Author: Skywalker

Fox 6 Now

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The families of the 17 victims killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting will each receive $400,000 from a $10.5 million fund. Eighteen of the injured survivors will receive $1.63 million.

The Broward Education Foundation and a steering committee for the victims announced Monday the breakdown of the funds that were raised through a GoFundMe campaign. Nearly 37,000 individuals and companies donated to the fund. The fund does not include the millions students have raised through March for Our Lives for advocacy efforts.  Continue reading “Families of 17 victims killed in Parkland school shooting will get $400K each from GoFundMe”

Fox 6 Now

LAS VEGAS — A veteran police officer’s self-described freeze in a Las Vegas hotel hallway while a gunman fired on an outdoor concert crowd is prompting a review of whether lives could have been saved if officers had acted faster to stop the deadliest mass shooting in the nation’s modern history.

Three police tactics experts said they understood Officer Cordell Hendrex hesitating as he led a trainee and three Mandalay Bay hotel security guards toward the sound of rapid gunfire Oct. 1.”We teach officers to respond directly to the active killing. Every second that it continues to go on, more lives are at risk,” said J. Pete Blair, a criminal justice professor and director of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training center at Texas State University. “But we don’t expect them to take unnecessary risks.”   Continue reading “‘I froze, for how long I can’t say:’ Officer’s hesitation during Vegas shooting prompts review”

Popular Mechanics – by Jay Bennett

The chemistry of explosives is a delicate matter. A little less carbon, a little more nitrogen, and the right amount of oxygen can transform a relatively inert substance into quite the showstopper.

For more than 100 years, TNT has been the premier mixture of chemicals for blowing things up, and it’s even used as a metric to measure the yield of nuclear explosions and other monumental blasts. But new research out of Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Army Research Laboratory has discovered a new chemical, bis-oxadiazole (C₆H₄N₆O₈), that has many of the advantages of TNT, is thought to be less toxic to produce, and makes a bigger bang.   Continue reading “So Long TNT, There’s a New Explosive in Town”

Fox 6 Now

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency is deleting more than 685 million call records the government obtained since 2015 from telecommunication companies in connection with investigations, raising questions about the viability of the program.

The NSA’s bulk collection of call records was initially curtailed by Congress after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents revealing extensive government surveillance. The law, enacted in June 2015, said that going forward, the data would be retained by telecommunications companies, not the NSA, but that the intelligence agency could query the massive database.   Continue reading “NSA deleting more than 685 million call records”

Heavy

New York City DJ is calling out Delta Air Lines after she and three other passengers were kicked off a flight and stranded in Fort Wayne, Indiana, by an “irrational” and “unprofessional” flight attendant. The woman, Robyn “DJ Reborn” Rodgers, posted about the June 23 incident and shared video from the plane on Wednesday. The flight attendant works for SkyWest Airlines, which was operating as a Delta Connections flight, and Rodgers was a Delta passenger.   Continue reading “‘Irrational’ Flight Attendant ‘Unfairly’ Kicks 4 People Off Plane”

Fox 6 Now

NEW ENGLAND — Earth is constantly evolving and reshaping itself through geological processes.

Sometimes, these processes can be very dramatic: most recently, the picturesque but destructive lava flows from the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii and the deadly blast of the Fuego volcano in Guatemala. Other times, however, Earth’s changes occur over millennia and are nearly imperceptible to humans.   Continue reading “Strange geologic activity under New England surprises scientists”

Gunpowder Magazine – by Ted Patterson

“Extreme Risk Prevention Orders” (ERPOs) are popping up across the nation right now. Some states, like Florida and Maryland, have already passed these back-door gun control laws, while many other states are considering them.

ERPOs, also known as “red flag” gun confiscation laws, are pitched as a way to get guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others. In the aftermath of several school shootings this year, policy makers are considering how to keep guns out of the hands of individuals considered to be “high risk.”   Continue reading “Four Scary Facts Gun Owners Need to Know about Red Flag Gun Confiscation Bills”

Space.com – by Mike Wall

The U.S. Air Force’s robotic X-37B space plane has now been circling Earth for 700 days on its latest hush-hush mission.

That mission — known as Orbital Test Vehicle 4, or OTV-4 — began on May 20, 2015, with a liftoff atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.   Continue reading “Secretive X-37B Military Space Plane Marks 700 Days in Orbit”

Washington Post

SAN FRANCISCO — Silicon Valley companies and law enforcement are starting to talk about how to ward off meddling by malicious actors including Russia on social media in the November midterms, an attempt at dialogue and information-sharing that was absent during the 2016 presidential elections.

Facebook convened a meeting last month with representatives from the biggest players in the technology industry along with FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials who are responsible for protecting elections from foreign interference, according to eight people familiar with the discussions. Google, Twitter, Apple, Microsoft, Snap and the parent company of Yahoo and AOL, Verizon subsidiary Oath, attended, according to four of the people.   Continue reading “Tech didn’t spot Russian interference during the last election. Now it’s asking law enforcement for help.”

Common Dreams – by Andrea Germanos

Noted consumer advocate and author Ralph Nader on Friday offered a sharp retort to Laura Bush and Michelle Obama in response to the former first ladies levied criticism at the Trump administration’s cruel immigration policy that separated immigrant children from their families.

“Would be nice if Laura Bush and Michelle Obama had expressed similar heartfelt concern for the tens of thousands of children killed or seriously maimed by the wars of their husbands in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere,” he tweeted.   Continue reading “Ralph Nader Asks Former First Ladies: Why No “Heartfelt Concern for Tens of Thousands of Children Killed or Seriously Maimed” by Their Husbands’ Wars?”

FBI Audio

An FBI study examined different factors in the lives of 63 active shooters who committed their crimes between 2000 and 2013 and determined they exhibit an average of four to five warning behaviors to those they know before they attack.   Continue reading “FBI, This Week: Study of Pre-Attack Behaviors of Active Shooters Released”

The Daily Conspiracy – by Robert A.

In a stunning new government report conducted in the 2017 Fiscal Year, migrant children crossing illegally into the United States, either alone or accompanied by an adult enjoy a higher standard of living than the average middle-class American child.

However here’s where it becomes even more astonishing, their standard of living is nearly three times greater than their native-born American counterparts.   Continue reading “Migrant Children Enjoy Higher Standard Of Living Than Most American Kids”

Fox 6 Now

WASHINGTON COUNTY — A Washington County public official stopped for a seat belt violation decided to dress up like a clown at his trial to fight the $10 ticket. The judge was not amused.

Dashcam video from August of 2017, shows a Village of Jackson police officer pulling over Washington County Board member Mark McCune.   Continue reading “Washington County public official goes to court in clown suit to fight $10 seat belt ticket”