From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
International inspectors won’t be allowed access to military bases in a deal with world powers to curb Tehran’s nuclear program, a top Iranian commander said.
“They will not even be permitted to inspect the most normal military site in their dreams,” said Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the state-run Press TV news channel. Continue reading “Iranian Commander Rejects Nuclear Inspections at Military Bases”
Valley Central – by Dave Hendricks
When Border Patrol agents checked a bus passenger’s papers at the Falfurrias checkpoint last week, they did a double-take.
The bus passenger handed them a driver’s license identifying himself as David, a 34-year-old man from Edinburg, according to federal court records.
Along with the driver’s license, the man had a birth certificate and a Social Security card identifying him as David. Continue reading “Records: Mexican immigrant stole Border Patrol agent’s identity”
Yahoo News – by LOLITA C. BALDOR
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a stepped-up response to Iranian backing of Shiite rebels in Yemen, the Navy aircraft carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt, is steaming toward the waters off Yemen to beef up security and join other American ships that are prepared to intercept any Iranian vessels carrying weapons to the Houthi rebels.
The deployment comes after a U.N. Security Council resolution approved last week imposed an arms embargo on the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels. The resolution passed in a 14-0 vote with Russia abstaining. Continue reading “US warship heads to Yemeni waters; could block Iran weapons”
The New York branch of the U.S. Federal Reserve, wary that a natural disaster or other eventuality could shut down its market operations as it approaches an interest rate hike, has added staff and bulked up its satellite office in Chicago.
Some market technicians have transferred from New York and others were hired at the office housed in the Chicago Fed, according to several people familiar with the build-out that began about two years ago, after Hurricane Sandy struck Manhattan. Continue reading “Wary of natural disaster, NY Fed bulks up in Chicago”
DES MOINES, Iowa — This week you may notice extra emergency vehicles and public safety officers running around in tactical gear, Hazmat suits, and bomb suits. It’s a part of a statewide drill Des Moines is hosting Tuesday and Wednesday to prepare emergency personnel for dealing with weapons of mass destruction.
Brian O’Keefe with the Des Moines Fire Department said emergency officials in Iowa need to be prepared for anything. Continue reading “Statewide Weapons Of Mass Destruction Drill Underway in Des Moines”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldaña struggled to explain the reasons behind the Obama administration’s release of thousands of criminal immigrants when pressed by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) Tuesday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
In Fiscal Year 2014, ICE released 30,558 convicted criminal immigrants, convicted of 79,059 crimes, allowing them to walk free in the U.S. Continue reading “ICE Director Struggles To Explain Release Of Thousands Of Criminal Immigrants”
Parents opposed to a California legislative effort to revoke their ability to exempt their children from some vaccinations plan to bring their children to a hearing Wednesday before the Senate Education Committee–and promise to yank those kids out of school if the measure passes into law.
The Democrat-sponsored Senate Bill 277 was proposed in response to a measles outbreak whose spread began at Disneyland last December. If passed, SB 277 would remove parents’ ability to sign a waiver that currently allows them to exempt their children from one or more school required vaccinations. Continue reading “Vaccine Bill Opponents: We’ll Pull Our Kids out of School”
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, the White House announced Tuesday, a key step in his bid to normalize relations between the two countries.
The terror designation has been a stain on Cuba’s pride and a major stumbling block for efforts to mend ties between Washington and Havana.
In a message to Congress, Obama said the government of Cuba “has not provided any support for international terrorism” over the last six months. He also told lawmakers that Cuba “has provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future.” Continue reading “Obama to remove Cuba from state sponsor of terror list”
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An Air Force major general has been formally reprimanded and removed from his job for telling a group of officers that talking to Congress in a bid to block retirement of the A-10 Warthog amounted to “treason,” the Air Force said on Friday.
An investigation of remarks by Major General James Post III, who was the vice commander of Air Combat Command, found that his words to some 300 airmen at Nellis Air Force Base on Jan. 10 may have had a “chilling effect” on some of them, convincing them not to speak with lawmakers. Continue reading “Air Force general reprimanded over A-10 ‘treason’ remark”
A woman could soon be the new face of the U.S. $20 bill.
The nonprofit campaign “Women on 20s” allowed voters to choose three of 15 women candidates for the $20 bill, and now it’s down to the “Final Four,” and you can vote for the ultimate winner. The candidates are Eleanor Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks and Wilma Mankiller. Continue reading “‘Women on 20s’ to Ask President Obama to Put One of These 4 Women on $20 Bill”
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A water main break in the West Village forced the evacuation of 500 people from No. 1 train Wednesday evening.
The 12-inch water main broke at 6:45 p.m. at 13th Street and Seventh Avenue., officials told CBS2.
As of Thursday morning, all the No. 1 and 2 trains’ service, which suffered the most from the water main break, had been fully restored with residual delays. Continue reading “500 Evacuated From Subway After West Village Water Main Break; Some Service Halted”
Yahoo News – by Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – North Korea accused Mexico on Wednesday of illegally detaining one of its ships with some 50 crew and warned it would take “necessary measures” to release the vessel, which United Nations sanctions monitors say belongs to a blacklisted shipping firm.
The 6,700-tonne freighter Mu Du Bong, which had come from Cuba, ran aground in July on a reef 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Tuxpan in Mexico’s Veracruz state. Mexico said the ship remains in the port of Tuxpan. Continue reading “North Korea warns will act to get back ship held by Mexico”
(Washington Times) – The American firearms industry is as healthy as ever, seeing an unprecedented surge that has sent production of guns soaring to more than 10.8 million manufactured in 2013 alone — double the total of just three years earlier.
The 2013 surge — the latest for which the government has figures — came in the first full year after the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, signaling that the push for stricter gun controls, strongly backed by President Obama, did little to chill the industry despite the passage of stricter laws in states such as New York, Maryland, Connecticut and California. Continue reading “Firearms Industry Sees Unprecedented Surge”
Breitbart – by CHARLIE SPIERING
If White House staffers feel compelled to visit a gender-neutral bathroom while at work, they now have that option, Politico reports.
If they work in the White House, however, they would have to cross the complex to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in order to use the restroom with special designation.
“An all-gender restroom is also available in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which provides guests and staff an additional option,” White House spokesman Jeff Tiller tells Politico’s Sarah Wheaton. Continue reading “White House Complex Contains Gender Neutral Bathroom”
Breitbart – by MICHAEL PATRICK LEAHY
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is changing the story about how he sustained those gruesome New Year’s Day injuries that have left him blind in one eye.
Previously, Reid claimed that an exercise band he was using “broke.”
“I was doing exercises that I’ve been doing for many years with those large rubber bands and one of them broke and spun me around and I crashed into these cabinets and injured my eye,” (emphasis added) Reid said at a press conference on January 22. Continue reading “Harry Reid Changes His Story On How He Sustained New Year’s Day Injuries”
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Rioting youths have clashed with Greek police in central Athens, damaging vehicles and property, following a demonstration by hundreds of anarchists seeking the abolition of a maximum security prison.
Dozens of rioters threw petrol bombs and stones at police, who responded with tear gas. Four people were detained in Tuesday’s clashes, while no injuries were immediately reported. Continue reading “Anarchists attack police with petrol bombs after Athens demo”
The Tennessean – by Dave Boucher
The Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill Monday night that makes it illegal to take a squirt gun — but not a real gun — within 150 feet of a school.
The new ban was included in a larger bill that would nix any local laws prohibiting people with gun permits from taking guns to parks.
The federal “Guns Free School Zones” act makes it illegal for anyone who doesn’t have a permit from taking a gun within 1,000 feet of a school. If that person has a permit from the state in which the school is located, though, they can take the gun near school property, the law states. Continue reading “House bill bans fake guns — not real guns — near schools”
Police in a northern Indian city said Tuesday they have a new weapon for controlling unruly protesters in the world’s largest democracy: pepper-spraying drones.
Yashasvi Yadav, police chief of Lucknow, said his officers have successfully test-flown the newly purchased drones with a view to better crowd control. Continue reading “Indian police to use pepper-spraying drones on unruly protesters”
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama vowed on Tuesday to act quickly once he receives a State Department recommendation on whether to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of terrorism-sponsoring countries, a remaining obstacle to the restoration of relations between Washington and Havana.
With just days to go before a hemispheric summit in Panama where Obama will come face-to-face with Cuban President Raul Castro, he offered no clear sign of how he was leaning or the timeframe for his decision. He ordered the review immediately after announcing a diplomatic breakthrough with Havana on Dec. 17. Continue reading “Obama says would move fast to take Cuba off terrorism sponsor list”
WASHINGTON — The U.S. government started keeping secret records of Americans’ international telephone calls nearly a decade before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, harvesting billions of calls in a program that provided a blueprint for the far broader National Security Agency surveillance that followed.
For more than two decades, the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed logs of virtually all telephone calls from the USA to as many as 116 countries linked to drug trafficking, current and former officials involved with the operation said. The targeted countries changed over time but included Canada, Mexico and most of Central and South America. Continue reading “U.S. secretly tracked billions of calls for decades”
Bloomberg – by David Lerman
WHO TV 13 – by Courtney Johns
Breitbart – by Caroline May
Breitbart – by Michelle Moons
Yahoo News – by Julie Pace
Yahoo News – by AVIANNE TAN
CBS New York
Tea Party
Yahoo News
Yahoo News
Yahoo News
USA Today – by Brad Heath