A 73 year old woman taking part in a “Citizens Academy” exercise with the Punta Gorda Police Department was accidentally shot dead by an officer who was unaware a live ammunition was loaded in the revolver being used.
Mary Knowlton, 73, died after being shot by a police officer during a shoot/don’t shoot scenario at a special Chamber Police Night similar to the department’s citizen police academy, the chief said.
The Punta Gorda Police Department has identified the officer involved in the shoot/don’t shoot as Lee Coel. Coel was hired by the police department on March 17, 2014.
Coel is frequently seen throughout the community providing department presentations and tours and specifically role-playing in these shoot/don’t shoot scenarios as well as a police presence at youth and neighborhood events, the police department said.
Coel remains on administrative leave while the investigation continues. The police department also said Coel is devastated by what happened and is receiving assistance from the department and the Police Benevolent Association.
According to reports, Coel was asked to resign from the Miramar Police Department after 14 months when he failed to complete an agency field training program.
The Hill is reporting that a former aide to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie texted a colleague in 2013 that the governor lied about
Christine Renna, who worked under Christie’s deputy chief of staff, made the claim in a text message to Peter Sheridan, a Christie campaign aide in 2013.
The text was sent during a 2013 press conference in which the governor denied that his administration was involved in lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.
The text message was released Wednesday in a new court filing, first reported by NorthJersey.com and posted online by Politico, in the case against Bill Baroni, a former Port Authority official, and Christie’s former deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly over the closures.
“Are you listening? He just flat out lied about senior staff and [former deputy chief of staff Bill] Stepien not being involved,” Renna said in the text sent on Dec. 13, 2013, according to a transcript.
“I’m listening,” Sheridan replied. “Gov is doing fine. Holding his own up there.”
“Yes. But he lied,” Renna texted back. “And if emails are found with the subpoena or [campaign] emails are uncovered in discovery if it comes to that it could be bad.”
Renna later deleted the text messages.
Christie’s campaign manager was fired a month after that press conference when it was found he knew about the lane closings.
The son of a good friend of mine, Aaron Levine, is currently doing a two year stint in the Peace Corps in Swaziland, Africa, working in the Youth in Development program.
I should preface this post by saying working as a member of Peace Corps is no “Club Med.” And, as many of you know, it’s not a money making experience. According to the Peace Corps website, Peace Corps provides each Volunteer with housing and a living stipend that enables them to live in a manner similar to people in their community of service.
That being said, everyone talks about the awesome experiences and growth the program provides to young adults.
In an effort to help leave behind a worthy legacy for years to come, Aaron is working to build a much-needed community kitchen to help feed the children in his area.
The project will cost about $1,500, but Aaron isn’t allowed to fund raise on his own. So, his mother has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help cover the costs of materials to build the community kitchen.
I’ll add that this project isn’t going to win someone a Grammy Award or Academy Award. No one will get famous or rich. In fact, no one will make a dime from what will be a grueling project to complete.
But what will happen is countless children in need will get help. And that is priceless.
Aaron works with schools, community members, community organizations, and Non-Governmental Organizations to provide interventions and education pertaining to healthy living, prevention and mitigation of the effects of HIV/AIDS, life skills, employment skills, and providing basic services for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs).
Aaron was attached to Eric Rosenberg High School in Gege in the southern region of Shiselweni last Septmeber, having arrived in the country for training in June 2015. He has been doing work to help the youth of the community empower themselves and make a difference in their lives and their community, but sometimes there are economic barriers that are too much to be overcome by children with no parents or children heading households themselves.
Aaron suggested using a nearby store that was abandoned and unused and refurbishing it instead of making an entirely new structure. They approached the owners, who leased it to them for 300E ($20) a month, which will be offset by the repairs they will make on the structure. Upon a closer examination of the structure, they decided to turn it into a community kitchen for the OVCs in the Eric Rosenberg area of Gege.
The inkundla (community head) of Gege has a list of all of the OVCs in the area, but truly every person under 18 in Swaziland is considered an OVC by the Peace Corps. The spread and affect of HIV/AIDS is felt in every corner of the country by everyone in one way or another. Every child has lost a parent, older relative, or sibling. Every adult takes care of, or provides for in some way, at least one OVC, at least one extra child. This project is a small part of relieving that strain of HIV/AIDS on the community and empowering the youth in their economic, social, and emotional struggles. This project is targeting those OVCs with no parents and no solid source of income or food, and will attempt to provide them with at least one extra meal a day.
There’s a lot more info at the link.
I personally think this is an awesome project. It’s a relatively small amount of money for something that, while labor-intensive, will help this area for years and years to feed vulnerable children.
Back in the day, you could chill for hours watching MTV music videos without ever knowing what they were trying to say.
Snakehips new video for “Cruel” featuring Zayn Malik is the kind of trippy, sexy video that feels cool even if I have no idea what it’s about.
Non-stop, hyper-color imagery with a groovy, electro-vibe, mid-tempo beat and a brooding, smoldering, easy on the eyes Zayn, and you got something going on. I don’t know what, but I like.
In a post on his Facebook page, legendary journalist Dan Rather eviscerates Republican presidential nominee over his controversial call for “2nd Amendment people” to shoot Hillary Clinton should she become president.
No trying-to-be objective and fair journalist, no citizen who cares about the country and its future can ignore what Donald Trump said today. When he suggested that “The Second Amendment People” can stop Hillary Clinton he crossed a line with dangerous potential. By any objective analysis, this is a new low and unprecedented in the history of American presidential politics. This is no longer about policy, civility, decency or even temperament. This is a direct threat of violence against a political rival. It is not just against the norms of American politics, it raises a serious question of whether it is against the law. If any other citizen had said this about a Presidential candidate, would the Secret Service be investigating?
Candidate Trump will undoubtably issue an explanation; some of his surrogates are already engaged in trying to gloss it over, but once the words are out there they cannot be taken back. That is what inciting violence means.
To anyone who still pretends this is a normal election of Republican against Democrat, history is watching. And I suspect its verdict will be harsh. Many have tried to do a side-shuffle and issue statements saying they strongly disagree with his rhetoric but still support the candidate. That is becoming woefully insufficient. The rhetoric is the candidate.
This cannot be treated as just another outrageous moment in the campaign. We will see whether major newscasts explain how grave and unprecedented this is and whether the headlines in tomorrow’s newspapers do it justice. We will soon know whether anyone who has publicly supported Trump explains how they can continue to do.
We are a democratic republic governed by the rule of law. We are an honest, fair and decent people. In trying to come to terms with today’s discouraging development the best I can do is to summon our greatest political poet Abraham Lincoln for perspective:
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Lincoln used these stirring words to end his First Inaugural Address. It was the eve of the Civil War and sadly his call for sanity, cohesion and peace was met with horrific violence that almost left our precious Union asunder. We cannot let that happen again.
“We are convinced that [Trump] would be a dangerous President and would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being,” said the former officials, many of whom held top positions in the George W. Bush administration.
“Most fundamentally, Mr. Trump lacks the character, values, and experience to be President,” they added. “He weakens U.S. moral authority as the leader of the free world. He appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the U.S. Constitution, U.S. laws, and U.S. institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press, and an independent judiciary.”
Signers include some of the best known intelligence, defense and security experts of the past two decades: Michael V. Hayden, the former director of both the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency; Michael Chertoff and Tom Ridge, both of whom served as secretaries of Homeland Security during the Bush administration; Dov Zakheim, a former under secretary of defense; John D. Negroponte, a deputy secretary of state and a former director of national intelligence; Eric Edelman, a top national security adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney; and Robert Zoellick, a former deputy secretary of state, United States trade rep and president of the World Bank.
In closing, the 50 officials wrote, “We are convinced that in the Oval Office, he would be the most reckless President in American history.”
You can read the entire letter, along with a complete list of signers, here.
At a campaign rally today, Republican Donald Trump threw out what many thought sounded like a call to shoot his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
This is really unprecedented folks.
Said Trump, “Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day.”
The reference to the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms, could be interpreted as a joke about using violence to stop Clinton or her judicial picks.
Trump was speaking at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he repeated his regular claim that Clinton intends to “abolish” the Second Amendment, presumably by appointing liberal justices to the Supreme Court. But Trump punctuated that line with an aside, suggesting that Second Amendment supporters might be in a position to stop her even if she’s elected.
Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook responded in a statement: “This is simple–what Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way.”
Folks in Congress didn’t take the comment lightly.
.@realDonaldTrump makes death threats because he’s a pathetic coward who can’t handle the fact that he’s losing to a girl.
Trump’s campaign later spun the dog whistle in a different direction. See below.
I’ll say this – if you think what he said wasn’t dangerous, try telling your boss that your “2nd Amendment” folks will “take care of him” tomorrow. See how that flies.
