Monica Hesse observes that Maria Butina was the ultimate NRA Cool Girl: Spend an hour or three scrolling through Butina’s prodigious social media presence, and certain themes emerge. Her Instagram is a series of strategic fitness selfies — a sculpted deltoid, a Lycra’d thigh — showcasing both strength and femininity. In photos snapped outside the…
Crime
Bad Ideas, City, Crime, Local Government, Misconduct, Police
On Public Urination in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Well, here we are: after all these years of hearing that the town fathers were descended from Olympus, to a city of their unsurpassable design, one hears the Whitewater Common Council discussing the sometime problem of public urination. Needless to say, I don’t support this foul habit, and have not met anyone who does. Confronted…
Crime, Trump
An Interesting Question
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti asks a simple, interesting question: If you were asked to testify that someone you knew committed a federal crime, would you have any testimony to offer? Most of us don’t have inside knowledge of a criminal scheme. That’s why the fear within Trump’s camp that Cohen will flip is so…
Cats, Crime
Friday Catblogging: Former State Trooper Accused of Harassing People, Killing Cats
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
A sad story today, about a former state trooper accused of killing cats and using the dead animals to harass a former neighbor: PORTAGE, Wis. — A retired Wisconsin state trooper is accused of killing neighborhood cats that were stalking his bird feeder and dumping the carcasses in the yard of a former neighbor. Portage…
Crime, Politics
The Disorder of (Alabama) Republicans
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
At the Washington Post Stephanie McCrummen, Beth Reinhard and Alice Crites report that Woman says Roy Moore initiated sexual encounter when she was 14, he was 32: Leigh Corfman says she was 14 years old when an older man approached her outside a courtroom in Etowah County, Ala. She was sitting on a wooden bench…
Crime, Law
The (First) Indictments: United States of Amercia v. Paul J. Manafort and Richard W. Gates III
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Crime, Russia
MH17, Three Years On
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Assault Awareness & Prevention, Crime
The National Increase in Reported Campus Sexual Assaults
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The latest federal study on crime and safety in schools (at all levels), Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2016, is now available from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), “the primary federal entity for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data related to education in the United States and other nations.” A portion of the…
Crime
Captured: Joseph Jakubowski
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This community – and many others – will be able to enjoy Easter weekend without concern over Jakubowski as a continuing threat: “RICHLAND CENTER, Wis. – Joseph Jakubowski was captured early Friday morning in western Richland County, according to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. The sheriff’s department told WRCO radio in Richland Center they got a…
Crime, Law, Litigation, Misconduct
He Knew
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Raquel Rutledge reports that Eric Haertle knew the medical products he sold were infected: The former co-owner and chief operating officer of a Hartland pharmaceutical company — once among the nation’s largest manufacturers of alcohol wipes — has pleaded guilty to shipping a product he knew was contaminated with dangerous bacterium. Eric Haertle, who owned Triad…
Crime, Putin, Trump
U.S. indicts Russian spies in breach of 500 million Yahoo accounts
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Ellen Nakashima reports on U.S. Justice Department’s charges against agents of the Putin regime – whose leader Trump only recently praised (“I always knew he was very smart!“) – for a vast hacking of American business (Yahoo & realated entities) and consumers: The Justice Department announced Wednesday the indictments of two Russian spies and two criminal hackers in…
Crime, Law, Litigation, Walworth County
The Enduring Sadness of Walworth County
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
“ELKHORN—A woman who son was shot and killed by a Walworth County sheriff’s deputy in 2012 has settled her lawsuit against the county and deputy for $1.1 million. Nancy Brown, mother of 22-year-old John Brown, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee in May 2013 alleging Deputy Wayne Blanchard used excessive force when he…
Authoritarianism, Crime, Foreign Affairs, Trump, Tyranny
Someone the President-Elect Admires
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, overseer of a contentious and bloody crackdown on drug dealers and users, boasted on Monday about having personally killed criminal suspects when he was mayor of Davao City. “In Davao, I used to do it personally — just to show to the guys that if I can do it,…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, Crime, Law, University
Attorney General Schimel’s Support for Senate Bill 656
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
Late last month, Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel joined law enforcement officials at a press conference to announce his support for a bill that would offer amnesty for underage drinkers who report incidents of sexual assault (whether reporting as claimants or bystanders). The bill (Senate Bill 656) would assure that someone could report an…