ABC News – by Dan Good

The bitter blast is returning – and this time, it will have a companion: snow, which started to fall across the Midwest Tuesday morning and will spread to the Northeast.

Meteorologists expect the storm system to reemerge off the coast of Virginia, blowing into a significant coastal storm for the East Coast – bringing heavy snowfall from Virginia to New England.   Continue reading “Flights Grounded, Federal Offices Closed Ahead of Storm”

Wall Street Journal – by WARANGKANA CHOMCHUEN

BANGKOK—The Thai government declared a state of emergency for 60 days in Bangkok and nearby provinces to deal with the continuing anti-government protesters who have blockaded parts of Bangkok in a bid to force Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down.

The state of emergency will be imposed in all areas in Bangkok, Nonthaburi and some districts in other provinces nearby, effective Wednesday, deputy prime minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said at a news conference.   Continue reading “Thailand Government Declares State of Emergency for Bangkok”

The George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group. U.S. Navy photo.Washington Times – by Jacqueline Klimas and Cheryl K. Chumley

The United States will deploy at least two warships into the Black Sea off the coast of Sochi, Russia, to respond to a potential terror attack during the upcoming Olympics, top officials said on Monday.

The positioning of the ships would also enable the rapid evacuation of Americans in the event of an attack, CNN reported. The State Department would take the lead if evacuations became necessary.   Continue reading “U.S. warships deploy for Sochi Olympics”

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide if police can seize and look through a suspect's cellphone without getting a warrant. This photo shows women in Los Angeles using smartphones on Jan. 7.NPR – by Nina Totenburg

The U.S. Supreme Court is delving into the technology-versus-privacy debate, agreeing to hear two cases that test whether police making an arrest may search cellphones without a warrant.

The court’s announcement Friday that it would take the cases came just hours after President Obama outlined his proposals to address government retention of citizen phone data as part of his speech outlining reforms at the National Security Agency.   Continue reading “Supreme Court To Decide If Warrant Needed To Search Cellphone”

An Iranian soldier stands guard inside the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, 322km (200 miles) south of Iran's capital Tehran March 9, 2006. REUTERS/Raheb HomavandiReuters – by JUSTYNA PAWLAK AND FREDRIK DAHL

World powers and Iran are due to start implementing a landmark deal on Monday curbing Tehran’s nuclear program, amid hopes that it will pave the way for a broad settlement of a decade-old standoff and ease fears of a new Middle East war.

If, as expected, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog confirms in the morning that Iran is meeting its end of the agreement, the European Union and the United States will later in the day suspend some economic sanctions in return.   Continue reading “World powers, Iran to activate landmark nuclear deal after IAEA nod”

Fox 6 Now

CALEDONIA (WITI) — A Union Pacific train derailed in Caledonia just east of the intersection of 5 Mile Rd. and Nicholson Rd. on Sunday morning, January 19th.

19 cars went off the rails as a result of the incident. You can view pictures taken by the Caledonia Fire Department and FOX6 News crews below. The train had three locomotives and 135 coal cars from Wyoming headed for Sheboygan.   Continue reading “Train derails in Caledonia, 19 cars affected and rail damaged”

A fire shut down Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant on Sat. Jan. 18, 2014WRAL News

NEW HILL, N.C. — Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant was put on alert Saturday morning after a fire in plant electrical equipment, officials said.

Smoke was detected at about 10:15 a.m., and operators safely shut down the plant before on-site fire crews responded. No flames were detected.

According to Duke Energy spokesperson, Jeff Brooks, the fire was caused by a transformer that overheated.    Continue reading “Fire puts North Carolina Nuclear Plant on alert; no materials leaked”

NBC New York

Hundreds of people are searching for a missing 55-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter who left his New Jersey home for a walk on Saturday and never came back.

Sources close to the family told NBC News Thursday that the missing man’s credit card was used in Mexico Wednesday night. The family believes that his coverage of OPEC may be related to his disappearance.

The Journal said 55-year-old David Bird covers energy markets for the paper. He has also worked for The Associated Press and the Trenton Times.   Continue reading “Wall Street Journal Reporter Goes Missing in New Jersey, Credit Card Mysteriously Used in Mexico”

The Obama administration was forced to pull a warning about racism in Spain - just as the First Lady arrived in the country for a summer holidayDaily Mail

The Obamas’ summer break on Martha’s Vineyard has already been branded a PR disaster after the couple arrived four hours apart on separate government jets.

But according to new reports, this is the least of their extravagances.

White House sources today claimed that the First Lady has spent $10million of U.S. taxpayers’ money on vacations alone in the past year.   Continue reading “First Lady accused of spending $10m in public money on her vacations”

Congress-bin-ladenTalking Points Memo – by CAITLIN MACNEAL

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, on Sunday said thatPresident Obama’s Friday speech on National Security Agency reforms left Congress with some uncertainty about U.S. surveillance programs.

Rogers said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the U.S. needed Obama to make a decision about the NSA’s data collection programs, but instead “what we got was lots of uncertainty.”   Continue reading “Rogers: Obama NSA Speech Left Us With More Uncertainty”

Breitbart

DEMING, N.M., Jan. 17 (UPI) —  Authorities in Hidalgo County, N.M., have settled a lawsuit for $1.6 million with a man who claims they illegally made him undergo colonoscopies and enemas.

David Eckert, 54, filed a lawsuit against the county and its police department in 2013, for allegedly violating his constitutional right against unreasonable searches and seizures during a 12-hour ordeal early in January 2013, CNN reported.   Continue reading “Man forced by police to have enemas, colonoscopy settles lawsuit”

Voice of America -by Daniel Schearf

SEOUL — A recent geological study indicates North Korea could hold some 216 million tons of rare earths, minerals used in electronics such as smartphones and high definition televisions.

If verified, the discovery would more than double global known sources and be six times the reserves in China, the market leader.

British Islands-based private equity firm SRE Minerals Limited announced the study results in December, along with a 25-year deal to develop the deposits in Jongju, northwest of the capital, Pyongyang.   Continue reading “North Korea’s Rare Earths Could be Game Changer”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

As we previously explained numerous times (here originally and here most recently) Africa is a crucial region in the world…

As Western economies start to regress in earnest following decades of failed and destructive monetary inflation and debt accumulation, as we warned previously, yield-starved investors are allocating real capital to the one industrially untapped continent in the world: Africa. However, we’re not seeing industry moving to Africa to set up shop. Rather, politically-directed capital flowing into the African resources sector is fueling and financing the strongest consumer boom in the world. It’s a vendor financing model for Asia, and it portends a major boom and bust cycle for the African continental economy.   Continue reading “How Erik Prince, Founder Of Blackwater, Will Help China Subjugate Africa”

Activist Post

More than 5,893 leaks from aging natural gas pipelines have been found under the streets of Washington, D.C. by a research team from Duke University and Boston University.

A dozen of the leaks could have posed explosion risks, the researchers said. Some manholes had methane concentrations as high as 500,000 parts per million of natural gas – about 10 times greater than the threshold at which explosions can occur.   Continue reading “5,900 Natural Gas Leaks Discovered Under Washington, D.C.”

New York Times – by AZAM AHMED and MATTHEW ROSENBERG

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban claimed responsibility Saturday for an attack Friday on a popular Kabul cafe that killed 21 people, mostly Western civilians, saying it was in retaliation for a coalition airstrike earlier in the week in which a number of Afghan civilians had died in a village north of Kabul.

In their statement, the Taliban said they picked a restaurant frequented by “high-ranking foreigners” where alcohol was served. The attack, one of the most significant on Western civilians since the start of the war in 2001, occurred in the heart of one of Kabul’s most secure districts, very close to many embassies and coalition military bases.   Continue reading “Taliban Says Kabul Cafe Attack Was Payback for Earlier Strike”