From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
Anyone else notice that there is no mention of HAARP or “Geo-Engineering” (chemtrails)?
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Mother Nature isn’t the only one blamed for California’s drought.
The state’s historic four-year dry spell has brought with it a flurry of finger-pointing. Now advocates, noting how California’s water shortage ranks as the top public concern, are invoking the drought to bolster their own causes. Continue reading “What’s blamed for California’s drought? Basically everything”
An American citizen has been accused of planning to build and detonate a bomb as part of a terror plot after three months of undercover surveillance by federal agents. The student from New York has been arrested and is being held without bail.
The FBI complaint against 20-year-old Munther Omar Saleh of Queens was unsealed on Tuesday and accuses him of allegedly providing material support to Islamic State (IS, aka ISIS/ISIL) while planning to detonate an explosive device in New York City. Continue reading “College student accused of plotting terror attack in New York City”
North Jersey – by Stephanie Dazio
PATERSON — A 30-year-old city police officer is charged with leaving the scene of an accident Tuesday night that killed a 23-year-old pedestrian.
Officer Jose Urena was off-duty at the time that authorities allege he struck the pedestrian. Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale said Urena, who has been with the department for seven years, has been suspended without pay. Continue reading “Paterson police officer charged with leaving accident that killed pedestrian”
An Egyptian court has sentenced former President Mohamed Morsi to death on Tuesday on charges of killing, kidnapping and other offences during a 2011 mass jailbreak.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s leader, Mohamed Badie, along with four other top Brotherhood figures, were also handed the death penalty, Reuters reported. Over 80 others were sentenced to death in absentia. Continue reading “Egyptian court sentences ex-President Morsi to death in 2011 jailbreak case”
Carlos Montero was arrested and taken to the notorious Rikers Island prison when he was 17. Seven years later he’s still locked up, awaiting trial. His custody has already cost New York over $1 million and may be the city’s longest pretrial detention.
Montero was arrested in 2008 for allegedly taking part in a robbery along with two buddies, Jairo Peralta and Diangelo Enriquez. A Washington Heights crime resulted in the death of one man, who, according to court papers cited by the New York Post, was fatally stabbed by Peralta while being robbed of his jacket. Enriquez meanwhile injured another man who tried to flee the scene of the crime. Although witness reports had placed him at the scene of the crime on October 23, Montero denies it and maintains his innocence. Continue reading “Rikers inmate on remand for 7 yrs says he ‘just wants to go home’”
NEWTON – The Newton officer accused of exposing himself to male drivers over a 7-month period last year has accepted a plea agreement that calls for him to resign from his job on the police force.
Jason Miller, 37, appeared before Judge Thomas Critchley in Sussex County Superior Court Monday with his attorney, Anthony Iacullo, for the first time since being arrested in November 2014. Continue reading “Newton cop, accused of exposing himself during traffic stops, takes plea deal”
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A federal judge in Newark on Tuesday is scheduled to hear oral arguments on whether the corruption case against Sen. Bob Menendez stays in New Jersey or is moved to Washington, D.C.
Menendez’s attorneys filed last month to have the trial moved, while federal prosecutors want it to remain in New Jersey, where the indictment was handed up in early May. THE CHARGES Menendez, a congressman for more than 20 years and a member of the Senate since 2006, is charged in a 22-count indictment with accepting gifts and donations totaling about $1 million from Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen in exchange for political favors. The gifts included flights aboard a luxury jet and a Paris vacation. Menendez has said he accepted gifts from Melgen because the two have been close friends for years. Continue reading “Judge to hear arguments on Menendez corruption trial venue”
The US and China have signed a rare agreement to strengthen ties and develop a more productive military relationship. However, mistrust still remains, with Beijing saying progress can only be made if Washington respects China’s South China Sea ambitions.
The understanding mainly concerns a deepening of cooperation between the two nations, following a meeting between Fan Changlong, the vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission and US Defense Secretary, Ashton Carter. Continue reading “US, China strike deal, set to hold joint military drills”
A blaze from a ruptured gas pipeline near Cuero in Texas is being allowed to slowly burn out. A local sheriff said he expects this to happen by Monday morning. A huge column of fire was visible for over 20 miles after the pipeline caught fire.
No injuries have been reported so far, according to Raul Diaz, a deputy with the DeWitt County Sheriff’s Office, as cited by My San Antonio online news. Continue reading “Massive Texas blaze dying down following pipeline rupture”
OAK ISLAND, N.C. (AP) — Two young people vacationing in the beach town of Oak Island were swimming in waist-deep water when they lost limbs in separate life-threatening shark attacks, town officials said Monday.
A 12-year-old girl from Asheboro lost part of her arm and suffered a leg injury, and a 16-year-old boy from Winston-Salem lost his left arm less than 90 minutes later and about 2 miles away late Sunday afternoon, officials said. The victims were each about 20 yards offshore. Continue reading “Vacationing shark-attack victims were in shallow water”
DANA POINT, Calif. (AP) — Tiny tuna crabs have been washing up by the thousands on some Orange County beaches.
The Orange County Register reports (http://bit.ly/1BcoMTB ) that the crustaceans, which look like tiny lobsters or crawfish, created a bright red rim along the shoreline of Dana Point, San Clemente, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach on Sunday. Continue reading “Tiny tuna crabs wash up in masses on Orange County beaches”
Mistaking boys playing in a Gaza beach area for Hamas fighters and firing two missiles at them, killing four, is a tragic accident and not a reason to press criminal charges, an Israeli military magistrate’s office ruled.
“The case has been closed following the completion of a criminal investigation,” the IDF said in a statement on Thursday. Continue reading “Missile killing of 4 Gaza boys not a crime, Israel rules”
ABOVE THE FLORIDA STRAITS (AP) — With a shift in the relationship between Havana and Washington, many Cubans are now attempting a risky sea crossing out of fear that the U.S. will change its “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy allowing any Cuban reaching U.S. land to stay and pursue citizenship.
Without it, they’d be treated like other foreigners caught illegally in the country — ineligible for citizenship and subject to deportation. The U.S. Coast Guard returns any Cuban migrants caught at sea to the communist island. Authorities have captured or intercepted more than 2,600 since Oct. 1, and that tally is expected to match or surpass last year’s total of nearly 4,000. Continue reading “Coast Guard, Cuban migrants continue deadly hide-and-seek”
BOSTON (AP) — Two men were charged Friday with conspiring to help the Islamic State group by plotting with a Boston terror suspect to kill U.S. citizens to support the objectives of the terrorist organization.
Nicholas Rovinski, 24, of Warwick, Rhode Island, was arrested Thursday. David Wright, 25, of Everett, Massachusetts, was arrested last week. Both men are charged with conspiring with Usaama Rahim, 26, of Boston, who was killed last week by terror investigators who had him under 24-hour surveillance. Authorities say Rahim lunged at police with a military-style knife, but his family has questioned that account, noting that a knife is not seen in a grainy surveillance video cited by authorities. Continue reading “2 charged with conspiring to help IS group with Boston man”
Medical examiners don’t have to return all organs from autopsied bodies to the deceased person’s family, New York’s Appeals Court ruled on Wednesday. The decision also added that it is not necessary to inform relatives if any body parts are missing.
A verdict allowing city coroners to return the body with missing organs for burial after performing an autopsy was ruled on in New York, AP reported. The appeals court had reversed a lower court’s decision, which involved a family who unknowingly buried their son with parts of his body missing. Continue reading “Grave concern: US medical examiners can keep organs from dead bodies, NY court rules”
A female police officer fatally shot an unarmed, 28-year-old white man named Keith Bolinger for allegedly “charging” at her vehicle following his “unusual” behaviour and a short car chase in Des Moines, Iowa.
Officer Vanessa Miller fired the round that hit and killed Bolinger at the scene, when he tried to approach a police car on Tuesday evening, the Des Moines Register reported. In the lead up to the shooting, police and witnesses, said Bolinger had led two officers in a car chase through the streets Des Moines. Continue reading “Cop kills man for ‘walking with a purpose’”
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s central bank lowered its key interest rate to a historic low on Thursday, responding to a slump in exports and the prospect the economy will be hurt by the outbreak of the deadly MERS virus. Officials insist that the disease, which has killed 10 people, has peaked.
Bank of Korea policymakers cut the policy rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 1.5 percent, the second rate cut this year. In March, the bank lowered the key rate and downgraded its growth forecast for Asia’s fourth-largest economy as exports continued to slump. Continue reading “SKorea cuts key rate as MERS emerges as threat to recovery”
NAPLES, Italy (AP) — The new U.S. military hub setting up in Iraq’s western desert could be a model for more such train-and-advise operations — and with it likely more U.S. troops — designed to help Iraq defeat the Islamic State, the top-ranking American general said Thursday.
“Sure, we’re looking all the time at whether there might be additional sites necessary,” Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters traveling with him to Naples, Italy, where he is meeting with U.S. commanders. Continue reading “General: New US hub in Iraq could be model”
UN peacekeepers deployed in Haiti engaged in “transactional” sexual relationships for food and medicine with over 200 women and underage girls, a draft report seen by the Associated Press suggests, noting that many cases of abuse remain underreported.
According to a new UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) report obtained by the news agency, a third of alleged sexual exploitation and abuse involved minors under 18. Continue reading “UN peacekeepers sexually abused hundreds of Haitian women & girls – report”
LUXOR, Egypt (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up on Wednesday just steps away from the ancient Egyptian temple of Karnak in Luxor, a southern city visited by millions of tourists every year, security and health officials said. No tourists were killed or hurt in the late morning attack.
The attack — the second this month at or near a major tourist attraction in Egypt — marks an escalation and a shift in tactics in a campaign of violence waged by Islamic militants against the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, with the extremists shifting from their focus on hitting security forces to targeting Egypt’s vital tourism industry. Continue reading “Suicide bomber targets ancient Egyptian temple in Luxor”
