It took less than 20 minutes for a Florida jury to convict Marissa Alexander for shooting at a ceiling while she tried to scare off her attacker. She was convicted and sent to prison to serve a 20 year sentence. No one died in Marissa’s case but her claim that she was scared for her life and stood her ground did not work.
Marissa is black.
Fast forward to today, where a white man approached a black teen, confronted that black teen, then murdered that black teen. No, I’m not talking about George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, although after killing Trayvon, Zimmerman is now a free man planning a boxing match. I’m talking about Michael Dunn who murdered another 17-year-old black child. Dunn demanded that Jordan turn down his music and then killed Jordan when he refused.
Dunn is now awaiting a jury’s decision. Unlike Marissa’s jury who again, took less than 20 minutes to convict her, Dunn’s jury is presently in day 4 of apparently trying to figure out if a crime was committed.
Meanwhile, the family of the murdered victim Jordan Davis, was seen outside the courtroom… praying.
Darren Sharper has just been charged with 2 counts of rape in L.A. … after the former New Orleans Saints superstar allegedly drugged multiple women and raped them in his hotel room … TMZ Sports has learned.
Among the charges … two counts of rape by use of drugs, four counts of furnishing a controlled substance and one count of possession of a controlled substance, all felonies.
Sharper — who had a Hall of Fame-caliber NFL career as a safety — is accused of drugging the women with zolpidem (Ambien).
Officials say Sharper met the two womenin a West Hollywood nightclub on October 30th and invited them to another party.
On the way, officials say they stopped at Darren’s hotel room and he gave them each a shot.
The women then passed out and hours later one of the women claims she woke up with Sharper sexually assaulting her. The second woman says she woke up and “interrupted his actions.”
Officials say Sharper STRUCK AGAIN on January 14th … when he returned to the same West Hollywood nightclub and found two more women.
Sharper allegedly pulled the same scheme — inviting them back to hs room, gave them a shot, they passed out, he raped them.
Officials say both women left his hotel and sought medical treatment.
Sharper was arrested on January 17th. He was released on $200k bail. In addition to the rape, officials also say he was illegally in possession of morphine.
If convicted, Sharper faces more than 30 YEARS in prison. Officials are recommending the judge set his bail at $100 MILLION.
(Update: We’re told the $100 million bail was a typo … officials meant to request a $10 MILLION bail).
Officials say Sharper is also accused of raping women in 3 other states — including Arizona, Nevada and Louisiana.
A fatal collision occurred in Greenwich Village early yesterday morning when a truck plowed into a city bus. The bus’ operator, William Pena, was thrown from the vehicle. He later died beneath the wheels of the bus. The driver of the truck was 22-year-old Domonic Whilby of Georgia, reports The New York Daily News.
Just hours before the pre dawn collision, Whilby was celebrating at a birthday bash at club 1 Oak for supermodel Shanina Shaik with his famous uncle, Tyson Beckford. Sources say that after a night of hard partying Whilby was escorted from the club around 3:30 am and was thrown out of Dream Downtown Hotel after he passed out on the second floor. Onlookers say that he became irritated when he was unable to locate the limousine that was scheduled to pick him up. The super at two W. 16th St. apartment buildings, Victor Vega, says that he witnessed Whilby randomly pound on multiple apartment doors.
“He was sweating like a mad dog,” said Vega. “He had to be high on drugs. He started kicking and banging the doors.”
Shortly after, Vega says Whilby jumped into a running 10 Rabbits Granola truck and sped away after the truck’s driver got out to make an early morning delivery. One witness tells NYDN that Whilby blew though a red light just moments before the fatal crash.
“It’s just the wrong place at the wrong time, I guess,” said the victim’s cousin, Edwin Espinal. “That’s what happened to William — an honest, working guy and he paid the consequences. Unbelievable.”
“William was a great person,” added Pena’s brother, Alex Pena. “I can’t say no more about him, great person … He was a great guy every way you can put it.”
Four others were injured in the accident, including a person on a scooter, who was dragged 50 ft.
“He didn’t even brake,” said Eddie Abdelmoty. “My tires blew up … He went right through the red light at the end of the block.”
Police say Whilby suffered minor neck injuries. Once apprehended by officers, he was taken to Bellevue Hospital where he was likely tested for drugs and alcohol. He is facing 10 charges, some of which include manslaughter, two counts of grand larceny, three counts of criminal assault, criminal mischief and criminal trespass.
Pena leaves behind a wife and 14-year-old daughter. Beckford’s manager has declined to comment on the tragedy.
Adair County, Kentucky remains under a state of emergency after a natural gas line explosion early Thursday morning. Nearby residents told local news that they had just fallen asleep when the blast rocked them awake around 1 a.m.
“I had just got done watching the Olympics and was getting into bed when the whole house shook and it sounded like a big bomb went off. It lit up the sky like it was daylight, it was a great ball of fire,” Bill Kingdollar, who lives 25 miles from the explosion told WLKY.
“I could feel the heat outside my home and debris was falling, rocks and dirt. I was in the Army 20 years and I’ve never experienced an explosion like that,” he added.
The blast in the small rural town of Knifely, about 90 miles south of Louisville, ignited multiple fires. Three homes were set ablaze, two of which were completely destroyed. Two barns and four cars were also incinerated. So far, only one person has been reported injured, although the extent of the injuries are not yet known. Twenty additional homes were also evacuated.
The 30-inch natural gas pipeline was about 100 feet from Highway 76 and buried 30 feet underground. When it exploded, large rocks and sections of pipeline flew into the air. A 60-foot crater was left behind. The pipeline is owned by Columbia Gulf, part of NiSource’s Columbia Pipeline Group, which owns and operates more than 15,700 miles of natural gas pipelines, one of the largest underground storage systems in North America.
A video taken by a driver going south on I-275 shows a vehicle traveling on the wrong side of the highway before colliding with another car and bursting into flames.
Two wrong-way crashes, at opposite ends of the nation, have left 11 people dead in Florida and California, officials said. In Florida, the fiery head-on collision was caught on dramatic video, capturing the violence of the crash.
In the Florida collision, a sports utility vehicle was traveling the wrong way on Interstate 275 around 2 a.m. Sunday when it hit a Hyundai Sonata, which was carrying four members of the fraternity Sigma Beta Rho at the University of South Florida in Tampa. The SUV driver was also killed, marking the fifth fatality, according to Florida Highway Patrol.
Officials said it was unclear whether alcohol was involved in the Florida crash.
I have two favorite passages from Moran’s article. Here is the first:
Yes, we knew Christie was a bully. But we didn’t know his crew was crazy enough to put people’s lives at risk in Fort Lee as a means to pressure the mayor. We didn’t know he would use Hurricane Sandy aid as a political slush fund. And we certainly didn’t know that Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer was sitting on a credible charge of extortion by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.
With all due respect to Moran, and I do agree with him on many issues, I knew that Christie was a nightmare way before he actually lulled the rest of New Jersey to sleep. He did put people’s lives in danger by cutting programs to the poor, the less fortunate, and to schools by making cuts that could have been alleviated with a small increase in revenue. He did treat Sandy as a political event right after it happened and rode that wave all the way to this past November since he didn’t have an economic record he could successfully run on. His YouTube videos also showed that he had no patience for anyone who disagreed with him and that he would not take any responsibility for the negative aspects of his policies. I can’t speak for Kim Guadango, but she and Christie do make a wonderful team.
So when Moran says that we didn’t know, he’s wrong. Many of us did know and tried to make it clear what was happening. But the Christie ad machine was too well-oiled and too loud. Blame yourself, Mr. Moran. Leave the rest of us out of it.
And now for the second:
And let’s not forget his opponent, Sen. Barbara Buono. She was not up to the job of being governor — even in the view of many Democrats. She got the party’s nomination because more credible candidates, including Cory Booker, backed out in the face of Christie’s strength.
I have not forgotten Barbara Buono and the ethical, caring campaign she ran. Nor have I forgotten that she spoke about the people who make up the majority of New Jersey; people who need to work for a living and whose lives have not benefited from the governor’s policies and, indeed, are being asked to give more while the wealthy are not. She was, and is, certainly up to the job of being governor. The problem is that Moran cannot recognize the difference between a noise machine and beautiful music. That the Democratic Party did not support her is a problem that I recognized and wrote about. President Obama could have come to New Jersey, and he abdicated his responsibility. But you can’t make the connection between Barbara Buono’s ability to run this state with the lack of endorsements.
Governor Chrisite has always been an ego-driven bully and he has now been wounded politically. What was going to be one of his main campaign weapons, his outrageously inappropriate berating videos, will now be his greatest liability. He’ll need to come up with a different persona in order to reclaim the political middle if he wants to be president, and that will be extremely difficult. Will the core conservative Republican voter shun him? Probably not, but that’s not where elections are won.
Chris Christie has won his final election victory. He was always as he appears now, and it was always apparent to those of us who looked hard at his record and actions. That the Star-Ledger is just noticing tells us all we need to know about its myopia.
Although the main stories in the press focus on gridlock and the lack of compromise, that doesn’t mean that things aren’t slowly changing in the United States. As usually happens, change is driven by the people as they react to circumstances created by the politicians, and that in turn leads to more calls for change. Politicians, meanwhile, usually lag behind the grass-roots calls because they are essentially reactive beings loathe to offend or move too fast.
Consider immigration. There is clearly a need to reform out immigration laws, and most of that is related to things other than a path to citizenship. The Republicans have already felt the wrath of Hispanic voters, but because most of the conservatives have safe districts, and because of their irrational fear of giving President Obama any political victory, the party doesn’t full see the urgency for a vote this term.
The latest argument is that Obama is not to be trusted with the law because he’s already made executive changes to the ACA, and the GOP fears that he will make similar changes to anything they negotiate with him. Now, though, they’re being called out by Senator Charles Schumer. His idea is to pass the law, but have it become operative in 2017, after Obama leaves office. After all, the ACA was passed in 2010 and didn’t become fully operational until 2013. Why not immigration? The GOP’s answer, through Rob Portman of Ohio, seems somewhat promising, but overall the Republicans have little interest in taking voters’ minds off the health care rollout, even if millions of Americans now have the security of health insurance.
Make no mistake that immigration reform will get done sooner or later. Sooner, it will be done with Republican input. Later, it will be done solely by Democrats because the growing Hispanic community will see the GOP as an obstacle. The next Republican presidential nominee had better drop the deportation rhetoric if they want to have any chance of being elected.
Meanwhile, the country will move forward with or without the politicians. As it always has.
A Colorado woman who pretended to be pregnant kidnapped her 6-day-old nephew from Beloit, Wis. before being arrested in Iowa Friday, according to prosecutors and police.
The baby, Kayden Powell, was found wrapped in blankets inside a tote bag near a gas station off Interstate 80 near West Branch, Iowa at around 10:15 a.m., officials said. The baby appeared to be in good health despite being outside in frigid weather, police said at a news conference.
Kristen Smith, 31, of Denver, was charged with kidnapping, prosecutors announced Friday afternoon.
Smith was with the baby’s mother and other family members at a Beloit home, according to court documents. Kayden’s mother, Brianna Marshall, 18, told police she woke up Thursday morning and found the baby missing from his bassinet.
Smith was located in Iowa, where police found she had an arrest warrant out of Texas on unrelated charges. Her car contained baby clothing, a stroller and a car seat, but not the infant. Initially, Smith denied any knowledge of the baby’s whereabouts, according to court documents.
After police searched her cell phone and Facebook account, investigators found messages from Smith claiming to be pregnant before giving birth on Wednesday, one day before the baby disappeared. Officers also found a prosthetic pregnancy belly in Smith’s vehicle, according to court documents.
Officers later found the baby near the gas station, according to the documents.
“Despite frigid temperatures, Kayden was found alive and appears to be doing very well,” Steven Kopp, police chief for the town of Beloit, said at a news conference. “In the words of EMS officials, he is in excellent health.”
Actor Jamie Foxx and the families of Emmett Till and Oscar Grant are joining South Florida residents this weekend to commemorate the second anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s fatal shooting by neighborhood watch leader George Zimmerman.
A peace walk is planned for Saturday in Miami Gardens, and a gala hosted by The Trayvon Martin Foundation is planned for Sunday in Davie on what would have been Martin’s 19th birthday.
A spokeswoman for Martin’s family says the focus of the weekend is to explore strategies to reduce violence.
Till, a black teen, was murdered in Mississippi in 1955, and Grant, also a black teen, was fatally shot by a police officer in Oakland in 2009.
Zimmerman was acquitted last summer of fatally shooting the unarmed Martin, who is black, in February 2012.
Authorities are knocking down speculation that a doctor missing from Kalamazoo for two months may have been at a Walmart store near Battle Creek last week.
The Kalamazoo County sheriff’s office released a brief statement Friday, saying the woman wasn’t Teleka Patrick. The tip came from a Walmart employee.
The 30-year-old Patrick disappeared on Dec. 5. Her car was found in a ditch along Interstate 94 in northern Indiana. She was last seen trying to get a room at a Kalamazoo hotel but didn’t stay and got a ride back to her car at Borgess Medical Center.
Patrick had been in Michigan since last summer when she started a medical residency at Borgess.
A 59-year-old-woman was executed by lethal injection Wednesday in Texas amid controversy over whether lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.
Suzanne Basso is the 14th woman put to death since capital punishment resumed in 1976; nearly 1,400 men have been put to death. There are approximately 60 women currently on death row in the U.S
Basso was sentenced to death in 1998 for killing a mentally disabled man after prosecutors argued she lured the man to Texas from New Jersey with the promise of marriage. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to stop her scheduled execution.
The state of Texas used a single drug rather than a three-drug cocktail that was used up until 2012, when export bans by drug manufacturers created massive shortages of the drugs. A report by The Guardian found that executions using the new method take on average twice as long as they did with the old method.
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