Scott County Sheriff Tim Lane files ethics complaint against lieutenant governor Chris Cournoyer
- By cigaretteman
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The investigation, by a sergeant in the sheriff's office, concerned whether McAndrew continued monitoring a sex offender after the person was supposed to be discharged. No charges or disciplinary action have been brought against McAndrew, and Lane said the state attorney general and county attorney's offices and the Iowa Department of Corrections all "have determined no wrongdoing on part of Jennifer," Lane said.
Lane also contends that Cournoyer later improperly accessed and made copies of the sergeant's investigative report when Cournoyer was asked to pass the report, compiled in March, along to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.
Cournoyer, through a spokesperson, denied Lane’s claims that the bill was related and said she acted properly when presented information from a whistleblower.
The Senate Ethics Committee declined to take up Lane’s complaint because it “was received after Lt. Gov Cournoyer had resigned the Senate seat thus there was nothing for the ethics committee to address,” Senate Ethics Committee Chair Tom Shipley, a senator from Adams County, wrote in email to the Quad-City Times Thursday.
Lane said Thursday he was exploring other avenues to express his concerns.
The bill Lane referenced in his complaint, Senate File 2014, later renumbered as Senate File 2277, was introduced by Cournoyer in January and passed committee but was not taken up by the full chamber.
The bill stipulated that a sheriff conducting a disciplinary or criminal investigation of a sheriff’s office employee who is an immediate family member of the sheriff shall have the investigation conducted by the attorney general or the state department of public safety.
Scott County Sheriff Tim Lane speaks during a 2022 roundtable hosted by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to discuss challenges with local law enforcement leaders in Davenport. Lane has filed an ethics complaint against former Sen. Chris Cournoyer, who is now Iowa's lieutenant governor.
NIKOS FRAZIER, QUAD-CITY TIMES
In his complaint, Lane asked the ethics committee to appoint a special counsel to determine whether the introduction of the bill "was part of a conspiracy” between Cournoyer and the sergeant investigating McAndrew “to force the DCI (Division of Criminal Investigation) to further the criminal investigation on Jennifer McAndrew, harass her, and put her job at risk.”
McAndrew, Lane's wife, works for the Iowa Department of Corrections, not the sheriff’s office.
In an interview, Lane acknowledged the bill’s language doesn’t appear to apply to McAndrew, but Lane said he got a call from an Iowa Capital Dispatch reporter when the bill passed subcommittee who said Cournoyer had said the bill was introduced to address a problem in the Scott County Sheriff’s Office.
Lane said he doesn’t have any relatives that work for the sheriff’s office, and that he believes Cournoyer intended to expand the bill's scope to be able to compel another agency to continue investigating his wife.
“The act of doing a criminal investigation on somebody starting with no citizen complaint and having no merit and what appears to be a conspiracy between a deputy sheriff and a senator to change the law in order to further the investigation — I believe that is something that is a serious ethical violation that needs to be looked into,” Lane said.
A spokesperson for the governor’s office wrote in an email to the Quad-City Times that claims in Lane’s complaint are false.
“The complaint, conveniently filed the day she was sworn in as lieutenant governor, doesn't even make sense,” the Governor’s Office Deputy Communications Director Mason Mauro wrote in an email. “Sheriff Lane insinuates that Lt. Governor Cournoyer introduced a bill in January because of what she allegedly learned in an investigation file on Sheriff Lane's wife three months later, in March.
“Lt. Gov. Cournoyer acted appropriately when provided information by a whistleblower, and Sheriff Lane's false allegation surrounding the investigation of his wife demonstrates the need for the very type of legislation that Lt. Gov. Cournoyer introduced."
Mauro did not respond to questions about why Cournoyer introduced the bill and what Cournoyer did with the investigative report.
Wall appealed Lane’s decision, but it was upheld by the Scott County Civil Service Commission. Wall could not be reached for comment.
Wall told the commission he believed McAndrew was violating the rights of a sex offender by monitoring him longer than she should have, and that he kept his investigation secret because he feared retaliation.
Wall investigated for months before compiling a report in March 2024 that Lane said recommended federal and state criminal charges and a civil rights lawsuit against McAndrew. Wall then gave the report and a flash drive to Cournoyer to take to the Iowa Attorney General, Lane wrote in his complaint.
The Scott County Civil Service Commission wrote in its decision upholding Wall’s firing that “though the investigation may have involved Sheriff Lane’s spouse, Sgt. Wall completely failed to bring his concerns to the attention of anyone. There is far from clear evidence any potential crime was committed here as first described to Sgt. Wall.”
In its decision, the commission wrote that it believed Wall had a “legitimate concern” when Wall first heard from the sex offender.
“But thereafter, Sgt. Wall did not follow any proper procedure or reporting or documentation so required. He failed to take proper steps to notify virtually anyone in the sheriff’s department, or the county attorney’s office, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, or the Department of Criminal Investigations. If he truly believed a crime had been committed, (he) really told no one, at least for many months. Sgt. Wall did make a secret investigation and really did so as a sheriff’s deputy.”
Cournoyer supported Lane’s opponent in the Republican primary earlier this year, Chris Laye. Lane notes in his complaint that Cournoyer wrote a letter to the editor in the Quad-City Times in May 2024 that stated, “The citizens of Scott County deserve someone who enforces the law who doesn’t think he or his family members are above it.”
Lane wrote in his complaint that “this statement speaks publicly to the content of Wall’s criminal report. Senator Cournoyer was heavily involved in the Chris Laye for Sheriff campaign, and Sgt. Josh Wall was the campaign manager and accountant.”
Lane accuses Cournoyer of “harassment of a citizen, use of confidential information to further her own interests or the interests of another person, disclosing confidential information, and improperly or illegally obtaining confidential information.”
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Lane also contends that Cournoyer later improperly accessed and made copies of the sergeant's investigative report when Cournoyer was asked to pass the report, compiled in March, along to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.
Cournoyer, through a spokesperson, denied Lane’s claims that the bill was related and said she acted properly when presented information from a whistleblower.
The Senate Ethics Committee declined to take up Lane’s complaint because it “was received after Lt. Gov Cournoyer had resigned the Senate seat thus there was nothing for the ethics committee to address,” Senate Ethics Committee Chair Tom Shipley, a senator from Adams County, wrote in email to the Quad-City Times Thursday.
Lane said Thursday he was exploring other avenues to express his concerns.
The bill Lane referenced in his complaint, Senate File 2014, later renumbered as Senate File 2277, was introduced by Cournoyer in January and passed committee but was not taken up by the full chamber.
The bill stipulated that a sheriff conducting a disciplinary or criminal investigation of a sheriff’s office employee who is an immediate family member of the sheriff shall have the investigation conducted by the attorney general or the state department of public safety.
Scott County Sheriff Tim Lane speaks during a 2022 roundtable hosted by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to discuss challenges with local law enforcement leaders in Davenport. Lane has filed an ethics complaint against former Sen. Chris Cournoyer, who is now Iowa's lieutenant governor.
NIKOS FRAZIER, QUAD-CITY TIMES
In his complaint, Lane asked the ethics committee to appoint a special counsel to determine whether the introduction of the bill "was part of a conspiracy” between Cournoyer and the sergeant investigating McAndrew “to force the DCI (Division of Criminal Investigation) to further the criminal investigation on Jennifer McAndrew, harass her, and put her job at risk.”
McAndrew, Lane's wife, works for the Iowa Department of Corrections, not the sheriff’s office.
In an interview, Lane acknowledged the bill’s language doesn’t appear to apply to McAndrew, but Lane said he got a call from an Iowa Capital Dispatch reporter when the bill passed subcommittee who said Cournoyer had said the bill was introduced to address a problem in the Scott County Sheriff’s Office.
Lane said he doesn’t have any relatives that work for the sheriff’s office, and that he believes Cournoyer intended to expand the bill's scope to be able to compel another agency to continue investigating his wife.
“The act of doing a criminal investigation on somebody starting with no citizen complaint and having no merit and what appears to be a conspiracy between a deputy sheriff and a senator to change the law in order to further the investigation — I believe that is something that is a serious ethical violation that needs to be looked into,” Lane said.
A spokesperson for the governor’s office wrote in an email to the Quad-City Times that claims in Lane’s complaint are false.
“The complaint, conveniently filed the day she was sworn in as lieutenant governor, doesn't even make sense,” the Governor’s Office Deputy Communications Director Mason Mauro wrote in an email. “Sheriff Lane insinuates that Lt. Governor Cournoyer introduced a bill in January because of what she allegedly learned in an investigation file on Sheriff Lane's wife three months later, in March.
“Lt. Gov. Cournoyer acted appropriately when provided information by a whistleblower, and Sheriff Lane's false allegation surrounding the investigation of his wife demonstrates the need for the very type of legislation that Lt. Gov. Cournoyer introduced."
Mauro did not respond to questions about why Cournoyer introduced the bill and what Cournoyer did with the investigative report.
Lane fired sergeant who secretly investigated his wife
Sgt. Josh Wall, a veteran employee of the Scott County Sheriff’s Office, began investigating McAndrew in 2023 without telling his superiors. He produced a report in March 2024 and gave it to Cournoyer to pass to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. When Wall's supervisors found out about it, they investigated Wall and held a hearing. At the recommendation of a captain and lieutenant in the sheriff’s office that investigated Wall, Lane fired him, according to a decision written by the Scott County Civil Service Commission.Wall appealed Lane’s decision, but it was upheld by the Scott County Civil Service Commission. Wall could not be reached for comment.
Wall told the commission he believed McAndrew was violating the rights of a sex offender by monitoring him longer than she should have, and that he kept his investigation secret because he feared retaliation.
Wall investigated for months before compiling a report in March 2024 that Lane said recommended federal and state criminal charges and a civil rights lawsuit against McAndrew. Wall then gave the report and a flash drive to Cournoyer to take to the Iowa Attorney General, Lane wrote in his complaint.
The Scott County Civil Service Commission wrote in its decision upholding Wall’s firing that “though the investigation may have involved Sheriff Lane’s spouse, Sgt. Wall completely failed to bring his concerns to the attention of anyone. There is far from clear evidence any potential crime was committed here as first described to Sgt. Wall.”
In its decision, the commission wrote that it believed Wall had a “legitimate concern” when Wall first heard from the sex offender.
“But thereafter, Sgt. Wall did not follow any proper procedure or reporting or documentation so required. He failed to take proper steps to notify virtually anyone in the sheriff’s department, or the county attorney’s office, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, or the Department of Criminal Investigations. If he truly believed a crime had been committed, (he) really told no one, at least for many months. Sgt. Wall did make a secret investigation and really did so as a sheriff’s deputy.”
Cournoyer supported Lane’s opponent in the Republican primary earlier this year, Chris Laye. Lane notes in his complaint that Cournoyer wrote a letter to the editor in the Quad-City Times in May 2024 that stated, “The citizens of Scott County deserve someone who enforces the law who doesn’t think he or his family members are above it.”
Lane wrote in his complaint that “this statement speaks publicly to the content of Wall’s criminal report. Senator Cournoyer was heavily involved in the Chris Laye for Sheriff campaign, and Sgt. Josh Wall was the campaign manager and accountant.”
Lane accuses Cournoyer of “harassment of a citizen, use of confidential information to further her own interests or the interests of another person, disclosing confidential information, and improperly or illegally obtaining confidential information.”
Scott County Sheriff Tim Lane files ethics complaint against Chris Cournoyer
Scott County Sheriff Tim Lane filed this week an ethics complaint and request for investigation into Chris Cournoyer, a former state senator from LeClaire who was sworn in as lieutenant governor on Monday.
RIP NBC Sports Chicago. Replaced by free over-the-air “Chicago Sports Network”
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Blackhawks, Bulls, and White Sox will be available free across “most of Iowa” with a digital antenna…
Can Modern Air Defenses Stop Santa's Stealth Sleigh? (Analysis of the Santa Claus National Security Threat)
Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
Can Modern Air Defenses Stop Santa’s Stealth Sleigh?
By
Robert Farley
Published
8 hours ago
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2024/12/can-modern-air-defenses-stop-santas-stealth-sleigh/
Humanity’s long, bitter struggle against Santa Claus continues.
Over the last two years, the battle against the Arctic Holiday Elf has breached new technological frontiers, changing how we think about preventing chimney intrusions.
Santa poses for a picture in front of an F-35 Lightning II before visiting members of the 419th Fighter Wing Dec. 8, 2019 at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The wing hosts the children’s Christmas party annually to provide an opportunity for reservists to reconnect after a busy year of multiple deployments around the globe. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Justin Fuchs)
The NORAD Santa Claus tracker continues to supply children the world over with data about Santa’s incursions into national air space.
But despite technological innovations, Santa remains an air defense threat. What have we done over the last two years to prevent Santa’s reign of holiday terror?
What Have the Last Two Years Showed Us?
Air defense has become the name of the game in terrestrial warfare, and the technologies and techniques developed in the Wars of Humanity have clear implications for the struggle against Claus. Advances in air defense technology have made efforts to deliver presents at close range without stealth nearly suicidal for elves and reindeer alike. Conventional aircraft and sleighs simply cannot operate without substantial risk in contested airspace.This has left Santa with some unappealing options. Glide bombs launched at stand-off ranges can reduce the danger to Santa’s sleigh, but are imprecise and often result in packages being delivered off target. Delivery of packages through long-range precision cruise missiles can solve part of the targeting problem, but at volume the expense is high and even the fastest cruise missiles can be shot down.
Historically, Santa has demonstrated reluctance to go ballistic, given the incapacity of most conventional roofs to receive a sleigh traveling at terminal velocity. Nevertheless, precision-targeted ballistic missile delivery of packages has increasingly become an attractive option for Santa.
However, advances in ballistic missile defense technology mean that even the most lethal delivery systems have only a slim chance of arriving at their targets successfully. Volume helps, of course, and one of Santa’s long-honed strategies of package delivery has been to saturate an air defense system on a single night. However, this still leaves many packages undelivered or delivered to the wrong address.
https://www.outbrain.com/what-is/default/en
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Santa poses for a picture in front of an F-35 Lightning II before visiting members of the 419th Fighter Wing Dec. 8, 2019 at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The wing hosts the children’s Christmas party annually to provide an opportunity for reservists to reconnect after a busy year of multiple deployments around the globe. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Justin Fuchs)
However, there is little room for triumphalism. As Santa has access to advanced stealth technology, he remains a direct threat to conventional air defense networks and to the targets that they protect. Indeed, a properly employed stealth sleigh can blind and defeat an entire air defense system, opening an entire country open to the delivery of holiday packages. Combined with drones and long-range precision munitions, a holiday campaign of terror spearheaded by stealth reindeer can still defeat the best efforts of even a well-constructed air defense network.
Santa and the Drone Revolution
In response to these trends Santa has mightily expanded his use of delivery drones. Guided and carefully programmed drones can, at manageable expense, deliver packages with precision to targets across a country. The best available evidence indicates that Santa has developed a system of drone-control centers below the Arctic ice, manned by specially trained elves and capable of coordinating a multifaceted holiday offensive against a wide array of targets.Moreover, autonomous and semi-autonomous drones can deliver packages without direct control, avoiding concerns about electronic interference. Drone campaigns are particularly well-suited to the North Pole’s air penetration strategy because of close linkages between Santa’s defense industrial base and his toymaking industries, taking advantage of dual use technologies that have both military and civilian application.
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But drones aren’t the end of the story. Most of the North Pole’s drones travel at speeds and on flight paths that are subject to interception from conventional air defense systems. As with missiles, volume can help by overwhelming defensive capabilities, but this leaves many packages undelivered. Moreover, the development of counter-drone drones have helped to even the holiday aerial battlefield.
D.C. officer guilty for leaking to Proud Boys’ Tarrio before Jan. 6
- By cigaretteman
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A former D.C. police lieutenant was found guilty Monday on charges that he improperly warned Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio of his pending arrest two days before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, then lied about it to investigators.
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Shane Lamond, a 24-year department veteran, aided the far-right Proud Boys group when he leaked word to Tarrio that a warrant had been signed for his arrest for burning a Black Lives Matter flag stolen from a historic African American church during a pro-Trump rally weeks earlier, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said after a week-long bench trial.
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“The defendant was not using Tarrio as a source; it was the other way around,” Jackson said Monday in finding the former officer guilty on all counts. “He knew then and he knows now that it was wrong.”
Lamond, 48, of Stafford, Virginia, headed D.C. police’s intelligence unit at the time. He pleaded not guilty to one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of making false statements.
Get concise answers to your questions. Try Ask The Post AI.Shane Lamond, a 24-year department veteran, aided the far-right Proud Boys group when he leaked word to Tarrio that a warrant had been signed for his arrest for burning a Black Lives Matter flag stolen from a historic African American church during a pro-Trump rally weeks earlier, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said after a week-long bench trial.
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“The defendant was not using Tarrio as a source; it was the other way around,” Jackson said Monday in finding the former officer guilty on all counts. “He knew then and he knows now that it was wrong.”
Lamond, 48, of Stafford, Virginia, headed D.C. police’s intelligence unit at the time. He pleaded not guilty to one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of making false statements.
This is Iowa
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Great read on why Iowa players… KF and staff must be doing something right.
hawkeyeswire.usatoday.com
Iowa football returnees embody who, what Hawkeyes are
Iowa football returnees Aaron Graves, Ethan Hurkett and Logan Jones embody who, what the Hawkeyes are.
hawkeyeswire.usatoday.com
SUBWAY INFERNO Horror as woman dies after being set on fire & burned alive while sleeping on NYC subway as attacker ‘watched her die’
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A WOMAN suffered a horrific death after she was set on fire while asleep on a New York subway.
The attacker calmly watched his victim burn to death after setting her ablaze at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in Brooklyn in front of shocked commuters.
A suspect was arrested following what the police commissioner called “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit.”
The woman was riding an F train in Coney Island when the man allegedly threw a lit match at her.
She was found burning alive in the middle of the train after passengers smelled smoke at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station.
"What they saw was a person standing inside the train car fully engulfed in flames," New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press conference.
Horrific footage shows the suspect watching as the woman was engulfed by flames, the New York Post reports.
The man was brazenly sitting on a nearby bench while police officers were desperately trying to find out what happened shouting ", “Did anybody see anything? Did anybody see anything?”
The officers used fire extinguishers to put out the fire and the woman was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders.
Transit police apprehended the suspect after receiving a report from three high school students who had recognized the man.
Other transit officers identified the man on another subway train and radioed ahead to the next station
They had seen images of the suspect taken from surveillance and police body cam video and widely distributed by police.
Other transit officers identified the man on another subway train and radioed ahead to the next station.
The man had a lighter in his pocket when he was taken into custody.
Horrified commuters were shocked to see the woman being carted out of the station.
A worker at the subway station told the New York Post: "I was just walking by. The cops were there already.
"I didn’t see her in flames but that’s what I heard. It was out. They shut the lights off [in the car] so nobody could see."
www.thesun.co.uk
Hopefully Alvin Bragg doesn't file charges against anyone who attempted to stop the firebug.
The attacker calmly watched his victim burn to death after setting her ablaze at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in Brooklyn in front of shocked commuters.
A suspect was arrested following what the police commissioner called “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit.”
The woman was riding an F train in Coney Island when the man allegedly threw a lit match at her.
She was found burning alive in the middle of the train after passengers smelled smoke at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station.
"What they saw was a person standing inside the train car fully engulfed in flames," New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press conference.
Horrific footage shows the suspect watching as the woman was engulfed by flames, the New York Post reports.
The man was brazenly sitting on a nearby bench while police officers were desperately trying to find out what happened shouting ", “Did anybody see anything? Did anybody see anything?”
The officers used fire extinguishers to put out the fire and the woman was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders.
Transit police apprehended the suspect after receiving a report from three high school students who had recognized the man.
Other transit officers identified the man on another subway train and radioed ahead to the next station
They had seen images of the suspect taken from surveillance and police body cam video and widely distributed by police.
Other transit officers identified the man on another subway train and radioed ahead to the next station.
The man had a lighter in his pocket when he was taken into custody.
Horrified commuters were shocked to see the woman being carted out of the station.
A worker at the subway station told the New York Post: "I was just walking by. The cops were there already.
"I didn’t see her in flames but that’s what I heard. It was out. They shut the lights off [in the car] so nobody could see."
Woman dies after being set on fire on train as attacker ‘watched her die’
A WOMAN suffered a horrific death after she was set on fire while asleep on a New York subway. The attacker calmly watched his victim burn to death after setting her ablaze at the Coney Island-Stil…
www.thesun.co.uk
Hopefully Alvin Bragg doesn't file charges against anyone who attempted to stop the firebug.
Jesus too liberal for modern evangelicals
Evangelicals are now rejecting 'liberal' teachings of Jesus
Christian devotees of former President Donald Trump are denouncing Bible verses attributed to Jesus as "weak," according to an evangelical leader.
www.newsweek.com
