A 48-year-old Lackawanna, NY man walking on railroad tracks while engrossed in a scratch-off lottery ticket was struck and killed by a train Thursday evening, Lackawanna police said.
"The train was blaring its horn for 45 seconds or a minute straight," Lackawanna Police Capt. Ronald Miller said. "For some reason, he never heard the horn."
Ronald D. Flantdig, of Kevin Street, was pronounced dead at Mercy Hospital, following the accident that occurred shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday on CSX tracks near Front Street.
Flantdig, who was returning from fishing with a friend, was walking between the rails, about 40 feet behind his friend, with his head down while examining the lottery ticket, police were told. The train approached from behind.
A nurse from the neighborhood responded quickly and detected a weak pulse, but police said Wittenberg died from massive head and internal injuries. Police are withholding the name of and value of the lottery ticket.
naaah...they have loopholes that will make that ticket null and void, IF it's a winner.
If it WASN'T a winner, the State Lottery Commission would have gone on and on about how his family could have collected the prize tax free or some shit. Thus ensuring hundreds of thousands of poverty level citizens throw more of their cash away on legalized gambling.
"Say Jim! Whoo! That is a bad outfit! Whoooo!" -- Pimp, Superman The Movie "You're an idiot, Starscream." -- Megatron, Transformers:The Movie
In California, the budget is fucked. Schwarzenegger is proposing making the lottery open to outside investors rather than be state-funded. It's currently the 28th best performing lottery in the country. (Consider also that there aren't 50 lotteries. It really blows.)
So, to entice investors, he's wanting to reduce the percentage amount of lottery revenues (already far less than most people think) that goes to schools, so he can offer the investors a higher payout. And, in addition to this, he wants to lower the maximum amount of lottery revenue that can go to schools in a one-year period.
Essentially, he's wanting to gamble away the future of schools in California on gambling.
This place is so fucked up. There's expected to be a shortage of over 100,000 teachers within the next ten years. Yet, it's almost impossible to get into the field if you're not in school (as it requires unpaid student teaching during the day--no internships or "on the job certification" as in many other states). And, on top of that, due to budget cuts, they're laying off teachers. Other states are actively recruiting California teachers, meaning they're going to move away and won't be here in case anyone changes their minds. Even those who stay are going to be unable to get education jobs due to the same cuts, and will move into other sectors. Makes sense, doesn't it? You know you'll need a huge number of teachers, so you lay them off.
Schwarzenegger is a fucking idiot. I don't say that because he's a Republican. I say that because he's a fucking idiot. He won based on his making absolutely no campaign promises and taking no stances; he was elected entirely due to his fame. While in office, he's done little. And what he has done has been cockamamie ideas like the above, which he uses his star power to push.
The Democrats need a fucking popular actor to run and unseat this moron. He needs to go back to movies; that was something he didn't suck ass at doing.
*--For behavior unbecoming anyone, perpetrated in real time over an extended--AH, FUCK IT! MORE MALIBU, BITCHES!!
anarky wrote:
This place is so fucked up. There's expected to be a shortage of over 100,000 teachers within the next ten years. Yet, it's almost impossible to get into the field if you're not in school (as it requires unpaid student teaching during the day--no internships or "on the job certification" as in many other states). And, on top of that, due to budget cuts, they're laying off teachers. Other states are actively recruiting California teachers, meaning they're going to move away and won't be here in case anyone changes their minds. Even those who stay are going to be unable to get education jobs due to the same cuts, and will move into other sectors. Makes sense, doesn't it? You know you'll need a huge number of teachers, so you lay them off.
Sounds surprisingly like Michigan. I have to do my student teaching in the fall and thank God for student loans and Mrs. Solo's job, otherwise we'd be fucked. Michigan has to be one of the worst teaching markets and I have no false illusions about finding a job here when I graduate. Its just not gonna happen. The fact that we're a dying state and I (a goddamn teacher!) have to leave is disgusting.
I have a friend in Iowa who is going to school for that and she is giving me pretty much the same impression. That it's next to impossible to get a teachiing credential, but the states don't want to pay for it.
I guess they tell teaching fish tales, 'nark because I've heard from more than one source that it's easy to be a teacher in CA because they are so desperate for them. When I first moved out here and it was up in the air whether I would get a job at the studio, I was being told, I could essentially walk into a school, ask to be a teacher, and would have a job teaching that same week. California is the El Dorado of teaching, I guess.
"Say Jim! Whoo! That is a bad outfit! Whoooo!" -- Pimp, Superman The Movie "You're an idiot, Starscream." -- Megatron, Transformers:The Movie
Rollo Tomassi wrote:California is the El Dorado of teaching, I guess.
I've heard that its easy to get a job there, yet I've yet to meet anyone who has gotten an offer from there.
Right now the true "El Dorados" are Nevada, Texas, Arizona, Florida and the Carolinas, which are all places near the top of my "Places I absolutely will no teach" list. My favorite option outside of Michigan is Colorado. They're expanding rapidly in places like Denver metro and the pay vs. cost of living is just as good as anywhere else. My father-in-law left his position of 20 years at a high school up north and took a job out there. He lost ten years towards retirement and $500 a year from his current wages, but he pretty much gets to teach the subjects he wants (which is what led him to want out of his current position). They've offered to let us live with them there after I graduate so I can sub and eventually find a full time job.
The good thing about being certified in Michigan is that I'm golden across the country due to the relatively high standards we have for getting certified.
