Author Archives: Kami Klein

Police: 14 dead, 14 injured in California mass shooting

Police are investigating a mass shooting that left 14 people dead and 14 more wounded with what police called “significant injuries” on Wednesday morning in San Bernardino, California.

Police said at a news conference that up to three shooters reported to be heavily armed, prepared and dressed in tactical gear entered the Inland Regional Center, a facility for people with developmental disabilities, and opened fire. Those responsible fled the scene in a dark-colored SUV and were still at large as of Wednesday afternoon, police said.

According to KABC and many tweets by those on the ground, rescuers did not wait for ambulances and began loading the injured into trucks to get them to safety.

“They were being carried on trucks … They were shot, they were injured. Some of them did not survive,” said NBC Los Angeles reporter Tony Shin, describing victims he saw being brought to the triage area.

It is unclear how many people were at the facility at the time of the shooting. The center’s Facebook page says it employs nearly 670 staff members at its facilities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, providing service to more than 30,200 people. The three-story building is still being cleared as SWAT members go through each office.

According to the Sheriff of San Bernardino County, most of the victims were in a central area of the building but cannot confirm where.

Schools are on lockdown and one elementary closest to the airport is being evacuated, according to NBC reporters. SWAT and multiple police are looking for the suspects who are still at large.

Chinese company on track to clone dogs, racehorses and humans

The Chinese company Boyalife has signed a deal to build a $31 million cloning factory in Tianjin, a city approximately 100 miles from Beijing. The company has plans to bring its operations online in the first half of 2016 with plans on cloning 1 million cows a year by 2020 as well as replications of racehorses and police dogs, according to multiple media sources.

The CEO and lead scientist of this factory says that they now have technology capable of replicating human beings.

In a quote released by Breitbart, Xu Xiaochun, the 44-year-old Chairman of the Boyalife group remarked, “The technology is already there,”and added “If this is allowed, I don’t think there are other companies better than Boyalife that make better technology.”

“Unfortunately, currently, the only way to have a child is to have it be half its mum, half its dad,” said Xu. “Maybe in the future you have three choices instead of one. You either have fifty-fifty, or you have a choice of having the genetics 100 percent from Daddy or 100 percent from Mummy.”

In a report by CBS and AFP, Boyalife has joined forced with Sooam Biotech, a South Korean research company, that has already been quite successful at cloning pets for grieving owners. The market for deceased pets is reportedly extremely popular, with some people willing to pay up to $100,000 to bring a departed pet back to life.

In the CBS report, critics communicated feeling uneasy about the current cloning plans because Sooam Biotech founder, animal cloning pioneer Woo-suk Hwang, was convicted in 2009 of embezzling research funds and illegally buying human eggs for his research.

“Anything connected to Woo-suk is going to be suspect,” said Jaydee Hanson, senior policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety. “I’m not expecting Boyalife to be around for long,” he added.

Boyalife Group Board Chairman Xiaochun, said in a press statement on the company’s website that Chinese farmers are struggling to produce enough beef cattle to meet market demand. He said that the center will produce 100,000 cattle embryos a year, eventually increasing to 1 million.

CBS reported that many people took to social media to express their apprehension of eating cloned meat.

“This beef definitely must first be saved just for the central government leaders; only after they and their families have eaten it for 10 years should they deign to give it to us, the people! Really can’t wait!” one commenter said.

Another asked: “Is this meat going to be sold in South Korea or China? If in China, please make our leaders eat it first.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled in 2008 that food from cloned animals is safe to eat.

In an article by AFP, Han Lanzhi, a GMO safety specialist at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said Boyalife’s claims about the safety, scope and timeline of their operations were alarming — and implausible.

“To get approval for the safety of cloned animals would be a very drawn-out process, so when I heard this news, I felt very surprised,” she said.

“There must be strong regulation because as a company pursuing its own interests, they could very easily do other things in the future,” she added.

Greek Immigrant Gives Back on Thanksgiving

Every Thanksgiving people all of the United States gather together to share a meal.  For many it is with their family and friends.  For many others who are alone on Thanksgiving their meal comes from caring people that know how much food served with love means to their life.  

One such caring man has made it a tradition at his Northville, Michigan restaurant, called George’s Senate Coney Island by opening up his popular place of business to those that are alone over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Every Thanksgiving(or Easter!) for the past 10 years if you are homeless or even just alone for Thanksgiving , you can get a free meal at George’s.

Each year George serves 75 to 100 people.

“The reason I do this is because I was alone one time,” Dimopoulos told ABC news. “I remember the good times and bad times.”  

“I see people coming into the restaurant, and I say, ‘Are you by yourself?’ and they say, ‘I am, I’m alone,'” Dimopoulos told Today.com. “They need a little attention and help. That’s what I believe. I don’t care how much it costs. I make good money, so I can help those people.”

Recently a passerby posted a photo of the sign advertising the event to Reddit.  

“If anyone is home alone, come eat with us for free! All day,” the sign reads.

In a recent article, Huffington post said that for George, helping others in this way is quite personal.  The Greek-born Michigan immigrant who came to the country when he was 23 was once homeless in Athens when he was 12 and relied on strangers to help him find ways to eat.

This is a man that understands the meaning of paying forward in a warm, welcoming and delicious way!

Winter Storm Cara Bringing Dangerous Mix

Winter Storm Cara will make traveling for Thanksgiving and for those returning home, slow going and in some places quite dangerous for a great deal of the middle of the country. According to the Weather Channel, this strong system will bring a mixture of flooding rain, heavy snow and treacherous icing conditions.  The possibility for black ice is a great concern as well as power outages from freezing rain.

Accuweather has reported that freezing rain has already been reported in the early morning hours of Thanksgiving in parts of northeast Colorado, eastern Wyoming and Nebraska.

The National Weather Service has issued an ice storm warning for portions of the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, including the city of Amarillo, Texas, as well as parts of southern Kansas. These warnings are valid from Thursday night into Friday or Saturday.

Cities that could experience one or more periods of freezing rain and drizzle include Amarillo, Texas; Gage, Oklahoma; Dodge City, Kansas; Lamar, Colorado; Omaha, Nebraska; and Des Moines, Iowa.

According to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Bowers, “People traveling either a short or long distance from the eastern slopes of the Rockies to the Plains, Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes region are likely to encounter delays into Friday.”

Snow is expected from the central and eastern parts of Colorado and Wyoming to central Nebraska, northwestern Kansas, northwestern Iowa and southeastern Minnesota. The slushy snow will harden as the temperatures fall so caution is urged.

The most widespread impact on travel will be associated with drenching rain during Thanksgiving Day into Friday.

“Motorists will need to slow down due to patchy fog and blowing spray and to reduce the risk of hydroplaning,” Bowers said.

Enough rain can fall in some locations to cause flash flooding. The greatest risk of flooding  will extend from north-central Texas to southern Missouri.

For those traveling in these areas be sure to check weather conditions before heading out on the road.  

3-Year-Old Starts Movement to Help Homeless Community

Compassion is not an emotion reserved for adults and three year old Patrick McClung from Anchorage, Alaska is the perfect example.  

According to local news station KTVA,  Patrick broke down in tears back in October when his mother, Destinee McClung, explained to him what being homeless means.

“Everyone he knows has a house and has food and has toys,” McClung said. “And so it really genuinely hurt his heart to kind of realize that there are people that go without.”

He even cried over the matter, saying through tears in an emotional video McClung posted to her Facebook page that, “I don’t want them to sleep on a piece of cardboard.”

ABC News reported that Patrick was so affected by what he had learned that he put his hurt into action. The 3-year-old and his mother have set up donation boxes around town, collecting clothing and toiletries for homeless people.  

People have been eagerly donating to Patrick’s project with blankets, socks and other cold-weather apparel, to hygiene-related items like shampoo, conditioner, soap and diapers.  The toddler himself has gone to great lengths to donate, selling his beloved trains so he could buy items for those in need.

So far Patrick is proud to show others that he has collected 10 large bags of donations for those that have so little.

“It’s for all the people, and they don’t have homes,” Patrick explained to KTVA, showing off the items. “And they’re very cold.”

In addition to collecting goods for the homeless, the 3-year-old has also started volunteering at a soup kitchen handing out desserts and chatting with people.

Peru and Brazil rocked by two 7.6 earthquakes

On Tuesday, in a remote, sparsely populated jungle region near the borders of Peru, Brazil and Bolivia, a deep, powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake shook intensely followed by another 7.6 magnitude quake five minutes later and just miles away.

The United States Geological Survey says that the latter earthquake was almost certainly triggered by the earlier event. Seismologists sometimes refer to a pair of similarly sized earthquakes that occur at nearly the same time and location as an earthquake “doublet.”

According to AccuWeather reports, the quake occurred 107 miles west-northwest of Iberia, Peru, and 423 miles east-northeast of the capital of Lima. The second quake was centered 130 miles south of Tarauaca, Brazil.

Because of the depth of these quakes at 373.2 miles and 380.1 miles, respectively, no tsunami watches or warnings were issued.

The area of these quakes are inhabited by fewer than 1,000 people. No reports of injuries are damage have been reported at this time.

Turkey shoots down Russian warplane

The Pentagon urged Russia and Turkey to de-accelerate the mounting tensions between the two countries following the downing of a Russian Fighter plane on the Syrian, Turkish border Tuesday, according to Reuters.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in a press statement made in Brussels, backs Turkey’s version stating that an allied assessment shows the Russian warplane did fly into Turkish airspace.

The circumstances that led to this are in dispute. Both Turkey and Russia claim to have proof of their account.  Turkish military has presented a map and the radar locations of the Russian fighter when the missiles were fired.

According to the BBC, the Turkish military said two F-16s on patrol had fired on an unidentified aircraft at 09:24 (07:24 GMT) after warning it 10 times over five minutes about violating Turkish airspace over the town of Yayladagi, in Hatay province.

In a report to Reuters, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the plane had been attacked when it was 1 kilometer inside Syria and warned of “serious consequences” for what he termed a stab in the back administered by “the accomplices of terrorists”.

“We will never tolerate such crimes like the one committed today,” Putin said, as Russian and Turkish shares fell on fears of an escalation between the two countries.

Footage from Turkey’s Anadolu Agency showed two pilots parachuting out of the jet before crashing.  A commander of the rebel Turkmen forces in Syria claimed to have shot both pilots dead as they came down. CNN reports that the body of one pilot has been found.

The BBC  reported that Russian aircraft have flown hundreds of sorties over northern Syria since September. Moscow says they have targeted only “terrorists”, but activists say its strikes have mainly hit Western-backed rebel groups.

Turkey, a vehement opponent of Syria’s president, has strongly cautioned against violations of its airspace by Russian and Syrian aircraft.

The Turkish foreign ministry warned the Russian ambassador last week that there would be “serious consequences” if the Russian air force did not immediately stop bombing “civilian Turkmen villages” in the Bayir Bucak area, near Tuesday’s crash site.

Record snows and storms to affect holiday travels

The first snowfall brought amounts amounts of snow ranging from a few inches to 20 inches from South Dakota through Michigan over the weekend as temperatures plunged southward.

Chicago recorded its second-heaviest snowfall during a single storm in November  causing hundreds of flights to be cancelled and others to be delayed.

According to the National Weather Service, Saturday’s snowfall of 11.2 inches recorded Friday and Saturday was beat only by a snowstorm ending on November 26 in 1895 that saw 12 inches of snow.

For Thanksgiving, a storm system will have a mix of soaking rain, snow, cold winds and possible ice on the central part of the United States.

According to Accuweather, the Thanksgiving Day storm will center itself between warmer air in the Eastern U.S. and brisk cold air in the west as it plunges southward.  Rain and snow with a potential for a narrow zone of ice threatens the central states.

Heavy rain across Oklahoma, Eastern Kansas and Western Missouri lie within this storm zone.  Freezing rain and sleet could develop from portions of southeastern Nebraska to southwestern Kansas and southeastern Colorado on Thanksgiving Day.

Stay tuned to weather reports as you make your plans for the Thanksgiving week and check with your airline for any delays.

Refugees block Balkan railway, tensions escalate

The countries along the Balkan route for refugees seeking a new life in western Europe began to filter the unending amount of migrants by granting passage only to those that are fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. All others labeled as “economic migrants” would be sent back.

In a report by CBC,  a growing number of Iranians, Bangladeshis and other nationalities from Asia and Africa have gathered in the Greek town of Idomeni.  These migrants who have been stranded have spent days sitting on the train tracks to block the trains, begging to be allowed in as many held signs or shouted “Freedom!”  “We are not terrorists!” and “We are not going back!”

About 1,300 people demonstrated for about four days but the numbers have dwindled as the migrants have given up and searching other paths to gain access into Europe.

Declaring a hunger strike and stripped to the waist, one Iranian man, sewed his lips together with nylon and sat down in front of lines of Macedonian riot police.

Asked by Reuters where he wanted to go, the man, a 34-year-old electrical engineer named Hamid, said: “To any free country in the world. I cannot go back. I will be hanged.”

ABC has estimated that about 500,000 refugees have transited through Macedonia in 2015.

According to many news reports, the temperatures are beginning to drop on the northern routes for these refugees and it is expected to be a harsh winter.  Relief agencies are scrambling to fill the need for shelter, clothing, food and warmth, but fears there will be many that will freeze to death in the coming months.

Winter Storm Bella Bringing a Snowy Cold Punch

Following on the heels of Winter Storm Ajax earlier this week Bella promises to bring the first snows of the season to parts of  the Upper Midwest, Corn Belt, and Great Lakes.

An area from northeast Nebraska and southeast South Dakota into much of Iowa and northwest Illinois, is already under winter storm warnings that have been issued by local National Weather Service offices. This means a likelihood for at least 6 inches of snow in 12 hours, or 8 inches of snow in 24 hours.

The National Weather Service upgraded a winter storm watch to a warning early Friday ahead of a storm that meteorologists now say could drop up to 11 inches of snow in North Central Illinois.

Flight delays are probable Saturday, possibly even late Friday night, out of Chicago-O’Hare Airport, and are possible out of smaller regional airports, as well.

Earlier this week, according to Weather Underground, one of the most widespread and damaging bouts of high wind to strike the Northwest U.S. in years tore down trees and power lines and knocked vehicles off roadways from Washington to the northern Great Plains from Tuesday into Wednesday.

According to weather.com, at least four deaths were reported, and more than 1 million people in several states have been affected by power outages, in some cases for hours or days.  utility companies are reporting that  more than 100,000 customers still without power as of Thursday afternoon.

71 mph winds were reported in Spokane Washington with a whopping 137 mph wind recorded at Mission Ridge Ski Area in Washington.