Free Thought Project – by Jay Syrmopoulos

Nestlé has been taking more than 60 million gallons of water per year from the San Bernardino National Forest, according to California regulators, which amounts to billions of gallons of water stolen over the past 68 years — without any valid basis of right to the water.

A two-year investigation by the California State Water Resources Control Board revealed that Nestlé, which sells water under the Arrowhead brand, lacked the proper permits for the vast majority of the water taken.   Continue reading “Nestlé Caught Stealing Billions of Gallons of Water from California—No One Arrested”

Yahoo News

Five deputies were shot, one fatally, after responding to a domestic disturbance call at an apartment complex south of Denver on Sunday morning, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said.

Two civilians were also shot, but their condition is unknown. Authorities have not yet disclosed the condition of the other injured officers who were dispatched to the Copper Canyon Apartments, which is located in Highlands Ranch.   Continue reading “Sheriff’s Deputy Killed, 6 Other People Hurt In Colorado Shooting”

ABC 7

LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) — A man and a suspect died in a shooting that erupted inside a law office in Long Beach Friday, authorities said.

The shooting was reported around 2:25 p.m. in the 300 block of East San Antonio Drive.

When authorities arrived, multiple people were found suffering from gunshot wounds. Police said a victim and the shooting suspect were dead at the scene. It appeared the suspect may have taken his own life, according to police.  Continue reading “2 dead, including suspect, in shooting at Long Beach law office; 1 injured”

Yahoo News

A 25-year-old man has been arrested over an alleged prank call that led to police killing a man in Kansas on Thursday, Los Angeles police said.

Tyler Barriss from South Los Angeles was arrested Friday, according to ABC station KABC in Los Angeles.

The incident took place late Thursday when police were called about a supposed domestic incident at a Kansas man’s home, where he had shot his father and was holding his other family members at gunpoint, police said in a press conference Friday. When police arrived, the man who opened the door was told to raise his hands — a command he obeyed until he moved his hands down to his waist, police said.   Continue reading “LA man arrested over ‘swatting’ incident that led to police killing Kansas man”

ABC News

A gunman on a motorcycle opened fire Friday outside a church in a Cairo suburb and at a nearby store, sparking a shootout that killed at least nine people, including eight Coptic Christians, Egyptian authorities said. It was the latest attack targeting the country’s embattled Christian minority.

The gunman was also killed, along with at least one police officer, officials said.  Continue reading “Egypt says 10 killed in attack outside Cairo church”

The Hill

The Trump administration will take its final step to repeal the Obama administration’s 2015 rule setting standards for hydraulic fracturing on federal land.

A formal notice from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) making the repeal final was posted publicly Thursday and is due to be published in the Federal Register Friday.   Continue reading “Trump to repeal Obama fracking rule”

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investigators in New York City searched early on Friday for the cause of a blaze that ripped through an apartment building in the Bronx and killed 12 people including four children, in the city’s deadliest fire in at least a quarter of a century.

The fire broke out a little before 7 p.m. (0000 GMT) on the first floor of a brick building and quickly spread upstairs, city Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro told a news conference with Mayor Bill de Blasio. The cause was under investigation.   Continue reading “Fire in New York City apartment block kills 12 including four children”

The Oregonian – by Gordon R Freidman

The Oregon Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a decision by Oregon’s labor commissioner that forced two Gresham bakers to pay $135,000 to a lesbian couple for whom the bakers refused to make a wedding cake.

Melissa and Aaron Klein made national headlines in 2013 when they refused to bake a cake for Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer, citing their Christian beliefs. The Bowman-Cryers complained to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, saying they had been refused service because of their sexual orientation.   Continue reading “Appeals court upholds fine against Christian bakers who refused to make same-sex wedding cake”

The Guardian

Donald Trump on Thursday said he was “very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea” and said such moves would prevent “a friendly solution” to the crisis over Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

Earlier, China said there had been no sanction-breaking oil transfers between Chinese ships and North Korean vessels, of the kind described by a South Korea newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, which said spy satellites had detected 30 instances of such transfers since October.   Continue reading “Trump ‘very disappointed’ in China over alleged oil supplies to North Korea”

The Oregonian – by Maxine Bernstein

In a July 5 email, Ryan Payne’s lawyers asked prosecutors for copies of all threat assessments prepared before the April 2014 standoff between Cliven Bundy’s supporters and federal officers trying to impound Bundy’s cattle for years of failing to pay grazing fees and fines.

Prosecutors characterized the defendants’ continued push for the assessments as another in their “long list of frivolous and vexatious pleadings.”   Continue reading “Unsealed motions in NV Bundy case detail prosecution’s violations”

Fox News

A U.S. Border Patrol agent was wounded after being struck by a bullet fired from Mexico, authorities said Wednesday.

The agent, whose name was not released, was shot from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande River near Brownsville where he was assigned to patrol it by boat, according to the Brownsville Herald.   Continue reading “Border Patrol agent wounded from bullet shot from Mexican side, agency says”

The New American – by Dave Bohon

Continuing his efforts to make California a “sanctuary state” for illegal immigrants, California Governor Jerry Brown pardoned two convicted felons December 23 who were slated to be deported back to their native Cambodia. Brown’s actions bring to 150 the number of immigrant criminals he has either pardoned or whose sentences he has commuted to prevent their ejection from the United States in sweeps by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The two men, 39-year-old Mony Neth and Rottanak Kong, 42, came to the United States as children when their parents fled the communist Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Kong was convicted of felony joyriding in 2003 and Neth was convicted in 1995 on a felony weapons charge with a gang enhancement.   Continue reading “California Governor Pardons Felons Set for Deportation”

Bloomberg – by Tom Metcalf and Jack Witzig

The richest people on earth became $1 trillion richer in 2017, more than four times last year’s gain, as stock markets shrugged off economic, social and political divisions to reach record highs.

The 23 percent increase on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s 500 richest people, compares with an almost 20 percent increase for both the MSCI World Index and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.   Continue reading “World’s Wealthiest Became $1 Trillion Richer in 2017”

Bloomberg

China’s imports of liquefied natural gas from the U.S. jumped last month as the country snatched up a record volume of the fuel to meet surging demand for heating and industrial use.

Shipments from the U.S. totaled 407,325 metric tons in November, up from nothing the same month a year earlier and 57 percent from October, placing one of the world’s newest LNG sellers as the third-biggest supplier to China, behind stalwarts Australia and Qatar.  Continue reading “U.S. Gas Sales to China Boom as Buyers Seek to Avoid Pinch”

Yahoo News

NEW YORK (AP) — Three large U.S. cities filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Department of Defense, arguing that many service members who are disqualified from gun ownership weren’t reported to the national background check system.

New York City, San Francisco and Philadelphia said in court papers that the military’s broken system for relaying such information helped spur the massacre of 26 people inside a Texas church last month.   Continue reading “Cities sue Defense Dept. over gun-check system failures”

Fox News

A Pennsylvania family was ordered by their homeowner’s association to take down their Jesus Christmas display after one of the neighbors reported it as offensive.

Mark and Lynn Wivell of Adams County, a Gettysburg subdivision, said they put up their Jesus display last Saturday, FOX43 reported.

“As part of our Christmas decoration, we would display the name Jesus to point out to everyone that we in this family believe that the reason for the season is to celebrate the birth of Jesus,” said Mark Wivell told FOX43.   Continue reading “Pennsylvania family ordered to take down Jesus Christmas display after neighbor said it was ‘offensive’”

Yahoo News

Bitcoin has been on a tear this past year with the value of the cryptocurrency jumping from $8,000 to nearly $20,000. Well that run hit an abrupt end today as the price crashed as much as 23 percent on Coinbase. The price briefly dipped below $12,000 on some exchanges at around 7:30 am London time.

The drop — which wiped more than $4,000 from the value of bitcoin at one point — was the highest percentage loss of value that bitcoin has seen this year. The cryptocurrency was valued at just $998 on January 1 2017 and it soared to a record high of nearly $20,000 on some exchanges earlier this week.   Continue reading “Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today”

The Hill

President Trump on Friday signed the sweeping Republican tax bill into law, enacting his first major legislative accomplishment since winning the White House.

Trump spoke at length during the signing, thanking Republicans in Congress for getting the legislation to his desk and predicting it would help the economy.

“It’s going to be a tremendous thing for the American people. It’s going to be fantastic for the economy,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It’s going to keep companies from leaving our shores and opening up in other countries.”   Continue reading “Trump signs tax bill into law”