Boeing ran into some issues that ended up delaying its space taxi’s debut until 2018, but it never stopped preparing for the time it has to begin ferrying astronauts to the ISS. The aerospace company has actually just kicked off a series of ground la…
DENVER (Reuters) – An elected sheriff from a rural county in Colorado has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a developmentally disabled woman at his home before transporting her to jail, court documents showed on Wednesday.
Sedgwick County Sheriff Thomas Hanna faces felony charges of sexual assault of an at-risk adult and sexual conduct with an inmate, as well as misdemeanor counts of official misconduct and soliciting prostitution, an arrest warrant affidavit said.
According to the affidavit, Hanna was transporting the woman from the town of Julesburg to a lockup in a neighboring county on Aug. 10 when he took her to his house and asked if she wanted to earn $60.
The woman, who investigators described as functionally “delayed,” said Hanna told her, “I just want sex,” then ordered her to strip before groping her and threatening to lock her up for the rest of her life if she reported the incident.
Hanna, 43, who was elected in 2014, was taken into custody on Tuesday after a criminal probe conducted by Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents and district attorney investigators, court records showed.
Hanna made his first court appearance on Wednesday, where his bond was set at $250,000, and he will be charged at a later date, according to a statement from a Denver-area district attorney who was appointed special prosecutor in the case.
Hanna could face a sentence of eight years to life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge, the prosecutor said.
The investigation of Hanna was launched after one of his deputies, Larry Neugebauer, told authorities he saw the sheriff put the prisoner in his personal truck, a violation of department policy, and later saw the truck and a patrol car parked outside Hanna’s home.
Hanna denied to investigators that he assaulted the woman, but admitted it was a “poor decision” to take her to his house to discuss criminal activity in the area, the affidavit said. He declined to take a polygraph test.
Investigator Jeff Huston said the woman, who has not been identified publicly, was timid, hard to understand and had difficulty putting her thoughts together when she was interviewed by police.
The woman told Huston she was “ashamed” of her disability and did not understand that she had been victimized, the affidavit said.
Sedgwick County is a sprawling but sparsely populated farming and ranching area in the northeastern corner of the state bordering Nebraska.
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.
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GENEVA, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen are responsible for the largest part of the 3,799 civilians killed so far and it has committed other violations that may contravene international law, the U.N. human rights office said on Thursday.
Houthi rebels and allied forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who rule the capital Sanaa, have carried out rocket and mortar attacks on residential areas and used landmines, it said in a report.
In a statement, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein called for an international investigation into the grave violations, saying a national commission had not worked in pursuing perpetrators.
“The cases monitored by the Office indicate that air strikes were the single largest cause of casualties,” the U.N. report said. “The prolonged duration of the conflict has strongly heightened the disastrous risk of a systemic collapse of Yemen.”
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Chronologically speaking, HTC was the first OEM to make the totally expected promise that Android Nougat would be coming to its current roster of flagships as soon as it comes out. Well, Nougat is now out, so HTC is following up on that promise. It is now saying when it plans to roll Android 7.0, which, by its estimates, will … Continue reading
It almost feels like Lenovo and Moto have gone silent just after launched the Moto Z Droid editions in the US last month, but, if this leak is any indication, they might be catapulted back into the spotlight next week. Lenovo did tease that it had a few more Moto Mods for the Moto Z coming at IFA 2016, and … Continue reading
Fujifilm has launched the X-A3, a low-priced mirrorless camera aimed at casual users, particularly those who want excellent selfies. It has a number of improvements to its successor, the X-A2, in that regard. The sensor now has 24.2-megapixels, a bi…
I heard America singing on Sunday night. Bluesman extraordinaire* Buddy Guy’s music rang like the flip-side of Walt Whitman’s famous poem. Whitman is considered one of America’s most important poets. Those white workers of whom he sang are woven into our national psyche, perhaps because, as William James observed, Whitman was the “supreme contemporary example of … an inability to feel evil.” The blues provide some balance. Sunday night, as part of the enthralled audience sitting at Buddy Guy’s feet, I felt as though we were hearing long suppressed verses of our national anthem. America’s “had the blues” since 1619 when the first enslaved African arrived in Jamestown.
Buddy Guy’s reputation assured that the evening would be entertaining. I’d also looked forward to seeing Spokane’s Fox Theater restored to its former beauty. But the sense of epiphany as the evening unfolded was a jolt. It felt like a long forgotten inheritance.
No doubt, I’d been primed years ago, experiencing jazz mega-master Wynton Marsalis’ astonishing, Pulitzer Prize winning Blood on the Fields at Atlanta’s Fox Theater. Blood … is Mr. Marsalis’ “epic oratorio on slavery and freedom…mov(ing) beyond a preoccupation with personal power and learn(ing) that true freedom is, and must be, shared.” His ode to freedom is the consummate companion for Buddy Guy’s constant reminder: hatred debases us, love liberates.
I’d read Buddy Guy’s 2012 book When I Left Home, anticipating recording a conversation with him that got scuttled by schedules. But the best book can only hint at authentic power. It came to life as he told stories of a sharecropper family in Louisiana: no running water or electricity into his teens, Jim Crow never mentioned but ever present and personified by the man in town who never, not once, called Buddy Guy by name. “Now my name is known all over the world, but all he ever called me was ‘boy’.” There is simply no separating the blues’ sound and their indispensable lyrics from injustices and abuse that are — finally — gripping our headlines and, necessarily, our consciences.
Of course the Blues is/are not alone in evoking profound responses. Writer Jill Suttie describes how music hooks us and the thrill of being thrilled in the company of others. She recounts her response to a Peter Gabriel song with which apparently I, alone, was unfamiliar. Not having that shared experience explains why my universe did not shake when Mr. Gabriel spent an afternoon at our home in Atlanta where he had come to examine the possibility of music in bonobo culture. Spur of the moment, we invited him to join us at a friend’s Christmas party. It was in experiencing other guests’ reactions — “Peter Gabriel?!?” — that I grasped the power of his music and, more generally, the enduring impact music often has.
Jazz, Blues, Rock & Roll, R&B, Soul, Hip Hop …, these are the quintessential American forms of music (with deep roots in oppression, Africa, the Caribbean and, later, South America). Perhaps they are America’s most reliable gift to the world. Here at home, they reflect and express the challenges we continue to face.
On Friday night (Aug. 26th), Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra close their week at The Chautauqua Institution. Earlier in the day Mr. Marsalis will be joined by Geoffrey C. Ward, author of Jazz and Ken Burns’ longtime collaborator. Topic? “The rich musical heritage of the American soul.” Of course. Hatred debases us. Love liberates.
That our brains appear to have a distinct region specifically dedicated to music might further elevate the conversation for those seeking “proof” of music’s profound social and emotional power. Today, I’ll settle for having been 5 rows back when the great Buddy Guy beautifully balanced American history. And, lest the memory fade, I need only touch the guitar pick he — grinning broadly — tossed into the audience. I caught it. No foolin’.
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*– Mr. Guy’s phenomenal guitar playing is still mesmerizing. Look no further than Jimi Hendrix, awe-struck by Guy’s mastery in 1968. Or perhaps you saw the amazing guitarist Jeff Beck fall to his knees before Buddy Guy at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th Anniversary celebration.
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Ann Coulter’s new book is called “In Trump We Trust,” but the conservative pundit might already be regretting that title.
“There’s nothing Trump can do that won’t be forgiven,” she wrote in her book. “Except change his immigration policies.”
Trump did just that on Wednesday night with a plan to offer legal status to undocumented immigrants, an announcement that came the very same night Coulter held her book launch party.
She did not look like she was in a forgiving mood:
At first, Coulter was ready to offer excuses
“It’s just rhetoric, but it’s still annoying,” she told The Hill. “I think he panicked and he had to say [it] … I don’t think he is softening. I mean the big thing is the wall.”
But later on Twitter, Coulter tore into the policy, comparing it to previous offers that come conservatives have dismissed as amnesty.
Needless to say, Coulter’s critics seized on the opportunity:
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Smartphones are really starting to look alike these days. On the one hand, that might give weight to accusations of stealing/copying designs and the lack of innovation. On the other hand, it also shows the market’s tendency to gravitate towards and expect certain designs over others. Next to Samsung, Xiaomi has been one of most often criticized for imitating someone’s … Continue reading
An aerospace agency might seem like an unlikely place to find a breakthrough in railroad safety equipment, but that is exactly what the engineers at the German Aerospace Center (better known as DLR) have recently come up with. As Wired reports, DLR e…
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