Saturday shorties

The President issued a novel proclamation Thursday by reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III narcotic.:

Noting that the schedule change “in no way” sanctions his approval of marijuana as a recreational drug, Trump signed an executive order that changes the drug’s classification. The goal, he said, is to increase availability for patients, such as cancer patients, who use marijuana and its derivatives for medicinal purposes. People

Schedule III drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence. Schedule III drugs abuse potential is less than Schedule I and Schedule II drugs but more than Schedule IV. Some examples of Schedule III drugs are: products containing less than 90 milligrams of codeine per dosage unit (Tylenol with codeine), ketamine, anabolic steroids, testosterone.  DEA.gov

Depending on the state, this puts MJ into a category in which simple possession is normally a misdemeanor but selling it is still a felony.  This is gonna twist some DAs’ knickers, and probably make some defense attorneys happy.

Update on the Brown/MIT shootings: the man authorities believe is responsible for both (contrary to earlier statements that the two incidents were not proven as related) Claudio Neves Valente, 48, was found dead in a storage locker. Valente was a Portugese national who may have known the MIT professor at university, no motive for the Brown shootings as yet.

Brown University President Christina Paxson said Neves Valente was enrolled there as a graduate student studying physics from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001.

“He has no current affiliation with the university,” she said.

Neves Valente and Loureiro previously attended the same academic program at a university in Portugal between 1995 and 2000, U.S. attorney for Massachusetts Leah B. Foley said.AP

Supposedly Valente held a position at the Lisbon university from which he was terminated in 2001. Some sort of student days beef maybe?

Might remember that in 2023 a couple of punks used a stolen car to run down a retired police chief in Las Vegas when he was riding his bicycle, and not only filmed but posted the act online.

In the video of the hit-and-run, the driver asks, “Ready?” as the giggling passenger records the collision on his iPhone.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, hit his a–,” he tells the driver, who then veers the Hyundai Elantra into the bike lane behind Probst, who is wearing a red shirt and shorts as he pedals. The video then showed the cyclist, later identified as Probst, rolling to a stop on the side of the road.

Jesus Ayala, 20, and Jzamir Keys, 18, agreed to separate guilty plea deals in October.

Ayala, who was 17 at the time, was sentenced to 20 years to life behind bars, while Keys, who was 16, was handed a sentence of 18 years to life. Additionally, Ayala, who was driving, was hit with another two to 10 years for battery, according to The New York Post.

During his arrest, Ayala showed no remorse and bragged that he would get a “slap on the wrist,” according to an incident report obtained by Fox News Digital. Fox News

The pity is that they got as light of sentences as they did. Me, I wish them no harm, but I’d be thrilled to hear they ticked off the wrong inmates and stopped being a cost to the taxpayers.

North Korea just had a banner year. As a thief.

Through early December, the Chainalysis report shows thieves supported by North Korea have stolen over 50% more in crypto this year than in 2024, bringing their total identified haul from crypto theft since 2016 to $6.75 billion.  Yahoo Finance

Almost a third of that, $2.2 billion, came just this year.

SGT-Radford

Sgt. Quornelius Radford, 28, accused of shooting five people at Ft. Stewart this year, was due to be arraigned Friday and charged with six 5 counts of attempted murder and a domestic violence charge.

Officials say Radford opened fire with a personal handgun Aug. 6 on members of his supply unit at Fort Stewart in southeast Georgia, injuring four soldiers and a civilian worker who was Radford’s romantic partner, before fellow soldiers were able to disarm and restrain him until military police arrived.

He may find the climate in eastern Kansas salubrious. Oddly, he his being held before trial at a Navy brig in Charleston.  Are there no stockades on Stewart? Pretty sure there is one on Benning.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll visited Fort Stewart the day after the shootings to award Meritorious Service Medals to six soldiers who helped restrain the gunman and treat the victims.AP II

Taking on a guy with a pistol barehanded? Yep, I’m thinking they earned ’em.

Category: Army, Crime, North Korea