A meta-analysis of more than 150 studies on the impact of U.S. gun control policies suggests laws aimed at preventing children from accessing firearms are effective at reducing firearm deaths. In contrast, laws that strengthen concealed-carry and stand-your-ground protections tend to increase gun-related violence. The report, issued today by the nonprofit RAND Corporation, recommends federal and state lawmakers adopt child access prevention laws and amend or repeal stand-your-ground laws. The analysis also underscores the need for ongoing research on guns and violence, outside experts say. “This is extremely useful work,” says Elinore Kaufman, a trauma surgeon and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the work. “It’s helpful to researchers to orient towards what we can consider established and what needs to be figured out.” The report notes that there are between 265 million and 393 million privately owned guns in the United States. More than 45,000 Americans die annually from both deliberate and unintentional gun injuries, just over half of which are suicides. In 2020, firearm-related injuries surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death among children and adolescents ages 1 to 19. In hopes of finding patterns that might help explain these grisly statistics, the researchers behind the new study analyzed evidence from 152 studies covering 18 different areas of gun control policies, looking at outcomes such as injuries and deaths, mass shootings, and instances of defensive gun use over time. Strong stand-your-ground laws, which state that people can use deadly force if they reasonably believe it to be necessary to protect themselves against certain crimes, were connected to higher levels of firearm homicides. Laws strengthening the right to carry concealed firearms also correlated with increased gun-related deaths, the researchers concluded. They found statistically significant evidence to show laxer laws around concealed weapons led to higher numbers of both total homicides and firearm-related homicides.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana has been unlawfully destroying its deputies’ disciplinary records for at least 10 years, according to records provided by state officials responsible for overseeing the retention of records by state, parish and local agencies. The finding comes at a time when the sheriff’s office is facing multiple lawsuits involving allegations of excessive force, racial discrimination and wrongful death at the hands of Jefferson Parish deputies. Attorneys have accused Sheriff Joe Lopinto of failing to discipline deputies and a lack of transparency when it comes to releasing records that might shed light on their history of complaints and disciplinary action. The illegal destruction of disciplinary records can make it harder to hold deputies accountable in a court of law or track problem officers moving from department to department, said Sam Walker, emeritus professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The sheriff’s office was recently the subject of a year-long investigation by ProPublica and WWNO/WRKF, which found that JPSO rarely sustains complaints against its deputies. The sheriff’s office refused to provide the news organizations with copies of unsustained complaints, calling it overly burdensome and an invasion of privacy. The agency said it couldn’t even provide the number of complaints filed, stating such a number “does not exist.” Like all public agencies, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office is required by law to secure approval from the Louisiana State Archives, a division of the Secretary of State’s Office, before destroying its public records. It also is required to secure approval for policies, or schedules, dictating how long public records are to be retained before they are eligible for disposal. The sheriff’s office failed to do either, records show. The only JPSO records retention policy on file with the state concerns body-worn and vehicle-mounted cameras. That was approved in November. The sheriff has not sought approval for retention policies concerning any other public record, including disciplinary files, according to the state archives.

Mammals in the ocean swim through a world of sound. But in recent decades, humans have been cranking up the volume, blasting waters with noise from shipping, oil and gas exploration and military operations. New research suggests that such anthropogenic noise may make it harder for dolphins to communicate and work together. When dolphins cooperated on a task in a noisy environment, the animals were not so different from city dwellers on land trying to be heard over a din of jackhammers and ambulance sirens. They yelled, calling louder and longer, researchers reported Thursday in the journal Current Biology. “Even then, there’s a dramatic increase in how often they fail to coordinate,” said Shane Gero, a whale biologist at Carleton University in Ottawa who wasn’t part of the work. The effect of increasing noise was “remarkably clear.” There may already be portions of the oceans that aren’t usable for these animals anymore, Dr. Gero said. Dolphins may migrate from places where they can’t communicate successfully. This phenomenon may already be occurring at major ports in places like Los Angeles or Boston, he said.

Cosplay commandos are posting nationalist thirst traps to mobilise the SIMPs –but why?

Serial liar and border-hardliner George Santos accepted support from an Italian caught piloting a yacht full of Chinese migrants and from his prominent restaurant-owning family.

A former Chicago police officer was sentenced to probation Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to firing at an unarmed man while off-duty and drunk. Joseph Cabrera, 40, did not hit the person he was firing at, but he still faced a litany of felony charges from the Oct. 13, 2020 shooting, including attempted murder, filing a false report and obstruction of justice. On Wednesday, Cook County prosecutors dropped those charges and Cabrera pleaded guilty to a lesser felony charge of reckless discharge of a firearm. Judge Sophia Atcherson sentenced Cabrera to 24 months of probation with 50 hours of community service.

An editor at the Blaze said she shot herself in the foot after tweeting that in 2023 she was going to shoot guns and watch college football.

A critical Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system suffered an overnight glitch, grounding flights across the US. The FAA posted an advisory notice early Wednesday that notes that the United States NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system “failed” but said just before 9AM ET that “normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually.” NOTAM is a critical system that keeps pilots and other flight personnel informed of the status of airports across the country, Reuters reports. It can offer information on runway closures, bird hazards, and other obstacles. At 7:19AM ET, the agency said it had “ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures” until 9AM ET to give it time to “validate the integrity of flight and safety information.” At least one airline, United, issued a notice prior to the FAA directive saying it had grounded all flights.

The dispute is about whether employers can sue unions for economic harm, including that caused by loss of perishable products, that results from workers going on strike. Glacier could potentially open the doors to lawsuits against unions anytime they strike, severely weakening this crucial and federally protected right. The case has drawn attention as a broad attack on the labor movement just when workers nationwide are voicing their desire for unions, organizing, and striking at levels not seen for decades. But Glacier is also important for American democracy, both because of its implications about the Supreme Court’s legitimacy as well as its threat to worker power. The case is yet another test of whether the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority will continue to act illegitimately by relying on questionable reasoning to enact partisan policies through its rulings. And a ruling in the employer’s favor would undermine democracy by harming the ability of working people throughout the economy to exercise collective power to counter the influence of wealthy corporations, with dire implications for the health of our economy and government.

His mother said she wanted her son to have a positive view of the police.

Law enforcement agencies failed to fully investigate Austin Lee Edwards before hiring him. He later murdered three people and attempted to kidnap a teen girl.

Last week's arrests began with investigators receiving more evidence after an undercover law enforcement officer posing as an underage girl helped arrest a member of 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group back in December. That individual was known to moonlight as a bouncer at a bar in Southern Pines frequented by the Special Forces community, a military source close to the situation explained to Connecting Vets. The Green Beret is alleged to have been pimping underaged girls to the Special Forces community at drug-fueled parties in Southern Pines.

IF you wondered how the British press was taking the publication of Prince Harry’s book “Spare”, then a moment spent listening to occasional Daily Mail columnist A N Wilson might give you some idea.

The view from the Embarcadero at dusk Thursday felt like a metaphor for San Francisco itself. To the north, ominous storm clouds loomed as huge puddles left from the torrential rains dotted the road. But to the south, one of the largest light sculptures in the world shimmered and illuminated the silhouette of the Bay Bridge as a nearly full moon rose behind it, pelicans swooped past and revelers sipped martinis inside a luminous Waterbar. At this precarious time for San Francisco, which has faced a cascade of crises over the past few years, the city could veer one of two ways: toward gloom and darkness or toward beauty, creativity and light. Ben Davis is betting on the latter — and he has an inspiring plan to help make it happen. The founder of Illuminate, a nonprofit that creates light-filled public art, had the initial idea for “Bay Lights,” the 25,000 LED lights that sparkle in an ever-changing, abstract display stretching 1.8 miles across 300 cables on the western span of the Bay Bridge. But after 10 years, the installation is a bit like San Francisco itself: a great idea with a glowing past that’s worn out, broken in parts and increasingly expensive to fix. Once you notice the display’s bald patches where long stretches of lights have failed, you realize that the installation needs a refresh. So on March 5, sadly, “Bay Lights” will go dark. But there’s a glimmer of hope: Davis has a plan to bring them back, better than ever. He just needs the money to do it.

The iconic burger joint is "double-doubling" down on its business and opening new restaurants in and around Nashville, its first expansion east of Texas.

Surveillance footage at a Minnesota butcher shop shows a deer breaking into a butcher shop — breaking right through the front door.

An expensive robodog that was trawling the streets of Brisbane late at night got the crap kicked out of it for no reason by a belligerant Aussie.

Greek prosecutors should request the acquittal of humanitarians on trial for search-and-rescue efforts that are protected under international human rights law and Greek law, Human Rights Watch said today. The trial is set to begin on January 10, 2023. The case against two of the defendants, Sarah Mardini and Sean Binder, effectively criminalizes life-saving humanitarian solidarity for people on the move and is riddled with procedural flaws that undermine their rights to due process and a fair trial. Two dozen defendants face trial in Mytilene, on the island of Lesbos, on misdemeanor charges related to Emergency Response Center International (ERCI), a registered nongovernmental search-and-rescue organization that regularly cooperated with Greek authorities on missions in Greek waters and on Lesbos from 2016 to 2018. A European Parliament report identified it as “the largest case of criminalization of solidarity in Europe.” “This case is really an indictment of the Greek authorities, who are going after people for saving lives the authorities didn’t want them to save,” said Bill Van Esveld, associate children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Meanwhile the Greek government continues to restrict humanitarian rescue while also illegally pushing back refugees and migrants, forcing them into the deadly situations that humanitarians tried to alleviate.”

Police Polycule Paused

Fact meets fiction meets documentary meets make believe in “Paul T. Goldman,” a new series 10 years in the making that makes “The Rehearsal” seem normal and expected.