A television reporter and a videographer for CBS affiliate WDBJ7 in Roanoke, Va., were shot and killed Wednesday morning as they were doing a live report. The incident was caught on camera and those at the station said they heard six to seven shots and then nothing as the camera fell.
The incident happened around 6:45 a.m. at Bridgewater Plaza — a shopping and entertainment center on Smith Mountain Lake in Franklin County — where the two were interviewing a woman with a local chamber group. Few details were immediately known, said officials with the WDBJ7.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said a suspect has been identified and is believed to be a disgruntled employee of the TV station. Federal law enforcement officials are aiding in the search for the gunman.
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Good for Charles Koch: Sentencing Reform
August 15, 2015 1:53 PM EDT – Weldon Angelos was 25 when he was sentenced to 55 years in prison after selling marijuana to a police informant. His sons, now 16 and 18, look back on the childhood they missed without their father. But the boys and Weldon’s sister remain hopeful for an early release, as billionaire Charles Koch campaigns for clemency for Weldon.
It is totally absurd for anyone to spend 55 years in prison for selling marijuana. It makes no sense. Just the cost of incarceration makes this sentence stupid. People just should not be spending their lives in jail for selling controlled substances.
I never thought I would be saying “Go Koch Brothers” but on this one, I sure am. Sentencing reform needs to happen immediately. In fact, sentencing reform should be a national issue for this upcoming presidential election. We are wasting valuable resources when we send penny ante drug users to prison for decades.
Republicans oust McAuliffe’s choice for Virginia Supreme Court
RICHMOND — Virginia Republicans say they will reject Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s pick for the state’s newest Supreme Court justice and install their own choice — an unprecedented move in modern Virginia history.
The decision added another layer of tension to the already fraught relationship between McAuliffe (D) and the GOP-controlled legislature, with the governor accusing legislative leaders of throwing “a political temper tantrum.”
“This woman is highly qualified, and I’ve got to tell you, it doesn’t send a good message to women around the commonwealth of Virginia,” McAuliffe said about the GOP decision not to back his appointment of former Fairfax Circuit Court judge Jane Marum Roush.
“This is the same group of individuals who have tried to roll back women’s rights and tried to hurt women’s rights in the commonwealth of Virginia,” McAuliffe said.
House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) and Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City) said lawmakers will elect Virginia Court of Appeals Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. to the Supreme Court when they convene in Richmond on Aug. 17 for a special legislative session.
Shame on Virginia Republicans. Rossie D. Alston might not be the best person for the job. He used to be a circuit court judge right here in Prince William County and some of his decisions were very questionable in high-profile cases. Alston is known for his “designer sentences” that are light on crime.
Yet another theater shooting rampage– 3 dead
A gunman opened fire on a movie theater in Lafayette, La. Thursday night, killing at least two people and injuring at least seven before killing himself, police said.
Police Chief Jim Craft said at a news conference around 11 p.m. that police received reports of a shooting at the Grand Theatre 16 around 7:30 p.m. Four officers entered the theater to confront the shooter and found him dead of a self inflicted gunshot wound. Two other people have been confirmed dead.
Police said there are at least seven other injured victims, with injuries ranging from minor to critical and life-threatening. Louisiana State Police Sgt. David Brooks told CNN that all injured victims have been taken to local hospitals.
The shooter has been described as white and 58 years old. Police know his identity.
At what point do gun rights advocates start coming up with real solutions about what to do about these weekly occurences? Too many Americans are dying from shooting rampages.
I think I am going to barf if I hear any more platitudes and slogans. Too many guns are getting into the hands of those not competent or responsible to own them. I want to know solutions. Come on, A2 advocates, pony up some REAL solutions. No bumper sticker slogans allowed.
At some point the American people are going to rebel and demand changes. It seems to me that strong 2A folks would guard their rights more by thinking up solutions for this epidemic rather than telling us why they have rights.
Lyons sisters murders finally solved?
In 1975, Lloyd Lee Welch pulled up to a relative’s home along a steep hillside in Virginia, 200 miles southwest of suburban Washington. He carried two duffel bags, each weighing about 60 or 70 pounds, that had red stains and an odor of decay. A fire was built. The bags were thrown into it.
The account, described in court documents unsealed Wednesday in Bedford County, Va., appears to be one of the most compelling pieces of evidence implicating Welch in the long-ago disappearance of Sheila Lyon, 12, and her sister Katherine, 10. Authorities also announced that Welch, a 58-year-old imprisoned child sex offender, was indicted Friday on two counts of first-degree murder in the course of an abduction.
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The Cooch had better stick to oyster farming…
Is anyone else horrified with this rhetoric? Family values is a dog whistle for something, I am just not sure what. I can’t even figure out these people’s hidden agenda. I think they think about sex or not-sex entirely too often.
Politicians who align themselves with these kinds of people will find themselves jobless in the public arena. Cuccinelli needs to stay with his oyster farming. He will get no where in politics if he associates with people like this.
Good grief, and to think people have been worried about Bill Ayers. Domestic terrorists or incestuous child molesters. What a choice.
More PWC citizens for the sex offenders registry
Every once in a while I just have to be cruel. But take a look at these toads. Do any of us want our children associating with these creeps in any way?
According to Bristowbeat.com:
A joint proactive operation between April and May 2015, targeting individuals soliciting minors for sexual acts online, concluded with the arrest of seven individuals, one from Gainesville.
This operation, conducted by members of the Northern Virginia/DC Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, including detectives from the Prince William County and Manassas City Police Departments, was not in response to any specific incident and did not involve actual children.
“Undercover detectives used an undisclosed online site and posed as underage juvenile females,” police spokesperson Officer Jonathan Perok said. “As a result of the investigation, multiple men contacted the undercover detectives and, during the course of communications, solicited sexual acts.”
Perok said these conversations took place through electronic means over the course of multiple days.
“In each of the incidents, the suspect made arrangements to meet the undercover detective at a public location in Prince William County,” he said. “Once there, members of the task force arrested the individual without incident.
RIP Officer Brian Moore
Officer Brian Moore followed his father into the New York Police Department, rose to the ranks of an elite plainclothes unit tasked with confronting the city’s most dangerous street crime and died on Monday, two days after a gunman opened fire on him in Queens.
At the time that Officer Moore, 25, was shot on Saturday evening, he was still young enough to be living in the Long Island home of his father, Raymond. Yet he was seasoned enough in the job he had been drawn to since childhood to have earned accolades from superiors and departmental medals for “meritorious” police work. He had made over 150 arrests since joining the department in July 2010.
“In his very brief career, he already proved himself to be an exceptional young officer,” the police commissioner, William J. Bratton, said in announcing Officer Moore’s death, outside Jamaica Hospital Medical Center on Monday.
“I did not know this officer in person in life,” Mr. Bratton added. “I’ve only come to know him in death.”
Looting, mayhem, and destruction in Baltimore
BALTIMORE — Violence swept through pockets of a low-income section of West Baltimore on Monday afternoon as scores of rioters heaved bottles and rocks at riot-gear-clad police, set police cars on fire, and looted a pharmacy, a mall and other businesses. At least 15 officers were injured.
Images of the violence were broadcast nationwide just hours after Freddie Gray was eulogized at his funeral, and Gray’s family and clergy members called for calm. Gray died of an injury he suffered while in police custody.
The rioting did not appear to stem from any organized protests over Gray’s death.
Monday night’s Baltimore Orioles game at Camden Yards near the Inner Harbor was postponed out of concern that the violence would spread five miles east.
The death of Freddie Gray was tragic. I don’t know all the facts so I will not comment other than to say 25 is just too young to die.
Attacking police officers, burning property, destroying a city and creating enough violence and disturbance to close down sports events is thuggery in its ugliest form. This behavior solves nothing and reflects poorly on the community in general.
Those who cry foul at the police and then act like criminals deserve what they get.
Former first lady sentenced
RICHMOND — Former Virginia first lady Maureen McDonnell was sentenced Friday to a year and a day in federal prison — a penalty less than what federal prosecutors had sought but one that will still put her behind bars briefly.
U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer said he struggled to understand the true nature of the former first lady — who seemed at times to be a loving mother and wife devoted to her family and other times a greedy and tyrannical woman who made others miserable.
“It’s difficult to get to the heart of who Mrs. McDonnell truly is,” Spencer said.
Spencer allowed Maureen McDonnell to remain free on bond while her appeal is pending.
I am not sure it is really up to Judge Spencer to understand Mrs. McDonald nor should figuring her out have any bearing on her sentence. She either did it or she didn’t. (whatever “it” is) I am one of those who do not think either McDonald belongs in jail.
It is highly probable that Mrs. McDonald is greedy and did make everyone around her miserable. Perhaps that is the toll that politics takes on some couples. Money also takes a high toll, especially when the couple is middle class. Mrs. McDonald was expected to dress to the nines, look like a million dollars on a shoestring budget. She was a middle class lady playing on a field of high rollers.
Jessie Matthew charged with first degree murder in Hannah Graham death
CHARLOTTESVILLE — A man from the Charlottesville area has been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, officials in Albemarle County announced Tuesday.
Jesse L. Matthew Jr., 33, was previously charged with Graham’s abduction after authorities said he was the last person seen with the 18-year-old from Fairfax County before she disappeared from Charlottesville in September. Her body was found in a wooded area about 10 miles from campus weeks later.
Matthew also has been charged with abduction with intent to defile, indicating that police believe he intended to sexually assault Graham. Matthew faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted.
Lunsford said she chose not to seek a capital murder charge, which carries a potential death sentence. Virginia law allows it in homicide cases that allegedly involve an abduction or sexual assault. Lunsford would not discuss her reasoning but said the decision came after consulting with Graham’s family and weighing the impact on the community.
“The charges that the jury will hear are the charges that the prosecutor feels comfortable to bring,” Lunsford said.
Federal prosecutors recommend that Petraeus face criminal charges
Federal prosecutors have recommended that David H. Petraeus face charges for providing classified documents to his biographer, raising the prospect of criminal proceedings against the retired four-star general and former CIA director.
The recommendation follows a federal probe into how the biographer, Paula Broadwell, apparently obtained classified records several years ago while working on a book about Petraeus. Broadwell was also his mistress, and the documents were discovered by investigators during the scandal that forced Petraeus’s resignation as CIA director in 2012.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. must decide whether to pursue charges against Petraeus, the former top U.S. commander in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment, as did Robert B. Barnett, a lawyer for Petraeus.
Both Petraeus and Broadwell have denied in the past that he provided her with classified information. Investigators have previously focused on whether his staff gave her sensitive documents at his instruction.
McDonnell sentenced
Governor Robert McDonnell has been sentenced to 2 years in prison and 2 years probation.
The judge told him that his wife may have let the serpent into the Governor’s Mansion but he let him into his business affairs.
It’s a sad day for the Old Dominion and its a sad day for the McDonnell family. I would have gone with 6000 hours of community service. I think that would be using McDonnell’s skills for good. Sending him to prison does nothing.
Many people will disagree, but I don’t believe this man belongs in prison. It really serves no purpose.
You will not hear me crying over his wife, however.
Congress can’t stop Michael Grimm from serving his term
WASHINGTON — Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) may be about to plead guilty to a felony, but there’s nothing Congress can do to stop him from taking his seat in the House early next month.
“The only time there would be a clash between his ability to serve and his conviction, if he gets one, would be if he has to leave and enter a federal facility,” said Stan Brand, a former top lawyer for the House. “If he’s not sentenced to incarceration, that issue never comes up.”
Grimm was hit with a 20-count federal indictment before he easily won re-election in November, and he will reportedly plead guilty to one count of federal tax evasion at a 1 p.m. court hearing on Tuesday.
Grimm, a former Marine and FBI agent, said during the campaign that he would resign if unable to serve, presumably a reference to the possibility of his being imprisoned. The charge to which he is expected to plead guilty carries significant potential jail time, but the sentence would be up to the judge.
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NY mayor urges protests to stop until after funerals
washingtonpost.com:
In an emotional speech at a sometimes heated news conference, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) declined to address the swirling controversy over whether his vocal efforts to reform the police department contributed to Saturday’s execution-style slaying of Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos. Instead, de Blasio appealed for calm, visited the officers’ family members and urged residents to “put aside political debates and protests” for now.
New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton met with the heads of the city’s police unions, including one who had accused de Blasio of having “blood” on his hands for allegedly inciting protests that have roiled the city and the nation over the deaths of unarmed black people at the hands of police. “They are standing down in respect for our fallen members until after the funerals,” said Bratton, who also acknowledged that the mayor has “lost the trust of some officers.”
It was unclear whether the efforts to promote peace will succeed, even as New Yorkers busily prepared for the Christmas holidays. A coalition of protest groups released a statement blasting both Bratton and the police union, accusing them of trying to link the protests to the officers’ shootings as a way of silencing the demonstrations.
