The California National Guard has placed on leave the personal assistant to its top general and launched an investigation after the Contra Costa Times questioned a website he maintains called that advocates mass violence.
“I, honestly, would like nothing more than to assist in the wholesale slaughter of every idiot on the face of the planet,” Senior Airman Travis Gruber of Sacramento writes on the site. In other postings and in a related blog, Gruber denigrates African-Americans, Jews, Asians, women, gays and people with physical handicaps.
Until Wednesday, Gruber was the personal assistant and driver to Maj. Gen. William Wade, the Guard’s commanding officer. The job gave Gruber access to state leaders, such as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Gruber, who says on the website that he’s 26, does not identify himself in his postings as a Guard member, nor does he mention Wade by name.
In one Web posting, he wrote of a woman who once approached him with a question as he waited for Wade at the state Capitol and that he later regretted not “crushing her windpipe” and slamming his car door into her legs for bothering him.
In a statement, Gruber said he is “sorry if I have misrepresented or left a black mark on the California Military Department. I was under the impression that I was writing anonymously.” He said he does not “condone acts of violence or aggression” and called his sense of humor “dark and distasteful.”
SAN DIEGO
Sergeant assaulted recruits, charges say
A Marine drill instructor has been charged with 89 counts of assaulting recruits at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, the Marines confirmed Thursday.
Sgt. Jerrod Glass was relieved of duty after an investigation and faces a general court-martial Nov. 8, officials said.
Two other drill instructors, Sgt. Robert Hankins and Sgt. Brian Wendel, face special courts-martial related to the case. “Special” denotes charges that are not serious enough to merit a general court-martial.
In all, 110 incidents of abuse by Glass are alleged, the Marines said. There was no indication of serious injuries.
CANTON, Ohio
Death for cop sought in girlfriend’s slaying
The state will seek to execute a police officer in the death of his pregnant girlfriend, and prosecutors want statements made by the couple’s 2-year-old child to be used against him.
Bobby Cutts Jr. was indicted Thursday on three counts of aggravated murder in the June death of Jessie Davis, whose disappearance drew national attention as thousands joined the search for her. Davis’ body, with a nearly full-term fetus, was found about 25 miles away from her home in a park.
The couple’s son, Blake, provided authorities with the first clues, saying: “Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy’s in rug.”
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.
Lohan, Richie get jail breaks
Actress Lindsay Lohan reached a plea deal Thursday on misdemeanor drunken-driving and cocaine charges that calls for her to spend one day in jail, serve 10 days of community service and complete a drug- treatment program. She also was placed on 36 months’ probation and must complete an alcohol-education program and pay hundreds of dollars in fines.
Meanwhile, Nicole Richie was released from jail Thursday after serving 82 minutes of a four-day sentence for driving under the influence of drugs.
The reality-show star was released “based on her sentence and federal guidelines,” a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy said without elaborating.
PROVIDENCE, R.I.
Aircraft maker settles Iraq-kickback case
A U.S. aircraft and finance company will pay nearly $5 million to settle charges that its subsidiaries paid kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s government during the United Nations’ oil- for-food program, prosecutors said Thursday.
Prosecutors aren’t filing criminal charges against Providence- based Textron Inc., the maker of Cessna aircraft and Bell helicopters, but are requiring that it pay a $1.15 million fine and $3.5 million in related civil penalties.
Money from Iraqi oil sales was to have been used for food and medicine, but Hussein allegedly gave former government officials, activists, journalists and U.N. officials vouchers for oil to be resold at a profit.
LONDON
Mayor regrets city’s role in slave trade
An emotional Mayor Ken Livingstone apologized Thursday for his city’s role in slavery, saying London was still tainted by it.
He choked up as he read an account of the tortures suffered by slaves in Britain’s Caribbean colonies and denounced the role of his city’s corporations in financing the trade. “As mayor, I offer an apology on behalf of London and its institutions for their role in the transatlantic slave trade.”
