Crime

Nutjob anti-gay and anti-abortion activist Rives Miller Grogan pleaded guilty to disrupting the Supreme Court’s Obergefell hearing back in September. Today he was sentenced to 21 days in jail and ordered to stay away from the court building for one year. Via the Washington Post: Grogan, 50, of Mansfield, Tex., pleaded guilty in September to one misdemeanor charge of unlawful …

Authorities have begun releasing the names of the 14 people murdered yesterday in San Bernardino. Among those killed was a local gay man who trained disabled adults to work in the Inland Regional Center’s coffee shop. The Los Angeles Times has published a heartbreaking account of how the news was finally broken to the victim’s boyfriend. Their story begins: Ryan …

Late last night the Council For Islamic Relations held a joint press conference with family members of the dead San Bernardino shooter. Business Insider recaps: CAIR executive director, Hussam Ayloush said, “We unequivocally condemn the horrific act that occurred today.” Muzammil Siddiqi, a religious director with the Islamic Society of Orange County, said “we have condemned all violence, everywhere” and …

The Los Angeles Times reports: Two law enforcement sources identified one of the deceased suspects as Syed Farook, an American citizen. Public records show a person named Syed R. Farook was employed by the San Bernardino County Health department as an environmental health specialist, but it was not clear if that was the same person involved in the shooting. The …

Over the last few years the New York Daily News has devoted countless screaming headlines which denounced the NRA, its head Wayne LaPierre, and many other gun control opponents. Above is tomorrow morning’s front page reaction to the avalanche of pointless “thoughts and prayers” tweets issued today by GOP leaders.

NBC News reports: At least 14 people were killed and two suspects were dead Wednesday after up to three people on a mission that authorities described as “possibly terrorism” barged into a holiday party in a California conference room and unleashed a bloodbath. The shooter or shooters fled in a black SUV after the shooting about at 11 a.m. (2 …

NBC News reports: The man charged with killing three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, has targeted the agency before, his ex-wife said Tuesday. Dear appears to have been opposed to the reproductive health agency for decades. Barbara Mescher Michaux, who was married to Dear from 1985 to 1993, said Tuesday that Dear once put glue …

According to divorce papers filed by his second wife in a South Carolina court, Colorado mass murderer Richard Dear was an End Times fanatic who believed that he could commit any action he pleased because he would “saved” by Jesus. The Post & Courier reports: His second wife, [Deborah] Mescher, described Dear in divorce papers filed in 1993 as a controlling, …

CBS News reports: Police are looking for a man who nearly killed a transgender woman in a beating in Queens. Around 4 a.m. Sunday, the attacker followed the 35-year-old victim — whose given name was Ricardo Sal but goes by the name Kathy — to the front of Sal’s apartment on 93rd Street in Jackson Heights, police said. As CBS2’s …

CNN reports: A U.S. Marine was found guilty of killing of a transgender woman who was found strangled in a Philippines hotel room in October last year. The court in Olongapo, a city 77 miles (124 km) northwest of Manila, sentenced Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton to up to 12 years in prison, according to CNN Philippines’ Ina Andolong, who …

Agence France-Presse reports: Three people were killed and five more injured when armed gunmen attacked a gay festival in Mexico’s southern tourist resort of Acapulco, police said on Monday. Attackers stormed the “Reina Gay” festival taking place in Tres Palos on the edge of Acapulco on Sunday, opening fire on the crowd, a local police official told AFP. Three men …

Former New York Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver was today found guilty on all seven federal counts of extortion, money laundering, and influence peddling. Among the charges were that Silver received millions of dollars in referral fees after pushing state grants for a cancer researcher who then sent mesothelioma patients to Silver’s ambulance-chasing law firm, which airs incessant television commercials offering …

Mike Huckabee appeared on CNN this morning where he denounced the “domestic terrorism” in Colorado, adding, “I don’t know any pro-life leader, any––if you can tell me one, please correct me––but I don’t know of anybody who has suggested violence toward Planned Parenthood personnel.” Anti-abortion leaders may not condone violence, but Huckabee needs to visit the comments section on just …

Carly Fiorina appeared on Fox News Sunday this morning where she denounced the left for “demonizing the messenger” by linking anti-abortion rhetoric to the murders at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. And then she talked about “taking our country back.” Watch below.

File this under “totally not surprising.” Via Buzzfeed News: Zigmond Post, who told BuzzFeed News he was a neighbor of Dear’s in Hartsel, said the man once gave him anti-Obama pamphlets. Post said he once went to Dear’s home to retrieve two dogs that had gotten loose. “We were there for a minute and the guy was already handing us …

Reacting to yesterday’s shootings in Colorado Springs, President Obama today again called for stricter gun control measures. In a written statement, Obama said that regardless of the motive, it was unacceptable that these sort of mass shootings happen so frequently in the United States. “This is not normal. We can’t let it become normal,” he said. “If we truly care …

The Washington Post reports: The police officer who was killed during Friday’s shooting standoff at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs has been identified as Garrett Swasey, 44, a co-pastor at his church and an ice-skating champion. Swasey, who was married and had two young children, had been with the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs police department for …

The Washington Post reports: A suspect is in police custody following an hours-long ordeal at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., where at least five police officers and six civilians were injured in a shooting Friday. One of the injured officers has died, a federal law enforcement official told The Post. The Colorado Fraternal Order of Police also …

The gay man charged with clubbing a Chelsea gay couple over the head with a restaurant chair has sued the couple for assault and defamation. Also being sued for defamation are witnesses who provided video and statements to the police. Courthouse News Service reports: An HIV counselor’s night out in New York City went off the rails when he was …

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: Remember those alleged anti-gay tweets posted by Kathryn Knott, one of the three Bucks County defendants charged in last year’s assault on a gay couple in Center City? Well, they can be introduced at Knott’s assault trial next month, a judge ruled Tuesday. Knott faces trial on a count of conspiracy, two counts of aggravated assault …