The comedian also lashed out at Trump with offensive remarks during the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner
Each year the White House Correspondents’ Association holds a dinner in the nation’s capital. They usually have an entertainer at the podium to poke fun at the president and other important figures present at the dinner. Trump chose not to attend this year’s event.
Comedian Michelle Wolf was this year’s entertainer and instead of poking fun, she lashed into a vicious attack on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders who happened to be sitting right in front of Wolf.
The bitch also made some very offensive and raunchy remarks about President Trump, calling him a racist and referring to his grabbing of pussies.
Here is how the Daily Mail reported it:
ON SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS AND KELLYANNE CONWAY
The room grew quiet and groans were heard as Wolf directed harsh jokes at White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was sitting just feet away, including attacks on her appearance.
'I have to say I'm a little starstruck, I loved you as Aunt Lydia in A Handmaid's Tale. Mike Pence, if you haven't seen it you would love it,' said Wolf, turning to Sanders.
'Every time Sarah steps up to the podium, I get excited because I'm not really sure what we're gonna get. A press briefing, a bunch of lies, or divided into softball teams. [in deep voice] "It's shirts and skins and this time don't be such a little bitch Jim Acosta."'
'I like Sarah, I think she's really resourceful. She burns facts and uses the ash to create a perfect smokey eye,' the comedian added. 'Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's lies. It's probably lies.'
'I'm never really sure what to call Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Is it Sarah Sanders, is it Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is it Cousin Huckabee, is it Aunt Huckabee Sanders?' Wolf said, continuing, 'What's Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women? Ah I Know, Aunt Coulter.'
Wolf also took shots at counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway. 'Man, she has the perfect name for what she does. Conway. It's like if my last name was tells-jokes-frizzy-hair-small-tits.'
Ivanka Trump also came under fire: 'Ivanka, she was supposed to be an advocate for women but she is about as helpful to women as an empty box of tampons.' Wolf also compared the president's daughter to a 'diaper genie', saying she 'Looks sleek on the outside, but inside is full of shit.'
ON PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
'Like a porn star says when she's about to have sex with a Trump, let's get it over with,' Wolf said to open the act. 'You know he's not any good.'
'It's 2018 and I am a woman so you cannot shut me up. Unless you have Michael Cohen wire me $130,000,' said Wolf, referencing the Stormy Daniels controversy. 'You can find me on Venmo under my porn star name: Reince Priebus.'
Wolf also addressed Trump's absence head on: 'I would drag him here myself, but it turns out that the president of the United States is the one pussy you're not allowed to grab.'
On Trump pulling out of the Paris climate accord, she said: 'He said he was going to pull out and he did, and that's a refreshing quality in a guy.'
'You might be rich in Idaho but in New York you're just doing fine,' she said.
Using call and response from the audience, Wolf shouted 'Trump is so broke', to which the audience responded 'how broke is he?'
Among her responses were: 'He has to fly failed business class'; 'He looked for foreign oil in Don Jr's hair'; 'Southwest used him as one of their engines'; and 'He had to borrow money from the Russians and now he's compromised.'
'Trump is racist. He loves white nationalists, which is a funny term for a Nazi, it's like calling a pedophile a kid-friend or Harvey Weinstein a lady's man.'
And finally: 'He grabs pussies because he thinks there might be loose change in them.'
__________
After receiving a shitstorm of criticism for her uncalled for viciousness and offensiveness, the bitch had the nerve to defend her disgusting and disgraceful performance.
There is absolutely no way any one can defend what Wolf did.
__________
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "ROAST" AND "JUST PLAIN NASTY"
by Bob Walsh
I caught a little bit of the Washington Correspondent's Dinner on the box last night. It was obvious that the President did the right thing in going to Washington County, MI rather than show up in D.C. for a hate-fest.
The "comedian" that did a lot of the talking was not funny (a cardinal sin) and wasn't just modestly snarky, which is permissible at such things. She was just plain nasty. All this horseshit does is help Trump cement his base.
I am sure it is like red meat to the liberal intelligencia who get their rocks off on this sort of thing, but I can't help but think it does them no good in relating to the middle 20% of the electorate who decide which way things go.
Monday, April 30, 2018
OKIE SCUMBAG MAY FRY FOR FOUR MURDERS
by Bob Walsh
Ronnie Dean Busick, 66, is the scumbag in question. Back in 1999 he and two of his road dogs were believed to have murdered a couple in Oklahoma over a drug deal and kidnapped, raped and murdered their 16-year old daughter and her 16-year old girl friend who happened to be unlucky enough to be staying overnight at the time.
Busick's two alleged accomplices, Warren Welcha and David Pennington, are both dead now. They are believed to have helped Busick murder Danny and Kathy Freeman and set fire to their mobile home. They also are believed to have helped kidnap Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible. The girls bodies have never been found. Busick has a lengthy criminal record and has been in the slammer since February on drug charges unrelated to this crime.
It is alleged that at least a dozen people knew of the crimes and said nothing, due to fear of the perps. The killers apparently kept polaroid photos of the young girls tied to a bed as mementos of their crime.
The case gained steam after a new sheriff took over in Craig County. Sheriff Heath Winfrey's people found a crate of evidence and files that had apparently just laid around gathering dust. It included information pointing to the three suspects and names of people who were believed to have had information on the case.
The whereabouts of the photos is unknown. The girls bodies may have been dumped into a mine shaft in the area of Picher, Oklahoma.
Ronnie Dean Busick, 66, is the scumbag in question. Back in 1999 he and two of his road dogs were believed to have murdered a couple in Oklahoma over a drug deal and kidnapped, raped and murdered their 16-year old daughter and her 16-year old girl friend who happened to be unlucky enough to be staying overnight at the time.
Busick's two alleged accomplices, Warren Welcha and David Pennington, are both dead now. They are believed to have helped Busick murder Danny and Kathy Freeman and set fire to their mobile home. They also are believed to have helped kidnap Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible. The girls bodies have never been found. Busick has a lengthy criminal record and has been in the slammer since February on drug charges unrelated to this crime.
It is alleged that at least a dozen people knew of the crimes and said nothing, due to fear of the perps. The killers apparently kept polaroid photos of the young girls tied to a bed as mementos of their crime.
The case gained steam after a new sheriff took over in Craig County. Sheriff Heath Winfrey's people found a crate of evidence and files that had apparently just laid around gathering dust. It included information pointing to the three suspects and names of people who were believed to have had information on the case.
The whereabouts of the photos is unknown. The girls bodies may have been dumped into a mine shaft in the area of Picher, Oklahoma.
WOULD YOU WANT THIS LADY DOCTOR TO BE YOUR PHYSICIAN?
Female doctor, 50, threatened to 'slit the throats' of her employees and told one she would 'cut off his head, roll it down a hallway and call his children to come and see it'
By Emily Crane
Daily Mail
April 29, 2018
A female doctor has been charged after allegedly threatening to slit her employees' throats at her Georgia medical practice.
Authorities were called to Dr Marian Antoinette Patterson's practice in Valdosta in February following reports of a disturbance.
The 50-year-old, who turned herself in to Lowdnes County Jail on Thursday, allegedly yelled expletives at her employees and said she would 'slit their throats'.
She is accused of telling one employee she would cut her from her 'throat to private parts'.
Patterson also allegedly threatened to cut another employee's head off and roll it down a hallway before saying she would called the person's children so they could see it.
The doctor is accused of throwing multiple items in the office, including prescription bottles and a reflex hammer. She allegedly tried to hurl a large potted plant.
Police also said she grabbed her diploma off the wall and stomped on it and also threw water on two employees.
One worker told police Patterson grabbed their arm and refused to let them leave.
The Georgia Composite Medical Board suspended Patterson's license on March 5.
The board said it had received complaints that Patterson was under the influence on multiple occasions at her practice.
Warrants were issued for her arrest following a police investigation and she has been released from prison on bond.
She has been charged with three counts of terroristic threats and one count of false imprisonment.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I can see where she might get pissed off big time at some shitty employees, but a red flag for me is that she stomped on her diploma.
By Emily Crane
Daily Mail
April 29, 2018
A female doctor has been charged after allegedly threatening to slit her employees' throats at her Georgia medical practice.
Authorities were called to Dr Marian Antoinette Patterson's practice in Valdosta in February following reports of a disturbance.
The 50-year-old, who turned herself in to Lowdnes County Jail on Thursday, allegedly yelled expletives at her employees and said she would 'slit their throats'.
She is accused of telling one employee she would cut her from her 'throat to private parts'.
Patterson also allegedly threatened to cut another employee's head off and roll it down a hallway before saying she would called the person's children so they could see it.
The doctor is accused of throwing multiple items in the office, including prescription bottles and a reflex hammer. She allegedly tried to hurl a large potted plant.
Police also said she grabbed her diploma off the wall and stomped on it and also threw water on two employees.
One worker told police Patterson grabbed their arm and refused to let them leave.
The Georgia Composite Medical Board suspended Patterson's license on March 5.
The board said it had received complaints that Patterson was under the influence on multiple occasions at her practice.
Warrants were issued for her arrest following a police investigation and she has been released from prison on bond.
She has been charged with three counts of terroristic threats and one count of false imprisonment.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I can see where she might get pissed off big time at some shitty employees, but a red flag for me is that she stomped on her diploma.
APPARENTLY COFFEE IS NOT THE ONLY PRODUCT STARBUCKS SELLS
Truck hauling Starbucks products to Spokane also carried 126 pounds of meth, 24 pounds of heroin, thousands of Oxycodone pills, police say
Associated Press
April 28, 2018
About 126 pounds of methamphetamine and other drugs, including heroin and other narcotics, were seized from a semitruck on Interstate 5 in Lewis County, according to the Centralia Police Department.
During a traffic stop Thursday on northbound I-5 just north of Centralia, the driver and passenger of the blue Freightliner tractor and refrigerator trailer began acting suspicious, according to police.
Detectives from the Joint Narcotic Enforcement Team and Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Special Enforcement Team who stopped the truck near the Thurston-Lewis county line requested a narcotic-specific K-9 unit.
The truck, which had California license plates, was hauling Starbucks products to Spokane, the release says.
The narxcotics dog alerted authorities to the presence of drugs, and a search revealed 40 bundles of meth in a television box on the top bunk of the truck’s sleeper berth.
Under the mattress on the lower bunk, an additional 50 bundles of meth were found, along with 2.4 pounds of suspected heroin, thousands of 30 milligram Oxycodone pills, and a few grams of cocaine.
The driver, a 22-year-old man from Mexico, and passenger, a 62-year-old man from Fontana, California, were booked into Lewis County Jail on multiple drug charges.
None of the contraband was found in the trailer, and none of the Starbucks products were exposed or compromised, the release says.
The products were transferred to another truck, which continued to Spokane.
Associated Press
April 28, 2018
About 126 pounds of methamphetamine and other drugs, including heroin and other narcotics, were seized from a semitruck on Interstate 5 in Lewis County, according to the Centralia Police Department.
During a traffic stop Thursday on northbound I-5 just north of Centralia, the driver and passenger of the blue Freightliner tractor and refrigerator trailer began acting suspicious, according to police.
Detectives from the Joint Narcotic Enforcement Team and Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Special Enforcement Team who stopped the truck near the Thurston-Lewis county line requested a narcotic-specific K-9 unit.
The truck, which had California license plates, was hauling Starbucks products to Spokane, the release says.
The narxcotics dog alerted authorities to the presence of drugs, and a search revealed 40 bundles of meth in a television box on the top bunk of the truck’s sleeper berth.
Under the mattress on the lower bunk, an additional 50 bundles of meth were found, along with 2.4 pounds of suspected heroin, thousands of 30 milligram Oxycodone pills, and a few grams of cocaine.
The driver, a 22-year-old man from Mexico, and passenger, a 62-year-old man from Fontana, California, were booked into Lewis County Jail on multiple drug charges.
None of the contraband was found in the trailer, and none of the Starbucks products were exposed or compromised, the release says.
The products were transferred to another truck, which continued to Spokane.
HUGE CACHE OF WEAPONS BELONGING TO CARTEL DEL NORESTE (CDN) SEIZED
Mexican Military Seizes Cartel’s Rocket Launchers, Rifles, Dynamite, Grenades near U.S. Border in Nuevo Laredo
By Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby
Breitbart
April 29, 2018
NUEVO LAREDO, Tamaulipas — A series of raids by Mexican military forces in the downtown area of Nuevo Laredo uncovered a cache of military-grade weapons. Those weapons include rocket launchers, grenades, dynamite sticks, machine guns, rifles, and several cloned Mexican infantrymen uniforms and vest.
The raids began this week when soldiers of the Mexican Army operating in the city’ downtown raided a home. Soldiers discovered that the drug cartel the house used to process methamphetamines and store a cache of new weapons.
According to information released by the Mexican Army, authorities seized 33 AK-47 rifles, 11 AR-15 rifles, 10 bundles ranging from 25 to 30 pounds of methamphetamine, 13 bundles of methamphetamine precursors, and seven pounds of methamphetamine in crystal form. During that raid, authorities arrested two suspects.
Soon after, authorities raided a second home where they seized 24 rifles including grenade launchers, military-grade machine guns, a gold-plated AK-47, several other rifles, handguns, and some grenades. Authorities also seized a large cache of Mexican Navy infantrymen vests and uniforms. The camouflaged vests have logos and decals very similar to those used by active duty Mexican military forces.
During a third raid, authorities seized 91 rifles, numerous other weapons, and close to 100,000 rounds of ammunition. During a fourth raid, military personnel seized 49 rifles, 13 rocket launchers, and 13 dynamite sticks
For several months, a faction of Los Zetas called Cartel Del Noreste has been wearing military clothing while carrying out operations and attacks against law enforcement. Last month, the Mexican Navy infantrymen commonly called “Marinos” suffered three ambushes at the hands of CDN gunmen. During that clash, a Mexican military helicopter mistook a vehicle carrying a family for a car carrying cartel gunmen and opened fire, Breitbart Texas reported. A woman and her two daughters died in that incident.
By Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby
Breitbart
April 29, 2018
NUEVO LAREDO, Tamaulipas — A series of raids by Mexican military forces in the downtown area of Nuevo Laredo uncovered a cache of military-grade weapons. Those weapons include rocket launchers, grenades, dynamite sticks, machine guns, rifles, and several cloned Mexican infantrymen uniforms and vest.
The raids began this week when soldiers of the Mexican Army operating in the city’ downtown raided a home. Soldiers discovered that the drug cartel the house used to process methamphetamines and store a cache of new weapons.
According to information released by the Mexican Army, authorities seized 33 AK-47 rifles, 11 AR-15 rifles, 10 bundles ranging from 25 to 30 pounds of methamphetamine, 13 bundles of methamphetamine precursors, and seven pounds of methamphetamine in crystal form. During that raid, authorities arrested two suspects.
Soon after, authorities raided a second home where they seized 24 rifles including grenade launchers, military-grade machine guns, a gold-plated AK-47, several other rifles, handguns, and some grenades. Authorities also seized a large cache of Mexican Navy infantrymen vests and uniforms. The camouflaged vests have logos and decals very similar to those used by active duty Mexican military forces.
During a third raid, authorities seized 91 rifles, numerous other weapons, and close to 100,000 rounds of ammunition. During a fourth raid, military personnel seized 49 rifles, 13 rocket launchers, and 13 dynamite sticks
For several months, a faction of Los Zetas called Cartel Del Noreste has been wearing military clothing while carrying out operations and attacks against law enforcement. Last month, the Mexican Navy infantrymen commonly called “Marinos” suffered three ambushes at the hands of CDN gunmen. During that clash, a Mexican military helicopter mistook a vehicle carrying a family for a car carrying cartel gunmen and opened fire, Breitbart Texas reported. A woman and her two daughters died in that incident.
A MESSAGE TO IRAN
Israel has never concealed its policy with regard to targeted assassinations and has never limited counterrorism operations to its own territory, reaching far and wide. This holds true for Hamas operatives in Malaysia and for Iranians in Syria.
By Yoav Limor
Israel Hayom
April 27, 2018
It was only natural that Hamas would blame Israel for the assassination of its drone scientist Fadi al-Batsh in Malaysia last week. The Gaza-based terrorist group claimed that the Jabaliya-born al-Batsh was nothing more than a preacher, but it soon became clear that his main pursuit was research and development for the manufacture of advanced weapons, mainly unmanned aerial vehicles, for Hamas.
Israel has never concealed its counterterrorism policy, neither with regard to the development of advanced weapons by terrorist organizations nor with regard to eliminating its enemies. Israel's counterterrorism campaign has never been limited to its own territory – although it has targeted dozens of terrorists, weapons experts and weapon production facilities in the Gaza Strip – and it has reached far and wide to disrupt the delivery of weapons to the coastal enclave and eliminate those involved in their manufacture and transport.
There is no shortage of examples, some familiar, such as Israeli Navy raids on ships carrying missiles and other weapons, and others more vague, such as foreign media reports linking Israel to a variety of missions targeting installations and individuals, such as the 2010 assassination of Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades co-founder Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai and the 2016 hit on Mohammed Alzoari, the head of Hamas' drone program, in Tunisia.
One can assume that there are other incidents that have remained unsolved or unpublished. It is not always in the injured party's interest to admit its ranks were compromised or that it has failed to defend its operatives, and it is not always in the injuring party's interest to expose its involvement and risk retaliation.
That is unlikely to happen in this incident. Israel has refrained from commenting on al-Batsh's assassination and Hamas is too weak and deterred to respond, not to mention that it has better reasons to fight Israel than a hit on one of its operatives overseas.
Therefore, the main issue of an assassination of this nature lies with the risk posed to those carrying it out.
As an operational theater, Malaysia has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, it is a relatively hostile – and distant – Muslim country, making for a potentially complex extraction. On the other hand, it has relatively weak security services, a proliferation of foreigners that allow operatives to easily blend into a crowd, and a variety of ways to make a fast exit, by air or by sea.
Complex groundwork
Launching missions of this nature involves a complex approval process that begins with the Heads of the Intelligence Services Committee, which comprises the directors of the Mossad intelligence agency, Shin Bet security agency and Military Intelligence. It continues with meticulous intelligence-gathering on the intended target, and includes a lengthy series of discussions and approvals within the agency tasked with the mission and the political echelon.
The lessons of the past, mainly those learned from the botched attempt to eliminate Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Jordan in 1997, place particular importance on the site of a planned assassination: Al-Batsh had been due to leave Malaysia to attend a conference in Turkey and then travel to London. It is likely that whoever eliminated him wanted to avoid a confrontation with Turkey or with Britain, especially the latter, given that the U.K. is particularly sensitive to the issue in view of the recent attack on its soil against a former Russian spy. This made Malaysia, despite its shortcomings, a relatively convenient destination for this mission.
For the most part, the assassination itself is the least complex part of the operation. It is the groundwork leading up to it that is complicated. Gathering intelligence about the intended target can sometimes take years as it must include every minute detail about his routine, habits, places of residence and work and associates, so as to minimize collateral damage and the risk to the team carrying out the mission. It also includes researching the best place in which to strike and, of course, researching and preparing how to enter the country and leave it undetected, as well as outlining a contingency extraction plan.
Every intelligence organization deals with these issues prior to an operation of this kind, but it is likely that the Israeli concerns are much greater. No spy travels the world under their true identity, but the Americans, British and Russians can issue their operatives authentic passports using aliases. Israel, according to foreign media reports, has had to rely on foreign passports, meaning borrowed identities.
This is where the age of information and technology creates a new set of problems. The extensive coverage of Mabhouh's killers, as caught on the Dubai hotel's security cameras, made it clear that something had changed and that while pulling the trigger is pivotal to the success of a targeted assassination, it is not the only component of the mission that counts, certainly if Israel seeks to guarantee its operatives' safety and avoid diplomatic embarrassment.
The composite and later the photo of one of the suspects in al-Batsh's murder, released Wednesday by the Kuala Lumpur police, is unlikely to compromise any of the perpetrators. Contrary to the Malaysians' working assumption, they most likely left the country shortly after the assassination and have probably been lying low for days now.
Best laid threats
Israel is no stranger to targeted assassinations as a policy and one can even say it swears by them. No prime minister has ever missed an opportunity to say that Israel "will hunt down the enemy, anywhere, anytime." Some periods see more operations than others, mostly due to the nature of the individuals serving as prime minister and Mossad director, as well as the results of previous hits. Successes increase the intelligence services' appetite and failures bring planned operations to a halt.
The failed attempt on Mashaal and the scandal that followed Mabhouh's assassination resulted in a virtual hiatus for Kidon, the Mossad's black-ops unit. In contrast, the successful elimination of Hezbollah's iconic military commander Imad Mughniyeh in 2015, allegedly by Israel, led to a flurry of operations reportedly involving Israeli intelligence agents, including the elimination of several Iranian nuclear scientists.
Perception aside, these operations are few and far between, their odds are carefully assessed, and every step leading up to them is painstakingly scrutinized because of the substantial risks they involve and their volatile diplomatic potential.
For now, it seems Israel feels free to pursue this policy, especially toward Hamas. Targeted assassinations have a triple effect: They eliminate highly dangerous players, generate deterrence opposite the enemy, and send a clear message to everyone else that Israel is determined to uphold its red lines and will not hesitate to remove anyone or anything that poses a threat to its security.
The first two elements apply mostly to Hamas, as the group has lost a relatively rare weapons expert and has had to contend – once again – with the fact that its members and operations are transparent to Israel in Gaza and around the world. This will not make Hamas change its tactics or make it reconsider developing advanced weapons with which to threaten Israel, but the loss of a key player of al-Batsh's caliber is bound to give Hamas pause, as it will have to revise its operational methods.
The third element concerns Iran, especially since the confrontation between the Islamic republic and Israel is now being waged out in the open.
The message from the Malaysia incident is that Israel will not hesitate to target anyone who poses a threat. This is true for Hamas operatives in Malaysia and for the Iranians in Syria.
Still, Iran is not Hamas and fighting Tehran's nefarious intentions is exponentially more dangerous and complex. However, in the Middle East, threats alone can often prevent actions on the ground. Only a cockeyed optimist would believe this type of action could actually stop Iran, but it is safe to say that the message sent in Malaysia will resonate in Tehran.
By Yoav Limor
Israel Hayom
April 27, 2018
It was only natural that Hamas would blame Israel for the assassination of its drone scientist Fadi al-Batsh in Malaysia last week. The Gaza-based terrorist group claimed that the Jabaliya-born al-Batsh was nothing more than a preacher, but it soon became clear that his main pursuit was research and development for the manufacture of advanced weapons, mainly unmanned aerial vehicles, for Hamas.
Israel has never concealed its counterterrorism policy, neither with regard to the development of advanced weapons by terrorist organizations nor with regard to eliminating its enemies. Israel's counterterrorism campaign has never been limited to its own territory – although it has targeted dozens of terrorists, weapons experts and weapon production facilities in the Gaza Strip – and it has reached far and wide to disrupt the delivery of weapons to the coastal enclave and eliminate those involved in their manufacture and transport.
There is no shortage of examples, some familiar, such as Israeli Navy raids on ships carrying missiles and other weapons, and others more vague, such as foreign media reports linking Israel to a variety of missions targeting installations and individuals, such as the 2010 assassination of Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades co-founder Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai and the 2016 hit on Mohammed Alzoari, the head of Hamas' drone program, in Tunisia.
One can assume that there are other incidents that have remained unsolved or unpublished. It is not always in the injured party's interest to admit its ranks were compromised or that it has failed to defend its operatives, and it is not always in the injuring party's interest to expose its involvement and risk retaliation.
That is unlikely to happen in this incident. Israel has refrained from commenting on al-Batsh's assassination and Hamas is too weak and deterred to respond, not to mention that it has better reasons to fight Israel than a hit on one of its operatives overseas.
Therefore, the main issue of an assassination of this nature lies with the risk posed to those carrying it out.
As an operational theater, Malaysia has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, it is a relatively hostile – and distant – Muslim country, making for a potentially complex extraction. On the other hand, it has relatively weak security services, a proliferation of foreigners that allow operatives to easily blend into a crowd, and a variety of ways to make a fast exit, by air or by sea.
Complex groundwork
Launching missions of this nature involves a complex approval process that begins with the Heads of the Intelligence Services Committee, which comprises the directors of the Mossad intelligence agency, Shin Bet security agency and Military Intelligence. It continues with meticulous intelligence-gathering on the intended target, and includes a lengthy series of discussions and approvals within the agency tasked with the mission and the political echelon.
The lessons of the past, mainly those learned from the botched attempt to eliminate Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Jordan in 1997, place particular importance on the site of a planned assassination: Al-Batsh had been due to leave Malaysia to attend a conference in Turkey and then travel to London. It is likely that whoever eliminated him wanted to avoid a confrontation with Turkey or with Britain, especially the latter, given that the U.K. is particularly sensitive to the issue in view of the recent attack on its soil against a former Russian spy. This made Malaysia, despite its shortcomings, a relatively convenient destination for this mission.
For the most part, the assassination itself is the least complex part of the operation. It is the groundwork leading up to it that is complicated. Gathering intelligence about the intended target can sometimes take years as it must include every minute detail about his routine, habits, places of residence and work and associates, so as to minimize collateral damage and the risk to the team carrying out the mission. It also includes researching the best place in which to strike and, of course, researching and preparing how to enter the country and leave it undetected, as well as outlining a contingency extraction plan.
Every intelligence organization deals with these issues prior to an operation of this kind, but it is likely that the Israeli concerns are much greater. No spy travels the world under their true identity, but the Americans, British and Russians can issue their operatives authentic passports using aliases. Israel, according to foreign media reports, has had to rely on foreign passports, meaning borrowed identities.
This is where the age of information and technology creates a new set of problems. The extensive coverage of Mabhouh's killers, as caught on the Dubai hotel's security cameras, made it clear that something had changed and that while pulling the trigger is pivotal to the success of a targeted assassination, it is not the only component of the mission that counts, certainly if Israel seeks to guarantee its operatives' safety and avoid diplomatic embarrassment.
The composite and later the photo of one of the suspects in al-Batsh's murder, released Wednesday by the Kuala Lumpur police, is unlikely to compromise any of the perpetrators. Contrary to the Malaysians' working assumption, they most likely left the country shortly after the assassination and have probably been lying low for days now.
Best laid threats
Israel is no stranger to targeted assassinations as a policy and one can even say it swears by them. No prime minister has ever missed an opportunity to say that Israel "will hunt down the enemy, anywhere, anytime." Some periods see more operations than others, mostly due to the nature of the individuals serving as prime minister and Mossad director, as well as the results of previous hits. Successes increase the intelligence services' appetite and failures bring planned operations to a halt.
The failed attempt on Mashaal and the scandal that followed Mabhouh's assassination resulted in a virtual hiatus for Kidon, the Mossad's black-ops unit. In contrast, the successful elimination of Hezbollah's iconic military commander Imad Mughniyeh in 2015, allegedly by Israel, led to a flurry of operations reportedly involving Israeli intelligence agents, including the elimination of several Iranian nuclear scientists.
Perception aside, these operations are few and far between, their odds are carefully assessed, and every step leading up to them is painstakingly scrutinized because of the substantial risks they involve and their volatile diplomatic potential.
For now, it seems Israel feels free to pursue this policy, especially toward Hamas. Targeted assassinations have a triple effect: They eliminate highly dangerous players, generate deterrence opposite the enemy, and send a clear message to everyone else that Israel is determined to uphold its red lines and will not hesitate to remove anyone or anything that poses a threat to its security.
The first two elements apply mostly to Hamas, as the group has lost a relatively rare weapons expert and has had to contend – once again – with the fact that its members and operations are transparent to Israel in Gaza and around the world. This will not make Hamas change its tactics or make it reconsider developing advanced weapons with which to threaten Israel, but the loss of a key player of al-Batsh's caliber is bound to give Hamas pause, as it will have to revise its operational methods.
The third element concerns Iran, especially since the confrontation between the Islamic republic and Israel is now being waged out in the open.
The message from the Malaysia incident is that Israel will not hesitate to target anyone who poses a threat. This is true for Hamas operatives in Malaysia and for the Iranians in Syria.
Still, Iran is not Hamas and fighting Tehran's nefarious intentions is exponentially more dangerous and complex. However, in the Middle East, threats alone can often prevent actions on the ground. Only a cockeyed optimist would believe this type of action could actually stop Iran, but it is safe to say that the message sent in Malaysia will resonate in Tehran.
Sunday, April 29, 2018
GARLIC DOES MORE THAN JUST KEEP VAMPIRES AT BAY
Garlic can slash the risk of cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, conclude scientists
By Eliza Slawther
Daily Mail
April 27, 2018
It's been used to treat ailments for thousands of years.
But eating garlic really does have health benefits, researchers have concluded.
A study found consuming the common seasoning can help slash the risk of cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
And how healthy garlic is could be down to how it is prepared, according to the researchers at Nottingham University.
The team conducted a review of the literature surrounding garlic, as studies into its health benefits have been inconsistent.
Study leader Dr Peter Rose explained the mix of results was likely due to the vast array of compounds in garlic, mainly sulphuric ones.
Different levels of the compounds are released through chopping garlic, pressing it for oil or fermenting it in alcohol - known as the 'Ancient Tibetan Garlic Cure'.
This could explain the strikingly different results into the health effects of garlic, the researchers said.
But Dr Rose and colleagues admitted it was still a mystery as to which method of eating garlic is the most beneficial.
This means they can't yet provide solid evidence on whether chewing a raw clove will provide greater benefits than enjoying a slice of garlic bread.
Dr Rose said: 'Each of these preparative forms could have a different effect within mammalian systems.
'And that's what makes this research so complex, because we don't really understand how these compounds are metabolised in humans.'
Garlic is a member of the allium family of plants, along with onions, leeks and and chives, which absorb sulfate from the soil.
These same sulfur compounds are what give garlic its distinct taste, and lingering smell.
Scientists have previously found while sometimes the consumption of garlic has a biological effect, other times it does nothing.
Dr Rose said: 'When it comes to human intervention studies, there's been quite a lot of disparity.
'I think it needs re-investigating, just because of the sheer complexity of the diversity of these sorts of compounds and the different distribution of them between different garlic products.'
Garlic has been found to have a significant effect on lowering blood pressure in both experimental and clinical studies, and has been found to contain many potent compounds with anti-cancer properties - particularly allylsulfide derivatives.
Although there are claims that garlic may reduce blood sugar levels in diabetic animals, the effect of garlic on human blood sugar levels is unknown.
One theory Dr Rose and his colleagues have is that the sulfur compounds in garlic may affect gaseous signally in the body.
This is a process which plays an important role in cell signalling - and recent studies performed in laboratories has linked the two.
Altered levels of gaseous signally molecules are present in many diseases, implying garlic has the ability to protect against them.
For now, however, Dr Rose says people must remember garlic is no 'magic bullet', although there are potential health benefits in consuming it.
Writing in the journal Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, he added: 'I don't think there is one individual plant species that is a cure-all.
'But there are certainly plant species that are strongly associated with reducing disease risk within humans.
'Variety is the spice of life, but understanding the chemistry of some of your spices is probably a very advantageous thing to do.'
EDITOR’S NOTE: The downside to garlic is that it also keeps the opposite sex at bay.
By Eliza Slawther
Daily Mail
April 27, 2018
It's been used to treat ailments for thousands of years.
But eating garlic really does have health benefits, researchers have concluded.
A study found consuming the common seasoning can help slash the risk of cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
And how healthy garlic is could be down to how it is prepared, according to the researchers at Nottingham University.
The team conducted a review of the literature surrounding garlic, as studies into its health benefits have been inconsistent.
Study leader Dr Peter Rose explained the mix of results was likely due to the vast array of compounds in garlic, mainly sulphuric ones.
Different levels of the compounds are released through chopping garlic, pressing it for oil or fermenting it in alcohol - known as the 'Ancient Tibetan Garlic Cure'.
This could explain the strikingly different results into the health effects of garlic, the researchers said.
But Dr Rose and colleagues admitted it was still a mystery as to which method of eating garlic is the most beneficial.
This means they can't yet provide solid evidence on whether chewing a raw clove will provide greater benefits than enjoying a slice of garlic bread.
Dr Rose said: 'Each of these preparative forms could have a different effect within mammalian systems.
'And that's what makes this research so complex, because we don't really understand how these compounds are metabolised in humans.'
Garlic is a member of the allium family of plants, along with onions, leeks and and chives, which absorb sulfate from the soil.
These same sulfur compounds are what give garlic its distinct taste, and lingering smell.
Scientists have previously found while sometimes the consumption of garlic has a biological effect, other times it does nothing.
Dr Rose said: 'When it comes to human intervention studies, there's been quite a lot of disparity.
'I think it needs re-investigating, just because of the sheer complexity of the diversity of these sorts of compounds and the different distribution of them between different garlic products.'
Garlic has been found to have a significant effect on lowering blood pressure in both experimental and clinical studies, and has been found to contain many potent compounds with anti-cancer properties - particularly allylsulfide derivatives.
Although there are claims that garlic may reduce blood sugar levels in diabetic animals, the effect of garlic on human blood sugar levels is unknown.
One theory Dr Rose and his colleagues have is that the sulfur compounds in garlic may affect gaseous signally in the body.
This is a process which plays an important role in cell signalling - and recent studies performed in laboratories has linked the two.
Altered levels of gaseous signally molecules are present in many diseases, implying garlic has the ability to protect against them.
For now, however, Dr Rose says people must remember garlic is no 'magic bullet', although there are potential health benefits in consuming it.
Writing in the journal Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, he added: 'I don't think there is one individual plant species that is a cure-all.
'But there are certainly plant species that are strongly associated with reducing disease risk within humans.
'Variety is the spice of life, but understanding the chemistry of some of your spices is probably a very advantageous thing to do.'
EDITOR’S NOTE: The downside to garlic is that it also keeps the opposite sex at bay.
COP JUST WANTED CHEAP LABORERS TO WORK ON HIS HOME
LAPD Officer Arrested For Smuggling 2 Mexicans Across Border
CBS LA
April 26, 2018
SAN DIEGO -- A Los Angeles police officer has been arrested on federal charges alleging he tried to smuggle two illegal immigrants into the United States this week in southeastern San Diego County.
Mambasse Koulabalo Patara has been charged with violating immigration laws, according to a federal complaint filed Wednesday.
He was arrested early Tuesday morning at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Pine Valley, located about 12 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border.
According to the complaint, at 12:15 a.m. Tuesday, Patara drove up to the checkpoint with two male passengers in a 2006 Toyota Corolla.
While being interviewed by Border Patrol agents, Koulabalo showed them his LAPD badge and stated he was off-duty, the complaint states. Agents later patted him down and found his service-issued gun in his waistband, the complaint reads.
Koulabalo reportedly told border agents his two passengers were U.S. citizens. The men, identified as Herman Lopez and his nephew German Ramirez Gonzalez, eventually admitted they were in the country illegally.
One of the men said they had known Koulabalo for years and had worked for him at his Fontana home. He added they had decided to go to a casino in Alpine in southern San Diego County, before heading to another one in Campo and ending up at the border checkpoint near Pine Valley.
All three men were transported to the Campo Border Patrol Station and arrested at around 1:30 a.m.
Back at his home in Fontana, neighbors were in disbelief.
“I heard what happened, and I’m really shocked,” said one woman. “They’ve always just been a really nice family ever since my husband and I have lived here. […] There’s always multiple sides to every story, so I think that’s important for everyone to keep in mind […] before jumping to conclusions on these types of things.”
“I just don’t believe that he’s doing that,” another neighbor told CBS2. “I don’t believe at all that he’s capable of doing something like that.”
An LAPD spokesperson confirmed to CBS2 that Patara has been placed on paid administrative leave.
If convicted, Koulabalo faces up to five years in prison.
EDITOR’S NOTE: According to Trey Rusk, if the US Attorney decides to prosecute this cop for carrying a weapon while committing a federal crime, he could be put away for years. El Paso sector Border Patrol Agents have had their sentences enhanced for carrying a weapon when convicted of a crime, even though they were on duty at the time.
CBS LA
April 26, 2018
SAN DIEGO -- A Los Angeles police officer has been arrested on federal charges alleging he tried to smuggle two illegal immigrants into the United States this week in southeastern San Diego County.
Mambasse Koulabalo Patara has been charged with violating immigration laws, according to a federal complaint filed Wednesday.
He was arrested early Tuesday morning at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Pine Valley, located about 12 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border.
According to the complaint, at 12:15 a.m. Tuesday, Patara drove up to the checkpoint with two male passengers in a 2006 Toyota Corolla.
While being interviewed by Border Patrol agents, Koulabalo showed them his LAPD badge and stated he was off-duty, the complaint states. Agents later patted him down and found his service-issued gun in his waistband, the complaint reads.
Koulabalo reportedly told border agents his two passengers were U.S. citizens. The men, identified as Herman Lopez and his nephew German Ramirez Gonzalez, eventually admitted they were in the country illegally.
One of the men said they had known Koulabalo for years and had worked for him at his Fontana home. He added they had decided to go to a casino in Alpine in southern San Diego County, before heading to another one in Campo and ending up at the border checkpoint near Pine Valley.
All three men were transported to the Campo Border Patrol Station and arrested at around 1:30 a.m.
Back at his home in Fontana, neighbors were in disbelief.
“I heard what happened, and I’m really shocked,” said one woman. “They’ve always just been a really nice family ever since my husband and I have lived here. […] There’s always multiple sides to every story, so I think that’s important for everyone to keep in mind […] before jumping to conclusions on these types of things.”
“I just don’t believe that he’s doing that,” another neighbor told CBS2. “I don’t believe at all that he’s capable of doing something like that.”
An LAPD spokesperson confirmed to CBS2 that Patara has been placed on paid administrative leave.
If convicted, Koulabalo faces up to five years in prison.
EDITOR’S NOTE: According to Trey Rusk, if the US Attorney decides to prosecute this cop for carrying a weapon while committing a federal crime, he could be put away for years. El Paso sector Border Patrol Agents have had their sentences enhanced for carrying a weapon when convicted of a crime, even though they were on duty at the time.
PREDICTION OF DEATH BECAME TRUE
Wonder Begets Tragedy as Israeli Students Swept Away in Desert Flash Flood
By Ryan Jones
Israel Todat
April 27, 2018
All of Israel marveled at the tremendous "latter" rains the country received over the past two days.
Heavy downpours, accompanied by spectacular lightning shows, turned streets in downtown Jerusalem and Tel Aviv into rivers and brought the dramatic desert flash floods for which Israel's southern Negev and Judean deserts are so famous.
But the wonder quickly turned to tragedy on Thursday when a group of high school students suddenly found themselves in the path of one of those mighty desert floods.
Following hours of dangerous rescue work, soldiers with the Israel Air Force’s elite 669 rescue unit managed to extract the surviving students, along with the bodes of 10 of their classmates that had been washed miles away.
One of the girls who perished heartbreakingly predicted her own death hours before in a WhatsApp group with fellow students. "I cannot believe I’m going on a trip in such weather," she wrote. "It doesn’t make sense for us to go to a place where everything is flooding. It’s tempting fate — we’re going to die, I’m serious."
Incredibly, one of the counselors responded that all precautions had been taken, and that the students had no reason to be worried.
A boy who survived the flood recounted the harrowing ordeal through his father for Hadashot News:
"I saw bodies floating in the water, I didn’t know if they were alive or if what I saw were dead bodies. At one point there was a wave that was 3 or 4 meters high. I was holding on to one of my friends really tight… but we couldn’t stand against the massive water current. She slipped away from me in front of my eyes."
Two directors at the Bnei Tzion pre-military academy in Tel Aviv have been arrested and are being investigated for putting the students' lives in mortal danger.
Most Israelis are aware of the types of floods that accompany such heavy rains in this land. For those who weren't, there was ample warning on radio and television news to avoid inescapable valleys and ravines at risk of flooding.
The ravine, or wadi, where the students were hiking is known as Nahal Tzafit. It is one of the more popular hiking routes in the Judean Desert, and one of those most prone to flash-flooding.
By Ryan Jones
Israel Todat
April 27, 2018
All of Israel marveled at the tremendous "latter" rains the country received over the past two days.
Heavy downpours, accompanied by spectacular lightning shows, turned streets in downtown Jerusalem and Tel Aviv into rivers and brought the dramatic desert flash floods for which Israel's southern Negev and Judean deserts are so famous.
But the wonder quickly turned to tragedy on Thursday when a group of high school students suddenly found themselves in the path of one of those mighty desert floods.
Following hours of dangerous rescue work, soldiers with the Israel Air Force’s elite 669 rescue unit managed to extract the surviving students, along with the bodes of 10 of their classmates that had been washed miles away.
One of the girls who perished heartbreakingly predicted her own death hours before in a WhatsApp group with fellow students. "I cannot believe I’m going on a trip in such weather," she wrote. "It doesn’t make sense for us to go to a place where everything is flooding. It’s tempting fate — we’re going to die, I’m serious."
Incredibly, one of the counselors responded that all precautions had been taken, and that the students had no reason to be worried.
A boy who survived the flood recounted the harrowing ordeal through his father for Hadashot News:
"I saw bodies floating in the water, I didn’t know if they were alive or if what I saw were dead bodies. At one point there was a wave that was 3 or 4 meters high. I was holding on to one of my friends really tight… but we couldn’t stand against the massive water current. She slipped away from me in front of my eyes."
Two directors at the Bnei Tzion pre-military academy in Tel Aviv have been arrested and are being investigated for putting the students' lives in mortal danger.
Most Israelis are aware of the types of floods that accompany such heavy rains in this land. For those who weren't, there was ample warning on radio and television news to avoid inescapable valleys and ravines at risk of flooding.
The ravine, or wadi, where the students were hiking is known as Nahal Tzafit. It is one of the more popular hiking routes in the Judean Desert, and one of those most prone to flash-flooding.
WHOOPS! SORRY ABOUT THAT
Police using genetic sites misidentified Oregon man as Golden State serial killer suspect in 2017
By Michael Balsamo and Jonathan J. Cooper
Associated Press
April 28, 2018
Investigators hunting down the so-called Golden State Killer used information from genetic websites last year that led to the wrong man, court records obtained Friday by The Associated Press showed.
An Oregon police officer working at the request of California investigators persuaded a judge in March 2017 to order a 73-year-old man in a nursing home to provide a DNA sample.
The Oregon City man is in declining health and was unable to answer questions Friday about the case.
His daughter said authorities never notified her before swabbing her father for DNA in his bed a rehabilitation center, but once they told her afterward she understood and worked with them to eliminate people who conceivably could be the killer.
The case of mistaken identity was discovered as authorities hailed a novel use of DNA technology that led this week to the arrest of former police officer Joseph DeAngelo at his house outside Sacramento on murder charges. Critics of the investigative approach, however, warned it could jeopardize privacy rights.
DeAngelo's suspected of being the sadistic attacker who killed 13 people and raped nearly 50 women during the 1970s and '80s.
Handcuffed to a wheelchair in orange jail scrubs, DeAngelo made his first court appearance Friday. The 72-year-old looked dazed and spoke in a faint voice to acknowledge he was represented by a public defender. He did not enter a plea.
He has been charged with eight counts of murder, and additional charges are expected, authorities said.
"We have the law to suggest that he is innocent until he's proven guilty and that's what I'm going to ask everyone to remember," DeAngelo's public defender Diane Howard said outside court. "I feel like he's been tried in the press already."
Investigators were able to make the arrest this week after matching crime-scene DNA with genetic material stored in an online database by a distant relative. They relied on a different website than they had in the Oregon search, and they did not seek a warrant for DeAngelo's DNA.
Instead, they waited for him to discard items and then swabbed the objects for DNA, which proved a conclusive match to evidence that had been preserved more than 30 years.
Also Friday, the co-founder of the genealogy website used by authorities to help identify DeAngelo said he had no idea its database was tapped in pursuit of the suspect who eluded law enforcement for four decades.
Authorities never approached Florida-based GEDmatch about the investigation that led to DeAngelo, and co-founder Curtis Rogers said law enforcement's use of the site raised privacy concerns that were echoed by civil liberties groups.
The free genealogy website, which pools DNA profiles that people upload and share publicly to find relatives, said it has always informed users its database can be used for other purposes. But Rogers said the company does not "hand out data."
"This was done without our knowledge, and it's been overwhelming," he told The Associated Press.
For the team of investigators, GEDmatch was one of the best tools, lead investigator Paul Holes told the Mercury News in San Jose.
Officials did not need a court order to access GEDmatch's large database of genetic blueprints, Holes said. Major commercial DNA companies say they do not give law enforcement access to their genetic data without a court order.
Civil libertarians said the practice raises legal and privacy concerns for the millions of people who submit their DNA to such sites to discover their heritage.
Privacy laws aren't strong enough to keep police from accessing ancestry sites, which have fewer protections than regulated databanks of convicts' DNA, said Steve Mercer, chief attorney for the forensic division of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender.
"People who submit DNA for ancestors testing are unwittingly becoming genetic informants on their innocent family," Mercer said.
While people may not realize police can use public genealogy websites to solve crimes, it is probably legal, said Erin Murphy, a DNA expert and professor at New York University School of Law.
"It seems crazy to say a police officer investigating a very serious crime can't do something your cousin can do," Murphy said. "If an ordinary person can do this, why can't a cop? On the other hand, if an ordinary person had done this, we might think they shouldn't."
While most consumers would submit DNA to a commercial company such as Ancestry.com and 23andMe to create a genetic profile, the FBI did so for investigators, Holes told The New York Times.
The profile was then uploaded to GEDmatch using a fake profile and pseudonym, the Times reported. The site allows users to remain anonymous.
A year earlier, Holes had identified a rare genetic marker in the assailant's DNA. He entered the information among 189,000 profiles at the genealogy website, YSearch.org, and the results led to a relative of the Oregon man.
A spokeswoman for FamilyTreeDNA.com, which operates YSearch.org, said the company wasn't contacted by law enforcement.
"While we take our customers' privacy and confidentiality extremely seriously, we support ethically and legally justified uses of groundbreaking advancements of scientific research in genetics and genealogy," company officials said in a statement.
The man's daughter said the family was not aware that authorities had taken a DNA sample from him until the FBI contacted her in April 2017 to ask for her help expanding the family's genetic tree as they searched for a suspect. The family did not know until they read an AP story on Friday that a judge had issued a warrant for the DNA sample.
The woman spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because she did not want the family's name publicly linked to the case.
Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert told AP she was unaware of the Oregon misfire and, as far as she knows, genealogical sites weren't used before DeAngelo was identified.
DNA was just coming into use as a criminal investigative tool in 1986 when the predator also known as the East Area Rapist apparently ended his decade-long wave of attacks.
As a former police officer, DeAngelo probably would have known about the new method, experts said.
Police at the time suspected they were chasing a fellow cop or armed services member because he was so methodical and meticulous, said Wendell Phillips, a former Sacramento deputy who joined the hunt for the rapist who terrorized the suburbs east of the state capital.
In fact, officers assigned to a special task force were required to submit saliva samples to exclude anyone who shared a genetic trait, Phillips said. About 85 percent of people secrete their blood type in saliva and body fluids, but the rape suspect was in the roughly 15 percent who didn't.
"Obviously, you didn't want the East Area Rapist on the team," Phillips said. "That turned out to be a pretty good concern."
By Michael Balsamo and Jonathan J. Cooper
Associated Press
April 28, 2018
Investigators hunting down the so-called Golden State Killer used information from genetic websites last year that led to the wrong man, court records obtained Friday by The Associated Press showed.
An Oregon police officer working at the request of California investigators persuaded a judge in March 2017 to order a 73-year-old man in a nursing home to provide a DNA sample.
The Oregon City man is in declining health and was unable to answer questions Friday about the case.
His daughter said authorities never notified her before swabbing her father for DNA in his bed a rehabilitation center, but once they told her afterward she understood and worked with them to eliminate people who conceivably could be the killer.
The case of mistaken identity was discovered as authorities hailed a novel use of DNA technology that led this week to the arrest of former police officer Joseph DeAngelo at his house outside Sacramento on murder charges. Critics of the investigative approach, however, warned it could jeopardize privacy rights.
DeAngelo's suspected of being the sadistic attacker who killed 13 people and raped nearly 50 women during the 1970s and '80s.
Handcuffed to a wheelchair in orange jail scrubs, DeAngelo made his first court appearance Friday. The 72-year-old looked dazed and spoke in a faint voice to acknowledge he was represented by a public defender. He did not enter a plea.
He has been charged with eight counts of murder, and additional charges are expected, authorities said.
"We have the law to suggest that he is innocent until he's proven guilty and that's what I'm going to ask everyone to remember," DeAngelo's public defender Diane Howard said outside court. "I feel like he's been tried in the press already."
Investigators were able to make the arrest this week after matching crime-scene DNA with genetic material stored in an online database by a distant relative. They relied on a different website than they had in the Oregon search, and they did not seek a warrant for DeAngelo's DNA.
Instead, they waited for him to discard items and then swabbed the objects for DNA, which proved a conclusive match to evidence that had been preserved more than 30 years.
Also Friday, the co-founder of the genealogy website used by authorities to help identify DeAngelo said he had no idea its database was tapped in pursuit of the suspect who eluded law enforcement for four decades.
Authorities never approached Florida-based GEDmatch about the investigation that led to DeAngelo, and co-founder Curtis Rogers said law enforcement's use of the site raised privacy concerns that were echoed by civil liberties groups.
The free genealogy website, which pools DNA profiles that people upload and share publicly to find relatives, said it has always informed users its database can be used for other purposes. But Rogers said the company does not "hand out data."
"This was done without our knowledge, and it's been overwhelming," he told The Associated Press.
For the team of investigators, GEDmatch was one of the best tools, lead investigator Paul Holes told the Mercury News in San Jose.
Officials did not need a court order to access GEDmatch's large database of genetic blueprints, Holes said. Major commercial DNA companies say they do not give law enforcement access to their genetic data without a court order.
Civil libertarians said the practice raises legal and privacy concerns for the millions of people who submit their DNA to such sites to discover their heritage.
Privacy laws aren't strong enough to keep police from accessing ancestry sites, which have fewer protections than regulated databanks of convicts' DNA, said Steve Mercer, chief attorney for the forensic division of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender.
"People who submit DNA for ancestors testing are unwittingly becoming genetic informants on their innocent family," Mercer said.
While people may not realize police can use public genealogy websites to solve crimes, it is probably legal, said Erin Murphy, a DNA expert and professor at New York University School of Law.
"It seems crazy to say a police officer investigating a very serious crime can't do something your cousin can do," Murphy said. "If an ordinary person can do this, why can't a cop? On the other hand, if an ordinary person had done this, we might think they shouldn't."
While most consumers would submit DNA to a commercial company such as Ancestry.com and 23andMe to create a genetic profile, the FBI did so for investigators, Holes told The New York Times.
The profile was then uploaded to GEDmatch using a fake profile and pseudonym, the Times reported. The site allows users to remain anonymous.
A year earlier, Holes had identified a rare genetic marker in the assailant's DNA. He entered the information among 189,000 profiles at the genealogy website, YSearch.org, and the results led to a relative of the Oregon man.
A spokeswoman for FamilyTreeDNA.com, which operates YSearch.org, said the company wasn't contacted by law enforcement.
"While we take our customers' privacy and confidentiality extremely seriously, we support ethically and legally justified uses of groundbreaking advancements of scientific research in genetics and genealogy," company officials said in a statement.
The man's daughter said the family was not aware that authorities had taken a DNA sample from him until the FBI contacted her in April 2017 to ask for her help expanding the family's genetic tree as they searched for a suspect. The family did not know until they read an AP story on Friday that a judge had issued a warrant for the DNA sample.
The woman spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because she did not want the family's name publicly linked to the case.
Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert told AP she was unaware of the Oregon misfire and, as far as she knows, genealogical sites weren't used before DeAngelo was identified.
DNA was just coming into use as a criminal investigative tool in 1986 when the predator also known as the East Area Rapist apparently ended his decade-long wave of attacks.
As a former police officer, DeAngelo probably would have known about the new method, experts said.
Police at the time suspected they were chasing a fellow cop or armed services member because he was so methodical and meticulous, said Wendell Phillips, a former Sacramento deputy who joined the hunt for the rapist who terrorized the suburbs east of the state capital.
In fact, officers assigned to a special task force were required to submit saliva samples to exclude anyone who shared a genetic trait, Phillips said. About 85 percent of people secrete their blood type in saliva and body fluids, but the rape suspect was in the roughly 15 percent who didn't.
"Obviously, you didn't want the East Area Rapist on the team," Phillips said. "That turned out to be a pretty good concern."
HOW TEXAS STOLE 1,000 SQUARE MILES OF LAND FROM NEW MEXICO ….. AND GOT AWAY WITH IT
How A Bad Survey And Powerful Connections Added 1,000 Square Miles Of New Mexico To Texas’ Lands
By W.F. Strong
Texas Standard
April 18, 2018
You can never underestimate the value of a good friendship forged early in life. If not for such a friendship, Texas would be nearly 1,000 square miles smaller.
Before I get to the friendship, come with me up to the northwest corner of the panhandle where Texas meets Oklahoma and New Mexico. If you were looking at a map, you would see that the border between Oklahoma and New Mexico doesn’t meet up exactly with the border between Texas and New Mexico.
The line makes a jog to the left. It goes 2.3 miles left before heading straight south. That jog is the result of a survey error that some have called the worst survey error in U.S. history. But it isn’t just a two mile error – that error gets bigger as it continues south, 310 miles to the bottom Texas-New Mexico corner, where it turns west and heads for El Paso. All totaled, the mistake amounts to a 942 square mile error, a land mass bigger than Houston, though long and skinny, like a gerrymandered voting district.
In truth, that land should have gone to New Mexico. That was what was supposed to happen when Texas sold off its northern and western territories for $10 million in 1850. The border between Texas and the New Mexico Territory was to be exactly along the 103rd meridian. When the official survey was undertaken, almost ten years later, there was a problem with water, Indians, stars, algebra and math, which all contributed to the error that ended up a blessing for Texas.
Naturally, there’s quite a good long story behind the mistake. It is far too complex for these few minutes. I will give you the “cut to the chase version.”
A man named John H. Clark was hired to do the survey and plant the monuments along the 103rd meridian. He started from the south and surveyed northward until he ran out of access to water. So he stopped and said, “I’ll just go up to the north end of Texas and come down.” So he did.
Clark started again northwest of present-day Dalhart, and headed south until the native Americans frightened him off. Though he was about 70 miles from connecting his two lines, he figured it was good enough and turned in his work. His two lines wouldn’t have intersected anyway. The problem was his northern starting point was about 2.3 miles west of where it should have been and his southern corner was nearly 3.8 miles west of where it should have been. Consequently, that border slides imperceptibly 1.5 miles ever so gently southwest over a distance of 310 miles. Pull up a Google map on your phone and align the southeastern corner of New Mexico with your left straight-edge phone border. You will see that the border slants off to the right up at the top. That’s the error. It amounts to 603,348 acres. That’s about three-quarters of the size of the King Ranch.
Well, nobody knew it was wrong and so the bad survey based on poor calculations was certified by the U.S. in 1891 and it became the legal boundary.
By the time New Mexico was about to get statehood with the Enabling Act of 1910, it had become aware of Clark’s error and slipped into the statehood law a clause saying that the eastern boundary would be the true 103rd meridian. New Mexico would get its land back. All was going well and nobody was paying attention to the land grab except for John Farwell, who was an original investor in the XIT Ranch. Those were the same investors who essentially built our state capital in Austin. Well, he realized that the XIT would lose hundreds of thousands of acres (and mineral rights) if the New Mexico plan went through as it was.
He couldn’t get any legislators to listen and so he did what we all do in times of trouble: he said, “Who do I know?” Just so happened that he knew President William Howard Taft. They had been good friends during their college years at Yale. So he went to see his old buddy, Howard. He explained the predicament and Taft immediately summoned powerful men to his office and told them that the Clark border would be the legal border when New Mexico was made a state or it wouldn’t be made one. He said that since the boundary had existed for more than fifty years, and had been certified 20 years before, it had to be grandfathered in. Otherwise, people who believed they were Texans would suddenly be in New Mexico and litigation over land titles would never end.
And that is how a survey error, and an old friendship ended up making Texas almost a thousand square miles bigger than it was supposed to be. Once again, it’s all about who you know.
A final note of interest. There is a town out in the Panhandle called Farwell, Texas. It’s just a few feet on the Texas side of the border with New Mexico. It is named after John Farwell. Had he failed to convince Taft to keep the old border line, the town named for him would have become Farwell, New Mexico.
By W.F. Strong
Texas Standard
April 18, 2018
You can never underestimate the value of a good friendship forged early in life. If not for such a friendship, Texas would be nearly 1,000 square miles smaller.
Before I get to the friendship, come with me up to the northwest corner of the panhandle where Texas meets Oklahoma and New Mexico. If you were looking at a map, you would see that the border between Oklahoma and New Mexico doesn’t meet up exactly with the border between Texas and New Mexico.
The line makes a jog to the left. It goes 2.3 miles left before heading straight south. That jog is the result of a survey error that some have called the worst survey error in U.S. history. But it isn’t just a two mile error – that error gets bigger as it continues south, 310 miles to the bottom Texas-New Mexico corner, where it turns west and heads for El Paso. All totaled, the mistake amounts to a 942 square mile error, a land mass bigger than Houston, though long and skinny, like a gerrymandered voting district.
In truth, that land should have gone to New Mexico. That was what was supposed to happen when Texas sold off its northern and western territories for $10 million in 1850. The border between Texas and the New Mexico Territory was to be exactly along the 103rd meridian. When the official survey was undertaken, almost ten years later, there was a problem with water, Indians, stars, algebra and math, which all contributed to the error that ended up a blessing for Texas.
Naturally, there’s quite a good long story behind the mistake. It is far too complex for these few minutes. I will give you the “cut to the chase version.”
A man named John H. Clark was hired to do the survey and plant the monuments along the 103rd meridian. He started from the south and surveyed northward until he ran out of access to water. So he stopped and said, “I’ll just go up to the north end of Texas and come down.” So he did.
Clark started again northwest of present-day Dalhart, and headed south until the native Americans frightened him off. Though he was about 70 miles from connecting his two lines, he figured it was good enough and turned in his work. His two lines wouldn’t have intersected anyway. The problem was his northern starting point was about 2.3 miles west of where it should have been and his southern corner was nearly 3.8 miles west of where it should have been. Consequently, that border slides imperceptibly 1.5 miles ever so gently southwest over a distance of 310 miles. Pull up a Google map on your phone and align the southeastern corner of New Mexico with your left straight-edge phone border. You will see that the border slants off to the right up at the top. That’s the error. It amounts to 603,348 acres. That’s about three-quarters of the size of the King Ranch.
Well, nobody knew it was wrong and so the bad survey based on poor calculations was certified by the U.S. in 1891 and it became the legal boundary.
By the time New Mexico was about to get statehood with the Enabling Act of 1910, it had become aware of Clark’s error and slipped into the statehood law a clause saying that the eastern boundary would be the true 103rd meridian. New Mexico would get its land back. All was going well and nobody was paying attention to the land grab except for John Farwell, who was an original investor in the XIT Ranch. Those were the same investors who essentially built our state capital in Austin. Well, he realized that the XIT would lose hundreds of thousands of acres (and mineral rights) if the New Mexico plan went through as it was.
He couldn’t get any legislators to listen and so he did what we all do in times of trouble: he said, “Who do I know?” Just so happened that he knew President William Howard Taft. They had been good friends during their college years at Yale. So he went to see his old buddy, Howard. He explained the predicament and Taft immediately summoned powerful men to his office and told them that the Clark border would be the legal border when New Mexico was made a state or it wouldn’t be made one. He said that since the boundary had existed for more than fifty years, and had been certified 20 years before, it had to be grandfathered in. Otherwise, people who believed they were Texans would suddenly be in New Mexico and litigation over land titles would never end.
And that is how a survey error, and an old friendship ended up making Texas almost a thousand square miles bigger than it was supposed to be. Once again, it’s all about who you know.
A final note of interest. There is a town out in the Panhandle called Farwell, Texas. It’s just a few feet on the Texas side of the border with New Mexico. It is named after John Farwell. Had he failed to convince Taft to keep the old border line, the town named for him would have become Farwell, New Mexico.
Saturday, April 28, 2018
I WOULDN'T PUT IT THAT WAY
by Bob Walsh
The LAPPL (Los Angeles P:olice Protective League, the union that represents LAPD officers) has a very interesting project in the works. They are calling it an attempt to help Jerry Brown keep his word regarding public safety. If it was me I would call it "HELP JERRY GET HIS HEAD OUT OF HIS ASS" but maybe they thought their way would sell better.
The proposal is a Ballot Initiative, titled REDUCING CRIME AND KEEPING CALIFORNIA SAFE ACT OF 2018. What it does is changes the definition of "violent crime." This is desirable because of Jerry's Proposition 57, passed by the voters. This proposition makes it possible for prsons convicted of non-violent crimes to get out of prison much earlier than would otherwise be possible. The problem, therefore, is the definition of VIOLENT CRIME.
Right now the below listed offenses are right now considered non-violent crimes in the formerly great state of California. This proposal, if passed into law, would change them to be considered VIOLENT and change them in such a way that it will be very difficult for the legislature to further diddle with them.
__Solicitation to commit murder.
__Felony Assault with a Firearm.
__Felony Assault with a deadly weapon.
__Felon Assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer or fire fighter.
__Assault with a caustic chemical.
__False Imprisonment
__Felony Domestic Abuse
__Spousal Rape
__Use of force or threat of force against the victim or witness to a crime.
__Sexual assaults against disabled persons.
I have real hope that this will fly. When the voters approved Proposition 57 I strongly believe they thought they were dealing with a relatively "normal" definition of non-violent offense They were duped..
The LAPPL (Los Angeles P:olice Protective League, the union that represents LAPD officers) has a very interesting project in the works. They are calling it an attempt to help Jerry Brown keep his word regarding public safety. If it was me I would call it "HELP JERRY GET HIS HEAD OUT OF HIS ASS" but maybe they thought their way would sell better.
The proposal is a Ballot Initiative, titled REDUCING CRIME AND KEEPING CALIFORNIA SAFE ACT OF 2018. What it does is changes the definition of "violent crime." This is desirable because of Jerry's Proposition 57, passed by the voters. This proposition makes it possible for prsons convicted of non-violent crimes to get out of prison much earlier than would otherwise be possible. The problem, therefore, is the definition of VIOLENT CRIME.
Right now the below listed offenses are right now considered non-violent crimes in the formerly great state of California. This proposal, if passed into law, would change them to be considered VIOLENT and change them in such a way that it will be very difficult for the legislature to further diddle with them.
__Solicitation to commit murder.
__Felony Assault with a Firearm.
__Felony Assault with a deadly weapon.
__Felon Assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer or fire fighter.
__Assault with a caustic chemical.
__False Imprisonment
__Felony Domestic Abuse
__Spousal Rape
__Use of force or threat of force against the victim or witness to a crime.
__Sexual assaults against disabled persons.
I have real hope that this will fly. When the voters approved Proposition 57 I strongly believe they thought they were dealing with a relatively "normal" definition of non-violent offense They were duped..
UNIVERSITIES DO NOT WANT TO FIRE PROFESSORS BECAUSE THEN THEY MAY NOT BE ABLE TO GET A PROFESSOR POSITION AT ANOTHER UNIVERSITY
Drake University professor accused of spanking female students, making them sit on his lap and call him ‘dad’ is allowed to resign
By Kathy A. Bolten
Des Moines Register
April 27, 2018
A Drake University professor has been allowed to resign effective June 1 after an internal investigation last fall found that he spanked female students and had them sit on his lap, the Des Moines Register has learned.
Mahmoud Hamad, an associate professor in Drake’s political science department, is currently on a leave of absence and “has no teaching or academic responsibilities” at the university, said Sue Mattison, Drake’s provost.
Hamad, 42, has not taught at Drake since 2016 and was on a sabbatical during 2017, a university spokesman said.
Mattison declined to say whether Hamad was asked to resign. She also declined to say whether Hamad is being paid while on leave, which began when his sabbatical ended.
An investigation into Hamad’s conduct found that he “physically, sexually and verbally intimidated” female students and “did exploit the power differential that existed between him and his female students,” according to a completed report dated Nov. 8, 2017.
Hamad’s behavior violated Drake’s sexual and misconduct policy and its consensual relationships policy, according to the report. Drake never referred the case to Des Moines police.
Nickey Jafari, 24, a 2014 Drake graduate who notified university officials about Hamad's conduct, criticized their handling of the matter.
“Allowing (Hamad) to resign is unfair to any survivors,” she said. Jafari filed a complaint about Hamad, who was her adviser, with Drake in May 2017.
“Letting him resign instead of firing him is not as clear of a statement from Drake that ‘This happened and we don’t condone or support it,’ " Jafari said. "I’m disappointed."
Hamad, reached at his Des Moines-area home, declined to comment, citing the advice of his attorney.
In the report, Hamad denied the accusations made by Jafari and other students.
#MeToo spurs resignations for sexual misconduct
Information about the Drake investigation and Hamad’s resignation comes during a wave of reviews into sexual misconduct by university faculty and officials on campuses across the country.
Since the #MeToo movement began last October, numerous professors have been fired or forced to resign over sexual misconduct accusations. The hashtag spread on social media as victims and others used it to show the prevalence of sexual assaults and harassment.
__In recent months, two professors at Columbia University in New York City resigned after accusations of sexual misconduct surfaced.
__At Dartmouth College, three faculty members were placed on leave pending the investigation of sexual misconduct allegations.
__The most prominent cases have been at Michigan State University, where the doctor for the school’s women’s gymnastics team and the U.S. women’s Olympic gymnastics team abused 200 young girls and women over more than two decades.
Jafari said she decided to speak out about her treatment by Hamad after three-time Olympic gold medal winner Aly Raisman reported abuse by Larry Nassar, who is serving multiple prison sentences.
Last year, Jafari posted information about Hamad’s conduct on social media.
"I am writing this because I know what it feels like to be powerless, to feel vulnerable, and small, and absolutely petrified in that situation," Jafari wrote.
The Register wrote about Jafari’s post and asked for a response from Drake officials.
In a Dec. 1 written statement, Drake officials wrote that the university was “aware of the claims” made by Jafari. Officials wrote that “because the process has not yet concluded, no further comment can be provided.”
Drake is a private Des Moines-based university that was founded in 1881 and has about 5,000 students. The university is internationally acclaimed for the Drake Relays, an annual track and field event being held this week that attracts world-class athletes.
Jafari, Hamad went on student trip to Egypt
Jafari, who began attending Drake in August 2010, met Hamad in the summer of 2011 when she was part of a student group that visited Egypt. Hamad led the group and was the instructor for the honors courses related to the trip.
In the fall of 2011, Hamad, a tenured professor, became one of Jafari’s academic advisers.
In the report, Jafari told investigators that Hamad asked her to sit on his lap and she complied twice. She told investigators that the professor put his arms around her and that his face was close to her neck.
Hamad also asked Jafari to call him “Dad.”
In addition, Hamad told her that he would take her to Egypt for free if she got a 4.0 grade-point average, according to the report.
“I decided to come forward because I knew I wasn’t the only one this happened to, and I didn’t want him to be able to move from school to school,” Jafari told the Register during a phone interview Thursday.
The report also stated that another Drake student had an “emotional and physical relationship” with Hamad. That student didn’t report the misconduct because she was “worried about repercussions,” the report said.
Drake won't say why it didn't fire Hamad
Investigators found that Jafari and others who were interviewed were “credible,” the report said. In addition, investigators found Hamad’s denials “not credible.”
The report found that Hamad violated university policies through “unwelcome advances and unwelcome verbal and physical conduct and intimidation aimed at female students because of their sex.”
Hamad made “submission to his conduct an implicit or explicit requirement for academic success, recommendations, and networking contacts,” the report said.
In a statement issued to the Register on Thursday, a Drake spokesman wrote that the university “is committed to the safety and well-being of all students, and especially those who have the courage to come forward with a complaint. We take such allegations seriously and have strong policies in place under Title IX that have been followed.
“We are confident in the outcome of the investigation that resulted from the complaint made in this case.”
Drake’s sexual and interpersonal misconduct policy states that sanctions for employees who violate the policy “could range from counseling to termination from employment.”
Drake officials declined to say why Hamad was allowed to resign rather than be fired.
Jafari, who is studying medicine, said Hamad should have been fired once the investigation was completed.
“Any university who cares about its students would have a zero-tolerance policy against sexual misconduct," she said. "If letting someone found guilty (of sexual misconduct) is the norm, then we need to change that standard.”
By Kathy A. Bolten
Des Moines Register
April 27, 2018
A Drake University professor has been allowed to resign effective June 1 after an internal investigation last fall found that he spanked female students and had them sit on his lap, the Des Moines Register has learned.
Mahmoud Hamad, an associate professor in Drake’s political science department, is currently on a leave of absence and “has no teaching or academic responsibilities” at the university, said Sue Mattison, Drake’s provost.
Hamad, 42, has not taught at Drake since 2016 and was on a sabbatical during 2017, a university spokesman said.
Mattison declined to say whether Hamad was asked to resign. She also declined to say whether Hamad is being paid while on leave, which began when his sabbatical ended.
An investigation into Hamad’s conduct found that he “physically, sexually and verbally intimidated” female students and “did exploit the power differential that existed between him and his female students,” according to a completed report dated Nov. 8, 2017.
Hamad’s behavior violated Drake’s sexual and misconduct policy and its consensual relationships policy, according to the report. Drake never referred the case to Des Moines police.
Nickey Jafari, 24, a 2014 Drake graduate who notified university officials about Hamad's conduct, criticized their handling of the matter.
“Allowing (Hamad) to resign is unfair to any survivors,” she said. Jafari filed a complaint about Hamad, who was her adviser, with Drake in May 2017.
“Letting him resign instead of firing him is not as clear of a statement from Drake that ‘This happened and we don’t condone or support it,’ " Jafari said. "I’m disappointed."
Hamad, reached at his Des Moines-area home, declined to comment, citing the advice of his attorney.
In the report, Hamad denied the accusations made by Jafari and other students.
#MeToo spurs resignations for sexual misconduct
Information about the Drake investigation and Hamad’s resignation comes during a wave of reviews into sexual misconduct by university faculty and officials on campuses across the country.
Since the #MeToo movement began last October, numerous professors have been fired or forced to resign over sexual misconduct accusations. The hashtag spread on social media as victims and others used it to show the prevalence of sexual assaults and harassment.
__In recent months, two professors at Columbia University in New York City resigned after accusations of sexual misconduct surfaced.
__At Dartmouth College, three faculty members were placed on leave pending the investigation of sexual misconduct allegations.
__The most prominent cases have been at Michigan State University, where the doctor for the school’s women’s gymnastics team and the U.S. women’s Olympic gymnastics team abused 200 young girls and women over more than two decades.
Jafari said she decided to speak out about her treatment by Hamad after three-time Olympic gold medal winner Aly Raisman reported abuse by Larry Nassar, who is serving multiple prison sentences.
Last year, Jafari posted information about Hamad’s conduct on social media.
"I am writing this because I know what it feels like to be powerless, to feel vulnerable, and small, and absolutely petrified in that situation," Jafari wrote.
The Register wrote about Jafari’s post and asked for a response from Drake officials.
In a Dec. 1 written statement, Drake officials wrote that the university was “aware of the claims” made by Jafari. Officials wrote that “because the process has not yet concluded, no further comment can be provided.”
Drake is a private Des Moines-based university that was founded in 1881 and has about 5,000 students. The university is internationally acclaimed for the Drake Relays, an annual track and field event being held this week that attracts world-class athletes.
Jafari, Hamad went on student trip to Egypt
Jafari, who began attending Drake in August 2010, met Hamad in the summer of 2011 when she was part of a student group that visited Egypt. Hamad led the group and was the instructor for the honors courses related to the trip.
In the fall of 2011, Hamad, a tenured professor, became one of Jafari’s academic advisers.
In the report, Jafari told investigators that Hamad asked her to sit on his lap and she complied twice. She told investigators that the professor put his arms around her and that his face was close to her neck.
Hamad also asked Jafari to call him “Dad.”
In addition, Hamad told her that he would take her to Egypt for free if she got a 4.0 grade-point average, according to the report.
“I decided to come forward because I knew I wasn’t the only one this happened to, and I didn’t want him to be able to move from school to school,” Jafari told the Register during a phone interview Thursday.
The report also stated that another Drake student had an “emotional and physical relationship” with Hamad. That student didn’t report the misconduct because she was “worried about repercussions,” the report said.
Drake won't say why it didn't fire Hamad
Investigators found that Jafari and others who were interviewed were “credible,” the report said. In addition, investigators found Hamad’s denials “not credible.”
The report found that Hamad violated university policies through “unwelcome advances and unwelcome verbal and physical conduct and intimidation aimed at female students because of their sex.”
Hamad made “submission to his conduct an implicit or explicit requirement for academic success, recommendations, and networking contacts,” the report said.
In a statement issued to the Register on Thursday, a Drake spokesman wrote that the university “is committed to the safety and well-being of all students, and especially those who have the courage to come forward with a complaint. We take such allegations seriously and have strong policies in place under Title IX that have been followed.
“We are confident in the outcome of the investigation that resulted from the complaint made in this case.”
Drake’s sexual and interpersonal misconduct policy states that sanctions for employees who violate the policy “could range from counseling to termination from employment.”
Drake officials declined to say why Hamad was allowed to resign rather than be fired.
Jafari, who is studying medicine, said Hamad should have been fired once the investigation was completed.
“Any university who cares about its students would have a zero-tolerance policy against sexual misconduct," she said. "If letting someone found guilty (of sexual misconduct) is the norm, then we need to change that standard.”
13-YEAR-OLD KILLS YOUNGER BROTHER WITH GUN HE TOOK AFTER DISASSEMBLING LOCKED CABINET
Grandfather locked up guns, but 13-year-old used tools to take apart, reassemble cabinet, police say
By Amanda Garrett
Akron Beacon Journal
April 25, 2018
STREETSBORO, Ohio -- The man seemed to do almost everything right to keep his guns out of the wrong hands.
He locked them inside a wood and glass cabinet and hid the key at someone else’s house, far from his own grandchildren or anyone else who might come snooping around.
That had been the arrangement for years, police said. And no one suspected any of the guns missing until Monday night when Streetsboro police found the man’s .357 Magnum at the home where two of his grandsons lived.
Police suspect the man’s 13-year-old grandson used the handgun to shoot and kill his 11-year-old brother.
It’s not clear when the 13-year-old — who expressed suicidal thoughts four days before his little brother’s homicide — got hold of the weapon, Streetsboro police Lt. Patricia Wain said.
But it took some work to steal it, she said.
When the 13-year-old couldn’t find the key to his grandfather’s gun cabinet, he used a screwdriver, pliers or whatever other tools he needed to dismantle part of the bottom part of the wooden cabinet and take the gun, Wain said.
Afterward, the boy put the cabinet back together so no one suspected anything was amiss, she said.
Police Wednesday were awaiting autopsy and ballistic tests to confirm the .357 was the weapon used to shoot Caleb Lishing about an hour after a baby sitter sent him to bed.
But it was the only gun found inside the home where the shooting occurred, Wain said.
Police still are investigating how the boy got the ammunition —whether it came from inside the grandfather’s locked cabinet or somewhere else, she said.
On Wednesday, as the community mourned Caleb Lishing, his 13-year-old brother made his first court appearance on aggravated murder charges.
The Beacon Journal is not naming the 13-year-old — who faces aggravated murder charges as a juvenile — because of his age. In Ohio, children younger than 14 cannot be bound over to face adult charges.
The boy, appearing with a public defender, denied the charges against him before a Portage County Juvenile Court judge, Administrator Tammy R. Dolin said.
The judge ordered the boy, who has been held since his arrest Monday, to continue to be detained both because of the seriousness of the charges against him and for his own safety, she said.
Police haven’t publicly speculated about a possible motive in the slaying.
A panicked 911 call made by a baby sitter Monday night reveal some of what happened immediately before and after the shooting.
The woman said she sent Caleb Lishing to bed about 8:30 p.m., followed by his 13-year-old brother at 9 p.m.
About 9:30 p.m., the baby sitter heard a pop and ran toward Caleb’s room. On the way, she ran into the 13-year-old, who asked her what that noise was.
Moments later, the baby sitter discovered Caleb in his room with a hole in his neck and “blood everywhere.”
Police said the 13-year-old left the home on foot and was quickly picked up by officers who responded to the shooting.
Homicides are rare in this growing city of about 16,000, a bedroom community serving both Akron and Cleveland.
The last happened in 1999 when a Warren man strangled 23-year-old Michelle Haas of Kent.
It happened inside a Streetsboro barn that served as a garage for an auto-repair shop. James O. Reline Jr. of Warren worked there and Haas was the girlfriend of one of his co-workers, according to a Beacon Journal story at the time.
Four days after Haas disappeared, Reline walked into the Warren Police Department and confessed to her murder, leading authorities to her body, the story said.
Reline, now 58, is serving a life sentence at Allen Correctional Institution and is next eligible for a parole hearing in 2024, state records show.
On Wednesday, the Streetsboro Community PTA said it had partnered with Steppingstones Pathway to host a candlelight vigil to honor Caleb beginning 4 p.m. Sunday at the Streetsboro school district’s stadium on Annalane Drive. Donations of teddy bears and stuffed animals will be collected at the event and donated to charity, the PTA said. Steppingstone Pathway is a personal and professional development company owned by Jackie Lishing, stepmother to Caleb and his 13-year-old brother.
Lishing promotes the business on her personal Facebook page, a place where she also shares others’ inspirational stories and tries to find help for people in need.
On Jan. 19, Lishing posted something she needed: “Believe it or not, I’m back in the ballpark looking for a reputable baby sitter.”
Three people responded on Facebook, including the baby sitter who called 911 Monday after Caleb was shot.
By Amanda Garrett
Akron Beacon Journal
April 25, 2018
STREETSBORO, Ohio -- The man seemed to do almost everything right to keep his guns out of the wrong hands.
He locked them inside a wood and glass cabinet and hid the key at someone else’s house, far from his own grandchildren or anyone else who might come snooping around.
That had been the arrangement for years, police said. And no one suspected any of the guns missing until Monday night when Streetsboro police found the man’s .357 Magnum at the home where two of his grandsons lived.
Police suspect the man’s 13-year-old grandson used the handgun to shoot and kill his 11-year-old brother.
It’s not clear when the 13-year-old — who expressed suicidal thoughts four days before his little brother’s homicide — got hold of the weapon, Streetsboro police Lt. Patricia Wain said.
But it took some work to steal it, she said.
When the 13-year-old couldn’t find the key to his grandfather’s gun cabinet, he used a screwdriver, pliers or whatever other tools he needed to dismantle part of the bottom part of the wooden cabinet and take the gun, Wain said.
Afterward, the boy put the cabinet back together so no one suspected anything was amiss, she said.
Police Wednesday were awaiting autopsy and ballistic tests to confirm the .357 was the weapon used to shoot Caleb Lishing about an hour after a baby sitter sent him to bed.
But it was the only gun found inside the home where the shooting occurred, Wain said.
Police still are investigating how the boy got the ammunition —whether it came from inside the grandfather’s locked cabinet or somewhere else, she said.
On Wednesday, as the community mourned Caleb Lishing, his 13-year-old brother made his first court appearance on aggravated murder charges.
The Beacon Journal is not naming the 13-year-old — who faces aggravated murder charges as a juvenile — because of his age. In Ohio, children younger than 14 cannot be bound over to face adult charges.
The boy, appearing with a public defender, denied the charges against him before a Portage County Juvenile Court judge, Administrator Tammy R. Dolin said.
The judge ordered the boy, who has been held since his arrest Monday, to continue to be detained both because of the seriousness of the charges against him and for his own safety, she said.
Police haven’t publicly speculated about a possible motive in the slaying.
A panicked 911 call made by a baby sitter Monday night reveal some of what happened immediately before and after the shooting.
The woman said she sent Caleb Lishing to bed about 8:30 p.m., followed by his 13-year-old brother at 9 p.m.
About 9:30 p.m., the baby sitter heard a pop and ran toward Caleb’s room. On the way, she ran into the 13-year-old, who asked her what that noise was.
Moments later, the baby sitter discovered Caleb in his room with a hole in his neck and “blood everywhere.”
Police said the 13-year-old left the home on foot and was quickly picked up by officers who responded to the shooting.
Homicides are rare in this growing city of about 16,000, a bedroom community serving both Akron and Cleveland.
The last happened in 1999 when a Warren man strangled 23-year-old Michelle Haas of Kent.
It happened inside a Streetsboro barn that served as a garage for an auto-repair shop. James O. Reline Jr. of Warren worked there and Haas was the girlfriend of one of his co-workers, according to a Beacon Journal story at the time.
Four days after Haas disappeared, Reline walked into the Warren Police Department and confessed to her murder, leading authorities to her body, the story said.
Reline, now 58, is serving a life sentence at Allen Correctional Institution and is next eligible for a parole hearing in 2024, state records show.
On Wednesday, the Streetsboro Community PTA said it had partnered with Steppingstones Pathway to host a candlelight vigil to honor Caleb beginning 4 p.m. Sunday at the Streetsboro school district’s stadium on Annalane Drive. Donations of teddy bears and stuffed animals will be collected at the event and donated to charity, the PTA said. Steppingstone Pathway is a personal and professional development company owned by Jackie Lishing, stepmother to Caleb and his 13-year-old brother.
Lishing promotes the business on her personal Facebook page, a place where she also shares others’ inspirational stories and tries to find help for people in need.
On Jan. 19, Lishing posted something she needed: “Believe it or not, I’m back in the ballpark looking for a reputable baby sitter.”
Three people responded on Facebook, including the baby sitter who called 911 Monday after Caleb was shot.
TEXAS TROOPER SHOOTS DEAD OKLAHOMA KIDNAPPER AS HE WAS STABBING HIS VICTIM
Suspect dead; alleged kidnapping victim in serious but stable condition
by Patrick Johnston
Times Record News
April 26, 2018
A Norman, Oklahoma, man is dead Thursday after being shot by Texas law enforcement as he was stabbing a woman following a high-speed chase through North Texas.
Wichita County Sheriff David Duke said the suspect got out of the vehicle as the pursuit ended and began stabbing his ex-girlfriend, who he had reportedly kidnapped. She is listed in serious but stable condition at a Norman hospital.
The Oklahoman reported that police in Norman, Oklahoma, responded to a domestic disturbance, where the alleged kidnapping happened around 7:25 a.m.
Around 8:30 a.m., Burkburnett police were notified that the pair were possibly travelling to Texas.
A short time later, an officer spotted the suspect vehicle, a red Dodge Charger, driving through the city, Wichita County Sheriff David Duke said.
"They initiated the pursuit, and our deputies got involved with it north of Wichita Falls," Duke said.
Based on early reports, multiple law enforcement agencies tried to deploy a spike strip to stop the Charger as it fled through Wichita Falls before heading north down U.S. Highway 287 toward Vernon.
An Electra Police Department officer and DPS trooper successfully spiked the vehicle, and it came to a stop about five miles east of Vernon on U.S. 287.
“The vehicle lost control and ended up in the barrow ditch," Duke said. "One of our deputy’s vehicles was up there – actually, he was cutting in there to get the vehicle before they (the suspect and victim) got out of the car.”
As the Wichita County deputy approached with his firearm drawn, the female kidnapping victim got out of the Charger and ran toward approaching state troopers who were pulling up to the scene.
While the deputy was trying to get out of his vehicle, Duke said a truck struck the WCSO vehicle that had been involved in the pursuit. He said the vehicle only received "cosmetic damage."
“The suspect got out and ran," Duke said. "Our deputy witnessed the suspect tackle the female. He had a large knife and began stabbing her. At that point, the DPS engaged the suspect.”
Around 9:40 a.m., the suspect was shot by state troopers in response to the stabbing of the female victim, a DPS news release stated. The suspect died at the scene.
“No county deputies were involved in the shooting,” Duke said.
Sgt. Dan Buesing, a DPS spokesperson, confirmed the agency's involvement in the high-speed chase and officer-involved shooting.
"It did end up in a fatality," Buesing said. "At this point, the Texas Rangers are coming in to start our investigation. Once they get their investigation wrapped up, we’ll be able to release more information.”
The female victim was taken to Wilbarger General Hospital in Vernon for the treatment of multiple stab wounds, and later airlifted to OU Medical Center in Norman, Oklahoma, with what was described as "serious injuries," the news release stated.
She was in serious but stable condition as of 8:20 p.m. Thursday, according to the release.
A Texas Ranger from Wichita Falls was already on scene around 10:45 a.m. A second Ranger from Childress was expected to assist in the investigation.
Buesing said any additional information about the pursuit or shooting would be released following the investigation.
The names of the suspect and victim are being withheld until notification has been given to family members, the release stated.
“All officers are okay. First responders are good," Buesing said. "We’re just going to be waiting for more information from the rangers once they get their investigation underway.
by Patrick Johnston
Times Record News
April 26, 2018
A Norman, Oklahoma, man is dead Thursday after being shot by Texas law enforcement as he was stabbing a woman following a high-speed chase through North Texas.
Wichita County Sheriff David Duke said the suspect got out of the vehicle as the pursuit ended and began stabbing his ex-girlfriend, who he had reportedly kidnapped. She is listed in serious but stable condition at a Norman hospital.
The Oklahoman reported that police in Norman, Oklahoma, responded to a domestic disturbance, where the alleged kidnapping happened around 7:25 a.m.
Around 8:30 a.m., Burkburnett police were notified that the pair were possibly travelling to Texas.
A short time later, an officer spotted the suspect vehicle, a red Dodge Charger, driving through the city, Wichita County Sheriff David Duke said.
"They initiated the pursuit, and our deputies got involved with it north of Wichita Falls," Duke said.
Based on early reports, multiple law enforcement agencies tried to deploy a spike strip to stop the Charger as it fled through Wichita Falls before heading north down U.S. Highway 287 toward Vernon.
An Electra Police Department officer and DPS trooper successfully spiked the vehicle, and it came to a stop about five miles east of Vernon on U.S. 287.
“The vehicle lost control and ended up in the barrow ditch," Duke said. "One of our deputy’s vehicles was up there – actually, he was cutting in there to get the vehicle before they (the suspect and victim) got out of the car.”
As the Wichita County deputy approached with his firearm drawn, the female kidnapping victim got out of the Charger and ran toward approaching state troopers who were pulling up to the scene.
While the deputy was trying to get out of his vehicle, Duke said a truck struck the WCSO vehicle that had been involved in the pursuit. He said the vehicle only received "cosmetic damage."
“The suspect got out and ran," Duke said. "Our deputy witnessed the suspect tackle the female. He had a large knife and began stabbing her. At that point, the DPS engaged the suspect.”
Around 9:40 a.m., the suspect was shot by state troopers in response to the stabbing of the female victim, a DPS news release stated. The suspect died at the scene.
“No county deputies were involved in the shooting,” Duke said.
Sgt. Dan Buesing, a DPS spokesperson, confirmed the agency's involvement in the high-speed chase and officer-involved shooting.
"It did end up in a fatality," Buesing said. "At this point, the Texas Rangers are coming in to start our investigation. Once they get their investigation wrapped up, we’ll be able to release more information.”
The female victim was taken to Wilbarger General Hospital in Vernon for the treatment of multiple stab wounds, and later airlifted to OU Medical Center in Norman, Oklahoma, with what was described as "serious injuries," the news release stated.
She was in serious but stable condition as of 8:20 p.m. Thursday, according to the release.
A Texas Ranger from Wichita Falls was already on scene around 10:45 a.m. A second Ranger from Childress was expected to assist in the investigation.
Buesing said any additional information about the pursuit or shooting would be released following the investigation.
The names of the suspect and victim are being withheld until notification has been given to family members, the release stated.
“All officers are okay. First responders are good," Buesing said. "We’re just going to be waiting for more information from the rangers once they get their investigation underway.
TWO HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE ….. EXCEPT WHEN THEY ARE SEVERED
Women's severed heads found in Texas, Louisiana – are discoveries linked?
CBS/AP
April 27, 2018
HOUSTON -- Severed heads have been discovered in the last month near lakes in Texas and Louisiana, and investigators are trying to determine if the gruesome discoveries are linked. The Houston Chronicle reports that the two victims haven't been identified but were white women with reddish hair. Their heads were found in plastic bags and in similar surroundings at Lake Houston and near Calcasieu Lake. The lakes are about 150 miles apart.
A prison inmate doing cleanup labor found the severed head in Louisiana on March 1. It was in a grassy marsh next to Highway 27 in Cameron Parish.
"It definitely had not been there for years, maybe a few months," Cameron Parish Sheriff Ron Johnson told CBS affiliate KLFY-TV last month. "The Calcasieu Parish Coroner's Office is going to help us with the investigation."
Volunteer cleanup crews near Lake Houston made the other macabre discovery on March 24 in Huffman.
CBS affiliate KHOU reported that investigators weretrying to track down a man seen in that area a couple of weeks earlier. Witnesses said they saw him pull over at the bridge above where the bag was found. He got out of his pickup and threw a black trash bag off the bridge.
No one has been arrested. The Cameron Parish Sheriff's Office and Houston police acknowledge similarities in the cases and are sharing information.
CBS/AP
April 27, 2018
HOUSTON -- Severed heads have been discovered in the last month near lakes in Texas and Louisiana, and investigators are trying to determine if the gruesome discoveries are linked. The Houston Chronicle reports that the two victims haven't been identified but were white women with reddish hair. Their heads were found in plastic bags and in similar surroundings at Lake Houston and near Calcasieu Lake. The lakes are about 150 miles apart.
A prison inmate doing cleanup labor found the severed head in Louisiana on March 1. It was in a grassy marsh next to Highway 27 in Cameron Parish.
"It definitely had not been there for years, maybe a few months," Cameron Parish Sheriff Ron Johnson told CBS affiliate KLFY-TV last month. "The Calcasieu Parish Coroner's Office is going to help us with the investigation."
Volunteer cleanup crews near Lake Houston made the other macabre discovery on March 24 in Huffman.
CBS affiliate KHOU reported that investigators weretrying to track down a man seen in that area a couple of weeks earlier. Witnesses said they saw him pull over at the bridge above where the bag was found. He got out of his pickup and threw a black trash bag off the bridge.
No one has been arrested. The Cameron Parish Sheriff's Office and Houston police acknowledge similarities in the cases and are sharing information.
THE DOUBLE STANDARDS OF THE MUELLER INVESTIGATION
The more Mueller searches for hypothetical lawbreaking, the more he ignores the actual lawbreakers
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review
April 26, 2018
The country is about to witness an investigatory train wreck.
In one direction, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation train is looking for any conceivable thing that President Donald Trump’s campaign team might have done wrong in 2016.
The oncoming train is slower but also larger. It involves congressional investigations, Department of Justice referrals, and inspector general’s reports — mostly focused on improper or illegal FBI and DOJ behavior during the 2016 election.
Why are the two now about to collide?
By charging former national-security adviser Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI, Mueller emphasized that even the appearance of false testimony is felonious behavior.
If that is so, then the DOJ will probably have to charge former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe with perjury or related offenses. A report from the Office of the Inspector General indicates that McCabe lied at least four times to federal investigators.
Former FBI director James Comey may also have lied to Congress when he testified that he had not written his report on the Hillary Clinton email scandal before interviewing Clinton. Former director of national intelligence James Clapper and former CIA director John Brennan lied under oath to Congress on matters related to surveillance.
Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin probably lied when they told FBI investigators they had no idea that their then-boss, Hillary Clinton, was using an illegal private email server. Both had communicated with Clinton about it.
Mueller is said to be investigating whether Trump obstructed justice by requesting that Comey go easy on Flynn.
If so, then the DOJ will have to look at Comey himself and DOJ officials who obstructed a federal court. On at least four occasions, they were not honest about the deeply flawed Christopher Steele dossier being the source of information used in applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Comey also has said that he predicated the nature of the Clinton email investigation on his assumptions about her chances of winning the presidency — another investigatory abuse.
The Mueller team is reportedly still looking into the possibility of election-cycle collusion with Russia by Trump officials.
That track will require Mueller’s DOJ counterparts to look carefully at the Clinton campaign, which paid opposition researcher Steele, a British subject, for dirt on Trump that was produced through collusion with Russian sources.
Mueller is also said to be investigating whether Trump or his advisers broke laws concerning the release of confidential government information.
If so, the DOJ may have to indict Comey. He confessed to passing along confidential FBI memos to a friend for the expressed purpose of leaking their contents to the press.
High-ranking Obama administration officials may also be subject to indictments, given that they may have requested the “unmasking” of American citizens whose communications were intercepted during the surveillance of foreign parties and then leaked the names of those citizens to the press.
Mueller’s team apparently has assumed that Michael Cohen’s status as Trump’s attorney offers no protections under normal attorney-client privilege protocols.
If that is true, the DOJ will have to investigate why the FBI allowed Clinton aide Cheryl Mills to pose as Clinton’s attorney and thereby be shielded from providing testimony on what she knew about the email scandal involving her “client.”
Investigators have swarmed Cohen’s offices and residence, supposedly in fear that he might destroy pertinent records.
The FBI should probably then reopen the investigation into the Clinton email scandal, given that Clinton destroyed more than 30,000 emails as well as computer hard drives that had been requested by federal investigators.
What is going on?
Mueller has searched far and wide for wrongdoing but so far has found little. Meanwhile, there is plenty of other wrongdoing already found, but no one seems to be looking at it.
Flynn, Cohen, and other Trump aides are considered small enough fry to go after. Clinton, Comey, McCabe, and others seem big enough fry to leave alone.
No one thought Hillary Clinton would blow the election. Top Obama officials at the FBI, DOJ, intelligence agencies, and National Security Council believed in 2015 and 2016 that they could ignore laws with impunity because a protective Clinton administration would soon be in power.
Politics have infected these investigations. Trump was seen as a threat to the status quo, and FBI and DOJ lawbreakers were seen as custodians of it.
The more Mueller searches for hypothetical lawbreaking, the more he is inadvertently underscoring that actual lawbreakers must be subject to the same standard of justice. Ironically, Mueller’s investigation has reminded America that it is past time to call Comey, McCabe, and a host of Obama-era DOJ and FBI officials to account.
For over a year, we have had two standards of legality when there can only be one.
A reckoning is near.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to Bob Walsh for the heads up on this article
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review
April 26, 2018
The country is about to witness an investigatory train wreck.
In one direction, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation train is looking for any conceivable thing that President Donald Trump’s campaign team might have done wrong in 2016.
The oncoming train is slower but also larger. It involves congressional investigations, Department of Justice referrals, and inspector general’s reports — mostly focused on improper or illegal FBI and DOJ behavior during the 2016 election.
Why are the two now about to collide?
By charging former national-security adviser Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI, Mueller emphasized that even the appearance of false testimony is felonious behavior.
If that is so, then the DOJ will probably have to charge former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe with perjury or related offenses. A report from the Office of the Inspector General indicates that McCabe lied at least four times to federal investigators.
Former FBI director James Comey may also have lied to Congress when he testified that he had not written his report on the Hillary Clinton email scandal before interviewing Clinton. Former director of national intelligence James Clapper and former CIA director John Brennan lied under oath to Congress on matters related to surveillance.
Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin probably lied when they told FBI investigators they had no idea that their then-boss, Hillary Clinton, was using an illegal private email server. Both had communicated with Clinton about it.
Mueller is said to be investigating whether Trump obstructed justice by requesting that Comey go easy on Flynn.
If so, then the DOJ will have to look at Comey himself and DOJ officials who obstructed a federal court. On at least four occasions, they were not honest about the deeply flawed Christopher Steele dossier being the source of information used in applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Comey also has said that he predicated the nature of the Clinton email investigation on his assumptions about her chances of winning the presidency — another investigatory abuse.
The Mueller team is reportedly still looking into the possibility of election-cycle collusion with Russia by Trump officials.
That track will require Mueller’s DOJ counterparts to look carefully at the Clinton campaign, which paid opposition researcher Steele, a British subject, for dirt on Trump that was produced through collusion with Russian sources.
Mueller is also said to be investigating whether Trump or his advisers broke laws concerning the release of confidential government information.
If so, the DOJ may have to indict Comey. He confessed to passing along confidential FBI memos to a friend for the expressed purpose of leaking their contents to the press.
High-ranking Obama administration officials may also be subject to indictments, given that they may have requested the “unmasking” of American citizens whose communications were intercepted during the surveillance of foreign parties and then leaked the names of those citizens to the press.
Mueller’s team apparently has assumed that Michael Cohen’s status as Trump’s attorney offers no protections under normal attorney-client privilege protocols.
If that is true, the DOJ will have to investigate why the FBI allowed Clinton aide Cheryl Mills to pose as Clinton’s attorney and thereby be shielded from providing testimony on what she knew about the email scandal involving her “client.”
Investigators have swarmed Cohen’s offices and residence, supposedly in fear that he might destroy pertinent records.
The FBI should probably then reopen the investigation into the Clinton email scandal, given that Clinton destroyed more than 30,000 emails as well as computer hard drives that had been requested by federal investigators.
What is going on?
Mueller has searched far and wide for wrongdoing but so far has found little. Meanwhile, there is plenty of other wrongdoing already found, but no one seems to be looking at it.
Flynn, Cohen, and other Trump aides are considered small enough fry to go after. Clinton, Comey, McCabe, and others seem big enough fry to leave alone.
No one thought Hillary Clinton would blow the election. Top Obama officials at the FBI, DOJ, intelligence agencies, and National Security Council believed in 2015 and 2016 that they could ignore laws with impunity because a protective Clinton administration would soon be in power.
Politics have infected these investigations. Trump was seen as a threat to the status quo, and FBI and DOJ lawbreakers were seen as custodians of it.
The more Mueller searches for hypothetical lawbreaking, the more he is inadvertently underscoring that actual lawbreakers must be subject to the same standard of justice. Ironically, Mueller’s investigation has reminded America that it is past time to call Comey, McCabe, and a host of Obama-era DOJ and FBI officials to account.
For over a year, we have had two standards of legality when there can only be one.
A reckoning is near.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to Bob Walsh for the heads up on this article
Friday, April 27, 2018
NO WONDER COPS HAVE A NERVOUS TRIGGER FINGER
On average, at least 1 officer has been shot to death every week this year through April 19
CNN
April 20, 2018
In the first 16 weeks of this year, 19 law enforcement officers across the US have been shot and killed in the line of duty, including sheriff deputies in Florida killed Thursday while they were eating in a restaurant. That averages out to more than one death a week.
The parameters CNN followed in this count are:
The officer was fatally shot this year
The officer was on duty at the time of the shooting
"The tragic deaths ... (are) a stark reminder of the dangers our law enforcement professionals face each and every day while protecting and serving our communities. Too often, their service and sacrifice are taken for granted," said Craig Floyd with the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
April 19
Gilchrist County (Florida) Sheriff's Sgt. Noel Ramirez and Deputy Taylor Lindsey
Ramirez and Lindsey were killed when a man walked up to the window of the restaurant where they were eating and shot them without warning. The shooter was later found dead outside the business.
April 12
Yarmouth (Massachusetts) Police Officer Sean Gannon
Gannon was serving a warrant when he was shot and killed. He was a wonderful young man and "I'm going to miss him terribly," Yarmouth Police Chief Frank Fredrickson said.
March 13
Pikeville (Kentucky) Police Officer Scotty Hamilton
Hamilton was shot and killed while on duty. Hamilton had been a member of the Pikeville Police Department since 2006.
March 9
Pomona (California) Police Officer Greggory Casillas
Rookie officer Greggory Casillas was shot to death while trying to arrest a man in Pomona. He was killed after a reported police chase ended with a suspect barricaded inside an apartment home. Another officer was also shot.
March 6
Clinton (Missouri) Police Officer Christopher Ryan Morton
Morton was shot and killed as he responded with other officers to a domestic disturbance call in Clinton. Two other officers also were shot. A 911 call was mistakenly traced to the wrong location, where officers were met with gunfire, a Missouri Highway Patrol official said.
March 2
Boone County (Indiana) Deputy Sheriff Jacob Pickett
Pickett was shot and killed as he and other deputies were assisting Lebanon police officers in a pursuit.
February 20
Mobile (Alabama) Police Officer Justin Billa
Billa was killed as he and others responded to a call of a woman found dead in a residential area. Billa was fatally shot as he tried to speak with the ex-husband of the victim. The man then killed himself.
February 13
Chicago (Illinois) Police Commander Paul Bauer
Bauer, 53, was killed February 13 while responding to a call in downtown Chicago. He went after a suspect who had an altercation with other officers and escaped. Bauer, a 31-year veteran, encountered that individual and was shot several times.
February 10
Westerville (Ohio) Police Officers Eric Joering and Anthony Morelli
The two were fatally shot February 10 as they responded to a 911 hangup call involving potential domestic abuse. Joering, 39, and Morelli, 54, were shot as they entered an apartment in Westerville, north of Columbus.
February 9
Locust Grove (Georgia) Police Officer Chase Maddox
Maddox, 26, was killed when he tried to assist two Henry County Sheriff's deputies in arresting a man wanted on a warrant for failure to appear in court. The shooting occurred in Locust Grove, a small town about 35 miles south of Atlanta. The suspect was killed.
February 7
Richardson (Texas) Police Officer David Sherrard
Sherrard, 37, was shot and killed when he responded with other officers to a shots fired call at an apartment complex in Richardson. When officers entered an apartment, a man began firing on the officers.
February 5
El Paso County (Colorado) Sheriff's Deputy Micah Flick
Flick was marking his 11th anniversary as a sheriff's deputy with El Paso County when he and some colleagues were looking into a report of a vehicle theft on February 5. Flick, 34, was shot and killed -- and three other law enforcement officers were shot and injured -- during a struggle with a suspect in Colorado Springs. The suspect died, police said.
January 24
Adams County (Colorado) Sheriff's Deputy Heath Gumm
Gumm and other deputies were chasing a man while investigating a report of an assault in Thornton, a city near Denver. When the deputies followed the man behind a home, the man pulled out a handgun and fired, hitting Gumm in the chest.
January 24
Detroit (Michigan) Police Officer Glenn Doss Jr.
Doss, 25, was shot in the head as he got out of his patrol car to respond to a domestic violence call. He died four days later.
January 18
Deputy US Marshal Christopher Hill in Pennsylvania
Hill, 45, was shot and killed in Harrisburg during an attempt to serve an arrest warrant. As officers tried to apprehend a woman who was wanted for making terroristic threats, a man inside opened fire. Hill and two other officers were struck. One of the officers shot and killed the shooter.
January 17
York County (South Carolina) Sheriff's Detective Michael Doty
Doty, 37, died of gunshot wounds he received a day earlier during the search for a man who shot a York County Sheriff's canine handler. The handler was ambushed by the man, who was accused of attacking his wife. A SWAT team that included Doty responded to the incident, and the suspect shot the detective.
January 7
Pierce County (Washington) Sheriff's Deputy Daniel A. McCartney
McCartney, 34, was shot and killed as he chased two burglary suspects after responding to a home invasion call in Frederickson. One of the suspects was found dead at the scene, and the other was apprehended later.
EDITOR’S NOTE: There have been additional officers shot since August19.
CNN
April 20, 2018
In the first 16 weeks of this year, 19 law enforcement officers across the US have been shot and killed in the line of duty, including sheriff deputies in Florida killed Thursday while they were eating in a restaurant. That averages out to more than one death a week.
The parameters CNN followed in this count are:
The officer was fatally shot this year
The officer was on duty at the time of the shooting
"The tragic deaths ... (are) a stark reminder of the dangers our law enforcement professionals face each and every day while protecting and serving our communities. Too often, their service and sacrifice are taken for granted," said Craig Floyd with the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
April 19
Gilchrist County (Florida) Sheriff's Sgt. Noel Ramirez and Deputy Taylor Lindsey
Ramirez and Lindsey were killed when a man walked up to the window of the restaurant where they were eating and shot them without warning. The shooter was later found dead outside the business.
April 12
Yarmouth (Massachusetts) Police Officer Sean Gannon
Gannon was serving a warrant when he was shot and killed. He was a wonderful young man and "I'm going to miss him terribly," Yarmouth Police Chief Frank Fredrickson said.
March 13
Pikeville (Kentucky) Police Officer Scotty Hamilton
Hamilton was shot and killed while on duty. Hamilton had been a member of the Pikeville Police Department since 2006.
March 9
Pomona (California) Police Officer Greggory Casillas
Rookie officer Greggory Casillas was shot to death while trying to arrest a man in Pomona. He was killed after a reported police chase ended with a suspect barricaded inside an apartment home. Another officer was also shot.
March 6
Clinton (Missouri) Police Officer Christopher Ryan Morton
Morton was shot and killed as he responded with other officers to a domestic disturbance call in Clinton. Two other officers also were shot. A 911 call was mistakenly traced to the wrong location, where officers were met with gunfire, a Missouri Highway Patrol official said.
March 2
Boone County (Indiana) Deputy Sheriff Jacob Pickett
Pickett was shot and killed as he and other deputies were assisting Lebanon police officers in a pursuit.
February 20
Mobile (Alabama) Police Officer Justin Billa
Billa was killed as he and others responded to a call of a woman found dead in a residential area. Billa was fatally shot as he tried to speak with the ex-husband of the victim. The man then killed himself.
February 13
Chicago (Illinois) Police Commander Paul Bauer
Bauer, 53, was killed February 13 while responding to a call in downtown Chicago. He went after a suspect who had an altercation with other officers and escaped. Bauer, a 31-year veteran, encountered that individual and was shot several times.
February 10
Westerville (Ohio) Police Officers Eric Joering and Anthony Morelli
The two were fatally shot February 10 as they responded to a 911 hangup call involving potential domestic abuse. Joering, 39, and Morelli, 54, were shot as they entered an apartment in Westerville, north of Columbus.
February 9
Locust Grove (Georgia) Police Officer Chase Maddox
Maddox, 26, was killed when he tried to assist two Henry County Sheriff's deputies in arresting a man wanted on a warrant for failure to appear in court. The shooting occurred in Locust Grove, a small town about 35 miles south of Atlanta. The suspect was killed.
February 7
Richardson (Texas) Police Officer David Sherrard
Sherrard, 37, was shot and killed when he responded with other officers to a shots fired call at an apartment complex in Richardson. When officers entered an apartment, a man began firing on the officers.
February 5
El Paso County (Colorado) Sheriff's Deputy Micah Flick
Flick was marking his 11th anniversary as a sheriff's deputy with El Paso County when he and some colleagues were looking into a report of a vehicle theft on February 5. Flick, 34, was shot and killed -- and three other law enforcement officers were shot and injured -- during a struggle with a suspect in Colorado Springs. The suspect died, police said.
January 24
Adams County (Colorado) Sheriff's Deputy Heath Gumm
Gumm and other deputies were chasing a man while investigating a report of an assault in Thornton, a city near Denver. When the deputies followed the man behind a home, the man pulled out a handgun and fired, hitting Gumm in the chest.
January 24
Detroit (Michigan) Police Officer Glenn Doss Jr.
Doss, 25, was shot in the head as he got out of his patrol car to respond to a domestic violence call. He died four days later.
January 18
Deputy US Marshal Christopher Hill in Pennsylvania
Hill, 45, was shot and killed in Harrisburg during an attempt to serve an arrest warrant. As officers tried to apprehend a woman who was wanted for making terroristic threats, a man inside opened fire. Hill and two other officers were struck. One of the officers shot and killed the shooter.
January 17
York County (South Carolina) Sheriff's Detective Michael Doty
Doty, 37, died of gunshot wounds he received a day earlier during the search for a man who shot a York County Sheriff's canine handler. The handler was ambushed by the man, who was accused of attacking his wife. A SWAT team that included Doty responded to the incident, and the suspect shot the detective.
January 7
Pierce County (Washington) Sheriff's Deputy Daniel A. McCartney
McCartney, 34, was shot and killed as he chased two burglary suspects after responding to a home invasion call in Frederickson. One of the suspects was found dead at the scene, and the other was apprehended later.
EDITOR’S NOTE: There have been additional officers shot since August19.
MIKE POMPEO CONFIRMED
by Bob Walsh
Mike Pompeo, current head of the CIA and Donald Trump's nominee to be Secretary of State, was confirmed on Thursday by the senate by a vote of 57 to 42, with some Democrap support.
Mike Pompeo, current head of the CIA and Donald Trump's nominee to be Secretary of State, was confirmed on Thursday by the senate by a vote of 57 to 42, with some Democrap support.
TRUMP WINS A BIG ONE (MAYBE-PROBABLY)
by Bob Walsh
Court watchers are now speculating that it is very likely that Trump will win at SCOTUS in his "Muslim ban" action on immigration. The majority of the court seemed quite willing to separate Candidate Trump and his statements from President Trump and his actual acts as president.
In a month or two we should hear which way the wind is blowing on this one, with luck for good.
Court watchers are now speculating that it is very likely that Trump will win at SCOTUS in his "Muslim ban" action on immigration. The majority of the court seemed quite willing to separate Candidate Trump and his statements from President Trump and his actual acts as president.
In a month or two we should hear which way the wind is blowing on this one, with luck for good.
AMERICA’S FATHER MAY SPEND THE REST OF HIS LIFE IN PRISON ….. OR WILL HE?
Bill Cosby has just been convicted of drugging and raping Andrea Constand and he could spend the rest of his life in prison
After deliberating 14 hours, a Montgomery County, Pennsylvania jury has convicted Bill Cosby on three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and raping Andrea Constand in 2004. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
This was a retrial because the first trial a year ago ended in a hung jury. In the first trial, the judge allowed only one of Cosby’s 60 rape accusers to testify. This time she allowed five of his accusers to do so.
When the district attorney asked that Cosby’s bail be revoked because he had a plan in which he could flee the country, America’s Father yelled “I don’t have a plane you asshole! I’m sick of it you asshole!”
In response to the bail revocation request, the judge said, “Based upon his age and his medical condition I'm not going to simply lock him up at this stage.” Cosby is 80 and not in the best of health.
If Cosby remains free on bail pending appeals, he will probably die before the case is finally resolved. I am sure the defense will argue that the judge erred in allowing the five rape accusers to testify.
If he is sent to prison, he will probably die in there.
In any event, it’s official now. America’s Father has been a naughty old boy.
__________
DR. HUXTABLE CONVICTED
by Bob Walsh
The jury came back on Thursday on Bill Cosby's retrial on various sexual assault offenses. He was in fact found guilty of three counts. I wonder who is sweating harder right now, Bill Clinton or Harvey Weinstein?
After deliberating 14 hours, a Montgomery County, Pennsylvania jury has convicted Bill Cosby on three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and raping Andrea Constand in 2004. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
This was a retrial because the first trial a year ago ended in a hung jury. In the first trial, the judge allowed only one of Cosby’s 60 rape accusers to testify. This time she allowed five of his accusers to do so.
When the district attorney asked that Cosby’s bail be revoked because he had a plan in which he could flee the country, America’s Father yelled “I don’t have a plane you asshole! I’m sick of it you asshole!”
In response to the bail revocation request, the judge said, “Based upon his age and his medical condition I'm not going to simply lock him up at this stage.” Cosby is 80 and not in the best of health.
If Cosby remains free on bail pending appeals, he will probably die before the case is finally resolved. I am sure the defense will argue that the judge erred in allowing the five rape accusers to testify.
If he is sent to prison, he will probably die in there.
In any event, it’s official now. America’s Father has been a naughty old boy.
__________
DR. HUXTABLE CONVICTED
by Bob Walsh
The jury came back on Thursday on Bill Cosby's retrial on various sexual assault offenses. He was in fact found guilty of three counts. I wonder who is sweating harder right now, Bill Clinton or Harvey Weinstein?
ILLEGAL SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING 2 CALIFORNIA COPS, BUT WILL PROBABLY NEVER BE EXECUTED
Luis Bracamontes, an illegal immigrant, was convicted for the 2014 killings of Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County sheriff's Det. Michael Davis Jr.
In 2014 Luis Bracamontes, who is an illegal Mexican immigrant, killed Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County sheriff's Det. Michael Davis Jr.. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to death for the two murders.
Bracamontes grinned as he was being sentenced to death. And well he might because he will probably never be executed.
There are nearly 750 inmates roosting on California’s death row. Only 13 men have been put to death since capital punishment was restored here in 1978. Some California inmates have been on death row for over 35 years. That’s why Bracamontes was grinning.
Bracamontes has repeatedly been tossed back into Mexico, but he has reentered the United States every time.
It’s a dirty shame the cops didn’t kill Bracamontes when they busted this worthless illegal piece of shit for killing the two cops.
In 2014 Luis Bracamontes, who is an illegal Mexican immigrant, killed Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County sheriff's Det. Michael Davis Jr.. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to death for the two murders.
Bracamontes grinned as he was being sentenced to death. And well he might because he will probably never be executed.
There are nearly 750 inmates roosting on California’s death row. Only 13 men have been put to death since capital punishment was restored here in 1978. Some California inmates have been on death row for over 35 years. That’s why Bracamontes was grinning.
Bracamontes has repeatedly been tossed back into Mexico, but he has reentered the United States every time.
It’s a dirty shame the cops didn’t kill Bracamontes when they busted this worthless illegal piece of shit for killing the two cops.
HEIL HITLER, MEIN FUHRER, ICH EHRE DU MITMEINE SWASTIKAS
Utah 'Nazi' who 'forced 17-year-old girl to kneel and watch as he stabbed her boyfriend to death, then slit her throat and threw their bodies down a mine shaft' appears in court with his SWASTIKA tattoos on full display
by Snejana Farberov
Daily Mail
April 26, 2018
Nearly four months after police say a 41-year-old Utah man murdered a teenage couple in cold blood and tossed their bodies down a mineshaft, the suspect finally made his first court appearance.
Jerrod Baum on Thursday was led into the 4th District Court in Provo with handcuffs restraining his wrists, sporting a bushy, graying beard and a large swastika tattoo visible on his exposed chest.
A second, smaller swastika carved near his right eye peeked out from behind a curtain of strawberry-blond hair.
Baum is accused of kidnapping Brelynne 'Breezy' Otteson, 17, and Riley Powell, 18, on December 30, 2017, and bringing them to the Utah desert after catching the young couple smoking marijuana with his girlfriend, 34-year-old Morgan Reannon Henderson.
According to court documents, he tied up Otteson and made her watch as he beat and stabbed her boyfriend to death.
Baum then allegedly slashed her throat and disposed of both bodies by tossing them 100 feet down the Tintic Standard Mine No. 2 near Eureka.
The victims' remains were not recovered unit March 28, after Henderson told police what had happened and led them to the abandoned mine shaft.
Baum is facing aggravated murder, kidnapping and other charges that could bring the death penalty, while Henderson is charged with obstruction of justice.
Baum was expected to waive his preliminary hearing on Thursday, but it was continued until August 1 in order to allow the prosecution and defense additional time to review all of the evidence in the case.
Both sides also are still waiting for the medical examiner’s final autopsy report, which could be released within a couple of weeks.
For Otteson and Powell's loved ones, who came from far and wide to the courthouse this morning to confront Baum for the first time, the takeaway from the brief hearing was that it could take years to bring the case to trial.
Prosecutor Chad Grunander explained that because the case revolves around a double homicide, and is potential a death penalty case, the legal process will be slow and deliberate.
But the families of both victims said they are not discouraged by the sluggish pace of justice and are not interested in a plea deal being offered to Baum, reported KSL.com.
‘We knew it was going to be long and drawn out; we knew that it wasn’t going to be quick and fast. Unfortunately that’s how it goes,’ Otteson's aunt, Amanda Hunt, told the Daily Herald.
Powell's sister, Nikki, said that Baum, whom she called a ‘monster', deserves nothing less than the death penalty.
It will be up to the Utah County Attorney's Office to decide whether or not to seek the death penalty for Baum, but the wishes of the victims' families will be taken into account.
Police say Baum killed the couple after they visited his girlfriend despite Baum's warning against her having male visitors.
Baum flew into a rage when he learned Henderson had been hanging out with Riley and Breezy, saying 'it was too bad because he has never killed an innocent before,' Henderson told authorities, according to police documents.
He then allegedly tied the tens up, put them in his Jeep and transported them to the old mine site in the west desert.
There, he allegedly forced Otteson watch as he beat and stabbed Riley to death before he cut her throat and dispose of the bodies.
Court records show Baum has a rap sheet dating back to the early 1990s including theft, assault and weapons charges.
__________
(Heil Hitler, my Fuhrer, I honor you with my swastikas)
by Snejana Farberov
Daily Mail
April 26, 2018
Nearly four months after police say a 41-year-old Utah man murdered a teenage couple in cold blood and tossed their bodies down a mineshaft, the suspect finally made his first court appearance.
Jerrod Baum on Thursday was led into the 4th District Court in Provo with handcuffs restraining his wrists, sporting a bushy, graying beard and a large swastika tattoo visible on his exposed chest.
A second, smaller swastika carved near his right eye peeked out from behind a curtain of strawberry-blond hair.
Baum is accused of kidnapping Brelynne 'Breezy' Otteson, 17, and Riley Powell, 18, on December 30, 2017, and bringing them to the Utah desert after catching the young couple smoking marijuana with his girlfriend, 34-year-old Morgan Reannon Henderson.
According to court documents, he tied up Otteson and made her watch as he beat and stabbed her boyfriend to death.
Baum then allegedly slashed her throat and disposed of both bodies by tossing them 100 feet down the Tintic Standard Mine No. 2 near Eureka.
The victims' remains were not recovered unit March 28, after Henderson told police what had happened and led them to the abandoned mine shaft.
Baum is facing aggravated murder, kidnapping and other charges that could bring the death penalty, while Henderson is charged with obstruction of justice.
Baum was expected to waive his preliminary hearing on Thursday, but it was continued until August 1 in order to allow the prosecution and defense additional time to review all of the evidence in the case.
Both sides also are still waiting for the medical examiner’s final autopsy report, which could be released within a couple of weeks.
For Otteson and Powell's loved ones, who came from far and wide to the courthouse this morning to confront Baum for the first time, the takeaway from the brief hearing was that it could take years to bring the case to trial.
Prosecutor Chad Grunander explained that because the case revolves around a double homicide, and is potential a death penalty case, the legal process will be slow and deliberate.
But the families of both victims said they are not discouraged by the sluggish pace of justice and are not interested in a plea deal being offered to Baum, reported KSL.com.
‘We knew it was going to be long and drawn out; we knew that it wasn’t going to be quick and fast. Unfortunately that’s how it goes,’ Otteson's aunt, Amanda Hunt, told the Daily Herald.
Powell's sister, Nikki, said that Baum, whom she called a ‘monster', deserves nothing less than the death penalty.
It will be up to the Utah County Attorney's Office to decide whether or not to seek the death penalty for Baum, but the wishes of the victims' families will be taken into account.
Police say Baum killed the couple after they visited his girlfriend despite Baum's warning against her having male visitors.
Baum flew into a rage when he learned Henderson had been hanging out with Riley and Breezy, saying 'it was too bad because he has never killed an innocent before,' Henderson told authorities, according to police documents.
He then allegedly tied the tens up, put them in his Jeep and transported them to the old mine site in the west desert.
There, he allegedly forced Otteson watch as he beat and stabbed Riley to death before he cut her throat and dispose of the bodies.
Court records show Baum has a rap sheet dating back to the early 1990s including theft, assault and weapons charges.
__________
(Heil Hitler, my Fuhrer, I honor you with my swastikas)
THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM TO BE
'It's like finding a Picasso at a garage sale': 'Fake' coin from California Gold Rush is actually REAL and worth MILLIONS and its owner had no idea
By Mollie Cahillane
Daily Mail
April 25, 2018
An incredibly rare coin from the California Gold Rush is worth millions - and its owner didn't have a clue.
The San Francisco Mint produced fewer than 300 special edition $5 coins, and it was thought that only three survived.
The anonymous owner of the discovered fourth coin believed the piece to be fake, as did multiple coin dealers.
However, the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC), the world's largest rare coin authentication company, proved it to be real by comparing it to the three known coins.
The 164-year-old treasure is now worth millions of dollars, according to the NGC.
'It's like finding an original Picasso at a garage sale. It's the discovery of a lifetime,' said Mark Salzberg, NGC Chairman to PR Newswire.
'The owner of the coin is a life-long New England resident who wants to remain anonymous. He was stunned when we informed him that it is a genuine, multi-million dollar rare coin,' Salzberg said.
'He had shown it to a few collectors and dealers at a recent coin show, but everybody said they thought it was a fake because until now there were only three genuine surviving 1854 San Francisco Mint $5 gold pieces known,' he said.
One of the three known coins was stolen from the Du Pont family in 1967 and never recovered. To ensure the newly discovered piece was not the missing coin, they compared it to high-resolution photos from the Smithsonian.
'We look for common things that you’ll see between the coins,' Richard Montgomery, president of NGC, told Gizmodo.
'You’ll see the four in the digit is slightly attenuated or not as high in relief as the regular part of the four. We noticed that was exactly the same as the Smithsonian piece.'
By Mollie Cahillane
Daily Mail
April 25, 2018
An incredibly rare coin from the California Gold Rush is worth millions - and its owner didn't have a clue.
The San Francisco Mint produced fewer than 300 special edition $5 coins, and it was thought that only three survived.
The anonymous owner of the discovered fourth coin believed the piece to be fake, as did multiple coin dealers.
However, the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC), the world's largest rare coin authentication company, proved it to be real by comparing it to the three known coins.
The 164-year-old treasure is now worth millions of dollars, according to the NGC.
'It's like finding an original Picasso at a garage sale. It's the discovery of a lifetime,' said Mark Salzberg, NGC Chairman to PR Newswire.
'The owner of the coin is a life-long New England resident who wants to remain anonymous. He was stunned when we informed him that it is a genuine, multi-million dollar rare coin,' Salzberg said.
'He had shown it to a few collectors and dealers at a recent coin show, but everybody said they thought it was a fake because until now there were only three genuine surviving 1854 San Francisco Mint $5 gold pieces known,' he said.
One of the three known coins was stolen from the Du Pont family in 1967 and never recovered. To ensure the newly discovered piece was not the missing coin, they compared it to high-resolution photos from the Smithsonian.
'We look for common things that you’ll see between the coins,' Richard Montgomery, president of NGC, told Gizmodo.
'You’ll see the four in the digit is slightly attenuated or not as high in relief as the regular part of the four. We noticed that was exactly the same as the Smithsonian piece.'
Thursday, April 26, 2018
THE QUEEN HAS NO CORGIS
by Bob Walsh
For the first time since 1944 Queen Elizabeth II does not have a Corgi running around the palace. Her last one was put down after a long and happy life due to failing health. The queen is now worried that she would pass on before the next one, living the poor thing an orphan, so she has determined to not get another one.
Her last one was a 14th generation descendent from her original 1944 fuzzy friend.
For the first time since 1944 Queen Elizabeth II does not have a Corgi running around the palace. Her last one was put down after a long and happy life due to failing health. The queen is now worried that she would pass on before the next one, living the poor thing an orphan, so she has determined to not get another one.
Her last one was a 14th generation descendent from her original 1944 fuzzy friend.
PARKLAND SURVIVIOR JAKCED BY SCHOOL COP FOR GOING TO GUN RANGE
by Bob Walsh
Kyle Kashuv is one of the survivors of the Valentine's Day Parkland School shooting. He is NOT one of the anti-gun psychopaths. This last weekend he went to a licensed gun range with his dad and fired a weapon for the first time.
On Monday he was pulled out of third period and ordered to report to the school resources officer, who jacked him up about his time at the firing range. Among other things the deputy DEMANDED to know who he was with and what kind of firearms he shot.
It seems that the cops are monitoring the student's social media accounts. This is presumably how they discovered this information, probably with the assistance of an anti-gun quisling student.
The officer repeatedly referred to him as "the pro-second amendment kid" and declined to say what, if anything, Kashuv is accused of doing wrong.
Welcome to the anti-gun Gestapo. I guess their idiot sheriff thinks he can cover his staff's grossly stupid response to the original shooting by emulating Heinrich Himmler.
I hope the kid and his father sue for invasion of privacy and general purpose harassment. Why the fuck should the local gestapo care what a kid does in his weekend, off-grounds activity as long as that activity is COMPLETELY LEGAL.
Kyle Kashuv is one of the survivors of the Valentine's Day Parkland School shooting. He is NOT one of the anti-gun psychopaths. This last weekend he went to a licensed gun range with his dad and fired a weapon for the first time.
On Monday he was pulled out of third period and ordered to report to the school resources officer, who jacked him up about his time at the firing range. Among other things the deputy DEMANDED to know who he was with and what kind of firearms he shot.
It seems that the cops are monitoring the student's social media accounts. This is presumably how they discovered this information, probably with the assistance of an anti-gun quisling student.
The officer repeatedly referred to him as "the pro-second amendment kid" and declined to say what, if anything, Kashuv is accused of doing wrong.
Welcome to the anti-gun Gestapo. I guess their idiot sheriff thinks he can cover his staff's grossly stupid response to the original shooting by emulating Heinrich Himmler.
I hope the kid and his father sue for invasion of privacy and general purpose harassment. Why the fuck should the local gestapo care what a kid does in his weekend, off-grounds activity as long as that activity is COMPLETELY LEGAL.
UNIVERSITY STUDENTS DISSOLVED IN SULFURIC ACID
Students killed by Mexican cartel were mistaken for rival gang
By Natalie O'Neill
New York Post
April 24, 2018
Three film students who vanished in Mexico were tortured, killed and then dissolved in acid by brutal cartel gangsters — who mistook them for members of a rival gang.
“Words can’t describe the dimension of this madness,” Oscar-winning ”The Shape of Water” director Guillermo del Toro wrote of the tragedy on Twitter Tuesday.
“Three students are killed and dissolved in acid. The ‘why’ is unthinkable, the ‘how’ is terrifying,” the Mexican-born filmmaker said.
Javier Salomon Aceves, 25, Daniel Diaz, 20, and Marco Avalo, 20, had unwittingly been filming a school project at a former hangout for members of the Nueva Plaza gang in Jalisco when they were abducted in March, according to Mexican prosecutors.
Although the home belonged to one of the students’ aunts, hit men from the Jalisco New Generation cartel were watching the house after a Nueva Plaza honcho’s release from prison, investigators told the Times of London.
But they mistook the students for members of the rival gang — with whom they had been battling over drug turf — and abducted them on a road near the house while dressed as police officers, prosecutors said, according to the paper.
The cartel members interrogated the students at a safe house and beat one of them so badly he died — prompting them to kill the other two, chief investigator Lizette Torres told the paper.
They then took them to another home and dumped their bodies in sulfuric acid to hide evidence, she said.
Law enforcement found traces of the students’ blood and DNA at the houses along with 46 barrels of sulfuric acid.
The students, who were enrolled at the University of Audiovisual Media in Guadalajara, were last seen alive on March 19.
Investigators also found fake detectives’ credentials at the cartel houses.
By Natalie O'Neill
New York Post
April 24, 2018
Three film students who vanished in Mexico were tortured, killed and then dissolved in acid by brutal cartel gangsters — who mistook them for members of a rival gang.
“Words can’t describe the dimension of this madness,” Oscar-winning ”The Shape of Water” director Guillermo del Toro wrote of the tragedy on Twitter Tuesday.
“Three students are killed and dissolved in acid. The ‘why’ is unthinkable, the ‘how’ is terrifying,” the Mexican-born filmmaker said.
Javier Salomon Aceves, 25, Daniel Diaz, 20, and Marco Avalo, 20, had unwittingly been filming a school project at a former hangout for members of the Nueva Plaza gang in Jalisco when they were abducted in March, according to Mexican prosecutors.
Although the home belonged to one of the students’ aunts, hit men from the Jalisco New Generation cartel were watching the house after a Nueva Plaza honcho’s release from prison, investigators told the Times of London.
But they mistook the students for members of the rival gang — with whom they had been battling over drug turf — and abducted them on a road near the house while dressed as police officers, prosecutors said, according to the paper.
The cartel members interrogated the students at a safe house and beat one of them so badly he died — prompting them to kill the other two, chief investigator Lizette Torres told the paper.
They then took them to another home and dumped their bodies in sulfuric acid to hide evidence, she said.
Law enforcement found traces of the students’ blood and DNA at the houses along with 46 barrels of sulfuric acid.
The students, who were enrolled at the University of Audiovisual Media in Guadalajara, were last seen alive on March 19.
Investigators also found fake detectives’ credentials at the cartel houses.
PORT AUTHORITY COMMISSIONER SHOULD HAVE BEEN ARRESTED FOR INTERFERING WITH AN OFFICER
'You may shut the fuck up': Port Authority commissioner and ex-Clinton aide flashes her golden badge during a traffic stop and tells cops she is a friend of the police chief and the mayor
by Ariel Zilber
Daily Mail
April 25, 2018
A New Jersey police department has released a video showing a former Port Authority commissioner and ex-Hillary Clinton aide trying to use her position to threaten officers who pulled over her daughter’s friend during a traffic stop on Easter weekend.
The remarkable video released by the Tenafly Police Department shows Caren Z. Turner, 60, a Democratic Party lobbyist, flash her badge and boast of her connections to the chief of police and the local mayor while berating two officers who pulled over a car whose Nevada registration had expired.
The car was driven by a male friend of her daughter, who was a passenger in the back seat.
The daughter had called her mother after the vehicle was pulled over as they were driving along Route 9W in Bergen County on March 31.
The video was posted by NJ Advance Media a week after Turner abruptly resigned her position as a commissioner for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The resignation was prompted by an internal investigation into ‘profoundly disturbing conduct,’ the agency said.
The Port Authority is an interstate agency jointly run by the states of New York and New Jersey.
It oversees the half-dozen Hudson River crossings that connect New York City to the Garden State, all of the major area airports, and other sites.
Turner had served as the ethics chair of the Port Authority before her resignation.
‘The conduct was indefensible,’ a spokesperson for the agency said.
‘The board takes its recently adopted Code of Ethics for commissioners extremely seriously and was preparing to form a special committee to review the findings of the Inspector General investigation and take action at this Thursday's board meeting.
‘Commissioner Turner's resignation was appropriate given her outrageous conduct.’
The eight-minute clip recorded by Tenafly Police dash cam begins with Turner approaching two officers after they pulled over her daughter’s friend.
The officers stopped the vehicle because its front windows were tinted.
New Jersey is just one of four states that prohibits tinted windows on its front windshields and side windows - unless the driver has a medical condition that makes it necessary.
The officers also noticed that a piece of the rear license plate was slightly obstructed by a dealer-installed chrome bracket.
Anyone driving with an obscured license plate can be ticketed in New Jersey.
Officers said that the driver of the car, who has not been identified, had a valid license, but he did not have the proper registration or insurance.
Police ordered a tow truck to impound the vehicle and gave the driver a summons for ‘unclear plates,’ not having the insurance card, and driving an unregistered motor vehicle.
In the video, Turner introduces herself to the officers and shows them her ID.
‘I don’t need that,’ one of the officers told her. ‘You’re just here as a ride, right?’
Turner replies: ‘No, I’m not. I’m here as a concerned citizen and friend of the mayor.
‘I’ve been living in Tenafly for 20 years. I take full responsibility for them.
‘What is the reason they were pulled over?’
The officer declines to offer her an explanation, saying: ‘The driver has all the information. He’ll tell you.’
‘No, no, no... I need to know,’ Turner says.
‘No, you don’t need to know. You are not involved here. You’re picking them up?’ one of the officers says to Turner.
‘I am involved. Trust me, I’m very involved,’ she replies.
The driver of the car is over 18 years old. ‘That’s all you need to know.’
When she pulls out her ID, the other officer says: ‘We don’t need to see credentials here.’
The ID indicates that Turner is one of the commissioners of the Port Authority.
‘I am the commissioner of the Port Authority and I am heading up over 4,000 police officers,’ she says.
When the officer explains to Turner that the vehicle is unregistered, she asks: ‘Why were they pulled over, first of all?’
‘Miss…’ the officer says before he is cut off.
‘Don’t call me “Miss”,’ Turner says angrily. ‘I’m “Commissioner”. Thank you.’
‘Commissioner, all due respect, the driver will tell you,’ the officer says.
‘No, no, no, I need to know,’ she says.
‘The car is getting towed now,’ the officer says.
‘Why is the car getting towed?’ Turner asks the officer.
‘Go ask him,’ the officer replies.
When Turner insists on getting an answer, the officer, exasperated, tells her: ‘Miss, this does not involve you one per cent.’
Turner replies: ‘Yeah, it does.’
‘I’m picking them up and I’m offering to take responsibility for them and you can’t even tell me the charges,’ she says to the officer.
When Turner again asks why the car is being towed, the other officer says: ‘Everything has already been explained.’
Turner then mentions the fact that one of those pulled over is a ‘PhD student... attending Yale graduate school’.
‘This is impacting me,’ she says. ‘I gotta take four people on Easter Sunday back to New Haven, [Connecticut, where Yale University is located].’
One of the officers then tells her he has a ‘problem’ with ‘the way you just approached me and your demeanor.’
‘I don’t appreciate your demeanor,’ the officer tells Turner. ‘You’re being very demanding with me.’
The officer tells her ‘You have no right to know what’s going on’ and that she was welcome to read the police report.
‘That’s my daughter,’ Turner says. The officer replies that she’s a ‘backseat passenger.’
‘Your daughter has not been summonsed. This is not her vehicle. This is not your vehicle.’
Turner then threatened to use her sway with the commissioner of the Tenafly police.
At that point, one of the officers warns her to ‘take a step back’ because ‘you keep moving closer to me.’
Turner then tells the officers that she is ‘under no legal obligation to tell them what she is going to do.’
‘This is a lawful motor vehicle stop,’ the officer tells Turner. ‘You are here to pick them up. The driver has been advised of everything that’s going on.’
‘You know what? I hope you have a really nice holiday weekend because you just ruined it for a lot of people,’ she says to the officer.
Turner tells the officers she is refusing to ask the driver about the alleged violation and is instead seeking answers from them because ‘you’re the source of the accusation.’
‘I’m very disappointed in the way the two of you are acting,’
‘You cannot even tell me, a mother living in Tenafly for 20 years, with two kids who went through the school system, what the problem is. And that’s shocking.’
When the officer suggests that they all move off the road due to safety reasons, she calls the officers ‘pathetic’ for ‘not being able to put a sentence together.’
‘You are a disappointment,’ she says to the other officer, who was mostly quiet as his partner tried to explain the situation to Turner.
When the officer tells her: ‘You may take [your daughter and her friends] now,’ Turner replies: ‘You may not tell me when to take my child.’
‘You may shut the fuck up and not tell me when I may take my kid and her friends who are PhD students from MIT and Yale,’ she says.
‘You may tell me nothing,’ Turner says. ‘Shame on you.
‘I will be talking to the chief of police. And I will be speaking to the mayor.’
When the officer volunteers his badge number, she says: ‘I got your name. Don’t you worry.’
The officer replies: ‘As long as you got all the information right.’
‘Have a pleasant weekend,’ the officer says.
‘You have a wonderful weekend,’ Turner replies.
Turner was appointed commissioner last year by former Governor Chris Christie.
She has served on finance committees of Hillary Clinton and former Governor Jon Corzine.
Turner has not been charged with any criminal wrongdoing.
Her name and image have been deleted from the Port Authority web site.
by Ariel Zilber
Daily Mail
April 25, 2018
A New Jersey police department has released a video showing a former Port Authority commissioner and ex-Hillary Clinton aide trying to use her position to threaten officers who pulled over her daughter’s friend during a traffic stop on Easter weekend.
The remarkable video released by the Tenafly Police Department shows Caren Z. Turner, 60, a Democratic Party lobbyist, flash her badge and boast of her connections to the chief of police and the local mayor while berating two officers who pulled over a car whose Nevada registration had expired.
The car was driven by a male friend of her daughter, who was a passenger in the back seat.
The daughter had called her mother after the vehicle was pulled over as they were driving along Route 9W in Bergen County on March 31.
The video was posted by NJ Advance Media a week after Turner abruptly resigned her position as a commissioner for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The resignation was prompted by an internal investigation into ‘profoundly disturbing conduct,’ the agency said.
The Port Authority is an interstate agency jointly run by the states of New York and New Jersey.
It oversees the half-dozen Hudson River crossings that connect New York City to the Garden State, all of the major area airports, and other sites.
Turner had served as the ethics chair of the Port Authority before her resignation.
‘The conduct was indefensible,’ a spokesperson for the agency said.
‘The board takes its recently adopted Code of Ethics for commissioners extremely seriously and was preparing to form a special committee to review the findings of the Inspector General investigation and take action at this Thursday's board meeting.
‘Commissioner Turner's resignation was appropriate given her outrageous conduct.’
The eight-minute clip recorded by Tenafly Police dash cam begins with Turner approaching two officers after they pulled over her daughter’s friend.
The officers stopped the vehicle because its front windows were tinted.
New Jersey is just one of four states that prohibits tinted windows on its front windshields and side windows - unless the driver has a medical condition that makes it necessary.
The officers also noticed that a piece of the rear license plate was slightly obstructed by a dealer-installed chrome bracket.
Anyone driving with an obscured license plate can be ticketed in New Jersey.
Officers said that the driver of the car, who has not been identified, had a valid license, but he did not have the proper registration or insurance.
Police ordered a tow truck to impound the vehicle and gave the driver a summons for ‘unclear plates,’ not having the insurance card, and driving an unregistered motor vehicle.
In the video, Turner introduces herself to the officers and shows them her ID.
‘I don’t need that,’ one of the officers told her. ‘You’re just here as a ride, right?’
Turner replies: ‘No, I’m not. I’m here as a concerned citizen and friend of the mayor.
‘I’ve been living in Tenafly for 20 years. I take full responsibility for them.
‘What is the reason they were pulled over?’
The officer declines to offer her an explanation, saying: ‘The driver has all the information. He’ll tell you.’
‘No, no, no... I need to know,’ Turner says.
‘No, you don’t need to know. You are not involved here. You’re picking them up?’ one of the officers says to Turner.
‘I am involved. Trust me, I’m very involved,’ she replies.
The driver of the car is over 18 years old. ‘That’s all you need to know.’
When she pulls out her ID, the other officer says: ‘We don’t need to see credentials here.’
The ID indicates that Turner is one of the commissioners of the Port Authority.
‘I am the commissioner of the Port Authority and I am heading up over 4,000 police officers,’ she says.
When the officer explains to Turner that the vehicle is unregistered, she asks: ‘Why were they pulled over, first of all?’
‘Miss…’ the officer says before he is cut off.
‘Don’t call me “Miss”,’ Turner says angrily. ‘I’m “Commissioner”. Thank you.’
‘Commissioner, all due respect, the driver will tell you,’ the officer says.
‘No, no, no, I need to know,’ she says.
‘The car is getting towed now,’ the officer says.
‘Why is the car getting towed?’ Turner asks the officer.
‘Go ask him,’ the officer replies.
When Turner insists on getting an answer, the officer, exasperated, tells her: ‘Miss, this does not involve you one per cent.’
Turner replies: ‘Yeah, it does.’
‘I’m picking them up and I’m offering to take responsibility for them and you can’t even tell me the charges,’ she says to the officer.
When Turner again asks why the car is being towed, the other officer says: ‘Everything has already been explained.’
Turner then mentions the fact that one of those pulled over is a ‘PhD student... attending Yale graduate school’.
‘This is impacting me,’ she says. ‘I gotta take four people on Easter Sunday back to New Haven, [Connecticut, where Yale University is located].’
One of the officers then tells her he has a ‘problem’ with ‘the way you just approached me and your demeanor.’
‘I don’t appreciate your demeanor,’ the officer tells Turner. ‘You’re being very demanding with me.’
The officer tells her ‘You have no right to know what’s going on’ and that she was welcome to read the police report.
‘That’s my daughter,’ Turner says. The officer replies that she’s a ‘backseat passenger.’
‘Your daughter has not been summonsed. This is not her vehicle. This is not your vehicle.’
Turner then threatened to use her sway with the commissioner of the Tenafly police.
At that point, one of the officers warns her to ‘take a step back’ because ‘you keep moving closer to me.’
Turner then tells the officers that she is ‘under no legal obligation to tell them what she is going to do.’
‘This is a lawful motor vehicle stop,’ the officer tells Turner. ‘You are here to pick them up. The driver has been advised of everything that’s going on.’
‘You know what? I hope you have a really nice holiday weekend because you just ruined it for a lot of people,’ she says to the officer.
Turner tells the officers she is refusing to ask the driver about the alleged violation and is instead seeking answers from them because ‘you’re the source of the accusation.’
‘I’m very disappointed in the way the two of you are acting,’
‘You cannot even tell me, a mother living in Tenafly for 20 years, with two kids who went through the school system, what the problem is. And that’s shocking.’
When the officer suggests that they all move off the road due to safety reasons, she calls the officers ‘pathetic’ for ‘not being able to put a sentence together.’
‘You are a disappointment,’ she says to the other officer, who was mostly quiet as his partner tried to explain the situation to Turner.
When the officer tells her: ‘You may take [your daughter and her friends] now,’ Turner replies: ‘You may not tell me when to take my child.’
‘You may shut the fuck up and not tell me when I may take my kid and her friends who are PhD students from MIT and Yale,’ she says.
‘You may tell me nothing,’ Turner says. ‘Shame on you.
‘I will be talking to the chief of police. And I will be speaking to the mayor.’
When the officer volunteers his badge number, she says: ‘I got your name. Don’t you worry.’
The officer replies: ‘As long as you got all the information right.’
‘Have a pleasant weekend,’ the officer says.
‘You have a wonderful weekend,’ Turner replies.
Turner was appointed commissioner last year by former Governor Chris Christie.
She has served on finance committees of Hillary Clinton and former Governor Jon Corzine.
Turner has not been charged with any criminal wrongdoing.
Her name and image have been deleted from the Port Authority web site.
COPS BUST GOLDEN STATE KILLER WHO COMMITED 12 MURDERS AND 50 RAPES THAT SPANNED A DECADE STARTING IN THE LATE 1970S
East Area Rapist suspect captured after DNA match, authorities say
by Sam Stanton and Benjy Egel
The Sacramento Bee
April 25, 2018
After four decades of dead ends, Sacramento law enforcement leaders announced Wednesday they arrested the man they believe was the East Area Rapist who killed and terrorized people in the 1970s and 1980s.
Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert and Sheriff Scott Jones said they relied on DNA evidence to arrest Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, who lived for more than three decades on a quiet street in Citrus Heights.
He was never considered a suspect until six days ago.
"We found the needle in the haystack, and it was right here in Sacramento," Schubert said.
The East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer, the Original Night Stalker and the Diamond Knot Killer, is believed to have killed at least 12 people, raped at least 45 victims and burglarized hundreds of homes.
Nearly all of the rapes and homicides between 1976 and 1978 occurred in the Sacramento region, followed by rapes in the Bay Area and later homicides in Southern California.
Investigators zeroed in on DeAngelo within the past six days, Schubert said. Between then and now, Sheriff's detectives conducted surveillance on DeAngelo to determine his habits and how he might react to an arrest, Jones said. Detectives arrested him Tuesday.
They relied on a "discarded DNA sample," Schubert said, adding that she would not provide more DNA specifics at this time.
FBI agents and law enforcement from Sacramento County and Southern California were outside DeAngelo's home this morning in Citrus Heights near the city border with Roseville. DeAngelo has lived there since 1983, public records show.
He is listed in Sacramento County jail records as being booked early this morning on two counts of murder from a Ventura County Sheriff's Department warrant.
DeAngelo is being held on suspicion of at least four homicides, according to information provided early in the press conference by Schubert and Ventura County DA Gregory Totten.
Two of those are for the murder of Brian and Katie Maggiore in Rancho Cordova. The couple were the first two people believed to be killed by the East Area Rapist and were shot while walking their dog. Brian was shot in the chest in a neighbor's backyard, while Katie was shot in the head outside their home.
Two additional charges are for homicides in Ventura County. On March 13, 1980, Charlene and Lyman Smith were bludgeoned by a piece of firewood. Charlene, who was soon to become a county judge, was raped before being killed.
"This defendant has been able to live here in a nice suburb in Sacramento," said Orange County DA Tony Rackauckas. "Our team is going to work hard to make sure he never gets out."
Sgt. Shaun Hampton, a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman, said several more search warrants are expected to be executed over the next few days.
Authorities believe DeAngelo raped 37 people in the Sacramento area and Central Valley and killed two between 1976 and 1978. From there, authorities believe, he moved on to the the Bay Area and Southern California.
He is believed to have committed at least nine sexual assaults in Sacramento, six in Rancho Cordova and Citrus Heights, four in Carmichael, three in Davis, two in Orangevale and one in Antelope between June 1976 and July 1978.
Bruce Harrington, whose brother Keith Harrington and sister-in-law Patrice Harrington were allegedly killed in Dana Point in 1980 by the East Area Rapist, appeared at the press conference.
"For the 51 ladies who were brutally raped: Sleep better tonight," Harrington said. "He isn’t coming through the window. He is now in jail and he is history."
Then-Citrus Heights resident Jane Carson-Sandler was sexually assaulted at knifepoint by a man believed to be the East Area Rapist in 1976. Carson-Sandler, who now lives in Sun City, S.C., told The Island Packet newspaper Wednesday she had been contacted by two detectives about the suspect's arrest.
The man's arrest picture was not familiar to Carson-Sandler, she said.
"I just found out this morning," she told The Island Packet. "I'm overwhelmed with joy. I've been crying, sobbing."
True crime writer Michelle McNamara's book "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" reached No. 1 on The New York Times' bestseller list last month and drew renewed attention to the case. A documentary on the search for the killer aired at the Delta King Theatre in Old Sacramento earlier this month.
EDITOR’S NOTE: In another story the Bee reports DeAngelo is a former police officer who worked in Exeter near Visalia from 1973 to 1976, according to Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones. He was employed in 1976 with the Auburn Police Department before being fired in 1979 after he was charged with stealing a hammer and dog repellent from a Citrus Heights drug store, according to an Auburn Journal article.
__________
EAST AREA RAPIST WAS A COP
by Bob Walsh
The cops arrested a suspect in the East Area Rapist cases on Wednesday in Citrus Heights, a suburb of Sacramento. He was called the East Area Rapist because he got his start in the east side of Sacramento. He eventually committed 12 murders, 51 rapes and about 150 burglaries across the state. Turns out he used to be a cop.
Former Auburn P. D. officer Joseph James DeAngelo, now 72, caused terror in much of the state in the late 19702 and early 1980s.
Sacramento County and Ventura County have both announced they will prosecute him for special circumstances murder and attempt to execute him. Considering his advanced age and the glacial pace of executions in CA the chances of him actually being executed is for all practical purposes zero. He is much more likely to spend the rest of his miserable life getting chauffeured from jail to court.
A DNA link is what tipped the cops to him. An INTERMINABLE news conference, in which every government official who ever farted anywhere near the case file is getting some face time, sucked up the entire noon news on KFBK out of Sacramento. So far (50 minutes) they haven't said shit about the case, just how wonderful each of them is and how wonderful DNA technology is. They haven't even said yet how long he worked for Auburn.
With luck the ambulatory turd will have a heart attack and save the state a ton of money.
by Sam Stanton and Benjy Egel
The Sacramento Bee
April 25, 2018
After four decades of dead ends, Sacramento law enforcement leaders announced Wednesday they arrested the man they believe was the East Area Rapist who killed and terrorized people in the 1970s and 1980s.
Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert and Sheriff Scott Jones said they relied on DNA evidence to arrest Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, who lived for more than three decades on a quiet street in Citrus Heights.
He was never considered a suspect until six days ago.
"We found the needle in the haystack, and it was right here in Sacramento," Schubert said.
The East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer, the Original Night Stalker and the Diamond Knot Killer, is believed to have killed at least 12 people, raped at least 45 victims and burglarized hundreds of homes.
Nearly all of the rapes and homicides between 1976 and 1978 occurred in the Sacramento region, followed by rapes in the Bay Area and later homicides in Southern California.
Investigators zeroed in on DeAngelo within the past six days, Schubert said. Between then and now, Sheriff's detectives conducted surveillance on DeAngelo to determine his habits and how he might react to an arrest, Jones said. Detectives arrested him Tuesday.
They relied on a "discarded DNA sample," Schubert said, adding that she would not provide more DNA specifics at this time.
FBI agents and law enforcement from Sacramento County and Southern California were outside DeAngelo's home this morning in Citrus Heights near the city border with Roseville. DeAngelo has lived there since 1983, public records show.
He is listed in Sacramento County jail records as being booked early this morning on two counts of murder from a Ventura County Sheriff's Department warrant.
DeAngelo is being held on suspicion of at least four homicides, according to information provided early in the press conference by Schubert and Ventura County DA Gregory Totten.
Two of those are for the murder of Brian and Katie Maggiore in Rancho Cordova. The couple were the first two people believed to be killed by the East Area Rapist and were shot while walking their dog. Brian was shot in the chest in a neighbor's backyard, while Katie was shot in the head outside their home.
Two additional charges are for homicides in Ventura County. On March 13, 1980, Charlene and Lyman Smith were bludgeoned by a piece of firewood. Charlene, who was soon to become a county judge, was raped before being killed.
"This defendant has been able to live here in a nice suburb in Sacramento," said Orange County DA Tony Rackauckas. "Our team is going to work hard to make sure he never gets out."
Sgt. Shaun Hampton, a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman, said several more search warrants are expected to be executed over the next few days.
Authorities believe DeAngelo raped 37 people in the Sacramento area and Central Valley and killed two between 1976 and 1978. From there, authorities believe, he moved on to the the Bay Area and Southern California.
He is believed to have committed at least nine sexual assaults in Sacramento, six in Rancho Cordova and Citrus Heights, four in Carmichael, three in Davis, two in Orangevale and one in Antelope between June 1976 and July 1978.
Bruce Harrington, whose brother Keith Harrington and sister-in-law Patrice Harrington were allegedly killed in Dana Point in 1980 by the East Area Rapist, appeared at the press conference.
"For the 51 ladies who were brutally raped: Sleep better tonight," Harrington said. "He isn’t coming through the window. He is now in jail and he is history."
Then-Citrus Heights resident Jane Carson-Sandler was sexually assaulted at knifepoint by a man believed to be the East Area Rapist in 1976. Carson-Sandler, who now lives in Sun City, S.C., told The Island Packet newspaper Wednesday she had been contacted by two detectives about the suspect's arrest.
The man's arrest picture was not familiar to Carson-Sandler, she said.
"I just found out this morning," she told The Island Packet. "I'm overwhelmed with joy. I've been crying, sobbing."
True crime writer Michelle McNamara's book "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" reached No. 1 on The New York Times' bestseller list last month and drew renewed attention to the case. A documentary on the search for the killer aired at the Delta King Theatre in Old Sacramento earlier this month.
EDITOR’S NOTE: In another story the Bee reports DeAngelo is a former police officer who worked in Exeter near Visalia from 1973 to 1976, according to Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones. He was employed in 1976 with the Auburn Police Department before being fired in 1979 after he was charged with stealing a hammer and dog repellent from a Citrus Heights drug store, according to an Auburn Journal article.
__________
EAST AREA RAPIST WAS A COP
by Bob Walsh
The cops arrested a suspect in the East Area Rapist cases on Wednesday in Citrus Heights, a suburb of Sacramento. He was called the East Area Rapist because he got his start in the east side of Sacramento. He eventually committed 12 murders, 51 rapes and about 150 burglaries across the state. Turns out he used to be a cop.
Former Auburn P. D. officer Joseph James DeAngelo, now 72, caused terror in much of the state in the late 19702 and early 1980s.
Sacramento County and Ventura County have both announced they will prosecute him for special circumstances murder and attempt to execute him. Considering his advanced age and the glacial pace of executions in CA the chances of him actually being executed is for all practical purposes zero. He is much more likely to spend the rest of his miserable life getting chauffeured from jail to court.
A DNA link is what tipped the cops to him. An INTERMINABLE news conference, in which every government official who ever farted anywhere near the case file is getting some face time, sucked up the entire noon news on KFBK out of Sacramento. So far (50 minutes) they haven't said shit about the case, just how wonderful each of them is and how wonderful DNA technology is. They haven't even said yet how long he worked for Auburn.
With luck the ambulatory turd will have a heart attack and save the state a ton of money.
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