atf file photo

New changes in federal law enforcement have emerged from the highly contentious Fast & Furious operation, reports Reuters.

On Friday, the Obama administration announced reforms intended to improve undercover gun trafficking investigations in the wake of a failed operation which let hundreds of guns into the hands of violent criminals along the US-Mexico border.

The new reforms demand more oversight of undercover operations, according to Reuters, focusing on investigations concerning more than 50 firearms and ending the use of payed gun dealers as confidential informants.

To read more click here.

Occupy protestors in Washington, D.C., drew the Secret Service out after throwing a smoke bomb on the White House lawn, reports KSTC-TV.

U.S. Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie says there were no arrests made when agents dispersed the crowd on Tuesday night. Still, the White House was on lock down, as people inside were prevented from leaving out of the Pennsylvania Avenue side.

Barack and Michelle Obama were away from the White House celebrating the first lady’s 48th birthday at a nearby restaurant when the smoke bomb was thrown.

Ogilvie says the protest swelled to between 1,000 and 1,500 people at one point.

To read more click here.

By Danny Fenster

A Massachusetts man was sentenced to nearly 14 years for a 2010 arson incident, according to a statement from the FBI.

Michael Jacques, a 27-year-old of Springfield, Mass., was sentenced to 166 months in federal prison in connection with the arson of the Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield, a predominately African-American church, according to the statement, hours after Barack Obama was elected president. The prison term will be followed by four years of supervised release, and Jacques was also ordered to pay $1.6 million in restitution, including $123,570 directly to the church.

The church was 75 percent complete, and the fire destroyed nearly everything, authorities said.

Jacques was found guilty in April of this year of conspiracy against civil rights, damage or destruction of religious property and use of fire to commit a felony. Benjamin Haskell and Thomas Gleason, Jacques’ co-conspirators, plead guilty to charges in 2010. Haskell was sentenced to nine years, while Gleason is set for sentencing in January.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST:

• Authorities Work Long Hours to Stamp Out Mexican Mafia (Statesman.com)
• FBI Shooting Range is Popular Deer Hangout (USA Today)
• Angry Former ATF Chief Blames Subordinates for Fast and Furious (LA Times)
• FBI Arrests Arizona Man Facing Weapons Charges (KTAR)
• Former Secret Service Agent New MLB Security Chief (Washington Post)

By Danny Fenster

Federal budget cuts have manifested themselves in a multitude of ways already. Now, dramatically, the Obama administration plans next year to cut the number of National Guard troops patrolling the US-Mexico border by at least half, reports the Washington Times.

Though the White House is not announcing the plans yet, Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter learned of the plan, says half is the minimum number the patrol will have to be cut by, which will mean reshuffling troops already along the border. In Duncan’s state of California, the new plans will mean slashing patrol levels from 264 to just 14.

To read more click here.

Pres. Obama in Cannon Falls, Minn./white house photo

Apparently those dismal approval ratings are not the whole story. An adoring fan grabbed the president by the arm at Scranton High School in Pennsylvania on Wednesday as he shook hands with supporters.

ABC describes the president as walking into the high school to a “rock-star welcome” when the woman grabbed first the president’s hand, then his bicep, yanking him towards the crowd. Secret Service swarmed in but Obama was able to loosen the woman’s grip on her own and continued onto the stage, “never losing his smile.”

To read more click here.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST:

• ATF Whistleblowers claim DOJ Retaliation (Nice Deb)
• Three Police Officers, One ATF Agent to be Sentenced (NewsOn6.com)
• The Daily Caller’s Perfectly Legitimate Crusade Against Holder (Slate)
• Ex-FBI Agents Lash Out At Eastwood’s J. Edgar—Hoover Not Gay! (Time)
• Ex-Lawyer to Serve 6 Months for Insider Trading (Reuters)
• Agents Charge 20 in New Mexico Meth Ring Bust (Reuters)

It may not have been the brightest of assassination plots considering President Obama wasn’t even in town when Oscar Ramiro Oretego-Hernandez allegedly fired at the White House.

Nonetheless, authorities believe the intent to kill Obama was there. He’s been charged with attempting to assassinate the president.

CBS News reports that a witnesses told the FBI he had become increasingly angry with the government and Obama, who he considered the antichrist who needed to be killed.

The FBI found a semi-automatic assault rifle in his car along with three loaded magazines, nine spent shells, several extra boxes of cartridges, an aluminum baseball bat, brass knuckles and a sales receipt for purchases made at a WalMart in Fairfax, Va. just four and a half hours before the shooting, CBS News reported.

Authorities confirmed several gun shots on the south side of the White House, CBS reported.

Read criminal complaint

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST:

• FBI Wants More Power to Tackle Hacking (Inquirer)
• “J. Edgar” Paints an Incomplete Portrait (Illinois Times)
• FBI Probe Finds Nasdaq Easy Target for Hackers (Federal News Radio)
• DEA Agents Make Major Bust in Albuquerque (KOAT)
• Honolulu Mayor Says Visiting Secret Service Don’t Smile Enough (Civil Beat) 
• Woman Charged in Stealing $200K from Charity (KY Post)
• Reddit Cofounder Indicted in Connection to Breaking into MIT Server Room (Wicked Local)

file photo

Attorney General Eric Holder can’t get a break. On break from congressional hounding over ATF’s Fast and Furious program, Holder is now being criticized over an ongoing visit to the Caribbean.

The Daily Beast reports that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who has been sharply critical of  Holder over the Fast and Furious Operation, is ripping into him for traveling for five days to the islands just days after President Obama announced a new austerity program to save billions in federal spending and travel.

“One would think that agreements could be signed on a more abbreviated schedule that saves the attorney general time he continually indicates he doesn’t have, as well as taxpayer money,” said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Issa, according to The Daily Beast.

Holder has been traveling to sign law-enforcement agreements with local agencies, and to discuss a Medicare fraud sting in the area, according to the Daily Beast. Holder also held a summit with other AGs in the area and plans to attend an international conference on promoting democracy in the Western Hemisphere.

A bullet hit the White House, but was stopped by ballistic glass, reports the Associated Press.

Because the investigation is ongoing Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan declined to answer questions about the incident, including the room of the hit window are the caliber of the bullet, AP reported. Additional rounds were found outside of the White House.

The bullets were discovered on Tuesday, AP reported.

President Obama was on his way to a summit in Hawaii and not at home at the time.

Officials say the incident is not tied to another shooting incident near the White House on Friday, when gunfire was heard accompanied by two speeding vehicles.

To read more click here.

It’s not often that the liberal American Civil Liberties Union and conservative Judicial Watch agree on anything, but the Obama administration’s lack of transparency has brought the two together.

Obama’s Justice Department has proposed a regulatory change that would weaken the Freedom of Information Act. Under the new rules, the government could falsely respond to those who file FOIA requests that a document does not exist if it pertains to an ongoing criminal investigation, concerns a terrorist organization, or a counterintelligence operation involving a foreign nation.

There are two problems with the Obama proposal to allow federal officials to affirmatively assert that a requested document doesn’t exist when it does. First, by not citing a specific exemption allowed under the FOIA as grounds for denying a request, the proposal would cut off a requestor from appealing to the courts.

To read more click here. 

Pres. Obama at press conference/white house photo

The president’s entourage rolled through a small Massachusetts airport last year like an untamed rock band wreaking havoc in a hotel room, causing more than half a million dollars in damages. Or so the airport alleges.

Marlborough Airport Properties Inc. filed a suit in a U.S. district court this week against the administration, reports the Boston Business Journal. The suit claims that an agreement had been made regarding the helicopter carrying the president–that it would not damage the tarmac.

Indeed, the helicopter did not damage the tarmac, states the suit, but the 44,000 lb. ‘foam truck,’ and other ground vehicles the Secret Service drove onto the airport caused property damages of up to $676,048.13.  ”Turf or grassed-in areas” also were “significantly damaged,” the suit states.

The Business Journal reports that the administration has denied requests for compensation. The airport property company is seeking a jury trial.