Free Republic

SALEM, Mass. -- Surveillance video from inside a Massachusetts high school shows a student following a math teacher before he allegedly killed her inside a women's restroom, CBS Boston reports. Philip Chism, 16, is charged with raping and murdering Colleen Ritzer in 2013. He was 14 at the time. The video, shown in Essex Superior Court in Salem on Wednesday, shows Chism following Ritzer to the restroom and pacing back and forth outside the door. He later emerges with the hood of his sweatshirt still covering his head. Jurors also first saw the large recycling barrel allegedly used by Chism...

An Oklahoma man who had been suspended from his job was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in the gruesome beheading of a co-worker, who was attacked from behind as the man sought revenge, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Nolen had recently converted to Islam but Cleveland County Prosecutor Greg Mashburn said it appeared Nolen's assault was tied more to his suspension. Mashburn said Vaughan's human resources department suspended Nolen earlier Thursday after another co-worker, Traci Johnson, had complained that she had had an altercation with Nolen "about him not liking white people." "It had more to do with race rather than...

On Monday (June 14), Associated Press reporter Colleen Long wrote two articles about two different criminal cases in New York State, both involving political operatives accused of breaking the law. The first was about "Hank Morris... adviser to former state comptroller Alan Hevesi, [who] has been accused of taking kickbacks and other payments...." The second was about John Haggerty, who is accused of duping New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg into giving him money for campaign expenses and then using the money for personal expenses instead. The story about Morris never mentioned that he was a Democrat political consultant, or...

A Pennsylvania woman known to authorities as "Jihad Jane" was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements to a government official and attempted identity theft. The indictment, unsealed Monday, charges that Colleen R. LaRose, and five unindicted co-conspirators recruited men on the Internet to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe, and recruited women on the Internet who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad.

FBI Headquarters is staffed with a number of short term careerists* who, like the SSA in question, must only serve an 18 month-just-time-to-get-your-ticket-punched minimum. It's no wonder why very little expertise can be acquired by a Headquarters unit! (And no wonder why FBIHQ is mired in mediocrity! -- that maybe a little strong, but it would definitely be fair to say that there is unevenness in competency among Headquarters personnel.)