VOTE BUYING? Fla. Seeks Investigation of Bloomberg Donations to Felons

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VOTE BUYING? Fla. Seeks Investigation of Bloomberg Donations to Felons

(Headline USA) Florida‘s attorney general asked state and federal law enforcement on Wednesday to investigate possible election law violations after billionaire and former Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg helped raise more than $16 million for Florida felons to pay their debts so they can vote in the presidential election.

Attorney General Ashley Moody sent letters to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI saying that further investigation is warranted. Gov. Ron DeSantis had asked Moody to review allegations that Bloomberg and the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition had violated the law by offering incentives for voting. DeSantis and Moody are both Republicans.

“I have instructed the Statewide Prosecutor to work with law enforcement and any Statewide Grand Jury that the Governor may call,” Moody said in a written statement.

In 2018, voters approved a constitutional amendment to restore most felons’ voting rights once they’ve completed their sentences. The exception was for murderers and sex offenders. But when crafting the law to implement the amendment, the Republican-dominated Legislature said that rights wouldn’t be restored until all fines, court fees and restitution were paid.

Bloomberg announced this week that he raised more than $16 million to help pay off the financial obligations for felons so they can vote. While the coalition says it doesn’t target people based on their political affiliation, Moody is questioning whether the donation violates laws that prohibit giving people incentives to vote.

Spokespeople for Bloomberg and DeSantis didn’t immediately reply to phone calls seeking comment.

A federal appellate court ruled on Sept. 11 that in addition to serving their sentences, Florida felons must pay all fines, restitution and legal fees before they can regain their right to vote. The case could have broad implications for the November elections. Florida has 29 electoral college votes that are crucial to President Donald Trump’s hopes of staying in the White House.

The money Bloomberg raised is targeted for black and Hispanic felons who registered to vote while the law was in question and who owe $1,500 or less. That accounts for about 31,100 people, his staffers said. In a state that decided the 2000 presidential election by 537 votes, that could be critical in a year when polls show Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden in a dead heat.

The Florida Rights Restitution Coalition had raised about $5 million before Bloomberg made calls to raise almost $17 million more, according to Bloomberg staffers.

Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, Florida’s only statewide elected Democrat and a member of the Cabinet, criticized the decision to investigate Bloomberg.

“Florida Republicans will stop at nothing to prevent people from voting, and this is another ploy to suppress the voices of those trying to regain their right to vote,” Fried said in a statement. “Whether Mike Bloomberg, John Legend or LeBron James, these are are contributions made legally.”

The question of satisfying financial obligations before voting rights are restored continues to be battled in court.

On Sept. 11, a federal appeals court reversed a lower court ruling that gave Florida felons the right to vote regardless of outstanding restitution, court fees and fines.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

Breonna Taylor’s Family Demands Atty. Gen. Release Grand Jury Transcripts

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Breonna Taylor’s Family Demands Atty. Gen. Release Grand Jury Transcripts

(Headline USA) Breonna Taylor‘s family and their lawyers sharply criticized Kentucky‘s attorney general for the failure to bring charges against police officers in her death, calling Friday for him to release the transcripts of the grand jury proceeding while vowing to continue their protests until the officers are charged.

Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, said in a statement read by a relative to a gathering in Louisville that she did not expect justice from state Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

Ben Crump, a lawyer for the family, urged the prosecutor to make the transcripts public, so people can see if anyone was present at the grand jury proceedings to give a voice to Taylor.

Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, has also called for Cameron to release what evidence he can.

Taylor, a black woman, was shot multiple times by officers after Taylor’s boyfriend fired at them, authorities said.

He said he fired in self-defense, wounding one officer.

Police, who announced themselves, were conducting a drug investigation and entered on a warrant connected to a suspect who did not live there, and no drugs were found inside.

Cameron has said the investigation showed officers acted in self-defense.

The grand jury charged one officer, who has already been fired, with firing into a neighboring apartment.

The FBI is still investigating whether Taylor’s civil rights were violated, and some have put their hope in that probe, but the burden of proof for such cases is very high.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

PAYBACK: NM’s Democrat Senators Put Hold on Trump District Court Nominees Until After Election

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PAYBACK: NM’s Democrat Senators Put Hold on Trump District Court Nominees Until After Election

(Associated Press) New Mexico‘s Democratic senators have placed the judicial confirmations for two U.S. District Court vacancies on hold until after the Nov. 3 election.

They say the president has politicized the process, so they’ll wait until the voters have spoken.

Using their home-state consultation authority, Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall interrupted the vetting of two possible lifetime appointments in response to a White House news conference — prior to the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Sept. 18 — in which Trump invoked the president’s authority over hundreds of recent and future federal judicial appointments as a rallying cry to political supporters.

They acknowledged their decision Thursday.

The New Mexico U.S. District Court has relied on visiting judges to relieve pressure on its robust dockets of immigration and drug trafficking cases.

One of three bench vacancies was filled last year by Republican Judge Kea W. Riggs, and Heinrich and Udall had signaled early support for Trump nominees Fred Federici, an assistant U.S. attorney, and Albuquerque-based civil litigation attorney Brenda Saiz.

Trump has urged the Senate to consider without delay his upcoming nomination for a conservative successor to the unquestioned leader of the court’s liberal wing, even though its Republican leaders spurned Democratic President Barack Obama’s election-year Supreme Court appointment in 2016.

“Just weeks before the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the President insisted on politicizing the judicial appointment process in his remarks at a thinly-veiled campaign event at the White House,” Heinrich and Udall said in a joint statement. “We will be pausing the process given the close proximity to the election, and will continue to work expeditiously to fill these vacancies once the American people have spoken.”

At his Sept. 9 White House event, Trump announced the names of 20 potential future Supreme Court nominees and warned of a growing radical left movement that might use the high court to “remove the words ‘under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance” and ¨grant new protections to anarchists, rioters, violent criminals and terrorists.”

In an earlier appointment with implication for New Mexico, Trump opened the way in 2017 for former Roswell-based attorney Joel Carson to join the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to take the place of Paul Joseph Kelly.

State Republican Party Chairman Steve Pearce praised Federici and Saiz as highly qualified nominees and lamented the senators’ decision.

“It looks like for political reasons, they’re just going to keep them frozen up,” Pearce said.

The move leaves a tiny window of time for Senate confirmation before the process resets at the outset of 2021.

Oversight would fall partially to Udall’s successor as he retires at year’s end — either Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján or Republican former television meteorologist Mark Ronchetti.

Protesters Take to Streets over Breonna Taylor; 24 Arrested

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Protesters Take to Streets over Breonna Taylor; 24 Arrested

(Headline USA) Louisville police in riot gear barricaded roads and cars honked as the crowd marched past a nighttime curfew during a second night of protests over the refusal of Kentucky state officials to prosecute officers in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Officers also blocked the exits of a church where protesters gathered to avoid arrest for violating the curfew.

Several people were detained, including state Rep. Attica Scott, a Louisville Democrat. Scott unveiled legislation recently that would ban the use of no-knock search warrants in Kentucky. The measure, called Breonna’s Law in honor of Taylor, also would require drug and alcohol testing of officers involving in shootings and deadly incidents and require that body cameras be worn during the execution of all search warrants.

Police eventually pulled back late Thursday after negotiating with demonstrators to end the protest.

At least 24 people were arrested as of 1 a.m. Friday, police said. Protesters broke windows at a restaurant, damaged city buses, tried to set a fire and threw a flare into the street.

Earlier, it got heated between some protesters and a group of 12 to 15 armed white people, but it didn’t turn physical.

Some of the protesters raised their fists and called out “black lives matter!” Others tended to the letters, flowers and signs grouped together in a square downtown.

People dismayed that the officers who shot the black woman in her apartment during a drug raid last March wouldn’t be charged with her death vowed to persist in their fight for justice.

“We’ve got to take it lying down that the law won’t protect us, that they can get away with killing us,” said Lavel White, a regular protester in downtown Louisville who is black.

He was drawn to a march Thursday night because he was devastated by a grand jury’s decision a day earlier not to charge the officers. “If we can’t get justice for Breonna Taylor, can we get justice for anybody?”

He was angry that police in riot gear were out in force when protesters had been peaceful as they streamed through the streets of downtown Louisville past a nighttime curfew. Demonstrators also gathered in places like Los Angeles where a vehicle ran through a crowd of protesters who menaced vehicles as they tried to move down streets. In Portland, Oregon — a city that has seen many protests since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis — a fire was set at a police union building.

Taylor was shot multiple times by officers after Taylor’s boyfriend fired at them, authorities said. He said he didn’t know who was coming in and opened fire in self-defense, wounding one officer.

State Attorney General Daniel Cameron said Wednesday that the investigation showed officers acted in self-defense. One officer who has already been fired was charged with firing into a neighboring apartment.

The FBI is still investigating whether Taylor’s civil rights were violated. But the burden of proof for such cases is very high, with prosecutors having to prove officers knew they were acting illegally and made a willful decision to cause someone’s death.

While there was despair after the decision in Taylor’s case, others saw reasons to hope.

Reginique Jones said she’ll keep pressing for increased police accountability and for a statewide ban on “no knock” warrants — the kind issued in the Taylor case, though the state attorney general said the investigation showed police announced themselves before busting into her apartment.

“I believe that we are going to get past this,” Jones said as she returned Thursday to the park in downtown Louisville that has been at the center of the protests. “We can still get some justice.”

Since Taylor’s killing, Louisville has taken some steps to address protesters’ concerns. In addition to the officer who was fired and later charged, three others were put on desk duty. Officials have banned no-knock warrants and hired a black woman as the permanent police chief — a first for the city, although black leaders of police forces in other cities have quit over cries to “defund the police.”

Louisville also agreed to more police reforms as it settled a lawsuit that included $12 million for Taylor’s family.

Riots broke out a night earlier. Two officers were shot and were expected to recover.

Larynzo D. Johnson, 26, was charged and he’s scheduled to be in court Friday.

The curfew in Louisville will last through the weekend, and Gov. Andy Beshear called up the National Guard for “limited missions.”

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

Some Democrats Worried Biden is Blowing It by Spending So Much Time in ‘Basement’

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Some Democrats Worried Biden is Blowing It by Spending So Much Time in ‘Basement’

(Headline USA) The final stretch of a presidential campaign is typically a nonstop mix of travel, caffeine and adrenaline.

But in response to the pandemic, Joe Biden is taking a lower key approach.

Since his Aug. 11 selection of California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, Biden has had 22 days where he either didn’t make public appearances, held only virtual fundraisers or ventured from his Delaware home solely for church, according to an Associated Press analysis of his schedules. He made 12 visits outside of Delaware during that period, including a trip to Washington scheduled for Friday to pay respects to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

During the same time, high-energy President Donald Trump had 24 trips that took him to 17 different states, not counting a personal visit to New York to see his ailing brother in the hospital or weekend golf outings.

Biden’s aides insist his approach is intentional, showcasing his respect for public health guidelines aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus and presenting a responsible contrast with Trump, who has resumed large-scale campaign rallies — sometimes over the objections of local officials. Still, some Democrats say it’s critical that Biden infuse his campaign with more energy.

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said not traveling because of the pandemic was a “pretty lame excuse.”

“I thought he had his own plane,” Hinojosa said. “He doesn’t have to sit with one space between another person on a commercial airline like I would.”

Hinojosa argued that Biden prioritizing visits to Texas and Arizona could boost Latino turnout and potentially reduce the pressure on him to sweep Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — where he has focused much of his travel so far.

“We are campaigning safely and effectively, and our message is reaching voters in battleground states and generating the enthusiasm and energy we need to beat Donald Trump,” said Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo.

The race between Biden and Trump has been generally consistent for months. Biden’s campaign believes he has maintained a comfortable lead in polls some consider suspect. They say he has an advantage, though narrower, in many of the battleground states that will decide the election.

But polls that showed competitive races or even Democratic advantages in traditionally Republican states proved to be false indicators for Democrats in 2016.

Four years later, Biden faces persistent questions about whether his campaign is organizing and connecting with voters. When he visited Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday for a black economic summit, Collette Alston, chairwoman of the local African American Caucus, said she only found out with one day’s notice — when she saw it on TV.

Just 16 people attended the event and Alston warned that Biden wasn’t reaching locals she thinks he needs to — “the people that are like, I don’t care, I really don’t want to vote.”

“I do believe that he can win North Carolina,” Alton said. “Can he win it based on what he’s doing right now? No. That’s not the way to win it.”

Biden’s swing state visits often seem tailor-made for a television package: A small, socially distanced roundtable or town hall, always with fewer than 25 people; occasionally a stop at a local business or a visit with first responders; and then hours of back-to-back local media interviews.

Beyond traveling more, Biden is being urged by some Democrats to expand his message. While he has given standalone speeches on issues like criminal justice reform, climate change and, last weekend, the Supreme Court vacancy, Biden largely ignores those issues during his campaign stops. When he appears before voters, he’s generally laser-focused on the virus and the Trump administration’s mismanaging of it.

When a grand jury decided Wednesday not to bring charges against police officers directly involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor, he offered condolences to her mother but declined to comment about the specifics of the case on camera. He later issued a more detailed written statement.

David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s former strategist and adviser, said the Biden campaign is “wise” to concentrate on the pandemic because it’s an “anchor around the President’s neck.” But he said it would be a “missed opportunity” for Biden if he didn’t speak up more about the Supreme Court going forward, especially the impact it could have on healthcare.

“The future of the Affordable Care Act and particularly the future of protections for people with preexisting conditions is a very close issue, and it’s what drove Democrats to victory in 2018,” Axelrod said.

Biden’s aides say the relatively light schedule, small events and message discipline reflect the biggest issue still confronting most Americans today: the coronavirus pandemic. Biden also has sought to offer a responsible contrast to Trump and his rallies, where thousands forgo masks.

“Every time Trump shows up and has a mask-less rally and says this thing is overblown, Democrats are winning the COVID battle,” said Jim Kessler, an executive vice president of the moderate Democratic group Third Way.

Biden’s campaign has become a fundraising powerhouse through largely virtual events. He raised a record $364 million in August that has allowed him to blanket the airwaves across the country and outspend Trump.

Still, Trump sees the contrast in travel as an opportunity to argue that his packed schedule shows he’s outworking Biden. The president seized on the Biden campaign’s announcement shortly before 9:30 a.m. Thursday that he wouldn’t have any public events for the day.

Biden was said to have spent the day preparing for his first debate against Trump next week.

“Did you see he did a lid this morning again?” Trump said of Biden during a rally Thursday night at an airport hangar in Jacksonville, Florida. “A lid is when you put out word you’re not going to be campaigning today. So he does a lid all the time. … I’m in Texas. I’m in Ohio. I’m in North Carolina, South Carolina. I’m in Michigan. I’m all over the place.”

Biden’s aides counter that they see evidence in public and private polling that the virus remains top of mind for most voters, and that they have a compelling case to make that much of the crisis is Trump’s fault. They also say their focus on small, high-impact events gets results.

Still, the cautious approach isn’t shared by Biden’s wife, Jill, who has already ventured as far away as Maine and spent Thursday making four stops in Virginia. She’s going to Iowa, another state her husband has yet to visit in recent months, on Saturday.

Hillary Scholten, a Democrat seeking an open House seat in Michigan, spent a morning last week touring a food bank in Grand Rapids, the state’s second-largest city, with Jill Biden. She’s aware that Joe Biden may not follow suit.

“People would want to see him here,” Scholten said. “That being said, there is a global pandemic.”

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

Pelosi Scrambles to Save Face (and Seats) w/ Pared-Down COVID Relief Bid

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Pelosi Scrambles to Save Face (and Seats) w/ Pared-Down COVID Relief Bid

(Headline USA) After being outmaneuvered by the White House on an earlier attempt to leverage coronavirus relief for federal funding to debt-strapped blue cities, House Democrats are going back to the drawing board.

Bolstered by the successful bipartisan passage of a stopgap appropriations bill that cut away much of the frivolous pork spending, they now hope to carry that momentum to a huge, multi-trillion-dollar COVID-19 relief bill.

Nonetheless, they will need to pare back the measure from their prior opening bid in an attempt to jump-start negotiations with the Trump administration.

With some vulnerable Democrats worried about their re-election races, the party seems now to be entering into the renewed negotiation effort with fewer chips than it realized.

The Democratic-controlled chamber could also pass the $2 trillion-plus measure next week even if talks fall through to demonstrate that the party isn’t giving up on passing virus relief before the election.

The chamber passed a $3.4 trillion rescue measure in May but Republicans dismissed the measure as bloated and unrealistic.

After Democrat negotiators refused to budge on a few key partisan concessions, the talks stalled. However, Trump announced shortly thereafter his plan to enact many of the priority relief measures through executive action.

At least in terms of optics, it was a loss for Democrats, who were forced to take the awkward position of threatening to sue the White House to prevent it from enacting public relief measures.

Even as Democrats cut their ambitions to $2.2 trillion or so, Senate Republicans have focused on a much smaller rescue package in the $650 billion to $1 trillion range.

An aide familiar with the leadership discussions and authorized to characterize them said the new bill would total about $2.4 trillion and is likely to contain additional relief for the airline and restaurant sectors, which have been especially slammed by slumps in business from the virus. The aide requested anonymity to characterize the closed-door talks.

“We’re trying to figure out how to move a negotiation forward because we believe the American people need some help. And so we’re going to try,” said Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, D-Mass. “Our chairs are looking at everything again and the hope is that we can come up with something.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., commissioned the effort, which caused a buzz in Washington’s lobbying industry even if the deal remains a longshot.

“We are still striving for an agreement,” Pelosi told her colleagues, according to the aide. “If necessary, we can formalize the request by voting on it on the House floor.”

Recent talks between Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have gone nowhere, but neither side wants to officially give up.

Still, Republicans reacted coolly—especially at the prospect of a partisan floor vote if the effort doesn’t spark constructive talks.

“It’s a waste of time,” said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, saying a Democrats-only approach won’t go anywhere. “She could pass 10 more partisan bills. That won’t get us an inch closer.”

Thursday’s developments come as vulnerable “front line” Democrats in competitive reelection races have been pressing leaders like Pelosi to become more flexible.

Some participated in drafting a $1.5 trillion bipartisan bill that fell flat when outlined last week.

Pelosi and other Democratic leaders, however, say they are uninterested in a “message vote” that offers political cover but fails to catch on with the Senate or the White House.

Pelosi had largely dismissed the protests from moderates to pare back leadership COVID demands or schedule a floor vote.

Some of the dissenters, however, had threatened to sign onto a GOP procedural effort to pass a renewal of aid for small businesses, a step with the potential to embarrass her.

“We’re focused on a negotiation, we want to get a deal with Secretary Mnuchin and the Senate because we want to get people help, not just messages,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

The revised measure is likely to contain scaled-back proposals to give aid to state and local governments, $1,200 direct payments to most Americans, more than $100 billion in aid to schools seeking to safely reopen, and funding for renewed pandemic jobless benefits and production of a COVID vaccine.

“I think we’re headed towards a resurgence of the virus in the fall, and until we defeat the virus, you’re not going to have full economic recovery,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Activist Virginia Health Official Wages Last-Minute Attempt to Block Trump Rally

Ben Sellers
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Activist Virginia Health Official Wages Last-Minute Attempt to Block Trump Rally

(Headline USA) An activist Virginia health official attempted at the last minute to thwart a planned campaign rally for President Donald Trump.

An estimated 4,000 people expected to attend Trump’s rally in a hangar at the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport scheduled for Friday evening.

But Natasha Dwamena, a Department of Public Health district director whose area of expertise is OB/GYN, said in a letter Thursday that the rally would violate Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam‘s executive order generally banning gatherings of more than 250 people.

She said the rally should be canceled, rescheduled or scaled down to comply with the governor’s order.

“The rally poses a concerning public health risk,” Dwamena said in the letter, which was addressed to the private company that leases the hangar where the rally is set to take place.

Northam’s top health and transportation aides also sent letters Thursday to airport officials around the state reminding them that they have “the authority to enforce” the state’s laws.

But it’s unlikely to make a difference, as the Trump campaign has routinely flouted public health guidelines intended to halt the spread of COVID-19.

Many of the Left have likewise ignored guidelines and more authoritative lockdown orders when it has been politically inconvenient, as with recent social justice protests and race riots.

Some have attempted to argue, without evidence that the leftist gatherings are less dangerous since participants are more conscientious of the health risks.

John Fredericks, a conservative radio host and chairman of the Virginia delegation for the Trump campaign, said Democrats are trying to block the rally for political reasons.

“Panic has set in amongst Virginia Democrats,” Fredericks said.

Hillary Clinton easily won Virginia in 2016, and the state has not been a focal point of either campaign this year.

But the Old Dominion has since careened even farther to the Left than many of its citizens anticipated following the first election of Democrat majorities in the state legislature.

Controversial measures on radical gun control, abortion and, most recently, decriminalizing assaults on police officers have met with intense backlash that may factor into the equation for the state, which has a storied history of dramatically shifting political dynamics.

Newport News, the site of the rally, is one of the largest urban areas in Virginia and typically one of its Democrat-backing regions, but it is also home to a major Navy hub for aircraft carriers and submarines.

Fredericks said the internal polling data he sees each morning shows the race tightening to the point where he said it’s now winnable for Trump.

Trump’s campaign has insisted it takes appropriate health precautions—including handing out masks and hand sanitizer and checking the temperatures of rallygoers.

But many of his campaign rallies have seen thousands of maskless supporters standing shoulder to shoulder, something Dwamena noted in her letter.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Gov. Cuomo: Breonna Taylor’s Death Was ‘MURDER’

Joshua Paladino
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Gov. Cuomo: Breonna Taylor’s Death Was ‘MURDER’

The day after race riots left at least two Louisville police officers critically wounded and dozens of businesses ruined, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo stoked the mob’s resentment over the grand jury’s decision in Breonna Taylor‘s case, calling her death “murder.”

“Breonna Taylor’s death was murder,” he said at a press conference on Thursday.

“People were outraged. Yes, Because it’s outrageous,” he continued. “If a person was murdered, then there was a murderer, right? That’s how it works. And, the underlying police action should never have happened in the first place.”

Antifa and Black Lives Matter terrorists have used the grand jury’s decision as a pretext for riots in Louisville and in many other cities around the country.

Cuomo disregarded the findings of the investigation and the grand jury’s decision in reaching his conclusion about Taylor’s death.

The Kentucky grand jury did not charge any of the police officers with murder who were involved in executing the search warrant that resulted in Taylor’s death.

They did, however, press three charges for wanton endangerment against one of the three officers involved in the shooting, Officer Brett Hankison, because he discharged 10 rounds, a number deemed excessive, in the confrontation with the assailant.

The jury found that Hankison’s bullets did not kill Taylor, but they traveled into an adjacent apartment and endangered the lives of four people: a woman and her baby in utero, her husband, and their 5-year-old child, the New York Times reported.

Contrary to the narrative established by BLM, the corporate media, and the Democratic Party, Kentucky Attorney Daniel Cameron said the police officers did not serve a no-knock warrant.

Cuomo also claimed during his press conference that police violence against black people is systematic, echoing another leftist trope.

“This is not Breonna Taylor or George Floyd,” he said. “It has been going on for decades and decades. You may have reached the point of boiling where people are just saying I’m not going to take it anymore. But it has been going on for decades. It’s not going to go away on its own.”

Men Beat Convicted Sex Offender Who Peeped on 15-Year-Old Girl in Bathroom

Joshua Paladino
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Men Beat Convicted Sex Offender Who Peeped on 15-Year-Old Girl in Bathroom

Courageous men tackled and restrained a registered sex offender on Sunday after a 15-year-old girl caught him peeping underneath a bathroom stall at a South Carolina Cracker Barrel, WYFF4 reported.

Officers with the Duncan Police Department arrived shortly after the incident to arrest Douglas Lane, 53, and charge him with voyeurism, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, WSPA reported.

Lane has faced at least eight charges for voyeurism prior to this incident. He is a registered sex offender in Charlotte, North Carolina, but he was caught peeping at a Cracker Barrel in Duncan, South Carolina.

He was convicted of voyeurism in South Carolina in 1997 and of failure to register as a sex offender in 1999.

Then he was convicted of peeping on 8- and 9-year-old girls in 2004 in Mecklenburg County. He was again convicted of voyeurism in 2008 for spying on a woman.

The 15-year-old girl saw the man looking at her from underneath the adjacent stall. She left to tell her father, who then alerted a female employee about the pervert.

There were other women in the bathroom when Lane was in there, according to an anonymous first-hand witness.

“I’ll never forget the way they looked after,” the witness said. “They were traumatized.”

Duncan Police Chief Carl Long said the girl’s father stopped him outside the bathroom.

“The guy came running, sprinting out the front door with a very bloody nose,” the witness said.

Other men joined in pursuit of Lane.

A witness said he heard the men shout, “Get him, he’s getting away.”

Lane was released on bond at a hearing on Monday. He will relocate to South Carolina on house arrest until his trial, and the authorities will monitor his location by GPS.

CDC Cancels Halloween: Trick-or-Treating & Haunted Houses Deemed ‘Higher Risk’

Joshua Paladino
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CDC Cancels Halloween: Trick-or-Treating & Haunted Houses Deemed ‘Higher Risk’

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday that traditional Halloween events, such as trick-or-treating, costume parties and haunted houses, are off-limits this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, WTVD reported.

“Many traditional Halloween activities can be high-risk for spreading viruses,” the CDC warns in a document titled “Holiday Celebrations.”

“There are several safer, alternative ways to participate in Halloween,” it claimed.

The CDC lists “lower risk activities” as a replacement for normal Halloween activities:

  • Carving pumpkins with one’s family or with friends “at a safe distance”
  • Halloween scavengers hunts where children admire “Halloween decorations at a distance”
  • Hosting an online Halloween costume contest
  • Having a Halloween-themed movie night at home with immediate family members

These socially isolated events will replace the communal traditions of trick-or-treating, trunk-or-treating, costume parties, indoor haunted houses “where people may be crowded together and screaming,” hayrides with people outside one’s immediate family, and fall festivals.

The CDC also offers a few “moderate risk activities” for the daring Americans who want to live dangerously this Halloween.

All of these activities require masks, hand sanitizer and 6 feet of physical separation.

  • “Visiting pumpkin patches or orchards where people use hand sanitizer before touching pumpkins or picking apples, wearing masks is encouraged or enforced, and people are able to maintain social distancing”
  • “Going to an open-air, one-way, walk-through haunted forest where appropriate mask use is enforced, and people can remain more than 6 feet apart”

The document warns about the risk of “screaming” at Halloween celebrations. If screaming will occur at any of these events, additional physical separation must be enforced.

The guidance also called for changes to Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Día de Los Muertos, Navratri, Diwali and Thanksgiving.

These celebrations will “likely need to be different this fall to prevent the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.”

The CDC advises Americans not to gather with their extended families, attend parades or shop this Thanksgiving.

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