Armed private guards will patrol State Street to aid security downtown

The Chicago Loop Alliance has hired two armed security guards who will begin patrolling State Street on Thursday with the goal of supplementing police presence, curbing shoplifting and dealing with panhandlers.

The Chicago Loop Alliance, the main advocate for the downtown business district, contracted with HLSA Security for the guards. They will patrol between Wacker Drive and Congress Parkway on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, for eight hours each day at various times around midday and in the evening.

The uniformed security guards, which the alliance is referring to as ”street ambassadors,” will each have a gun and a badge and be able to make arrests. Their hours will increase starting in May, the alliance said. They will cost about $114,000 annually.

Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, has long pushed for an increased police presence downtown.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-chicago-loop-security-20180228-story.html

Trump officials fight eviction from Panama hotel they manage

Source: Associated Press

PANAMA CITY (AP) - One of President Donald Trump's family businesses is battling an effort to physically evict its team of executives from a luxury hotel in Panama where they manage operations. Police have been called repeatedly to keep the peace. Witnesses told The Associated Press they saw Trump's executives carrying files to a room for shredding.

Representatives of the hotel owners' association formally sought to fire Trump's management team by hand-delivering termination notices to them at the Trump International Hotel and Tower.

That's according to a Panamanian legal complaint filed by Orestes Fintiklis, who controls 202 of the property's 369 hotel units.

Witnesses and the legal complaint say Trump's team improperly destroyed documents. The witnesses requested not to be identified over concerns they would be drawn into an expensive and protracted legal fight.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-trump-officials-fight-eviction-from-panama-hotel-they-manage-2018-2

Meanwhile at the NRA Cafe...

The I-66 Beltway toll hit $46.50 on Tuesday

The toll on Interstate 66 inside the Capital Beltway reached $46.50 for a solo driver during the Tuesday morning rush, just below a record of $47.25 set last month.

Michelle Holland, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said there wasn’t a specific cause for the spike in the toll price.

“Tolls are based on congestion,” she said. “The more congested it is, the higher the toll, and that’s how we manage demand for the lanes so people who are on the lanes have free-flowing traffic.”

The I-66 tolls, which are meant to encourage drivers to carpool or use public transportation inside the Beltway, have raised criticism among some drivers since they began in December. Solo drivers who travel on those 10 miles of I-66 at peak periods are charged based on a “dynamic pricing” system that changes every six minutes, depending on traffic volumes and speeds.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2018/02/13/the-toll-on-i-66-inside-the-beltway-hit-46-50-on-tuesday/?utm_term=.6a15bca84881

Sessions invokes 'Anglo American heritage' of sheriff's office

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN)Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday brought up sheriffs' "Anglo-American heritage" during remarks to law enforcement officials in Washington.

"I want to thank every sheriff in America. Since our founding, the independently elected sheriff has been the people's protector, who keeps law enforcement close to and accountable to people through the elected process," Sessions said in remarks at the National Sheriffs Association winter meeting, adding, "The office of sheriff is a critical part of the Anglo-American heritage of law enforcement."

"We must never erode this historic office," Sessions continued.

Invoking "Anglo-American heritage" seems to have been an impromptu decision by the attorney general. A written version of the remarks says that Sessions was supposed to say: "The sheriff is a critical part of our legal heritage."


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/12/politics/jeff-sessions-anglo-american-law-enforcement/index.html

Grateful Dead Lyricist & Political Activist John Perry Barlow 1947 2018

Grateful Dead lyricist as well as Electronic Frontier Foundation and Freedom Of The Press Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow has died today at age 70. The sad news was first passed on by filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev, who featured Barlow in his 2017 Long Strange Trip Grateful Dead documentary, and confirmed by the EFF. John Perry Barlow had been dealing with one health issue after another in recent years and died in his sleep.

JPB became fascinated with the online world following his joining the WELL in 1986. Four years later he founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit digital rights group. Mitch Kapor and John Gilmore were Barlow’s co-founder of the organization, which to this day works to preserve civil liberties on the internet. The organization also provides tutorials and other services designed to promote safe online communications. John Perry Barlow more recently was part of the 2012 formation of the Freedom Of The Press (FPF) Foundation. The organization’s mission includes “promoting and funding aggressive, public-interest journalism focused on exposing mismanagement, corruption, and law-breaking in government.”

John Perry Barlow is survived by his wife Elaine and their three daughters. The JamBase Team sends its condolences to the Barlows as well as JPB’s friends and family.

https://www.jambase.com/article/john-perry-barlow-grateful-dead-lyricist-died

“Brave the storm to come; for it surely looks like rain...”

Rest easy; dear friend...