The insatiable appetite of Chinese consumers for endangered and threatened species has now found suppliers in organized crime. The combination of the Chinese black market and organized crime is magnifying the impact on the environment. A new such alliance has been uncovered this week in Mexico where cartels are now turning to smuggling not cocaine but animal parts. The latest example can from the Sonoran town of El Golfo de Santa Clara where Mexican mobsters were found smuggling $1 million of fish bladders from the totoaba fish.
It may be the best picture British nature photographer David Slater never took. Slater was on a three-day trip to the Indonesian forest in 2011 when a macaque monkey grabbed his camera and took this selfie. Indeed, the monkey took hundreds of pictures. Some of those pictures were distributed on the Wikimedia Commons website. Slater demanded that it be taken down as copyrighted material. However, Wikimedia refused on the grounds that a monkey took the picture, not Slater.
Justin Goodloe (right), 20, and Allen Thomas Barnes (left), 19, are probably not going to be top candidates for the next year’s draft picks for the Sinaloa Cartel. Barnes was driving a car in the early morning of July 24th when it was pulled over the police near a burglary scene — purportedly because of the lack of headlights. As police approached the vehicle, they saw a rather curious sight: a marijuana plant sticking out of the window of the vehicle.
We have yet another case of law enforcement holding people for filming in public and threatening them with arrest. This one however is particularly curious. NewsChannel 13 reporter Mark Mulholland and a videographer were filming a story on Grant Cottage where President Ulysses S. Grant had come to the cottage to finish writing his memoirs. This year is the 129th anniversary of his death and the crew was filming costumed re-enactors were commemorating the anniversary. Due to breaking news, the crew had to return the next day to finish with the shots. They were then approached by a Lt. Dorn from the nearby Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility and told that they could not film without permission. What unfolded was a rule that seemed to be without any coherence as to who may take pictures at a historic site.
Authorities are looking into a viral Internet video that shows a man kicking a squirrel off what appears to be the edge of the Grand Canyon. The 15-second video posted on YouTube purports to show a man putting food in a line to the edge of the Grand Canyon for a waiting squirrel. Once the squirrel reached the edge, he then kicks it off the edge as what he thinks is a hilarious joke.
Continue reading “Park Officials Look For Man Shown Kicking Squirrel Off Grand Canyon As Joke”
Islamic State jihadists have worked hard to establish the image of murderous extremists who slaughter innocent people and destroy ancient religious temples and shrines. However, various newspapers are reporting, the group appears to be eager to show on social media that they are also domesticated as well as hip in recruiting new followers. Appearing across social media are images of Islam Yaken, a young Egyptian law student who left his affluent family in Cairo to become a soldier for Islamic State with signature sword and slaughterous slogans. At the same time, the ladies of Islamic State are recruiting Western and European women to come and hook up with jihadi in a bizarre version of eHarmony or JDate. JihadDate is a bit different. It promises that, if lucky, you can watch your loved one martyr himself — I kid you not.
Continue reading “eTyranny: Islamic State Has The Perfect Match For You”
Ohio Common Pleas Court Judge Lance Mason, 46, has been arrested after he allegedly punched, choked and bit his wife. Mason is now charged with felonious assault. His wife of eight years was hospitalized with facial injuries including a fractured orbital bone after the incident.
Sarah Espinosa, 22, of Albany, New York allegedly combined three activities that made for a uniquely bad combination: drinking, driving, . . . and snake theft. Espinosa culminated this poor judgment by succeeding in crashing into a firehouse after the snake reportedly wrapped itself around her neck in Long Island.
One of the touchstones for GOP members has been the pledge to “pay as you go” — covering any increases in spending with corresponding cuts in spending or new revenue. The campaign season appears to have taken its toll on that pledge with tax cuts that can add nearly $1 trillion to the federal debt.
As someone who writes on military history, I could not resist a story this week out of California. Democratic Rep. Julia Brownley has a novel campaign challenge on her hands this week after it was discovered that her mass political mailer showed a picture of female sailor in what was supposed to be a U.S. military uniform — showing Browley’s support from veterans and current military personnel. Unfortunately, the woman was actually wearing not only a fake military uniform but one displaying German Luftwaffe insignia. Of course, at least Brownley can use the connection to the Bundeswehr to call out the Katastropheneinsatz to handle disaster control relief.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is again making news in public comments made about the Court and its cases. In two different public events, Ginsburg suggested that the Supreme Court majority has a bias due to the gender of the majority of the Court and engaged people in the political debate over whether she should retire and who should replace her. Putting aside the merits of these debates, I remain deeply disturbed by the active public speaking tours of justices who appear to relish the attention and feed public controversies, including many with political aspects.
Continue reading “Ginsburg: Male Justices Do Not Understand Issues Affecting Women In Hobby Lobby”
We previously discussed how the CIA used a doctor in an international vaccination program to help locate Osama Bin Laden. The use of such a cover violated international agreement and led to other doctors being attacked or barred from areas as suspected CIA operatives. Under huge international pressure, the Obama Administration finally agreed not to use such programs as covers for the CIA this year. However, a new story alleges that the CIA used young, undertrained Latin Americans for spying in Cuba while working as part of a program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in dealing with HIV prevention and other subjects.
New details are emerging on the botched execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood in Arizona that we discussed earlier. If you recall the horrific scene, Wood took roughly two hours to die. Now it appears that the dosage for the new drugs were way off — requiring the prison to increase the dosage to 25 times what was thought to be necessary.
I am not a golfer and it is one of the sports that I least enjoy watching. However, it does occasionally supply an interesting legal controversy. Pro golfer Dustin Johnson this week is taking a leave of absence from the PGA tour (the Washington Post is calling it a suspension). The reason is intriguing. He failed three drug tests and allegedly has been sleeping with the wives of other players. The drug tests however were reportedly for marijuana and cocaine. Since those are not performance enhancing drugs, I do not understand why the PGA even tests for them or why Johnson being a cad is an issue for the PGA.
As of close of business on July 31, 2014, our debt has risen to $17,618,599,653,160.19. That crippling level of debt is itself astonishing but what is equally astonishing is that $7 trillion of that debt has been added in just the five and a half years of the Obama Administration. That $7 trillion is more than the debt accumulated from George Washington through Bill Clinton combined.