Massachusetts Woman Fatally Shot While Sleeping

In the wake of the death of Kate Steinle in San Francisco, here's another incident in an American appears to have been killed by an illegal alien.  In this case, the two aliens possibly involved were previously deported.  From the Boston Herald:

Deportation orders failed to oust two illegal immigrants who are now up on drug charges and under investigation in the July 4 shooting death of a Lawrence grandmother — in an alarming case that critics say illustrates a revolving immigration door with dangerous consequences.

Dominican Republic nationals Wilton Lara-Calmona and Jose M. Lara-Mejia were arrested on drug charges by police investigating the shooting death of Mirta Rivera, 41. The Lawrence nurse was killed in her sleep by a gunshot fired through the ceiling from an upstairs apartment, where both men lived.

The two illegal aliens had a third roommate, who was likewise arrested on drug charges.  I'm not a lawyer, but I can see where the shooting could result in some kind of homicide charge.  Lawrence, Massachusetts is about 30 miles north of Boston.  Read the full story.

ISIS Suicide Bomber Strikes In Turkey

At least 27 people were killed and over 100 others injured in an explosion at the Amara Culture Center in the Turkish border town of Suruç, near the Syrian city of Kobane.  About 300 young people had been staying at the cultural center, who were reportedly there to help rebuilidng work in Kobane.  The blast is believed to have been set off by an ISIS suicide bomber.

Read more at BBC News, Russia Today, CNN and the Daily Mail.

Chattanooga Shootings Claim Fifth Fatality

A fifth military serviceman has died as a result of the shootings at two recruitment centers in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Naval Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Smith, 26, has died from the wounds he suffered two days ago.

Read more at WCMH, CBS News, Fox11 News and the Daily Mail.

Slain Marines Identified

The four U.S. Marines killed in yesterday's attack on two military recruiting centers in Chattanooga, Tennessee have been identified:

Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, 40, of Springfield, Massachusetts, who was deployed twice to Iraq and fought in the Battle of Abu Ghraib in 2005.

Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, 37, who lived in Chattanooga and served in Iraq, Afghanistan and South Korea.

Sgt. Carson Holmquist, originally from Wisconsin, who lived in Jacksonville, NC  and served in Afghanistan.

Lance Cpl. Skip Wells, 21, of Marietta, Georgia, who briefly attended Georgia Southern University.

Lance Cpl. Wells was a reservist.  The other three were on active duty.  I regret not being able to learn Sgt. Holmquist's age.

Read more at Fox News Insider, NBC News, The Tennessean, and last but never least, The Marine Corps Times.

UPDATE:  The Daily Mail has more about the four fallen Marines, and reports Sgt. Holmquist's age as 27.

Colorado Theater Shooter Found Guilty

James Holmes, who fatally shot 12 people and wounded 70 others in a theater in Aurora, Colorado in 2012, has been found guilty.  The jury thus rejected his plea of insanity.  The trial, which has already gone on for 11 weeks and involved over 250 witnesses, now moves into the penalty phase, in which Holmes faces either life imprisonment or the death penalty.

Read more at KABC, Newsweek, CBS News, The Denver Channel and The Denver Post.

Policeman And Four Military Personnel Shot In Chattanooga

A police officer was shot this morning near a Navy recruiting center on Lee Highway in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and has been taken to a hospital.  Some nearby locations, including Chattanooga State University, have been placed under precautionary lockdowns.  There are reports, apparently not yet confirmed, of other victims.

Read more at WHNT, WREG and WRCB.

UPDATE:  The links are now indicating that up to four other people, all U.S. Marines, have also been shot, and that the shooter is now dead.

UPDATE 2:  According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, four military personnel were shot and killed.  There were two military recruiting locations where the shootings occurred, one on Lee Highway, now identified as an Army recruiting center, and the other being a Naval and Marine Reserve Center at the Chattanooga River Park.  A quick look on Googlemaps shows U.S. Naval Reserve location on Amnicola Highway, a road mentioned in several of the above links, adjacent to a Tennessee River Park.

UPDATE 3:  As reported by the Star Tribune, the shooter has been identified as Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez of Hixton, TN, who was believed to have been born in Kuwait.  Whether his citizenship was American or Kuwaiti has not been determined.  Besides the four Marines who were killed, a fifth Marine was wounded in the leg.  The police officer was hit in the ankle.

Wednesday Links

Some things in the news, here on earth and elsewhere in the solar system:

From AOL, as Greek legislators debate the latest bailout bill, a riot breaks out.

From The Washington Times, an immigrant recently released from jail after serving time for attempted murder, is now charged with a different murder.

From Fire Andrea Mitchell, a testy exchange between President Obama and reporter Major Garrett.

From The Verge and the New Horizons mission, the first high-resolution picture of Pluto.

From BBC News and the New Horizons mission, Pluto has mountains of ice.

From ABC News, a teen explains life in a coma.

From Fox News, here's the latest fake Cherokee.

From The Will County News, welcome to Mr. Obama's socially engineered neighborhood.

From The Daily Beast, the real winner of the Iran deal is Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

From Al-Watan, a Saudi reaction to the Iran deal.  (via The Daily Caller, with a bit of translation)

From Arutz Sheva, Israeli security forces have a arrested a man suspected of killing a hiker.

From Wired, more than 70 people around the world have been arrested as Darkode is taken down.

From National Review, Jonah Goldberg asks, "Why does the left treat Islamic terrorism with more nuance than the Confederate flag?"

And from The Daily Star, just as it's not advisable to yell "fire!" in a crowded theater, it's also not a good idea to yell "mouse!" in a crowded mosque.

Deal Reached With Iran

After about 20 months of negotiating, a nuclear deal has been reached between Iran and a group of nations including the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, France and Germany.  The deal limits Iranian nuclear activity in return for lifting international sanctions.  President Obama has reportedly stated that "every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off".  The U.S. Congress has 60 days to consider the agreement.

Read more at NBC News, The Washington Post, CNN, BBC News and USA Today.

UPDATE:  The Daily Signal has some reaction.

Ack! Ack! It's Back!

During most of the 1980s, I was a devout reader of the comic strip Bloom County, produced by cartoonist Berkeley Breathed (whose last name rhymes with "method", as I once read).  In 1989, two years after winning a Pulitzer Prize, Breathed discontinued the strip, but for a few years used some of its characters in a weekly comic named Outland, and later in another weekly comic called Opus, named after a penguin who appeared in all three.  Today on Facebook, Breathed revived his first famous creation by releasing its first cartoon in 25 years, under the title Bloom County 2015.

Read more at the two-way (at NPR), The New York Times and Wired.

Most of the Bloom County characters are human, but there are several animals, including the above-mentioned penguin Opus (who allegedly looks more like a puffin than a penguin).  Another one is a disgusting, occasionally dead cat named Bill, who rarely speaks but instead makes unintelligible noises such as the "ack" used in this post's title.

Hillary Clinton Supports Sanctuary Cities.....Or Does She?

What is the opinion of former First Lady/Senator/Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (D-NY, formerly D-Ark) on sanctuary cities?  It depends on which report you read, and how recently you asked the question.  As of July 7, according to HNGN, she supported them.

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is taking heat from pundits over her previous unabashed support of sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and thereby afford deportation protection to illegal immigrants.

But just one day later, as reported by Fox News:

Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton joined the condemnation of San Francisco’s “sanctuary” policy Tuesday.

Clinton chided law enforcement officials in an interview with CNN, saying the city was wrong to ignore an Immigration and Customs Enforcement request to hold Francisco Sanchez for federal authorities. Sanchez is accused of killing a young California woman along a pier last week.

So which is it, Madame Secretary?  Should cities cooperate with federal authorities or not?  Did one of these two sources misrepresent your stance on this issue?  Or are your views still evolving?

Read the respective stories at HNGN and Fox News.