AOL

Utah father Colby Nielsen broke down in tears on Monday, Nov. 23, watching helplessly as his infant daughter was given to her new adoptive parents without his consent.

After Kaylee was born on Nov. 4, the 20-year-old father claims he has never left her side.

But all that changed when he was forced to give her up to adoptive parents, after Kaylee’s mother decided to put her up for adoption, unbeknownst to Nielsen.   Continue reading “Newborn daughter given up for adoption without paternal consent”

CBS News – by Lesley Stahl

Tech giants like Google, Facebook, and PayPal are all steadily rolling out new-fangled services to turn our smartphones into digital wallets — replacing cash and checks. And it’s been reported that Apple is working on a new payment option to let iPhone users send money directly to one another — as easily as a text message.

If this all seems cutting edge, you may be surprised to learn there’s one country that adopted mobile money years ago: Kenya. Here in the U.S., we can use smartphones to pay for things, but you typically need to be linked to a bank account or credit card. In Kenya, you don’t need a bank account, you don’t need a credit history, or very much money for that matter, making this country in East Africa a giant experimental laboratory defining the future of money.
Continue reading “The Future of Money: “That tells you now in the new world order anything is possible.””

Sum of Us

There’s a real David and Goliath battle unfolding in drought-stricken Oregon.

For years, giant multinational Nestlé has been bent on pumping fresh water out of Cascade Locks, Oregon, to bottle and sell for profit — a plan that local residents have been fighting for the last six years.   Continue reading “In Oregon, residents are mobilizing people-power to shut down Nestlé”

CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Millions of men credit Viagra for saving their sex lives, but nearly two decades after hitting the market, Viagra is now being credited for literally saving the lives — of children.

Viagra is credited with saving children like Victoria Dooley who, thanks in part to the medication, will celebrate her fourth birthday later this month.   Continue reading “Viagra For Children? How Experts Say The Drug Can Save Young Lives”

What business does the NYPD have in LA?

NBC New York

Two NYPD officers on assignment in Los Angeles jumped into action when a man was stabbed at a popular Hollywood destination Wednesday afternoon, police in Los Angeles said.    Continue reading “NYPD Officers on Assignment in L.A. Stumble onto Stabbing in Hollywood, Nab Suspect”

New York Post – by Shawn Cohen, Isabel Vincent and Tina Moore

A new ISIS propaganda video makes threats against the New York City — and shows Manhattan streetscapes that include Times Square and Herald Square, The Post has learned.

The slick production includes storefront shots of TGI Fridays in Times Square and the Gap in Herald Square — along with footage of yellow taxi cabs driving past. Continue reading “ISIS threatens NYC in new propaganda video”

Brooklyn Daily Eagle – by Mary Frost

The NYPD is deploying extra security around New York City after terrorist attacks in Paris that have left as many as 120 dead.

The department issued a statement Friday evening noting that the NYPD is “in close touch” with their French police counterparts, as well as the FBI.   Continue reading “NYPD deploying extra security around New York City after terrorist attacks in Paris”

AOL

The 2016 presidential race has already seen the rise of a number of “outsider” candidates with no political experience, but the biggest outsider of them all may have just joined Wednesday as Grammy-nominated stand-up comedian Ron White took to the AOL BUILD stage to announce that he is running for president of the United States as an independent.

The 58-year-old Scotch-drinking, cigar-smoking comic is best known for his “Blue Collar Comedy Tour” — but he’s looking to change that with a brisk move into politics.   Continue reading “‘Blue Collar’ comedian Ron White announces he’s running for president”

Ammoland – by AWR Hawkins

USA – On October 3 2015, Mark Carman posted a YouTube video ( youtu.be/YN6rjamk0Q0 ) in which he equated gun rights with motorcycle ownership–arguing that the licensing requirement for the latter provides some standard to guide licensing requirements for the former–and the White House responded by inviting him to come visit on November 16 and 17 2015..?!?

While there Carman is scheduled “to meet one-on-one with Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to President Obama,” and to address Congress in a bid to secure more gun control.   Continue reading “Misinformed Man Equates Gun Rights With Motorcycle Ownership, Gets White House Invite”

Ammoland – by AWR Hawkins

USA – On November 12 2015 a CBS News report focused on Everytown for Gun Safety’s efforts to secure more gun control revealed that President Obama has “assigned White House lawyers” to look for a way that executive action can be used to expand background checks to include private gun sales or at least some sales by private gun owners.

Breitbart News previously reported that Obama was weighing the use of an executive order to expand background checks in the wake of the Umpqua Community College attack. The gunman in that attack passed a background check for the weapons he used.   Continue reading “With EveryTown Gun Banners Egging Him On Obama Targets Private Gun Sales for Checks”

New York Post – by Kevin Fasick and Tina Moore

The Grand Central Terminal panhandler who’s now the poster child for getting rich quick by begging was in the wind Wednesday ­after being featured on the front page of The Post.

“He’s usually here,” a street vendor near the commuter hub said of Will ­Andersen, 43, who claimed he rakes in as much as $200 an hour asking for money alongside his 9-year-old pup, Rizzo, on East 42nd Street between Vanderbilt and Madison avenues.   Continue reading “‘$200 an hour’ bum disappears amid newly found fame”

Gothamist – by Christopher Robbins

A dozen pedestrians have been killed by drivers in the past twelve days. At least three of them were killed crossing the street with the right of way, and four of them were killed as they walked on the sidewalk. In response to one of those deaths, in which a hit and run casino bus driver killed a pedestrian in Flushing, the NYPD is going to start handing out more jaywalking tickets.

“If you’re crossing in the middle of the street, you’re wrong, you’re endangering yourself, you’re endangering others, you’re endangering drivers,” Queens Assemblyman Michael Simanowitz said, standing next to NYPD Deputy Inspector Thomas Conforti, the commander of the 109th Precinct,according to DNAinfo.   Continue reading “Drivers Keep Killing Pedestrians, So The NYPD Will Crack Down On Jaywalkers”

MSNBC – by Ari Melber

When three Virginia police officers put Linwood Lambert in a squad car around 5 a.m. on May 4, 2013, they said they were taking him to the ER for medical attention because he was speaking delusionally. Just over an hour later, Lambert died in police custody.

He was never given medical care, though the officers of South Boston, Va. did drive him to the hospital. He was not initially put under arrest, though the officers ultimately arrested him, shackled his hands and legs, and tased him repeatedly.  While in custody he was agitated and ran from the officers. Ambulance workers say police later claimed he fought them at a time when videos show he was actually unconscious. Police dispute that account and deny allegations of excessive force.   Continue reading “Driven to hospital, Virginia man tased, shackled and dies in police custody”

AOL

On par with past storms, known locally as the “witches of November” and virtually on the exact date of the storm that sunk the iron ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald 40 years ago, a powerful low-pressure system is intensifying and will spread a swath of high winds through the Plains, Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and Ohio Valley through Friday.

Computer models show that the low may have a barometric pressure reading of around 984 millibars, or 29.06 inches of mercury, Thursday morning.   Continue reading “‘November Witch’ storm to bring high winds to Great Lakes, Plains, Midwest”

TeleSur TV – by David Swanson

When the U.S. changed Armistice Day into Veterans Day, the holiday morphed from a day to encourage the end of war into a day to glorify war participation.

John Ketwig was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1966 and sent to Vietnam for a year. I sat down with him this week to talk about it.   Continue reading “Veterans Day Is Not for Veterans”

Patch – by Marc Torrence

The Taurid meteor shower 2015 won’t look like your average meteor shower.

It lasts much longer than usual, though it peaks very soon. And instead of small, quick, streaking meteors, Taurids produce big, bright “fireballs” and “earthgrazers.”

And NASA says this year’s Taurids “may be more active than usual.”   Continue reading “Taurid Meteor Shower 2015 Peak: Perfect Conditions For ‘Fireballs,’ ‘Earthgrazers’”

The Detroit News – by James David Dickson

Macomb Township — A fight between two neighbors broke out Thursday after one of the men became irate over leaves blown onto his lawn from the other neighbor’s leaf blower, authorities say.

A 52-year-old man was using a leafblower at his mobile home on the 46000 block of Chatsworth, when his neighbor, Jerry Thomas Ficht, 57, approached him about 1:15 p.m., accusing him of blowing leaves onto Ficht’s yard.   Continue reading “Fight over leafblower broken up by gun-toting woman”

Huffington Post – by Caroline Bologna

A fourth grader’s answer to a math problem shows the power of “girl code.”

Maddy Douglas was filling out a worksheet for homework when she came across a question about the dating patterns of a group of high schoolers.

Continue reading “Fourth Grader Shuts Down Math Problem By Invoking Girl Code”

WFLA 8 News – by Mark Douglas

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Records just obtained by 8 On Your Side reveal a Pinellas County deputy who was disciplined last month for drunken misbehavior at a Mothers Against Drunk Driving conference in Fort Lauderdale showed up at that July statewide training event prepared to party.

“The plot thickens,” said former MADD director and anti-DUI attorney Tom Carey after hearing new details. “It seems to be a lot worse than originally presented.”   Continue reading “Pinellas Deputy drunk at anti-drunk driving event showed up ready to party, skipped training”