#Parking Penalty Charge

[insidecroydon]

Contractor repaid £3.25m to council over school streets failure

CROYDON IN CRISIS: After the council bought number-plate recognition cameras that did not work, it managed to get a refund – after losing an estimated £16m income. By our Town Hall reporter, KEN LEE Switched off: the council signed a deal for 100 ANPR cameras that never worked properly Failures in Croydon Council’s procurement processes have been exposed yet again – but this time the local…

[incorrectbatfam]

Does the Batmobile ever get ticketed or does the GCPD just ignore it

Bruce: *puts a box on the table*

Bruce: Gather around, everyone. It's time for our monthly ticket review.

Bruce: First up, Steph. Can you explain what happened last Friday?

[earlier]

Steph: *looking for parking in a full lot*

Steph: Screw it, I'm going around back.

Steph: *parks in front of a fire exit*

[present]

Steph: I just needed to use the bathroom.

Bruce: And in those three minutes, the Joker released a giant water balloon forcing everyone to evacuate through one less exit.

Steph: It said "fire exit." That technically wasn't a fire.

Bruce: Well, the penalty is $100 plus the towing cost. I can pay it off but you have to help Alfred in the kitchen for a month.

Steph: Yeah, that's fair.

Bruce: Next up... Cass and Barbara? Color me surprised.

Barbara: Oh yeah, I had to remotely pilot the Batmobile the other day because Cass needed a getaway.

Bruce: Then why am I being charged $250?

[earlier]

Cass: *fighting a gang*

Barbara: Orphan, ETA thirty seconds. Prepare for extraction.

Cass: *knocks out the last henchman and runs to the car*

Comm. Gordon: *writing a ticket*

Cass: ?

Comm. Gordon: You're in a disabled parking spot without a permit.

[present]

Barbara: Well I am disabled.

Bruce: Understandable. I'll let it slide since it's the first time. Just file the paperwork for a permit.

Bruce: Dick, you went thirty-five over the speed limit when you weren't pursuing a suspect. Explain.

[earlier]

Wally: Race you to Keystone?

Dick: *revs the engine*

[present]

Bruce: You're better than this. I'm disappointed. Next up: Tim. Driving without a license plate. What happened there?

[earlier]

Tim: I wasn't supposed to take the Batmobile since Bruce benched me for my wrist, but my other ride is in the shop.

Kon: What about cameras? Can't your dad tap into the city's surveillance system?

Bart: Traffic cameras read license plates, so if we take them off, no one will recognize us.

Kon: Now that's an idea.

[present]

Tim: That's on me. I shouldn't have listened to them.

Bruce: Put them back on, plus you're benched for another week. Damian, on to you.

Damian: What on Earth could I have done? I followed the speed limit, parked in the correct spots, and never so much as changed lanes on an empty road without signalling.

[earlier]

Damian, a middle schooler: *driving*

[present]

Damian: Tt.

Bruce: Don't do it again. Duke...

Duke: *cringes and remembers what he did*

[earlier]

Duke: *hooks the Batmobile to a freezer trailer*

Duke: *starts driving around with a megaphone*

Duke: Ice cream! Get your ice cream!

[present]

Bruce: Fantastic job. No complaints.

Jason, muttering: Teacher's pet.

Bruce: And finally, Jason.

Bruce: *empties the rest of the box*

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - October 8-14

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my Dandelion Doodles on Patreon!

1. All 160 dogs at Florida shelter found homes ahead of Hurricane Milton

“[The shelter] offered crates, food and anything else the dogs would need in exchange for the animals to spend just five days with the foster parents if the human didn't want to keep them for longer. […A]fter about a day of receiving around 100 messages every 30 minutes, Bada said, all 160 were gone from the shelter and in safe and warm homes.”

2. Restoring Ecosystems and Rejuvenating Native Hawaiian Traditions in Maui

“[Volunteers] are restoring water flow to the refuge, removing invasive species, and restoring a loko iʻa kalo using ʻike kūpuna, ancestral knowledge. […] This human-made ecosystem will provide food for community members and habitat for wildlife while protecting coral reefs offshore.”

3. Solar-powered desalination system requires no extra batteries

“In contrast to other solar-driven desalination designs, the MIT system requires no extra batteries for energy storage, nor a supplemental power supply, such as from the grid. […] The system harnessed on average over 94 percent of the electrical energy generated from the system’s solar panels to produce up to 5,000 liters of water per day[….]”

4. Threatened pink sea fan coral breeds in UK aquarium for first time

“The spawning is part of University of Exeter Ph.D. student Kaila Wheatley Kornblum's research into the reproduction, larval dispersal and population connectivity of Eunicella verrucosa. […] Pink sea fans are believed to have been successfully bred by only one other institution, Lisbon Oceanarium, in 2023.”

5. Tiny 'backpacks' are being strapped to baby turtles[….]

““We analysed the data and found that hatchlings show amazingly consistent head-up orientation – despite being in the complete dark, surrounded by sand [… and] they move as if they were swimming rather than digging[…. This new observation method is] answering questions about best conservation practices,” says Dor.”

6. New California Law Protects Wildlife Connectivity

“A new state law in California will instruct counties and municipalities to conserve wildlife corridors when planning new development. […] This could entail everything from creating wildlife crossings at roads or highways, employing wildlife-safe fencing, or not developing on certain land.”

7. ‘I think, boy, I’m a part of all this’: how local heroes reforested Rio’s green heart

“By 2019, [the program] had transformed the city’s landscape, having trained 15,000 local workers like Leleco, who have planted 10m seedlings across […] roughly 10 times the area of New York’s Central Park. Reforested sites include mangroves and vegetation-covered sandbars called restinga, as well as wooded mountainsides around favelas.”

8. Alabama Town Plans to Drop Criminal Charges Over Unpaid Garbage Bills

““Suspending garbage pickup, imposing harsh late penalties and prosecuting people who through no fault of their own are unable to pay their garbage and sewage bills does not make payment suddenly forthcoming,” West said. [… The city] has agreed to drop pending criminal charges against its residents over unpaid garbage bills.”

9. New Hampshire’s low-income community solar program finally moves forward

“The state energy department is reviewing seven proposals for community solar arrays that will allocate a portion of their bill credits to low-income households. […] New Hampshire’s strategy of working with utilities to automatically enroll households that have already been identified streamlines the process.”

10. The Future Looks Bright for Electric School Buses

“EPA has awarded about $3 billion in grants from the infrastructure law, which paid to replace about 8,700 buses. Of those, about 95 percent are electric. [… Electric buses are] cheaper to operate and require less maintenance than diesel buses and will soon be at cost parity when looking at the lifetime cost of ownership[….]”

October 1-7 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[morbidology]

Over a span of just 10 days in August 2013, Nikko Jenkins unleashed a wave of violence that left four people dead in Omaha, Nebraska. His crimes, which he claimed were carried out under the influence of an Egyptian serpent god, have sparked intense debate about the criminal justice system, mental health, and the death penalty.

Nikko Allen Jenkins was born on September 16, 1986, into a family with a long history of criminal activity. Raised in a chaotic and often violent environment in Omaha, Jenkins was exposed to crime and dysfunction from a young age. By the time he was a teenager, Jenkins had already begun his journey into the criminal justice system, with numerous arrests and convictions for robbery, assault, and weapons charges.

Jenkins' time in prison only seemed to deepen his violent tendencies. During his incarceration, he became known for his erratic behavior, frequent outbursts, and disturbing beliefs, including his purported devotion to the Egyptian serpent god Apophis. He spent significant time in solitary confinement, where his mental health reportedly deteriorated further.

After serving more than a decade in prison, Jenkins was released on July 30, 2013. Less than a month later, he would begin his brutal killing spree.

On August 11, 2013, Jenkins committed his first murders. The victims, Juan Uribe-Pena and Jorge C. Cajiga-Ruiz, were lured to a park in Omaha under the pretense of meeting women. Once there, Jenkins shot and killed them both, leaving their bodies in a white pickup truck. The crime shocked the community, but it was only the beginning of Jenkins' rampage.

On August 19, Jenkins struck again, murdering Curtis Bradford, a man he had met in prison and briefly reunited with after his release. Jenkins lured Bradford to a location where he shot him in the back of the head. The next day, on August 21, Jenkins committed his final and most high-profile murder, killing Andrea Kruger, a 33-year-old mother of three. Kruger was abducted at a traffic intersection, and Jenkins later shot her multiple times before leaving her body on a rural road. He then stole her car, which was found abandoned a short time later.

Jenkins was arrested on August 30, 2013, during an investigation into a separate assault. Once in custody, Jenkins quickly confessed to all four murders. His confessions were chilling, as he claimed that he had been commanded to kill by the serpent god Apophis, whom he believed required human sacrifices. He described the murders in graphic detail, showing no remorse for his actions.

During his interrogation, Jenkins also made disturbing statements about his intentions to continue killing if he were released. These confessions, coupled with the brutality of his crimes, led to widespread calls for the harshest possible punishment.

Jenkins' case quickly became a lightning rod for controversy, particularly regarding his mental state and the handling of his incarceration. His defense team argued that Jenkins suffered from severe mental illness, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and that he was not competent to stand trial. They contended that his prolonged time in solitary confinement exacerbated his mental health issues, leading to the violent delusions that fueled his crimes.

Despite these arguments, Jenkins was found competent to stand trial. In 2014, he was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder, along with several other charges related to his killing spree. The trial was marked by bizarre and unsettling behavior from Jenkins, who repeatedly insisted that he was acting on the orders of Apophis. He even attempted to mutilate himself in court. Jenkins carved 666 into his forehead, and sliced his penis and tongue up the middle, believing it would make him appear more serpent-like.

In May 2017, Jenkins was sentenced to death by a three-judge panel.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Wajahat Ali:

Dear readers, I am not a doctor. I’m just a simple writer. I share this because I don’t know if there are indeed “racist bones” in the human body. I also don’t know what’s in “people’s hearts.” Thankfully, I’m married to a doctor who has assured me such a bone doesn’t exist. My brother-in-law, a cardiologist, has also assured me there’s no specific valve or aorta that is devoted to racism.

All we have to go by is people’s repeated actions and behavior that the world can observe with its own eyes and hear with its own ears. To quote the late Maya Angelou, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Well, Donald Trump has shown his racist ass his entire life. This is the feature, not the bug. I’ve been covering him for nearly a decade ever since he descended the fake golden escalators to announce his presidency. During that press conference, he referred to Mexicans as “rapists” and “criminals.” That was the amuse-bouche of an endless buffet of xenophobia, anti-Black racism, Islamophobia, anti-Asian bigotry, anti-semitism, and misogyny that has defined his political career. I’m going to do a test, purely for myself, to see if I can list off at least 10 obscenely racist things Trump has said or done during the past 9 years off the top of my dome - no research and no googling. Here it goes:

Trump refused to condemn white supremacy at the 2020 Presidential debate and instead told the Proud Boys to “Stand back, and stand by!” (They did when they were involved in the failed Jan 6 violent insurrection.)

Trump praised the white supremacists in Charlottesville who chanted Nazi slogans as “very fine people,” to the point where they saw him as an ally.

Trump lamented that Black and brown people came to America from “shithole countries” instead of from Norway, which is a great country that has so many white people that it made my teeth whiter during my visit.

Trump promoted the racist and Islamophobic “Birther conspiracy” against Barack Obama that forced him to show his birth certificate

Trump continues to refer to undocumented immigrants as “invaders,” the same language used by domestic terrorists who have attacked Jews, Black people and Latinos.

Trump referred to COVID as the “China Virus” and “Kung Flu,” which coincided with the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans

Trump told The Squad to go back to their country, even though all those Congresswomen of color are American citizens.

Trump refers to Kamala Harris as a “DEI hire” even though she is infinitely more qualified than him, and furthermore he alleges she “turned Black” for sake of political opportunity. (Well, he turned Republican, but I digress.)

Trump uses “Palestinian” as a pejorative to mock Senator Schumer and President Biden. (He did it again last night at his rally.)

Trump quotes Hitler! He uses his language of “vermin” and “poisoning the blood” to attack immigrants, and he praised him according to his former DHS Secretary General Kelly.

***Bonus*** Trump took out ads asking for the death penalty for the Central Park Five, who have since been exonerated. He has refused to acknowledge their innocence.

Trust me, there’s more! I passed my own challenge of listing the first ten examples off the top of my head, which is in itself quite disturbing.

[...] He does not have “flare ups” or “trip ups” or “racially charged moments.” No. Trump is a racist. He has always been a racist. He acts and behaves like a racist. He can’t help but be a racist. He has not changed or evolved or mellowed or moderated or become more serene after his assassination attempt. If you doubt me, just look at his 35 minute interview with Black journalists at the annual NABJ conference. He is supported by racists who love him for his racism. He will triple-down on racism because he’s a 1 trick pony and because he is melting down at the thought of a Black Indian woman defeating him in 2024.

THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali is right on: It’s time for the mainstream media to consistently and explicitly use the word “racist” to describe Donald Trump’s racist behavior. “Racially charged” does NOT cut it.

[verycleverboy]

Almost thirty-four years after Donald Trump took out a full-page ad in New York newspapers calling for the return of the death penalty in the wake of the case of a group of young African-American men branded the “Central Park Five”, and a few days after Trump was charged with thirty-four felony counts, one of the now-Exonerated Five took out a full-page ad of his own. The full text follows:

BRING BACK JUSTICE & FAIRNESS. BUILD A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR HARLEM!

On May 1, 1989, almost thirty-four years ago, Donald J. Trump spent $85,000 to take out full-page ads in The New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post and New York Newsday, calling for the execution of the Central Park Five — an act he has never apologized for, even after someone else confessed to and was convicted of the crime, the convictions of all five of us were overturned, and we were renamed the Exonerated Five.

Instead, Mr. Trump has often doubled-down. A few weeks after taking out the ad, he went on CNN and stated: "I hate these people and let's all hate these people because maybe hate is that we need if we're gonna get something done."

Even after our exoneration and acknowledgment by the government that we had been wrongfully convicted, Mr. Trump continued to incite animus against me, my peers and our families. In 2013 — over a decade after our exoneration — Trump called the Ken and Sarah Burns Central Park Five documentary "a one-sided piece of garbage," and when asked how he felt now that we were shown to be innocent, responded: "Innocent of what?"

In 2014, the City of New York finally reached a settlement with the members of the Exonerated Five, awarding at compensation to help us rebuild our lives after so many years were taken from us. But even that acknowledgement from the city wasn't enough for Trump to see five young Black and Latino men as anything other than criminals, saying "settling doesn't mean innocence."

Note, after several decades and an unfortunate and disastrous presidency, we all know exactly who Donald J. Trump is — a man who seeks to deny justice and fairness for others, while claiming only innocence for himself.

Being wrongfully convicted as a teenager was an experience that changed my life drastically. Yet I am honored when people express how deeply they connect with my story.

It matters because, while my experience may have been extreme, I have lived through a form of trauma that many of us experience in some way every day throughout our country. My past is an example of systemic oppression imposed by the injustice system.

But the problems our community faced when my name was splashed across the newspapers a generation ago — inadequate housing, underfunded schools, public safety concerns, and a lack of good jobs — became worse during Donald Trump's time in office.

I am trying to change that, by working with so many other dedicated community members to build a better future for everyone, both here in Harlem and across the country.

Here is my message to you, Mr. Trump: In response to the multiple federal and state criminal investigations that you are facing, you responded by warning of "potential death and destruction," and by posting a photograph of yourself with a baseball bat, next to a photo of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. These actions, just like your actions leading up to the January 6 insurrection at the U .S. Capitol, are an attack on our safety.

Thirty-four years ago, your full-page ad stated, in all caps: "CIVIL LIBERTIES END WHEN AN ATTACK ON OUR SAFETY BEGINS."

You were wrong then, and you are wrong now. The civil liberties of all Americans are grounded in the U.S. Constitution, and many of us fight every day to uphold those rights, even in the face of those like you who seek to obliterate them.

Now that you have been indicted and are facing criminal charges, I do not resort to hatred, bias or racism — as you once did.

Even though thirty-four years ago you effectively called for my death and the death of four other innocent children, I wish you no harm.

Rather, I at putting my faith in the judicial system to seek out the truth. I hope that you exercise your civil liberties to the fullest, and that you get what the Exonerated 5 did not get — a presumption of innocence, and a fair trial.

And if the charges are proven and you are found guilty, I hope that you endure whatever penalties are imposed with the same strength and dignity that the Exonerated Five showed as we served our punishment for a crime we did not commit.

--Yusef A. Salaam

[x-manson-annotated]

X-Manson Annotated Chapter 5 - Part Seven: "CLOWNSHOES"

How do you publicly execute a man who cannot be killed?

*As far as I can tell, I think Angela Baez might be a mix of Angela Davis and Joan Baez. Who are known for their anti-death penalty activism.

**FART-P isn't a real act. Any search for it will result in the Patriot Act.

*** They don't have to reveal any charges that reveal informers or compromise national security...So, what weird dirt did the cult have on the government? SHIELD stuff?

*also not a real law as far as I can tell.

**No kidding.

*I don't think Scott was ever psychically controlled. I think from everything that we've seen his brain and body were bent to the will of the cult the old-fashioned way, by completely depriving him of anything outside of it and actively punishing him for seeking it out.

*could someone from the cult have found her and messed with her head to make her go crazy?

**Or so you thought? What made you think it?

**She wasn't pursued at all. These mental breakdowns were normal ones from the stress of the situation.

*Scott killed Sean?

**Also, she wasn't fucking joking about it being a lynch law, jesus christ.

*i don't know why that is the description Benway chose to use here. This is meant to be Kitty's semi-internal monologue and it's supposed to reflect some of her thoughts on things, so why is she thinking of George Washington Gein is an Irishman's impression of a Texan?

*George Washington Gein is nobody, i think his name is a reference to Ed Gein.

*They paid to watch a public execution. Like when people used to pay to watch someone getting fucking hanged.

**The bold blue text indicates their method of executing logan. This is why I've entitled this post "CLOWNSHOES".

*Circus Music Plays*

*CIRCUS MUSIC GETS LOUDER!*

So, to recap:

Scott gets shot. That's done.

Then they try to shoot logan with hollow point bullets while he's attached to an adamantium frame that's held up in the air by a crane.

They try again, bullet bounces off and hits a civilian.

I forgot to highlight it, but then they decided to drop the frame logan is in several times in the parking lot of the courthouse.

Drove a truck over logan.

People are screaming and puking looking at his torn up, but not dead body.

a doctor tries to test and see if he's dead and gets hurt

to "finish it quickly" they decide to roll him over with a steam roller.

God. Fucking damn.

It probably would have just been easier to throw his ass in a cell forever than to do all this shit. Everyone seems incompetent from the neck up.

Also, how did they get their hands on an Adamantium Frame and why use it for this? Just because Logan can't cut his way out of it?

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Outside Online:

On February 29, Daniel, Wyoming resident Cody Roberts allegedly ran a juvenile wolf down with his snowmobile, taped its mouth shut, transported it to the town’s Green River Bar, posed for photos with the animal, then either beat or shot it to death, depending on which version of the report you read. State wildlife officials received a tip about the incident, and later fined Roberts $250 for a misdemeanor violation of Wyoming’s prohibition against possession of live wildlife. No other charges or penalties have been brought against him. As of April 10, however, the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office announced that they—along with the Sublette County Attorney’s office—are now investigating Roberts.

“The individual was cited for a misdemeanor violation of Wyoming Game and Fish Commission regulations, Chapter 10, Importation and Possession of Live Warm-Blooded Wildlife,” says the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in a statement addressing the incident. “The department’s investigation indicated there were no other statutory or regulatory violations.”

The 206-word statement itself acknowledges the controversy that’s raging around the incident, saying: “The department acknowledges the significant concern and dismay expressed by many people from around the state and nation.”

Why was Roberts able to torture a wolf to death with no serious consequences? The answer lies not only in Wyoming’s incredibly lax wildlife regulations, but also in the violence that permeates the relationship between the state and its most famous wild animal.

After being extirpated in 1926, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) reintroduced wolves to Wyoming in Yellowstone National Park in 1995. Wolves, the villains in many childhood stories, are a locus of fear for humans. But the animal also serves a vital role in its native ecosystem, where it helps keep ungulate populations healthy by slowing the spread of disease. And it does that at a net financial benefit to taxpayers, since tourists now flock to the state to view wolves. A study conducted in 2021 found that wolf-related tourism brings over $35 million annually to areas surrounding the park.

Speaking of taxes, before all the culture warring and fear mongering, it was the goal of the Republican Party to reduce tax burdens faced by the wealthy and corporations. The Republican Party’s policy positions are widely unpopular, so the GOP instead hoodwinks voters using fear and lies. The Republican-led Wyoming Statehouse passed a bill in 2021 calling to exterminate 90 percent of the state’s wolf population—a bill based on lies and misinformation. Pushing for policies based on fear instead of science has led to regulations around wolves that are unique among wildlife laws, mostly in their encouragement of cruelty.

When management of the species transferred from federal to state control in 2012, Wyoming’s political leaders established two distinct areas with differing population management goals. Areas adjacent to Yellowstone were set aside for trophy hunting, where wolf hunting is regulated. The rest of the state was designated a “predator zone” where wolves can be killed without regulation, reason, or justification. Wyoming also classifies coyotes, red fox, stray cats, jackrabbits, porcupines, raccoons and striped skunks as predators, and permits killing them throughout the state.

“You could pull a wolf apart with horses in 85 percent of the state,” explains Amaroq Weiss, Senior Wolf Advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. In the predator zone, there is no regulation governing how or when wolves can be killed. This stands in contrast to typical hunting regulations in any other state, where what are called “methods of take” are carefully defined to ensure animals are killed in ethical, humane ways, along with precise dates, to-the-minute guidelines on legal shooting hours, and generally universal bans on artificial light sources. The age and sex of animals it’s permissible to shoot are also written in law. But none of that is true in Wyoming’s predator zone when it comes to wolves. You don’t even need a hunting license or tag to kill one, just the opportunity.

Weiss cites “wolf whacking” as an example, and it’s how Roberts captured the wolf he would go on to torture and kill. The term describes using a snowmobile to run a wolf to the point of exhaustion. Once it slows or collapses, you kill the animal by running it over. As Roberts’ escapade demonstrates, sometimes that might take multiple impacts, and sometimes the animal is simply left to die a slow, painful death.

[reasoningdaily]

Donald Trump’s notorious inability to acknowledge a mistake – even when everyone else can clearly see how wrong he is – will now probably cost him a big bundle of money in yet another court case.

It should cost him support from Black and Latino voters, too.

You may recall the names Antron Brown (formerly known as Antron McCray), Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise by the undeserved moniker slapped on the Black and Latino teenagers 35 years ago ‒ "The Central Park Five." They now prefer to be known as the "Exonerated Five" since their convictions for a pair of attacks and a rape in 1989 were vacated in 2002.

They sued Trump in federal court in Philadelphia on Monday for defamation after he falsely claimed during a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris last month that they pleaded guilty after being charged and had killed someone. They pleaded not guilty and nobody died in the attacks that sparked the controversy.

New York acknowledged the travesty in the treatment of the five, who were ages 14-16 when they were arrested, by paying them $41 million to settle a lawsuit in 2014. In a statement, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio said: "The City had a moral obligation to right this injustice."

Trump could never muster the kind of character it takes to meet any notion of moral obligation. It is now and always has been far outside the range of his ego-driven, narcissistic personality.

Donald Trump can't stop accusing the Central Park Five of a crime

Trump, who used the 1989 Central Park attacks to draw attention to himself, ran full-page ads in New York newspapers in the weeks after with the banner headline, "BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY." Trump has a long history, laid out in the complaint filed Monday, of continuing to accuse the five men of criminal behavior even after they were exonerated.

Harris made that point during the Sept. 10 debate hosted by ABC News during a segment on "race and politics." her opponent, of course, turned defensive and then said a bunch of things that were not true.

"They admitted ‒ they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately," Trump lied from the debate stage.

The complaint filed against him Monday notes that Trump has attacked a documentary about how the men were exonerated, which means he had the facts at his disposal and could have told the truth.

Opinion:In an unpredictable election, one thing is certain – Trump will lie about it

But this would require Trump to acknowledge he was wrong. He lacks the character for that.

Shanin Specter, a lawyer for the five men, said they didn't bother to give Trump a chance to apologize for what he said in the debate or issue a retraction because they knew, given his history since their exoneration, that "there was no chance of that happening."

"He has been single-minded about this for the last 35 years," Specter told me. "And he has not let the facts get in the way of his narrative."

Trump challenged to respond to lawsuit by lawyer who filed it

Trump's reelection campaign was oh so eager to prove the attorney's point, responding to the complaint by dismissing it as "just another frivolous, Election Interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists" while trying to connect it to Harris and her campaign.

Specter told me the complaint, written in a way that avoids any extraneous political language, was about seeking "redress in the courts."

"It would have been nice if Mr. Trump would have had his lawyer respond to it to say whether it was true or false," Specter said.

Opinion:Michigan and Wisconsin are key for Harris. GOP groups want to help her win them.

Trump does have plenty of lawyers and he keeps them very busy.

Some of them lost the May 2023 civil case where Trump was held liable for sexually assaulting the writer E. Jean Carroll, who was awarded $5 million by a New York jury. Trump's lawyers also lost the follow-up defamation case Carroll filed against Trump, who was hit in January with an additional $83 million judgment.

So Trump, whom a jury found had sexually assaulted Carroll, has spent years falsely accusing the Exonerated Five of sexual assault and other violence. He is exactly the kind of person he claims to despise.

Will Trump ever be held accountable for this?

Two things can be true at the same time. This lawsuit can be unrelated to the election. But it can have consequences as Trump attempts to expand his support among Black and Latino voters.

Trump's appeal to hate in his 1989 newspaper ads always had the stench of racism, an undercurrent in his bid for attention just below the surface. His public pronouncements were bait for racists, the beginnings of his base.

Maybe the time has finally come for him to be held accountable for that, after 67 million debate viewers saw Trump repeat his lies about the Exonerated Five.

"It's devastating for them," Specter said. "They have to clear their name all over again. Now it's been defamed to 67 million people. And it just never stops."

Salaam, now 50, is a New York City Council member. He came to Philadelphia for last month's debate and tried to speak with Trump afterward in the "spin room," asking whether he would "apologize to the Exonerated Five."

"Ah, you're on my side then," Trump responded, in what feels like the one millionth moment of proof that his mind has turned to mush. He then waved and wandered away as Salaam repeated his request for an apology.

I hope we get the whole Trump show here ‒ a trial with an elderly defendant unable to remain awake until a jury holds him responsible in the only way that gets his attention: by squeezing him for cash. Trump won't be able to wander away from that.

[beardedmrbean]

A man shot his transgender lover after his girlfriend found out about the affair, a US court has heard in the first federal trial for a gender-based hate crime.

The secret relationship took place between Daqua Lameek Ritter, 26, and a black transgender woman referred to in court documents as Dime Doe.

The prosecution alleges that Mr Ritter, who frequently relied on Doe, 24, for rides, lured her into driving around a quiet part of Allendale, South Carolina before shooting her three times to prevent further exposure of their affair.

According to court proceedings, which started on Tuesday, Mr Ritter’s girlfriend Delasia Green, learnt about the affair between him and Doe in the month before the killing. 

The revelation prompted Ms Green to hurl a homophobic slur at the defendant, making them “extremely upset”, according to prosecutors.

Mr Ritter, who is charged with murder as a hate crime and using a firearm in the commission of a hate crime, was said to have been splitting his time between South Carolina where he worked and New York, where he lived with his family and girlfriend.

Mr Ritter initially told Ms Green that he and Doe were cousins but after they grew closer on a series of his visits to South Carolina, Ms Green began to have a “gut feeling” something was wrong.

After Ms Green found text messages on his phone from an unsaved number that discussed “getting a room” she assumed they were from Ms Doe and confronted Mr Ritter, who told her that she should not question his sexuality.

Mr Ritter’s lawyers have maintained that the trial is not about their client’s sexual relationship with Doe, but whether or not he killed her.

However, Ben Garner, an assistant US attorney for the district of South Carolina, told a federal jury that Mr Ritter “killed her to silence her”, after he reportedly became “enraged” after finding out Doe had told one of her friends about the relationship.

Text messages obtained by the FBI suggest that Mr Ritter sought to keep their relationship under wraps as much as possible. He would tell Doe to delete any communications between them which meant that the majority of messages exchanged by the pair in the months before her death were deleted.

On the day of Doe’s death in August 2019, the pair were pulled over by police. While it’s unclear what they were pulled over for, Doe got a $72 ticket, according to a text message she sent to her mother.

Two and a half hours later, police found her slumped over in the driver’s seat of her car which was parked in a driveway off a secluded road.

During the trial, witnesses have said that they saw Mr Ritter on the day of the death seemingly “on edge” following the hours the murder is thought to have taken place.

Kordell Jenkins, an acquaintance of Mr Ritter, testified that he saw him empty his book bag into a fire on the same day and that he asked Mr Jenkins to dispose of a small firearm.

Defence attorneys have said that Mr Ritter would not ask someone he barely knows to dispose of an alleged murder weapon.

Prosecutors for the case have said they will not seek the death penalty for Mr Ritter.

[insidecroydon]

Croydon's PCN fiasco: Perry's council is in another fines mess

Despite solemn assurances from senior council staff and the borough’s executive Mayor, piss-poor Jason Perry, some motorists claim that they have been served with demands for £195 fines or threats of a visit from bailiffs – without ever receiving the usual, required warning notice for an offence. And people who want to challenge this is unable to do so – with emails to the council ignored, and…

[offender42085]

Post 999

Paul Ellefritz, Kentucky inmate 298777, born 1986, incarceration intake in 2018 at age 31, sentenced to life, scheduled for parole consideration May 2036

Murder

A Radcliff, Kentucky man, showing no emotion, admitted to stabbing his female roommate in early November 2016 multiple times and killing her.

Paul Ellefritz Jr., 31, was given a recommended life sentence in the stabbing death of Kimberly Mayberger.

According to a sentencing fact sheet, Ellefritz killed Mayberger sometime between Nov. 5 and Nov. 7, 2016. She was discovered in the living room of a Park Avenue residence the two briefly shared, covered by bedding, Nov. 14 by Radcliff police.

Radcliff Police Department Sgt. Micah Skeeters said Wednesday afternoon after the sentencing that Mayberger had sought a roommate on Craigslist and that is how Ellefritz came into her life.

Authorities say Ellefritz also stole several items from Mayberger after her death, including a television and jewelery and took the items to pawn shops for money.

DNA evidence pushed the case to a plea, McCrary and Ellefritz’s public defender Adam Sanders said.

Ellefritz’s DNA was found on Mayberger, McCrary said. If the Commonwealth had decided to say the slaying occurred with aggravating circumstances, prosecutors could have sought the death penalty in the case.

McCrary applauded local investigators in the case. He said Skeeters, then a detective, displayed “steadfast persistence” in the investigation.

Ellefritz was arrested after police received a call from Walmart about a man stealing a 22-pound bag of dog food. He was charged with shoplifting when he was found walking with the dog food near New Street, about 150 yards from his apartment.

While Ellefritz was at the police station being questioned about May­ber­ger’s whereabouts, police executed a search warrant and found May­berger’s remains.

3l

[dertaglichedan]

Oregon: drug possession to be a crime again as decriminalization law expires

Oregon’s first-in-the-nation experiment with decriminalizing drugs will expire on Sunday as a new law taking effect will once again make it a crime to possess small amounts of hard drugs.

The new recriminalization law, HB4002, will give those caught with illicit drugs – including fentanyl, heroin and meth – the choice to either be charged with possession or treatment, which includes completing a behavioral health program and participating in a “deflection program” to avoid fines.

Personal-use possession would be a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. It aims to make it easier for police to crack down on drug use in public and introduced harsher penalties for selling drugs near places such as parks.

The recriminalization law encourages, but does not mandate, counties to create treatment alternatives to divert people from the criminal justice system and toward addiction and mental health services.

[charliegearhart]

2021 FARC Bummin' Beaver Tornado Alley Tour - Round 5 - Minnesota

I have returned from Minnesota Motorsports Park with highlights of an absolute nail-biter which saw, as predicted, high speed pack racing for the lightweight FARC late models!

Cody Lewis of Fortune Racing continued his qualifying streak by taking his third consecutive pole.

After 72 laps, Mindy Gunn edged out Kodi Richards in a photo finish to claim her second late model win, returning Lynxe to victory lane at Minnesota.

Unfortunately, Gunn's path to victory was not without controversy, as there was contact between her and Cody Lewis on lap 47 that shot both the pole sitter and Bobby Dwyer violently into the turn 2 wall.

Lewis easily had one of the dominant cars and led 21 laps before the wreck. Dwyer, in his home race, was enjoying the best performance of a career that has been overshadowed by the success of his relatives in the higher ranks (and with closer relations to the late great family patriarch Benny).

Gunn was penalized with a trip to the rear for the restart, but charged back through the field like she hadn't quite learned her lesson, putting herself three and four wide multiple times. However, she avoided causing further pain and took advantage of Kodi Richards sliding up in the final corner to poke her nose ahead at the line.

"I need to apologize to the 52 and 72." Gunn said in her frontstretch interview. "Those guys were fast and raced me clean, they didn't deserve that. I hope they're alright. I was way out of my league tonight. I gotta thank Lynxe and Nikki [Brillon, crew chief], they built a rocketship, they won this race, the driver was an idiot."

Bobby Dwyer and Cody Lewis were later transported to the hospital for observation and are both expected to be discharged in the morning.

Dwyer's father and car owner Darrin Craig was predictably upset by his son's wreck. "This is our home. They're [Lynxe] not gonna get away with this disrespect. They're not gonna kill my boy."

No further penalties are expected for Mindy Gunn and the Mint-Berry Berserkers, who now lead by 35 points over Gordon Tanner. Tanner was involved in the lap 22 wreck that eliminated Preston Orchard-Park and could only salvage 12th.

[fiercestpurpose]

According to Guyora Binder, of the University at Buffalo School of Law, the modern felony-murder doctrine is best understood as “a distinctly American innovation.” Although it was first applied early in the nineteenth century, use of the charge surged in the nineteen-seventies, when the era of mass incarceration began. Fifty years later, Binder contends, no country relies on the doctrine more. In Tulsa, two men attempted to steal some copper wire from a radio tower and accidentally electrocuted themselves. One of them died and the other was charged with first-degree murder while recovering from his burns in the hospital; the girlfriend of the deceased was also charged with murder, for having driven them to the tower. In Topeka, a twenty-two-year-old made the mistake of hiding his gun atop his girlfriend’s refrigerator; he was charged with first-degree murder several days later, when a child inadvertently fired it at a thirteen-year-old girl. In Minneapolis, a sixteen-year-old girl who sat in the car while two older men killed someone in a robbery was charged with felony murder. Deemed too young to enter the adult prison population after her conviction, she was placed in solitary confinement for months, purportedly for her own safety. In Somerville, Tennessee, last May, three teen-age girls overdosed on fentanyl in their high school’s parking lot before a graduation ceremony. Two of them died, and the surviving girl was charged with murder. For prosecutors, the felony-murder rule offers an efficient path to conviction: winning a case is much easier if you don’t need to prove a person’s mens rea—“guilty mind”—or even, in some cases, to establish that the accused was at the scene of the crime. Forty-eight states now have some version of the statute. Charlie Smith, the president of the National District Attorneys Association, told me that the tool is particularly useful in cases with vulnerable victims, such as an elderly woman in a wheelchair who gets assaulted in a purse-snatching incident and dies. “The community would feel it’s not reasonable if the old lady’s death was just a simple misdemeanor assault,” he said. Prosecutors often employ felony murder when a death results from an armed robbery—a category of crime that Smith contends, in the spirit of Hawkins, carries death as a foreseeable outcome. Another benefit to prosecutors is that the steep penalties often attached to felony murder—including life sentences—compel defendants to plead guilty to a lesser charge. “We shouldn’t underestimate how many plea bargains occur in the shadow of felony-murder charges across the country,” Ekow Yankah, a law professor at the University of Michigan, told me. “It is one of those quiet drivers of mass incarceration we never acknowledge.”

...

Another subset of felony-murder cases we examined involved shootings by people in law enforcement. In many states, when an officer fires a lethal gunshot at a crime scene, individuals who were with the victim may be charged with the killing. (The rationale is that, without the instigating felony, police wouldn’t have been on the scene in the first place.) We compiled twenty cases in which an officer pulled the trigger and someone else assumed the charge; the best known of these cases is that of LaKeith Smith. In 2015, when he was fifteen, LaKeith and four friends broke into two unoccupied homes in Millbrook, Alabama, to steal Xbox games and other electronics. A neighbor called the police, who appeared, guns drawn. LaKeith ran into the woods, and one of the officers shot and killed his friend, sixteen-year-old A’Donte Washington, who they said had a gun. The prosecution alleged that one of the older teen-agers had fired a shot, and a grand jury found that the officer’s use of force was “justified.” LaKeith was charged as an adult with murder, for the killing at the officer’s hand.

...

But, as some states pull back from the concept, others are expanding it. In Arkansas, legislators have considered a bill allowing district attorneys to charge women who obtain unauthorized abortions, and anyone who aids them, with felony murder. (In the Dobbs decision, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that abortion offered America its “proto-felony-murder rule”; in the colonies, if a doctor gave a pregnant woman a “potion” to aid in an abortion and she died, he could be charged with murder.) In the wake of Dobbs, other states have proposed legislation similar to the Arkansas bill. Some legislators are also pushing felony murder’s expansion into another fraught terrain: overdoses tied to the opioid epidemic. “These cartel bosses, who have taken advantage of the weakness of the Biden Administration, must be held accountable for the millions of lives they have destroyed with this horrific drug,” Senator Ted Cruz said recently, in support of a bill to make the lethal distribution of fentanyl punishable with federal felony-murder charges. A mere two milligrams of the synthetic opioid, which is cheaper than heroin and is often used as a filler by underground drug producers, can be a lethal dose. As deaths of unsuspecting users soar, red-state politicians have rallied around this cause. Some defenders and prosecutors argue that this hard line will lead to more deaths, as fellow-users hesitate to dial 911 when they witness an overdose. But proponents underline a payoff: that felony-murder prosecutions will bring down drug kingpins and major suppliers.

...

Could former President Trump be prosecuted for felony murder for urging on the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, which led to a number of deaths? Could fossil-fuel-company executives be held liable for murder for criminally deceiving the public about carbon emissions that killed people? If we take the felony-murder doctrine’s core premise seriously, it’s easy to imagine a radically different justice system. But, after two years of closely reviewing cases, I can state with confidence that the doctrine is rarely levelled against people of influence. It is used instead to impose some of our society’s harshest punishments on low-income defendants, young people, and defendants of color.

[ausetkmt]

A Florida judge is considering whether authorities should add hate crime charges against two of three men who allegedly chased a Black man into an alley and killed him.

Authorities found a 39-year-old Black man shot to death behind a dumpster at 6:45 a.m. on Tuesday, May 2 in Jacksonville, Florida. Two days later, police announced they’d arrested Ryan Christopher Nichols, 19, Daniel James DeGuardia, 18, and Holden Emery Dodson, 21, according to First Coast News.

Circuit Court Judge Kim Sadler said DeGuardia and Dodson’s charges could be upgraded to a hate crime.

“I’m not the state, it’s up to them, of course, what charges they bring,” Sadler told First Coast News. “But it was just a bunch of white guys chasing a Black guy and I didn’t see any reason for it.”

A hate crime charge would mean harsher penalties, according to Florida law. For instance, a second-degree felony would be upgraded to a first-degree felony.

The identity of the deceased Black man has not been released.

What happened?

Surveillance footage of the are showed a Jeep Grand Cherokee arriving near 100 North Julia Street and parking around 2:25 a.m. Three white men exit the vehicle and begin walking. Twenty minutes later, the Black victim is seen being chased by the men as he flees behind a dumpster. Moments later, the three white men return to the jeep and speed off.

Another video near a 7-Eleven revealed the license plate of the vehicle. Authorites tracked it to alleged accomplice DeGuardia’s mother’s home. DeGuardia allegedly reported his 9mm Glock as lost that night.

According to First Coast News, authorities also reported a 36-year-old Black woman had been shot and killed. Her body was found in a vehicle in the area of Boulevard and West 22nd Street. The Sheriff’s Office doesn’t believe the two homicides are related.

Anyone with information contact the Sheriff’s Office at (904) 630-0500 or First Coast Crime Stoppers at (866) 845-8477 (845-TIPS) to remain anonymous and be eligible for rewards. Or email JSOCrimeTips@jaxsheriff.org or rewards@fccrimestoppers.com.

Florida has a long history of hate crimes

The local Sheriff’s Office said that while the investigation is ongoing, there is “no information at this time” leading them to believe the attack was a hate crime. Notably, police officers around the nation are not obligated to report hate crimes to the FBI’s federal database.

Florida has a long history of hate crimes, however, in the form of racial terror lynchings.

At least 319 lynchings of Black people took place in Florida between 1877 and 1950, according to data from the Equal Justice Initiative. The state accounted for the 6th highest number of racial terror lynching during that period.

In Duval County, where Jacksonville resides, EJI documented eight lynchings during that period. One county over, in St. John’s County, where the three suspects all had previous addresses, one lynching reportedly took place.

In recent years, Florida has become a hot-bed of anti-Black sentiment through the passage of laws targeting Black history and limiting the political power of Black residents. The shooting adds to a deadly toll taking place around the country.

More Americans fell victim to gun violence in 2021 (48,830) than any previous year on record, according to Pew Research Center. Guns are also the leading cause of death for children and teens, Pew found.