hamptons land $120,000Huffington Post – by Hunter Stuart

If this isn’t the definition of the “1 Percent,” we don’t know what is.

A Manhattan financier recently purchased a strip of land 12 inches wide in New York’s affluent tony Hamptons region for$120,000, according to multiple sources. And he reportedly did it just to keep his neighbor from walking on his property to get to the beach.   Continue reading “Hamptons Foot-Wide Strip Of Land Sells For $120,000”

MLive – by Gary Ridley

VIENNA TWP, MI – A father walked into Edgerton Elementary in Vienna Township on Wednesday to pick up his daughter with a loaded gun strapped at his waist.

It was perfectly legal – albeit unnerving for school officials who asked Kenneth Herman, 31, to wait outside.

Herman said he has open-carried his firearm previously at the school without incident and will continue to do so.   Continue reading “Clio father legally takes loaded gun into elementary school”

The Wall Street Journal – by Sean Gardiner

A New York Police Department officer and two of his brothers were arrested for allegedly trafficking high-powered firearms out of the United States and into the Philippines, federal law-enforcement officials announced on Friday.

Rex Maralit, a 44-year-old officer assigned to police headquarters in Lower Manhattan, was arrested on charges of conspiring with his brothers to violate the Arms Export Control Act and engage in unlicensed firearms dealing, law-enforcement officials said.   Continue reading “New York Police Officer Arrested For Trafficking Illegal Guns”

parks.JPGCleveland – The Plain Dealer – by John Caniglia

OBERLIN, Ohio — Oberlin, a bastion of liberalism, is bracing itself to deal with a state gun law that many residents and officials oppose.

City Council is reluctantly mulling a change to its law that prevents firearms in city parks, as it conflicts with an Ohio statute that permits guns in most public places, including parks. If City Council does not rescind the measure, gun owners can take the city to court. Cleveland lost a similar fight over a guns-rights issue in 2010.  Continue reading “Oberlin’s law on firearms in parks makes city a target for gun litigation”

Round Rock police chief announces retirementKVUE – Austin News

ROUND ROCK, Texas — Round Rock’s chief of police is retiring.

According to the City of Round Rock, RRPD Chief Tim Ryle, 54, will retire in early 2014. He’s a 31-year veteran of local law enforcement and is a third-generation police officer.   Continue reading “Round Rock police chief announces retirement”

Clinton Herald – by John Toole

DERRY, N.H. — Gun Rights Across America, a gun owners organization, has called for a nationwide demonstration by every gun owner in the country on Oct. 19 to highlight what it calls the right of citizens to own arms under the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

“We want you to strap on a holstered handgun to your hip, and give one hour of your day to make our presence as law-abiding gun owners known,” the group said.   Continue reading “Gun group organizing nationwide rally”

Keystone pipeline jobsJournal Star – by Jim Snyder and Jim Efstathiou JR.

BUFFALO, S.D. — If the Keystone XL oil pipeline gets built, Rick Balcom doubts he’ll see many construction workers at the bar of his No. 3 Saloon in this remote town in the northwest corner of South Dakota.

Balcom, 44, knows most of the workers building the Canada-Nebraska pipeline will stay at a catered “man camp” seven miles away and won’t be hoisting brews under the stuffed mountain lion that adorns his bar. On their days off, they’ll probably travel to places such as Deadwood and Spearfish, an hour-and-a-half drive south, that offer gambling and other attractions, he said.   Continue reading “Keystone XL seen as no local job starter where workers wanted least”

The New York Times – by David M. Herszenhorn

MOSCOW — Russia’s foreign minister dismissed as unconvincing the evidence presented by Secretary of State John Kerry of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government, saying on Monday that the United States had fallen far short of making a case for international cooperation on military strikes against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.     Continue reading “Russia Rejects U.S. Evidence on Syrian Chemical Attack”

Vladimir Putin 1/9/13The Guardian

Russia is sending a reconnaissance ship to the eastern Mediterranean as the US prepares for a possible military strike in Syria, it was reported on Monday.

The Priazovye left Russia’s naval base in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Sevastopol late on Sunday on a mission “to gather current information in the area of the escalating conflict”, said an unidentified military source quoted by the Interfax news agency. The defence ministry declined to comment.   Continue reading “Russia sends spy ship as US prepares for possible Syria strike”

New York Times – by DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

MOSCOW — Countries often issue travel advisories warning citizens of danger abroad: war, for instance, or a terrorist threat or an outbreak of disease. The Russian Foreign Ministry posted advice of a somewhat different nature on Monday, cautioning people wanted by the United States not to visit nations that have an extradition treaty with it.

“Warning for Russian citizens traveling internationally,” the Foreign Ministry bulletin said. “Recently, detentions of Russian citizens in various countries, at the request of American law enforcement, have become more frequent — with the goal of extradition and legal prosecution in the United States.”   Continue reading “Russia Issues Travel Warning to Its Citizens About United States and Extradition”

TransCanada wins Texas court battle over Keystone XL pipelineLauren Krugel, Canadian Press I will continue to proudly stand up for my own personal rights, the property rights of my family, and those of other Texans fighting to protect their landCALGARY — A Texas judge has ruled against a landowner who wants to prevent TransCanada Corp. from building an oil pipeline across her land.Julia Trigg Crawford was trying to challenge TransCanada’s status as a common carrier — a label that would give the Calgary-based pipeline company the right to eminent domain, enabling it to seize private property for the project.In a decision late Wednesday, Lamar County Court-at-law judge Bill Harris ruled that TransCanada is a common carrier.In a statement, Crawford vowed to keep fighting.“I will continue to proudly stand up for my own personal rights, the property rights of my family, and those of other Texans fighting to protect their land,” she said.The company welcomed the ruling.RelatedTransCanada gets permit for Keystone pipeline’s southern leg as profit fallsWarren Buffett backs Keystone XL pipeline“This ruling reaffirms that TransCanada has — and continues — to follow all state and federal laws and regulations as we move forward with the construction of the Gulf Coast Project,” company spokesman James Millar said in an email.Jane Kleeb of the group Bold Nebraska, which has been fighting TransCanada’s pipeline plans, calls the ruling an “affront to landowners’ liberties.”“TransCanada has used its financial and legal resources to bully landowners like Julia Trigg Crawford in order to clear the way for their multibillion-dollar tar sands pipeline,” Kleeb said in a release.“Throughout the process, landowners have been cast aside and their concerns about land and water ignored.”The US$2.3-billion pipeline between Oklahoma and refineries on the Texas Coast had been part of TransCanada’s Keystone XL proposal to ship Alberta oilsands crude to the Gulf Coast.But the company decided earlier this year to break that project into two parts after the Obama administration rejected it in its entirety — not based on the merits of the pipeline itself, but because Republican manoeuvring to speed up the process would not have allowed sufficient time to address ecological concerns in Nebraska.TransCanada aims to have the Gulf Coast Project, which does not need a federal permit to proceed as it doesn’t cross an international border, up and running by mid- to late-2013. It has all the approvals it needs from the Army Corps of Engineers.Meanwhile, it has submitted a new application for permit to build the northern portion of the pipeline, which would run from the Canada-U.S. border in Montana to Nebraska. TransCanada expects that segment to be in service in late 2014 or early 2015.The OGM – by Lauren Krugel, Canadian Press

CALGARY — A Texas judge has ruled against a landowner who wants to prevent TransCanada Corp. from building an oil pipeline across her land.

Julia Trigg Crawford was trying to challenge TransCanada’s status as a common carrier — a label that would give the Calgary-based pipeline company the right to eminent domain, enabling it to seize private property for the project.   Continue reading “TransCanada wins Texas court battle over Keystone XL pipeline”

TransCanada worker welds section of Keystone XL pipeline near Winnsboro.Texas Observer – Priscila Mosqueda

On a Wednesday in late June, Evan Vokes packed his only pair of shorts in a suitcase and boarded a plane to Dallas, happy to trade the chill of Calgary, Canada, for a Texas summer. Over the next four days, he’d travel by car and a low-flying Cessna from Paris south to Beaumont, following the route of the Keystone XL pipeline, slated to bring oil from the Canadian tar sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast. Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of arcane pipeline regulations, Vokes came to check out claims from landowners that his former employer—Canadian company TransCanada—was botching the job on the pipeline.   Continue reading “Whistleblower, Landowners: TransCanada is Botching the Job on Keystone XL Pipeline”

March brings together gun rights proponents News Journal – by Angela Ward

Carrying rifles and shotguns, proponents of open carry laws marched through downtown Longview on Saturday morning.

About 130 people participated in the march, which ended on the Gregg County Courthouse lawn.

“Our rights have been respected, and we’re going to exercise them as free men,” said organizer Stephen Lee.

While middle-aged men made up the bulk of the group, there also were young families with small children, as well as women and elderly residents.   Continue reading “Longview, Texas march brings together gun rights proponents”

The Independent – by Rob Williams

Six British soldiers have been arrested in New York after an off-duty police officer was allegedly beaten up and robbed outside a bar.

A court in Manhattan heard that the Royal Regiment of Scotland soldiers allegedly punched an NYPD officer to the floor and continued hitting him as a friend attempted to stop them.   Continue reading “British soldiers held for ‘attack’ on New York police officer after alleged racial slur”

The Daily Beast – by Abby Haglage

In the wake of 9/11, the NYPD launched a huge surveillance program. In the new book Enemies Within, Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman detail the radical counterterrorism plan that destroyed the city’s privacy.

While peering out onto the burning rubble at Ground Zero in the days after September 11, Ray Kelly (then an executive at Bear Stearns) had an epiphany: “The NYPD needs its own intelligence unit.” If the federal government continued to hold a monopoly on nationwide intelligence information, he theorized, the NYPD would simply be “waiting to respond to the next [terrorist] attack” and “helpless to prevent it.” Sworn in as New York City police commissioner just four months later in January 2002, the former Wall Streeter made it his mission to ensure that the NYPD would have the power—and intelligence—to stop something like this from happening on NYC soil again.   Continue reading “9 Secrets of the NYPD’s Spy Unit Revealed in ‘Enemies Within’”

Gobsmacked: Jamie O'Connell had to look twice after spotting the obscene hand gesture in the skyDaily Mail – by STUART WOLEDGE

The National Lottery’s ‘It Could Be You’ advertising campaign was one of the most recognizable of its time, where a cloud formed the shape of a hand and pointed to an unsuspecting winner.

The cloud’s over Fort William in Scotland came up with their own take on the idea, when they formed the shape of a hand and made the sort of gesture that suggested its photographer, Jamie O’Connell, probably need not bother buying a ticket this week.   Continue reading “There’s a message in there somewhere! Dog-walker snaps amazing photo of cloud formation giving him the FINGER”

New York Post – by Emily Miller

No one has done more for gun rights in the past two years than Mayor Bloomberg.

Oh, he didn’t mean to. Bloomberg has used his political clout and a significant amount of his fortune to try to chip away at the Second Amendment. He is never more self-righteous and condescending than when he talks about guns.   Continue reading “Mayor Bloomberg is the best friend of 2nd Amendment advocates”

New York Daily News – by Glen Blain

The Adirondack Challenge  was announced by Gov. Cuomo earlier this year as a way to bring  much-needed tourism to upstate New York, with the big draw being Gov. Cuomo taking on other elected officials – including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg –  in raft races.

It seems, however, that most of the public will only get to see those raft races on television.    Continue reading “Raft Race Between Gov. Cuomo And Mayor Bloomberg A Media Only Event”

Guides from the North Creek Rafting Company paddle whitewater clients down the Indian River on their way to the Hudson River.DenPubs – by Bill Quinlivan

Indian Lake — Indian Lake Town Supervisor Brian Wells announced during the July 8 Town Board meeting that a New York Daily News article published that day was devoted to the fact that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be taking part in the Adirondack Challenge, racing against Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a whitewater raft.

Bloomberg and Cuomo are expected to be competing with six-member teams here Monday, July 22, a day after the Governor’s Invitational Whitewater Race on the Indian River for the governor and other elected officials and invited guests, according to officials in the governor’s press office. And the Daily News story, written by Kenneth Lovett, states that the race between the governor and the mayor will take place on Indian Lake. However, press office officials said July 11 this was a reporting error and the two teams will be racing whitewater rafts on the Indian River, not flatwater. Continue reading “NYC mayor to paddle in Adirondack Challenge”

Photo: Wikimedia CommonsThe New York World – by Jeff Morganteen

On Tuesday afternoon, the New York Police Department released an outside review of the department’s controversial crime statistics reporting program known as CompStat, with little advance notice. John Eterno, a retired NYPD captain and criminal justice professor who wrote a book on CompStat abuses, has a feeling why.

“You have to get into this report,” Eterno said Tuesday night. “If you read the whole thing, you see a lot of alarm bells in there. That’s why the report is dated on April, and the report doesn’t come until the week of the Fourth of July. They’re trying to just sneak this thing through.”   Continue reading “What The CompStat Audit Reveals About The NYPD”