Poor little eucalyptus addicted koalas, I always heard they can be very cranky.

Have ordered my beloved Crispy Duck to pick up when I am done here. Not sure how that rates on my adulting scale.

Sometimes you go to a candlelight vigil and it snows. And the poor man and woman, strangers, who witnessed the murder come forward to publicly let the victim's mother, friends and family that he did not die alone, that they made sure he knew he was loved. And there are so many faces you know from this community, faces you see all the time, without names. I'm glad I went, sorry for the need.

The assailants were teens, from the neighborhood. The whole thing is just heartbreaking. [link]

Really weird to recognize reporters and photographers you follow for news....

wow, sarameg

ION, I just threw $5 into an office pool for the lottery, as a guy and his girlfriend decided to make a drive to Wyoming tonight. It won't be a bookstore in NYC money if we hit on anything, but a few thousand dollars is always useful.

The kindness of the community, of Ponsi's family, of his friends, was palpable. Several unofficial neighborhood groups had flowers they gave to the family. His mother spoke of how much he loved his neighbors, and asked that we continue to work for the community's children. Which, yeah, kids in the community killed her son. Long hug between her and the strangers who tried to help her son. And loud thanks from the crowd to them.

Wow, sarameg, that sounds incredible. For so many reasons.

I have hot & sour soup and a couple of powerball tickets & lottery tickets. CVS lets you buy them from a machine without any human interaction required, so civilized. I'll have to figure out all over again how to tell if I won anything tomorrow, but I've done it before, I'm sure I can do it again.

Wow, Sara.

My mother just called to say, "Did you see the weird-looking black guy when the president was talking about education? That's the new Secretary of Education. I know him!"

Article I posted earlier had an update. An important one:

"Dawn Ponsi drew laughs as she told the crowd how her son, a "homebody" who disliked pomp and circumstance, "would've hated this." She thanked everyone for their love and support nonetheless.

"No family should have to go through this," she said.

She said later that she'd read about Thomascine Greene's pain and was moved.

"To a certain degree, my heart goes out to her as well," Ponsi said. "It's always an us-against-them mentality, with the victim's family against the accused." Thinking about the other mother, she said, "gave me a different perspective."

I mean, Jesus, the grace of that.

Oh sara. I am so tired of senseless violence, everywhere.

That's a beautiful tribute.

So the incident I posted about yesterday? Is trending nationally, and has been picked up by the Daily Mail UK. Facts have changed as more information has been gathered, but the father pointed an AR-15 at the constable's chest (he was sent to ensure the eviction process went smoothly), and the constable shot the father and the bullet went through his arm and hit his daughter. A friend of mine who works for the apartment complex was there filming it because the family has been difficult in the past, and she is a wreck. The BF is doing OK, but he's never going to be able to forget this call. It's so tragic all around.

It's horrible.