Racist cops arrest a black pastor for just watering neighbor's flowers at their request  in Alabama

By Edward Era Barbacena

A Black pastor in Alabama says he was arrested while watering his neighbor's flowers -- and his attorney has called the incident "irrational, irresponsible, and illegal."

In police body camera footage from May and released last week, an officer is seen approaching the man, Michael Jennings, who tells the officer he has been asked to water the flowers while a neighbor is gone.

In the video that has since gone viral, Jennings, of Childersburg, Alabama, is asked by the officer what he is doing at the house and whose car is in the driveway. He says it's the neighbor's vehicle and identifies himself as "Pastor Jennings" without being asked.

Jennings tells the officer, "I'm supposed to be here. I'm Pastor Jennings. I live across the street."

In the video that has since gone viral, Jennings, of Childersburg, Alabama, is asked by the officer what he is doing at the house and whose car is in the driveway. He says it's the neighbor's vehicle and identifies himself as "Pastor Jennings" without being asked.

Jennings tells the officer, "I'm supposed to be here. I'm Pastor Jennings. I live across the street."

An officer responds, "You're Pastor Jennings?" And he responds, "Yes, I'm looking after their house while they're gone, looking after their flowers."

The officer then asks Jennings for identification and Jennings says he will not give any identification to the officer. Less than a minute and a half later, as Jennings tries to make a call on his phone, officers handcuff him, the body camera footage shows.

The officers in the video later speak with the neighbor who called 911, who is not identified by name. "They are friends, and they went out of town today, so he may be watering their flowers, and it could be completely normal," she tells the officers about Jennings and the homeowner.

"He would be watering their flowers, this is probably my fault," she says.

Later in the video, Jennings' wife arrives and provides the officer with his identification.

"She does tell us it's a mistake and all that stuff, but at this point he's already collected the charge," the officer tells her.

"Once we place him under arrest we can't unarrest him," the officer says.

He was arrested for "Obstructing Governmental Operations," but charges were later dropped, according to a police statement from June 1, 2022.

Police were responding to a 911 call about a "suspicious" car parked at the residence and a person "the caller did not recognize," Richard McClelland, chief of police for the city of Childersburg, said in the statement.

 The caller stated that her neighbors who lived at the residence were out of town and advised that the suspicious person might be inside the residence, according to the police chief's statement.

In an email to CNN on Tuesday, an attorney for the city said the audio of the 911 call provides "vital" information for the incident.

CNN has requested a copy of the transcript of this call.

"This video makes it clear that these officers decided they were going to arrest Pastor Jennings less than five minutes after pulling up and then tried to rewrite history claiming he hadn't identified himself when that was the first thing he did," attorney Harry Daniels said in a news release last week.

Midway through the video, officers can be heard discussing charges for Jennings.

"We're here to investigate a call and he wouldn't give us his name, or or any other thing," an officer says.

"He told me he was trying to call the owner, but still I need his name," he says.

"The 911 audio recording from the call and officer body camera footage was reviewed and interviews were conducted with the officers involved as part of my own investigation of the incident," McClelland said in the statement.

"As result of my investigation, I have recommended to the Municipal Judge of The City of Childersburg that the warrant be dismissed with prejudice," McClelland said.

 

Gunman kills two at Oregon supermarket after publishing intent to commit a mass shooting online

Ethan Miller, the white gunman who shot two people dead with an AR-15 on Sunday, kept a two-month long online diary chronicling the decline of his mental health

By Edward Era Barbacena

Two people were killed and another two injured Sunday night at a Bend, Oregon Safeway supermarket when a gunman opened fire in the store.

The shooter, identified as 20-year old Ethan Miller, killed 84-year old Glenn Bennett and 66-year old Donald Surrett, an employee at the store. Surrett was fatally shot after confronting Miller. It is believed that his intervention saved lives as he prevented the gunman from continuing his shooting spree. Miller was found dead by police shortly after, most likely taking his own life. 

Witnesses report that Miller began firing from outside the store, killing Bennett at the entrance, before continuing into the Safeway where he continued to spray bullets before being confronted by Surrett toward the back of the store. 

Miller lived in an apartment complex behind the Forum Shopping Center where the Safeway is located. People who knew Miller also reported that he had worked at the Safeway for a period of time before the shooting. 

Police reports indicated that Miller began shooting as he exited his apartment complex and continued into the shopping center parking lot and the store. In total, the incident lasted four minutes. Police responded to the shooting within three minutes of receiving 911 calls. 

When police arrived they found Miller dead with an AR-15 rifle and shotgun near him. A search of the shooter’s car also found a sawed-off shotgun and three Molotov cocktails. A search of Miller’s apartment discovered additional stores of ammunition. 

Police spokesperson Sheila Miller stated that police had “no evidence of previous threats or prior knowledge of the shooter.”

Miller had made his plans long ahead of time however, revealed in a series of posts on the website Wattpad, which were made public Sunday night by an anonymous account for 12 hours. The posts have since been removed but several passages were documented by reporters before they were deleted. 

In his posts, Miller declared his anger at society and his desire to die. He regularly referred to death as “peace” and states “I’m so FULL OF RAGE!! I’m just fucking Angry at the World and everything in it and It’s gonna be so fucking nice to just watch it all Burn.”

He referred to himself as a “quiet kid with anger issues” and as a “Time Bomb. Ready to Blow!” He also blamed the stress of anti-COVID measures and family issues for his inability to find a girlfriend. 

“I am responsible for this,” he said, “but I was turned into a monster. I created this Tragedy. But Society created Me.”

Miller’s motivations are not entirely clear, but he appears to have been driven by a suicidal fantasy in which he would enact as much violence as possible on the world. He repeatedly referenced the 1999 Columbine school massacre as an inspiration but attempted to separate himself from the “typical” mass shooter. 

“I feel like this shooting is gonna be a bit DIFFERENT though,” he said. “Because I’m not like the typical Mass Shooter. I’m different I’m not doing this for ‘Fame’ or to ‘Get Revenge.’ I simply just want to DIE and leave a Lasting Impression and VIOLENT mark on this World on my way out.”

His original intention was to carry out his shooting at his former high school, Mountain View High School, on September 8, the first day of classes. In his manifesto, he planned “AT LEAST 20 Dead but I might just Kill up to 40+ if I have the time. I Will Not Stop Until Police Arrive. Although I do Plan on Leaving SOME Survivors...To Tell Their Stories of course.”

He continued: “The Gravity of it all is just indescribable. It’s going to be a Spectacle. Once Again I’ll say that it will be my Magnum Opus.”

Miller suddenly changed his target to the store as he could not “wait any longer.” 

Central to Miller’s deranged manifesto is a complete disregard for human life and a perverse libertarian ideal of dying in a way that he chooses, specifically by causing as much death and destruction as possible, the prospect of which he relished. 

“Suicide is not nearly as tragic as people make it out to be,” he wrote. “We should be able to have control over our own Deaths and should be allowed to go out on our own terms I know for a FACT that where I go after this life will be a hell of a lot better for me then it is here. I’m not a conformer in any way shape or form.”

Despite Miller’s distressed state of mind, he never mentioned any attempt to seek help for his mental state while expressing a clear understanding that his planned actions were reprehensible.

“I’m Evil. Plain and Simple. That is literally the only answer here. My Head doesn’t work right it never really has. I just don’t fit in with this world.”

Miller’s disturbing disregard for human life and his anger at society at large is a common thread in mass shooting events. Troubled people, in need of help, turning to mass violence as a solution to their perceived problems. 

 

Mikhail Gorbachev, Reformer of Soviet Union and Its Last Leader, Dies at 91

By Edward Era Barbacena

Moscow: Mikhail Gorbachev, who as the last leader of the Soviet Union waged a losing battle to salvage a crumbling empire but produced extraordinary reforms that led to the end of the Cold War, died Tuesday. He was 91.

The Central Clinical Hospital said in a statement that Gorbachev died after a long illness. No other details were given.

Though in power less than seven years, Gorbachev unleashed a breathtaking series of changes. But they quickly overtook him and resulted in the collapse of the authoritarian Soviet state, the freeing of Eastern European nations from Russian domination and the end of decades of East-West nuclear confrontation.

His decline was humiliating. His power hopelessly sapped by an attempted coup against him in August 1991, he spent his last months in office watching republic after republic declare independence until he resigned on Dec. 25, 1991. The Soviet Union wrote itself into oblivion a day later.

A quarter-century after the collapse, Gorbachev told The Associated Press that he had not considered using widespread force to try to keep the USSR together because he feared chaos in a nuclear country.

“The country was loaded to the brim with weapons. And it would have immediately pushed the country into a civil war,” he said.

Many of the changes, including the Soviet breakup, bore no resemblance to the transformation that Gorbachev had envisioned when he became the Soviet leader in March 1985.

By the end of his rule he was powerless to halt the whirlwind he had sown. Yet Gorbachev may have had a greater impact on the second half of the 20th century than any other political figure.

“I see myself as a man who started the reforms that were necessary for the country and for Europe and the world,” Gorbachev told The AP in a 1992 interview shortly after he left office.

“I am often asked, would I have started it all again if I had to repeat it? Yes, indeed. And with more persistence and determination,” he said.

Gorbachev won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War and spent his later years collecting accolades and awards from all corners of the world. Yet he was widely despised at home.

Russians blamed him for the 1991 implosion of the Soviet Union — a once-fearsome superpower whose territory fractured into 15 separate nations. His former allies deserted him and made him a scapegoat for the country’s troubles.

His run for president in 1996 was a national joke, and he polled less than 1 percent of the vote.

In 1997, he resorted to making a TV ad for Pizza Hut to earn money for his charitable foundation, His former allies deserted him and made him a scapegoat for the country’s troubles.

“In the ad, he should take a pizza, divide it into 15 slices like he divided up our country, and then show how to put it back together again,” quipped Anatoly Lukyanov, a one-time Gorbachev supporter.

Gorbachev never set out to dismantle the Soviet system. What he wanted to do was improve it.

Soon after taking power, Gorbachev began a campaign to end his country’s economic and political stagnation, using “glasnost” or openness, to help achieve his goal of “perestroika” or restructuring.

In his memoirs, he said he had long been frustrated that in a country with immense natural resources, tens of millions were living in poverty.

“Our society was stifled in the grip of a bureaucratic command system,” Gorbachev wrote. “Doomed to serve ideology and bear the heavy burden of the arms race, it was strained to the utmost.”

Once he began, one move led to another: He freed political prisoners, allowed open debate and multi-candidate elections, gave his countrymen freedom to travel, halted religious oppression, reduced nuclear arsenals, established closer ties with the West and did not resist the fall of Communist regimes in Eastern European satellite states.

But the forces he unleashed quickly escaped his control.

Long-suppressed ethnic tensions flared, sparking wars and unrest in trouble spots such as the southern Caucasus region. Strikes and labor unrest followed price increases and shortages of consumer goods.

In one of the low points of his tenure, Gorbachev sanctioned a crackdown on the restive Baltic republics in early 1991.

The violence turned many intellectuals and reformers against him. Competitive elections also produced a new crop of populist politicians who challenged Gorbachev’s policies and authority.

Chief among them was his former protege and eventual nemesis, Boris Yeltsin, who became Russia’s first president.

“The process of renovating this country and bringing about fundamental changes in the international community proved to be much more complex than originally anticipated,” Gorbachev told the nation as he stepped down.

“However, let us acknowledge what has been achieved so far. Society has acquired freedom; it has been freed politically and spiritually. And this is the most important achievement, which we have not fully come to grips with in part because we still have not learned how to use our freedom.”

There was little in Gorbachev’s childhood to hint at the pivotal role he would play on the world stage. On many levels, he had a typical Soviet upbringing in a typical Russian village. But it was a childhood blessed with unusual strokes of good fortune.

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was born March 2, 1931, in the village of Privolnoye in southern Russia. Both his grandfathers were peasants, collective farm chairmen and members of the Communist Party, as was his father.

Despite stellar party credentials, Gorbachev’s family did not emerge unscathed from the terror unleashed by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin: Both grandfathers were arrested and imprisoned for allegedly anti-Soviet activities.

But, rare in that period, both were eventually freed. In 1941, when Gorbachev was 10, his father went off to war, along with most of the other men from Privolnoye.

Meanwhile, the Nazis pushed across the western steppes in their blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union; they occupied Privolnoye for five months.

When the war was over, young Gorbachev was one of the few village boys whose father returned. By age 15, Gorbachev was helping his father drive a combine harvester after school and during the region’s blistering, dusty summers.

His performance earned him the order of the Red Banner of Labor, an unusual distinction for a 17-year-old. That prize and the party background of his parents helped him land admission in 1950 to the country’s top university, Moscow State.

There, he met his wife, Raisa Maximovna Titorenko, and joined the Communist Party. The award and his family’s credentials also helped him overcome the disgrace of his grandfathers’ arrests, which were overlooked in light of his exemplary Communist conduct.

In his memoirs, Gorbachev described himself as something of a maverick as he advanced through the party ranks, sometimes bursting out with criticism of the Soviet system and its leaders.

His early career coincided with the “thaw” begun by Nikita Khrushchev. As a young Communist propaganda official, he was tasked with explaining the 20th Party Congress that revealed Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s repression of millions to local party activists. He said he was met first by “deathly silence,” then disbelief.

“They said: ‘We don’t believe it. It can’t be. You want to blame everything on Stalin now that he’s dead,’” he told The Associated Press in a 2006 interview.

He was a true if unorthodox believer in socialism. He was elected to the powerful party Central Committee in 1971, took over Soviet agricultural policy in 1978, and became a full Politburo member in 1980.

Along the way he was able to travel to the West, to Belgium, Germany, France, Italy and Canada. Those trips had a profound effect on his thinking, shaking his belief in the superiority of Soviet-style socialism.

“The question haunted me: Why was the standard of living in our country lower than in other developed countries?” he recalled in his memoirs. “It seemed that our aged leaders were not especially worried about our undeniably lower living standards, our unsatisfactory way of life, and our falling behind in the field of advanced technologies.”

But Gorbachev had to wait his turn. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died in 1982, and was succeeded by two other geriatric leaders: Yuri Andropov, Gorbachev’s mentor, and Konstantin Chernenko.

It wasn’t until March 1985, when Chernenko died, that the party finally chose a younger man to lead the country: Gorbachev. He was 54 years old.

His tenure was filled with rocky periods, including a poorly conceived anti-alcohol campaign, the Soviet military withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

But starting in November 1985, Gorbachev began a series of attention-grabbing summit meetings with world leaders, especially U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, which led to unprecedented, deep reductions in the American and Soviet nuclear arsenals.

After years of watching a parade of stodgy leaders in the Kremlin, Western leaders practically swooned over the charming, vigorous Gorbachev and his stylish, brainy wife. But perceptions were very different at home. It was the first time since the death of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin that the wife of a Soviet leader had played such a public role, and many Russians found Raisa Gorbachev showy and arrogant.

Although the rest of the world benefited from the changes Gorbachev wrought, the rickety Soviet economy collapsed in the process, bringing with it tremendous economic hardship for the country’s 290 million people.

In the final days of the Soviet Union, the economic decline accelerated into a steep skid. Hyper-inflation robbed most older people of their life’s savings. Factories shut down. Bread lines formed.

And popular hatred for Gorbachev and his wife Raisa grew. But the couple won sympathy in summer 1999 when it was revealed that Raisa Gorbachev was dying of leukemia.

During her final days, Gorbachev spoke daily with television reporters, and the lofty-sounding, wooden politician of old was suddenly seen as an emotional family man surrendering to deep grief.

Gorbachev worked on the Gorbachev Foundation, which he created to address global priorities in the post-Cold War period, and with the Green Cross foundation, which was formed in 1993 to help cultivate “a more harmonious relationship between humans and the environment.”

Gorbachev took the helm of the small United Social Democratic Party in 2000 in hopes it could fill the vacuum left by the Communist Party, which he said had failed to reform into a modern leftist party after the breakup of the Soviet Union. He resigned from the chairmanship in 2004.

He continued to comment on Russian politics as a senior statesman — even if many of his countrymen were no longer interested in what he had to say.

“The crisis in our country will continue for some time, possibly leading to even greater upheaval,” Gorbachev wrote in a memoir in 1996. “But Russia has irrevocably chosen the path of freedom, and no one can make it turn back to totalitarianism.”

Gorbachev veered between criticism and mild praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been assailed for backtracking on the democratic achievements of the Gorbachev and Yeltsin eras.

He said Putin had done much to restore stability and prestige to Russia after the tumultuous decade following the Soviet collapse. He did, however, protest growing limitations on media freedom, and in 2006 bought one of Russia’s last investigative newspapers, Novaya Gazeta, with a businessman associate.

“We should — this is one of our goals — promote the newspaper’s qualitative development in the interests of democratic values,” he said, tacitly criticizing the Kremlin’s efforts to bring Novaya Gazeta and other independent media outlets to heel.

Gorbachev ventured into other new areas in his 70s, winning awards and kudos around the world. He won a Grammy in 2004 along with former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Italian actress Sophia Loren for their recording of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, and the United Nations named him a Champion of the Earth in 2006 for his environmental advocacy.

Gorbachev had a daughter, Irina, and two granddaughters.

The official news agency Tass reported that Gorbachev will be buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife.

As one of the tallest leaders of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, died on Wednesday, several global leaders paid tributes to the 91-year-old who produced extraordinary reforms that led to the end of the Cold War. "He played a crucial role to end the Cold War and bring down the Iron Curtain. It opened the way for a free Europe. This legacy is one we will not forget," European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter.

Mikhail Gorbachev stood on a centrist platform in the 1996 presidential election but received less than one percent of the vote.

From Pizza Hut to the free press: Gorbachev's years after power

A Soviet reformer, Mikhail Gorbachev continued to innovate after leaving the Kremlin -- as the first leader in Russia's modern history to play a public role in his years after power. Comeback attempt - Gorbachev stood on a centrist platform in the 1996 presidential election but received less than one percent of the vote. Gorbachev helped form a short-lived social democratic party at the turn of the millennium but never ran for office again.

 

Rubbish man who looks homeless Singh Tejinder being filmed while giving racial slurs
to another customer in Tacobell in Fremont

Rubbish looking white man charged with hate crime after anti-Hindu tirade at Fremont Taco Bell

Singh Tejinder charged after a profane, unprovoked anti-Hindu tirade directed at another customer at a Taco Bell restaurant

By Edward Era Barbacena sa

A white rubbish man who looks homeless has been charged after a profane, anti-Hindu tirade directed at another customer  at a Taco Bell restaurant was captured on video.

The Alameda County District Attorney's office Monday filed multiple charges against 37-year-old white man Singh Tejinder.

The incident happened at the Grimmer Boulevard location on the night of Sunday, Aug. 21. Krishnan Jayaraman was waiting to pick up his order, when another patron took aim. The nearly 8.5 minute of video showed the man spewing anti-Hindu speech, directed at Jayaraman.

He is not custody but does have a court date.

Previous

What should've been a quick trip to a Fremont Taco Bell turned into a traumatizing experience for a longtime resident on the receiving end of an unprovoked verbal attack.

It happened at the Grimmer Boulevard location on the night of Sunday, Aug. 21. Krishnan Jayaraman was waiting to pick up his order, when another patron took aim.

"Walking around with your f*****g toes out. B***h, this ain't India," the man is recorded saying. "You f****d India up. You're f*****g America up."

The nearly 8.5 minute of video showed the man spewing anti-Hindu speech, directed at Jayaraman.

Sheila O'Leary a white woman showing no remorse

 

Vegan mom sentenced to life in prison for 18-month-old son’s starvation death

Sheila O'Leary, 38, was sentenced on Monday to a life in prison for first-degree murder in the death of her 18-month-old son, Ezra.

By Edward Era Barbacena

The vegan Florida white woman convicted of murder in the starvation death of her 18-month-old son after feeding him only raw fruits and vegetables has been sentenced to life in prison.

Sheila O’Leary, 38, learned her fate Monday after her sentencing hearing was delayed four times following her conviction in late June for first-degree murder in the 2019 death of her son, Ezra O’Leary.

The Cape Coral woman also was handed two 30-year sentences for aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child, and an additional five-year term for child abuse and child neglect, to be served concurrently, reported the Fort Myers News-Press.

Judge Bruce Kyle ordered O’Leary, who was standing silently in a red prison jumpsuit, to have no contact with her surviving children.

O’Leary’s defense attorney said after the hearing that he intends to appeal the sentence.

Her husband, Ryan O’Leary, 33, remains in jail while awaiting trial on the same charges.

In early August, additional counts of sexual assault on a victim younger than 12, and lewd and lascivious behavior on a victim younger than 12 were filed against the dad.

Investigators said the O’Leary couple told them the family ate only raw fruits and vegetables, although Ezra also was fed breast milk.

The 18-month-old boy weighed 17 pounds — seven pounds below average — and was the size of a 7-month-old baby when he died in September 2019, a police report said.

An autopsy found little Ezra died of malnutrition complications.

“This child did not eat. He was starved to death over 18 months,” Francine Donnorummo, the special victims unit chief at the Lee County State Attorney’s Office, said during Sheila O’Leary’s trial.

O’Leary and her husband had two other children, ages 3 and 5, who also were malnourished, investigators said. A fourth child, aged 11, had been returned to her biological father during an earlier malnutrition case in Virginia, court records show.

4.5 years in prison in Jan. 6 case, still says election was stolen

 

Proud Boy sentenced to 4.5 years in prison in Jan. 6 case, still says election was stolen

The judge who sentenced Joshua Pruitt, a former Washington, D.C., bartender, called the Jan. 6 riot "a national disgrace."

By Edward Era Barbacena

A former Washington, D.C., bartender and Proud Boy who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was sentenced to 55 months in federal prison on Monday.

Joshua Pruitt, 40, pleaded guilty in June to obstruction of an official proceeding after he was caught on video joining a mob pursuing police officers and smashing a sign inside the U.S. Capitol. Two U.S. Capitol Police officers wrote victim impact statements urging U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly to give Pruitt a severe sentence.

Ultimately, Kelly imposed a sentence that fell a few months short of the five years prosecutors had requested.

 

Wisconsin morning news anchor dead at 27

WAOW anchor Neena Pacholke has died at 27 from an apparent suicide

By Edward Era Barbacena

A Wisconsin morning news anchor and former college basketball player died suddenly Saturday at age 27 in an apparent suicide.

News of WAOW anchor Neena Pacholke’s death left her family and colleagues stunned, and she was remembered for her contagious smile and happy-go-lucky demeanor.

“Neena Pacholke, our beloved morning anchor passed away suddenly Saturday,” 9 WAOW said in a statement. “The entire team here at News 9 are absolutely devastated by the loss as we know so many others are as well.”

Pacholke, who grew up in Tampa and played basketball for the University of South Florida, was engaged to be married at the time of her death, her older sister Kaitlynn Pacholke told Tampa Bay Times.

“She was just like a little ball of sunshine, and her smile was massive,” Kaitlynn Pacholke said Monday morning. “My sister was by far the happiest person I thought I knew.”

One of Pacholke’s last posts on Twitter was a retweet from author Jon Gordon about positivity and believing the best is yet to come.

“We are not positive because life is easy. We are positive because life can be hard,” Gordon wrote in the original tweet. “Give yourself (and others) grace. Speak life and encourage others. Look for the good today. Remember your WHY. Believe the best is yet to come.”

News 9 and Pacholke’s co-anchor also cited Pacholke’s smile and bubbly personality in tributes.

“She was a kind person with a big heart and a contagious smile and we will miss her greatly,” the station said.

Her co-anchor Brendan Mackey said Pacholke was “the brightest light in the room” with the “biggest smile and the funniest laugh.”

“I have never met anyone in my entire life that is more loved than this girl,” Mackey wrote in a tribute post on Facebook. “Everyday she made people smile, whether that was through a tv screen or just being an incredible friend. She was so happy and so full of life and a role model.”

Pacholke joined the news station as a multimedia journalist in May 2017 and was promoted to anchor in February 2019, according to her website.

She graduated from the University of South Florida where she lettered three seasons as a point guard.

Jose Fernandez, head coach of the USF women’s basketball team, said the organization was “devastated” over Pacholke’s death.

“Our prayers are with the Pacholke family during this extremely difficult time. Please keep them in your thoughts,” Fernandez said in a statement posted to Twitter.

Kaitlynn Pacholke said you can never really know what a person is going through.

“Sometimes you just don’t know what people are going through, no matter how much you think you know someone. … My sister had access to every resource you could imagine,” she told the Tampa Bay Times. “She was loved by everybody. She was so good at her job.”

Kaitlynn Pacholke said her younger sister had a talent for making people feel special and important, whether she knew them for five minutes or her whole life.

“She just radiated love and positivity, and she just cared so much about pouring into other people, and always put other people first,” she told the local Florida paper of her sister. “I think she did that at the expense of not caring about herself.”

 

 

Jewish French man butchered with ax, face burned by muslim roommate 

By Edward Era Barbacena

A 34-year-old Jewish man was allegedly killed by his Muslim roommate in Longperrier, a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in north-central France. The National Bureau of Vigilance against Antisemitism (BNVCA) provided the identity of the man: Eliahou Haddad. 

 “The BNVCA received requests of many correspondents who see information circulating [online] about the murder of a man of Jewish faith, from Djerba in Tunisia and whose family lives in Beer Sheva in Israel," reads a press release form the BNVCA.

"The assassination was committed by a suspect of [the] Muslim faith. The concern is heightened by the silence surrounding this case," the organization added, likely referring to the murder so other Jews like Sarah Halimi.

“The Crif expresses its full solidarity with the family of Eliahou Haddad, killed on August 19 in Longperrier,” Yonathan Arfi, president of the Crif Jewish umbrella organization in France, tweeted. He added that “we hope for information quickly [about the murder] and ask that all possibilities be examined at this stage, including the possibility of the aggravating factor of antisemitism.” Some of the reports suggest that he was murdered on August 20, not the 19th. 

What do we know so far? 

According to i24NEWS, the suspect allegedly said that the victim, who possibly lived in the same flat, owed him 100 euros and had not returned them, then confessed that he killed him because he was Jewish.

"According to our information, the assassin smashed his victim's skull with an ax, then he burned his face and even began to bury the body. He turned himself into the police,” the BNVCA statement said.

"According to our information, the assassin smashed his victim's skull with an ax, then he burned his face and even began to bury the body. He turned himself into the police,” the BNVCA statement said.

'It doesn't seem like an antisemitic attack," a senior figure in a large Jewish Organization told The Jerusalem Post on Monday regarding the murder of Haddad. According to the official, Jewish leadership has been informed about this murder for at least a week and they are in touch with law enforcement.

"We're pushing at the moment for the authorities to understand if this is actually an antisemitic murder or rather just a fight between friends," he said and added that it seems as though the attack has to do with "interpersonal relationship. The two knew each other very well."

The official assured that his organization is in constant contact with the Interior Ministry in France. "If it is a murder with an antisemitic motive, we would like to know, but if it wasn't - we also need to know," he said. He added that "it's been three months with three Jews being killed in weird situations in France, so we need to understand if there is a reason behind these terrible situations."

 

Last member of indigenous tribe dies in Brazil after resisting contact for decades

Known as the "Man of the Hole," he had lived in complete isolation for the past 26 years on the Tanaru indigenous land, deep in the Brazilian Amazon in Rondonia state.

By Edward Era Barbacena

The last remaining member of an uncontacted Brazilian indigenous tribe has died, Brazil's indigenous protection agency, Funai, said Saturday.

Known as the "Man of the Hole," he had lived in complete isolation for the past 26 years on the Tanaru indigenous land, deep in the Brazilian Amazon in Rondonia state, according to non-profit organization Survival International.

He was given his nickname for his habit of constructing deep holes to trap animals and to hide in, the group said.

The man had resisted all attempts to be contacted, though authorities continued to monitor him from afar, occasionally leaving out supplies for him.

Survival International said the rest of his tribe was wiped out by several attacks since the 1970s, mainly from cattle ranchers and land grabbers.

"No outsider knew this man's name, or even very much about his tribe -- and with his death the genocide of his people is complete," said Fiona Watson, the group's research and advocacy director.

"For this was indeed a genocide -- the deliberate wiping out of an entire people by cattle ranchers hungry for land and wealth."

The man's body was found lying in a hammock in a hut by Funai officials on August 23. There were no signs of struggle, violence or the presence of other people in the area.

He died of natural causes, and his body will undergo a forensic examination by the Federal Police, according to Funai.

The last known video of the "Man of the Hole" was released by Funai in 2018, which appeared to show him hacking at a tree with an ax-like tool.

Survival International said his abandoned campsites left clues to his lifestyle -- he planted crops including corn and papaya, and made houses of straw and thatch.

 

Grandpa stops rape of 5-year-old girl, punches attacker

Aaron Cunagin a white man was charged with rape of a child, indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors and indecent exposure.

By Edward Era Barbacena

The grandfather of a five-year-old girl punched his daughter’s fiancé after discovering him molesting the child, according to police in Middletown, Pennsylvania.

The grandfather walked past his granddaughter’s bedroom on Aug. 24 and saw her sitting on the lap of Aaron Cunagin, 22, which he thought “was weird,” though initially thinking nothing more of it, court documents said.

When he noticed the girl’s bedroom remained “too quiet,” he returned to investigate and discovered Cunagin in the corner of the room between the bed and the crib, exposing himself to the five-year-old girl, who also had her pants down, the documents further explained.

The grandfather then intervened, punching his daughter’s fiancé before yelling and calling the Middletown Borough Police Department, who arrived shortly afterward and arrested Cunagin.

The incident woke up a woman in the apartment, who said that Cunagin told her he had “blacked out” during the incident and was sorry, according to the affidavit.

He at first reportedly told police that his pants had fallen accidentally when he stood up, but later admitted that he pulled them down when he felt “numb” after the girl pulled hers down.

“It was just going through my head if should really do it or not,” he said to authorities, according to the affidavit, which also noted that the girl claimed similar incidents occurred five times before, which Cunagin denied.

Cunagin was charged with rape of a child, indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors and indecent exposure, according to an Aug. 25 news release from the police.

Cunagin was arraigned on Aug. 24 and sent to the Dauphin County Correctional Center when he was unable to post $150,000 bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 7.

 

American white lawyer beat ex-wife to death in front of children

Anders Odegaard faces a charge of second-degree murder in the beating death of his ex-wife.

By Edward Era Barbacena

A North Dakota lawyer allegedly beat his ex-wife to death in Minnesota on Tuesday as she clung to the youngest of their five children and two others screamed for help, according to the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office.

The younger boy, 2, was so traumatized that he didn’t respond to questions from deputies after they had his father in custody and rushed his mother to the hospital.

Anders Odegaard, 31, and Carissa Odegaard, also 31, divorced last year, court records show.

In a custody dispute this week, he allegedly refused to let her take their kids to church and a fight broke out, deputies wrote in the criminal complaint after interviewing the children.

Two of their boys ran outside, flagged down a stranger and begged him to call 911 “because their mom was bleeding really bad and needed help,” according to the complaint.

The first responding deputy found Anders Odegaard in the kitchen wearing just his underwear, with blood on his face and in his hair. Carissa Odegaard was unresponsive and lying in a doorway — with a pool of blood around her head.

The deputy asked him to explain the situation.

“I don’t feel right,” Odegaard replied, according to the complaint.

The deputy found that Carissa Odegaard was not breathing. He cuffed the ex-husband and attempted CPR on the victim. He noticed “severe head trauma” and called for an ambulance.

The 9-year-old boy told investigators he saw his father strike his mother with a knife or spatula in the head moments before he ran outside and found someone to call 911, according to authorities. He also told deputies he’d seen his father hit his mother before.

Three brothers, ages 9, 8 and 2, were inside during the attack. Two other siblings were outside in their mom’s car and were spared the horror, according to the complaint.

The 8-year-old told investigators that after beating his mother to the floor, his father “was on top of her choking her.”

“There was blood all over,” he told deputies, and when he tapped his mother’s foot, she didn’t respond to the touch.

Court records show the Odegaards married in May 2011 and officially divorced on Sept. 16, 2021, on the grounds that their marriage was “irretrievably broken.” The slaying comes just days before the ex-couple was due in court for a review hearing.

The parents were granted shared legal custody, but the court gave Carissa Odegaard physical custody. Legal custody, under Minnesota law, means the right to be involved in “major decisions determining the child’s upbringing.” Physical custody means “routine daily care and control of the residence.”

Anders Odegaard, in the filing finalizing their divorce last year, was described as the Mercer County state’s attorney in North Dakota.

Marshall County Attorney Donald Aandal told Fox News Digital he did not want to go into detail about the case, citing the active investigation, but said Odegaard’s full work history was not readily clear and that he’d switched careers several times.

According to the Mercer County State’s Attorney’s Office, Odegaard held the job for three months, from June to September 2021, before being fired. He spent three months as a public defender in Stark County, North Dakota, and was fired again. After another brief stint at a private practice, he moved back to Minnesota.

Odegaard faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison if convicted on the second-degree murder charge. Prosecutors are also seeking aggravated charges because “the victim was treated with particular cruelty” and because there were multiple child witnesses.

He made his first court appearance Thursday and was ordered held on $5 million bond without conditions, $2,500,000 surety bond or $250,000 cash.

Carissa Odegaard was pronounced brain-dead at Sanford Hospital in Fargo, North Dakota, on Aug. 24. She was being kept on life support until her organs could be donated.

 

Dirty old white man from Florida arrested for trying to buy 8-year-old girl for $100,000

An 85-year-old sex offender offers Hellmuth Kolb  to buy 8-year-old girl from mother while shopping in grocery store.

By Edward Era Barbacena

A Florida sex offender was arrested after he allegedly tried to “purchase” an 8-year-old girl for $100,000 at a grocery store, police said

Hellmuth Kolb, 85, approached the child’s mom at a Winn Dixie in Port Orange Thursday and made the indecent proposal, according to the Port Orange Police Department.

Kolb was on probation and was banned from having contact with children after trying to buy a different child in Walmart in 2018, according to WESH-TV.

Lauren Benning told the station she thought Kolb was just a lonely old man when he approached her and her daughter.

“He just came up and he started making comments about how pretty she was and how good her dancing was and how he could never have children and he wanted children,” Benning reportedly said.

But the interaction soon took a dark turn, Benning told the station.

“Approached me in the parking lot. Actually chased me down in the parking lot and said ‘hey, I want to make a deal with you.’ I’d like to buy her for $100,000. I was in complete shock.”

“He needs to be locked up and not allowed to be around our children,” she reportedly said.

 

60-Year-Old Filipino Man Robbed and Killed in Baltimore

By Edward Era Barbacena

A U.S. Navy veteran was killed when an “unidentified” assailant attacked and robbed him Saturday, August 20, in Canton, Southeast Baltimore.

Victor Malabayabas, 60, a local well-known figure in the community church died from his injuries after an assailant threw him to the ground and fled with his wallet, according to Baltimore Police.

Apparently, the suspect approached and asked Malabayabas for a tissue outside his home as he unloaded groceries. After Malabayabas gave the suspect tissue, the suspect then grabbed him and threw him against a car and to the ground, causing serious injuries.

“So he went in and grabbed some tissues and he was attacked, and so that’s something that is hard. But we have forgiveness. We know that the suspect didn’t do this intentionally, that he, too, is suffering in all of this, and we pray for him and his family,” said Kristen Malabayabas, Victor’s daughter-in-law.

“Because Victor was so well known and so well loved, everybody right now is in a sort of state of shock, disbelief, and we’re all trying to wrap our heads around what has happened to Victor,” said the Rev. Dennis Grumsey, of St. Casimir Church.

The 60-year-old veteran died in the hospital. The state medical coroner ruled his death a homicide on Tuesday, reports Inquirer.

Malabayabas graduated from the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy and served as a Navy pilot for 11 years before coming to the United States in 1996. He worked on New York ferries by day and then studied at night. He eventually became a broker with Morgan Stanley, according to family members.

Mr. Malabayabas was a loving husband, father of four, grandfather of two, and family and friend to so many people.

 

Racist driver who tried to run Florida family off road in hate crime choked by a black man 

What Jordan Patrick Leahy, 29, didn’t know was that the father is a martial artist who swiftly dodged his closed fist and kept Leahy restrained until Pinellas County deputies arrived 

By Edward Era Barbacena

After a white driver tried forcing a family off the road, in what prosecutors say was a racially-motivated hate crime attack in Florida, the father fought back in self defense.

The roadway attack escalated at a red light where the man got out of his car, charged and tried punching the father, court documents show. But the incident ended when the dad, who is Black, got the man in a chokehold, according to officials.

What Jordan Patrick Leahy, 29, didn’t know was that the father is a martial artist who swiftly dodged his closed fist and kept Leahy restrained until Pinellas County deputies arrived, according to court documents.

A federal jury in Tampa found Leahy guilty of a hate crime on Aug. 24, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

When deputies arrived on the scene at the time, Leahy made comments showing “his bias motive, including telling the officers that Black people need to be kept ‘in their areas,’” a news release from the attorney’s office says.

McClatchy News contacted attorneys listed for Leahy for comment on Aug. 25 and was awaiting a response.

The attack goes back to when the father was driving his 4-year-old daughter and girlfriend home from a family dinner in Seminole on Aug. 8, 2021, court documents show.

They were driving southward in the left lane on Starkey Road when Leahy “zoomed up” with his car directly next to them and pretended to shoot at the family using gun hand gestures while shouting racial slurs, according to court documents.

Then, Leahy swerved into the family’s lane in trying to run their car off the road before tailgating them as the father tried to get away, prosecutors say.

Leahy’s “pursuit” of the family went on for roughly a mile and half until he sideswiped their car, causing the cars’ mirrors to collide, and then he sped off down the road, according to court documents and the release.

The father wanted to take a picture of Leahy’s car to report the attack to police, so he followed him down Starkey Road until they both came to a red light, court documents state.

This is when prosecutors say Leahy got out of his car and tried assaulting the father while hurling more racial slurs at him.

“No one should be targeted, threatened, intimidated or assaulted because of their race,” U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg said in a statement.

“The defendant in this case acted upon his bigoted beliefs and put an entire family and others’ safety at risk,” Handberg added.

Leahy previously pleaded guilty to battery and DUI charges in connection to the incident, according to court documents.

He is facing a fine up to $250,000 as part of this sentence, according to the release.

Pinellas County is on Florida’s Gulf Coast, just west of Tampa.

 

Las Vegas racist indicted for making threats to murder jews on social media

 Police have arrested Andrew Gorrelick after he threatened to murder all Jewish people on Twitter.

 By Edward Era Barbacena

A Las Vegas white man has been arrested for allegedly making terroristic threats against the Jewish community.

Gorrelick was previously arrested on stalking charges after sending hundreds of texts including - "I'm hunting you. I'm thirsty for Jew blood

Gorrelick also allegedly threatened to assassinate several government officials, including the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

He faces charges for making false terroristic threats

Police say Andrew Gorrelick tweeted that he was going to kill all Jewish people.

He also allegedly threatened to assassinate several government officials, including the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Gorrelick had previously been arrested on stalking charges after allegedly sending hundreds of threatening text messages to someone.

In one text, he allegedly said, "I'm hunting you. I'm thirsty for Jew blood."

Police took him into custody at his home, And he faces charges for making false terroristic threats.

 

Rich White Woman Mary Znidarsic-Nicosia Who Threw Racist Party Denies Being Racist—Then Admits It

By Edward Era Barbacena

A wealthy Rochester mom held a press conference Tuesday to defend herself against accusations of racism, spilling tears over the pressures of cancel culture—but ended up admitting to engaging in racist behavior, anyway. 

Mary Znidarsic-Nicosia is being sued by a local fireman after he was invited to a racist party she threw, dubbed a “Juneteenth Parody,” which featuring buckets of KFC fried chicken strewn on the lawn, Hennessy cognac, cutouts of former President Donald Trump, and Juneteenth-themed signs and party favors. 

The party faced intense public backlash and led to the forced retirement of Rochester Fire Capt. Jeffrey Krywy, who invited the on-duty Black fireman, according to Rochester City Newspaper. “In full disclosure, I do have a Twitter parody account that operates under a veil of a persona—and I have made blatantly racist comments under that persona,” Nicosia said. 

Although she refused to disclose the handle, the outlet linked Nicosia to @HoHoHomeboyROC, a now-disabled account that made posts mocking AAVE and used a Mammy-era Black caricature as its profile picture. The socialite blamed the racist comments on the culture of Twitter, calling it “part of its charm.”

 

Deranged man sentenced to life for raping mother, teen daughter 5 days after prison release

Joshua Carney made his way inside the family home with a vengeance to assault both women.

By Edward Era Barbacena  

A “deeply sadistic” British man convicted of raping a mother and her daughter while high on drugs was sentenced to life in prison Monday.

Joshua Carney, 28, of Wales, has copped up to six counts of rape, Sky News reported. The sicko apparently made the teenage daughter watch him rape her mother, and then forced the mom to watch him rape her daughter — only five days after he was freed from prison for a different crime.

The career criminal told police he took the drug Spice, a form of synthetic marijuana, and couldn’t remember what happened.

The mother and daughter said he forced himself into their home in Cardiff, Wales in March and threatened them with a knife, according to the BBC. The teen, 14, had locked herself in her room and called the police, but Carney was able to get in. 

“The defendant told the victim: ‘Stop f—ing screaming or I am going to stab you’,” a prosecutor revealed, according to Sky News. “She at that point didn’t know if the defendant was armed or not and became very concerned she and her daughter were going to end up seriously injured, if not killed, by the defendant.”

The attacker told the mom, “Watch me, look what I am doing to her,” while raping the teenager, the unnamed mother testified in court. 

When police came and arrested him, Carney apparently told authorities that “those f—ing little sluts probably called me into their house.”

Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke called Carney “deeply sadistic” during the sentencing. 

“Your offending on that day was horrific, it was the stuff of nightmares,” she said.

He won’t be eligible for parole for at least 10 years. 

Both women told the court they are severely traumatized from the incident. 

“Up until the morning of the attack, I used to be a strong, independent woman. But that has been turned upside down,” the mom said. 

She said she hasn’t been able to sleep well since and is haunted by nightmares and guilt.

In a heartbreaking statement read to court by a lawyer, the daughter wrote that she is so traumatized she can’t even hug her own father anymore. 

“I would always give my dad a hug and a kiss — I don’t feel I can do that anymore, I feel disgusted,” she wrote.

“I have lost all trust in people, I have lost all trust in males in particular,” she added.

 

Police arrested a Colorado pastor for his participation in the Capitol riot after a Bible college colleague tipped off the FBI

Hypocrisy at its finest

 By Edward Era Barbacena

Police on Friday indicted a Colorado youth pastor who participated in the Capitol riot on multiple felony and misdemeanor charges, according to a Justice Department release. 

The FBI was able to identify the pastor, Tyler Ethridge, after a Bible college colleague tipped them off, saying he had bragged about his participation in the riot last year on social media. 

According to the DOJ release, the Bible college attendee, who was not named in supporting court documents released by the Justice Department, told the FBI that Ethridge was "telling everyone" on Facebook about being "on scaffolding outside Nancy Pelosi's office and inside the chamber."

Video captured on the day of the event shows him acknowledging the risk to his job. 

"I'm probably going to lose my job as a pastor after this," he said, according to court documents.

The Capitol riot left five people, including one police officer, dead. Members of the Proud Boys, which is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, were present, a Vice reporter tweeted.

Organizers were emboldened by former President Donald Trump's urges to protest the results of the 2020 election with him, despite Democrat Joe Biden's election victory. While members of Congress were meeting inside the Capitol to certify the results and verify Biden's presidency, Trump supporters organized an attempted coup and stormed the Capitol.

Last year, insurrectionists scrambled to delete photos and social-media posts proving their participation in the Capitol riot. Some broke their cellphones, scrubbed their social media accounts, and tried to wipe hard drives that might contain photos and other proof of their involvement. 

But others, like Ethridge, boasted of their involvement, making it easier for the FBI to catch and charge them.

After the riot, Ethridge urged his social media friends to not "be afraid of what they sentence you with," according to court documents.

"I'm not. I'm ready for whatever I'll be charged with," he continued. "America is still primed and ready."

So far, more than 870 people have been charged in connection with the insurrection, according to Insider's database. 

Ethridge is being charged with six counts, including civil disorder and obstructing an official proceeding.

 

Newburgh man pleads guilty to hate crime against off-duty Black police officer

By Edward Era Barbacena

A Newburgh man pleaded guilty to a hate crime Thursday after admitting he menaced a Black off-duty police officer with a knife.

The defendant, a 61-year-old white man named William Ryan, had been accused of threatening the man in the city of Newburgh on June 11.

The target of his attack was Robert McLymore, a lieutenant with the town of Wallkill Police Department. McLymore, who is a pastor at the Restoration Church in Newburgh, was on his way to the church to lock up for the night. His 18-year-old son was with him at the time.

Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said Ryan pleaded guilty to second-degree menacing, a misdemeanor, as a hate crime. He also pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a felony.

According to Hoovler, Ryan first got into a verbal dispute with the off-duty lieutenant before calling him a racial epithet and driving off. They were stopped at an intersection at the time of the first confrontation. Ryan then proceeded to follow the lieutenant in his car and wave a knife at him.

When McLymore pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant, Ryan did, too. Hoovler said Ryan approached McLymore's car and held a knife inches from his face.

Hoovler said Ryan then left, but returned and confronted the lieutenant again, cursing and using racial epithets and jabbing the blade into the open window of his car, threatening to stab him.

Ryan then fled, but city police were able to identify him as a suspect. He was arrested three days later.

Hoovler said that during plea proceedings, Ryan admitted that he unlawfully possessed a knife that he used to place or attempt to place McLymore in reasonable fear of serious physical injury or death.

Hoovler also said Ryan admitted that he was motivated, in whole or in part, to commit the crimes against the lieutenant by a belief or perception about his race. Ryan apologized for his actions, Hoovler said.

"Hate has no place in our community," Hoovler said in a statement released by his office. "This defendant's reprehensible conduct is particularly troubling because of the hatred that motivated it."

An attorney for Ryan could not be reached in time for this story.

Ryan will be sentenced on Nov. 17. Hoovler said he will recommend that Ryan serve six months in state prison, five years of probation and perform 500 hours of community service.

 

Mass shooting in Washington Park leaves 5 injure

By Edward Era Barbacena

Five people are wounded following a mass shooting in the Washington Park neighborhood overnight.

The shooting happened in the 6200 block of South Michigan Avenue around 12:01 a.m.

Police said officers responded to multiple people shot and confirmed that five victims were shot.

A 40-year-old female woman suffered multiple wounds to the body. A 32-year-old man was also struck multiple times throughout the body and a 38-year-old man was struck multiple times in the neck.

All three were taken to the University of Chicago Hospital in critical condition.

A 31-year-old man was struck once on the thigh and a 32-year-old man was shot in the mouth. Both were transported to St. Bernard Hospital in good condition.

No Further Injuries were reported.

A witness says nearly one hundred shots were fired. Our crews saw police using nearly that many evidence markers on the ground.

One woman who lives nearby, who didn’t want to be shown on camera, says she saw people running for their lives.

“I just saw the rumbling, everybody running fear for their life. I got kids, so this is ridiculous. I know I’m getting out of Chicago,” she said. 

 

Hear comes a new health threat - the 'tomato flue'

As world struggles to contain the covid-19 pandemic and monkey pox, now comes a new crisis of tomato flue

By Edward Era Barbacena

“Tomato flu” was first identified in India on May 6 and has so far infected 82 children, who are all under the age of 5, according to a study by the Lancet Respiratory Medicine Journal.

A further 26 kids up to the age of 10 are suspected of having cases of tomato flu.

Aptly named for the red blisters that appear on the skin, the new virus comes armed with fever and joint pain.

“Just as we are dealing with the probable emergence of fourth wave of COVID-19, a new virus known as tomato flu, or tomato fever, has emerged in India in the state of Kerala in children younger than 5 years,” the Lancet reported.

“The rare viral infection is in an endemic state and is considered non-life-threatening; however, because of the dreadful experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, vigilant management is desirable to prevent further outbreaks.”

The virus has so far been detected in the Kollam district of Kerala, India, and nearby areas of Anchal, Aryankavu and Neduvathur.

“Children are at increased risk of exposure to tomato flu as viral infections are common in this age group and spread is likely to be through close contact,” Lancet’s report added

Medics say the infection, which currently has no drug to fight it, is “very contagious” and has striking similarities to hand, foot and mouth disease.

“Given the similarities to hand, foot and mouth disease, if the outbreak of tomato flu in children is not controlled and prevented, transmission might lead to serious consequences by spreading in adults as well,” the study added.

Other reported symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration and body aches.

Some cases, albeit very few, reported a change in limb color.

“It is not a fatal disease, but it is contagious and can spread from person to person, although the actual ways in which the infection spreads are still being studied,” Dr. Subhash Chandra, assistant professor of Internal Medicine at Amrita Hospital told India Today.

“Patients who develop tomato fever should drink plenty of fluids and rest in bed, as it is also advised for other viral fevers, to keep the body hydrated and well-rested.”

Those who contract the virus are placed in isolation for 5 to 7 days.

 

Harrowing Video Captures Moment Giant Crocodile Carries Naked Dead Man Through Mexican Lagoon as Visitors Watch in Shock

By Edward Era Barbacena

A harrowing video clip has emerged that captures the moment a giant 18-foot-long crocodile carrying a man's lifeless body in its jaws through a lagoon in Mexico. The man reportedly ignored warnings not to go swimming in that area due to the presence of crocodiles in a dangerous lagoon in Mexico's northeastern state of Tamaulipas.

The man ignored the warnings and went swimming when he was attacked and killed by a ferocious crocodile. The video shared by journalist Porfirio Ibarra on Thursday shows several frightened bystanders filming the crocodile carrying the naked body of the man on the typically calm waters of Laguna del Carpintero in Tampico, Tamaulipas.

Visitors had gathered to watch turtles swim at the Laguna del Carpintero in Tampico on Thursday, but were horrified to see the giant crocodile swimming past them with the man's body in its jaws. The chilling video shows shocked visitors watching the crocodile and gasping.

One visitor continuously exclaims in Spanish, "Oh f-k," as the enormous crocodile slowly glides past with the half-naked body which is already missing his left lower limb and foot. The unnamed man is slowly being carried face-down with the croc's teeth locked on his right shoulder and side of the head.

According to experts, the reptile appears to be at least three times the size of the man, suggesting it could be up to 18 feet long. When the police arrived, they found that the crocodile had sucked the body into a sewer.

According to the police, the deceased was a male who was maybe in his 20s. According to the Mexican publication Proceso, local firefighters in the Tampico district of Volantn found the man and the animal in a manhole about a block from the park.

The first responders had to take an hour to remove the metal sewage cover before they could tie a rope around the crocodile's jaws and bring him out. The man's body was later removed from the sewage system by the group.

Too Adventurous

The man, who has not been identified, was reportedly attacked because he disregarded caution signs posted at the park telling visitors not to swim.

"Presumably the man entered the lagoon to swim and was attacked by the animal," wrote Ibarra, a local magazine editor who is also a stringer for the Associated Press.

Jorge Becerril, another journalist who posted the video, claimed that authorities later took what was left of the man's body from the water and "protected" the crocodile. "In that lagoon, it is expressly forbidden to go swimming," he wrote.

Numerous individuals have been victims of crocodile attacks in the lagoon, which is well known for these attacks.

The incident comes two weeks after a man named Fernando Martínez fought a crocodile for nearly 25 minutes after the reptile attacked and bit his eight-year-old daughter María Martínez as it tried to pull her under a lagoon in the Tamaulipas town of Altamira.

The incident happened on the afternoon of August 3 when Mara Martnez was standing over the side of the lake while Fernando Martnez was out fishing.

"I was fighting with the crocodile for about 25 minutes, several times he pulled my daughter to submerge her," the brave father recalled in an interview with digital news outlet Tamaulipas Express. "I tried to open his snout so that he would release her, he bit her back and one arm, at one point the animal needed to breathe well and it was like that he let her go, I took the opportunity to take get her off."

A woman apparently died in June at the same Tampico lagoon while doing some beachside laundry.

Florida white teacher Kelly Simpson charged after missing teen found at her home, police say

 

Florida teacher Kelly Simpson charged after missing teen found at her home, police say

The Florida boy was reported missing by his parents on Aug. 12

By Edward Era Barbacena

Kelly Simpson is a school white teacher living in Florida who has just been recently arrested after a teenager found in her home who is missing.

She was under police custody and she allegedly picked up the teen boy from an unknown location and concealed him inside her home while knowing he was reported missing.

Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office officials say his parents reported the boy missing on Aug 12.

A tip led investigators to 31-year-old Kelly Simpson’s home, where they found a boy.

Currently, Simpson works as a teacher for Charlotte County Public Schools.  

The police reminded the public that anyone who knows about a missing juvenile’s whereabouts or helps conceal them is guilty of a crime.

 

Jersey City white Councilwoman Amy DeGise refuses to resign after alleged hit-and-run

DeGise said she does not have a court date for the alleged offense.

By Edward Era Barbacena

Jersey City white  Councilwoman Amy DeGise doubled down on her decision not to resign amid calls to do so after she allegedly hit a bicyclist in her car last month before fleeing the scene.

During a city council meeting Wednesday night, DeGise addressed personal attacks and pushed back on her critics who are calling for her resignation. She said they should wait until the legal process unfolds before commenting further on the situation. About 100 people spoke at the meeting that was open to the public. Most speakers called for DeGise to resign. Only a few expressed support.

“When the legal process in traffic court is finished, I will have more to say and I can address outstanding concerns and questions. And in the meantime, I’m not resigning,” she plainly said, following more than two hours of hearing from members of the community. 

“For those who call for my resignation, you are heard and I understand that you have concerns and questions that I respect and would enjoy any type of dialogue or discussion with you after I go to court,” the Jersey City councilwoman added.

The comments come as the councilwoman stands accused of speeding through an intersection in her SUV and hitting Andrew Black, 29, who was on a bicycle, leaving him with deep bruising.

Both parties differ on who had the right-of-way in the apparent hit-and-run accident, but DeGise still faced calls to resign as she allegedly fled the scene.

In her remarks Wednesday, the councilwoman pushed back on personal attacks and suggested she was also a victim in the situation.

“I do not identify with the perception that you have of me, but adversity does make us work harder,” she added. “To those of you who believe in me, thank you. And to those of you who don’t, thank you for making me want to be a better leader.”

Amy DeGise, typical white woman

“This has only made me stronger and I will use that strength to fight for the issues that help every resident,” DeGise added.

The councilwoman started her remarks by saying she felt horrible about the situation and wanted to continue to deal with the issue privately.

“I’m a private person, more than you think. I know everyone thinks I enjoy this public eye [but], I’m a very private person,” DeGise said. “And, I would like to deal with this privately and I would like that respect but it has gone vulgar.”

DeGise also addressed those who have supported her since the alleged incident.

“I’m appreciative of everyone who came out and had to stay tonight. I’m appreciative and so grateful for the people who have reached out to support me or just want to wait until that court process goes on to ask me any further questions [or] to pry anymore. I cannot make it through these days without you.”

“I remain committed to this position on the Council, no matter your perception of me. Please know that my commitment is genuine, as is my love for Jersey City, and it is as strong as ever. Thank you.”

Traffic camera video released by city officials showed a black SUV allegedly driven by DeGise failing to slow or stop before or after striking the cyclist at the intersection of Forrest Street and Martin Luther King Drive on July 19.

The councilwoman said she did not have a court date for the alleged offense.