Random News and Notes 2 October

On this Date:

• 1236 – At Largs, King Alexander III of Scotland repels an amphibious invasion by King Haakon IV of Norway.
• 1535 – Having landed in Quebec a month ago, Jacques Cartier reaches a town, which he names Montreal.
• 1780 – Thirty-year-old British Major John Andre is hanged as a spy by U.S. military forces in Tappan, New York. Andre, an accomplice of Benedict Arnold, had been captured by Patriots John Paulding, David Williams and Isaac Van Wart on September 23 after they found incriminating papers in his boot.
• 1835 – The growing tensions between Mexico and Texas erupt into violence when Mexican soldiers attempt to disarm the people of Gonzales, sparking the Texan war for independence.

• 1862 – An Army under Union General Joseph Hooker arrives in Bridgeport, Alabama to support the Union forces at Chattanooga. Chattanooga’s Lookout Mountain provides a dramatic setting for the Civil War’s battle above the clouds.
• 1871 – Morman leader Brigham Young, 70, is arrested for polygamy. He was later convicted, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction.
• 1879 – A dual alliance is formed between Austria and Germany, in which the two countries agree to come to the other’s aid in the event of aggression.
• 1909 – Orville Wright sets an altitude record, flying at 1,600 feet. This exceeded Hubert Latham’s previous record of 508 feet.
• 1919 – President Woodrow Wilson, who had just cut short a tour of the country to promote the formation of the League of Nations, suffers a stroke.
• 1941 – The German army launches Operation Typhoon, the drive towards Moscow.
• 1944 – The Warsaw Uprising ends with the surrender of the surviving Polish rebels to German forces.
• 1950 – The comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schultz, makes its first appearance in newspapers.

• 1959 – The groundbreaking TV series The Twilight Zone, hosted by Rod Serling, premiers on CBS.
• 1965 – During a football game between the University of Florida Gators and the Louisiana State University Tigers, UF players test a newly concocted sports drink to help them regain the essential chemicals their bodies lose from profuse sweating. Gatorade goes on to make its inventors rich.
• 1967 – Thurgood Marshall sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice.
• 1980 – Congressional Representative Mike Myers is expelled from the US House for taking a bribe in the Abscam scandal, the first member to be expelled since 1861.

We start the news with a very disturbing story. According to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice, a 51 year old former employee of the Department of Energy, Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy, was arrested and charged with attempting to provide material support to the Yemeni Houthis. The release states Ellaboudy, “U.S. government employee traveled overseas and used his specialized expertise in an attempt to aid the Houthis, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization backed by Iran.” The FBI became aware of his actions when he bought the precursor materials for homemade explosive devices and drone components as well.

Ellaboudy worked in the Nuclear Safety Division at the Hanford site and allegedly bought precursor chemicals for explosives, plus drone parts. In late 2024 and 2025, he took unauthorized leave to travel to Yemen via Oman, lied to border agents about official business, and advised on equipment like solar generators for a supposed Houthi colonel during an FBI sting. If convicted, he could face 20 years in prison; he appears in court today in Richland.

There was a massive, multi-vehicle pileup on I-95 in South Carolina yesterday. Around 9 a.m. Thursday, a chain-reaction crash involving 40 to 69 vehicles, including 15 tractor-trailers, shut down all southbound lanes of I-95 near Santee SC. Emergency crews from multiple counties freed people from four entrapments, airlifted one person to a hospital, and treated others for minor injuries. There were no fatalities reported.

Limited visibility due to dense fog is the reported cause.

A federal judge in Florida just ruled that the federal law barring non-citizens from voting in federal elections was unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz dismissed the case against Chelsea Michelle Ann Cox, ruling that a 1996 federal statute criminalizing noncitizen voting exceeds Congress’s authority over federal elections—a power he said belongs to the states. Cox had allegedly used a fake birth certificate to register in Florida in 2012 and vote in 2020.

The decision applies only to her and leaves Florida free to prosecute under state law. The first-of-its-kind ruling comes amid dozens of similar federal cases nationwide. This will end up in front of SCOTUS.

There are a couple of notes from the MVAP sports desk to pass along. The first is a bit of a call-back to the featured tune on Friday Fun. Igor Shesterkin, the NY Rangers goalkeeper, scored an empty netter in the Rangers 5-1 home opener victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Shesterkin became the first goalie in franchise history to score a goal, firing an unassisted empty-netter at 17:26 of the third period.

The tally marks the 21st goalie goal in NHL history. Martin Brodeur and Ron Hextall top the goalie scoring list with 3 and 2 respectively.

The other note from the sports desk is about the MLB playoffs. The division series are set. The White Sox and Cleveland face off on one side of the AL bracket. The Yankees and Rays meet on the other side. In the NL it will be Atlanta and the Dodgers on one side and The Padres and the Brew crew on the other.

While the Yanks, White Sox and Padres swept their series, Atlanta went 3 with the Phillies.