Biden finally admits he was not arrested in South Africa
By Howie Katz
Joe ‘White Obama’ Biden is trying to put out the fire in his pants.
Biden finally admitted Friday that he was not arrested in South Africa as he had previously stated in a crass attempt to secure the black vote in South Carolina.
During an interview on CNN, Biden was asked about the arrest in South Africa. White Obama replied, “I wasn't arrested, I was stopped. I was not able to move where I wanted to go.” He said he was confronted by “Afrikaners with guns.”
According to the Daily Mail, Biden also changed the location of where the incident happened, having at first claimed it was 'on the streets of Soweto,' moving it to an unnamed airport. And he dropped a claim that he was with 'our UN ambassador' at the time.
White Obama told CNN:
“I was with a black delegation, the CBC, the Congressional Black Caucus. They had me get off a plane. The Afrikaners got on in their short pants and their guns. Lead me off first and moved me in a direction totally different. I turned around and everybody, the entire black delegation, was going another way. I said, 'I'm not going to go in that door that says white only. I'm going with them. They said, 'You're not, you can't move, you can't go with them.' And they kept me there until finally I decided that it was clear I wasn't going to move. What they finally did was, they decided they're not going to let the black delegation go through a black door, I'm not going to go through a white door, they finally took us through - if my memory serves me - to a restaurant.”
Of course, Biden was with the Congressional Black Caucus in 1989. And those Afrikaners with guns … like Hillary and Chealsy under sniper fire in Bosnia.
I think White Obama’s pants are still on fire.
If the voters in South Carolina, both black and white, give that charlatan Biden the lead over Sanders and the other Democratic candidates, it shows how really stupid they are.
Saturday, February 29, 2020
FORTUNATELY THE HIPPOS ARE NOT REAL
by Bob Walsh
A Jungle Cruise boat at Disney World in Florida sank a couple of days ago. It wasn't a big deal as the water is just barely deeper than the draft of the boat. The local fire department responded and helped the passengers evacuate. Some of them took selfies and thought it was a hoot. I am guessing the park threw them a couple of freebies.
A Jungle Cruise boat at Disney World in Florida sank a couple of days ago. It wasn't a big deal as the water is just barely deeper than the draft of the boat. The local fire department responded and helped the passengers evacuate. Some of them took selfies and thought it was a hoot. I am guessing the park threw them a couple of freebies.
SO, HOW WILL IT SHAKE OUT TODAY ?
by Bob Walsh
The South Carolina Primary is today. It is, at least in theory, Joe "the hairsniffer" Biden's firewall. It is believed by many that Crazy Bernie will get very little traction with the large Black population in S. C. and that Joe's long track record with Black voters, combined with his constantly sucking up to Obama, will get him a solid win. He needs it badly. If he doesn't pull it off he will be hurting, both electorally and financially.
Most polling is still showing Crazy Bernie with a large lead in national numbers, but we do not elect presidents nationally. The smart money is still saying that Joe will get a convincing win in S.C. and thereby resuscitate his campaign, which is damn near on life support.
Of course Super Tuesday, on March 3, is another story altogether. It is expected that Crazy Bernie will do very, very well in CA and fairly solid in Texas and North Carolina as well. It is, after all, fairly hard to run against Santa Claus. Free Shit For Everybody has a very strong appeal.
It will also be very interesting to see how much of the election Bloomie will be able to buy for himself on Tuesday. My guess, for what my guess may be worth to you, is that the Socialist-Democrat field will cut itself in half Tuesday night and leave them with three (or just maybe four) semi-serious candidates still standing.
The South Carolina Primary is today. It is, at least in theory, Joe "the hairsniffer" Biden's firewall. It is believed by many that Crazy Bernie will get very little traction with the large Black population in S. C. and that Joe's long track record with Black voters, combined with his constantly sucking up to Obama, will get him a solid win. He needs it badly. If he doesn't pull it off he will be hurting, both electorally and financially.
Most polling is still showing Crazy Bernie with a large lead in national numbers, but we do not elect presidents nationally. The smart money is still saying that Joe will get a convincing win in S.C. and thereby resuscitate his campaign, which is damn near on life support.
Of course Super Tuesday, on March 3, is another story altogether. It is expected that Crazy Bernie will do very, very well in CA and fairly solid in Texas and North Carolina as well. It is, after all, fairly hard to run against Santa Claus. Free Shit For Everybody has a very strong appeal.
It will also be very interesting to see how much of the election Bloomie will be able to buy for himself on Tuesday. My guess, for what my guess may be worth to you, is that the Socialist-Democrat field will cut itself in half Tuesday night and leave them with three (or just maybe four) semi-serious candidates still standing.
LEGISLATOR ADMITS IT ISN'T WORKING
by Bob Walsh
Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) wrote the anti-gig economy law that is now plaguing many people in the formerly great state of California. She is now seeking to modify the law, at least as it applies to journalists. Under the current law if you submit 35 or less articles, photos, or other assignments you can be considered a freelancer. Once you hit 36 in one year, you are no longer a freelancer, you must be carried on the books as an employee. This has, since the law took effect January 1, resulted in several hundred CA "journalists" becoming unemployed.
Minutes before Gonzalez submitted her proposal a CA Republican (there are still a few, they are kept in a zoo for people to stare at) submitted a proposal to suspend AB-5, the anti-gig economy law. He was voted down 55-15.
Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) wrote the anti-gig economy law that is now plaguing many people in the formerly great state of California. She is now seeking to modify the law, at least as it applies to journalists. Under the current law if you submit 35 or less articles, photos, or other assignments you can be considered a freelancer. Once you hit 36 in one year, you are no longer a freelancer, you must be carried on the books as an employee. This has, since the law took effect January 1, resulted in several hundred CA "journalists" becoming unemployed.
Minutes before Gonzalez submitted her proposal a CA Republican (there are still a few, they are kept in a zoo for people to stare at) submitted a proposal to suspend AB-5, the anti-gig economy law. He was voted down 55-15.
CA AND FEDS AGREE, GIANT RODENTS ARE BAD
by Bob Walsh
The House of Representatives approved a bill to help fund the formerly great state of California's fight against the Nutria. It was helped along by Representative Josh Harder, who showed up at the hearing with a stuffed Nutria, which is essentially a really big, destructive rat.
Assuming the bill is passed into law it would approve $12 million a year for five years, most of which would presumably go to California.
One of the more creative plans is to release Nutria into the wild who have been neutered and fitted with tracking devices. They are social critters and it is believed this will allow trappers to find their nesting sites to more easily and thoroughly eliminate them.
The House of Representatives approved a bill to help fund the formerly great state of California's fight against the Nutria. It was helped along by Representative Josh Harder, who showed up at the hearing with a stuffed Nutria, which is essentially a really big, destructive rat.
Assuming the bill is passed into law it would approve $12 million a year for five years, most of which would presumably go to California.
One of the more creative plans is to release Nutria into the wild who have been neutered and fitted with tracking devices. They are social critters and it is believed this will allow trappers to find their nesting sites to more easily and thoroughly eliminate them.
CARFENTANIL, WHICH IS 100 TIMES MORE POTENT THAN FENTANYL, IS THE PERFECT TERRORIST WEAPON
How Opioids Were Used as Weapons During the Moscow Theater Hostage Crisis
By Chivis Martinez
Borderland Beat
February 28, 2020
In October 2002, after Chechen rebels stormed a Moscow theater and trapped more than 800 people for 57 hours, it seemed like it couldn’t get much worse. Then Russian troops released a mysterious gas into the theater. The gas was intended to incapacitate the rebels—which it did—-but it also ended up killing more than 120 of the hostages.
That gas contained carfentanil, an opioid 10,000 times more powerful than morphine and 100 times more powerful than fentanyl. Fentanyl has received increased media attention in recent years because of the U.S. opioid crisis, but carfentanil has also been seeping into the American drug market and causing overdose deaths. So yes, carfentanil is a drug that Americans are overdosing on—and it’s also a weapon banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention.
As the then-unknown gas filled the theater, hostages and rebels alike passed out or died immediately. Russian officers dragged everyone out and packed both living and dead hostages onto the same buses and cars, says David Satter, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and author of The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia’s Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin.
“Bodies were piled one on top of another outside the theater entrance, with no attempt to separate the living from the dead,” Satter writes in his book. “Alexander Karpov, a well-known songwriter, died after spending seven hours alive in a bus packed with corpses. In another case, thirty hostages were put in a twelve-seat military microbus, some on the floor. A thirteen-year-old girl was crushed under the bodies and died on the way to a hospital.”
Because Russian officials refused to reveal what was in the gas they’d released, medical professionals didn’t know how to treat the hundreds of victims. They spent several hours testing antidotes before finding that naloxone, a drug used to treat opioid overdoses, could help counter the effects of the gas. By then, more lives had been lost, and the survivors’ health had worsened. Those who lived through the experience continued to suffer from problems that no one knew how to treat, because the gas that’d caused them was still a mystery.
Russia’s rationale for using the gas in the crisis was that officers couldn’t have safely evacuated the hostages unless the rebels were incapacitated. This was because the rebels had announced they’d strung up bombs and some of them were wearing suicide belts. Later, officials discovered that the bombs were dummies, and that most of the suicide belts were fake. In any case, officers “shot all of the terrorists, including those who were unconscious, so that nobody was in a position to dispute their version of events,” Satter says.
Nearly 16 years later, Russia still hasn’t admitted what was in the gas, and has only acknowledged that it contained fentanyl-related compounds. But in 2012, a group of British scientists analyzed clothing from two survivors and urine from a third survivor. They determined that the gas contained the extremely potent drug carfentanil.
Out of the more than 64,000 drug overdose deaths in 2016, over 20,000 were related to fentanyl (which is already 50 times more powerful than heroin) and fentanyl analogs. That year, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced in a press release that first responders were starting to see overdoses from carfentanil, which is a fentanyl analog. Recently, federal investigators found enough carfentanil to kill 86,000 people in the home of one San Diego dealer.
A 2016 APinvestigation found that carfentanil is easily available from Chinese dealers, who continue to ship it to the U.S. despite recent collaboration between the countries to limit its export and production. This not only makes it easier for people with opioid addictions to obtain lethal doses, it also makes it easier for terrorists and authoritarian governments to obtain drugs that many countries recognize as chemical weapons. In a 2017 article for the The Cipher Brief, former CIA acting director Michael J. Morell argued that the opioid crisis is a national security threat that we’re not paying attention to.
“[C]arfentanil is the perfect terrorist weapon,” he wrote. “It is readily available in large quantities. It comes in several forms—including tablets, powder, and spray. It can be absorbed through the skin or through inhalation. It acts quickly … In short, a single terrorist attack using carfentanil could kill thousands of Americans.”
Despite this, “No one from either the Obama or Trump administrations has spoken publicly about the threat,” Morell continued. “It would be a terrible tragedy if foreign terrorists were to use the consequences of our own domestic drug problem against us—particularly when it is so easy to see what might be coming.”
By Chivis Martinez
Borderland Beat
February 28, 2020
In October 2002, after Chechen rebels stormed a Moscow theater and trapped more than 800 people for 57 hours, it seemed like it couldn’t get much worse. Then Russian troops released a mysterious gas into the theater. The gas was intended to incapacitate the rebels—which it did—-but it also ended up killing more than 120 of the hostages.
That gas contained carfentanil, an opioid 10,000 times more powerful than morphine and 100 times more powerful than fentanyl. Fentanyl has received increased media attention in recent years because of the U.S. opioid crisis, but carfentanil has also been seeping into the American drug market and causing overdose deaths. So yes, carfentanil is a drug that Americans are overdosing on—and it’s also a weapon banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention.
As the then-unknown gas filled the theater, hostages and rebels alike passed out or died immediately. Russian officers dragged everyone out and packed both living and dead hostages onto the same buses and cars, says David Satter, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and author of The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia’s Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin.
“Bodies were piled one on top of another outside the theater entrance, with no attempt to separate the living from the dead,” Satter writes in his book. “Alexander Karpov, a well-known songwriter, died after spending seven hours alive in a bus packed with corpses. In another case, thirty hostages were put in a twelve-seat military microbus, some on the floor. A thirteen-year-old girl was crushed under the bodies and died on the way to a hospital.”
Because Russian officials refused to reveal what was in the gas they’d released, medical professionals didn’t know how to treat the hundreds of victims. They spent several hours testing antidotes before finding that naloxone, a drug used to treat opioid overdoses, could help counter the effects of the gas. By then, more lives had been lost, and the survivors’ health had worsened. Those who lived through the experience continued to suffer from problems that no one knew how to treat, because the gas that’d caused them was still a mystery.
Russia’s rationale for using the gas in the crisis was that officers couldn’t have safely evacuated the hostages unless the rebels were incapacitated. This was because the rebels had announced they’d strung up bombs and some of them were wearing suicide belts. Later, officials discovered that the bombs were dummies, and that most of the suicide belts were fake. In any case, officers “shot all of the terrorists, including those who were unconscious, so that nobody was in a position to dispute their version of events,” Satter says.
Nearly 16 years later, Russia still hasn’t admitted what was in the gas, and has only acknowledged that it contained fentanyl-related compounds. But in 2012, a group of British scientists analyzed clothing from two survivors and urine from a third survivor. They determined that the gas contained the extremely potent drug carfentanil.
Out of the more than 64,000 drug overdose deaths in 2016, over 20,000 were related to fentanyl (which is already 50 times more powerful than heroin) and fentanyl analogs. That year, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced in a press release that first responders were starting to see overdoses from carfentanil, which is a fentanyl analog. Recently, federal investigators found enough carfentanil to kill 86,000 people in the home of one San Diego dealer.
A 2016 APinvestigation found that carfentanil is easily available from Chinese dealers, who continue to ship it to the U.S. despite recent collaboration between the countries to limit its export and production. This not only makes it easier for people with opioid addictions to obtain lethal doses, it also makes it easier for terrorists and authoritarian governments to obtain drugs that many countries recognize as chemical weapons. In a 2017 article for the The Cipher Brief, former CIA acting director Michael J. Morell argued that the opioid crisis is a national security threat that we’re not paying attention to.
“[C]arfentanil is the perfect terrorist weapon,” he wrote. “It is readily available in large quantities. It comes in several forms—including tablets, powder, and spray. It can be absorbed through the skin or through inhalation. It acts quickly … In short, a single terrorist attack using carfentanil could kill thousands of Americans.”
Despite this, “No one from either the Obama or Trump administrations has spoken publicly about the threat,” Morell continued. “It would be a terrible tragedy if foreign terrorists were to use the consequences of our own domestic drug problem against us—particularly when it is so easy to see what might be coming.”
IF YOU KILL A COP IN TEXAS, YOU ARE GOING TO DIE
Texas Man Sentenced To Death For ‘Ambush' Killing Of LEO
LAPPL News Watch
February 28, 2020
A courtroom full of family, friends and fellow officers who worked with slain Richardson police Officer David Sherrard burst into sobs Thursday night when his killer, Brandon McCall, was sentenced to die.
Jurors deliberated for more than eight hours Thursday before rendering a verdict.
“I think it did send a message today,” Judge John Roach Jr. told the jury after they returned with a verdict. “You sent a message that if you kill a cop in Texas, we’ll give you a fair trial, but you’re gonna die.”
The same jury last week convicted McCall, 28, of capital murder for killing Sherrard after the officer responded to a shooting call at the apartment where McCall was staying in February 2018.
McCall also killed his roommate, Rene Gamez, with a shotgun blast to the calf.
“Mr. McCall,” Roach said as he formally sentenced the man to death, “this is for David Sherrard.”
LAPPL News Watch
February 28, 2020
A courtroom full of family, friends and fellow officers who worked with slain Richardson police Officer David Sherrard burst into sobs Thursday night when his killer, Brandon McCall, was sentenced to die.
Jurors deliberated for more than eight hours Thursday before rendering a verdict.
“I think it did send a message today,” Judge John Roach Jr. told the jury after they returned with a verdict. “You sent a message that if you kill a cop in Texas, we’ll give you a fair trial, but you’re gonna die.”
The same jury last week convicted McCall, 28, of capital murder for killing Sherrard after the officer responded to a shooting call at the apartment where McCall was staying in February 2018.
McCall also killed his roommate, Rene Gamez, with a shotgun blast to the calf.
“Mr. McCall,” Roach said as he formally sentenced the man to death, “this is for David Sherrard.”
GHOST GUNS
DC Seeks To Ban ‘Ghost Gun’ Kits As Seizures Of Homemade Weapons Soar
LAPPL News Watch
February 28, 2020
The number of untraceable “ghost guns” built from kits and seized by police has begun to surge in the District and some other areas nationwide, raising concerns that firearm traffickers have found a new way to bypass background checks and pour more weapons into cities struggling with violence.
D.C. police said such guns were used in three killings in the city in recent years. District officers last year took 116 ghost guns off the streets, compared with just three in 2017.
Police in Philadelphia, Baltimore and suburban Maryland also said they are seeing more of the weapons, even as authorities in other big cities said they have yet to recover a single ghost gun.
The kits can be purchased without the background checks and other requirements needed to buy fully operational guns. Assembling a gun out of parts obtained through a gun dealer or the Internet is largely legal in the United States, and results in a weapon with no serial number or traceable link to a gun manufacturer: Thus, a “ghost gun.”
LAPPL News Watch
February 28, 2020
The number of untraceable “ghost guns” built from kits and seized by police has begun to surge in the District and some other areas nationwide, raising concerns that firearm traffickers have found a new way to bypass background checks and pour more weapons into cities struggling with violence.
D.C. police said such guns were used in three killings in the city in recent years. District officers last year took 116 ghost guns off the streets, compared with just three in 2017.
Police in Philadelphia, Baltimore and suburban Maryland also said they are seeing more of the weapons, even as authorities in other big cities said they have yet to recover a single ghost gun.
The kits can be purchased without the background checks and other requirements needed to buy fully operational guns. Assembling a gun out of parts obtained through a gun dealer or the Internet is largely legal in the United States, and results in a weapon with no serial number or traceable link to a gun manufacturer: Thus, a “ghost gun.”
TWICE DEPORTED TRIPLE CEMETERY KILLER CAUGHT
Perris triple-homicide suspect arrested in Wyoming
Desert Sun
February 27, 2020
A twice-deported Mexican national suspected of killing three men execution-style at a Perris cemetery was arrested Thursday, more than 1,000 miles away, with 15 pounds of marijuana in his vehicle.
Jose Luis Torres Garcia, 33, was taken into custody Thursday morning in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he is now awaiting extradition back to Riverside County, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff’s officials said that law enforcement officers in Cheyenne spotted the fugitive in a silver 2007 GMC Yukon, pulled him over and detained him without incident. After confirming Garcia’s identity, police took him into custody and jailed him at the Laramie County Detention Center.
Fifteen pounds of processed marijuana was seized from the vehicle, authorities said.
There was no immediate word on the timing of extradition proceedings. The murder warrant issued for the suspect has a $3 million surety attached.
Last week, Sheriff Chad Bianco said detectives identified Garcia as the alleged perpetrator after amassing and screening citywide security video surveillance images and speaking with potential witnesses.
Bianco alleged that Garcia killed Jaime Covarrubias Espindola, 50, Jose Maria Aguilar-Espejel, 38, and Rodrigo Aguilar-Espejel, 28, in the predawn hours of Feb. 17.
The sheriff would not elaborate on a possible motive, including whether the slayings were tied to cartel violence south of the border, saying only that Garcia was with the three victims all night leading up to the killings.
“The suspect and victims knew each other,” Bianco said. “This was not a random killing. There was a reason for the four of them to be together.”
The victims were located shortly after daybreak on Feb. 17 at Perris Valley Cemetery in the 900 block of North Perris Boulevard. Their bodies had been left adjacent to a grave.
“Three people killed at the same time -- that was a message for something, whether it was for someone else, or for them,” Bianco said. “It certainly is not the norm.”
The sheriff acknowledged hearing of speculation that the men’s deaths may have been tied to the killing of a 36-year-old restaurateur who was abducted and fatally shot on a roadside in Mexico in December. The victim’s grave possibly was the one at which the men’s bodies were laid.
Bianco said other recent homicides in Perris were not connected to the latest killings, despite social media gossip.
Desert Sun
February 27, 2020
A twice-deported Mexican national suspected of killing three men execution-style at a Perris cemetery was arrested Thursday, more than 1,000 miles away, with 15 pounds of marijuana in his vehicle.
Jose Luis Torres Garcia, 33, was taken into custody Thursday morning in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he is now awaiting extradition back to Riverside County, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff’s officials said that law enforcement officers in Cheyenne spotted the fugitive in a silver 2007 GMC Yukon, pulled him over and detained him without incident. After confirming Garcia’s identity, police took him into custody and jailed him at the Laramie County Detention Center.
Fifteen pounds of processed marijuana was seized from the vehicle, authorities said.
There was no immediate word on the timing of extradition proceedings. The murder warrant issued for the suspect has a $3 million surety attached.
Last week, Sheriff Chad Bianco said detectives identified Garcia as the alleged perpetrator after amassing and screening citywide security video surveillance images and speaking with potential witnesses.
Bianco alleged that Garcia killed Jaime Covarrubias Espindola, 50, Jose Maria Aguilar-Espejel, 38, and Rodrigo Aguilar-Espejel, 28, in the predawn hours of Feb. 17.
The sheriff would not elaborate on a possible motive, including whether the slayings were tied to cartel violence south of the border, saying only that Garcia was with the three victims all night leading up to the killings.
“The suspect and victims knew each other,” Bianco said. “This was not a random killing. There was a reason for the four of them to be together.”
The victims were located shortly after daybreak on Feb. 17 at Perris Valley Cemetery in the 900 block of North Perris Boulevard. Their bodies had been left adjacent to a grave.
“Three people killed at the same time -- that was a message for something, whether it was for someone else, or for them,” Bianco said. “It certainly is not the norm.”
The sheriff acknowledged hearing of speculation that the men’s deaths may have been tied to the killing of a 36-year-old restaurateur who was abducted and fatally shot on a roadside in Mexico in December. The victim’s grave possibly was the one at which the men’s bodies were laid.
Bianco said other recent homicides in Perris were not connected to the latest killings, despite social media gossip.
IS HOUSTON BECOMING ANOTHER NEW YORK OR EVEN SAN FRANCISCO?
Cameras caught him masturbating on a METRO bus. A Harris County judge rejected his criminal case
By Jeremy Rogalski
KHOU 11
February 26, 2020
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — On a Sunday morning last June, cameras captured registered sex offender Jamal Washington masturbating on a METRO bus. It wasn’t the first time for the 36-year-old, who has a history of exposing himself in public.
Washington was arrested by METRO police officers and charged with indecent exposure. In charging documents, Detective Robert Smith warned that the suspect posed a real danger to women.
“He will not stop. And he is a sexual predator. It’s just a matter of time before he attacks and rapes a female victim,” Smith wrote.
But despite the bus surveillance video clearly showing what happened, the case went nowhere in court. Harris County Judge Andrew Wright ruled there was no probable cause for the arrest because the female passenger who made the complaint never actually saw Washington’s penis. Police said she only noticed the fast up and down motion of Washington’s hand out of the corner of her eye.
“Therefore, they didn't have probable cause because they were missing an element of the exposure of that gentleman to the bus passenger,” Wright said.
Whether the judge’s decision is considered a technicality or not, the number of no probable cause rulings, also known as no PC, has more than doubled in the past five years.
According to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, there were 1,881 no-PC cases in 2015. Through Dec. 6 last year, there were 3,969 — an increase of 111 percent.
The biggest year-to-year jump was also in 2019 when a slate of Democratic judges took over the bench.
‘Public Safety Risk’
In a letter to area law enforcement leaders, District Attorney Kim Ogg called the uptick a public safety risk.
“Every one of these decisions is being made by our local magistrates and judiciary and should be of critical concern in terms of just how far our limited resources can be stretched as we strive together to keep Harris County safe,” Ogg wrote.
Ogg offered possible reasons in her letter for the surge in no probable cause rulings. In some cases, the summary of facts provided by law enforcement did not contain enough detail or sufficiency for each element of the crime filed. In other cases, Ogg said judges and magistrates who had “increasingly vocal, personal perspectives” about crime were to blame.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo went even further in his criticism.
“The majority of time, I believe it's activist judges that are putting their own views in terms of justice, and it’s more centered on coddling criminals,” Acevedo said. “It’s something that is a growing problem, it’s a growing challenge.”
One HPD case of particular concern was a theft in progress call last November at a CVS drug store in southwest Houston. According to prosecutors, offices found Christopher Obryant walking down a nearby street and told him to stop. Obryant allegedly dropped what he had in his hands and said “f*** no, I’m not going back to jail” before officers managed to arrest him. They took him back to the CVS where store security video showed him shoplifting. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office accepted charges of theft, second offense.
But at a hearing hours later, Magistrate Courtney St. Julian rejected the case.
“He had $12 worth of food and held at gunpoint. I’m feeling the Thanksgiving spirit, so I’m going to find no probable cause for Mr. Obryant’s arrest,” St. Julian said. “Happy holidays.”
Six weeks later, Obryant was arrested for theft again.
“I think that’s inappropriate,” Acevedo said. “You know when people get elected to the bench, are they there to follow the law or are they there to be activists?”
In an email to KHOU 11 Investigates, St. Julian never addressed her “Thanksgiving spirit” comment but said that judicial officers are independent bodies responsible for interpreting the law.
“Judicial officers are granted wide discretion to decide if there are enough facts for each element of a charge in determining the existence of probable cause,” she said in the email.
The magistrate said the charge of theft as a second offender requires specific information, such as the date and county of the defendant’s prior theft conviction. Without that, she said there is no probable cause for the arrest.
Other crimes ruled no probable cause
It’s not just petty theft cases that are getting no probable cause rulings.
In a review of Harris County District Clerk data, KHOU 11 Investigates found burglary and family assault cases, driving while intoxicated charges, as well as drug possession and unlawful weapon charges, too.
At the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office last October, Omar Truillo was charged with his second felony evading arrest case in as many months.
According to the arrest report, deputies tried to pull Truillo over for not having a front license plate. Dashboard camera video from a deputy constable’s patrol car showed Truillo didn’t stop until he pulled in the driveway of his home.
Magistrate Jennifer Gaut ruled there was no probable cause because there was no indication Truillo was speeding or putting other people at risk.
“The state may disagree with me,” Gaut said at a court hearing.
Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman is livid about the pattern of no probable cause rulings.
“In my 34 years of being in law enforcement, I have never seen so many suspected criminals on our streets because of the position taken by certain judges,” Herman said in a written statement.
Darrell Jordan, the presiding judge over Harris County’s 16 misdemeanor courts, said each judge has their own way of doing things and each has their own thought process.
“I believe that we’re following the law the best we can, and no one is perfect,” Jordan said, adding that a no probable cause ruling does not mean the case goes away for good. “The buck doesn't stop with the judge; it’s really the DA who carries the water. They can go back and find the errors in the case, they can refile it, and they could come right back before the judge or they can go around the judge and simply take the case to a grand jury.”
In her letter to area police chiefs, District Attorney Ogg said those decisions would have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
“Together our agencies will have to determine whether the resources required for your officers and our attorneys to refile the same case a second time are worth the expense and effort,” Ogg wrote.
It’s unclear if police and prosecutors plan to refile charges in the METRO bus indecent exposure case in Judge Wright’s court.
When asked if the “coddling criminals” accusation made by HPD Chief Acevedo was fair or not, Wright said: “Man, I don’t know. I don’t know if I can answer that question. I don’t know if I look at is as saying coddling criminals, tough on crime, or however somebody wants to put it.
“All I can tell you is I’m doing my job.”
By Jeremy Rogalski
KHOU 11
February 26, 2020
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — On a Sunday morning last June, cameras captured registered sex offender Jamal Washington masturbating on a METRO bus. It wasn’t the first time for the 36-year-old, who has a history of exposing himself in public.
Washington was arrested by METRO police officers and charged with indecent exposure. In charging documents, Detective Robert Smith warned that the suspect posed a real danger to women.
“He will not stop. And he is a sexual predator. It’s just a matter of time before he attacks and rapes a female victim,” Smith wrote.
But despite the bus surveillance video clearly showing what happened, the case went nowhere in court. Harris County Judge Andrew Wright ruled there was no probable cause for the arrest because the female passenger who made the complaint never actually saw Washington’s penis. Police said she only noticed the fast up and down motion of Washington’s hand out of the corner of her eye.
“Therefore, they didn't have probable cause because they were missing an element of the exposure of that gentleman to the bus passenger,” Wright said.
Whether the judge’s decision is considered a technicality or not, the number of no probable cause rulings, also known as no PC, has more than doubled in the past five years.
According to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, there were 1,881 no-PC cases in 2015. Through Dec. 6 last year, there were 3,969 — an increase of 111 percent.
The biggest year-to-year jump was also in 2019 when a slate of Democratic judges took over the bench.
‘Public Safety Risk’
In a letter to area law enforcement leaders, District Attorney Kim Ogg called the uptick a public safety risk.
“Every one of these decisions is being made by our local magistrates and judiciary and should be of critical concern in terms of just how far our limited resources can be stretched as we strive together to keep Harris County safe,” Ogg wrote.
Ogg offered possible reasons in her letter for the surge in no probable cause rulings. In some cases, the summary of facts provided by law enforcement did not contain enough detail or sufficiency for each element of the crime filed. In other cases, Ogg said judges and magistrates who had “increasingly vocal, personal perspectives” about crime were to blame.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo went even further in his criticism.
“The majority of time, I believe it's activist judges that are putting their own views in terms of justice, and it’s more centered on coddling criminals,” Acevedo said. “It’s something that is a growing problem, it’s a growing challenge.”
One HPD case of particular concern was a theft in progress call last November at a CVS drug store in southwest Houston. According to prosecutors, offices found Christopher Obryant walking down a nearby street and told him to stop. Obryant allegedly dropped what he had in his hands and said “f*** no, I’m not going back to jail” before officers managed to arrest him. They took him back to the CVS where store security video showed him shoplifting. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office accepted charges of theft, second offense.
But at a hearing hours later, Magistrate Courtney St. Julian rejected the case.
“He had $12 worth of food and held at gunpoint. I’m feeling the Thanksgiving spirit, so I’m going to find no probable cause for Mr. Obryant’s arrest,” St. Julian said. “Happy holidays.”
Six weeks later, Obryant was arrested for theft again.
“I think that’s inappropriate,” Acevedo said. “You know when people get elected to the bench, are they there to follow the law or are they there to be activists?”
In an email to KHOU 11 Investigates, St. Julian never addressed her “Thanksgiving spirit” comment but said that judicial officers are independent bodies responsible for interpreting the law.
“Judicial officers are granted wide discretion to decide if there are enough facts for each element of a charge in determining the existence of probable cause,” she said in the email.
The magistrate said the charge of theft as a second offender requires specific information, such as the date and county of the defendant’s prior theft conviction. Without that, she said there is no probable cause for the arrest.
Other crimes ruled no probable cause
It’s not just petty theft cases that are getting no probable cause rulings.
In a review of Harris County District Clerk data, KHOU 11 Investigates found burglary and family assault cases, driving while intoxicated charges, as well as drug possession and unlawful weapon charges, too.
At the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office last October, Omar Truillo was charged with his second felony evading arrest case in as many months.
According to the arrest report, deputies tried to pull Truillo over for not having a front license plate. Dashboard camera video from a deputy constable’s patrol car showed Truillo didn’t stop until he pulled in the driveway of his home.
Magistrate Jennifer Gaut ruled there was no probable cause because there was no indication Truillo was speeding or putting other people at risk.
“The state may disagree with me,” Gaut said at a court hearing.
Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman is livid about the pattern of no probable cause rulings.
“In my 34 years of being in law enforcement, I have never seen so many suspected criminals on our streets because of the position taken by certain judges,” Herman said in a written statement.
Darrell Jordan, the presiding judge over Harris County’s 16 misdemeanor courts, said each judge has their own way of doing things and each has their own thought process.
“I believe that we’re following the law the best we can, and no one is perfect,” Jordan said, adding that a no probable cause ruling does not mean the case goes away for good. “The buck doesn't stop with the judge; it’s really the DA who carries the water. They can go back and find the errors in the case, they can refile it, and they could come right back before the judge or they can go around the judge and simply take the case to a grand jury.”
In her letter to area police chiefs, District Attorney Ogg said those decisions would have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
“Together our agencies will have to determine whether the resources required for your officers and our attorneys to refile the same case a second time are worth the expense and effort,” Ogg wrote.
It’s unclear if police and prosecutors plan to refile charges in the METRO bus indecent exposure case in Judge Wright’s court.
When asked if the “coddling criminals” accusation made by HPD Chief Acevedo was fair or not, Wright said: “Man, I don’t know. I don’t know if I can answer that question. I don’t know if I look at is as saying coddling criminals, tough on crime, or however somebody wants to put it.
“All I can tell you is I’m doing my job.”
NO RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ON TEMPLE MOUNT FOR JEWS
US Congressman Upset That Jews Can’t Pray on Temple Mount
Israel Today
February 28, 2020
There won’t be genuine peace in Holy Land until religious freedom is enjoyed by all. Ironically, the only group suffering from institutionalized religious discrimination in the Jewish state are Jews (and by extension Christians).
That fact was “jarring” to a visiting US congressman who ascended Jerusalem’s Temple Mount last week.
US Representative Mike Johnson (R-IL) visited Judaism’s holiest site together with former Member of Knesset Yehudah Glick, who was afterwards arrested and subsequently harassed by police for his “provocative” behavior atop the Temple Mount.
While Rep. Johnson was not witness to Glick’s ordeal, he did take note of the lack of religious freedom for both Jews and Christians at the site where God chose to put His name (Deuteronomy 12).
“An important issue that came up for me is the issue of freedom of religion, the first part of the First Amendment. It specifically is first because religious belief is grounded in morality,” Johnson was cited as saying by Israeli media.
“I saw the contrast on the Temple Mount and walked and saw that anyone who is an observant Jew has to continue to move and is forbidden to pray on the Temple Mount. It’s a jarring thing to see,” the congressman added.
“As a constitutional lawyer,” he continued, “I defended religious expression in federal courts for 20 years and to see that you don’t have freedom of expression if you are a Jew or a Christian on the Temple Mount, which is arguably the holiest site in the whole world – it is a remarkable thing to observe and a sad thing to observe. I hope that can change.”
Israel Today
February 28, 2020
There won’t be genuine peace in Holy Land until religious freedom is enjoyed by all. Ironically, the only group suffering from institutionalized religious discrimination in the Jewish state are Jews (and by extension Christians).
That fact was “jarring” to a visiting US congressman who ascended Jerusalem’s Temple Mount last week.
US Representative Mike Johnson (R-IL) visited Judaism’s holiest site together with former Member of Knesset Yehudah Glick, who was afterwards arrested and subsequently harassed by police for his “provocative” behavior atop the Temple Mount.
While Rep. Johnson was not witness to Glick’s ordeal, he did take note of the lack of religious freedom for both Jews and Christians at the site where God chose to put His name (Deuteronomy 12).
“An important issue that came up for me is the issue of freedom of religion, the first part of the First Amendment. It specifically is first because religious belief is grounded in morality,” Johnson was cited as saying by Israeli media.
“I saw the contrast on the Temple Mount and walked and saw that anyone who is an observant Jew has to continue to move and is forbidden to pray on the Temple Mount. It’s a jarring thing to see,” the congressman added.
“As a constitutional lawyer,” he continued, “I defended religious expression in federal courts for 20 years and to see that you don’t have freedom of expression if you are a Jew or a Christian on the Temple Mount, which is arguably the holiest site in the whole world – it is a remarkable thing to observe and a sad thing to observe. I hope that can change.”
Friday, February 28, 2020
ITALIAN ALTAR BOY’S CONFESSION
Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I have been with a loose girl".
The priest asks, "Is that you, little Joey Pagano?"
"Yes, Father, it is."
"And who was the girl you were with?"
"I can't tell you, Father, I don't want to ruin her reputation".
"Well, Joey, I'm sure to find out her name sooner or later, so you may as well tell me now. Was it Tina Minetti?"
"I cannot say."
"Was it Teresa Mazzarelli?"
"I'll never tell."
"Was it Nina Capelli?"
"I'm sorry, but I cannot name her."
"Was it Cathy Piriano?"
"My lips are sealed."
"Was it Rosa Di Angelo, then?"
"Please, Father, I cannot tell you."
The priest sighs in frustration. "You're very tight lipped, Joey Pagano, and I admire that. But you've sinned and have to atone. You cannot be an altar boy now for 4 months. Now you go and behave yourself."
Joey walks back to his pew and his friend Franco slides over and whispers, "What'd you get?"
"4 months vacation and five good leads."
The priest asks, "Is that you, little Joey Pagano?"
"Yes, Father, it is."
"And who was the girl you were with?"
"I can't tell you, Father, I don't want to ruin her reputation".
"Well, Joey, I'm sure to find out her name sooner or later, so you may as well tell me now. Was it Tina Minetti?"
"I cannot say."
"Was it Teresa Mazzarelli?"
"I'll never tell."
"Was it Nina Capelli?"
"I'm sorry, but I cannot name her."
"Was it Cathy Piriano?"
"My lips are sealed."
"Was it Rosa Di Angelo, then?"
"Please, Father, I cannot tell you."
The priest sighs in frustration. "You're very tight lipped, Joey Pagano, and I admire that. But you've sinned and have to atone. You cannot be an altar boy now for 4 months. Now you go and behave yourself."
Joey walks back to his pew and his friend Franco slides over and whispers, "What'd you get?"
"4 months vacation and five good leads."
NRA KICKS LOS ANGELES IN THE NUTSACK
With A Little Help From The U. S. District Court
by Bob Walsh
Regular followers of such things might remember that at about this time last year the Los Angeles City Council passed an interesting ordinance. This ordinance required that all persons who applied to do business with the city, or who in fact did business with the city, and who were also members of or supporters of the National Rifle Association had to disclose that fact to the city.
The NRA sued. They won, which should come as no great surprise to anybody who understands civil liberty and the First Amendment. The U. S. District Court ruled that the city could NOT enforce the ordinance and ordered the city to pay legal costs to the NRA. The city attempted to moot the issue (in much the same way that NYC attempted to moot their issue currently before SCOTUS) by withdrawing the ordinance last month. They were unsuccessful in their effort. Had the court dropped the case the city could have simply reinstated the ordinance. Now they can't.
The court is now determining costs to nail the city with.
by Bob Walsh
Regular followers of such things might remember that at about this time last year the Los Angeles City Council passed an interesting ordinance. This ordinance required that all persons who applied to do business with the city, or who in fact did business with the city, and who were also members of or supporters of the National Rifle Association had to disclose that fact to the city.
The NRA sued. They won, which should come as no great surprise to anybody who understands civil liberty and the First Amendment. The U. S. District Court ruled that the city could NOT enforce the ordinance and ordered the city to pay legal costs to the NRA. The city attempted to moot the issue (in much the same way that NYC attempted to moot their issue currently before SCOTUS) by withdrawing the ordinance last month. They were unsuccessful in their effort. Had the court dropped the case the city could have simply reinstated the ordinance. Now they can't.
The court is now determining costs to nail the city with.
STOCK MARKET CORRECTION
by Bob Walsh
As of market close yesterday the stock market had undergone an official correction, that is about 10% of total market value. My own deferred comp account is down about 1%. (Good planning and diversification helps.)
In seven of the last eight corrections the market has fully recovered the losses in less than six weeks after the correction. I don't expect it to happen that fast this time around because the Covid-19 situation is very unlikely to work itself out in less than a few months, and the supply chain issues may continue for that long.
As of market close yesterday the stock market had undergone an official correction, that is about 10% of total market value. My own deferred comp account is down about 1%. (Good planning and diversification helps.)
In seven of the last eight corrections the market has fully recovered the losses in less than six weeks after the correction. I don't expect it to happen that fast this time around because the Covid-19 situation is very unlikely to work itself out in less than a few months, and the supply chain issues may continue for that long.
INTERESTING WEATHER NOTE
by Bob Walsh
Unless something unexpected happens between now and Sunday a large chunk of NorCal will have gone the whole month of February with zero rainfall. That will be the first time in something like 140 years that has happened. It was 79 yesterday in Stockton and I have already had to start watering my lawn.
EDITOR'S NOTE: It must be global warming. I am forwarding your post to Greta Thunberg.
Unless something unexpected happens between now and Sunday a large chunk of NorCal will have gone the whole month of February with zero rainfall. That will be the first time in something like 140 years that has happened. It was 79 yesterday in Stockton and I have already had to start watering my lawn.
EDITOR'S NOTE: It must be global warming. I am forwarding your post to Greta Thunberg.
CA MOVING TO EFFECTIVELY BAN AMMUNITION
by Bob Walsh
Assuming it is passed into law AB 3071 (Mullin, D-22) would ban the use of all ammunition that has not been certified as Lead Free and sport shooting ranges, including indoor ranges. It also prohibits those ranges from selling or giving away ammunition that has not been certified as lead free for use at those facilities. There is very little ammunition that is totally lead free and that which is available is damn expensive. Even if you have a totally non-lead bullet most primers are made with lead compounds.
Interestingly enough the bill, as it is currently written, does NOT exempt government agencies.
Assuming it is passed into law AB 3071 (Mullin, D-22) would ban the use of all ammunition that has not been certified as Lead Free and sport shooting ranges, including indoor ranges. It also prohibits those ranges from selling or giving away ammunition that has not been certified as lead free for use at those facilities. There is very little ammunition that is totally lead free and that which is available is damn expensive. Even if you have a totally non-lead bullet most primers are made with lead compounds.
Interestingly enough the bill, as it is currently written, does NOT exempt government agencies.
CRAZY BERNIE’S ‘ODIOUS’ ACCUSATIONS ABOUT AIPAC ARE ‘TRULY SHAMEFUL’
Sanders won't attend AIPAC conference, accuses it of providing platform for 'bigotry'
BY John Bowden
The Hill
February 23, 2020
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) blasted the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Sunday in a statement confirming that he would not attend the pro-Israel organization's annual conference.
Sanders tweeted that he would not attend the conference due to AIPAC's connection to "leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights," an apparent reference to the current administration of Israel headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Sanders has repeatedly criticized in the past.
"The Israeli people have the right to live in peace and security. So do the Palestinian people. I remain concerned about the platform AIPAC provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights. For that reason I will not attend their conference," he wrote.
"As president, I will support the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians and do everything possible to bring peace and security to the region," Sanders continued.
Sanders, who is Jewish, has criticized both AIPAC and Netanyahu in the past and has referred to Netanyahu as a "right-wing politician" and his government as "racist."
"I am not anti-Israel. But the fact of the matter is Netanyahu is a right-wing politician who I think is treating the Palestinian people extremely unfairly," Sanders said last year during a town hall event hosted by CNN.
"What I believe is not radical. I just believe that the United States should deal with the Middle East on a level playing field basis," he added at the time.
AIPAC officials responded on Sunday to Sanders's remarks, pointing out that he has never attended the conference in the past and decrying the "odious" accusations as "truly shameful."
BY John Bowden
The Hill
February 23, 2020
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) blasted the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Sunday in a statement confirming that he would not attend the pro-Israel organization's annual conference.
Sanders tweeted that he would not attend the conference due to AIPAC's connection to "leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights," an apparent reference to the current administration of Israel headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Sanders has repeatedly criticized in the past.
"The Israeli people have the right to live in peace and security. So do the Palestinian people. I remain concerned about the platform AIPAC provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights. For that reason I will not attend their conference," he wrote.
"As president, I will support the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians and do everything possible to bring peace and security to the region," Sanders continued.
Sanders, who is Jewish, has criticized both AIPAC and Netanyahu in the past and has referred to Netanyahu as a "right-wing politician" and his government as "racist."
"I am not anti-Israel. But the fact of the matter is Netanyahu is a right-wing politician who I think is treating the Palestinian people extremely unfairly," Sanders said last year during a town hall event hosted by CNN.
"What I believe is not radical. I just believe that the United States should deal with the Middle East on a level playing field basis," he added at the time.
AIPAC officials responded on Sunday to Sanders's remarks, pointing out that he has never attended the conference in the past and decrying the "odious" accusations as "truly shameful."
EUROPEANS DO NOT LIKE TRUMP NOR HIS PEACE PROPOSAL ….. SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?
Grave concern about US plan to resolve Israel-Palestine conflict: Donald Trump’s Peace to Prosperity plan for the Middle East envisages an outcome with characteristics similar to apartheid, say 50 former foreign ministers and leaders from across Europe
Letter
The Guardian
February 26, 2020
As Europeans dedicated to promoting international law, peace and security worldwide, we express our deep concern about President Trump’s Middle East plan, titled Peace to Prosperity.
The plan contradicts internationally agreed parameters for the Middle East peace process, relevant UN resolutions, including security council resolution 2334, and the most fundamental principles of international law. Instead of promoting peace, it risks fuelling the conflict – at the expense of Israeli and Palestinian civilians alike, and with grave implications for Jordan and the wider region. It has been met with widespread opposition in the region, in Europe, and in the United States.
The plan allows for annexation of large and vital parts of the occupied Palestinian territory and legitimises and encourages illegal Israeli settlement activity. It recognises only one side’s claims to Jerusalem and offers no just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees. It projects a future Palestinian “state” without control and sovereignty over its fragmented territory. The map featured in the plan proposes Palestinian enclaves under permanent Israeli military control, which evoke chilling associations with South Africa’s bantustans.
Peace to Prosperity is not a roadmap to a viable two-state solution, nor to any other legitimate solution to the conflict. The plan envisages a formalisation of the current reality in the occupied Palestinian territory, in which two peoples are living side by side without equal rights. Such an outcome has characteristics similar to apartheid – a term we don’t use lightly.
The international community, particularly the European Union, must prevent such a scenario from unfolding, in order to preserve the dignity and rights of the Palestinians, the future of Israeli democracy and the wider international rules-based order.
We welcome the statement by EU high representative Josep Borrell stressing the EU’s continued commitment to a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, in accordance with the international parameters. We fully agree with the EU that Israeli “steps towards annexation, if implemented, could not pass unchallenged”, as they would impair the fundamental international norm banning the acquisition of territory by force.
Considering the urgency of the situation, we call on Europe to reject the US plan as a basis for negotiations and to take immediate and effective steps to counter the threat of annexation – and thereby preserve the international rules-based order.
Douglas Alexander Former minister of state for Europe and secretary of state for international development, United Kingdom
Ben Bradshaw Former minister of state for the Middle East, United Kingdom
Gro Harlem Brundtland Former prime minister, Norway
John Bruton Former prime minister, Ireland
Micheline Calmy-Rey Former foreign minister and president, Switzerland
Ingvar Carlsson Former prime minister, Sweden
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz Former foreign minister and prime minister, Poland
Daniel Cohn-Bendit Former co-president of the Greens-European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament, Germany
Joe Costello Former minister of state for trade and development and chair of the European affairs committee, Ireland
Willy Claes Former foreign minister and Nato secretary general, Belgium
Massimo d’Alema Former foreign minister and prime minister, Italy
Teresa Patrício de Gouveia Former foreign minister, Portugal
Dominique de Villepin Former foreign minister and prime minister, France
Ruth Dreifuss Former foreign minister and president, Switzerland
Alan Duncan Former minister of state for Europe and the Americas, and minister of state for international development, United Kingdom
Espen Barth Eide Former foreign minister, Norway
Jan Eliasson Former foreign minister and UN general assembly president, Sweden
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen Former foreign minister and president of the European Liberals, Denmark
Benita Ferrero-Waldner Former foreign minister and European commissioner for external relations, Austria
Sigmar Gabriel Former foreign minister and vice-chancellor, Germany
Peter Hain Former minister of state for the Middle East, United Kingdom
Lena Hjelm-Wallén Former foreign minister and deputy prime minister, Sweden
Trinidad Jiménez Former foreign minister, Spain
Tom Kitt Former minister of state for overseas development and human rights, Ireland
Bert Koenders Former foreign minister, the Netherlands
Martin Liedegaard Former foreign minister, Denmark
Mogens Lykketoft Former foreign minister and UN general assembly president, Denmark
Sven Mikser Former foreign minister, Estonia
Per Stig Møller Former foreign minister, Denmark
Holger K Nielsen Former foreign minister, Denmark
Andrzej Olechowski Former foreign minister, Poland
Marc Otte Former EU special representative to the Middle East peace process, Belgium
Chris Patten Former vice-president of the European commission, United Kingdom
Hans-Gert Pöttering Former president of the European parliament, Germany
Jacques Poos Former foreign minister, Luxembourg
Vesna Pusić Former foreign minister and deputy prime minister, Croatia
Mary Robinson Former president and United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Ireland
Jacques Santer Former prime minister and president of the European commission, Luxembourg
Karel Schwarzenberg Former foreign minister and deputy prime minister, Czech Republic
Robert Serry Former UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, the Netherlands
Javier Solana Former foreign minister, Nato secretary general and EU high representative for common foreign and security policy, Spain
Michael Spindelegger Former foreign minister and vice-chancellor, Austria
Jack Straw Former foreign secretary, United Kingdom
Gareth Thomas Former minister of state for international development, United Kingdom
Erkki Tuomioja Former foreign minister, Finland
Ivo Vajgl Former foreign minister, Slovenia
Jozias van Aartsen Former foreign minister, the Netherlands
Frank Vandenbroucke Former foreign minister, Belgium
Hubert Védrine Former foreign minister, France
Sayeeda Warsi Former cabinet minister and Foreign Office minister for the United Nations, human rights and the ICC, United Kingdom
EDITOR’S NOTE: Apartheid, my ass! If the 50 letter signers were allowed to vote in the US, guess who they would vote for ….. if you guessed Bernie Sanders, you are right.
Letter
The Guardian
February 26, 2020
As Europeans dedicated to promoting international law, peace and security worldwide, we express our deep concern about President Trump’s Middle East plan, titled Peace to Prosperity.
The plan contradicts internationally agreed parameters for the Middle East peace process, relevant UN resolutions, including security council resolution 2334, and the most fundamental principles of international law. Instead of promoting peace, it risks fuelling the conflict – at the expense of Israeli and Palestinian civilians alike, and with grave implications for Jordan and the wider region. It has been met with widespread opposition in the region, in Europe, and in the United States.
The plan allows for annexation of large and vital parts of the occupied Palestinian territory and legitimises and encourages illegal Israeli settlement activity. It recognises only one side’s claims to Jerusalem and offers no just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees. It projects a future Palestinian “state” without control and sovereignty over its fragmented territory. The map featured in the plan proposes Palestinian enclaves under permanent Israeli military control, which evoke chilling associations with South Africa’s bantustans.
Peace to Prosperity is not a roadmap to a viable two-state solution, nor to any other legitimate solution to the conflict. The plan envisages a formalisation of the current reality in the occupied Palestinian territory, in which two peoples are living side by side without equal rights. Such an outcome has characteristics similar to apartheid – a term we don’t use lightly.
The international community, particularly the European Union, must prevent such a scenario from unfolding, in order to preserve the dignity and rights of the Palestinians, the future of Israeli democracy and the wider international rules-based order.
We welcome the statement by EU high representative Josep Borrell stressing the EU’s continued commitment to a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, in accordance with the international parameters. We fully agree with the EU that Israeli “steps towards annexation, if implemented, could not pass unchallenged”, as they would impair the fundamental international norm banning the acquisition of territory by force.
Considering the urgency of the situation, we call on Europe to reject the US plan as a basis for negotiations and to take immediate and effective steps to counter the threat of annexation – and thereby preserve the international rules-based order.
Douglas Alexander Former minister of state for Europe and secretary of state for international development, United Kingdom
Ben Bradshaw Former minister of state for the Middle East, United Kingdom
Gro Harlem Brundtland Former prime minister, Norway
John Bruton Former prime minister, Ireland
Micheline Calmy-Rey Former foreign minister and president, Switzerland
Ingvar Carlsson Former prime minister, Sweden
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz Former foreign minister and prime minister, Poland
Daniel Cohn-Bendit Former co-president of the Greens-European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament, Germany
Joe Costello Former minister of state for trade and development and chair of the European affairs committee, Ireland
Willy Claes Former foreign minister and Nato secretary general, Belgium
Massimo d’Alema Former foreign minister and prime minister, Italy
Teresa Patrício de Gouveia Former foreign minister, Portugal
Dominique de Villepin Former foreign minister and prime minister, France
Ruth Dreifuss Former foreign minister and president, Switzerland
Alan Duncan Former minister of state for Europe and the Americas, and minister of state for international development, United Kingdom
Espen Barth Eide Former foreign minister, Norway
Jan Eliasson Former foreign minister and UN general assembly president, Sweden
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen Former foreign minister and president of the European Liberals, Denmark
Benita Ferrero-Waldner Former foreign minister and European commissioner for external relations, Austria
Sigmar Gabriel Former foreign minister and vice-chancellor, Germany
Peter Hain Former minister of state for the Middle East, United Kingdom
Lena Hjelm-Wallén Former foreign minister and deputy prime minister, Sweden
Trinidad Jiménez Former foreign minister, Spain
Tom Kitt Former minister of state for overseas development and human rights, Ireland
Bert Koenders Former foreign minister, the Netherlands
Martin Liedegaard Former foreign minister, Denmark
Mogens Lykketoft Former foreign minister and UN general assembly president, Denmark
Sven Mikser Former foreign minister, Estonia
Per Stig Møller Former foreign minister, Denmark
Holger K Nielsen Former foreign minister, Denmark
Andrzej Olechowski Former foreign minister, Poland
Marc Otte Former EU special representative to the Middle East peace process, Belgium
Chris Patten Former vice-president of the European commission, United Kingdom
Hans-Gert Pöttering Former president of the European parliament, Germany
Jacques Poos Former foreign minister, Luxembourg
Vesna Pusić Former foreign minister and deputy prime minister, Croatia
Mary Robinson Former president and United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Ireland
Jacques Santer Former prime minister and president of the European commission, Luxembourg
Karel Schwarzenberg Former foreign minister and deputy prime minister, Czech Republic
Robert Serry Former UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, the Netherlands
Javier Solana Former foreign minister, Nato secretary general and EU high representative for common foreign and security policy, Spain
Michael Spindelegger Former foreign minister and vice-chancellor, Austria
Jack Straw Former foreign secretary, United Kingdom
Gareth Thomas Former minister of state for international development, United Kingdom
Erkki Tuomioja Former foreign minister, Finland
Ivo Vajgl Former foreign minister, Slovenia
Jozias van Aartsen Former foreign minister, the Netherlands
Frank Vandenbroucke Former foreign minister, Belgium
Hubert Védrine Former foreign minister, France
Sayeeda Warsi Former cabinet minister and Foreign Office minister for the United Nations, human rights and the ICC, United Kingdom
EDITOR’S NOTE: Apartheid, my ass! If the 50 letter signers were allowed to vote in the US, guess who they would vote for ….. if you guessed Bernie Sanders, you are right.
281 YEARS TO LIFE
Pimp’s Conviction Upheld For Human Trafficking Of Minors
LAPPL News Watch
February 27, 2020
A state appeals court panel Wednesday upheld a Los Angeles man’s conviction for trafficking teenage girls as young as 13 to work as prostitutes.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected Raylonzo Roberts’ contention that the trial court erred in instructing jurors on two of the charges and violated his constitutional rights by admitting prior testimony of four victims who were unavailable to testify at his trial.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry sentenced Roberts to 281 years to life in state prison in December 2018, saying that he perceived the defendant to be a “danger to society.”
The crimes involving eight victims occurred at various times between August 2011 and July 2015, according to Deputy District Attorney Guillermo Santiso.
LAPPL News Watch
February 27, 2020
A state appeals court panel Wednesday upheld a Los Angeles man’s conviction for trafficking teenage girls as young as 13 to work as prostitutes.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected Raylonzo Roberts’ contention that the trial court erred in instructing jurors on two of the charges and violated his constitutional rights by admitting prior testimony of four victims who were unavailable to testify at his trial.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry sentenced Roberts to 281 years to life in state prison in December 2018, saying that he perceived the defendant to be a “danger to society.”
The crimes involving eight victims occurred at various times between August 2011 and July 2015, according to Deputy District Attorney Guillermo Santiso.
FOX NEWS UP, MSNBC AND CNN DOWN
Fox News prime-time lineup delivers highest ratings in 24-year history
By Joe Concha
The Hill
February 25, 2020
Fox News achieved its highest ratings in its 24-year history, according to Nielsen Media Research, averaging 3.5 million total viewers in prime time during the month of February.
The big ratings marked the 44th consecutive month Fox News has been the most-watched channel in all of basic cable.
Overall, among the three major cable news networks, Fox averaged 3.53 million viewers, followed by MSNBC's 1.78 million and CNN's 1.05 million.
In the 25- to 54-year-old demographic sought by advertisers, Fox News was first in the category with 587,000 viewers in prime time, followed by MSNBC's 317,000 and CNN's 296,000.
Sean Hannity's, Tucker Carlson's and Laura Ingraham's programs were the top shows in cable news. Each of these hosts' shows hit all-time highs for a month.
Hannity finished with 4.3 million total viewers, while Carlson was second with 4.115 million and Ingraham third with 3.6 million. Ingraham's average audience marked a record for a female cable news host.
President Trump's State of the Union address was the most-watched telecast in February, delivering more than 11.6 million total viewers.
Compared to the same month in 2019, Fox News was up 35 percent overall in total viewers, with CNN declining by 3 percent and MSNBC down 9 percent in total viewers.
In the 25-54 demographic, Fox saw a 27 percent increase, while CNN and MSNBC were down 6 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
EDITOR’S NOTE: With the two Trump-hating pieces of shit, Rachel Maddow and Al Sharpton, no wonder MSNBC is down.
By Joe Concha
The Hill
February 25, 2020
Fox News achieved its highest ratings in its 24-year history, according to Nielsen Media Research, averaging 3.5 million total viewers in prime time during the month of February.
The big ratings marked the 44th consecutive month Fox News has been the most-watched channel in all of basic cable.
Overall, among the three major cable news networks, Fox averaged 3.53 million viewers, followed by MSNBC's 1.78 million and CNN's 1.05 million.
In the 25- to 54-year-old demographic sought by advertisers, Fox News was first in the category with 587,000 viewers in prime time, followed by MSNBC's 317,000 and CNN's 296,000.
Sean Hannity's, Tucker Carlson's and Laura Ingraham's programs were the top shows in cable news. Each of these hosts' shows hit all-time highs for a month.
Hannity finished with 4.3 million total viewers, while Carlson was second with 4.115 million and Ingraham third with 3.6 million. Ingraham's average audience marked a record for a female cable news host.
President Trump's State of the Union address was the most-watched telecast in February, delivering more than 11.6 million total viewers.
Compared to the same month in 2019, Fox News was up 35 percent overall in total viewers, with CNN declining by 3 percent and MSNBC down 9 percent in total viewers.
In the 25-54 demographic, Fox saw a 27 percent increase, while CNN and MSNBC were down 6 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
EDITOR’S NOTE: With the two Trump-hating pieces of shit, Rachel Maddow and Al Sharpton, no wonder MSNBC is down.
BEWARE OF BUILDING CONTRACTORS
How to Keep from Being Cheating by a Building Contractor
By Trey Rusk
I read stories about people who are cheated by building contractors. After Hurricane Harvey unscrupulous construction companies drove through neighborhoods looking for desperate people living in damaged homes. People are cheated because trusting people will agree to pay half or all of the construction costs up front. I understand that many contractors require money up front, but most reputable contractors don’t. I always get multiple bids on each project. You would be surprised at the differences in prices. Then I make my selection.
I had a contractor add a wall and paint my house with some miscellaneous small repairs included. I did due diligence and checked his references before hiring him. I checked his State Comptrollers License and insurance to make sure his company was in good standing and insisted that he pull a city construction permit. This makes sure that the work performed is up to code.
He made a contract on company letterhead and asked for construction materials money up front. I offered to pay for the construction material in which he would provide receipts from Home Depot. He readily agreed to the terms. I then took a picture of his driver’s license and checked him for warrants and records on line. Yes, anyone can do this by going to P2C in any county. It is public information and free. Then I asked him for a personal check made out to me for the full amount of the job. I told him I would return the check to him when the construction was completed on a set date in the contract. I had added wording in the contract that charged $100 for each day past the set completion date in the contract. Take it or leave it.
Always make sure you accept a personal check and not a corporate check. Contractors sometimes have had many companies and may have filed a bankruptcy on an account given. Check the address on the driver’s license against the check. If it matches, you have done due diligence.
Let me explain why I do this. When a contractor takes your money and never shows back up there isn’t much you can do outside of filing a civil case. A civil case will usually only get you a judgement. Your money is gone and the work is incomplete.
However, If you hold a personal check on the contractor it is as good as gold. You see, writing a Hot Check in Texas for over $1500 is a Felony. Now, if the check is good then you have your money. If the check is bad a Felony warrant for his arrest shall be issued. You can bet that when a Felony arrest warrant is issued he will make the check good or beg to finish the job as promised.
That’s the way I see it.
By Trey Rusk
I read stories about people who are cheated by building contractors. After Hurricane Harvey unscrupulous construction companies drove through neighborhoods looking for desperate people living in damaged homes. People are cheated because trusting people will agree to pay half or all of the construction costs up front. I understand that many contractors require money up front, but most reputable contractors don’t. I always get multiple bids on each project. You would be surprised at the differences in prices. Then I make my selection.
I had a contractor add a wall and paint my house with some miscellaneous small repairs included. I did due diligence and checked his references before hiring him. I checked his State Comptrollers License and insurance to make sure his company was in good standing and insisted that he pull a city construction permit. This makes sure that the work performed is up to code.
He made a contract on company letterhead and asked for construction materials money up front. I offered to pay for the construction material in which he would provide receipts from Home Depot. He readily agreed to the terms. I then took a picture of his driver’s license and checked him for warrants and records on line. Yes, anyone can do this by going to P2C in any county. It is public information and free. Then I asked him for a personal check made out to me for the full amount of the job. I told him I would return the check to him when the construction was completed on a set date in the contract. I had added wording in the contract that charged $100 for each day past the set completion date in the contract. Take it or leave it.
Always make sure you accept a personal check and not a corporate check. Contractors sometimes have had many companies and may have filed a bankruptcy on an account given. Check the address on the driver’s license against the check. If it matches, you have done due diligence.
Let me explain why I do this. When a contractor takes your money and never shows back up there isn’t much you can do outside of filing a civil case. A civil case will usually only get you a judgement. Your money is gone and the work is incomplete.
However, If you hold a personal check on the contractor it is as good as gold. You see, writing a Hot Check in Texas for over $1500 is a Felony. Now, if the check is good then you have your money. If the check is bad a Felony warrant for his arrest shall be issued. You can bet that when a Felony arrest warrant is issued he will make the check good or beg to finish the job as promised.
That’s the way I see it.
NOW MY TAXES ARE GOING TO PAY FOR KEEPING 400,000 ILEGALS IN HARRIS COUNTY
Harris County creates immigrant defense fund proposed by Lina Hidalgo
By Zach Despart and Lomi Kriel
Houston Chronicle
February 26, 2020
Harris County on Tuesday approved a taxpayer-funded legal services program for immigrants, including those in the country illegally who face deportation, at the request of County Judge Lina Hidalgo.
Commissioners Court voted along party lines, with the two Republican members opposed, to become the first county in Texas to enact such a program.
The Houston area was the largest in the country with no taxpayer support of deportation defense. In Texas, the cities of Dallas, Austin and San Antonio have similar programs.
“We’re very excited to propose a measure that’s going to inject a measure of fairness into our justice system,” Hidalgo said before the vote. “I’ve seen the impact of a federal immigration system that is so broken and convoluted that folks are desperate to have an answer to their case.”
The Republicans —Jack Cagle and Steve Radack —said the county should not wade into a federal immigration issue.
Hidalgo’s resolution directs the Community Services Department to “design, administer funds for, and oversee an immigrant legal services program for county residents, subject to final approval by Commissioners Court.”
Hidalgo’s office estimated the program would cost $500,000 the first year and would require an additional employee to administer it. She said the county would explore partnerships with nonprofits that could help defray some costs to taxpayers.
The county judge said public support of immigrant legal services in other places has been effective in reducing unnecessary detentions and deportations and allowing immigrants to remain in the country legally. Hidalgo said last year she visited a Texas immigrant detention center where men told her they were despondent because their cases had no end in sight. Houston immigration courts have some of the highest backlogs in the country, with nearly 52,000 cases pending.
Legal representation is crucial for defendants to receive due process, Hidalgo said, adding that children sometimes are forced to represent themselves in immigration cases. Unlike in the criminal justice system, immigrants facing deportation are not provided attorneys by the federal government if they cannot afford them.
Hidalgo said children suffer when their parents are unable to navigate the complicated immigration legal system.
“The children of detained and deported parents face enormous health and mental health challenges that can lead to poor performance in school and increased risk of poverty, placement in foster care, incarceration, and food and housing insecurity,” Hidalgo wrote.
Harris County is home to more than 400,000 immigrants who are in the country illegally and Hidalgo said they contribute to the economy and are a critical part of the labor force.
“Undocumented immigrant households in Houston earned $11 billion in total income in 2016, paying $742 million in federal taxes and $448 million in state and local taxes, resulting in $9.8 billion in remaining total spending power,” the resolution reads.
Hidalgo, herself an immigrant, was born in Colombia. She moved with her family to Houston in 2005.
About two dozen speakers urged Commissioners Court to support the proposal at Tuesday’s meeting.
Javier Hernandez, who came here illegally from Mexico as a child and received temporary protection through the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, said access to counsel can be a matter of life or death for immigrants who face violence in their countries of origin.
Rabbi David Segal, who does advocacy for the Reform denomination of Judaism in Texas, likened discrimination his Jewish ancestors faced to the current plight of immigrants here illegally.
“Families belong together, and everyone deserves due process,” Segal said.
Maria Espinoza, a Republican candidate for Congress in Texas’ 7th District and founder of The Remembrance Project, which advocates for victims of immigrant violence and has been termed anti-immigrant, was one of a handful of residents to speak in opposition to the fund. Espinoza worried about the cost immigrants here illegally place on local governments for health care, law enforcement and education.
“The Harris County taxpayer should not foot the bill and hold the bag for those who intentionally cross (the border) illegally,” she said.
Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national organization advocating for reduced immigration, also slammed the defense fund and others like it as a misallocation of scarce public resources.
Nearly 27,000 people face deportation in Houston immigration courts, said Andrea Guttin, legal director of the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative.
She said the county also spends $1.6 million on detaining immigrants in local jails until Immigration and Customs Enforcement can take them into custody, more than any other county in the nation.
The federal agency last year issued more than 5,000 so-called detainers in Harris County , the most in the country, according to an analysis of federal data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
Many cities across the nation have stopped cooperating with ICE in holding immigrants on such detainers, in part because of concerns over the constitutionality. Some courts have found detaining immigrants without a warrant if they are otherwise eligible for release is illegal. Texas law, however, requires local jurisdictions to comply with all immigration detainers.
Guttin, of the legal services collaborative, said about 250,000 children in Harris County have at least one parent at risk of deportation because they are here without legal status.
“Children who are separated from their deported parents may never reunite with them,” she said.
She noted that almost every big city in the state and country— including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago— have similar taxpayer funds for deportation defense.
“This is a due process issue,” Guttin said. “There has been a trend across the country and across Texas to put taxpayer dollars to this funding.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Well, not all of the 400,000 illegals.
To show how Texas demographics are changing, Dallas, which used to be a bulwark of conservatism, already has such a program in effect. It won't be very long before the Republicans lose Texas.
By Zach Despart and Lomi Kriel
Houston Chronicle
February 26, 2020
Harris County on Tuesday approved a taxpayer-funded legal services program for immigrants, including those in the country illegally who face deportation, at the request of County Judge Lina Hidalgo.
Commissioners Court voted along party lines, with the two Republican members opposed, to become the first county in Texas to enact such a program.
The Houston area was the largest in the country with no taxpayer support of deportation defense. In Texas, the cities of Dallas, Austin and San Antonio have similar programs.
“We’re very excited to propose a measure that’s going to inject a measure of fairness into our justice system,” Hidalgo said before the vote. “I’ve seen the impact of a federal immigration system that is so broken and convoluted that folks are desperate to have an answer to their case.”
The Republicans —Jack Cagle and Steve Radack —said the county should not wade into a federal immigration issue.
Hidalgo’s resolution directs the Community Services Department to “design, administer funds for, and oversee an immigrant legal services program for county residents, subject to final approval by Commissioners Court.”
Hidalgo’s office estimated the program would cost $500,000 the first year and would require an additional employee to administer it. She said the county would explore partnerships with nonprofits that could help defray some costs to taxpayers.
The county judge said public support of immigrant legal services in other places has been effective in reducing unnecessary detentions and deportations and allowing immigrants to remain in the country legally. Hidalgo said last year she visited a Texas immigrant detention center where men told her they were despondent because their cases had no end in sight. Houston immigration courts have some of the highest backlogs in the country, with nearly 52,000 cases pending.
Legal representation is crucial for defendants to receive due process, Hidalgo said, adding that children sometimes are forced to represent themselves in immigration cases. Unlike in the criminal justice system, immigrants facing deportation are not provided attorneys by the federal government if they cannot afford them.
Hidalgo said children suffer when their parents are unable to navigate the complicated immigration legal system.
“The children of detained and deported parents face enormous health and mental health challenges that can lead to poor performance in school and increased risk of poverty, placement in foster care, incarceration, and food and housing insecurity,” Hidalgo wrote.
Harris County is home to more than 400,000 immigrants who are in the country illegally and Hidalgo said they contribute to the economy and are a critical part of the labor force.
“Undocumented immigrant households in Houston earned $11 billion in total income in 2016, paying $742 million in federal taxes and $448 million in state and local taxes, resulting in $9.8 billion in remaining total spending power,” the resolution reads.
Hidalgo, herself an immigrant, was born in Colombia. She moved with her family to Houston in 2005.
About two dozen speakers urged Commissioners Court to support the proposal at Tuesday’s meeting.
Javier Hernandez, who came here illegally from Mexico as a child and received temporary protection through the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, said access to counsel can be a matter of life or death for immigrants who face violence in their countries of origin.
Rabbi David Segal, who does advocacy for the Reform denomination of Judaism in Texas, likened discrimination his Jewish ancestors faced to the current plight of immigrants here illegally.
“Families belong together, and everyone deserves due process,” Segal said.
Maria Espinoza, a Republican candidate for Congress in Texas’ 7th District and founder of The Remembrance Project, which advocates for victims of immigrant violence and has been termed anti-immigrant, was one of a handful of residents to speak in opposition to the fund. Espinoza worried about the cost immigrants here illegally place on local governments for health care, law enforcement and education.
“The Harris County taxpayer should not foot the bill and hold the bag for those who intentionally cross (the border) illegally,” she said.
Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national organization advocating for reduced immigration, also slammed the defense fund and others like it as a misallocation of scarce public resources.
Nearly 27,000 people face deportation in Houston immigration courts, said Andrea Guttin, legal director of the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative.
She said the county also spends $1.6 million on detaining immigrants in local jails until Immigration and Customs Enforcement can take them into custody, more than any other county in the nation.
The federal agency last year issued more than 5,000 so-called detainers in Harris County , the most in the country, according to an analysis of federal data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
Many cities across the nation have stopped cooperating with ICE in holding immigrants on such detainers, in part because of concerns over the constitutionality. Some courts have found detaining immigrants without a warrant if they are otherwise eligible for release is illegal. Texas law, however, requires local jurisdictions to comply with all immigration detainers.
Guttin, of the legal services collaborative, said about 250,000 children in Harris County have at least one parent at risk of deportation because they are here without legal status.
“Children who are separated from their deported parents may never reunite with them,” she said.
She noted that almost every big city in the state and country— including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago— have similar taxpayer funds for deportation defense.
“This is a due process issue,” Guttin said. “There has been a trend across the country and across Texas to put taxpayer dollars to this funding.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Well, not all of the 400,000 illegals.
To show how Texas demographics are changing, Dallas, which used to be a bulwark of conservatism, already has such a program in effect. It won't be very long before the Republicans lose Texas.
Thursday, February 27, 2020
CRAZY BERNIE INFURIATES THE ISRAEL FOREIGN MINISTER
During Tuesday’s Democratic debate, Sanders said he would consider moving the US embassy in Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv
By Howie Katz
Bernie Sanders has made numerous anti-Israel statements, some of which have been considered anti-Semitic. During Tuesday’s Democratic debate he made a statement that infuriated Israel Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz.
Sanders was asked if as president he’d return the US Embassy in Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. He said he would certainly consider doing so.
That blew Katz’s cork. Speaking to Israel Army Radio on Wednesday, Katz said “That remark was shocking. There is no Jew who hasn’t dreamed of Jerusalem for thousands of years, to return, and we returned and I think President Trump did an important thing, without connection to internal disagreements within the United States. He recognized the reality that Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people, the capital of the State of Israel.”
Katz insisted that no matter who wins the US election in November, Israel will stand firm on Trump’s recognition of a united Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
I think Katz got a little carried away in his remark that “There is no Jew who hasn’t dreamed of Jerusalem for thousands of years, to return …..,” but that doesn’t change the fact that the Israelis insist on an undivided Jerusalem as their capital and that most Jews outside of Israel agree with them.
Crazy Bernie is one of Israel’s worst enemies and his election as president would be disastrous for the Jewish state. Not only will he likely return the embassy back to Tel Aviv, but he will most certainly rescind the Trump policies on the settlements and the Golan Heights. And of course, he will trash Trump’s Deal of the Century peace plan and take a pro-Palestinian stance in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
By Howie Katz
Bernie Sanders has made numerous anti-Israel statements, some of which have been considered anti-Semitic. During Tuesday’s Democratic debate he made a statement that infuriated Israel Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz.
Sanders was asked if as president he’d return the US Embassy in Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. He said he would certainly consider doing so.
That blew Katz’s cork. Speaking to Israel Army Radio on Wednesday, Katz said “That remark was shocking. There is no Jew who hasn’t dreamed of Jerusalem for thousands of years, to return, and we returned and I think President Trump did an important thing, without connection to internal disagreements within the United States. He recognized the reality that Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people, the capital of the State of Israel.”
Katz insisted that no matter who wins the US election in November, Israel will stand firm on Trump’s recognition of a united Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
I think Katz got a little carried away in his remark that “There is no Jew who hasn’t dreamed of Jerusalem for thousands of years, to return …..,” but that doesn’t change the fact that the Israelis insist on an undivided Jerusalem as their capital and that most Jews outside of Israel agree with them.
Crazy Bernie is one of Israel’s worst enemies and his election as president would be disastrous for the Jewish state. Not only will he likely return the embassy back to Tel Aviv, but he will most certainly rescind the Trump policies on the settlements and the Golan Heights. And of course, he will trash Trump’s Deal of the Century peace plan and take a pro-Palestinian stance in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
OK, THAT WAS REAL FUCKING STUPID
The Worst Babysitter In The World
by Bob Walsh
A 19-year old female relative was babysitting a 10-year old in Houston on Tuesday. The babysitter found a gun in the house, believed it to be unloaded and figured it would be clever to take a couple of selfies of herself with the gun. She managed to shoot the 10-year old in the gut in the process. The kid is in improving condition in the hospital. The babysitter may be charged. If nothing else she is clearly guilty of felony stupid. Why the hell would anybody believe a gun in a house in Texas was unloaded?
The National Safety Council asserts that about 1% of the gun deaths nationwide are due to dumb shit like this.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Bob, there are more than 2.3 million people in the City of Houston and I suspect there may be 5 or 6 stupid ones among them.
by Bob Walsh
A 19-year old female relative was babysitting a 10-year old in Houston on Tuesday. The babysitter found a gun in the house, believed it to be unloaded and figured it would be clever to take a couple of selfies of herself with the gun. She managed to shoot the 10-year old in the gut in the process. The kid is in improving condition in the hospital. The babysitter may be charged. If nothing else she is clearly guilty of felony stupid. Why the hell would anybody believe a gun in a house in Texas was unloaded?
The National Safety Council asserts that about 1% of the gun deaths nationwide are due to dumb shit like this.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Bob, there are more than 2.3 million people in the City of Houston and I suspect there may be 5 or 6 stupid ones among them.
JUST IN CASE YOU ARE KEEPING TRACK
by Bob Walsh
It is now 250 days until the election. Right now it appears that there is a fair chance that Donald Trump will be running against some random person picked off of a park bench, but we won't know that for sure for several months. Right now the "official" choices of an opponent are a superannuated Communist, a senile politician, a fake Native American, two billionaires who hate billionaires, and pretty much everybody else, a gay former boy mayor of an incompetently administered medium-size mid-western city, and a couple of other people who do not have a snowballs chance in hell.
It is now 250 days until the election. Right now it appears that there is a fair chance that Donald Trump will be running against some random person picked off of a park bench, but we won't know that for sure for several months. Right now the "official" choices of an opponent are a superannuated Communist, a senile politician, a fake Native American, two billionaires who hate billionaires, and pretty much everybody else, a gay former boy mayor of an incompetently administered medium-size mid-western city, and a couple of other people who do not have a snowballs chance in hell.
APPEALS COURT BACKS TRUMP
by Bob Walsh
Yesterday a federal appeals court backed the Trump administration with regards to DOJ grants. The court said the plain language of the law says specifically that the Attorney General can impose conditions beyond the minimum conditions for the issuance of the grant. At question was whether or not the feds could refuse these grants to sanctuary cities, counties and states based soley on their refusal to cooperate with immigration enforcement. The appeals court reversed a lower court ruling in the matter.
It seems like now maybe these sanctuary asswipes will start paying the price for violating the golden rule. (He who has the gold makes the rules. )
Yesterday a federal appeals court backed the Trump administration with regards to DOJ grants. The court said the plain language of the law says specifically that the Attorney General can impose conditions beyond the minimum conditions for the issuance of the grant. At question was whether or not the feds could refuse these grants to sanctuary cities, counties and states based soley on their refusal to cooperate with immigration enforcement. The appeals court reversed a lower court ruling in the matter.
It seems like now maybe these sanctuary asswipes will start paying the price for violating the golden rule. (He who has the gold makes the rules. )
FIRST FEMALE GREEN BERET
by Bob Walsh
A female enlisted national guardsman will soon become the first female Green Beret. Baring some serious training accident or other problem the woman will graduate as an engineering Sergeant. The military is refusing to release any further info on the soldier, citing security concerns.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Waiting for the first transgender Green Beret.
A female enlisted national guardsman will soon become the first female Green Beret. Baring some serious training accident or other problem the woman will graduate as an engineering Sergeant. The military is refusing to release any further info on the soldier, citing security concerns.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Waiting for the first transgender Green Beret.
TIME ..... DUCK
by Bob Walsh
There was a workplace shooting at the Miller Brewery in Milwaukee yesterday. As of this writing they are saying three dead. The suspected shooter was as recently sacked employee. The cops were not hustling people out so I am guessing they got the shooter.
One would think they would have some pretty good access control at a brewery. One would hope they would at least be on the lookout for recently sacked employees, but I am trying to Monday-morning quarterback it from 2,000 miles away with essentially zero info, so I could easily be full of crap.
EDITOR'S NOTE: 6 dead, including the shooter.
There was a workplace shooting at the Miller Brewery in Milwaukee yesterday. As of this writing they are saying three dead. The suspected shooter was as recently sacked employee. The cops were not hustling people out so I am guessing they got the shooter.
One would think they would have some pretty good access control at a brewery. One would hope they would at least be on the lookout for recently sacked employees, but I am trying to Monday-morning quarterback it from 2,000 miles away with essentially zero info, so I could easily be full of crap.
EDITOR'S NOTE: 6 dead, including the shooter.
DON'T TAKE AN AX TO A GUN FIGHT
by Bob Walsh
On Tuesday a man armed with an ax broke into the home of an off-duty Orange County FL Sheriff's Deputy. The deputy was home with her two crumbsnatchers when the man started smashing thru here front door with an ax at about 5:30 p.m. Once he actually came thru the door she shot his happy ass a few times then hooked him up and waited for the cavalry.
The bad guy is being charged with armed burglary with other possible charges pending.
On Tuesday a man armed with an ax broke into the home of an off-duty Orange County FL Sheriff's Deputy. The deputy was home with her two crumbsnatchers when the man started smashing thru here front door with an ax at about 5:30 p.m. Once he actually came thru the door she shot his happy ass a few times then hooked him up and waited for the cavalry.
The bad guy is being charged with armed burglary with other possible charges pending.
SCOTUS ACTUALLY BACKS BORDER PATROL IS CROSS-BORDER SHOOTING INCIDENT
by Bob Walsh
On Tuesday SCOTUS decided, by a vote of 5-4, that the parents of a teenager shot to death by a Border Patrol agent across the border can NOT sue in a U. S. court. The reasonable (conservative) side of the court decided that, lacking any clear intent from congress, allowing the suit from the 2010 incident to go forward was inappropriate.
The original suit was based on the 1971 case, Bivens vs. Six Unknown Federal Narcotics Agents. This case allowed the plaintiff to sue over alleged unconstitutional acts by federal officials. Since that time,in the absence of clear legislative intent, the courts have restricted the ability of these suits to move forward rather than opening the gates further.
On Tuesday SCOTUS decided, by a vote of 5-4, that the parents of a teenager shot to death by a Border Patrol agent across the border can NOT sue in a U. S. court. The reasonable (conservative) side of the court decided that, lacking any clear intent from congress, allowing the suit from the 2010 incident to go forward was inappropriate.
The original suit was based on the 1971 case, Bivens vs. Six Unknown Federal Narcotics Agents. This case allowed the plaintiff to sue over alleged unconstitutional acts by federal officials. Since that time,in the absence of clear legislative intent, the courts have restricted the ability of these suits to move forward rather than opening the gates further.
OK, THIS IS FUCKING STUPID
by Bob Walsh
If passed into law in the formerly great state of California, SB873 would make it illegal for retailers to establish separate, market areas where children's clothing, toys and suchlike are identified specifically by gender, i. e. girls clothing aisles or boys toy aisles. This is regardless of whether or not the item in question is marked by gender by the manufacturer.
The state can't fix the fucking roads or get kids out of high school who can read and write, but they can make sure parents have to look harder to find what they want in stores.
If passed into law in the formerly great state of California, SB873 would make it illegal for retailers to establish separate, market areas where children's clothing, toys and suchlike are identified specifically by gender, i. e. girls clothing aisles or boys toy aisles. This is regardless of whether or not the item in question is marked by gender by the manufacturer.
The state can't fix the fucking roads or get kids out of high school who can read and write, but they can make sure parents have to look harder to find what they want in stores.
TO HIS SHAME, PRESIDENT OBAMA SUPPORTED THE UPRISING AGAINST LONGTIME US ALLY MUBARAK
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joins mourning over Hosni Mubarak
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
Egypt Independent
February 25, 2020
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined in mourning for Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak, who passed away Tuesday at 92.
Netanyahu tweeted, “On behalf of Israel people and the government of Israel, I would like to express deep sorrow over the passing of former President Hosni Mubarak.”
“President Mubarak was my personal friend, and a leader who led his people to peace and security, and to peace with Israel.”
Netanyahu said he had met Mubarak several times, and was impressed by his dedication to keeping peace with Israel. The Israeli prime minister pledged to continue this path of peace.
He sent condolences to Mubarak’s family, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and the people of Egypt.
The Egyptian presidency announced three days of mourning following Mubarak’s death, starting on Wednesday.
Mubarak ruled Egypt for 30 years until he was ousted on February 11, 2011 during an 18-day uprising, part of the larger Arab Spring.
Mubarak also previously faced charges of corruption, as well as charges of complicity in the killing of protesters during the uprising that led to his overthrow.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012 after a court convicted him of complicity in the killing of demonstrators during the revolution, but Mubarak was later retried and subsequently acquitted and released in 2017.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The ouster of Mubarak was followed by a Muslim Brotherhood government. The brotherhood government was overthrown by the military within a year. Obama betrayed Mubarak who had been a close ally of the US.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
Egypt Independent
February 25, 2020
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined in mourning for Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak, who passed away Tuesday at 92.
Netanyahu tweeted, “On behalf of Israel people and the government of Israel, I would like to express deep sorrow over the passing of former President Hosni Mubarak.”
“President Mubarak was my personal friend, and a leader who led his people to peace and security, and to peace with Israel.”
Netanyahu said he had met Mubarak several times, and was impressed by his dedication to keeping peace with Israel. The Israeli prime minister pledged to continue this path of peace.
He sent condolences to Mubarak’s family, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and the people of Egypt.
The Egyptian presidency announced three days of mourning following Mubarak’s death, starting on Wednesday.
Mubarak ruled Egypt for 30 years until he was ousted on February 11, 2011 during an 18-day uprising, part of the larger Arab Spring.
Mubarak also previously faced charges of corruption, as well as charges of complicity in the killing of protesters during the uprising that led to his overthrow.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012 after a court convicted him of complicity in the killing of demonstrators during the revolution, but Mubarak was later retried and subsequently acquitted and released in 2017.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The ouster of Mubarak was followed by a Muslim Brotherhood government. The brotherhood government was overthrown by the military within a year. Obama betrayed Mubarak who had been a close ally of the US.
THE EX-ROYAL GOLD DIGGER PIECE OF SHIT IS A SORRY ASS CRYBABY
'If anyone should be insulted, it's us!' Meghan says she and Harry are being 'picked on' and the restrictions put on them are 'payback' for wanting to be independent but they will 'rise above pettiness'
Daily Mail
February 26, 2020
Meghan Markle said she feels that she and Prince Harry are being treated unfairly, DailyMail.com can reveal. 'She feels like they are being picked on and that the restrictions put on them are payback for wanting to be independent,' an insider said.
Meghan grumbled to her inner circle last week over the Queen banning the couple from using the word 'royal' in their 'branding'.
The two later issued an extraordinary statement appearing to complain the palace was treating them differently to other royal family members.
'Meghan said if anyone should feel insulted, it should be them.
To insinuate they were somehow abusing their privileges is absurd,' the friend added.
She also believes the Queen was 'under pressure to make those demands' because Harry is the Queen's 'favorite and others just can't deal with it'.
Harry is now back in the UK for his last round of engagements as a working royal, and the insider said Meghan has no qualms about being in the UK.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I don’t know why Gold Digger Meghan and her Mother Lode Harry are complaining. They are going to make millions of dollars without having to do any work whatsoever. And even if the marriage dissolves, which it probably will, she is set for life.
Daily Mail
February 26, 2020
Meghan Markle said she feels that she and Prince Harry are being treated unfairly, DailyMail.com can reveal. 'She feels like they are being picked on and that the restrictions put on them are payback for wanting to be independent,' an insider said.
Meghan grumbled to her inner circle last week over the Queen banning the couple from using the word 'royal' in their 'branding'.
The two later issued an extraordinary statement appearing to complain the palace was treating them differently to other royal family members.
'Meghan said if anyone should feel insulted, it should be them.
To insinuate they were somehow abusing their privileges is absurd,' the friend added.
She also believes the Queen was 'under pressure to make those demands' because Harry is the Queen's 'favorite and others just can't deal with it'.
Harry is now back in the UK for his last round of engagements as a working royal, and the insider said Meghan has no qualms about being in the UK.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I don’t know why Gold Digger Meghan and her Mother Lode Harry are complaining. They are going to make millions of dollars without having to do any work whatsoever. And even if the marriage dissolves, which it probably will, she is set for life.
THE BITCH WILL BE RELEASED SOON ….. WAY TOO SOON!
Pacoima Woman Accused Of Forcing 9-Year-Old To Perform Sex Act On 6-Year-Old Pleads Guilty To Lesser Charges
LAPPL News Watch
February 26, 2020
A 44-year-old Pacoima woman who was accused of forcing a 9-year-old boy to perform sex acts on a 6-year-old girl with threats of burning him with hot water pleaded guilty Tuesday to child abuse and endangerment charges and was immediately sentenced to six years behind bars.
Brandi Alma Valadez, who has been in custody since Oct. 5, 2016, pleaded guilty to three felony counts of child abuse and endangerment. As part of the plea deal, three counts of lewd acts on a minor and two counts of forcible lewd acts on a child, as well as two misdemeanor counts of child abuse and endangerment, were dismissed.
Valadez, 44, is expected to be released from custody soon, as she was credited for time served awaiting trial.
A 10-year protective order is in place that prohibits Valadez from contacting the children, and she promised as part of the plea deal to never contact them again.
Valadez was living in multiple cities out of motels in Orange, Costa Mesa and Anaheim at the time of the crimes in the summer of 2014.
LAPPL News Watch
February 26, 2020
A 44-year-old Pacoima woman who was accused of forcing a 9-year-old boy to perform sex acts on a 6-year-old girl with threats of burning him with hot water pleaded guilty Tuesday to child abuse and endangerment charges and was immediately sentenced to six years behind bars.
Brandi Alma Valadez, who has been in custody since Oct. 5, 2016, pleaded guilty to three felony counts of child abuse and endangerment. As part of the plea deal, three counts of lewd acts on a minor and two counts of forcible lewd acts on a child, as well as two misdemeanor counts of child abuse and endangerment, were dismissed.
Valadez, 44, is expected to be released from custody soon, as she was credited for time served awaiting trial.
A 10-year protective order is in place that prohibits Valadez from contacting the children, and she promised as part of the plea deal to never contact them again.
Valadez was living in multiple cities out of motels in Orange, Costa Mesa and Anaheim at the time of the crimes in the summer of 2014.
A WELL-DESERVED HONOR
FBI Selects Texas Equusearch Founder for Director's Community Leadership Award
By Christina Garza
FBI Houston
February 24, 2020
HOUSTON, TX—Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Perrye K. Turner announced Tim Miller would receive the 2019 FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award. Mr. Miller, whose only daughter was abducted and murdered in 1984 in Galveston County, founded Texas EquuSearch in August 2000. Since forming the volunteer-based, nonprofit organization, Tim Miller has spent countless hours conducting horse-mounted searches and recovering lost and missing persons.
“As part of our mission to protect the communities where we serve, the FBI remains dedicated to recovering all endangered children. Tim Miller and the volunteers he leads through EquuSearch are invaluable allies in the FBI’s fight who assist law enforcement in reuniting missing persons with their families,” said SAC Turner. “Tim Miller is the epitome of an engaged citizen and community partner that deserves this type of recognition.”
Through Texas EquuSearch, Mr. Miller assists those who suffer the pain and agony he experienced 35 years ago when his daughter, Laura, never returned home. Laura is one of four young women murdered in the area by a serial killer in what’s known as the “Calder Road Murders.” In September 2019, the FBI website, www.fbi.gov, featured the four unsolved murder cases with the hope that public tips will lead to the identification of the killer. Through his life’s work, Miller brings hundreds of families the closure he is still waiting to receive.
Since its inception, Texas EquuSearch has worked closely with the FBI and assisted searching for missing and abducted persons when requested by law enforcement. The work of Texas EquuSearch and Tim Miller, however, spans far beyond the Houston Field Office area of responsibility. Texas EquuSearch has conducted more than 1,800 searches in 42 states in the U.S. and abroad. To date, they have located over 400 missing persons and brought them home. They have also recovered the remains of nearly 300 missing individuals.
The FBI Texas City Resident Agency invited Tim Miller to be part of its inaugural FBI Citizens Academy last year. Completing the program did not deter Mr. Miller from maintaining his demanding schedule that often included participating in missing person searches before and after class. “Tim Miller’s dedication to his organization’s mission, and justice as a whole, is unparalleled,” said Texas City Resident Agency Supervisor, Richard Rennison. “He provides continuous aid to law enforcement, all in the interest of helping victims and their families.”
The FBI created the Director’s Community Leadership Award (DCLA) in 1990 to honor individuals and organizations for their efforts in combating crime, terrorism, drugs, and violence in the United States. The mission of the FBI is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States. For more information, visit www.FBI.gov.
Every year FBI field offices throughout the country select a community leader to receive the prestigious award. Last year’s Houston area recipient was Mary E. “Beth” Alberts, CEO of the Texas Center for the Missing. FBI Director Christopher Wray will present the award to Mr. Miller in a special ceremony at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., May 1, 2020.
FBI Houston congratulates Tim Miller, and thanks him for his partnership and contributions to keeping our community safe.
By Christina Garza
FBI Houston
February 24, 2020
HOUSTON, TX—Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Perrye K. Turner announced Tim Miller would receive the 2019 FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award. Mr. Miller, whose only daughter was abducted and murdered in 1984 in Galveston County, founded Texas EquuSearch in August 2000. Since forming the volunteer-based, nonprofit organization, Tim Miller has spent countless hours conducting horse-mounted searches and recovering lost and missing persons.
“As part of our mission to protect the communities where we serve, the FBI remains dedicated to recovering all endangered children. Tim Miller and the volunteers he leads through EquuSearch are invaluable allies in the FBI’s fight who assist law enforcement in reuniting missing persons with their families,” said SAC Turner. “Tim Miller is the epitome of an engaged citizen and community partner that deserves this type of recognition.”
Through Texas EquuSearch, Mr. Miller assists those who suffer the pain and agony he experienced 35 years ago when his daughter, Laura, never returned home. Laura is one of four young women murdered in the area by a serial killer in what’s known as the “Calder Road Murders.” In September 2019, the FBI website, www.fbi.gov, featured the four unsolved murder cases with the hope that public tips will lead to the identification of the killer. Through his life’s work, Miller brings hundreds of families the closure he is still waiting to receive.
Since its inception, Texas EquuSearch has worked closely with the FBI and assisted searching for missing and abducted persons when requested by law enforcement. The work of Texas EquuSearch and Tim Miller, however, spans far beyond the Houston Field Office area of responsibility. Texas EquuSearch has conducted more than 1,800 searches in 42 states in the U.S. and abroad. To date, they have located over 400 missing persons and brought them home. They have also recovered the remains of nearly 300 missing individuals.
The FBI Texas City Resident Agency invited Tim Miller to be part of its inaugural FBI Citizens Academy last year. Completing the program did not deter Mr. Miller from maintaining his demanding schedule that often included participating in missing person searches before and after class. “Tim Miller’s dedication to his organization’s mission, and justice as a whole, is unparalleled,” said Texas City Resident Agency Supervisor, Richard Rennison. “He provides continuous aid to law enforcement, all in the interest of helping victims and their families.”
The FBI created the Director’s Community Leadership Award (DCLA) in 1990 to honor individuals and organizations for their efforts in combating crime, terrorism, drugs, and violence in the United States. The mission of the FBI is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States. For more information, visit www.FBI.gov.
Every year FBI field offices throughout the country select a community leader to receive the prestigious award. Last year’s Houston area recipient was Mary E. “Beth” Alberts, CEO of the Texas Center for the Missing. FBI Director Christopher Wray will present the award to Mr. Miller in a special ceremony at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., May 1, 2020.
FBI Houston congratulates Tim Miller, and thanks him for his partnership and contributions to keeping our community safe.
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
FIRST BIDEN DOES NOT KNOW WHERE HE IS, THEN HE GETS HIMSELF ARRESTED IN SOUTH AFRICA WHICH HE DID NOT, AND NOW HE IS RUNNING FOR THE SENATE WHICH HE IS NOT
Befuddled Biden tells South Carolina crowd that he is running for the SENATE in yet another campaign gaffe as fears grow for his health
Daily Mail
February 25, 2020
Democratic leadership contender Joe Biden left voters bewildered yesterday as he told them he was running for the Senate and if they didn't like him they should 'vote for the other Biden'.
The former vice president, 77, sparked fresh concerns over his mental capacity as he addressed a crowd in South Carolina and appeared to forget which campaign he was running in.
He said: 'My name's Joe Biden and I'm a Democratic candidate for the United States Senate. Look me over, if you like what you see help out, if not, vote for the other Biden.'
A clip of his latest gaffe was posted on Twitter by activist Shaun King, who wrote: 'This is so sad.'
He added: 'I honestly wish he would've retired & not subjected himself to the rigors of this campaign.'
EDITOR’S NOTE: I do not think the country will be well served by a president who believes he is a senator and who does not know in which state the D.C. is located.
Daily Mail
February 25, 2020
Democratic leadership contender Joe Biden left voters bewildered yesterday as he told them he was running for the Senate and if they didn't like him they should 'vote for the other Biden'.
The former vice president, 77, sparked fresh concerns over his mental capacity as he addressed a crowd in South Carolina and appeared to forget which campaign he was running in.
He said: 'My name's Joe Biden and I'm a Democratic candidate for the United States Senate. Look me over, if you like what you see help out, if not, vote for the other Biden.'
A clip of his latest gaffe was posted on Twitter by activist Shaun King, who wrote: 'This is so sad.'
He added: 'I honestly wish he would've retired & not subjected himself to the rigors of this campaign.'
EDITOR’S NOTE: I do not think the country will be well served by a president who believes he is a senator and who does not know in which state the D.C. is located.
WHY PEOPLE IN SILICON VALLEY MAY START TO SMELL BAD PRETTY SOON
by Bob Walsh
Anderson Reservoir is, interestingly enough, retained by Anderson Dam. This is the largest reservoir in Santa Clara County. But it won't be later this year. It will be non-existent.
The 240-foot earth dam, built 70 years ago, is between Morgan Hill and San Jose. The feds are ordering the lake reduced significantly, and drained down totally by the end of this year. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is of the opinion that the dam is not earthquake safe and could rupture, doing bad things to people and property down stream. If the lake were full when the dam failed it would send an 8 foot wall of water thru San Jose. That would be bad.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District owns the dam. The lake holds not quite 90,000 acre feet of water, which is more storage than all the other nine dams they own combined. The draining of the dam will put a lot more water than normal into Coyote Creek, which runs thru San Jose.
Rebuilding the dam would cost close to $600 million.
The district supplies water to 2 million people in Santa Clara county. Much of it comes from wells. Those wells are in good shape right now but the loss will still have a negative impact on things. People probably will not have to stop taking showers. Probably. Yet.
Anderson Reservoir is, interestingly enough, retained by Anderson Dam. This is the largest reservoir in Santa Clara County. But it won't be later this year. It will be non-existent.
The 240-foot earth dam, built 70 years ago, is between Morgan Hill and San Jose. The feds are ordering the lake reduced significantly, and drained down totally by the end of this year. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is of the opinion that the dam is not earthquake safe and could rupture, doing bad things to people and property down stream. If the lake were full when the dam failed it would send an 8 foot wall of water thru San Jose. That would be bad.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District owns the dam. The lake holds not quite 90,000 acre feet of water, which is more storage than all the other nine dams they own combined. The draining of the dam will put a lot more water than normal into Coyote Creek, which runs thru San Jose.
Rebuilding the dam would cost close to $600 million.
The district supplies water to 2 million people in Santa Clara county. Much of it comes from wells. Those wells are in good shape right now but the loss will still have a negative impact on things. People probably will not have to stop taking showers. Probably. Yet.
INTERESTING LAWSUIT USING THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO PROTECT THE SECOND AMENDMENT
by Bob Walsh
The venue is federal court. The players are the parents of two high school students at the Kettle Monine High School in beautiful Wales, Wisconsin. The issue is whether or not the students can wear t-shirts showing firearms in a non-violent, non-threatening manner.
The attorney for the students, John Monroe, states, "An image of a gun on a shirt, you know, there's a giant leap of faith to get from that to an actual school shooting. I mean, there's just not any correlation between those two."
The students are not requesting damages but they are after a permanent injunction prohibiting the school from enforcing their current ban.
It seems that last week both of the students were sent to the principal's office. They were then told that school rules prohibited "wearing anything threatening, violent and illegal, such as drugs and alcohol." A follow-up email sent to the boy's homes asserted, "We do not allow students to wear clothes that depict guns."
The school is hanging tough, claiming thus far that the ban is in support of their "legitimate concerns in preventing school violence."
Another lawsuit, in a different district in Wisconsin, starting going thru legal process in November of 2018. A federal judge rejected the school's attempt to throw out the lawsuit and in fact issued an injunction against the school and in support of the student's rights.
The venue is federal court. The players are the parents of two high school students at the Kettle Monine High School in beautiful Wales, Wisconsin. The issue is whether or not the students can wear t-shirts showing firearms in a non-violent, non-threatening manner.
The attorney for the students, John Monroe, states, "An image of a gun on a shirt, you know, there's a giant leap of faith to get from that to an actual school shooting. I mean, there's just not any correlation between those two."
The students are not requesting damages but they are after a permanent injunction prohibiting the school from enforcing their current ban.
It seems that last week both of the students were sent to the principal's office. They were then told that school rules prohibited "wearing anything threatening, violent and illegal, such as drugs and alcohol." A follow-up email sent to the boy's homes asserted, "We do not allow students to wear clothes that depict guns."
The school is hanging tough, claiming thus far that the ban is in support of their "legitimate concerns in preventing school violence."
Another lawsuit, in a different district in Wisconsin, starting going thru legal process in November of 2018. A federal judge rejected the school's attempt to throw out the lawsuit and in fact issued an injunction against the school and in support of the student's rights.
HILLARY ALLOWS THAT SHE WILL SUPPORT BERNIE......IF
by Bob Walsh
Yesterday the Hillary camp announced that Hillary would support Crazy Bernie, if he is in fact nominated. I think that is damn nice of her.
Yesterday the Hillary camp announced that Hillary would support Crazy Bernie, if he is in fact nominated. I think that is damn nice of her.
HE HAS LUNG CANCER AND IT LOOKS LIKE ROACH ALSO HAS BRAIN CANCER
Rush Limbaugh claims the deadly coronavirus is being 'weaponized' by China to tank the US economy and bring down Donald Trump ‘but is no worse than the common cold’
Daily Mail
February 25, 2020
The conservative radio host said the deadly virus was created in a Chinese government laboratory and was being used to 'scare people in business' and crash the stock market.
Limbaugh, 69, said on his podcast show yesterday: 'It looks like the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump.'
He spoke as the World Health Organization warned the virus was on the brink of becoming a pandemic as worldwide cases soared past 80,000.
A new lab in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak in China, is testing 10,000 people a day for the virus.
EDITOR’S NOTE: And Trump says concussions are merely headaches.
Daily Mail
February 25, 2020
The conservative radio host said the deadly virus was created in a Chinese government laboratory and was being used to 'scare people in business' and crash the stock market.
Limbaugh, 69, said on his podcast show yesterday: 'It looks like the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump.'
He spoke as the World Health Organization warned the virus was on the brink of becoming a pandemic as worldwide cases soared past 80,000.
A new lab in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak in China, is testing 10,000 people a day for the virus.
EDITOR’S NOTE: And Trump says concussions are merely headaches.
THE DECEASED ARE COMPOSTED TO BECOME TREES
L.A. Lawmaker Introduces Bill To Allow Composting Of Human Bodies Statewide
LAPPL News Watch
February 25, 2020
A Los Angeles lawmaker wants California to allow for human composting, an eco-friendly alternative to traditional burial or cremation in which the dead are turned into soil.
The state of Washington became the first state to allow human composting when Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law last year permitting the practice.
“I would love to be a tree one day,” said Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), who introduced Assembly Bill 2592 to allow for human composting, or “natural organic reduction” as the upstart industry calls the process. “I think this is about giving people another option.”
Washington’s law goes into effect on May 1, with a Seattle business called Recompose preparing to open a funeral home that offers the service in early 2021.
Recompose’s process involves placing a body into a vessel with wood chips, alfalfa and straw, allowing it to be decomposed by microbes and reduced to a nutrient-dense soil in about a month.
LAPPL News Watch
February 25, 2020
A Los Angeles lawmaker wants California to allow for human composting, an eco-friendly alternative to traditional burial or cremation in which the dead are turned into soil.
The state of Washington became the first state to allow human composting when Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law last year permitting the practice.
“I would love to be a tree one day,” said Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), who introduced Assembly Bill 2592 to allow for human composting, or “natural organic reduction” as the upstart industry calls the process. “I think this is about giving people another option.”
Washington’s law goes into effect on May 1, with a Seattle business called Recompose preparing to open a funeral home that offers the service in early 2021.
Recompose’s process involves placing a body into a vessel with wood chips, alfalfa and straw, allowing it to be decomposed by microbes and reduced to a nutrient-dense soil in about a month.
METH FUELED PARANOIA LED TO MURDER AND DISMEMBERMENT OF YOUNG WOMAN
Defendants in grisly mutilation case in Spotsylvania get lengthy prison terms
By Keith Epps
The Fredericksburg Free Lance Star
February 24, 2020
Three people who were involved in the dismemberment of a 19-year-old woman after she was shot and killed in Spotsylvania County in 2018 received active prison sentences ranging from 13 to 21 years Monday.
Juan Benavidez III, 20, of King George County, and Keelyn R. Codynah, 25, and Robert Keating, 27, both of Spotsylvania, were sentenced for their roles in the post-slaying cover-up and mutilation of Megan Metzger after the young Pamplin woman was shot in the face and killed on July 17, 2018, during a methamphetamine-fueled gathering at Keating’s home in Post Oak.
The man who killed Metzger, 22-year-old David W. Newton of Spotsylvania, is serving a 40-year prison sentence after being convicted of first-degree murder.
Benavidez and Codynah, who severed multiple parts of Metzger’s body after the slaying, were ordered by Spotsylvania Circuit Judge William Glover to serve 13 and 16 years, respectively. They were previously convicted of multiple charges, including defiling a dead body and being an accessory after the fact of murder.
Benavidez’ sentence far exceeded the recommended state sentencing guidelines, which called for a maximum sentence of two years and two months in prison.
Keating’s 21 years was the stiffest penalty handed down by Glover on Monday. His attorney, Tim Barbrow, argued that he should not be punished as harshly as the others because he did not kill Metzger, nor was he part of the dismemberment.
Keating and several family members openly sobbed as his sentence was being announced.
The three separate sentencing hearings took most of the afternoon. Metzger’s mother, Patricia Metzger, and other supporters gasped as prosecutor Jeff Adams again recited how the victim’s toes, fingers, tongue and head were cut off as part of a sinister plan to hide the evidence.
Patricia Metzger got a couple of chances to testify about how the grisly incident has devastated her and to express her disdain for the defendants.
“Every time I come into this courtroom, I hear one more detail that is more gruesome and horrific from the last,” Metzger said while addressing Codynah. “This is the worst horror you can ever imagine. You all deserve life.”
Metzger lamented that the co-defendants in her daughter’s death had more than 90 criminal charges prior to the slaying. “How were these people even out?” she asked.
State police Special Agent Joseph Root testified that the group of drug users ended up at Keating’s house for several days that week. Some of them barely knew each other.
Benavidez, for example, told police he went to the home to meet with Newton about a potential job. Next thing he knew, everyone was using methamphetamines, he said.
Metzger had come to the house at the invitation of Newton. Their relationship was unclear, but there was testimony that they had met at a mental health facility a couple of years earlier and had recently reconnected on Facebook.
While Metzger went somewhere with Newton, Keating began rummaging through her purse, according to the evidence, and found a card that he mistakenly thought indicated she was a police informant.
He told Newton about his suspicions upon his return, and Newton was later heard yelling at Metzger about being “a [expletive] narc.” Benavidez was in the room and saw Newton point the gun directly in Metzger’s face and fire a shot.
As everyone fled to a door leading outside, Codynah told Keating, “Davey [expletive] up.” There was initially talk about claiming Metzger committed suicide, but that plan was nixed because Keating did not want police at his house. Keating was dealing drugs from the home at the time.
The group went to the nearby trailer of Laura Denekas and resumed getting high. Denekas has since been convicted of a single conspiracy count and has a sentencing scheduled for May 1.
Codynah and Benavidez said they were later ordered by Newton to dismember the body and to clean up the room. Authorities said they cleaned so well that crime scene investigators who later went to the home couldn’t find any evidence of what had happened.
Benavidez said Newton threatened to kill him and his family if he didn’t comply in the cover-up. Codynah said she was also intimidated and both said Keating collected everyone’s keys so that no one could leave.
They eventually loaded the severed body parts into multiple totes and stashed them in the trunk of Metzger’s car. At one point, there was talk of dumping the remains at a pig farm in Louisa, but Benavidez eventually took them to separate spots in Fairview Beach. He then drove the car to Westmoreland County and set it on fire.
Keating and Denekas took the gun to Washington, where Keating traded it for more drugs that he split with Newton. Keating was already a convicted felon and was not legally allowed to possess a firearm.
The car fire was set about a day after Metzger had been killed. Benavidez was apprehended outside a Westmoreland home early July 19 and eventually took investigators to where he’d stashed the body parts.
Codynah unsuccessfully attempted suicide after the slaying, according to testimony, and talked to investigators shortly after waking up from an attempted overdose. Authorities said the information obtained from Codynah and Benavidez was instrumental in the investigation.
Judge Glover used words like “depraved,” “disgusting” and “inexcusable” in describing the case and pronouncing the sentences.
Attorney James Monroe represented Benavidez, while Mark Murphy was Codynah’s lawyer.
By Keith Epps
The Fredericksburg Free Lance Star
February 24, 2020
Three people who were involved in the dismemberment of a 19-year-old woman after she was shot and killed in Spotsylvania County in 2018 received active prison sentences ranging from 13 to 21 years Monday.
Juan Benavidez III, 20, of King George County, and Keelyn R. Codynah, 25, and Robert Keating, 27, both of Spotsylvania, were sentenced for their roles in the post-slaying cover-up and mutilation of Megan Metzger after the young Pamplin woman was shot in the face and killed on July 17, 2018, during a methamphetamine-fueled gathering at Keating’s home in Post Oak.
The man who killed Metzger, 22-year-old David W. Newton of Spotsylvania, is serving a 40-year prison sentence after being convicted of first-degree murder.
Benavidez and Codynah, who severed multiple parts of Metzger’s body after the slaying, were ordered by Spotsylvania Circuit Judge William Glover to serve 13 and 16 years, respectively. They were previously convicted of multiple charges, including defiling a dead body and being an accessory after the fact of murder.
Benavidez’ sentence far exceeded the recommended state sentencing guidelines, which called for a maximum sentence of two years and two months in prison.
Keating’s 21 years was the stiffest penalty handed down by Glover on Monday. His attorney, Tim Barbrow, argued that he should not be punished as harshly as the others because he did not kill Metzger, nor was he part of the dismemberment.
Keating and several family members openly sobbed as his sentence was being announced.
The three separate sentencing hearings took most of the afternoon. Metzger’s mother, Patricia Metzger, and other supporters gasped as prosecutor Jeff Adams again recited how the victim’s toes, fingers, tongue and head were cut off as part of a sinister plan to hide the evidence.
Patricia Metzger got a couple of chances to testify about how the grisly incident has devastated her and to express her disdain for the defendants.
“Every time I come into this courtroom, I hear one more detail that is more gruesome and horrific from the last,” Metzger said while addressing Codynah. “This is the worst horror you can ever imagine. You all deserve life.”
Metzger lamented that the co-defendants in her daughter’s death had more than 90 criminal charges prior to the slaying. “How were these people even out?” she asked.
State police Special Agent Joseph Root testified that the group of drug users ended up at Keating’s house for several days that week. Some of them barely knew each other.
Benavidez, for example, told police he went to the home to meet with Newton about a potential job. Next thing he knew, everyone was using methamphetamines, he said.
Metzger had come to the house at the invitation of Newton. Their relationship was unclear, but there was testimony that they had met at a mental health facility a couple of years earlier and had recently reconnected on Facebook.
While Metzger went somewhere with Newton, Keating began rummaging through her purse, according to the evidence, and found a card that he mistakenly thought indicated she was a police informant.
He told Newton about his suspicions upon his return, and Newton was later heard yelling at Metzger about being “a [expletive] narc.” Benavidez was in the room and saw Newton point the gun directly in Metzger’s face and fire a shot.
As everyone fled to a door leading outside, Codynah told Keating, “Davey [expletive] up.” There was initially talk about claiming Metzger committed suicide, but that plan was nixed because Keating did not want police at his house. Keating was dealing drugs from the home at the time.
The group went to the nearby trailer of Laura Denekas and resumed getting high. Denekas has since been convicted of a single conspiracy count and has a sentencing scheduled for May 1.
Codynah and Benavidez said they were later ordered by Newton to dismember the body and to clean up the room. Authorities said they cleaned so well that crime scene investigators who later went to the home couldn’t find any evidence of what had happened.
Benavidez said Newton threatened to kill him and his family if he didn’t comply in the cover-up. Codynah said she was also intimidated and both said Keating collected everyone’s keys so that no one could leave.
They eventually loaded the severed body parts into multiple totes and stashed them in the trunk of Metzger’s car. At one point, there was talk of dumping the remains at a pig farm in Louisa, but Benavidez eventually took them to separate spots in Fairview Beach. He then drove the car to Westmoreland County and set it on fire.
Keating and Denekas took the gun to Washington, where Keating traded it for more drugs that he split with Newton. Keating was already a convicted felon and was not legally allowed to possess a firearm.
The car fire was set about a day after Metzger had been killed. Benavidez was apprehended outside a Westmoreland home early July 19 and eventually took investigators to where he’d stashed the body parts.
Codynah unsuccessfully attempted suicide after the slaying, according to testimony, and talked to investigators shortly after waking up from an attempted overdose. Authorities said the information obtained from Codynah and Benavidez was instrumental in the investigation.
Judge Glover used words like “depraved,” “disgusting” and “inexcusable” in describing the case and pronouncing the sentences.
Attorney James Monroe represented Benavidez, while Mark Murphy was Codynah’s lawyer.
SLEEPY PERRIS NO LONGER SLEEPY
Mystery over cemetery slayings sparks fear and rumors in California town
BY Alejandra Reyes-Velarde
Los Angeles Times
February 25, 2020
On a brisk Sunday evening, four men shared food and drinks before stumbling the next morning into a humble little cemetery dotted with leafless trees.
They came to pay their respects to an old friend, Uver Hernandez Castañeda.
Only one of the men would walk out of Perris Valley Cemetery.
Near the grave of Hernandez Castañeda lay the bodies of three of the men. The fourth, Jose Luis Torres Garcia, has become the subject of a manhunt.
Detectives say the 33-year-old Torres Garcia killed Jaime Covarrubias Espindola, 50; Jose Maria Aguilar-Espejel, 38; and Rodrigo Aguilar-Espejel, 28.
The triple killing Feb. 17 in this Riverside County town of nearly 78,000 people caused a ripple of fear after the sheriff invoked the specter of cartel involvement.
Sheriff Chad Bianco was attempting to quell residents’ concerns at a news conference, saying they should not feel in danger and that the killings were not related to several others in the county. On Feb. 2, a man was shot at an Arco gas station across from Perris’ Mariscos Playa de Ixtapa restaurant, and 10 days later, a man was killed at a nearby park. (A couple of days after the cemetery killings, three women were found dead in pools of blood inside a home in nearby Hemet.)
“We’re receiving some of the same information that you are, that it’s gang related, that it’s cartel related,” Bianco said. “We’re looking into all of that.”
The sheriff didn’t answer questions about how the men were killed, whether a weapon was used or how they were found. Autopsies were completed Monday, but coroner officials referred questions to homicide investigators. The investigator on the case, Alberto Loureiro, declined to speak to a Los Angeles Times reporter about the details.
Asked during the news conference if the men were killed “execution-style,” Sheriff Bianco said: “You could get into semantics of what you would call it, but it certainly seems that way.”
No motive has been established for the killings. But that hasn’t stopped rumors from flowing in town.
The grave the men had been visiting belonged to a man who met a violent end just months before, more than 1,700 miles away in central Mexico. Hernandez Castañeda had been tortured and murdered near the highlands of Opopeo, in the state of Michoacán, while on his way to visit family for the holidays.
On Dec. 18, he was driving a white Range Rover to his family’s home in Turicato, Michoacán, a town dominated by a strong cartel presence, according to Mexican news reports.
He never made it. On Dec. 20, his family reported him missing, and two days later, his body was found with gunshot wounds and other “signs of violence” near Opopeo, a pueblo of less than 9,000 people where locals have formed self-defense teams against drug traffickers.
On social media and at the cemetery, family and friends insisted he had no enemies. He was remembered as a kind, giving father and husband who had inadvertently become entangled in the violence convulsing parts of Mexico.
On a recent morning, a crowd of curious cemetery visitors gathered to take a peek at the grave of Hernandez Castañeda. Suddenly, a white Nissan SUV drove into the cemetery. A man in a black T-shirt and a woman dressed all in orange exited the vehicle with their young son and walked toward Hernandez Castañeda’s grave. Seeing the family approach, the small group scattered.
The woman identified herself as the sister-in-law of Hernandez Castañeda. According to her, the man had lived in the U.S. for 20 years with his family. But he had a lover, she said.
Hernandez Castañeda’s sister-in-law said the woman apparently had a powerful lover in Mexico. When Hernandez Castañeda made the holiday trip to his home country, he was killed, his sister-in-law said. Like many others interviewed by The Times, she declined to allow her name to be used, citing concerns about her safety.
“There’s no justice in Mexico,” she said, shaking her head as she looked down at her brother-in-law’s headstone.
By the time the family visited Hernandez Castañeda’s grave, it had been cleaned of any signs that something horrible had happened there in recent days. Under a beaming sun, a wooden crucifix lay over his flat headstone, partially hiding an engraving: “Don’t be saddened by my absence, I haven’t left your side … You can’t hear my voice, but I’m still with you.”
Earlier that morning, the sound of crows squawking and doves cooing in the early morning was slowly replaced by chatter and cumbia music as families settled in to spend time with deceased loved ones, laying folding chairs, blankets and snacks on the green grass feet away from Hernandez Castañeda’s grave.
One woman, who only gave her name as Victoria, ventured across the cemetery to visit Hernandez Castañeda’s headstone. She was merely curious. But she turned around before getting too close. Suddenly, she worried about whether the wrong person might be watching.
“It’s better to say you don’t hear anything, because people could be watching,” the woman said. “It’s better to observe from a distance.”
A cemetery employee and his friend — who both asked to remain nameless — nervously tiptoed around the idea that the triple killing might be cartel-related.
“I don’t want to know a thing about that,” the employee said.
The town of Perris is a hot spot for tourists who visit Perris Lake and enjoy adventures like skydiving and hot air balloon rides. The “skydiving capital of America” rarely makes news — except when skydiving tragedies occur.
It’s a family-oriented town that has appealed to locals for its calmness and safety. More than 75% of the population is Latino.
Olivia Moreno de Gonzalez, who identified herself in a phone interview as the owner of Mariscos Playa de Ixtapa, said she had been busy fending off rumors, including that Hernandez Castañeda was the owner, rather than an employee. One of the victims of the cemetery killings, Covarrubias Espindola, was also an employee, she said.
“Many things people are saying are lies, and it’s affecting us,” Moreno de Gonzalez said. “Honestly, we’re the same as you. We don’t know anything.”
At a local swap meet, a woman selling religious memorabilia said she remembered two men who showed up looking for candles and a prayer book for their cousin. They told her he had been killed in Mexico. She recognized a crucifix she sold as one that ended up on Hernandez Castañeda’s headstone. But the woman said she could not remember who purchased it.
Back in the cemetery, Hernandez Castañeda’s brother knelt in front of the grave and removed the crucifix and two flowers that had been lying there. He wiped the headstone somberly. His brother, he said, was not involved in any cartel activity, despite his slaying and the strange one that befell three men at his plot.
“Everyone who knows us knows it’s not what people are thinking,” he said.
The morning of the killings, the man said he got a call from a family friend.
“I see three men sleeping on your brother’s grave,” she told Hernandez Castañeda’s brother.
“I’ll be right there and I’ll see who they are,” he said. But before he could, she called again.
“I think they’re dead,” she said.
He raced to his brother’s grave to investigate for himself, but by then the cemetery was swarmed with sheriff’s deputies and investigators.
Hernandez Castañeda’s brother said he had a far simpler theory about the tragic event: The four men were drinking and got into a fight. It wasn’t unusual for his brother’s friends to visit his grave. He had told them repeatedly not to bring bottles to the cemetery, since drinking is forbidden on the grounds.
He was familiar with the four men, the brother said. One of them, Covarrubias Espindola, was a beloved chef at the Mariscos Playa de Ixtapa restaurant, who would leave his kitchen to ask guests whether they enjoyed his food and take personal dish requests from friends.
The other men he knew only as his brother’s friends. Nothing about the suspect, Torres Garcia, struck him as concerning.
“I don’t know this crazy mentality he had,” the brother of Hernandez Castañeda said.
He heard that one of the bodies lay to the right of his brother’s tombstone; the other two, to the left.
Other than that, he said, it’s all a mystery.
BY Alejandra Reyes-Velarde
Los Angeles Times
February 25, 2020
On a brisk Sunday evening, four men shared food and drinks before stumbling the next morning into a humble little cemetery dotted with leafless trees.
They came to pay their respects to an old friend, Uver Hernandez Castañeda.
Only one of the men would walk out of Perris Valley Cemetery.
Near the grave of Hernandez Castañeda lay the bodies of three of the men. The fourth, Jose Luis Torres Garcia, has become the subject of a manhunt.
Detectives say the 33-year-old Torres Garcia killed Jaime Covarrubias Espindola, 50; Jose Maria Aguilar-Espejel, 38; and Rodrigo Aguilar-Espejel, 28.
The triple killing Feb. 17 in this Riverside County town of nearly 78,000 people caused a ripple of fear after the sheriff invoked the specter of cartel involvement.
Sheriff Chad Bianco was attempting to quell residents’ concerns at a news conference, saying they should not feel in danger and that the killings were not related to several others in the county. On Feb. 2, a man was shot at an Arco gas station across from Perris’ Mariscos Playa de Ixtapa restaurant, and 10 days later, a man was killed at a nearby park. (A couple of days after the cemetery killings, three women were found dead in pools of blood inside a home in nearby Hemet.)
“We’re receiving some of the same information that you are, that it’s gang related, that it’s cartel related,” Bianco said. “We’re looking into all of that.”
The sheriff didn’t answer questions about how the men were killed, whether a weapon was used or how they were found. Autopsies were completed Monday, but coroner officials referred questions to homicide investigators. The investigator on the case, Alberto Loureiro, declined to speak to a Los Angeles Times reporter about the details.
Asked during the news conference if the men were killed “execution-style,” Sheriff Bianco said: “You could get into semantics of what you would call it, but it certainly seems that way.”
No motive has been established for the killings. But that hasn’t stopped rumors from flowing in town.
The grave the men had been visiting belonged to a man who met a violent end just months before, more than 1,700 miles away in central Mexico. Hernandez Castañeda had been tortured and murdered near the highlands of Opopeo, in the state of Michoacán, while on his way to visit family for the holidays.
On Dec. 18, he was driving a white Range Rover to his family’s home in Turicato, Michoacán, a town dominated by a strong cartel presence, according to Mexican news reports.
He never made it. On Dec. 20, his family reported him missing, and two days later, his body was found with gunshot wounds and other “signs of violence” near Opopeo, a pueblo of less than 9,000 people where locals have formed self-defense teams against drug traffickers.
On social media and at the cemetery, family and friends insisted he had no enemies. He was remembered as a kind, giving father and husband who had inadvertently become entangled in the violence convulsing parts of Mexico.
On a recent morning, a crowd of curious cemetery visitors gathered to take a peek at the grave of Hernandez Castañeda. Suddenly, a white Nissan SUV drove into the cemetery. A man in a black T-shirt and a woman dressed all in orange exited the vehicle with their young son and walked toward Hernandez Castañeda’s grave. Seeing the family approach, the small group scattered.
The woman identified herself as the sister-in-law of Hernandez Castañeda. According to her, the man had lived in the U.S. for 20 years with his family. But he had a lover, she said.
Hernandez Castañeda’s sister-in-law said the woman apparently had a powerful lover in Mexico. When Hernandez Castañeda made the holiday trip to his home country, he was killed, his sister-in-law said. Like many others interviewed by The Times, she declined to allow her name to be used, citing concerns about her safety.
“There’s no justice in Mexico,” she said, shaking her head as she looked down at her brother-in-law’s headstone.
By the time the family visited Hernandez Castañeda’s grave, it had been cleaned of any signs that something horrible had happened there in recent days. Under a beaming sun, a wooden crucifix lay over his flat headstone, partially hiding an engraving: “Don’t be saddened by my absence, I haven’t left your side … You can’t hear my voice, but I’m still with you.”
Earlier that morning, the sound of crows squawking and doves cooing in the early morning was slowly replaced by chatter and cumbia music as families settled in to spend time with deceased loved ones, laying folding chairs, blankets and snacks on the green grass feet away from Hernandez Castañeda’s grave.
One woman, who only gave her name as Victoria, ventured across the cemetery to visit Hernandez Castañeda’s headstone. She was merely curious. But she turned around before getting too close. Suddenly, she worried about whether the wrong person might be watching.
“It’s better to say you don’t hear anything, because people could be watching,” the woman said. “It’s better to observe from a distance.”
A cemetery employee and his friend — who both asked to remain nameless — nervously tiptoed around the idea that the triple killing might be cartel-related.
“I don’t want to know a thing about that,” the employee said.
The town of Perris is a hot spot for tourists who visit Perris Lake and enjoy adventures like skydiving and hot air balloon rides. The “skydiving capital of America” rarely makes news — except when skydiving tragedies occur.
It’s a family-oriented town that has appealed to locals for its calmness and safety. More than 75% of the population is Latino.
Olivia Moreno de Gonzalez, who identified herself in a phone interview as the owner of Mariscos Playa de Ixtapa, said she had been busy fending off rumors, including that Hernandez Castañeda was the owner, rather than an employee. One of the victims of the cemetery killings, Covarrubias Espindola, was also an employee, she said.
“Many things people are saying are lies, and it’s affecting us,” Moreno de Gonzalez said. “Honestly, we’re the same as you. We don’t know anything.”
At a local swap meet, a woman selling religious memorabilia said she remembered two men who showed up looking for candles and a prayer book for their cousin. They told her he had been killed in Mexico. She recognized a crucifix she sold as one that ended up on Hernandez Castañeda’s headstone. But the woman said she could not remember who purchased it.
Back in the cemetery, Hernandez Castañeda’s brother knelt in front of the grave and removed the crucifix and two flowers that had been lying there. He wiped the headstone somberly. His brother, he said, was not involved in any cartel activity, despite his slaying and the strange one that befell three men at his plot.
“Everyone who knows us knows it’s not what people are thinking,” he said.
The morning of the killings, the man said he got a call from a family friend.
“I see three men sleeping on your brother’s grave,” she told Hernandez Castañeda’s brother.
“I’ll be right there and I’ll see who they are,” he said. But before he could, she called again.
“I think they’re dead,” she said.
He raced to his brother’s grave to investigate for himself, but by then the cemetery was swarmed with sheriff’s deputies and investigators.
Hernandez Castañeda’s brother said he had a far simpler theory about the tragic event: The four men were drinking and got into a fight. It wasn’t unusual for his brother’s friends to visit his grave. He had told them repeatedly not to bring bottles to the cemetery, since drinking is forbidden on the grounds.
He was familiar with the four men, the brother said. One of them, Covarrubias Espindola, was a beloved chef at the Mariscos Playa de Ixtapa restaurant, who would leave his kitchen to ask guests whether they enjoyed his food and take personal dish requests from friends.
The other men he knew only as his brother’s friends. Nothing about the suspect, Torres Garcia, struck him as concerning.
“I don’t know this crazy mentality he had,” the brother of Hernandez Castañeda said.
He heard that one of the bodies lay to the right of his brother’s tombstone; the other two, to the left.
Other than that, he said, it’s all a mystery.
ARE LICENSE PLATE READERS SYMPTOMATIC OF A NAZI REGIME?
In An Effort To Reduce Crime, More And More Houston Area Communities Use License Plate Readers
By Florian Martin
Houston Public Media
February 18, 2020
The Memorial Villages Police Department covers three small cities: Piney Point, Bunker Hill and Hunters Creek Village. They are entirely surrounded by the city of Houston, just south of the Katy Freeway and east of Beltway 8.
“There’s only 27 ways in and out of the Villages,” said Chief Ray Schultz, who heads the small police department, which is 40 officers strong.
He said most crimes that happen here, which aren’t many to begin with, are done by outsiders. That’s why his department has installed 20 “automated license plate readers” by the company Flock Safety at different spots throughout the community. The cameras record the back of every car that passes.
“If we can capture the license plate of who the criminals are,” Schultz said, “maybe we can use that lead to help identify who committed the crime in the villages.”
So far, that’s paid off: Since the police department adopted the technology in September, officers have recovered 28 stolen vehicles. Before that, Schultz said, they typically caught one car thief a year. The cameras also helped them solve many other crimes that they otherwise might not have, he said, including ID theft, robbery and fraud.
Schultz offers the example of a car the cameras identified as stolen that was driving around the Villages at 1:20 a.m. one night.
“Officers located it and initiated a traffic stop,” he said. “Inside the stolen car were three individuals – a couple of those people had warrants for their arrest, but they also had ski masks in their car, a firearm, a machete, prior arrests for robbery cases and narcotics.”
More than 25 communities in Greater Houston now use Flock Safety’s license plate readers. The city of Katy just adopted them last month, and Sugar Land has used the technology for more than a decade. And Memorial City Mall is the latest Houston area location that will be using the readers.
Garrett Langley, founder and CEO of the Atlanta-based Flock Safety, said the company doesn’t even have to pitch its product anymore.
“It’s all through word of mouth,” he said. “The only reason why Katy is now a customer is because Memorial Villages was a customer, and the only reason why Memorial Villages is a customer is because Jersey Village was a customer. And it just kind of trickles through a community because it’s just so effective.”
But while the cameras seem to be making a difference, some argue that it costs innocent drivers their privacy.
“This is a level of surveillance that, frankly, has usually been associated with totalitarian regimes and not a free society,” said Kevin Welch, president of the Austin branch of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The cameras, he said, effectively turn everyone who drives into a suspect.
“People talk about (how) you don’t have an expectation of privacy in public,” Welch said. “But it’s very different from thinking that I’m not necessarily private in public and there being a permanent, researchable record of every single human being who went by a particular location.”
Chief Schultz said nobody is being tracked. The computer only alerts officers when a license plate matches one that’s been entered into the system as stolen or otherwise suspicious. And unless it’s part of an investigation, the information is deleted after 90 days.
“If a detective needs to do a review, it audits that,” Schultz said. “So I know that Detective such-and-such did a search for this particular license plate on this day and this time.”
Schultz said officers need a specific reason for looking up license plates in the system.
But Welch was not convinced, arguing that it’s dangerous to simply trust that police will use the technology only as intended.
“If police departments want to use this technology,” he said, “they need to come to us with proposals for how we can actually audit them and know that they’re not abusing their access to these datasets and truly that the data is deleted when they say it’s deleted.”
Langley acknowledged that the use of the technology relies on people’s trust.
“That is one of the challenges of, I guess, any relationship,” he said, “which is, is there an implicit amount of trust that you’re comfortable with?”
By Florian Martin
Houston Public Media
February 18, 2020
The Memorial Villages Police Department covers three small cities: Piney Point, Bunker Hill and Hunters Creek Village. They are entirely surrounded by the city of Houston, just south of the Katy Freeway and east of Beltway 8.
“There’s only 27 ways in and out of the Villages,” said Chief Ray Schultz, who heads the small police department, which is 40 officers strong.
He said most crimes that happen here, which aren’t many to begin with, are done by outsiders. That’s why his department has installed 20 “automated license plate readers” by the company Flock Safety at different spots throughout the community. The cameras record the back of every car that passes.
“If we can capture the license plate of who the criminals are,” Schultz said, “maybe we can use that lead to help identify who committed the crime in the villages.”
So far, that’s paid off: Since the police department adopted the technology in September, officers have recovered 28 stolen vehicles. Before that, Schultz said, they typically caught one car thief a year. The cameras also helped them solve many other crimes that they otherwise might not have, he said, including ID theft, robbery and fraud.
Schultz offers the example of a car the cameras identified as stolen that was driving around the Villages at 1:20 a.m. one night.
“Officers located it and initiated a traffic stop,” he said. “Inside the stolen car were three individuals – a couple of those people had warrants for their arrest, but they also had ski masks in their car, a firearm, a machete, prior arrests for robbery cases and narcotics.”
More than 25 communities in Greater Houston now use Flock Safety’s license plate readers. The city of Katy just adopted them last month, and Sugar Land has used the technology for more than a decade. And Memorial City Mall is the latest Houston area location that will be using the readers.
Garrett Langley, founder and CEO of the Atlanta-based Flock Safety, said the company doesn’t even have to pitch its product anymore.
“It’s all through word of mouth,” he said. “The only reason why Katy is now a customer is because Memorial Villages was a customer, and the only reason why Memorial Villages is a customer is because Jersey Village was a customer. And it just kind of trickles through a community because it’s just so effective.”
But while the cameras seem to be making a difference, some argue that it costs innocent drivers their privacy.
“This is a level of surveillance that, frankly, has usually been associated with totalitarian regimes and not a free society,” said Kevin Welch, president of the Austin branch of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The cameras, he said, effectively turn everyone who drives into a suspect.
“People talk about (how) you don’t have an expectation of privacy in public,” Welch said. “But it’s very different from thinking that I’m not necessarily private in public and there being a permanent, researchable record of every single human being who went by a particular location.”
Chief Schultz said nobody is being tracked. The computer only alerts officers when a license plate matches one that’s been entered into the system as stolen or otherwise suspicious. And unless it’s part of an investigation, the information is deleted after 90 days.
“If a detective needs to do a review, it audits that,” Schultz said. “So I know that Detective such-and-such did a search for this particular license plate on this day and this time.”
Schultz said officers need a specific reason for looking up license plates in the system.
But Welch was not convinced, arguing that it’s dangerous to simply trust that police will use the technology only as intended.
“If police departments want to use this technology,” he said, “they need to come to us with proposals for how we can actually audit them and know that they’re not abusing their access to these datasets and truly that the data is deleted when they say it’s deleted.”
Langley acknowledged that the use of the technology relies on people’s trust.
“That is one of the challenges of, I guess, any relationship,” he said, “which is, is there an implicit amount of trust that you’re comfortable with?”
THE UNEXPECTED SPY
How a sorority girl ended up taking down the world’s most notorious terrorists
By Rachelle Bergstein
New York Post
February 22, 2020
Tracy Walder arrived at the University of Southern California in 1996, and rushed Delta Gamma soon after. For the studious yet bubbly Southern California native, the Greek system provided a built-in social life and a place where she happily “blended into the crowd” of slim, pretty blondes. She attended alcohol-soaked parties, was elected vice president of social standards, and writes that she would have decorated her room all in pink were it not for the objections of her roommate. They compromised on a flamingo-pink beanbag chair.
But her outward girliness concealed deeper interests. A history buff and self-described news junkie, she planned to be a teacher until fate — in the guise of the CIA recruiter she met at a jobs fair her junior year — intervened.
Perusing the various crowded booths, she spotted a CIA representative sitting by himself. Instinctively, she passed him her résumé, in part because she felt bad for him. “Do you want to be in the CIA?” he asked, taking her in.
“Yes, I do,” she answered, surprising herself. She realized at that moment that she was telling the truth, she explains in her new memoir, “The Unexpected Spy: From CIA to The FBI, My Secret Life Taking Down Some of the World’s Most Notorious Terrorists” (St. Martins), out Tuesday, with co-writer Jessica Anya Blau.
Months later, after two lie-detector tests and a series of grueling interviews, Walder was offering that very same beanbag chair to a CIA operative who arrived at the Delta Gamma house unannounced to interrogate her references: four of her closest sorority sisters.
Walder started at Langley in 2000, at the age of 21, eventually becoming an expert in al Qaeda and chemical weapons and interviewing captured terrorist associates in the Middle East. Although she didn’t exactly look the part of a Middle East scholar, Walder writes that she had been terrified of Osama bin Laden for years, having caught a harrowing television interview with him in 1997. Then the unthinkable happened: That very same man attacked the United States on September 11, 2001.
“The plane might as well have crashed into the south side of my body,” Walder writes of watching live footage of American Airlines Flight 77 slamming into the Pentagon. “The pain, the guilt, the sense that my failures were resulting in lives lost . . . erased all other thoughts.”
Soon after, Walder was assigned to an elite counterterrorism unit devoted to stopping al Qaeda: “I was ready to even the score,” she writes.
Walder began traveling the world, moving from Europe to the Middle East to Africa in an effort to foil global terrorist attacks. She dealt with sexism — one African liaison dismissively nicknamed her “Malibu Barbie” — as well as exhaustion and homesickness. She worked seven days a week and skipped family holidays with her parents back home in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, in the months after 9/11, Walder says, the White House was only interested in intelligence that linked al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein. The problem? There wasn’t any.
“The whole thing felt like a nutty fun-house game,” she recalls. “No matter what we reported to the administration, they turned it around, turned it inside out, and spat it back out with some non-truth.”
At the same time, she wondered if she could ever settle down and start a family as a spy. On a whim, she applied to the FBI — and got in.
There, she helped thwart a husband-and-wife team of Chinese operatives named Chi and Rebecca Mak, an eccentric couple who had lived in Los Angeles since the 1970s. Chi worked for Power Paragon, a company that developed products for the US Navy. The pair kept to themselves and ate their meals off newspaper instead of plates. Walder had the glamorous job of combing through their garbage.
But what she found, with the help of a Chinese translator, astonished her.
Among pages of balled up, greasy newsprint, they discovered a “tasking list [that] clearly identified classified materials that Mak was supposed to supply the Chinese government.” It turned out he had been stealing military secrets for decades.
Despite this success, the new job wasn’t a good fit for Walder. After her time at Langley — which she describes as a meritocracy — the FBI was a classic boys’ club, and “I was The Girl,” she writes. As soon as she started, she said, she was bullied and hazed by sexist training officers. In one particularly baffling incident, she was disciplined because the suit she was wearing was “distracting.”
Walder lasted 15 months at the FBI, noting that “currently, there are a dozen women who have filed a complaint against the[m] with the Equal Employment Commission.” Now she lives in Dallas with her husband and her daughter, and teaches at an all-girls school. Her new mission is to inspire young women to pursue intelligence jobs and thus transform the agency’s culture from the inside-out.
“I’m not afraid of big goals,” she writes.
By Rachelle Bergstein
New York Post
February 22, 2020
Tracy Walder arrived at the University of Southern California in 1996, and rushed Delta Gamma soon after. For the studious yet bubbly Southern California native, the Greek system provided a built-in social life and a place where she happily “blended into the crowd” of slim, pretty blondes. She attended alcohol-soaked parties, was elected vice president of social standards, and writes that she would have decorated her room all in pink were it not for the objections of her roommate. They compromised on a flamingo-pink beanbag chair.
But her outward girliness concealed deeper interests. A history buff and self-described news junkie, she planned to be a teacher until fate — in the guise of the CIA recruiter she met at a jobs fair her junior year — intervened.
Perusing the various crowded booths, she spotted a CIA representative sitting by himself. Instinctively, she passed him her résumé, in part because she felt bad for him. “Do you want to be in the CIA?” he asked, taking her in.
“Yes, I do,” she answered, surprising herself. She realized at that moment that she was telling the truth, she explains in her new memoir, “The Unexpected Spy: From CIA to The FBI, My Secret Life Taking Down Some of the World’s Most Notorious Terrorists” (St. Martins), out Tuesday, with co-writer Jessica Anya Blau.
Months later, after two lie-detector tests and a series of grueling interviews, Walder was offering that very same beanbag chair to a CIA operative who arrived at the Delta Gamma house unannounced to interrogate her references: four of her closest sorority sisters.
Walder started at Langley in 2000, at the age of 21, eventually becoming an expert in al Qaeda and chemical weapons and interviewing captured terrorist associates in the Middle East. Although she didn’t exactly look the part of a Middle East scholar, Walder writes that she had been terrified of Osama bin Laden for years, having caught a harrowing television interview with him in 1997. Then the unthinkable happened: That very same man attacked the United States on September 11, 2001.
“The plane might as well have crashed into the south side of my body,” Walder writes of watching live footage of American Airlines Flight 77 slamming into the Pentagon. “The pain, the guilt, the sense that my failures were resulting in lives lost . . . erased all other thoughts.”
Soon after, Walder was assigned to an elite counterterrorism unit devoted to stopping al Qaeda: “I was ready to even the score,” she writes.
Walder began traveling the world, moving from Europe to the Middle East to Africa in an effort to foil global terrorist attacks. She dealt with sexism — one African liaison dismissively nicknamed her “Malibu Barbie” — as well as exhaustion and homesickness. She worked seven days a week and skipped family holidays with her parents back home in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, in the months after 9/11, Walder says, the White House was only interested in intelligence that linked al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein. The problem? There wasn’t any.
“The whole thing felt like a nutty fun-house game,” she recalls. “No matter what we reported to the administration, they turned it around, turned it inside out, and spat it back out with some non-truth.”
At the same time, she wondered if she could ever settle down and start a family as a spy. On a whim, she applied to the FBI — and got in.
There, she helped thwart a husband-and-wife team of Chinese operatives named Chi and Rebecca Mak, an eccentric couple who had lived in Los Angeles since the 1970s. Chi worked for Power Paragon, a company that developed products for the US Navy. The pair kept to themselves and ate their meals off newspaper instead of plates. Walder had the glamorous job of combing through their garbage.
But what she found, with the help of a Chinese translator, astonished her.
Among pages of balled up, greasy newsprint, they discovered a “tasking list [that] clearly identified classified materials that Mak was supposed to supply the Chinese government.” It turned out he had been stealing military secrets for decades.
Despite this success, the new job wasn’t a good fit for Walder. After her time at Langley — which she describes as a meritocracy — the FBI was a classic boys’ club, and “I was The Girl,” she writes. As soon as she started, she said, she was bullied and hazed by sexist training officers. In one particularly baffling incident, she was disciplined because the suit she was wearing was “distracting.”
Walder lasted 15 months at the FBI, noting that “currently, there are a dozen women who have filed a complaint against the[m] with the Equal Employment Commission.” Now she lives in Dallas with her husband and her daughter, and teaches at an all-girls school. Her new mission is to inspire young women to pursue intelligence jobs and thus transform the agency’s culture from the inside-out.
“I’m not afraid of big goals,” she writes.
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
ESTABLISHMENT DEMOCRATS LIKELY TO TARGET AOC
AOC’s war on fellow Democrats likely to eliminate her House seat
By Post Editorial Board
New York Post
February 23, 2020
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t just supporting women in announcing a slate of seven House candidates who’ll get cash from her Courage to Change PAC: The key fact is that two of them are challenging incumbents.
Indeed, she and her allies are now targeting several longtime local lawmakers, on the theory that they’re every bit as much of a problem as Republicans.
“It’s time to elect a progressive majority in Congress accountable to strong, grassroots movements that push support for issues like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, racial justice, & more,” she tweeted Friday.
“My ambition right now is to be a little less lonely in Congress,” AOC told the New York Times.
But she may not last in Congress: Already in hot water for refusing to pay dues to her caucus’ fundraising arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, she’s now devoting her resources instead to defeating Democrats.
Don’t be surprised when the established Democrats who’ll control redistricting after the 2020 Census do their best to eliminate her seat.
By Post Editorial Board
New York Post
February 23, 2020
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t just supporting women in announcing a slate of seven House candidates who’ll get cash from her Courage to Change PAC: The key fact is that two of them are challenging incumbents.
Indeed, she and her allies are now targeting several longtime local lawmakers, on the theory that they’re every bit as much of a problem as Republicans.
“It’s time to elect a progressive majority in Congress accountable to strong, grassroots movements that push support for issues like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, racial justice, & more,” she tweeted Friday.
“My ambition right now is to be a little less lonely in Congress,” AOC told the New York Times.
But she may not last in Congress: Already in hot water for refusing to pay dues to her caucus’ fundraising arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, she’s now devoting her resources instead to defeating Democrats.
Don’t be surprised when the established Democrats who’ll control redistricting after the 2020 Census do their best to eliminate her seat.
THEY MUST HAVE SOME ODD CLASSIFICATION IDEAS IN THE ALABAMA DOC
by Bob Walsh
Daniel Miner, 43, was a guest of the people of Alabama, doing LWOP for murder. He was also in a work release program in the town of Alpine when he beat feet. His classification was "minimum out" meaning he could be assigned to off-grounds work details without direct supervision of correctional personnel.
Maybe it's just me but I can't imagine the logic of granting a prisoner doing LWOP minimum custody, let alone off-grounds work detail status.
Daniel Miner, 43, was a guest of the people of Alabama, doing LWOP for murder. He was also in a work release program in the town of Alpine when he beat feet. His classification was "minimum out" meaning he could be assigned to off-grounds work details without direct supervision of correctional personnel.
Maybe it's just me but I can't imagine the logic of granting a prisoner doing LWOP minimum custody, let alone off-grounds work detail status.
DOW TAKES A VERY MAJOR DUMP
by Bob Walsh
The Dow Jones Industrial Averages dropped 3.5% yesterday, just a tad over 1,000 points. That is the largest one day drop in about two years. The technical analysts blame it all on economic uncertainty and market disruption related to the Covid-19 bug.
The Dow Jones Industrial Averages dropped 3.5% yesterday, just a tad over 1,000 points. That is the largest one day drop in about two years. The technical analysts blame it all on economic uncertainty and market disruption related to the Covid-19 bug.
SEATTLE P D ACTUALLY ARRESTS DEMONSTRATORS
Will Miracles Never Cease ?
by Bob Walsh
A pack of protesters from the group PROTECTORS OF THE SALISH SEA attempted to get up on I-5 in Seattle on Sunday afternoon. The cops set up an impromptu barricade of police bicycles to keep the group of about 40 off the freeway. The group attempted to bypass the police barricade and one member attacked a cop. Six people were actually arrested.
The group is in opposition to an oil pipeline being proposed for native land in Canada. Has nothing directly to do with Seattle at all.
by Bob Walsh
A pack of protesters from the group PROTECTORS OF THE SALISH SEA attempted to get up on I-5 in Seattle on Sunday afternoon. The cops set up an impromptu barricade of police bicycles to keep the group of about 40 off the freeway. The group attempted to bypass the police barricade and one member attacked a cop. Six people were actually arrested.
The group is in opposition to an oil pipeline being proposed for native land in Canada. Has nothing directly to do with Seattle at all.
CITY COUNCILMAN GOES OFF ON COPS
by Bob Walsh
Omari Shakur is a City Councilman-At-Large in the teeming metropolis of the City Of Newburgh, New York. The councilman's son was shot to death by city cops in 2006. Shakur was elected last November.
The incident started when a detective blew his horn at Shakur, who was parked in the roadway when there were several open parking spaces available. When Shakur refused to move his car, which was "parked" the wrong way on the road, an altercation started. Detectives do not wear body cams so there is no recording of the situation before a uniformed officer arrived.
Shakur allegedly stated, "I'm your fucking boss" among other things. He was allegedly visiting a constituent at the time.
Omari Shakur is a City Councilman-At-Large in the teeming metropolis of the City Of Newburgh, New York. The councilman's son was shot to death by city cops in 2006. Shakur was elected last November.
The incident started when a detective blew his horn at Shakur, who was parked in the roadway when there were several open parking spaces available. When Shakur refused to move his car, which was "parked" the wrong way on the road, an altercation started. Detectives do not wear body cams so there is no recording of the situation before a uniformed officer arrived.
Shakur allegedly stated, "I'm your fucking boss" among other things. He was allegedly visiting a constituent at the time.
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