Author: NC

Wolf Street – by Wolf Richter

Consumer spending, the key to the American economy, and by extension the global economy, is one of the most watched activities in the world, but results may vary, as they say, depending on who is doing the counting and what they’re counting.

The Gallup Daily tracking survey is one of those measures. The poll, based on telephone interviews of over 15,000 adults aged 18 and older each month, asks consumers the total amount they spent “yesterday,” not counting normal monthly bills and the purchase of a home or a vehicle. It’s Gallup’s measure of discretionary spending. And the results for August weren’t exactly what everyone had hoped for.   Continue reading “Consumer Spending in August Drops below a Year Ago – Gallup”

The Daily Star – by Joe Mahoney

COOPERSTOWN — When police are called out to deal with shootings, hostage incidents or other emergencies, they rarely know what’s on the other side of the door separating them from the possible mayhem inside.

Entering a barricaded home can pose especially grave dangers, according to law enforcement officials. But to spare officers from having to jeopardize their lives in such situations, police agencies across the country are turning to high-tech equipment such as tactical robots.   Continue reading “Sheriff asks county to approve police robot”

Yahoo News

NEWPORT Rhode Island (Reuters) – Russia and China are trying to close the technology gap with the U.S. military and developing weapons systems that appear designed to counter traditional U.S. advantages, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Wednesday.

Hagel was speaking before a NATO summit expected to bring Russia’s souring relations with the West into sharp focus and the goals of NATO allies to strengthen defense spending.   Continue reading “Russia, China aim to close military technology gap with U.S.: Hagel”

Breitbart – by Kristin Tate

HOUSTON, Texas — More than 6,000 immigrants, who came to the U.S. using student visas, are nowhere to be found on their school campuses. They have vanished.

According to ABC News, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that the missing 6,000 students are of “heightened concern.” Officials have not been able to successfully track down these individuals. Peter Edge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told ABC that some of the foreigners “could be here to do us harm. … My greatest concern is that they could be doing anything.”   Continue reading “Thousands of Immigrants ‘Disappear’ After Being Let into US With Student Visas”

RT

Abdirahmaan Muhumed, the second known American to die while fighting alongside Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) militants, was formerly an employee with a Delta Airlines subsidiary at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Muhumed had a security clearance at the airport, access to the tarmac, and access to planes, as his job was to clean aircraft, Fox 9 in Minneapolis reported. It is yet unknown what level of security clearance he had.   Continue reading “ISIS fighter killed in Syria worked at Minneapolis International Airport”

Washington Examiner – by SUSAN FERRECHIO

Tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central America who have recently crossed into the United States will cost state and local governments a staggering $761 million dollars this year, a group that favors immigration reduction has calculated.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, which is pushing for reduced legal immigration and stronger border security, made its calculation based on federal government data indicating that more than 37,000 children who are part of the recent border surge have now been placed with families across the United States and are eligible to attend public schools.   Continue reading “Immigration group: Surge will cost schools $761 million”

CNS News – by Penny Starr

In the midst of the summer recess, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) issued a press release on Aug. 21 concerning a letter he wrote to the Department of Homeland Security seeking details about the release of 36,007 illegal aliens last year who had been convicted of a crime and were released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while awaiting deportation proceedings.

The June 9 inquiry, addressed to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, led to the revelation that of those thousands released, 169 had been convicted of “homicide-related” offenses.   Continue reading “ICE Released 169 Illegal Aliens Convicted of ‘Homicide-Related’ Crimes”

Yahoo News

San Francisco (AFP) – Google said it is working on a super-fast “quantum” computer chip as part a vision to one day have machines think like humans.

The Internet titan on Tuesday added renowned researcher John Martinis and his team at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to the Quantum Artificial Intelligence team at Google, according to director of engineering Hartmut Neven.   Continue reading “Google working on super-fast ‘quantum’ computer chip”

Reuters – by Peter Apps

As fighting between the army and Russian-backed rebels rages in eastern Ukraine, preparations are under way near its western border for a joint military exercise this month with more than 1,000 troops from the United States and its allies.

The decision to go ahead with the Rapid Trident exercise Sept. 16-26 is seen as a sign of the commitment of NATO states to support non-NATO member Ukraine while stopping well short of military intervention in the conflict.   Continue reading “U.S., allies to stage exercises in West Ukraine as battles rage in East”

New York Times – by Steven Greenhouse

MIRA LOMA, Calif. — Week after week, Guadalupe Rangel worked seven days straight, sometimes 11 hours a day, unloading dining room sets, trampolines, television stands and other imports from Asia that would soon be shipped to Walmart stores.

Even though he often clocked 70 hours a week at the Schneider warehouse here, he was never paid time-and-a-half overtime, he said. And now, having joined a lawsuit involving hundreds of warehouse workers, Mr. Rangel stands to receive more than $20,000 in back pay as part of a recent $21 million legal settlement with Schneider, a national trucking company.   Continue reading “More Workers Are Claiming ‘Wage Theft’”

Breitbart – by Bob Price

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas — Members of the Texas National Guard (TNG) have begun patrolling the Rio Grande Sector of the Texas-Mexico border. Guardsmen have been seen in patrol areas from McAllen to Rio Grande City. Under the control of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and Governor Rick Perry, the guardsmen have begun their operation to refer and deter along this small section of the border.

The guardsmen have begun working 12 hour shifts with no days off according to a soldier who spoke to Breitbart Texas under condition of anonymity. There was no indication as to how long the 12/7 shifts would last.   Continue reading “Texas National Guardsmen Begin 12/7 Shifts on Border”

Breitbart – by William Bigelow

USIS, the Department of Homeland Security’s contractor for conducting security clearance background checks, has had the personal records of at least 25,000 of its employees stolenbecause of hackers, and the hackers may have been from a foreign country, according to the Associated Press (AP).

AP’s source was an unnamed DHS official who told AP that Homeland Security would soon let employees know if their personal information had been stolen and encourage them to check their financial accounts.    Continue reading “Hackers Steal Security Check Data from 25,000+ DHS Employees”

Breitbart – by Kristin Tate

HOUSTON, Texas — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is expected to allow thousands of illegal immigrant deportees to return to the U.S., so long as they have ties to Southern California. Taxpayers will additionally fund a media campaign in Mexico, alerting deportees that they may be eligible to come back to the United States.

An agreement outlining the new settlement was announced in late August, according to the Los Angeles Times. The plan, which only applies to Southern California, was reportedly drawn up in response to a lawsuit that was filed last year by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) relating to the rights of illegal immigrants.   Continue reading “Feds Encouraging Deported Illegal Aliens to Come Back to US”

Breitbart – by William Bigelow

On Thursday, Modoc and Siskiyou counties in California, adjacent to Oregon, formally requested state officials to allow them to secede from the state and form a new state to be called Jefferson, according to the Sacramento Bee.

The two counties’ governments directly petitioned the secretaries of the state Assembly and Senate after they had already submitted a petition to the secretary of state asserting that they weren’t represented strongly enough in the state.   Continue reading “Two Northern Counties Petition CA Legislature to Form State of ‘Jefferson’”

ABC News – by BRAD BROOKS Associated Press

Brazil’s formerly high-flying economy, once the darling of emerging markets, has fallen into recession, according to government data released Friday, as a legion of newly minted middle class citizens tightened their belts and halted a credit-driven spending spree.

The government’s statistics bureau reported that gross domestic product dropped 0.6 percent in the second quarter, in large part because of soft consumer spending. First-quarter results also were revised downward from 0.2 percent growth to a 0.2 percent drop, showing a two-quarter slide that most economists use to define a recession.   Continue reading “BRIC Wall: Brazil’s Economy Slips Into a Recession”

Breitbart – by Kristin Tate

HOUSTON, Texas — President Obama’s Health and Human Services (HHS) has responded to the crisis along the Texas-Mexico border by quietly releasing illegal immigrant minors onto U.S. soil. 30,340 illegal immigrant minors have already been released in states around the country–4,829 were released in Texas alone. HHS’ Office of Refugee and Resettlement (ORR) recently published additional statistics, showing how many unaccompanied alien children (UAC) were set free in various counties across the country. More were released in Texas’ Harris County–in which Houston is located–than any other county in the nation.   Continue reading “Houston Leads Nation for Illegal Immigrant Minors’ Destination”

Washington Examiner – by Paul Bedard

The Obama administration has released a huge majority of illegal immigrant children who poured over the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this year into dozens of tony counties without notifying the public, while deporting just 280, according to new reports.

The Health and Human Services Department released a listof 126 counties 29,890 of the kids were placed into, sometimes with their parents who are also in the United States illegally.   Continue reading “In just 6 months, 37,477 illegal immigrant kids released, only 280 deported”