Daily Archives: December 12, 2015
Séances out Wi-Fi in
Moscow cemeteries to get free Wi-Fi
The Russian capital is set to roll out free Wi-Fi at its largest cemeteries in 2016. Moscow already provides free wireless internet access in parks and in the Metro.
Moscow’s three largest cemeteries will pioneer the technology in their recreational zones, allowing people not only to surf the web for any purpose they choose, but to access cemetery services as well, such as a map of the area.
“It will be useful for visitors to have Wi-Fi access at the cemetery. Anyone who would want to know more about the deceased or a gravestone could find that information online,” Artiom Ekimov, head of funeral home Ritual, said.
Two Moscow cemeteries have already undergone a high-tech injection and now boast terminals that provide the GPS location of the requested burial site, photographs of the deceased and the dates of their funerals. Authorities plan to equip all Moscow cemeteries with such terminals in the near future.
ACLU Board Member Resigns After Encouraging Shooting Trump Supporters
An American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Board Member in Colorado has resigned after making national news headlines for urging people to kill Donald Trump supporters.
Loring Wirbel of Colorado Springs, posted on Facebook, “The thing is, we have to really reach out to those who might consider voting for Trump and say, ‘This is Goebbels. This is the final solution. If you are voting for him I will have to shoot you before Election Day.’ They’re not going to listen to reason, so when justice is gone, there’s always force…”
ACLU of Colorado issued the following statement after the controversy, saying the organization:
…does not condone the recent personal Facebook post of regional volunteer Loring Wirbel. The ACLU of Colorado is a nonpartisan organization. We do not endorse candidates or parties. We have proudly spent decades fighting for the rights of all Coloradans, regardless of political affiliation, to vote and to freely participate in the political process. Our members, supporters, and volunteers are free to express their own personal views and opinions in their personal lives. We have fought for decades to preserve that right, as well, for all Coloradans, no matter how strongly we disagree with the content. However, the personal posts of members, supporters, and volunteers on their own personal social media sites should not be mistaken for endorsements or official statements of the ACLU of Colorado.
The CBS affiliate in Denver reports this is the second incident in one week where Republicans have been threatened.
“It’s almost like, you will think the way we think, you will do what we want you to do, or we eliminate you?” Colorado’s Republican Party Chair Steve House stated. “I think we have to be prepared as a party and I think politics is just overdone. We’ve got to realize the country needs to pick leader and we need to do a serious job of doing that but this kind of rhetoric really doesn’t help at all and frankly it scares us and people need be worried about it a little bit.”
Sadly this is the type talk you get from people who think they are the only ones with a right to an opinion. And rights is something they are supposed to be defending. Not to mention liberals are supposed to be so anti violence and against the use of guns.
MASH’s ‘Colonel Potter’ dies aged 96
Prolific character actor Harry Morgan, who appeared in more than 100 films but was best known for his role as Colonel Sherman Potter in the popular television series MASH, has died at his Los Angeles home aged 96.
A representative for his son, producer Christopher Morgan, confirmed the actor’s death.
In 1980 Morgan won an Emmy for his work on the anti-war comedy series MASH playing the upstanding commanding officer of a US Army surgical hospital during the Korean War.
Morgan appeared in MASH from 1975 to 1983.
He also appeared as Officer Bill Gannon on television crime series Dragnet from 1967 to 1970, alongside Jack Webb.
Morgan’s ability to play a variety of roles – dramatic and comedic – made him an actor in demand for half a century. He starred in about a dozen US TV series, starting in the 1950s, and appeared in movies with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
He appeared in The Ox-Bow Incident in 1943 with Henry Fonda, High Noon in 1952 with Gary Cooper, The Glenn Miller Story in 1954 with Jimmy Stewart and Inherit The Wind in 1960 with Spencer Tracy.
But it was his role on MASH, the long-running series on the CBS network, that earned him his most fame.
The series was adapted from the successful 1970 feature film of the same name, presenting an anti-war theme at the same time the United States was extricating itself from the Vietnam War.
Morgan was not one of the original cast members.
The TV series began in 1972 but his first appearance came in a guest-starring role during its third season.
He later signed on as a full-time cast member in 1975 after actor McLean Stevenson, who had played the fictional unit’s commanding officer, left the show.
Morgan was born Harry Bratsberg in Detroit in 1915 and worked on stage before making his way to Hollywood.
He was married twice and had four children with his first wife, Eileen, who died in 1985 after the pair had been together 45 years.
One son, Daniel, died in 1989.
He is survived by three other sons, eight grandchildren and his second wife, Barbara Bushman.
Harry Morgan was also great in a lot of old westerns I see on Encore westerns, I love this guy.
Oaklahoma officer convicted of Rape
In many cases, victims were among society’s most vulnerable:
juveniles, addicts, women in custody
Convicted former officer may spend the rest of his life in prison
AP probe found 1,000 officers lost their licenses for sexual misconduct
Former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw, center, was convicted of raping and sexually
victimizing eight women on his police beat in a minority, low-income neighborhood.
The teenager’s mother clapped her hands and screamed with joy as she watched an Oklahoma City jury convict a former police officer of raping her daughter and sexually assaulting seven other women.
Minutes after 29-year-old Daniel Holtzclaw was found guilty, the mother of his youngest accuser said she hoped the case would show that the problem of police sexual misconduct wasn’t limited to one officer or one department.
“It’s a problem for the nation,” she told The Associated Press.
Holtzclaw was convicted Thursday night of preying on the teenager and other women he met on his police beat in a minority, low-income neighborhood. He could spend the rest of his life in prison based on the jury’s recommendation that he serve a total of 263 years, including a 30-year sentence on each of four first-degree rape convictions.
Former Oklahoma City Police Officer Found Guilty of Sexual Assault
KFOR – Oklahoma City, OK
In total, the jury convicted Holtzclaw of 18 counts connected to eight of the 13 women, all of whom were black, who testified against him. Jurors acquitted him on 18 other counts. He sobbed as the verdict was read aloud.
His case brought new attention to the problem of sexual misconduct committed by law enforcement officers, something police chiefs have studied for years.
Holtzclaw’s case was among those examined in an Associated Press investigation of sexual misconduct by law enforcement. The AP’s yearlong probe revealed about 1,000 officers had lost their licenses for sex crimes or other sexual misconduct over a six-year period.
The AP’s finding is undoubtedly an undercount of the problem. Not every state has a process for banning problem officers from re-entering law enforcement. And of those states that do, great variations exist in whether officers are prosecuted or reported to their state licensing boards.
A common thread among cases of police sexual misconduct was they involved victims who were among society’s most vulnerable: juveniles, drug addicts, and women in custody or with a criminal history.
That’s exactly who authorities accused Holtzclaw of targeting.
After receiving a report from a grandmother who said Holtzclaw forced her to perform oral sex during a traffic stop, police identified a dozen other women who said Holtzclaw had victimized them.
The youngest was the 17-year-old girl. She was the last to testify at Holtzclaw’s trial.
The girl recalled Holtzclaw pulling up in his police car as she walked home one night in June 2014. Holtzclaw drove her to her family’s home and walked her to the porch, where he told her he had to search her. She said he grabbed her breasts, then pulled down her pink shorts and raped her.
She testified that he asked if it was the first time she had ever had sex with a cop. Her DNA was found on his uniform trousers.
Holtzclaw’s attorney, Scott Adams, asked the girl during the trial about perceived inconsistencies in her testimony as well as her use of drugs. She pushed back at one point, telling him, “I’m really getting upset by the way you’re coming after me.”
The jury convicted Holtzclaw of first-degree rape, second-degree rape and sexual battery in the girl’s case.
Her mother said her daughter didn’t want to talk about the case anymore, but that she was relieved about the conclusion of a “long journey to justice.”
“I feel like justice has been served today,” she said. “It is a comfort to us all.”
The AP does not identify victims of sex crimes without their consent and is not using the mother’s name so as not to identify her daughter.
Several of Holtzclaw’s accusers had been arrested or convicted of crimes, and his attorney made those issues a cornerstone of his defense strategy. Adams questioned several women at length about whether they were high when they allegedly encountered Holtzclaw. He also pointed out that most did not come forward until police identified them as possible victims after launching their investigation.
Ultimately, that approach did not sway the jury to dismiss all the women’s stories.
Holtzclaw was convicted of one of two charges related to a woman who testified he gave her a ride home, then followed her into her bedroom where he forced himself on her and raped her, telling her, “This is better than county jail.”
That woman testified in orange scrubs and handcuffs because she had been jailed on drug charges hours before appearing in court. But the jury still convicted Holtzclaw of forcible oral sodomy in her case.
Adams declined to comment after the verdict was read.
Holtzclaw, who turned 29 on Thursday, was a former college football star who joined law enforcement after a brief attempt at pursuing an NFL career. He was fired before the trial began.
His father – a police officer in Enid, about 100 miles northwest of Oklahoma City – his mother and sister were in the courtroom as the verdict was read. At least one accuser was present, as well as several black community leaders.
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said after the verdict that Holtzclaw’s attorneys were responsible for ensuring there was an all-white jury considering the case. Some supporters of the women questioned whether the jury would fairly judge their allegations. Holtzclaw is half-white, half-Japanese.
Prater said he wanted a jury that was a “good cross-section of our community,” but defense attorneys eliminated every potential black juror during the selection process.
He added that he hoped the case showed that his office and local law enforcement will stand up for any one, no matter their race or background.
“I don’t care what they look like, where they go to church, what god they worship, or how much money they make,” he said. “We stand up for people in this community.”
He went out of the courtroom after conviction like a little whiney bitch……..
The dog is more reliable…….
Syrians arrested on suspicion of making explosives, gas
Switzerland’s attorney general’s office and the Swiss Federal Police Office say they have opened criminal proceedings against two Syrian citizens on suspicion they manufactured, concealed and transported explosives and toxic gases and also allegedly violated bans on militant groups like al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.
The attorney general said in a statement the two people, who were not further identified, were arrested Friday in the Geneva area.
It was not immediately clear Saturday if the two had any connection with the four suspects with alleged ties to ISIS that Geneva authorities have been searching for.
Local authorities were to provide further details in a press conference later Saturday.
Close but off “Target”
