Random News and Notes 22 July
William Wallace was Guardian of Scotland. He earned the title by defeating the English at Stirling Bridge. On this day in 1298, he and his Scottish Army lost to Edward Longshanks at Falkirk.
Wallace would resign as Guardian by the end of September. He was turned over to Edward by a Scottish knight, tried for treason, hung, drawn and quartered in London on 23 August 1305.
Wiley Post was a pioneering aviator. He was also the first person to successfully fly solo around the world. He completed that monumental task by landing at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn on this date in 1922.
Less than a month later he and actor Will Rogers would die in a crash on a remote Alaskan glacier.
On this date in 1943, General George Smith Patton’s 7th Army takes Palermo Sicily. Patton’s dash to take Palermo was a direct result of the Brits trying to sideline the Americans.
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We start today’s news at LaGuardia international airport in New York. A MANPADS (Man Portable Air Defense System) alert went out. Air traffic control alerted Delta Flight 2604 to a MANPADS threat—a shoulder-fired missile—reported near LaGuardia Terminal C.
Authorities quickly deemed the report non-credible. No disruptions occurred, marking only the second such U.S. alert in recent history after a 2013 LAX incident.
Your editor has extensive experience with a wide variety of MANPADS ranging from the US/NATO Stinger to the Soviet/Russian Strela, Igla and Verba to the French Mistral. It would be child’s play to hide one in a car, pop out at the end of a runway, uncage the seeker, fire and scoot. In fact, that is the way you are supposed to utilize one. This was a false alarm, but what happens when it isn’t?
This is a wild one-pun intended-from the MVAP wildlife department. A black bear in Arizona found itself on the top of a power pole. Yeah, you read that right – a bear was hanging out on the crossbar of a utility pole.
The 911 operator was all yeah you aren’t the first call about Yogi on the pole. There are conflicting reports about whether the bear made it down safely or not. And your editor learned something today. Apparently the Arizona black bear has the biggest habitat ranges of any predator in the West.
In something of a surprise, an en-banc panel of the 5th Circuit stayed rulings from several district courts requiring bond for illegals. Multiple district court rulings had ordered bond hearings for immigrants detained under a Trump administration policy mandating custody for those who entered without inspection. This stems from 2025 changes by DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin interpreting immigration law to require detention regardless of U.S. ties or clean records.
We’ll see where this goes. I expect the nutty 9th to create some sort of circuit split and this whole thing heading to SCOTUS sometime in the upcoming term.
On July 19, 2026, an MV-22B Osprey from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 266 caught fire in its right nacelle during startup procedures at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in Arizona. Pilots and aircrew followed emergency protocols to shut down the engines and escape unharmed, while airport firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze with foam.
The incident is under investigation, amid the Osprey’s history of gearbox issues and recent fatal crashes.
This editor is glad that his time in service was over before these things came online. God knows he had enough trouble with UH-60s and CH-43s. . .
This is diabolical:
This editor is Team Grayson all the way.