Random News and Notes 15 October

On this date:

• 1592 – Ottoman armies under Suleiman end their siege of Vienna and head back to Belgrade.
• 1582 – The Gregorian (or New World) calendar is adopted in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal; and the preceding ten days are lost to history.
• 1783 – Francois Pilatre de Rozier makes the first manned flight in a hot air balloon. The first flight was let out to 82 feet, but over the next few days the altitude increased up to 6,500 feet.
• 1796 – An essay appears in the Gazette of the United States in which a writer, mysteriously named “Phocion,” attacks presidential candidate Thomas Jefferson. Phocion turned out to be former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. The essay accuses Jefferson of carrying on an affair with one of his slaves.
• 1813 – uring the land defeat of the British on the Thames River in Canada, the Indian chief Tecumseh, now a brigadier general with the British Army (War of 1812), is killed.
• 1863 – For the second time, the Confederate submarine H L Hunley sinks during a practice dive in Charleston Harbor, this time drowning its inventor along with seven crew members.
• 1880 – Victorio, feared leader of the Mimbreno Apache, is killed by Mexican troops in northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico.
• 1892 – An attempt to rob two banks in Coffeyville, Kan., ends in disaster for the Dalton gang as four of the five outlaws are killed and Emmet Dalton is seriously wounded.
• 1894 – Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer, is falsely arrested for betraying military secrets to Germany. Dreyfus was later exonerated.
• 1914 – Congress passes the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, which labor leader Samuel Gompers calls “labor’s charter of freedom.” The act exempts unions from anti-trust laws; strikes, picketing and boycotting become legal; corporate interlocking directorates become illegal, as does setting prices which would effect a monopoly.
• 1917 – Mata Hari, a Paris dancer, is executed by the French after being convicted of passing military secrets to the Germans.
• 1941 – Odessa, a Russian port on the Black Sea which has been surrounded by German troops for several weeks, is evacuated by Russian troops.
• 1945 – Vichy French Premier Pierre Laval is executed by a firing squad for his wartime collaboration with the Germans.
• 1946 – Hermann Göring, commander in chief of the Luftwaffe, president of the Reichstag, head of the Gestapo, prime minister of Prussia, chief forester of the Reich, chief liquidator of sequestered estates, supreme head of the National Weather Bureau, and Hitler’s designated successor commits suicide. Goring had been sentenced to death by hanging at the Nuremberg trials.
• 1950 – President Harry Truman meets with General Douglas MacArthur at Wake Island to discuss U.N. progress in the Korean War.
• 1989 – Canadian hockey player Wayne Gretzky makes his 1,851st goal, breaking the all-time scoring record in the National Hockey League.
• 1991 – Clarence Thomas is confirmed as associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

A Federal judge from California’s southern district ordered the State Department to re-open a diversity lottery. U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta found the administration’s failure to open registration (after suspending the program) was likely arbitrary and capricious. She directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to publicly announce the registration period on the State Department website no later than midnight EST on October 15, 2026, open electronic registration by midnight EST on October 18 (with a possible short extension under discussion), keep it open for 30 days, select eligible applicants, and process visas under normal procedures until the available numbers are issued or the fiscal year ends.

Ohta, who was born in South Korea, issued the ruling after the State Department ended the diversity lottery last year. The ruling seems somewhat odd to this non-lawyer as it offers no rationale for the decision.

Staying on the Left coast, the Nutty 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued the decision Wednesday, siding with the Trump administration in a challenge to Section 10 of the 2025 ‘No Vigilantes Act.’ The law had demanded non-uniformed federal officers display agency name, name or badge number, or face misdemeanor charges—a measure California pitched for transparency after criticized ICE raids. The three-judge panel, spanning Trump and Obama appointees, found states cannot regulate federal operations without congressional approval, paving the way for unrestricted immigration enforcement.

The unanimous three-judge panel ruled that California cannot dictate how federal law-enforcement officers identify themselves while carrying out duties authorized by Congress. The court ordered a lower judge to block the state from enforcing the identification provision of its so-called “No Vigilantes Act” against the United States, federal agencies and federal officers.

An Ohio cop is facing felony charges. Sharonville PD Lt. Walter Cordes, 48, faces charges for unauthorized searches on Flock Safety’s solar-powered cameras between December 2024 and April 2026, according to Hamilton County prosecutors. Prosecutors say he conducted 29 unauthorized searches between December 19, 2024, and April 20, 2026, to track the whereabouts of someone he knew for personal reasons unrelated to any official law-enforcement purpose. The activity came to light during a departmental audit of the Flock system.

The charge is a fifth-degree felony punishable by up to 12 months in prison. Cordes was placed on administrative leave while the department conducts its own internal investigation. Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich noted that Ohio law prohibits officers from accessing these systems for personal use.

They need to go. Full stop. Any minor benefit they provide is far, far outweighed by their mere existence. There are examples in nearly every state of police misuse of ALPR systems. In Texas, Former officer Zachary Klein was sentenced in September 2026 to five years in prison after pleading guilty to 100 felony counts. He used Flock (and other databases) thousands of times over two years to track his ex-girlfriend, her family, and other men she dated. In Illinois, Former officers Marisa Ciccola and Gerardo Solis were charged in 2026 with felony official misconduct and computer-tampering counts for unauthorized Flock searches. And in Indiana five officers were charged with fraud and official misconduct after thousands of questionable searches, some tracking family or acquaintances.

The President has confirmed the death sentence and the method of execution of Nidal Hasan as is required by law. In a post on Truth Trump said the event would not be livestreamed however.

It seems we are conducting defense policy by poll now. I am of the belief that executions should be public. Is livestreaming a step too far? I dunno, but hiding it away is too far in the other direction. For those who aren’t aware, prior to WWII, most executions were public spectacles. They should be again if you ask me.