New York Times – by JULIA ANGWIN, CHARLIE SAVAGE, JEFF LARSON, HENRIK MOLTKE, LAURA POITRAS and JAMES RISEN

The National Security Agency’s ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States has relied on its extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: the telecom giant AT&T.

While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly disclosed N.S.A. documents show that the relationship with AT&T has been considered unique and especially productive. One document described it as “highly collaborative,” while another lauded the company’s “extreme willingness to help.”   Continue reading “AT&T Helped U.S. Spy on Internet on a Vast Scale”

The Modesto Bee – by ROSALIO AHUMADA AND ERIN TRACY

Prominent Modesto criminal defense attorney Frank Carson and eight others, including three California Highway Patrol officers, were arrested Friday for their suspected involvement in the 2012 death of Korey Kauffman. The 26-year-old Turlock man’s body was found in Mariposa County a year and a half after he went missing.

A 326-page arrest affidavit details an alleged conspiracy with Carson as its ringleader. The defense attorney, who last year ran for district attorney, is described as a vengeful property owner trying to send a message to people allegedly stealing scrap metal and antiques from his property in Turlock.   Continue reading “Prominent Modesto defense attorney Frank Carson arrested on suspicion of murder; 3 CHP officers also arrested in connection with case”

AOL

HOUSTON (AP) — A man charged in the deaths of a couple and six children at a Houston home has professed love for one of the victims – his son – but said he thought the children were “growing up to be monsters.”

David Conley, who was being held without bond Wednesday on capital murder counts,was formerly in a relationship with the children’s mother, Valerie Jackson. Authorities say the two had a 13-year-old son together.   Continue reading “Man charged in Texas killings: Kids were becoming ‘monsters’”

Click 2 Houston

Members of a Florida family are searching for their dog’s killer after they found their Pomeranian beaten to death with a note on the body, reports Miami news station WPLG.

Fox, a Pomeranian, was 13 years old. His family had owned him since 2008.

Verline Barthelemy told Local 10 News she let Fox out of the house Friday while she was cooking but couldn’t find him a few minutes later.   Continue reading “Pomeranian found beaten to death, note left on body”

New York Times – by Andy Newman

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. — Under a white tent at the Ulster County Fair — wedged between a homemade fudge stand and a basketball toss, and near an array of “Save the Hooters” shirts and “I ♥ Mommy” bibs — hung a black extra-large T-shirt emblazoned with the Confederate battle flag.

A couple of midways away at a stand called Mirror Magic, the rebel flag adorned a whole rack of decorative license plates — two flaming hearts forming a flag, a pair of luscious flag-patterned lips above the word Rebelicious, a pullet in a flag costume labeled “Southern Chick.”   Continue reading “Confederate Flag Debate Reaches New York County Fairs”

Huffington Post – by Laura Barron-Lopez

EL PASO — Driving along El Paso’s Rim Road, which hugs the southern tip of the Rockies, it’s difficult to tell where Texas ends and Mexico begins. 

Looking down on the town below, a thick, black line marks the desert sand ahead in the distance, running over a hill into the emptiness beyond. It’s a fence, the very visible border that divides El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico. Behind it curves the Rio Grande, a skeleton of its former self used primarily for irrigation once it hits Texas.   Continue reading “El Paso Is Fighting To Reclaim The Border’s Soul”

KHOU

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – David Conley, 48, told Harris County Sheriff’s investigators that he broke into his former home and killed eight people, according to a Harris County prosecutor.

During probable cause court Sunday, a prosecutor recounted Conley’s statement to investigators that he broke in through an open window after the woman he formerly lived with, Valerie Jackson, changed the locks on the doors.   Continue reading “Suspect charged with capital murder of 6 kids, 2 adults”

Burlington Free Press – by MIKE DONOGHUE and ZACH DESPART

BERLIN, VT — Three people found slain Saturday morning in Berlin are relatives of the woman suspected of killing a Vermont social worker Friday in Barre following a child-custody dispute, a daughter of one of the latest victims says.

Dead are two sisters, Rhonda Herring and Regina Herring, and their mother, Julie Ann Folzorano, according to a family member.   Continue reading “Relative: 3 slain in Berlin, Vermont related to DCF suspect”

Chron – by Dylan Baddour

While some Texans were planning to monitor American soldiers during Jade Helm exercises, three men in North Carolina were plotting to kill them.

The FBI used wire taps, visual surveillance and a secret informant to track the alleged terrorists as they stockpiled weapons and gathered components to make explosives.   Continue reading “FBI arrests 3 for Jade Helm retaliation attack plan against U.S. military involving guns, explosives”

KLTV – by Julia Jenae

SMITH COUNTY, TX (KLTV) – An East Texas couple says their choice to marry when they wanted to was taken away by a criminal court judge.

In July, a Smith County judge sentenced Josten Bundy to get married to his 19-year-old girlfriend as part of his probation, which also included writing Bible verses and getting counseling.   Continue reading “Judge sentences East Texas man to get married or face jail time”

The Tennesseean – by Nate Rau, Stacey Barchenger, Jordan Buie and Natalie Neysa Alund

He carried a hatchet and a fake gun and had a backpack strapped to his body, police said.

Vincente Montano walked into a theater at Antioch’s Carmike Hickory 8 just after 1 p.m. Wednesday. Seven other people were in the theater to see “Mad Max.”

Police are working to determine why Montano was there. Why Montano allegedly sprayed three people with pepper spray and wounded one man with the hatchet. Why, they say, he acted threatening toward officers shortly before he died.   Continue reading “Vincente Montano identified as Antioch theater suspect”

Huffington Post

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — More than 380 people in 26 U.S. states have been diagnosed with a stomach illness tied to Mexican cilantro contaminated by human waste, two federal agencies said Tuesday.

It’s the fourth consecutive summer in which the intestinal infection cyclosporiasis has been reported in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration are investigating the cause of the latest outbreak, which appears to have begun after May 1.   Continue reading “Cilantro Contaminated With Feces, Toilet Paper Sickens Hundreds”

Mansfield News Journal – by Lou Whitmore

MANSFIELD – The package dropped by a drone at Mansfield Correctional Institution last week contained 144.5 grams of tobacco, 65.4 grams of marijuana, and 6.6 grams of heroin, according to JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Last week, the News Journal reported a drone flew over MANCI but few details were released as to whether any contraband was dropped or found.   Continue reading “Prison drone dropped heroin, marijuana and tobacco”

AOL

LANCASTER, N.H. (AP) — Officials say a young man and a girl were killed and at least 22 people were injured when a severe storm blew down a circus tent in northern New Hampshire.

State Fire Marshal William Degnan said late Monday night that the injured were taken to four regional hospitals.   Continue reading “Report: 2 dead, 22 hurt in New Hampshire tent collapse”

AOL – by Adrian Sainz

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — An ex-con accused of fatally shooting a police officer who interrupted a drug deal turned himself in Monday, ending an intensive two-day manhunt, a spokesman for a U.S. attorney said.

Tremaine Wilbourn, 29, was with his family when he arrived at a federal building in Memphis, said Louis Goggans, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office.   Continue reading “Ex-con accused of killing police officer turns self in”

I have a hard time understanding why the wealthy in our country don’t see the need in their own country.

Huffington Post – by Nico Pitney

GiveDirectly has a straightforward approach to helping the world’s poorest people: just give them cash, no strings attached.

The New York-based nonprofit has distributed about $1,000—roughly a year’s income—to thousands of ultra-poor households in Kenya and Uganda. Recipients don’t need to pay back the money, and they can spend it however they wish.    Continue reading “Facebook Co-Founder Giving Millions Directly To The Poor, No Strings Attached”

AOL – by Adrian Sainz

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee police officials on Sunday identified a suspect in the fatal shooting of a Memphis police officer, and an intense search for the man is underway.

Tremaine Wilbourn, 29, faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of Officer Sean Bolton, 33, on Saturday night, Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong said at a news conference.   Continue reading “Police ID suspect in killing of officer; manhunt underway”

ASU News

When it comes to vaccinating their babies, bees don’t have a choice — they naturally immunize their offspring against specific diseases found in their environments. And now for the first time, scientists have discovered how they do it.

Researchers from Arizona State University, University of Helsinki, University of Jyväskylä and Norwegian University of Life Sciences made the discovery after studying a bee blood protein called vitellogenin. The scientists found that this protein plays a critical, but previously unknown role in providing bee babies protection against disease.   Continue reading “No shot needed, bees vaccinate their babies naturally”

Yahoo News – by ADRIAN SAINZ

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A person of “interest” has been taken into custody in connection with the fatal shooting of a police officer during a traffic stop in Memphis, police said Sunday.

Memphis Police Department spokeswoman Karen Rudolph told The Associated Press that a person is in custody but that no charges have been filed in the killing of Officer Sean Bolton, 33. She said the investigation is ongoing but did not provide further details.   Continue reading “Police say person of interest in custody in officer killing”

Take Part – by Dean Kuipers

Attorney Mark Reichel has been waiting years for answers. Years, he says, during which “not a day goes by that I don’t think about the Eric McDavid case. What happened there was wrong in every way. We don’t live in that kind of country. This is a terribly frightening story in a free society.”

McDavid was released in January after serving nine years of a 20-year sentence on federal charges related to an alleged ecoterrorism conspiracy. Documents had emerged, two months earlier, that were absent at his trial, including correspondence supporting his claim that he had been entrapped by an FBI operation involving a paid informant.   Continue reading “Tough Questions for Feds After They Jailed an Innocent Man for Nine Years”