Special prosecutor named to look into Jussie Smollett case

CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago judge on Friday named a special prosecutor to look into why state prosecutors abruptly dropped charges against actor Jussie Smollett that accused him of staging a racist, anti-gay attack against himself.

Cook County Judge Michael Toomin's appointment of former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb raises the possibility that the special prosecutor could bring new charges against the former "Empire" actor. Smollett, who is black and gay, maintains that the January attack was real and wasn't staged.

The Cook County state's attorney's office charged Smollett in February with 16 counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly staging the attack and lying about it to investigators. However, it dropped all of the charges a month later with little explanation, angering city officials and the police.

Webb told reporters after Friday's hearing that he was heading into the investigation with no preconceived notions about an outcome.

"I don't know where this case is going. The facts will take me where they take me," he said, adding that he couldn't provide a precise timetable but would move the investigation along as quickly as possible.

(According to Wikipedia Webb is a Republican... so something may actually come out of this)

In my opinion, Kim Foxx might be going the way of Mike Nifong.

Webb is arguably Chicago's most high-profile defense attorney of the last few decades and has been tapped five times previously to serve as a special prosecutor. His high-profile clients have included former Illinois Gov. George Ryan. As U.S. attorney in Chicago in the 1980s, he led the prosecution of several dozen corrupt Cook County judges, lawyers and police officers.

A former state appellate judge, Sheila O'Brien, petitioned for a special prosecutor, leading to Toomin's surprise ruling in June that one was warranted.

Smollett told police he was walking home early on Jan. 29 when two masked men approached him, made racist and homophobic insults, beat him and looped a noose around his neck before fleeing. He said his assailants, at least one of whom he said was white, told him he was in "MAGA country" — a reference to President Donald Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again."

Several weeks later, authorities alleged that Smollett had paid two black friends $3,500 to help him stage the attack because he was unhappy with his salary as an actor on "Empire" and wanted to drum up publicity for his career.

In his June ruling, Toomin suggested that the county's state's attorney, Kim Foxx, mishandled the Smollett case by appointing a top aide to oversee it after she recused herself.

Foxx had been in contact with a Smollett relative and was approached by former first lady Michelle Obama's one-time chief of staff on behalf of Smollett's family. Foxx explained at the time she was recusing herself to avoid "even the perception of a conflict" of interest.

In his ruling, Toomin said he had no problem with Foxx's February recusal but that it should have included a request for a special prosecutor. He said she had no right to hand it off to someone from her office, which he said amounted to naming her own special prosecutor.

Foxx has said Smollett was treated no differently than thousands of other defendants in low-level cases whose charges have been similarly dropped. Foxx also publicly wondered if her being black has anything to do with the criticism she has received.

Special prosecutor named to look into Jussie Smollett case

Global warming is a problem, but so are climate doomsayers

A more levelheaded approach to be sure. 

Most people on the planet wake up each day thinking that things are getting worse. It is little wonder, given what they routinely read in the newspaper or see on television. But this gloomy mood is a problem because it feeds into scare stories about how climate change will end in Armageddon.

The fact is that the world is mostly getting better. For starters, average global life expectancy has more than doubled since 1900 and is now above 70 years. Because the increase has been particularly marked among the poor, health inequality has declined massively. Moreover, the world is more literate, child labor is decreasing and we are living in one of the most peaceful times in history.

In addition, people are better off economically. Over the past 30 years, average global per-capita income has almost doubled, leading to massive reductions in poverty.

These changes have also improved the environment. Globally, the risk of death from air pollution – by far the biggest environmental killer – has declined substantially; in low-income countries, it has almost halved since 1990. Finally, rich countries are increasingly preserving forests and reforesting, thanks to higher agricultural yields and changing attitudes to the environment.

Of course, many people may hear all of this and still remain convinced that climate change will wipe out the planet. That is understandable, but it says more about the influence of single-minded environmental activists and desperate media than it does about reality.

We are told that climate change will cause extreme weather and climate chaos that will literally put human survival at risk. But this view is not only unfounded; it also contradicts the findings of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

For example, hurricanes are constantly linked to climate change. But only three major hurricanes (that is, Category 3 or greater) have hit the continental United States in the past 13 years – the lowest number since at least 1900. In its most recent assessment, the IPCC – using the term “cyclone” for hurricane – said that there have been “no significant observed trends in global tropical cyclone frequency over the past century.”

Scientists think that climate change will in time mean that hurricanes become less frequent but stronger. At the same time, prosperity is likely to increase dramatically over the coming decades, making us more resilient to such events. Once that is taken into account, the overall impact of hurricanes by 2100 will actually be lower than it is today.

Climate change is real, and it is a problem. According to the IPCC, the overall impact of climate change by the 2070s will be equivalent to a 0.2-per-cent to 2-per-cent loss in average income. That’s not the end of the world, but the same as a single economic recession, in a world that is much better off than today.

The risk is that outsized fear will take us down the wrong path in tackling climate change. Concerned activists want the world to abandon fossil fuels as quickly as possible. But it will mean slowing the growth that has lifted billions out of poverty and transformed the planet. That has a very real cost.

Rich, well-educated people in advanced economies often ignore or scoff at this cost. From the comfort of the World Economic Forum’s 2017 annual meeting in Davos, former U.S. vice-president Al Gore tut-tutted about plans to build coal-fired power plants in Bangladesh. But Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina slapped that down, pointing out: “If you cannot develop the economic conditions of your people, then how will you save our people? We have to insure the food security; we have to give them job opportunity.”

Indeed, analysis for the Copenhagen Consensus Center shows that – even when accounting for global climate damage – developing coal power to drive economic growth in Bangladesh is an effective policy. The cost would be US$9.7-billion, including the global, long-term climate costs of US$570-million, but the benefits would be greater than US$250-billion – equivalent to more than an entire year of Bangladesh’s GDP.

We need to solve climate change, but we also need to make sure that the cure isn’t more painful than the disease. A commensurate response would be to invest much more in researching and developing cheaper carbon-free energy sources that can eventually outcompete fossil fuels. That would ensure a smooth transition that doesn’t slow economies down and hurt the worst-off in society.

Doom and gloom distort our worldview and can lead to bad policies. The future is bright, and we need smart decisions to keep it so.

Global warming is a problem, but so are climate doomsayers

There could have been three more mass shootings if these men weren't stopped, authorities say

All three cases were brought to authorities' attention thanks to tips from the public.

Thank God for that!!!

And a gun isn't the common denominator...insanity is.

Tristan Wix is the middle lunatic. He said this.

"A school is a weak target.. id be more likely to open fire on a large crowd of people from over 3 miles away.. I'd wanna break a world record for longest confirmed kill ever," another message read, according to the sheriff's office.

Wix wrote that he wanted to die and "have fun doing it," authorities said.

If this isn't insanity defined I don't know what is!


BTW...That's Reardon on the left. I don't need a psychiatric evaluation to know he's whacked.

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Authorities this weekend announced they had foiled three potential mass shootings after arresting three men in different states who expressed interest in or threatened to carry them out.

All three cases were brought to authorities' attention thanks to tips from the public.

Here's what we know about them.Police say he had the motivation and the ammunition

In Connecticut, 22-year-old Brandon Wagshol was arrested after authorities said he had expressed interest in committing a mass shooting on Facebook, according to a statement from the FBI and the Norwalk Police Department.

He faces four charges of illegal possession of large capacity magazines, and is being held on a $250,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court September 6.

According to the statement, authorities received a tip that Wagshol was trying to buy large capacity rifle magazines from out of state.

As the FBI and the Norwalk Police Department were investigating the tip, they discovered Wagshol was trying to build his own rifle and had allegedly posted on Facebook about his interest in committing a mass shooting, the statement said. Authorities did not provide details on what the post said.

Authorities executed a search warrant at his home and found multiple weapons, including a handgun, a rifle, a rifle scope with a laser, numerous rounds of ammunition, body armor, a ballistic helmet and other tactical gear, police said. Some of the weapons were registered to Wagshol's father, but he had access to them, authorities said.

CNN has reached out to the prosecutor and defense attorney.

He allegedly told his ex 'A good 100 kills would be nice'

Tristan Scott Wix of Daytona Beach, Florida, was arrested in a Winn-Dixie parking lot on Friday after he sent his ex-girlfriend a series of disturbing texts in which he allegedly threatened to commit a mass shooting, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said. The ex-girlfriend alerted authorities.

In the messages, the 25-year-old said he wanted to open fire on a large crowd of people, the sheriff's office said in a news release. "A good 100 kills would be nice," one message allegedly read. Wix also said he already had a location in mind, according to the sheriff's office.

"A school is a weak target.. id be more likely to open fire on a large crowd of people from over 3 miles away.. I'd wanna break a world record for longest confirmed kill ever," another message read, according to the sheriff's office.

Wix wrote that he wanted to die and "have fun doing it," authorities said.

Volusia County Sheriff Michael Chitwood said on CNN Sunday that authorities had recovered a .22-caliber hunting rifle and 400 rounds of ammo in Wix's apartment. Wix had initially told investigators he did not own any firearms but that he was fascinated with mass shootings, the sheriff's office said.

Wix was being held without bond Sunday at the Volusia County Branch Jail. CNN could not immediately determine Sunday whether Wix had an attorney.

He's accused of threatening a Jewish community center

And in Ohio, 20-year-old James Patrick Reardon was arrested for allegedly threatening to carry out a shooting at a Youngstown Jewish community center.

An Instagram account belonging to Reardon shared a video that showed a man firing a gun, New Middletown Police Chief Vincent D'Egidio told CNN. The post -- which was shown to an officer out on an unrelated call -- tagged the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown, D'Egidio said.

It's unclear whether the man shooting the gun was Reardon or someone else.

Andy Lipkin, the executive vice-president of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation, said the post was accompanied by a caption that read, "Police identified the Youngstown Jewish Family Community shooter as local white nationalist Seamus O'Rearedon" -- Seamus being a Gaelic version of Reardon's name.

The rest of the Instagram account contained anti-Semitic comments, white nationalist content, and images of Reardon or someone else shooting guns, D'Egidio said.

A search warrant was executed and authorities found a cache of weapons and ammunition, D'Egidio told CNN.

Reardon was arrested without incident and booked into the Mahoning County Jail on Saturday on one count of telecommunications harassment and one count of aggravated menacing, according to online jail records. He's set to be arraigned Monday morning, the police chief said.

It was unclear whether Reardon was represented by an attorney.

There could have been three more mass shootings if these men weren't stopped, authorities say

CNN Poll: Joe Biden regains double-digit lead over 2020 Democratic field

Joe Biden has expanded his edge over the Democratic field in a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, with 29% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters saying they back the former vice president.

That's up 7 points compared with a late June CNN survey. No other candidate has made meaningful gains over that time.

The shift returns Biden to a double-digit lead over his nearest competitors, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at 15% and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 14%. Their support is largely unchanged since earlier this summer.

CNN Poll: Joe Biden regains double-digit lead over 2020 Democratic field

Pocahontas meets her long lost cousin Sacajawea

Elizabeth Warren just met her look-alike at a rally. Can you tell the difference?

Yeah... Warren's 1/1024 Indian and Oyen is 1/1023 Indain because her father played for the Tribe.

Stephanie Oyen and Sen. Elizabeth Warren shake hands Monday after a rally at Macalester College in Minnesota.

No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you.

One of the women pictured above is Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the 70-year-old Massachusetts Democrat with presidential aspirations. The person shaking her hand is Stephanie Oyen — a Minnesota native whose resemblance to Warren is so uncanny, fans mistakenly clamored for selfies with her.

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Proving she's even a bigger moron than a liar. Once she got the results (DNA) back she should have just shut her big mouth. But what does she do? Broadcasts the results for all the world to know what a fool she is.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/elizabeth-warren-has-disowned-her-disastrous-dna-stunt-but-will-the-journalists-who-initially-promoted-it

Pocahontas meets her long lost cousin Sacajawea