Day: January 13, 2017

Esteban Santiago opened fire at Fort Lauderdale’s airport / Courtesy: Broward Sheriff’s Office

Just weeks before a gunman opened fire at Fort Lauderdale’s airport, authorities said he walked into an FBI office in Alaska, telling agents the government was controlling his mind and that he was having terroristic thoughts. It’s a daily occurrence for law enforcement agencies and authorities say the difficulty is in assessing whether people are reporting a credible threat, whether or whether they need medical help.

Ohio seeks drug to reverse lethal injections

Ohio’s prisons agency is trying to obtain a drug that could reverse the lethal injection process if needed by stopping the effects of another drug previously used in problematic executions. The request to use the drug would come if executioners weren’t confident the first of three lethal drugs would render a prisoner unconscious, Gary Mohr, director of the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said in federal court testimony on Jan. 6. “Governor, I am not confident that we, in fact, can achieve a successful execution.

Weird War Over Congress Pig-Cop PaintingBy Matt Laslo

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are supposed to be the grownups in the room, but a spat over a high school student’s painting is revealing their childish tendencies-and the episode could have broad implications for race relations under President Donald J. Trump . Every year high school students across the U.S. compete to get their art hung in the Capitol where it’s on display for the millions of visitors who walk through the complex annually, but this year one young artist’s work has inflamed racial tensions among lawmakers and revived a debate over police tactics.

Five reasons why the Justice Department watchdog is probing the Clinton case

An announcement Thursday that Michael Horowitz, inspector general for the Department of Justice, would lead a far-reaching probe into how officials at the Justice Department and the FBI handled an investigation into Hillary Clinton ‘s emails resurrected a controversy that many Democrats had blamed for the loss of their candidate in the presidential race. The year-long criminal investigation of Clinton’s private email network – and whether it compromised classified information from her tenure at the State Department – rankled Republicans and Democrats alike, both in the perfunctory way agents pursued it and the public way the FBI director closed it.

Movie Review: Patriots Day

Peter Berg’s Patriots Day is a true ensemble movie, marshaling the talents of many performers in the service of a multi-pronged narrative related with headlong purpose. The picture depicts the city of Boston as a community suddenly united by a surge of courage and resilience in the wake of an inexplicable horror-the Boston Marathon bombing of April 15, 2013.

The Comforting Convictions of Obama’s Farewell Speech

Watching President Barack Obama’s soaring 2008 Democratic National Convention speech in Denver, I never imagined the kind of turmoil his presidency would incite. Almost everything has changed in the subsequent years, and yet his farewell speech to the nation was brimming with the same brand of haughty lecturing.

Scientists Rebuke California Coastal Commission Over Desalination

The California Coastal Commission’s stated concern that a proposed Huntington Beach desalination plant’s intake pipes pose a threat to small and microscopic plankton has been rebutted in a letter from three prominent California marine biologists. Anthony Koslow, Eric Miller and John McGowan-marine biologists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla-were responding to comments made at a Dec. 1 panel about ocean desalination in Ventura County by Tom Luster, the agency’s lead staffer on the desalination issue.

States – Including West Virginia – Face Questions About Billionaire Leaders

Some of the conflict-of-interest issues swirling around President-elect Donald Trump in Washington are playing out on a smaller scale in West Virginia, where the richest man in the state – an Appalachian coal baron with real estate, resort and farm holdings, too – is about to be sworn in as governor. Democratic Gov.-elect Jim Justice, like Trump, has refused to shed his holdings, giving assurances he can be trusted to act honorably.

Robert John Sheehan, Jr.

Robert John Sheehan, Jr. age 73 of Lakehills, passed into the world of light on Monday, Dec. 26 at his home in Lakehills. He was born in Whitehall, NY to Elizabeth and Robert John Sheehan on February 19, 1943.

Trump taps Rudy Giuliani as cybersecurity adviser

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani will have a spot in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration after all. “This is a rapidly evolving field both as to intrusions and solutions and it is critically important to get timely information from all sources,” the transition team said in a statement.

Rudy Giuliani Just Said Trump Is Trying To ‘Get Us Back To A Free Press’

Rudy Giuliani appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Thursday night and praised President-elect Donald Trump for his relationship with the press. “It is refreshing and it is very good for our democracy that we have a president that is trying to get us back to a free press,” Giuliani said while discussing the president-elect’s handling of the media during his first news conference in 167 days.

Kerry farewell tour starts in Vietnam in final Asia push

Vietnam has been at the centre of outgoing President Barack Obama’s Asia embrace, marked by the lifting of a wartime-era arms embargo, major growth in trade and the signing of the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. US Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the Government Office in Hanoi on Jan 13, 2017.