#AceNewsReport – Sept.26: While the investigation is ongoing, I want to assure the parents, students and staff at Dunmore High School that we do not believe there is any active threat at this time,” District Attorney Mark Powell said in a statement. “We are relieved that this plot was uncovered before anyone was hurt and urge anyone who has information about potential threats of school violence to contact police immediately.”
#AceDailyNews says according to WPXI News Four Pennsylvania teens accused of plotting school attack on Columbine anniversary and a 15-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy are charged as adults and two other teenagers face juvenile charges in the plan to attack Dunmore High School, outside Scranton, on April 20, 2024, authorities said: Preliminary hearings are scheduled Oct. 4.
4 Pennsylvania teens accused of plotting school attack on Columbine anniversary FILE PHOTO: 4 Pennsylvania teens accused of plotting school attack on Columbine anniversary (Alexander Filon/Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A Molotov cocktail, components for bombs, writings on how to make bombs, and handwritten lists of guns, ammunition and tactical gear complete with prices were found at the girl’s home, investigators said in a criminal complaint.
The Times-Tribune reported that the girl’s mother and defense attorney Corey Eagen declined to comment, while the other teen charged as an adult had no lawyer during Friday’s arraignment. Powell declined to comment on the juvenile charges.
The mother of one of the teens charged as a juvenile discovered text messages on her child’s cellphone July 6 in which a group discussed plans to “shoot up the school,” investigators said in the complaint. The teen told investigators that he thought it was bluster until he saw 20 to 30 Molotov cocktails under the girl’s porch.
Dunmore schools Superintendent John Marichak told the newspaper he was appalled but relieved by the arrests. A statement on the district’s website said authorities had assured officials that there was “no current danger to students or staff.”
Principal Timothy Hopkins, who was one of the officials targeted, said he knows the two teens charged as adults and described them as quiet children who weren’t troublemakers. He said he had no idea why they would seek to harm him, other than his position as principal.
The two teens charged as adults were taken to the Northampton County Juvenile Justice Center following their Sept. 16 arraignment on weapons of mass destruction, terroristic threat, aggravated assault, criminal conspiracy and possession of explosive material charges. The girl is also charged with risking catastrophe because of the threat the explosive devices posed to family members and neighbors, police said.
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#AceNewsReport – Sept.20: The defendant, motivated by ISIS’s call to violence and hate, plotted a terrorist attack targeting a church in Pittsburgh,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mark J. Lesko of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “With today’s guilty plea, he will be held accountable for his crimes. The Department of Justice is committed to identifying, disrupting and holding accountable individuals who seek to engage in such attacks. I commend the agents, analysts and prosecutors who identified the threat posed by this defendant and took action to protect the public from his plans.”
#AceDailyNews reports that Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, 23, of Pittsburgh pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support to ISIS in relation to his plan to attack a church in Pittsburgh: Pending sentencing, the court ordered that Alowemer remain detained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals.
Department of Justice: Office of Public Affairs
“Inspired by ISIS, Mustafa Alowemer devised and intended to carry out a deadly attack on a house of worship and its congregation,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Kaufman for the Western District of Pennsylvania: “ If not for the tireless, multi-faceted investigation by the FBI and our partner agencies, the true depth of his determination to commit violence in the name of ISIS may not have been exposed until his deadly plans were achieved.”
“The guilty plea today by Mustafa Alowemer leaves no question about his intention to commit an act of terrorism against a place of worship,” said Special Agent in Charge Mike Nordwall of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office. “Mr. Alowemer will now face the consequences of his elaborate plan to inflict harm on innocent people. I’m proud of FBI Pittsburgh and all of the personnel who worked countless hours to protect the community, and I want to thank all of the agencies that participate in the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. Together, we combine our resources to identify and disrupt threats to protect our communities and the nation.”
According to court documents, Alowemer plotted to bomb a church located on the north side of Pittsburgh using an explosive device: His stated motivation to conduct such an attack was to support the cause of ISIS and to inspire other ISIS supporters in the United States to join together and commit similar acts in the name of ISIS. Alowemer also targeted the church to “take revenge for our [ISIS] brothers in Nigeria.” Alowemer was aware that numerous people in the proximity of the church could be killed by the explosion.
In furtherance of the plot to bomb the church, in May 2019, Alowemer distributed multiple instructional documents related to the construction and use of explosives and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to an individual Alowemer believed to be a fellow ISIS supporter, but who was in fact an FBI employee: Alowemer distributed these documents with the intent that the information be used in the assembly of a destructive device and in furtherance of conducting an attack in support of ISIS. In or around June 2019, Alowemer purchased several items, including nails and acetone (nail polish remover) with the belief that they were necessary to assemble a destructive device and with the intention they be used to construct the explosives that would be detonated in the vicinity of the church.
Between April 16 and June 11, Alowemer met four times in person with an FBI Undercover Employee (UCE) and/or an FBI Confidential Human Source (CHS). At the June 11 meeting with the UCE and CHS, Alowemer provided additional details about the bomb plot and provided the materials, including boxes of nails, he had purchased for construction of the device. Alowemer provided printed copies of detailed Google satellite maps, which included hand-written markings identifying the church and routes of arrival and escape. Alowemer also wrote and provided a 10-point handwritten plan outlining details related to his plot to personally deliver explosives in a backpack. Alowemer expressed a desire to meet one more time to conduct planning and coordination prior to carrying out the attempted bombing in July 2019. That meeting was later scheduled for June 19 in the Pittsburgh area, at which time Alowemer was arrested.
Alowemer is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 26, 2022. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000.00, or both, and a lifetime term of supervised release. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Soo C. Song of the Western District of Pennsylvania and Trial Attorney Brenda Sue Thornton of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force members who were directly involved in this investigation include: FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), IRS – Criminal Investigation, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Pennsylvania State Police, Allegheny County Police Department, Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, Allegheny County Port Authority Police, Allegheny County Probation, University of Pittsburgh Police Department and UPMC Police Security.
Editor says …Sterling Publishing & Media Service Agency is not responsible for the content of external site or from any reports, posts or links, and can also be found here on Telegram: https://t.me/acenewsdaily all of our posts fromTwitter can be found here: https://acetwitternews.wordpress.com/ and all wordpress and live posts and links here: https://acenewsroom.wordpress.com/and thanks for following as always appreciate every like, reblog or retweet and free help and guidance tips on your PC software or need help & guidance from our experts AcePCHelp.WordPress.Com
#AceNewsReport – Sept.03: At least 46 people were killed in sudden heavy rains, flooding and tornadoes brought on in the north-east by the . Authorities are still working to grasp the full scope of Ida’s destruction in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland.
Despite advance warning, city officials were unable to prevent flooding at susceptible areas like an underpass along Queens Boulevard.Dakota Santiago for The New York Times
The warnings and maps seemed clear.
On Tuesday evening, the National Weather Service issued a prediction that a wide swath of the Ohio Valley and the Eastern Seaboard would soon see heavy rainfall from what had once been Hurricane Ida. And one of the reddest portions of those maps — indicating severe rainfall and a high probability of flooding — hovered directly over New York City.
5 pm Mon…Tropical Depression Ida was located 65 mi NNE of Huntsville AL moving NE at 17 mph. The remnants of Ida will bring very heavy rainfall & potentially significant flash, urban and river flooding across the upper Ohio Valley into the mid Atlantic & southern New England. pic.twitter.com/gQeUCWQhPX— NWS Eastern Region (@NWSEastern) August 31, 2021
Those predictions proved true. But the record intensity of the rain, with more than three inches falling in one hour, caught officials by surprise. And on Thursday, as the death toll in the Northeast rose to 43 people,including 23 in New Jersey and 15 in New York, questions quickly arose as to whether city and state officials were caught flat-footed by the storm’s ferocity.On Peck Avenue in Queens, residents tossed out items ruined by flooding.Gregg Vigliotti for The New York Times
The destruction in the New York region seemed especially striking considering that Ida had already blown through the Gulf Coast, hitting New Orleans on Sunday with far stronger winds but with fewer deaths.
It also came in the wake of a series of ever-more-powerful tropical storms — including 2012’s Hurricane Sandy — which have been repeatedly cited as warning signs that the city’s aging infrastructure and subways are vulnerable to the violent weather caused by climate change. The subways, in particular, have come to act as a default sewer whenever heavy rains overwhelm the city’s actual sewer system.
The storm’s devastation underscored the city’s increasing fragility in the age of global warming, but also illustrated how the unpredictability of weather events can topple even the best laid of plans.
The city issued official warnings early Wednesday morning, when the city’s Office of Emergency Management cautioned that the remnants of Ida could cause flash flooding. The city said it also activated its flash flood emergency plan, which involved cleaning out clogged catch basins. It put its downed-tree task force on alert.
State transportation officials were dispatched to clear culverts and other drainage systems of debris, according to the governor’s office, with inspections and patrols to assess rising waters. An array of equipment — from chain saws to hand tools — was deployed, as well as pumps and generators.
By Wednesday evening, the warnings had grown more dire. New Yorkers were warned of tornadoes and urged to move to higher ground. Calls to the city’s 911 emergency system and 311 helpline began to surge around 8 p.m., according to city officials.
For all that, the intensity of the rains surprised forecasters.
Arthur DeGaetano, director of the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University, said the flash floods of Wednesday night resulted from not one storm but several small storms whose interactions with each other were hard to foresee. In the end, those storms ended up running over New York City, one after another.
“It was just like New York City was on the train tracks, and the storms were a train going down those tracks and they persisted for hours,” he said. “I would say that the forecast for this storm, or the remnants of this storm, of heavy rain over the city a day in advance were actually pretty darn good. I don’t think anybody at that point in time could have imagined six inches of rain in a six-hour period, essentially.”
Indeed, on Aug. 21, Central Park saw rainfall of 1.94 inches in an hour, a byproduct of Hurricane Henri, and the most rain-per-hour in record keeping history. On Wednesday night, 3.15 inches fell in one hour, eclipsing that record.
Although no one could foresee the fierceness of two weather events 10 days apart, city officials in May released a citywide analysis of flooding caused by rainfall.
The report sought to grapple with predictions that the city would experience an increase in “extreme rainfall events” over the course of this century, including a possible 25 percent increase in annual rainfall and a substantial increase in the number of days with more than an inch of rain.
Part of that plan included a commitment by the city to update its flash flood response procedures. Among other things, it said that by 2023, the city should “predraft messaging regarding potential dangers for residents living in basement dwellings to be used for outreach and notification in advance of forecasted extreme rain events.”
The city has also put money behind its effort to make the city more resilient to water, including a $2 billion commitment toward enhancing drainage in Southeast Queens. It was unclear how much of that has been spent.
But the storms that hit New York this week pre-empted long-term strategic planning by city officials, inflicting a more brutal real-world reality: On Thursday, officials said at least 11 New Yorkers had died in flooded basements, most of them in Queens.New York City’s subways have not been able to withstand recent heavy rainfall.Stephanie Keith for The New York Times
For his part, Mayor Bill de Blasio suggested that the experts had led the city astray.
He said that originally, the city was told to expect three to six inches of rainfall over the course of the whole day, something he cast as “not a particularly problematic amount.” Instead, he said “with almost no warning,” the city got the single biggest hour of rainfall in its history.
“We’re getting from the very best experts projections that then are made a mockery of in a matter of minutes,” Mr. de Blasio said. “We need to start communicating to people that we should assume things are going to be much worse in literally every situation.”
There was strong pushback to the mayor’s remarks, especially from elected officials who represent communities outside Manhattan.
“I think anyone who is saying they were surprised or caught off guard is being disingenuous,” said Justin Brannan, a councilman who represents Bay Ridge in Brooklyn and is chairman of the Committee on Resiliency and Waterfronts. “The one thing we can agree on is that these storms are getting more frequent and getting worse.”
Mark Treyger, a councilman who represents Coney Island and Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, noted that a federal plan to study resiliency in the area was recently postponed, even as the city embarks on the $1.45 billion East Side Coastal Resiliency plan to protect Lower Manhattan, which is scheduled to be completed in 2023.
“I’m not questioning the needs of Manhattan in terms of resiliency. I’m questioning the sense of equity across the five boroughs,” Mr. Treyger said.
Mr. Brannan is the sponsor of legislation that would require the city to develop a plan to protect the city’s entire 520 miles of shoreline. The legislation had 38 sponsors but has not moved in part to concerns over cost from the de Blasio administration.
Mitch Schwartz, a spokesman for Mr. de Blasio, said the administration supported the “intent” of the legislation but said that studying even one neighborhood for a plan of that size would cost millions of dollars. The City Council may move to pass the legislation before the mayor’s term ends in January.
A separate $10 billion plan from Mr. de Blasio to artificially extend the southern tip of Manhattan by 500 feet to create a berm well above sea levels that would protect from storm surges seems to still be in the preliminary phases more than two years after it was proposed, with community engagement underway, Mr. Schwartz said.
But Klaus Jacob, a special research scientist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, suggested that the future of New York City lies elsewhere.
“New York City’s future will lie in its higher elevations, not in its lower elevations,” said Mr. Jacob.
The resiliency of the city’s subways — which suffered switch malfunctions, floods and systemwide shutdowns and slowdowns during the storm — has also been a long-term concern.
On Thursday, the president of the transit workers union, Tony Utano, said that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority needs to “redouble efforts to fortify the subway system against flooding,” including stopping “water from cascading into stations.” Service disruptions continued into Thursday afternoon.
Janno Lieber, the acting chair of the authority, blamed a large part of the problem on the nature of the city’s street drainage system, noting that there were numerous ways for water to flood into the subterranean tracks.
“The subway system is not a submarine,” he said.Gov. Kathy Hochul faced her first natural disaster since taking office.Stephanie Keith for The New York Times
Gov. Kathy C. Hochul — facing her first natural disaster since taking office last week — had warned of a strong storm, issuing a news release on Wednesday morning cautioning that some downstate areas could see “six or more inches of rain” as well as “flash flooding and dangerous travel conditions in several locations.”
She also defended the state’s response to the storm, but suggested that the M.T.A. and other entities could face questions about their performance. “Did we have enough warning? Did we let people know? Should we shut down subways earlier?” Ms. Hochul said.
She said that preparation for flash flooding in the city and elsewhere was not adequate, noting loss of life and property in basement properties. “It’s not waves off the ocean or the Sound,” she said. “It’s flash floods coming from the sky.”
Still, when the rain falls at a historic pace, city officials say there is little they can do to prevent widespread flooding, given the age and condition of much of the city’s infrastructure. Vincent Sapienza, the city’s environmental protection commissioner, acknowledged on Thursday that the city was ill-prepared for these sorts of events.
“Anything over two inches an hour, we’re going to have trouble with,” he said.
Ida’s aftermath: Swollen rivers threaten new flooding in parts of Northeast as storms kill dozens: Hurricane Ida struck Louisiana as the fifth-strongest storm to ever hit the US mainland
As the remnants of Hurricane Ida walloped the Northeast, killing more than 50 people, other areas are bracing for the storm’s impact as swollen rivers are threatening additional flooding.
In Trenton, New Jersey, police officers were going door-to-door Wednesday night and Thursday morning encouraging residents to leave their homes in anticipation of the rising Delaware River. Flooding was anticipated at many Delaware River Basin locations and not expected to subside by Friday morning.
Further north, in Fairfield, the Passaic River is forecast to crest more than 23 feet by Friday evening, police said.
Police there have closed at least 16 roads and warned that additional roads could be closed by the morning as the river continues to rise overnight.
Fairfield Mayor Jim Gasparini urged residents to take the warning seriously, advising that “even though the weather appears nice, river levels continue to rise and the township is expected to have widespread flooding that will affect many homes and businesses.”
The National Weather Service anticipates area rivers will crest and overflow through Friday.
“For the northeast north New Jersey rivers, we’re still seeing minor to moderate with locally, major flooding along those rivers,” James Tomasini from the Brookhaven National Weather Service told The Record.
North Jersey officials are keeping a close watch on the Passaic, Hackensack, Pequannock, and Rockaway rivers.
The National Hurricane Center had warned since Tuesday of the potential for “significant and life-threatening flash flooding” and major river flooding in the mid-Atlantic region and New England.
Hurricane Ida struck Louisiana as the fifth-strongest storm to ever hit the U.S. mainland, leaving 1 million people without power – potentially for weeks.
Editor says …Sterling Publishing & Media Service Agency is not responsible for the content of external site or from any reports, posts or links, and can also be found here on Telegram: https://t.me/acenewsdaily all of our posts fromTwitter can be found here: https://acetwitternews.wordpress.com/ and all wordpress and live posts and links here: https://acenewsroom.wordpress.com/and thanks for following as always appreciate every like, reblog or retweet and free help and guidance tips on your PC software or need help & guidance from our experts AcePCHelp.WordPress.Com
#AceNewsReport – Apr.15: The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, alleges that Allen Woodcock sexually harassed a female tenant in April 2019 after he entered her home to perform maintenance. According to the complaint, Allen Woodcock touched the tenant’s body without her consent and forcibly tried to kiss her, and the Woodcocks evicted the tenant after she reported the harassment to Heidi Woodcock:
Justice Department Files Sexual Harassment Lawsuit: ‘Against Owners and Managers of Rental Properties in Pennsylvania and it has announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against Allen and Heidi Woodcock, owners and managers of rental properties in Oil City, alleging sexual harassment and retaliation in violation of the Fair Housing Act’
“People should never have to endure sexual harassment in their home, where they should feel safe and secure,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Pamela S. Karlan of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will vigorously enforce the Fair Housing Act against landlords who engage in this kind of abusive and illegal behavior.”
“Combatting sexual harassment in housing is a high priority at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD),” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing Jeanine Worden. “This is an example of how HUD and the Justice Department work together to enforce the Fair Housing Act.”
“Sexual harassment in housing is illegal,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Kaufman for the Western District of Pennsylvania. “Landlords, property managers or anyone else with control over housing should recognize by the filing of this lawsuit that we take action to combat such despicable conduct.”
The lawsuit arose from a complaint that the former tenant filed with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). After HUD investigated the complaint, it issued a charge of discrimination and the matter was referred to the Justice Department.
Today’s lawsuit seeks monetary damages to compensate the victim and a court order barring future discrimination. The complaint contains allegations of unlawful conduct; the allegations must be proven in court.
The Justice Department’s Sexual Harassment in Housing Initiative is led by the Civil Rights Division, in coordination with U.S. Attorney’s Offices across the country. The goal of the initiative is to address and raise awareness about sexual harassment by landlords, property managers, maintenance workers, loan officers or other people who have control over housing. Since launching the Initiative in October 2017, the Justice Department has filed 21 lawsuits alleging sexual harassment in housing.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division enforces the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability and familial status. More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at http://www.justice.gov/crt.
Individuals who believe that they may have been victims of sexual harassment or other types of housing discrimination at rental dwellings owned or managed by Allen and Heidi Woodcock, or who have other information that may be relevant to this case, should call the Justice Department’s Housing Discrimination Tip Line at 1-800-896-7743, email the Justice Department at fairhousing@usdoj.gov, or submit a report online.
#AceNewsReport – Apr.15: Title VII is a federal law that prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. The suit alleged that PSP violated Title VII beginning as early as May 14, 2003, by administering physical tests that assessed physical skills not required to perform the job and that disproportionately excluded female applicants:
Sex Discrimination Lawsuit: The Justice Department announced today that it has reached a settlement, through a court-supervised settlement agreement, with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) resolving the United States’ claims that PSP’s use of physical tests as part of the entry-level hiring process for state troopers resulted in a pattern or practice of employment discrimination against women, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964’
“Employers cannot impose selection criteria that unfairly screen out qualified female applicants,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Pamela S. Karlan of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “When the Pennsylvania State Police use a physical fitness test as part of the process for choosing state troopers, they must ensure that the test complies with federal law. This settlement agreement reflects the Civil Rights Division’s continued commitment to removing artificial barriers that prevent women from becoming law enforcement officers.”
Under the terms of the settlement agreement, subject to court approval, PSP will pay $2,200,000 million into a settlement fund that will be used to compensate those women who were harmed by the employment practices challenged by the United States. The agreement also requires PSP to offer priority hiring relief, with retroactive seniority, for up to 65 women for entry-level state trooper jobs. All priority hiring candidates must meet the employer’s lawful selection criteria, including the successful passing of any physical fitness test that meets the requirements of Title VII.
In a joint filing today in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the parties moved for a court order provisionally approving the terms of the settlement agreement. The motion also asks the court to schedule a fairness hearing to provide an opportunity for individuals potentially affected by the proposed agreement to provide comments on the terms of the settlement. The proposed settlement, once approved by the District Court, will resolve the United States’ complaint filed on July 29, 2014.
The case was brought by the Civil Rights Division’s Employment Litigation Section, which makes the full and fair enforcement of Title VII a top priority. Additional information about the Civil Rights Division and the jurisdiction of the Employment Litigation Section is available on its websites at www.justice.gov/crt/ and https://www.justice.gov/crt/employment-litigation-section.
Ace Worldwide News Group
20:06 on 06/08/2015 Tags: Kathleen Kane, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, NORRISTOWN, Pa., Pennsylvania, secret grand jury
#AceNewsReport – NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP):Aug.06: Pennsylvania’s attorney general was charged Thursday with leaking secret grand jury information to strike back at her critics, then lying about it under oath, in a case that could spell the downfall of the state’s highest-ranking female politician.
MORE: Pennsylvania AG Kathleen Kane is charged with perjury, obstruction, abuse of office in grand jury leak: http://t.co/pK8se5RbZb
Kathleen Kane leaked the material to a political operative to pass on to the media “in hopes of embarrassing and harming former state prosecutors she believed, without evidence, made her look bad,” Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said.
#AceNewsServices – UNITED STATES (Pennsylvania) – October 16 – A scandal involving pornographic emails circulated within the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office widened at the highest level of the judiciary Wednesday when the state’s chief justice said 234 emails with sexually explicit material or pornography were sent or received by a fellow justice.
Chief Justice Ron Castille said in a news release that Justice Seamus McCaffery sent most of the emails to a now-retired agent with the attorney general’s office, who then forwarded them to others.
Castille said the seven-member court is reviewing the matter further.
Neither McCaffery nor his lawyer, Dion Rassias, responded to requests for comment. Rassias told The Philadelphia Inquirer earlier this month that he wondered “why a half-dozen private emails, allegedly from Justice McCaffery’s personal computer, are front-page news.”
Justice Corry Stevens, a Corbett appointee and the court’s newest member, said the high court has no specific plans to meet to discuss the emails, and he suggested it would not be the Supreme Court’s role to investigate further.
He said it would be up to McCaffery to decide whether to step down or not.
“I think there’s some fact-finding that needs to be done and that would really not be the Supreme Court, I would think,” Stevens said.
The new details were disclosed after Castille was provided with the emails, at his request, by the attorney general’s office Friday. Castille said neither he nor the other five justices was implicated.
McCaffery, 64, was elected as a Democrat seven years ago, after serving as a Philadelphia municipal judge and a member of the state Superior Court, an intermediate appeals court.
A former Philadelphia police officer, he also presided over the so-called Eagles Court that operated inside Veterans Stadium on NFL game days.
The circulation of pornography within the attorney general’s office from late 2008 until early 2012 has led three former members of that office to leave their government jobs, including a member of Gov. Tom Corbett’s Cabinet, and a fourth former member to announce Wednesday he would resign at the end of this month.
#AceNewsServices – PENNSYLVANIA – September 27 – Eric Frein man-hunt case has taken a surprising turn this last few days. According to the police they say the hard drive of a computer used by the suspect in the deadly ambush of Pennsylvania state police troopers provides evidence he has been planning an attack for years and preparing to avoid arrest.
‘POLICE: TROOPER AMBUSH SUSPECT PLOTTED FOR YEARS’
State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said a police inspection of the hard drive shows Eric Frein did Internet research on how to avoid police manhunts and on law enforcement technology and survival skills.
‘ Suspect Eric Frein identified in Shooting of Trooper’s ‘
Bivens said Frein might now be treating the dragnet in northeastern Pennsylvania as “a game – a war game, if you will.”
Authorities believe they have Frein contained within a 5-square-mile perimeter around his parents’ home in Canadensis.
‘ Police Trooper Bryan Dixon Laid to Rest ‘
They provided new details Friday, two weeks after a gunman opened fire at the state police barracks in Blooming Grove, killing Cpl. Bryon Dickson and injuring a second trooper who remains hospitalized.
Frein has managed to elude hundreds of law enforcement officials looking for him in the thick woods around his parents’ home in Canadensis, taking advantage of the difficult terrain to keep them at bay.
He is believed to be armed with at least one high-powered rifle.
#AceNewsServices – UNITED STATES (Pennsylvania) – September 21 – The suspect in the deadly ambush at a state police barracks in a remote part of north-eastern Pennsylvania remained at large for a ninth day Sunday as police appeared to have narrowed their search, largely shutting down the area where he lived with his parents but leaving neighbours with few answers about what’s going on just outside their front doors.
‘ Eric Frein FBI’s Most Wanted List ‘
With a helicopter flying overhead, law enforcement officers wearing bulletproof vests and armed with rifles continued their hunt for Eric Frein, 31, now on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.
On September 12, 2014, a gunman targeted the Pennsylvania State Police Blooming Grove Barracks in Pike County, Pennsylvania, ambushing Corporal Bryon Dickson and Trooper Alex Douglass.
Corporal Dickson, 38, was fatally shot and Trooper Douglass, 31, critically wounded. Days later, Freins vehicle was found partially submerged in a nearby pond and allegedly contained evidence linking him to the shootings.
State arrest warrants were issued after Frein was charged with homicide, homicide of a law enforcement officer, and attempted murder. F
Frein is also charged federally with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
#AceNewsServices – PENNSYLVANIA – April 23 (Reuters) – Two graduates of an exclusive Pennsylvania prep school were charged with operating an extensive drug ring that dealt cocaine and marijuana to students at high schools and colleges in an affluent part of Philadelphia, authorities said on Tuesday.
Neil Scott, 25, and Timothy Brooks, 18, led the effort to create a “monopoly” on drug sales in the area and used high school students to deal drugs at their local schools, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said.
“While parents sought to provide education to their kids, these defendants sought to use the schools to create drug addicts,” Ferman said in a statement announcing their arrests.
Scott and Brooks were former lacrosse players and graduates of The Haverford School, an all-boys prep school near Philadelphia that charges $35,000 per year in tuition, prosecutors said.
They used their privileged connections to move drugs along suburban Philadelphia’s Main Line, a stretch of wealthy neighbourhoods north-west of the city, authorities said.
The two called their drug network the “main line take over project,” and “employed students from five local high schools and three colleges as what they call sub-dealers to distribute cocaine, marijuana, hash oil, ecstasy,” Ferman said.
Scott and Brooks encouraged dealers, who were assigned to specific schools, to meet quotas including selling a pound (450 grams) a week of marijuana transported to Pennsylvania from a California supplier, prosecutors said.
Ace Related News:
1. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/22/us-usa-pennsylvania-drugs-idUSBREA3L17G20140422
2. http://www.allvoices.com/news/16927963/s/104469965-prosecutors-prep-school-graduates-ran-drug-ring
3. http://news.yahoo.com/main-line-drug-ring-pennsylvania-nets-two-prep-163126368.html
#AceNewsServices – UNITED STATES – April 14 – (RT) – White supremacist organization the Ku Klux Klan looks determined to take advantage of a struggling economy, anger over immigration and wariness of America’s first black president as it kicks off an aggressive new recruitment drive.
Borrowing a popular theme from US wartime propaganda posters, American neighbourhoods in Texas, Louisiana, Illinois and Pennsylvania over the weekend discovered leaflets in their mailboxes and on car windshields that read, “The KKK Wants You!” – complete with a depiction of a hooded figure adorned with Klan insignia pointing at the reader.http://www.kkkknights.com/
The leaflets provide contact numbers for local recruiting offices, as well as “24/7 hotlines” and associated websites.
“Someone is passing out hateful flyers in the Acadiana area, telling Eunice residents the KKK is ‘awake’,” reported WGNO of New Orleans.
The flyers were signed by the “Loyal White Knights,” which their website ‘Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan’ claims is “the largest and most active Klan in America.”
AceNewsServices – PENNSYLVANIA – April 09 – (FNA) – Twenty people were injured, at least nine seriously, when a student at a Pittsburgh-area high school went on a stabbing rampage early on Wednesday, officials said.
The suspected attacker, who was not identified, was in police custody, deputy emergency management coordinator for the West-Moreland County, Dan Stevens, told reporters.
Seven students between the ages of 15 and 17 and one adult were admitted to Forbes Regional Hospital in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, with stab wounds.
“These are all very serious injuries,” hospital spokesman Jesse Miller said in a telephone interview.
The attacks took place in several classrooms and hallways as the school day began at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, 20 miles east of Pittsburgh, county emergency management officials said. The first 911 call was received at 7:13 a.m. EDT, Reuters reported.
Three of the patients admitted were in surgery and all eight were in critical condition, hospital spokesman Miller said.
He said a ninth patient who had arrived at the hospital was airlifted to another facility.
Zak Amsler, a 17-year-old junior at the school, said the attack occurred just before his first class was scheduled to begin.
“I saw a girl with blood running out of her sleeve,” Amsler said as he waited to pick up his younger sister, a student at the nearby middle school. “It was pretty mind-blowing.”
#AceWorldNews – NEW YORK – (Reuters) – Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama Bin Laden, was found guilty of terrorism-related charges on Wednesday following a three-week trial that offered unusually vivid details of the former al Qaeda leader’s actions in the days after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Abu Ghaith, 48, a Kuwait-born Muslim cleric, faces life in prison after a federal court jury in New York convicted him of conspiring to kill Americans, conspiring to provide material support for terrorists, and providing such support.
Jurors took just over one day to reach a verdict in a courtroom that is blocks from the site of the World Trade Centre destroyed in the hijacked plane attacks nearly 13 years ago.
Abu Ghaith’s court-appointed lawyer, Stanley Cohen, said there were several issues he would raise on appeal.
They include U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan’s decision to bar testimony from Pakistan-born Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man the U.S. government accuses of masterminding the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
“He was stoic, he was at ease,” Cohen said of Abu Ghaith’s reaction to the verdict. “I think he feels that it was impossible under the circumstances to receive a fair trial.”
#AceWorldNews says Civil rights advocates won a major victory Friday when a Pennsylvania judge struck down a contentious voter identification law, ruling that it disenfranchised “hundreds of thousands” of voters who were unable to meet the state’s new requirements.
The 2012 law required voters to present photo identification at the polls, although in the past they could use pay-checks or bills to fulfil that requirement. Judge Bernard McGinley also noted that there was no evidence that the law was passed to help stop voter fraud, a claim lawmakers cited frequently when they voted for it. William Yeoman’s, a former chief of staff at the US Justice Department, said that while the judge’s decision is a step forward, the number of states that still have restrictive voter laws puts a damper on any celebration. “One very important thing is the court seemed to reject the bogus argument that the law was aimed at preventing voter fraud,” he said. “That will have some broader resonance.”
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