Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled Congress on Thursday scrapped Obama-era rules on the environment and guns, counting on a new ally in the White House to help reverse years of what the GOP calls excessive regulation.

The Senate gave final approval to a measure eliminating a rule to prevent coal mining debris from being dumped into nearby streams, while the House backed a separate resolution doing away with extended background checks for gun purchases by some Social Security recipients with mental disabilities.   Continue reading “Congress scraps Obama rules on coal mining, guns”

ABC News

As Jewish settlers and protesters were removed from an illegal outpost in the occupied West Bank overnight, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to build the first new settlement in nearly two decades.

As the sun rose Thursday morning in Amona, the outpost’s synagogue contained activists chained to tires, making it difficult for police to extract them. All day Wednesday, the images of struggle — including burning tires and stone-throwing protesters — were broadcast on Israeli TV.   Continue reading “As Illegal Outpost Cleared, Israeli PM Netanyahu Announces New West Bank Settlement”

NBC News

A scheduled speech by controversial Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos at the University of California, Berkeley led to violent protests that caused the event to be called off, the university said.

The university said fires were set, including one caused by a firebomb that ignited a generator-powered spotlight, and commercial-grade fireworks were thrown at police. NBC Bay Area showed a group of people grab a metal barricade and smash it against a door.  Continue reading “Protests, Violence Prompt UC Berkeley to Cancel Milo Yiannopoulos Event”

NBC News – by Steve Benen

Towards the end of the White House press briefing yesterday, a reporter brought a question that may have seemed strange: “The president has previously indicated that he would encourage the targeting of families of terror suspects. Is that still his current position?”

Press Secretary Sean Spicer, responded, “When did he say that?”   Continue reading “A mission in Yemen in which ‘almost everything went wrong’”

Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. put Iran “on notice” Wednesday after the Iranian military tested a ballistic missile and allied rebels in Yemen attacked a Saudi naval vessel in the Red Sea, an early manifestation of President Donald Trump’s promise of a tougher American approach to the Islamic republic.

“Iran is now feeling emboldened,” Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser, told reporters.   Continue reading “US puts Iran ‘on notice’ after missile test, won’t elaborate”

Fox News

A group of inmates took guards hostage at a maximum-security prison in Smyrna, Delaware, Wednesday in a brazen attack that forced corrections officials to lock down all of Delaware’s state prisons.

“The inmates have taken over a building,” Rep. William Carson, a member of the Delaware House Corrections Committee, told the Wilmington News Journal.   Continue reading “Inmates take guards hostage at Delaware maximum-security prison”

Fox News

A Minnesota homeowner is facing manslaughter charges after he told police he shot at a group of men who had tried breaking into his home, and one of the suspects later died in the hospital.

David Allen Pettersen, 65, called police around 7 a.m. Saturday to report a possible burglary and shooting at his home in Fieldon Township, just south of Madelia. According to the charging documents, Pettersen told the dispatcher he fired his handgun at a gray car that was leaving his property after an attempted burglary.   Continue reading “Homeowner charged with manslaughter for shooting at home invasion suspects”

Bloomberg – by Ari Natter

Energy Transfer Partners LP may be close to getting the permit it needs to finish the Dakota Access oil pipeline, a project that became a flash point for environmentalists but a symbol of President Donald Trump’s pledge to jump start energy infrastructure.

Just a week after Trump signed a memo directing the Army to expedite the line’s approval, North Dakota Senator John Hoeven said Tuesday that the Army Corps of Engineers had been directed to move forward with the easement necessary to build the final leg of the $3.8 billion crude oil line under North Dakota’s Lake Oahe.   Continue reading “U.S. Army Corps to Approve Dakota Access Oil Line, Senator Says”

The Hill – by LYDIA WHEELER AND JORDAN FABIAN

President Trump on Tuesday selected Neil Gorsuch to succeed Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, setting up a nasty confirmation battle with Senate Democrats stung over the GOP blockade against former President Obama’s pick.

Trump named Gorsuch, a well-respected conservative who sits on the Colorado-based 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, after a drama-packed day that resembled the president’s former reality show “The Apprentice.”   Continue reading “Trump taps Neil Gorsuch for Supreme Court”

The Tennesseean – by Andrew Wolfson

Flying a large “Trump” flag, a mysterious convoy of military vehicles rolled down Interstate 65 through Louisville on Sunday morning. But nobody is claiming it.

A spokesman for Ft. Knox, Patrick Hodges, said it wasn’t theirs.

Same for the Kentucky National Guard, said Maj. Stephen Martin, director of public affairs.   Continue reading “‘Military’ convoy with Trump flag rolls through”

Washington Post – by Katie Zezima

The Boy Scouts of America announced Monday that it will allow transgender children to enroll in scouting programs.

Boy Scouts chief executive Michael Surbaugh said in a video message that the organization will now accept boys based on the gender a parent puts on a child’s scouting application, ending a policy of accepting boys based on the gender listed on a child’s birth certificate.  Continue reading “Boy Scouts of America will allow transgender children to join”

Fox News

Iran conducted its first ballistic missile test under Donald Trump’s presidency, in yet another apparent violation of a United Nations resolution, U.S. officials told Fox News on Monday.

The launch occurred Sunday at a well-known test site outside Semnan, about 140 miles east of Tehran, Fox News was first to learn.   Continue reading “Iran tests ballistic missile in defiance of UN resolution, US officials say”

KTLA 5 – CNN

The acting Attorney General Sally Yates has told Justice Department lawyers not to make legal arguments defending President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration and refugees, according to sources familiar with the order.

Yates, an Obama appointee who is serving until Trump attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions is confirmed, does not believe the substance of the order is lawful, according to the sources.   Continue reading “Acting Attorney General, an Obama Appointee, Tells DOJ Lawyers Not to Defend Trump’s Immigration Order”

Bibliotecapleyades

The following is a letter that speculation claimed that Albert Pike wrote to Giuseppe Mazzini in 1871 regarding a conspiracy involving three world wars that were planned in an attempt to take over the world.

The Pike letter to Giuseppe Mazzini was on display in the British Museum Library in London until 1977.   Continue reading “Albert Pike Letter to Mazzini – The Illuminati Plan for World War 3”

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The Columbus Dispatch – by Alan Johnson, Jill Riepenhoff

President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. treasury secretary was untruthful with the Senate during the confirmation process, documents uncovered by The Dispatch show.

Steve Mnuchin, former chairman and chief executive officer of OneWest Bank, known for its aggressive foreclosure practices, flatly denied in testimony before the Senate Finance Committee that OneWest used “robo-signing” on mortgage documents.   Continue reading “Trump treasury pick Mnuchin misled Senate on foreclosures, Ohio cases show”

International Business Times – by Tom O’Conner

Tokyo’s utility company discovered Monday what it suspects could be nuclear fuel debris inside of a reactor at its destroyed Fukushima plant in Japan.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has led efforts to clean up the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant after three of its reactors melted down in 2011 following a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake and tsunami that killed over 15,000 people and caused the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Ukraine’s Chernobyl explosion in 1986. The company discovered black lumps resembling a substance that had melted and stuck to the steel of the No. 2 reactor.   Continue reading “Fukushima Cleanup Uncovers Possible Melted Radioactive Fuel At Nuclear Plant Reactor”

Heat Street – by Ian Miles Cheong

A teacher who displayed the Confederate flag to middle schoolers in his history class was forced to retire amid concerns that he was displaying a symbol of hate.

70-year-old Sutter Middle School (Folsom, CA) teacher Woody Hart hanged both a Confederate flag and a Union flag during his lesson on the Civil War.   Continue reading “Teacher, 70, Forced to Retire After Displaying Confederate Flag During Civil War Lesson”

Yahoo News – by James Nord

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota legislators are set to dismantle new ethics regulations that voters imposed on them less than three months ago, a brazen test of whether elected officials or their constituents should have the final say.

The ethics crackdown is one of several November ballot measures that are now facing scrutiny in statehouses across the nation. But the South Dakota law appears to be under the most imminent danger of repeal and directly affects the very lawmakers who are weighing its fate.   Continue reading “South Dakota lawmakers could scrap voter-backed ethics rules”

Yahoo News – by Julia La Roche

Starbucks (SBUX) CEO Howard Schultz sent out a company-wide letter following President Donald Trump’s decision to sign an executive order that bans citizens of seven majority Muslim countries from entering the United States.

The executive order, signed on Friday, temporarily halts citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the US.   Continue reading “STARBUCKS CEO: We’re going to hire 10,000 refugees”

Reuters – by Ethan Lou

U.S. President Donald Trump’s move this week to revive the Keystone XL oil pipeline marked a major step under his “America First” energy plan to boost U.S. drillers and create new U.S. jobs. But the project’s biggest winners may be Canadian.

If built, TransCanada’s Keystone XL from Alberta to Nebraska would yield about $2.4 billion (C$3.2 billion) a year for Canada, split between government revenues, shareholder profits and re-investment into the still-recovering Canadian oil patch, according to a Conference Board of Canada research note prepared for Reuters on Thursday.   Continue reading “Keystone XL pipeline: A ‘Canada First’ energy plan?”