LifeDaily

The Arizona desert is a place notorious for finding bodies that are never meant to be found. With some of the remotest areas in the south, the desert contains secrets that were never meant to be uncovered by anyone, especially police.

When a young woman suddenly went missing without a trace, her boyfriend took to local TV networks and social media with heartfelt pleas for her safe return. But he may have been harboring a secret behind his tearful demeanor…

Moving to Phoenix

The relationship between Kiera Bergman and Jon Christopher Clark was a serious one by all accounts. When he moved all the way from San Diego to Phoenix to live with his girlfriend, she was as thrilled at the prospect as he was. He had made some sacrifices to move, but he felt they were worth it to be close to the girl he loved. Finding a job was going to be difficult, but that didn’t bother him at all.

Money Issues

Clark had moved into Bergman’s place, but before long the couple started arguing about the one thing that most couples argue about: money. Instead of breaking up, the couple decided that Clark would move into his own place nearby. They both hoped that this would stop the constant arguing and bickering. He was looking for work, or so he claimed, but money was tight.

His Place

According to Clark, on August 4, he and Bergman had another argument at his apartment. It was on that day that the teen went missing without a trace, and Clark was the last person to see her. That fact raised major concerns among law enforcement who scrambled to find the missing girl as quickly as possible. He claimed she had left his apartment abruptly and that he had no idea where she had gone.

Not Unusual

Soon after her disappearance, Clark spoke to reporters. “When she left there was no immediate concern because we have had arguments in the past where either me or her have left for an hour or a couple at a time to go clear our head,” he said, according to Huffington Post. “I didn’t really find it unusual until she wasn’t in contact with me.”

Family Suspicious

Bergman’s folks had always had their doubts about Clark since the couple started dating. They saw that he could be volatile and they knew all about the ongoing arguments between him and their daughter. Nevertheless, the family reserved judgment, not wanting to implicate an innocent man as they helped local police locate Bergman.

Speaking Out

When the police began suspecting that Clark may have something to do with the disappearance of the girl, her father Chris spoke to Phoenix ABC affiliate KNXV. “We believed from the beginning he was involved, but without any information, we didn’t want to put him out there as a bad person without knowing some facts,” he said.

Come Home

Clark spoke on a local television network called KSAZ a few days after his girlfriend went missing, pleading with her to return home. “Kiera, if you can hear me, please come back,” he said, holding back tears, or so it seemed. He also took responsibility publicly for being out of work. But there was still no sign of the missing teen.

Big Issue

In the same television plea, Clark said “I’m sorry. I know that me not having a job was a really big issue. I did get a job; I start on Monday,” he said. “Just come back. I’m not going to ask any questions. I’m not going to make assumptions. Just please come back, Kiera.” Clark may have assumed the statement would put him beyond the police investigation into her disappearance, but it didn’t.

Nothing but Honest

Clark also took to social media, begging Bergman to return and claiming that he loved her. “I love Kiera with all my heart and would never do anything negative to her or put her in harm’s way,” he wrote. “… I have been nothing but open and honest with investigators and Kiera’s family.”

Body Found

A whole month after she disappeared into thin air, Bergman’s body was found on the side of a remote road in the Arizona desert. Nevertheless, it was unclear to investigators how long she’d been there or who had dumped her body. All fingers seemed to point in Clark’s direction, but the police needed evidence.

Suspicions Raised

Clark became implicated in the murder after a police search of his car turned up forged documents and the personal information of several people. While these people were unrelated to Bergman’s case, it raised serious suspicions as to the type of person Clark was. Police charged him with aggravated identity theft and forgery, but more serious charges were also in the making.

Murder Charges

Investigators wasted no time at all when they recommended that Clark be charged with first-degree murder, improper removal of body and evidence tampering in connection with Bergman’s murder. For Bergman’s folks it was at least some relief. Despite the lack of proof, the family was confident that Bergman’s killer would soon be brought to justice.

Thinking Twice

Bergman’s mother, Kiersten, also reached out to reporters. “In a way, I’m happy,” she told KNXV. “I pray that the situation opens up a lot of especially young women’s eyes to the dangers that are out there and that you think twice before you get involved with certain people.” But police had to prove that Clark was, in fact, the murderer. At that point, they had no real motive to go on.

In Denial

For his part, Clark still denies he had anything to do with Bergman’s disappearance despite the serious charges about to be leveled against him. He was very convincing when he told reporters that he and Bergman “chilled” together on his birthday, which just happened to be the day that she went missing. He even spun a story which he thought would take detectives off the scent of their investigation.

Good Spirits

“She’s trying to keep me in good spirits ’cause it’s my birthday, but I was kind of sad ’cause we weren’t really doing anything.” He alleged to KSAZ. “And then we just started getting into a little bickering and arguing, and then she got upset and then she left.”

Not Welcome

Despite Clark’s claims of innocence, he was not invited to a candlelit vigil that was held over the weekend outside her Glendale apartment complex. Even though he told reporters at the time: “Since I am her boyfriend, and I was the last one to be with her … her mom mainly just really wants to blame me for everything.”

Taken for Questioning

Clark wrongly assumed that he’d done enough to prove his innocence. When he was surrounded by at least 20 officers in a parking lot near 27th Avenue and Thunderbird Road in Phoenix, he knew the game was up despite his claims of innocence. But investigators still needed to prove that he was the perpetrator of this heinous and pointless murder.

Claiming Innocence

Not everyone involved in the case believes that Clark is guilty of the murder. Similarly, Clark swears blind that he loved his girlfriend and would never do anything to hurt her. “I understand everything that [Bergman’s family is] going through, that they want to find Kiera and find answers,” Clark said at the time according to the same report. “But my heart is in the same place that theirs is, and wishing and praying for Kiera to come home safe.”

Different Story

At this stage, no one is sure what happened to Bergman, especially as Clark alleged that she was picked up by someone she met recently at the store where she worked. Some days before she disappeared, according to Clark, “She told me that she was picked up by someone, someone that she had met at the store a couple of days ago. This person is unknown. … nothing makes sense.”

Ongoing Case

Despite the mounting evidence, DNA samples have not yet been forthcoming meaning that investigators may not have the weight of evidence they need to convict Clark of murder. While Clark still denies any involvement in the murder of his girlfriend, the onus is now on the police to prove that he had a hand in the crime and prove that beyond a reasonable doubt in court. The case is ongoing.

Boyfriend Stands Accused of Heinous Crime After Girlfriend Goes Missing is an article from: LifeDaily

The victim was the type of cooking teacher who students were happy to get at the beginning of a term. Not only was he the Oregon Culinary Institute’s “resident encyclopedia of knowledge,” but he also had a very creative way of teaching, supplemented by an offbeat sense of humor.

He was the type of instructor who would make his students wear sombreros or spiked helmets if they forgot their chef’s hats. He’d even lead his students on field trips into the forest to forage for new ingredients. Needless to say, he was beloved.

Dead Chef

Nancy Crampton-Brophy Story — www.portlandmercury.com

Right from the start, police were baffled over Daniel Brophy’s murder. The 63-year-old chef had been found on the morning of June 2, bleeding out in his classroom at the Oregon Culinary Institute. His students had found him in the kitchen, bleeding from a gunshot wound. Yet there was no sign of a suspect and no one had seen anyone leave the kitchen.

Making Sense

Brophy’s wife Nancy appeared heartbroken when she heard about the killing. She posted the news to her Facebook page rather than calling her friends and family, citing that the grief was too much and that she was “struggling to make sense of this right now.” It was an odd response, though not unheard of considering the jarring nature of her husband’s death.

Dealing With It

As the weeks went on, Nancy’s neighbor, Don McConnell, noticed that the grieving widow seemed more off than usual. The two had been neighbors for six years and they knew each other pretty well. When the two discussed why anyone would want her husband dead, she seemed to bristle a bit at the question.

A Suspect

McConnell asked if the police were keeping her in the loop. She told him that because the police considered her a suspect, they hadn’t kept her abreast of everything in the case. This was not uncommon, as the spouse is normally the first suspect in such cases. Still, if you looked at their relationship, you’d be hard-pressed to think Nancy was capable of killing the man she loved.

27 Years

The couple had been married for 27 years, which anyone who’s ever been married can tell you is a good long time. They had their ups and downs, but Nancy freely admitted that there were always more good times than bad. Nancy recalled the moment she knew that they were meant for each other.

She Knew Then

Nancy had been taking a bath and called out to Brophy to join her. He responded with “Yes, but I’m making hors-d’oeuvres.” It was more than enough to convince her that he was the one and the man she needed to spend her life with. Storybook love notwithstanding, the police had other reasons to consider Nancy a suspect …

Crime Writer

Nancy Crampton Brophy was a novelist and she had a knack for writing mysterious romances with a murderous twist. Her main genre encompassed relationships that were “wrong, but never felt so right.” They were the kind of books with bare-chested men on the cover art. She was a productive writer, publishing at least seven novels.

Specific Genre

The majority of those novels focused on steamy secret relationships between rugged men and strong women. The lead male characters were almost always Navy SEALs. Nancy certainly had a type. She also had a pretty solid Modus Operandi, or at least her characters did anyway. Many of those characters had a penchant for murdering their spouses.

The Wrong Cop

For example, in “The Wrong Cop,” Nancy writes about a woman who “spent every day of her marriage fantasizing about killing” her husband. A fantasy of death appears again in “The Wrong Husband,” in which a woman tries to flee an abusive husband by faking her death. There seemed to be a pattern.

Triple Threat

Finally, her essay, “How to Murder Your Husband” offers a discussion on how one might murder one’s husband and get away with it. It describes the five core motives and a number of murder weapons one might use to commit murder in a romance novel. She posted it on the “See Jane Publish” blog in November 2011. It was proof enough that something might be amiss.

Hit Man

“How to Murder Your Husband” advised any would-be murderers against hiring a hit man to do their dirty work. She postulates that “an amazing number of hitmen rat you out to the police.” She also suggested not handing the job out to a loved one either; that this is the sort of thing one must do oneself.

Poison

Nancy also advises against using poison as a weapon in these types of murders. This is not only because it’s extremely traceable though. The other reason was less about getting caught and more about the long-term effects of poisoning. “Who wants to hang out with a sick husband?” she wrote in the essay.

Motives

Of course, it is still a question of motive in the end. Nancy had covered this in the essay by explaining that she would never want to do it in the first place merely because of the consequences. “After all,” Nancy’s essay explains, “if the murder is supposed to set me free, I certainly don’t want to spend any time in jail.”

Pull the Trigger

Ultimately though, the essay and her many years writing about spousal murder were more than enough to draw the investigator’s eyes in her direction. Indeed, she even appeared to follow some of her own advice. Police alleged that she hadn’t hired a hit man to do the job, she pulled the trigger herself.

Arrested Development

The 68-year-old woman was arrested on charges of murdering her husband with a gun and the added charge of unlawful use of a weapon. She pleaded not guilty to the charge, but the evidence of wrongdoing and of plotting the terrible crime is certainly working against her. There was some proof in the essay that she may not have done it, however.

Seeing Herself

In the “How to Murder Your Husband” essay, Nancy expresses that though she often thinks about murder as a romance writer, she doesn’t see herself as being able to follow through with something so brutal. She further explains this by saying that she wouldn’t want to remember any lies or have to “see blood and brains splattered on the walls.”

Wish Fulfillment

Nancy added that she finds it much easier to wish people dead than to actually kill them. This statement, in and of itself, would be more than enough for the police to investigate. She also said that she knows everyone has murder inside of them if they’re pushed far enough. So the question was, did Daniel Brophy push her?

Dark Sense of Humor

It was more than possible. After all, Nancy had written about her 27-year marriage many times on the Internet. She would speak of it with a dark sense of humor that greatly amused her readers. Though, were these tongue-in-cheek jokes little more than humorous statements, or indicative of something more?

Suspicious Accidents

“My husband and I are both on our second (and final – trust me!) marriage,” Nancy wrote. “We vowed, prior to saying ‘I do,’ that we would not end in divorce. We did not, I should note, rule out a tragic drive-by shooting or a suspicious accident.” Such statements are remarkably telling.

Art and Life

There is no doubt that Nancy loved her husband, as anyone who knew them could tell you it was true. By all accounts, Daniel made her laugh and knew what to say and how to say it. One wonders what might have pushed her to murder. It remains to be seen whether this is a case of life imitating art or a grave misunderstanding.

Mystery Writer’s Work Indicates Terrible Crime After Husband Found Fatally Shot is an article from: LifeDaily

Following a previous LifeDaily gallery on the mysterious death of Instagram model Sinead McNamara, other super-yacht employees have come forward with stories of their own regarding the lifestyle that comes with working on luxurious yachts.

As the investigation continues, we’ve compiled more information to share on the not-so-glamorous experiences of otherwise glamorous lifestyles…

Sinead’s Passing

Sinead McNamara Story — www.thetimes.co.uk

Australian native Sinead McNamara, 20, was found hanged aboard the $200 million dollar yacht of billionaire Alberto Bailleres in 2018. She had been working as a crew member upon Bailleres’ vessel for a few months and had been all over the world. Though, her journey ended when they got to Greece.

Idealized View

To all appearances, Sinead was living a dream. She was able to travel around the world in the lap of luxury. Sinead’s life aboard the Mayan Queen IV was not what she painted it to be on her Instagram, however. She even posted a cryptic message about how things truly were two weeks before her untimely demise.

Self-Imposed

It seemed that Sinead’s life on the yacht was anything but stress-free. She had been excited to go to Greece, though, as she had planned to meet her family there. Unfortunately, she never made it. There are some who believe that the pressures of living aboard the yacht actually caused Sinead to take her own life.

Dark Side

Police are still investigating Sinead’s mysterious death. Though there are no direct details to indicate it, they haven’t ruled out suicide just yet. Why though would someone so young and in such a positive situation want to kill themselves? Well, as it turns out, life aboard these luxury yachts is not the free vacation many young people believe it to be…

Great Expectations

Hostess Sarah Begbie first embarked upon the super-yacht lifestyle four years ago. She was in her early 20s and may have naively expected the lifestyle to be nothing but parties and traveling. Unfortunately for her, she quickly discovered that her late nights were anything but enjoyable.

Long Hours

She and her peers aboard the yacht were forced to work absurdly long hours with only two-minute breaks in between. She would wake at 6 am and work from then until well into the night, often for 16 to 18 hours a day.

No Idea

Sarah’s duties included a long list of tasks that she hadn’t anticipated when she first got the offer to work aboard the ship. She never anticipated that one of those jobs included keeping all living quarters immaculate and making up guest rooms. She was essentially a hotel maid aboard a giant floating hotel.

Minimal Space

Not only were the responsibilities a bit overwhelming, the accommodations were less than stellar. Sarah bunked in a small room with other laborers. According to her, they were so small that they had to take turns changing clothes because they couldn’t maneuver two at once.

Constant Work

Other tasks included serving food and drinks to guests, doing laundry, accounts and stock control. For four long years, Sarah worked hard on the yacht, sometimes well into the night. That said, her bosses, demanding as they were, seemed to be kind and generous when they wanted to be.

Expensive Perks

The job did have some perks of course, but even expensive Armani watches for her birthday and a lavish dinner once a year couldn’t minimize what she had gone through. Other benefits of the position included a tax-free salary and large tips, though neither were guaranteed.

Varying Salaries

The salaries were indeed one of the largest perks for young people like Sarah and Sinead, but they were not guaranteed, and the tips were never a guarantee either. Many ex-yacht employees explained that the onboard salaries ranged drastically according to job role and were subject to mitigating circumstances.

Eye Candy

Of course, the disparate salaries had a lot to do with the preferred sex and sex appeal of the onboard employees as well. There are claims that many billionaires specifically hired young, attractive female workers as eye candy for their guests. This meant that expectations on a worker’s attractiveness were high.

High Price

Tracey Zarowski, another former yacht hostess, explained that the chance to see the world aboard the boat was a great opportunity, but the high expectations often got the better of people. “I knew one girl who was a little bit overweight and the owner didn’t like that so she was fired,” she explained, according to Mirror.

Keeping Men Occupied

Because these vessels are privately owned, many of the employees on board were sworn to secrecy about the questionable goings-on taking place aboard the ships. One former worked claimed that there were plenty of young, attractive female guests brought aboard to “keep any single men occupied.”

Invisible Guests

Former employees allege that actual prostitutes were brought onboard at times and that they had been instructed to ignore their presence entirely. Likewise, they were instructed to ignore the inappropriate interactions between these prostitutes and the onboard guests. They added that illegal drug use on the ship was commonplace as well.

More Accounts

Another former super-yacht hostess, Katy McGregor, indicated that like Sarah Begbie, she was forced to serve guests until 3 am some nights. Then, would be woken up at 6 am to go serve breakfast the next day. Many of these accounts sound much more stressful than favorable, but did Sinead McNamara face similar pressure?

Happy Times

Sinead’s parents believed that she was enjoying herself as a stewardess aboard the Mayan Queen IV. She communicated this often and never indicated any problems in those conversations or on her Instagram. So the question remains, was Sinead McNamara keeping her stressful job aboard the yacht a secret?

No Connection

There is no suggestion that any of the claims from the other ex-yacht workers were connected at all to what was happening aboard the Mayan Queen IV. It has not yet been proven whether anything involving drugs, prostitutes, or guests being sexually inappropriate towards workers occurred on the vessel where Sinead worked. At this point everything reported so far can only be considered either speculation, hearsay, rumors or conjecture, as the investigation is still ongoing.

Prudent Investigation

Nevertheless, the McNamara’s lawyer made it clear that they will continue to thoroughly investigate the events and/or incidents that preceded Sinead’s death. “In addition,” added the lawyer, “they are looking for the reasons for the long delay between the time of the unfortunate incident and Sinead’s transfer to an Athens hospital.

Lingering Questions

Allegedly, she had been unconscious for several hours in what appeared to be a comatose condition prior to her being found. Every moment she spent in that condition was critical and the delay may have contributed to her death. These and many questions about Sinead McNamara’s death remain to be answered.

Revelations About ‘Dark Side’ of Luxury Yachts May Connect to Instagram Model’s Mysterious Death is an article from: LifeDaily

People dream of winning large sums of money thinking it will be the answer to all their problems. Yet, those who do win it big often find that money can’t always solve those problems. In fact, money often creates more problems.

In 2017, a homeless veteran thought he was finally going to be able to turn his life around after thousands donated money to get him off the streets. However, he quickly learned that the money was more of a curse than a blessing after it caused endless problems and resulted in an ugly legal battle.

Car Trouble

In October 2017, a young woman found herself stranded and alone on the streets of Philadelphia after her car broke down. According to the woman, she hadn’t noticed that she was running low on gas. She immediately exited the highway as soon as she realized, however, it was too late.

Stranded and Alone

At the end of the exit ramp, the woman’s car broke down. She tried not to panic but was acutely aware that she wasn’t in a great area and was completely alone. To make matters worse, she didn’t have any money even if she did manage the courage to get out of the car and walk to the nearest gas station.

A Guardian Angel

A few minutes later, however, a bearded man who appeared to be homeless approached the car. He introduced himself as Johnny and explained that he had watched the woman’s car break down while he was panhandling nearby. He also told the woman that he wanted to help if she needed it.

Keeping His Promise

Since Kate McClure didn’t have any money with her, the homeless man told her he would walk to the nearest gas station and buy her some gas. He promised he would be back soon and told her to lock her doors while she waited. Sure enough, Johnny came back a little while later with a small gas can.

His Last Penny

When McClure learned that Johnny had spent $20, which was all the money he had to his name, to help her, she was speechless. She thanked him profusely before driving away. However, in the days that followed, McClure couldn’t stop thinking about the man who helped her and told everyone she knew about what happened.

Returning the Favor

McClure went back to the spot her car broke down with her boyfriend, Mark D’Amico, to look for Johnny. They wanted to properly thank him and repay him for his kindness. When they found him, the couple gave him some cash, food, and some warm clothes to help him get through the upcoming winter. But it still didn’t feel like enough.

A Struggling Veteran

Over the next few weeks, McClure and D’Amico returned to the area to bring Johnny more food and supplies. During each visit, they spoke to McClure’s guardian angel and discovered Johnny, or John Bobbitt Jr., was originally from North Carolina. They also learned that he had served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Spiraling Out of Control

According to the couple, they discovered that Johnny was a trained paramedic, considered going to school to become a nurse, and had been engaged. However, his life spiraled out of control after he started using drugs and became addicted. After losing his job and the trust of his loved ones, Johnny tried to get clean and get his life back on track.

Rebuilding His Life

For a short time, he was doing well. Johnny even moved to Philadelphia for a job opportunity, but when that fell through, he ended up on the streets and using drugs again. McClure and D’Amico were struck by the fact that Johnny had led such a normal life before his drug use destroyed everything. They couldn’t help but feel like anyone could be in Johnny’s position and wanted to help him get his life back.

One Little Break

So McClure decided to set up a GoFundMe account in Johnny’s honor. “[I] truly believe that all Johnny needs is one little break. Hopefully, with your help, I can be the one to give it to him. Any little bit will help,” McClure explained on the GoFundMe page. At first, McClure set their target goal to $10,000 to get Johnny established in an apartment, get him a car, and get him prepared to get a job.

Viral News

However, news of Johnny’s selfless deed and McClure’s inspiring desire to help the homeless veteran quickly made headlines around the world. The pair were interviewed by various newspapers and TV shows. Before long, more than 14,000 people had donated over $400,000 to Johnny.

Life Changing Money

“He will never have to worry about a roof over his head again!!” McClure and D’Amico wrote on GoFundMe while thanking everyone who donated. They also explained that they wouldn’t be handing over all the money to Johnny since he was still a recovering addict. The couple explained they wanted to be sure that the money would be used wisely so Johnny never ends up back on the street.

The Plan

In order to do that, the couple hired a lawyer and a financial adviser to create a plan for Johnny. “The first thing on the list is a NEW Home which Johnny will own!!” the couple wrote in a GoFundMe update. “There will also be 2 trusts set up in his name, one essentially giving him the ability to collect a small ‘salary’ each year and another retirement trust which will be wisely invested by a financial planner which he will have access to in a time frame he feels comfortable with so when the time comes he can live his retirement dream of owning a piece of land and a cabin in the country.”

The Plan Continued

“A bank account will be set up for him with funds for everyday needs that will get him through until he finds a job,” the couple wrote. “And lastly, he will be donating to a few organizations and people who over the last couple of years have helped him get through this rough patch in his life.” According to Johnny, however, things didn’t really happen as McClure and D’Amico had promised.

The Reality

Instead, the couple bought a caravan in McClure’s name and allowed Johnny to live in it on her family’s property. They also never bought Johnny his dream 1999 Ford Ranger truck. Instead, they purchased an SUV also in McClure’s name that broke down shortly after. At one point, the couple gave Johnny $25,000 but decided not to give him much more after he spent it all in 13 days on drugs and suboxone, a prescription drug used to treat addiction.

Back on the Streets

The SUV and caravan in McClure’s name have since been sold by the couple, who then told Johnny he had to leave their property. By August of 2018, Johnny was back on the streets begging for food and money. Now, Johnny has been forced to fight for the money that is rightfully his in another attempt to turn his life around.

The Lawsuit

Johnny, who is now in a drug rehabilitation center fighting to overcome his addiction, recently filed a lawsuit against the couple. In the lawsuit, he has accused McClure and D’Amico of stealing the money and using it to fund various vacations to California, Florida, and Las Vegas. He also suspects they used his money to buy a BMW and gamble.

An Investigation Begins

Johnny also claimed he only received about $75,000 while the couple claimed they gave him $200,000. After all these months, Johnny is worried that all the money is now gone. As a result, the Florence Township Police Department has begun a criminal investigation into the matter to see if McClure and D’Amico really did steal the donations from Johnny.

A New Goal

“I hate that it came to this,” Johnny told ABC News. “I didn’t want to be pressuring to get a lawyer or do anything, because I didn’t want to appear ungrateful.” Johnny understands the reason the couple was originally hesitant to give him the money and understands he still can’t be trusted with a large amount of money. However, it is still rightfully his and he hopes to put any of the remaining money into a trust and learn how to manage it. He also hopes he will still be able to turn his life around and move back to either North Carolina or Montana.

GoFundMe’s Promise

The couple may be indicted over the matter. Meanwhile, police and GoFundMe officials are trying to figure out if any of the money is left and what the couple spent the money on. However, GoFundMe has recently announced a promise to give Johnny the money that was raised for him if it’s determined that the McClure and D’Amico did use the funds.

Homeless Veteran Robbed by Good Samaritans Who Promised to Help Him is an article from: LifeDaily

Tesla Inc. is known for spearheading the effort of making electric cars widely available to the public. The company is also known for its chief executive Elon Musk, who has received criticism for multiple things over the years, most recently his marijuana-friendly behavior on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

In terms of legality however, a former employee decided to add to Tesla’s troubles by filing a lawsuit against the company…

Tesla Motors

Tesla Motors, now known as Tesla Inc., was founded in 2003 in Palo Alto, California. The company specializes in electric cars, specialist batteries, and efficient energy storage. Along with the company’s founders Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, the current CEO, Elon Musk, has a vision of offering affordable electric cars of the future to the general public.

Process Technician

Martin Tripp used to love his job at Tesla. Working as a process technician on a wage of just $28 per hour, it may not have been the best-paying job in the world but Tripp was content for a while. But after he left the company, he made some shocking allegations that would lead to lawsuits and counter-lawsuits.

Reusing Waste

The allegations got even more serious when Tripp alleged that Tesla was neglecting its mission to improve the environment, leaving “large quantities of waste and ‘scrap’ vehicle parts lying haphazardly on the ground inside the Gigafactory,” according to Business Insider (BI). He also claimed that the car giant reused battery parts which had been discarded as waste on a regular basis.

Additional Claims

Tripp, who was sued by the company for leaking sensitive information to the media, recently made a counter-claim against Tesla. Tripp claims that punctured battery cells were revamped with glue and simply put back on the manufacturing line. Such allegations, if found true, could take a company the size of Tesla from hero to zero overnight.

Bitter Exchange

After Tripp became the proverbial whistleblower on Tesla, according to The Washington Post, a bitter email exchange ensued between him and Musk. While Tripp denies ever threatening violence against the company or its employees, calling those claims “absurd!” the emails are more than just a little heated. But the Storey County sheriff’s office wasn’t taking any chances having received information of a threat to security at the Gigafactory.

No Credible Threat

Having investigated the matter as best they could in a short time, the sheriff’s office concluded that there was no threat to the facility. “After several hours of investigation … there was no credible threat,” Sheriff Gerald Antinoro said. Nevertheless, he advised Tesla to bolster their security detail just in case. But it’s the public way in which Musk allowed this case to unfold which has many people concerned.

Aggressive Emails

As well as calling Tripp a “horrible human being” who should be “ashamed” of himself in emails back and forth, Musk also threatened him with “legal penalties.” This referred to the lawsuit Musk initiated against the former employee, accusing him of hacking the company’s computer systems. As well as accusing him of leaking photos and videos of Tesla’s manufacturing systems, the suit also accuses him of giving false information to journalists and being generally “disruptive and combative” in the workplace.

Nuts and Bolts

According to the internal documents leaked by Tripp to BI, up to 40 percent of raw materials used to make batteries and driving units made at the Gigafactory were reworked by employees. That means that, allegedly, scrap parts were used in the company’s Model 3s cars. Essentially the claim is that for every 2,500 new battery packs made, an additional 1,000 pieces of “nonconforming material” were also included in the mix.

Refuting Claims

After allegations were brought to Tesla claiming they spent $150 million on scrap materials this year alone, they claimed that figure was an overstatement. “As is expected with any new manufacturing process, we had high scrap rates earlier in the Model 3 ramp. This is something we planned for and is a normal part of a production ramp,” they said to BI.

Decreased Scrap Rate

According to the official Tesla statement regarding this: “Indeed, we have always explained that Model 3 margins would increase after costs begin to fall from elevated scrap and other early ramp issues — and they have. Our scrap rate for batteries has decreased by almost 60% since January as we have improved our manufacturing processes.” They wrote. “It’s also important to remember the reason we scrap parts: because we want to ensure that only the highest quality parts are used to create the best vehicles for our customers. This is a part of the reason why Tesla’s customer-satisfaction scores for Model 3 vehicle quality and condition are at an all-time high of 93%.”

Investors Scared

Rebecca Lindland, a senior director at Kelley Blue Book, also spoke to the publication, sharing her concerns about investing in Tesla.”That seems like just an awful lot of money,” she said. “As an investor, I’d ask: Is this a good use of my funds? And what kind of transparency is going on here?” But Tesla claims they have overcome their issues with production, aiming to increase it greatly in the coming months.

Production Hell

Even Musk himself referred to “Production Hell” inside the Gigafactory. But according to the allegations, a misprogrammed robot that handles batteries was making holes through plastic housing and entering some of the cells. But instead of scrapping the now-faulty parts, the employee claims Tesla went ahead and simply patched them up; sometimes with glue and other materials.

Best Practice

Again, Tesla refuted these unproven allegations in a statement to Business Insider. They claim they use best practices and that they never used any punctured batteries in the production of their cars. Tesla said the same about the allegations that they used a wrongly mixed adhesive in the production of the Model 3s.

More Claims

Dozens of photographs taken by Tripp show scrap materials piled high at the Gigafactory in Nevada. These materials include flammable material used to make lithium batteries. A source told reporters from the same publication that those batteries present a serious health hazard to employees at the site as they are connected. However, Tesla, once again, refuted that allegation claiming that “all non-conforming materials are kept in a temperature-controlled room, and that they pose no safety threat.”

Seeking $1 million

Tripp, who said he had to relocate as a result of his claim against Tesla, also said he has experienced health problems such as anxiety and has had trouble sleeping. For all that he claims he has been through, the former Tesla employee is seeking a tidy $1 million in punitive damages. This suggests to some people that Tripp is “in it to win it” and is all about the money.

Bewildering Allegations

As far as Tripp’s attorney, Robert D. Mitchell is concerned, “Our client, Martin Tripp, has been wronged by Tesla in more ways than one,” according to The Verge. The attorney claims that Tesla made “several bewildering allegations against Mr. Tripp.” And that’s the reason Tripp has decided to fight back. “In an effort to restore his name, Mr. Tripp has decided to fight back against Tesla’s allegations, and we are privileged to aid him in his fight,” Mitchell concluded.

Taking Kickbacks

Tesla is more than a little disturbed by the serious allegations of malpractice leveled against them. A few weeks after the revelations were made public by the media, Musk fired a bunch of tweets over to journalist Linette Lopez from BI. They said that Lopez “published several false articles about Tesla” and asked her if she “compensated or promised to compensate Martin Tripp for inside information about Tesla.”

No Bribery

Naturally, Tripp countered any claims of wrongdoing on his part, claiming he “has never received any compensation from Ms. Lopez, nor has Ms. Lopez ever offered him any compensation or promise of compensation.” Moreover, Tripp claims Tesla made “false allegations” which he considered to be “defamatory and published with negligence.”

Stong-Arm Tactics

Tripp’s attorney also claimed that “Tesla has used strong-arm tactics and a defamatory smear campaign in an effort to bury the disconcerting information Martin Tripp learned as a Tesla employee and to discredit Mr. Tripp before the general public.” Mitchell also said his client is looking forward to defending himself. “By filing its lawsuit against Mr. Tripp, Tesla has now forced the issues to the forefront, and Mr. Tripp looks forward to defending himself before a jury of his peers by showing that what he witnessed and repeatedly reported at Tesla is, in fact, true.” He said.

Taking Responsibility

To sum the situation up, Lindland from Kelley Blue Book concluded “If he’s going to be an auto manufacturer, he has to be held to auto-manufacturing standards. If Honda or GM had these kinds of scrappage rates or waste, Wall Street wouldn’t stand for that. … Nobody would be saying, ‘You’re just a hater.'” It remains to be seen what the outcome of this bitter dispute will be as both sides prepare to defend their positions.

Tesla, Inc. Ready to Defend Itself After Whistleblower Makes Claims of Company ‘Reusing Waste’ is an article from: LifeDaily

It was a warm June day in Baltimore. The true summer weather hadn’t blown into the city, but around noon, when the sun was high in the sky, even a cooler day could get one sweating. 38-year-old Jarrod Ramos was sweating already, but it wasn’t because of the heat.

Jarrod was sweating because he had something stressful on his mind. He had a difficult and deadly decision to make and when he finally made it, neither his nor the lives of many other people would ever be the same again.

Brought to Account

Jarrod Ramos happened to be holding a backpack with him when he entered the Capital Gazette newsroom. Inside of the bag were smoke bombs, flash-bang devices, and grenades. There was every indication that he had gone to the newsroom to wreak death and havoc upon those people.

The Slain

Many were injured but six people were killed in the rampage. Columnist Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, assistant editor and weekend columnist, sports reporter John McNamara, sales assistant Rebecca Smith, and Wendi Winters, were all killed that day. The thing of it is, none of them might actually have died in the first place if only people took Ramos’ history of harassment more seriously.

Matter of Time

Ramos was a cold, calculating loner who had some deep-seeded mental health issues. He would become irrationally angry whenever things didn’t go his way and many of his friends and former adversaries were worried that he’d crack. He had seen no fewer than five mental health professionals, which amounted to at least 75 visits before he attacked the Capital Gazette.

History of Harassment

Also, Ramos didn’t just pick the Capital Gazette at random. He’d had a long and well-documented history of harassing several journalists employed by the Baltimore newspaper. One of these many grudges involved a 2012 defamation suit which was thrown out as groundless by the courts.

Gunman in the Newsroom

The incident began at around 2:30 pm. The office of the Capital Gazette was bustling and completely heedless of the madman slowly making his way to the bullpen. Ramos shot through the glass door to the office with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and began firing into the crowd.

No Escape

Ramos opened fire, hitting several of the gathered writers, reporters, and administrators. Then, as people began fleeing in every direction, he proceeded to barricade the rear exit of the office. He hadn’t chosen the Capital Gazette at random, he was there for a reason.

Warzone

People tried to run and hide but all around them, the newspaper office sounded like a war zone. Even with one lone gunman, there was little else that the trapped workers could do to disarm him. Finally, 65-year-old Wendi Winters, a beat reporter for the Gazette, approached Ramos. What happened next is a matter of some confusion.

Distracted

Some say that Wendi Winters confronted the gunman, which caused him to stop shooting for a time. Others indicate that the 65-year-old woman charged at the man holding a trash can and recycling bin and that he was distracted long enough for everyone else to escape. Meanwhile, police evacuated 170 people from the building.

One Minute

Anne Arundel County Police arrived within one minute, though it presumably felt much longer to the survivors. Many of the injured newspaper employees were taken to a local medical center. When the officers arrived on the scene, they saw Ramos hiding under a desk.

The Shooter

Ramos was identified by his face on the surveillance footage but refused to identify himself to police upon capture. Properly identifying him proved hard to do at first because, according to some witnesses, Ramos’ fingers were mutilated and he had no fingerprints. While this was eventually disproved by the police, it added an air of mystery to the already dramatic tale.

Fair Warning

It wasn’t until many days after the shooting that police recognized that an error might have been made. Ramos had apparently sent three threatening letters before the day of the attack. One of those letters indicated, in no uncertain times, that he was on his way to the Capital Gazette to “kill as many people” as he could.

Come to Light

The letters didn’t come to light until later after the shooting had occurred and Sgt. Jacklyn Davis, a spokeswoman for Anne Arundel County police, made the announcement. Tom Marquardt, the onetime publisher of the Capital Gazette, knew of other letters months beforehand.

Specific Details

In that previous letter, he was talking to the appeals court judge, suggesting that they didn’t do a good job and insinuating that if he wanted vengeance, he’d have to get it a different way. The indication here is that he may have been planning the shooting weeks or even months before it happened.

Taking Precautions

Marquardt had been worried about Ramos’ retribution for years. He said he once slept with a baseball bat by his bed because he was so worried Ramos might break-in and attack him. The newspaper was also aware of Ramos’ state of mind and stepped up security a few years before the shooting.

Peace Orders

There were also other letters predating even that; incidents that indicated Ramos’ state of mind long before the first shots were fired. In 2009, a former classmate took out peace orders and eventually criminal harassment charges against Ramos. He said he was physically afraid of Ramos becoming violent.

Went Away or Fuming

As an additional precaution, the Gazette posted Ramos’ picture around the office as well. Two years passed without a peep from Ramos. They believed that he’d just gotten over his vendetta. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Ramos was biding his time for the perfect opportunity to return to the newspaper.

Fate Unsealed

Ramos has yet to be tried for the five murders and while they may seem pre-meditated on the surface, it remains to be seen if he will serve time. Being that they caught him on camera, at the scene, with the gun, and having a vendetta against the victims, it seems like a pretty cut-and-dry case.

Important to Remember

Hindsight is 20/20, however, and it appears that the Capital Gazette did everything they could to try and protect their people from Ramos’ instability. Meanwhile, Rob Hiaasen, Gerald Fischman, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith, and brave Wendi Winters will all be remembered for the impact they made in their lives.

Celebration of Life

Recently, their family and friends celebrated their lives with a ceremony of sorts. The gathering crowd of more than 500 people laughed and cried as people shared stories, poems, prayers, and songs, celebrating the fallen reporters. They focused on the victims, not the killer, and that seems as good a way to close out as any.

Big Man, Big Heart

Hannah Hiaasen, Rob’s youngest daughter was in attendance to read a poem she wrote in her dad’s honor. She said that they all called the former assistant manager “Big Rob” because he was 6-foot-5. She added that the nickname also referred to his really big heart as well.

Police Discover Evidence That Baltimore Newspaper Was Warned Prior to Attack is an article from: LifeDaily

President Donald Trump has golf courses throughout all parts of the world, including the United Kingdom. One resort in Aberdeen is said to offer unsurpassed luxury and from looking at the estate’s website, it’s hard to disagree.

But after many years, Scottish Natural Heritage is speaking out and acknowledging that serious damage has been done to the site. Here’s what all the fuss is about.

Property in the UK

Trump Scotland Story — www.dailyrecord.co.uk

Before becoming President, Donald Trump invested millions of dollars into two lavish Scottish golf courses. One was Turnberry in Ayrshire and the other was Menie in Aberdeenshire. Trump’s business dealings in Scotland began in 2006, when he reportedly paid $16.6 million for a 1,400 acre parcel of land north of Aberdeen.

Golf Courses

Six years after purchasing the property in Aberdeen, Trump completed the first of two proposed golf courses there. In 2014, he bought Turnberry, an existing golf resort located in southwestern Scotland, for $59 million. He even announced that he would invest $260 million to transform the property.

Aberdeenshire Resort

The Trump Organization’s official website says that the Aberdeenshire resort “offers breathtaking scenery and an unparalleled test of golf. … The course rises to find panoramic views of the sea and plunges into secluded valleys with each hole boasting distinct characteristics and unique features.” The website describes the property as the “ultimate golfing destination.”

Rebranded Trump Aberdeen

According to Newsweek, the property was designed by golf architect Martin Hawtree and features a golf academy, 22-acre driving range, five-star hotel, a mixed-use residential community and three miles of sandy coastline. But 2017 reports show that both properties have netted losses over the past few years.

The Cost

According to Bloomberg reports, Trump has spent $200 million on his ventures and has yet to see a dime of profit. The Aberdeenshire project has proven to be a particular headache for Trump, since the local planning board had resisted giving him permission to build a large condo and timeshare development on the property because the proposed plan was more expensive than the one he initially presented.

Business in Scotland

During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump even cited that his business experience in Scotland was evidence that he had what it took to become president. “When I first arrived on the scene in Aberdeen, the people of Scotland were testing me to see just how serious I was — just like the citizens in the United States have done about my race for the White House,” Trump said. “I had to win them over. I had to convince them that I meant business and that I had their best interests in mind.”

The Original Plan for Aberdeen

But the promises he made when he first pitched his plan have yet to materialize. According to The Guardian, Trump originally won approval for his “Trump Estate” encompassing the protected dunes because he pledged to create up to 6,000 jobs by building a five-star hotel with 450 rooms, shops, a sports complex, timeshare flats, two golf courses and housing estates there.

Site of Special Scientific Interest

Thus far, he has constructed one 18-hole golf course, which is open seven months a year, a practice range, and a small clubhouse with a restaurant and shop. He also converted Menie’s manor house into a boutique hotel with 16 rooms. The biggest problem with his plan failing to fall into fruition is that the estate is known as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The Dune System

The northern part of the course covers part of one of these sites, which is regarded as one of Britain’s best examples of a mobile sand dune system. According to BBC, before construction work began in 2010, the dune system moved north at substantial speeds — up to 11m per year across an area of about 15 hectares. The area was a landscape, constantly evolving.

Destroying the Ecosystem

Many local residents believe that development did not justify destroying the delicate ecosystem in Foveran. They said Trump failed to honor promises made in 2008 to protect the site as much as possible when he encouraged a planning inquiry to ignore the dunes’ status. Finally, after many years, Scottish Natural Heritage is speaking out and acknowledging that serious damage has been done to the site.

Damage to the Dune System

Scottish Natural Heritage has been monitoring the impact of the course on the landscape and plant life and it found habitat loss and damage to the dune system. Dr. Jim Hansom, a geomorphologist from Glasgow University, told BBC he would be “absolutely surprised” if the sand dunes were allowed to keep their status.

Ruined from a Virgin Undeveloped Wilderness Site

“It really should be de-notified because there’s no dynamism involved in that site now and that was the original justification for its notification,” he said. “It’s been ruined from a virgin undeveloped wilderness site into something that’s relatively manicured.” Scottish Natural Heritage objected to the original development and is now assessing the scale of the damage to decide whether parts of the Menie site should lose protection.

“First Class” Approach

Sarah Malone, who is in charge of Trump’s Scottish business interests told BBC that the Trump Organization is relaxed about the outcome. “I don’t think it matters to us. It may matter to other people and we’ll be comfortable with whatever the option and the decision on that is,” she said. But she insists that their approach to environmental matters has been “first class.”

The Deterioration Was Predicted

The deterioration of the sand dunes was predicted before Trump’s first bulldozer arrived on the site, but they who gave him the go-ahead decided it was a price worth paying for what he promised. Although that promise is not broken, it is far from fulfilled. Ten years ago, Trump was invited to Aberdeenshire to give evidence at a public local inquiry about his golf course plans.

Pleading His Case

According to BBC, “There were many bold claims about the proposed resort with big numbers attached. It was supposed to be at least a $1 billion investment, which persuaded the local inquiry team and government ministers that the economic benefit justified the environmental impact.

An Angry Community

Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, was able to give the Trump team direct access to Scotland’s chief planner. Salmond was later accused of misusing his position to help a billionaire since what Trump promised had yet to materialize. Salmond, who supported the golf development, told BBC, “The people who were putting it forward did not live up and honor the agreements they made to the Scottish people.”

Politics and Protests

Protestors took to the streets of Scotland’s cities when newly inaugurated Trump enacted his controversial travel ban in January 2017. Many citizens believed that it was difficult to ignore a U.S. president who owned two major golf resorts in their country.

Paid in Cash

In the past, Trump usually financed his real estate deals with large bank loans. He admitted to being the “king of debt” and entered the Oval Office owing hundreds of millions of dollars to various lenders. Despite this, Trump purchased the Aberdeenshire property with cash, breaking his former pattern. Then, in the years to follow, he purchased Turnberry, also with cash.

Mysterious Cash Purchases

According to MotherJones.com, the purchases have puzzled even people who have worked closely with Trump over the years and who were aware of his habit of borrowing heavily to finance his projects. Then, in 2013, Donald Trump’s son, Eric Trump, offered an explanation for why his father had no need to borrow money from banks.

Looking for the Truth

“We have pretty much all the money we need from investors in Russia,” Eric Trump supposedly told golf writer James Dodson. “We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs,” he continued. However, Eric Trump was quick to dismiss Dodson’s reporting as “fake news,” denying that Dodson accurately presented his comments. Trump wound up temporarily handing control of his businesses in Scotland to his sons before taking office, although citizens still remain bitter.

President Trump’s Scottish Golf Resort Threatens the Site’s Delicate Ecosystem is an article from: LifeDaily

Everybody has their own sense about what’s right and what’s wrong in life. On the big things, like violence or stealing, most people are in complete agreement. But when you get beyond the very basics of ethics, people have a lot of differences of opinion.

Most of the time, those disagreements aren’t big enough to have much of a bearing on the big parts of our lives — our work, our family life, our friendships. But in one particular case, one man would have a hard time squaring a moral disagreement he had with his employer.

One of the Best

Google China Censorship Story — www.whereverwriter.com

In the tech world, Google is consistently ranked as one of the best companies to work for year after year. While the average employee pulling in a six figure salary certainly doesn’t hurt, the big reason for the high ranking is the unbelievable perks that come with working for the tech giant.

Plenty of Perks

Google employees get three free gourmet meals a day, on site gyms and massage therapists, and generous paid time off and maternity leave. There are also financial perks that go beyond a good salary like 401K matching, 10 years of half-pay for the spouse of a deceased employee, and education subsidies and tuition reimbursement for classes in coding, cooking, guitar and other subjects.

Highly Selective

It would come as no surprise then that a job at Google would be highly sought after. For the past few years, Google has received two to three million applications annually. Through an incredibly stringent hiring process they whittle the applicant pool down to about 7,000 people, roughly 0.2 percent of total applicants.

Skilled Mathematician

One of those people skilled and lucky enough to work for the company was a man named Jack Poulson who, before going to work for Google, was an assistant professor at Stanford University’s department of mathematics. He left that position in May of 2016 to work for Google where he was a senior research scientist.

Heady Stuff

Poulson’s subject of research was brainy, complicated stuff even for programmers and engineers. He was working in the machine intelligence department, focusing on improving the accuracy of the company’s search systems.

Doing Good Work

Poulson was more than happy with his job, working on complex problems and coming up with solutions that both made the lives of everyday people easier and also shaped the future of mankind. But then an article came out that shook his belief in the company he worked for and the work he was doing.

Dragonfly

In August of 2018, The Intercept revealed that they’d learned that Google had been secretly working on a Chinese search app for Android devices. The search system, code-named Dragonfly, was designed to get search results just like the Google search engine you’re used to but with one important difference: It would be designed to the specifications of the Chinese government.

Tool of Oppression

That would mean that Dragonfly would remove any content that the Chinese government viewed as sensitive, including information about political dissidents, free speech, democracy, human rights, and peaceful protest.

Human Rights Violation

Poulson wasn’t the only one who had a problem with this agreement between Google and the Chinese government. A coalition of 14 different human rights organizations — including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Center for Democracy and Technology — issued an open letter addressed to Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, condemning the Dragonfly project.

‘Alarming Capitulation’

They described the censored search engine as “an alarming capitulation by Google on human rights.” What’s more, they said it could result in the company “directly contributing to, or [becoming] complicit in, human rights violations.”

Concerned Senate

Even the Senate Intelligence Committee was uncomfortable with the move and called for Pichai to appear before them to answer questions about Dragonfly and other things regarding Chinese censorship. In a move that’s almost unheard of, the Google CEO refused to appear before the committee.

Tight Lipped

Google has effectively ignored all questions by journalists about the Dragonfly project and did not respond to the open letter from the human rights groups. For Jack Poulson, Google’s silence was extremely frustrating, especially considering that in 2010, Googled had pulled out of the Chinese market specifically because of Chinese censorship, limits on free speech, and attempts to hack people’s email accounts.

Company Values

Sergey Brin, one of Google’s co-founders, made it very clear at that time that the company was strongly opposed to censorship. Part of his youth was spent in the Soviet Union and said that he was “particularly sensitive to the stifling of individual liberties,” due to his time there. He told the Wall Street Journal that “with respect to censorship [and] surveillance of dissidents,” he saw troubling “earmarks of totalitarianism [in China].”

Red Lines

“There are serious worldwide repercussions to this,” Poulson said. “What are Google’s ethical red lines? We already wrote some down, but now we seem to be crossing those. I would really like to see statements about what Google’s commitments are.” But this apparent abandonment of ideals to enter the Chinese market was too much for him to abide.

That’s My Company

Poulson said he “very much agreed with the case Sergey made in 2010. That’s the company I joined, the one that was making that statement.” When he found out about the Dragonfly article, he said he could no longer “be complicit as a shareholder and citizen of the company,” and he wasn’t the only one.

Internal Discord

Because of the sensitive nature of the Dragonfly project, only a few hundred of Google’s 88,000 employees knew about it before it was publicly exposed. Once it had been, several other high ranking Google employees resigned. More than 1,400 others signed a letter demanding someone be appointed to assess the “urgent moral and ethical issues,” that were raised by the plan.

‘We Want a Say’

The letter condemned the secrecy surrounding Dragonfly, saying “we urgently need more transparency, a seat at the table, and a commitment to clear and open processes: Google employees need to know what we’re building.”

More Silence

In response to the discontent within the company, Google has simply tried to contain the anger people feel by shutting down employee access to documents about the China search engine. In order to stop information from leaking out to the public, they’ve also changed the rules about people live streaming meetings to their own computers — they can now only watch them inside designated rooms at a Google office with a manager present.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Poulson initially considered staying on as an employee at Google and making the case for change from within. It was possible that the decision to complete project Dragonfly could be reversed and some colleagues encouraged him to wait before resigning. “But then I have no chance of changing that decision,” Poulson said, “whereas if I resign beforehand, then there’s some chance of impact.”

No Solidarity

With the high number of Google employees willing to go on the record opposing their employers actions, one would expect that Poulson was surprised how few people actually resigned over the issue. “It’s incredible how little solidarity there is on this,” he said. “It is my understanding that when you have a serious ethical disagreement with an issue, your proper course of action is to resign.”

Google Research Scientist Quits After Announcement of Mysterious ‘Dragonfly’ Project is an article from: LifeDaily

Bullying is something that plagues schools across the world, often leaving educators at a loss as to how best to deal with the situation. Some kids just enjoy being nasty to those they think are weaker than themselves, and that’s a sad fact of life.

When Dr. Lance Hindt took his position as district superintendent of the Katy Independent School district in Katy, Texas, bullying wasn’t something he was about to allow. When revelations came out that he was allegedly a “vicious bully” more than 30 years ago during his school days though, it would end up costing him his job as well as his reputation.

Katy Independent School

Lance Hindt Story — www.click2houston.com

The Katy Independent School District has more than 70,000 students. Consisting of elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools, the district serves 181 square miles spanning parts of Harris County, Fort Bend County, and Waller County. When Dr. Lance Hindt took a job as district superintendent there, he was excited about the future.

School Bullies

School bullies are a fact of life, and most people knew at least one if not more while at school. Naturally, stronger children, as well as those from troubled homes, can easily become bullies, especially if it gains them popularity. But the weaker kids or those considered less “cool” often fall prey to serious violence and intimidation. Children are often forced to leave schools when the going gets too tough, while teachers do what they can to control the bullying.

New Regime

When Hindt took the job at the school, one of his first priorities was to stamp out bullying. An interview back in August 2016 claimed that Hindt “takes bullying very seriously,” according to Fox 26. But a year and a half later and Hindt was accused of “vicious bullying” when he was in school back in 1982.

Worrying Allegations

Just 18 months into his new role, Hindt was accused by a former classmate of being a bully. Greg Barrett said about Hindt “Lance; you were the one who shoved my head in the urinal,” according to Fox 26. However, Hindt said he barely remembers what happened more than 30 years ago, saying “Bullying is wrong. It was then, and it is today.”

Judge Speaks

Judge David Carpenter, who now presides over a criminal court in Alabama, wasn’t the big and powerful character he is now when he was back at school. He remembers Hindt all too well and also joined the fray to condemn him. “He was a vicious bully. He was a thug. He was a wealthy thug, but he was a thug,” he said. And while the judge did what he could to avoid being one of Hindt’s victims back then, he watched his antics in horror.

Football Star

Judge Carpenter told reporters that he remembers Hindt from Taylor High School all those years ago. “He was physically threatening some of my teammates, just menacing them, standing over them and eventually started throwing weight plates at them, 25-pound weight plates at them,” recalled Carpenter. But there were even more revelations which Hindt assumed were as long forgotten as his football career.

Daily Basis

For Carpenter, the worst part of Hindt’s bullying was the fact it was intense and took place on an almost daily basis. And to make matters worse, Hindt allegedly used to enjoy bragging about beating on other people. “He liked to brag about beating up other people, and at one point he even bragged about beating up a police officer,” Carpenter said. But when the judge read Hindt’s public denial that he ever bullied anyone, he felt compelled to speak out.

Wrong Assumptions

Judge Carpenter said that based on Hindt’s conduct during his school days he assumed he would probably be behind bars by now. “I thought he might be in prison somewhere based on the way he behaved in high school,” he said. But according to Hindt, “There’s usually two sides to a story.”

Smear Campaign

While he didn’t want to take responsibility for his sins of the past, Hindt claimed during a special board meeting at the school that a “smear campaign” had been waged against him. That campaign led to his resignation from his position within the Katy Independent School District.

Family First

While the school offered to pay for an attorney to pursue a defamation case in support of Hindt, he spoke out during the board meeting. “My family is now my number one priority – they are innocent bystanders,” he said. “In light of an organized, relentless and dishonest smear campaign against me, I cannot remain as superintendent of Katy ISD.”

Getting Paid

By all accounts, Hindt may not be too bothered that he was forced to resign as a result of the allegations against him. At that very same board meeting, it was decided that he would receive the equivalent of two years base pay, which translates to a massive $750,000 payout. His contract was also amended by the school board, most of whom were on his side of the argument.

Simple Apology

Greg Barrett spoke of his shock that Hindt had been forced to resign as a result of the allegations. To his mind, all Hindt needed to do was to say a simple “I’m sorry” for what he did back in school. “This is not what I wanted at all. I’m horrified,” he said. “I just can’t believe that he resigned. It breaks my heart.” Ironically, Berrett believes that Hindt was the right man for the job. “I’m disappointed that he resigned. He was the right person to fix this problem.”

Highest Honor

For Hindt, returning to Katy as superintendent was his highest professional honor. “It was a dream I longed for,” Hindt said. “Serving the students, parents, staff, and taxpayers of Katy taught me more than I ever taught anyone. … This malicious campaign against me is hurting [my family] severely and I cannot allow it any further,” he said. “I cannot justify putting my wife and kids through it anymore.”

Simply not True

As is almost always the case in smear campaigns, somebody had to be lying. Hindt claims that Berrett made up the story in the boys’ bathroom. “It simply is not true,” he said in an official statement according to Chron.com. The only thing he did admit is that he wasn’t a “perfect person.” “I certainly wasn’t as a teenager, and I am not as an adult,” he said. “When I was young and dumb, I did dumb things.”

Tough Times

According to Charles Griffin, secretary of the Katy ISD trustees, the past few months have been the most troubling time for him in six years on the school board. “We’ve been subject to months of personal and professional attacks that continue to escalate outside the original topic of classroom bullying,” Griffin said. He added that the cyberbullying suffered by Hindt completely “crossed the line.”

Paying the Price

To Griffin’s mind, as well as the trauma caused to Hindt and his family, it’s the school kids at Katy district who ultimately paid the price. “It’s time to say enough,” Griffin said. “This side show has cost this district money, it has cost us time, and our children are the ones who are paying the price.” But another board member said he was “heartsick” when he heard Hindt was leaving the school.

Despicable Behavior

George Scott, another long-serving school board member also spoke about Hindt’s impromptu resignation. “It makes me sick to my stomach that we’re losing this man,” Scott said. “The viciousness, the meanness, of what has happened to his family is despicable.” However, there’s usually no smoke without fire, and it’s not as if Judge Carpenter is the lying type.

Passionate Educator

Ashley Vann, the Katy board president, also spoke out about the shocking revelations, noting that Hindt has always been “transparent and forthcoming” with the trustees since joining the school.”He works harder than anyone I know in the field of public education,” she said, adding that Hindt was a “passionate educator” and “kind friend.”

Supporting Hindt

Despite the allegations against him, many people in the community were so outraged that Hindt resigned that they set up an online petition. The petition page on Change.org states: “The signers of this petition are showing the school board and employees of Katy ISD that we strongly support Dr. Hindt and we know that he is the person that needs to sit in his current position of Superintendent.” Although no one believes at this stage that Hindt will want his job back even if it’s offered to him.

Two Sides

While Hindt denies that he was a bully during his school days, many people who knew him back then disagree. The other issue is a moral one regarding blaming someone for something they allegedly did 30 years after the fact. For Hindt, the $750,000 payout for resigning will probably mean that, despite the hit to his reputation, he won’t be too upset about leaving the Katy school district.

School Superintendent Accused of Being a ‘Vicious Bully’ in High School Resigns is an article from: LifeDaily

For so many of us, grandparents represent warmth, love, and a link to our past. They are a special part of our lives and those of us who have been fortunate enough to know our grandparents understand how special they truly are.

One of the best things about going to grandma and grandpa’s was the endless amounts of good food you ate while you were there. This story is about one particular grandpa whose penchant for cooking good, wholesome food led him towards a calling he never could have anticipated.

Art of the Chef

We all know that cooking is an art and thanks to social media and outlets such as Youtube, the culinary arts are only gaining further ground. Just as everyday people post pictures of their completed meals, mocha lattes, or restaurant entrees, so too have budding chefs found a positive outlet for their skills over the Internet.

Famous Grandpa

The man of this story goes by the name Grandpa Kitchen and his Youtube cooking show has caught the Internet’s collective attention spectacularly. Though he only started making videos a few years ago, the Indian native has captured the hearts and stomachs of netizens across the globe simply by nature of his cooking prowess.

Followers a’ Plenty

Grandpa Kitchen, which is the name of the man’s Youtube channel, already has close to 500,000 subscribers. Then, of course, there are the 50,000 people following his Facebook page. There are reasons for all this positivity and readership. Much of that has to do with Grandpa Kitchen’s other aim, aside from cooking that is.

Big Portions

The dishes that Grandpa Kitchen cooks up are by no means ordinary helpings. In line with the stereotype of grandparents over-feeding their grandchildren, he makes extraordinarily large amounts of food, which is probably why he became so famous in the first place.

Cooking Show

While it’s true that Grandpa Kitchen’s Youtube channel is essentially a cooking show, the 12-15 minute-long episodes are so much more than that. The great quantities of food he ultimately creates are impressive to look at, but are also put to very good use. Huge servings are only a small part of what makes what this man does so special.

Feed the Needy

It is what Grandpa Kitchen does with the food he cooks that makes his huge pans of mouth-watering food so unique. When Grandpa is done preparing huge yummy portions of pizza, chicken wings, chocolate cakes, mutton biryani, and fried fish curry, he takes the food to orphanage and feeds the children who live there.

Family Business

Grandpa Kitchen doesn’t do it alone either. In many videos, he is assisted by his two helpful grandsons. Thanks to the viral success of his culinary enterprise, Grandpa Kitchen has been able to not only provide for his family and the orphans he feeds but to give more than food as well.

Helping Everyone

Since he became popular, Grandpa Kitchen has been able to do a lot more than cook for the orphans. He has also been able to provide them with clothes, school payments and books. He’s held birthday and Christmas parties for them with generous gifts and beautiful decorations. When he’s not helping orphans, he cooks for homeless and disabled adults as well.

Not What They’re Used To

The YouTube star doesn’t just make things that the kids are used to either. He has gone out of his way to learn how to cook and prepare dishes that aren’t really available to poor children. There’s one video in particular where he is tasked with making a giant chicken-cheese pizza for 100 children. Their reaction to the pizza is enough to tug at the heartstrings.

No Pizza?

During the course of the video, one volunteer from the channel asked the group of children if they love pizza. They all replied with a resounding “yes!” Nevertheless, when they were asked if any of them had ever eaten a pizza, they sort of clammed up. None of the 100 orphans had ever really eaten a pizza before in their life.

Loved It

Yet even though they’d never eaten a pizza, they were still more excited than one could have ever expected to get a chance to taste it. By the time Grandpa Kitchen was done cooking the deliciously massive monstrosity, all of the children had scarfed it up in minutes; savoring the tasty treat for the first time in their young lives.

The Usual Fare

Many of Grandpa Kitchen’s videos show him making traditional Indian dishes or Indian takes on cuisine from other countries. People seem to love watching these videos and seeing how the traditional dishes are made. One video of the chef cooking a large goat leg for the orphan children has been watched more than two million times.

Fried Success

Then there are his “simplified” dishes, which involve things like spiced fried chicken wings or french fries. Grandpa Kitchen’s french fries video has garnered more than four million views since its original upload. Although, since everyone loves french fries, it’s not that hard to believe it’s been watched so many times.

Unique Methods

Then there are other recipes, like his goat Biryani curry, which illustrate different cooking methods. In this one, he sears the goat meat, spices it, then puts rice and stock over it, sealing the giant pot with a sort of dough so it can steam like a pressure cooker over the fire. He does something similar with a giant fish curry, only in this case, he braises it over the fire.

Dessert Please

Using pounds of peanut butter cups, chocolates, cookies, milk, almonds, and even almond milk (for the Vegan viewers), Grandpa Kitchen creates creamy confections bigger than “the Kitchen Sink” at your local ice cream parlor. His enormous almond-and-Oreo milkshakes delighted orphans and viewers alike.

Cakes and Cookies

Since most of his customers are children, Grandpa Kitchen has made quite a few desserts. He’s made cakes, cookies, and all sorts of other baked goods, and most of them directly over a roaring campfire. It’s a difficult thing to do for anyone, let alone an elderly man in a rural part of India, but he does it with aplomb.

The List Goes On

Over the past few years, Grandpa Kitchen has prepared a wide range of amazing foods beloved by children everywhere. Some of these finger-licking recipes are mouthwatering hamburger, enormous omelets, butter chicken, giant banana pancakes, spicy chicken curry, crispy potato wedges, warm apple pie, fried rice, and even KFC style chicken wings.

How Much it Means

Because of the sheer volume of these recipes, Grandpa Kitchen’s viewership continues to grow. Grandpa Kitchen shows that a person can find their calling at any point in their lives, whether that’s at 17 or at 70. The videos teach another important lesson: that the things we take for granted, something as simple as chicken fingers, can mean so much to those less fortunate.

Truly Heartwarming

It is the children’s reactions to the free, delicious food that is perhaps most heartwarming of all. And it’s clear from Grandpa Kitchen’s face that he loves taking the time and putting in the effort to make good food for his family and the people he cares about. It is perhaps that quality of the man that is most endearing.

All One Needs

Granda Kitchen’s videos also serve to prove that it doesn’t matter what one’s age or status is, a big heart can get you through anything. We should all look to Grandpa’s example of selflessness and remember to take his words to heart: “Loving. Caring. Sharing. This is my family.”

Elderly Man Uses Youtube Channel to Cook For Those in Need is an article from: LifeDaily

When a grandmother was charged with criminal trespassing and obstructing an officer, eyebrows around the community were raised. Family members and neighbors came to the woman’s defense and expressed how they felt the incident was “unnecessarily escalated.”

On the other side, the police department tried to justify their actions by saying that the officer “used a Taser instead of using deadly force.” But the question remains of why anyone would feel threatened by an older woman cutting flowers in the first place. Here’s what happened.

Dandelions for Cooking

Martha Al-bishara Story — www.learningherbs.com

When Martha Al-Bishara went on a walk on a Friday near her home in northern Georgia, she left with the intent to pick dandelions. It was common for her to collect the plants for cooking purposes and making meals for her family was something she enjoyed. But the day would go differently than others even though Al-Bishara picked dandelions in the same area she always did.

Boys and Girls Club

The 87-year-old woman ventured outside with a kitchen knife to cut the flowers and a plastic bag in the other hand to collect them. She was doing what she always did when she crossed the street from her home in Chatsworth, Georgia, and arrived at a partially fenced lot belonging to a branch of the Boys and Girls Club.

Elderly Woman Picking Dandelions

According to The Washington Post, she began gathering the plants that she wanted when someone on the property noticed her in her blue dress and brown scarf around her head. The man named Tanner felt threatened for some reason by the woman — so threatened in fact, that he called the police.

911 Call

The 911 call came in on Friday at about 4:28 p.m., when Tanner, an employee of the club, told the operator, “This lady is walking on the bike trail, she has a knife and she won’t leave. She doesn’t speak English.” Tanner gave the operator the address of 502 Chestnut Street and he informed the operator that the woman was outside and that there were no children outside. All he kept saying was, “She told me she doesn’t speak English and keeps walking up the trail with a knife.”

Frail Older Woman

Tanner continued, saying, “She’s old so she can’t get around too well, but, looks like she’s walking around looking for something, like, vegetation to cut down or something. There’s a bag too.” When they asked Tanner if she came at someone with a knife, he replied saying: “No, she just brought the knife onto the property in her hand. She didn’t try to attack anybody or anything.”

Describing the Woman

He proceeded to describe what the woman was wearing and asked the operator if they could send someone to the property. Soon after 4:30 p.m., two officers and the chief of the Chatsworth Police Department arrived at the scene, where a Boys and Girls Club staff member escorted them to the back of the property. There, the officers spotted Al-Bishara standing on a hill holding “a white plastic bag in her left hand and a steak knife in her right hand.”

Verbal Requests to Drop the Knife

The officers did not immediately realize that the woman didn’t speak English, but, according to the police, Al-Bishara did not respond to multiple verbal requests to put down her kitchen knife. Instead, according to The Washington Post, she continued walking and collecting dandelions. “While we were approaching the female she bent down to the ground and cut a weed and stood back up holding the weed in her left hand with the plastic bag,” the police report said.

Show by Example

“We kept telling her to drop the knife,” the report continued. “The female would look at us. Her demeanor was calm even seeing us with our guns out.” The Chatsworth police chief at one point even threw his own pocket knife on the ground “in an attempt to show the female that we wanted her to drop the knife,” according to the report.

Tasered By Police

But, when Al-Bishara didn’t respond and began walking down the hill toward the officers, one of them pointed his taser at her. He did this even though she expressed a very calm demeanor and facial expression. When she was about five yards away, the officer shot his taser, striking Al-Bishara in the chest and sending her to the ground.

Mug Shot

Dalton Daily Citizen News, which reviewed body camera footage from the incident, said that Al-Bishara was heard crying as the taser prongs hit her and she began “lightly sobbing and speaking in Arabic.” At this point, officers were handcuffing her and they brought her to her feet. Al-Bishara was then taken to the police station, where a mug shot was obtained and she was charged with obstruction of an officer and criminal trespassing.

Murray County Detention Center

She was taken to the Murray County Detention Center where Chatsworth Police Chief, Josh Etheridge, defended his officers’ use of force. “In my opinion, it was the lowest use of force we could have used to simply stop that threat at the time,” Etheridge told the Daily Citizen-News. “And I know everyone is going to say, ‘An 87-year-old woman? How big a threat can she be?’ She still had a knife. An 87-year-old woman with a knife still has the ability to hurt an officer.”

Al-Bishara’s Family is Upset

But, Al-Bishara’s family members disagreed completely. They believe the police, who responded by tasering Al-Bishara, were completely out of line and unnecessarily escalated the situation. Al-Bishara’s daughter-in-law arrived at the scene after the arrest and told officers that their mother-in-law has dementia and only speaks Arabic.

Picking Dandelions

“She’s picked dandelions from there before, and she had a bag of dandelions and a kitchen knife,” one of Al-Bishara’s granddaughters, Martha Douhne, told Channel 9 News. “I think it just fully escalated.” Douhne said that the family was deferring questions about the case to their attorney but confirmed facts about Al-Bishara’s family and history to The Washington Post.

Immigrated to U.S. From Syria

Douhne said that Al-Bishara immigrated to the United States from Syria more than two decades ago and she is a naturalized citizen. She lives with her husband and other extended family members in Chatsworth, a city near the Tennessee border about 85 miles north of Atlanta. Douhne was also quick to dispute that the relative who told the officer that her grandmother that had dementia was wrong.

Getting the Charges Dropped

“That was something that was accidentally said in the heat of the moment,” Douhne said. “Grandma has no previous mental issues and has been and still is fully capable of living on her own with her husband.” Jeff Dean, an attorney for Al-Bishara’s family, is working on getting the charges against the elderly woman dropped. He said “we are evaluating what we’ll do as far as an unreasonable use of force case” against the police department.

An 87-Year-Old Behind Bars

Dean said, “The folks from the Boys and Girls Club, when they made their phone call to 911, clearly stated she was not a threat to anybody and told them she was gathering vegetation. Clearly, there was no threat.” Douhne told The Washington Post that her grandmother spent about two and a half hours in jail, then another two and half hours in the hospital to get her health checked.

Concerned Family

Al-Bishara was okay physically but her head hurt trying to understand what had happened. “She is still repeating the incident over in her mind and telling us she didn’t mean for this to happen and apologizing that she didn’t want to bring this on us,” Douhne told the Daily Citizen-News. “She is having trouble sleeping and is stressed.”

A Neighbor Shares Her Thoughts

A neighbor said that Al-Bishara has lived in the area for 22 years and that she was shocked to learn what happened. “This woman don’t bother nobody or nothing,” said Elizabeth Usrey. “They keep their stuff clean and don’t bother anyone. I don’t really know what happened, but the woman wouldn’t hurt a fly. Using a Taser on someone that age is ridiculous.”

The Police Chief Speaks Out

Usrey explained that Al-Bishara and her husband enjoy walking around the neighborhood and when they harvest vegetables in their garden on their property, they share them with neighbors. “[The police] should have been more patient,” Usrey said. Police Chief, Josh Etheridge commented on the matter telling the Daily Citizen News that there will be a full investigation.

A Full Investigation?

“We handle the use of force issues internally, and an outside agency would be contacted if we thought a crime had been committed. If someone wanted to contact the GBI [Georgia Bureau of Investigation] — and we have been in contact with them to let them know what happened — because they think there was criminal wrongdoing, then we would welcome that. We haven’t requested them to come in. We simply don’t believe there was any criminal activity.”

87-Year-Old Woman Tasered by Police For Not Dropping Knife While Cutting Dandelions is an article from: LifeDaily

We all agree on the simple, observable facts about the world. But when you go beyond those physical things into what can’t be observed, you get into the realm of belief and, for many, religion.

For some people, their faith — or lack thereof — is the most important thing in their lives. And one good thing about America is that the government protects an individual’s right to express whatever religious beliefs they may have. But according to some, there are times when that governmental protection favors some religions over others…

The Constitution

The framework of the United States government and all of its laws is the U.S. Constitution. The document lays out the separation and balance of the different branches of government, the relationship between the federal and state governments, and perhaps most importantly, the specific protections of individual liberty known as the Bill of Rights.

First Amendment

Of the rights laid out in the Constitution, the one the framers believed important enough to place before all others was freedom of speech. In addition to giving people the right to speak as they wish and to assemble as they choose, it also separates church and state.

Separation oif Church and State

To quote Thomas Jefferson, “I contemplate with sovereign reverence the act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof’, thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.” In his view, “religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his god.”

Blurred Lines

But in the years since the founding of the nation, there are some who would claim that the line separating church and state has blurred at times. Debates have been fought in the past over things like religious instruction in the ‘40s or the addition of “In God We Trust” to U.S. currency in the ‘50s.

Ten Commandments

The most recent debate surrounding the separation of church and state has centered on the placement of a monument of the Ten Commandments on the Capitol grounds in Arkansas. While Jews and Christians might be pleased to see such a monument go up in their city, it’s pretty easy to see what the constitutional argument against it would be.

Showing Favor

Opponents of religious monuments on government property claim that by choosing a symbol from one particular faith, the government is effectively endorsing that religion over others, violating the separation of church and state.

Strange Protest

Normally, when a person or organization has a complaint about this kind of government activity, they file a suit and the courts decide exactly how the Constitution and legal precedent apply to the particular situation. But this time, one shocking organization decided on a very unusual form of protest.

Satanists

That organization was the Satanic Temple, whose very name comes loaded with connotations of wickedness. But rather than being some cult of devil-worshipers, the group describes itself as a political free-speech activist group and a “non-theistic religion.”

‘Metaphorical Icon’

That means rather than believing in a god — or devil — they see the figure held as the ultimate evil being in Christianity as a symbol. “The Satan of Modern Satanism is a metaphorical icon for Enlightenment values,” said the Temple’s co-founder, Lucien Greaves.

Paradise Lost

“I identify nontheistically with a Miltonic Satan that defies all subjugation, exalts scientific inquiry and promotes Humanistic, pluralistic values,” he continued, referring to John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. And in line with those pluralistic values, the protest his organization staged in response to the Ten Commandments monument wasn’t a call to have it removed.

All or Nothing

Instead, the Satanic Temple simply didn’t want the state of Arkansas to favor one religion over another. They wanted their symbol side-by-side with the Ten Commandments monument. “If you’re going to have one religious monument up then it should be open to others,” said Ivy Forrester, co-founder of the Arkansas chapter of the Satanic Temple. “If you don’t agree with that then let’s just not have any at all.”

Profane Monument

And the monument that the temple chose couldn’t have been more inflammatory or more loaded with historical context. They arrived at the Arkansas Capitol grounds with a flatbed carrying a nearly eight foot tall bronze statue of the winged, goat-headed deity Baphomet, the god the Catholic church had (falsely) accused the Knights Templar of worshiping in the 12th century.

The Unveiling

More than 100 Satanists, atheists, and even some Christians headed to Little Rock for the unveiling of the statue, which took place in August of 2018. They cheered at the unveiling as Lucien Greaves spoke from a lectern saying: “Good people of Arkansas and supporters of religious liberty, I present to you Baphomet: symbol of pluralism, legal equality, tolerance, free inquiry, freedom of conscience and reconciliation.”

Forcing Beliefs

“The Satanic Temple never asked for the Ten Commandments monument to be taken down, nor do we ask that Baphomet be erected to the exclusion of any other monuments of religious significance,” Greaves continued. “We have as little interest in forcing our beliefs and symbols upon you as we do in having the beliefs of others forced upon us.”

Counter-Protesters

Of course, there were plenty of people who showed up to protest the Satanists. Christian protesters were on hand, holding Bibles and signs with scriptures written on them. A few people also brought Confederate flags, though it’s not clear exactly why. Things were peaceful between the two groups as the Christians mostly just sang hymns throughout the event.

Path to Hell

The biggest outburst came from a man in a ski mask and holding a large stick who interrupted Greaves’ speech, shouting that he was “leading people to hell.” That man was led away by a police officer before any sort of violence broke out.

Emergency Bill

There was also opposition from Arkansas state lawmakers against the Satanists’ monument going up. “The Satanic Temple’s application [to erect the monument permanently] was blocked by an emergency-session bill that requires all monuments have legislative sponsorship,” wrote the Temple in a statement.

Emphasizing the Point

“While the bill prevented the Baphomet statue from being considered, ironically it only magnifies the degree to which the State legislators are endorsing one religion over others and thereby deliberately rejecting the US Constitution,” the statement continued.

Agree to Disagree

But to State Senator Jason Rapert, that apparent violation of the First Amendment was not reason enough to stop him from opposing the statue of Baphomet to the best of his ability. “Though we respect their right to free speech, they must also respect our right to disagree with them and repudiate their false claims,” he said in a Facebook post.

A Cold Day

“No matter what these extremists may claim, it will be a very cold day in hell before an offensive statue will be forced upon us to be permanently erected on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol,” Sen. Rapert concluded.

First Amendment Debate Over Religious Monument Swirls Around Massive Profane Statue is an article from: LifeDaily

Cruelty towards pets and animals is unquestionably disturbing. However, animal cruelty is often an early warning sign of other types of violence and violent crimes.

So when more than a dozen cats turned up horribly mutilated in suburbs throughout Washington, police started to fear the worst about the person behind the sickening acts. Now, a special force has been tasked with bringing the person responsible to justice, before the killer targets more than just pets.

A Daily Routine

Serial Cat Killer Washington Story — www.petpaw-see.com

For the past two years, a Washington woman has spent almost every night brushing and feeding an old outdoor cat named Harley. Saturday, August 4, 2018, was no different. Before getting ready for bed herself, the woman went out and found Harley waiting for her.

Bed Time

That night, the woman fed and brushed Harley as usual. When Harley was finished with his dinner, she brought him over to a heated outdoor cat house, which she had built in her backyard just for him. After saying goodnight, the woman went inside and went up to bed for the night.

A Beloved Friend

“He was about 20 years old. He was deaf,” Kathy Harrigan told Q13 Fox. “He had found a place under a tree in our yard so we took him in. Built him a house and kept him warm over the next couple of winters. There’s no way he would ever have been an indoor cat or we would have brought him inside.”

Strange Behaviour

When Harrigan woke up the next morning, she expected to go downstairs and see Harley waiting at the backdoor for breakfast. However, when she got downstairs, Harley wasn’t standing at the door like he normally would be. At first, Harrigan thought it was strange since the elderly cat appeared for his meals without fail.

The Missing Cat

Harrigan wondered if Harley was still asleep outside in his cat house. Yet when she went outside, she saw that the house was empty. Harrigan was worried about her beloved feline friend but hoped Harley would be back later that day for his meal. Sadly, that never happened.

The Police Arrive

That morning, Harrigan heard a knock at her front door. When she answered, a police officer introduced himself and asked her if she were missing a cat. When Harrigan explained that she hadn’t been able to find Harley, who she’d cared for over the past two years, the officer explained the bad news.

The Bad News

Harley had been found by a neighbor but unfortunately was no longer alive. The officer explained that Harley had been discovered dead on a neighbor’s lawn. To make matters worse, Harley had been sickeningly mutilated and his body was left for everyone to see.

The Incision

“He wouldn’t have allowed anyone to do that so I don’t know how they got ahold of him,” Harrigan said. According to Erika Johnson, an officer with the Thurston County Animal Services, Harley was cut open from stern to genitals and his spine had been removed.

A Serial Cat Killer

According to Johnson, the police believed that the incision was done using a scalpel. They also explained that Harley’s injuries were exactly the same as six other cats that had been discovered across the state since February 2018. While they didn’t know who was behind the cat murders, they believed a serial cat killer was responsible.

The Killer’s Modus Operandi

Johnson said the cats that have been discovered all share several similarities in the way they’ve been killed. For that reason, they believe there is only one killer. She added that the cats show up in suburban areas not far from their owners’ homes. All have either been mutilated or have been sliced open. In some cases, the killer has removed and taken the spines of his victims. In other cases, the cats have had their organs removed and placed around their body.

On Display

In every case, the cats have all been put out on display for residents to see. “The animals were put on display after their deaths in a very public place,” Johnson told Q13. “That means they were left out in the open for people to find; intentionally.”

A Small Mistake

“This is not normal, and it’s very sick behavior,” Johnson told Q13. In every case, the killer has been extremely careful not to leave behind any evidence that could lead police to him or her. However, according to police, the killer has made a few small mistakes, including leaving a surgical glove near one of the cats’ bodies.

Two Days Later

Two days after Harley turned up mutilated on a neighbor’s lawn, another cat named Ollie was discovered a mile away. According to police, tests revealed that Ollie had been strangled to death before she was cut open and had her spine removed. They also discovered evidence that Ollie fought back. “Ollie fought for her life, using her claws to try to get away,” Johnson said.

The Rampage Continues

Now, police are having Ollie’s claws tested to see if they can find any DNA samples that might lead them to the killer. Since Harley and Ollie were found, several other cats have also turned up dead in suburbs around the state. In total, authorities have found 13 cats that they believe were killed by the serial cat killer. The latest murdered cat was discovered in Lacey, Washington in early September.

A Disturbing Sight

“This person is a sick, callous disgusting psychopath,” Paul DeTray told KOMO after finding the 12th cat. “To say the least, [it’s] a little gut-wrenching to see somebody’s beloved pet torn apart like that.” According to DeTray, he noticed a swarm of flies and bees and found the cat when he went to see what was attracting so many bugs. “When it actually happens and you find it, that’s a completely different story. It really hits home.”

A Red Flag

Since so many cats have turned up murdered and mutilated, the police have started taking the case seriously. According to officials, there is often a link between animal cruelty and violent and abusive behavior towards humans. The fear is that the serial cat killer may also be harming people or might move on to killing people soon if they haven’t already.

The Commonality

It’s historically been found that people who abuse humans in one way or the other have started out on animals. “I’ve prosecuted a number of psychopaths and killers, and one thing that is shockingly common … is animal abuse,” Steve Fogg, a former King County prosecuting attorney, told KIRO 7.

The Task Force

To find the killer as soon as possible, a 10-person task force has been set up in Thurston County. A former police officer with decades of experience with animal abuse cases has been tasked with leading the team, which also includes a homicide detective. According to officials, the killer faces up to two years in prison for each of his four-legged victims.

Warning the Public

Police still don’t know much about the identity of the killer, so they are suggesting that people keep a close eye on their pets and to keep their pets inside. Pasado’s Safe Haven, anti-cruelty organization and animal sanctuary, is also offering up a $53,000 reward to anyone with information that leads to the killer’s arrest.

Taking Back the Neighborhood

In the wake of the cat murders, local residents have become determined to help police catch the person responsible so that they can be put to justice for what they’ve done. At least two groups have formed to patrol their neighborhoods in the hopes of helping find the killer.

Police Hunt Suspect in Gruesome String of Household Pet Crimes is an article from: LifeDaily

In the early hours one morning a loud noise woke the neighbors of a mother and daughter. The incident was so unnerving that the authorities were called to investigate.

The mother loved her job as a wedding planner and treated every couple with the utmost love and respect. What turned out to be her last ever post on Facebook was heartbreaking for so many reasons. When police arrived, even they were shocked by the scene that faced them.

Goodnight Princess

Laura Mortimer Story — www.articlebio.com

Laura Mortimer, 31, and Ella Dalby, 11, were as close as any mother and daughter could be. It was Sunday night when Mortimer went to say goodnight to Ella who she assumed was getting ready for bed. When she opened her bedroom door, Ella wasn’t in bed at all but was sitting at her dressing table putting on makeup. Mortimer knew she had to take a picture and post it to Facebook; Ella was simply too adorable.

Irresistible Post

Mortimer lived with Ella and two younger daughters (Ella’s stepsisters) from her current marriage to Chris Boon. While the two younger children were staying elsewhere that night, Mortimer grabbed her phone and took a picture of Ella sitting at her vanity. When she uploaded it to her Facebook page, with the caption “Go to say goodnight and she’s there doing her makeup – such a princess,” she garnered a bunch of likes from her social media friends.

Loud Bang

At around 4:50 am the next day, neighbors were awoken by a loud bang from Mortimer’s house and immediately contacted emergency services. A neighbor, 20-year-old Phillica Tabanor, who lived next door spoke about the incident: “I wasn’t at home when it happened, but my mum called me this morning to say [something happened at the neighbor’s house].”

An Entrepreneur

When police arrived at the house they found both Mortimer and Ella dead at the scene. Mortimer’s father, Richard Mortimer, spoke to reporters about the sudden and tragic loss of his daughter and granddaughter. He told reporters that he failed to understand why anyone would want to murder his daughter, who founded her own wedding planning company called Sweet Beginnings. Calling Mortimer his “lollipop” and saying she was a “loving and caring mother,” Richard’s grief was clear to all.

In Shock

Richard hadn’t processed the tragedy that had befallen his family. “It’s not quite hit me yet,” he said. “I don’t know much about what has happened. … Ella had just started at Barnwood Parks School — she was just a beautiful little girl. I don’t know what would make anyone do a thing like that.”

Little Angels

After news got out about the deaths of the mother and daughter, friends noted that Mortimer had been through a difficult few months. When people reached out to her at the time, she thanked them for their support via social media: “When you get supportive random messages they lift you and make you realize who you are what you have achieved and that I don’t only help myself I help other people out there.”

Loving Life

Despite her difficulties, Mortimer loved life and always took the opportunity to share that sentiment with others and to remain positive. “Yes I’ve had another s*** year but bring it on nothing could ever bring me down … I absolutely love life,” she wrote at the time. But even more support for the family came flooding in after the tragic incident.

Rest in Peace

A close friend of the family, Amy Harris, wrote on Facebook after hearing the news about the deaths: “In such shock and completely gutted to hear the devastating news I have no words. Laura, I’m so sorry rest in peace to you and your daughter. This feels so wrong.” And there was even more heartfelt support for the family, also posted to social media.

Waste of Life

Sheryl Fish who worked together with Mortimer in the wedding industry had a message of her own. “Hug your loved ones closer today. RIP Laura and Ella. What a waste of life,” she wrote. While another colleague, Laura Bloom, also wrote, “RIP Laura & your daughter Ella! Absolutely tragic!!!!! Really feel for your other two little princesses now to be left without their mummy & big sister!”

Locals Confused

While a police tent had been erected at the house to carry out forensic tests, another neighbor, April McMillan, also spoke about the incident. “I woke up at 4:30 am this morning hearing a loud bang,” she explained. “I didn’t think anything of it because we’ve had road works around and there’s been lots of bangs, but this one was on its own. … I stayed awake for another two hours and didn’t hear anything more. There are lots of police about; it’s very shocking — I can’t believe it.”

Good Area

According to yet another neighbor from this tight-knit community, Kelly Fraser, “We feel shocked.” Fraser had to take an alternative route while walking her dog due to the police cordon. “It just seems so sad. This is not a bad area. You really feel for the people involved.”

In the Dark

For Mortimer’s brother, Bradley Warren, the incident is made worse by the fact that they are still in the dark, having been told almost nothing by police. “We haven’t been told anything about what’s happening,” Warren said. But he has his suspicions about what took place that night. He spoke to reporters about the top window of the house being wide open, suggesting a break in.

In the Middle

Warren explained further: “We live right in the middle of the cordon. At about 5 am there were police cars coming one by one. I noticed the top window of one of the houses was wide open.” This indicated that it may have been a home invasion gone wrong. The official police statement also revealed little about what had happened.

Arrest Made

Police went on to confirm that someone had been arrested in connection with the case. “A 28-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of the woman and the girl.” However, the police are still appealing for more information from the public. “Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Gloucestershire Constabulary on 101 quoting incident 73.”

Police Statement

Meanwhile, a spokesperson from the Gloucestershire Police released an official statement to the public: “At 4:50 am today, police were called to an address in Dexter Way, Gloucester where it was reported that two people had been seriously injured.” He continued, “A 31-year-old woman and an 11-year-old girl were declared dead at the scene.” But the most interesting part of that statement was yet to come.

Husband Charged

As is so often the case with such murders, the killer is someone close to the family. In this case, it’s allegedly from inside the family. Police eventually picked up Mortimer’s husband as the prime suspect.

In Court

The man charged with the double murder is 28-year-old Christopher Boon. He made an appearance for just three minutes at the Cheltenham Magistrates Court recently, which was packed with people interested in the case. Flanked by custody officers, Boon simply replied “Yes” when the clerk asked him to confirm his name. Then the charges were read aloud.

Two Offenses

The clerk said to Boon, “You are charged with two offenses, one that on May 28 in Gloucester you murdered Laura Boon, nee Mortimer, and also that you murdered Ella Dalby.” But the clerk then explained that the matter needed to be accelerated: “These matters must go to the Crown Court.”

No Indication

Boon was permitted to sit as prosecutor Jeremy Oliver told the court that the case needed to go before the Bristol Crown Court in the following days. When Boon’s defense attorney Ryan O’Donnell was asked if his client wished to make any indication of his pleas to the charges, O’Donnell said there was “no indication.”

Floral Tributes

Since the police cordons were removed from the house, numerous floral tributes have been left outside the house for the slain mother and daughter. Meanwhile, according to the Mirror, Mortimer’s mother wrote: “To my very beautiful daughter Laura and beautiful granddaughter Ella. You will always be in my heart and be loved and missed very much. Lots of love, sleep tight, Mum and Hen.” The case is ongoing pending trial at the Bristol Crown Court.

Mother and Daughter Receive Tons of Support From Neighbors and Social Media After Tragic Crime is an article from: LifeDaily

Imagine working in temperatures exceeding 110 degrees for more than eight hours at a time. In the 1960s, the situation was exactly this for many migrant workers in the U.S., and it was one that many American legislators wanted to alleviate.

It was 1965 when U.S. Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz announced that he wanted to recruit 20,000 American high school students to replace the hundreds of thousands of Mexican agricultural workers currently laboring under the ill-fated Bracero program. It was a novel idea, though an ultimately an ill-conceived one.

Bracero Program

The Bracero program began during World War II as an agreement between the United States and Mexican governments. Mexican men would come into the U.S. to pick harvests. Unfortunately, these migrant workers would suffer terrible living and working conditions and wage thefts. Thanks to the civil rights work of Cesar Chavez, the act ended in 1964.

Farmers Against

The migrant workers’ problems were over for the time being, but the plight of American farmers was just beginning. The Mexican laborers had done the jobs American workers didn’t want to do. The end of the Bracero program meant that crops would rot in the fields before they were picked. It’s a problem that’s echoed today, but back then, the U.S. government had a plan.

Strong Lads

This is where Secretary Wirtz comes in. He looked at the labor shortage on the farms and the lack of summer jobs American high school students seemed to have, especially in some of the more rural states. It was a perfect match. Wirtz would create a program that paid and provided cheap labor for American farmers.

The A-Team

He didn’t want nerds or geeks, or even girls, Wirtz wanted athletes. He wanted athletic young men who could do the work. He called the project “A-Team,” which stood for Athletes in Temporary Employment as Agricultural Manpower. It seemed like a pretty solid solution at first glance, but issues arose almost from the start.

Nationwide Campaign

The Department of Labor, the Department of Agriculture, and the President’s Council on Physical Fitness announced their A-Team plans over the radio and in magazines. They even got 1964 Heisman Trophy winner John Huarte to vouch for the program. Their goal was to lure as many high school boys as they could to join.

A Positive Light

Newspapers across the country showcased their local A-Teams with pride. People were signing up left and right, carried in buses out to American farmsteads. For as many media outlets who were on-board with the program, there were also a few skeptics. Many of whom cited that just because one is being paid for work, doesn’t mean they are going to enjoy doing it.

Skepticism

The Detroit Free Press was one such skeptic. The way they saw it, “Dealing with crops which grow close to the ground requires a good deal stronger motive than money or the prospect of a good workout.” They weren’t wrong, if the migrant workers had fought to get out of that very vocation, then what type of job were American students signing up for?

All Over America

Nevertheless, Wirtz’s scheme was strong from the get-go. About 18,000 American teenagers signed up to join the A-Team, though only about 3,300 were sent to pick crops. It was June when buses of students arrived on farms in California and Texas; two of the hottest states in the county.

Why Not?

One of those young men was Randy Carter, who would eventually become a member of the Director’s Guild of America. At the time though, he was a junior at the University of San Diego High School, an all-boys Catholic school in Southern California. He and 25 of his classmates signed up for the A-Team.

No Athletes

Interestingly enough, almost none of the recruits from Carter’s school were actually athletes. The coaches at his school didn’t want to send their best players to pick crops, they needed to get their practice days in. It was yet another indication that Wirtz’s program had problems right from the start.

Crazy Temperatures

The work began at dawn before the heat of the unforgiving sun could begin to bear down upon the young workers. The A-Team students went out into the field and felt the wind blowing across the plains, but then the sun came over the horizon. By the time it reached 9 am, the thermometer had skyrocketed to 110 degrees.

Bad Touch

The farmers provided garden gloves for picking cantaloupe, which have sandpaper-like hairs on their surface. Unfortunately, the gloves only lasted about four hours. Student workers received $1.40 an hour for their services. And they earned an additional five cents for every crate filled with 30 to 36 melons.

Terrible Conditions

Not only were the working conditions bad, so were the living conditions. The old army barracks where Carter and his classmates stayed were the same ones that the Mexican migrant workers had lived in. The barracks had no insulation, no air conditioning, and even once the heat of the day had died down, nighttime temperatures were still often in the 90s.

Army Barracks

Breakfast for the A-Team was basically beans, eggs, and bologna sandwiches. They worked six days a week and had Sundays off. However, they were not allowed to return home during their stint as farm workers. They were forced to remain on the farm, living in the old army barracks and discarded internment buildings used for Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Strikes

As you might expect, these problems were not limited to California. Similar issues arose nationwide. Hundreds of A-Team workers in California’s Salinas Valley quit after two weeks in the program. Some others worked only a few days before they staged strikes or went home.

Locked Away

Evidence of the grand experiment was sealed away, which is why many people have never actually heard about it. Regardless of the secrecy surrounding it, however, it represents an important lesson about the conditions that farm workers across the country face, even today. Stony Brook University history professor Lori A. Flores did research on the program for her 2016 book, “Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement.”

A Full-On Fiasco

Flores’ award-winning 2016 book reveals an important reality of the A-Team fiasco. “It’s not about work ethic for undocumented workers. It’s about the fact that this labor is not meant to be done under such bad conditions and bad wages,” she said.

Atrocious Conditions

She argues that the high school students who were involved in the program had, as she puts it, “The words and whiteness to say what they were feeling and could act out in a way that Mexican-Americans who had been living this way for decades simply couldn’t.” Neither the farmers nor the government could mask the conditions any longer.

Randy Today

Today, Randy Carter is a member of the Director’s Guild of America with a number of accolades in his long career in Hollywood. He’s worked as a first assistant director on Seinfeld, the Blues Brothers, and the Godfather II. But he’ll never forget the few weeks he spent working as a member of the ill-fated A-Team.

They Understand

“We know the work they do,” Carter explained in an interview with NPR. “And they do it all their lives, not just one summer for a couple of months. And they raise their families on it. [Whenever] anyone ever talks bad on them, I always think, ‘Keep talking, buddy, because I know what the real deal is.'”

The Story of When the US Government Replaced Migrant Workers With High School Students is an article from: LifeDaily

Most mothers, including animal moms, will do almost anything to protect their babies. But sometimes those measures go a bit too far and can end up hurting the offspring, as was the case for a mother of 11 puppies.

In the following story, a stray dog gave birth to 11 puppies in someone’s backyard. To shield her babies against a bad storm, the mother dug a very deep hole in the ground and placed the puppies inside. It was so deep in fact, that the puppies couldn’t escape. It took experienced rescuers and a lot of patience to get to the puppies. Here’s the dramatic story…

Rainy Day in Michigan

The Michigan Humane Society (MHS) doesn’t usually have to deal with much inclement weather as the state’s average annual rainfall is 33 inches, six under the national average. So on this day they weren’t exactly anticipating the situation that was about to unfold.

Michigan Humane Society

According to the MHS website, it’s the oldest (founded in 1977) and largest nonprofit animal welfare organization in the state: “Each year, the MHS achieves 100 percent adoption of more than 10,000 healthy and treatable animals.”

Their Mission

Their mission is “to improve and save lives through compassionate care, community engagement and advocacy for animals.” Then on that fateful day, the MHS received a call from a neighbor who heard some puppies barking helplessly in a yard, and they knew the situation was serious.

The MHS Arrives

Being that there was severe rain in the area prompting a flash flood warning, rescuers knew the situation was dire. As reported by ABC 7 News, a man living at a home nearby heard the puppies crying and called for help. When two MHS rescue workers, Chris and Pam, arrived, they counted 11 puppies buried underground.

Facebook Live

In a rather unusual move, the rescue mission was broadcast on Facebook Live. The CEO of the MHS, Matthew Pepper, said that streaming the ordeal was “a unique opportunity to show people what their support makes possible, and what we do every day.”

Incredible Rescue

In a video streaming for thousands of people to see, Chris mentioned that the puppies were trapped inside a whole that the mother had dug. He believed that the dogs’ mother buried them to protect them from the bad weather. At that moment, it became clear that no foul play was involved, bringing a sigh of relief to the many viewers watching.

Planning the Rescue

The rescuers had to work fast to rescue the puppies, so they set a trap to help. Chris said that the puppies couldn’t escape the hole so they might have to crawl in there and get them. He also noted that the mother had been running loose on the streets, so they set a trap to catch her as well.

Rescuing the First Puppy

When Cris arrived back in the backyard, he said he couldn’t find the mother yet, but that the puppies needed to be rescued immediately. Once the ground got too muddy and wet, the animals could likely get pushed even further in the ground and even die. He saved the first puppy, but he still had ten more to go.

A Deep Hole

Chris got down on the ground so that he could see further into the narrow hole. He then handed two more puppies to his colleague Pam, who placed the dogs into a cage. “Wow, this thing is deep. I can’t believe how deep this thing is,” Chris said. All the while, during the video, you could hear cries from the puppies deep beneath the ground.

Out of the Rain

He used a flashlight to try and spot the remaining puppies, but he couldn’t. “Ok, I think we might have to dig a little bit. I don’t know which way to dig, it looks like it goes all the way back here,” Chris said. In the meantime, Pam took the three puppies into their van so they didn’t get soaking wet.

Digging Carefully

Chris began to experience problems while digging, being that if he dug too fast, he could accidentally hurt one of the puppies with the shovel. Using extreme caution, Chris knelt on the ground and carefully dug while saying, “There’s a lot of storms coming in today, where they’re saying there’s some flood warnings. This [hole] goes down and out so if that thing fills up, those puppies aren’t going to make it.”

Keeping the Family Together

“They’re on the borderline of where you can take them out without mom, but I’d rather take them together [as a family],” he continued. Both Chris and Pam knew they had to work fast and as Chris dug a deeper hole, he heard more cries from the puppies. Thankfully, he pulled another puppy from the hole and handed it to Pam to place into the cage.

Stuck in the Muddy Cave

“I could see them, it’s like there’s a little cave under there,” Chris said. But he didn’t want to dig too far out since he could disturb the cave and it would literally cave in. Chris said, “I could hear them, I just can’t see them, but they’re back there.” He then began speaking to the puppies in an attempt to lure them out. “ Hi guys, it’s your Uncle Chris, come out and play.”

Using Food

“Come here muddy puppy, I can see you,” he continued. The dynamic duo (Chris and Pam) put some food at the opening, hoping the puppies would move forward and they can lure them out that way. Pam put an open can of wet food as close to the hole’s opening as possible and waited for the puppies to gather around.

Another Plan

By then, they had rescued five puppies out of the hole and Chris said that he could see at least three more. However, this meant that there were still three more that he couldn’t see. “They’re just out of reach,” he said. Finally, Chris grabbed another pup and handed it to Pam.

Racing Against Time

As the rest of the puppies whimpered, they worried whether or not they’d be able to get all of them out in time. Worst of all, there were still no signs of their mother. Chris said that if the mother showed up, “Her first intention could be to protect the puppies and this could cause me some serious injury.”

Going in Head-First

As he continued pulling the puppies out, Chris joked, “It’d be nice to have longer arms. Alright Pam, get ready to grab my feet.” As he lowered himself into the hole, the puppies’ crying got louder and louder. With every dog they rescued, they prayed that the mother would walk into the trap that they made for her.

Catching Mom

As Pam went to their truck to grab a tool to better catch the puppies, Chris finally spotted the mother in a neighbor’s yard. Just as he did, another puppy peeked its adorable head out. He brought the puppy to safety and while waiting for another flashlight, Chris walked over to the mother’s trap. They covered the cage with food and sheets so the mother would see it as a safe place, although she still wouldn’t go in.

Never Giving Up

“We’ll try to come out every hour on the hour to grab her if she’s in there. If we don’t get her today, we’ll set the trap tomorrow. We’ll keep trying, we’re not going to give up.” While they waited for the mother, Chris continued reaching in the deep hole for the rest of the puppies. Two proved to be very talkative, one letting out a yelp that Pam heard all the way from the car.

A Successful Rescue

It was a joyful moment when Chris announced that they had rescued ten puppies. Finally, as Chris grabbed the last one, while covered in mud, he joked, “My washer is going to hate me.” In the end, all eleven puppies including their mother were safely evacuated. By the end of the day, they were cleaned up at the shelter, received vaccinations, and went on to recover from the ordeal, all thanks to the Chris and Pam of the MHS.

Two Michigan Humane Society Heroes Save 11 Puppies from Raging Thunderstorm is an article from: LifeDaily

Dogs have long been called man’s best friend, however, our four legged companions were once wild creatures. As a result, they are still capable of inflicting huge amounts of damage when provoked.

For years, a dog lover worked hard to dispel rumors that pit bulls were violent and dangerous dogs and used her sweet, gentle pit bull as a prime example of their kind nature. However, she quickly changed her tune when her constant companion suddenly snapped one day.

A Pit Bull Advocate

For most of the past 10 years, a Florida woman was a huge advocate for pit bull breeds. She acknowledged they were extremely strong animals capable of inflicting harm, but she truly believed that the breed wasn’t inherently dangerous. Instead, she believed it came down to how the dogs were raised.

Nature vs. Nurture

If the dog was raised in violent conditions and trained to be aggressive, the dog would likely be dangerous. However, the woman genuinely believed that pit bull breeds were perfectly safe dogs to own if they were raised in loving homes by owners that cared for and trained them properly. According to the woman, her own dog was living proof.

Living Proof

More than 10 years ago, Yasmin Adam brought home a tiny pit bull mix puppy that she named Sir Hinkles. They bonded instantly, and Sir Hinkles was a constant source of love and companionship. And when people told Adam that pit bulls were dangerous, she used Sir Hinkles as a prime example that pit bulls could be amazing pets.

A Gentle Companion

“I didn’t even have to put him on a leash because he was such a good-natured dog,” Adam told The Daily Mail. “I loved him so much. He slept with me in my bed, he never was out of line. He was always so gentle with children and really friendly. He never snapped at cats or little kittens, he never touched a kitten.”

The Big Move

However, that all changed when Adam moved to Florida. During the move she stayed with a relative. Of course, her three dogs accompanied her. Then, on December 5, 2016, Adam was home alone with her dogs when they started to play fight each other.

The Fight

Without thinking, Adam, who was 43 years old at the time, went to break up the fight. However, when she did, Sir Hinkles turned and suddenly started barking at her. “I guess there was tension after the other dogs were fighting,” Adam said.

The Attack Begins

“Next thing I know he jumps up and bites my ear,” Adam said. “Sir Hinkles went back in his cage then. … But all I can think of was that he got a taste of blood because he came right back out and bit me on my right arm.”

Complete Shock

According to Adam, she knew that Sir Hinkles was attacking her, but she strangely couldn’t feel any pain at the time because she was in shock. At first, Adam desperately tried to get her pit bull to stop attacking her. She thought that he would realize who he was attacking, but that never happened.

Losing Hope

Adam failed to push Sir Hinkles off of her and none of her screams and commands stopped him. So for the next nine minutes, Sir Hinkles viciously attacked Adam and tore the flesh from her arms, body, and face. In that moment, Adam truly thought she was going to die.

Nine Endless Minutes

“After that, he attacked me on and off for nine minutes. The dog ripped all the meat off my lower left arm, and that’s gone now,” Adam recalled. “I just stopped fighting the dog. I figured I was going to die. He kept trying to pull the bone out of my arm.”

A Horrific Discovery

Adam likely would have died that December afternoon if it wasn’t for her 17-year-old nephew. According to officials, the 17-year-old came home late that afternoon and found his aunt on the ground. She was laying in a pool of her own blood and Sir Hinkles was still mauling her.

The 911 Call

“It’s attacking her right now, it’s killing her,” Adam’s nephew screamed at the 911 emergency operator. “She’s screaming right now, it’s chewing her arms.” While the 17-year-old described the scene, the operator could hear Adam screaming in agony in the background.

Help Arrives

“What do you want me to do?” the teen repeated frantically during the 911 call. “Let her go!” he screamed at the dog. Shortly after, first responders arrived at the apartment. Sir Hinkles was still gnawing at Adam’s bones, and they could hear her agonized screams from outside.

A Sickening Sight

“They get there and they can hear the attack,” Maj. Rick Rocco, a spokesman of the Lauderhill Police Department, told The Sun Sentinel. “They open the door and the officer sees the woman on the ground in the living room being attacked by the dog.”

Lethal Force

According to officials, an officer tried to strike Sir Hinkles and get him to stop attacking Adam, but it did nothing. “That didn’t work, so she tried her pepper spray,” Rocco said. “That didn’t work [either], so finally she had to resort to her firearm and shoot the dog to get it off of the woman.”

Critical Condition

Police quickly dragged Adam out of the apartment and closed the dogs inside. They would have to carefully get the dog out, but their first priority was getting Adam to the hospital as she was in critical condition. After being rushed to Broward Health Medical Center, she underwent immediate surgery to treat her various injuries.

Fighting for Her Arm

After surgery, Adam was still in critical condition. Over the next three weeks, doctors at the hospital worked as hard as they could to save her arms. However, by the third week, it was clear that Adam’s left arm, which sustained the most damage during the attack, couldn’t be saved. “It was the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Adam said.

The Only Way Forward

“I could see the bone clear as day,” Adam remembered. “Eventually, they amputated it from just above my elbow … I’m just working on getting my right arm functional again. He ripped that arm apart too, but not as badly. I can’t move my wrist and I have limited movement in my fingers. To be honest I thought I was going to die so to have just lost my arm I feel lucky.”

The Dogs’ Fate

In the aftermath of the attack, authorities euthanized Sir Hinkles, who survived being shot. Adam ended up staying in the hospital for the next six months while she was recovering from the attack. During that time, her two other dogs were put down. Adams was sad that she couldn’t save them, but she also didn’t trust them after what happened.

An Important Warning

After the attack, Adam decided to share what happened to her with the public to warn them about how dangerous pit bulls can be. “I loved Hinkles, I had him for nine years but he turned on me in nine minutes. Now I warn people against these types of dogs.”

Pit Bull Lover Changes Tune After ‘Gentle’ Dog Suddenly Snaps is an article from: LifeDaily

The controversial issue of police brutality has rocked the core of our nation, unequivocally dividing public opinion. There are those who are outraged, calling for dramatic reforms, and police accountability. Others have become numb, turning a blind eye to police violence and deadly use of force.

In particular, some call the Providence, Rhode Island, police a “third-shift terror squad”; a band of officers who patrol south Providence at night and, countless residents claim, strike fear into citizens by inexplicably harassing, and in some cases, assaulting them.

Tension in the Air

Third-shift Terror Squad Story — www.sprudge.com

Residents of Providence say they can almost cut the tension with a knife between themselves and the police officers who are meant to protect them. The blacks and Latinos of Providence claim they are continuously targeted by the police for no legitimate reason, inciting unnecessary fear in their daily lives.

A Drive in His Neighborhood

In July of 2015, a black former police cadet, Charm, went for a drive in his neighborhood to grab some pizza for himself and his family. But, this drive would be unlike any other. Charm’s drive didn’t end with a hot pizza pie, but with his body slammed against a car.

Sound of Sirens

The pizzeria was close to Charm’s house and a place he frequented with his family. He’d been following the speed limit, enjoying the relaxing evening with a light breeze gently hitting his face. With the pizza in tow, as Charm attempted to park near his house, the unexpected sound of sirens could be heard from close by.

Rookie Officers

At first, Charm wasn’t certain the sirens were actually meant for him, but when the police car moved close to his car, he realized he was the actual target. Confused and alarmed, Charm asked the rookie officers why he had been stopped when he had done nothing wrong. The officers told Charm they had stopped him for a broken light.

The Arrest

In a matter of minutes, Charm was charged with disorderly conduct, assault and resisting arrest. “I told them, ‘I’m a father. My kids are up there in the window. Please don’t disrespect me in front of my children.'” Not only would Charm feel utterly humiliated in front of his neighbors and family, but this had not been the first encounter with the arresting officers.

Former Classmates

Charm, a 35-year-old barber and personal trainer who has a criminal justice degree, knew the men who had arrested him. These men were his former classmates at the police academy. In 2014, after Charm claimed he was bullied by instructors and fellow trainees, he had been dismissed of his duties.

A Bitter Man?

Steven Nelson, the city lawyer who prosecuted Charm after his arrest, argued during the non-jury trial that Charm “was obstinate, he was defiant and he was bitter.” He claimed that when Charm saw his former classmates approach his car, he was furious because “they made it and he did not.”

A Wrongful Arrest

Charm denied the claims by the prosecutor and claimed that the officers disliked him from their days in the academy. Charm accused one of the officers, Patrolman Matthew Sheridan, of calling another ex-classmate during the arrest to mock and laugh at Charm for the situation he was in. Judge Madeline Quirk acquitted Charm and admonished the officers for “huge” inconsistencies in their testimony.

Zero Accountability

None of the officers involved in Charm’s arrest faced any sort of disciplinary action for the holes in their stories. The lack of accountability may have given these men the chance to abuse their power in the streets of Providence.

Cell Phone Footage

The issue of police brutality is not a new and trending issue, but has been a continuous integral part of our history. The major difference now is the inclusion of video footage, particularly cell phone recordings that capture incidents in their raw state. In Providence, cell phone recordings by bystanders and victims themselves are often used to tell stories of brutality and unnecessary force by the police.

Another Incident

After the encounter with Charm, a video surfaced in 2015 showing Sheridan beating a disabled Latino nightclub employee. In the video footage, Sheridan can be seen applying excessive force towards a man. But with a slap on the wrist, the city gave him only six months of departmental probation and retrained him on the use of force.

And Another …

Sheridan attracted attention yet again when he arrested black writer and performance artist Christopher Johnson. At the time, Johnson was a candidate to be the state’s poet laureate. Sheridan arrested him on charges of disorderly conduct, assault and resisting arrest. Johnson later wrote an essay titled “Walking While Black,” which alleged that Sheridan grabbed him and threw him against a cruiser.

Excessive Force

Charm’s story is one of many that have the same common factors: white police officers using brutality or force against colored or Latino citizens. A few weeks later, the same Providence officers were captured on a cellphone video grabbing a Latina woman by the hair and throwing a man to the ground. The city said another officer from Charm’s encounter had pulled the woman’s hair, received a written reprimand, retraining and a one-day suspension.

A Terror Squad

Charm’s lawyer Shannah Kurland, who also represents Johnson and other Providence defendants, called the officers the “third-shift terror squad” and said the incidents “show a pattern of behavior that is completely unacceptable for any person, let alone one who is paid with our tax dollars to carry a gun.”

Outcry for Reform

Cellphone videos that surfaced last year showing questionable use of force against Providence residents have spurred calls for reform and a push for an ordinance banning racial profiling by police. But, Providence’s top police officials defended the department’s record and said they have worked to improve relations and discipline and retrain officers. More than 75 percent of the nearly 400-member force is white, versus 36 percent of the city’s 179,000 residents.

A Diverse Academy

“We’re not perfect, but we’ve had a tremendous record of our use of restraint as a police department,” Police Chief Hugh Clements Jr. said last month during a speech, welcoming the city’s most diverse class of cadets to the academy. “We’re proud of our record, we’re proud of what we’ve done, and we anticipate we’re about to get better.”

A Heated Battle

It is apparent that a fierce battle is brewing between the community of Providence and the police officers who are meant to safeguard their lives. Community activists accuse the police of racial profiling, unnecessary physical force and the arrests of black and Latino citizens. On the other hand, the Providence Police Department justify their actions in response to an alarming surge of crime.

Police Everywhere

Community members are claiming that the police are following them, taking photos of the youth, and putting them in gang databases when there is no criminal intent or involvement to begin with. “The further you go down Broad Street, the more and more police officers you see. That’s no coincidence. The further you go down Broad Street, the more black and people of color there are,” said activist Vanessa Flores-Maldonado.

Necessary Police Presence

Sgt. Robert Boehm, head of the Providence police union, said the poor and heavily black and Hispanic neighborhood has generated a hike in police calls, and that often translates into more citizen complaints against police. He said the area has had loud parties and “large crowds not cooperating with the police.”

What’s Next?

In order for the city to combat the increasing level of complaints against officers, Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare said the city is planning on expanding the use of police body cameras so that “we can see the entire story and not just snippets” on the Internet. It is crucial that police protect themselves and citizens against any threats, but it does not allow anyone free reign to terrorize communities into fear and oppression.

Providence Residents Claim Police Officers Terrorize Neighborhoods and Incite Fear is an article from: LifeDaily

The idea of young love can be more accurately described as naive love. Before truly getting to know someone, it’s nearly impossible to predict what that person is capable of.

When a young nursing student started noticing patterns of physical and verbal abuse from her boyfriend of two years, she may have given him the benefit of the doubt. But on a dangerous night, her naive optimism would offer him a chance for a brutal attack that she’ll remember for the rest of her life.

Prince Charming

When Carleigh Hager met Ryan Cameron, she thought that she had found her very own Prince Charming. He was tall, handsome, and treated her with respect. They were inseparable and their love for each other showed through in all their interactions and on social media. As far as anyone could see, Hager and Cameron were meant for one another.

Long Night

That all changed on the night that the they returned from a wedding one Saturday night. Without warning, he launched into a furious tirade against her. Even though their friends were visiting, it was clear from Cameron’s verbal abuse that he didn’t care who heard him. He even invited his friends to “fornicate” with his girlfriend if they wanted.

Head to Bed

In an effort to cut off the beginnings of what would no doubt be a nasty fight, Hager decided to go to bed. But that only made things worse. After she’d fallen asleep, Cameron charged into their bedroom and locked the door. He throttled her in her sleep before their friends busted into the room, tore him off her, and pulled him out.

Reached and Ripped

Hager ran to the bathroom, choking and coughing up blood. Before she could clear her head, Cameron was on her again. He had broken free from his friends and locked them out of the house. She screamed and was met by his hands pushing into her face, reaching for her tongue.

Suffocation

Hager felt something tear and tasted blood in her mouth. She coughed and sputtered, trying to scream when suddenly, Cameron plugged up her nose. He tried to suffocate her and no one was there to save her.

Locked Out

Meanwhile, their friends had already called the police. They recognized that this was no mere lovers’ quarrel. Hager was going lightheaded. She didn’t know what was going to happen or why Cameron lost control. She thought about their relationship and all the things she’d taken for granted, then passed out.

Handcuffed

When she came to, she felt herself being carried out of the house on a stretcher. The officers asked her if she remembered what happened to her. She couldn’t remember much, but it would come back to her later. She was taken to Eskenazi Hospital to recover.

Hospitalized

According to Hager, Cameron had become increasingly violent in the months leading up to the attack. She had bruises and bite marks all over her body from him, which indicated a history of physical abuse.

Recent Developments

They had been together for two years before the abuse began. The incident after the wedding wasn’t the first time he yelled at her or hit her. In fact, there were times that she recalled him calling her names or talking down to her until she cried.

No Warning

Her mother and sister didn’t know that anything was wrong. Neither did any of the couple’s friends. As far as anyone outside the relationship knew, the two were happy as could be. Their Facebook and Instagram accounts both reflected a loving couple without any problems. But they didn’t see the evidence hiding beneath the surface.

A Pattern Emerges

Hager recalled physical and verbal abuse. She knew that she should leave, but she was afraid to go. Oftentimes when she tried to break up with him, he would threaten her dog’s life and she was too embarrassed to tell her family the truth.

She’ll be Fine

Hager’s mother Amy Ballard spoke to Fox News about her daughter’s condition after the incident. “Because she’s such a beautiful person inside and out. Her strength and beauty are inside and the scars will heal and in time so will her heart and I’m incredibly proud of you,” she said. Nevertheless, life would not be easy for the abuse victim.

Three Months of Terror

There was also the pain of wrongfully believing that the two would spend the rest of their lives together. Obviously, that is no longer the case, but in the three months since the attack, Hager was no closer to returning to normal life. She still had a scar over her left eyebrow and no sense of taste after reconstructive surgery on her tongue.

Living in Fear

Her physical scars were bad enough, but her mental scars were just beginning to take their toll. Even three months after the event, Hager had not returned to work. She couldn’t even bring herself to go to the grocery store. She was so scared of running into Cameron that she didn’t want to go out at all.

Help Her Heal

Hager’s brutal injuries and mounting medical bills eventually caught the attention of a sympathetic spirit. Teka Abner, the co-founder and director of children’s hospital outreach at Miracle Fundraising LLC heard her story and wanted to organize a benefit in her honor. All of the money they raised would go towards Hager’s medical expenses.

Not Much

Abner spoke to USA Today and told them that, “I wanted to help, and there was nothing to do but this. You can’t say anything right. But to throw a party in her honor … she’s been smiling ever since she stepped out of the limo.” It was that smile that gave Hager and her family the hope they needed to push through. That, and word of Cameron’s fate.

Jail Time

When he was first taken by the police, Cameron had been jailed for multiple felonies but made bail and was released. He was charged with aggravated battery and strangulation and eventually plead guilty to the crime. He received six years in a federal penitentiary, three years home detention, and two years probation.

Be Aware

Today, the nursing student has opted to tell this story as a sign to others. She wants people to be mindful of when an abuser is lying. “You have to tell somebody,” she said. “You can’t be embarrassed. You can’t be ashamed. You have to tell somebody because I almost died and it can happen.”

Expose Them

Hager’s sister weighed in on the topic of domestic violence. In 2016, she spoke to USA Today saying, “People don’t want to talk about domestic violence, but it’s happening everywhere. We don’t want this to be swept under the rug, we want to expose this for the sickly taboo subject that it is … Carleigh’s case was particularly horrific, and I think that’s what grabs people.”

Worrying Statistic

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence states that more than 10 million women and men are abused by an intimate partner each year. Many of these people don’t report their abuse, for whatever reasons. But if Hager’s story is any indication, then you need to tell someone, don’t be afraid, there are people willing to help.

Indiana Nursing Student Survives Brutal Attack After Boyfriend Loses Control is an article from: LifeDaily

Arizona has self-defense laws that give people the right to defend themselves if they feel they are threatened. The threatened person will be justified in either threatening or using physical force against someone if it reasonable, proportional, and immediately necessary to do so.

The following story highlights this law in full effect when a complete stranger used deadly force to save a cop’s life. While people have different opinions about what was the right decision in this matter, the man who pulled the trigger felt justified in doing so. Here’s what happened.

Drug Addict

A 37-year-old man, who was believed to be in the United States illegally was also known to many as a methamphetamine (crystal meth) user. Despite Leonard Penuelas-Escobar previously trying to enter the U.S. in 2005, and being turned away, he continued to live in Glendale for at least one year and a half.

Illegally Living In The United States

According to AZ Central news, Penuelas-Escobar had no criminal history and was a former federal police officer in Mexico. On one Thursday night in 2017, Penuelas-Escobar was driving a vehicle at a high speed when it rolled over. Since he was wearing a seatbelt, he did not incur any serious injuries in the crash, but the woman certainly did.

The Passenger

The woman, identified as Vanessa Monique Lopez-Ruiz, 23, was not wearing her seatbelt, so she was thrown from the vehicle, with deadly force. According to Frank Milstead, Arizona Department of Public Safety director, the woman was from Phoenix and was also a known methamphetamine user. Lopez-Ruiz had a criminal history involving possession of drugs and shoplifting and there were multiple warrants out for her arrest at the time of the accident.

A Horrible Night

She and Penuelas-Escobar were believed to be a couple and Penuelas-Escobar had recently been kicked out of his apartment for doing and selling drugs. For this reason, they were staying in Salome, and it’s believed they were heading there when they crashed. Salome is about 45 miles northwest of the where the accident took place.

Impaired Judgement

Milstead told AZ Central that the motive of the crash is a “big unknown.” “I’m gonna guess that he was impaired. They were both known meth users. You can surmise that maybe there were hallucinations… you can surmise that he was frustrated that his girlfriend was mortally injured in this collision and people wouldn’t stop (to help them),” he said.

Fatal Crash

Penuelas-Escobar rolled the vehicle after being hit, which ejected Lopez-Ruiz from the car and killed her. He then shot a passing car and that driver called the police. Other drivers saw what happened and called police after seeing Penuelas-Escobar dragging the woman’s body out of the road while holding a gun.

Intercepted By Penuelas-Escobar

Meanwhile, State Trooper Edward Andersson was responding to a call about a female victim, thrown from a car. When he showed up at the scene, he “saw a male subject kneeling and holding a female in his arms,” Andersson told CNN. So he blocked the slow lane with his car, set out flares and called for a medical helicopter. But when he returned to the victim, the man was missing.

Letting His Anger Out On An Innocent Man

“I scan with my flashlight and I found him standing in the emergency lane. I could tell he already had his weapon pointed at me.” The man, Penuelas-Escobar, wasn’t a victim at all and he was the shooter who motorists reported to police, but Andersson didn’t know this at the time. “I would try to get my Taser out,” Andersson said. “But every time I would do that, he would strike me in the head, and pound my head on the pavement.”

Shooting An Officer

Penuelas-Escobar said something in Spanish to Andersson and then shot him once in the upper right shoulder. By that point, the bullet in his shoulder paralyzed his arm and prevented him from reaching for his own weapon. It was 4:30 in the morning and the road along Interstate 10 near Tonopah, Arizona, was dark and desolate.

Beating Him

There was no one else around other than Penuelas-Escobar, who shot Andersson, and the injured female companion. And the attack wasn’t over. Andersson’s gun was empty and Penuelas-Escobar charged at him, striking him again with the weapon and bashing his head into the pavement. “I kicked him into the fast lane hoping that a car would come by and hit him,” Andersson told CNN. “But it didn’t work.”

Who Pulled The Trigger?

Andersson rolled onto his right side and shielded his weapon from the attacker. “I knew if he got my gun it’d be all over right then,” he said. But then, Andersson heard a voice and heard gunshots. The attacker laid dead in front of him and Andersson was alive. But he wondered who shot Penuelas-Escobar and in turn saved his own life.

Former Felon

He would learn that a former felon, Thomas Yoxall, happened to be driving by the scene, seeing the man on top of Andersson. Yoxall was a lifelong hunter who begged a judge to reinstate his rights, allowing him to carry a gun again. That morning, on January 12, 2017, Yoxall thought he’d be taking pictures, as he was a photographer heading for a conference in Anaheim, California.

The Last Thing He Expected That Morning

He had just begun the five-hour-long drive Interstate 10 when a patrol car sped past him. “I was thinking, not a good way to start the morning with someone getting pulled over,” Yoxall told CNN. He saw the flashing lights once as he sipped his coffee and then again as he approached mile marker 84.

Intervening

As Yoxall drove by the scene, he saw the man beating Andersson in a savage way, “just fist after fist.” Yoxall pulled over, took his legal firearm from the center console of his pickup truck and exited his vehicle on the highway. “I yell out to the suspect to stop, I said ‘get off him!’” Yoxall told CNN. “His facial expression, the look in his eye was ‘evil’ if I had to put a word on it.”

Taking Action

Penuelas-Escobar refused to stop and continued beating Andersson. “I hear a voice…ask me if I needed help,” Andersson recalled. “I said ‘yes, I do.’” Penuelas-Escobar quickly told Andersson to “shut up!” and Yoxall moved to his left to ensure that Andersson wasn’t in the line of fire.

Shooting Penuelas-Escobar

Penuelas-Escobar resumed his assault as Andersson bled from his head and Yoxall knew he had to take action. The first shot struck Penuelas-Escobar in the chest, and the second, in his head. The attack was over and Penuelas-Escobar was dead, while Andersson headed to the hospital to receive surgery and more than 100 staples and stitches.

Saving An Officer’s Life

Doctors were able to stabilize him and from his hospital bed, Andersson realized he’d probably be dead if it wasn’t for Yoxall. “As much as I fought, at one point I probably couldn’t have gone on anymore,” Andersson told CNN. “I wouldn’t be here if not for him.” If the attack happened two decades ago, things may have ended differently.

Things Could Have Been Different

At that time, Yoxall was a different man. He was charged with theft in 2000 but the case was pleaded down to a misdemeanor in 2003, allowing him to reinstate his gun rights. “God chose to put me in that place at that moment,” Yoxall said of the encounter with Andersson. “I just can’t see an evil like that perpetuated without intervening.”

A Lifelong Bond

Even with Andersson’s arm in a sling, he still found a way to embrace Yoxall every time they meet. In the weeks following the shooting, the pair has met a few times, forging what they believe is “always going to be a bond.” “And not just between me and him, but between my family and him, too,” Andersson added.

No Regrets

Andersson knows that lives were lost that day but he hopes people won’t judge Yoxall for pulling the trigger. “I hope people understand that he had to do what he had to do to save somebody else’s life,” Andersson said. Yoxall admits that he has no regrets but that it’s “hard to relive sometimes.”

Armed Passerby Happens to See State Trooper in Danger and Saves His Life is an article from: LifeDaily