Month: June 2024

FBI agents conducted a raid on the home of Oakland, California Mayor Sheng Thao early Thursday morning. Agents served warrants at Thao’s house on Maiden Lane in the city’s Lincoln Highlands neighborhood at around 5:30 a.m.

Three black and gray SUVs were seen outside the home, along with an agent wearing blue gloves who asked reporters to stay away from the vehicles. Agency spokesperson Cameron Polan said in a statement: “the FBI is conducting court authorized law enforcement activity on Maiden Lane. We are unable to provide additional information at this time.”  Just after 10 a.m., several FBI agents emerged from the home carrying boxes as news crews staked out positions across the street. It was unclear what the agents were seeking or what was seized, however, sources cited by San Francisco’s ABC7 News said the case involves the IRS and the US Postal Service.

The raid on Thao’s home was one of several federal raids on other properties in the city of Oakland. The FBI searched another home in the 4300 block of View Crest Court in Oakland also on Thursday morning.  Federal agents also served warrants at a nearby home on Viewcrest Court in the city’s Ridgemont neighborhood and at the offices shared by the Vietnamese American Business Association (VABA) and recycler California Waste Solutions on the city’s Embarcadero. The owner of the Viewcrest Court house is listed as Andrew Duong, the son of VABA chairman David Duong. The elder Duong is also CEO of California Waste Solutions. Both VABA and California Waste Solutions count on multiple members of the Duong family for their leadership teams.

Thao didn’t immediately respond to phone calls from the news media, with her spokesperson referring reporters to the FBI. Thao was a no-show Thursday morning at a scheduled press conference in San Francisco on affordable housing with the mayors of San Francisco, San Jose and Berkeley.

The raids come two days after the Alameda County Registrar of Voters announced there were enough signatures on a petition to recall Thao from office to move the process forward.  The petition blames the mayor for not doing enough to fight crime which has led many businesses to close down in the city, and also state that Thao is responsible for the city’s failure to apply for millions of dollars in state money to fight retail crime. Thao has also been criticized for firing former police chief LeRonne Armstrong and not hiring a replacement for more than a year.

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A man was critically injured and hospitalized after being hit by a rollercoaster at the Kings Island amusement park in Ohio on Wednesday. The incident happened at around 8pm when a 38-year-old man entered a restricted area near the rollercoaster.

According to The Cincinnati Enquirer, the Mason Police Department responded to a call concerning the Banshee roller coaster at Kings Island, in Mason, on Wednesday night, with officers saying that the report concerned “a subject down on the ground in one of the restricted areas,” adding that the victim was hit at “68 mph.

ABC Cincinnati affiliate WCPO reported that a witness said the man told a park employee he had lost something on the ride and needed to go back to get it. The employee reportedly said he would not be able to do anything until the ride closed, but the man continued to wander in the ride’s vicinity and eventually passed through a restricted gate. He appeared to be similarly dressed to other employees so people thought he worked at the park, or was a manager.

The victim was determined to have suffered a critical injury and was transported to a local hospital after which he was transferred to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for treatment. Arepresentative for the park wrote in an emailed statement: “On Wednesday at approximately 8:00 p.m., a guest entered a restricted, fenced area of the Banshee roller coaster and is believed to have been struck by the ride. The park’s safety and first aid personnel responded immediately to the situation and contacted local emergency responders. Kings Island’s focus continues to be on the welfare of the guest and his family. There is no additional information to share at this time.”

As of Thursday morning, police said the man remained in critical condition. This incident is currently under investigation by the Mason Police Department in coordination with Kings Island, while the ride remained closed as of Thursday afternoon. Kings Island has been open for half a century and is described on its website as “the premier entertainment destination in the Midwest.” The amusement and water park is spread out across 364 acres, a half-hour drive from downtown Cincinnati.

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Per NBC News, Tropical Storm Alberto, the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, formed over the western Gulf of Mexico. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed on Wednesday that Alberto was moving west at 8 nautical miles an hour, with winds gusting up to 51 mph.

Alberto — the first named storm of the season — is forecast to make landfall in Mexico overnight and is expected to bring heavy rain, coastal flooding and gusty winds to Texas and northeastern Mexico coasts through Thursday. Rain totals could reach 10 inches in Texas and up to 20 inches in the mountains of Mexico, according to the National Weather Service.

A tropical storm warning is in effect for the Texas coast, from San Luis Pass to Corpus Christi to the mouth of the Rio Grande, with the heaviest rain expected in south Corpus Christi, with forecasters predicting between 6 and 10 inches. There is risk for flash flooding in Corpus Christi and Brownsville and coastal flooding threats for the Louisiana coast, including New Orleans. Storm surge is also anticipated in Galveston and Surfside Beach, where there is already major flooding. Storm surge has already topped 4 feet at San Luis Pass, in Texas, just south of Galveston Island.

The National Hurricane Centre and Central Pacific Hurricane Centre are also tracking a storm currently located several hundred miles east of the Bahamas, sharing in an update: “Environmental conditions are marginally conducive for some gradual development of this system during the next few days while it moves westward or west-northwestward. The system is forecast to approach the coast of the southeastern United States by the latter part of this week.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the state Division of Emergency Management to put the Texas State Emergency Operations Center to a readiness of level 2, meaning it began 24-hour operations: “As we prepare for severe tropical weather, Texas is activating all personnel and resources needed to support Texans and communities that will be potentially impacted by excessive rain and flooding.”

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Under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday, Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom.

The legislation mandates that a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities. Although the bill did not receive final approval from Landry, the time for gubernatorial action — to sign or veto the bill — has lapsed.

The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities. In the law’s language, the Ten Commandments are described as “foundational documents of our state and national government.” The displays must be in place in classrooms by the start of 2025, and will be paired with a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries”. The law also “authorizes” (does not require) the display of the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance in K-12 public schools. State funds will not be used to implement the mandate, based on language in the legislation.

Opponents questioned the law’s constitutionality; in a statement on Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union said it was joining Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation to file a lawsuit challenging the new Louisiana legislation: “the law violates the separation of church and state and is blatantly unconstitutional. The First Amendment promises that we all get to decide for ourselves what religious beliefs, if any, to hold and practice, without pressure from the government. Politicians have no business imposing their preferred religious doctrine on students and families in public schools. “

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The gunman who opened fire in an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, killing five and injuring over a dozen more in 2022, was sentenced on federal charges on Tuesday. Daniel Davis Aston, Kelly Loving, Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh and Raymond Green Vance were the victims killed in the attack.

After originally pleading not guilty, the shooter, Anderson Lee Aldrich, 24, accepted a plea deal and pleaded guilty to each of the 74 charges of violating provisions of the Matthew Shepard And James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 as well as gun crimes in the Club Q shooting. Aldrich was given 55 concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole, to be followed by a 190-year sentence of imprisonment. Aldrich is already serving five consecutive life terms and an additional 2,212 years without the possibility of parole at the Wyoming State Penitentiary after pleading guilty in 2023 to state charges for the attack.

Earlier this year, prosecutors said earlier this year they would not seek the death penalty. United States District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney, the first LGBTQ+ federal judge to serve in Colorado, handed down the sentence after hearing from the victims’ families and survivors of the shooting, many of whom were disappointed Aldrich would not face a capital sentence. Sweeney said they not have the discretion to impose a different sentence, citing the plea agreement, but emphasized the importance of Aldrich’s decision to plead guilty, saying that Aldrich admitted to carrying out the attack because of the victims’ “actual or perceived gender identity or sexual orientation.” Sweeney said during sentencing: “you [Aldrich] went to this community’s safe space and mass murdered people .. This community is much stronger than you, stronger than your armor and stronger than your weapons and sure as hell stronger than your hatred.”

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On Tuesday, a New York Court declined to hear an appeal to remove the gag order in former President Donald Trump’s hush-money conviction case. Per NBC News, the New York Court of Appeals said it was dismissing Trump’s appeal “upon the ground that no substantial constitutional question is directly involved,” meaning the gag order remains in effect.

Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw Trump’s criminal conviction case, prohibited Trump from discussing witnesses, jurors and others associated with his criminal trial, which ended in a conviction last month. The judge himself and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg were exempt. An intermediate appellate court upheld the gag order, finding Merchan “properly weighed petitioner’s First Amendment Rights against the court’s historical commitment to ensuring the fair administration of justice in criminal cases and the right of persons related or tangentially related to the criminal proceedings from being free from threats, intimidation, harassment, and harm.”

Trump was found guilty in May by a jury of his peers on all 34 counts against him in his New York hush-money trial, for allegedly falsifying business documents in an attempt to cover up an affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels. He has since denied the affair and pleaded not guilty to all charges prior to his conviction while maintaining his innocence

Trump has objected to the gag order, as well as violating the court order multiple times during the trial and has been fined $10,000 in the process. Trump’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 11, four days before the July 15 start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee where Trump is expected to accept the Republican nomination, in-person or virtually.

Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com