RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Mourners in California said prayers and their final goodbyes Saturday to three Marines killed in last month’s bombing in Afghanistan. Family and friends of Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui packed a church in Riverside to celebrate the life of the 20-year-old Marine from Norco. He was one of 13 U.S. troops killed in a horrific suicide bombing at Afghanistan’s Kabul airport, which also claimed the lives of more than 160 Afghans, on Aug. 26. Nikoui sent videos to his family hours before he died, showing himself interacting with children in Afghanistan. Phil Wozniak, pastor of Grace Fellowship Church Norco, said Nikoui pulled three families to safety and went back to the airport to rescue a child when the bomb went off. “It didn’t surprise me that those were his last moments,” his sister Shyler Chappell said. She said her brother had wanted to become a Marine “for as long as I can remember” and went on to join the Junior ROTC at his high school. At a … [Read more...]
Space X’s Motley Crew Proves They Have the Right Stuff
Many thousands of people touch down in Florida every day. But no other civilians have ever done it the way that Jared Isaacman, Haley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski and Sian Proctor did at precisely 7:06 p.m. on Saturday, splashing down from space into the Atlantic. They were the crew aboard SpaceX flight Inspiration4 , the first non-professionals to orbit the Earth for three days, and at a height of 366 miles, higher than the International Space Station. John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth in 1962, reached a height of just 162 miles. On its descent the capsule decelerated from 17,500 mph to 350mph, including the usual heart-stopping minutes when, because of high friction heat, communication is lost between it and mission control. Then there was an outbreak of applause from control as the braking parachutes popped out and, swinging gently under them, the capsule was visible. This was a rare moment of live drama because everybody following this gravity-free trip has been … [Read more...]
AOC’s ‘Tax the Rich’ Dress Designer in Debt to the IRS
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) received an onslaught of criticism for attending the swanky Met Gala wearing a “Tax the Rich” dress. As it turns out, the millionaire designer who created it is in debt to the IRS. According to the New York Post , designer Aurora James, founder of the fashion brand Brother Vellies, “is a notorious tax deadbeat with unpaid debts dogging her in multiple states.” For instance, through 2018 and 2019, Cultural Brokerage Agency – the parent company for Brother Vellies – failed to withhold “income taxes from employees’ paychecks totaling $14,798,” according to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Since 2015, the company has been hit with 15 debt warrants, all of which occurred prior to the pandemic when the company garnered $41,666 in relief aid. “Just because they take it out of your paycheck doesn’t mean they’re sending it to the government,” David Cenedella, a Baruch College taxation lecturer, told The Post . “It’s … [Read more...]
4.3 Magnitude Earthquake Rattles Southern California
A 4.3 magnitude earthquake quivered through the city of Los Angeles and neighboring areas of California on September 17. The earthquake rattled through southern California around 8:00 p.m. Carson, California, situated just south of downtown Los Angeles ,was the epicenter of the earthquake. The radius of the earthquake reached as far south as San Diego, as far east as Riverside, and as far north as Lancaster. Seismologist Lucy Joens informed KCAL-TV 9 that “t he rate at which we’re having earthquakes doesn’t look abnormal at all, but you know if you’ve gone anytime without them you tend to forget that they really are a regular occurrence.” He added E very earthquake has a 5% chance of being followed by something larger, so for the next day we’ve got a slightly increased risk of having another earthquake in the same area. Earthquakes don’t trigger other earthquakes farther away. Right where it happened, there’s a 5% chance which means there’s a 95% chance we won’t … [Read more...]
Fred Dakota, Native American gambling pioneer, dies at 84
BARAGA, Mich. (AP) — Fred Dakota, whose garage casino in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in 1983 was a milestone for Native American gambling, has died at age 84. Dakota, a former leader of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, died Monday at his home in Baraga, according to Reid Funeral Service. The cause was not disclosed. Tribal offices were closed Friday, the day of the funeral, along with Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College. Ojibwa Casino locations in Baraga and Marquette were closed for much of the afternoon. “It was an honor and a privilege to stand shoulder to shoulder with one of the greatest leaders in Indian country,” tribal President Warren “Chris” Swartz Jr. said. “Fred impacted not only KBIC, but many tribal communities with his leadership abilities." With a single blackjack table, Dakota opened a casino in a two-stall garage in Baraga County on New Year's Eve 1983. A shot of whiskey was 70 cents; better stuff was 20 cents more. “We gave the government vast … [Read more...]
Capitol Rioters’ Pity-Party Played the Nazi Card. Of Course.
Hundreds of demonstrators took to the United States Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, demanding the release of people incarcerated in the wake of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol attack that has led to hundreds of criminal cases and precious little reflection on the far right. The event failed to draw the massive pro-Trump crowds who gathered in January, and the area was heavily patrolled by law enforcement. Attendees hit on the usual themes—complaining about the media, and portraying themselves as the victims of state persecution. One speaker compared the treatment of the Capitol rioters—who included, infamously, a man wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt —to the persecution of Jews under Nazi rule. Calling the D.C. jail a “gulag,” she read off a letter that she said was from an imprisoned rioter, who complained, “this reminds me of how the Jewish people were treated by the Nazis.” As the crowd gathered in the Union Square area of the Capitol grounds, “We Didn’t … [Read more...]
