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I SPENT OVER A YEAR IN SOLITARY BECAUSE OF ONE MAN’S IMAGINATION

I spent much of 2009 in One North, a solitary confinement wing at the Washington State Penitentiary, in Walla Walla, Washington. We were on a 23-and-one schedule: Once each day my cell door would roll open, controlled remotely. I would step out alone, given an hour to pace the empty tier or use a pay phone. Back in my cell, I’d be confronted by more emptiness. A steel sink and toilet, a bunk, a battered paperback, and my own thoughts for company.

What you notice first about One North depends on what time of day you enter the unit. Earlier in the day, it’s the smell—an overpowering mélange of feces, urine, pepper spray, and industrial-grade cleaning solution. The smell is so pungent it seems to have weight to it, like a physical substance. The air seems to pool in your lungs, weighing them down.

Should you arrive later in the day, from midmorning on, the noise is loud enough to disorient you. The stench hits you only after your mind recovers from the clamor. The sound of screaming and clanging bars being rattled by a hundred prisoners at once. People jumping up and down on metal bunks, mule-kicking the steel sinks and toilets. Guards shouting over the PA system. Prisoners shouting at the guards and each other. The entire cacophony plays through rattling, off-key acoustics. It feels like living inside an amplifier with a hole kicked in it, cranked up to full volume.

It took only a few days in this environment for my entire psychology to shift. My mind wandered. I was restless, getting up from my bunk and going to the window in the cell door to stare out at nothing, walking back and forth for hours with no clear thoughts. My mood was darkening. All around me, based on the things they would say or scream or, more disturbingly, their deepening silence, other prisoners were obviously undergoing the same process.

As outrageous as these conditions were, the prison administration’s justification for keeping me in solitary was worse, revealing an obscenely arbitrary process through which officials wield this inhumane punishment against people in their custody. Two prisoners who violate the same facility rule—or no rule at all—can spend radically unequal periods of time in the hole. As I would find out, everything depends on the whims of whichever administrator is randomly assigned to your case.

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Secret Service concludes cocaine investigation, no suspect identified

The Secret Service has concluded its investigation into the small bag of cocaine found at the White House and has been unable to identify a suspect, two sources familiar with the investigation told CNN.

Secret Service officials combed through visitor logs and surveillance footage of hundreds of individuals who entered the West Wing in the days preceding the discovery and were unable to identify a suspect, one of the sources said.

Investigators were also unable to identify the particular moment or day when the baggie was left inside the West Wing cubby near the lower level entrance where it was discovered.

The second source said that the leading theory remains that it was left by one of the hundreds of visitors who entered the West Wing that weekend for tours and were asked to leave their phones inside those cubbies.

The White House and Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CNN previously reported that cocaine was found in a cubby near the ground floor entrance to the West Wing where staff-led tours of the White House pass through on their way into the building.

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Special Delivery: Severed Finger “From Living Human” Sent by Mail to French President Emmanuel Macron’s Home

France is burning under President Emmanuel Macron.

On Monday, in a disturbing turn, a severed human finger was sent to the official presidential home. The package did not contain any correspondence, only the finger, which investigators determined came from “a living victim” who, according to police sources, has been identified.

The Evening Standard reports:

The macabre parcel containing the amputated digit arrived at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Monday.

“The finger was initially put in a fridge where the police put their snacks,” said a source at the official presidential home. “This was to make sure it was preserved and could be analysed as quickly as possible.”

Tests later identified the finger as belonging to a “living human being,” who was contacted and “given full medical support,” said the source.

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Veteran Huw Edwards Is the Mystery BBC Presenter Accused of Paying Underage Teen for Sexually Explicit Pictures – He Was Named by His Wife, Who Says He Is in Hospital Treating ‘Serious Mental Health Issues’

The mystery British Broadcast Corporation (BBC) presenter accused of paying a teenager for sexually explicit pictures has finally been revealed to be veteran Huw Edwards.

Variety reported:

“Edwards is one of the most senior on-air figures at the corporation and was the anchor chosen to break news of Queen Elizabeth II’s death to the world last September. He is the fourth highest paid figure at the BBC.”

Huw Edwards’ identity had not yet been reported by the media because of UK’s defamation and privacy case law, but reportedly his identity had been an open secret at the BBC all along.

But, now, the legendary BBC veteran was named by his own wife, Vicky Flind, in a statement issued on his behalf.

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A Reddit User Admitted To Pirating a Movie 12 Years Ago. Movie Studios Want To Unmask Him.

In what appears to be an escalating incursion into a user’s digital privacy, a collective of film companies continue to implore the court to compel Reddit to surrender its users’ personal details. This move is part of an ongoing piracy liability case against Internet Service Providers. Reddit, however, steadfastly resists, staunchly defending its users’ rights to anonymous speech.

While governments and law enforcement agencies have increasingly sought user details from Reddit — with over 1,000 requests, 277 search warrants, and 582 subpoenas last year, Torrent Freak reported — Reddit has staunchly resisted, drawing a firm line in the sand to protect its users’ privacy.

The battle over privacy rights came to a head earlier this year when film companies, involved in litigation against ISP RCN, attempted to extract personal details of Reddit users via a DMCA subpoena. Reddit objected, criticizing the subpoena as a sweeping and excessive invasion of user privacy, rather than a reasonable search for evidence. Reddit made a stand, yielding the details of only one user and rejecting the rest, underscoring its commitment to the right to anonymous speech.

The court sided with Reddit, ruling that the right to anonymity outweighed the copyright holders’ interests. US District Court Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler further reinforced this stance, suggesting the film companies could obtain necessary information through alternative channels, such as directly from the ISP in question.

Undeterred by the earlier legal setback, the film companies are now making a similar push against ISP Grande, targeting a fresh group of Reddit users. Reddit, maintaining its position as a defender of user privacy, declined to release the requested information, triggering another motion to compel in court.

The film companies assert that they have exhausted all other options for evidence and insist on the need to reveal Reddit users’ identities. However, their earlier attempt to contact Grande’s repeatedly pirating subscribers failed to yield useful results, forcing them to resort to targeting Reddit users once again.

In response to this potential breach of privacy, Reddit has reiterated its commitment to preserving its users’ rights to anonymous speech. Reddit contends that the film companies have not presented a convincing case to justify the infringement of privacy, arguing that its users are not an “irreplaceable source” of evidence.

Reddit has further pointed out that the film companies already procured the identifying details of 118 of Grande’s most frequent pirating IP addresses. This action, according to Reddit, debunks the claim that violating user privacy is the only path to necessary evidence.

Reddit also questioned the film companies’ approach, noting they have yet to subpoena the Grande subscribers they contacted, an alternative step that could have been taken before pursuing Reddit users.

The film companies have singled out a Reddit user, “xBROKEx,” citing a 12-year-old comment admitting to pirating the movie The Expendables.

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Cop Fabricated Story About Being ‘Carjacked by Two Black Men’ — After He Accidentally Shot Himself

Earlier this month, a sheriff’s office in Florida announced the termination of a former officer who faked a racist carjacking and subsequent shooting to camouflage his own inability to handle a firearm responsibly.

Dakotah Wood, 21, previously employed with the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO), has been hit with a plethora of charges, including tampering with physical evidence, false reports of crimes, and discharging a firearm in public or residential property.

On June 30, 2023, deputies responded to an alleged carjacking and shooting in Weeki Wachee Gardens, where they found Wood nursing a gunshot wound to the leg. He initially spun a tale of unknown men, who he claimed were Black, attempting to steal his vehicle. According to Wood, they threatened his life and shot him in the thigh before fleeing the scene.

As the narrative unfolded, however, inconsistencies became evident. Wood later admitted to detectives that the elaborate story was a fabrication, crafted in a desperate attempt to avoid repercussions for his own reckless behavior. He confessed to shooting himself accidentally while “playing” with his gun, alone in the park, distraught over relationship issues with his girlfriend.

Despite Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis describing such situations as “relatively rare,” it’s important to underline the frequency with which such occurrences truly happen. It’s not an isolated incident or a one-off mistake by an errant officer. It speaks volumes about a systemic issue, showing a disturbing trend within law enforcement: the fabrication of crimes to cover up their own inadequacies.

A 2016 study by the National Registry of Exonerations found that police officers and prosecutors often contribute to wrongful convictions by manufacturing crimes. The fabricated story of Wood falls into the same troubling pattern, marking another instance of the gross misuse of power within law enforcement.

What’s more concerning is the damaging impact such false narratives have on community relations and the perception of marginalized racial groups. When a figure of authority, such as a law enforcement officer, propagates false stereotypes, it fuels the fire of racial bias and reinforces the cycle of prejudice and injustice.

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Is Congress Getting Serious About UFOs?

When Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is in your back yard, you grow up hearing about the little green men stored in freezers and their saucer-shaped ships. It is a fact that whatever the government retrieved at Roswell ended up at Wright-Patterson, Ohio where Project Blue Book was headquartered between March 1952 and December 1969. 

Project Blue Book was the code name for the U.S. Air Force’s investigation of Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) phenomena. It was initially directed by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt and followed similar projects established by the Air Force — Project Sign in 1947, and Project Grudge in 1948.

The results of these investigatory programs were, predictably, lackluster. Or, at least, the publicly available information pointed to mundane explanations of fantastical eye witness accounts. Officially, no physical evidence of any determinative value was ever submitted or collected by Project Blue Book. So, after the collection of over twelve thousand UFO reports, the books were closed by the official Air Force. 

But, in the public’s consciousness, those books were never closed. 

The investigative training and experience I gained from twenty years as an FBI Special Agent have only deepened my interest in UFO theories, testimony, and evidence (direct or circumstantial). And, I have resolved any personal theological questions concerning extraterrestrial life.  

Recently, the UFO acronym has fallen out of favor — an attempt to create distance from the stigmas associated with “flying saucers.” Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP) is now in vogue. 

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Biden’s DOJ Removes ‘International Sex Trafficking of Minors’ as an ‘Area of Concern’

The Department of Justice (DOJ), led by Democrat President Joe Biden, has taken child sex trafficking off it’s list of offenses that it regards as “areas of concern.”

The DOJ removed information from their webpage on child sex trafficking in late May.

The section had been added by President Donald Trump’s administration and highlighted that cracking down on the “international sex trafficking of minors” was a top priority for the U.S. government.

The horrible crime is no longer recorded as a “concern” for Biden’s DOJ, it has just been disclosed that the data was erased.

Steve Bannon’s Warroom journalist Natalie Winters revealed the astounding modification.

The shift in strategy comes as criticism of Biden’s ongoing encouragement of mass migration through America’s open southern border grows.

The border is a prime avenue for child sex trafficking, as we at Leading Report have previously reported.

It also coincides with the recent release of the hit anti-child trafficking film “Sound of Freedom.”

On May 12th, 2023, the Department of Justice (DOJ) made significant changes to its homepage detailing what defines child sex trafficking and how the department is combating it, including the removal of the three sections: “International Sex Trafficking of Minors”; “Domestic Sex Trafficking of Minors,” and “Child Victims of Prostitution.”

The website, which belongs to the DOJ’s Criminal Division, lists the “subject areas” that the organization’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Services concentrate on.

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UPSIDE Foods Granted USDA Label Approval for Cultivated Meat and Moves One Step Closer to Commercialization

 UPSIDE Foods, the leading cultivated meat, poultry and seafood company, announced today that it obtained label approval for its cultivated chicken from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). With an approved label in hand, UPSIDE Foods is now working with USDA to obtain a Grant of Inspection (GOI) for its Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC), the last remaining item in the pre-market regulatory process before the company can commercially produce and sell its cultivated chicken in the United States. The label uses the term “cell-cultivated chicken.”

As a cultivated meat product grown directly from real animal cells, UPSIDE’s Chicken is subject to the same labeling requirements as conventionally-produced meat products. UPSIDE Foods has now demonstrated full compliance with all pre-market requirements for labeling and can begin commercial production and sales as soon as it obtains a GOI from USDA. UPSIDE’s chicken will proudly bear the USDA mark of inspection on its packaging after it passes USDA inspection.

“The USDA’s approval of our label marks a major step forward towards our goal of creating a more humane and sustainable food system,” said Dr. Uma Valeti, CEO and Founder of UPSIDE Foods. “We’re excited to continue working with the USDA to achieve our next milestone: a Grant of Inspection (GOI) for our facility. Obtaining the USDA’s GOI will clear the way for commercial production and sales and allow us to bring our delicious UPSIDE chicken to consumers for the first time.”

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Police Seized Innocent People’s Property and Kept It for Years. What Will the Supreme Court Do?

Gerardo Serrano and Stephanie Wilson may have little in common. But there is at least one major tie that binds them: The government seized their vehicles, never charged either of them with a crime, and, most pertinently, made them wait years before resolving their cases.

It is not uncommon for victims of civil forfeiture—the practice that allows law enforcement to take people’s assets without having to prove the owner was guilty of a crime—to endure protracted delays before they have the opportunity to even step foot in a courtroom and defend themselves. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear Culley v. Attorney General of Alabama and decide if those who find themselves in that situation are entitled to a probable cause hearing after the seizure and, if so, how speedily it must happen.

That the highest court in the country has to rule on whether people get such a hearing is an apt indictment of how unaccountable civil forfeiture has become.

Serrano’s case is instructive. In September 2015, while traveling to Mexico, he stopped at the border in Eagle Pass, Texas, to take pictures. That upset some Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, who demanded he surrender the password to his cellphone. Serrano refused. The agents then searched his new Ford F-250 truck, found five stray bullets, and accused him of smuggling “munitions of war.” Serrano had a concealed carry permit, and there was no firearm in his vehicle. The officers confiscated his car anyway.

But the fragile nature of the allegation didn’t matter, because it would never be subject to scrutiny. The government didn’t press charges. They did, however, keep his vehicle for two years, without holding a hearing where he could contest the seizure—or without ever filing a formal forfeiture complaint. 

The dearth of due process protections was devastating. Serrano paid the government $3,800—10 percent of the car’s value—as a requirement to fight the move in federal court; he was met with more radio silence, even after the feds cashed the check. A Kentucky resident, he subsequently spent thousands of dollars on rental cars while his vehicle sat halfway across the country, locked in a Texas parking lot.

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