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>>15646129 Zimmerman Graphic Snowden
>Zimmerman
Judge tosses Zimmerman’s lawsuit against Trayvon’s parents
February 14, 2022
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A judge in Florida has dismissed a defamation and conspiracy lawsuit former neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman had filed against the parents of Trayvon Martin, the teen he fatally shot almost a decade ago in a case that drew international attention about race and gun violence.
Judge John Cooper in Tallahassee dismissed all counts against all defendants in the lawsuit filed by Zimmerman against Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin; attorney Ben Crump, who had represented the family; and others.
In his order, the judge wrote that Zimmerman had failed to show “any fraudulent representation” and said any further arguments in the case would be futile.
“There can be no claim for conspiracy to defraud if there is no adequately stated claim for fraud,” Cooper wrote in the order filed more than two weeks ago.
The other defendants in the lawsuit included HarperCollins Publishers, which had published a book Martin’s parents wrote about the case; Brittany Diamond Eugene; and Rachel Jeantel.
According to Zimmerman’s lawsuit, Brittany Diamond Eugene didn’t want to testify that she had been talking to Martin before he was killed. So her half-sister, Rachel Jeantel, pretended that she was talking to the teen before he was fatally shot. Jeantel ended up testifying at Zimmerman’s 2013 trial in Sanford, Florida.
The lawsuit claimed that Trayvon Martin’s parents, along with Crump, participated in the conspiracy in an effort to get charges filed against Zimmerman, have him tried and “destroy his good will and reputation in he community.” Zimmerman also claimed the defendants portrayed him as a racist murderer who racially profiled Martin. Martin was Black. Zimmerman’s father is white and his mother is Hispanic.
Zimmerman was acquitted during a 2013 trial, which focused attention on race and Florida’s “stand your ground” self-defense law that allows people to use force without retreating if they feel threatened.
The case was originally filed in 2019 in state court in central Florida’s Polk County, but it was later transferred to state court in Tallahassee to accommodate some of the participants.
https://apnews.com/article/violence-lawsuits-florida-race-and-ethnicity-tallahassee-f565fbbaa675d7eba5fe654a2e0047d1
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Well that's some weird timing.
Pilot dies after crash involving plane, tractor-trailer on I-85 in Davidson County
DAVIDSON COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — A pilot died and emergency crews are on scene after a plane crash involving a tractor-trailer shut down the southbound lanes of Interstate-85 on Wednesday afternoon, officials told sister-station WGHP.
Troopers said the plane was fully engulfed in flames after crashing into a tractor-trailer.
The southbound lanes were closed between exit 91 and exit 88 near Linwood at 5:21 p.m. and are expected to reopen around 11 p.m., according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
The driver of the tractor-trailer was out of the vehicle. The identity of the pilot was not known.
The Federal Aviation Administration said a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron crashed into a tractor-trailer on I-85 near the Davidson County Airport in Lexington around 5:35 p.m.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate.
The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation, according to the FAA.
https://www.cbs17.com/news/north-carolina-news/pilot-dies-after-crash-involving-plane-tractor-trailer-on-i-85-in-davidson-county/
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7/10…
Linwood?
Decision on Iran nuclear deal days away, ball in Tehran's court - France
PARIS, Feb 16 (Reuters) - France on Wednesday said a decision on salvaging Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers was just days away and that it was now up to Tehran to make the political choice while Tehran called on Western powers to be "realistic."
Indirect talks between Iran and the United States on reviving the tattered agreement resumed last week after a 10-day hiatus and officials from the other parties to the accord Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia have shuttled between the two sides as they seek to close gaps.
Western diplomats previously indicated they hoped to have a breakthrough by now, but tough issues remain unresolved. Iran has rejected any deadline imposed by Western powers.
"We have reached tipping point now. It's not a matter of weeks; it's a matter of days," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told parliament, adding that the Western powers, Russia and China were in accord on the outlines of the accord.
"Political decisions are needed from the Iranians. Either they trigger a serious crisis in the coming days, or they accept the agreement which respects the interests of all parties."
Iran's lead nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani responded in a tweet, calling on Western powers "to be realistic, avoid intransigence and heed lessons of past 4yrs. Time for their serious decisions."
"After weeks of intensive talks, we are closer than ever to an agreement; nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, though," he tweeted.
Several other sources tracking the talks said that the next couple of days would be crucial in determining whether there was a way to revive the agreement.
The pact began to unravel in 2018 when then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States and reimposed broad economic sanctions on Iran, which prompted Tehran to breach the deal's limits on its uranium enrichment activity a year later.
Diplomats and analysts say the longer Iran remains outside the deal, the more nuclear expertise it will gain, shortening the time it might need to race to build a bomb if it chose to, thereby vitiating the accord's original purpose. Tehran denies it has ever sought to develop nuclear arms.
Western diplomats say they are now in the final phase of the talks and believe that a deal is within reach.
'MOMENT OF TRUTH'
"We are coming to the moment of truth. If we want Iran to respect its (nuclear) nonproliferation commitments and in exchange for the United States to lift sanctions, there has to be something left to do it," Le Drian said.
Iran's foreign ministry said on Monday it was "in a hurry" to strike a new deal as long as its national interests were protected and that restoring the pact required "political decisions by the West".
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/decision-iran-nuclear-deal-days-away-ball-tehrans-court-france-2022-02-16/
@Snowden retweeting Omar today.
https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1494083595689943045
DAF COVID-19 Statistics - Feb. 15, 2022
By Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs, / Published February 15, 2022
WASHINGTON (AFNS) – Below are current Coronavirus Disease 2019 statistics for Department of the Air Force personnel:
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article/2903050/daf-covid-19-statistics-feb-15-2022/
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Individual Pleads Guilty to Acting Within the United States on Behalf of Russian Government
A Mexican national, who was residing in Singapore, pleaded guilty yesterday to acting within the United States on behalf of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General.
According to court documents, Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, 36, acted under the direction and control of an individual he believed to be a Russian government official. Instructed by this Russian official, Fuentes, a Mexican citizen who has spent significant time in Russia, arranged for an intermediary to lease a unit in a specific residential building in Miami-Dade County, Florida, where a specified U.S. person, who had previously provided information about the Russian government to the U.S. government, resided.
Furthermore, at the direction of the same Russian official, Fuentes traveled to Miami in February 2020 to obtain the license plate number and parking location of the specified U.S. person’s car, and to provide this information to the Russian official upon his next trip to Russia.
Fuentes’s travel companion, at his request, took a photo of the specified U.S. person’s car. A WhatsApp message from Fuentes’s travel companion to Fuentes contained a close-up photograph of the specified U.S. person’s car. The manner in which Fuentes communicated with the Russian government official and his undertakings in this case are consistent with the tactics of the Russian intelligence services for spotting, assessing, recruiting and handling intelligence assets and sources.
Fuentes had not notified the U.S. Attorney General, as required by law, that he was acting in the United States as an agent of the Russian government.
Fuentes is scheduled to be sentenced on May 17, in Miami, and faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez for the Southern District of Florida, and Director of Field Operations Vernon T Foret of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Miami Field Office made the announcement.
The FBI and CBP are investigating the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Thakur for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Matthew J. McKenzie of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/individual-pleads-guilty-acting-within-united-states-behalf-russian-government