Former NY Assembly Speaker Convicted Of Seven Offenses

Sheldon Silver (D), who spent over 20 years as the Speaker of the New York State Assembly, has been convicted of honest-services fraud, extortion and money laundering, including all seven counts with which he had been charged.  He now faces up to 130 years in prison.  The conviction means that he forfeits his seat in the Assembly, representing part of Manhattan, which he had held for nearly 40 years.  He had stepped down from the Speaker's office when he was arrested this past January.

Read more at the New York Post, The New York Times, the New York Daily News, CBS New York and Reuters.

Hillary Clinton Gets Scrutinized

(H/T Sue from New Mexico, who posted this on Twitter)

In the latest video from PJMedia, John Phillips, Scott Ott and Steven Kruiser contrast Hillary Clinton's insistence that sexual assault victims should be believed and supported with her own behavior when her husband was accused of sexual misconduct.

For those old enough to remember how some Republicans were denounced as hypocrites during the Clinton Impeachment because they had had affairs at some point earlier in their lives, shouldn't Hillary face the same scrutiny?

Sunday Links

Here are some things going on, as the last Sunday in November rolls around:

From WGN, while walking on a path in Compton, California, two women find a live newborn baby.

From Bizpac Review, the agenda to "erase America".

From Sputnik International, Turkey arrests two generals and a colonel for intercepting trucks bound for Syria.

From NBC News, as the COP21 climate summit approaches, protesters in Paris clash with police.  Protest in other world cities, on the other hand, have been mostly peaceful.

From Fox News, a Planned Parenthood official claims that the Colorado Springs shooter opposed abortion.

From The Washington Times, Planned Parenthood officials apparently blame "hateful speech" for the Colorado Springs shootings.

From American Thinker, Hungary (with some help from Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) shows how to secure a border.

From TechSideline, in football, Virginia Tech makes it 12 in a row over Virginia.
FOLLOW-UP: From The Roanoke Times, VT announces their next football coach.

From The Indian Express, an Sunni Islamic leader in India calls gender equality "against Islam".  (via The Express Tribune)

From the Sunday Express, in a small Swedish village, tensions between residents and refugees become violent.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, an immigrant from Morocco who drives a taxi is shot after he drops off his passenger.

From Arutz Sheva, a Muslim preacher accuses Europeans of "plundering" Muslim lands.

From The Clarion Project, Kenya arrests two Iranian spies allegedly planning a terror attack.

From Real Clear Politics, Senators McLame (R-AZ) and Grahamnesty (R-SC) say that Arab countries would contribute to fighting ISIS "if you put Assad on the table".

From CBS Sports, the Chiefs-Bills game is hindered by weird weather and a broken bus.

And from the New York Post, your royal dose of cuteness.

Details Emerge About The Colorado Springs Shooter

Some information has come out about the man who killed three people and injured several others in or near a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs.  He has been identified as Robert Lewis Dear Jr., a resident of Hartsell, Colorado.  He has previously lived in South Carolina and North Carolina, with arrest records in both states.  While being questioned by police, he reportedly said "no more baby parts" in reference to Planned Parenthood.  He was not known to a pro-life group that has been meeting for Mass twice a week near the facility.  On his Park County, CO voter registration, Dear is listed as "unaffiliated" and "female".

The policeman killed in the attack was Garrett Swasey.  The victims do not include any employees or patients of the PP facility.

For more detailed info, go to AOL, Breitbart's Big Government and the Gateway Pundit.

ISIS Gets Quacked

No, not hacked, quacked.  For reasons known perhaps only to the pranksters themselves, various Internet users have photoshopped toy duck heads onto pictures of ISIS fighters.  As far as I can tell, famous ducks such as Donald, Daffy, Howard and the AFLAC spokesduck have yet to give their opinions on this matter.

Read the story at The Telegraph and the Daily Mail.

Active Shooter In Colorado Springs

In Colorado Springs, a gunman has shot and injured three police officers and is still reportedly active, although "contained".  The shooter is either near or in a Planned Parenthood facility, from which police received a 911 call.  Any connection between the shooter and PP is not yet known.  The shopping center in which the PP facility is located has been placed under lockdown.

Read more at The Gazette, KRDO, The Denver Post, USA Today and CNN.

UPDATE:  The gunman has surrendered and has been taken into custody.  At least 4 policemen and 5 civilians have been injured.

UPDATE 2:  One police officer and two civilians have been killed.

Turkey Shoots Down Russian Warplane

Earlier today, a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 was shot down by shot down by Turkish F-16s as it allegedly flew through Turkish airspace.  After its two pilots bailed out, the plane crashed in Syria.  The pilots are now believed to be dead or captured by Syrian rebels.  Russian officials have claimed that the jet was flying entirely over Syrian territory, while Turkish officials claim that the pilots were warned before being targeted.

Read more at YNetNews, BBC News, Gulf News, Reuters and the Daily Mail.

Deja Vu And Other Stories

This first item might appear to be satirical, but instead it's what the recently-departed Yogi Berra would have called "deja vu all over again".  The rise of Hitler and Mussolini was caused in part by (you guessed it) global warming.  Read more at Real Science and Climate Depot.

In today's news and opinion:

In American Thinker, Lloyd Marcus warns about playing nice with evil.  (Marcus is a talented singer.  I once talked to him at a Tea Party rally in 2010 in Harrisburg, PA.)

From Fox News, four types of food that will aggravate your cold or flu.

From the New York Daily News, in a bureaucratic snafu, 150 passengers on a flight from Mexico were allowed to leave JFK Airport without going through customs.  (If you ask me, this would be analogous to what we let border-jumpers get away with, so in a sense, airport security was just being consistent with that sort of thing.)

From Bloomberg Politics, in a recent poll, Hillary Clinton (D) beats Donald Trump (R) as to who would be more trusted in handling terrorism.  (I would probably agree that Hillary would be better, or more precisely, less bad in handling terrorism simply because unlike the Don, she has some actual government experience.)

From The Washington Free Beacon, and speaking of the Clintons, their foundation's Colombia-based equity fund is unregistered in that country.

From Real Clear Politics, Hillary's successor as Secretary of States says "ISIS is not ten feet tall."

From National Review, the left's denial of "some obvious facts of life".

From Frontpage Mag, more denial, this time from multiculturalists.

From the Epoch Times, the chief of the D.C. police has a message for citizens.

From CBS News, and back to global warming, the Antarctic ice sheet is growing even in an allegedly warming world.

From Prophesy Watch, Christian refugees are being are being "left out in the cold".

From The Washington Times, the Kenyan president has declared corruption to be a national security threat.  (No, you birthers, I'm not talking about Obama, and he's only half Kenyan.)

From Canada Free Press, did the UN's COP21 send a message to ISIS?

From the Washington Examiner, while bombing ISIS fuel trucks, American forces ran out of ammo.

From TechCrunch, Google launches Android Studio 2.0.

And from AL.com, 11 weird southern Thanksgiving customs.

Brussels Continues To Be On Lockdown

For the second day, Brussels, Belgium has been on lockdown as police search for terror suspects.  So far, six suspects have been arrested.  Police have placed heavy guard around the Radisson Blu hotel, whose counterpart in Bamako, Mali was attacked by terrorists several days ago.  The state of emergency will continue into Monday, with schools being closed.  Read about these developments at The Guardian, The Telegraph, Al Jazeera, the Independent and the Metro.

UPDATE:  From Yahoo News, make that 16 suspects arrested.

UDPATE 2:  From AOL, five more have been arrested, make that 21 in all.

Fort Necessity And Braddock's Grave

Fort Necessity National Battlefield is a historical park in southwestern Pennsylvania, most of its units being located along U.S. Highway 40.  The main unit includes a visitors center and the reconstructed namesake fort.  The original fort was built in 1754 under the command of a young British officer named George Washington, and destroyed by French troops after they and their Indian allies defeated the British in the Battle of Great Meadows and then allowed them to retreat.  This and other skirmishes would turn out to be merely the prelude to the French and Indian War, in which the British were victorious.

The reconstructed fort is a short walk from the visitors center.  On the hill behind the fort is Mount Washington Tavern, another unit of the park, which may be reached either by trails from the fort or by driving westward on U.S. 40 from the visitors center.

Inside the fort is this one small wooden building.

The fort is mostly surrounded by earthworks.  I don't know if the cannon is authentic to the period, or how many of them the British had during the fort's brief existence.

About a mile west of the visitor's center and fort is the grave of British General Edward Braddock, who after the surrender and destruction of Fort Necessity led a British force toward the French stronghold of Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh).  The British were again defeated and Braddock was killed.  After Washington presided at Braddock's funeral, the general was buried underneath a road which had been previously been built under their command.  Today, the road passes just to the left of this marker, looking west.

The stairways on both sides of the road were closed, but another walkway led to the actual grave.  In 1804, General Braddock's remains were discovered and re-interred.  In 1913, this monument was built over his final resting place.

Westward and downhill from the roadside marker seen above is another marker, indicating where General Braddock was originally buried.

The Mount Washington Tavern and Jumonville Glen units of the park were closed.  To learn more, go here, here, here and here.

Syrians With Fake Greek Passports Arrested In Sint Maarten

Earlier this week, three Syrians carrying fake Greek passports were arrested at the Princess Juliana International Airport on the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten, which is part Dutch and part French.  They had arrived on an Air Insel flight from Haiti.  Since another group of Syrians with fake Greek passports were recently arrested in Honduras, I wonder if something might be going on here.  Or would such suspicions be (gasp!) islamophobic?

Read more at the Curaçao Chronicle (which had it first), Yahoo News and the Daily Mail.

The above-mentioned airport is noted for the western end of its runway being close to a beach, where quite a few idiots people have subjected themselves to jet exhaust.  In the interests of full disclosure, I visited Sint Maarten and several of its beaches over 20 years ago, but not the one near the airport.

ISIS Booby-Traps Dolls

Here is yet another example of how disgustingly sick ISIS is.  Iraqi security forces have discovered and destroyed bombs hidden inside dolls, assembled by ISIS to target pilgrims, in this case very young pilgrims, on the way to Karbala to celebrate the Shiite festival of Arbaeen.

Read more at the Daily Mail and the International Business Times.

Terrorists Attack Hotel In Mali

In Bamako, Mali, terrorists took hostages at the Radisson Blu hotel, reportedly killing up to 27 people, before special forces stormed the building and ended the crisis.  All 22 Americans at the hotel were safely rescued.  Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its offshoot al-Murabitoun have claimed responsibility.

Read more at CNN, BBC News, The Sydney Morning Herald, the Daily Mail and the Hindustan Times.

UPDATE:  The Blaze reports that one American was killed.

The Robotic Cat

It's pretty common for children to have toy animals, but I recently ran across a video of a robotic cat apparently intended for elderly adults, put on YouTube by a user called DamnGeeky.  The video shows the "cat" moving its front paws, and emitting reasonable facsimiles of the purr and meow sounds made by real cats.

This is not satire from The Onion.  According to Toyland, The Verge and Mashable, this is a real product.  In my not-so-humble opinion, I think it might be worth having if it can catch mice, climb trees, and unravel balls of string, but the only advantage it has over real cats is that it doesn't need a litter box.  But if you want one, go here.

Some Refugee-Related News

Here are some developments in the refugee situation, from both sides of the Atlantic:

From Politico, a GOP-written bill to bar Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering the United unless they pass stricter background checks has been passed with 289 votes, said to be a veto-proof majority.

From The New York Times, the Prime Ministers of France and Belgium are seeking stronger security measures.

From The Blaze, a Bloomberg poll shows that most Americans oppose White House plans to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees without religious screening.

From The Washington Free Beacon, an advisor to Vice President Biden has a different opinion.

From the Daily Surge, five Syrians with fake Greek passports have been arrested in Honduras.

And from Weasel Zippers, pictures of the fake Greek passports.

Wednesday Links

Here in the middle of the week, which is known to the Germans as Mittwoch, to the Poles as Środa (which is similar to środek, their word for "center"), and to college students as "hump day", here are some items of news and opinion:

From AOL, French police searching for the mastermind of the terror attacks in Paris raid an apartment in Saint-Denis, resulting in seven arrests and two dead, one of them being a suicide bomber who blew herself up.

From The Guardian, a police dog was killed in the raid.  (via The Daily Caller)

From the Express, eight suspected ISIS terrorists posing as refugees have been arrested at the Istanbul airport.

From the Daily Mail, at least 66 people have been arrested in the United States on ISIS terror-related charges, including some refugees.

From National Review, why it's not bigoted to be wary of Syrian refugees.

From Frontpage Mag, President Obama has strategy for defeating America.

From the Washington Examiner, the House prods Obama to get tougher with ISIS.

From NewsBusters, former Homeland Security Secretary and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge (R) criticizes Obama's policy toward ISIS.

From Commentary, Secretary of State John Kerry's "unique feat of moral equivalency".

From The Blaze, after black protesters harass white students in Dartmouth's library, the university's provost apologizes - to the protesters.

From Watchdog.org, how to eliminate duplicate government benefit payments.

From Wired, Congress passes the US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act.

From the Mirror, ISIS claims that a drink can bomb brought down the Russian jet, and releases a picture of such a bomb.

From the Independent, Anonymous's attack on ISIS has resulted in people being wrongly identified with the terrorist group.

From the Daily Surge, fans at a soccer game in Turkey interrupt a moment of silence for the victims in Paris with chants of "allahu akbar".

From The Washington Free Beacon, nearly 30,000 Cubans have entered Texas from Mexico.  (via Political Pistachio)

From the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon wins the NL Manager of the Year award.

From NBC Chicago, three cities in Illinois have been named "drunkest in state".

From The Texas Tribune, an alleged sexual assault involving two grad students at Texas A&M and the school's reaction have led to a federal investigation.  (via Pundit Press)

From The Jerusalem Post, the supervisor of the Western Wall has refused a request made by three female members of the Knesset to have a hanukkia placed in the female section of the Wall.

And from the Catholic Herald, according to a report not yet confirmed by the Vatican, Mother Theresa is scheduled to be canonized.  (via LifeNews)

Sideling Hill

Sideling Hill is a mountain ridge in western Maryland and southern Pennsylvania, over which Interstate 68 runs, about a mile south of the MD-PA border.  Even with a notch carved out of the top of the ridge, the uphill climb from either direction on I-68 can require quite a bit of effort from your car's engine.  Just east of the notch is a rest stop, which includes an exhibit center and a pedestrian bridge over the highway.  From the bridge, I took a picture of the north face of the notch, above the westbound lanes.  You can see the various layers of rock and how they're bent, which probably occurred as the Appalachian mountains were thrust upward.  The stairway to the right leads up toward the rocks.

Here's the exhibit hall, with the pedestrian bridge to the left.  It may be reached by a stairway behind the building, with its end, from this angle, behind and to the right.  The bridge and a path at its southern end lead to a rest stop for the eastbound lanes.

Looking east, we see some low hills and valleys, and some higher hills in the distance, which could be South Mountain or the Blue Ridge.

For more information on Sideling Hill, go here and here.  For more on Interstate 68, go here.

Soccer Game Cancelled After Bomb Threat

In Hanover, Germany, a soccer match between the German and Dutch national teams was cancelled after an ambulance packed with explosives was found outside the stadium.  One man has been arrested about a kilometer away.  The stadium and a nearby music arena were evacuated.

Read more at the Mirror, Yahoo News, 9News and SportsKeeda.

France Strikes Back At ISIS

Earlier today, French warplanes struck ISIS positions in Raqqa, Syria.  Targets included a command and control center, a munitions dump, and a jihadi training camp.

Read more at the Daily Star, the Independent, Russia Today, Sky News and Fox News.

Some Stories After The Attack

A few stories have come out in the aftermath of yesterday's terror attacks in Paris.

From Yahoo News, the Eiffel Tower went dark tonight as a Paris mourns the dead and investigators try to track down the terrorists' accomplices and networks.

From Fox News, police in Belgium have arrested three people.  A rented car with Belgian plates had been seen near the Bataclan concert hall.

From the Miami Herald, ISIS claims responsibility as French authorities worry that up to 50 people involved in supporting the attack may still be at large.

From WND, French President François Holland promises a "merciless" response.

And from Blic, one of the eight attackers had a Syrian passport, and had traveled through Greece, Serbia, Croatia and Austria.

UPDATE:  Acccording to the Daily Mail, French authorities believe that two of the attackers traveled through Turkey and Greece, before continuing on through Europe to Paris.

Paris Hit By Violence

Paris has been hit with three violent attacks in separate locations this evening, resulting in a reported 26 people dead.  A shooting took place at the Petit Cambodge restaurant, near the Place de la République.  Up to 60 people are reportedly being held hostage in the Bataclan concert hall.  Two bombs were set off near the Stade de France.

This is an ongoing situation.  I'll try to relay reports on further developments when they become available.

Read more at ITV News, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Telegraph, the Independent and Russia Today.

UPDATE:  The Daily Mail reports "at least 40" killed and 100 people held hostage at Bataclan.

UPDATE 2:  In a live blog, Russia Today reports that French President François Hollande has declared a state of emergency and ordered France's borders to be closed, and that the Mayor of Paris has asked Parisians to stay in their homes.

UPDATE 3:  Sky News has photogallery from the attacks, and USA Today reports that residents of Paris have launched the #PorteOuverte (#OpenDoor) hashtag to offer shelter to people stranded in the city.

UPDATE 4:  In a live blog, Reuters reports explosions heard at the Bataclan concert hall.  Whether they were set off by the terrorists holding hostages inside or by police or other French forces is not indicated.

UPDATE 5:  KTLA reports that police have ended the situation at Bataclan, releasing at least 100 hostages and killing two attackers.  At least 43 people have been confirmed dead.

UPDATE 6:  The New York Post reports that at least 100 people were killed at the concert hall.

UPDATE 7:  France24 has a live blog, and reports at least 120 people dead in all.

Links For Friday The 13th

As one of those particular Fridays rolls around, here are some things going on:

From Gatestone Institute, overwhelmed by its own multiculturalism, Sweden is descending into anarchy.

From Townhall, Ashley Pratt tells her fellow millennials that nothing is free.

From Wisconsin Watchdog, Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis) plans to hold hearings on two controversial EPA regulations.

From WUIS, the party led by Nobel Peace Price winner Aung San Suu Kyi has won a majority in the Burmese parliamentary elections.

From National Review, Israeli President Netanyahu frames the conflict in the Middle East.

From FrontpageMag, how The New York Times reports Palestinian terrorists as victims of Isreali soldiers.

From WGN, a billionaire buys the world's most expensive diamond for his 7-year-old daughter.

From American Thinker, American universities have become left-wing gulags.

From ABC News, a lawyer representing a cop fired for making "racially insensitive comments" says that his punishment was too severe.

From Mother Jones, actress Jennifer Lawrence says that a Trump presidency "will be the end of the world".

From NBC News, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (D) wants more protections for "immigrants".

From Fox News, in the latest Star Wars movie, Leia is now a General.

From The Baltimore Sun, a 21-year-old former football player is killed in northeast Baltimore.

From Bloomberg Politics, onlookers wonder if presidential candidate Donald Trump (R) has gone too far.

From the Epoch Times, workers striking for a $15 minimum wage claim "we do too much".  The article includes a picture of woman holding a sign that says "GREED KILLS", apparently not considering whether their own demands amount to greed.

And from the Chicago Sun-Times, a boombox-shaped fish tank that plays music.

Yes, There Was A Fecal Swastika

Sean Davis, who recently wrote in The Federalist that the reported swastika made of human solid waste smeared onto a dorm bathroom wall at the University of Missouri might have been a hoax, has now relayed evidence that someone actually did make such a thing.  Again, from The Federalist:

In response to a public records request filed earlier this week by The Federalist, the University of Missouri’s custodian of records released pictures today of the vandalism incident, reports of which shocked the campus and sparked protests that eventually led to the resignations of the university’s two top administrators.

The pictures released by the university show a swastika drawn on the wall of a unisex bathroom stall on the third floor of Gateway Hall, a university dormitory. According to an accompanying incident report which was also provided pursuant to a public records request, photos were taken by dormitory advisors and two police officers. 

Because the swastika did not result in any damage to the bathroom, the incident has been reclassified from "vandalism" to "tampering", but it is still also classified as a "hate crime".  In a separate alleged incident in the same dormitory as the swastika-stained bathroom, someone used a racial slur against a white student.  Read the full story, and if you're not too easily grossed out, look at the pictures.

Two Items From Mizzou

Just a couple of new developments from the University of Missouri:

From American Thinker, the black grad student who went on a hunger strike over "white privilege" is no stranger to privilege himself.

And from Bizpac Review, the student body president has admitted that a previously alleged KKK sighting didn't actually occur.

Appeals Court Upholds Injunction Against "Executive Amnesty"

In a 2-1 decision, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against President Obama's "executive amnesty" by upholding a Texas-based federal judge's injunction against the action.  The judge writing for the majority reportedly used some of Obama's own words against him.

Read more at U.S. News & World Report, Reuters, The Daily Caller, Fox News and The Washington Times.

University Of Missouri President Resigns

For several months, students at the University of Missouri have been protesting against the school's president, Tim Wolfe, over racial incidents on campus, and demanding that he either resigns or is removed.  The protests were joined by a graduate student who went on a hunger strike and later by the black players of the school's football team, who boycotted their practices and games.  Earlier today, President Wolfe announced his decision to resign.

The reported incidents include someone in a pickup truck yelling racial slurs at the student government president, who is black, a possibly drunk white student shouting slurs at members of a black student organization, and a swastika drawn with feces in a bathroom.

Read more at the Missouri Business Alert, ESPN, Yahoo Sports, Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports.

UPDATE: Breitbart's Big Government shows some things that the protesters did, which you might not have learned from mainstream media.

UPDATE 2: Writing in The Federalist, Sean Davis thinks that the fecal swastika might have been a hoax.

Roddy Road Covered Bridge

Located near U.S. Highway 15 about 20 miles north of Frederick, the Roddy Road covered bridge is the smallest of Maryland's six remaining covered bridges, with a length of about 40 feet.  With a small parking across the road, the bridge and the surrounding area can be explored on foot, if you give some care to where you step, especially going down to the creek underneath.  Here's the bridge seen from the west, with Owens Creek passing below.

The north end and west side of the bridge can be seen from the nearby parking lot.

From the south, you can see a wooden cabinet built into the inside of the eastern wall.

The stone supports on which the bridge sits each include a ledge.  This picture shows the northern support and the underside of the bridge, from a southeastern angle.

Go here to learn more about the Roddy Road bridge.

Terrorist Caught Re-Entering Italy

All those people migrating into Europe don't present any danger do they?  They're just looking for a better life than they had back home, or maybe are just trying to get away from poverty, you know.  They couldn't possibly constitute a security threat or in any way be involved with terrorism, could they?  I mean, to even consider such things would be xenophobic, islamophobic, or even racist, wouldn't it?

OK, enough sarcasm.  If you think that none of those migrants could have anything to do with terrorism, you'd be wrong.  From The Independent:

Fears that Islamic terror groups might be entering Europe on migrant boats appear to have been confirmed after police in Sicily identified a convicted terrorist among asylum seekers arriving from Libya.

The Tunisian, Ben Nasr Mehdi, was first arrested in Italy in November 2007 and sentenced to seven years for planning terror attacks for a group that has since been linked to Isis. After his release from the high-security Benevento prison in southern Italy, he was expelled from the country.

But it has emerged that he has attempted to enter Italy again, following his arrest last month by Italian authorities after arriving at the island of Lampedusa, off Sicily. He was among 200 migrants rescued at sea by a navy vessel on 4 October.

Oh, he's just one, you might say.  But that's the problem.  Just one terrorist was caught, at least in part because he was already known to the Italian authorities.  How many others who mean to do harm are aboard those boats from Tunisia or Libya?  Read the full story.

Friday Links

As an unseasonably warm day leads into a more normally cool weekend, here are some things in the news:

From Politico, presidential candidate Ben Carson (R) admits that he never applied to West Point.  However, according to The Daily Wire, the Politico article was a "media hit job".  Read both and decide for yourself.

From WUIS, the American economy did better than expected in October.

From Fox News, Russian President Vladimir Putin suspends flights to Egypt as the pieces of the downed Metrojet airliner are taken to Moscow for inspection.

From CNN, France will tighten its border controls for the upcoming climate change conference in Paris.

From National Review, the earth is not having a meltdown (whether those climate change conferees know it or not).

From The Bleader, the Polish Film Festival comes to the Chicago area.

From Frontpage Mag, cutting through the PC "newspeak" on immigration.

From 13ABC, four men in Ohio are charged with supporting al Qaeda.

From American Thinker, "culture matters".

From Watchdog.org, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signs legislation to close the "union intimidation loophole".

From The Washington Free Beacon, while Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton signed an NDA warning against mishandling of classified information.

From the Washington Examiner, the State Department is accused of "twiddling its thumbs" over Iranian dissidents.

From USA Today, President Obama has announced that his administration has rejected the Keystone pipeline.

From the Epoch Times, a Philadelphia woman gets an 80-year sentence for locking disabled people in basements and closets.

From The Roanoke Times, a local restaurant in Blacksburg, Virginia rebuilds its "football graveyard" with the help of a former Virginia Tech football player.

And from WGN, the weather forecast is given by a young special guest.

UC Merced Attacker Identified

Yesterday, a student at the University of California's Merced campus attacked four people with a knife, before being fatally shot by police.  All of the victims are expected to make a full recovery.  The attacker has now been identified as Faisal Mohammad, an 18-year-old freshman from Santa Clara, California who was studying computer science and engineering.

Authorities have not stated any motive for the attack, although religion, politics and terrorism have been so far ruled out.  One of the victims recalled the assailant smiling during the attack.  Besides his knife, reported to be an 8- to 10-inch hunting knife, he also had petroleum jelly, ziptie handcuffs, night vision goggles, duct tape and a hammer in a backpack.

Read more at NBC News, the Daily Mail, the Merced Sun-Star, the San Jose Mercury News and CBS San Francisco.

Black Tea Partier Elected Kentucky Lieutenant Governor

Yesterday, I noted that Matt Bevin (R) has been elected governor of Kentucky.  Today, I learned that his running mate, the Lieutenant Governor-elect, is likewise a Republican who had Tea Party support, and that she is black.  In fact, Jenean Hampton has become the first black American elected to a state-wide office in Kentucky.  This development, of course, will only confirm the left's claim that the Tea Party is a movement dominated by white males.  (Psst, that last sentence, in case anyone is wondering, is a bit of light-hearted sarcasm.)

To learn more about LT-elect Hampton, go to MSNBC, The Daily Signal and National Review.

Some Odd-Year Election Results

Although it's an odd-numbered year, there were still a bunch of elections and referendums going on today.  A few stories from around the country:

From WPVI, former city councilman Jim Kenney (D) is elected mayor of Philadelphia.

From ABC13 NewsNow, Republicans retain control of the Virginia state Senate.

From The Texas Tribune, current State Representative Sylvester Turner (D) is leading in the mayoral race in Houston, and could be headed for a runoff on December 12.  Incumbent Mayor Annise Parker is term-limited.

Also from The Texas Tribune, voters in Houston have rejected the HERO ordinance.

From Fox News, Matt Bevin (R), favored by the Tea Party movement, has been elected governor or Kentucky.

And from The Columbus Dispatch, voters in Ohio have rejected legalizing marijuana.

Hokie Alumni In The Coaching Ranks Learned From Frank Beamer

As you might realize, or maybe calculate, a lot of young men have played football at Virginia Tech during the 29-year tenure of soon-to-retire coach Frank Beamer.  Some of them have gone on to NFL careers.  Others have gone into coaching, either in the NFL or at the college level.  There are even a few who have returned to Virginia Tech as assistants on Beamer's staff, including his son Shane.  Many have retained a thing or two from their playing days.  From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

There are times when J.C. Price becomes so frustrated and disillusioned with one of his Marshall football players, that he wonders if the thing to do isn’t to move on, cut ties, give up on the athlete.

And then his wife reminds him.

“‘Coach Beamer didn’t turn his back on you,’” Price said this week after legendary Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer announced he would be retiring after this season, his 29th with the Hokies. “You think about that. You think about your experiences.”

In Coach Price's case, make that "retained a thing or two, with the help of his better half".  To find out what he and other former Hokie players now in the coaching business learned from Frank Beamer, read the full story.

Fred Thompson 1942-2015

Former Senator Fred Thompson (R-Ten), who also had an acting career, has died at age 73 in Nashville, following a recurrence of lymphoma.  Born in Alabama and raised in Tennessee, Thompson was married at age 17 and inspired to become a lawyer after his father-in-law gave him a copy of the autobiography of Clarence Darrow.  At age 30, he was hired as counsel by the Senate Watergate Committee and became the first person in a public hearing to bring up the matter of the White House tapes.  In 1994, Thompson won a special election to serve out the Senate term of then-Vice President Al Gore, won a regular Senate election in 1996, and decided not to run for reelection in 2002.  He briefly ran for the GOP nomination for President in 2008.  Thompson and his first wife Sarah Lindsey had three children, one of whom died in 2002.  He and his second wife Jeri Kehn had two children.

Read more at The Tennessean, Yahoo News, Variety, The Hill and WKRN.

Coach Frank Beamer To Retire

Frank Beamer, who has been the head coach of Virginia Tech's football team since 1987, has announced his decision to retire at the end of the current season.  His accomplishments include three Big East Conference titles, four Atlantic Coast Conference titles, an appearance in the National Championship game after the 1999 season (lost to Florida State), and Coach of the Year awards in both the BE and ACC.  Now in his 29th year, he currently stands as the longest-tenured football coach and active leader in wins in the NCAA Division 1 Bowl Subdivision.  He is a native of Mount Airy, NC but grew up in Hillsville, VA.  Before coaching at Virginia Tech, which is also his alma mater, he was the head coach at Murray State for six years.

Read more at The Roanoke Times, The Washington Post, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and (last but not least) Hokiesports.  All of these links come via TechSideline.

UPDATE:  One of the TechSideline writers gives his tribute to Coach Beamer.

Sunday Links

Today is the first day of November, on which the Catholic Church celebrates All Saint's Day.  The previous evening was thus called All Hallows Eve, the name later being shortened to "Halloween".  Here are some things going on as our sugar buzzes (from last night's candy) wear off:

From Fox News, in some sad news from last night, an out-of-control car hits trick-or-treaters in New York, killing 3 and injuring 4.

From The Express Tribune, a NYPD officer spent four year undercover as a Muslim, during which she helped uncover an alleged conspiracy to make a bomb.

From The Sydney Morning Herald, a Muslim group in Australia says that Muslim children should not have to sing the country's national anthem.

From Udaipur Kiran, a model in India Tweets about her relationship with a cricket player and draws a fatwa.

In American Thinker, Lloyd Marcus tells of a relative whose 52 children and grandchildren raised on welfare without their fathers.  (Full disclosure:  I have seen Mr. Marcus, a talented singer, perform a few times, and talked to him after a Tea Party rally in 2010.)

From The Blaze, the Palestinian Authority honors slain stabbing assailants as national heroes, which understandably upsets Israel.

From CBN News, in what appears to be a reversal from attitudes, several LGBT-owned business have supported the right of a Christian printer not to produce customized "gay pride" T-shirts.  (via One News Now)

From Zero Hedge, the 16 times in which President Obama promised that there would be "no boots on the ground" in Syria.

From News Busters, Dan Rather blames the GOP for problems with the most recent candidate's debate.

From ABC News, the aforementioned GOP is now considering changes to the debate setup.

From Tech Crunch, the co-founder of AngelPad discusses the company's "disproportionate success with Euro founders".

From The Jerusalem Post, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu calls his party's win in today's election a "victory for democracy".

From WUIS, a search team believes they have found the wreckage of the El Faro.

From Sports Illustrated, a game-ending kickoff return by the Miami Hurricanes, involving no less than 8 laterals, which enabled them to defeat the Duke Blue Devils, also results in suspensions - for the officiating crew.

From the New York Post, "Marlins Man" continues to show up at baseball games, including the current World Series.

I have one more item to pass on, but it's something that I must present in its own separate post.  Stay tuned.