From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
An Oklahoma jury has convicted a veteran police captain of first-degree manslaughter in the death of an unarmed teenager who was running away after scuffling with the officer.
Del City Police captain Randy Trent Harrison shot Dane Scott Jr in the back on 14 March 2012, following a high-speed chase that began when Harrison tried to pull over Scott’s car. Continue reading “Oklahoma jury convicts police captain of unarmed teen’s manslaughter”
Public Integrity – by Susan Ferriss
Responding to demand for reforms, the nation’s largest school police force — in Los Angeles — will stop issuing tickets to students 12-years-old or younger for minor infractions allegedly committed on or near campuses during school hours.
A memo this month to officers from Los Angeles Unified School Police Department Chief Steven Zipperman outlined the new policy, which goes into effect in December. The announcement comes in the wake of community demands for the school district to “decriminalize” minor school disciplinary matters and use more discretion when involving law enforcement personnel. Continue reading “Nation’s largest school police force, in L.A., will stop ticketing kids 12 and younger”
The Obama administration has announced another delay to its healthcare law, this time to online medical insurance for small businesses.
The marketplace website allowing employers to buy health coverage for their workers will be put off by one year until November 2014.
Ongoing problems with Healthcare.gov, beset by glitches since its 1 October launch, were blamed for the delay. Continue reading “Obamacare: Small-business enrolment delayed by one year”
New Haven police say they believe that the report of a shooter on his way to Yale University’s campus Monday morning was a “hoax,” reports CBS affiliate WFSB.
Around 9:30 a.m., police say they received an anonymous call from someone claiming his roommate was headed to Yale with a long gun. The university went into lockdown mode, telling students and faculty to stay inside as police searched the area. Continue reading “Police: Yale University Shooter Warning Call was a “Hoax””
After seeing two of her Colorado colleagues recalled over anti-gun votes, Democratic State Senator Evie Hudak, will submit her resignation.
Hudak will hold a news conference Wednesday morning at the Arvada Library. Continue reading “Avoiding Recall: Colorado’s “You Don’t Need a Gun to Prevent Rape” Evie Hudak Resigns”
The leaked TPP draft, pried loose from the “open and transparent” grip of the USTR, is generating plenty of commentary all over the web. After getting a good look inside, it’s little wonder the USTR felt more comfortable trying to push this through under the cover of darkness.
As the criticism of the push for IP maximalism mounts, the treaty’s defenders have leapt into the fray, hoping to assure everyone who wasn’t previously aware of the treaty’s contents (which is pretty much everyone) that there’s nothing to see here and please move along. Continue reading “TPP Defenders Take To The Internet To Deliver Official Talking Points; Inadvertently Confirm Opponents’ Worst Fears”
The Columbus Dispatch – by Patrick Temple-West and Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration proposed new rules yesterday to rein in tax-exempt groups that have transformed the political landscape by harnessing hundreds of millions of dollars in anonymous donations to influence elections.
The proposal would alter definitions in the tax code that allow limited campaign and fundraising activities by the tax-exempt groups, some of which have been at the center of allegations that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative tea party groups for extra scrutiny. Continue reading “New rules proposed for some tax-exempt groups”
ABC News – by PABLO GORONDI Associated Press
The price of oil dropped to near $93 a barrel on Monday as a deal between Iran and six world powers on the country’s nuclear program made it more likely that sanctions choking Iranian oil exports will be lifted.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark U.S. crude for January delivery was down $1.44 at $93.40 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, the contract fell 60 cents to close at $94.84. Continue reading “Oil Prices Drop Sharply After Iran Nuclear Deal”
CNN – by Catherine E. Shoichet and Rafael Romo
Mexican authorities set free a former teen cartel hit man on Tuesday and sent him back to the United States.
The release of Edgar Jimenez Lugo, a U.S. citizen known as “El Ponchis” or “The Cloak,” comes less than three years after a Mexican court found him guilty of torturing and beheading at least four people and kidnapping three others as an operative for the South Pacific Cartel. Continue reading “Mexico: Teen hit man freed, sent to U.S.”
A Superior Court judge Tuesday ordered the release of the 911 calls made from Sandy Hook Elementary School to Newtown police on the morning of the Dec. 14, 2012, shootings, rejecting arguments from prosecutors that the audio recordings should remain private.
At Superior Court in New Britain, Judge Eliot D. Prescott, who listened to the 911 calls Monday, ordered the tapes to be released on Dec. 4 at 2 p.m. Continue reading “Superior Court Judge Orders Release Of Newtown 911 Calls”
CNN – by Catherine E. Shoichet
Gail Sandidge rushed to help when screams rang out during a stabbing at a Texas medical center on Tuesday.
Horrified patients and family members watched as a man stabbed the nurse in the chest.
“She was just saying…’I’m hurt. He got me,'” witness Jana Jackson told CNN affiliate KLTV. “And that’s when we realized there was blood all on the front of her scrubs.” Continue reading “Nurse dies protecting patients in Texas surgical center stabbing”
Dallas News – by Robert Wilonsky
One week after workers removed the X that marked the spot on Elm Street where President John Kennedy was gunned down on November 22, 1963, it has returned.
And, says 1500 Marilla spokesman Frank Librio, the city has no intention of removing this X or any other — at least, for the time being. Continue reading “In Dealey Plaza, the X that marked the spot on Elm Street where Kennedy was killed has returned”
Three teenage sisters have been rescued from an Arizona home after reportedly being held captive for two years.
Police tell TucsonNewsNow.com the girls, ages 12, 13 and 17, were discovered after the younger two escaped to a neighbor’s house and claimed their stepfather had threatened them with a knife. Continue reading “3 teenage sisters reportedly held captive in Arizona home for 2 years”
American Free Press – by Keith Johnson
While the National Security Agency (NSA) spying scandal continues to grab national headlines, the equally egregious intelligence gathering on United States citizens by Israeli security firms has virtually flown under the radar.
A recent article in Rolling Stone magazine, entitled “Meet the Private Companies Helping Cops Spy on Protesters,” comes close to scratching the surface by identifying the four major security contractors that have been aggressively hawking their invasive surveillance products at various trade shows and police conferences throughout the nation. However, they fail to mention that at least two of those companies are owned and operated by members of a foreign nation with a long and notorious history of spying on the U.S. government and its citizens. Continue reading “Israeli Data Spies Have Eyes Focused on U.S. Citizens”
The Guardian 
BBC News
Blacklisted News – CBS 
Town Hall – by Katie Pavlich 
Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing
Fox News