Wednesday Open Thread

14 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

1. Another case of members forced dues being corruptly used to bankroll elections? Now the union boss and elected official has officially resigned from his RTD directorship. And all this after he stopped showing up to his daytime union job about two months ago.

   Kenneth Riley, who resigned in an e-mail Monday night, was elected last year to the RTD board to represent a district in Adams County on public transportation issues. He faces accusations that he used money from the union he headed for various campaign expenses – thousands of dollars’ worth of stamps, employee staff time, a printing job, lunches and a victory party.

   Meanwhile, neither Regional Transportation District officials nor prosecutors have been able to locate Riley. He abruptly left his union job in August and has not attended an RTD meeting in more than two months. RTD sent certified letters to his home, which were returned unsigned. The Denver Post was also unable to reach him.
   

   Read more: RTD board member from Adams County resigns, faces accusation of using union funds in campaign – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news…
   
   Read The Denver Post’s Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/term…

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   1. Freaking iPhone auto correct

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      1. A ‘smart’ phone is only as bright as the person using it…

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   2. It seems like every month we hear of another corrupt official there.

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         1. How odd 😉

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2. 

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3. Windmills stopped at night after bat death

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   1. I can’t readily find an analysis of various causes for bat mortality, but if it is anything like for birds, then wind turbines are a pretty minor source of mortality.

      The greatest cause of bird declines is habitat destruction. This graph shows the contributions of various factors that are less destructive than habitat loss. (There was a while when wind turbines were considered “evil” by the birding community, but if the turbines are sited outside of major migratory and hunting corridors, then deaths are uncommon.)

      
      
      Note that mortality is reported in millions of birds.
      
      From Sibley

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      1. And it’s too bad the coal industry doesn’t keep track of animal mortality associated with coal-fired plants.

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         1. while bother with animals?

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            1. But I was uncharacteristically subtle.

               Sorry, it won’t happen again.

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      2. every year? No wonder I use a Mac!

         But, seriously, that’s a terrible slaughter. If they killed that many dogs or cats every year, they’d be banned.

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