logo
Palm Coast man facing felony after choking one of his dogs to death, report says

Palm Coast man facing felony after choking one of his dogs to death, report says

Yahoo31-05-2025
A Palm Coast man was arrested after he choked on his dogs to death after it attacked one of his chihuahuas. The man had completed an anger management class in a previous case in which he reportedly punched a neighbor who had agitated his dogs.
Howard Taft Blair, 55, was charged with felony cruelty to animals, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Blair was booked into the Flagler County jail on Thursday where he remained Saturday on $2,500 bond, according to online jail records.
The investigation began after Blair's wife called the sheriff's office asking for a deputy to stand by at the home while she picked up her belongings Jan. 24. The wife said she was leaving Blair after what happened the night before.
While the deputy stood by, Blair, who smelled of alcohol and had bloodshot eyes, began speaking, the affidavit stated. He told the deputy that he and his wife owned five dogs which all lived inside the house. He said one of the dogs, Nutmeg, was a 60-pound mix between an American bulldog and a Labrador.
Blair also said they had three teacup chihuahuas named Jackson, Pico and Squirrel and another small mixed-breed dog.
Blair said after he and his wife finished dinner, he put his plate on the floor so the dogs could finish the gravy. But then Jackson, the chihuahua, growled at 60-pound Nutmeg, causing Nutmeg to attack Jackson. The chihuahua suffered fatal injuries, according to the affidavit.
Blair said Nutmeg had 'gotten ahold' of Jackson once before, but had not caused as much damage as this time.
Blair said he separated Nutmeg from Jackson and then chased Nutmeg back into the living room. Blair then choked Nutmeg to death, the affidavit stated. Then he buried her under a slab in the backyard.
Blair said about Nutmeg, 'there was no spanking her and putting her in the crate, it was that moment emotion,' the affidavit stated.
Blair said his wife had asked why he didn't instead put Nutmeg in a crate. Blair said he had contacted a vet about 'behavioral euthanasia' but due to the violence, he could not wait to take her to a vet, the affidavit stated.
The report noted that Blair had separated Nutmeg and she was no longer a threat to Jackson or any of the other dogs but Blair still choked her to death next to her crate.
Deputies asked the wife if Blair had 'violent tendencies' and she said told them 'typically he does not and he is a very loving person, but this was cruel and sick.'
The dog's body was not retrieved, the affidavit stated.
Blair was arrested in 2019 on a less serious misdemeanor charge.
In that case, a neighbor said Blair "sucker punched" him during a disagreement over the neighbor's mother-in-law, according to a charging affidavit. The neighbor "admitted to purposely agitating" Blair's dogs, the affidavit stated. He said Blair told him to leave and as he did, Blair struck him in the face, the affidavit stated.
Blair told police that the neighbor had been stirring up and making gestures at his dogs, causing them to bark, the affidavit stated. Blair admitted to hitting the neighbor.
Blair entered a deferred prosecution agreement in which he successfully completed an eight-hour anger management class. Prosecutors then dropped the battery charge against him.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida man kills his dog after it attacks his chihuahua, report says
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

DOJ forms Russiagate 'strike force' to investigate declassified Obama-era evidence
DOJ forms Russiagate 'strike force' to investigate declassified Obama-era evidence

Fox News

timean hour ago

  • Fox News

DOJ forms Russiagate 'strike force' to investigate declassified Obama-era evidence

Print Close By Brooke Singman Published July 24, 2025 The Justice Department has formed a "strike force" to assess the evidence publicized by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard relating to former President Obama and his top national security and intelligence officials' involvement in the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion narrative. The DOJ, on Wednesday evening, announced the formation of the "strike force," to investigate potential next legal steps which may stem from Gabbard's recent declassification of records suggesting that Obama administration officials "manufactured" intelligence to form the narrative that then-candidate Donald Trump was colluding with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Justice Department officials told Fox News Digital that the DOJ takes the alleged weaponization of the intelligence community with "the utmost seriousness." A source familiar with the strike force told Fox News Digital that everything is being reviewed and that no serious lead is off the table. The source told Fox News Digital that the National Security Division of the Justice Department will "likely be involved in the investigation." BRENNAN DIRECTED PUBLICATION OF 'IMPLAUSIBLE' REPORTS CLAIMING PUTIN PREFERRED TRUMP IN 2016, HOUSE FOUND "The Department of Justice is proud to work with my friend Director Gabbard and we are grateful for her partnership in delivering accountability for the American people," Attorney General Pam Bondi said. "We will investigate these troubling disclosures fully and leave no stone unturned to deliver justice," she said. The strike force consists of teams made up of investigators and prosecutors that focus on "the worst offenders engaged in fraudulent activities, including, chiefly, health care fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud, money laundering offenses, false statements offenses," and more, according to the DOJ. The formation of the strike force comes after a slew of developments related to the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. RUSSIA SAT ON INTEL OF HILLARY CLINTON'S ALLEGED 'HEAVY TRANQUILIZERS' USE, NEW DOCS CLAIM Earlier this month, CIA Director John Ratcliffe sent a criminal referral for former CIA Director John Brennan to the FBI. The referral came after Ratcliffe declassified a "lessons learned" review of the creation of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). The 2017 ICA alleged Russia sought to influence the 2016 presidential election to help then-candidate Donald Trump. But the review found that the process of the ICA's creation was rushed with "procedural anomalies," and that officials diverted from intelligence standards. It also determined that the "decision by agency heads to include the Steele Dossier in the ICA ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment." The dossier — an anti-Trump document filled with unverified and wholly inaccurate claims that was commissioned by Fusion GPS and paid for by Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign and the DNC — has been widely discredited. Last week's review marks the first time career CIA officials have acknowledged politicization of the process by which the ICA was written, particularly by Obama-era political appointees. Records declassified as part of that review further revealed that Brennan did, in fact, push for the dossier to be included in the 2017 ICA. FBI Director Kash Patel received the criminal referral and opened an investigation into Brennan. Patel also opened a criminal investigation into former FBI Director James Comey. The full scope of the criminal investigations into Brennan and Comey is unclear, but two sources described the FBI's view of the duo's interactions as a "conspiracy," which could open up a wide range of potential prosecutorial options. The FBI and CIA declined to comment. Neither Brennan nor Comey immediately responded to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Days later, Gabbard declassified documents revealing "overwhelming evidence" that demonstrated how, after President Donald Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, then-President Barack Obama and his national security team laid the groundwork for what would be the yearslong Trump–Russia collusion probe. OBAMA OFFICIALS ADMITTED THEY HAD NO 'EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE' OF TRUMP-RUSSIA COLLUSION: HOUSE INTEL TRANSCRIPTS Gabbard said the documents revealed that Obama administration officials "manufactured and politicized intelligence" to create the narrative that Russia was attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election, despite information from the intelligence community stating otherwise. The new documents name former President Barack Obama, top officials in his National Security Council, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice, then-Secretary of State John Kerry, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, among others. Gabbard, on Monday, sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department related to those findings. DOJ officials did not share further details on whom the criminal referral was for. And on Wednesday, Gabbard declassified documents that showed that the intelligence community did not have any direct information that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help elect Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election, but, at the "unusual" direction of then-President Barack Obama, published "potentially biased" or "implausible" intelligence suggesting otherwise. That information came from a report prepared by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence back in 2020. The report, which was based on an investigation launched by former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., was dated Sept. 18, 2020. At the time of the publication of the report, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was the chairman of the committee. The report has never before been released to the public, and instead, has remained highly classified within the intelligence community. Meanwhile, Fox News Digital, in 2020, exclusively obtained the declassified transcripts from Obama-era national security officials' closed-door testimonies before the House Intelligence Committee, in which those officials testified that they had no "empirical evidence" of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election, but continued to publicly push the "narrative" of collusion. The House Intelligence Committee, in 2017, conducted depositions of top Obama intelligence officials, including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, among others. OBAMA DENIES TRUMP'S 'BIZARRE ALLEGATIONS' THAT HE WAS RUSSIAGATE 'RINGLEADER' IN RARE STATEMENT The officials' responses in the transcripts of those interviews align with the results of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation — which found no evidence of criminal coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016, while not reaching a determination on obstruction of justice. The transcripts, from 2017 and 2018, revealed top Obama officials were questioned by House Intelligence Committee lawmakers and investigators about whether they had or had seen evidence of such collusion, coordination or conspiracy — the issue that drove the FBI's initial case and later the special counsel probe. "I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting/conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election," Clapper testified in 2017. "That's not to say that there weren't concerns about the evidence we were seeing, anecdotal evidence.... But I do not recall any instance where I had direct evidence." Lynch also said she did "not recall that being briefed up to me." "I can't say that it existed or not," Lynch said, referring to evidence of collusion, conspiracy or coordination. But Clapper and Lynch, and then Vice President Joe Biden, were present in the Oval Office July 28, 2016, when Brennan briefed Obama and Comey on intelligence he'd received from one of Hillary Clinton's campaign foreign policy advisors "to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service." "We're getting additional insight into Russian activities from (REDACTED)," Brennan's handwritten notes, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital in October 2020, read. "CITE (summarizing) alleged approved by Hillary Clinton a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service." Meanwhile, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, according to the transcript of her interview to the House Intelligence Committee, was asked whether she had or saw any evidence of collusion or conspiracy. OBAMA ADMIN 'MANUFACTURED' INTELLIGENCE TO CREATE 2016 RUSSIAN ELECTION INTERFERENCE NARRATIVE, DOCUMENTS SHOW Power replied: "I am not in possession of anything — I am not in possession and didn't read or absorb information that came from out of the intelligence community." When asked again, she said: "I am not." Rice was asked the same question. "To the best of my recollection, there wasn't anything smoking, but there were some things that gave me pause," she said, according to her transcribed interview, in response to whether she had any evidence of conspiracy. "I don't recall intelligence that I would consider evidence to that effect that I saw… conspiracy prior to my departure." When asked whether she had any evidence of "coordination," Rice replied: "I don't recall any intelligence or evidence to that effect." Meanwhile, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was not asked that specific question but rather questions about the accuracy and legitimacy of the unverified anti-Trump dossier compiled by ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. McCabe was asked during his interview in 2017 what was the most "damning or important piece of evidence in the dossier that" he "now knows is true." McCabe replied: "We have not been able to prove the accuracy of all the information." "You don't know if it's true or not?" a House investigator asked, to which McCabe replied: "That's correct." OBAMA OFFICIALS USED DOSSIER TO PROBE, BRIEF TRUMP DESPITE KNOWING IT WAS UNVERIFIED 'INTERNET RUMOR' After Trump's 2016 victory and during the presidential transition period, Comey briefed Trump on the now-infamous anti-Trump dossier, containing salacious allegations of purported coordination between Trump and the Russian government. Brennan was present for that briefing, which took place at Trump Tower in New York City in January 2017. The dossier was authored by Steele. It was funded by Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the law firm Perkins Coie. But Brennan and Comey knew of intelligence suggesting Clinton, during the campaign, was stirring up a plan to tie Trump to Russia, documents claim. It is unclear whether the intelligence community, at the time, knew that the dossier was paid for by Clinton and the DNC. The Obama-era officials have been mum on the new revelations, but a spokesman for Obama on Tuesday made a rare public statement. FBI LAUNCHES CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS OF JOHN BRENNAN, JAMES COMEY: DOJ SOURCES "Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response," Obama spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement. "But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction," Obama's spokesman continued. "Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes." He added: "These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio." Print Close URL

Why are data nerds racing to save US government statistics?
Why are data nerds racing to save US government statistics?

The Hill

timean hour ago

  • The Hill

Why are data nerds racing to save US government statistics?

The data nerds are fighting back. After watching data sets be altered or disappear from U.S. government websites in unprecedented ways after President Trump began his second term, an army of outside statisticians, demographers and computer scientists have joined forces to capture, preserve and share data sets, sometimes clandestinely. Their goal is to make sure they are available in the future, believing that democracy suffers when policymakers don't have reliable data and that national statistics should be above partisan politics. 'There are such smart, passionate people who care deeply about not only the Census Bureau, but all the statistical agencies, and ensuring the integrity of the statistical system. And that gives me hope, even during these challenging times,' Mary Jo Mitchell, director of government and public affairs for the research nonprofit the Population Association of America, said this week during an online public data-users conference. The threats to the U.S. data infrastructure since January have come not only from the disappearance or modification of data related to gender, sexual orientation, health, climate change and diversity, among other topics, but also from job cuts of workers and contractors who had been guardians of restricted-access data at statistical agencies, the data experts said. 'There are trillions of bytes of data files, and I can't even imagine how many public dollars were spent to collect those data,' Jennifer Park, a study director for the Committee on National Statistics, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, said during the conference hosted by the Association of Public Data Users (APDU). 'But right now, they're sitting someplace that is inaccessible because there are no staff to appropriately manage those data,' Park added later. 'Gender' switched to 'sex' In February, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) official public portal for health data, was taken down entirely but subsequently went back up. Around the same time, when a query was made to access certain public data from the U.S. Census Bureau's most comprehensive survey of American life, users for several days got a response that said the area was 'unavailable due to maintenance' before access was restored. Researchers Janet Freilich and Aaron Kesselheim examined 232 federal public health data sets that had been modified in the first quarter of this year and found that almost half had been 'substantially altered,' with the majority having the word 'gender' switched to 'sex,' they wrote this month in The Lancet medical journal. One of the most difficult tasks has been figuring out what's been changed since many of the alterations weren't recorded in documentation. Beth Jarosz, senior program director at the Population Reference Bureau, thought she was in good shape since she had previously downloaded data she needed from the National Survey of Children's Health for a February conference where she was speaking, even though the data had become unavailable. But then she realized she had failed to download the questionnaire and later discovered that a question about discrimination based on gender or sexual identity had been removed. 'It's the one thing my team didn't have,' Jarosz said at this week's APDU conference. 'And they edited the questionnaire document, which should have been a historical record.' Among the groups that have formed this year to collect and preserve the federal data are the Federation of American Scientists' which monitors changes to federal data sets; the University of Chicago Library's Data Mirror website, which backs up and hosts at-risk data sets; the Data Rescue Project, which serves as a clearinghouse for data rescue-related efforts; and the Federal Data Forum, which shares information about what federal statistics have gone missing or been modified — a job also being done by the American Statistical Association. The outside data warriors also are quietly reaching out to workers at statistical agencies and urging them to back up any data that is restricted from the public. 'You can't trust that this data is going to be here tomorrow,' said Lena Bohman, a founding member of the Data Rescue Project. Experts' committee unofficially revived Separately, a group of outside experts has unofficially revived a long-running U.S. Census Bureau advisory committee that was killed by the Trump administration in March. Census Bureau officials won't be attending the Census Scientific Advisory Committee meeting in September, since the Commerce Department, which oversees the agency, eliminated it. But the advisory committee will forward its recommendations to the bureau, and demographer Allison Plyer said she has heard that some agency officials are excited by the committee's re-emergence, even if it's outside official channels. 'We will send them recommendations but we don't expect them to respond since that would be frowned upon,' Plyer, chief demographer at The Data Center in New Orleans, said. 'They just aren't getting any outside expertise … and they want expertise, which is understandable from nerds.'

Indiana's noncriminal ICE arrests climb amid Trump immigration push
Indiana's noncriminal ICE arrests climb amid Trump immigration push

Axios

time3 hours ago

  • Axios

Indiana's noncriminal ICE arrests climb amid Trump immigration push

Arrests of people without criminal charges or convictions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement surged in Indiana in June, newly obtained data shows. Why it matters: The surge came after the Trump administration tripled U.S. ICE's arrest quota, and marks a major shift from the president's pledge to target the " worst of the worst." By the numbers: In January, ICE arrested 136 people in Indiana, of whom 6% had no criminal charge, an Axios analysis found. In June, 23% of the 309 people ICE arrested in the state had no criminal charge. The number of total arrests from January to June has grown by 127%. Zoom out: Nationwide, people without criminal charges or convictions made up an average of 47% of daily ICE arrests in early June, up from about 21% in early May, before the quota increase. Context: UC Berkeley School of Law's Deportation Data Project obtained the agency's data — based on seven-day trailing averages — via Freedom of Information Act requests. Being in the U.S. illegally is a civil, not criminal, violation. Zoom in: Four Indiana law enforcement agencies have signed 287(g) agreements with ICE to arrest and remove unauthorized immigrants. The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, the only Central Indiana agency cooperating, was the first agency to ink such a deal. They were followed by sheriff's offices in Jasper and Noble counties and the Green Forks Police Department in Wayne County. ICE announced earlier this month that its Indianapolis team made more than 30 arrests in 24 hours, and officers "attribute their success to the high number of cooperative agencies across Indiana, including 287(g) partners." Reality check: That "Indianapolis team" does not include the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. In January, IMPD chief Chris Bailey issued a statement saying his department "has not been asked to take part in immigration sweeps, nor do we have any intention of doing so — this is not our role." State of play: The spike in noncriminal ICE arrests nationwide came despite the Trump administration's claimed focus on criminals living in the country illegally. And it happened just after the Trump administration told ICE to arrest at least 3,000 people daily, up from 1,000. What they're saying:"The official data tells the true story: 70% of ICE arrests were criminal illegal aliens with convictions or pending charges," Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement emailed to Axios. "Additionally, many illegal aliens categorized as 'non-criminals' are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gang members and more — they just don't have a rap sheet in the U.S. This deceptive 'non-criminal' categorization is devoid of reality and misleads the American public." A DHS spokesperson did not immediately answer Axios' follow-up question about the origins of the 70% figure. The bottom line: " ICE has the authority to arrest immigrants who are suspected of violating immigration laws, regardless of criminal history," writes Austin Kocher, research assistant professor at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and immigration expert, in an analysis of the new data.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store