Man Connected to Boston Marathon Bombers Is Shot and Killed by the FBI
An FBI special agent shot and killed a man in Orlando, Florida, early on Wednesday morning, just hours after he was interrogated about the Boston Marathon bombings. The man, who was identified as 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev, was reportedly an acquaintance of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who he met through the world of mixed martial arts. Like Tsarnaev, he was a Chechen-born Muslim, but only met Tsarnaev after moving to the United States. Todashev was shot shortly after midnight at an apartment complex about 10 miles from Walt Disney World, after FBI agents and other law enforcmenet reportedly returned for a final interview.
The FBI orignally said only that an agent “encountered the suspect while conducting official duties. The suspect is deceased,” but did not offer any other details. They have since released a further statement that says that suspect became “violent” during questioning, the agent shot him in self defense.
Michele Bachmann Presidential Campaign Investigation Joined By FBI
The FBI has jumped into a multi-pronged investigation of alleged misconduct by the failed presidential campaign of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on Sunday.
While the FBI wouldn’t confirm or deny any involvement in the probe, sources with knowledge of the campaign and the investigation told the Star Tribune that the FBI had made inquiries about former Bachmann chief of staff Andy Parrish, as well as other former staffers.
News that Bachmann’s campaign had drawn an ethics investigation first broke in March, and the extent of alleged violations has only expanded since then. Newer claims include allegations of secret payments to campaign aide and Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson (R), as well as improper use of Bachmann’s leadership PAC funds to pay a political director for the campaign.
Parrish said in a sworn affidavit in April that Bachmann “knew and approved” of payments to Sorenson. Peter Waldron, Bachmann’s former national field coordinator, has also filed a complaint alleging that Bachmann’s campaign funneled leadership PAC money through a fundraising group to pay Sorenson, a claim that has also reportedly drawn the attention of the FBI, according to the Star Tribune. Sorenson has denied these allegations.
Arkansas state treasurer arrested on federal extortion charges
Arkansas state treasurer Martha Shoffner (D) is scheduled to appear in a federal court Monday in connection with extortion charges.
KATV-TV reported on Saturday that Shoffner was arrested at her home by Federal Bureau of Investigation and taken to Pulaski County Jail, where she has been held without bond.
The station also reported that the state legislative joint auditing committee criticized Shoffner in September 2012 after her office cost the state more than $430,000 following the sale of premature bonds. State Rep. Kim Hammer (R), the committee’s co-chair, said the group felt they had information to turn over to authorities for their own investigation.
New Ricin Letters sent AFTER arrest of second suspect in prior case
May 20, 2013 by Jack Blood
Filed under Americas
Elvis was prosecuted in the news and let go. Everett Dutschke of Mississippi was arrested and has been in custody for nearly a month. Here we go again… Where is all this Ricin coming from? Could this just be all made up? WTF?
FBI searches apartment in ricin letter case
Authorities in hazardous materials suits are searching an apartment in downtown Spokane, Wash., as they investigate the recent discovery of a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin.
SPOKANE, Wash. — Seattle Times
Authorities in hazardous materials suits are searching an apartment in downtown Spokane, Wash., as they investigate the recent discovery of a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin.
FBI agents, Spokane police officers and U.S. Postal Inspection Service officials descended on the apartment Saturday morning.
No arrests have been made. An FBI spokeswoman has not said whether agents are questioning anyone in connection with the case.
Authorities have not released a motive for why the letters were mailed this week.
Despite the hazmat suits, officials say apartment residents are not at risk, and people were seen coming in and out of the building.
Ricin is a highly toxic substance. Tiny amounts can be deadly if inhaled or ingested.
There have been no reports of illness connected to the letters.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
The FBI and other law enforcement agencies are executing a search warrant Saturday in the case of two letters containing the deadly poison ricin that were intercepted this week at a post office in Washington state.
Police say the investigation has focused on a neighborhood near downtown Spokane.
The FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Spokane police are involved, but further details were not immediately available.
Ricin is a highly toxic substance made from castor beans. As little as 500 micrograms, the size of the head of a pin, can kill an adult if inhaled or ingested.
Two letters containing the substance were intercepted at the downtown Spokane post office Tuesday. There have been no reports of illness connected to the letters.
“The crude form of the ricin suggests that it does not present a health risk to U.S. Postal Service personnel or to others who may have come in contact with the letter,” the agency said in a news release Thursday.
The Postal Service said it has received no other reports of similar letters. However, the agency did investigate a suspicious package sent to a federal judge in Spokane this week and found there was no hazard.
The Spokane investigation comes a month after letters containing ricin were addressed to President Barack Obama, a U.S. senator and a Mississippi judge. A Mississippi man has been arrested in that case.
more HERE – Seattle Times
Medical Marijuana: Big Pharma’s Campaign to Eliminate State-Sanctioned Cannabis Competitors?
As Colorado, California and Washington including 16 other states enjoy freedom under state law to operate legal medical marijuana-cannabis businesses the owners are often faced with arrests and constant harrasment by Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Though some states have legalized the sale of marijuana for medical purposes, the practice remains a felony crime under federal law.
Even if marijuana operators avoid arrests the almighty Feds inflict more damage by imposing astronomical “high taxes” on a state-sanctioned marijuana-cannabis, taxes as high as 75-80 percent. Some dealers, unable to pay employees and overhead, combined with the burden of extra high taxes, must shut down, thus preventing sick patients, preferring cannabis treatment, from getting the care they desperately need.
Cannabis dealers argue that “high taxes” imposed upon their businesses is the Feds political goal: to run them out of business and the bigger picture is to eliminate competition against the giant pharmaceutial industry which makes billions selling drugs to treat illnesses at a higher cost.
But evidence has proved that a person can purchase cannabis from a state legalized operator and receive effective treatment at a much lower cost.
Dan Pfeiffer: “Law Is Irrelevant” On IRS Scandal
Dan Pfeiffer: “Law Is Irrelevant” On IRS Scandal (May 19, 2013)
U.S. denies archives’ claim that Agent Orange was stored in Okinawa
NAHA—Defoliants used by the U.S. armed forces during the Vietnam War was stored in Okinawa, according to U.S. archives and testimony of a resident in Okinawa Prefecture. However, the U.S. government said in March that descriptions in the archive are wrong.
Some people have said that barrels of the defoliant, which contain highly toxic dioxins, had been stored in Okinawa before being transported elsewhere for disposal. However, the U.S. government has denied the possibility.
In 2003, the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency compiled an environment assessment report of Johnston Island, a U.S. territory in the northern Pacific where U.S. forces stored and disposed of chemical weapons.
The report includes a description that 25,000 drum cans containing 5.2 million liters of Agent Orange were transported to Johnston Island from Okinawa in 1972. Those drum cans had been brought to Okinawa from Vietnam, the report added.
The descriptions of the report match the testimony of Yukio Toyama, 68, of Urasoe, Okinawa Prefecture, who was interviewed by The Asahi Shimbun.
Arson not ruled out in Texas fertilizer plant explosions
May 17, 2013 by Jack Blood
Filed under Americas
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The cause of the deadly explosions at a Texas fertilizer plant last month remains undetermined, state and federal officials said Thursday.
Robert Champion, the agent in charge of the Dallas office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said at a briefing that investigators hadn’t been able to rule out the possibility that the two blasts at West Fertilizer Co. were caused by an intentionally set fire.
The briefing was delayed a half-hour so authorities could talk to the families of the victims, said state Fire Marshal Chris Connealy, who promised to “leave no stone unturned to make sure everything is done.”
On Thursday investigators said they still don’t know what caused the initial fire, but they have ruled out smoking, weather and spontaneous combustion. NBC’s Brian Williams reports.
“This community has suffered a great tragedy,” he said, adding that 30 different local, state and federal agencies were working “with one common goal: to understand what happened so we can give closure to these families.”
The explosions in the town of West, near Waco — which killed 15 people and injured hundreds of others on the night of April 17 — devastated a 37-square-block area, creating a crater 93 feet wide and 10 feet deep, Champion said.
Twelve of the dead were firefighters and other first responders, and Champion paid special tribute to them.
“They were doing their job and showing their bravery when they were fighting that fire,” he said.
Investigators said the fire began in a fertilizer and seed building called the seed room. They said the possible causes included arson, a failure of one of the plant’s two electrical systems and a compromised battery on a golf cart.
The golf cart had been recalled from the manufacturer, said Brian Hoback, a national response team investigator for the ATF, who said “there’s a history of golf carts’ actually starting fires” when their batteries fail. He said the cart couldn’t yet be ruled out because it hadn’t been fully recovered from the scene.
Many other triggers had been speculated upon as the cause, including the weather, some sort of spontaneous ignition, failure of the facility’s second electrical system, two ammonium compounds used in the fertilizer-making process and smoking. Investigators said all of those had been ruled out.
And they chillingly said the explosions could have been much worse.
The fire caused at least 28 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly combustible powder, to explode in the seed room, they said. Sitting outside was a rail car holding about 100 more tons of the compound — which fortunately didn’t blow up.
Because the inquiry is being handled as a criminal matter, Champion and other investigators refused to go into other details of their investigation, which they said was expected to take several more months.
West Fertilizer said in a statement that it would have no comment other than that “the authorities repeatedly emphasized that their investigation continues, as does ours.”
Champion, meanwhile, wouldn’t comment on the arrest of Bryce Reed, a paramedic who helped the victims, who pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a count of unlawfully possessing an unregistered destructive device.
IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office
Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.
Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.
Grant announced today that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.
As the House voted to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act Thursday evening, House Speaker John Boehner expressed “serious concerns” that the IRS is empowered as the law’s chief enforcer.
Obama eyes Gov. Deval Patrick to replace Eric Holder at Justice
s this/close to Holder, has set his sights on Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick as a possible replacement “when the heat dies down on the latest hot-button scandals to hit the U.S. Justice Department,” said a top White House source.
Last year, Holder became a hot button over a congressional probe of the sale of government guns to drug cartels.
This time it’s the double whammy of an IRS scandal and the U.S. Justice Department’s seizure of Associated Press reporters’ phone records — which has caused a media uproar.
“The president will wait until the heat dies down — and a little time has passed beyond that — before he does anything to Holder because Holder is a close pal, and that’s a big deal in the White House,” said a top Dem source. “Holder is also a close buddy of Obama’s senior adviser Valerie Jarrett,” the source said. “Obama knows a change has to be made, but he wants Holder to leave with his reputation intact.”
