VICKY STOKES WAS STANDING BY THE stove, tending a pot of gumbo, when a friend texted her to say that a second Boeing whistleblower was dead. It was a gray morning at the beginning of May, and she was at home in Alexandria, Louisiana, a little city midway between Shreveport and Baton Rouge. Rain had been falling in hard bursts since dawn.
She didn’t know this whistleblower. His name was Josh Dean, and he used to be a quality inspector for Spirit AeroSystems, which makes, among other things, fuselages for Boeing’s 737 Max— the aircraft involved in multiple deadly crashes and near misses over the past six years. He’d been fired in April 2023 because, he claimed, he had discovered manufacturing defects that his managers preferred not to fix. “Serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management” is how he put it in a complaint to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Dean was 45 years old and healthy until, in mid-April, he was killed by an infection by a rare and aggressive bacterial infection. Shortness of breath progressed quickly to pneumonia; he was sedated and connected to machines for two weeks. At some point, he had a stroke and doctors thought that if he survived, they might have to amputate his hands and feet.
“That’s a terrible way to die,” Vicky’s son Rodney Barnett said, and Vicky nodded her head sympathetically.
Rodney, who was sitting on the couch across from his mother, had gotten texts about Dean’s death, too. So had his brothers Mike and Robbie, because the first Boeing whistleblower to die this spring was the fourth Barnett brother.
Denne historien er fra July 1-14, 2024-utgaven av New York magazine.
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Denne historien er fra July 1-14, 2024-utgaven av New York magazine.
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Intelligencer - The National Interest: Jonathan Chait - Exploiting Violence Trump blames liberals for the attempts on his life. He doesn't care who gets hurt now.
Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. That was true before the first assassination attempt on the former president, on July 13, and it remains true now, after the second attempt, which was foiled at his golf course on September 15. Political violence in general, and assassinating presidential candidates specifically, also poses risks to democracy. There is no contradiction between these ideas whatsoever. Yet Trump’s supporters have responded to both attempts on his life by muddying the waters, exploiting the near tragedies with cynical efforts to redefine critiques of Trump’s authoritarian inclinations as violent provocation.
Neighborhood News: Aaron Judge Unchained - In this career season, he saw a mini-slowdown in early September. That's over now.
Friday the 13th, and Aaron Judge was in a slump—or rather, what passes for a slump in this epic 2024 season of his. He hadn’t homered in 16 games, his longest dry spell in the majors. The superstitious chatter around the clubhouse held that he’d appeared on a kiddie show in late August and, through some inchoate psychic mechanism, had his mojo sapped. This Friday-night game was the second in a four-game series against the Red Sox, and in the bottom of the seventh inning Boston was up 4-1. After throwing two called balls, the Sox reliever Cam Booser had to get one over, and he did approximately what he’s supposed to do: keep it low and away. It wasn’t low or away enough. Judge dug his bat under and lifted the ball 368 feet, over the Canon ad in left field. Grand slam, Yankees take the lead. Judgemania—mounting all summer, held in tension during two weeks of merely good hitting— exploded yet again. Final score: 5-4.
The Truths and Distortions of Ruby Franke -The Mormon mother of six built a devoted following by broadcasting her family's wholesome life on YouTube. How did she end up abusing her children?
In 2015, Ruby Franke, a 32-year-old Mormon woman in Utah, became another parent sharing her family’s life on YouTube. The first video on her now-defunct channel, 8 Passengers, begins with old footage of her standing in a modest kitchen, her five children gathered around in anticipation as she cuts into a cake to reveal the gender of her sixth child. The video jumps to a scene at the hospital shortly after her new daughter’s birth. Resting in bed, Ruby cradles the baby and her youngest son, a serious-faced 3-year-old boy in blue overalls. “Can you show me where her nose is?” she asks him as he points. “Where’s her eyes?” When an elder son reports that the camera is almost out of battery, Ruby replies softly, “Go ahead, turn it off. That’s okay.”
623 Minutes With ...Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi - The Beverly Hills OB/GYN who delivers Kardashian and Bieber babies.
The Aliabadi formula has become very popular in Los Angeles of late. Aliabadi is big on preventive care. She uses the MyRisk genetic test, a tool that weighs personal and family history to calculate a patient’s risk for hereditary cancers; she listens to her patients carefully for signs of endometriosis and PCOS; and she assesses the ideal time to freeze eggs. Earlier this year, Olivia Munn credited Aliabadi with saving her life when those tests helped catch her breast cancer. When asked in an interview what her favorite thing about L.A. is, Rihanna said simply, “My gynecologist.” Aliabadi sees Olivia Culpo, members of various royal families, and the entire Kardashian-Jenner clan; she advised SZA to remove her dangerous breast implants and delivered Emma Roberts’s baby and, a month ago, Justin and Hailey Bieber’s son, Jack Blues.
A Shiksa Love Story
Erin Foster has spent the past decade turning her Hollywood life into content, to mixed results. Her new Netflix rom-com series, based on her own conversion to Judaism, might change that.
Hot Commodity
In Sally Rooney's novels, love is always being bought, sold, or reduced to tropes. But this is also what makes it real.
900 Lives of Tana Mongeau
Is one of the internet's most infamous chaos agents capable of cleaning up her act?
Soho Will Get a New Artists' Restaurant
Manuela, from the founders of Hauser & Wirth, is equal parts showroom and dining room.
How's the Hyssop?
Cafe Mado is a worthy return to locavore eating.
They're Not in Kansas City Anymore
Todd and Emily Voth's bold pied-à-terre in Herzog & de Meuron's \"Jenga Building\" drinks in the city lights.