State Department Official Grilled Over Benghazi at Confirmation Hearing (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsThe debate over the Benghazi terror attack flared once again Thursday as senators grilled a diplomatic nominee over her role in massaging the Obama administration’s initial story-line on the attack.

Republican senators repeatedly challenged Victoria Nuland, nominated as chief U.S. envoy for Europe, during her confirmation hearing before a Senate panel. The post typically would not receive this much scrutiny, but Nuland’s prior job was as the top spokesperson in the State Department — she was the face of the department in the days and weeks following the Benghazi attack.

Republicans say the full truth has not yet been told, and prodded for answers on the role Nuland played in pushing to change the so-called “talking points” after the attack. Those notes were ultimately used by then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to give a faulty account to the public about the nature of the attack.

“It is pretty remarkable how sanitized they really were,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said of the talking points.

He accused Nuland of being more interested in protecting her bosses’ image than getting the truth out.

Read more from this story HERE.

Dad, Son Arrested For Setting 7-Year-Old On Fire, Videotaping It (+video)

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Photo Credit: CBSA Saxonburg man has been arrested for dousing his then-girlfriend’s 7-year-old son with a flammable liquid.

Then, police say the man’s own 15-year-old son set the younger boy’s shirt on fire.

Edward B. Myers, 35, allegedly used his cell phone to film the attack at his Carol Drive home as he watched the boy burn.

Read more from this story HERE.

Police: Marine Corps Veteran Stops Carjacker Holding Knife to Girl’s Throat (+video)

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Photo Credit: WFTVBy WFTV. Police said a carjacker who tried to steal four cars was captured Tuesday.

Detectives said Eliud Montalvo attempted several carjackings that were all within a block of one another at the corner of Conway and Curry Ford roads.

Officials said a retired Marine Corps veteran, Andrew Koplin, stopped the carjacker with his concealed weapon.

The first incident involved an 80-year-old woman in a parking lot. The other attempted carjackings happened within a block of the first one.

The last two were stopped by Koplin, who said he noticed Montalvo pulling a knife in a Publix parking lot.

Read more from this story HERE.

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More on the Attempted Carjackings from the Orlando Sentinel

By Jerriann Sullivan. Several Good Samaritans, including one with a gun, joined police in chasing down an Orlando man after he allegedly tried to carjack four different drivers at knifepoint Monday morning.

Eliud Martir Montalvo’s rampage started at 9:30 a.m. when he ran toward 80-year-old Joan Shedd and grabbed for her car keys in the Publix parking lot at 4402 Curry Ford Road, an Orlando Police Department arrest report said.

Shedd didn’t give up her keys, so 54-year-old Montalvo kicked her rear end, knocking her on the ground, police said.

A witness told police the Orlando man kept kicking the elderly woman before a man chased him away.

Montalvo ran from Shedd’s vehicle to Connie Sue Gooley’s truck and tried to carjack it, the report said. Read more from this story HERE.

Shocking Video of Van Striking Woman, Then Dragging Stroller With Baby in it, Released by Police in Effort to Find Assailant

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Photo Credit: Muskegon Police DepartmentPolice are hoping a shocking video snippet showing a van backing into a Muskegon woman pushing a baby stroller, then dragging the stroller for a short distance with a 1-year-old child still in it, stirs up enough outrage from viewers that someone will come forward and identify the driver of the van.

The incident occurred around 10:30 a.m. on June 25 in the parking lot of Sam’s Drink All, 1500 S. Getty St., in Muskegon.

That man, who appears on surveillance video inside the business, drove off after striking the shaken mother and the baby stroller.

Police said the mother and the child were remarkably unscathed in the incident that was also captured on the business’ outdoor video surveillance camera.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, July 9, the man had not yet been identified.

Read more from this story HERE.

Customers Catch, Tie Up Escaped Rapist Who Then Pleads to Just “Go Back to Prison” (+video)

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The owner of the Olivesburg General Store said employees had posted an escaped Mansfield Correctional Institution inmate’s photograph on the counter next to the cash register Thursday.

That idea came in handy.

Hours later, a customer tackled the inmate to the floor as he was paying for items, including a candy bar, with change. The incident was captured on video.

“He didn’t even realize until he was on the ground what was going on. He kept saying, ‘I’m not going to run. You’ve got me,’” owner Connie Crossen said. “They didn’t want to take chances, so they tied him up. When they were taking him out he told one of our employees, ‘I just want this over. I just want to go back to prison.’”

“When he first walked up they all knew,” she said. “Even the customers who came in, everybody was doing second looks at him.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Florida Police Department’s Officers, Captain “Morally Bankrupt,” Engaged in Deplorable Sex Acts (+video)

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Authorities are investigating a widespread sex scandal involving nearly a dozen police officers in one Florida city after a civilian crime analyst detailed trysts with the men in police and fire stations, patrol cars, motels and even in a parking lot after a memorial service for a slain officer.

Sue Eberle, 37, has told officials that she had consensual and sometimes coerced sex with the officers and a firefighter, and that she once was propositioned by a city worker in Lakeland. Eberle’s accounts of the liaisons were largely corroborated by her sexual partners and others within the police department, and published in a graphic, 59-page report written in an incredulous tone by the county’s top prosecutor. It said the department’s problems investigating crimes might be caused by some high-ranking officers being more interested in having sex with Eberle than doing their jobs.

“The investigation revealed an extraordinary amount of sexual conduct that was committed both on-duty and off-duty,” wrote Jerry Hill, Polk County’s state attorney, in the report dated June 25. “We find the conduct of a number of sworn officers, including some officers of rank, to be at best a waste of taxpayer dollars. At worst their actions indicate a moral bankruptcy that exists amongst some individuals within the ranks at the Lakeland Police Department.”

Eberle, who has retained an attorney, recounted for Hill how she had sex in police cars, cemeteries and motels with different officers – and in the parking lot outside a reception that followed the December 2011 funeral of Officer Arnulfo Crispin, who had been fatally shot on duty. She also said officers and some supervisors pressured her for sex, groped her while working and texted her photos of their genitalia.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video:

Here’s another video of the Lakeland Police Department involved in an illegal and demeaning “bra search” of an innocent driver last month:

In Historic First, Navy Lands Unmanned Drone on Aircraft Carrier (+video)

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Photo Credit: APFor the first time ever, a fighter jet-sized drone piloted entirely by computer landed on a modern aircraft carrier.

The successful touch down paves the way for unmanned aircraft to operate alongside traditional airplanes, providing around-the-clock surveillance while also possessing strike capability. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus was clearly aware of the import of the historic moment.

“It isn’t very often you get a glimpse of the future,” Mabus said in a statement. “The operational unmanned aircraft soon to be developed have the opportunity to radically change the way presence and combat power are delivered from our aircraft carriers.”

The X-47B experimental aircraft took off from Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland before approaching the USS George H.W. Bush, which is operating off the coast of Virginia. The drone landed by deploying a tailhook that caught a wire aboard the ship, bringing it to a quick stop, just like normal fighter jets do.

Read more from this story HERE.

Zimmerman Neighbor Says He was Bloodied, Disfigured; Expert Says Residue Proves Martin was on Top (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsBy FOX NEWS. [T]estimony from one of Zimmerman’s former Florida neighbors, Eloise Dilligard, [was] that Zimmerman’s “nose was very disfigured” and blood covered much of his face immediately after his deadly confrontation with Trayvon Martin…

“His nose was very disfigured,” testified Dilligard, who also said she believes it was Zimmerman’s voice that could be heard screaming on a 911 tape…

Earlier, a forensic expert testified Tuesday that Martin’s gunshot wound indicated that he was likely on top of Zimmerman when the neighborhood watch volunteer shot him. Forensic pathologist Dr. Vincent DiMaio, an expert on gunshot wounds who has written and co-authored several articles and a book on the subject, said the single shot that killed the Florida teen passed through Martin’s clothing as it hung 2-4 inches from his skin, indicating that Martin was over Zimmerman and leaning forward.

“If you’re lying on your back, the clothing is going to be against your chest,” DiMaio testified. “So the fact that we know the clothing was 2 to 4 inches away is consistent with someone leaning over the person doing the shooting.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: APDefense winds down case at George Zimmerman trial

By MIKE SCHNEIDER AND KYLE HIGHTOWER. George Zimmerman’s attorneys are finishing up their defense of the Florida neighborhood watch volunteer charged with killing Trayvon Martin, though the judge first must rule on two requests by defense attorneys.

Zimmerman, so far, hasn’t testified. But jurors saw repeated video recordings of Zimmerman telling his side of the story to police investigators. The defense started its case last Friday. If it keeps to the schedule anticipated by defense attorney Mark O’Mara, its presentation will take about half of the time of the prosecution and call on about half as many witnesses.

Judge Debra Nelson still has to decide on two requests by the defense. One is whether to allow jurors to view an animation that depicts Zimmerman’s fight with Martin, the teenager killed in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., last year. The second issue is whether she will allow Martin’s text messages that purportedly deal with fighting. The judge said she would rule on both matters Wednesday. Read more from this story HERE.

San Diego Investigative Journalist Uncovers More Troubling Facts About Journalist Hastings’ Death (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTubeIt’s been nearly three weeks since Michael Hastings was killed in a fiery car accident in West Los Angeles. The award-winning journalist earned his stripes as a wartime reporter and captured fame with his 2010 Rolling Stone story that forced General Stanley McChrystal to resign as commander of the US forces in Afghanistan.

According to City News Service Hastings, 33, “was driving south on Highland Avenue when he apparently lost control of the compact (2013 Mercedes Benz CLK250) near Melrose Avenue and crashed into palm trees in the median about 4:20 a.m. Tuesday (June 18). The car’s engine reportedly ended up about 200 feet away from the impact site.”

An eyewitness at the scene, Jose, employed at nearby business ALSCO Inc said, the car was travelling very fast and he heard a couple explosions shortly before the car crashed.

In fact, the explosion was so intense that it took the LA County assistant corner, Ed Winter, two days to identify the burned-beyond recognition body of Hastings. Officials confirm that an autopsy has been performed, but the cause of death is pending. LAPD media spokesperson Lieutenant Andrew Neiman said, “it will take several weeks to get the toxicology results.” By stark contrast, in Italy, ‘Sopranos’ star James Gandolfini’s family received the toxicology report within a few days.

…It quickly surfaced that Hastings reached out to Wikileaks attorney Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before his death claiming the FBI was investigating him…

[Former U.S. National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism Richard] Clarke told The Huffington Post that a single-vehicle crash is “consistent with a car cyber attack. There is reason to believe that intelligence agencies for major powers — including the United States — know how to remotely seize control of a car.”

Video:

Read more from this story HERE.

Journalist Shot in Head, Egyptian Christian Church Attacked, Muslim Brotherhood Posts Fake Photos of Dead ‘Egyptian’ Children (+videos)

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Photo Credit: Mohamed RashedBy MENA. Masked gunmen opened fire at Mar Mina Church in Port Said’s al-Manakh early Tuesday and managed to get away, according to state-run news agency MENA. No casualties were reported.

Army and police squads arrived at the scene of the attack and efforts are being undertaken to identify the perpetrators.

This is the third such attack in 24 hours. Yesterday, unknown attackers assaulted Port Said’s western seaport and the province’s traffic police department.

A priest was killed Saturday in Masaeed in North Sinai. Read more from this story HERE.

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BBC Reporter Shot in the Head

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Muslim Brotherhood Using Old Photo’s of Dead Syrian Children, Claiming Egyptian Army Killed Them