Boston.com

For drivers traveling on northwestern Vermont’s Route 128 through Westford, it’d be hard not to notice a rather outsized, impolite gesture.

But don’t worry, Ted Pelkey says the 700-pound wooden middle finger sculpture on his front lawn isn’t for them. Rather, Pelkey says the sculpture — which sits on top of a 16-foot pole — is the product of an “uphill battle” more than 10 years in the making with local town officials over a garage he wants to build on his property.   Continue reading “Here’s why a Vermont man put up a giant, illuminated middle finger sculpture on his front lawn”

NBC 5

ESSEX, Vt. — Andrew Robert Black, 23, died Thursday, Dec. 6, in his home in Essex, Vermont.

His mother, Alyssa Hughes Black, told NBC5 he purchased a firearm earlier that day and took his own life hours later.   Continue reading “Family calls for ‘cooling off period’ law after son buys gun, ends his life”

New York Post – by By Susan Edelman, Tamar Lapin and Ben Feuerherd

A group of NYPD officers tried to rip a child from his mother’s arms at a Brooklyn food-assistance center Friday in a scene captured on video that first sparked outrage and now an investigation.

The shocking footage posted to Facebook shows a young mother — identified by police as Jazmine Headley, 23 — sitting on the floor at a SNAP center in Boerum Hill as a uniformed officer attempts to pry her year-old son from her arms, dragging her across the room in the process. Other officers also joined in trying to separate mother and son.  Continue reading “Cops caught on video trying to ‘wrestle’ child away from mom”

WCAX

BVURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) Washington County prosecutors this week employed a new legal tool — part of the new gun laws that went into effect earlier this year.

It’s called an extreme risk protection order. It stems from the case of the Harwood Union High School custodian, Dick Peck, who is accused of writing a threat on the boy’s bathroom mirror.   Continue reading “Vermont prosecutors put new ‘red flag’ law to the test”

WCAX

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) A wrong-way crash on Thursday night claimed the lives of two Vermonters, one a senior citizen.

Police say Herbert Kennedy, 89, of White River Junction, was driving the wrong way on Interstate 91 near the Norwich exit. They say Kennedy collided head-on with Patrick Covey, 33, of Bradford. Covey died at the scene. Kennedy died at the hospital.   Continue reading “Should seniors be required to retake driving tests?”

Bucks Local News

WASHINGTON CROSSING >> Each December, thousands gather on the banks of the Delaware River to watch the reenactment of George Washington’s daring 1776 Christmas night river crossing.

During the event, several hundred re-enactors in Continental military dress listen to an inspiring speech by General Washington and then row across the river in replica Durham boats.   Continue reading “RELIVING HISTORY: Two chances to witness ‘The Crossing’ on the banks of the Delaware in Washington Crossing”

Mercury News

As investigators conduct a painstaking probe for the causes of California’s devastating wildfires, conspiracists have spawned their own theory: ignition by a secret cabal of nefarious “internationalists,” including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sergey Brin, who seek to run the world.

“There are hidden powers behind these calculated strikes in California,” warns one YouTube video, titled “An Open Letter To the People of California.”  Continue reading “Golden State of paranoia: Internet conspiracies link wildfires to takeover schemes”

Activist Post – by Brandon Turbeville

Over the years in my own articles, I have used the terms “creeping fascism,” “growing police state,” and “descent into totalitarianism” among others to describe the domestic situation in which we find ourselves. I have often written that, if Americans do not stand up to the myriad of laws being passed by federal, state, and local governments we will soon wake up to find ourselves in an Orwellian police state nightmare.   Continue reading “Call It What It Is: America Is A Police State”

Billings Gazette

BISMARCK, N.D. — Mariah Ochoa, a senior at Legacy High School in Bismarck, wants to become a police officer to “help people when they’re at their worst.”

Ochoa has joined several local students, ages 14 to 18, who are interested in learning what it takes to become a police officer in a new group that provides them with experience working in law enforcement agencies.

Continue reading “Program preps North Dakota students for law enforcement”

Washington Post – by Kyle Swenson, July 10, 2018

The deputy medical examiner knew before knocking on the door. There was a grim scene waiting for Eric Tonsfeldt inside the single-story house set among the pine trees outside of Oregon City, Ore. — a tragedy that had played out there before.

It was around 8:45 on March 5, 2017, and the Clackamas County official was responding to a report of a dead newborn.   Continue reading “A religious Oregon couple didn’t believe in medical care. After newborn’s death, they’re headed to prison.”

Activist Post – by Claire Bernish, July 27, 2017

A former pastor from Michigan discovered the hard way that informing people of their rights under the law as jurors doesn’t sit well with the U.S. government when a judge sentenced him Friday to eight weekends in jail, six months of probation, and fines — all for passing out pamphlets discussing jury nullification.

Keith Wood contends passing out the information is well within his constitutional rights to inform potential and selected jurors that, enshrined in the Bill of Rights lies the potent abilityto find a defendant not guilty if the law in question is unjust, flawed, or otherwise untenable — even if the accused indeed technically violated.   Continue reading “Flashback: Father of 8 Sentenced to Jail for Distributing Jury Nullification Pamphlets”

Journal Sentinel – by Karen Pilarski

A week before a United States Postal Service employee will be sentenced for stealing mail in Milwaukee County, another worker here has been found guilty of the same act.

Thomas P. Gunderson of Franklin pleaded guilty to embezzlement of mail matter on Nov. 29 and will be sentenced at a later date, according to online federal court records.   Continue reading “Postal worker admits to stealing $5,200 from greeting cards in Wauwatosa, federal court records indicate”

VPR

Fair Haven Union High School made national news last February after a former student was arrested for allegedly planning to shoot up the school.

So when a group of parents in charge of fundraising efforts for Fair Haven Union’s Project Graduation decided to raffle off a pair of rifles it raised some eyebrows.   Continue reading “Fair Haven Community At Odds Over Gun Raffle”

NCPR

Nov 30, 2018 — Legal defense for the poor is a hot-button issue in New York State. Lately, the state’s been under pressure to give counties more support with this mandate and help pay for services like assigned counsel.

Private lawyers are often hired to help needy clients and in turn, fill a big gap in the North Country’s justice system. But local governments are struggling to keep the program afloat.  Continue reading “Court-appointed lawyers hard to come by in the North Country”

Jamestown Sun – by Arielle Zionts

NEW UNDERWOOD, S.D. – For six months, a western South Dakota man who has beliefs similar to the sovereign citizens movement refused to pay his water bill and now faces prison time after the New Underwood City Council voted to report him to police.

James Kopecky, 57, was in court Tuesday, Nov. 27, to answer to two felony charges: grand theft for allegedly stealing $1,239 worth of city water and refusing to provide a DNA sample in connection with the case. Kopecky’s longtime partner, 51-year-old Misty Koch, has been charged with aiding and abetting the theft. Continue reading “Western South Dakota man faces prison time in water bill dispute”

1791-1941 (150th Anniversary of The Bill of Rights)

Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn, N.Y.,  Thursday, Feb 20, 1941

Special to the Brooklyn Eagle

Sag Harbor, Feb 20 —– Students at the Pierson High School here will goosestep from class to class tomorrow under the watchful eyes of “Storm Troopers” alert to punish the slightest infraction of the institutions “new order”   Continue reading “L.I. School Scraps U.S. Bill Of Rights – But Only for a Day So Students Can Compare Nazi Bans With Freedom Here”

VT Digger – by Lola Duffort

A new report from a nonprofit that advocates for parents argues that Vermont’s child protective system is fundamentally broken and too often removes children from families capable of parenting.

In “Bending the Curve to Improve Our Child Protection System,” a report out from the Vermont Parent Representation Center, the nonprofit uses an analysis of more than 70 cases it has worked on over the course of eight years and state data to make the case that the state reflexively removes children instead of supporting parents in need. The nonprofit does not serve parents in cases where child sexual abuse is alleged.   Continue reading “Parent advocates call for wholesale reform of child protective system”