Its passageways are pitch black and steamy hot. It's silent, the constant hum of machinery that's the heartbeat of a warship eerily absent. Its windows are covered and ventilation sealed off. Its battle ribbons have been removed, its flag lowered.

But the ship still has a story to tell.

The U.S. Navy decommissioned the 30-year-old frigate Tuesday and with it shut the back cover on one of the most significant -- yet little-heralded -- stories in U.S. military history.

The Simpson was the last modern U.S. Navy warship to sink an enemy vessel in action. Of the 272 ships in the fleet now, only one ship can claim a similar honor: the USS Constitution, now a showpiece in Boston harbor, which sank British vessels in the War of 1812.

Woman who shot intruder waited hour for police

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – Montgomery County dispatchers got three phone calls Wednesday morning, all from the scene.

The first was a woman calling around 3:00 a.m. worried about a man trying to break in.

Caller: Someone is trying to break into my house
Dispatcher: Can you see someone or hear someone, what’s going on?
Caller: Someone is banging on the door.

The dispatcher follows protocol and asks the caller questions for several minutes.
Then appears to end the call saying…

Dispatcher: Keep an eye out for the officer and call us back if you hear anything else.

Surrender: San Fran's iconic, last gun shop to close over new regulations

Ever since it was opened in the 1950s by a celebrated Olympic shooter, High Bridge Arms has been a defiant fixture in San Francisco's Mission District, but a coming wave of new firearms restrictions has prompted the last gun shop in the liberal City by the Bay to pack it in.

The proposed new city regulations, which could only be aimed at High Bridge Arms, would have required the shop to take and preserve video of all transactions and turn customers' personal data over to police on a weekly basis. General Manager Steven Alcairo said the shop's owners finally threw in the towel after years of what they consider being unfairly targeted with burdensome rules and regulations. Past regulations have required the shop to bar ads and displays from its windows and install cameras and barriers around its exterior. The shop has 17 cameras as it is, and turns video over to police on request, he said.

"This time, it's the idea of filming our customers taking delivery of items after they already completed waiting periods," Alcairo said. "We feel this is a tactic designed to discourage customers from coming to us.

"This year, it's this and next year will probably be something else," Alcairo added. "We don't want to wait for it."

WARREN, Mich. -
A man who was robbing a Citizens Bank near 9 Mile and Van Dyke roads on Monday was shot by a customer at the bank.

Police found two guns at the scene. The bank is at the corner of Van Dyke Road and Timken Avenue, which is a few blocks north of 9 Mile Road.

The robber initially fled the bank on foot but was found lying on the ground bleeding. He was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound.
No other injuries have been reported.

Local 4 has learned the robber walked into the bank and announced a hold-up. He received money from a teller and then pointed the gun at the customer, who shot him. He shot him in both arms and the leg

TELL DOJ: CANCEL $2.4 MILLION GRANT TO GUN LOBBY GROUP

Joint Petition from Newtown Action Alliance, Connecticut Against Gun Violence, and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence:

On September 10, 2015, the Newtown, Connecticut-based National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) announced that it had been awarded a two-year, $2.4 million grant by the U.S. Department of Justice for its Project ChildSafe program.1 The funds will go toward buying kits (containing a cable-style gun lock and safety brochure) which NSSF distributes to law enforcement agencies around the country.2 Law enforcement typically provides these kits to gun owners at their request.

While few would oppose the use of gun locks to secure firearms or the dissemination of information on gun safety, the partnership between DOJ and NSSF is nonetheless deeply troubling. Since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary—which claimed the lives of 20 children and 6 adults in NSSF’s own community—the organization has opposed any and all attempts to strengthen U.S. gun laws to prevent future tragedies. Instead, NSSF has actively lobbied for policies that put children at direct risk of obtaining unsecured firearms. Specifically, NSSF:

Opposes all legislation that would require parents to safely store firearms in the home in the manner described in their Project ChildSafe Safety Kit brochure.
Opposes Child Access Prevention laws to hold adults criminally responsible when children gain unauthorized access to their firearms.
Supports unprecedented legal immunity for the gun industry, which prevents parents (and others) from bringing lawsuits against the industry when they market and/or distribute their products in a negligent manner.
Supports lowering the age at which Americans can purchase firearms and carry them in public.
Furthermore, Project ChildSafe has been beset with problems from the start. After hundreds of thousands of its gun locks were recalled for being too fragile and flimsy, NSSF lost federal funding for the program in 2009. Obliged to fund Project ChildSafe on its own, NSSF scaled the program back significantly.3

It’s difficult to understand why the Obama administration would possibly want to bankroll a radical lobby that has accused it of being “willing to try virtually anything to pursue its gun control agenda in defiance of Congress and existing law.”4 Whatever good might be done by Project ChildSafe is vastly outweighed by the harm NSSF does in lobbying for reckless gun laws. No taxpayer in America should have to foot the bill for a profit-focused lobby looking to improve its public image.

Tell the Department of Justice: Cancel your $2.4 million grant to NSSF and find a better partner for gun violence prevention.

NSSF Statement: Project ChildSafe DOJ-OJP Cooperative Agreement Grant

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting, and shooting sports industry, has been awarded a two-year $2.4 million competitive, cooperative agreement grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (DOJ-OJP).

Following announcement of the award, two gun-control groups voiced opposition to the Department of Justice’s decision to select NSSF and Project ChildSafe to receive the grant. It is unfortunate that these groups, which do not have comprehensive, practical firearms safety programs of their own, cannot find common ground to support the goals of this successful, long-standing safety initiative.

They also made false claims about the quality of the program’s cable-style gun locks. The gun locks included in the Project ChildSafe firearm safety kits exceed standards set by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the California Department of Justice.

The new federal funding will allow Project ChildSafe to expand its firearm safety efforts, broaden community partnerships and focus on developing new safety communication tools and distribution strategies.

Whatever good might be done by Project ChildSafe...

Iranian Women's Soccer Captain Will Miss Asian Cup After Husband Takes Passport

In late-breaking "abridgment of basic human rights" news, Iranian women's soccer captain Niloufar Ardalan will not be present at the Asian Cup, as her husband has decided to invoke his legal, husbandly right to withhold her passport.

Per the Associated Press' Jon Gambrell, Ardalan's husband, sports journalist Mahdi Toutounchi, has taken the 30-year-old midfielder's passport to ensure she will be home for their son's first day of school, according to reports from Iranian news website Fararu.com.

Seems legit.

And the great (read: terrible) thing is that there is no real legal recourse for Ardalan. Toutounchi didn't just put her documents on a high shelf out of reach. He's acting within the given legal parameters of Iranian law, which posits that a man can deny his wife the ability to travel beyond the country's borders if he chooses.

Police: Woman with thousands of weapons 'booby trapped' home

Brooksville, Florida -- Hernando County Sheriff's personnel worked into the evening hours Wednesday removing thousands of bladed weapons from a Brooksville woman's home, several of whom were injured in the process.

The sheriff's office says they believe Nickcole Dykema "booby trapped" her home by hiding her bladed weapons in blankets, floors, and her yard injuring personnel while they dismantled and/or removed them from her property. They were treated for minor injuries at a medical facility.

In all, 3,714 bladed weapons were removed from the property. A satanic shrine and fake bloody body parts were also recovered.