Author: J.P. Knowles

A 70-year-old woman who spent years evading airport security was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday for trespassing at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in 2019.

Marilyn Hartman, aka the “Serial Stowaway,” has a long history of sneaking past airport security and boarding flights without a boarding pass, plead guilty to felony counts of criminal trespassing and escaping from electronic monitoring.

Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas sentenced Hartman to 18 months for the criminal trespass charge and two years for the electronic monitor escape charge, which she will have to serve consecutively. Hartman was credited for the time she was held in custody, nearly two years and five months.

Hartman is known to have been eluding airport security since 2014. The first trespassing on record occurred in February 2014 at San Francisco’s International Airport.

Hartman has been stopped by police a dozen times in four different states. In addition to facing a number of felony and misdemeanor charges over the years, she was ordered by judges in two separate states to undergo psychiatric evaluations and was banned from multiple airports, including St. Paul International Airport in Minneapolis and O’Hare.

In 2016, Chicago Judge William B. Raines ordered Hartman to stay away from all airports. “If you violate that, I’m going to lock you up,” Raines warned her. But Hartman continued to trespass at Chicago’s Midway and O’Hare airports until March 2021 when she was arrested and held without bond.

“I’ve struggled with depression and medication management my whole life,” Hartman said Thursday.

In her written statement, she said she was “happy to move on with my life.” Judge Chiampas acknowledged and sympathized with Hartman’s mental health struggles, but told the defendant she hopes to never see her in her courtroom again.

A giant species of spider has been colonizing large swaths of the southeastern United States and wildlife experts say there’s not much that can be done to keep it from spreading. Those same experts say though the spiders are large and scary looking, they’re unlikely to be very disruptive to local ecosystems or harmful to humans.

The Joro spider is venomous, the spiders have very small fangs, and most defensive bites are not likely to break a person’s skin so the spiders are not thought to be a threat to humans.

“People should try to learn to live with them,” Andy Davis, a research scientist at the University of Georgia’s Odum School of Ecology, said in a news release.

“It looks like the Joro spiders could probably survive throughout most of the Eastern Seaboard here, which is pretty sobering,” Davis said.

The bright yellow and black Joro spider is easy to spot. It is common in the Atlanta and Athens, Ga. areas, and has been reported throughout most of northern Georgia, as well as parts of Tennessee, and the western Carolinas.

Researchers think the spider came into the U.S. about 80 miles north of Atlanta, where it likely came in a shipping container from Asia. The Joro is widespread in Japan, China, and Korea.

Thousands of spiders have been reported in Georgia, weaving giant, three-dimensional webs that are a golden color and have been reported as deep as 10 feet.

The spiders can be a real nuisance, especially if they colonize your home, but they may also have benefits.

“Joro spiders present us with excellent opportunities to suppress pests naturally, without chemicals,” University of Georgia entomologist Nancy Hinkle said. “I’m trying to convince people that having zillions of large spiders and their webs around is a good thing.”

The Philippines’ ambassador to the United United States announced that if the United States goes to war with Russia, President Rodrigo Duterte will open the country’s doors to American troops.

If American forces were involved in the conflict with Russia, Duterte would honor the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, according to Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez.

“He says if they’re asking for the support of the Philippines he was very clear that if push comes to shove the Philippines will be ready to be part of the effort especially if this Ukrainian crisis spills over to the Asian region,” Romualdez said. “He offered that the Philippines will be ready to open its doors, especially to our ally the US in using our facilities, any facilities they may need.”

Along with 140 other countries, the Philippines criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite the president’s efforts to improve relations with Russia during his six-year rule, Romualdez claimed Duterte reminded him that Russia’s war with Ukraine was wrong.

“Give them the assurance that if ever needed, the Philippines is ready to offer whatever facilities or whatever things that the United States will need being a major – our number one ally,” Romauldez said.

The treaty with the U.S. and the Philippines says that in the event of an armed attack on the metropolitan territory of either of the countries, “or on the island territories under its jurisdiction in the Pacific or on its armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific,” the countries commit to coming to the aid of the other.

Romualdez said the Philippines is among the Association of Southeast Asian countries who will be meeting with the White House and U.S. national security officials this week to discuss the American economic sanctions on Russia, including America’s ban on Russian oil.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers intercepted a man attempting to smuggle 52 live reptiles under his clothes on Feb 25.

The man, a U.S. citizen was driving a truck through the San Ysidro border crossing when a CBP officer referred the vehicle for further inspection, according to a CBP media release posted on March 8.

Officers seized bags containing 43 horned lizards and nine snakes, which were tucked into the man’s jacket and pants.

“Smugglers will try every possible way to try and get their product, or in this case, live reptiles, across the border,” CBP Director of Field Operations in San Diego Sidney Aki said.

Some of the species found on the man have been identified as endangered.

“This Seizure is the direct result of a coordinated investigative effort by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Diego, U.S. Fish, and Wildlife, and Customs and Border Protection,” Special Agent in Charge for HSI San Diego Chad Plantz said in the media release. “HSI will continue to investigate individuals who are involved in the unlawful smuggling and trafficking of endangered wildlife for their own financial gain.”

The man was arrested and transferred to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, HSI, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.

A shocking video was captured of a zoo monkey plucking a seagull from the sky then beating it to death.

A UK zoo monkey is being compared to King Kong after climbing a tall pole to snatch a seagull from the sky then bashing it to death and devouring it in front of astonished onlookers. A TikTok video of the horrifying attack has been viewed over 2 million times since Sunday.

“It was like watching the real King Kong,” Bec Adamson, 32, said about the violent attack while visiting the Chester Zoo in Cheshire with her family.

“We’d just been to see the rhinos, so we were walking across, then I saw all these seagulls circling and then this monkey caught one as it was flying past,” recounted a hospitality worker, who was with her partner Jamie Stockall, 35, and five-year-old son Dominik Minshull. “It was really clever.”

Adamson added, “I told Jamie and Dominik looked too, so I started filming. When I zoomed in I could see he was battering the f**k out of this seagull. I couldn’t believe I was catching it on video.

In the 45-second clip, the capuchin monkey, a species native to the jungles of central and South America, can be seen atop a pole smashing the seagull against the pole as stunned onlookers watched.

It looked reminiscent of a scene from “King Kong” (1933) where the gorilla smashes an airplane while perched on the Empire State Building.

At one point, the savage animal appeared to lick the blood from its fingers as the bird gave in.

Eventually, the beast let go of the limp seagull and climbed down, dragged the bird back to his cage, ripped it apart, devoured it.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm politicians who are claiming that reopening the Keystone XL Pipeline would lower gas prices are simply feeding us the same old lines.

“We can’t do it if we’re fighting internal battles,” Granholm said. “There are some here, or maybe at least lobbyists or beltway politicians who seem to think that this is the time to recycle old talking points. You know this, I mean people are arguing that if a pipeline that wouldn’t have even been in operation by now were still under construction, the situation with today’s oil prices would be different, or that President Biden’s policies have decreased production when we’re actually at record-levels of natural gas and LNG and will be at record-levels of oil production hopefully by next year.”

“We all know that that is the same old D.C. B.S.,” she said.

Granholm said the Department of Energy and the administration are ready to “seize the moment” with clean energy.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claimed Monday that the U.S. is producing oil at “record numbers,” even though the country produces 1.5 million oil barrels less than in December 2019.

In 2019, the U.S. produced 12.3 million barrels of crude oil per day, which then dropped below 11.6 million and is expected to reach 12 million throughout 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The Keystone XL Pipeline was designed to carry 8,000 barrels of oil from Canada to Texas but was shut down by President Joe Biden’s administration shortly after he took office. When pressed on the issue Psaki has repeatedly said reversing the pipeline decision would not bring down oil and gas prices.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, average gas prices hit a record high of $4.25 per gallon and are expected to continue rising due to the Tuesday ban on all imports of Russian oil.

An employee from a security firm decided to stage a one-man protest by clearing Sainsbury’s of all of its Russian branded vodka.

Mike Ockelford, 59, admitted that after his act of vigilantism that he got into a heated exchange with one of the floor managers at the Sainsbury’s in Basildon.

Ockelford said he had simply gone to the store to buy a cake for his office when he noticed the bottles of vodka and was compelled to act.

Ockelford said he put the Russian Standard Vodka into a buggy and pushed them to the front of the store where he asked to speak to the manager.

He was told they would need to contact the head office before removing the product from their shelves. In the meantime, another manager asked Ockleford to return the bottles, sparking an argument.

“It wasn’t an attempt to steal it – it was to make a point. I was offended that they were selling Russian vodka given what Russia has done and the sanctions.

“I went in there to get some cakes for the office, it was very spontaneous.

“I had a look at the alcohol shelf and saw that the Russian products were still on the shelves, so I checked the bottles and removed all the vodka bottles bottled in St Petersburg.

“The situation was a bit inflamed by this floor manager who overruled the assistant manager who insisted that the bottles should go back on the shelf,” Ockleford said. I did raise my voice and told him he was talking “a load of bollocks”, and then he called the police.”

He went on to say that he left the store after giving the assistant manager his details but then waited in his car to speak to the police as he had “nothing to hide.”

“They asked for my details and then asked for my address, and I didn’t feel like I had to give that to them so they handcuffed me and put me in the back of their car for three minutes,” he said.

Ockleford says he doesn’t think charges will be pressed.

Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon testified during a Tuesday hearing that the City of Philadelphia never cut funding from its police department, even though its City Council decreased spending after the 2020 death of George Floyd.

The Philadelphia City Council reduced police funding from $741 million in the Fiscal Year 2020 to $727 million in FY2021, a decrease of $14 million. Initially, Mayor Jim Kenney had proposed a $19 million increase. Furthermore, the City Council increased funding for arts and social services programs by $45 million.

The City Council voted to hold police funding steady at $727 million in FY2022, even though Philadelphia had a record of 561 murders. The city has already seen 96 murders so far in 2022, a 9% increase over 2021.

City Council President Darrell Clarke said the spending cut was “an important step towards” creating a “New Normal,” while Councilman Derek Green said that the budget showed that the City Council “recognizes that Black Lives Matter.”

However, according to Scanlon, Philadelphia increased police funding in the last two years.

“I have to protest the efforts by our Republican colleagues to once again ignore the truth and repeat false talking points about my community and others. Instead of grappling with the truth, we’ve heard members of this committee and subcommittee say today that Philadelphia, which forms part of my district, has reduced funding for its police and to go so far as to bolster these lies by citing specific numbers. Let me just be clear: Philadelphia has not defunded its police,” Scanlon claimed.

“To the contrary, funding has increased each of the past two years to help address the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and gun violence. So I would urge my colleagues across the aisle to stop reimagining the truth and get serious about how this country can address the national surge in gun violence. Because this is a serious problem that demands serious policy solutions and serious people, not a mindless repetition of political talking points.”

Scanlon was a recent carjacking victim outside Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park in South Philadelphia. Her home district, Pennsylvania’s Fifth, includes South Philadelphia, as well as Chester and Delaware counties. Delaware State Police later arrested five suspects driving the stolen vehicle.

Ukraine President Zelensky’s leadership has surprised people all over the world and likely Putin himself. Monday he emerged from his bunker in Kyiv and returned to the presidential palace, declaring: ‘I am here, I am not hiding, and I am not afraid of anyone.”

Zelensky warned the West that Vladimir Putin wouldn’t be satisfied with conquering Ukraine. “We will come first,” he said. “You will come second because the more this beast will eat, he wants more, more, and more.”

Zelensky declared Ukraine a ‘zone of freedom’ that needs to be preserved.

Zelensky said, “we used to say Monday, Monday is a hard day, but it is war in our country, so every day is a hard day,” and on day 12 of the Russian invasion he addressed his country saying, “We are all in our places working, where we should be, my team is in Kyiv with me. We are all fighting, we are all contributing to our victory which will surely happen.”

President Joe Biden spoke with Zelesky over the weekend and discussed the enforcement of a no-fly zone.

Such a move would see fighter jets from the United States and its NATO allies patrolling the air space above Ukraine, and taking out any Russian jets that enter – effectively putting the West at war with Russia, in World War Three.

Zelensky expressed concern about the dramatic escalation and insisted it was the best way for the U.S. to help Ukraine.

“I told him that for us, the most important thing today is the security in the sky,” he said.

“We cannot allow Russia to be active there only, because they’re bombing us, they are shelling us, they are bombing us, they are sending missiles, helicopters, jet fighters – a lot of things.”

A mummified “mermaid” that is said to grant immortality to whoever eats its flesh, will be studied by scientists looking to find its true nature. The creature is believed to have been caught in the Pacific Ocean, off the Japanese island of Shikoku, between 1736 and 1761, and is currently being kept in a temple in the city of Asakuchi.

The creature has some human features such as two hands and hair on its head and brow, but it also has razor-sharp pointed teeth, and a fish-like lower half complete with a tail.

Hiroshi Kinoshita of the Okayama Folklore Society, who’s in charge of the project, said the mummy could have religious significance.

“Japanese mermaids have a legend of immortality,” he said. “It is said that if you eat the flesh of a mermaid, you will never die. The is a legend in many parts of Japan that a woman accidentally ate the flesh of a mermaid and lived for 800 years.”

In the age of COVID-19, a mermaid could be a dark omen according to folklore.

“There is also a legend that a mermaid predicted an infectious disease,” warned Hiroshi.

A historic letter dated 1903, written by a former owner stored with the mummy tells of its origin.

“A mermaid was caught in a fish-catching net in the sea off Kochi Prefecture,” the letter states.

The fishermen who caught it did not know it was a mermaid, but took it to Osaka and sold it as an unusual fish.

“My ancestors bought it and kept it as a family treasure.”

It’s unknown how or when the mummy came to the Enjuin temple in Asakuchi.

According to the chief priest, Kozen Kuida, it was put in a glass display case 40 years ago and is currently in a fireproof safe.