From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
A Hong Kong architect has invented what he believed to be the solution of overcrowded cities by turning concrete water pipes into tiny homes.
The OPod Tube Housing system aims to re-purpose concrete tubes measuring just over eight feet in diameter, and turn them into ‘micro-homes’ with 100 square feet of living space. Continue reading “Is buying a house just a pipe dream? Concrete tubes just over eight feet wide, with a bench that turns into a bed, could be your solution”
This just in from what was once the best state in the Union:
Guess which state has the highest poverty rate in the country? Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia, but California, where nearlyone out of five residents is poor. That’s according to the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which factors in the cost of housing, food, utilities and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of income. Continue reading “What’s the Matter with California?”
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is boosting its starting hourly wage to $11 and delivering bonuses to employees, capitalizing on the U.S. tax overhaul to stay competitive in a tightening labor market.
The increase takes effect next month and will cost $300 million on top of annual wage hikes that were already planned, the world’s largest retailer said Thursday. The one-time bonus of up to $1,000 is based on seniority and will amount to an additional $400 million. The company is also expanding its maternity and parental leave policy and adding an adoption benefit.
Continue reading “Wal-Mart Raises Hourly Wage to $11 in Wake of Tax Overhaul”
California Governor Jerry Brown said legal rulings may clear the way for making cuts to public pension benefits, which would go against long-standing assumptions and potentially provide financial relief to the state and its local governments.
Brown said he has a “hunch” the courts would “modify” the so-called California rule, which holds that benefits promised to public employees can’t be rolled back. The state’s Supreme Court is set to hear a case in which lower courts ruled that reductions to pensions are permissible if the payments remain “reasonable” for workers. Continue reading “California’s Brown Raises Prospect of Pension Cuts in Downturn”
Fascinating photographs from the war at sea during the Second World War have been after expertly colorized for the first time.
Among the most dramatic images is a photo of the stricken aircraft carrier USS Franklin after it was damaged by Japanese bombers in the South Pacific in 1945.
Another shows sailors firing 40mm anti-aircraft guns aboard the USS Hornet in a desperate attempt to fight off Japanese planes. Continue reading “WW1 and WW2 naval warfare images colorized for the first time”
Politico – by Sabrina Rodriguez
MEXICO CITY — Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s campaign rhetoric can make him sound like a Mexican Donald Trump.
The left-leaning front-runner in Mexico’s presidential race is overtly nationalistic, pushes “Mexican people first” policies and peppers his speeches with anti-establishment slogans that thrill the working-class Mexicans who flock to his rallies. Continue reading “Mexico’s Trumpian populist could mean trouble for Donald Trump”
New York Daily News – by Andrew Keshner
O.J. Simpson could be sprinting to court to sue a Las Vegas casino that permanently bounced him from the premises, according to a letter from his lawyer.
Simpson’s attorney told The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas to hold on to all sorts of evidence — because he’s planning to sue for at least $100 million after stories that the Juice was banned for being drunk and disruptive. Continue reading “O.J. Simpson to sue Las Vegas casino that banned him for at least $100M”
Petro Truck Stop – This particular one is one of the finest in the country. This was the view at breakfast.
Climate Depot – by Marc Morano
Former Vice President Al Gore has weighed in on the record cold and snow in the U.S. “It’s bitter cold in parts of the US, but climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann explains that’s exactly what we should expect from the climate crisis,” Gore wrote on January 4 on Twitter.
Gore linked to one of his organizations’ articles on the brutal winter weather written by Climategate professor Michael Mann: The Climate Reality Project: A ‘PERFECT STORM’: EXTREME WINTER WEATHER, BITTER COLD, AND CLIMATE CHANGE
In the Gore touted article, Mann linked the cold and “lots of snow” to “climate change.”
Continue reading “Al Gore: ‘Bitter cold’ is ‘exactly what we should expect from the climate crisis’”
Since New Years Day Mount St. Helens has experienced 40 earthquakes within its vicinity as aftershocks continue every few hours. The most powerful earthquake was a magnitude 3.9 that occurred around midnight west coast time about 5 miles from Mount St. Helens and 23 miles from the town of Morton.
The 3.9 magnitude earthquake was felt in Portland but there were no reported injuries or damage. Since that earthquake there have been 16 more earthquakes, averaging about every half hour with magnitudes from 0.6 to 2.6. The USGS reports that the M3.9 earthquake to the northeast of Mount St. Helens is aligned with regional stress as opposed to the localized Mount St. Helen’s stress axis, thus, they do believe this earthquake is related to the nearby volcano.
Continue reading “Mount St. Helens Is Rumbling Again With 40 Earthquakes Since New Years Day”
Top White House officials and heavyweight confidants including Rupert Murdoch scoffed at President Donald Trump‘s intellect, according to an explosive new book containing shocking allegations about his first year in office.
In one of the many passages of Michael Wolff’s book, ‘Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,’ being circulated online in advance of it’s January 9 release, Wolff writes: ‘There was now a fair amount of back-of-the-classroom giggling about who had called Trump what.’ Continue reading “Trump’s top officials, confidants called him ‘dumb, idiot’”
Yahoo News – by Kyle Mizokami,The National Interest
In the world of firearms, there are plenty of boutique guns and calibers out there. Many are very powerful, but may have a very small market audience. Among the unique class of very, very big handguns, the Smith & Wesson 500 packs both popularity and power in a ridiculously lethal package, with a killing power equal to high-powered rifles . . . and a recoil described as “beastly.”
Continue reading “Smith & Wesson 500: The Gun That Has As Much Firepower As a Rifle”
JERUSALEM, Jan 3 (Reuters) – Israel said on Wednesday it would pay thousands of African migrants living illegally in the country to leave, threatening them with jail if they are caught after the end of March.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in public remarks at a cabinet meeting on the payment programme, said a barrier Israel completed in 2013 along its border with Egypt had effectively cut off a stream of “illegal infiltrators” from Africa after some 60,000 crossed the desert frontier. Continue reading “Israel offers to pay African migrants to leave, threatens jail”
A once-liberal Oregon college town has been overcome with crime and emboldened groups of white supremacists.
The Oregonian spoke recently with several residents in the city of Eugene about the shocking and not-so-secret neo-Nazi extremists who have made their name known across the community.
Some of the individuals include two who are said to be the ‘most prominent’ men – Jacob Laskey and Jimmy Marr. Continue reading “White supremacists take over a once-liberal Oregon town”
The Hill – by Russell G. Quimby
As a retired National Transportation Safety Board railroad and rapid transit accident investigator, the more I hear about the Dec. 18 derailment of Washington state Sound Transit Cascades Train 501, the stranger it gets. Confirmed “facts” seem to be very few so far.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident, which killed three people and injured more than 50 others, and is still trying to determine the probable cause and prevent such accidents in the future. Continue reading “The more we learn about Amtrak derailment the stranger it gets”
Former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany Charlotte Knobloch claims that Jews are increasingly under threat in public and may require police protection to lead a normal life without harassment and violence.
Ms Knobloch, who is now the President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, said that Jews are increasingly under threat, Die Welt reports. Continue reading “German Jewish Leader Warns That Jews May Require Police Protection As Anti-Semitism Escalates”
Watts Up With That? – by Eric Worrall
Does record breaking winter cold cast doubt on climate predictions of milder winters? Could ANY weather or climate shift cast doubt on the dominance of that wicked little trace molecule? Apparently not, according to leading climate explainers.
It’s cold outside, but that doesn’t mean climate change isn’t real
Sammy Roth, USA TODAY Published 5:13 p.m. ET Dec. 28, 2017
Continue reading “Record Breaking Winter Cold? Don’t Worry, the Climate Explainers Have it Covered”
Truckers take heed: more retail freight and new lanes may be coming to the Lone Star state within a year as Dollar General Corp. said it plans to build a new distribution center in Longview, TX, starting in 2018.
That new facility is expected to employ 400 at full capacity and serve approximately 1,000 of its retail locations in Texas and the southeast. Continue reading “Dollar General to open second distribution center in Texas”
(KMSP) – International Falls, Minnesota woke up to a temperature of -36F at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning breaking the previous record low for Dec. 27 of -32F set in 1924, according to the National Weather Service office in Duluth. That -36 is the actual temperature, not a wind chill!
According to state records, the -36 morning in International Falls is only about halfway to the state record low temperature of -60 in Tower, Minnesota on Feb. 2, 1996. The all-time record low for International Falls is -55F, set in January 1909. Continue reading “International Falls, Minnesota drops to record low -36F”