A sheriff’s department in Michigan is ending a controversial agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after civil rights advocates heaped scorn on the agency for putting a decorated military veteran and U.S. citizen into administrative detention over false claims that he was an undocumented immigrant.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young announced on Friday that her department will no longer hold immigrant detainees for federal immigration officials unless there’s an accompanying warrant–signed by a federal judge or magistrate–involved.

Sheriff LaJoye-Young said, via statement:

>My primary goal remains the preservation and enhancement of public safety, due process and the rule of law. For this reason, I notified ICE officials earlier today that the Kent County Sheriff will hold detainees for ICE only after ICE presents to our office an arrest warrant issued by a federal judge or magistrate — otherwise known as a judicial arrest warrant. This change is effective immediately.

This move will essentially put an end to the county’s practice of holding suspected immigrants in custody for ICE agents to pick them up on suspected immigration violations.

The 287(g) detainer program is used by ICE to keep undocumented immigrants in jail based on their immigration status alone. A typical detainer request asks that a local jailer or some other law enforcement official detain an individual suspected of an immigration violation for an additional 48 hours–after they should have already been released by authorities–so that ICE agents have time to show up and take them into custody.

https://lawandcrime.com/immigration/sheriff-ends-cooperation-with-ice-after-agency-tried-to-deport-u-s-marine-born-in-michigan/

A 30-year-old Florida man is facing charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after neighbors overheard him threatening to kill another person “with kindness.”

According to a report from the Pensacola News Journal, Bryan Stewart of Milton, Florida, allegedly cut his neighbor with a machete-style knife that had the word “kindness” written on it, not long after the unnamed victim, together with another neighbor, came to Stewart’s house due to the yelling and banging they heard at the residence.

Per an arrest report from the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, the loud noises at Stewart’s residence had been bothering neighbors all day. At around midnight, the victim heard the suspect telling another person in the house that he was planning to “kill ’em with kindness.” According to WTXL, neighbors were similarly concerned because a woman and a child were also inside the house, which prompted two of them to approach the residence and find out what was going on.

As further noted, Stewart allegedly reacted to his neighbors’ arrival by greeting them with the knife pointed upward. The police report also indicated that the victim stepped in front of the other neighbor and tried to block Stewart’s knife attack. This resulted in a half-inch cut on the victim’s left hand.

When authorities arrived to arrest Bryan Stewart, the Florida man’s breath reportedly reeked of alcohol, and officers had to “repeat things numerous times” to the suspect. The police report also specified that Stewart was allegedly uncooperative and belligerent while he was being arrested, as authorities had to use a stun gun to put him in the back of their patrol car and he “repeatedly kicked and banged his head” when he was already inside the vehicle.

https://www.inquisitr.com/5247981/florida-man-kill-kindness/source/obj/

http://www.aina.org/news/20190106192524.htm

(AINA) -- An estimated 20,000 Assyrian refugees celebrated Orthodox Christmas in Beirut, where they have sought refuge after fleeing Iraq. The population of Assyrians in Iraq has declined precipitously, from 1.4 million in 2003 to about 300,000 today.
Related: Timeline of ISIS in Iraq
Related: Attacks on Assyrians in Syria By ISIS and Other Muslim Groups
The exodus of Assyrians from Iraq, and Syria, was triggered by widespread attacks by Muslim groups, including ISIS and other Sunni groups

Six families of victims killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School won a legal victory Friday in their fight against controversial radio and internet personality Alex Jones.

A judge in Connecticut has granted the families’ discovery requests, allowing them access to, among other things, Infowars’ internal marketing and financial documents.

The judge has scheduled a hearing next week to decide whether to allow the plaintiffs’ attorneys to depose Jones.

The plaintiffs include the parents of five children who went to the school as well as family members of first-grade teacher Victoria Leigh Soto and Principal Dawn Hochsprung, according to a statement from the plaintiff's attorneys.

According to the statement, the plaintiffs allege a "years-long campaign of abusive and outrageous false statements in which Jones and the other defendants have developed, amplified and perpetuated claims that the Sandy Hook massacre was staged and that the 26 families who lost loved ones that day are paid actors who faked their relative's deaths."


It goes on to say that "Jones' actions subjected the families and survivors of the Sandy Hook shooting to physical confrontations and harassment, death threats and personal attacks on social media."
"From the beginning, we have alleged that Alex Jones and his financial network trafficked in lies and hate in order to profit from the grief of Sandy Hook families. That is what we intend to prove, and today's ruling advances that effort," Chris Mattei, one of the attorneys representing the families, said in the statement. "We look forward to gaining access to Infowars' internal marketing and financial documents to show that Jones has built an empire as nothing more than a conspiracy profiteer, as alleged in our complaint."

Jones has sought to dismiss the lawsuit.

https://abcnews.go.com/beta-story-container/US/families-sandy-hook-shooting-victims-win-legal-victory/story?id=60314174

Russians are digging more and more interesting facts..

>the girl who saved Skrypals has Mother who is high ranking medic officers in British army..

https://www.spirefm.co.uk/news/local-news/2782928/exclusive-teenage-girl-describes-moment-she-found-collapsed-skripals/

13 out of the 14 City council members in Los Angeles California, all Democrats, are under investigation for bribery, kickbacks and corruption. The investigation was initially a single council member but a warrant was served on 12 more yesterday

An ongoing FBI investigation into Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar is part of a broader corruption probe in which agents are seeking possible evidence involving Councilman Curren Price and a senior aide to Council President Herb Wesson, as well as several other city officials and business figures, according to a federal search warrant.
The warrant, which was filed in federal court in November but reviewed by The Times on Saturday, said agents were seeking evidence related to an investigation into an array of potential crimes, including bribery, kickbacks, extortion, and money laundering involving 13 people.

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-huizar-warrant-20190112-story.html

Corrupt Democrats and 109 lobbyists party in Puerto Rico while American federal workers work without pay.

Democrats choose to party with their corporate donors instead of making progress on the national budget

Some 30 Democratic lawmakers left the government shutdown behind Friday on a chartered flight to Puerto Rico for a winter retreat with 109 lobbyists and corporate executives during which they planned to see the hit Broadway show “Hamilton” and attend three parties including one with the show’s cast.

Those attending the Congressional Hispanic Caucus BOLD PAC winter retreat in San Juan planned to meet with key officials to discuss the cleanup after Hurricane Maria at a roundtable Saturday.

But the weekend is packed with free time for the members and their families on the trip.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/30-dems-in-puerto-rico-with-109-lobbyists-for-weekend-despite-shutdown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRm01CRzjho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnElFzHA_hM

Can you imagine wearing only one color every day for three and a half decades? Abou Zakkour, a 68-year-old man from the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo has become known as the Yellow Man after wearing only yellow for the last 35 years.

The story of the Yellow Man of Aleppo started on January 25, 1983, when Abou Zakkour made the decision to only wear yellow, because in his eyes the color represented love. It’s unclear what he did with his old wardrobe, but from that day forward, Zakkour only wore yellow garments, including underwear and accessories like neckties and hats, as well as yellow footwear. Even his umbrella and smartphone cover are yellow. And when he couldn’t find something to match his attire, he simply took a bottle of yellow nail polish and painted the differently-colored item to fit his Yello Man persona.

“For me the yellow color represents love and something no one has ever done and no one even endures,” the Yellow Man of Aleppo recently told Chinese news agency Xinhua. “I believe no one in the world can wear yellow for 35 years, day and night, indoors and outdoors.”
“Wearing another color would make me feel off-beat and strange because I am wearing yellow for 35 years and it’s a long time. I cannot even have any different color within my yellow attire,” Zakkour added.
Apparently, many items in his small apartment in the Maari neighborhood of Alepo are yellow as well, including the tablecloth on his kitchen table, the bed sheets and even the trashcan. The color yellow has been such a big part of his life over the last three and a half decades that he can’t help but surround himself with it.


https://www.odditycentral.com/news/the-yellow-man-of-aleppo-has-been-wearing-only-yellow-for-the-last-35-years.html

in an interview published by the Israeli Haaretz newspaper on Thursday.

"Israel still calls itself a Jewish state, but a situation in which we rule an occupied people that has no rights, can not persist in the 21st century, in the modern world. And as soon as they do have rights, the state will no longer be Jewish," added Morris.

"I do not see how we get out of it."

Morris, who was injured by an Egyptian artillery shell in 1969, was discharged from the military to eventually become one of Israel’s influential historians.

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/01/18/586150/Jewish-state-morris

https://www.dw.com/en/thailand-suspected-muslim-rebels-storm-temple-kill-monks/a-47147387

Thailand: Suspected Muslim rebels storm temple, kill monks

Black-clad gunmen on motorbikes have shot dead two Buddhist monks and wounded two others in southern Thailand. Separatist violence which first flared in 2004 has seen an uptick in recent weeks after a three-year lull.

Thai military police stand in front of temple (Reuters/S. Boonthanom)
Thailand's military leader and prime minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha on Saturday vowed to "punish" those responsible for storming a Buddhist temple near Malaysia's border, killing two monks.

Suspected Muslim gunmen dressed in black arrived at the Rattanaupap temple in the southern province of Narathiwat on motorbikes at around 7:30 p.m. local time on Friday (1230 UTC), officials said.

They then entered the building from the back and shot dead two monks, leaving two others wounded. One of those killed was the temple's abbot.

Read more: Thousands evacuated as Storm Pabuk strikes Thailand beaches

No group has claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, the first to target monks for more than three years.

Security stepped up at temples and mosques

Local monks were told to suspend morning alms collection starting from Saturday in Thailand's three most southerly provinces. Security was also stepped up to protect Islamic leaders, after an imam in the same region was shot dead last week.

The temple attack was one of several violent incidents in Narathiwat on Friday, including a roadside bombing that wounded five members of the security forces, and a shootout between paramilitary rangers and five armed men that left one of the gunmen dead.