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TexasTowelie's JournalWhite supremacist who once planned 'hit squad' gets more prison time
ALBANY -- A 24-year-old white supremacist from Washington County who once planned to assemble a "hit squad" to murder Black and Jewish people was sentenced Wednesday to three years and five months in federal prison for his latest crime: Possessing two homemade rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Shane Robert Smith, 24, of Whitehall, was prohibited from possessing a firearm due to his 2016 conviction for possessing a machine gun. Convicted felons, under federal law, cannot own guns. But in December 2020, federal probation officers searched Smith's home and found the rifles and ammunition, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino imposed a 41-month sentence on Smith, who was convicted in a case involving the Albany field office of the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and federal office of Probation and Pretrial Services.
The judge sentenced Smith in his last case to 37 months in prison after he was caught in an undercover federal sting. In that case, the defendant joined a Russian social media network and listed his interests as "guns, gunsmithing, building bombs, knives, guerilla warfare, preserving my race and folk, and destroying the government," court papers showed.
Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/White-supremacist-who-once-planned-hit-squad-16666685.php
Wildfire burns into central Montana town, destroys houses
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A late-season wildfire pushed by strong winds ripped through a tiny central Montana farming town overnight, burning several homes and grain elevators that had stood for more than a century, authorities said.
Officials were assessing the damage in Denton on Thursday morning while crews continued to fight the fire.
The fire burned “around 25 structures to include grain elevators and bridges,” the Fergus County Sheriff's Office posted on social media Thursday morning. “Rural fire agencies are continuing to work to prevent any further spread or damage. This work will continue for several more days.”
About 300 residents of the town were evacuated early Wednesday afternoon when a fire that was started by a downed power line in an adjacent county the night before pushed across the drought-stricken agricultural land.
Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Wildfire-burns-into-central-Montana-town-16669098.php
Federal judge blocks TX law that would stop social media firms from banning users for a "viewpoint"
by James Pollard, Texas TribuneA federal judge on Wednesday blocked a Texas law that seeks to restrict how social media companies moderate their content and was championed by Republicans who say the platforms are biased against conservatives.
The law, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on Sept. 9, would ban platforms with more than 50 million monthly users in the U.S. from removing a user over a “viewpoint” and require them to publicly report information about content removal and account suspensions. It was set to take effect Dec. 2.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman wrote that the First Amendment protects social media platforms’ right to moderate content and rejected the defendants’ argument that such companies are “common carriers.” Pitman also ruled that some aspects of the law were “prohibitively vague.”
“This Court is convinced that social media platforms, or at least those covered by [House Bill] 20, curate both users and content to convey a message about the type of community the platform seeks to foster and, as such, exercise editorial discretion over their platform’s content,” Pitman wrote.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/12/01/texas-social-media-law-blocked/
Schumer to Amtrak: Use federal windfall to fix key Albany train bridge
ALBANY — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is urging Amtrak to prioritize repairing the historic 120-year-old Livingston Avenue Bridge that carries rail service across the Hudson River from Rensselaer to Albany after receiving a $22 billion windfall from the $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
Amtrak has $16 billion to spend on its national network, including the Livingston Avenue Bridge, which was completed in 1902 and is older than even the ancient tunnels that Amtrak uses in New York City.
Schumer revealed Tuesday that he sent a letter to Amtrak CEO William Flynn urging that he prioritize fixing the bridge when he decides how to spend the $16 billion on his national network.
The repairs to the bridge are critical because if it were to fail, it would disrupt rail travel north and west of Rensselaer and also maritime travel on the Hudson River, since the Livingston Avenue bridge has a mechanism to swing the bridge to allow boats through.
Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Schumer-to-Amtrak-Use-federal-windfall-to-fix-16663015.php
Hochul: Omicron virus detected in New York City visitor
ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a Minnesota resident who recently visited New York City has tested positive for the omicron variant of COVID-19.
"This is not cause for alarm," Hochul said at a news conference in Manhattan Thursday morning. "It was foreseen."
The person had been experiencing mild symptoms, Hochul said, which have already resolved. The person was at the Javits Center in Manhattan for a conference between Nov. 18 and 22. All people who went to the conference needed to be vaccinated to enter.
The state should be able to reach out to the people who attended the conference, Hochul said.
Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/state/article/Hochul-Omicron-virus-detected-in-New-York-City-16669121.php
Proud Boys member gets 7-year term for federal gun crimes in Albany
ALBANY — Jonathan Cuney is a combat Marine, Purple Heart recipient and father of four children.
The former East Greenbush man is also a convicted gun trafficker, maker of “ghost guns” and, according to federal prosecutors in Albany, a member of the Proud Boys, a far-right nationalist group.
The 38-year-old Iraq war veteran's affiliation with the Proud Boys, which the Southern Poverty Law Center considers a hate group, was highlighted in a prosecutor’s sentencing memo to Senior U.S. District Judge Frederick Scullin. The judge sentenced Cuney Thursday for the defendant’s guilty plea earlier this year to unlawfully possessing guns. As a felon — in 2015, Cuney was convicted of federal gun possession in White Plains after selling guns to an undercover agent — Cuney was prohibited from possessing a firearm.
"The defendant describes his involvement with the Proud Boys as limited to: ‘hanging out with the boys at bars’ and ‘talking about politics’ in the Troy and Schenectady areas,'" Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett told the judge in a sentencing memo that asked Scullin to impose a 63-month prison term (just over five years) on Cuney, followed by three years of supervised federal release.
Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Proud-Boys-member-gets-7-year-term-for-federal-16665959.php?IPID=Times-Union-HP-CP-Latest-News
I have a friend that lives in Schenectady who will be pleased that he doesn't need to be concerned about seeing this idiot around town for awhile.
Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin arraigned in state probe
TROY — Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin stands accused of misusing campaign funds and falsifying campaign finance filings after a judge on Wednesday unsealed an indictment emerging from a long-running investigation by the state attorney general's office and the FBI.
McLaughlin, a Republican, was indicted on two felony counts, grand larceny and offering a false instrument for filing. The state attorney general's probe began as an investigation of his 2017 campaign for county executive and also examined his financial dealings when he was a member of the state Assembly.
McLaughlin allegedly stole $5,000 in funds from his campaign account on Nov. 21, 2017 — just weeks after winning election to his county post — and then falsely reported the expense in campaign documents filed with the state Board of Elections.
According to the charges, McLaughlin wrote a check from his campaign account to Hudson Valley Strategies, a consulting firm owned and operated by his closest confidant, Richard W. Crist, who is the county's director of operations. Crist allegedly deposited the check in his firm's bank account and then drafted a new check — for $3,500 — that he brought to McLaughlin's former campaign treasurer, Jennifer R. Polaro, who had previously worked as McLaughlin's chief of staff in the state Assembly. .
Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Rensselaer-County-Executive-Steve-McLaughlin-16665993.php
State: Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford violating the law
Trinity Health of New England, which operates Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford, is in violation of state law after closing its birthing unit without proper state approval.
Hospital officials say the shutdown is only temporary, but have not given a date for when it might reopen.
Johnson Memorial “implemented a temporary pause” of its labor and delivery services about a year ago, due largely in response to “the steadily declining demand for those services in the area and the pandemic-related staffing challenges, which resulted in staff turnover and difficulty in recruitment of new, qualified staff,” Trinity spokeswoman Kaitlin Rocheleau said.
Under normal circumstances, a certificate of need through the state’s Office of Health Strategy must be applied for and approved in order for health care providers to make major changes, including access to or discontinuing medical services. Public hearings are typically held to ensure residents have an opportunity to weigh in.
Read more: https://www.journalinquirer.com/towns/stafford/state-johnson-memorial-hospital-in-stafford-violating-the-law/article_bc7add6c-5383-11ec-9f43-1396a7d54c5a.html
(Manchester Journal Inquirer)
Unions Target Lamont Over Workforce Vacancies, Staffing Issues
Labor unions and their allies called on Gov. Ned Lamont Wednesday to fill vacancies in the state workforce and resist the temptation to use a historic wave of retirements and current staffing shortages to privatize government services.
The state is in the midst of an unusual constriction of its public workforce, driven in large part by a previously-negotiated change in retiree cost-of-living benefits. The change incentives retirement for eligible employees before next July. Thirteen thousand state workers are eligible to leave before that time and their departure will exacerbate existing staffing shortages, which have grown more pronounced throughout the pandemic.
With bargaining units representing much of the state workforce negotiating new contracts with the Lamont administration, the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition and Recovery For All, a labor-adjacent coalition of organizations, called on the governor to commit to filling all vacancies and expanding services.
During an afternoon press conference centered on residents who rely on state services for things like education and behavioral health care, Puya Gerami, campaign director of Recovery for All, said now was the wrong time to consider privatizing services.
Read more: https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2021/12/01/unions-target-lamont-over-workforce-vacancies-staffing-issues/
A Month of Online Gambling Has Netted Connecticut $1.7M in Revenue
Less than a month of newly-legalized sports betting and online gambling in Connecticut generated more than $1.7 million in revenue for the state’s coffers, Gov. Ned Lamont announced this week.
From the soft launch in mid-October through the end of that month, the state recorded about $513,000 in sports betting revenue and $1.2 million from online gambling, all bound for Connecticut’s General Fund.
The number offers the first glimpse of state proceeds from a deal negotiated this year between the Lamont administration and the two federally-recognized tribes that operate casinos in Connecticut, which cleared the way for legalized sports wagering and online casino games.
In a press release, Lamont said the early revenues validated his administration’s efforts to ensure seamless consumer access to the new forms of gambling.
Read more: https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2021/12/02/a-month-of-online-gambling-has-netted-connecticut-1-7m-in-revenue/
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