Steve Neavling

A 24-year-old Air Force staffer in Illinois is accused of having pipe bombs that he intended to use to attack sex offenders, the Associated Press reports.

Justin Vangilder, who also said he was feeling suicidal, was charged Friday with three felony counts.

Authorities said they found three pipe bombs, which he said he fantasized using on child molesters, the AP wrote.

Vangilder is assigned to Scott Air Force Base in southwestern Illinois.

Steve Neavling

The FBI and ATF are investigating what appears to be three attacks on Arkansas’ power grid over the past six weeks, THV 11 reports.

“We believe that anyone that intentionally brings down power lines could potentially put themselves at risk and certainly the public at risk,” said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Kimberly Brunell. “Though we remain confident that we will identify the person or persons responsible for these incidents we are enlisting the public’s help to be our eyes and to be our ears. We take threats to our power grid very seriously.”

In one incident, the scofflaws cut down two power poles, knocking out power to roughly 10,000 people, THV reported.

Steve Neavling

The FBI has received more than 200 complaints from pro-drug advocates after agents raided Silk Road, an online marketplace for drugs, guns and other illicit goods, the Guardian reports.

While attempting to access $80 million worth of Bitcoins accumulated by Silk Road founder, the FBI seized $3.2 million worth of Bitcoins that the city had held in escrow for customers.

The FBI transferred the Bitcoins to blockchain.info so users can still access their Bitcoin accounts, the Guardian wrote.

Users sought retaliation by posting public messages along with minuscule transactions.

One Bitcoin user quoted Thomas Jefferson: “The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”

Steve Neavling

The federal government’s Amber Alert website was restored Monday morning after people expressed outrage.

The site, www.AmberAlert.gov, was temporarily taken offline because of the government shutdown.

“The Amber Alert system was never interrupted, but to eliminate any confusion, the informational site maintained by the Justice Department has been restored,” Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon told CNN.

While the website was taken down, the Amber Alert system was still functioning, Justice Department officials said. They said Amber Alerts were still issued, and the system was not impacted.

Keeping the website up requires bringing in furloughed employees, Fallon said.

“It’s a cyber-security risk for sites to be posted but not maintained or supervised,” Fallon said.

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