Random News and Notes 17 September

On this date:

• 1787 – The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia approves the constitution for the United States of America.
• 1796 – President George Washington delivers his “Farewell Address” to Congress before concluding his second term in office.
• 1862 – The Battle of Antietam in Maryland, the bloodiest day in U.S. history, commences. Fighting in the corn field, Bloody Lane and Burnside’s Bridge rages all day as the Union and Confederate armies suffer a combined 26,293 casualties.
• 1862 – Three explosions rip through the Allegheny Arsenal and kill 78 workers, mostly young women and girls.
• 1868 – The Battle of Beecher’s Island begins, in which Major George “Sandy” Forsyth and 50 volunteers hold off 500 Sioux and Cheyenne in eastern Colorado.
• 1902 – U.S. troops are sent to Panama to keep train lines open over the isthmus as Panamanian nationals struggle for independence from Colombia.
• 1903 – Turks destroy the town of Kastoria in Bulgaria, killing 10,000 civilians.
• 1916 – Germany’s “Red Baron,” Manfred von Richthofen, wins his first aerial combat.

• 1917 – The German Army recaptures the Russian Port of Riga from Russian forces.
• 1939 – With the German army already attacking western Poland, the Soviet Union launches an invasion of eastern Poland.
• 1942 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meets with Soviet Premier Josef Stalin in Moscow as the German Army rams into Stalingrad.
• 1944 – British airborne troops parachute into Holland to capture the Arnhem bridge as part of Operation Market-Garden. The plan called for the airborne troops to be relieved by British troops, but they were left stranded and eventually surrendered to the Germans.
• 1947 – James Forestall is sworn in as first the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
• 1957 – The Thai army seizes power in Bangkok.
• 1959 – The X-15 rocket plane makes its first flight.
• 1962 – The first federal suit to end public school segregation is filed by the U.S. Justice Department.
• 1972 – The first episode of M.A.S.H. airs on CBS.

• 1976 – The Space Shuttle is unveiled to the public.
• 1978 – Egypt and Israel sign the Camp David Accords.
• 1980 – Nationwide independent trade union Solidarity established in Poland.
• 2001 – The New York Stock Exchange reopens for the first time since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers; longest period of closure since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
• 2006 – Alaska’s Fourpeaked Mountain erupts for the first time in at least 10,000 years.
• 2011 – Occupy Wall Street movement calling for greater social and economic equality begins in New York City’s Zuccotti Park, coining the phrase “We are the 99%.”

We start the news in Nashville where a semi driver drove his rig into the entrance of an Aldi. Kristofer Scruggs, 34, drove the semi-truck intentionally into the Gallatin Pike store around 12:15 a.m. Thursday, as captured on surveillance video. Police took him into custody after evaluating him for injuries; he showed no signs of impairment or suicidal intent.

The crash caused over $250,000 in damage to the building, truck, and goods, with the trailer lodged in the entrance and crews unloading cargo to clear it. No one else was hurt, and Scruggs faces felony vandalism charges with $35,000 bond.

There is a sad note to pass along. Artist Peter Max has passed. I will admit to knowing nothing about his politics, and frankly I don’t particularly care. His art transcended a lot of division. Max was born October 19, 1937, in Berlin, the son of Salla and Jakob Finkelstein, German Jews. They fled Berlin in 1938, settling first in Shanghai, China eventually reaching New York via Haifa and Paris.

Peter Max was 88.

LeJames Norman and Ker’Sean Ramey were convicted in 2005 of fatally shooting Samuel Roberts, 24, Tiffani Peacock, 18, and Celso Lopez, 38, inside the Edna home they shared, about 100 miles southwest of Houston. The pair were looking for cocaine they thought would be present at the home. They did not find any. Both were sentenced to be executed in the Death House at Huntsville. Norman had his sentence carried out last night after 21 years.

Death was pronounced at 6:44 PM local time. The execution occurred without incident. His partner in crime Ramey is scheduled to be put to death next Wednesday, 23 September.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Another execution scheduled for Wednesday was halted in Georgia, where Stacey Humphreys, a man convicted of killing two real estate agents, had been set to die. A judge stopped the execution in a late-night decision Tuesday after Humphreys’ lawyers requested a delay over a new state law that gives victims of childhood abuse the opportunity to have their sentences reduced.

Mitch McConnell returned after a three-month absence from a June fall and hospitalization, providing Republicans the one-vote edge to advance the Agricultural Act of 2026 on September 16. Footage shows Sen. John Boozman and others prompting McConnell, who nearly voted the wrong way before correcting.

This is elder abuse.

Does a bear shit in the woods? Not this one. . .