Be Not Proud: Five members of the right wing Proud Boys, including former chairman Enrique Tarrio, were indicted yesterday for seditious conspiracy in connection with the January 6^th capitol insurrection, the most serious criminal charges to be brought so far in the violent attempt to overthrow the 2020 election.

  The indictment supersedes one filed in March charging the men with conspiring to obstruct the certification of the 2020 presidential election. Another Proud Boy, Charles Donohoe, pleaded guilty in April and is cooperating with the government.

  Conviction for seditious conspiracy requires proof that force was used either to overthrow the government or to interfere with the execution of federal law.

Complete Discretion: In other news about the attempt to overturn the election, The Trump campaign directed a group of Georgia Republicans to meet in secret as alternative electors, according to an email obtained by federal prosecutors. 

  The email was sent by Robert Sinners, Trump’s election day operations chief in Georgia, on December 13, 2020, 18 hours before the alternate electors met at the Georgia State Capitol. “I must ask for your complete discretion in this process,” Sinners wrote. “Your duties are imperative to ensure the end result — a win in Georgia for President Trump — but will be hampered unless we have complete secrecy and discretion.”

Boris Survives: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived a no confidence vote that would have removed him from leadership of his party and the premiership. The  211 to 148 vote was short of the simple majority Tory members of Parliament needed, but it shows that he’s severely damaged.

  Previous PMs who have survived such votes have lasted only about another year. Johnson fell from grace throwing parties at 10 Downing Street during the Covid lockdown.

The Shooting Gallery:  Two men have been arrested and charged with attempted murder in the shooting that killed three people Saturday in Philadelphia. The NY Times reports that with big city mayors expressing frustration, the divided US Senate is likely to get little done about guns. 

  In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill raising the legal age to 21 for buying an AR-15 assault rifle.

  Michael Fanone, a former metropolitan DC police officer who was injured during the January 6^thinsurrection, suggests in an opinion piece for CNN.com several ways to curtail civilian ownership of AR-15 assault rifles.

  Fanone, who bought an AR-15 when he was a cop, says, “I can’t overstate how dangerous it is to have semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15 in the hands of civilians.”

  He suggests simply outlawing ownership of the rifles and says that would not require confiscating them from current owners. “Once you’ve made these weapons illegal, anyone found with one would be subject to arrest, since possession of these weapons would be a crime,” he says. “I think it’s likely that you would see a lot of people opting to turn them in.”

  Short of outright banning AR-15s, he suggests reclassifying them as Class 3 firearms, which now includes full-auto machine guns, guns with silencers, as well as short barrel rifles and shotguns.Fanone says, “That would mean that someone wanting to purchase an AR-15 would have to go through a background check, fingerprinting and review by an official from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — a process that takes anywhere from 12 to 16 months. And since Class 3 weapons can’t be purchased by anyone younger than 21, it would solve the issue of emotionally unstable 18-year-olds buying them.”

The War Zone: The US is warning that Russia is now trying to sell stolen Ukrainian wheat to drought-stricken African countries, putting them in a dilemma between western allies and feeding their people. The US has sent an alert to 14 countries, some of them facing famine.

  Russia is estimated to have so far stolen half a million tons of Ukrainian wheat worth $100 million.

  Ukraine now says 40,000 civilians have been killed or wounded since the Russian invasion and that as many as three million citizens are living under Russian occupation.

Police Beat: Three Tempe, Arizona police officers have been placed on paid leave after they were caught on video watching a man drown in a lake and doing nothing to save him. 

  Sean Bickings, 34, who was described in the police report as “unsheltered,” was being checked for wants and warrants when he jumped into the lake at the Tempe Center for the Arts.

  “How far do you think he’s going to be able to swim?” one officer mused.

  When Bickings said he was starting to drown another officer said, “I’m not jumping in after you.” 

  Despite the man’s repeated calls for help, the cops stood by. According to a transcript, Bickings’ last words were, “Can you hear me?”

The Spin Rack:  Gasoline prices in at least 10 states have crossed the $5 mark. Gasbuddy.com reports $5.89 in Pleasanton, California, $5.79 in Los Angeles, and $5.19 in Manhattan. —Tesla founder Elon Musk is threatening to pull out of his $44 billion agreement to buy Twitter if the company doesn’t give him more information on how it calculates the number of fake accounts. — A federal judge in Oklahoma ruled the state’s three-drug method of lethal injection is constitutional. A lawyer for condemned inmates had argued that if they are not properly anesthetized, the condemned would be paralyzed and unable to move or speak while feeling excruciating pain as the second two drugs are administered. 

Newsroom Humor: The Washington Post has suspended longtime reporter David Weigel for a month without pay after he re-tweeted the following joke: “Every girl is bi. You just have to figure out if it’s polar or sexual.”

  Some may find that offensive, but it’s mild by the standards of a newsroom.

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