Cincinnati CBP Seizes Cocaine in Tombstone, Meth in Candy…
February 15, 2019
On January 4, CBP Officers conducting routine inspections found two unmanifested shipments coming from Mexico and destined to Gridley, California. The packages contained what appeared to be tinfoil-wrapped candy, but officers noticed anomalies during both the x-ray and physical inspections. Officers unwrapped the candy and found that several pieces of the candy held plastic capsules containing small bags of a white crystalline powder that tested positive for methamphetamines. Both shipments contained a total of approximately nine pounds of methamphetamines.
On January 24, CBP Narcotic Detector Dog, Freddy, alerted to a shipment manifested as “decorative tombstone” while working incoming cargo from Canada. After noting inconsistencies during an x-ray exam, officers opened the shipment and discovered a tombstone made of a resin material. Upon further inspection, the backing of the tombstone was easily removed exposing a hollow interior packed with a white powder. Officers tested the powder, which was positive for cocaine.
Questions after Ocasio-Cortez’s boyfriend gets congressional email account…
February 15, 2019
While you were having a nice Valentine's Day, @AOC decided to put her boyfriend on staff - drawing a salary on the taxpayer's dime. Nice to see her adapting to the swamp so quickly. pic.twitter.com/bvncwzxY53
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 15, 2019
The democratic socialist waded into the issue in response to a tweet alleging boyfriend Riley Roberts had been put on staff. The tweet included a screenshot of an official House email address. Ocasio-Cortez insisted that he was only given the email account so he could access her calendar.
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House IT rules generally prohibit the use of “the House’s electronic mail systems and resources” by unauthorized members, and only “U.S. House of Representative Members, Officers, Employees, Fellows, Interns and Contractors” with appropriate permission can use the system. Still, O'Boyle cited the practice of sometimes allowing spouses access.Chaffetz said that Roberts having email access could also create other security issues and the matter should be referred to the Capitol Police for further investigation.
Feds reportedly investigating Ryan Adams over sexts with teen…
February 15, 2019
Adams allegedly sent messages to the fan starting when she was 14 and the correspondence continued until she was 16, according to a report by The New York Times.
The former Whiskeytown singer has denied the allegations.
FBI agents in the bureau’s New York office on Thursday started to open a criminal investigation into the matter, the paper said.
WH press secretary Sarah Sanders interviewed by special counsel’s office…
February 15, 2019
"The President urged me, like he has everyone in the administration, to fully cooperate with the special counsel. I was happy to voluntarily sit down with them," Sanders said in response to a question from CNN.
The interview is one of the final known interviews by Mueller's team. It came around the same time as the special counsel interviewed former White House chief of staff John Kelly, well after a number of other senior officials, including former White House communications director Hope Hicks and former press secretary Sean Spicer, were brought in for questioning.
CNN commentator Nina Turner goes in after democrat congresswoman Nanette Barragán who blames Trump for blackface…
February 15, 2019
Human trafficking trial begins in Florence Alabama…
February 15, 2019
Prosecutors say Dillard worked with Staggs to take advantage of females in the Lauderdale County Detention Center. Once they were able to get them out of jail, prosecutors have said the females would be forced into sexual servitude for payback.
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Almost 50 witnesses have been summoned for the trial, which could last as long as three weeks.Dillard has remained behind bars since his indictment in 2016. Staggs was temporarily free on bond, but it was revoked after he was arrested again on charges that he tried to solicit another woman for sex.
Chicago is nation’s most corrupt big city, Illinois is third most corrupt state, report finds…
February 15, 2019
The DOJ began keeping track of these statistics in 1976, and in the past 42 years a total of 1,731 people have been convicted of public corruption in Illinois's Northern District. Los Angeles (1,534), Manhattan (1,327), Miami (1,165) and Washington, D.C. (1,159) directly follow Chicago in public corruption convictions.
Illinois also ranked highly on the list of the most corrupt states in the U.S., taking the third place spot. Along with Chicago's 25 convictions, there were nine total convictions in Illinois's Southern and Central Districts, bringing the 2017 statewide total to 34. This is a decrease from the 44.7 convictions per year since 1976, and California, Texas, Florida and New York all have more public convictions than Illinois; nevertheless, the state remains the third most corrupt state on a per capita basis.
Judicial Watch: Docs Reveal FBI Cover Up of ‘Chart’ of Potential Violations of Law by Hillary Clinton – Judicial Watch
February 15, 2019
Judicial Watch announced today it received 186 pages of records from the Department of Justice that include emails documenting an evident cover up of a chart of potential violations of law by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
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Three days after then-FBI Director James Comey’s press conference announcing that he would not recommend a prosecution of Mrs. Clinton, a July 8, 2016 email chain shows that, the Special Counsel to the FBI’s executive assistant director in charge of the National Security Branch, whose name is redacted, wrote to Strzok and others that he was producing a “chart of the statutory violations considered during the investigation [of Clinton’s server], and the reasons for the recommendation not to prosecute…”Amazon blasts Ocasio-Cortez, says ‘we don’t want to work in this environment in the long term’…
February 15, 2019
"If you talk to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, it's 'Never Amazon,'" Jodi Seth, the head of policy communications for Amazon, told NBC News in an interview on Thursday. "If you talk to [New York City Councilman Jimmy] Van Bramer, it's unions."
Seth added that "it wasn't any one incident" that drove the Seattle-based tech giant to its decision, adding that the virulent political discourse that occurred over the past three months was what led to the decision. "It was that the environment over the course of the past three months had not got any better. There were some local and state elected officials who refused to meet with Amazon and criticized us day in and day out about the plan," she said in the interview.
Ginsburg Meets With Supreme Court Justices In Friday Conference…
February 15, 2019
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was back at the court on Friday for the justices’ private conference.
The Supreme Court’s Public Information Office told The Hill that Ginsburg was attending the regular closed-door meeting in which the justices consider requests to review cases.
U.S. Supreme Court to decide legality of census citizenship query…
February 15, 2019
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide the fate of a fiercely contested plan by President Donald Trump’s administration to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, agreeing on Friday to an expedited review of a judge’s ruling blocking the plan.
The justices, in a brief order, granted the administration’s request to hear its appeal of Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman’s Jan. 15 ruling even before a lower appeals court has considered the matter. Oral arguments will take place in late April, with a ruling due by the end of June.
Roger Stone remains free to talk about Robert Mueller and the Russia investigation, just not in and around the Washington, D.C., courthouse…
February 15, 2019
Active shooter reported in Illinois…
Update: At least 1 dead, multiple wounded - Shooter has been
Update 2: Five Killed and Several Others Wounded - Shooter was an employee...
Update 3: 6 dead in Aurora factory shooting; mom says gunman was laid off, ‘stressed out’...
February 15, 2019
Reports of 6 shot at Henry Pratt. Plant being evacuated. US Marshalls on the ground. Shooter at large. Shots still being fired.
— Meghan Dwyer (@MeghanAnnDwyer) February 15, 2019
Police are responding to manufacturer Henry Pratt Co., located west of Chicago, for a report of an active shooter, according to WMAQ-TV.
A school and two businesses in Aurora are on lockdown, WLS-TV reported. West Aurora School District 129 reported going into a "soft lockdown."
A SWAT team and other law enforcement officers have been deployed, according to WGN-TV.
Steve Bannon Wants To Build A Border Wall Made Of Hemp…
February 15, 2019
VICE News joined Bannon and the team behind 'We Build the Wall' to learn how they plan to side-step Washington and build their own wall.
He wants the wall to be technologically state-of-the-art. “I'm obsessed with the hempcrete,” Bannon said, referring to a concrete-like construction material made from hemp. “I think this plant has got tremendous entrepreneurial aspects to it and it's innovation. We're not sitting there saying, ‘Hey, just a concrete wall or just a steel barrier.’ It has to be advanced technology.”
"2019 is going to be the nastiest year in American politics... since before the civil war" - Steve Bannon
Spokeswoman: McCabe 25th Amendment comments ‘misrepresented’…
February 15, 2019
— Melissa Schwartz (@MSchwartz3) February 15, 2019
Michael Avenatti: R. Kelly seen having sex with underage girl in newly uncovered video…
February 15, 2019
In his statement posted on Twitter, Avenatti says he handed over the "recently uncovered and recovered" VHS tape to Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx in Chicago, Illinois. Avenatti further claimed the video isn't the same evidence used in Kelly's 2008 trial when he was acquitted on child pornography charges.
"This tape, which is clear, is approximately 45 minutes in length and has never previously been publicly disclosed or, until recently, provided to law enforcement," Avenatti alleged.
Elon Musk-backed AI Company Claims It Made a Text Generator That’s Too Dangerous to Release…
February 15, 2019
Researchers at the non-profit AI research group OpenAI just wanted to train their new text generation software to predict the next word in a sentence. It blew away all of their expectations and was so good at mimicking writing by humans they’ve decided to pump the brakes on the research while they explore the damage it could do.
These excellent results have freaked the researchers out. One concern they have is that the technology would be used to turbo-charge fake news operations. The Guardian published a fake news article written by the software along with its coverage of the research. The article is readable and contains fake quotes that are on topic and realistic. The grammar is better than a lot what you’d see from fake news content mills. And according to The Guardian’s Alex Hern, it only took 15 seconds for the bot to write the article.
Vatican, Microsoft team up on artificial intelligence ethics?…
February 15, 2019
Gallium nitride is the silicon of the future…
February 15, 2019
Kentucky ‘no permit’ concealed-carry gun bill advances…
February 15, 2019
In a 29-8 vote Thursday, the Kentucky Senate approved a bill calling for the elimination of permits for carrying concealed weapons in the state.
Kentucky already lets gun owners carry firearms openly without a permit.