From Cincinnati’s channel 5:

A woman accused of using a dietary supplement to drug the children in her care has been found guilty of child endangering.

During the trial Wednesday, parents who took their babies to the Covenant Church Day Care in Springfield Township last year took the stand to say they noticed something wasn't right.

"On the days that he was in day care, he was exhausted. We would pick him up and put him in the car and he would instantly fall asleep,” Dr. Devin Graham said.

"At the time he was trying to sit up, things like that and he would appear to get dizzy every once in awhile and kind of topple over,” Derek Tanner said.

But until December 2009, they had no idea that the lead infant teacher at the school, Donna Scott, had been putting melatonin into their babies' food in order to get them to sleep.

Scott is the second Covenant Church Day Care employee to be convicted of drugging children.

And the drug of choice?

The charges against Scott came to light after a co-worker turned her in.

"She saw Donna Scott take a melatonin pill and crush it up using a puzzle piece then wipe the powder with her hand into a baby bottle,” Casey said.

Good for the co-worker turning her in, but considering there are now 2 convictions, it makes the crime look a little more widespread. A civil lawsuit is also pending against the church.

A Tea Party favorite for the U.S. Senate in Ohio has just been indicted by a grand jury for unlawful conduct with a minor:

A New Lebanon man, running for a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio, has been indicted by a Montgomery County grand jury on sex charges.

Eric Deaton was indicted on one count of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. He is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old girl between March 2006 and March 2007.

Perry Township police said Deaton met the victim at a church where Deaton served as an elder.

Deaton, who is due in court September 14, faces up to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted.  This isn’t stopping Deaton though. He’s staying in the race and insisting that this is some big political setup:

“I think this is politically motivated,” said Deaton, blaming the indictment on his decision to run for political office.

“The powers that be don’t like that,” said Deaton, who said he intends to stay in the race.

Deaton has been pretty much an unknown in Ohio politics, well that is until now. He has only received a handful of endorsements, but one of those endorsements really sticks out:

Vote Family Values

Perhaps it’s just a day of major irony, but looking at the front page for Vote Family Values, I couldn’t help but notice one of their top news stories:

“Christian Teens and Hands-On Politics”? It sure sounds like Deaton took that way to literally.

Now there are reports of shots being fired at the Murfreesboro Islamic Center in Tennessee (via The Political Carnival):

Rutherford County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating a complaint about shots being fired this afternoon near the construction site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro on Veals Road off Bradyville Pike.

The report came just hours after a fire of suspicious nature damaged construction equipment at the site.

A group of congregation members was at the site looking at the damage done to construction equipment by the fire overnight when they heard nine shots fired from two directions.

The incident occurred around 3:15 p.m. The congregation members reported hearing six shots coming from one direction, and about three minutes later they heard three more shots from another direction, said Saleh Sbenaty, a congregation member and MTSU professor.

(snip)

One piece of construction equipment was damaged over the weekend when it was burned, and three other pieces of equipment were doused with some sort of accelerant, Sbenaty said.

The sheriff’s office, FBI and Bureau of ATF are investigating the fire.

This is just hours after arson destroyed construction equipment at the site, an incident that is now classified as a hate-crime.

Also worth noting is the deafening silence from the right on this story. Not even Matt Drudge has mentioned a word about the arson. They must be awaiting their marching orders from Heir Beck and Palin as to how they should proceed with spinning the hate.

Given all the hate-baiting that has taken place over the Park 51 site in New York, it was only a matter of time until we started seeing stories like this:

ATF and FBI agents are investigating a Saturday morning fire that damaged four pieces of equipment and could halt construction at the site of the planned Islamic center and mosque just outside Murfreesboro.

Eric Kehn, spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said his agency has not deemed the burning of an excavation hauler as arson. He did confirm that three other pieces of equipment were damaged, but he would not comment on the extent of the damage.

"Any type of activity like this we take very seriously and we look into," Kehn said. "When things like this happen, we really need the help of the public."

We really need some leadership at this time. I think the leadership is more than even President Obama can give alone. Instead he should get George Bush to appear with him in a joint statement calling for this hatred to stop. If not then stories like this will only become more common.

Looks like South Carolina's unknown Democratic Senate nominee is in some more trouble:

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) US Senate nominee Alvin Greene indicted on felony charge of showing porn to SC college student.

For background on these charges, check out this article on Mother Jones.

For those that have never heard of Sam and Charles Wyly, well here’s all you really need to know. They are huge donors to conservative candidates and causes and were some of the major funding for the Swiftboat Vets. Well and this – now they are accused of over $550 million in insider trading by the SEC:

Sam and Charles Wyly, Dallas billionaire investors known for their support of conservative candidates and causes, made $550 million in undisclosed profits through 13 years of insider trading, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit filed Thursday.

In a 78-page complaint filed in a Manhattan federal court in New York, the SEC said the Wylys held and traded tens of millions of shares in companies on whose boards they served and "defrauded the investing public" by misrepresenting their ownership and trading of those stocks.

"The apparatus of the fraud was an elaborate sham system of trusts and subsidiary companies located in the Isle of Man and the Cayman Islands ... created by and at the direction of the Wylys," the SEC complaint stated.

This isn’t the first run-in the Wyly’s have had with the SEC. Their troubles date all the way back to 1979.

For years I have been saying that police officers who break the law not only break the law, but also their oath to enforce it. It’s not just the crime, but the betrayal of public trust that really bothers me.

Now we might finally be seeing some equal justice:

Four New Orleans police officers could face the death penalty after being accused of gunning down two unarmed people in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the latest twist for a corruption-plagued department that already faces several federal investigations.

The four officers were charged along with two others in a 27-count indictment unsealed

I believe we overuse the death penalty in this country, but I think it is merited in this case. My reasoning is simple; if you or me did the same thing, we would be facing execution. So to say these police officers shouldn’t have to face it would be a proof that justice is not blind.

This would also be a good warning to all other law enforcement out there that they are to enforce the law, not ignore it or think they are above it. Yes they have a very hard job to do that isn’t always greeted with appreciation, but the increase in police violence is doing nothing to help them.

The following video is from KOMO News in Seattle.

So what started all this? Well the officer was citing them for jaywalking. Yup - the extremely horrible crime of crossing a street where you shouldn't. It looks like the officers superiors have a "number of concerns" over what happened also:

Seattle police officials said Tuesday that their officers are trained to throw a punch in certain situations, but said they have a "number of concerns" regarding the tactics an officer used in dealing with a 17-year-old girl he punched in the face while trying to cite a group of women for jaywalking.

"The issue we have to investigate is whether the force he used is reasonable given the combative resistance he was facing... and we're not going to pass judgment on that until the matter has been thoroughly investigated," said Assistant Seattle Police Chief Nick Metz.

To me both parties are at fault here. The officer should have used more restraint and had backup there. The girls should have listened to law enforcement, but I am going to give them some wiggle room here.

We have too many incidents of police violence in this country and a big requirement for being a police officer is having the trust of the public. That's something that is really amiss in today's America, and rightfully so. Add to that the very minor infraction that they were being cited for, jaywalking, and I'm sure that they felt this had to do with race. Who wouldn't?

At least the Seattle Police Department appears to be taking a very serious look into this incident. Thankfully there is video showing the whole thing, and that could actually help the officer in this case. Imagine if the laws were passed making it a crime to videotape police action? This officer would end up with his word against about a dozen other people who were standing there.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

The lawyer for a man accused of threatening a U.S. Census worker with a BB gun said his client “didn’t want to be bothered.”

Those comments came after an arraignment for Hakeem Bilal, a disabled Vietnam veteran whom Springfield Township police arrested on charges of aggravated menacing and drug possession after the Monday threat.

Police said Bilal, 60, threatened Census worker Keith Miller when Miller knocked at the door of his home in the 2200 block of Magdalena Drive.

Sounds like someone was listening to Erik Erickson a little to much

BAM:

The Austin appeals court erred in deciding that the state’s money-laundering statute - used to prosecute associates of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay - did not apply to transfers made via checks, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled today.

The court’s 9-0 decision also upheld the state’s election laws prohibiting corporations from making political contributions to candidates. DeLay’s associates - John Colyandro and Jim Ellis - had challenged the law as an unconstitutional infringement on First Amendment rights.

In 2002, the Public Integrity Section of the Travis County District charged Colyandro - working on behalf of Texans for a Republican Majority PAC - with accepting political contributions from corporations.

Colyandro and Ellis also were charged with money laundering by transferring $190,000 in corporate contributions to the Republican National Committee by a check, with a similar amount later returned to the state organization.

From WLWT-Cincinnati:

Police arrested a Carthage man accused of beating a homeless man and issued warrants for three other suspects in the attack.

Investigators said Michael Hesson and three other men, who police said were active-duty military personnel, went to a homeless camp near West Mitchell Avenue and ordered a homeless man and his girlfriend to leave.

John Johnson told investigators the men cursed him and told him to get a job before attacking him with baseball bats and other objects.

Johnson suffered a facial fracture and cuts and bruises to his head, arms, torso and back.

These sick individuals need the book thrown at them.

As thousands descend on the capital to push for more gun rights, we get this sad story out of Knoxville:

An official says several people have been shot outside a Knoxville hospital and the suspected shooter has died of a self-inflicted gunshot.

There were conflicting reports about the number of those shot Monday. Police spokesman Darrell DeBusk said at least four had been shot. Fire department spokesman Brent Seymour says at least five people had been shot in the discharge area of the Parkwest Medical Center.

Seymour said two of those shot were in critical condition.

Welcome to justice Friday:

The former president of Blackwater Worldwide has been indicted on weapons charges.

An indictment issued Friday charges Gary Jackson along with four others, including former general counsel Andrew Howell and former executive vice president Bill Mathews. The charges against Jackson include a conspiracy to violate firearms laws, false statements and possession of an unregistered firearm.

The charges open a new front of the government's oversight of the sullied security company. Several of the company's contractors have previously been charged with federal crimes for their actions in war zones, but the company's executives have so far weathered a range of investigations.

Jackson left the company in a management shakeup last year. Blackwater changed its name to Xe Services around the same time

Might I suggest trial by military tribunal, complete with holdings at Guantanamo without the possibility of parole?

A wingnut whackjob gets his day in court:

An Arkansas man was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday for plotting to kill dozens of blacks, including then-Sen. Barack Obama, federal authorities said.

Paul Schlesselman pleaded guilty in January and was sentenced in an Arkansas federal court Thursday.

Federal officials said Schlesselman had threatened to kill Obama on October 23, 2008, shortly before the presidential election.

He also planned to "murder dozens of people with a focus on murdering African-Americans," the Justice Department said.

This was the first big case of violence against Barack Obama I remember and it was fueled by race. Hopefully they will keep an eye on him after he gets out of prison.

This morning on Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough declared the Bernard Kerik has a great man that they only went after because Rudy Giulliani ran for President. Either Joe is crushing on Rudy and Bernard so much that he is flat out lying, or Joe is a moron. Actually it could be both, but let’s recap some of the history of Kerik.

In December 2004, President George W. Bush nominated Kerik as Secretary of Homeland Security. A week later, Kerik withdrew his nomination, explaining that he had employed an illegal immigrant as a nanny; subsequently, numerous allegations surfaced which would likely have led to a confirmation battle in the Senate. In 2006, Kerik pled guilty to two unrelated ethics violations after an investigation by the Office of the Bronx District Attorney, and was ordered to pay $221,000.

His problems started well before Rudy ran for President. Everything just happened to catch up to him when Rudy was actually running:

A grand jury of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a 16-count indictment against Kerik on November 8, 2007, alleging conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and lying to the Internal Revenue Service. Kerik surrendered to authorities the next day and pled not guilty to all charges.

Nice try at spinning all this Joe, but we all know Kerik was a crook long before Rudy decided to run for President. Your attempts at rewriting history will fail.