From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
One person was killed, a Montana Highway Patrol trooper was in critical condition and two others were hospitalized after a shooting spree in Missoula and Evaro that resulted in the arrest of one suspect.
Trooper Wade Palmer, who was flown Friday afternoon to Salt Lake City for treatment, was shot in his patrol car after he found the suspect’s car near the Evaro Bar and Casino early Friday morning.
Less than a day after a terrorist attack at two mosques that left 49 people dead and several fighting for their lives, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she will change gun laws of the country, with the prime minister noting that the New Zealand government is now looking at banning semi-automatic weapons.
“While the nation grapples with a form of grief and anger that we have not experienced before, we are seeking answers,” Ardern said during a Saturday morning news conference in Wellington, cited by Bloomberg. “I can tell you one thing right now, our guns laws will change.” Continue reading “New Zealand To Change Gun Laws After Mosque Shooting”
Update: 6 a.m.
The Montana Highway Patrol posted on its Facebook page that a trooper was among those shot:
OFFICER DOWN: A Montana Highway Patrol Trooper was shot early this morning during an incident with a male suspect who is currently at large in the Evaro area. The trooper has been transported and is currently hospitalized with injuries sustained as a result of the incident. Continue reading “Montana trooper shot, manhunt continues in Missoula area shootings”
Senate Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues on Thursday in voting to block President Trump’s border emergency declaration — a move that will prompt the president’s first-ever veto.
The president made his intentions crystal clear, tweeting “VETO!” moments after the resolution cleared Congress. The White House said Trump likely would issue the veto Friday. Continue reading “Senate votes to block Trump’s border emergency declaration, in bipartisan rebuke teeing up veto”
(Reuters) – Families of schoolchildren gunned down in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre can sue Remington Outdoor Co Inc, a Connecticut court ruled on Thursday, in a setback for gun makers long shielded from liability in mass shootings.
In a 4-3 ruling widely expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Connecticut’s highest court found the lawsuit could proceed based on a state law protecting consumers against fraudulent marketing. Continue reading “Families can sue gun maker for Sandy Hook school massacre: court”
The U.S.-China trade impasse will have to end for U.S. crude exporters to find enough buyers to absorb dramatic annual growth of 1 million barrels per day in U.S. exports over the next few years, a top oil trading executive at commodities trader Trafigura AG said at an energy conference on Tuesday.
As markets adjusted to the U.S.-China trade war and U.S. crude shipments to China plunged in recent months, U.S. exports to Europe and India have surged. Continue reading “US crude exporters need China, Trafigura exec says”
Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were among more than four dozen people charged in a nationwide college admissions cheating scandal that involved paying up to $6 million to place their children into elite universities, according to court records revealed Tuesday.
The alleged scam — which involved placing students in top colleges such as Yale, Georgetown, Stanford, University of Southern California, UCLA and the University of Texas — was run by a man in California, William Rick Singer, who helped parents get their children into the schools through bribes, court documents unsealed in Boston showed. Continue reading “Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin among 50 snared in elite college cheating scam, authorities say”
A former Customs and Border Protection agent was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for helping smugglers get drugs across the southern border, according to a case unsealed Friday.
For 10 years while still an agent, Robert Hall “facilitated the trafficking of illegal drugs, including marijuana, into the United States from Mexico on behalf of a drug trafficking organization,” the Department of Justice said. Continue reading “CBP agent gave drug trafficking organization keys to fences along the southern border, DOJ says”
ROSEBURG, OR (KPTV) – A witness video in Douglas County captured the moment a suspect starts exchanging gunfire with police in Roseburg – all of this before the car bursts into flames.
At about 6 p.m. Saturday, deputies got a report of possible stolen car seen at a Love’s Travel Stop along Interstate 5 in Roseburg. The vehicle had been reported stolen to the Eugene Police Department on March 7. Continue reading “Witness video shows suspect exchanging gunfire with officers in Douglas Co.”
Campus Reform – by Ben McDonald
Gonzaga University has decided to crowdfund a scholarship for illegal immigrant students at the school.
Gonzaga initially proposed the scholarship during the 2016-2017 school year and involved a $2.50 tuition hike that all students would pay unless they chose to opt-out. Gonzaga promoted the scholarship in its morning newsletter. In April 2018, the funding for the scholarship shifted from a tuition hike to students trying to get private donations to fund the scholarship. Continue reading “Gonzaga finds a way to fund illegal immigrant scholarships”
As of March 7, US immigration officials have quarantined at least 2,287 migrants carrying everything from mumps to chickenpox, according to Reuters, citing an ICE official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
ICE health officials have been notified of 236 confirmed or probable cases of mumps among detainees in 51 facilities in the past 12 months, compared to no cases detected between January 2016 and February 2018. Last year, 423 detainees were determined to have influenza and 461 to have chicken pox. All three diseases are largely preventable by vaccine. –Reuters
Continue reading “US Quarantines Over 2,200 Migrants Amid “Unprecedented” Disease Outbreaks”
The suspect in the fatal shooting of a sheriff’s deputy Thursday at a hotel in Rockford, Illinois, has now been taken into custody after barricading himself in his car following a high-speed chase, Illinois State Police confirmed to ABC News.
The suspect, identified as Floyd E. Brown, 39, lost control of his vehicle during the chase and careened off Interstate 55 between Bloomington and Springfield and crashed into a ravine, said Master Sgt. Sam Thomas of the Illinois State Police. He then barricaded himself in his car Thursday afternoon. Continue reading “Suspect in fatal shooting of deputy at hotel in Rockford, Illinois, now in custody: Officials”
A deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service was shot Thursday morning in a Rockford, Illinois, hotel by a man he was there to arrest and who is currently on the run, authorities said.
The suspect, Floyd E. Brown, 45, immediately fired on officers at the Extended Stay America hotel off N. Bell School Road. He fled the hotel and is on the run, said Andre Brass of the Rockford Police Department. Continue reading “Manhunt underway for gunman who shot U.S. Marshal at Rockford, Illinois, hotel”
President Trump on Wednesday issued an executive order revoking an Obama-era requirement to publicly report the number of U.S. drone strikes outside of war zones and the number of civilians killed by them.
The new policy does not cover Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, areas of conflict where the United States has troops currently deployed. It only applies to drone strikes carried out by intelligence operatives — i.e., the CIA. The military reports casualties separately in the theaters where it operates. Continue reading “Trump revokes Obama order on reporting civilian deaths in drone strikes”
GRANGER, Ind. (AP) — Authorities say an 11-year-old Indiana boy who shot and wounded his state-trooper father has been charged as a juvenile with attempted murder.
The South Bend Tribune reports that St. Joseph County prosecutors filed a petition alleging delinquency for attempted murder, the juvenile equivalent of a criminal charge. Continue reading “Boy, 11, charged after shooting dad, a state trooper”
CNN – by Priscilla Alvarez and Rosa Flores
Washington (CNN)A surge of migrants along the US-Mexico border has US Customs and Border Protection at the “breaking point,” the Trump administration said Tuesday.
More than 76,000 people were apprehended crossing illegally or without proper papers in February, the highest number of “encounters” in any February in the last 12 years, according to CBP. Continue reading “CBP says system at breaking point with more than 76,000 migrants illegally crossing or inadmissible last month”
INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — It’s March. It’s cold. That groundhog lied about spring coming soon.
Now, local authorities are looking for him to hold him accountable.
The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office posted a wanted poster for Punxsutawney Phil due to fraud. Continue reading “Groundhog wanted for fraud after predicting early spring”
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a rural Nebraska county’s appeal of a $28 million court judgment aimed at compensating six people wrongfully convicted of a 1985 slaying.
The justices turned away Gage County’s last-ditch effort to avoid the hefty judgment, after a federal appeals court in St. Louis found the award was justified because of egregious law enforcement conduct. In August, the county raised its local property tax levy as high as state law allows to pay off the debt — a move that could become a major drag on the local economy. Continue reading “Justices: Nebraska county owes $28M for wrongful convictions”
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed its first significant public lands conservation bill in years, designating more than one million acres of wilderness for environmental protection and permanently reauthorizing a federal program to pay for conservation measures.
The House passage of the bill, on a vote of 363-62, sends the measure, which was passed by the Senate this month, to the desk of President Trump. The vote Tuesday offered a rare moment of bipartisanship in a divided chamber and a rare victory for environmentalists at a time when the Trump administration is working aggressively to strip away protections on public lands and open them to mining and drilling. Continue reading “In Show of Bipartisanship, House Approves a Sweeping Land Conservation Bill”
A generous Oregon couple stepped in to pay for 45 hotel rooms for the homeless on Tuesday night as snow coated the ground. Amberly Batten and her husband Ryan had come across Facebook posts from volunteers with the local nonprofit Compassion Highway Project and knew they needed to help.
“I had seen some posts about some people who were homeless that were contemplating suicide because they were cold and didn’t have anywhere to go, and that hit something in my core. I had to do something,” Amberly told local NBC affiliate KOBI-TV. Continue reading “Oregon couple pays for 45 hotel rooms to house homeless on snowy night”