Author: Admin

LA Times – by Evan Halper

Tucked deep inside the 1,603-page federal spending measure is a provision that effectively ends the federal government’s prohibition on medical marijuana and signals a major shift in drug policy.

The bill’s passage over the weekend marks the first time Congress has approved nationally significant legislation backed by legalization advocates. It brings almost to a close two decades of tension between the states and Washington over medical use of marijuana.   Continue reading “Congress quietly ends federal government’s ban on medical marijuana”

Yahoo News – by Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s new plan to ease the threat of deportation for 4.7 million undocumented immigrants violates the U.S. Constitution, a federal judge found on Tuesday, handing down the first legal ruling against the plan.

The ruling has no immediate impact, with the government saying there was no reason for Judge Arthur Schwab of the Western District of Pennsylvania to address the issue in the case, which concerns 42-year-old Honduran immigrant Elionardo Juarez-Escobar.   Continue reading “Judge declares Obama immigration action unconstitutional”

RT

Former VP Dick Cheney expressed no regret over CIA torture techniques employed against detainees in the “war on terror,” even as a judge considers forcing the White House to release the remainder of the damning photos.

Cheney was apparently unfazed by the cruel accounts of torture techniques performed by the CIA at various foreign “black sites” as described in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s lengthy investigation.   Continue reading “‘I’d do it again!’ Cheney defends CIA torture, calls interrogators heroes”

ABC News – by Gary Langer

Six in 10 Americans say the CIA’s treatment of suspected terrorists was justified, more than half think it produced important, unique intelligence – and 52 percent say it was wrong for the Senate Intelligence Committee to issue a report suggesting otherwise.

Those results in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll underscore the public’s sense of risk from the threat of terrorism, and specifically the extent to which majorities support controversial measures to combat it. Indeed just two in 10 flatly rule out torture in future cases.   Continue reading “Six in 10 See CIA Actions as Justified As Many Question Committee Report”

ABC New 7

LANSDALE, Pa. — Sister station Action News in Philadelphia has learned that police have found a body amid the search for Bradley Stone, the suspect in the Montgomery County murder spree, and the body has been preliminarily identified as Stone.

The body was found in a wooded area about 200 yards from Stone’s home in Pennsburg, Pa. on Tuesday afternoon.

Sources say Stone is believed to have killed himself. He was found dead on his knees hunched over wearing sand color camouflage.

Sources said it does not appear that he shot himself, but his cause of death is not yet known.   Continue reading “Body Found in Pennsylvania Killing Spree Search; Preliminary ID Is Bradley Stone”

LA Times – by KATE LINTHICUM

One of the nation’s top immigration officials is urging those who are newly eligible for temporary legal status to apply for the program without fear.

Speaking at a conference in Los Angeles on Monday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Leon Rodriguez said he knows that some immigrants in the country without permission may be wary of identifying themselves to the government as part of President Obama’s new program to defer deportations and grant three-year work permits to some immigrants with longtime ties to the U.S.   Continue reading “Immigration official to applicants for temporary status: ‘Don’t worry’”

EAG News – by Kyle Olson

TORONTO – Could there be something more sinister behind the little elf sitting on the shelf who returns to the North Pole each night?

Yes, says Laura Pinto, a digital technology professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.

She recently published a paper titled “Who’s the Boss” on the doll, saying the idea of it reporting back to Santa each night on the child’s behavior “sets up children for dangerous, uncritical acceptance of power structures,” according to insideHalton.com.   Continue reading “Prof: ‘Elf on the Shelf’ conditions kids to accept surveillance state”

Yahoo News – by Pete Yost

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is urging dismissal of a lawsuit that would dismantle the president’s immigration program, an initiative designed to spare nearly 5 million people in the U.S. illegally from deportation.

The case was brought by an Arizona sheriff, Joe Arpaio, who contends that President Barack Obama’s program serves as a magnet for more illegal entries into the U.S. Arpaio says the new arrivals will commit crimes and thus burden his law enforcement resources.   Continue reading “Govt urges dismissal of lawsuit over immigration”

Fox News

WASHINGTON –  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that police officers may use evidence seized during a traffic stop even if the reason the officers pulled the car over was based on a misunderstanding of the state’s law.

In the 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a North Carolina police officer who had stopped a car with a broken brake light – and then found cocaine in the car- even though driving with a faulty brake light isn’t against the law in the state.   Continue reading “Supreme Court: Traffic stop, search OK despite misunderstanding of law”

Seattle PI – by MARYCLAIRE DALE and SEAN CARLIN, AP

PENNSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A woman who told neighbors she feared her ex-husband would kill her was among six people found fatally shot in three suburban Philadelphia homes, and her Marine veteran former husband was on the run.

Suspect Bradley Michael Stone, 35, remained at large early Tuesday, causing one local school district to close schools as a precaution. Residents of nearby communities had been asked to shelter in place temporarily late Monday as an intense manhunt spread to their areas.

His former wife, 33-year-old Nicole Stone, was found dead after a neighbor saw Stone fleeing just before 5 a.m. Monday with their two young daughters.   Continue reading “Search intensifies for gunman who killed 6”

Reuters – by JIBRAN AHMAD

At least 126 people, most of them children, were killed on Tuesday when Taliban gunmen stormed a school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, taking hundreds of students hostage in the bloodiest insurgent attack in the country in years.

Troops surrounded the building and an operation was underway to rescue children still trapped inside, the army said.   Continue reading “Over 120 Pakistanis, mostly children, killed in Taliban high school attack”

Sent to us by Market Daily News

Market Daily News

Chris Ciovacco:  In Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, a reporter with excellent contacts at the Fed, Jon Hilsenrath, penned the following:

Federal Reserve officials are seriously considering an important shift in tone at their policy meeting next week: dropping an assurance that short-term interest rates will stay near zero for a “considerable time” as they look more confidently toward rate increases around the middle of next year.  

Continue reading “What Effects The Fed Could Have On Stocks”

Register Guard

OLYMPIA — About 1,000 gun-rights advocates, many openly carrying rifles and handguns, rallied Saturday outside the Capitol to protest a new expanded gun background check law in Washington state.

Organizers of the “I Will Not Comply” rally promised to exchange and sell firearms without conducting background checks during the daylong rally in opposition to the state’s voter-approved universal background check law.

“We’re going to stand up for our rights,” rally organizer Gavin Seim said. “Our rights are not up for negotiation.”   Continue reading “1,000 protest new Washington gun law”

SF Chronicle

PORTLAND, Ore. — A 22-year-old man arrested in connection with a shooting outside an alternative high school in Portland has ties to a gang, as do two of the victims, police said Saturday.

Sgt. Pete Simpson said Lonzo Murphy is a person of interest in the Friday shooting, but officers aren’t prepared to say whether he was the gunman, Simpson said.   Continue reading “Gang ties cited in school shooting arrest in Portland, Ore.”

USA Today – by Eric J. Lyman

LIMA, Peru — The latest round of United Nations climate talks ended in the early hours of Sunday morning — nearly 33 hours later than scheduled — with a deal that barely kept hopes for a meaningful global agreement next year.

The conference, which started on Dec. 1., had two main goals: to agree to a series of measures aimed at reducing the greenhouse gases scientists say cause climate change in the near term, and to pave the way for an agreement that will include action from all countries by the end of the next edition of the talks, a year from now in Paris.   Continue reading “Deal reached at U.N. climate talks in Peru”

Fox News

The Senate passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill late Saturday that funds the government through next September, averting a partial government shutdown and sending the measure to President Obama’s desk.

The Senate voted 56-40 for the long-term funding bill, the main item left on Congress’ year-end agenda. The measure provides money for nearly the entire government through the end of the current budget year Sept. 30. The sole exception is the Department of Homeland Security, which is funded only until Feb. 27.   Continue reading “Senate passes $1.1 trillion spending bill, averting partial gov’t shutdown”