At least nine separate wildfires throughout northern San Diego county have forced thousands of residents in the cities of Carlsbad, Escondido, San Marcos and Fallbrook, CA as well as the 4S Ranch section of San Diego and the nearby Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base to flee their homes as firefighters battled the approaching blaze.
Most of the fires were sparked on Thursday and spread quickly due to dry vegetation, unseasonably warm weather and 50 MPH Santa Ana winds blowing in from the desert. Although firefighters have been going after the wildfires with a sustained air and ground attack, the Poinsettia fire in Carlsbad has destroyed at least 30 homes while the San Marcos fire was large enough to spawn its own weather system as it moved southeast to the neighboring city of Escondido.
Authorities have not ruled out arson and arrests have been made in Escondido and Oceanside, CA of individuals who were seen staring small brushfires in a dry riverbed and city parks. A 57 year old man in Oceanside was arrested after witnesses saw him fanning flames of a fire in the San Luis Rey riverbed while two teenagers were arrested in Escondido on Thursday after multiple witnesses saw them trying to start brush fires in a city park and by a street adjacent to a shopping mall. In Escondido, the fires were quickly doused by nearby homeowners and investigators believe the two teenagers- identified as 19 year old Isiah Silva and a 17 year old accomplice- were copycats who played no role in the larger fires in San Marcos, Carlsbad and Camp Pendleton.
Authorities were able to get the San Marcos fire 10% contained on Thursday night and evacuation orders were lifted for parts of San Marcos and Fallbrook overnight- although police set up a checkpoint and would only allow local residents with ID into some of the affected areas.
In a race that was touted as the first electoral challenge to President Obama's signature healthcare law since it's been implemented, Democrat and former Florida gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink lost to Republican attorney David Jolly in a special election to fill the congressional seat in Florida's 13th Congressional district that was left vacant by the death of longtime GOP incumbent Bill Young.
Although 0bamacare wasn't the core issue in the Tampa, FL-area district, both Sink and Jolly made clear their respective stances on 0bamacare during their campaign. While acknowledging the flawed 0bamacare rollout and trouble-plagued healthcare.gov website, Sink stated that the Affordable Care Act was flawed and that she was favor of 'fixing' the law. Jolly, however, said he was in favor of a full repeal of the law if elected.
The race to replace the late Rep. Bill Young was considered a tossup, and was cast as a political bellwether, and a testing ground for each party's messaging strategy -- which revolves in part around the Affordable Care Act.
Jolly's election night headquarters in Clearwater Beach erupted into loud cheers as it became clear he was the winner. In his victory speech, Jolly simultaneously struck a conciliatory tone and expressed gratitude for his mentor, Young, and Young's family. Jolly was introduced by former "Price is Right" game show host Bob Barker, via video. Young's two adult sons were also onstage with Jolly, and he embraced them at the end of his speech.
Meanwhile, national Republican groups swiftly got to work casting Jolly's victory as a blow to ObamaCare and those who support it.
“Tonight, one of Nancy Pelosi’s most prized candidates was ultimately brought down because of her unwavering support for ObamaCare, and that should be a loud warning for other Democrats running coast to coast," said National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore. "Pinellas County voters have made the right choice; David will be a dedicated and thoughtful representative for them in Congress.”
The electoral victory comes despite Jolly trailing in early voting to Sink and Libertarian candidate Lucas Overbay getting nearly 5% of the vote. Although the Pinellas County congressional district was home to the longest-serving Republican in the House of Representatives, the district narrowly went to Obama in the 2012 Presidential election. With nearly 100% of the vote counted on Tuesday's special election, Jolly had 48.5% of the vote while Sink had 46.7%. Both parties had sent out
While pundits are cautioning against using the FL13 race as a bellweather for the 2014 midterms, this is the first chance either the Democrats or Republicans had to use Obamacare as an election issue in a competitive district since key provisions of the law went into effect.
Filner's decision to resign comes after three days of closed-door mediation and after six weeks of scandal in the city. At least 18 women have publicly accused Filner of sexual harassment, including one former aide who filed the lawsuit.
In exchange for his resignation, the city will pay some, if not all, of Filner’s share of any damages awarded in the lawsuit, said the sources, who spoke on the condition anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The City Council is set to vote on the settlement in a closed session Friday.
Filner, a Democrat, was seen Wednesday night loading boxes into an SUV parked outside City Hall -- and driven by a San Diego police officer, part of the mayor's security detail -- after saying farewell to his staff and cleaning out his office.
All nine council members and numerous other officials had called for Filner's resignation.
City Atty. Jan Goldsmith had said last week that he was working on “exit plans” for Filner. His office was preparing, “as a last resort,” to seek a restraining order against Filner to bar him from City Hall on grounds that he created a hostile working environment for women.
With Filner's resignation, San Diego's City Council President- Democrat Todd Gloria- will become acting mayor. According to the city's municipal code, a special election will take place within 90 days of Filner's resignation.
After serving in Congress for more than 20 years, Filner announced that he wouldn't run for re-election to the House of Representatives after California lost a seat due to redistricting in 2012 and instead run for mayor of San Diego. After securing endorsements from prominent Democrats such as former president Bill Clinton, Filner narrowly defeated former City Councilman Carl DeMaio in the 2012 mayoral race. While Filner is a Democrat and DeMaio is a Republican, county and municipal elections in California are theoretically non-partisan.
At least 18 women- some of them military veterans and survivors of sexual assault- came forward to accuse Filner of groping or fondling them as mayor or promising to help constituents as congressman, but only if they'd agree to go on a date with him.
The sheer number of accusers and relative silence of the media and local politicians raise the question of how long the local and state Democrat party had known about Filner's misconduct and what was done about it aside from sweeping it under the rug come election time.
Vocational nurse Michelle Tyler and U.S. Marine Katherine Ragazzino spoke Tuesday about a meeting with Filner in which the mayor implied that he would help solve Ragazzino’s issue with the VA only if Tyler agreed to attend a public event with him or have dinner with him.
Ragazzino suffered a traumatic brain injury and PTSD while serving in Iraq.
The two women were meeting with Filner as a follow up to a previous meeting with then-Congressman Bob Filner two years ago.
In the mayor’s office, Filner allegedly asked Ragazzino to leave the meeting and then began giving compliments to Tyler.
Tyler described a conversation with Filner where he asked if she were single and then asked her to meet with him on a personal basis.
“It was extremely disturbing to me that he made it very clear that his expectation was that his help for Katherine depended on my willingness to go to dinner with him, spend personal time with him and be seen in public with him, “ Tyler said.
“I felt that his rubbing my arm and telling me help for Katherine was contingent on my going out with him was extremely inappropriate and unacceptable,” Tyler said.
“I was not there looking for a date.”
Filner had previously served as the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Veteran's Affairs between 2007 and 2011. Tyler is the eleventh woman to accuse Filner of harassing or groping and the third in as many days.
The incident allegedly occurred in December at a fundraiser to retire the 70-year-old Democrat's debt from the mayoral campaign.
"He grabbed me a little too tight, then proceeded to slide his hand down my arm and then did a little grab on my derriere,” Emily Gilbert told Fox5 San Diego. "I didn’t want to make a scene. There were kids around.”
She tried to laugh it off but was embarrassed by the crude behavior, she told Fox5.
Gilbert's husband, a Marine officer, was furious when he heard of the incident.
Olga Diaz, a fellow Democrat and deputy mayor of the nearby city of Escondido, CA said that she also had a strange encounter with the mayor at an event where she was asked whether or not she had a husband.
Filner is being sued by former communications director Irene McCormack-Jackson for sexual harassment and at the end of July, the San Diego city council announced that they were suing Filner to recover any costs from a lawsuit or settlement against the mayor.
Former California Assemblywoman and congressional candidate Lori Saldaña said that she told the state's Democrat Party's leadership about then-congressman Bob Filner's conduct in 2011 after talking to six San Diego women had been physically or verbally harassed by Filner. Instead of taking any action against Filner, party officials made it clear that any candidate who didn't support Filner's mayoral bid wouldn't get any backing from the Golden state's Democrat party.
Saldaña said that in summer 2011 six prominent women in local politics, business and education told her that Filner had physically or verbally harassed them. Saldaña had been exploring what turned out to be an unsuccessful bid for Congress and the conversations came in the context of the 2012 elections.
Saldaña said she contacted former party Chairman Jess Durfee with the allegations and Durfee was among a group of Democratic leaders who met with Filner to discuss them that summer. She said nothing happened.
Saldaña said she contacted former party Chairman Jess Durfee with the allegations and Durfee was among a group of Democratic leaders who met with Filner to discuss them that summer. She said nothing happened.
“As disgraceful as Bob’s behavior has been, it’s been tolerated by our Democratic Party leadership,” she said.
Saldaña said Filner never personally harassed her and declined to say who alleged to have had run-ins with the mayor. She said former City Councilwoman Donna Frye, who is calling for Filner’s resignation over unspecified sexual harassment allegations, inspired her to talk.
Party leaders, she said, made it clear that if people didn’t support Filner they wouldn’t receive their support again.
Despite being in the same party, Filner and Saldaña are said to have had a contentious professional relationship over a proposed border sewage treatment project that would've been in Filner's district which never came to fruition. Despite the accusations that she thought were credible, she endorsed Filner for mayor last year. In 2012, Saldaña ran as a Democrat in California's newly-redistricted 52nd Congressional District but lost in the primary.
As pressure mounted on Filner to step down over a hail of sexual harassment allegations leveled at him this week by several women, the 70-year-old Democrat and former congressman said he would enter a counseling clinic on August 5 to undergo "intensive therapy."
During his two-week leave, Filner said he would be in counseling at the clinic on a full-time basis and would be briefed on city activities every morning and evening.
G4TV's Carrie Keegan rages against the (Coke) Machine. G4TV photo
Thursday marked the start of the annual San Diego Comic-Con International; a massive gathering for collectors and fans of everything from golden-age Superman comics to cutting-edge interactive gaming platforms- or "Mardi Gras for Nerds" as I tend to call it [only there's no beads...just freebies from various studios or publishers in attendance- NANESB!] while others refer to it as 'Nerd-vana'. I don't mean that disparagingly, either- I went to the event a few years before I even started this blog and overall had a pretty good time despite returning home a little exhausted and much more broke-er.
Wyatt Earp may or may not need smelling salts.. Hawkman13 via Flickr
The scenery is something to behold as well, and I'm not just referring to the pleasant bayside setting of San Diego's sprawling convention center. These costumed women in attendance at Comic-Con actually fall into two categories. Besides the professional 'booth babes' who are paid to look hot and attract customers to various booths, there's also the amateurs- women from all over the country who painstakingly put together supremely detailed costumes of their favorite comic book, TV show, anime, video game or movie character for the sole purpose of wearing it at the San Diego Comic Con.
Diana Prince taking in all the sights
Unfortunately, the event may end up becoming a victim of its own popularity. As more and more Hollywood studios decided to use the San Diego Comic Con as a venue to promote upcoming movies and TV shows, an increasing number of people show up each year- possibly more than can realistically be accommodated in San Diego's Convention Center. This has led to talk of moving the annual event further north to Anaheim, Long Beach or Los Angeles- there likely would be similar capacity problems, but it would be closer to the entertainment industry hub.
However, this year's Comic-Con gets underway amidst some allegations of misconduct by San Diego's recently-elected mayor- former Democrat congressman Bob Filner. The allegations of groping, sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct come not from anonymous sources, but his own Democrat allies on the city council and in the county Democrat Party offices.
Apparently this isn't just staring, inappropriate comments or the occasional swat on the backside from a dirty old man, but rather stuff that would land an average citizen in jail.
Earlier this month, former backer and ex San Diego City Councilwoman Donna Frye accused Filner of groping and fondling a number of women visiting his office- including constituents. Without confirming the allegations against him, the 70 year old Filner has admitted to misconduct but has vowed to stay in office. Earlier he had attempted to explain away his actions as being overly demonstrative- "I'm a hugger" he told KUSI-TV in an interview last weekend. But colleagues say there's more to his actions than simply being misunderstood.
Two attorneys said Filner's inappropriate behavior was so common at City Hall that employees had coined the term "The Filner Dance" to describe how workers dodge his sexual advances.
Former Councilwoman Donna Frye, who first went public with the accusations last week, claims his behavior went well beyond hugging.
She did not give specifics until Monday, when she read statements to the media from two alleged constituents, who were not named.
Both say the mayor -- who was engaged at the time -- tried to forcibly kiss them during separate encounters.
Frye read the statements from women she called constituents No. 1 and No. 2.
The first constituent said the mayor asked his staffer to leave the room and then asked her if she was single.
She said she told Filner that he had a beautiful fiancee and that the mayor responded that he wanted to go out with her and kiss her. Filner then grabbed her and kissed her before she was able to push him away and leave the room, according to the statement.
In a statement from constituent No. 2, Filner allegedly made sexual overtures before grabbing her on the street to kiss her.
According to Fox 5 San Diego, the second woman claims Filner grabbed her and tried to force his tongue in her mouth. Later in the car, he allegedly put "his hand on the inside of her bra and was again trying to put his tongue down her throat," Frye said.
It's not unusual for local officials to show up at an event the size and scope of the San Diego Comic-Con, and one might assume that Mayor McGropeyhands might console himself by surrounding himself with thousands of eminently fondle-able hot nerds in skimpy costumes from across the USA. In fact, a San Diego radio station put out a bogus Public Service Announcement warning Comic-Con attendees of that possibility.
While Filner may or may not be showing up at Comic-Con [attendees will likely still have to deal with a number of unelected pervs- NANESB!] the other item on this weekend's itinerary for him smacks of the tone-deafness of a California Democrat who just doesn't care anymore now that they've been elected to office.
The group has stripped him of the award. Instead, he is set to address the scandal now consuming City Hall.
The woman leading the benefit is Tara Jones, the president of the National Military Women Veterans Association of America.
Months ago, Jones' group decided to honor Filner with a lifetime leadership award for his work on behalf of women veterans, including the issue of sexual assault.
Amid the recent scandal swirling around Filner, the group stripped him of the award. In a statement, the groups said, "We do not tolerate sexual discrimination at any level within our society."
Still, the group did not disinvite the mayor from the August award gala, instead announcing that he will address the scandal in a speech.
"He is now the keynote speaker on these injustices," said the group.
A motivation for the invite was not given, but Jones has repeatedly expressed the importance of creating awareness.
Mayor Filner may not have backed out yet under the assumption that his speech will be a "how-to"
Aftermath of fatal ambush in which former LAPD officer Chris Dorner (inset) is suspected of opening fire on two Riverside police officers.
A 33 year old former Naval Reservist and LAPD officer is the subject of an intense, multi-state manhunt on the West Coast Thursday night after allegedly killing two people in Irvine, CA this month and opening fire on police officers in at least two southern California cities this week.
Police in California and Nevada are searching for 33 year old Chris Dorner after being named as a 'person of interest' in a double homicide in Orange County over the weekend. 28 year old Monica Quan and her fiancee Keith Lawrence, 27, were found shot to death in their car in a parking structure in Irvine, CA in the early morning hours on Sunday. Quan was an assistant coach for the UC Irvine Anteaters women's basketball team and also the daughter of the retired LAPD Captain who represented Dorner at his disciplinary hearings that led to Dorner's 2008 dismissal from the force.
Within hours of the double-homicide in Irvine, Dorner posted a lengthy manifesto online promising revenge on those he claimed were responsible for his dismissal from the LAPD. On Monday morning, a citizen in the San Diego suburb of National City reportedly finds 'police equipment' in a dumpster- although investigators at the time declined to elaborate- just that it wasn't immediately identified as belonging to Dorner or the LAPD. Police in National City send a bulleitin to other law enforcement agenices inquiring about the lost equipment.
Dorner, an ex-Navy reservist, reportedly checked into a hotel on the San Diego Naval Base earlier this week before somebody matching his description attempted to steal a boat from a yacht club in the Point Loma area of San Diego. The would-be theif was thwarted by mechanical problems and left the boat's 81 year old owner tied up.
Hours after the unsuccsessful boat theft, LAPD officers in Corona, CA assigned to guard one of the individuals named in the manifesto exchanged gunfire with an individual believed to be Dorner. That same morning, two police officers in Riverside, CA were ambushed while their marked police cruiser was sitting at a traffic light- one of the policemen died from his injuries while the second is expected to recover. As the search was being expanded into Nevada and northern California, two women delivering newspapers in a truck similar to Dorner's were shot by LAPD officers- one in the hand and the other in the back.
On Thursday afternoon, Dorner's truck was discovered engulfed in the mountain resort town of Big Bear- about 110 miles northeast of Los Angeles- as authorities locked down nearby schools and conducted door to door searches. However, searchers conceded that he could've stashed another vehicle in the area or carjacked another motorist after disposing of his truck. Meanwhile federal agents and a Las Vegas Police bomb squad combed through a home that Clark County, NV records showed was owned by Dorner. While FBI agents and the Nevada Highway Patrol issued bulleteins warning law enforcement to be on the lookout for anybody matching Dorner's description, investogators found no concrete evidence that he was planning on heading back to Las Vegas.
There are a number of disconcerning aspects about Dorner's manifesto- a portion apparently addressed to retired Lt Quan says that while it may be "too late" for Dorner to have a family of his own, he promises to take away Quon's. Dorner also hinted that he may have more to his arsenal than pistols or 5.56mm rifles.
Do not deploy airships or gunships. SA-7 Manpads will be waiting. As you know I also own Barrett .50's so your APC are defunct and futile.
“Mr. Morgan, the problem that many American gun owners have with you and your continuous discussion of gun control is that you are not an American citizen and have an accent that is distinct and clarifies that you are a foreigner. I want you to know that I agree with you 100% on enacting stricter firearm laws. … If you had [sic] a well regulated AWB [assault-weapons ban], this would not happen. The time is now to reinstate a ban that will save lives. Why does any sportsman need a 30 round magazine for hunting? Why does anyone need a suppressor? Why does anyone need a AR15 rifle?”
Curiously, many of the same individuals who attempted to falsely link the Tea Party with the 2011 mass killings in Tuscon, AZ or 2012 theater shooting in Aurora, CO suddenly bristled when it was pointed out they were being praised by a suspected mass murderer.
The suspects were caught on surveillance camera entering the store, one of them carrying a large shopping bag. His accomplice then scooped up about 300 pairs of panties on display on a table near the entrance, and deposits them in the bag. Moments later, both men leave the store, unnoticed by any of the employees.
"It's not a petty theft or grand theft," said Lt. Andra Brown of the San Diego police department. "It is a felony burglary because they went into that business with the intent to steal."
Now- I suppose the easiest thing in the world would be to make some sort of pun about how authorities promise to get to the bottom of this....oh wait...I just did. So far, police have yet to announce they've made a bust in the case. Of course, if the crooks took nothing but panties, maybe the boosted lingerie should be considered 'low-end'.
Anywhoo, San Diego Police say that these types of 'stash and dash' robberies are becoming increasingly common as stores get busier for the Christmas shopping season. In November, authorities broke up what they described as a highly organized burgularly ring that targeted retailers such as Bloomingdale's, Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch in San Diego's Fashion Valley.
The sheer quantity of panties stolen would indicate that the thieves likely already had potential buyers lined up or they were confident they could move the merchandise quickly. According to the FBI, organized retail theft rings can be generally described as professional burgulars, shoplifters, cons and fences consipring to steal merchandise at the retail level and sell it at flea markets, online or to move it to other fences. Unlike a one-time opportunist, uch groups will steal electronics, clothing, hardware or even food- sometimes being sent a 'shopping list' from fences and potential buyers in advance.
Victoria's Secret is a subsidary of specialty retailer Limited Brands [NYSE- LTD]. A cursory check of prices on the Victoria's Secret website shows some panties going for as much as $36 a pair.
Traffic signals, street lights and crossing signals remain dark at sunset in Cardiff, CA on the night of September 8th. Mike Blake- Reuters photo
Federal regulators are looking into the cause of a prolonged blackout that left millions of people without electricity in southern California, Western Arizona and the northern part of Baja California, Mexico on Thursday afternoon and on into the early morning hours of Friday.
Arizona Public Service Co. said that the problems began at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday when a 115-mile high-power line that runs from west of Phoenix to the Yuma area switched out of service.
APS had an employee working in the Yuma-area substation where the line connects, but officials are unsure if that worker caused the line's failure, said Daniel Froetscher, APS vice president of energy delivery.
"We don't know whether it was related, but we have been very transparent with the work we were doing there, and will investigate whether there is a relationship," he said.
Power wasn't lost immediately, with the first customer calls coming about 10 minutes after the line's failure, so APS will investigate what actually prompted Yuma-area customers to lose service, he said.
"The system has contingencies," he said. "It is designed to withstand the loss of a single line feed. For about 10 minutes or so, there were no interruptions of service. The system performed as intended."
About 56,000 APS customers lost service throughout Yuma, Somerton, San Luis and Gadsden.
Those power outages cascaded west into California, where the high-power transmission line switches from APS control to the California power grid operator.
APS will investigate what allowed the problems to spread, rather than be contained by the protections built into the power system.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, North American Electric Reliability Corp. and other entities also announced Friday they would investigate the outage, possibly leading to fines.
The cascading power failures that were supposed to be localized around Yuma instead made their way west, knocking out power at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating station.
In the San Diego area, flights at Lindbergh field were halted and classes at local schools and universities were cancelled. Some beaches were shut down as nearly 2 million gallons of untreated sewage spilled into the water.
Power was restored by the early morning hours on Friday, but not before restaurants in the region experienced losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in food that had to be discarded when refrigeration didn't work and labor when many eateries simply shut their doors to the public. Even though power had returned by Friday morning, hundreds of facilities had to remain closed until a health department alert regarding potentially dangerous tap water was lifted.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the designated media cheerleaders for the Obama Administration have insisted that the international power failure validates President Obama's call for additional stimulus spending to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.
Thursday's blackout was the most widespread since the August 2003 blackout that left a large swath of the Northeast as well as parts of the Midwest and the province of Ontario without electricity [I remember the 2003 blackout well. I was in rural upstate New York, blissfully unaware that there was any significant power outage for at least two hours until I drove into this one small town where their one stoplight wasn't working and their one policeman was directing traffic- NANESB!] That blackout left metropolitan areas such as New York City, Cleveland, Buffalo and Toronto without power at the height of rush hour.
Also on Tuesday, the US Attorney for Arizona resigned effective immediately. US Attorney Dennis Burke stepped down two weeks after testifying before a House Oversight Committee regarding Fast & Furious, which Burke was in charge of as the state's US Attorney.
With shouts and profanities, the attackers told the customers and employees to get out. But many terrified customers and employees fled further inside the building, where they died trapped amid the flames and thick smoke that soon billowed out of the building.
Video footage showed workers continuing to remove bodies well into the night.
Monterrey Mayor Fernando Larrazabal said many of the bodies were found inside the casino's bathrooms, where employees and customers had locked themselves to escape the gunmen.
In an act of desperation, authorities commandeered backhoes from a nearby construction site to break into the casino's walls to try to reach the people trapped inside.
On Monday night, Federal Police in Monterrey announced that they had arrested five suspects and were still seeking the whereabouts of two more. Authorities believe a likely motive in the casino attack is nonpayment of extortion money and the five detained suspects are said to be members of the Zetas. Surveillance footage of the suspects filling up five gallon canisters of gasoline at a gas station not too far from the Casino Royale was shown at the conference announcing the arrests Monday.
The attack shocked and angered many Mexicans because instead of career criminals, the victims were mostly middle aged women who frequently visited the casino to play bingo.
MEXICO CITY: 21 of Mexico's 31 senior federal prosecutors abruptly quit earlier this month. Mexican press outlets report this as being the single biggest mass resignation of federal officials in recent history.
The office announced late last month that in Morales' first 100 days on the job, 462 prosecutors and other officials had been dismissed and 111 more were facing criminal charges involving a range of infractions, including fraud, theft, abuse of power and falsification of documents. An additional 386 employees were in the process of being dismissed.
Rosa Elena Torres Davila, a senior official in the attorney general's office, made Monday's announcement and said the resignations were tendered on Friday. They included the top federal prosecutors in some of Mexico's most violent states where drug traffickers have intimidated local authorities and killed thousands of people in cases that have largely gone unprosecuted. They also included the top federal prosecutor in the capital, Mexico City, which is a federal district with a status similar to that of a state.
Attorney General Marisela Morales declined to cite specific reasons behind the mass departures
CALIFORNIA: Local, state and federal law enforcement officers raided an Iraqi-Chaldean social club in San Diego County and arrested 60 men in a multi-agency investigation dubbed 'Operation Shadowbox'. The social club had been a source of complaints from both neighboring businesses claiming drug dealing and prostitution were rampant and wives of some patrons said that their life savings was being gambled away at the club.
More ominously, members of the club were alleged to have purchased drugs and explosives from the Sinaloa cartel. Marijuana was sold out of the club while methamphetamine smuggled in from Mexico would be forwarded to a sister organization in Detroit.
Since January, the DEA and El Cajon police have purchased narcotics, firearms, improvised explosive devices and pharmaceuticals from people at the club, Sprecco said. In April, an undercover operative was shown a hand grenade and was told more were available from a Mexican military source. Suspects in the investigation reportedly arranged narcotics shipments from El Cajon to Detroit.
During the course of the investigation, operatives discovered a suspected association with the Sinaloa Cartel, a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization, and the Chaldean Organized Crime Syndicate, which began in Detroit in the early 80s and has been linked numerous crimes, including murder, arson and kidnapping, Sprecco said.
The investigation resulted in the seizure of drugs including more than 13 pounds of methamphetamine, more than four pounds of ecstasy and pharmaceuticals and about 3,500 pounds of marijuana, Sprecco said. Authorities confiscated more than $630,000 and three luxury cars.
Officers seized 34 firearms, including semi-automatic rifles and four explosive devices, which were processed with the help of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department's Bomb Squad and the FBI, Sprecco said.
The city of El Cajon has the second-highest Chaldean population in the United States after Detroit- the San Diego suburb is home to about 47,000 Iraqi Chaldeans, many of them having immigrated there before the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in their native Iraq.
As a participant in the conspiracy, Vega conducted counter-surveillance, used a village-owned Ford F150 truck to transport firearms from the country, pulled over a car of ATF agents at La Linea's request, and tried to get ATF agents to return firearms to Gutierrez after they were seized, Spitzer told the court.
And on Feb. 10, Vega purchased thousands of dollars in body armor, boots, helmets and clothing, including a bulletproof vest for a La Linea leader, whose name was not mentioned in court.
Vega had previously pleaded not guilty to taking part in the conspiracy, in which he and his co-defendants allegedly purchased about 200 firearms - including AK-47-type pistols, weapons resembling AK-47 rifles, but with shorter barrels and without rear stocks, and American Tactical 9 mm caliber pistols - from Chaparral Guns in Chaparral and smuggled them to members of the Juárez-based La Linea cartel between January 2010 and March 2011.
In raids, law enforcement seized 40 of the AK-47 type pistols, more than 1,500 rounds of ammunition and 30 high-capacity magazines before they crossed the border, and found another 12 firearms in Mexico that were traced back to the defendants. Three others were found on three dead individuals in an SUV in Juárez, and others were found at a narcotics bust there, according to federal prosecutors
Former police chief Angelo Vega faces up to 35 years in prison and a $750,000 fine. The village's former mayor- Eddie Espinoza- and village trustee- Blas Gutierrez- have already pleaded guilty for their role in the weapons smuggling case.
Since the arrests, the small 4-man police department has been disbanded and the area is patrolled now by the Luna County Sheriff's Department.
Restored fire truck carries VFW Members in Aloha, OR 4th of July Parade- Oregonian photo
I mentioned this earlier (altho some of you might've been distracted by the pics of Prinecess Eugenie at the beach), there isn't much else out there that brings as much joy to my heart as seeing the main street of a small town adorned with American flags or red white and blue bunting. Apparently a recent ivy-league study claims that my conservative political leanings play a role in that.
According to a recent Harvard study, 4th of July celebrations energize only Republicans, help boost Republican turnout on election day and are likely to turn young spectators into Republicans.
Democratic political candidates can skip this weekend's July 4th parades. A new Harvard University study finds that July 4th parades energize only Republicans, turn kids into Republicans, and help to boost the GOP turnout of adults on Election Day.
"Fourth of July celebrations in the United States shape the nation's political landscape by forming beliefs and increasing participation, primarily in favor of the Republican Party," said the report from Harvard.
"The political right has been more successful in appropriating American patriotism and its symbols during the 20th century. Survey evidence also confirms that Republicans consider themselves more patriotic than Democrats. According to this interpretation, there is a political congruence between the patriotism promoted on Fourth of July and the values associated with the Republican party. Fourth of July celebrations in Republican dominated counties may thus be more politically biased events that socialize children into Republicans," write Harvard Kennedy School Assistant Professor David Yanagizawa-Drott and Bocconi University Assistant Professor Andreas Madestam.
I'm sorry- was I supposed to throw up my hands and recoil in horror at the last part? Was the end result of this study supposed to be me wringing my hands over how politicized independence day has become? I really don't recall Independence Day parades featuring veterans riding on fire trucks or high school marching bands as having an inherently political bias- but then again, these guys are super-smart and from Harvard, so I could've just as easily missed something I suppose.
Mayor Eddie Espinoza, Police Chief Angelo Vega and city Rep. Jose Blas Gutierrez were arrested on allegations of firearm violations, stated the indictment that was released Thursday afternoon by the U.S. attorney's office in New Mexico.
Espinoza was charged with one count of conspiracy, three counts of making false statements in connection with acquisition of firearms and three counts of firearms smuggling.
Vega was charged with one count of conspiracy. Gutierrez was charged with one count of conspiracy, seventeen counts of making false statements in connection with acquisition of firearms and 19 counts of firearms smuggling.
Federal agents executed a search on the offices of the Columbus Police Department, Mayor Epspinoza's home, 7 other residences in Luna and Doña Ana counties as well as a business establishment. The raid has effectively shut down Columbus 4-man police department, with deputies from the Luna County Sheriff's department in charge of patrolling the area for the time being.
Besides being targeteed by a raid from Pancho Villa in 1916, Columbus has had a fairly tumultuous history with its police department in the recent past. According to a 2009 Los Angeles Times article, the dilapidated building that housed the police station was shut down because of a faulty lock on the door to the evidence room and two off-duty officers were suspended and another injured after a barroom brawl that left the small town's police force down to one man.
Last week, federal prosecutors charged that chief of police Vega was paid $20,000 in protection money and used police vehicles for smuggling firearms while using his police credentials to buy body armour and tactical equipment to re-sell to the cartels.
The two agents reported the incident to a duty supervisor, and the agent and marijuana were subsequently turned over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Border Patrol spokesman Kenneth Quillin said charges were pending in the case.
Corruption cases involving border police have increased in recent years as the U.S. government has ramped up recruitment in a drive to secure the southwest border with Mexico
ELSEWHERE IN ARIZONA: Three Mexican nationals who identified themselves as members of the Sinaloa Cartel were charged on multiple weapons and narcotics conspiracy charges after attempting to purchase heavy weaponry. The three had indicated to informants that they were interested in Stinger missiles, a pair of AT-4 Anti Tank weapons.
The indictment alleges that David Diaz-Sosa, Jorge de Jesus-Castaneda and Emilia Palomina-Robles arranged to procure a military style arsenal for roughly $400,000 and made a down payment for the weapons using nearly 15 lbs of crystal methamphetamine and another $143,000 in cash in separate transactions. Court documents identify Diaz-Sosa and De Jesus-Casteneda as being in the country illegally while Palomina-Robles is a non-citizen resident.
The indictment also alleges that the men were going to divide up the weapons among themselves and smuggle them across the border into Mexico
CALIFORNIA: I mentioned this in passing earlier, but a Border Patrol agent in Southern California nabbed a van full of illegal aliens that were in United States Marine Corps uniforms. The white van itself featured a defaced US Government liscense plate, and the agent- a Marine veteran- became suspicious of the van's occupants when the driver didn't know the Marine Corps birthday and the occupants of the van were unfamiliar with the USMC 'Oo-RAH!' salutation. The arrest took place in the mountains along Interstate 8 at a checkpoint some 45 miles east of San Diego.
The government case contends that Esparza-Cruz entered the “United States without inspection through the City of Del Rio southbound tollbooth lanes.”
Once the truck entered the country ICE Agents ordered “mobile surveillance in order to verify the authenticity of the vehicle.”
Esparza-Cruz allegedly imitated a process used by Border Patrol when they deport illegal aliens back to Mexico using Border Patrol trucks. Luckily ICE agents observed the BP truck and were able to make the arrest.
“They’d just drive through without presenting themselves for inspection because no one questioned a Border Patrol vehicle,” officials explained.
In 2006, Border Patrol agents southwest of Tuscon, AZ came across a van in the desert that was painted to look like one of their vehicles. The drivers abandoned the vehicle after a short pursuit and fled back into Mexico, leaving behind some 30 immigrants locked in a cage the smugglers installed in the back of the vehicle. Over the past few years, smugglers and drug traffickers have also taken to applying realistic graphics to vehicles and trailers marked for Wal Mart, FedEx, DirecTV and others while moving contraband.
WASHINGTON D.C.- The Assistant special agent in charge of the ATF's Phoenix, AZ office is now cooperating with Congressional investigators in an inquiry stemming from the Bureau's 'Operation Fast & Furious'.
Special Agent George Gillett Jr was the one in charge or overseeing the day-to-day operations of Fast & Furious from the Phoenix office.
Gillett, who supervised the group running the Arizona component of Project Gunrunner, known as "Fast and Furious," initially dismissed those concerns and previously ordered ATF agents to avoid all communications with whistle-blowers who were cooperating with the congressional inquiries, several agents said in interviews.
Now, though, Gillett is talking. In a letter Friday to ATF management, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, disclosed that Gillett was cooperating with a congressional inquiry and had participated in two preliminary meetings with investigators.
Gillett, who was named to the Phoenix field office's No. 2 post in June 2008, previously served as an ATF field supervisor in Los Angeles.
After repeated refusals by the ATF and the Justice Department to provide detailed information about the conduct of the Gunrunner investigation and how the guns found at the scene of Terry's death got into criminal hands, Gillett's decision to come forward is crucial, agency sources said.
Early on, Agent John Dodson came forward as a whistleblower after two weapons from the 'Fast & Furious' operation were found at the scene of a December 2010 Arizona shoot-out that killed Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
SAN DIEGO -- One of the nation's largest military bases is reportedly under tighter security after three Middle Eastern men tried to enter without proper authorization. 10News learned the three men -- 40-year-old Afghani Ahmad Rahmani Naeem, 41-year-old Iranian Vahik Petrossian and 27-year-old Iranian Sengekdi Norvik Avanosian -- attempted to get into Camp Pendleton last weekend under what was considered suspicious circumstances.
According to a Be On the Lookout (BOLO) alert issued to high-ranking Camp Pendleton officials, someone reported hearing hateful comments and terrorist threats from three men at a gas station in Oceanside Saturday.
Investigators at Camp Pendleton said the men asked the attendant for directions on how to get to Camp Pendleton before they left the gas station. According to the alert, shortly after midnight Sunday, a rented silver Toyota Corolla driven by Naeem attempted to enter Camp Pendleton through the main gate.
As it was being searched, Petrossian and Avanosian drove up in a black Mercedes, but were told to wait. Instead, they continued past the gate and onto the base. Following a short pursuit, the Mercedes was stopped and searched. No weapons or contraband were found in the Mercedes, but base security noticed the air bag in the steering wheel of the Mercedes had been pulled out and re-attached with duct tape and had wires hanging free, the alert said.
According to the alert, Naaem told base security he was lost and was trying to go to Glendale. When interviewed, Petrossian and Avanosian said they were lost and trying to go to Glendale.
The three men claimed not to know each other, the alert said. Naaem, Petrossian and Avanosian were photographed and released after questioning, and a warning about the trio was posted to law enforcement. However, later that morning about 8:30 a.m., Naeem returned in the Toyota and tried to get on the base again, saying he made a mistake and was trying to enter Interstate 5, the alert said. After his vehicle was searched, Naeem was issued a letter of debarment from the base and escorted to the freeway.
[Petrossian and Avanosnian may very well be Armenian surnames, but keep in mind there is a sizable ethnic Armenian population in the northwestern corner of Iran around Tabriz, not to mention the two men could just as easily be travelling under an alias- NANESB!]
Investigators at Camp Pendleton also said that a criminal background check on the three men turned up nothing. At a cursory glance, this would appear to be some sort of probe to gauge the security at Camp Pendleton (however poorly executed)- one vehicle to distract/occupy the guards while the second one would make their move on targets further into the base.
The incident comes a little over a week after the US Border Patrol arrested a van full of illegal immigrants who were wearing Marine uniforms. A Border Patrol agent who had previously served with the USMC grew suspicious while working at a checkpoint outside of Pine Valley, CA (some 40 miles east of San Diego) when the van full of men were unfamiliar with the Marine Corps' 'Ooo-Rah!' salutation or the Marine Corps birthday.
Also worth mentioning is that about 15 miles north of Camp Pendleton is Edison International's [NYSE: EIX]San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant, so there would be an abundance of potential targets out there for anybody interested in causing mayhem.
NHL- As far as the Bruins are concerned, I'm liking the road trip out west.
The B's came into Vancouver on Saturday night winners of 3 in a row. Of course, two of those wins were tallied against dysfunctional team like the NY Islanders or Ottawa Senators. Calgary was a much better test which they managed to pass, but on Saturday they were up against the league-leading Canucks.
The night before, Vancouver native Milan Lucic was honored by a local junior hockey club. The following night, he ends up scoring the game-winning goal for the B's against the NHL team with the best record.
Vancouver got on the board first with a tally from C Manny Malhotra in the 1st period before Boston would get the equalizer off the stick of Nathan Horton midway through the 2nd.
With dozens of friends and relatives watching in the stands, Lucic scored the go-ahead goal with 4:38 remaining in regulation and with just under two minutes remaining, Patrice Bergeron gave the B's some insurance with an empty netter after the Canucks pulled Roberto Luongo for the extra attacker.
This makes it four wins in a row and the 2nd consecutive game where Boston has won 3-1. Tim Thomas stopped 27 of 28 shots faced while Roberto Luongo faced 24 shots, stopping 22.
The Bruins next game is on Sunday night at Edmonton- puck drops at 5PM Pacific, 8PM Eastern.
NBA- After Thursday's 85-79 loss to a Carmello Anthony-less Denver Nuggets, the western road trip hasn't been as kind to the Celtics as it has the Bruins, but the C's managed to wrap up all of Saturday's NBA action with a win at staples Center against the Clippers.
Kendrick Perkins was sent to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for F Jeff Green and C NenadKsrtic and the Clipper's 1st round pick in the 2012 NBA draft. Saturday night would mark the Boston debut of the two new acquisitions. Despite the sluggish and lethargic 1st half where Boston was trailing 47-40, the C's would come right back and make a game of it.
Paul Pierce led the scoring for Boston with 24 points while Ray Allen had 22, Kevin Garnett had 16 and Glen 'Big Baby' Davis came off the bench for 10. Krstic started with 9 points and 6 rebounds while Green came off the bench for 7 points and one rebound in Saturday's 99-92 win over the Clippers- G Randy Foye had a 32-point night in the losing effort for the Clippers.
The C's next game will be on Monday night against the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City at 9PM Eastern- 7PM Mountain time.
MLB: Hall of Fame Brooklyn Dodgers outfielder Duke Snider passed away at a Southern California Convalescent hospital, according to a statement from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which released a statement on behalf of Snider's family. According to Snider's family, he had been ill for several months and was being cared for at an Escondido, CA convalescent hospital.
Snider batted a career .295 and hit 407 homeruns in a career that started in 1947 with the Brookly Dodgers and saw him win an elusive World Series Title with 'dem bums' and play his home games in Los Angeles when the Dodgers moved across the country. He finished his career in 1964 with the San Francisco Giants.
Snider retired to an avocado farm in Fallbrook, CA after his playing career. In the 1990s, he faced legal troubles because he failed to report revenue from signing autographs, appearances and memorabilia sales to the IRS.
The Dodgers retired Snider's number in 1980, the same year he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
ELSEWHERE: The Red Sox will kick off Spring Training with a 'home and away' series against the Minnesota Twins on Sunday (while, curiously enough, never leaving the city of Ft. Meyers, FL). Opening pitch is 7PM Eastern Time.
Mayor Santos Salinas Garza said that all 14 officers of the town's police department resigned the day after the late October attack in which grenades were thrown at the brand-new police station and the town's police cars were raked with machine gun fire. There were no fatalities in the nighttime attack and the officers were able to create an improvised blockade from the town's police cars.
The mayor said that the department hadn't received any specific threats but had noticed luxury SUV's with tinted windows in the days prior to the assault. The Los Ramones station had been open all of three days at the time of the attack. President Calderon is reportedly considering relieving most of Mexico's poorly trained, undermanned and outgunned municipal police departments of their duties and handing over the patrolling to state or federal agencies.
JALISCO: The director of the maximum security Puente Grande prison outside of Guadalajara has been arrested for suspected ties to organized crime.
Officials from Mexico's Federal Public Safety Department did not elaborate on the charges against Francisco Javier Gomez Meza. But an unnamed official said that Gomez came under investigation in 2008 while a part of the now-defunct Federal Investigative Agency during a sweeping corruption probe that led to the arrest of several top officials believed to be protecting members of the Beltran-Leyva cartel. Prior to that, Gomez was responsible for prison transfers of suspects and would oversee the deployment of officers throughout Mexico.
It is unclear why exactly Gomez was named to such a high profile position as the director of Puente Grande earlier this year while he was under investigation.
Antonio Ezequiel Cardena Guillen, aka Tony Tormenta (Tony the Storm) and four of his bodyguards were killed along with three Mexican Marines and a local reporter in the city just across the river from Brownsville, TX. The US State Department had taken out a US$5 Million bounty on Cardena after he took over Cartel operations from his brother Osiel, who was arrested in 2003.
Putting a 21st century twist on Mexico's age-old problems with entrenched corruption and influential criminal organizations was messages from residents of Matamoros circulating via Facebook and Twitter warning residents of cartel members using vehicles to block off streets and warning others to remain inside while the prolonged gunbattle between cartel gunmen and Mexican soldiers and Marines raged. A shaky video of a convoy of Marines in the back of pickup trucks and SUV's believed to those of Gulf cartel gunment speeding through the streets of Matamoros with gunfire in the background were circulating on YouTube.
Los Zetas- a group of narco-traffickers and enforcers with police and military training that formerly worked with the Gulf Cartel- hung up banners taunting the remaining members of the Gulf Cartel from pedestrian overpasses in the city. One such banner read "Again, the traitor's destiny is evident. There is no place for them, not even in hell".
While this is good news for Mexico's President Calderon and that country's armed forces, it's increasingly likely that the Los Zetas will attempt to move in and take advantage of their former employer's weakened state.
CALIFORNIA: Authorities in San Diego have unearthed a massive cross-border tunnel that connected a warehouse on the Tijuana side of the border with another warehouse some 600 yards north in the Otay Mesa section of San Diego.
Suspicious DEA agents kept the warehouse on the US side of the border under surveillance and tracked a vehicle from the warehouse, searching it as the tractor trailer approached a US Border Patrol checkpoint in Temecula, CA some 75 miles northeast. There, agents seized an estimated 10 tons of marijuana packed into cargo boxes.
Police, DEA and Border Patrol agents raided the Otay Mesa warehouse where another 15 tons of marijuana was found, as well as the entrance to the tunnel. Police on the Mexican side were alerter, where they seized another 4 tons of pot. The tunnel was described as being recently built and sophisticated, coming equipped with lighting and ventilation systems.
Martin Alejandro Cota-Monroy's body was found stabbed to death and with his severed head a few feet away in his suburban apartment back on October 10. Decapitation is a common tactic cartels employ to threaten or intimidate, with headless bodies being strung up from busy overpasses or severed heads being left in duffel bags in public places.
Both Cota-Monroy and the three men alleged to be involved in the brutal slaying are believed to have been in the country illegally. One suspect is in custody while three others are believed to have fled back to Mexico.
NFL: Well, that was pretty awesome. I managed to tune in just in time for the 4th quarter of Sunday's Baltimore/New England game with the Ravens leading 20-10. That was answered by a drive that started on the Pat's own 40 and was capped by a Brady TD pass to Deion Branch (who hardly looked as though he missed a practice) to make it a 3 point game. The Ravens would get as far as mid-field on their next possession, but punted it away on 4th and 1.
The game-tying drive for New England started on their own 14 yard line and threatened to sputter when the Pats were penalized 15 yards after advancing the ball to the Ravens 35 yard line, but a 24 yard completion from Brady to TE Rob Gronkowski brought up 2nd and 1, where the Pats would drive the ball inside the Baltimore 10, but have to settle for the game-tying field goal to cap off a methodical drive that burned nearly 7 minutes off of the clock.
After going three and out from their own 20, Baltimore punted and Wes Welker had a 22 yard return to put the ball at mid-field with 45 seconds left in regulation. However, Brady would get sacked by Haloti Ngata before Brady's hail-mary pass was intercepted in the end zone for a touchback as regulation expired with the game tied at 20-20.
Overtime started off with each team going three and out, although Baltimore was able to string together some first downs, they still ended up punting. However, they were able to keep the Patriots pinned deep on their own end of the field- at least until rookie Romanian punter Zoltan Mesko booted the ball 65 yards from their own 14 to put the Ravens inside their own 20. The Ravens subsequently went three and out, giving the Pats good field position for another sustained drive, distributing the ball between Welker, Branch and Algie Crumpler before Stephen Gostkowski kicked a relatively easy field goal (with just under 2 minutes left in OT) to give New England the 23-20 win.
Tom Brady went 27-44 with 292 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions and got sacked three times. In his first game for New England since Superbowl XXXIX, Deion Branch had 9 receptions for 98 yards and a touchdown. For Baltimore, Joe Flacco went 27-35 with 285 yards and 2 TDs and getting sacked three times. Ray Rice was the Ravens leading receiver with 88 yards and Derrick Mason had 100 yards on 8 carries to lead Baltimore's rushing game.
Not a bad way to come off of the bye week. The Patriots have won 3 in a row and are now 4-1. This weekend, they'll travel to southern California to take on the San Diego Chargers at 4PM ET, 1 PM Pacific.
OTHER PATS NEWS: Brandon Merriweather issued an apology to Ravens TE Todd Heap after a helmet-to-helmet hit. Merriweather and two others were fined earlier this week for what the NFL called dangerous and flagrant hits. Merriweather was fined $50,000 for the his but faces no suspension
ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL: Speaking of Southern California, former Pats, Chargers and Dolphins linebacker Junior Seau was released from a La Jolla, CA hospital with minor injuries after the SUV he was driving plunged off of a seaside cliff in Carlsbad, CA on Monday night. The accident came within 12 hours of his arrest and release by police in Oceanside, CA on domestic violence charges after an argument with his 25 year old girlfriend. Seau told investigators he fell asleep at the wheel- Carlsbad police say that the lack of skidmarks on the seaside highway are consistent with Seau's account. Moreover, they say that no drugs or alcohol were present.
Greg Fiume/Getty
NHL: The Bruins are back in the continental United States and off to a pretty good start. I caught most of their 4-1 win over New Jersey on Saturday, and on Tuesday night, they travelled to Washington DC to take on the Caps in which the game was quasi-nationally televised on Versus. David Krejci and Milan Lucic got the scoring started for Boston with a goal each and just over two minutes apart in the 1st. Washington's Marcus Johansson managed to cut the Bruins lead in half in the 2nd period, but Matt Hunwick put the game away with some insurance in the 3rd to make it 3-1. Caps netminder Michal Neuvirth was pulled after allowing the two Boston goals in the first and has since been listed as day-to-day with flu-like symptoms while Tim Thomas stopped 35 of 36 shots faced.
The Bruins head back for their home opener Thursday night against the Caps with a 3-1-0 record. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7PM ET/4 Pacific.
NCAA FOOTBALL: Damn- they played better than the last three weeks, but Boston College couldn't get off the schnide against Florida State. Turnovers by the Seminoles nearly cost them the game, but with a little over 11 minutes to go, a 42 yard TD run by 'Noles WR Bert Reed put them up for good by a score of 24-19. At least 10 of those points for BC came off of turnovers from Florida State QB Charlie Ponder, but it obviously wasn't enough for the W. Montel Harris had 26 carries for 191 yards, but no TD's.
The Eagles head back to Chestnut Hill and will host 4-2 Maryland on Saturday.
OTHER BOSTON COLLEGE NEWS:
Credit where credit's due, CNN ran this story on BC linebacker Mark Herzlich's overcoming bone cancer to return to the lineup this season. Kinda puts a disappointing 0-4 slide into perspective.
OTHER NCAA FOOTBALL NEWS: Rutgers defensive tackle Eric LaGrande suffered a spinal cord injury during last weekend's game against the Army Black Knights and is said to have no movement below his neck. The junior was rushed to Hackensack University Medical center where he underwent emergency surgery and remained in the intensive care unit. Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano says that LeGrande is in good spirits and is aware "...of the new set of challenges ahead of him". As of Wednesday night, there was no further updates on his condiditon.
UConn QB Cody Endres has been suspended for the remainder of the season for an unspecified violation of school rules. Redshirt freshman Michael Box is listed as Endres' backup. Endres replaced the erratic Zach Frazier halfway through the September 25 game against Buffalo and could also be a possible replacement.
MLB: Holy crap! These games are just flying by, aren't they? The Giants are one game away from their pursuit of their first World Series title since moving out to San Francisco, taking a commanding 3-1 series lead in the NLCS.
Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers have a 3-2 series lead on the Yankees after splitting the first two games at Arlington, TX and winning the first two games at Yankee stadium. The Yankees won Wednesday's game by a margin of 7-2, setting up a Game 6 back in Arlington with Colby Lewis tenatively scheduled to start against the Yankee's Phil Huges on Saturday.
NBA- After Thursday's 85-79 loss to a 
