Tribune News Service

Bush, lagging in polls, spending big on ads

WASHINGTON — The presidential campaign ad wars are in full swing, particularly for Jeb Bush supporters, while Bush remains mired in single digits in most polls.

New data from NBC ad-tracking partner SMG Delta showed that this week, Right to Rise, the super PAC supporting Jeb Bush, is spending $1.9 million in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Each will host a February nominating contest.

The data, reported by NBC’s political unit’s “First Read” found no one close this week. Next was the Conservative Solutions Project, which backs Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., at $700,000 in the three states.

Bush, the former Florida governor, is currently in fifth place, at 8.4 percent, in the RealClearPolitics.com average of national Republican presidential preference polls from Sept. 17 to Oct. 4. He runs sixth in Iowa and fourth in New Hampshire.

Photo: http://www.mctdirect.com/preview.php?id=201509121904MCT_____PHOTO____US_NEWS_JEBBUSH_9_MI

Guantanamo prosecutor: Accused 9/11 plotter’s letter to Obama is ‘inflammatory propaganda’

MIAMI — The war court prosecutor declared last month that alleged 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s letter to President Barack Obama is “inflammatory propaganda” — and advised an Army judge that Guantanamo prison staff get to decide whether it reaches the White House.

The description is contained in a Sept. 4 filing by the chief war crimes prosecutor, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, and a deputy that sought, and got, an emergency sealing order from Army Col. James L. Pohl, the judge in the five-man Sept. 11 capital conspiracy trial. It was made public Tuesday.

Moreover, Martins calls Mohammed’s 18-page letter to Obama an attempt to justify the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that “as a means of self-defense based on alleged American actions throughout history.” Nearly 3,000 people died that day in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon. To make it public, the prosecutors wrote, “would be an end run” around prison protocols “meant to ensure our nation’s enemies are not given a soap box to spread their radical agenda to the world.”

Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times by the CIA, then once bragged that he ran the 9/11 terror attacks “from A to Z,” wrote the letter to Obama in August 2014. His lawyers argue he has a First Amendment right to air his grievances and “express his opinions to government officials” — in this instance the president of the United States.

‘Jackass’ star Steve-O gets jail time for anti-SeaWorld stunt in Hollywood

LOS ANGELES — “Jackass” star Steve-O was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in the Los Angeles County jail for an anti-SeaWorld stunt in which he climbed atop a crane and shot off fireworks in Hollywood.

Steve-O, whose real name is Stephen Glover, announced the jail sentence on Instagram, saying he was ready to go to jail for the Aug. 9 stunt. He is set to surrender himself to authorities on Dec. 9, city officials said.

“Considering I’ve become a clean and sober, dog-rescuing vegan, I must say I’m ready to go to jail — not just because it will bring so much attention to the plight of orcas in captivity, but because it’s nice to let people know I haven’t lost my edge,” the performer said. “What can I say, I’m a jackass.”

He pleaded no contest to using fireworks and trespassing, L.A. city attorney’s officials said. Glover had been charged with creating a false emergency, trespassing, using unregistered fireworks, storing fireworks without a permit and possession of fireworks without a permit.

Glover, 41, was also ordered to serve three years’ probation and stay away from the Hollywood Entertainment District. He may not possess any fireworks or perform any nonapproved stunts or staged fights in L.A. County.

16 killed in suicide bombings in northeastern Nigeria mosque, store

KANO, Nigeria — At least 16 people died after two teenage suicide bombers blew themselves up in a mosque and a store in a housing estate in northeastern Nigeria on Wednesday, the head of the region’s emergency services said.

The attack came around the same time as a battle at an army barracks in the Goniri area of Yobe state, also in the country’s northeast, that left more than 100 Boko Haram militants dead.

The suicide bombings took place at the Buhari Housing Estate in the town of Damaturu, in Yobe state, Alhaji Musa Idi from the emergency services told dpa.

“Two teenage bombers were involved in the explosion at Buhari estate where around 16 persons were killed in the two locations hit this morning,” he said.

The two bombers were among the 16 dead.