SEPTEMBER 15, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS


FLORENCE

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tropical-storm-florence-latest-weather-forecast-path-flood-zone-warnings-live-updates-today-2018-09-15/
CBS/AP September 15, 2018, 1:16 AM
Florence: Tropical Storm besieges North and South Carolina

VIDEO – Florence blamed for five deaths 40:38 duration

WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Tropical Storm Florence already has proven deadly with its nearly nonstop rain, surging seawater and howling winds. The threats are days from ending as remnants from what was a major hurricane swirl over North and South Carolina.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper called Florence an "uninvited brute" that could wipe out entire communities as it grinds its way across land.

"The fact is this storm is deadly and we know we are days away from an ending," Cooper said.

Five people are confirmed dead from storm-related incidents, including a mother and baby who were killed when a tree fell on a house, according to authorities. Earlier, 7 deaths were reported, but Amanda Tesch, a public information officer with Carteret County, North Carolina, said Emergency Services Director Stephen Rea was incorrect to categorize two deaths as storm-related.

Florence peaked at a terrifying Category 4 with top winds of 140 mph over warm ocean water before making landfall Friday as a Category 1 hurricane at 7:15 a.m. at Wrightsville Beach, a few miles east of Wilmington and not far from the South Carolina line. By late Saturday morning, top sustained winds weakened to 45 mph as it crawled farther inland, heading west at 2 mph. Its center was located about 40 miles west of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, at 11. a.m ET.

But it was clear that this was really about the water, not the wind.

Florence could dump a staggering 18 trillion gallons of rain over a week on North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Maryland, meteorologist Ryan Maue of weathermodels.com calculated. That's enough to fill the Chesapeake Bay, or cover the entire state of Texas with nearly 4 inches of water.

North Carolina alone is forecast to get 9.6 trillion gallons, enough to cover the Tar Heel state to a depth of about 10 inches.

Photograph -- Water from the Neuse river floods houses during the passing of Hurricane Florence in the town of New Bern, North Carolina, U.S., September 14, 2018. EDUARDO MUNOZ/REUTERS

With tropical storm-force winds swirling 350 miles wide, Florence continued deluging North and South Carolina on Saturday morning after pushing surging seas far ashore. Forecasters warned that drenching rains totaling up to 3.5 feet could trigger epic flooding well inland through early next week.

The preliminary rainfall total in the North Carolina town of Swansboro stood at 30.58 inches as of noon Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. Newport, Morehead City and Emerald Isle have gotten more than 23 inches of rain.

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NWS Eastern Region
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Updated preliminary rainfall reports from Florence received as of noon Saturday. Heavy rain continues in many of these areas.

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North Carolina's Harnett County declared a mandatory evacuation along a river that's expected to rise to more than 17 feet above flood stage. On its Facebook page, the county said the evacuation was in effect Saturday along the Lower Little River near the Cumberland County line.

The National Weather Service is forecasting the river to crest at Manchester at 35.4 feet at about 8 a.m. Monday. Flood stage is 18 feet. The previous record crest was 29 feet set during Hurricane Matthew in 2016. The river is forecast to reach flood stage sometime after 2 a.m. Sunday.

In New Bern, North Carolina, rescue crews used boats to carry more than 360 people from rising water. One of them was Sadie Marie Holt, 67, who first tried to row out of her neighborhood during Florence's assault.

"The wind was so hard, the waters were so hard ... We got thrown into mailboxes, houses, trees," said Holt, who had stayed at home because of a doctor's appointment that was later canceled. She was eventually rescued by a boat crew.

"More than 100 people still require rescue and we have three rescue teams who are working around the clock to get into communities to retrieve people," the city of New Bern said in a Facebook post early Saturday morning.

Florence flattened trees, buckled buildings and crumpled roads. The storm knocked out power to nearly 930,000 homes and businesses, and the number could keep rising.

Storm surges -- the bulge of ocean water pushed ashore by the hurricane -- were as high as 10 feet.

Summary of watches and warnings in effect at 8 a.m. ET Saturday:
A Storm Surge Warning is in effect for:
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina
Pamlico Sound, including the Neuse and Pamlico Rivers
A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for:
Edisto Beach, South Carolina, to Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina
Pamlico Sound

The National Hurricane said early Saturday that a "combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline." It said water has the potential to reach the following levels:

The Neuse, Pamlico, Pungo and Bay Rivers: 3-5 ft
Ocracoke Inlet N.C. to Cape Lookout N.C: 2-4 ft
Cape Lookout N.C. to Cape Fear N.C: 3-5 ft
Cape Fear N.C. to Myrtle Beach S.C.: 2-4 ft

At times, Florence was moving forward no faster than a human can walk, and it has remained such a wide storm that its counter-clockwise winds keep scooping up massive amounts of moisture from the sea. The flooding began on barrier islands in North Carolina and then spread into coastal and river communities there and in South Carolina, swamping the white sands and golf courses in North Myrtle Beach.

For people living inland in North and South Carolina, maximum peril could come days later as all that water drains, overflowing rivers and causing flash floods.

Authorities warned, too, of risks of mudslides and environmental disasters from floodwaters washing over industrial waste sites and hog farms. About 9,700 National Guard troops and civilians were deployed with high-water vehicles, helicopters and boats.

In Jacksonville, North Carolina, next to Camp Lejeune, firefighters and police fought wind and rain as they went door to door to pull more than 60 people out as the Triangle Motor Inn began to crumble.

The hurricane center said the storm will eventually break up over the southern Appalachians and make a right hook to the northeast, its rainy remnants moving into the mid-Atlantic states and New England by the middle of next week.

Florence could become a major test for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was heavily criticized as slow and unprepared last year for Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, where the death toll was put at nearly 3,000.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.


WATCH THIS CBS VIDEO OF LIFE ON THE SCENE AT JACKSONVILLE, NC. THE RESCUE WORKERS ARE VERY INTERESTING TO WATCH AND THE FEELINGS AND IMPRESSIONS OF THE RESIDENTS ARE MOVING. THIS IS THE PICTURE OF THE TRUE IMPACT OF SUCH A STORM, AND NOT JUST THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS THAT WILL BE REQUIRED TO CLEAN THINGS UP AFTERWARD.

https://www.cbsnews.com/live/video/20180914231824-floodwaters-rise-in-jacksonville-north-carolina/?ftag=CNM15cf32c


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ROBERT MUELLER’S PROGRESS ON THE MANAFORT CASE

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/robert-muellers-real-quest-here-is-for-the-truth-how-paul-manaforts-plea-brings-the-special-counsel-probe-closer-to-its-end-game/2018/09/15/3fc75b92-b84a-11e8-a7b5-adaaa5b2a57f_story.html
National Security
‘Robert Mueller’s real quest here is for the truth’: How Paul Manafort’s plea brings the special counsel probe closer to its end game

PHOTOGRAPH -- By Matt Zapotosky, Carol D. Leonnig and
Ashley Parker
September 15, 2018 at 1:27 PM

First came George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser who was arrested by the FBI when he stepped off a plane at Dulles International Airport and soon agreed to help the special counsel’s office as part of a plea agreement.

Then there was Michael Flynn, the president’s former national security adviser who admitted he lied to the bureau and would now be cooperating with Robert S. Mueller III’s team to make things right.

Next to fall was Rick Gates, Trump’s former deputy campaign chairman who conceded he conspired to defraud the United States and tried to deceive investigators looking into his overseas work.

One by one, the special counsel’s office methodically turned allies of president Trump into witnesses for its investigation — irking the commander in chief so much that he has suggested the commonplace law-enforcement tactic “almost ought to be illegal.” But former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had long eluded Mueller’s team, with his resistance to a plea deal so intense that some in law enforcement figured he must know he would soon receive a pardon.

On Friday, though, the special counsel finally nabbed his white whale. Manafort, whose role in the Trump campaign and ties to a Russian-aligned strongman and a suspected Russian intelligence agent make him an enticing cooperator, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice. As part of his agreement with prosecutors, he said he would tell the special counsel’s office all that he knows.

[Manafort will cooperate with Mueller as part of guilty plea, prosecutor says]

Manafort’s plea could be a key cog in pushing Mueller’s case toward its ultimate end. Legal analysts say Manafort must have something valuable to share with Mueller’s team, which agreed to drop five of the seven charges he faced and potentially urge leniency at his sentencing, if his cooperation is helpful.

Generally, those who plead guilty sit down with prosecutors to detail what they know in a “proffer” session, so the government knows what it will get in the bargain. Manafort’s plea makes reference to a written proffer agreement on Tuesday — showing he has been in talks with the special counsel’s office at least for several days.

Whether Manafort ultimately implicates the president remains to be seen. Manafort’s defenders and Trump’s lawyers have long insisted that the political consultant, who left the campaign in August 2016, had no information that would incriminate Trump.

“I think Robert Mueller’s real quest here is for the truth, and Paul Manafort can get him closer to knowing the truth,” former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade* said.

Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani said Friday that it would [sic] impossible for Manafort’s cooperation with Mueller’s office to imperil the president. That is because Trump and Manafort continued to have a joint defense agreement — an informal arrangement among lawyers to share information — which Manafort would have to cancel if he believed his cooperation could expose Trump to legal jeopardy, Giuliani said.

Inside the White House on Friday after the plea, the mood was “oddly calm,” said one Republican in frequent touch with officials there. A number of people had expected some sort of agreement, and Trump’s legal team recognized it couldn’t control Manafort’s desire to avoid a second trial after being convicted on eight of 18 counts in a related case in Virginia last month.

Trump himself has not yet addressed the plea directly.

The charges to which Manafort pleaded guilty had nothing to do with the president. Rather, they focused on Manafort’s personal money laundering, failure to register as a foreign agent for work he did on behalf of Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian former president of Ukraine, and obstructing justice with Konstantin Kilimnik, whom prosecutors have linked to Russian intelligence.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders noted that point in a statement responding to the development.

“This had absolutely nothing to do with the President or his victorious 2016 Presidential campaign,” she said.

But while the White House projected confidence about its position, some officials privately acknowledged that they could not be sure what Manafort might expose about the campaign or about interactions with Russians.

Manafort was a participant in the now-infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, where the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, sat down with a Russian lawyer thinking they would get damaging information on Hillary Clinton. He also was a part of the Trump campaign when the Republican Party platform was changed in a way viewed as more favorable to Russia because it did not include support for arming Ukraine.

“I think he potentially knows a lot of information, just in light of his role as the campaign chairman during that crucial time during the summer of 2016,” said McQuade, who watched much of Manafort’s first trial.

Manafort’s plea agreement short-circuited a trial in the District that was scheduled to begin in coming days with jury selection. He instead agreed to admit wrongdoing and cooperate fully with Mueller, turning over any documents that may be relevant to the special counsel’s investigation and testifying in any proceedings where that might be necessary. He also agreed to give up five properties and a handful of financial accounts.

Having already been convicted in Virginia, Manafort’s cooperation might be the best way for him to reduce his time in prison. He faces roughly 10 years in the D.C. case and perhaps another 10 in Virginia — though he would probably be able to serve those together, particularly if prosecutors urge judges to go easy on him.

So far, the special counsel’s office has charged 32 people, and six have pleaded guilty. Though Mueller has shrouded his probe in secrecy, he is pushing to wrap up a substantial portion of his investigative work soon and is referring cases to U.S. attorney’s offices that can handle prosecutions once the special counsel probe is disbanded, according to those familiar with Mueller’s work who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive legal deliberations.

[For Mueller, pushing to finish parts of Russia probe, question of American involvement remains]

A grand jury still seems to be actively investigating Trump associate Roger Stone, and the special counsel’s office is still negotiating with the president’s legal team over the possibility of interviewing Trump himself. Stone said in a statement after the plea: “I am uncertain of the details of Paul’s plea deal but certain it has no bearing on me since neither Paul Manafort or anyone else can testify truthfully that I am involved in Russian collusion, WikiLeaks collaboration or any other illegal act pertaining to the 2016 election.”

Trump and the special counsel’s office could come to a resolution at any moment on Trump answering questions, those involved in the discussions say, but remain at the same basic standstill. Trump’s lawyers don’t want their client to sit down for a face-to-face interview out of fear he would be accused of perjury.

In early August, Mueller offered to reduce the scope of questions he would pose, but Trump’s team ultimately rejected the offer, saying it considered questioning the president about possible obstruction of justice to be legally inappropriate. Just before Labor Day, Mueller notified Trump’s lawyers that he would accept written answers to some questions about the campaign and would delay making a decision for now about seeking answers from the president about his time in the White House. Mueller is interested in that later period as part of his probe of whether Trump tried to obstruct the Russia investigation.

While Manafort had previously seemed to be posturing for a pardon — the president praised him on Twitter as a “brave man” after he fought prosecutors at the Virginia trial — it was not immediately clear whether Manafort would be able to maintain that effort after his plea.

Earlier this summer, Trump had sought his lawyer’s advice on pardoning his former aides, including Manafort. But Giuliani said he counseled Trump that he shouldn’t consider such a pardon until after Mueller’s investigation was completed, and the president understood. “He agreed with us,” Giuliani told The Washington Post last month.

Giuliani declined Friday to say whether Trump is leaning toward pardoning Manafort.

“It’s not something to be considered during a pending investigation. The president shares that view,” he said. “That’s our advice to him, and there is no reason to believe he’s changed his mind on it.”

Manuel Roig-Franzia contributed to this report.


HERE IS SOME BACKGROUND ON BARBARA MCQUAID AND HER EXPERIENCES SINCE TRUMP WAS ELECTED. HER LIFE SINCE BEING SUMMARILY FIRED (TRUMP’S FAVORITE METHOD) IS BY NO MEANS BAD. SHE IS, INSTEAD A CELEBRITY. WATCH THIS VIDEO. IT’S VERY INTERESTING.

https://wdet.org/posts/2017/12/26/86188-former-us-attorney-barbara-mcquade-talks-about-life-changing-2017/
Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade Talks About Life-Changing 2017
Dec. 26, 2017

VIDEO -- McQuade has had a notable year since President Trump’s administration dismissed her from her federal position in March. Duration 51:40
PHOTOGRAPH -- Barbara McQuade (right) with Stephen Henderson (left)

2017 has been an interesting year — and there are several people from Michigan who have had standout years.

Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson spends the end of the year talking with a few individuals who were at the center of some of those notable moments in their lives and careers in 2017.

Barbara McQuade is the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. McQuade reached local and national prominence several years ago as the prosecutor in the trial of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Since then, she’s become a criminal and civil law lecturer at the University of Michigan.

Click here to hear McQuade’s interview earlier this month on Detroit Today about her involvement in the Kilpatrick trial

And she’s now frequently a national analyst for national media outlets when they discuss proceedings of the Department of Justice, including recent high-profile investigations such as the probe into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election.

The reason McQuade is now in the private sector is because the Trump Administration dismissed her from that position. This was in tandem with the firing of other Obama-era federal attorneys after Trump’s inauguration earlier this year. McQuade and those other attorneys were told — suddenly — to pack up and leave their offices.

It’s with that moment in March that Detroit Today host Stephen Henderson begins his conversation with McQuade.

Click on the audio player above to hear the full conversation.
Image credit: Jake Neher/WDET
Aired on: Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson


THESE SORTS OF TOTALLY WACKY THINGS ARE USUALLY DONE BY BOYS AND NOT BY GIRLS. MOST GIRLS BY THAT AGE HAVE ENOUGH COMMON SENSE NOT TO DO IT. SOME KIDS DO HAVE LESS “IMPULSE CONTROL” THAN THEY NEED. RARELY IS IT DONE OUT OF REAL HATRED, BUT JEALOUSY MAY BE THERE. STILL, BY 18 YEARS OF AGE SHE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER. A GREAT MANY “BULLYING” INCIDENTS ARE LIKE THIS. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE ACTUAL IQ OF THE KIDS WHO DO THE BULLYING AND GOADING. THEY ALMOST CERTAINLY NEED PSYCHIATRIC MEDICATION AND COUNSELING. I DON'T THINK THEIR PARENTS SHOULD BEAT THEM FOR THEIR BEHAVIOR, BUT THEY SHOULD BE REFERRED FOR COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL HELP.

I WILL ALSO MENTION ONE THING THAT IS ADMITTEDLY MY OWN PERSONAL PREJUDICE, BUT WHENEVER I SEE A CHILD NAMED SOMETHING LIKE “TAY’LOR,” I SUSPECT THAT THEY HAVE NOT BEEN GIVEN A DOWN TO EARTH HOME UPBRINGING. OF COURSE, YOU CAN’T FIND MANY GIRLS WHO ARE NAMED MARY OR ALICE ANYMORE. THAT’S JUST NOT THE NAME OF A SUPER STAR; AND THAT’S THE PARENT’S BORDERLINE PSYCHOLOGY AT WORK, RATHER THAN THE GIRL’S. SHE MAY WELL HAVE WISHED MANY TIMES WITH HER FELLOW SCHOOL KIDS THAT HER NAME WAS GRACEFUL AND “NORMAL,” RATHER THAN EXOTIC OR OTHERWISE FLASHY.

THIS IS IN THE CATEGORY OF THOSE KIDDIE BEAUTY QUEEN CONTESTS WITH FIVE YEAR-OLDS DRESSED LIKE PROSTITUTES AND SMIRKING FOR THE CAMERA. KIDS NEED TO START OUT WITH SOME SENSE OF THEIR PLACE IN A LOGICAL SETTING. REALITY SHOW TV IS NOT LOGICAL. BEING SENSIBLE IS LEARNED. I WORKED WITH A WOMAN WHO HAD DONE THAT WITH HER DAUGHTER, AND SHE SAID THAT SHE DID IT TO GIVE HER CHILD MORE SELF-CONFIDENCE. WELL, OKAY I GUESS, BUT I THINK THE SELF-CONFIDENCE TO BE HERSELF IS WHAT SHE REALLY NEEDS. THERE IS SO MUCH SOCIAL PRESSURE THESE DAYS THAT IT IS REALLY UNHEALTHY. THAT’S ONE OF THE DOZENS OF WAYS THAT AMERICA HAS LOST HER WAY.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tay-lor-smith-in-court-accused-of-pushing-jordan-holgerson-off-bridge/
CBS/AP September 8, 2018, 8:34 PM
Teen accused of pushing friend off bridge appears in court

VANCOUVER, Wash. -- An 18-year-old woman charged with reckless endangerment for allegedly pushing her 16-year-old friend off a bridge has made her first court appearance. The Aug. 7 shove at Moulton Falls, northeast of Vancouver, Washington, was captured on video that went viral.

Tay'Lor Smith was arraigned Friday morning in Clark County District Court. The Columbian reports she pleaded not guilty. Reckless endangerment is a gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail.

Jordan Holgerson, the teen who fell 60 feet, suffered injuries ranging from broken ribs to punctured lungs.

On Friday a judge granted Smith supervised release. She is not to have contact with Holgerson. Another court hearing was scheduled for Dec. 4.

In one video, a woman is shown urging Holgerson to jump. In it, a woman tells Holgerson to "just go" and "I'm going to push you."

Video that was posted earlier on YouTube and later removed shows Holgerson standing on the bridge with friends. Then a woman is seen forcefully pushing her off the span.

Jordan's sister, Vanessa, told CBS Portland affiliate KOIN she believed Smith "tried to do it jokingly and didn't think what could have happened."

"You don't really play around at 60 feet," Vanessa said.

Jordan told reporters after the incident that she was happy to have survived.

According to KOIN, Jordan said that as she was falling, she "wasn't thinking about anything, just what to do. What am I supposed to do?"

She did say that while she was in the air she tried "to push myself straight so my feet would hit first. That didn't work."

When she hit the water, she said she "couldn't breathe. So that's all I was thinking about."

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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THIS WILL BE BAD ADVERTISING FOR THE BORDER PATROL, BUT I’VE READ A GOOD DEAL ABOUT SERIAL KILLERS. WHEN I SEE ESSENTIAL EVIL, IT ALWAYS FASCINATES ME. LUCKILY, THEY DON’T USUALLY COME IN GROUPS UNLESS SOMETHING DRAWS THEM TO THE SAME PLACE OR SITUATION – LIKE PEDOPHILES HIRED BY CASH STRAPPED SCHOOL SYSTEMS, AND CORRUPT PRIESTS DRAWN TO A LIVING SITUATION WITH NO WOMEN. THERE HAS BEEN TALK ABOUT ALLOWING PRIESTS TO MARRY. I FEEL SURE THAT SOME OF THE SEXUAL ABUSE WOULD STOP IF THAT WERE THE CASE.

THESE NEXT SEVERAL ARTICLES ON SERIAL KILLINGS SINCE THE 1960S GIVE GOOD THEORIES ON THE CAUSES OF THE EXTREME UPTICK IN CASES IN THE USA SINCE WWII. PERSONALLY, I THINK ONE OF THE MAIN CAUSES OF IT IS THE PRESSURE ON YOUNG MINDS, MAINLY THROUGH RELIGION, TO MAKE THEM FEAR NICE, NORMAL, HEALTHY, HAPPY AND GOOD LOVE MAKING. FEARING THAT, THEY SEEK THE HORRORS THAT SERIAL KILLERS SO ENJOY. THE TROUBLE WITH TRUE EVIL IS THAT IS SITS RIGHT BESIDE THE GOOD IN OUR MINDS.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45537642
US 'serial killer' border agent arrested in Texas
SEPTEMBER 15, 2018 9:24 PM

PHOTOGRAPH – BORDER PATROL AIRPLANE GETTY IMAGES

A US Border Patrol agent has been arrested in the state of Texas on suspicion of killing four prostitutes, reports say.

Officers were looking for Juan David Ortiz after a fifth woman escaped from him and contacted police, AP reported.

Mr Ortiz fled but was arrested in a hotel parking lot in the city of Laredo.

Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar said police believed Mr Ortiz had acted alone.

"The county, the city can rest assured we have the serial killer in custody," Sheriff Cuellar said. He was quoted by the Laredo Times newspaper.

He said investigators had "very strong evidence" that Mr Ortiz was behind the killings.

District Attorney Isidro Alaniz said Mr Ortiz, who had been with the Border Patrol for 10 years, was set to face four charges of murder and one of aggravated kidnapping.

Two of the victims were found earlier on Saturday and on Friday evening.

Why were there so many serial killers in the 1980s?
Golden State Killer suspect traced

On Thursday a 42-year-old woman was found critically injured by the side of a highway and died in hospital.

The body of a 29-year-old mother-of-two was found on 4 September, the Laredo Times said.

Mr Alaniz said the cause of death was similar in each case. He said all the women worked as prostitutes and investigators were trying to find a motive for the killings.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgrMmwwG8S0
JUDY COLLINS – PRETTY POLLY

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45324622
Why were there so many serial killers in the 1980s?
By Jessica Murphy
BBC News, Toronto
31 August 2018

PHOTOGRAPH -- A woman views photographs set up as a memorial for victims of the serial killer dubbed the 'Grim Sleeper'

Over three decades in the late 20th century, there was a rise in serial homicides in North America. One historian asks whether the ravages of World War Two were a factor.

Peter Vronsky's fascination with serial killers began when, at 23, he bumped into one in a lift.

It was 1979, and the Canadian historian was in New York City for work.

He was impatiently waiting for the lift, which was stalled on the fourth floor of the seedy Travel Inn Motor Hotel, and shot a dirty look at the man who bumped his shoulder as he left the elevator that had finally arrived in the lobby.

"He kind of just saw through me," says Vronsky. "He looked like a guy in a daze. It's as if I wasn't there."

The next morning, Vronsky read about an horrific double murder and mutilation that had taken place in the hotel the previous day.

It was a year later, seeing newspaper coverage on the arrest and trial of Richard Cottingham, that he finally realised that the "Butcher of Times Square" and the man in the lift were one and the same.

It made him wonder: "Where did these monsters come from? What are these things?"

Image copyrightCOURTESY PETER VRONSKY
Image caption
Canadian historian Peter Vronsky researches serial killings

Vronsky's encounter with Cottingham came during a serial killing peak in North America over a three-decade period.

Data compiled by various researchers suggest a rise in serial killings starting in the late 1960s, peaking in the 80s - when there were at least 200 such murderers operating in the United States alone - and a subsequent downward trend over the next two decades.

Criminologist James Alan Fox, with Northeastern University in Boston, said that the rise in serial killings in that era - the time of when the likes of Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy were stalking the streets in the US - likely had several roots.

First, that period coincided with a general increase in violent crime in the US and Canada.

Image caption
A police reward poster shows photofit pictures of the suspect

Society at the time was undergoing major changes - people were moving more and were less likely to know their neighbours. Hitchhiking was more common, making it easier for killers to find vulnerable victims.

Crime tracking, highways, and lead exposure

"It just created an environment which was ideal for certain killers to prey on victims," Fox says.

Crime detection also lagged behind.

Police lacked large-scale computerised databases and investigative data banks that could help them link similar crimes. DNA wasn't used until the mid-1980s for forensic purposes, making it harder to track killers.

Image copyrightPOOL/REUTERS
Image caption
Authorities said Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was identified by DNA as the Golden State Killer

The use of familial DNA recently led to the arrest of Joseph DeAngelo, 72, suspected of being the so-called Golden State Killer, blamed for a spate of murders and rapes in the 1970s and 1980s.

Why I failed to catch Canada's worst serial killer
The Yorkshire Ripper and the unsolved Swedish murders
The 40-year hunt for a killer

Canadian criminologist Michael Arntfield says police at the time were out of their depth when it came to tackling the rising number of serial killings, and research around these types of homicides - committed by calculating killers - was in its infancy. The term "serial killer" was only coined in the early 1980s.

"The offenders certainly had a head start," he says.

Other factors theorised to have contributed include the media and public fascination with serial murder creating a snowball effect; the development of an interstate highway system, which gave some killers a wider geography to roam and kill; and, related to the overall increase in crime, lead exposure from petrol.

Image copyrightGOOGLE
Image caption
The FBI has monitored crime patterns along the Interstate Highway System in the US

Vronsky has another hypothesis to add to the list: he believes the rise of the North American serial killer in the late 20th century can be traced to the ravages of World War Two, which lasted from 1939 to 1945, and the children of men returning from battlefields in Europe and the Pacific.

It's an idea he put forward in his newly published book Sons of Cain: A History of Serial Killers.

Searching for reasons behind the glut of serial murders over three decades, Vronsky looked at the killers and their childhoods.

"Serial killers come from among us - they come out of our society," he said.

"These are not aliens that arrive from another planet. They're children who grow up to become these serial offenders."

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991

He realised that many were children during World War Two and the ensuing post-war era - a time when the psychological impact of the global conflict and its savagery was not being discussed.

It was a war that "was far more vicious and primitive than we have been able to acknowledge", Vronsky says.

Many of the killers from that period have not spoken on the record about their fathers, he said, but those that have often referred to them coming back from the war in a traumatised state.

He said there was a less pronounced but noticeable increase in serial killings from 1935 to 1950, following World War One, and hopes sociologists and criminologists look more closely at the war experiences of the fathers of these killers, and their paternal relationships.

Image copyrightEPA
Image caption
The FBI was one of the law enforcement agencies to look into the causes of serial killing

Vronsky also pointed to popular culture of the post-war era as a contributing factor, specifically the pulp fiction and true crime magazines that were widely sold across North America with covers that often depicted violent sexualised imagery.

"At the core of it is trauma, familial breakdown, and then a cultural scripting of the fantasy [they later act out]," he said.

Living in the shadow of an unsolved murder
The mystery of Toronto's gay village killings

It's a plausible theory, says Arntfield, noting there was a "major upheaval going on in society" in the post-war decades.

"The surge in suburbs and the complete makeover of the demography of the country lead to a lot of transience, a lot of mobility, a lot of broken families, which is where many of these people came from," he said.

'Biblical evil'
Arntfield, like Vronsky, believe there are similar trends in this century - social upheaval, the 2008 financial meltdown, wars and terrorism - that might spur a similar phenomenon in the coming decades.

Image copyrightPOOL/GETTY IMAGES
Image caption
The sister of Green River Killer victim Debra Estes, speaks in court during the sentencing of Gary Ridgway

"We are living in the throes of an equally tumultuous and polarising time. And that immediately gave way to the 'golden age' of the serial killer," Arntfield says.

Of course, many veterans returning from war became great fathers, children of men traumatised from battle grew into emotionally healthy adults, as did many children from broken homes.

"We're not entirely sure when and why that switch gets thrown," Arntfield says.

A report from the FBI's behavioural unit notes that "there is no single identifiable cause or factor that leads to the development of a serial killer. Rather, there are a multitude of factors that contribute to their development.

"The most significant factor is the serial killer's personal decision in choosing to pursue their crimes".

The FBI estimates that less than 1% of all murders in a given year are committed by serial killers.

"It's a cocktail of things, it's never one thing," Vronsky says, of what in the end, spurs these killers to commit homicide.

"That's why I think it's even too early to write off old-fashioned Biblical evil, whatever that might be."


“THE GOLDEN AGE OF SERIAL MURDERERS....”

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2011/01/blood_loss.html
CRIME
MURDER, THEFT, AND OTHER WICKEDNESS. JAN. 5 2011 6:32 PM
Blood Loss
The decline of the serial killer.
By Christopher Beam

When it came to serial killing, Stephen Griffiths did everything by the book. He targeted prostitutes in the slums of Bradford, a city in Northern England. He chose a unique murder weapon: a crossbow. He claimed to have eaten parts of his victims—two of them cooked, one of them raw. "I'm misanthropic," he told police investigators when he was finally caught in 2010. "I don't have much time for the human race." When he appeared in court, he gave his name as the "crossbow cannibal." It was as if he'd studied up on the art of serial murder. (In fact, he had: Griffiths was a part-time Ph.D. student at Bradford University, where he was studying criminology.) And yet, for all his efforts, he got only one short blurb in the New York Times when he was sentenced last month.

Serial killers just aren't the sensation they used to be. They haven't disappeared, of course. Last month, Suffolk County, N.Y., police found the bodies of four women dumped near a beach in Long Island. Philadelphia police have attributed the murders of three women in the city's Kensington neighborhood to one "Kensington Strangler." On Tuesday, an accused serial stabber in Flint, Mich., filed an insanity plea.

But the number of serial murders seems to be dwindling, as does the public's fascination with them. "It does seem the golden age of serial murderers is probably past," says Harold Schechter, a professor at Queens College of the City University of New York who studies crime.

Statistics on serial murder are hard to come by—the FBI doesn't keep numbers, according to a spokeswoman—but the data we do have suggests serial murders peaked in the 1980s and have been declining ever since. James Alan Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern University and co-author of Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder, keeps a database of confirmed serial murderers starting in 1900. According to his count, based on newspaper clippings, books, and Web sources, there were only a dozen or so serial killers before 1960 in the United States. Then serial killings took off: There were 19 in the 1960s, 119 in the '70s, and 200 in the '80s. In the '90s, the number of cases dropped to 141. And the 2000s saw only 61 serial murderers. (Definitions of serial murder" vary, but Fox defines it as "a string of four or more homicides committed by one or a few perpetrators that spans a period of days, weeks, months, or even years." To avoid double-counting, he assigns killers to the decade in which they reached the midpoint of their careers.)

Trends in Serial Killing.

There are plenty of structural explanations for the rise of reported serial murders through the 1980s. Data collection and record-keeping improved, making it easier to find cases of serial murder. Law enforcement developed more sophisticated methods of investigation, enabling police to identify linkages between cases—especially across states—that they would have otherwise ignored. The media's growing obsession with serial killers in the 1970s and '80s may have created a minor snowball effect, offering a short path to celebrity.

But those factors don't explain away the decline in serial murders since 1990. If anything, they make it more significant. Then why the down trend? It's hard to say. Better law enforcement could have played a role, as police catch would-be serial killers after their first crime. So could the increased incarceration rate, says Fox: "Maybe they're still behind bars." Whatever the reason, the decline in serial murders tracks with a dramatic drop in overall violent crime since the '80s. (One caveat: The numbers for the 2000s may skew low, since some serial killers haven't been caught yet.)

As the raw numbers have declined, the media have paid less attention, too. Sure, you've still got the occasional Beltway sniper or Grim Sleeper who terrorizes a community. But nothing in the last decade has captured the popular imagination like the sex-addled psychopaths of the '70s and '80s, such as Ted Bundy (feigned injuries to win sympathy before killing women; about 30 victims), John Wayne Gacy (stored bodies in his ceiling crawlspace; 33 victims), or Jeffrey Dahmer (kept body parts in his closet and freezer; 17 victims). These crimes caused media frenzies in part because of the way they tapped into the obsessions and fears of the time: Bundy, a golden boy who worked on Nelson Rockefeller's presidential campaign in Seattle, seemed to represent the evil lurking beneath America's cheery exterior. Gacy, who dressed up as a clown and preyed on teenage boys, was every parent's nightmare. "Son of Sam" David Berkowitz milked—and, in so doing, mocked—the media's obsession with serial killers by sending a letter to New York Daily News reporter Jimmy Breslin.

The media returned the favor, inflating the perception that serial killers were everywhere and repeating the erroneous statistic that there were 5,000 serial murder victims every year. These horror stories were not exactly discouraged by the FBI, one of whose agents coined the term "serial killer" in 1981. (The phrase "serial murderer" first appeared in 1961, in a review of Fritz Lang's M, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.) The perception of a serial murder epidemic also led to the creation of the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime in 1981.

Infamous crimes almost always needle the anxieties of their periods. The murder of a 14-year-old boy by University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb in 1924 captured the growing obsession with modern psychiatry, as the pair considered themselves examples of Nietzsche's Übermensch, unbound by moral codes. A series of child abductions in the 1920s and '30s, from the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders to the killing of Charles Lindbergh's son, became a symbol of societal decay during the Depression. Charles Manson, who presided over the Tate murders in 1969, embodied a sexual revolution gone mad. The Columbine massacre preyed on parental fears of the effects of violent movies and video games.

Conversely, sensational crimes that don't play into a larger societal narrative fade away. In 1927, Andrew Kehoe detonated three bombs at a school in Bath Township, Mich., killing 38 children and seven adults, including Kehoe—one of the largest cases of domestic terrorism before the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. The disaster made headlines, but was soon eclipsed by Charles Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight. "It was a crime that was ahead of its time," says Schechter.

Indeed, if something like the Bath School massacre happened today, it would probably resonate more deeply than it did in the 1920s. What child abductors were to the '20s and serial killers were to the '70s and '80s, terrorists are to the early 21st century. After 9/11, fear of social unraveling has been replaced by anxiety over airplanes, bombs, and instant mass annihilation. Stephen Griffiths isn't the new Jeffrey Dahmer. The Times Square bomber is.

Like Slate on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

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FIRST, I REALLY WANT TO GET THIS OFF MY CHEST. THERE IS A TREND AMONG NEWS SOURCES RECENTLY TO GIVE NEITHER THE WRITER’S NAME NOR THE DATE. THIS ARTICLE IS A CASE IN POINT. I CAN DO WITHOUT THE WRITER, BUT NO DATE IS SO SILLY AND ANNOYING. I DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO GET OUT A CALENDAR TO FIND OUT WHAT THE BLINKING DATE WAS! PLEASE, GUYS! SHAPE UP!!!

SECONDLY, THOUGH, THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST NEWS ARTICLES I’VE SEEN IN QUITE A WHILE. IF I FIND AN ARTICLE THAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPY I WILL ALWAYS CLIP IT. THIS ONE IS EXCELLENT. THIS IS THE SPOONFUL OF SUGAR TO MAKE THE MEDICINE GO DOWN! BE SURE TO LOOK AT THE PHOTOGRAPHS.

http://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/2018/09/15/michigan-high-school-seniors-sport-costumes-for-hilarious-id-photos.html
Michigan high school seniors sport costumes for hilarious ID photos
LIFESTYLE 4 hours ago SEPTEMBER 15, 2018
Janine Puhak By Janine Puhak | Fox News

PHOTOGRAPH -- The twelfth graders of North Farmington High School went all-out for the annual tradition. (@v_boyadjian/Twitter)

The senior class of one Michigan high school went all-out for a hilarious school tradition of epically dressing up as famous cinematic characters and celebrities for their student ID photos, in a series of images that have since gone viral online.

On September 13, the 12th graders of North Farmington High School in Farmington Hills shared photos of their creative student IDs for the new school year on Twitter, where some have received upwards of 60,000 likes.

View image on TwitterView image on Twitter

Վիկթորիա
@v_boyadjian*

Yer a wizard Harry! #NFID19

22.3K
9:01 AM - Sep 13, 2018 · Farmington Hills, MI
3,686 people are talking about this
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Dressing up as everyone from Hagrid of "Harry Potter" to Cardi B, Dwight from "The Office", Colonel Sanders of KFC, Elle Woods of “Legally Blonde”, Bob Ross, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and more, both students and teachers got in on the fun, the Huffington Post reports.

View image on TwitterView image on Twitter

kstaff
@kastafford1230
“my momma said i can’t spinanight cuz you got roaches” #NFID19

19K
11:00 AM - Sep 13, 2018
5,512 people are talking about this
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View image on TwitterView image on Twitter

Erik Elwell
@elwell_erik
“Identity theft is not a joke, Jim!” #NFID19


THERE ARE MORE OF THESE TWITTER COMMENTS, BUT THEY DEGENERATE RAPIDLY ON THE SCALE OF INTELLIGIBILITY.