News Story
Former U.S. House Speaker Hastert Pleads Not Guilty in Awkward Court Appearance
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges involving hush money payments and lying to federal agents, the Chicago Tribune reports. The Tribune wrote that Hastert looked “extremely uncomfortable.” “As the judge left the bench and Hastert’s high-powered attorneys conferred with prosecutors, Hastert, once one of Illinois’…
Investigation Opens to Find Leak of Alarming Study about Airport Security
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com It was an alarming discovery: An undercover operation found that investigators could slip through airport security with weapons and phony bombs more than 95% of the time, the Washington Post reports. But that information, which quickly spread nationwide, is considered “classified,” so whoever leaked it could face termination or even jail…
Another Secret Service Lapse: New Hires Haven’t Completed Security Clearance Process
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com In its rush to hire new Secret Service officers to handle serious security lapses, the agency placed several dozen new people in sensitive positions, even though they had not completed the required national security clearance process, the Washington Post reports, citing two unnamed government sources. Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy told…
Stejskal: FBI’s Use of ‘Unmarked Planes’ Is Nothing New, Not to Mention Legal
Greg Stejskal served as an FBI agent for 31 years and retired as resident agent in charge of the Ann Arbor office. By Greg Stejskal ticklethewire.com The Associated Press reported about a week ago that the FBI was using “unmarked planes” to conduct surveillances and other activities.This is not breaking news. The FBI since…
Homeland Security’s Jeh Johnson: Illegal Immigration Drops to Lowest in Decades
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A year after a surge in illegal immigrant children and their families trying to cross the U.S. border, illegal immigration is on pace to be the lowest this year than any year since 1972, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Monday, the Washington Times reports. Johnson stopped short of saying whether…
Senator Joins Critics Calling for ATF to Be Rolled into Another Agency
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com At least one U.S. senator says the time has come to end the ATF and absorb it into other law enforcement agencies. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, wrote a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, calling for the ATF to be disbanded if it can’t be adequately reformed. “As you know, the…
Famous San Francisco Activist, Black Panther Was FBI Informant
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Richard Masato Aoki, widely considered a hero among activists and liberal political groups in the San Francisco area, was an FBI informant who filed more than 500 reports about activists with the bureau. The Mercury News reports that newly revealed FBI documents show for the first time the extent that Aoki…
Kansas Man Pleads Guilty to Trying to Blow Up Bomb at Airport
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A Kansas man pleaded guilty Monday to attempting to detonate a card bomb at the Wichita airport. Terry Lee Loewen, 59, caught the attention of authorities on social media after he began expressing support for violent jihad. He pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass…