US carries out second federal execution this week

The U.S. government carried out its second execution this week after a nearly two-decade hiatus. Wesley Ira Purkey, 68, died by lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Thursday. Purkey was convicted of raping and murdering Jennifer Long, a 16-year-old girl, before dismembering and burning her body and dumping it in a septic pond, the Justice Department said. He was also convicted of using a claw hammer to beat an 80-year-old woman to death. He was found guilty by a Missouri jury in 2003. “I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer’s family. I am deeply sorry," he said moments before his death, according to the Associated Press. “I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter, who I love so very much.”

Prior to Purkey's death, his legal team argued he should not be executed because his dementia had progressed to the point where he was unfit to be executed. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the execution could take place. Purkey's execution came days after Daniel Lewis Lee, who was a part of a white supremacist group who murdered a family of three and discarded their bodies in a bayou, was put to death. Lee and Purkey were the first two of a group of four convicted murderers who are scheduled for federal executions. Dustin Lee Honken is scheduled to die on Friday, while Keith Dwayne Nelson has been given an August date for his execution. The executions came after Attorney General William Barr directed the Bureau of Prisons in June to schedule the executions of four federal death row inmates convicted of murdering children. Barr announced new guidelines last summer for resuming capital punishment under federal law following a hiatus dating back to 2003.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/us-carries-out-second-federal-execution-this-week

North Carolina treasurer calls for Department of Transportation officials to be replaced

North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell is demanding that two top state transportation officials be removed after a series of financial issues at the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Folwell, in a statement Wednesday, called on North Carolina Transportation Secretary Eric Boyette to replace the agency's Chief Operating Officer Bobby Lewis and Chief Financial Officer Evan Rodewald to protect the state's high bond rating and its retirement system. "The continued mismanagement of this agency is a potential threat to North Carolina's coveted triple 'AAA' bond rating," Folwell said. "For over two years, the DOT has been writing checks it couldn't cash, harming taxpayers, road users and vendors." NCDOT has overspent on construction and maintenance by $2 billion and maxed out its Highway Trust Fund by $1 billion since 2019, Folwell said.

A recent state audit found NCDOT also spent nearly $40 million more than the agency should have on employee pay raises. As a result, the state's pension system has accrued $176 million in unfunded liabilities, Follwell said. The state estimated its pension payments based on state employees' average salaries. Because the NCDOT pay increases were more than 18 percent of what was projected for two years, it resulted in losses for the retirement system. That means state employees who are part of the system will have to pay more, Folwell said. NCDOT could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Folwell asked Gov. Roy Cooper in October to replace former NCDOT Secretary James Trogdon and to transfer financial management of the agency to the Office of State Budget and Management because of the misuse of funds. The General Assembly last month passed House Bill 77, a law that increases financial oversight of the agency by adding more members to the Board of Transportation. The board must review and take action on each spending plan developed by NCDOT and ensure the department is operating within the approved plan. The board also must review and approve the department's use of bonds, including those for federally funded projects. "Getting it right and keeping it right are requirements for issuing more debt on behalf of the DOT," Folwell said. "The treasurer's office stands ready, and I hope that Secretary Boyette will take this agency in a new and fiscally responsible direction. Citizens deserve a stable and solvent DOT."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/north-carolina-treasurer-calls-for-department-of-transportation-officials-to-be-replaced

https://www.thecentersquare.com/north_carolina/audit-north-carolina-department-of-transportation-overspent-on-raises-by-nearly-40m/article_dd3ed3d6-c208-11ea-b91c-67969f9580d6.html

ROGER STONE: Adam Schiff Just Can’t Stop Lying

Adam Schiff just can’t stop lying. The California huckster was at it again when President Donald Trump, in an act of both justice and mercy, commuted the death sentence I received at the hands of the deep state in a Soviet-style show trial in Washington, DC back in January. When the news of my commutation was released, Schiff almost immediately recycled the same discredited BS that he had pushed for three years: “Roger Stone was the link between the Trump campaign and Russian Intelligence officer(s).” Schiff is well aware of the fact that my completely benign exchange on Twitter direct messages with the persona of Guccifer 2.0 took place after WikiLeaks had already published all of their documents regarding Hillary and the DNC and that the content of this exchange showed no evidence whatsoever of collusion, collaboration or cooperation. He also knows I released the entire exchange in 2017 so none of this was a revelation. Schiff, discredited former Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the weasel most responsible for the Mueller investigation, former acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, still think that if they repeat these lies over and over again enough times they can recreate the magic of the early days of the Mueller investigation before declassified documents were finally released proving that the entire Russian collusion claim was a hoax.

In retrospect, I now recognize that every question that I was charged with lying in my answer to was posed by Adam Schiff. I believe it is now abundantly clear that Aaron Zelinsky, a former Hillary Clinton State Department lawyer and member of Mueller’s team, shared the fruits of his search warrant with Schiff, sifting through my emails in order to structure “gotcha” questions for my voluntary appearance before the House Intelligence Committee. The antics of Adam Schiff are standard operating procedure for this charlatan, who frequently makes explosive public charges readily lapped up by the lap-dog media in order to generate headlines. Schiff and his enablers in the media virtually never come up with proof to back his accusations. In fact, it’s carny barker Schiff’s trail of fabrications that is always shifting. In a March 22, 2017 exchange with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press Daily, Todd suggested that the evidence of collusion was at best circumstantial. “Actually, no, Chuck,” Schiff said. “I can tell you that the case is more than that. And I can’t go into the particulars, but there is more than circumstantial evidence now. … I will say that there is evidence that is not circumstantial, and is very much worthy of investigation.”

https://dailycaller.com/2020/07/15/roger-stone-adam-schiff-just-cant-stop-lying/

Roger Stone op-ed is a good read..truth bombs flying