As far as the people I've known personally during my lifetime, my maternal great-grandmother (on my grandfather's side) was born in Malvern, PA in 1872, and represents my farthest personal link into the past.

"Granny P" once recounted to me how, when she was five years old, she had accompanied her father and mother to attend the 100th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Paoli, aka "the Paoli Massacre." which took place during the American Revolution in and around present-day Malvern on Sept. 20, 1777.

The commemorative ceremony itself was held at a site less than 100 yards from her childhood home, and she remembered being uncomfortably overdressed on what was a cloudy but otherwise almost unseasonably warm day. She further recalled that the mayor of Philadelphia was also in attendance, and that he spoke to the crowd for what seemed like forever to her. The stone obelisk monument and marble plaque which were dedicated on that day nearly 140 years ago still stand there.

Granny P was a sweet woman who adored her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and even well into her late 90s, she'd still fly out to L.A. by herself at least once a year to visit my grandparents and the rest of us.

She lived to be 105, and is buried in the Malvern Baptist Church cemetery next to her husband, who had died in 1902 of "consumption" (more commonly known today as tuberculosis) and thus predeceased her by 75 years. I remember her every time I enter her birth date in an ATM as a credit card password.

http://tinyurl.com/gvvth47

http://tinyurl.com/gt5uhjj

Under decades' old federal law, CBP can stop and search any vehicle or vessel -- including boats, cars or aircraft -- without a judge's order while searching for undocumented immigrants as long as they are "within a reasonable distance" from an international border. That "reasonable distance" has been interpreted to mean 100 miles from most international borders but includes the entirety of several states, including Michigan.

The ACLU's lawsuit noted that the U.S. Border Patrol already has undergone a huge growth, nearly doubling in size in recent decades, with the Detroit sector growing faster than any in the nation, from 38 agents in 2001 to 411 agents in 2015. In the lawsuit, the group said that complaints of Border Patrol abuses have increased as well.

They had recently come out as lesbians and prosecutors used their sexuality as a motive. The women refused plea deals and took the rare step of testifying in their defense to say they had done no wrong.
After years of fighting to clear their names, the state's highest court exonerated them on Wednesday, saying they had achieved the "Herculean" task of proving their innocence.

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Against the advice of a federal judge, accused church shooter Dylann Storm Roof will represent himself in a death penalty trial that began Monday.

[Judge Richard] Gergel [of U.S. District Court] ordered that Roof's existing defense team act as standby counsel and then asked the defendant whether he would like those lawyers to sit at the defense tables or in seats behind him.

Roof paused for a moment, raising his left hand to his temple in a gesture of thought, then said, "Umm, at the table."

With that, Gergel asked lawyer David Bruck, the former lead counsel for Roof who has vast experience in defending death-penalty cases, to shift one seat over, ceding that top spot to Roof.

I know most here aren't impressed with David Petraues, I remain grateful to the man who pulled our doctrine together and through the force of his soldier personality held the military together on the same page until he got us out of Iraq as an occupier.

He isn't perfect, but he's accomplished. He took on a heaping pile much like Obama did, and he stabilized us and got us moving in the right direction.

Rest assured, fellow Americans: President Trump will deliver us from fluoride, juice boxes, outer-space reptiles and the 7 million dead people and foreigners who vote in our elections. Less clear is whether he'll protect us from the real threats his intelligence briefers would tell him about -- if he'd let them in.

But no, the music was more like what you hear at Frontierland in Disneyland. Big, bold, brash, ambitious, fresh.  American.  That is when it hit me.

Trump is from the early 19th Century.  He is resurrecting Manifest Destiny. America winning and taking the Continent.  Native Americans, get out of the way.  People of Color, stay in your place.  America is for Americans.  For winners. He is trying to be Andrew Jackson.

Yesterday, after a known and monitored lion, P-45, killed almost a dozen alpacas and a goat over the weekend at a couple Malibu ranches, one of the ranchers was given a 10-day permit to hunt and kill P-45.

There are a bunch of alpaca ranches in Malibu, the one I am friends with built a well-protected area and bring their animals into it every night.

Though marijuana was the least of his vices, his widow, Anita Thompson, recently announced via Facebook that she has found a way to clone and sell her late husband's supply. She has held onto six strains from his personal reserve for the past 12-15 years, and plans to sell Gonzo-brand cannabis in states where the drug has been legalized.