Two Ministry of Justice workers are in hot water for describing a researcher as a "bitch" in an online conversation.

Academic and author Barbara Sumner made a number of Official Information Act requests as part of her PhD research into the systems around adoption. Then, in October last year, she asked for all correspondence mentioning her by name.

"Because I had felt all along that there was a resistance to everything I sent in and you know, just the sort of snottiness, I guess, of some of the responses that came in that request. I wanted to understand how they were treating me throughout the process."

One page of the response stood out among more than 100 others. A November 2022 Teams conversation between two staffers, whose names were redacted, complained about Sumner's latest request.

They described it as "a waste of time" and said it "should have been refused on the ground of substantial collation" or that the ministry should "charge her for it and get a contractor".

"our ministerial services team sucks cuz they wouldnt let us refuse, and helen didnt push back hard [sic]," one worker wrote.

"but also shes a bitch for wanting everything. does she think govt just has unlimited resources for this type of crap lol.

"like theres no public interest in our emails back and forward."

Evacuations are under way in parts of Tai Rāwhiti, with police going door to door, as heavy rains and wind continue to lash the district.

Three bodies believed to be those of the missing fishers have been found on the shore at Māhia this morning.

Police said formal identification was under way but the bodies were believed to be of the fishers who were reported missing on Monday.

A man who scammed people out of nearly $300,000 by pretending to be a police officer has been arrested.

On Monday the 25-year-old man, a UK national, was chased by police through Auckland central on foot.

The scam involved a call to a landline by someone pretending to be a police officer and providing a fake badge number.

There were 18 Aucklanders, aged between 56 and 90, with the majority over 80, allegedly duped out of money.

"The scam will always involve this so-called officer asking for financial information or asking you to withdraw cash to be collected as part of an investigation into banks," Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Bolton said.

Copper wire thieves are wearing hi-vis vests to look like legitimate lines workers in Christchurch, as repeated vandalism costs city businesses thousands.

Police have charged seven people with stealing copper wire from power lines near schools, preschools and residential streets.

The thefts began last year in the suburban red zone but have since spread to areas where the electricity is live.

He said thieves had left live powerlines hanging and cost the business thousands of dollars in fees.

Companies have the right to monitor employees to ensure productivity but they must also protect the employee's privacy, an Auckland University Business School lecturer says.

Last week US banking giant Wells Fargo sacked more than a dozen people for allegedly faking keyboard activity, pretending they were working at home when they were not.

The bank has not said how it picked up on the problem.

But a survey last year of 1000 US-based companies showed 96 percent of them were using some kind of monitoring to check up on employees working from home.

All of this raises questions around ethics and productivity.

Flames were seen coming out the back of a Boeing 737 that departed from Queenstown on Monday evening, before landing safely in Invercargill.

Virgin Australia flight VA148 departed Queenstown Airport at 5.59pm, bound for Melbourne with 67 passengers and six crew on board, before turning around and heading south.

"It experienced an issue just after take-off and has been diverted to Invercargill Airport," Queenstown Airport said in a statement earlier.

The plane - a 737-800 registered VH-YIV - landed safely in Invercargill shortly before 7pm.

The airline later said it was a "possible bird strike on take-off".

"The aircraft has been met by emergency services at Invercargill Airport," Virgin Australia chief operations officer Stuart Aggs said. "The safety of our guests and crew is our highest priority."

The airline later on Monday night said it was not aware of any injuries.

cross-posted from: https://toast.ooo/post/3740832

turns out I did my math wrong, so it’s a little less than 30 days

July 12th, 2024 @ midnight EDT

https://canvas.fediverse.events

✨ this year’s event also supports the entire fediverse not just Lemmy!

(you have to be able to make/receive text posts, like mastodon, lemmy, pixelfed, etc) (peertube accounts will not work)

you can get update announcements on other fedi platforms with @canvas@fediverse.events link

chat about Canvas on Matrix or Discord (they’re bridged)

Last weeks thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:

• Something interesting that happened to you
• Something humourous that happened to you
• Something frustrating that happened to you
• A quick question
• A request for recommendations
• Pictures of your pet
• A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant
• Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)

So how’s it going?

A recent Master's thesis has found a Milford Sound tsunami - triggered by a landslide - may leave no survivors, with as many as 3500 dying if the wave hits during the peak of the tourist season.

The new modelling, which builds on more than a decade of research, shows the best chance of survival relies on people running for higher ground before the shaking stops.

The best-case scenario shows 5.2 percent of people would survive the wave, and in this case the tsunami would have to hit at night, during the winter offseason, when only a few hundred people would be in the area.

Edited title to make it sound less like there was just a tsunami and everyone died.

A man has been shot by police after he hit one of them with a vehicle, and another remains on the run, after a raid in South Auckland.