Oil Price – by John Daly

The British police are probing an allegation that a $1.3 billion Nigerian oil bloc deal involving Royal Dutch Shell and Italy’s Eni SpA may have involved money laundering. Most of the money was allegedly paid to a company linked with Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum Dan Etete. Nigerian President General Sani Abacha appointed Etete Minister of Petroleum in March 1995 and he served in that role until 1998, when he went into exile following Abacha’s death. In 2007 Etete was convicted of money laundering in France.   Continue reading “British Police Investigating $1.3 Billion Shell, ENI Nigerian Oil Corruption”

sodaban640.jpgFox News

Another court ruling has taken the fizz out of New York City’s ban on big, sugary sodas.

A New York appeals court on Tuesday ruled that the city Board of Health exceeded its legal authority and acted unconstitutionally when it tried to put a size limit on soft drinks served in city restaurants.    Continue reading “Appeals court rules against NYC soda ban”

SC Magazine – by Juha Saarinen

A team of university students have demonstrated that it is possible to subvert global positioning system navigation signals to pilot a superyacht without tripping alarms.

The experiment was conducted in June this year, with the permission of the owners of a 65-metre (213ft) superyacht worth US$80 million (A$87 million), the White Rose that sailed from Monaco to the island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean.   Continue reading “Students hijack luxury yacht with GPS spoofing”

Not your average jail: Inmates can transfer to Fremont Jail from anywhere in the state, provided they can afford the fancy new digsDaily Mail – by Ryan Gorman

California prisoners in one town are now able to upgrade their digs if they’ve got deep enough pockets.

Fremont, CA recently began charging inmates $155 a night to stay in a previously unused jail. The program is pay-as-they-go and provides a few perks that might be worth the cost to a few discerning inmates.   Continue reading “California prison is charging inmates $155 to upgrade to fancy wing with widescreen TV and ‘quiet surroundings’”

Tragic: Kali Hardig, 12, is in critical condition after contracting a rare amoebic meningitis after she swam in a lake at a water park last weekDaily Mail – by MICHAEL ZENNIE

A 12-year-old girl is fighting for her life in critical condition after contracting a rare and extremely deadly brain-eating amoeba while swimming at an Arkansas water park.

Kali Hardig is the second person to have come down with primary amoebic meningoencephalitis in three years after swimming in the sandy-bottom lake at Willow Springs Water Park near Little Rock, Arkansas.    Continue reading “Girl, 12, in critical condition after contracting deadly brain eating amoeba while swimming at water park”

Washington’s Blog

Energy Markets Are Manipulated

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says that JP Morgan has massively manipulated energy markets in  California and the Midwest, obtaining tens of millions of dollars in overpayments from grid operators between September 2010 and June 2011.   Continue reading “Big Banks Manipulated Energy Markets In California and the Midwest … Ripping Off Tens of Millions of Dollars in 9 Months”

AlterNet – by Rose Bouboushian, Courthouse News

Pittsburgh SWAT officers must face claims that they raided a family’s home, violently dragged a child from the bathtub, and “terrorized” them at gunpoint, a federal judge ruled.

Georgeia Moreno and her family sued Pittsburgh, its police chief and 14 police officers in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.   Continue reading “Lawsuit: SWAT Officers Dragged 10-Year-Old from Bathtub, Made Him Stand Naked Next to 4-Year-Old Sister, Terrorized Family”

Fox News

WASHINGTON –  Police have arrested a woman in the splattering of green paint inside two chapels at the Washington National Cathedral and are trying to determine if she has any connection to two similar incidents on the National Mall.

Police say 58-year-old Jiamei Tian was arrested Monday inside the cathedral shortly after the paint was found and charged with defacing property. Assistant D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said investigators were hoping to question her about the vandalism on the Mall, including at the Lincoln Memorial, but a language barrier was complicating those efforts.   Continue reading “Police: Woman arrested in green paint vandalism at Washington National Cathedral”

oaklandNatural News – by Mike Adams

Forget “gun control.” That’s old news. The city of Oakland, California now wants to ban any object that could be used as a “tool of vandalism,” including hammers, wrenches, slingshots, shields and presumably anything else with a blunt edge such as garden rakes or sticks.

It’s all part of Oakland’s response to recent protests in which angry mobs of people caused significant damage to local businesses (because angry mobs tend to loot and burn their own neighborhoods first).   Continue reading “Oakland to ban hammers, wrenches, tripods, walking canes, shields and other ‘tools of vandalism’ in bizarre Orwellian disarmament push”

livingston county man police standoffLivingston Daily – by Lisa Roose-Church

3:50 p.m. UPDATE –– An Oceola Township man was arraigned this afternoon after a more than seven-hour police standoff and the alleged choking of his girlfriend.

Michael George Porr, 43, is charged with assault with intent to commit great bodily harm less than murder, interfering with electronic communication, interfering with a crime report, and animal cruelty.     Continue reading “Livingston County, Michigan man arraigned after 7-hour police standoff”

Victor Ruiz tow truckHuffington Post – by David Moye

It’s hard enough being a parent these days without having your kids taken by a tow truck driver.

And it’s even worse when you’re slapped with child abandonment charges as a result.

That’s the parental predicament being faced by Victor Ruiz, who cops say parked his car in a no-parking zone outside his Houston apartment Thursday and left his two young daughters in the car while he took his groceries inside.   Continue reading “Victor Ruiz Arrested After Tow Truck Tows Away Kids”

fema-truckSHTF Plan – by Mac Slavo

It’s no secret that the U.S. government has been domestically stockpiling unimaginable amounts of ammunition and weapons. So much ammunition, in fact, that it surpasses even what the military uses on a yearly basis in the mid east theaters of war.

All of these arms and ammunition are being transported within the borders of the United States by third-party truck drivers contracted by the Department of Homeland Security, and some of these drivers are reportedly foreign born originating from countries like Russia and Poland.   Continue reading “FEMA Insider: A Large Number of Truck Drivers Have Vanished While Delivering Weapons, Grenades, Ammo”

Press TV

An American investigative journalist says the US National Security Agency “possesses highly embarrassing communications” of some members of Congress, using the records to “blackmail” the lawmakers.

Wayne Madsen said a hearing on the NSA’s spying programs scheduled to be held at Congress on Wednesday is just “for public consumption.”   Continue reading “NSA ‘blackmails’ members of Congress”

NBC News Chicago

A 95-year-old resident of an Illinois nursing home died early Saturday, hours after being shocked with a Taser and bean bag rounds in a confrontation with police.

Authorities said John Warna was a resident at Victory Centre of Park Forest, on the 100 block of South Main Street in the south suburb. He was threatening paramedics and staff with a cane and a metal shoehorn when police arrived at the complex, they said.   Continue reading “Nursing home resident dead after confrontation with police”

National Review – by Eliana Johnson

In order to ensure Americans understand how to access the benefits available to them when many provisions of the Affordable Care Act go online October 1, the Obama administration announced last month that it is setting up a call center that will be accessible to Americans 24 hours a day.

One branch of that call center will be located in California’s Contra Costa County, where, reportedly, 7,000 people applied for the 204 jobs. According to the Contra Costa Times, however, “about half the jobs are part-time, with no health benefits — a stinging disappointment to workers and local politicians who believed the positions would be full-time.” The county supervisor, Karen Mitchoff, called the hiring process “a comedy of errors” and said she “never dreamed [the jobs] would be part-time.”   Continue reading “Obamacare Call Center Will Not Offer Health-Care Benefits to Employees”

flaaptshooting12.jpgFox News

Seven people were killed, including the gunman, in an overnight shooting at a South Florida apartment building, authorities said.

Police Sgt. Eddie Rodriguez told Fox News that the gunman was shot dead by a SWAT team following a standoff at a five-story building in Hialeah, just a few miles north of Miami.   Continue reading “Gunman among 7 dead in Florida apartment shooting”

The Insitu ScanEagle model of UAV approved for commercial use in the U.S. is based on a design similar to the one in this photo taken on the HMCS Regina during Operation ARTEMIS in the Arabian Sea in November 2012. CBC

Federal regulators in the the U.S. say they have certified two types of unmanned aircraft for civilian use, a milestone expected to lead to the first approved commercial drone operations in the U.S. later this summer.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday the drones, officially named unmanned air vehicles (UAV) or unmanned air systems (UAS), are Insitu’s Scan Eagle X200 and AeroVironment’s PUMA.   Continue reading “Drones to fly U.S. skies, FAA approves 1st civilian UAVs”