homevalue11SHTF Plan – by Mac Slavo

Want to own your own home, but stuck, temporarily, renting until you can? You aren’t alone.

Wolf Richter outlined a pretty eery scenario.

The 2008 financial Armageddon was in larger part a result of the housing bubble bursting. Thanks to the subprime mortgage scandal, millions of homeowners were put in homes they couldn’t afford, making the awful game of musical chairs an inevitable and tragic charade.   Continue reading “New Housing Bubble: Prices Up, Ownership Down, Wall Street a Mega-Landlord: “America is Becoming a Nation of Renters””

Survival Scout – by Matt Redhawk, My Patriot Supply

Let’s face it. No one likes to feel stressed out.

And if you ever received an email to visit your boss…in person… you know the feeling.

Sweaty palms. Shallow breathing. Increased heart-rate.

Same thing happens when you’re walking alone at night and see a shadowy figure suddenly dart across the street. Your “danger radar” is on high alert.   Continue reading “How to Prepare Your Body for Stressful Times”

Yahoo News – by ALICIA A. CALDWELL

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration has ordered federal agents to ask immigrants they encounter living in the U.S. illegally whether they might qualify under President Barack Obama’s plans to avoid deporting them, according to internal training materials obtained by The Associated Press.

Agents also have been told to review government files to identify any jailed immigrants they might be able to release under the program.   Continue reading “US govt tells agents to ID immigrants not to deport”

Reuters – by Ernest Scheyder

WILLISTON, N.D. Jan 28 (Reuters) – North Dakota’s oil industry is pushing to change the state’s radioactive waste disposal laws as part of a broad effort to conserve cash as oil prices tumble.

The waste, which becomes slightly radioactive as part of the hydraulic fracturing process that churns up isotopes locked underground, must be trucked out of state. That’s because rules prohibit North Dakota landfills from accepting anything but miniscule amounts of radiation.   Continue reading “North Dakota oil producers seek changes in radioactive waste disposal laws”

Fuel Fix – by Jennifer A. Dlouhy

WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed legislation to accelerate natural gas exports, despite muted opposition from the Obama administration and even as the Senate rejected a more aggressive plan.

The bill, passed 277-133, would force the Energy Department to decide whether to grant licenses to broadly export liquefied natural gas to pending projects within 30 days after they clear an environmental review.   Continue reading “House votes to speed up LNG exports”

Brandon "Tiny Doo" DuncanSent to us by the author, Brett Redmayne-Titley

Nine criminal defendants are not the only ones who are on trial, here, in a San Diego, California courtroom. This trial, it turns-out, is more about the American legal system. Today, this court’s irrational decisions, as attested to by the raised eye brows, sideways glances and sharp words of each of the nine defense attorneys present, proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the criminal sat, not in front of, but behind the bench.

American justice, as evidenced in the courtroom of Judge, David M. Gill this past Friday, Jan. 23, 2015, cares not any longer about the emasculated US Constitution. As the trial of innocent Rap musician, Brandon, “Tiny Doo,” Duncan began at 1:30 PM, it would be a matter of minutes before this supposed trial became a surreal, Kafka-esque scene of first-time, twisted legal logic; turning two-hundred-plus years of legal precedent into farce.   Continue reading “Justice Goes Deaf at Rap Music Trial.”

Sent to us by a reader.

ABC News – by Eric Tucker

The Drug Enforcement Administration abandoned an internal proposal to use surveillance cameras for photographing vehicle license plates near gun shows in the United States to investigate gun-trafficking, the agency’s chief said Wednesday.

DEA Administrator Michelle Leonhart said in a statement that the proposal memorialized in an employee’s email was only a suggestion, never authorized by her agency and never put into action. The AP also learned that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives did not authorize or approve the license plate surveillance plan.   Continue reading “DEA chief: US abandoned plan to track cars near gun shows”

Smoke rises during what witnesses said were heavy Israeli shelling at the Shejaia neighbourhood in Gaza City July 20, 2014.(Reuters / Mohammed Salem)RT

An Israeli human rights group has accused the IDF of war crimes during last year’s Gaza invasion by launching airstrikes that intentionally targeted residential areas, killing women and children, while claiming that Hamas was hiding behind civilians.

As prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague are conducting a preliminary inquiry into possible war crimes committed by Israel in the Palestinian territories, the 49-page report by B’Tselem human rights group claims the allegations are true.   Continue reading “Gaza war ‘unlawful’: Israeli rights group blames IDF for deliberately targeting residential areas”

ABC 12 News – by Natalie Zarowny

LAPEER COUNTY (WJRT) –(01/26/15) – It’s a sad day for the Lapeer County Sheriff’s Mounted Division.

The team is down a member now, after a coyote attack killed one of their oldest, most well-behaved horses.

“Now she’s gone and you can see they’re just kind of lost. They’re not quite sure just what to do,” said her owner, Kallie Meyers.   Continue reading “Lapeer County Sheriff’s Department’s horse killed by coyotes”

Apolinar Altamirano in his booking photo Jan. 22, 2015. (Source: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office)Sent to us by a reader.

KPTV 5 News

MESA, AZ (CBS5) – An undocumented immigrant from Mexico was out on bond when he allegedly shot a store clerk in Mesa on Thursday.

Apolinar Altamirano, 29, was captured early Thursday morning in the West Valley after a chase with Mesa police and Arizona Department of Public Safety officers.   Continue reading “Suspect in US illegally before shooting death of Mesa store clerk”

Traffic jam cars (Shutterstock)Raw Story – Reuters

The Justice Department has been secretly gathering and storing hundreds of millions of records about motorists in an effort to build a national database that tracks the movement of vehicles across the country, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The newspaper said the main aim of the license plate tracking program run by the Drug Enforcement Administration was to seize automobiles, money and other assets to fight drug trafficking, according to one government document.   Continue reading “Drug Enforcement Administration secretly spying on millions of cars: report”

Immigration questionsL A Times – by KATE LINTHICUM

The White House said Monday that President Obama’s executive actions on immigration could boost California’s economy by as much as $27.5 billion.

In a public relations blitz ahead of the rollout of Obama’s expanded deferred action program, White House advisor Cecilia Muñoz said the president’s move to give work permits to millions and ease restrictions on high-skilled immigrants would increase wages and productivity in the nation’s largest economy.   Continue reading “White House touts economic effect of Obama’s immigration program”

Police have cordoned off the scene at Citibank Plaza in Central. Photo: Felix WongSouth China Morning Post – by Clifford Lo and Lai Ying-kit

A 31-year-old man jumped to his death from a bank tower in Hong Kong’s Central this morning after an argument with his girlfriend, according to a police source.

The man, identified by the source as Lui Yau-man, was wearing a business suit when he was found lying unconscious on an elevated platform by security guards at the Citibank Plaza at around 7.30am.   Continue reading “Bank executive, 31, jumps to death from workplace ‘after dispute with girlfriend’”

A video shows what happens the moment shots were fired at New Hope City Hall in Minneapolis. Two officers were struck and a suspect was shot and killed.Star Tribune – by Mary Lynn Smith

Video of the council meeting records audio of a volley of gunshots, panic and confusion. A council member can be heard to say “that went right through the door!” and “somebody got shot!” Someone else yells, “Everybody get down!”

A volley of gunfire erupted outside the New Hope City Council meeting Monday night when a man shot at a group of police officers, injuring two of them.   Continue reading “Gunman injures two police officers, then is fatally shot in New Hope, Minnesota”

CBS Los Angeles

HEMET (CBSLA.com) — Riverside County residents turned out Saturday to remember Sultan, the San Jacinto police dog who died in the line of duty earlier this week.

Sultan was a 2-year-old shepherd mix who served with the San Jacinto Police Department since late 2013, and was the city’s lone K-9 officer.

Sultan was shot and killed by an armed suspect after being sent into a crawl space during a lengthy standoff Wednesday night near Hemet, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. The 36-year-old suspect was later shot and killed by police.   Continue reading “Slain San Jacinto Police Dog Sultan Remembered At Hemet Park”

NBC 4 News

Sheriffs are campaigning to pressure Google Inc. to turn off a feature on its Waze traffic software that warns drivers when police are nearby. They say one of the technology industry’s most popular mobile apps could put officers’ lives in danger from would-be police killers who can find where their targets are parked.

Waze, which Google purchased for $966 million in 2013, is a combination of GPS navigation and social networking. Fifty million users in 200 countries turn to the free service for real-time traffic guidance and warnings about nearby congestion, car accidents, speed traps or traffic cameras, construction zones, potholes, stalled vehicles or unsafe weather conditions.   Continue reading “Sheriffs Want Popular Police-Tracking App Disabled”

Times of India

NEW DELHI: “We want to trade even more,” US President Barack Obama said on Sunday as the two-way commerce between America and India touched a record USD 100 billion.

“In the last few years, trade between our two countries increased by some 60 per cent, total record of USD 100 billion. We want to trade even more,” he said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.   Continue reading “US wants to trade even more with India: Obama”