Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The controversy over ATF’s Operation and Fast and Furious is roaring once again. The latest: Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chair of the House Judiciary, asked President Obama on Tuesday to appoint a special counsel to investigate Atty. Gen. Eric Holder Jr. as to what and when he knew about the operation, the…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com The notorious Underwear Bomber’s bomb may never have exploded, but apparently he did Tuesday morning in the opening of his federal trial in Detroit when he yelled out “Anwar is alive.” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab outburst was in reference to Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric killed by US forces in Yemen last…
Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Another person close to former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has fallen. Longtime fundraiser for the “hip hop mayor” Emma Bell pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit to tax evasion, admitting that she received more than half a million dollars from various campaign fundraisers and never reported the money to…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A former special agent with the Environmental Protection Agency pleaded guilty Monday to lying in a civil case about having an affair with an FBI agent he was working with. Keith Phillips, 61, of Kent, Texas, who worked in the EPA Criminal Investigation Division (CID) in Dallas, pleaded guilty in federal…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com It may not be the crime of the century, nonetheless, the feds say it’s a whale of a crime. Richard M. Ertel, of Spotsylvania, Va., pleaded guilty Monday in Richmond, Va., to importation and illegal trafficking of sperm whale teeth, a violation of the Lacey Act, which prohibits the trading…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Two Somali pirates involved in the hijacking of the S/V Quest, which resulted in the death of four Americans, were sentenced Monday in Norfolk, Va. fed court to life in prison. Muhidin Salad Omar, 30, and Mahdi Jama Mohamed, who is about 24, admitted in the plea agreements that they participated in…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Difficulties seem to be sprouting up like weeds as local governments across the country experiment with new laws and regulations concerning medical marijuana; the drug is still illegal and listed as a controlled substance by the federal government. A top federal law enforcement official in Oregan has declared that medical growers…
