Cop Got Pizza Instead of Responding to Active Shooter

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Cop Got Pizza Instead of Responding to Active Shooter

(Headline USA) A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors say he didn’t quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead stopping at an ATM and pizzeria.

Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 60 miles from Manhattan in central New Jersey, according to Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office.

But rather than responding immediately, prosecutors say GPS data and surveillance video show Bollaro drove nearly two miles in the opposite direction of the caller’s location to a bank ATM.

Dispatchers relayed other calls from concerned neighbors as Bollaro proceeded towards their locations without activating his police vehicle’s emergency lights and sirens, they said.

When he arrived at the location of the first caller, the officer told the dispatcher he didn’t hear anything and said he would continue to the locations of the other callers. But Robeson’s office said GPS data shows he never visited those locations before he asked the dispatcher to clear him from the scene.

They say Bollaro instead headed to Duke’s Pizzeria in Pittstown, where he remained for nearly an hour. Witnesses later saw him park and enter another local restaurant, where he remained for roughly another hour, prosecutors said.

Bollaro later submitted a report in which prosecutors say he made false statements about the extent of his investigation. They note that during the timeframe he claimed to be canvassing the area, the officer was already on route to the pizzeria.

The following day, Aug. 2, the bodies of Lauren Semanchik, 33, and Tyler Webb, 29, were found in a home roughly 600 feet away from the location of the first 911 caller. Prosecutors say the two had been shot to death by New Jersey State Police Lieutenant Ricardo Santos, who had later killed himself.

Bollaro has been charged with official misconduct for knowingly refraining from performing his police duties, prosecutors said. He also faces a charge of tampering with public records for knowingly making false entries in his incident report.

Bollaro is due to appear in court Nov. 5.

His lawyer, Charles Sciarra, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday but, in a statement to the New York Post, called the charges “unfortunate.” He maintained “nothing Kevin Bollaro did or did not do that day impacted or could have stopped” the killings.

The families of the two shooting victims, meanwhile, have said they are “shocked at Sgt. Bollaro’s egregious conduct” and believe it is the “tip of the iceberg of the many failures by the local and state police” in the killings, WABC-TV reports.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

 

Mass Shooting Kills 1, Wounds 6 at Black College

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Mass Shooting Kills 1, Wounds 6 at Black College

(Headline USA) A mass shooting occurred during outdoor festivities at Pennsylvania’s Lincoln University late Saturday, killing one person and wounding six others as students and alumni celebrated homecoming at the historically Black school, authorities said.

Investigators were operating under a “strong belief” that there was more than one shooter but did not think they came to the campus “with a specific design to cause a mass casualty event,” Chester County District Attorney Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe said Sunday during a news conference.

So far one person has been jailed on charges of carrying a concealed firearm without a license, and authorities were investigating whether that weapon was used in the shooting, de Barrena-Sarobe said.

Authorities said the shooting took place around 9:30 p.m. outside a large building called the International Cultural Center, where tents and tables were set up for tailgating and socializing after a football game earlier in the day.

Jujuan Jeffers, 25, of Wilmington, Delaware, was shot in the head and died just after midnight, the district attorney said.

The other victims, who range in age from 20 to 25, were expected to survive, but the district attorney declined to provide individual updates on their conditions. He said they included a current student, a graduate and four people with no direct affiliation to the school.

De Barrena-Sarobe said authorities were conducting grid searches and declined to speculate on how many shots were fired until all bullet casings were recovered. He urged anyone with video from the scene or other information that could help the investigation to contact the FBI.

The campus is about 45 miles southwest of Philadelphia. Chester County detectives are leading the investigation, with support from state police and the FBI.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

 

US Sanctions Colombia’s President Petro Amid Spat Over Boat Strikes

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US Sanctions Colombia’s President Petro Amid Spat Over Boat Strikes

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) The Trump administration announced on Friday that it was imposing sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro amid a spat between the Colombian leader and President Trump over the US bombing campaign against boats in Latin America.

In a statement on the sanctions, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Petro of allowing “drug cartels to flourish” and refusing to stop the activity of the cartels, allegations the Colombian president denied.

“Fighting drug trafficking for decades — and doing so effectively — has brought me this measure from the government of the very society we helped so much to curb its cocaine consumption,” Petro said in response to the sanctions.

The US sanctions also targeted Petro’s eldest son, his wife, and Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, who also denied the allegations against him. Benedetti suggested he was targeted for defending Petro against US claims that he was involved in drug trafficking.

“In this country, no one buys the story that I am a drug trafficker,” Benedetti said. “For the US, a non-violent statement is the same as being a drug trafficker. Gringos go home.”

Washington and Bogotá have a long history of military cooperation, and the US designated Colombia as a major non-NATO ally in 2022, the same year Petro came into office. Petro’s term expires in August 2026, and under a 2015 change to the Colombian constitution, he cannot run for a second term.

Petro and Trump have clashed over other issues, including deportation flights, and the Colombian leader has been very critical of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and US support for it. During a speech at a pro-Palestine protest in New York during the UN General Assembly, Petro said US troops should “disobey” orders related to Gaza, prompting the Trump administration to revoke his visa.

The current spat escalated after Petro accused the US of murder for killing a Colombian citizen in one of its boat strikes. Trump responded to the accusation by announcing he was cutting all aid to Colombia. The Pentagon has offered no evidence to back up its claims about what the vessels it is targeting or carrying and has not shared any information about the identity of the people it has killed.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com

US Deploying Aircraft Carrier Strike Group Near Venezuela as Regime Change Push Heats Up

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US Deploying Aircraft Carrier Strike Group Near Venezuela as Regime Change Push Heats Up

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) The US military is deploying an aircraft carrier to the waters near South America as the Trump administration continues its military buildup in the Caribbean and its push toward war with Venezuela.

Sean Parnell, a US War Department spokesman, wrote on X on Friday that the USS Gerald Ford and its strike group, which includes five destroyers, will be heading to US Southern Command’s area of responsibility to “bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere.”

The Gerald Ford has been deployed in the Mediterranean Sea, and according to a ship tracker, it is currently off the coast of Croatia in the Adriatic Sea. According to USNI News, it would take the aircraft carrier at least a week to reach SOUTHCOM’s area of responsibility from Croatia.

The deployment of the aircraft carrier and accompanying warships will mark a significant escalation of US military power in the region amid reports that the US is soon planning to bomb Venezuela with the goal of ousting President Nicolas Maduro.

The US has been stepping up the military pressure on Venezuela by flying bombers near its coast and continuing its bombing campaign against alleged drug boats in the region. A US Navy destroyer, the USS Gravely, has also arrived in Trinidad and Tobago for joint exercises near the coast of Venezuela.

Also on Friday, War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the 10th US airstrike against a boat that he claimed was carrying drugs. The Pentagon has provided no evidence to back up its claims about what the boats it has been bombing are carrying, and has also not provided any information about the identities of the people it has been killing, who are labelled as “narco-terrorists” to justify their extrajudicial execution.

Hegseth said the latest boat strike targeted a vessel in the Caribbean and killed six “narco-terrorists,” bringing the total number of people extrajudicially executed by the US military in the region since September 2 to 43, according to numbers released by the Trump administration. “If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda. Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you,” the US war chief said.

President Trump and his top officials have framed the bombing campaign and push toward war with Venezuela as a response to the large number of overdose deaths in the US, but the deaths are primarily caused by Fentanyl and other opioids, which do not come from Venezuela. A US official has told Drop Site News that US intelligence has assessed that little to no of the fentanyl trafficked to the United States is being produced in Venezuela.

Trump officials have also been claiming that the boats they are targeting are attempting to carry drugs to the US, but the official speaking to Drop Site said many of the boats targeted for strikes do not even have the requisite gasoline or motor capacity to reach US waters.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com. 

Poll: Most Voters Against Federal Govt Controlling Education

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Poll: Most Voters Against Federal Govt Controlling Education

(Andrew Rice, The Center Square)  A vast majority of Americans do not believe the federal government should have control over education policy, according to a new poll.

The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll found that only 11% of American voters think the federal government should set standards for curriculum, testing and school choice.

Instead, 33% of American voters said local school districts should set curriculum, testing and school choice standards. About 23% of voters said parents should set educational standards.

About 32% of Republican voters supported allowing parents to set education policy whereas only 13% of Democrat voters said the same.

The Center Square’s Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted by Noble Predictive Insights, surveyed 2,565 registered voters between Oct. 2-6. The poll included 978 Republicans, 948 Democrats and 639 Independents, of which 262 lean toward neither major party.

At about 41%, a plurality of Democrats supported letting local school districts set education policy. About 36% of independent voters also supported allowing local school districts to set education policy.

“Voters across the board are clearly signaling ‘less D.C., more local control,’” said Mike Noble, founder and CEO of Noble Predictive Insights.

Respondents’ level of education also had little significant impact on the poll’s results. About 15% of college educated respondents said the federal government should control education policy and only 8% of respondents with no college degree said the same.

About 37% of respondents with no college degree said local school districts should set testing, curriculum and school choice standards. About 32% of respondents with college degrees think state governments should control education policy.

“That dovetails with the broader populist mood,” Noble said, “People want decisions about curriculum and standards made closer to their communities, not by federal bureaucrats.”

The lack of popular support for federal control over educational policy appears to align with the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce operations within the U.S. Department of Education.

In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order giving Secretary Linda McMahon authority to dismantle the Department of Education.

McMahon spoke at the Defense of Freedom Institute and Federalist Society’s Education Law and Policy Conference in September about the Education Department’s efforts to withdraw federal funds from schools, expand trade and apprenticeship programs, and move its functions elsewhere to other agencies.

“I have changed now how we are talking about closing the department, really to returning education to the states, and in order to do that I think we have to continue to uphold the law,” McMahon said.

Even still, the department has launched investigations into universities and public school districts over policies allowing transgender students into women’s locker rooms in Virginia and DEI practices.

Ultimately, less federal control of educational policy appears to have popular support from a bloc of voters, according to the poll.

“His administration’s efforts to downsize the Department of Education and elevate ‘parents’ rights’ language resonated with that sentiment, especially among conservatives and independents,” Noble said.

Government Shutdown Halts Visa, Permanent Resident Approvals

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Government Shutdown Halts Visa, Permanent Resident Approvals

(Andrew Rice, The Center Square)  As the federal government shutdown continues with no clear end in sight, federal agencies that process legal immigrant petition documents have been completely halted, leaving immigrant workers in limbo.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is a fee funded agency that allows it to accept foreign worker visa applications during federal funding lapses. However, the U.S. Department of Labor is responsible for certifying necessary documents that immigrants or employers use to obtain work visas or permanent resident status.

Employers must file labor condition applications to hire workers on H-1B visas, promising that hiring the foreign worker will not negatively affect American workers’ wages or conditions. These applications have to be approved by the Department of Labor before an H-1B petition can be filed.

Anna Gorisch, founder and managing partner of Kendall Immigration Law, said the shutdown is delaying visa applications for her clients.

“It’s becoming a problem with the government closure because there are some cases that can still go forward fine but anything that involves Department of Labor grounds to a halt,” Gorisch told The Center Square.

Non-citizens on work visas or seeking permanent legal status in the United States are also affected by the ongoing shutdown. The Program Electronic Review Management, or PERM, is a labor certification that allows employers to sponsor immigrant workers for green cards in the United States.

PERM applications are different from H-1B visas because they provide permanent employment and residency in the United States. H-1B visas are available for three years but can be renewed once more for a total of six years.

PERM processes can take as much as two years to complete with the Department of Labor. Employers who go through the process will place the foreign worker in various categories of employment-based visas.

The PERM process requires employers to go through a prevailing wage determination process that calculates how much an employee should be paid based on the market rate for a certain job. These calculations must be done by the employer and approved by the Department of Labor.

“It takes nine months to a year for them to come back and tell us what the wage is when we pretty much already know,” Gorisch said. “We do the same math, all of it.”

Once approved, the prevailing wage determination process is temporary and can expire after a certain period of time. The expiration date can come anywhere between nine months and a year.

Gorisch said she has been frustrated by the government shutdown’s effect on her clients. She recounted a recent case where a client was promoted shortly after she submitted their original prevailing wage request, requiring Gorisch to submit yet another request while the government is shut down.

“I can’t do anything because [the] Department of Labor is closed,” Gorisch told The Center Square. “With the government shutdown, the delays that are already so bad will just be much worse.”

Legal immigration advocates, like Gorisch, said the government shutdown is an opportunity to push for parts of the immigration process to be reformed.

She said centralizing most immigration requirements in one department that is funded through appropriations has a negative effect on the immigration process as a whole.

“I would take [the Department of Labor] out entirely,” Gorisch said. “I don’t think they do a good job of policing wages, I don’t think they do a good job of ensuring that U.S. workers are protected. I think most of it is an expensive racket.”

She pointed to issues with the Department of Labor’s control over the H-2A agricultural worker visa program.

The Department of Labor certifies wage rates for temporary immigrant agricultural workers based on the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, which calculates wages based on data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Gorisch said this calculation often leads to wages that are too high, since agricultural employers are also required to house immigrant workers. Farms then tend to hire illegal immigrant workers so they are not required to pay high rates mandated by the government.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 42% of farmworkers in the United States do not have U.S. work authorization

“That’s why you have so many farms that run with illegal migrants, because they can’t afford to do it legally,” Gorisch said.

The Trump administration recently proposed a rule that would change how wages are calculated for workers on H-2A visas. The rule would base wage calculations on state-level Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The administration argues this change would help stabilize wage rates in the H-2A visa process and make them more realistic for different farms across the country, since it is based on local data.

“This continuity is essential for minimizing the likelihood of shortages, price volatility, and disruptions throughout the supply chain, which can affect customers and businesses alike,” the department wrote in its rule.

Even still, Gorisch said the trend of recent government shutdowns has complicated an already difficult immigration system. She said she wants to see more reform from the federal bureaucracy.

“There has got to be a better way to do this because DOL is just giant bureaucracy with lots of red tape and it’s just a miserable system to deal with,” Gorisch said.

Joe Manchin Says Biden Triggered Death Threats Against Him

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Joe Manchin Says Biden Triggered Death Threats Against Him

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Former Sen. Joe Manchin said Democrats, some paid by left-wing groups, lobbed death threats against him after he told former President Joe Biden he would oppose the Build Back Better bill.

Manchin appeared on the All-In Podcast, where he spoke about the origins of the death threats and his decision to block the controversial Build Back Better Act over concerns about inflation and reckless spending.

“I told him, I said, ‘Mr. President, I’m sorry, man. I can’t get there.’ And they tried for eight months, beat up on me. I mean, I had to have security,” Manchin said of the mounting pressure from his own party.

Manchin wrote about the death threats in his book, Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense. He said protesters flooded his D.C. houseboat with signs and violent threats.

“It’s pretty intense,” Manchin said. “But I can tell you one thing. When every day the Capitol police calls you and says, ‘Your death threats are serious enough right now. … We’ll meet you down at where you live and we’ll bring you to work and we’ll take you back home, you know, things are pretty serious.”

The former senator said he never wanted to know the full extent of the threats but knew “they were serious.” At one point, police told him the left-wing protesters had located his children’s addresses and his grandchildren’s schools.

“I’m thinking, ‘Oh my god, this is crazy,’” Manchin said.

The former senator said he believed some of the protests were paid. He recounted that at one point, a neighbor asked some of the protesters how he could join.

“They say, ‘Oh, just sign up and get $15 an hour.’ I couldn’t believe it.”

Manchin left the Senate in 2025 after serving 15 years. During President Biden’s administration, he was often the lone voice of reason, repeatedly rejecting left-wing policies.

Minneapolis Mayoral Candidate Vows to Arrest ICE Agents

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Minneapolis Mayoral Candidate Vows to Arrest ICE Agents

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The leading democratic socialist candidate for Minneapolis mayor pledged to order the city police to arrest masked ICE agents if he is elected. 

Omar Fateh, a state senator and mayoral candidate, made the pledge during a Friday mayoral panel, where incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey questioned its legality. 

“A commitment was made to direct Minneapolis police to arrest federal agents. That would be dangerous. That would be irresponsible,” Frey said. “How would our police officers arrest federal agents, when simply put, they have much bigger guns and it would be illegal?” 

Fateh appeared to dodge the question, suggesting that facial masks should be forbidden in the city, to which Frey agreed but then pushed back. 

“I agree with that, but how?” Frey asked, pointing at Fateh. 

Fateh responded, “We could work with our state partners, we could work with our attorney general, we could work cross-jurisdictionally.” 

Fateh had also called for the proposal in an earlier petition demanding a stricter separation between local police and federal agents. 

The petition, which has garnered more than 700 signatures, specifically reads: “MPD will immediately arrest any law enforcement agent or officer, at any level of government and with any agency, who covers their face or obscures their identity or badge by any means, or refuses to identify themselves and their agency either to an MPD officer or any Minneapolis resident.” 

Minneapolis will hold elections on November 4, 2025. Current polling indicates a tight race, with Fateh trailing Frey by five points. 

Kamala Claims She’s ‘Not Done’ With Presidential Ambitions

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Kamala Claims She’s ‘Not Done’ With Presidential Ambitions

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Former Vice President Kamala Harris signaled for the first time since losing the 2024 presidential election that she may seek the White House once more. 

The twice-failed presidential candidate made the suggestion while appearing on BBC show Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, where the host explicitly asked if she would run again. 

Kuenssberg specifically asked Harris when her nieces, Amara and Leela, were going to “see a woman in charge in the White House.” 

“In their lifetime for sure,” Harris replied. 

“Could it be you?” the host asked. 

“Possibly,” Harris stated. 

Asked whether she has decided to run for the White House, Harris replied simply, “No, I have not.”

The conversation then turned to Harris’s book, 107 Days, where she wrote that she was “not done” with politics. 

“That is correct. I am not done,” she reiterated. “I have lived my entire career a life of service and it’s in my bones and there are many ways to serve. I’ve not decided yet what I will do in the future beyond what I am doing right now, which is meeting with many people.” 

This was Harris’s strongest indication yet that she is still considering running for president a third time. 

President Donald Trump defeated her in 2024. Just four years earlier, Harris unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president. She was ultimately tapped to run alongside Joe Biden for the White House later that year. 

After leaving the White House, Harris was rumored to be a top contender for California governor, a position she declined to pursue, fueling speculation that she may be eyeing the White House instead. 

Zohran Mamdani Paints Muslims as Real Victims of 9/11

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Zohran Mamdani Paints Muslims as Real Victims of 9/11

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani brought himself to tears on Friday while talking about how Muslims supposedly suffered after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

Mamdani raised the issue at a press conference meant to rebut attacks from opponents Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa over his past comments about global jihad and his faith.  

He invoked his late aunt, who he said felt targeted after 9/11, and recounted his own childhood experiences following the attacks to make his point. 

“I want to use this moment to speak to the Muslims of New York City,” Mamdani said, through tears. “I want to speak to the memory of my aunt who stopped taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab.” 

He then brought up his childhood, claiming that “growing up in the shadow of 9/11, I have known what it means to live with an undercurrent of suspicion in the city.” 

Mamdani continued: “I will always remember the disdain that I faced. The way that my name could immediately become ‘Mohammed’ and how I could return to my city only to be asked in a double-mirrored room in the airport, if I had any plan of attacking it.”

In the speech, he made no mention of the nearly 3,000 people who died on 9/11.

Mamdani’s comments come on the heels of his opponents warning about his radicalism in the race for New York City mayor. 

For instance, the self-described democratic socialist has refused to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada,” a slogan historically used to urge violence against Jewish communities. 

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