
Owensboro City Commission agenda, April 18, 2025
• Proclaim 'Social Work Month.'
• Recognize the retirement of Shenna Adamic, Telecommunicator.
• Receive the Owensboro Fire Department's annual report.
• Receive a City of Owensboro website update.
• Review city projects.
• Consider board appointments.
• Consider approving on second reading an ordinance adopting text amendments to he Metropolitan Zoning Ordinance, specially regarding revisions to Article 18. The revisions pertain to definitions of substantial improvement to existing structures and standards for manufactured homes and recreational vehicles.
• Consider approving a municipal order to apply for $11.465 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and authorizing the funds be distributed to Owensboro Grain Holding Co. Inc. to construct a river wall, to ensure the continued stability of the company's facilities. Owensboro Grain will be entirely responsible for the 25% matching funds for the project.
• Consider directing the mayor to apply for a $64,985 grant through the state Office of Homeland Security for firearms and sights for the Police Department.
• Consider directing the mayor to apply for a $64,985 grant through the state Office of Homeland Security $51,227 to purchase ammunition for patrol rifles and pistols for the Police Department.
• Receive the financial report for the period ending Feb. 28, 2025.
{div}• Consider new hires and promotions. {/div}
• Consider going into closed session under KRS 61.810(1)(b), for discussion on future acquisition or sale of property.
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Evening Edition: DOJ Investigating If The D.C. Police Manipulated Crime Data
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating claims that the Washington, D.C., police department manipulated crime data to publish more favorable stats claiming the city is far more safe than what is being said about it. This, just over a week after President Trump federalized the Metropolitan Police Department to respond to a series of high-profile killings, violent attacks and car-jackings. Federalizing the MPD also included sending hundreds of National Guard members and various federal law enforcement agents from various states to the nation's capital. Fox's John Saucier speaks to David Spunt, Washington D.C. based correspondent for FOX News Channel, who shares the latest on the investigation and the current law enforcement surge in Washington D.C. Click Here To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit


Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Los Angeles Times
Trump's federal law-enforcement crackdown ripples through D.C. neighborhoods
WASHINGTON — The main drag in Washington's Columbia Heights neighborhood is typically crammed with people peddling pupusas, fresh fruit, souvenirs and clothing. On Tuesday, though, things felt different: The white tents that bulge with food and merchandise were scarcer than usual. 'Everything has stopped over the last week,' said Yassin Yahyaoui, who sells jewelry and glass figurines. Most of his customers and fellow vendors, he said, have 'just disappeared' — particularly if they speak Spanish. The abnormally quiet street was further proof of how President Trump's decision to flood the nation's capital with federal law enforcement and immigration agents has rippled through the city. Although troop deployments and foot patrols in downtown areas and around the National Mall have garnered the most attention, life in historically diverse neighborhoods such as Columbia Heights is being reshaped as well. The White House has credited Trump's crackdown with hundreds of arrests, while local officials have criticized the aggressive intervention in the city's affairs. The confrontation escalated Tuesday as the top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia opened an investigation into whether police officials have falsified crime data, according to a person familiar with the situation who wasn't authorized to comment publicly. The inquiry could be used to bolster Trump's claims that the city is suffering from a 'crime emergency' despite statistics showing improvements. The mayor's office and the Police Department declined to comment. Blocks away from where Yahyaoui had set up shop, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local police stopped a moped driver delivering pizza. The agents drove unmarked cars and wore tactical vests; one covered his face with a green balaclava. They questioned the driver and required him to present documentation relating to his employment and legal residency status. No arrest was made. The White House said there have been 465 arrests since Aug. 7, when the federal operation began, including 206 people who were in the country illegally. The Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement and the president signed an executive order on Aug. 11 to put the Police Department under federal control for 30 days; extending that would require congressional approval. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Trump was 'unapologetically standing up for the safety of law-abiding American citizens.' Glorida Gomez, who has been working a fruit stand in Columbia Heights for more than a decade, said business is worse now than during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said many vendors stopped coming because they were afraid of encountering federal agents. Customers seem less willing to spend money too. Reina Sosa, another vendor, said that 'they're saving it in case something happens,' like getting detained by immigration enforcement. Ana Lemus, who also sells fruit, said that 'we need more humanity on that part of the government.' 'Remember that these are people being affected,' she said. 'The government is supposed to protect members of the community, not attack or discriminate against them.' Bystanders have recorded some arrests on video. On Saturday morning, Christian Enrique Carias Torres was detained in another part of the city during a scuffle with ICE agents, and the video ricocheted around social media. An FBI agent's affidavit said Carias Torres kicked one of the agents in the leg and another was injured when he fell during the struggle and struck his head on the pavement. A stun gun was used to subdue Carias Torres, who was charged Tuesday with resisting arrest. An alphabet soup of federal agencies have been circulating in the city. In the Petworth neighborhood, roughly 20 officers from the FBI, Homeland Security, Park Police and U.S. Marshals descended on an apartment building on Tuesday morning. A man extended his hands out a window while officers cuffed him. Yanna Stelle, 19, who witnessed the incident, said she heard the chatter from walkie-talkies as officers moved through the hallways. 'That was too many police first thing in the morning — especially for them to just be doing a warrant,' she said. From his actions and remarks, Trump seems interested in ratcheting up the pressure. His administration has asked Republican-led states to send more National Guard troops. Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio have agreed to deploy a total of 1,100 troops to the city, on top of the 800 from the D.C.-based National Guard. Resistance to that notion is starting to surface, both on the streets and in Congress. On Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-San José) introduced a bill that would require a report outlining the cost of any National Guard deployment unrelated to a natural disaster, as well as its legal basis. It would also require reporting on any Guard interactions with civilians and other aspects of the operation. Forty-four Democrats have signed on in support, including Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington's nonvoting delegate in the House of Representatives. Although the measure stands little chance of passing while Republicans control the chamber, it's a sign of a wider Democratic response to Trump's unprecedented moves in Washington. 'Are L.A. and D.C. a test run for a broader authoritarian takeover of local communities?' Liccardo asked. He added that the country's founders were suspicious of 'executive control of standing armies.' Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said that 'Democrats continue to side with criminals over law-abiding Americans.' It's unclear what kind of help the National Guard will be able to provide when it comes to crime. 'The fact of the matter is that the National Guard are not law-enforcement trained, and they're not going into places where they would be engaged in law enforcement activity,' said Jeff Asher, a crime analyst and consultant at AH Datalytics. 'So I don't know that it's fair to expect much of it.' Trump declared in a social media post that his initiative has transformed Washington from 'the most unsafe 'city' in the United States' to 'perhaps the safest, and getting better every single hour!' The number of crimes reported in D.C. did drop by about 8% this week as compared with the week before, according to Metropolitan Police data. There was some variation within that data, with crimes such as robberies and car thefts declining while burglaries increased a bit and homicides remained steady. Still, a week is a small sample size — far from enough time for data to show meaningful shifts, Asher said. Referring to the monthlong period that D.C.'s home rule law allows the president to exert control over the Police Department, he said: 'I think 30 days is too short of a period to really say anything.' Brown, Whitehurst and Megerian write for the Associated Press. AP writers Michael Kunzelman, Alanna Durkin Richer, Jacquelyn Martin and Ashraf Khalil contributed to this report.


Fox News
a day ago
- Fox News
DOJ investigating possible DC crime data manipulation amid Trump's crackdown on violence
The Department of Justice is investigating claims that the Washington, D.C., police department manipulated crime data to publish more favorable stats, sources told Fox News. Two sources briefed on the matter confirmed to Fox News that the DOJ is looking into whether crime data out of the nation's capital was manipulated. The reported investigation follows President Donald Trump railing against allegations that such crime data was manipulated to show violence is trending down in the city. "D.C. gave Fake Crime numbers in order to create a false illusion of safety," Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday morning. "This is a very bad and dangerous thing to do, and they are under serious investigation for so doing! Until 4 days ago, Washington, D.C., was the most unsafe "city" in the United States, and perhaps the World. Now, in just a short period of time, it is perhaps the safest, and getting better every single hour! People are flocking to D.C. again, and soon, the beautification will begin!" Trump federalized the Metropolitan Police Department Aug. 11 in response to a spate of high-profile killings and attacks, and a crime wave in the District that has persisted since 2020. Trump federalized the local police department under section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which allows the president to assume emergency control of the capital's police force for 30 days. Just weeks before Trump federalized the force — which includes hundreds of National Guard members and various federal law enforcement agents converging on the city — the D.C. police department was accused of changing crime numbers to publish more favorable data. "When our members respond to the scene of a felony offense where there is a victim reporting that a felony occurred, inevitably there will be a lieutenant or a captain that will show up on that scene and direct those members to take a report for a lesser offense," D.C. Police Union chairman Gregg Pemberton told NBC Washington in July of an alleged trend to manipulate crime stats. "So, instead of taking a report for a shooting or a stabbing or a carjacking, they will order that officer to take a report for a theft or an injured person to the hospital or a felony assault, which is not the same type of classification," he alleged. The accusations from the union chief followed the police department suspending Washington, D.C., police Commander Michael Pulliam in mid-May for allegedly changing crime statistics in his district, local media reported in July. The police commander was accused of falsifying crime data to make crime trends look more favorable for the city, but has denied the allegations. A week before his suspension, Pulliam filed an equal employment opportunity complaint against a higher-up, local outlet NBC Washington reported. Fox News Digital reached out to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's office and the Metropolitan Police Department for comment on the DOJ's investigation into the claims of manipulating data but did not immediately receive replies Tuesday afternoon. Democrat lawmakers and leaders, and some local residents, have slammed Trump over federalizing the city, claiming recent violent crimes have trended downward and that there was no need to send in the National Guard. "Violent crime in Washington, D.C. is at a 30-year low," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Aug. 11. "Donald Trump has no basis to take over the local police department. And zero credibility on the issue of law and order. Get lost." "As you listen to an unhinged Trump try to justify deploying the National Guard in DC, here's reality: Violent crime in DC is at a 30-year low," former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton posted to X. Washington, D.C., was among the cities caught up in a spiking national crime trend in 2020 — when the COVID-19 pandemic raged and protests and riots overtook cities nationwide — recording 198 homicides that year, which marked a 16-year high for the city. Homicides jumped to 226 in 2021, edged down to 203 in 2022 and soared in 2023 to 274 — a 20-year high. D.C. saw homicides drop by roughly 31% from 2023 to 2024, according to year-end Metropolitan Police Department data reporting 187 in 2024. The data shows violent crime across the board fell by roughly 35% from 2023, when the department reported 5,345 incidents, to 2024, when it reported 3,469. While the current crime data published by the police department shows violent crimes are falling, a study published in July by the Council on Criminal Justice found the chances of a person dying during such a crime has skyrocketed. The study examined violent crime data from 17 large U.S. cities between 2018 and 2024, specifically investigating the lethality of violent crimes in those cities. It found Washington, D.C., had the highest lethality level out of the group, which included Baltimore and Chicago, at a 38% increase in lethality in 2024 compared with 2018. Lethality in D.C. jumped by a whopping 341% when compared to 2012 data, the study found, reporting that there were 13 homicides per 1,000 serious violent crimes in 2012 to 57 homicides per 1,000 serious violent crimes in 2024. Trump has seethed against claims data was changed, including Aug. 14, when he said an investigation had been launched into the matter. "They are under investigation right now," Trump said Aug. 14 during an Oval Office press conference. "They are giving this phony crime stats just like they gave other stats in the financial world. But they're phony crime stats. And Washington, D.C., is at its worst point, and it will soon be at its best point. You're gonna have a very safe, you're going to have a crime-free city."