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The U.S. Defense Department released the below information:
Today, Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan authorized the commander of the U.S Army Corps of Engineers to begin planning and executing up to $1 billion in support to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Patrol.
These funds will be used to support DHS’s request to build 57 miles of 18-foot-high pedestrian fencing, constructing and improving roads, and installing lighting within the Yuma and El Paso Sectors of the border in support of the February 15 national emergency declaration on the southern border of the United States.
10 U.S.C. § 284(b)(7) gives the Department of Defense the authority to construct roads and fences and to install lighting to block drug-smuggling corridors across international boundaries of the United States in support of counter-narcotic activities of Federal law enforcement agencies.
Two men were sitting at the bar on the top floor of the Empire State Building.
One man says to the other, “You know, if you jump out the window here, the force of the wind will blow you back in through the window on the 90th floor.”
The other man says “Get outta here, you’re joking aren’t you?”
The first man says “No, here, I’ll prove it!” He stands on the window ledge, jumps out and comes back in through the 90th floor window.
The other man says. “That was just a one off. Do it again!”
So the first man does it again and comes through on the 90th floor. He runs back up and says “See, I’m telling the truth!”
The second man says, “Wow, I’m gonna do it too then.” He stands on the window ledge, jumps out and falls to his death.
The barman, who just caught the end of this says to the first man, “You know, Superman, you’re a real jerk when you’re drunk!”
In the middle of a Little League baseball game the coach called
over a little boy.
“Look,"
the coach says, “You know the principles of good sportsmanship, right? You know
the Little League doesn’t allow temper tantrums, shouting at the umpire, or
abusive language.”
“Yes,
Coach, I know.”
“Good.
Now, would you please go and explain that to your father?”
The U.S. Customs and
Border Protection released the above photo and the below information:
PHILADELPHIA – A
multi-agency examination of imported shipping containers at the Philadelphia
seaport netted 1,185 pounds of cocaine Tuesday.
This multi-agency team was led by U.S. Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and consisted of
partner agencies Homeland Security Joint Task Force-East, U.S. Coast Guard,
Coast Guard Investigative Service, Philadelphia Police Department, Delaware
State Police, Pennsylvania State Police, Nether Providence Police Department,
the Office of the Attorney General Bureau of Narcotics Investigation, and the
DEA’s Philadelphia Division.
Inside one of the
containers offloaded from the MSC Desiree, authorities discovered 13 large
black duffel bags containing a combined 450 bricks of a white powdery
substance. A sampling of that substance tested positive for cocaine.
The cocaine weighed 537.6
kilograms, or 1,185 pounds, three ounces, and has a street value approximately
$38 million.
CBP officers seized the
cocaine. HSI is investigating.
“Taking a half-ton of
dangerous drugs out of circulation is a significant success for this collective
team of federal, state and local law enforcement officers who work very hard
every day to keep people safe,” said Casey Durst, CBP’s Director of Field
Operations in Baltimore. “Customs and Border Protection remains committed
to working with our law enforcement partners and to disrupting narcotics
smuggling attempts at the Area Port of Philadelphia.”
This is CBP’s fourth
largest cocaine seizure in the Area Port of Philadelphia, and the largest since
a 1,945-pound cocaine seizure May 23, 1998.
The shipping container
commodity was natural rubber, which was laden in Guatemala.
CBP officers screen
international travelers and cargo and search for illicit narcotics, unreported
currency, weapons, counterfeit consumer goods, prohibited agriculture, and
other illicit products that could potentially harm the American public, U.S.
businesses, and our nation’s safety and economic vitality.
On average, CBP seized
4,657 pounds of narcotics every day across the United States.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within
the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and
protection of our nation's borders at and between official ports of entry. CBP
is charged with securing the borders of the United States while enforcing
hundreds of laws and facilitating lawful trade and travel.
Veteran organized crime reporters George Anastasia and Dave Schratwieser discuss the murder of reputed Gambino Cosa Nostra Crime Family boss Frank "Franky Boy" Cali in New York and other mob stories..
As a pre-teen growing up in South
Philadelphia in 1963, my crowd went to the Colonial movie theater every Saturday
afternoon no matter what film was playing.
One afternoon, as I sat in
the third row with my friends, a black and white image of the inside of a gun
barrel came up on the screen and a man walked by, twirled and fired his gun.
Red blood poured down on the barrel. I was hooked.
At this point in my life, I
had not heard of Ian Fleming, James Bond or Dr. No. I loved the film, loved the
actor who portrayed Bond, Sean Connery, and I loved the character of James
Bond. I’ve been a James Bond fan and an Ian Fleming aficionado ever since.
The introduction of Connery’s
Bond, clad in a tuxedo at a gambling casino, stating his name as “Bond,” - cue
the Bond theme as he lit a cigarette - “James Bond,” was just terrific.
For this young movie fan, I
had never seen a movie character as cool. And it only got better as the film
continued.
There are so many other iconic
scenes in the film, such as the three Jamaican blind beggars (Three Blind Mice)
turning on the British intelligence chief and shooting him with handguns equipped
with suppressors, the tarantula crawling up Bond as he lay in bed, Bond shooting
Professor Dent in cold blood, Honey coming out of the ocean, sexy in her white
bikini complete with a knife on a belt, Dr No sneaking up behind Bond and stating “One
million dollars” in answer to his question of how much his criminal haunt cost,
and Dr No describing his backstory and evil plot during dinner.
I returned to the Colonial
many more times and watched Dr No again and again.
The first Bond film was
atmospheric, thrilling, action-packed, suspenseful, clever and sexy. It is not
a perfect film, but it had all of the ingredients I would discover when I later
saw the second Bond film, From Russia With Love, and soon after began to read Ian
Fleming’s James Bond novels.
When I read Dr. No, I was
sorry that the film makers did not use the deadly obstacle course Dr. No
designed to test a man’s pain limit but I was glad they passed on filming Bond’s
fight with a giant squid, which was a bit much. I’m also sorry that they didn’t
show how Honey’s pain test of being tied down while crabs crawled over her. In
the novel, I liked the irony that a simple island girl knew more about Jamaican
crabs than the brilliant scientist Dr No, as she knew they wouldn’t harm her.
The film only showed Bond crawling
through the vent system over heated plates and then hit with a current of water
(which cooled the plates, thank you), and only showed Honey tied down with
crabs around her.
Dr No’s director, Terence Young,
a former WWII tank commander, was a stylish and sophisticated man. He took Sean
Connery under his wing and dressed him and taught how to act as James Bond. (Young
later directed From Russia With Love and Thunderball).
In addition to Sean Connery,
the film has a fine cast with the beautiful Ursula Andress as Honey, Joseph
Wiseman as Dr No, John Kitzmiller as Quarrel, Anthony Dawson as Professor Dent,
and of course, Bernard Lee as M and Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny.
I’d like to edit the film and
remove the cringe-worthy line in which Bond orders Quarrel to “fetch my shoes,”
(the line did not appear in the novel as Bond respected Quarrel, who also appeared in
Fleming’s earlier novel, Live and Let Die) and edit out some of the film’s mistakes.
The film’s editor, Peter
Hunt, who later directed one of the best films in the series, On Her Majesty’s
Secret Service, said that in the 1960s, directors and editors had no idea that
viewers would one day own personal copies of the film and would watch it time
and time again, picking up on the mistakes. He said they glossed over mistakes,
thinking that the one-time viewer who not catch them.
Ian Fleming reportedly
described the film as “Dreadful. Simply dreadful."
He initially disapproved of Connery,
a working-class Scotsman, as Bond. But he later warmed to him, writing in a
letter to a friend that Connery had the right physique for Bond and that the
actor was a fine man.
Much has been made of the
fact that when Fleming wrote Bond’s premature obituary in You Only Live Twice,
he noted that the character was half Scot and half Swiss. Many people believe this
was due to Connery’s performance, and perhaps this was partly true, but Fleming
was also Scottish, and he gave Bond many of his personal attributes.
Although he knew Bond was
made for the movies, he could not have realized just how successful the film series
would be, and that the films would ensure that future generations of readers,
millions of them, would go on to read his novels.
Paul Davis is a writer who covers crime. He has written extensively about organized crime, street crime, sex crime, cyber crime, drug crime, white collar crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism. Paul Davis' "Crime Beat" column covers crime in both fact and fiction. His online column also offers his Q&As with cops, crooks and crime writers. He is also a regular contributor to the Washington Times and Counterterrorism magazine. His work has also appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and other newspapers, magazines and online publications. Paul Davis has been a student of crime since he was a 12-year-old aspiring writer growing up in South Philadelphia. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy when he was 17 in 1970 and served on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk during the Vietnam War. He also served two years on the Navy harbor tugboat USS Saugus at the U.S. nuclear submarine base at Holy Loch, Scotland. After serving in the Navy, he went on to do security work as a Defense Department civilian employee and he later became a freelance writer. You can read Paul Davis' Crime Beat columns, crime fiction and magazine and newspaper pieces on this website. You can also read his full bio by clicking on the above photo.
