Hey Now, You're a Rock Tsar(naev): Rolling Stone Cover Gives Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect 'Rock Star' Treatment

Alternate Rolling Stone cover courtesy of everyjoe.com

The August 2013 issue of Rolling Stone hits newsstands featuring a snapshot of brooding of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, much to the chagrin of a large cross-section of pundits, entertainers, local officials, first responder and survivors of the Patriot's Day terrorist attack. Boston mayor Tom Menino wrote a letter to the magazine's publisher that stated in part "The survivors of the Boston attacks deserve cover stories, though I no longer feel that Rolling Stone deserves them". Boston police commissioner Edward Davis and Suffolk County DA Daniel Conley also criticized the magazine's cover image.

More compelling was the reaction from survivors who were seriously injured in the April 15th, 2013 terrorist attack. Paul and JP Norden, two brothers from Stoneham, MA who each lost a leg in the bombing, posted the following on Facebook.

Here you go Rolling Stones; if you required a cover and wanted marathon related, one would assume that you would have promoted a nation of continued healing, provided American heroes and encouraged moving forward. This is just one of several available shots that would have made sense if you were looking for togetherness.

Instead, your irresponsible behavior did more to tear open wounds and insult victims, survivors and families that have been slowly healing and accepting the horrendous acts of terrorism. There is a very long road that awaits the involved victims and your magazine ripped at the hearts in an instance and cut at the deepest levels and for what, “To increase sales of a magazine that usually is worthy of music celebrities.” Well, Rolling Stones, you just reclaimed your 15 minutes of fame, we only hope, it lasts only fifteen minutes.

What you did yesterday with your incredibly poor decision, was weaken extreme good that has been built from unimaginable evil.

Well, we are here to remind you that we are 2 BROTHERS 1 NATION….Standing Boston Strong…….and no room for magazines intended on highlighting evil, hate and death.

Today, we take a step over that magazine and hold our heads up high and ask our supporters to do the same and to also ignore the sensationalism perpetrated by RS.

MBTA Police officer Richard Donahue, who was shot and wounded in the chaotic gunfight in Watertown, MA after the Tsarnaev Brothers ambushed and killed MIT policeman Sean Collier and carjacked a motorist in Cambridge, MA, issued a statement on Wednesday.

The City of Boston and the surrounding communities have faced many challenges since the bombings at the marathon finish line. The new cover of Rolling Stone has garnered much attention due to its sensationalized depiction of one of the alleged bombers. My family and I were personally affected by these individuals’ actions. I cannot and do not condone the cover of the magazine, which is thoughtless at best.

However, I appreciate our country’s protection of free speech afforded to us by the Constitution. I am confident that our Boston Strong community will remain intrepid and unshaken by the cover of this magazine.

The Rolling Stone piece is called The Bomber: How a Popular, Promising Student was failed by his family, fell into radical islam and became a monster and won't hit newsstands until this weekend. However, a number of retailers with ties to New England and the Boston area announced that they wouldn't be selling the August issue of Rolling Stone on Thursday. As of Thursday night, the list included pharmacy chains CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid as well as Stop and Shop, Cumberland Farms, Tedeschi's and Big Y Foods.

In response to the Rolling Stone cover, Boston Magazine published an article titled The Real Face of Terror: Behind the Scenes of the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Manhunt that included previously unreleased photos of a bloodied Tsarnaev on the boat with his arms in the air and a red dot from a laser sight on his head before he was taken into custody. The images were obtained by the magazine courtesy of a Massachusetts State Police sergeant who was on scene in Watertown that night.

One has to wonder if the Boston Marathon bomber were a middle aged crazed right wing Tea Partier like so many on the left insisted immediately after the terrorist attack, would Rolling Stone have used a similarly flattering image like they did for the younger Tsarnaev brother?

Or better yet, let's assume Mitt Romney won the 2012 presidential election. Who would Rolling Stone be more likely to use a flattering picture of on the cover to accompany an article- The moderate Republican former governor of Massachusetts or an unrepentant Islamic terrorist who admitted to killing four and wounding hundreds in a terrorist attack in a major American city?

Host of Fox News' Red Eye and The Five Greg Guttfeld summarized Rolling Stone's Tsarnaev piece as follows:

"Wow, here's a really good looking cool kid who loves to smoke weed (a lot -- isn't that cool and funny!) and seems super cool and all his friends just think he's the "bomb." He has such great hair!!!!

Oh -- sorry - and then the cute guy does something really really bad, and it's like totally weird because he was such a cool dude --and he was smart and stuff, and a great fighter and girls liked him! He seems really cute to me, anyway!!! :)

and when someone cool does something REALLY BAD WE THINK then we are really sad.

:(

Like, why didn't he like us more??? : ^I

It sucks.... why couldn't he have been a dorky, ugly white right wing christian who didn't do drugs-- instead?

I mean -- That would have been more fun to write about! LOL."

In response to the public outcry [that they knowingly courted- NANESB!], Rolling Stone's editors released a statement on Thursday.

Our hearts go out to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, and our thoughts are always with them and their families. The cover story we are publishing this week falls within the traditions of journalism and Rolling Stone’s long-standing commitment to serious and thoughtful coverage of the most important political and cultural issues of our day. The fact that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is young, and in the same age group as many of our readers, makes it all the more important for us to examine the complexities of this issue and gain a more complete understanding of how a tragedy like this happens

Pardon my Français, but bull-fucking-shit. First of all, if your 'hearts went out to the victims', I suspect you would use a much more drab image of Dzhokhar on the cover- maybe even his prison jumpsuit as he awaits trial instead of some sepia toned image that looks like its from the cover of his upcoming solo album. Number two, your referring to the murder and maiming of bystanders in a terrorist attack as a 'tragedy' underscores the fact that you don't take any of this seriously. A runaway bus didn't plow into the crowd- that would've been tragic. This was a premeditated act of murder and according to court documents, Dzhokhar and Tamerlane Tsarnaev set a backpack laden with explosives down next to innocent people cheering on the marathon runners and took off shortly before an 8 year old from Dorchester was ripped to shreds.

Detroit Becomes Largest US City to File For Bankruptcy

Will the last one out of Detroit please turn the lights off?

Beset by years of mismanagement, corruption and a steep population decline, the Motor City became the largest US city to file for Municipal bankruptcy on Thursday.

The filing by a state-appointed emergency manager means that if the bankruptcy filing is approved, city assets could be liquidated to satisfy demands for payment.

Snyder had determined earlier this year that Detroit was in a financial emergency and without a plan to improve things.

was unable to convince a host of creditors, including the city's union and pension boards, to take pennies on the dollar to help facilitate the city's massive financial restructuring.

Some creditors were asked to take about 10 cents on the dollar of what the city owed them. Underfunded pension claims would have received less than 10 cents on the dollar under that plan.

The filing leads to a 30 to 90 day period that will determine whether or not the city of Detroit is eligible for Chapter 9 protection, and define the number of claimants who may compete for Detroit’s limited settlement resources. The petition seeks protection from unions and creditors who are renegotiating $18.5 billion in debt and liabilities, according to the Detroit Free Press.

To the protests of many on the Detroit city council, Michigan's Republican governor Rick Snyder appointed emergency manager Kevin Orr back in March to oversee Motown's finances. Orr was a Maryland-based attorney who resigned from the prestigious Jones Day law firm to take the Emergency Manager position.

Besides rapid depopulation and a massive public employee pension shortfall, the city of Detroit fell into further financial disarray when former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick took office and started awarding overly-generous city contracts to unqualified friends and ran up more than $210,000 on a city-issued credit card for meals, travel and alcohol.

It should also be worth pointing out that Detroit hasn't had a Republican since 1962.

Borderline Psychosis Update- Mexican Marines Nab Fugitive Zetas Capo in Border Town; The Deer Hunter(s); Gunmen In Chihuahua Resort to Chasing Ambulances

TAMAULIPAS- Officials south of the border confirmed on Tuesday that Mexican Marines had captured fugitive Zetas leader Miguel Angel Treviño Morales- also known as "Z-40".

Even in a nation jaded by years of violence stemming from ongoing narco violence, Z-40 had earned a reputation for ferocity and depravity on both sides of the border. While not actually pulling the trigger, he is believed to have ordered the 2010 massacre of more than 70 Central American immigrants, a 2010 arson attack on a Monterrey casino that led to the deaths of 52 patrons, the death and disappearance of more than 200 people in Tamaulipas after gunmen abducted passengers off of intercity buses and a 2012 prison riot in Nuevo Leon that killed 44 and was used as cover for a jailbreak.

However, after years of aggressive incursions into territory controlled by the rival Gulf, Sinaloa and La Familia Michoacána cartels, the Zetas began suffering a number of setbacks recently. In June 2012, a federal judge in Texas ordered the seizure of more than 400 racehorses stabled in New Mexico's Ruidoso Downs racetrack as part of a money-laundering investigation against Jose Treviño Moreals- Miguel's brother.

Around the same time, Mexican troops arrested the Zetas "piracy czar" in Nuevo Leon. Gregorio Villanueva Salas oversaw the lucrative video, music and software piracy arm of the Zetas and was said to be involved in a number of grenade attacks.

In October 2012, Mexican Marines shot and killed then-Zetas leader Heriberto Lazcano outside a ballpark in Coahuila- although at the time the Mexican military initially thought they had simply encountered some low-level sicarrios. However, in a bizarre development a group of men broke into a funeral home and stole Lazcano's body the following day.

Despite the Zetas fearsome reputation, Treviño and two associates- a bodyguard and accountant- were apprehended without firing a shot. A Blackhawk helicopter from the Mexican Navy was used to cut off Z-40's escape route and after a brief foot chase in which he reportedly fell into heavy brush, he was captured.

The Zetas had originally started out as enforcers for the Gulf Cartel recruited from the ranks of the Mexican army or various police departments. However, after the 2003 arrest of Gulf Cartel capo Osiel Cardenas, the Zetas broke away from the Gulf cartel and usurped much of their territory, leaving the remnants of the Gulf Cartel a sliver of territory in Tamaulipas while they aggressively expanded into territory controlled by the Sinaloa and La Familia Michoacána (later the Knights Templar) cartels. Like other criminal organizations, the successfully managed to intimidate police, journalists and prosecutors into compliance with a high-profile campaign of arson and murders- often leaving the bodies of their victims mutilated and on display in public along with a warning written on a banner hung nearby.

However, the Zetas were able to separate themselves from others for random attacks on civilians not involved in the drug trade, forcibly conscripting illegal immigrants transiting through Mexico to become drug mules (or executing them if they refused), armed themselves with military grade weaponry from armories in Central America and even began recruiting members of the Guatemalan Army's elite Kabiles special operation unit as they expanded their operations in Central America.

MICHOACAN- The uprising in Guererro that has seen armed civilians in small villages oust public officials accused of co-operating with drug traffickers has spread to the mountainous state of Michoacán. Once home to the enigmatic and cult-like La Familia Michoacána cartel, the state had mostly fallen into the hands of the Knights Templar cartel- an offshoot of La Familia when much of their leadership was killed or arrested in late 2010.

Despite the apparent demise of La Familia, Michoacán remains prime real-estate for organized crime with arable land to grow export-grade marijuana and opium poppies as well as the port of Lazaro Cardenas, which can be used to import cocaine from South America or precursor chemicals for methamphetamine from Asia.

“The problem started when they began messing with the population: extortion, rapes, killings," Mayor Rafael Garcia, 42, says of the Knights Templar, the fancifully named cartel of thugs who control many of western Michoacan state's 113 counties. "We were terrified. We are still terrified.”

“We are a very small town raising its voice,” he says. “Hopefully it will have an impact.”

Following the lead of two nearby counties, Coalcoman's people two weeks ago armed a makeshift militia with assault rifles and shotguns and drove the Templars out.

The gangsters responded by besieging the town from its outskirts. They set fire to trucks and cars trying to leave and attacked men working the forests and ranches.

Wielding a quasi-religious code of conduct and a cynical vow to defend communities against outsiders, the Templars are Michoacan's latest incarnation of a deeply rooted and politically protected criminal culture.

But this latest threat of impending slaughter proved a watershed, forcing President Enrique Peña Nieto to backtrack on vows to demilitarize Mexico's fight against its heavily armed and murder-minded gangsters.

He named an army general on May 16 to take control of Michoacan's public security and deployed as many as 6,000 soldiers to the state with orders to disarm the militias and force the Templars to retreat.

“I still don't understand how the government let this go on so long," Garcia says. "They didn't imagine the town would take up arms. The army is here because the people rose up."

Coalcoman joins a spreading movement across violence-plagued Michoacan and neighboring Guerrero state, where towns and villages have formed volunteer “community police” to depose corrupt local police and draw a line in the dirt against the gangs.

Similar but more poorly armed militias formed in late February in the towns of Buenavista Tomatlan and Tepalcatepec, forcing the mayors of both towns to flee and sparked deadly clashes with the Templars.

"It's not possible to continue living this way," Michoacan's five Roman Catholic bishops declared in a call to action two weeks ago. "There is a permanent feeling of defenselessness and desperation. To that is added anger and fear because of the forced or voluntary complicity between authorities and organized crime."

Mexico's civil-war-like criminal violence began in Michoacan more than six years ago when then-President Felipe Calderon sent in the army to subdue La Familia Michoacana drug cartel.

The troops didn't stay long and the gangsters waited them out, returning stronger than ever. By one estimate, the Templars — who emerged several years ago as a breakaway faction of La Familia — now hold sway in nearly three-quarters of the state's counties.

The Knights Templar has become the state’s leading crime syndicate.

As long as they stuck with the drug trade the Templars were tolerated and even admired by many here. But in recent years the gang's local cells began heavily extorting communities and business people, reportedly raping women at will and killing on a whim.

Local officials and police either cooperated openly with the Templars or felt themselves powerless to oppose them. State and federal officials reacted sporadically, their operations often sparking open combat and gangsters blockading towns and cities.

Extortion fees were collected as taxes, just as formalized but far more hazardous to evade, the Coalcoman mayor and other residents say. The Templars took 10 percent of municipal budgets, and similar cuts from cattle, lumber and lime producers. They levied taxes on meat, tortillas and other groceries and charged “protection quotas” from anybody they came across.

Residents and companies refusing to pay face the Templars’ wrath.

Lumber yards, and fruit packing sheds and delivery trucks have been burned down, workers and citizens murdered. In April, gunmen twice attacked a convoy of lime growers and pickers who had traveled to complain to state officials about the extortion, killing 10 people.

For now the troops serve as peacekeepers, keeping Templars and militias separated but not really moving against either. The gangsters stay scarce, the militias keep their weapons out of sight but handy.

Most everyone expects the federal forces to pull out sooner rather than later. Then the troubles will begin anew.

"We are very aware that they can return at any time,” said the leader of unarmed militiamen manning the checkpoint on the highway entrance to Buenavista Tomatlan. “We know lives will be lost, but we are ready for that. The people don't want any more gangsters in this area."

The Templars and some federal officials have accused the militias of taking weapons and other support from a criminal cartel in neighboring Jalisco state, pointing to the assault weapons carried by many of the volunteers.

But Mayor Garcia in Coalcoman says local businessmen bought the weapons, though he won't say from whom.

"How are you going to fight these people, with slingshots?" Garcia asked in an interview Tuesday.

A sprawling county of just 10,000 souls, Coalcoman huddles near the Pacific coast in a valley surrounded by forested mountains a six-hour drive from Morelia, the state capital.

The area's independent-minded people work mines, cattle ranches and lumber mills. Coalcoman’s people long have had little use, or regard, for state and federal government.

Coalcoman earned a footnote in history for its fierce guerrilla resistance against occupying French soldiers in the mid-19th century.

A leftist guerrilla movement sprang up near here in the 1970s. Well-armed militias here again have set nerves on edge in Morelia and Mexico City.

“We are living this, we are fighting this in perhaps an old fashioned way," said rancher Misael Gonzalez, 48, a leader of Coalcoman's community police. "We are a grain of rice, but we are doing what we can."

Things are peaceful for now. Hundreds of soldiers and federal police man checkpoints on the highway leading to Coalcoman through Buenavista and Tepalcatepec. Armored troop convoys are about the only traffic on the road. Two propeller driven air force attack planes overflew the area last week in a show of force.

“Our fear is that days and months will pass and they will be here without finishing off the Templars," Mayor Garcia says of the troops.

“They haven't managed a single capture. We are not going to put down our arms. We are not going to drop our guard until this is resolved."

Meanwhile Garcia and his townspeople hunker down. The mayor says he sleeps in different houses every night, and doesn't dare leave town.

Should the Templars return, he says half jokingly, he might be forced to seek asylum in the United States. But Garcia stresses that he has few regrets about leading his town in confronting the gangsters.

"It's not about money any more. We were used to paying money,” he says of the Templars endemic extortion. “This is about honor and dignity.

“Either you serve God or you serve the Devil," Garcia says. "I am with the people.”

Despite campaign promises to the contrary, the newly-sworn in government of Enrique Peña Nieto sent Mexican troops to intervene in the mountainous regions of Michoacán and Guererro. Some government officials have expressed concerns that rival cartels may be manipulating anti-government to oust the Knights Templar from some of the territory they hold.


CHIHUAHUA- An ambulance carrying individuals wounded in a shootout was intercepted by gunmen in southern Chihuahua last week. The abductors reportedly abducted four men from paramedics at gunpoint and bundled them into a dark SUV before driving off.

The four patients, who had been wounded in a firefight pitting two groups of gunmen in the town of Guadalupe y Calvo, were being rushed to a hospital when they were forced off the ambulance Thursday night in the town of Parral and taken away in an SUV, Carlos González, spokesman for the Chihuahua state Attorney General's Office, told Efe.

TEXAS- A group of east Texas hunters setting up blinds for the upcoming deer season stumbled across more than 18,000 marijuana plants in rural Madison County this week.

Madison County Sheriff Travis Neeley says a group of hunters were setting up deer blinds when they discovered the plants on Friday. The sheriff's office eventually confiscated 18,400 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $9 million.

Authorities say they also found 13 bags of fertilizer, 3,000 feet of irrigation piping and a generator. Neeley says hygiene products, tents and batteries were also found at a nearby campsite

While no arrests have been made, local police believe the operation has been in use for the past three or four years and was likely funded by one of the Mexican cartels.

Labor Unions Start Turning Against Obamacare

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (R-CA), leaders of three major unions say that the health benefits of their members are now in peril thanks to the implementation of 0bamacare.

The leaders of three major U.S. unions, including the highly influential Teamsters, have sent a scathing letter to Democratic leaders in Congress, warning that unless changes are made, President Obama’s health care reform plan will “destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.”

If that’s not bad enough, the Affordable Care Act, if not modified, will “destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans,” the letter says.

The union leaders point out that the employer mandate incentivizes companies shifting full time employees to part time status by cutting an employees hours to less than 30 a week. A number of employers have already announced they would be cutting back on employees' hours to avoid increased costs under President Obama's healthcare act. The reduced hours also mean reduced pay for the affected employees, who still have to purchase their healthcare under 0bamacare's individual mandate.

Further implementation of the plan will adversely affect group healthcare coverage between union labor and multiple companies within an industry, Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa claims.

Multi-employer plans, also called Taft-Hartley plans, are health insurance benefits typically arranged between a labor union in a particular industry, such as restaurants, and small employers in that industry. About 20 million workers are covered by these plans; 800,000 of Joseph Hansen’s 1.3 million UFCW members are covered this way.

Taft-Hartley plans, they write, “have been built over decades by working men and women,” but unlike plans offered on the ACA exchanges, unionized workers will not be eligible for subsidies, because workers with employer-sponsored coverage don’t qualify.

Obamacare’s regulatory changes to the small-group insurance market will drive up the cost of these plans. For example, the rules requiring plans to cover adult children up to the age of 26, the elimination of limits on annual or lifetime coverage, and the mandates that plans cover a wide range of benefits will drive premiums upward.

But the key problem is that the Taft-Hartley plans already provide generous and costly coverage; small employers now have a more financially attractive alternative, which is to drop coverage and put people on the exchanges, once the existing collective bargaining agreements are up.

Somehow, I suspect Hoffa and the other union presidents knew that 0bamacare would be the massive trainwreck they're saying it is, but were banking on some sort of carve-out or exemption for the unions written into the law. After lobbying tirelessly since 2009 for its passage and implementation and pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of President Obama and liberal politicians who helped get the law passed, they're just now finding out there is no immunity for them for the law that they so vociferously backed. This leads me to wonder how well squandering hundreds of millions of dollars and years of political capital are going over with the union's rank-and-file workers.

Earlier this month, the White House announced a delay in enforcing the employer mandate provision of the healthcare law. Critics point out that the one year delay is technically illegal and the timing was suspect, pushing the mandate back until after the 2014 mid-term elections. The delay also applies only to businesses, the individual mandate is still intact.

Last month, Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced that the White House was in talks with the NFL and NBA to promote the upcoming 0bamacare rollout. By the end of  June, however, the National Football League announced that they would not be promoting 0bamacare. Spokesmen from the NHL and Major League Baseball also confirmed they were contacted by the administration regarding promoting enrollment in the healthcare law, but had yet to meet with any HHS officials.

Quicke All Star Break Sports Chowdah Update- Red Sox Come Up Short After Workman-Like Effort in Oakland; Lincecum No-Hits Padres

Ben Margot photo

RED SOX- The Red Sox wrapped up the first half of the season with a Sunday afternoon game against Oakland out on the west coast. It also marked the MLB debut of Brandon Workman as starting pitcher. Workman had a 5-1 record and 3.43 in 11 games for the AA Portland Sea Dogs and a 3-1 record with a 2.80 ERA in 6 games for AAA Pawtucket and made his first appearance of the season for Boston on Tuesday in relief of Felix Doubront against Seattle.

Although the Mariners managed to rough up Workman- including giving up two doubles, a homer and 3 RBI in two innings of work- it was a different story in Oakland. Workman managed to confound the Oakland bats, not allowing a hit through the first six innings. The Red Sox took a 2-0 lead thanks to RBI singles from Dustin Pedroia and Brock Holt and managed to chase Bartolo Colon from the mound after 6⅔ innings. The A's managed to break up Workman's no-hit bid in the bottom of the 7th with a leadoff infield single from former Red Sox outfielder Coco Crisp. A's outfielder Josh Donaldson then homered to the deepest part of the stadium to tie it up at 2-2. The game remained deadlocked at 2-2 until the bottom of the 11th when recently-acquired Red Sox reliever Matt Thornton gave up a walkoff RBI single to Donaldson to give Oakland the 3-2 win. Oakland wins the weekend series by a margin of 2 games to 1.

The silver lining is that despite the lackluster road trip to the West coast, the Red Sox still have the best record in all of MLB. And keep in mind that this is without Lester at his sharpest, the services of Buchholz or a clearly defined closer in the bullpen for the last several weeks.

AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS- What was a battle for last place in the NL West in San Diego's PetCo Park on Saturday night garnered the attention of MLB as San Francisco Giants starter Tim Lincecum threw his first career no-hitter.

Lincecum threw 148 pitches in the complete game 9-0 win over the Padres in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter. The no-no was the Giants third no hitter since 2009, with two of those coming against the Padres and one of them against the Houston Astros. Jonathan Sanchez no-hit the Padres in July 2009 in what was the first-ever no-hitter at San Francisco's AT&T Park while Matt Cain threw a perfect game against Houston in June 2012 for the first-ever perfect game at the park.

The successful no-hit bid was the first one from a pitcher not named Homer Bailey since September 2012. Lincecum's no-no on Saturday was the first ever no hitter thrown in San Diego's PetCo park, which opened in 2004. The Padres remain the only MLB club that doesn't have a no-hitter to their name.

ALL STAR GAME- Oakland Outfielder Yoanis Cespedes won the 2013 Home Run Derby at New York's Citi Field on Monday Night. The Cuban defector bested Washington's Bryce Harper 9-8 in the final round to take the 2013 title.

Tuesday night's All-Star game is set to have the Mets' Matt Harvey [7-2; 2.35 ERA] go up against Detroit's Max Scherzer [13-1; 3.09 ERA] . Scherzer lost his first start of the season on Sunday afternoon against the Rangers.

First pitch is scheduled for 8:00 ET and the game will be televised on FOX with ESPN Radio carrying the radio broadcast feed.

Borderline Psychosis Update- Fast and Furious Gun Reportedly Used to Kill Police Chief in Jalisco; Narcos Carry Out Cross Border Abduction of Innocent Man in Texas

Aftermath of deadly ambush in Jalisco that killed the police chief for the town of Hostotipaquillo

JALISCO- About the only honest assessment from the Justice Department and Obama Administration during the 2011 Fast and Furious hearing on Capitol Hill was that the weapons that were allowed to 'walk' in the ill-advised ATF operation would continue surfacing at crime scenes on both sides of the border for quite some time.

Another weapon lost in the Obama administration's failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation has purportedly been traced to two more killings, including the fatal shooting of a police chief in Mexico.

The officer was killed Jan. 29 in the city of Hostotipaquillo when gunmen intercepted his patrol car and opened fire, according to Justice Department records obtained by The Los Angeles Times. The chief’s bodyguard was also killed and a second bodyguard and the chief’s wife were wounded.

The semi-automatic rifle that killed the police chief in central Mexico has been traced to the Lone Wolf Trading Company, a gun store in Glendale, Ariz.

The gun was purchased in February 2010 by 26-year-old Jacob A. Montelongo, of Phoenix, who purportedly bought more than 100 guns connected to Fast and Furious. He is now serving 41 months in prison on charges including making false statements and smuggling goods from the United States.

The murder weapon was identified as a WASR- a Romanian made semi-automatic variant of the AK-47. The gun was similar to another weapon that could be traced back to Fast and Furious in November 2012 when a Mexican beauty queen was reportedly used as a human shield by her narco boyfriend in a shootout between cartel gunmen and Mexican soldiers.

TEXAS- At a time when President Obama and DHS head Janet Napolitano assured us that the border with Mexico was safer than ever, Mexican cartel gunmen abducted an innocent man in Texas and smuggled him across the border before he was murdered in northern Mexico.

The abduction took place more than two years ago at a rural intersection in Mission, TX when Gulf cartel gunmen dressed as policemen abducted 35 year old Ovidio Olivares Guererro at gunpoint before tying him up and taking him to a nearby cartel stash house, then a ranch in Starr county before being smuggled across the border to Mexico.

Police believe his abductors had mistaken Olivares for his cousin, Gerardo Olivarez. The abduction was reportedly ordered by a Gulf Cartel underboss Miguel Villareal Jr- also known as 'Gringo Mike' who believed that Gerardo had stolen large amounts of cocaine from one of the cartel's nearby stash houses.

Court records show that the whole kidnapping plot began to unravel when Mission police busted a party inside a hotel room at the Hawthorn Suites off Plantation Grove Boulevard back in June 2011.

Mission police arrested 23-year-old Gerardo Villarreal on drug charges but investigators learned he participated in the kidnapping.

Villarreal told investigators that he got paid $1,000 dollars by a man nicknamed “Pecueka” to participate in the crew.

Federal court records show that Villarreal is expected to be sentenced in August but FBI agents identified five more suspects named in a second, but related case.

FBI agents arrested suspects Jose Lorenzo Davila, Roel Garza and Orlando Hernandez last week but the names of the two others suspects in their case remain sealed.

Records in both cases show that the intended target in the kidnapping was Guerrero’s cousin Gerardo Olivarez.

Olivarez could not be reached for comment on Wednesday but records show that the gunmen were hired to kidnap him.

Court records show that the gunmen knew Olivarez by the nickname “Lin” and they believed he stole a large amount of cocaine from a Gulf Cartel stash house in the Rio Grande Valley.

Villarreal told FBI agents that they had Olivarez’s Mile 8 North home under surveillance in the days before the kidnapping.

Court records show that the kidnapping was one of several ordered by Miguel Villarreal, Jr.

Villarreal was killed during a March 2013 gun battle in Mexico but at the time of the kidnapping, he was a Gulf Cartel plaza boss who went by the nicknames “Gringo Mike” or “El Gringo.”

FBI agents reported that Guerrero was taken from Mile 8 North and taken to a ranch owned by Villarreal at 1012 N. Trosper Rd. in Alton.

The gunmen questioned Guerrero and realized that he was not the right man.

Although the ranch was registered to a woman named Dominga De La Torre, court records show Villarreal was the owner.

The ranch was reportedly used as a Gulf Cartel stash house for drugs and other illegal activity.

Those who stayed at the ranch were charged with guard the drugs but a 100 kilograms of cocaine were stolen from there just two weeks prior to the kidnapping.

Villarreal had hired the gunmen to kidnap those who believed had stolen the drugs.

Once at the Trosper Road ranch house, the gunmen beat Guerrero but realized that he was the wrong man.

Court records show that Guerrero saw the face of a suspect whose name has not been released.

That unnamed suspect told the gunmen that they could not free Guerrero because they had seen his face.

Court records show that the unnamed suspect told the gunmen that Guerrero would be taken to Mexico.

They drove Guerrero to a home in Rio Grande City and then to the Rio Grande River where he was smuggled across to Mexico.

The gunmen delivered Guerrero to a man nicknamed “Mocho,” who was the plaza boss for the Gulf Cartel across from Rio Grande City in Camargo.

Court records show that “Mocho” delivered Guerrero to “Gringo Mike” in Reynosa.

One of the gunmen arrested in the case told FBI agents that he ran into another unnamed suspect in the case in Reynosa.

That unnamed suspect showed the gunmen a large amount of cash and told him that Guerrero had already been murdered.

FBI agents reported that Guerrero was a lawful permanent resident of the United States and had no involvement in the theft or sale of cocaine.

Guerrero has not been hear from or seen since the kidnapping. His body has never been recovered.

Ovidio's family reported his abduction after showing up at a local police station to find out more about his arrest, only to learn that he wasn't in custody.

CANADA- An internal assessment by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police indicates that at least 10 Canadians killed in Mexico since 2008 are suspected to have ties to organized crime  and were thought to be in Mexico to forge closer links to the Mexican cartels.

Some were known to be active in drug trafficking in Canada and all had extensive criminal backgrounds, says the RCMP analysis.

A copy of the May 2012 assessment, which takes a close look at the influence of corruption, and a related review of the implications for Canada — both heavily censored — were released to The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

The Mounties say global borders have become blurred with the proliferation of transnational organized crime.

As a result, Canadian criminal networks have expanded, conducting business on an international scale with illicit organizations in other countries.

“Canadian criminal groups are now dealing directly with Mexican criminals and crime groups in Mexico, a country struggling with corruption and brutal violence,” says the assessment by the RCMP’s criminal intelligence program.

In April last year, Thomas Gisby, a B.C. man with known gang ties, was gunned down in a Nuevo Vallarta coffee shop.

At the same time, interceptions of Canada-bound drug shipments “point to possible connections between Mexican and Canadian-based crime networks,” the RCMP says.

A recently released Canada Border Services Agency report cites Mexico as the largest transit point for South American cocaine destined for North America.

The RCMP assessment says competition among drug trafficking organizations has made corruption endemic in Mexican society, reflected in weakened governmental institutions, an ineffective criminal justice system, and a deep-rooted fear and distrust of authorities by the Mexican people.

At least five of the Canadians mentioned in the report have extensive criminal backgrounds and are said to be associated with the Hell's Angels or British Columbia-based UN Gang. A number of Canadian criminal enterprises are said to be forging closer links to the Mexican cartels to increase their profit margin by eliminating middlemen and third parties.

Homeland Security Chief Napolitano To Step Down

Too little too late.

Head of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced on Friday that she would be stepping down later on this year. Napolitano- a former Arizona governor- was Obama's first-term appointment for the DHS position and will reportedly be leaving to seek the president of the University of California system.

Napolitano's tenure at DHS has been marked with scandals and policies geared towards keeping an increasing number of Americans under suspicion. In 2009, the DHS released an assessment that deemed returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan as potential terrorist threats- an assessment that Napolitano stood by.

As the DHS was putting additional scrutiny towards veterans, Christians, gun owners and pro lifers, the agency ignored red flags leading up to two terrorist attacks on US soil- a June 1st, 2009 shooting at a Little Rock, AR Army recruiting station committed by a convert to Islam who trained in Yemen that killed Pvt William Andrew Long and wounded Pvt Quentin E Ezegwula. In November 2009, a muslim US Army major who had openly proclaimed support for the Taliban and communicated online with Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki opened fire on fellow troops at a processing center in Fort Hood, TX- killing 13 and wounding 32 before being stopped by police gunfire. The shooter survived and is still awaiting trial while the Department of Defense and Homeland Security refuse to acknowledge that it was a terrorist attack, instead referring to it as 'workplace violence'.

A little over a month later, 23 year old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight as it approached Detroit International Airport with plastic explosives sewn into his underwear on Christmas Day. Abdulmutallab was overwhelmed by a quick-thinking Dutch passenger before the bomb could detonate and the pilot was able to land the plane safely. Immediately after the thwarted attack, Napolitano issued a statement proclaiming 'the system worked', despite a number of security lapses, the fact that Abdulmutallab had a valid visa for entering the United States and the fact that it the Dutch passenger who thwarted the Nigerian jihadi's bombing attempt.

While Napolitano's DHS continued warning the public about veterans, on May 1st, 2010 vendors in New York's Times Square alerted nearby policemen to a suspicious vehicle that was parked nearby with smoke coming out of it. The NYPD bomb squad was called in and the area was quickly cordoned off after patrolmen discovered what appeared to be a homemade IED in the back of a Nissan Pathfinder with Connecticut plates. After reviewing surveillance footage of the area, authorities identified Faisal Shahzad as the prime suspect. Shahzad- a naturalized US citizen from Pakistan- was on a Dubai-bound Emirates Air flight at JFK that was moments away from departing the gate.

This time, Napolitano didn't attempt to reassure the public with a message of 'the system worked'- instead, Mayor Bloomberg blamed the attempted bombing on an individual unhappy with President Obama's recently-passed healthcare law.

Another infamous Napolitano moment came when she was questioned by Arizona Sen John McCain in 2010 before a Senate committee. Both Napolitano and attorney general Eric Holder were critical of a recent law passed by state lawmakers in Arizona that would allow local police to check the residency status of anyone they came into contact with and turn them over to federal immigration officials if they're in the country illegally. When the senior Republican senator from Arizona asked Napolitano whether or not she had actually read the law, the DHS head answered "No" [as did Holder, but Napolitano's ignorance of the law seemed even more egregious considering she was governor of that state until recently- NANESB!].

More recently, however, Napolitano's DHS reportedly missed a number of red flags leading up to the Patriot's Day 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon by two Chechen brothers that killed three and injured more than 170 runners and spectators. Despite being on welfare, the two brothers- Dzhokar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev- had travelled to the Chechnya and Dagestan region of Russia where muslim fighters have been clashing with Russian troops and militia loyal to the Kremlin since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Russian intelligence officials also reportedly warned their American counterparts about the suspicious activities of the brothers, but those warnings went unheeded by the DHS and other agencies- even as whistleblowers came forward with revelations about unprecedented surveillance of Americans by agencies such as the NSA and DHS.

That's to say nothing of the dysfunction along the US-Mexico border. Towards the end of Napolitano's tenure as governor of Arizona, rampant human trafficking from Mexico had given the capital city of Phoenix the dubious distinction as 'America's Kidnapping capital'. The 2010 ambush and murder of a US Border Patrol agent in Arizona by narcos armed with guns from the ATF's ill-advised Operation Fast and Furious was met with- at best- a collective shrug from DHS, despite Homeland Security being the parent agency for the Border Patrol.

Granted the Department of Homeland is a fairly new agency, but I don't think it's that much of a stretch to say that Napolitano has been the worst DHS head the agency has seen. It's also worth pointing out that the new agency also had a number of existing government agencies incorporated into it during its formation a decade ago- including Customs, Immigration, the Border Patrol and the US Coast Guard.

Ordinarily, I would be happy to see Napolitano leave, but if she managed to stay on after her 'the system worked' gaffe in 2009 it was pretty clear that she was only going to leave whenever she felt like it. Apparently the University of California system presidency is Napolitano's golden parachute, overseeing a University system that will continue cranking out sanctimonious progressive dullards with 17th century LGBTQ Literature studies degrees and six-figure student loan debt.

There's also the stark likelihood that President Obama- unencumbered by worrying about re-election- could manage to select somebody who's even worse than Napolitano for DHS, making it yet another government agency at his beck and call to be used on critics and opponents of his administration [if he hadn't already as some claim- NANESB!].

Rhythmic Method Sports Chowdah Update- Despite Choppy Waters in Game 1, Smooth Sailing for Boston Against Mariners; Poetry in Motion- Ceremonial First Pitch in South Korean Game A Thing of Beauty; Crazy Hot- Ex Baseball Wife Anna Benson Arrested After Home Invasion

Rhythmic gymnast Shin Soo-ji seen winding up for her now-famous ceremonial first pitch in Jamsil Stadium, Seoul Korea. Chosunilbo photo

SOUTH KOREA- This has been making the rounds for the last couple of days, but I thought it would be worth a look since it combines a number of things that I enjoy.



That's actually putting it mildly- I think I'm absolutely smitten. But then again, I'm pretty sure the guys in the Doosan Bears dugout are too.

South Korean rhythmic gymnast Shin Soo Jii became an immediate internet sensation with her acrobatic ceremonial first pitch prior to a game between the Doosan Bears and Samsung Lions on July 6th.

In performing her ceremonial pitch ahead of a game between the Doosan Bears and Samsung Lions at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Friday, Shin executed what is known as a backward illusion turn.

Leaving one foot planted on the ground, she twisted her body around in a full flip before straightening and launching the ball forward -- somehow still managing to throw an accurate pitch.

A video clip showing her flashy delivery was uploaded to MLB.com the following day.

The clip garnered more than 10 million hits in the span of just a few days and was also featured on the MLB Network's Intentional Talk, hosted by Chris Rose and former Red Sox first baseman Kevin Millar [and hopefully consigning Psy's Gangham Style to the dustbin of history for South Korean viral videos- NANESB!].

Shin Soo Ji competed for South Korea during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and also during the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. By 2012, she had retired from competitive gymnastics but worked as a commentator during the London Summer Olympics.

GEORGIA- Oh lord....why is it always the quiet ones?

Former reality TV star and baseball wife Anna Benson was arrested in Georgia on Monday morning after threatening her estranged husband- former Mets, Orioles and Rangers pitcher Kris Benson- with a gun and collapsible metal baton after storming into his suburban Atlanta, GA residence.

According to a police report, a fully armed Anna confronted Kris in the Smyrna, Ga., home they once shared, but that she now is under order to vacate. She was carrying a handgun and wearing a bulletproof vest. The former Penthouse model also had a hatchet, expandable baton and a taser in her possession.

Once she was arrested and searched, officers found Anna wearing an ammo belt and carrying a red knife inside her waistband. A bag of syringes was also found in the house, according to the police report.

Kris and Anna were married in 1999 when he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates and she was an exotic dancer in an Atlanta nightclub. The Mets acquired Benson at the 2004 trading deadline but he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles the following offseason. Some speculate the trade was fuelled by Anna's antics, which included dressing up as a sexy Mrs Santa Claus for a Mets family-friendly Christmas party and a radio interview on the Howard Stern show where she said she would sleep with all of Kris's teammates if she caught him being unfaithful to her.

While Kris made his last MLB start for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2010, Anna continued to do interviews and appeared in the World Series of Poker and the reality TV series Baseball Wives.

RED SOX- After their west coast road trip got off to a promising start with a 6-2 win over the Angels last Friday, the wheels started to come off following the Saturday night game where the Red Sox squandered a late 4-run lead only to have Josh Hamilton win it for the Angels in extra innings. The Sunday night game was a nationally televised affair and saw Angels starter Jared Weaver and the Angels bullpen throw a shutout against former teammate John Lackey in a 3-0 loss for Boston.

To the casual observer, Monday night's opening game of the Red Sox and Mariners series at Safeco Field had the potential to be a pitcher's duel with Felix Hernandez going up against Jon Lester. However, the reality was that the Red Sox had their skulls caved in by an 11-4 final on Monday night- not a promising start to the series.

Tuesday night's contest at Safeco was a slugfest that saw both starters get chased early- Andrew Webster lasted only 2⅓ innings while Mariners starter Hisashi Iwakuma went all of three innings. The Red Sox would ultimately go on to win by an 11-8 final and David Ortiz would go 4-5 with a solo homer to tie Harold Baines for the all time hits by a designated hitter.

The following night, in the house that Edgar Martinez [mostly] built, Big Papi set the all-time record for hits by a DH with a leadoff double in the top of the 2nd inning, giving him 1689 total hits as DH. He was just getting started, too.

After taking a 2-0 lead in the top of the second thanks for sac-flies from Saltalamacchia and Iglesias, Ortiz would double the Red Sox lead with a 2-run homer in the top of the 3rd, followed by an RBI single from Victorino in the 4th to make it 5-0 Boston. The Red Sox would blow it wide open in the 6th by putting up four more runs and Doubront would cruise to a fairly easy win after allowing all of one earned run on five hits in seven innings of work. The Red Sox would handily win Wednesday night's game by an 11-4 margin.

Seattle still had a chance to salvage a split of the series during Thursday afternoon's game, although it didn't look that way at first. Outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury gave the Red Sox the early 1-0 lead after leading off the game with a solo homer, but the Mariners would jump all over Ryan Dempster in the bottom of the second for four runs, followed by another run in the bottom of the 3rd to give Seattle a 5-1 lead. But the Red Sox would rally in the top of the fourth with a RBI singles from 3B Brock Holt, Jose Iglesias and Jacoby Ellsbury. By the time the fifth inning ended, the game was tied 7-7.

Pawsox callup Steven Wright (not the comedian) went 5⅔ innings without giving up a run after the Mariners bats chased Dempster. The game headed to extra innings and Daniel Nava broke the deadlock with a two out RBI single in the top of the 10th before Koji Uehara closed out the ballgame with a 1-2-3 bottom of the 10th. The Red Sox go on to win by a final of 8-7 and take three out of four from the Mariners in Safeco.

Their West Coast road trip continues Friday night when they head to Oakland to take on the Red Sox West Oakland A's at the Coliseum. John Lackey [6-6; 2.80 ERA] will get the start against Jarrod Parker [also 6-6 with an ERA of 4.04]. First pitch is set for 10:05 ET and the game will be televised on NESN. Among the former Red Sox currently on the Division-leading A's are outfielders Coco Crisp and Josh Reddick along with infielders Jed Lowrie and Brandon Moss.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS- Three Red Sox players have been named to the 2013 AL All Star Team after weeks and weeks of balloting. DH David Ortiz, 2B Dustin Pedroia and starting pitcher Clay Buchholz were voted in to make an appearance at the 2013 All Star Game next week in Citi Field, however, Buchholz is expected to remain on the DL until after the All Star break, so it will just be Ortiz and Pedroia.

Koji Uehara was among the names listed on an MLB 'Final Vote' ballot, but ultimately lost out to Toronto reliever Steve Delabar when the Final Vote balloting was tallied.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS-  Former Husker and current Patriots cornerback Alfonzo Dennard was arrested on charges of DUI in Lincoln, NE on Thursday.

This wouldn't be Dennard's first run-in with police in the Nebraska capital- in 2012, he punched a Lincoln police officer who was responding to a call about a fight outside a club and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, 2 years probation and 100 hours of community service.

BOSTON BRUINS- Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli announced this week that the organization has signed both G Tukka Rask and C Patrice Bergeron to 8 year contract extensions. Both Rask and Bergeron's contract are worth an estimated $52 million- or just under $6 million annually.

Nineteen Members of Granite Mountain Hotshots Fire Crew Laid to Rest in Arizona

More than 6000 people- including Arizona governor Jan Brewer and Vice President Joe Biden- were in attendance for a memorial eulogizing the 19 firefighters killed on June 30th battling the Yarnell Hill blaze some 80 miles northwest of Phoenix.

Thousands of firefighters from departments and agencies across North America filled Tim’s Toyota Center arena for the memorial, joining relatives of the 19 hotshots, who perished in the deadliest wildland firefighting disaster in Arizona history.

Afterward, the families claimed their loved ones and prepared for individual funerals, which will begin today and continue into next week, in Arizona and in firefighters’ home states, including California, Oregon, Montana and Illinois.

More than anything, the memorial Tuesday was about firefighters, the 19 who died and the thousands who journeyed to Arizona to pay tribute. Inside the arena and outside were representatives from wildland crews and departments from almost every state and Canada.

Firefighters from other cities took up stations in Prescott to allow every member of the Prescott Fire Department to attend the service, a show of brotherhood that speakers mentioned often.

“Most people can’t comprehend the culture and bond of our profession,” said Harold Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters. “The Granite Mountain Hotshot crew spent days, weeks at a time, deployed in the wilderness together and the only thing they had for certain was each other, their professional family. We all have two families, our loving families at home and our firefighter family on the job.”

As the memorial began, a procession of wildland firefighters filed in and stood at attention in front of the stage. Dignitaries and family members were never without a uniformed escort.

Family members were given several items in honor of the hotshots, including an American flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol, an Arizona flag that had flown over the state Capitol and a bronzed Pulaski tool, used for more than a century by wildland firefighters to dig firebreaks and build trails.

Later in the service, the firefighting union presented the families with firefighters’ medals of honor, given to firefighters who die in the line of duty.

Near the end, Tim Hill, president of the Professional Fighters of Arizona, fought back tears as he described the ritual of the final alarm, a series of three bells sounded three times that marked the end of a firefighters’ service.

Afterward, buglers played echo taps and four AV-8B Harrier jets from the Marine Corps station in Yuma flew in formation over the arena, in honor of the aviation tradition in fighting wildfires, and of the three hotshots who had been Marines. In the ceremonial missing-man formation, one of the four rose from the group as it passed and pulled away into the sky.

Officials believe that the escape routes for the Prescott, AZ Fire Department's specialized wildfire crew was cut off by erratic, swirling winds as they were battling the Yarnell Hill fire on June 30, making it the single deadliest day for American firefighters since the loss of 343 FDNY firefighters in the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York's World Trade Center. Although the crew was carrying emergency shelters that were to be used as a last resort, it's possible they never even had a chance to deploy them, or even if they were deployed they remained ineffective.

The Granite Mountain Hotshots- also known posthumously as the Yarnell 19- were also unique in that they were one of the few 'Hotshot' wildfire crews formed as part of a municipal fire department; most wildfire crews come from state or federal agencies. Those killed on Yarnell Hill that fateful day include Andrew Ashcraft, 29; Anthony Rose, 23; Christopher MacKenzie, 20; Clayton Whitted, 28; Dustin DeFord, 24; Garrett Zuppinger, 27; Grant McKee, 21; Jesse Steed, 36; Joe Thurston, 32; Joe Percin Jr, 24; Kevin Woyjeck, 21; Eric Marsh, 43; Robert Caldwell, 23; Scott Norris, 28; Sean Misner, 26; Travis Carter, 31; Travis Turbyfill, 27, Wade Parker, 22 and Billy Warneke, 25.


Yarnell Hill Fire from Congress, AZ from Matt Oss on Vimeo.

The fast moving Yarnell Hill fire was believed to have been sparked by lightning on June 28th and spread quickly by swirling winds in the mountainous area of central Arizona. Some 10 days after the death of the Granite Mountain hotshots, highway 89- the main route between Wickenburg, AZ and Prescott, AZ- reopened to through traffic. Some residents of the town of Yarnell began filing home shortly after Independence Day and the Yarnell Hill fire was at 90% containment.

Boko Haram Terrorists Massacre 42 At Nigerian Boarding School

Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan ordered the closing of all schools and an increased presence of troops in the northeastern state of Yobe after a deadly attack by muslim terrorists killed 42 at a boarding school in the Mamudo district over the weekend.

During the assault, Boko Haram Islamists marched students and staff into a dormitory, throwing explosive devices into the room with them. They then opened fire on the building and set it alight.

It is believed many of the victims had been sleeping as the Islamists approached the school, with the killing itself starting around 5.30am.

Survivors of the attack say their assailants surrounded the building after setting it ablaze and opened fire on anybody attempting to flee the burning structure. Among the dead are 29 pupils- authorities ordered the closing of schools until September in the wake of this weekend's attacks.

As part of a declaration of a state of emergency, Jonathan also ordered all mobile and satellite phone service cut throughout the region to disrupt Boko Haram communications. However, land lines are extremely rare in the region, and the move was criticized by local officials who say the move also prevents residents from reporting any suspicious activity to authorities.

Some area residents have speculated that the attack on the boarding school could be retaliation after a government raid killed 20 members of Boko Haram after a raid near the village of Dogon Kuka last week. In the last two years, Boko Haram has stepped up attacks against schools, banks, police stations, churches and newspapers not only in the muslim-majority north, but also in the suburbs of the capitol in the predominantly Christian south.

Boko Haram- which roughly translates to 'Western education is forbidden'- started about a decade ago and has been attempting to impose islamic shari'a law in the northern part of the country, but has only recently been able to step up the lethality of their attacks. This has led many to believe Boko Haram fighters were being trained by foreign groups such as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and armed with weapons from Mommar Ghdaffi's collapsed regime in Libya.