By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Jermaine McBean was listening to music through earbuds and carrying an air rifle when a sheriff’s deputy fatally shot him in 2013.

The FBI has opened the an investigation into the shooting to determine whether McBean’s civil rights were violated when he was shot by Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Peter Peraza, the Associated Press reports. Authorities said he may not have heard the commands to drop the gun because of the music.

Deputy Peraza was responding to a 911 call about a man openly carrying what appeared to be a rifle down the street.

The FBI investigation will focus on whether the deputy used excessive force in a “willful” or “unreasonable” manner.

A separate state investigation is ongoing.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Armed gunmen abducted a Tennessee family from their home Tuesday and forced the husband to rob a bank, the FBI said.

The suspects forced the family, which included a bank employee, his wife and their young child, into their own car and drove them to a bank branch in Knoxville Cedar Bluff district, ABC News reports. 

After the husband robbed the bank, he handed the money to the gunmen, who left the man in a parking lot while driving the wife and child, who were hooded, to a nearby intersection.

The FBI is searching for the suspects, who they describe as white males.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A former FBI agent who stole heroin from criminal investigations to feed his addiction should be sentenced to seven to nine years in prison, prosecutors plan to urge a judge, the Washington Post reports.

Former agent Matthew Lowry, who worked in the Washington field office, spoiled drug case and forced prosecutors to dismiss drug charges against 28 people.

“Whatever can be said of the defendant’s decision to self-medicate, what is both indefensible and inexcusable is the fact that the defendant decided to supply himself with heroin by stealing it from FBI custody,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin R. Brenner wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

Lowry is scheduled to be sentenced at 1:3o p.m. today.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The Secret Service has come up with some interesting code names of the people they are paid to protect.

Here is a partial list compiled by Vanity Fair:

Roger Clinton: The half-brother of President Bill Clinton, notorious for his attempts at influence-peddling and a conviction for cocaine use, got the nickname “Headache” for obvious reasons. “I don’t have a choice of being first brother,” he recently told The New York Times.

Senator Ted Kennedy: Back when the late Lion of the Senate was but a wee brother of the president, his pale Irish complexion didn’t mix well with the summers playing flag football in Hyannis Port, or his penchant for drinking. Hence, the name “Sunburn.”

Dick Cheney: The former vice president usually went by “Angler,” both for his love of fly fishing and his tendency to take favorable angles on things like invading Iraq. (He was also known as “Backseat,” because really, he was the ultimate backseat driver.)

George W. Bush: Speaking of invading Iraq, Bush’s code name was “Tumbler,” assigned to him back when he was just the son of George H.W. Bush. (Bush had a notorious drinking problem while his father was vice president, making the code name especially cruel if it wasn’t randomly assigned.) When he became president, he changed it to “Trailbazer,” which is more manly and sounds less like women’s gymnastics.

Click here to see the rest of the list. 

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Forget marijuana and cocaine.

The No. 1 drug entering the U.S. from the Southwest border is liquid methamphetamine, KSAT.com reports. 

“The Mexican cartels have figured out a very effective way to massively produce very low cost, inexpensive methamphetamine year-round,” said Wendell Campbell, spokesperson for the DEA’s Houston division.

One reason it has become so popular is the price, which has dropped from $21,000 per kilo in 2010 to $10,000 last year.

In just the past few years, the DEA has witnessed a 350% increase in seizures.

Some of the chemical ingredients come from China.

The substance is mixed with gas or acetone and heated over an open fire to make it crystallize.

Stories of Other Interest

• FBI Raids Michigan Jewish Institute Tied to Local Chabad
• Border Patrol Busts Man with $600,00 Worth of Liquid Meth
• Justice Department Opposes Activists’ Changes to Consent Decree
• Digital Vulnerabilities Exposed During Outages at Airline, Stock Exchange
• ATF: Why Thieves Target Gun Stores So Often