National, Regional and Local News

[Owendonovan]

Republicanism is appearing more and more like a mental illness. There's something wrong with the Abbotts and DeSantis's of this country that feels like it could be clinically proven.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

Carter Funeral Service to Be Held at Washington National Cathedral on Jan. 9
The state funeral will cap more than a week of remembrances honoring Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, who died at 100 on Sunday.


The National Cathedral in Washington in 2018. Former President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral will be held there on Jan. 9.Credit...Erin Schaff for The New York Times


By Peter Baker
Reporting from Washington

Dec. 30, 2024
Updated 5:33 p.m. ET

Former President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral at Washington National Cathedral will be held on Jan. 9, featuring a eulogy by President Biden and culminating more than a week of ceremonies and tributes, organizers said on Monday.

Mr. Biden ordered the federal government to close on Jan. 9 and has declared it a national day of mourning. The New York Stock Exchange will also close on that day out of respect for the 39th president.

Because of the New Year’s holiday, the eight-day plan that organizers had long envisioned for Mr. Carter’s memorial services will not begin until later this week. The former president will be taken by motorcade on Saturday through his hometown Plains, Ga., to his boyhood home for a brief pause in front of his family’s farm. A historic farm bell will ring 39 times.

The former president will then be taken to Atlanta to the Georgia State Capitol for a moment of silence by Gov. Brian Kemp and other officials, and then transported to the Carter Center, the home of his post-presidential humanitarian work. He will lie in repose at the center for mourners to visit Saturday night, Sunday and Monday, according to a detailed schedule released by the U.S. military task force that organizes presidential funerals.

Mr. Carter, who died at his home in Plains, Ga., at 100 on Sunday, will be flown by presidential plane on Tuesday, Jan. 7, to Washington, where he will be taken to the U.S. Navy Memorial in honor of his service as a submariner. He will then be taken by horse drawn caisson up to the Capitol, where he will lie in state through Jan. 8, much as several presidents going back to Abraham Lincoln have. Thousands of people are expected to file through the Rotunda to pay their respects, including lawmakers, diplomats and everyday Americans.

The service at the cathedral, which traditionally hosts state funerals for presidents as well as other major American figures, will be the highlight of the remembrances. Other former presidents are expected to attend, but it was not clear whether President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has regularly denigrated Mr. Carter, would be invited or attend.

The military task force statement did not include a program for the cathedral ceremony, but others close to the planning said that in addition to Mr. Biden, Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson and chairman of the board of the Carter Center, will speak, as will Stuart E. Eizenstat, who was the former president’s domestic policy adviser.

Eulogies will also be read from two people who were close to Mr. Carter but who have already died: former President Gerald R. Ford, the Republican who was defeated by Mr. Carter in 1976 but went on to become a friend, and former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, Mr. Carter’s running mate and partner. Mr. Ford died in 2006 and Mr. Mondale in 2021. The eulogies are set to be read by their sons, Steven Ford and Ted Mondale.

After the cathedral service, Mr. Carter will be taken back to Georgia for burial. Initial plans once called for him to be transported by train, but Mr. Carter objected. “If you take my cold, dead body across the U.S. by train, I’ll haunt you until the day you die,” he told a staff member. So instead, he will return to Georgia on a military flight.

A private funeral service will be held that afternoon at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, where Mr. Carter taught Sunday school well into his 90s. After a missing-man formation flyover by U.S. Navy jets, he will be interred next to the former first lady Rosalynn Carter, his wife of 77 years who died at 96 in November 2023, in a family plot next to a willow tree at the edge of a pond in the town where both grew up and spent most of their lives.

The events will be the first presidential funeral since George H.W. Bush died in 2018 and come at a contentious time in American politics, as a president of one party prepares to turn over the White House to a president from the other. In accordance with federal law, Mr. Biden ordered flags lowered to half-staff for the next 30 days, meaning they will still be lowered on Jan. 20, when Mr. Trump is inaugurated.

That the services will occur on Mr. Biden’s watch during his final days in office spares at least some awkward moments and decisions, since he and not Mr. Trump will be the sitting president at the time of the service.

Mr. Biden in some ways had the closest relationship with Mr. Carter among the other members of the rarefied presidents’ club. He was the first Democratic senator to endorse Mr. Carter’s long-shot bid for the White House in 1976, and in 2021 he became the first sitting president to honor Mr. Carter by visiting him at his home in Plains.

“His compassion and moral clarity lifted people up and changed lives and saved lives all over the globe,” Mr. Biden said in televised remarks on Sunday night from his vacation in St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. “Jimmy Carter is an example of simple decency.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/30/us/p ... neral.html

[ti-amie]

US Treasury says it was hacked by China in 'major incident'

Nadine Yousif and Joe Tidy
BBC News

A Chinese state-sponsored hacker has broken into the US Treasury Department's systems, accessing employee workstations and some unclassified documents, American officials said on Monday.
The breach occurred in early December and was made public in a letter penned by the Treasury Department to lawmakers notifying them of the incident.

The US agency characterised the breach as a "major incident", and said it had been working with the FBI and other agencies to investigate the impact.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington DC told BBC News that the accusation is part of a "smear attack" and was made "without any factual basis".

The Treasury Department said in its letter to lawmakers that the China-based actor was able to override security via a key used by a third-party service provider that offers remote technical support to its employees.

The compromised third-party service - called BeyondTrust - has since been taken offline, officials said. They added that there is no evidence to suggest the hacker has continued to access Treasury Department information since.

Along with the FBI, the department has been working with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and third-party forensic investigators to determine the breach's overall impact.
Based on evidence it has gathered so far, officials said the hack appears to have been carried out by "a China-based Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor".

"In accordance with Treasury policy, intrusions attributable to an APT are considered a major cybersecurity incident," Treasury Department officials wrote in their letter to lawmakers.

The department was made aware of the hack on 8 December by BeyondTrust, a spokesperson told the BBC. According to the company, the suspicious activity was first spotted on 2 December, but it took three days for the company to determine that it had been hacked.

The spokesperson added that the hacker was able to remotely access several Treasury user workstations and certain unclassified documents that were kept by those users.

The department did not specify the nature of these files, or when and for how long the hack took place. They also did not specify the level of confidentiality of the computer systems. For instance, access to 100 low-level workers would likely be less valuable then access to only 10 computers at a higher echelon within the department.

The hackers may have been able to create accounts or change passwords in the three days that they were being watched by BeyondTrust.

As espionage agents, the hackers are believed to have been seeking information, rather than attempting to steal funds.

The spokesperson said the Treasury Department "takes very seriously all threats against our systems, and the data it holds", and that it will continue to work on protecting its data from outside threats.

The department letter states that a supplemental report on the incident will be provided to lawmakers in 30 days.

Chinese embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu denied the department's report, saying in a statement that it can be difficult to trace the origin of hackers.

"We hope that relevant parties will adopt a professional and responsible attitude when characterizing cyber incidents, basing their conclusions on sufficient evidence rather than unfounded speculation and accusations," he said.

"The US needs to stop using cyber security to smear and slander China, and stop spreading all kinds of disinformation about the so-called Chinese hacking threats."

This is the latest high-profile and embarrassing US breach blamed on Chinese espionage hackers.
It follows another hack of telecoms companies in December that potentially breached phone record data across large swathes of American society.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3weye2j0e7o

[ponchi101]

"What brand of router do you have?
We use Hauwei.
And your antivirus?
Kaspersky.
Yup. You are safe!!!"

Uhm...

[ti-amie]

Most of Puerto Rico Is Darkened by New Year’s Eve Blackout
Only a fraction of the island’s 1.4 million utility customers had power by midday. The electricity provider said it would take 24 to 48 hours to restore service.


San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, fell dark on Tuesday. Credit...Ricardo Arduengo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Luis Ferré-SadurníVictor MatherEduardo Medina and Christina Morales
Luis Ferré-Sadurní reported from San Juan, P.R., Victor Mather and Eduardo Medina from New York and Christina Morales from Albany, Ga.

Dec. 31, 2024
Updated 4:19 p.m. ET
Leer en español
A sweeping blackout hit Puerto Rico early Tuesday morning, plunging most of the island into darkness on New Year’s Eve.

Across the island, which has long been plagued with widespread power outages, residents woke up with a familiar feeling of resignation and deep frustration, as officials warned that the power outage could persist through New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Only about 13 percent of Puerto Rico’s 1.4 million utility customers had power on Tuesday morning in what was described as a “systemwide” blackout, according to Luma Energy, which supplies power to the U.S. territory. The company said it had restored service to about 44,700 customers — about 3 percent of those affected — by 1 p.m., but did not specify how many remained without power.

Luma said on social media that “preliminary findings point to a fault on an underground line.” It said that it planned to restore power in phases and that “the entire process will take between 24-48 hours, conditions permitting.” The company said in a separate statement that service had been restored to the San Juan Medical Center and Municipal Hospital.

Josué Colón, the director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, told Telemundo that he believed restoration would take several days.

Puerto Rico has faced a series of blackouts since 2017, when Hurricane Maria severely damaged the island, including its power grid.

The blackout appeared to be significantly bigger than more recent outages this summer. A blackout in June left about 350,000 customers without power. In August, 700,000 lost power in the wake of Hurricane Ernesto.

“We are demanding answers,” the territory’s governor, Pedro Pierluisi, said on social media. Power companies, he added, “must expedite the restart of the generating units outside the fault area and keep the people duly informed about the measures they are taking to restore service throughout the island.

Luma handles the distribution of energy in Puerto Rico, while a company called Genera provides the power. Both are private and have faced criticism in recent years for the island’s often-faulty grid.

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Emailed requests for comment on Tuesday morning generated automated replies from representatives for both companies saying they would be unavailable until January.

Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, the busiest in Puerto Rico, said in a statement on Tuesday that it was “operating normally thanks to electric generators.” A person at the administrator’s office of the Hospital Caribbean Medical Center in Fajardo, P.R., said that the facility was operating normally, relying on four generators.

The blackout threatened to put a damper on the New Year holiday, which Puerto Ricans typically celebrate by gathering in town squares and family homes — to drink, eat typical holiday dishes and set off fireworks.

Ilia Quiñones said her morning appointment at a beauty salon was canceled because Plaza Las Américas, the largest mall on the island, had largely shut down. She was supposed to do her hair for an annual New Year’s celebration her sister hosts for about 50 relatives at a ranch in Gurabo, a mountainous town just south of San Juan.

Her sister had been planning the party for more than a month, but the celebrations were now in limbo because the ranch does not have a generator. The family was now considering whether to still hold the party under the night sky using battery-powered lanterns.

“Bring your own lantern,” Ms. Quiñones quipped, adding: “People are so used to this already that we’ve gotten used to mediocrity.”

Fabián and Vanessa Rodriguez woke up in Guaynabo, a San Juan suburb, without electricity and plowed ahead with their plans, which luckily did not require any electricity: a jog near San Juan’s old city, followed by a plunge at the beach.

Though they have a generator at home, they were checking their neighborhood’s WhatsApp group to see if the power had come back. It had not.

“We’re just hoping this doesn’t go on for too long,” Mr. Rodriguez said, noting that while he did not place all the blame on LUMA, he was still severely disappointed.

His wife, Vanessa, quickly interjected.

“Not me, I blame all of it on LUMA,” she said, adding that she was sorry for all the families who had planned to roast pernil, a slow-roasted pork dish that is a mainstay of Puerto Rican holiday festivities.

Edel Cora, 35, an Uber Eats driver who was doing delivery runs in San Juan, could only grin and mask his frustration with sarcasm: “Puerto Rico does it better,” he said, referencing a well-known slogan the island’s government has used to attract tourists.

He owned a generator, but he said he did not plan to turn it on. Instead, he would get dressed after getting off work, head out and visit whichever relative had electricity, “to drink and shoot fireworks.”

“I’m not surprised,” Mr. Cora said. “No one is.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/31/us/p ... ckout.html

[ponchi101]

They have really never recovered from that hurricane. Not fully.

[Suliso]

Somehow they've been unable to capitalize on being part of USA. Much poorer islands in the same area have done better.

[ponchi101]

Maybe because the US banking system will not let them become some larger Cayman Islands?
Indeed, it is strange. But it is not as if the Caribbean does not have other islands that are very poor (Dominican Republic/Haiti, Jamaica, Dominica).

[Suliso]

I was in Dominica less than a year ago. It is poor for sure, but no issues with power while I was there.

I don't think Dominican Republic is super poor either. Only Haiti is a true failed state.

[ti-amie]

I was in Dominica less than a year ago. It is poor for sure, but no issues with power while I was there.

I don't think Dominican Republic is super poor either. Only Haiti is a true failed state.

Dominican Republic is very poor it's just hidden better. It suits a certain narrative to always point up the political "failure" of Haiti and not the reasons it's in the state it's in (having to pay back France for the loss of the plantations it "suffered" after the Haitian people won their freedom. Remember at that time there was no split in the island between two separate countries just one Hayti-Quisqueya) but I digress.

A friend visited DR as it's called in these parts and had a native Dominican give him tours of the country and at the end of the day he paid the man $10 US. The man waited for him every morning. He found out later that that $10 US was more than he made in a week.

[ponchi101]

As Ti says. DR has the illusion that because it has all the posh resorts the rest of the island is the same.
It is very poor. One of the true examples that tourism is no economic booster.

[skatingfan]

As Ti says. DR has the illusion that because it has all the posh resorts the rest of the island is the same.
It is very poor. One of the true examples that tourism is no economic booster.

Who owns the resorts? The money probably doesn't stay on the island.

[ponchi101]

A lot of the resorts are the corporate ones. Melia, a Spanish chain, has a few, I think Iberostar too. As you say, the money probably doesn't stay there.

[ti-amie]

Judd Legum‬ ‪@juddlegum.bsky.social‬

The Washington Post’s editorial cartoonist quits after editors spike cartoon mocking tech billionaires (including WashPost owner Jeff Bezos) for sucking up to Trump

https://anntelnaes.substack.com/p/why-i ... irect=true