This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Dave Hardin

  • Tower at Flight 93 Memorial Dedicated

    Tower at Flight 93 Memorial Dedicated

    U.S. flags adorn the Wall of Names at the Flight 93 National Memorial, listing the names of 40 passengers and crew of United Flight 93 who were killed in this field in Shanksville, Pa. on Sept. 11, 2001. The Tower of Voices was dedicated on Sunday, Sept. 9, a 93-foot-high concrete and steel structure that features a wind chime for each of the 40 passengers and crew who died in the plane crash. (AP Photo/Gene Puskar)

    SHANKSVILLE, Pa. — Standing 93 feet tall on an oval concrete plaza Saturday was the Tower of Voices — a new structure that will serve as a landmark for Flight 93 National Memorial from U.S. Route 30 and mark the gateway to the memorial.

    As local residents and others across the nation prepare to honor the lives of those lost in the horrific terrorist attacks that shook the nation on Sept. 11, 2001, a special dedication ceremony was held on Sunday, Sept. 9 to commemorate the new memorial addition.

    A tribute to those who knowingly gave their lives to save so many others.  The rest of the story is HERE.

  • PLO to get the Boot

    Unlike previous administrations, the Trump Administration doesn’t seem willing to roll out the red carpet for the PLO.

    The Trump administration is expected to announce Monday that it will close the Palestine Liberation Organization’s office in Washington, administration officials said Sunday night, widening a U.S. campaign of pressure amid stalled Middle East peace efforts.

    “The United States will always stand with our friend and ally, Israel,” national security adviser John Bolton is planned to say in prepared remarks he is scheduled to deliver Monday, according a draft reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

    “The Trump administration will not keep the office open when the Palestinians refuse to take steps to start direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel,” he is planned to add.  Senior Palestinian officials strongly condemned the Trump administration decision and described it as a “reckless escalation.”

    Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian representative to Washington, said in an interview that the State Department informed the Palestine Liberation Organization of the U.S. decision to shutter its Washington office in a move that he said is part of the Trump administration’s efforts to begin enacting its so-called “deal of the century.”

    Maybe its about time a different approach is tried with these people.  Every time some peace initiative is started some radicals throw a wrench into the system.

    He said the Trump administration’s move to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in bilateral assistance to the Palestinians and to the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency; its criticisms of the way Palestinian refugees are defined at the United Nations; the Jerusalem move and its policy on settlements are evidence that the Trump administration is pressing ahead with its yet-to-be-revealed peace plan.

    Throwing money at them for decades does not seem to be paying dividends.

    In the U.S., the ICC has long been the bane of conservatives, including Mr. Bolton, who consider it biased against the U.S. and a danger to U.S. sovereignty. Mr. Bolton is scheduled to deliver his speech, “Protecting American Constitutionalism and Sovereignty from International Threats,” to the Federalist Society, a conservative group, on Monday.

     

  • Monday morning feel good stories

    Monday morning feel good stories

    From Elizabethtown, KY

    A home intruder, believed who police say has been breaking into homes on Hall Road in Elizabethtown for a few days, was shot in the head by an elderly homeowner Friday morning, police say.  The suspect, whose named wasn’t released as of Satur­day afternoon, was airlifted to Uni­ver­sity Hospital in Louis­ville with non-life threatening injuries.

    Kentucky State Police Post 4 spokesman Scotty Sharp said troopers already were working another burglary in the area when a call came in from the homeowner’s wife that her husband had shot a male intruder.

    In a matter of minutes, authorities were on the scene at a home in the corner of a large property along a narrow road lined with tall trees.  Sharp said as of Saturday afternoon the suspect has not been charged, but charges are expected. He said once the man is charged, his name will be released. He said the homeowner will not face charges.  According to a KSP Post 4 news release, the suspect “forcefully gained entry into the residence.”  KSP received a call at 11:52 a.m. “stating her husband had shot a male subject after he entered their residence.”

    The suspect was placed on a gurney, transported to a waiting helicopter that landed on the homeowner’s property and was flown to Louisville.  Sharp also said authorities Thursday were called to the area of Hall Road on a report of a suspicious person in the area.  “We were not able to locate anyone,” Sharp said, of Thursday’s report.

    In addition to KSP, Hardin County Sheriff’s Office and Hardin County EMS responded to the shooting scene.  The investigation is ongoing.

  • School Shootings that never happened.

    School Shootings that never happened.

     

    II am always skeptical when people use statistics.  Even accurate numbers can be used in misleading ways.  Sometimes it’s just out of ignorance that numbers are misunderstood, but other times the statistics themselves have been deliberately skewed.

    How many times per year does a gun go off in an American school?

    We should know. But we don’t.

    This spring the U.S. Education Department reported that in the 2015-2016 school year, “nearly 240 schools … reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting.” The number is far higher than most other estimates.

    But NPR reached out to every one of those schools repeatedly over the course of three months and found that more than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened. Child Trends, a nonpartisan nonprofit research organization, assisted NPR in analyzing data from the government’s Civil Rights Data Collection.

    We were able to confirm just 11 reported incidents, either directly with schools or through media reports.

    In 161 cases, schools or districts attested that no incident took place or couldn’t confirm one. In at least four cases, we found, something did happen, but it didn’t meet the government’s parameters for a shooting. About a quarter of schools didn’t respond to our inquiries.

    25% of the schools that reported an incident did not respond?

    The Education Department, asked for comment on our reporting, noted that it relies on school districts to provide accurate information in the survey responses and says it will update some of these data later this fall. But, officials added, the department has no plans to republish the existing publication.

    This confusion comes at a time when the need for clear data on school violence has never been more pressing. Students around the country are heading back to school this month under a cloud of fear stemming from the most recent mass shootings in Parkland, Fla., and Santa Fe, Texas.

    At least 53 new school safety laws were passed in states in 2018. Districts are spending millions of dollars to “harden” schools with new security measures and equipment. A blue-ribbon federal school safety commission led by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is holding public events around the country, including one in Alabama Tuesday. Children are spending class time on active-shooter drills and their parents are buying bulletproof backpacks.

    Our reporting highlights just how difficult it can be to track school-related shootings and how researchers, educators and policymakers are hindered by a lack of data on gun violence.

    “I think someone pushed the wrong button”

    Really?  They pushed the wrong button?   I will betcha there is funding available if the number of  “Gun incidents” reaches some target goal.

    Unacceptable burden

    The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights received complaints about the wording and administration of this survey even before it went out.

    A June 2014 research report commissioned to improve the CRDC as a whole noted that in previous data collections, districts had experienced “unacceptable levels of reporting burden.” They complained that the CRDC asks them to report information that is similar to what states already collect, but in a different format, or at a level of specificity that they don’t currently track.

    It is a very interesting article to read and NPR did an exceptionally good job with it.   If you find the time, read the whole article HERE. 

  • Sunday morning feel good stories

    Sunday morning feel good stories

    From Columbus, OH

    Columbus Police are now searching for a crook who walked off with hundreds of dollars worth of cigarette cartons from a North Columbus convenience store.  “They take Newports, some other flavors,” said Mohamed Razzaq, as he showed the empty shelves inside a storage room at Busch Center Smokes & More on Boardwalk Street.

    Store surveillance cameras capture a stranger walking through the business on Labor Day, and then sneak into the storage room while no one was watching.  Razzaq tells ABC 6/FOX 28 he confronted the thief when he noticed the culprit had cigarette cartons hidden inside his pants.  “I say you have cigarettes, why you go in my office and take cigarettes, ” said Razzaq, ” he say no, I haven’t.”

    Video shows the two men get into a scuffle inside the store. At one point, Razzaq can be seen waving a gun at the suspect.

    “He go into my office, its my private property,” said Razzaq, when we asked why he pulled out a weapon.  The thief attempts to run out the back door but quickly returns to the display cases when he cannot get outside.  When the thief makes a break for the front door, Razzaq is waiting for him. After a second tussle between the two, the thief manages to slip away.

    “If he is bad people, he go to jail,” said Razzaq.

    From Denton, TX

    Sometimes unloaded guns are the most dangerous?

    A police officer was called to meet a woman at a Denton hospital. She told him she’d been shot, and her landlord drove her to the hospital.

    As the officer questioned the woman, he discovered she had wounded herself. She said she’d been handling an unloaded .380 caliber pistol, and shot herself in the hand.

    She conceded the weapon must have been loaded after all.

    The woman will recover and no charges have been filed.

     

     

  • Military to “Build that Wall” if Congress does not fund it.

    Military to “Build that Wall” if Congress does not fund it.

    President Donald Trump said Friday that he’s considering using military resources to finish construction of his long-promised border wall instead of relying on Congress to fund the project through the Homeland Security Department’s budget.

    He also wouldn’t eliminate the possibility of a government shutdown if Democrats continue to confound his efforts to appropriate money for the project on the U.S.-Mexico border.

    ‘We have two options,’ he told DailyMail.com aboard Air Force One as he flew from Billings, Montana to Fargo, North Dakota. ‘We have military, we have homeland security.’

    He was asked specifically about using the Army Corps of Engineers as a taxpayer-funded construction crew.

    The man has been fairly consistent about building this wall.

    “I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me –and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”  –  President Trump

    You know, I think the guy just might be serious.  Scuttlebutt is HERE. 

     

     

  • Sgt. 1st Class Mario King saving the world one person at a time.

    Sgt. 1st Class Mario King saving the world one person at a time.

    Sgt. 1st Class Mario King, Army Human Resources Command information technology specialist career adviser, is presented the Soldier’s Medal during a ceremony hosted by Maj. Gen. Jason Evans, Army Human Resources Command commanding general. (Master Sgt. Brian Hamilton/Army)

    Sgt. 1st Class Mario King and his wife, fellow soldier Sgt. Adriane King, were driving in Kentucky when a movie-like scene unfolded in front of them.

    The information technology specialist at Army Human Resources Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky, received the Soldier’s Medal on Friday for his actions that day.

    It was May 13, and the Kings were coming back from a surprise visit to Mario’s parents for Mother’s Day.  “Normally we take a different route back, but because of all the traffic that weekend, we took a detour,” King told Army Times.  They were behind a small car and a fuel truck on a two-lane highway when they noticed the small car had veered off to the left, as if to make a turn.

    “But then all of a sudden, it went back to the right in front of the fuel truck, and that’s when the accident occurred,” said King, who has served in the Army for 17 years.  He said he thinks the smaller car misjudged how much room it had to get back in front of the truck, which was in a “no-win situation.”  The fuel truck carrying 8,000 gallons of fuel swung around, jackknifed and began rolling down the highway before it came to a stop upside down.

    “My wife and I looked at each other like, ‘Did we really just see that?’” King said. “This is something you just see in a movie. Like a Michael Bay movie.”  The small car had spun around, too, but the driver got out with minor injuries, he said.  King and his wife had pulled over at this point and talked to the driver of the small car while others called 911.  Then King ran over to the truck and saw the driver, Burl “Doug” Bowling, trying to get out, but he was stuck.

    “He was upside down and his feet were stuck under the dash,” King said. “He managed to grab and push out the windshield.”  The sergeant first class pulled Bowling out of the vehicle and dragged him about 150 feet away as the truck’s fuel tank was engulfed in flames and its tires were exploding.  “The flames hadn’t quite reached the cab of the truck yet, but you could feel the heat from the surrounding flames,” he said.

    King’s wife, Adriane, said the way the accident happened, they thought the outcome would be much worse.  “We pretty much thought both [drivers] were gone,” she said. “It was a sense of relief to know both of them were still alive.”  King said his Army training kicked in when he helped the truck driver out of the burning vehicle.     Army Times

     

  • Saturday morning feel good stories

    Saturday morning feel good stories

    From Las Vegas, NV

     After being caught in the middle of an armed robbery, police say a Las Vegas woman’s quick thinking helped her disarm the suspect who had taken her as a hostage.

    Experts say it was a risky move, but it’s one that paid off because it appears she had experience with firearms. That one thing may have saved her life.  “We know that he’s armed with two guns,” said Sutton. “He’s holding his pistol to the victim dragging her out.” But the woman quickly turns the tables on the suspect who has been identified as 27-year-old Mario Trejo.

    “He’s got the wrong victim here,” said Sutton. “First of all she is exceedingly courageous and second she’s familiar with a firearm.”  The video shows the woman confidently disarming the suspect and then running away giving police officers a clear shot.  “It’s very rare for a civilian who is in that kind of situation to basically take aggressive action,” Sutton said. “And that’s what she did. She did a fantastic job! She’s a hero.”

    Jeanette Morgan is the program director of the Annie Oakley Women’s Shooting Program in Las Vegas.

    “I’m glad she was able to drop magazine, clear it and able to run away,” said Morgan.

    The whole article is worth a read.

    From Elizabethtown, KY

    Kentucky State Police say a man was taken to the hospital after being shot by a homeowner Friday morning.

    Troopers say they received a call from a homeowner in Elizabethtown who said her husband shot a man during a home invasion.

    The man was taken to University of Louisville hospital, and he is expected to survive his injuries.

    Police believe the suspect may be responsible for other burglaries in the area, but authorities have not charged him as of Friday afternoon.

    Troopers continue to investigate the shooting.

    From Columbia, SC

    A jury has found a man not guilty of murder in a shooting death after an argument in a South Carolina Waffle House.

    Eric Nixon’s lawyer said he feared for his life in February 2017 when he shot 28-year-old Wayne Bell in the parking lot of the Columbia restaurant.

    Witnesses testified that Nixon went after Bell, but defense lawyer Micah Leddy told The State newspaper a video from a bystander showed Bell following Nixon into the parking lot after the argument.

    Prosecutors told jurors Nixon acted like a guilty man when he didn’t call 911, changed his clothes and hid the gun after the shooting.

    But Leddy says all that mattered for self-defense was how Nixon felt when Bell aggressively came toward him with his hands in his back pockets.