by Bob Walsh
Yes, it's true. Trayvon Martin, the well-known criminal, violent idiot and dead person who never went to college a day in his life will be awarded a posthumous degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Florida Memorial University, a historically black institution from which his mother is an alumni.
I guess being a burglar and a doper who attacks people on the street for no obvious reason other than not liking that the person was there is a resume enhancement after all. The school asserted that young Trayvon had a love for flying. I can believe it, though most people do it in an aircraft of some sort. The university is also the home of the Treyvon Martin Foundation, dedicated to furthering the careers of teenage burglars, thieves and illicit drug consumers.
Friday, May 05, 2017
COPS SEIZE JUDGE'S COMPUTERS
by Bob Walsh
A truly interesting thing happened Wednesday in Livingston County, Michigan. The state police swooped in and seized county-owned computers from the courtroom of 53rd District Judge Theresa Brennan.
Everybody is being somewhat closed mouth about the whole thing but it appears, based on scant information, that the judge was banging the lead investigator (not her husband) in a high-profile murder case she was presiding over. She has admitted to the affair but asserted that it began AFTER the case was concluded.
A truly interesting thing happened Wednesday in Livingston County, Michigan. The state police swooped in and seized county-owned computers from the courtroom of 53rd District Judge Theresa Brennan.
Everybody is being somewhat closed mouth about the whole thing but it appears, based on scant information, that the judge was banging the lead investigator (not her husband) in a high-profile murder case she was presiding over. She has admitted to the affair but asserted that it began AFTER the case was concluded.
ITS OK TO BE CONSERVATIVE AS LONG AS YOU DON'T TALK TOO MUCH ABOUT IT
by Bob Walsh
Stacy Washington is a columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She has been suspended, and then terminated, from her gig at the paper and their linked web site because of a column she wrote on April 28 defending the NRA when they were compared generally with ISIS.
The paper said flat-out that her promotional activities and professional association with the NRA was an "unacceptable conflict." The paper asserts that she is an officer of the NRA (which she isn't) and has done media work for the NRA (which she hasn't).
Stacy Washington is a columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She has been suspended, and then terminated, from her gig at the paper and their linked web site because of a column she wrote on April 28 defending the NRA when they were compared generally with ISIS.
The paper said flat-out that her promotional activities and professional association with the NRA was an "unacceptable conflict." The paper asserts that she is an officer of the NRA (which she isn't) and has done media work for the NRA (which she hasn't).
TORONTO TEACHER TO 10TH GRADE CLASS: ‘IF A SLUTTY GIRL OR A HORNY GIRL WANTS TO HAVE SEX WITH YOU, YOU SHOULD FUCK HER WELL AND LEAVE HER IN A WHEELCHAIR FOR TWO DAYS’
Catholic School teacher guilty of misconduct for talking about sex and putting her legs behind her head in class
by Victor Ferreira
Toronto National Post
May 3, 2017
A Toronto Catholic District School Board religion teacher was found guilty of professional misconduct after her former students told a tribunal that she went on frequent sexually-laced tirades before demonstrating her flexibility in front of the class by putting her legs behind her head.
Leanora Brown did not appear in front of the three-person tribunal at the Ontario College of Teachers on Tuesday, but denied the allegations, including telling students about her sex life, her parents’ sex life and giving advice about what they should do in their own, in a letter to the school’s superintendent.
“I felt like she wasn’t qualified to be a teacher,” one student said before the tribunal. “That’s not something you’re supposed to say to a student in a religion class.”
According to the two students who appeared in front of the tribunal but cannot be identified due to a publication ban, Brown regularly made them feel uncomfortable in class.
Shortly after class began on Feb. 25, 2015, one student testified, Brown began to speak about her personal life. She told Grade 10 students that the reason her mother had 20 children was because she was “horny.” Brown recalled asking her mother once asking her why she was “so black.”
“I told her she should have f—ked a white sailor,” students heard.
Brown swore throughout the class, the student said, and made inappropriate comments. After telling students personal stories about women she said were “sluts,” Brown gave them advice.
“If a slutty girl or a horny girl wants to have sex with you, you should f—k her well and leave her in a wheelchair for two days,” Brown said.
Six days earlier, Brown was teaching a Grade 9 religion class. According to a second student witness, Brown caught his attention when he overheard her say: “He can kiss my black ass without touching it.”
Brown once again brought up her personal life, according to the student. She told the class that when she was younger, a student at her school tried to grab her buttocks and she stuck a pencil in his arm.
The conversation transitioned to how flexible she was for a woman over 60 years old. Brown proved this by lying on the floor and attempting to put her legs behind her head, the tribunal saw in a video that appeared to be recorded by a student.
“It made me feel weird,” one student told the tribunal. “It was unusual in a religion class but overall it was pretty funny.”
More than 10 students — and one educational assistant — wrote statements accusing Brown of frequently talking about her sex life, including about how she did not have sex with men her age because they were “too old and wrinkly.”
Other students, who did not appear before the tribunal, also wrote in statements that Brown once told them a story about a naked man confronting her while she was cleaning her room. Brown said that she told the man, in reference to the size of his penis: “That’s the only thing you got? My brother’s is bigger.”
The tribunal heard that Brown also berated students with insults, calling them “white trash” and “losers.” According to one statement, Brown told a class that one student will get “nowhere in life” with his girlfriend. Another student accused Brown of telling her to go the washroom “in your pants.”
The Post was unable to contact Brown for comment.
The religion teacher is now retired after taking a leave of absence from the school shortly after the allegations were made in 2015 and never returning, the tribunal heard.
If Brown, who taught in Canada for more than 20 years, wants to teach again, she will have to complete a course on professional boundaries with students. The panel also ordered her to appear in person for a reprimand.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Sex education at its finest. In browsing through all my how to books, I can't find the position where she puts her legs behind her head.
by Victor Ferreira
Toronto National Post
May 3, 2017
A Toronto Catholic District School Board religion teacher was found guilty of professional misconduct after her former students told a tribunal that she went on frequent sexually-laced tirades before demonstrating her flexibility in front of the class by putting her legs behind her head.
Leanora Brown did not appear in front of the three-person tribunal at the Ontario College of Teachers on Tuesday, but denied the allegations, including telling students about her sex life, her parents’ sex life and giving advice about what they should do in their own, in a letter to the school’s superintendent.
“I felt like she wasn’t qualified to be a teacher,” one student said before the tribunal. “That’s not something you’re supposed to say to a student in a religion class.”
According to the two students who appeared in front of the tribunal but cannot be identified due to a publication ban, Brown regularly made them feel uncomfortable in class.
Shortly after class began on Feb. 25, 2015, one student testified, Brown began to speak about her personal life. She told Grade 10 students that the reason her mother had 20 children was because she was “horny.” Brown recalled asking her mother once asking her why she was “so black.”
“I told her she should have f—ked a white sailor,” students heard.
Brown swore throughout the class, the student said, and made inappropriate comments. After telling students personal stories about women she said were “sluts,” Brown gave them advice.
“If a slutty girl or a horny girl wants to have sex with you, you should f—k her well and leave her in a wheelchair for two days,” Brown said.
Six days earlier, Brown was teaching a Grade 9 religion class. According to a second student witness, Brown caught his attention when he overheard her say: “He can kiss my black ass without touching it.”
Brown once again brought up her personal life, according to the student. She told the class that when she was younger, a student at her school tried to grab her buttocks and she stuck a pencil in his arm.
The conversation transitioned to how flexible she was for a woman over 60 years old. Brown proved this by lying on the floor and attempting to put her legs behind her head, the tribunal saw in a video that appeared to be recorded by a student.
“It made me feel weird,” one student told the tribunal. “It was unusual in a religion class but overall it was pretty funny.”
More than 10 students — and one educational assistant — wrote statements accusing Brown of frequently talking about her sex life, including about how she did not have sex with men her age because they were “too old and wrinkly.”
Other students, who did not appear before the tribunal, also wrote in statements that Brown once told them a story about a naked man confronting her while she was cleaning her room. Brown said that she told the man, in reference to the size of his penis: “That’s the only thing you got? My brother’s is bigger.”
The tribunal heard that Brown also berated students with insults, calling them “white trash” and “losers.” According to one statement, Brown told a class that one student will get “nowhere in life” with his girlfriend. Another student accused Brown of telling her to go the washroom “in your pants.”
The Post was unable to contact Brown for comment.
The religion teacher is now retired after taking a leave of absence from the school shortly after the allegations were made in 2015 and never returning, the tribunal heard.
If Brown, who taught in Canada for more than 20 years, wants to teach again, she will have to complete a course on professional boundaries with students. The panel also ordered her to appear in person for a reprimand.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Sex education at its finest. In browsing through all my how to books, I can't find the position where she puts her legs behind her head.
CONCEALED CARRY TEXAS LICENSE HOLDER TAKES OUT MURDEROUS GUNMAN AT ARLINGTON SPORTS BAR
'Hero' stopped mass murder by crazed patron who was armed to the teeth when he entered Zona Caliente, a sports bar known for its scantily-dressed waitresses, police say
By Marc Ramirez and Liz Farmer
The Dallas Morning News
May 4, 2017
A concealed carry holder is being heralded as a hero by Arlington police for preventing mass murder by killing an "incoherent" gunman at a sports bar Wednesday evening.
Before he was shot about 6:15 p.m., the gunman killed the manager of Zona Caliente in the 6500 block of South Cooper Street, police spokesman Christopher Cook said.
Police later identified the gunman as 48-year-old James Jones of Grand Prairie and the victim as 37-year-old Cesar Perez of Duncanville. The man who killed Jones has not been identified.
Authorities later found two loaded guns and two knives on Jones, Cook said Thursday.
"We do believe he had the capacity to do much greater harm," Cook said.
When Jones entered the business, some witnesses told police, he started yelling incoherently while standing at the bar.
"People didn't know who he was yelling at," Cook said.
Perez was trying to talk to Jones when he was fatally shot. Police do not believe they knew each other.
That's when a customer fired his gun at Jones.
"After he was struck once, the suspect started shooting at the front door," Cook told the Arlington Voice. "We know people were trying to escape, but we're not sure if he was just trying to harm others."
More than a dozen customers and a handful of employees were in the sports bar at the time of the shooting.
Cook said the customer, who was dining with his wife, "prevented further loss of life."
The customer was carrying a handgun under the Texas concealed handgun license program, Cook later confirmed.
"We're treating the good guy as sort of a hero," he said.
One other person was hurt, though it wasn't clear if it was a restaurant customer or employee. Police said that person was injured by glass while trying to get out.
__________
ARMED CUSTOMER TO THE RESCUE IN TEXAS
by Bob Walsh
An armed customer in the Caliente Sports Bar & Grill in Arlington, Texas killed the bad guy and may (or may not) have prevented further carnage.
A 48-year old man walked into the bar at about 6 p.m. on Wednesday , confronted a male employee of the bar and shot him. At that time the as-yet unnamed customer pulled his gat, moved away from his wife and engaged the shooter, killing him very and completely dead. The good-guy shooter did have a valid concealed carry permit.
It is, of course, always possible the original shooter had a personal beef with the man he killed and would simply have walked out of the bar after accomplishing his mission. It is, of course, also possible he would have decided to take a few more people with him on the road to hell.
Good guys with guns are not the problem. They are often the solution.
By Marc Ramirez and Liz Farmer
The Dallas Morning News
May 4, 2017
A concealed carry holder is being heralded as a hero by Arlington police for preventing mass murder by killing an "incoherent" gunman at a sports bar Wednesday evening.
Before he was shot about 6:15 p.m., the gunman killed the manager of Zona Caliente in the 6500 block of South Cooper Street, police spokesman Christopher Cook said.
Police later identified the gunman as 48-year-old James Jones of Grand Prairie and the victim as 37-year-old Cesar Perez of Duncanville. The man who killed Jones has not been identified.
Authorities later found two loaded guns and two knives on Jones, Cook said Thursday.
"We do believe he had the capacity to do much greater harm," Cook said.
When Jones entered the business, some witnesses told police, he started yelling incoherently while standing at the bar.
"People didn't know who he was yelling at," Cook said.
Perez was trying to talk to Jones when he was fatally shot. Police do not believe they knew each other.
That's when a customer fired his gun at Jones.
"After he was struck once, the suspect started shooting at the front door," Cook told the Arlington Voice. "We know people were trying to escape, but we're not sure if he was just trying to harm others."
More than a dozen customers and a handful of employees were in the sports bar at the time of the shooting.
Cook said the customer, who was dining with his wife, "prevented further loss of life."
The customer was carrying a handgun under the Texas concealed handgun license program, Cook later confirmed.
"We're treating the good guy as sort of a hero," he said.
One other person was hurt, though it wasn't clear if it was a restaurant customer or employee. Police said that person was injured by glass while trying to get out.
__________
ARMED CUSTOMER TO THE RESCUE IN TEXAS
by Bob Walsh
An armed customer in the Caliente Sports Bar & Grill in Arlington, Texas killed the bad guy and may (or may not) have prevented further carnage.
A 48-year old man walked into the bar at about 6 p.m. on Wednesday , confronted a male employee of the bar and shot him. At that time the as-yet unnamed customer pulled his gat, moved away from his wife and engaged the shooter, killing him very and completely dead. The good-guy shooter did have a valid concealed carry permit.
It is, of course, always possible the original shooter had a personal beef with the man he killed and would simply have walked out of the bar after accomplishing his mission. It is, of course, also possible he would have decided to take a few more people with him on the road to hell.
Good guys with guns are not the problem. They are often the solution.
WHAT WILL THE MARIJUANA ADVOCATES SAY ABOUT THIS POT CRIME?
Two McMurry University football players could face the death penalty after a grand jury indicts them on capital murder charges over the fatal shooting of a Fort Worth man during a botched marijuana robbery
by Ryan Osborne
Star-Telegram
May 3, 2017
FORT WORTH -- A grand jury last month indicted two McMurry University football players in the killing of a man in east Fort Worth in January, while declining to indict a third player, according to court records.
Dontrell Dock, 20, of Conroe and Brodrick Ross, 18, of Bryan were indicted April 13 on capital murder charges in the shooting death of Chris-Dion Russell, 29.
The grand jury declined to indict Ryan McBeth, 21, of Fort Worth, who was also arrested in the case.
The three played football for the small Methodist school in Abilene in 2016 and were enrolled at the time of their arrests in January. School officials did not respond to a request Wednesday for information about their status with the university.
Dock and Ross had named McBeth, a North Crowley High School graduate, as the gunman, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
However, the indictments pinned the shooting on Dock and Ross and said the two killed Russell while robbing him at his apartment in the 1700 block of East Robert Street on Jan. 11.
The affidavit had alleged that Dock, Ross and McBeth had gone to Russell’s apartment to steal marijuana.
Russell was shot in the chest and taken to the hospital, where he died about an hour later.
Detectives linked the suspects to the case after watching surveillance video from the night of the shooting and seeing a Chrysler 300 leave Russell’s apartment.
The car was traced to Ross’s brother, who told police that Ross had used it that night, according to the affidavits. The brother also told police that Ross told him the car was used to commit a robbery and that someone had been shot.
Attorney Leon Haley, who represented McBeth, declined to comment Wednesday. Jeff Kearney, another attorney for McBeth, could not be reached.
Attorneys for Ross and Dock did not respond to requests for comment. Court dates have not been scheduled for either defendant.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I know exactly what the marijuana advocates will say. If pot were only legal in Texas, these poor black boys would not now be facing the death penalty.
by Ryan Osborne
Star-Telegram
May 3, 2017
FORT WORTH -- A grand jury last month indicted two McMurry University football players in the killing of a man in east Fort Worth in January, while declining to indict a third player, according to court records.
Dontrell Dock, 20, of Conroe and Brodrick Ross, 18, of Bryan were indicted April 13 on capital murder charges in the shooting death of Chris-Dion Russell, 29.
The grand jury declined to indict Ryan McBeth, 21, of Fort Worth, who was also arrested in the case.
The three played football for the small Methodist school in Abilene in 2016 and were enrolled at the time of their arrests in January. School officials did not respond to a request Wednesday for information about their status with the university.
Dock and Ross had named McBeth, a North Crowley High School graduate, as the gunman, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
However, the indictments pinned the shooting on Dock and Ross and said the two killed Russell while robbing him at his apartment in the 1700 block of East Robert Street on Jan. 11.
The affidavit had alleged that Dock, Ross and McBeth had gone to Russell’s apartment to steal marijuana.
Russell was shot in the chest and taken to the hospital, where he died about an hour later.
Detectives linked the suspects to the case after watching surveillance video from the night of the shooting and seeing a Chrysler 300 leave Russell’s apartment.
The car was traced to Ross’s brother, who told police that Ross had used it that night, according to the affidavits. The brother also told police that Ross told him the car was used to commit a robbery and that someone had been shot.
Attorney Leon Haley, who represented McBeth, declined to comment Wednesday. Jeff Kearney, another attorney for McBeth, could not be reached.
Attorneys for Ross and Dock did not respond to requests for comment. Court dates have not been scheduled for either defendant.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I know exactly what the marijuana advocates will say. If pot were only legal in Texas, these poor black boys would not now be facing the death penalty.
Thursday, May 04, 2017
COULD THIS BE A TRANSGENDER ROBBER?
One of two Houston area robbers appeared to be a man who was wearing a wig, a woman’s dress pants and high-heeled shoes
Harris County sheriff’s deputies are looking for two men who robbed two businesses Tuesday morning in the northwestern part of greater Houston. The robbers are described as:
“The first male subject is described as a [medium] build black male 6’0 in height and weighing 220 to 240 [pounds]. He was wearing a brown colored sports coat and dark shirt, bow tie and dark colored slacks.
The second male was wearing a long straight black colored wig, and is 5’6 to 5’7 in height and weighing 150 [pounds]. He was wearing women’s dress pants with a red colored jacket and black colored high heeled shoes.”
The well-dressed pair fled in black late model Mercedes Benz C-class sedan. You’ll have to admit this pair is classy.
It’s also quite possible that the man wearing the wig, dress and heels is a transgender robber. Surveillance camera pictures of him bear a slight resemblance to Brucella Jenner.
I can imagine this conversation between the two crime partners several days before the robberies:
“Hey partner, I was watching the Kardashians on TV and there was Bruce Jenner all decked out as a woman. You know what, like Jenner, all of a sudden I believe I’m a woman too. I’m going to start wearing a wig and dress like who I really am, a woman.”
“Hey, that’s fine with me. Let’s start robbing some businesses so we’ll have enough money for you to get a sex change operation. And then I won’t have to fuck you in the ass anymore.”
“That sounds great. Then I won’t have the red ass anymore. We can thank Jenner for this. Either way I can’t lose. If we don’t get caught, we’ll have enough money for the operation. If we do get caught, the state will have to pay for my sex change operation while I’m in prison.”
OK, so maybe he’s not a transgender. But he could very well be one.
Harris County sheriff’s deputies are looking for two men who robbed two businesses Tuesday morning in the northwestern part of greater Houston. The robbers are described as:
“The first male subject is described as a [medium] build black male 6’0 in height and weighing 220 to 240 [pounds]. He was wearing a brown colored sports coat and dark shirt, bow tie and dark colored slacks.
The second male was wearing a long straight black colored wig, and is 5’6 to 5’7 in height and weighing 150 [pounds]. He was wearing women’s dress pants with a red colored jacket and black colored high heeled shoes.”
The well-dressed pair fled in black late model Mercedes Benz C-class sedan. You’ll have to admit this pair is classy.
It’s also quite possible that the man wearing the wig, dress and heels is a transgender robber. Surveillance camera pictures of him bear a slight resemblance to Brucella Jenner.
I can imagine this conversation between the two crime partners several days before the robberies:
“Hey partner, I was watching the Kardashians on TV and there was Bruce Jenner all decked out as a woman. You know what, like Jenner, all of a sudden I believe I’m a woman too. I’m going to start wearing a wig and dress like who I really am, a woman.”
“Hey, that’s fine with me. Let’s start robbing some businesses so we’ll have enough money for you to get a sex change operation. And then I won’t have to fuck you in the ass anymore.”
“That sounds great. Then I won’t have the red ass anymore. We can thank Jenner for this. Either way I can’t lose. If we don’t get caught, we’ll have enough money for the operation. If we do get caught, the state will have to pay for my sex change operation while I’m in prison.”
OK, so maybe he’s not a transgender. But he could very well be one.
ABBAS TELLS TRUMP A GREAT BIG LIE
“We are raising our [Palestinian] youth, our children, our grandchildren on a culture of peace”
When Trump and Abbas met at the White House on Wednesday to discuss a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, Abas told Trump: “We are raising our youth, our children, our grandchildren on a culture of peace.
That was a great big lie!
From a May 1, 2017 Council on Foreign Nations report:
A new study of Palestinian textbooks finds that Palestinian children are being taught to glorify and value terrorism and violence. The study, called “Palestinian Elementary School Curriculum 2016–17: Radicalization and Revival of the PLO Program.”
The new Palestinian curriculum, which includes new textbooks for grades 1–4, is significantly more radical than previous curricula. To an even greater extent than the 2014–15 textbooks, the curriculum teaches students to be martyrs [terrorists], demonizes and denies the existence of Israel and focuses on a “return” to an exclusively Palestinian homeland.
Within the pages of the textbooks children are taught to be expendable. Messages such as: “the volcano of my revenge”; “the longing of my blood for my land”; and “I shall sacrifice my blood to saturate the land” suffuse the curriculum. Math books use numbers of dead martyrs to teach arithmetic. The vision of an Arab Palestine includes the entirety of what is now Israel, defined as the “1948 Occupied Territories.”
If that’s raising Palestinian children on a culture of peace, then pigs can fly.
Trump’s promise to broker a peace between the two sides does not bode well for the Israelis.
The Palestinians see a peace agreement as nothing more than a step in the obliteration of the state of Israel. Abbas has repeatedly vowed in Arabic that there can be only one state, a Palestinian state “from the (Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea” and that no Jews will be allowed to live there.
If Trump is really the friend of Israel he claims to be, he will keep his nose out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Otherwise Israel will get fucked.
Israel will be better off if the two sides continue to duke it out.
When Trump and Abbas met at the White House on Wednesday to discuss a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, Abas told Trump: “We are raising our youth, our children, our grandchildren on a culture of peace.
That was a great big lie!
From a May 1, 2017 Council on Foreign Nations report:
A new study of Palestinian textbooks finds that Palestinian children are being taught to glorify and value terrorism and violence. The study, called “Palestinian Elementary School Curriculum 2016–17: Radicalization and Revival of the PLO Program.”
The new Palestinian curriculum, which includes new textbooks for grades 1–4, is significantly more radical than previous curricula. To an even greater extent than the 2014–15 textbooks, the curriculum teaches students to be martyrs [terrorists], demonizes and denies the existence of Israel and focuses on a “return” to an exclusively Palestinian homeland.
Within the pages of the textbooks children are taught to be expendable. Messages such as: “the volcano of my revenge”; “the longing of my blood for my land”; and “I shall sacrifice my blood to saturate the land” suffuse the curriculum. Math books use numbers of dead martyrs to teach arithmetic. The vision of an Arab Palestine includes the entirety of what is now Israel, defined as the “1948 Occupied Territories.”
If that’s raising Palestinian children on a culture of peace, then pigs can fly.
Trump’s promise to broker a peace between the two sides does not bode well for the Israelis.
The Palestinians see a peace agreement as nothing more than a step in the obliteration of the state of Israel. Abbas has repeatedly vowed in Arabic that there can be only one state, a Palestinian state “from the (Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea” and that no Jews will be allowed to live there.
If Trump is really the friend of Israel he claims to be, he will keep his nose out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Otherwise Israel will get fucked.
Israel will be better off if the two sides continue to duke it out.
FORWARD, BACKWARD, WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
by Bob Walsh
Roy Oliver used to be a cop in Balch Springs, Texas. He is now an unemployed former cop and may be looking at being a guest of the state depending on how things shake out.
Oliver responded to a loud house party call, allegedly a bunch on unsupervised and maybe intoxicated teenagers, on Saturday night. The situation went sideways in a hurry and Officer Oliver fired on a car that was allegedly backing at him in an aggressive manner. Trouble is, the car was actually leaving. Jordan Edwards, 15, died as a result of the shots fired. This difference soon became apparent based on body cam footage. The vehicle was backing up, but it was backing up AWAY from the officer, not towards him.
Texas must not have a lot of procedural rights for peace officers as Officer Oliver has already been separated from the department, though he does have appeal rights. None of the occupants of the car was armed (probably the only car in Texas with no gun in it that night) nor is there any suggestion that shots were fired at the officer or anywhere in the general vicinity of the incident.
The dead kids family is expressly asking that there be NO protests of any kind and are not making a condemnation of the police in general.
I strongly suspect that former officer Roy Oliver is going to be in deep doodoo on this one. Deservedly so (based on limited available evidence.)
Roy Oliver used to be a cop in Balch Springs, Texas. He is now an unemployed former cop and may be looking at being a guest of the state depending on how things shake out.
Oliver responded to a loud house party call, allegedly a bunch on unsupervised and maybe intoxicated teenagers, on Saturday night. The situation went sideways in a hurry and Officer Oliver fired on a car that was allegedly backing at him in an aggressive manner. Trouble is, the car was actually leaving. Jordan Edwards, 15, died as a result of the shots fired. This difference soon became apparent based on body cam footage. The vehicle was backing up, but it was backing up AWAY from the officer, not towards him.
Texas must not have a lot of procedural rights for peace officers as Officer Oliver has already been separated from the department, though he does have appeal rights. None of the occupants of the car was armed (probably the only car in Texas with no gun in it that night) nor is there any suggestion that shots were fired at the officer or anywhere in the general vicinity of the incident.
The dead kids family is expressly asking that there be NO protests of any kind and are not making a condemnation of the police in general.
I strongly suspect that former officer Roy Oliver is going to be in deep doodoo on this one. Deservedly so (based on limited available evidence.)
THE INCRDIBLY BRAIN-DEFICIENT SEVEN
by Bob Walsh
As people who follow such things will know bounty hunters (actually bail enforcement agents) have a great deal of legal power. Persons out on bail are legally in the custody of the bail agent and that person or his employees can go to great lengths legally, including breaking into private houses, in order to snag a bail jumper. Trouble is, you damn well better be right.
Seven bounty hunters swarmed a car in the parking lot of Wal-Mart in Clarksville, TN on April 23. They shot at the occupants of the car and then chased the car for several miles. Turns out not one of the people in that car was wanted by anybody for anything. One of the people in that car was Jalen Johnson, 24. He was shot to death.
The Montgomery County Grand Jury has returned indictments on all seven bounty hunters, charging them with first-degree felony murder, three counts of attempted second-degree murder, three cunts of aggravated kidnapping and enough additional felony charges to ensure that they never suck free air for the rest of their lives.
Being a "bounty hunter" doesn't mean you are a cop and it doesn't give you the right to be a dangerous idiot.
As people who follow such things will know bounty hunters (actually bail enforcement agents) have a great deal of legal power. Persons out on bail are legally in the custody of the bail agent and that person or his employees can go to great lengths legally, including breaking into private houses, in order to snag a bail jumper. Trouble is, you damn well better be right.
Seven bounty hunters swarmed a car in the parking lot of Wal-Mart in Clarksville, TN on April 23. They shot at the occupants of the car and then chased the car for several miles. Turns out not one of the people in that car was wanted by anybody for anything. One of the people in that car was Jalen Johnson, 24. He was shot to death.
The Montgomery County Grand Jury has returned indictments on all seven bounty hunters, charging them with first-degree felony murder, three counts of attempted second-degree murder, three cunts of aggravated kidnapping and enough additional felony charges to ensure that they never suck free air for the rest of their lives.
Being a "bounty hunter" doesn't mean you are a cop and it doesn't give you the right to be a dangerous idiot.
LORETTA LYNCH MAY ACTUALLY BE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE...MAYBE
by Bob Walsh
Who says congressional hearings are always dull. James Comey, Director of the FBI, was being asked questions today and something very interesting cam up. It seems that some media outlets are asserting that there is in fact an email trail somewhere that asserts that Loretta Lynch, formerly the head of the Justice Department under Emperor Barack I, (or somebody speaking for her) promised that the fix was in on the Hillary investigation and that Ms. Lynch would ensure that Hillary was in no real danger from the investigation.
What is REALLY interesting that when Comey was asked a few questions along those lines he flat-out refused to answer, saying that he could not discuss the issue in a public setting.
You just KNOW that the congressional Republicans are going to inquire into this in a closed setting, which will leak before Comey can drive back to his office.
Maybe I just have a little Schadenfreude thing going on here, but it would just make my day (hell, it would make my YEAR) if the powers that be could hand some of these corrupt Democrap bastards up by their short hairs. I am not buying the champagne yet, but still......
Who says congressional hearings are always dull. James Comey, Director of the FBI, was being asked questions today and something very interesting cam up. It seems that some media outlets are asserting that there is in fact an email trail somewhere that asserts that Loretta Lynch, formerly the head of the Justice Department under Emperor Barack I, (or somebody speaking for her) promised that the fix was in on the Hillary investigation and that Ms. Lynch would ensure that Hillary was in no real danger from the investigation.
What is REALLY interesting that when Comey was asked a few questions along those lines he flat-out refused to answer, saying that he could not discuss the issue in a public setting.
You just KNOW that the congressional Republicans are going to inquire into this in a closed setting, which will leak before Comey can drive back to his office.
Maybe I just have a little Schadenfreude thing going on here, but it would just make my day (hell, it would make my YEAR) if the powers that be could hand some of these corrupt Democrap bastards up by their short hairs. I am not buying the champagne yet, but still......
LOOKS LIKE HARRIS COUNTY SHERIFF IS ABOUT TO DROP HIS DEPUTIES IN THE GREASE
Sheriff Ed Gonzalez Suggests Teens Shot by Police During Houston Robbery Never Fired Weapons
By Meagan Flynn
Houston Press
May 3, 2017
On April 24, four teens rolled up to a Jack in the Box restaurant in northwest Houston and held up employees at gunpoint, demanding money.
Meanwhile, four law enforcement agencies, including the Harris County Sheriff's Office, stormed the parking lot and ordered the three teens who went inside to come out and drop their weapons. Within moments, police opened fire. They killed a 16-year-old boy and injured the other two, an unidentified 15-year-old and 17-year-old Xavier Cox.
Now, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez is saying it does not appear the teens ever fired at law enforcement to begin with — despite the sheriff's office saying in the original news release: "The suspects fired their handguns at the officers, who returned fire striking all three suspects."
On Tuesday, community activist Quanell X organized a news conference with the slain suspect's family to address the discrepancy. He charged that the boys never fired their weapons but were instead immediately shot at by overzealous police. In fact, one of the boy's pistols turned out to be fake, which Gonzalez confirmed.
"I was not aware of anybody discharging their firearms other than, obviously, law enforcement," Gonzalez said at the news conference. "I do preface it by saying that it's still under investigation."
A joint law enforcement task force — including the sheriff's office, the Houston Police Department, the Department of Public Safety and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — had been following the group of boys after suspecting they were responsible for at least ten armed robberies in the area earlier that week. At the Jack in the Box, 18-year-old Javalon Robinson remained in the allegedly stolen Ford Mustang while Cox and the two juveniles went inside to rob the cashiers, wearing black hoodies and bandannas. The three surviving suspects were all arrested and charged with aggravated robbery.
Quanell X said Gonzalez told him no evidence of gun residue was found on the boys' clothing or hands following forensic tests, and other tests showed the real gun had not been fired. Gonzalez did not discuss these specifics at the news conference and said they just spoke in "generalities" during their meeting. Police, the sheriff said, are still trying to gather all the facts.
Quanell X and the killed teen's family have called for a federal investigation into how police handled this incident.
EDITOR’S NOTE: They didn’t fire a gun? So what! This was a pack of armed robbers. Is an armed teen any less dangerous than an armed adult? Of course not!
Looks like a good shoot to me. Fuck pro-sanctuary city Sheriff Ed Gonzalez!
By Meagan Flynn
Houston Press
May 3, 2017
On April 24, four teens rolled up to a Jack in the Box restaurant in northwest Houston and held up employees at gunpoint, demanding money.
Meanwhile, four law enforcement agencies, including the Harris County Sheriff's Office, stormed the parking lot and ordered the three teens who went inside to come out and drop their weapons. Within moments, police opened fire. They killed a 16-year-old boy and injured the other two, an unidentified 15-year-old and 17-year-old Xavier Cox.
Now, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez is saying it does not appear the teens ever fired at law enforcement to begin with — despite the sheriff's office saying in the original news release: "The suspects fired their handguns at the officers, who returned fire striking all three suspects."
On Tuesday, community activist Quanell X organized a news conference with the slain suspect's family to address the discrepancy. He charged that the boys never fired their weapons but were instead immediately shot at by overzealous police. In fact, one of the boy's pistols turned out to be fake, which Gonzalez confirmed.
"I was not aware of anybody discharging their firearms other than, obviously, law enforcement," Gonzalez said at the news conference. "I do preface it by saying that it's still under investigation."
A joint law enforcement task force — including the sheriff's office, the Houston Police Department, the Department of Public Safety and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — had been following the group of boys after suspecting they were responsible for at least ten armed robberies in the area earlier that week. At the Jack in the Box, 18-year-old Javalon Robinson remained in the allegedly stolen Ford Mustang while Cox and the two juveniles went inside to rob the cashiers, wearing black hoodies and bandannas. The three surviving suspects were all arrested and charged with aggravated robbery.
Quanell X said Gonzalez told him no evidence of gun residue was found on the boys' clothing or hands following forensic tests, and other tests showed the real gun had not been fired. Gonzalez did not discuss these specifics at the news conference and said they just spoke in "generalities" during their meeting. Police, the sheriff said, are still trying to gather all the facts.
Quanell X and the killed teen's family have called for a federal investigation into how police handled this incident.
EDITOR’S NOTE: They didn’t fire a gun? So what! This was a pack of armed robbers. Is an armed teen any less dangerous than an armed adult? Of course not!
Looks like a good shoot to me. Fuck pro-sanctuary city Sheriff Ed Gonzalez!
WE’RE JUST STARTING TO COMPREHEND HOW SOCIAL MEDIA BREEDS SHOOTINGS
The future of gun violence prevention depends on decoding how tweeted taunts send bullets flying
by Desmond Patton
The Trace
May 3, 2017
We probably could have predicted Gakirah Barnes’s death based on the stories she left on Twitter. By the time she was 17, the self-identified gang member allegedly shot or killed 20 people. Gakirah would say things on social media like:
NO SURRENDER LIL B @TyquanAssassin
Vernon Dats Da Gun line Lil Troy u cross it u End up on Da Headlines
Vernon is a well-known street on the Southside of Chicago, and Gakirah is identifying it as the boundary between her and any rival crew or clique. Her handle, @TyquanAssassin, is a moniker she adopted after her good friend Tyquan Tyler was killed in 2013. The devil and gun emoji indicate that crossing Vernon could lead to any transgressing rival being shot.
Chicago saw a 58 percent increase in homicides between 2014 and 2016, effectively negating two-thirds of the decrease in homicides the city had experienced since the early 1990s. Some city leaders, including Superintendent Eddie Johnson of the Chicago Police Department, have suggested that social media posts like Gakirah’s might be contributing to the surge. Their diagnosis may sound to some like an attempt to duck responsibility for the failure of the local law enforcement system to interdict more illegal firearms or do more to stop repeat shooters before they injure or kill again.
But having studied the phenomenon – known in the academic community as internet or cyberbanging – I can tell you that the frequency with which young people use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to hurl insults, taunt enemies, and brag about violent acts is playing a meaningful role in fueling retaliatory efforts between gangs and cliques in marginalized neighborhoods. It also has significant implications for gun violence prevention.
For the past four years, I have examined the relationship between Twitter activity and gang violence among young people who live in Chicago. Because of the complexity of interpreting social media communication, it has been important to develop an interdisciplinary team. I work with social workers to accurately decode what teens are saying, and collaborate with data scientists to detect patterns in social media communication that may lead to gang violence. The process often feels like an archaeological dig, carefully combing through Twitter conversations, studying emojis and hashtags, videos and images, to figure out the cues that often end with gunfire erupting.
In our rush to understand whether social media causes violence, we often forget what brings young people to social media in the first place: connections to other young people. Those connections were apparent in Gakirah Barnes’s tweets, even as she was becoming notorious enough to be dubbed the “Teen Queen of Gangland Chicago” by the Daily Mail. Unique in her status as a female shooter for her gang, Gakirah kept up a feed full of threats and taunts to “opps,” or members of oppositional groups. But after analyzing her social media communication, I noticed that Gakirah and other users in her network also used Twitter to collectively cope with losing friends to shootings.
A pattern emerged in Gakirah’s tweets. First, there would be a post expressing general loss or grief. Then, it would be followed by a more aggressive or directly threatening tweet. For example, at 10:53 a.m. one day, Gakirah turned to Twitter to grieve the death of a friend.
NO SURRENDER LIL B @TyquanAssassin
Datz my blood left my nigga n cold blood
Less than 10 minutes later, Gakirah posted a second message, vowing revenge. A scan of news reports from the time suggests that Gakirah’s friend may have died in a fatal confrontation with police, but it’s not law enforcement from whom she plans to exact retribution. Instead she sends notice that she will be hunting gang rivals, squaring the ledger of loss by targeting a mutual foe of her deceased friend.
NO SURRENDER LIL B @TyquanAssassin
Da Oppz didn't take u but we need bro ima Fuck Ova da Oppz fo u Lil B
Jeffrey Lane of Rutgers University has identified a code of the “digital street,” wherein informal rules established in a brick-and-mortar neighborhood dictate how young people communicate with each other online. As this pair of tweets from Gakirah shows, online expressions of trauma take what would have been a moment of private mourning and put it on cyber display. The code of the digital street then compels rivals to reply with posts disrespecting the dead. And from there, an obligation to strike back at the offending posters takes hold. One such “opp” replied to Gakirah’s tweet, baiting her to enter his terrority — so that then he would have a reason to retaliate against her crew. (Identifying information has been blocked to protect the identities of the users who are still living.)
Replying to *****
@*****@TyquanAssassin come on our blocksuckas we want dis shit
Social media doesn’t allow for the opportunity to physically de-escalate an argument. Instead, it offers myriad ways to exacerbate a brewing conflict as opposing gangs or crews and friends and family take turns weighing in.
The dynamic poses challenges to existing approaches to violence interruption, which treat shootings like a communicable disease that spreads through face-to-face interactions and can be prevented by steering one of the parties toward peaceful alternatives to armed response. Those programs, developed before social media became part of daily life, don’t have the capacity to keep up with thousands of users hurling endless insults at each other.
Gakirah was shot on April 11, 2014, three blocks from her house. She died in the hospital. Her last original tweet (below) included her address. (TMB is an abbreviation for Trap Money Brothers or Boys).
NO SURRENDER LIL B @TyquanAssassin
6347 TMB
After her death, many of Gakirah’s Twitter friends articulated deep pain. But there were also the too-familiar, unmistakable plans to retaliate, with other followers changing their handles to reflect intentions to avenge her killing. The future of gun violence prevention depends on a deeper understanding of how social media fills a need for disadvantaged communities hungry for connection, and when a hashtag or emoji is a signpost to the next exchange of gunfire. As research provides that understanding, the question will then become: What responsibility do tech companies bear for the shootings bred via their servers?
Dr. Desmond Patton is an assistant professor at Columbia University’s School of Social Work. He is also a faculty affiliate of the university’s Social Intervention Group and the Data Science Institute.
by Desmond Patton
The Trace
May 3, 2017
We probably could have predicted Gakirah Barnes’s death based on the stories she left on Twitter. By the time she was 17, the self-identified gang member allegedly shot or killed 20 people. Gakirah would say things on social media like:
NO SURRENDER LIL B @TyquanAssassin
Vernon Dats Da Gun line Lil Troy u cross it u End up on Da Headlines
Vernon is a well-known street on the Southside of Chicago, and Gakirah is identifying it as the boundary between her and any rival crew or clique. Her handle, @TyquanAssassin, is a moniker she adopted after her good friend Tyquan Tyler was killed in 2013. The devil and gun emoji indicate that crossing Vernon could lead to any transgressing rival being shot.
Chicago saw a 58 percent increase in homicides between 2014 and 2016, effectively negating two-thirds of the decrease in homicides the city had experienced since the early 1990s. Some city leaders, including Superintendent Eddie Johnson of the Chicago Police Department, have suggested that social media posts like Gakirah’s might be contributing to the surge. Their diagnosis may sound to some like an attempt to duck responsibility for the failure of the local law enforcement system to interdict more illegal firearms or do more to stop repeat shooters before they injure or kill again.
But having studied the phenomenon – known in the academic community as internet or cyberbanging – I can tell you that the frequency with which young people use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to hurl insults, taunt enemies, and brag about violent acts is playing a meaningful role in fueling retaliatory efforts between gangs and cliques in marginalized neighborhoods. It also has significant implications for gun violence prevention.
For the past four years, I have examined the relationship between Twitter activity and gang violence among young people who live in Chicago. Because of the complexity of interpreting social media communication, it has been important to develop an interdisciplinary team. I work with social workers to accurately decode what teens are saying, and collaborate with data scientists to detect patterns in social media communication that may lead to gang violence. The process often feels like an archaeological dig, carefully combing through Twitter conversations, studying emojis and hashtags, videos and images, to figure out the cues that often end with gunfire erupting.
In our rush to understand whether social media causes violence, we often forget what brings young people to social media in the first place: connections to other young people. Those connections were apparent in Gakirah Barnes’s tweets, even as she was becoming notorious enough to be dubbed the “Teen Queen of Gangland Chicago” by the Daily Mail. Unique in her status as a female shooter for her gang, Gakirah kept up a feed full of threats and taunts to “opps,” or members of oppositional groups. But after analyzing her social media communication, I noticed that Gakirah and other users in her network also used Twitter to collectively cope with losing friends to shootings.
A pattern emerged in Gakirah’s tweets. First, there would be a post expressing general loss or grief. Then, it would be followed by a more aggressive or directly threatening tweet. For example, at 10:53 a.m. one day, Gakirah turned to Twitter to grieve the death of a friend.
NO SURRENDER LIL B @TyquanAssassin
Datz my blood left my nigga n cold blood
Less than 10 minutes later, Gakirah posted a second message, vowing revenge. A scan of news reports from the time suggests that Gakirah’s friend may have died in a fatal confrontation with police, but it’s not law enforcement from whom she plans to exact retribution. Instead she sends notice that she will be hunting gang rivals, squaring the ledger of loss by targeting a mutual foe of her deceased friend.
NO SURRENDER LIL B @TyquanAssassin
Da Oppz didn't take u but we need bro ima Fuck Ova da Oppz fo u Lil B
Jeffrey Lane of Rutgers University has identified a code of the “digital street,” wherein informal rules established in a brick-and-mortar neighborhood dictate how young people communicate with each other online. As this pair of tweets from Gakirah shows, online expressions of trauma take what would have been a moment of private mourning and put it on cyber display. The code of the digital street then compels rivals to reply with posts disrespecting the dead. And from there, an obligation to strike back at the offending posters takes hold. One such “opp” replied to Gakirah’s tweet, baiting her to enter his terrority — so that then he would have a reason to retaliate against her crew. (Identifying information has been blocked to protect the identities of the users who are still living.)
Replying to *****
@*****@TyquanAssassin come on our blocksuckas we want dis shit
Social media doesn’t allow for the opportunity to physically de-escalate an argument. Instead, it offers myriad ways to exacerbate a brewing conflict as opposing gangs or crews and friends and family take turns weighing in.
The dynamic poses challenges to existing approaches to violence interruption, which treat shootings like a communicable disease that spreads through face-to-face interactions and can be prevented by steering one of the parties toward peaceful alternatives to armed response. Those programs, developed before social media became part of daily life, don’t have the capacity to keep up with thousands of users hurling endless insults at each other.
Gakirah was shot on April 11, 2014, three blocks from her house. She died in the hospital. Her last original tweet (below) included her address. (TMB is an abbreviation for Trap Money Brothers or Boys).
NO SURRENDER LIL B @TyquanAssassin
6347 TMB
After her death, many of Gakirah’s Twitter friends articulated deep pain. But there were also the too-familiar, unmistakable plans to retaliate, with other followers changing their handles to reflect intentions to avenge her killing. The future of gun violence prevention depends on a deeper understanding of how social media fills a need for disadvantaged communities hungry for connection, and when a hashtag or emoji is a signpost to the next exchange of gunfire. As research provides that understanding, the question will then become: What responsibility do tech companies bear for the shootings bred via their servers?
Dr. Desmond Patton is an assistant professor at Columbia University’s School of Social Work. He is also a faculty affiliate of the university’s Social Intervention Group and the Data Science Institute.
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
HUGE ARSENAL (?) SEIZED
by Bob Walsh
Yes, the L.A. Times screams about a "huge arsenal" seized form the home of a higher-up in the Pasadena P.D. One has to wonder what their definition of huge is.
A federal registry entry released last week listed 57 firearms seized from the home of Lt. Vasken Gourdikian, who was the public information officer of the department. The Times article asserted that the "enormous haul" took two trucks to haul away. (I got news for you, 57 firearms could be taken away in a Prius. Of the bunch there were 20 rifles and 3 shotguns. The rest were hand guns. The search and seizure actually took place in February but the info was released only recently. Gourdikian is on paid administrative leave from the department. He has NOT been charged with any crime and there is no mention that any of the weapons were possessed illegally.
The focal point of this investigation appears to be "off roster" handguns. The formerly great state of California maintains a handgun roster of guns "not known to be unsafe." If you want to buy a new gun in CA and you are a private citizen your purchase must be on this list. That being said, police departments or individual police officers can buy "off-roster" guns, then resell them on the used market. Many of these guns are highly desirable to shooters who are willing to pay a premium for them. This has led to instances of some officers doing a brisk business as unlicensed gun dealers selling this off-roster private purchase guns. Law enforcement officers in CA have been successfully prosecuted for engaging in this business.
As for the "huge arsenal" 57 guns is nothing in the arena of serious gun collectors or accumulators. You can't believe everything you read, especially in the L.A. Times.
Yes, the L.A. Times screams about a "huge arsenal" seized form the home of a higher-up in the Pasadena P.D. One has to wonder what their definition of huge is.
A federal registry entry released last week listed 57 firearms seized from the home of Lt. Vasken Gourdikian, who was the public information officer of the department. The Times article asserted that the "enormous haul" took two trucks to haul away. (I got news for you, 57 firearms could be taken away in a Prius. Of the bunch there were 20 rifles and 3 shotguns. The rest were hand guns. The search and seizure actually took place in February but the info was released only recently. Gourdikian is on paid administrative leave from the department. He has NOT been charged with any crime and there is no mention that any of the weapons were possessed illegally.
The focal point of this investigation appears to be "off roster" handguns. The formerly great state of California maintains a handgun roster of guns "not known to be unsafe." If you want to buy a new gun in CA and you are a private citizen your purchase must be on this list. That being said, police departments or individual police officers can buy "off-roster" guns, then resell them on the used market. Many of these guns are highly desirable to shooters who are willing to pay a premium for them. This has led to instances of some officers doing a brisk business as unlicensed gun dealers selling this off-roster private purchase guns. Law enforcement officers in CA have been successfully prosecuted for engaging in this business.
As for the "huge arsenal" 57 guns is nothing in the arena of serious gun collectors or accumulators. You can't believe everything you read, especially in the L.A. Times.
POLAND BEING THREATENED....BY FRANCE
by Bob Walsh
OK, so far they aren't being threatened by the French Government. They are, however, being threatened by the left-center asshole running for President. He is pissed off that Poland is taking in enough refugees (like practically none) and has announced that, if he is elected, he will seek to apply unilateral sanctions against Poland for refusing to take in terrorist-refugees. OK, he calls them refugees, not terrorist refugees. It should be noted however that Poland, which has a very slight Muslim population, has had virtually no overt terrorist activity in their country.
Perhaps the Poles are doing something smart.
OK, so far they aren't being threatened by the French Government. They are, however, being threatened by the left-center asshole running for President. He is pissed off that Poland is taking in enough refugees (like practically none) and has announced that, if he is elected, he will seek to apply unilateral sanctions against Poland for refusing to take in terrorist-refugees. OK, he calls them refugees, not terrorist refugees. It should be noted however that Poland, which has a very slight Muslim population, has had virtually no overt terrorist activity in their country.
Perhaps the Poles are doing something smart.
MAY DAY HAS EVOLVED FROM A COMMUNIST CELEBRATION TO A WORKERS DAY OCCASION AND NOW TO A MINORITY DEMANDS DEMONSTRATION
Hundreds of Protesters Descend on Houston City Hall to Mark May Day
By Meagan Flynn
Houston Press
May 2, 2017
Marking International Workers' Day, or May Day, hundreds of people in various workers' rights and advocacy groups descended on City Hall after marching through downtown Houston.
They demanded a minimum wage hike, an end to racism and an end to attacks on immigrants and LGBT people from right-wing politicians. While May Day is traditionally a workers' rights holiday, on Monday it was also a day for marginalized communities to demand better from their government representatives.
"We are rallying today to remind all of Texas and the legislators that our rights as immigrants, queer and trans folks and people of color are to be respected," said Guadalupe Rosco, the daughter of Mexican immigrants and organizer with United We Dream. "Not because of the labor our bodies provide, but because of our humanity.
Other groups present included the Texas Organizing Project, Mi Familia Vota, Fight for $15, and the Service Employees International Union, among many others. They held signs that read, "We are workers, not criminals" and "Build bridges not walls." And they chanted, in Spanish, "We are in the fight!" and "Si Se Puede!" as they marched from Sesquicentennial Park, around the downtown area and finally on the City Hall plaza.
Marchers condemned the highly controversial legislation, Senate Bill 4, that just passed the Senate, allowing police officers to ask anyone about their immigration status not just during an arrest but while detaining people for any reason. The bill also would punish jurisdictions or law enforcement leaders who establish any policies that "prohibit the enforcement of immigration law." One organizer called it "one of the most inhumane things Texas has ever done," and another called it "a hate bill" that will lead to racial profiling.
Last week, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo lambasted the bill as a detriment to public safety, saying it will create a chilling effect within immigrant communities and cause them to fear reporting crimes to police. He called on Governor Abbott to listen to police leaders of Texas, who have also strongly opposed SB 4 — but Abbott is expected to sign it.
In Austin, more than 50 protesters held a sit-in at a building on the state Capitol grounds that houses various offices for the governor's staff, decrying SB 4 and lobbing a Hail-Mary appeal to the governor to veto it.
By Meagan Flynn
Houston Press
May 2, 2017
Marking International Workers' Day, or May Day, hundreds of people in various workers' rights and advocacy groups descended on City Hall after marching through downtown Houston.
They demanded a minimum wage hike, an end to racism and an end to attacks on immigrants and LGBT people from right-wing politicians. While May Day is traditionally a workers' rights holiday, on Monday it was also a day for marginalized communities to demand better from their government representatives.
"We are rallying today to remind all of Texas and the legislators that our rights as immigrants, queer and trans folks and people of color are to be respected," said Guadalupe Rosco, the daughter of Mexican immigrants and organizer with United We Dream. "Not because of the labor our bodies provide, but because of our humanity.
Other groups present included the Texas Organizing Project, Mi Familia Vota, Fight for $15, and the Service Employees International Union, among many others. They held signs that read, "We are workers, not criminals" and "Build bridges not walls." And they chanted, in Spanish, "We are in the fight!" and "Si Se Puede!" as they marched from Sesquicentennial Park, around the downtown area and finally on the City Hall plaza.
Marchers condemned the highly controversial legislation, Senate Bill 4, that just passed the Senate, allowing police officers to ask anyone about their immigration status not just during an arrest but while detaining people for any reason. The bill also would punish jurisdictions or law enforcement leaders who establish any policies that "prohibit the enforcement of immigration law." One organizer called it "one of the most inhumane things Texas has ever done," and another called it "a hate bill" that will lead to racial profiling.
Last week, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo lambasted the bill as a detriment to public safety, saying it will create a chilling effect within immigrant communities and cause them to fear reporting crimes to police. He called on Governor Abbott to listen to police leaders of Texas, who have also strongly opposed SB 4 — but Abbott is expected to sign it.
In Austin, more than 50 protesters held a sit-in at a building on the state Capitol grounds that houses various offices for the governor's staff, decrying SB 4 and lobbing a Hail-Mary appeal to the governor to veto it.
UN BODY WILL PASS 19TH RESOLUTION DENYING ISRAEL ITS SOVEREIGNTY OVER JERUSALEM
UNESCO mars Israel's Independence Day with anti-Israel vote
By Shlomo Cesana
Israel Hayom
May 1, 2017
The United Nations cultural organization was expected to adopt a resolution on Tuesday, Israel's Independence Day, classifying Israel as an "occupying power" in Jerusalem.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is also expected to conclude that the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb, both Jewish holy sites in Judea and Samaria, are exclusively Muslim sites.
The resolution has garnered European support after an original version of the draft, submitted on behalf of the Palestinians by a number of the body's Arab member states, was softened. The original draft sought to reaffirm 18 previous UNESCO resolutions against Israel on the matter of Jerusalem, including resolutions denying Israeli sovereignty over the city as well as any Jewish link to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
The draft resolution now states that "any action taken by Israel, the occupying power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction, and administration on the city of Jerusalem, are illegal and therefore null and void and have no validity whatsoever." The draft resolution is also expected to condemn the work of the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem and call for the deployment of international observes to the city.
An official in Jerusalem remarked Wednesday that "UNESCO's executive board refuses to stop the politicization that has been undermining the organization's status."
"Going against the recommendation of UNESCO's director and various leaders' promises and declarations over the last year, the organization is reverting to its habit of adopting anti-Israeli political resolutions that question every action taken by Israel in Jerusalem. They are adopting past resolutions that deny Jewish ties to the city, and recycling political condemnations against Israel on Gaza.
"Instead of stopping the politicization, as Israel was promised, European Union representatives are in fact supporting it [the politicization] by proposing their own wording, including on the question of Jerusalem, which has nothing to do with UNESCO's mandate," the official said. "Israel expects the organization's member states to vote against this absurd resolution. This draft resolution will not affect our determination to act in Jerusalem for the benefit of all its residents. It will hurt the deteriorating status of UNESCO and its relevance."
EDITOR’S NOTE: 19 resolutions denying Israel its sovereignty over Jerusalem? How many times is UNESCO going to keep on kicking a dead horse?
In November 2011 the U.S. stopped paying its annual UNESCO member ship fee of $80 million which constituted 22 percent of that UN body’s overall budget. The funding was stopped after UNESCO voted to make Palestine a member.
In November 2015, then Secretary of State John Kerry declared: “I am determined to restore U.S. funding to UNESCO, and hopeful that Congress will act to provide the administration the authority needed to waive the current legislative restrictions that prohibit U.S. contributions to the organization.” But a month later, Congress rejected the Obama administration’s request to restore U.S. funding for UNESCO with its long record of demonizing Israel.
Those 19 resolutions declare that the Jewish people have no right to Jerusalem. That is all of Jerusalem, not just East Jerusalem.
By Shlomo Cesana
Israel Hayom
May 1, 2017
The United Nations cultural organization was expected to adopt a resolution on Tuesday, Israel's Independence Day, classifying Israel as an "occupying power" in Jerusalem.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is also expected to conclude that the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb, both Jewish holy sites in Judea and Samaria, are exclusively Muslim sites.
The resolution has garnered European support after an original version of the draft, submitted on behalf of the Palestinians by a number of the body's Arab member states, was softened. The original draft sought to reaffirm 18 previous UNESCO resolutions against Israel on the matter of Jerusalem, including resolutions denying Israeli sovereignty over the city as well as any Jewish link to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
The draft resolution now states that "any action taken by Israel, the occupying power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction, and administration on the city of Jerusalem, are illegal and therefore null and void and have no validity whatsoever." The draft resolution is also expected to condemn the work of the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem and call for the deployment of international observes to the city.
An official in Jerusalem remarked Wednesday that "UNESCO's executive board refuses to stop the politicization that has been undermining the organization's status."
"Going against the recommendation of UNESCO's director and various leaders' promises and declarations over the last year, the organization is reverting to its habit of adopting anti-Israeli political resolutions that question every action taken by Israel in Jerusalem. They are adopting past resolutions that deny Jewish ties to the city, and recycling political condemnations against Israel on Gaza.
"Instead of stopping the politicization, as Israel was promised, European Union representatives are in fact supporting it [the politicization] by proposing their own wording, including on the question of Jerusalem, which has nothing to do with UNESCO's mandate," the official said. "Israel expects the organization's member states to vote against this absurd resolution. This draft resolution will not affect our determination to act in Jerusalem for the benefit of all its residents. It will hurt the deteriorating status of UNESCO and its relevance."
EDITOR’S NOTE: 19 resolutions denying Israel its sovereignty over Jerusalem? How many times is UNESCO going to keep on kicking a dead horse?
In November 2011 the U.S. stopped paying its annual UNESCO member ship fee of $80 million which constituted 22 percent of that UN body’s overall budget. The funding was stopped after UNESCO voted to make Palestine a member.
In November 2015, then Secretary of State John Kerry declared: “I am determined to restore U.S. funding to UNESCO, and hopeful that Congress will act to provide the administration the authority needed to waive the current legislative restrictions that prohibit U.S. contributions to the organization.” But a month later, Congress rejected the Obama administration’s request to restore U.S. funding for UNESCO with its long record of demonizing Israel.
Those 19 resolutions declare that the Jewish people have no right to Jerusalem. That is all of Jerusalem, not just East Jerusalem.
THE MOST BALLSY, BRAZEN AND ULTIMATELY RIDICULOUS LOTTERY-RIGGING MYSTERY EVER
A Sugar Land, Texas Man Helped Pull Off the Biggest Ever Multi-State Lottery Scam
By Craig Malisow
Houston Press
May 2, 2017
Sometime in 2015 two close friends and former business partners sat in the parking lot of Niko Niko’s Greek restaurant in Montrose, fretting over their roles in the biggest lottery scam in history.
What had started with one suspect in Iowa had spread to Texas, and a Sugar Land tech consultant and divorced father of three named Robert Clark Rhodes II. Iowa authorities thought they had finally connected Rhodes to their No. 1 man: Eddie Tipton, who they believed bought a winning $16.5 million Hot Lotto ticket five years earlier — a ticket that was a winner only because he knew the jackpot five-number sequence ahead of time, which helpfully reduced the 29 million-to-one odds.
Tipton knew the winning numbers because he was able to rig them: He was the security director for the Multi-State Lottery Association, a nonprofit organization made up of lottery departments in 37 states. The association provides the software, equipment and technological wizardry behind multimillion-dollar jackpots. Tipton had access to the nerve center behind the 16-state Hot Lotto game: two computers housed in the glass-walled chamber of an otherwise bland, beige-brick shoebox of a building next door to a giant Goodwill store in Urbandale, Iowa.
The computers in the ostensibly hyper-secure sanctum known as the “draw room” are under 24-hour video surveillance, are not connected to the Internet and can be accessed by only a handful of people. For 11 years, Tipton was one of them.
Like his best friend, Tipton had tremendous lottery luck as well. In 2007 he won $738,000 in a Wisconsin Megabucks game. It would take four years, but Iowa authorities would discover that Rhodes also held the ultimately cursed Hot Lotto ticket.
In September 2015, Tipton was convicted on two counts of fraud and sentenced to ten years in prison, but one of the counts was dismissed on appeal — Tipton successfully argued that the charge was filed after the statute of limitations had expired. But last year, Iowa prosecutors filed more fraud-related charges against Tipton. And those are still pending.
The investigation also revealed that the jackpot-fixing involved more people than Tipton, and more states than Iowa.
Tipton, like other association employees, was prohibited from participating in lotteries. But since 2005, Tipton’s friends and family had a remarkable run of luck against the odds in Colorado, Wisconsin, Kansas and Oklahoma.
The plot to redeem that ticket — an inevitably doomed scheme that was as intricate as it was idiotic — sparked an investigation that blew the lid off a multi-state lottery rigging scheme that led to convictions for Tipton and Rhodes, as well as additional pending charges for Tipton and others. It also led to other states’ lottery departments suddenly realizing that they, too, had been hit by the Tipton-Rhodes gang. The association is also facing lawsuits filed by bitter lottery players who say their chances of hitting the jackpot were squelched by the association’s lax security.
After Tipton was charged in January 2015, the friends’ conversations took on a more paranoid tone. Fearing that agents might have tapped their phones, Tipton preferred to talk shop in person, as in the parking lots of gyro joints.
But even before then, Rhodes would say in a deposition, they’d get together and have heart-to-hearts about their lottery winnings. After Rhodes collected the Wisconsin payout, Tipton would drive down from Iowa to collect his share, which Rhodes always gave him in cash — $35,000 or $50,000 at a time, bundles of hundred-dollar bills in a hard-sided briefcase, almost like in the movies, except the stacks were never as fat. It was kind of disappointing. They’d sit on patio chairs under the shade of a tree in Rhodes’s backyard, and Tipton would sometimes get pangs of guilt and ask his friend if he’d done something wrong.
“And for my own selfish reasons, I always told him no,” Rhodes said.
By the end of 2015, Rhodes would have his own guilty feelings — and not just because he got caught. He had started to talk with authorities, who were offering leniency in exchange for Rhodes’s testimony against Tipton and others.
That testimony is expected to be used in trials that are still pending for Tipton and his brother. But in securing that testimony, agents had to solve the most ballsy, brazen and ultimately ridiculous lottery-rigging mystery ever — a convoluted mess involving shady offshore tax shelters, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a bigfoot hunter and, ultimately, a best friend’s betrayal.
***
Rhodes was born in Everett, Washington, but, according to his Twitter page, “moved to Sugar Land #Texas as soon as I could.”
He met Tipton in the early 1990s, when Rhodes was getting his nascent IT company off the ground. Tipton was just the sort of computer whiz Rhodes was looking for. The two University of Houston graduates became fast friends.
With Tipton on board, Stafford-based Systems Evolution blossomed, going public in 2003. That year Tipton left Systems for a security job at the Multi-State Lottery Association in Urbandale, although he was appointed to Systems’ board of directors in 2006, the same year that Rhodes renewed a management agreement with Systems that paid $200,000 a year.
Sometimes, when Rhodes visited Tipton in Iowa, he’d tag along if Tipton had to go into the office. Rhodes testified that he met the association’s then-president, but that he never had any interest in going into the room where they draw the numbers.
If he ever did, he would’ve seen two computers housed in sealed acrylic cases, each with dual locks, with the only keys held by four people, including the draw room manager and an outside auditor. These RNGs — “random-number generators” — were loaded with software, checked by an outside vendor, that spat out thousands of numbered sequences. On “draw” days, when the winning numbers for a jackpot were announced, each computer kicked out a code, and draw managers decided by coin toss which one to choose.
Because the computers weren’t connected to the Internet, their clocks had to be manually adjusted, meaning a manager would have to access the computers without the outside vendor present. Surveillance cameras recorded activity on the computer screens, as well as covered any other activity in the draw room from two different angles.
Access to the computers meant access to high-dollar jackpots from the 37 states that belong to the association. Anyone with that kind of authority had to be trustworthy, which is ostensibly why Tipton’s longtime friend Ed Stefan recommended him for the job.
Tipton and Stefan knew each other from Houston. In 2000, Stefan went to work as the association’s chief information and security officer, and he ultimately recommended Tipton for the job of security director. Stefan would later testify, and tell reporters, that he’d known Tipton his whole life, so he was likely aware that Tipton had a criminal record. (Stefan declined to comment for this story.)
Fort Bend County District Clerk records show that in 1982, when Tipton was 19, he broke into the Rosenberg offices of Pecan Mini-Warehouse and stole more than $1,700 from about a dozen customers, including a local Little League organization.
He was placed on five years’ deferred adjudication and ordered to pay restitution. Although he was able to get out of probation early, he ran into more trouble: In July 1987, he was charged in Harris County District Court with theft of between $20 and $200 and given a suspended sentence of 180 days in jail, plus probation, which terminated in 1988.
Tipton’s new job with the association not only afforded him a six-figure salary and the keys to the Iowa draw room, but access to other states’ draw rooms as well: Tipton wrote the software and built the random-number-generator computers that were purchased by the association’s member states. Tipton and Stefan often delivered and installed the computers themselves, and Tipton also traveled to different states when those computers needed updating or other work.
Tipton’s new job also turned out to be fortuitous for his brother back in Texas.
***
In 2006, Tommy Tipton, a justice of the peace in rural Fayette County, about 100 miles west of Houston, had a problem: He had $500,000 in consecutively marked bills, and he needed to switch them out.
Tommy evidently asked the wrong person for help. According to a criminal complaint filed years later, someone alerted authorities — it’s unclear which agency — to the suspicious pile of cash, saying that Tommy had asked this person to help clean the money.
The presence of the cash was arguably the second-weirdest thing about Tommy, who was a member of the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization, and who had once filed a detailed report on a multiple-sasquatch sighting during an expedition in the forests of northwest Louisiana. Perched in a tree stand, peering through a thermal-imaging camera, Tommy was able to examine the movements of what appeared to be a set of bigfoot parents and their two offspring. “I know what I saw, and there is no doubt in my mind that these animals exist,” he wrote.
Later, when Tommy was facing trial, Assistant Iowa Attorney General Robert Sand would file a motion to bar any mention of the legendary man-beast from the proceedings, admonishing in one of the most awesome legal filings ever that “the prejudicial effect could potentially be as strong as Sasquatch itself.”
More interested in Tommy’s half-million in cash than in cryptozoology, authorities narrowed the focus of their investigation. According to a later court filing, Tommy told authorities he had won $568,990 in the Colorado lottery in November 2005, and that he had a friend claim the winnings for him, because he wanted to hide the loot from his wife — he was planning on divorcing her. At the time, authorities were unaware that Tommy’s brother worked for the lottery association, and just figured that Tommy was one lucky son of a gun.
Soon, Tommy’s good fortune would spread to Robert Rhodes.
According to Rhodes’s later deposition, Eddie Tipton approached Rhodes in October 2007 with an unusual question: What if he knew a jackpot’s winning numbers in advance? Rhodes told his friend he should take advantage of that.
Some years earlier, Tipton had taught Rhodes how to play craps. But now he offered Rhodes a sure-fire way to beat the house. He gave Rhodes sheets of paper containing somewhere between 160 and 400 sets of six-number sequences and said that within those sets was the winner of a Wisconsin Megabucks draw worth $2 million. If a person opted for manual play — picking the numbers himself, instead of allowing a computer to pick — and somehow picked six numbers that matched the winning sequence, that person could claim the whole prize. Rhodes just had to play every set of numbers.
Rhodes flew to Iowa to retrieve the papers, rented a car and then drove to Wisconsin, where he puttered around the southwest portion of the state, buying Megabucks tickets from random stores. Later, after he had flown back to Texas, he checked the Megabucks website and discovered that his friend wasn’t kidding: Rhodes had won the December 29, 2007, drawing. In his claim form, filed in February 2008, Rhodes asked that the money be paid to “Delta S. Holdings, LLC,” which Rhodes had incorporated in Delaware for the express purpose of holding the money.
Tipton told Rhodes that he shouldn’t claim the winnings under his name.
After taxes and other withholdings, the State of Wisconsin paid out $783,000.
In 2010, Tipton approached Rhodes with a plan to hit Megabucks again. Rhodes, worried about tempting fate, reluctantly agreed. Perhaps Tipton was concerned enough about his friend’s nerves that he made other plans in the meantime: Iowa had an upcoming Hot Lotto jackpot worth $16.5 million. There was no way Tipton could pass it up, and he could not afford to trust anyone else with that ticket.
In late December, Tipton gave Rhodes two index cards, with fewer numbers than last time, for the Megabucks. But when Rhodes made it to Wisconsin on December 27, his nerves got the better of him, and he played only a few of the numbers. When the winning sequence was announced two days later, Rhodes discovered it was one of the sequences he hadn’t played.
In January or February 2011, Tipton visited Rhodes, who apologized for not playing the jackpot winner. But Tipton didn’t seem upset. They were still on track for their biggest payday yet. Tipton produced a paperback book, flipped through the pages and pulled out an Iowa Hot Lotto ticket. Now everything was in Rhodes’s hands.
***
On December 23, 2010, a man doing his conspicuous best to look inconspicuous walked into a QuikTrip convenience store in West Des Moines and bought two Hot Lotto tickets, one of which would lay claim to $16.5 million. He also bought a hot dog.
He was a heavy-set man in a heavy black winter jacket with the hood up, which obscured his face. The clerk who served the customer later told reporters that the man was calm and collected. The man chose the manual play option for both tickets, picking five numbers between 1 and 47 (the unfortunately named “White Balls”) and one additional digit (the even more unfortunately named “Hot Ball”) from 1 through 19.
After the requisite draw-room coin-flip, the winning number was announced on December 29, but no one attempted to redeem a winning ticket until November 2011, when an attorney in Quebec named Philip W. Johnston contacted the Iowa Lottery Division to say he was the winner. Johnston said that he was sick, and asked if the check could just be mailed.
Johnston gave lottery representatives the correct 15-digit serial number for the winning ticket over the phone, but they were wary, and asked him to describe himself and what he wore on the day of the purchase. None of it matched the man in the surveillance video, so officials rejected Johnston’s claim.
On December 6, 2011, Johnston called back with Story No. 2: He wasn’t actually the ticket purchaser; he was just representing “an anonymous party,” according to a complaint later filed by Iowa authorities. Lottery officials told Johnston that they couldn’t release winnings to an anonymous party. They figured that was the last they’d hear of him. (The Houston Press tried reaching Johnston through a Quebec phone number listed for his wife. A man who answered said Johnston was not home, then hung up. Subsequent calls went straight to voicemail, and although multiple messages were left, Johnston never replied.)
Twenty-three days later, two hours before the window to redeem the winning ticket would close, the Iowa Lottery Division received a hand-delivered package from a Des Moines law firm. In it was a letter from attorney Julie McLean, saying that her firm represented a representative of the winner. Also enclosed was a claim form, signed by a New York attorney named Crawford Shaw, on behalf of a Belize-based entity called Hexham Investments Trust, which would hold the winnings for the ticket purchaser, who wished to remain anonymous.
On the form, the 76-year-old Shaw misspelled “Hexham.” Lottery officials checked the incorporation papers for Hexham and found that Shaw was listed as trustee, with Johnston listed as president.
Not surprisingly, lottery officials remained skeptical. On the day lottery officials received Shaw’s claim form, Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich issued a statement calling the situation “one of the biggest lottery mysteries in the country.”
Lottery officials told McLean, the Des Moines attorney, that they could not pay an anonymous winner. On January 17, 2012, Shaw met with Iowa lottery representatives to further explain his involvement. But it was futile — he claimed not to know the actual winner’s name.
Lottery officials were not impressed. They demanded the names and contact information of everyone who had ever touched the ticket.
Shaw and McLean counter-offered: If the lottery division just gave the money to Hexham, the trust would donate the proceeds to charity. The Iowa Lottery Division could even pick the charities. Shaw would get $5,000 for his time and trouble.
When lottery officials declined, Shaw formally withdrew his claim.
But by that time, Iowa law enforcement had been investigating the attempted claim for nearly two months. Shortly after Johnston called Iowa authorities from Quebec to say he was the winner, an agent with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for help in locating him. According to a later court filing, the search was “confounding and ultimately fruitless.”
Johnston proved almost as elusive as Bigfoot, but finally, in August 2013, he agreed to talk to Iowa agents. He explained that he’d been contacted two years prior by Rhodes and his attorney, Robert Sonfield, for help in cashing in the Hot Lotto ticket. After all, Sonfield had done plenty of favors for Johnston over the years: In many of the corporate mergers Sonfield handled, he brought in Johnston as a “consultant.” It’s unclear what exactly Johnston — whose office address has variously been listed in Quebec, Belize and the British West Indies — offered as a consultant.
Eight months later, in April 2014, Crawford Shaw finally admitted to Iowa agents that he, too, had a longstanding professional relationship with Sonfield, and that Sonfield and Rhodes sent him the winning ticket and asked for his help in claiming it. (Shaw, who now lives in Houston, declined to comment for the story, other than to say that he had no idea who bought the winning ticket, and that he was just doing a favor for Sonfield.)
Two months later, Iowa agents traveled to Houston to interview Sonfield and Rhodes, hoping they could reveal the identity of the Hot Lotto ticket purchaser from 2010. But the duo “did not make themselves available,” according to an affidavit. (Sonfield did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)
Frustrated, and perhaps extremely annoyed by an international consortium of uncooperative lawyers, Iowa law enforcement released the video (and audio) of the fateful 2010 purchase of the winning ticket, asking the public’s help in identifying the man in black.
One man in Maine thought he recognized the ticket purchaser right away.
Michael Boardman, the marketing manager for Maine’s lottery, couldn’t quite make out the man’s face, but the voice rang a bell. Five months earlier, Tipton had traveled to Maine to help Boardman on a project, but Boardman also recognized Tipton’s voice from ten years’ worth of quarterly conference calls.
In addition to the voice, “the way that he moved and shuffled around in his pockets to get things out” was classic Eddie. Boardman emailed a tip to Iowa law enforcement.
That’s when the walls began to close in on Eddie Tipton and Robert Rhodes.
***
In November 2014, Iowa agents interviewed Tipton.
According to an affidavit filed later, Tipton denied that he was the man in the surveillance video. He told the agents he was prohibited from playing in the lottery, and besides, he was in Houston visiting family when the ticket was purchased.
Tipton, who had apparently never seen a single episode of Law & Order, was unaware that agents had cell phone records placing him in the Des Moines area that day.
Unconvinced by Tipton’s denials, agents interviewed his co-workers at the lottery association, including his close friend Ed Stefan, who later said that when agents showed him the QuikTrip video, he felt sick to his stomach. He told agents that seeing his friend wrongfully buy a lottery ticket was like finding out his mom was an ax murderer.
But in his only interview, given after he was charged but before his trial, Tipton told The Daily Beast that authorities had the wrong man, and were just desperate to pin the crime on someone before the statute of limitations expired.
“I was not hurting for money,” Tipton told The Daily Beast. “Not hurting enough that I need to take a chance and ruin my whole life. No way.”
Additionally, Tipton’s attorney, Dean Stowers, suggested to The Daily Beast that the man in the surveillance video might have been “a skinny man in a fat suit.”
Stowers was less colorful in his comments for this story, saying only in an email, “Our position is that what the State claims happened does not appear to violate the statutes that Mr. Tipton is accused of violating.”
In January 2015, Tipton was charged in Iowa with two counts of fraud. Two months later, as Rhodes was about to leave home for his regular visitation with his kids, he was arrested by a Texas Ranger and driven to Fort Bend County Jail.
Rhodes conceded in his later deposition that, within his first three weeks in jail, while awaiting extradition, investigators with the Iowa Attorney General’s Office let him know they wanted to cut a deal. And not just Iowa officials — after Tipton’s arrest, Wisconsin lottery officials had reviewed the 2007 Megabucks drawing and believed that it may have been rigged as well.
He held out until December 2015, when, through defense attorney Terry Yates, Rhodes arranged a meeting with Iowa and Wisconsin assistant attorneys general. Yates stipulated that the meeting had to be in Chicago; he assured Rhodes that Iowa agents couldn’t arrest him there.
Rhodes said he only considered talking to authorities in the first place because he thought Tipton should have just pleaded out and spared everyone the grief. Tipton, Rhodes said in his deposition, “did all kinds of stuff that I felt jeopardized me, and more importantly, my children.”
At the December 9, 2015, Chicago meeting with Wisconsin and Iowa authorities, he signed something called a proffer agreement — a sort of test run to see what kind of information a potential witness or defendant has before the government decides whether to grant immunity.
Rhodes knew he had important information — but he was still concerned about taking the next step to becoming an official stool pigeon. According to his deposition, he was slightly afraid of what Tipton might do.
“Here is my best friend...he’s a big boy,” Rhodes said of Tipton. “And he’s a good old boy. And in Texas, good old boys have lots of guns, and they have pickup trucks, and you never know what a good old boy might get pissed off [sic] and come after you.”
But, he added, “that was my best friend, and I felt like I was betraying him.”
Not a huge fan of Rhodes, Tipton’s lawyer, Stowers, wanted to emphasize that last point.
“Well, you were betraying him, weren’t you?” Stowers asked.
“I was telling the truth,” Rhodes said.
“Well, you were betraying him, though?”
“Yeah,” Rhodes said. “I guess I was.”
In July 2015, just as Tipton was going to trial, Rhodes still hadn’t decided whether or not to flip.
Assistant Attorney General Sand was getting annoyed. Rhodes’s attorney, Yates, emailed Sand on July 10, 2015, with his thoughts: “Your case [against] Tipton seems suspect at best, and Rhodes didn’t do a damn thing illegal.”
Things would change after Tipton went to trial five days later.
***
Leading up to the trial in Des Moines, Sand had a little bit of a problem.
He had to persuade jurors that Tipton somehow manipulated two super-secure computers in a glass-walled room, with cameras inside and co-workers on the outside not noticing. Plus, forensic examiners had already inspected the computers used in the Hot Lotto draw, but those had already been retired and wiped clean.
But Sand had some helpful witnesses: one lottery association employee, tasked with reviewing security footage from inside the draw room, saw that Tipton went into the room on November 20, 2010, to change the computers’ clocks. While Tipton was inside, the time-stamp on the cameras showed an anomaly — it appeared that the cameras were only recording about one second per minute, rendering the video largely useless.
The hitch in the recording was addressed in a later civil suit, filed by an Iowa Hot Lotto player in February 2016. Citing other court rec-ords from the Tipton case, the suit explained that the association bought the cameras and software used to monitor the draw room computers from a company owned by the brother of Tipton’s friend, fellow association employee Ed Stefan. An association IT employee later testified that the equipment was “‘buggy’ from the date of installation,” sometimes freezing up and causing a “blue screen of death.”
The association’s unique approach to security took a further hit when the IT employee revealed that, every quarter, the draw-room camera recordings were put on disk and stored in Stefan’s basement.
Per Sand’s theory, glitches in the video surveillance — well-known by Tipton and IT personnel — gave Tipton enough time to surreptitiously stick a thumb drive with a modified code — a bug — into one or both of the computers. The bug would be programmed to destroy any trace of itself after it completed its mission, which, according to Sand, is why forensic examiners couldn’t find anything wrong.
Tipton’s attorney, Stowers, found this laughable.
In a later appeal, Stowers argued that Sand “was the equivalent of a ghost hunter called to the scene of a possible ghost sighting who, upon finding nothing after thorough investigation, declared that a ghost must have been there because ghosts leave no trace behind.”
At trial, Tipton’s siblings, including Tommy (months away from being charged himself), testified that their brother wasn’t the man in the video buying lottery tickets and a hot dog. According to Tommy, his brother didn’t even like hot dogs. This was clearly a tragic case of mistaken identity.
In February 2016, after Sand won two convictions against Tipton, he shared his own thoughts with Yates.
“You implied in your previous email that Rhodes is having a hard time coming around to full cooperation,” Sand wrote. “I think your [July 2015] email could be a good reminder to him that he is not indispensable to my trying and convicting Eddie Tipton. We’ve already been down this road once. If I do it without him again, he’s facing a lot worse than what was in front of him last time.”
Seven months later, in September 2016, Rhodes agreed to flip.
***
In September 2015, two months after Tipton was sentenced to ten years in prison, forensic investigators in Wisconsin finally figured out how Tipton rigged the Megabucks game, offering a key to how he may have rigged the Hot Lotto game.
That month, special agent Joanne Joy of the Wisconsin Department of Justice took possession of the three retired random-number-generator computers that were used in the 2007 drawing.
According to a Wisconsin criminal complaint filed in December 2016, the computers, which had been sitting in storage since being swapped out in 2013, were built by the lottery association and delivered to the Wisconsin Lottery Department by Tipton and Stefan.
A forensic analysis of the computers later revealed that someone had installed a type of file called a “dynamic-link library” into one of the computers’ codes, which “was able to redirect the normal operation of the random number generator program.”
In December 2016, the State of Wisconsin charged Tipton and Rhodes with racketeering and theft by fraud; Tipton was also charged on four counts of computer crime.
Citing pending criminal proceedings, an association spokesperson would not comment on what security measures, if any, were taken in the wake of the scandal. But in June 2016, U.S. Senator John Thune of South Dakota, who chaired the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, demanded that association officials let the committee know what they were doing “to ensure the integrity of lottery games.”
Gary Grief, the association’s board president, replied in a letter that none of the random-number-generator computers currently in use had software developed by Tipton.
The association also beefed up “physical security through increased use of video cameras and recordings, motion detectors, and other security measures.”
Grief also sent the senator a copy of a report by a law firm that the association hired to conduct an independent investigation. It’s unclear how much the association paid the international law firm to conduct this “confidential and privileged investigation,” but if it was more than the cost of a scratch-off ticket, the association was ripped off yet again.
For one thing, the investigators — a team comprising “skilled employees of member lotteries” — focused on “why” the jackpot-fixing happened, rather than on “knowing precisely ‘how it was done.’”
The team also claimed it could not determine the scheme’s financial or reputational fallout, noting, “While it is apparent [the association] has been damaged — for instance, it has incurred legal fees and costs in responding to the Tipton cases that would not have been otherwise necessary — these damages are not complete or fully quantifiable at this time.”
In that regard, at least, the team had a point: In March 2016, the same time the team wrapped up its investigation, Tommy Tipton was charged with theft in Iowa, over the Colorado lottery winnings. The complaint also alleged that the former justice of the peace purchased a winning ticket in an Oklahoma Hot Lotto game in November 2011 that was rigged by his brother. Tommy had a friend redeem the ticket and then shared a portion of the $907,000 with the friend, according to the complaint. (Tommy’s attorney, Mark Weinhardt, told the Press that his client intends to “vigorously” defend himself.)
It wouldn’t be until ten months later, in February 2017, that Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt filed a civil suit against Eddie Tipton and two friends who claimed $44,000 from two Kansas lottery draws in 2010 that Tipton had allegedly rigged. The suit is seeking $187,000 in restitution and civil penalties under the state’s False Claims Act.
The association is also defending itself against two civil suits filed in Iowa by lottery players who say they were cheated out of a fair shot at winning the games Tipton had rigged. In one case, financial adviser “Lucky” Larry Dawson also sued the Iowa Lottery and the lottery association, claiming that while he won $9 million in a 2011 Hot Lotto game, the winnings would have been bigger if Tipton hadn’t rigged earlier jackpots.
The association and the Iowa Lottery filed a motion to dismiss the case, but in October 2016 a judge denied the motion. The suit is still pending.
Another pending suit, filed in January 2017 by an Iowa insurance salesman, is seeking class-action status on behalf of hundreds of thousands of players who spent money on rigged games.
***
While awaiting their upcoming trials — Tipton’s in July, his brother Tommy’s in September — they’ve remained free on bond. They’re keeping a low profile.
Rhodes, whose plea deal recommended a two-year probation for the Iowa charges, and six months of house arrest for the Wisconsin charges, has continued with new and diverse business ventures. One, a flight school in Angleton called Third Coast Aviation, offers Groupons for private flight instruction in a single-engine, fixed-wing Piper built in 1979.
Another venture, Online Sales Juggernaut, offered to boost businesses’ sales with increased Internet presence and “hard nose sales know how,” but the company’s website was deactivated after the Press left voicemails seeking more information.
In January and March 2017, Rhodes pleaded guilty to fraud charges in Iowa and Wisconsin, respectively. He also made his first payment — $250,000 toward $409,000 in restitution — for the Wisconsin charges.
In January, his attorney, Terry Yates, released a statement saying, “Mr. Rhodes is thankful for all of the support he has received from his family and friends throughout this difficult time. He is ready to start a new chapter in his life.”
Later this year, he is expected to return to those Iowa and Wisconsin courtrooms — this time, to help put his former best friend in prison.
By Craig Malisow
Houston Press
May 2, 2017
Sometime in 2015 two close friends and former business partners sat in the parking lot of Niko Niko’s Greek restaurant in Montrose, fretting over their roles in the biggest lottery scam in history.
What had started with one suspect in Iowa had spread to Texas, and a Sugar Land tech consultant and divorced father of three named Robert Clark Rhodes II. Iowa authorities thought they had finally connected Rhodes to their No. 1 man: Eddie Tipton, who they believed bought a winning $16.5 million Hot Lotto ticket five years earlier — a ticket that was a winner only because he knew the jackpot five-number sequence ahead of time, which helpfully reduced the 29 million-to-one odds.
Tipton knew the winning numbers because he was able to rig them: He was the security director for the Multi-State Lottery Association, a nonprofit organization made up of lottery departments in 37 states. The association provides the software, equipment and technological wizardry behind multimillion-dollar jackpots. Tipton had access to the nerve center behind the 16-state Hot Lotto game: two computers housed in the glass-walled chamber of an otherwise bland, beige-brick shoebox of a building next door to a giant Goodwill store in Urbandale, Iowa.
The computers in the ostensibly hyper-secure sanctum known as the “draw room” are under 24-hour video surveillance, are not connected to the Internet and can be accessed by only a handful of people. For 11 years, Tipton was one of them.
Like his best friend, Tipton had tremendous lottery luck as well. In 2007 he won $738,000 in a Wisconsin Megabucks game. It would take four years, but Iowa authorities would discover that Rhodes also held the ultimately cursed Hot Lotto ticket.
In September 2015, Tipton was convicted on two counts of fraud and sentenced to ten years in prison, but one of the counts was dismissed on appeal — Tipton successfully argued that the charge was filed after the statute of limitations had expired. But last year, Iowa prosecutors filed more fraud-related charges against Tipton. And those are still pending.
The investigation also revealed that the jackpot-fixing involved more people than Tipton, and more states than Iowa.
Tipton, like other association employees, was prohibited from participating in lotteries. But since 2005, Tipton’s friends and family had a remarkable run of luck against the odds in Colorado, Wisconsin, Kansas and Oklahoma.
The plot to redeem that ticket — an inevitably doomed scheme that was as intricate as it was idiotic — sparked an investigation that blew the lid off a multi-state lottery rigging scheme that led to convictions for Tipton and Rhodes, as well as additional pending charges for Tipton and others. It also led to other states’ lottery departments suddenly realizing that they, too, had been hit by the Tipton-Rhodes gang. The association is also facing lawsuits filed by bitter lottery players who say their chances of hitting the jackpot were squelched by the association’s lax security.
After Tipton was charged in January 2015, the friends’ conversations took on a more paranoid tone. Fearing that agents might have tapped their phones, Tipton preferred to talk shop in person, as in the parking lots of gyro joints.
But even before then, Rhodes would say in a deposition, they’d get together and have heart-to-hearts about their lottery winnings. After Rhodes collected the Wisconsin payout, Tipton would drive down from Iowa to collect his share, which Rhodes always gave him in cash — $35,000 or $50,000 at a time, bundles of hundred-dollar bills in a hard-sided briefcase, almost like in the movies, except the stacks were never as fat. It was kind of disappointing. They’d sit on patio chairs under the shade of a tree in Rhodes’s backyard, and Tipton would sometimes get pangs of guilt and ask his friend if he’d done something wrong.
“And for my own selfish reasons, I always told him no,” Rhodes said.
By the end of 2015, Rhodes would have his own guilty feelings — and not just because he got caught. He had started to talk with authorities, who were offering leniency in exchange for Rhodes’s testimony against Tipton and others.
That testimony is expected to be used in trials that are still pending for Tipton and his brother. But in securing that testimony, agents had to solve the most ballsy, brazen and ultimately ridiculous lottery-rigging mystery ever — a convoluted mess involving shady offshore tax shelters, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a bigfoot hunter and, ultimately, a best friend’s betrayal.
***
Rhodes was born in Everett, Washington, but, according to his Twitter page, “moved to Sugar Land #Texas as soon as I could.”
He met Tipton in the early 1990s, when Rhodes was getting his nascent IT company off the ground. Tipton was just the sort of computer whiz Rhodes was looking for. The two University of Houston graduates became fast friends.
With Tipton on board, Stafford-based Systems Evolution blossomed, going public in 2003. That year Tipton left Systems for a security job at the Multi-State Lottery Association in Urbandale, although he was appointed to Systems’ board of directors in 2006, the same year that Rhodes renewed a management agreement with Systems that paid $200,000 a year.
Sometimes, when Rhodes visited Tipton in Iowa, he’d tag along if Tipton had to go into the office. Rhodes testified that he met the association’s then-president, but that he never had any interest in going into the room where they draw the numbers.
If he ever did, he would’ve seen two computers housed in sealed acrylic cases, each with dual locks, with the only keys held by four people, including the draw room manager and an outside auditor. These RNGs — “random-number generators” — were loaded with software, checked by an outside vendor, that spat out thousands of numbered sequences. On “draw” days, when the winning numbers for a jackpot were announced, each computer kicked out a code, and draw managers decided by coin toss which one to choose.
Because the computers weren’t connected to the Internet, their clocks had to be manually adjusted, meaning a manager would have to access the computers without the outside vendor present. Surveillance cameras recorded activity on the computer screens, as well as covered any other activity in the draw room from two different angles.
Access to the computers meant access to high-dollar jackpots from the 37 states that belong to the association. Anyone with that kind of authority had to be trustworthy, which is ostensibly why Tipton’s longtime friend Ed Stefan recommended him for the job.
Tipton and Stefan knew each other from Houston. In 2000, Stefan went to work as the association’s chief information and security officer, and he ultimately recommended Tipton for the job of security director. Stefan would later testify, and tell reporters, that he’d known Tipton his whole life, so he was likely aware that Tipton had a criminal record. (Stefan declined to comment for this story.)
Fort Bend County District Clerk records show that in 1982, when Tipton was 19, he broke into the Rosenberg offices of Pecan Mini-Warehouse and stole more than $1,700 from about a dozen customers, including a local Little League organization.
He was placed on five years’ deferred adjudication and ordered to pay restitution. Although he was able to get out of probation early, he ran into more trouble: In July 1987, he was charged in Harris County District Court with theft of between $20 and $200 and given a suspended sentence of 180 days in jail, plus probation, which terminated in 1988.
Tipton’s new job with the association not only afforded him a six-figure salary and the keys to the Iowa draw room, but access to other states’ draw rooms as well: Tipton wrote the software and built the random-number-generator computers that were purchased by the association’s member states. Tipton and Stefan often delivered and installed the computers themselves, and Tipton also traveled to different states when those computers needed updating or other work.
Tipton’s new job also turned out to be fortuitous for his brother back in Texas.
***
In 2006, Tommy Tipton, a justice of the peace in rural Fayette County, about 100 miles west of Houston, had a problem: He had $500,000 in consecutively marked bills, and he needed to switch them out.
Tommy evidently asked the wrong person for help. According to a criminal complaint filed years later, someone alerted authorities — it’s unclear which agency — to the suspicious pile of cash, saying that Tommy had asked this person to help clean the money.
The presence of the cash was arguably the second-weirdest thing about Tommy, who was a member of the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization, and who had once filed a detailed report on a multiple-sasquatch sighting during an expedition in the forests of northwest Louisiana. Perched in a tree stand, peering through a thermal-imaging camera, Tommy was able to examine the movements of what appeared to be a set of bigfoot parents and their two offspring. “I know what I saw, and there is no doubt in my mind that these animals exist,” he wrote.
Later, when Tommy was facing trial, Assistant Iowa Attorney General Robert Sand would file a motion to bar any mention of the legendary man-beast from the proceedings, admonishing in one of the most awesome legal filings ever that “the prejudicial effect could potentially be as strong as Sasquatch itself.”
More interested in Tommy’s half-million in cash than in cryptozoology, authorities narrowed the focus of their investigation. According to a later court filing, Tommy told authorities he had won $568,990 in the Colorado lottery in November 2005, and that he had a friend claim the winnings for him, because he wanted to hide the loot from his wife — he was planning on divorcing her. At the time, authorities were unaware that Tommy’s brother worked for the lottery association, and just figured that Tommy was one lucky son of a gun.
Soon, Tommy’s good fortune would spread to Robert Rhodes.
According to Rhodes’s later deposition, Eddie Tipton approached Rhodes in October 2007 with an unusual question: What if he knew a jackpot’s winning numbers in advance? Rhodes told his friend he should take advantage of that.
Some years earlier, Tipton had taught Rhodes how to play craps. But now he offered Rhodes a sure-fire way to beat the house. He gave Rhodes sheets of paper containing somewhere between 160 and 400 sets of six-number sequences and said that within those sets was the winner of a Wisconsin Megabucks draw worth $2 million. If a person opted for manual play — picking the numbers himself, instead of allowing a computer to pick — and somehow picked six numbers that matched the winning sequence, that person could claim the whole prize. Rhodes just had to play every set of numbers.
Rhodes flew to Iowa to retrieve the papers, rented a car and then drove to Wisconsin, where he puttered around the southwest portion of the state, buying Megabucks tickets from random stores. Later, after he had flown back to Texas, he checked the Megabucks website and discovered that his friend wasn’t kidding: Rhodes had won the December 29, 2007, drawing. In his claim form, filed in February 2008, Rhodes asked that the money be paid to “Delta S. Holdings, LLC,” which Rhodes had incorporated in Delaware for the express purpose of holding the money.
Tipton told Rhodes that he shouldn’t claim the winnings under his name.
After taxes and other withholdings, the State of Wisconsin paid out $783,000.
In 2010, Tipton approached Rhodes with a plan to hit Megabucks again. Rhodes, worried about tempting fate, reluctantly agreed. Perhaps Tipton was concerned enough about his friend’s nerves that he made other plans in the meantime: Iowa had an upcoming Hot Lotto jackpot worth $16.5 million. There was no way Tipton could pass it up, and he could not afford to trust anyone else with that ticket.
In late December, Tipton gave Rhodes two index cards, with fewer numbers than last time, for the Megabucks. But when Rhodes made it to Wisconsin on December 27, his nerves got the better of him, and he played only a few of the numbers. When the winning sequence was announced two days later, Rhodes discovered it was one of the sequences he hadn’t played.
In January or February 2011, Tipton visited Rhodes, who apologized for not playing the jackpot winner. But Tipton didn’t seem upset. They were still on track for their biggest payday yet. Tipton produced a paperback book, flipped through the pages and pulled out an Iowa Hot Lotto ticket. Now everything was in Rhodes’s hands.
***
On December 23, 2010, a man doing his conspicuous best to look inconspicuous walked into a QuikTrip convenience store in West Des Moines and bought two Hot Lotto tickets, one of which would lay claim to $16.5 million. He also bought a hot dog.
He was a heavy-set man in a heavy black winter jacket with the hood up, which obscured his face. The clerk who served the customer later told reporters that the man was calm and collected. The man chose the manual play option for both tickets, picking five numbers between 1 and 47 (the unfortunately named “White Balls”) and one additional digit (the even more unfortunately named “Hot Ball”) from 1 through 19.
After the requisite draw-room coin-flip, the winning number was announced on December 29, but no one attempted to redeem a winning ticket until November 2011, when an attorney in Quebec named Philip W. Johnston contacted the Iowa Lottery Division to say he was the winner. Johnston said that he was sick, and asked if the check could just be mailed.
Johnston gave lottery representatives the correct 15-digit serial number for the winning ticket over the phone, but they were wary, and asked him to describe himself and what he wore on the day of the purchase. None of it matched the man in the surveillance video, so officials rejected Johnston’s claim.
On December 6, 2011, Johnston called back with Story No. 2: He wasn’t actually the ticket purchaser; he was just representing “an anonymous party,” according to a complaint later filed by Iowa authorities. Lottery officials told Johnston that they couldn’t release winnings to an anonymous party. They figured that was the last they’d hear of him. (The Houston Press tried reaching Johnston through a Quebec phone number listed for his wife. A man who answered said Johnston was not home, then hung up. Subsequent calls went straight to voicemail, and although multiple messages were left, Johnston never replied.)
Twenty-three days later, two hours before the window to redeem the winning ticket would close, the Iowa Lottery Division received a hand-delivered package from a Des Moines law firm. In it was a letter from attorney Julie McLean, saying that her firm represented a representative of the winner. Also enclosed was a claim form, signed by a New York attorney named Crawford Shaw, on behalf of a Belize-based entity called Hexham Investments Trust, which would hold the winnings for the ticket purchaser, who wished to remain anonymous.
On the form, the 76-year-old Shaw misspelled “Hexham.” Lottery officials checked the incorporation papers for Hexham and found that Shaw was listed as trustee, with Johnston listed as president.
Not surprisingly, lottery officials remained skeptical. On the day lottery officials received Shaw’s claim form, Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich issued a statement calling the situation “one of the biggest lottery mysteries in the country.”
Lottery officials told McLean, the Des Moines attorney, that they could not pay an anonymous winner. On January 17, 2012, Shaw met with Iowa lottery representatives to further explain his involvement. But it was futile — he claimed not to know the actual winner’s name.
Lottery officials were not impressed. They demanded the names and contact information of everyone who had ever touched the ticket.
Shaw and McLean counter-offered: If the lottery division just gave the money to Hexham, the trust would donate the proceeds to charity. The Iowa Lottery Division could even pick the charities. Shaw would get $5,000 for his time and trouble.
When lottery officials declined, Shaw formally withdrew his claim.
But by that time, Iowa law enforcement had been investigating the attempted claim for nearly two months. Shortly after Johnston called Iowa authorities from Quebec to say he was the winner, an agent with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for help in locating him. According to a later court filing, the search was “confounding and ultimately fruitless.”
Johnston proved almost as elusive as Bigfoot, but finally, in August 2013, he agreed to talk to Iowa agents. He explained that he’d been contacted two years prior by Rhodes and his attorney, Robert Sonfield, for help in cashing in the Hot Lotto ticket. After all, Sonfield had done plenty of favors for Johnston over the years: In many of the corporate mergers Sonfield handled, he brought in Johnston as a “consultant.” It’s unclear what exactly Johnston — whose office address has variously been listed in Quebec, Belize and the British West Indies — offered as a consultant.
Eight months later, in April 2014, Crawford Shaw finally admitted to Iowa agents that he, too, had a longstanding professional relationship with Sonfield, and that Sonfield and Rhodes sent him the winning ticket and asked for his help in claiming it. (Shaw, who now lives in Houston, declined to comment for the story, other than to say that he had no idea who bought the winning ticket, and that he was just doing a favor for Sonfield.)
Two months later, Iowa agents traveled to Houston to interview Sonfield and Rhodes, hoping they could reveal the identity of the Hot Lotto ticket purchaser from 2010. But the duo “did not make themselves available,” according to an affidavit. (Sonfield did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)
Frustrated, and perhaps extremely annoyed by an international consortium of uncooperative lawyers, Iowa law enforcement released the video (and audio) of the fateful 2010 purchase of the winning ticket, asking the public’s help in identifying the man in black.
One man in Maine thought he recognized the ticket purchaser right away.
Michael Boardman, the marketing manager for Maine’s lottery, couldn’t quite make out the man’s face, but the voice rang a bell. Five months earlier, Tipton had traveled to Maine to help Boardman on a project, but Boardman also recognized Tipton’s voice from ten years’ worth of quarterly conference calls.
In addition to the voice, “the way that he moved and shuffled around in his pockets to get things out” was classic Eddie. Boardman emailed a tip to Iowa law enforcement.
That’s when the walls began to close in on Eddie Tipton and Robert Rhodes.
***
In November 2014, Iowa agents interviewed Tipton.
According to an affidavit filed later, Tipton denied that he was the man in the surveillance video. He told the agents he was prohibited from playing in the lottery, and besides, he was in Houston visiting family when the ticket was purchased.
Tipton, who had apparently never seen a single episode of Law & Order, was unaware that agents had cell phone records placing him in the Des Moines area that day.
Unconvinced by Tipton’s denials, agents interviewed his co-workers at the lottery association, including his close friend Ed Stefan, who later said that when agents showed him the QuikTrip video, he felt sick to his stomach. He told agents that seeing his friend wrongfully buy a lottery ticket was like finding out his mom was an ax murderer.
But in his only interview, given after he was charged but before his trial, Tipton told The Daily Beast that authorities had the wrong man, and were just desperate to pin the crime on someone before the statute of limitations expired.
“I was not hurting for money,” Tipton told The Daily Beast. “Not hurting enough that I need to take a chance and ruin my whole life. No way.”
Additionally, Tipton’s attorney, Dean Stowers, suggested to The Daily Beast that the man in the surveillance video might have been “a skinny man in a fat suit.”
Stowers was less colorful in his comments for this story, saying only in an email, “Our position is that what the State claims happened does not appear to violate the statutes that Mr. Tipton is accused of violating.”
In January 2015, Tipton was charged in Iowa with two counts of fraud. Two months later, as Rhodes was about to leave home for his regular visitation with his kids, he was arrested by a Texas Ranger and driven to Fort Bend County Jail.
Rhodes conceded in his later deposition that, within his first three weeks in jail, while awaiting extradition, investigators with the Iowa Attorney General’s Office let him know they wanted to cut a deal. And not just Iowa officials — after Tipton’s arrest, Wisconsin lottery officials had reviewed the 2007 Megabucks drawing and believed that it may have been rigged as well.
He held out until December 2015, when, through defense attorney Terry Yates, Rhodes arranged a meeting with Iowa and Wisconsin assistant attorneys general. Yates stipulated that the meeting had to be in Chicago; he assured Rhodes that Iowa agents couldn’t arrest him there.
Rhodes said he only considered talking to authorities in the first place because he thought Tipton should have just pleaded out and spared everyone the grief. Tipton, Rhodes said in his deposition, “did all kinds of stuff that I felt jeopardized me, and more importantly, my children.”
At the December 9, 2015, Chicago meeting with Wisconsin and Iowa authorities, he signed something called a proffer agreement — a sort of test run to see what kind of information a potential witness or defendant has before the government decides whether to grant immunity.
Rhodes knew he had important information — but he was still concerned about taking the next step to becoming an official stool pigeon. According to his deposition, he was slightly afraid of what Tipton might do.
“Here is my best friend...he’s a big boy,” Rhodes said of Tipton. “And he’s a good old boy. And in Texas, good old boys have lots of guns, and they have pickup trucks, and you never know what a good old boy might get pissed off [sic] and come after you.”
But, he added, “that was my best friend, and I felt like I was betraying him.”
Not a huge fan of Rhodes, Tipton’s lawyer, Stowers, wanted to emphasize that last point.
“Well, you were betraying him, weren’t you?” Stowers asked.
“I was telling the truth,” Rhodes said.
“Well, you were betraying him, though?”
“Yeah,” Rhodes said. “I guess I was.”
In July 2015, just as Tipton was going to trial, Rhodes still hadn’t decided whether or not to flip.
Assistant Attorney General Sand was getting annoyed. Rhodes’s attorney, Yates, emailed Sand on July 10, 2015, with his thoughts: “Your case [against] Tipton seems suspect at best, and Rhodes didn’t do a damn thing illegal.”
Things would change after Tipton went to trial five days later.
***
Leading up to the trial in Des Moines, Sand had a little bit of a problem.
He had to persuade jurors that Tipton somehow manipulated two super-secure computers in a glass-walled room, with cameras inside and co-workers on the outside not noticing. Plus, forensic examiners had already inspected the computers used in the Hot Lotto draw, but those had already been retired and wiped clean.
But Sand had some helpful witnesses: one lottery association employee, tasked with reviewing security footage from inside the draw room, saw that Tipton went into the room on November 20, 2010, to change the computers’ clocks. While Tipton was inside, the time-stamp on the cameras showed an anomaly — it appeared that the cameras were only recording about one second per minute, rendering the video largely useless.
The hitch in the recording was addressed in a later civil suit, filed by an Iowa Hot Lotto player in February 2016. Citing other court rec-ords from the Tipton case, the suit explained that the association bought the cameras and software used to monitor the draw room computers from a company owned by the brother of Tipton’s friend, fellow association employee Ed Stefan. An association IT employee later testified that the equipment was “‘buggy’ from the date of installation,” sometimes freezing up and causing a “blue screen of death.”
The association’s unique approach to security took a further hit when the IT employee revealed that, every quarter, the draw-room camera recordings were put on disk and stored in Stefan’s basement.
Per Sand’s theory, glitches in the video surveillance — well-known by Tipton and IT personnel — gave Tipton enough time to surreptitiously stick a thumb drive with a modified code — a bug — into one or both of the computers. The bug would be programmed to destroy any trace of itself after it completed its mission, which, according to Sand, is why forensic examiners couldn’t find anything wrong.
Tipton’s attorney, Stowers, found this laughable.
In a later appeal, Stowers argued that Sand “was the equivalent of a ghost hunter called to the scene of a possible ghost sighting who, upon finding nothing after thorough investigation, declared that a ghost must have been there because ghosts leave no trace behind.”
At trial, Tipton’s siblings, including Tommy (months away from being charged himself), testified that their brother wasn’t the man in the video buying lottery tickets and a hot dog. According to Tommy, his brother didn’t even like hot dogs. This was clearly a tragic case of mistaken identity.
In February 2016, after Sand won two convictions against Tipton, he shared his own thoughts with Yates.
“You implied in your previous email that Rhodes is having a hard time coming around to full cooperation,” Sand wrote. “I think your [July 2015] email could be a good reminder to him that he is not indispensable to my trying and convicting Eddie Tipton. We’ve already been down this road once. If I do it without him again, he’s facing a lot worse than what was in front of him last time.”
Seven months later, in September 2016, Rhodes agreed to flip.
***
In September 2015, two months after Tipton was sentenced to ten years in prison, forensic investigators in Wisconsin finally figured out how Tipton rigged the Megabucks game, offering a key to how he may have rigged the Hot Lotto game.
That month, special agent Joanne Joy of the Wisconsin Department of Justice took possession of the three retired random-number-generator computers that were used in the 2007 drawing.
According to a Wisconsin criminal complaint filed in December 2016, the computers, which had been sitting in storage since being swapped out in 2013, were built by the lottery association and delivered to the Wisconsin Lottery Department by Tipton and Stefan.
A forensic analysis of the computers later revealed that someone had installed a type of file called a “dynamic-link library” into one of the computers’ codes, which “was able to redirect the normal operation of the random number generator program.”
In December 2016, the State of Wisconsin charged Tipton and Rhodes with racketeering and theft by fraud; Tipton was also charged on four counts of computer crime.
Citing pending criminal proceedings, an association spokesperson would not comment on what security measures, if any, were taken in the wake of the scandal. But in June 2016, U.S. Senator John Thune of South Dakota, who chaired the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, demanded that association officials let the committee know what they were doing “to ensure the integrity of lottery games.”
Gary Grief, the association’s board president, replied in a letter that none of the random-number-generator computers currently in use had software developed by Tipton.
The association also beefed up “physical security through increased use of video cameras and recordings, motion detectors, and other security measures.”
Grief also sent the senator a copy of a report by a law firm that the association hired to conduct an independent investigation. It’s unclear how much the association paid the international law firm to conduct this “confidential and privileged investigation,” but if it was more than the cost of a scratch-off ticket, the association was ripped off yet again.
For one thing, the investigators — a team comprising “skilled employees of member lotteries” — focused on “why” the jackpot-fixing happened, rather than on “knowing precisely ‘how it was done.’”
The team also claimed it could not determine the scheme’s financial or reputational fallout, noting, “While it is apparent [the association] has been damaged — for instance, it has incurred legal fees and costs in responding to the Tipton cases that would not have been otherwise necessary — these damages are not complete or fully quantifiable at this time.”
In that regard, at least, the team had a point: In March 2016, the same time the team wrapped up its investigation, Tommy Tipton was charged with theft in Iowa, over the Colorado lottery winnings. The complaint also alleged that the former justice of the peace purchased a winning ticket in an Oklahoma Hot Lotto game in November 2011 that was rigged by his brother. Tommy had a friend redeem the ticket and then shared a portion of the $907,000 with the friend, according to the complaint. (Tommy’s attorney, Mark Weinhardt, told the Press that his client intends to “vigorously” defend himself.)
It wouldn’t be until ten months later, in February 2017, that Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt filed a civil suit against Eddie Tipton and two friends who claimed $44,000 from two Kansas lottery draws in 2010 that Tipton had allegedly rigged. The suit is seeking $187,000 in restitution and civil penalties under the state’s False Claims Act.
The association is also defending itself against two civil suits filed in Iowa by lottery players who say they were cheated out of a fair shot at winning the games Tipton had rigged. In one case, financial adviser “Lucky” Larry Dawson also sued the Iowa Lottery and the lottery association, claiming that while he won $9 million in a 2011 Hot Lotto game, the winnings would have been bigger if Tipton hadn’t rigged earlier jackpots.
The association and the Iowa Lottery filed a motion to dismiss the case, but in October 2016 a judge denied the motion. The suit is still pending.
Another pending suit, filed in January 2017 by an Iowa insurance salesman, is seeking class-action status on behalf of hundreds of thousands of players who spent money on rigged games.
***
While awaiting their upcoming trials — Tipton’s in July, his brother Tommy’s in September — they’ve remained free on bond. They’re keeping a low profile.
Rhodes, whose plea deal recommended a two-year probation for the Iowa charges, and six months of house arrest for the Wisconsin charges, has continued with new and diverse business ventures. One, a flight school in Angleton called Third Coast Aviation, offers Groupons for private flight instruction in a single-engine, fixed-wing Piper built in 1979.
Another venture, Online Sales Juggernaut, offered to boost businesses’ sales with increased Internet presence and “hard nose sales know how,” but the company’s website was deactivated after the Press left voicemails seeking more information.
In January and March 2017, Rhodes pleaded guilty to fraud charges in Iowa and Wisconsin, respectively. He also made his first payment — $250,000 toward $409,000 in restitution — for the Wisconsin charges.
In January, his attorney, Terry Yates, released a statement saying, “Mr. Rhodes is thankful for all of the support he has received from his family and friends throughout this difficult time. He is ready to start a new chapter in his life.”
Later this year, he is expected to return to those Iowa and Wisconsin courtrooms — this time, to help put his former best friend in prison.
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
COLLEGE EDUCATION: A 4-YRAR VACATION
Starting with the 70s, America’s colleges and universities have undergone a dramatic downturn in the quality of education
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Politics
May 1, 2017
At one time our universities were recognized throughout the world for their excellence. Students from other countries eagerly came here to attend our colleges and universities. They still do, but unless they attend schools like MIT and Caltech, they would have been better off going to a prestigious university back home.
It was during and as a result of the Vietnam War that America’s colleges and universities began a downward spiral. Anti-war protests on college campuses empowered Marxist and other far-left professors. And those professors were more interested in indoctrinating students than in giving them the education their parents paid for.
Let me give you a Houston area example. In 1970, I left the faculty of Sam Houston State University to take over the law enforcement programs at College of the Mainland in Texas City. It took me only a month to realize that the college should have been named College of the Disneyland.
Except for a short interval, history professor Larry Smith was the de facto president of the college. He was one of several avowed Marxists on the faculty. In 1983 Smith handpicked music teacher Larry Stanley to be the college’s president. Until he retired in 2000, Stanley made no major decisions without the explicit advice and approval of Smith.
The college’s Marxist professors were imbedded in the Social Sciences department which offered courses in government (political science) and history, two courses required for an AA Degree. What the students got instead of government and history was a good dose of anti-Americanism.
While the nation’s colleges and universities may not be controlled by Marxists to the extend College of the Mainland was, they are influenced by their far-left faculty members. Worthless degrees are now offered in Women’s Studies; Gender Studies; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Studies; African-American Studies, etc.
Here are some course offerings:
“Queer Marriage, Hate Crimes, and Will and Grace” at Dartmouth
“Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee” at Harvard
“Politicizing Beyoncé” at Rutgers
“Lady Gaga and the Sociology of the Fame” at the University of South Carolina
“Kayne vs. Everybody” at Georgia State University
“Demystifying the Hipster” at Tufts University
“The Sociology of Miley Cyrus: Race, Class, Gender and Media” at Skidmore College
“The Science of Harry Potter” at Frostburg State University
“Philosophy and Star Trek” at Georgetown University
Is nonsense such as that what Mom and Dad had in mind when they send their kids off to college?
Try getting a job with degrees in Women’s Studies, Gender Studies, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Studies, African-American Studies, etc.
Ann Coulter was a guest on Sunday’s ABC This Week. She talked about how the far-left has taken over our colleges and universities and how higher education has been degraded. Coulter said attending college is a “4-year vacation.”
Attending college is a 4-year vacation? It’s sad, but I couldn’t have said it any better myself.
__________
ADDENDUM: I should clear something up about College of the Mainland which opened its doors in 1967. Its first president was obsessed with catering to the blacks living in the college district as a means of atoning for the sins of his great-grandfather who was an Alabama slaveholder. The next president, unfortunately, suffered from a brain tumor. It was when he left that Larry Smith became de facto president of the college.
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Politics
May 1, 2017
At one time our universities were recognized throughout the world for their excellence. Students from other countries eagerly came here to attend our colleges and universities. They still do, but unless they attend schools like MIT and Caltech, they would have been better off going to a prestigious university back home.
It was during and as a result of the Vietnam War that America’s colleges and universities began a downward spiral. Anti-war protests on college campuses empowered Marxist and other far-left professors. And those professors were more interested in indoctrinating students than in giving them the education their parents paid for.
Let me give you a Houston area example. In 1970, I left the faculty of Sam Houston State University to take over the law enforcement programs at College of the Mainland in Texas City. It took me only a month to realize that the college should have been named College of the Disneyland.
Except for a short interval, history professor Larry Smith was the de facto president of the college. He was one of several avowed Marxists on the faculty. In 1983 Smith handpicked music teacher Larry Stanley to be the college’s president. Until he retired in 2000, Stanley made no major decisions without the explicit advice and approval of Smith.
The college’s Marxist professors were imbedded in the Social Sciences department which offered courses in government (political science) and history, two courses required for an AA Degree. What the students got instead of government and history was a good dose of anti-Americanism.
While the nation’s colleges and universities may not be controlled by Marxists to the extend College of the Mainland was, they are influenced by their far-left faculty members. Worthless degrees are now offered in Women’s Studies; Gender Studies; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Studies; African-American Studies, etc.
Here are some course offerings:
“Queer Marriage, Hate Crimes, and Will and Grace” at Dartmouth
“Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee” at Harvard
“Politicizing Beyoncé” at Rutgers
“Lady Gaga and the Sociology of the Fame” at the University of South Carolina
“Kayne vs. Everybody” at Georgia State University
“Demystifying the Hipster” at Tufts University
“The Sociology of Miley Cyrus: Race, Class, Gender and Media” at Skidmore College
“The Science of Harry Potter” at Frostburg State University
“Philosophy and Star Trek” at Georgetown University
Is nonsense such as that what Mom and Dad had in mind when they send their kids off to college?
Try getting a job with degrees in Women’s Studies, Gender Studies, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Studies, African-American Studies, etc.
Ann Coulter was a guest on Sunday’s ABC This Week. She talked about how the far-left has taken over our colleges and universities and how higher education has been degraded. Coulter said attending college is a “4-year vacation.”
Attending college is a 4-year vacation? It’s sad, but I couldn’t have said it any better myself.
__________
ADDENDUM: I should clear something up about College of the Mainland which opened its doors in 1967. Its first president was obsessed with catering to the blacks living in the college district as a means of atoning for the sins of his great-grandfather who was an Alabama slaveholder. The next president, unfortunately, suffered from a brain tumor. It was when he left that Larry Smith became de facto president of the college.
SACRAMENTO PREPARES TO PAY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS' LEGAL DEFENSE
by Bob Walsh
Sacramento is a proud sanctuary city. They are also the capitol of California so you would think they would know better. Oh well, it is a Democrat-Socialist stronghold so what do you think will happen.
The city (which has closed down fire stations due to lack of funding) is preparing to kick down $300,000 to a fund to pay for the legal defense of illegal aliens from the evil policies of that bastard anti-Christ, Donald J. Trump.
The Alcalde of Sacramento, Darrell Steinberg, is a hard-core leftie who has never held a real job in his life but has been a politician at one level or the other, sucking it up at the public trough while telling honest taxpayers how to best live their lives.
It is illegal in the city for any city employee to, at any time, make any inquiry into the immigration status of any person they come into official contact with. It is estimated there are about 50,000 illegal aliens in the city
Santa Clara County, San Francisco and Oakland have already made similar moves. Oakland does not have a collective pot to piss in but does have $300,000 to give to illegal aliens.
EDITOR'S NOTE: With what attorneys charge, $300,000 will only pay for the defense of two or three illegals.
Sacramento is a proud sanctuary city. They are also the capitol of California so you would think they would know better. Oh well, it is a Democrat-Socialist stronghold so what do you think will happen.
The city (which has closed down fire stations due to lack of funding) is preparing to kick down $300,000 to a fund to pay for the legal defense of illegal aliens from the evil policies of that bastard anti-Christ, Donald J. Trump.
The Alcalde of Sacramento, Darrell Steinberg, is a hard-core leftie who has never held a real job in his life but has been a politician at one level or the other, sucking it up at the public trough while telling honest taxpayers how to best live their lives.
It is illegal in the city for any city employee to, at any time, make any inquiry into the immigration status of any person they come into official contact with. It is estimated there are about 50,000 illegal aliens in the city
Santa Clara County, San Francisco and Oakland have already made similar moves. Oakland does not have a collective pot to piss in but does have $300,000 to give to illegal aliens.
EDITOR'S NOTE: With what attorneys charge, $300,000 will only pay for the defense of two or three illegals.
COP FAKES SUICIDE AND STARTS NEW LIFE IN MEXICO
by Bob Walsh
Coleman Martin, 29, as a cop in Austin, Texas. For some reason not yet clear (at least not to news outlets) Officer Martin notified his wife that he was planning to drown himself in a nearby lake and left his car there. It seems however that Martin actually rode a bicycle to a convenience store near the lake, hopped a taxi to the border and took a bus into Mexico.
Austin authorities have issued a misdemeanor complaint against martin for making a false report.
There has to be more to this story than that.
Coleman Martin, 29, as a cop in Austin, Texas. For some reason not yet clear (at least not to news outlets) Officer Martin notified his wife that he was planning to drown himself in a nearby lake and left his car there. It seems however that Martin actually rode a bicycle to a convenience store near the lake, hopped a taxi to the border and took a bus into Mexico.
Austin authorities have issued a misdemeanor complaint against martin for making a false report.
There has to be more to this story than that.
DEPUTY KILLED DURING ESCAPE
by Bob Walsh
Wesley Williams-Correa-Carmenaty, 23, was being returned from a court hearing at about 11 a.m. on Monday when the situation went sideways. He managed to "steal" (gain control of) a weapon from a Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Sheriff's Deputy and shot two deputies, killing one. He then stole a transport van, crashed the gates at the jail and fled across the river to Nebraska.
A female prisoner was also in the transport van but was left behind and is not thought to have been involved in the escape. In addition a private citizen was shot by Carmenaty during an apparent carjacking.
The bad guy was recaptured in Nebraska following a high-speed chase and crash. He had just been sentenced to 45 years for robbery and had earlier pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and attempted murder in connection with a robbery-homicide.
I strongly suspect the Pottawattamie County S.O. may be about to review it's sallyport security and other transport related procedures. .
Wesley Williams-Correa-Carmenaty, 23, was being returned from a court hearing at about 11 a.m. on Monday when the situation went sideways. He managed to "steal" (gain control of) a weapon from a Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Sheriff's Deputy and shot two deputies, killing one. He then stole a transport van, crashed the gates at the jail and fled across the river to Nebraska.
A female prisoner was also in the transport van but was left behind and is not thought to have been involved in the escape. In addition a private citizen was shot by Carmenaty during an apparent carjacking.
The bad guy was recaptured in Nebraska following a high-speed chase and crash. He had just been sentenced to 45 years for robbery and had earlier pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and attempted murder in connection with a robbery-homicide.
I strongly suspect the Pottawattamie County S.O. may be about to review it's sallyport security and other transport related procedures. .
ANOTHER DAMN DAM MAY BE IN TROUBLE
by Bob Walsh
Trinity Lake is about 125 miles north-west of Lake Oroville. it is the third largest reservoir in the formerly great state of California and is, like Lake Oroville, retained by an earth-filled dam. About this time last week it was at 97% of capacity and the surrounding snow pack is about 160% of historic normal. If the reservoir were to overtop it could be very, very nasty for the down-stream residents and infrastructure, both of which are significantly fewer in number than the down-stream situation from the Oroville dam. There are only about 3,500 people in the immediate path of a dam failure there. There are almost 200,000 people down-stream from the Oroville dam.
The Trinity Lake dam is operated by the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation, while the Oroville dam is sort-of controlled by the Dept. of Water Resources, a state agency, though the actual control of the dam and reservoir is sort-of handle (or mishandled) by a southern CA. water district.
In 1996, an unusually wet year, the flow of water into Lake Trinity was about ten times that of the water going out. At that time the lake was drained down to 75% of capacity. The Trinity dam has a designed outflow of 35,000 cfs thru three outlets, one to a power plant, one thru an uncontrolled overflow tunnel and one thru a "glory hole" outlet near the base of the dam. Lake Oroville was at one time releasing 100,000 cfs over the damaged spillway.
Lake Trinity has a 3,000 square mile watershed and a capacity of 2.5 million acre-feet. Lake Oroville has a 6,000 square mile watershed and can hold 3.5 million acre-feet of water.
For some reason or other the county board of supervisors are concerned about Trinity dam. I can't imagine why.
Trinity Lake is about 125 miles north-west of Lake Oroville. it is the third largest reservoir in the formerly great state of California and is, like Lake Oroville, retained by an earth-filled dam. About this time last week it was at 97% of capacity and the surrounding snow pack is about 160% of historic normal. If the reservoir were to overtop it could be very, very nasty for the down-stream residents and infrastructure, both of which are significantly fewer in number than the down-stream situation from the Oroville dam. There are only about 3,500 people in the immediate path of a dam failure there. There are almost 200,000 people down-stream from the Oroville dam.
The Trinity Lake dam is operated by the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation, while the Oroville dam is sort-of controlled by the Dept. of Water Resources, a state agency, though the actual control of the dam and reservoir is sort-of handle (or mishandled) by a southern CA. water district.
In 1996, an unusually wet year, the flow of water into Lake Trinity was about ten times that of the water going out. At that time the lake was drained down to 75% of capacity. The Trinity dam has a designed outflow of 35,000 cfs thru three outlets, one to a power plant, one thru an uncontrolled overflow tunnel and one thru a "glory hole" outlet near the base of the dam. Lake Oroville was at one time releasing 100,000 cfs over the damaged spillway.
Lake Trinity has a 3,000 square mile watershed and a capacity of 2.5 million acre-feet. Lake Oroville has a 6,000 square mile watershed and can hold 3.5 million acre-feet of water.
For some reason or other the county board of supervisors are concerned about Trinity dam. I can't imagine why.
SOCIAL ENGINEERING FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS CALIFORNIA CORRECTIONS DEPARTMENT TO MAKE TRANSGENDER INMATES FEEL AT HOME
Judge: California must allow transgender inmates' earrings
FOX 11
April 29, 2017
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- California prison officials must provide for free undergarments that flatten the chest of transgender inmates at women's prisons and give transgender inmates at men's prisons access to bracelets, earrings, hair brushes and hair clips, a federal judge said Friday.
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar issued the order in a federal lawsuit that earlier led California to become the first state to provide taxpayer-funded sex reassignment surgery to an inmate.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation also agreed as part of the suit by Shiloh Quine to give transgender inmates access to certain products. Quine, 57, had sex reassignment surgery in January and was transferred from a men's facility to a women's prison in Chowchilla. She is serving a life sentence for murder, kidnapping and robbery.
Prison officials said they are reviewing the ruling.
Tigar's ruling came in a dispute over the products transgender inmates should have access to. Corrections officials allow transgender female inmates in men's prisons to have sandals, t-shirts and walking shoes. Tigar's ruling Friday expanded that list to include pajamas, nightgowns, robes and scarves, rejecting the corrections department's argument that those items could be altered to resemble street clothes, aiding in escape attempts.
Another judge had ruled that earrings, bracelets, hair brushes and hair clips could pose safety concerns in men's prisons. Tigar, noting that women's prisons allow those items, said they could be made from materials such as rubber that didn't create safety risks.
Corrections officials also allow transgender male inmates at women's prisons to buy undergarments known as binders or compressions tops. Tigar said that was "effectively" denying those items to inmates who could not afford them.
FOX 11
April 29, 2017
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- California prison officials must provide for free undergarments that flatten the chest of transgender inmates at women's prisons and give transgender inmates at men's prisons access to bracelets, earrings, hair brushes and hair clips, a federal judge said Friday.
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar issued the order in a federal lawsuit that earlier led California to become the first state to provide taxpayer-funded sex reassignment surgery to an inmate.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation also agreed as part of the suit by Shiloh Quine to give transgender inmates access to certain products. Quine, 57, had sex reassignment surgery in January and was transferred from a men's facility to a women's prison in Chowchilla. She is serving a life sentence for murder, kidnapping and robbery.
Prison officials said they are reviewing the ruling.
Tigar's ruling came in a dispute over the products transgender inmates should have access to. Corrections officials allow transgender female inmates in men's prisons to have sandals, t-shirts and walking shoes. Tigar's ruling Friday expanded that list to include pajamas, nightgowns, robes and scarves, rejecting the corrections department's argument that those items could be altered to resemble street clothes, aiding in escape attempts.
Another judge had ruled that earrings, bracelets, hair brushes and hair clips could pose safety concerns in men's prisons. Tigar, noting that women's prisons allow those items, said they could be made from materials such as rubber that didn't create safety risks.
Corrections officials also allow transgender male inmates at women's prisons to buy undergarments known as binders or compressions tops. Tigar said that was "effectively" denying those items to inmates who could not afford them.
BORDER PATROL IN ARIZONA FOUND FOUL SMELLING CASKET
Agents near Wilcox arrest man after finding casket filled with $33K worth of pot
abc 15
April 30, 2017
WILCOX, AZ -- Officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection say agents recently arrested a man after discovering a casket filled with dozens of pounds of marijuana.
On Saturday night, Wilcox border agents, working near the immigration checkpoint, spotted a white hearse driving north of Tombstone.
Agents performed a traffic stop near Highway 90 and Highway 82, border officials said. During the stop, agents discovered several inconsistencies — to which they did not expand — and went forward with using a K9 to inspect the vehicle.
The K9 alerted agents about a suspicious odor coming from the hearse, authorities said. During a search of the vehicle, agents discovered that a casket was filled with over $33,000 worth of pot.
According to officials, the 67 pounds of marijuana was hidden between several bags of manure in an attempt to disguise the smell.
A 28-year-old man was arrested for narcotics smuggling, officials said. He is a United States citizen.
abc 15
April 30, 2017
WILCOX, AZ -- Officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection say agents recently arrested a man after discovering a casket filled with dozens of pounds of marijuana.
On Saturday night, Wilcox border agents, working near the immigration checkpoint, spotted a white hearse driving north of Tombstone.
Agents performed a traffic stop near Highway 90 and Highway 82, border officials said. During the stop, agents discovered several inconsistencies — to which they did not expand — and went forward with using a K9 to inspect the vehicle.
The K9 alerted agents about a suspicious odor coming from the hearse, authorities said. During a search of the vehicle, agents discovered that a casket was filled with over $33,000 worth of pot.
According to officials, the 67 pounds of marijuana was hidden between several bags of manure in an attempt to disguise the smell.
A 28-year-old man was arrested for narcotics smuggling, officials said. He is a United States citizen.
NORTH CAROLINA FAST FOOD RESTAURANT WORKERS AND THEIR MANAGER SERENADE RALEIGH COPS WITH ‘FUCK THA POLICE’
This past week, several Raleigh, North Carolina police officers were eating at Smithfield’s Chicken ’n Bar-B-Q restaurant in Garner when they were serenaded by the manager and employees of the establishment. At first glance you would think that was very nice of them. But what they sang was the 1980s rap group N.W.A.’s anti-police anthem, “Fuck Tha Police”.
The franchise owner apologized and promised to investigate the matter and that any employees who were disrespectful to the police would be fired.
Here are the complete lyrics of “Fuck Tha Police”:
Right about now, N.W.A. court is in full effect
Judge Dre presiding
In the case of N.W.A. vs. the Police Department
Prosecuting attorneys are MC Ren, Ice Cube
And Eazy-motherf***ing-E
Order, order, order
Ice Cube, take the motherf***ing stand
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth
And nothing but the truth so help your black ***?
You goddamn right!
Well won't you tell everybody what the f*** you gotta say?
F*** the police coming straight from the underground
A young n***a got it bad cause I'm brown
And not the other color so police think
They have the authority to kill a minority
F*** that s***, cause I ain't the one
For a punk motherf***er with a badge and a gun
To be beating on, and thrown in jail
We can go toe to toe in the middle of a cell
F***ing with me cause I'm a teenager
With a little bit of gold and a pager
Searching my car, looking for the product
Thinking every n***a is selling narcotics
You'd rather see, me in the pen
Than me and Lorenzo rolling in a Benz-o
Beat a police out of shape
And when I'm finished, bring the yellow tape
To tape off the scene of the slaughter
Still getting swoll off bread and water
I don't know if they f*** or what
Search a n***a down, and grabbing his n***
And on the other hand, without a gun they can't get none
But don't let it be a black and a white one
Cause they'll slam ya down to the street top
Black police showing out for the white cop
Ice Cube will swarm
On any motherf***er in a blue uniform
Just cause I'm from the CPT
Punk police are afraid of me, huh
A young n***a on the warpath
And when I'm finished, it's gonna be a bloodbath
Of cops, dying in L.A
Yo Dre, I got something to say
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
Pull your god damn *** over right now
Aww s***, now what the f*** you pullin me over for?
Cause I feel like it!
Just sit your *** on the curb and shut the f*** up
Man, f*** this s***
Aight, smart***, I'm taking your black *** to jail!
MC Ren, will you please give your testimony
To the jury about this f***ed up incident?
F*** the police and Ren said it with authority
Because the n***as on the street is a majority
A gang is with whoever I'm stepping
And the motherf***ing weapon is kept in
A stash box, for the so-called law
Wishing Ren was a n***a that they never saw
Lights start flashing behind me
But they're scared of a n***a so they mace me to blind me
But that s*** don't work, I just laugh
Because it gives them a hint not to step in my path
For police, I'm saying, "F*** you punk!"
Reading my rights and s***, it's all junk
Pulling out a silly club, so you stand
With a fake-*** badge and a gun in your hand
But take off the gun so you can see what's up
And we'll go at it punk, and I'ma f*** you up!
Make you think I'mma kick your ***
But drop your gat, and Ren's gonna blast
I'm sneaky as f*** when it comes to crime
But I'ma smoke them now and not next time
Smoke any motherf***er that sweats me
Or any ***hole that threatens me
I'm a sniper with a hell of a scope
Taking out a cop or two, they can't cope with me
The motherf***ing villain that's mad
With potential, to get bad as f***
So I'ma turn it around
Put in my clip, yo, and this is the sound
{*BOOM, BOOM*}
Yeah, something like that
But it all depends on the size of the gat
Taking out a police would make my day
But a n***a like Ren don't give a f*** to say
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
Yo man, what you need?
Police, open out!
Aww s***
We have a warrant for Eazy-E's arrest
Get down and put your hands up where I can see 'em
(Move motherf***er, move now!)
What the f*** did I do, man what did I do?
Just shut the f*** up
And get your motherf***ing *** on the floor
(You heard the man, shut the f*** up!)
But I didn't do s***
Man just shut the f*** up!
Eazy-E, won't you step up to the stand
And tell the jury how you feel about this bulls***?
I'm tired of the motherf***ing jacking
Sweating my gang, while I'm chilling in the shack, and
Shining the light in my face, and for what?
Maybe it's because I kick so much butt
I kick *** -- or maybe cause I blast
On a stupid-*** n***a when I'm playing with the trigger
Of an Uzi or an AK
Cause the police always got something stupid to say
They put out my picture with silence
Cause my identity by itself causes violence
The E with the criminal behavior
Yeah, I'm a gangsta, but still I got flavor
Without a gun and a badge, what do ya got?
A sucker in a uniform waiting to get shot
By me, or another n***a
And with a gat it don't matter if he's smaller or bigger
(MC Ren: Size don't mean s***, he's from the old school fool)
And as you all know, E's here to rule
Whenever I'm rolling, keep looking in the mirror
And ears on cue, yo, so I can hear a
Dumb motherf***er with a gun
And if I'm rolling off the 8, he'll be the one
That I take out, and then get away
While I'm driving off laughing this is what I'll say
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
The verdict
The jury has found you guilty of being a redneck
White bread, chickens*** motherf***er
But wait, that's a lie! That's a god damn lie!
Get him out of here!
Get him the f*** out my face!
I want justice!
Out, right now!
F*** you, you black motherf***ers!
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
I didn’t fill in the blanks because it would have taken me too long what with all the ‘fuck’ words and other obscenities.
If serenading the cops with ”Fuck Tha Police” was meant to be funny, it wasn’t! If it was meant to insult the cops, it did and it should!
The franchise owner apologized and promised to investigate the matter and that any employees who were disrespectful to the police would be fired.
Here are the complete lyrics of “Fuck Tha Police”:
Right about now, N.W.A. court is in full effect
Judge Dre presiding
In the case of N.W.A. vs. the Police Department
Prosecuting attorneys are MC Ren, Ice Cube
And Eazy-motherf***ing-E
Order, order, order
Ice Cube, take the motherf***ing stand
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth
And nothing but the truth so help your black ***?
You goddamn right!
Well won't you tell everybody what the f*** you gotta say?
F*** the police coming straight from the underground
A young n***a got it bad cause I'm brown
And not the other color so police think
They have the authority to kill a minority
F*** that s***, cause I ain't the one
For a punk motherf***er with a badge and a gun
To be beating on, and thrown in jail
We can go toe to toe in the middle of a cell
F***ing with me cause I'm a teenager
With a little bit of gold and a pager
Searching my car, looking for the product
Thinking every n***a is selling narcotics
You'd rather see, me in the pen
Than me and Lorenzo rolling in a Benz-o
Beat a police out of shape
And when I'm finished, bring the yellow tape
To tape off the scene of the slaughter
Still getting swoll off bread and water
I don't know if they f*** or what
Search a n***a down, and grabbing his n***
And on the other hand, without a gun they can't get none
But don't let it be a black and a white one
Cause they'll slam ya down to the street top
Black police showing out for the white cop
Ice Cube will swarm
On any motherf***er in a blue uniform
Just cause I'm from the CPT
Punk police are afraid of me, huh
A young n***a on the warpath
And when I'm finished, it's gonna be a bloodbath
Of cops, dying in L.A
Yo Dre, I got something to say
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
Pull your god damn *** over right now
Aww s***, now what the f*** you pullin me over for?
Cause I feel like it!
Just sit your *** on the curb and shut the f*** up
Man, f*** this s***
Aight, smart***, I'm taking your black *** to jail!
MC Ren, will you please give your testimony
To the jury about this f***ed up incident?
F*** the police and Ren said it with authority
Because the n***as on the street is a majority
A gang is with whoever I'm stepping
And the motherf***ing weapon is kept in
A stash box, for the so-called law
Wishing Ren was a n***a that they never saw
Lights start flashing behind me
But they're scared of a n***a so they mace me to blind me
But that s*** don't work, I just laugh
Because it gives them a hint not to step in my path
For police, I'm saying, "F*** you punk!"
Reading my rights and s***, it's all junk
Pulling out a silly club, so you stand
With a fake-*** badge and a gun in your hand
But take off the gun so you can see what's up
And we'll go at it punk, and I'ma f*** you up!
Make you think I'mma kick your ***
But drop your gat, and Ren's gonna blast
I'm sneaky as f*** when it comes to crime
But I'ma smoke them now and not next time
Smoke any motherf***er that sweats me
Or any ***hole that threatens me
I'm a sniper with a hell of a scope
Taking out a cop or two, they can't cope with me
The motherf***ing villain that's mad
With potential, to get bad as f***
So I'ma turn it around
Put in my clip, yo, and this is the sound
{*BOOM, BOOM*}
Yeah, something like that
But it all depends on the size of the gat
Taking out a police would make my day
But a n***a like Ren don't give a f*** to say
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
Yo man, what you need?
Police, open out!
Aww s***
We have a warrant for Eazy-E's arrest
Get down and put your hands up where I can see 'em
(Move motherf***er, move now!)
What the f*** did I do, man what did I do?
Just shut the f*** up
And get your motherf***ing *** on the floor
(You heard the man, shut the f*** up!)
But I didn't do s***
Man just shut the f*** up!
Eazy-E, won't you step up to the stand
And tell the jury how you feel about this bulls***?
I'm tired of the motherf***ing jacking
Sweating my gang, while I'm chilling in the shack, and
Shining the light in my face, and for what?
Maybe it's because I kick so much butt
I kick *** -- or maybe cause I blast
On a stupid-*** n***a when I'm playing with the trigger
Of an Uzi or an AK
Cause the police always got something stupid to say
They put out my picture with silence
Cause my identity by itself causes violence
The E with the criminal behavior
Yeah, I'm a gangsta, but still I got flavor
Without a gun and a badge, what do ya got?
A sucker in a uniform waiting to get shot
By me, or another n***a
And with a gat it don't matter if he's smaller or bigger
(MC Ren: Size don't mean s***, he's from the old school fool)
And as you all know, E's here to rule
Whenever I'm rolling, keep looking in the mirror
And ears on cue, yo, so I can hear a
Dumb motherf***er with a gun
And if I'm rolling off the 8, he'll be the one
That I take out, and then get away
While I'm driving off laughing this is what I'll say
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
The verdict
The jury has found you guilty of being a redneck
White bread, chickens*** motherf***er
But wait, that's a lie! That's a god damn lie!
Get him out of here!
Get him the f*** out my face!
I want justice!
Out, right now!
F*** you, you black motherf***ers!
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
F*** Tha Police
I didn’t fill in the blanks because it would have taken me too long what with all the ‘fuck’ words and other obscenities.
If serenading the cops with ”Fuck Tha Police” was meant to be funny, it wasn’t! If it was meant to insult the cops, it did and it should!
Monday, May 01, 2017
TRUMP’S INVITATION TO FILIPINO PRESIDENT DUTERTE HAS HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS SHITTING IN THEIR PANTS
President Trump has invited Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte to Washington to develop a mutual North Korean strategy
Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte is a no-holds-barred, no-prisoner-taken fighter in the war on drugs. Since “Duterte Harry” took office on June 30, 2016, nearly 8,000 drug dealers and users have been shot dead in extra-judicial killings by Filipino cops and Duterte-inspired vigilantes.
The death toll of drug dealers and users has given human rights groups apoplectic fits. He has been condemned throughout the western world. But Rod has some allies in South East Asia. President Joko Widodo has all drug dealers in Indonesia executed. Prime Minister Najib Razak has all drug dealers in Malaysia executed. And Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has all drug dealers in Singapore executed.
In a phone call to Duterte over the weekend, Trump invited him to come to Washington to develop a mutual strategy on North Korea. That has human rights groups shitting in their pants. How dare Trump invite this brutal violator of human rights?
When I was in the Philippines this past Christmas and New Year, I found that Rod was extremely popular with the Filipino people. They approve of his no-holds-barred, take-no- prisoners approach in dealing with their country’s drug problems.
Personally I prefer Duterte’s approach to that of former president Obama who had the Justice Department order the DEA not to enforce the federal marijuana laws in those states that had legalized pot for medical and/or recreational purposes. When Obama condemned Duterte’s tactics, “Duterte Harry” reacted by calling our president the “son of a whore”, the Filipino equivalent of “son of a bitch”.
Considering the shared dangers we face with Kim Jong-un, it was only right that Trump invited “Duterte Harry” to the White House. The human rights groups will just have to go on shitting in their pants.
Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte is a no-holds-barred, no-prisoner-taken fighter in the war on drugs. Since “Duterte Harry” took office on June 30, 2016, nearly 8,000 drug dealers and users have been shot dead in extra-judicial killings by Filipino cops and Duterte-inspired vigilantes.
The death toll of drug dealers and users has given human rights groups apoplectic fits. He has been condemned throughout the western world. But Rod has some allies in South East Asia. President Joko Widodo has all drug dealers in Indonesia executed. Prime Minister Najib Razak has all drug dealers in Malaysia executed. And Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has all drug dealers in Singapore executed.
In a phone call to Duterte over the weekend, Trump invited him to come to Washington to develop a mutual strategy on North Korea. That has human rights groups shitting in their pants. How dare Trump invite this brutal violator of human rights?
When I was in the Philippines this past Christmas and New Year, I found that Rod was extremely popular with the Filipino people. They approve of his no-holds-barred, take-no- prisoners approach in dealing with their country’s drug problems.
Personally I prefer Duterte’s approach to that of former president Obama who had the Justice Department order the DEA not to enforce the federal marijuana laws in those states that had legalized pot for medical and/or recreational purposes. When Obama condemned Duterte’s tactics, “Duterte Harry” reacted by calling our president the “son of a whore”, the Filipino equivalent of “son of a bitch”.
Considering the shared dangers we face with Kim Jong-un, it was only right that Trump invited “Duterte Harry” to the White House. The human rights groups will just have to go on shitting in their pants.
SOMEBODY NEEDS A REVIEW OF BASIC PROCEDURES
by Bob Walsh
David Watson, 28, is not a nice guy. He was doing 104 years for the attempted murder of a police officer in Delaware. He was taken by prison staff to a nut farm and escaped.
This is all a bit murky. Watson is facing charges of attempted murder in Wicoma County, Maryland but was doing time in Delaware. He was picked up by Wicomico County Correctional Officers and was taken to a psych facility for evaluation to determine if he is fit to stand trial on the additional charges. He somehow manged to slip his restraints and when the door was open on the transport vehicle he bowled over one of the transport officers and beat feet. For some reason I don't quite understand the officers weapons were secured in a gun safe in the vehicle when they attempted to unload him so they were unable to shoot his happy ass as he ran away.
They are offering a meager $5,000 reward. They have probably spent more in that on overtime since the 940 a.m. escape on Saturday.
David Watson, 28, is not a nice guy. He was doing 104 years for the attempted murder of a police officer in Delaware. He was taken by prison staff to a nut farm and escaped.
This is all a bit murky. Watson is facing charges of attempted murder in Wicoma County, Maryland but was doing time in Delaware. He was picked up by Wicomico County Correctional Officers and was taken to a psych facility for evaluation to determine if he is fit to stand trial on the additional charges. He somehow manged to slip his restraints and when the door was open on the transport vehicle he bowled over one of the transport officers and beat feet. For some reason I don't quite understand the officers weapons were secured in a gun safe in the vehicle when they attempted to unload him so they were unable to shoot his happy ass as he ran away.
They are offering a meager $5,000 reward. They have probably spent more in that on overtime since the 940 a.m. escape on Saturday.
PACKED CELLS, SNIFFER DOGS AND AN ANNUAL BEAUTY PARADE
Inside the notorious Colombian El Buen Pator prison known as 'The Good Shepherd' where accused Australian cocaine smuggler has been locked up with two thousand other women
By Kate Darvall and Nic White
Daily Mail
April 30, 2017
This is the notorious Colombian prison where a young Australian woman was locked up after she was arrested with 5.8kg of cocaine at a South American airport.
Cassandra Sainsbury, 22, was taken to El Buen Pator in Colombia's capital after she was arrested at El Dorado International Airport in Bogota on April 11.
Miss Sainsbury, a personal trainer from Adelaide, has reportedly been locked up at the overcrowded women's prison since.
Home to drug dealers, murders and petty criminals, El Buen Pastor is widely known for its unconventional in-house beauty pageant.
Incredible photos have emerged of prison inmates dressed in formal wear, crowns and sashes for the annual pageant.
The prison has nine cell blocks, each housing between 100 and 250 women.
Each cell block elects one woman to be its representative to contest the top prize.
Secretary of the Colombian jail and the pageant's co-ordinator Virginia Camacho defended the beauty pageant.
'The fact that they made a mistake in their lives doesn't mean they aren't allowed to be a human being or feel like a woman,' she said.
The contest is held every September to honour the Virgin of Mercedes, patron saint of prisons.
Other photos show women with their babies inside the prison, which reportedly has a section dedicated to women and their young children.
Women were also pictured listening to a TED motivational talk in June 2015.
While photos depict a fun, light-hearted side to the the prison, deplorable conditions have also been documented from inside.
One photographer described the women's prison as overcrowded, filthy and with bullet holes littered throughout.
Photographer Jan Banning said prisoners were forced to sleep on the floor and were packed into confined spaces like cattle.
El Buen Pastor has reportedly been home to 22-year-old Cassandra Sainsbury for almost two months.
She will remain behind bars until her hearing in two months, according to her family.
'I'm devastated that my little girl is in this place. I'm scared to death for her. Our family just wants her home safe,' her mother Lisa Evans said.
'I cant believe this has happened to an innocent young women,Anyone who knows Cassie, knows she did not do this. It can happen to anyone,' her grandmother Barbara Johns added.
Miss Evans' sister Khala said her sister was innocent and had been 'set up'.
'Anyone that knows her, would say she is a kind, loving, happy kind of girl. She would help anyone out in need,' she said.
'Our hearts break, because we know she is innocent, but stands little chance of proving it in such a corrupt country.'
Her arrest came while Miss Evans was planning a wedding next February to her fiance and 'love of her life' Scott Broadbridge, after they got engaged in October on a cruise to Vanuatu and New Caledonia.
Khala said her sister was tricked into being a drug mule by a man she just met who handed her a package containing the concealed drugs.
She said Cassandra saw some headphones and decided to buy them as gifts for her bridal party and family friends, and a man who was showing her around said a friend could get them cheaper.
The cocaine was concealed in the packing of more than 15 headphones she was given the morning of her flight home.
'It came to her already packaged and concealed and she put it straight in her suitcase. She's very naïve,' Khala told 9 News.
'She has her full life ahead of her, and now its all put on the line because of this. We miss her so much, and since we have very little contact with her its very hard,' he sister said.
Khala said her sister found a Colombian lawyer but he suggested pleading guilty to lesser charges to avoid an up to 25-year jail sentence.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing assistance to an Australian woman arrested in Colombia in accordance with the Consular Services Charter.
'Due to our privacy obligations, we are unable to release further information,' it said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Of course she’s innocent. All the Australian women who have been caught smuggling drugs in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and now Columbia, claim they were set up. Yeah, and Pigs can fly.
By Kate Darvall and Nic White
Daily Mail
April 30, 2017
This is the notorious Colombian prison where a young Australian woman was locked up after she was arrested with 5.8kg of cocaine at a South American airport.
Cassandra Sainsbury, 22, was taken to El Buen Pator in Colombia's capital after she was arrested at El Dorado International Airport in Bogota on April 11.
Miss Sainsbury, a personal trainer from Adelaide, has reportedly been locked up at the overcrowded women's prison since.
Home to drug dealers, murders and petty criminals, El Buen Pastor is widely known for its unconventional in-house beauty pageant.
Incredible photos have emerged of prison inmates dressed in formal wear, crowns and sashes for the annual pageant.
The prison has nine cell blocks, each housing between 100 and 250 women.
Each cell block elects one woman to be its representative to contest the top prize.
Secretary of the Colombian jail and the pageant's co-ordinator Virginia Camacho defended the beauty pageant.
'The fact that they made a mistake in their lives doesn't mean they aren't allowed to be a human being or feel like a woman,' she said.
The contest is held every September to honour the Virgin of Mercedes, patron saint of prisons.
Other photos show women with their babies inside the prison, which reportedly has a section dedicated to women and their young children.
Women were also pictured listening to a TED motivational talk in June 2015.
While photos depict a fun, light-hearted side to the the prison, deplorable conditions have also been documented from inside.
One photographer described the women's prison as overcrowded, filthy and with bullet holes littered throughout.
Photographer Jan Banning said prisoners were forced to sleep on the floor and were packed into confined spaces like cattle.
El Buen Pastor has reportedly been home to 22-year-old Cassandra Sainsbury for almost two months.
She will remain behind bars until her hearing in two months, according to her family.
'I'm devastated that my little girl is in this place. I'm scared to death for her. Our family just wants her home safe,' her mother Lisa Evans said.
'I cant believe this has happened to an innocent young women,Anyone who knows Cassie, knows she did not do this. It can happen to anyone,' her grandmother Barbara Johns added.
Miss Evans' sister Khala said her sister was innocent and had been 'set up'.
'Anyone that knows her, would say she is a kind, loving, happy kind of girl. She would help anyone out in need,' she said.
'Our hearts break, because we know she is innocent, but stands little chance of proving it in such a corrupt country.'
Her arrest came while Miss Evans was planning a wedding next February to her fiance and 'love of her life' Scott Broadbridge, after they got engaged in October on a cruise to Vanuatu and New Caledonia.
Khala said her sister was tricked into being a drug mule by a man she just met who handed her a package containing the concealed drugs.
She said Cassandra saw some headphones and decided to buy them as gifts for her bridal party and family friends, and a man who was showing her around said a friend could get them cheaper.
The cocaine was concealed in the packing of more than 15 headphones she was given the morning of her flight home.
'It came to her already packaged and concealed and she put it straight in her suitcase. She's very naïve,' Khala told 9 News.
'She has her full life ahead of her, and now its all put on the line because of this. We miss her so much, and since we have very little contact with her its very hard,' he sister said.
Khala said her sister found a Colombian lawyer but he suggested pleading guilty to lesser charges to avoid an up to 25-year jail sentence.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing assistance to an Australian woman arrested in Colombia in accordance with the Consular Services Charter.
'Due to our privacy obligations, we are unable to release further information,' it said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Of course she’s innocent. All the Australian women who have been caught smuggling drugs in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and now Columbia, claim they were set up. Yeah, and Pigs can fly.
A PHOTOGRAPHER’S ERRATIC FLIGHT
A photographer for a national magazine was assigned to take pictures of a great forest fire. He was advised that a small plane would be waiting to fly him over the fire.
The photographer arrived at the airstrip just an hour before sundown. Sure enough, a small Cessna airplane was waiting. He jumped in with his equipment and shouted, "Let's go!"
The tense man sitting in the pilot's seat swung the plane into the wind and soon they were in the air, though flying erratically.
"Fly over the north side of the fire," said the photographer, "and make several low-level passes."
"Why?" asked the nervous pilot.
"Because I'm going to take pictures!" yelled the photographer. "I'm a photographer, and photographers take pictures."
After a long pause, the ‘pilot’ replied: "You mean, you're not my instructor?"
The photographer arrived at the airstrip just an hour before sundown. Sure enough, a small Cessna airplane was waiting. He jumped in with his equipment and shouted, "Let's go!"
The tense man sitting in the pilot's seat swung the plane into the wind and soon they were in the air, though flying erratically.
"Fly over the north side of the fire," said the photographer, "and make several low-level passes."
"Why?" asked the nervous pilot.
"Because I'm going to take pictures!" yelled the photographer. "I'm a photographer, and photographers take pictures."
After a long pause, the ‘pilot’ replied: "You mean, you're not my instructor?"
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