Author: J.P. Knowles

Florida authorities were already in a dangerous standoff with an armed suspect when a woman cruised onto a crime scene in a golf cart wearing nothing but her birthday suit. According to reports, Jessica Smith, 28, had “a distinct odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from her person, and she was completely nude.”

Police in Dunedin had several Pinellas County sheriff’s office vehicles surrounding a tense standoff with an armed 18-year-old suspect when Smith allegedly cruised past the law enforcement vehicles oblivious to what was happening around her.

Smith allegedly ignored the officer’s instructions to leave the area, then later she refused to get out of the golf cart when officers approached her. Smith was pulled from the cart, arrested, and charged with resisting an officer without violence.

“The defendant’s actions and inability to follow directions put multiple deputies at risk for potentially getting shot at,” investigators wrote in the affidavit.

Authorities said Smith had no involvement in the situation with the armed suspect who allegedly fired a gun at people in the area then ran from responding officers and climbed up onto a roof of the house where the standoff took place.

Abbott had originally been seen with two other suspects who were later arrested one of which was charged with grand theft of a firearm, carrying a concealed firearm, and felon in possession of a firearm. The juvenile was arrested on weapons charges.

Republicans everywhere still express their support of former President Donald Trump and that includes Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

During an interview, DeSantis talked about his relationship with Trump and attributed any notion to the contrary to the media spinning stories.

“Donald Trump’s a friend of mine. He is proud when people do well, and it’s not just me, but obviously he’s a Florida resident, and he appreciates the job that we’ve done. He’s told me that many times, not only with helping with the election, but just how we govern the state.”

“He wants to see Republicans doing well,” DeSantis continued. “And I think when media is trying to act like he’s upset at me for doing well, I think that’s total bunk. I think they’re just making it up. And I think he’s somebody that wants to see, you know, not just Republicans do well, but people that are actually going to stand and fight do well across the board. Obviously, Florida is an important state, the third-largest state in the country, and really us and Texas are the two biggest states that have sizable Republican footprints, and so we’re proud of that, and we’re going to keep it going.”

DeSantis wouldn’t confirm whether he intended to take on Trump in 2024 and said sources close to Trump claiming he has a “dull personality” could be due to Democrats and the media trying to create a divide within the Republican Party in order to re-elect President Biden.

“No. I mean, look, I think that what they’re trying to do is they’re Biden. They did all they could to get Biden elected. OK. They lied about Trump for four years. They did everything they could to get Biden elected, the guy who campaigned from his basement. They never asked any questions about that. Well, now he gets in. And he had a disastrous first year as president said the worst first year president of any president since the 1800s. People compare him to Jimmy Carter. Carter was much more successful his first year than Biden has been,” DeSantis said.

“So they know that, they know the Democrats are in for a shellacking in 2022. So they’re trying to change the topic, and they’re trying to drive dissension among Republicans. And so my message to people is, don’t take that bait. Understand what they’re trying to do. We need to be united and say we don’t like what the Biden administration’s doing. We offer a better course in Florida. I think other Republican states are offering a better vision in their states as well. And let’s go into ‘22 with a full head of steam with everybody united on the same team.”

Hunter Biden had a single message to any critics of his newly founded art career who accused the U.S. president’s son of exploiting his father’s position to enrich himself in the art world in a podcast posted late last week.

It seems to be a clear case of Biden just playing off of his father’s fame to establish himself with more funds. The New York City gallery this fall will be showing around a dozen pieces created by Hunter Biden with an estimated worth of between $75,000 to $500,000.

Established art critics within the scene have called the works for what they are, which are overpriced junk given the artist’s lack of experience.

Hosts of the podcast “Nota Bene,” whose Thursday episode featured Biden, asked the artist to respond to the said criticisms.

Hunter Biden on what he has to say to people questioning his art selling scheme: "Other than f*** 'em?" pic.twitter.com/3CzoJFGWY2

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 30, 2021

“What’s your response to the people who are coming after the prices of the work?” the hosts inquired.

“Other than fuck ‘em?” Biden responded.

Addressing another popular critique, Biden conceded that his surname might have been a factor in determining his works’ prices.

“It’s been an unfair advantage of my whole life,” the president’s son noted. “It’s a hell of a lot easier to get noticed, not only by the cop who pulls you over for speeding but also by the school or whatever the endeavor may be.”

He also claimed that he did not play a part during the appraisal of his art, adding that he would “be amazed if my art had sold for $10.”

According to an attendee at the 60th birthday party for former President Barack Obama on Martha’s Vineyard Saturday night, they were forced to remove all of the Instagram photographs they uploaded during the party due to the event’s photography ban.

According to screenshots of the postings, rapper Trap Beckham and manager TJ Chapman were able to sneakily snap some photos of the event’s high-end food, drink, and swag offers as the party progressed. The recording artist and his manager both uploaded photos of themselves using marijuana, which is legal in Massachusetts.

Despite the fact that Questlove was tasked with coordinating a meat-free dinner, photographs revealed that steak, chicken, and shrimp were still available, along with rice, vegetables, and potatoes.

Embroidered on napkins in gold print was the logo “44×60,” a tribute to the 44th president’s 60th birthday. The big shiny numbers were also seen on some of the backstage crew’s clothes and on toiletries.

Beckham allegedly performed his single “Birthday B—h” during the president’s celebration; Alicia Keys and John Legend also sang to him at the party, which he subsequently described in a post on Instagram.

“Had to delete everything due to the rules,” Beckham reportedly explained. “It was epic for sure. If any videos surface it’s going viral. He danced the whole time. Nobody has ever seen Obama like this before.”

The celebration ended about 1 a.m. causing traffic gridlock on the resort island.

There were several alleged celebrity attendees at the seaside event, including rapper Erykah Badu, actor/comedian Steven Colbert, and U.S. Senator John Kerry.

After being released from jail just one week earlier for a family assault an Alaska teen shot four family members, including two young children.

The teen, Malachi Maxon, is suspected of opening fire at his cousin, 18-year-old Cody Roehl. Minutes later authorities received a call saying there had been a suicide at the house and Cody was found wounded.

Maxon then fled the home, stole a vehicle and semiautomatic Glock, and headed to his aunt’s home where he broke into the residence. According to police reports, he shot his aunt and two cousins  7-year-old Ellison and 10-year-old Sienna.

First responders found the two deceased children and the aunt died at the hospital.

Two other children were also at the home at the time of the shooting one of which a just 6-years-old only referred to as “AB” whose life was spared because of defective bullets.

“The scene revealed spent cartridge casings outside the broken front window, and the number of bullets fired at each person appeared to be about the same, with the exception of Ellison,” according to reports. “In the bed where Ellison and AB were found, there were several more bullet defects than there were with the other bodies that indicated Maxon was likely trying to shoot AB, who was sleeping near the wall.”

He was later arrested when state troopers pulled over the stolen vehicle. Maxon tried to escape custody and attempted to take a trooper’s holster but was subdued.

Troopers found cuts and other wounds on the teen’s legs while he was being photographed following his arrest. These lacerations appeared to be from broken glass. In an audio recording from surveillance footage in the home sounds of shooting and glass breaking can be heard. Documents also allege that Maxon can be heard walking over the broken glass as he left the scene.

The teen faces four first-degree murder charges, one count of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree vehicle theft, third-degree assault, and first-degree attempted escape.

The National Guard has been deployed to Minneapolis in response to riots and looting following the death of a Black homicide suspect who shot himself in the Nicollet Mall as officers closed in.

Governor Tim Walz said he was calling in the Minnesota National Guard but did not comment on how many troops would be on the ground.

An FBI agent said Tuesday that it took him and another agent “less than a day” to determine that the allegation that former President Donald Trump had ties to a Russian financial institution was false and pushed by Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman.

FBI Supervisory Special Agent Scott Hellman said “it took him and another agent less than a day to ascertain the data and ‘white papers’ on two thumb drives Sussmann gave Baker did not support the Trump-Alfa Bank ‘secret connection’ allegation.” Hellman took the stand on the first day of Sussman’s trial for allegedly lying to the FBI.

Sussman is on trial for telling FBI General Counsel James Baker months before the 2016 election that he wasn’t working for “any client” when he presented him with “white papers” and purported data that were supposed to show Trump had a “covert communications channel” with Russian-tied financial institution Alfa Bank. The indictment against him states he was working for the Clinton campaign and Tech Executive-1, not independently.

John Durham, the special counsel appointed by the Trump administration to review the Russia investigation, asked for Sussman to be indicted for the falsehood in September of 2021.

Hellman examined the “white papers” and thumb drives for possible hacking before putting them through a “technical review” and cross-referencing them, Haughey said.

Hellman concluded that the data showed there was no “secret connection” between Trump and Alfa Bank and “whoever had written that paper had just come to conclusions not supported by the technical data,” according to Haughey.

The FBI general counsel also said “the methodology they chose was questionable” and “it just didn’t make sense to us. Why would a presidential candidate put their own name on a supposedly secret domain name?” Haughey said.

Trump has sued Clinton and Sussman, among other Democrats, for “malicious” allegations that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. He is seeking $24 million in damages.

“Seeking to thwart Trump’s campaign and to diminish the likelihood of him winning the election, the Clinton Campaign and the DNC devised a nefarious scheme to discredit, delegitimize and defame him by proliferating a false narrative that Donald J. Trump and his campaign were actively colluding with Russia to interfere in the 2016 Presidential Election,” the lawsuit states.

Charges filed against a former Missouri teacher who had sex with a student have been dropped since the couple got married.

Baylee Turner, a former English teacher at Sarcoxie High School, was charged with having sex with a male student in February 2019. Prosecutor Nate Dally said the case was dismissed after Turner and her student, whose name was not disclosed, got married.

Turner admitted to police that she’d had sex with her student in January 2019.

Turner was finishing up her first year of teaching at Sarcoxie High School when she started having sex with her student, prior to that, she taught at a middle school in the district.

It is illegal under Missouri state law for a school district employee or volunteer to have sexual contact with a student under or above the age of consent. Turner has since surrendered her state teaching license.

In recent years there have been six teachers, including Turner, in southwestern Missouri, who have been accused of having sex with students.

A federal judge granted bond to two men accused of acting as federal agents in a conspiracy to bribe Secret Service officials on Tuesday.

According to court filings, Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 36, have been in detention since their arrest on April 6 in Washington, D.C. According to an affidavit, the two men had been posing as Homeland Protection officers since February 2020, purchasing expensive gifts for members of the Secret Service, including one agent assigned to First Lady Jill Biden’s security detail.

“In a case like this, release should be the norm,” U.S. District Court Judge G. Michael Harvey said.

“It’s not a crime of violence. It is a felony, but it is a felony with a maximum period of incarceration of three years,” the judge added.

Their release would imply that they would be required to remain in the Washington area, with GPS tracking to guarantee that they did so.

After obtaining visas from those nations, authorities are looking into the likelihood that the accused are linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a US-designated terrorist group, Iran’s Quds force, and/or Pakistani intelligence.

The allegations of foreign ties were disregarded by Harvey due to a lack of evidence, and he added that there was no “hint that any foreign government that is opposed to the United States” was involved.

Without compromise, a Florida sheriff advised citizens that if a man suspected of brutally harming one of his sheriff’s deputies, who is not expected to survive, attempts to enter their home, they should “blow him out the door because he’s like a rabid animal.”

Sheriff Bill Leeper of Nassau County pointed to Patrick Rene McDowell, who had military training in the United States Marine Corps from 2005 to 2009, according to the Northeast Florida Fusion Center, an arm of a Florida Department of Law Enforcement department that helps sheriffs’ offices. McDowell, 35, shot Deputy Josh Moyers, 29, in the face during a traffic check at 2:30 a.m. on Friday.

According to Leeper, the event was filmed on Moyers’ body camera as he approached a Chrysler minivan inhabited by McDowell and his female passenger. McDowell, according to reports, did not possess a valid driver’s license and gave Moyers a bogus identity. Moyers returned to his car and conducted a records check before returning to McDowell and inquiring whether he has any weapons and requesting that he vacate the minivan.

According to Leeper, the video shows McDowell shooting Moyers in the face and then shooting him in the back after he went to the ground, before fleeing in the van to nearby woods. Deputies discovered the abandoned vehicle with the woman still inside. Leeper indicated that she is helping with the investigation.

“McDowell, 35, had been sentenced on May 24 to a year and six months on probation on a forgery charge and was under drug-offender probation. The probation was imposed after a Nov. 5, 2018 arrest, Florida Department of Corrections records showed,” The Florida Times-Union reported. “He also has prior arrests on charges of giving a false name to law enforcement and aggravated possession of stolen firearms according to information in an alert from the Northeast Florida Fusion Center.”

Leeper said at news briefing, “Unfortunately, Deputy Moyers is not going to survive. Where the bullets lodged, what it did, there’s just nothing they can do, unfortunately. … We now have a murderer on the loose in our community. This guy is dangerous. If you’re in a home and he breaks into your home and you have a gun, blow him out the door cause he’s like a rabid animal. He will kill you with his mindset. What he did to that deputy, was uncalled for, unnecessary and he needs to pay for it.”

“If we find out anybody has helped him or is going to help him, do not do that,” he added. “If we find out you’ve helped this guy, we’re going to arrest you. We’re going to arrest you. We’re going to arrest you for preventing us from capturing him.“