On Monday, Treasury Department officials admitted to lawmakers that state-sponsored Chinese hackers had compromised their computers and stolen documents in what they called a “major incident,” according to Reuters.

In a letter sent to members of Congress, Treasury Department officials said that the hackers “gained access to a key used by [a third-party] vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users. With access to the stolen key, the threat actor was able to override the service’s security, remotely access certain Treasury DO user workstations, and access certain unclassified documents maintained by those users.”

The vendor in question was Georgia-based BeyondTrust, which notified Treasury Department officials of the leak on December 8. The letter further went on to claim that “based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor.”

The Chinese government implausibly denied responsibility for the hack, saying, “China has always opposed all forms of hacker attacks.”

This is not even the first time this year that a major Chinese state-sponsored espionage/hacking operation has been revealed. Earlier this year, the CCP-sponsored Salt Typhoon campaign successfully gained access to the wireless networks of Verizon, AT&T, and others. This hack allowed the Chinese government to read the text messages of an unknown number of Americans.

Disturbingly, although the breach was revealed in October, the FBI said earlier this month that officials still have not been able to evict the Chinese hackers from these networks and further said that it is “impossible to predict a time frame on when we’ll have full eviction.”

The Treasury Department letter claimed that the affected service has been taken offline and that the hackers no longer have access to the Treasury Department documents. It also promised that an investigation is under way.

​Crime 

UPDATE (9:55 a.m. ET): Contradicting earlier public statements, the FBI has confirmed that agents are, in fact, investigating this incident as a terrorist attack. The bureau has still not released any clues to the public about the attacker’s possible motivations.

UPDATE (9:00 a.m. ET): Police are now confirming that the individual believed to be responsible for the attack has been killed. His identity has not yet been confirmed. The FBI has also indicated that the truck driven by the attacker was fitted with improvised explosive devices, which thankfully did not detonate. The FBI is currently investigating whether the devices are viable. The FBI continues to dispute the characterization of this attack as a “terrorist attack.”

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a man plowed a pickup truck into a large crowd of partygoers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, causing terror, killing 10, and sending at least 30 to the hospital with serious injuries. The attacker then reportedly exited the vehicle and began firing a weapon. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell declared the incident a “terrorist attack” in a Wednesday morning briefing; however, the FBI disputed that characterization, saying that the agency has not yet confirmed this.

The attack reportedly occurred around 3:15 a.m. local time at the ntersection of Bourbon Street and Iberville.

In a Wednesday-morning update to the media, New Orleans police superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said, “It did involve a man driving a pickup truck down Bourbon Street at a very fast pace, and it was very intentional behavior. This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could. … It was not a DUI situation. This was more complex and more serious based on the information we have right now.”

Kirkpatrick also indicated that the FBI has taken over the investigation into this incident.

Police have not yet released any information regarding the attacker, including whether he is in custody, deceased, or still at large. Witnesses at the scene did tell local television station WWL-TV that they witnessed officers returning fire after the suspect exited the vehicle and began firing into the crowd. New Orleans police did confirm that two officers were injured in the attack, but it was not immediately clear if they were injured by the truck, gunfire, or both. The extent and seriousness of their injuries were also not clear.

This is a developing story and will be updated as events warrant.

​Crime 

An illegal immigrant from Honduras was arrested in Haines City, Florida, on Sunday after he allegedly attempted to kill his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend and instead accidentally shot off his own finger.

According to WFLA-TV, the attack occurred around 5:45 p.m. on Sunday. Police say that the suspect, Jervin Omar Mendieta Romero, had been going through a “difficult separation” from his girlfriend of 20 years, who apparently broke up with him around four months ago. Police say that since the breakup, Romero had been sending his ex a series of increasingly violent and threatening text messages, including at least one in which he included a picture of himself holding a firearm.

Romero reportedly drove to his girlfriend’s house on Sunday, demanding entry. When his ex and her new boyfriend refused to admit him, Romero removed a screen window from the rear of the house and entered the house forcibly, whereupon he confronted the new boyfriend angrily and opened fire, hitting him in the hand, chest, shoulder, and head. According to police, the new boyfriend miraculously survived, but Romero somehow “blasted off” his own ring finger during the fusillade, whereupon he dropped the gun and fled from the scene on foot.

According to WFLA, police found Romero after a “multi-agency search” that involved Haines City Police Department, Lake Alfred Police Department, and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. He was reportedly found by a Polk County K-9 while hiding in the trees some miles from the scene of the crime.

WFLA also reported that Romero was not legally permitted to be in the country, and it is presently unclear how long he has been living in the United States. Police were reportedly involved in another trespassing incident earlier in 2024 involving Romero and his ex-girlfriend, but for reasons that are not clear, Romero was not deported following that incident.

Romero has been charged with attempted first-degree murder, burglary with assault and battery, and numerous other crimes in connection with the incident.

​Crime 

The mystery surrounding the apparent sudden proliferation of drone activity in New Jersey deepened Tuesday when the FAA announced that it was expanding its list of areas in New Jersey where drone flights are banned, adding another nine towns to the restricted area.

The mystery regarding the drones began in November, when widespread reports of heavy and unexplained drone activity began circulating online, with numerous viral videos showing drones hovering over people’s homes with no apparent justification.

The reports led to an FBI investigation, which claimed that the drones presented “no threat to public safety” and furthermore claimed that the majority of reports it investigated were actually airplanes, stars, or “authorized drones.”

Nonetheless, the FAA began issuing a series of restrictions on drone flights in various locations in New Jersey for reasons that can best be described as vague and evasive. A total of 57 such restrictions have been issued since the start of the controversy. In the largest such restriction, the FAA announced in mid-December that it was banning drone flights for one month over two dozen New Jersey towns. The stated reason for these restrictions was that they were requested by “federal security partners” in order to protect “critical New Jersey infrastructure,” but no further elaboration was given.

The answers are even less clear regarding the new restrictions. When NJ.com attempted to find a reason for the restrictions, the outet described efforts to get answers thusly:

It is unclear why the new restrictions were deemed necessary. The FAA referred questions to the federal Department of Homeland Security, which referred those questions back to the FAA. An FBI spokeswoman referred questions on the restrictions to the FAA.

The new restrictions cover the towns of Atlantic Highlands, Belford, Fort Hancock in Middletown, Highlands, Linden, Paulsboro, Port Reading in Woodbridge, South Kearny, and Westville.

The FAA did not immediately return a request for comment on the reason for the restrictions.

​Politics, Drones 

Multiple sources are reporting that the attacker in the deadly New Orleans attack that killed 10 people and injured dozens more was carrying an ISIS flag at the time of the attack, leading many to question how and why an FBI special agent confidently declared that the attack was “not a terrorist event” early on in the investigation.

Witnesses indicated that the attacker was flying a “large black flag” from his truck at the time of the attack, which would be consistent with a description of the ISIS flag. The FBI has since confirmed that the flag was, indeed, an ISIS flag, leading many to harshly criticize the FBI’s initial response to the attack, which flatly denied any connection to terrorism.

In the earliest public comments after the attack was reported, New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell told the media that the attack was a “terrorist attack.” However, she was immediately contradicted by FBI Special Agent Althea Duncan, who confidently declared that this was “not a terrorist event,” a public posture that the FBI maintained for a significant amount of time in spite of apparently being aware that the suspect had driven a truck packed with explosives into a crowd while flying an ISIS flag.

The FBI has since changed gears and acknowledged that it is investigating the incident as a terrorist attack. The FBI has not immediately responded to a request for comment as to why one one of its agents publicly declared that the attack was not terrorism in spite of such a significant piece of evidence that would suggest a terrorist motivation.

The response drew harsh criticism on Twitter from numerous prominent conservatives, who viewed the apparent whitewashing of the suspect’s support for ISIS as evidence of rot within the FBI.

— (@)

— (@)

Others criticized the FBI’s ongoing failure to address how such a high-ranking FBI official on the scene could have made such a remark:

— (@)

Officials have not yet identified the suspect, but they have indicated that he was a U.S. citizen who was born in Texas. Other than confirming that he died at the scene, no further information has yet been released.

This is a developing story and will be updated as events warrant.

​Crime 

Authorities have identified the now-deceased suspect in the New Year’s Day New Orleans massacre as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar of Texas. The FBI has also indicated that agents do not believe Jabbar was acting “solely alone” and are pursuing leads into Jabbar’s friends and associates currently.

Jabbar reportedly served in the Army on active duty from 2007 through 2015 and then in the reserves from 2015 through 2020. He was reportedly a human resources and information technology specialist who deployed once to Afghanistan from February 2009 through January 2010.

Officials are still piecing together information about the attack, but they indicated that they found a series of recordings made by Jabbar that were apparently made while he was driving from his home in Texas to Louisiana, where he committed his heinous crimes. In the videos, Jabbar reportedly talked about his decision to join ISIS and apparently referenced several dreams he had that led him to align with the infamous terror group.

Earlier in the day Wednesday, FBI officials confirmed that Jabbar had an ISIS flag on him at the time of the attack. Although the FBI has now confirmed that this is being investigated as an act of terrorism, the first public statement made by the FBI mysteriously and flatly stated that this was “not a terrorist event.”

According to divorce documents obtained by CNN, Jabbar had been working as a real estate agent and claimed in 2022 to be suffering from severe financial troubles, including a potential imminent house foreclosure.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the attack has now risen to 15, according to the New Orleans Coroner’s Office. It was not immediately clear if the change in the death toll was due to inaccurate initial information or whether additional people had succumbed to injuries throughout the day.

In a statement, President-elect Donald Trump promised that the incoming Trump administration will support the city of New Orleans, saying that “our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department.”

Outgoing President Joe Biden is also expected to address the nation Wednesday night regarding the terror attack.

​Crime 

We are all public in a way we never were before. We also have an unparalleled amount of privacy.

Eventually, my mom would pick up the phone in her room and her voice would come over the line: ‘This is O.W.’s mom, and it’s time for O.W. to go to bed now.’

Every day we send our thoughts, pictures, and videos out into cyberspace to be viewed by countless strangers — people we’ve never met and will never meet.

And yet we could go days without ever talking to another soul — even while living in the heart of a bustling city. We could order food online and have it delivered it to our door. Order all our stuff on Amazon and it comes a few days later. Work from home. Never leave.

Hiding in public

We are plugged into some sort of technological exhibition in a way that approaches science fiction, and at the same time we all possess the ability to become hermits at any given moment.

It’s a striking juxtaposition unique to our technologically advanced, materially abundant era.

We long for privacy. No one wants to be crowded. It’s part of some inner human need to seek open space, to long for the great horizon, the open sky, the place where we can stretch our arms wide. To be alone.

Yet it’s a conundrum. We seek this with all our might, but at the end there is something profoundly alienating that comes over us when we no longer need anyone else. When we have all the privacy in the world, all we want is someone there.

Room to spare

Look at family life. Part of it is being forced together, even when you don’t want to be together. It’s less privacy, more face to face. It’s being around one another whether you like it or not.

But there are more children with their own rooms today than ever before. That might sound like a fine thing on the surface. Who doesn’t want more space?

But is it good? Why does a kid need his own room? Why does he need to be alone so much? He doesn’t.

Some claim that paralyzing introversion as we know it today might be related to the large number of children who grow up with their own rooms. When kids grow up with all this privacy and all this alone time, they retreat. They don’t have to get in the mix of family life.

Everything is quieter and softer. That becomes their standard. When we aren’t forced together, we end up alone, and then being together ends up jarring to us. Paralyzing introversion by way of excessive privacy.

Cutting the cord

We had a landline when I was in high school. I would stay up and talk to my girlfriend late at night. I would drag that long, curly phone cord from the kitchen back into the study.

Eventually, my mom would pick up the phone in her room and her voice would come over the line: “This is O.W.’s mom, and it’s time for O.W. to go to bed now.”

It was, to put it simply, embarrassing. I knew it was coming every time, but it never got easier. I would have loved nothing more than to have my own cell phone so that I could talk to my girlfriend in complete privacy without worrying about everyone hearing or my mom chiming in on the other line.

Family plan

But just because we want it, is it good to have it? No, of course not. We understand this about lots of obvious things. But this one — privacy — is not so obvious. It sounds strange, but having my mom pick up the phone while I was talking to my girlfriend feels like family.

Calling your high school girlfriend’s house, having her dad pick up, and then having to ask him if you could talk to her — this also somehow feels like family. Not your family, but her family. The fact that she is a part of something else, that her family is there in the other room, that they know who you are, that you have to go through them to talk to her, that she doesn’t have all the privacy she wants. Something about this is right. It’s how we are supposed to grow up.

We might wish so much for simple peace and quiet, a space that is all our own. The pursuit of privacy might be what inspires us to build, grow, and conquer. We all work so hard so that we all have as much space as we want. We finally all have our own room, our own phone, our own car, and our own lives. My, is it lonely.

​O.w. root, Men’s style, Family, Privacy, Lifestyle 

Authorities have identified the now-deceased suspect in the New Year’s Day New Orleans massacre as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar of Texas. The FBI has also indicated that they do not believe Jabbar was acting “solely alone” and are pursuing leads into Jabbar’s friends and associates currently.

Jabbar reportedly served in the Army on active duty from 2007 through 2015 and then in the reserves from 2015 through 2020. He was reportedly a human resources and information technology specialist who deployed once to Afghanistan from February 2009 through January 2010.

Officials are still piecing together information about the attack, but they indicated that they found a series of recordings made by Jabbar that were apparently made while he was driving from his home in Texas to Louisiana, where he committed his heinous crimes. In the videos, Jabbar reportedly talked about his decision to join ISIS and apparently referenced several dreams he had that led him to align with the infamous terror group.

Earlier in the day Wednesday, FBI officials confirmed that Jabbar had an ISIS flag on him at the time of the attack. Although the FBI has now confirmed that this is being investigated as an act of terrorism, the first public statement made by the FBI mysteriously and flatly stated that this was “not a terrorist event.”

According to divorce documents obtained by CNN, Jabbar had been working as a real estate agent and claimed in 2022 to be suffering from severe financial troubles, including a potential imminent house foreclosure.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the attack has now risen to 15, according to the New Orleans Coroner’s office. It was not immediately clear if the change in the death toll was due to inaccurate initial information, or whether additional people had succumbed to injuries throughout the day.

In a statement, president-elect Donald Trump promised that the incoming Trump administration will support the city of New Orleans, saying that “our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department.”

Outgoing President Joe Biden is also expected to address the nation Wednesday night regarding the terror attack.

​ 

Long-running Atlanta radio station 104.7 The Fish, which is one of the largest Christian radio stations in the country, will go off the air on February 1st, 2025, according to WSB-TV.

The station, which has been running in its current format for almost a quarter century, is one of the largest contemporary Christian radio stations in the country. The station is shutting down because the station’s current owners, Salem Communications, sold the station as part of a package deal with two other stations to the Educational Media Foundation, which also runs a series of Christian radio stations.

In a statement provided by Salem to the media, interim CEO David Santrella said, “Upon the closing of these three transactions, we will have transformed and significantly improved Salem’s balance sheet and capital structure. With the exception of its revolving line of credit, Salem will have no outstanding debt. Salem will also benefit from working with an important new strategic investor that is expected to bring significant new opportunities to the company as well as offer incredible expertise in the area of digital media.”

Salem executives also expressed hope that EMF would continue some form of Christian programming, saying that EMF had been a “delightful” partner during the sale. However, a number of on-air personalities at The Fish have already taken to social media to announce that they will not be retained when the new station opens in February. The hosts of the popular Kevin and Taylor Show confirmed that their show was ending but praised EMF, saying, “We’ve heard nothing but good things about the company who is taking over,” and likewise expressing hope that Christian programming would continue on 104.7 in the new year.

​ 

Multiple sources are reporting that the attacker in the deadly New Orleans attack that killed 10 people and injured dozens more was carrying an ISIS flag at the time of the attack, leading many to question how and why an FBI special agent confidently declared that the attack was “not a terrorist event” early on in the investigation.

Witnesses indicated that the attacker was flying a “large black flag” from his truck at the time of the attack, which would be consistent with a description of the ISIS flag. The FBI has since confirmed that the flag was, indeed, an ISIS flag, leading many to harshly criticize the FBI’s initial response to the attack, which flatly denied any connection to terrorism.

In the earliest public comments after the attack was reported, New Orleans mayor Latoya Cantrell told the media that the attack was a “terrrorist attack.” However, she was immediately contradicted by FBI Special Agent Althea Duncan, who confidently declared that this was “not a terrorist event,” a public posture that the FBI maintained for a significant amount of time in spite of apparently being aware that the suspect had driven a truck packed with explosives into a crowd while flying an ISIS flag.

The FBI has since changed gears and acknowledged that it is investigating the incident as a terrorist attack. The FBI has not immediately responded to a request for comment as to why one of their agents publicly declared that the attack was not terrorism in spite of such a significant piece of evidence that would suggest a terrorist motivation.

The response drew harsh criticism on Twitter from numerous prominent conservatives, who viewed the apparent whitewashing of the suspect’s support for ISIS as evidence of rot within the FBI.

— (@)

— (@)

Others criticized the FBI’s ongoing failure to address how such a high-ranking FBI official on the scene could have made such a remark:

— (@)

Officials have not yet identified the suspect, but they have indicated that he was a U.S. citizen who was born in Texas. Other than confirming that he died at the scene, no further information has yet been released.

This is a developing story and will be updated as events warrant.

​ 

The mystery surrounding the apparent sudden proliferation of drone activity in New Jersey deepened Tuesday when the FAA announced that it was expanding its list of areas in New Jersey where drone flights are banned, adding another nine towns to the restricted area.

The mystery regarding the drones began in November, when widespread reports of heavy and unexplained drone activity began circulating online, with numerous viral videos showing drones hovering over people’s homes with no apparent justification.

The reports led to an FBI investigation, which claimed that the drones presented “no threat to public safety” and furthermore claimed that the majority of reports it investigated were actually airplanes, stars, or “authorized drones.”

Nonetheless, the FAA began issuing a series of restrictions on drone flights in various locations in New Jersey for reasons that can best be described as vague and evasive. A total of 57 such restrictions have been issued since the start of the controversy. In the largest such restriction, the FAA announced in mid-December that it was banning drone flights for one month over two dozen New Jersey towns. The stated reason for these restrictions was that they were requested by “federal security partners” in order to protect “critical New Jersey infrastructure,” but no further elaboration was given.

The answers are even less clear regarding the new restrictions. When NJ.com attempted to find a reason for the restrictions, they described their efforts to get answers thusly:

It is unclear why the new restrictions were deemed necessary. The FAA referred questions to the federal Department of Homeland Security, which referred those questions back to the FAA. An FBI spokeswoman referred questions on the restrictions to the FAA.

The new restrictions cover the towns of Atlantic Highlands, Belford, Fort Hancock in Middletown, Highlands, Linden, Paulsboro, Port Reading in Woodbridge, South Kearny, and Westville.

The FAA did not immediately return a request for comment on the reason for the restrictions.

​