From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
President Obama is a little uneasy with the way journalists have been dragged into the Justice Department’s aggressive pursuit of national security leak investigations. In fact, he has ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct a 45-day review of the department’s guidelines on the issue.
That bit of news was buried in the middle of the president’s hourlong speech today at National Defense University. Continue reading “Obama Orders DOJ Review of Leak Investigations”
The New American – by Jack Kenny
Connecticut’s seven-week-old gun law, passed in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook School in Newtown in December, has been challenged in federal court. A coalition of individuals, gun retailers, sports shooters, and gun rights activists entered a suit in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport Wednesday, asking for a declaration that the law is unconstitutional and both a preliminary and a permanent injunction against its enforcement. Continue reading “Connecticut Gun Law Challenged in Federal Court”
A bill crafted in secret by Connecticut’s chief prosecutor,governor’s office and legislators would prevent the release of some Newtown school shooting investigation records, including crime scene photos and videos and 911 recordings.
A draft of the proposal was released by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s office Wednesday afternoon, a day after the Hartford Courant reported on the efforts to create the bill. Continue reading “Connecticut bill would limit public access to records of Sandy Hook shooting”
Remember that scene in Scarface?
Two members of the FBI’s elite counterterrorism unit died Friday while practicing how to quickly drop from a helicopter to a ship using a rope, the FBI announced Monday in a statement. Continue reading “2 FBI Agents Involved in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s Arrest “FALL” Out of Helicopter and Die”
Business Week -by Timothy R. Homan
The U.S. Senate voted 99-0 to adopt a resolution calling for continued and stronger sanctions against Iran.
The resolution, S. Res. 65, also includes a statement of support for Israel if that nation decides to act against Iran. Continue reading “U.S. Senate Votes to Endorse Continuing Sanctions Against Iran”
Breitbart -by MICHAEL PATRICK LEAHY
On Tuesday, an estimated 175 Tea Party activists protested outside the IRS office in the suburban Chicago community of Downers Grove. Here’s a report from someone who attended the event:
What surprised many was a Homeland Security vehicle came past the protest twice. As you can see from the picture, the vehicle had tinted windows so we are unsure if there were any cameras inside. Were pictures taken of the attendees? Will any of the attendees now be further targeted by the IRS or Homeland Security? Continue reading “Homeland Security Monitors Tea Party Protests at Chicago, Los Angeles, and St. Louis IRS Offices”
Whereas the 2nd Amendment recognizes the right of the people to keep and bear arms, and whereas the right to keep and bear arms need not be demonstrated, and whereas Adam Kokesh’s planned armed march into Washington DC is an unnecessary and dangerous provocation that may be used to demonize guns and gun owners, the undersigned petitioners, while supporting the right to keep and bear arms, state their opposition to Adam Kokesh’s planned armed march into Washington DC on July 4th, 2013.
Continue reading “I do NOT support Adam Kokesh’s armed march in DC!”
NBC News – by Richard Esposito, Pete Williams and Matthew DeLuca
A man with ties to the Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot and killed after attacking an FBI agent during questioning in Florida, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday.
The man who was shot, Ibragim Todashev, 27, allegedly attacked an agent with a knife. He was not suspected of having played any role in the bombing that killed three people and injured scores more in April, but he did confess to being involved in a brutal Boston-area slaying two years ago, investigators said. Continue reading “Man with ties to Boston bombing suspect shot during FBI questioning”
LA Times- by Richard Simon and Melanie Mason
WASHINGTON — A top Internal Revenue Service official invoked the 5th Amendment and declined to testify Wednesday before a House committee investigating the agency’s mishandling of applications by some conservative groups for tax-exempt status.
Lois Lerner, director of the IRS’ exempt organizations unit, spoke deliberately and crisply in her opening remarks to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the first time she has appeared before Congress since she revealed earlier this month that the division she oversaw inappropriately screened and questioned tea party and other groups seeking nonprofit status. Continue reading “Top IRS official pleads the 5th Amendment at testy House hearing”
Wisconsin – Police work that has traditionally been conducted in public view is increasingly being shielded, as insurance companies and municipal attorneys throughout Wisconsin push departments to withhold names from reports due to liability concerns.
A long-ignored federal privacy law is driving the redactions, interpreted by some municipal leaders to overrule a state public records law that says the full reports should be released. Continue reading “Secret arrests by police in Wisconsin is this Big Brother’s future for Americans?”
ars technica – by Casey Johnston
NASA has bestowed a $125,000 grant upon a research corporation to pursue the development of 3D-printable food, according to a report from Quartz. Anjan Contractor, who runs Systems & Materials Research Corporation, hopes to design a system that will turn shelf-stable cartridges of sugars, complex carbs, and protein into edible food on demand. Continue reading “3D-printable food? NASA wants a taste”
Antiwar.com – by Kelley B. Vlahos
WASHINGTON – Antiwar.com is taking the FBI to court.
The website’s founder and managing editor Eric Garris, along with longtime editorial director Justin Raimondo, filed a lawsuit in federal court today, demanding the release of records they believe the FBI is keeping on them and the 17-year-old online magazine. Continue reading “Antiwar.com Sues FBI After Secret Surveillance”
Washington Times – by Stephen Dinan
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Monday to allow illegal immigrants who get legal status to begin collecting tax-welfare payments, as the panel spent a fourth day working through amendments to the massive immigration bill and party-line splits began to emerge.
In one major change, the committee voted 17-1 to make a third drunken-driving conviction a deportable offense for the newly legalized immigrants if at least one of those offenses occurs after they are approved for legal status. Continue reading “Senate panel OKs tax-welfare benefits for newly legal immigrants”
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (CN) – A woman died on a courthouse floor because Alabama sheriff’s deputies refused to give her her medicine – after arresting her for an old traffic ticket, the woman’s daughter claims in court.
Ayunna Johnae London sued St. Clair County Sheriff Terry Surles, jail administrators Austin Nash and Terry Marcrum, Southern Healthcare Partners, and its employee Jennifer Eisel, in Federal Court. Continue reading “Elderly Woman Dies in Court “Gasping for Breath” After Sheriff’s Deputies “Callously” Refused to Give Her Medication, Daughter Claims”
Think Progress – by Nicole Flatow
A major U.S. private prison operator known for inmate abuse, violations, and disregardfor the truth reported a 56-percent spike in profit in the first quarter of 2013, due in part to its new strategy for drastically reducing its taxes, the Associated Press reports. During a conference call touting its success, representatives at GEO Group boasted that the company continues to have “solid occupancy rates in mid to high 90s” and that they are optimistic “regarding the outlook for the industry,” in part due to a “growing offender population.” GEO Senior Vice President John Hurley assured investors during the call: Continue reading “Private Prison Profits Skyrocket, As Executives Assure Investors Of ‘Growing Offender Population’”
American Everyman – by Scott Creighton
A democratic senator from Rhode Island, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, had this to say about the tornado that touched down in Oklahoma yesterday, at least partially blaming those who question man-made global warming, people he calls “extremists”, for the tornado and pretty much everything else bad that has (will) happen across the country: Continue reading “Oklahoma Tornado: A Little Perspective – It’s Not the Worst In History and It’s Not the Fault of “Extremist” Global Warming Deniers”
Before It’s News – by Tom Dennen, the paranoid historian
US Department of Energy study projected that African oil production would rise 91 percent between 2002 and 2025.
The United States is the largest consumer of oil in the world, China the second largest – is there going to be a fight over African oil? Continue reading “Oprah Builds a School, Michelle, Hillary tour, Now Obama Plans June Visit to South Africa. Why? Because 25% of US Oil Imports Now Come from Africa?”
12160 – by ralph hornsby 
Mass Privatel