"Where you can find almost anything with A Click A Pick!"
Go to content
US Monthly Headline News July 2022
NBC News

Kansas will be the first state to put abortion on the ballot since the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade. Pro-choice and pro-life state activists are working around the clock as a final push ahead of Tuesday’s vote, which could determine the future of abortion rights. In 2019, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled the state constitution PROTECTS the right to an abortion.
Chauncey Devega, Salon

To this point, the House Jan. 6 committee hearings and related investigations have decisively established that Donald Trump and his confederates, including some Republican members of Congress, were involved in a serious, nationwide conspiracy spanning from the local to the federal level aimed at nullifying the results of the 2020 presidential election and installing Trump as an autocratic ruler. Several apparent crimes were committed as part of this coup plot, likely including seditious conspiracy, voter fraud, financial fraud, witness tampering, obstruction of Congress and perhaps even acts of terrorism.

The assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by thousands of Trump's armed followers, including right-wing paramilitaries, was a key part of the coup plot. Trump's mob was not "random" or "hapless" or "unarmed" or "uncoordinated" as too many observers in the mainstream news media and elsewhere have long insisted. Some were armed with lethal weapons including pistols and assault rifles. Their goals were clear: Keep Donald Trump in power at any cost, in defiance of the will of the American people. Their methods were obvious: Use any means necessary, up to and including lethal violence, to stop the certification of the 2020 election.
By Mary Papenfuss | HuffPost

The names of mother and daughter Georgia poll workers who memorably testified before the House Jan. 6 committee were found on a “death list” kept by an alleged leader of the militant Oath Keepers group, according to court filings. Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss presented heartbreaking testimony before the House committee in June that they were the target of racist attacks and threats for doing their jobs as election workers in the wake of baseless claims by Donald Trump that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
By Andres Triay, Robert Costa

The Justice Department's criminal investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, rioting at the U.S. Capitol, now includes questions for witnesses about the communications of people close to then-President Donald Trump and his reelection campaign, CBS News has confirmed. That news, first reported by The Washington Post, was confirmed to CBS News by a U.S. government official familiar with the investigation and a source with knowledge of what's been presented by the Justice Department to a grand jury. It is not evident that Trump himself is a target of the investigation, only that that prosecutors are asking questions related to him and his aides.
KPIX CBS SF Bay Area

Amanda Starrantino reports on Gov. Gavin Newsom touting new gun control law that follows legal lead of Texas anti-abortion law (7-21-2022)
Maroosha Muzaffar

Donald Trump used his Truth Social app to let out his anger after the Jan 6 committee’s latest public hearing on Thursday revealed further damning evidence of the former president’s inaction during the Capitol riot. An angry barrage of posts from his Truth Social account attacked the usual suspects who have questioned him or are opposed to his politics.

Nancy Pelosi, Jake Tapper, Liz Cheney and Hillary Clinton were not spared by Mr Trump’s social media spree. Attacking CNN’s Tapper, he wrote: “Fake [sic] Tapper is so biased and pathetic. No wonder CNN’s ratings are at an all-time low. P.S. Almost all Trump Endorsed candidates have won, or are winning.” Pivoting to Ms Cheney, the former president blasted her as “a sanctimonious loser”. “The Great State of Wyoming is wise to her. Why not show the tapes, or interview, those that, with evidence, challenge the election?”
By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Reuters) - Steve Bannon, a key associate of former President Donald Trump and an influential figure on the American right, was convicted on Friday of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the committee investigating last year's attack on the U.S. Capitol, a major victory for the Democratic-led panel. A jury found Bannon, 68, guilty of two misdemeanor counts for refusing to provide testimony or documents to the House of Representatives select committee as it scrutinizes the Jan. 6, 2021, rampage by Trump supporters who tried to upend the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Each count is punishable by 30 days to one year behind bars and a fine of $100 to $100,000. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols set an Oct. 21 sentencing date. The verdict by the jury of eight men and four women, after less than three hours of deliberations, marked the first successful prosecution for contempt of Congress since 1974, when a judge found G. Gordon Liddy, a conspirator in the Watergate scandal that prompted President Richard Nixon's resignation, guilty.
Hansi Lo Wang

Former President Donald Trump's administration spent years trying to add a census citizenship question as part of a secret strategy for altering the population numbers used to divide up seats in Congress and the Electoral College, internal documents released Wednesday by the House Oversight and Reform Committee confirm.

Long kept from the public, the Trump administration memos and emails were disclosed by lawmakers following a more than two-year legal fight that began after Trump officials refused to turn them over for a congressional investigation. Citing the "exceptional circumstances" of the case, the Biden administration, which inherited the lawsuit last year, agreed to allow House oversight committee members and their staff to review the documents.

The hotly contested question — "Is this a person a citizen of the United States?" — ultimately did not end up on the 2020 census forms. In 2019, the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration's unprecedented efforts after finding its use of the Voting Rights Act as the stated reasoning for the question "seems to have been contrived," as Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.
By KATE BRUMBACK

ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia prosecutor who’s investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally interfered in the 2020 general election in the state has informed 16 Republicans who served as fake electors that they could face criminal charges.

They all signed a certificate declaring falsely that then-President Trump had won the 2020 presidential election and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors even though Joe Biden had won the state and a slate of Democratic electors was certified. Eleven of them filed a motion Tuesday to quash their subpoenas, calling them “unreasonable and oppressive.”

Also Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, agreed to file any challenges to a subpoena in the investigation in either state superior court or federal court in Georgia, according to a court filing. He had previously filed a motion in federal court in South Carolina trying to stop any subpoena from being issued to him there on behalf of the prosecutor in Georgia.
By Bob Brigham | Raw Story

One of America's top counterintelligence experts revealed his thoughts on Saturday on the three men linked to sanctioned Russian spies who were present for a key White House meeting plotting Donald Trump's coup attempt. "Four days after the electors met across the country and made Joe Biden the president elect, Donald Trump was still trying to find a way to hang on to the presidency," Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said in Tuesday's public hearing of the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"On Friday, December 18th, his team of outside advisers paid him a surprise visit in the White House that would quickly become the stuff of legend," Raskin explained. "The meeting has been called unhinged, not normal and the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency. The outside lawyers who'd been involved in dozens of failed lawsuits had lots of theories supporting the big lie, but no evidence to support it." At the meeting, the idea of using the U.S. military to seize voting machines.

"In the wee hours of December 19th, dissatisfied with his options, Donald Trump decided to call for a large and wild crowd on Wednesday, January 6th, the day when Congress would meet to certify the electoral votes," Raskin explained. "Never before in American history had a president called for a crowd to come contest the counting of electoral votes by Congress or engaged in any effort designed to influence, delay, or obstruct the joint session of Congress in doing its work required by our Constitution and the Electoral Count Act. As we'll see, Donald Trump's 1:42 AM tweet electrified and galvanized his supporters, especially the dangerous extremists in the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and other racist and white nationalist groups spoiling for a fight against the government."
Celina Tebor and Maria Aguilar, USA TODAY

The last road 50-year-old Ricardo Valdez ever walked along had only two lanes, but the speed limit was 55 mph. There were no street lights to illuminate his way and no sidewalks for him on that cold, midwestern January night. His mother isn't sure where he was going, but she knows one thing that was on his mind at the time: Saving up to leave Ohio.

He wanted to live somewhere like Trinidad and Tobago, where he spent most summers growing up visiting family, said Rhona Noel, his mother. Maybe he would have gone south with his girlfriend and son to a city by the ocean, where it was warm year-round. She wishes the cars went slower down that road on the outskirts of Dayton, Ohio. Or that there were streetlights. Maybe that would have helped prevent the truck from hitting her son.
Chandler Stark

Among law enforcement agencies in the United States, the Texas Rangers are one of the most well-known and distinctive. They have extensive duties within the state of Texas, including investigating major violent crimes, corruption, cold cases, and police shootings (via the Texas Department of Public Safety). They are also tasked with helping provide security along the Texas-Mexico border, and they often partner with the U.S. Border Patrol and target Mexican cartel drug smuggling syndicates. Texas Rangers have immense forensic capabilities, including having trained hypnotists and artists, to both aid witnesses and help with facial reconstructions of skeletal remains (per the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame and Museum).

They also provide security for the governor of Texas whenever the governor is on official travel throughout the state, and they do the same for visiting foreign dignitaries who request their protection. Yet, there is still a lot even big fans don't know about the Texas Rangers and their history, such as who was the first Ranger to die in the line of duty? What was the Rangers' role in the Mexican-American War? Or what was the agency's role during the American Civil War? Just how long have the Rangers been around, and how many are currently active in Texas today? Read on to find out — this is the untold truth of the Texas Rangers.
Chris McGreal

The New York attorney general’s office is expected to begin questioning Donald Trump and two of his children over allegations of financial fraud today after the former president failed in his legal bid to block what he has called a politically motivated “witch hunt”. Trump and his two eldest children, Ivanka and Donald Jr, were summoned to give sworn depositions after state attorney general, Letitia James, said a three-year civil investigation uncovered evidence that the Trump Organization routinely inflated the value of properties, including office blocks, apartment buildings and golf courses, in order to obtain loans at favorable rates and to claim tax breaks.

The AG’s office alleges that the former president’s Trump Tower apartment block was recorded as being three times as large as it really was as part of the fraud. The process of taking depositions at the state supreme court in Manhattan is expected to continue into next week. It is not immediately clear on which day the former president will be questioned but Trump’s lawyer has indicated that he will invoke his constitutional right against self-incrimination and refuse to answer questions. The case adds to a string of legal troubles for Trump, including the possibility of criminal charges for tax evasion. The Trump Organization and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, are expected to go on trial later this year on charges of tax fraud following a parallel investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
By Bob Brigham | Raw Story

The U.S. Secret Service was described as an agency in crisis on Thursday after reports that the agency deleted text messages from Jan. 6 and the day before. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell reported, "the breaking news of the night, the news is that the secret service has destroyed evidence that is essential to the investigation of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol."

"Let me repeat that," he continued. "Yes, the Secret Service has deliberately destroyed evidence involving the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. That was revealed by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, which has jurisdiction over the Secret Service." "The most important Secret Service text messages since the invention of text messaging, they were deliberately erased by the Secret Service, according to the inspector general," O'Donnell said. "The most important text message in the history of the Secret Service. We don't know if any of the text messages sent to and from Vice President Mike Pence and Secret Service detail survived the deliberate erasure by the Secret Service. Those text messages could show attempts by the Secret Service to move Mike Pence away from the Capitol against his will. Those text messages."
Matthew Chapman

Writing for The Daily Beast this week, Wahajat Ali outlined the dangers of the new Moore v. Harper case the Supreme Court has agreed to hear — and how it could empower Republican state legislatures to ignore their own constitutions and throw out election results they don't like. "The nation is still reeling from the blitzkrieg unleashed by an extreme Supreme Court that used its last term to bulldoze a woman’s right to abortion, neutered the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse emissions, limited states’ rights to regulate guns, eroded the separation of church and state, and weakened civil rights by ruling law enforcement can’t be sued for failing to read a person their Miranda rights," wrote Ali. "But the Supreme Court isn’t done trying to implement minority rule and advance its Christian nationalist agenda. They have agreed to hear Moore v. Harper, the most consequential case to our nation’s democracy that most Americans still aren’t talking about."
Diana Glebova

The Secret Service confirmed Monday that it is aware of reports that the contents of Hunter Biden’s iCloud account were hacked over the weekend, exposing alleged texts, pictures, and videos of the president’s son doing drugs and engaging in other salacious and likely illegal activities. 4chan users claimed they hacked Biden’s phone late Saturday night, posting pictures to the website’s main political forum, according to the Washington Examiner. Many of the posts were taken down by the website.

The Secret Service said they are “aware” of the “social media posts and claims” about Biden, but are not in position to “make public comments on potential investigative actions,” in a statement to National Review. One video purports to show Biden measuring the amount of crack he had while in conversation with a prostitute. Another alleged video shows Biden going down a water slide naked, and texts allegedly revealed show Biden claiming that President Joe Biden was in possession of five guns in 2019, despite campaigning on gun control. Many of the files posted by 4chan were already found on Biden’s abandoned laptop via an iPhone XS backup, according to the Washington Examiner.
Jon Skolnik

On Monday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed that busing for the purposes of racial desegregation "wrecked" the country's school system, suggesting that it's morally tantamount to a government overthrow. The pundit's comments came just days after thousands of protesters stormed the Sri Lankan capitol building in protest of poor living conditions, leading to the impending resignation of the country's president this Wednesday. Carlson, not a known expert in Sri Lankan politics, blamed the upheaval on liberals and environmentalism.

"So we know what you're thinking: 'Oh, so pampered, lifestyle liberals just destroyed something else.' They did to Sri Lanka what busing did to American education, just absolutely wrecked it and walked away like it never happened. That's the downside. People's lives were destroyed. It happened a lot," Carlson said as the Fox News chyron suggested this was a result of the so-called Green New Deal, a proposal to tackle climate change that has stalled in the U.S. Congress.
By Travis Gettys | Raw Story

Steve Bannon told associates that Donald Trump intended to declare victory on Election Night, regardless of the vote results. The former White House adviser said on Oct. 31, 2020, that Trump planned to claim he had won and then blame any shift in mail-in voting totals toward Joe Biden on fraud -- which is exactly what the former president did, reported Mother Jones. “What Trump’s going to do, is just declare victory, right?" Bannon told the group in a recording obtained by the publication. "He’s going to declare victory, but that doesn’t mean he’s a winner. He’s just going to say he’s a winner.” Trump's scheme had been reported at the time, and Bannon discussed the idea on Election Day, Nov. 3, 2020, but the recorded comments show the former president did not spontaneously decide to claim victory in the early hours of Nov. 4, 2020, at the urging of Rudy Giuliani.
Bob Brigham

Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming made a compelling case that Donald Trump's supporters committed obstruction of justice by attempting to intimidate witnesses prior to their testimony before the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Following bombshell testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, Cheney dropped a bombshell in her closing statement. She did not name names, but put on the committee's giant screens two electronic messages sent to witnesses.

Former Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney predicted the testimony would be damaging for Trump. "Cheney's closing is stunning: they think they have evidence of witness tampering and obstruction of justice. There is an old maxim: it's never the crime, it's always the coverup," he wrote. "Things went very badly for the former President today. My guess is that it will get worse from here."
bmetzger@insider.com (Bryan Metzger)

The January 6 committee offered new details on Tuesday about a meeting at the White House that involved several Republican members of Congress ahead of the meeting of the Joint Session of Congress to certify the 2020 presidential election. According to Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida, a member of the committee, the December 21 meeting was part of an effort to "disseminate his false claims and to encourage members of the public to fight the outcome on January 6." Vice President Mike Pence, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and Rudy Giuliani were all in attendance at the meeting, along with President Donald Trump. At the meeting, the members discussed election theories pushed by Trump personal lawyer John Eastman, who believed that Pence was able to singlehandedly rejected slates of electors in his role presiding over the joint session.
Gustaf Kilander

Former Oath Keepers spokesperson Jason Van Tatenhove shared his fears of another Donald Trump term in the White House, as he testified before the January 6 Committee. “We've gotten exceedingly lucky that more bloodshed did not happen, because the potential has been there from the start,” he said on Tuesday. “We saw on January 6, the potential was so much more ... look at as the iconic images of that day with the gallows set up for Mike Pence, for the vice president of the United States,” Mr Van Tatenhove said.

“I do fear for this next election cycle because who knows what that might bring if a president that’s willing to try to instill and encourage to whip up a civil war amongst his followers using lies and deceit and snake oil,” he added. “Regardless of the human impact.” “What else is he going to do? If he gets elected again, all bets are off at that point. And that's a scary notion,” Mr Van Tatenhove said. “I have three daughters, I have a granddaughter, and I fear for the world that they will inherit if we do not start holding these people to account.”
ABC News

Two Texas news outlets have published disturbing surveillance video from inside Robb Elementary School during the May 24 mass shooting, as Uvalde officials and families debate the sensitive footage's release. "Both media outlets have elected to release that footage Tuesday to provide transparency to the community, showing what happened as officials waited to enter that classroom," KVUE stated in its article on the footage, which shows the gunman walking into the school building and officers responding three minutes later.

The edited surveillance footage shows dozens of law enforcement officers, including some with protective shields, waiting in the hallway. Officers didn't breach the classroom for more than 70 minutes, even as four additional shots were fired from the classrooms 45 minutes after police arrived on the scene, the footage released by the news organizations shows. The release comes hours after a key state lawmaker in Texas vowed Tuesday to release surveillance video from inside the school, a move he says is intended to provide transparency to the families of the 21 victims despite guidance from the local district attorney that the footage remain under wraps.
Joan E Greve in Washington

The US supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, ending nearly 50 years of federal protections for abortion access, was “catastrophic”. The ruling amounted to a “curtailment of women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens”. The drastic decision “undermines the court’s legitimacy”, and the consequences of it will set off an “upheaval in … society”. Those are voices from the supreme court itself: the words of its three liberal justices – Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor – in their scorching and thorough joint dissenting opinion on a decision by their body which has fundamentally altered the lives of millions of Americans. In the opinion, the three liberal justices repeatedly warn of the devastating impact of the end of Roe, while emphasizing that the majority’s ruling breaks with core tenets of court procedure.
By Bob Brigham | Raw Story

The U.S. Department of Justice dropped an after-midnight bombshell on former Donald Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon early Monday morning. Attorney Luppe Luppen said, "DOJ coming in hot with a filing after midnight saying the FBI interviewed a Trump lawyer and determined Bannon’s counsel lied to the J6 Committee." "On June 29, 2022, former President Donald Trump's attorney, who sent the letter on which the defendant claimed his noncompliance was based, confirmed what his correspondence has already established: that the former president never invoked executive privilege over any particular information or materials; that the former president's counsel never asked or was asked to attend the defendant's deposition before the select committee, that the defendant's attorney misrepresented to the committee what the former president's counsel had told the defendant's attorney; and that the letter provided no basis for total noncompliance," the DOJ argued.
By Sara Murray, CNN

(CNN) Steve Bannon -- who defied a congressional subpoena and is set to go to trial on criminal contempt charges -- told the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection on Saturday that he is now willing to testify, ideally at a public hearing, according to a letter obtained by CNN. Bannon's reversal comes after he received a letter from former President Donald Trump waiving executive privilege, although both the House select committee and federal prosecutors contend that privilege claim never gave Bannon carte blanche to ignore a congressional subpoena in the first place.

"When you first received the Subpoena to testify and provide documents, I invoked Executive Privilege. However, I watched how unfairly you and others have been treated, having to spend vast amounts of money on legal fees, and all of the trauma you must be going through for the love of your Country, and out of respect for the Office of the President," Trump wrote in a Saturday letter to Bannon, which was also obtained by CNN.
Jon Skolnik

At least two legal experts this week blasted Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for attempting to bat away a subpoena to participate in the probe into his call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 election. On Wednesday, Graham officially vowed to fight a grand jury subpoena seeking more information about Trump's effort to overturn the election. The subpoena specifically mentioned at least two calls from Graham to Raffensperger in November 2020, during which the GOP senator asked the Republican state official about Georgia's ballot-counting procedures and expressed an interest in exploring "the possibility of a more favorable outcome" for Trump. Immediately after Graham indicated that he would fight the subpoena, numerous pundits cast doubt over Graham's self-professed innocence.
By Juby Babu

July 6 (Reuters) - The heads of MI5 and FBI warned of the growing long-term threat posed by China to UK and U.S. interests, in their first joint appearance on Wednesday. MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said the service has already "more than doubled our previously-constrained effort against Chinese activity of concern," adding it was running seven times as many investigations as in 2018.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the Chinese government "poses the biggest long-term threat" to economic and national security, for the UK, the U.S. and allies in Europe and elsewhere. "The Chinese government is trying to shape the world by interfering in our politics (and those of our allies, I should add)," Wray said, saying Beijing had directly interfered in a Congressional election in New York this year, as it did not want a candidate who was a critic and former protester at Tiananmen Square to be elected.
AJ McDougall Breaking News Reporter

The Internal Revenue Service selects a number of random Americans each year to be subjected to an intensive, invasive audit. Among those selected in recent years: former FBI director James Comey and his one-time deputy Andrew McCabe, both declared archenemies of former President Donald Trump. In a report published Wednesday, The New York Times reported that in 2017, Comey—who had been fired from his post at the bureau by Trump just months prior—was one of just 5,000 people targeted by the IRS for the audit. Last year, McCabe, who had served as acting director of the FBI for several months following Comey’s departure, was one of 8,000 chosen to be audited by the IRS, run by a Trump appointee.
The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Attorneys representing Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Wednesday he intends to challenge a subpoena compelling him to testify before a special grand jury in Georgia investigating former President Donald Trump and his allies' actions after the 2020 election.

Graham was one of a handful of Trump confidants and lawyers named Tuesday in petitions filed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis as part of her investigation into what she alleges was "a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere."

Graham attorneys Bart Daniel and Matt Austin said in a statement Wednesday that the Republican senator "plans to go to court, challenge the subpoena, and expects to prevail," and they slammed the probe as politically motivated.
Joe Schneider

(Bloomberg) -- The Trump Organization’s former appraiser Cushman & Wakefield Inc. was found in contempt of court and will be fined $10,000 a day for failing to produce documents subpoenaed in a New York investigation of the former president’s business. New York Attorney General Letitia James is probing potentially fraudulent asset valuations at the Manhattan-based Trump Organization. She issued subponeas on Cushman & Wakefield in September and February. Cushman & Wakefield failed to block the subpoenas in court and on appeal and was ordered to turn over “an enormous number of documents” by June 27. On June 29, the company sought an extension. “This court is incredulous as to why Cushman & Wakefield would wait until two days after the court-ordered deadliine had lapsed to initiate a process of asking for yet another extension,” New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron wrote in an order Tuesday. He said the $10,000 a day fine would start July 7 until the company complies with the subpoena.
By Tamar Hallerman, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Fulton County special grand jury investigating potential criminal interference in Georgia’s 2020 elections has subpoenaed key members of former President Donald Trump’s legal team, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, according to copies obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In addition to Giuliani, those being summoned include John Eastman, Cleta Mitchell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellis, all of whom advised the Trump campaign on strategies for overturning Democrat Joe Biden’s wins in Georgia and other swing states.
Some former classmates of Robert Crimo III were shocked. Others saw the writing on the wall.
Pilar Melendez Senior National Reporter, Kate Briquelet Senior Reporter

When Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering on Tuesday revealed that she knew Robert “Bobby” Crimo, the 21-year-old accused of indiscriminately raining gunfire on a peaceful July 4 parade in an attack that killed seven and injured dozens more, she expressed shock that a “little boy” from the cub scouts would somehow become a mass killer.

But some of the people who grew up with Crimo—a lanky aspiring YouTube rapper festooned with tattoos, his music riddled with violent imagery—said they saw disturbing warning signs. “There were lots of red flags with him,” one former Highland Park High School classmate told The Daily Beast. “I told my teacher I didn’t want to sit next to him. He really scared me.”

Hours after Highland Park, a town once best known as the backdrop to Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Sixteen Candles, became the latest site of mass slaughter by gunfire in America, a community was struggling to process why it became a target. And why the son of a prominent local businessman who ran for mayor had descended into a twisted online world obsessed with mass murder, memes, and mayhem—and whether he might have been stopped before it was too late.
ABC News

The 21-year-old man accused of opening fire at a suburban Chicago Fourth of July parade, killing seven people and injuring dozens of others, plotted another attack in Madison, Wisconsin, authorities said Wednesday. After fleeing the scene of the parade, Robert "Bobby" Crimo III "was driving around, saw a celebration in Madison," and "contemplated another attack," with "60 rounds on his body at that point," authorities said at a news conference Wednesday. But he "had not done enough planning" and decided not to do it, authorities said. After returning from Wisconsin, Crimo was apprehended at at traffic stop in Lake Forrest, Illinois, Monday evening.
‘Dozens’ more counts forthcoming after Robert Crimo charged with first-degree murder
Rachel Sharp, Namita Singh, Johanna Chisholm

Robert Crimo, the suspect in the mass shooting at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois, was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder on Tuesday. If convicted, he will face life in prison without the possibility of parole. More charges, including potential federal ones, are expected to be announced in the coming days and weeks. Authorities say the July Fourth massacre wasn’t the first time the 21-year-old has been linked to violence. In 2019, Mr Crimo threatened “kill everyone” in his home, authorities have revealed.

Lake County Sheriff deputy chief Christopher Covelli said in a press conference on Tuesday afternoon that officers were called to the home of Robert E Crimo in September 2019 and confiscated several knives, but did not arrest the suspect. Mr Crimo is suspected of scaling a fire escape and firing more than 70 rounds down onto the July 4th parade crowd from a business rooftop, leaving five dead at the scene, fatally wounding two, and injuring dozens. He was arrested about eight hours later after an intensive manhunt.
by: Glenn Marshall

CHICAGO — Fifty-five people have been shot, seven fatally, in Chicago as the extended Fourth of July weekend continues. Those shot include a 10-year-old boy who was inside his home when he was shot three times.

The numbers reflect shootings from Friday at 5 p.m. until 2 a.m. Monday morning. The latest shooting happened in the Parkway Gardens apartments near the corner of 65th Street and King Drive close to midnight Monday. The shooting left four people injured. Those shot range in ages between 17 to 34. most of them in serious to critical condition.

The 10-year-old was shot while in his home Sunday. The shooting happened near the corner of South Wallace and Englewood avenues a little after 10:30 p.m. Sunday. Police said the boy was in his bedroom when he felt pain. He was shot in the ankle and twice in the buttocks.
By Samantha Beech and Dakin Andone, CNN

(CNN) Jayland Walker suffered at least 60 gunshot wounds when Akron, Ohio, police officers fatally shot him during a pursuit last week, Akron Police Chief Stephen Mylett said Sunday, citing a medical examiner's report.
City officials also played police body camera footage of the shooting for the first time Sunday, nearly a week after the fatal shooting. The video raises more questions about the shooting of the unarmed Black man that is being investigated by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI). Police said the shooting occurred after Walker, 25, fled as officers tried to initiate a traffic stop for traffic and equipment violations on Monday, June 27.
Fox News’s chief wingnut has spent all week fawning over authoritarian President Jair Bolsonaro and making absurd, ignorant statements about the country.
Andre Pagliarini

Last year, Tucker Carlson traveled to Budapest to celebrate Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s aggressively illiberal and xenophobic prime minister, by filming a week of episodes that included “lessons” the United States could draw from his anti-democratic, immigration-restrictionist rule. In a sit-down interview, Carlson nodded approvingly as Orbán railed against “post-Christian, post-national societies­” and their “very risky” mixture of Muslim and Christian communities. This week, Carlson visited another country undergoing an alarming democratic erosion and fawned over its far-right ruler: Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro.

Broadcasting from both Rio de Janeiro and the capital, Brasília, Carlson has been urging his viewers to pay attention to what’s happening there. This October, Brazilians will go to the polls either to reelect Bolsonaro or cast him out of office. Carlson was there to insist that Bolsonaro isn’t the villain he seems to be in much stateside coverage. “Guess what, this will shock you: Bolsonaro bears no resemblance whatsoever to the descriptions of Bolsonaro you have read in The New York Times—completely different person,” Carlson said in a teaser of his sit-down interview with Bolsonaro, which aired Thursday night. “Seen that before?”
Nathalie Baptiste

When the city of Friendswood, Texas, announced on Facebook that hometown hero Haley Carter would be the grand marshal for the town’s famed Fourth of July parade, the post was peppered with excited comments. Carter, who was in the Marines and is a retired professional soccer player, was just the type of person residents wanted to see lead the parade. Then the right-wing culture warriors showed up. Conservative radio host Jesse Kelly tweeted the same day that Friendswood had appointed a “gun-grabber” who is “into drag” and “trans activism” to lead the parade. Kelly is from Ohio, ran a failed congressional campaign in Arizona, and now hosts his radio show from nearby Houston. “Communists are in blood-red areas too,” he wrote. Soon, excited Facebook comments were accompanied by screenshots of Kelly’s tweets about Carter, some of which included a picture of her young son. She began receiving threats. On paper, Carter seems like the kind of person conservatives who claim to love the military would support.
By Tom Boggioni | Raw Story

Reacting to reports that Donald Trump is thinking of moving up his announcement that he will be running for president in 2024, political analyst and pollster Fernand Amandi said the threat of the former president jumping into the race at such an early time is creating problems for the Republican Party. Appearing on MSNBC's "The Katie Phang Show," Amandi explained that Trump has three main reasons for wanting to make the jump sooner than later -- two of which are designed to ensure his political survival. "What would be the fallout for announcing so early before the November midterms?" host Phang asked. "Katie, it would be classic Donald Trump to deal with an impending crisis, which right now is dealing with the Jan 6th hearings by creating another crisis -- this time though within the Republican Party by announcing," he began.
The radical right Supreme Court is taking away our rights one right a time.

2UrbanGirls.com

The Supreme Court voted 6-3 in Vega v. Tekoh to ensure that many suspects who are denied warnings, commonly known as Miranda Rights, will have no legal recourse against law enforcement, if they are wrongly convicted. Vega revolves around the Fifth Amendment’s right against self-incrimination, which bars a defendant from being “compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” For much of American history—and especially in the Jim Crow South—law enforcement officers coerced confessions from suspects using intimidation or outright violence. (These confessions were frequently false.) Courts were supposed to assess whether confessions were “voluntary,” but the secrecy of interrogation rooms, combined with the massive power imbalance between police and suspects, made this task impossible. In 1966, the Supreme Court tried to resolve this problem with Miranda, which required police to warn suspects that they have the right to remain silent and to access an attorney. The majority hoped that suspects would quickly acquire counsel, who would ensure that law enforcement did not coerce (or beat) a confession out of their client.
By Noah Gray and Zachary Cohen, CNN

(CNN) Then-President Donald Trump angrily demanded to go to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and berated his protective detail when he didn't get his way, according to two Secret Service sources who say they heard about the incident from multiple agents, including the driver of the presidential SUV where it occurred.

The sources tell CNN that stories circulated about the incident -- including details that are similar to how former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson described it to the House select committee investigating January 6 -- in the months immediately afterward the US Capitol attack and before she testified this week. While the details from those who heard the accounts differ, the Secret Service sources say they were told an angry confrontation did occur. And their accounts align with significant parts of Hutchinson's testimony, which has been attacked as hearsay by Trump and his allies who also have tried to discredit her overall testimony.

Like Hutchinson, one source, a longtime Secret Service employee, told CNN that the agents relaying the story described Trump as "demanding" and that the former President said something similar to: "I'm the f**king President of the United States, you can't tell me what to do." The source said he originally heard that kind of language was used shortly after the incident.
Two Secret Service sources told CNN that they heard about accounts similar to Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony in the months after Jan. 6—including from the driver himself.
Justin Baragona

Days after the Secret Service pushed back on the stunning testimony that former President Donald Trump violently freaked out during a Jan. 6 presidential SUV ride, CNN reported on Friday that accounts of Trump lunging at his Secret Service agents have spread around the agency for the past year. According to two Secret Service sources, stories similar to ex-Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s account—which she testified under oath was told to her by former Trump staffer and current Secret Service official Tony Ornato—circulated among agents in the months following the incident. One source, for instance, relayed that Trump profanely demanded to be driven to the Capitol and even “lunged forward” at one point.
AP

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Public schools in Texas would describe slavery to second graders as “involuntary relocation” under new social studies standards proposed to the state's education board. A group of nine educators submitted the idea to the State Board of Education as part of Texas' efforts to develop new social studies curriculum, according to the Texas Tribune. The once-a-decade process updates what children learn in the state's nearly 8,900 public schools. The board is considering curriculum changes one year after Texas passed a law to eliminate topics from schools that make students “feel discomfort.” Board member Aicha Davis, a Democrat who represents Dallas and Fort Worth, raised concerns during a June 15 meeting that the term wasn't a fair representation of the slave trade. The board sent the draft back for revision, urging the educator group to “carefully examine the language used to describe events.” “I can’t say what their intention was, but that’s not going to be acceptable,” Davis told The Texas Tribune on Thursday.
By Chandelis Duster and Ariane de Vogue, CNN

(CNN) Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in Thursday as an associate justice to the United States Supreme Court, making history as the first Black woman on the highest court in the nation. Jackson, 51, joins the court as its 116th member amid a time of heightened scrutiny of the court over recent decisions and the American public's low confidence in the Supreme Court. "With a full heart, I accept the solemn responsibility of supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States and administering justice without fear or favor, so help me God. I am truly grateful to be part of the promise of our great Nation," Jackson said in a statement.
By Joan Biskupic, CNN legal analyst & Supreme Court biographer

(CNN) The Supreme Court reached into every corner of American life, reordering intimate family choices, breaching the separation of church and state, and diminishing the steps government can take to prevent gun violence or protect the environment. The upheaval of the past several weeks, especially as the court outright ended a half-century of women's privacy rights, is unmatched in modern times. The speed and sweep by which the right-wing majority acted reflects, as one liberal dissenter wrote, a "restless and newly constituted Court." And it is not finished. The conservative supermajority -- anchored by three relatively young appointees of former President Donald Trump -- is positioned to continue its impact with disputes next session over the Voting Rights Act, affirmative action and religious objections to LGBTQ protections.

Yet it will be the epic 2021-22 session that stands out over time. The case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, reversing Roe v. Wade, will likely be remembered as one of the most far-reaching rulings in Supreme Court history. The 5-4 decision marked the first-ever complete reversal of a constitutional right. The justices also enlarged the Second Amendment, favoring gun owners, and redefined the balance between the First Amendment's prohibition against government "establishment of religion" and its "free exercise." That will allow more prayer in public settings and require more government money for religious education.
By Oren Liebermann, CNN

(CNN) A series of failures led to a fuel leak at a Hawaii military facility that sickened families who relied on a nearby well for their water, the Navy found after an investigation into the problems at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility. The leak and the ensuing damage to the environment and harm to surrounding communities is part of what compelled the Defense Department to announce in March that it would defuel and close the facility permanently. "The Navy accepts responsibility for what happened," said Adm. Samuel Paparo, the commander of US Pacific Fleet, in a call with reporters Thursday. The command investigation did not make any recommendations on individual disciplinary or administrative actions. Those decisions will come from a separate consolidated disposition authority led by Adm. Daryl Caudle, the commander of US Fleet Forces.
By Kasie Hunt, Ryan Nobles and Zachary Cohen, CNN

(CNN) Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Trump White House aide, told the House January 6 committee that she was contacted by someone attempting to influence her testimony, three sources familiar with the hearing presentation told CNN. The committee's vice chairwoman, GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, said at Tuesday's hearing that two witnesses -- whom she did not name -- told the committee they had heard from people connected to former President Donald Trump's world who may have been trying to intimidate them. Sources tell CNN Hutchinson is one of those witnesses.

The committee closed their presentation Tuesday at their blockbuster hearing by showing examples of testimony that described the witnesses being asked by people close to the former President to be loyal to him and his administration. "We commonly ask witnesses connected to Mr. Trump's administration or campaign whether they have been contacted by any of their former colleagues, or anyone else, who attempted to influence or impact their testimony," Cheney said during the hearing, before showing snippets of how witnesses responded to that question.
By Nick Mordowanec

Democrats seeking to preserve abortion rights following last week's Supreme Court overturn of Roe v. Wade may face an even more uphill battle as Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema has reportedly nixed the idea of reforming the filibuster. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he supported the idea of changing the Senate filibuster for the purpose of codifying Roe v. Wade. The partisan split in the Senate makes a 60-vote threshold practically impossible for Democrats to do so. "I believe we have to codify Roe v. Wade into law. And the way to do that is to make sure Congress votes to do that," Biden said during a press conference at the NATO summit in Madrid. "And if the filibuster gets in the way, it's like voting rights, it should be—we provide an exception for this, should require an exception to the filibuster for this action, to deal with the Supreme Court decision."
New Day

Former Trump White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham has revealed a text exchange between her and former first lady Melania Trump asking to release a statement condemning any violence on January 6.
Back to content