kaleidoscope Monday August 21, 2017 Repairs on Big Ben irritate...
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08 ❘ kaleidoscope CONTACT US AT: 8351-9441, [email protected] Monday August 21, 2017 A 25-YEAR-OLD U.S. citizen has been charged with using a drone to smuggle more than 13 pounds (5.9 kg) of methamphetamine from Mexico, an unusually large seizure for what is still a novel technique for bringing illegal drugs into the United States, authorities said Friday. Jorge Edwin Rivera told authorities that he used drones to smuggle drugs five or six times since March, typically deliver- ing them to an accomplice at a nearby gas station in San Diego, according to a statement of prob- able cause. He said he was to be paid US$1,000 for the attempt that ended in his arrest. Border Patrol agents in San Diego allegedly saw the drone in flight Aug. 8 and tracked it to Rivera about 2,000 yards (1,828 meters) from the Mexico border. Authorities say agents found Rivera with the metham- phetamine in a lunch box and a 2-foot (0.6-meter) drone hidden in a nearby bush. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in a recent annual report that drones are not often used to smuggle drugs from Mexico because they can only carry small loads, though it said they may become more common. In 2015, two people pleaded guilty to dropping 28 pounds of heroin from a drone in the border town of Calexico, California. That same year, Border Patrol agents in San Luis, Arizona, spotted a drone dropping bundles with 30 pounds of marijuana. Alana Robinson, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern Dis- trict of California, said drones haven’t appealed to smugglers because their noise attracts attention and battery life is short. Also, payloads pale compared to other transportation methods, like hidden vehicle compart- ments, boats or tunnels. As technology addresses those shortcomings, Robinson expects drones to become more attractive to smugglers. The biggest advantage for them is that the drone operator can stay far from where the drugs are dropped, making it less likely to get caught. “The Border Patrol is very aware of the potential and are always listening and looking for drones,” Robinson said. (SD-Agencies) Man smuggled meth from Mexico using a drone A CANADIAN woman who lost her engagement ring 13 years ago while weeding her garden on the family farm is wearing it proudly again after her daughter-in-law pulled it from the ground on a misshapen carrot. Mary Grams, 84, said she can’t believe the lucky carrot actually grew through and around the diamond ring she had long given up hope of finding. Grams said she never told her husband, Norman, that she lost the ring, but told her son. Her husband died five years ago. “I feel relieved and happy inside,” Grams said this week. “It grew into the carrot. I still can’t figure it out.” Her daughter-in-law, Colleen Daley, found the ring while har- vesting carrots for supper with her dog Billy at the farm near Armena, Alberta, where Grams used to live. The farm has been in the family for 105 years. Daley said while she was pull- ing the carrots she noticed one of them looked strange. She almost fed it to her dog but decided to keep it and just threw it in her pail. When she was washing the carrots she noticed the ring and spoke to her husband, Grams’ son, about what she had found. They quickly called Grams. “I said we found your ring in the garden. She couldn’t believe it,” Daley said. “It was so weird that the carrot grew perfectly through that ring.” Grams said she was eager to try the ring on again after so many years. With family looking on she washed the ring with a little soap to get the dirt off. It slid on her finger as easily as it had when her husband gave it to her. “We were giggling and laugh- ing,” she said. “It fit. After that many years it fits.” (SD-Agencies) Woman’s lost ring found on carrot ITALIAN police said they had arrested two brothers sus- pected of robbing dozens of cash machines while wearing masks of U.S. President Donald Trump. According to the police state- ment last week, the two brothers were inspired by “The Jackal” to paint their white Mercedes black. In the 1997 film, the protagonist, played by Bruce Willis, changes the color of his car because police are in pursuit. The brothers, aged 26 and 30, targeted cash machines near the northern Italian city of Turin. In closed circuit footage of one of the robberies, one of the brothers in a Trump mask is seen covering the surveillance cameras in the lobby of a bank and planting an explosive in the cash dispenser. He then ducks around a corner after lighting the fuse, just before a violent blast. (SD-Agencies) BBQ party in Mexico attracts over 350 participants More than 350 participants grill meat on BBQs, attempting to break the Guinness record in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on Satur- day. SD-Agencies Italian robbers wear Trump masks during heists A MAN pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges he sprayed liquid manure on a marked U.S. Customs and Border Protection car after confronting an agent about why he wasn’t doing more to arrest people who work in the country illegally. Mark Johnson, 53, of Alburgh, entered the plea in Vermont Superior Court in North Hero to state charges of disorderly conduct and simple assault of a law enforcement officer with fluids. He declined to comment afterward. Johnson told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his livelihood was hurt by people working on Vermont farms who could be in the country illegally. He said he asked the agent why he wasn’t doing more to arrest people work- ing in the U.S. illegally. Customs and Border Protec- tion says the job of the border patrol is to keep people from entering the country illegally. U.S. Immigration and Cus- toms Enforcement is responsi- ble for enforcing immigration law inside the country. Johnson, who has a long his- tory of minor brushes with the law, said he didn’t know the car was nearby when he turned on his manure spreader. Border Patrol agent Robert Rocheleau said in an affidavit that Johnson sprayed his car after a profanity-laced tirade Aug. 3 in Alburgh, just south of the Canadian border, in which Johnson complained the border patrol wasn’t doing enough to combat illegal immigration. At one point, Johnson “wrapped his arms around himself and yelled ‘Everyone is squeezing me to ... death,’” Rocheleau’s affidavit said. Rocheleau said he expressed sympathy to Johnson and tried to get out of his way. Johnson then got back into his tractor. At first, a “wave of manure” missed the car by a couple of feet, the affidavit said. (SD-Agencies) Man denies spraying manure on patrol car Repairs on Big Ben irritate some Britons WHO knew repairing a clock could provoke such outrage? But this isn’t just a case of winding up an antique timepiece gathering dust in the hall. This is the 315-foot (96-meter) tower commonly known as Big Ben, the iconic landmark synony- mous with London’s skyline. Built 158 years ago, Big Ben has this week found itself at the center of a nationwide storm. Politicians fumed and news- papers seethed after it came to light the Great Bell would fall silent Aug.14, dinging its last dong until 2021 while construc- tion workers carry out £29 mil- lion of repairs (US$37 million). Big Ben is actually the nick- name given to the bell rather than the tower itself, but over the years it has come to describe the entire structure that looms over the northern end of the Palace of Westminster, the home of the British Parliament. Last renovated more than 30 years ago, the tower is now in dire need of extensive repair. Officials at Parliament say this can’t happen while Big Ben is chiming because the noise would damage workers’ hearing. At 13.7-tons and 7 feet 2 inches (2.1 meters), the deafen- ing bell is twice the weight of an African elephant and about as tall as former basketball star Yao Ming. It’s also incredibly loud. “When … Big Ben bongs near you, you’ll know it,” said the Trades Union Congress, or TUC, which represents 5.6 million workers across the U.K. “At nearly 120 decibels, it’s like putting your ear next to a police siren.” No sooner were the plans announced Monday, than the more traditionalist elements of the British media began to vent their collective spleens. “Not even Nazi bombs could silence the famous symbol of Britishness,” raged the Daily Mail, a popular right- wing newspaper with a pen- chant for stirring headlines. Before long, several promi- nent lawmakers got involved. David Davis, a Cabinet minis- ter in the ruling Conservative government, said the decision was “mad” and complained there was “hardly a health and safety argument” for silencing the bells. Some of his fellow lawmakers claimed that, while they had approved the plans, they weren’t told the details, and would have thought twice if they were. (SD-Agencies) Police display the masks. SD-Agencies The carrot with the ring. SD-Agencies
Transcript of kaleidoscope Monday August 21, 2017 Repairs on Big Ben irritate...
08 x kaleidoscopeCONTACT US AT: 8351-9441, [email protected]
Monday August 21, 2017
A 25-YEAR-OLD U.S. citizen has been charged with using a drone to smuggle more than 13 pounds (5.9 kg) of methamphetamine from Mexico, an unusually large seizure for what is still a novel technique for bringing illegal drugs into the United States, authorities said Friday.
Jorge Edwin Rivera told authorities that he used drones to smuggle drugs fi ve or six times since March, typically deliver-ing them to an accomplice at a nearby gas station in San Diego, according to a statement of prob-able cause. He said he was to be paid US$1,000 for the attempt that ended in his arrest.
Border Patrol agents in San Diego allegedly saw the drone in fl ight Aug. 8 and tracked it to Rivera about 2,000 yards
(1,828 meters) from the Mexico border. Authorities say agents found Rivera with the metham-phetamine in a lunch box and a 2-foot (0.6-meter) drone hidden in a nearby bush.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in a recent annual report that drones are not often used to smuggle drugs from Mexico because they can only carry small loads, though it said they may become more common.
In 2015, two people pleaded guilty to dropping 28 pounds of heroin from a drone in the border town of Calexico, California. That same year, Border Patrol agents in San Luis, Arizona, spotted a drone dropping bundles with 30 pounds of marijuana.
Alana Robinson, acting U.S.
attorney for the Southern Dis-trict of California, said drones haven’t appealed to smugglers because their noise attracts attention and battery life is short. Also, payloads pale compared to other transportation methods, like hidden vehicle compart-ments, boats or tunnels.
As technology addresses those shortcomings, Robinson expects drones to become more attractive to smugglers. The biggest advantage for them is that the drone operator can stay far from where the drugs are dropped, making it less likely to get caught.
“The Border Patrol is very aware of the potential and are always listening and looking for drones,” Robinson said.
(SD-Agencies)
Man smuggled meth from Mexico using a drone
A CANADIAN woman who lost her engagement ring 13 years ago while weeding her garden on the family farm is wearing it proudly again after her daughter-in-law pulled it from the ground on a misshapen carrot.
Mary Grams, 84, said she can’t believe the lucky carrot actually grew through and around the diamond ring she had long given up hope of fi nding.
Grams said she never told her husband, Norman, that she lost the ring, but told her son. Her husband died fi ve years ago.
“I feel relieved and happy inside,” Grams said this week. “It grew into the carrot. I still can’t fi gure it out.”
Her daughter-in-law, Colleen Daley, found the ring while har-vesting carrots for supper with her dog Billy at the farm near Armena, Alberta, where Grams used to live. The farm has been in the family for 105 years.
Daley said while she was pull-ing the carrots she noticed one of them looked strange. She almost fed it to her dog but decided to keep it and just threw it in her pail. When she was washing the carrots she noticed the ring and spoke to her husband, Grams’ son, about what she had found.
They quickly called Grams. “I said we found your ring in the garden. She couldn’t believe it,” Daley said. “It was so weird that the carrot grew perfectly through that ring.”
Grams said she was eager to try the ring on again after so many years. With family looking on she washed the ring with a little soap to get the dirt off. It slid on her fi nger as easily as it had when her husband gave it to her.
“We were giggling and laugh-ing,” she said. “It fi t. After that many years it fi ts.” (SD-Agencies)
Woman’s lost ring found on carrot
ITALIAN police said they had arrested two brothers sus-pected of robbing dozens of cash machines while wearing masks of U.S. President Donald Trump.
According to the police state-ment last week, the two brothers were inspired by “The Jackal” to paint their white Mercedes black. In the 1997 fi lm, the protagonist, played by Bruce Willis, changes
the color of his car because police are in pursuit.
The brothers, aged 26 and 30, targeted cash machines near the northern Italian city of Turin.
In closed circuit footage of one of the robberies, one of the brothers in a Trump mask is seen covering the surveillance cameras in the lobby of a bank and planting an explosive in the cash dispenser.
He then ducks around a corner after lighting the fuse, just before a violent blast. (SD-Agencies)
BBQ party in Mexico attracts over 350 participants More than 350 participants grill meat on BBQs, attempting to break the Guinness record in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on Satur-day. SD-Agencies
Italian robbers wear Trump masks during heists
A MAN pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges he sprayed liquid manure on a marked U.S. Customs and Border Protection car after confronting an agent about why he wasn’t doing more to arrest people who work in the country illegally.
Mark Johnson, 53, of Alburgh, entered the plea in Vermont Superior Court in North Hero to state charges of disorderly conduct and simple assault of a law enforcement officer with fluids. He declined to comment afterward.
Johnson told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his livelihood was hurt by people working on Vermont farms who could be in the country illegally. He said he asked the agent why he wasn’t doing more to arrest people work-ing in the U.S. illegally.
Customs and Border Protec-tion says the job of the border patrol is to keep people from entering the country illegally. U.S. Immigration and Cus-toms Enforcement is responsi-ble for enforcing immigration law inside the country.
Johnson, who has a long his-tory of minor brushes with the law, said he didn’t know the car was nearby when he turned on his manure spreader.
Border Patrol agent Robert Rocheleau said in an affidavit that Johnson sprayed his car after a profanity-laced tirade Aug. 3 in Alburgh, just south of the Canadian border, in which Johnson complained the border patrol wasn’t doing enough to combat illegal immigration.
At one point, Johnson “wrapped his arms around himself and yelled ‘Everyone is squeezing me to ... death,’” Rocheleau’s affidavit said.
Rocheleau said he expressed sympathy to Johnson and tried to get out of his way.
Johnson then got back into his tractor. At first, a “wave of manure” missed the car by a couple of feet, the affidavit said.
(SD-Agencies)
Man denies spraying manure on patrol car
Repairs on Big Ben irritate some BritonsWHO knew repairing a clock could provoke such outrage?
But this isn’t just a case of winding up an antique timepiece gathering dust in the hall. This is the 315-foot (96-meter) tower commonly known as Big Ben, the iconic landmark synony-mous with London’s skyline.
Built 158 years ago, Big Ben has this week found itself at the center of a nationwide storm.
Politicians fumed and news-papers seethed after it came to light the Great Bell would fall
silent Aug.14, dinging its last dong until 2021 while construc-tion workers carry out £29 mil-lion of repairs (US$37 million).
Big Ben is actually the nick-name given to the bell rather than the tower itself, but over the years it has come to describe the entire structure that looms over the northern end of the Palace of Westminster, the home of the British Parliament.
Last renovated more than 30 years ago, the tower is now in dire need of extensive repair.
Offi cials at Parliament say this can’t happen while Big Ben is chiming because the noise would damage workers’ hearing.
At 13.7-tons and 7 feet 2 inches (2.1 meters), the deafen-ing bell is twice the weight of an African elephant and about as tall as former basketball star Yao Ming. It’s also incredibly loud.
“When … Big Ben bongs near you, you’ll know it,” said the Trades Union Congress, or TUC, which represents 5.6
million workers across the U.K. “At nearly 120 decibels, it’s like putting your ear next to a police siren.”
No sooner were the plans announced Monday, than the more traditionalist elements of the British media began to vent their collective spleens.
“Not even Nazi bombs could silence the famous symbol of Britishness,” raged the Daily Mail, a popular right-wing newspaper with a pen-chant for stirring headlines.
Before long, several promi-nent lawmakers got involved. David Davis, a Cabinet minis-ter in the ruling Conservative government, said the decision was “mad” and complained there was “hardly a health and safety argument” for silencing the bells.
Some of his fellow lawmakers claimed that, while they had approved the plans, they weren’t told the details, and would have thought twice if they were.
(SD-Agencies)
Police display the masks. SD-Agencies
The carrot with the ring. SD-Agencies
