Random Discussions

[shel311]

Whoa, is that a street that is flooded?

Another live webcam from the Keys

[Weasel]

Yeah, crazy to watch it go from a dry street to looking like a small river in the matter of about a half hour

[shel311]

Wow, it looks even worse now compared to when I first posted it.

[shel311]

[Cnasty]

All these videos do for me is confirm how amazing palm trees are

[shel311]

My FB timeline is fantastic. Basically everyone in Orlando made it through the night easily, some lost power/some didn't. No real damage, just about how I expected with not a whole lot going on.

But there's this one girl who keeps making status updates every hour freaking out completely about everything, with my favorite one so far being, "Reports of alligators and fish in the streets. WHAT!!!"

[Cnasty]

Its the ol "I am so pissed it wasn't worse so people would ask about me and want to know my situation!"

Lots of friends in orlando like that

[shel311]

I had a bunch before the storm freaking out but this morning it's been calm...except for the 1 girl with gators/fish in the streets apparently.

[Weasel]

After watching a bit of the reporting yesterday, havent read anything today. Was it not as bad as expected?

[Cnasty]

After watching a bit of the reporting yesterday, havent read anything today. Was it not as bad as expected?

I think it was actually worse than they expected in those areas of Central Florida due to the turn it made at the end.

Overall though the storm is nowhere near as bad as it was looking. It hit Cuba and sat there a while drastically weakening it luckily.

Florida owes Cuba a cigar.

[shel311]

After watching a bit of the reporting yesterday, havent read anything today. Was it not as bad as expected?

For the most part, yes.

I thought Miami was out of the woods but the storm made a last second ever so slight shift east, and they got a good bit of flooding on the coast.

Otherwise, I'd say overall FLorida dodged a bullet though of course some were hit hard. Some of the pics/vids I've seen from the Keys look really bad.

[Uuaww]

Cuba had no direct impact and just weakened the hell out of it. Very good.

St Thomas is completely destroyed. We have 65 employees there and last I heard they still hadn't heard from 18 on Friday

[Weasel]

St Thomas is completely destroyed. We have 65 employees there and last I heard they still hadn't heard from 18 on Friday

Rut roh

[shel311]

[GeorgesGoons]

To long for Shelton but here is the gist:

The Sacramento City Council approved a bill (9-0) that would pay known gang-bangers money to not shoot anyone. I would say, "only in California" but this wold be the second program like this. First one in Richmond, VA.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article165689947.html

[dakshdar]

The article is incredibly insightful and the program is much more complex than you're making it out to be.

A large portion of the money comes from private donations. The city is asked to contribute $250k per year for four years at the start. Individuals can receive cash payouts of up to $9k over an 18 month period but only if they meet specific requirements such as substance abuse treatment and completion of high school equivalency programs. If you believe in "binning" money - none of the money from the city goes to the cash payouts (it is instead use for programs and paying staff). They also earn no money for the first 6 months.

Richmond is a great success story: 84 participants over 6 years. 83% "avoided" being shot since entering the program, 77% have not been arrested or charged with firearms possession. 50+% drops in gang related gun homicides and gun related assaults.

The money paid to the men and paid into the program by the city is a pittance: in comparison they spend around $500k in medical and police costs per gun related injury/incident each year, to the tune of almost $15 million annually. If you instead spend $250k of city money to reduce the number of shootings anywhere close to 50% - it is just good economics.

And if you "break-the-cycle" with this, then you have longer term societal change. Change that doesn't happen when you just lock up some kids father or mother and leave them with a hole in their life to fend for themselves. It's charity for people that many don't like thinking charity should pertain to (criminals), but if this small amount breaks their criminal cycle and their children grow up seeing a parent with a diploma or degree and a job, how many future cycles do you avoid?

[wdoupis]

The article is incredibly insightful and the program is much more complex than you're making it out to be.

A large portion of the money comes from private donations. The city is asked to contribute $250k per year for four years at the start. Individuals can receive cash payouts of up to $9k over an 18 month period but only if they meet specific requirements such as substance abuse treatment and completion of high school equivalency programs. If you believe in "binning" money - none of the money from the city goes to the cash payouts (it is instead use for programs and paying staff). They also earn no money for the first 6 months.

Richmond is a great success story: 84 participants over 6 years. 83% "avoided" being shot since entering the program, 77% have not been arrested or charged with firearms possession. 50+% drops in gang related gun homicides and gun related assaults.

The money paid to the men and paid into the program by the city is a pittance: in comparison they spend around $500k in medical and police costs per gun related injury/incident each year, to the tune of almost $15 million annually. If you instead spend $250k of city money to reduce the number of shootings anywhere close to 50% - it is just good economics.

And if you "break-the-cycle" with this, then you have longer term societal change. Change that doesn't happen when you just lock up some kids father or mother and leave them with a hole in their life to fend for themselves. It's charity for people that many don't like thinking charity should pertain to (criminals), but if this small amount breaks their criminal cycle and their children grow up seeing a parent with a diploma or degree and a job, how many future cycles do you avoid?

Love it, preach on Joe

[texasfan4444]

The article is incredibly insightful and the program is much more complex than you're making it out to be.

A large portion of the money comes from private donations. The city is asked to contribute $250k per year for four years at the start. Individuals can receive cash payouts of up to $9k over an 18 month period but only if they meet specific requirements such as substance abuse treatment and completion of high school equivalency programs. If you believe in "binning" money - none of the money from the city goes to the cash payouts (it is instead use for programs and paying staff). They also earn no money for the first 6 months.

Richmond is a great success story: 84 participants over 6 years. 83% "avoided" being shot since entering the program, 77% have not been arrested or charged with firearms possession. 50+% drops in gang related gun homicides and gun related assaults.

The money paid to the men and paid into the program by the city is a pittance: in comparison they spend around $500k in medical and police costs per gun related injury/incident each year, to the tune of almost $15 million annually. If you instead spend $250k of city money to reduce the number of shootings anywhere close to 50% - it is just good economics.

And if you "break-the-cycle" with this, then you have longer term societal change. Change that doesn't happen when you just lock up some kids father or mother and leave them with a hole in their life to fend for themselves. It's charity for people that many don't like thinking charity should pertain to (criminals), but if this small amount breaks their criminal cycle and their children grow up seeing a parent with a diploma or degree and a job, how many future cycles do you avoid?

[GeorgesGoons]

My only issue with what you said Joe was the "break the cycle" part.

You'll never break the cycle until you create jobs for these young men so they can be role models for their kids

[dakshdar]

My only issue with what you said Joe was the "break the cycle" part.

You'll never break the cycle until you create jobs for these young men so they can be role models for their kids

The jobs are out there, many of them just aren't qualified (since many don't even have high school diplomas). Richmond is the single data point, but the numbers suggest they had good success there with the number of people that stayed out of trouble for what seems like a significant period (~6 years) and the reduction in the crime rates.

I too would be interested in the numbers related to placing people in new jobs.

I think it is unfortunate that people get hung up on the "stipend" part. There are numerous articles about how Sacramento would pay gang members $1.5 million, which is an outright lie, or #fakenews if you will. They're choosing 50 young men that could each "earn" $9,000 over an 18 month period. That's less than 1/3 of that quoted number. There is also evidence online that the average monthly stipend for those 9 months for the Richmond participants was between $300 and $500, meaning less than half the money they could have paid out was paid out. And yet much more than half the people in the program (80+%) stayed out of trouble for 6 years. I think that shows that it isn't the money - what does even $9k mean to any one person over 6 years let alone half that amount.

There is a lot of lack of understanding of what this program is and how it works. There is also a lot of plain hate (or stupidity depending on how you view it), with people online suggesting that they could "solve" this problem in Sacramento for $50 by purchasing a bullet for each gangster and killing them instead of rehabilitating them (I read more than a handful of comments in the article you linked on Facebook). It's really rather pathetic. They complain about spending the money this way without even realizing they're already spending much, much more in efforts to prevent the gun violence with little to no indication any of it is working.