Los Angeles, CA—The West Los Angeles VA Campus is huge.It includes the hospital, cemetery, housing, historic church, offices, a regulation baseball diamond, basketball facility and a golf course.There are lots of places to park cars for events.
Richard Scott, 58 owner of Westside Services LLC, was arrested at his Santa Monica Home.He’s charged in a federal complaint with fraud against the U.S. by bilking taxpayers more than $11 million.Scott has enjoyed a contract with the VA for at least 15 years in connection with car parking at the sprawling VA facility.
Hospital parking is managed by the VA Police and is not involved in this fraud.
In an affidavit, federal agents alleged Scott made bribery payments to a yet to be named VA Official until that co-conspirator retired in 2014.That unnamed official has been cooperating with investigators, obviously to mitigate his or her own prosecution and punishment.
I can't help but wonder how many homeless veterans could have been housed for this kind of money?
Let me begin by saying my views on this subject are my own and doing what I suggest could result in prosecution. The risk however is very low…
Being an avid photographer for most of my life, the amazing drone technology has become an exciting addiction.Ive been flying them for over four years now getting images I could only dream about before.Placing great musical soundtracks on my videos has been pure joy.
I fly really safe having never once damaged property or caused injury. I follow sound advice like staying away from other aircraft, flying well below 400 feet (flying higher does not aid in capturing great images). I fly sober and watchful and accordingly I have never needed crash repairs.
I won’t ever ask permission to flyover or photograph private property. That’s constitutionally protected activity that fixed wing and helicopters have enjoyed for years and there is plenty of settled appellate law that guides me.
As for the FAA. FAA rules, until drones became to be, were always written in the blood of actual air catastrophes. Prior restraint regulation was not part of the FAA’s culture until modern hobby drones appeared in our skies.
Conventional pilots understood only too well that drones were going to invade their professional turf and threaten their livelihoods. Pilots and FAA officials entered into a public relations conspiracy to demonize drones, their operators and to frighten the public that their safety, privacy and wellbeing were at serious risk.
Pilots were calling in phony drone sightings and near collisions constantly creating what I called, Drone Hysteria. The phony reports are few and far between now that the novelty has worn off.
The Obama Administration’s FAA’s mouth was watering with the idea of punitive drone regulation followed by thousands of new enforcement jobs and promotions.
Fortunately drones increased by a few million and still there were no collisions with conventional aircraft, serious injuries or property damage. Any excuse to grow the FAA because of drones was and is a total failure.
The FAA has since created a horrendous, two tiered system for drone operators with separate rules. The somewhat relaxed hobbyist rules and the substantially burdensome, stricter and more unreasonable commercial user’s regulations.
The Part 107 Commercial rules are petty, unfair and do nothing to make our airspace safer. The simply make unnecessary work for everyone akin to digging holes only to fill them back up.
The petty, Part 107 rules are virtually unenforceable because the FAA lacks meaningful manpower to police them.
Drone operators love answering questions to FAA officials and that ignorant behavior allows the FAA inspectors to easily build cases against them. If the drone operators simply were smart enough to ask for a lawyer instead of blabbing and making admissions there would be virtually no cases to prosecute.
It’s much easier to talk your way into a courtroom. Keeping your mouth shut tight will do wonders to keep you out of trouble, away from lawyers, their fees and court fines.
I say when in doubt, fly if you really need the images. Lets say your two miles from a major airport and you want to inspect a roof or capture real estate marketing material at less than 70 feet above the structures go ahead.
If your in such an area considered sensitive, fly your drone early in the morning before the FAA, local police and public have had their coffee. Use your vehicles to shield drone take offs and landings. Above all fly low and safe.
Above all tell your Congress people to get the FAA off of our backs and have them return to real safety issues with conventional aircraft.
Washington, DC--For the most part our Congress has been ruled by Democrats for the last 100 years.Our Immigration laws that the executive Branch's elected officials and their appointed bureaucrats are sworn to enforce have not changed. The votes to change our immigration laws are just insufficient even with a Liberal majority.
So the open borders loving politicians can't get the law changed so they do the next best thing.That's to obstruct, de-fund and denounce our border law enforcement efforts and employees.
When the political Left (including Liberals like the father and son Bush team) owns the Whitehouse, educated, self-reliant and law abiding Europeans are turned away in favor of economic refugees that bring, ignorance, poverty, total dependence, crime and drugs from Mexico and regions South.
Trump has merely said he'd enforce existing laws. Keeping his immigration promises has caused Liberal heads to explode.
I'm appalled that under Obama European tourists have been forced to provide fingerprints and are subjected to unwarranted humiliation. The Europeans spend millions of dollars that support many American families. Needless to say America is becoming a piranha for Europeans to visit now.
Democrats are in a rush for grabbing power and know impoverished dependent immigrants from South of our border will vote for them. So it's not about humanitarianism but rather seizing political power and shutting out Conservatives.
We are all immigrants except those Europeans that were always subjected to extreme vetting, medical exams and loyalty testing. The slightest problems would bring refusal to those seeking entry and they'd be put on boats returning them raptors Europe.
The immigrants from below our border have been invited to evade our border security and stay here unchallenged. They are not turned away from our emergency rooms for their violence related injuries or to give birth of their anchor babies. American taxpayers are forced to pay billions as they watched their healthcare system get flushed down the toilet because of impoverished illegal aliens.
Caught up in this illegal immigration horror are impoverished Americans, mostly minorities that must compete with the illegal aliens for jobs, healthcare and the food on their tables.
Added to this immigration disaster are those invaders who hate our culture, customs and Christianity. They include people that are Hell-bent on harming and dominating Americans in the name of Islam.
Humanitarianism or political power grab, you be the judge!
Phoenix, AZ--A sad story I worked on two decades ago. My investigation was funded by the Disney owned TV show called, The Crusaders, Two tender aged twin boys with sadistic monsters for parents were victims of epic abuse and torture. One child vanishes after a severe beating and the other is cruelly beaten until a court takes him away for his own safety in Boise, ID where the parents relocated.
The mother was finally arrested and convicted for felony child abuse against the surviving brother of that lad became my client. The man who prosecuted Charleen showed me the heartbreaking photos of the surviving twins injuries as tears flowed down his cheeks. Today Walter hose is deceased and Charleen Hose is institutionalized for dementia. The boys's remains have never been located.
Reporter Donna Rossi from KPHO in Phoenix revisited this nightmare with Montana private investigator Michael Toth.
Phoenix, AZ—Most of my blog visitors know I’m a longtime criminal defense investigator and have worked on many high profile cases helping the wrongfully accused.
The defense and prosecution is supposed to have parity and equal treatment in the courts but it’s all just pretend.There is a huge laundry list of issues that work against the accused before their trial even begins.
One thing that troubles me is seeing the same prosecutors in large jurisdictions working every day before the same judges.They literally sometimes even sleep together. When a criminal defense attorney comes to their court he or she is an outsider and often treated that way.
The police have enormous powers to gather evidence such as the Grand Jury subpoena. They can arrest those who obstruct investigations, tamper with witnesses and can most importantly obtain search warrants.
Defense investigators should just like cops be able to surreptitiouslyrecord conversations with suspects, cops and witnesses.
Defense investigators need similar powers. Search warrants enable nearly, always instant cooperation for records, documents and physical evidence. For defense investigators important evidence they learn about is often destroyed or concealed before it can be seized denying fair trials for those accused of crimes.
Defense investigators are often at odds with police and cannot rely on their assistance. In some cases police attempt to meddle in the defense investigation and that corrupts witnesses and the evidence itself. Unfortunately sometimes police officers engage in criminal activity in order to convict the innocent. That goes double when it’s a police officer wrongfully accused of a crime!
Let me suggest that defense investigators trained and licensed should be given limited police powers to arrest criminal suspects and seize evidence. The courts should provide evidence lockers and laboratory testing away from police crime labs to avoid conflict of interest.
Just my opinion and thoughts. The benefit is that this simple reform another step to fairness in our deeply flawed criminal justice system. In the end it will save millions in cash and a few lives.
Cologne, Germany—An irreversible political decision was made
under the guise of humanitarianism to bring in one million refugees from
Islamic nations into Germany. The political
Left did this like they always do to bring in people they believe will keep a
majority of poor so the Socialist political agenda is realized and maintained.
These predominately Islamic refugee immigrants cannot speak
German or even English that’s widely spoken in Europe.They have no job skills other than their
cultural military killing related knowledge.They hate the Western world, its culture, Christian religion and women’s
rights.With rare exceptions, these
people can only survive from what they are given or forcibly take from the Europeans.
These Muslims are claiming that the suggestive clothing worn
by German women is an excuse brutal rape and robbery.The Islamists claim they can’t control their
sexual impulsivity when women are not covered in Burkas.Does anyone really buy that nonsense?
It was New Years and as always in the larger cities German
people gather outside to celebrate.The
young women are bundled up in warm clothing that’s hardly suggestive because of
those harsh winters.
This year was different because the crowds included large roving
groups of newly arrived, primarily North African Islamic thugs that singled out young German women,
surrounded them, ripped their clothing away, beat and gang raped them.The women were also robbed of jewelry, cell
phones, credit cards and cash. A night of planned fun became the worst night of
these women’s lives.
The police were powerless to stop this depraved horror and
investigating this after the fact in order to bring the thugs to justice is nearly
impossible.The Conservative anti-immigrant
PEGIDA movement and some hateful Neo-Nazis accurately predicted this kind of
conduct. The government’s politicians
did everything possible to mitigate and cover-up this massive immigrant
organized atrocity.Eventually however the
cat was let out of the bag.
Now that hundreds of young German woman’s lives have been
irrevocably shattered the German people are waking up that the PEGIDA movement
needs massive support.They know that
Germany cannot absorb these savage and hateful parasites.The quality of lives, property, and physical
safety of the German people has been simply gambled away so the Left could
maintain political control.
Making matters worse is that law-abiding Germans have no gun
rights and few guns.Understandably
sales of those woefully ineffective pepper spray devices right now are through
the roof.The Muslims have already
smuggled loads of military grade arms into Europe.Of course when criminals and
terrorists are involved gun control is no more effective than drug control.Gun Control and the lack of training for
Germans have placed them at the absolute mercy of Islamic thugs.
Wherever the Muslim refugees have been placed there have
been massive reports of shoplifting, robbery and similar crimes.The police cannot deal with this large scale
mess.As they evade arrest and
punishment the Islamic thugs will only become more prolific and
emboldened.
Germany must immediacy rethink gun control and look to every
nation that allows permitted concealed weapons.The statistics are very clear that those people behave themselves very
well.
Germany must beef up law enforcement resources by bringing
in trustworthy well-trained American military veterans to assist local
police.Being a veteran that was
fortunate enough to serve in Germany I know we can work well together and
better protect this nation.
The German people are learning a hard and violent lesson
here.The political Left has fooled them
once again.The refugee invaders are a
clear and present danger to Germany.Angela “Mutti” Merkel and her allies in Parliament’s political futures
are now dead.
Immigration from these Islamic nations must cease and everything
must be done to remove at least the criminal element, back where they came
from.
The German people deserve the ability to be trained with and
carry arms so they can be self-reliant.Training must include the law and liability of the justifiable use of
deadly force.
Germany must make it clear that any and all immigrants are
accountable to laws.They must behave as
guests learn the language and work.Immigrants that refuse to assimilate properly or behave must be expelled
if Germany is to continue as a leading nation.
The German people have a greater than ever reputation for
culture and kindness. These are not the
same people that allowed the Nazis to dictate for 12 years and watch their
nation get destroyed. Germany emerged as
a new nation with heart, conscience and well-deserved pride.
Flagstaff, AZ—Overnight on
the campus grounds there was an altercation between several male students.The details of the altercation remain very elusive.
We know four young men were shot, and one lad is being held right now by police
for investigation.
Right now, the dead lad and
his pals are being spoken about through tears and a way too early eulogy.Can’t we simply wait for a fact or two
before the Left Wing folks using this to promote their anti-gun political agendas?
Just who was or were the bad
guy/s here?
What we know is right now is there
was a winner of the altercation, 18 year-old Steven Jones and four losers.Colin Brough was killed.Additionally the other three that were
wounded by gunfire included, Nicholas Prato, Kyle Zientek and Nicholas
Piring.They are receiving medical
treatment at the Flagstaff Medical Center.
When police arrive to mop up
these kinds of things they are very quick to arrest any winners and put the
losers in the meat wagons.
Cops rarely witness these
altercations and must rely on their psychic abilities and wade through the
wildly conflicting statements of survivors. Hopefully at some point thereafter
they do a comprehensive and unbiased investigation.
The media is treating this like
recent campus shootings like some we’ve had where mentally disturbed armed
miscreants randomly attack people for no particular reason.In this case reporters aren’t asking the
right questions!
Here we had students out at
1:20 AM.Were they drinking and more
importantly were the four lads shot because they were attacking Steven
Jones?There is absolutely nothing wrong
with using deadly force to fend off multiple attackers.That would be justifiable in all 50
states.
If Jones violated the Gun
Free Zone ban at NAU that does not change his right to use justified deadly
force in any way.
The police have not disclosed
whether any self-defense claims were made by anyone.I don’t buy the story that the four shot by
Jones are innocent bystanders for a second!
Jones had and still has an
absolute right to remain silent.Like most
people under police investigation I doubt that Jones was savvy enough to
exercise that right.I'd make an educated
guess that he actually told police he was using self-defense to terminate the
attack.I doubt any university or
police officials want those two words (self-defense) used in connection with
this incident.
Instead they will pull out
all the stops and make victims out of the dead lad and his three shot up
pals.
Soon a lawyer will answer up
in court for Jones.Prosecutors may
still beg off from filing charges unless there is sufficient evidence of a
crime on the part of Steven Jones.
He may never be charged with a crime.However some prosecutor may want to bankrupt
Jones’ parents by forcing a criminal trial so a jury can decide who was right.
Perhaps there may be enough
evidence to charge the wounded fellows in connection with an assault on Junes.
In any event my investigative
services are available for Steven Jones if his defense is indeed self-Defense!
Town of Paradise Valley,
AZ—Some of this small but wealthy community’s politicians bought into the
baseless idea that multi-rotor camera drones were a threat to safety and
privacy.
Ignorance and the novelty of
the drones themselves motivated politicians here to make an effort to ban
drones. They thought that their residents would somehow appreciate their
efforts.
Things backfired when local relators
complained that the use of drones showcased the homes and community like never
before.Banning or over-regulating them
could damage property values and of course property tax collections.
The Town Council considered
the ban but cooler heads in that body tabled the idea at least until they had
more valid guidance and information.How
they revisit this issue remains to be seen.
As for the somewhat popular
Drone Invasion, there were no less than 700 reports of near misses with
conventional aircraft investigated by the FAA.
Not a single collision,
photo, or video has surfaced in those reports.Were these bogus reports by people seeking attention?Were they reports by some pilots seeking to
protect their jobs by slowing down the proliferation of drones that will take
their jobs?
I can’t guess what was real
or fraudulent in the much-publicized world of drones and their detractors.What we do know is their are zero fatalities,
serious injuries or significant property damage.Certainly there’s not a singe collision with
other aircraft.
There are well over two
million of these marvelous machines in the hands of teens and adults that are
gathering spectacular images for creative endeavors, journalism and marketing.
The privacy invasion and
safety fears have not been realized in any way, shape or form beyond
unsubstantiated reports that have been given far too much ink.
I fully expect as the bogus
reports begin to die down the FAA will take credit for their educational
efforts for the decline in those rogue sightings.
The fact is there must come a
point in time when the hysteria must die without some tangible evidence.
It’s interesting to note that
all FAA regulations for conventional aircraft were actually written in
blood!Yes, actual deaths and serious
crashes were behind each and every rule.
When it came to the drones
the FAA radically changed direction to enacting prior restraint guidelines and
criminalized private enterprise.This
was un-American and violates the civil rights of those wishing to operate their
drones.
Despite the threats of enforcement
and state and local efforts to police our drones, what’s lacking is a
legitimate demonstration of any misbehavior by drone operators.
The few attempts at
prosecution have fallen flat from a lack of evidence.The videos and telemetry data contained on
the drones themselves have vindicated the operators.
It’s time to move forward
with this exciting new technology.
Los Angeles, CA—This was the
initial appearance bail hearing for the two men arrested for killing Andrea
“Andy” DelVesco.
It began with an announcement
by the judge that there would be no photography, video or sketching in court.Additionally that much of the evidence
offered by the DA was privately discussed in judicial chambers and would be
sealed.
Both defendants had top gun,
privately retained defense lawyers.Dimitry
Gorim represented Alberto Medina and Steven Cron represented Eric Marques.Hiring these lawyers involves paying a very
large retainer up front.
Only a partial story was revealed
by the prosecutor and many more questions remained unanswered. These are simply allegations rather than proof.
Words never uttered in this proceeding were drugs, witness tampering or revenge killing.
For the blow-by-blow description
I made a quick iPhone video that I hope provides a window into the courtroom.
Los Angeles, CA—Students will
be sleeping easier tonight after police announced the arrests of two 22-year
old Hispanic men for killing Andrea "Andy" DelVesco.
Alberto Madina and Eric
Marquez are in custody at the Van Nuys Jail.
This is sure to be a “special
circumstance” case meaning prosecutors can ask for the death Penalty.
Yet to be offered by police is the motive
however the drug selling connection is sure to be playing a part in this
investigation.
the DelVesco girl and her two alleged killers showed promise as students of making great contributions to our world. However now we have three young lives destroyed because of our insane Drug War. How many more killings must we tolerate until we end this madness? We need to redirect our efforts to treat thoes addicted.
