Florida schoolgirls arrested for ‘satanic murder plot’
Two Florida schoolgirls have been arrested and accused of plotting to kill classmates in a satanic rite.
Police say the pair, 11 and 12, told officers they were Satan worshippers and planned to kill at least 15 students at Bartow Middle School.
On Tuesday they were searched by police who found weapons including a butcher’s knife, pizza cutter and scissors.
They told investigators they planned to drink the blood of their victims and “possibly eat their flesh”.
The search took place after a student informed a teacher about a possible attack in a school building.
The two girls were waiting in the toilet for younger students that they could “overpower to be their victims”, police said.
In a statement, Bartow police chief Joe Hall said a search of the girls’ mobile phones revealed text messages plotting the attack, and officers had also found a handwritten note saying: “Go to bathroom to kill.”
Article via BBCNews
Janelle Monáe on the meaning of “Dirty Computer” and what she promised her grandmother
For her latest project, singer, actress and activist Janelle Monáe is encouraging millennials to vote. She calls it a tribute to her grandmother, who didn’t always have that right growing up in the segregated South. Monáe is on a mission to make sure everyone with a voice has the ability to use it.
“It’s really about just making sure that our generation is activated that we’re fired up, ready to go, and we’re ready to vote,” Monáe told “CBS This Morning: Saturday” co-host Anthony Mason. “My grandmother was a sharecropper in Aberdeen, Mississippi, and she didn’t have the opportunity to vote…I just made a promise to her that when I became 18 and I had the right to exercise my power, I would do that in her honor and even though I could be in another city doing a concert, I will fly back to make sure that I vote.”
She’s got another mission, too. Her latest album “Dirty Computer,” a reference to people’s imperfections, challenges social norms and traditional concepts of a woman’s role in the world.
“One of the things that was most important to me…was to make sure I was coming from a very honest place,” Monáe said. “You know, it’s an album to really celebrate those that I felt needed to be celebrated most. Those in marginalized communities.”
Despite her massive success as both an actress and a singer, Monáe still feels marginalized herself.
Janelle Monae at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011, in Los Angeles.
“As an artist, I’ve had lots of opportunities to travel and go see the world,” she said. “But when I take off my makeup, when I take off my outfit, you know I’m still Janelle Monáe Robinson who grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, to working class parents….So being a young, black, queer woman in America, at any moment, I could have my rights taken away from me.”
The expression “Dirty Computer” is a nod to the attributes society sees as negatives. Monae finds flaws, those things that make something “dirty,” inspiring.
“Well, dirty computers are inspiring to me….People say that these dirty computers, these humans have these bugs and these viruses, the things that make them unique are looked at as negatives. But dirty computers look at their bugs and their viruses as attributes, as features, as added value to this country, to this society….it’s just saying that I’m a dirty computer, but I too am American,” Monáe said.
In 2016, Monae earned acclaim as an actress in Oscar favorites “Hidden Figures” and “Moonlight” but her true passion is music, which she first realized when she moved from Kansas to New York City to study musical theater.
“I studied for about a good year, year and a half. And then I realized that I wanted to tell my story. I wanted to sing my own songs. I had so much bubbling in here that I didn’t feel like I was able to get out,” Monáe said.
And through her songs she does share her deeply personal story. She said the response to that has been “overwhelming in the best possible way.”
“I have a fear of ‘is this gonna connect? Is this gonna resonate?’ I know that it means something to me. And to show up and go city to city, country to country and see people singing the words, sometimes louder than me, like, it’s so hard to describe that feeling,” she said. “Because it’s been a dream to have your work resonate with people’s hearts and their souls in the way that it is.”
Music critics are predicting “Dirty Computer” will be nominated for album of the year at the Grammys. As for her acting career, Monae just landed a supporting role in an upcoming biopic about Harriet Tubman.
Article via CBSNews
All The Targets In This Week’s Mail Attacks Have Been Trump’s Worst Enemies
Suspicious packages and pipe bombs have been mailed to several of the president’s favorite punching bags.
Explosive devices and suspicious packages are showing up at the homes and offices of top Democrats, the people who fund them and the press that covers them. Most, if not all, of them have made their way to people and organizations that President Donald Trump despises.
Trump has repeatedly called his followers to violence against the people and organizations that were victimized this week. There were no confirmed motives or suspects by Wednesday afternoon. But his violent rhetoric over the past two years has led one of his biggest enemies, CNN, to ascribe some blame for the attacks to the president.
In a statement Wednesday, CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker said that Trump and members of the administration “should understand that their words matter.”
“There is a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media,” Zucker said. “The President, and especially the White House Press Secretary, should understand their words matter. Thus far, they have shown no comprehension of that.”
House and Senate Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer issued even stronger statements, connecting Trump’s rhetoric to the neo-Nazi violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year, as well as to violence against protesters at his rallies and more.
The revelation on Thursday that two more of Trump’s nemeses ― former Vice President Joe Biden and actor Robert De Niro ― were targeted only added fuel to the fire.
On Wednesday, CNN evacuated its New York offices after an apparent pipe bomb and an envelope with white powder were discovered in the mailroom. Several top Democratic individuals received similar threats ― Bill and Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, George Soros, Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.) and others received explosive devices or suspicious packages in the mail.
All of them have been Trump’s very public enemies. CNN has been the acute focus of Trump’s ongoing war against the media, or what he calls “the enemy of the people.”
He’s called CNN fake news. His family has laughed as Trump supporters angrily call out and threaten its reporters at the president’s rallies. The president has lauded a video depicting him beating up a person with the CNN logo superimposed on his head. Press freedom experts have long pegged Trump’s rhetoric as the begging of violent ends for American reporters. CNN’s inclusion in Wednesday’s terrorist activity was inevitable.
Read more via HuffingtonPost
County pays nearly $5M over heroin withdrawal death in jail
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A small Pennsylvania county will pay nearly $5 million to the family of a teenager who collapsed and died after four days of heroin withdrawal in jail. The family’s lawyer said jail staff ignored her dire medical needs for days and then lied about it.
Victoria “Tori” Herr, 18, was arrested for the first time on March 27, 2015, after police looking for her boyfriend found drugs in their apartment. Herr told intake staff at the Lebanon County Correctional Facility she used 10 bags of heroin a day, and confided to a cellmate that she feared the withdrawal process would be tough.
She went through severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhea over the next four days, and was given Ensure, water and adult diapers, according to the lawsuit. But she could not keep the fluids down and collapsed of apparent dehydration as she was being brought back to her cell from the medical unit on March 31. She died in a hospital on April 5.
“Anyone who looked at her would have known that she was very sick and that she needed attention,” said Jonathan Feinberg, a civil rights lawyer in Philadelphia who represents her family. “There was a complete disregard for her needs, which can only be tied back to the fact that she was addicted to drugs.”
He said a simple trip to the emergency room for intravenous fluids would have saved her life.
The family settled their civil rights and wrongful death claims with the county this month for $4.75 million, he said. Feinberg believes medical staff lied about taking Herr’s vital signs shortly before the collapse, given that she never regained consciousness.
Lawyer Hugh O’Neill, who represents Warden Robert Karnes, two nurses and other jail staff, said no county employees acknowledged any wrongdoing as part of the settlement. “The case was resolved amicably,” he said, declining to say this week if the county had reviewed or revised any policies in the wake of Herr’s death.
Increasingly, policymakers see jail and prison as an opportune time to intervene and offer medical help for people with opioid addictions.
In the three years since her death, Pennsylvania Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel has started offering methadone and other drugs approved to treat opioid addiction.
“The tide is turning. I think very slowly, but surely, there’s a lot of entities that have had to really look in the mirror, and ask how are they dealing with this medical condition,” said Steve Seitchik, who runs the Medication Assisted Treatment program in the state prisons.
Nationally, some studies show that about 25 percent of people entering local jails are addicted to opioids, according to Sally Friedman, vice president for legal advocacy of the National Action Center, a New York-based nonprofit. Only a fraction of the facilities offer medication as part of a treatment plan, but the number is growing, she said.
In Pennsylvania, Wetzel’s department now offers grants for county jails to offer medication-assisted treatment as well.
Herr, severely dehydrated, had begged for lemonade in a phone call with her mother on March 30. Stephanie Moyer tried to visit later that day, but was turned away and told her daughter was fine. The next time she saw Herr — who graduated from high school despite her addiction — she was on a ventilator.
Feinberg said he hopes the lawsuit will remind even the smallest counties they have a duty to care for inmates battling addiction.
“The days of viewing people addicted to drugs as junkies unworthy of sympathy and care, are long past,” Feinberg said. “It’s a very short chain of events that leads to death.”
Article via WKRN
Coco breast-fed daughter while cops arrested Ice-T
Ice-T was busted on Wednesday for blowing through a toll without paying at the George Washington Bridge as he was headed into the Big Apple, police said.
But the star — and his wife, Coco, who witnessed the arrest — were so calm, she even began breast-feeding their baby on the side of the road, a source exclusively told “Page Six TV.”
The “Law & Order” star was busted at about 6:56 a.m. by Port Authority Police, who alleged the McLaren sports car he was driving was not registered and didn’t have license plates.
A spy on the scene told “Page Six TV” that Coco and their baby “were in a blue Range Rover behind him when he was arrested. She got out of her car. Everyone was calm, especially Coco, who proceeded to breast-feed their daughter — taking her breast out and getting to work!”
The iconic rapper-actor was processed and released, according to police.
Ice-T told TMZ that he’d forgotten his E-ZPass since he has so many sports cars.
He went straight to the set of “Law & Order: SVU” after his release.
Tune into “Page Six TV” for all the juicy details!
Article PageSix
Trump: ‘I am bringing out the military’ to stop border crossings
President Trump said in an early morning tweet on Thursday that he is “bringing out the military” to secure the border with Mexico, calling it a “National Emergency.”
“Brandon Judd of the National Border Patrol Council is right when he says on @foxandfriends that the Democrat inspired laws make it tough for us to stop people at the Border,” Trump tweeted. “MUST BE CHANDED [sic], but I am bringing out the military for this National Emergency. They will be stopped!”
Trump tweeted last week that he would use the military to stop a caravan of migrants from Central America, which has reportedly swelled beyond 7,500, if Mexico did not stop it.
“I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught — and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!” Trump tweeted.
He said Wednesday night at a rally in Wisconsin that the “military are ready” to help secure the border against the caravan, according to NBC News.
The Mexican ambassador to the U.S., Gerónimo Gutiérrez, said Monday that Mexico will continue to work to halt illegal immigration into its country and work with the Trump administration to block the caravan from passing into the U.S.
The Hill could not reach the Pentagon for immediate comment on whether has received formal orders to enforce immigration law.
Last week, a spokesman for the Pentagon, Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, said the military had not be tasked to support those working to secure the border.
“Beyond the National Guard soldiers currently supporting the Department of Homeland Security on our southern border … the Department of Defense has not been tasked to provide additional support,” Davis said in a statement.
Article TheHill
US mid-terms latest: How handwriting could affect your vote
The US mid-term elections in just under two weeks’ time will help define the rest of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Americans will vote for members of both chambers of Congress, as well as for governors in 36 out of 50 states.
Between now and then, we’ll bring you updates and all the best analysis every weekday in this round-up.
Today we look at a court battle over absentee ballots in Georgia, a new Trump law on opioids and different views at political rallies.
One court case
How good is your handwriting? A federal judge has ruled Georgia must stop throwing out absentee ballots when a voter’s signature doesn’t match their voter registration card.
“This ruling protects the people of Georgia from those who seek to undermine their right to vote,” American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) staff attorney Sophia Lakin said, calling the court’s decision a huge victory.
Judge Leigh Martin May issued a temporary restraining order, saying the state must notify voters first before they can reject their ballots or their applications.
“The court does not understand how assuring that all eligible voters are permitted to vote undermines the integrity of the election process,” she said.
Not all signatures are created equal
The ACLU argued Georgia election officials aren’t required to be trained in spotting differences in your signature, and there’s no rule or law defining differences between one person’s handwriting and another’s.
Georgia has until noon on Thursday to comment on the ruling, Judge May said.
The rules for absentee ballots differ across the country – 27 states and the District of Columbia allow absentee ballots from any qualified voter, but 20 states need an excuse from the applicant.
A Northern Illinois University study has drawn up a Cost of Voting Index, to measure how easy it is to vote across the US.
One law
“Together we are going to end the scourge of drug addiction in America,” President Trump said as he signed a sweeping new law on opioids.
The bill expanded access to substance disorder treatments for Medicaid users and aims to boost research efforts to find non-addictive pain killers.
In a rare show of bipartisan action, the Senate passed the legislation 98-1 earlier in the month. The House voted 393-8 in favour.
Last year, 72,000 died from drug overdoses, and both parties are focusing on the issue in their mid-term campaigns.
The Wall Street Journal reports that political ads about opioids have aired more than 50,000 times across 25 states in the run-up to the midterms.
One video
Remember Barack Obama? The former Democratic president is back on the campaign trail, trying to boost support for his party’s platform.
Donald Trump is also criss-crossing the nation, rallying the Republicans ahead of the midterms.
Both men are loved and loathed – so the BBC’s Rajini Vaidyanathan went to a rally on each side to ask people their thoughts.
Choose the outcome
Write your own future with our signature mid-term elections game, showing all the possible outcomes of the vote. Only 12 days to go.
Kroger shooting: At least 2 dead and suspect in custody
Both victims died at the store, authorities said.
JEFFERSONTOWN, Ky. — A male suspect fatally shot a man and a woman at a Kroger grocery store on the outskirts of Louisville, Kentucky, and then exchanged fire with an armed bystander before fleeing the scene, police said. He was captured shortly afterward.
Both victims died at the store, said Jeffersontown Police Chief Sam Rogers. He did not say whether police had determined a motive in Wednesday’s shooting. He also did not identify the suspect.
Police received a call about 3 p.m. reporting the shooting, Rogers said. He said the suspect fired multiple rounds at the man inside the store, and shot the female victim multiple times out in the parking lot. A citizen armed with a gun engaged the shooter in the parking lot, but the suspect was able to flee before he was captured on a nearby road, Rogers said.
Eric Deacon, who identified himself as an EMT, told The Associated Press that he was in the self-checkout lane of the store when he heard the first shot, in the pharmacy.
He said a man came around the corner and “the look on his face, he looked like he just didn’t care.”
Deacon said he saw another man in the store with a gun who appeared to be shooting at the suspect, trying to get him out of the store. Deacon went outside and saw a woman in her mid-50s or early 60s who had been hit, and tried to resuscitate her.
“She was gone, there’s nothing I could do,” Deacon said. “I think she just got caught in the crossfire.”
As police officers swarmed the scene and blocked off the area with yellow crime tape, a man identified by the Louisville Courier Journal as Tim King stood in the parking lot waiting for his wife to come out. He said he drove to the store after she called him sobbing to tell him what had happened.
“I said, ‘What’s wrong?'” King said in a video posted on the newspaper’s website. “And she said, ‘There’s someone shooting up here.'”
King said his wife said she heard popping noises, then someone ran around a corner and said, “Oh my God, he’s killed her.”
Customers were moved to the back of the store, she said.
“It’s just a very, very scary situation,” King said.
The Kroger Co. issued a statement saying that company officials were “shocked and saddened by the shooting.”
“Thanks to the quick response of the local police department, the suspect was apprehended and our store is secure.”
The store was closed and will not reopen until the investigation is complete, the release said.
Article via NBCNews
Airstrike kills at least 19 civilians at vegetable market in Yemen’s Hodeidah, official says
At least 19 civilians were killed and 10 others injured on Wednesday in an airstrike at a vegetable market in Yemen, a local health minister told NBC News.
The airstrike hit a market in the city of Yemen’s Hodeidah province, Sana’a-based heath minister Taha Mutawakil said. Eight of the injured were in critical condition and at a local hospital, he said.
The minister added that the bodies were so badly damaged that it was not yet possible if those killed were men, women or children.
A Saudi-led coalition that intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 has conducted frequent airstrikes targeting the Iran-aligned Houthi group and has often hit civilians, although it denies doing so intentionally, according to Reuters.
News of the airstrike comes as Saudi Arabia is facing international condemnation for the killing of writer Jamal Khashoggi at a consulate in Istanbul. When the kingdom finally acknowledged Khashoggi’s death — 17 days after he disappeared after entering the consulate to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage — Saudi Arabia claimed the writer died following a “quarrel and fighting by hand.”
That explanation, and repeated claims that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince was unaware of the operation, even though some of his lieutenants were involved, has drawn international skepticism.
On Tuesday, the Saudi government said a 15-member squad was sent to take Khashoggi, a legal resident of the U.S., to a safe house in Turkey for up to two days to try to convince him to return to his homeland.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his country has “strong signs that this murder did not stem from a momentary incident, but it is rather a planned operation.”
Residents in Yemen told Reuters violent clashes erupted in the southern outskirts of Hodeidah, a port city that pro-government forces have been trying to capture from the Houthis since the renewal of an offensive in September.
A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Colonel Turki al-Malki, told Reuters the alliance is investigating the incident.
“We take this report very seriously and it will be fully investigated, as all reports of this nature are, using an internationally approved, independent process. Whilst this is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further,” he said.
The coalition sometimes admits “errors” and has in the past pledged to hold accountable anyone who caused civilian deaths, according to Reuters.
The coalition entered Yemen’s conflict after the Houthis ousted the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than 2 million and driven the country, already the poorest on the Arabian Peninsula, to the verge of widespread famine.
On Tuesday, the United Nations humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said, “There is now a clear and present danger of an imminent and great big famine engulfing Yemen: much bigger than anything any professional in this field has seen during their working lives.”
The U.N. said that revised assessments showed that the number of people facing pre-famine conditions could soon reach reach 14 million, three million more than the estimate last month.
Article via NBCNews
2 middle school girls planned to kill classmates and drink their blood
BARTOW, Fla. — Authorities in central Florida say two middle school girls brought knives to school in a foiled plot to kill classmates, cut them up and drink their blood.
Arrest affidavits released Wednesday by the Bartow Police Department say the two girls, ages 11 and 12, were armed with knives Tuesday at Bartow Middle School before they were caught. No one was hurt.
Investigators say the girls planned to stake out a bathroom and wait for smaller students to enter.
The affidavit says the students planned to cut their victims’ throats, cut up their bodies, eat the flesh and drink their victims’ blood.
Authorities say the students then planned to kill themselves.
Police say the plot was foiled when administrators searched for them after they didn’t show up for class.