LA CROSSE (WKBT) -- Col. Sheyla Baez Ramirez has been suspended as Garrison Commander at Fort McCoy, according to a statement released by the Fort McCoy Senior Commander on Saturday.
The statement added that the suspension is not related to any misconduct and that no further details will be provided at this time.
Col. Sheyla Baez Ramirez assumed the duties as garrison commander in mid-July 2024. Prior to that assignment, she served as chief of the Reserve Program, United States Army Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and in numerous other leadership roles throughout the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Reserve.
#3
Ramirez is surprisingly unaware who is in charge for an Army Intelligence commander
When Greenland Space Base Gal got canned, I was wondering just how dumb you have to be to get yourself jammed up like that. To make it that far up the food chain, you have to have *some* political smarts.
On further reflection, my theory is these dopes felt protected, either by having a rabbi or this being the general attitude of the higher-ups. It is starting to look pervasive, like kudzu.
#5
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology/mental health from the University of Puerto Rico and a Master of Arts in strategic studies from the Army War College.
#6
^ And a lifelong working relationship with tortillas
Snark O'La día
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/20/2025 10:36 Comments ||
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#7
For a career Military Intelligence Officer, the Garrison Command of a general-purpose Reserve Component Training site is a fairly obvious hint of terminal career trajectory.
The Garrison posted a disclaimer of her suspension and that: "STATEMENT FROM FORT MCCOY SENIOR COMMANDER: Col. Sheyla Baez Ramirez has been suspended as Garrison Commander at Fort McCoy. This suspension is not related to any misconduct. We have no further details to provide at this time while this matter is under review."
While she has not done anything wrong, it seems likely she has not done very much right either.
"Fort McCoy is a United States Army Reserve installation on 60,000 acres (24,000 ha) between Sparta and Tomah, Wisconsin, in Monroe County. In 1909, there were two separate camps named Camp Emory Upton and Camp Robinson; in 1926, these camps were joined together to form Camp McCoy.[1] Since its creation in 1909, the post has been used primarily as a military training center. A part of Fort McCoy is also used by the Wisconsin State Patrol as a training facility.[2]" Wiki cite
[FoxNews] Nearly 50 Tonawanda officers received pay deductions after Democratic leadership alleged there was an unauthorized labor strike during a snowstorm
Dozens of officers in a small-town New York police department near the Canadian border have been fined for allegedly taking part in an unauthorized labor strike during a snowy stretch this winter.
Tonawanda is a suburb on the northeastern (less snowy) side of Buffalo, near where I grew up. I remember absolutely nothing special about it.
The union described the fines as retaliation and an abuse of power that denied the officers due process.
One of the officers says the allegations aren't true. He went to work, participated in on-duty training and even made a drunken driving stop during a span when it snowed "every day."
"They're upset that we didn't make them enough money and meet their perceived ticket quota," said Andy Thompson, a Tonawanda Police officer and the president of the department's union, the Tonawanda Police Club.
Tonawanda Police Chief James Stauffiger, whom the union is asking town residents to oust, said Thompson's allegations are "without merit."
"I stand behind the charges filed against the union with the Public Employees Relations Board and the individual officers," he told Fox News Digital. "The process needs to unfold fairly and thoroughly."
Thompson is among the nearly 50 officers accused of going on strike without authorization for one hour a day over a nine-day stretch and has had two hours of pay docked for each of those days, according to a letter he received that was signed by Tonawanda Town Supervisor Joe Emminger.
"We didn't strike. We showed up to work every day. We did our jobs every day," Thompson told Fox News Digital. "We didn't write enough tickets, and we didn't put enough money in the town's coffers. And they decided they're going to fine each officer."
Ticket quotas are illegal under New York law, he noted, and workplace retaliation can be, too.
Between late January into February, the town got so much snowfall it ran out of road salt, and there was an increase in police calls. Officers were also required to spend 16 hours doing mandatory training with new department-issued guns, all during a staffing shortage after seven officers retired or left at the start of the new year, Thompson told Fox News Digital.
This year, Tonawanda Police has issued 123 tickets, according to a filing with New York's Public Employment Relations Board. Between 2021 and 2024, the department issued between 439 and 653 over the same period. Town leaders alleged in the document that the decrease is the result of officers striking without permission in violation of the state's civil service laws.
"It's unheard of," said Mike O'Meara, the president of the Police Conference of New York, the state's largest police union. "They're making this up as they go along."
He called the town's labor complaint against Tonawanda officers "unprecedented," as well as the fines, which are double the hourly wage of officers for each hour they were allegedly striking.
"It may be somewhat unprecedented to claim that a reduction in the issuance of traffic tickets constitutes a strike," said Jerry Cutler, author of "Legal Guide to Human Resources" and a Columbia University lecturer. "However, the critical issue from a legal standpoint is whether the employees have abstained from performing their duties in the normal manner."
Experts say that, feud aside, it boils down to whoever has more convincing evidence.
"A reduction in ticket volume may point to a concerted effort to interfere with the employer’s operations, in which case the action would likely be found to constitute an unlawful strike," Cutler told Fox News Digital. "Alternatively, the evidence may suggest some legitimate reason for the reduced ticket volume – or that this is not an apt means of comparison – which would lead to a finding that the law has not been violated."
Department leaders say officers went on strike to protest disciplinary measures taken against Tonawanda Officer Bikramjit Singh, a U.S. Army veteran accused of mishandling evidence while investigating a potential drug deal.
"He had his body camera on. He opens this water bottle. There's a bag in there," Thompson said. "He looks at the bag. … He says it's garbage. He wraps it up in his glove, and he disposes of it."
However, a suspected drug dealer and suspected drug user later told police there were drugs in the bag, and department officials moved to have Singh fired for throwing it out, Thompson said. The alleged drugs were never recovered, but Singh wound up resigning since being fired could have cost him his law enforcement certifications, Thompson said.
Tensions were already simmering between the rank-and-file and Stauffiger, an Emminger appointee who they accuse of unfairly forcing Singh out and withholding paperwork that would allow him to find new employment in law enforcement in another department.
Stauffiger, a 30-year member of the department, was appointed chief five years ago as part of an effort to eradicate corruption from the department. Thompson, too, represents new leadership, having been president of the union for just over a year.
"There's no due process, and this whole thing was done between the supervisor and the law firm that represents the town, who also donates large amounts of money to the town supervisors' campaign and the Town of Tonawanda Democratic Party's campaigns," Thompson said, citing public records. "So, it's more of a witch hunt than anything."
Emminger did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did the town's law firm.
Thompson believes the allegations mark the first time the state's civil service law has been used to punish police officers for failing to meet "quotas" after he says the town lost money due to a decrease in traffic citations issued during the snowfall.
"This is going to end up being case law by the time this is all over," Thompson said. "This has never been done to a police union before."
The union has launched a public campaign urging residents to demand that local leaders remove Stauffiger, who they accuse of retaliation and harassment and withholding "basic gear," including winter coats.
According to the union, during the time officers were allegedly on strike, the department still made seven drunken driving arrests, issued more than 300 tickets and responded to nearly 2,000 more calls for service than the same period a year earlier with 14 fewer officers.
"The real losers are town residents," O'Meara told Fox News Digital. "They're saying, ‘Make sure you tag the residents of this town.’"
[IsraelTimes] Masses convene the day before Easter at Church of Holy Sepulchre to witness ritual ignition of candles at traditional site of Jesus’s tomb.
The Holy Easter light emerged from the tomb of Christ in Jerusalem today
[Space.com] NASA's oldest active astronaut has redefined traveling "home" for your birthday, landing from the International Space Station on the same day that he turned 70.
Don Pettit touched down on Saturday (April 19) with his Soyuz MS-26 crewmates, Aleksey Ovchinin, 53, and Ivan Vagner, 39. The U.S. astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts reached the ground in Kazakhstan at 9:20 p.m. EDT (0120 GMT or 6:20 a.m. local time April 20), seven months after they left Earth aboard the same spacecraft.
Pettit was born on April 20, 1955, in Silverton, Oregon, but said that the feeling of being home is relative to where you have been.
#3
I've been hearing about the use of MASERs and just tight focused microwaves against drones for awhile.
One of the issues: there always seems to be an aircraft or satellite in the background.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/20/2025 16:25 Comments ||
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Footage has emerged of the sixth-generation J-36 fighter jet performing an aerial drift in China.
The video shows the plane turning in mid-air almost on the spot and continuing to fly without any problems. Many aircraft are unable to perform such a maneuver.
The J-36 is a three-engine prototype of a sixth-generation heavy fighter that is equipped with thrust vectoring engines. The figure performed in the air is called a "flat spin".
As reported by the Regnum news agency, in December 2024, footage of the first flight of a new Chinese fighter, possibly sixth generation, appeared on the Internet. In the footage, an unknown aircraft was flying accompanied by a fifth-generation Chinese fighter, the Chengdu J-20.
On January 10, another aircraft of unknown type, possibly another concept of a sixth-generation manned tactical combat aircraft, was spotted in a satellite image from Shenyang, China. It is specified that the aircraft, created according to the tailless design, is 15 meters long, has a diamond-shaped wing and two engines.
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.
LA CROSSE (WKBT) -- Col. Sheyla Baez Ramirez has been suspended as Garrison Commander at Fort McCoy, according to a statement released by the Fort McCoy Senior Commander on Saturday.
