Author: Angel - NYC

Huffington Post

WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) – The most extensive study yet by the U.S. government on suicide among military veterans shows more veterans are killing themselves than previously thought, with 22 deaths a day – or one every 65 minutes, on average.

The study released on Friday by the Department of Veterans Affairs covered suicides from 1999 to 2010 and compared with a previous, less precise VA estimate that there were roughly 18 veteran deaths a day in the United States. Continue reading “Military Suicides: One U.S. Veteran Dies Every 65 Minutes”

AOL – by Pete Bigalow

Pride yourself on being a safe driver? You might be paying a penalty for that distinction.

The country’s largest auto insurers often charge safe drivers more money for their annual insurance premiums than their more reckless counterparts, according to a study released Monday by the Consumer Federation Of America. Continue reading “Poor People Pay More For Car Insurance, Study Finds”

Huffington Post – by Zoe Mintz

For the city’s homeless, San Francisco’s St. Boniface Church is seen as a safe haven.

The nonprofit known as the Gubbio Project partners with the Roman Catholic church to let the city’s homeless sleep on its pews during daylight hours, even during Mass, and provides a host of services to hundreds of those who are forced to leave when homeless shelters close in the morning, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Continue reading “St. Boniface Church In San Francisco Lets Homeless People Sleep In Pews”

When our roommate and close friend Paulie was killed by Officer Heimsness, he was just trying to come home. Paulie had moved in only a few days before, and in the dark he mistook the nearly identical house two doors down for ours. Our neighbor recognized him and tried to make sure he made it home safely. His wife, unsure of what was going on, decided to call the police as a precaution. Paulie never made it home.

Officer Heimsness shot Paulie even though he was unarmed and, according to eyewitness accounts, backing away with his hands up. Continue reading “Police killed our roommate”

Everyday Health- by Jaimie Dalessio

There have been at least 1,318 gun deaths in the United States since the horrific shootings of children at Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14. And that number — tallied bySlate and @GunDeaths as part of an interactive, crowd-sourced project — is probably not complete.

Fueled by mass shootings including the Sandy Hook tragedy and the deadly shootings at a movie theater in Aurora, Co., last July, the gun violence debate has once again come to the public health forefront. Continue reading “Doctors Respond to Gun Violence”

Haffington Post – by David Rising

BERLIN — On the 80th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to always fight for their principles and not fall into the complacency that enabled the Nazi dictator to seize control.

Speaking Wednesday at the opening of a new exhibit at the Topography of Terror memorial documenting Hitler’s election, Merkel noted that German academics and students at the time happily joined the Nazis only a few months later in burning books deemed subversive. Continue reading “Hitler Rise To Power: Date When German Dictator Became Chancellor Marked On 80th Anniversary”

Huffington Post – by Krista Larson

SEVARE, Mali — French forces met no resistance Wednesday in Kidal, the Islamists’ last major town, as the two-week-old mission scored another success in its effort to dislodge the al-Qaida-linked militants from northern Mali.

The capture of Kidal came just days after French and Malian forces retook two other provincial capitals – Gao and Timbuktu – that also had been under harsh Islamic rule for nearly 10 months. Continue reading “Mali Intervention: French Troops To Depart Quickly, Foreign Minister Says”

AOL

Finding fault with speed cameras has recently been an easy task. Speed cameras installed throughout the city of Baltimore were found to be so inaccurate that officials are scrapping the entire system and spending $450,000 to replace them. One issued a ticket to a driver stopped at a red light. In one small Ohio town, speed cameras issued 20,000 tickets in two weeks. Continue reading “Taxi Driver Beats Faulty Speed Camera In Court”

Ithica Journal – by Joseph Spector

ALBANY — The state Rifle and Pistol Association filed a notice of legal claim Tuesday against New York for its new gun-control law, saying it violates residents’ “fundamental constitutional rights to lawfully possess, keep, bear and use firearms for self-defense and other lawful purposes.”

The notice of claim is the first step in filing a lawsuit against the state. The lawsuit would have to be filed in 90 days. Continue reading “Gun-rights groups take NY gun law to court”

Huffington Post- by Mark Stevenson

MEXICO CITY — Mexican officials broke up a bizarre cult that allegedly ran a sex-slavery ring among its followers on the U.S. border, Mexican immigration authorities said Tuesday.

The “Defensores de Cristo” or “Defenders of Christ” allegedly recruited women to have sex with a Spanish man who claimed he was the reincarnation of Christ, according to an institute official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. Continue reading “Mexico Sex Slavery Cult Busted On U.S. Border, Officials Say”

Time – by AP / Daniel Wagner

WASHINGTON — Jobless Americans are paying millions in unnecessary fees to collect unemployment benefits because of state policies encouraging them to get the money through bank-issued payment cards, according to a new report from a consumer group.

People are using the fee-heavy cards instead of getting their payments deposited directly to their bank accounts. That’s because states issue bank cards automatically, require complicated paperwork or phone calls to set up direct deposit and fail to explain the card fees, according to a report issued Tuesday by the National Consumer Law Center, a nonprofit group that seeks to protect low-income Americans from unfair financial-services products. An early copy of the report was obtained by The Associated Press. Continue reading “Report: States Force Jobless to Pay Needless Fees”

Hufffington Post

NIAMEY, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Niger has given permission for U.S. surveillance drones to be stationed on its territory to improve intelligence on al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters in northern Mali and the wider Sahara, a senior government source said.

The U.S. ambassador to Niger, Bisa Williams, made the request at a meeting on Monday with President Mahamadou Issoufou, who immediately accepted it, the source said. Continue reading “U.S. Drone Base In Africa Approved By Niger”

International Business Times – by Maya Shwayder

Talk about a case of the Mondays.

Iran spent their Monday morning vigorously denying claims of an explosion at the Fordow uranium enrichment site in the south of the country, near the city of Qom. The IRNA news agency on Sunday said that the “West [sic] propaganda machine” was claiming that “’an explosion deep within Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility has destroyed much of the installation and trapped about 240 personnel deep underground.’” Continue reading “Iran Denies Blast At Nuclear Plant, Israel Inisists It Happened, But Denies Involvement”

Huffington Post

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County is planning a crackdown on makeshift maternity wards where mothers from other countries stay while giving birth so their children will be U.S. citizens.

The county has received 60 complaints about such facilities in the past month, according to a report by the Planning Department submitted to the Board of Supervisors, the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/WjcRMg) reported Sunday. Continue reading “Birthing Hotels Spark Crackdown In Los Angeles County”

Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan working group in the Senate will publicly unveil its immigration reform framework on Monday. The text, though, is already out, in a five-page document that lays out basic principles for reform.

Read the full text below. Continue reading “Immigration Reform Framework Includes Citizenship, Drones, Dreamers”