Random News and Notes 21 August

On this date:

• 1129 – The warrior Yoritomo is made Shogun without equal in Japan.
• 1794 – France surrenders the island of Corsica to the British.
• 1808 – Napoleon Bonaparte‘s General Junot is defeated by Wellington at the first Battle of the Peninsular War at Vimeiro, Portugal.
• 1831 – Nat Turner leads a slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia that kills close to 60 whites.
• 1858 – The first of a series of debates begins between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. Douglas goes on to win the Senate seat in November, but Lincoln gains national visibility for the first time.
• 1863 – Confederate raiders under William Quantrill strike Lawrence, Kansas, leaving 150 civilians dead.
• 1864 – Confederate General A.P. Hill attacks Union troops south of Petersburg, Va., at the Weldon railroad. His attack is repulsed, resulting in heavy Confederate casualties.
• 1897 – Ransom Eli Olds of Lansing, Michigan, founds Olds Motor Vehicle Company, which will later become Olds Motor Werks and then Oldsmobile.
• 1942 – U.S. Marines turn back the first major Japanese ground attack on Guadalcanal in the Battle of Tenaru.

• 1944 – The Dumbarton Oaks conference, which lays the foundation for the establishment of the United Nations, is held in Washington, D.C.
• 1959 – Hawaii is admitted into the Union.
• 1963 – The South Vietnamese Army arrests over 100 Buddhist monks in Saigon.
• 1972 – US orbiting astronomy observatory Copernicus launched.
• 1974 – The Equal Educational Opportunities Act is enacted.
• 1976 – Operation Paul Bunyan: after North Korean guards killed two American officers sent to trim a poplar tree along the DMZ on Aug. 18, US and ROK soldiers with heavy support chopped down the tree.

There was some rough weather on the East Coast yesterday. A tornado made a direct impact on Dover Delaware causing major damage but miraculously no major injuries. The twister slammed into the Kraft-Heinz factory, ripping off the roof.

Another twister hit Atlantic Beach on Long Island’s west end. This one started as a waterspout that came ashore. It hit the Sun and Surf Beach Club destroying or damaging at least 30 cabanas. One person suffered minor injuries amid scattered debris.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman to declare a state of emergency as crews cleared the scene.

There were torrential rains in New York City as well. The heavy rains overwhelmed the drainage systems and caused flash flooding in Brooklyn, submerging intersections and leaving vehicles partially underwater amid debris-strewn chaos. Subway stations at Penn Station and 137th Street saw water flooding platforms, prompting service tweaks during the evening commute.

The retarded mayor, Zohran Mamdani called for quicker green infrastructure upgrades amid climate challenges, while city leaders noted ongoing flood resilience projects despite vulnerabilities in low-lying areas.

There has been a sword attack at a high school in Fagersta Sweden. Local police responded to reports of deadly violence at the school around 2 p.m., detaining one suspect who was shot in the leg during the incident. Nearby schools locked down as a precaution, and the municipality promised crisis support for those affected.

There is no word of how many victims there are, how badly they are injured and no word on the identity of the attacker. I suspect it will be another case of Coulter’s Law.

A week or two ago, a small boat capsized in New York Harbor killing 27-year-old Sara Sanchez and her infant daughter. I let it pass without much notice because, and this doesn’t’ say anything good about me, it just didn’t move the needle much so to speak. Well, there is reason to notice now. The 46-year-old captain, Manuel Ernesto Hernandez-Umana, an illegal from El Salvador who entered in 2007, lacked a captain’s license and proper credentials for the commercial charter.

Now detained by ICE, he faces federal charges of misconduct and neglect resulting in death, plus state reckless endangerment counts, with deportation planned after proceedings.

While I am not a licensed charter captain, I do know quite a bit about boats and the requirements for licensure by the Puddle Pirates. Let’s be honest, that boat was waaaay overloaded with 14 pax aboard. According to all the reports I’ve seen, the max capacity for the boat was 10. It gets worse. The boat is reported to not have had any life preservers aboard. I am seeing there is a charter company involved as well. Everyone even tangentially related to this accident is going to have a tough time soon.