Author: Admin

Bloomberg – by Ari Natter and Laura Litvan

Jan. 12 — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) plans to offer an amendment to lift the 40-year-old ban on the export of crude oil to Keystone XL pipeline legislation being considered on the Senate floor, according to a spokeswoman for the senator.

While it remains unknown if the measure will get a vote, the amendment has the potential to put lawmakers on the record on the issue for the first time.   Continue reading “Cruz Plans Crude Export Amendment to Keystone Legislation”

Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Ohio bartender with a history of psychiatric illness was indicted last week on a charge of threatening to murder House Speaker John Boehner, possibly by poisoning his drink, according to records made available Tuesday.

A grand jury indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Ohio on Jan. 7 identified the accused man as Michael R. Hoyt, a resident of Cincinnati.   Continue reading “Ohio man accused of threatening to kill Boehner”

KXAN News – by Patrick Tolbert

KILLEEN, Texas (KXAN) – HAZMAT crews have been called to a Killeen home after the body of  a soldier who was deployed to West Africa was found Tuesday morning in Killeen.

According to KXXV-TV, the soldier’s body was found in the 3300 block of Cantabrian Drive and Fort Hood officials confirm the soldier just returned from West Africa.

Killeen Police told KXXV the cause of death is unknown and that the soldier’s body has been sent to Dallas for an autopsy.   Continue reading “Fort Hood soldier’s death prompts HAZMAT response”

Yahoo News

Washington (AFP) – President Barack Obama said Tuesday the cyber attacks against Sony and the Pentagon’s Central Command highlight the need for toughened laws on cybersecurity.

Obama made the comment as the White House unveiled a proposal to revive cybersecurity legislation stalled over the past few years.

“With the Sony attack that took place, with the Twitter account that was hacked by Islamist jihadist sympathizers yesterday, it just goes to show how much more work we need to do — both public and private sector — to strengthen our cybersecurity,” the president said at a meeting with congressional leaders.   Continue reading “Obama says hacks show need for cybersecurity law”

i 24 News

Muslim frustration over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the factors that led to the attacks on satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in Paris last week, former US President Jimmy Carter told Jon Stewart on the Daily Showon Monday.

When Stewart asked Carter what he believed led to the massacre, which claimed the lives of 17 people, the latter replied: “Well, one of the origins for it is the Palestinian problem. And this aggravates people who are affiliated in any way with the Arab people who live in the West Bank and Gaza, what they are doing now [and] what’s being done to them. So I think that’s part of it.”   Continue reading “Jimmy Carter blames Paris attacks on Israeli-Palestinian conflict”

Gizmodo – by Adam Clark Estes

U.S. Central Command’s Twitter and YouTube accounts just lit up in a bad way. It looks like somebody who’s claiming to be ISIS managed to gain access to the account and is currently tweeting images of documents, allegedly internal CENTCOM documents. The first tweet links to a Pastebin post with links to downloads of “confidential data.”

We contacted CENTCOM to confirm the breach. “We are aware of the issue,” CENTCOM said, promising to get back to us with more details when they become available. CENTCOM also confirmed that its “Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised.” Meanwhile, the Pentagon says “CENTCOM is taking appropriate measure to address the matter.”   Continue reading “Someone Claiming to Be ISIS Says They Hacked CENTCOM, Leaks Docs Online”

Fox News

One of the brothers who carried out a massacre at the offices of the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo lived across the hall from the so-called “underwear bomber” while the two attended an Arabic-language school in Yemen in 2009, according to a published report.

The Wall Street Journal, citing neighbors of both men as well as Yemeni intelligence officials, reported that Said Kouachi and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab studied together and often visited the mosque in the Old City of Yemen’s capital, San’a.    Continue reading “Charlie Hebdo massacre gunman reportedly knew underwear bomber”

Rome News Tribune – by John Bailey

Three Rome men accused of conspiring to obtain explosives now face a much more serious domestic terrorism charge — conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

Terry Eugene Peace, Brian Edward Cannon and Cory Robert Williamson on Monday waived arraignment and pleaded not guilty to the domestic terrorism charge as well as charges of conspiring to defraud the government.   Continue reading “3 Rome, Georgia militia men now face domestic terrorism charge”

Detroit Free Press

GALESBURG, Mich. — A three-mile radius has been evacuated around a massive deadly pileup on I-94 as four semis burn, including one with hazardous material and another hauling fireworks.

Both directions of I-94 are closed in eastern Kalamazoo County due to the wreck involving more than 100 vehicles.

Michigan State Police say one person is dead and multiple others are injured. People who aren’t injured were taken to warming centers, according to State Police Inspector Tracey McAndrew.   Continue reading “Fiery 100-plus vehicle pileup closes I-94 in west Michigan”

Fuel Fix – by Jennifer A. Dlouhy

WASHINGTON — The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday approved legislation to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline, following a divisive debate over climate change that previewed bitter fights to come.

The 13-9 vote to approve the measure — with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin the lone Democrat crossing party lines to back the bill — paves the way for Senate floor debate to begin as soon as Monday.   Continue reading “Senate panel approves Keystone XL bill, despite veto threat”

Bloomberg – by Tony Capaccio

The Pentagon will request about $51 billion in war funding for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, a 20 percent reduction from the $64 billion Congress approved this year and the least since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials and congressional aides said.

The Overseas Contingency Operations funding, as it’s known, will be sent to Congress in addition to basic defense spending of about $534 billion when President Barack Obama offers his proposed fiscal 2016 federal budget on Feb. 2, according to the officials and aides, who asked not to be identified before the details are made public.   Continue reading “Pentagon Seeking 20% Cut in U.S. War Funding to $51 Billion”

Fox News

A California newspaper will continue to use the term “illegals” to describe people who enter the U.S. without permission, despite an attack on its building by vandals believed to object to the term.

The Santa Barbara News-Press’s front entrance was sprayed with the message “The border is illegal, not the people who cross it” in red paint, sometime either Wednesday night or early Thursday, according to the newspaper’s director of operations, Donald Katich. The attack came amid wider objections to a News-Press headline that used the word “illegals” alongside a story on California granting driver’s licenses to people in the country illegally.   Continue reading “California newspaper office vandalized over use of ‘illegal’ immigrant label”

Fox 2 Now

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – Friday marks law enforcement appreciation day. The holiday started by the FBI National Academy  to thank officers across the country who take risks to protect their communities.

Every day 780,000 police officers put on a badge nationwide, going to work in the most unknown extreme conditions and dangers. Friday is our day to thank them.   Continue reading “Today is 1st National Law Enforcement appreciation day”

Fox News

Republicans are charging ahead with their effort to block President Obama’s immigration executive actions, teeing up a House vote as early as next week as they move toward a major confrontation with the administration.

GOP House leaders huddled Thursday with colleagues in an effort to build consensus on a bill to “defund” the president’s initiatives. Under the recently struck budget deal, the Department of Homeland Security is only funded through Feb. 27 — Republicans want to use the deadline as leverage to block the immigration spending.    Continue reading “Republicans move toward vote on blocking Obama immigration actions”

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USA Today – by Andrew Griffin, The Independent

The year 2015 will have an extra second — which could wreak havoc on the infrastructure powering the Internet.

At 11:59 p.m. on June 30, clocks will count up all the way to 60 seconds. That will allow the Earth’s spin to catch up with atomic time.

The Earth’s spin is gradually slowing down, by about two thousandths of a second per day, but atomic clocks are constant. That means that occasionally years have to be lengthened slightly, to allow the slowing Earth to catch up with the constant clock.   Continue reading “Computer chaos feared over 2015’s leap second”

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Navy Times – by Karen Jowers

Troops and families in some areas of Europe and the Pacific have been frustrated by empty shelves in commissaries over the last few weeks, shelves that are empty for different reasons.

Commissary officials said they expect the situation to improve in Europe no later than Jan. 14, depending on the location. But for customers in the Pacific, the problems continue.   Continue reading “Commissary shelves still empty in Europe, Pacific”