Author: Angel - NYC

AOL – by Theresa Welsh

President Barack Obama released his federal budget this week to much publicity, analysis and politicking. But before the federal budget was the release of the State Department’s annual Fiscal Transparency Report, a document that analyzes budget transparency of governments that receive U.S. assistance – and reveals that certain countries still receive aid from the U.S. even though they don’t meet fiscal transparency requirements.

A provision in the Appropriations Bill requires the State Department to produce the report examining all 140 countries that were potential recipients of bilateral allocations in fiscal 2014. The report, quietly released Jan. 14, rated them based upon transparency of budget information and natural resource extraction contracting and licensing.   Continue reading “State Department quietly releases fiscal transparency report”

Asbury Park Press – by Kevin Penton

JACKSON – A State Police sergeant’s teenage daughter who dressed like Hitler and posted on social media a picture of a popular gathering spot for Orthodox Jews — with the caption “perfect bombing time” — may have behaved offensively, but not criminally, authorities said.

The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office examined the Twitter post and a cache of other pro-Hitler images by the Jackson teen and her associates and concluded that they did not amount to any credible threat.   Continue reading “Teens’ tweets on killing, bombing Jews deemed no threat”

Billboard

Zoe Keating wants control of her music. A cellist based in Northern California, Keating has tried to be an unstoppable force while running into an immovable object, YouTube. This isn’t a story about streaming royalties. It’s about Keating’s desire to choose how and when she releases her music to the public.

Keating is an independent musician in the truest sense. She owns her masters and publishing rights, takes a hands-on approach in selling and distributing, and writes about her experiences in the record business, often revealing an unusual level of financial detail about her royalties and revenue streams. Her last blog post set off days of online commentary and started a debate on the rights of artists against the demands of a digital service.    Continue reading “Cellist Zoe Keating Opens Up on Her YouTube Battle: ‘There’s a Lot of Fear Out There’”

Forward – by Nathan Guttman

WASHINGTON — Pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel his planned speech to a joint meeting of Congress is building among mainstream pro-Israel leaders, leading to an increasingly divisive split in the Jewish community.

Mainstream leaders and organizations have begun speaking out, some publically and other privately, against the speech, scheduled for March 3, arguing the controversy is becoming a major distraction from their shared goal of stopping Iran from becoming a nuclear power.   Continue reading “Reform’s Rick Jacobs Calls On Benjamin Netanyahu To Scrap Speech to GOP Congress”

Yahoo News – by James Pearson

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea has test-fired a new anti-ship cruise missile, images released by state media on Saturday showed, demonstrating the increased capability of the secretive state’s outdated navy.

The images were released in the lead-up to U.S.-South Korean military exercises this spring. North Korea routinely seeks to raise tensions ahead of the annual drills, although this year Pyongyang has also offered to suspend nuclear testing if Washington calls off the exercises.   Continue reading “North Korea test-fires new anti-ship cruise missile”

AmmoLand

USA – -(Ammoland.com)- Washington Oath Keepers Alert!

Elias Alias here. I got a letter from Mike Vanderboegh, Founder of the national III% movement, alerting me to this event which is upcoming on February 07, 2015, in Olympia, Washington.

Unfortunately, Stewart Rhodes, President of Oath Keepers, is already booked in Pennsylvania for the week of February 07 through February 15 2015, so he cannot attend this rally in Washington State. I am hoping that many in our Oregon, Idaho, and Washington chapters will be able to attend this event on short notice, because it’s got great potential to focus public attention on serious gun rights issues.   Continue reading “Washington State Patriots Preparing To Be Arrested, Will Not Back Down!”

My bet is that he agreed to become a snitch.

New York Daily News – by SHAYNA JACOBS

An accused Times Square “Spider-Man” cop-puncher was cleared Friday after prosecutors declined to bring a case against him.

Junior Bishop, 25, was charged with assault, criminal mischief and resisting arrest after allegedly clocking a cop, breaking the officer’s glasses and causing injuries to his face in the July scuffle as cops tried to arrest the comic character for soliciting tips, officials said.   Continue reading “Times Square Spider-Man will not be tried for allegedly punching cop”

New York Daily News – by DAREH GREGORIAN

Fixing stop and frisk is going to be costly for taxpayers.

The court-appointed monitor overseeing reforms to the NYPD’s controversial practice will make a whopping $43,750-a-month, according to court records.

The fee for Peter Zimroth includes work done by staff at his law firm, Arnold and Porter, but not for outside consultants who help them — and who can make up to $375-an-hour, according to an agreement with the city filed in Manhattan Federal Court on Friday.   Continue reading “Monitor overseeing stop and frisk reforms will cost more than 43G per month, court records show”

The Daily Beast

This week, a grand jury declined to indict a Bushwick teenager on terrorist-threat charges brought after he posted Facebook statuses with violent emojis. In addition to criminal gun and drug possession charges, the seventeen-year-old faced allegations that he caused “New York City police officers to fear for their safety” via a series of statuses he wrote in mid-January, one of which included a gun emoji pointed at an emoji of a police officer.

New York City police have been vocal about expanded monitoring of social media, which the department classifies as key to detecting “lone wolf” terrorists and would-be cop killers.   Continue reading “NYPD Social Media Policy Allows Catfishing—With the Proper Paperwork”

New York Daily News – by KERRY BURKE , BARRY PADDOCK

Mayor de Blasio put his money where his mouth is Friday, rushing through the purchase of 13,000 new state-of-the-art bullet-resistant vests.

Two weeks ago, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association hand-delivered a letter to City Hall demanding de Blasio buy the vests without delay.   Continue reading “De Blasio rushes to purchase 13,000 bullet-resistant vests for NYPD cops”

Daily News – by  DEBORAH HASTINGS

You really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

In this case, the book purported to be “Den of Lions,” the harrowing, first-person saga of kidnapped Associated Press journalist Terry Anderson.

But a worker at a Goodwill store in Maine said the donated book “didn’t feel right,” so he called the cops.

Inside was a gun, a small, .31-caliber pistol that reportedly was made by an Italian manufacturer of antique replicas, The Ellsworth American reported.    Continue reading “Donated book to Maine Goodwill turns out to be spy-like gun holder, with gun inside”

New York Post – by ROCCO PARASCANDOLA

A schizophrenic Bronx man who burned his sleeping 13-year-old niece with boiling cooking oil has been charged, but was then released — even after a prosecutor asked for $500,000 bail.

“I was upset at my niece,” said Jonathan Salinas, who has a history of violence against his family. “I boiled the oil and threw it at her.”   Continue reading “Schizophrenic Bronx man released by judge without bail after showering 13-year-old niece with boiling-hot cooking oil”

Clarion Ledger – by Geoff Pender, Deborah Barfield Berry

WASHINGTON – Rep. Alan Nunnelee, a Mississippi Republican and part of the historic 2010 GOP wave election that gave the party control of the House, died Friday, the family confirmed. He was 56.

Nunnelee, who was serving his third term, underwent brain surgery last June and had been in and out of hospitals and rehabilitation centers the past year.   Continue reading “Alan Nunnelee, Mississippi congressman, dies at 56”

AOL – by Jonathan J. Cooper

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Oregon’s governor is struggling to deal with allegations that his fiancée used his position to land clients for her environmental consulting business, claims that have drawn an ethics investigation and the scrutiny of the state’s attorney general.

Although his role in arranging the deals isn’t clear, the scandal has posed a threat to the decades-long political career of four-term Democrat John Kitzhaber, Oregon’s longest-serving governor. The editorial board at the state’s largest newspaper, The Oregonian, called for him to resign this week, saying the controversy has become such a distraction that he can’t effectively lead.   Continue reading “Oregon governor faces ethics allegations, calls to resign”

Washington Post – by Peter Holley

Got a kid who’s raising hell? Afraid the police will be called if you break out the belt? A suburban Atlanta barbershop may have a solution for you.

Three days a week, parents can take their misbehaving kids to A-1 Kutz in Snellville and ask for the “Benjamin Button Special,” which Russell Fredrick and his team of barbers are offering — free of charge — to parents who want to try a novel form of discipline.

The cut involves shaving hair off the child’s crown until he begins to resemble a balding senior citizen, inviting that unique brand of adolescent humiliation that can only come from teasing classmates and unwanted attention.   Continue reading “This barber will publicly shame your misbehaving kid with an old man’s haircut”

Capital OTC – by Justin Chase

Mother, grandmother and aunt, decided to kidnap a six year old to teach him a lesson about the dangers of engaging into conversations with strange people on the street.

A family from Missouri planned the kidnapping of a six year old boy, so they could teach him a lesson about talking to strangers. Apparently they considered that the boy was acting over friendly with unknown people, stated official reports.   Continue reading “Family Kidnaps Six Year Old Boy To Teach Him A Lesson About Talking To Strangers”

Yahoo News – by Thomas Adamson

PARIS (AP) — Fearing that actors could be mistaken for police — and chase scenes confused for the real thing — Paris is sharply restricting filming of action movies in the city that has been the stage for some of film’s most memorable high-octane sequences.

Filming outside scenes with police, army or security services was quietly banned after the attacks in the French capital that left 20 dead, including three gunmen.   Continue reading “Paris restricts action movie filming after terror attacks”

Homewood-Flossmoor Patch – by Dennis Robaugh

A pickup truck speeding on I-94 at 3 a.m. Thursday drove right onto an empty car-carrying truck as both vehicles motored down the highway. The driver of the car carrier felt the jostle and pulled over near Sibley Boulevard, thinking he’d blown a tire. Much to his surprise, he found a black pickup truck on top of his rig. State Police are investigating. The pickup driver was taken to an Indiana hospital.   Continue reading “Bizarre Crash on I-94 as Pickup Truck Mounts Another Truck”

Annapolis Patch – by Deb Belt

A teenage girl who called 911 for help after her father and his fiancée were hit by a car was told by the dispatcher to “stop whining” because it wasn’t helpful.

Rick Warrick, 38, and his fiancée were changing a flat tire Sunday on the BW Parkway when they were hit by a vehicle that didn’t stop, and didn’t call for help. Warrick died from his injuries.   Continue reading “‘Stop Whining’ 911 Dispatcher Tells Girl After Fatal Accident”