Author: Sunfire

Mail.com

SEATTLE (AP) — A four-day search for a missing Washington girl who vanished from her home over the weekend came to a tragic end Thursday, as authorities said they believe they have found the body of 6-year-old Jenise Wright.

Authorities in Kitsap County said Thursday they’re trying to track down anyone responsible, and they’re “not ruling out anything.” “This is going to be a criminal investigation, there’s no doubt about that,” said Kitsap County Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Wilson.   Continue reading “Tragic end after 4-day search for missing girl”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — The current Ebola crisis in West Africa is on pace to sicken more people than all other previous outbreaks of the disease combined, the health official leading the U.S. response said Thursday.

The next few weeks will be critical, said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is sending more workers into the affected countries to help. “It will be a long and hard fight,” Frieden told a congressional committee Thursday.   Continue reading “CDC director: Scale of Ebola crisis unprecedented”

Mail.com

DOVER, Del. (AP) — More than 35 years after the infamous suicide-murder of some 900 people — many forced to drink a cyanide-laced grape punch — in Jonestown, Guyana, the cremated remains of nine of the victims were found in a dilapidated former funeral home in Delaware, officials said Thursday.

The discovery brought back memories of a tragedy that killed hundreds of children and a U.S. congressman and horrified Americans. The remains were clearly marked, with the names of the deceased and place of their death included on accompanying death certificates, authorities said. Kimberly Chandler, spokeswoman for the Delaware Division of Forensic Science, declined to release the names of the nine people to The Associated Press. She said officials were working to notify relatives.   Continue reading “3 decades later, remains of Jonestown bodies found”

RT

US President Barack Obama is reportedly considering options to move on immigration reform via executive action despite protests from disapproving members of Congress.

The Obama administration has offered little in the way of details as a review of potential options by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security continues. But according to The Washington Post, the Obama administration is considering “temporary relief for law-abiding undocumented immigrants who are closely related to U.S. citizens or those who have lived in the country a certain number of years.”As many as five million migrants could be affected by such a move.   Continue reading “Obama considering immigration reform with executive actions, Congress readies to sue him”

RT

The US dollar, the dominant global currency since 1944, may lose some of its luster due to the American-led sanctions against Russia over the turmoil in Ukraine. The greenback has been fading in favor since the global financial crisis in 2008.

The US-led sanctions against Russia may have backfired on the US because it threatens to “hasten a move away from the dollar that’s been stirring since the global financial crisis [in 2008],”Rachel Evans at Bloomberg wrote. In an unexpected turn of events, Hong Kong’s central bank has bought more than $9.5 billion since the start of July “to prevent its currency from rallying as the sanctions stoked speculation of an influx of Russian cash,” she noted.   Continue reading “Unintended consequences: Sanctions on Russia hurt US dollar dominance”

RT

One of the Department of Homeland Security’s key contractors says a “state-sponsored” cyber attack is responsible for stealing the personal information of numerous government employees.

In the wake of the attack, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has put its work with the contractor on hold while the FBI investigates the situation.   Continue reading “Key Homeland Security contractor hacked, govt employee data likely stolen”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Veterans are expected to have an easier time getting government-paid health care from local doctors under a bill that President Barack Obama is set to sign into law Thursday.

The $16.3 billion measure also allows the Veterans Affairs Department to hire thousands of doctors, nurses and other health professionals at the VA’s nearly 1,000 hospitals and outpatient clinics nationwide.   Continue reading “Obama to sign veterans’ health care overhaul”

Mail.com

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A woman who took a Southwest Airlines flight from San Jose to Los Angeles without a ticket tried at least three times that day to breach airport security before she managed to board the plane, federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

It was the San Jose airport’s second security breach in recent months, after a teenage Somali immigrant stowed away in the wheel well of an April flight from there to Hawaii. Marilyn Jean Hartman bypassed an agent who was screening boarding passes Monday at Mineta San Jose International Airport by sneaking through with a family, said the law enforcement officials, who would speak only on condition of anonymity because the security breach is being investigated.   Continue reading “Officials: Woman sneaked onto flight after 3 tries”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bank of America is nearing a $16 billion to $17 billion settlement to resolve an investigation into its role in the sale of mortgage-backed securities before the 2008 financial crisis, a person directly familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The deal with the bank, which must still be finalized, would be the largest Justice Department settlement by far arising from the economic meltdown in which millions of Americans lost their homes to foreclosure. It would follow earlier multibillion-dollar agreements reached in the last year with Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase & Co.   Continue reading “AP source: BofA nears $16-$17B settlement with US”

RT

The US military will begin questioning former US prisoner-of-war Bowe Bergdahl on Wednesday regarding his 2009 capture in Afghanistan by the Taliban, according to Bergdahl’s lawyer.

Major General Kenneth R. Dahl will question Bergdahl, a US Army sergeant, at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. The main focus of the probe, according to a senior Army officer, is to ascertain circumstances that led to Bergdahl’s disappearance from his base station in Afghanistan and his later capture by the Taliban.   Continue reading “US military to begin questioning of ex-POW Bergdahl”

Mail.com

NORTH SALT LAKE, Utah (AP) — A family in this mountainside Salt Lake City suburb huddled late at night with neighbors and a local Mormon leader, praying in vain that a fractured ridge above their home would hold steady during a storm and prevent boulders and gravel from crashing through the back door.

Three generations of the Peruvian family awoke at dawn Tuesday to the sounds of snapping and rumbling as the rain-soaked swath of hillside crumbled above them. The six inside, including young children and their grandparents in their 70s, scrambled outside to escape danger.   Continue reading “Family prayed in vain for home to withstand storms”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Take a White House state dinner and multiply it by 50. The result is the most elaborate and unusual dinner of President Barack Obama’s administration, a one-of-a-kind affair put on Tuesday night for a one-of-a-kind gathering of several dozen leaders from countries across Africa.

The leaders are attending a three-day conference organized by the White House and aimed at boosting U.S. ties to the continent. Obama wasted little time highlighting his own personal connection to Africa during a brief toast. Guests were shuttled down to a massive tent erected on the South Lawn because the White House, as big as it is, does not have any rooms large enough that can hold the more-than-400 invited guests.   Continue reading “Obama welcomes African leaders for unusual dinner”

Mail.com

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man was put to death Wednesday for raping and killing a college student in 1995, making him the first U.S. prisoner executed since a lethal injection in Arizona last month in which an inmate took nearly two hours to die.

The Missouri Department of Corrections said Michael Worthington was executed by lethal injection at the state prison south of St. Louis and was pronounced dead at 12:11 a.m., 10 minutes after the process began. He is the seventh Missouri inmate executed this year.   Continue reading “Missouri inmate executed for raping, killing woman”

Mail.com

KENTWOOD, Mich. (AP) — A 9-year-old boy repeatedly stabbed by a 12-year-old at a Michigan playground ran screaming to his home and collapsed bleeding on his porch before dying at a hospital a short time later, witnesses and police said Tuesday.

Witnesses said the 12-year-old boy went to a nearby home after the Monday evening attack on Michael Conner Verkerke, called 911 and calmly turned himself in, then tried to flag down officers when they arrived.   Continue reading “Boy dies after playground stabbing by 12-year-old”

RT

An Arizona neuroscientist arrested on July 25 for bringing a loaded assault rifle into the Phoenix airport said he only carried the firearm to make a political statement, not to harm anyone.

But authorities said Peter Nathan Steinmetz pointed the gun at a woman and her 17-year-old daughter while walking through the busiest terminal of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.   Continue reading “Arrested Arizonian claims bringing AR-15 into Phoenix airport was a political statement”

RT

A police officer in central Texas has been placed on paid administrative leave while investigators consider whether a recent Facebook posting by the cop in which he discussed massacring food stamp recipients violated departmental policy.

According to KWTX News, Marlin Police Sgt. Rob Douglas already admitted that he authored a rant on his public Facebook profile last week mocking “the useless turd bags” he encounters at the grocery store on the first of the month — the day that public assistance, like welfare checks and food stamps, are usually made available to the needy.   Continue reading “Texas cop placed on paid leave for supermarket shooting spree Facebook threat”

RT

Supporters for the labeling of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in Colorado delivered a petition on Monday with about twice the number of signatures required for a ballot initiative to appear before voters in November.

Right to Know Colorado, the group backing the labeling effort, collected more than 170,000 signatures on the petition, according to the KDVR. A petition in Colorado is required to have 86,105 valid signatures from registered state voters for ballot initiative approval.   Continue reading “GMO-labeling movement poised for ballot initiative in Colorado”

RT

UK Foreign Office minister Baroness Sayeeda Warsi has resigned from government, saying she can “no longer support” its policy on Gaza.

She told her Twitter followers that she was leaving with “deep regret”. She was previously chairman of the Conservative Party.

Lady Warsi became the first female Muslim cabinet minister when David Cameron took office in 2010. She was demoted from the cabinet to a middle-ranking FCO post in 2012 and became minister for faith and communities at the same time.   Continue reading “UK minister resigns over ‘morally indefensible’ Gaza policy”

Mail.com

Two American aid workers infected with Ebola are getting an experimental drug so novel it has never been tested for safety in humans and was only identified as a potential treatment earlier this year, thanks to a longstanding research program by the U.S. government and the military.

The workers, Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly, are improving, although it’s impossible to know whether the treatment is the reason or they are recovering on their own, as others who have survived Ebola have done. Brantly is being treated at a special isolation unit at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital, and Writebol was expected to be flown there Tuesday in the same specially equipped plane that brought Brantly.   Continue reading “US gov’t had role in Ebola drug given aid workers”

Mail.com

YORBA LINDA, Calif. (AP) — Almost a decade after Richard Nixon resigned, the disgraced former president sat down with his one-time aide and told the tale of his fall from grace in his own words.

For three decades, that version of one of the nation’s largest and most-dissected political scandals largely gathered dust — until this week. Starting Tuesday, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation, portions of the tapes will be published each day by the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum and the private Richard Nixon Foundation. The postings begin with Nixon recalling the day he decided to resign and end Saturday — his last day in office — with the 37th president discussing his final day at the White House, when he signed the resignation agreement, gave a short speech and boarded a helicopter for San Clemente, California.   Continue reading “Nixon tapes released on resignation’s anniversary”