The six jurors and four alternates eventually picked to hear the second-degree murder case of neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman will be sequestered for the two to four weeks the trial will last, the judge presiding over the case said for the first time Thursday.

Circuit Judge Debra Nelson told a potential juror on the fourth day of selection that all panelists will be kept isolated

During the first four days of jury selection, attorneys have asked potential jurors about the hardships they would face if they were kept away from their families during the trial. Defense attorney Don West explained to one candidate that if picked she would have limited contact with her family, would be monitored by court security outside the courtroom and would have to live in a hotel for the duration.

“You would not be able to participate in day-to-day routine activities,” West said. “You will be limited in contact with the outside world.”

Zimmerman, a 29-year-old former neighborhood watch volunteer, is pleading not guilty to second-degree murder, claiming he shot unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year in self-defense. A 44-day delay in Zimmerman’s arrest led to protests around the nation. They questioned whether the Sanford Police Department was investigating the case seriously because Martin was a black teen from the Miami area. Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic.

Some potential jurors are wary of the prospect of being cut off from the world during the trial.

Jury candidate K-80, a middle-aged white woman, described sequestration Thursday as “my biggest fear.” Candidates are being referred to only by their jury numbers in court to protect their identities.

Juror E-81, a middle-aged white woman, said when she saw the word “sequester” on the questionnaire in the jury room, “the walls caved in.”

“I want to sleep in my own bed,” she said. The potential juror also worried about her safety if picked, saying “I’m going to walk out of here with a bulls-eye on me.”

She also appeared to already have made up her mind about the case, decreasing her chances of being picked. Her impression was that Martin’s prior use of marijuana and an image of a gun found on his cellphone in photos released by the defense were indications that “he was going down the wrong path.” She also said she believed Zimmerman was just “looking after his neighborhood.”

“I believe every American has a right to defend himself,” said Juror E-81. “I think the more people armed, the better.”

Potential juror B-67, a Hispanic female in her 40s, was allowed to leave the courtroom without being questioned by defense attorneys after she said being sequestered would be a hardship with her family and school commitments.

Attorneys started off Thursday with a pool of 20 potential jurors who they wanted for a second round of questioning. They needed an additional 10 candidates before they could move past the first round of asking questions about what potential jurors knew about the case from news coverage or social media. But the court announced late Thursday that attorneys had requested that the number of jurors needed to move to the second round be raised to 40.

By the end of the court session Thursday, attorneys had interviewed 34 potential witnesses over four days. Ten were questioned Thursday. Five were held over, raising the number of potential candidates eligible second round to 25.

Attorneys need to find six jurors and four alternates. In Florida, 12 jurors are required only for criminal trials involving capital cases, when the death penalty is being considered.

A 36-year-old homeowner in Glynn County, Ga., shot a knife-wielding masked robber several times after the man lured him out of his residence by ringing the doorbell twice.

The incident occurred at around 11 p.m. on Saturday, according to police.

The homeowner told police he heard his doorbell ring but didn’t see anyone outside. A short time later, the doorbell rang again.

He opened the door this time, but he was armed with his .45-cal handgun for his protection,WJXT-TV reports.

As soon as the man stepped onto his porch, a masked man reportedly lunged at him with a knife, according to the Times-Union. The robbery suspect was later identified by police as Anthony Devine.

The homeowner, believing his life was in immediate danger, shot the suspected robber multiple times with his .45-cal pistol. He then ran into his home and called 911.

Police arrived at the scene to find the suspect near the front door with several gunshot wounds to his butt and back.

Devine was transported to Memorial Medical Center in Savannah, though his condition was unclear.

Four potential jurors were interviewed today in preparation the George Zimmerman self-defense trial in Seminole County, Florida.

Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder for killing Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, 2012. Zimmerman says he shot 17-year-old Martin in self-defense.

A total of 20 potential jurors were brought into the courtroom, and the group was instructed to return tomorrow at 9 a.m. They were told not to talk about the case or research it during their free time.

The first potential juror, a middle-aged blonde female, told the court that she has stayed away from watching news coverage of the case since she found out she could be a juror. When asked how she would react to what she heard in the media if it differed from what she heard in court, she replied, “I would listen to what I heard in the court because that’s what I’m supposed to do as a juror.”

Read more: Trial 2.0: Is FL vs. Zimmerman the future of justice?

The second woman, a younger black female, told the court that she doesn’t know much about the case and that she wants to serve on the jury even though she believes it will be hard emotionally.

The third candidate, a white middle-aged male, said was aware of the case and mentioned a 911 call that may prove crucial in the trial, saying the voice on the tape sounded like a woman to him.

All of the potential jurors were asked if they watched the local or national news, what channels, and about papers they subscribed to. The man said he did not watch the news, saying it was “too negative.”

Read more: Zimmerman jury selection: A sample questionaire

The last candidate for the day, a white middle-aged woman, knew about the shooting from the local news but says she has not formed an opinion. She says her family is of the belief that everyone deserves a fair trial.

SUSPENDED: The father of an 11-year-old in Owings, Maryland, is claiming that his son was suspended for 10 days from Northern Middle School for simply talking about guns on a school bus. The mere discussion, according to Bruce Henkelman, led the bus driver to send his sixth grader back to the school to be questioned by the principal. The child’s conversation apparently centered around the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting — a touch-point of controversy in the nation’s ever-contentious gun control debate.

Henkelman charges that his son did not speak of guns in a negative or bullying manner, as WMAL reports, and that the boy merely said that he wished he had a firearm so that he could protect himself against bad guys.

“He said, I wish I had a gun to protect everyone. He wanted to defeat the bad guys,” the father told WMAL. “That’s the context of what he said. He wanted to be the hero.”

While that’s the family’s story, it’s unclear exactly what unfolded. If the boy’s words were so favorable, one wonders why the bus driver and the principal would choose to punish him — although, stranger things have certainly happened. But so far, according to WMAL, school officials have been relatively tight-lipped about their side of the story.

The principal and a sheriff’s deputy, according to the dad’s account of events, questioned the middle school student following the bus debacle — and Henkelman claims that it didn’t end there.

“He started asking me questions about if I have firearms, and [the deputy said] he’s going to have to search my house. Search my house?,” the frustrated father told the outlet. “I just wanted to know what happened.”

In the end, a search was not performed and the situation eventually simmered.

The incident unfolded in December, but Henkelman is just coming forward now. And it seems he has some backers who believe that the middle school mishandled the situation.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) maintains that the boy was mistreated by the school. While the district claims that the student broke a code (exact details have not been shared), the ACLU holds that the suspension, based on the information that was reported by WMAL, was not the best course of action.

The 11-year-old was initially given 10 days out of school — a punishment that was later reduced to one day.

“It’s appropriate for school officials to investigate when there is a concern about student safety,” said ACLU staff attorney Sonya Kumar. “But based on what’s been described to us, once the school official concluded that all the young man wanted to do was to be safe at school and that he posed no risk to anyone, the suspension was really inappropriate.”

Rather than punishing the child, Kumar said the school should have been assuring him that he would be safe.

A disturbing video of police barging into a woman’s home without a search warrant, demanding her identification – only to learn she was not the person they were looking for – has emerged on Youtube, demonstrating just how unprofessional police can act when they don’t realize they are being recorded.

The video stops at 2:31 when one of the cops spots it and turns it off.

The video begins with police banging on her door, demanding her identification. They tell her they have an arrest warrant for a woman named Robin Edwards.At this point, it is not clear where the incident took place, but I’ve sent the woman, who goes by the username, Robynstorm2, a message, requesting an interview.

The woman tells them her name, which sounds like it is Robyn Rockman.

They then insist she is Robin Edwards but changed it after getting married.

She corrects them by saying her maiden name was not Edwards, but something that sounds like Waterman (hopefully I will eventually confirm the names).

Either way, they barge into her house as she is looking for her identification.

According to comments she posted on Youtube, the cops busted down her bedroom door, handcuffed her and rummaged through her prescription bottles before releasing her and going on their way.

She also insinuated that Robin Edwards was possibly her landlady, which might explain why police showed up to her door.

Fifth-grader suspended at overnight nature camp for bringing Swiss Army knife

A fifth-grader in Cupertino, California was suspended and threatened with expulsion for bringing a small Swiss Army knife on a school-sponsored, science-oriented camping trip.

In early April, Braden Bandermann’s class set off on Garden Gate Elementary School’s annual, week-long pilgrimage for fifth-graders to Marin Headlands, just north of San Francisco.

Before leaving, Braden did what any Silicon Valley 10-year-old faced with the perils of nature might do: He packed his trusty Swiss Army knife. As any camper knows, the multi-tool device is nothing if not versatile. Braden’s particular model contains a can opener, tweezers, a toothpick, a nail file, a tiny pair of scissors and a small blade.

The little blade landed the boy in big trouble.

“They called me,” explained Tony Bandermann, Braden’s father. “They said, ‘You have to come and get him. He has a weapon. He needs to be suspended or possibly expelled.’”

At the time, the elder Bandermann was on a business trip in Sacramento, roughly 100 miles away. His wife, Braden’s stepmother, was at the camp with Braden, but they had arrived by bus and had no private transportation. (Braden’s mother was also unable to go to the camp so that he could serve a suspension.)

The school principal, Brandi Hucko, allegedly wanted Bandermann to rush to the site of the science camp, pick Braden up for a one-day suspension and then deliver him back to camp.

Bandermann told The Daily Caller that he was frustrated over Hucko’s insistence “that I risk my job and go get him out of the program for a one-day suspension all over a Swiss Army knife.”

The multi-tool instrument did not present a threat, Bandermann believes.

“I went to the very same trip when I was a child at the same school, and I had a very similar Swiss Army knife,” he said. “In fact, most of the kids did.”

Principal Hucko disagreed. According to Bandermann, she was adamant that punishment must be swift and severe.

Consequently, Bandermann told TheDC, school officials forced Braden to serve a one-day suspension at camp. He was allegedly isolated in a teacher’s lounge area from all the other children. He was forced to eat meals by himself. He was forced to sleep in an area separate from all the other children. He missed an entire day of activities.

Bandermann believes school officials overreacted.

“This is not Sandy Hook,” he said. “Get real. He brought a stupid Swiss Army knife to camp.”

Bandermann said that he suggested to Hucko that perhaps someone could take away the knife and discipline his son once he was returned to the urban comfort of Silicon Valley. However, Hucko would not negotiate.

The Cupertino Union School District would not respond to questions from The Daily Caller. School district representative Jeremy Nishihara said answering questions would violate Braden’s privacy.

Garden Gate Elementary’s parent handbook, available on the school’s website, stipulates a stern “zero-tolerance” policy for “violence, weapons, and drugs on school campuses or at school activities off campus.”

“State Law, district policy, and regulations of [sic] California Education Code support Zero Tolerance by requiring the immediate suspension and recommendation for expulsion of any student who possesses or furnishes a firearm, knife, explosive, or similarly dangerous object on school grounds or at a school event off school grounds,” the policy reads.

“Our schools also have prevention and intervention programs to help students make decisions, solve problems, and deal with conflict,” the policy also adds.

This incident is the latest in a long line of extraordinarily strong reactions by school officials to things students have brought to school — or talked about bringing to school, or eaten at school, or taken to a nature camp — that vaguely resemble weapons but aren’t, actually, anything like real weapons.

In rural West Virginia, an eighth-grader was suspended and, astonishingly, arrested after he refused to remove a t-shirt supporting the National Rifle Association. When he returned to school, he wore the same shirt, as did several other students in a show of support. (RELATED: Eighth-grader arrested over NRA shirt returns to school in same shirt)

Officials at an elementary school in small-town Michigan impounded a third-grader boy’s batch of 30 homemade birthday cupcakes because they were adorned with green plastic figurines representing World War Two soldiers. The school principal branded the military-themed cupcakes “insensitive” in light of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. (RELATED: School confiscates third-grader’s cupcakes topped with toy soldiers)

At Genoa-Kingston Middle School in northeast Illinois, a teacher threatened an eighth-grader with suspension if he did not remove his t-shirt emblazoned with the interlocking rifles, a symbol of the United States Marines. (RELATED: Junior high teacher tells kid to remove Marines t-shirt or get suspended)

At Park Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland, a student was suspended for two days because his teacher thought he shaped a strawberry, pre-baked toaster pastry into something resembling a gun. (RELATED: Second-grader suspended for having breakfast pastry shaped like a gun)

At Poston Butte High School in Arizona, a high school freshman was suspended for setting a picture of a gun as the desktop background on his school-issued computer. (RELATED: Freshman suspended for picture of gun)

At D. Newlin Fell School in Philadelphia, school officials reportedly yelled at a student and then searched her in front of her class after she was found with a paper gun her grandfather had made for her. (RELATED: Paper gun causes panic)

In rural Pennsylvania, a kindergarten girl was suspended for making a “terroristic threat” after she told another girl that she planned to shoot her with a pink Hello Kitty toy gun that bombards targets with soapy bubbles. (RELATED: Kindergartener suspended for making ‘terroristic threat’ with Hello Kitty bubble gun)

At Roscoe R. Nix Elementary School in Maryland, a six-year-old boy was suspended for making the universal kid sign for a gun, pointing at another student and saying “pow.” That boy’s suspension was later lifted and his name cleared. (RELATED: Pow! You’re suspended, kid)

A federal judge signed an order Monday blocking implementation of a Utah law prohibiting some Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service employees from enforcing state laws anywhere in Utah after the U.S. Department of Justice argued the law was unconstitutional.

HB155, sponsored by Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, makes it a class B misdemeanor, punishable by a $1,000 fine and six months in jail, for federal employees who are not certified law enforcement officers to enforce any state law within Utah.

The federal regulations governing the officers and land have been written to incorporate state laws and local ordinances.

After a conference call with attorneys for the state and federal governments, Judge David Nuffer signed a temporary restraining order blocking the law from taking effect until a June hearing on a longer-term injunction. The law had been scheduled to kick in Tuesday.

Ultimately, the Justice Department is asking the judge to strike down the law as unconstitutional.

“BLM and Forest Service employees who operate in the State of Utah will subject themselves to potential criminal penalties under state law by continuing to perform the duties required of them under federal law,” the federal government wrote in the brief.

During the legislative hearing on the bill, Noel said he worked with staff attorneys to try to ensure the bill was not given a constitutional note by legislative attorneys — meaning there is a high likelihood the bill would be found unconstitutional by a judge.

Noel said federal officers in rural Utah have been stopping and detaining residents on county roads. He argued that the county sheriffs who are elected and more responsive to residents should be the ones enforcing the law.

Utah Attorney General John Swallow said that his office will “vigorously defend” the new state law. “We don’t want Utah citizens going before a federal magistrate for a speeding ticket,” Swallow said in a statement. “We are concerned about the federal government once again encroaching on states’ rights and we will vigorously defend the constitutionality of HB155.”

There is a decades-old dispute about the ownership of thousands of roads, trails and dirt paths across federal lands and Utah is suing for ownership of them.

Noel says HB155 was drafted narrowly, applying only to BLM rangers and Forest Service protection officers and employees and had the support of sheriffs. He said it makes sense that officers should be trained and certified if they are going to enforce Utah laws.

For example, BLM rangers are stopping people for speeding on state and county roads, Noel said, when Utah never gave them permission to do that.

“That, to me, is an overstepping of their authority,” he said. “If we can’t stop this, how do we stop them from encroaching on any area of states’ rights and matters of federalism?”

Noel said the issue is important to all Western states, so he would like to see the courts resolve it.

“It’s a question that needs to be answered,” he said, “and I’m OK with them coming back and saying, ‘Let’s get the courts involved and let them decide.’ ”

Kane County Sheriff Lamont Smith told a legislative committee during the session that untrained BLM and Forest Service employees are abusing their discretion in issuing speeding and other citations. “It’s an assault on the sovereignty of the State of Utah,” Smith said.

When 33-year-old Jersey City resident and gun owner Keith Pantaleon went to bed on January 24, he never imagined he would spend the next 35 days in a prison cell for his legal purchased gun.

Pantaleon, an African-American Wall Street technology specialist who told The Daily Caller he was threatened by police during his arrest, is a victim of “draconian” and possibly even racist law enforcement, according to his attorney. Police were in his home without a warrant when they discovered what the attorney says were his legally purchased firearms.

“What they did was criminal at best,” Pantaleon said, describing how he frantically reached for a day planner containing his firearm when he heard strange noises at the entrance to his apartment.

“It wasn’t until I saw my landlord in the front of my apartment that I realized they were cops,” said Pantaleon. He then tossed the day planner back on his bed, came out of his bedroom and tried to close the door, when one of the officers pushed past him into the bedroom, picked up the day planner case and opened it. Upon seeing the gun, the police officer instructed the other deputy to “lock him the f*ck up,” Pantaleon claimed.

Police had been called to the apartment by a tenant concerned that the building was not properly heated. Officers demanded access to Pantaleon’s apartment because the boiler was located in it.

“The cop came out of the bedroom and started saying, ‘Oh, you brought a gun, if I only knew. … You are so lucky, they should be wiping your blood off the floor right now,’” Pantaleon said. “I was in shock, and the way these guys were behaving … I was in fear for my life.”

Police went on to thoroughly search his home.

“They had no warrant, they definitely didn’t have my consent, and none of the arresting officers Mirandized me. It wasn’t until I saw a detective from a major crimes unit that he Mirandized me, a little over 15 hours later,” said Pantaleon. “What good are my rights if I’m not allowed to exercise them?”

The officers found Pantaleon’s other firearms and ammunition, which his attorney, Evan Nappen, said were completely legal.

Officers then took Pantaleon to police headquarters and charged him with the unlawful possession of a variety of items, including two handguns, a rifle, an “assault rifle,” a large-capacity magazine, and certain ammunition.

The assault rifle is an AR-15, which Nappen said is “one of the most commonly owned rifles in America.”

“Being in your home is an exemption for possession of handguns, rifles and shotguns. They poured on absolutely false charges. The handgun charges have no basis whatsoever,” said Nappen.

Pantaleon said the officers knew the charges were false.

“I heard these two cops speaking to each other a couple doors down from me, when I was in lockup at the West District. A couple hours after they pulled me out of my home and threw me into the cage in their precinct … one of them said, ‘I know these charges are BS, but this is what you have to do if you want to be a cop-cop.’”

Pantaleon said he doesn’t know for sure why the officers reacted in such a hostile manner.

“Let’s see, a black guy with guns, in Jersey City, in the middle of the night? Take your pick,” he said. “Would their reaction have been different if I was not black? I don’t know. What I can answer is, they broke into my house, they’re the ones who committed the crimes that night, and I’m the one who ended up in jail for 35 days.”

According to Pantaleon, both of the arresting officers “appeared to be white.”

Armed Libertarian activist and radio host, Adam Kokesh plans to lead an armed march on Washington, D.C. this Independence Day.

Launched as a group on Facebook, the “Open Carry Armed March on Washington” hopes to get 1,000 armed supporters to march into the nation’s capital with loaded rifles.

The group plans to meet at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.  From there, they will march across the Memorial Bridge into Washington, D.C. and continue down Independence Avenue. All while armed.

While Virginia permits open carry, Washington, D.C. does not issue any permit/licenses to carry a firearm.

The Facebook page states:

“This is an act of civil disobedience, not a permitted event. We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny.”

The event is said to be non-violent and states that if the armed  group is met with physical resistance, they will turn back.

“There’s a remote chance that there will be violence as there has been from government before, and I think it should be clear that if anyone involved in this event is approached respectfully by agents of the state, they will submit to arrest without resisting.”

An update states that Kokesh is already coordinating with authorities in the DC area and is encouraging them to honor their oaths and help escort the march along their route.

Libertarian and political commentator Lew Rockwell, on the Monday edition of the Alex Jones Show, warned that the march is equivalent to entering the gates of Mordor, and agreed with Alex that the event could easily be provocateured to demonize the growing liberty movement.

Below is the Facebook post in full:

On the morning of July 4, 2013, Independence Day, we will muster at the National Cemetery & at noon we will step off to march across the Memorial Bridge, down Independence Avenue, around the Capitol, the Supreme Court, & the White House, then peacefully return to Virginia across the Memorial Bridge. This is an act of civil disobedience, not a permitted event. We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny. We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tide. This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent. Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington, & returning with the resolve that the politicians, bureaucrats, & enforcers of the federal government will not be welcome in the land of the free.

There’s a remote chance that there will be violence as there has been from government before, and I think it should be clear that if anyone involved in this event is approached respectfully by agents of the state, they will submit to arrest without resisting. We are truly saying in the SUBTLEST way possible that we would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.

You are welcome to attend unarmed as a supporter, or armed with a recording device.

We especially invite law enforcement officers to stand with us armed however they feel is appropriate.

If this page gets to 10,000 attendees by June 1st, & we have the critical mass necessary to pull this off, (1,000 actual attendees) we will march. Please spread the word, share this event, & invite all your friends.

UPDATE 130506 Now that it’s undeniable that this is going to happen, allow me to make clear how. There will be coordination with DC law enforcement prior to the event. I will recommend that they do the best they can to honor their oaths and escort us on our route. Failing to provide that commitment to safety, we will either be informed that we will only be allowed up to a certain point where we would be arrested. If this is the case, we will approach that point as a group and if necessary, I will procede to volunteer myself to determine what their actual course of action with someone crossing the line will be at which point fellow marchers will have the choice of joining me one at a time in a peaceful, orderly manner, or turning back to the National Cemetery.

Thanks to everyone for the vibrant conversation, but we have decided to make the wall of this event page specifically just for announcements and important info for the event. Please feel free to comment, and continue the conversation as you like at: http://forums.adamvstheman.com/viewforum.php?f=13