1. A judge denied bail for a Fremont Muslim American who is charged with supporting an Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group in Syria, the Bay Area News Group$ reports. Even though 22-year-old Adam Shafi did not target any Americans or make threats against US citizens, federal prosecutors are vigorously pursuing a legal case against him that could put him behind bars for up to twenty years. And federal Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim said Shafi is ineligible for bail because she said he’s too dangerous and too much of a flight risk.
William Celli
Credits: Facebook
2. Meanwhile, police in Richmond and Calaveras County failed to act for eleven days on bomb threats made against Muslim Americans by a white Richmond man, the Bay Area News Group$ reports. Even though 55-year-old William Celli had yelled “I’m going to kill you all” to members of a Richmond mosque and had posted a photo of himself on Facebook with a pipe bomb and made threats against Muslim Americans in early December, police failed to target Celli until late last week. Prosecutors also have not yet charged Celli as a terrorist, despite the fact that he targeted American citizens.
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3. The City of Oakland has done a better job in handling police misconduct cases, and arbitrators have upheld disciplinary actions taken against officers in three out of the six most recent cases, the Trib$ reports, citing a new court filing. In the other three cases, arbitrators reduced the officers’ punishment, but did not overturn the discipline completely, as arbitrators had done in numerous previous cases.
4. The Sierra snowpack is now at 111 percent of normal — the highest it’s been in two years, the LA Times$ reports. Last year at this time, the snowpack was only about half of the historical average.
5. And the state Department of Fish and Wildlife officially declared that Dungeness crab is unsafe to eat this Christmas and that the crab season will remain closed indefinitely, the Chron reports. Dungeness crab along the California coast have become infected by a neurotoxin from massive algae bloom.
