Current Events and the Psychology of Politics
Loading

Featured Posts        



categories        



Links        



archives        



meta        




Jul 3rd, 2010

Summary: On Friday, July 2, 2010 Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner described 54-year-old music teacher Dan Rassier as a “person of interest” in the abduction of Jacob Wetterling at the end of the Rassier driveway on the evening of Oct. 22, 1989. Aubrey Immelman discusses aspects of criminal motive and the likely offender profile, noting the need for a linkage analyis involving the unsolved kidnapping and sexual assault of Jared S. in Cold Spring and the unexplained disappearance of Joshua Guimond from the campus of St. John’s University. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 3, 2009 Aubrey Immelman, on the occasion of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s sudden resignation from office, featured his research on Palin’s personal psychology, conducted at the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics.


Jul 1st, 2010

Summary: On Wednesday, June 30, 2010 — more than 20 years after Jacob Wetterling’s abduction on Oct. 22, 1989 — law enforcement converged on the farmstead on the outskirts of St. Joseph, Minn., where a masked man took Jacob at gunpoint at the approach to the driveway of 29748 91st Ave, home Robert and Rita Rassier and their son Daniel Rassier. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 1, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that PolitiFact’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Truth-O-Meter rated Rep. Michele Bachmann’s “ridiculously false statement” that the Constitution only requires people to tell the Census Bureau how many individuals are in their home as [Liar, Liar] Pants on Fire.


Dec 26th, 2009

Summary: U.S. agencies are looking into whether al-Qaida extremists in Yemen directed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and provided him with the explosives used in the failed bombing of Northwest Flight 253. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 26, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported a new Homeland Security Threat Assessment for the years 2008-2013, which projects that the terrorism threat to the United States over the next five years will be driven by instability in the Middle East and Africa, persistent challenges to border security, and increasing Internet savvy — with chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear [CBRN] attacks considered the most dangerous threats to U.S. national security.


Dec 25th, 2009

Summary: Terror alert level raised as a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, claiming ties to al-Qaida, tries to light an apparent explosive powder aboard a commercial jetliner before it lands in Detroit.


Oct 16th, 2009

Summary: October 22, 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of Jacob Wetterling’s abduction. Twenty years of Jacob’s Hope will be celebrated with a concert by his favorite singer, Red Grammer, on Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 7 p.m. in the Benedicta Arts Center Petters Auditorium at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 37th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman reported on the murder of a U.S. soldier by an Afghan policeman and sectarian divisions that threaten stability in Iraq.


Aug 28th, 2009

Summary: Jaycee Lee Dugard, kidnapped in 1991 from a school bus stop at the age of 11, has been found alive after being held captive by a convicted rapist in his backyard as a sex slave for nearly two decades and forced to bear two of his children. Report includes links to the Jacob Wetterling and Joshua Guimond missing person cases. … On the 45th day of his campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination as House of Representatives candidate in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman traveled to Annandale, where he appeared live with Dan “Ox” Ochsner and Mike Landy of Newstalk KNSI AM 1040 (Leighton Broadcasting) at Camp Friendship to benefit Friendship Ventures, a non-profit agency that creates educational, recreational, and social opportunities for people with mental and physical developmental disabilities.


Jan 26th, 2009

Summary: Counterterrorism officials and the FBI are investigating whether al-Shabab or other Somali Islamic groups are actively recruiting in the United States. Officials say as many as 20 Somali-Americans between the ages of 17 and 27 have left their Minneapolis homes since 2007, apparently bound for Somalia.


Jan 7th, 2009

Summary: Like so many seemingly promising leads in the search for Jacob Wetterling’s abductor, the latest lead, too, appears to lead nowhere. Initial reporting on the strange case of Vernon Seitz from WTMJ television in Milwaukee, subsequent reporting from Twin Cities and Milwaukee media, and links to reports on the Jacob Wetterling and Joshua Guimond missing person cases in St. Joseph and Collegeville, Minnesota.


Dec 16th, 2008

Ottis Toole, a serial killer who died more than a decade ago is the person who decapitated the 6-year-old son of “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh in 1981, according to Florida police. The announcement brought to a close a case that has haunted the Walsh family for more than two decades, launched the television show about the nation’s most notorious criminals, and inspired changes in how authorities search for missing children.