That Son of the Judge Who Was Killed in New Jersey?

The story about the judge's son who was killed at their home in New Jersey by some masked stranger at their home was bad, horrible enough.

Gunman kills son, wounds husband of federal judge at their New Jersey home

It gets worse. Far worse.

According to CBS News:

"The AP says Salas is presiding over a lawsuit in which Deutsche Bank investors assert the bank made false and misleading statements about its anti-money laundering policies and didn't keep tabs on 'high-risk' customers including convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein."

Also from the Associated Press:

Son of US District Judge Esther Salas killed, husband shot

"More recently, (Judge) Salas has presided over an ongoing lawsuit brought by Deutsche Bank investors who claim the company made false and misleading statements about its anti-money laundering policies and failed to monitor 'high-risk' customers including convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein."

Could that get more complicated or indicting or suspicious-looking?

Update:  It has since been announced that the suspect in this case has been found dead.

Update:

Anti-feminist lawyer who 'shot dead federal judge's son and wounded her husband while posing as a FedEx driver before killing himself in his car'

Link:

Son of Federal Judge in Epstein Deutsche Bank Case Shot Dead

Women's--and So, Our--Election Gains This Past Tuesday

Herewith, some of the wins, gains by women in elections this past Tuesday.

NEW JERSEY: Former US Navy pilot Mikie Sherrill is running for Congress from New Jersey in the open seat being vacated by GOP Trump protégé Rodney Frelinghuysen. She won her primary Tuesday night, and she's the real deal. Donate here.

NEW MEXICO: Deb Haaland won her primary Tuesday, and is set to become the first Native American woman to ever serve in Congress. Donate here.

TEXAS: Veronica Escobar is set to become the first Latina congresswoman from Texas. Donate here.

ARIZONA: Kyrsten Sinema is running for the US Senate, and would be the first openly-bisexual US Senator. Donate here.

IOWA: Abby Finkenauer won her primary on Tuesday, and will be the youngest woman elected to Congress if she beats Tea Party Trump-supporting GOP congressman Rod Blum this fall. Donate here.

KENTUCKY: Former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath is running for Congress as a Democrat from the 6th district in Kentucky. McGrath just won her primary Tuesday. Now let's take her across the finish line. Donate here.

NEVADA: Jacky Rosen has the best chance to unseat a Republican US Senator this fall, in her battle against TrumpCare architect Dean Heller. Donate here.

Posted in a quest to get more women, hopefully, elected to public, government offices. They make up 52% of the population, after all, yet are vastly under-represented in those offices.

With thanks to John Aravosis and his Americablog for the summary, links and really, all of the above, honestly.

Links:

Women 50:50

About Us - Women 50:50

More Screaming Hypocrisy From the "Small Government" Republicans

Republicans always scream about how they want "small government!" and lower government spending and less debt and deficit.

Sure they are.

But guess what states get the most money from Uncle Sugar.

Republican States Are More Dependent On Government

It's all based on this study:

2015's States Most & Least Dependent on the Federal Government

Seems the "red" states suck up most of the Federal dollar, hands down.  Or hands out, anyway:

And Kansas is number 5, out of 50, of course, for taking the most Federal money:

Rank(1 = least dependent)	State Name	Return on Taxpayer Investment(Category Rank)	Federal Funding as % of State Revenue(Category Rank)	Federal Employees Per Capita(Category Rank)	Number of Civilian Non-Defense Federal Employees per Capita(Category Rank)
1	New Jersey	$0.48 (4)	26.87% (10)	0.00382 (5)	0.00178 (2)
2	Delaware	$0.31 (1)	25.61% (7)	0.00768 (17)	0.00194 (3)
3	Illinois	$0.45 (3)	26.41% (8)	0.00550 (14)	0.00272 (11)
4	Minnesota	$0.54 (7)	26.88% (11)	0.00353 (4)	0.00295 (16)
5	Kansas	$0.54 (6)	25.22% (6)	0.01460 (37)	0.00342 (25)

It's bad enough they want to take money in the form of tax breaks and unemployment payments, etc., etc., away from the middle-, lower- and working-classes, that's bad.

On top of that, they have to keep working to give more and more money in the form of tax credits and deductions to the already-wealthy and corporations. 

Sure, that's all horrible and wicked and devious enough.

But to, on top of all that ugliness, scream and cry and complain about government spending and debt and deficit and then be the ones that suck up the most money, overall, out of all of us?

It would be funny if it weren't insulting.

And even immoral.

Adding even more irony--and hypocrisy--they're also the "Christians" of the bunch, too. Or say they insist.

It's painful.  Just painful.

Right Wing, Republican "Trickle Down Economics"

What Right Wing, Republican, Ronald Reagan-esque, "trickle down economics" begets, in 4 quick, true, documentable examples. And one of them, as we know, is our own next door neighbor:

Meanwhile, California did the opposite and is doing much better, thanks very much.

Big taxes + big spending cuts = California budget surplus

The Case for Raising Top Tax Rates

How long until Kansans pay attention, learn and turn that big ship around?

Governor Sam, on a wonderful--and well-deserved--shortlist

From Alternet today:

6 Rabidly Right-Wing Republican Governors Who Might Get the Boot

What they have to say about the Guv:

 Kansas Pro-Business Libertarian Sam Brownback. Most pundits consider Kansas to be an irrevocably red state, but voters are apparently rethinking their anti-government attitudes after seeing what Gov. Sam Brownback, the former U.S. senator, has done as governor. Brownback ran on a platform that embraced the conservative fantasy that cutting corporate taxes would create so much economic growth that revenues would balloon and cover public programs. Brownback’s plan, adopted after taking office, is spectacularly backfiring. State tax revenues have fallen by 9 percent, leading to cuts in teacher salaries, larger classrooms, draining the state’s rainy day fund, and lowering its bond rating. Brownback, like other GOP governors who like to throw their weight around (i.e., New Jersey’s Gov. Chris Christy), is under investigation by the FBI for “whether members of his inner political circle tried to pressure companies to hire certain lobbyists close to Brownback’s administration,” the AP reported.

Brownback faces House Minority Leader, Democrat Paul Davis, who has made the state fiscal crisis the top issue in his campaign. On May 30, Kansas’s Department of Revenue reported that Brownback’s 2012 tax plan created a $310 million shortfall for the current fiscal year. Davis’s first messages have called for “leadership, not experiments.”   

I think the writing is, so to speak, on the wall on this for the good Guv. I'd be extremely surprised if the citizens of Kansas don't give Mr. B the boot this Fall.

We shall see.

Why and how Charter schools are so wrong

New Jersey is learning what people in the Kansas City area should when it comes to Charter schools:

Christie's charter school nightmare: “White flight..."

"We are creating separate but equal school systems,"  --Hoboken school board president.

From the article:

While New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie deals with burgeoning scandals surrounding accusations he used the Port Authority and development deals for political ends, he now finds himself in a flap surrounding charter schools in Hoboken.

As charters in the city have exploded in number and size, “they’re fostering white flight, and they’re bankrupting us,” the city’s school board head charged in a Wednesday interview. “We are creating separate but equal school systems,” warned Hoboken Board of Education president Leon Gold. (As Salon has reported, Christie-style ed reform has also sparked controversy in Newark.)

It's what I've said all along.

Charter schools do two things. First they drain funds away from the public school system, when there's already far too little for the schools, shamefully.  And second, they do what the Hoboken school board president points out above. That is, they set up a second set of schools, virtually always for the more wealthy--read: white--students. Truly, yet another separate and unequal group of schools for the more fortunate, the wealthier population.

It's not just unequal and/or unfair, either. 

It's unjust

It's obscene.

It's grossly immoral.

It's not what any good, fair country or society should be about.

Least of all America.

Kansas Citians would do well to learn from all this.  And shut down the entire Charter school program.

Senator Frank Lautenberg, 1924-2013, Rest in peace

Notes on a hurricane

--How ironic--and horrible for the people effected by it--that hurricane Sandy should hit the most dense part of the nation, hardest of all;

--How, again, ironic and awful that the same storm should also hit on the very day of the full moon, increasing high tides that much more;

--How unfortunate that these three storm fronts should collide in this one area and create everything from downpours of rain and so, flooding, as well as heavy snow, this early in the season;

--It has always seemed unnecessary to me that the Weather Channel should and would have their reporters outside, in the midst of the storms, period, but especially the hurricanes, to report to us. We know it's raining/snowing/storming (whatever). They shouldn't need to stand out there in the rain/wind/snow or whatever, do you think?

--It nearly makes me feel guilty for the perfectly calm, mild, even beautiful and comfortable weather we're experiencing here, in the middle of the nation, while so many hundreds of thousands are in the midst of a huge, even dangerous weather event, just to our East.

Yet another, new Catholic sex scandal

Hot off the wires: Officials: Educator Videotaped Students in Showers Fortunately, it's not from the local area. SOMERVILLE, N.J. December 28, 2011 (AP) Prosecutors say an educator secretly videotaped teenage boys in the shower at a New Jersey Catholic high school for nearly three years. Authorities say the videos were recorded in a communal shower area at Immaculata High School in Somerville starting in January 2008. Fifty-four-year-old Patrick J. Lott, of Somerville, faces numerous charges, including child endangerment and invasion of privacy. He is an assistant principal at a public middle school and volunteered at Immaculata. Too bad he's not a Catholic priest or bishop. He'd get off scott-free. Link: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/officials-educator-videotaped-students-showers-15248621#.TvuI-PnNkqM

I love this fathead

Chris Christie takes state helicopter to son’s baseball game

and I do hope he runs for president.

and learns nothing between yesterday and the end of the campaign.

Does "mind your own business" mean anything to you?

N.J. woman chides NYC smoker, gets stabbed with pen

Clearly it's teachers and teacher's pay that's ruining Amerika

I mean, come on, here's another one:

MI doesn't pay for teacher retirement

First it was Wisconsin and their Governor Scott Walker and now this.

Fortunately, there is some sanity out there in the world yet:

Breaking: Governor Christie's Education Cuts deemed Unconstitutional

Links:  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/19/956883/-MI-doesnt-pay-for-teacher-retirement

For anyone who thinks we can send 12 million Mexicans back, read on

This is what I've said all along to friends or anyone who thinks we--the US--can really send 11 or 12 million "illegal aliens" back to Mexico, check out Rupert Murdoch's quote to Congress yesterday: Billionaire Rupert Murdoch, whose media empire includes the conservative cable channel Fox News, made the case to Congress Thursday that a broad immigration overhaul – with a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants – is critical to “strengthening America’s economy.” His testimony before a House Judiciary Committee immigration panel came as Democratic Sens. Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Patrick Leahy of Vermont introduced a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes a path to legalization, a temporary worker program, workplace and border enforcement measures and the DREAM Act, which failed in the Senate last week. Murdoch, who immigrated to the United States from Australia, told the committee that he supports sealing the U.S. borders to future illegal immigrants but creating a path to citizenship for responsible, law-abiding immigrants already living in the United States. Here's the quote: “It is nonsense to talk of expelling 12 million people,” Murdoch said. “Not only is it impractical, it is cost prohibitive.” Think about it. Logistically, realistically, it's virtually impossible to even locate and round up, let alone send back this many people, even if it is to next door neighbor Mexico. It not only isn't going to happen, it just can't happen. So let's get over it and get on with immigration reform, figure out some way to naturalize these people and then make a system of some kind for any others in Mexico who want to come to the States. If that is to be a tough system then, going into the future, fine, I guess, but that's the only way this is going to happen. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42944.html#ixzz1121CqjxZ

A couple notes on local government

Did you see or hear the story in the news about this guy, Clayton Dunlap, who had 16--that's sixteen--different charges from the past for driving while impaired, one way or another?

Yeah, sixteen times he drove while either drunk or high or something.

The previous one, before having just killed a 12-year-old boy and seriously injuring his Mother, was only last month. He had driven while high on PCP and lead the police on a high speed chase.

Did you see how long he stayed in jail for that? It was in the newspaper this morning, on the front page.

According to the Star "He served only a few days..."

Holy cow.

I'd love to find out who the rocket-scientist judge that was.

Great evaluation of character and danger to the society there, Judge.

Not.

So now, again, according to the Star "the county vows to do more to keep such drivers locked up."

Right.

I'll bet, don't you?

I'm not holding my breath.

Besides, the horse already left that corral.

Not that there aren't more instances where this can't apply but it's more than a little difficult to believe much will change.

As I so frequently say, here's hoping.

The other note: a small blurb in the paper from the "Around the Nation" column says that "Law enforcement officials in Newark, New Jersey say March was the city's first month without a killing in more than 40 years."

Quick, have the KCMO and KCK Police Departments get them on the phone immediately, at the very least.

Maybe it's worth someone from each staff going out and seeing what they're doing right and if we can apply any of it here.


Have a great weekend, y'all.