ABC News

How do you teach the history of the world in California schools, where nearly two-thirds of students are Latino or Asian, many from newly immigrated families?

That’s the challenge facing a California panel charged with establishing a new history and social studies framework for the state’s 6.2 million public school students.

On Thursday, the Instructional Quality Commission is scheduled to consider whether to forward a proposed plan to the California Board of Education. The framework will guide publishers in choosing material for textbooks. It was last overhauled in 2000.   Continue reading “California Aims to Reflect Diversity in Classroom Studies”

Reuters

Two Chinese fighter jets carried out an “unsafe” intercept of a U.S. military reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, drawing a rebuke from Beijing, which demanded that Washington end surveillance near China.

The incident, likely to increase tension in and around the contested waterway, took place in international airspace on Tuesday as the U.S. maritime patrol aircraft carried out “a routine U.S. patrol,” a Pentagon statement said.   Continue reading “Chinese jets intercept U.S. military plane over South China Sea: Pentagon”

Reuters

“He’s a magician, he’s a magician,” the partisan crowd chanted as a beaming Benjamin Netanyahu strode into his party headquarters a little over a year ago to declare a come-from-behind victory in Israel’s election.

Now, with the expected entry into his right-wing government of ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman as defense minister, it looks like Netanyahu, in his fourth term as premier, has pulled off another piece of political sleight of hand worthy of a “House of Cards” script.   Continue reading “Netanyahu pulls off coalition surprise to upend Israeli politics”

Las Vegas Sun – by Ricardo Torres

Depopulation in California jails and gang members moving to the Las Vegas Valley might be contributing to the rise in violent crime, according to Metro Police Sheriff Joseph Lombardo.

There’s a “plethora” of reasons why the valley might be experiencing a hike, Lombardo said during an editorial meeting with the Las Vegas Sun, but Metro has had an increase of interactions with California gang members during arrests and investigations.   Continue reading “Sheriff links Las Vegas crime hike to California law to reduce prison crowding”

Terry Lawton Presenting 5-Years of His Research on Climate-Engineering, Chiloquin, Oregon, May 10, 2016 from Max Guiley – VIDEO MAZAMA on Vimeo.

Continue reading “Terry Lawton Presenting 5-Years of His Research on Climate-Engineering, Chiloquin, Oregon, May 10, 2016”

CNS News – by Eric Scheiner

WGGB-TV reports that Longmeadow, Mass. residents recently voted down a series of controversial gun control initiatives at the annual town meeting last week.

Voters rejected proposals that would require gun owners to provide the police department with descriptions of each firearm they own, limit where guns can be carried in town and ban certain types of guns and magazines inside town lines altogether.   Continue reading “Voters Reject Bylaw To Give Police Gun Descriptions”

Yahoo News

The Senate today confirmed Eric Fanning to be secretary of the Army, making him the first openly gay leader of a U.S. military branch.

The confirmation of Fanning, who has been serving as the acting Army Secretary since November 2015, was eight months in the making.   Continue reading “Senate Confirms First Openly Gay Army Secretary”

Sent to us by Clay.

KCRA 3 – by Jonathan J. Cooper

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) —Children and teens brought illegally to the United States gained access to publicly funded health care Monday as California began allowing young people to sign up for the state’s health care program for the poor without regard to their immigration status.   Continue reading “California undocumented immigrant kids gain state-funded health care”

Free Thought Project – by Andrew Emett

As the government continues to suppress the entire 6,700-page Senate Torture Report, the CIA inspector general’s office recently admitted to “mistakenly” destroying their only copy of the classified report. Although CIA Director John Brennan possesses another copy of the torture report, he refuses to send a replacement to the internal watchdog’s office.

Last summer, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Justice Department were privately informed that CIA employees at the inspector general’s office had both destroyed the disk and deleted the file containing the full Senate Torture Report. Despite the fact that the Justice Department ordered all copies of the classified document to be preserved, acting CIA Inspector General Christopher Sharpley was unable to locate another copy and eventually informed the Senate Intelligence Committee that his officers has mistakenly ruined their only copies.   Continue reading “CIA “Accidentally” Deleted and Destroyed Its Only Copy of Senate Torture Investigation”

Bloomberg – by Victoria Stilwell

The cost of living in the U.S. climbed in April by the most in three years an indication that inflation may be picking up toward the Federal Reserve’s goal.

Consumer prices increased 0.4 percent, the biggest gain since February 2013, following a 0.1 percent advance in March, a Labor Department report showed Tuesday in Washington. The so-called core measure, which strips out food and energy costs, rose 0.2 percent after a 0.1 percent gain the prior month.   Continue reading “Consumer Prices in U.S. Climbed in April by Most Since 2013”

Federal News Radio

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — The southern Albanian town of Saranda is erecting a bust of U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to mark her contribution in the international arena for the Albanian nation.

Town hall spokesman Thoma Nika said the city council unanimously decided a day earlier to display the sculpture of the former U.S. Secretary of State on the main boulevard along the shore, due to her “dimension as a woman in politics, as a representative of the old Albania-U.S. friendship, for her contribution to the Albanian nation in different historical moments.”   Continue reading “Bust of Hillary Clinton to be erected in Albanian town”

Reuters

A federal appeals court on Monday revived a lawsuit by prospective gun shop owners who were banned by Alameda County, California, from opening within 500 feet of a residential district, ruling that local officials had failed to justify their law in the face of a constitutional right to bear arms.

A three-member panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not strike down the local ordinance, but voted 2-1 to overturn a federal judge who threw the gun store owners’ lawsuit out of court.   Continue reading “Appeals court revives challenge to California county’s gun law”

USA Today – by Gregory Korte

WASHINGTON — President Obama awarded the nation’s highest honor for law enforcement to 13 police officers Monday, recognizing officers who put themselves in harm’s way — one fatally — to protect citizens.

The Public Safety Medal of Valor recognizes police, firefighters and other first responders for exceptional courage. Obama said the actions of the 13 recognized Monday helped to save countless lives.   Continue reading “Obama awards Medal of Valor to 13 police officers”

Time – by Josh Sanburn

Major cities across the U.S. have experienced a surge in homicides in recent months, continuing a grim rise that began last year.

Murders are up in roughly 30 cities nationwide so far in 2016, according to data released by the Major Cities Chiefs Association on Friday. Nearly half of the cities surveyed showed increases in homicides in the first quarter of this year compared with 2015, when the murder rate in many U.S. cities rose after decades of decline. The data paints a varied picture: some cities have experienced a slight rise in murders, others have seen declines, while nearly a dozen metropolitan areas–including Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Memphis, Nashville, and San Antonio–have had sizable increases.   Continue reading “Murders Are Up in Many U.S. Cities Again This Year”

Fox News – by Malia Zimmerman

Former President Bill Clinton was a much more frequent flyer on a registered sex offender’s infamous jet than previously reported, with flight logs showing the former president taking at least 26 trips aboard the “Lolita Express” — even apparently ditching his Secret Service detail for at least five of the flights, according to records obtained by FoxNews.com.

Clinton’s presence aboard Jeffrey Epstein’s Boeing 727 on 11 occasions has been reported, but flight logs show the number is more than double that, and trips between 2001 and 2003 included extended junkets around the world with Epstein and fellow passengers identified on manifests by their initials or first names, including “Tatiana.” The tricked-out jet earned its Nabakov-inspired nickname because it was reportedly outfitted with a bed where passengers had group sex with young girls.   Continue reading “Flight logs show Bill Clinton flew on sex offender’s jet much more than previously known”

Yahoo News – by Michael Isikoff

The CIA inspector general’s office — the spy agency’s internal watchdog — has acknowledged it “mistakenly” destroyed its only copy of a mammoth Senate torture report at the same time lawyers for the Justice Department were assuring a federal judge that copies of the document were being preserved, Yahoo News has learned.

Although other copies of the report exist, the erasure of the controversial document by the CIA office charged with policing agency conduct has alarmed the U.S. senator who oversaw the torture investigation and reignited a behind-the-scenes battle over whether the full unabridged report should ever be released, according to multiple intelligence community sources familiar with the incident.   Continue reading “Senate report on CIA torture is one step closer to disappearing”

USA Today – by Greg Toppo

A week-long manhunt for a suspect who wounded an Illinois police officer ended Sunday in a shootout more than 200 miles south that wounded an FBI agent and left the suspect dead.

Police in southern Illinois said that after the shootout, a police robot entered an abandoned house in near Eddyville, Ill., near the Kentucky border, and found the body of Dracy “Clint” Pendleton on the second story. Officials did not immediately say whether he was killed by police or himself.   Continue reading “FBI agent wounded in Ill. shootout; police shooting suspect killed”

ABC News

The French foreign minister met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Sunday and said an upcoming Paris summit aimed at restarting peace talks will proceed, despite Israeli objections that direct negotiations are the only way forward.

Paris is to host an international meeting in May of 20 countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, to discuss the peace process. Israel and the Palestinians have not been invited.   Continue reading “Paris Peace Summit to Proceed Despite Israeli Concerns”