[USA Today] Though facing separate trials, James and Jennifer Crumbley are on the same page this week as both have now asked the judge to disqualify three key witnesses from their historic school shooting case: a student, teacher and assistant principal who all survived their son's deadly massacre at Oxford High School.
In back-to-back court filings, attorneys for the Crumbleys argue that the testimony of these eyewitnesses is both irrelevant to the parents' cases and could unfairly inflame jurors given the horror they witnessed.
"The gruesome and horrifying testimony about what occurred in the school is not relevant and would certainly inflame the jury and confuse them as to what the relevant issues are," the father's attorney, Mariell Lehman, wrote in a late Wednesday filing, stressing:
"There is no dispute that the victims of the Oxford High School shooting experienced the most traumatic thing in their lives, and Mr. Crumbley does not intend to dispute or minimize their experience in any way during his trial."
Lehman's filing echoed the same concerns made a day earlier by the mom's attorney.
At issue for the defense lawyers is this: The parents' cases involve what happened before the Nov. 30, 2021 shooting, not during, with the focus being on how the Crumbleys raised their son, whether they had a duty to protect others from him, and whether they could have prevented the deadly shooting that killed four students and injured seven others, including a teacher. Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16, and Justin Shilling, 17, all died.
The Crumbleys, who are the first parents in America charged in a mass school shooting, go to trial Jan. 23 on involuntary manslaughter charges for buying their son the gun that he used in the massacre, and never disclosing that to the school when they had the chance to do so.
The shooter, Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty to all his crimes and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole last month.
To the chagrin of the parents, among the witnesses the prosecution wants to use at their trial are three people who last summer delivered gut-wrenching testimony about what they saw and experienced on the day of the shooting.
Prosecutors have long argued that the Crumbleys, more than anyone else, could have prevented the shooting had they disclosed to school officials that their son had access to a gun on the morning they were summoned over his troubling behavior. Hours before the shooting, the Crumbleys were called to the school over a violent drawing their son had made on a math worksheet. It included a gun, a bleeding body and the words: "The thoughts won't stop. Help me."
During the school meeting, the Crumbleys never disclosed that their son had a gun, but instead said they would get him help in the coming days, and asked whether he could be returned to class because they had to get back to work.
The Crumbleys returned to their jobs. Their son was sent back to class. Two hours later, he emerged from a bathroom and opened fire.
The Crumbleys, who have been jailed on bonds of $500,000 each since the shooting, have long maintained they had no way of knowing their son would carry out a school shooting, and that the gun at issue was properly secured and locked in their home.
If convicted, they each face up to 15 years in prison.
#1
"The gruesome and horrifying testimony about what occurred in the school is not relevant and would certainly inflame the jury and confuse them as to what the relevant issues are,"
Huh? That's exactly why the direct testimony is relevant. That's what it's there for. Of course, if I were the trans killer, I wouldn't want people testifying to what I did, either.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/08/2024 14:06 Comments ||
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#2
^ The shooter/kid already pled guilty and was sentenced to life without parole. This is about trying his parents for involuntary manslaughter for buying the gun.
Where did you get the idea the kid is trans, Tom? Mentally ill, definitely — schizophrenic, is how I read it — but that photo of him at the trial with long hair looked to me like he hadn’t been able to figure out how to get a haircut in two years, not a boy pretending to be a girl.
[NYP] The fatal migrant stabbing at the Randall’s Island tent city was over a woman, law-enforcement sources said Sunday — while asylum-seekers described life in the shelter as full of armed rivals and divisive "camps."
What about made men for the narco gangs, professional criminals looking for more lucrative hunting grounds, or the occasional jihadi invading Dar al Harb with intent? Those who came just to work for a better life are sheep among wolves.
The 24-year-old victim was inside the cafeteria tent at the sprawling shelter around 7:30 p.m. Saturday when he got into a beef with a fellow asylum-seeker who had been talking to the man’s girlfriend, sources told The Post.
During the dispute, the victim was assaulted by four people, sources said. One of the suspects, 26, then whipped out a knife and stabbed the victim in the neck and chest area, sources said.
The victim was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police recovered the knife at the scene and arrested the suspected stabber, while his three accomplices are in the wind, sources said.
Venezuelan immigrant Roger Castillo said of the dead man, "He was a good person, he was a good friend.
"There is not much security, and they are far away," Castillo said of guards. "It happens so fast."
[BAKINGBUSINESS] NORWICH, VT. — In a new collaboration, King Arthur Baking Co. [formerly King Arthur Flour Co] and Project Potluck, a nonprofit championing People of Color (POC) in the consumer packaged goods and food and beverage industries have launched Baking Pitchfest 2024. This accelerator program is designed to elevate POC entrepreneurs in the baking industry, offering them opportunities for growth, mentorship and exposure to the industry.
Baking Pitchfest 2024 seeks to create a community of POC bakers and entrepreneurs, gathered by their shared love for baking. The program is divided into two editions, one focusing on bakeries and the other on baking products, ensuring a broad scope of creative talent is recognized and nurtured, according to King Arthur.
Molly Lawrence, corporate social responsibility manager, King Arthur Baking, said the diversity of applicants and the potential for innovative products and business concepts furthers King Arthur's mission to support increased racial and ethnic diversity in the field.
"Pitchfest 2024 is a testament to our commitment to fostering a more inclusive baking community and empowering creative POC leaders in the industry," Lawrence said.
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/08/2024 00:00 ||
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#2
A fabulous design at the time, just as the Polaris and Trident were. But missile technology has progressed quickly and the LGM-30 is very long in the tooth.
If we aren't going to do without (good luck with that) we need to bite the bullet and replace it with up-to-date tech. And down the road we will have to do the same with the Trident.
At least, for the moment, the LRSO is on track to supply a technologically current payload for the B21.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/08/2024 13:22 Comments ||
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#3
I occasionally hear govt procurement horror stories where they are forced to use ebay and such to find vacuum tubes and other antique electronic components. In light of that, this makes a lot of sense to me.
#6
This wouldn't happen if we had Solar Wind Turbines
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/08/2024 18:56 Comments ||
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#7
^ The man has a point. According to spaceweather.com, the current solar wind speed is 375.5 km/sec, which is like really fast even when converted to actual units.
[Daily Caller] Harvard University’s Provost and Interim President Dr. Alan Garber
...one of those high-energy types who got an MD from Stanford while earning a PhD in economics from Harvard. He’s a busy man, teaching economics for the Arts&Sciences crowd plus health care policy at the med school, the Kennedy School of Government, and the Chen School of Public Policy, all while provosting — and now he’s president of the university, too...
has made millions from sitting on pharmaceutical company boards during his time with the school.
Garber made more than $2.7 million from board seats with pharmaceutical firms Exelixis, Inc. and Vertex Pharmaceuticals since becoming Harvard provost in 2011, the Harvard Crimson reported in 2019, citing company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Both firms confirmed to the outlet Garber received compensation without performing any additional duties beyond his board memberships.
[JustTheNews] Former White House Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci is set to appear before the House Coronavirus Pandemic Subcommittee for a transcribed interview Monday and Tuesday this week, where members of Congress are expected to ask him numerous questions ranging from his knowledge of research before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out to reports of adverse events resulting from the coronavirus vaccine.
Fauci, who served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases until he retired in 2022, is likely to be asked these questions this week during what Coronavirus Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, calls an "after-action review" of the pandemic:
Were you aware of gain-of-function research being conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China?
Former Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield said in 2022 that Fauci "knew" his agency provided funding for gain-of-function research, which increases the dangerousness of viruses and he "misled Congress" when he denied knowledge about it.
Why did you push the theory the COVID-19 virus originated from nature, not from a Wuhan lab?
Fauci heavily shaped a paper published in the scientific journal Nature Medicine that argues that COVID-19 "is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus," but instead has natural origins, such as from an animal.
"When people had a differing view of whether this came from nature and thought it came from a lab, why were they ignored?" Wenstrup asked in an interview Sunday with Fox News. "You saw people being called crackpots and conspiracy theorists."
When did you first find out that members of the intelligence community, including those at the FBI and the Energy Department, thought that COVID likely originated in China?
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in February 2023 that the COVID-19 virus likely originated in China from a lab leak. The Energy Department came to a similar conclusion in an intelligence report that same month.
Could you elaborate more about whistleblower allegations that you visited the CIA headquarters to potentially influence the agency's COVID origins investigation?
A whistleblower report indicates that Fauci potentially influenced the CIA's COVID origins probe by visiting the agency. The U.S. Intelligence Community later released a report stating that five intelligence agencies believe COVID originated naturally while the CIA and another unnamed agency could not trace the virus' origins.
How large is the government's secret database on adverse events and injuries?
The Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, where medical professionals can report adverse reactions to vaccines, has a secret "back end" that only regulators can access, according to a report late last year. The database, which is reportedly kept secret to protect the privacy of patients, brings numerous questions, the most prominent of which is about the size of the database.
How much did you weigh in on Operation Warp Speed?
Wenstrup told reporter David Zweig last week that he planned on asking this question about Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's effort to deliver COVID-19 vaccines years ahead of the schedule typical for such treatments.
How were you involved in the COVID task force, both during the Trump administration and the Biden administration?
Fauci joined the COVID task force when it was formed in January 2020, and Wenstrup says he wants more details about Fauci's involvement in the group.
Did you weigh in on school closures, lockdowns and similar things? What was your advice on that?
Schools began closing in the United States in March 2020, as did sectors of the U.S. economy, such as cruise ships. Also at this time, the U.S. government issued social distancing measures and travel bans.
Why did you support vaccine mandates for employment and education?
Commenting on questions about vaccine mandates during an interview Sunday with The Washington Examiner, Wenstrup said: "Americans don’t do well with ‘because I told you so.’ It’s just not in our nature."
What lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic can be used to prevent future pandemics?
Following the transcribed interviews on Monday and Tuesday, Fauci plans on appearing before Congress to testify at a public hearing later this year.
The capital's most dedicated delivery man Kevin Ross, 44, has been captured on video using a walker on his bike cycling through streets to collect food orders
Ross was filmed by fellow delivery biker Joshua Taylor Cavallero, who shares his own delivery experiences in Washington D.C. to a his one million followers
Cavallero's video captured Ross, who had previously been hit by a car, using a walker due to a broken foot as he managed his deliveries
[AFRICANEWS] Egypt's newly reelected president attended Saturday (Jan. 06) the Christmas eve mass at the Cathedral of Nativity of Christ, east of Cairo.
It was feast day for the country's largest religious minority, the Coptic Orthodox Christians.
The celebration was overshadowed by the war raging in the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip, on Egypt’s eastern borders.
"God willing, this year will be happy for all of us, and we will overcome, thanks to God, the major existing crises. We hope to God that they will not increase more than that and will not continue more than that (meaning the war in Gaza)," president El-Sisi said.
"The crisis we're all live the most and by which we are all affected, I imagine, are the events in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank , and we in Egypt have a respectful position. We seek at least a ceasefire and the entry of aid in order to relieve the burden on our brothers and people in Gaza [...]"
This year's festivities also come amidst a harsh economic crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2024 00:00 ||
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[AFRICANEWS] The trial former Gambia ... The Gambia is actually surrounded by The Senegal on all sides but its west coast. It has a population of about 1.7 million. The difference between the two is that in colonial days Senegal was ruled by La Belle France and The Gambia (so-called because there's only one of it, unlike Guinea, of which there are the Republic of Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, New Guinea, the English coin in circulation between 1663 and 1813, and Guyana, which sounds like it should be another one) was ruled by Britain... n Interior Minister Ousman Sonko will open on January 8.
The former official is charged with crimes against humanity relating to torture, kidnapping, sexual violence, and unlawful killings between 2000 and 2016 under then-President Yahya Jammeh.
The opening of a Swiss trial on January 8, 2024, for serious crimes committed in The Gambia represents a significant advance for justice for the victims of grave abuses, Gambian and international groups that are part of the Jammeh2Justice campaign said today.
Sonko was arrested in Bern, Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... on January 26, 2017, the day after TRIAL International filed a criminal complaint against him. The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland filed an indictment against Sonko before the Federal Criminal Court on April 17, 2023. The trial, taking place in the city of Bellinzona, is expected to last about three weeks.
The trial is possible because Swiss law recognizes universal jurisdiction over certain serious international crimes, allowing for the prosecution of these crimes no matter where they were committed and regardless of the nationality of the suspects or victims.
Gambian activists and survivors, and international advocates will attend the trial’s opening in Bellinzona and are available for comment.
In December 24, 2021, the final report of Gambia’s Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) found that Jammeh and 69 of his associates committed crimes against humanity, and called for their prosecution.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2024 00:00 ||
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[Gateway] Micki Whitthoeft, the mother of January 6 police-murder victim and four-time Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, commented last night on her daughter’s murder and the historic lawsuit to hold Capitol Police Officer Michael Byrd accountable.
Whithoeff spoke to The Gateway Pundit last night on the third anniversary of January 6, 2021, during her and other patriots’ nightly prayer vigil in honor of January 6 victims, who died, are rotting in prison, or currently fighting bogus charges.
Witthoeft and fellow patriots gather nearly every night outside of the DC Gulag to pray for justice for the January 6 hostages held by our government without due process and speak to January 6 Defendants who call in from prison.
Prior to last night’s prayer vigil, advocates for the January 6 prisoners, braving cold weather and rain, gathered for a rally and march in protest of political persecution outside of the Department of Justice Building and the FBI Headquarters. Watch footage from the rally here and here.
You can watch live streams of the January 6 prayer vigil every night via 1791 Storm Trooper on YouTube. Watch footage of prayers and phone calls to January 6 hostages from the third-anniversary prayer vigil here.
[Red State] Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General C. Q. Brown was informed the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized Tuesday but agreed to maintain the charade that Austin was working at home. Meanwhile, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, who was on vacation in Puerto Rico, was asked to assume some of Austin's duties, but she didn't know he was in the hospital until Thursday. You don't 'rat out' a brother.
Hicks completed a B.A. in history and politics at Mount Holyoke College in 1991, where she graduated with magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors. In 1993, she earned an M.P.A. in national security studies at University of Maryland, College Park. Hicks completed a Ph.D. in political science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010. Her dissertation was titled Change Agents: Who Leads and Why in the Execution of U.S. National Security Policy. Charles Stewart III was Hicks' doctoral advisor.
#12
Considering Biden is in control of nothing; including his own sphincter. Why tell Biden? My question to Austin and his boot lickers is “who did you tell”?
[Jpost] On average, treatment with ibogaine immediately led to significant improvements in functioning, PTSD, depression, and anxiety – and those effects persisted until at least one month after treatment.
Researchers at Stanford University in California have found that ibogaine – a naturally occurring, plant-based psychoactive compound found in the roots of the African shrub iboga that has been used for centuries in spiritual and healing ceremonies – safely leads to improvements in depression, anxiety, and functioning among veterans with traumatic brain injuries.
Their new study, just published in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine under the title “Magnesium–ibogaine therapy in veterans with traumatic brain injuries,” included detailed data on 30 veterans of US special forces.
So this is a very preliminary study with very promising results... that might not be reproducible in a larger study.
“This is [apparently] the first study to report evidence for a single treatment with a drug that can improve chronic disability related to repeated TBI from combat/blast exposures. Moreover, there is no currently available US Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment for chronic [effects] of combat-related TBI, “the researchers declared.
“No other drug has ever been able to alleviate the functional and neuropsychiatric symptoms of traumatic brain injury,” said psychiatrist and behavioral sciences Prof. Nolan Williams. “The results are dramatic, and we intend to study this compound further.”
TBI is a disruption in the normal functioning of the brain resulting from external forces such as explosions, vehicle collisions, or other bodily impacts. That trauma can lead to changes in the function and/or structure of the brain, which, in turn, contributes to neuropsychiatric symptoms.
A WIDESPREAD ISSUE ABROAD AND AT HOME
Hundreds of thousands of troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq have sustained TBIs in recent decades, and these injuries are suspected of playing a role in the high rates of depression and suicide seen among military veterans – and surely in the IDF’s Gaza war as well.
With mainstream treatment options not fully effective for some veterans, researchers have sought therapeutic alternatives.
Ibogaine has gained interest from the medical and scientific communities for its potential to treat opioid and cocaine addiction, and research has suggested that it increases the signaling of several important molecules within the brain, some of which have been linked to drug addiction and depression. Since 1970, it has been designated as a Schedule I drug, preventing its use within the US, but clinics in both Canada and Mexico offer legal ibogaine treatments.
“There were a handful of veterans who had gone to the clinic in Mexico and were reporting anecdotally that they had great improvements in all kinds of areas of their lives after taking ibogaine,” Williams said. “Our goal was to characterize those improvements with structured clinical and neurobiological assessments.”
Williams and his colleagues at Stanford teamed up with VETS, Inc., a foundation that helps facilitate psychedelic-assisted therapies for veterans. With support from VETS, 30 special operations veterans with a history of TBI and repeated blast exposures, almost all of whom were experiencing clinically severe psychiatric symptoms and functional disabilities, had independently scheduled themselves for treatment with magnesium and ibogaine at the clinic.
Before the treatment, Stanford researchers gauged the participants’ levels of PTSD, anxiety, depression, and functioning based on a combination of self-reported questionnaires and clinician-administered assessments. Participants then traveled to a clinic in Mexico run by Ambio Life Sciences where, under medical monitoring, they received oral ibogaine along with magnesium to help prevent heart complications that have been associated with ibogaine.
The veterans then returned to Stanford for post-treatment assessments.
PROMISING RESULTS
“These men were incredibly intelligent, high-performing individuals who experienced life-altering functional disability from TBI during their time in combat,” Williams said. “They were all willing to try almost anything that they thought might help them get their lives back.”
At the beginning of the study, participants were experiencing clinically significant levels of disability as measured by the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale 2.0, which assesses disability in six functional domains, including cognition, mobility, self-care, getting along, life activities, and community participation. In addition, 23 met the criteria for PTSD, 14 for anxiety disorder, and 15 for alcohol use disorder. In their lifetimes, 19 participants had been suicidal, and seven had attempted suicide.
On average, treatment with ibogaine immediately led to significant improvements in functioning, PTSD, depression, and anxiety – and those effects persisted until at least one month after treatment.
Before treatment, the veterans had an average disability rating of 30.2 on the disability assessment scale, equivalent to mild to moderate disability. One month after treatment, that rating improved to 5.1, indicating no disability. Similarly, one month after treatment, participants experienced average reductions of 88% in PTSD symptoms, 87% in depression symptoms, and 81% in anxiety symptoms relative to how they were before ibogaine treatment. Formal cognitive testing also revealed improvements in participants’ concentration, information processing, memory, and impulsivity.
FURTHER IMPLICATIONS
Williams and his team are planning further analysis of additional data collected on the veterans but not included in the current study, including brain scans that could help reveal how ibogaine led to improvements in cognition. They also hope to launch future studies to further understand how the drug might be used to treat TBI. They think ibogaine’s drastic effects on TBI also suggest that it holds broader therapeutic potential for other neuropsychiatric conditions.
“In addition to treating TBI, I think this may emerge as a broader neuro-rehab drug,” Williams concluded. “I think it targets a whole host of different brain areas and can help us better understand how to treat other forms of PTSD, anxiety and depression that aren’t necessarily linked to TBI.”
That would be life-changing for huge numbers of people, if it pans out.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[USA Today] Though facing separate trials, James and 
[AFRICANEWS] Egypt's newly reelected president attended Saturday (Jan. 06) the Christmas eve mass at the Cathedral of Nativity of Christ, east of Cairo.
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
