News Story
Some Passengers Packed Heat to the Airport This Holiday Season
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Holiday travelers this month were packing more than presents when heading off to the nation’s airports. The Transportation Security Administration reported that 31 firearms were found at airport checkpoints the week of Dec. 19 to Christmas Day. The weekly TSA tally of guns found at airport checkpoints normally ranges during the…
Customs and Border Protection Gets Additional Drone for Mexico Border
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The skies of Arizona just got another set of eyeballs. The Arizona Daily Star reports that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has just gotten a fourth “drone” in Arizona. The unmanned drone, known as Predator B, will be used to protect the U.S.-Mexico border,the paper reported. The Daily Star reported…
Justice Dept. Gives the Nod to Online Gambling
By KAJA WHITEHOUSE New York Post NEW YORK — The Obama administration just gave Donald Trump and other casino titans a big, wet Christmas kiss. In a stunning decision, the Justice Department has removed a major hurdle that kept states from legalizing online gambling, by maintaining that a key federal law applies to sports betting…
Ex-FBI Agent Weighs in on Detroit Case Where 4 Women Found Dead in Car Trunks
OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST Muslims Upset with NYPD: To Boycott Mayor’s Breakfast (AP) Colo. Third State to Ask DEA to Reclassify Marijuana (AP) Drug Gangs Strike Back in Rio (Financial Times) Politics and Facts Don’t Match on the Border (Security DeBrief)
U.S. Law Enforcement Deaths Up 13% Over Last Year
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com By way of statistics and lives, 2011 was a bad year for law enforcement. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund issued a preliminary report showing 173 officers were killed in the U.S. in 2011, up 13 percent over last year. Of that figure, 68 died from gunshots, up 15 percent…
DEA Says Mexican Cartels Extorting Protection Money from U.S. Businesses
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The Mexican drug cartels just aren’t selling drugs to make cash. AHN News reports that the cartels are increasingly extorting protection money from retail stores on the U.S. side of the border. Citing the DEA, the news agency reports that businesses often don’t report the extortion demands because they employe illegal…
Ex-ATF Chief Blames Underlings for Fast and Furious
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The then-acting head of ATF, Ken Melson, told Congressional investigators back in July that he was irate that his underlings didn’t tell him about the controversial agency program Fast and Furious, an operation that encouraged gun dealers in Arizona to sell to “straw purchasers” with the hopes of tracing the weapons…
FBI Background Checks Show Guns Sales at Record Levels
By CNN WASHINGTON — December holiday shoppers were not just interested in buying the hottest electronics and toys — they also were purchasing record numbers of guns, according to the latest FBI figures on background checks required to buy firearms. With a few days left in December, the FBI reports the number of background checks…