From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
The Florida man who invoked the “stand your ground” self-defense law after shooting a black man in a dispute over a parking space was charged Monday with manslaughter, officials said.
Michael Drejka, 48, was arrested Monday morning in the fatal shooting in July of Markeis McGlockton in Clearwater, Florida — an incident that was caught on video which sparked an uproar after its release. Continue reading “Florida ‘stand your ground’ shooter Michael Drejka charged with manslaughter”
The Trump administration is starting the process of opening up large swaths of land in California to hydraulic fracturing.
In a notice issued Wednesday to the Federal Register, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said it intends to analyze the impact of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, on publicly owned land throughout the state. Continue reading “Trump officials open door to fracking in California”
A Montana man who was accused of filling his water cup with soda at a fast food restaurant has been arrested and charged with multiple misdemeanors and a felony.
Missoula Police Public Information Officer Travis Welsh says police were called to the scene on Thursday around 2:30 pm after Daniel Stine started a fight with a restaurant employee. Continue reading “Man accused of filling water cup with soda at fast food restaurant starts fight, gets Tased, cops say”
A Horizon Air passenger plane crashed on an island in Puget Sound Friday night, not long after a suspect conducted an “unauthorized take-off” from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington state, officials said.
Witnesses reported seeing a large plume of smoke in the air above Ketron Island after the plane went down. No passengers were believed to be aboard the Q400 aircraft, airport officials said. Continue reading “Plane crashes after ‘unauthorized take-off’ from SeaTac airport, officials say”
A routine traffic stop in Pennsylvania resulted in a gunfight on the side of the road that nearly killed one of the officers. Police pulled Daniel Clary over for speeding and attempted to arrest him when it appeared that he was impaired. State Trooper Seth Kelly’s heart reportedly stopped due to wounds he received from the shootout, although he was revived. Continue reading “Heart-stopping moment officer is shot by man pulled over for speeding”
Canadian police say a suspect is in custody after at least four people – two of them police officers – were killed in a shooting in the eastern city of Fredericton, New Brunswick.
The city police confirmed the officers’ deaths on Twitter.
The pair have not been named, and the circumstances around the incident remain unclear. Continue reading “Canada shooting: Four dead including two police in Fredericton”
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday halted a deportation in progress and threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt if the mother and daughter weren’t returned to the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of Washington learned in court that the two plaintiffs in a lawsuit before him were being removed from the United States and confirmed later that they were on a plane headed to Central America. He said any delay in bringing them back would be intolerable. Continue reading “US judge halts deportation, threatens Sessions with contempt”
A U.S. border patrol agent was assaulted while attempting to apprehend a group of illegal immigrants crossing the border in California on Tuesday.
The unidentified agent was patrolling near the Calexico West Port of Entry and the New River when he came across a group of individuals trying to cross the border from Mexico. Continue reading “Border patrol agent assaulted by illegal immigrant group crossing from Mexico”
The father of a missing 3-year-old who was arrested at a New Mexico compound linked to “extremist Muslims” last week was training children to commit school shootings, court documents filed on Wednesday revealed.
Prosecutors allege Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 39, was conducting weapons training on the compound, where 11 children were found hungry and living in squalor. They asked Wahhaj, who appeared in court on Wednesday, be held without bail. Continue reading “Man arrested at ‘extremist Muslim’ New Mexico compound was training kids to commit school shootings: documents”
WOOSTER, OHIO — The family of a 21-year-old Orrville man murdered in 2016 is suing outdoors retailer Cabela’s for negligence and wrongful death, arguing that the store should not have sold the weapon used to kill him to a man with a violent criminal history.
The estate of Bryan Galliher — through Columbus-based law firm Cooper & Elliott and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence — filed the lawsuit Tuesday morning in the Wayne County Court of Common Pleas. Continue reading “Family of slain Ohio man sues Cabela’s for selling gun to killer”
A Texas police officer who vanished from his home last week was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Baytown police officer John Stewart Beasley, 46, was found dead Tuesday in a field three miles from his Cove residence, Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said.
Beasley, a 23-year veteran of the police force, was reported missing Thursday and last seen walking away from his home. It’s believed Beasley died the same day he was reported missing. Continue reading “Missing Texas police officer found dead from self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials say”
Some of the world’s largest companies have benefited from a little-known law that lets the Defense Department override decisions barring contractors accused or convicted of bribery, fraud, theft, and other crimes from doing business with the government.
International Business Machines Corp., Boeing Co., BP Plc, and several other contractors have received special dispensation to fulfill multimillion-dollar government contracts through “compelling reason determinations.” That process allows the Defense Department in rare cases to determine that the need to fulfill certain contracts justifies doing business with companies that have been suspended from government work. Continue reading “Millions Flow to Pentagon’s Banned Contractors Via a Back Door”
One day after what appeared to be a coordinated attack by media giants Facebook, Apple, Spotify and Google on Alex Jones, whose various social media accounts were banned or suspended in a matter of hours, the crackdown against alternative media figures continued as several Libertarian figures, including the Ron Paul Institute director, found their Twitter accounts suspended. Continue reading “The Crackdown Continues: Twitter Suspends Libertarian Accounts, Including Ron Paul Institute Director”
GERMANTOWN (WPVI) — A Philadelphia police officer was shot in the face while serving a warrant in the Germantown section of the city on Monday morning.
The officer is identified as 49-year-old Jason Potts, a 20 year veteran of the force and a member of the SWAT team. He is married with three children. Continue reading “Philadelphia police officer shot in the face while serving warrant in Germantown”
A federal judge on Friday ordered a total restart of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, in a hit to the Trump administration.
The administration last year announced its plan to phase out the program, which provides a level of amnesty to certain illegal immigrants, many of whom came to the U.S. as children. Continue reading “DACA program should be fully restarted, federal judge rules”
A curious and credible Tweet from the Director of the Nuclear Information Project for the Federation of American Scientists, Hans Kristensen, on August 1, 2018 at 5:14 PM Washington D.C. time claimed that a, “Meteor explodes with 2.1 kilotons force 43 km above missile early warning radar at Thule Air Base.”
The Tweet apparently originated from Twitter user “Rocket Ron”, a “Space Explorer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory”. The original Tweet read, “A fireball was detected over Greenland on July 25, 2018 by US Government sensors at an altitude of 43.3 km. The energy from the explosion is estimated to be 2.1 kilotons.” Rocket Ron’s Tweet hit in the afternoon on Jul. 31. Continue reading “Mystery meteor reportedly makes 2.1 kiloton explosion above US military base — and the Air Force said nothing”
Amazon took down the website of a gun rights coalition Wednesday after they posted the blueprints for 3D-printed weapons online.
CodeisFreeSpeech.com was removed by Amazon Web Services after receiving a notice on the downloadable plans for “The Liberator” 3D-printed handgun, according to the New York Daily News. Continue reading “Amazon removes gun activists’ website after 3D-printed weapons blueprints were posted”
In a landmark decision, a federal court ruled that the Albuquerque’s civil forfeiture program “violates procedural due process” because it forced hundreds of property owners to prove their own innocence. With his ruling spanning over 100 pages, Judge James Browning also found that the city’s “forfeiture officials have an unconstitutional institutional incentive to prosecute forfeiture cases,” since the program has “de facto power over its spending…the more revenue it raises, the more revenue it can spend.”
Thanks to this incentive to police for profit, the city’s forfeiture program “generated $11.8 million in revenue ‘in the form of forfeitures, settlements and fees,” between fiscal 2009 and 2016. The program was so lucrative, revenues actually exceeded expenses for four of those years. Continue reading “Judge Rules Albuquerque Civil Forfeiture Law Unconstitutional, Upholds Innocent Until Proven Guilty”
Doctors have been forced to amputate a man’s legs and parts of his hands after he suffered sepsis believed to be caused by being licked by a dog.
Greg Manteufel, 48, was exhibiting flu-like symptoms and becoming delirious when bruises began appearing across his face and body. His wife, Dawn Manteufel, watched the bruises grow as she rushed him to the hospital, later telling local news outlet WITI it “looked like somebody beat him up with a baseball bat.” Continue reading “Man has limbs amputated after being licked by a dog”
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Tuesday blocked the imminent release of blueprints for 3-D printed guns, hours before they were set to hit the internet, after several states sued to halt publication of designs to make weapons that security screening may not detect.
U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle, Washington, said the blueprints’ publication could cause irreparable harm to U.S. citizens. The decision blocked a settlement President Donald Trump’s administration had reached with the Texas-based company, which planned to put files online on Wednesday. Continue reading “U.S. judge halts release of blueprints for 3-D printed guns”