Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy, 10/07

[SVPete]

Investigators reveal first findings into South Carolina judge’s house fire and warn public against speculation

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/judge-house-fire-investigation-south-carolina-b2840813.html

Officials investigating the cause of the huge blaze that reduced the $1.5 million beachfront home of a South Carolina judge to smouldering embers on Saturday morning have said they do not believe arson played a part.

“At this time, there is no evidence to indicate the fire was intentionally set,” State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) Chief Mark Keel said in a statement about the fire at the home of Circuit Court Judge Diane Goodstein in the luxury Jeremy Cay gated community at Edisto Beach.

“SLED agents have preliminarily found there is no evidence to support a pre-fire explosion,” Keel added, suggesting his team believe the fire was the result of a domestic accident.

This is preliminary, of course, but it looks like Dems' Progs' and MSM hope that it was arson and they could blame Trump will be severely disappointed. DU-grade Progs will, of course, question the integrity of the investigators if they conclude there was no arson.

How many threads are there about this on DU?

[SVPete]

Case Dismissed: County DA Says He Can't Prove Disorderly Conduct by Nick Sortor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbXddVjn1s0

Last week, Portland Police finally bestirred themselves to make a few arrests outside the ICE facility which has been besieged on a nightly basis by Antifa. Unfortunately for them, one of the people they decided to arrest was independent journalist Nick Sortor.

As I pointed out last week, no one who was there seemed to know why Sortor had been arrested and Sortor himself would later say that the police didn't seem to know either when he asked. Despite this they attempted to charge him with disorderly conduct, something that could easily apply to many of the Antifa goons outside the ICE facility that Portland PD has been ignoring for months.

Don't forget, this arrest came just a day after conservative reporter Katie Daviscourt was hit in the face with a flag pole, giving her a black eye. She quickly pointed out her assailant to Portland PD and they let the person walk away.

[SVPete]

NEW: Virginia Cops Demand Dem AG Candidate Withdraw Over Death-Wish Messages

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2025/10/07/virginia-cops-demand-dem-ag-candidate-withdraw-over-death-wish-messages-n3807579

If Democrats hoped to keep the lid on their brewing scandal in Virginia by re-issuing endorsements for their Attorney General candidate, they will awake to disappointment. New allegations that Jay Jones wished to see more law enforcement officers shot as a way to get police to back off lethal force has roiled the election in the commonwealth even further. Jones denies making these remarks, but his earlier denials before receipts came out about death wishes on the children of political opponents makes him something shy of credible at the moment.

These newer allegations popped up in yesterday's coverage, but they are worth reviewing here to set the context:
...

When asked what Jones was referencing when he said “I’ve told you this before,” Coyner said it goes back to a heated phone call in 2020 about removing qualified immunity protections for law enforcement. (Qualified immunity protects police officers from civil lawsuits.)

Coyner said Monday morning: “We had a pretty heated conversation about public policy and pain involving qualified immunity. ... A bill to remove qualified immunity for police officers, which protects police officers from personal liability in their line of duty and their line of work, and he believed that they should not have qualified immunity ... I said, ‘No, police officers have to make a split second decision about whether or not to shoot a gun to protect themselves or protect others. And if they’re having to think about, will this strip my whole family of everything … are they going to be able to make that split-second decision?’ And I said, ‘I believe that people will get killed. Police officers will get killed.’ And (Jones) said, ‘Well, maybe if a few of them died, that they would move on, not shooting people, not killing people.’ And I said, ‘that’s insane.’

...
And that brings us to the law enforcement community with which Jones pledges to work "hand-in-hand." The Virginia Fraternal Order of Police offered a hand gesture of their own last night to Jones (via Twitchy):

The Fraternal Order of Police of Virginia sent a letter to Jones on Monday, calling for him to bow out of the Attorney General race immediately, while also condemning his 2022 text messages.