Nearly 200 water faucets in Oakland public schools had levels of lead that exceeded district standards, sparking outrage among staff who criticized district officials this week for failing to immediately notify school communities about results found earlier this summer and spring. It’s unclear how long students were exposed to the tainted taps.

Out of the 1,083 faucets and fountains tested, nearly 83% fell below the district’s limit of 5 parts per billion, or ppb, meaning they were safe, but 17% were above the limit. Federal standards are more lenient than Oakland’s standards, at 15 parts per billion, but 70 taps in the districts also failed to meet that requirement, in some cases by a wide margin.

One connection stood out: While Dr. Shuren regulated the booming medical device industry, his wife, Allison W. Shuren, represented the interests of device makers as the co-leader of a team of lawyers at Arnold & Porter, one of Washington’s most powerful law firms.

Dr. Shuren signed ethics agreements obtained by The Times that were meant to wall him off from matters involving Arnold & Porter’s business. But it's not clear how rigorously the ethics agreements were actually enforced. His wife’s law firm refused to provide a list of clients — and the agency had no legal authority to require it, said Michael Felberbaum, a spokesman for the F.D.A.

. . .

But safety issues multiplied on his watch. The most urgent F.D.A. recalls of devices that can cause serious injury or death have ticked up, to nearly 100 so far this year, from 29 in 2012, the first year such measures were tracked in an agency database. In March, a heart device was recalled after 49 deaths were linked to a specific concern.

Reports of device-related injuries soared to 900,000 in 2023, up from about 190,000 in 2012, according to Device Events, a company that makes F.D.A. data user-friendly for subscribers.

His wife represented Theranos, as well as a breast implant manufacturer whose products were linked to a "rare form of lymphoma."

Adams is saying this a false allegation because the plaintiff "has a history of filing lawsuits." Imagine trying this as a criminal defendant. "Your honor, I don't remember assaulting this particular person, and in any case the District Attorney has a history of prosecuting people."

Wishing a very to Eric Adams and his bootlickers at the New York Times.

Note - libgen.rs still works for downloads on Mirror #2. But nothing new is being uploaded. Get 'em while you can, or try annas-archive.org .

Popular shadow library LibGen appears to be struggling with technical problems. Regular book downloads stopped working last weekend and remain unavailable. The reason for the issues are unknown but, for now, internal troubles at the site seem more likely than a copyright-related enforcement action.

. . .

Starting last weekend, regular LibGen downloads suddenly stopped working. The outage suggests that there’s a problem with the storage servers, but there’s no official explanation.

The lack of communication doesn’t come as a complete surprise. A few months ago, the site already appeared to have some internal struggles. The person in charge of the site’s coding has reportedly been ‘inactive’ for a while.

This personnel issue may explain the database errors and technical trouble that resulted in broken functionality a few months back. It may also explain why new torrents are not being added on a weekly or daily basis. Presently, the latest torrent archive on the site dates back to April.

https://www.theonion.com/sofa-so-good-1851619418

Five tenants unions from around the country convened Tuesday to announce the launch of a new national organization to take on the power of multistate real-estate capital. The Tenant Union Federation marks the first major national effort at tenant organizing in 40 years.

. . .

Billing itself as a ​“union of unions,” the federation is seeding a movement that hopes to turn tenants into a political force that can’t be ignored.

At the local level, the group’s five founding unions have already racked up an impressive streak of wins spanning a wide range of organizing tactics.

In the last year, the Louisville Tenants Union passed far-reaching restrictions on public funding contributing to gentrification in Louisville; KC Tenants defeated a billionaire-backed stadium tax in Kansas City; Bozeman Tenants United banned new short-term rentals and elected one of their own as mayor in the Montana tourism hotspot; the Connecticut Tenants Union negotiated a collective bargaining agreement with one of New Haven’s largest landlords and Chicago’s Not Me We won ballot referenda backing a landmark anti-displacement ordinance covering the area surrounding the new Obama Presidential Center.

@UlyssesT@hexbear.net got another one? (Calley died in April, but it wasn't reported until today.)

, but many decades too late

https://www.theonion.com/right-ear-right-now-1851606905

You guys would be cluggin' a few cans, too, if you had my wife.

The proponents of a ballot initiative that would allow a new city of 400,000 residents to be built in east Solano County have decided to withdraw the measure and instead prepare a full environmental report on the impact the project would have on everything from the traffic to water to the county’s budget.

In a statement, Solano County Supervisor Mitch Mashburn said the decision came after conversations with California Forever CEO Jan Sramek.

“We have agreed that they will withdraw their measure and not proceed with the election in November,” Mashburn said in a statement. “I think it signals Jan Sramek’s understanding that while the need for more affordable housing and good paying jobs has merit, the timing has been unrealistic.”

. . .

The decision comes two days after a consultant for the county released a scathing assessment of the ballot measure, saying that the plan for the new city was so vague and had so few concrete details that voters lacked the information needed to make an informed decision.

WASHINGTON—In what was widely regarded as a misfire by the 81-year-old as he formally bowed out of the 2024 election, President Joe Biden repeatedly flubbed his exit speech today, saying he would “rule the country with an iron fist for one thousand years.” “Tonight, I, Joseph R. Biden, vow to take back my rightful throne atop the nation and continue my violent reign of terror until the end of time,” said a visibly shaky Biden, who, despite his best efforts to string together a coherent resignation, let out bloodcurdling screams, held up a human skull, and threatened to swiftly vanquish any American foolish enough to oppose him. “Though I may no longer be the Democratic nominee, I shall instead be the Supreme Leader of the United States of America, and all 340 million Americans will address me as such. Otherwise, I shall burn our nation’s cities to the ground and bathe in the ashes. I shall drink the blood of my enemies. And all shall cower before the divine will of Joe Biden! You fools. Ha ha!” At press time, worried-looking aides were shuffling Biden off-camera and telling the press corps that his repeated order to ‘Bow down to the Almighty Biden or be doomed to perish’ was the result of his struggle with a lifelong stutter.