Thomas Gallagher, 61, of Bridgewater — one of three New Hampshire men charged in connection with the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. — has pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in Concord as part of a plea agreement that dismisses three of the criminal charges lodged against him by Capitol Police.
He pleaded guilty on Thursday to a charge of illegal picketing, parading, or demonstrating inside a Capitol building, and is scheduled to be sentenced in Washington on October 13. His attorney, Sebastian Norton, said Gallagher felt it important to attend the sentencing in person rather than in a video conference, as in the hearings to this point. “He wants to take responsibility and have some closure,” Norton said.
Capitol Hill Police Officer Joseph Bruno’s affidavit says that Gallagher was at the front of a group that was “making loud noises, and kicking chairs, throwing an unknown liquid substance at officers, and spraying an unknown substance at officers.” Arrested with him were Cindy Fitchett, Michael Curzio, Douglas Sweet, Terry Brown, and Bradley Rukstales. Curzio, who changed his plea to guilty, was sentenced to six months in prison with $500 in restitution to be paid.
Separately, the case of Jason Riddle, 32, of Keene, is still pending. He was arrested after sharing photos and videos that showed him inside the U.S. Capitol as rioters were breaking in and people in military garb allegedly were looking to kill members of Congress and Vice-President Mike Pence. Despite the charges against him, Riddle recently announced plans to run for Congress.
Ryder Winegar, 33, of Amherst recently announced plans to change his plea to guilty on charges of threatening to pull a state representative from bed and hang him, and leaving voicemail messages that threatened to kill six members of Congress unless they overturned the election results in favor of Donald Trump.
Rain Forest Now A Contributor To CO2
A study published Wednesday in Nature found that the massive Amazon forest is now releasing more carbon dioxide than it accumulates or stores, due to deforestation and fires.
A team of researchers led by scientists from the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research have been measuring carbon concentrations in columns of air above the Amazon. Researchers have said for several years that the Amazon is on the verge of transforming from a crucial storehouse for heat-trapping gasses into a source of them, a dangerous shift that could destabilize the atmosphere of the planet.
Trade winds that blow hot tropical air westward over the Amazon from the Atlantic Ocean release water once they hit the Andes, forming the massive Amazonian river system that stretches across an area almost as large as the United States. The western part is too wet to burn, and the forest takes in carbon dioxide from the air. The eastern Amazon is more vulnerable to heat and drought, and deforestation practices have reduced the net carbon retention.
Speech For The speechless
New “neuroprosthetic” technology has allowed a team of scientists from the University of California-San Francisco to teach a paralyzed man to write with thoughts.
The implantable brain device — a credit-card-sized electrode panel placed on the surface of the volunteer’s brain — collected electrical signals as the person — a man completely paralyzed by a brain-stem stroke 15 years ago — tried to form words.
Results of the trial, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, described how, over a period of several months, scientists worked with the man to develop a catalog of 50 words that his thoughts translated into hundreds of phrases and sentences with 93 percent accuracy.
Please Support Our Efforts