Who Said That
Geoff Schumacher, historian and vice president of exhibits and programs at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, regarding the elaborate implosion of the Tropicana hotel and casino to make space for the $1.5 billion baseball stadium for the relocating Oakland Athletics. The towers of the buildings are expected to crumble in just 22 seconds, but the event will include a fireworks display and a drone show. The city hasn’t blown up a Strip casino since 2016. (Associated Press — Oct. 8, 2024)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on the state's plan to decertify the housing plans of the city of Norwalk, a first-of-its-kind move that forces the southeast Los Angeles County suburb to approve many types of affordable housing projects and allows the state to withhold homelessness and housing funds. Norwalk angered Newsom when it passed an ordinance in August banning new homeless shelters and other low-income housing, an alleged violation of state housing law. (Politico — Oct. 3, 2024)
Former L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell, regarding his appointment by Mayor Karen Bass to lead the Los Angeles Police Department. McDonnell will replace Chief Michel Moore, who retired earlier this year. (Associated Press — Oct. 4, 2024)
Jane Newhouse, of Newhouse Wildlife Rescue in Chelmsford, Mass., regarding 2-year-old beaver Nibi. The fate of the beaver has ended up in court, with a hearing set for Friday, Oct. 4, to determine whether Nibi gets to stay with the rescuers or if she must be released into the wild as winter approaches. The case has garnered significant attention from the public and even lawmakers — Gov. Maura Healey even pledged to make sure Nibi is protected. (Associated Press — Oct. 3, 2024)
Jason Hollifield, Duke Energy storm director for the Carolinas on the impact of Helene on the electrical grid. (Duke Energy — Sept. 29, 2024)
Ryan Buchanan, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, regarding a U.S. Justice Department finding that prison officials across the state are “deliberately indifferent” to unchecked deadly violence, widespread drug use, extortion and sexual abuse. (Associated Press — Oct. 1, 2024)
Tauri Bigknife, attorney general for California's Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, responding to suggestions that the tribe's purchase of $60,000 in radio ads was a form of political reciprocation. It is illegal for lawmakers to pledge a vote in exchange for a campaign donation and there's no evidence that happened in this case. However, the ads supported Assemblymember Evan Low's campaign for Congress and Low voted to support legislation allowing casino-owning tribes to sue their competitors. Bigknife noted that the tribe gave money to Low's campaign before he cast his votes.
Broward County, Fla., Circuit Judge Gary Farmer, telling a defendant about the public defense attorney he was being assigned. Judge Farmer has been put on probation after having made a number of offensive statements from the bench. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Sept. 27, 2024)
Paul Pinsky, the director of the Maryland Energy Administration and one of the leading climate advocates in Annapolis during his long tenure in the General Assembly, who recalls protesting against nuclear power plants in the 1970s. Now, he says, nuclear has “become a staple” in the state and nation’s energy portfolio, even if many Americans don’t realize it. Maryland's Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, which opened in 1975, generates about 40 percent of the energy produced in Maryland, and more than 80 percent of the carbon-free energy generated in the state comes from the nuclear plant. (Maryland Matters — Sept. 23, 2024)
Jesse Fahnestock of the Global Maritime Forum regarding the ammonia-powered tugboat, NH3 Kraken, which sailed for the first time this week on a tributary of the Hudson River. The tugboat used to run on diesel but has since been switched to ammonia, a new, carbon-free fuel. (Associated Press — Sept. 23, 2024)
Jessica Tisch, the commissioner for the New York City Department of Sanitation, regarding the city’s decision to install trash bins last September. Since the pilot program began, the number of rat complaints have decreased by 66 percent. As of this March, the city has containerized all trash from commercial businesses in the city and, starting in November, will containerize trash for buildings with one to nine units. Once that next step begins, New York City will have containerized 70 percent of all its trash. (NPR — Sept. 24, 2024)
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash, regarding the decision to rename the park’s highest peak to its Cherokee name. Clingmans Dome will be reverted back to Kuwohi, which is Cherokee for “mulberry place,” more than 150 years after a surveyor named the mountain for a Confederate general. Kuwohi is a sacred place for the Cherokee people and the highest point within the traditional Cherokee homeland. (Associated Press — Sept. 18, 2024)
Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association, regarding an identical replica of the White House’s Oval Office in a new Washington, D.C., tourist stop that opens on Monday, Sept. 23. Admission into The People’s House: A White House Experience is free, but visitors will need to request timed tickets. (Associated Press — Sept. 20, 2024)
Ed Jacobs, the attorney for Atlantic City, N.J., Mayor Marty Small Sr., regarding the indictment of the public official and his wife, La’Quetta, the city’s superintendent of schools, for allegedly beating their teenage daughter on numerous occasions. Small has also been charged with assault and making terroristic threats. (Associated Press — Sept. 18, 2024)
A former cellmate of Patrick Womack, who was found dead in a hot Texas prison cell in August 2023 a day after Womack asked a correctional officer to let him take a cold shower so he could cool down, a request that was denied because there weren't enough guards to watch him. Attorneys for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are trying to dissuade a federal judge from forcing the state to cool its un-air-conditioned prisons, arguing in an ongoing lawsuit that the state already provides incarcerated people with unlimited access to cold showers, ice water and air-conditioned respite areas. From 2001 to 2019, as many as 271 Texas prison inmates may have died because of extreme heat, according to a 2022 study. (The Texas Tribune — Sept. 11, 2024)
U.S. Sen. JD Vance regarding his false claim that Haitian migrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. (NPR — Sept. 15, 2024)
Danny McCormick, a Republican state representative in Louisiana, on a bill enacted by the Legislature repealing a ban on the sale of raw milk. Driven by increasing demand for the product, a number of states have moved to remove bans despite public health officials' warnings that drinking unpasteurized milk could lead to a spike in potentially deadly bacterial and viral infections. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that 143 deaths from various illnesses in the U.S. have been linked to raw milk since 1987. (Yahoo News — June 22, 2024)
Behavioral scientist Jan-Willem van Prooijen on the findings of a study published in Science in which an AI "debunkbot" successfully got conspiracy-minded users to reconsider their beliefs. (Science — Sept. 12, 2024)
Rebecca Wood, a single mother, regarding the $2.49 “program fee” that charged each time she loaded money into her daughter’s school lunch account. Wood noted that the nearly $2.50 fee was the same price as the school lunch. As more and more schools turn to a cashless system, processing companies will charge as much as $3.25 or 4 to 5 percent per transaction, which often disproportionately impacts lower-income families. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reported that 87 percent of sampled districts contract with payment processors. (Associated Press — Sept. 11, 2024)
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, regarding the approximately 15,000 Haitian immigrants that have arrived in Springfield, a city of just about 59,000, since 2020. The governor will send law enforcement and $2.5 million in health-care resources to the city. (Associated Press — Sept. 10, 2024)
Rickey Cole, a farmer and former two-term chair of Mississippi’s Democratic Party, on the Democratic loss of rural voters over the last two decades. In 2001, when Cole first served as party chair, Democrats controlled 7 of 8 statewide offices and both legislative chambers; now Republicans hold all eight statewide offices and large majorities in both legislative chambers. (The Conversation — Sept. 9, 2024)
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who performed the Heimlich maneuver on a contestant at a lobster roll eating competition, giving him several compressions before first responders took over and helped free a piece of lobster stuck in the contestant's windpipe. (WMUR — Sept. 9, 2024)
Larry Camp, a resident of Southeast Boise, Idaho. He was referring to the Plex Fire, which spread to 350 acres overnight, prompting evacuation orders for some Boise residents. The fire is the largest seen in the Boise area so far during this wildfire season. (The Idaho Statesman — Sept. 5, 2024)
North Carolina Special Deputy Attorney General Mary Carla Babb, regarding a state judge’s decision to not take Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name off presidential ballots in the state. 2.9 million absentee and in-person ballots had already been printed as of Wednesday, Sept. 4, with the expectation that they would be sent out on Friday, Sept. 6; reprinting ballots without Kennedy’s name and reassembling ballot requests would take at least two weeks, threatening to miss a federal requirement that overseas voters receive their ballots by Sept. 21. (Associated Press — Sept. 5, 2024)
Carlos Leon, a resident of a liveaboard community in Biscayne Bay, Fla., regarding new policies adopted by Miami Beach prohibiting liveaboard boaters from leaving their dinghies or other vessels at city-owned boat launches. The small community of about 100 water residents is anchored in state waters adjacent to Miami Beach and is legal, as long as the dwellings remain 150 feet offshore. However, the residents of Miami Beach are not pleased by the liveaboard community and, in December, Miami Beach Commissioner David Suarez, who calls liveaboards “boat squatters,” spearheaded a move to remove a public dock next to the city’s supermarket, driving the liveaboard boaters to start using a city-owned boat launch. (NPR — Sept. 3, 2024)
Promotional language on the website of West Virginia's Ascend program, which offers $12,000 in cash along with a co-working space, a year’s worth of free activities such as whitewater rafting and other perks to employed people willing to relocate from other states to certain areas of West Virginia. (Washington Post — Aug. 30, 2024)
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, admitting to incorrectly stating on a 2006 White House fellowship application that he received the prestigious Bronze Star. Moore served in the Army Reserve from 1996 to 2014 and deployed to Afghanistan from August 2005 to March 2006. (The Hill — Aug. 30, 2024)
Lyrics from a Jimmy Buffett song. Aug. 30, 2024 is officially recognized as "Jimmy Buffett Day" in Florida to celebrate the life and music of the singer, “whose free-spirited life and significant contributions to national and state culture are commended and celebrated.” (Florida Senate — Aug. 28, 2024)
Ryan Craddock, the father of a 13-year-old football player in West Virginia who died over the weekend after receiving a head injury at practice. Craddock says he plans to work toward getting other players soft-shelled helmet covers known as Guardian Caps to prevent future injuries and deaths. (Associated Press — Aug. 27, 2024)
The city of Kalamazoo, Mich., on X, regarding how some residents have been opening fire hydrants across the city in hopes of gaining some relief from the second day of a heatwave that is scorching the Midwest. Temperatures were expected to reach 95 degrees Fahrenheit in the state’s southwestern city. (Associated Press — Aug. 27, 2024)
