News and notes from around the interweb:
- This incident included a hazmat truck, reportedly “there was a white residue the [flight attendant] thought was cocaine but turned out to be tissue.”
At BWI and there are numerous fire trucks and other emergency vehicles around a Southwest Plane
byu/Nicw82 inSouthwestAirlines - I’m generally no luddite, but tear. this. down. now.
AI scanner being installed at MSP
byu/blueangel78 inHertzRentalsThe ‘ding’ here (such as it is) was probably pre-existing, and the car was just driven at different angles at the start and end of the rental. Plus fees that are about the same as the damages to ding you for a ding they’re never even going to fix:
A 285$ fee for something I could not find with a naked eye while inspecting before returning.
byu/Mercedes-Sidepods inHertzRentals - The irony, of course, is that servers can only legally be paid the tipped wage if you do tip (i.e. employer must make up the difference to reach minimum wage if tips don’t get them there). Your tips allow the company to pay their workers less – both relieving them of the legal obligation, and covering enough compensation to attract employees without a higher wage.
- Passengers bring pests on planes – more so from certain foreign destinations. Airlines have to fumigate. Different carriers have different cadence for doing so, and different urgency when they receive reports.
I was on a flight yesterday when I saw bed bugs crawl out of the seat in front of me. I did not know what to do, so I caught it and put it in the vomit bag. I told the attendant who rolled their eyes and took it. They did not offer any help, and we got bitten several times over the course of the flight. What is the protocol for something like this? Note: Delta gave a $100 credit but I am honestly do disgusted AND ITCHY. We had to sit there in that state and now I am afraid of tracking bugs home.
- Last year American Airlines pilots overthrew their union President in a battle over wheher to merger to the Air Line Pilot Association. A power struggle and censorship allegations followed. Now one of the pilots is suing the union over being cut off from their internal message board.
- Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo spent about $43K of campaign funds on a Paris trip after the county refused to fund it out of its budget (they voted down – several times – spending taxpayer money to send her to Paris).
In Texas, County Judge is a political and administrative role (not a court or judificial one). It’s akin to a Mayor of a city. Harris County includes Houston plus other municipalities and unincorporated areas.
Photos posted on her office’s social media page show meetings in June in Paris with business leaders and dignitaries. One caption read, the county was “deepening ties” between Harris County and France.
Per Harris County’s travel policy, commissioners have to approve international travel, and they did not approve spending taxpayer money to fund Hidalgo’s trip to Paris for the trade mission.
Her final request was for just $11,000 – but when that was turned down she used political contributions to cover nearly 4 times as much – including $17,422 in airfare and $25,079 in hotels.
Welp, if you were looking for the opposite of how American handled its biohazard incidents, here it is… ‘too much’ vs. ‘never enough,’ basically.