Random News and Notes 11 September

On this date:

• 1297 – Scots under William Wallace and Andrew Mornay defeat the English forces led by John de Warrenne and Hugh de Cressingham at Stirling Bridge.
• 1695 – Holy League troops under Eugene of Savoy defeat the Turks at the Battle of Zenta.
• 1709 – John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, wins the bloodiest battle of the 18th century at great cost, against the French at Malplaquet.
• 1740 – The first mention of an African American doctor or dentist in the colonies is made in the Pennsylvania Gazette.
• 1777 – General George Washington and his troops are defeated by the British under General Sir William Howe at the Battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania.
• 1786 – The Convention of Annapolis opens with the aim of revising the Articles of Confederation.
• 1802 – Piedmont, Italy, is annexed by France.
• 1812 – Staking a tenuous claim to the natural riches of California, Russians dedicate Fort Ross on the coast north of San Francisco.

• 1814 – U.S. forces led by Thomas Macdonough route the British fleet on Lake Champlain.
• 1851 – In Christiana, Pennsylvania, a group of African Americans and white abolitionists skirmish with a Maryland posse intent on capturing four fugitive enslaved people hidden in the town.
• 1857 – Indians incited by Mormon John D. Lee kill 120 California-bound settlers in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
• 1864 – A 10-day truce is declared between generals William Sherman and John Hood so civilians may leave Atlanta, Georgia.
• 1904 – The battleship Connecticut, launched in New York, introduces a new era in naval construction.
• 1916 – The “Star Spangled Banner” is sung at the beginning of a baseball game for the first time in Cooperstown, New York.
• 1944 – American troops enter Luxembourg.
• 1965 – The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) arrives in South Vietnam and is stationed at An Khe.
• 1971 – Former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev dies.
• 1973 – Chile’s armed forces stage a coup d’état against the government of President Salvador Allende, the first democratically elected Marxist leader in Latin America. Allende retreated with his supporters to La Moneda, the fortress-like presidential palace in Santiago, which was surrounded by tanks and infantry and bombed by air force jets. Allende survived the aerial attack but then apparently shot himself to death as troops stormed the burning palace, reportedly using an automatic rifle given to him as a gift by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
• 1974 – Haile Selassie I is deposed from the Ethiopian throne.
• 2001 – In an unprecedented, highly coordinated attack, terrorists hijack four U.S. passenger airliners, flying two into the World Trade Center towers in New York and one into the Pentagon, killing thousands. The fourth airliner, headed toward Washington likely to strike the White House or Capitol, is crashed just over 100 miles away in Pennsylvania after passengers storm the cockpit and overtake the hijackers.
• 2005 – Israel completes its unilateral disengagement of all Israeli civilians and military from the Gaza Strip.
• 2012 – US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, is attacked and burned down; 4 Americans are killed including the US ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens.

We start the news in Texas where the DEA seized more than a ton of meth. Federal agents with the DEA’s McAllen office seized more than 2000 pounds of methamphetamine stashed inside a cabbage shipment in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley on September 10. The operation involved teamwork from Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol, and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Videos show agents in blue gloves sifting through the produce, with chunks of cabbage scattered on the floor amid the discovery.

We take a trip across the pond to the UK for the next one. The first halal food court in Birmingham suffered a major fire last night just 6 months after opening. A fire gutted the Art Quarter building in Birmingham’s Digbeth on September 10, wiping out the city’s first halal food hall that opened in March 2026. The two-storey venue, part of a hub with a women’s salon, barber shop, event spaces, and rent-free support for small businesses, suffered extensive damage but no one was hurt.

According to founder Jordan Patel, the site had been the subject of prior “hate crimes” like graffiti and vandalism. West Midlands Fire Service confirmed the blaze accidental, with no foul play, despite Patel’s past reports of Islamophobic vandalism and his initial arson fears.

LeShon Johnson, a 55-year-old ex-player for the Packers, Cardinals, and Giants, was sentenced to five years in federal prison on September 10 for running Mal Kant Kennels, a violent dogfighting operation since 2007. Prosecutors said he bred and sold pit bulls from fighting lines, raking in hundreds of thousands from stud fees and champion puppies, even after a 2004 state conviction.

Agents seized a record 190 dogs from his property, many with severe fight wounds. His sentence includes three years supervised release plus a $30,000 fine.

There is a new tallest living horse. Hugo, a 4 year old black Shire horse with striking white markings from Towcester, England, earned the Guinness World Record for tallest living horse after a vet measured him at 199 centimeters (78 inches or 6′ 6″) at the withers. Owners Brett and Lisa Masters describe him as a ‘big softie’ like an oversized dog, who needs chiropractors, massages, dental checkups every six months, supplements, and a monitored diet to stay healthy amid his rapid growth.

Hugo is technically still a ‘child’ and will continue to grow until he hits 8 years. Shire horses are a critically endangered breed.

Inflation numbers were released this morning. The numbers were roughly in line with analysts expectations. August CPI inflation comes in at 3.4%, in-line with expectations of 3.4%. Core CPI inflation falls to 2.4%, also in-line with expectations of 2.4%.

While I make no claim of being a financial analyst, from what I can see, the driver for inflation right now is oil. And that puts the Fed in a bind.