Good Morning folks. It is Thursday today and the show is opening up with breaking news. Stay tuned for Rev. Al Sharpton, Mark Morial, John Heilmann, Martin O'Mally, Richard Haas, Jim Cramer, Markk Werner, Douglas Jehl, Bianna Golodryga, Amy Guttman as guests today. If I spelled anyones name wrongly here, I am sorry but they did list it today on the site (Because of the breaking news in Ferguson).
Two officers were shot in front of the Ferguson Police Department early Thursday, authorities said, as demonstrators gathered after the resignation of the city's police chief in the wake of a scathing Justice Department report alleging bias in the police department and court.
A 32-year-old officer from nearby Webster Groves was shot in the face and a 41-year-old officer from St. Louis County was shot in the shoulder, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said at a news conference. Both were taken to a hospital, where Belmar said they were conscious. He said he did not have further details about their conditions but described their injuries as "serious." "I don't know who did the shooting, to be honest with you," Belmar said, adding that he could not provide a description of the suspect or gun.
He said his "assumption" was that, based on where the officers were standing and the trajectory of the bullets, "these shots were directed exactly at my officers."
The shots were fired shortly after midnight as protesters were gathered following the resignation of embattled Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson on Wednesday. Before the shooting, some at the protest were chanting to show they weren't satisfied with the resignations of Jackson and City Manager John Shaw earlier in the week, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Authorities from multiple agencies had gathered outside of the department.
The protest was a familiar scene in Ferguson, which saw similar and much larger demonstrations after the shooting death of black 18-year-old Michael Brown last summer by city police officer Darren Wilson. When Wilson, who is white, was cleared in November by a state grand jury, the decision set off further protests, looting and fires. But Wednesday was the first time an officer at a protest had been shot. Marciay Pitchford, 20, was among the protesters outside the police department. She told The Associated Press the protest had been mostly peaceful until she heard the shots ring out.
"I saw the officer go down and the other police officers drew their guns while other officers dragged the injured officer away," Pitchford said. "All of a sudden everybody started running or dropping to the ground." Belmar said the shots were fired from across the street from the police department. After the shooting, officers with guns and in riot gear circled the station, and more than a dozen squad cars blocked the street.
Jackson was the sixth employee to resign or be fired after a Justice Department report last week cleared Wilson of civil rights charges in the shooting. Wilson has since resigned. A separate Justice Department report released the same day found a profit-driven court system and widespread racial bias in the city police department.
Mayor James Knowles III announced Wednesday that the city had reached a mutual separation agreement with Jackson that will pay Jackson one year of his nearly $96,000 annual salary and health coverage. Jackson's resignation becomes effective March 19, at which point Lt. Col. Al Eickhoff will become acting chief while the city searches for a replacement.
Jackson had previously resisted calls by protesters and some of Missouri's top elected leaders to step down over his handling of Brown's shooting and the weeks of protests that followed. He was widely criticized from the outset, both for an aggressive police response to protesters and for his agency's erratic and infrequent releases of key information.
He took nearly a week to publicly identify Wilson as the shooter and then further heightened tension in the community by releasing Wilson's name at the same time as store security video that police said showed Brown stealing a box of cigars and shoving a clerk only a short time before his death. During a 12-minute news conference, Knowles said Jackson resigned after "a lot of soul-searching" about how the community could heal from the racial unrest stemming from the fatal shooting last summer.
"The chief is the kind of honorable man you don't have to go to," Knowles said. "He comes to you when he knows that this is something we have to seriously discuss." The acting head of the Justice Department's civil rights division released a statement saying the U.S. government remains committed to reaching a "court-enforceable agreement" to address Ferguson's "unconstitutional practices," regardless of who's in charge of the city.
Jackson oversaw the Ferguson force for nearly five years before the shooting that stirred months of unrest across the St. Louis region and drew global attention to the predominantly black city of 21,000. In addition to Jackson, Ferguson's court clerk was fired last week and two police officers resigned. The judge who oversaw the court system also resigned, and the City Council on Tuesday agreed to a separation agreement with Shaw, the city manager.
Next, A Dallas teenager named Parker Rice came forward to admit he was one of the SAE fraternity members in a racist video. He apologized and said the song was "taught" to them. That revelation may indicate systemic racism in the fraternity. The University of Oklahoma continued its quest for healing Wednesday while a national fraternity was trying to determine if racist chants such as the one that made national headlines in Norman ars pervasive at Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapters elsewhere in the nation.A day earlier, university President David Boren expelled two students accused of playing a "leadership role" in the video showing SAE members singing the chant. One of the students issued an apology, as did the family of the second student.The parents of student Levi Pettit, Brody and Susan Pettit, said of their son, "He made a horrible mistake and will live with the consequences forever.'' "We were as shocked and saddened by this news as anyone,'' the Pettit family statement said. "Of course, we are sad for our son, but more importantly, we apologize to the community he has hurt. We would also like to apologize to the entire African American community, University of Oklahoma student body and administration.''
Parker Rice, 19, a former Dallas prep-school student, offered "my deepest apologies'' in a statement and said "our family is not able to be in our home because of threatening calls as well as frightening talk on social media.'' "I am deeply sorry for what I did Saturday night. It was wrong and reckless. I made a horrible mistake by joining into the singing and encouraging others to do the same,'' he said. Both students said they had been taught the song. The fraternity's national headquarters said the song was not a part of the SAE tradition.
"Several other incidents with chapters or members have been brought to the attention of the headquarters staff and leaders, and each of those instances will be investigated for further action," SAE said in a statement. "Some of the allegations refer to incidents, which Sigma Alpha Epsilon acknowledges, from more than 20 years ago. Although we cannot change the past, we can learn from the present and alter the future." University President David Boren issued a statement saying the investigation into the video was continuing. "I have acted today to expel two students who were leaders in the singing of a racist chant," Boren said in a tweet that linked to the statement. When the identities of others involved is confirmed, they will face "appropriate disciplinary action," he said.
Boren said the students had created a "hostile environment" for students and the university community.
University of Oklahoma students rally outside the now closed University of Oklahoma's Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house during a rally in Norman, Okla., Tuesday. (Photo: Sue Ogrocki, AP) "I have emphasized that there is zero tolerance for this kind of threatening racist behavior at the University of Oklahoma," Boren said. "I hope the entire nation will join us in having zero tolerance of such racism when it raises its ugly head in other situations across our country."
The university did not immediately release the names of the expelled students. In Dallas, the Jesuit College Preparatory School's president issued a statement saying one of their graduates had led the "unconscionable" chant. Rice is a graduate of the school. The video was taken on a bus going to a Founder's Day event at a country club. The person who recorded it has cooperated with the investigation, Boren said Tuesday ahead of a Board of Regents meeting. Boren has been working to repair damage to the university since the video went viral Sunday. He quickly severed ties with the fraternity and promised a thorough investigation, warning that expulsions were possible.
All SAE members had until Tuesday night to clear out of the fraternity house. Boren said he hoped students involved in the video learned from the experience and realize it is "wrong to use words to hurt, threaten and exclude other people." SAE brothers are not the only members of the University of Oklahoma family hammered by fallout from the fraternity's racist hate video. SAE's black chef is out of a job, a sorority linked to the video is under fire, and OU recruiters have a lot of explaining to do to keep the university on the short list for young athletes and scholars.
A video of a woman believed to be the house mom of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Oklahoma has surfaced in which she repeatedly says a racist slur. The video posted online Sunday by Unheard, a black student group at OU, shows students on a rented bus singing racial slurs targeting blacks. The song, which also makes reference to lynching, states that blacks would never be admitted to the fraternity's chapter in Norman. The chapter has had black members in the past. The school's Delta Delta Delta sorority chapter was also feeling heat amid claims that some members were seen chanting in the video. The national office of the sorority issued a statement saying the "behavior documented in the video is deplorable and is in no way consistent with Tri Delta's ideals and core values."
The statement also said the sorority was cooperating with the investigation, but the chapter tweeted that "We fully support our OU president. We are NOT under investigation. The statement on our website is national protocol." That drew plenty of sarcastic Twitter replies, including this from Jade.O: "So the #Tridelta racists singing with the #SAE racists- that's okay? Good to know." The video's victims include Howard Dixon, the fraternity's African-American chef, out of a job after 14 years. SAE alums immediately began raising money for Dixon online, collecting more than $24,000 within hours. "We used to have so much fun," Dixon told WFAA-TV. "Now it's all gone." An online fundraiser for SAE house mother Beauton Gildow was taken down after a video clip surfaced of her repeatedly saying the n-word, the school newspaper theDaily reported.
Former Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer, an honorary member of SAE, called the video "just a stupid act with a bunch of damn freshmen out drinking on a bus who will regret this the rest of their life." The current football team appeared unwilling to dismiss the video so lightly. The team marched in protest Monday, joined by coach Bob Stoops and athletic director Joe Castiglione. The group, dressed in black, said a prayer at midfield but did not hold its scheduled spring practice.
Jennie Carlson, a reporter for The Oklahoman, wrote a column noting that "recruiting just got a whole lot tougher." She discusses high school football player Jean Delance announcing via Twitter that he was decommitting from OU — and quotes at least one current OU player saying he can understand why. "We're not just talking about recruiting the next five-star running back or the next Big 12 Player of the Year," Carlson wrote. "We're talking about recruiting the next National Merit Scholar or the next University of Oklahoma Student Association president."
The fraternity's national organization issued a statement saying the SAE chapter at the school has been closed and its members suspended from the national organization. SAE apologized for the video and said it did not reflect the views of its 15,000 members nationwide. The video has drawn national reaction. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the efforts by the university and the national fraternity to repudiate the racist comments were "an appropriate step." OU is a state school with almost 30,000 students, about 5% of them black. Immediately after the video was posted, an outpouring of tweets echoed the sentence "Racism is alive at the University of Oklahoma."
Boren has working hard to change that narrative. His tweet announcing the expulsions drew mostly positive replies. "Thank You. I hope the University is remembered for the amazing response of the students and administration, not the idiots," tweeted lawyer and OU grad Gene Burrus. Contributing: William M. Welch in Los Angeles; Jason Whitely and David Schechter, WFAA in Dallas-Fort Worth.
On another note and because of another issue at the White House, an automobile ran into the barricades at the facilities and therefore the secret service guards may be terminated from its jobs. The people that ran into the barricades were evidently drunk or at least somewhat intoxicated. I just heard it was a government car that they ran into the barricades. Willie is saying the guy was second in command and i must ask, what the hell is wrong with these people. This is not an isolated issue. This is like 5th mishap with regard to the White House security forces.
Richard Haas is now on the show. They are discussing the ISIS situation. U.S.-trained and armed Iraqi military units, the key to the American strategy against ISIS, are under investigation for committing some of the same atrocities as the terror group, American and Iraqi officials told ABC News. Some Iraqi units have already been cut off from U.S. assistance over "credible" human rights violations, according to a senior military official on the Pentagon's Joint Staff. The investigation, being conducted by the Iraqi government, was launched after officials were confronted with numerous allegations of “war crimes,” based in part on dozens of ghastly videos and still photos that appear to show uniformed soldiers from some of Iraq's most elite units and militia members massacring civilians, torturing and executing prisoners, and displaying severed heads. The videos and photos are part of a trove of disturbing images that ABC News discovered has been circulating within the dark corners of Iraqi social media since last summer. In some U.S. military and Iraqi circles, the Iraqi units and militias under scrutiny are referred to as the "dirty brigades." “As the ISF [Iraqi Security Forces] and militias reclaim territory, their behavior must be above reproach or they risk being painted with the same brush as ISIL [ISIS] fighters,” said a statement to ABC News from the U.S. government. “If these allegations are confirmed, those found responsible must be held accountable."
Mark O' Malley is on the show now talking great sense (tweaking the Glass / Steagal law) and whether he will make a run for the POTUS seat in 2016. He could and would give Hilary a decent run for her money and it would help that party in the primary to get the perfect candidates. I happen to like him and I have for years but he was not that dynamic leading up to past elections but then again, I do not think much could have beaten Obama in that last election he ran in. And, Mika is funny asking him if he would make his staffers use specific email servers. She cracks me up with regard to some issues. He is definitely running though. He is being asked how he would do against the likes of Hilary and man did he answer it point blank. Joe is basically saying what i just said here. He is reading from some article but it is reconfirming what we say here.
Jim Craemer is on soon. So, is Mark 'The Teeth" Werner.
But first, we are being shown John Kerry from the hearings yesterday and Joe mentions the comparison between the letter going to Iran official as the same as when they sent a letter after the Iran/Contra issue. Richard Haas is discussing the talks with Iran and the ramifications of it. The Iran debate is being played out too among the 2016 hopeful candidates. They also touch into if the talks fail and if there is no deal between us and Iran, how would this letter be looked at and whom would get the blame. Which is the point because there is no deal yet. The letter was done too soon. And, all it showed is that they are against any deal and it did not have any inkling of an alternative to it.
Anyway, some woman was trapped in a crashed car for 14 hours yesterday. I think she is ok though.
And, there is a push to free the Washington Post journalist (Jason Rezaiain) from an Iranian jail. Maybe they can make that part of the deal. I am kidding but you know what i mean. I wonder why he got picked up. His brother is on the show with Douglas Jehl. He has not talked to him since last July and I guess there are three other people being held in that jail. There is a change.org petition to get him released.
Mad Money has been on now for ten years. Good for him. I like Jim. And, the beautiful Bianna Golodryga (I know she is married; I mean no disrespect but still, she is hot) is on too I think. I am pretty sure I first heard of Jim on the Howard Stern radio show years ago. I am pretty sure that is how I heard about him first but then I had seen him maybe on the Apprentice (same with Donny Duetsch BTW; I first noticed him from the Apprentice show and I wanted to emulate his career ever since) . regardless of me, the panel is talking about how business could be stagnating. I agree actually. I know the overall numbers have been great but i doubt normal people feel it. I think Joe, Bianna and whomever are saying it too.
Mark Werner is on now too. He is denouncing the Senators letter to the Iran officials or to that Ayatollah. And rookie senator or not, he is a human with brain and more notably, he was actually voted into that seat. He is an adult. He has great responsibility. He should being using it in better ways. mark brings up the great point that Netanyahu and whomever are saying d NOT do a deal in the same sentence they say do a greater or better deal.
I'll be back. I need to run out to Office Depot to get ink and then I am doing my forst run today to the USPS. I'll chime in for the last part of show soon.
Stay in touch and the woman that run things guest today is Amy Guttman. Have fun with it. I'll be back!
Stay in touch and the woman that run things guest today is Amy Guttman. Have fun with it. I'll be back!
