Daily Archives: November 14, 2020

IT GETS UGLIER AND UGLIER

IT GETS UGLIER AND UGLIER

Project Veritas could face legal liability for postal worker’s ballot fraud allegations

A Pennsylvania postal worker who initially alleged that a postmaster had tampered with mail ballots — an accusation embraced by Republicans as evidence of an unfair election — told federal investigators in a recorded interview that his sworn affidavit had been written by Project Veritas, and that he could no longer stand by his statement.

After congressional investigators said on Tuesday that the postal worker, Richard Hopkins, had “completely” recanted his allegation, Project Veritas posted a video of Hopkins denying that he had done so.

“I’m here to say I did not recant my statements,” Hopkins said in the video “That did not happen.”

The next day, Project Veritas posted a two-hour audio clip of Hopkins’ interview with U.S. Postal Service investigators, apparently in the belief that it would bolster Hopkins’ case and show that investigators had manipulated him into confessing.

The audio recording, which Hopkins himself made secretly and Salon has reviewed, does not indicate that, however. Hopkins repeatedly disavows any first-hand knowledge of misconduct by the postmaster, saying instead that his allegation was largely an assumption, drawn from pieces of a conversation he overheard amid the noise of a mail processing facility.

“I didn’t specifically overhear the whole story, Hopkins said…….

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CALIFORNIA NEVADA BORDER TOWN FOR SALE

CALIFORNIA NEVADA BORDER TOWN FOR SALE

Tiny Mojave Desert town of Nipton back on the market

CALIFORNIA NEVADA BORDER TOWN FOR SALE

Have you ever wanted to own an entire town? Now’s your chance. Nipton, California is a historic railroad town with a colorful past that was supposed to be transformed into a cannabis retreat. But that dream never materialized and the whole town is now back on the market.

Nipton, which is also known as Magical Nipton, is tucked away in the Ivanpah Valley, near the California – Nevada state line close to Las Vegas.

It has railroad tracks on one side and a massive Joshua tree forest on the other. Nipton feels both old and new at the same time.

The tiny desert town attracts star gazers, motorcycle riders, photographers, railroad buffs, and others seeking to escape city life, if just for a day.

A CANNABIS COMPANY HAD PLANS

Nipton made news a few years ago when a large cannabis company bought the town and planned to turn it into a marijuana themed retreat. The plans fell through so the townsite reverted back to its long time owners, who are again looking for just the right buyer.

Stephen Shearin arrived in 2017 as a consultant for American Green, a large cannabis company that bought the town for $5 million three years ago.

The company had ambitious plans to turn it into a cannabis retreat. It spent a lot of money on infrastructure, built several eco-cabins, comfy teepees for visitors, installed massive public art pieces, and did restoration work on some of the historic structures. But the cannabis retreat didn’t materialize, so the town reverted to its previous owner.

“This isn’t a suburb of Las Vegas. This is its own little place and you move here to get away from that.”

80 ACRES TOTAL

Stefan fell in love with Nipton, and is now the unofficial town manager. “So what they get is 80 acres. [It includes] the general store here, the trading post, the Whistle Stop Cafe over here, and the hotel which has five rooms. There are five eco-cabins, and then 10 sites out there that had teepees on them.”

There’s also a RV park, a historic schoolhouse, and spectacular art exhibits connected to the famous Burning Man event.

Nipton has an estimated 15 – 20 full time residents, and normally a few more visitors looking to drop off the grid for a while.

It started as the crossroads for two different wagon trails and a mining camp. The railroad built it into a town in 1905 and it became a center for area cattle ranchers, including Hollywood royalty Rex Bell and Clara Bow.

The two owned the Walking Box Ranch just down the road and now the hotel has the Clara Bell room. And yes, some say the hotel is also haunted and claim they have felt the presence of Clara Bow in her namesake room.

THE HISTORY OF THE TOWN

Roxanne Lang is the current owner of Nipton and shared her history with the town.

Her late husband Jerry Freeman worked and lived in Ivanpah Valley for over 50 years. Freeman came to Nipton  in the 60’s on the Union Pacific Railroad line from Los Angeles.

He was staking gold mining claims on the weekend when he was in graduate school at UCLA. He had previously earned a geology degree from Cal Tech.

It took him 20 years to establish a publicly traded gold mining company, Vanderbilt Gold, in Ivanpah Valley. He then started growing jojoba and bio-mass fuel plants in Ivanpah Valley in the 1980’s.

FIRST SOLAR PLANT IN THE VALLEY

During this time he purchased Nipton, which led to him convincing Lang to leave her home in Malibu and head east. Land said Freeman’s vision for Nipton was sustainability. Freeman did this by building a solar plant for the community, the first in Ivanpah Valley.

At one point in time, Nipton was called the most energy independent town in America and was featured in a New York Times article about going green.

Freeman passed away in 2016. The inscription on his tombstone tells his story: Visionary Extraordinaire,  Builder of teepees, towns and treasures. Captain of the desert and the sea.

Currently, Nipton is listed for sale at $2.75 million.

ONLINE GENEALOGY WEBSITE AIDS IN ARREST

ONLINE GENEALOGY WEBSITE AIDS IN ARREST

ONLINE GENEALOGY WEBSITE AIDS IN ARREST

A Texas man has been indicted in a cold case involving the torture and murder of a 17-year-old girl 46 years ago.

The indictment was handed up in Tarrant County in the killing of high school junior Carla Walker in 1974.

“Glen Samuel McCurley, 77, was indicted on a charge of capital murder,” District Attorney Sharen Wilson said Wednesday in a brief statement.

Carla Walker was 17 when she was tortured and killed in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1974. Glen Samuel McCurley, 77, has been indicted on a capital murder charge in her death.  (Fort Worth Police, Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office)

FORT WORTH POLICE WERE INVESTIGATING

Fort Worth police said Carla’s kidnapper snatched her from a parked car after going to a Valentine’s Day dance with her boyfriend, Fox 4 Dallas reported in September after McCurley’s arrest in the case.

The boyfriend was threatened with a gun, pistol-whipped and knocked unconscious.

Carla was held captive, tortured, raped and strangled. Her body was found days later.

Police interviewed McCurley about the crime after it happened. He lived in the area and owned the same type of gun used in the crime, according to the station. He told his interviewers his gun had been stolen.

Last year, cold case detectives working on the case released an old handwritten letter sent to a detective after the murder.

“(Blank) kild (sic) Carla Walker in Benbrook,” the letter said. “P.S. It is hard to say but it is true.”

Detectives said they were looking for the person who wrote it.

DNA LOADED TO GENEALOGY SITE AND A HIT WAS MADE

The break that led to McCauley’s arrest came after crime scene DNA was uploaded to a public genealogy website, leading to his identification as a suspect. They confirmed the match after obtaining his DNA from trash.

Fox 4 reported that in July detectives quizzed McCauley, who agreed to provide his DNA for further analysis. He denied knowing Carla or killing anyone.

The arrest elated Carla’s brother, Fox 4 reported.

“The feeling I had when I was notified, the word that came across my brain was finally, finally,” Jim Walker told the station “After 46 years, seven months and five days, we have a name a face and we’re moving toward complete resolution.”

THINK YOUR DNA IS YOUR OWN? THINK AGAIN

DAWG SAYS: I HAVE NO SYMPATHY FOR THIS JERK BUT ALWAYS REMEMBER BIG BROTHER IS ALWAYS WATCHING

DEMOCRATS NEW MEMBER DINNER CANCELLED

DEMOCRATS NEW MEMBER DINNER CANCELLED

Democrats abandon indoor Capitol meal for new House members after photo raises eyebrows

DEMOCRATS NEW MEMBER DINNER CANCELLED

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that lawmakers would continue to vote long distance, citing concerns about the coronavirus — but newly elected members were still set to eat together indoors.

Democrats’ plans for a meal at a stately hall in the Capitol building raised eyebrows Friday after a journalist’s tweet, though Pelosi (D-Calif.) insisted the arrangement would be safe and “very spaced.” Earlier in the day — with infections and hospitalizations surging nationwide — Pelosi had emphasized that a vaccine breakthrough should give people “hope” but urged people to “listen to science” and heed guidance including “isolation” and “separation.”

By evening, the new members event was changed to grab-and-go. The House’s newest legislators were already in the capital for an orientation like no other, filled with masks and new precautions.

“Our office strictly follows the guidance of the Office of Attending Physician, including for this dinner,” tweeted Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi. “To be a further model for the nation, this event has been modified to allow Members-elect to pick up their meals to go in a socially-distanced manner.”

Hammill emphasized later, as members picked up boxed meals and left, that there would be “no group dinner.” Republicans will also have a new members dinner, but House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s office did not immediately respond to inquiries about their plans.