33-year-old Kentucky K-9 police officer Jason Ellis of Bardstown, Kentucky ended his shift Saturday, May 25th but continued to serve and was killed in a suspected ambush. During Ellis’ funeral his canine partner, Figo, said goodbye by placing his paw on Ellis’ closed casket. This picture, taken by photographer Jonathan Palmer, is currently being shared throughout the world.
Figo Places His Paw On Jason Ellis’ Casket
It shouldn’t have taken a report like this to uncover what’s wrong with the Republican Party, but now that it’s been released, it would be great if the power brokers on the right will heed its call. The problem is that this is the other major American political party and their dysfunction is having a profound effect on our political life. Their obstruction has robbed us of a robust economic recovery from a downturn that they planted the seeds for, with Democratic help in many cases, and their lack of identifiable, fair, economically feasible ideas caused the sequester and downgrade of United States’ securities.
But there’s more. Here’s a summary of how young people see the Republican Party on some of the issues of the day.
Gay marriage: “On the ‘open-minded’ issue … [w]e will face serious difficulty so long as the issue of gay marriage remains on the table.”
Hispanics: “Latino voters … tend to think the GOP couldn’t care less about them.”
Perception of the party’s economic stance: “We’ve become the party that will pat you on your back when you make it, but won’t offer you a hand to help you get there.”
Big reason for the image problem: The “outrageous statements made by errant Republican voices.”
Words that up-for-grabs voters associate with the GOP: “The responses were brutal: closed-minded, racist, rigid, old-fashioned.”
How many national elections do you think the right can win with perceptions like these? We can ask President Hillary after 2025.
The truth is that most people in this country are trending leftward. Not in overwhelming numbers and not by leaps and bounds, but it is happening. Marriage equality will be the law in significantly more states over the next ten years and the health care law will result in broader insurance coverage, technological improvements in health delivery, and a system that encourages and rewards innovation and cost-cutting.
If you were a young adult in 1985, you know how much the country has changed since then politically, economically and culturally. Imagine what the United States will be like in 2035 after an era of expanded equality, more access for more people to the nation’s wealth, less expensive higher education opportunities and a fairer tax code.
Yes, we will have our problems and we could become enmeshed in any number of foreign conflicts (we will get involved in Syria somehow. Mark my words.) and will have our share of domestic disturbances. But if the GOP can reform itself and make the party more responsive to what we need to improve the country, then we will all benefit.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest
A string of racist emails and controversial remarks have shaken up a school board in southeastern Virginia’s Isle of Wight County, and now one of the people responsible is facing intense pressure to resign.
On Thursday, board members voted 4 to 1 to officially call for their colleague Herb DeGroft to step down over emails he sent this month from his board email account attacking first lady Michelle Obama. DeGroft was the only one who voted against the measure.
According to NBC12, one of the emails DeGroft sent to colleagues depicted bare-breasted, African female warriors along with the caption, “Michelle Obama’s high school reunion.” Another message claimed the first lady was paid $50 to model in National Geographic.
The emails didn’t stop with DeGroft’s initial sending. Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman Byron “Buzz” Bailey forwarded them to other board members and county employees. Bailey drew criticism earlier this month for saying “the South will rise again” during a board meeting on budgetary issues. Those comments, as well as his involvement with the racist emails, led to the resignation of Isle of Wight Division Superintendent Katrise Perera.
Another pic shows blood drops on the stairs … where Oscar says he carried Reeva while trying to call for help.
Oscar admits he shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp on February 14 … but insists it was an accident.
In fact, Pistorius told investigators he grabbed his gun and fired 4 shots into the bathroom that night … but only because he thought an intruder snuck into his house and was hiding in the toilet. The holes in the door could back Oscar’s defense … that he truly didn’t know who was in the bathroom when he opened fire.
Of course, the person in the bathroom was Reeva — who ultimately died from her wounds. Oscar was arrested and charged with murder.
Read more: TMZ
With just a few weeks before his second degree murder trail is set to begin, George Zimmerman’s defense team has hit another barrier. Earlier today (May 28) a judge barred the admission of Trayvon Martin’s text messages, social media posts, and other records during the trial.
Zimmerman’s team wanted to use the evidence to paint Martin as more of an aggressor than a victim. In looking into his previous school suspension records, alleged Mary Jane smoking, and other damaging actions, the defense hoped to prove that the accused killer shot Martin, 17, out of self defense.
“There’s is certainly enough evidence….that’s going to suggest Trayvon Martin involved himself longingly with fighting with other people,” Zimmerman’s lead attorney Mike O’Mara said.
Although the ruling is a blow, it may not be permanent.
From NBC News:
Judge Debra Nelson said that during the trial she will consider motions to admit details as evidence on a case-by-case basis, outside the presence of jurors who will decide if Zimmerman is guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Martin.
Capping a slew of rulings on pre-trial motions, Nelson rejected a defense request for a trial delay and ruled that jury selection will begin June 10.
“This case has dragged on long enough,” prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda said in arguing for the trial to start as scheduled.
Over the course of two hours, Nelson granted numerous motions by prosecutors, who argued that details of the slain teen’s past are not be relevant to the Feb. 26, 2012, confrontation between Zimmerman and Martin and should not be discussed before the jury.
This isn’t the first time that Martin’s personal life has seeped into the media, as well as Zimmerman’s. Since the February 2012 incident, both have had unknown public records dragged into the spotlight, but it is unclear if any of the evidence will sway jurors in either direction.
Zimmerman’s trial begins June 10.
See more at: HiphopWired
Fifteen freight train cars derailed in an industrial area of Maryland this afternoon causing an explosion, the collapse of several buildings and leaving one person in serious condition, according to authorities.
The CSX train derailed in the White Marsh area around 2 p.m., according to officials.
“Several buildings collapsed at the site of the train derailment,” Baltimore County public safety information specialist Louise Feher told ABCNews.com.
h/t – ABCNEWS
Firefighters in eastern China have rescued an abandoned newborn baby boy lodged in a sewage pipe.
The infant was stuck in a pipe directly beneath a toilet commode, state television reported, in a case which has sparked anger on social media sites.
There are frequent reports in Chinese media of babies being abandoned, often shortly after birth.
Warning graphic content
Unbelievably, the baby survived the ordeal, which saw him having to be cut out of a pipe
Firefighters received a call from a landlady of a block of flats saying that she thought a baby was trapped in a toilet pipe in the building as she had heard it crying
The problem is attributed variously to young mothers unaware they were pregnant, the birth of an unwanted girl in a society which puts greater value on boys or China’s strict family planning rules.In the latest case the infant was found in the sewage pipe in a residential building in Jinhua in the wealthy coastal province of Zhejiang on Saturday afternoon.
The harrowing discovery came after residents reported the sound of a baby crying, state television said late on Monday.
The pipe was just four inches wide in diameter the China Daily newspaper said, according to the BBC.
Firefighters had to remove the pipe and take it to a nearby hospital, where doctors carefully cut around it to rescue the baby boy inside, the report said.
Read more: Daily Mail
The signs of decline are everywhere. No ideas. No strategy except saying no. Extreme candidates. An unbending view of the constitution that allows no other interpretation. An aging, angry, declining electorate. Technology that doesn’t work and that isn’t attracting the best young talent in Silicon Valley. A pollster who was so wrong last November it actually skewed the numbers in many election forecasts is saying that the president is in trouble. And perhaps worse, a Ronald Reagan fetish that misinterprets what Reagan really accomplished, and how he accomplished it. Tell me what’s positive about the Republicans.
It’s as if the party is driving across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge with its eyes closed. Nothing good can come of this. They’ve already alienated a majority of people by voting down background checks. And now they’re making noise that they will reject an immigration bill that has wide support and will address serious deficiencies in our system. Siding with big business on tax reform would be a sweet third strike as we move into next year’s election season. In fact, 2010 will be seen as the swan song of the far right; the last gasp of a fading and rudderless movement that will take up residence in the south and fight the good fight, 150 years after the last major battles.
The Democrats, by contrast, are beginning to move out of the morass they found themselves in after the 2010 elections. Yes, they are presently mired in scandal muck, but this too shall pass. The scandals might slow down their momentum, but as the GOP will use them as an excuse to do nothing, the population will see their tactics for what they are, and have always been, and will vote accordingly. The Democrats will probably not take the House, but they will make inroads on the path to a majority in 2016. They’ll also hold on to the Senate, but perhaps by a smaller margin than today.
From there, it will be up to the Republicans who are left to either help make this country better or continue their obstruction. Yes, they have Rubio, Paul, Ryan and Christie. But up against O’Malley, Cuomo, Clinton and Malloy, they don’t stand a chance.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest
Michael Adebolajo was arrested with five others on charges that they were preparing to train and fight with an Al Qaeda-linked terror group. Adebolajo, who was carrying a British passport, was handed over to Britain. He is now suspected of butchering a British soldier last week on a London street.
Michael Adebolajo is among nine suspected members of the Al-Shabaab Movement arrested by Kenyan police on Nov. 22, 2010, on claims of being Al-Shabaab recruits on their way to Somalia.
NAIROBI, Kenya — A suspect in the savage killing of a British soldier on a London street was arrested in Kenya in 2010 near the East African country’s border with Somalia, an anti-terrorism police official said Sunday.
Michael Adebolajo was believed to have been preparing to train and fight with the Al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab in 2010 when he was arrested with five others, Kenya’s anti-terrorism police unit head Boniface Mwaniki told The Associated Press.
Mwaniki said that the suspect was then deported, however, Kenya’s government spokesman said he was arrested under a different name and handed to British authorities.
“Kenya’s government arrested Michael Olemendis Ndemolajo. We handed him to British security agents in Kenya and he seems to have found his way to London and mutated to Michael Adebolajo,” spokesman Muthui Kariuki said. “The Kenyan government cannot be held responsible for what happened to him after we handed him to British authorities.”
Michael Adebolajo (front) shouts slogans as Muslims march in London in a protest on April 27, 2007, against the arrest of six people in anti-terror raids.
The gruesome scene was captured by witnesses’ cellphones, and a video picked up by British media showed one of the suspects, with bloodied hands, making political statements and warning of more violence as the soldier lay on the ground behind him.
Hardline Muslim leaders have identified the man in the video as Adebolajo, an Islam convert who allegedly used to take part in London demonstrations organized by British radical group al-Muhajiroun. The group catapulted to notoriety after the Sept. 11 attacks by organizing an event to celebrate the airplane hijackers, and was banned in Britain in 2010.
Anti-terrorism head Mwaniki rejected allegations that Adebolajo was tortured while in custody, but said the unit would further investigate.
Adebolajo’s friend asserted in a BBC interview that Adebolajo became withdrawn after he allegedly suffered abuse by Kenyan security forces during interrogation in prison there. Mwaniki said at the time, there were no indications of torture or abuse.
Mwaniki said dozens of foreign youth are arrested every year attempting to cross the Kenyan border to join al-Shabab, which claims to be fighting a jihad or holy war against the Somali government and African Union forces.
Read more: NY Daily News
A passenger who made “unusual” statements and tried to open an airplane door in-flight today was subdued by passengers and crew members until the plane landed in Portland, Ore. He was taken into custody, federal officials said.
Alexander Michael Herrera, 23, was arrested by FBI agents at Portland International Airport on a charge of interfering with a flight crew on Alaska Airlines Flight No. 132 from Anchorage to Portland. He was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center and is expected to make his first appearance in federal court on Tuesday, according to federal officials.
h/t – ABCNEWS
A 20-year-old Maine man arrested in the death of a 14-year-old girl whose naked, charred body was found on a Brooklyn beach in January allegedly told police he smothered her with a pillow in his cousin’s apartment because he thought she was pregnant, law enforcement sources said.
Christian Ferdinand, of Limestone, Maine, was charged Thursday with second-degree murder in the death of Shaniesha Forbes. The student at the Academy for Young Writers in Williamsburg disappeared two days before her body was found face up on the beach, with burns to her legs, arms and hands.
Ferdinand allegedly told detectives he exchanged phone numbers with Forbes in December after meeting her through Facebook. Over the next month, the two developed a relationship and had unprotected sex multiple times, sources say Ferdinand told police.
Ferdinand said he met Forbes on Jan. 4 at his cousin’s apartment on Nostrand Avenue and she told him she was pregnant. They argued, and Ferdinand told detectives he killed Forbes, brought her body to the roof and hid it for a day before transporting it to Gerritsen Beach in a suitcase and setting her on fire, using Axe body spray as an accelerent.
The medical examiner has found no indication Forbes was pregnant, sources familiar with the investigation said.
Law enforcement sources say police recovered the suitcase Ferdinand said he used to transport her body.
A law enforcement official previously told NBC 4 New York investigators had found a kerosene can and signs of a bonfire near where Forbes’ body was found.
A review of Forbes’ cell phone and Facebook information helped lead authorities to Ferdinand, law enforcement sources said. Police said Ferdinand had no prior record in New York.
h/t – NBCNEWYORK
An Oregon high school student has been accused of plotting a school bomb attack “specifically modeled” after the Columbine shooting, prosecutors said today. (ABC News)
Students at an Oregon high school were in shock today, after learning that a classmate they described as “happy” and “nice” is accused of plotting to blow them up with bombs he’d allegedly built and hid in his bedroom.
Grant Acord, 17, a junior at West Albany High School, was arrested late Thursday at his home on two counts of possession of a destructive device and two counts of manufacture of a destructive device, according to the Albany Police Department.
But prosecutors say he will be charged as an adult with aggravated murder and is expected to be arraigned Tuesday in Benton County Circuit Court.
h/t – ABCNEWS
