Curbing Crime?

Headline at the Associated Press on February 2, 2016:

DC bill would pay people stipends not to commit crimes.

Apparently a similar program in Richmond, California, provides up to $9,000 per person per year to those in the program, initiated in 2007.

According to the above-cited article:

Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser has not committed to funding the program, which would cost $4.9 million over four years, including $460,000 a year in stipend payments...

As if the mayor were going to fund this program personally. Guess who will be on the funding hook?

The D.C. Council unanimously approved the bill.

Our local morning-news anchors have pronounced the program "A good idea!"

Hooboy, what a world.

D.C.: ISIS Threatening Jewish-Owned Business

For the past five months.  From WJLA (dated January 13, 2015):

The owner says D.C. police investigated but handed the case over to Homeland Security, which deemed the threats not credible.

Verizon says the calls are traceable but it needs police to ask it to take action.

The business owner says the detectives tell him they must hear from Verizon first....

More information at the above link.

D.C. MetroRail Event: Smoke Fills Station, 1 Dead - UPDATE - Another "Event" at Penn Station

Strange.

In all the years that MetroRail has operated here, we've never seen an event such as this one, which occurred the afternoon of January 12, 2015.

One dead, eighty-three hurt, two in critical condition.

There was no fire on the train. The train did not derail.

WTOP has more information, including the following:

...Aboard the train, cars filled with smoke -- one passenger said it came through the air vents...

The L'Enfant Plaza Station is one of the Metro stations that services Capitol Hill and other federal buildings.

Also see Yellow Line rider recalls ‘really scary experience’ near L’Enfant Plaza. Excerpt:

Shortly after the train left the station and went into the tunnel heading south, Rogers heard the words “Next stop: Pentagon,” which told him he was on the wrong train. Right after that, he says, the train stopped.

On the day that the Islamic State hacked Cent Com's Twitter and YouTube feeds.

UPDATE ---

LIRR Delays Expected After ‘Suspicious’ Fire Near Penn Station
“We had two levels of fire down there, an extensive amount of fire which did cause structural damage to the station,” Leonard said. “The fire is suspicious. We do have our fire marshals on the scene and we’re investigating.”

Leonard said nearly 150 firefighters responded to the scene. It was under control at 5:22 a.m.

---

THREE DAYS AGO, AL QAEDA THREATENED "MASS CASUALTY ATTACKS" ON U.S. TRANSPORTATION STRUCTURES

The head of Britain’s MI5 intel agency said al Qaeda terrorists working out of Syria are planning a massive attack on spots in the West and are looking particularly long at transportation systems or “iconic targets” to cause large-scale damage. “A group of core al Qaeda terrorists in Syria is planning mass casualty attacks against the West,’ Director General Andrew Parker said, Newsmax reported. He also said that “iconic targets” and transportation systems were believed to be most at risk and that the terrorists wanted to “cause large-scale loss of life,” Newsmax said. The warning also included this revelation: Mr. Parker disclosed that Britain faced four major terror plots in the last year, The Independent reported. And security in the nation is currently engaged in several operations to counter the threat — something that he says is growing increasingly difficult to do. “My sharpest concern as director-general of MI5 is the growing gap between the increasingly challenging threat and the decreasing availability of capabilities to address it,” he said, The Independent reported.

D.C. Axe Attack (The Latest)

UPDATE TO THIS EARLIER POST HERE AT IBA...

From WTOP:

...[D.C. Police Chief] Lanier stressed that police had no evidence linking the attack to any broader plot or to last week's attack of a group of New York City police officers by a hatchet-wielding man, which New York's police commissioner called an act of terrorism.

Lanier said police weren't ruling out that possibility....

"A lot of these radical organizations, terrorist organizations are very vocal about targeting first responders. It's no secret. It's not new. But it certainly has ramped up," Lanier said. "We're on extremely high alert."

The axe wielder is still on the loose and remains unidentified.

BTW, there is a Salafist masjid five short blocks from the location of the axe attack on October 31, 2014. Just sayin'.

Man With Axe Attacks DC Police Officer (Updated)

From WTOP:

WASHINGTON -- D.C. Police are at a heightened state of alert after a man with an ax attacked an officer early Friday. 

The incident happened around 3 a.m. in the 3800 block of 13th Street in Northeast, several blocks east of the Catholic University campus. 

An officer in full uniform was in a police cruiser when he was ambushed, according to Officer Araz Alali, a D.C. police spokesman. 

The suspect swung an ax and shattered the cruiser's window. 

The officer got out of the vehicle and tried to apprehend the suspect. Alali said he was injured in the struggle, not by the ax, and was unable to stop the attacker. 

The officer was taken to the hospial, and was expected to be OK. 

"He's a little shaken up. But he's OK," the officer's former partner tells WTOP. Police are now looking for the suspect, who fled on foot westbound through the south alley of the 1200 block of Quincy Street NE toward 12th Street NE. 

A description of the suspect has not been released. The ax used in the ambush was recovered, and it is being processed. 

Alali said there does not appear to be a connection to last week's hatchet attack on a group of New York City officers, but said the department will cover all bases in the investigation.

No, there couldn't be any connection to any previous axe attacks against Police Officer on the Eastern Seaboard.

Why would there be?



AOW here...

About the suspect:

Specific to this attack, the Fifth District officer was on patrol when he noted a suspicious person and went to investigate the situation. The suspicious person avoided the officer by entering an alley. The officer then entered the alley in his marked car and was ambushed by the person with the axe. The axe shattered the window, but did not strike the officer. The officer gave chase and caught up with the suspect, but after a brief struggle, he was able to escape.

As of now we have a general lookout for a black male, 6′-1″ to 6′-2″ with a stocky build. We have several leads that we are following up on at this point, but the investigation continues.”