The Columbus, Ohio, police officer who fatally shot Donna Dalton last year has now been arrested by the FBI and indicted on federal charges. Vice cop Andrew Mitchell is accused of kidnapping women “under the guise of an arrest” and forcing victims “to engage in sex for their freedom,” as the Columbus Division of Police put it.
A seven-count indictment was returned by a federal grand jury last week and unsealed today, and federal agents picked up Mitchell this morning. The charges encompass activity beginning in July 2017.
“While under the guise of an arrest,” said U.S. Attorney General for the Southern District of Ohio Ben C. Glassman at a press conference Monday, Mitchell “picked up a woman, transported her to another location, and then offered her freedom in exchange for oral sex.”
Mitchell—an ex-homicide cop, 30-year veteran of the force, and vice officer since May 2017—is accused of similar conduct with another woman in September 2017 and again in spring 2018, forcing her into vaginal and anal sex.
CLEVELAND — A water crisis in Michigan has prompted local youth to help out residents who have lived without clean water for years.
The Cleveland Boys and Girls Club is taking hundreds of cases of donated water to those affected by the crisis.
“We really felt a major need to do something about it,” said Earl Ingram, a mentor at the club.
Lead-tainted water flowed into the bodies of people in Flint. Illness, even death followed. In 2014, the city switched its water source to the Flint River, before treating it for corrosion.
“Not be able to do your normal shower routine, not to be able to go to the sink and just wash your hands after using the restroom,” said Ingram. “Not having the ease of taking a shower. Just the strategy that goes into a day-to-day. You have kids that are kindergarten age, and all they’ve ever done is live out of a bottle.”
That April, the US Congress passed FOSTA/SESTA, twin bills that stripped sex workers of the ability to advertise or seek support online by making websites criminally liable for their postings. This impoverished the community, forcing some workers back to pimps or onto streets, where they faced arrest or assault.”
In response, sex workers—both young women and longtime activists—got together and mobilized to fight for full decriminalization of their work.
The complete decriminalization of the sex trade is an approach that has gained traction in recent years, with even groups such as Amnesty International calling for “the decriminalization of all aspects of adult consensual sex work due to the foreseeable barriers that criminalization creates to the realization of the human rights of sex workers.” But as with every successful movement, there has been a backlash, led by longstanding feminist organizations that continue to assert that sex work is, to use the words of Gloria Steinem, a form of “body invasion.” Full decriminalization, no matter the studies that have been conducted, the first-hand experiences of many sex workers or people otherwise targeted with anti-prostitution laws, and the endorsements from human rights organizations, is still seen as a radical idea, and more to the point, one that some feminists believe is antithetical to the needs of women.
On Monday, some of those divisions were on display in New York City, when a coalition of organizations pulled together by the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women held a press conference and rally to push back against the planned legislation in New York (several speakers, tellingly, called it the “Pimp Protection Act”) and to call instead for what is commonly described as the Nordic, or End Demand, model—the decriminalization of sex workers, while continuing to keep the purchase of sex a crime.
“The sex trade could be coming to a neighborhood near you,” NOW-NY president Sonia Ossorio warned, as reported by Broadly. “If the wholesale legalization of the sex trade comes to New York, what would that look like? Will we have prostitution zones? Will we have an upscale one in the new Hudson Yards, or in the tried-and-tested Times Square, like when pimps hustled for customers and shot around the city looking for the next down-on-her-luck woman to lure into prostitution?”
New York Representative Carolyn Maloney echoed Ossorio: “This idea does not help or lift up or empower or protect women in any way, shape, or form. I support efforts to decriminalize prostitution, but I do not support any idea, bill, or proposal that would let pimps, johns, and the exploiters off the hook.”
Yet many sex workers and advocates argue that the Nordic model makes their work more dangerous by pushing them further underground, and that criminalizing the purchase of sex has ripple effects that make their work more ripe for violence and exploitation. As Decrim NY wrote in a statement after Monday’s rally: “The Nordic Model is criminalization, and it puts people who trade sex at increased risk of violence, economic instability, and labor exploitation.” The coalition also noted that Ramos’s and Salazar’s planned legislation would “explicitly build in protections for people trading sex, especially trafficking survivors, so they have recourse against violence and exploitation.”
Two sex workers who interrupted Monday’s press conference—with one shouting, “Listen to sex workers. Nothing about us without us”—told the Daily Beast they were there to protest the idea that sex work can never be consensual as well as the idea that all sex workers are victims.
As one of them, who uses the name SXNoir, told the Daily Beast, “It’s important for us to be here because we are consensual sex workers, and the idea that sex work can never be consensual is just wrong.”
“Just with the language that’s been used here … it’s basically painting us as victims, which is not our story,” the second woman, who identified herself as Adrienne, said. “People have that story and I think that’s valid. But that’s not my story and that’s not a lot of people’s stories, and those deserve to be heard as well.”
NOW New York President Sonia Ossorio told The Daily Beast that her organization also wants to stop the arrests of sex workers, but contends that many of those advocating for decriminalization of buyers “haven’t thought it through.” She added that the primary danger to sex workers is not threat of arrest, but the job itself.
This is terrible @NOW_NYC. These policies hurt sex workers and lead to their arrest and further harassment by the police. Time to decriminalize all sex work and ensure sex workers enjoy labor protections.
— Francoise Girard 💚 (@FrancoiseGirard) March 9, 2019
“What makes their job dangerous is when the door locks behind them, and they’re with a sex buyer, a stranger that they don’t know, who could potentially physically harm them,” she said. “The job is inherently dangerous because of the job that it is.”
Members of sex workers advocacy group Decrim NY pushed back in a press release, citing multiple human rights groups that endorse full decriminalization as the only way to prevent sex trafficking. The organization, which launched last month, helped write the New York decriminalization bill being championed by State Sens. Jessica Ramos, Julia Salazar and Brad Hoylman and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried.
“Decrim NY works to end violence, not just for sex workers but for survivors of exploitation,” the group said in a statement. “Decriminalization does not make rape, trafficking, assault or any form of violence or exploitation legal.”
The lone legislator to speak at Monday’s rally, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), said she also wants to decriminalize women in the sex trade, but argued that her colleagues’ bill would “let the pimps, the johns, and the exploiters off the hook.”
Rally participants also included members of OBJECT, a U.K.-based organization that advocates against prostitution, pornography, and “transgenderism,” as first noted by writer Melissa Gira Grant. A statement on the group’s website says it is “concerned by the dangerous impact ‘transgender’ ideology and practice has on women and children,” and that transgender acceptance is “in direct opposition to the views of feminists.”
“I’m not surprised the trans community was targeted here,” Mateo Guerrero-Tabares, a trans advocate and Decrim NY Steering Committee member, said in a statement. “We fight to decriminalize the sex trades because it is a matter of survival for our community.”
Both NOW and Maloney disavowed OBJECT’s message on Twitter. NOW spokeswoman Jean Bucaria told The Daily Beast she did not know how the group came to participate, though they were prominently featured in the crowd of supporters behind the podium.
On a warm Alice Springs morning, Wanatjura Lewis closes her eyes, puts in some headphones and gets ready to relax and meditate.
Key points:
Women from the NPY Women’s Council collaborated with the team behind Smiling Mind to create the app
It combines the skills of traditional healers with interpreters and western mental health professionals to improve wellbeing
The app is being trialled in remote Central Australian schools
She is listening to an ancient language that is being put to a very modern use.
Teaming up with the producers behind mindfulness app Smiling Mind, women from Central Australia’s NPY Women’s Council have helped create recorded meditations in Kriol, Ngaanyatjarra and Pitjantjiatjara languages.
The aim is to help combat mental health and trauma issues in Aboriginal communities, particularly among young people.
“This is for them, our families, to learn about all of these things that will help them look after themselves and keep them healthy in body and mind,” the council’s Nyumiti Burton said through an interpreter.
At the Decrim NY rally, you said that you’ve “seen sex workers on Roosevelt Avenue your entire life,” and have met with people “who want to erase the people on Roosevelt Avenue.” Could you speak a little bit about how you’ve seen sex workers treated in your community, and how that has changed over your life?
Jessica Ramos is an American politician from the state of New York. A member of the Democratic Party
Sex work has been around since the beginning of time from what we can surmise, and we’ve never been able to collectively deter people from sex work, whether it’s by choice, circumstance, or coercion. Not everybody is trafficked, and we’ll never know who’s trafficked if we keep lumping all sex workers together.By marginalizing them and casting them aside and not realizing or acknowledging that they’re our neighbors, we haven’t included them in the conversation.
We also haven’t realized that there’s been such rampant employment and housing discrimination, especially for transgender people, but also black women, who make up 94 percent of “loitering for the purposes of prostitution” arrests. We have failed in creating economic opportunities — sincere ones. And the fact of the matter is, we need to ensure that there’s work for everybody. Ultimately, if people choose to engage in sex work, they need to be able to do it in a safe way. This is a public-health issue — safe sex. We know that decriminalizing sex work contributes to lower HIV rates and other STD rates.
It’s rare to see legislation regarding sex work that actually centers the worker’s concerns — for example, proponents of FOSTA/SESTA argued that it protected sex workers, when in reality it has forced them to conduct their work under much more dangerous conditions. How have you listened to people in the sex trades to ensure that their voices are heard?
As a lawmaker, I can’t emphasize enough how important [it is] that we speak to all stakeholders involved, especially about controversial topics. We’ve always talked about sex work as something that is morally unsound, but government should not be in the business of deciding what is moral and what is not, but rather, protecting the well-being of residents. When we did talk to the sex workers, and we did hear these stories of how they ended up in this line of work — whether it was a coyote who helped them come to the United States and they’re repaying their debt, or they lost their job because they were undergoing their transition and were ultimately fired and had no other recourse — these are the stories that people need to know about so that we can really begin to understand the work and put forth as much economic empowerment and public-health policy as possible.
Rebecca McPhail, president of the WV Manufacturers Association, spoke during the West Virginia Press Association Legislative Lookahead at the Culture Center in Charleston. (Rick Barbero/The Register-Herald)
CHARLESTON — The West Virginia House of Delegates on Tuesday passed a rules bill that includes a provision opposed by advocates for clean water.
The West Virginia Legislature approves rules proposed by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Last year, the West Virginia DEP released a proposal to update about 60 water quality standards, based on recommendations the federal Environmental Protection Agency made in 2015.
The standards specify concentrations of pollutants known to have human health effects, including cancer-causing chemicals, allowed in rivers and streams. For the majority of the standards, less pollution would have been allowed in West Virginia waterways.
A former staff member for Gov. Pete Ricketts’ re-election campaign said he regretted posting thousands of comments to an online chatroom, including many that contained racial and homophobic slurs and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Bennett Bressman was identified as the person behind the username “bress222” in a chatroom dedicated to fans of YouTube personality Nick Fuentes, who took part in the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left a protester dead.
“Yes, that was my profile,” said Bressman, 22, in a phone interview Monday morning. “I’m not denying it. I understand how they look really bad and are really bad on their face. I regret what I said.”
More than 3,400 posts made by Bressman were collected by Unicorn Riot, a nonprofit media organization that gathers and leaks the chat logs of white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups operating within the U.S.
A transgender woman who is running to be prime minister of Thailand has said she is ready to take the role – but wonders if the people are ready to accept a transgender candidate.
Pauline Ngarmpring transitioned at the age of 49, and has said she is “comfortable” and has “nothing to hide” ahead of the general election on March 24.
The trans Thai candidate said that—while she is ready for the race—she is accepting that she will likely not become prime minister on this occasion, according to the Thomas Reuters Foundation.
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“I know having my candidacy is a symbolic gesture. I know I will not be prime minister now,” said Ngarmpring. “But we hope we will get some seats and represent LGBT people in the country. And perhaps next time, even a transgender woman will have a chance.”
Pauline Ngarmpring is running so future generations will have equality
She also said that she decided to run now for prime minister so that future generations “who may be transgender, gay, male or female” will be able to have equality.
She is putting herself forward as a candidate for prime minister with the Machachon Party, a political party that is running with human rights and equality at the fore.
“I know having my candidacy is a symbolic gesture. I know I will not be prime minister now.”
– Pauline Ngarmpring, transgender candidate
If they win enough seats, the party wants to decriminalise sex work and improve LGBT+ rights – and in particular, wants to give transgender people the right to change their gender on official documents.
Johnson & Johnson was the “kingpin” that fueled the country’s opioid crisis, serving as a top supplier, seller and lobbyist, according to a state official leading the legal fight against the companies that helped create the crisis.
Why it matters: Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin, has been the main target so far in lawsuits. But court documents show attorneys general also are trying to cast a wider net, drawing more attention to J&J’s role in the global opioid market.
Driving the news: The first big trial of the opioid epidemic is set to begin in May in Oklahoma. It will set the stage for similar litigation in other states, as well as the consolidated nationwide lawsuit that has been compared to the tobacco litigation of the 1990s.
Y’all heard of Cause Box?
I’m just doing some investigatin’…
(I ain’t about to buy these boxes AT ALL. They called one item “PETA approved” and I rolled my damn eyes.)
But I saw their latest box opening video and I had some questions, so I emailed them:
Hi,
I was thinking about purchasing your spring box but I had some questions about one of the items. The bracelets you’re including from Marina De Buchi are meant to give 10% of sales to the anti human trafficking non profit A21 Campaign. However, in the wake of SESTA-FOSTA, and it being Women’s history month, I don’t want to knowingly give my money to a non profit that doesn’t respect sex workers. A21 also appears to be run by Evangelical Christians. Do they oppose the rights of queer and trans women? And/or sex workers?
I’m really hoping you’ve got some information that can change my mind.
Thank you!
They responded, essentially saying I should look into A21 myself, but then admitting they’re donating to A21 without knowledge of whether or not they support sex workers or lgbtqia rights.
Ha.
Thanks for reaching out! While we cannot speak on behalf of those who run this organization regarding their personal beliefs, we encourage exploring A21 as an organization and reaching out to them directly. We chose to work with Marina de Bucci because we fell in love with their high quality products, symbolism of empowerment and strength through their charmed symbols, and that every piece sold contributes 10% to fighting human trafficking through the A21 Campaign 🙂 The below is the official write-up regarding CAUSEBOX’s specific donation to A21 through our partnership with Marina De Buchi that is going directly towards A21’s Child Advocacy Center of Thailand:
“Slavery is the fastest growing organized crime in the world. It’s real, hidden in plain sight, and tearing at the social fabric of every nation and economic structure. But that’s why we exist— 21st century abolitionists determined to bring change. Our operational strategy, and the heart cry of our organization, is to Reach, Rescue, and Restore. We reach the vulnerable and disrupt the demand. We prevent slavery from ever happening by engaging people through events, student presentations, and education programs. We help rescue victims and seek justice against their captors. We work closely with law enforcement on the ground to support police operations, identify victims through our hotlines, assist in the prosecution of traffickers, represent survivors in court proceedings, and collaborate with governments and other NGOs to eradicate slavery at every level. We restore survivors and empower them to live independently. We work face-to-face with every person in our care based on their individual needs, providing them with access to housing, medical treatment, counseling, education, employment, and repatriation to help them reach a place of independence.”
“In partnership with the Royal Thai Police’s Thailand Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and with assistance from the FBI and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, we founded the Child Advocacy Center of Thailand (Pattaya). This facility is designed to help officers working on the ground to investigate cases against child sex offenders, child traffickers, and online crimes against children. When children are rescued they are brought here and they work with social workers so that evidence can be collected against their trafficker to be used in a court of law in Thailand or in their traffickers country of origin.”
We’re really proud to support A21 and the work they’re doing to rescue those forced into slavery! We hope this helps 🙂 Please let us know if there is anything else we may assist you with, and we hope to welcome you to the CAUSEBOX family!
Thanks for your support,
A House panel Thursday backed a proposal that would require public high schools to offer elective classes on religion and the Bible amid debate about whether the courses would be constitutional and religiously neutral.
Bill sponsor Kimberly Daniels, D-Jacksonville, said the classes would be objective and that students would not be forced to take them. Supporters also pointed to the historical role of the Bible, which Daniels described as the “best selling book” of all time.
“This is a public policy issue, not a worship issue,” Daniels said before the House PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee approved the measure (HB 195).
But opponents questioned the objectivity and religious neutrality, in part because the courses would not include instruction on such things as the Koran.
“I don’t know how you can have religious neutrality if your curriculum is just focused on one holy book,” Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said.
In 2018, Democratic Florida State Rep. Kimberly Daniels garnered nationalattentionfor introducing legislation that would require public schools throughout the state to prominently display the U.S. motto “In God We Trust”:
Each district school board shall adopt rules to require, in all of the schools of the district and in each building used by the district school board, the display of the state motto, “In God We Trust,” designated under s. 15.0301, in a conspicuous place.
Daniels’ bill was passed by the Florida House, but it failed to clear the Senate Education Committee. However, the “In God We Trust” requirement was later included in a spending bill signed into law by Republican governor Rick Scott in March 2018.
The focus on Daniels’ proposal prompted scrutiny of her own controversial background as a Christian pastor who preached about demonic possession, claimed that Halloween candy was “prayed over by witches,” and virulently opposed inclusiveness towards the LGBT community.
In March 2018, the website Patheos drew attention to one explosive proclamation of Daniels’ in particular, reported in an article headlined “Black Florida Lawmaker Thanks God for Slavery”:
Florida State Rep. Kimberly Daniels thanks God for slavery, claiming “if it wasn’t for slavery, I might be somewhere in Africa worshiping a tree.”
That article cited an earlier Facebook video posted by the Freedom from Religion Foundation:
The quotation is authentic. In 2008, Daniels delivered a guest sermon at the Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio. The description under a YouTube video of the sermon states that it took place in October 2008. Although we were unable to verify that date, Daniels’ references to the ongoing U.S. presidential campaign could well be in keeping with it.
A short excerpt from the sermon can be viewed below:
During her sermon, Daniels addressed the issue of race and religion, encouraging the black members of the congregation to self-identify primarily as Christians rather than as African-Americans, and to eschew the liberal policies of the Democratic party (which she would represent as a member of Jacksonville City Council less than three years later, and which she currently represents in the Florida state House of Representatives).
Later, Daniels referred implicitly to the presidential candidacy of then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama, saying:
I would love to see a black president. I would love to see a black president, but not one that’s going to cost me my soul. And let me add this — my babies, my boys, they don’t have to see a black man sitting in the president’s seat to know who they are. It’s in Him that I live and move and have my very own being, and if a black man [never becomes] president, Jesus is Lord and the Greater One is [inside] me. And what black people need to do is get back what the devil has stolen from them, and stop making it worse by working with unrighteousness …
And let me say this to you — I thank God for slavery. I thank God for the crack house. If it wasn’t for the crack house … God [would never have been able] to use me [as] he can use me now. And if it wasn’t for slavery, I might be somewhere in Africa, worshipping a tree.
Daniels’ reference to “the crack house” was an allusion to her own purported past as a drug addict and sex worker. Immediately after the section of her speech in which she said “I thank God for slavery,” Daniels then made another statement that subsequently provoked outrage and allegations of anti-semitism:
And you can talk about the Holocaust, but the Jews own everything. We go through some things, but let me tell you something — when you go through, you qualify to get paid back. You don’t need the government to give it back, God will give it back.
The complete sermon, which sets Daniels’ “slavery” remarks in full context, can be viewed here. We asked Daniels’ whether there was any background to her remarks that readers ought to be aware of, and whether she stood by or retracted her view that she ‘thanks God’ for slavery but did not receive a response in time for publication.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man who grabbed a McDonald’s worker by the collar because he couldn’t find a straw was sentenced to 60 days in jail.
A Pinellas County judge also ordered 40-year-old Daniel Willis Taylor to stay away from the restaurant and the workers he attacked in an incident caught on video. Taylor was credited with the 58 days in jail he already served. He also must pay a $1,000 fine.
Authorities say Taylor became irate when he couldn’t find a straw on New Years’ Eve. The video shows him standing at the counter, screaming at 20-year-old Yasmine James before grabbing and holding onto her shirt collar. She responded by hitting him several times.
The Tampa Bay Times reportsTaylor kicked another worker while being escorted out.
During interviews on Bubba The Love Sponge, Carlson said he “love[s]” the idea of young girls sexually experimenting, used sexist terms to refer to a number of women, and defended statutory rape
Between 2006 and 2011, Tucker Carlson spent approximately an hour a week calling in to Bubba the Love Sponge, a popular shock jock radio program where he spoke with the hosts about a variety of cultural and political topics in sometimes-vulgar terms. During those conversations, Carlson diminished the actions of Warren Jeffs, then on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list for his involvement in arranging illegal marriages between adults and underage girls, talked about sex and young girls, and defended statutory rape.
Carlson, who was hired by Fox News in 2009, also used sexist language to talk about women, including then-co-workers at NBC and public figures. He referred to Martha Stewart’s daughter Alexis Stewart as “cunty,” called journalist Arianna Huffington a “pig,” and labeled Britney Spears and Paris Hilton “the biggest white whores in America.” He also said that women enjoy being told to “be quiet and kind of do what you’re told” and that they are “extremely primitive.”
Officials want parents to be aware of the viral Internet “48-hour challenge” that encourages kids to go missing for two days, according to KFSM.
Our source says the main goal is to have their picture on social media, and the more likes and shares it receives, the more “points” the teen will get.
This challenge isn’t just scaring parents — it’s also wasting law enforcement resources.
Be sure to talk with your kids about this and express the seriousness of the situation: it is NOT funny to go missing and NOT funny to have parents and police worry for nothing!
A judge in Texas has received a public warning after telling a jury to reevaluate its guilty verdict for a trafficking suspect because God told him the defendant was innocent.
Jack Robison, a Comal County, Texas, district court judge, reported himself to the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct after making the remark in January 2018, The Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday.
Robison had reportedly made the statement while overseeing a trial involving Gloria Romero Perez, who was facing charges of continuous sex trafficking and the sale or purchase of a child.
A homeless veteran and a New Jersey woman face decades in prison after they pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring in a sick GoFundMe scheme that netted hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Johnny Bobbitt, 36, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiring to commit money laundering and Kate McClure, 28 pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud.
The pair, along with McClure’s ex-boyfriend Mark D’Amico, are accused of spinning a tale about Bobbitt giving McClure his last $20 for gas when she was stranded along the I-95 in Philadelphia.
Hey gang.
So let’s dig into some more of this Tariq Nasheed rhetoric of which he feeds to his captive audience.
This will get you ready for some awkward moments in social media when you see people in full confidence saying things that have a factual backing.
Image captionMark Kennedy (left) in his police uniform and (right) in his undercover days, when he used the name Mark Stone
A woman who found out her partner was a policeman paid to spy on her group of activists has said she is the victim of a “conspiracy to rape”.
Rosa and another woman have spoken of feeling betrayed after falling in love with men who turned out to be spies.
An ongoing public inquiry into undercover policing has seen several women get apologies and compensation.
Police said officers who had long-term sexual relationships with their targets “abused their positions”.
“If you put all these things together, you have a team of officers conspiring to rape,” said Rosa – not her real name – who told BBC Wales Investigates she discovered the man she thought was her long-term partner was a paid police spy.
“They know there was no informed consent.
“It’s the whole gang of them, and there’s no other way of terming it for me than a gang.
“You’ve got mentors, you’ve got handlers a whole backroom team of people monitoring – and directing it would seem – their relationships, their activities.”
Image captionDet Con Jim Boyling, who had a relationship with a woman he was spying on
For the first time Rosa, and another woman – both from Wales – have revealed on camera the full story of how they became involved in intimate relationships which seemed genuine, but were in fact charades as police forces infiltrated groups they thought needed monitoring.
BBC Wales Investigates has spoken to people and groups across the country coming to terms with finding out the men who posed as friends, fellow campaigners and in some cases lovers, were living a lie.
In 2000, Rosa spent three months in South Africa looking for Jim Sutton, the man she was in love with. The trouble was that man did not really exist.
Rosa met him in a London pub while she was a political activist in a group called Reclaim the Streets. The pair fell for each other quickly, to the extent that Rosa wanted to call the relationship off.
A police officer with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection has been arrested on charges of manufacturing guns at his upstate home and selling them to motorcycle gang members.
Thirty-eight-year-old Gregg Marinelli is also charged with tipping off a suspect in a major drug investigation, state police and the Orange County district attorney’s office said.
Marinelli, a sergeant in the DEP police, was arrested Thursday at his home in Plattekill.
Police say Marinelli assembled dozens of handguns and assault rifles and sold them to “individuals who are legally barred from possessing such weapons” including members of outlaw motorcycle clubs. Many of the guns Marinelli sold had no serial numbers and would be difficult to trace, authorities said.
The Times Herald-Record of Middletown reports that Marinelli was arraigned Friday on charges including criminal sale of a firearm, hindering prosecution and conspiracy.
City police announced Sunday the arrests of Keith Smith and his daughter, Valeria Smith, in the Dec. 1, 2018, killing of Jacquelyn Smith. They are charged with first-degree murder.
Acting Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said Keith Smith, 52, of Aberdeen, and Valeria Smith, 28, of Baltimore, were arrested Sunday morning in Harlingen, Texas, near the Mexico border.
“During the course of our investigation, we have developed evidence that Mr. Smith was leaving Maryland, so we made appropriate national notifications, and the Texas State Police arrested him this morning (Sunday),” Harrison said. “All of our investigators for both Keith and Valeria Smith, outlining the evidence in this case to a judge, who reviewed and signed the warrants for first-degree murder.”
Keith Smith and Valeria Smith were arraigned Monday in Cameron County, Texas, Magistrate Court. They are being held without bail. The next step will be an extradition hearing.
They are charged with nine counts on an open warrant in Maryland.
App store curators frequently have to walk a fine line when deciding what to ban, and Google is proof positive of this. The internet giant told California Rep. Jackie Speier that it wouldn’t ban Saudi Arabia’s Absher app from Google Play despite calls from Speier and other members of Congress to remove it. The mobile software lets Saudi men control and track travel permissions for women and migrant workers, leading to an outcry that Google and Apple were promoting “sixteenth century tyranny.” However, Google determined that Absher didn’t violate its agreements and could remain on the store.
A yearlong BuzzFeed News investigation across six countries — based on more than 100 interviews and thousands of pages of documents, including confidential memos, internal budgets, and emails discussing weapons purchases — can reveal:
Villagers have been whipped with belts, attacked with machetes, beaten unconscious with bamboo sticks, sexually assaulted, shot, and murdered by WWF-supported anti-poaching units, according to reports and documents obtained by BuzzFeed News.
The charity’s field staff in Asia and Africa have organized anti-poaching missions with notoriously vicious shock troops, and signed off on a proposal to kill trespassers penned by a park director who presided over the killings of dozens of people.
WWF has provided paramilitary forces with salaries, training, and supplies — including knives, night vision binoculars, riot gear, and batons — and funded raids on villages. In one African country, it embroiled itself in a botched arms deal to buy assault rifles from a brutal army that has paraded the streets with the severed heads of alleged “criminals.”
The charity has operated like a global spymaster, organizing, financing, and running dangerous and secretive networks of informants motivated by “fear” and “revenge,” including within indigenous communities, to provide park officials with intelligence — all while publicly denying working with informants.
Albert is accused of causing the large gash in her mothers head, which police reports say resulted in a “large amount of bleeding.”
The mother reportedly used the same phone that hit her in the head to call 911. While she named her daughter as the assailant and officials secured an arrest warrant at that time, Albert wasn’t arrested until last month.
In the interim, the alleged victim says her daughter has remained at the home without any further incident.
“Moreover, I believe that it is in Holly Anne’s best interest that she continue to reside with us, rather than have to make other living arrangements pending a future trial date,” she wrote in a statement to the court.
The mother went on to describe the suspect as unemployed and dependent on her parents for “financial and other support.”
She recommended that Albert be permitted to surrender voluntarily. The suspect has been released from custody on an unsecured bond and is
“Her failing health was due to the government failing her”
By Sheila Brehm
27 February 2019
The funeral for one of the youngest victims of Legionnaires’ disease was held Sunday in Flint, Michigan. Jassmine McBride, only 30 years old, contracted the deadly lung disease at the height of the Flint water crisis in 2014. Her death brings the total to 13 people who have died from it. The disease infected at least 90 people.
During a routine visit to McLaren Flint Hospital to treat diabetes in August 2014, when Jassmine was just 26 years old, she was diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease. According to a local news report at the time, Jassmine’s mother Jacqueline was devastated and shocked: “The hospital called and said, ‘Do we have permission to resuscitate your daughter?’ I couldn’t understand what happened. She just went to get an iron supplement.”
Jassmine McBride being comforted in her hospital bed
The bacteria had attacked her lungs, leaving her with very little ability to take in sufficient oxygen to live. At that time, Jassmine spent two months heavily sedated in the intensive care unit. Her life was changed forever. Before contracting Legionnaires’, she was a young woman who was active in the band at Central High School, loved to dance and enjoyed singing in her church choir. Although she became unable to physically attend college, she was a determined young woman and began taking online classes to become a medical biller. Before her death, she was permanently tied to an oxygen tank and home-bound.
Sex workers have made a fresh call for decriminalisation as part of a push to create better safety for women.
The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) is launching it’s Make All Women Safe campaign on March 3, International Sex Workers’ Rights Day, to push for the decriminalisation of sex work to create safer environments for women.
ECP spokeswoman Niki Adams told RightsInfo that changing the law is an “urgent” matter because of the frequent violence that sex workers face.
An anti-human trafficking activist in North Texas has file
d a federal lawsuit against the state of Nevada in a bid to end legalized prostitution there. T
he complaint, filed Monday morning in Reno by Rebekah Charleston, contends that Nevada’s legal brothels are in violation of federal law preventing interstate commerce in prostitution, and that the market created by those brothels contributes to illegal sex trafficking. It names the state of Nevada, its Legislature and Gov. Steve Sisolak as defendants.
According to the affidavit, the officer attempted to place handcuffs on Christy, who “appeared to be intoxicated and possibly mentally ill.” Christy initially complied with the officer’s demands before attempting to resist arrest and striking him with his fist.
Conard allegedly bit Trooper Dustin Fidazzo in the arm as he
put a seat belt on her. Police also said she spit on the
floor repeatedly at the state police barracks in Waynesburg, and struck the wall behind a prisoner bench, causing a picture frame to fall and break
.
Conard is charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, DUI, resisting arrest and two counts of disorderly conduct. She was arraigned Tuesday morning before District Judge D. Glenn Bates, who set bail at $25,000. She remains in Greene County jail.
The newspaper says the incident unfolded after police initially responded to a call about a possible battery and reportedly learned McLemore had barricaded himself inside a room at the home. The suspect, it added, had called out that “he had a gun to his head,
and he was not going back to prison, no matter what it took.”
After numerous attempts to lure McLemore out of the room proved unsuccessful, SWAT was called in and they deployed the big guns: the promise of pizza.
As one officer talked with the woman, the man jumped in a white truck and took off. Police chased after the man in their patrol cars and eventually pulled him over on 20th Street.
As they spoke with the man in the truck, they observed that he was wearing no pants and only had a shirt and underwear on.
About that time, the man “decided he didn’t enjoy the company of fine officers and sped off southbound on 20th,” Pasco police write in a Facebook post about the incident.
After learning about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean and studying the lifespan of plastics in Marzi Adi’s science class, the seventh-graders at Capital Day School decided Thursday to act.
The class handed out individual newsletters they wrote on the topic of plastics and the “great garbage patch” to customers at the westside Kroger Thursday morning. They also handed out approximately 20 tote bags made from recycled shirts.
“Right now the ocean is in trouble because there are large amounts of plastic, very large amounts, in the ocean,” said 7th-grader Jackson Robbins. “Supposedly, by 2050 there will be more garbage in the ocean than fish.”
He explained it takes more than handing out fliers and homemade bags to fix a problem as big as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but it’s a place to start.
Hey gang.
This is a segment from a fully produced patreon only episode that can be found here. patreon.com/winecellarmediafund
An iceberg roughly twice the size of New York City could soon break off an ice shelf in Antarctica, according to NASA scientists who are monitoring an enormous crack that is spreading across the sprawling slab of ice.
The space agency recently released satellite photos of Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf, where a rift can be seen cutting across the shelf. NASA scientists said the crack had been stable for about 35 years, but has since been creeping north at a pace of about 2.5 miles per year.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is pledging to push for justice in three major investigations her office is overseeing, including the Flint water crisis.
Here with @DecrimNY to call for the decriminalization of sex work. #DecrimNY
The criminalization of sex work has been a failure, leading to the endangerment and abuse of sex workers.
Until our laws change, DAs who continue to prosecute sex workers are an embarrassment. pic.twitter.com/GzIzjDK5m1
The eXXpedition is trying to make sense of that relentlessness. The women, a mix of scientists, sailors, writers and activists, collected those samples of plastic from the air, water and ocean floor to be analyzed not just in Napper’s lab but in others across the world. The point is that this problem is far larger than the north Pacific – plastic is found throughout all the oceans, in fish, in turtles, in shellfish, everywhere.
iscovers through Facebook that there’s been a death in the community, she begins investigating, combing through local
news reports of recent killings in the area. Often, within half an hour, Roberts can match the name of a slain transgender person to a murder victim who has been identified only by their legal name in local coverage. Then she publishes her findings on her long-running blog TransGriot.
A seven-count indictment was returned by a federal grand jury last week and unsealed today, and federal agents picked up Mitchell this morning. The charges encompass activity beginning in July 2017.
posting thousands of comments to an online chatroom, including many that contained racial and homophobic slurs and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
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Marinelli, a sergeant in the DEP police, was arrested Thursday at his home in Plattekill.
Jassmine McBride being comforted in her hospital bed
d a federal lawsuit against the state of Nevada in a bid to end legalized prostitution there. T
put a seat belt on her. Police also said she spit on the
and he was not going back to prison, no matter what it took.”
