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”

Yahoo News

A Connecticut woman got an unexpected and terrifying knock on her door last week while she was making brownies, as a bear came by to see what she was doing.

“My neighbor across the street just came over in a panic,” one of the resident’s neighbors said to a 911 dispatcher. “She’s a little old lady screaming that a bear got in her back porch and is slamming on her glass door.”   Continue reading “Persistent Bear With Taste for Brownies Refuses to Leave Woman’s Home”

Yahoo News

Aaron Hernandez was granted an abatement on his 2015 conviction for the murder of Odin Lloyd, meaning the former New England Patriot is considered not guilty in the eyes of the court.

Bristol County (Mass.) Judge Susan Garsh, who presided over the original trial, ruled in favor of Hernandez’s estate, agreeing that an ancient Massachusetts law should be applied here. It states that if a defendant dies while a conviction is still in the process of appeal then the verdict is vacated. Hernandez, 27, committed suicide late last month while serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for the 2013 murder of Lloyd.   Continue reading “Aaron Hernandez’s murder conviction vacated”

Fox News

The Chicago Police Department warned its officers Monday about gangs armed with high-powered weapons, after three people were shot to death over the weekend and two cops were targeted in an ambush last week.

Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman, said three people who were killed in shootings Sunday were all members of the same street gang. Two of them died while attending a memorial for the earlier victim.   Continue reading “Chicago police warns officers about gangs armed with high-powered rifles”

Fox News

President Trump’s ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn took more hits at a Senate hearing Monday where former top Justice official Sally Yates testified she warned the Trump White House that Flynn could “essentially be blackmailed” by Moscow for having misled the VP about his Russia contacts.

At the same hearing, testimony from another Obama official also challenged persistent allegations from some of the Trump administration’s fiercest critics about ‘collusion’ with Russia during the 2016 campaign.   Continue reading “Yates says Flynn could have been ‘blackmailed,’ Clapper knocks collusion narrative”

ABC News – by Karma Allen

Multiple people were arrested on Sunday as hundreds of protesters clashed over the fate of Confederate monuments in New Orleans, police said.

Three protesters were arrested and charged with disturbing the peace on Sunday afternoon near Lee Circle in New Orleans after a fight broke out at a Confederate monuments demonstration, according to the New Orleans Police Department.  Continue reading “Protesters clash over fate of Confederate monuments in New Orleans”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

The system used by the Dept. of Education to collect on defaulted student loans came to a standstill in the last month, leaving an estimated 91,000 accounts in limbo, when the agency ordered debt collectors under contract to stop making collections on accounts.

As Consumerist’s Ashlee Kieler reports, consumers who expected their student loan payments to be deducted from their bank accounts this month have reportedly found the funds untouched, and their calls to the companies unanswered thanks to a Department of Education’s order prohibiting the debt collection companies from working on default accounts in response to two lawsuits against the agency.   Continue reading ““The Crisis Has Become Pandemic” – System To Collect Defaulted Student Loans Is No Longer Functioning”

Las Vegas Review-Journal – by Jenny Wilson

Federal prosecutors said this week they want to retry the first group of defendants in the Bunkerville standoff case before moving forward with the trial of rancher Cliven Bundy and others charged as leaders of the 2014 armed protests.

Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre disclosed the decision, which still needs a judge’s approval, in a Wednesday court filing.
Continue reading “Prosecutors ask to retry gunmen before Bundys go to trial”

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The Advocate

Two large groups have planned Sunday protests and counter-protests over the planned removal of three Confederate monuments in New Orleans.

Sunday’s rally was originally called by Take ‘Em Down NOLA, an organization that has called for the removal of all statues and street and institution names that the group says honor white supremacists. It promises a march and second-line at 1:30 p.m. from Congo Square, next to Municipal Auditorium, to Lee Circle to celebrate the removal of the first of four Jim Crow-era statues in the city last month.   Continue reading “Tensions high at opposing Confederate monument protests in New Orleans”

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The Economic Collapse – by Michael Snyder

One sector of the economy that is acting as if we were already in the middle of a horrible recession is the auto industry.  We just got sales figures for the month of April, and every single major U.S. auto manufacturer missed their sales projections.  And compared to one year ago, sales were way down across the entire industry.  When you add this latest news to all of the other signals that the U.S. economy is slowly down substantially, a very disturbing picture begins to emerge.  Either the U.S. economy is steamrolling toward a major slowdown, or this is one heck of a head fake.   Continue reading “U.S. Auto Sales Plunge Dramatically As The Consumer Debt Bubble Continues To Collapse”

Washington Post – by Samantha Schmidt

Neighbors noticed the warning signs — vehicles dropping off large groups of people, who would then nervously scurry into the San Diego home.

When police officers arrived to investigate the property in November, the home’s resident, Dania Olivero, told them she had invited friends over to drink beer. But when they stepped inside the home, officers noticed no one was drinking — the beer cans were unopened and appeared to have just been pulled from the refrigerator.   Continue reading “Woman caught harboring 44 undocumented immigrants, some in shed, is sentenced to prison”

College Fix – by Matthew Stein

But international students pay full price and must certify they have sufficient funds to cover tuition 

A program to be rolled out at Emory University this fall pledges to pay “100% of demonstrated financial need for undergraduate Undocumented Students (with or without DACA) who are admitted as first-year, first-degree-seeking students,” campus officials state online.

The program, called “Need-Based Financial Aid Program for Undocumented Students, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) Students,” is detailed on the private university’s website.   Continue reading “Emory University to pay ‘100 percent’ of the financial need of students in country illegally”

NBC News

A video from Venezuela that has gone viral shows a David and Goliath-like clash between protesters and the police in the Caracas neighborhood of Altamira.

A group of young people chase riot police with sticks and stones; authorities then fire on the crowd with tear gas as an armored vehicle pushes back protesters and rolls over people in the crowd. The tank is then engulfed in flames.  Continue reading “Venezuela: Video Shows Armored Vehicle Rolling Over Protesters”

CNN – by Barbara Starr

A US military member was killed and two others were wounded in Somalia Friday when they were attacked while on a mission advising Somali National Army forces, a US defense official confirmed to CNN.

The incident occurred 40 miles west of Mogadishu near the town of Barii. The wounded are receiving medical attention, the official said. The troops came under small arms fire.  Continue reading “US military member killed in action in Somalia”

USA Today – by Doug Stanglin

After floodwaters punched through levees in parts of Missouri and Arkansas, the National Weather Service warned Thursday of more high water in northwest Arkansas, where some 100 members of the National Guard are assisting in the flood-fighting effort.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said 25 guard vehicles are prepared for high-water rescues as needed in an area where at least nine levee breaches have been reported.   Continue reading “Floods threaten parts of Arkansas, Missouri as National Guard steps in”