A Day, a Life: When a Medic Was Killed in Gaza, Was It an Accident? – The New York Times

On By peanutgallerynhIn Middle East,Leave a comment

To the Palestinians, she was an innocent martyr killed in cold blood, an example of Israel’s disregard for Palestinian life. To the Israelis, she was part of a violent protest aimed at destroying their country, to which lethal force is a legitimate response as a last resort.

…The Palestinians trying to tear down the fence are risking their lives to make a point, knowing that the protests amount to little more than a public relations stunt for Hamas, the militant movement that rules Gaza. And Israel, the far stronger party, continues to focus on containment rather than finding a solution.

In life, Ms. Najjar was a natural leader whose uncommon bravery struck some peers as foolhardy. She was a capable young medic, but one who was largely self-taught and lied about her lack of education. She was a feminist, by Gaza standards, shattering traditional gender rules, but also a daughter who doted on her father, was particular about her appearance and was slowly assembling a trousseau. She inspired others with her outward jauntiness, while privately she was consumed with dread in her final days.

The bullet that killed her, The Times found, was fired by an Israeli sniper into a crowd that included white-coated medics in plain view. A detailed reconstruction, stitched together from hundreds of crowd-sourced videos and photographs, shows that neither the medics nor anyone around them posed any apparent threat of violence to Israeli personnel. Though Israel later admitted her killing was unintentional, the shooting appears to have been reckless at best, and possibly a war crime, for which no one has yet been punished.

A Day, a Life: When a Medic Was Killed in Gaza, Was It an Accident? – The New York Times

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Montana bill would ban pipelines from crossing underneath rivers, lakes

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

The measure would ban pipelines with a diameter of 10 inches or greater from going under navigable water bodies and establish construction requirements for them to cross above ground, including rules on casings and leak detection. The new regulations would apply to fossil fuels such as crude petroleum, coal and their products.

The bill’s introduction comes after several major spills into Montana rivers over the last decade, ranging from Glendive to Billings. And it comes as the nation debates the best methods to transport crude oil, what risk to water sources is acceptable, and how far tribal sovereignty extends when projects cross aboriginal lands that are no longer tribally owned, as was the case outside Standing Rock where thousands have gathered for months to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline.

White Wolf : Montana bill would ban pipelines from crossing underneath rivers, lakes

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What went wrong at Newsweek, according to current and former staffers.

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Her alleged sins included undermining the company’s attempt to enforce aggressive page-view quotas for reporters, insufficient commitment to search engine optimization, and rejecting story proposals for being “not Newsweek.” (At most publications, shooting down story ideas that don’t fit the editorial ethos is an essential part of editors’ jobs.) The letter also faulted her for making an “inflammatory allegation” in a conference call with other top editors. Her inflammatory allegation, according to the termination letter: that “the company had real problem(s) of morale and credibility.”

Just a few months later, that assessment reads as a dramatic understatement. Newsweek is coming apart at the seams. On Feb. 5, the magazine fired three of its top journalists, including the editor in chief, who had been investigating the financial dealings of its parent company, Newsweek Media Group, in the wake of a surprise raid of its offices by investigators for the Manhattan district attorney. Those firings touched off a cascade of public resignations and recriminations at the once-proud publication, leaving its management jumbled and its newsroom gutted. Amid the turmoil, the magazine on Feb. 9 announced after an outside investigation that it was reinstating a top editor it had suspended just weeks earlier over sexual harassment allegations at his previous employer. That prompted a fresh exodus of female staffers.

This week, a cadre of Newsweek’s remaining top editors threatened to resign unless their bosses allowed them to publish one of the investigative stories the fired staffers had been working on. The company’s executives backed down, and the story—headlined “Why Is the Manhattan DA Looking at Newsweek’s Ties to a Christian University?”—ran on Tuesday. It began with an explosive editor’s note accusing Newsweek Media Group’s management of “egregious” breaches of journalistic ethics in the story’s review process.

What went wrong at Newsweek, according to current and former staffers.

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Bus terminal privatization questioned – News

On By peanutgallerynhIn Granite State,, Infrastructure and Transportation,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

None of the concerns expressed at the public hearing dealt with the Portsmouth facility. The Dover-related concerns came primarily from Alder Lane abutters, as expressed by 21-year resident Theresa Proia.

She drew a contrast between state officials, who worked with the neighborhood when the facility was originally constructed in 2008, and with C&J, which operates the facility.

“They were very good to our neighborhood,” she said of state officials. “They were transparent. We talked about the plans for the whole parking lot, the lighting, the fencing, and the trees that would be placed on both sides of the fence to protect the aesthetics of the neighborhood.”

With C&J, she said, trees were removed and new parking spaces added without any consultation.

“Space have been paved and additional parking has been put in with no transparency whatsoever,” said Proia. “So you can understand that our neighborhood is very concerned about moving forward with this process, and whether privatization would be good for us.”

Bus terminal privatization questioned – News – seacoastonline.com – Portsmouth, NH

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