Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

The Newspaper

Cops can play the role of prosecutor in a Maine traffic court, but a dad cannot help his son fight a ticket. 

A father who wanted to represent his teenage son while fighting a traffic ticket will not be allowed to do so under a ruling handed down Thursday by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. On July 4, 2016, Benjamin J. Rupert had been pulled over at U.S. Route 1 and Old Blue Point Road in Scarborough. Officer Melissa DiClemente accused the eighteen-year-old of exceeding the 35 MPH speed limit and “failure to maintain control.”    Continue reading “Maine Supreme Court: Father Cannot Help Son Fight Traffic Ticket”

Courthouse News – by Christine Stuart

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (CN) — Nestle’s marketing and sales of Poland Spring water has been “a colossal fraud perpetrated against American consumers,” 11 people claim in a federal class action.

Filing their suit Tuesday in Connecticut, where Nestle is based, the lead plaintiffs from the Nutmeg State as well as New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. They say they would not have paid a premium for the water had they known it did not actually come from eight purported natural springs in Maine.  Continue reading “Consumers Call Nestle Poland Spring Water ‘a Colossal Fraud’”

Courthouse News – by Cameron Langford

McALLEN, Texas (CN) – Federal agents arrested a South Texas police sergeant on charges he helped transport cocaine because he needed money for his constable election campaign, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.

Geovani Hernandez, 43, was arrested on Saturday and the Progreso Police Department fired him on Monday, local media reported. Progreso is on the Mexico border, about 40 miles west of Brownsville.   Continue reading “Former Texas Police Chief Accused of Drug Trafficking”

MassPrivateI

Imagine, asking a police officer to treat citizens with respect only to have them swear at you, taser and arrest you. When you ask why you’ve been arrested, they inform you that you are being charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. (The real reason you were arrested, you challenged their authority.)

But something strange, happened during your arrest.  You overheard an officer use a ‘code word’.

What did the ‘code word’ mean? Are the police using secret ‘code words’ to justify their misconduct and illegal arrest?   Continue reading “Police use ‘code words’ to warn fellow officers they are abusing citizens”

San Gabriel Valley Tribune – by Stephanie K. Baer

Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control officials will begin canvassing West Covina residences early next month to check compliance with rabies vaccinations and dog licensing requirements.

The campaign is one of several measures aimed at increasing revenue for the city this year. Pet owners are required to pay licensing fees of $60 per dog to the city, according to a city statement. Fees for spayed or neutered dogs are $22 or $10 for dogs belonging to senior citizens. Disabled veterans are required to pay a reduced fee of $10 for spayed or neutered dogs.   Continue reading “Animal control officers to go door-door to make sure dog owners have paid their license fees”

Orlando Sentinel – by Christal Hayes

A couple transporting a barbecue grill was injured Sunday after their SUV exploded, Orlando police said.

Authorities say the crash happened about 3:30 p.m. near the entrance of the Central Florida Fairgrounds near Colonial Drive and Pete Parrish Boulevard.

The couple, who weren’t identified, had a barbecue grill in the back of their red Kia Sorento, Orlando Police Lt. Cindy Lane said.   Continue reading “Couple transporting grill injured after SUV explodes when wife lights up cig, cops say”

Tulsa World – by Samantha Vicent

Continue reading “Okmulgee County DA wants judge removed from all pending criminal cases for challenging truthfulness of police testimony”

LA Times

One in every 5 of the Los Angeles Community College District’s 230,000 students is homeless, and nearly two-thirds can’t afford to eat properly, according to a new survey commissioned by the system’s board of trustees.

The study looked at students with unstable housing and ”food insecurity,” which is defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as lacking enough to eat to sustain an active, healthy life.   Continue reading “1 in 5 L.A. community college students is homeless, survey finds”

Seattle Times – by Daniel Beekman

The Washington state Supreme Court has upheld Seattle’s tax on gun and ammunition sales, according to an opinion issued Thursday morning.

The justices ruled 8-1 to affirm a previous decision by King County Superior Court, which sided with the city against opponents, including the National Rifle Association.

The city has been imposing the tax of $25 per firearm and 2 or 5 cents per round of ammunition for more than a year and a half, following City Council passage in 2015.  Continue reading “Washington state Supreme Court rules in favor of Seattle’s gun tax”

Strategic Culture – by Eric Zuesse

The lies are usually about the most important policies and actions of the United States government regarding international relations — foreign policy matters, such as wars, treaties, and economic sanctions. In the past, they were lies about matters such as that North Vietnam had attacked the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, and that Chile’s President Salvador Allende opposed democracy, and that Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein was «six months away from developing a [nuclear] weapon», and that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s «conquest of land» regarding Crimea had happened, and is the basic reason for the economic sanctions the US has placed against Russia.

On August 2^nd, US President Donald Trump signed into law increased sanctions against Russia, which had been passed 98-2 in the Senate and 419-3 in the House. This new law stated in Section 211, «Congress makes the following findings» as the basis for greatly hiking the economic sanctions against Russia:   Continue reading “US Government & Press Lie Constantly, with Total Impunity”

Strategic Culture – by Alex Gorka

Around 200,000 US troops are stationed in 177 countries throughout the world. The forces use several hundred bases, more than 1,000 if the figure includes overseas warehouse and installations. The US may need more soon, with its presence and involvement in armed conflicts on the rise.

It was reported on August 7 that the Pentagon plans to conduct airstrikes on Islamic State (IS) in the Philippines. This move will be part of the effort to rout IS militants who occupied Marawi, a city in the south of the Philippines, in May, prompting President Rodrigo Duterte to declare martial law in the entire southern region of Mindanao and ask the US for help. In June, the Joint Special Operations Task Force Trident joined the battle.  Continue reading “US Military Presence Overseas Mushrooming: Here, There and Everywhere”

MuckRock – by Curtis Waltman

When I asked the North Dakota State & Local Intelligence Center (NDSLIC), the state’s fusion center, for their threat assessments compiled during the Standing Rock NoDAPL protest movement, I was expecting more than a measly two assessments. Further, these threat assessments are stunningly similar to one another. In fact, it seems that the threat assessment from October 20th 2016, a little more than a month after the preceding September 8th report, added nothing more than a couple more pieces of intelligence.  Continue reading “DAPL fusion center reports illustrate everything wrong with fusion centers”

SHTF Plan – by Daniel Lang

One of the most controversial aspects of the Iraq war was the heavy use of defense contractors, who were in many cases paid vast sums of money to do jobs that you’d think an ordinary soldier could do. When it was all said and done, defense contractors had reaped $138 billion dollars by providing security, logistics, and construction services. Among the most notorious of these contractors was Blackwater, whose employees gained a reputation for reckless behavior that caused many unnecessary deaths.  Continue reading “The Latest Attempt To Win The Afghan War: Replace The Soldiers With Mercenaries”