This is why we don’t prank strangers. But some only learn by peeing on the electric fence, in Fred’s colourful idiom…
A Washington man with four prior felony convictions is back behind bars after he allegedly shot a teenager in the chest over a neighborhood prank.
The incident unfolded as a group of four teens were throwing water balloons from their vehicle while driving through Tacoma on Feb. 28, FOX 13 reported.
One of the balloons reportedly struck 31-year-old Majeed Guerry’s vehicle, causing water to enter through an open window – getting him wet.
In response to the prank, Guerry allegedly chased the teens down a dead-end street near a dump site.
Once the group was cornered, Guerry is accused of unleashing a litany of violence against them in retaliation for throwing the water balloon.
According to court documents obtained by FOX 13, Guerry allegedly pistol-whipped the teenager responsible for throwing the balloon.
He then allegedly shot the same victim in the chest, the outlet reported.
Immediately following the shooting, Guerry allegedly robbed the group of $100 in cash and fled the scene.
Authorities were called to the area shortly after 9 p.m., where they found the four teenage boys inside the vehicle, noting one member of the group was suffering from a gunshot wound.
The victim was taken to a local hospital and is expected to survive.
Before leaving the courtroom, Majeed Guerry reportedly addressed his supporters in the gallery, telling them, "Come get me," as he was led out by deputies. (FOX 13) "I can't go back to prison, Ma! I'm too pretty"
After leaving the alleged shooting, police said Guerry drove to a local casino, according to FOX 13. To reflect on his conscience, I'm sure
Investigators used a network of surveillance cameras to track Guerry’s movements leading up to and immediately after the alleged shooting to link him to the crime scene, the outlet reported.
He was taken into custody on March 20, according to the Tacoma Police Department.
In court Monday, Guerry pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, assault, unlawful imprisonment and unlawful possession of a firearm charges.
[Daily Wire] Golf legend Tiger Woods was charged with Driving Under the Influence — although alcohol was apparently not involved — after a rollover crash that took place on Friday afternoon in Florida. According to the Martin County Sheriff’s office, the crash occurred just before 2 p.m. local time on Jupiter Island, where Woods lives.
Sheriff John Budensiek stated that Woods was charged with a DUI and refusal to take a lawful test. Budensiek explained that when officials got to the scene of the crash, Woods was visibly impaired, but not by alcohol — Woods blew a .000. It appeared to authorities that the golfer was under the influence of another substance.
"They did several tests, he did explain the injuries and surgeries," Budensiek said. "They did in an in-depth roadside test, and he was arrested and taken to Martin County jail."
Sheriff Budensiek said that in Florida, Woods won’t be required to do further testing — so officials won’t know what caused his visible impairment — but Woods is required to stay behind bars for eight hours following a DUI arrest before he can post bond.
[WND] A federal jury has convicted the owners of a multi-state dental business network of running a sprawling racketeering enterprise that prosecutors say combined health-care fraud, visa fraud, money laundering and tax crimes.
The convictions mark the culmination of a complex federal investigation into what authorities described as the Savani Group, a network of dental practices and related businesses operating across multiple states.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the enterprise generated tens of millions of dollars through a series of coordinated fraud schemes that involved government health-care programs, immigration filings and financial transactions designed to conceal the flow of money.
The defendants, including brothers Bhaskar Savani, Arun Savani and Niranjan Savani, were convicted of participating in a racketeering conspiracy that prosecutors say operated for more than a decade. Federal investigators say the group controlled numerous dental offices and related companies in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Iowa and South Carolina.
[FoxBusiness] A March 13 odor at the same Potomac TRACON site was later traced to an overheated circuit board.
A reported "strong smell" at a key air traffic control center disrupted flights Friday evening at major airports across the Washington, D.C., region for the second time in two weeks.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily halted flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI), Charlottesville–Albemarle Airport (CHO) and Richmond International Airport (RIC), the agency told FOX Business in an email.
The FAA said the disruptions were due to a "strong smell" at the Potomac Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) center, which manages airspace in the region.
It was not immediately clear what caused the smell.
Ground stops at Dulles, Reagan National and BWI remained in effect until around 8 p.m. ET before being lifted, according to the FAA’s website.
Another area where basic maintenance standards have slipped. Do better, guys, or find yourselves replaced with people willing to work harder and smarter.
#3
They need to stop serving brocolli in the cafeteria.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/28/2026 12:37 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Often, seeing a plane climbing out of SAN, I've found myself thinking, "like a bat outta hell." One of my dad's phrases, that. If the plane's popped up in an unexpected spot it might be climbing "like a bat outta... Tijuana." And then there's the smell. File under stream of California eco-consciousness.
[Bing vids] Living, directed by South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus (Shirley Adams, Beauty, The Endless River), is a drama about a British civil servant in 1950s London who has come to lead an intensely stifled existence.
Set in 1953 London, it stars Bill Nighy as a bureaucrat in the public works department who learns he has a fatal illness. The film co-stars Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp, and Tom Burke. Wiki
The Rowan Tree lyrics.
Song by Lisa Knapp
Oh rowan tree, oh rowan tree
Thou'lt aye be dear to me
Entwined thou art with many ties
O'hame and infancy
Thy leaves were aye the first of spring
Thy flowers the summer's pride
There was nae such a bonnie tree
In all the countryside
How fair weren't thou in summertime
With all thy clusters white
How rich and gay thy autumn dress
With berries red and bright
On thy fair stem were many names
Which now no more I see
But they're engraven on my heart
Forget they ne'er can be
We sat aneath thy spreading shade
The bairnies round thee ran
They pulled they bonnie berries red
And necklaces they strang
My mother, oh! I see her still
She smiled our sports to see
With little Jeannie on her lap
And Jamie on her knee
[TheIndependent] China’s new warplane-turned-drones could attack in ‘first hours of PLA operation’ against Taiwan, think tank says
China is converting its obsolete supersonic warplanes into attack drones and stationing them at air bases close to the Taiwan Strait, in fresh signs of its preparedness for a military escalation against Taipei, according to a new report.
The J-6 fighters that were first flown with the Chinese air force in the 1960s, have now been modified into attack drones, the satellite imagery of the airfields show, according to a report by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The images show what appear to be lines of stubby, swept-winged aircraft matching the shape of J-6 fighters.
These aircraft have been identified at five bases in Fujian province and one in Guangdong since their conversion, the report titled “China Airpower Tracker” showed.
Experts monitoring the increasing aerial progress by China’s military said that Beijing has deployed an estimated 200 or more obsolete fighters by converting them into drones at airfields near the Taiwan Strait, where it has been routinely staging military drills using People's Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes and PLA Navy warships.
These jets-turned-drones will fly into targets in the opening phase of an assault on Taiwan, said J Michael Dahm, senior fellow at the Arlington-Virginia based think tank.
The twin-engined J-6 was derived from the 1950s-era Soviet Mig-19 fighter. According to the US Air Force’s Air University, this jet and other Soviet-derived aircraft formed the core of China's fighter fleet until the mid-1990s.
These revamped J-6s can be used more like cruise missiles than autonomous or remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), he said, adding that more than 500 of these aircraft have been converted to drones.
“They will attack Taiwan, US, or allied targets in large numbers, effectively overwhelming air defences,” Mr Dahm said. The drone version of the J-6 is designated the J-6W, he added.
He added that the Chinese airfields closest to the Taiwan Strait where J-6 drones are based would be vulnerable to counter-attack from Taiwan and its allies in a conflict.
“The idea is to launch all the drones in the first hours of a PLA operation,” he said.
China claims sovereignty over the self-governed island and seeks to “reunite” it with the mainland by force, if necessary. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims and maintains that only the island's people can decide its future.
These drones could serve a part in Beijing’s growing mix of airpower weapons including bombers with sand-off missiles, modern fighters, ballistic and cruise missiles and a swarm of modern drones, experts have said.
According to a senior Taiwan security official, these Chinese drones carry a key purpose: “to exhaust Taiwan’s air defence systems in the first wave of an attack”.
To prevent China from “striking high-value targets, we will inevitably face the cost-efficiency issue of using expensive missiles to intercept them at a distance,” they said.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Fedot Streletsky
[REGNUM] There's a major scandal in Turkey today: actress Hande Erçel, the superstar of the series "Knock on My Door" and other Turkish TV dramas beloved by millions of housewives around the world, has been arrested.
Initially, she was arrested in absentia—by a lucky coincidence (for her), she was outside her homeland at the time. The actress immediately reassured her fans, posting on social media, assuring them that she would soon return, testify, and that everything would be resolved safely. She also emphasized her love for her country and expressed confidence in the Turkish state and justice system.
Exceedingly naive, poor dear.
Just two days later, Turkish police met her at the airport.
The Turkish judiciary, for its part, has little confidence not only in Handa Erçel but also in many other prominent Turkish citizens. This is why it launched the large-scale Operation Dawn, which periodically involves mass arrests of media personalities with considerable influence in society.
The latest wave of such arrests, in addition to Erçel, involved 14 other individuals. They are all suspected of violating criminal code articles containing terms such as "drugs" and "prostitution."
Also among the 14 people mentioned is Erçel's former beau, millionaire Hakan Sabancı, heir to one of Turkey's wealthiest families, which owns the financial and industrial conglomerate Sabancı Holding (which includes, for example, Pegasus Airlines). His brother, Kerim Sabancı, and the former presidents of Istanbul football clubs Beşiktaş and Galatasaray are also among those mentioned. And so on.
This is far from the first police operation of this kind. Operation "Dawn" began last fall, and news of new "star catches" appears in the press with enviable regularity.
Thus, among the victims of the first wave of arrests, which took place at the end of December 2025, was Mehmet Akif Ersoy, a television presenter and editor-in-chief (now former) of Habertürk TV, one of the most influential journalists in Turkey, who once held the position of presidential adviser on Middle East issues.
And already in early January of this year, Turkish security forces carried out a series of raids on elite nightclubs in Istanbul, arresting seven people.
One of them—actor Can Yaman, star of the series "Sandokan: The Pirate Prince"—was released almost immediately, despite the illegal substances found on him, according to sources. It turned out that the prosecutor's office had not issued a warrant for his arrest. Singer and actress Selen Görgüzel, however, was less fortunate: she was arrested along with colleagues Ceren Alper and Ayşe Sağlam.
At some point, the drug investigation unexpectedly intersected with another high-profile corruption case. The main defendant is former Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who, before his imprisonment, was considered one of the main political opponents of current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
This happened after the arrest of Turkish internet celebrity Rabia Karaca, who immediately began informing on all of her numerous acquaintances in rich and famous circles.
Including volleyball player Derya Çayırgan. Allegedly, she was the disgraced Istanbul mayor's mistress, enjoyed his patronage, and received financial support from him. Derya, for her part, categorically denied all the allegations and promised to initiate a new trial to officially expose the slander.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned Rabia Karaca revealed many other interesting things. For example, she spoke in detail about her long-term relationship—in many ways strange and unnatural—with businessman Murat Gülibrahimoglu. Specifically, she described how lavishly he lived, what illegal substances he used, and the unpleasant things he forced her to do. Incidentally, this Murat Gülibrahimoglu is named as Ekrem İmamoğlu's closest accomplice in the same case.
Karaca also criticized another of Imamoglu's associates, Fatih Keleş, former head of the Istanbul sports club IBB, who is in custody with him. She claimed that Gülibrahimoglu provided him with various illegal services. Keleş responded to this with a damning speech through his lawyer, claiming he was confronted with an "immoral conspiracy" aimed at "a direct attack on the institution of the family."
Selen Görgüzel, the same woman who was detained during the raid in early January, also admitted to having ties to Murat Gülibrahimoglu and Ekrem İmamoğlu.
According to her own testimony, she spent a vacation with the aforementioned men and became an unwitting witness to them gambling and engaging in debauchery in a secret room on the former mayor of Istanbul's private jet. Selen Görgüzel herself, of course, did not participate. Unlike another singer and actress, Emel Müftüoğlu —the mother of Çağra Müftüoğlu, known for her role in the series "Magnificent Century: The Empire of Kösem."
Be that as it may, the Istanbul prosecutor's office justifies the raids on entertainment venues where Turkish bohemians typically spend their leisure time, as well as their homes, by "protecting public morals, social structure, and traditional family life." This is precisely what the official statement released following the latest operation stated.
Bohemians, whose names are now constantly appearing in the press alongside terms from the criminal code, complain that the presumption of innocence is being violated and that their reputations and careers are being damaged.
Actor Dogukan Güngör was even fired from the highly successful series "Cranberry Sherbet," where he starred for four seasons, due to a positive drug test. Fans of the series expressed outrage on social media and vowed to boycott the series from now on.
The Turkish opposition is also not silent, and, as usual, accuses the government of simply persecuting those it deems undesirable. And the unsavory details that have surfaced about the lives of today's creative and business elite seem to be of little interest to opponents of the republic's leadership. Özgür Özel, leader of the Republican People's Party, commented on the situation, giving a clear assessment of the situation.
"This isn't a fight against crime. It's a clear message to artists: either you're with us, or you're next," he said. Ozel also noted that while police search celebrities' homes all night long, real drug dealers and gang members walk free.
Various committees for the protection of sexual minorities have also become seriously agitated. Activists believe that the drug investigation is actually being conducted to criminalize and persecute members of the LGBT* community, even though most of those arrested have no connection to it.
In any case, the Turkish authorities have obviously taken this glamorous crowd, which is outwardly generally apolitical but has close personal ties to the opposition, seriously.
Former Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu anxiously awaits the outcome of his trial. The indictment prepared by the prosecutor's office runs to nearly 4,000 pages, naming him as the founder and leader of a powerful criminal group. In a worst-case scenario, he could be sentenced to a total of more than 2,400 years in prison.
[YouTube] Set up for high trust society. No verification at all, especially in Blue states. Not that the programs are administered by the states, then a total bill is sent to the federal government for reimbursement.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.