Fox News RSS Feed

During a demolition project of a former Minnesota high school, construction workers discovered in the rubble a time capsule from 1920.

The capsule, which was buried at Owatonna High School in Owatonna, Minnesota, was found as the construction crew was pulling down the front pillars and doors of the school.

The time capsule was opened during a community event on Monday, with the items found inside including a roster of the teachers and administrators at Owatonna Public Schools in 1920, the high school magnet, the high school newspaper, three local newspapers and financial statements.

JUDGE DISMISSES 2 FELONY CHARGES AGAINST ALLEGED WOULD-BE MINNESOTA COLLEGE SHOOTER

"We were thrilled to discover that a time capsule had been placed in the cornerstone of the high school," the school district’s superintendent, Jeff Elstad, told Fox Television Stations. "It's always exciting to learn more about the history of our community and the people who had the foresight to build a great school that would serve so many students for generations."

"While you never know exactly what might be included, many of the items such as newspapers and local history are typical of what is included in a time capsule … It was especially fun to discover the items that specifically shared information about the schools at that time," he added.

The Owatonna High School Museum Committee is working with the Steele County Historical Society to dry and preserve the items. A determination will then be made as to which items will be displayed at the school and which will be moved into the historical society's collections.

MINNESOTA POLICE CLEAR OUT ANTI-ISRAEL PROTEST IN THE HEART OF ILHAN OMAR'S CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Elstad said the discovery has allowed the community to look back at local history.

"We appreciate the historical significance of the time capsule and are committed to continuing to preserve our history for generations to come," he said.

from Latest & Breaking News on Fox News https://ift.tt/Z52IXKs
via IFTTT

Fox News RSS Feed

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. — As Border Patrol agents work to combat the movement of illegal immigrants across the southern border in the El Paso Sector, they say a multi-layered enforcement system that has been expanded in recent years and combines the use of barriers with technology and other forms of enforcement has helped thwart cartel smuggling operations and nab illegal immigrants moving into the U.S.

Overshadowing the border in Sunland Park, New Mexico, is miles of border wall. Some of it is border fence built during the Obama administration, while other parts consist of Trump-era bollard wall. 

Fox News Digital was on the ground when agents nabbed illegal immigrants just feet from the fence they had cut a hole through. Even though they got through, it gave agents time to apprehend them. Agents generally prefer the bollard fencing, saying it is harder to cut through. And other parts of the fencing have been reinforced with bollards and, in some cases, filled with concrete.

CAUGHT ON CAMERA: FENCE-CUTTING MIGRANTS BUSTED BY FEDS

However, critics of barriers have noted that barriers are not a fix by themselves. Barriers, even those with bollards and filled with concrete, can be cut through. And strewn along the border were makeshift ladders and ropes, which migrants use to scale the barrier.

Along other parts of the border, wall construction isn't possible. This is the case on the looming Mount Cristo Rey, a steep area where a wall cannot be built and the U.S.-Mexico border is marked only with obelisks. It is here that other layers of the enforcement strategy come into play.

The Biden administration stopped most border wall construction in 2021, although it has continued to make some repairs and moved forward with construction that had already been appropriated. Overall, however, it has instead emphasized the importance of technology. And in this area, agents say the administration has delivered.

There are now 24 autonomous surveillance towers (AST) in the El Paso Sector, and there are more than 50 deployed in the neighboring Big Bend Sector, officials say. The Biden administration’s fiscal 2025 budget includes an additional $127 million for "modernizing border security technology," including additional deployments of towers.

The 24-hour-a-day towers, running on renewable energy, work by scanning the environment with radar. They use artificial intelligence to "hand off" from one another. So, if a group moves out of sight of one tower, the neighboring tower picks it up. The use of AST did not start with the Biden administration. It began during the Trump administration, but it has expanded dramatically under the current administration.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

CBP says the technology comes into play even before migrants get into the U.S., allowing agents to plan before anyone even steps foot on U.S. soil. The AI technology can scan faces, differentiate between humans and wildlife and can send immediate alerts to agents in the field on their phones or tablets. It can also identify how many people are in a group. So, if agents are told to look for a group of eight migrants and find only five, they know there’s another three they still have to track down.

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

The towers have been deployed throughout the border, but here they are especially useful given the treacherous terrain in the mountains. With the towers in place, agents don’t need to chase migrants up the mountain. They can monitor and track them via the towers and wait for the migrants to eventually emerge (often exhausted) on flat land. 

Should migrants get through the border wall and become spotted by the surveillance towers, they still need to be apprehended. This is where the Border Patrol agents will make the apprehensions. 

But they have assistance. The CBP Canine Unit is headquartered in El Paso, and some Border Patrol agents are trained how to use specially trained dogs to track down migrants and smugglers, in addition to the unit's roles in other fields throughout CBP’s jurisdiction.

The K-9s can also help apprehend those illegal immigrants who may become violent and try to attack agents. Fox saw Canu, one of the K-9s deployed in Sunland Park, work with his handler as he sniffed the terrain for a possible lead.

SPIKE IN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM THIS US ADVERSARY BLOWS LID OFF PREVIOUS YEAR'S RECORD

Meanwhile, Border Patrol is also aided by helicopters from CBP’s Air and Marine Operations (AMO). They swoop over the mountains to conduct additional surveillance, scaring off migrants who may be planning on making the run across, while also allowing AMO to help with rescues quickly if needed.  

In the fiscal 2025 budget, the administration wants to invest an additional $210 million in staffing, which includes Border Patrol, as well as $86 million for AMO support.

Another deployment here in El Paso is the use of rescue towers, which allow migrants to press a button to call for help. The 21 towers in the sector warn migrants they are in danger and can call for assistance. The button triggers a sharp blue light on top of the beacon visible by agents miles around.

Fox viewed one rescue tower situated near where there was an infamous case in 2021 of two young girls, 3 and 5, dropped off by a smuggler over the wall. Luckily, agents spotted and rescued them. Other migrants have not been so lucky, and there are plenty of instances of agents coming across dead bodies. These towers are designed to help prevent that.

So far in fiscal 2024, agents in the El Paso Sector have rescued more than 300 migrants, but there have also been 34 migrant deaths.

While in nearby Texas there has been friction between the federal government and state officials, here in New Mexico, local authorities and CBP are working together. 

New Mexico state law enforcement will coordinate with Border Patrol to stop illegal immigrants coming across. Recently, officials in Dona Ana County announced a partnership to prosecute state offenses committed by smugglers.

Overall, Border Patrol believe the multi-layered enforcement strategy is working. They point to a sharp decrease in apprehensions over the last year. There were 427,471 in fiscal 2023 by Border Patrol in the sector. So far in fiscal 2024, which began in October, there have been just over 150,000. 

Separately, officials point to the busting of more than 136 stash houses, with over 1,377 smuggled migrants by their interdiction teams so far in fiscal 2024.

from Latest & Breaking News on Fox News https://ift.tt/ohY7skM
via IFTTT

Fox News RSS Feed

A small-town American farmboy gave the fight against food insecurity real traction.

His name was John Froelich. 

And he helped feed the world in ways that Bob Geldof, Boy George and a galaxy of other celebrities connected to the holiday hit "Do They Know It's Christmas?" — including global community efforts to feed the world much, much later in the 1980s — could only imagine.

MEET THE AMERICAN WHO NEVER FLINCHED IN THE FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE, ABIGAIL ADAMS

All it took was American ingenuity, elbow grease — and fossil fuels.

Froelich (pronounced fray-LICK), son of German immigrants, invented the gas-powered tractor.

"He was quite an amazing man," Denise Schutte, executive director of the Froelich Foundation & Museum in Iowa, told Fox News Digital. 

"He had a very creative and inventive sort of mind. He just wanted to make life better for everybody." 

His gasoline traction engine, as it was first known, ignited stunning improvements in agricultural productivity. 

Crops almost instantly became easier to plant and to harvest. It didn't take long for the tractor that Froelich pioneered in his Iowa grain mill to find use around the world.

Among other consequences, farmers no longer needed to devote precious land to grow food for the hungry, muscular animals that pulled their plows. Food supplies expanded dramatically, which lowered prices and availability. 

Overproduction would eventually hurt small farmers. But increased efficiency and abundance helped conquer one of the great perils of humanity: starvation.

"The farm tractor was undoubtedly one of the most revolutionary technological innovations in the history of modern agriculture," UC-Davis scholars Alan L. Olmstead and Paul W. Rhode wrote in a scholarly study of tractors. 

The machine was responsible for, they added, "vastly increasing the supply of farm power, raising productivity and reshaping the rural landscape."

John Froelich was born on Nov. 24, 1849 near the village of Giard in Clayton County, Iowa. 

His father, Henry Froelich, emigrated from the German state of Hesse only four years earlier. His mother, Kathryn (Gutheil), may have been born in Germany, too. 

John Froelich was the oldest of their nine children. The family suffered tragedy when their mother died two years after giving birth to the youngest child. 

The family persevered through hard work and the faith of their "kind, devout" Methodist father, noted Schutte. 

"I surmise that he [John] was hard working, very determined and probably very quiet," she said.  

Froelich had no advanced education, other than what he learned at home, in the village school on the farms, though he likely had some sort of trade school or mechanical training, said Schutte.

5 FOOD TRUCKS TO KNOW ABOUT IN 2024: ‘WONDERFUL SUPPORT’

But, she added, "his brain was always thinking of better ways to do things."

Their Froelich family's little hamlet — home to about 50 people at the time — became a train hub in the early days of railroad. It was a fortuitous coincidence of geography that helped change both local and international history.

The Froelichs lived closest to the new train station, said Schutte, so the railroads adopted the family name for the whistle stop. Froelich, Iowa, an unincorporated village, still appears on maps today. 

The train stop also made the village of Froelich a hub for local farmers to bring their grain. Froelich, like most Iowans, took to the fields for the harvest each summer and autumn. 

But he was also a business owner. Spurred by his love of machines and mechanics, he operated Froelich Elevator & Mill, a grain mill with a steam-powered thresher, near the train station. 

The German-American entrepreneur tinkered away at the grain mill on an innovation that sparked a new era in global agriculture. 

Grain — wheat, barley, corn and others — is the foundation of civilization. The human discovery that grain could be cultivated encouraged nomadic, hunter-gatherer humans to cluster around the crops they used to feed themselves. 

It was the birth of agriculture. Farmers collected in villages, which grew into towns and eventually great cities. Trade, banking, business, art — civilization as we know it — grew up around grain. 

For millennia, grain was planted, grown and harvested with the most basic tools — the hoe, scythe, grain cradle and flail — with an assist from draft animals including oxen, mules and horses. 

The first major disruption came during the Industrial Revolution with the advent of steam-powered harvesters. Froelich, with his mechanical aptitude, was eager to capitalize on the new technology.

MEET THE AMERICAN WHO INVENTED SLICED BREAD: OTTO ROHWEDDER, HARD-LUCK HAWKEYE 

"Every year at harvest time, he dragged a crew of hired hands and a heavy steam-powered thresher through Iowa and the Dakotas, threshing farmers’ crops for a fee," according to History.com. 

The steam-powered machine was cumbersome, hard to maneuver and dangerous. The boiler was fueled by coal, wood — "just about anything they could burn," said Schutte. 

The fire that was needed to power the steam engine was dangerous in a dry field of summer wheat. 

"One spark from the boiler on a windy day could set the whole prairie afire," notes History.com.

"John Froelich got the idea that a gasoline powered tractor would answer these problems," said Schutte.

Working with longtime employee William Mann, he mounted a single-cylinder, 16-horsepower Van Duzen gasoline engine on a wood laminate frame and, with steam-engine shafting, gears and pulleys, built by hand in an Iowa grain mill — the future of agriculture. 

It was the first gas-powered tractor that could drive both forward and backward. It was actually one of the very first gas-powered vehicles of any kind.

Froelich was greeted with the same reaction felt by so many visionaries over the years. People laughed at him.

"His detractors were silenced when he successfully employed his gasoline-powered tractor in his threshing operation throughout that year's harvest season," the University of Iowa reported in its biography of the farm-state icon.

Froelich proved them wrong in a field in Langford, South Dakota during the 1892 wheat harvest. 

"A man with a flail could thresh about 7 bushels (420 pounds) of wheat a day," reports the website of Living History Farms in Urbandale, Iowa.

Froelich, his team and his gas-powered machine threshed 72,000 bushels in just 53 days. That's nearly 1,400 bushels per day.

Spurred by its success, Froelich founded the Waterloo Traction Engine Co. in 1893 in Waterloo, Iowa. 

He left the company only two years later — but planted the seeds of a rich harvest of innovation in agriculture.

Fueled by gas and diesel instead of steam, mechanized farming expanded rapidly. 

Froelich's gasoline traction engine earned its now-popular and iconic name in 1906, when farm-equipment manufacturer Hart-Parr Co. ran advertisements promoting its products by combining the words traction and motor. 

The word tractor was an instant hit. But not everyone was sold right away on the tractor business.

MEET THE AMERICAN WHO CREATED TIME ZONES, CHARLES F. DOWD, SCHOOLMASTER SET CLOCK FOR MANKIND

One doubtful Illinois farm-equipment company looked at the tractor and "thought maybe this is the way to go, but maybe not," said Schutte. 

"The company was already known for wonderful plows and different farm implements that were pulled behind horses."

The company founded by John Deere overcame its doubts and purchased Waterloo Gasoline Engine Co. — the tractor company Froelich founded — for $2.1 million in 1918.

John Froelich died on May 24, 1933, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was 83 years old. 

After leaving his equipment company in the 1890s, "he relocated first to Dubuque, before settling in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he worked as a financial adviser," the University of Iowa noted. 

"He had four children with his wife, Kathryn Bickel, and died in relative obscurity. Despite his passion for invention, he appears to have made little future contribution to agricultural machinery innovations."

In addition to its unfathomable contributions to agriculture and food productivity, the gasoline traction engine born in an Iowa grain mill is symbolic of the nation’s work ethic and agricultural productivity.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER

American farmers rely on tractors to harvest a third of the entire world’s corn crop, to cite just one example. American corn feeds both humans and livestock and has a variety of industrial uses.

Tractors play a central role in American pop culture and politics, too.

"She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy," country singer Kenny Chesney crooned in his 1999 concert sing-along hit; Jason Aldean rode to the top of the country charts with "My Big Green Tractor" in 2009. 

Ronald Reagan made tractors a part of his everyman image. He rode them in photo ops while governor of California in the 1960s. 

And he famously drove a tractor across the Illinois farm of the Werries family in 1982 to celebrate lifting the grain embargo on the Soviet Union imposed by the Carter administration. 

Froelich’s legacy is kept alive today at the Froelich Tractor Museum in the Iowa village that bears his family’s name.

"It was once a thriving community that boasted of a depot, sawmill, blacksmith shop, a creamery, a post office (still in the general store), a hatchery, stockyards, ice house, barber shop, shipping warehouse and church," the museum notes on its website.

The Froelich Tractor Museum opens for the 2024 season on May 11. 

It attracts curious and grateful visitors from around the world — including as far away as Australia. 

"It's hard to put into words the impact of Froelich's tractor," said Schutte. 

"He built a machine that made life easier and food more abundant for people around the world. He did it right here in our little corner of Iowa. Froelich really did feed the world."

To read more stories in this unique "Meet the American Who…" series from Fox News Digital, click here.

For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.

from Latest & Breaking News on Fox News https://ift.tt/rzwj6gG
via IFTTT

Fox News RSS Feed

Texas authorities have released more details in the line-of-duty death of a Harris County deputy who was hit by a truck while working a crash earlier this week.

Deputy Investigator John Coddou, 50, died on Tuesday after he was hit by a man driving a Chevrolet Silverado 2500 while investigating a minor crash in the northbound lanes of Highway 99 at around 9:36 a.m., a traffic report from the Harris County Sheriff's Office said.

Coddou positioned his patrol vehicle on the left shoulder of the highway with the right side of his car partially blocking the first northbound lane before getting out to investigate.

The report stated that the vehicle's emergency lights were activated.

Less than 10 minutes later, a white Silverado approached the scene by driving in the lane Coddou's vehicle was blocking. While the driver has not been publicly identified, the report said it was a "known male."

The driver was talking on his cellphone hands-free while approaching the area, according to the report, and engaged in a "faulty evasive action" to avoid hitting Coddou's vehicle. 

By doing that, he drove into the center grassy median that was dividing the northbound and southbound lanes, which was where Coddou was standing. 

The deputy was struck by the front right area of the truck, the report said.

MEMPHIS POLICE OFFICER KILLED DURING SHOOTOUT WITH TEENS, ONE OF WHOM WAS RECENTLY RELEASED 

Coddou was airlifted to Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center, where he later died.

Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said the department was "deeply saddened" by his death and a procession was held in his honor on Thursday. FOX 26 Houston reported that Coddou served with the Harris County Sheriff's Office for 20 years.

The Harris County Sheriff's Office's Vehicular Crimes Division is continuing to investigate the deadly collision.

from Latest & Breaking News on Fox News https://ift.tt/lqUd7yC
via IFTTT

Fox News RSS Feed

San Francisco Mayor London Breed returned to the city Sunday after spending a week in China in efforts to advance economic and cultural ties with the region despite ongoing crises in her city. 

According to Breed's office, the mayor traveled to China for a week-long, multi-city journey that included meetings with government, business and airline officials. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Xie Feng invited Breed to the country during last year's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, which was held in San Francisco.

Prior to the trip, Breed told the local NBC station one of her goals was to bring back pandas for the San Francisco Zoo, create stronger relationships with Chinese officials, boost tourism and put San Francisco businesses on the radar. 

"We think that with increased flights, business opportunities, pandas, the economic opportunities for San Francisco will be significant," she said during a press conference.

MAYOR LONDON BREED'S OFFICE SILENT ON ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS CLOGGING GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE AS SHE VISITS CHINA

Back at home, Breed's constituents face problems well beyond zoo exhibits. 

"Mayor London Breed’s decision to jet off to China in pursuit of pandas while her city grapples with escalating crime and homelessness is a disgraceful evasion of her responsibilities to ensure the safety of San Francisco residents," California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones told Fox News Digital.

"Her misguided focus on photo ops abroad only highlights her utter disregard for the urgent needs of those suffering in her own backyard."

"If you asked a thousand San Franciscans what the biggest problem facing the city is, not a single one of them would say that the zoo doesn’t have pandas. They would say they’re tired of rising crime, sick of soaring homelessness and fed up with a broken government that ignores the city’s problems," Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher told Fox News Digital.

"Rather than boosting public relations for the Chinese Communist Party, Mayor Breed should focus on fixing San Francisco’s death spiral." 

Earlier this year, San Francisco officials claimed the city’s crime rate was "lower than any period in the last ten years" aside from 2020. 

In most categories, crimes in San Francisco reported to police declined in 2023 compared to 2022, but not as much as the rest of the country, statistics from the FBI show. In 2023, there were 50,744 crimes reported in the city across all categories. In 2022, San Franciscans reported 54,649 crimes, a 7.2% decrease year-over-year.

However, robberies increased 14.8% in 2023 over the prior year, and motor vehicle thefts went up 6.3% from 2022. So far this year, the city has recorded 11,077 crimes, down 29.7% from the same period in 2022.

FORMER SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR CHALLENGING LONDON BREED SAYS CITY'S FALLEN APART: 'BECOME THE BUTT OF JOKES'

San Francisco International Airport spokesperson Doug Yakel said the mayor’s visit could help boost the city's economy by generating millions of dollars from airline travel, with the hope that three China-based airlines will do business at SFO.

"It's so powerful what it represents, not only for our airport but for local economies. We look at a single flight, and I'm talking a daily flight between a foreign destination like China and the U.S. to SFO," Yakel told KTVU. "It can be upwards of $175 million in annual revenue and 1,200 jobs in the Bay Area total, and that's just one flight." 

Breed said an estimate on the cost of bringing giant pandas to the city has not yet been determined, but she told KTVU she is confident it will happen. 

"We expect a pair of pandas, and they are hopefully expected to come as soon as we’re able to raise the resources, do all the permitting, continue to work with the wildlife and conservation group in Beijing for all the paperwork," she said.

Jones told Fox News Digital Breed should send her resources and focus elsewhere.

SAN FRANCISCO RAPPER SAYS 'DISS TRACK' ON MAYOR BREED, CRIME DREW 'THREATS FROM SOMEONE EXTREMELY POWERFUL'

"Besides, everyone knows that the San Diego Zoo is world-famous for their panda exhibit. Mayor Breed should focus on fixing San Francisco rather than competing with San Diego over pandas," Jones added. 

Gloria Chan, the director of communications with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, argues that securing pandas for the zoo will pay dividends for the city.

"Securing the first official residency for giant pandas in San Francisco is a big win for our city. San Francisco is an international destination and the gateway to the Asia Pacific. Having pandas here will strengthen our already deep cultural connection and honors our Chinese and API heritage that is core to San Francisco’s history," Chan said. 

A professor at UCLA also shared thoughts on Mayor Breed's panda diplomacy with Fox News Digital. 

"If Mayor Breed and the Board of Supervisors do not make dramatic changes regarding homelessness, crime, drug abuse, spending and reinventing downtown by attracting new businesses, soon San Francisco could become the next Detroit," Lee Ohanian said.

According to the 2022 Point-in-Time Count from the city's Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, 7,754 people were homeless in San Francisco that year, 3.5% lower than the previous year. Of those people, 3,357 were staying in a shelter, the report said. 

In 2023, the city reported 810 drug overdose deaths. Of those, 656 were linked to fentanyl. Those numbers were more than double the national average that year, The New York Times reported.

SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR LONDON BREED BLASTS HOMELESS COALITION: HELD CITY ‘HOSTAGE FOR DECADES’

In November, U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey announced the federal government was providing major resources to assist in the city’s drug-dealing epidemic. A press release said the "all hands on deck" initiative combines federal, state and local resources to ramp up arrests of street dealers. The U.S. Attorney’s Office also increased federal charges against drug traffickers, raising the stakes by holding dealers accountable, the release stated. 

Breed has also faced criticism from several high-profile people.

During TNT’s alternative broadcast of the NBA All-Star Game in February, Charles Barkley took a jab at the city while talking to Basketball Hall of Famer Reggie Miller.

Barkley asked Miller which he would choose — playing in the cold in Indianapolis, where Miller spent his entire 18-year NBA career, or "being around a bunch of homeless crooks in San Francisco."

Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green called Barkley "crazy," adding Barkley was not "welcome" in the city. 

In defense of the city, WNBA star Candace Parker said, "We love San Francisco." 

"No we don’t," he responded. "You can’t even walk around down there." 

CHARLES BARKLEY BLASTS SAN FRANCISCO DURING ALL-STAR GAME, DESCRIBES IT AS CITY WITH 'HOMELESS CROOKS'

Chino Yang, a San Francisco-based rapper and restaurant owner, released a "dis track" calling out Breed for allowing the city to become a "zombie land."

"London Breed, you ain't nothing but a clown," Yang raps in the song "San Francisco Our Home." "When we really needed you, you ain’t never been around. You done turnt this great city into a zombie land." Yang has since apologized for "spreading misinformation about our beloved Mayor London Breed," suggesting someone with "connections" to "the top elites" threatened him and his family.

"I am simply a civilian. So, for the sake of my family and my loved ones — my close friends — I'd like to openly and publicly make an apology regarding my actions and what I said in the video," Yang said, according to CBS News.

SAN FRANCISCO BUSINESS OWNER SOUNDS OFF ON MAYOR DOWNPLAYING CRIME, HOMELESSNESS: 'POOP EVERYWHERE AGAIN'

Breed announced plans Tuesday to set a curfew in part of the Tenderloin to help curb crime in the area, the mayor's office confirmed to KTVU.

In 2023, the city said local law enforcement agencies made over 2,000 arrests for drug sales or drug use in the Tenderloin. They also seized over 260 pounds of fentanyl. The city said work has continued into 2024, with 350 arrests so far this year for drug sales or drug use. 

"Our work around public safety is making a difference, but we’ve got more work to do,"  Breed said. "We are not letting up on our efforts to make San Francisco a safer and enjoyable city for everyone, and this includes continuing to ramp up police staffing and giving our local enforcement agencies the resources they need to do their job."

These numbers do not include additional federal efforts being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Drug Enforcement Agency, according to the city.

Fox News Digital reached out to Mayor London Breed's office and the San Francisco Police Department for comment. 

Fox News' Ryan Gaydos, Jeffery Clark and Louis Casiano contributed to this report. 

from Latest & Breaking News on Fox News https://ift.tt/vSL6Qom
via IFTTT

Fox News RSS Feed

At first glance, it might seem like inside baseball.

A bunch of former prosecutors and cable pundits talking to each other about how much they don’t like Donald Trump and how he’s in deep legal trouble? Doesn’t that happen every day in green rooms and the corner bar?

But this, as disclosed by Politico, is different. These are some of the most prominent commentators in the media universe, and they appear to be consulting/coordinating/conspiring about their main target.

DAVID PECKER CALMLY LINKS TRUMP, MICHAEL COHEN TO SUPPRESSING STORIES, PUSHING FAKE NEWS

Even if that’s not the case, it looks awful.

It plays into the hands of conservatives who back Trump that the media are part of the resistance, determined to bring him down at all costs.

They can now say that it is a cabal, confirming all their darkest suspicions about the press determined to bring him down.

Every Friday, these media hotshots join in a secret, off-the-record Zoom call.

In a high-road description, the piece says the goal is to "intellectually stress-test the arguments facing Trump on his journey through the American legal system." But a beat later it says, "most are united by their dislike of Trump."

The origins of the group are telling, beginning during the Jan. 6 hearings, when committee staffers began briefing legal commentators on their work. I can think of classified military matters that haven’t remained secret as long.

TRUMP BLASTS JUDGE AFTER BARRING HIM FROM ATTENDING IMMUNITY ARGUMENTS

Who’s doing the zooming? Norman Eisen, an Obama administration official who worked with House Democrats on Trump’s first impeachment and is a CNN legal analyst, is the founder. 

He’s joined by Bill Kristol, a leader of the anti-Trump conservatives; longtime Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe; Watergate figure John Dean; and George Conway, ex-husband of Kellyanne, co-founder of the Lincoln Project and a fixture on MSNBC. 

AT A TURNING POINT? COLUMBIA ARRESTS AND ANTI-JEWISH HARASSMENT SHUT DOWN CAMPUS

That’s just the beginning. There is MSNBC analyst Andrew Weissman, who investigated the fruitless Russian collusion accusations against Trump as a prosecutor for Bob Mueller; why would anyone doubt his objectivity?

There are CNN legal analysts Jeffrey Toobin, Elliott Williams and Karen Agnifilo, along with L.A. Times columnist Harry Litman. And there’s Mary McCord, a former DOJ official who co-hosts an MSNBC podcast. 

Sometimes there are guests, which is also revealing. After Trump was held liable in E. Jean Carroll’s first defamation and sexual assault suit, her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, addressed the group. And, says Politico, former conservative judge J. Michael Luttig, who spearheaded a campaign to kick Trump off state ballots under the 14th Amendment, was another guest. The Supreme Court rejected the anti-democratic move.

Despite efforts to rationalize this as a meeting-of-great-minds exercise, I’m not buying it. Even Politico concedes the calls could "breed groupthink" – what a shocking thought.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

And cable news drives plenty of other coverage, particularly when certain themes are constantly pounded.

All these folks are smart enough to think for themselves. Which makes it surprising that they lack the common sense to see how troubling the Zooming looks.

from Latest & Breaking News on Fox News https://ift.tt/zTnoyHC
via IFTTT

Fox News RSS Feed

A Florida man arrested in February during an investigation into the disappearance and death of his girlfriend's teenage daughter has officially been charged with murder.

Osceola County Jail records show Stephan Sterns, 38, who was arrested on Feb. 28 on unrelated charges, was charged with first-degree murder on Wednesday in connection with the death of 13-year-old Madeline Soto.

Soto, who was found dead on March 1, was allegedly killed by Sterns sometime between Feb. 25 and Feb. 27, according to the indictment obtained by FOX 13 Tampa Bay.

"The evidence shows an individual that was entrusted to keep Madeline safe made calculated moves to dispose Madeline's belongings and place her body in a wooded area before she was ever reported missing," Kissimmee Police Chief Betty Holland said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

MADELINE SOTO DISAPPEARANCE: BOYFRIEND OF MISSING FLORIDA TEEN'S MOM ARRESTED, NAMED 'PRIME SUSPECT'

Sterns, who was dubbed the "prime suspect" in Soto's disappearance in February, was initially taken into custody for sexual battery and possession of child sexual abuse material after voluntarily turning his phone in to police.

A Digital Forensics Unit was able to reveal that the images and videos on Sterns' phone were "criminal and sexual in nature," the Orange County Sheriff's office said when announcing his arrest. Police did not say if the pictures and videos involved Soto.

In March, he was also charged with eight counts of sexual battery of a child under 12, five counts of sexual battery with a child aged 12 to 18, seven counts of lewd and lascivious molestation and 40 counts of unlawful possession of materials depicting sexual performance by a child.

Court documents in those cases implied Sterns may have abused Maddie for years leading up to her disappearance and death, according to FOX 13.

PRIME SUSPECT IN SOTO DISAPPEARANCE, KILLING FACES 60 NEW CHILD SEX CRIME CHARGES

While the only person charged in Soto's disappearance and death as of Wednesday is Sterns, the investigation remains active, according to Will Jay, the Homicide Unit chief for the State Attorney's Office for the 9th Judicial Circuit.

Sterns was the last person to see Soto on Feb. 26, when he allegedly dropped her off a few blocks away from her school that morning, according to police during his February arrest. 

When her mother went to pick her up at about 4:30 p.m., she learned that Maddie never made it inside the school that day.

FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X

It has not yet been decided if the death penalty will be sought against Sterns, State Attorney Andrew Bain said Wednesday.

"That's a discussion that we are still going to be having for the next couple of weeks to make sure that we are making a legal decision that is appropriate in this case," Bain said when asked about the possibility of the death penalty.

Sterns remains in the Osceola County Jail with no bond.

from Latest & Breaking News on Fox News https://ift.tt/MBn3jYg
via IFTTT