Author: Sunfire

Mail.com

BALTIMORE (AP) — A 31-year-old woman and a young boy were shot in the head Thursday, becoming Baltimore’s 37th and 38th homicide victims so far this month, the city’s deadliest in 15 years.

Meanwhile, arrests have plunged: Police are booking fewer than half the number of people they pulled off the streets last year. Arrests were already declining before Freddie Gray died on April 19 of injuries he suffered in police custody, but they dropped sharply thereafter, as his death unleashed protests, riots, the criminal indictment of six officers and a full-on civil rights investigation by the U.S. Justice Department that has officers working under close scrutiny.   Continue reading “Baltimore residents fearful amid rash of homicides”

Mail.com

HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu’s top prosecutor is dismissing cases against 16 women arrested in a massage parlor prostitution sting after the sex assault charges they faced drew criticism.

The women were arrested this month during an operation involving Honolulu police and federal authorities. But instead of being arrested on suspicion of prostitution, police accused the women of sex assault.   Continue reading “No sex assault charges for women in massage parlor sting”

Mail.com

AQUINNAH, Mass. (AP) — An iconic Martha’s Vineyard’s lighthouse has begun its gradual move from its rapidly eroding cliffside perch.

Powerful hydraulic jacks inched the Gay Head Lighthouse roughly 5 feet along steel rails just before noon Thursday. The 400-ton brick-and-mortar lighthouse had been lifted off the ground about 6 feet and placed on a wood-and-steel frame for the move.   Continue reading “Iconic Martha’s Vineyard lighthouse being moved inland”

RT

A Texas dam on Padera Lake has fractured as a result of unprecedented flooding, local media report. Authorities are issuing warnings, as the dam may break in the coming hours, placing anyone in its path in peril.

Local media has been sounding the alarm, with CBS affiliate KRLD reporting the dam had been breached at around 12pm GMT. However, no immediate danger was reported.   Continue reading “Texas dam on Padera Lake ‘breaches’ following massive floods”

Mail.com

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — An autopsy will determine if a man had drugs or alcohol in his system when he fatally shot one worker and injured a second before killing himself at a North Dakota Wal-Mart store, police said Wednesday.

“It’s probably the next significant development in this case,” Grand Forks Police Lt. Derik Zimmel said. He did not know when autopsy results would be available. Police said the shooting at the store in Grand Forks a few minutes after 1 a.m. Tuesday may have been random. Investigators have found no link between the gunman, 21-year-old Marcell Willis, and the store or the employees whom he shot.   Continue reading “Police search for motive in deadly Wal-Mart shooting”

Mail.com

BUKIT WANG BURMA, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian forensics teams exhumed a body from a shallow grave Tuesday at an abandoned jungle camp used by human traffickers, the first of what police predicted would be more grim findings as they search through a cluster of illicit hideouts near the border with Thailand.

Authorities say there are 139 suspected graves in the mountainous jungle where northern Malaysia meets southern Thailand, a remote area that trafficking syndicates used as a transit point to hold migrants and refugees. Most were believed to be members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority and impoverished migrants from Bangladesh.   Continue reading “Malaysian forensics teams dig up graves at traffickers’ camp”

Mail.com

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq on Tuesday announced the launch of a military operation to drive the Islamic State group out of the western Anbar province, where the extremists captured the provincial capital, Ramadi, earlier this month.

Iraqi state TV declared the start of the operation, in which troops will be backed by Shiite and Sunni paramilitary forces, but did not provide further details. A spokesman for Iraq’s Shiite militias said the operation will “not last for a long time” and that Iraqi forces have surrounded the provincial capital, Ramadi, from three sides.   Continue reading “Iraq launches operation to drive IS from Anbar”

Mail.com

HONOLULU (AP) — The military on Wednesday said a second Marine has died of injuries he received after an Osprey aircraft crashed during a training exercise last weekend in Hawaii.

Lance Cpl. Matthew Determan of Maricopa, Arizona, was among several people who were injured when the MV-22 Osprey went down at Bellows Air Force Station outside Honolulu on Sunday. The military said in a statement that Determan, 21, died on Tuesday.   Continue reading “2nd Marine killed in Hawaii crash identified as Arizona man”

RT

The world’s five biggest banks have been fined a total of $5.7 billion for manipulating foreign exchange markets. It’s the biggest combined bank settlement in history.

Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, JPMorgan, UBS and Citigroup were hit with penalties from UK and US authorities Wednesday.

Four of them agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges for rigging benchmark interest rates, the US Department of Justice said.   Continue reading “Five banks to pay record $5.7bn fines over key rates manipulation – US regulator”

RT

Ricky Jackson, who spent 39 years in jail for a murder he did not commit, is suing the police officers who allegedly helped frame him. Jackson was convicted on the testimony of a 12-year-old boy who didn’t see the crime and later retracted his statement.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday against the city of Cleveland, alleges that eight officers, including detectives and their superiors, were involved in framing Jackson and brothers Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman for the killing of salesman Harold Franks, which occurred in the Cleveland area in 1975. Three of the officers involved in the case have since passed away.   Continue reading “Innocent Ohio man sues Cleveland cops after 40yrs in jail”

Mail.com

GOLETA, Calif. (AP) — Cleanup crews are preparing to fan out along a stretch of California coastline stained by crude oil that spilled from broken pipe and flowed into the ocean.

Crew members from an environmental cleanup company were briefed early Wednesday and given boots, gloves, shovels and rakes. An estimated 21,000 gallons of crude flowed Tuesday from an onshore pipeline in southern Santa Barbara County, forming a slick that left gobs of goo along sand and rocks at Refugio State Beach.   Continue reading “Efforts underway to scrub spilled oil from California coast”

Mail.com

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon is about to embark on a first-in-the-nation program that aims to charge car owners not for the fuel they use, but for the miles they drive.

The program is meant to help the state raise more revenue to pay for road and bridge projects at a time when money generated from gasoline taxes are declining across the country, in part, because of greater fuel efficiency and the increasing popularity of fuel-efficient, hybrid and electric cars.   Continue reading “Oregon to test pay-per-mile idea as replacement for gas tax”

RT

The Chicago Police Department is investigating claims that an officer punched a pregnant African American woman in the stomach, putting her in the hospital.

City resident Nicola Robinson told a local Fox affiliate that she was assaulted by a police officer on Friday evening after he caught her having a laugh at the officer’s expense.   Continue reading “Chicago cop investigated for ‘punching pregnant woman in stomach’”

RT

Four Texas police officers have been suspended without pay for trying to implicate their boss in a prostitution case. The Fort Worth Police Department says the claims were made in retaliation for changes in the officers’ job assignments.

The officers – identified only by their initials and surnames as J.C. Williams, C. Cespedes, D. Shaw and J. Pittman – contacted the department’s internal affairs unit in November, saying they believed their narcotics sergeant could be involved in a prostitution case they were working on, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.   Continue reading “4 Texas police officers suspended after implicating boss in prostitution case”

Mail.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Extreme athlete Dean Potter faced the risk of flying off the vertical rock walls he was famous for scaling with little more than a parachute on his back and thin fabric wings.

Just two weeks ago, the man who talked of transforming “dying into flying,” had posted a photo of himself soaring just above the treetops with enough space to avoid disaster. “I don’t fool myself thinking I’m any better than my fallen brothers and sisters but I do stack the odds in my favor,” Potter wrote on Instagram.   Continue reading “Wingsuit flier thought he could manage the risk, avoid death”

Mail.com

HONOLULU (AP) — A U.S. military plane crashed and caught fire as it tried to land during training exercises in Hawaii, killing one Marine, injuring 21 other people and sending black smoke billowing into the sky.

Their injuries ranged from critical to minor, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific spokesman Capt. Alex Lim said. The tilt-rotor aircraft, which can take off and land like a helicopter but flies like an airplane, had a “hard-landing mishap” around 11:40 a.m. Sunday at Bellows Air Force Station on Oahu, the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit said in a statement.   Continue reading “1 dead, 21 hurt as plane carrying Marines crashes in Hawaii”

Mail.com

BAGHDAD (AP) — Islamic State militants likely killed up to 500 Iraqi civilians and soldiers and forced 8,000 people to flee from their homes as they captured the Iraqi city of Ramadi, a provincial official said Monday, while the extremists went door-to-door looking for policemen and pro-government tribesmen.

Iraq’s government and Iranian-backed Shiite militias vowed to mount a counter-offensive and reclaim Ramadi, the capital of the overwhelmingly Sunni Anbar province. Iran’s Defense Minister Gen. Hossein Dehghan flew to Baghdad on a surprise visit for urgent talks with Iraqi leaders.   Continue reading “Islamic State killed hundreds as it took Iraq’s Ramadi”

RT

The US House has approved a $612-billion measure to fund the military. The Obama administration and many Democrats opposed the defense policy bill for its alleged budgeting “gimmicks,” as well as its provisions for arming Ukrainian forces.

The House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2016 by a vote of 269 to 151. The bill authorizes $515 billion for so-called national defense spending, $89.2 billion for an emergency war fund, and an additional $7.7 billion in mandatory defense spending that does not receive authorization from Congress.   Continue reading “House passes Pentagon spending bill”