The Oregonian – by Maxine Bernstein

Federal prosecutors next week will seek a nearly 31/2-year sentence for Oregon refuge occupier Ryan Payne, the longest prison term yet for a defendant convicted in the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

They described Payne as a central figure who helped orchestrate the armed occupation of the federal wildlife sanctuary, described by Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Barrow as “one of the most extensive criminal activities in Oregon history.”   Continue reading “Prosecutors to seek nearly 3 1/2-year sentence for refuge occupier Ryan Payne”

Miami Herald

One week after a mass shooter Nikolas Cruz murdered 17 people inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, Broward’s top cop on Thursday revealed a stunning series of failures by the sheriff’s department.

A school campus cop heard the gunfire, rushed to the building but never went inside – instead waiting outside for another four agonizing minutes as Cruz continued the slaughter.   Continue reading “Douglas school cop who ‘never went in’ during shooting has resigned”

In Florida:

NBC 2

Some local gun shops are reporting an increase in people buying AR-15 rifles.

The weapon, dubbed “America’s most popular rifle” by the NRA, has been used in many mass shootings like the one in Las Vegas and most recently at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.  Continue reading “Local gun shops see spikes in AR-15 sales after school shooting”

Center for Immigration Studies – by Jessica M. Vaughan

The Trump administration has declared war on MS-13, the notoriously brutal gang based in El Salvador. A similar initiative launched by the Bush administration in 2005 stifled the gang’s activity after several years, but the gang has been able to rebuild itself here since 2012.

Center researchers reviewed more than 500 cases of MS-13 gang members arrested nationwide since 2012. We conclude that this resurgence represents a very serious threat to public safety in communities where MS-13 has rebuilt itself. The resurgence is directly connected to the illegal arrival and resettlement of more than 300,000 Central American youths and families that has continued unabated for six years, and to a de-prioritization of immigration enforcement in the interior of the country that occurred at the same time.   Continue reading “MS-13 Resurgence: Immigration Enforcement Needed to Take Back Our Streets”

Washington Examiner – by Anna Giaritelli

A Mexican man residing illegally in Milwaukee, Wis., pled guilty and agreed to self-deport after Justice Department officials discovered he stole more than $1 million from the government by filing a large number of bogus Additional Child Tax Credit claims, the Eastern District of Wisconsin’s office announced Tuesday.

Dimas Chavez-Pina pled guilty on Feb. 2 to theft of government money and aggravated identity theft for pilfering $1,058,827 from the U.S. Treasury between 2011 and 2014, the district’s U.S. attorney Gregory J. Haanstad said in a statement.   Continue reading “Illegal immigrant pleads guilty and vows to self-deport after stealing $1M through bogus Earned Income Tax Credit claims”

Fox News

A plot by a “disgruntled” student who was planning a mass shooting at a Southern California high school was thwarted after a security guard overheard a conversation, authorities said Tuesday.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release a security guard at El Camino High School in Whittier, located east of Los Angeles, overheard the 17-year-old student threaten to open fire on the school Friday.  Continue reading “California school shooting plot thwarted, police say”

Yahoo News

The woman who cared for accused Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz and his brother filed court papers seeking control of their inheritance just one day after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

After their mother Lynda Cruz died from flu-related pneumonia last November, Cruz, 19, and his brother Zachary, 17, were put into the care of Roxanne Deschamps.

A source close to the family, who has not been named, told the New York Post Deschamps kicked Cruz out of her trailer after a fight over his gun collection. She also reportedly also took $2,900 from him before he moved out.   Continue reading “Nikolas Cruz’s Carer Wants Control of Florida Shooter’s $800K Inheritance”

Fox News

President Trump is signaling an openness to the idea of raising the minimum age for purchasing certain firearms in the wake of last week’s school shooting in Parkland, Fla., where a 19-year-old is accused of killing 17 teachers and students with an AR-15 rifle.

A White House source told Fox News that Trump is open to a number of measures to address mass shootings, including supporting a rise in the minimum age for owning certain firearms – a proposal that could face resistance from gun rights groups, like the National Rifle Association.   Continue reading “Trump considers raising purchase age for certain firearms, amid gun control talks”

ABC News

An hourslong standoff in Alabama ended with both the suspect and a police officer dead.

Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste told news outlets early Wednesday that Officer Justin Billa was shot Tuesday night and succumbed to his injuries at a hospital.

Earlier Tuesday evening, officers responding to a report of a person hit had found Fonda Poellnitz dead. Police identified her ex-husband, Robert Hollie, as a person of interest and set up a perimeter around his Toulminville home. Battiste said officers called upon him to come out, but Hollie instead opened fire, striking Billa.   Continue reading “Alabama officer killed, suspect found dead after standoff”

NBC News

Billy Graham, the charismatic North Carolina pastor who took his evangelizing crusades around the country and the globe, died on Wednesday, according to officials of his organization.

He was 99 years old.

Graham served as a counselor or minister to a dozen U.S. presidents, and he preached to an estimated 200 million people in 185 countries around the world during his life. His message reached millions more as he maintained a near-constant presence on radio, television and the internet.   Continue reading “Billy Graham, ‘America’s pastor,’ dead at age 99”

Fox News

Revolutionary War reenactors are accustomed to not firing until they see the whites of their enemy’s eyes. But in California, they may soon need to learn not to fire at all.

Park officials in Elk Grove, just south of Sacramento, have forced a historical society to abruptly cancel a long-planned, two-day Revolutionary War reenactment, citing local anti-gun laws, the Elk Grove Citizen reported.

Instead of muskets, officials reportedly requested an alternative: wooden sticks.  Continue reading “Anti-gun laws force cancellation of Revolutionary War reenactment in California”

Fox 13

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – With students from Stoneman Douglas High school present, the Florida state House voted down a motion to take up a bill that would ban assault rifles, effectively killing the measure for this session.

The vote comes less than a week after 17 people were fatally shot at the South Florida high school. The gun used was reportedly an assault-style rifle – an AR-15.

The motion failed by a 36-71 vote.   Continue reading “Florida legislators vote down assault rifle ban proposal”

Business Insider – by Michelle Mark

Last week’s deadly shooting at a Florida high school has renewed calls for gun-control legislation — but some finance-industry titans could take the issue into their own hands.

The New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote on Monday that he had spent several days speaking with “a handful of chief executives” to discuss how banks and credit-card companies could intervene in gun sales. Sorkin said he found universal enthusiasm, though none of the executives would speak on the record.   Continue reading “Banks are mulling a creative way to enforce gun control even if the US government doesn’t make a single change”

Wall Street Journal

Syrian regime forces backed by Russian warplanes pounded a rebel-held suburb of the capital, intensifying months of attacks in catastrophic scenes reminiscent of the scorched-earth campaign that flattened much of Aleppo.

Some 160 people, including women, children and a rescue worker, have been killed in Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, over the past two days, activist and medical groups said—one of the highest death tolls in years there.  Continue reading “Syrian Forces Backed by Russia Bombard Hard-Hit Suburb of Capital”

Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away a constitutional challenge brought by gun rights activists to a California law imposing a 10-day waiting period for the purchase of firearms, intended to guard against impulsive violence and suicides.

Signaling its continued reluctance to step into the growing national debate over gun control, the nine justices left in place a lower court ruling that upheld the waiting period put in place in the Democratic-governed state that has some of the broadest U.S. firearms restrictions.   Continue reading “Top court rejects challenge to California gun waiting period”

AL.com

Between 2014 and 2016, the sheriff of one Alabama county pocketed more than $110,000 worth of “excess” taxpayer dollars his office received to feed inmates in the county jail he oversees.

Another Alabama sheriff paid a teenager to mow his lawn in 2015 using checks that drew from funds that were allocated for inmate food but ended up in one of his personal accounts.   Continue reading “Alabama sheriffs pocket tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars allocated to feed inmates”