The Hill

President Trump on Thursday announced that he would cancel a scheduled 2.1 percent across-the-board pay increase for federal workers, as well as locality pay increases.

“In light of our Nation’s fiscal situation, Federal employee pay must be performance-based, and aligned strategically toward recruiting, retaining, and rewarding high-performing Federal employees and those with critical skill sets,” Trump wrote in a letter to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate.   Continue reading “Trump nixes federal pay raise”

Yahoo News

Seventeen people have been sickened in four states — with one fatal case in New York — from a salmonella outbreak tied to raw chicken, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In a news release posted Wednesday, CDC officials said that eight people had been hospitalized. The states identified in addition to New York were Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.   Continue reading “17 people sickened in 4 states because of a salmonella outbreak tied to raw chicken: CDC”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

In what may be the most innocent violation to emerge out of Wells Fargo in years, the WSJ reports that Wells has fired or suspended more than a dozen employees in its investment bank and is investigating dozens of others over violations of the company’s expense policy regarding after-hours meals.

According to the report, Wells Fargo employees ranging from analysts to managing directors in New York, San Francisco and Charlotte, doctored receipts on dinners that they charged to the bank.   Continue reading “Wells Fargo Fires Over A Dozen Bankers For Doctoring Expense Receipts”

Yahoo News

The boyfriend of a woman captured on night-vision video ringing a doorbell in the middle of the night while partially-clothed and wearing broken wrist restrains has been found dead, according to police.

The woman herself, 32, has been found safe, according to Texas authorities, after footage surfaced of the “suspicious” incident in Sunrise Ranch, Montgomery.   Continue reading “Boyfriend of woman seen ringing Texas doorbell while wearing wrist restraints found dead”

Engadget – by Rachel England

What’s the definition of “meat”? Once upon a time that would have been an easy enough question to answer, but the advent of meat-substitute products such as the Impossible Burger and the arrival of cultured meat — aka lab-grown meat — has given regulators in Missouri pause for thought. On Tuesday, it became the first state in the US to enact a law stating that the word “meat” cannot be used to sell anything that “is not derived from harvested production livestock or poultry.”

Continue reading “Lab-grown meat is not meat, Missouri state rules”

Nikkei Asian Review

HONG KONG — As Washington and Beijing’s tit-for-tat measures in their ongoing trade war continue to escalate, a major Chinese state-owned energy conglomerate has said it will honor the $83.7 billion shale gas deal agreed with the U.S. state of West Virginia last fall.

Ling Wen, president of China Energy Investment, told reporters on Monday that the contract he signed during U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to China last November was moving ahead as planned. The project was a central part of the $250 billion-worth of deals agreed between the two countries. The size of the West Virginia project, which will last for the next two decades, was more than the state’s gross domestic product last year.   Continue reading “Chinese company recommits to $83.7B West Virginia shale gas deal”

Yahoo News

Cindy Liddick had worked at the AT&T call center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for 12 years before it closed earlier this month.

The former customer support specialist is among the more than 16,000 people in the United States who have lost their jobs at the communications giant since 2011, as it continues to shut down call centers to consolidate facilities within the US, or in favor of offshore alternatives in countries such as India, the Philippines and Mexico.   Continue reading “‘They’re liquidating us’: AT&T continues layoffs and outsourcing despite profits”

Yahoo News

KAUBER, West Bank (Reuters) – The Israeli military on Tuesday demolished the family home of a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank who killed an Israeli in a Jewish settlement a month ago and was shot dead in the attack.

Footage distributed by the military showed an armoured bulldozer tearing into the one-storey structure in the village of Kauber, north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah.   Continue reading “Israel demolishes family home of Palestinian attacker”

Yahoo News

NEW YORK (AP) — The Kushner family real estate company was fined $210,000 by New York City regulators on Monday following an Associated Press investigation earlier this year that showed it routinely filed false documents with the city claiming it had no rent-regulated tenants in its buildings when, in fact, it had hundreds.

Separately, a watchdog group said Monday that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has engaged in the same practice, perhaps in a more brazen way, by telling the city that buildings he owned were empty, though tax records showed they were filled with tenants, many rent-regulated.   Continue reading “Kushner Cos. fined $210K by New York for false documents”

Yahoo News

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Gun control advocates, including one of the survivors of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting and the parents of one of the victims, are marching 50 miles (80 kilometers) across Massachusetts this week to the headquarters of gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson as part of a youth-led push for stricter gun laws.

About 40 students and supporters set off from downtown Worcester in central Massachusetts on Thursday morning holding signs denouncing gun violence and chanting slogans criticizing gun makers and the National Rifle Association. They’re destined for Smith & Wesson’s headquarters in Springfield, where they’ll hold a large demonstration Sunday.   Continue reading “Gun control activists marching 50 miles to Smith & Wesson HQ”

Truth About Guns – by Dean Weingarten

In 2016, anti-Second Amendment zealot Michael Bloomberg was able to place Question 1 on the ballot in Nevada. The ballot initiative passed and mandated universal background checks in the state, covering even private party firearms sales.

Supporters of the Bloomberg initiative laid out over $18 million in support of the measure, outspending the opposition three to one. And that total doesn’t include money spent to put the initiative on the ballot. Despite the huge cash outlay, the measure only narrowly passed 558,631 for to 548,732 against.    Continue reading “Nevada Universal Background Check Proponents Lose Case in Court”

Fox News

An illegal immigrant from Mexico stands accused of killing college student Mollie Tibbetts and dumping her body in an Iowa cornfield — after he allegedly accosted her during a July 18 jog and she threatened to call police.

Cristhian Bathena Rivera, 24, was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday in Tibbetts’ death, officials confirmed.   Continue reading “Mollie Tibbetts murder suspect ID’d as Cristhian Rivera, 24, living in US illegally”

Mercury News – by Ethan Baron

Federal investigators found San Jose tech giant Cisco discriminated against American workers by favoring visa-carrying foreign nationals, according to a new report.

The U.S. Department of Labor concluded that Cisco “secured visas for foreign workers instead of hiring U.S. citizens for certain jobs and paid the visa holders at a lower rate than their American counterparts,” legal-news website Bloomberg Law reported Monday, citing unnamed sources said to be familiar with the probe.   Continue reading “H-1B visa-reliant Cisco ‘secured visas for foreign workers instead of hiring U.S. citizens’: report”

Fox News

The destruction of a Confederate statue in the heart of North Carolina’s flagship university by hundreds of protesters on Monday night was “unlawful and dangerous,” university leaders said.

Carol L. Folt, chancellor of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, condemned the actions of a crowd of protestors who took down the memorial known as “Silent Sam,” which was erected in 1913.   Continue reading “UNC calls out protesters’ ‘unlawful and dangerous’ actions after Silent Sam statue taken down”

Breitbart – by AWR Hawkins

A California Senate committee and an assembly committee passed a total of seven new gun control bills during the past week.

The majority of the bills expand gun controls that are already in place.

The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) reported on the seven gun control bills:   Continue reading “CA Legislative Committees Pass Seven Gun Control Bills”

Daily Item

MISSOURI CITY, TX (KTRK/CNN) – A man and woman died after an early morning shooting at a Texas plant.

Police say the female shooter worked at The Ben E. Keith Food Distribution Plant in the Metro Houston area.

About 2:30 Monday morning police say the woman walked into the warehouse area and began shooting.   Continue reading “Female worker shoots and kills manager at a food distribution center”

Fox News

Dramatic video shows a 70-year-old man and his son trying to drive through a wildfire in Glacier National Park in Montana.

Justin Bilton posted the video online earlier this week after their miraculous escape, ABCFoxMontana reports. On YouTube he titled the video, “That time we drove through hell in Glacier National Park (Howe Ridge).”   Continue reading “Father, son speed through ‘hell’ to escape Montana wildfire”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

Wisconsin technology firm Three Square Market has injected 80 employees with their own brand of RFID microchips over the last year, and according to MIT Technology Review, “they love it.”

The implant, which is about the size of a grain of rice, utilizes Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, also found in credit cards, debit cards, key fobs, and smartphones. This technology is considered “passive,” meaning the microchip stores data that can be read by other devices but cannot read data themselves.   Continue reading “Wisconsin Company Injecting RFID Microchips Into Hands Of Employees”

Fox News

A demonstration in support of Second Amendment gun rights drew left-wing counter-protesters Saturday in Seattle, forcing dozens of police to keep the two sides separated.  Continue reading “‘Liberty or Death’ gun-rights rally draws counter-protesters, forcing police to keep the peace”

AZ Central

A Phoenix police officer was in critical condition Thursday night after being shot during a traffic stop, officials said.

The suspect who fired also was shot when the officer returned gunfire, said Phoenix police Sgt. Mercedes Fortune.

The shooting took place about 8 p.m. at Cave Creek and Cactus roads, Fortune said.  Continue reading “Phoenix police officer in critical condition after being shot”