore the classified briefings he got concerning the rising pandemic issues, and base decisions entirely on public information. Indeed, this is why government officials should be required to hand off any equities like this to a blind trust where they have no visibility into how it's traded.

Even if this is all legal (which is not certain either way yet...), it again reinforces the belief that the powerful live by different rules and are able to game the system for personal advantage, even as they're supposed to be serving the public interest.

Microsoft, Cisco, Google etc gang up to form Open RAN Policy Coalition

Some of America’s super-corps have remembered how the US became the dominant global technology force it is, and have vowed to use innovation over threats to counter Chinese dominance in 5G markets.…

Lee Jae-yong ends dynastic control and will even let staff join a union

Samsung's heir has said that he will not pass down management of the South Korean conglomerate to his children, ending three generations dynastic rule.…

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) finds Tesla's Autopilot cuts crashes by 40%. How cool is that? Autonomous vehicles are going to cause a huge decline in accidents and deaths. Even short of autonomous vehicles, when you get your next car try to get one that supports automatic braking on imminent collision detection. You could get a large fraction of the collision avoidance benefit at a much lower cost today. Check out Insurance Institute for Highway Safety ratings of collision avoidance systems in current cars. Watch a Tesla react to a crash in front of it: Watch a Tesla avoid hitting a reckless driver: A recent analysis finds that autonomous vehicles will allow 2 million disabled people to get...

Why does hope matter? Why is it important? Because life is hard and often painful. Without hope, it’s immensely more difficult to envision a better future, one worth living for. Hope lets us set meaningful goals that motivate us to move forward, to learn and grow, and to realize our full potential.

MAP Health Management and IBM Watson Health today announced a partnership that aims to address the pervasive problem of relapse among Americans suffering from Substance Use Disorder, a chronic disease. MAP will integrate Watson cognitive technologies into the MAP Recovery Network Platform to enhance the platform’s existing capabilities around patient risk models. In doing so, it is anticipated that behavioral health and substance abuse treatment providers that use the MAP platform will be better able to predict and prevent incidence of relapse nationwide.

IBM Security today announced the results of a global study exploring the factors and challenges of being a Cyber Resilient organization. The study was conducted by Ponemon Institute and sponsored by IBM Resilient and found that 77 percent of respondents admit they do not have a formal cyber security incident response plan (CSIRP) applied consistently across their organization. Nearly half of the 2800 respondents reported that their incident response plan is either informal/ad hoc or completely non-existent.

IBM Security anunció los resultados de un estudio global que explora los factores y desafíos de ser una organización ciberresiliente. El estudio encontró que el 77% de los encuestados admiten no tener un plan formal de respuesta a incidentes de seguridad cibernética (CSIRP) aplicado sistemáticamente en toda su organización. Casi la mitad de los encuestados informaron que su plan de respuesta a incidentes es informal o completamente inexistente.

L’entité sécurité d’IBM a annoncé aujourd'hui les résultats d'une étude mondiale sondant le niveau de préparation des organisations en matière de résistance à une cyberattaque et de récupération ensuite. L'étude, menée par le Ponemon Institute et sponsorisée par IBM Resilient, a révélé qu'une grande majorité des organisations interrogées ne sont toujours pas prêtes à répondre de façon adéquate aux incidents de cybersécurité, 77% des personne interrogées indiquant qu'ils n'ont pas de plan de réponse aux incidents de cybersécurité appliqué de manière cohérente dans l’ensemble de l'organisation.

He’s standing in the dead middle of the meat section at Price Chopper screaming “HOW CAN THERE NOT BE ANY FUCKING STEAK?”  Someone comes out bearing chicken from behind the steel clad gates of the backroom where they cut meat and stage the cases. “Hey, you got any steak back there?” “Steak? No sir. None.” […]

I wouldn't call it a "hi-hat." More like a "canopy hat."

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - A gust of wind slammed a hot-air balloon into the ground as it was preparing to land near Austria's border with Germany on Saturday. Police said five people were injured, one seriously.
The accident happened around 11 a.m. (1000 GMT) about five kilometers (3 miles) outside the Bavarian town of Koessen as the balloon was about to touch down.
Authorities said the wind drove the basket into the ground and caused it to overturn.
One occupant suffered serious injuries, and four others were less severely hurt, Austrian public broadcaster ORF reported.
Koessen hosts a popular annual series of balloon races.

The balloon hit power lines and burst into flames at a ballooning festival near Albuquerque, New Mexico, throwing the two men to the ground.

Witnesses at the International Balloon Fiesta said winds had picked up and many of the balloons were flying low just before the Wings of Wind crashed in Bernalillo, just north of Albuquerque, in the southwestern American state.

Stephen Lachendro was killed and Keith Sproul was critically injured.

Kathie Leyendecker, a spokeswoman for the annual festival, said she did not know who was piloting the balloon.

Mr Lachendro was found dead on the side of a ditch, while Mr Sproul was unconscious and taken to hospital, Rio Rancho Fire Battalion Chief Paul Bearce said.

Witness Glenn Vonderahe said he "couldn't believe it".

"I saw the balloon and the next thing I knew there was a lot of fire and smoke. There was fire under the balloon," he said.

He said the balloon landed, then bounced back up and apparently hit some power lines.

The balloon was stuck in the lines, then Mr Vonderahe saw the balloon portion - called the envelope - float away, a burning tank still attached. "Debris was flying everywhere," he said.

The tank fell harmlessly to the ground and the envelope was eventually found about 25km away.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.

The yellow, brown and orange triangle-shaped balloon was among hundreds competing in events at the weekend balloon festival.

Mr Lachendro was a father of two sons and a daughter and enjoyed ballooning with friends, said his daughter, Amanda.

"I just want everyone to know that he loved what he did," she said.

The annual festival is Albuquerque's major tourist drawcard, but it has had fatalities before, mostly from balloons hitting power lines.

Last year, a 60-year-old was killed. In 1982, four people died. Other fatalities were recorded in 1990, 1993 and 1998

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5guPhdSq5ZsoMR2sfIlPc_xf3y6FAD93P0JRO0

Balloon pilots somber at NM festival after death

By HEATHER CLARK 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Pilots of hot air balloons on Saturday mourned the loss of one of their own in a fiery crash at Albuquerque's famous festival, even as they said another pilot fighting for his life after the accident would want them to keep flying.

Saturday's weather failed to cooperate. Windy, stormy weather grounded balloons readying for a morning mass ascension, and evening fireworks also were canceled, lending a somber mood to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

Keith Sproul of North Brunswick, N.J., was critically injured Friday when the gondola of his Wings of Wind balloon crashed into power lines and exploded into flames over the town of Bernalillo. His co-pilot, Stephen Lachendro of Butler, Pa., was killed.

Sproul remained in critical condition Saturday, a hospital spokesman said.

"Our friend who's fighting for his life in the hospital, he would have wanted us to fly if it was flyable. I mean, that's what we do," said balloon pilot Chris Keefe of Oshkosh, Wis.

Keefe said Sproul was one of about a dozen balloon pilots who belong to the dawn patrol, a handful of balloons that launch before sunrise to test air currents for other balloons that will take off later. The crash occurred around 8 a.m., too late for Sproul to have been carrying out those duties.

The pilots said Sproul would want them to learn from the accident.

Pilot Craig Kennedy of Albuquerque said of Sproul: "I'll bet you that he will share his experience with any pilot who will listen to explain what happened, so that we can learn from it."

Balloon fiesta spokeswoman Kathie Leyendecker said Lachendro was a "very well-loved pilot."

"There's lots of warm conversations and reminiscing going on today," she said.

Pilots and fiesta organizers gave no thought to shutting down the festival, which ends Sunday.

"It provides a lot of joy and excitement for a lot of people," Keefe said. "We don't consider (ballooning) a risk-taking activity. Just like an airline pilot flying cross-country with a load of passengers, he doesn't consider his job a risky thing."

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash. Witnesses on the ground said it was windy at the time, and authorities said they received several reports of hard landings within about 15 minutes of the crash.

Six people died from 1990 to 2007 when their balloons hit or snagged power lines during the fiesta. Four died in 1982 when propane tanks on a balloon exploded.

• Sproul's Special Shape Balloons: http://www.skychariot.com

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1076536/Pictured-The-horrific-moment-hot-air-balloon-exploded-leaving-dead-injured.html

In light of a recent series of fires in high-rise buildings with combustible facades, including the Grenfell tower fire, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has initiated a project to develop a fire risk assessment tool for these types of buildings to assist local authorities globally with fire safety in their communities.

Fire chiefs from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States gathered in Quincy, Massachusetts at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Urban Fire Forum (UFF) to listen to first-hand accounts of some of the biggest emergency response incidents over the past 15 months, including hurricane response in Texas and Florida, the Grenfell Tower fire in London, and the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando.

Cybersecurity firm Cynet today announced the launch of a first of its kind challenge to enable Incident Response professionals to test their skills with 25 forensic challenges that were built by top researchers and analysts. The challenge is available on https://incident-response-challenge.com/ and is open to anyone willing to test his or her investigation skills, between April 21st and May

DigitalOcean, one of the biggest modern web hosting platforms, recently hit with a concerning data leak incident that exposed some of its customers' data to unknown and unauthorized third parties. Though the hosting company has not yet publicly released a statement, it did has started warning affected customers of the scope of the breach via an email. According to the breach notification

By Dan Duddy  Published: May 06th, 2020 

By Maxwell Yezpitelok  Published: May 07th, 2020 

BY WADNER PIERRE

Nearly two months since Haiti’s Conseil Electoral Provisoire (Electoral Provisional Council), know as the CEP, announced the final results for the first round residential, second round legislative and local elections that plagued with massive frauds. The controversial results for the presidential elections placed Haiti’s ruling Party candidate, Jovel Moise at the first place with over 34 percent of the popular and the former 2010 presidential candidate Jude Celestin in second place. Since then protest against those tainted results have been widened through the country.

After candidates and their backers, religious leaders (Catholics and Protestants) and national and international human rights and advocacy groups urged the CEP to form an independent commission to investigate the electoral frauds that were no longer mere allegations, the CEP rejected such proposition and proceeded to schedule the presidential runoff on Dec. 27 with the two candidates obtained the majority of the vote. Celestin, a member of group of eight presidential candidates, known as G8, who have been protesting the CEP’s results, declared he would not participate at the runoff unless the CEP satisfied the demand of G8.

The United States, a staunch supporter of the current administration, and spent over $30 millions for the organization of these log-overdue elections, sent Kenneth Merten, the U.S former ambassador to Haiti and State Department’s Special Envoy to Haiti to convince candidates, most importantly Celestin, to accept the CEP’s results. Merten, a close friend of Martelly, and one the controversial figures that engineered Martelly’s election in the 2010 controversial elections, failed to his mission.

read more

DALLAS – (May 1, 2020) Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a grant to the Arkansas State Plant Board for $55,346. The funds will be used to enhance management and software systems that support the state’s pesticide programs.

DALLAS – (April 30, 2020) Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a grant to the Texas Department of Agriculture for $73,056. The funds will be used to support a variety of pesticide training and inspection programs.

ATLANTA (April 24, 2020) -- The U.S.

Canadian accident investigator Larry Vance claims to have solved the mystery of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. In an interview, he explains why he believes the plane's captain deliberately ditched the aircraft.

Officers killed three civilians in three separate incidents within hours of each other.

Delays during migration can imperil birds’ chances of a successful breeding season.

As COVID-19 spreads across the United States, only a few areas are breaking down the numbers of infections and deaths by racial and ethnic groups.

Trump is correct that the decision is a very tough call. But it will be made by mayors and governors, not federal officials.

The Lakers and the NBA are trying to deal with the coronavirus and how it might affect the rest of the season.

Robert Soto, 33, showed up drunk to his ex-lover’s Morrisania apartment some time before midnight Thursday and got into an argument with the woman. As she tried to escort him out, Soto bashed her head into a metal door, cops said.

After a "lot of discussions," NHL general managers have decided to not to make any changes regarding the deployment of emergency goaltenders in games.

Justin Turner has an idea to help limit the toll on players during a shortened season: a home run derby to decide a winner when a game is tied after 10 innings.

Officers killed three civilians in three separate incidents within hours of each other.

UCLA's Jalen Hill and Cody Riley were involved in a shoplifting incident in China in 2017 that created international headlines. Three years later, they've found redemption.

I am in Florence, Italy, at culinary school, in a country besieged by the virus. Should I stay or should I go? There is no wrong answer.

Kardashian is of Armenian heritage, Friday marked the 105th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

Is Randeep Hothi a stalker, a harasser, a perpetrator of violence and an imminent threat?

CELTIC have officially ended their pursuit of David Turnbull after being unable to agree personal terms with the Motherwell youngster.