Portland Tells Voters ‘Nothing To See Here’ As Ballots Literally Go Up In Flames
Drop boxes near Portland, Oregon, caught fire overnight. Police found a 'device' near each of the boxes.Drop boxes near Portland, Oregon, caught fire overnight. Police found a 'device' near each of the boxes.Suspected arson fires torch perhaps hundreds of ballots in drop boxes in Pacific Northwest
Hundreds of ballots likely went up in flames after an explosive device apparently went off in a ballot drop box in Washington state, one of two such explosions that occurred early Monday morning.
Around 5:30 a.m. on Monday, police began working tirelessly to put out a fire in a ballot box near a bus station in Vancouver, Washington. Video of their efforts shows crews toiling in the pouring rain as the contents of the ballot box were reduced to ashes.
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"It appears that a device was attached to the outside of the ballot drop box that resulted in the ballots being ignited," Clark County auditor Greg Kimsey said, according to Oregon Live.
The ballot box was outfitted with a fire suppressant, Kimsey noted. Unfortunately, it did not work effectively.
When asked how many ballots were affected, Kimsey declined to give an exact number but claimed it was in the "hundreds."
Kimsey described the incident as "heartbreaking." "It’s a direct attack on democracy," he added.
Police likewise described the device as "suspicious."
'Southwest Washington cannot risk a single vote being lost to arson and political violence.'
Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs (D) suggested the incident may have even been an act of "terror."
"I strongly denounce any acts of terror that aim to disrupt lawful and fair elections in Washington state," he said in a statement, according to ABC News.
The drop box is located in Washington's 3rd Congressional District, where Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D) and Republican Joe Kent are in a tight rematch. In 2022, Perez beat Kent by fewer than 3,000 votes.
"Southwest Washington cannot risk a single vote being lost to arson and political violence," Perez said in a statement, according to ABC News.
Kent's team did not respond to a request for comment, the outlet claimed.
Ballots at the drop box were last collected around 11 a.m. on Saturday, so anyone who deposited a ballot after that time is encouraged to check the status of their ballot online. They may also contact the county elections office to receive a replacement ballot by calling (564) 397-2345 or emailing elections@clark.wa.gov.
Sadly, the drop box in Vancouver was not the only one in the area to be hit. About two hours before the incident in Vancouver, an "incendiary device" exploded in a drop box in Portland, a press release from the Portland Police Bureau indicated. Portland, Oregon, is located about 10 miles south of Vancouver, Washington.
Fortunately, a fire suppressant installed in the Portland ballot box activated, preventing a significant fire. Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott claimed that only three ballots had been damaged and that elections workers had already made plans to contact the affected voters.
"By the time officers arrived, the fire had already been extinguished by security personnel who work in the area," the PPB press release said. "Officers determined an incendiary device was placed inside the ballot box and used to ignite the fire. PPB’s Explosive Disposal Unit (EDU) responded to the scene and cleared the device."
It is unclear whether the two incidents are linked.
Yet another incendiary device was discovered at a drop box in Vancouver on October 8. Luckily, it did not cause any damage.
A man also allegedly admitted to lighting a fire in a ballot box in Phoenix last week, destroying perhaps 20 ballots, as Blaze News previously reported. The suspect denied having any political motivation, claiming instead that he "wanted to be arrested."
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Mom scores major free-speech victory after Arizona mayor attempted to silence her
An Arizona mother won a major First Amendment victory earlier this week when a justice of the peace dismissed the case against her after she was arrested in connection with publicly criticizing a city official.
On August 20, 32-year-old Rebekah Massie and her 10-year-old daughter attended a city council meeting in Surprise, a suburb of Phoenix. During the public comment portion of the meeting, Massie stood at the podium and slammed city attorney Robert Wingo for accepting a raise despite poor job performance.
As Massie expressed her views on Wingo, Mayor Skip Hall repeatedly interrupted her, insisting that her criticisms of Wingo violated rules regarding public comments at city council meetings. That rule read that "oral communications during the City Council meeting may not be used to lodge charges or complaints against any employee of the City or members of the body."
Massie did not deny that she was violating that rule but insisted that the rule was unconstitutional. "That's a violation of my First Amendment rights," she said during the meeting, as Blaze News previously reported.
After Massie continued speaking in defiance of Hall, the mayor eventually ordered security to arrest her. She was then charged with trespassing, a class 3 misdemeanor, as well as resisting arrest and obstructing government operations, both class 1 misdemeanors. She also claimed the arresting officer threw her to the ground and against a wall during the incident.
At a hearing to formally dismiss the charges on Wednesday, Justice of the Peace Gerald Williams excoriated the city rule proscribing public criticism of officials.
"That policy regulated not just speech; but political speech," Williams wrote, apparently aghast.
"No branch of any federal, state, or local government in this country should ever attempt to control the content of political speech. ... In this case, the government did so in a manner that was objectively outrageous," he continued.
"The Defendant should not have faced criminal prosecution once for expressing her political views."
Williams ultimately decided to dismiss the case with prejudice so that no prosecutor could refile the charges, claiming "justice" demanded such a decision.
'We want to make it crystal clear to governments across the United States that brazenly censoring people and betraying the First Amendment comes with a cost.'
In a statement to Blaze News, Massie expressed "relief" at the ruling and at all the support she has received from other freedom-loving people.
"For more than two months I’ve been living with the threat of punishment and jail time — being taken away from my kids, even — for doing nothing more than criticizing the government," she said, adding, "Free speech still matters in America."
Bret Royle of Feldman Royle, who represented Massie in the case, is also gratified by the court's decision.
"Rebekah should never have been detained, let alone criminally charged, for speaking her mind," Royle said in a statement to Blaze News. "That’s the kind of thing that happens in tyrannical countries but should never happen here. No American should face jail time for exercising their freedom of speech, and we’re relieved the court agreed."
It seems the government recognized that Mayor Hall and others likely overstepped their bounds because both sides wanted the charges against Massie dropped, Williams noted in his decision. Surprise has likewise dropped the rule about publicly criticizing officials.
Massie has also joined forces with FIRE, a legal organization dedicated to protecting free speech, which has since filed a federal lawsuit against the city for the now-defunct rule.
"This is an incredible win for Rebekah and an important message to government bureaucrats around the country that the First Amendment bows to no one," said FIRE attorney Conor Fitzpatrick in a statement in Blaze News. "The fight goes on in Rebekah’s lawsuit against the City of Surprise [and] Mayor Hall. ... We want to make it crystal clear to governments across the United States that brazenly censoring people and betraying the First Amendment comes with a cost."
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Georgia chemical plant goes up in smoke once again, prompting evacuation
A chemical plant in Conyers, Georgia, quickly transformed into an inferno Sunday morning, darkening the sky above the city of roughly 17,000 with a chemical-laden plume and prompting the evacuation of its residents.
The Rockdale County Emergency Management Agency announced Monday morning that the county remains closed and continues to advise residents to shelter in place, to turn off their air conditioning units, and to keep their windows and doors shut.
According to surveys conducted by the Environmental Protection Division and the Environmental Protection Agency, chlorine "was detected in the air emitting from the incident location of BioLab," an apparent manufacturer of pool treatment products.
It's presently unclear whether other potentially hazardous chemicals were thrown up over Conyers, which sits roughly 25 miles east of Atlanta.
"You could feel the burning. You started feeling like you wanted to cough or throw up," Ruby Knauers, one of the evacuees told NBC News.
Rockdale County Fire Chief Marian McDaniel indicated that around 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, there was a fire on the roof area of the chemical plant. The initial roof fire had apparently triggered the sprinkler system, which in turn set off a water-reactive chemical at the plant.
While this fire was apparently "contained," another fire kicked off around noon as product from the building was being offloaded.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the giant plume of smoke was visible roughly 30 miles away at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Officials quickly implored locals to "CANCEL all church services for the day" and to avoid the affected area of town.
While the Rockdale County Sheriff's Office initially advised locals to "remain indoors and keep windows closed to minimize exposure to any potential hazards," the RCSO announced later in the day that residents would be evacuated from affected areas.
Chief McDaniel noted in an update that the fire was ultimately snuffed out around 4 p.m., but that the massive column of smoke resulting from the chemical reaction might remain visible for days.The roof and walls of the warehouse have since collapsed.
This is not the first time that the BioLab facility in Conyers has made life difficult for locals.
McDaniel noted further that this is the third incident of "this magnitude" to have occurred at the plant during the past seven years she has been with the fire department, reported the Journal-Constitution.
'Suffocation is the characteristic initial complaint of patient/victims exposed to chlorine.'
On Sept. 14, 2020, a "thermal decomposition event" took place involving a product containing chlorine. According to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, there were no injuries reported, but smoke from the incident nevertheless shut down Interstate Highway 20.
A similar fire, fueled by 250,000 pounds of dry chlorine pellets, started in May 2004 at the BioLab warehouse, again darkening Conyers with a chemical cloud.
The UPI reported at the time that 40 people were treated in local hospitals for breathing problems and 30 firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion. BioLab's parent company agreed several years later to a settlement for the residents and businesses impacted by the incident.
A CSB report concerning an Aug. 27, 2020, incident at a BioLab location in Westlake, Louisiana, indicated what appears to be at issue. Trichloroisocyanuric acid (TCCA), used as a sanitizer to kill algae and bacteria in large bodies of water, is stored in these warehouses. The report explained:
When a TCCA-based formulation ... comes in contact with or is wetted/moistened by a small amount of water and does not dissolve, it can experience a chemical reaction, generating heat and causing the decomposition of the chemical, which in turn produces toxic chlorine gas and can produce explosive nitrogen trichloride.
Chlorine gas was used as a chemical warfare agent to kill multitudes of men during World War I.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that at low concentrations, chlorine gas can cause eye and nose irritation, sore throat and cough. At high exposure levels, the gas released by BioLab can cause "irritation of the upper respiratory tract and accumulation of fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema) contribut[ing] to a sensation of choking."
"Suffocation is the characteristic initial complaint of patient/victims exposed to chlorine. The majority of deaths occur within 24 hours and are due to respiratory failure," noted the CDC.
KIK Consumer Products, BioLab's parent company, said in a statement Sunday, "We are actively responding to an occurrence at our facility in Conyers, Georgia. Our employees are accounted for with no injuries reported. Our team is on the scene, working with first responders and local authorities to assess and contain the situation. As always, the safety of our community remains our top priority."
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Flaming train caught on video barreling through Canadian city's downtown
Freight trains carrying hazardous materials routinely barrel through the Canadian city of London, Ontario. They are typically not engulfed in flames and trailing massive columns of thick smoke. However, the city witnessed one such glowing aberration Sunday night.
According to the London Fire Department, old wooden railway ties inside five train cars caught fire, transforming a Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway train into a rolling inferno. Officials indicated they will "treat everything as arson until proven otherwise."
Several onlookers captured video of the CPKCR train blaze past homes, trees, and other potential kindling.
Same friend was also there a few blocks later when the train stopped \n\nAnother angle: \n#ldnont— (@)
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The train was ultimately brought to a stop around 10:49 p.m. in a residential area near Richmond Street and Pall Mall Street.
Officials urged nearby residents to remain indoors and to shut their windows over fears of smoke inhalation while multiple fire crews worked diligently to extinguish the flames. It took fire crews and Canadian Pacific Railway personnel roughly two hours to bring the fire under control.
Fire crews working with CPR personnel to bring fire under control. Fire crews are in defensive attack. #ldnont ^cs— (@)
The torched train section was taken to a rail yard where firefighters could put out the remaining smoldering material.
The LFD lauded the "excellent job by fire crews to contain this fire," adding, "It was a very efficient knockdown of a large fire and great work by CPR train crew who disconnected cars."
While officials indicated there were no "dangerous goods" inside the affected train cars, state media confirmed the train was nevertheless pulling hazardous materials. LFD Chief Colin Shewell indicated that the hazmat cars were successfully separated and moved away from the fires.
LFD noted on X that "thanks to multiple 911 callers that advised our Communication Operations of an eastbound train on fire going over Oxford St. [w]e were able to get on scene & contain the fire in the downtown area very quickly with limited damage and no injuries."
The damage did an estimated $25,000 in damage to the rail cars and $10,00 to a nearby building.
"The incident remains under investigation. We thank the London first responders for their effective response to the fire last night." CPKCR spokesman Terry Cunha said in a statement.
Malcolm Cairns, a former CPR worker, told state media, "The Transportation Safety Board [TSB] will have their review of this incident and they will go into great depth, taking witness statements and looking at all the evidence, and eventually you'll know what caused it and whether the rules were obeyed."
"We will treat everything as arson until proven otherwise," said LFD Chief Shewell. "These were scrap railway ties, so there's really no dollar value on them. They were actually destined to be destroyed."
The Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs shared the following unanswered questions:
- "When did the train crew notice the fire on board and why didn't they call 911?"
- "Why did the train stop where it did, in the middle of a residential neighborhood just west of a shunting yard?"
- "How did the railway ties, coated in flammable wood preservative creosote, catch fire?"
- "Did the fire spread from one car to the others, or did all five catch fire at once?"
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Pakistani family blamed the far right for torching their house. A few candlelit vigils later, the truth has come out
A home belonging to a family of Pakistani migrants was set ablaze in the German town of Wächtersbach on Christmas Day 2023.
Phantasmal right-wingers were immediately blamed for the arson. The family members, meanwhile, were depicted as victims of so-called Islamophobia and xenophobia.
This narrative, agreeable to European leftists and the liberal media, recently went up in smoke.
A convenient spark
The fire began around 1 a.m. on Christmas morning and did roughly $379,000 in damage.
The fire brigade found anti-migrant slogans scrawled inside the smoldering ruins. Der Spiegel reported that the words "foreigners out" had been spray-painted on some of the inside walls. The graffiti had apparently been written before the fire broke out.
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Andreas Weiher, the town's leftist mayor, said, "If the suspicion of a xenophobic crime is confirmed, it would of course be a catastrophe."
The Wächtersbach Foreigners Advisory Board reportedly stated, "We are deeply shocked that such an inhumane, possibly racially motivated arson attack was carried out on a family with children."
The state security agency swiftly launched an investigation into the possibility that right-wing extremism may have been responsible for the fire.
Vigils and demonstrations were held in the days that followed, both in solidarity with the family and in opposition to the supposed racists believed responsible.
Banners that read, "Right-wing terror threatens our society," were carried down German streets.
Leftist politicians eagerly embraced the narrative, giving impassioned speeches and firing off angry missives — suggesting the arson was politically motivated and possibly executed by neo-Nazis.
Sawsan Chebli, a German politician with the Social Democratic Party and staunch critic of Israel, was one of the leftists who attempted to exploit the incident, stating in German on Dec. 29, "It makes me sad, but it doesn't surprise me. People tell me every day that they have racist experiences, be it at work, in everyday life or at school."
Chebli suggested the arson was reflective of an anti-Muslim undercurrent in Germany, intimating right-wing politicians were responsible and that "what is happening at the moment is putting democracy at great risk."
Janine Wissler, a parliamentarian with the aptly named Left Party, stated, "It is not enough to condemn these acts, you have to fight the breeding ground that promotes right-wing violence: the strengthening of the right and the racist incitement against people with a migration background and refugees," reported the local broadcaster.
"The slogans that were discovered on the walls are despicable and inflammatory," said Martina Feldmayer, a parliamentarian with the eco-socialist Green party. "Anyone who commits such acts attack our entire society."
It turns out that the societal attack condemned by Feldmayer was not perpetrated by right-wing extremists but rather by those widely portrayed as victims.
Another hate hoax
The German newspaper Bild recently reported that the homeowner, 47, has been arrested along with his wife, 33, his 18-year-old son, his brother-in law, 34, and another Pakistani migrant, 55, who allegedly gave the family a false alibi.
According to the German paper Junge Freiheit, the family has been slapped with various charges including joint serious arson, feigning a crime, attempted insurance fraud in a particularly serious case, and serious fraud.
The father and brother-in-law, both Pakistani nationals, are accused of burning down the building using an accelerant. The son is said to have both reported the damage to the insurance company at his father's behest and attended an inspection of the aftermath with insurance agents. The mother is said to have been altogether complicit in the scheme.
The 55-year-old Pakistani national said to have given the family a false alibi has reportedly been charged with "attempted obstruction of justice."
The Hanau public prosecutor's office indicated that the arson served to net the family a six-figure insurance settlement. Additionally, the prosecutors office noted that ahead of the house burning, the owner's wife sold off various household items in an apparent effort to maximize their return on the scheme.
Investigators turned their attention to the homeowner after noticing he had fresh burns despite claiming he was not home when the fire started on Christmas morning. The family told authorities in their statements that they had been visiting with friends on the day of the incident.
The Alternative for Germany in Hesse, the local chapter of the country's increasingly popular right-wing party, said in a statement obtained by Rebel News, "For our political competitors, the house fire was obviously a welcome opportunity to inflict hatred and agitation on our party and our voters. Almost reflexively, the SPD, the Left and the Greens classified this crime as politically motivated."
"Waechtersbach's mayor (a member of SPD), who is said to have known the affected Pakistani family to be well integrated, took the same line," continued the AFD. "Anyone who attracts attention with criminal acts in their freely chosen host country at least raises doubts about successful integration. But we now trust that the German judiciary will make an appropriate assessment. And an apology from the protagonists of the vigil is now in order."
The South East Hesse Police indicated last week that the five suspects remained in custody due to the risk of concealment and escape.
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