Author: Admin

Mail Tribune – by Mark Freeman

A Monday afternoon wildfire roared through part of the Northern California city of Weed, burning more than 100 structures and leading to the evacuation of more than 1,500 people and a three-hour closure of Interstate 5 before firefighters quelled the flames.

The Boles fire was more than 400 acres and 0 percent contained late Monday night. The destroyed or damaged structures in and around Weed included Roseburg Forest Products mill buildings and at least one church, according to the California Department of Forestry.   Continue reading “Fast-growing wildfire burns 100 homes in Weed, Calif.”

New York Times – by JONATHAN WEISMAN

WASHINGTON — The House will likely vote Wednesday to grant President Obama the authority to train and equip Syrian rebels to battle the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but Republicans will insist on a detailed accounting of how the program fits into a broader strategy to defeat the militants, Republican aides said Monday.

House Republican leaders plan to offer the ISIS legislation as an amendment to a broader bill to keep the government funded into December and the Export-Import Bank open through June. The Senate would try to pass the bill by the end of the week.   Continue reading “House Expected to Vote on Training Syrian Rebels to Fight ISIS”

Yahoo News – by Julie Pace

The United States would retaliate against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s air defenses if he were to go after American planes launching airstrikes in his country, senior Obama administration officials said Monday.

Officials said the U.S. has a good sense of where the Syrian air defenses, along with their command and control centers, are located. If Assad were to use those capabilities to threaten U.S. forces, it would put his air defenses at risk, according to the officials, who insisted on anonymity in order to discuss the administration’s thinking on the matter.   Continue reading “AP Sources: US would retaliate against Assad”

Huffington Post – by Joseph Erbentraut

A professor who left his position at another school to join the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign — only to see his job offer abruptly retracted as a result of social media posts criticizing Israel’s role in the Gaza conflict — has publicly addressed the controversy for the first time.

At a Tuesday press conference on the UIUC campus, Steven Salaita detailed the personal hardships his job offer’s termination — just two weeks before his proposed start date — caused for him and his family. He also chided the the school’s chancellor and board of trustees for setting what he calls a “perilous standard.”   Continue reading “Professor Who Lost Job Over Anti-Israel Tweets: University Setting A ‘Perilous Standard’”

CNS News – by Susan Jones

Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday announced an effort to counter “violent extremism” by spurring “local engagement” in cities across the country.

He did not offer specifics, but it sounds like he wants law enforcement and community leaders to meet regularly, to share information on people who may have traveled overseas to join ISIS, or on people who may be plotting attacks right here in the U.S.   Continue reading “Holder Announces Pilot Programs to Counter ‘Violent Extremism’”

Sent to us by a reader.

The Daily Bell – With Anthony Wile

Introduction: Ron Holland is a contributing editor to several newsletters dealing with political and investing topics and author of several books, including Escape the Pension Trap. Originally from North Carolina, Ron lived in Geneva from 2003 to 2004 and divided his time between the US and Europe until 2012 when he moved to Toronto. Ron has developed and introduced several innovative investment products to investors in the US, including the first Swiss-franc denominated variable annuity portfolio licensed in the US.    Continue reading “For Freedoms Sake, No More Mr. Nice Guy”

Yahoo News

BLOOMING GROVE, Pa. (AP) — Two troopers were ambushed outside a state police barracks in northeastern Pennsylvania during a late-night shift change, leaving one dead and another injured, and authorities were searching Saturday for the suspect or suspects, state police said.

One trooper was leaving the barracks in Pike County’s Blooming Grove and another was arrived when shots were fired just before 11 p.m. Friday, State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said. He confirmed that one trooper was killed and the other was injured and taken to Geisinger Medical Center in Scranton, where he was in stable condition.   Continue reading “State police: Trooper shot dead outside barracks”

Amsterdam News – by Herb Boyd

Nothing leaped from Police Commissioner Bill Bratton’s mouth like the words “Chokeholds are not illegal,” during his oversight appearance Monday before the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety.

This was a stunning revelation after it’s been reported again and again by the media that chokeholds have been illegal in the NYPD since 1993 or 1994, depending on the source.

“Illegal” may be the troubling word here and not seen as the same as “banning” by Bratton. Chokeholds been prohibited by the NYPD since Anthony Baez was killed in a chokehold by Office Francis Livoti in 1994.   Continue reading “‘Chokeholds not illegal,’ Bratton says”

Sent to us by Robert Byrne

WND – by Leo Hohmann

President Obama’s Homeland Security chief may have let the cat out of the bag about the real reason for Obama’s decision to delay plans to declare amnesty for 5 million immigrants living illegally in the U.S.

DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, in a meeting Wednesday with the influence-wielding Council on Foreign Relations, indicated the president didn’t want to add fuel to an already burning fire of conservative anger over illegal immigration before this November’s critical mid-term elections. To do so might cause a repeat of the historic Democrat losses of 1994 and 2010.   Continue reading “Homeland Security Chief Drops Amnesty Bombshell”

Infowars – by Kit Daniels

The Department of Homeland Security has fined an American and a Canadian $5,000 each for crossing the U.S./Canada border, fines which are never assessed on thousands of illegal aliens who are detained by Border Patrol daily.

The two men, a 40-year-old American and a 44-year-old Canadian, were walking down a dirt road with mountain bikes near the border when they were approached by a Border Patrol agent.   Continue reading “DHS Fines American – But Not Illegals – $5,000 For Crossing Border”

Breitbart – by Tony Lee

Just days before his company’s value topped $200 billion, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg went to Mexico and pushed for amnesty legislation at billionaire and New York Times minority owner Carlos Slim’s charity event.

Zuckerberg was reportedly in Mexico City last Friday as a “keynote speaker” at Slim’s “annual Telmex Foundation charity event,” where he “criticized the current state of the U.S. immigration system. “   Continue reading “Zuckerberg Pushes Amnesty At Billionaire Carlos Slim’s Charity Event In Mexico”

BBC News

Russia has warned that US air strikes against militants in Syria would be a “gross violation” of international law.

A Russian foreign ministry spokesman said any such action, without the backing of the UN, would be “an act of aggression”.

It comes as US Secretary of State John Kerry meets Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia to try to build a coalition against Islamic State (IS) militants.   Continue reading “Russia warns US against strikes on Islamic State in Syria”

Fox 4 KC

NEW YORK — The public will soon get a broader glimpse at the still-secretive world of government data collection.

Yahoo said Thursday it won release of 1,500 pages of documents filed in a secret surveillance court. It said the documents stem from an unsuccessful lawsuit it brought in 2008 challenging the government’s right to demand user information.

The company won a victory last year when portions of previously-closed documents were ordered public. As it noted Thursday, disclosures from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court are “extremely rare.”   Continue reading “You will soon get a glimpse at secretive government data collection process”

Reuters

An overnight fire that destroyed two buildings in an industrial area of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and forced about 400 residents to evacuate, also may have polluted a popular fishing area, officials said on Friday.

The blaze, which began Thursday evening, sent several fireballs into the air as superheated drums of perfume and other chemicals exploded inside the Rowayton Trading Co, the city fire department said in a statement.   Continue reading “Bridgeport, Connecticut, industrial fire forces hundreds to evacuate”

USA Today – by Doug Stanglin

The U.S.Navy was searching Friday for one of two pilots whose F/A-18 Hornets crashed while flying off the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in the western Pacific.

The guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill and the guided-missile destroyer USS Gridley, along with helicopters, joined the search for the missing pilot.

The second pilot, who was rescued, was being treated aboard the aircraft carrier, the Navy said in a statement. Neither pilot was identified.   Continue reading “Pilot missing after 2 Navy Hornets crash in Pacific”

Tech Dirt – by Mike Masnick

We recently wrote about the ongoing delays in releasing a (heavily redacted) executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s torture regime following 9/11. That was linked to a Reuters story about how the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee still can’t agree on what to redact. However, I’d totally missed a line at the end of that Reuters piece that Kevin Gosztola calls to our attention. It’s where Reuters reporter Patricia Zengerle decides to not call torture “torture,” but rather “physically stressful interrogation.”   Continue reading “Reuters Downplays CIA Torture As Merely ‘Physically Stressful Interrogation Techniques’”

Fox News – by Hollie McKay

Emails within a tight circle of academics at an exclusive university just outside Boston founded by American Jews reveal a long-standing and vehement anti-Israel bias and anger at Fox News and a human rights advocate who renounced her Muslim faith.

Thousands of messages on a Brandeis University ListServ obtained by conservative students and reviewed by FoxNews.com were hyperbolic in their condemnation of Israel, regarding the recent fighting in Gaza and prior conflicts with the Palestinians. Accusations that Israel has committed war crimes and “holocaustic ethnic cleansing” against Palestinians appear in the messages from academics at the school.    Continue reading “Brandeis faculty emails reveal anti-Israel bias”