Steve Neavling

Tired of the FBI’s refusal to describe what happened when an agent shot and killed Ibragim Todashev in an Orlando condo, the ACLU is urging Florida authorities to investigate, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

The ACLU also wants to know about the Orlando police officer who was at the condo when the May 22 shooting occurred.

Orlando police won’t even confirm any of their officers were in the condo, according to the Sentinel.

Todashev, who is Chechen, was said to be friend’s with the Boston Marathon bomber who was killed.

The ACLU said the FBI “has fostered widespread public distrust.”

Steve Neavling

Janet Napolitano’s job as head of the Department of Homeland Security is not the only high-ranking position available there, NPR reports.

According to the NPR, 15 top jobs at DHS are vacant or about to be, and lawmakers won’t fill the jobs.

The openings raise questions about whether DHS is too large and unwieldy.

“Customs and border protection — the role of commissioner for that has been vacant [and] filled by acting people for … nearly a year and a half,” says Christian Beckner, deputy director of George Washington University’s Homeland Security Institute.

And surprise, surprise. There’s bipartisan agreement.

“It is a bad situation,” says Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, who chairs the Senate homeland security committee. “I call it executive branch Swiss cheese. And it’s not that the people in these acting positions are inept or bad people, but there’s a special stature that comes by Senate confirmation.”

Steve Neavling

Two teenagers are accused of breaking into the car of an FBI agent Saturday and stealing bullet-proof vest, ammo and an MP5 9 millimeter submachine gun in the Tampa Bay metro area,  reports The Tampa Bay Times.

Raymond Cano, 18, and a 16-year-old accomplice are believed to have broken into the car between 10 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. Saturday.

Cano was arrested on charges of armed burglary and grand theft and remained in jail Monday on $155,000 bail.

Updated Bulger photo/wbur

The murder and racketeering trial of James “Whitey” Bulger drew detailed, gruesome testimony about the litany of crimes committed by the White Hill Gang.

Stephen “the Rifleman” Flemmi described on his third day of testimony how he helped murder people, The Christian Science Monitor reports.

Flemmi said Bulger was driven to kill anyone who he thought would spill the beans about the group.

Flemmi described four murders that he said were committed by Bulger.

The trial resumes today.

Steve Neavling

A shootout between two suspects and the FBI and police ended with one suspect dead and another injured, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

The newspaper reported that both men were suspects in murders and robberies across the city and were determined to fight if authorities tried to apprehend them. 

That’s exactly what happened when FBI agents and Philadelphia police swarmed their hangout early Monday afternoon, according to The Inquirer. After a 10-minute gunfight, 21-year-old Tevin Hammond was dead and 19-year-old Justin Mackie was severely wounded.

Authorities were not injured.

“They knew people were looking for them, and they made it very clear they would not surrender,”  Philadelphia Police Lt. John Stanford told the Inquirier.

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