Network

‘That was hella stupid’: Man charged after gun goes off at Oakland motel

Posted by Nate Gartrell

https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/09/03/that-was-hella-stupid-man-charged-after-gun-goes-off-at-oakland-motel/

https://www.mercurynews.com/?p=12185659

OAKLAND — It started with a heated argument about infidelity between a man and woman who’d been dating for about six months, according to police.

Then a gun came out, and before long police were responding to a report of a shooting at a local motel. Unable to prove who exactly fired into the wall of Room 109 of the Harris Motel on MacArthur Boulevard, prosecutors have charged the man for having the allegedly stolen pistol in his possession, court records show.

The shooting occurred on Aug. 17. Another guest at the Harris Motel in East Oakland called 911 to report the heated argument, but police dispatchers were only able to catch pieces of it on the call. At one point, a woman was heard saying, “I’ll shoot you,” followed by a gunshot, authorities said.

“That was hella stupid, you shot the gun. Why you shoot the gun?” a man’s voice responded, followed by the sound of a door slamming, according to authorities.

When police responded, the woman claimed they struggled over the pistol and she wasn’t sure how it fired. But she told police that her boyfriend, a 26-year-old man, owned the pistol.

Police wrote in court filings that both parties were likely guilty of negligent discharge of a firearm, but thus far only the man has been charged. He faces a lone misdemeanor count of receiving stolen property and has been released from jail without bail, records show.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/09/03/that-was-hella-stupid-man-charged-after-gun-goes-off-at-oakland-motel/

https://www.mercurynews.com/?p=12185659

Burned batteries from Moss Landing power plant fire will be trucked to Nevada

Posted by Paul Rogers

https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/09/03/burned-batteries-from-moss-landing-power-plant-fire-will-be-trucked-to-nevada/

https://www.mercurynews.com/?p=12185514

Tens of thousands of batteries that were damaged in a fire in January at one of the world’s largest battery storage plants in Moss Landing will be removed, treated and transferred to a recycling facility in Nevada starting Sept. 22, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday.

Two truckloads a day of the batteries will be driven 330 miles to the American Battery Technology Company in McCarran, Nevada, a facility in the desert about 15 miles east of Reno that conducts commercial-scale lithium-ion battery recycling.

The company recovers materials such copper, aluminum, steel and intermediate lithium from old batteries.

“Damaged batteries can be unstable,” said Kazami Brockman, a civil engineer and on-scene coordinator for the EPA’s Moss Landing cleanup. “We are focused on removing the batteries from the building and sending them for disposal and recycling in as safe and quick a way as possible.”

The Moss Landing plant is a former PG&E natural gas-fired power plant located along Monterey Bay that was converted five years ago by Vistra, a Texas energy company, into a huge facility where solar power and other electricity could be stored in batteries for use at night and during period of high electrical demand.

It caught fire on Jan. 16, sending up a cloud of toxic smoke, and causing authorities to evacuate roughly 1,200 local residents for three days. The incident, the cause of which is still under investigation by state officials, generated international news and raised safety questions about battery storage plants, which have been constructed at a record pace in recent years as California and other states expand renewable energy.

Vistra’s Moss Landing battery plant remains closed, as does a separate PG&E battery storage plant next door that was not involved in the fire and did not incur damage. A natural gas plant on the site continues to generate electricity.

There were roughly 100,000 battery modules that were at the facility. Of those, about 55,000 burned or were damaged. In the weeks after the fire, there were several small flareups that sent smoke over the plant.

Crews paid by Vistra and overseen by EPA de-linked all of the batteries from electrical equipment in March. After working out cleanup plans with EPA, local fire officials and other authorities, the company began demolishing the building Aug. 11.

Brockman said Wednesday that four or five trucks a day of construction waste, some of which includes asbestos, from the wrecked building are being trucked to the Hay Road Landfill in Vacaville. Vistra continues to keep a private, company-funded fire department on the site and air monitors measure air quality 24 hours a day there, he added.

The cleanup is expected to take about a year, he said.

Vistra has not said what it plans to do with the site. It is conducting an investigation. Last month, David Yeager, a company spokesman, said the battery removal will help speed that along.

The California Public Utilities Commission also is investigating the cause of the fire. A trade journal in March reported the company estimated $400 million in losses due to the fire. Lawsuits claim neighboring residents suffered health impacts.

Brockman said each of the battery modules — some of which did not burn — will be inspected, removed from its rack, cleaned and placed on pallets. They then will be connected to electrical equipment called load banks to offload their electricity to the grid before they are packaged and placed on trucks for Nevada.

Thermal cameras will be set up to detect any batteries that may heat up and be at risk of fire. Vistra has “battery isolation boxes” it can place over such batteries to further reduce the risk of a fire he added.

“It’s our goal to ensure that each battery is dealt with as quickly as possible for both the safety of the workers and community,” Brockman said, “and to maintain the speed of the operations.

More information can be found at https://www.epa.gov/ca/moss-landing-vistra-battery-fire

https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/09/03/burned-batteries-from-moss-landing-power-plant-fire-will-be-trucked-to-nevada/

https://www.mercurynews.com/?p=12185514

Entry tags:

poetry

Two poems!

I have not one but two new poems out this week! Putting me up to double digits in the number of poems I've had published so far, whee.

The first is in Merganser Magazine: "Hallucination," about AI, linguistics, and the wish for a better world.

The second, "Cutting the Cord" in Small Wonders, is probably the closest to straight-up science fiction I've ever written? It's got aliens and a space elevator in it, anyway.

Both are free to read online, so enjoy!

[ SECRET POST #6816 ]

⌈ Secret Post #6816 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 13 secrets from Secret Submission Post #973.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Entry tags:

第四年第二百三十八天

部首
口 part 23
哲, philosophy; 哼, to hum; 唇, lips ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=30

语法
Using 一点
https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/mandarin-chinese-grammar-yi1-dianr3/

词汇
印象, impression; 复印, to copy ( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-3-word-list/

Guardian:
你自己嘴唇都发青了, your lips are blue
请你冷静一点, please calm down a bit
四班的班长刘亚东为人敦厚热情是我唯一有印象的人, the only one I have an impression of is the Class 4 president, Liu Yadong, who's enthusiastic and takes care of others

Me:
如果你唱不了的话，就哼哼一点。
那个地方我没有什么印象。

Cursed Number

https://xkcd.com/3137/

Another group of mathematicians is working to put an upper bound on the number, although everyone keeps begging them to stop.

https://xkcd.com/3137/

Entry tags:

Spider-Man '94 #1

( Scans under the cut... )

Current Mood: determined
Current Location: My home office
Crossposts: https://mrs-sweetpeach.insanejournal.com/794373.html

Entry tags:

birthday card

Paging sheafrotherdon

( Click here )

Police: Man killed outside his West Oakland home was innocent victim of vehicle occupants’ gunbattle

Posted by Harry Harris

https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/09/03/police-man-killed-outside-his-west-oakland-home-was-innocent-victim-of-vehicle-occupants-gunbattle/

https://www.mercurynews.com/?p=12185486

OAKLAND — A 67-year-old man fatally shot outside his West Oakland home last week was an innocent victim hit by a stray bullet fired during a gun battle between the occupants of moving vehicles, police said.

Tony Jerome Norman was shot about 5 p.m. Aug. 27 after walking home from BART to his residence in the 700 block of 17th Street after completing his shift as a security guard at a San Francisco Kaiser Permanente hospital.

As he was outside his home, police said, the occupants of multiple vehicles driving eastbound on 17th street began shooting at each other. Numerous shots were fired, prompting the activation of a gunshot detection system.

Norman was hit by a stray round and died at the scene.

The vehicles kept driving after the shooting and it was not known if any of the occupants were wounded. No arrests have been made so far, authorities said.

His wife was inside their home and heard the gunfire, but did not realize until later that it was her husband who had been killed, authorities said.

In a narrative accompanying an online fundraiser for his return to his native North Carolina and funeral, Norman was remembered by family members as “a hardworking man who spent years providing security for various (single room occupancy hotels) in San Francisco” who built his life in Oakland with his wife of 22 years “and dedicated himself to the family he created in California, his faith, and his community.”

He was “an innocent victim caught in gunfire unrelated to him or his actions” who “didn’t deserve this,” the narrative says. “He was a man who showed up every day, did his job, loved his family, and lived with integrity. His loss has left a deep void in our lives.”

Kaiser Permanente said in a statement: “Tony was a warm and engaging presence at our San Francisco Medical Center, greeting each day with optimism and always offering a helping hand. We are saddened at his tragic passing, sharing the grief of many, and extend our condolences to his family and friends on the loss of their loved one.”

As of Wednesday afternoon the fundraiser had gained $10,963 toward its goal of $12,000. Those wishing to donate can access the account at gofund.me/7c545482.

Anyone with information about the killing may contact Oakland homicide investigators at 510-238-3821 or 510-238-7950. Anyone with pictures or video of the shooting can e-mail them to cidvideo@oaklandca.gov.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/09/03/police-man-killed-outside-his-west-oakland-home-was-innocent-victim-of-vehicle-occupants-gunbattle/

https://www.mercurynews.com/?p=12185486

Current Mood: worried
Current Location: My home office
Crossposts: https://mrs-sweetpeach.insanejournal.com/794171.html

Entry tags:

project 52

Project 52

( Click here for Week #35 )

Entry tags:

Gwenpool #5

( Read more... )

Current Music: Jack, "Cinematic"

I was never there, I only read the book, I only saw the film

A double-header at this afternoon's medical appointment: the tech not only expressed surprise at my calendar age, but assumed from my voice that I was either foreign-born or had spent significant time out of the country, specifically she thought in the UK. Given the current climate, I should be clear that she was curious, not hostile; one of her children had been a staffer in the Obama administration and two others had been some kind of federal employee and she had considerable feelings on subjects from vaccines to tanks. But after I had gone through the standard litany clarifying the rather pathetic fact that I have lived my entire life in New England and the Boston area for most of it, she still thought I sounded British. "You should go over there. You'd blend right in." She herself had an old-school Boston accent. "People from anywhere, they can tell where I'm from." I am not good at other people's ages, but I don't believe that I look younger than my early forties, especially after the last few ravaging years, and I expect to be heard as American by anyone who actually has one or more of the plethora of accents on offer in the UK. Weirdest instance of trying to place my voice remains the time I was told by a very drunk Australian that I sounded like a Norwegian. Someday the question of my vocal origins will come around again because it has been doing so since my childhood and I will answer "Lisson Grove" just to see what happens.

Entry tags:

!monthly overview

August: Monthly Overview

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: nauseated

Florida is going to end all vaccine mandates for children

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

EFF Statement on ICE Use of Paragon Solutions Malware

Posted by Cooper Quintin

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/eff-statement-ice-use-paragon-solutions-malware

This statement can be attributed to EFF Senior Staff Technologist Cooper Quintin

It was recently reported by Jack Poulson on Substack that ICE has reactivated its 2 million dollar contract with Paragon Solutions, a cyber-mercenary and spyware manufacturer.

The reactivation of the contract between the Department of Homeland Security and Paragon Solutions, a known spyware vendor, is extremely troubling.

This end run around the executive order both ignores the spirit of the rule and does not actually do anything to prevent misuse of Paragon Malware for human rights abuses

Paragon's “Graphite” malware has been implicated in widespread misuse by the Italian government. Researchers at Citizen Lab at the Monk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto and with Meta found that it has been used in Italy to spy on journalists and civil society actors, including humanitarian workers. Without strong legal guardrails, there is a risk that the malware will be misused in a similar manner by the U.S. Government.

These reports undermine Paragon Solutions’s public marketing of itself as a more ethical provider of surveillance malware.

Reportedly, the contract is being reactivated because the US arm of Paragon Solutions was acquired by a Miami based private equity firm, AE Industrial Partners, and then merged into a Virginia based cybersecurity company, REDLattice, allowing ICE to circumvent Executive Order 14093 which bans the acquisition of spyware controlled by a foreign government or person. Even though this order was always insufficient in preventing the acquisition of dangerous spyware, it was the best protection we had. This end run around the executive order both ignores the spirit of the rule and does not actually do anything to prevent misuse of Paragon Malware for human rights abuses. Nor will it prevent insider threats at Paragon using their malware to spy on US government officials, or US government officials from misusing it to spy on their personal enemies, rivals, or spouses.

The contract between Paragon and ICE requires all US users to adjust their threat models and take extra precautions. Paragon’s Graphite isn’t magical, it’s still just malware. It still needs a zero day exploit in order to compromise a phone with the latest security updates and those are expensive. The best thing you can do to protect yourself against Graphite is to keep your phone up to date and enable Lockdown Mode in your operating system if you are using an iPhone or Advanced Protection Mode on Android. Turning on disappearing messages is also helpful that way if someone in your network does get compromised you don’t also reveal your entire message history. For more tips on protecting yourself from malware check out our Surveillance Self Defense guides.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/eff-statement-ice-use-paragon-solutions-malware

Entry tags:

Poll: Of violins, weddings, and the wages of blackmail (drama)

Poll #33569 Violins, weddings, blackmail, and tourism

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9

View Respondents

In ep 13, why is Zhao Yunlan playing the violin when Shen Wei arrives at the acoustic lab?

View Answers

he's killing time, waiting for Shen Wei to show up, and the violin was right there
2 (22.2%)

he's enjoying the lab's acoustics
3 (33.3%)

it adds flair to the dramatic reveal/accusation
4 (44.4%)

he's playing a specific/meaningful piece of music that he expects Shen Wei to recognise
0 (0.0%)

he's playing random notes
1 (11.1%)

the violin is a Sherlock Holmes reference
3 (33.3%)

let's not mention his technique :-)
5 (55.6%)

other
0 (0.0%)

Was Shen Wei an official guest at the Li–Huang wedding?

View Answers

yes, he’s one of Dragon City’s most eligible bachelors! he arrived late to avoid the inevitable matchmaking conversations with hopeful parents
3 (37.5%)

yes, he was late for other reasons
0 (0.0%)

yes, the bride is his former student
1 (12.5%)

no, he was drawn by the presence of the Hallows/a disturbance in the Force, and power-changed from Envoy robes to appropriate wedding attire just before entering the scene
3 (37.5%)

Shen Wei is always dressed for a wedding
3 (37.5%)

other
1 (12.5%)

When Zhao Yunlan tells Lin Jing to hack Cong Bo’s computer and delete all the files, what does Zhao Yunlan say (given he can't reveal Shen Wei's secret)?

View Answers

“Cong Bo is blackmailing the SID with unspecified blackmail-worthy evidence. Don’t ask any questions or I’ll deduct your bonuses for the rest of the year!”
3 (33.3%)

“Cong Bo is a grade-A troublemaker! Wipe his hard drive so I can recruit him as a consultant. (Don’t argue, this makes perfect sense.)”
1 (11.1%)

“Delete Cong Bo’s files, no questions asked, and I’ll get you a mass spectrometer or whatever it is you’ve been asking for.”
5 (55.6%)

“Cong Bo has a sex tape of me and Shen Wei. I need you to delete it. If you look at it, you’re fired.”
0 (0.0%)

other
1 (11.1%)

The Dragon City Tourist Board’s next slogan should be

View Answers

Dragon City – Enjoy the City
2 (22.2%)

Dragon City – Interdimensional portals are actually quite rare!
2 (22.2%)

Dragon City – Come for the stinky tofu, stay for the supernatural shenanigans
1 (11.1%)

Dragon City – Only the locals get murdered!
2 (22.2%)

Dragon City – Home of Haixing’s Hottest Cops
1 (11.1%)

Dragon City – It’s science!
3 (33.3%)

other
2 (22.2%)

Entry tags:

event: bingo: 2025

2025 September - Bingo: Thunderbirds (1965) "Ebb Tide"

Title: Ebb Tide
Author:

sweetsorcery
Fandom: Thunderbirds (TV 1965)
Relationship: Gordon Tracy/Virgil Tracy
Rating: Teen
Warnings/Notes: Sibling Incest, Set Slightly Pre-Canon, H/C

Bingo Prompt: 50s Song
Song: Ebb Tide
Artist: Vic Damone (original 1953 recording) or The Platters, Righteous Brothers (1965 - the best and most appropriately timed cover for this fandom)
Song: Ebb Tide

Current Mood: hopeful

Entry tags:

Fannish Stuff

The brain weasels have been out in force the past few, uh... well, I was going to say days, and then I realized that it was more like weeks, or months, or years. So let's just leave it as "quite a while" and be done with it.

Anyway, it's September. Autumn is around the corner, which is my favorite time of the year, and I'm desperately going to do my best to force myself to remember how to be a person instead of a constant ball of panic. It's easier said than done with some of the money and work stress going on, but hey! I'm gonna attempt it anyway.

One of the things I'm going to do is really properly attempt to make at least one or two at least fannish-adjacent posts a week. I'm still hoping to make some video game posts like I mentioned in the past (Baldur's Gate? Dragon Age? Mass Effect? something else entirely?) but Critical Role is coming back for its fourth campaign next month so I'm hoping that will pull me back into on that front. Not to mention The Mighty Nein animated series starts Season 1 in November.

Plus exchange season is coming up! There several ongoing and upcoming Dragon Age exchanges, Yuletide is just around the corner, and Holly Poly will be shortly after that. And who knows? Maybe there will be something new that catches my eye.

I just need to focus on the little things and keep putting one foot in front of the other. 🤞🏻

Visiting comedy acts at Second Citty

https://operaramblings.blog/2025/09/03/strangers-in-the-house/

Flash round sign-ups

Hi, and welcome to the fourth flash round of Be The First! This is a low-pressure challenge to write a fic, of any length, for a fandom that previously had none. That's it! If you want to take part, just reply to this post :)

This flash round works exactly the same as usual, with the exception of one thing: instead of having two months to write, you now only have two weeks. The deadline to submit your fic is at 23.59 GMT on the 17th of September, and the archive will go live at 00.01 GMT on the 19th of September.

The AO3 collection for this flash round is here, and I'll be putting up a fandom promo post in roughly a day.

Good luck to everyone who's challenging themselves with this! Write like the wind :Db