[Radio Free Europe] A Russian woman who has been charged in Washington with acting as an unregistered agent for the Russian government has launched an online funding-raising campaign to pay for her legal defense.
Maria Butina, 29, opened a website to raise money for her case after being arrested last month, her lawyer and media reported on August 17.
Before her arrest, the gun rights advocate had built up a network of prominent Republican contacts in Washington, including at the powerful National Rifle Association, while working toward a master's degree in political science at the American University.
"I'm Maria and I need your help," the website of Butina's new fund-raising foundation says, with pictures of the smiling redhead at different sites around the United States.
A native of Siberia, the website says "she championed peace and positive relations between her homeland and the United States" while she studied and hosted "insider" dinners on Russian themes.
"But after graduating with honors, she was arrested by the U.S. government for crimes she did not commit," it says. The website did not indicate how much money she has raised so far.
While Butina is charged with spying on the United States, her lawyer Robert Driscoll has insisted that "this is not a spy case." He told TASS, the Russian state-run news agency, that she expects to attract donations from Russia, the United States, and elsewhere around the world.
"We will be very grateful for donations from friends and supporters. Information about sponsors will be strictly confidential," the website says in both English and Russian.
In court filings, the Justice Department called Butina a "covert Russian agent" who maintained contacts with Russian spies and pursued a mission "to penetrate the U.S. national decision-making apparatus to advance the agenda of the Russian Federation."
She built contacts through the National Rifle Association in part by setting up her own gun rights group in Russia, where private firearms are strictly controlled.
Her enthusiasm for gun rights enabled her to meet and mingle with senior U.S. Republican lawmakers and operatives who have championed gun rights in the United States, many of whom she met through her boyfriend, a Republican operative, court documents say.
#1
She built contacts through the National Rifle Association in part by setting up her own gun rights group in Russia, where private firearms are strictly controlled.
Her enthusiasm for gun rights enabled her to meet and mingle with senior U.S. Republican lawmakers and operatives who have championed gun rights in the United States, many of whom she met through her boyfriend, a Republican operative, court documents say.
[BALTIMORE.CBSLOCAL] Police have tossed in the slammer Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! a 29-year-old suspect in connection with the fatal shooting of 7-year-old Taylor Hayes in July.
Hayes died two weeks after being shot while sitting in the back of a car in west Baltimore on July 5.
29-year-old Keon Gray has been charged with murder and other related charges in Hayes’ death. He was taken into custody in Anne Arundel County. He is currently being extradited back to Baltimore to face these charges.
Gray’s girlfriend, 34-year-old Daneka McDonald, is charged with being an accessory after the fact.
Shanika Robinson, the mother of Taylor Hayes, said the community has to come together, and the violence has to stop. She spoke for the first time since her daughter died.
"All the killing it gotta stop. It has to," Robinson said. "Kids getting killed. I’ll never see my child again, ever."
She spoke at the presser Friday afternoon.
"We have to come together," Robinson said. "It has to stop. I buried my baby,"
Interim Baltimore police commissioner Gary Tuggle praised the community who called in tips and Sherlocks who track Gray down in Anne Arundel County.
Despite the family’s grief, they had gratitude for the community. Hayes’ aunt, Ebony Ward, spoke during Friday afternoon’s presser, and thanked police for their work to make an arrest in this case.
"It was just outstanding work," Ward said. "We gratefully appreciate it from the bottom of our heart. We gratefully appreciate everything, every tip."
A memorial marked the spot where first responders scooped Taylor up and rushed her down to shock trauma. Though a month and a half has passed, the community has not forgotten her smile.
"People are thankful. People are relieved that somebody will hopefully be brought to justice for her death and I think it does give us some hope that the police department is gaining ground," said Baltimore councilman Kristerfer Burnett.
The prosecutor reiterated that Gray is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Police gave few details on where exactly they found Gray, or how long he had been in Anne Arundel County.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
[All Africa] GOLD worth about $1 million has vanished from an armoury at Plumtree Police Station in Matabeleland South Province, in what ranks as arguably the biggest theft from a cop shoppe.
The gold, weighing 28,5kg, was being kept as an exhibit at the station since September 2015.
Sources said the total value of the stolen gold was $970 000 and nothing was recovered.
The yellow metal was being kept at the cop shoppe after Border Control and Minerals Unit intercepted it at Plumtree Border Post from a man who sought to smuggle it into Botswana.
The unknown suspect tore khaki paper in which the gold was wrapped and stole all of it, leaving the papers in a bucket in the armoury.
The theft was discovered on Wednesday at around 11am by officers who were on duty.
Sources said the theft came to light as coppers were searching for two missing rifles that had been booked in the charge office.
When an officer went to check at the armoury for the missing rifles, he was surprised to find the armoury door not locked.
"When he proceeded to the armoury intending to open the armoury, he observed that there was a key inserted on the key hole of the armoury door," said a source.
"Officers discovered that the door was not locked. One of the officers who had knowledge about the gold kept in the armoury as an exhibit proceeded to the bucket where the gold weighing 28,5297kg was kept wrapped in a khaki paper and discovered that the khaki paper was torn and the gold was missing.
"However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... the khaki papers were left in the bucket."
Investigations were under way.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Police chief national spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said she was checking on the matter.
However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... in 2015, Snr Asst Comm Charamba said the gold which was being kept at the Plumtree Police Station was seized from a suspect identified as Pudohope James Rove who was tossed in the calaboose Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! trying to smuggle it into Botswana.
She said the suspect had hidden the gold in a secret compartment in his vehicle's loading box.
Snr Asst Comm Charamba said then that the suspect was driving a Toyota Hilux truck and was on his way to Botswana when he was intercepted at the exit gate after completing all Immigration and Zimra formalities.
Police detectives who were on duty stopped the vehicle and conducted a search.
They discovered a false compartment in the loading box and upon carrying further searches, they discovered 76 pieces of smelted gold which had a total weight of 28,541kg.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
What's the value in Zim-Bob Bucks?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/18/2018 8:33 Comments ||
Top||
#2
And Just Like That, poof, it's gone and no one knows nuthin.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
08/18/2018 9:30 Comments ||
Top||
#3
If you're gonna steal gold, at least be creative and do the old 'lead pieces painted with gold paint' decoy in their place.
#4
"However, the khaki papers were left in the bucket."
In the customary third world way. None of your complicated colonialist "locked room" mysteries for us! I guess the key to success is making sure that the wrong people are tortured?
[FOX] As they say, "pics or it didn’t happen." Well, this happened. And the cops found out.
The North Carolina State Highway Patrol has arrested a driver after a tipster sent in a Facebook video of him going 198 mph on US-1 through Wake County.
The video, obtained by ABC 11, is shot from the passenger seat and shows the speedometer of a Dodge Challenger Hellcat hitting 198 mph on the two-lane stretch of highway. The 707 hp muscle car has an official top speed of 199 mph.
[Breitbart] Denver Broncos GM John Elway says that the Broncs offered former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick a contract, but he turned them down.
Elway, who is serving as Denver’s president of football operations and general manager, was recently asked if he might give Kaepernick a look-see as the team searches for a new backup quarterback, but Elway nixed the idea, ESPN reported.
The Broncos recently demoted Paxton Lynch to No. 3 to give second-year quarterback Chad Kelly a shot at the second spot. But the team is not ruling out the possibility of bringing on another quarterback. With that in mind, Elway was asked about the possibility of signing Kaepernick. If it was anything over minimum wage it was excessive.
[Inside Climate News] The state judge wrote that climate change poses urgent threats, but that it should be solved by the executive and legislative branches, not the courts.
A group of young climate advocates who sued the state of Washington to force it to reduce greenhouse gas emissions lost their case on Tuesday when a judge sided with the state and agreed to dismiss it.
The judge urged them to pursue their cause through other channels.
King County Superior Court Judge Michael Scott wrote that the issues at the heart of the case are political and should be considered by the state's legislative and executive branches, not settled by its courts.
The Washington lawsuit is one of nine state-level cases involving youth advocates supported by Our Children's Trust, the group leading a federal youth lawsuit that heads to trial in a U.S. District Court in Oregon this October. Like the federal suit, known as Juliana v. U.S., the state lawsuits accuse the government of failing to protect the children from the dangers of climate change and pushing policies that favor fossil fuel use.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently rejected a plea by the Trump administration to halt the federal trial, but in doing so, it also cautioned the lower court to tread cautiously before expanding judicial powers.
#1
The state judge wrote that climate change poses urgent threats, but that it should be solved by the executive and legislative branches, not the courts.
Working on that consideration for the next SCOTUS opening?
#4
There's more of an urgent threat from the activists than there is from "man made" global warming. Temperature fluctuations are normal, they are cyclical and they have been occurring for centuries.
[Al Jazeera] Travel agents in Qatar say a link for residents to register for the pilgrimage was blocked by Riyadh.
Qatar has accused Saudi Arabia of barring its nationals from performing this year's Hajj, a charge Saudi officials deny.
Around 1,200 Qatari citizens are allowed to attend the pilgrimage under a quota system, but Qatari officials say it has become impossible to register for the annual religious event.
Saudi Arabia, alongside the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt, severed relations with Qatar in June 2017, and has placed the Gulf state under a land, sea, and air blockade.
Gulf crisis: Blockade prevents Qatar residents from performing Hajj. Qatari nationals are also banned from entering the states, but Riyadh claims to have made an exception for the Hajj.
In June, Saudi Arabia's ministry for the Hajj announced the opening of a website, which allowed Qataris to register for the pilgrimage. However, those in Qatar say registration is impossible.
[Wash Times] SANTIAGO, Chile ‐ A Chinese space force in Argentina, Russian control of Venezuelan gas and South American armies equipped with the latest Chinese and Russian hardware. Until recently, it might have sounded like the plot of a geopolitical thriller in a region once considered America’s backyard.
But this is what Defense Secretary James N. Mattis faced on his visit this week to several South American nations, where economic and military posturing by Beijing and Moscow has been on the rise for the past decade.
The whole reason Mr. Mattis made the trip was to try to "recover lost territory in Latin America," said one foreign ministry official in Argentina, where the U.S. defense secretary stopped Wednesday. "Chinese and Russian influence grew during years in which the U.S. largely abandoned the region," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of his sensitive post coordinating security policies with Washington and other international powers.
Analysts say Chinese loans in recent years have allowed authoritarian leaders to consolidate power in Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua, and have separately generated corruption scandals that brought down the presidents of Ecuador and Argentina.
But there is also a clear security element coursing through Beijing’s approach. Chinese officials obtained key concessions from Buenos Aires to build a satellite tracking station after engineering a $10 billion currency swap in 2009 that allowed then-Argentine President Cristina Kirchner to stabilize her national currency amid a financial crisis in the country.
#2
China is establishing control over strategic resources wherever it can. It also has a long history of taking over as the merchant class in third world countries. They play a very strong long game.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/18/2018 10:05 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Frank: China buys Venezuelan oil at something like a third of the market price and resells it to the US at the market price, as the terms of the loans they give to them to keep the economy afloat. Venezuela is basically a Chinese colony now, one where members of the Chinese Communist Party are allowed to make real money but native Venezuelans aren't.
#6
Yeah, but given the history of turmoil in South America, investments from the Chinese could turn around and dry up in a hurry. They have no force projection there. To the locals, it's just the new Power to mooch off of. Same as always.
Posted by: Charles ||
08/18/2018 12:30 Comments ||
Top||
#7
They have special forces in Venezuela, I would presume to provide backup for the rent-a-thugs from Cuba providing backups to all the national guard guys who actually get food for being pro-regime thugs.
[The Hill] Defense Secretary James Mattis said Friday that a U.S. Navy hospital ship will be deployed to the Colombian coast to treat refugees from Venezuela.
"It is absolutely a humanitarian mission. We’re not sending soldiers, we’re sending doctors," Mattis told reporters on Friday, according to the Miami Herald.
The secretary described the move as a way to "deal with the human cost of [Venezuelan President Nicolas] Maduro and his increasingly isolated regime."
The United Nations said earlier this week that an estimated 2.3 million Venezuelans have fled the country amid economic and political crisis as of June, with many going to countries such as Colombia and Brazil.
The U.N. has deemed the situation to be a refugee crisis.
#2
When a country lets itself so decay that people are fleeing for their safety -- not natural disasters or foreign intervention, but just the government being so corrupt and tyrannical that it creates a "refugee crisis" -- the relief efforts should be paid for from funds taken out of that country's rulers international accounts.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/18/2018 15:52 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Thing, I'm not really sure how that relates to the question of helping refugees from a disaster area who are responsible for turning for turning that place into a disaster area in the first place.
We're just rewarding bad behavior and ensuring even more of it.
If someone wants to make an argument that aiding these people will somehow enable us to overthrow Maduro and facilitate better government, I'm all ears despite the, shall we say, less than stellar track record of these efforts.
Geneva (AFP) - The Swiss city of Lausanne has blocked a Muslim couple's bid to become Swiss nationals over their refusal to shake hands with members of the opposite sex.
The municipality said it refused to grant the couple's citizenship application over their lack of respect for gender equality, Lausanne mayor Gregoire Junod told AFP.
He said a municipal commission had questioned the couple several months ago to determine if they met the criteria for citizenship, but had determined in the ruling made public Friday that they missed the mark on integration.
He refused to divulge the couple's nationalities or other identifying details, but said they "did not shake hands with people of the opposite sex."
They also "showed great difficulty in answering questions asked by people of the opposite sex," he said.
Some devout Muslims argue that Islam does not permit physical contact with a person of the opposite sex, with the exception of certain immediate family members.
Junod pointed out that freedom of belief and religion is enshrined in the laws of the Canton of Vaud, which encompasses Lausanne.
But "religious practice does not fall outside the law," he stressed.
His vice-mayor, Pierre-Antoine Hildbrand, who was on the three-member commission that questioned the couple told AFP he was "very satisfied with the decision" to deny the couple's application.
"The constitution and equality between men and women prevails over bigotry," he said.
The couple has 30 days to appeal the decision, Junod said.
This is not the first time refused handshakes have stirred tensions in Switzerland.
In 2016, there was national uproar over revelations that a middle school in the north of the country had allowed two Syrian brothers not to shake their teachers' hands after they complained that doing so was counter to their religious beliefs if the teacher was a woman.
This ran counter to a deeply entrenched Swiss tradition of students shaking their teacher's hands as a sign of respect, and amid the outcry regional authorities quickly overruled the school's decision.
#6
The Swiss Cantons have a long and powerful tradition of independence from the central Swiss government. The EU telling a Swiss city what to do, hah!
[DAILYCALLER] Law enforcement ended a lingering standoff with an anti-pipeline camp site, arresting five protesters and destroying all the makeshift homes that were built.
Intense opposition has centered around the Trans Mountain pipeline project, an expansion proposal that will ultimately stretch from Alberta to British Columbia’s west coast. Construction workers for Kinder Morgan, North America’s largest infrastructure company, have been subjected to numerous environmental protests as they continue to work on the $7.4 billion-dollar crude oil pipeline.
A group of environmental protesters have long congregated in a camp near a Kinder Morgan tank farm in Burnaby, British Columbia. For the past several months, Camp Cloud ‐ the name of the protest camp site ‐ had grown in size. Starting with a single trailer in November, Camp Cloud had grown to include numerous vehicles and trailers, a cabin, an outdoor shower, a two-story wooden "house," and numerous tents.
For months, the camp site served as a hub of local protest against the Trans Morgan pipeline. However, a woman is only as old as she admits... law enforcement finally put an end to the camp on Thursday.
Police raided the camp site Thursday morning, removing 11 people and arresting five. Once the protesters were cleared out, city employees dismantled the camp, which included bulldozing the haphazardly built homes and confiscating numerous items such as garbage, mattress pads, tables and night stands.
"Camp Cloud is not going anywhere," said George Manuel, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Manuel had been living in the camp for over four months and was among those that got incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! . "A cloud ‐ it can dissipate. It can come apart and become more than one cloud. It can be many things ... we are not going anywhere."
Manuel was far from the only one taking up permanent residence at the now-deposed site.
A family of four had been living at Camp Cloud. It appears the camp site was their only living arrangement. Upon being evicted, the family has since taken emergency shelter with the help of social services.
Camp Cloud’s demise came after a judge granted the city of Burnaby an injunction ordering all the protesters ‐ and their camp structures ‐ be removed. Many of the protesters, however, had defiantly chosen to stay, which ultimately resulted in police action.
Some nearby residents expressed relief that they are finally gone.
"When you have trouble, you nip it in the bud," said John Templeton. "We’ve been severely impacted by the protesters in our neighborhood. It seems the approach by the city has been to aid, abet and accommodate the protesters over the rest of the neighborhood who are taxpaying citizens."
For almost a year, citizens of the town had urged the city government to get rid of protest camp.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
LARPing as revolutionaries.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
08/18/2018 2:32 Comments ||
Top||
[The Federalist] The Veterans Day military parade slated for this fall in Washington, D.C. has been cancelled, with President Donald Trump saying it may be rescheduled for next year "when the cost comes WAY DOWN."
Pentagon spokesman Col. Rob Manning said the Department of Defense and the White House "have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019," the Associated Press reports.
A recent report on the planned parade said it would cost an estimated $92 million.
The president was inspired to have such a parade in the nation's capital after being a guest at the Bastille Day Parade in Paris last year, where American and French troops marched.
Trump responded Friday morning on Twitter, saying he expects the price tag on the parade to come down next year. He added he would instead attend a parade at nearby Andrews Air Force Base on another date and attend a parade in Paris on Nov. 11, the date of Veterans Day in the U.S. annually and this year, the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
"The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it," Trump tweeted. "When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it. Never let someone hold you up!"
#2
With this OPTEMPO, None of us want that stupid parade anyways. If anyone does not remember, garrison army sucks monkey ball and on top of that, the equipment is always not really made for the streets of DC anyway.
Give them a day off. THAT is how you Honor the Military.
The pay raise was enough. But moving all my shit to DC to parade around people that hate me and have to interrupt the Military order for equipment is also unreasonable. It is the thought that counts, Guy.
In My world, the less shit I have to do as busy work the better.
I do not even put toilet paper on holders anymore.
We know what we have and do not follow FDR
[DAWN] Journalists, politicians and general Twitterati were all praise for the Pakistain Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Baby Bhutto Zardari ...Pak dynastic politician, son of Benazir Bhutto and grandon of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. As far as is known, Bilawal has no particular talents other than being pretty and being able to memorize political slogans, but he had the good luck to be born into the right family and he hasn't been assassinated yet... after he delivered his maiden speech in the parliament on Friday.
In his first address to the National Assembly, Bilawal delivered what many considered to be a mature and well-rounded speech that touched on all the necessary points needed to be said.
Senior journalist, Zahid Hussain, lauded Bilawal for delivering "a measured and mature speech in English".
TV anchor, Kashif Abbasi, who was "already impressed with the [young politician's] election campaign" tweeted: "The more I hear his mature speech, the more impressed I am. [He] talk[ed] about problems, talk[ed] about challenges. He is the opposition so he will do some politics also."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[BALTIMORE.CBSLOCAL] Police have 
[Breitbart] Denver Broncos GM John Elway says that the Broncs offered former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick a contract, but he turned them down.
[Inside Climate News] The state judge wrote that climate change poses urgent threats, but that it should be solved by the executive and legislative branches, not the courts.
