image from http://imgur.comRT News

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seems to have accidentally mailed parts of a $350,000 drone to a Massachusetts college student, according to evidence posted online by its lucky recipient which was verified on Monday.

A Reddit user known only Seventy_Seven posted images to the online forum early Monday afternoon, quickly attracting thousands of viewers and nearly 3,000 comments wondering where the package originated and what, exactly, it is supposed to be used for. The user did not reveal his or her name but did say he is a college student who found a large box waiting for him in his UPS storage container.   Continue reading “$350k govt drone mistakenly sent to Mass. college student”

Vera Scroggins (screenshot from RT video)RT News

A Pennsylvania activist, who has been battling fracking companies in her town for five years, told RT how the court’s decision to bar her from extraction sites interfered with her private life – and why this does not matter for her relentless campaign.

“I don’t want to live with this and I don’t want it for future generations,” Vera Scroggins, an anti-fracking activist, told RT.   Continue reading “‘I don’t want it for my kids’: Anti-fracking activist in PA battles gas giant”

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LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The girls in the school dorm could hear the sound of gunshots from a nearby town. So when armed men in uniforms burst in and promised to rescue them, at first they were relieved.

“Don’t worry, we’re soldiers,” one 16-year-old girl recalls them saying. “Nothing is going to happen to you.” The gunmen commanded the hundreds of students at the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School to gather outside. The men went into a storeroom and removed all the food. Then they set fire to the room.   Continue reading “Nigerian girl describes kidnap, 276 still missing”

Eli ShukronMail.com

JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli archaeologist says he has found the legendary citadel captured by King David in his conquest of Jerusalem, rekindling a longstanding debate about using the Bible as a field guide to identifying ancient ruins.

The claim by Eli Shukron, like many such claims in the field of biblical archaeology, has run into criticism. It joins a string of announcements by Israeli archaeologists saying they have unearthed palaces of the legendary biblical king, who is revered in Jewish religious tradition for establishing Jerusalem as its central holy city — but who has long eluded historians looking for clear-cut evidence of his existence and reign.   Continue reading “Israeli says he has found King David’s citadel”

A woman stands in line with some of the 1,500 people seeking employment during a job fair at the Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater in Washington, DC (AFP Photo / Chip Somodevilla)RT News

Although the US unemployment rate has declined, more and more Americans are choosing to opt out of the labor market altogether and no longer even figure in the employment data.

Efforts by the Obama administration to dress up the employment picture are a bit like attempting to stuff a circus elephant into a ballerina costume. As Washington trumpets last month’s drop in the unemployment rate (6.3 percent), it has quietly moved more than 988,000 Americans into the “not participating in the labor force” column.   Continue reading “Nearly 102 million working-age Americans jobless”

Shimon PeresCry me a river!  *barf*

Mail.com

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli President Shimon Peres says he and his late wife decided to go their “separate ways” after he insisted on running for the presidency in 2007.

The 90-year-old Peres, who rarely discusses his personal life, told the Yediot Ahronot newspaper that his wife Sonya asked him to retire from politics — something he couldn’t accept. The remarks, published Monday, came as Peres is wrapping up his seven-year term as the country’s largely ceremonial head of state in July.   Continue reading “Israel’s Peres says politics broke up his marriage”

Jose MujicaMail.com

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguay has finally released its rules for the legal marijuana market it is launching this year, detailing how the government plans to get very involved in every aspect of the business. But anyone hoping the South American nation will become a pot-smoker’s paradise should probably head to Colorado instead, President Jose Mujica suggested on Friday.

“It’s a complete fiction what they do in Colorado” in terms of controlling the sale and use of legal marijuana, Mujica said in an Associated Press interview. Colorado licenses sellers and producers but allows any adult to buy up to 28 grams at a time — and then go down the street and buy 28 grams more. In Uruguay, consumers must be licensed as well, and each purchase will be tracked to ensure they buy no more than 10 grams a week, he said.   Continue reading “Uruguay leader calls Colorado pot law ‘a fiction’”

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PHOENIX (AP) — A parachuting medical team and other U.S. Air Force rescuers are working to bring two badly burned Chinese sailors from a boat in the Pacific Ocean to a California hospital.

Officials said two other Chinese sailors died and six are believed to be missing after their boat sank. Maj. Sarah Schwennesen, at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, said Sunday that a Venezuelan fishing boat reported finding 11 sailors floating in a raft Friday afternoon.   Continue reading “US air teams rescuing injured Chinese sailors”

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ODESSA, Ukraine (AP) — Outrage over the deaths of pro-Russian activists in riots in Odessa triggered new violence Sunday in the Black Sea port, where a mob of protesters stormed police headquarters and freed dozens of their jailed allies.

The activists had been jailed for their involvement in clashes Friday that killed more than 40 people — some died from gunshot wounds, but most from a fire that broke out in a trade union building. It was the worst violence in the Ukrainian crisis since more than 100 people died in Kiev in February, most of them shot by snipers.   Continue reading “Pro-Russian crowd storms police HQ in Ukraine port”

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A platform collapsed during an aerial hair-hanging stunt at a circus performance Sunday, sending eight acrobats plummeting to the ground. Nine performers were seriously injured in the fall, including a dancer below, while an unknown number of others suffered less serious injuries.

The accident was reported about 45 minutes into the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus’ 11 a.m. Legends show at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence. Stephen Payne, a spokesman for Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Bros., said the accident happened during an act in which eight performers hang “like a human chandelier” using their hair.   Continue reading “Acrobats fall during Ringling Bros. circus stunt”

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BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams was released without charge Sunday after five days of police questioning over his alleged involvement in a decades-old IRA killing of a Belfast mother of 10, an investigation that has driven a dangerous wedge into Northern Ireland’s unity government.

Addressing reporters and supporters at a Belfast hotel, Adams said he wanted his party to provide help to the children of Jean McConville, the 37-year-old widow taken from her home by the Irish Republican Army in 1972, killed and dumped in an unmarked grave. He also rejected claims by IRA veterans in audiotaped interviews that he had ordered the killing.   Continue reading “Sinn Fein’s Adams freed after 5 days in custody”

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NEW YORK (AP) — Coca-Cola is dropping a controversial ingredient from its Powerade sports drink, after a similar move by PepsiCo’s Gatorade last year.

The ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, had been the target of a petition by a Mississippi teenager, who questioned why it was being used in a drink marketed toward health-conscious athletes. The petition on Change.org noted that the ingredient is linked to a flame retardant and is not approved for use in Japan or the European Union.    Continue reading “Powerade drops controversial ingredient”

David McNew / Getty Images / AFP RT News

Ongoing hydraulic fracking operations will only exacerbate seismic activity, leading to heightened earthquakes in areas where wastewater is injected deep underground, according to new research.

To unleash natural gas, hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – requires large volumes of water, sand, and chemicals to be pumped underground. Scientists attending the Seismological Society of America (SSA) annual meeting said Thursday that this storage of wastewater in wells deep below the earth’s surface, in addition to fracking’s other processes, is changing the stress on existing faults, which could mean more frequent and larger quakes in the future.   Continue reading “Fracking-linked earthquakes likely to worsen – seismologists”

Reuters / Brian SnyderRT News

Fifty-five US colleges and universities are currently under investigation in connection with allegations that they mishandled or ignored sexual assault and sexual harassment complaints, the US Department of Education announced Thursday.

A variety of schools – small, large, private, and public – are named on the list. Ohio State University, the University of California Berkeley, and Arizona State University are all included, listed alongside prestigious institutions like Princeton University, Dartmouth College, and Harvard University Law School.   Continue reading “55 colleges under investigation for mishandling sexual assault”

Reuters / Doug Wilson / USDA Photo / Handout RT News

The US Environmental Protection Agency has revealed a proposal for mass use of Dow Chemical’s herbicide 2,4-D on the company’s genetically-engineered corn and soybeans. The GE crops were developed to withstand several herbicides, including 2,4-D.

Dow would be allowed to sell the herbicide if the EPA approves it following a 30-day public comment period.   Continue reading “​EPA advances approval of powerful weed killer for Dow’s ‘Agent Orange’ GMO crops”

Defense Intelligence Agency director U.S. Army Lt. General Michael Flynn (Reuters / Gary Cameron)RT News

Both the director and deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon announced on Wednesday that they are to leave their jobs by early fall. The move is thought be the result of mounting pressure by top Washington officials.

United States DIA Director Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn announced to Pentagon staff that he is walking away from that role a year earlier than anticipated.   Continue reading “US Defense Intelligence Agency director reportedly being forced out”

Rocky Mountain High School, Colorado (Image from 999thepoint.com)RT News

Florida conservatives, evidently alarmed by changing social and income demographics, are pushing legislation to combat what they say is the attempted indoctrination of American students with Islamic ideology.

Lawmakers are currently considering a so-called “anti-Sharia bill” which passed through the state Senate with a 24-14 vote on Monday. Sharia, which varies between cultures, is the basic path which devout Muslims try to follow. The rules, while strict by Western standards, often stretch past the confines of a mosque and regulate aspects of secular law, including crime, public policy, sex, diet, and economics.   Continue reading “‘One nation under Allah’: FL conservatives push for anti-Sharia legislation”

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DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit-area factory where Rosie the Riveter showed that a woman could do a “man’s work” by building World War II-era bombers has been saved from the wrecking ball, organizers of a campaign to build a museum on the site announced Thursday.

The site’s manager had given the Save the Willow Run Bomber Plant campaign a deadline of Thursday to raise the $8 million needed to buy a 150,000-square-foot portion of the larger property. As recently as Tuesday morning, the group was about $1 million short of its goal, but later in the day “closed on a big one,” fundraising consultant Michael Montgomery said.   Continue reading “Rosie’s Michigan plant saved from wrecking ball”

MILITARY SEX ASSAULTSMail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Reports of sexual assaults by members of the military rose 50 percent after the Pentagon began a vigorous campaign to get more victims to come forward, prompting defense officials to order a greater focus on prevention programs, including plans to review alcohol sales and policies.

But officials are still unhappy with the low number of male victims who reported sexual assault, and they say there will be a greater emphasis in the months ahead on getting men to come forward and seek help. Final data obtained by The Associated Press show that about 14 percent of the reports filed last year involved male victims.   Continue reading “Military sex assault claims up 50 pct”

Mail.com

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana man is accused of setting a trap and blindly blasting a shotgun into his garage, killing a 17-year-old German exchange student. A Minnesota man is convicted of lying in wait in his basement for two teenagers and killing them during a break-in.

The two recent cases take the “stand your ground” debate to a new level: Do laws that allow private citizens to protect their property also let them set a trap and wait for someone to kill? “We don’t want it to be easy to be able to prosecute people. But we want to be able to hold individuals accountable when they have stepped outside the bounds of society,” David LaBahn, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, said Wednesday.

Continue reading “‘Stand your ground’ law tested in recent shootings”