AMBER GUYGER CASE KEY WITNESS MURDERED AFTER HER GUILTY CONVICTION (JOSHUA BROWN)

AMBER GUYGER CASE KEY WITNESS MURDERED AFTER HER GUILTY CONVICTION (JOSHUA BROWN):

WHITE DALLAS CITY COUNCIL MEMBER LOSES ELECTION AFTER EXPOSING DALLAS POLICE DEPT COVER UP (PHILLIP KINGSTON).

“WE’VE GOT SOME LONG DAYS AHEAD OF US” (DR MARTIN LUTHER KING JR).

WE NEED TO PRAY FOR THE USA AND PREPARE FOR NOVEMBER 2020.

DEAR LORD, GIVE US WISDOM & STRATEGIES.


Post Sources: BallotPedia, CBS News, Fox News, Dallas News, Status Coup, TIME, WFAA, Youtube


******* Key Witness in Amber Guyger Murder Case Fatally Shot Days After Emotional Trial Wraps Up


Less than three days after ex-Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison for murdering Botham Jean in his own apartment, a key witness in the case was fatally shot.

Joshua Brown was killed Friday night at a Dallas apartment complex, as confirmed to TIME and originally reported by the Dallas Morning News.

The Dallas Police Department told TIME that law enforcement responded to a report of a shooting at a Dallas apartment complex just after 10:30 p.m. on Friday and found the victim “lying on the ground in the apartment parking lot with multiple gunshot wounds,” but did not identity the victim.

Spokesperson Kimberlee Leach with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office confirmed to TIME that the victim was Brown.

The victim died from his injuries at Parkland Memorial Hospital, police said in a statement.

Several witnesses had heard gunshots and noticed a silver four-door sedan speeding away from the parking lot, police said.

But authorities did not provide more details about the suspect and noted that no one is currently in custody.

Brown, who was also Jean’s neighbor, testified during Guyger’s trial that he met Jean for the first time the same day that he was shot on Sept. 6, 2018.

After talking in his testimony about how he would hear Jean singing gospel or Drake songs inside his apartment, Brown became emotional and had to take a break from questioning.

Lee Merritt, a civil rights lawyer who represented the Jean family during trial, has spoken extensively on social media about Brown’s death, and said “his murder underscores the reality of the black experience in America.”

“A former athlete turned entrepreneur—Brown lived in constant fear that he could be the next victim of gun violence,” Merritt said, adding that Brown’s mother asked that he “do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of his murder.”

Brown’s death has also elicited concern from politicians. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Sunday that “just when when we caught a glimpse of justice for Botham Jean, much of it feels stolen back with the murder of Joshua Brown.”

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————


**** Dallas City Council Member On Officer Shooting Investigation: DA ‘Screwing This Up’ (Circa 2018)


DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – A Dallas city councilman is demanding 911 calls and any police videos be released in the case involving former officer Amber Guyger’s deadly shooting of Botham Jean in his apartment last month.

Councilman Philip Kingston said he is unhappy with the way the investigation into the Botham Jean shooting is being handled, going so far as to accuse Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson of, “screwing this up.”

Kingston responded to news the DA will not release 911 calls, radio calls or any possible police body cam videos that exist or Amber Guyger’s personnel records during her time as an officer.

The transmissions made by Guyger in the moments after the shooting are key evidence to prove or disprove her story that she mistakenly walked into the wrong apartment directly above hers at the South Side Flats and mistook Botham Jean for a burglar when she shot and killed him.

Kingston told CBS 11 after Wednesday’s city council meeting, it makes the city look bad that nearly a month after the shooting so little information is being released.

He blames Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall and DA Johnson.

“I think the investigation is over and I think we need to start being transparent with the information these decision makers are looking at because they’ve all said we want transparency, we want transparency, we want transparency, but they’re actions are 180 degrees from that,” said Kingston.

CBS11 received a response from the DA’s office which said Kingston’s comments would only fuel the argument for a change of venue in the case if there’s an indictment and trial:

“Case law regarding venue change mandates no pretrial release of evidence that could influence potential jurors and render them unable to return a fair and impartial verdict in any potential criminal trial.

See e.g. Gonzalez v. State, 222 S.W. 3d 446.

This law includes non-disclosure of all of the described.

This potential case should be tried in Dallas County, not some contiguous county where the interests of justice are not as compelling.

The DAs office is following the law in its effort to seek fair and impartial jurors in any potential trial regarding this tragic matter.”

AMBER GUYGER’S TEARS vs BOTHAM JEAN’S FAMILY TEARS (UNEQUAL JUSTICE)

AMBER GUYGER’S TEARS vs BOTHAM JEAN’S FAMILY TEARS:

IF BOTHAM JEAN SHOT AMBER HE WOULD HAVE BEEN SENTENCED TO LIFE.

AMBER’S TEARS WON’T RESURRECT BOTHAM JEAN.

FORGIVENESS DOES NOT ELIMINATE CONSEQUENCES.


Post Sources: ABC News, Inside Edition, Salon.com, Youtube



**** This time white tears didn't work: Why Amber Guyger's guilty verdict surprised me


The former Dallas police officer was found guilty of murdering her neighbor Botham Jean in his own apartment

Finally, a cop's white tears didn't work.

Fired Dallas police officer Amber R. Guyger, a white woman who shot and killed her unarmed black neighbor, Botham Shem Jean, was found guilty of murder on the second day of jury deliberations, an all-too-rare instance of the justice system holding police officers accountable for reckless actions.

The guilty verdict shocked me, and not because I’m used to being let down by the juries, grand juries, prosecutors and judges presiding over cops' cases.

It shocked me because Guyger had a weapon stronger than the law on her side; even more powerful than the gun she carried.

Guyger was armed with white tears. And in America, white tears are a source of ultimate power.

White tears helped kill Emmett Till, the 14-year-old black boy accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi back in 1955. 

White tears almost allowed Susan Smith to get away with killing her own kids after claiming that an African American man was the culprit.

And white tears could have ruined the life of an innocent black man in Quincy, Mass, when a white woman said she was assaulted by a black male in his early 20s and only after police reviewed surveillance footage admitted she had made it up. Guyger invoked that power of white tears in court: "I was scared he was going to kill me," she said to the jury.

This time the outcome was justice.
Guyger, 31, lived in the same apartment complex as Jean. 

On September 6, 2018, she entered Jean's apartment, which is on a different floor from hers. She says she thought she was in her apartment.

There she saw Jean eating ice cream, and she says she thought he was an intruder, so she shot him.

Jean died from his injuries in a nearby hospital.

Three days later, Guyger was arrested by Texas Rangers who took over the investigation.

Guyger was initially charged with manslaughter and terminated from the police force. 

After a series of protests, public outrage, and a sorry attempt by the Dallas police department to smear Jean’s reputation as a Christian man, Guyger was charged with murder by a Dallas grand jury.

The disgraced Guyger faced a multiracial and multiethnic jury during her week-long trial that ended Tuesday in that shocking verdict.

Even though it seems like it would have been an open-and-shut case, African Americans know better.

We have seen how often cops continue to enjoy freedom after killing black people, even when the victims posed no threat, had no weapons, and the incidents were even caught on tape.

Freddie Gray, Eric Garner and Michael Brown — just to name a few — had no firearms on them.

They should be alive today and are not. All of their killers walked.

How does this happen? Cops who kill too often earn a get-out-of-jail-free card when they say “I feared for my life and the lives of my fellow officers.”

And Guyger tried it as well, claiming she was afraid Jean was going to kill her — even though by her logic he would have been more justified in shooting, because she had intruded into his apartment.

Guyger got the verdict she deserves, but I'd hold off on celebrating this turn of justice until she's sentenced.

Her conviction carries a sentence from five to 99 years, and she could easily receive a lesser penalty and be home soon. 

And even if she is made to serve decades in prison, an innocent man is dead.

What will Dallas do to prevent another Amber Guyger incident?

Police officers have enormous powers — to take someone's freedom, to take their lives even.

Those powers were granted to Guyger, who then made a colossal, life-ending error in judgment while wielding those powers, with no checks in place to prevent those powers from killing a man.

According to Guyger, she was too tired to recognize her own home that night.

And yet she had enough cognitive control to fire deadly shots at a living being. 

Jean had no weapon and, once again, was in his own home; and yet Guyger felt shooting him was her only option.

That's a serious issue — of training, of recruitment, of assessment — that goes deeper than one man's killing, and needs to be aggressively handled by the Dallas Police Department.

TEKASHI 69, DANIEL HERNANDEZ - SNITCH OF THE CENTURY

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

JEFFREY EPSTEIN’S AUTOPSY RESULTS; BROKEN NECK BONES (STRANGULATION)

JEFFREY EPSTEIN’S AUTOPSY RESULTS; BROKEN NECK BONES RELATED TO STRANGULATION:

EPSTEIN WOULD NOT HAVE SNITCHED ON HIS HIGH PROFILED CLIENTS SO WHY WAS HE KILLED IN SUCH A GRUESOME MANNER?

FEDERAL PROSECUTION STAFF HAD GATHERED ENOUGH INVESTIGATIVE EVIDENCE TO LINK EPSTEIN’S ELITE CLIENTS TO CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING CRIMES.

THUS IT’S SAFE TO SAY EPSTEIN WAS MURDERED JUST PRIOR TO HIS TRIAL TO KEEP FROM HAVING HIS ELITE CLIENTS EXPOSED & HUMILIATED.

MORAL TO THIS STORY:

THE WHOLE WORLD NOW KNOWS THAT MANY SUPER WEALTHY PEOPLE ENJOY HAVING SEX WITH CHILDREN.


Post Sources: CBC News, CBS News, MSNBC, Washington Post, The Independent, PBS News, Yahoo News, Youtube


***** Autopsy finds broken bones in Jeffrey Epstein’s neck, deepening questions around his death


An autopsy found that financier Jeffrey Epstein sustained multiple breaks in his neck bones, according to two people familiar with the findings, deepening the mystery about the circumstances around his death.
Among the bones broken in Epstein’s neck was the hyoid bone, which in men is near the Adam’s apple. Such breaks can occur in those who hang themselves, particularly if they are older, according to forensics experts and studies on the subject. But they are more common in victims of homicide by strangulation, the experts said.
The details are the first findings to emerge from the autopsy of Epstein, a convicted sex offender and multimillionaire in federal custody on charges of sex trafficking. He died early Saturday morning after guards found him hanging in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan and he could not be revived.

Attorney General William P. Barr, whose department oversees the Bureau of Prisons facility where Epstein died, has described his death as an “apparent suicide.” Justice officials declined to comment on the new information from Epstein’s autopsy.
The office of New York City’s chief medical examiner, Barbara Sampson, completed an autopsy of Epstein’s body Sunday. But Sampson listed the cause of his death as pending.
Asked about the neck injuries Sampson said in a statement that no single factor in an autopsy can alone provide a conclusive answer about what happened.

“In all forensic investigations, all information must be synthesized to determine the cause and manner of death. Everything must be consistent; no single finding can be evaluated in a vacuum.”

The details add to the bizarre circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death, which have launched a wave of questions and conspiracy theories about how he could have died in federal custody. Even President Trump has egged on speculation, without evidence, that Epstein — whose alleged victims say they were pushed to have sex with his powerful and celebrity friends — might have been killed to keep him from spilling the secrets of others.
The revelation of Epstein’s neck injuries follows reports that officers at the Metropolitan Correctional Center broke protocol and failed to properly monitor him.
Corrections officers had not checked on Epstein for “several” hours before he was found hanging in his cell, a person familiar with the matter said, one of a series of missteps in the hours leading up to his death.

Veteran prosecutors and law enforcement officials were shocked that one of the most high-profile inmates in the country wasn’t more carefully watched. Barr said over the weekend he was “appalled” at serious “irregularities” in jail protocol, and he later transferred the warden to another facility.

People familiar with the autopsy, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive stage of the investigation, said Sampson’s office is seeking additional information on Epstein’s condition in the hours before his death. That could include video evidence of the jail hallways, which may establish whether anyone entered Epstein’s cell during the night he died; results of a toxicology screening to determine if there was any unusual substance in his body; and interviews with guards and inmates who were near his cell.
Jonathan L. Arden, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, said a hyoid can be broken in many circumstances but is more commonly associated with homicidal strangulation than suicidal hanging.

Arden, who was not involved in the Epstein autopsy, said that in general, a finding of a broken hyoid requires pathologists to conduct more extensive investigation. That investigation can include analysis of the location of the noose, how narrow the noose is, and if the body experienced any substantial drop in the course of the hanging.
The age of the deceased is also important, Arden said. The hyoid starts out as three small bones with joint-like connections but hardens during middle age into a U-shape that can break more easily.
“If, hypothetically, the hyoid bone is broken, that would generally raise questions about strangulation, but it is not definitive and does not exclude suicidal hanging,” he said.

A handful of studies conducted over the past decade have produced conflicting results about the likelihood of a hyoid break in a suicide. In a study of 20 suicidal hangings in Thailand, published in 2010, one-fourth of the men who hanged themselves had broken hyoids. In a larger study of suicidal hangings of young adults and middle-aged people in India, conducted from 2010 to 2013, hyoid damage was found in just 16 of 264 cases, or 6 percent. The study addressed the discrepancies in academic reviews, saying wide variations in findings of hyoid breaks are “possibly due to factors like age of the victim, weight of the victim, type of suspension and height of suspension.”
Hyoid fractures have previously sparked controversy in jailhouse and other contentious deaths.
In 2008, Ronnie L. White, a teenager accused of killing a police officer, died of an apparent suicide in a suburban Washington jail cell. But two days later, the cause of death was changed to homicide when a Maryland state medical examiner discovered the teen had a broken hyoid.

The incident fanned racial tension and fueled conspiracy theories about the suspect’s death in Prince George’s County, Md.
Medical examiners concluded White was probably strangled with a sheet, towel or “crux of the elbow.” The officer who moved his body pleaded guilty to obstruction. But no one was ever charged in White’s death. A federal judge said in 2013 that it remained a mystery whether the inmate was slain or took his own life.
The hyoid bone played a central role in a heated dispute last year over another high-profile death in New York, that of Eric Garner. A New York police officer was accused of using an improper chokehold while trying to arrest Garner and of causing his death. A police officers’ association claimed that an autopsy from Sampson’s office found there was no break of Garner’s hyoid bone, and that this proved that the officer could not have strangled Garner and caused his death.

This “demonstrates conclusively that Mr. Garner did not die of strangulation of the neck from a chokehold,” the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association said.
But Sampson rejected that claim, saying she stood by her conclusion that Garner died of “compression of neck (chokehold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police.” Sampson’s office said Garner’s bronchial asthma, obesity and high blood pressure were contributing factors.
In a widely circulated video of the 2014 incident, the officer was seen grabbing Garner around the neck, pushing him and his face into the pavement. Garner is overheard pleading several times: “I can’t breathe.”
Two weeks later, Sampson’s office concluded the officer’s actions were the primary cause of his death.



————————————————————


**** Epstein death: Broken neck bones in autopsy raise questions about apparent suicide of accused sex trafficker


Jeffrey Epstein had suffered broken bones in his neck of a kind more commonly seen in deaths by strangulation than suicides, according to reports.

The disgraced 66-year-old financier was found hanging in his cell at a federal prison in New York on Saturday while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

His death was described as an “apparent suicide” by attorney general William Barr, who criticised “serious irregularities” at the jail.

Authorities have not yet released details of the autopsy, but The Washington Post claimed on Thursday that it discovered “multiple breaks in his neck bones”, including the hyoid bone.

While the injury to the hyoid can occur in suicides by hanging, particularly in older people, it raises further questions about the circumstances of the multi-millionaire’s death.

“If, hypothetically, the hyoid bone is broken, that would generally raise questions about strangulation, but it is not definitive and does not exclude suicidal hanging,” Jonathan Arden, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, told the Post.

The case has already attracted several conspiracy theories, including one promoted by president Donald Trump on Twitter.

It has also caused outrage among Epstein’s victims and their representatives, who had hoped that Epstein’s trial next year would produce the justice they thought he had long evaded.

The office of New York City’s chief medical examiner Barbara Sampson, which has not commented on the findings of the autopsy, is said to be seeking further information about Epstein’s condition in the hours before his death.

Epstein had previously been placed on suicide watch after being found unconscious on the floor of his cell with marks on his neck last month.

However he was not under that regime at the time of his death and guards had not checked on him for up to three hours before he was found hanging at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in lower Manhattan.

Epstein, who once counted Mr Trump and former president Bill Clinton as friends, died a day after new legal documents, unsealed by a court, provided more details about the young girls he was said to have abused over several decades.

Several investigations are being carried out into the circumstances, including a “psychological reconstruction” and an “after action” review by the prison, as well as probes by the FBI and US Department of Justice’s inspector general.

EL PASO SHOOTING - ACT OF POLITICAL INTIMIDATION (TERRORISM) FOR ENFORCING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION LAWS

EL PASO SHOOTING - ACT OF POLITICAL INTIMIDATION (TERRORISM) AGAINST TRUMP ADMIN FOR ENFORCING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION LAWS:

OHIO SHOOTING - CAREFULLY PLOTTED SMOKESCREEN USED TO MAKE EL PASO SHOOTING APPEAR AS ACT OF RETALIATION OVER RACISM & ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND TO PUSH CONGRESS TO PASS GUN CONTROL.

IT’S NOT ABOUT RACISM, IT’S PURE POLITICAL INTIMIDATION OVER ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.

I’M NOT OPPOSED TO GUN CONTROL BUT POLITICAL INTIMIDATION, FALSE CLAIMS OF RACISM AND KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE IS NOT HOW IT SHOULD BE LEGISLATED.


Post Sources: ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, MSNBC, Youtube


****** Trump: Hate has no place in our country; El Paso shooting is being treated as a case of ‘domestic terrorism’


President Donald Trump on Sunday weighed in on two mass shootings that occurred 13 hours apart in Texas and Ohio, acknowledging “perhaps more has to be done” to address gun violence.

“We’ve done actually a lot,” Trump told reporters of his administration’s work on the issue, “but perhaps more has to be done.”

Trump, who made the comments to reporters on a tarmac in New Jersey after a weekend spent at his golf club in Bedminster, has overseen a ban on so-called bump stocks, but has not pursued large-scale gun control efforts. His predecessor, President Barack Obama, took executive actions on gun control, including on background checks and mental health.

Early Sunday, a shooter opened fire in Dayton, Ohio, killing nine people in the city’s Oregon District, a popular downtown area. The shooter was shot and killed by responding officers. Hours before on Saturday, a shooter opened fire at an El Paso, Texas, shopping center, killing at least 20 people. A 21-year-old white supremacist is in custody in the Texas domestic terrorism case.

Speaking broadly of the two recent mass shootings, Trump said, “I just want to say that these are two incredible places, we love the people.”

The President, who has regularly used incendiary language at rallies across the country, added, “Hate has no place in our country and we’re gonna take care of it.”
Praising law enforcement, Trump added that the massacres could have been worse. “It would have been unbelievable. It (was) horrible but it would have been so much worse,” he said.

Trump then said he would be making an official statement around 10 a.m. ET Monday on the mass shootings.

Earlier Sunday, Trump tweeted, “God bless the people of El Paso Texas. God bless the people of Dayton, Ohio,” and, separately, ordered American flags to be flown at half-staff as “a mark of solemn respect” for the victims of the tragedies.

Trump called the El Paso, Texas, shooting an “act of cowardice” on Saturday and said there “are no reasons or excuses that will ever justify killing people.”

The President also relayed earlier in a tweet that he had spoken with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, about the El Paso shooting and had offered the “total support” of the federal government to the state.

“Today’s shooting in El Paso, Texas, was not only tragic, it was an act of cowardice. I know that I stand with everyone in this Country to condemn today’s hateful act. There are no reasons or excuses that will ever justify killing innocent people,” Trump tweeted Saturday night.

Trump ended his comments to reporters Sunday stating “on behalf of our first lady and myself, condolences to all. We have to get it stopped. This has been going on for years.”
Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown wrote in a tweet Sunday that “thoughts and prayers are not enough, we have a responsibility to act.”

“We are also angry — angry that shooting after shooting politicians in Washington and Columbus refuse to pass sensible gun-safety laws to protect our communities,” Brown said.

Three sources have identified the suspect as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius of Allen, Texas.

The case appears to meet the statutory definition of domestic terrorism, Bash said. Saturday’s shooting at an El Paso shopping center — which left at least 20 people dead and 26 injured — “appears to be designed to intimidate a civilian population, to say the least,” he said.

“We’re going to do what we do to terrorists in this country, which is to deliver swift and certain justice,” Bash said.

El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza said the suspect faces capital murder charges and will be eligible for the death penalty.

“We will seek the death penalty,” he said.

Racist ‘manifesto’ posted on 8chan
Authorities are investigating a racist, anti-immigrant screed that they believe was posted by a man who opened fire Saturday morning, shortly after 10:30 a.m. local time.

About 20 minutes earlier, a post on the online message board 8chan believed to be from the suspect laid out a dark vision of America overrun by Hispanic immigrants. The 2,300-word document, which police called a “manifesto,” was attached to a post that said, “I’m probably going to die today.”

The writing is filled with white nationalist language and racist hatred aimed at immigrants and Latinos. It blames immigrants and first-generation Americans for taking away jobs.

The writer cited a fear that an influential Hispanic population in Texas would make the state a “Democratic stronghold,” though he said “the Republican Party is also terrible,” because the GOP is in his mind pro-corporation, which could lead to more immigration.

The writer of the document said they had held these beliefs for years before Donald Trump was elected President.

It took less than a month to plan the shooting, the author says.

The mass shooting happened in one of the largest and safest cities on the US-Mexico border, a place central to the Trump administration’s hardline stance on immigration and a city that Rep. Cesar Blanco called “ground zero” of the administration’s family separations policy.

El Paso County had an estimated population of 840,000 people as of July 2018, according to the US Census Bureau. An estimated 83% were Hispanic or Latino.

Saturday’s shooting is at least the third atrocity this year where a shooting suspect is thought to have posted to 8chan in advance of an attack.

Before the mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March, an account believed to belong to the gunman posted a link to an 87-page white nationalist manifesto on Twitter and 8chan.

And 73 minutes before the deadly shooting at Congregation Chabad synagogue in Poway, California, in April, someone identifying himself as the suspect in that attack posted a link to a hate-speech-filled manifesto hyperlinked on 8chan.

A week bookended by shootings
The El Paso shooting was one of several that happened across the country over the last eight days. It was followed just 13 hours later by another mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio.

At least nine people were killed and at least 26 were injured in a popular nightclub district by a lone gunman, identified as 24-year-old Connor Betts. Dayton Police said the suspect is dead.

Last Sunday, a 19-year-old gunman wearing tactical gear opened fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California, killing three people, including a 6-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl.

And gunfire erupted Tuesday at another neighborhood Walmart in Mississippi, killing two employees and wounding a police officer. At least 34 people were left dead across all four scenes.

The first call of an active shooter in El Paso went out at 10:39 a.m. local time, El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said. The first officer arrived on scene at the Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall six minutes later.

Adria Gonzalez was walking by the meat section on a Saturday morning shopping trip with her mom when she heard the shots.

She said she stepped up to see what was happening and that’s when she saw the shooter near the main entrance, wearing headphones or earmuffs and carrying a gun.
“I could only think about getting my mom and others out of the store,” she said. “We gotta get out of here.”

After she saw the shooter, Gonzalez said she saw a grade-school aged boy get shot in the leg, a man bleeding on the floor and another man, covered in blood, reaching for a nearby child.

“We heard two to three shots, four to five shots, then six to seven shots,” Gonzalez told CNN.

She and her mother took off — along with about 40 other people, Gonzalez said. They waited in a storage area of the store until they no longer heard the gunfire.

“You see this happening in the movies, but when you live it yourself, when you see a person killing, the blood everywhere, you are in shock,” she said.

‘I never knew there was an odor to blood’

Officials from two local hospitals said they had received at least 24 people.

Thirteen people were taken to University Medical Center of El Paso, spokesman Ryan Mielke told CNN, and one of them has died. Two children with non-life-threatening injuries were transferred to a children’s medical facility, Mielke said.

Eleven victims were transported to the Del Sol Medical Center, Dr. Stephen Flaherty said.

Eight are in stable condition and three are in critical condition, and the patients ranged in age from 35 to 82, he said.

Of the 20 killed, three were Mexican nationals, according to a tweet from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Of the 26 injured, six were Mexican, Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard wrote on Twitter.

“The ages and genders of all these people injured and killed are numerous in the age groups,” Allen, the police chief, said Saturday. “The situation, needless to say, is a horrific one.”

The next day, when asked why he used the word “horrific” to describe the scene, Allen told reporters, “There’s not words you can place to say something like that. You have to see it for yourself.”

“When I first got to this job,” he said, “I never knew there was an odor to blood, but there is … I can’t tell you what it means … It will leave an impression that you’ll never forget.”

ELIJAH CUMMINGS DEFENDS HIS 23 YR BALTIMORE REPRESENTATION (SO DO THE RATS)

ELIJAH CUMMINGS DEFENDS HIS 23 YR BALTIMORE REPRESENTATION (SO DO THE RATS):

WAS TRUMP RIGHT? IS BALTIMORE STILL “THE WIRE”??

HOW MANY BLACK MEN HAS CUMMINGS HELPED TO (SECRETLY) INCARCERATE INSTEAD OF HELPING THEM TO BECOME GAINFULLY EMPLOYED?

CONGRESSMAN ELIJAH CUMMINGS (“THE BULLY”) IS KNOWN TO RETALIATE AGAINST ANYONE WHO DOESN’T AGREE WITH HIM OR CHALLENGES HIM.

IN FACT, MANY OF HIS CONSTITUENTS ARE AFRAID OF HIM WHICH EXPLAINS WHY HE’S BEEN IN PUBLIC OFFICE 23 YRS.

SO WILL CUMMINGS USE HIS CONGRESSIONAL JUDICIAL COMMITTEE POWER TO RETALIATE AGAINST PRES TRUMP OVER HIS BOLD TWEETS ABOUT BALTIMORE?

WILL CUMMINGS RETALIATE AGAINST ALL THE JOURNALISTS & BLOGGERS WHO REPORTED ON THIS STORY?

STAY TUNED.


Post Sources: Baltimore Sun, DW News, Fox News, NBC News, Turning Point USA, Washington Examiner, Youtube



**** The trouble with Trump's tweets about Baltimore is that they are true


President Trump’s recent tweets about Baltimore, rats, and the city’s political leadership have roiled Washington and prompted another round of cries of “racism” from the usual race hustlers, who are seeking out every camera they can find. But rather than focus on whether or not Trump is a racist, how about we focus on the man’s words? Are they true?

Yes, they are.

First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1995, Elijah Cummings has represented Maryland’s 7th Congressional District (which includes Baltimore City) for the past 23 years. Prior to that, Cummings was an elected member of Maryland's House of Delegates, representing District 39 (also Baltimore City) beginning in 1983. In all, Cummings has represented Baltimore for 36 years.

What has Baltimore to show for Cummings’ years of representation? Here are a few examples. In 2017, 13 high schools in the city of Baltimore were found to have zero students — not a single one — who were proficient in math. And out of the 3,804 students in all who took the state math proficiency test, only 14 were proficient.

Baltimore’s schools perform this poorly despite the fact that residents of Baltimore pay 3.2% city income tax, the maximum local income tax rate allowed by state law in an already high-tax state. Take that as further proof that throwing money at problems doesn’t necessarily solve them.

Crime in Baltimore is, simply put, out of control. With over 2,000 violent crimes per 100,000 people, in the year 2017 Baltimore was well within the most dangerous 1% of U.S. cities.

And then, there’s the rats, the mention of which generated much of the ire directed at Trump. He claimed that Baltimore is “rat infested," causing some left-wing pundits to claim he was using code to refer to “black and brown people.” Yet, once again, the issue is whether he was right. And he was. The city has a very real rat infestation problem.

Baltimore’s rats have long been the subject of commentary in the news and in social media. From both sides of the political aisle, everyone from Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders to Ben Carson and Baltimore’s former Mayor Catherine Pugh (who resigned in May amid federal and state corruption investigations) have been outed on the web for having publicly commented on the city’s filth and squalor in years past. A 2018 video has surfaced of Pugh touring her miserable city and nearly gagging on her own words as she exclaimed, “You can smell the rats … Oh my God, you can smell the dead animals.”

So, yes, there are rats. A lot of rats. So many rats that one citizen created a full feature-length documentary film about Baltimore’s rats. The city and county themselves launched the “Rat Attack Program” to battle the epidemic, sadly without much success.

On Monday, Baltimore’s local Fox broadcasting affiliate WBFF was reporting on Trump’s tweetstorm when, as if sensing its opportunity for two seconds of fame, a rat ran through the frame effectively photobombing the Fox45 reporter’s live shot!

As a black American pundit, I am often asked whether I think Trump is a racist. I do not, but the answer I always give is that I don’t care. What I care about is the truth.

The point is that the overarching focus on race accomplishes nothing. And if the focus is simply on truth, then in this case, Trump is unquestionably right.

That Baltimore’s political leadership has failed its constituents is inarguable. That's why those same political figures, along with the race hustlers of the day, repeatedly pull out the same card they’ve been playing for decades. They get away with it by accusing their own accusers of racism. They choose to focus on accusations of intent rather than substance of the issue.

Baltimore is steeped in squalor, and the black community there bears the brunt of its inept, corrupt political leadership. Trump hasn't had time to cause that in his less than three years in office. But in less than three seconds, his tweet has shone a glaring spotlight onto it, and that bright light is causing the rats to scurry.

TRUMP AS PRESIDENT - I WILL NOT CRITICIZE (MEXICO DEAL)

TRUMP AS PRESIDENT - I WILL NOT CRITICIZE (MEXICO DEAL):

I WILL PRAY FOR PRES TRUMP BUT I WON’T PUBLICLY CRITICIZE HIM.

NO MAN IS PERFECT; ONLY GOD ALMIGHTY.

OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM WAS VERY BROKEN & CONGRESS REFUSED TO FIX IT.

HAVE WE BECOME SO POLITICALLY CORRECT, MEDIA DRIVEN AND DIVISIVE THAT WE NO LONGER CARE ABOUT WHAT IS LEGALLY & MORALLY CORRECT ACCORDING TO CONSTITUTIONAL LAW??

WHY CRITICIZE A LEADER WHO IS ONLY TRYING TO LEGALLY HELP BOTH AMERICAN CITIZENS & ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS EXPERIENCE THE AMERICAN DREAM?

GOD BLESS OUR NATION

GOD BLESS THE U.S. MILITARY

GOD BLESS MEXICO FOR AGREEING TO SIGN THIS DEAL.


Post Sources: CBS News, Fox News, Reuters, Washington Post


**** Trump’s big win leaves critics sputtering

Because President Trump emerges as a clear winner from his week-long confrontation with Mexico over our neighbor’s lax enforcement of its southern border, reflexive Trump critics will scramble to find some way of containing what is a clear Trump triumph, which came with assists by Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who conducted the key negotiations.

Already we have heard about long-term damage to trust between the North American allies, about investor nervousness and Trump’s unpredictability.

This sort of flailing-about to deny the obvious says nothing about Trump and much about those critics who can no more admit he played high-stakes poker and won a round on border security than they can admit that the president delivered a magnificent tribute to the heroes of Normandy on Thursday.

Much of the media has overheated now and, like an engine that has run too long without an oil change, has begun to seize up, stall, even melt.

That Trump has contributed to the slow wreck of American media is undeniable.

It’s a feature, not a bug, of his presidency to attack, attack, attack the media elites. And no matter how often center-right journalists counsel him to abandon the Stalinist “enemy of the people” rhetoric, he hasn’t because it triggers a flaming hatred among the ideologies of the left, with platforms and elites eager to signal each other that they are part of the tribe menaced by this Godzilla from Trump Tower.

Voters, though — not just the “Twitter Democrats” but voters of all ages and ideologies — are a pretty smart bunch. Assume for a moment that they know, generally, that tariffs are a lousy idea in terms of economic growth. Assume as well that they know that tariffs can be an instrument of national power in confrontations unrelated to economic growth.

Assume that voters know our competition with China is far more than an economic race, but rather a complex geopolitical rivalry that both sides wish to keep contained short of open conflict and that is waged through proxies, cyber-confrontations, intellectual-property battles, freedom-of-the-seas disputes and the relative size and power of our armed forces and those of our allies.

In that context, tariffs on Chinese goods are just part of an overall negotiation toward a new normal that is in everyone’s interest.

So “tariffs bad, free trade good” is simplistic. “Free trade is good and agreed-upon international conventions are required for genuinely free trade and tariffs may be necessary to achieve those conventions” is accurate. And widely understood.

“Alliances are good” is simplistic. “Alliances in which allies actually do what they promise with regard to percentage of GDP spent on national defense while not increasing dependence on Russian natural gas” is complex but accurate.

Hard as it is for the Manhattan-Beltway echo chamber to believe, sounding sophisticated isn’t actually being sophisticated. Trump’s record is mixed, but not this week.

This week, even as Joe Biden began to melt (the headline in Saturday’s Times of London online edition was “Democrats raise doubts over Joe Biden’s stamina for presidential nomination race” — never a good sign when the neighbors notice these things), Trump put together back-to-back big successes. Historian and classicist Victor Davis Hanson speculates that Trump’s enemies are so addicted to hating him that, in a classic addict pattern, all behaviors are bent in service of the addiction.

This weekend and next week will separate the outrage addicts from the serious journalists. Trump would be very well advised to take this tariff weapon off the table with regard to Mexico.

It probably wouldn’t work a second time unless the Mexicans failed to deliver even a halfhearted effort.

It’s not the sort of threat you can use twice, and doing so would undo the enormous win he can rightfully paint this to be at rally after rally as Campaign 2020 gets underway.

If Trump invited Democrats back to the White House for immigration reform and border security talks right now, urging them to be as serious as the Mexican government has been about the border crisis, it might actually work.

House Democrats passed an immigration bill last week. Senate Republicans could quickly pass their own version to get a joint House-Senate conference with White House participation.

Everyone could win: the United States and Mexico, the president and the House speaker, both parties, the undocumented in this country seeking regularization, and the desperate and easily exploited poor of Central America.

MALEAH DAVIS, 4, RAPED & MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD BY STEP-FATHER DARION VENCE (MALEAH’S LAW)

MALEAH DAVIS, 4, RAPED & MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD BY HER MONSTER STEP-FATHER DARION VENCE (MALEAH’S LAW):

DARION VENCE DISPOSED OF MALEAH IN A TRASH BAG....HE SHOULD RECEIVE THE DEATH PENALTY.

BOTH CPS & MALEAH’S MOTHER BRITTANY BOWENS ARE TO BLAME FOR HER MURDER.

WHY DID CPS RETURN MALEAH & HER BROTHER FOLLOWING EVIDENCE OF SUBSTANTIATED SERIOUS ABUSE FOUND IN THE HOME??

WHAT KIND OF HEAD INJURY CAUSED MALEAH TO HAVE MULTIPLE BRAIN SURGERIES?

CONGRESS (BOTH PARTIES) NEEDS TO AUDIT & OVERHAUL CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES IMMEDIATELY IN EVERY STATE & WASHINGTON DC.

CONGRESS SHOULD ALSO CREATE NEW CPS LEGISLATION ENTITLED “MALEAH’S LAW”.

MOST CPS SYSTEM SUPERVISORS ARE SORORITY BLACK WOMEN WHO DON’T REALLY CARE ABOUT LOW INCOME ABUSED BLACK CHILDREN.

PLEASE FIRE MOST BLACK CPS SUPERVISORS AND REPLACE THEM WITH WHITE WOMEN.

YES I SAID WHAT I SAID.

DON’T LET MALEAH’S PREMATURE DEATH BE IN VAIN.


Post Sources: CBS News, KHOU, USA Today, Youtube


***** Dogs detect human decomposition in car of man arrested in case of missing girl Maleah Davis, 4

Trained dogs detected the scent of human decomposition in the car of a man arrested in connection with the puzzling disappearance of Maleah Davis, 4, outside Houston, a prosecutor said.

Derion Vence was in jail Sunday on a $1 million bond after he was arrested Saturday and charged with tampering with evidence – a human corpse. Vence is set to appear in court Monday.

Vence, 26, lived with Maleah’s mother, Brittany Bowens, and is believed to be the last person to see the girl before her disappearance more than a week ago.

Houston police said Maleah has not been found and the investigation is continuing. Authorities have declined to say whether they believe Vence killed the girl, but prosecutors said in court documents filed Saturday that Vence could face additional charges, including murder.

Police have said blood found in Vence’s apartment was linked to Maleah.

Vence initially told police he was assaulted by three men in a truck after stopping for a flat tire on the way to pick up Bowens at the airport on the night of May 4.

Vence said Maleah and his 2-year-old son were with him and they were all abducted by the three men, who knocked him unconscious.

When he came to the next day in Sugar Land, about 20 miles southwest of Houston, the girl was missing, Vence told police. He also said the Nissan Altima he was driving was stolen.

Police said surveillance video showed Vence getting dropped off at Methodist Sugar Land Hospital in the silver Altima last Sunday.

Police found the car in a parking lot Thursday.

At Vence’s probable cause court hearing Saturday night, Harris County prosecutor Pat Stayton said two dogs trained to find cadavers reacted to the trunk of the car.

“The dogs were responding to the scent of human decomposition in the vehicle,” Stayton said.

Surveillance video from a neighbor had shown Vence carrying a large, blue laundry basket with a large trash bag from his apartment on May 3, Stayton said. Vence returned three minutes later without the basket and later he was seen leaving the apartment with cleaning supplies, including bleach.

In the car, police found a laundry basket that looked like the one Vence took out of his apartment, Stayton said.

Police have described Vence as Maleah’s stepfather, but Bowens said through a spokesman that Vence is her former fiancé.

Child Protective Services removed Maleah and her brothers from the home Vence and Bowens shared in August after the girl sustained a head wound, but the children were returned in February, according to an agency spokeswoman.

The Houston Chronicle reported that Maleah’s grandmother, Brenda Bowens, had tried to get the kids placed at her home instead of in foster care when Child Protective Services conducted an investigation starting in August.

HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY 2019 TO ALL DETERMINED MOTHERS

HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY 2019 TO ALL DETERMINED MOTHERS:

DETERMINED TO PRAY FOR YOUR FAMILY DAILY.

DETERMINED TO SEE YOUR CHILDREN BECOME WINNERS NOT LIABILITIES.

DETERMINED TO LOVE YOUR CHILDREN THROUGH THICK AND THIN.

AS OF AUGUST 2018 MY MOTHER IS NOW IN HEAVEN.

I MISS HER SO MUCH.

BE SURE TO DAILY TELL YOUR MOTHER HOW MUCH YOU LOVE HER.


Post Sources: Youtube


~ EPHESIANS 6:1-3

“Honor your Father and MOTHER” which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”

MALEAH DAVIS, AGE 4 - MISSING CHILD - HOUSTON, TX (CHILD ABUSE)

MALEAH DAVIS, AGE 4 - MISSING CHILD - HOUSTON, TX:

DID MALEAH’S STEP-FATHER (DARION VENCE) KILL HER OR SELL HER WHILE THE MOTHER WAS OUT OF TOWN?

IS MALEAH’S MOTHER ALSO INVOLVED IN MALEAH’S DISAPPEARANCE?

JUST BECAUSE MALEAH’S MOTHER IS CRYING, DOES NOT MEAN SHE IS INNOCENT.......SHE KNOWS SOMETHING.

WHY DID TEXAS CPS RETURN MALEAH & HER BROTHER TO A HOME SUBSTANTIATED WITH EVIDENCE OF ABUSE?

WHY DID MALEAH HAVE TO HAVE BRAIN SURGERY??

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES IS A MONEY PIT GOV’T SCAM WHICH DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO PREVENT CHILD ABUSE OF AMERICAN CHILDREN.

THE ENTIRE AMERICAN CPS SYSTEM NEEDS TO BE AUDITED BY CONGRESS IMMEDIATELY.

PLEASE PRAY FOR MALEAH, HER BROTHER & FOR THE TRUTH.

PSALM 91


Post Sources: ABC News, CBS News, KHOU, Youtube


******* MISSING GIRL
MALEAH DAVIS' STEPDAD CHANGED STORY WHILE REPORTING HER MISSING:


The stepfather of missing 4-year-old Maleah Davis originally told officers he was attacked while checking his tire over the weekend. But Sugar Land police say his story changed multiple times when they questioned him.

According to police, Darion Vence showed up at Sugar Land Methodist Hospital on Saturday night, where an off-duty officer noticed fresh wounds on him. Vence claimed to be the victim of a roadside attack by three Hispanic suspects the day before while on his way to pick up the girl's mother from Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Police also initially stated Vence was with Maleah and his 1-year-old son when he was left unconscious. He stated that he regained consciousness late Saturday afternoon on the side of Highway 6 near First Colony Mall. His son was with him but Maleah was not.

Vence's son is in the care of a relative while authorities and Texas EquuSearch combed the surrounding area for the missing girl.

On Wednesday, the Sugar Land Police Department revealed the original story had changed while Vence was questioned.

"During the initial interview, the man's story did change several times and some of what he told us just didn't add up," said Doug Adolph, the spokesperson for Sugar Land police.

Houston police took command of the investigation since the attack reportedly happened in the city limits.


SLPD also revealed the family's silver Nissan Altima, which was reported stolen after the attack on Vence, was seen driving around Sugar Land at 3 p.m. Saturday, just several hours before he told police that he regained consciousness.

So far, Vence is not facing any charges, and police have not considered him a suspect in Maleah's disappearance.

On Tuesday, Maleah's biological father, Craig Davis, spoke for the first time since the search began to ABC13 Eyewitness News. He said he wanted to speak directly with Vence about what happened.



"I'm not putting the blame on anybody," Craig said. "I just need the questions that aren't answered to be answered. There are so many unanswered questions. It's not for the public to answer to them for me. It's not for the police to answer them for me. It's not for the news to answer them for me. It's for Darion to answer for me."

Earlier this week, ABC13 learned the little girl, along with two of her siblings, was taken from her home last August as CPS investigated her head injuries. In court documents from Jan. 25, doctors couldn't confirm whether Maleah's injuries were caused by abuse, and due to this, CPS recommended Maleah and her siblings be returned to their family. They were back home by the following month.

The family told Eyewitness News the injuries were from an accidental fall.


Wednesday marked five days since Maleah was last seen alive. Flooding from Tuesday's severe weather forced crews to suspend their search.

TIGER WOODS AWARDED MEDAL OF FREEDOM (BACK ON TOP)

TIGER WOODS AWARDED MEDAL OF FREEDOM (BACK ON TOP):

TIGER’S APPEARANCE BEARS THE BATTLE SCARS OF A WOUNDED SOLDIER BUT HE REMAINS NO.1 IN GOLF.

IT IS POSSIBLE TO BOUNCE BACK IN LIFE AFTER EMBARRASSING SCANDALS AND BEING PERSONALLY ATTACKED.

GOD BLESS TIGER & HIS CHILDREN,

Post Sources: AP, ESPN, Youtube


**** Medal of Freedom awarded to 'true legend' Tiger


President Donald Trump awarded golfer Tiger Woods the nation's highest civilian honor on Monday, describing the 43-year-old as a "true legend" who transformed golf and then fought through years of injury to return to the sport's summit.

Trump awarded Woods with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Woods is the fourth golfer to earn that distinction and certainly the youngest.

While he dominated the sport for more than a decade, he won his first major in nearly 11 years at last month's Masters tournament, a comeback that captivated the sporting world.

"Tiger was back on top," Trump declared during the Rose Garden ceremony.

Trump described the litany of victories Woods has obtained during his remarkable career and the injuries that almost derailed it.

"This evening, we are in the presence of a true legend, an extraordinary athlete who has transformed golf and achieved new levels of dominance," Trump said during the presentation. "He's also a great person. He's a great guy."

Jack Nicklaus, a previous recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, was among several golfers to congratulate Woods in messages on their Twitter accounts.

Woods was joined at the ceremony by his mother, Kultida; daughter, Sam Alexis, 11; son, Charlie Axel, 10; and girlfriend, Erica Herman.

Woods' father, Earl, passed away more than a decade ago. Woods' longtime caddie Joe LaCava also attended.

Woods became emotional as he spoke of his parents, and he thanked those who have supported him over the years, saying, "You've seen the good and bad, the highs and lows, and I would not be in this position without all of your help."

Woods tweeted after the White House ceremony:

President George W. Bush presented the Medal of Freedom to Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. Obama presented it to Charlie Sifford, sometimes referred to as the "Jackie Robinson of golf." Woods noted that he named his son after Sifford. "He was like the grandpa I never had," Woods recalled.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is given to individuals who have made "especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors," according to the White House.

Presidents have complete discretion over whom they honor with the medal.

PRINCE HARRY IS NOW FATHER TO A SON (CONGRATS)

PRINCE HARRY IS NOW FATHER TO A SON:

CONGRATS TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS & WIFE MEGHAN, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX.

GOD BLESS THEM ALL.


Post Sources: CBS News, NY Times, Youtube


*** Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are officially parents to a baby boy.

The Duchess of Sussex gave birth to her first child early on Monday morning UK time, after months of speculation about her exact due date.

“Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex was safely delivered of a son at 0526hrs (2.26pm Monday AEST),” Buckingham Palace said in a statement. “The baby weighs 7lbs 3oz (3.26kg).

CATHERINE PUGH RESIGNS FROM BALTIMORE MAYOR’S POST (CORRUPTION SCANDAL)

CATHERINE PUGH RESIGNS FROM BALTIMORE MAYOR’S POST (CORRUPTION SCANDAL):

BALTIMORE & ATL - DRAIN THE SWAMP.

MOST BLACK POLITICIANS USE THEIR EDUCATION & POWER AS A WEAPON AGAINST BLACK VOTERS.

HOW DOES THIS ABUSE OF POWER HELP STRENGTHEN BLACK COMMUNITIES?

BLACK VOTERS DESERVE MUCH BETTER LEADERSHIP.

YES, WHITE POLITICIANS CAN EFFECTIVELY LEAD BLACK VOTERS WITHOUT RACISM.

2020 ELECTION


Post Sources: CBS News, Fox News, NY Times, Washington Post, Youtube


****** Baltimore’s Mayor, Catherine Pugh, Resigns Amid Children’s Book Scandal


After weeks of mounting pressure, Mayor Catherine Pugh of Baltimore resigned on Thursday amid a widening scandal involving hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of children’s books that she wrote and sold to the University of Maryland Medical System while serving on its board of directors.

Her resignation comes days after the Baltimore City Council proposed amending the city charter to make it possible to remove her, and after the F.B.I. raided her two homes and her office at City Hall.
Ms. Pugh stepped down from the hospital network’s board, but she had resisted calls to step down as mayor.

She has been home on medical leave for weeks. Her lawyer told reporters previously that she was too ill to make decisions.

Bernard Young, president of the Baltimore City Council, has been serving as acting mayor and will complete the rest of her term.

“I am sorry for the harm that I have caused to the image of Baltimore and the credibility of the office of the mayor,” Ms. Pugh said in a statement read aloud by her lawyer, Steve Silverman, at a brief news conference that she did not attend. “Baltimore deserves a mayor who can move our great city forward.”

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who appoints the board of the University of Maryland Medical System, applauded Ms. Pugh’s resignation in a post on Twitter.

“This was the right decision, as it was clear the mayor could no longer lead effectively,” he wrote. “The federal and state investigations must and will continue to uncover the facts.”

Ms. Pugh has been under intense scrutiny since March, when The Baltimore Sun reported that she was one of nine members of the board of the University of Maryland Medical System who had profited personally from contracts with the hospital system.

When the scandal broke, Ms. Pugh maintained that there was nothing illegal or unethical about her deal to sell her “Healthy Holly” children’s books, which promote nutritious food and exercise, to the hospital network, whose board she has served on since 2001.

The network, in turn, was supposed to donate the books to Baltimore schools and day cares.

She apologized for failing to report the deal on disclosure forms when she was a state senator and returned the most recent payment of $100,000.

But questions continued to swirl over who authorized the contract and how many of the books actually reached children, especially after thousands of books were discovered untouched in a school warehouse.

Ms. Pugh has received $500,000 since 2011 from the medical system for the books.

Other entities, including Kaiser Permanente, reportedly paid her an additional $190,000 for the books.

“This whole entire episode has been hurtful to the city,” said Jill Carter, a state senator representing Baltimore who has been pushing to limit self-dealing on the hospital network’s board. “Those of us who are holding elected office now, it is incumbent upon us to do everything in our power to restore the public trust.”

Ms. Carter said she began investigating the hospital network’s contracts after hearing complaints from minority-owned businesses that it was impossible for them to bid on contracts, while politically connected board members received lucrative deals that did not go through normal channels of procurement.

Ms. Carter noted that other board members reaped far more from the hospital network, including Francis X. Kelly, who advocated the privatization of the hospital network as a state senator, and went on to obtain $16 million in contracts through his insurance company, Kelly & Associates Insurance Group.

“It’s been very troubling to me that so much focus has been placed on the mayor that there has been too little scrutiny and too little desire to investigate the other members,” Ms. Carter said.

The hospital network’s website lists Mr. Kelly as being “on leave” from the board, along with three other members who had business contracts.

He did not return a call seeking comment Thursday.

A recent bill passed by Maryland’s General Assembly will replace the medical system’s entire board in July, and generally prohibits future board members from receiving no-bid contracts.

Michael Schwartzberg, a spokesman for the medical system’s management, said it would not be issuing a statement on the mayor’s resignation.

Ms. Pugh, who was elected mayor in 2016, has long been a fixture in the city’s politics.

She previously served as a state senator and majority leader in Maryland’s General Assembly.

Her resignation comes after a series of other corruption scandals in the city have shaken faith in Baltimore’s government.

Last year, six Baltimore police officers pleaded guilty in a wide-ranging corruption trial that included robbing a motorist of $25,000 and dumping garbage bags full of stolen prescription drugs on the market.

The city, which endured riots and unrest in the wake of the 2015 death in police custody of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, has seen four police commissioners cycle through since Mr. Gray’s death.

Last year, former police commissioner Darryl De Sousa pleaded guilty in federal court to failing to file income tax returns.

In 2010, another Baltimore mayor, Sheila Ann Dixon, resigned after being found guilty of misappropriating gift cards for the poor.

Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, a nonpartisan watchdog organization, said her group has received several calls from people expressing a loss of faith in Ms. Pugh.

But Ms. Antoine said she is heartened by recent proposals brought by Baltimore City Council members to tighten ethics disclosure rules and make it easier to remove the mayor.

“I think we’re on the verge of recovering from all of this,” she said. “We believe the City Council is taking steps to move forward.”

JOHN DANIEL SINGLETON - WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN (“BOYZ IN THE HOOD”)

JOHN DANIEL SINGLETON - NEVER FORGET (“BOYZ IN THE HOOD”):

JANUARY 6, 1968 – APRIL 29, 2019

Post Sources: Youtube