Oregon Live comments

Oregon lawmakers passed nearly 750 bills during their session this year. Many will take effect on New Year’s Day, from new taxes to controversial policy changes to laws designed to keep Oregonians safer. Here’s a sampling of some of the most important new laws taking effect January 1:    Continue reading “New Oregon laws taking effect on Jan. 1”

Yahoo News

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Sam Kazemi stood over the old man’s corpse. Nearby lay pliers, a scalpel and a motorized saw designed to cut drywall and pipe.

On a busy day, Kazemi might harvest body parts from five or six people who had donated their bodies to science. On this day in November 2013, the corpse before Kazemi typified the donors who gave their remains to his employer, Biological Resource Center.  Continue reading “Special Report: A business where human bodies were butchered, packaged and sold”

The Corbett Report

Half a century ago, outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower coined the term “military-industrial complex” to describe the fascistic collusion between the Pentagon and America’s burgeoning armaments industry. But in our day and age we are witnessing the rise of a new collusion, one between the Pentagon and the tech industry that it helped to seed, that is committed to waging a covert war against people the world over. Now, in the 21st century, it is time to give this new threat a name: the information-industrial complex.  Continue reading “The Information-Industrial Complex”

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension –  by Tiffany Dowell

A landmark water ruling came out of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit earlier this year.  This decision–that federal reserved water rights include groundwater–could have significant impacts on groundwater across the country, and in particular in the West.   Continue reading “9th Circuit: Federal Reserved Water Rights Applies to Groundwater”

The Horn News – by Frank Holmes

Hundreds of military officials – including some of the highest-ranking brass in the Navy – are accused of helping a shadowy Asian merchant fleece Uncle Sam for tens of millions of dollars… and you probably haven’t heard a peep about it.

It’s called the “Fat Leonard” scandal, and the investigation into bribes and corruption one of the biggest in U.S. military history. The Navy has investigated 440 people, including 60 admirals, for possibly taking bribes in exchange for phony government contracts and sweetheart deals.   Continue reading “ONE-THIRD of all Navy brass caught in huge foreign bribery scandal”

The Expert Institute – by Anjelica Cappellino

When the Supreme Court set the standard for expert testimony admissibility in the seminal case, Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993), it was a precedential turning point. However, the current standard, though founded by the Daubert Court, is also deeply rooted in its progeny. Referred to as the Daubert trilogy, the two cases that came after Daubert greatly contributed to the final standard used today to admit expert testimony. While the Court in Daubert enumerated the factors to be considered when evaluating the reliability of expert testimony, General Electric Co. v. Joiner, 522 U.S. 136 (1997) addressed the appellate standard of review of a trial court’s admissibility ruling. Finally, Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137 (1999), the Court applied the Daubert standard to nonscientific expert testimony. Taken together, these three cases have crafted the current standard for expert testimony admissibility.  Continue reading “The Daubert Trilogy: Navigating the Standard for Expert Witness Challenges”

Daily Mail

The sugar industry blocked the release of a study showing sucrose directly increases the risk of heart disease and cancer in 1968, newly-uncovered documents reveal.

The research, which was funded and designed by the sugar industry, was intended to dispel fears that fructose-containing sugars affect blood lipids.

But internal correspondence uncovered by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco, show that industry leaders pulled the plug on its publication after getting wind that it would prove the clearest link between sugar and disease ever found.    Continue reading “The sugar industry blocked research linking sucrose to heart disease and cancer from publication 50 YEARS ago, damning report reveals”

Tech Dirt – by Glyn Moody

A few weeks ago, we wrote how many — even the US Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer — seem to think it’s time for corporate sovereignty, also called “investor-state dispute settlement” (ISDS), to go. For some reason the European Commission disagrees. As Techdirt readers may recall, after receiving a bloody nose in a public consultation about corporate sovereignty, the Commission announced to great fanfare that it was “replacing” ISDS with something called the Investment Court System (ICS). In fact, this amounted to little more than putting lipstick on the ISDS pig, since ICS suffered from the same fundamental flaw: it gave companies unique rights to sue countries in a supra-national court. The EU is still plugging away at the ICS idea, and it now wants to go further by creating a truly global corporate sovereignty system enforced by a new Multilateral Investment Court (pdf), an initiative formally launched a couple of months ago:   Continue reading “Top German Judges Slam EU Plans To Create Global Court To Enforce Corporate Sovereignty”

The Oregonian

PRINEVILLE — Encouraged by the Trump administration’s pro-development policies, an Oregon county wants to take some control over federal lands that cover half of the high desert, mountains and forests within its borders.

The three-member Crook County Court governing body unanimously approved the Natural Resources Policy after a public meeting Wednesday in which people spoke passionately for and against the policy.   Continue reading “Oregon’s Crook County asserts greater role in use of federal land”

Wake the Church – by Jason Charles

In light of the awful tragedy at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas this past Sunday Christians everywhere must enter into a dialog with one another and with their pastors on the issue of self-defense. Ask what are the Christian principles that guide us when developing an operational plan to protect people from increasing violence against church congregations? Mainly heavily armed and armored crazies, with a penchant for shooting children like Devin Kelly.   Continue reading “Christians Taking Jesus’ Advice and Arming Up Next Sunday”

Forbidden Knowledge TV

Journalist Liz Crokin reports here that she feels that Hillary Clinton will eventually be indicted in connection with a sex video of herself, her assistant, Huma Abedin and an underage girl.

The video was allegedly discovered on the computer of Human Abedin’s husband, Anthony Weiner. Crokin here tells of a folder on Weiner’s computer titled “Life Insurance,” containing several sex videos.   Continue reading “Liz Crokin on Weiner’s ‘Life Insurance’ Files”

Times of Israel, March 18, 2014

Followers of Middle Eastern affairs know two things: always expect the unexpected, and never write off Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has more political lives than the proverbial cat.

Only yesterday came news that Syrian rebels plan to give Israel the Golan Heights in exchange for creation of a no-fly zone against the Assad regime. In an even bolder move, it is now revealed, Israel will withdraw its settlers from communities beyond the settlement blocs—and relocate them at least temporarily to Ukraine. Ukraine made this arrangement on the basis of historic ties and in exchange for desperately needed military assistance against Russia. This surprising turn of events had an even more surprising origin: genetics, a field in which Israeli scholars have long excelled.   Continue reading “Israel acknowledges Jews in fact Khazars; Secret plan for reverse migration to Ukraine”