[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A migrant allegedly raped an 11-year-old girl in the stairwell of a state-run shelter in Massachusetts - only to be moved to another shelter that same day rather than being sent to jail.
The alleged incident occurred on Dec. 9 in Peabody, outside Boston, when a fifth-grade girl reported being assaulted by the man in a stairwell of a Holiday Inn being used as a shelter, the Boston Globe reported.
Police responded immediately and referred the case to the office of Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker
…D, of course, former small town police chief, then state legislator before winning the Democratic primary to get the DA-ship…
for further investigation.
But instead of arresting the 32-year-old suspect, authorities relocated him that night to an emergency family shelter at a Motel 6 in nearby Danvers.
The suspect, a Honduran migrant who has a pregnant wife and two daughters, 2 and 4, was later moved to an apartment-like unit in the shelter system with his family.
He has yet to be charged, and it took the district attorney more than six weeks to speak to the alleged victim.
Authorities attributed the delay to a lack of experts trained to speak with child victims.
The incident raises further concerns about the state's oversight of its struggling shelter system, which has been under intense strain due to an influx of thousands of new migrants.
Previously, the Globe reported more than 1,000 serious incidents at state shelters over a 20-month period.
While the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities confirmed the shelter provider adhered to protocol by notifying authorities and reporting the incident, they did not address why an individual accused of sexual assault was transferred to another state-run shelter housing children, according to the Globe.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey's administration also remained silent on their policy regarding shelter residents accused of crimes, specifically whether and when they are removed - immediately following an allegation or only after formal charges are filed.
The 11-year-old and her family have been relocated to a subsidized apartment, and her mother confirmed the girl was formally interviewed by authorities last week.
Peabody Police Chief Thomas Griffin confirmed that the police referred the case to both the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families and the Essex County District Attorney's office.
The chief said the Essex County District Attorney's office wanted to schedule an interview with a child forensic specialist.
Griffin explained that while specialized interviews are preferable for children in these situations, the limited number of trained interviewers often leads to delays.
The 11-year-old told police the suspect 'pulled her into the stairwell and grabbed her breasts, and put his hand down her pants,' 'touch[ing] her private parts,' the Globe reported. The girl was 'shaken up, in tears and crying,' a police officer said.
The mother of the alleged victim said that her daughter had been in the hallway playing with other kids at the time.
'She started to cry and told me, "I feel dirty, I want to take a shower,"' the mother told the Globe.
The suspect, who told the Globe he entered the US illegally with his family about a year ago, denied the allegations and told police he had only 'brushed arms' with the girl.
'That did not happen,' he said. 'I respect other girls as if they were my daughters.'
He suggested the allegations were 'slander' intended to 'obtain benefits.'
The girl's mother said she remains scared, especially at the thought of the suspect being near other children in the shelter system.
'He's close to more kids, and no one knows,' she said.
Governor Healey has proposed increased security measures, including background checks and requiring proof of lawful immigration status for shelter residents.
However, these proposals do not address the issue of individuals accused of serious crimes remaining in the shelter system.
The mother of the 11-year-old, along with some domestic violence advocates, are calling for a clear state directives to protect shelter residents from those accused of crimes.
This comes as the shelter system's cost is projected to exceed $1 billion this fiscal year.
Healey has downplayed more than 300 reports of serious crimes within the state's rapidly expanding migrant shelter system.
Since 2022, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities has recorded 316 'serious incident' reports at hotels, congregate sites, scattered sites, and co-shelters within the program.
Following revelations of these incidents, Healey defended the program, telling the Boston Herald that the 'vast majority' of participants follow the rules, children are attending school, and 'many of them' are working.
'Those who've come through immigration, most of them have received work authorizations and are also working,' Healey said. 'And so relative to that number, the instances have been very few.'
She emphasized that more than 50,000 people have passed through the program's shelters - designed for homeless pregnant women and families with children - over the past three years.
'But I take every, every - and I want my team to take, I want shelter providers to take- every incident seriously,' she said.
Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies called the reports deeply troubling.
'This is very disturbing. This is a huge number of incidents,' she told the Boston Herald, which obtained details of the reports.
The records exposed years of severe incidents within the shelter system, including neglect, drug abuse, trafficking, rape, suicide, and domestic violence.
#2
It's crap like this that made me leave Massachusetts. The state has gone insane.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
01/30/2025 4:55 Comments ||
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#3
GITMO
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/30/2025 6:37 Comments ||
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#4
Another reason to be glad we left Massachusetts in 2023. Talked with a former neighbor yesterday. He said it's unbelievable what Healey and Michelle Wu are doing to the state and Boston.
Hell bent on turning Boston into a Third World sh*thole and the rest of the state is not far behind. Of course they'll get elected time and time again.
[Washington Examiner] 9 p.m. EST - Dozens of people are feared dead after a passenger plane traveling from Kansas collided with a military helicopter near Reagan Airport in Arlington, Virginia, and plunged into the Potomac River.
American Airlines Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a helicopter, which the Federal Aviation Administration revealed was a military Black Hawk Sikorsky H-60. A webcam video from the Kennedy Center captured the incident.
WEBCAM AT THE KENNEDY CENTER CAUGHT AN EXPLOSION MID-AIR ACROSS THE POTOMAC. HTTPS://T.CO/V75SXITPH6 PIC.TWITTER.COM/HINYDHBYS5
— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) January 30, 2025
"I have been fully briefed on the terrible accident which just took place at Reagan National Airport. May God Bless their souls," President Donald Trump said in a statement. "Thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders. I am monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arrive."
We can only imagine how various the Political Special Interest Groups will try to play this sad disaster for the benefit of their various self-serving agendas.
#6
Facts in hand: AA Bombadier regional jet, 60 aboard + 4 crew (coming back from ice skating event in Wichita) all presumed lost
H-60 Sikorsky Blackhawk on training flight, 3 aboard. all presumed lost
Landing path of the the airliner takes it over Ft Belvior, then the Potomac
All went down in the river, water is 36 degrees
There is dashcam video of the collision from someone coming in the gat at Ft Belvior
https://x.com/rawsalerts/status/1884812906333622495
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/30/2025 8:49 Comments ||
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#7
one site showed the paths of the aircraft - looks like they turned into each other. I have to admit I question why the helo didn't/couldn't avoid the airliner. Also unworthy of me but I'd be interested to learn the helo pilot/copilot names.
#8
Libs of TikTok
@libsoftiktok
·
4h
U.S. figure skating championships in Wichita, Kansas just a few days ago.
Team USA figure skaters and coaches were reportedly on the flight from Kansas to D.C. which crashed
#15
Admittedly, I don't know much about aviation. But after watching Anguper's video at #1, I just have to ask: Can't those helicopter pilots see where they're going?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/30/2025 13:08 Comments ||
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#16
Were the helicopter pilot's actions deliberate? The question must be asked.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/30/2025 13:10 Comments ||
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#17
Night Vision Goggles (NVG's) limit visibility in build-up areas where interference from numerous ground lites are present.
#18
Just my $0.02, FWIW: I think the Blackhawk pilot saw the plane ahead and thought that was the plane he was supposed to avoid/follow. Tragic, but human error
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/30/2025 13:20 Comments ||
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#19
#17 and #18, again, I don't know but, if so, why train with such technology in the flight path of a busy commercial airport?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/30/2025 13:23 Comments ||
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#20
/\ Very likely indeed. Also very likely that the tower's instruction were NOT adequate. (blinding flash of the tragically obvious)
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A Texas man who used his three-month-old baby to push snow off a car is being investigated by police after a video of the disgraceful act went viral online.
The Port Arthur father, only described as a 25-year-old, was seen using the infant as a windshield wiper on a Hyundai Elantra on January 21 during the brutal winter storm that hit the area last week , according to KFDM.
In the now-deleted TikTok video, the man, dressed in dark pants, a white T-shirt and sneakers, was seen sliding the baby along the back and front windshield as he laughed.
#6
My kids would have been laughing themselves to hick-ups had I done that then. It isn't cold there like it was here, or else no way he would be in a t-shirt. Finally, somebody is recording this, probably Mom, so staged not somebody being recorded from across the street acting badly.
Notice one of the sweeps is a bit deep and snow gets across the hood, which dad gets corrected before going on.
But everyone is a morality scold, and this is a dad being a dad which is a no-no in media right now, so of course DM has to thumb press this family instead of, say, investigating the UK/Immigrant S%x trade.
[PJMedia] Congratulations, taxpayers of America. Last year you spent more than $15 million on [checks notes] advanced concepts in yarn.
Courtesy of DataRepublican (small r) — a data-crunching genius on X — there's now a searchable, online database of federal grants to nonprofits and NGOs. "Ever wonder exactly which government grants fund nonprofits? Now you can know—because I’ve cracked the code," DataRepublican explained in her X announcement on Monday. "Unlike older tools that only sift through nonprofit 990s (which don’t directly show government dollars), I’ve mined the USASpending database to create fuzzy matches between nonprofits and their linked government grants."
She set it up so you can search by keyword, recipient, funding agency, and much more. Or you can do what I did this morning and be a jerk about it. I thought, "What is the most boring thing in the world and how much taxpayer money is Washington giving away on it this year?"
"Yarn," I immediately decided. "Yarn is the most boring thing in the world." To me, that is — knitters, please take no offense. I'm sure you'd find my collection of Polish LEGO-knockoff WWII warships boring as heck, too.
As it turned out, Americans — unbeknownst to 99.99% of us, I'm sure — will spend $16,500,001 on three yarn-related projects this year. The bulk of it, an even $15 million, went to something called The Industrial Commons on NSF engines.
🚨 NGO / GOVERNMENT GRANT TRACKING TOOL 🚨 🔍 FOLLOW THE GRANTS: CONNECT NGOs TO YOUR TAX DOLLARS 💵 Ever wonder exactly which government grants fund nonprofits? Now you can know—because I’ve cracked the code.
#2
/\ Payments to NGO's are a convenient congressional work-around. NGO's do NOT have to divulge the identity of their contributors. Money laundering at it's finest.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] In South Sudan, 18 people were killed in a plane crash, Miraya radio reported on January 29.
“18 people were killed, three more were injured and are in critical condition,” the radio station said in a post on social media.
The incident occurred when the aircraft took off from the Unity oil field. There were 21 passengers on board, 16 of whom died. Two pilots also died in the incident. Information about the causes of the disaster has not been provided.
Third World mechanics’ skills comes to mind.
On December 29, a Jeju Air plane crashed into a fence while attempting to land at Muan Airport. The accident killed 167 people. There were 181 people on board.
Earlier, Regnum news agency reported that nine people, including four soldiers, were killed in the crash of a civilian transport plane at Port Sudan airport. The military statement specified that the plane crashed due to a "technical malfunction" during takeoff.
[Breitbart] Swedish and Latvian authorities are investigating alleged sabotage in the Baltic which the Bulgarian operator insists was a simple accident during heavy weather.
A data cable carrying internet traffic between Latvia and Sweden was put out of action on Sunday evening, just the latest incidence of alleged sabotage against European interests since Russia began its invasion re-invasion of Ukraine in 2022. NATO and the European Union say such attacks are part of a ‘Hybrid’ war against the West so called because the strikes often defy definite proof of intent, or even culprit.
A Swedish warship and coastguards were dispatched after the cable break was detected and troops boarded a Bulgarian-operated, Maltese-flagged bulk carrier the VEZHEN, which was on passage carrying fertiliser from Russia to South America. The ship is presently impounded in Swedish waters.
The real ownership of the massive ships that carry world trade is often obscure, and this ship is no different. While early reports stated the VEZHEN is Bulgarian-owned, Finnish media now asserts it is merely operated by Bulgaria, and is actually Chinese-owned.
In common with other such claimed hybrid warfare attacks in the Baltic in recent months it is asserted the VEZHEN dragged its anchor on the sea bed, snagging the internet cable and snapping it. The Latvian cable operator reported while it would slow down internet traffic between the two countries, there were redundancies in place and no outages had been reported.
The Bulgarian shipping company that owns the impounded ship Navibulgar insists the damage was an innocent accident caused by a storm blowing through the Baltic, and that it was not a “malicious act”. The Associated Press reports their spokesman said: “I hope that the investigators will quickly establish that this is not a matter of any intentional action, but a technical incident due to bad weather, and that the ship will be released”.
Newspaper Aftonbladet cites new images of VEZHEN captured by a Swedish journalist which show one of the ship’s giant anchors is missing one of its horns, which appears to have been snapped clean off, suggesting it may indeed have been dragged on the sea bed some distance.
Breitbart London has reported at length on the sudden rash of damage to undersea cables and pipelines in the three years of Russia’s war against Ukraine, from the bombing of the Nord Stream pipes in the first days of the conflict to the anchor-draggers of the past year. NATO has stood up a new task force in the Baltic to monitor sabotage and to discourage attacks after a Russian-linked ship dragged its anchor 60 miles through the area on Christmas Day, damaging cables as it went.
With France, Germany and Denmark doing this... is NATO over?
[Breitbart] Germany’s Chancellor tacitly compared President Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland from the Kingdom of Denmark to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while France said it offered its army to Greenland.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had meetings in several European capitals on Tuesday in what has been interpreted as an impromptu tour of allies to build an alliance against the United States, as President Donald Trump has expressed the desire to acquire Greenland from the country. Greenland has been under the jurisdiction of Denmark for centuries, first a colony and now a largely autonomous territory.
The United States has a long history of buying territory from neighbours to expand the nation rather than through military conquest. It has previously floated the idea of a Greenland purchase several times, going back to the 19th century without success. However, with Greenland becoming increasingly strategically valuable in the race for the Arctic, in addition to its command of the North Atlantic and vast untapped mineral wealth, there has been growing interest in Washington to acquire the island.
Visiting Berlin on Tuesday, Frederiksen met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who appears to have decided that implying a similarity between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is the best way to deal with Washington. It’s a high-risk strategy, but the German leader may be feeling braver than usual, given he will almost certainly be out of a job in three weeks when his party is widely predicted to flop in the federal elections.
Scholz, in a segment of his speech on Ukraine, which German media notes was likely intended for President Trump, said, “inviolability of borders is a fundamental principle of international law… The principle must apply to everyone… Borders must not be moved by force”. At this point, Scholz switched from German to English and added, simply: “To whom it may concern.”
The Danish prime minister then visited Paris, which seemingly prompted the French foreign minister to reveal that the Emmanuel Macron government had offered to deploy troops to Greenland if necessary. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told national radio that the country had “started discussing [troop deployment] with Denmark,” but “at this point, it is not Denmark’s wish” to proceed with that plan.
Macron has already proven remarkably willing to deploy soldiers in recent months, having emerged as the leading European statesman on the question of sending troops to Ukraine to deter future Russian invasions.
Mette Frederiksen’s talks with allies follow what was apparently a difficult 45-minute telephone conversation she had with U.S. President Donald Trump in which the Danish political establishment was assured Trump’s words on acquiring Greenland were not mere rhetoric but sincere intention. This realisation apparently has put the government in “crisis mode” and “freaked out” the state.
The Frederiksen appears to have rushed out a $2 billion investment in Arctic security on Monday, likely intended as a signal to President Trump that they are capable of taking their position in the north seriously. As reported:
“We must face the fact that there are serious challenges regarding security and defense in the Arctic and North Atlantic,” Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said when announcing the increased defense spending on Monday.
Denmark’s entire defense budget adds up to 36.2 billion kroner (about $3.2 billion), so the Arctic program rolled out by Poulsen represents a substantial investment. Funding is included for improved surveillance on Arctic islands, three new Arctic ships that can launch helicopters and drones, more satellite coverage of the region, and more dogsled teams to patrol the ground.
A Danish populist politician in the European Parliament told Donald Trump to “fuck off” last week because Greenland is a long-established and appreciated part of the country. Yet paradoxically, having delivered this message in English, the lawmaker pivoted to speaking Danish and immediately started listing problems he perceived in Greenlandic society, which he said should be addressed.
Among the criticisms he identified were corruption and widespread child sexual abuse by Greenlandic adults.
#2
Can't get them to protect themselves, but this they gotta do.
I wonder what happens when they find out that the US isn't going to transport or support them there.
They're angling for a buy-off.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/30/2025 8:56 Comments ||
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#3
A week in office and Trump already has the Euros upping their military spending.
#5
I wonder what happens when they find out that the US isn't going to transport or support them there.
It used to be that the Canadian military was considered competent but lacked transport which meant if it was an away game, they needed a ride to get to the scene.
Do current Euro militaries have any expeditionary capability or are they basically territorial defense forces ready to continue the 20th century's tribal squabbles?
#6
Who was the chucklehead who was like, "Europe will defend all its borders, North, East, West, and South."
Like bitch please, Europe's South Border? like Europe isn't overrun with Muslims and Africans. Shit, Macron just tried to pander to the young muslims by guesting on a shit podcast run by a host who is constantly talking about the glory of islaming France.
#7
Greenland is in North America, not Europe. The people of Greenland get to decide whether to stay a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark (which is what they currently are), become an independent country, become part of Canada, or join the United States.
Based on everything I've read they will probably vote to become an independent country, but work closely with the United States and Canada. The Kingdom of Denmark is a colonial power, and did some messed up things there right up to living memory. (Between 1966 and 1970, 4,500 intrauterine devices were fitted into native women and girls as young as 13, without their knowledge or consent.) So Denmark acting like some kind of victimized spouse over the last few months is laughable.
#9
^ He's got a lot of troops from Africa. They'll freeze before they're kitted
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/30/2025 20:07 Comments ||
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#10
Watch Denmark billet them in private residences.
To be fair, it wasn't too long ago that France airdropped an airstrip into an African country, I forget off the top of my head and search engines are retarded.
That said, equatorial Africa would have better staging areas and weather than Greenland.
[Breitbart] French police announced on Monday the arrest of 37 people as a result of a large-scale anti-child pornography operation in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and Grand Est regions.
According to the French newspaper La Dépêche, the operation, which began in November, seized over a million picture and video files of child pornography from computers, tablets, smartphones, and even cameras.
During four of the raids in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and Grand Est departments, weapons and narcotics were also discovered by the police.
The National Gendarmerie, a French police force tasked — among its other roles — with combatting cybercrime, said that 32 of the 37 suspects have already been convicted.
All suspects were accused of “broadcasting or downloading videos and images of a child pornography nature”.
A total of 270 gendarmes, including 36 cybercrime specialist investigators, took place in the raids.
A similar operation was conducted in March of 2023 when 17 people were arrested on suspicion of downloading and distributing child pornography in the Grand Est region.
More recently, an international operation led to the arrests of 95 people in France in December in connection to a cross-border child pornography ring.
Police seized hundreds of devices with an estimated 375,000 photos and 156,000 videos of child pornography, or around 217 terabytes of data.
Those arrested last month included a youth organisation director, a sports instructor, and a deputy mayor.
Last year, France increased penalties for hosting child pornography on the internet. The Sécurité et Régulation de l’Espace Numérique (SREN) law mandated that websites remove child porn content within 24 hours of being notified by the police or gendarmerie or face up to a year in prison and a fine of 250,000 euros.
#1
1 year in prison for the organizers and probation for all the participants. That’s a pretty light punishment as compared to wearing a millstone FlavAFlav style on your deep sea dive.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/30/2025 6:42 Comments ||
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#2
Good chance that the people busted helped write the laws.
[NYPOST] Former New York Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin was confirmed by the Senate Wednesday as President Trump's Environmental Protection Agency administrator — earning bipartisan support.
The 56-42 vote featured Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, as well as John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, giving their approval of Zeldin alongside all 53 Republicans in the upper chamber.
The 44-year-old ex-congressman had flown through the Senate Environment and Public Works vetting process and passed a cloture vote on the Senate floor earlier Wednesday by the same margin and with the same three Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... supporting him.
#1
This Paris Climate thing keeps popping up like a zombie; the Dems love it, the Pubs hate it. Yet I don’t think it was ever voted on in the Senate, much less confirmed/approved/accepted. It’s all been done by Presidential acceptance or revocation. If this Senate were to formally vote on this and formally reject it, would that not finally put a stake thru its heart? Just kill this thing, please, and putthis thing out of our misery.
[BreakingDefense] The service issued a request for information today for IVAS Next, giving industry until late February to respond.
The US Army is taking the next step in recompeting its multi-billion dollar mixed-reality goggle production contract with an official ask to industry to send in viable options.
The service published its new Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) Next request for information today, giving interested companies until Feb. 26 to respond with their solutions for the combat-suitable heads-up display.
“IVAS provides soldiers and squads a single platform for increased lethality, mobility, and situational awareness necessary to achieve overmatch against current and future adversaries,” the Army wrote in the release. “It is a ‘fight first’ system with the benefit of rehearse and train capabilities.”
While the RFI doesn’t guarantee the service will recompete its current 10-year production contract with Microsoft valued up to $22 billion, it does kickstart such a process after surveying the market last year. Although the Army did not detail a competition schedule or acquisition plan, it offered up a peak at problems its looking to solve with IVAS Next including “known visual comfort limitations” such as “visual discomfort and nausea from virtual, mixed, and augmented reality headsets.”
Microsoft did not immediately respond to questions about the new RFI today but has previously said it will throw its hat in the ring. Anduril founder Palmer Luckey has also teased development of a new mixed-reality device, though it is not clear if this would be a partnership with Microsoft. Massachusetts-based Kopin has also said it’s interested in completing, while companies like Palantir may also be eyeing a bid.
One industry source closely following the program welcomed today’s RFI, saying it signals that the Army is ready for a new approach and has seen “competitive/superior” technology on the market and is ready to move forward.
Initially pitched as a game changer for the service, the current IVAS contract is based around Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 heads-up display. The idea was a single device soldiers could use both in combat (including under the cover of darkness) and for virtual training. However, reports began emerging in 2021 about problems with the device, followed by a scathing Pentagon inspector general report that detailed soldiers complaining of discomfort, dizziness, nausea, and system reliability.
Service leaders publicly stood behind the program at first, before they began tempering expectations and splitting the program up into three initial versions — the 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 iterations of the goggles. (The service has acquired 5,000 1.0 units, with plans to acquire an additional 5,000 1.1 units for limited use.)
It then billed the new 1.2 version as the make-or-break upgrade — an iteration to correct past problems, in part, by transitioning the device from a helmet-like display with a 70-degree field-of-view, to a hinged, flat design with a 60-degree field-of-view that soldiers can flip up.
But while the service worked with Microsoft on the redesign and testing, it also began teasing an IVAS Next initiative. After attending Army-led industry days and one-on-one meetings with the government last year, a trio of industry sources independently told Breaking Defense they were preparing for a new open competition to decide who wins a lucrative contract to produce the headset.
In tandem, Army leaders began taking inventory of all of their night vision devices to help decide just which units need what and help define IVAS Next requirements for an upcoming competition, one service official told Breaking Defense last year.
Specifically, members of the from the 75th Ranger Regiment were tasked with running IVAS 1.2 through the ringer alongside dedicated night vision systems like the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binocular (ENVG-B) and another system dubbed PVS-14, the official told Breaking Defense.
“They’re going to provide the best feedback in terms of, here’s what the ENVG-B can provide versus a PVS-14 versus the capability inside of IVAS,” the official said. The goal is for those Rangers to provide a “more mature look” at how they use night vision while also answering questions about the ideal IVAS form factor, battery needs and more.
#3
At this point I personally wouldn't give Microsoft a freakin dime.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/30/2025 8:52 Comments ||
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#4
It'll be bloated and buggy if Microsoft does it. Watch, their crummy Edge browser will pop up in the middle of a fire fight asking soldiers if they wanna play Candy Crush.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/30/2025 13:39 Comments ||
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#5
Then it'll have to reboot for software updates. Please wait. Don't turn off your computer!
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/30/2025 13:40 Comments ||
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#6
Lost an engine mid flight, trying feather the prop and transfer fuel to help balance the aircraft, and up pops Clippy.
"It looks like you are trying to lower the landing gears. Would you like help?"
[BreakingDefense] The world’s largest defense contractor recorded total year end losses of $1.4 billion on a classified program in its missiles and fire control (MFC) portfolio as well as $555 million overrun on a program in its aeronautics division, Lockheed said in a news release.
Higher than expected engineering costs and other difficulties forced Lockheed Martin to book $2 billion in losses on two classified programs in 2024, with a $1.7 billion hit occurring in the final quarter of the year, the company said in results today.
The world’s largest defense contractor recorded total year end losses of $1.4 billion on a classified program in its missiles and fire control (MFC) portfolio as well as a $555 million overrun on a program in its aeronautics division, Lockheed said in a news release. Of that sum, the MFC program logged a $1.3 billion charge in the fourth quarter, with the aeronautics program incurring a $410 million charge during the same period.
The MFC program losses stem from a contract where Lockheed can be reimbursed for costs during the initial phase of the program, but where follow-on contract options are locked under a fixed-price deal that holds Lockheed responsible for paying costs above a certain threshold. Lockheed estimates that all options exercised over the “next several years” would be performed at a loss to the company, with the first $100 million charge occurring in the first quarter of 2024.
“During the fourth quarter of 2024, the company again assessed the likelihood that additional options may be exercised and now believe it is probable that all options will be exercised based on performance to date, future requirements of the program, discussions with the customer and suppliers, and anticipated customer funding, among other factors, resulting in the recognition of additional losses,” Lockheed said in a release.
When Lockheed executives first disclosed the hit to the MFC program in April, CEO Jim Taiclet characterized the program as a long-running franchise that will deliver a strong return on investment after going through a period of teething pains, while Chief Financial Officer Jay Malave said the effort was expected to become profitable on an annual basis around the 2028 timeframe.
Meanwhile, Lockheed described the impacted aeronautics program as a fixed-price incentive fee contract involving “highly complex design and systems integration.” The company conducted a review of the program due to undisclosed near-term milestones and trends experienced in the fourth quarter, and recorded losses based on “higher projected costs in engineering and integration activities that are necessary to achieve those forthcoming milestones,” it said.
During an earnings call this morning, Malave laid out a list of process changes aimed at drilling down on some of the challenges faced by the classified aeronautics changes, which include implementing a continuous monitoring process to track the program’s technical milestones, adding technical resources and experts to the team in areas where there is elevated risk, and adding new automated testing procedures to speed up the finding and fixing of issues.
“All those things taken together, give us confidence that we have significantly derisked this program and significantly reduced the risk of future charges on this,” Malave said.
Beyond the classified programs, Taiclet said Lockheed looks forward to working with the Trump administration, particularly on streamlining acquisition processes and inducing innovation. He gave a particular shout out to the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), echoing the sentiments of top executives from L3Harris and General Atomics, who recently sent letters to Musk suggesting potential reforms.
“We see DOGE [the Department of Government Efficiency] as an opportunity to make great progress in all these areas, and we will continue to share ideas and do our part to support efforts to eliminate unnecessary regulatory hurdles while working to increase efficiency in our own internal operations,” Taiclet said.
Lockheed is making “excellent progress” on the F-35’s Technology Refresh 3 (TR-3), Malave said, referring to an update to the aircraft’s computing systems needed to field future mission system upgrades. However, the company still needs to complete some mission system integration work and improve the stability of the equipment, and although the company will meet “some milestones” this year, Malave would not go as far as to say the upgrade package will meet full combat capability this year as previously planned.
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.
[Breitbart] French police announced on Monday the arrest of 37 people as a result of a large-scale anti-child pornography operation in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and Grand Est regions.
...every time you hear the phrase 
