Author: Derek Hawkins
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Laser-equipped helicopter zaps its first target, to defense contractor’s delight
During World War II, when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously said, “we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,” he probably had no idea that his allies on the other side of the Atlantic would one day be mounting high-powered lasers onto attack helicopters and frying targets in the blink…
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‘You are paddle-boarding next to approximately 15 great white sharks,’ chopper tells Calif. beachgoers
“You are paddle-boarding next to approximately 15 great white sharks,” Deputy Brian Stockbridge announced via a loudspeaker. Stockbridge was in a helicopter, flying off the coast of Dana Point in Orange County, Calif., at about 2 p.m. local time on Wednesday. And, indeed, swimming in the Pacific Ocean below and clearly visible from the air,…
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Army combat photographer snapped one last picture — seconds before an explosion killed her
Nearly four years ago, Spec. Hilda Clayton, a combat photographer in the U.S. Army, was documenting a live-fire exercise in Afghanistan when without warning a mortar tube accidentally exploded in front of her. Clayton, 22, was killed in the blast, along with an Afghan military photographer she was training and three Afghan National Army soldiers.…
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‘Shadow of an animal’ creeps into sleeping homeowner’s room, snatches pet dog, leaves trail of paw prints
The woman was asleep with her child in her rural California home Monday morning when her Portuguese Podengo’s barking woke her in the predawn dark. An intruder. According to police, the woman watched as a “shadow of an animal” slunk through the room’s French doors. The figure snatched the 15-pound dog from the foot of…
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To catch a killer, Vegas police leave mannequin on sidewalk – then watch as man bashes it with hammer
In the early hours of Jan 4, Las Vegas police found the body of Daniel Aldape, a 46-year-old homeless man, laying in an empty lot at an intersection near the city’s downtown, dead of head trauma. They suspected he had been killed in his sleep, bludgeoned over the head with a hammer as he lay…
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After refusing to watch LGBT diversity video, Social Security judge sues to avoid being fired
Citing his First Amendment rights and religious protections under the Civil Rights Act, a Social Security Administration judge in Texas who refused to watch an LGBT diversity training video is suing his superiors to avoid being fired, saying he was subject to a “religiously hostile work environment.” Judge Gary Suttles said in a complaint filed…
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Five malnourished kids found living in car at Walmart with healthy parents, police say
The deputy said he was on a routine patrol in Greenacres, Fla., Saturday morning when he spotted the blue Toyota in a Walmart parking lot. It wasn’t the look of the vehicle that caught his attention but the smell emanating from it — an odor “similar to that of homeless camps,” he said. Inside was a family…
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Crowd shouts racial slurs at all-black youth football team when some players kneel during anthem, coach says
Youth football coach Marcus Burkley knew there would be backlash if his players knelt during the national anthem. He just never thought it would be this severe. When three members of Burkley’s all-black team took a knee during a Saturday night game in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, people in the stands began shouting racial slurs at…
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‘Ferguson effect’? Savagely beaten cop didn’t draw gun for fear of media uproar, says Chicago police chief
A Chicago police officer who was savagely beaten at a car accident scene this week did not draw her gun on her attacker — even though she feared for her life — because she was afraid of the media attention that would come if she shot him, the city’s police chief said Thursday. Chicago Police…