Looks like Hillary Clinton will be running for President. According to the New York Times, she has leased two floors of office space for her campaign headquarters in Brooklyn.

Hillary Rodham Clinton has leased two floors of office space at 1 Pierrepont Plaza in Brooklyn for her presidential campaign headquarters, according to a person familiar with the deal.

She is expected to announce her decision to run within days. Here's a detailed list of her f her 2008 campaign headquarters and staff.

In January, I wrote about Nicholas Langan, a 24 year old painter and Australian citizen who went to Bali for a surfing holiday and got arrested for smoking a joint on the beach after dinner. Total amount of pot recovered: Less than 1 gram (about as much as in a packet of Splenda.)

The prosecutor yesterday finalized the charges against Langan, and as anticipated, is asking for a 12 year sentence. (The penalty for simple drug possession in Bali (as opposed to trafficking for which the death penalty is authorized) is 4 to 12 years in prison. (Using drugs carries an additional 5 year penalty.)

Langan, who has been held in a police jail pending the filing of formal charges, will now be moved to Kerobokan, the island's hellhole prison, filled with local murderers, rapists and thieves, in addition to foreign drug offenders. [More...]

Two women from Queens have been charged with planning to bomb some unspecified target. The news articles don't really tell the whole story. Here is the 19 page Affidavit in support of the Complaint.

They began studying how to make a bomb with an FBI agent in tow in an undercover capacity. He began meeting with one of them in 2013, and then with both of them in 2014, when the women were roommates. He met with them repeatedly, took them to Home Depot to get ingredients that could be useful in a bomb, printed them out copies of bomb making articles from AQAP's Inspire Magazine, as well as a copy of the Anarchist's Cookbook, and spent hours with them as they "studied" the materials.

The women told the agent they didn't know that they ever would use this knowledge, they just wanted to be prepared because the U.S. was at war with Muslims, and if it became time to set off a bomb, they didn't want it to fail to go off, as had happened to the Times Square bomber. Nor did they want to be suicide bombers. Nor were they in any hurry. [More...]

ISIS has taken over the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, Syria. They battled rebel group Aknaf Bait al-Maqdi.

Al Nusra is now in control of Idlib. Will they rule with as heavy a hand and sword as ISIS? Al Nusra fights along with rebel groups, but it is not a rebel group. It's an Al Qaida affiliate, equally as desirous as ISIS of implementing a Caliphate (just not al Baghdadi) and its version of Sharia law.

Not everyone agrees that Iraq has retaken Tikrit. ISIS has imposed a blackout on Twitter among its supporters so as not to disclose the location of its fighters. They still hold some critical parts of Tikrit.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

If you're in one of these 15 cities, you can see the Rolling Stones in concert this summer. Tickets for all U.S. shows go on sale Monday April 13.

If, like me, you aren't in one of those cities, you know what they say: [More...]

Vanity Fair has an excellent new profile of Judy Clarke. My favorite line, and it is not an exaggeration:

Her record defending the indefensible speaks for itself. Among those who want capital punishment abolished in this country, Judy Clarke is the most effective champion in history.

A basic premise:

No person should be defined “by the worst moment, or worst day” of his life.

How she does it: [More...]

Issue #8 of the Islamic State's English magazine, Dabiq, has been released. The cover title says "Shari'ah Alone Will Rule Africa."

As with prior issues, the last article is one by British hostage John Cantlie. It's called "The Paradigm Shift" and in it he asserts that the only viable course for the west is a truce with ISIS. [More...]

Time for a new open thread. All topics welcome.

A former DEA and Secret Service agent have been charged in Baltimore with stealing bitcoins while working undercover on the Silk Road investigation.

The former agents are Carl Mark Force IV, who worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Shaun Bridges, who worked for the Secret Service.

Mr. Force is being charged with wire fraud, theft of government property and money laundering; and Mr. Bridges is being charged with wire fraud and money laundering, according to an affidavit filed in the United States District Court in San Francisco.

The Government ended its case in the Boston Marathon bombing trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with gory photos of the autopsy of child victim Martin Richards. At least three jurors cried, according to reporters tweeting from the courtroom.

An FBI photographer testified earlier this morning about where Tsarnaev was standing in relation to Richards. The Government tried to make the argument that Tsarnaev deliberately targeted the 8 year old. On cross, the defense showed other photos that had two people standing between Jahar and the boy, and pointed out Jahar walked away right after the first bomb went off, while the Richards family stayed where they were.

The witness used a diagram that, at the direction of the government, didn't depict the other people standing between Jahar and Richards. On Cross: [More...]

It's over, for good. Amanda Knox can finally put this horrific 8 year ordeal behind her. Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation has fully exonerated both Amanda and Raffaele Sollecito of murder.

The supreme Court of Cassation panel deliberated for 10 hours before declaring that the two did not commit the crime, a stronger exoneration than merely finding insufficient evidence to convict.

...The decision to overturn the convictions without ordering a new trial amounted to a rebuke of another high court ruling two years ago that vacated Knox and Sollecito's 2011 acquittal, ordering yet another trial.

[More...]

An exhausting week at work. I'm so glad it's Friday. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.