ABC News

The United States will send some 300 Marines to Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province to train, advise and assist Afghan security forces, who have been struggling to drive Taliban insurgents out of the opium-rich region.

U.S. Navy Capt. Bill Salvin, a spokesman for the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, said the Marines will begin deploying this year and will remain in the province for nine months, where they will work with the Afghan army and militarized national police.   Continue reading “US to Send 300 Marines to Afghanistan’s Helmand Province”

Yahoo News

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican prosecutors said Saturday they are searching for a gunman who opened fire on an official of the U.S. consulate in the western city of Guadalajara.

The Attorney General’s Office said Saturday the official was wounded in the attack Friday in Guadalajara. The city is the capital of Jalisco state, which is dominated by the hyper-violent Jalisco New Generation cartel. There was no immediate evidence of any cartel link to the attack.   Continue reading “Gunman shoots, wounds US consular official in Mexico”

CNBC

A shooter opened fire at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport earlier on Friday, killing five people and wounding multiple others, law enforcement officials said.

The shooter was in custody, the Broward County sheriff’s office said, but the situation remained active. All flights were grounded and additional areas of the airport were being evacuated. The motive for the attack, which started shortly before 1 p.m. was not known, according to law enforcement officials.   Continue reading “Gunman kills 5 at Fort Lauderdale Airport shooting, situation remains active”

By Dan Sullivan

There’s been a sort of weird relaxation in the prepping community after Donald Trump won the elections. People think that just because the Republican nominee will become President, everything’s going to be ok and they don’t need to prep anymore.

Wrong.

In what follows, I’m going to give you a few very good reasons to continue to prepare, and start right away if you haven’t done so. Prepping is a lifelong journey and you should never stop doing it, regardless of who’s in the Oval Office.   Continue reading “No, Prepping is Not Dead Just because Trump Won”

Sent to us by Tax Revolution Institute

Tax Revolution Institute – by Chloe Anagnos

Americans are being taxed in ways that many don’t even notice. Commonly referred to as “hidden taxes,” these tolls are built into the cost of certain products. Often, these taxes don’t even appear on a bill or receipt. Here are some of the five most common hidden taxes:   Continue reading “5 Hidden Taxes You Didn’t Know You’re Paying”

Yahoo News

Search efforts today resumed by water, air and shoreline for a plane that disappeared four days ago near Cleveland carrying three adults, including a CEO, and three children, officials said.

A bag from the plane was recovered Sunday near the Shoreby Club harbor, which is along the coast about 6 miles north of Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport, city officials said.  Continue reading “Search Resumes for Plane That Disappeared Over Lake Erie With CEO and Family”

The Telegraph

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, is being questioned by detectives on suspicion of illegally accepting valuable gifts from prominent businessmen in a scandal that is roiling Israeli politics.

Police officers came to the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem on Monday evening to question him about claims that he took designer suits and overseas trips his son from at least two businessmen.   Continue reading “Netanyahu questioned by Israeli police over allegations he took gifts from businessmen”

The Daily Sheeple – by Melissa Dykes

Here we go again with more Russia hysteria, courtesy of the Washington Post.

Any time a story comes out of Washington Post, readers should realize three things. First, WAPO is a regular attendee at the secretive elite Bilderberg annual conference, has been for decades. Two, so is WAPO’s relatively new owner, Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos. Three, Bezos literally works with the CIA, having taken contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars from the agency to provide its cloud data storage.   Continue reading “Washington Post Forced To Retract Fake Story That Russia Hacked US Power Grid”

LA Times

A swarm of more than 250 small earthquakes have struck since New Year’s Eve near the California-Mexico border, causing unease among residents and attention from scientists.

The strongest earthquake in the sequence was magnitude 3.9, striking directly underneath the town of Brawley, about 170 miles southeast of Los Angeles.    Continue reading “Quake swarm near the California-Mexico border gets scientists’ attention”

KFOR 4 News

OKLAHOMA CITY – A Valley Brook police officer is in critical condition after being shot in the leg during a traffic stop.

The shooting took place around 5:30 p.m. near I-240 and Eastern.

The officer had his back turned and was making his way back to his vehicle when the driver shot him in the leg.   Continue reading “Officer shot after traffic stop, suspect at large”

Yahoo News

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge in Texas on Saturday ordered a halt to another Obama administration effort to strengthen transgender rights, this time over health rules that social conservatives say could force doctors to violate their religious beliefs.

The latest injunction signed by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor comes four months after he blocked a higher-profile new set of transgender protections — a federal directive that required public schools to let transgender students use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. Several of the Republican-controlled states that brought that lawsuit, including Texas, also sued over the health regulations that were finalized in May.   Continue reading “Texas judge halts federal transgender health protections”

Sent to us by a reader.

Simple to Remember

In 46 B.C.E. the Roman emperor Julius Caesar first established January 1 as New Year’s day. Janus was the Roman god of doors and gates, and had two faces, one looking forward and one back.  Caesar felt that the month named after this god (“January”) would be the appropriate “door” to the year.  Caesar celebrated the first January 1 New Year by ordering the violent routing of revolutionary Jewish forces in the Galilee.  Eyewitnesses say blood flowed in the streets.  In later years, Roman pagans observed the New Year by engaging in drunken orgies—a ritual they believed constituted a personal re-enacting of the chaotic world that existed before the cosmos was ordered by the gods.   Continue reading “A History of New Years”

ABC News

A manhunt is underway for an armed and dangerous suspect who fatally shot a Pennsylvania state trooper Friday night while investigating a domestic-related incident, police said.

Pennsylvania State Police wrote on its Facebook page, “PSP regrets to announce that Trooper Landon Weaver was tragically shot and killed while investigating a domestic-related incident at a home on Bakers Hollow Road in Juniata Township, Huntingdon County around 6:30 p.m. on December 30th.”   Continue reading “Manhunt Underway For Armed and Dangerous Suspect After PA State Trooper Fatally Shot”

CBS News

New York City is preparing to welcome nearly two million people to Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

According to the NYPD, nearly 7,000 police officers will be on patrol, some in plain clothes to blend in with the crowd.    Continue reading “Massive sand trucks added to NYC’s New Year’s Eve security plans”

The Federalist – by John Daniel Davidson

In Jack London’s famous short story, “To Build A Fire,” a man freezes to death because he underestimates the cold in America’s far north and cannot build a proper fire. The unnamed man—a chechaquo, what Alaska natives call newcomers—is accompanied by a wolf-dog that knows the danger of the cold and is wholly indifferent to the fate of the man. “This man did not know cold. Possibly, all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real cold, of cold 107 degrees below freezing point. But the dog knew; all its ancestry knew, and it had inherited the knowledge.”
Continue reading “EPA To Alaskans In Sub-Zero Temps: Stop Burning Wood To Keep Warm”

Tulsa World

WEATHERFORD, Texas (AP) — A Texas police officer shot another officer and a man he was trying to arrest during a confrontation following a traffic stop.

Police in Weatherford near Fort Worth say officer Chris Bumpas was conducting the stop Thursday evening when he discovered there was a warrant for the arrest of one of three people in the vehicle.   Continue reading “Texas officer trying to arrest suspect shot by fellow cop”