[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Furious Los Angeles residents who survived the deadly wildfires chased down and apprehended a man who they say sparked another blaze near their homes.
The residents of Chatsworth, California were caught on camera chasing a man - who was later identified as 41-year-old Alejandro Martinez - down a mountainous road in their vehicles on Monday.
Nuts, narco gangster, illegal alien? The Daily Mail doesn’t say.
One man was also seen following Martinez on foot, eventually catching up to the firebug and pushing him to the ground.
'Wrong neighborhood buddy! Wrong neighborhood,' a bystander then tells him.
By the time Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies arrived on the scene, Martinez was lying in a prone position to surrender himself to the authorities, who quickly handcuffed him and escorted him into the back of a police vehicle.
But he could be heard protesting in Spanish, 'I haven't stolen anything, seriously,' Fox 11 reports.
Congratulations for being a wannabe murderer instead of a thief.
Stolen property, however, was not what the residents were concerned about. They instead told officers they saw Martinez - who was wearing black and hiding in the brush - start a fire at around 4.30pm on Woolsey Canyon Road, and followed him as he tried to flee the scene.
Meanwhile, the fire Martinez allegedly ignited grew to around 100 square feet in size before it was extinguished by the Los Angeles County Fire Department, according to KTLA.
'Thank God there were no strong winds, because it could have gone much worse,' videographer Gabe Cortez told the Los Angeles Times in the aftermath.
'Given all the recent fires, communities and people are just so much more aware of these types of things now and they're on high alert.'
Brandon Taylor, a photographer with Traffic News LA who recorded the incident, added that the 'residents were furious.'
'They've gone through the Woolsey Fire, which started just a mile from there,' he explained. 'With the dry vegetation, they were really concerned about him starting another fire and losing their homes.'
The deadly infernos, which are now mostly contained, burned through more than 57,000 acres in Southern California, killing 29 people and destroying more than 16,000 homes and businesses last month.
Investigators are still working to determine what may have caused the fires, with some suggesting it may have been the work of arsonists.
'We had numerous fires in the LA County region almost simultaneously, which leads us to believe that these fires were intentionally set by a person,' LA County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone told BBC, adding that about half of the brush fires he responds to were intentionally set.
At least eight people have already been arrested in connection with starting the recent fires, according to CNN.
Martinez now joins the growing list as he was due to appear in court on Wednesday.
He was being held on a $75,000 bail, and the LA Times reports that there was a warrant out for his arrest at the time the brave civilians detained him - though it is unclear what the warrant was for.
His day in court came as California Gov. Gavin Newsom was scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump to discuss whether residents will receive any federal aid after State Farm General asked the state government to approve emergency price hikes to its insurance policies.
The company sent a four-page letter to the California Department of Insurance on Monday pleading with regulators to allow an average rate increase of 22 percent for homeowners.
State Farm, a California-based subsidiary of the much larger State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, also wants to be able to slap condo owners and renters with a 15 percent increase.
Those who rent out units to tenants should be hit with a 38 percent increase, according to the letter, which was signed by top-level executives at the company including CEO Dan Krause.
'We are requesting that you take emergency action to help protect California’s fragile insurance market by immediately approving interim rate increases...with rates to be effective May 1, 2025,' the letter read.
State Farm General justified this by saying it had received more than 8,700 claims related to the wildfires as of February 1 and has now paid over $1billion to customers as a result.
[FoxNews] Suspect Bruce Reginald Foster III apprehended following shooting at KDC/One manufacturing plant in New Albany, Ohio
A suspect in a New Albany, Ohio workplace shooting that left one person dead and five others wounded is in custody, police said Wednesday.
Bruce Reginald Foster III was apprehended after police executed a search warrant at an apartment in Columbus, Ohio, police said. A suspect opened fire at a cosmetic manufacturing plant in New Albany, Ohio around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, police say.
Foster has been charged with aggravated murder, according to Licking County court records.
"He had been at work for some time when this occurred. We don’t have any reports that there was any issue – that he was in an area that he wasn’t supposed to be, or he was in trouble in any way or there was any conflict," New Albany Police Chief Greg Jones said. "It is not to say there wasn’t something, but after interviewing everybody we have -- and the supervisor of the company – we don’t have any reports of anything like that."
Jones earlier described the incident as a "targeted attack."
Foster is described by the New Albany Police Department as being "6-feet tall, weighing 175 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes."
An incomplete description, but for the rest a photo at the link is worth more words.
One person was found deceased inside the building while five others were transported to local hospitals, Jones said. As of Wednesday morning, their conditions are unknown.
Jones also said a handgun was recovered from the scene.
Testing all FAA staff for competence clearly ought to be a priority, followed by replacing those who don’t pass with those who can.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A Japan Airlines jet sliced the tail of a Delta plane during a frightening collision at Seattle Airport on Wednesday morning.
The taxiing Japan Airlines plane that arrived from Tokyo struck the tail of a parked Delta plane at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at 10:17am. Both aircraft were filled with passengers.
Terrified passengers, who were located between S Concourse and the south maintenance hangars, were astonished to see the wing embedded into the tail from outside their windows.
No injuries were reported and there was minimal impact to airport operations. Images online showed the Japan Airlines wing cut right through the Delta tail.
'So, we were sitting on the tarmac at SeaTac and another plane ran into us, just casually sliced into our tail. Very scary,' one witness said on X.
There were 142 customers on the Delta flight from Seattle to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The company said they are working to get passengers on a new aircraft.
'While in sequence for deicing, the tail of a Delta 737 aircraft reportedly made contact with a wing tip of another airline's aircraft,' a Delta spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
'There are no reports of injuries for crew or customers on the flight, and we apologize for the experience and delay in travels.'
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Hundreds of women were raped and then burnt alive after Rwandan-backed rebels sparked chaos by storming into the Congolese city of Goma, it has emerged.
The atrocity took place during a mass jail break from the Munzenze jail last week, as M23 fighters clashed with the Congolese army during deadly gun battles.
According to the UN, female inmates were butchered in their wing in the notoriously overcrowded prison after men forced their way in and went on a rampage.
While thousands of male criminals managed to flee the lock up, the area reserved for women was torched to the ground, Vivian van de Perre, the deputy head of the UN peacekeeping force in Goma, said.
Images taken shortly after M23 fighters reached the centre of Goma showed vast plumes of black smoke rising from the jail on January 27, as long lines of men sprinted away from the inferno, yelling.
It's unclear who was behind the slaughter of the female inmates as UN peacekeepers have been barred from entering the site by M23 rebels.
However, reports have suggested at least 141 jailed women were murdered, along with 28 young children, who had been in detention with their mothers.
Describing the carnage, Ms Van de Perre said the figure could be higher.
'There was a major prison breakout of 4,000 escaped prisoners. A few hundred women were also in that prison... They were all raped and then they set fire to the women's wing. They all died afterwards,' she said.
Local reports claim that during the mayhem, inmates were gunned down by guards as they attempted to stop the mass break out.
A week on from the rampage and the Munzenze jail lies in ruins and is completely empty, with the guards having deserted their posts.
A large part of the facility has been destroyed by blaze, including the prison administration's office. The prison was also looted in the wake of the escape.
Prior to the incident, Munzenze Central Prison housed around 4,400 inmates, well beyond its capacity.
On Tuesday it emerged that 2,000 bodies were still awaiting burial in Goma after the M23 rebels seized the city, which is the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's North Kivu province.
In a disturbing new claim following the uprising, the UN office of the high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR) warned that sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war by rival armed groups in Goma.
The city, home to one million people, is now under the complete control of M23 fighters.
On Monday the rebel group declared a ceasefire would begin on Tuesday for 'humanitarian reasons'.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Google has removed from its principles for the use of artificial intelligence a clause that does not allow such technologies to be used to develop weapons. This was reported on February 5 by the Bloomberg agency. ”Dear President Trump,
Please throw money at us! You should have plenty after the DOGE group gets through cleaning out current unnecessary spending, even if bunches of it came in our direction until a few days ago.
Your friends,
Google”
It is clarified that previously, in the section on restrictions on the use of AI, it was said that it was unacceptable to use technologies that “cause or may cause general damage,” including weapons, but now these words are gone.
When asked to comment on the situation, a Google spokesperson wrote in a blog post that democracies should be leaders in AI development, guided by core values such as freedom, equality, and respect for human rights.
“We believe that companies, governments, and organizations that share these values should work together to create AI that protects people, drives global growth, and supports national security,” the statement said.
Former Google AI Ethics Team Leader Margaret Mitchell told the publication that she was concerned about the company changing its principles for using these technologies. She noted that such a decision would nullify all the work done by AI ethicists and Google activists, and now the company could start creating technologies that will be capable of killing people.
As reported by IA Regnum, in February 2024, American businessman and multi-billionaire Elon Musk announced "insane racist" programming at Google. The entrepreneur made this statement after an incident with the generation of images by the company's Gemini neural network, which inaccurately depicted the race, ethnicity and gender of historical figures in response to user requests.
In early December, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out the importance of legal regulation of issues related to the use of AI. The head of state specified that it is necessary to ensure the effective use of all these opportunities for the development of the economy and social sphere, but at the same time to ensure the safety of our citizens and their rights, including the right to privacy.
#1
Yeah.
MRP/ERP (SAP) was going to change the world, until it simply became the accepted way business works. Another factor contributing to small business entropy.
It is clear some serious problems need to addressed.
Plus reviewing the Videos of the crash, that got some people arrested. It raises some questions that likely some people DCA did want to answer.
[FoxNews] Hitting the ground running, like all the rest of the Trump 47 hires.
Attorney General Pam Bondi will issue several major directives on her first day leading the Justice Department, including orders to combat the weaponization of the legal system; make prosecutors seek the death penalty when appropriate; and work with the Department of Homeland Security to "completely eliminate" cartels and transnational criminal organizations, Fox News Digital has learned.
Bondi was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday night as attorney general and sworn in on Wednesday.
Fox News Digital exclusively obtained memos outlining Bondi’s first-day directives, which will lay the groundwork for the Justice Department under her leadership.
Bondi issued a directive regarding "zealous advocacy." Bondi said DOJ attorneys’ responsibilities include "aggressively enforcing criminal laws passed by Congress, but also vigorously defending presidential policies and actions on behalf of the United States against legal challenges."
"The discretion afforded Justice Department attorneys with respect to those responsibilities does not include latitude to substitute their personal political views or judgments for those that prevailed in the election," the memo states.
"When Justice Department attorneys refuse to faithfully carry out their role by, for example, refusing to advance good-faith arguments or declining to sign briefs, it undermines the constitutional order and deprives the President of the benefit of his lawyers," the memo continues.
Bondi, in the memo, states that "any Justice Department attorney who declines to sign a brief, refuses to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the Trump administration, or otherwise delays or impedes the Justice Department’s mission will be subject to discipline and potentially termination."
Bondi is set to establish the "Weaponization Working Group," which will review the activities of all law enforcement agencies over the past four years to identify instances of "politicized justice."
The working group’s first reviews will include prosecutions against Trump led by former Special Counsel Jack Smith; Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg; and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the civil fraud case against Trump and his family.
The working group will also review any potential prosecutorial abuse regarding Jan. 6, 2021; the FBI’s targeting of Catholic Americans; the Justice Department’s targeting of parents at school board meetings; and abuses of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, or FACE, Act.
Meanwhile, Bondi also will end the moratorium on federal executions and order that federal prosecutors at the Department of Justice, including U.S. attorneys' offices, seek the death penalty when appropriate — specifically with a focus on violent drug trafficking crimes.
Bondi also ordered that the Justice Department "re-evaluate instances of the prior administration electing not to seek the death penalty."
Bondi also is expected to rescind any DOJ policies that are "not sufficiently in line with President Trump’s death penalty executive order."
The move represents a major reversal from the Justice Department’s view of the death penalty under the Biden administration. In 2021, Biden allowed the DOJ to issue a moratorium on federal executions.
In December 2024, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 criminals on federal death row, which President Donald Trump, in his executive order on the death penalty, described as the "most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on Federal death row."
Bondi said she is now also directing the Justice Department to achieve justice for the families of the victims of the 37 murderers who had their death sentences commuted.
As for cartels, Bondi is directing the Justice Department to work closely with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal partners to "completely eliminate" the threats of cartels and transnational criminal organizations.
Bondi plans to re-imagine charging priorities relating to those cases in order to ensure that law enforcement resources are focused on dismantling the foundational operational capacity of cartels, as opposed to just picking off low-level offenders.
Here, the Justice Department is expected to temporarily suspend some "bureaucratic approvals and reviews" in order to prioritize speedy prosecutions and captures of those accused of severe offenses like capital crimes, terrorism or aiding the operations of cartels.
Bondi said Joint Task Force Vulcan, which was created to destroy MS-13, and Joint Task Force Alpha, which was created to fight human trafficking, would be "further empowered and elevated" to the Office of the Attorney General. Those missions are expected to expand — specifically Vulcan’s — with a new focus on destroying Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang now designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
Also on the cartel front, Bondi is directing the DOJ Office of Legal Policy to find legislative reforms to target equipment designed to make fentanyl pills and add Xylazine, a new deadly drug, to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act.
And as for illegal migrants, Bondi has directed the DOJ to pause all federal funding for sanctuary cities.
Bondi also has directed the DOJ to identify and evaluate all funding agreements with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that provide support to illegal aliens.
She is also directing litigating components of the Justice Department to investigate instances of jurisdictions that are impeding law enforcement, and directing they be prosecuted, when necessary.
Meanwhile, Bondi will create a new Joint Task Force focused on holding Hamas accountable for its crimes against Jews during its terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The task force will also "achieve justice for victims and fight terrorist-led antisemitism."
The task force will pursue criminal charges where applicable against Hamas; seek the arrest and extradition of Hamas leadership; and investigate antisemitism in the U.S.
Bondi is also directing the FBI to staff the joint task force with personnel "significantly experienced in investigating terrorism."
Beyond those directives, Bondi is directing the DOJ to confirm the termination of all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at the department by March 15. She also is demanding the removal of all references to DEI in training programs — specifically ending the emphasis on race and sex-based criteria and refocusing hiring and promotion guidelines "solely on merit."
Bondi will also work with the Department of Education to ensure that educational institutions receiving federal grants are adhering to "fair admission practices."
Bondi, a longtime prosecutor and former Florida attorney general, has vowed not to use her position to advance any political agenda, testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee that "politics has to be taken out of this system."
Bondi told lawmakers in January that the "partisanship, the weaponization" at the Justice Department "will be gone."
"America will have one tier of justice for all," she said.
Before Bondi was confirmed, Fox News Digital exclusively reported that the Trump Justice Department fired more than a dozen key officials who worked on former Special Counsel Smith’s team prosecuting Trump, after acting Attorney General James McHenry said they could not be trusted in "faithfully implementing the president’s agenda."
And Friday, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove issued a memo to the acting FBI director directing him to terminate eight FBI employees and identify all current and former bureau personnel assigned to Jan. 6 and Hamas cases for an internal review.
After the directive, on Tuesday, a group of nine FBI agents filed a lawsuit seeking to block the public identification of any FBI employees who worked on the Jan. 6 investigations into the U.S. Capitol riots in an attempt to head off what they described as potentially retaliatory efforts against personnel involved in the probe.
“I will NOT attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg.
South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote “solidarity, equality, & sustainability.” In other words: DEI and climate change.
[IsraelTimes] US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend the G20 meeting in South Africa, the top US diplomat says, days after President Donald Trump threatened to cut off funding to the African country.
South Africa will host a meeting of the foreign ministers of the G20 from February 20-21 in Johannesburg.
#2
^ Yeah: you and me. And the 800,000 or so homeless people in the streets of America. And poor black kids in the cities. And poor white kids in trailer parks. And my fifteen-year-old daughter with Down syndrome. And the woman I let live in a trailer in my back yard...
Lots of people not on the bankroll. Just be an American citizen who isn't well connected.
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.
