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Andrew Tate detained in Romania in rape, human trafficking investigation

December 30, 2022

Andrew Tate, a controversial social media personality and former professional kickboxer, has been detained in Romania as part of a rape and human trafficking investigation. And a pizza delivery is fueling rumors of what led to Tate’s arrest.

Tate was seen being dragged out of his house by police Thursday evening, along with his brother and two other people. Romanian authorities said “the four suspects … appear to have created an organized crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialized websites for a cost”.

Prosecutors said Tate and his brother have been under criminal investigation since April. But what led to this raid is in question and follows an interesting sequence of events that has played out on social media.

Earlier this week, Tate tagged 19-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter, mocking her calls for climate awareness.

“Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions,” Tate tweeted.

When Thunberg responded with an insult, Tate replied with a 2-minute choreographed video where he asked someone to hand him pizza and to make sure the boxes were “not recycled”.

One day later, authorities showed up at his doorstep. Many social media users pointed to the local branding on the pizza box featured in Tate’s video as a clue that may have given away his location. Though Romanian authorities said the pizza delivery did not lead to the arrest, that didn’t stop Greta Thunberg.

“This is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes,” Thunberg tweeted.

In Romania, people are innocent until proven guilty. A spokesperson for Tate told the Daily Mirror that he could not provide details relating to the arrest.

“Andrew and Tristan Tate have the utmost respect for the Romanian authorities and will always assist and help in any way they can,” the spokesman said.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Sheriff turned Gov. Joe Lombardo wants to crack down on Nevada crime

December 26, 2022

Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, a Republican, unseated the incumbent governor of Nevada, Democrat Steve Sisolak. He won by about a percentage point in November.

Lombardo is a veteran. He served in the Army, the National Guard and the Army Reserve. He began his law enforcement career with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department before being elected sheriff.

He said he will repeal what he calls “soft-on-crime” laws and policies, including reduced sentences for drug traffickers and burglars.

“As your next governor, I will expand school choice and make school safety a priority,” said Lombardo.

To improve safety in public schools, Lombardo plans to work with the state legislature to repeal “restorative justice” measures. Those are ways of disciplining students while avoiding punishment, such as suspension or expulsion. Sisolak said restorative justice is a tool to get to the root of students’ behavioral issues.

Lombardo has also committed to address the affordable housing crisis.

According to a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there’s a shortage of nearly 80,000 available and affordable rental homes in Nevada. It deems the state the worst in the country on this issue. Lombardo’s strategy is to speed up housing development by making the licensing process more efficient and removing some land restrictions.

When it comes to the economy, Lombardo’s goal is to bring more jobs to Nevada. He plans to incentivize industries outside of gaming and tourism by rolling back regulations and setting up workforce development programs, which provide job training and other services.
Grand jury indicts 2 in hacked Ring doorbell swatting scheme

December 20, 2022

A grand jury indicted two people in a swatting scheme in which the defendants are accused of hacking into Ring video doorbells, calling the cops by placing bogus emergency calls, and then live streaming the police response on social media. The pair are accused of doing this about a dozen times in a single week.

The emergency calls were placed in hopes of getting armed police, like a swat team, to respond to a home where nothing is happening and everyone inside is caught completely off guard. During several of the incidents the defendants also verbally threatened and taunted responding officers.

21-year-old Kya Christian Nelson, a.k.a, ChumLul, is charged with one count of conspiracy to intentionally access computers without authorization, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and two counts of intentionally accessing without authorization a computer. Nelson faces the possibility of 14 years in prison. James Thomas Andrew McCarty, a.k.a Aspertaine, is charged with one count of conspiracy to intentionally access computers without authorization and faces five years in federal prison.

According to the indictment, the defendants stole victims’ Yahoo email accounts then determined if their Ring doorbell had the same name and password and hacked it. Nelson and McCarty are accused of pulling these stunts in states across the country, including California, Montana, Georgia and Texas.

The FBI urges everyone to have different passwords for their devices and use two-factor authentication.
Wes Moore wants to raise Maryland’s minimum wage in 2023

December 15, 2022

Wes Moore is combat veteran and author who ran to replace Maryland’s popular, term-limited Republican Governor Larry Hogan. Moore won by 30 points.

“Everybody in the state needs to understand that we are going to focus on economics. That this is about how we are going to focus on pathways to work, wages, and wealth. For all Marylanders, and not just some,” Moore said.

Maryland’s minimum wage is set to increase to $15 an hour by 2025. Moore says he’ll make that adjustment happen sooner, in 2023, and look for ways to continue raising the minimum wage with inflation and the cost of living.

Moore’s plan to address the economy also involves investing in childhood education. He says he will expand free pre-K programs more quickly than the 10-year timeline that is already in place.

Additionally, Moore supports making abortion a constitutional right, after the state’s general assembly passed legislation expanding access to it.

Moore faced some controversy during the campaign when his Republican competitor accused him of mischaracterizing part of his life in his memoir, parts of which allude to a childhood in Baltimore. In reality, Moore was born in Takoma Park, Maryland and raised in the Bronx, New York. Moore said the confusion stemmed from a publisher mistake that was later corrected.

With a platform focused on Maryland’s economy, he will have to find room to address rising crime levels in the state. His strategy so far includes banning ghost guns, and funding for violence intervention and community policing programs.
Shapiro assumes Pennsylvania governor’s seat with moderate platform

December 1, 2022

Pennsylvania’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro won the gubernatorial race by 14 points in a swing state. Shapiro is the first candidate to succeed a governor of the same party there since 1966.

Shapiro made his Jewish faith a central part of his campaign, pitting him against his Republican competitor, Doug Mastriano, who employed Christian themes throughout his messaging.

“The Talmud teaches us that no one is required to complete the task, but neither are we free from it. I think it means that each of us has a responsibility to do our part,” Shapiro said in Jewish Democratic Council of America video.

With crime a top concern among voters, Mastriano and other Republicans said Shapiro had already mishandled the issue.

However, Shapiro has said he plans to make Pennsylvanians feel safer moving forward.

“We’re going to hire more police officers when I’m governor, but we’re going to make sure they are properly trained from the communities they are sworn to serve and protect and look like the people they are interacting with every day,” Shapiro said at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

When it comes to education, he supports school choice while also saying the state will fully fund public education. His plan to grow the commonwealth’s economy includes further reducing the corporate tax rate and investing in renewable energy.
Black Friday gun sales third busiest on record

November 29, 2022

Some of the most popular items sold during this year’s Black Friday include things like electric toothbrushes, wireless headphones, and Legos. But Americans also bought a lot of guns. This year’s Black Friday gun sales numbers made it one of the busiest gun sales days in history.

The National Shooting Sport Foundation said the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Checks System ran more than more than 711,000 background checks last week, including more than 192,000 on Friday alone. That’s enough to make Nov. 25, or Black Friday, the third busiest day on record for NICS.

The NICS data are raw, so it’s unclear what types of firearms were purchased. Also, just because a background check is run doesn’t mean a gun was sold. However, NICS is still the best way to track the number of gun sales in America.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, American gun ownership increased dramatically. NSSF said more than 5 million Americans became first-time gun owners in 2021.

According to a Pew research study, 40% of adults in the U.S. now live in a home with a gun present, and 30% of adults personally own one. While most people buying guns are white men, plenty of women and people of color are buying guns, as well. One-third of first time gun buyers last year were women.

The increase in gun ownership comes during a time of rising crime rates across the country and a renewed push by Democrats for a ban on so-called “assault weapons.” On Thanksgiving, President Biden said the idea of selling semi-automatic weapons is “sick.”
Lombardo wins Nevada governor’s race, ousting incumbent Sisolak

November 11, 2022

Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, R, will be the next governor of Nevada. Lombardo defeated incumbent Gov. Steve Sisolak, D, in a tight race.

Gov. Sisolak flipped the seat in 2018. He served on the Nevada Board of Regents and then as the chairman of the Clark County Commission. His win as governor gave Democrats control of the assembly, Senate and governor’s mansion in Nevada for the first time since 1992.

Sheriff Lombardo has a history of service. He served in the Army, National Guard and Army Reserve. Lombardo spent 26 years with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department before being elected Clark County sheriff in 2014.

But while the candidates were opponents in this race, they stood side by side in the wake of the Las Vegas mass shooting. The massacre in October 2017 left 60 people dead and more than 850 wounded. Together, they helped carry Clark County through the tragedy in part by starting a fund for victims that raised millions of dollars.

In the lead up to the election, crime had been a great concern to voters around the country. Polls showed that for the most part, voters trusted Republicans to better handle the issue. In Nevada, however, Gov. Sisolak’s team tried to turn that around on Sheriff Lombardo, saying crime rose in Clark County under his watch. Lombardo admitted crime increased over the last two years but said he did all he could with the funding and mandates he received from a Democrat-controlled legislature.

Lombardo, meanwhile, attacked Gov. Sisolak for the state hiring a coronavirus testing company based in Chicago that missed 96% of the positive cases from the University of Nevada in Reno. Sisolak defended fast-tracking the contract and said the company was licensed by the federal government.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Kotek wins Oregon governor’s race

November 11, 2022

Democratic former state Rep. Tina Kotek is the winner of a close, three-way race for governor in Oregon. Incumbent Gov. Kate Brown, D, was term limited. This race was made significantly more competitive when former State Sen. Betsy Johnson, a former Democrat, decided to run as an independent.

“I’m not captive to the far left or the far right. As an independent governor, I’m the only one who can actually crack down on crime and homelessness and protect a woman’s right to choose,” Johnson said in a campaign ad.

That led to the three candidates staking out very different positions in the race, targeting a very specific portion of the electorate.

Oregon Public Radio’s Dirk VanderHart described the candidates’ positions: “Kotek as the accomplished progressive, Johnson as the centrist unifier, and Drazan as the change agent for a state that has … one-party control.”

Democrats have had strong control of government in Oregon. In 2020, Democrats won the races for secretary of state, attorney general and treasurer by at least seven points and President Joe Biden won the state over former President Donald Trump by 17 points. Oregon has not had a Republican governor since 1986.

Both Johnson and Drazan criticized Kotek for progressive policies during the trio’s final debate. They said she made key policy mistakes addressing homelessness, and during the protests following George Floyd’s death in 2020.

Kotek meanwhile criticized incumbent Gov. Brown for not declaring an emergency on homelessness. She also blamed Drazen for organizing a walkout from the legislature when they were considering bills that could have addressed the problem.
DCCC Chair Maloney loses reelection to Lawler in redrawn district

November 9, 2022

Republican state Rep. Mike Lawler is going to flip a key congressional district in New York. Lawler defeated the chairman of the House Democrats’ election committee, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who was running in a redrawn district with only 30% of his previous constituents.

During the final days of the campaign, Maloney fought back against what he called “MAGA lies and distortions” about his time in office.

“I hope every Democrat, independent and fair-minded Republican that cares about our democracy will get out and vote,” Maloney told News 12. “This is going to decide the future of our country.”

Maloney currently represents the 18th District and the redrawn map put him in the 17th. Former President Bill Clinton campaigned for Maloney and the DCCC, which Maloney chairs, put $600,000 into the race. But the donation from the DCCC was a drop in the bucket compared to the $6 million the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican PAC, spent on the race.

Democrats called Lawler “MAGA Mike” in an effort to connect him with former President Donald Trump. Meanwhile Lawler tried to attack Democrats on crime, which he called an “unmitigated disaster.” Lawler said public safety needs to be prioritized and called for an end to cashless bail.

On abortion, Lawler said he was against it but supports exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. Democrats tried to use that stance against him. But he said that was a personal view and would not support a ban at the national level.
Vance beats Ryan in Ohio Senate race

November 8, 2022

Self described “political outsider” J.D. Vance, R, is in as Ohio’s next senator. Vance defeated Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, who was trying to jump from the House to the Senate and flip the seat from the GOP column.

In a battleground state like Ohio, Ryan distanced himself from unpopular stances in the Democratic Party and declined to have President Joe Biden campaign with him. In fact, Ryan went so far as to say the national party has never been good at strategic policy decisions.

“Thank God that I have enough experience that I’ve built this campaign not needing them, and we really don’t want them at this point,” Ryan said on CNN.

Vance meanwhile fully embraced the Republican Party. He was endorsed by former President Donald Trump and received help from GOP Sens. Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham.

Inflation was the top issue for Ohio voters. Ryan wanted to pass a tax cut, which he said would put more money in Americans’ pockets. Vance also said a tax cut would be appropriate but added Democrats deserve a lot of the blame for inflation because they’ve spent too much government money.

On crime, Ryan said cities need to hire more cops and invest in police training. Vance said Mexican drug cartels are one of the biggest threats to public safety. He suggested declaring them terrorist organizations and finishing the wall on the southern border.

Vance is a marine, graduate of Yale Law school, and author of the book “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was adapted into a Netflix movie. Ryan is also an attorney and has served 10 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.