Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalMedical examiner rules ICE detainee's death at Texas facility a homicide
Earlier this month, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced a Cuban migrant had died at a Texas detention camp after experiencing “medical distress,” giving little detail of what led up to his final moments.
Now, a medical examiner ruled that the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos was a homicide, the Associated Press reported Wednesday – a revelation that is likely to heighten scrutiny of the facility after three of its detainees have died in recent weeks.
The 55-year-old’s body showed signs of struggle, with the autopsy report noting abrasions on his chest and knees and hemorrhages on his neck, AP reported. He died of asphyxia caused by compression of his neck and torso, the report said.
Lunas Campos died inside the Camp East Montana facility in El Paso the night of January 3, according to a release from ICE. The Department of Homeland Security told CNN in a statement that Lunas Campos “violently resisted staff” who tried to intervene while he was trying to kill himself.
But a witness told AP last week that Lunas Campos was handcuffed during the incident as at least five guards held him down. The witness said one guard put an arm around his neck and squeezed until he was unconscious.
https://www.wkow.com/news/medical-examiner-rules-ice-detainee-s-death-at-texas-facility-a-homicide/article_08fdf4df-1e41-584f-8c84-c192015724f4.html
And this surprises anyone exactly how? When this is over, every ICE agent needs to be identified and rounded up. And TRIED. The courts will be very busy!
E-bikes, similar devices spark concerns. Backers want rules, not bans.
More Madison-area residents are riding electric bikes, scooters and similar devices – and being blamed for an increasing number of injuries and frustrations – but bicyclists and local planners hope to avoid bans that could create confusion and limit mobility.
They don’t want to see the kind of policies emerging in the Chicago suburbs, for example, where Glenview recently joined a list of communities limiting the so-called 'micromobility' devices, often over safety concerns. The village’s ban prohibits e-bikes and e-scooters from any public property, including sidewalks, streets and mixed-use paths.
In other parts of the country, the towns of Palm Beach and Key Biscayne in Florida now prohibit the devices, as do some Southern California communities, and the New Jersey Legislature passed legislation this week that requires a license, registration and insurance for all e-bikes.
E-bike sales rose nationally from fewer than 300,000 in 2018 to over 1 million annually by 2021. By the end of 2022, Americans had taken half a billion e-bike and e-scooter trips on rideshare systems alone, according to the National Association of City Transportation Officials.
A sudden growth in “e-motos” — electric devices more similar to motorcycles in terms of speed but often marketed as e-bikes — and “jailbroken” e-bikes whose speed regulators have been removed after market, has also intensified public complaints and calls for greater regulation. Often, these devices can reach speeds of 40 mph, and, in some cases, up to 65.
https://captimes.com/news/government/e-bikes-similar-devices-spark-concerns-backers-want-rules-not-bans/article_fa327b41-1c31-4664-ad32-c668e0d9460a.html
I am personally in favor of e-bikes on the street IF riders wear helmets. Scooters, I don't like, having about been run over by them several times in downtown Harrisonburg on the sidewalk. I don't know where they belong but riders should wear helmets and look out for pedestrians.
Why experts question whether China's one-child policy was necessary in the first place
China’s one-child policy, one of the harshest attempts at population control the world has seen, forced abortions on women, made sterilization widespread and led to baby daughters being sold or even killed, because parents wanted their only child to be a male.
Now, experts say, the question is whether it was all necessary. China’s birth rate fell to record lows last year and its population has fallen for four years in a row, official statistics showed this week. Authorities, alarmed by the prospect of a shrinking workforce and an aging population, scrapped the policy in 2015.
“It’s hard to escape the fact that China demographically shot itself in the foot,” said Mei Fong, the author of the 2016 book, “One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment.”
China’s leaders saw unbridled population growth as a potential threat in 1980 — to both economic development and its ability to feed what had grown into a nation of 1 billion people.
(snip)
The birth rate had begun to fall in the 1970s after the government began encouraging people to have fewer children. It’s unclear how much its fall since then resulted from the one-child policy and to what degree it would have happened anyway because of the tremendous economic and societal changes over the last four decades
https://apnews.com/article/china-one-child-policy-population-birth-rate-a4ca6cee5b50c9f95dc6d809587c17cc
Second thoughts, anyone?
Saw something really great yesterday
Just can't remember where I saw it. This is what it said:
"MY ANCESTORS CAME FROM NORWAY IN 1850 AND SETTLED IN MINNESOTA. WHAT KIND OF IDIOT GOES UP AGAINST DESCENDANTS OF VIKINGS THERE IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER?"
Day One: Governor Spanberger ends Virginia's ICE collaboration
On her first day as Governor, Abigail Spanberger made a decisive move: she vetoed Executive Order 47, ending Virginia’s participation in the federal 287(g) program that allowed local law enforcement to act as ICE agents.
This swift action represents a major victory for immigrant advocacy groups like CASA in Action, whose years of organizing and pressure from immigrant communities helped shape this outcome.
The decision carries particular weight given that Latino voters were a decisive force in Spanberger’s election, with the largest shifts from the 2024 presidential election occurring in Virginia’s most heavily Hispanic communities—particularly Prince William County, home to thousands of Salvadoran and Central American families.
“Today is a historic day for the Commonwealth,” said Luis Aguilar, Virginia Director at CASA in Action. “This victory belongs to the immigrant communities who organized, spoke out, and refused to be silenced. By repealing EO-47, Governor Spanberger has reaffirmed that Virginia stands for freedom for all.”
Aguilar said that the move sends a clear message: Virginia does not need voluntary collaboration with ICE to keep communities safe.
https://www.whsv.com/2026/01/17/day-one-governor-spanberger-ends-virginias-ice-collaboration/
Thank you, Gov. Spanberger! Of course this will undoubtedly bring the wrath of Shitler down upon us, because you know he can't stand uppity women....
Son of former shah says he is 'uniquely positioned' to lead Iran as he predicts end of regime
Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former pro-western monarch, has predicted the country’s Islamic regime will fall and claimed he is “uniquely” placed to head a successor government.
His bid to assume the leadership of a possible new Iran follows weeks of mass protests that have left thousands dead after being brutally suppressed by security forces.
His credentials are certain to be challenged by other opponents of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime, given Pahlavi has not been in Iran since his family fled the country at the beginning of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Many question his level of popular support, even though his name has been chanted at some protests.
Calling on the west to help unseat Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, Pahlavi said on Friday that the regime was nevertheless doomed to collapse with or without such assistance.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/16/son-of-former-iranian-monarch-calls-for-targeted-intervention-to-hasten-regimes-collapse
Not a great idea, only marginally better than what they have now.
US cities increasingly compelled to police abuses by immigration agents
Rochelle Bilal, Philadelphia’s sheriff, warned ICE agents last week: “If any of them want to come in this city and commit a crime, you will not be able to hide.
“Nobody will whisk you off,” she said. “You don’t want this smoke, ’cause we will bring it to you.”
On the surface, it sounds like Philly political braggadocio. Sheriff’s deputies don’t generally spend their time arresting anyone. They serve warrants, guard prisoners and keep court in order. Under other circumstances, Bilal’s comments could be dismissed as a Democratic elected official throwing red meat at a blue audience.
But she’s not alone. Last year, municipal leaders in cities including Chicago, Portland and Charlotte made simple promises for their police not to cooperate with immigration enforcement, and to monitor the activities of ICE for civil remedies. In June, Michelle Wu, Boston’s mayor, signed an executive order requiring regular Freedom of Information Act requests of the DHS to learn when and where immigration arrests are made.
(snip)
State or local police arresting federal officers would have been unthinkable last year. But federal agents have never faced widespread accusations of misconduct, as they do now. State law enforcement is increasingly presenting itself as an answer to federal impunity for civil rights violations.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/16/ice-agent-local-police-abuse
Because the truth is, we can no longer depend on the federal government.
Is anyone else following the Buddhist monks' Walk For Peace?
I am (it's on Facebook, but doubtless elsewhere, too) and I'm so inspired by it. I'm Christian, but I really love this. And they are accompanied by a formerly stray dog from India who was injured along the way and is now being rehabbed in NC. The dog is adorable. The monks are walking from Fort Worth to DC to raise awareness of the need for peace without and within.
Ailing astronaut returns to Earth early in NASA's first medical evacuation
An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASA’s first medical evacuation.
SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station. Their first stop was a hospital for an overnight stay.
“Obviously, we took this action (early return) because it was a serious medical condition,” NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman said following splashdown. “The astronaut in question is fine right now, in good spirits and going through the proper medical checks.”
It was an unexpected finish to a mission that began in August and left the orbiting lab with only one American and two Russians on board. NASA and SpaceX said they would try to move up the launch of a fresh crew of four; liftoff is currently targeted for mid-February.
NASA’s Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke were joined on the return by Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov. Officials have refused to identify the astronaut who developed the health problem last week or explain what happened, citing medical privacy.
https://apnews.com/article/nasa-space-astronauts-crew-medical-spacex-d89651fb83a8eb32d8619052424a5cb8
Why are they being so secretive? I don't recall them being that secretive previously..
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