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Court officials say a Florida man charged with burglary defecated during his criminal trial and tried to throw his feces at the judge. The Miami Herald reports 33-year-old Dorleans Philidor was sitting in a wheelchair next to Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Lisa Walsh when officials say he tried to throw his excrement at her. It did not reach her. There were no jurors present during Friday’s incident. Witnesses say dozens of corrections officers responded and the trial was moved while the courtroom was sanitized.

Turkey’s main opposition claimed a decisive victory on Sunday in Istanbul’s re-run election, dealing one of the biggest blows to President Tayyip Erdogan during his 16 years in power and promising a new beginning in the country’s largest city.

Online knitting and crocheting community Ravelry has banned all content supporting President Donald Trump, effective June 23. A statement posted Sunday to the group’s website outlined the new policy: “We are banning support of Donald Trump and his administration on Ravelry. This includes support in the form of forum posts, projects, patterns, profiles, and all other content.” “We cannot provide a space that is inclusive of all and also allow support for open white supremacy. Support of the Trump administration is undeniably support for white supremacy,” the statement concluded.

A sign on an upside-down dumpster spelled the end of Pearl Pai’s long romance with plastics recycling. For years, Pai and her family generated almost no trash. She carefully washed, sorted and bagged hard-to-recycle items and drove them two towns over from her home in Berkeley, California, to the area’s best recycling center. But on a gray morning in late May, when she pulled up with a bag of flimsy plastic clamshell-style containers, yogurt tubs and meat trays, the sign informed her that, “due to poor market conditions”, these items would no longer be accepted for recycling. This is a...

The Riviera Beach City Council authorized the city’s insurer to pay nearly $600,000 worth of ransom to regain access to data walled off through an attack on the city’s computer systems. In a meeting Monday night announced only days before, the board voted 5-0 to authorize the city insurer to pay 65 bitcoins, a hard-to-track cryptocurrency valued at approximately $592,000. An additional $25,000 would come out of the city budget, to cover its policy deductible. Without discussion on the merits, the board tackled the agenda item in two minutes, voted and moved on. The dollar amount was not mentioned before...

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden declined to answer questions on the campaign trail this week about his son's overseas business dealings in countries where the then-vice president was conducting diplomatic work, an issue his political opponents have already begun to wield against him as he wades into the 2020 presidential campaign. More than once, after his father engaged in diplomacy on behalf of the United States in foreign countries, Hunter Biden conducted business in the same country. At two separate campaign stops on Monday, Biden avoided questions about his son while his staff blocked reporters from approaching the candidate. Biden's...

Holocaust survivors have decried Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) recent comments comparing the southern border to Nazi concentration camps. Holocaust survivors spoke on camera in a Turning Point USA video released Saturday saying Ocasio-Cortez was “insulting every victim of the Holocaust."Holocaust survivors – David Tuck and Sami Steigmann, described their experiences in concentration camps on camera.

SAN RAMON (CBS SF / CNN) — Chevron’s nearly century-long relationship with Venezuela might not survive the Maduro regime’s fight with the United States. Not only is Venezuela’s infrastructure crumbling, but the OPEC member’s national oil company has been sanctioned by the Trump administration. Chevron, based in San Ramon and the last major US oil company still operating in Venezuela, could be forced to leave unless US officials extend sanctions waivers scheduled to expire on July 27. A Chevron exit would follow on the heels of other major American companies that have retreated from the chaos in Venezuela in recent...

A hymn sung by Christian groups participating in the anti-extradition Hong Kong protests has caught on and become an unlikely anthem for the movement of millions in the streets. For the past week, "Sing Hallelujah to the Lord" has been heard almost non-stop at the main protest site in front of the city's Legislative Council, and at marches and tense stand-offs with police, Reuters reported. Although only 10 percent of the population is Christian, church groups quickly rallied after being alarmed by reports of police brutality to make a safe haven for protesters as the government said it had to...

The already large field of Democratic presidential candidates has grown again: Joe Sestak, a former Pennsylvania congressman with an extensive military background, said Sunday that he plans to seek the presidency. “I’m Joe Sestak, and I wore the cloth of the nation for over 31 years in peace and war, from the Vietnam and Cold War eras to Afghanistan and Iraq and the emergence of China,” he said in a video announcing his candidacy. A retired three-star admiral, Sestak represented Pennsylvania’s 7th congressional district for two terms, from 2007 to 2011, and has mounted two unsuccessful runs for the US...

Thursday morning, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in American Legion v. American Humanist Association that a 100-year-old World War I memorial cross in Bladensburg, Maryland, doesn’t “establish” religion. That’s the correct result (read my brief for Cato), but the mish-mash of opinions—it took a paragraph to explain which justice was joining which aspect of the decision—leaves Establishment Clause jurisprudence in the muddled state it’s been for decades.That is, much like in the Ten Commandments cases of 2005, the cross here survived largely because it’s really, really old. Justice Samuel Alito, joined in full by Chief Justice John Roberts and...

I have been writing while traveling about Australia. While working on an article, I searched for AR15 style pistols. The search found the information I wanted to access on ar15.com. I attempted to access ar15.com, but repeatedly received the error message:It seemed odd. I contacted a source I have in Australia, and asked them to see if they could access the site.  They verified the lack of access and more. They sent me a link to a news article about telecommunication companies acting in concert to censor information from Australian customers. From smh.com, 21 March 2019: Dozens of websites...

This is a fundamental culture clash with politicians being wholly unprepared for a new brand of politics in which even traditional family events become politicized, and one more piece of American heritage disappears. Roughly two years ago, when the uproar about Confederate Civil War monuments was at its peak, the Chicago Tribune reported on a monument to Confederate soldiers far north of the Mason-Dixon Line, in Chicago itself. The monument was at the site of a mass grave of soldiers who died as prisoners of war (POWs) at Camp Douglas, at which more Confederate prisoners died than any other, in...

With four minutes to go, Boris Johnson ran in. I was already concerned — maybe more concerned than Boris. It was an awards ceremony at the Hilton, Park Lane, in London. The room was packed with financial people in bow ties. It was a couple of years before Johnson became mayor of London. At this point he was a back-bench Conservative MP and newspaper columnist. Right now he was due to make a funny speech. In four minutes. Suddenly — BOOM. A rush of wind from an opened door, a golden mop, a heave of body and dinner jacket onto...

Friends it's Sunday night again and time to relax. Warm up the tubes for another 4 hours of classic radio Americana. Listen Live Info *tonight's show will be available at the "Info" link starting tomorrow. Official OTR Blog of "The Big Broadcast" thread: http://kallmansalley.com/

If ever traveling to Belize, take this tip when you land. After going through immigration, when at the baggage claim, make a short trip to the duty free store, get your booze or smokes then get your bags. continue to customs. there is a line for folks with duty free goods, usually empty. They will ask for receipt for your goods, ask a couple questions and then be waved through while all your fellow passengers are stuck in line while they poke through your luggage. I was told about this trick from an expat that lives there. We tried it...

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled his plan to decrease police presence in the city's schools on Thursday. New York, NY – New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced a plan to decrease police presence in the city’s schools by limiting the situations in which law enforcement will be allowed to respond to matters that arise on school grounds. De Blasio unveiled his plan on Thursday, flanked by Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, WABC reported. According to the mayor and school officials, police have historically issued too many citations to Hispanic and black children for crimes they’ve committed. "Police...

The United States is again ranked as one of the worst countries in the world for human trafficking. According to a recently released report by the State Department, the top three nations of origin for victims of human trafficking in 2018 were the United States, Mexico and the Philippines. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered the Trafficking in Persons report, which is created annually by the State Department to document human trafficking in the year prior, and highlighted the growing focus that government agencies and nonprofit organizations have dedicated to stopping human trafficking. The Department of Justice provided more than...

Today marks the third anniversary of the EU referendum in which the country voted narrowly (by 52% to 48%) in favour of leaving the EU. Since then, the country has spent much of the last three years debating how the process of leaving has and should be handled, the terms on which we should aim to leave, and even the merits of the original decision itself.   The debate has precipitated a general election and resulted in the downfall of a Prime Minister. The one thing that has not happened is Britain making its exit from the EU – thanks...

For the first time in Donald Trump's presidency, the NBA has a champion other than the Golden State Warriors, but don't expect the Toronto Raptors' position on visiting the White House during this administration to be much different from that of the Warriors.