Reuters

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Alaska is pursuing foreign investors for its oil and gas industry, hoping to advance recent discoveries while struggling to compete with lower-cost shale projects and reverse a decades-long output decline.

Sovereign wealth funds, banks and state-owned energy companies have met with Alaskan officials, John Hendrix, chief energy adviser to Alaska Governor Bill Walker said in an interview. China Investment Corp (CIC) and state-owned Chinese energy company Sinopec held talks with state officials last month, he said.   Continue reading “Cash-poor Alaska eyes foreign capital to jump-start energy projects”

New York Daily News – by Christopher Brennan

The Special Counsel’s probe into Russian election meddling now includes the Democratic-learning Podesta Group, according to a report.

Robert Mueller is looking into the group headed by Tony Podesta, the brother of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, over its dealings with a Ukrainian government-linked firm, NBC reported Monday.   Continue reading “Mueller probe now targeting Podesta Group”

Breitbart – by Bob Price

The government of Mexico stepped into the fight against the State of Texas’ new anti-sanctuary city law. Mexico filed an amicus brief in support of the several Texas cities and organizations bringing suit against the state seeking to overturn the SB4 legislation on constitutional grounds.

In a statement on Mexico’s official government website, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs misstates provisions of the Texas law signed by Governor Greg Abbott earlier this year. Secretary of Foreign Relations Luis Videgaray Caso wrote that the law “requires” police officers and other state officers to ask about the immigration status of anyone they stop. That statement is not correct.   Continue reading “Mexico Butts into Fight Against Texas’ Sanctuary City Ban”

Breitbart – by Dylan Gwinn

It’s not necessarily news, that no one watches the Cleveland Browns. After all, Cleveland has lost 22 of their last 23 games and seems determined to set new marks for organizational futility. So the fact that the Browns can’t draw flies, shouldn’t necessarily cause alarm bells to go off.

However, because emptying stadiums seems to be the one thing the Browns do well, let’s give them their due by showing the “crowd” that assembled in Cleveland for the Browns-Titans game this Sunday:   Continue reading “NFL Teams Play Before Empty Stadiums As Fan Backlash Spreads”

Anti-War – by Jason Ditz

A new report from the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction warns that the US efforts to bring Afghan troops to America for training have been greatly undermined by the “unacceptably high” number of Afghan troops who run away as soon as they arrive.

Some 13% of Afghan trainees go missing, with the majority of them junior officers. 152 Afghan trainees have gone AWOL in the course of this operation, and more than half, 83 of them, have never been found.   Continue reading “Many Afghan Troops Run Away While in US to Train”

Yahoo News

It’s hard to believe that four decades have passed since one of rock’s best-known tragedies occurred. On Oct. 20, 1977, a chartered Convair CV-240 plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd — in the midst of a headlining tour and having released their fifth album, Street Survivors, three days prior — crashed in a Gillsburg, Miss., swamp after running out of fuel.

The toll was dire. Three band members (Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines, Steve’s older sister) perished; the others were all severely injured. Drummer Artimus Pyle, one of the few survivors able to walk, staggered out for help and was allegedly shot at by an alarmed farmer. Record label MCA scrambled to replace Skynyrd’s Street Survivors album cover, which eerily forecast the accident by depicting the band members engulfed in flames.   Continue reading “The legacy of Lynyrd Skynyrd, 40 years after plane crash tragedy”

Human Domain Solutions

Human Domain Solutions (HDS), LLC is now hiring ​Casualty Role Players (CRP)​ to participate in an Oklahoma Vigilant Guard training event October 30, 2017 thru November 2, 2017 at Warr Acres Fire Training Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. ​This exercises will be an Oklahoma emergency response to a simulated incident involving contamination elements. CRPs will be moulaged (injury makeup and fake blood) to portray various physical and emotional injuries and conditions, and will go through medical triage, decontamination, and medical treatment several times during each day of the exercises. Arrival times will be early morning, and the exercises will run between 6-8 hours each day. CRPs will wear cut-away prop clothing and will be washed in decontamination lines to simulate the cleaning off of contamination substances.    Continue reading “Oklahoma – Vigilant Guard Disaster Response Training Exercise”

Houston Chronicle – by Jordan Blum

The Texas Gulf Coast is leading the way as the nation ships record levels of crude oil and petroleum products to foreign markets, including China, which is buying more American oil as its economy expands and middle class grows

The United States is routinely exporting more than 1 million barrels of oil and 6 million barrels of petroleum products a day, the U.S. Energy Department said in report released Wednesday. More than two-thirds of those petroleum exports are leaving Gulf Coast ports.  Continue reading “U.S. crude and petroleum exports, led by Texas, hit record levels”

NPR

When Hurricane Irma was bearing down on Florida last month, Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency. On Monday, he did the same thing in Alachua County, ahead of a speech by white nationalist Richard Spencer at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

“We live in a country where everyone has the right to voice their opinion, however, we have zero tolerance for violence and public safety is always our number one priority,” Scott said in a statement. “This executive order is an additional step to ensure that the University of Florida and the entire community is prepared so everyone can stay safe.”  Continue reading “Florida’s Governor Declares State Of Emergency Ahead Of Richard Spencer Speech”

Las Vegas Review-Journal

Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos had virtually disappeared before he surfaced on Wednesday’s episode of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

The 25-year-old, who was shot in the leg after encountering the Mandalay Bay gunman on Oct. 1, refused repeated requests to tell his story. His home was plastered with “NO TRESPASSING” and “NO MEDIA ON PROPERTY” signs. And on Oct. 12, hours before he was supposed to be interviewed on Fox News’ “The Sean Hannity Show” — followed by scheduled interviews with NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN — Campos simply walked away from a hotel suite.   Continue reading “‘Ellen’ producers mum on how they landed Jesus Campos interview”

USA Today

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As the clock ticked closer to white nationalist Richard Spencer’s speech at the University of Florida, the campus was on edge amid concerns over potential violence between supporters and counterprotesters.

Students and faculty expressed fear and worry about Spencer’s Thursday appearance and the increased security presence.

“The students are scared, especially our students who are from minority communities,” said Vincent Adejumo, a lecturer in African-American studies. “Many of them have already left town. Parents have great concern.   Continue reading “University of Florida braces for Richard Spencer speech”

Fox News – by Todd Starnes

Back in 1925, the American Legion erected a memorial in Bladensburg, Md., to honor the memory of 49 men who perished during World War I.

The 40-foot tall memorial became known as the “Peace Cross.”

In 2014, the American Humanist Association — a group that believes in “being good without a god” — filed a lawsuit alleging the cross-shaped memorial is unconstitutional and demanding it be demolished, altered, or removed.    Continue reading “Federal court rules World War I memorial cross must be torn down”

Clarion Ledger – by Bracey Harris

A predominately black public school in Mississippi named after Confederate President Jefferson Davis will be stripped of that moniker next year and replaced with that of another president whose character students, parents and teachers have said is more fitting — Barack Obama.

Davis Magnet IB PTA President Janelle Jefferson announced at the Jackson School Board meeting Tuesday evening that school stakeholders voted on Oct. 5 to rename the school Barack Obama Magnet IB.   Continue reading “JPS school honoring Jefferson Davis to be renamed after Barack Obama”

Fox News

A top Senate Republican is probing potential “conflicts of interest” for Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration regarding the 2010 approval of a controversial uranium deal with a Russian company, amid new details about donations from “interested parties” and an FBI corruption probe involving employees of the same Russian firm.

“This committee has an obligation to get to the bottom of this issue,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Wednesday, at the start of a hearing with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.   Continue reading “Grassley probes Clinton ‘conflicts of interest’ amid new questions in Russia uranium deal”

KCRA 3 News

FOLSOM, Calif. (KCRA) — A new California law will force the Folsom Cordova Unified School District to end its policy of allowing select employees to store and – if necessary – access guns on campus.

School officials sent out a statement Monday after Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 424 into law over the weekend. The bill, authored by Sacramento Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, expands the ban of firearms in a school zone to include school employees.   Continue reading “Folsom school staff can’t have guns on campus due to new California law”

Free Thought Project – by Rachel Blevins

While the mainstream media focuses on anything but the current state of U.S. intervention in the Middle East, the Trump Administration is breaking records by accumulating a horrific number of civilian deaths.

Former President Obama earned the nickname of “Drone King” when he dramatically escalated the use of drone strikes, while also downplaying the number of innocent civilians who became “collateral damage.” In the two years that his administration devoted to publicly spending millions of taxpayer dollars to fight the Islamic State group, the estimated civilian death toll ranged from 2,300 to 3,400, according to Airwars, an organization tracking deaths in the war against ISIS.   Continue reading “Trump Has Killed More Civilians with Illegal Drone Strikes in 9 Months Than Obama Did in 8 Years”

Yahoo News – by Roque Planas, Huffington Post

The Trump administration must turn over all emails and memos used to make its decision to phase out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the 2012 program created to protect undocumented youths from deportation, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

If the communications between the White House and the departments of Justice and Homeland Security are made public, it could offer a window into the political machinations behind the Trump administration’s abrupt call to torpedo DACA.  Continue reading “Judge Orders Trump Administration To Turn Over DACA Emails”

CBS News

The Justice Department (DOJ) will hire a director of asset forfeiture accountability to oversee the DOJ’s asset forfeiture program, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in a memo Tuesday.

But the new director — unlike, say, an inspector general who works to ferret out waste, fraud and abuse in a federal agency — won’t be independent of the DOJ. The director will work in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s office.    Continue reading “Sessions announces new position to police asset forfeiture”