Author: Sunfire

RT News

Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a branch of Homeland Security, logged about 700 covert drone operations on behalf of federal, state and local police agencies from 2010 to 2012, according to a civil-liberties group.

Unmanned aerial vehicles from the CBS fleet – the largest outside of the US Pentagon – are being used by outside law enforcement agencies much more often than previously believed, according to the findings of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit initiated by the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF).   Continue reading “US police employing border-patrol drones – and the videos are ‘top secret’”

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Tap water in nine counties in West Virginia is still off limits, the governor said, as almost 800 people called a local poison center reporting illnesses, while residents spent a third day unable to drink from the faucet, or have a bath or shower.

A state poison center has handled 787 calls from people reporting nausea, diarrhea, headaches, skin irritation and rashes, as well as 54 calls from worried pet owners.   Continue reading “Nearly 800 calls to W. Virginia poison center after chemical spill”

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The Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch instructed police on Sunday to probe public placards that have appeared proclaiming satisfaction and even joy at the death on Saturday of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The notices were posted in several Yeshivas or religious academies after Sharon’s death Saturday.   Continue reading “Israeli police to investigate ‘expressions of joy’ at Sharon’s death”

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A chain of gun-shops that has built gun ranges across central Florida has announced it will no longer rent out guns in order to stop a string of suicides that occurred when customers borrowed weapons and used them to take their own lives.

Shoot Straight, the largest independently owned chain of gun stores in the state, announced on Friday that the company would end its policy. Khaled Akkawi, the store’s founder, said the economic impact on his business would be “significant” but felt he had no choice to make the decision, which he did last month.   Continue reading “Hoping to avoid suicide epidemic, Florida company to end gun rentals”

RT News

The iconic but controversial former Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has died after his medical condition significantly deteriorated, his son confirmed to the media.

The 85-year-old politician died in Tel Aviv’s Tel Hashomer hospital, also known as the Chaim Sheba Medical Center, where he had been in a coma since January 2006 after suffering a stroke and brain hemorrhage.   Continue reading “Ex-Israeli PM Ariel Sharon dies at 85”

RT News

Nuclear radiation at the boundaries of the stricken Fukushima power plant has now reached 8 times government safety guidelines, TEPCO has said. The firm has been struggling to contain radioactive leaks at Fukushima since the onset over the crisis in 2011.

The levels of nuclear radiation around Fukushima’s No. 1 plant have risen to 8 millisieverts per year, surpassing the government standard of 1 milliseviert per year, reports news site Asahi Shimbun citingTokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).   Continue reading “Fukushima radiation reaches 8 times govt standards”

RT News

Sending an ex-girlfriend an email invitation to join Google+ despite an active restraining order landed a Beverly, Massachusetts man in handcuffs and behind bars.

The problem? Thomas Gagnon, 32, says he never actually sent an email of any sort. Instead, he claims it was Google’s fault.

According to Gagnon, Google automatically sent the invitation without informing him or asking for his consent.   Continue reading “Massachusetts man goes to jail for automated Google+ invite to ex-girlfriend”

RT News

A new bill that’s been introduced before the Colorado General Assembly will make sure residents there won’t be able to use their food stamp benefits to buy legal weed or marijuana-infused products sold in dozens of new state-sanctioned dispensaries.

Reports have yet to surface indicating that Coloradoans have used government-provided EBT cards to purchase pot products under new state laws, but lawmakers there want to make sure that won’t become a reality.   Continue reading “Food stamps won’t buy marijuana cookies in Colorado”

RT News

The US attorney for New Jersey announced on Thursday an investigation into lane closures last year near the George Washington Bridge, with the assistance of the FBI. Meanwhile, Governor Chris Christie has fired his deputy chief of staff over the incident.

The office of US Attorney Paul J. Fishman confirmed on Thursday that an inquiry into last September’s lane closures in Fort Lee, New Jersey would seek to determine whether any federal laws were broken. By Thursday evening agents with the FBI’s public corruption unit were also reported to be assisting the US attorney in that review.   Continue reading “FBI and US attorney to probe bridge scandal looming over 2016 GOP hopeful Christie”

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Congressional leaders on the US trade policy have introduced legislation that would grant President Barack Obama “fast-track authority” to enact three looming global trade accords, including the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Dave Camp (R) and top Senate Finance Committee members Max Baucus (D) and Orrin Hatch (R) on Thursday unveiled the Trade Priorities Act of 2014 that would require a simple up-or-down vote on major trade deals without the opportunity to offer amendments to pertinent bills.   Continue reading “Congress introduces Obama fast-track authority on global trade pacts like TPP”

Mail.com

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Republican Gov. Chris Christie fired one of his top aides on Thursday and apologized repeatedly for his staff’s “stupid” behavior, insisting during a nearly two-hour news conference that he had no idea anyone around him had engineered traffic jams as part of a political vendetta against a Democratic mayor.

“I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team,” Christie said as he addressed the widening scandal, which could cast a shadow over his expected run for the White House in 2016.   Continue reading “Christie fires aide, apologizes for traffic jams”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — We’ve become weather wimps.

As the world warms, the United States is getting fewer bitter cold spells like the one that gripped much of the nation this week. So when a deep freeze strikes, scientists say, it seems more unprecedented than it really is. An Associated Press analysis of the daily national winter temperature shows that cold extremes have happened about once every four years since 1900.   Continue reading “Scientists: Americans are becoming weather wimps”

Mail.com

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Tim Rutledge’s eyelid had frozen shut. His voice was hoarse after competing for hours with bitter-cold wind and humming truck engines while screaming for help. He was losing consciousness, pinned under his rig in sub-zero temperatures at an Indiana truck stop.

The longtime Florida truck driver had crawled under his truck with a hammer to loosen ice from his brakes around 4 a.m. Monday, as record-breaking temperatures swept into the state. But the truck suddenly settled deeper into the snow, pinning him beneath an axle.   Continue reading “Trapped trucker survives hours in subzero temps”

Mail.com

F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. (AP) — Hoping to boost sagging morale, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made a rare visit Thursday to an Air Force nuclear missile base and the men and women who operate and safeguard the nation’s Minuteman 3 missiles. But his attempt to cheer the troops was tempered by news that launch officers at another base had been implicated in an illegal-narcotics investigation.

Two officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana are being investigated for allegations of drug possession, said a service spokesman in Washington, Lt. Col. Brett Ashworth. Both of those being investigated are ICBM launch officers with responsibility for operating intercontinental ballistic missiles.   Continue reading “Nuclear launch officers tied to narcotics probe”

I have a friend that lives in eastern Pennsylvania.  His family once owned a one-hundred and fifty acre farm there.  Over time his dad and other family members grew up, married. and built houses on the land and started their own families.  When his grandparents passed away, most of the remaining farm land was sold off but the family still remained in their houses on the properties they had subdivided.

My friend’s house is on an acre and a half of land, and he also possesses a five acre piece of land where he has a steel building, some woods, and a two and a half acre field he uses for growing his own produce.  When his parents passed away, he bought out his siblings share of the family home as his brother and sister already had homes of their own, he had been caring for his elderly dad for ten years after his mom passed away.    Continue reading “Life in a Police State”

Mail.com

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Nicolas Maduro hastily gathered state governors and mayors Wednesday to discuss the country’s violent crime amid public outrage over the killing of a popular soap-opera actress and former Miss Venezuela.

In a rare conciliatory moment during the meeting, Maduro reached out and shook hands with the main opposition leader, Miranda state Gov. Henrique Capriles, whom he defeated by a razor-thin margin in the April presidential election.   Continue reading “Actress’ slaying puts Venezuela leaders on spot”

Mail.com

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Easy on the cinnamon! That advice from Denmark’s food authority has rankled pastry chefs whose cinnamon rolls were found to violate the European Union’s spice rules.

The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration recently discovered that Danish cinnamon rolls and twists contained more coumarin — a chemical compound in the most common variety of cinnamon — than EU rules allow. Excessive intake of coumarin can cause liver damage.   Continue reading “Danish cinnamon rolls too spicy for EU rules”

Mail.com

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Bats are dropping from trees, kangaroos are collapsing in the Outback and gardens are turning brown. While North America freezes under record polar temperatures, the southern hemisphere is experiencing the opposite extreme as heat records are being set in Australia after the hottest year ever.

Weather forecasters in Australia said some parts of the sparsely populated Pilbara region along the rugged northwest coast were approaching 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday. The record high of 50.7 degrees Celsius (123.3 F) was set in 1960 in Oodnadatta, South Australia state.   Continue reading “No deep freeze: Australia swelters in heat wave”

RT News

The Obama administration has begun an internal investigation into a drone strike in Yemen that supposedly targeted an Al-Qaeda militant, but which locals say killed 12 and injured 14 others in a wedding party.

US officials acknowledged a rare internal review of a drone missile strike was launched following the Dec. 12 incident that sparked outrage in Yemen and throughout the world. The investigation of a drone strike is the first since President Obama issued new guidelines for unmanned vehicle offensive in May.   Continue reading “US launches probe into deadly ‘wedding party’ drone strike”

RT News

A US Navy official mistakenly forwarded an email to a local news reporter this week outlining the Navy’s method of avoiding the very Freedom of Information Act requests that reporter had filed.

Scott MacFarlane, a news reporter for NBC 4 in Washington, DC, had filed a FOIA request with the Navy in an attempt to compel authorities to turn over documents related to the Navy Yard shooting in September. MacFarlane was seeking memos written by higher-ups at Naval Sea Systems Command from September, October, and November 2013–messages sent by the same officials in the hours directly after the shooting occurred, and images of building 197 at the Navy Yard, where the gunman killed 12 people and injured three others.   Continue reading “Navy blunders in sending reporter details on how to avoid his FOIA request”