| Race is 'America's Achilles' heel,' Harris tells African-American group Posted: 13 Jul 2019 03:31 PM PDT  Speaking to an African-American fraternity's annual conference Saturday, Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris warned that Russia is seeking to divide Americans along racial lines.
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| Teen girl bitten by shark while boogie boarding Posted: 14 Jul 2019 01:14 PM PDT  A 16-year-old girl has been bitten by a shark while boogie boarding in Florida, police say.
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| Heavy rain leaves scores dead in Nepal, India, Bangladesh Posted: 14 Jul 2019 04:35 AM PDT  Flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rainfall have killed at least 50 people in Nepal in the past few days, with more deaths reported across the border in India and Bangladesh, officials said Sunday. At least 30 other people were missing in Nepal, either swept away by swollen rivers or buried by mudslides since monsoon rains began pounding the region on Friday, Nepal's National Emergency Operation Center said.
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| A car sank into the sand at an Alabama beach after its owner parked close to the shore ahead of Hurricane Barry Posted: 13 Jul 2019 09:09 AM PDT  The owner of the car made the mistake of parking it close to the beach as then-Tropical Storm Barry caused tides to rise suddenly on Friday.
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| Teacher jailed for 20 years after having sex with 13-year-old boy Posted: 14 Jul 2019 07:40 AM PDT  A teacher has been jailed for 20 years after she admitted having sex with a 13-year-old boy multiple times.But Brittany Zamora, 28, insists she's a "good and genuine person" who is "not a threat to society".Police say she had sex with the boy multiple times, both in her car and her classroom, including one occasion when an 11-year-old pupil was in the room acting as lookout.She admitted 10 counts of sexual misconduct with a minor, two counts of molestation, two of furnishing sexually explicit material to a minor and one of public sexual indecency.She cannot be released early for good behaviour and must serve the entire two-decade term behind bars.The former sixth-grade at Las Brisas Academy in Arizona was caught when the victim's parents noticed he was acting unusually, and installed monitoring software on his phone.The boy's mother told the court: "Before, he was an innocent child, and now she stole his innocence from him. I hate Brittany Zamora for what she did to my son and family."Now you'll spend the rest of your youth and most of your adulthood in jail... I will not allow you to interfere in my son's life further."When she was arrested, Zamora told police she feared she would not survive behind in jail, saying: "I'm little. They're gonna tear me apart."Zamora and her husband Daniel appear to still be on good terms, he told the court: "She is the best person I've ever known."
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| New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized for his absence during the city's partial blackout Saturday night: 'You have to be on site' Posted: 14 Jul 2019 12:34 PM PDT  Governor Andrew Cuomo and other New Yorkers were annoyed de Blasio was campaigning for his long-shot presidential campaign, and not in the city.
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| Hong Kong protesters clash with police on border with mainland China Posted: 13 Jul 2019 05:43 AM PDT  Hong Kong protesters clashed with police on Saturday in a town near the boundary with mainland China where thousands rallied against the presence of Chinese traders, seizing on another grievance following major unrest over an extradition bill. The demonstration in the Hong Kong territorial town of Sheung Shui, not far from the Chinese city of Shenzhen, began peacefully but devolved into skirmishes and shouting. Protesters threw umbrellas and hardhats at police, who retaliated by swinging batons and firing pepper spray. Later in the day Hong Kong police urged protesters to refrain from violence and leave the area. The protest was the latest in a series that have roiled the former British colony for more than a month, giving rise to its worst political crisis since its 1997 handover to China. Sometimes violent street protests have drawn in millions of people, with hundreds even storming the legislature on July 1 to oppose a now-suspended extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects in Hong Kong to be sent to China to face trial in courts under ruling Communist Party control. Critics see the bill as a threat to Hong Kong's rule of law. Chief Executive Carrie Lam this week said the bill was "dead" after having suspended it last month, but opponents vow to settle for nothing short of its formal withdrawal. Protests against the bill had largely taken place in Hong Kong's main business district, but demonstrators have recently begun to look elsewhere to widen support by taking up narrower, more domestic issues. A supporter begs police officer not to attack protesters Credit: AP In Sheung Shui, protesters rallied to oppose small-time Chinese traders who make short trips into the territory to buy goods that they then haul back to China to sell. The demonstrators chanted demands in Mandarin, China's official language, for the Chinese traders to go home. Many street-level shops were shuttered during the march. The traders have long been a source of anger among those in Hong Kong who say they have fuelled inflation, driven up property prices, dodged taxes and diluted Sheung Shui's identity. "Our lovely town has become chaos," said Ryan Lai, 50, a resident of Sheung Shui, where so-called "parallel traders" buy bulk quantities of duty-free goods to be carried into mainland China and sold. "We don't want to stop travel and buying, but please, just make it orderly and legal. The extradition bill was the tipping point for us to come out. We want Sheung Shui back." When Britain returned Hong Kong to China 22 years ago, Chinese Communist leaders promised the city a high degree of autonomy for 50 years. But many say China has progressively tightened its grip, putting Hong Kong's freedoms under threat through a range of measures such as the extradition bill. Hong Kong's lack of full democracy was behind the recent unrest, said Jimmy Sham of the Civil Human Rights Front, which organised protests against the extradition bill. "The government, Carrie Lam, some legislators in functional constituencies are not elected by the people, so there are many escalating actions in different districts to reflect different social issues," he said. "If political problems are not solved, social well-being issues will continue to emerge endlessly." Major demonstrations in the past month against a proposal to change extradition laws have reawakened other movements in Hong Kong Credit: AP One protester said Saturday's scuffles started when demonstrators charged the police after the latter came to the assiatcne of mainland traders who had assaulted demonstrators. "Some people were attacked and got injured in a stampede. I tried to save some girls so I was also attacked by pepper spray by police. Now I feel so bad. The cops are dogs," said the man, who would only give the name Ragnar. Protesters ripped up median barriers and fences to set up roadblocks and defences. A young man was treated for a bloody head wound metres from where surrounded police were hitting activists armed with umbrellas. A baton charge by police in riot gear cleared the street minutes later to free trapped officers. "We have no weapons and we were peaceful. When we saw them taking photos of us in the crowd we had to react," said another protester, surnamed Chan, who declined to give his full name. "We are all scared now. How can they hit us with batons?" he said, staring at a pool of blood where one of his peers was treated. Last week nearly 2,000 people marched in the Tuen Mun residential district to protest against what they saw as the nuisance of brash singing and dancing to Mandarin pop songs by middle-aged mainland women. On Sunday, tens of thousands marched in one of Kowloon's most popular tourist shopping areas, trying to persuade mainland Chinese tourists to back opposition to the extradition bill. "We want to raise awareness in Washington that the United States has to do more now to help Hong Kong become fully democratic," said a resident of the nearby town of Fanling, who was one of five people in Saturday's crowd carrying U.S. flags. "They are the most important power left that can stand up to China," added the 30-year-old man, who gave his name only as David. Anti-extradition protesters plan another demonstration on Sunday in the town of Sha Tin, in the so-called New Territories between Hong Kong island and the border with China.
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| Vatican mystery over missing girl deepens as bones are found Posted: 13 Jul 2019 10:17 AM PDT  The mystery of the 1983 disappearance of the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee took yet another twist Saturday following excavations this week at a Vatican City cemetery. The Vatican said it had discovered two sets of bones under a stone slab that will be formally opened next week. The new discovery came after Vatican on Thursday pried open the tombs of two 19th-century German princesses in the cemetery of the Pontifical Teutonic College in hopes of finding the remains of Emanuela Orlandi.
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| See How the Army's Would-Be Stealth Helicopter Borrowed from the F-35 Posted: 12 Jul 2019 10:00 PM PDT  The Comanche, in theory, might have been an awesome-looking helicopter—but that did not make it any less of a poorly managed defense program.Pop quiz: what prominent U.S. military aircraft has a stealthy radar cross section and advanced networked sensors but has gone billions over budget and has fallen years behind schedule?While the F-35 stealth fighter might come to mind today, in 2004 the most timely answer might have been the RAH-66 Comanche. The slick-looking stealth helicopter spent twenty-two years in development, consuming over $7 billion dollars before being abruptly canceled with only two flying prototypes to show for it.The Comanche sprang of by the Army's Light Helicopter Experimental program conceived during the defending spending glut of the 1980s. Among other objectives, this program sought a replacement for the Army's OH-58 Kiowa and OH-6 Cayuse scout helicopters, which were derived from the civilian Bell 206 JetRanger and Hughes 500 choppers.(This first appeared in June 2019.)Scout helicopters were primarily tasked with spying out enemy positions and designating them for attack by friendly forces. However, they also were suitable for attacking lightly defended targets with rocket pods, miniguns, and even tank-busting TOW or Hellfire missiles, while armored Apache gunships tackled heavier foes.
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| Erdogan says Trump can waive sanctions on Turkey Posted: 14 Jul 2019 08:50 AM PDT  U.S. President Donald Trump has the authority to waive sanctions on Turkey for its purchase of Russian air defense systems and should find a "middle ground" in the dispute, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday. Erdogan's comments came two days after NATO member Turkey took delivery of the first consignment of advanced Russian S-400 missile defense system parts, despite warnings from Washington that the move would trigger U.S. sanctions.
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| Northern California town of Paradise lost 90% of its population after Camp Fire, data shows Posted: 14 Jul 2019 09:55 AM PDT  The town of Paradise has lost over 90% of its population since the Camp Fire last year, according to data California released Thursday.
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| Inside Jeffrey Epstein's press machine: How the financier tried to rehab his image post-conviction with donations and pay-for-play journalism Posted: 13 Jul 2019 01:54 PM PDT  Epstein spent 13 months in jail after being accused of sexually abusing girls as young as 14 in 2008, but he was able to preserve his reputation.
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| Police: 69-year-old man dies after attacking migrant jail Posted: 13 Jul 2019 09:11 PM PDT  A 69-year-old man armed with a rifle threw incendiary devices at an immigration jail in Washington state early Saturday morning, then was found dead after four police officers arrived and opened fire, authorities said. The Tacoma Police Department said the officers responded about 4 a.m. to the privately run Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security detention facility that holds migrants pending deportation proceedings. The detention center has also held immigration-seeking parents separated from their children under President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy, an effort meant to deter illegal immigration.
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| NY mayor criticized for being on campaign trail during blackout Posted: 14 Jul 2019 02:51 PM PDT  New York Mayor and 2020 presidential candidate Bill de Blasio found himself under fire Sunday -- notably from the state's governor -- for being out of town when a major blackout hit the city because he was campaigning in Iowa. De Blasio had planned to spend the night in Iowa, and initially told CNN he needed more information before he could decide whether or not to rush home. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat like De Blasio, pulled no punches when he himself appeared on CNN.
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| Chevron spills 800,000 gallons of oil, water in California Posted: 13 Jul 2019 10:28 AM PDT  Officials began to clean up a massive oil spill Friday that dumped nearly 800,000 gallons of oil and water into a California canyon, making it larger — if less devastating — than the state's last two major oil spills.
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| How Iowa can teach the nation to cure one form of political cancer: gerrymandering Posted: 13 Jul 2019 02:00 AM PDT  The Supreme Court may have declined to address an obvious source of dysfunction in our democracy, but Iowa's redistricting process can help.
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| Billionaire Tom Steyer's entrance into the 2020 Democratic race is the perfect example of the rot at the core of the US political system Posted: 14 Jul 2019 08:32 AM PDT  Tom Steyer's entered the 2020 presidential race with a promise to spend $100 million on his campaign, but he should use that money elsewhere.
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| What to know about Tropical Storm Barry's path, landfall, winds, flooding and more Posted: 14 Jul 2019 08:56 AM PDT  Some 14 trillion gallons of rainwater are forecast to fall on Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas during Barry. Three million people may be impacted.
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| Why Canada Must Protect its 5G Networks from Huawei Posted: 13 Jul 2019 02:02 PM PDT  The introduction of 5G technology, along with its promise and challenges, has led to a transformational debate in Canada—as it has amongst many of Ottawa's partners and allies around the world. Front and centre for Canada is the potential role of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei in such a next generation network. In order to address this question, the government of Canada has been conducting an intensive security review—which remains ongoing—on the implications of potentially including Huawei in its 5G networks.Magnifying the stakes of the looming verdict on Huawei, is an increasingly troubled relationship between China and Canada. Two Canadian citizens—Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor—remain arbitrarily detained in China since last December. Beijing accuses the two of stealing state secrets and guilty of espionage, but fails to produce any evidence to support such a claim. Kovrig and Spavor were arrested nine days after Canada's arrest, on extradition request from the United States, of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou. Despite China's attempts to downplay any linkage, it is clear that this was no coincidence and unfortunately the fates of Kovrig and Spavor have been unfairly tied to the extradition case of Meng. They have also rebuffed high-level Canadian efforts to have a dialogue on the matter.
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| Radical Democrats demonize Border Patrol and ICE Posted: 12 Jul 2019 07:43 PM PDT  The left plays politics at House Oversight Committee on immigration; reaction from immigration attorney Gunther Sanabria, former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik and Republican Congressman Sean Duffy.
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| Police investigate after US flag removed during protest Posted: 14 Jul 2019 02:05 PM PDT ![Police investigate after US flag removed during protest]( "Police investigate after US flag removed during protest") Police say they will be reviewing any available video to help them identify protesters who trespassed and pulled down the American flag in front of an immigration detention center in suburban Denver, tried to burn it and replaced it with a Mexican flag. Friday night's protest in Aurora, one of many coordinated across the country, drew about 2,000 people and was mostly peaceful. Cristian Solano-Cordova, a spokesman for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, told The Denver Post that those who pulled down the flags weren't affiliated with mainstream immigrants' rights groups but had coordinated with them to be there.
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| A US congressman wants better food and drink standards in the Dominican Republic after several US tourist deaths Posted: 13 Jul 2019 09:00 AM PDT  US Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who was born in the Dominican Republic, visited the country from July 1 to July 6 to evaluate its tourism situation.
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| Tennessee man dies after contracting flesh-eating bacteria Posted: 14 Jul 2019 08:51 AM PDT  A Tennessee man died last week after contracting Vibrio vulnificus, a flesh-eating bacteria, while swimming in Florida.
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| The former prime minister of Israel defended his business dealings with Jeffrey Epstein: 'You expect me to have noticed?' Posted: 14 Jul 2019 11:10 AM PDT  Former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak defended business dealings with Jeffrey Epstein, saying he had no idea Epstein allegedly solicited underage girls.
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| Donald Trump defends migrant detention centers, says nothing about ICE raids Posted: 14 Jul 2019 10:54 AM PDT  Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, disputed the term "raids," saying ICE officials are acting against people who are in the country illegally.
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| A dramatic satellite photo shows Hurricane Barry enveloping the Gulf of Mexico just before making landfall in Louisiana Posted: 13 Jul 2019 09:58 AM PDT  Since the photo was taken around 10 AM Friday, the storm has since strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane.
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| In 1981, A British Submarine Smashed Into a Russian Sub (Armed with Nuclear Weapons) Posted: 13 Jul 2019 08:30 PM PDT ![In 1981, A British Submarine Smashed Into a Russian Sub (Armed with Nuclear Weapons)]( "In 1981, A British Submarine Smashed Into a Russian Sub (Armed with Nuclear Weapons)") On May 23, 1981 the Soviet submarine K-211 Petropavlovsk cruised quietly at nine knots, one hundred and fifty feet below the surface of the Arctic Barents Sea. The huge 155-meter-long Delta III (or Kalmar)-class submarine was distinguished by the large boxy compartment on its spine which accommodated the towering launch tubes for sixteen R-29R ballistic missiles, each carrying three independent nuclear warheads. K-211's mission was hair-raisingly straightforward: to cruise undetected for weeks or months at a time, awaiting only the signal that a nuclear war had broken out to unleash its apocalyptic payload from underwater on Western cities and military bases up to four thousand miles away.British and American nuclear-power attack submarines (SSNs), or "hunter-killers," were routinely dispatched to detect Soviet ballistic missiles subs (SSBNs) leaving from base to discreetly stalk them. The quieter SSNs also awaited only a signal of war, an event in which they would attempt to torpedo the Soviet subs before they could unleash their city-destroying weapons.Mindful of this threat, at half past seven that evening K-211's commander halted his sub and pivoted it around so that its MGK-400 Rubikon bow sonar array could attempt to pick up any submarines sneaking behind it in the 'blind spot' of its wake—a maneuver known as "clearing the baffles." However, the SSBN's hydrophones did not report any contact.
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| Malaysia seizes $240 mln from Chinese state firm's bank account -paper Posted: 14 Jul 2019 12:38 AM PDT ![Malaysia seizes $240 mln from Chinese state firm's bank account -paper]( "Malaysia seizes $240 mln from Chinese state firm's bank account -paper") Malaysia has seized more than 1 billion ringgit ($243.25 million) from a bank account of state-owned China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Ltd (CPP), the Straits Times newspaper said on Saturday. The seizure comes nearly a year after Malaysia suspended two pipeline projects, valued at $2.3 billion, on which CPP was the lead contractor. The Malaysian government this month ordered HSBC to transfer the funds held in the Chinese firm's account to Suria Strategic Energy Resources, which is wholly owned by the Malaysian finance ministry, the Singapore-based newspaper said.
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| Mall clashes at latest Hong Kong anti-extradition march Posted: 14 Jul 2019 08:40 AM PDT  Riot police and protesters fought running battles in a Hong Kong shopping mall Sunday night as unrest caused by a widely loathed plan to allow extraditions to mainland China showed no sign of abating. Police used pepper spray and batons against small groups of protesters, who responded by hurling bottles and other projectiles, in a night of fresh violence in the international hub. Sunday's clashes took place at the end of another huge rally -- this time in Sha Tin a district that lies between the main urban sprawl around the harbour and the Chinese border.
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| Everything to Know About July's Full Buck Moon — the First Full Moon of Summer Posted: 14 Jul 2019 03:00 AM PDT  The full moon also brings a partial lunar eclipse to many parts of the world
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| A Texas grandmother fell three years ago. Her daughter let her decay on the floor, police say Posted: 14 Jul 2019 02:42 PM PDT  Delissa Crayton lived with her mother's decaying remains for three years after she fell in their shared residence, police in Seguin, Texas said.
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| JetBlue flight evacuated at Newark Airport after suicide vest photo AirDropped to passenger iPhones Posted: 14 Jul 2019 06:32 AM PDT  A plane was evacuated after someone sent a photograph of a suicide vest to passengers and flight attendants on board.The unknown sender used Apple's AirDrop feature, which allows users to easily and anonymously transfer files to other iOS devices using Bluetooth.Authorities say the Florida-bound plane was about to take off from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey when the image was widely shared on board.A member of the crew on JetBlue flight 573 alerted the captain, who informed authorities at about 7.45am on Saturday.The plane returned to the gate and the 150 people on board were asked to leave the aircraft, and their luggage was re-screened and examined by police bomb-sniffing K-9 dogs."We pull up to the gate and then we pull away and the captain comes on and says there's been a security threat," Thomas Desmond told NBC News."It was nervous when you see Port Authority police officers coming onto your plane and you just have no idea what's going on."The culprit was likely one of those on board, as AirDrop only works with those in close proximity to the sender. However, they were not traced.JetBlue said the additional security screening was carried out due to "an abundance of caution."The flight eventually departed just before 11.30am, with no knock-on effects to other flights departing or arriving at Newark.
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| We compared Apple and Microsoft's flagship stores in London — and the winner was clear Posted: 13 Jul 2019 01:00 AM PDT  Microsoft opened its first European store on Thursday and it's a block away from Apple's London flagship.
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| Toxic lake in Russia's Siberia becomes selfie sensation Posted: 13 Jul 2019 05:37 AM PDT  Residents of a city in Siberia don't need to fly off to tropical locales for picturesque selfies taken by pristine turquoise waters. The lake is blue, however, due to a chemical reaction between toxic waste elements from a local power station. "We can compare it only with photos of the Maldives," said Sergey Griva, a local who visited the lake, adding he's never been to the Maldives and couldn't find it on a map.
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| Russia's Real Reasons for Partnering with Iran Posted: 13 Jul 2019 02:01 PM PDT  Will Iran crack under American pressure? Don't count on it. Iran has grown accustomed to living under America's recent economic sanctions and continues to pursue its own policies at home and abroad despite the restrictions associated with the latest U.S.-Iranian crisis. Tehran can rely on substantial domestic support and has a large army—including auxiliary paramilitary Basij forces—with access to air fleet, heavy forces and undersea arms. It also has revolutionary guards trained in unconventional warfare. Despite the impact of U.S. sanctions on the Iranian economy and the discontent among the citizenry, there has been no legitimate challenge to the country's theocracy. In fact, the tension between the United States and Iran may drag on, which would require both regional and international players to permanently remain on alert. For example, due to Iran's proximity to its borders, Russia has a vested interest in the state of affairs in Western Asia; it has tried its best to contain the impact that the U.S.-Iranian crisis could have on its own national security. As a result, the foreign policy Russia has applied toward the crisis can be divided into three main areas of focus.
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| Puerto Rico governor rejects calls to resign amid scandal Posted: 14 Jul 2019 01:22 PM PDT  Protesters in Puerto Rico gathered outside La Fortaleza governor's residence on Sunday, demanding Gov. Ricardo Rosselló step down for his involvement in a private chat in which he used profanities to describe an ex-New York City councilwoman and a federal control board overseeing the island's finances. Undersecretary of La Fortaleza's press office, Michelle De la Cruz, said she did not know if the governor was home. Some activists say they are ashamed of the language used by Rosselló in the group chat and the ways the reputation of the U.S. territory might be affected.
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| India says Deloitte misreading law in challenging government's call for ban Posted: 14 Jul 2019 05:39 AM PDT  India has told a tribunal the local auditing affiliate of international accounting group Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is misreading a key law as the firm seeks to avoid a five-year ban on new business, according to legal documents reviewed by Reuters on Sunday. Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP is contesting the government's call for the ban on the auditor for its alleged involvement in a financial fraud. The government has said it detected several violations of auditing standards by Deloitte and a KPMG affiliate while investigating fraud at IFIN, a unit of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services, whose debt defaults last year triggered fears of a financial contagion.
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| Guatemala president calls off US meeting with Trump Posted: 14 Jul 2019 12:57 PM PDT  Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, who is under pressure at home not to seal a migration deal with the United States, on Sunday called off White House talks with Donald Trump with just a day to spare, his office announced. The meeting scheduled for Monday in Washington has been pushed back over "speculation" about the signing of a possible deal, the Guatemalan government said in a statement. Such a deal would make Guatemala a "safe third country" -- and mean that it would be obliged to offer asylum to any migrants entering its territory on the way to the United States.
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| Curiosity rover is seen creeping up a rugged Martian mountain Posted: 13 Jul 2019 12:27 PM PDT  A satellite zooming around Mars spotted a lone machine, the Curiosity Rover, exploring the rugged Martian terrain. The car-sized rover, which has traveled almost 13 miles on Mars over the last seven years, is now carefully inching up the base of Mount Sharp, a 3.5-mile tall mountain sitting in the middle of the sprawling Gale Crater. The rover has been busy scouring rock samples in an area that planetary scientists suspect was once blanketed in wet clay."It's just one of many stops the rover has made in an area referred to as the "clay-bearing unit" on the side of Mount Sharp," NASA wrote on Friday.The Curiosity Rover on Mars.Image: NASA / JPL-CaltechA prominent ridge, called the Vera Rubin Ridge, can be seen cutting to the left (or northwest) of the rover, while ripples of dark sand are on found the right of the six-wheeled robot. The rover looks like a shiny speck because the sun glinted off Curiosity at just the right angle as NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter swooped overhead.SEE ALSO: The secretive lab that built 'the bomb' now scours Mars for signs of lifeNASA plans for the nuclear-powered machine to inch up Mt. Sharp over the coming years to investigate the landscape and improve our understanding of what the now-desert terrain was like billions of years ago, when the Martian planet was a wetter, bluer place. In 2020, a more advanced car-sized rover will join Curiosity on the Martian ground. The new rover will scour the Jezero Crater, a 30 mile-wide bowl about 1,640 feet deep. It's believed to have once held an 800-foot deep lake some 3.5 billion years ago. WATCH: Meet Katie Bouman, one of the scientists who helped capture the first black hole image
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| Acosta’s Sweetheart Deal Likely to Foreclose Epstein’s SDNY Prosecution Posted: 13 Jul 2019 02:30 AM PDT  Alex Acosta did a bad job on the Jeffrey Epstein case. This column was nearly finished when news broke Friday that he would resign as labor secretary. I was going to argue that his lapses did not justify joining the nakedly political mau-mauing by Democrats who have no interest in exploring the behavior of Democrats who are neck-deep in a monstrous pedophile's activities. My friend Jennifer Braceras has ably addressed that point in a Washington Examiner column. I was also going to add that I'd shed no tears if President Trump forced Acosta out -- easy for me to say, since I think (a) he should never have been nominated in the first place, and (b) his commitment to Trump's deregulation agenda has never been sufficiently ardent.Under the circumstances, I'll spare you a few hundred words of critique on Acosta's indecorous performance. Instead, to cut to the chase, I do not believe we can yet total up the wages of the sweetheart deal he cut for Epstein while he was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida (SD-Florida). The commentariat is glibly assuming the courts will give the feds a second bite at the apple by allowing the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) to prosecute the charges that Acosta forfeited. I don't think so.Double Jeopardy On Monday, Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that his office has now charged Epstein. While the SDNY indictment may be new, Epstein's crimes are not. They are the same offenses from which Acosta agreed to spare Epstein from federal prosecution if he pled guilty to state prostitution charges -- which Epstein proceeded to do, in reliance on Acosta's commitment. There is thus a very good chance, based on the Constitution's guarantee against double jeopardy, that the SDNY case against Epstein will be voided by the SD-Florida non-prosecution agreement (non-pros).To be sure, the SDNY has a counterargument, and it will be vigorously made. It has two components. First, there is language in the non-pros that appears to limit the agreement to SD-Florida, to wit: "prosecution in this District for these offenses shall be deferred in favor of prosecution by the State of Florida" (emphasis added). Here, "deferred" effectively means forfeited -- the same effect for double-jeopardy purposes as a conviction or acquittal -- because of Epstein's compliance with the requirement that he plead guilty in the state case. Second, there is jurisprudence in the Second Circuit (which controls in the SDNY) holding that one federal district's agreement does not bind another.Therefore, prosecutors will argue that the 2007 SD-Florida non-pros does not bar a 2019 SDNY indictment arising out of the same conduct and charging the same offenses.I'm skeptical . . . and I think the SDNY is, too, notwithstanding the brave face prosecutors put on this week. They have carefully drafted an indictment far narrower than the SD-Florida's contemplated case. If prosecutors really believed that there was no double-jeopardy problem, they'd have no such hesitation: They'd throw everything the FBI ever had at this sociopath. They know they are on thin ice.I suspect it is too thin. There is a great deal in the non-pros that cuts against the suggestion that it was limited to the SD-Florida. Moreover, unlike Professor Jonathan Turley (among others), I believe the Supreme Court's recent double-jeopardy ruling -- in the Gamble case (addressed in this column), which involved the "dual sovereignty" doctrine -- hurts, rather than helps, the SDNY's position.The Non-Pros Was Expressly Intended to Cover Epstein 'Globally' for Crimes 'Against the United States' With astonishing chutzpah on Tuesday, Acosta tweeted that he is "pleased that NY prosecutors are moving forward with a case based on new evidence." In point of fact, the non-pros he authorized was patently designed to foreclose the possibility of any federal prosecution of Epstein.Notice that he says he's glad the SDNY has found "new evidence." You know why he has to say new evidence? Because he is not in a position to say the SDNY has found a new offense. If the SDNY had a new offense, prosecutors would have charged it and avoided the double-jeopardy bar. Instead, they have apparently collected new evidence of the same old offense on which Acosta already gave away the store.For the Justice Department to overcome a defendant's double-jeopardy protection, it is not enough to have new evidence. There has to be proof of a discrete criminal transaction that amounts to a new offense. The new offense may violate the same statute, but it has to be a course of conduct different from the one that has previously been prosecuted. New evidence that merely bolsters proof of an already prosecuted crime is insufficient.The new SDNY indictment charges Epstein with two counts of sex trafficking, specifically: agreeing with others to entice girls under the age of 18 to engage in commercial sex acts, and actually enticing them to do so -- what the law refers to, respectively, as a conspiracy offense and a substantive offense of the relevant statute, Section 1591 of the federal penal code. The offenses are said to have taken place between 2002 and 2005, primarily in Manhattan and in Palm Beach (or, in federal terms, in the SDNY and the SD-Florida).Now, let's look at the non-pros Acosta gave Epstein in 2007.Acosta noted that, coterminous with a Florida state investigation of Epstein that had resulted in an indictment for soliciting prostitution,> the United States Attorney's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted their own investigation into Epstein's background and any offenses that may have been committed by Epstein against the United States from in or around 2001 through in or around 2007, including . . .> > knowingly, in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce, recruiting, enticing, and obtaining by any means a person, knowing that the person had not attained the age of 18 years and would be caused to engage in a commercial sex act . . . in violation of . . . Sections 1591(a)(1) and 2.(Emphasis added.)The point was to enable Epstein to settle all potential federal criminal liability from his sex-trafficking activities prior to 2007 by pleading guilty to a state prostitution charge. As Politico's Josh Gerstein observes, the non-pros explicitly asserts that "Epstein seeks to resolve globally his state and federal liability" (my italics). Gerstein is right that the word "globally" is critical. It flies in the face of the aforementioned term that ostensibly limits the agreement to "this district" (the SD-Florida).Yet that is far from the end of the ammunition the non-pros gives Epstein's lawyers to bolster their claim that Epstein would not have pled guilty to the state charges unless the Justice Department (with Acosta as its authorized attorney) was committing to resolve all potential federal sex-trafficking charges in any federal jurisdiction.Acosta's agreement did not restrict itself to Epstein's activities in Florida. It acknowledged that the SD-Florida and the FBI -- our premier federal law-enforcement agency, which has nationwide scope and routinely conducts multi-district investigations -- had been investigating offenses Epstein committed against the United States.Moreover, sex trafficking and related offenses are cognizable federally only if they affect interstate or foreign commerce. That is, Epstein's conduct necessarily had to have an impact on (and thereby be prosecutable in) multiple states and multiple federal districts in order to be prosecutable by the Justice Department. As if that were not obvious enough, the agreement makes it explicit. In addition to spelling out that the Section 1591 sex-trafficking conduct affected interstate commerce, Acosta says that the federal investigation conducted by his office and the FBI included all potential "offenses that may have been committed by Epstein against the United States" and that involved:• Conspiring with others to use, and actually using, facilities in interstate and foreign commerce to induce minor females to engage in prostitution; and• Conspiring with others to travel, and actually traveling, in interstate and foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct.The non-pros further elaborates that Epstein's conduct occurred with persons "known and unknown" to investigators. Implicitly, this is a statement that, while the government was aware of the kind of offenses that Epstein had committed, its evidence was not so comprehensive that it was aware of every single person involved. That is, with respect to Epstein, the agreement was meant to encompass all instances of the offenses described, even if the investigation had not yet identified all potential conspirators and victims.Further, reports indicate that Epstein lawyer Ken Starr went over Acosta's head to appeal to the Justice Department, which rejected his argument that a federal prosecution of Epstein was not warranted. Only after that did Epstein finalize the non-pros and plead guilty.It was reasonable for Epstein to assume that settling the federal case in SD-Florida would settle it in all the affected federal districts. He will be able to contend that he had every reason to believe that he was dealing with the Justice Department regarding offenses against the United States, not just its prosecutor in the SD-Florida regarding purely local crimes. If that is not so, then no plea agreement involving a federal crime that relies on interstate commerce for federal jurisdiction (i.e., most federal crimes) has double-jeopardy protection: If the feds don't like the sentence the judge imposes, they may simply file a new indictment charging the same offense in the other state (or states) affected by the conduct.SDNY and SD-Florida Are Parts of the Same Sovereign As we've noted, it is true that there is Second Circuit authority for the proposition that a prosecutor's agreement in one federal district is not necessarily binding on a prosecutor in another federal district. Yet there is not universal agreement on this point. And even in Second Circuit double-jeopardy jurisprudence, a conviction or acquittal in one district will bar a successive prosecution in another district for the same offense. It has never made sense to me that double-jeopardy principles protect a defendant who has been convicted or acquitted by a jury, but not one whose case has been disposed of by a plea or non-pros agreement with a prosecutor that has the same effect.In any event, the Second Circuit authority will have to be reconsidered in light of the various opinions in Supreme Court's recent Gamble decision. That case involved a federal prosecution following a state conviction for the same crime. As discussed in my aforementioned column, we reluctantly abide multiple prosecutions for the same misconduct, despite our double-jeopardy principles, only because the laws of two different sovereigns -- state and federal -- are implicated. Even though the crime may be the same (e.g., illegal possession of a gun), there are two separate offenses because an offense is the violation of each sovereign's separate criminal code and jurisdiction.While successive prosecutions by different sovereigns do not violate the letter of the Fifth Amendment, they are in tension with its double-jeopardy clause's conception of fundamental fairness. Because of that, despite the dual-sovereignty doctrine, many states do not permit successive prosecutions if a person has already been tried by federal authorities or those of another state. That's how seriously we take double jeopardy.Now, contrast Epstein's case. It is because of dual sovereignty that Epstein's top-shelf legal team worked in 2007 to dispose of state and federal liability simultaneously. The avoidance of successive prosecutions is precisely what he bargained for -- he pled guilty and served time on state charges on the condition (to which Acosta, on behalf of the Justice Department, agreed) that there would be no federal prosecution.Consequently, the issue presented by the new SDNY indictment is not dual sovereignty; it is straightforward double jeopardy. SD-Florida and SDNY are different federal venues, but they are part of the same sovereign.That sovereign, the United States, is now attempting to proceed with a second prosecution for the same offense. The reason for this, transparently, is that federal officials are mortified by the result of the first prosecution: The Justice Department is embarrassed because of how Acosta, then its representative, handled the first case; and the White House is embarrassed because the president subsequently chose Acosta for a cabinet post. But dissatisfaction with the prior result is not a justification for dispensing with the Constitution's safeguards.Gamble was not a unanimous decision. The Supreme Court is divided over the validity of successive prosecutions, even in the dual-sovereignty context. Justices Gorsuch and Ginsburg are convinced they violate double jeopardy. Justice Thomas only reluctantly went along with the majority. That majority, led by Justice Alito, was emphatic that what made the successive prosecution permissible was the fact that the federal government and state governments are different sovereigns -- that and that alone can make the same crime a different "offense" for double-jeopardy purposes.I do not believe this Supreme Court would approve successive prosecutions by different districts of the same sovereign. And that is significant here. In the double-jeopardy context, the constitutional violation is not just to convict or acquit a defendant a second time; it is to subject him to any facets of prosecution for a previously prosecuted offense. Even if Epstein's SDNY indictment is upheld by the district court and the Second Circuit, he will have an opportunity to seek Supreme Court review before his prosecution proceeds to trial.In evaluating the Acosta–Epstein non-pros, it is critical to set aside how manifestly unjust it is. In that, our outrage is no different from what we feel on the rare occasion when a jury acquits a patently guilty defendant of horrible crimes (e.g., O. J. Simpson). How angry the sheer injustice of the outcome makes us is a separate matter from how broadly the legal judgment protects the defendant -- indeed the latter is the cause of the former.You have to keep reminding yourself that, in our system, people are presumed innocent, and the government bears the burdens of a prosecution aimed at depriving an accused of liberty, including the burden of being limited to a single opportunity to convict. The vast majority of the time, that is something to celebrate. Alas, it is not something we can afford to disturb when, inevitably, it produces some atrocious results -- not without putting our fundamental protections from government abuse at risk.The SDNY should absolutely prosecute the monstrous Epstein if prosecutors can find a new offense. Let's hope they find one.
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| Pregnant woman, 9-year-old son killed by floodwaters in Pennsylvania Posted: 14 Jul 2019 09:25 AM PDT  Police in Pennsylvania say rising floodwaters killed a pregnant mother and her son Thursday.
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| T-Mobile is outpacing the rest of the Big Four US carriers on value, loyalty, and satisfaction — here's what consumers say is most important when selecting a mobile provider (TMUS, S, VZ, T) Posted: 12 Jul 2019 06:02 PM PDT  Business Insider Intelligence evaluates which features are most important to consumers when selecting a mobile provider.
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| 7 arrested after fight resulting in death of Red Springs 5-year-old Posted: 13 Jul 2019 06:14 AM PDT  The Robeson County Sheriff's Office charged seven people in connection with a fight that led to the shooting death of a Red Springs 5-year-old.
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| Meet Sturmgewehr 57: Sig Sauer's Very First 'Battle' Rifle Posted: 13 Jul 2019 06:00 AM PDT  While Sig Sauer, Inc. may have entered the battle rifle market recently, the original company—SIG, Schweizer Industrie Gesellschaft—produced a variety of them. SIG's most famous was the SIG SG 510, otherwise known as the Sturmgewehr 57.Though the Sturmgewehr 57 was a very early battle rifle that retained many vestiges of Swiss bolt action rifles before it, it also featured many thoughtful features and is considered to be among the best battle rifles in the world.More than anything else, the Sturmgewehr 57 was built for accuracy. The standard Sturmgewehr 57 features a 23-inch long barrel, 3 inches longer than an M16. While this makes it rather unwieldy for close quarters combat or for mechanized troops that might need to enter and exit a vehicle, it suits the light infantry role most Swiss units were set up for at the time. The rifle also featured an integrated bipod, rifle grenade launcher, and excellent diopter sights.Unlike most rifles where sight adjustment increments remain the same across the range of adjustment, the Sturmgewehr 57 features finer range adjustment increments at extended ranges, where precise ranging matters far more because a fired bullet drops more rapidly the further it goes. Of course, the Sturmgewehr 57's sights are still reliant on the soldiers knowing precise ranges to targets, but in the Swiss case, most infantry would likely be defending from positions with existing range tables, which would allow them to dial in their sights with great accuracy.
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| Alaska man charged with illegally killing polar bear Posted: 14 Jul 2019 04:17 PM PDT ![Alaska man charged with illegally killing polar bear]( "Alaska man charged with illegally killing polar bear") An Alaska man has been charged with the illegal killing of a polar bear in violation of federal law. Chris Gordon of Kaktovik shot the bear outside his home, leaving the carcass there for five months without salvaging any part of it, according to federal prosecutors. "Mr. Gordon allegedly left butchered whale meat outside in front of his yard of his residence for a substantial period of time, which attracted polar bear, as well as other animals," said Ryan Tansey, a Fairbanks-based federal prosecutor.
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