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12/26/25 "Bad science." That's what a police detective now
thinks of "shaken baby syndrome," the diagnosis that he relied on to convict Robert Roberson of murdering his two-year old daughter. While
numerous cases have been based on this diagnosis, many experts now feel that commonplace occurrences
such as falls from changing tables can jostle the brain to the same effect. New Jersey's Supreme Court
has called the syndrome "junk science." But many medical professionals, including the American Academy
of Pediatrics (it re-configured "shaken baby syndrome" as "abusive head trauma) insist that the
concept remains valid.
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Increasingly
dangerous guns and gun parts are flooding the streets. Assault-weapon seizures in 17 reporting
cities increased from 3,776 in 2020 to 4,797 in 2024. In those cities, seizures of Glock switches,
which turn the pistols into machineguns, jumped from 76 in 2020 to 558 in 2024. Recoveries of homemade
3-D printed guns also surged. In twenty cities, they went from 32 in 2020 to 325 in 2024. Related
posts
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Misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter? No problem! California
courts have routinely failed to report these convictions to State driver licensing authorities.
That's particularly true when the cases are diverted, as a 2020 law now allows for non-violent
misdemeanors, and ultimately dismissed. Cal-Matters found three-dozen such cases. None of the
vehicular manslaughter convictions were reflected on motorists' official driving records. Most
still have their license, and "nearly a third" have again been ticketed or had an accident.
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12/24/25
A study of the medical use of cannabis reported it was somewhat useful as a symptom reliever for
cancer and chemotherapy patients. But "cannabis use disorder" affects 29 percent of those who use the
substance for medical purposes. High-potency cannabis can lead to symptoms of psychosis and anxiety
disorder. And daily use of inhaled cannabis is associated with increased damage to the heart. In sum,
"evidence is insufficient for the use of cannabis or cannabinoids for most medical indications."
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This time the Supremes said "no." Chicago had bitterly
objected to President Trump's move to Federalize Illinois National Guard troops and send them in to
back his immigration campaign. Lower Federal courts agreed that doing so was improper, and DOJ
appealed to the Supreme court. In a rare move, the Justices just ruled 6-3 that Federalizing the
Guard requires that President Trump (a) have "statutory or constitutional authority" to carry out
his wishes with regular troops and (b) that regular forces cannot accomplish this mission. But
proof of either is presently lacking. So, until DOJ satisfactorily fills in those blanks, no troops!
Opinion
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12/23/25 DOJ is suing D.C. over its
"Unconstitutional Ban of Semi-Automatic Firearms." Indeed, the District has very strict gun laws. Attorney General Pamela
Bondi finds them all abhorrent. That includes the ban on "one of America’s most popular firearms."
She's referring to the AR-15 rifle, which is banned by name. Prohibiting its ownership, the AG
insists, clearly infringes on the Second Amendment. Related posts:
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Crime is supposedly down. So why are LAPD shootings way up? That's the
concern expressed by the L.A. Times, whose database shows 46 officer-involved shootings so far
this year. That's the most since 2015, and nearly 80 percent higher than the 26 shootings in 2024.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell says that the
explanation lies in the increased amount of violence that's being directed at his cops. According
to the Times, LAPD reported seven episodes of suspects shooting at its officers in 2024 and
twelve so far this year. Incidents involving bladed weapons have also gone up, from seven to twelve.
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12/22/25 Three Rochester, NY police officers were wounded, one
critically, responding to a domestic quarrel. A man, who said he was armed, reported that his
girlfriend's ex-boyfriend was trying to break into her home. When police arrived at the residence
the ex instantly opened fire, wounding two officers. He also exchanged fire with and wounded the
current boyfriend. The intruder fled, then opened fire when intercepted by other officers. A third
officer was wounded; the intruder was killed.
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"The defendant is certainly not evil. Nor is she a martyr for some greater cause."
That's how the prosecutor described Milwaukee judge Hannah Dugan, whom a Federal jury had just
convicted of felony obstruction for sneaking an illegal border-crosser from her courtroom. Judge Dugan
had just shooed away Immigration agents after falsely telling them that their warrant didn't suffice
to arrest the man, who was in State court for a hearing on battery charges. She then guided the
defendant out the back. Agents promptly spotted Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, and arrested him after a chase.
Judge Dugan told a court reporter "that she’d take 'the heat'" for her actions.
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Claudio
Manuel Nevez Valente is reportedly responsible for the shooting at Brown University and the
subsequent murder of an M.I.T. professor at his home. Valente later committed suicide. But his
connection to the crimes may have remained unknown except for "John." He had spotted a suspicious
man at the Brown building two hours before the shooting and followed him to his car. "John" soon
posted about his encounter on Reddit, and users urged him to contact the police. So he did.
"John" told them that the vehicle was a grey Nissan with Florida plates. Police found it on a video
surveillance camera. It had been rented to Valente. He had been a student at Brown, and, as well, a
classmate of the murdered professor at a university in Portugal, the country from which both had
emigrated.
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Hollywood Director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele, a
producer and activist, were stabbed dead. Their deeply disturbed son, Nick, who lived on the
premises, fled the home and checked into a hotel. But he left before officers arrived. Police
quickly tracked him down using images from surveillance cameras and geographic location data from
his cellphone. With assistance from the carrier (a search warrant is required) cellphones can be
"pinged" for their precise location. Nick Reiner was cornered near a South Los Angeles gas
station. He surrendered and was charged with two counts of murder.
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In
November 2014 Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Cleveland boy, was playing with a pellet gun. Police
were called, and when Tamir didn't put the gun down, then-cop Timothy Loehmann opened fire,
killing the child. Officer Loehmann was not prosecuted, but he was fired three years later over
alleged lies on his job application. Loehmann, who had become notorious because of Tamir's
killing, went on to seek other policing jobs; he briefly held a couple until public reaction led
to his firing or resignation. Most recently, he was hired and, within days, fired from a Ranger
position at a West Virginia resort. That decision was made by the resort's Board at a hastily-
convened meeting.
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12/19/25 In a brutal killing four years ago then-Memphis cop Patric Ferguson went to the residence
of his former girlfriend and forced her present boyfriend into his patrol car. He then murdered
the man, and with help from a friend, Joshua Rogers, weighted down and dumped the body in a river.
Ferguson recently drew a 38-year Federal sentence. His helper just got 56 months. See 5/9/24
update. DOJ press release
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Citing marijuana's potential medical benefits, President Trump signed
an executive order that directs the Attorney General to begin the process of rescheduling it from
Schedule I, where it sits alongside hard drugs like heroin, to Schedule III. Doing so would
encourage further research on marijuana and allow its sale and use for specific purposes, such
as to relieve pain. It would also ease the current clash with the many States that have legalized
its use. But a sizeable group of "Red" Senators have previously gone on record as being
staunchly opposed to an easing.
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Trump's month-long D.C. crackdown saturated 10th. place with cops and Feds. But
the enhanced law enforcement presence didn't sit well with residents. While crime did recede
throughout D.C., the officers' heavy-handed tactics "deepened distrust" of the police. All the
arrests in this neighborhood but one were for drugs, alcohol or similar offenses. Only one was
gun-related, and evidentiary problems initially led to its dismissal. But it's been refiled.
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12/18/25 “I love this job. We
actually have time to help people.” Those are the sentiments of a member of Portland Police
Bureau's five mental health teams. Comprised of one officer and one social worker, the teams
respond to calls that involve persons who are experiencing severe mental distress. Other than
helping to tone things down, the teams seek to "connect" clients with appropriate mental health
services. According to PPB, clinical referrals happen about half the time.
A similar approach for 9-1-1 responses in the Big Apple has been proposed by newly-installed New
York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
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Michigan lawmakers have
devised an "ambitious" plan to combat gun violence. Founded on a "public health" approach, it
would create a "community violence interruption ecosystem" with all the elements necessary to make
the plan work. Gun laws would also get stricter. New laws would impose gun-purchase waiting periods,
ban untraceable "ghost" guns, increase the minimum age to buy a gun, and more. Naturally, there are
obstacles to overcome. One is getting adequate funding. Another is overcoming the "cultural"
objections that gun control efforts inevitably provoke. After all, even requiring safe gun storage
can prove divisive.
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12/17/25 Bolted-in gun safes. Filed in Federal
court, DOJ's complaint alleges that's just
one of the many unconstitutional obstacles that Virgin Island residents face when applying for a
permit to simply keep a gun at home. Worse still, carrying them on the street requires proof of a
pressing need, such as "good reason to fear death or great injury." Ergo, the territory's gun laws
are in direct conflict with the Supreme Court's Bruen decision. They must not stand.
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Illinois revokes
the firearm permits of convicted felons and of persons, such as domestic abusers, who engage in
threatening or assaultive behavior. Problem is, the guns aren't consistently picked up. That was the
case in the 2019 massacre at an Aurora, Ill. business,
where a felon whose FOID card had been revoked shot and killed four coworkers when he learned that he
was being fired. And it's not just ex-cons. Three months ago, a middle school employee and her friend
were gunned down by the employee's husband. His behavior at home had led police to revoke his FOID
card. But neither attempt to get his guns succeeded.
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12/16/25 "Liberation through decolonization and
tribal sovereignty.” That's the motto of the "Turtle Island Liberation Front," An L.A.-area group
that allegedly plotted a string of bombings to fight the scourge of capitalism. But the FBI pierced
their ostensibly encrypted chats, and agents were there when four members of the group began to
assemble their bombs in the desert. Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30, aka "Asiginaak," Zachary Aaron Page,
32, aka "AK," Dante Gaffield, 24, aka "Nomad," and Tina Lai, 41, aka "Kickwhere," were arrested on
charges of conspiracy and possessing unregistered destructive devices.
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12/15/25 Two students were killed and nine were wounded, eight
seriously, by a masked man who burst into a classroom at Brown University in Rhode Island on Saturday,
Dec. 13. He opened fire with a 9mm. pistol, shooting over 40 rounds. Hours later authorities detained
a 24-year old "person of interest" at a motel some distance away. Two 9mm. pistols and two loaded 30-
round magazine were reportedly found. However, authorities later said the investigation was taking "a
different direction" and the detainee would be released without charges.
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"Guilty on all counts." That's the verdict in the Federal trial of
the former Commissioner of the Virgin Islands Police, Ray Martinez, who accepted "nearly $100,000" in
bribes from a private firm in exchange for awarding a million-dollar government contract. And when
Martinez learned of the investigation, he ordered the contractor to destroy evidence. Also convicted
was the Territory's chief budget official, Jenifer O'Neal, who accepted a bribe to help further the
scheme.
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Denver homicide is down forty percent. In comparison with 2024, when there
were 65 murders, there have been 39 so far this year.
If the good news holds 2025 will mark the fewest murders since 2014, when there were 31. According
to the Mayor and Police Chief, the decline is attributable to three things: deploying high-tech video
cameras that capture license plates and vehicle details, increasing the number of cops who police the
downtown, and using "targeted" strategies and "community involvement" in seven high-crime
neighborhoods. According to police chief Ron Thomas, it's "a comprehensive response...not just more
patrol."
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Hamilton County, Ohio has a new chief prosecutor. And in a recent move, she's undone a
case that was vigorously prosecuted by her predecessor. The accused, Elwood Jones, had spent two
decades on death row for a 1994 murder. But in 2022 he was conditionally released for evidentiary
reasons. Then-D.A. Joe Peters (he's now a Supreme Court Justice) moved for a retrial. But his
successor, Connie Pillich, recently declared that “...after reviewing the evidence, I am not convinced
that Mr. Jones killed Rhoda Nathan.” So Mr. Jones is now truly free. What's more, D.A. Pillich has
established a Conviction Integrity Unit, whose mission will be to assure that miscarriages of justice
are a thing of the past.
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12/12/25 Ten years have passed since the death of Tanisha Anderson at the hands
of Cleveland police. Family members had called 9-1-1 for help, but the officers who arrived handcuffed
Tanisha and pressed her to the ground. She didn't revive. City council members are urging that the
Mayor sign "Tanisha's Law," which would fund trained civilian response teams to handle mental-health
calls instead of police. Proponents point to successful implementations elsewhere. One such team, in
Albuquerque, recently boasted that it's handled over 120,000 such calls
in its four years of operation. Eighty-five percent had been diverted from police and fire, thus giving
those agencies a break as well.
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12/11/25 Fatally shooting an innocent soul isn't always a crime. According to the Massachusetts
Supreme Court, a misplaced shot isn't criminally punishable when a shooter acts in "lawful self-
defense." So Kenneth Santana-Rodriguez, who accidentally shot and killed a beauty shop employee when he
was confronted by his ladyfriend's enraged (and armed) husband, is free to go. That doctrine, which is
common to stand-your-ground States, has supposedly infected even gun-unfriendly places like California.
There, a like situation led to a gun charge and probation. And it's reportedly contributed to a national
increase in self-defense homicide.
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Federal tax prosecutions are at record-setting lows. Part of the reason, according to a deep
probe by Reuters, is that the new Administration has gutted IRS. Feeling the heat, many employees have
quit. There are fewer Federal tax lawyers and criminal investigators, and those still on the job are
being assigned to other tasks. For example, over one-third of tax investigators in the D.C. office are
out on patrol, supposedly to help fight street crime.
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12/10/25 Charlotte, N.C. resident Decarlos Brown Jr. was released from prison in 2020.
He had been serving a six-year sentence for a host of felonies, including robbery with a weapon and
making threats. Despite pleas by his family, the diagnosed schizophrenic remained free. And on August
22, while on a commuter train, he stabbed a 23-year old woman in the neck. He now faces murder charges.
And Charlotte's courts face the question of why a crazed 34-year old man with a record of 14 arrests was
allowed to roam at will.
Related Post
12/9/25 A
Philadelphia judge dismissed more than one-hundred drug cases after prosecutors conceded that three
narcotics officers "repeatedly gave false testimony in court." Hundreds more cases filed by these
officers are also likely to fall. According to prosecutors, the cops' accounts of what took place are so
riddled with "inconsistencies" that they can no longer be called on to testify for the State. And it's
not the first time. In past decades, "thousands" of Philadelphia drug cases have been dismissed for like
reasons.
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Police who lack "a legal
order or warrant" may no longer use the services of Ancestry.
com, a renowned genealogy site that uses client DNA to identify relatives and build elaborate family
trees. Detectives have long relied on its services to help track down and identify the donors of crime
scene DNA. But in August the company began enforcing a rule that prohibits its resources from being used
for law enforcement purposes "except through due process." And that's reportedly stalled many
investigations.
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In
June 2020 thirteen FBI agents who were helping monitor the George Floyd protests in D.C. took to
their knees as marchers passed by. Their actions, which they said they took to help keep the hostile
crowd in check, went viral. At the time, FBI leadership absolved them of wrongdoing. But five years
later, in September 2025, they were fired for this allegedly major breach of professionalism by newly-
installed FBI Director Kash Patel. And they just filed suit to get their jobs back.
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12/8/25 Thirty million dollars. That's what the City of San Diego has reportedly agreed to pay
the family of 16-year-old Konoa Wilson, who was shot in the back by rookie cop Daniel Gold during the
evening hours of Tuesday, January 28. Gold and his partner were at a train station on another call when
they heard gunfire. Moments later Wilson, who was reportedly fleeing from an assault, ran by. Gold
instantaneously opened fire, killing the teen. A handgun was found in Wilson's clothes, but his parents
say that he only carried it for protection from gang members. Gold remains on the force but is not on
the street.
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5,000 arrests "or beyond." That's how many illegal immigrants Operation Catahoula
Crunch seeks to arrest during its current foray into New Orleans. According to
DHS, immigration agents are targeting persons who were arrested "for home invasion, armed robbery,
grand theft auto, and rape." Local authorities are blasted for releasing these "monsters" back onto the
streets "to COMMIT MORE CRIMES and create more victims." But city leaders fear that the Feds' numerical
goals will require agents to cast a very wide net. Related posts
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In the end, the vote was 4 for, but 8 against. That's how close LAPD officers came to
being barred from using shoulder-fired launchers that discharge hard foam projectiles and tear gas. Their
deployment during immigration protests brought the agency under severe criticism, leading less-cop
friendly members of the City Council to draft an unusually restrictive ordinance. But in a raucous
session, Chief Jim McDowell pointed out that these weapons are used every day to defuse potentially
disastrous encounters. And in the end, his view prevailed.
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Immigrants arrested in 2025's high-profile ICE operations are less likely to have been convicted of
other crimes or have pending charges than those arrested in the normal course of business. Those are the
findings of a New York Times analysis of Government data obtained by the Deportation Data Project. For example, year to Oct.15, the proportion with a
prior violent conviction, any past conviction, or a pending charge was respectively 7%, 37% and 30%
nationally. But it was only 2%, 8% and 9% in the Aug-Sept. D.C. operation and 3%, 17% and 18% in the
Sept.- Oct. Illinois operation. [PoliceIssues note: the discrepancy may be exacerbated by the
refusal of the "sanctuary" jurisdictions where the special ops. took place to notify ICE of the arrest
or release of illegal immigrants who are charged with State and local crimes.]
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12/4/25 James Pugh is now truly "free." Convicted for a 1993 murder,
he and co-defendant Brian Lorenz served more than two decades in prison before withheld DNA evidence
(it suggested that a infamous third party could be the killer) helped lead to their 2019 release. But
prosecutors moved to retry both. Lorenz was retried in October; the jury hung. He's on track for yet
another go-round. Pugh's retrial was to take place this week. But after re-reviewing the evidence,
prosecutors dropped the case against him altogether. And a judge just agreed.
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