THE STORMING of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 (Wikipedia).

A prison sentence of eight months was handed down Monday on a Florida man who entered the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 during the violent storming of the seat of Congress.

The sentence against Paul Allard Hodgkins, 38, was pronounced by U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss. “This was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a protest,” said Moss, according to the Associated Press. “It was … an assault on our democracy.”

Hodgkins could have faced a sentence of 20 years in a federal penitentiary, but his case was mitigated by his apology to the court and the fact that he did not participate in damaging government property and entered a building that had already been breached, rather than being one of leaders of the attack.

The U.S. Attorney had requested an 18-month sentence.

Over 500 suspects are facing trial on a variety of charges stemming from the event, which was an attempt to stop the certification of the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as president and vice president.

Chinese govt. is blamed for e-mail hack

The blame for a hack of Microsoft’s Exchange e-mail server software was aimed Monday at China. The U.S. government and allies in Western Europe made that accusation against the Beijing government.

CHINA is accused of a major computer hack (Flickr/Don Henkins).

China’s Ministry of State Security “has fostered an ecosystem of criminal contract hackers who carry out both state-sponsored activities and cybercrime for their own financial gain,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, The New York Times reported.

By hacking Microsoft’s servers, it was able to penetrate many networks and access e-mail messages.

The comments were not accompanied by sanctions. Earlier attacks from Russia led to penalties imposed on that nation.

Dow Jones takes a 700-point plunge

Fears of a comeback of the coronavirus pandemic fueled sharp drops Monday in the world’s stock exchanges.

WALL STREET was down sharply on Monday (Flickr/Dan Nelson)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 725.81 points, the biggest drop in 10 months. The S&P 500 fell 68.67 points and the Nasdaq by 152.25.

Increases in confirmed new cases – especially as prompted by the spread of the Delta variant – hit Carnival Cruises and Zoom especially hard, with retreats of over 30 percent from their highest points.
Declines in stock prices echoed across exchanges around the world, according to USA Today.