Mostly about criminal justice.

Stay classy, Flintoids

Two adults and five kids pulled a dine & dash at @ The Diner in Orange County, Florida on 19jul26. They walked on a $300 bill.

“We immediately start texting and calling,” Diane recalled. ‘Ignore, ignore, ignore,’ until finally I said to them, ‘I’m reporting them to the police and we’re gonna post this.’ Then, we got a reaction, but the reaction was gloating, ‘I don’t care, you’ll just make me more famous.’" [emphasis added] https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2026/07/22/never-asked-for-the-check-video-of-dollar300-dine-and-dash-goes-viral/

The leader of the family is alleged to be Adeliah Jones from Flint, Michigan. fb

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If you wonder why things are so expensive at Dick's Sporting Goods....

Police are investigating after they say eight people entered and stole more than $10,000 in Nike apparel from a Dick's Sporting Goods in Bloomfield Township. Police reports and security footage show the suspects appear to wait until employees looked away to come into the store, quickly clearing a turnstile of Nike apparel and made off in a matter of seconds. See the brazen footage of the theft in the video ****

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2026/07/23/dicks-sporting-goods-bloomfield-township-nike-gear-coordinated-theft/91020407007/

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You want clemency for him?

Liz Oyer was a pardon attorney at DoJ before Todd Blanche fired her.

Oyer didn’t seem to have many concerns about the victims of the 37 convicted killers on federal death row who got a get-out-of-execution card thanks to the pardon attorney’s soft spot for psychopaths. The pardon attorney recommended that then-Attorney General Merrick Garland “encourage” President Joe Biden to “use his clemency power to reassess the 40 remaining federal death sentences through the lens of current policy and practice.” ***

She recommended clemency for two men who jointly killed a four-year-old and a three-year-old.

Oyer made a particular pitch for clemency in the case of mass murderer Dylann Roof, who in 2015 stormed into Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. and shot and killed nine black members.  In an Oct. 30, 2024 memo obtained by The Federalist, Oyer conceded to DOJ big wigs that “Roof is not a compelling candidate for clemency.” But that didn’t stop her from recommending it. It’s complicated, she wrote. The jury sentenced Roof to death without knowing that “he suffers from mental health developmental disorders including autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders.” He dealt with “crippling anxiety.” No doubt his heinous crimes caused crippling anxiety for some of the survivors. ***

https://thefederalist.com/2026/07/15/dems-star-witness-ag-hearing-pushed-clemency-for-rapists-child-molesters-and-murderers/

Bear in mind that Roof was a hard core white supremacist. He walked into a black church, and the parishioners welcomed him. They agreed to pray for him as he sat in their midst. Then he murdered them because of the color of their skin.

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Give Kendra a medal

When Memphis mother Kendra Scott allegedly discovered a 20-year-old man hiding under her 13-year-old daughter’s bed, she reportedly told police, “I did what I had to do.” Now, she’s facing a first-degree murder charge, and the case has become one of the internet’s most fiercely debated stories this weekend. Scott, 36, was arrested after Memphis police said she fatally shot Rodderius Morton outside her home during the early morning hours of July 16. According to an arrest affidavit, officers found Morton lying in the front yard with a gunshot wound to the back of his head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.  According to investigators, Scott returned home around 1:40 a.m. and discovered Morton hiding beneath the bed of her 13-year-old daughter. The teen later told police she had invited Morton into the home after Scott left for work, despite allegedly knowing her mother had warned her against bringing boys into the house. ***

https://thegrio.com/2026/07/20/memphis-mother-charged-shooting-man-under-daughters-bed/

A 20-year-old man wants sexy time with a middle school girl? He was lucky she only shot him once.

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Funny take on Tate by Nellie Bowles

→ Andrew Tate finally arrested: The war in Iran is back on. Plus, we’re helping Saudi Arabia develop nuclear power now, I guess. Don’t think too hard about it. But for our purposes, the top news in the world is that the wildly popular influencer Andrew Tate has finally been arrested in the U.S., with plans to extradite him to his former home, the United Kingdom. Tate, the man your sons and grandsons are probably obsessed with, is charged with rape, sex trafficking, it goes on for a total of 42 counts of that kind of unpleasant stuff. In bonny England he will, I assume, face a tribunal run by bitter, exhausted professional women (my girls!). This is only so interesting because Andrew Tate had been investigated before, suspected of trafficking and rape in Romania, and was barred from leaving that country. But then, in February of last year, seemingly after pressure from someone in the Trump administration, Tate was allowed to leave and took a private jet from Romania to, where else? Florida. (It seems as though Barron Trump was a fan.) When asked if Trump would intervene this time, Karoline Leavitt gave an emphatic “No.” Anyway, it’s also interesting because it gave us a photo of Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan being arrested. And I don’t know how to explain to you that these men are considered to be the pinnacle of masculinity by right-wing American Zoomers. This is the hardened male that they aspire to become. He has over 10 million followers on X alone.

The purple silk “shirt”—legally, I feel a shirt must cover the nipples—matches the purple transition lenses. There are the capris, the slip-on shoes. It looks like they’re dragging him out of Fire Island. Put a wig on this person and she’s late for her mimosas at Club Med. Put a wig on and it’s my quirky drunk aunt Annie Tate whose bra is always showing. His brother Tristan, in a three-piece suit and a hat that is both too big and too small, is almost as bad. Andrew Tate and his brother are actually a return to the male animal as a flamboyant, colorful thing, the brilliant male mallard next to the dull brown female. In that way we’re actually made for each other, as I, in Tevas and with limp hair, am a return to the female duck. Andrew, call me.

other people noticed too

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Disturbed man in NYC? Say it aint so...

National Review notes

◼ A former Army mechanic was charged with arson after he set a fire outside the entrance to a federal building in lower Manhattan that houses the FBI’s New York field office and Department of Homeland Security immigration agencies. Federal investigators say that Andrew Arrabaca, 43, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., admitted to perpetrating an attack motivated by opposition to the U.S. government. According to the criminal complaint, Arrabaca told the FBI that he targeted the entrance of the building, by allegedly pouring flammable liquid on the ground and igniting it with fireworks, because it was “busy.” Three people reportedly suffered minor injuries. Arrabaca is also said to have shot a BB gun at the facility and to have arrived in a wagon bearing an “ICE Off Our Streets” sign that was loaded with pellet rifles, a machete, and two hatchets. If convicted on the charge, he faces up to 40 years’ imprisonment, as he should.***

◼ A coalition of Catholic religious orders, including the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, filed a lawsuit challenging New York’s newly enacted Medical Aid in Dying Act, arguing that the law unconstitutionally forces them to facilitate assisted suicide in violation of their religious beliefs. The law, which will go into effect on August 5, nominally allows health-care providers to opt out of directly participating in assisted suicide but still requires religious providers to engage in referrals, counseling, evaluations, or patient transfers to willing providers. The plaintiffs argue that these requirements would make Catholic groups such as the Dominican Sisters—who are concurrently suing the state over a law requiring them to affirm gender dysphoria—complicit in a practice that their faith condemns. The Dominican Sisters, who have long operated Rosary Hill Home, a hospice serving terminally ill cancer patients free of charge, are invoking the First Amendment in their defense. They should not have to be in federal court at all, but New York’s zealotry on behalf of progressive ideology has left them no other recourse.

◼ What does a six-pack of beer cost? For Alaska bush pilot Ken Jouppi, the answer was a $95,000 aircraft. Alaska strictly enforces its laws against bringing alcohol into dry towns. Jouppi brought a passenger, who was carrying a six-pack of Budweiser, into one such town. Authorities charged that the beer was visible to Jouppi; he was convicted and spent a few nights in jail. They also seized his 1969 Cessna. The Supreme Court will hear Jouppi’s case. He is arguing that his treatment violated the Eighth Amendment’s excessive-fines clause—which the Court applied against the states in Timbs v. Indiana (2019). A central issue will be whether fines must be proportional to the crime on the books or to the specific facts of the case. Jouppi argues that he has no criminal history and was caught transporting the minimum amount of booze covered by the law. Given how easily and often forfeiture has been abused, it is good that the Court is looking closely at its outer limits.

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On the bright side, he didn't push anyone in front of a subway

A deranged attacker yelling “Allahu Akbar” stabbed two men in separate attacks on the Upper West Side Thursday afternoon, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. Investigators were probing whether the suspect Raul Morales, 51, was motivated by hate, though Tisch also said “the initial investigation suggests that mental health may have been a factor.” “Detectives are continuing to work the case and determine motive, but according to victim and witness statements, Morales yelled ‘Allahu Akbar,'” meaning, “God is the greatest” in Arabic, during both attacks, the top cop said in a statement. “The NYPD is currently evaluating whether this is a potential hate crime,” she wrote. Morales, 51, allegedly jumped the first victim, a 57-year-old Asian man near West 84th Street and Central Park West, and stabbed him in the back with a knife at around 1:30 p.m., police and the sources said. The second victim, a 50-year-old man wearing a yarmulke, was attacked after leaving a synagogue at Amsterdam Avenue and West 86th Street, and stabbed in the torso with a screwdriver, according to cops and sources. Both victims were brought to Saint Luke’s Hospital, where they were listed in stable condition according to police. Morales was caught around 2:45 p.m. after he allegedly barricaded himself inside a NYCHA apartment just blocks away on Amsterdam Avenue near West 88th Street, cops said.***

https://nypost.com/2026/07/23/us-news/2-men-stabbed-near-central-park-in-unprovoked-attack-sources

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Neck deep in irony

from the Denver Post

Colorado anti-violence activist sentenced to 51 years in prison for revenge murder at child’s birthday party Malcolm Watson’s family asked judge for maximum sentence for second-degree murder for Lumumba Sayers Sr. Read Story

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Minnesota has a shortage of child rapists. They're so short, Gov Walz has to import child rapists.

The Minnesota Board of Pardons, composed of Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, has granted a pardon to an immigrant, who was set to be deported after being convicted of sexually abusing a minor, prompting outrage from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The decision comes amid renewed federal enforcement of long-standing removal orders following a 2025 shift in Laos’ willingness to accept deportees, which reopened cases that had previously been difficult to execute for nearly two decades. Tou Lue Vang, 42, came to the U.S. as a child and was set to be deported after he repeatedly sexually assaulted a girl between 2002 and 2004, according to court documents seen by DHS.***

Vang is an immigrant from Laos, who is married with six children. He came to the U.S. - to California specifically - in 1994 and was granted legal status by the administration of former President Bill Clinton. That status was revoked upon his conviction. Per DHS' report, he repeatedly sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl and also tried to offer his victim $10 to keep quiet about the sexual assaults. DHS also said that, while being interviewed by police, Vang tried to justify his actions by saying that for him “it is a cultural thing...to marry and have sex with girls as young as 12.” Per DHS's release, he also said the victim was just as guilty as him and should also be arrested. Vang pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct in a plea deal that spared him from serving time in prison. Following his conviction, a Department of Justice (DOJ) Immigration Judge issued Vang a final order of removal on October 31, 2006.***

https://www.newsweek.com/who-is-tou-lue-vang-sex-abuser-facing-deportation-pardoned-in-minnesota-12149651

Minnesota illegal immigrants - raping the girls that Americans just won't rape.

They don't even spend time in prison for child rape.

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Less surveillance is a good thing

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has proposed a legal protection intended to ensure Americans can continue driving conventional vehicles even as self-driving technology becomes widespread, according to Newsweek.*** Rather than introducing a new type of vehicle, the proposal would bar federal, state, tribal, and local governments from requiring vehicles driven on public roads to include automated driving systems or technology capable of transmitting data wirelessly.*** If approved, the measure would establish that governments cannot require drivers to own connected or self-driving vehicles as a condition of using public roads, underscoring the administration's effort to encourage advances in autonomous vehicle technology while preserving the option for Americans to drive vehicles that are neither automated nor capable of wirelessly transmitting vehicle data.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/sean-duffy-freedom-cars-autonomous-vehicles/2026/07/24/id/1263988

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When you start or renew a fight, that's not self defense.

Nice job by the Florida DA, judge, and jury.

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Good 6 min video by American Center for Law & Justice

The case was settled a couple years ago, but the video is apparently new.

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Sad case

MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. (WPBF) – A 77-year-old Florida woman was arrested after authorities rescued 80 cats from her home. Authorities suspect the mail carrier collected feral cats along her route. The news has people in a Martin County neighborhood who have missing cats wondering if she took their pets. Ninety-two animals, including 80 cats and 12 dogs, were rescued from a home in Stuart’s Foxwood community on Monday. Sheriff John Budensiek called it the worst case of animal hoarding he has seen in Martin County. The sheriff said animal control tried to get inside the home for about a week, but the owner, Gail Giustino, refused to cooperate.***

https://www.kcrg.com/2026/07/22/nearly-100-animals-removed-home-mail-carrier-suspected-taking-cats-near-her-routes

So get a warrant, right?

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The family that crimes together....

CASSVILLE, Mo. (KY3/Gray News) - Three people were arrested in the 1999 cold case murder of a 14-year-old boy who was found dead on train tracks near his home in Missouri. Sheriff Danny Boyd named Mark Wesley Scott, David Ray Scott, and Bobby Ray Scott as suspects in the death of Justin Hocutt. They face first-degree murder charges in the case. Justin was last seen alive in the early morning hours of October 9, 1999, at the home of a friend who lived next door. According to witnesses, he was at the house around 3 a.m.*** Sheriff Boyd plans to discuss the case further on Tuesday, July 28, at a news conference.

https://www.kcrg.com/2026/07/24/three-people-arrested-1999-cold-case-murder-14-year-old-who-was-found-dead-train-tracks/

Lately, cold cases like this are solved through familial dna. The video discusses the Scott brother's criminal record.

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22 rounds means a lot of hatred

MASON, Ohio (WXIX/Gray News) - A man is dead and a suspect is in custody after a shooting Wednesday afternoon inside a Carter Lumber warehouse in Ohio, according to Mason police. Officers were called to the facility around 1:15 p.m. for a report of a shooting inside the company’s door manufacturing facility.*** David Cohen, 34, of Hamilton, was identified as the suspect and charged with murder. Radio traffic obtained by WXIX captured officers responding to the scene. One transmission stated that, “the male unloaded a whole magazine into the co-worker” and that Cohen had fled toward the Butler/Warren county line in a gray Chevrolet Impala. Police located and arrested Cohen. The man was shot 22 times, officials said. Sources said Cohen left his job at Carter Lumber the previous week and returned to the facility to confront his boss. Investigators have not officially confirmed that detail. The victim was identified as Vincent Stoetzel, 29. A friend described him as “funny and the kind of man you want to know,” adding that “he would give the shirt off his back, offer you a hot meal if you’re hungry. All around hardworking father making a good life for his family.”***

https://www.kcrg.com/2026/07/24/man-accused-unloading-whole-magazine-into-co-worker-lumber-yard-victim-shot-22-times/

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Gambling addiction is as bad as any

WASHINGTON (AP) — A prominent Supreme Court litigator was sentenced on Friday to six years in prison for evading a multimillion-dollar IRS tax debt and engaging in mortgage fraud, a case that cast a spotlight on his secretive lifestyle as a high-stakes poker player and featured trial testimony from a Hollywood movie star. Thomas Goldstein, who also published a popular blog about the nation’s highest court, had asked U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby to spare him from a prison sentence. Instead, the judge sentenced Goldstein to five years of supervised release after his prison term and ordered him to pay over $3.1 million in restitution, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland. Goldstein, 56, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, co-founded SCOTUSblog and argued over 40 cases before the Supreme Court before retiring in 2023 at age 52. He was a member of Democrat Al Gore’s legal team in the Supreme Court litigation over the 2000 election ultimately won by Republican President George W. Bush. Many friends and colleagues didn’t know the extent of Goldstein’s gambling until his January 2025 indictment, which sent shock waves through the legal community in Washington, D.C.***

https://apnews.com/article/thomas-goldstein-supreme-court-blog-tax-evasion-618a0a2f1bdf9643886b607073fee91d

Might want to wait until a few more people die....

Denver Post reports

Denver moves to shut down Ultra Lounge East after mass shooting at the nightclub

Ultra Lounge East has seen three violent events on its property in the last five months, including an earlier homicide just outside the club in March, city officials wrote.Read Story

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Dangerous career criminal won't change careers? What a shock.

Even in Texas, career criminals are allowed to roam free up to the point that they kill someone, proving that there needs to be a nationwide crackdown on crime to counter the national attitude shift toward criminal justice reform around 2018. Hannah Rapp, a 26-year-old rising featherweight boxer, was killed while cycling with her boyfriend on Saturday. According to the Brazos County Sheriff’s Office, Charles Medina sped by the couple in his truck, nearly hitting them. After Rapp’s boyfriend raised his arms and yelled at Medina, the driver allegedly slammed on his brakes and accelerated in reverse toward the couple, striking and killing Rapp, authorities said. Of note here is that Medina has a long criminal record in Brazos County alone. This is the 13th time he’s been booked into the Brazos County jail since 2012, with a list of charges including the following: drug possession, assault, hit and run, reckless driving, criminal mischief, and something called “deadly conduct.” (According to Texas law, “deadly conduct” is when someone “recklessly engages in conduct that places another in imminent danger of serious bodily injury.”) How many times can one man be booked into jail with charges showing that he is incapable of operating as a member of society before he is not allowed to be released again?***

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/4657375/career-criminals-roaming-free-texas

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More left wing violence

Around 8:30 a.m. yesterday in New York City, a man who was later identified as 43-year-old Andrew Arrabaca allegedly began an attack outside 26 Federal Plaza, which houses a number of law enforcement agencies, including ICE. He reportedly set off fireworks, shot at the building with a pellet gun, and then lit what appeared to be a 5-gallon bucket of gasoline on the steps in front of the building.

Law enforcement quickly stopped the attacker, but only after two federal employees and an immigrant at the scene for a court hearing were injured in the attack. Authorities said the attacker was wearing “anti-ICE stuff” and had more incendiary devices and weapons on his person. ***

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/4657271/cnn-keith-boykin-excuse-nyc-ice-attack-trump-violent-rhetoric

Babylon Bee -

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Scum of a feather

Free Press reports

An independent review commissioned by the Gates Foundation found that Bill Gates and foundation staff held roughly 30 meetings with Jeffrey Epstein between 2011 and 2014, including visits to Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, despite internal concerns about the reputational risk. The review found no evidence of illegal activity or payments to Epstein.

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Flaming weirdos everywhere

July 20, 2026 at 7:24 pm EDT Man in mime costume accused of harassing women at Cochituate State Park A Framingham man is facing criminal harassment charges after three female DCR workers filed reports against him, with incidents stemming from the past two months. Hernan Villagran Lux, 29, was arrested by Massachusetts State Police Sunday night at the Cochituate Rail Trail. A number of people have also posted to social media about Lux, noting his distinct appearance, claiming they’ve spotted him throughout the Natick, Framingham, and Wayland areas. A number of women also claimed a man fitting the same description approached and followed them on the Cochituate Rail Trail. Lux appeared in Framingham District Court on Monday. “The women report an extensive number of contacts with the defendant involving him staring at them, smiling in what they describe as a ‘a really unnerving and frankly terrifying manner,’” Andrew Mange, the Framingham District Court Supervisor, said. Mange said the women reported the situations became increasingly bold and invasive, describing one situation where Lux, “stripped down to his underwear, slathered cooking oil all over his body and began working out right by their staff area.”***

https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/man-faces-charges-after-harassing-female-dcr-employees-cochituate-state-park/QATHSZ2PCZE27BZUB5NMB2ZBLA/

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More flamers

Two U.S. Forest Service employees were rescued with the help of negotiators after being zip-tied and held hostage for nearly 15 hours in Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Northern California, officials said Friday. The two employees were conducting fieldwork when two armed people took them hostage at gunpoint early Thursday, Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue said at a news conference Friday. The suspect, identified as Joseph Charles Henrichsen, 49, had used one of the victim’s phones to make a call stating he had taken the two Forest Service employees and he had “live rounds ready to [expletive] anyone who [expletives] with me,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California said in a news release. The sheriff’s office received a call at 10:55 a.m. from a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer reporting that the employees were zip-tied and being held at gunpoint inside a trailer at Gumboot Lake, near Mount Shasta, LaRue said.*** An investigation into motive is underway. It’s not clear why Joseph Henrichsen specifically wanted to speak to the FBI. LaRue said the men weren’t known to law enforcement.***

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/two-us-forest-service-employees-rescued-zip-tied-held-hostage-gunpoint-rcna588112

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Eminent domain

The Diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico, is demanding a jury trial after filing its latest response to the federal government's effort to seize land at the base of Mount Cristo Rey, a historic pilgrimage site near the U.S.-Mexico border. The diocese made the request in its July 6 court filing, asking that a jury determine just compensation if the court allows the seizure to proceed. The filing also asks the court to invalidate the proposed taking, according to KOB 4 News, a local outlet. The federal government filed an eminent domain lawsuit in May seeking to acquire more than 14 acres at the base of Mount Cristo Rey for border security infrastructure, including roads, fencing, vehicle barriers, cameras, and related structures, as Zeale News previously reported.***

https://zeale.co/news/articles/new-mexico-diocese-demands-jury-trial-in-federal-land-seizure-case

Gov't will have to pay just compensation per 5th Amendment and will have to allow pilgrimages, but this happens all the time. Sometimes you make money off it.

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Good 1st Amendment case

Two pro-life organizations are asking a federal appeals court to uphold their First Amendment right to chalk a pro-life message on a Washington, D.C., sidewalk after two advocates were arrested for doing so in 2020. The Frederick Douglass Foundation and Students for Life of America (SFLA) are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reverse a district court ruling in favor of the city and remand the case for a jury trial. The request was outlined in a July 16 press release from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which represents the organizations. The lawsuit stems from the August 2020 arrest of two pro-life advocates who wrote "Black Pre-Born Lives Matter" in chalk outside a Planned Parenthood facility. According to the release, the organizations contend city officials violated the First Amendment by prosecuting the advocates while allowing other political messages, including “Black Lives Matter” street murals, on public property. John Bursch, ADF senior counsel and vice president of appellate advocacy, said the appeal seeks to ensure First Amendment protections are applied equally.  "Washington officials can't censor messages they disagree with,” he said. “The right to free speech is for everyone.” ***

https://zeale.co/news/articles/pro-life-groups-appeal-ruling-in-washington-dc-based-first-amendment-lawsuit

Planned Parenthood's founder wrote "we want to exterminate the Negro population."

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Really?

When you engage in ridiculous hyperbole, you minimize real suffering.

I bring this up because Nancy Armour's column complaining about Caitlin Clark's complaining compares Clark's complaints to the lynching of Emmett Till. Armour can't help but complain about an alleged "white nationalist element to Clark’s fandom."

Don't expect to be taken seriously if you think everything is racist and bitching about refereeing is equivalent to lynching someone.

The worst thing is that Armour minimizes the suffering of Till and his family and the millions of people who suffered through Jim Crow.

Untreated mental illness is no picnic for anyone

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (GRAY MEDIA) — A 36-year-old Fort Wayne man is facing charges after allegedly cutting off his genitals and using them while committing arson. In May, the Fort Wayne Fire Department was dispatched to a garage fire while Fort Wayne Police officers were dispatched to reports of a stabbing, according to court records.  Christopher Peden allegedly told police he was stabbed somewhere downtown and someone had threatened him the day before. While at the hospital, Peden reportedly told an officer he was dishonest at the stabbing scene and wanted to be truthful. He said he went into the garage around 2 a.m. and used a kitchen knife to cut off his genitals. According to court records, Peden said he then poured gasoline on the dismembered organ and set it on fire. He reportedly left the garage and walked away until he found police. A fire investigator located a gasoline container and four lighters as well as a nearby kitchen knife at the scene. Court records don't detail whether the genitals were located.***

https://www.wdrb.com/news/fort-wayne-man-accused-of-cutting-off-his-genitals-and-using-them-to-commit-arson/article_559a6f1b-090a-44ab-a155-6a666d3500da.html

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Does the 1st Amendment apply in Texas?

A Texas police department says it plans to “look into” a viral video showing one of its officers warning a Christian street preaching group they could be cited for simply saying something offensive to others. The encounter occurred June 27 at Trinity Pride Fest in Fort Worth, where police were caught on video threatening to arrest members of a street preaching team led by evangelist Rich Penkoski. According to the video, police blocked Penkoski and David Grisham from accessing the sidewalk upon their arrival at the event. Grisham told officers about a lawsuit he filed in 2014 against the city of Fort Worth for a similar encounter, according to the video. An unidentified female officer responded, “I don’t care, you can file whatever lawsuit you want.” As the street preaching group continued to question police about the warning while they were moved to an area outside police barricades, the female officer is heard saying, “If someone is offended by your talking, then we have a problem. ... If they are offended by your speech, OK, I will write you a ticket and we’ll go from there.” In response, Penkoski asks, “Wait, you’re going to ticket us for offensive speech?” “Yes, absolutely,” the officer responded, adding that it would qualify as disorderly conduct.

Both Grisham and Penkoski quickly responded “No” as Grisham argued that speech doesn't qualify as conduct. After some back and forth between the two men and the officer, Penkoski asks, “If anything is said that is offensive, you’re going to write a ticket?” “If someone complains that what you’re saying or your language is offensive …” the officer responds before the video abruptly ends. Grisham was ultimately issued a citation for “unreasonable noise,” but no further explanation was provided. The city of Fort Worth does have an “unreasonable noise” ordinance that is “intended to apply to, but is not limited to” noise linked to animals or construction work. A Fort Worth PD spokesman on Monday provided The Christian Post with the following statement: “The Fort Worth Police Department is committed to protecting the constitutional rights of all individuals, including the right to free speech and peaceful assembly, while also ensuring public safety and enforcing applicable laws and ordinances.  “We are aware of a video and allegations circulating [on] social media. We will need some time to look into this and will provide additional information once our review is complete.” While Fort Worth PD did not publicly identify the female officer in the video, she appeared to be the same officer who prevented another Christian evangelist group from entering the Trinity Pride Fest in 2025. Video footage shared on YouTube last June shows a female officer with a similar voice and facial features telling members of the evangelist group Unprofitable Servants Ministries trying to enter the public event that "they don't want you here."***

https://www.christianpost.com/news/fort-worth-police-officer-warns-street-preachers-at-pride-event.html

video at https://x.com/SarahisCensored/status/2071282414249246842

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Minnesota murder

NORTH MANKATO, Minn. — Additional charges have been filed against one of the men allegedly connected with a deadly shooting last month in North Mankato. Ryan Robert Wolner, 18, is charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder, aiding and abetting first-degree assault, aiding and abetting second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, and aiding and abetting with a dangerous weapon causing substantial body harm. Wolner is also charged as an accomplice by obstructing the investigation, according to court documents. Wolner is one of four men charged after 17-year-old Tyson Goodsell was shot in the head on May 23. Abdikhadar Fakhi Mohidin, 20, was previously charged with second-degree unintentional murder, aggravated robbery, assault and illegal possession of a firearm. On June 23, prosecutors amended Mohidin's charges to include one count of second-degree intentional murder. Ahmed Mohamed Mohamud, 19, was charged as an accomplice, and Ahmed Fuad Mohamud, 23, was charged with two counts relating to attempted robbery.  North Mankato Police were called to the area of Pleasant View Drive and Willow Lane shortly after 11 p.m. on May 23 on a report of a shooting. When they arrived, they found a vehicle crashed into a townhome, and Goodsell in the vehicle with a gunshot wound to his head. Prosecutors say a witness told police that Wolner contacted them on the day of the shooting, saying, "I'm trying to rob [Goodsell], can you set [Goodsell] up for me?" The witness said he contacted Goodsell and he arranged a meeting to purchase $2,000 worth of THC cartridges and other cannabis products.***

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/additional-charges-filed-man-allegedly-connected-to-deadly-north-mankato-shooting/89-620d5291-6843-4f7d-9748-040aaccb35bd

Don't sell drugs, and your risk of murder plummets

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Fair points

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Pride alternative dispute resolution

LOWER MANHATTAN (WABC) -- Police are searching for the person who released bear spray inside a hotel in Lower Manhattan on Monday morning, leaving several people injured and forcing hundreds to evacuate. The issue has been resolved and guests were allowed back in, but authorities had to first ensure the air inside was safe to breathe. The spray was released on the 20th floor of the DoubleTree by Hilton New York Downtown on Stone Street. According to authorities, an altercation broke out over luggage sometime around 7:30 a.m. and at least one female guest was sprayed with bear spray - also called bear mace - by a female guest. "A woman was screaming in the hallway, 'Oh my God, oh my God,' and I opened my door to look out to see if somebody needed help, and she was screaming about being sprayed in the face with mace, and she had tears pouring down her face," said a hotel guest. Officials say the suspect and victim are known to each other and were both out at a Pride event on Sunday night. It is believed to have happened on an upper floor and the irritant quickly entered the hotel's centralized air conditioning system and spread throughout the hotel, forcing guests to evacuate.***

https://abc7ny.com/post/hilton-doubletree-hotel-evacuated-lower-manhattan-bear-spray-released/19413041/

There used to be a military exercise in Korea in the fall called Bear Hunt. Perhaps that is now the name of some part of the Pride event and explains the presence of bear spray.

***

You hit your 2-year-old daughter!

A Wisconsin teen who was tired of being the third wheel in a "throuple" with her boyfriend and another female took her anger out on her 2-year-old daughter — hitting the child in the face while she was playing with a teddy bear, cops say. Emma Spencer, 17, of Kenosha, also attacked her boyfriend while fuming over their "polyamorous relationship," according to a criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime. "The defendant made remarks saying that [her boyfriend] liked [the other female] more than her and that no one loves her," the complaint alleges. "[The boyfriend] tried to reassure the defendant and said, 'If I didn't love you, why would I have a kid with you?' pointing to [their daughter]. At which point the defendant hit [the daughter] in the face with her palm while simultaneously grabbing [the daughter] by the face and pushing her down and making [the daughter] cry." According to prosecutors, Spencer's boyfriend "confronted" her on Tuesday, July 7, and asked why she attacked their child. She responded by saying "she didn't want to have a baby anymore and she never wanted a baby," the complaint says.*** "The defendant had recently started dating [the female] approximately one week prior and brought her into the home three days ago for a three-way relationship, which was a mutual decision between the defendant and [the boyfriend]," the complaint explains. "The defendant began having conflicting feelings about the three-way relationship and wanted to take a break. She and [the boyfriend] had been arguing throughout the day about the relationship and their feelings."*** Spencer allegedly claimed she "blanked out" before attacking her boyfriend and child. "The defendant described having mental health issues for years, specifically with her 'grip on reality,'" the complaint says. "The defendant had started seeing a therapist two to three weeks prior, meeting once per week. The therapist wanted to prescribe medication, but the defendant's mother refused to provide consent."***

https://lawandcrime.com/crime/teen-mom-tired-of-being-third-wheel-in-throuple-takes-anger-out-on-2-year-old-beats-her-as-she-plays-with-teddy-bear-and-attacks-boyfriend-proclaiming-no-one-loves-her-da/

***

Not homeless shaming; social system & mental health shaming

This picture show Hello Darlin beauty parlor in Wasilla, Alaska

the fb post notes

Hello Darlin' Running a small business means wearing a lot of hats. Hairdresser. Receptionist. Janitor. Security. Customer service. We're not politicians, social workers, or policy makers. We don't pretend to have all the answers. We're just a group of women trying to welcome our clients through the front door, provide a relaxing experience, and live the American Dream. Here's hoping one day every small business owner can focus on serving customers instead of navigating problems they never signed up to solve.

Hello Darlin lays no blame on the homeless person. The blame and shame do entirely on failed politicians, social workers, and policy makers.

I don't blame Hello Darlin for shaming her small town by showing homelessness.

***

Sue over censorship

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – To settle a lawsuit brought by a North Carolina high school student and her parents after school officials censored the student and repeatedly violated her constitutional rights, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education agreed to adopt a new student speech policy, exonerate the student, and pay $95,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represent the Ardrey Kell High School junior, who seeks to share her Christian faith and values with others at school. After the assassination of free speech advocate Charlie Kirk last year, she felt inspired to use her voice to commemorate Kirk’s strong public defense of Christianity. She received permission from the school to paint a message on the school’s “spirit rock”—a large boulder on school grounds frequently used for the expression of various messages—in support of Kirk’s Christian message. Within hours, however, school officials ordered her message to be censored and then engaged in public efforts to humiliate her and the friends who helped her, prompting the lawsuit, G.S. v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. As part of the settlement, the board agreed to adopt this new policy, to issue a public statement clearing the student of all wrongdoing and expressing “regret that the student had this experience,” and to pay $95,000 in costs and attorneys’ fees.*** The student had seen other messages on the rock—ranging from support of National Football League teams to Black Lives Matter—so last September, after receiving permission from school officials, the student, her parents, and two fellow students painted it with the words “Freedom 1776” and “Live Like Kirk—John 11:25.” Within hours, the student learned from social media that officials ordered the “Live Like Kirk—John 11:25” portion to be painted over. The next day, school officials sent out a schoolwide e-mail accusing her of “vandalism” and said that law enforcement was conducting an investigation; the statement aired on a local news station as well. The day after that, officials called the student out of class to write an official statement describing her actions and forced her to show them her phone logs. School officials never obtained permission from parents to go through her phone, nor did they inform the students or parents about their constitutional right to remain silent and contact an attorney during a criminal investigation.***

https://adflegal.org/press-release/nc-school-district-pays-95k-after-censoring-students-charlie-kirk-tribute/

***

Another "hate" crime

was posted in a men's head at San Jose State University by... wait for it... Ziheng “Tony” Fang around Nov. 5, 2025.

Fang’s fingerprint was found on this paper. A second message was also discovered on the wall of the same bathroom at the same time. It read “Kill all Jews, Muslims, Chinks, and Mexicans,” “Mass bombing 11/11 and 11/12 guess.”*** Fang accessed buildings in the days leading up to the discovery of hateful and threatening messages in 16 of the 18 instances where key card access is required, according to the complaint. The next closest number of entries was from a SJSU staff member who worked with facilities and had a reason to be in each building. Surveillance footage also shows Fang entering and exiting the restrooms or restroom areas where some of the messages were written up to a day before their discovery.*** https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/graduate-student-arrested-hateful-and-threatening-message-san-jose-state-university

He was arrested and made his initial appearance on 10jul26

***

Interesting....

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., is urging the Department of Justice to investigate the vandalism of a California museum commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, warning that the attack may have been part of a Chinese Communist Party campaign to intimidate dissidents living in the United States. Smith, co-chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., sent a July 8 letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche requesting a federal investigation into the May 31 break-in at the June Fourth Massacre Memorial Museum in El Monte, California. Unknown individuals entered the museum shortly before the 37th anniversary of the June 4, 1989, massacre, spray-painted walls and exhibits, damaged property, and interfered with the building’s surveillance system, according to the lawmakers. The museum preserves the history of the student-led pro-democracy demonstrations that Chinese troops crushed in Beijing after weeks of peaceful protests. The number killed remains unknown, while the Chinese government continues to censor public discussion and commemoration of the massacre. “The Museum preserves the irrefutable, brutal truth about the Tiananmen Massacre,” Smith said in a July 9 press release, pointing out that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has spent nearly four decades attempting to suppress that history.***

Museum founder Wang Dan, a former leader of the 1989 student demonstrations, described the break-in as an act of political intimidation intended to frighten organizers ahead of annual Tiananmen commemorations. “The last thing the Chinese Communist Party wants is for people to continue remembering June 4,” Wang said. The El Monte Police Department opened a hate-crime investigation and recovered surveillance footage after the museum’s damaged cameras were restored, the dissident Chinese site Vision Times reported. Museum organizers nevertheless continued with planned events and said some vandalized exhibits would remain unrepaired as evidence of the struggle between historical memory and forced forgetting.***

https://zeale.co/news/articles/smith-urges-doj-probe-of-tiananmen-museum-attack-as-possible-chinese-repression

***

That's different -

The Democratic Socialists of America launched a new platform on Tuesday night, part of which calls to “replace” the presidency and Supreme Court with “an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.” “Whenever people are like, ‘Oh my God, they want to get rid of the president,’ I was like, ‘Well, I don’t know what we would call it in the future. We could call it the ‘head honcho’ or whatever,” Michaela Brangan, who helped draft the platform, said on a Tuesday evening webinar.***

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/4648833/dsa-new-platform-replace-president-supreme-court

Why not call it the Supreme Soviet?

Platner dropped his campaign for the Senate with an angry speech on Wed night, 8jul26.

Noting that it was the last week to remove him from the ballot, Platner again blamed political elites for the end of his campaign. “It’s not the false allegations, though, that have brought us to where we are,” he said. “It’s the fact that they are being used by the political establishment to put structural pressure on us. We live in a political system that is not built for normal people.” https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4641761/graham-platner-exit-speech-progressive-democrats

The thing is, normal people don't

have Nazi tattoos

say American soldiers don't deserve to live

bruise their girlfriends

say they'll rape burglars, but not in a gay way

force girlfriends to have sexual intercourse

A serious political party or a serious movement within such a party would have vetted someone like Platner and said "Oh, hell no." I suspect that Platner's political and social views are largely indistinguishable from Mamdani's or AOC's, or for that matter, Obama's.

They could have nominated any democrat, but they chose him b/c he had the bad boy appeal. They thought a Nazi rapist would look like a real man and appeal to real men. Dumb bunnies.

+++

Babylon Bee -

+++

Exclusive: Woman who dated Graham Platner says he sexually assaulted her

A woman who dated Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies. The woman, a 41-year-old Maine resident named Jenny Racicot, detailed the alleged incident to POLITICO in three interviews over the past two weeks. POLITICO also spoke with a man Racicot dated and confided in the years after the alleged incident, and reviewed documents, including emails between Racicot and her therapist and messages between Racicot and an acquaintance whom she warned against getting involved with Platner years before he ran for office. Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner, who is now the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual. “I remember him grabbing my pelvis and being really forceful of me,” she said. “I remember the specific moment where I thought to myself, like, ‘This is no longer my choice.’”***

“One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was, the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him as a person,” she said. “I just want the truth out there. I just want people to have a whole scope of who he is as a person.”*** Racicot told POLITICO she connected with Platner on the dating app Bumble in 2019 and had consensual relations with him prior to the night he allegedly assaulted her. That night in late 2021, she said she had exchanged text messages with him and told him not to come over, saying she wasn’t in the mood for company. Later that evening, she said she realized when she heard a sound on the stairs that he had let himself into her house, which was unlocked. Platner came up the stairs, Racicot said, to where she was on a couch. He got on top of her and kept grabbing her, she said, while she repeatedly told him to stop and that she wasn’t interested. Racicot said she smelled alcohol on his breath and believed he was “almost blackout drunk” because Platner ignored her protests and continued to grab her after knocking over an antique sewing kit, spilling small needles everywhere.

“I had been telling him these words, like: ‘No, don’t,’” she recalled. “And, the look on his face and realizing what was happening, I just realized that, like, I am in a situation where there’s no consent here,” she said. Racicot said she tried to separate herself from Platner by telling him she couldn’t be in that room anymore, after which he followed her to her bedroom and had sex with her against her will. She said he also ejaculated inside of her despite her telling him not to, as she was not using birth control at the time. She went to clean herself up, she said, and when she returned, Platner had fallen asleep. She contemplated waking him up to kick him out, but worried he could hurt someone driving in the state he was in.***

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/06/graham-platner-sexual-assault-allegation-00987737

+++

Babylon Bee

+++

+++

Nellie Bowles writes

→ The oyster of my eye: Graham Platner—the king of the Dirtbag Left, the boarding-school kid who talked all gruff so everyone could pretend he was working class—has suspended his hugely viral and popular campaign for Senate in Maine after being accused of rape. I have to spend a little time on this since it really tells you a lot about where our politics are at. First, the accusation, reported by Politico in an explosive new piece: Platner’s ex-girlfriend says he broke into her house and raped her. Or, as the media is phrasing it, “he entered her rural Maine home uninvited” and “forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop.” Hmm. There’s a word for that! Now, here’s the odd thing. That very same accuser, Jenny Racicot, had earlier spoken to The New York Times. Weeks ago they published their own Platner sex scandal story. But it was soft. It didn’t include the rape. What NYT supporters say is that she didn’t want to go on the record with it. The other way to see it—my way, the bad way—is that it looks like that the story was a sort of catch-and-kill, in which they got the facts and downplayed them to protect Platner. Because they did know everything. They had been told about that sexual assault....

Didn't know what was in her prison purse?

The Brevard County Sheriff's Office reported that Reagan Cox was arrested on charges of resisting an officer without violence during a traffic stop. There's not a mention of why she was stopped in the first place, but that's neither here nor there. The story picked up after she was transported to jail and the scanner noticed something in what Sheriff Wayne Ivey described in a Facebook post about the alleged incident as her "Jail Purse." "Our Corrections Deputies moved Cox to a change out room where she was observed trying to cover her buttocks area with her hand," the sheriff wrote about what took place after the abnormality was picked up by the scanner. "After moving her hand, a baggie dropped to the floor containing approximately 3.8 grams of cocaine!!" Cox is alleged to have said that "she knew nothing about the drugs." She then, according to Ivey, pointed the finger at someone who "must have put it in there during an 'intimate encounter!!'"***

https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-culture/florida-woman-tells-police-knows-nothing-drugs-allegedly-fell-jail-purse

***

Poop fire & save matches?

According to the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office, Deputy Lane Davenport was driving near the south wall of the jail when he noticed a man carrying a shovel and digging near the fence line. The man was identified as 32-year-old Jake Minervini-Blue. Sheriff’s office spokesperson Aaron Brilbeck said Minervini-Blue initially told deputies he was trying to see his girlfriend, who he claimed was inside the jail. “At first the guy tells him that his girlfriend is inside and he wants to go and see his girlfriend,” said Brilbeck. Investigators said Minervini-Blue later changed his explanation, telling deputies he was planning to plant a flower. According to the sheriff’s office, he was carrying both a shovel and a potted plant at the time. “Later he says, well no, I’m just planning a plant and he just happens to have a plant with him at 11 o’clock at night,” said Brilbeck. Deputies continued investigating and determined Minervini-Blue had an outstanding assault warrant from another state. “Happy ending here,” said Brilbeck. “He winds up going into the jail after all and meeting up with his girlfriend behind bars.” After Minervini-Blue was brought to the detention center, a body scan revealed a ferro rod concealed on his person, according to the sheriff’s office. Ferro rods are commonly used to start fires.*** Investigators also said they were never able to confirm whether the girlfriend Minervini-Blue mentioned was actually inside the jail.

https://www.newson6.com/crime/deputies-man-dig-into-oklahoma-county-jail-to-see-girlfriend

Ferro rods are pretty cheap. Perhaps he wanted to poop fire and save matches.

***

You want to ambush cops, prepare to serve hard time

Sentencing resumed on Wednesday for the remaining convicted defendants in the first federal antifa terrorism case, resulting in prison sentences ranging from two to 50 years. Seven additional members of a Texas antifa cell were sentenced to spend lengthy stretches in federal prison after eight of their coconspirators received a combined punishment of 450 years behind bars for carrying out a July 2025 attack on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility that left a local police officer wounded from gunfire. Ines Houston Soto, the ninth federal trial defendant to face sentencing, was handed a 50-year prison term on Wednesday. Rebecca Morgan and Joy Abigail Gibson, who took non-cooperating plea deals ahead of trial, each received a 15-year prison sentence. Seth Edison Sikes, Lynette Read Sharp, Nathan Josiah Baumann, and John Phillip Thomas, who also pleaded out but cooperated with prosecutors to testify against their accomplices, were given lighter sentences due to credit awarded for their cooperation. Sharp and Thomas were sentenced to 110 months, or a little over nine years, in federal prison; Sikes to 72 months, or roughly six years; and Baumann to 22 months.*** Following the June 23 sentencing hearing, the cell’s comrades made thinly veiled threats online to kill the federal judges over the outcome of the case. In one death threat appearing on Bluesky, an antifa activist asked for the location of O’Connor’s residence: “Anyone know where this judge lives? No reason, just asking.” Another anonymous account wrote, “He has an address,” referring to O’Connor. Brad Ganley, a left-wing militant from the St. Louis area, posted, “13 loops for Judge Mark Pittman,” meaning to hang him in a lynching.***

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/4632743/seven-members-texas-antifa-terrorist-cell-handed-lengthy-prison-sentences

If you doubt the justice of the sentences, just consider how antifa threatened to kill the judges.

***

U-turned and hit him again?

IRVING, Texas — A man is facing charges after police say he struck and killed a person riding a motorized scooter in Irving before fleeing the scene. Noe Ibarra Cedeno, 36, has been charged with intoxication assault with a vehicle involving serious bodily injury and intoxication manslaughter with vehicle. Irving police responded to a major accident just before 3 a.m. on June 19 near the intersection of Cantrell Street and Cibola Drive. According to an arrest affidavit, a witness reported seeing a black car hit the victim, 31-year-old Tony July Vasquez, twice before driving away. Vasquez was transported to Parkland hospital "with multiple broken bones, damaged organs, and severe head/brain trauma," according to the arrest affidavit.  Vazquez later died of his injuries.

Officers located a black Honda Civic with a matching bumper piece found at the scene at a nearby residence on Lago Vista Loop. ***Cedeno told officers he had consumed 4-6 beers while watching a FIFA soccer game before leaving to drive someone to a nearby hotel. "He stated that upon leaving, he hit something with his vehicle, but did not know what it was, and later believed he had hit a person," according to police. "The defendant turned around and drove back through the scene, not seeing anything, but running over something again," according to the affidavit. The defendant then went to the hotel before returning home. Police noted that Cedeno displayed indicators of impairment during field sobriety tests ***

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/man-arrested-in-irving-after-allegedly-running-over-scooter-rider-twice-in-deadly-crash/287-c8a34903-5d52-4fb1-97a5-3075f3da20ec

.1% BAC isn't falling down drunk. Weird that he would U-turn and run over the body. Maybe he disliked Vasquez for some reason?

***

Good, just not sure it's a federal case

A federal judge sentenced Marterrio Armstrong, 21, of Memphis, Tennessee, and Jacam’Ron McIntosh, 21, of Oxford, Mississippi, to eight and one-half years and 13 years in prison, respectively, for a carjacking at gunpoint. According to evidence presented to the court, on Nov. 24, 2024, police responded to a robbery in Memphis, Tennessee. A group of nine construction workers were packing their belongings following a residential construction project when Armstrong and McIntosh approached them with guns drawn. Armstrong and McIntosh pointed their firearms at the victims and stated, “Don’t move or we will f&*% you up,” and demanded the victims’ property. Working in tandem, Armstrong remained outside with the nine victims while McIntosh entered the residence and dragged a tenth victim outside at gunpoint. After rummaging through the victims’ pockets, the defendants took the victims’ wallets, cell phones, money, and keys, and drove away in one victim’s Nissan Maxima.  Less than one hour after the armed carjacking, Memphis Police Department officers tracked one victim’s cellphone to a residence in Memphis, where they located the Nissan Maxima hidden by several trash cans in a carport. Inside the residence, officers located Armstrong and the victims’ stolen property. McIntosh was also found in the house, hiding in the attic along with a Glock 19 pistol, a Romania Arms Mini Draco pistol, and a wallet taken from a victim during the robbery. ***

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-men-sentenced-total-over-21-years-prison-roles-carjacking-and-robbery

Armed robbery is a traditionally state, not federal crime.

***

dirtbag who belongs in jail

Avtandil Kalandadze, 47, the former ship master of a ghost fleet tanker that historically transported Iran- and Venezuela-origin oil for the ultimate benefit of U.S. adversaries, pleaded guilty [Friday, June 12, 2026] in U.S. District Court for refusing to obey orders from the U.S. Coast Guard during a multi-week pursuit from the Caribbean Sea through to the North Atlantic Ocean.   “Kalandadze’s guilty plea today should serve as a warning to ghost fleet owners and operators and all those who man or otherwise support these dangerous, decrepit vessels,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “The Department of Justice and our interagency partners will pursue the ghost fleet and its facilitators from the Caribbean Sea to the North Atlantic, to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the Persian Gulf, and anywhere in between. You will not escape.”  “This defendant put American sailors’ and Coast Guardsmen’s lives at risk while attempting to evade U.S. sanctions and move illicit oil,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro for the District of Columbia. ***

According to the plea agreement, from September 2025 until late-December 2025, Kalandadze was the Master of the Motor Tanker Bella 1. During his time as Master, the Bella 1 transported approximately 1.8 million barrels of Iran-origin oil to Asia. During this time, Kalandadze employed common obfuscation techniques to hide the activities of the Bella 1, including sailing with an inactivated Automatic Identification System (AIS) and concealing the name of the Bella 1 while engaging in a ship-to-ship transfer of the Iran-origin oil to another vessel. In December 2025, while under his charge, the Bella 1 was enroute to Venezuela when it was intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro. The Bella 1 failed to comply with the Coast Guard’s order to heave to and fled across the Atlantic Ocean.  The Munro pursued the Bella 1 throughout its flight and, on Jan. 7 aided in the execution of a lawful seizure of the vessel.  ***

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/master-shadow-fleet-tanker-pleads-guilty-dc-evading-us-coast-guard-during-weeks-long-pursuit

He was doing to make money from the scummiest dictators on earth.

***

Good

[Thurs, 11jun26] the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security seized the domains CFAKE.com and SOCFAKE.com, which are domains that were being used to publish thousands of digitally forged images and videos depicting famous women as nude and sometimes engaged in sexual activity, without their consent. According to the probable cause affidavit supporting the seizure warrants, the digital forgeries were made to appear to be sexual images of famous women, including politicians, first ladies of multiple countries, royalty, journalists, television presenters, athletes, entertainers, and others. The website allowed people to browse by tags that included topics like “rape,” “forced,” and “degradation.” ***

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-seizes-domain-names-publishing-nude-digital-forgeries-famous-women

***

Heinous, hoarders, & probably mentally ill

20 people in a 1,000 square foot house? This is awful -

Children ages 18 months to 18 years were retrieved from the home, authorities said. Several children were in serious medical condition. Two of the children had to be flown by medical helicopter to Level 1 trauma centers.

The children are getting medical care, and authorities said they are working to "get them placed."

In response to questioning, Wilson said it is not a human trafficking case, but declined to discuss further.

Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer said Gary L. Siders Sr., Gary L. Siders Jr., Christina Siders, and Elizabeth Siders were arrested and charged with 16 counts of felony child endangerment. They're scheduled to be arraigned the morning of July 1 in Vinton County.***

The Siders weren't from Vinton County but had been traveling, Archer said.***

Wilson noted that a second search warrant was underway on the property as the press conference was being held.

"It's my understanding that it may not even be safe for our deputies and the agents to go into certain places in the house because of the, again, just deplorable conditions. Conditions you cannot even imagine people being in, let alone children living in."*** https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2026/06/30/16-children-rescued-vinton-county-ohio-home/90760006007/

***

Classy guy, that Derrick...

(KNSI) — A man already serving time in state prison for causing a crash that killed five young women will now serve a 14 year federal sentence for drug and weapons possession. Thirty-year-old Derrick John Thompson was clocked going 95 miles an hour on 35W by a Minnesota State Patrol trooper in June of 2023. Thompson cut across four lanes of traffic to exit at Lake Street before running a red light at 2nd Avenue South and East Lake Street, slamming into a Honda Civic at full speed. All five young women in the car were killed. They were coming from a session where they had gotten henna done in preparation for a friend’s wedding, which was the next day. After the crash, Thompson fled the scene, but was picked up at a restaurant nearby after bystanders called the police. He was found sitting on the curb in the parking lot and had injuries consistent with being in a car accident. He was bleeding from a cut on his forehead, had blood on his hands and clothing, and was sweating profusely. Investigators asked about how he got hurt, and Thompson initially told officers, “I cut myself. This is old. This is an old cut.” Police pressed him, saying his injuries looked recent. Thompson then told officers that he was injured when he “fell” earlier in the night. A search of his rented Cadillac Escalade SUV turned up a loaded Glock with an extended magazine, more than 2,000 fentanyl pills, fentanyl powder, cocaine, and a digital scale. Thompson’s DNA was found on the firearm and drugs. A search of his phone revealed dozens of texts indicating he had been selling the drugs.

Thompson was convicted on federal counts for possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute, possession of a firearm by a felon, and using a firearm during a drug trafficking crime. Thompson has a prior felony conviction from a 2018 hit-and-run while fleeing police in California. In that case, the victim was left in a coma and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Thompson also allegedly fled the scene of that crash. Police say they found 17 pounds of marijuana and $20,000 in cash in the trunk of the car. Thompson was tracked down in St. Paul and taken into custody. He pleaded guilty in Santa Barbara County court and was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2020, but was released early.*** Derrick Thompson is the son of former Minnesota State Representative John Thompson. The Democrat was famously pulled over in July 2021 in St. Paul because his car didn’t have a front license plate. The lawmaker then presented a Wisconsin state identification card and was cited for driving with a suspended license. Thompson later stated that he was racially profiled and “got a ticket for driving while Black.” In the aftermath, news came to light that Thompson had been involved in five domestic assault investigations from 2003 to 2011.***

https://knsiradio.com/2026/03/20/derrick-thompson-gets-14-year-federal-prison-sentence-in-case-tied-to-crash-that-killed-five-minneapolis-women/

1 - You let him out early so he could go kill someone?

2 - Fruit don't fall far from the tree

***

Dude! Yeah, you, dude.

Las Vegas cops busted a transgender gunman who allegedly planned a casino massacre using a huge cache of weapons. Allison Howlett, 36, who was born a man but lives as a woman, was arrested Saturday [27jun26] on charges of making terroristic threats, assault with a deadly weapon, auto theft, gun theft and other offenses. The wild story unfolded shortly after 9:30 a.m. Saturday when Howlett’s former spouse, who is female, called police to report Howlett had stolen her car and the vehicle held numerous firearms, Henderson Police Chief Reggie Rader said. The former spouse said Howlett intended to commit “suicide by cop” or carry out a mass shooting, Radar said. Howlett’s ex was tracking her stolen car on her phone and led cops to it where it was parked in a garage at Sunset Station hotel, the top cop said.***

officers were shocked to see that Howlett had been sitting on a handgun and had an MP5 submachine gun sitting on the back seat. When cops searched Howlett’s car, they recovered 22 other guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Cops who searched the suspect’s home in Henderson found 30 more firearms, including automatic rifles, plus ammo, grenade launcher attachments and silencers. Officers said Howlett made several threats going back years, a including a 2024 call where Howlett threatened a mass shooting.***

https://nypost.com/2026/07/01/us-news/trans-gunman-was-allegedly-plotting-vegas-mass-shooting

***

Once again, taking criminals off the streets is mercy for the meek & humble

A missing 14-year-old girl was rescued last Monday night from a drug-filled motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, in what police are investigating as a child trafficking incident. The man found with the child was arrested and taken away by a swath of federal, state, and local police on site. That man is among roughly 10,600 people who have been arrested in Memphis by the Memphis Safe Task Force in its nine months of operation in America’s most crime-ridden city, according to Gadyaces Serralta, the government official overseeing the operation.***

The joint effort has led to nearly 10,600 arrests since Sept. 30, 2025, including 100 homicide arrests and the recovery of 55 missing people and children, including the child found on Monday. Serralta said the nearly 10,600 arrests were made by the task force’s members, meaning they do not include arrests made by local and state police.*** When the federal-state-local task force was set up by the White House last fall, the city was not enforcing basic traffic violations, such as expired registration tags or broken taillights, so that was where the task force began, Serralta said. “We created a line that I personally witnessed going around out of the clerk’s office, where they do tags. Out and around the block, right, because that was the impact that we had,” Serralta said. “You can no longer not register your car, right. And what we found is that good people had not been registering their car, and bad people definitely weren’t registered, but when THP starts giving citations on [failure to register], MPD as well, that triggers the good folks to go out and get their tags. So, what do we have left? Bad guys that haven’t gotten their tags, so simple traffic stops.” Where it goes next Compared to before the task force hit the ground last October, Serralta reported a 43% decline in homicides, 33% decline in sexual assaults, 50% decline in robberies, and 32% decline in aggravated assaults.***

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/4633614/memphis-crime-task-force-10k-arrests

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Babylon Bee

***

Yeah, some flamer killed him -

+++

Todd Garland, 64, was found dead in Paris, France, on June 23. He was reported missing after last being seen on June 9. According to an application and affidavit in support of a search warrant, Covington police received multiple reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding the possession, distribution, and manufacturing of child sexual abuse material from a home in the 500 block of Greenup Street. That's the same address where Garland lives. Documents say three reports were generated from the tip, and reported the source as xAI, which operates the AI assistant Grok and owns the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter).

According to records, 192 total images were uploaded using three different xAI accounts on or around Oct. 28, 2025 through Nov. 18, 2025. Officials say of the nearly 200 images uploaded, 71 were "unique," and depicted "prepubescent nude females" on a beach and posed inside of a home.*** Police say it was discovered that all three reports shared a common IP address, Garland's apartment. Email addresses linked to each of the three reports were also identified as accounts that belonged to Garland.***

https://www.wlky.com/article/todd-garland-france-death-child-porn-kentucky/71746207

***

Paul Pelosi hit & run

YOUNTVILLE, Calif. (KGO) -- Paul Pelosi, husband of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, is facing a hit-and-run charge for a crash in Yountville, Napa County Sheriff's Deputies in California announced Saturday. Paul Pelosi, 86, is accused of hitting a parked car, briefly stopping, then driving away. Sheriff deputies responded to a report of a hit and run around 2:30 p.m. Friday along the 6700 block of Yount Street. Sheriff deputies said a witness called 911 and said a brown convertible drove north of Yount Street, hitting an unoccupied parked car. That car sustained major rear damage, and the front right tire was forced onto the curb, authorities said.

The witness told authorities where Pelosi went, and a short time later, the California Highway Patrol stopped Pelosi's car, at Yountville Cross Road, Napa sheriff's said. Pelosi's car had significant damage to the front right side. Pelosi admitted to Napa County sheriffs to hitting something, but did not know what he had hit, so "he kept driving." Napa County authorities said he is no longer driving. During the investigation, authorities said alcohol does not appear to be a factor since he registered a .00 on the Preliminary Alcohol Screening Device.*** In May 2022, Pelosi was involved in a DUI car crash in Napa County. He had a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.082%. He plead guilty later that year in August 2022 to a misdemeanor for driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury.***

https://abc7news.com/post/paul-pelosi-crash-husband-speaker-emerita-nancy-facing-hit-run-charge-yountville-napa-county/19448429/

Time to take granpa's keys.

***

Charlie Kirk assassination preliminary hearing.

The purpose of a preliminary hearing is to determine if there is probable cause for a felony trial. The burden of proof is really low, and trial rules of evidence generally don't apply. If I were Tyler Robinson's lawyer, I would have waived it b/c it's going to show the overwhelming weight of evidence showing his guilt of a premeditated and deliberated murder.

1st day's coverage.

2d day's coverage.

https://www.thefp.com/p/charlie-kirk-assassination-trial-conspiracy-theories is good, but paywalled.

***

Epstein bank shenanigans

Newly released Justice Department records show that more than $45 million flowed through a little-known bank owned by Jeffrey Epstein in the months surrounding his 2019 arrest and death, raising fresh questions about the purpose of the financial institution and the movement of millions of dollars that later became the subject of a federal investigation, the Miami Herald reported on Monday. The records detail activity at Southern Country International, an offshore-style bank Epstein established in the U.S. Virgin Islands that had remained largely dormant for years before suddenly processing tens of millions of dollars in transactions shortly before the disgraced financier was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges on July 6, 2019. According to the documents, more than $20 million passed through the bank between April and early July 2019. Following Epstein's death at a Manhattan detention facility on Aug. 10, 2019, an additional $25 million moved through Southern Country before the bank's balance fell to less than $500,000 by the end of the year. The records also show that the FBI and Virgin Islands authorities opened a joint wire fraud investigation in 2020 into a $15 million transfer from one of Epstein's accounts at Deutsche Bank to Southern Country one day after his death.***

https://www.newsmax.com/us/jeffrey-epstein-virgin-islands-bank/2026/07/06/id/1261935

***

Typical antifa, typical Seattle

Conservative activist and livestreamer “Tommy TV” has reported that Antifa members violently attacked his home in Oregon at 3:30 in the morning on Monday. According to his account posted on X, the attackers threw a brick through the bedroom window and sprayed bear mace directly into the room, hitting him, his wife, and their dog. He also said all the tires on the family’s vehicle were slashed, something he says has happened before. Tommy described the incident as terrorism and blamed it on his work documenting Antifa violence and their calls for attacks on ICE agents and President Donald Trump. The streamer believes the group got his address through doxxing that started when he and his wife lived in Seattle, and he pointed the finger at Seattle police for leaking the information even though the couple has since moved.***

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/07/antifa-extremists-smash-window-bear-mace-maga-streamer/

Supreme Court decided National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Comm'n, 609 U. S. __ (2026), 6 - 3 today, 30jun26.

Ratified in 1791, the First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech.” As relevant here, the Federal Election Campaign Act, known as FECA, limits a political party’s campaign spending. Those spending limits necessarily abridge political parties’ freedom of speech: Because “virtually every means of communicating ideas in today’s mass society requires the expenditure of money,” a “restriction on the amount of money a person or group can spend on political communication during a campaign necessarily reduces the quantity of expression by restricting the number of issues discussed, the depth of their exploration, and the size of the audience reached.” *** Applying the First Amendment, this Court has long ruled that a political party possesses a right to make unlimited independent expenditures during a campaign—that is, expenditures without coordinating with a candidate.*** But FECA still limits a political party’s coordinated expenditures.***

FECA restricts a political party’s coordinated expenditures—that is, a political party’s spending on campaign activities in coordination with candidates. 52 U. S. C. §30116(d).*** The First Amendment’s protection of free speech has its “fullest and most urgent application precisely to the conduct of campaigns for political office.” *** For nearly 200 years after the ratification of the First Amendment, parties could spend on campaigns in coordination with candidates. Parties and candidates could work cooperatively toward their common goal of advancing policies and winning elections to implement those policies. Again, no one suggests “that these elections were not functional or that they were marred by corruption.”*** Importantly, by holding FECA’s political-party coordinated-expenditure restrictions unconstitutional, the Court’s decision today treats all political parties equally. It will allow all political parties—including the DNC and RNC and the respective Senate and House campaign committees, as well as other parties and party committees—to participate more freely and compete more fully in the political process, and to coordinate more closely with their candidates. Whether the Democratic party, the Republican party, or other parties, all political parties and candidates going forward can compete equally under the same rules regarding coordinated expenditures and can structure their fundraising, spending, and political speech on a level playing field as they see fit within the law.***

Supreme Court decided West Virginia v. B. P. J., 609 U. S. __ (2026) on Tues, 30jun26.

West Virginia bans people with XY chromosomes from playing in girls sports. B.P.J. has those chromosomes, wanted to play on girls teams, and sued.

Nine justices said that West Virginia's rules do not violate Title IX. Six said the rules are consistent with Equal Protection. J. Kavanaugh wrote for the Court

Title IX transformed American sports and American life. Enacted in 1972, that landmark law promoted equal opportunity for female student-athletes and has facilitated the extraordinary growth of women’s and girls’ sports over the past 54 years. To provide equal opportunity for female athletes, schools do not merely maintain, for example, one soccer team, one basketball team, one ice hockey team, and one lacrosse team that are equally open to female and male athletes. That approach would deny equal opportunity to female athletes because, as all agree, females and males have inherent physical differences relevant to athletic performance.***

The question is whether Title IX permits schools to maintain women’s and girls’ sports for biological females. The answer is yes. Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. Title IX’s implementing regulations expressly permit schools to maintain separate teams for “members of each sex.” §106.41(b). The term “sex” in the 1972 Title IX statute, the 1974 Javits Amendment, and the 1975 Title IX regulations cannot plausibly be interpreted to refer to anything other than biological sex. The ordinary meaning of the term “sex” at the time of enactment in the early 1970s was biological sex and not gender identity, particularly in the sports context.*** We next address the constitutional challenges to the West Virginia and Idaho laws under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Both B. P. J. and Hecox raise an equal protection argument. They contend that the States violated the Equal Protection Clause by maintaining female sports teams for biological females. Again, we respectfully disagree.

Under this Court’s equal protection precedents, laws that classify by sex are subject to what is known as intermediate scrutiny: Sex-based classifications are permissible only when the classification is “substantially related” to achieving an “important” government objective.*** The States’ interests in ensuring safety and competitive fairness amply justify the States in maintaining women’s and girls’ sports for biological females. Under the Equal Protection Clause, therefore, schools may determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports based on biological sex.***

J. Thomas had an interesting concurrence -

Supreme Court decided Chatrie v. United States, 609 U. S. __ (2026) on Mon, 29jun26. The Court decided something that was really, really obvious, and killed a bunch of innocent electrons to do it.

In recent years, law enforcement officers have employed so-called geofence warrants to obtain information that technology companies collect about their users’ cell-phone locations. Suppose that investigators know a crime was committed at a particular place and time, but do not have a suspect. They may draw a “geofence”—a virtual perimeter—around the crime scene and get a warrant compelling a company to hand over data about the cell phones located in that area near the time of the crime. Following a process specified in the warrant, the company will turn over the cell-phone data and eventually identify by name one or more of the users thus disclosed.

The geofence warrant at issue here was directed to Google, and used to solve a bank robbery. Hundreds of millions of Google users have activated a service called Location History, which records the location of a user’s cell phone every two minutes or so. Through a geofence warrant, police officers required Google to turn over Location History data revealing cell phones within the vicinity of a bank at around the time it was robbed. At the end of the multi-step process described in the warrant, Google gave the police three names. The Federal Government soon charged one of the individuals thus identified, petitioner Okello Chatrie, with committing the crime.

Today, we consider how the Fourth Amendment applies to that use of a geofence warrant. Answering that question in full would mean deciding whether the police conducted a Fourth Amendment “search” when they acquired the cellphone data leading to Chatrie’s arrest and, if so, whether that search was reasonable given the features of the warrant they employed. We decide the first part of that inquiry today, concluding that the police conducted a search when they gained access to Location History data. An individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in records about his cell phone’s location, and police intrude on that constitutionally protected interest when they demand the information—even though for only a limited time, and from a third-party tech company. We leave to the Court of Appeals the further question whether, given the warrant issued, the search here was reasonable, meaning that each of its steps was properly described with particularity and found to be supported by probable cause.***

For all those reasons, we hold that police officers invade a cell-phone user’s reasonable expectation of privacy when they access his Location History. It does not matter if the time period scrutinized was only two hours. Nor does it matter that the materials obtained were handed over by a third-party tech company. When the government “accesses historical cell phone” location information—Location History as much as CSLI—it “conducts a search under the Fourth Amendment.”

After all the cases like Riley v. California, 573 U. S. 373 (2014) and Carpenter v. United States, 585 U. S. 296 (2018) it should have been plain as day to the 4th Circuit and every other court that police seeking cell phone data in any form from a carrier is a search that requires a warrant.

There was a warrant in this case. The only question remaining now is whether the warrant was constitutionally adequate

The Court wasted a lot of time discussing the obvious conclusion when it could have simply vacated the 4th Cir.'s judgment and remanded the case without an opinion.

Good article about federal Bureau of Prisons - https://www.thefp.com/p/he-went-to-prison-now-he-is-in-charge

***

National Review notes

◼ Canadian media attributed a deadly shooting in Montreal—in which a police officer, a civilian, and the perpetrator were killed—to the attacker’s association with the sexless and misogynistic “incel” movement. It is apparent from the shooter’s writings as well as his choice of targets, a neighborhood where Pornhub’s offices are located, that hostility toward women contributed to the killer’s mania. But Côte-des-Neiges is also a heavily Jewish area, and the killer’s demented manifesto exposes his hatred for Jews as capitalist caricatures. That’s a trope to which violent communists are inclined, and this killer was a violent communist. He called his targets the “filthy facets of the capitalist economy,” praised the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, called for the abolition of private property, and heralded his bloodshed as a moral and ethical expression of “revolutionary terror.” Presumably, in his deluded understanding, the communist revolution would produce a society in which even undesirable men could easily marry. Yes, this killer was disturbed, but his disturbance is becoming a terribly common one. ◼ The Department of Justice joined a lawsuit filed by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who are challenging a New York law that requires nursing facilities to affirm a patient’s self-professed “gender identity.” The law implements a laundry list of progressive rules: facilities must allow gender-dysphoric patients to use their preferred bathrooms, and caretakers must grant such patients the right to be housed in spaces otherwise reserved for the opposite sex. Failure to comply with the law can result in a $2,000 fine, for the first violation, and can increase up to a $10,000 fine and one year in prison. The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne have cared for poor, terminally ill patients at Rosary Hill Home, free of charge, for more than 120 years. New York should recognize and respect their service.***

***

Just walk away, judge

U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ryan Douglas Nelson, of Idaho Falls, Idaho parked his truck over a couple spaces in a strip mall on 2apr26. A man in another truck pulled in next to him, walked up really close, and told him to learn to drive.

J. Nelson smacked the glasses off his face and them stomped on them. He has now been charged with misdemeanor battery. There is, of course, video with audio of the fight. He has now been charged in state court with battery. The Court of Appeals has filed a judicial misconduct complaint against him.

If J. Nelson had just responded "oh, yeah, sorry," he wouldn't be charged with battery, and he wouldn't be fighting for his job. You may get a one second burst of dopamine from smacking somebody, but you'll have a long, long hangover after that.

https://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/crimes_court/police-us-9th-circuit-judge-faces-battery-charge-after-parking-lot-confrontation-turns-physical-in/article_34af4bc1-ea69-45e3-98b7-ed2db432639a.html

***

Supreme Court case to watch

Court has agreed to consider Kian v. Florida, No. 25-6623 and a couple companion cases, Parada v. United States, No. 25-166; Minor v. Florida, No. 24-7489. Kian was convicted of five counts of practicing chiropractic medicine with a suspended license. A six-person jury convicted him. Florida uses six-person juries in non-capital cases.

The issue is whether the Constitution requires a jury of 12. I think it does. Kian's petition is good. Florida's brief in opposition makes a good point that 6-person juries acquit at about the same or at a greater rate than 12-person juries.

Florida argues skillfully, but the question is "did 'jury' mean '12 person jury'" when the Sixth Amendment was ratified.

***

Let's see what you get in Seattle for aggravated assault -

***

Funny how gay men are so homophobic....

The Minneapolis City Council has approved repealing what the all-Democrat municipal body says is a decades-old “homophobic” ban on adult bathhouses, an ordinance that was originally passed with the help of the city’s first openly gay council member. Nine members of the 13-person city council voted on Thursday in favor of the repeal, which will establish a licensing framework for operating commercial bathhouses, where consenting adults can legally engage in sexual activity. The repeal will also revise current health codes, amending provisions pertaining to curbing the spread of contagious diseases, and add exemptions to existing indecent conduct laws. Proponents of the repeal celebrated its passage as a win for the gay rights movement, saying that the citywide bathhouse ban was rooted in “homophobia.” But the ban, enacted during the AIDS epidemic in 1988, was supported by a contingent of gay men, including Councilman Brian Coyle, the first-known gay Minneapolis city councilor who later died of AIDS-related illnesses. Historians say that Coyle, who had tested positive for HIV in 1986 but did not publicly disclose his diagnosis at the time, played an instrumental role in the bathhouse ban’s passage.***

Bathhouses were identified as hot spots for HIV transmission. The city’s first positive HIV test came in 1982. By 1988, the year of the ban’s enactment, 447 cases of AIDS were reported to the Minnesota Department of Health, and 252 Minnesotans had died from AIDS-related complications. “What Good Are Gay Rights If We Were All Dead?” Coyle titled one journal entry. In his notes, he said several “disturbing” discoveries had changed his mind, particularly that gay men who frequent these bathhouses told him that many patrons were having high-risk, anonymous sex there. Coyle kept a letter from a coalition of concerned gay constituents, urging the city council to close the city’s bathhouses or at least regulate them to make the businesses “less hazardous and lethal.” In their letter, titled “A Moral Obligation,” they warned the council that 315 Health Club, the most popular bathhouse downtown, was “a high-risk environment for the spread of the deadly AIDS virus in our community.” Days before he cast his vote, Coyle was quoted in the Minnesota Star Tribune, indicating that the gravity of the situation for gay men swayed him to support the ban, despite how unpopular his move would be among the ordinance’s opponents.***

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/4629674/minneapolis-repeal-homophobic-bathhouse-ban-backed-first-gay-council-member

***

Victims rights

Charlie Kirk's parents and his widow, Erika Kirk, are expected to attend next week's preliminary hearing for the man charged with fatally shooting the conservative leader, according to a source familiar with the family's plans who spoke with the New York Post.*** Tyler Robinson is scheduled to appear in court July 6 for a preliminary hearing expected to last through July 10. During the proceeding, prosecutors will present evidence in an effort to convince a judge there is probable cause for the case to move forward to trial. The hearing is not intended to determine Robinson's guilt or innocence and is expected to provide the public with its most detailed look yet at the prosecution's evidence since Robinson's arrest in the days following Kirk's killing.*** If the judge finds prosecutors have established probable cause, Robinson will be ordered to stand trial. If the judge finds the evidence insufficient, some or all of the charges could be dismissed, although prosecutors may be permitted to refile them under certain circumstances.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/charlie-kirk-family-court/2026/06/29/id/1261254

***

LA really shows compassion for the homeless

A 35-year-old woman was found wasting away to skin and bones on Los Angeles’ Skid Row, barely conscious on the floor of a fetid tent, nodding in and out amid the fentanyl haze. She died on June 17, 2026, in a hospital bed of meningitis and sepsis triggered by terminal malnutrition. Her body surrendered.  The woman was Daveigh Chase, the voice of Disney’s beloved Lilo in “Lilo & Stitch,” and the nightmare Samara crawling from the well in “The Ring.” She had millions in unclaimed residuals from her child stardom sitting untouched in accounts because she was “too far gone” on heroin and fentanyl. Her longtime manager, John Ryan, and stepsister, Gaia Brown, had hired a private investigator months earlier after videos of her on Skid Row surfaced. They raced to intervene, but by then it was too late. ***

Bass insists meth addicts “can’t succeed without teeth” and pushes public dental programs so the toothless can flash a smile at their next job interview. Give them comprehensive dental care, she says, and watch them waltz into employment and self-respect. Yet Chase once had the perfect Hollywood smile, the perfect voice, and the perfect resume—everything Bass claims the unhoused lack—and she still ended up skeletal and septic in a Skid Row tent. A smile does not fix a brain hijacked by fentanyl. Would a job have saved her?  Progressives love to say the homeless “just need a job” and a little opportunity. Chase already had the Hollywood resume, the industry connections most Americans could only dream of, and millions in the bank. Addiction had long since burned away the last remnants of discipline, reliability, and the will to show up for life itself.***

Chase was exactly the kind of person progressives insist should never end up homeless: a millionaire child star with substantial earnings, industry connections, and a devoted support network that refused to give up on her. Yet even she died skeletal and septic in a Skid Row tent. Even her own manager and family understood that only forced treatment and rehab could have saved her. They tried desperately, planning to stabilize her in Los Angeles before flying her to a treatment facility in Costa Rica, but by the time they reached Skid Row, she had disappeared. They were too late. Addiction destroyed her, while progressive ideology made sure nothing stopped it. Bass’ denture diplomacy and the endless liturgy of more tents and needles only mock her memory.***

https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/06/19/millionaire-lilo-star-died-homeless

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided Brown v. Alaska Airlines, 24-3789 on Wed, 24jun26.

Marli Brown and Lacey Smith were flight attendants for Alaska Airlines. Both were members of their union, Association of Flight Attendants. Alaska has an internal, private website called Alaska World. The airline encourages employees to post there.

On February 25, 2021, Alaska posted on Alaska’s World to announce the company’s support for the Equality Act. The Equality Act is proposed federal legislation that would extend certain federal nondiscrimination requirements to cover discrimination involving sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in various contexts. Internal company records show that Alaska “underst[ood] the issue touches on religious freedom concerns for some, and respect[ed] there are differing interpretations of the legislation on that point.” As Tiffany Dehaan, Alaska’s Managing Director for Culture, Learning & Inclusion, testified, “we knew that there was religious concerns that were continuing to come up.” As was typical for Alaska’s World posts, Alaska allowed its employees to comment on the company’s Equality Act announcement.*** Smith posted in response: “As a company, do you think it’s possible to regulate morality?”***

Brown posted "Does Alaska support: endangering the Church, encouraging suppression of religious freedom, obliterating women rights and parental rights?"

Male flight attendant and union boss Jeffrey Peterson took great offense. Union boss Peterson told Alaska to fire Brown and Smith even though the union had a duty to defend them in any such employment action. The airline and the union recognized that the women posted their comments due to sincere religious beliefs.

Alaska Airlines responded with Orwellian absolutism:

In internal Alaska emails discussing this draft, Taylor Ball of Alaska’s legal department wrote, “Employees actually do not have the right to believe that LGBTQ rights are ‘immoral,’” to which Carmen Williams, Alaska’s Vice President of Inflight replied, “I 100% agree.”***

Alaska fired the two women, and the union was reluctant and ineffective in representing them. Brown and Smith sued the airline and the union for violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Under Title VII, it is unlawful for an employer “to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e–2(a)(1). In addition, Title VII prohibits labor organizations from “discriminat[ing] against” an individual, “adversely affect[ing] his status as an employee,” or “caus[ing] or attempt[ing] to cause an employer to discriminate against an individual,” “because of” religion, among other protected grounds. Id. § 2000e-2(c). As the EEOC has explained, unions may not “knowingly acquiesce in employment discrimination against their members, join or tolerate employers’ discriminatory practices, or discriminatorily refuse to represent employees’ interests.” U.S. Equal Emp. Opportunity Comm’n, New Compliance Manual: Section 12 Religious Discrimination, § 12-I.B (2021) (EEOC Compliance Manual).

That Alaska created a forum for employee discussion on controversial issues, then fired Brown after she made religious objections of the kind Alaska anticipated, provides a further reason for regarding this case as presenting a genuine dispute of fact on the reason for Brown’s termination. Alaska’s World’s openness as a forum is an important contextual feature of this case (and one that may not recur, given Alaska’s updated rules for commenting on Alaska’s World). In sum, the issue is not whether Alaska can punish employees who engage in discrimination and harassment (it can). The issue here is instead a factual one of whether Brown was in fact fired for engaging in discrimination or harassment, or whether Alaska instead used the cover of its employee policies to fire Brown because of her religious beliefs. Construing the facts in the light most favorable to Brown, there is a genuine dispute of material fact on this point, and so summary judgment for Alaska was improper.***

Smith’s situation is different than Brown’s in several respects. Smith, who posted on Alaska’s World before Brown did, wrote only the following: “As a company, do you think it’s possible to regulate morality?” Smith was known to wear a cross necklace and therefore may have been regarded as Christian within the company, but Smith’s comment on Alaska’s World was not explicitly grounded in religious belief. In her investigatory meeting, Smith also did not describe her post in religious terms, claiming she was raising a “philosophical” question. Smith only expressly invoked her religious beliefs much later, after she had been terminated.*** But although Smith’s post did not expressly invoke religion, “morality” is often associated with religious beliefs. See 29 C.F.R. § 1605.1 (EEOC guidelines defining “religious practices to include moral or ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views”). “Moral” beliefs about the matters addressed in the Equality Act—which concern sexual identity and orientation—can likewise be understood to include religious beliefs. Indeed, AFA’s Peterson agreed that moral beliefs can be part of one’s religious beliefs. And here, Alaska evaluated Smith’s post after having already acknowledged internally that the company’s support for the Equality Act “touches on religious freedom concerns for some,” as “religious concerns . . . were continuing to come up.” Alaska thus could have reasonably understood that Smith was invoking beliefs about “morality” that are commonly tied to religion, that is, moral beliefs that are held because of religious convictions.

Accordingly, the 9th Cir. held that Brown and Smith presented enough evidence that the airline and the union discriminated them on the basis of religion.

Supreme Court decided two immigration cases today, 25jun26. Both decisions were 6 - 3. Both were really pretty simple common sense.

Mullin v. Al Otro Lado, 609 U. S. __ (2026) was about as simple as simple gets -

This case presents a straightforward question: whether an alien who seeks to enter the United States from Mexico “arrives in the United States” when he or she is still in Mexico. In the decision below, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit answered “yes.” That is wrong. In ordinary speech, no one would say that a person “arrives in” a place—for example, a house, a city, or a country—before the person enters that place. The context in which the phrase “arrives in the United States” is used in the immigration statutes at issue here supports an ordinary-meaning reading. So does the presumption against extraterritoriality. We therefore reverse.*** An alien is deemed an “applicant for admission” if he “arrives in the United States.” §1225(a)(1). The Government correspondingly must inspect an alien who “arrives in the United States”—say, at the San Ysidro, California, port of entry through which millions of people pass every year. But an alien is not entitled to inspection until he “arrives in the United States.” *** In sum, an alien that “arrives in the United States” is entitled to inspection, is deemed an applicant for admission, and may apply for asylum. By contrast, until an alien “arrives in the United States,” he is not entitled to inspection, is not an applicant for admission, and cannot apply for asylum, except on other grounds not here at issue.*** We hold that an alien who is standing in Mexico does not “arriv[e] in the United States” by attempting, and failing, to set foot in this country. An alien “arrives in the United States” only when he crosses the border.

A 1 We begin by considering what the phrase “arrives in the United States” means when used in everyday speech. That meaning is clear. A person arrives in a geographic location only when he enters it. To “arrive” is to “reach a destination.” American Heritage Dictionary 102 (def. 1) (3d ed. 1992); see also Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 121 (def. 1.a) (1993) (“to reach a destination: come to the end of a journey”); 1 Oxford English Dictionary 651 (def. 5.a.1) (2d ed. 1989) (“[t]o come to the end of a journey” or “to a destination”). The preposition “in” means “[w]ithin the limits, bounds, or area of.” American Heritage Dictionary, at 910 (def. 1.a); accord, 7 Oxford English Dictionary, at 759 (def. 1.a). On these definitions, a person arrives in a destination when he enters within its area—not before. Everyday examples confirm that understanding. A running back does not arrive in the end zone when he reaches the 1-yard line. A guest does not arrive in a house when he knocks on the front door. An army does not arrive in a city by encamping outside its walls. And a letter does not arrive in a mailbox while it remains in the mail carrier’s hand just inches away.***

I find it amusingly ironic that Al Otro Lado means on the other side en Espanol.

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Mullin v. Doe, 609 U. S. __ (2026) was about Temporary Protected Status. TPS allows aliens fleeing war or natural disasters to remain temporarily in the U.S. Aliens from Haiti & Syria sued when their TPS was revoked.

Congress created TPS. This new regime provided standards to govern the grant and termination of TPS but maintained core features of the old EVD program. Three aspects of the new regime are noteworthy. First, as with EVD, the Executive Branch retains discretion over whether to designate a country for TPS. Responsibility for TPS decisions rests with the Secretary of Homeland Security, 6 U. S. C. §§552(d), 557, and the statute provides that the Secretary “may designate” a country for TPS***

The second notable feature of TPS is that the statute requires the Government to terminate a country’s TPS designation if the Secretary determines that the country “no longer continues to meet the conditions for designation.” §1254a(b)(3)(B). The Secretary generally makes such determinations as part of an ongoing review of all TPS designations. The Secretary is instructed to review each TPS designation at least every 18 months. §§1254a(b)(2)–(3)***

Finally, the Secretary’s TPS designation decisions are not subject to judicial review. The relevant provision bars “judicial review of any determination of the [Secretary of Homeland Security] with respect to the designation, or termination or extension of a designation, of a foreign state.” §1254a(b)(5)(A).***

Haiti was designated in 2010; Syria in 2012. Kind of hard to call a status temporary if it lasts more than a decade.

the fact remains that if a Secretary engaged in the sort of conduct that respondents imagine, Congress would have ample means to stop that abuse, including, for example, through the annual appropriations process. “Sometimes Congress decides that the political process is the proper forum for remedying improper conduct.”*** Viewing all the relevant evidence, we conclude that Miot respondents are unlikely to prove that race was a motivating factor in the decision to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation. It follows that they are not entitled to interim relief on their equal protection claim.***

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Babylon Bee puts it best -

Supreme Court decided Wolford v. Lopez, 609 U. S. __ (2026) 6 - 3 today, 25jun26.

For years, the State of Hawaii made it almost impossible to obtain a license to carry a firearm. Four years ago, however, this Court held in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U. S. 1 (2022), that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect the right to carry handguns outside the home for self-defense. Hawaii responded by replacing its old law on carry permits with new laws that achieved a similar result. On a large portion of the land within the State’s boundaries, possession of a firearm is now flatly prohibited. And the law now before us severely burdens the ability to carry a firearm in much of the rest of the State by prohibiting firearms on private property without the express and affirmative consent of the property owner. This law departs sharply from the standard common-law rule on access to private property held open to the public. Under that rule, everyone, including those lawfully carrying firearms, may enter unless expressly prohibited from doing so. By contrast, under the new Hawaii law, no one carrying a firearm may enter without the property owner’s express authorization. The effect of this new rule is to impose severe restrictions on the daily activities of residents who have satisfied the State’s rigorous requirements for the issuance of a carry permit. When these permit holders leave home in the morning, not only must they take care to avoid all the territory where the possession of a gun is prohibited outright, but they may also be barred from entering many places that people routinely visit in the course of their daily routines, such as gas stations, convenience stores, restaurants, coffee shops, drug stores, grocery stores, “big box” stores, home improvement stores, barber shops or hair salons, dry cleaners, and laundromats. This regime hobbles what the Second Amendment protects: the right of Americans to carry arms for self-defense as they go about their daily lives. We hold that the law is unconstitutional.***

Supreme Court decided McCarthy v. Hernandez, 608 U. S. __ (2026), today, 22jun26. Decision was 6 - 3.

Pedro Hernandez, then 18 years old murdered 6-year-old Etan Patz on May 25, 1979 in Manhattan, NY. In 2012, police interrogated him in New Jersey. He was not in custody, so Miranda warnings were not required. He confessed to the murder. Police then Mirandized him, and he confessed again. He confessed to many people.

New York has some odd rules about juries considering the circumstances of confessions. The trial judge told the jury everything required about the circumstances. Hernandez's conviction was affirmed by the state courts. When he petitioned for habeas corpus, the federal district court said there was no violation of any federal rule, so it refused to order his release.

The Second Circuit reversed based on its view of Missouri v. Seibert, 542 U. S. 600 (2004) and New York state law. Seibert involved a suspect in custody who should have been Mirandized. Moreover, federal courts should not grant habeas based on state law.

First, Hernandez had no federal right to have the jury evaluate the lawfulness of his confessions after the trial court admitted them. Unlike New York law, the Federal Constitution does not “require that both judge and jury pass upon the admissibility” or voluntariness “of evidence when constitutional grounds are asserted for excluding it.” *** So no federal law, much less any clearly established federal law, required the trial court to instruct the jury on the grounds for suppression set out in Miranda or Seibert. Second, the rule embraced by Justice Kennedy in Seibert does not disturb that proposition. *** we have never held that Justice Kennedy’s opinion sets out the holding that courts must follow**** We have never applied Seibert in any other procedural context****

Third, our case law does not support the Second Circuit’s conclusion that the trial judge’s response to the jury’s note violated Hernandez’s right to due process. *** We have never held that the Due Process Clause, or any other provision of the Federal Constitution, requires a trial court to explain to a jury an issue that the jury is not required to decide**** No clearly established federal law required the trial court to instruct the jury about the rule that Justice Kennedy adopted in Seibert. Because the panel erred in holding otherwise, we grant the State’s petition for a writ of certiorari, reverse the judgment of the Second Circuit, and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.