China

And here’s the video for it:

Attorney charged in voting machine tampering case announces run for Michigan Supreme Court An attorney charged in connection with an effort to illegally access and tamper with voting machines in Michigan after the 2020 election said Thursday that he’s running for the state’s high court. Republican Matthew DePerno, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, made the announcement on the social platform X. “After watching the abuse of our legal system both here in Michigan, as well as across the country, it is clear that the Michigan Supreme Court needs members that are committed to following the constitution and rule of law,” DePerno wrote. Click on the link for the full article

Because if you eat it, this could happen.

I knew what it was. I had to learn it as part of Vacation Bible School when I was a child. My mother found it adorable when we all sang it. The funny part is that my parents weren't religious and never went to church, they just sent me to Vacation Bible School to get me out of their hair for a week during summer break from school.

U.S. regulators are investigating an unusual 'Dutch roll' of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max Federal officials said Thursday they are investigating an unusual rolling motion on a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max that might have been caused by a damaged backup power-control unit. The Federal Aviation Administration said it was working with Boeing and the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate the May 25 incident, which happened on a flight from Phoenix to Oakland, California. The FAA said the plane went into a “Dutch roll,” the name given to the combination of a yawing motion when the tail slides and the plane rocks from wingtip to wingtip. It is said to mimic the movement of a Dutch ice skater. Pilots are trained to recover from the condition, and the Southwest plane landed safely in Oakland. There were no injuries reported among the 175 passengers and six crew members. According to a preliminary report by the FAA, an inspection after the plane landed showed damage to a unit that provides backup power to the rudder. Click on the link for the full article

I'm shocked! OK, not really... New study shows up to 43% of US households are not storing guns securely Firearms are the leading cause of death in the United States for children aged 0-19 years, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting over 4,700 pediatric gun-related deaths in 2021. Many of those deaths are unintentional. A new study published by the CDC described how often guns are stored in different U.S. states. Up to 43% of households store loaded guns, which is not considered safe, while half of the households that store guns loaded with ammunition do not put them in locked containers, according to the study. Loaded guns that are not locked can be easy for children to find and accidentally fire. Households from eight states were surveyed for this high-quality report; including Alaska, California, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and Oklahoma. The percentage of households who had guns and stored guns securely varied widely between states. Click on the link for the full article

Elderly woman dies after neck caught in store escalator The accident occurred on an escalator at the Higashi-Fushimi store of supermarket chain OK in Nishi-Tokyo on June 12. (Shun Yoshimura) A woman in her 80s died after falling and having her caught in an escalator on June 12 at a supermarket in Nishi-Tokyo that recently opened, according to the Metropolitan Police Department and other sources. The woman was found with her neck trapped between the escalator handrail and the floor in a basement floor at OK store Higashi-Fushimi at around 10:20 a.m. that morning. She was unconscious and transported to a hospital, and confirmed dead, sources said. Click on the link for the full article

Rudy Giuliani misusing money meant for bankruptcy case to pay salaries of ‘girlfriend,’ her daughter: creditors Rudy Giuliani is misusing money meant for his bankruptcy case to pay the salaries of his reported girlfriend and her daughter, new court papers allege. A group of creditors — to whom the former New York City mayor owes over $150 million — are asking a judge to immediately appoint a trustee to run his finances “to protect the creditors … and [Giuliani] from himself,” according to papers filed in Manhattan federal bankruptcy court Thursday. The creditors say Giuliani’s “dishonesty, incompetence and gross mismanagement of [his] affairs” mean he can no longer be trusted to act in good faith in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case — which he launched in December to help deal with a $148 million defamation verdict against him for falsely accusing two Georgia election workers of voter fraud. A prime example of Giuliani’s alleged mismanagement of his money is that he admitted in court papers Monday to “using his income to pay the salaries of his reported girlfriend and her daughter,” the filing alleges. “[Giuliani] is admitting that his income, an estate asset, is being used to fund their salaries, as ’employees’ … instead of distributions to creditors,” they wrote. Giuliani, 80, in his Monday court papers, listed Giuliani Communications, LLC’s five employees — including his business partner and reported girlfriend Dr. Maria Ryan and her daughter Vanessa Fenderson. Giuliani’s head of security, Michael Ragusa, denied that Giuliani and Ryan weren’t romantically involved. Click on the link for the full article

The confused smiley:

US Navy faces its most intense combat since World War II against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels The U.S. Navy prepared for decades to potentially fight the Soviet Union, then later Russia and China, on the world’s waterways. But instead of a global power, the Navy finds itself locked in combat with a shadowy, Iran-backed rebel group based in Yemen. The U.S.-led campaign against the Houthi rebels, overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, has turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II, its leaders and experts told The Associated Press. The combat pits the Navy’s mission to keep international waterways open against a group whose former arsenal of assault rifles and pickup trucks has grown into a seemingly inexhaustible supply of drones, missiles and other weaponry. Near-daily attacks by the Houthis since November have seen more than 50 vessels clearly targeted, while shipping volume has dropped in the vital Red Sea corridor that leads to the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean. The Houthis say the attacks are aimed at stopping the war in Gaza and supporting the Palestinians, though it comes as they try to strengthen their position in Yemen. All signs suggest the warfare will intensify — putting U.S. sailors, their allies and commercial vessels at more risk. “I don’t think people really understand just kind of how deadly serious it is what we’re doing and how under threat the ships continue to be,” Cmdr. Eric Blomberg with the USS Laboon told the AP on a visit to his warship on the Red Sea. “We only have to get it wrong once,” he said. “The Houthis just have to get one through.” The pace of the fire can be seen on the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, where the paint around the hatches of its missile pods has been burned away from repeated launches. Its sailors sometimes have seconds to confirm a launch by the Houthis, confer with other ships and open fire on an incoming missile barrage that can move near or beyond the speed of sound. “It is every single day, every single watch, and some of our ships have been out here for seven-plus months doing that,” said Capt. David Wroe, the commodore overseeing the guided missile destroyers. One round of fire on Jan. 9 saw the Laboon, other vessels and F/A-18s from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower shoot down 18 drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles and a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis. Nearly every day — aside from a slowdown during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan — the Houthis launch missiles, drones or some other type of attack in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the waterways and separates Africa from the Arabian Peninsula. Click on the link for the full article

Michigan House votes to criminalize necrophilia with passage of 'Melody's Law' The Michigan House voted unanimously Thursday to explicitly prohibit necrophilia, or sexual activity with a dead body, through a trio of bills called "Melody's Law." The bills, which passed through the Senate last month and are headed to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's desk next, were introduced in the wake of the 2021 murder and assault of 64-year-old Melody Rohrer in Van Buren County. Rohrer's husband, Richard Rohrer, was in the House gallery as the lower chamber voted Thursday on the bills. Richard Rohrer drove in an RV from Florida when the bills first came up for a hearing in a Senate committee in May and has stayed in Michigan since, waiting on the final passage of the bills through the House. "Melody Rohrer truly represented what was good in this world," Richard Rohrer told lawmakers Wednesday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing. "My perfect world with the love of my life was destroyed on Dec. 20, 2021, when pure evil, Colby Martin, decided to murder Melody for his own crude sexual desires." Authorities said Martin, who was eventually convicted of first-degree murder last year, hit Melody Rohrer with his truck while she was out for a walk, put her body in the vehicle and later sexually assaulted her corpse. Her body was left in a wooded area in St. Joseph County in southwest Michigan. Martin told police he hit Melody Rohrer and left her body in St. Joseph County, but denied engaging in sexual acts. His attorney said the collision was an accident. Prosecutors were unable to charge Martin with a sexual assault crime because Melody Rohrer was believed to have been dead at the time and there were no laws covering that type of offense, Richard Rohrer said. Click on the link for the full article

Horrifying bodycam footage shows bloated 14ft alligator with 41-year-old mother in its body after she was dragged into murky canal and killed Horrifying bodycam footage shows a bloated 14ft alligator with the body of a 41-year-old mom in its stomach. Sabrina Peckham was eaten by the alligator after being dragged by the beast into a canal in Clearwater. Peckham was unhoused at the time and had been staying at an encampment close to where the alligator was located and killed. New footage from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission shows the aftermath of the deadly attack. Video shows the huge gator surrounded by police moments after it was shot to death. Its stomach is visibly swollen with Peckham inside. Click on the link for the full article

FAA Investigating Titanium Used in Some Boeing, Airbus Jets The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is investigating whether false or incorrect documents were used to verify the authenticity of titanium used in some recently manufactured Boeing jets, the agency said. The New York Times, which first reported the issue on Friday, said the FAA is also investigating the authenticity of documents for titanium used in some Airbus jets. Aircraft manufacturers are facing strong demand for new planes due to a surge in post-pandemic travel. However, supply-chain problems and component shortages are limiting their ability to meet this demand. Titanium is an important component in the aerospace supply chain and is used to make landing gears, blades and turbine discs for aircraft. The FAA said Boeing reported a voluntary disclosure "regarding procurement of material through a distributor who may have falsified or provided incorrect records." The agency added: "Boeing issued a bulletin outlining ways suppliers should remain alert to the potential of falsified records." Boeing said the issue involves the broader industry and some titanium shipments received by a limited set of suppliers, affecting a small number of airplane parts. The planemaker said it was removing any such parts from airplanes prior to delivery and added there is no impact to safety. Click on the link for the full article

Supreme Court rules ban on gun bump stocks is unlawful In a loss for the Biden administration, the Supreme Court ruled Friday that a Trump-era federal ban on bump stocks, gun accessories that allow semiautomatic rifles to fire more quickly, is unlawful. In a 6-3 ruling on ideological lines, with the court's conservatives in the majority, the court held that an almost 100-year-old law aimed at banning machine guns cannot legitimately be interpreted to include bump stocks. The Trump administration imposed the prohibition after the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017, in which Stephen Paddock used bump stock-equipped firearms to open fire on a country music festival, initially killing 58 people. Then-President Donald Trump personally called for the accessory to be banned. Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said that a firearm equipped with the accessory does not meet the definition of "machinegun" under federal law. The ruling prompted a vigorous dissent from liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor. "When I see a bird that walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck," she wrote in reference to bump stocks enabling semiautomatic rifles to operate like machine guns. Sotomayor also took the rare step of reading a summary of her dissent in court. Click on the link for the full article