Paris Attacker Caught, Dubai Air Crash

Manhunt: The only known survivor among the terrorists who attacked in Paris last November was wounded and captured in Brussels yesterday. The arrest of Salah Abdeslam, 26, a Belgian-born French citizen, was the result of a four-month international manhunt.

Residents of the predominantly Muslim Molenbeek section of Brussels said they heard gunfire and explosions during the time several raids were carried out. Abdeslam was reported to have been shot in a leg.

Abdelsam is believed to have been the driver of a car on Nov. 13 that brought a team of terrorists to the French National soccer stadium outside Paris. His brother Ibrahim set off a suicide bomb in a separate attack that day.

Air Crash: An airliner from Dubai crashed on landing in southern Russia today killing all 62 people on board. The FlyDubai 737-800 was landing in strong winds at Rostov-on-Don. A Russian investigative agency has already listed “crew error, technical failure, adverse weather conditions and other factors” as causes of the crash.

Permawar: The US has stepped up its bombing attacks on Islamic State targets in Afghanistan, according to a report in the NY Times. American drones and jets dropped 251 bombs in January and February.

ISIS hasn’t been knocked out but it has been considerably damaged. The territory they hold has shrunk by about 20 percent and they are pressed for money. Air strikes have targeted locations where they stockpile their cash.

Body Slam: A Florida civil jury has awarded faux wrestler Hulk Hogan $115 million in his lawsuit against the gossipy Gawker.com website for posting the Hulk in a sex tape.

The video showed Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, having sex with his best friend’s wife. We won’t get into how this happened but the woman in the tape was, Heather Clem, the wife of radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge. It just wouldn’t be a story without that name in it.

Gawker defended itself saying posting the video was an act of journalism protected by the First Amendment, particularly because Hogan is a public figure. Hogan’s lawyers said Gawker was behaving like a porn site.

The case has been a matter of interest for its potential effect on the freewheeling Internet in which anything has been fair game. Gawker’s lawyers say they will appeal.

The Preppie Handbook: Bail has been revoked for Owen Labrie, the graduate of the St. Paul’s prep school convicted of using the Internet to lure a younger student to have sex. Labrie was found to have violated the terms of his bail, which restricted where he could go and the hours he was allowed out of his mother’s home. He made the mistake of sitting next to a reporter on a train … and talking.

Bulletproof: Campaigning for the Arizona primary, Bernie Sanders took on local Sheriff Joe Arpaio, calling his behavior “un-American and uncivilized.” Arpaio’s department has been notorious for racial profiling and the “tent city” outdoor jail where the self-proclaimed “America’s toughest sheriff” houses inmates in pink jumpsuits and feeds them green sandwiches.

What Sanders doesn’t seem to know is that the blowhard Arpaio is Arizona’s own Donald Trump. No matter what he says or does, he gets the votes.

All About Trump: Even Fox News has gone to war with ratings magnet Donald Trump. The network issued a statement saying, “Donald Trump’s vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and his extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate who wants to occupy the highest office in the land.” Trump had tweeted, “She is sick, & the most overrated person on tv.”

A little more cerebral opposition to Trump comes from conservative columnist David Brooks in the NY Times. “He is a childish man running for a job that requires maturity. He is an insecure boasting little boy whose desires were somehow arrested at age 12. He surrounds himself with sycophants.” Ouch.

Brooks goes on, “Trump’s supporters deserve respect. They are left out of this economy. But Trump himself? No, not Trump, not ever.”

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It's Been Said

"Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote."

  • Donald Trump courting the vote of the Christian right

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