An Arkansas man has been arrested on suspicion of capital murder after he told police he stabbed his wife to death for changing the television channel.
Tony Thomas, 58, of Carlisle, went outside to smoke and noticed the channel had been changed from the football game he had been watching.
Thomas asked his wife, Elke, what the score was before things escalated into an argument, according to a court document obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Thomas reportedly told police that his wife started the argument by yelling at him before he grabbed a knife and stabbed her, court documents state.
“He claimed he’d blacked out and when he ‘came to,’ he was over her with a knife in his hands,” according to an affidavit from the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office.
Court documents state that the 58-year-old suspect called the sheriff’s office and requested the dispatcher bring a “meat wagon and police” because he stabbed his wife.
One witness said she “heard glass break” and “saw Tony stabbing Elke” when she walked into the living room.
Deputies say they found Elke’s body covered in a blanket and tarp in the couple’s backyard and a knife near the body.
“He admitted to dragging her outside and calling the sheriff’s office,” Anthony Counts, a detective with the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office, wrote in the affidavit.
Chuck Graham, the Lonoke County prosecuting attorney, said that Thomas was charged as a habitual offender because of his rap sheet of felony crimes.
Thomas is being held on a $1 million bond in the Lonoke County jail, according to Fox News. It is not clear whether Thomas has retained an attorney. He is scheduled to appear in court January 22.
These people all need to be locked up for even talking about DACA.
By Erin Coates
A memo circulated by the Center for American Progress Action Fund revealed what Democrats really think about “Dreamers” protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
According to the memo, protecting illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. at a young age is critical for the Democratic Party to retain what power it still has, according to The Daily Caller.
“The fight to protect Dreamers is not only a moral imperative, it is also a critical component of the Democratic Party’s future electoral success,” the memo read.
Ryan Saavedra
✔
@RealSaavedra
LEAKED MEMO: The Center For American Progress (CAP) Action Fund admits that “DREAMers” are a “critical component of the Democratic Party’s future electoral success.”
The memo was co-authored by Jennifer Palmieri, former White House director of communications and the director of communications for the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign, and sent to Democrat allies.
It asserted that “saying you support Dreamers just isn’t enough” anymore.
“This time, Democrats need to stand with Dreamers and do whatever it takes to ensure they remain in this country,” it said. “Democrats should refuse to offer any votes for Republican spending bills that do not offer a fix for Dreamers and instead appropriate funds to deport them.”
As the memo revealed, the Democrats need the votes of people previously protected by DACA.
“Latinos are a critical part of the progressive coalition and progressive leaders have to step up and fight for them,” it read. “If Democrats can’t even stand up to Trump and Republicans in defense of Dreamers … they will leave a lot of progressives wondering who the Democrats will fight for.”
The Trump administration announced in September it was ending the DACA program, which was initiated under former President Barack Obama in 2012.
President Donald Trump gave Congress six months to address the legal status of the approximately 800,000 individuals registered in the program.
In December, Trump made it clear that any deal concerning those protected by the DACA will also involve building a border wall.
@realDonaldTrump
The Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc. We must protect our Country at all cost!
Protecting DACA is imperative for future Democratic Party success, according to the memo.
“If Democrats don’t try to do everything in their power to defend Dreamers, that will jeopardize Democrats’ electoral chances in 2018 and beyond,” it read. “In short, the next few weeks will tell us a lot about the Democratic Party and its long-term electoral prospects.”
Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer threatened to knife a patron in the privates at a posh Midtown eatery for praising his longtime foe, philanthropist Kenneth Langone, according to the allegedly aggrieved diner.
Jamie Antolini said he was with potential business partners at Avra Madison Estiatorio on E. 60th St, near 5th Ave, when he spied Spitzer, who resigned as governor in 2008 after he was outed as the high-priced prostitution patron “Client 9.”
“Spitzer lost his mind,” Antolini told the Daily News.
“I’m going to f–king stab you with a f–king knife in the c–k,” the 48-year-old recalled Spitzer spewing during the Jan. 2 flap.
Spitzer was walking by Antolini’s table when he heard the diner lauding Langone — the billionaire who helped launch Home Depot — as an “amazing guy,” Antolini said.
“All I said was, ‘Ken Langone would have been the best President ever,’” Antolini recalled.
He didn’t dare turn to look at Spitzer as the heated spat dragged on for 20 minutes, in Antolini’s account. Security eventually escorted Spitzer out of the upscale Greek restaurant, he said.
“I never left my seat. When the video tapes come out, it will show I sat in my chair with a glass of wine in my hand,” said Antolini.
Jamie Antolini said he encountered Spitzer at a Manhattan restaurant on Jan. 2 during a business meal.
(ASTRID STAWIARZ/GETTY IMAGES)
Antolini, who said he never saw a blade, did not file a police report, and the NYPD had no record of the counter.
“This guy’s got issues, real problems,” Antolini quipped.
But Lisa Linden, a spokeswoman for Spitzer, blamed the brouhaha on Antolini and said Spitzer was simply there to celebrate his mother’s 90th birthday.
“The patron persisted in making aggressive remarks, which Mr. Spitzer initially ignored. An argument ensued, but at no time did he make any threats,” she said in a statement.
An employee who answered the phone at the restaurant where the fracas took place declined to comment.
Spitzer was accused of attacking and threatening Russian bombshell Svetlana Travis Zakharova in her Plaza Hotel room after she told him she was returning to her homeland.
Zakharova, 27, was arrested later that year on charges that she blackmailed Spitzer out of nearly $400,000 and threatened to reveal their relationship to the media and his family. On Friday, she gave NYPD detectives an 18-second recording of what her lawyer said is the Spitzer berating and threatening her during a February 2016 phone call.
If Donald Trump signs this that means he lied about putting America First.
The president said lawmakers should “put country before party” in push to tighten border-control laws in exchange for providing legal status to immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.
WASHNGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump declared Tuesday he wants Congress to pass a “bill of love” to protect younger undocumented immigrants from deportation, but he reiterated his demands for a border wall and cuts to legal immigration that Democrats have opposed.
Ahead of a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers at the White House, Trump challenged them to “put country before party” in his push to tighten border-control laws in exchange for providing legal status to immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, a group known as “dreamers.”
“I really do believe Democrat and Republican, the people sitting in this room, really want to get something done,” Trump said.
WASHNGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump declared Tuesday he wants Congress to pass a “bill of love” to protect younger undocumented immigrants from deportation, but he reiterated his demands for a border wall and cuts to legal immigration that Democrats have opposed.
Ahead of a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers at the White House, Trump challenged them to “put country before party” in his push to tighten border-control laws in exchange for providing legal status to immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, a group known as “dreamers.”
“I really do believe Democrat and Republican, the people sitting in this room, really want to get something done,” Trump said.
An HIV-positive former Maryland school aide and track coach pleaded guilty Friday to sexually abusing students and filming child pornography, prosecutors said.
Carlos Deangelo Bell, 30, of Waldorf, signed a plea agreement admitting guilt on 27 counts, including sexual abuse of a minor, porn charges and attempted transmission of HIV, the state’s attorney for Charles County, Tony Covington, said.
“You really can’t imagine what had to be gone through when investigating this case,” he said, alluding to the hours of video in the case that “nobody ever wants to see.”
Covington said one of his goals was maintaining the privacy and anonymity of the victims in the case, something made easier by avoiding a trial that would have been open to the public.
The charges cover conduct that spanned from May 2015 to June 2017, and the 42 victims range from 11 to 17 years old, Covington said.
Bell, who was originally facing 206 counts, will be sentenced March 28. Prosecutors said they will recommend up to 190 years in prison. Covington said another of his goals was to make sure that Bell spends the rest of his life in prison.
Bell also faces federal charges and is due in court again later this month.
“Based upon the evidence that the state presented it was in his best interest to enter into this negotiated guilty plea,” defense attorney James Crawford said, adding Bell would also plead guilty in federal court.
Covington said investigators are not aware of any victim testing positive for HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus. HIV is a virus that can destroy the immune system if left untreated.
The investigation started in December 2016 when detectives received a tip about “possible inappropriate behavior with a student while he was coaching track,” the Charles County Sheriff’s office said in a statement.
“A student’s parent observed suspicious text messages on their child’s phone that were sexual in nature,” Charles County Sheriff Troy Berry said.
Investigators sent Bell’s electronic devices from work and from home to the Maryland State Police crime lab, which recovered sexually explicit images involving the boys, Richardson said.
“Some of the evidence … included graphic images of Bell sexually assaulting victims. Some of the crimes appeared to have been committed on school property, and others at his home in Waldorf,” Berry said.
After a six-month investigation, Bell was arrested June 30 on charges of assaulting at least seven boys, mostly of middle school age, Charles County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Diane Richardson said at the time.
He was removed from his jobs as an instructional assistant at Benjamin Stoddert Middle School and as a track coach at La Plata High School late in 2016 when the investigation began. He began working for the school system in 2014.
Charles County Schools Superintendent Kimberly A. Hill applauded the plea deal and said, “Since learning of the charges against Mr. Bell we have focused on supporting the students affected.”
She said school district staff members were also getting additional training.
“We are taking every precaution that we can to make sure our employees are aware of the signs” of sexual abuse, she said.
Oprah Winfrey supported and help get Barack Obama Elected. I’m done with the damn argument.
The media mogul delivered a powerful speech at the Golden Globes Sunday night, almost immediately launching speculation on the topic.
Bringing a room full of Hollywood’s elite to their feet several times during the speech, Winfrey addressed the Me Too movement head on, lighting up social media with the hashtag #Oprah2020.
“It is not lost on me that at this very moment there are little girls watching me become the first black woman to get this award,” said Winfrey as she collected her Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award.
This is not the first time rumors have circulated regarding Winfrey’s presidential aspirations. Political observers compared her speech to then Sen. Barack Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
Oprah herself has denied that she’s considering a run for president, but her partner Stedman Graham was later quoted as saying she “absolutely” would if people wanted her to.
For some, the specter of an Oprah presidential campaign raises questions on whether the country needs another big name celebrity with no political experience. But many don’t seem to mind.
Yes she will clean up the mess in Hollywood. Looks like she needs to start with her friends.
“I don’t see her as a celebrity, I see her as a leader,” said West Loop resident Kristine Singer.
“As a longtime Chicago resident, she’d have my vote,” said Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
According to political veteran Thom Serafin, the bigger question is whether Winfrey would be willing to put herself through a grueling presidential campaign.
“I think she has the ability to educate, the ability to inspire, the ability to legislate. But you have to have the guts and stamina to go out on the campaign trail and take the crap you have to take 24-7. . . She was perfect in that event. She was just perfect. Can she be perfect in Iowa, New Hampshire, in Peoria where Caterpillar is leaving and there are no jobs? Those are questions I would suggest she has no interest in getting into,” said Serafin.
For those who’ve known her from the beginning, like Dennis Swanson, whom Winfrey thanked on stage for giving her a chance on AM Chicago many years ago, the possibility is not that far-fetched.
“I said, are you going to be able to handle success, that is my concern. She said, ‘Do you think I’ll be that successful?’ I said ‘Lady, you’re going to cost me a lot of money but you are going to shoot the lights out,'” said Swanson.
Winfrey finished her speech to a standing ovation.
“A new day is on the horizon. When that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women…and some pretty phenomenal men fighting hard to make sure they become the leaders who take us to the time nobody ever has to say ‘me too’ again,” Winfrey said.
Only time will tell whether an Oprah for President campaign will materialize. If social media is any indication, just the idea of it has sparked tremendous debate. Oprah related posts have reached more than 1.5 million people on ABC7’s Facebook page.
A full transcript of Winfrey’s speech can be found here.
