National, Regional and Local News

[ponchi101]

Attempted murder. He did 40 years. That was his sentence.
He should not have been released? If so, he should have been sentenced to life. But he wasn't.

[JazzNU]

ARLINGTON, VA—Hopeful that the ruling would set a new precedent for such cases, advocates hailed John Hinckley’s unconditional release Monday for ending the stigma against trying to kill the president. “Presidential assassins and would-be assassins have been treated as second-class citizens in this country for centuries,” said National Alliance on Mental Illness spokesperson Katherine Schee, who applauded the federal judge’s decision to grant the man who wounded Ronald Reagan his freedom as an incredible victory for aspiring president shooters everywhere. “It’s heartbreaking to think about all of the young men and women over the decades who probably ideated about killing sitting presidents like Gerald Ford or Bill Clinton, but felt too scared or embarrassed to even try. Just look at the reprehensible way people treated John Wilkes Booth.” At press time, Schee added that the next step forward was decriminalizing presidential assassination.


https://www.theonion.com/john-hinckley- ... 1847754306

[ti-amie]

ARLINGTON, VA—Hopeful that the ruling would set a new precedent for such cases, advocates hailed John Hinckley’s unconditional release Monday for ending the stigma against trying to kill the president. “Presidential assassins and would-be assassins have been treated as second-class citizens in this country for centuries,” said National Alliance on Mental Illness spokesperson Katherine Schee, who applauded the federal judge’s decision to grant the man who wounded Ronald Reagan his freedom as an incredible victory for aspiring president shooters everywhere. “It’s heartbreaking to think about all of the young men and women over the decades who probably ideated about killing sitting presidents like Gerald Ford or Bill Clinton, but felt too scared or embarrassed to even try. Just look at the reprehensible way people treated John Wilkes Booth.” At press time, Schee added that the next step forward was decriminalizing presidential assassination.


https://www.theonion.com/john-hinckley- ... 1847754306

Did they let Sirhan go? I can't keep up.

[JazzNU]

Did they let Sirhan go? I can't keep up.

For real. Still debating. After the initial stories, it became clear the Kennedys that supported parole were not speaking for the whole family, and other Kennedys, including Robert's widow, came out in strong opposition.

[ponchi101]

Serious here.
A bit above I wrote that the man did his time. That was what the legal system imposed on him, and you can't have a system which, 40 years later, re-assesses your sentence. "Sorry, Mr. Hinckley*. We have decided that the judge 40 years ago was too lenient. We are imposing 20 more, just to be on the safe side".
My question: should the position of the person killed or attempted to be killed affect that outcome and sentencing? I remember people saying that Mark David Chapman SHOULD NOT be released from prison because he had killed Lennon, implying the crime was more heinous because of Lennon's persona.

Off Topic

* A man clearly showing signs of deep, deep mental issues.

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[ponchi101]

Sure. What is an office is also a question that perennially unemployed people may ask.

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FBI raids Sergeants Benevolent Association headquarters, union chief Ed Mullins' home

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- FBI agents raided the Manhattan headquarters of the NYPD's Sergeants Benevolent Association and the Long Island home of union chief Ed Mullins Tuesday.

No arrests were immediately made, a law enforcement official told ABC News,

"We are at the SBA office conducting activity connected to a law enforcement investigation," an FBI spokesman said.

The spokesman declined to detail the investigation, and a spokesman for the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.

Mullins, who lives in Port Washington, (Long Island) has been a vociferous critic of Mayor Bill de Blasio and once used an expletive to describe the city's former health commissioner after she clashed with police over the distribution of masks.

"It's much to soon to give you a meaningful comment," de Blasio said. "I literally got handed a note in the last 10 minutes or so. All I've been told is, 'The FBI has raided the SBA headquarters and it's in connection with an ongoing investigation,' but we don't have any further detail in that at this moment."

https://abc7ny.com/nypd-sergeants-benev ... /11084388/

[ti-amie]

Puerto Rico’s power grid in ‘critical condition,’ officials fear complete collapse
The situation has alarmed members of Congress who are concerned this may be the prologue to a complete collapse of the grid in the near future.


People walk in a street left in darkness by a power outage following a cyberattack in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, on June 10. Ricardo Arduengo / AFP - Getty Images file

Oct. 7, 2021, 3:32 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 7, 2021, 5:43 PM EDT
By Nicole Acevedo
Puerto Rico is in the process of declaring a state of emergency due to the "critical condition" of its generating power plants.

The declaration would help speed up "the acquisition of essential goods and services required to fix their generation units," Josué Colón, director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, said in a statement Wednesday evening.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority is not the only entity in charge of providing the U.S. territory's power supply.

Luma, a private company, has been in charge of the transmission and distribution of electricity on the island since June, while the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, a public corporation, continues to be in charge of controlling power generation units.

Since the power grid’s partial privatization, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans on the island have been subjected to constant blackouts. They've also experienced longer service restoration times, poor customer service and voltage fluctuations that often damage appliances and other home electronics.

The situation has alarmed members of Congress who are concerned that Puerto Rico's extreme power supply instability may be the prologue to a complete collapse of the grid in the near future.

On Wednesday, the House Natural Resources Committee hosted a congressional oversight hearing to examine the status of Puerto Rico’s electric network and its partial privatization.

During the hearing, when lawmakers asked if Puerto Rico's power system is nearing a complete collapse, officials in charge of Luma and the power authority answered with caution, describing the system's condition as "critical."

"The system was repaired after the hurricane, but not restored," Colón said about how the power authority has struggled with blackouts since Hurricane Maria decimated the island’s antiquated electric grid in 2017 — triggering the world’s second-longest blackout.

Wayne Stensby, Luma’s chief executive officer, said scheduled power supply interruptions and load-shedding to avoid excessive load on power-generating plants have helped avoid a collapse.

“That’s why it’s so critical that we continue on with repairs on generation and repairs and restoration on transmission,” Stensby said.

More than $11 billion in federal funds have been approved by Congress to upgrade Puerto Rico's power system, but no money has been disbursed yet pending further approval of specific projects that would help accomplish such goal.

The outages have increasingly outraged Puerto Rican residents fed up with their access to expensive and unreliable electricity. Protests have begun to take place on the island since Puerto Ricans saw a fourth increase in their electric bill this year, even though they already pay twice as much as mainland U.S. power customers.

More protests are scheduled for Friday and Oct. 15, when the coalition Todos Somos Pueblo is planning to block Expreso Las Américas, Puerto Rico’s busiest highway.

The congressional oversight hearing also examined the state of Puerto Rico's transition toward renewable energy as required by a local government law stating that the island must get 40 percent of its electricity from renewable resources by 2025 and be fully reliant on renewable energy by 2050.

Less than 3 percent of Puerto Rico's electricity currently comes from renewable energy sources.

Fernando Gil-Enseñat, head of the power authority's governing board, said that while they're trying their best to achieve such renewable energy targets, "the grid as it is right now isn't as efficient" because it's "designed to provide energy, not to receive it" — a factor that complicates their ability to integrate renewable energy sources.

Colón added, "Any modernization that can be accomplished to the actual fleet with technology that uses natural gas is going to help the system handle better the introduction of new renewable energy sources."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/pue ... d_ms_tw_lw

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Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, October 10, 2021

Maryland Nuclear Engineer and Spouse Arrested on Espionage-Related Charges

Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, both of Annapolis, Maryland, were arrested in Jefferson County, West Virginia, by the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) on Saturday, Oct. 9. They will have their initial appearances on Tuesday, Oct. 12, in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia. For almost a year, Jonathan Toebbe, 42, aided by his wife, Diana, 45, sold information known as Restricted Data concerning the design of nuclear-powered warships to a person they believed was a representative of a foreign power. In actuality, that person was an undercover FBI agent. The Toebbes have been charged in a criminal complaint alleging violations of the Atomic Energy Act.

“The complaint charges a plot to transmit information relating to the design of our nuclear submarines to a foreign nation,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The work of the FBI, Department of Justice prosecutors, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Department of Energy was critical in thwarting the plot charged in the complaint and taking this first step in bringing the perpetrators to justice.”

Jonathan Toebbe is an employee of the Department of the Navy who served as a nuclear engineer and was assigned to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, also known as Naval Reactors. He held an active national security clearance through the U.S. Department of Defense, giving him access to Restricted Data. Toebbe worked with and had access to information concerning naval nuclear propulsion including information related to military sensitive design elements, operating parameters and performance characteristics of the reactors for nuclear powered warships.

The complaint affidavit alleges that on April 1, 2020, Jonathan Toebbe sent a package to a foreign government, listing a return address in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, containing a sample of Restricted Data and instructions for establishing a covert relationship to purchase additional Restricted Data. The affidavit also alleges that, thereafter, Toebbe began corresponding via encrypted email with an individual whom he believed to be a representative of the foreign government. The individual was really an undercover FBI agent. Jonathan Toebbe continued this correspondence for several months, which led to an agreement to sell Restricted Data in exchange for thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency.

On June 8, 2021, the undercover agent sent $10,000 in cryptocurrency to Jonathan Toebbe as “good faith” payment. Shortly afterwards, on June 26, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe traveled to a location in West Virginia. There, with Diana Toebbe acting as a lookout, Jonathan Toebbe placed an SD card concealed within half a peanut butter sandwich at a pre-arranged “dead drop” location. After retrieving the SD card, the undercover agent sent Jonathan Toebbe a $20,000 cryptocurrency payment. In return, Jonathan Toebbe emailed the undercover agent a decryption key for the SD Card. A review of the SD card revealed that it contained Restricted Data related to submarine nuclear reactors. On Aug. 28, Jonathan Toebbe made another “dead drop” of an SD card in eastern Virginia, this time concealing the card in a chewing gum package. After making a payment to Toebbe of $70,000 in cryptocurrency, the FBI received a decryption key for the card. It, too, contained Restricted Data related to submarine nuclear reactors. The FBI arrested Jonathan and Diana Toebbe on Oct. 9, after he placed yet another SD card at a pre-arranged “dead drop” at a second location in West Virginia.

Trial Attorneys Matthew J. McKenzie and S. Derek Shugert of the National Security Division's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jarod J. Douglas and Lara Omps-Botteicher of the Northern District of West Virginia, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Lieber Smolar for the Western District of Pennsylvania are prosecuting the case on behalf of the government. The FBI and the NCIS are investigating the case.

A complaint is merely an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/maryland ... ed-charges

[ponchi101]

You are smart enough to work as a nuclear submarine engineer. But you are not smart enough to figure this one out?
Some people really have split personalities.