Random News and Notes 4 September

On this date:

• 476 – Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, is deposed by Odoacer, a German barbarian who proclaims himself king of Italy.
• 1260 – At the Battle of Montaperto in Italy, the Tuscan Ghibellines, who support the Holy Roman emperor, defeat the Florentine Guelfs, who support papal power.
• 1479 – After four years of war, Spain agrees to allow a Portuguese monopoly of trade along Africa’s west coast and Portugal acknowledges Spain’s rights in the Canary Islands.
• 1781 – Los Angeles, first an Indian village Yangma, is founded by Spanish decree.
• 1804 – USS Intrepid explodes while entering Tripoli harbor on a mission to destroy the enemy fleet there during the First Barbary War.
• 1820 – Czar Alexander declares that Russian influence in North America extends as far south as Oregon and closes Alaskan waters to foreigners.
• 1861 – Confederate General Leonidas Polk commits a major political blunder by marching his troops into Columbus, Kentucky—negating Kentucky’s avowed neutrality and causing the Unionist legislature to invite the U.S. government to drive the invaders away.
• 1862 – Robert E. Lee‘s Confederate army invades Maryland, starting the Antietam Campaign.
• 1870 – A republic is proclaimed in Paris and a government of national defense is formed.
• 1881 – The Edison electric lighting system goes into operation as a generator serving 85 paying customers is switched on.
• 1886 – Apache leader Geronimo surrenders to U.S. government troops. For 30 years, the Native American warrior had battled to protect his tribe’s homeland; however, by 1886 the Apaches were exhausted and outnumbered.

• 1888 – George Eastman secures U.S. Patent No. 388,850 for a small roll-film hand camera and registers the trademark “Kodak” (Reg. No. 15,825).
• 1915 – The U.S. military places Haiti under martial law to quell a rebellion in its capital Port-au-Prince.
• 1941 – German submarine U-652 fires at the U.S. destroyer Greer off Iceland, beginning an undeclared shooting war.
• 1942 – Soviet planes bomb Budapest in the war’s first air raid on the Hungarian capital.
• 1943 – Allied troops capture Lae-Salamaua, in New Guinea.
• 1944 – British troops liberate Antwerp, Belgium.
• 1945 – The American flag is raised on Wake Island after surrender ceremonies there.
• 1951 – President Harry S. Truman’s opening speech before a conference in San Francisco is broadcast across the nation, marking the first time a television program was broadcast from coast to coast.
• 1957 – Arkansas governor Orval Faubus calls out the National Guard to bar African-American students from entering a Little Rock high school.
• 1967 – Operation Swift begins as US Marines engage North Vietnamese Army troops in Que Son Valley.
• 1972 – Mark Spitz becomes first Olympic competitor to win 7 medals during a single Olympics Games.
• 1975 – Sinai II Agreement between Egypt and Israel pledges that conflicts between the two countries “shall not be resolved by military force but by peaceful means.”
• 1998 – Google founded by Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

We start the news in DC where the Labor Department released the latest jobs number. Employers added 162,000 jobs in August, far surpassing economists’ forecasts of 50,000 to 65,000, while the unemployment rate stayed at 4.1 percent.

This is good news. With any luck, there will be a rate cut to go with it next month.

Staying in DC, more than 150,000 homes were left without power after a strong storm swept through. The overnight thunderstorms battered the Washington, D.C. area with 70 mph gusts, over 1,000 lightning strikes, and heavy rain.

Eyewitnesses compared the chaos to a hurricane, with downed trees, flash flooding, and schools closing the next day amid cleanup.

There is an interesting development in Lebanon. The IDF has captured and cleared a major Hezbollah stronghold in the Ali al-Taher ridge near Nabatieh. The IDF’s 36th Division took full control of the strategic tunnel complex, eliminating operatives, seizing key equipment, and is preparing to demolish the site. Prime Minister Netanyahu said the ridge no longer threatens Israel, while Defense Minister Katz affirmed no withdrawal until Hezbollah disarms across Lebanon.

A source in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards told the New York Times that between 70 and 100 Hezbollah members, including Iranian advisers from the IRGC’s Quds Force, have been trapped since June in tunnels in the Ali Tahr Ridge area. For days, Hezbollah tried to deliver water and food to them using drones. Every time one of them came out to receive the supplies, IDF forces killed him.

Iran warned Israel and the United States not to touch Ali al-Taher Ridge in southern Lebanon. They called it a red line. It was Hezbollah’s mini-Pentagon in southern Lebanon, built with twenty years of IRGC money, and contained tunnels, command rooms, Quds Force officers, and the last Hezb holdouts.

Mohsen Rezaei, Secretary of the Supreme National Security, promised a massive response. Nothing has happened at the time of writing. Rest assured if something does happen, you’ll hear about it here.

In a follow up to a story from earlier this year, Randon Sprinkle has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for CSAM possession. Sprinkle, 31, from Richmond, was convicted after a trial and sentenced on September 3 to 10 years in federal prison. He shared a video of child abuse, and discussed meeting to abuse a 9-year-old boy. A subsequent home search uncovered more CSAM files on his devices, including those involving toddlers and an infant.

He was a prominent member of the VA Democrat organization filling roles like like finance director of the Democratic Party of Virginia and treasurer of Metro Richmond Young Democrats.

Lets hope that federal inmates still hold that peculiar attitude about short-eyes.

There is some good news according to a new Center for Immigration Studies report. Since January 2025 the total foreign born population of the US declined by 2.9 million.

Immigration attorneys are demoralized. A Mexican immigration attorney in L.A. says virtually none of her cases are winnable anymore. Under Trump, she sees her clients set for deportation faster and more often than ever before.

I voted for this.