Apocryphon Atlasia (Official Publication of the Game Engine)

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Hang on, wasn’t Macron assassinated last year?

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18 June 2019 - Domestic Stories

Laser Strikes on Aircraft Up Sharply in 2019

NYMAN, DC  - After two straight  years of decline, Federal Avation Administraion officials claim that 2019 has seen a dramatic increase in aircraft laser strikes thus far. Laser strikes had previously peaked in 2016, with 7,398 reported incidents, before falling to 6,754 in 2017 and 6,494 in 2018. According to an FAA release earlier this week, though, more than 3,500 strikes were reported in the first five months of 2019, which would, barring a substantial reduction, result in 2019 exceeding 2016's record total, with an increase of over 30% from last year.

The increase comes following several moves made at the end of the Fhtagn Administration regarding aircraft laser strikes - first, in June 2018, the maximum penalty for strikes was drastically reduced from five years to one, and shortly afterwards in July several citizens serving sentences for engaging in laser strikes were pardoned by the President. These decisions and their relationship with the current increase have been controversial within the FAA. "It's an absolute disgrace." said one anonymous FAA official. "A laser strikes compromises the safety of hundreds of people in the air, and these administration officials are treating it as if there's nothing wrong with it, throwing out pardons left and right. By encouraging this drastic increase, they are putting thousands of lives in danger." Other agency officials as well as some independent air safety experts, however, dispute this account, noting that most laser strikes have no malicious intent and are made by people who are unaware of either its criminality or its effects. They argue that an education campaign would have far greater impacts on total strikes than any changes to sentencing.

Laser strikes do not damage aircraft directly, but if shined into the cockpit, they can cause visual problems for pilots. While permanent damage is rare, distractions and short-term issues such as blurred vision, headache, and flash blindness can cause pilots to lose focus, making them more vulnerable in dangerous situations. Several FAA sources indicate that there have been several attacks this year which came close to causing catastrophe. The most notable of these was at Dulles Airport in early May, when repeated, calibrated flashes from four laser devices at the cockpit of an arriving flight forced the pilots to land the aircraft with extremely limited vision. After the incident, Virginia Governor Robert Welker (Mont.) called for a stronger effort to prevent such incidents from happening in the future. Welker has established a commission on aircraft laser strikes, and took to Twitter following the release of the report, calling on Congress to take action on laser strike prevention.

Preparation Underway for 2028 Olympics in LA

LOS ANGELES, CA - The City of Los Angeles is stepping up its preparations as it gets set to host the 2028 Summer Olympics. Having previously hosted the Games twice, most recently in 1984, the city has begun work refurbishing and rennovating its older venues for the event. Most notably, the $300 million rennovation to USC's Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, set to be one of the main venues for the Games, are reported to be very near completion and are set to be unveiled at the start of USC's football season in late August. Proposed changes to other, smaller venues are now being put forth for the consideration of the city and the USOC.

Los Angeles is also investing heavily in infrastructure ahead of the event, highlighted by their "Twenty-eight by '28" initiative, which seeks to complete 28 major infrastructure projects in time for the Olympics, including several which were initially only scheduled for completion in the 2030s and 2040s. The highlights of these projects are numerous extensions and new lines to the LA Metro system. The first new line, the Crenshaw/LAX line, connects the system to the pivotal Los Angeles Stadium in Hollywood Park, which, in addition to being one of the headlining Olympic venues, will also host Super Bowl LVI in 2022 and serve as a venue for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. After numerous delays, officials now appear confident that it will be completed in the first half of 2020.

Concerns about funding, however, loom larger than ever. The project's budget - looming up to nearly $7 billion - is mostly private funding for venue improvements, but the vast infrastructure push had been funded by the city, with some federal funding backing it. Recently, however, the Fremont Parliment voted to assume all state and local costs, meaning that Olympic insfrastructure funding is now primarily in their hands. City officials have publicly stated that they worry about the efficiency of funding coming from Denver as opposed to within the city, as well as whether or not the regional government will be quick enough to react to changes that require immideate attention. Badly managed Olympic Games have known to be disastrous for their host cities - most dramatically in Athens in 2004, when the financial failures of the event led to the country's extreme debt crisis. With the relative failure of the previous Olympics in Rio de Janiero, tensions are high over the outcome of Los Angeles' hosting of the Games.

Breaking: Coal Ash Spill in Eastern Illinois

CHAMPAIGN,IL - In news that could potentially be catastrophic for the region's ecology, the Middle Fork of the Vermillion River in Eastern Illinois appears to have breached into a coal ash pit adjacent to a now-closed coal power plant. While the current extent of the breach is unclear, state officials are already beginning to compare the incident with the infamous Dan River coal ash spill of 2014. The Dan spill, originating at a Duke Energy plant in Eden, North Carolina, endangered numerous species living within the river ecosystem and cost over $10 million to clean up.

The Vermillion's Middle Fork is the only river in Illinois designated a Wild and Scenic River, a designation reserved for rivers which are considered to have significant natural value and are completely free-flowing. Now, however, the river and its ecosystem teeter on catastrophe, as a large scale breach would cause irreparable harm to it. Enivronmental activists have often pointed to the Middle Fork as an especially vulnerable waterway because of the close proximity of the ash pits. Many conservationists have supported attempts to force plant owner Vistra Energy (and its predeccesor, Dynegy Inc.) to move the pits or institute stronger protections against breaches and erosion. Vistra responded by planning to place caps over the pits to protect from rainwater erosion - a move that critics claimed only dealt with one of the many problems posed by the pits while completely ignoring the threat of erosion from the river itself or groundwater contamination. Now, it would appear that their worst fears have been confirmed.

As indicated by its Wild and Scenic designation, the Middle Fork of the Vermillion is considered a distinctly beautiful river. The river accounts for a substantial fraction of tourism to Vermillion County, Illinois, and local officials are already begining to worry that the damage to the regional environment will also cause great harm to the local economy. Several community members have stated that they would like to see Vistra pay both for cleanup and economic damages caused by the spill, and environmentalists across the country have rejuvenated calls for stronger regulations on coal ash storage.

Despite Legality, Few New Customers for Raw Milk

NASHVILLE, TN - A year and a half after its legalization in the South, predictions of a boom in raw milk consumption - by both its strongest proponents and detractors - is nowhere to be found. According to estimates, raw milk sales total less than one hundreth of one percent of the liquid milk market share. Raw (or unpasteurized) milk, which was previously legal or illegal on a state-by-state basis, was legalized regionwide in December 2017 and legalized for interregional commerce by Congress in April 2018. Opponents of the law noted that raw milk has been linked to higher rates of certain bacterial outbreaks, and warned that legalization could lead to a public health crisis, while proponents noted that the law requires unpasteurized milk to be clearly labeled, and that those who deliberately chose to buy it would be aware of the risks.

Now, over a year after this debate finished (at least where the South is concerned), raw milk sales have barely even increased. The reason for this appears simple: the vast majority of consumer milk purchases occur at supermarkets and grocery store, and no supermarket or chain grocery store in the South stocks unpasteurized milk. Most off-farm raw milk sales, then, occur in farmer's market-type settings - and most consumers at such markets are usually in search of other food products, while still buying milk at a grocery store. Thus, the vast majority of sales occur on-farm in (mostly) rural areas, making it feasible for only a very small group of people to buy. What instead appears to be gaining some traction is the cow-sharing agreement, where a group of people make a contract to split raw milk produced by one or more animals. While the market share for raw milk in such agreements is not easy to measure, certain officials estimate that it would nearly match the share for conventionally sold raw milk - running contrary to the expectations of most during the legalization debate.

Something that is seeing a clear increase, on the other hand, is raw-milk made cheeses. Despite cheese not being explicitly mentioned in either statute, both Nyman and Nashville have assumed the legalization to extend to raw milk cheese and have made no attempt to prohibit its sale. Within a few months, Congress raised the maximum allowed bacteria for imported cheese and Customs and Border Protection loosened aging requirements, allowing for authentic European raw milk cheeses with short shelf lives such as Roquefort or Camembert to be imported and sold. These cheeses are already beginning to gain a foothold as a luxury food - though due to their short shelf life they are only sold in urban areas or by special order.

With Lincoln following the South in legalization six months ago, and Fremont appearing likely to follow this year, it remains to be seen if the near-complete lack of change in milk consumption patterns will continue.

Images:
A high-powered laser pointer is pointed skyward in a residential, Houston neighborhood, Feb. 12, 2013; labelled for reuse, from the US Coast Guard
Olympic Torch Tower of the Los Angeles Coliseum (1984 Olympics); public domain as a work originating from the US Air Force, taken from Wikimedia Commons
DSC_0677 by Eco-Justice Collaborative, on Flickr; labelled for reuse under Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 2.0
Green Top Milk; labelled for reuse under Attribution (CC BY) 3.0

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CHAOS AT THE BALLOT BOX AS RUSHED TERRITORIAL STATEHOOD REFERENDUM ENDS IN DISASTER

Elections in the Northern Mariana Islands, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam ended in varying levels of chaos after Congress passed statute mandating statehood referenda to be held within hours of its signing. As a result of the extremely short interval, none of the territories were prepared to hold elections. “We were taken off guard when the bill was signed”, said one Guam elections official. “We expected the date to be changed through Amendment it redraft. Once it was, we were scrambling all night to get ballots printed and distributed, and get polling places set up”.

In the end, only six polling places were set up across Guam - four of which were in the vicinity of the capital, Hagåtña and one of which was located in an election official’s garage - were set up in time -. As voter registration lists were not set up in time, anyone who walked into a polling place was allowed to vote. Total turnout in Guam was under 1%, with the anti-statehood side winning comfortably on the final count - though due to the nature of the election and the abysmal turnout, the validity of this result has already been called into question.

By contrast, in the US Virgin Islands, elections officials chose to extend the voting period to be a full week long and have been working to promote awareness of the election. Polls will be open for another four days, and an election official stated that turnout was well above Guam’s, but still quite a bit lower than desired. Sources also claim that both sides intend to file suit if they lose, as the weeklong extension appears to violate the exact text of the statute.

American Samoa, meanwhile, had an extra day to get prepared, and has run the closest thing to an actual election, with over forty polling places set up. Current results have statehood narrowly ahead, but it is unclear if all votes have been counted, as elections officials appear to be struggling with discrepancies between ballots sent out and ballots returned.

In the Northern Mariana Islands, a similar chaotic election was held, but no results have been released. On Friday, NMI elections officials released a statement calling on Congress to nullify the referendum and set another with a more reasonable date.


Guam - 100% Reporting
Yes - 377 (40.3%)
No - 559 (59.7%)

American Samoa - Reporting
Yes - 1,389 (52.3%)
No - 1,265 (47.7%)

Northern Mariana Islands - 0% Reporting
Yes - 0
No - 0

Polls in US Virgin Islands still open