From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
A large tree that had fallen onto the tracks caused a Bay Area commuter train to derail Monday night, in an incident that sent nine passengers to the hospital — four of them with serious injuries.
The train, Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) No. 10, was traveling from San Jose to Stockton Calif., when it went off the tracks Monday night. The derailment came after hours of sustained rains. Continue reading “Commuter Train Derails, Plunges Into Creek East Of San Francisco”
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After almost six months of silence (since September 2, 2015), counsel for plaintiff United States file on February 23, 2016, a response (hyperlinked below) to Petitioner’s February 16, 2016, objection to the magistrate judge’s January 22, 2016, report and recommendation. Continue reading “Lufkin Division DOJ attorneys reappear after 174 days, falsify the record; Federal-jurisdiction Achilles’ heel confirmed”
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) — An Alabama lawmaker has a plan to permanently and physically punish someone convicted of certain sex offenses against children.
The bill, known as HB 365, would make those sex offenders have to get surgically castrated before they leave prison.
HB 365 was introduced by State Representative Steve Hurst, R-Calhoun County. Continue reading “Alabama lawmaker introduces sex offender castration bill”
Police in Idaho said they were looking for a gunman who shot and wounded a pastor outside his church Sunday afternoon, one day after he led a prayer at a rally for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz.
Tim Remington was found with multiple gunshot wounds outside the Alter Church in Coeur d’Alene at around 2 p.m. local time Sunday. Remington’s nephew Matthew and other church members told KREM that Remington was shot four times in the back as he walked to his car. Continue reading “Idaho pastor shot day after praying at Ted Cruz rally”
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) — Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump says that, as president, he would push to change laws that prohibit waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques, arguing that banning them puts the U.S. at a strategic disadvantage against Islamic State militants.
During the past week, in a series of interviews and events, Trump has articulated a loose, but expansive set of principles that, if enacted, would mark a fundamental shift in the strategy the Obama administration has employed to fight violent extremism. In addition to arguing in favor of reinstating waterboarding, a technique that mimics the sensation of drowning, and “much more than that,” Trump has advocated the killing of militants’ wives and children, which appears in violation of international law. Continue reading “Trump says US at disadvantage because of anti-torture laws”
A few minutes of intense shaking, followed by a devastating tsunami, the loss of thousands of lives and widespread destruction to infrastructure that left entire communities cut off from help. It would take years to repair and rebuild. This was the scene in Japan in March of 2011 when a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of the island nation. Continue reading “Impending Cascadia Subduction Zone Quake Back In The News”
Seoul (AFP) – North Korea threatened “indiscriminate” nuclear strikes against South Korea and the US mainland, as the two allies prepared to kick off large-scale joint military drills on Monday.
The threat to carry out what it described as a “pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice” was made in a statement by the North’s powerful National Defence Commission, citing the Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army (KPA). Continue reading “N. Korea threatens pre-emptive nuclear strike on South, US”
Just taking a selfie has proven to be an act that carries the risk of injury. Unfortunately for a 43-year-old Concrete, Washington man, that injury turned out to be death, reports the Skagit Valley Herald.
According to Chad Clark, a Skagit County Sheriff Office official, the man and his girlfriend were taking pictures of themselves while at a suburban residence. The man was holding a gun while taking the selfies, with the girlfriend saying the man removed the bullets and reloaded the gun several times. Continue reading “Darwin Award: Man accidentally shoots and kills himself while taking selfies”
CNS News – by Barbara Hollingsworth
The chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources stated that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) removal of a natural plug sealing the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado last August was “done on purpose,” challenging Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to retract her previous testimony that the resulting blowout was “an accident.”
Jewell, whose agency conducted an independent review of the environmental disaster that affected three states, testified on Dec. 9, 2015: “We did not see any deliberate attempt to breach a mine. It was an accident.” Continue reading “House Natural Resources Chairman: EPA’s Removal of Gold Mine Plug Was ‘Done On Purpose’”
More than 100 men and women gathered Saturday in downtown Portland to pay homage to Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, the Oregon wildlife refuge occupier who was shot and killed by state police Jan. 26 as they moved in to arrest him.
The protesters assembled under cloudy skies in front of the Multnomah County jail in downtown Portland. For more than two hours, the park across from the detention center was home to a moving forest of signs and flags as Finicum supporters cheered and shouted. A few dozen counter-protesters kept pace with their own blow-horns and chants. Continue reading “More than 100 people gather in Portland in memory of LaVoy Finicum”
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) — The W.Va. Senate has voted to override Governor Tomblin’s veto on the conceal carry bill.
In a 23-11 vote Saturday morning, the Senate voted to override the veto. Continue reading “W.Va. Senate votes to override Governor’s veto on conceal carry bill”
While North Korea keeps firing literal and figurative salvos, the world has responded with harsher sanctions — ones that the Philippines has put into effect by detaining a ship from the reclusive East Asian nation.
The Philippine government has impounded a North Korean freighter, the Jin Teng, in Subic Bay and plans to deport its crew, presidential spokesman Manuel Quezon III said in a radio interview, according to the official Philippines News Agency. Continue reading “North Korea ship impounded in Philippines as part of fresh sanctions”
On the Republican debate stage Thursday night, Republican front-runner Donald Trump declared he was “changing” his stance on immigration, and on a separate question, he admitted he talked about immigration during an off-the-record portion of an editorial board discussion with the New York Times in January.
“I am changing it and softening the position” on visas for skilled immigrant workers, Trump said in Detroit. He added that it was because “we need talented people in this country.” Continue reading “Donald Trump refuses to release NY Times transcript, softens on immigration”
The Los Angeles Police Department is conducting tests on a knife found at O.J. Simpson’s old property after they recovered it from a retired LAPD officer within the past month, the department said.
“The story as it’s told to us,” Andrew Neiman of the Los Angeles Police Department said at a news conference today, was that a retired LAPD officer, who left the force in the late 1990s, “was working in the area of the Rockingham estate and he claimed an individual” who said he was a construction worker gave him that knife, Neiman said. Continue reading “Knife Found at OJ Simpson Property Handed Over to LAPD in Past Month, Department Says”
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Federal authorities rounded up 12 people in five states on Thursday, bringing to 19 the number of defendants facing conspiracy, assault and threats charges in a 2014 armed standoff over grazing cattle on U.S. land near renegade cattleman Cliven Bundy’s ranch in southern Nevada.
Arrests of alleged co-conspirators in Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Oklahoma and New Hampshire came after a federal grand jury in Las Vegas expanded an indictment already filed against Bundy. It also names two adult Bundy sons and five other men already in federal custody following the end of a nearly six-week armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in Oregon. Continue reading “Bundy, 18 Others Indicited in 2014 Ranch Standoff”
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Federal agents have arrested Jerry DeLemus, a local Tea Party leader who stood with Cliven Bundy’s armed resistance at his ranch in Nevada in 2014, in connection with the standoff and alleged assault. Continue reading “Bundy supporter DeLemus facing slew of federal charges”
Cleveland.com – by Olivia Perkins
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Ohio lost 112,500 jobs in 2015 resulting from the United States’ trade deficit with countries that are part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
That places Ohio sixth, in terms of the percentage of jobs lost to trade with TPP countries, among the 50 states and the District of Columbia ranked in the report released Thursday by the liberal Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The lost jobs represent nearly 2.2 percent of employment in Ohio, according to the analysis. Continue reading “Ohio lost 112,500 jobs due to trade with TPP countries”
A federal attorney argued Wednesday that officials in two Arizona and Utah cities routinely took orders from the leaders of a polygamous sect about who to appoint to government jobs in the communities where people were sometimes arrested on trumped-up charges after they left the church.
“How did we get to this in the United States of America?” Justice Department attorney Sean Keveney asked jurors during his closing argument at the civil rights trial involving Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. Continue reading “Jury Deliberations Start at Trial Against 2 Polygamous Towns”
Washington Post – by Adam Goldman
The Justice Department has granted immunity to a former State Department staffer, who worked on Hillary Clinton’s private email server, as part of a criminal investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information, according to a senior law enforcement official.
The official said the FBI had secured the cooperation of Bryan Pagliano, who worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign before setting up the server in her New York home in 2009. Continue reading “Justice Dept. grants immunity to staffer who set up Clinton email server”