Perth parking inspectors fitted with body cameras. Cost more than $100,000

PARKING inspectors in the Perth CBD will now wear body cameras in a council bid to improve safety around the city.

Inspectors, as well as rangers and environmental health officers, will be equipped with one of 63 body-worn cameras recently bought by the City of Perth.

The cameras, which cost ratepayers more than $100,000, will be worn by all on-duty workers — who will also wear new uniforms — from next month.

While parking officers will wear the cameras during all shifts, environmental health officers will primarily use the cameras during night shifts when inspecting bars and clubs and checking whether they are complying with city rules.

The City of Perth believes the benefits of the cameras include extending its surveillance capability while also promoting safety of council staff and deterring aggressive behaviour.

They will also encourage staff compliance and provide evidence for local government and WA Police. Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi said the council had conducted trials of several models of body-worn cameras, because of their perceived security and safety benefits.

Source: Perth parking inspectors fitted with body cameras | Perth Now

Trump attacks Boston counter-protesters as ‘anti-police agitators’ SHAME ON THE VOTERS

Prince Harry: tender arm around Meghan Markle + gives thumbs-up head off on African safari

BESOTTED Prince Harry hugs girlfriend Meghan Markle yesterday as the smiling couple start a romantic African holiday on her 36th birthday. Loved-up Prince Harry appeared to give a thumbs-up

The couple’s holiday destination — hugely popular for engagements and honeymoons — will only heighten speculation the prince, 32, is about to propose

The 32-year-old royal draped a protective arm around the Suits actress as they arrived for the safari trip. She appeared to be carrying a gift from him — a picture swathed in bubble wrap.

The couple’s holiday destination — hugely popular for engagements and honeymoons — will only heighten speculation the prince, 32, is about to propose.

A royal source said: “Harry has been planning this holiday for a long time.

“He’s made the trip incredibly romantic. They’ll go on boats across the lake, walk in the bush at dawn and camp under the stars.

“Who knows what will happen when they’re watching a sensational African sunset together? Maybe he’ll get down on one knee. Harry regards Africa as his spiritual home and has often talked of how he can get away from it all there.

“Obviously he wants to show Meghan what an amazing place it is and create new memories together.” The source added: “Harry’s done a lot of conservation work in Africa with endangered el­e­phants and black rhinos and he’ll show them to the woman he wants to marry…

MORE: Prince Harry puts a tender arm around Meghan Markle and gives thumbs-up as they head off on African safari to celebrate her 36th birthday

Man holding baby has been punched in the face by staff at Nice Airport in France

A British man holding a nine-month-old baby has been punched in the face by a member of staff at Nice Airport in France after remonstrating over a 14-hour delay.

Witness Arabella Arkwright captured the blow in a picture circulated online.

A spokesman for the airline the man was flyinging with, British budget carrier easyJet, said the person in the photograph is believed to work for Nice Airport’s special assistance provider Samsic.

‘It was completely unprovoked,’ said Mrs Arkwright, who was returning from holiday with her husband and children.

‘This guy literally smirked, smiled as if, excuse my French, basically ‘f— you,’ and then whack. It was a proper whacking,’ she said.

EasyJet has apologised for the delay to flight EZY2122 from Nice to London Luton because of a ‘technical issue with the aircraft’.

A spokesman for the airline said: ‘EasyJet is very concerned to see this picture and can confirm the person in the photo is not an easyJet member of staff and they do not work for easyJet’s ground handling agents in Nice.’

Photo via Twitter @ArabellaArkwri1

Source: Man punched by Nice Airport worker

Bus driver hailed a hero for helping a lost 2yo boy who wandered away from home; CLIP

Milwaukee bus driver is being hailed a hero for helping a lost two-year-old boy who wandered away from home. https://t.co/9j1kpKtOW0 http://pic.twitter.com/im5octCa7z

— ABC News (@ABC) July 15, 2017

Women have bad days, Vladimir Putin, but it’s not because of our ‘cycles’: Van Badham

I tell you one thing that improves the quality of my days, Mr Putin. That I’m not a woman who lives in the kind of Russia you’ve been building.

Russian president Vladimir Putin doesn’t have bad days because he’s “not a woman”. “There are certain natural cycles,” he explains. This is from an actual interview with American director Oliver Stone.

I’m not sure what “natural cycles” you’re talking about, Vlad. Are you making some oblique and queasy reference to menstruation? The mind boggles as to just what provoked you to so forcibly affirm to Oliver Stone a) your gender identity and b) that it wasn’t your shark week. Surely all the bare-chested horse-riding and military expansionism should have been enough to convince Stone you are the manliest man of men-man manning maleness in the worldwide history of wang…

MORE: Women have bad days, Vladimir Putin, but it’s not because of our ‘cycles’ | Van Badham | Opinion | The Guardian

Australia’s carbon emissions rise in off-season for first time in a decade

Exclusive: On the eve of the long-awaited Finkel review, analysis shows Australia’s emissions rose sharply in the first quarter of 2017

Australia’s carbon emissions jumped at the start of 2017, the first time they have risen in the first few months of a year for more than a decade, according to projections produced exclusively for the Guardian.

Emissions in the first three months of the year normally drop compared with the previous quarter, driven by seasonal factors and holidays. But in something not seen in since 2005, emissions rose in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the last quarter of 2016 by 1.54m tonnes of CO2, according to the study by consultants NDEVR Environmental. The rise was driven by increases in emissions from electricity generation.

MORE: Australia’s carbon emissions rise in off-season for first time in a decade | Environment | The Guardian

Margaret Court: astounding champion who found God and lost the respect of a nation

Australia’s greatest tennis player has provoked fury with her homophobic statements, but even in her triumphant playing days her unparalleled achievements failed to win the hearts of the public.

Margaret Court was the most glittering example of Australia’s domination of world tennis in the 1960s and 70s – a prolonged period of supremacy in which a murderer’s row of superstar players with iconic, instructive nicknames like Rocket, Muscles and Newk took all before them.

It was a time when Australia’s sun-blessed climate, abundance of tennis facilities and lack of the stifling class systems that held the sport back in other countries, seemed destined to ensure world-beating talent would flourish forever. Even then, in the fattest of times, it was beyond comprehension that the country would ever produce a female champion to rival Court. She was a living legend among mere champions…

MORE: Margaret Court: astounding champion who found God and lost the respect of a nation | Sport | The Guardian

Brave baby owl fights off tiger who came to investigate after tiny bird fell into zoo enclosure

Plane missing a wheel makes emergency landing in Florida

This is the dramatic moment a pilot managed to land his stricken plane safely, shooting sparks all over the runway.

The twin-engined JET plane, which had four people on board, was flying from Belize in Central America to Tampa, Florida.

Shortly after take-off the pilot was told that one of wheels on the plane’s landing gear had fallen off.

VIDEO: http://ift.tt/2pi1FEZ

However, the fault didn’t affect the plane’s ability to fly, so the it continued on from Belize to Sarasota-Bradenton airport in Florida, WFLA reported.

Before landing the pilot did a flyby over the airfield so that controllers could visually confirm the plane had lost a wheel.

He then proceeded to circle, dumping fuel – which would have dangerously increased the chance of a fire or explosion.

The landing went as smoothly as possible, but eventually the plane spun out and violently lurched to the left, coming to a stop on the grass next to the tarmac.

Source: Plane missing a wheel makes emergency landing in Florida | Daily Mail Online

WA parking fines ‘verging on the ridiculous’ + I was fined parking on the ROAD [cul-de-sac] outside our house!

THOUSANDS of Perth motorists have been fined by councils for parking on verges and driveways outside homes.

But confusing parking rules mean while some local authorities averaged five fines daily, others didn’t issue a ticket for 12 months.

The Sunday Times asked metropolitan councils for figures to March 2017, to show how many infringements were issued to vehicles parked past letterboxes on driveway crossover strips, between property boundaries and roads.

Wanneroo appeared to top the table, with 1776 infringements for vehicles “stopped on the road or nature strip”.

The $100 tickets hit cars “in contravention of parking prohibition signs surrounding the 58 schools within the City,” community and place director Debbie Terelinck said.

Joondalup chief executive Garry Hunt said 481 $60 infringements were issued to “cars illegally parked on a verge or across a footpath”, while the bill in Nedlands came to $94,160.

City of Nedlands chief executive Greg Trevaskis said 858 infringements were issued to cars parked on roads or verges contrary to signage, 298 to cars stopped on verges, and 118 to vehicles that obstructed driveways.

South Perth Mayor Sue Doherty said 729 “no stopping” infringements ($100) and 100 “no parking” fines ($80) included road and verge offences, and it was an offence to park on crossovers in some areas. City of Vincent logged 81 infringements at $135 each…

Source: WA council parking fines ‘verging on the ridiculous’ | Perth Now

Brendan Fevola’s night in Melbourne with Ben Cousins …he was paranoid’

Speaking one day after Cousins was sentenced to jail, Fevola revealed he spent a night at the Crown Casino in Melbourne with the troubled former Eagle in 2011.

‘I saw him (Cousins) at Crown… he was down for one of my best mates… it was an engagement party.’

Fev said he ran into Cousins in an elevator on a Sunday night, two days after the engagement party.

‘He just didn’t seem right.

‘I said mate, “where are you staying tonight?” and he said “oh I don’t have anywhere to stay.”‘

The former Carlton and Brisbane Lions player, who has attended rehab for gambling addiction, offered his hotel room to Cousins, where the pair stayed up and chatted for ‘six or seven hours.’

‘But he had like three phones he was operating because he was paranoid that people were listening to his phone calls,’ Fevola said.

Source: Brendan Fevola’s night in Melbourne with Ben Cousins | Daily Mail Online