From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
Four current and former Jersey City police officers have been indicted on numerous charges, including official misconduct and falsifying records.
Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that a grand jury handed up indictments against retired Capt. Joseph Ascolese, Lt. Kelly Chesler, Police Officer Michael Maietti and Police Officer Michael O’Neil. Continue reading “4 Jersey City cops indicted on dozens of charges, authorities say”
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — After firing an interim police chief who had been in place for less than a week, the mayor of Oakland vowed to recruit a new law enforcement leader from outside the city to oversee a department tarnished by “disgusting allegations” that a number of officers had sex with a teenage prostitute.
Mayor Libby Schaaf said her office was conducting a formal background check on Interim Police Chief Ben Fairow when she received new information that led to his abrupt dismissal on Wednesday. Schaaf declined to reveal what that information was, citing state personnel laws, but called Fairow’s brief appointment a mistake. Continue reading “Interim Oakland police chief ousted after less than a week”
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia is set to become the first major American city with a soda tax despite a multimillion-dollar campaign by the beverage industry to block it. The City Council is expected to give final approval Thursday to a 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on sugary and diet beverages.
Berkeley, California, is the only other city with such a tax. Other proposals have been defeated in more than 30 cities and states. Two previous efforts to pass a soda tax in Philadelphia also failed. Continue reading “Philadelphia set to OK soda tax despite industry opposition”
A video recorded in Yellowstone National Park shows the shocking moment humans have feared for years when a bear effortlessly opens the door of a car. Next time you go to bed and think you’re OK leaving the door unlocked, bear that in mind. Continue reading “Lock your doors: Yellowstone bears figure out how to open cars”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police found a loaded assault rifle with magazines rigged to allow 60 shots to be fired in quick succession, along with 15 pounds of chemicals mixed and ready to explode in the car of an Indiana man who said he was headed to a gay pride event, authorities revealed Tuesday.
James Wesley Howell, 20, of Charlestown, also had two other loaded rifles, ammunition, a stun gun, a buck knife and a security badge when he was arrested early Sunday in Santa Monica, they said. Howell made his initial court appearance Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to three felony weapons and ammunition charges. The judge set bail at $2 million. Continue reading “Police: Man going to gay pride event had rigged magazines”
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Oscar Pistorius removed his prostheses and hobbled on his stumps in front of a judge in a South African courtroom Wednesday, part of his defense team’s attempt to show that the double-amputee Olympic athlete, convicted of murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, is a vulnerable man who deserves leniency when he is sentenced.
“Pity will play no role in the sentence,” chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel countered, asking Judge Thokozile Masipa to send the former track star to prison for 15 years, the minimum sentence for murder in South Africa. Continue reading “Pistorius walks on stumps for judge, sentencing on July 6”
Bitcoin is having a fabulous spring after a lackluster winter, hitting its highest level in two years Sunday morning, fueled by what many believe are Chinese investors worried about their country’s economy.
The cryptocurrency hit $660, according to OKCoin, up from $436 on May 19 and 225 percent in the past 12 months. Continue reading “Bitcoin hits 2 year high following fears about Chinese economy”
Tech billionaire Peter Thiel defended the secretive nature of the Bilderberg conference, taking place in Dresden, Germany this weekend, and compared those who call for transparency to the East German secret police force, the Stasi.
After initially refusing to speak with reporters outside the luxurious, yet heavily-fortified Hotel Taschenbergpalais on Saturday, the PayPal co-founder finally took the bait and launched into a rant about libertarian ideology.
Continue reading “Bilderberg 2016: Libertarianism not synonymous with radical transparency, claims Peter Thiel”
This is pure propagandist garbage! The fools who believe it would learn
too late what happens when an enemy force in occupation disarms the
populace of a nation. They also fail to realize that “ISIS” (along with
all the other incarnations thereof) were created by, are supplied by,
and controlled by the very enemy force in occupation that has rooted
itself in the USA.
DENVER (AP) — The deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history has people around the world wondering why mass violence keeps happening in America. For those who have lived through mass shootings, and for the law enforcement officers trying to prevent them, the answer is self-evident. Continue reading “As mass shootings plague US, survivors mourn lack of change”
Three separate scandals involving American servicemen and contractors in a highly-controversial Navy base in Japan’s Okinawa have finally resulted in an all-out alcohol ban on all the 18,600 sailors. The measure is the latest and comes after a Marine’s drunk-driving stunt.
Adding to the two cases involving murder and rape of two young Japanese women, a third incident saw a US sailor with six times the legal alcohol limit go on a joyride, hitting two cars in the wrong lane. The officer, Aimee Mejia, who was assigned to Kadena Air base, is now being held by Japanese police. Continue reading “All 18,600 US sailors in Japan slapped with full drinking ban, confined to base”
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is running out of time and options to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, so officials are scrambling to release as many prisoners as possible and considering novel legal strategies that include allowing some men to strike plea deals by video-teleconference.
Another option would be to send others to foreign countries to be prosecuted. But it still looks to be too late to close the prison before President Barack Obama leaves office in January, denying him the chance to fulfill a campaign pledge. Continue reading “Obama administration rushing to shrink ranks at Guantanamo”
HAMILTON, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio juvenile court judge is set to sentence a 15-year-old boy who pleaded guilty to charges after police say he opened fire on fellow students in a school cafeteria. Butler County Juvenile Court Judge Ronald Craft has scheduled a Monday afternoon hearing in the case of James Austin Hancock. The teenager pleaded guilty in April to four counts of attempted murder and one count of inducing panic. Craft ordered a pre-sentencing investigation and agreed to a defense request for a psychological evaluation. Continue reading “Ohio judge to sentence teen in school cafeteria shooting”
BAGHDAD (AP) — The Islamic State group has been shooting at civilians as they try to flee the nearly two-week battle between Iraqi government forces and IS militants in the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, an international aid organization and Iraqi military say.
On Sunday, the militants shot and killed seven civilians and seven IS defectors inside Fallujah as they attempted to flee, Iraqi Maj. Ali Hanoon said. Hanoon, who is with the elite Iraqi counterterrorism forces, on Monday put the number of civilians killed by IS since the operation started at “dozens” but declined to be more specific, saying the information coming out of Fallujah is sporadic and often incomplete. Iraqi officials say the total is likely higher. Continue reading “Aid group says IS shooting civilians fleeing Fallujah battle”
The US should have not relied on other members of its anti-Gaddafi coalition in 2011 to ensure that Libya developed properly afterward, President Barack Obama said in an interview, adding: “Every day I make some mistake.”
“In terms of foreign policy, I’ve said this before, we decided to go in as part of a broader coalition, into Libya, to make sure that this guy [Colonel Muammar] Gaddafi, who had been state-sponsoring terrorism, did not go in and start slaughtering his own people,” Obama told PBS News Hour on Wednesday at the Lerner Theatre in Elkhart, Indiana. “We succeeded and saved tens of thousands of lives, but I did all too much counting on other countries to then stabilize and support the government formation [in Libya] and now it is a kind of a mess.” Continue reading “Post-Gaddafi Libya’s ‘kind of a mess’: Obama regrets counting on allies too much”
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — In a city well known for its green activism, an environmental threat has bubbled up in an unexpected place: the drinking water at some public schools. The Willamette Week newspaper reported late Tuesday that over half of the 90 school sites tested between 2010 and 2012 had elevated levels of lead in the drinking water at some locations.
The report, based on a public records request, landed during an emergency meeting already underway to discuss why the Portland Public Schools failed to disclose elevated lead levels at two schools for nearly two months — and left the taps running for days while it completed repairs. Continue reading “Portland parents decry officials over lead in school water”
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — When Palm Beach Gardens police officer Nouman Raja pulled up to Corey Jones and his broken down SUV last fall, he didn’t know Jones was on a recorded phone call with a tow truck operator.
Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg charged Raja with manslaughter and attempted murder Wednesday, saying his shooting of Jones, 31, last Oct. 18 was unjustified and that he lied to a 911 operator to make it appear that Jones was still armed and a threat more than 30 seconds after he had been felled by the officer’s bullets. If convicted, Raja could face life in prison. Continue reading “Ex-Florida officer expected in court for musician’s slaying”
An undetected drug allegedly passed around at a music festival in Tampa, Florida killed two young people and sickened 57 others, with one attendee describing the concert as “really uncontrolled.” Meanwhile, police are looking into the causes of death.
So far, Florida residents Katie Bermudez of Kissimmee, and Alex Haynes of Melbourne are the only two confirmed deaths. Both were rushed from the Sunset Music Festival in Tampa to a hospital over the weekend. Continue reading “Unknown drug kills 2 young people at Florida music festival, 57 in hospital”
Transgender people in Denmark will soon no longer be classified as having a mental illness, lawmakers from the parliament’s Health Committee have decided. The move has been hailed as a victory by rights groups.
The decision, which will take effect on January 1, 2017, was made by Danish lawmakers on Tuesday. As of that date, the word “transgender” will no longer appear on Denmark’s official list of mental illnesses. Continue reading “First in the world: Denmark MPs approve removing ‘transgender’ from mental illness list”
CHICAGO (AP) — Demand for long-term care is expected to increase as the nation ages, but the majority of Americans 40 and older lack confidence in their ability to pay for it. The annual cost of long-term care expenses range from $17,680 for adult day care to more than $92,000 for a private room in a nursing home, according to Genworth Financial.
Yet an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey finds that a third of Americans 40 and older have done no planning for their own-long term care needs, such as setting aside money to pay for a home aide or to help with daily activities or a room in a nursing home. Continue reading “Poll: People unsure about ability to pay for long-term care”
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal officials in Minneapolis will announce Wednesday whether they believe the civil rights of a 24-year-old man were violated last November in a confrontation with two police officers that led to his death.
An officer shot Jamar Clark Nov. 15, and he died a day later. His death sparked weeks of protests and an 18-day occupation outside a north side police precinct. A key issue was whether Clark was handcuffed at the time of the shooting. Several witnesses said he was; police said he was not. Continue reading “Civil rights inquiry due in Minneapolis police shooting”