Freedom Outpost – by Michael Lotfi

Turtles and cows have absolutely no relevance to the situation in Nevada. Does the Constitution make provision for the federal government to own and control “public land”? This is the only question we need to consider. Currently, the federal government “owns” approximately 30% of the United States territory. The majority of this federally owned land is in the West. For example, the feds control more than 80% of Nevada and more than 55% of Utah. The question has been long debated. At the debate’s soul is Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution, which is know as the “Property Clause”. Proponents of federal expansion on both sides of the political aisle argue that this clause provides warrant for the federal government to control land throughout the United States.   Continue reading “Bundy Ranch Crisis is Reason to Ask “Who Actually owns America’s Land?””

deadly shooting, fatal shootingFox 4 KC – by Michelle Pekarsky

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — One person was reportedly killed and another injured Sunday afternoon when a gunman shot a man outside the Jewish Community Center and then injured another outside Village Shalom, an assisted living facility.

Witnesses tell FOX 4 reporters that there are two crime scenes:

115th and Nall- Jewish Community Center

123rd and Nall-  Village Shalom   Continue reading “Deadly shootings outside Jewish Community Center and Village Shalom, Kansas”

Mail.com

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Sunday that reports of a poison gas attack in a rural village north of Damascus were so far “unsubstantiated,” adding that the United States was trying to establish what really happened before it considers a response.

Both sides in Syria’s civil war blamed each other for the alleged attack that reportedly injured scores of people Friday amid an ongoing international effort to rid the country of chemical weapons. The details of what happened in Kfar Zeita, an opposition-held village in Hama province some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Damascus, remain murky. Online videos posted by rebel activists showed pale-faced men, women and children gasping for breath at what appeared to be a field hospital. They suggested an affliction by some kind of poison — and yet another clouded incident where both sides blame each other in a conflict that activists say has killed more than 150,000 people with no end in sight.   Continue reading “Official: US looking into Syria toxic gas reports”

Jeremy Schneider, Mustafa Kamel MustafaMail.com

NEW YORK (AP) — Jury selection begins Monday in the trial of a disabled Egyptian Islamic preacher extradited from Great Britain on charges he conspired to support al-Qaida, in part by trying to create a training camp in Oregon 15 years ago.

The trial of Mustafa Kamel Mustafa occurs a month after a Manhattan jury convicted Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law and al-Qaida’s spokesman after the 2001 attacks, of charges that will likely result in a life sentence.   Continue reading “Jury to be picked in NY trial of Egyptian preacher”

$100 bills, Cash, CurrencyMail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s the silent enemy in our retirement accounts: High fees.

And now a new study finds that the typical 401(k) fees — adding up to a modest-sounding 1 percent a year — would erase $70,000 from an average worker’s account over a four-decade career compared with lower-cost options. To compensate for the higher fees, someone would have to work an extra three years before retiring.   Continue reading “High fees eroding many 401(k) retirement accounts”

Mail.com

MOSCOW (AP) — Ukraine’s ousted president has accused the CIA of being behind the new Ukrainian government’s decision to deploy armed forces to quash an increasingly brazen pro-Russian insurgency.

Speaking late Sunday on Russian state television, Viktor Yanukovych claimed that CIA director John Brennan had met with Ukraine’s new leadership and “in fact sanctioned the use of weapons and provoked bloodshed.”   Continue reading “Ukraine’s ousted president puts blame on CIA”

Mail.com

SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio (AP) — A man accused of harassing a neighbor and her disabled children for the past 15 years sat at a street corner Sunday morning with a sign declaring he’s a bully, a requirement of his sentence.

Municipal Court Judge Gayle Williams-Byers ordered 62-year-old Edmond Aviv to display the sign for five hours Sunday. The judge selected the wording for it: “I AM A BULLY! I pick on children that are disabled, and I am intolerant of those that are different from myself. My actions do not reflect an appreciation for the diverse South Euclid community that I live in.”   Continue reading “Ohio man sits at corner with ‘I AM A BULLY!’ sign”

Common Dreams – by Julian Sanchez

The American intelligence community is forcefully denying reports that the National Security Agency has long known about the Heartbleed bug, a catastrophic vulnerability inside one of the most widely-used encryption protocols upon which we rely every day to secure our web communications. But the denial itself serves as a reminder that NSA’s two fundamental missions – one defensive, one offensive – are fundamentally incompatible, and that they can’t both be handled credibly by the same government agency.   Continue reading “The NSA’s Heartbleed Problem is the Problem with the NSA”

Zero Hedge

The following is an excerpt from ALL THE PRESIDENTS’ BANKERS: The Hidden Alliances that Drive American Powerby Nomi Prins (on sale April 8, 2014).  Reprinted with permission from Nation Books. Nomi Prins is a former managing director at Goldman Sachs.   Continue reading “All The Presidents’ Bankers: The World Bank And The IMF”

ABC News – by LIZ FIELDS

The hunt is on today for a black bear who mauled a woman at her home in an upscale central Florida neighborhood, leaving her with injuries to her face, legs and torso and requiring her to get 40 stitches to the head.

Terri Frana of Lake Mary, Fla., went to her garage Saturday evening to grab bicycles for her children to ride down to their neighbor’s house when the attack happened, according to her husband, Frank Frana.   Continue reading “Black Bear Mauls Florida Woman, Drags Her Out of Garage”

(Source: Breitbart)Police State USA 

Technology is a double-edged sword.  It has enabled the government to become more intrusive than ever with its online spying capabilities.  However, cheap and discreet recording devices make it much more feasible to hold cops on the street accountable.

Police State USA encourages holding government officials accountable but advises everyone to research the laws in their own states regarding secretly recording audio conversations (Read more: The Reporter’s Recording Guide).  Encounters with police officers in public generally do not fall under such restrictions, particularly after the recent court decision in Illinois.   Continue reading “How to record police encounters without losing your video”

Common Dreams – by Lauren McCauley

Residents of Albuquerque, New Mexico are marching on the police department Saturday to demand retribution against the city’s mayor and police chief for their role in the police force’s documented “execution” of citizens.

The march comes after the Department of Justice slammed the Albuquerque Police Department for their frequent use of excessive and lethal force in a damning report released on Thursday.   Continue reading “DOJ Investigation Confirms: Albuquerque Police ‘Executing’ Citizens”

https://i0.wp.com/themindunleashed.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/300mpg-1050x787.jpg?resize=227%2C170The Mind Unleashed

You won’t find the 300 MPG Volkswagen XL1 in an American showroom, in fact it has even been denied a tour of America because it is too efficient for the American public to be made widely aware of, and oil profits are too high in America with the status quo in place.

No tour has been allowed for this car because the myth that 50 mpg is virtually impossible to obtain from even a stripped down econobox is too profitable to let go of, and when it comes to corporate oil profits, ignorance is bliss.   Continue reading “Volkswagen’s New 300 MPG Car Is Not Allowed In America Because It’s Too Efficient”

Xu Zhiyong, a Beijing-based legal scholar, was detained earlier this year after founding a nationwide group called the The Telegraph – by Tom Phillips

The Communist Party’s time in power is running out, one of China’s leading civil rights activists warned on Friday after a court rejected his attempt to overturn a four year jail term that supporters, activists and diplomats claim was based on trumped-up charges.

In a remarkable courtroom attack on Beijing’s attempts to silence its opponents, Xu Zhiyong, the 41-year-old founder of a civil-rights group called the New Citizens’ Movement, warned the Party its ongoing crackdown on activists was destined to fail.

“This ridiculous judgment cannot hold back the tide of human progress. The dark clouds of the Communist dictatorship will one day clear,” Dr Xu said, according to Zhang Qingfang, his lawyer, who was present.

“The light of freedom, fairness, justice and love will eventually fill China,” added Dr Xu, a legal scholar whose imprisonment came during a year-long campaign by China’s new president Xi Jinping against dissenters.

Dr Xu was speaking after Beijing’s high court rejected an appeal to overturn his earlier conviction for “gathering crowds to disturb public order”.

The academic, who was sentenced to four years imprisonment in January, is one of dozens of activists caught up in what has been described as the most severe attack on government critics since the 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square.

Members of the movement marked Dr Xu’s failed appeal by publishing a withering critique of the Communist Party’s attempts to force their group into extinction.

Beijing’s “systematic persecution” of its enemies would fail to destroy a growing popular demand for major political and social change, argued a combative essay on the movement’s newly launched website.

“This is a movement that cannot be stopped,” wrote Chen Min a journalist and activist better known by the pen name Xiao Shu.

“Any attempt to hold [it] back is destined to fail, like beating back water with a sword,” Mr Chen added, according to a translation by the University of Hong Kong’s China Media Project. “False charges, persecution and forced suppression will not avail but in fact will only steel our resolve.”

Teng Biao, a lawyer and co-founder of the New Citizens’ Movement, said Beijing’s politically motivated campaign would backfire.

“We will not stop,” Teng Biao told The Telegraph shortly after his friend’s appeal was rejected. “We will let the whole world know that this crackdown cannot stop us. We will keep following Dr Xu’s example. We believe that what we are doing and what we have done is legal and useful and important for society.”

Dr Xu and others conceived the New Citizens’ Movement in mid-2012 as a China-wide network of lawyers, academics, petitioners and liberal thinkers who were united by their desire for social change.

Its members, said by some to number in the thousands, hold informal dinner gatherings where they discuss the future of the world’s second largest economy and highlight issues including government corruption and transparency.

China’s leaders apparently feared the movement might grow into a “political threat”, said Maya Wang, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch.

Beijing responded with force, detaining or arresting dozens of activists since last year in order to send a message that “organised advocating for change is not acceptable”.

A spokesperson for the US embassy in Beijing said: “We call on Chinese authorities to release Xu and other political prisoners immediately, remove restrictions on their freedom of movement and guarantee them the protections and freedoms to which they are entitled under China’s international human rights commitments.”

A Foreign Office report issued on the eve of the appeal said 2014 had seen “ongoing restrictions on civil and political freedoms in China”.

Teng Biao said attempts to kill off the New Citizens’ Movement by jailing members would only make it stronger.

“I know that many citizens around China continue their activities, their dinner gatherings, their activities demanding the disclosure of officials’ assets,” he said.

“This kind of crackdown cannot prevent the New Citizens’ Movement from growing stronger. We have seen more and more people standing up and fighting for liberty and human rights.”

Mr Zhang, Dr Xu’s lawyer, said Friday’s verdict, while not unexpected, was “outrageous”.

“I believe the government has made a grave mistake,” he said. By criminalising “sensible and peaceful” citizens with legitimate complaints, the Communist Party risked creating “radical and violent opposition.”

“The government will come to regret this,” he said.

Beijing’s internet censors appeared to have blocked the New Citizens’ Movement new website by Friday afternoon, just hours after its launch. However, internet users who managed to scale the “Great Firewall of China” found a defiant message from the group.

“Repression will not end the New Citizens’ Movement,” it said. “This is the road to a free China. It is the road to a better China. We are duty bound to forge ahead.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10759457/Chinese-activist-group-warns-Communist-Party-We-cannot-be-stopped.html

All Gov – by Steve Straehley

If you’re expecting a refund from the taxes you just filed, beware. The Treasury Department might grab a piece of your money before you ever see it.

Thanks to a one-line provision slipped into the 2008 Farm Bill, a 10-year statute of limitations was removed from old debts to the government. The Social Security Administration (SSA) is taking advantage of that, garnishing tax refunds, including from children of people whom the SSA claims were overpaid benefits in the distant past.   Continue reading “Treasury Dept. Intercepts Tax Refunds to Collect Debts of Dead Parents”

ANCIENT VILLAGE DRONEHuffington Post – by Megan Gannon, Live Science

Thermal images captured by a small drone allowed archaeologists to peer under the surface of the New Mexican desert floor, revealing never-before-seen structures in an ancient Native American settlement.

Called Blue J, this 1,000-year-old village was first identified by archaeologists in the 1970s. It sits about 43 miles (70 kilometers) south of the famed Chaco Canyon site in northwestern New Mexico and contains nearly 60 ancestral Puebloan houses around what was once a large spring.   Continue reading “Drones Reveal Hidden Ancient Village Buried In New Mexico”