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?”

AP – by Rob Gillies

TORONTO (AP) — The company behind the Keystone XL pipeline submitted on Thursday a new presidential permit application to the U.S. Department of State for approval.

The project would move 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.   Continue reading “TransCanada makes new application for Keystone XL”

Yahoo News

MIAMI (AP) — Miami-Dade County’s mayor instructed jail officials in that South Florida community on Thursday to honor all immigration detainer requests, a day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

Mayor Carlos Gimenez sent a memo to the county’s corrections director saying jails should hold undocumented immigrants detained by police and turn them over to the Department of Homeland Security when requested.   Continue reading “Mayor: Miami-Dade jail to heed immigration detainer requests”

The Hill – by Joe Concha

The White House press office is denying it offered credentials to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s website Infowars, after Jones claimed in a video that he had been offered access.

“He is not credentialed for the White House. The White House Press Office has not offered him credentials,” White House deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders told BuzzFeed on Thursday morning.   Continue reading “White House denies offering Infowars credentials”

Yahoo News – by Alex Lockie, Business Insider

The State Department is reviewing a last-minute decision by former Secretary of State John Kerry to send $221 million dollars to the Palestinians late last week over the objections of congressional Republicans.

The department said Tuesday it would look at the payment, one of the Obama administration’s final acts in office, and might make adjustments to ensure it comports with the Trump administration’s priorities.   Continue reading “The Trump administration has frozen Obama’s quiet attempt to send $221 million to Palestine”

Yahoo News – by Julia Edwards Ainsley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump signed directives on Wednesday to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border and strip funding from cities that shield illegal immigrants as he charged ahead with sweeping and divisive plans to transform how the United States deals with immigration and national security.

The Republican president is expected to take additional steps in the coming days to limit legal immigration, including executive orders restricting refugees and blocking the issuing of visas to people from several Muslim-majority Middle Eastern and North African countries including Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Yemen.   Continue reading “Trump orders building of Mexico border wall, targets U.S. ‘sanctuary’ cities”

Tax Revolution Institute – by Alex Vidal

Let’s hope you were able to get in all your binge watching before the new year, as online streaming entertainment may very well be the next thing that we enjoy slapped with a tax.

Many cities across the country have found that taxes from utilities have taken a hit with the rise in the number of people who have decided to “cut the cord” from cable companies. During the second quarter of 2016 alone, over 812,000 people cancelled their paid television subscriptions and switched to various streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and SlingTV, which only require internet access.   Continue reading “The Netflix Tax: Coming to a Screen Near You”