CLG: Brexit: UK votes to leave EU in historic referendum, Department of Homeland Security analyst 'brought a gun, knife, pepper spray and handcuffs into work in plot to attack senior federal officials'

 News Updates from CLG
24 June 2016

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Previous edition: DHS seeks $100m to replace terms 'Muslim Americans' and 'the Muslim world' with 'American Muslims' and 'Muslim communities'

 

Brexit: UK votes to leave EU in historic referendum | 24 June 2016 | The UK has voted to leave the European Union after 43 years in a historic referendum. Leave won by 52% to 48% with England and Wales voting strongly for Brexit, while London, Scotland and Northern Ireland backed staying in the EU. The referendum turnout was 71.8% - with more than 30 million people voting - the highest turnout at a UK election since 1992. Wales and the majority of England outside London voted in large numbers for Brexit.

 

EU referendum results: Farage declares 'independence day' as UK votes to leave --Historic referendum vote in favour of leaving EU raises questions over futures of David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn | 23 June 2016 | The British people have voted to leave the European Union in a historic referendum in which they rejected the advice of the main Westminster party leaders and instead took the plunge into the political unknown. The decision in favour of Brexit, following a bitterly close electoral race, represents the biggest shock to the political establishment in Britain and across Europe for decades, and will threaten the leaderships of both the prime minister, David Cameron, and the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

 

U.K. Voters Back 'Brexit,' Will Leave European Union - Forecasts | 24 June 2016 | The U.K. is poised to leave the European Union after a historic referendum, NBC News' British partner ITV News forecast early Friday. Such a result would set the stage for an unprecedented and messy untangling with far-reaching implications. As of 5:15 a.m. local time Friday (12:15 a.m. ET), ITV News put "Leave" at 51.9 percent with "Remain" garnering 48.1 percent.

 

Fukushima disaster: TEPCO told employees not to use word 'meltdown,' under pressure from Japanese government | 21 June 2016 | The president of Japanese energy company TEPCO has confirmed the company covered up the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear plant. The announcement came a week after a scandalous report claimed that Japanese government and TEPCO hushed up the tragedy. The information was revealed by Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Naomi Hirose, who released an apology. He confirmed that TEPCO ordered not to use the word "meltdown" when referring to what happened at the crippled plant. Earlier in June a report emerged that then-President of Tokyo Electric Power Co. Masataka Shimizu told employees not to use the word "meltdown." The decision was allegedly made under pressure from the Japanese government.

 

U.S. military says will not disclose details on injured service members | 21 June 2016 | The U.S. military will not provide details on specific cases of American service members injured in Iraq and Syria because it could give information to Islamic State militants [?!?], a Pentagon spokesman said on Tuesday. The spokesman, Peter Cook, was responding to a question at a Pentagon press briefing seeking confirmation that four Americans had been wounded in Syria earlier this month. "Our policy is not to identify wounded service members for a variety of reasons, including operational security, including privacy reasons," Cook said.

 

Onboard 'Verbal Disturbance' Prompts F-16 Fighter Jets to Escort Diverted Delta Flight to Tucson --Citing 'operational security,' they won't say from where the F-16s were launched. | 22 June 2016 | A Los Angeles-bound Compass Airlines aircraft operating on behalf of Delta Airlines was diverted to Arizona's Tucson International Airport Wednesday afternoon, following an onboard "verbal disturbance" involving a passenger, the FBI and Tucson Airport Authority confirmed. Specifics about the disturbance were not made available. NORAD confirmed to ABC News that it scrambled two F-16 fighters to intercept the jet, which was carrying 80 people, including passengers and flight crew.

 

Department of Homeland Security analyst 'brought a gun, knife, pepper spray and handcuffs into work in plot to attack senior federal officials' --Investigators believe he was plotting to attack senior federal officials | 22 June 2016 | Department of Homeland Security investigators are probing whether a staff member was trying to attack their DC headquarters after he was allegedly caught smuggling a cache of weapons inside. Jonathan Wienke, an analyst for DHS and a former Army medic, was caught carrying a revolver, a knife, handcuffs, pepper spray and an infrared camera into his workplace on June 9, agents say. Investigators say Wienke 'was conspiring with another to commit workplace violence, and... may have been conspiring or planning to commit violence against senior DHS officials in the building.'

 

Invoking Orlando, Senate Republicans set up vote to expand FBI spying | 20 June 2016 | U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell set up a vote late on Monday to expand the Federal Bureau of Investigation's authority to use a secretive surveillance order without a warrant to include email metadata and some browsing history information. The move, made via an amendment to a criminal justice appropriations bill, is an effort by Senate Republicans to respond to last week's mass shooting in an Orlando nightclub after a series of measures to restrict guns offered by both parties failed on Monday. Privacy advocates denounced the effort, saying it seeks to exploit a mass shooting in order to expand the government's digital spying powers.

 

NJ Transit keeps recordings of your conversations for a month, it says | 22 June 2016 | NJ Transit officials have broken their silence over what happens to surveillance recordings it makes of passenger conversations on light rail trains. In April, the state American Civil Liberties Union and commuter groups demanded that NJ Transit disclose information about the surveillance after an NJ Advance Media article revealed that the conversations of passengers on light rail trains were being recorded. NJ Transit had denied a public records request for the written policy that covers their surveillance program on June 10 under the grounds that no such policy existed.

 

I saw German cinema shooter at the popcorn counter but thought he was a fan in costume until he opened fire': Witness describes terrifying ordeal after gunman let off tear gas and took hostages --Suspect was seen entering the cinema wearing a mask and munition belt --As people ran screaming he unleashed tear gas --Police received call saying there was a man 'armed with a long gun' | 23 June 2016 | A terrified worker at a German cinema has revealed how he mistook a gunman for a film fan wearing a costume before he opened fire and took them hostage. Guri Blakaj initially dismissed the masked man who stormed the Kinopolis cinema complex in Viernheim, Western Germany, at about 3pm on Thursday carrying a gun and ammunition belt. He believed the man he saw standing 'by the popcorn stand' to be a customer wearing a costume, complete with the belt of cartridges draped across his shoulder...Police special forces later stormed the building and shot him the masked man. Bild newspaper reported that a suicide vest and a hand grenade were found near the body of the dead man, although police have not confirmed this.

 

EgyptAir Flight MS804 recorders to go to Paris for repairs | 23 June 2016 | Damaged flight recorders from the EgyptAir aircraft that crashed last month will be sent to France for repairs, Egyptian investigators say. They say memory chips from Flight MS804 which contain vital information will be delivered to French experts next week. The Airbus A320 was en route from Paris to Cairo when it vanished from radar in the eastern Mediterranean on 19 May.

 

U.S. Supreme Court, split 4-4, blocks Obama immigration plan | 23 June 2016 | The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday dealt President Barack Obama a harsh defeat, splitting 4-4 over his plan to spare millions of immigrants in the country illegally from deportation and give them work permits, leaving intact a lower-court ruling blocking the plan. The court, with four conservative justices and four liberals, appeared divided along ideological lines during oral arguments on April 18 in a case brought by 26 states led by Texas that sued to block Obama's 2014 executive action on immigration that bypassed Congress. The 4-4 ruling was possible because there are only eight justices following February's death of conservative Antonin Scalia.

 

Supreme Court upholds race-based college admissions program | 23 June 2016 | The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the practice of considering race in college admissions, rejecting a white woman's challenge to a University of Texas affirmative action program designed to boost the enrollment of minority students. The court, in a 4-3 ruling written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, decided in favor of the university in turning aside the conservative challenge to the policy, meaning a 2014 appeals court ruling that backed the admissions program was left intact. The Supreme Court was weighing for the second time a challenge to the admissions system used by the University of Texas at Austin brought by Abigail Fisher, who was denied entry to the school for the autumn of 2008.

 

Democrats End Gun Control Sit-In After More Than 24 Hours on House Floor | 23 June 2016 | Civil rights icon and Georgia Rep. John Lewis declared victory Thursday as he and the other Democrats who staged a revolt in the House of Representatives over gun policy reform suspended their nearly 26-hour sit-in in the Capitol. While they failed to get the Republicans to vote on two controversial gun control bills, Lewis said they got the point across to the American people...The defiant Democrats blended civil rights era nonviolent resistance with modern social media to amplify their cause and used their cell phones to get their message out even after the Republicans cut off the TV cameras recording the unfolding drama on the chamber floor. 

 

Sit-in spurs late-night clash on House floor | 23 June 2016 | Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives are in a dramatic standoff over how to resolve a sit-in entering its second day. Democrats, led by civil rights icon John Lewis, took control of the chamber Wednesday morning demanding a vote on gun control legislation...The tension exploded onto the floor just after 10 p.m. ET when Republican Speaker Paul Ryan gaveled the chamber into order to hold a procedural vote on an unrelated matter. An extraordinary scene unfolded as throngs of Democrats -- some holding signs with the names of victims of gun violence -- remained in the House well chanting "no bill, no break" and "shame shame shame." They also sang the protest anthem "We Shall Overcome."

 

Democrats stage sit-in on House floor to force gun vote --'We have been too quiet for too long,' said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the civil rights icon. [I hope they do the same, when corporatist frauds Barack Obama and Paul Ryan try to pass the TPP in a lame-duck session of Congress...Yeah, I'm sure they will. *Not.*] | 22 June 2016 | Dozens of House Democrats staged a "sit-in" on the House floor Wednesday in protest of GOP leadership's refusal to allow a vote on a gun control measure following the Orlando massacre. Led by Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the civil rights icon, and John Larson (D-Conn.), more than 40 Democrats walked into the chamber just before noon and pledged to "occupy" the House floor until GOP leadership allowed a vote. Their numbers over the course of an hour more than tripled -- even as Republicans recessed the House, turning off C-SPAN cameras and the video feed to the public. Democrats countered the TV camera blackout by streaming everything on their cell phones, which ended up on C-SPAN anyway.

 

Trump reportedly raised at least $11 million since Tuesday | 23 June 2016 | Donald Trump and his joint fundraising committee have raised at least 11 million since Tuesday morning, Republicans said Wednesday, a tremendously quick haul that comes amid [media-generated] concerns about his fundraising ability. Trump Victory, the joint fundraising account with the Republican National Committee, and Trump's official campaign raised 5 million online since Tuesday morning, when it sent one of its first fundraising pitches to its email list, according to Sean Spicer, an RNC spokesman.

 

Marco Rubio will seek Senate reelection, reversing pledge not to run | 22 June 2016 | Ending weeks of political speculation, [corporatist dirt-bag] Marco Rubio announced Wednesday he has changed his mind and will run for re-election to the U.S. Senate [with the worst attendance record in the Senate], reversing his pledge to return to private life after his presidential campaign collapsed three months ago. Rubio cited a sense of duty to try to remain in office under either President Donald Trump or President Hillary Clinton -- two candidates he considers sub-par. [Hello, Pot? This is Kettle...] National Republicans fearful of losing Senate control to Democrats mounted a campaign to keep Rubio on the ballot for Florida's swing seat. He consented just two days before Friday's state candidate-qualifying deadline.

 

Baltimore officer acquitted of all charges in Freddie Gray case | 23 June 2016 | A judge on Thursday found the sole officer charged with murder in the death of Freddie Gray in police custody not guilty of all charges, leaving prosecutors without a conviction for the third time in the high-profile case that engulfed the city in riots and unrest. The verdict announced Thursday in the trial of Caesar Goodson Jr. is the second acquittal handed down by Judge Barry G. Williams in the case. The judge last month acquitted the second officer who went to trial in Gray’s death. The first officer’s trial ended in a hung jury. Goodson, 46, drove the van that transported Gray through West Baltimore the morning of April 12, 2015, when the 25-year-old was arrested.

 

Latest California wildfire burns buildings, spurs evacuation | 24 June 2016 | Dozens of homes burned to the ground as a wildfire raged over ridges and tore through rural communities in central California, authorities said. The streaking blaze that burned at least 60 homes northeast of Bakersfield around Lake Isabella came just as many others across western states were calming. It broke out late Thursday afternoon amid heat in the 90s and single-digit humidity, climbing over at least three ridges into hillside neighborhoods, Kern County fire Capt. Tyler Townsend said.

 

Two L.A.-area wildfires threaten to merge after forcing evacuations | 22 June 2016 | Two rapidly growing wildfires burning a few miles apart through drought-parched foothills northeast of Los Angeles prompted the evacuation of nearly 800 homes on Tuesday, as a heat wave continued to bake much of the U.S. Southwest for a third straight day. Abnormally high temperatures climbing into the high 90s and triple digits across much of the region helped stoke wildfires from the coastal hills outside Santa Barbara to desert brush near the Mexican border, and several other Western states. Fires also were menacing populated areas in New Mexico, Arizona and along the Colorado-Wyoming border.

 

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