Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

Following ‘Jade Helm’ last summer, 2016 appears to have seen an escalation in social unrest and domestic terrorisim threat reaction among America’s authorities. FEME undertaking domestic riot training in the south last month, battle-tanks rolling through Houston last week, and now the Department of Homeland Security plans a bioterrorism attack drill next in the NYC Subway.

Last summer the state of Texas was ablaze over concerns surrounding the Jade Helm military drills held across the state prompted some to speculate that the Federal government was preparing for either a local insurrection, secession planning contencies for the Lone Star state or even a “Texas takeover.”   Continue reading “Homeland Security To Conduct Fake “Bioterrorism” Subway Terror Attack In New York City”

Natural News – by Julie Wilson

Previous reports have linked mass suicides among farmers in India to mounting debt and crop failures as a result of GMO crops, particularly cotton, as it was forcibly converted to patented, transgenic varieties owned by large agrochemical companies. But now we’re learning that pesticide exposure may be to blame for a new wave of suicides among farmers in India.

Some 80 farmers in the village of Badi committed suicide between January and March of this year, according to the Times of India. Home to more than 2,500, Badi village (Madhya Pradesh) has had more than 350 suicides over the last two decades, affecting nearly every family in the village.   Continue reading “India: Doctors link mass suicides, schizophrenic episodes among farmers to pesticide exposure”

CNS News – by Terence P. Jeffrey

The United States has lost approximately 191,000 jobs in the mining industry since September 2014 including approximately 7,000 that were lost in April, according to data published today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The coal mining industry alone has lost approximately 10,900 jobs since April of last year.   Continue reading “U.S. Has Lost 191,000 Mining Industry Jobs Since September 2014”

USA Today – by Greg Toppo

A massive wildfire in western Canada is expected to double in size by late Saturday as shifting winds push it northeast — away from the fire-ravaged Alberta community of Fort McMurray but straight into heavily forested areas offering fresh fuel.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale called the Fort McMurray blaze “an absolute beast of a fire,” and one of the worst he’s ever seen, the Edmonton Journal reported.   Continue reading “Massive Canadian wildfire expected to double in size”

Yahoo News

DENVER (Reuters) – The city of Colorado Springs has agreed to provide restitution to dozens of poor people wrongfully jailed because they could not afford to pay fines they incurred for petty infractions such as loitering or panhandling, attorneys said on Thursday.

The settlement calls for the city to pay each of some 60 named individuals $125 for every day they spent locked up under a since-repealed ordinance that allowed incarceration of offenders who failed to pay fines for otherwise non-jailable offenses.   Continue reading “Colorado city to pay restitution to poor jailed in ‘debtor prison’”

Yahoo News

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israeli aircraft hit two Hamas targets in Gaza early on Saturday in response to rocket fire as the worst flare-up of violence since a 2014 war entered a fourth day.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket launch and most such fire since 2014 has been carried out by fringe Islamist groups but Israel holds Hamas responsible for all such attacks.   Continue reading “Israel raids hit Gaza as violence flares for fourth day”

CNBC 

Oil prices fell on Friday morning as investors cashed in on a 20-percent rise over the past month, outweighing the impact of crude production cuts in Canada where a huge wildfire has disrupted oil sands operations.

Oil prices were down around one percent in early European trading, with global benchmark Brent prices set for their first weekly loss in five weeks.   Continue reading “Oil falls Friday morning as investors cash in on month-long gains”

Hellenic Shipping News

US crude oil exports reached nearly 508,000 barrels per day in March compared with 374,000 bpd in February, foreign trade data from the US Census Bureau showed.

Exports to Canada were 249,000 bpd while exports to Curacao were 75,000 bpd. Other export destinations include Israel (25,000 bpd), Italy (33,000 bpd), Japan (44,000 bpd), the Marshall Islands (49,000 bpd), the Netherlands (20,000 bpd) and Nicaragua (12,000 bpd).   Continue reading “US crude oil exports in March reached 508,000 bpd: US Census Bureau”

AZ Central – by Mary Jo Pitzl

The Arizona House of Representatives killed, then resuscitated, one of Speaker David Gowan’s key bills, giving him a comeback win in a Thursday evening vote.

House Bill 2568, which gives developers the authority to levy property taxes on homeowners, is now headed to Gov. Doug Ducey’s desk.

The bill had divided the homebuilder community and drew heavy opposition from cities and towns, which argued it is not in the public’s interest to give unelected boards dominated by developer interests the power to tax people who buy homes in the subdivisions they develop.   Continue reading “Arizona House revives and passes bill to allow developers to assess taxes”

Business Insider – by Ben Farmer, The Telegraph

The Royal Navy fired flares to warn of a Spanish patrol boat approaching an American nuclear submarine off Gibraltar.

The fast patrol boat HMS Sabre fired warning shots across the bow of a Guardia Civil vessel as it twice tried to cut across the path of USS Florida during an incursion into Gibraltar’s waters.   Continue reading “Royal Navy fires warning shots as Spanish vessel harasses US sub in Gibraltar”

Reuters

The U.S. government’s latest plan for offsetting the harm to migrating salmon from a series of dams in the Columbia River watershed violates the Endangered Species Act, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

The ruling in a case stretching back 15 years marks a victory for environmental advocates, the Nez Perce Tribe, anglers and others who sued government agencies over their plan for aiding salmon and steelhead that travel between the Pacific Ocean and the upper reaches of the inland Northwest.   Continue reading “Federal court rejects U.S. plan for restoring embattled Northwest salmon”

Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A federal judge in Washington on Wednesday ordered that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton may have to testify in a lawsuit related to the private email server she used while secretary of state.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said the parties in the case, the State Department and conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, also struck an agreement about the scope of the testimonies that some of Clinton’s former top aides will give in the case.   Continue reading “U.S. judge says Clinton may have to testify in email lawsuit”

CNBC

Chinese police are patrolling the streets of Italy to protect mainland tourists as part of a groundbreaking program – the first time China has sent officers to Europe to look after visitors there.

But under local law, the officers would have fairly circumscribed powers, according to an expert.   Continue reading “Chinese police are now patrolling Italian streets to protect mainland tourists”

Fox News

The number of illegal immigrant families and unaccomanpied minors apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border has soared in recent months, according to statistics released Wednesday by the federal government.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), 27,754 unaccompanied children were taken into custody by border officials during the six months ending March 31 — the first six months of fiscal year 2016. That’s a 78 percent increase from the 15,616 apprehended in the corresponding time frame last year.   Continue reading “Number of illegal immigrant families at southern border surging, data shows”

Breitbart – by Neil Munro

President Barack Obama’s deputies have told the North Carolina Governor that all single-sex public bathrooms — including those in K-12 schools — must be opened to people of both sexes by Monday to prevent “discrimination” against the roughly 1-in-2,400 American adults who say they’re transgender.

If the state doesn’t give up Americans’ right to decide who gets to use single-sex bathrooms and school locker rooms by Monday, then the federal government could start blocking the routine federal spending and tax transfers to the state — unless federal courts block the administration’s threat of sex-related harassment.   Continue reading “Obama Threatens North Carolina on Bathroom Privacy, Pushes ‘Gender Fluid’ Society”

Sent to us by the author.

If you are a beginner to investing, you might not have given the oil industry a second thought until crude oil prices hit a record low last year. You might have several questions as to why there have been a lot of fluctuations in oil prices in the last 15 years and why they do not correspond to the economic forces like inflation and demand & supply.    Continue reading “39 Facts That Will Change Your View on the Oil Industry [Infographic]”

CNN Money

The year 2016 is still on pace to set a record for background checks for gun purchases, according to new data from the FBI.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported on Wednesday that there were 2,145,865 background checks in April. That’s the slowest month so far this year, but it’s a 25% increase from April 2015.   Continue reading “New surge in gun background checks reported by FBI”

Breitbart – by Ildefonso Ortiz

MCALLEN, Texas — Members of an American family that were driving to a funeral in Mexico spent 19 days being held captive by a Mexican drug cartel before authorities were able to rescue them. During the rescue, authorities killed one of the captors and arrested two others.

The victims, a man and two women had left the border city of McAllen, Texas, on April 13 on their way to a funeral in the city Valles in the central state of San Luis Potosi, information released by the Tamaulipas government revealed.   Continue reading “American Family Kidnapped By Cartel While Driving Through Mexico”

Yahoo News

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The deputy commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said Iranian forces will close the strategic Strait of Hormuz to the United States and its allies if they “threaten” the Islamic Republic, Iranian state media reported on Wednesday.

The comments by Gen. Hossein Salami, carried on state television, follow a long history of both rhetoric and confrontation between Iran and the U.S. over the narrow strait, through which nearly a third of all oil traded by sea passes.   Continue reading “Iranian commander threatens to close Strait of Hormuz to US”