From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
Aliso Viejo, California (CNN)The deadly explosion in an Orange County building that killed one woman and injured three others appears to be intentional and is being investigated as a criminal act, a law enforcement source told CNN.
But the source also cautioned that it’s early in the investigation.
WASHINGTON – A mere 72 hours after the Chinese government agreed to put a half-billion dollars into an Indonesian project that will personally enrich Donald Trump, the president ordered a bailout for a Chinese-government-owned cellphone maker.
“President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast,” Trump announced on Twitter Sunday morning. “Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!” Continue reading “Trump Orders Help For Chinese Phone-Maker After China Approves Money For Trump Project”
There are new restrictions on which types of animals are permitted on American Airlines flights.
Insects, goats and hedgehogs cannot be brought on planes as emotional support animals.
Miniature horses are still OK, as long as they have been properly trained as service animals. Continue reading “American Airlines: No hedgehogs, goats; mini horses are OK”
North Korea says the US should carefully consider the fate of the North Korea-US summit, in view of what it calls “provocative military disturbances with South Korea,” North Korea’s state news agency reported early Wednesday local time.
The warning comes as KCNA reported North Korea has suspended talks with South Korea because of a joint military drill conducted by South Korea and the US.
Continue reading “North Korea warns US as it suspends South Korea talks over military drills”
Whoever had the over on DraftKings‘ boss Jason Robins and FanDuel chief executive Matt King being given a potential billion dollar windfall by the Supreme Court’s decision to allows sports betting should head to the cashier’s cage.
In a six-to-three decision (Justice Breyer was a partial dissent), Supreme Court Justices struck down a federal law that had banned gambling on sporting events in most states. Continue reading “Supreme Court allows states to legalize sports betting, opening floodgates for online gambling profits”
China has welcomed a pledge from Donald Trump to help save ZTE, one of China’s biggest telecoms companies.
The firm has suspended operations after the US last month banned American companies from selling it components. ZTE had admitted to making illegal shipments to Iran and North Korea. Continue reading “Trump seeks to save Chinese jobs at ZTE ahead of trade talks”
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli fire killed at least 18 Palestinians during mass protests along the Gaza border on Monday, in a violent burst of bloodshed that cast a cloud over Israel’s festive inauguration of the new U.S. Embassy in contested Jerusalem.
It was the deadliest single day of protests since the Palestinians began staging weekly border demonstrations on March 30 in an attempt to break an Israeli-Egyptian blockade. Protesters set tires on fire, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the air, while the Israeli military accused protesters of trying to break through the border fence and plant a bomb, and said troops had come under fire. Continue reading “Deadly Gaza protests cloud US Embassy opening in Jerusalem”
BEAUMONT, Texas (KTRK) — The FBI and local law enforcement are investigating a package bomb explosion at a church in Beaumont.
According to the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, a package exploded outside the St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church sometime between the end of worship Wednesday evening and the beginning of school Thursday morning. Continue reading “Authorities continue investigating explosive device outside Episcopal church in Beaumont”
New Jersey 101.5 – by Michael Symons
NEWARK – Undocumented immigrants raised in New Jersey can now apply for state financial aid programs to attend New Jersey colleges.
The law was signed Wednesday and takes effect starting with the fall semester, and the New Jersey Alternative Financial Aid Application was immediately posted on the state Higher Education Student Assistance Authority website. (Click here.)
Continue reading “NJ Already Taking Financial Aid Applications from Undocumented”
JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. (AP) — Staging a made-for-TV, still-of-the-night arrival ceremony, President Donald Trump welcomed home three Americans freed by North Korea and declared their release a sign of promise toward his goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
Speaking early Thursday on an air base tarmac with the former detainees by his side, Trump called it a “great honor” to welcome the men to the U.S., but said “the true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons.” Continue reading “Trump gives freed Americans flag-waving, wee-hours welcome”
Campus Reform – by Hannah Scherlacher
Rutgers University recently debuted a program to teach students and staff about the illegal immigrant community, and at least one administrator wants to make the workshop mandatory.
The “DREAM Zone” program, a three-hour interactive event that originated at New York University, expanded to Rutgers in April, according to The Daily Targum. Continue reading “Rutgers trains students to empathize with illegal immigrants”
Less than two months after a Tesla Model X burst into flames in Mountain View, CA after a gruesome crash attributed to an autopilot error trapped the driver in the burning car resulting in his death, Tesla tragedy has struck again after two 18-year-old men died, trapped in a fiery Model S crash near Fort Lauderdale beach Tuesday evening, the SunSentinel reported. Continue reading “Tesla Model S Bursts Into Flames After “Horrific” Crash, Killing Two Men Trapped Inside”
President Trump on Tuesday announced plans to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, saying it has failed to halt the country’s nuclear ambitions.
Speaking in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, Trump said: “I am announcing today the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.”
A source said that Trump’s announcement will start a 90-day countdown to the restoration of sanctions. Continue reading “Trump withdraws from Iran nuclear agreement”
A California high school student was charged on Monday after he allegedly recruited classmates into a drug and human smuggling ring, authorities said.
Phillip Junior Webb, 18, was arraigned Monday at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego on federal charges of human smuggling and conspiracy to distribute illicit narcotics. He is also charged with trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border with illegal immigrants hidden in his trunk, according to charging documents. Continue reading “California teen charged with recruiting classmates for drug smuggling operation”
The Treasury Department announced new sanctions on three Venezuelans as the U.S. ratchets up pressure on the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has overseen a crackdown on protesters amid an economic crisis fueled by rapid inflation.
The sanctions targets include Pedro Luis Martin Olivares, a former Venezuelan intelligence official now under indictment in Florida on drug trafficking charges. The penalties also cover two people identified as his associates, Walter Alexander Del Nogal Marquez and Mario Antonio Rodriguez Espinoza, along with 20 companies in Venezuela and Panama the Treasury Department says are owned or controlled by the three. Continue reading “U.S Sanctions Venezuelans, Including Ex-Intelligence Official”
Molten lava from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano continued gushing into the lush paradise on the Big Island Monday, even as an eleventh fissure opened up, destroying more than two dozen homes and spewing lava hundreds of feet in the air.
The 26 decimated homes were located in the Leilani Estates subdivision, where molten rock, toxic gas and steam have been bursting through openings in the ground created by the volcano, officials said. No fatalities or major injuries have been reported since the eruptions began Thursday. Continue reading “Hawaii volcano shows ‘no sign of slowing down,’ destroys dozens of homes”
OLATHE, Kan. – Body camera footage shows that law enforcement ignored the advice of SWAT team members when they entered a suburban Kansas City home and fatally shot a mentally distressed woman with a history of only minor, nonviolent offenses.
The Kansas City Star reports that it reviewed 23 hours of footage tied to the Aug. 23 shooting of 26-year-old Ciara Howard after a three-hour standoff in Olathe. The Star had sued for the video and dropped its lawsuit last month after receiving it. Continue reading “SWAT team discouraged entering home before deadly shooting”
For years indigenous people living in small villages along Alaska’s Arctic coast fiercely fought offshore drilling. Now they want a piece of the action.
When Shell first showed up in 2007 with a fleet of drillships and support vessels, and parked them in the migration path of the bowhead whale in the eastern Alaska Beaufort Sea, the Inupiats went to court. An injunction from the US Ninth Circuit stopped the company and started a chain of problems that would ultimately defeat Shell’s multibillion dollar Arctic initiative. Continue reading “An Arctic about-face: Alaska natives, who fought offshore oil projects, now leading the charge to drill”
Several rural Illinois counties have taken a stand for gun rights by co-opting a word that conservatives associate with a liberal policy to skirt the law: sanctuary.
At least five counties recently passed resolutions declaring themselves sanctuary counties for gun owners — a reference to so-called sanctuary cities such as Chicago that don’t cooperate with aspects of federal immigration enforcement. Continue reading “Illinois counties declare ‘sanctuary’ status for gun owners”