IRS Demands Businesses Show “Bonafide Reasons” for LayoffsThe New American – by Warren Mass

The IRS will require employers who terminate employees to show that they did so for “bona fide business reasons” in order to be eligible for delaying the ObamaCare health insurance employer mandate.

Under new guidelines announced on February 10, the IRS will delay the mandate until 2016 for medium-sized businesses employing between 50 and 99 people. Businesses with 49 employees or fewer are not required to provide their employees with health insurance coverage under ObamaCare, as the Affordable Care Act is generally called.   Continue reading “IRS Demands Businesses Show “Bonafide Reasons” for Layoffs”

New York Times – by ERIK ECKHOLM

A federal judge on Thursday evening declared that Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, in the strongest legal reversal yet of restrictive marriage amendments that exist throughout the South.

“Our Constitution declares that ‘all men’ are created equal,” wrote Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen of United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in Norfolk. “Surely this means all of us.”   Continue reading “Federal Judge Overturns Virginia’s Same-Sex Marriage Ban”

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Jordan's King Abdullah at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, California February 14, 2014. REUTERS/Kevin LamarqueReuters

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday pledged $1 billion in loan guarantees for Middle East ally Jordan and the renewal of a five-year aid package.

Obama made the announcement while meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah at a summit at a California retreat. Jordan, one of the United States’ closest allies in the Middle East, is a regional player in diplomatic efforts seeking peace in the turbulent region and is one of two Arab countries, the other being Egypt, that has signed a peace treaty with Israel.   Continue reading “Obama pledges $1 billion in loan guarantees for Jordan”

epa_wyosplit.jpgFox News – by Judson Berger

Wyoming officials are taking the Environmental Protection Agency to court in a bid to reverse a sweeping agency ruling that transferred more than 1 million acres of land — including an entire city — to Native American tribes.

Wyoming Attorney General Peter K. Michael filed his state’s appeal Friday morning before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. The state wants either the EPA to reverse, or the courts to overturn, a December ruling on a request from the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes.    Continue reading “Wyoming officials take EPA to court after ruling gives land to tribes”

PemexIB Times – by Meagan Clark

Mexico’s recent oil reform will open up the energy industry from a 75-year-old state monopoly to a stream of private companies, and with them, it’s expected, organized crime.

Mexico’s vast shale-based reserves are some of the world’s largest, according to a recent assessment by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But the shale is also located in precisely the northeastern regions most heavily influenced by the Zetas organized crime group. The Zetas and rivals like the Gulf Cartel have profited from reselling stolen oil and illegal mining operations for years, pocketing about $1.13 billion from the trade in 2012 and the first nine months of 2013, according to a November report by Pemex director Emilio Lozoya. And more than half of the money came in during the last nine months, indicating gangs’ oil profits are rising.   Continue reading “Organized Crime To Profit From Mexican Oil Reform: US Department Of Energy”

ABC News – by DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press

President Barack Obama will offer millions of dollars in federal aid for drought-stricken California during a visit with farmers and ranchers Friday and outline plans to seek $1 billion from Congress to help communities manage the effects of climate change.

California is in the midst of its worst drought in more than 100 years. Obama arrived Friday afternoon in Fresno, where he’ll meet with area farmers and announce more than $160 million in federal financial aid, including $100 million in the farm bill he signed into law last week for programs that cover the loss of livestock.   Continue reading “Obama Turns Attention to California Drought”

The wreckage of a train derailment is seen in the snow near Vandergrift, Pennsylvania February 13, 2014. REUTERS/Jason CohnReuters – by ROBERT GIBBONS AND ELIZABETH DILTS

A 120-car Norfolk Southern Corp train carrying heavy Canadian crude oil derailed and spilled in western Pennsylvania on Thursday, adding to a string of recent accidents that have prompted calls for stronger safety standards.

There were no reports of injury or fire after 21 tank cars came off the track and crashed into a nearby industrial building at a bend by the Kiskiminetas River in the town of Vandergrift.   Continue reading “Train carrying Canadian oil derails, leaks in Pennsylvania”

The 300 acre 'town' includes a five story embassy, a bank, a school, an underground subway and train stationThe Telegraph – by Lucy Kinder

The US army has built a fake city designed to be used during combat training exercises.

The 300 acre ‘town’ includes a five story embassy, a bank, a school, an underground subway and train station, a mosque, a football stadium, and a helicopter landing zone.

Located in Virginia, the realistic subway station comes complete with subway carriages and the train station has real train carriages.   Continue reading “US army builds fake city to shoot at during training”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson delivers a speech in Washington February 7, 2014. REUTERS/Gary CameronThe Daily Caller – by Caroline May

The Department of Homeland Security plans to purchase 75.1 million rounds of ammunition at a cost of $22.7 million this year, according to a newly released report from the Government Accountability Office.

GAO reports that DHS has over 70,000 firearm-carrying personnel and that the ammo purchases go largely to firearm training and qualification requirements.   Continue reading “DHS to purchase 75.1 million rounds of ammunition this year”

Tenth Amendment Center

The movement to thwart NSA spying at the state level continues to grow, with Iowa becoming the 15th state to consider legislation denying support to the spy agency.

On Wednesday, Iowa state Senator Jake Chapman introduced the Fourth Amendment Protection Act. If SF2172  becomes law, the state, it agencies or political subdivisions will not “provide material support for participation with or assistance to, in any form, any federal agency which claims the power, or which purports due to any federal law, regulation, or order, to authorize the collection of electronic data or metadata of any person pursuant to any action not based on a warrant that particularly describes the person, place or thing to be searched or seized.”   Continue reading “Fifteen and Counting: Iowa to consider legislation against NSA spying”

ZeroHedge – by Tyler Durden

At first we thought Reuters had been punk’d in its article titled “EU executive sees personal savings used to plug long-term financing gap” which disclosed the latest leaked proposal by the European Commission, but after several hours without a retraction, we realized that the story is sadly true. Sadly, because everything that we warned about in “There May Be Only Painful Ways Out Of The Crisis” back in September of 2011, and everything that the depositors and citizens of Cyprus had to live through, seems on the verge of going continental. In a nutshell, and in Reuters’ own words, “the savings of the European Union’s 500 million citizens could be used to fund long-term investments to boost the economy and help plug the gap left by banks since the financial crisis, an EU document says.” What is left unsaid is that the “usage” will be on a purely involuntary basis, at the discretion of the “union”, and can thus best be described as confiscation.   Continue reading “Europe Considers Wholesale Savings Confiscation, Enforced Redistribution”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

Ordinarily we would ignore the news of another banker’s death – after all these sad events happen all the time – if it wasn’t for several contextual aspects of this most recent passage. First, the death in question, as reported by the Stamford Daily Voice is that of Ryan Henry Crane, a Harvard graduate, who is survived by his wife, son and parents at the very young age of 37. Second, Ryan Henry Crane was formerly employed by JPMorgan – a bank which was featured prominently in the news as recently as two weeks ago when another of its London-based employees committed suicide by jumping from the top floor of its Canary Wharf building. Third: Crane was an Executive Director in JPM’s Global Program Trading desk, founded in 1999 by an ex-DE Shaw‘er, a function of the firm which is instrumental to preserving JPM’s impeccable and (so far in 2013) flawless trading record of zero trading losses.   Continue reading “Another JPMorgan Banker Dies, 37 Year Old Executive Director Of Program Trading”

By John McNamer

    Why has it ever even bothered me that many thousands of people have been kidnapped and illegally rendered to CIA dark sites to be sometimes tortured to death or held for many years without any legitimate legal process?

   That the use of “intelligence” information obtained from torture, well known to be mostly unreliable and useless, is now the norm for the supposedly civilized western nations of the world?   Continue reading “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Torture, plus the illegal invasions, the summary executions, and the surveillance state”

De Blasio pushes ID cards for illegal immigrants in speechNew York Post – by Yoav Gonen and Beth DeFalco

Following through on a campaign pledge, Mayor de Blasio said Monday that he’ll push to create municipal ID cards so illegal immigrants don’t have to “live their lives in the shadows.”

While the cards would be available to all New Yorkers, they would be aimed at undocumented immigrants who don’t have access to bank accounts, library cards and even memberships at Costco because they can’t produce official photo ID.   Continue reading “De Blasio pushes ID cards for illegal immigrants in speech”

Washington Post – by Paul Kane, Robert Costa and Ed O’Keefe

The House approved a year-long suspension of the nation’s debt limit Tuesday in a vote that left Republicans once again ceding control to Democrats after a collapse in support for an earlier proposal advanced by Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio).

In a narrow vote, 221 to 201, just 28 Republicans joined nearly all Democrats to approve a “clean” extension of the government’s borrowing authority — one without strings attached — sending the measure to the Senate for a final vote, probably this week.   Continue reading “House passes ‘clean’ debt-ceiling bill, ending two-week showdown”