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National, Regional and Local News

#1

Post by ti-amie »

Robert Snell
@robertsnellnews

Follow along as five people charged with plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer attend hearing in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Berens https://detroitnews.com/story/news/loca ... 922446001/

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Re: National, Regional and Local News

#2

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austerity is theft
@wideofthepost
With a *$600* relief check, you could pay the median monthly rent for January in approximately zero states.

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Re: National, Regional and Local News

#3

Post by ti-amie »

Robert Reich @RBReich

Can I let you in on a secret? We have the money to extend unemployment benefits and send the American people $1,200 direct payments.

The Pentagon spends $2,000,000,000 a day.
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Re: National, Regional and Local News

#4

Post by ponchi101 »

Yes, but remember you have to protect yourself against the Afghani Taliban and Isis, and their arsenal of... 1978 Toyota Land Cruisers with a .50 machine gun in the back? :?:
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Re: National, Regional and Local News

#5

Post by ponchi101 »

ti-amie wrote: Thu Dec 17, 2020 5:29 pm Robert Snell
@robertsnellnews

Follow along as five people charged with plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer attend hearing in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Berens https://detroitnews.com/story/news/loca ... 922446001/

...
What do they have in common? I wonder...
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Re: National, Regional and Local News

#6

Post by ti-amie »

US fraternities busted for 'large-scale' drug ring

US prosecutors have charged 21 people, including current and former university students, with operating a cross-country drug ring within fraternities.

Officials in North Carolina allege that the fraternities, which are male student social clubs, trafficked huge quantities of drugs from California.

Prosecutors say the group "poisoned" other students at events and parties with a large variety of illegal drugs.

The group allegedly used encrypted apps to funnel over $1.5m (£1.1m) in profit.

"This is not the situation where you have single users, where you have a 19-year-old sipping a beer or you have someone who is taking a puff of a joint on the back porch of a frat house," said US Attorney Matthew GT Martin at a news conference on Thursday.

"These are 21 hardened drug dealers."

Those arrested range in age from 21 to 35, prosecutors said. At least 11 of them had enrolled in North Carolina universities including Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Appalachian State University. Seven have already pleaded guilty to some of the charges.

Officials say many of the drug deals were conducted behind closed doors in fraternity houses - "frat houses" - and involved the sale of cannabis, cocaine, LSD, ecstasy, mushrooms, steroids, human growth hormones and other street drugs.

"There were sales going on inside these houses, dealers set up inside these houses, poisoning fellow members of their fraternity, fuelling a culture," Mr Martin added. "That's why I say today is about saving lives because this reckless culture has endangered lives."

Among the charges they face are conspiracy to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to distribute marijuana and and distribution of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet (305m) of a public or private college or university.

The investigation began in 2018, with prosecutors later finding that drug sales were being conducted within the Gamma Delta, Kappa Sigma and Beta Theta Pi fraternity groups.

According to officials, 22 Phi Gamma Delta "pledges" - younger students seeking initiation into the group - pooled their money together one year to buy an ounce of cocaine for a spring break vacation.

The charging document alleges that between March 2017 and March 2019, the supplier in California shipped two kilos of cocaine and 200lbs of marijuana each week to the group in North Carolina.

All three of the universities involved have vowed to assist investigators. The three fraternities have all released statements promising to hold accountable any members who were involved.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canad ... um=custom7
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Re: National, Regional and Local News

#7

Post by ponchi101 »

Wait.
Isn't this the script for ANIMAL HOUSE? I mean, at least one of the sub-plots...
Next thing you know, we will find out about unusual initiation rituals at these fine houses of education.
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#8

Post by ti-amie »

A Well-Known White Supremacist Has Been Arrested For Allegedly Kidnapping A 12-Year-Old And Police Believe There Are More Victims
Nathan Daniel Larson, who police described as a white supremacist and known advocate of pedophilia, has been the subject of national media attention in the past.

Clarissa-Jan Lim
BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on December 19, 2020, at 7:16 p.m. ET

Police in California say they have arrested a 40-year-old man, who they called a white supremacist and known advocate of pedophilia, for grooming a 12-year-old girl and allegedly coercing her to run away from home and fly across the country to meet him.

Nathan Daniel Larson of Virginia is currently being held in Denver County Jail and faces a misdemeanor charge of harboring a minor. He also faces felony charges in Fresno, California, — where the girl lives — for kidnapping, child abduction, soliciting child pornography from a minor, and meeting a child for the intention of sex.

Police believe that Larson has victimized more children in the past, and are urging anyone to come forward if they have information.

According to a release from the Fresno County Sheriff's Office, the girl was first reported missing on Dec. 12.

Investigators interviewed friends and family, and an acquaintance of the girl mentioned that she had met an older man on social media in October, police said at a press conference. She was coerced into running away with him, and caught a flight to Virginia.

Investigators then found out that a man, who was later identified as Larson, and a young girl boarded a plane heading to Washington, DC. The flight was scheduled for a layover in Denver, where local police then arrested him.

Law enforcement rescued the girl and arranged for her to be reunited with her family in Fresno. She was uninjured, police said.

"There was some activity including at the airport that was inappropriate between her and the suspect," law enforcement said. "That's going to help bolster the current charges that we have through the DA's office."

Officials discovered more information after Larson was taken into custody, according to the release. He allegedly flew to Fresno and went to the girl's house, coercing her to sneak out late at night. He called a ride share to pick her up, according to police, and they went to the Fresno airport together. Larson allegedly made her wear a wig and told her to act as if she was disabled and unable to speak so that she would not talk to anyone at the airport.

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Larson has been the subject of national media attention in the past. He pleaded guilty to sending a letter to Secret Service threatening to kill the president in 2008 (when George W. Bush was president and Barack Obama president-elect), and served 16 months in federal prison.

He also ran for local office in Virginia three times. Each time, he was either solidly defeated or withdrew.

According to the Fresno County Sheriff's Office, Larson runs a website encouraging child rape and sharing such material. While communicating with the 12-year-old girl in the past two months, "Larson was able to convince the Fresno girl, through manipulation and grooming, to send him pornographic images of herself," the sheriff's office said.

"Due to the sophisticated nature of how Larson groomed this Fresno girl, detectives believe he has victimized other children in the past, but those cases have never been reported to law enforcement," the sheriff's office said.

Larson faces life in prison if convicted of the felony charges in Fresno.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/cl ... n-arrested
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Re: National, Regional and Local News

#9

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RV that exploded in Nashville broadcast a message warning of imminent blast, police say
FBI, ATF leading investigation; three people were hospitalized with noncrititcal injuries

By
Derek Hawkins and
Paulina Firozi
Dec. 25, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. EST

The recreational vehicle that exploded in downtown Nashville Christmas morning broadcast a message from a loudspeaker warning of an imminent blast before it detonated, according to police, who called the incident an “intentional act.”

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A vehicle burns near the site of an explosion in downtown Nashville on Christmas Day. (Andrew Nelles/Tennessean.Com/USA Today Network/Reuters)

The explosion in the city’s Arts District destroyed storefronts, scattered ash and debris through the streets, and sent at least three people to the hospital with noncritical injuries, police said.

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Police block off Nashville's iconic Broadway while investigating the explosion, which is believed to be intentional. (William DeShazer for The Washington Post)

Law enforcement officials said in a midday news conference that a recorded announcement emanating from the RV warned people to evacuate the area in the minutes leading up to the blast.

In a video posted on social media, which the Washington Post has not independently verified, a voice can be heard saying, “This area must be evacuated now. If you can hear this message, evacuate now.” That was followed by the sounds of an explosion, and the video of the street scene turned to a blur.

Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron told reporters that “there were announcements coming from the RV, that’s the extent of what we can say at this point.” He said that police took the warning seriously, evacuated people from a residential area, and that “we think lives were saved by those officers.”

Three people were injured, including one officer who was knocked off his feet, Aaron said. He said “we know of no other imminent danger to the city,” adding that bomb-sniffing dogs were combing the area as a precaution.

Several of the buildings have structural damage, officials said. Police do not know whether anyone was in the RV when it exploded, “so I can’t tell you at this point whether there is a fatality in this scenario,” Aaron said.

Supervisory Special Agent Joel E. Siskovic said the FBI is leading the investigation, working with state and local authorities. He declined to say whether there were any suspects.

"Please tell us what you know," he said. "We need your leads. We need your help."

City Councilman Freddie O'Connell, who represents the area, tweeted that "dozens" of his constituents had lost their homes on a frigid holiday morning with snow expected.

"We will work together to get through this and rebuild," O'Connell tweeted.

Photos posted to social media by the city’s fire department showed broken windows, damaged trees and extensive property damage along a stretch of 2nd Avenue North in Nashville. Local TV stations showed footage of walls blown off of buildings.

“The main thing right now is public safety to make sure that everyone in the surrounding area is accounted for and, at the same time, ensuring that the city itself is safe from any other potential incident,” said Michael Knight, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Nashville, which is also probing the incident.

Investigators are working to create a timeline of events both before and after the explosion, Knight said.

Authorities responded to the area around 6 a.m. local time after receiving a report of shots fired on Second Avenue North.

When they arrived, Aaron said, they didn’t see any immediate evidence of gunshots but encountered a “suspicious” RV parked near an AT&T building and called a bomb squad to assist.

Officers went door to door, telling residents to evacuate, even turning around one man who was out walking his dog, Aaron said. Moments later, around 6:30 a.m., the RV detonated near the intersection of Second Avenue North and Commerce Street, smashing windows, signs and garage doors in the city’s Arts District and sending a ball of bright orange flames into the sky.

The police department’s hazardous devices unit was en route when the explosion occurred, Aaron said.

“We do believe the explosion was an intentional act,” Aaron said. “This investigation will be taking place throughout the day.”

Three people were taken to hospitals, Nashville Fire Department spokesman Joseph Pleasant said.

“None of those transports at this point are critical,” he said. “We don’t have any significant injuries to report.”

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Emergency personnel work at the scene of the explosion. (Mark Humphrey/AP)

Photos and videos from the scene showed shattered glass, strips of metal, tree branches and other debris littering the street, which is home to office buildings and a row of bars, restaurants and nightclubs.

“We have no indication there are secondary devices. However, out of an abundance of caution, we have a number of dogs that are conducting sweeps of that immediate downtown area at present,” Aaron said. He added that police would search downtown buildings, focusing on structures along Second Avenue, to ensure nobody was hurt inside.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper said he had toured the site, describing broken glass and insulation having been blown into the trees.

“It looks like a bomb went off on Second Avenue,” he said, while cautioning people against drawing conclusions prematurely.

“This is not how anybody wanted to spend Christmas morning,” he told reporters. “We are very lucky that there were not more injuries.”

“One more event in Nashville’s 2020,” he added.

The explosion was felt at nearby residential facilities, including a hostel and a condo building called the Exchange Lofts. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic and Christmas, there were far fewer people at those buildings than usual.

Windows and doors were blown out at the hostel, a low-cost residence for travelers, and the handful of guests were evacuated. At the upscale Exchange Lofts, where condos are typically owned as second homes by business executives, the impact of the explosion was recorded by a Nest security camera in a unit owned by music executive Aaron Trevethan.

In the video, the tranquil seen (sic) of couches and chairs arrayed around a flat-screen television is suddenly interrupted by sounds of a blast, which sent bright flashes of light through the windows, caused debris to fall from the ceiling, and resulted in a swaying effect captured by the camera.

Trevethan, who was at his California home when he was alerted early Christmas morning about the blast, said it is hard to tell the extent of damage from the video because “everything shook so bad.”

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) said in a tweet that he would “supply all of the resources needed to determine what happened and who was responsible.” He thanked first responders and called on Tennesseans to join him and his wife “in praying for those who were injured.”

The Justice Department said in a statement that acting attorney general Jeff Rosen had been briefed on the incident and had “directed that all DOJ resources be made available to assist in the investigation.”

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A vehicle burns near the site of the explosion. (Andrew Nelles/Tennessean.Com/USA Today Network/Reuters)

White House spokesman Judd Deere told The Washington Post in an email that President Trump has been briefed and is receiving updates. “The President is grateful for the incredible first responders and praying for those who were injured,” Deere wrote.

Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... hristmans/
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Re: National, Regional and Local News

#10

Post by ti-amie »

David Begnaud
@DavidBegnaud
CBS News reports a law enforcement source said one theory investigators are looking at, regarding the Nashville Christmas Day explosion, is the possibility that AT&T may have been the target or some other building or infrastructure in the area of the explosion.

The RV housing the explosive device was parked at the AT&T building in downtown Nashville since Christmas Eve a day before the explosion.

The blast caused considerable damage to AT&T, which apparently is a communication switch hub, knocking out internet & cell phone service throughout a wide area from Nashville to Alabama.

Investigators believe the explosion was an intentional act. They are speculating that human life was not the prime target as the explosion occurred on a Christmas morning when it was quiet & not many people in downtown Nashville and the recorded announcements from the RV prior...

... to the blast warning people that an explosion was imminent and then warning people to evacuate now as the time of the explosion grew closer to detonation.
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@DavidBegnaud
So we know that Trump failed to protect Americans from domestic terrorism and we also know somebody managed to take out TN telecommunications with a single RV bomb shortly after Russia hacked into our national security system.
David Begnaud @DavidBegnaud
BREAKING:
@jeffpeguescbs reports for CBS News: Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, is the person of interest in the Nashville Christmas Day explosion. At least 2 tips were called in to
@FBI about Warner, prior to the explosion. Quinn is a Nashville area resident

11m
Federal agents are at Warner’s address in the Nashville area, right now.
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Re: National, Regional and Local News

#11

Post by ponchi101 »

"...believe the explosion was intentional"? :shock:
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Re: National, Regional and Local News

#12

Post by Jeff from TX »

Some are saying it is tied to Dominion Voting Systems:
This came from Facebook via the Populist Press via Twitter -
Populist Press
Bombed AT&T Building Has Connections To Dominion…
Saturday December 26, 2020 11:46 AM

The rabbit hole connected with Dominion Voting Systems got a little deeper.

Multiple reports have shown there is a clear connection between the bombed AT&T building and Dominion Voting Systems.

According to Wikipedia and other outlets, Cerberus Capital Management owned the AT&T Building in 2007

Twitter
This might just be a strange coincidence...but

The ATT building in Nashville that was blown up today was owned by Cerebus Capital. Owners of Dominion Voting Systems,(the company many people are accusing of voter fraud) are former executives from Cerebus.
It seems like time is going backwards towards 1984 . . . :freaking:
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Re: National, Regional and Local News

#13

Post by ti-amie »

Nashville blast: investigators examine whether bomber had 5G paranoia
Blast caused damage to dozens of buildings and hurt three people as police reportedly search home of a person of interest

Richard Luscombe
Sun 27 Dec 2020 17.11 GMTFirst published on Sun 27 Dec 2020 16.38 GMT

Investigators are reportedly examining whether a suicide bomber with a fear of 5G technology could be behind a Christmas morning explosion in Nashville’s historic downtown that injured three people.

The blast, which caused extensive damage to dozens of buildings in Tennessee’s biggest city, took place outside a facility owned by the telecommunications company AT&T and knocked out or impaired mobile phone services in several other cities.

Federal agents spent the weekend looking into a 63-year-old man who owned an RV motorhome similar to the one that detectives believe was turned into a mobile bomb and driven to the scene.

Meanwhile, a Nashville television news channel reported that a person of interest, named as Anthony Warner from a south eastern suburb of the city, worked as an information technology consultant for a real estate company.

Steve Fridrich, a realtor who contacted the FBI after hearing the man’s name on a news bulletin, told WSMV TV that federal agents had asked him if Warner had a paranoia about 5G technology.

According to WSMV, sources close to the law enforcement investigation have said that among the various tips and lines of inquiry was one that suggested Warner bought into a conspiracy theory that 5G technology was being used to spy on Americans.

The FBI has not named a suspect, but searched Warner’s home in the Nashville suburb of Antioch after bomb squad technicians cleared the property. Earlier, a spokesperson said that human remains were retrieved from the site of the explosion, and that the agency was not actively looking for any more suspects.

DNA results on the human tissue was expected shortly.

Douglas Korneski, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Memphis field office, said that hundreds of agents were sifting through at least 500 tips and leads, and that it was too soon to focus on any particular theory.

“It’s just going to take us some time,” he said at a Saturday evening press conference. “We’re looking at every possible motive [and] our investigative team is turning over every stone.”

Asked whether the AT&T building could have been a possible target, Korneski said, “We’re looking at every possible motive that could be involved.”

On Sunday, the mayor of Nashville appeared to indicate that the 5G conspiracy theory could be relevant to the investigation. “To all of us locally, it feels like there has to be some connection with the AT&T facility and the site of the bombing,” John Cooper said on CBS’ Face the Nation.

“That’s just local insight, because it’s got to have something to do with the infrastructure.”

Cooper has been liaising closely with federal and local law enforcement agencies conducting the investigation, and also the Republican Tennessee governor Bill Lee, who has asked Donald Trump for a federal disaster declaration.

The president, meanwhile, was playing golf in Florida on Sunday and the White House had not responded to Lee’s request.

The blast occurred early on Christmas morning as police officers, called to the scene by reports of gunshots, attempted to evacuate local residents. A sinister recording blaring from the RV featuring a woman’s voice, interspersed with snippets of music, warned an explosion was imminent.

Two officers suffered non life-threatening injuries as the blast sent black smoke and flames billowing from the heart of downtown Nashville’s central tourist district.

Civil and emergency communications networks in Nashville and several other cities, including Louisville, Knoxville, Birmingham and Atlanta, were affected.

AT&T said Sunday it was rerouting service to other facilities as the company worked to restore its heavily damaged building. The company said in a statement that it was bringing in resources to help recover affected voice and data services and expects to have 24 additional trailers of disaster recovery equipment at the site by the end of the day.

Ray Neville, president of technology at T-Mobile, another mobile phone network provider, said on Twitter: “We continue to see service interruptions. Restoration efforts continue around the clock & we will keep you updated on progress.”

The outages briefly grounded flights at Nashville international airport, although service had returned mostly to normal by Saturday night. The federal aviation administration (FAA) issued flight restrictions around the airport until 30 December.

Cooper signed a civil emergency declaration for areas of Nashville affected by the explosion, including a curfew.

Associated Press contributed to this report

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... g-paranoia
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Re: National, Regional and Local News

#14

Post by ti-amie »

Were human remains found in the RV?
I read something about human remains being found and that Warner may have blown himself up.
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Re: National, Regional and Local News

#15

Post by ponchi101 »

Fairly strange indeed. That they found human remains seems to be true. But I wonder how much human remains may have been found after a blast like that.
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