A computer server crucial to a lawsuit against Georgia election officials was quietly wiped clean by its custodians just after the suit was filed, The Associated Press has learned.
In a federal court filing, lawyers for election integrity advocates accuse Georgia election officials of intentionally destroying evidence that could show unauthorized access to the state election system and potential manipulation of election results.
Election integrity advocates and individual Georgia voters sued election officials in 2017 alleging that the touchscreen voting machines Georgia has used since 2002 are unsecure and vulnerable to hacking. In a court filing Thursday, they said state officials began destroying evidence within days of the suit’s filing and continued to do so as the case moved forward.
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The brief was filed Thursday as U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg was holding a hearing on requests by the plaintiffs that she order the state to immediately stop using its current voting machines and switch to hand-marked paper ballots. That hearing is set to continue Friday.
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In their brief Thursday, lawyers for the Coalition for Good Governance accused state officials of destroying computer servers from the Center for Election Systems at Kennesaw State University after a security hole there that exposed Georgia voters’ personal data and passwords used by county election officials was discovered. State lawyers then failed to ask the FBI for a copy of a forensic image the agency made of the server before it was wiped, despite saying they would, they say.
The brief also accuses state officials and their lawyers of deleting and overwriting data preserved on voting machine memories and on memory cards used to program the voting machines.
A Republican challenger to Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar is accused of shoplifting 279 items from a suburban Target earlier this year.
A criminal complaint says Danielle Stella stole items valued at more than $2,000 from Target during one visit on January 8. She allegedly told police she doesn’t remember anything after arriving at Target, due to post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Star Tribune reported that Stella was arrested again in April after allegedly stealing $40 in cat food from a Cub grocery store. A police report says she told an officer she forgot to pay.
In a text to the Guardian, a British newspaper, Stella said she’s innocent until proven guilty, and if she were guilty, she would never run for public office.
Stella is a 31-year-old special education teacher and supporter of President Donald Trump. She has gained attention for social media posts referencing QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory. Last week InfoWars broadcast an interview in which she described Minneapolis as the “crime capital” of America.
I've seen my first political ray of sunshine in quite some time. With Moscow Mitch and Putin's Mitch in the 24 hour cycle, I'm seeing Kentuckians hopeful that he can lose. I have no idea how realistic that is, but it's a first for me. The damage is done but if we ever want to get to a rebuild, it has to take hold in a place like Kentucky and there is no stronger piece on the board than the worst American in my lifetime.
Edit:
Word is that the phrase is really getting under his dewlap. I'm not normally the guy who says "good" to such things that don't bring anything to table, but "good". I make an exception for him. I've allowed him to bring out the worst in me as I've watched him erode the rule of law over the course of nearly a decade, and that's only since I've taken notice. I don't know what he's accomplished since before he became extortionist in the highest law making office of the land.
My company recently released a training around understanding Unconscious Bias. As part of the marketing effort for that program, we have been sending out e-mails to our leads offering a free bias assessment that federal and state agencies can use to evaluate areas of potential bias in their organizational processes.
I received the following response this morning from a state trooper in Maryland:
Thanks but no thanks. I don't have any biases other than wanting to put America first. MAGA!!
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton MYT
Skinypupy wrote: ↑Wed Jul 31, 2019 9:56 am
My company recently released a training around understanding Unconscious Bias. As part of the marketing effort for that program, we have been sending out e-mails to our leads offering a free bias assessment that federal and state agencies can use to evaluate areas of potential bias in their organizational processes.
I received the following response this morning from a state trooper in Maryland:
Thanks but no thanks. I don't have any biases other than wanting to put America first. MAGA!!
I think that the "conscious bias" training program would be a better fit for him, anyway.
Zero self-defense there. Doesn't he eliminate any chance to claim an "accidental" discharge if he claims self defense? Man, he and his defense team deserve each other.
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton MYT
A former Miss Michigan pageant winner, who was stripped of her title last week after several offensive tweets surfaced, has joined Trump's reelection campaign efforts. The official Team Trump twitter account welcomed Kathy Zhu on board Thursday, calling her a "patriot who has continued to stand for American values despite being stripped of her crown."
"I am so excited to now be part of the #WomenforTrump Coalition Advisory Board!" Zhu tweeted along with the announcement. "Let's get Trump re-elected for 2020." ...
"It has been brought to the attention of Miss World America 'MWA' that you social media accounts contain offensive, insensitive and inappropriate content," the letter said.
It also said that Zhu no longer met the requirement of "being in good character." "Therefore, and effective immediately, MWA does not recognize you as a participant of any sort or in any capacity as it relates to any and all events of MWA," it concluded.
The social media posts were targeted at Muslim women and gun violence in the black community.
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According to screenshots obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, the first tweet said, "There is a 'try a hijab on' booth at my college campus. So you're telling me that it's now just a fashion accessory and not a religious thing? Or are you just trying to get women used to being oppressed under Islam?"
"Did you know that the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks?" the second tweet said. "Fix problems within your own community first before blaming others."
The tweets were sent in 2017 and 2018, but have since been deleted.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell fractured his shoulder Sunday after falling in his Kentucky home, his office said in a statement.
"This morning, Leader McConnell tripped at home on his outside patio and suffered a fractured shoulder," David Popp, McConnell's communications director, said in a statement. "He has been treated, released, and is working from home in Louisville."
I didn't know the Senate had a work from home policy in place. I should remember that the next time voting needs to happen but it's being held up because someone can't be there.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell fractured his shoulder Sunday after falling in his Kentucky home, his office said in a statement.
"This morning, Leader McConnell tripped at home on his outside patio and suffered a fractured shoulder," David Popp, McConnell's communications director, said in a statement. "He has been treated, released, and is working from home in Louisville."
"This morning, Leader McConnell tripped at home on his outside patio and suffered a fractured shoulder," David Popp, McConnell's communications director, said in a statement. "He has been treated, released, and is working from home in Louisville."
Leader McConnell? OMG, that's what he goes by on Twitter? Has the Senate Majority leader always used such a title? It's sounds so... unamarican to me, befitting the moniker Moscow Mitch.
Am I the only one who read treated and released and saw:
How terrible is it I have no sympathy for the man. I have sunk low in life.
If you want to smash your keyboard/screen, read the replies to this tweet. Talking all about being ambushed by the Fake News, CNN is deeply unpatriotic, etc. This is evidence of a country that is deeply sick and twisted.
They don't want to risk uttering a single sentence that could possibly come back to haunt them or Trump in 2020. I can almost believe Mitch threw himself on the ground when the news broke about the double shootings just so he could get plausable privacy.
Smoove_B wrote:They don't want to risk uttering a single sentence that could possibly come back to haunt them or Trump in 2020. I can almost believe Mitch threw himself on the ground when the news broke about the double shootings just so he could get plausable privacy.
I do not believe Mitch is actually injured. At the very least I’m sure he is playing it up.
Smoove_B wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 6:27 pm
I didn't know the Senate had a work from home policy in place. I should remember that the next time voting needs to happen but it's being held up because someone can't be there.
Senate is in recess right now. Of course, McConnell conveniently injured himself the same day that Democrats called on him to reconvene the Senate for emergency gun control legislation.
Re: CNN - Yoho ended up going on to try some insane, bullshit GOP trail balloons by blaming tech companies for giving hate the platform to communicate and talked about how it wasn't a gun issue and that there were knife attacks in Japan for instance. Cool stories there bro.
Don't be afraid he rolled out the usual platitudes too - "too early to talk about it while emotions are high" etc. Just in case you want to make sure these assholes have evolved away from the pond scum they are.
“MAGA Bomber” Cesar Sayoc was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday for sending 16 mail bombs to 13 people around the United States last year, including leading critics of President Donald Trump such as former President Barack Obama, ex-Vice President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, actor Robert De Niro and financier George Soros.
“I am beyond so very sorry for what I did,” Sayoc said before he was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Manhattan by Judge Jed Rakoff, according to the Courthouse News service.
“Now that I am a sober man, I know that I a very sick man,” Sayoc reportedly said. “I wish more than anything that I could turn back time and take back what I did ... I feel the pain and suffering of these victims.”
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Rakoff noted that Sayoc, even if he proves to be a model prison, “will be about 75 years old before he can be released.”
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Prosecutors had asked Rakoff to sentence the former exotic dancer and steroid abuser to life in prison for the mail bombing spree.
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“By 2018, he was living alone in a decrepit and cramped van that had been his home for more than a decade. A typical day saw Mr. Sayoc waking up in his van, showering at the gym, and cooking crockpot meals while inside the DJ booth of a strip club before heading off to his second job delivering pizza. As he grew older and more isolated, excessive steroid use increased his feelings of anxiety and paranoia.”
Defense lawyers wrote that “in this darkness, Mr. Sayoc found light in Donald J. Trump.”
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“He became obsessed with “attacks” from those he perceived as Trump’s enemies. He believed stories shared on Facebook that Trump supporters were being beaten in the streets. He came to believe that he was being personally targeted for supporting Trump.”
Smoove_B wrote: ↑Mon Aug 05, 2019 10:44 am
I can almost believe Mitch threw himself on the ground when the news broke about the double shootings just so he could get plausable privacy.
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. It was probably while he was bending over backwards.
Smoove_B wrote: ↑Mon Aug 05, 2019 10:44 am
I can almost believe Mitch threw himself on the ground when the news broke about the double shootings just so he could get plausable privacy.
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. It was probably while he was bending over backwards.
At his age, grabbing his ankles for the NRA isn't as easy as it used to be.
Washington (CNN)The United States formally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia Friday, as the US military prepares to test a new non-nuclear mobile-launched cruise missile developed specifically to challenge Moscow in Europe, according to a senior US defense official.
The US withdrawal puts an end to a landmark arms control pact that has limited the development of ground-based missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers and is sparking fears of a new arms race.
"Russia is solely responsible for the treaty's demise," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Friday announcing the US' formal withdrawal from the Cold-War era nuclear treaty.
Pompeo said, "Russia failed to return to full and verified compliance through the destruction of its noncompliant missile system."
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN's Hala Gorani that the treaty's end is a "serious setback."
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a lower court was wrong to dismiss former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's defamation lawsuit against The New York Times over an editorial linking her to a 2011 mass shooting.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to a lower court, saying her case against the newspaper "plausibly states a claim for defamation and may proceed to full discovery."
Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha tells NPR that "we are disappointed in the decision and intend to continue to defend the action vigorously."
The Times editorial, published in 2017, suggested that materials distributed by Palin's political action committee played a role in inciting a mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., that killed six people and seriously wounded Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The PAC had distributed a map with superimposed crosshairs over some Democratic congressional districts that could be challenged in future elections.
The Times corrected the editorial two days later, saying that "no such link was established" between the political rhetoric and the shooting.
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They said the lower court used an "unusual" procedure to assess the validity of arguments put forth by Palin's legal team. It held a special hearing and then used facts from that hearing to dismiss the case. That was a mistake, the appeals court said.
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The appellate court judges stressed that the burden on Palin's legal team to actually prove her claim is high — it must prove with "clear and convincing evidence" that the author of the editorial "acted with actual malice." But it said that Palin had a plausible enough case to move forward.
A 13-year-old was seriously injured when a man at a Montana rodeo slammed him to the ground after the boy did not remove his hat during a playing of the national anthem, authorities said Tuesday.
Curt James Brockway, 39, was arrested on suspicion of felony assault on a minor following the alleged attack at the rodeo at the Mineral County Fair on Saturday.
The boy was originally taken to a nearby hospital, but his injuries were so serious that he had to be airlifted to Sacred Heart Children's Hospital in Spokane, Washington, according to a statement by Mineral County Sheriff Mike Boone.
"He was definitely bleeding out of his ears; he was scared," witness Taylor Hennick told NBC News on Wednesday about the incident. “He seemed shocked and out of it and wondering why he was being hit."
Brockway said he asked the boy to take off his hat, after which the teen cursed at him, Mineral County Attorney Ellen Donohue said in a written statement.
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Brockway reportedly told the people around him afterward that he was right to attack the boy, who Hennick said had been wearing a red baseball cap.
He said the boy "was disrespecting the national anthem by wearing this hat. I heard him saying that in front of a lot of people," Hennick said. "People were just shocked."
"You WILL respect our Freedom (tm), now do exactly as I say!"
BTW, are we still telling people to take off their hats during God Bless America?
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton MYT
Aside from the fact that this is bonkers...one other part is troubling. The alleged attacker has a conviction for a previous violent felony. He is on a registry of violent felons. He attacked a child out of nowhere. The Washington Post says he is serving 10-years probation. Yet the judge released him on his own recognizance. I suspect the outcome would have been different for ... others.
malchior wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2019 3:32 pm
Aside from the fact that this is bonkers...one other part is troubling. The alleged attacker has a conviction for a previous violent felony. He is on a registry of violent felons. He attacked a child out of nowhere. The Washington Post says he is serving 10-years probation. Yet the judge released him on his own recognizance. I suspect the outcome would have been different for ... others.
I don't think he's on probation.
Brockway is a registered violent offender after being convicted of a 2010 charge of assault with a weapon. District Judge John Larson gave him a 10-year suspended sentence. Brockway is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 14, when he'll be asked to enter a plea.
It sounds like he got a 10-year suspended sentence and has presumably served his probation by now.
IANAL but I think the suspended sentence only comes into play if you are arrested/convicted while you are on probation. His probation probably much less than 10 years.
Still, funny how it's so often the same repeat offenders...
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton MYT
Washington Post wrote:It was not clear if Brockway had an attorney, though he was scheduled to be released on his own recognizance Tuesday. The Missoulian reports he was charged with assault with a weapon in 2010, resulting in a 10-year probation sentence.
Lawbeefaroni wrote:IANAL but I think the suspended sentence only comes into play if you are arrested/convicted while you are on probation. His probation probably much less than 10 years.
Still, funny how it's so often the same repeat offenders...
It could be and the probation period was a couple of years but one or the other got it wrong. A quick search shows that Montana treats the suspended sentence as a period of probation itself - which matches up nicely with the WaPo characterization. Which is interesting and could mean this guy is pretty boned.
Yeah, if that's the case he could get the 10 years plus whatever he gets for attacking the kid.
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton MYT
