Yahoo News

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — In a sharp reversal, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has cleared a way for a company to seek permits to develop a massive copper and gold deposit near the headwaters of a world-class salmon fishery in southwest Alaska.

As part of a court settlement with the Pebble Limited Partnership, the EPA agreed to begin the process of withdrawing proposed restrictions on development in the Bristol Bay region, an area that produces about half of the world’s sockeye salmon.   Continue reading “EPA allows mine company to pursue permits near Alaska bay”

The Hill – by Vicki Needham

The White House said Thursday that it has struck agreements with China on several persistent trade irritants that will help reduce the massive trade deficit with Beijing.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced deals that will send U.S. beef exports to China, allow Chinese imports of cooked poultry, expand U.S. electronic payment services and provide for faster regulatory approval of biotechnology products by Beijing.   Continue reading “US, China reach access deals for beef, poultry”

White House

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to protect American innovation and values, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1.  Cybersecurity of Federal Networks.    Continue reading “Presidential Executive Order on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure”

ABC News

Immigration and Customs Enforcement‘s investigative division arrested 1,378 people after a six-week long, national gang operation that concluded this week.

Of those apprehended, 1,098 were arrested on federal or state criminal charges, and the remaining 280 were arrested on non-criminal immigration violations. There were 933 U.S. citizens and 445 foreign nationals arrested, according to ICE.   Continue reading “ICE arrests more than 1,000 people in targeted gang operation”

Politico – by Josh Gerstein

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reversing one of the central elements of the Obama administration’s criminal justice reform agenda: a Justice Department policy that led to prosecutors in drug cases often filing charges in a way that avoided triggering mandatory minimum sentences in federal law.

Sessions is withdrawing a 2013 directive from Attorney General Eric Holder that instructed federal prosecutors not to specify the amount of drugs involved when charging low-level and non-violent drug offenders. That policy effectively gave judges discretion to set sentences lower than the mandatory punishments ranging from five years to life in prison federal law dictates when someone is convicted of a crime involving a certain quantity of illegal drugs.   Continue reading “Sessions moves to lengthen drug sentences”

Newsweek – by Damien Sharkov

Russia’s air force scrambled to intercept a U.S. aircraft above the Black Sea, sending a fighter jet that came within 20 feet of its American counterpart.

Moscow claimed that the U.S. jet was “approaching the state border of the Russian Federation” when forces in southern Russia deployed an Su-30 fighter jet to follow it.  Continue reading “Russian jet intercepts U.S. aircraft above Black Sea, comes within 20 feet”

Yahoo News

While Republicans rewrite the Affordable Care Act in Washington, the future of the current law has grown hazier with the nation’s third-largest health insurer completely divorcing itself from state-based insurance markets.

Aetna said late Wednesday that it won’t sell individual coverage next year in its two remaining states — Nebraska and Delaware — after projecting a $200 million loss this year. It had already dropped Iowa and Virginia for next year. The insurer once sold the coverage in 15 states, but slashed that to four after losing about $450 million in 2016.  Continue reading “Aetna drops last 2 state markets under Affordable Care Act”

Sent to us by a reader.

Off the Grid News – by Sean Shado

When Google Earth first debuted in 2005, privacy advocates reacted by overwhelmingly rejecting the new satellite imagery platform. Google Earth provides the public with the ability to access satellite pictures of any coordinates just by simply dragging the mouse. This gross invasion of privacy can involuntarily give the world a glimpse at your home, your belongings and your surroundings. Google Street View pushed the boundaries of personal privacy even further by providing a street-side picture of your home or business for the world to see.   Continue reading “Google’s Newest High-Res Satellites Can Monitor Your Every Move … In Real Time”

Fox News

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at strengthening the federal government’s cyber security and protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure from cyber attacks, a senior administration official told reporters on a call.

A copy of the signed order was not immediately available.   Continue reading “Trump Signs Cyber Security Executive Order”

Fuel Fix – by James Osborne

The Trump administration has withdrawn a controversial proposal that would have forced offshore oil and gas companies to give more work to American ships and crews when drilling in U.S. waters.

Announced in the final days of the Obama administration, the proposal would have done away with decades of exemptions by U.S. Customs and Border Protection that allowed international maritime crews to perform works historically reserved for Americans under a U.S. law titled the Jones Act.   Continue reading “Trump administration withdraws Jones Act review”

CNN

As police stood between two opposing crowds, a crew lifted a statute of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis from its pedestal before dawn Thursday in New Orleans — the latest in a contentious plan to dismantle four Confederate monuments in the city.

It’s the second Confederate monument to come down after the New Orleans city council voted to remove the four landmarks back in 2015. After years of heated public debate and legal battles, recent court decisions paved the way for the city to relocate the four monuments.

Continue reading “New Orleans begins removing second Confederate monument”

Sent to us by Bruce Leichty.

Family members of Ellen Mariani have disclosed that the outspoken “9/11 widow” and truth activist died in late 2015, says her former attorney Bruce Leichty. Mariani’s daughter Lauren stated that her mother died of natural causes.

Leichty reports that the news came as a shock to him. After his professional engagement for Mrs. Mariani ended in 2013, he and his former client had remained on friendly terms, and “after frequent communications over a long period of time I was essentially giving her the space I thought she deserved and wanted after some 12 years of litigation,” he said from his California office. The website established by the Ellen Mariani Legal Defense Fund, still in existence at www.marianilawsuit.com, did not report on the death because website founder and manager Vincent Gillespie did not receive a report of the death until Leichty learned of it, says Gillespie.   Continue reading “Ellen Mariani, 9/11 Truth Activist, Has Died”

Fox News

An illegal immigrant – who had been deported 15 times – is accused of seriously injuring a 6-year-old boy in a Saturday night drunken driving hit-and-run crash, authorities said.

Constantino Banda-Acosta, a 38-year-old Mexican citizen, was kicked out of the U.S. 15 times in the past 15 years, with his most previous deportation coming Jan. 18, federal officials told The San Diego Union-Tribune.   Continue reading “Illegal immigrant deported 15 times arrested in hit-run crash that hurt 6-year-old boy”

Joe from the Carolinas and his band, Filthy Weasels, want to include The Trenches on distribution for their new single, Technology, before they start putting the whole 5-song EP up on itunes or do anything with youtube.

Filthy Weasels – Technology

Check out their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Filthy-Weasels-970590293011527/

Sent to us by People for Life and Freedom.

The Washington Standard – by Tim Brown

I have always questioned the need for prisons.  They are an unjust means of justice.  Even more so, those that are for profit utilize the system to make money and push for quotas to be fulfilled by the states.  Here is just one recent example of such abuses of prisoners.  Ammon Bundy, who became a national household name during the Bundy Ranch siege in 2014 and the protests at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016, was tortured and abused by a guard at CCA in Pahrump Nevada last week.  Subsequently, when word got out, the guard was sent home.   Continue reading “Torture And Abuse Of Ammon Bundy At For Profit Prison Not Going Unnoticed”

UPI – by Daniel J. Graeber

May 8 (UPI) — Asian investments in U.S. shale basins are expected to gain traction in a capital strategy to offset domestic declines at home, analysis finds.

A report published Monday from analysis group Wood Mackenzie finds Asian companies geared toward exploration and production, known as the upstream sector of the energy business, are migrating toward North America.   Continue reading “Asian investments may target U.S. shale”

New York Times – by Eric Lipton and Jesse Drucker

WASHINGTON — It was the first major piece of legislation that President Trump signed into law, and buried on Page 734 was one sentence that brought a potential benefit to the president’s extended family: renewal of a program offering permanent residence in the United States to affluent foreigners investing money in real estate projects here.

Just hours after the appropriations measure was signed on Friday, the company run until January by Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and top adviser, Jared Kushner, was urging wealthy Chinese in Beijing to consider investing $500,000 each in a pair of Jersey City luxury apartment towers the family-owned Kushner Companies plans to build. Mr. Kushner was even cited at a marketing presentation by his sister Nicole Meyer, who was on her way to China even before the bill was signed. The project “means a lot to me and my entire family,” she told the prospective investors.

Continue reading “Kushner Family Stands to Gain From Visa Rules in Trump’s First Major Law”

Bloomberg – by Selcan Hacaoglu

Turkey objected strongly to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to arm Kurdish forces in Syria, calling the plan unacceptable and amounting to support for terrorists.

“This issue is a matter of existence or nonexistence for Turkey,” Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli told AHaber television on Wednesday. “It is a matter of survival for Turkey. Everyone should see it this way. We can never accept or allow the existence of terrorist organizations that pose a threat to Turkey’s future.”   Continue reading “Turkey Says U.S. Plan to Arm Kurds in Syria Supports Terrorism”