From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
If you want compensation, then the USA is definitely the place to be! The lawsuit capital of the world has seen a robber sue police for shooting him while holding up a bank, and a New York woman sue her eight-year-old own nephew for knocking her over… Continue reading “5 craziest lawsuits in America in 2015”
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Russian military intervention to prop up Syria’s government has brought new scrutiny of the CIA’s secret support to Syrian rebels fighting Bashar Assad. But how far is the U.S. willing to go to empower its proxies to take on Vladimir Putin’s allies?
The answer seems to be: not very far. “Countering Russia’s involvement in Syria doesn’t rate nearly as high on the scale” as battling the Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate across parts of Syria and Iraq, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday. Continue reading “Little US protection anticipated for Syrian rebels”
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Three times Dayton Leroy Rogers has been sentenced to death, and three times his sentence has been overturned.
Rogers, one of Oregon’s most prolific serial killers, returned to an Oregon City courtroom Tuesday to yet again face jurors who could send him to death row. Though that is an option, the past two governors have placed a moratorium on executions, and the state has not executed anyone since 1997. Continue reading “Serial killer sent to death row 3 times faces 4th sentencing”
MAZAMARI, Peru (AP) — It happens about four times a day, right under the nose of Peru’s military: A small single-engine plane drops onto a dirt airstrip in the world’s No. 1 coca-growing valley, delivers a bundle of cash, picks up more than 300 kilos of cocaine and flies to Bolivia.
Roughly half of Peru’s cocaine exports have been ferried eastward on this “air bridge,” police say, since the rugged Andean nation became the world’s leading producer of the drug in 2012. Peru’s government has barely impeded the airborne drug flow. Prosecutors, narcotics police, former military officers and current and former U.S. drug agents say that while corruption is rife in Peru, the narco-flight plague is the military’s failure because it controls the remote jungle region known as the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro river valley. Continue reading “Peru military fails to act as narco planes fly freely”
MSM – by Kale Williams, SF Gate
A tourist visiting the Bay Area for Fleet Week last year was doing nothing more than reading and napping under a tree in a federal waterfront park in San Francisco when a 16-pound pine cone fell on him and crushed his skull, his lawyer said Monday.
Now, Sean Mace, a U.S. Navy veteran, is suing the U.S. government, the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior and San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park where he was injured for $5 million in the hopes of changing policies so that no one else falls victim to the same type of bizarre incident. Continue reading “Man hit by 16-pound pine cone in S.F. park files $5 million suit”
ABC News – by STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, AP
For just the third time in 40 years, millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees can expect no increase in benefits next year, which is unwelcome news for more than one-fifth of the nation’s population.
They can blame low gas prices. By law, the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a government measure of inflation, which is being dragged down by lower prices at the pump. Continue reading “No Social Security Increase Next Year, Gas Prices to Blame”
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A 16-year-old Oklahoma boy will stand trial as an adult in the stabbing deaths of his parents and three siblings, a judge ruled Monday, rejecting a request by defense attorneys to certify him as a juvenile delinquent or youthful offender.
Michael Bever and his 18-year-old brother Robert Bever are charged with first-degree murder in the July 22 deaths and have pleaded not guilty. Attorney Rob Nigh said he would appeal Special Judge Martha Rupp Carter’s decision to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and, if necessary, the U.S. Supreme Court. Continue reading “Judge: 16-year-old to be tried as adult in family stabbing”
JERUSALEM (AP) — A pair of Palestinian men boarded a bus in Jerusalem and began shooting and stabbing passengers, while another assailant rammed a car into a bus station before stabbing bystanders, in near-simultaneous attacks Tuesday that escalated a monthlong wave of violence. Three Israelis and two attackers were killed.
The Jerusalem attacks, along with two stabbings in a central Israeli city, marked the most serious outbreak of violence since the current round of tensions erupted. More than 15 people were wounded. The violence, coming at a time when peace prospects appear bleak, have fueled a sense of panic in Israel and raised fears that the region is on the cusp of a new round of heavy violence. Continue reading “Jerusalem attacks kill 3 as wave of violence escalates”
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (AP) — Police officials in a small, predominantly black Texas college town are defending the decision to use a stun gun on a City Council member when he intervened as officers questioned his friends outside his apartment.
Police say they were questioning four men outside Prairie View City Council Member Jonathan Miller’s apartment about suspicious activity in the neighborhood when Miller interfered on Thursday night. Miller, at a Monday news conference, said he was vouching for his friends and telling officers they were doing nothing wrong. Continue reading “Police defend use of Taser on city official in Texas”
JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinians carried out three stabbing attacks against Israelis and police in Jerusalem on Monday and two of the attackers were shot dead, Israeli police said, as a wave of violence continued.
Two Palestinians stabbed two Israelis in Jerusalem, prompting police to open fire, killing one of the attackers and wounding the other, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Police said the two victims, one 16 years old and the other 20, were seriously wounded. Continue reading “Police: 3 Palestinian stabbing attacks in Jerusalem”
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A man with a felony record has been charged with possession of a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting of an off-duty Memphis police officer, authorities said Monday.
Lorenzo Clark, 36, was charged in the shooting death of 31-year-old Terence Olridge, who had been on the Memphis Police Department just a little over a year. He is the second police officer to die in a shooting in less than three months. Continue reading “Man gets weapon charge in fatal shooting of Memphis officer”
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — More cities are recognizing Native Americans on Columbus Day this year as they revive a movement to change the name of the holiday to celebrate the history and contributions of indigenous cultures around the country.
As the U.S. observes Columbus Day on Monday, it will also be Indigenous Peoples Day in at least nine cities for the first time this year, including Albuquerque; Portland, Oregon; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Olympia, Washington. Continue reading “More cities are recognizing Native Americans on Columbus Day”
Mail.com
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California officials are considering allowing inmates with violent backgrounds to work outside prison walls fighting wildfires, and the idea is generating concerns about public safety.
The state has the nation’s largest and oldest inmate firefighting unit, with about 3,800 members who provide critical assistance to professional firefighters. That’s down from about 4,400 in previous years, however, and so prison officials are looking for ways to add inmates. Continue reading “California may allow inmate firefighters with violent pasts”
A New Jersey pharmaceutical company has alerted nearly 70 of its employees of a health risk after a nurse it contracted to administer flu shots failed to change syringes in between patients.
Omaha, Nebraska-based company TotalWellness told NBC10 that a nurse it contracted to administer the vaccine to employees of Otsuka Pharmaceutical failed to follow proper medical procedures and safeguards. She administered those flu shots Wednesday, Sept. 30. Continue reading “70 at risk of infection in New Jersey after nurse reused flu shot syringes”
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) — GPS technology helped law officers track down three suspects in the killing of a tantra yoga teacher, who was found shot to death on a scenic California hiking trail.
The three drifters were arrested Wednesday in Oregon, two days after the body of Steve Carter, 67, who had been walking his dog on the trail in upscale Marin County, where he was living and caring for his cancer-stricken wife Lokita Carter. Continue reading “3 drifters held in killing of California tantra yoga teacher”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Virginia Chumbley was asleep when she was shot to death in her home. The killer left the handgun in the bedroom and cried as he called 911.
“I just shot my wife,” Chris Chumbley told the Laurel County emergency operator. “Give me the police. I’m under arrest.” He later told authorities the killing was an act of mercy: His wife of two decades, who everyone knew as Jenny, had asked to die because her cancer had spread. Continue reading “Kentucky man to be sentenced in wife’s alleged mercy killing”
NEW YORK (AP) — A Chinese immigrant who butchered five relatives, including four small children, with a meat cleaver in a fit of jealousy pleaded guilty on Wednesday to murder and manslaughter charges and must serve at least 125 years in prison.
Mingdong Chen admitted that he killed his cousin’s wife, 37-year-old Qiao Zhen Li, and her children, 9-year-old Linda, 7-year-old Amy, 5-year-old Kevin and 1-year-old William Zhou in October 2013. The 27-year-old Chen showed no reaction as he entered his plea. Under a deal with prosecutors, he must spend at least 125 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole. Continue reading “Man pleads guilty to killing 5 relatives with meat cleaver”
The top 500 US companies retained $620 billion that would have otherwise been taxed and spent by the government by using overseas bank accounts, according to a report from Citizens for Tax Justice and the US Public Interest Research Group Education Fund.
“At least 358 companies, nearly 72 percent of the Fortune 500, operate subsidiaries in tax haven jurisdictions as of the end of 2014,” the report states. In total, the 500 companies keep about $2.1 trillion in tax havens outside the US, most often in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands. Continue reading “Top 500 US companies keep $2.1 trillion where tax collectors can’t get it”
VISALIA, Calif. (AP) — A man who says he was a cartel enforcer pleaded guilty Tuesday to nine counts of murder in California after acknowledging to investigators that he had committed killings across the country.
After being arrested in 2013, 53-year-old Jose Manuel Martinez opened up to investigators about his violent career that he said involved more than 30 killings. However, authorities said he refused to name his cartel associates. Continue reading “Man who says he was cartel enforcer pleads guilty to murders”
NEW YORK (AP) — After 25 years of trying to clear himself in a notorious tourist killing, Johnny Hincapie walked out of a courthouse Tuesday, his conviction overturned and his resolve intact.
He faces the possibility of prosecutors appealing the decision or retrying him in the 1990 killing of Utah tourist Brian Watkins, who was stabbed to death in a subway station as he defended his parents during a mugging that helped crystallize an era of crime and fear in the nation’s biggest city. Continue reading “Judge tosses conviction in NYC tourist killing; man freed”