Author: Admin

LA Times – by LAUREN RAAB, SHELBY GRAD

A massive fire in downtown Los Angeles early Monday engulfed an apartment tower under construction, damaged two other buildings and left freeways and roads closed.

The 110 Freeway northbound remains closed, but Caltrans reopened the 101 and 110 southbound at around 4:30 a.m.

More than 250 firefighters are battling the blaze at an apartment tower under construction in the 900 block of Fremont Avenue, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman David Ortiz said.   Continue reading “Massive downtown L.A. fire closes freeways, burns 3 towers”

Time – by Brad Tuttle

It’s no wonder that many are calling for higher gas taxes lately: Gas prices are the cheapest they’ve been in years, so a hike in gas taxes is less likely to drive drivers nuts.

Raising taxes is never popular. But if there was ever a way to make a tax increase more palatable to Americans, it would be with a tax hike that didn’t seem like much of a tax hike. Like, say, one that was optimally planned so that even after the tax increase was instituted, the average household wouldn’t feel like it was paying much more out of pocket than it was in the recent past.   Continue reading “As Gas Prices Go Down, Likelihood of Higher Gas Taxes Goes Up”

NPR

Raucous demonstrations hit Berkeley’s streets for a second straight night as protesters angered by police killings in Missouri and New York clashed with officers, vandalized businesses and even fought with each other, officials said.

Sunday’s protest began peacefully on the University of California, Berkeley, campus but eventually grew rowdy and spilled into Oakland. Activists made their way onto a freeway and blocked traffic.   Continue reading “Peaceful Protest Turns Chaotic In California’s East Bay”

CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) — Boston police say seven or eight young teenagers tried to rob a person in front of a Dorchester KFC on Friday night.

The male victim told police he was approached at 10:20 p.m. by a group of male and female teenagers outside the fried chicken chain at 481 Washington St. He said two young men demanded his cell phone and wallet while pointing a knife at him, according to police.

That’s when the victim said he had to swing a plastic bag with three cans of beer inside at the group to fend them off.   Continue reading “Boston Police: Man Swings Bag Of Beers To Fend Off Teen Robbers”

Thanks to Frost Jack.

Jim.com – by Lysander Spooner

I.  The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation. It has no authority or obligation at all, unless as a contract between man and man. And it does not so much as even purport to be a contract between persons now existing. It purports, at most, to be only a contract between persons living eighty years ago. [This essay was written in 1869.] And it can be supposed to have been a contract then only between persons who had already come to years of discretion, so as to be competent to make reasonable and obligatory contracts. Furthermore, we know, historically, that only a small portion even of the people then existing were consulted on the subject, or asked, or permitted to express either their consent or dissent in any formal manner. Those persons, if any, who did give their consent formally, are all dead now. Most of them have been dead forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy years. and the constitution, so far as it was their contract, died with them. Continue reading “No Treason – The Constitution of No Authority”

ABC News

Two officers were injured as a Northern California protest over police killings turned violent, with protesters smashing windows and throwing rocks and bricks at police, who responded by firing tear gas, authorities said.

Several officers were struck, but there were just two reports of injuries, Berkeley police spokeswoman Jenn Coats said. A Berkeley police officer received hospital treatment for a dislocated shoulder after being hit with a sandbag, while another sustained minor injuries.   Continue reading “Berkeley Protesters Smash Windows; 2 Officers Hurt – Police use tear gas on protesters”

Wall Street Journal – by Dan Frosch

SANTA FE, N.M.—New Mexico has fined the U.S. Energy Department more than $54 million over accidents at the country’s only underground repository for nuclear waste.

The fines, which state officials announced Saturday morning, stem from an underground fire and a radiation leak earlier this year at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, known as WIPP. Nearly two dozen workers were exposed to contamination at the plant, which handles radioactive waste from the nation’s nuclear-weapons program.   Continue reading “New Mexico Fines U.S. $54 Million for Nuclear Accidents”

CNN – by Jim Sciutto and Ben Brumfield

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — Al Qaeda militants killed American hostage Luke Somers and a South African captive in Yemen during a raid conducted by U.S. forces to rescue Somers, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Saturday.

President Barack Obama ordered Friday’s raid because “there were compelling reasons to believe Mr. Somers’ life was in imminent danger,” Hagel said.   Continue reading “Al Qaeda kills hostages during SEALs raid on Yemen, Hagel says”

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Counter Current News

Is anything that corrupt cops get away with surprising any more?

Another story out of Florida comes to us, telling of an off-duty police officer abusing his power by arresting a citizen who he claimed “stole” his parking spot.

Now to be sure, stealing parking spots is not cool. But Clausel Pierre says that he pulled into a parking space at a Deerfield Beach shoe store back in January 2011 and never saw a BSO off-duty officer waiting to pull in.   Continue reading “Man Sues After Being Arrested For ‘Stealing Parking Space’ From Cop”

Washington Free Beacon – by Adam Kredo

The Obama administration is refusing to discuss reports that emerged early Thursday claiming that the White House is considering imposing sanctions on Israel for continuing construction on Jewish homes in Jerusalem.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf dodged several questions on Thursday when confronted with reports that the administration had held secret internal meetings to discuss taking action against Israel for its ongoing building in East Jerusalem.   Continue reading “Reports: Obama Mulling Sanctions on Israel”

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Real Currencies – by Anthony Migchels

The call for a Basic Income is both old and mounting. Success of the scheme is dependent on funding. If it’s some sort of National Dividend, sharing the bounty of the Commons, it’s necessary. If it’s a Marxist tax based redistribution scheme, it’s worse than the disease it’s supposed to heal.

A Basic Income, in whatever form, is very much on the agenda at the moment. And it’s eminently transparent why: growing desperation for economic justice in the face of the blatant centralization of wealth in ever fewer hands. Through Usury, badly exacerbated by the crunch, which saw huge increase of wealth for the 0,001%, while the rest continues to suffer badly.   Continue reading “The Basic Income”

Instructables

This antenna will extend the range of your WiFi or 2.4GHz devices (like surveillance cameras) into many miles and kilometers. A yagi antenna is basically a telescope for radio waves. I tired the pringle can antenna and the Yagi beats it hands down in performance.   Continue reading “Easy to Build WIFI 2.4GHz Yagi Antenna”

The Hill – by Sarah Ferris

Immigration reform champion Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) on Tuesday urged undocumented immigrants to take quick advantage of President Obama’s executive actions giving them temporary legal status.

Speaking in both English and Spanish, he urged those eligible for the new program to also get their paperwork ready for legal status.

“When that door opens, we should have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, with their documents, ready to submit them,” Gutiérrez said at a Capitol Hill press conference. “While Republicans are complaining and bellyaching, we’re going to act.”   Continue reading “Gutiérrez presses ‘millions’ to get documents ready for legal status”

RT

The long-awaited publication of the so-called “CIA torture report” is expected to finally occur early next week, but would-be readers, be warned: according to leaks, the executive summary will be absent any and all use of the word “torture.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), the chair of the United States Senate Intelligence Committee, now says that the public will be able to read the executive summary of her panel’s years-long investigation into the CIA’s use of enhanced interrogation techniques next week, with journalist Jason Leopold reporting that the release of the document will come as early as Monday.   Continue reading “CIA torture report to be published on Monday without the word ‘torture’”

Times of India – by Saibal Dasgupta, TNN

BEIJING: China will stop harvesting organs of prisoners on the death row for organ transplants from January 1 next year. The announcement was made by a former official of the Health Ministry at a seminar with the backing of the government.

Future organ transplants will depend entirely on voluntary donations of organs, Huang Jiefu, former vice-minister of Health said at a seminar organized by the government backed China’s Organ Procurement Organization.   Continue reading “China to stop organ harvesting of prisoners from next year”

Fox News

President Obama has picked former Pentagon official Ashton Carter to be his next secretary of Defense, a White House official confirmed.

The official said Obama would announce his intent to nominate Carter to replace Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel during a Friday morning press conference.

The president’s selection of Carter, 60, who was deputy Defense secretary from October 2011 to December 2013, was widely rumored but not confirmed by the White House until now.   Continue reading “Obama picks former Pentagon official Ashton Carter to be Defense secretary”