From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
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”
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”
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”
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”
The Tribune Democrat – by David Hurst
GREENSBURG – Ray Shetler lowered his head, slammed his fist onto a desk and wept Friday night as a jury found him not guilty on his most serious charges – first- and third-degree murder – in the shooting death of a St. Clair Township police officer.
Behind him, Lloyd Reed Jr.’s widow, Rose Marie, put her hands to her face and cried, too, stunned by the decision after six days of court testimony and 20 hours of deliberation in the 2015 shooting. Continue reading “Jury finds Shetler not guilty of murdering police officer”
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Gateway Pundit – by Kristinn Taylor
A security scare with the motorcade for President Donald Trump prompted the abrupt replacement of every press van driver Monday morning at Mar-a-Lago after a gun was found in a bag of one of the drivers. The gun was found outside Mar-a-Lago as the driver was being screened by the Secret Service.
Jordan Fabian of the Hill filed a pool report on the incident: Continue reading “Trump Motorcade Press Van Drivers Abruptly Replaced After Gun Found in Driver’s Bag”
Search and rescue teams are continuing to look for an Iranian plane that crashed in bad weather on Sunday.
Local government officials reported that the wreckage had been found, but a Red Crescent official later said there was no evidence of this.
A civil aviation official was also unable to confirm the reports. Continue reading “Iran plane crash: Search continues for missing Aseman Airlines plane”
The White House revealed on Sunday that President Trump would support a push to improve the nation’s system of background checks for would-be gun buyers, days after the shooting massacre at the high school in Parkland, Florida.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump spoke on Friday to Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn about a bill the Texas Republican had introduced alongside Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., which would “improve federal compliance with criminal background check legislation.” Continue reading “Trump backs efforts to improve federal gun background checks, White House says”
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A powerful magnitude-7.2 earthquake shook south and central Mexico Friday, causing people to flee swaying buildings and office towers in the country’s capital, where residents were still jittery after a deadly quake five months ago.
Crowds of people gathered on Mexico City’s central Reforma Avenue as well as on streets in Oaxaca state’s capital, nearer the quake’s epicenter, which was in a rural area close to Mexico’s Pacific coast and the border with Guerrero state. Continue reading “Magnitude-7.2 earthquake slams south, central Mexico”
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The West Virginia House voted 60-40 on Thursday to allow drilling for natural gas beneath property where 75 percent of owners of its royalty interests agree.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
Supporters said the bill enables a supermajority of a property’s owners to make money from West Virginia’s large underground gas reserves and would give the state more tax revenues and an economic boost. Continue reading “West Virginia House votes to boost natural gas drilling”
CHICAGO – Cook County Jail officials said they plan to take action against several inmates who clapped for the man accused of shooting a police commander.
The jail released video showing about five inmates clapping as Shomari Legghette walked into his court hearing on Thursday.
Those inmates were being held in a cell waiting to see a judge when Legghette walked by. Continue reading “Cook Co. jail inmates clap for suspect in cop’s fatal shooting”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said the recent school shooting in Florida was a “tragedy” and called on Congress to look into gun issues.
“Personally I think the gun violence — It’s a tragedy what we’ve seen yesterday, and I urge Congress to look at these issues,” he said during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing about President Trump‘s budget request. Continue reading “Mnuchin urges Congress to look at gun issues after Florida shooting”
PARKLAND, Florida –The suspect in a deadly high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, is in custody, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said. Continue reading “Suspect in custody after shooting at FL school; at least 14 victims; superintendent says “number of fatalities””
The Trump administration is thinking inside the box.
President Donald Trump wants to drastically scale back food stamps and replace them with a “food box” delivery program — like Blue Apron.
Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters on Monday about the plan by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to redesign the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) as “America’s Harvest Box.” Under the plan, more than 16 million households would have half of their benefits go toward the food box delivery program. Continue reading “Trump wants to replace food stamps with ‘Blue Apron-type program’”
Passengers onboard a United plane traveling from California to Hawaii suffered a major scare Tuesday after noticing the plane’s engine cover had fallen off.
Photos posted to social media appeared to show one of the Honolulu-bound jet engine shells falling off the Boeing 777. The plane made an emergency landing at around 1:00 p.m., according to Hawaii News Now. Continue reading “United Airlines passengers rattled after plane’s engine shell falls off”
Syria — At least 100 Russians were killed last week when U.S.-led coalition forces clashed with pro-Assad fighters in eastern Syria, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing a U.S. official and three Russian sources.
From the article:
“More than 200 mercenaries, mostly Russians fighting on behalf of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, died in a failed attack on a base and refinery held by U.S. and U.S.-backed forces in the oil-rich Deir Ezzor region, two of the Russians said. The U.S. official put the death toll at about 100, with 200 to 300 injured.” Continue reading “The US Killed Over 100 Russians in Syria Last Week”
FORT MEAD, Md. — At least three people have been shot near the National Security Agency Headquarters in Maryland, according to WBAL.
The shooting happened around 7:15 a.m. Wednesday near the visitor’s gate at Fort Meade, Fox 5 reports.
The shooter is now reportedly in custody and a police officer is among the injured. The shooter is in custody. Continue reading “At least 3 reportedly shot outside NSA Headquarters”