By Steve Neavling

A CBP officer is accused of “inadvertently” showing a pornographic image to seventh graders at a middle school in Texas. 

Police said the officer’s phone was hooked up to a projector while he was giving a Red Ribbon Week presentation at Sharyland North Jr. High in McAllen, The Monitor reports.

When he unlocked the phone, “it showed pornography,” McAllen police said. 

The officer was using his personal phone at the time, according to a statement from CBP Public Affairs Officer Roderick Kise. 

“CBP stresses professionalism, honor and integrity and does not tolerate actions by any employee that would tarnish the agency’s reputation,” he said. “CBP is still collecting information and cannot comment any further as the situation is under investigation.”

Sharyland ISD reported the allegations to CBP.

“The fact that this occurred is troubling, and of great concern to the District,” the district said in a news release. 

The district said local, state and federal law enforcement are often invited to speak at Red Ribbon events. 

“The student body was addressed and advised that counseling services are available should they feel the need to speak to someone,” the district said. “Parents and guardians were also made aware of the situation via standard electronic communication. The Sharyland ISD Administration and its counseling team are addressing any concerns from families and are offering counseling support regarding this incident. We thank the community in advance for their cooperation as we continue to work with law enforcement throughout this investigation.”

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Two teenagers are leading a petition drive to strip Attorney General William Barr of a “Distinguished Achievement” award he received from his former high school at Horace Mann in 2011.

Barr graduated from the elite private school in 1967.

Recent graduates of the school, Jessica Rosberger and Kiara Royer, said they launched the Change.org petition because of Barr’s role in ordering riot police to clear out peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square so President Trump could pose for a photo op in front of a historic church.

“I realized that Barr had taken these heinous actions,” Rosberger tells Forbes. “At the same time he was held up as a model member of our community. That was very troubling to me.”

The petition states, “Barr violated our school’s Core Values of Mutual Respect and Mature Behavior as well as our Mission Statement by infringing on the common good. William Barr should not be held as a model member of our community because of his disgraceful actions.”

The petition urges school administrators to reconsider the award in light of “this inappropriate use of power.”

Professors and faculty at another of Barr’s alma mater’s, George Washington University Law School, are calling on the attorney general to resign because he “undermined the rule of law, breached constitutional norms, and damaged the integrity and traditional independence of his office and of the Department of Justice.”

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Two boys with developmental disabilities went missing from their school in New Jersey more than four decades ago and were never found.

Now the FBI is searching a wildlife refuge area about 25 miles from the New Lisbon State School in Burlington County in hopes of solving the 42-year-old case, the Asbury Park Press reports. 

The FBI declined to comment on the search, which the bureau termed as “investigative activity.”

The search comes one month after the FBI added the two boys, Steven Anderson, 17, and David Williams, 12, to its website as “missing persons.”

According to the FBI, “Both boys lived at the 1,898-acre (New Lisbon) center located off Route 72 in the New Jersey Pinelands. They had diagnosed developmental disabilities and were unable to care for themselves without supervision. The boys, who were roommates, were last seen at approximately 4:15 p.m., walking towards their residence from a nearby ball field where they had been playing with staff members.”

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By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Just minutes after dropping off his 12-year-old daughter at a school in California, ICE agents arrested her father, Romulo Avelicia-Gonzalez, for being in the country illegally.

Held in a federal detention center since he was arrested on Feb. 28, Avelicia-Gonzalez learned that he could be deported as early as next week, the Los Angeles Times reports. 

Avelicia-Gonzalez, a Mexican citizen who has lived in the U.S. for 25 years, was detained because he had two decades-old misdemeanor convictions – driving under the influence and receiving stolen car tags.

Cellphone video of the arrest has gone viral, prompting outcry over his arrest.

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By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Federal investigators responding to a report of a suspicious package outside of an elementary school in Alabama found a device with wires and a timer.

The ATF, FBI and local police responded to a bomb threat at Magnolia Elementary School and were surprised by what they found, AL.com reports. 

According to a caller, a Latino man placed the package in front of the school.

The device, which was found on a pickup truck in the school parking lot, contained actual bomb components.

“We did find a small amount of what we believe to be an actual explosive,”  said Dave Hyche, ATF’s assistant special agent in charge in Alabama.

Authorities detonated the device in nearby woods.

Federal officials said the investigation could be lengthy.

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By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI hoped to discourage teenagers from becoming extremists by introducing a video called, “Don’t Be a Puppet.” 

The idea was to counter homegrown extremism by teaching users how to identify young people who are gravitating toward radical ideology.

But now the American Federation of Teachers union and other groups are vocally opposing the video, saying it could lead to more distrust of peaceful Muslims, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

The Wall Street Journal wrote:

In August, the groups, which include the American Association of School Administrators and American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, wrote a letter to FBI director James Comey saying they were “deeply troubled” by the Don’t Be A Puppet campaign and claimed it would increase distrust of Muslim and Middle Eastern students. Critics of the website fear that the recent bomb attacks in New York and New Jersey, and stabbings at a Minnesota mall, will be used to further justify its use with young people.

The website—which walks users through various topics related to extremism and allows them to “free the puppet’ after each section—references religious and environmental extremism, white supremacy, and anarchists. It offers short explanations of the Sept. 11 attacks, as well as the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City.

Specifically, the advocacy groups have raised concerns that the computer program can too easily be interpreted as singling out Muslims. Critics have taken issue with several of the potential signs of extremist behavior that the website warns users to report—such as “talking about traveling to places that sound suspicious” and “using code words or unusual language.”

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI and ATF are helping investigate what appears to be a murder-suicide on the campus of UCLA on Wednesday.

Agents from both agencies responded to the campus shooting soon after it was reported, UPI reports. 

Police confirmed two people – both male – were shot dead. One of the men shot himself.

Their ages and identities have not yet been released.

“There is a note. I don’t know if it’s a suicide note. I don’t know if it’s a confession. I don’t know what it is,” the LAPD chief told reporters.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The CIA left explosive material in the engine compartment of a school bus for special-needs students after a bomb-sniffing exercise.

The exercise last week took place at Briar Woods High School, which is about a half hour from the CIA’s headquarters in northern Virginia. Students were on spring break at the time.

The explosive material was found by a mechanic during a routine maintenance check on Wednesday, Richmond.com reports. 

The live explosives were left behind because the CIA lost track of them.

Dean Boyd, a CIA spokesman, confirmed the training team left behind “explosive material used as a training device for K-9s. This material is commonly used by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to train K-9s in explosives detection.”

The agency “has taken immediate steps to strengthen inventory and control procedures in its K-9 program to prevent such incidents from happening again,” Boyd said, noting that the CIA has done a full inventory of explosive material used in the training program. “CIA is a part of the Northern Virginia community and we will do whatever it takes to prevent this from happening again.”

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