News Story
Secret Service investigates Increasing Number of Credit Card “Skimming” Cases
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com When you hand over your credit card, be careful what happens to it. The Secret Service is reporting an increasing number of cases of credit card “skimming,” or thieves copying information on the card, the South Jersey Times reports. The information, such as the name, card number and expiration date, often is…
Feds Bust Underage Sex Slave Operation in Houston Area
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A federal investigation has broken up an alleged sex slave operation involving girls as young as 14 and 15 years old in the Houston area, ABC 13 reports. Several people are in custody after agents raided Houston bars that doubled as brothels Thursday, according to feds. An indictment recently obtained by ABC…
Book: Johnny Carson Helped FBI Arrest Man Who Made Threats with a Grenade
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com We knew Johnny Carson was a comedian? But a brazen cowboy? In the mid-1970s, Carson found a live grenade with a threat demanding $250,000 in cash. If he didn’t deliver it, a note read, his family would be harmed, Showbizz 44 reports. So with the help of the FBI, Carson, who carried…
Issa and Grassley Concerned About ATF Blocking Book by Whistleblower on “Fast and Furious”
By TAL KOPAN Politico WASHINGTON — Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley sent a letter to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Thursday demanding more information about the agency’s decision to prohibit the agent who blew the whistle on Operation Fast and Furious from publishing his book. The House Oversight and…
Friend of Ex-Detroit Mayor Gets 21 Years
By Allan Lengel Deadline Detroit DETROIT — Painting him as a bully, extortionist and violent criminal who hid assets, a Detroit federal judge on Friday sentenced Bobby Ferguson, the city contractor and good buddy of ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, to 21 years. “Bobby Ferguson was the catalyst at the center of an historic and unprecedented…
Shutdown Opens Window into Controversial Parole Dispute
By Kevin Johnson USA Today WASHINGTON — It is a casualty of the government shutdown that few are lamenting. Among dozens of hearings postponed in the past two weeks by the U.S. Parole Commission, was this week’s scheduled consideration of Augustin Alvarez whose fatal shooting of a young Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent in…
Former Detroit Mayor Gets 28 Years in Prison for Racketeering Scheme
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison for running a complex racketeering scheme out of city hall. The sentence is one of the stiffest ever leveled against a corrupt politician. U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds said she wanted to send a clear message that corruption would not…
Weekend Series on Crime: The Meth Problem in Northern Michigan
httpv://youtu.be/rI-UiYkx21Y