Arrests in Belgium, Hastert Pinned

Manhunt: Belgian authorities have arrested five men in connection with the terror attacks in Paris and Brussels, one of whom may be the so-called “man in the hat” captured on video with two suicide bombers shortly before the Brussels airport bombings.

Mohamed Abrini, 31, who has been sought for five months, was captured in Brussels. He may be the man in the hat, but he has not been affirmatively identified as the same man. His capture just a few miles from where he lived, after being months on a hotlist, has some people questioning the competence of Belgian investigators.

Pinned: Prosecutors say former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, 74 molested four boys back when he was a young high school wrestling coach in Illinois. “The actions at the core of this case took place not on the defendant’s national public stage but in his private one-on-one encounters in an empty locker room and a motel room with minors that violated the special trust between those young boys and their coach,” the prosecutors wrote.

Hastert can’t be charged because the statute of limitations has long since expired. But he violated federal banking regulations making payments to one of his victims many years later, eventually bringing the whole business to light.

Politics: Former President Bill Clinton’s confrontation with “Black Lives Matter” protesters two days ago points out what might be a growing problem for his wife’s politics campaign. An increasing number of protesters are turning out shouting down both Clintons about the 1994 anti-crime bill, which resulted in an inordinate number of young black people going to prison. Bill Clinton has since admitted that the law went too far in sending people to prison for low-level crimes.

Nation: Bruce Springsteen cancelled a concert in North Carolina because of the state’s new law allowing discrimination against gays and lesbians. Springsteen said on his website, “Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry — which is happening as I write — is one of them.”

The Obit Page: EM Nathanson, the author of the novel “The Dirty Dozen” that became the improbable Hollywood war picture of the same name, has died in California at age 88.

Nathanson heard a story about a group of World War II soldiers convicted of rapes and murders who were held in a stockade to train for a special mission behind German lines. He was never able to verify whether the prisoners ever carried out a mission, or even existed, so he made it all up. His fictional dozen attacked a chateau where German officers vacationed in luxury with their wives and girlfriends.

The resulting movie was a memorable World War II flick that bore no resemblance to the war. The cast included the rock-jawed Lee Marvin, the singer Trini Lopez, Telly Savalas, John Cassavetes and Charles Bronson. Former football player Jimmy Brown ran the 50-yard dash hurling hand grenades down ventilation pipes and America won the war.

>Ogden Mills Phipps, a big name in horse racing whose horse Orb won the 2013 Kentucky Derby, died in Manhattan at age 75. Phipps inherited wealth and the racing business from his family, which made its money in partnership with Andrew Carnegie in the steel business.

10.0: The private SpaceX rocket company owned by entrepreneur Elon Musk for the first time stuck the landing of a reusable rocket on a floating platform in the Pacific. SpaceX had delivered cargo to the International Space Station and returned the booster stage to Earth. Four previous attempts ended in flames. The ability to re-use a portion of a rocket considerably reduces the cost of space travel and makes it more practical.

It was a great landing, but the Bulgarian judge gave it a 4.8.

Monday, December 23, 2024

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It's Been Said

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