Reuters

TransCanada Corp filed an application with Nebraska authorities on Thursday to route its Keystone XL pipeline through the state, saying it expected a decision this year for this crucial leg of the $8 billion project that had been stymied by environmental groups and other opponents.

U.S. President Donald Trump cleared the way for the project at the federal level last month, reversing an earlier decision by former President Barack Obama, who had blocked it over environmental concerns.   Continue reading “TransCanada files Keystone XL route application in Nebraska”

OPB – by Dave Blanchard

Ammon Bundy’s former lawyer Marcus Mumford was in court in Portland Wednesday, where he faces misdemeanor charges for failing to comply with and impeding federal police last fall.

U.S. marshals tackled and used a stun gun on Mumford at the conclusion of the first Malheur occupation trial.   Continue reading “Bundy Lawyer Mumford Seeks Charge Dismissal, Jury Trial”

RT

Research from Harvard University is exciting some scientists about the prospects of being able to recreate the long extinct woolly mammoth. The ice age mammal’s DNA could potentially be spliced with an Asian elephant to create a hybrid.

Harvard Geneticist Professor, George Church, briefed the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) about the progress his team has made in the past two years of trying to “de-extinct” the mammoth.   Continue reading “Scientists want to ‘de-extinct’ the woolly mammoth”

The Hill – by Devin Henry

President Trump on Thursday signed legislation ending a key Obama administration coal mining rule.

The bill quashes the Office of Surface Mining’s Stream Protection Rule, a regulation to protect waterways from coal mining waste that officials finalized in December.

The legislation is the second Trump has signed into law ending an Obama-era environmental regulation. On Tuesday, he signed a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution undoing a financial disclosure requirement for energy companies.   Continue reading “Trump signs bill undoing Obama coal mining rule”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

In a move that is sure to unleash a fresh firestorm of accusations that Russia is interfering in the upcoming French elections, Wikileaks has has released three classified CIA “tasking orders” revealing details of a seven-month long spying campaign and involvement by the agency ahead of the 2012 French presidential election.   Continue reading “Wikileaks Exposes CIA Involvement In French 2012 Presidential Election”

Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist

One of the least talked about war crimes committed by the United States is the use of depleted uranium — a highly controversial radioactive waste that’s been dumped into Iraq by the ton. In spite of multiple international watchdog groups and health organizations pointing out the dangers of using DU, and in spite of the Pentagon claiming they wouldn’t use it, the United States just admitted to using it in Syria.

For those that aren’t familiar with the radioactive waste that is DU, it is the byproduct of the production of enriched uranium for use as fuel in nuclear reactors and in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. It is also the US military’s preferred material to use for armor plating and armor-piercing projectiles.   Continue reading “US Admits Using Radioactive Weapons in Syria that Left Thousands of Iraqi Babies Deformed”

Anti-Media – by Carey Wedler

A year after the largest methane leak in U.S. history was sealed in Porter Ranch, California, residents are continuing to experience significant adverse health consequences. As SoCalGas — the company responsible for the blowout — uses fabricated gas shortages to justify reopening the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility, which has been shut down indefinitely since the leak occurred, a local doctor is now speaking out.   Continue reading “Mystery Illness Plagues Residents One Year After Historic US Gas Leak”

Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top executive at the company building the controversial Dakota Access pipeline on Wednesday compared pipeline opponents to terrorists.

Joey Mahmoud, executive vice president of Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, said protesters have “assaulted numerous pipeline personnel,” destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of construction equipment and even fired a pistol at law enforcement during months of demonstrations against the 1,200-mile pipeline, which will carry North Dakota oil to an Illinois terminal.   Continue reading “Pipeline exec compares Dakota protesters to terrorists”

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Reason – by Peter Suderman

How much difference does a single line on a tax form make? For Obamacare’s individual mandate, the answer might be quite a lot.

Following President Donald Trump’s executive order instructing agencies to provide relief from the health law, the Internal Revenue Service appears to be taking a more lax approach to the coverage requirement.   Continue reading “Major Blow to Obamacare Mandate: IRS Won’t Reject Tax Returns That Don’t Answer Health Insurance Question”

Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress on Wednesday sent President Donald Trump legislation blocking an Obama-era rule designed to keep guns out of the hands of certain mentally disabled people.

On a vote of 57-43, the Senate backed the resolution, just one of several early steps by the Republican-led Congress to undo regulations implemented by former President Barack Obama. The House had passed the measure earlier this year. The White House has signaled Trump will sign the legislation.   Continue reading “Congress blocks rule barring mentally impaired from guns”

Yahoo News

President Donald Trump today said that he is keeping his options open about how best to reach a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian situation but urged Israel to hold back on settlement building in occupied territories.

“I’m looking at a two-state and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like. I’m very happy with the one that both parties like. I could live with either one. I thought for a while the two-state looked like it may be the easier of the two, but honestly, if Bibi [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and if the Palestinians, if Israel and the Palestinians are happy, I’m happy with the one they like the best,” Trump said while standing next to Netanyahu.   Continue reading “Trump says he ‘can live with’ either one- or two-state solution in Israel”

MSM

RANSOM, Kan.—The Farm Belt is hurtling toward a milestone: Soon there will be fewer than two million farms in America for the first time since pioneers moved westward after the Louisiana Purchase.

Across the heartland, a multiyear slump in prices for corn, wheat and other farm commodities brought on by a glut of grain world-wide is pushing many farmers further into debt. Some are shutting down, raising concerns that the next few years could bring the biggest wave of farm closures since the 1980s.   Continue reading “The Next American Farm Bust Is Upon Us”

Bloomberg – by Catherine Traywick

President Donald Trump has overturned an Obama-era anti-corruption rule that would have forced oil, gas and mining companies to disclose payments to foreign governments, becoming the first president in 16 years to take advantage of a law that allows him to rescind a predecessor’s regulations.

Trump on Tuesday signed a congressional resolution to repeal a Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure rule that was called for in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. It’s likely just the start: Congress is considering a number of other measures, including ones to overturn Obama administration rules protecting streams from mountaintop mining and prevent people with serious mental-health problems from buying guns.   Continue reading “Trump Repeal of Obama SEC Regulation Signals More to Come”

Yahoo News

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – U.S. authorities have arrested an immigrant from Mexico who was brought to the United States illegally as a child and later given a work permit during the Obama administration in what could be the first detention of its kind under President Donald Trump.

Daniel Ramirez Medina, a 23-year-old with no criminal record, was taken into custody last week at his father’s home in Seattle by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The officers arrived at the home to arrest the man’s father, though court documents did no make clear the reason the father was taken into custody.   Continue reading “U.S. arrests Mexican immigrant in Seattle covered by Obama program”

The Hill – by Rebecca Kheel

Russia has deployed a cruise missile in violation of a landmark arms treaty with the United States, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The deployment of the missile would violate the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.   Continue reading “Russia deploys cruise missile in violation of arms treaty: report”