National, Regional and Local News

[ti-amie]

Full video at the link

[Owendonovan]

At Least 2 Killed and 6 Injured in Florida State University Shooting
The police identified the gunman as a 20-year-old student who is the (white, republican, maga, christian) son of a Leon County sheriff’s deputy. Neither of the slain victims was a student at the university.

A 20-year-old student at Florida State University in Tallahassee shot and killed two people on Thursday and injured six, the police said. The gunman was identified as the son of a deputy in the local sheriff’s department, and was taken into custody after being shot by the police, law enforcement officials said.

Officials said that the gunman, identified as Phoenix Ikner, was armed with a former service revolver of his mother, a deputy who has worked at the Leon County Sheriff’s Office for 18 years and was allowed to keep the gun for personal use.

Mr. Ikner had been involved in training programs at the Sheriff’s Office and was a member of its youth advisory committee, Sheriff Walter McNeil told reporters.

“He has been steeped in the Leon County Sheriff’s Office family,” the sheriff said. “It’s not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/us/f ... assee.html

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

Carl Quintanilla‬ ‪@carlquintanilla.bsky.social‬
·
12m
* Travel to the U.S. From Almost Everywhere is Falling Under Trump

@washingtonpost.com
$BEDZ $JETS
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

Sanders says Arkansas in ‘dire need of federal assistance,’ but Trump says no
by Griffin Coop
April 21, 2025 5:50 pm

Gov. Sarah Sanders said Arkansas is in “dire need of federal assistance” in an appeal letter last week after the federal government denied help after last month’s damaging storms.

Fourteen tornadoes touched down in Arkansas on March 14 and 15, leaving three dead and dozens injured.

The next week, Sanders asked President Donald Trump for a major disaster declaration, the first step in securing federal funds and other help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Sanders specifically requested help in the form of small business loans and individual assistance for people in Greene, Hot Spring, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Lawrence, Randolph, Sharp and Stone counties.

But the Trump administration declined to declare a disaster, meaning no federal assistance would be heading our way.

In their rejection note to Sanders’ March 21 request, the federal government said the damage wasn’t anything state and local folks couldn’t handle.

Here’s what the federal government said in its denial, according to Lacey Kanipe, spokeswoman for the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management:

“Based on our review of all of the information available, it has been determined that the damage from this event was not of such severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the state, affected local governments, and voluntary agencies. Accordingly, we have determined that supplemental federal assistance is not necessary.”

Sanders and the state Division of Emergency Management appealed that decision on April 18, after another round of spring storms worked Arkansas over. In their appeal, they described the compounding nature of the storms.

“The severe storms and tornadoes that occurred on March 14 and 15, 2025, produced catastrophic impacts across the state. The sheer magnitude of this event resulted in overwhelming amounts of debris, widespread destruction to homes and businesses, the tragic loss of three lives, and injuries to many others,” Sanders’ appeal letter said. “Less than three weeks later, Arkansas was once again devastated by a second wave of severe storms, tornadoes, and a generational flooding event. These compounding disasters severely affected many of the same counties, adding even more catastrophic debris and tragically claiming the lives of three additional Arkansans. Given the cumulative impact of these events, federal assistance is essential to help our communities recover.”

The Arkansas Division of Emergency Management had not gotten a response from the Trump administration as of Monday afternoon.

In the last five years, the state has only seen two denials for federal funding, Kanipe said. The FEMA website shows many times the agency sent aid to Arkansas, including declarations of major disasters after a winter storm and severe storms in 2023 and after severe storms and more last year.

Kanipe couldn’t immediately say which specific requests for federal disaster assistance earned denials in recent years. In 2019, FEMA denied some aid for hazard mitigation related to flooding in Fort Smith, but the agency approved other applications for the Arkansas storm damage that year.

Sanders’ recent appeals for federal help are notably different from the hands-off approach she espoused early in her term in 2023:



That big talk did not dissuade then-President Joe Biden from quickly signing off on disaster relief for Arkansas after the March 31, 2023, tornado.

Indeed, a retrospective press release from the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management sent a year later noted how quickly the Biden administration responded to the 2023 storms that killed five:

“Within 24 hours of the disaster, Governor Sanders officially requested a presidential disaster declaration, which included Individual and Public Assistance and statewide Hazard Mitigation efforts. Within 48 hours of the storms, President Biden signed a Major Disaster Declaration activating federal resources to support the State’s response and recovery,” the March 29, 2024, release said.

https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2025 ... mp-says-no

[ti-amie]

Wife of wrongly deported Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia forced into safe house after government posts address online
Homeland Security shared copy of protective order from 2021 revealing family’s address on social media

Alex Woodward
in New York
Wednesday 23 April 2025 18:24 BST

The wife of a wrongly deported Salvadoran father living in Maryland was moved to a safe house after Donald Trump’s administration posted a court document that included her address on social media.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura said she began fearing for her safety and the safety of her three children after the Department of Homeland Security shared a protective order from 2021 that prominently featured her address to the department’s 2.4 million followers on X.

“I don’t feel safe when the government posts my address, the house where my family lives, for everyone to see, especially when this case has gone viral and people have all sorts of opinions,” she told The Washington Post. “So, this is definitely a bit terrifying. I’m scared for my kids.”

A statement from DHS to The Independent said “these are public documents that anyone could get access to.”

After a series of court rulings criticized the administration for failing to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States from prisons in El Salvador, the White House and administration officials have sought to justify his detention by publicly introducing allegations of criminality against him, none of which have been submitted in court.

Democratic officials and advocates argue Abrego Garcia was denied due process to fight such claims in court after the administration defied a 2019 court order that blocked his removal from the United States for humanitarian reasons. The government has instead tried to argue that allegations against Abrego Garcia are enough to deport him. He was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and swiftly deported to El Salvador on March 15.

The administration has characterized Abrego Garcia as a “violent” MS-13 gang member “involved in human trafficking.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller labeled him a “woman beater.”

Officials have pointed to a protective order filed by Vasquez Sura in 2021 after her husband struck her in a car. Vasquez Sura dissolved the order a month later.

She has acknowledged difficulties in their relationship, largely due to financial stress, raising special needs children, and Abrego Garcia’s 2019 arrest by immigration authorities, according to The Washington Post.

That pressure “boiled over” during an argument in 2021.

Vasquez Sura said it was an isolated incident she attributed to the strain of his immigration detention and being a parent without steady work.

She said in a statement earlier this month that the incident does not justify federal agents “abducting him and deporting him to a country where he was supposed to be protected from deportation.”

“Look, Kilmar is not perfect — nobody is,” she told The Washington Post. “Day by day, you grow. Every day, you learn. And he was trying his best for me, for our kids, for our future.”

The Independent has requested comment from DHS.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 38214.html

[ponchi101]

No way I can believe this was not done on purpose.

[ti-amie]

Son of CIA deputy director was killed while fighting for Russia, report says
Michael Alexander Gloss, 21, who died on 4 April 2024, was the son of top-ranking US spy Juliana Gallina


Michael Gloss, son of CIA deputy director Juliane Gallina, died in Ukraine as a Russian soldier. Photograph: Instagram

Andrew Roth in Washington
Fri 25 Apr 2025 17.09 EDT
Share
An American man identified as the son of a deputy director of the CIA was killed in eastern Ukraine in 2024 while fighting under contract for the Russian military, according to an investigation by independent Russian media.

Michael Alexander Gloss, 21, died on 4 April 2024 in “Eastern Europe”, according to an obituary published by his family. He was the son of Juliane Gallina, who was appointed the deputy director for digital innovation at the Central Intelligence Agency in February 2024.

The story of how the son of a top-ranking US spy died fighting for Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is an unlikely tale of how homegrown anger at the United States and online radicalisation led from a middle-class Virginia childhood to the killing fields of eastern Ukraine.

On a VKontakte page attributed to Gloss, a high school football player born to parents who both served in the military, he described himself as “a supporter of the multipolar world. I ran away from home. traveled the world. I hate fascism. I love my homeland.” He also posted the flags of Russia and Palestine.

According to the investigative website iStories, Gloss is one of more than 1,500 foreigners who have signed contracts with the Russian military since February 2022. The database for the enrollment office was later leaked, exposing him as having signed the contract in September 2023. Sources told iStories that Gloss had been deployed with “assault units”, those engaged in harsh frontline fighting, in December 2023. An acquaintance said that he had been deployed to a Russian airborne regiment sent to storm Ukrainian positions near the city of Soledar.

“With his noble heart and warrior spirit Michael was forging his own hero’s journey when he was tragically killed in Eastern Europe on April 4, 2024,” his family wrote in the obituary, which did not mention Russia and Ukraine or discuss the circumstances of his death.

In university, Gloss was active in gender equality and environmental protest circles. He joined Rainbow Family, a leftwing environmental protest group, and in 2023 traveled to Hatay, Turkey, to assist in the recovery following the earthquake that killed more than 56,000 people. He had also become increasingly angry at the US for its support of Israel and the war in Gaza.

While in Turkey, Gloss began expressing a desire to go on to Russia. “He was usually watching videos about Palestine and was so angry at America,” one acquaintance told iStories. “He started thinking about going to Russia. He wanted to war with the USA. But I think he was very influenced by the conspiracy theory videos.”

After receiving a visa to Russia, he traveled around the country before arriving in Moscow, where he joined the military shortly before his documents expired. Photographs and videos obtained by iStories showed he was sent to a Russian training camp, where he mostly trained alongside Nepali contract soldiers. Three months after enlisting, an acquaintance said, he was deployed to Ukraine as a member of an assault battalion.

A number of acquaintances told the outlet that he had not been interested in fighting, but hoped the army would allow him to receive a Russian passport and stay in the country.

The circumstance’s of Gloss’s death are not known. A friend said that his family had been informed by the Russian government of his death but were given little other information. “It was announced that he died within the borders of Ukraine,” the friend wrote. “We do not know whether he participated in the war. They did not provide any other detailed information.”

It was not clear whether the Russians performed a background check on Gloss or knew the identity of his mother. The Guardian has approached the CIA for comment on the reports.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... MP=bsky_gu

[ponchi101]

I know it cannot be treason because he was not fighting the USA.
But, damn, that's close.

[ti-amie]