MSM

Galveston, Texas — Officials say a vial containing a virus that can cause hemorrhagic fever has gone missing from a research facility in Galveston, but say there’s no reason to believe there’s a threat to the public.

The University of Texas Medical Branch said Saturday that there was no breach in the security its Galveston National Laboratory and no indication of wrongdoing. Officials suspect the missing vial containing the Guanarito virus was destroyed during the lab’s cleaning process but the investigation continues.   Continue reading “Vial of deadly virus goes missing from Texas laboratory”

meteorThe Guardian – by Sam Davis

A meteor streaked across the night sky along the eastern seaboard Friday night, leaving a trail of fire as it went. More than 300 people reported seeing this flash in the sky, from Virginia to Maine, and the meteor was detected and visualized best from Northern New Jersey all the way out to the tip Long Island, NY. Scientists from NASA are reporting that it landed “safely” in the Atlantic Ocean, if a fireball from outer space can actually land “safely”.   Continue reading “Meteor Blazes Across The Night Sky Over East Coast”

An Israeli tank is transported on a truck to the Israeli Syrian border in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights March 24, 2013. REUTERS-Baz RatnerReuters – by Jeffrey Heller

(Reuters) – Israel said it fired into Syria on Sunday and destroyed a machinegun position in the Golan Heights from where shots had been fired at Israeli soldiers in a further spillover of the Syrian civil war along a tense front.

It was not immediately clear whether Israel held Syrian troops or rebels responsible for what a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said had been a deliberate attack on Israeli patrols in the occupied territory.   Continue reading “Israel fires into Syria after Golan attack on troops”

Senate Votes to Keep US Out of UN Arms Trade TreatyThe New American – by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.

In the pre-dawn hours Saturday, the Senate approved a measure “to uphold Second Amendment rights and prevent the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty.”

By a vote of 53-46, the Senate passed the amendment to the budget bill sponsored by Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.).   Continue reading “Senate Votes to Keep US Out of UN Arms Trade Treaty”

Barrett BrownThe Guardian – by Glenn Greenwald

Aaron’s Swartz’s suicide in January triggered waves of indignation, and rightly so. He faced multiple felony counts and years in prison for what were, at worst, trivial transgressions of law. But his prosecution revealed the excess of both anti-hacking criminal statutes, particularly the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), and the fixation of federal prosecutors on severely punishing all forms of activism that challenge the power of the government and related entities to control the flow of information on the internet. Part of what drove the intense reaction to Swartz’s death was how sympathetic of a figure he was, but as noted by Orin Kerr, a former federal prosecutor in the DOJ’s computer crimes unit and now a law professor at GWU, what was done to Swartz is anything but unusual, and the reaction to his death will be meaningful only if channeled to protest other similar cases of prosecutorial abuse:   Continue reading “The persecution of Barrett Brown – and how to fight it”

I would like to give a little background information.

My Mother was a very caring and straightforward person, a real person that said what she thought.

When my youngest sibling was being born, the nurses, one on each side held a sheet (Filled with ice packs) up toward my mom’s upper body to prevent birth until the Dr. arrived. My sister was already crowning.   Continue reading “The Price of Medicaid – Everything You Have Left”

Daily Paul – by Bane Maler, 7/12/2010

Early Thursday morning on July 8th, a friend and I were pulled over by police in Round Rock, TX on the way to an Iraq Veterans Against the Wars national convention. The officer Jeff Gogolewski accused my friend of driving 6 over the speed limit. After approaching my passenger window, the officer was quick to ask my friend to step out of the vehicle and come talk to him between it and his patrol car after stating that he didn’t want to talk across the car and over me. This raised my suspicion of the stop and at this point I was tempted to grab my video camera from my travel bag but decided that my opening of the bag would cause the officer to feel threatened.   Continue reading “My Rights Violated By Round Rock Police Department, Texas”

Gun Owners of America

We realize it’s short notice, but we wanted to alert you that, later tonight, Senator Mike Lee of Utah intends to offer an amendment to the budget resolution that would prohibit any gun control legislation which does not have a 2/3 vote in the Senate.

We know, we know. We would prefer to prohibit any and all gun control, even if it had 100 votes.   Continue reading “Senator Lee to Offer Amendment Tonight to Ban Most Gun Control in the Senate”

Sen. Max Baucus, (D-MT) is questioned by media at the U.S. Capitol in Washington December 31, 2012. REUTERS/Mary F. CalvertReuters – by Lisa Lambert

(Reuters) – Legislation allowing states to collect sales taxes on goods sold over the Internet made its way to the Senate floor on Thursday – a sign that a decades-long struggle by states to tax businesses beyond their borders could end this year.

In February, both chambers took up, with bipartisan support, identical bills that would clear the way for states to collect the so-called “Amazon tax.” On Thursday, the Senate debated incorporating the legislation as an amendment to its budget resolution.    Continue reading “State online sales tax bill takes the stage at Senate”

RIA Novosti

WASHINGTON, March 21 (RIA Novosti) – A former Chinese contractor with the NASA appeared in US federal court Thursday, his lawyer said, after he was arrested following an attempt to fly back to China carrying laptops, hard drives and SIM cards in his bags.   Continue reading “Chinese NASA Worker in US Court Over Computer Cache”

Louisiana Supreme CourtNOLA – by Claire Galofaro

An Orleans Parish judge on Thursday ruled that the state statute forbidding certain felons from possessing firearms is unconstitutional, in the wake of a constitutional amendment passed last year that made the right to bear arms a fundamental one in Louisiana. The issue will now go straight to the state Supreme Court, which must decide whether the statute infringes on Louisiana citizens’ now-enhanced right to gun possession.    Continue reading “New Orleans judge rules statute forbidding felons from having firearms unconstitutional after ‘fundamental right’ amendment”

A guard walks through a cellblock inside Camp V, a prison used to house detainees at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, March 5, 2013. REUTERS/Bob StrongReuters – by Jane Sutton and David Alexander

(Reuters) – About 24 Guantanamo prisoners involved in a hunger strike that began six weeks ago are upset by the U.S. government’s failure to close the detention camp and hope to gain publicity for their plight, a Marine Corps general said on Wednesday.

General John Kelly, the head of U.S. military forces in the Latin America region, flatly rejected allegations from some prisoners that copies of the Koran had been mishandled, calling the claims “nonsense.”   Continue reading “Guantanamo hunger strike stems from frustration: U.S. general”

The Foundry – by Ted R. Bromund, Ph.D.

One of the most discussed issues at the U.N.’s Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) conference is whether ammunition should be fully included in the scope of the treaty. Predictably, opinion at the conference is strongly (though not universally) in favor of full inclusion. This mistake illustrates the broader fallacies of the ATT.

Currently, ammunition is included in the draft ATT, but exporters are not required to seek to prevent its diversion to the illicit market. That is because since ammunition is a consumable commodity and is exported in tens of millions of rounds, the methods the U.S. uses to prevent the diversion of F-18s cannot work for ammunition. An importer could simply divert a few thousand rounds and then claim they were shot off in a training exercise.   Continue reading “Is Ammunition a Flash Point in the UN Small Arms Trade Treaty Negotiations?”

Aljazeera – by Nadia Hijab

The schedule for President Barack Obama’s first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories next week has just been released and it is no surprise that the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is not on his travel agenda.

And yet Israel put it on the international agenda less than a month ago with its award of a licence to a US energy firm to explore for oil in the Golan Heights. Oil drilling by the New Jersey-based Genie Energy Ltd in the occupied Golan Heights could well result in a lawsuit claiming that Israel is engaged in an illegal act of pillage as defined inthe Hague Convention. Perhaps Israel is now so used to living off the fat of other people’s land – Palestinian and Syrian soil and water, among other resources – it has seemingly thrown caution to the wind.   Continue reading “Israel, Obama, and other people’s oil”

concept art for cloud servicesFCW – by Frank Konkel

In a move sure to send ripples through the federal IT community, FCW has learned that the CIA has agreed to a cloud computing contract with electronic commerce giant Amazon, worth up to $600 million over 10 years.

Amazon Web Services will help the intelligence agency build a private cloud infrastructure that helps the agency keep up with emerging technologies like big data in a cost-effective manner not possible under the CIA’s previous cloud efforts, sources told FCW.   Continue reading “Sources: Amazon and CIA ink cloud deal”

The Daily Caller – by Caroline May

In a terse exchange with ICE Director John Morton on Tuesday, South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy accused the department head of endangering the safety of Americans with the recent release of over 2,200 illegal immigrant detainees, including aggravated felons.

The exchange, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing entitled “The Release of Criminal Detainees by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Policy or Politics,” got heated as Gowdy assailed the administration’s response to sequestration.   Continue reading “Gowdy presses ICE Director Morton on aggravated felons released”

China, Russia to Stand Together on Missile Defense in AsPacRIA Novosti

BEIJING, March 19 (RIA Novosti) – Russia and China will coordinate their reactions to US plans to boost its missile defense in the Asia-Pacific region, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Tuesday.

The remarks follow Washington’s recent announcement this it has shelved plans for a European-based missile shield in favor of boosting its defenses in Alaska, which would give it coverage from a potential North Korean attack.   Continue reading “China, Russia to Stand Together on Missile Defense in AsPac”

Global Post – by Agence France-Presse

The South Korean military raised its cyber attack warning level Wednesday after computer networks crashed at major TV broadcasters and banks, with initial suspicions focused on North Korea.

The state-run Korea Internet Security Agency said computer networks at three TV broadcasters — KBS, MBC and YTN — as well as the Shinhan and Nonghyup banks had been “partially or entirely crippled”.   Continue reading “S. Korean TV networks, banks suffer suspect cyber attack”