Saturday, May 18, 2019
Michigan farm's use of E-Verify in question after two undocumented employees killed coworker
Siblings Francisca Vargas-Castillo and Leobardo Torres-Castillo separately entered plea deals in Michigan’s Sanilac County Circuit Court earlier this month for the death of Bricia Flores-Rivera, who had worked with the two at a farm north of Detroit.
The deceased victim, Flores-Rivera, had also been illegally present. A DHS official said the department does not know when the three entered the U.S. and how long they had been in the country.
Flores-Rivera’s body was found by a local law enforcement officer in Buel Township, Mich., Sept. 1, 2018. Her body was retrieved from a culvert, a tunnel meant to carry water under a road or railroad.
A witness at the trial said the siblings believed Flores-Rivera was trying to poison Vargas-Castillo’s children and seduce her...
10 Offbeat Stories You Might Have Missed This Week (5/18/19)
Another week has passed, which means that it is time, once again, to look at some of the bizarre stories that made the headlines recently. If you want to read up on last week’s list, click here.This week, we have two stories on mysterious texts and ciphers. One is carved into a rock in France, while the other one is considered a Holy Grail of cryptography. Another mystery would be who keeps drawing penises on the sports fields of Melbourne.There is also a secret chamber in Rome, a brewery in the United States, and a Danish politician with a unique strategy to reach his constituents.
Photo credit: Ufficio Stampa Parco Archeologico del Colosseo
The Domus Aurea, a palatial complex built by Emperor Nero in Rome, needs a lot of preservation work. Several times throughout the last few decades, it had to be closed off to tourists due to safety concerns. This does come with a positive side, though. During the latest batch of restoration work, archaeologists chanced upon a secret chamber hidden beneath the palace.Scholars have named it the Sphinx Room because it prominently features a fresco of the mythical creature. Other artworks depict a centaur, birds and aquatic creatures, warriors, and the god Pan.They are in good condition given their age, but there could still be more to discover. The chamber, which is 4.5 meters (15 ft) high, is still filled with dirt for the most part. Excavation is slow and careful, and archaeologists expect to finish by the end of the year.[1] They hope that there are still other interesting artworks and artifacts waiting to be found.
The University of Canberra’s library had to be evacuated after people noticed an unpleasant smell thought to be a gas leak. It was later determined that the pungent aroma came from a durian fruit.The durian is a popular food in Southeast Asia, but it also has plenty of critics due to its strong odor. There are many places where the fruit is banned specifically for this reason. The smell reminds people of unwashed socks, rotten food, or, in some cases, turpentine. Library staff suspected that a gas leak might have occurred, so they evacuated the 550 people inside the building and called the authorities.Firefighters searched the library top to bottom and, eventually, found the culprit. Someone had left a durian near an air vent.[2] While normal operations have resumed at the Australian university, the stench was still there long after the fruit was disposed of. The library had to post another update, assuring students that the building is safe despite the smell.
Denmark’s general election will take place on June 5. One politician has gotten creative with his outreach to his voters by taking an ad out on Pornhub.Successful politicians of today know that online exposure is essential in order to get their face and their message across to the people. Plenty of candidates are either Internet-savvy themselves or employ someone who is, but none of them went as far as Joachim B. Olsen. He realized that adult websites have untapped potential, so he advertised with one of the largest in the world. Visitors to Pornhub were able to see an ad with Olsen and his party logo, asking for their vote.Joachim Olsen is a former Olympic shot-putter who has served as a member of the Folketing (Danish Parliament) since 2011 as part of the Liberal Alliance. He posted on Facebook, confirming that it is, indeed, him on Pornhub and that he approved of the ad. He went on to clarify in an interview that, while elections are a serious matter, “there must also be some humor.”[3] We will have to wait a few weeks to see if his strategy pays off.
Photo credit: Google Earth
The city of Melbourne has a mystery on its hands. Somebody has been drawing giant penises in the grass of several sports parks.It is believed that the symbols started appearing sometime late last year. Some of the parks have already been replanted, and the grass has begun growing, although the phallic outlines are still visible. Only now have the designs started making the rounds, as they were noticed on Google Earth.So far, three parks have penis designs on display, and they all feature multiple attempts of different sizes. The most ambitious project can be found in TW Blake Park in Preston. It measures over 100 meters (328 ft) in length.[4]Council members were not impressed with the artistic efforts, as repairing them will be costly and time-consuming. They also did not want to share too many details regarding the designs to avoid encouraging acts of copycat vandalism. So far, nobody has claimed credit for the Melbourne penises.
Photo credit: AFP
We go from an Australian mystery to one in France. A tiny village in Brittany is offering a €2,000 reward to anyone who can decipher an incomprehensible message carved into a boulder hundreds of years ago.On the shores of Plougastel-Daoulas, there is a large rock visible only at low tide. It has an inscription on it which has only been noticed a few years ago, even though it includes the years 1786 and 1787, which suggests that it is from the late 18th century.[5]The message is written in the Latin alphabet. At a glance, the letters appear to form words, but upon closer inspection, they only spell gibberish. One line says “DRE AR GRIO SE EVELOH AR VIRIONES BAOAVEL.” There are also a few etchings of objects like sailboats. During the time period indicated, artillery batteries were stationed on the coast, which is the only clue locals have regarding the carving’s possible origin.The mayor of Plougastel-Daoulas wants the message translated and hopes that the cash prize will entice more professional code-breakers to take a crack at their stone cipher.
A brewery in Charlotte, North Carolina, recovered its stolen van in just 42 minutes after offering free beer in exchange for information.On Monday night, three unidentified criminals made off with...
10The Discovery Of The Sphinx Room
The Domus Aurea, a palatial complex built by Emperor Nero in Rome, needs a lot of preservation work. Several times throughout the last few decades, it had to be closed off to tourists due to safety concerns. This does come with a positive side, though. During the latest batch of restoration work, archaeologists chanced upon a secret chamber hidden beneath the palace.Scholars have named it the Sphinx Room because it prominently features a fresco of the mythical creature. Other artworks depict a centaur, birds and aquatic creatures, warriors, and the god Pan.They are in good condition given their age, but there could still be more to discover. The chamber, which is 4.5 meters (15 ft) high, is still filled with dirt for the most part. Excavation is slow and careful, and archaeologists expect to finish by the end of the year.[1] They hope that there are still other interesting artworks and artifacts waiting to be found.
9The Smell Of Knowledge
8Know Your Audience
7The Mystery Of The Melbourne Penises
The city of Melbourne has a mystery on its hands. Somebody has been drawing giant penises in the grass of several sports parks.It is believed that the symbols started appearing sometime late last year. Some of the parks have already been replanted, and the grass has begun growing, although the phallic outlines are still visible. Only now have the designs started making the rounds, as they were noticed on Google Earth.So far, three parks have penis designs on display, and they all feature multiple attempts of different sizes. The most ambitious project can be found in TW Blake Park in Preston. It measures over 100 meters (328 ft) in length.[4]Council members were not impressed with the artistic efforts, as repairing them will be costly and time-consuming. They also did not want to share too many details regarding the designs to avoid encouraging acts of copycat vandalism. So far, nobody has claimed credit for the Melbourne penises.
6The Cipher Rock Of Brittany
We go from an Australian mystery to one in France. A tiny village in Brittany is offering a €2,000 reward to anyone who can decipher an incomprehensible message carved into a boulder hundreds of years ago.On the shores of Plougastel-Daoulas, there is a large rock visible only at low tide. It has an inscription on it which has only been noticed a few years ago, even though it includes the years 1786 and 1787, which suggests that it is from the late 18th century.[5]The message is written in the Latin alphabet. At a glance, the letters appear to form words, but upon closer inspection, they only spell gibberish. One line says “DRE AR GRIO SE EVELOH AR VIRIONES BAOAVEL.” There are also a few etchings of objects like sailboats. During the time period indicated, artillery batteries were stationed on the coast, which is the only clue locals have regarding the carving’s possible origin.The mayor of Plougastel-Daoulas wants the message translated and hopes that the cash prize will entice more professional code-breakers to take a crack at their stone cipher.
5The Power Of Free Beer
Prescription For Violence: The Corresponding Rise of Antidepressants, SSRIs & Mass Shootings
Seemingly every time a mass shooting occurs, whether it’s at a synagogue in Pittsburgh or a nightclub in Orlando, the anti-gun media and politicians have a knee-jerk response – they blame the tragedy solely on the tool used, namely firearms, and focus all of their proposed “solutions” on more laws, ignoring that the murderer already broke numerous laws when they committed their atrocity.
Facts matter when addressing such an emotionally charged topic, and more gun control legislation has shown that law-abiding Americans who own guns are not the problem. Consider the following: The more gun control laws that are passed, the more mass murders have occurred.
Whether or not this is correlation or causation is debatable. What is not debatable is that this sick phenomenon of mass murderers targeting “gun-free zones,” where they know civilian carry isn’t available to law-abiding Americans, is happening. According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, 97.8 percent of public shootings occur in “gun-free zones” – and “gun-free zones” are the epitome of the core philosophical tenant of gun control, that laws are all the defense one needs against violence.
Therefore, when the media and politicians focus their ire on guns, specifically what types of guns are used, such as AR-styles, carbines, semi-automatics, and “high capacity” handguns, in the wake of such tragedies the American public are being intentionally drawn into an emotionally charged debate about legal gun ownership (irrespective of whether the murderer’s gun was legally or illegally obtained). This debate leads them away from the elephant in the room and one of the real issues behind mass shootings – mental health and prescription drugs.
Ignoring what’s going on in the heads of these psychopaths not only allows mass shootings to continue, it leads to misguided gun control laws that violate the Second Amendment and negate the rights of law-abiding U.S. citizens. As Jeff Snyder put it in The Washington Times:
“But to ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the innocent and law-abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless, and that the law will permit them to have only such rights and liberties as the lawless will allow.”
Violence, especially random violence, is a complex manifestation of various thoughts, feelings, and external factors. When a multivariate analysis of these factors is conducted, it becomes apparent that it’s not just mental health issues that are leading to such an increase. There may be an underlying substance which plays a role in a high percentage of these violent acts – the use of prescription antidepressants, specifically selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs.
At first glance, it makes sense that those involved in mass shootings may be taking antidepressants, as they’re clearly suffering from some sort of mental health issue. But the issue with SSRIs runs much deeper than just a random mental health break. These drugs are a prescription for violent crimes, and that’s a story the anti-gun media and politicians don’t want to...
The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #625
You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?
It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,
from the beautiful to the repugnant,
from the mysterious to the familiar.
If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,
you could be inspired, you could be appalled.
This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.
You have been warned.
Friday, May 17, 2019
Non-citizens commit 42% of federal crimes, despite being 7% of population
For 2017, data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Surveyshows non-citizens comprise about 7 percent of the country’s population, but the 2018 Annual Report and Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics shows they committed more than 40 percent of all federal crimes.
The United States Sentencing Commission reviewed 321,000 sentencing documents in fiscal year 2018 and outlined several statistics in the annual report:
In fiscal year 2018, the courts reported 69,425 felony and Class A misdemeanor cases to the Commission. This represents an increase of 2,552 cases from the prior fiscal year, and the first increase since fiscal year 2011.
The race of federal offenders remained largely unchanged from prior years. In fiscal year 2018, 54.3 percent of all offenders were Hispanic, 21.2 percent were White, 20.6 percent were Black, and 3.8 percent were of another race. Non-U.S. Citizens accounted for 42.7 percent of all federal offenders.
Immigration cases accounted for the largest single group of offenses in fiscal year 2018, comprising 34.4 percent of all reported cases. Cases involving drugs, firearms, and fraud were the next most common types of offenses after immigration cases. Together these four types of offenses accounted for 82.9 percent of all cases reported to the Commission in fiscal year 2018.
A breakdown of crimes in the report shows about 92 percent of immigration crimes, or about 21,835 cases, involved non-citizens. But they also committed other crimes at far higher rates than their 7 percent proportion of...
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