Hundreds Of Weapons Confiscated At Oakland County Courts

A woman was caught with this knife in the lobby of the 6th Circuit Court in Pontiac. (credit: Oakland County Sheriff's Office)

PONTIAC (WWJ/AP) – Authorities say hundreds of weapons have been confiscated from people entering courthouses in Oakland County in recent years.

The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office says more than 1,200 edged weapons, including throwing stars and a sword concealed in a cane, have been recovered since 2013 by officers at circuit and district courthouse security checkpoints. More than 170 were confiscated in a 15-day period last month, according to The Detroit News.

Capt. Doug Molinar, who oversees circuit court security, says explanations are “pretty weak.” He says it’s usually that people say they didn’t realize they couldn’t take something into court or forgot they had it.

Molinar says unless the items are illegal and seized, people are usually given the option to take them back to their vehicles or put them in a box to be destroyed.


Source : detroit.cbslocal.com

Liverpool’s revenge mission continues as Klopp looks to channel anger

The Reds boss is a master at harnessing fury and Liverpool need to follow their manager's lead at Crystal Palace and against Manchester United

A month into his Liverpool tenure, Jurgen Klopp suffered his first defeat in his seventh fixture in charge. He had been informed of Crystal Palace’s reputation of ripping up the club’s script, but at Anfield on November 8, he experienced it.

Scott Dann’s header on 82 minutes handed the visitors a 2-1 win, and for weeks afterwards, the German admitted he couldn’t “get the f**king loss to Palace” out of his mind.

In Sunday’s early kick off at Selhurst Park, Klopp expects his side to avenge that result. “I didn't forget the first game. We should not have lost it,” he said. “We have to take points back.”


Those who know the manager best say it is not victories he holds on to, but failure. It teaches and triggers him more. He harnesses fury well and used it expertly to fire up his players at Borussia Dortmund. It is clear that he is now looking to do the same at Liverpool.

In midweek, Klopp made sure the Reds used their League Cup final shoot-out heartache against Manchester City at Wembley to punish them in the Premier League three days later.

They bossed every aspect of the encounter against Manuel Pellegrini’s men at Anfield and did not offer them an inch in a near-faultless 3-0 win.

Klopp wants Liverpool to replicate the anger and aggression they showed that night on Sunday afternoon. They have plenty of suffering at the hands of Palace to work with: it was the 3-3 draw at Selhurst Park which effectively ended the Reds' title tilt in 2014, with eight players who featured in the nine-minute collapse two years ago still at the club.

The Eagles have won all three league meetings since, one of those was Steven Gerrard’s Anfield farewell last May and the former captain was in the stands when they ruined Klopp’s unbeaten record as he marked a month in the job.

Liverpool owe Palace plenty and they are desperate to secure a third successive league win for the first time since March 2015. They would do well to transmit their manager’s burning desire for retribution.

“Anger in a sport is good,” he said. “Against Crystal Palace, there is a reason to strike back. There are a lot of reasons to be angry. Crystal Palace are a really physical side. They will give you, in the first two minutes, 500 reasons to be angry.”

Like Klopp, Liverpool have to use vexation to their advantage and ensure Alan Pardew’s team are still winless in the league for 2016 come late Sunday afternoon. Then the focus will switch to the Europa League last-16 test against Manchester United.

The two-legged tie offers yet another opportunity for revenge: Louis van Gaal’s men have done the double over their arch-rivals this season with Wayne Rooney’s late winner at Anfield in January coming completely against the run of play.

Klopp admitted he was desperate to draw United in the tournament to “clear something.” He explained: “We had a good game when I was here when we played against them, but we lost 1-0. It was not what we deserved on that day, but we got it.

“Life gives us the chance to make it better and that’s what we have to do, and what we’ll try.”

Klopp has ordered Liverpool to “stay angry” in both competitions for the rest of the season and they should listen. Success, after all, is the best revenge.


Source : goal.com

OJ Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark 'glad LAPD are taking knife discovery seriously' as she opens up about bombshell

Marcia Clark has opened up about the knife that was allegedly found on OJ Simpson’s estate, saying it's a "remarkable" development - if it's not a hoax.

Marcia, who was the lead prosecutor during the murder trial, has always maintained OJ was guilty of the murders of Nicole Simpson Brown and her friend Ron Goldman.

“I think it’s a remarkable development if it does turn out to be connected to the murders of Ron [Goldman] and Nicole [Simpson Brown],” she told Entertainment Tonight following the bombshell.

“It would be interesting if there was some evidence on that knife that pointed to who might have helped to bury it, if indeed someone else did.”

She said she couldn’t quite believe it and admitted it could just be a hoax.

“It might be a hoax, it might be somebody who planted it and then just pretended to find it and gave it to the off-duty police officer, you don’t know,” she continued.

“But, of course, I’m glad the LAPD is taking it seriously and subjecting it to testing so we can find out.”

Police said on Friday they were examining a knife purportedly found at the former home of O.J. Simpson, the one-time football star acquitted of stabbing to death his ex-wife and her friend in the "Trial of the Century” two decades ago.

Forensic investigators were conducting DNA tests on the blade, which was recently turned over to the Los Angeles Police Department by a retired motorcycle officer, Lieutenant Andrew Neiman told reporters at a news conference.

Neiman said the officer told investigators he was given the knife by a construction worker, who in turn claimed to have found it on Simpson's property in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles when the house was being torn down in 1998.

Simpson's former wife and her friend Ronald Goldman were stabbed to death on June 12, 1994, at her condominium a few miles away.

The murder weapon had not been recovered at the time of his sensational trial, which was carried live on major television networks in the United States and transfixed much of the nation.

A medical examiner testified for the prosecution at the time that Brown Simpson and Goldman were likely slain with a single-bladed, six-inch knife.

Police declined to elaborate on the timeline of when the knife was recovered but Neiman said it was possible that “the whole story is bogus from the get-go."

He also would not name the retired police officer or speculate on why the weapon had been given to police only in the past two months.

"We still don't know if that is an accurate account of how this item came into our possession," Neiman said, adding: “If you are the individual that provided that knife (to the police officer) we would love to have you contact our Robbery Homicide Division."

Authorities have not described the knife but the celebrity website TMZ reported it was a kind of folding knife typically used in hunting and fishing.

NBC News, citing unnamed law enforcement officials, reported that it was a smaller, relatively inexpensive utility-style blade typically carried by construction workers or other laborers and inconsistent with it being the murder weapon.

Legal experts said Simpson could not be put on trial for the murders again because of the doctrine of double jeopardy.

"There really are no exceptions. Once somebody has been found not guilty of a crime, he cannot be charged with that crime again, under any circumstances," said University of

Southern California law professor Michael Brennan, a former criminal defense attorney. "O.J. could confess to the crimes and he couldn't be charged again."

Simpson was found liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman by a civil court jury in 1997 and ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages to the victims' families, a judgment that has remained largely unfulfilled.

He was convicted in Las Vegas in 2008 of kidnapping and robbery in a bungled attempt to recover memorabilia from his storied football career and was sentenced to a prison term of up to 33 years.

Highlighting the enduring fascination the case holds for the American public, there were roughly 150 tweets per minute about O.J. Simpson on Friday, according to social media analytics firm Zoomph.

Reports about the knife surfaced just as a popular new FX cable television drama series, "The People v. O.J. Simpson,” chronicling the trial, is airing.


Source : mirror.co.

Tennis will miss Bud Collins – and his fashion

In this June 30, 1993 file photo, NBC tennis commentator Bud Collins displays a pair of his brightly colored signature trousers as he sits overlooking the courts at Wimbledon. Collins died Friday, March 4, 2016 at home in Brookline, Mass. He was 86. GILL ALLEN The Associated Press

Dick Enberg only followed tennis casually before NBC sent him to Wimbledon in 1979 for the first live coverage of what would become “Breakfast at Wimbledon.”

A little nervous about tennis terminology, he quickly found a friend: Bud Collins.

“I might be rehearsing or maybe on my first take and he’d say, ‘No, no, that’s not what a tennis reporter would say. Here’s what you really mean,’ ” Enberg said Friday after learning that Collins, a tennis historian and American voice of the sport, had died. He was 86 and had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease and dementia.

Enberg and Collins soon became one of TV sports’ most recognizable couples, with Enberg’s “Oh my” trademark line combining with Collins’ stunningly colorful pants and personality to make “Breakfast at Wimbledon” destination viewing.

And about those pants. Collins had them custom-made from cloth he collected around the world. Yellow, violet and burgundy were among his favorite colors. He added strawberry embellishments for Wimbledon.

“He was as colorful as his trousers, which were his signature. And yet it was really misleading to the average fan,” Enberg said. “That was his MO for television. In person, he was the quietest guy in the room. He laughed the most at somebody else’s comment. He always had a smilie and never dominated the conversation.

“It’s a nice legacy to leave for all of this, to give back and share. He was more than generous.”


Source : sacbee.com

Obama cites gains in health coverage during Milwaukee visit

President Barack Obama has lunch with Affordable Care Act (ACA) letter writers at Engine Company No 3 in Milwaukee, Thursday, March 3, 2016. Joining the president are Brent Brown, Karen George, Karen and Sharon Szyszko and Susan Campbell. The president's trip to Milwaukee is to celebrate the city’s victory in the Healthy Communities Challenge, a competition between 20 cities to increase the number of Americans with health insurance during the latest Health Insurance Marketplace open enrollment period. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

MILWAUKEE — President Barack Obama is trumpeting the nation's declining uninsured rate and says 20 million people have gained insurance as a result of his signature health coverage law.


Obama is visiting Milwaukee to congratulate local leaders for winning a national health insurance enrollment contest.

Obama acknowledges that millions more are eligible to enroll but have yet to do so. He attributes some of that to the acrimony over the law, saying people haven't always known what's true and what's not.

Obama was introduced at Thursday's event in Milwaukee by Brent Brown of Mosinee, Wisconsin, who says he was a Republican who never voted for Obama as president. But he says the president's health care law saved his life after he was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and ran out of money for treatment.

Brown is calling on Republicans to quit trying to repeal the health law.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

President Barack Obama will seek to highlight how his signature health insurance overhaul has helped millions of Americans gain coverage as he visits Wisconsin's largest city Thursday to congratulate local leaders for winning a national enrollment contest.

More than 38,000 Milwaukee-area residents newly signed up for health coverage. That's out of about 51,000 uninsured people who were eligible to enroll. The city's sign-up ratio was the highest among the 20 cities competing in the president's "Healthy Communities Challenge." The winning city was promised a visit by the president, who is also using the trip to promote the Affordable Care Act.

For the first time, more than 9 in 10 Americans have health insurance. And the number of uninsured has dropped from about 44.8 million in 2013, the year before the health care law's big coverage expansion, to about 28.8 million, according to the latest estimates.

An improving economy has also helped boost coverage, analysts say.

Still, polling continues to show that slightly more Americans view the law unfavorably than favorably. And repealing the law has been a mantra of Republicans running for federal office as critics argue that the law's mandates have increased coverage costs unnecessarily.

"Republicans and our critics have spent hundreds of millions of dollars distorting the truth about this law, fueling conspiracy theories about this law," White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz told reporters traveling with the president. "There's no question that that's going to have an impact."

Obama is using part of his final year to visit communities that he says have benefited from his presidency. Obama hailed the rebound of the auto industry during a recent trip to Detroit. His visit to Milwaukee comes just before the sixth anniversary of his signing the Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010.

During the latest enrollment period, Milwaukee officials held sign-up events at libraries, delivered thousands of fliers and participated in phone banks to walk residents through the process.

After arriving in Wisconsin, Obama went to lunch with a few people who wrote letters to him describing how the Affordable Care Act helped them.

One of the diners, Brent Brown of Mosinee, Wisconsin, told Obama he didn't vote for him in either election and, in fact, actively campaigned against him. But Brown credited the health care law with saving his life after he was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and drained his bank account until he could no longer afford the care he needed, the White House said.


Source : bostonherald.com

Here’s the List of Sports Authority Stores on the Block

The Sports Authority Inc., which filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday, has earmarked about 140 of its 463 stores for closure or sale in the coming months, as well as two distribution centers.

Leases for 87 of those properties have already hit the block, 25 of them in Texas, according to a marketing document obtained by The Wall Street Journal. The retailer is also reducing its footprint in Florida and California, with eight and six leases up for grabs in those states, respectively.

Retailers often hawk leases in chapter 11 to raise money to repay creditors. These portfolios can offer value to buyers looking to pick up a handful of locations in one fell swoop. Sports Authority is working with real-estate consultant A&G Realty Partners to market the leases, according to the flyer.

The number of stores Sports Authority will close is still somewhat fluid. As it was preparing for bankruptcy, the company and its restructuring advisers identified “up to 200” underperforming locations it thought it might seek to close, according to court papers.

And the company’s bankruptcy financing package could force it to liquidate its entire footprint by the end of April if Sports Authority can’t find a suitable buyer for its core locations, The Wall Street Journal reported.


Source : wsj.com

Secret Service Agent Slams Down Photographer at Donald Trump Rally

RADFORD, Va.—An exceptionally raucous Donald Trump rally that was interrupted numerous times by protesters culminated in an altercation in which a Secret Service agent choked and threw down a photographer for Time magazine.

The rally, at Radford University on Monday, drew a crowd of about 3,000, most of them Trump supporters. But about 30 young supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement interrupted Mr. Trump’s remarks, chanting, “No more hate, let’s be great.”

Mr. Trump urged security guards to expel the protesters — “Get ‘em out.” As they were being removed, Christopher Morris, a veteran photographer for Time magazine, attempted to move out of a press holding area to take pictures of the protesters. As he did so, a Secret Service agent assigned to the Trump campaign told him to retreat. they scuffled, and the agent grabbed the photographer by the neck and threw him to the ground. From the ground, Mr. Morris kicked the agent.

In a statement, the Secret Service said it “is aware of an incident involving an employee of the Secret Service that occurred earlier today in Radford, Va. At this time, our local field office is working with their law enforcement partners to determine the exact circumstances that led up to this incident. The Secret Service will provide further details as warranted once additional facts surrounding the situation are known.”

Mr. Morris said he was there to shoot a cover photo for Time magazine of Mr. Trump. He said he had kept one foot in the press “pen” but moved slightly out to capture the protesters. Mr. Morris said when he and the agen​t ​got in a “shoving match,” he used an expletive. That’s when the agent grabbed him by the neck, and threw him to the ground.

“The Secret Service is there to protect the candidate, and I was never any threat to the candidate,” Mr. Morris said in an interview.

Before Mr. Trump spoke, an announcer had instructed members of the audience if they saw a protester they should “not touch or harm the protester” but instead draw the attention of security officers.

Mr. Trump’s rallies have often been loud and boisterous affairs, with tension between supporters and detractors, but Monday’s was among the most raucous yet.


Source : wsj.com