Random News and Notes 17 April
Today in 1961 the doomed to fail Bay of Pigs invasion began. Fidel Castro and his merry band of homicidal revolutionaries had toppled the Batista government a couple of years before and were a thorn in the side to the US. Eisenhower had ordered the CIA to organize, train and equip a group of Cuban exiles to retake the Island. When Kennedy took office in 1961, he inherited the program. He ordered it to go ahead but without the overt US air support the planners had envisioned. The amphibious assault was quickly contained and of the ~1200 attackers, 100 died on the beach and most of the rest were captured.
On this date in 1970, Apollo 13 returns to earth. On April 11, the third manned lunar landing mission was launched from Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise. The mission was headed for a landing on the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon. However, two days into the mission, disaster struck 200,000 miles from Earth when oxygen tank No. 2 blew up in the spacecraft. Swigert reported to mission control on Earth, “Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” and it was discovered that the normal supply of oxygen, electricity, light and water had been disrupted. Due to the heroic efforts of everyone involved, the three astronauts returned to earth safely, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
Now, News!
We are starting with the President’s announcement that the Strait of Hormuz has been de-mined and is open for transit. I’m sorry, but I will wait until traffic has returned to normal before I start cheering. It isn’t that I don’t believe him, it is that I do not trust the Iranians as far as I can throw them.
As to the rest, I do not for one second believe the Iranians will give up their enriched uranium. I am also less than pleased that he is allowing the Islamic regime to stay in place. I really do not get it.
A 19-year-old Afghan man, living in a Marseille shelter while awaiting asylum after arriving in November 2025, was caught naked assaulting a goat at Le Refuge d’un Moment on April 9-10. Police confirmed human semen and matching DNA in six animals, including a five-month-old lamb that nearly died from repeated attacks.
The farm owner and volunteers had installed trail cameras after noticing tied legs and genital wounds starting February 11. He faces up to three years in prison; his trial is set for June 22.
He should face a hanging. A public one. Pour encourager les autres.
On April 15 around 11 a.m. near West 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue, 44-year-old parolee Felicia Field allegedly snatched a woman’s purse and ran. NYPD bodycam footage captures a mounted officer and his horse, Kelly, chasing her down amid traffic and construction until a witness helped recover the bag and hold her for arrest.
Field, previously convicted of robbing and murdering a cab driver in 2000, faces charges of grand larceny and related offenses; she was released on supervised release after arraignment.
Supervised release.
After a rock climbing competition in Sacramento, a father and son driving home to Utah caught sight of Union Pacific’s massive Big Boy No. 4014 steaming through the mountains on April 17. Built in 1941 as the world’s largest operating steam locomotive.
The 133-foot, 1.2-million-pound behemoth is on its first coast-to-coast tour to mark America’s 250th birthday, with stops like Ogden, Utah, coming up April 18-19. I do have to say I am disappointed in the engineers. Lil homie shoulda got a toot.
A Supreme Court decision dropped today. Chevron USA Inc. v. Plaquemines Parish involves lawsuits by Louisiana coastal parishes against oil companies like Chevron for alleged damage to wetlands and coastal zones from oil and gas exploration and production activities. The parishes claim violations of Louisiana’s State and Local Coastal Resources Management Act, seeking damages and restoration for unpermitted operations that contributed to land loss, with one notable jury verdict against Chevron exceeding $744 million. The core dispute before the Supreme Court centers on whether the companies can remove the cases from state to federal court under the federal-officer removal statute (28 U.S.C. § 1442), based on their WWII-era federal contracts to refine aviation gasoline, raising questions about the scope of “relating to” acts under color of federal office after a 2011 amendment.
Justice Thomas writing for an 8-0 court – Alito recused – holds that the state-court environmental suits can be removed to federal court under 28 U.S.C. §1442(a)(1) because they “relate to” Chevron’s WWII-era military contracting duties refining aviation fuel.
There is one more decision left from the Fall term at SCOTUS – Louisiana v. Callais, the VRA case – and only one Justice who hasn’t authored an opinion – Samuel Alito. Rumor is the majority decision is written, but the dissenters are slow walking it in hopes to delay redistricting until after the mid-terms.