Random News and Notes 30 October

On this date:

• 1270 – The Seventh Crusade ends by the Treaty of Barbary.
• 1485 – Henry VII of England crowned.
• 1697 – The Treaty of Ryswick ends the war between France and the Grand Alliance.
• 1838 – Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Lorian County, Ohio becomes the first college in the U.S. to admit female students.
• 1864 – The town of Helena, Montana, is founded by four gold miners who struck it rich at the appropriately named “Last Chance Gulch.”

• 1905 – The czar of Russia issued the October Manifesto, granting civil liberties and elections in an attempt to avert the burgeoning support for revolution.
• 1918 – The Italians capture Vittorio Veneto and rout the Austro-Hungarian army.
• 1918 – Turkey signs an armistice with the Allies, agreeing to end hostilities at noon, October 31.
• 1922 – Mussolini sends his black shirts into Rome. The Fascist takeover is almost without bloodshed. The next day, Mussolini is made prime minister. Mussolini centralized all power in himself as leader of the Fascist party and attempted to create an Italian empire, ultimately in alliance with Hitler’s Germany.
• 1938 – H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds is broadcast over the radio by Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre. Many panic believing it is an actual newscast about a Martian invasion.
• 1941 – The U.S. destroyer Reuben James, on convoy duty off Iceland, is sunk by a German U-boat with the loss of 96 Americans.

• 1948 – Killer smog hovering over Donora, Pennsylvania claims its first two victims. Over a five-day period, the smog killed about 20 people and made thousands more seriously ill.
• 1950 – The First Marine Division is ordered to replace the entire South Korean I Corps at the Chosin Reservoir area.
• 1953 – US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves a top secret document to maintain and expand the country’s nuclear arsenal.
• 1961 – The USSR detonates “Tsar Bomba,” a 50-megaton hydrogen bomb; it is still the largest explosive device of any kind over detonated.
• 1965 – US Marines repeal multiple-wave attacks by Viet Cong within a few miles of Da Nang where the Marines were based; a sketch of Marine positions was found on the body of a 13-year-old boy who had been selling the Americans drinks the previous day.
• 1973 – The Bosphorus Bridge is completed at Istanbul, Turkey, connecting Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus Strait.
• 1974 – The “Rumble in the Jungle,” a boxing match in Zaire that many regard as the greatest sporting event of the 20th century, saw challenger Muhammad Ali knock out previously undefeated World Heavyweight Champion George Foreman.

• 1975 – Prince Juan Carlos becomes acting head of state in Spain, replacing the ailing dictator Gen. Francisco Franco.
• 1985 – Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for its final successful mission.
• 1995 – By a bare majority of 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent, citizens of the province of Quebec vote to remain within the federation of Canada.

We start the news in Council Bluffs Iowa where police tried to stop an SUV with stolen Nebraska plates, but the driver sped off, leading to a high-speed chase. The pursuit ended when the suspect vehicle crashed into a FedEx tractor-trailer at 24th Street and Veterans Memorial Highway. The SUV driver went to an Omaha hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, while the truck driver declined treatment and walked away fine.

Police have applied for warrants on eluding and reckless driving charges.

The El Salvadoran mission to recover its people abducted in Haiti continues to grow. El Salvador launched its largest foreign military operation in decades, deploying over 2,000 troops to Haiti after the technicians from a UN-backed force disappeared on October 18 near Port-au-Prince. Bukele addressed Haitians in Creole, promising a targeted mission funded mostly by El Salvador and drawing from its own success in crushing domestic gangs.

U.S. President Trump gave his approval in a call, while Haitian officials cooperated. The force could grow to 5,000 with special units and helicopters. The Gangs tried to fool the Salvadorans earlier this week by giving them random bodies and claiming they were the missing Salvadorans.

The Nutty 9th just handed the Trump administration an immigration win. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted an emergency stay, halting U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta’s deadlines for the State Department to open the diversity visa lottery 2027 registration by November 1 and notify winners by December 3. The panel ruled that plaintiff Red Eagle Law, an immigration firm, lacks standing because the program aims to encourage immigration, not benefit law firms—though the court did not endorse the department’s delay.

The decision pauses the lottery while the appeal proceeds, drawing praise as a huge immigration win. Frankly, this program – which encourages immigration from low immigration countries – shouldn’t exist. The only people who should be allowed to emigrate to the US should be those that can improve the country. We should not be letting anyone in on the basis that their particular country is under-represented.

A US district judge in Texas has been removed from the bench pending the results of an investigation into her behavior as a judge. U.S. District Judge Ada Brown made repeated comments about ‘White privilege,’ ‘White mediocrity,’ and ‘Black excellence’ toward attorney Ezra Young during a hearing over his representation of a Black professor denied tenure at Southern Methodist University. Brown, who is Black with Native American ancestry, had revoked Young’s courtroom access and accused him of mistreating Black attorneys, calling him a ‘White-presenting’ ‘savior’ from New York despite his Latino heritage.

Young’s misconduct complaint led the Fifth Circuit to order a psychiatric exam and strip her docket in October 2026; Brown denies mental health issues and defends her remarks as addressing his behavior.