Monday Links - Again

Once again, Monday appears to be a good time to round up some stories in the news.  So here we go:

From The Guardian, as tensions rise in the wake of an apparent chemical weapons attack in Syria, the United Kingdom moves military equipment to a base in Cyprus.

From the Boston Globe, the full text of Secretary of State John Kerry's statement in response to these attacks.

From the Jerusalem Post, according to Israeli International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz it is "crystal clear" that Syrian President Bashir Assad's forces used chemical weapons in an attack five days ago.

From CBS News, worries about Syria are affecting Wall Street.

From the Washington Post, the prospect of American intervention in Syria is very unpopular.

From Town Hall, the story of Shin Dong-Hyuk, who escaped the North Korean GULAG.

From Mashable, Bloomberg beat Reuters in web traffic for this past July.

From WRAL(dot)com, a charitable group in Raleigh, North Carolina has been threatened with arrest for feeding the homeless without a permit.  (via Breitbart's The Conversation)

From Breitbart's Big Government, the media ignore the killing of Americans by illegal aliens.

From Forbes, Donald Trump is being sued for fraud.

From Fox News, two House Democrats propose a bill to increase taxes on guns and ammunition.

From the Mail Online, investigators have requested the school records of the Sandy Hook shooter.

From Talking Points Memo, according to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the federal government will reach the latest debt ceiling in mid-October.

And from the Times Union, the best and worst dressed at the MTV VMAs.

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Another Monday Links Post

It looks like Monday is once again a good day for directing readers to stories recently in the news.  So without further ado, here we go:

From the Daily Mail, India has launched her first aircraft carrier.

From BBC News, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has won the presidential election in Mali.

Also from BBC News, gunmen in Nigeria have killed 44 people in a mosque.

From Fox News, if you're a man who likes to swim, and you live in or plan to visit the coastal areas of Denmark or Sweden, skinny dipping is not a good idea.

From Yahoo TV, racial discrimination claims in the lawsuit against Paula Deen have been dismissed.

From KABC, a rodeo clown has been permanently banned from the Missouri State Fair for wearing an Obama mask.

From Bizpac Review, a kid prays to the president.  Yes, that's right, to him, not for him.

From CNN, a sinkhole swallows part of a resort in Clermont, Florida.

From The Hill, the State Department has criticized Israel for approving the construction of new settlement homes.

From the Washington Post, Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that "low-level, nonviolent drug offenders with no ties to gangs or large-scale drug organizations" will no longer face mandatory minimum sentences.

From Today News, a Dutch prince has died after being in coma which resulted from being buried in an avalanche while skiing.

From NBC News, a federal judge has ruled that the New York City police department's practice of "stop and frisk" is unconstitutional.

From the Daily Caller, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory has signed an election reform law that includes a photo ID requirement.

And from the News Observer, on August 15, the Carolina Mudcats will put on Carlos Danger Night.  For that game, anyone with a mustache, either real or fake, will be sold a box seat for just $5.  So if you're in or near Zebulon, North Carolina, get out that mustache and enjoy some Minor League baseball.

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Brawley Starts Paying For Her Hoax

Tawana Brawley, who in 1987 falsely accused several white men of abduction and rape, has finally started to make payments to Steven Pagones, who sued her for defamation after being one of the men falsely accused.  At the time, Pagones was a prosecutor in Dutchess County.  He also sued her spokesmen, including a then-relatively-unknown Al Sharpton, winning the suit in 1998.  While various benefactors helped the other defendants pay their settlements, Brawley has evaded paying any damages until now, except for 10 checks totaling $3,764.61.  She has moved during the intervening years, most recently to Richmond, Virginia where she works as nurse.

The New York Post has the story.  Most of the sites that I can find which mention this development either link or refer back to them.  However, the American Thinker notes that Brawley will have her wages garnished, and suggests placing a copy of the first garnished check in the new National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian, near Trayvon Martin's hoodie.

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What Took Them So Long?

Police in Rochester, NY on July 20th arrested a man and called the Border Patrol for assistance after he gave them three different names.  They soon learned that he was in the United States illegally and had no less than 37 convictions, occurring from 1982 to 2007.  He is thus being given an "Administrative Removal" and will be deported to Mexico.

Read the story at CNS News.  Seeing that he has that many conviction over such a long time, we can only wonder how many times he has already been deported only to return, and if he will again show up in time to benefit from the possible GOP suicide amnesty bill now pending in the House.

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Three More Arrested In Marathon Bombing Case

Police in Boston have announced the arrest of three new suspects in their investigation of the Boston Marathon bombing.  The three men are all 19 years old and are said to be friends of Dzhokar Tsarnaev.  One is an American citizen, while the other two are from Kazakhstan.  Charges against them include conspiracy to obstruct justice and lying to investigators.

Read more at the Atlantic Wire, Press-Citizen, iRealty Times and the Capitol Resource Institute.

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Canada Foils Terror Plot

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, with some help from the American FBI, have prevented two men from carrying out a plan to derail a VIA passenger train.  The suspects were arrested in Montreal and Toronto.  They are not Canadian citizens, and are said to have been supported by "Al Qaeda elements in Iran".  At first, the RCMP would not indicate the nationalities of the two men, or how long they have been in Canada, but later stated that one was originally from Tunisia and the other from the United Arab Emirates.

Read more at BBC News, Yahoo News, USA Today, CTV News, The Age and Russia Today.

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Tennessee Cops Pull Car Over For Sticker

On February 4th, Guido Boggioni and Bonnie Jonas-Boggioni, a married couple in their 60's, were driving home to Plano, TX after attending a funeral for his mother in Tennessee.  As they approached Memphis on Interstate 40, they were pulled over by two police SUVs because of sticker on their car.  The cops thought it depicted a marijuana leaf, but it was actually a buckeye, the symbol of Ohio State University.  Jonas-Boggioni had grown up in Columbus and rooted for the Ohio State Buckeyes her entire life.  This event is disturbing because the couple were pulled over for nothing more than a sticker.

Read more at the Columbus Dispatch, where the article's writer suggests that the police might want to learn some botany and something about Ohio State football.  I would think that this would be especially true if Ohio State decides to schedule a game against either the U. of Tennessee or Vanderbilt.  If I ever drive through Tennessee, just to be safe, I won't put any Hokiebird stickers on my car, to avoid being pulled over for smuggling exotic birds.

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Dorner's Remains Identified

Former LAPD officer Christopher Dorner, wanted for murder, has met the same fate as David Koresh.  After efforts to get him to surrender and leave the cabin where he was hiding out failed, SWAT officers resorted to using "hot gas" canisters, which set the cabin on fire.  The cabin then burned down with Dorner inside.  San Bernardino County sheriff's officials they identified his remains using dental records.

Read more at the Los Angeles Times, KFSN-TV, Yahoo News and USA Today.

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Monday News And Notes

A few news items and a bit of humor:

From the Los Angeles Times, despite some new information on the death of Natalie Wood (1938-1981), the LA County Sheriff's Department says that the evidence is insufficient to show homicide.

From the Daily Mail, the story of a British woman who decided against aborting her severely disabled baby, who sadly lived just 9 hours after being born.  (via Life Site News)

From NBC News Vitals, research that marijuana use lowers IQ is challenged by a new study pointing to other factors.

From the Dallas Morning News, George P. Bush, who intends to run for Texas Land Commissioner, has raised $1.3 million for his campaign in the past two months.  He is the son of Jeb Bush, nephew of George W. Bush and grandson of George H.W. Bush.

From the Examiner, another relative of an American president is running for office.  The president's brother Malik Obama is running for governor in Saiya, Kenya.

From the Daily Caller, Representative Steve Stockman (R-Texas) says that he will go as far as filing articles of Impeachment to prevent President Obama from implementing gun control by executive order.  (What's this, a Republican with a spine?  What's going on here?)

From Creative Minority Report, three Massachusetts men were arrested after throwing punches and smashing furniture - at a baby shower.

From CBS New York, State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-64th District) says that the state legislature will "ban assault weapons".

And from Jimmy Kimmel, Los Angeles overreacts to the recent cold snap.

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A Bit More On The CT School Massacre

Some follow-up on yesterday's shootings in a Connecticut elementary school:

From Sky News, the shooter was an honors student at Newtown High School.

From the New York Post, a father's anguish after losing his son.

From ABC News, a timeline of yesterday's events.

From the Wall Street Journal, some details emerge about Adam Lanza's family.  The guns used in the shootings were registered to Nancy Lanza, Adam's mother.  There also seems to be some question about whether she was a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

From Natural News, is the real problem medications, not guns?

From NBC News, authorities have identified the victims as the people of Newtown seek answers.  Lanza was not "buzzed in", but forced his way into the school.

From the Washington Post, a live blog including the names of the victims.  Scroll down to the entry at 4:24 pm.

From Fox News, the shooter's father, Peter Lanza, speaks out.

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Pearl Harbor Day - And Today

December 7th is the anniversary of Japan's attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into World War II.  Here are some facts about the attack on the "date which will live in infamy".

In today's news:

From WRAL, President Obama will attend a performance by South Korean rapper PSY, whose songs (I use the term loosely) include some anti-American lyrics.

From Yahoo News, a cache of gold dust bought for $700,000 last year has disappeared from the Chesterfield, MO laboratory or Pfizer, Inc.

From Citizen Link, the Supreme Court has decided to hear cases about the Defense of Marriage Act, and California's Proposition 8.

From Breitbart's Big Government, guns are being bought at record rates - in California.

From PJ Media, 73% of the jobs created in the last 5 months have been government jobs.

From the Washington Examiner, Michigan's new right-to-work legislation gets an angry reaction from one of the state's biggest residents.

From the Chicago Tribune, that large Michigan resident is not alone.

The Foundry asks why government should get "something for nothing".

And from NBC News, the LAPD has started to ask that age-old question, "What's up, Doc?"

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Zimmerman's Lawyers Release Gruesome Picture

A photograph of George Zimmerman, taken by police after his confrontation with Trayvon Martin, has been released by his defense lawyers, showing a bloody face and what looks like an injured nose.  They say that they received the photo on October 29th, over six months after Zimmerman was charged with murder.

I won't post the photo here, but you can see it at Fox News.  A question for the president: If you had a son, would he rearrange someone's face the way Martin apparently rearranged Zimmerman's?

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Would-Be Terrorist Arrested In New York

A man who allegedly plotted to bomb the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been arrested by the FBI.  Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, of Bangla Desh, is said to have traveled to the United States for the purpose of forming a terror cell and carrying out a terrorist attack on U.S. soil.  In his attempt to find possible Al Qaeda contacts, Nafis had the misfortune, so to speak, of contacting an undercover agent.  After Nafis and the agent constructed what Nafis believed to be a bomb, loading it onto a van, driving the van into New York, and parking it next to the bank, Nafis soon found out that the bomb would not go off, and found himself in FBI custody.  According to the Bureau, Nafis has been charged with "attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to Al Qaeda."

Read more at Yahoo News, CNN Justice, ABC News, the New York Post and NBC New York.

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Shootings At The Empire State Building

In New York City this morning, a women's apparel designer, who had been laid off last year from his job at Hazan Imports, shot and killed a former co-worker, and then died in a gun battle with police.  Nine other people (which was earlier reported to be eight) were wounded during the incident, which occured in a busy area in front of the Empire State Building.

Read the story at CNN (with video), the Washington Post (with a live blog), the Christian Science Monitor, ABC News, Yahoo News and the New York Times.  CBS News has this video of Mayor Bloomberg's subsequent press conference:

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Muslims In Dearborn Stone Christians

Some Christians decided to assemble near a Muslim festival in Dearborn, Michigan.  The Muslim response to the Christian presence wasn't too different from what some of their co-religionists do back in the Middle East.  Read the story at the Western Center For Journalism.

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Parts Of Arizona's SB1070 Overruled By SCOTUS

Today the Supreme Court handed down in ruling on Arizona's controversial SB1070, striking down three of its provisions, but upholding the section 2(b), which allows law enforcement personnel to attempt to determine the immigration status of anyone reasonably suspected of being an illegal alien.

Read the story at AZFamily.

Read the court's decision here.

The Obama adminstration has reacted to the decision by pulling back on a program known as 287(g).

Read the story at Fox News.

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