PHOTO: Duff Watson is seen in this undated photo posted to his Twitter profile. ABC News – by Yazhou Sun

A Minneapolis man said he and his two children were kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight after the father tweeted about a “rude” gate agent who refused to give his kids priority boarding.

The incident happened on Sunday afternoon when Duff Watson was traveling with his two daughters, ages 9 and 6, from Denver to Minneapolis.

“I have been traveling with Southwest for a few years now, and I’m an A-list member,” Watson told ABC News today. “You can board the plane early.”   Continue reading “Family Booted Off Southwest Airlines After Dad Tweeted About ‘Rude’ Gate Agent”

USA Today – by Doug Stanglin

An Air Algerie flight en route to Algiers from Burkina Faso with 116 people aboard — including 50 French citizens — crashed Thursday in northeastern Mali, the airlines said.

The airlines said on its Twitter account that the plane went down about 40 miles from the Malian city of Gao. It did not give any additional details.

“The plane disappeared at Gao (in Mali), (300 miles) from the Algerian border. Several nationalities are among the victims,” Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal was cited as saying by Algerian radio, the French news agency AFP reports.   Continue reading “Air Algerie plane with 116 aboard crashes in Mali”

AP Arizona Execution Drugs_001USA Today – by Michael Kiefer and Mariana Dale, The Arizona Republic

PHOENIX — The Wednesday afternoon execution of convicted murderer Joseph Rudolph Wood III took nearly two hours, confirming concerns that had been raised by his attorneys about a controversial drug used by the state of Arizona.

Wood remained alive at Arizona’s state prison in Florence long enough for his public defenders to file an emergency motion for a stay of execution with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, after the process began at 1:53 p.m. MST. The motion noted that Wood “has been gasping and snorting for more than an hour” after being injected with a lethal cocktail of drugs.   Continue reading “Inmate’s execution takes nearly 2 hours”

Daily Times – Reuters

WASHINGTON: More than 50 former Israeli soldiers have refused to serve in the nation’s reserve force, citing regret over their part in a military they said plays a central role in oppressing Palestinians, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

“We found that troops who operate in the occupied territories aren’t the only ones enforcing the mechanisms of control over Palestinian lives. In truth, the entire military is implicated. For that reason, we now refuse to participate in our reserve duties, and we support all those who resist being called to service,” the soldiers wrote in a petition posted online and first reported by the newspaper.   Continue reading “More than 50 Israeli reservists refuse to serve”

Infowars – by Adan Salazar

By leaving strategic areas along the southern U.S. border unprotected, and by using children as the face of the illegal immigrant surge to elicit public sympathy, the federal government is engaging in a sophisticated military tactic known as “asymmetrical warfare” against the American people, a former U.S. Border Patrol agent is warning.   Continue reading “Former Border Agent: Gov’t Using Immigrant Children For ‘Asymmetrical Warfare’”

RUSSIAN AKM Underfolder RifleAmmoLand

Washington, DC –-(Ammoland.com)- President Obama last week announced new, wide-reaching economic sanctions on Russia in reaction to the situation in Ukraine, including bans that effect direct importations of Russian made Rifles and Handguns.

The restrictions cover certain major financial institutions, energy companies, Russian government leaders and eight arms manufacturers, including the Kalashnikov Concern.   Continue reading “Obama’s Newest Executive Orders Bans Eight Russian Arms Manufacturers”

Breitbart – by Dan Riehl

Brooks County is too far from the border to receive federal funds for illegal immigrants, but from the discovery of mass graves, illegals, including children, who roam aimlessly sometimes until dead from the heat and exhaustion, the current immigration crisis is far from confined to the border.

Zamarripa, 27, is one of 15 reserve deputies brought in to assist the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office, whose four deputies have lately found themselves overwhelmed by 911 calls from migrants stranded on the vast ranches that stretch from here to the horizon in all directions.   

Then there are the bodies of migrants who didn’t make it to retrieve and identify: 42 so far this year.

Continue reading “Texas Town Swamped with Dead Bodies, 911 Calls 70 Miles From the Border”

The Globe and Mail

Pro-Russian rebels have shot down two Ukrainian fighter jets, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military operations said on Wednesday.

The spokesman said the two were downed near Savur Mogila in eastern Ukraine. No details were known about the pilots.

In Donetsk, pro-Russian separatists are leaving their positions on the outskirts of the east Ukrainian city and retreating towards the city centre, Ukrainian military officials said on Wednesday.   Continue reading “Ukrainian jets shot down by pro-Russian rebels”

"A much larger and more dangerous movement": Right-wing militias thrive post-Bundy -- and the media won't talk about itSalon – by Paul Rosenberg

Three months after the standoff at the Cliven Bundy ranch, the Southern Poverty Law Center has issued a report—”War in the West: The Bundy Ranch Standoff and the American Radical Right“—stating what should have been obvious at the time, but which most media coverage utterly obscured: The standoff was not some quirky, standalone event that spontaneously just happened out of the blue. Rather, it was a highly coordinated event reflecting the threat of a larger militia movement, which in turn has drawn together multiple threads of far-right ideology over the course of the last 40 years. Continue reading ““A much larger and more dangerous movement”: Right-wing militias thrive post-Bundy — and the media won’t talk about it”

Breitbart – by Tony Lee

On Saturday, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) said President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was a “down payment” to the Hispanic community before more grants of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Speaking at the National Council of La Raza conference in Los Angeles, Gutierrez said that Obama assured him during a White House meeting with Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus last week that he would be as “generous and broad” as he can to “stop the deportation of our people each and every day.”    Continue reading “Luis Gutierrez to La Raza: Obama Assured Steps to ‘Stop the Deportation of our People’”

Chinese President Xi Jinping visits VenezuelaSent to us by Bob.

BBC News

Chinese President Xi Jinping has signed a series of oil and mineral deals with Venezuela.

They include a $4bn (£2.34bn) credit line in return for Venezuelan crude and other products.

The agreements came on the latest stop of a four-country visit to Latin America.   Continue reading “China’s President Xi Jinping signs Venezuela oil deal”

Star Telegram – by Becky Bohror

JUNEAU, Alaska — The companies pursuing a major liquefied natural gas project in Alaska have applied for an export license with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Securing the authorization is seen as critical for the viability of the mega-project, which the companies say would be the largest of its kind ever designed and built.

The filing was made Friday, but it was announced by the companies on Monday. Participants in the project include BP, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp., TransCanada Corp. and the Alaska Gasline Development Corp.   Continue reading “Consortium in Alaska applies for LNG export license”

Xinhua

TEHRAN, July 19 (Xinhua) — The world powers agreed to unfreeze 2.8 billion U.S. dollars of Iran’s frozen assets over the next four months, Press TV reported on Saturday.

“Over the next four months, 2.8 billion dollars will be deposited into Iran’s account in six installments,” senior nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said on Saturday after the end of the nuclear talks in the Austrian capital Vienna between Iran and the P5+1 group, namely Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany.   Continue reading “Iran to receive 2.8 bln USD in frozen assets”

Palestinians pray at funeralNewsweek

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinian militants on Monday after they crossed the border from Gaza through two tunnels, the military said, as the death toll from the two-week conflict passed 500.

With the U.N. Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire, Israeli jets and tanks continued to pound the Gaza Strip through the night.   Continue reading “U.N. Calls for Gaza Ceasefire as Death Toll Tops 500”

Sinkhole Closes Spring Hill IntersectionFlorida Today

The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office says several homes have been evacuated after a massive sinkhole appeared on Saturday, according to FLORIDA TODAY news partner WTSP-TV in Tampa.

The sinkhole is near the roadway at the intersection of Eldridge Road and Van Allen Way in Spring Hill.

It was initially measured at 25 by 25 feet wide and 30 feet deep, but it quickly grew to become 40 by 40 feet wide.   Continue reading “Massive sinkhole threatens Florida neighborhood”

New York Times – by Stanley Reed

LONDON — Severstal, the Russian steel maker, said on Monday that it had agreed to sell two steel facilities in the United States to two of its American rivals, Steel Dynamics and AK Steel, for more than $2.3 billion.

Severstal invested heavily in the two locations in an international expansion drive before the financial crisis and is now trying to cut costs in an effort to stem losses.   Continue reading “Russia’s Severstal to Sell U.S. Plants to American Steel Makers”

More Than 100 Homes Evacuated After Train DerailsNBC News

Two people were injured and more than a hundred homes were evacuated due to a diesel spill from a train derailment in Wisconsin, according to fire officials.

Slinger Fire Department Chief Rick Hanke said three engines and 10 railcars derailed Sunday night. He said trains from Canadian National Railway Co. and Wisconsin & Southern were involved and that officials are investigating the cause.   Continue reading “More Than 100 Homes Evacuated After Wisconsin Train Derailment”