Washington Post – by Robert O’Harrow Jr., Steven Rich

Police agencies have used hundreds of millions of dollars taken from Americans under federal civil forfeiture law in recent years to buy guns, armored cars and electronic surveillance gear. They have also spent money on luxury vehicles, travel and a clown named Sparkles.

The details are contained in thousands of annual reports submitted by local and state agencies to the Justice Department’s Equitable Sharing Program, an initiative that allows local and state police to keep up to 80 percent of the assets they seize. The Washington Post obtained 43,000 of the reports dating from 2008 through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Continue reading “Asset seizures fuel police spending”

New Jersey high schoolLA Times – by James Queally

Seven high school football players have been arrested in a hazing scandal in central New Jersey, and three of them have been charged with sex crimes for assaults on freshman team members last month, prosecutors said.

Six of the defendants, whose identities were withheld because they are juveniles, were arrested by investigators with the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and the Sayreville Police Department on Friday night, according to a statement released by prosecutor Andrew Carey.   Continue reading “7 football players arrested in New Jersey hazing, sexual assault case”

The Chukchansi casino and resort was closed after armed tribal factions confronted each otherMercury News

COARSEGOLD, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge closed a Central California casino after an armed showdown between tribal factions caused many gamblers to flee with chips left on the tables.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence O’Neill, acting on an emergency request by the state attorney general, set no date for the possible reopening of the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino in Coarsegold, about 40 miles north of Fresno, The Fresno Bee reported (http://bit.ly/1syCiKE ). He scheduled a hearing for Wednesday.    Continue reading “California casino closed after armed standoff”

NRSF Gate

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The Navajo Nation says a tribal police officer has been shot in northern Arizona and a suspect is in custody.

Navajo Nation spokesman Deswood Tome says Officer Joseph Gregg was shot in the face Saturday in Kaibeto and was in stable condition at a hospital in Flagstaff.   Continue reading “Navajo police officer shot in Arizona”

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The Rebel Website – by John Kaminski

Nothing but lies — past, present and future. Your children are learning them as we speak, and one day soon, they won’t recognize their parents. In fact one day, after ingesting the requisite amount of government brainwashing, they will kill their parents in service to the state they are made to love.

Once the hope of the future but now its albatross, the USA is the land of lies. It’s an embarrassment to be an American because the whole world knows for sure that Americans can’t be trusted — no question about that. Just read the papers — it’s obvious.   Continue reading “Living in the land of lies”

5-Year-Old Who Drew Pretend Crayon-Gun Made to Sign No-Suicide ContractKinja – by Jay Hathaway

A Mobile, Ala., mom says school officials forced her daughter to sign a contract promising not to commit suicide or harm others after the kindergartner “drew something that resembled a gun,” then pointed a crayon at another kid and said “pew, pew!”

5-year-old Elizabeth was sent home after school officials made her take a questionnaire to evaluating her for suicidal thoughts, then had her sign the safety contract promising to contact an adult if she was thinking of suicide or homicide. This all happened while her mom waited in the lobby to pick her up, the upset parent told WPMI.   Continue reading “5-Year-Old Who Drew Pretend Crayon-Gun Made to Sign No-Suicide Contract”

A sign asks patients to inform staff if they have fever, cough, trouble breathing, rash, vomiting or diarrhea symptoms and have recently traveled internationally or have had contact with someone who recently traveled internationally at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, New York October 8, 2014. REUTERS/Adrees LatifReuters – by Grant McCool

U.S. lawmakers agreed to use $750 million in war funds to fight Ebola in West Africa and seven more people in Spain were admitted to the hospital where an infected nurse lay seriously ill on Friday, as global concern grew about the virus spreading.

Countries from Macedonia to the Czech Republic to Brazil dealt with a rash of unlikely cases while Europe, the United States and the United Nations focused on trying to contain Ebola, which has killed thousands in West Africa.   Continue reading “U.S. to free up Ebola funds as fears of global spread rise”

All Gov – by Steve Straehley

The Distressed Asset Stabilization Program (DASP) is a federal program that was meant to take nonperforming mortgages off the banks’ books and move them to an entity that would make the terms of their loans easier for homeowners to live with. Instead, the program, run by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), has turned out to be a money-maker for big investors.

A report (pdf) by The Right to the City Alliance and The Center for Popular Democracy shows that the FHA has auctioned 98,100 mortgages from 2012 to the middle of this year. For-profit entities, primarily private equity firms, have bought 97% of them. Once the homes are foreclosed on, the equity firms then rent out the houses and even sell securities based on future rent receipts.   Continue reading “Government Housing Program Backfires, Helps Wall Street Instead”

A neighbor of Jason "Mayhem" Miller shared this photo of his arrest after a standoff that he live-tweeted on Oct. 9, 2014, in Mission Viejo. KTLA 5 – by MELISSA PAMER, TRACY BLOOM AND CHIP YOST

A mixed-martial artist nicknamed “Mayhem” was arrested at his home  Thursday after apparently live-tweeted an hourslong standoff with the Sheriff’s Department that ended after a SWAT team, a bomb squad and crisis negotiators came to his Mission Viejo home on Thursday.

Deputies were serving an arrest warrant for alleged stalking and domestic violence in the 26000 block of Avenida Calidad (map) about 10 a.m. when a man barricaded himself inside the home, Lt. Jeff Hallock with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said.   Continue reading “MMA Fighter Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller Surrenders After Live-Tweeting Standoff With OCSD”

Iguala police officers stand guard at an area near clandestine graves at Pueblo ViejoEuroNews

Mexican authorities have found four more mass graves containing charred bodies in the south west of the country where 43 students went missing two weeks ago.

The search for the fugitive mayor of Iguala and his wife is now formally underway, and new arrests were made in the investigation.   Continue reading “Four new mass graves unearthed in Mexico”

San Gabriel Obama.jpgReuters – by Sharon Bernstein

President Barack Obama will declare a swath of the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles as a national monument on Friday, the White House said, following an 11-year effort that got caught up in partisan politics.

Along with the designation, the U.S. Forest Service will dedicate $1 million in educational staff, graffiti removal and other long-deferred maintenance work, and non-profit foundations have committed an additional $3.5 million for restoration and stewardship of mountain areas.   Continue reading “Obama to declare Los Angeles-area mountains national monument”

Your Houston News

The Texas Department of State Health Services has completed testing of the specimen submitted Thursday by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. The result is negative for Ebola.

The test was to evaluate the case of a sheriff’s deputy who sought medical care yesterday.

The deputy, who does not have a fever and is doing better, had been briefly inside the apartment of a man who later died of Ebola. The Ebola patient had already been hospitalized so the deputy did not have direct contact with him. All known cases of Ebola have occurred through direct contact with blood or other bodily fluids or exposure to contaminated objects, such as needles.   Continue reading “Sheriff’s deputy tests negative for Ebola”

National Review Online – by Katherine Timpf

A Nebraska school district has instructed its teachers to stop referring to students by “gendered expressions” such as “boys and girls,” and use “gender inclusive” ones such as “purple penguins” instead.

“Don’t use phrases such as ‘boys and girls,’ ‘you guys,’ ‘ladies and gentlemen,’ and similarly gendered expressions to get kids’ attention,” instructs a training document given to middle-school teachers at the Lincoln Public Schools.   Continue reading “School Told to Call Kids ‘Purple Penguins’ Because ‘Boys and Girls’ Is Not Inclusive to Transgender”