Market Watch

HOUSTON (AP) — Three years into Donald Trump’s presidency, the U.S. government is ramping up its efforts to seize private land in Texas to build a border wall.

Trump’s signature campaign promise has consistently faced political, legal, and environmental obstacles in Texas, which has the largest section of the U.S.-Mexico border, most of it without fencing. And much of the land along the Rio Grande, the river that forms the border in Texas, is privately held and environmentally sensitive. Continue reading “Trump Justice Department sues to seize private property for border-wall construction”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

A few days ago, Morgan Stanley laid out why 2019 was an “unusual”, bizarre year for equity markets, which hit all time highs around the globe even as bullish strategies underperformed, crippling countless hedge funds who failed to get the mix of assets just right and suffered another round of gut-wrenching redemptions which culminated in the longest streak of hedge fund outflows since the financial crisis. Continue reading “Banks Celebrate Record High Stocks With Most Layoffs Since 2015”

Navy Times

Iran’s armed forces will hold a joint, four-day naval exercise with Russia and China in the northern part of the Indian Ocean, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The drill, which is to start on Saturday, will be the first such trilateral exercise as Tehran seeks to boost military cooperation with Beijing and Moscow amid unprecedented economic sanctions from Washington.

Continue reading “Iran to conduct naval drills with China and Russia”

ABC News

Heavy fog and an ice-slickened highway contributed to a massive pre-Christmas 69-vehicle pileup in eastern Virginia on Sunday that left more than 50 people injured, two in critical condition, authorities said.

The chain-reaction crash happened just before 8 a.m. in the westbound lanes of Interstate 64 near Williamsburg, Virginia, Virginia State Police Sgt. Michelle Anaya said during a news conference Sunday afternoon.  Continue reading “More than 50 people injured in 69-vehicle pileup on Virginia Interstate”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

Last week we reported that something strange was going on at the same time that central banks are injecting $100 billion each month in electronic money to crush volatility and ramp markets: a similar amount in physical currency and precious metals was literally disappearing.   Continue reading “Steven Mnuchin Explains Why $1.5 Trillion In $100 Bills Have Disappeared”

The Oregonian – by Maxine Bernstein

A federal judge on Friday revoked the grazing permit for Hammond Ranches Inc., finding that former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s order renewing it early this year was an “abuse of discretion.”

Dwight Hammond Jr. and his youngest son, Steven Hammond, can reapply for a new permit and go through the proper process to obtain one, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon said.  Continue reading “Judge revokes federal grazing permit for Hammond Ranches Inc.”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

At least 61 US special operations forces who were deployed to a former Soviet base just a few hundred miles from the Afghanistan border have either died or have cancer, according to a new report by McClatchy DC’s Tara Copp.

The deployment, which began shortly after the 9/11 attacks, were to a military site in Uzbekistan called Karshi-Khanabad, known as K2. It was leased by the United States from the Uzbek government weeks after the 2001 terrorist incident, as it was in close proximity to al Qaeda and Taliban targets.  Continue reading “At Least 61 US Veterans Who Guarded ‘Contaminated’ Ex-Russian Base Died Or Have Cancer”

S & P Global – by Brian Scheid

Washington — The US Securities and Exchange Commission agreed by a 3-2 vote to release a new proposal requiring multinational oil and gas companies to disclose payments made to foreign governments.

The rule, initially mandated by Section 1504 of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, has been twice adopted by the SEC, overturned by a federal court, and rolled back by Congress and President Donald Trump.  Continue reading “US SEC proposes new oil, natural gas disclosure rules with new exceptions”

Fox News

A 27-year-old Arkansas police officer who was “ambushed and executed” as he sat in his patrol car outside his headquarters earlier this month was shot 10 times in the head by a gunman who was interested in anti-law enforcement groups, investigators said.

The new details in connection to the “heinous” killing of Fayetteville Police Officer Stephen Carr were disclosed Friday as investigators released new surveillance footage that captured the gunman, identified as 35-year-old London Phillips, approaching the squad car and opening fire.  Continue reading “Arkansas police officer ‘executed’ in car was shot 10 times in the head, investigators say as video emerges”

Courthouse News – by Matthew Renda

The Trump administration announced Thursday that it will open 1.2 million acres in California to fracking, ending a five-year moratorium on the controversial method of oil and gas extraction in the Golden State.

The Bureau of Land Management said it found no undue environmental harm from hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking, and would entertain oil and gas leases in BLM-managed lands throughout the southern part of the state.  Continue reading “Feds to Open 1.2 Million Acres in California to Fracking Leases”

Houston Chronicle

Houston pipeline operator Enterprise Products Partners and Canadian pipeline operator Enbridge have signed an agreement to develop an offshore crude oil export terminal in the Gulf of Mexico about 30 miles south of Brazoria County.

The companies agreed to jointly develop Enterprise’s proposed Sea Port Oil Terminal, an offshore export terminal that will be able to accommodate supertankers known as Very Large Crude Carriers, or VLCCs, capable of hauling 2 million barrels of crude oil in a single shipment.  Continue reading “Enterprise, Enbridge join forces to develop offshore crude oil export terminal”

Daily Signal – by Kevin Mooney

No one told Jack LaPant that he could be in violation of the Clean Water Act for farming his own land.

That’s mostly because the federal law includes a clear exemption for “normal” farming activities. But it’s also because the government officials LaPant consulted didn’t view overturned dirt that has been tilled and plowed as pollution.  Continue reading “Feds Sue California Farmer For Growing Wheat”

CNBC

The jobs market turned in a stellar performance in November, with nonfarm payrolls surging by 266,000 and the unemployment rate falling to 3.5%, according to Labor Department numbers released Friday.

Those totals easily beat the Wall Street consensus. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for solid job growth of 187,000 and saw the unemployment rate holding steady from October’s 3.6%. The decline in November’s jobless rate came amid a corresponding 0.1 percentage point drop in the labor force participation rate, to 63.2%. Continue reading “Jobs growth soars in November as payrolls surge by 266,000”

WHIO TV 7

DAYTON — Police are looking for two males who dragged two Dayton police officers who tried to remove the suspects from a stolen vehicle just minutes after the same suspects tried to run over two other officers, Lt. Randy Beane said.

In the first incident, a vehicle jumped a curb and tried to run over two officers, he said. Beane did not say where that incident occurred.  Continue reading “Dayton Police: Suspects drag 2 officers after trying to run over 2 other officers”

Yahoo News

PORT NECHES, Texas (AP) — Three workers were injured early Wednesday in a massive explosion at a Texas chemical plant that also blew out the windows and doors of nearby homes.

The fire continued to burn Wednesday morning at the TPC Group plant, after the blast sent a large plume of smoke that stretched for miles. All employees have been accounted for, TPC said in confirming the three injuries. Continue reading “3 injured as Texas plant explosion releases chemical plume”

Carlsbad Currant-Argus – by Adrian Hedden

The federal Bureau of Land Management is accepting public input for two weeks on a sale of public-land leases to the oil and gas industry for fossil fuel development in southeast New Mexico.

The public scoping period was schedule to begin on Nov. 25, until Dec. 9, seeking comments on the environmental impacts of the nominated parcels and potential alternatives.  Continue reading “BLM: Oil and gas lease sale offers 112 land parcels in New Mexico, Texas”

Daily Mail

The drug lord who succeeded El Chapo has spent a decade infiltrating his drug operation in the US, a new investigation has found.

Officially Reuben ‘Nemesio’ Oseguera Cervantes, and better known as ‘El Mencho’, the ruthless leader of Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion has managed to bring his illegal narcotics into 35 states, according to the findings of the probe.  Continue reading “Mexican drug lord El Mencho’s empire has set up cells in small towns in 35 states”

Yahoo News

A Colorado school district dealing with an “unprecedented spread of illness” has closed the doors to every one of its more than 40 schools.

Mesa County Valley School District 51, the 14th-largest school district in Colorado, according to the district’s website, announced on Wednesday that all of its schools will be closed until after Thanksgiving break is over on Dec. 2.  Continue reading “Colorado’s Mesa County Valley School District 51 is closing all its schools amid ‘unprecedented’ illness outbreak”

Breitbart – by Neil Munro

The House judiciary committee will debate and vote Wednesday on a bill to award multiple amnesties to the agriculture industry’s large illegal-immigrant workforce.

The “Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2019” would also convert swathes of rural America into cheap-labor, low-tech company towns. The bill would allow employers to hire from the unlimited inflow of H-2A visa-workers whose low wages will be capped by government officials working hand-in-glove with cheap-labor employers — so leaving many Americans unemployed or underpaid in their own community.  Continue reading “Democrats Set Wednesday Vote for Amnesty and Company-Town Economy”

Fox News

A 20-year-old man in the country illegally who was street-racing when he crashed into a car in Oregon, killing a woman, was able to flee to Mexico after local authorities did not honor an immigration detainer, according to federal officials.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a news release on Tuesday that Alejandro Maldonado-Hernandez was arrested on July 12 in connection with the fatal car crash that killed Janice Ator and seriously injured her husband, Patrick Ator.  Continue reading “Illegal immigrant arrested in deadly Oregon crash fled to Mexico after jail didn’t honor ICE hold request”