Wildfire forces evacuation of hundreds of residents in the Florida panhandle

Trees downed by Hurricane Michael four years ago are believed to have fueled the wildfire. The tinder dry conditions and strong winds aggravated the situation. Those in authority asked those living in Springfield, east of Panama City to move out on priority. Ron DeSantis is the governor of Florida. He explained that combination of huge expanses of dry land, downed trees, low humidity and strong winds were tailor made for hazardous fire conditions in Bay County. Teams of firefighters and emergency workers toiled to strengthen containment lines and protect homes. Tractor plow units and helicopters were deployed and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Dry conditions in Florida give rise to dangers of fire. There are innumerable active wildfires across the state. The Florida Forest Service indicates 12,000 acres are currently ablaze in the state of Florida. It faced Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and then Hurricane Michael in 2018. The latter tore through Mexico Beach and Tyndall Air Force Base and left 16 dead with loss of about $25 billion in damages. It is not easy to control wildfires.

Source -

dailymail.co.uk dated 8 March 2022

Gun used in Paris terror attack traced to Florida

It is high time that the United States takes a re-look at its gun laws and policies and introduces suitable checks to ensure that guns do not fall into wrong hands and, simultaneously, prevent easy access to guns that are being used by people to carry out mass killings. This is because one of the guns used in the Paris terror attack has been traced to a gun dealer in Florida.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 12 December 2015.

The gun dealer is Century Arms, based in Florida, and it has indicated that it was cooperating with authorities since a pistol it sold was recovered from the scene of the Paris terror attacks. The dealer has said that it scrupulously follows all state, federal and local laws and was not involved in wrongdoing.
It has also clarified that the pistol was legally imported into the United States and legally sold to a licensed, domestic firearms dealer more than two years ago may have been recovered from the scene of the Paris shootings.
The gun was made by Zastava arms factory in Serbia and some of the arms believed to be used in last month's deadly Paris attacks were manufactured there, including one that was exported to Century Arms in 2013.
The weapon has been identified as a semi-automatic pistol PV M92 and it was legally exported to Century Arms in May 2013.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Drones are overcrowding the skies and endangering the safety of flights

The skies are getting overcrowded with drones in the air and, experts are apprehensive about the safety of the crews and passengers of aircraft in view of two commercial jets coming to within 100 feet of a drone at the time of landing at New York's John F Kennedy International Airport.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 2 August 2015.

JetBlue Flight 1843 reported sighting a drone as it approached the airport at an altitude of around 800 to 900 feet at 2.24pm on Friday. As per the statement of the pilot as told to the control tower – the unmanned aircraft had passed just below the plane's nose.
Within three hours, Delta Flight 407, carrying 154 passengers back from Orlando, Florida, saw a drone flying just 100 feet below its right wing as it approached the runway at 5pm.
Drones could break through the windscreen and injure the pilot or could get ingested into the engine and lead to a major accident. In both cases, the lives of crew and passengers would be at stake.
It is not clear whether it was the same drone that had been sighted by both the pilots but, neither plane needed to take any evasive action - both the flights landed without incident. As per the directives of FAA - unmanned aircraft are not supposed to fly above 400 feet and operators must not fly within five miles of an airport unless they 'contact the airport and control tower before flying'.
(Image courtesy wikimedacommons.org)

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Retirement resort for Indians in Florida – meals for a month comes to $225

A retirement resort has opened for elderly Indians who have retired in America. It is called 'ShantiNiketan Retirement Resorts' and it has opened in Tavares, Florida, and is an age-restricted community where at least one of the residents should be above 55 years of age.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 21 July 2015.

In this retirement home, all meals for a day come at $11.25 a person while, meals for a month will cost $225. It is a gated community with 174 condominiums. Each condo is equipped with a standard refrigerator, dishwasher and oven range. In case anyone wants a microwave, washer or dryer, these are available as an upgrade.
The meals served are vegetarian (includes Jain meals). There are multi-faith prayer rooms and daily bhajans apart from a yoga/meditation hall and a computer room with high-speed internet – this would be for those who do not own laptops. Here they can check out their emails.
This is part of the first retirement community for Indian-Americans over the age of 55 in the US. Guest of any age can visit and stay with the residents — there is a maximum limit of 30 days stay per year for children below 18 years. There are plans to open such retirement resorts in other cities of the USA – like New Jersey, California Bay Area, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, and Washington DC.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Eric Garner chokehold death – another case of black-white divide in the US

The black-white divide is becoming more and more pronounced in the US. It has come to the surface yet again in the Eric Garner case in New York – it is similar to the Ferguson case where an 18-year-old black teenager Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer or the Trayvon Martin case in Florida. In the demonstrations in Ferguson, there were over 100 arrests and destruction of 12 commercial buildings by fire.
In the Eric Garner case, a white New York City police officer was cleared in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man who had been stopped on suspicion of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. The reason was that Eric had bad heath that caused his death. Chokehold is banned under NYPD policy.
It seems Eric Garner was choked to death by Officer Daniel Pantaleo and the grand jury of Staten Island did not indict him in the death of Eric on July 17.
Anyway, the NYPD has stripped Pantaleo of his gun and badge and placed him on desk duty while the case was under investigation. He would be suspended while the NYPD conducts an internal probe that could finally result in administrative charges.,br>