Couple Arrested For Driving Stolen Car Filled With Uranium, a Rattlesnake and Whiskey

Police officers in Guthrie, Oklahoma, who thought they were carrying out a routine stop of a car whose tag had expired came across a rather unusual stash.

Stephen Jennings was driving with Rachel Rivera in the passenger's seat of a stolen Ford vehicle when they were stopped by officers at around 11 a.m. on June 25. Officers found there was another passenger in the car—a timber rattlesnake.

Bodycam footage shows one officer spotting the serpent in a storage box on the back seat and exclaiming: "That sucker is huge," KFor reported.

Jennings admitted to police that he also had a pistol in the console and officers then found an open bottle of Kentucky Deluxe whiskey—but that was not all.

A search of the vehicle also unearthed a canister of radioactive powdered uranium.

With classic understatement, Guthrie Police Sgt. Anthony Gibbs said, "There's quite a few unanswered questions. So now he's got a rattlesnake, a stolen vehicle, firearm, and somebody under arrest," he said.

Police are investigating what the purpose of the uranium was. The dangerous substance has not yet resulted in any charges. "When that happens of course, we call in a company that deals with that specifically and it's taken safely into possession. The uranium is the wild card in that situation."


https://www.newsweek.com/uranium-rattlesnake-whiskey-arrest-oklahoma-unanswered-questions-1448695?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=NewsweekTwitter

Petitions approved for 2 Democratic state senators as Colorado Republicans' recall effort starts

Petitions to recall two Democratic state senators were approved by election officials on Friday, kicking months of threats by Colorado Republicans to oust Democratic lawmakers from office into high gear.

The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said opponents of state Sens. Pete Lee, of Colorado Springs, and Brittany Pettersen, of Lakewood, can begin gathering signatures to try and force a recall election to remove the pair from office.

If both recalls are successful, Democrats would lose their two-vote majority in the Colorado Senate.

Opponents have until Sept. 10 to gather 11,304 signatures from Lee’s district and 18,376 signatures from Pettersen’s to force elections to try to recall the lawmakers.

Both won their seats by wide margins in the November 2018 general elections. Pettersen took her seat with 58% of the vote while Lee secured 62%.



https://coloradosun.com/2019/07/12/brittany-pettersen-pete-lee-recall-elections-colorado/

Men are expected to be 'strong silent types' -- and it's breaking them, says Henry Rollins

And Sexton finds its roots in our fathers. “Of course, father issues are nothing new,” he writes, noting that many difficulties “mostly center on what is expected out of a man.”

My own father would boast about working all night at the office, taking the bus back to the house at dawn. He’d shower, shave, put on a new starched shirt and head right back to the office. He thought protein was a useful sleep substitute. By age 13, I was, and still am, a workaholic. From then to now, it's not about the money and it's beyond self sufficiency. It's what I think a "real man" must do. I am unable to shake myself of this, but at least I know where I got it from.

These standards — and postures many American males contort themselves to — are not without consequence. Beyond misplaced anger, feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness, the men who hold their emotions in check — like a stress position used to induce confession — sometimes break. White American males — mostly middle-age — accounted for 70% of suicides in 2017.



https://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-review-jared-yates-sexton-man-they-wanted-20190620-story.html

R. Kelly arrested on federal child pornography charges, US attorney says

Musician R. Kelly has been arrested on federal child pornography and obstruction of justice charges.

The U.S. attorney's office in Chicago said the pop star was arrested Thursday on 13-count indictment.

"R Kelly was arrested in Chicago tonight on charges contained in a 13-count indictment returned today in the Northern District of Illinois," the attorney's office said in a statement late Thursday. "The indictment includes charges of child pornography and obstruction of justice."

It is not clear as of yet what other charges are included in the indictment

The charges are the latest in a number of legal issues for Kelly this year. The singer, whose real name is Robert Kelly, is also facing 10 counts of felony criminal sexual abuse involving four alleged victims, after being arrested by the Cook County Sheriff's Department in March.



https://abcnews.go.com/US/kelly-arrested-federal-child-pornography-charges-us-attorney/story?id=64284317&cid=social_twitter_abcn

Superorganism - Something For Your M.I.N.D.

The top Republican on the House Ethics committee just got nailed with major ethics complaint

The top Republican on the House Ethics Committee just got nailed with an ethics complaint for violating FEC regulations that prevent campaign donations from his own Congressional staffers.

Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-TX) is facing the complaint after his staffers engaged in a pattern and practice of unlawful reimbursements for otherwise lawful expenditures.

It’s yet another black eye for House Republicans serving on the ethics panel, following last year’s scandal which led to Rep. Patrick Meehan losing his seat on the same committee and resigning in disgrace after the married Congressman was caught hiding a workplace sexual harassment lawsuit settlement for proclaiming his unwanted love to an aide half his age.

The House Ethics manual is clear that the behavior Marchant is accused of is prohibited, but that didn’t stop him from breaking the rules eighteen times over a ten year period, that we know of.



https://washingtonpress.com/2019/07/11/the-top-republican-on-the-house-ethics-committee-just-got-nailed-with-major-ethics-complaint/

"There's no question in your mind you didn't want it to happen?"

It doesn't matter, Epstein's victim was 15.

Something For Your M.I.N.D Legion S03 E01 HD Clip

Fungus Behind Deadly Bat Disease Found in Northern California

The fungus that causes white-nose syndrome, a disease that since 2006 has been killing millions of bats as it makes a westward journey across the United States, has been detected in California, the Los Angeles Times reports. Scientists conducting surveillance found infected bats in the northern California town of Chester, situated between the Lassen Volcanic National Park and the Plumas National Forest.

The infected bats, which the surveillance team swabbed for the fungus in 2018 and 2019, represent the first cases in California, according to the White-Nose Syndrome Response Team of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. They are Yuma bats (Myotis yumanensis) and little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus). The scientists have not yet observed bats with the disease itself in the state, however.

“We all thought we were going to have more time before it got this far west,” Winifred Frick, a University of California, Santa Cruz, biologist and chief scientist with Bat Conservation International, tells the LA Times. “We should all be very concerned about this heartbreaking discovery.”

White-nose syndrome, which gets its name from the hoary fluff that appears on the muzzles of sick bats, mostly affects the animals when they’re hibernating, causing them to wake up more frequently than usual, which uses up their fat reserves. The disease has been known to kill 90–100 percent of the bats at an infected site.

Cave explorers first spotted infected bats in Albany, New York, in 2006. Since then, the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome, Pseudogymnoascus destrucans (Pd), has been spreading, not only west but also north into Canada and south into the Carolinas. In March 2016, the disease showed up in Washington State, more than 1,000 miles farther west of where it had been spotted previously.



https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/fungus-behind-deadly-bat-disease-found-in-northern-california-66111

MS-GOV: Robert Foster, GOP governor candidate, denies woman reporter access because of her gender

In recent weeks, in an attempt to better inform readers about candidates in the upcoming Republican gubernatorial primary, Mississippi Today has asked to shadow each contender seeking the GOP nomination.

Bill Waller, a former state supreme court chief justice, and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves agreed to ride alongs with Mississippi Today reporter Adam Ganucheau.

The other candidate — state Rep. Robert Foster, R-Hernando — declined, however, because I am a woman.

In two phone calls this week, Colton Robison, Foster’s campaign director, said a male colleague would need to accompany this reporter on an upcoming 15-hour campaign trip because they believed the optics of the candidate with a woman, even a working reporter, could be used in a smear campaign to insinuate an extramarital affair.

“The only reason you think that people will think I’m having a (improper) relationship with your candidate is because I am a woman,” this reporter said.

Robison said the campaign simply “can’t risk it.”

“Perception is everything. We are so close to the primary. If (trackers) were to get a picture and they put a mailer out, we wouldn’t have time to dispute it. And that’s why we have to be careful,” Robinson said Tuesday afternoon by phone.




https://mississippitoday.org/2019/07/09/robert-foster-gop-governor-candidate-denies-woman-reporter-access-because-of-her-gender/