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New Details Emerge: Kootenai County Sheriff Reveals Idaho Shooter Who Ambushed Firefighters Used a Shotgun NOT Sniper Rifle According to Preliminary Investigation

Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris has revealed that a shotgun was used in the deadly shooting in Coeur d’Alene that left two firefighters dead and another injured.

During his recent press conference, a reporter asked Norris, “Sir, could you describe the weapon?”

Norris responded, “It appears right now we have a shotgun that was used.”

He added, “But we’re still processing the scene.”

The reporter responded, “Obviously, a shotgun is not a sniper weapon.”

Norris answered, “Correct.”

He added, “Let me set up the scene for everybody. When you’re in a rural area, and your heavily tree’d heavily brushed, when you’re taken fire, it adds a whole different dynamic to teh situation.”

“So what was reported, by people on scene, by police officers on scene, they believed they were taken sniper fire, yes.”

On Sunday evening, Norris held an emergency press conference and stated, “We are actively taking sniper fire as we speak.”

After making the statement, it was widely reported that the shooter, who has now been identified as Wess Roley, used a sniper rifle.

Norris has not ruled out that a rifle was used completely and shared; authorities are still searching the scene to find any other weapons, including a sniper rifle.

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Americans Carry Median Non-Mortgage Debt of Nearly $19,000: Report

Americans in 100 of the largest metropolitan areas now have a median non-mortgage debt of $18,762 across four generations—baby boomers, Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z—which is down by 23.9 percent compared with $24,668 in 2024, financial services company LendingTree said in a June 24 report.

Non-mortgage debt includes personal loans, auto loans, credit card debt, student loans, and other debt.

Gen Xers, aged 45 to 60 years, have the highest median debt, at $26,207.

This was followed by millennials (aged 29 to 44 years), with a debt of $24,810; Gen Zers (aged 18 to 28), with $12,715; and finally baby boomers (aged 61 to 79), with $10,272.

The median debt fell in all four generations, with baby boomers seeing the largest decline at 45.3 percent. For the remaining three generations, debt fell by about 18 percent to 23 percent.

Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst at LendingTree, called the decline in debt across generations a significant decrease.

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“I Just Want to Go Home. I Missed Our Entire Trip to the Beach” – John Fetterman Moans About Having to do His Job in the Senate

Senator John Fetterman was already fed up on Monday morning before the all-day Senate vote-a-rama, complaining to reporters that he missed his beach trip because he had to stay in Washington to cast votes on amendments to the Big Beautiful Bill. 

“Oh my God. I just want to go home,” he griped in the Capitol basement. “I’ve missed our entire trip to the beach. My family’s going to be back before me.”

The Senate proceeded to the floor to vote on amendments to the Big Beautiful Bill, which the President wants sent to his desk by Friday, after spending the weekend advancing the bill and ironing out the details.

Fetterman said this is not what he signed up for and that legislators shouldn’t be required to stay “till some ungodly hour.”

“I’m going to vote no. There’s no drama. The votes are going to go. In fact, the only interesting votes are going to be on the margin, whether that’s Collins, or Johnson, and those, but all the Democrats, we all know how that’s going to go,” he told reporters.

WATCH:

Reporter: Did you get any clues on the floor about what time this might wrap?

Fetterman: Oh my God. I just want to go home. I’ve missed our entire trip to the beach. My family’s going to be back before me. So, and again, I’m going to vote no. There’s no drama. The votes are going to go. In fact, the only interesting votes are going to be on the margin, whether that’s Collins, or Johnson, and those, but all the Democrats, we all know how that’s going to go. And I think, I don’t think it’s really helpful to put people here ’till some ungodly hour.

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Pride group founder, 42, who raped a 12-year-old boy he met on dating app Grindr is jailed alongside his partner

The founder of a Pride group who raped an ‘extremely vulnerable’ boy who he met on Grindr has been jailed for 24 years.

Stephen Ireland, 42, who co-founded Pride in Surrey in 2018, raped the child at the flat he shared with his then partner and co-defendant David Sutton, 27, in Addlestone on April 19, 2024.

Ireland had arranged for the 12-year-old boy, referred to in court as Child A, to meet him at his flat after messaging on dating app Grindr, the court heard.

The boy, who had been reported missing at the time, told police they had sex in the flat.

The boy said they also smoked a bong which was later found to have contained methamphetamine, and that pornography was played on a laptop.

Judge Patricia Lees, sentencing at Guildford Crown Court on Monday, told the hearing Ireland ‘took advantage’ of a vulnerable child.

She said: ‘Stephen Ireland is a man who prided himself on being versed in and highly alive to the vulnerabilities of young people linked to the Surrey Pride organisation he was at the time pivotal to.

‘A was quite obviously to any adult an extremely vulnerable child who was highly sexualised.

The court heard the boy had initially told Ireland he was aged 17 – but when he later claimed to be aged 13, Ireland replied: ‘OK – we just have to keep it a secret.’

‘Your response was telling,’ Judge Lees told Ireland, who sat in the dock dressed in a large red T-shirt and showed no emotions throughout the hearing.

‘Far from finding that repugnant, you found that exciting, and sought to do it again.’

In a Telegram chat that took place after their encounter, Ireland sent Child A a message in which he described his age as ‘naughty and kinky’, the court heard.

On the same day, Ireland asked the boy if he would have a threesome and sent the child pictures of himself and Sutton.

Jurors heard that Ireland sent a picture of Child A to Sutton, describing him as a ’14-year-old baby’ who ‘wants to play with men’s bodies’, and the pair exchanged messages about the child.

Ireland along with Sutton, who was a volunteer for Surrey Pride, were found guilty of a string of sexual offences against children including voyeurism, arranging commission of a child sex offence, and possession of prohibited images of children, after a trial at Guildford Crown Court earlier this year.

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Convicted sex offender from Kenya avoids deportation, lands state job

A Kenyan national convicted of sexually assaulting a sleeping woman in Minnesota wasn’t deported after his prison sentence — he was promoted.

Wilson Tindi holds a director position at the Minnesota Department of Education, where he audits taxpayer spending and oversees internal accountability.

Court records show Tindi was convicted in 2016 of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct after breaking into a woman’s home and assaulting her in bed where she slept. He pleaded guilty to the sex assault charge in exchange for prosecutors dropping a first-degree burglary charge.

Tindi was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to register as a predatory offender. His sentence was stayed for five years, but he was also sentenced to 210 days in the workhouse, records show.

However, despite the felony conviction and offender status, Tindi serves as Director of Internal Audit and Advisory Services at MDE, according to public records and his LinkedIn profile.

A former prosecutor with direct knowledge of Tindi’s case told Alpha News they were disturbed to learn he now holds a leadership role in state government.

“I don’t know how he would have passed a background check,” the attorney said. “He’s a felon and a registered sex offender—how is he employed?”

The attorney said that in addition to the 2016 conviction, Tindi was also accused of a similar crime in 2012, as court documents state. Although the case was never charged, prosecutors filed a Spreigl notice—a legal move to introduce evidence of prior misconduct—citing the 2012 allegation as evidence of a disturbing pattern.

“He is dangerous,” the attorney said. “He has no business being paid out of our taxpayer dollars and should be back with ICE.”

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Europe’s Defense Reality Check: The Mathematics of Military Inadequacy

Following President Trump’s successful push for NATO allies to commit to spending 5% of GDP on defense by 2035, Europe now faces the potentially insurmountable challenge of reversing decades of military neglect. Building a force capable of defending the continent against Russia or China will be a massive undertaking, made even more difficult by declining birthrates, a shrinking workforce, and the political cost of maintaining generous welfare states and pacifist norms.

NATO allies agreed on June 25, 2025, to more than double their defense spending target from 2% of GDP to 5% by 2035, with the commitment structured as 3.5% for “core defense” and 1.5% for broader security measures including infrastructure and cyber defense. This achievement was widely praised, with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stating: “Would you ever think that this would be the result of this summit if he would not have been re-elected president? … I think he deserves all the praise”. However, the magnitude of this commitment becomes clear when examining current spending levels and capability gaps.

In 2024, European NATO members spent a combined $454 billion on defense, just 30% of total NATO spending, while the United States spent $997 billion, or 66%. Reports claim European military spending rose by 17% to $693 billion in 2024, but that figure misleadingly includes Russia’s estimated $149 billion. Given that NATO exists primarily to deter Russian aggression, it is absurd to include Russia’s defense budget in Europe’s total.

Even in terms of GDP percentage, Russia continues to outpace the European Union in defense spending. The EU’s total defense spending is projected to reach around 2.04% of GDP in 2025, while Russia is expected to spend 7.5% of its GDP on the military. But the gap in spending is just one part of Europe’s broader capabilities deficit.

Unlike Russia or the United States, Europe’s $454 billion in defense expenditures is fragmented across more than 30 countries, each with its own command structure, procurement system, administrative overhead, and military bureaucracy. In contrast, the United States achieves far greater efficiency and combat power through its unified $997 billion defense budget, which supports a single military structure with global reach.

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Abrego Garcia’s Legal Team Demands That Federal Attorneys Pay the Price

Illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s attorneys filed a motion in court Wednesday, arguing that the Trump administration’s lawyers should be held in contempt of court for violating court orders.

After the Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia to an El Salvadorian prison in March, U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis ruled that the administration must return him to the states on the grounds that he’d been mistakenly deported.

Days later on April 10, the Supreme Court effectively upheld Xinis’ ruling, prompting the district court judge to double down.

The Trump administration subsequently fought back by repeatedly arguing that it no longer had jurisdiction over Abrego Garcia, as he was in El Salvador.

But then in early June, the administration suddenly found a way to return the “Maryland dad” to the states to face criminal charges.

This — his sudden return– was what triggered the June 11 complaint.

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Schumer indicates Democrats are not slowing on amendments to ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ amid vote-a-rama

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday night indicated that Democrats do not intend to stop introducing amendments to President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” even as it slows the process down.

The Senate is currently conducting its vote-a-rama on the legislation, which allows senators to offer an unlimited number of amendments to the policy bill that they must proceed to vote on. Once the amendments are added or rejected, the chamber will vote on the entire legislative package as a whole, which is expected to take place early Tuesday morning.

Schumer did not indicate how many more amendments will be introduced before the final vote, but said Democrats want to introduce “as many amendments as we can.” 

“We need to show the American people in every way how bad this bill is for them,” Schumer told reporters. “They don’t like these amendments. The public is on our side in almost every amendment we do. Why would we want to stop offering amendments when they show the contrast between the parties? We want to do as many amendments as we can.”

If the Senate is able to pass their version of the bill, it will go back to the House, where it is expected to meet some resistance and likely be further changed. At that point, it would have to go back again to the Senate for approval before going to the Oval Office for final approval. 

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Denmark Plans Sweeping Ban on Online Deepfakes to Combat “Misinformation”

Denmark is preparing legislation that would outlaw the sharing of deepfake content online, a move that could open the door to unprecedented restrictions on digital expression.

Deepfakes, which can involve photos, videos, or audio recordings manipulated by artificial intelligence, are designed to convincingly fabricate actions or statements that never occurred.

While governments cite misinformation concerns, broad bans risk stifling creativity, political commentary, and legitimate speech.

The Danish Ministry of Culture announced Thursday that lawmakers from many parties are backing the effort to clamp down on the distribution of AI-generated imitations of people’s appearances or voices.

The forthcoming proposal, according to officials, aims to block the spread of deepfakes by making it illegal to share such material. Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt argued that “it was high time that we now create a safeguard against the spread of misinformation and at the same time send a clear signal to the tech giants.”

But these assurances do little to address the chilling effect such measures could have on free expression.

Authorities describe the planned rules as among the most comprehensive attempts yet to confront deepfakes and their potential to mislead the public.

The United States last year introduced legislation criminalizing the non-consensual sharing of intimate deepfakes, while South Korea has imposed tougher punishments for similar offenses and tightened regulations on social media platforms.

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Trump administration sues Los Angeles over sanctuary policies that ‘impede’ ICE operations

The Trump administration is suing the city of Los Angeles, alleging that the policies interfere with federal immigration authorities from doing their jobs.

“Sanctuary policies were the driving cause of the violence, chaos, and attacks on law enforcement that Americans recently witnessed in Los Angeles,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in an exclusive statement.

“Jurisdictions like Los Angeles that flout federal law by prioritizing illegal aliens over American citizens are undermining law enforcement at every level – it ends under President Trump,” Bondi added.

The lawsuit says that the city is discriminating against federal authorities by treating ICE differently than other types of law enforcement.

The Department of Justice argues that the Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution prohibits this, so they are asking a judge to block the enforcement of the policies.

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