NEWS OF THE FORCE: Sunday, January 10, 2016 - Page 2

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NEWS OF THE FORCE: Sunday, January 10, 2016 - Page 2

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U.S. Coast Guard

    

    The United States Coast Guard repatriated 216 Cuban migrants to Bahia de Cabañas, Cuba, within the past week.

    Coast Guard teams rescued over 200 sea turtles, including Loggerheads, Green, and Kemps Ridley turtles from the frigid waters off northern California.

    A massive tugboat remains at the bottom of the Mississippi River 25 days after a collision caused it to sink. U.S. Coast Guard officials are keeping a close watch to detect any possible oil leaks.

    The U.S. Coast Guard is warning residents to use caution when venturing onto any ice that may be covering Lake Superior.

    Illegal catches seized by Coast Guard boat crews sat on display at Station South Padre Island, Texas, on Friday. The Coast Guard netted 3,000 lbs. of shark and snapper from boats illegally fishing in Gulf Coast waters.

    Advocates for residents in southwest Detroit, Mich., are urging the U.S. Coast Guard to hold a public hearing on the Detroit International Bridge Co.

    The Philadelphia, Pa., police officer shot last week by a man claiming his allegiance to ISIS served in the Coast Guard Reserve, and spent two years on the East Lansdowne police force before becoming a Philadelphia police officer.

    Seventeen lighthouses along the Maine coast will be outfitted by the Coast Guard this winter with radio-activated foghorns.

    A 22-year-old crew member aboard USCGC Cushings lost consciousness during a search and rescue mission near Cape Lookout, N.C., and was airlifted to a hospital.

    The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary is taking part in a mission to rescue endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtles that are cold-stunned from the shores of Cape Cod, Mass.

    U.S. Congressman Ralph Abraham, who is also a volunteer for the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, is helping keep a sharp eye on the Mississippi River.

    And U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Swansboro Flotilla 20-10 is offering up-coming classes to help keep North Carolina's boaters safe on the water.

 

American Red Cross

    

    The American Red Cross serving San Bernardino County, Calif., has sheltering teams on standby for residents who are in need.

    And as communities across the South and the Great Plains face a barrage of natural disasters, Toyota is supporting the American Red Cross' critical relief missions.

 

NOAA news

    Last week, NOAA unveiled new super computers that will help track dangerous winter storms sooner and with more specific locations.

    And archeologists have discovered the wreckage of 33 ships lost for more than 144 years along Alaska's coastline. The "battered hulls" of two ships and parts of the other missing 31 were located this past fall, thanks to sonar and sensing technology, NOAA said. NOAA said another researcher believes the ships were pressed against a submerged sand bar.

 

Idaho family raising money to pay private investigator in search for missing toddler

    In Idaho Falls, Idaho, the family of missing toddler DeOrr Kunz, Jr., is trying to raise money to help them pay for a private investigator.

    They are required to pay a one-time bill of $20,000. As of last night the family has paid $7,000.

    DeOrr Kunz, Jr., vanished from a campground near Leadore, Idaho, six months ago. After no answers, the family hired Klien Investigators, out of Texas.

    A fundraising event will take place on Jan. 16. It will start a 2 p.m. at the Idaho Falls Eagles building on Hemmert Ave., in Idaho Falls. Tickets cost $10 and include a catered dinner. Business from all over the country have donated raffle items. Raffle tickets cost $1, or 25 tickets for $20. The family is selling tickets at the Walmart in Ammon, Idaho, today from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. All proceeds will pay for the investigator.

    If you want to help, contact Trina Clegg at tclegg917@gamailcom .

 

Today in military history

    On Jan. 10, 1475, Moldavia defeated the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui. In 1776, the "Common Sense" pamphlet was published by Thomas Paine, advocating America's independence. In 1806, Dutch forces in Cape town surrendered to British forces. In 1861, during the U.S.' Civil War, Florida seceded from the Union; Ft. Jackson and Ft. Philip were overtaken by Louisiana troops; and U.S. forts were seized by Mississippi. In 1862, the Battle of Big Sandy River began in Kentucky.; and the Battle of Romney, W. Va., began. In 1863, Union troops surrendered and captured Ft. Hindman, in Arkansas. In 1889, Ivory Coast was declared to be a "protectorate" of France. In 1906, the British and France began consultations on naval and military issues. In 1911, the first photograph from an airplane was taken over San Diego, Calif. In 1912, Glenn Curtiss piloted the maiden flight of the world's first flying boat over New York. In 1916, Russian forces began an offensive in Kaukasis; and in Mexico, Pancho Villa's revolutionary army took 17 American mining engineers from a train and killed 16 of them. In 1917, the Allied governments responded to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's note giving their terms for ending WW I. IN 1920, the inauguration of the League of Nations was held in Paris, France. In 1923, the last U.S. troops left Germany's Rhineland; and Lithuania seized and annexed the nation of Memel. In 1925, Allied forces refused to leave the cologne areas of Germany, as they had previously agreed. In 1941, during WW II, the Greek army captured Kleisoura. In 1942, Japanese forces invaded North Celebes, in the Netherlands Indies. In 1943, a Russian offensive began against Germany's 4th and 6th Armies near Stalingrad. In 1944, British troops captured Maungdaw, in Burma. In 1946, the U.N. General Assembly met in London for the first time; and in Belmar, N.J., the U.S. Army established radar contact with the moon for the first time. In 1947, British warships stopped the ships Independence and In-Gathering from making port in Israel; and the Greek steamer Himara struck a wartime mine south of Athens, killing 392 of the 637 people who were aboard. In 1951, United Nations headquarters opened on Manhattan Island, in New York City; and the first flight of a jet passenger plane was made. In 1964, battles between Muslims and Hindus began in India; and Panama severed its diplomatic relations with the U.S. In 1966, Pakistan and India signed the Tashkent Declaration peace accord. In 1966, Julian Bond was denied a seat in the Georgia Legislature for opposing the Vietnam War. In 1969, Sweden recognized North Vietnam. In 1984, the U.S. and the Vatican established diplomatic relations for the first time since 1867. In 1985, leftist Daniel Ortega Saavedra was inaugurated as the president of Nicaragua. In 1991, the U.S. Congress began debating the Persian Gulf crisis. In 1994, Ukraine said it would give up the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal.  In 1996, Israel freed hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from its prisons; and Jordan's King Hussein visited Israel. And in 2013, 81 people were killed and 120 were wounded by a twin bombing in Quetta, Pakistan.

 

The parting shots

    The proposed St. Louis, Mo., riverfront stadium plan is inadequate, and will not require the National Football League (NFL) to block the St. Louis Rams from moving to Los Angeles, Commissioner Roger Goodell said yesterday in a report to team owners. Goodell concludes that city leaders in all three of the communities hoping to keep their teams - Oakland, San Diego and St. Louis - have missed their opportunity, said a person who has read the report and spoke to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on condition of anonymity. The report, sent yesterday morning to all 32 team owners, does not approve a Rams move to Los Angeles, the source said; NFL owners still have to vote on team relocation. But it suggests that all three teams have satisfied the NFL’s re-location guidelines, opening a clear path for the owners to choose the Rams - the only team that could have been barred this year by a hometown effort. Oakland has not submitted a formal proposal, and San Diego’s plan is contingent on a public vote this summer. The report is also a signal that NFL executives expect owners to vote on relocation at a league meeting Tuesday and Wednesday in Houston, Texas. Yesterday evening, an NFL spokesman confirmed that Goodell had sent the report, and that the action is prescribed in the league’s relocation guidelines, but said the NFL had no further comment. Dave Peacock, co-chairman of the state task force planning the $1.1 billion riverfront stadium in St. Louis, said that he had heard the news, but hadn’t seen the report and wouldn't comment. “I'd be responding to a rumor,” he said. A statement sent by the task force later yesterday evening said that members do not expect to see the report, “as that would be a matter between the league office and team owners. We do hope the NFL will communicate with all home markets as to their status prior to any decisions next week,” the task force statement continued, “particularly here in St. Louis, where so many people have dedicated themselves over the past 14 months to producing a strong and certain stadium proposal for the NFL and our hometown Rams." The task force said it remained confident that its proposal would “speak extremely well on behalf of St. Louis as the NFL deliberates next week.” Goodell’s report, according to the person who had read it, is 48 pages long and examines what the NFL sees as the facts of each hometown’s proposal to build a new stadium and keep their teams. Goodell says in the report that city leaders in each town agree that their current stadiums don’t work. And each city had “ample opportunity, but did not develop proposals sufficient to ensure retention of their teams,” the source said, citing the report. In St. Louis’ case, Goodell says the task force’s riverfront stadium plan is uncertain. The Missouri Legislature could block payment of bonds necessary to build the facility, the report notes. And the task force asked for $300 million in league stadium funding, $100 million “in excess of the maximum provided under current policy,” the source said, again citing the report. Goodell said in the report that the Rams have the right to relocate, as a contingent of their lease with the Edward Jones Dome, the source said. The Dome Authority, a public body, failed to meet requirements of the lease, the source said, and defaulted. In addition, Goodell’s report declares that both Los Angeles plans - Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s Inglewood stadium, and the Raiders’ and Chargers’ joint venture in Carson - are “first class stadiums,” the source said. Both can host two teams; both are ready for development now. And NFL market research supports the conclusion that the L.A. area is capable of supporting two teams, the source continued. Goodell also notes in the report, the source said, that the league hasn’t approved a franchise relocation in nearly two decades, and continues to place a “high value” on team stability.

    In Vatican City, some slept, some squirmed, some smiled and some screamed. And a few were named Francesco or Francesca. Pope Francis welcomed 13 boys and 13 girls into the Catholic Church today during the annual ceremony that marks the day in the liturgical calendar when Jesus was baptized. Gurgles and wails nearly drowned out the organ and choir, echoing off the stone floors and frescoed walls of the Sistine Chapel. In his off-the-cuff and deliberately brief homily, Francis urged the parents to teach their children the faith. And as he has done in previous years, he told the mothers to go ahead and nurse their hungry babes. "One bit of advice to the moms: When a baby cries because he's hungry, feed him. Feel free to feed him here."

    In December, Canada's supportive organization The Transgender Project released a biographical video of the former Paul Wolscht, 46, and the father of seven children with his ex-wife Marie, describing his new life as not only a female, but a six-year-old female, Stephoknee Wolscht. She told the Daily
Xtra (a gay and lesbian news site) that not acting her real age even while doing "adult" things like working a job and driving a car, enables her to escape "depression and suicidal thoughts." Among the trans-age's favorite activities are coloring-book coloring, creating a play-like "kingdom," and wearing "really pretty clothes." Stephoknee now lives with the couple who adopted her.

    In today's most notable birthdays (Jan. 10): Rock singer Pat Benatar is 63-years-old today. Today is the birthday of pop singer Jim Croce (1943-1973); Today is the birthday of entrepreneur Roy E. Disney (1930-2009); Boxer George Foreman is 67; Singer Frank Sinatra, Jr., is 72; Rapper Chris Smith is 37; British singer Rod Stewart is 71; and boxer Felix Trinidad is 43.

    Police in St. Petersburg, Fla., reported the December arrest of a 12-year-old boy whose rap sheet listed "over 20" arrests since age 9. He, on a bicycle, had told an 89-year-old driver at a gas station that the man's tire was low, and when the man got out to check, the boy hopped in the car and took off.

    A driver accidentally plowed through two small businesses in Pensacola, Fla., in December, creating such destruction that the manager of one said it looked like a bomb had hit (forcing both- a tax service and a casket company to relocate. The driver told police he was attempting to "travel through time."

    Breen Peck, 52, an air traffic controller who has been having career troubles in recent years, was arrested during a traffic stop on New York's Long Island in December when officers found illegal drugs in his car. "That's meth," he said. "I'm an air traffic controller. I smoke it to stay awake."

    In a "she-said/he-said" case, wealthy Saudi businessman Ehsan Abdulaziz, 46, was acquitted of rape in December in England's Southwark Crown Court, apparently persuading jurors of "reasonable doubt" about his DNA found in the alleged victim's vagina. Perhaps, his lawyer said, Abdulaziz was still aroused after sex with the other woman in the room and accidentally fell directly upon the alleged victim, who was lying on a couch.

    Christopher Manney was fired from the Milwaukee (Wis.) Police Department in 2014 after shooting a black suspect to death in a case bearing some similarity to 2015 shootings that produced "Black Lives Matter" protests - not fired for the shooting (adjudged "not excessive force") but for improper actions that preceded the shooting (not announcing a valid reason for a pat-down and conducting a not-by-the-book pat-down). Two days before the firing, he had filed a disability claim for post-traumatic stress disorder from the shooting and aftermath, and in November 2015 the city's Annuity and Pension Board, following city law, approved the claim. Thus, Manney, despite having been subsequently fired (i.e., two days later), retired with full disability, with basically the same take-home pay he was receiving when fired.

    In November, as anti-Muslim tensions arose in several U.S. cities following the Paris terrorist attack, two chapters of the Satanic Temple church (in San Jose, Calif., and Minneapolis, Minn.) offered to protect Muslims who feared a backlash. The Minneapolis group offered "just big dudes walking you to where you need to be," for example, grocery-shopping - an offer "of genuine compassion for our fellow human beings." The offer was subsequently rescinded by the Minneapolis church's executive ministry, reasoning that
they are "not a personal security service."

    In November, a 62-year-old customer at Ancient City Shooting Range in St. Augustine, Fla., was hit in the lower abdomen area by another shooter, 71, because the victim was standing behind the target "for some reason," was all a fire-rescue spokesman would say. The shooter thought the man was elsewhere on the property.

    Jasper Harrison, 47, working inside the storage unit in Edgewater, Fla., where he grows his marijuana, heard a helicopter overhead on Dec. 9th, panicked, and called 911 to turn himself in to pre-empt what he presumed was a SWAT raid. Actually, the helicopter belonged to a local news station headed
elsewhere, but police later arrested Harrison based on the 911 call.

    Lloyd Franklin, 34 and suspected in a North Carolina double murder, fatally shot himself in a Bensalem, Pa., motel room in November when police knocked on the door. However, the cops actually had come to arrest another man in the room, on a parole violation.

    Elaine Williams, 47, was arrested last month in North Forsyth, Ga., and charged with trying to buy a baby for her daughter, 14, via an ad on Craigslist. Williams said her daughter said she "wanted a baby and would get one with or without my help." (Bonus: Williams lives near Jot Em Down Road.)

    Two foreign students at the liberal-arts Oberlin College complained in a recent school publication that the cafeteria selections - supposedly "inclusive" of world cultures - was actually denigrating those cultures by offering inferior versions of national dishes. Vietnamese student Diep Nguyen wrote that the
correct "banh mi" sandwich should be a "crispy baguette with grilled pork, pate, pickled vegetables, and fresh herbs" and not, he complained, "ciabatta bread, pulled pork, and coleslaw." Said Japanese student Tomoyo Joshi, sushi with "undercooked rice and lack of fresh fish is disrespectful." Cafeteria managers told The Washington Post they were proud of their commitments to other cultures, to local farming, sustainable foods, and animal-treatment concerns.

    A customer had to be dragged from a burning sex shop by firefighters in the notorious Reeperbahn "sin" section of Hamburg, Germany, in November when he refused orders to evacuate. He had shut himself inside a private booth to watch a film ("Throbbin Hood") and was heard complaining while coughing from smoke inhalation, "I haven't finished yet."

    And police in Richmond, Va., announced last month that high school math teacher Kenneth Johnson, III, turned himself in for several recent residential shoe thefts. Each time, the shoes taken from homes were returned to
their owners - but with "bodily fluids" added.

    (Some of today's "The parting shots" entries were provided courtesy of newsoftheweird.com, in Tampa, Fla.)

 

 

  

 

 

 

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