Article imageNation of Change

In a blatant conflict of interest, defense contractors and foreign governments are hiring pundits and think tanks to advocate for their agendas without media outlets disclosing their fiscal ties. Following a strategy developed by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, think tanks funded by military contractors and foreign governments use commentators to influence policy or to generate exorbitant profits. Failure to disclose these financial connections reveals a glaring lack of journalistic integrity on the part of major media corporations.   Continue reading “Defense Contractors and Foreign Governments Funding Pundits and Think Tanks”

Yahoo News

Monrovia (AFP) – A second deployment of United States troops arrived in Liberia on Sunday as part of an eventual mission of 3,000 soldiers helping its beleaguered health services battle the Ebola outbreak.

The contingent will be focused on training local health workers and setting up facilities to help Liberia and its neighbours halt the spread of the epidemic, which has left more than 2,600 dead across west Africa.   Continue reading “More US troops in Ebola-hit Liberia: airport source”

Jon Daniel ACLU The Guardian – by Ed Pilkington

The police hadn’t even come for him. When four fully-armed officers of a Swat team burst into Jacob Elliott’s house in Peoria, Illinois in April they were looking for the source of a parody Twitter feed that had upset the town’s mayor by poking fun at him.

It transpired that one of Elliott’s housemates, Jon Daniel, had created the fake Twitter account, @peoriamayor, and so incensed the real-life official, Jim Ardis, with his make-believe account of drug binges and sex orgiesthat the police were dispatched. Elliott was just a bystander in the affair, but that didn’t stop the Swat team searching his bedroom, looking under his pillow and in a closet where they discovered a bag of marijuana and dope-smoking paraphernalia.   Continue reading “Illinois judge rules police entitled to Swat raid over parody Twitter account”

Fox News

State police lifted a shelter in place order for residents in an area of northeastern Pennsylvania late Saturday where authorities are searching for the man suspected in the fatal shooting of a Pennsylvania State Police trooper.

State police spokeswoman Maria Finn said in an emailed statement late Saturday that residents should use extreme caution as they move back into their homes in Barrett and Price Townships. She said police strongly recommend that residents stay inside and not enter the dense woods were officers are searching for Eric Frein.   Continue reading “Residents return home as cops hunt suspect in Pennsylvania trooper ambush”

Shut Down All Ports Border Protest CancelledTheBlaze – by Zach Nobel

UPDATE (9:30 a.m. EDT): One of the “Shut Down All Ports of Entry” organizers has shed more light on why the protest was called off hours before it was supposed to begin: cartel threats.

“It was [a] cartel threatening a blood bath, [Facebook] hits coming [en] masse from Mexico,” Stasyi Barth told TheBlaze Saturday. “One of the organizers was being followed and was verbally told not to go.”

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The plan had been to take a stand for American sovereignty, with ordinary citizens taking action to block the ports of entry along the U.S. border.    Continue reading “‘Cartel Threatening a Blood Bath’: Huge Border Protest Was Just Cancelled for a Disturbing Reason”

ketamineSent to us by a reader.

Business Insider – by Ewan Palmer

Ketamine, the horse tranquilizer which is also a popular party drug, could be used to treat people who have been suffering from long term depression, according a study.

Researchers at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Oxford said they noticed a “remarkable” change in people suffering treatment-resistant depression once they were given the drug, which has recently been upgraded to Class B.   Continue reading “Ketamine, LSD, Magic Mushrooms and Ecstasy: The Illegal Drugs Which Can be Good for You”

Yahoo News

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Two F-22 fighter jets intercepted six Russian military airplanes that neared the western coast of Alaska, military officials said Friday.

Lt. Col. Michael Jazdyk, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said the U.S. jets intercepted the planes about 55 nautical miles from the Alaskan coast at about 7 p.m. Pacific time Wednesday.   Continue reading “U.S., Canadian jets intercept 8 Russian aircraft”

All Gov – by Danny Biederman, Noel Brinkerhoff

The militarization of American police forces hasn’t been paid for by just the federal government. Pro-Israel groups in the U.S. have also played a role by financing trips for hundreds of law enforcement officers to travel to the Middle East for counterterrorism training, according to Ali Winston, a contributor to the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR).

Monies provided by such groups as the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee’sProject Interchange and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs have made it possible for “at least 300 high-ranking sheriffs and police from agencies large and small – from New York and Maine to Orange County and Oakland, California” to attend privately funded seminars in Israel since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Winston discovered.   Continue reading “Jewish Groups Pay to Send U.S. Police to Train in Israel”

Thanks to VRF.

Yahoo News – by MICHAEL RUBINKAM and KATHY MATHESON

BLOOMING GROVE, Pa. (AP) — With tens of thousands of acres of undisturbed northeastern Pennsylvania forest offering ample opportunity to hide, the self-taught survivalist accused in last week’s deadly ambush at a state police barracks has so far avoided capture.   Continue reading “Search for ambush suspect centers on dense woods”

Eric King's mug shot supplied by KCPDFox 4 KC

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City man has been charged with throwing two Molotov cocktails at a U.S. congressman’s office on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The U.S. attorney’s office says 28-year-old Eric King was charged Wednesday in last week’s attempted firebombing at U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver’s office in Kansas City.   Continue reading “Man federally charged for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at Rep. Cleaver’s office”

ABC News – by Rheana Murray

The FBI added suspected cop shooter Eric Frein to its 10 Most Wanted fugitive list today and announced a reward of $100,000 for information leading to his capture. That is in addition to an existing $75,000 reward from Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers.

The FBI’s action came on the day that Pennsylvania State Trooper, Cpl. Bryon Dickson, was buried in an emotional ceremony.

The search for Frein, 31, entered its sixth day after two Pennsylvania state troopers were ambushed late Friday at the barracks in Blooming Grove Township. Schools in the area are closed for the second day as the dragnet continues for Frein, a survivalist and gun expert who often worked on films about war and the military.   Continue reading “Suspected Cop Shooter Eric Frein on FBI’s Most Wanted List With $100,000 Reward”

KVOA 4 News

PHOENIX (AP) – The busiest terminal at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was on lockdown for more than three hours Thursday as police searched for a suspect in a shooting in nearby Tempe before making the arrest.

Flights out of Terminal 4 were grounded for a brief time as hundreds of law-enforcement officers, some armed with assault rifles, looked for a man believed to be hiding in the parking garage.   Continue reading “Police search causes lockdown at Phoenix airport”

Featured photo - Irate NSA Staffer Doesn’t Like Being Filmed in Public, for Some ReasonThe Intercept – by John Cook

The NSA sent someone bearing the nametag “Neal Z.” to the University of New Mexico’s Engineering and Science Career Fair today, in the hopes of recruiting young computer geniuses to help manage the yottabytes of datait is collecting about you. But instead of eager young applicants, Mr. Z. encountered University of New Mexico alumnus Andy Beale and student Sean Potter, who took the rare opportunity of being in the room with a genuine NSA agent to ask him about his employer’s illegal collection of metadata on all Americans. Mr. Z. did not like that one bit.
Continue reading “Irate NSA Staffer Doesn’t Like Being Filmed in Public, for Some Reason”

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Thursday.Boston Globe – by Michael Birnbaum

KIEV, Ukraine — President Petro Poroshenko will arrive in Washington on Thursday with a simple request: more economic and military aid for a nation that is reeling from an insurgency in the east.

But amid concerns about Ukraine’s commitment to anticorruption efforts and Western caution about escalating a military conflict with Russia, it remained far from clear that Ukraine’s president would leave Washington with a substantial new pledge of support. The candy-magnate-turned-politician plans to talk with President Obama at the White House and will address a joint meeting of Congress.   Continue reading “Ukraine president to make case for aid in US”

A man types on a computer keyboard in Warsaw in this February 28, 2013 illustration file picture. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/FilesReuters – by Ros Krasny

Hackers associated with the Chinese government have repeatedly infiltrated the computer systems of U.S. airlines, technology companies and other contractors involved in the movement of U.S. troops and military equipment, a U.S. Senate panel has found.

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s year-long probe, concluded in March but made public on Wednesday, found the military’s U.S. Transportation Command, or Transcom, was aware of only two out of at least 20 such cyber intrusions within a single year.   Continue reading “Chinese hacked U.S. military contractors: Senate panel”

CNS News – Ali Meyer

Although the overall Consumer Price Index dropped by 0.2 percent in August, the price index for food rose 0.2 percent, with the average price for a pound of ground beef rising to $4.013 per pound–the first time it has ever topped $4 per pound.

In July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average price for a pound of ground beef had been $3.884 per pound—which was the record price up to that point.  From July to August, the average price jumped 12.9 cents, an increase of 3.3 percent in one month.   Continue reading “New Record: Pound of Ground Beef Tops $4 for First Time”

R. Gil KerlikowskeABC News – by Elliot Spagat, AP

The U.S. Border Patrol purchased body cameras and will begin testing them this year at its training academy, two people briefed on the move said Wednesday, as new leadership moves to blunt criticism about agents’ use of force.

R. Gil Kerlikowske, who has led the Border Patrol’s parent agency since March, announced the plans Tuesday to a small group of activists who have pressed for cameras, according to a person who attended the briefing and spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussion was intended to be private. Testing will occur at the Border Patrol academy in Artesia, New Mexico.   Continue reading “APNewsBreak: Border Patrol to Test Body Cameras”