From the Trenches World Report
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Sent to us by Money Metals Exchange.
Money Metals Exchange – by Stefan Gleason
The “year that was” brought mostly disappointment to precious metals bulls. Silver prices fell for the third straight year, while gold mostly flat-lined around the $1,200 per-ounce level.
So what about the year to come?
On the one hand, the charts looks ugly. On the other, it is rare for any metal to fall in price four years in a row. Continue reading “Forecast 2015: The Year Ahead in the Money Metals”
NEW YORK – Since the passage of Obamacare, House Speaker John Boehner has been dogged by critics pointing out his investment portfolio has benefited from owning insurance and medical company stocks that have profited from the legislation.
An analysis of Boehner’s current investment holdings includes a number of stocks benefiting from Obamacare in a total portfolio estimated at between $3.5 and $5 million in current market value. Continue reading “Boehner Profits from Obamacare Stocks”
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ABC 7 News – by Darsha Philips, Amy Powell and Hanna Chu
MOORPARK, Calif. (KABC) — Investigators in Ventura County are searching for a man who is suspected of setting his wife on fire in front of their three young children.
Deputies and firefighters responded to the 11800 block of Broadway Road in an unincorporated area of Moorpark at about 3:55 a.m. Monday after a woman called 911 reporting that her husband tried to set her on fire. Continue reading “Search For Man Who Allegedly Set Wife On Fire In Front Of Kids In Moorpark Area”
The son of a hedge fund founder was arrested on Monday and charged with the murder of his father, who was discovered shot to death in his New York apartment over the weekend, police said.
Thomas Gilbert, 70, founder of the Wainscott Capital Partners Fund, was found shot once in the head Sunday afternoon in the bedroom of his Manhattan apartment, police said. Continue reading “N.Y. police arrest son in murder of hedge fund founder”
The Obama administration said Monday it was reviewing its annual $440 million aid package to the Palestinians because of their effort to join the International Criminal Court to pursue war-crimes charges against Israel.
At the same time, however, the U.S. criticized Israel for withholding tens of millions in tax revenues to the Palestinians, saying such a step “raises tensions.” Taken together, the statements reflected Washington trying to come to grips with a Palestinian move it has spent years trying to avert and a peace process that offers no hope for an immediate breakthrough. Continue reading “US Weighs Cutting Aid to Palestinians Over ICC Move”
In the wake of the murder of two New York City police officers and a national debate about policing, the National Fraternal Order of Police is asking for the Congressional hate crimes statute to be expanded to include crimes against police officers. The union has more than 300,000 members.
Violence against police officers that is motivated by anti-police bias should be prosecuted as a hate crime, the nation’s largest police union is arguing in a letter to President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders this week. Continue reading “Police union pushes for cop killings to be included in federal hate crimes law”
U.S. Senator Tom Coburn released his final oversight report on the Department of Homeland Security, which has found major problems in the branch.
The report finds that Homeland Security is not successfully executing any of its five main missions.
“Ten years of oversight of the Department of Homeland Security finds that the Department still has a lot of work to do to strengthen our nation’s security,” Coburn explained. “Congress needs to review the Department’s mission and programs and refocus DHS on national priorities where DHS has a lead responsibility.” Continue reading “Oversight report finds major problems with DHS”
DES MOINES, Iowa – As anyone who has grown up around snow knows, part of the fun of sledding is the risk of soaring off a jump or careening around a tree.
But faced with the potential bill from sledding injuries, some cities have opted to close hills rather than risk large liability claims.
No one tracks how many cities have banned or limited sledding, but the list grows every year. One of the latest is in Dubuque, Iowa, where the City Council is moving ahead with a plan to ban sledding in all but two of its 50 parks. Continue reading “Liability concerns prompt some cities to ban sledding”
Earlier today, when we were conducting a routine check with the Office of the Currency Comptroller’s on the total notional amount of derivatives held at the Big 4 banks in the context of the “JPMorgan break up” story, we found something stunning: using the latest, just released Q3 OCC data, JPMorgan is no longer America’s undisputed derivatives king. Well, it still is at the HoldCo level, where it is number one in terms of notional derivatives with $65.5 trillion, but when one steps a level lower, namely the FDIC-insured commercial bank (the National Association or N.A.) level, something quite disturbing emerges. This: Continue reading “Is Citi The Next AIG: 70 Trillion Reasons Why Citigroup And Congress Scrambled To Pass The Swaps “Push-Out” Rule”
A U.S. hedge fund founder was found shot to death in his Manhattan apartment on Sunday, and New York police are seeking his son for questioning, authorities said.
Thomas Gilbert, 70, founder of the Wainscott Capital Partners Fund, was shot once in the head around 3:30 p.m. EST inside his apartment bedroom, police said in a statement.
“Right now, we’re looking to speak to his son, who was the last person to see him alive,” police spokesman Lieutenant John Grimpel said. He did not identify the son. Continue reading “Hedge fund founder shot dead in New York”
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Ars Technica – by Sean Gallagher
A National Security Agency document published this week by the German news magazine Der Spiegel from the trove provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden shows that the agency had full access to voice, video, text messaging, and file sharing from targeted individuals over Microsoft’s Skype service. The access, mandated by a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court warrant, was part of the NSA’s PRISM program and allowed “sustained Skype collection” in real time from specific users identified by their Skype user names. Continue reading “Newly published NSA documents show agency could grab all Skype traffic”
CINCINNATI — An off-duty police officer accidentally shot himself Saturday on his way back from dinner with his wife in Cincinnati.
Cincinnati police said in a news release that Officer Darryl Jouett of the Erlanger (Ky.) Police Department was in an elevator when he tried to adjust the weapon in his holster and shot himself in the stomach.
The duty-issued .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun discharged and the bullet ricocheted off the walls of the elevator, police said. Continue reading “Off-duty police officer accidentally shoots himself”
CHALLIS, Idaho – A 4.9 magnitude earthquake in a remote Idaho county triggered rock slides that blocked some road lanes Saturday but did not cause any major damage or injuries.
Hours later around midnight, quakes of magnitude 4.0 and 3.6 struck in the same area, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. Continue reading “4.9 magnitude Idaho earthquake triggers rock slides, no injuries”
The Miami New Times has investigated years of Taser use by police officers in South Florida and has found all sorts of problems. Contain your surprise. Reporter Michael E. Miller documents officers using them against the homeless and mentally ill to force compliance, not because the officers are being threatened in any way. And some of them are attempting to conceal their misuse of Tasers from their departments. Continue reading “Being Homeless in Miami May Lead to a Tasering”
Despite the anecdotal evidence plastered daily on financial media channels of a scruffy, young, upstart working from his parents’ basement and creating the next great social, mobile, analytics, cloud app worth a cajillion dollars, from nothing but tween eyeballs, the sad reality is the ‘American Dream’ for young Americans is over. As The WSJ reports, the share of people under age 30 who own private businesses has reached a 24-year-low, according to new data reflecting a generation struggling to find a spot in the workforce. While there are numerous possible reasons, one professors worries about the systemic aspect as “the fear of failure is the measure we should be most concerned about.” Continue reading ““Peak Dream” – The Death Of The Young American Entrepreneur”
The FBI has proven that it can legally dodge even the sparse amount of judicial checks and balances on its ability to search the records of Americans. After being denied twice in FISA Court for an order to collect records from an individual, a secret report reveals that the Bureau subsequently wrote its own order and went through with the surveillance, regardless of the court rejection.
This revelation was found in a recently declassified document, titled “A Review of the FBI’s Use of Section 215 Orders for Business Records in 2006″ (PDF). It was written in 2008 by the DOJ Office of the Inspector General but not declassified until December 2014. Continue reading “FBI bypasses denial in FISA court by writing its own search warrants”
WND – by Jerome R. Corsi
Reuters – by Ellen Wulfhorst
ABC News – by Bradley Klapper
Yahoo News – by Liz Goodwin
Fox News
Fox News
Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden
Reuters
USA Today – by Henry Molski
Fox News
Reason – by Scott Shackford
Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden
Police State USA