From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (AP) — Officials say a 45-ton humpback whale entangled with fishing line in Hawaii waters for more than a week is finally free.
The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary said Saturday that its craft got within 10 feet of the mammal a day earlier and the crew used a pole equipped with a knife to saw the line free. Continue reading “Crews free humpback whale tangled in fishing line off Hawaii”
An Oakland artist is ingeniously battling homelessness in Oakland, California: he builds small houses out of materials he can find in the streets, with each edifice costing around forty bucks.
The tiny homes are made of pallets, bed boards, washing machine doors, and other bizarre objects that catch Greg Kloehn’s attention. Mr Kloehn first noticed that homeless people built shelters from whatever they find in the street, and he wanted to make a house like this. Continue reading “‘Tiny houses’: California homelessness gets new $40 solution”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Never underestimate the staying power of big tobacco.
In 2006, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ordered the nation’s largest cigarette makers to publicly admit that they had lied for decades about the dangers of smoking. The basis for the punishment: Testimony from 162 witnesses, a nine-month bench trial and thousands of findings by the judge that defendants engaged in what the largest public health organizations in the country have called a massive campaign of fraud. Continue reading “Tobacco giants resist harsh public admissions about smoking”
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — For nearly a century, the gasoline tax has provided the financial foundation for the nation’s roads. For each gallon they pump, motorists have paid several additional cents in taxes to their state and federal governments.
That is still the case in most places. But as vehicles have become more fuel-efficient, gas tax revenue has plateaued. And the federal gas tax has lost more than one-third of its value to inflation since it was last raised to 18.4 cents a gallon in 1993. Continue reading “Alternative ways to pay for highway repairs, construction”
STEPHENVILLE, Texas (AP) — An ex-Marine charged with shooting “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle and another man was not legally insane, a prosecution expert said, suggesting the man may have gotten some of his ideas from the television show “Seinfeld.”
Prosecutors called rebuttal witnesses Friday in the trial of Eddie Ray Routh, who is charged with killing Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield. Routh’s attorneys, who are pursuing an insanity defense, rested their case Thursday. Continue reading “Prosecution expert says ‘American Sniper’ suspect not insane”
The US Navy has awarded Boeing a $29.5 million contract to design and develop a “beam control system” to increase the accuracy of high-power laser weapons to be installed aboard American military vessels.
“Boeing innovations in beam control and directed energy technologies are keys to understanding laser weapon system configurations that could yield a capability for the Navy in their maritime environment,”Peggy Morse, Boeing Directed Energy & Strategic Systems (DESS) vice president, said in an official statement. Continue reading “Boeing ‘beam control system’ to boost US navy laser accuracy”
The bitter cold that has gripped the eastern U.S. is showing no sign of letting up before the weekend as low temperatures broke records Friday.
The newest band of Arctic air could plunge parts of the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic into deep freezes that haven’t been felt since the mid-1990s, according to the National Weather Service. The cold snap followed snow and ice storms earlier in the week. The low temperatures caused much freezing and refreezing of snow, ice and roads. Weather forecasters warn that more sleet and freezing rain will be possible in the coming days. Continue reading “Winter keeping its icy grip around the Eastern US”
KENNEWICK, Wash. (AP) — Investigators asked the public Thursday to provide more social media images and eyewitness accounts of a fatal police shooting that has sparked a series of protests in an agricultural community in Washington state.
They also asked for patience as they seek more information about the victim, an unarmed Mexican man who ran from officers after reportedly throwing rocks at them. Sgt. Ken Lattin of the nearby Kennewick Police Department said videos continue to arrive, and he asked for more contributions from people who saw the Feb. 10 shooting at a busy Pasco intersection. Continue reading “Video from police, public examined in Washington shooting”
US search engine giant Google has warned against increasing the government’s powers for infiltrating computer systems around the world, saying it would open a number of “monumental” constitutional issues.
Google released a tough-sounding statement against the Department Justice (DoJ) proposal to make it easier for the courts to issue search warrants to seize electronic data ‘remotely’ from anywhere in the world. Continue reading “Google warning: FBI wants to hack any computer in world”
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — For more than a month, Maureen McDonnell quietly listened as witnesses portrayed her as a hostile and rapacious governor’s wife whose greed led to her husband’s downfall as well as her own.
Enduring such highly public humiliation is punishment enough without adding prison time, her lawyers have argued in court papers prior to a hearing Friday in which McDonnell is to be sentenced. They have asked the same judge who last month sentenced former Gov. Bob McDonnell to two years in prison to let his wife off with probation and 4,000 hours of community service. Continue reading “Former Virginia 1st lady faces sentencing for corruption”
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A dentist has been charged in the death of a patient who became unresponsive while having 20 teeth pulled and several implants installed.
Rashmi Patel turned himself in Tuesday at the Enfield Police Department and was charged with a misdemeanor count of criminally negligent homicide and a felony count of tampering with evidence, police said. Patel has offices in Enfield and Torrington. Continue reading “Dentist charged in death of patient getting 20 teeth pulled”
CHICAGO (AP) — Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday there can be no diplomacy with Islamic State militants, but only a U.S.-led coalition of Middle Eastern countries committed to “tightening the noose and taking them out.”
In a wide-ranging speech outlining his vision of America’s place in the world, part of the Republican’s run-up toward a likely campaign for president in 2016, Bush laid the rise of the Islamic State group at the feet of President Barack Obama. He also made his most overt criticisms to date of his brother’s administration, telling the audience of several hundred people, “I am my own man.” Continue reading “Jeb Bush: US must ‘tighten the noose’ in fight against IS”
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man who led a Kansas commune that collected millions of dollars in life insurance payouts from dead members was convicted of premeditated murder Wednesday in the 2003 drowning death of a female member.
Daniel Perez, 55, also was found guilty of 27 other counts, some alleging that he sexually abused minor daughters of the commune’s members and devised a scheme to receive life insurance payments from members who lived on a 20-acre site in suburban Wichita known as Angels Landing. Continue reading “Kansas commune leader found guilty of drowning woman in pool”
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Before prosecutors described Rabbi Mendel Epstein as a leader in a devout Orthodox community, they played a short, grainy video clip that they say shows he is a criminal.
“Basically, what we’re going to be doing is kidnapping a guy for a couple hours,” he’s heard telling two undercover FBI agents about what prosecutors say was a staged kidnapping in 2013. Opening statements began Wednesday in the trial of Epstein and his three co-defendants: son David Epstein, Jay Goldstein and Binyamin Stimler. Mendel Epstein, who is accused of employing a kidnap team to force unwilling Jewish husbands to divorce their wives, faces charges of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and attempted kidnapping. The others face similar charges stemming from a staged kidnapping in 2013 and three other forced divorces. Continue reading “Trial starts for rabbi who allegedly ran divorce kidnap team”
Over a period of two decades, 2.5 million single parent families experienced a 35 percent decline in federal assistance while those earning slightly more saw aid rise 74 percent, the New York Times reported.
The findings come from research that covers the 15 largest social safety net programs of the period between 1983 and 2004. They demonstrated that aid spending had dramatically increased. Despite this news, those earning as little as 50 percent below the federal poverty level, or $11,925 a year, were getting less support even though those earning 200 percent above the poverty level, or $47,700 were experiencing an increase in support. Continue reading “Poorest Americans left out of federal aid despite 74 percent spending surge”
A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill are pressuring the White House to declassify 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission Report that have been rumored to detail an investigation into alleged ties between Saudi Arabia and Al-Qaeda.
These pages have been classified since the original report was released during the presidency of George W. Bush, and President Barack Obama has so far declined to declassify them. While it’s unclear exactly what the contents of the documents are, several current and former lawmakers who have read the pages say they illustrate links between the Saudi government and some of the terrorists responsible for attacking the World Trade Center and Pentagon back in 2001. Continue reading “Lawmakers to Obama: Declassify remaining pages of 9/11 report”
KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) — Shiite prayers billow from a mosque loudspeaker at a sprawling Iraqi military base on the fringes of the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk as Shiite militiamen, most of them in mismatched military fatigues, shuttle back and forth to nearby front-lines, eager for a taste of victory against the Islamic State group.
When the IS militants blitzed across northern and western Iraq last year, tens of thousands of Shiite men answered a call-to-arms by the country’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to defend the nation against the Sunni extremists. Continue reading “Iraq Shiite militias rush to defend oil-rich Kirkuk from IS”
LUHANSKE, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian presidential office has called on the European Union and NATO to condemn the Russia-backed rebels for violating the cease-fire.
Russian news agencies on Tuesday quoted Valery Chaly, chief of the Ukrainian presidential administration, as saying that Kiev wants the EU and NATO to “resolutely condemn” the separatists for violating the deals brokered by European leaders last week. Continue reading “Ukraine Slams Separatist Rebels for Violating Truce”
A US scientist spoke to RT saying he is worried intelligence bodies could try to use the weather as a weapon. He called on the CIA to open up and be more transparent, and wants research to be conducted globally to limit the possibility of hostile use.
Professor Alan Robock is wary that US government agencies are interested in funding climate change research to see if new technologies could help to turn the weather into potential weapons. Continue reading “Climate regime change? CIA may fund weather research for new weapon, scientist fears”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Government surveyors have determined a new height for the Washington Monument that’s nearly 10 inches shorter than what has been thought for more than 130 years, officials will announce Monday.
The new measurement puts the monument at 554 feet, 7 and eleven-thirty-seconds of an inch, as measured from the floor of the main entrance to the top. Ever since the stone obelisk was completed in 1884, however, the historic height has been recorded at 555 feet, 5 and 1/8 inches. It’s a number circulated for decades on tours of the capital and in civics classes about the monument honoring the nation’s first president. Continue reading “Surveyors determine new height for Washington Monument in DC”
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