Authorities in Kenosha County, Wis., are recommending criminal charges be filed against a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Parkside student who confessed to what initially appeared to be hate crimes.

Khalilah N. Ford of Louisville, Ky., “confessed Friday evening when presented with evidence pointing to her involvement,” Kenosha County Sheriff Sgt. Bill Beth said in a statement released Monday afternoon.

The young woman’s confession came two days after a string of rubber bands – apparently intended to appear as a noose – was found in a common area of a dormitory on the university campus in Kenosha. ( continue to full post… )

The economy may still be limping along and the Middle East in crisis, but at least President Obama can cross one item off the list of things keeping him up at night: According to Friday’s ruling by Georgia Administrative Law Judge Michael Malihi, the president is indeed a natural-born citizen eligible to run for office in this fall’s election.

Malihi, who lacks even the authority to enforce a contempt-of-court order, wrote in a 10-page decision that the evidence presented was “wholly insufficient to support Plaintiffs’ allegations.”

Singling out attorney Orly Taitz for particular criticism, Malihi noted that the woman known as the “birther queen” had failed to show that any of her witnesses were actually experts, and that neither their testimony nor her exhibits proved her claim that the president is a former Indonesian citizen who used a fake name, stolen Social Security number, and forged birth certificate to support his candidacy. ( continue to full post… )

In the last several years, an obscure United Nations accord called Agenda 21 has emerged as something of a unified field theory for the antigovernment movement. On its face, Agenda 21 does nothing but provide countries and communities with a set of principles to grow smartly –– a plan, in short, to fight overpopulation, pollution, poverty and resource depletion.

But for a far-flung network of antigovernment extremists who have risen up to attack it, the nonbinding document that was approved 20 years ago at the UN’s Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro is not really about preserving the planet at all. Between the lines, they argue, lies a blueprint for the “New World Order.”

In his final days on Fox News, Glenn Beck passionately argued that by agreeing to follow Agenda 21, the U.S. government had colluded with internationalists to undermine its own sovereignty and turn the nation into an environmental refuge where nature would take precedence over people. ( continue to full post… )

Camille Marino, a radical animal liberation activist who advocates violence against scientists who use animals in their research, was arrested on Saturday during a protest at the University of Florida.

According to campus Police Chief Linda Stump, Marino now faces extradition to Michigan, where she could be jailed on charges of violating a protective order obtained by Donal O’Leary, a researcher at Detroit’s Wayne State University whom Marino had singled out for harassment. ( continue to full post… )

A noose and two written threats directed at African-American students are triggering concern and an investigation on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside at the beginning of Black History Month.

A black female student found a noose made of rubber bands in a common area in her dormitory on the campus in Kenosha on Wednesday and later received a threatening note, WISN-TV, the ABC affiliate in Milwaukee, reported today.

After the initial threatening note and noose were discovered, “fliers were found listing several black students by name, (saying) that they would die in two days,” radio station WTAQ reported. ( continue to full post… )

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has never been a pleasant organization. Its top leaders have warned shrilly of a “Latin onslaught,” defended a racist 1924 quota system, insisted that America needs a “European-American majority,” and fretted that Latinos are “outbreeding” white people. Its founder has sought ways to sterilize unmarried mothers, corresponded with white supremacists and Holocaust deniers, and suggested, among other things, that it might be a good thing to prohibit less intelligent citizens from having children.

But FAIR, the nation’s leading nativist organization and one that is frequently quoted in the press, has insisted it is not about hatred, that some unfortunate remarks of its founder are ancient history and have nothing to do with the group today.

Two events this week once again gave the lie to those claims. ( continue to full post… )

A mosque under construction near Washington, D.C., was extensively damaged by vandals last weekend, but a regional imam said today there’s no indication yet that the vandalism was a hate crime.

“It seems at this point that the vandalism was done by intoxicated individuals,” regional imam Yahya Luqman said of the damage done last weekend at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Mosque in Chantilly, about 10 miles west of Fairfax, Va.

While some may be quick to assume the vandalism was a hate crime targeting Muslims, the imam said he and the community he represents aren’t jumping to that conclusion. “That’s something the Fairfax County Police are investigating,” Luqman told Hatewatch. “Until they catch the suspects, we won’t know what the motive may have been.” ( continue to full post… )

An accountant who took his antigovernment “sovereign citizen” views to work with him is going to prison, and many of his former clients are faced with huge, unpaid tax bills.

Timothy Garrison, 60, of Mount Vernon, Wash., was sentenced Wednesday to 42 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $95,626 in restitution after pleading guilty to two counts of assisting with the filing of false income tax returns. ( continue to full post… )

UPDATE 2.2.12: The jury sentenced James Michael Tesi to 35 years in prison.

A self-described “sovereign citizen,” who also called himself a “Moorish American,” has been convicted in Fort Worth, Texas, of shooting at a police officer who tried to arrest him for traffic violations last summer.

James Michael Tesi, 49, was taken into custody following the jury verdict Tuesday, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. The 12-member jury immediately began the penalty phase. Tesi faces up to life in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Tesi, an occupational therapist, was charged with aggravated assault on a public servant with a deadly weapon. The charge stems from a series of encounters he had with police for not wearing a seat belt, speeding, failing to show up in court and not producing a valid driver’s licenses. ( continue to full post… )

In recent weeks, a Microsoft cell phone app that helps people use GPS to avoid high-crime areas has prompted a nationwide discussion about race, class and prejudice.

Some praise the “avoid the ghetto app,” as the product has been unofficially dubbed, as a handy safety measure. Others worry it will reinforce false assumptions about race and violent crime. “In much of dominant American culture, there’s an assumption that criminality and being poor and not white go hand in hand,” Sarah Chinn, author of Technology and the Logic of American Racism, told National Public Radio on Jan. 25. ( continue to full post… )