Month: August 2014

The New Zealand Listener – by Toby Manhire

A correction in the Washington Post delighted lovers of the form the other day. Which is as good an excuse as any to select some of the finest newspaper corrections – beginning with the latestWaPo example, and in no particular order.

1. “An Oct. 14 Style article about access to the prison camp for terrorism suspects at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, incorrectly referred to Navy Capt. Robert Durand as ‘thickset’. He should have been described as muscular.”    Continue reading “30,000 pigs: ten of the best newspaper corrections”

RT

The Russian and Chinese central banks have agreed on a draft currency swap agreement, which will allow them to increase trade in domestic currencies and cut the dependence on the US dollar in bilateral payments.

“The draft document between the Central Bank of Russia and the People’s Bank of China on national currency swaps has been agreed by the parties,” and is at the stage of formal approval procedures, ITAR-TASS quotes the Russian regulator’s office on Thursday.

The Russian Central Bank is not giving precise details on the size of the currency swaps, nor when it will be launched. It says this will depend on demand.    Continue reading “Russia, China agree on more trade currency swaps to bypass dollar”

Natural Society – by Christina Sarich 

Brazilian authorities have fast-tracked numerous suicide seeds, and now Pioneer/DuPont/Dow’s genetically engineered maize 1507, which is also pending approval in the European Union, is becoming infested with pests after only three years of being approved for market in Brazil.

GM Maize 1507 was a joint creation of the biotech industry with funding from three of the biggest chemical companies under Monsanto. Made to be tolerant to glufosinate herbicides, it is a Bt crop which produces its own insecticidal protein. People exposed to this chemical have suffered gastrointestinal, neurological, cardiovascular, and/or respiratory manifestations.   Continue reading “Fail: Brazilian GMO Maize Resistant to Pests Just 3 Years After Market Approval”

CNS News – by Ali Meyer

The chance of being fired from a private-sector employer is more than three times as high than being fired from a government job, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The BLS defines a layoff as “a separation of an employee from an establishment that is initiated by the employer; an involuntary separation; a period of forced unemployment.”

The BLS provides two metrics to explain layoffs and discharges: by either counting the number of layoffs and discharges, or calculating the layoff and discharge rate, which is simply the number of terminations as a percentage of the total number of employees.    Continue reading “Workers 3X More Likely to Get Fired in Private Sector Than in Gov’t”

RT

US oil giant ExxonMobil and Russia’s Rosneft will continue joint exploitation of the Russian Arctic despite Western sanctions, the American company said as the two giants launched exploration drilling in the Kara Sea.

“Our cooperation is a long-term one. We see great benefits here and are ready to continue working here with your agreement,” Glenn Waller, ExxonMobil’s lead manager in Russia, told President Vladimir Putin during a videoconference call.

The Russian leader hailed the exploration project as an example of mutually beneficial cooperation that strengthens global energy security.   Continue reading “ExxonMobil, Rosneft start joint Arctic drilling in defiance of sanctions”

RT

A supposed US submarine was detected and “forced out” by the Russian anti-sub forces after it violated the country’s boundary waters in the Arctic, a high-ranked source within the Russian Navy’s headquarters said.

“On August 7, a foreign submarine, presumably belonging to the US Navy’s Virginia class, was detected in the Barents Sea by the alert forces of the Northern Fleet,” the source told Russian media.

According to the source, a group of anti-submarine vessels and an anti-submarine Il-38 aircraft were sent into the area on a search and trace mission.    Continue reading “Russian Navy ‘forces US submarine out’ of Arctic boundary waters – report”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trying to bring a case against John Hinckley Jr. in the homicide of former White House press secretary James Brady could prove difficult for prosecutors, given the three decades that have passed since he was shot in an assassination try on Ronald Reagan and because a jury ruled that Hinckley was insane when he opened fire, an attorney and law professor said.

A medical examiner determined that Monday’s death of Brady at age 73 was a homicide, even all these years later, with an autopsy revealing the cause to be the gunshot wound to the head he suffered in 1981 and its health consequences, District of Columbia police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said in a news release Friday.    Continue reading “Charges in Jim Brady’s homicide could prove tough”

Mail Online 

It was supposed to be over, America’s war in Iraq. So all the old emotions boiled up anew as Americans absorbed the news that U.S. bombs were again striking targets in the nation where the United States led an invasion in 2003, lost almost 4,500 troops in the fight to stabilize and liberate it and then left nearly three years ago.

In interviews across the country, from the 9/11 memorial in New York to the Iowa State Fair and an Arizona war monument, Americans voiced conflicted feelings as airstrikes began Friday, ordered by President Barack Obama who had fulfilled a campaign promise when he withdrew the last U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011.    Continue reading “As bombs fall over Iraq, old emotions rise in US”

Mail.com

NEW YORK (AP) — Police have become increasingly at odds with Mayor Bill de Blasio over the appearance he is taking sides against them after the chokehold death of a black suspect last month — a conflict that has prompted the city’s top law enforcement official to do damage control by calling the mayor “very pro-cop.”

What angered many was a recent forum in which the Rev. Al Sharpton, one of the biggest critics of the New York Police Department, was seated alongside the mayor, a liberal Democrat, and the police commissioner as he lambasted law enforcement and suggested the mayor’s mixed-race son would be a “candidate for a chokehold” if he were an ordinary New Yorker. The image was seized on by critics of the administration and plastered on the cover of the New York Post with the headline “Who’s the Boss!”   Continue reading “Police-mayor tensions mount over chokehold death”

US Crow – by Ron Hardin

We recently read a great article here on beefing up our castles, and making preps for unsolicited Intrusions by LEO’s, and other scalawags. I want to push this up a notch further along.

When Daniel Boone built his cabin over in western North Carolina, and Kentucky he had a distinct advantage over our homes today. He sunk two hefty tree trunks into 4 foot holes and loaded rock and sand to hold them in place. Then he added water, and grease, and using a level set them in place for keeps. Your door is not so secure as his was though.   Continue reading “Safe Talker’s Castle Doors”

Pontiac Tribune

Yesterday two local journalists from the Pontiac Tribune, Aaron Nelson and Helena Kirby, marched into City Hall and submitted a City Resolution on NDAA, which prohibits the enforcement of Sections 1021 and 1022 of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act in the city of Pontiac.

We are very excited to bring you this story first.   Continue reading “August 21st: Pontiac, MI Is Taking Their City Back From The 2012 NDAA”

Fortune – by Claire Zillman

It will do the continent and its people no good if companies pledging to transform Africa’s economy stand by during an outbreak.

As the White House launched its Africa summit this week and pledged $14 billion in investment in the continent from U.S. corporations, National Security Advisor Susan Rice said that the United States doesn’t see Africa “as a pipeline to extract vital resources, nor a funnel for charity.” Instead she said, the U.S. wants to be a partner to create jobs, resolve conflicts, and develop the continent’s economy.   Continue reading “In Africa, foreign corporations protect their own from Ebola”

Breitbart – by Kristin Tate

HOUSTON, Texas — As Central American illegal immigrants continue to pour across the U.S.-Mexico border, federal agents are releasing tens of thousands of them onto U.S. soil. Consequently, public schools around the nation must gear up to accommodate undocumented children. In Texas alone, around 4,800 foreign minors have been set free–assuming these minors are not immediately deported, they will be expected to enter the public school system come fall.    Continue reading “Texas Taxpayers Will Shell Out Approx. $45M to Educate Foreign Minors”

The Guardian – by Jon Henley

In the space of just one week last month, according to Crif, the umbrella group for France’s Jewish organisations, eight synagogues were attacked. One, in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, was firebombed by a 400-strong mob. A kosher supermarket and pharmacy were smashed and looted; the crowd’s chants and banners included “Death to Jews” and “Slit Jews’ throats”. That same weekend, in the Barbes neighbourhood of the capital, stone-throwing protesters burned Israeli flags: “Israhell”, read one banner.   Continue reading “Antisemitism on rise across Europe ‘in worst times since the Nazis’”

National Review – by Ryan Lovelace

The Department of Justice does not have receipts for more than half of the unaccompanied alien children apprehended at the southwest border by Border Patrol since the start of fiscal year 2013, government records show.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection data show more than 85,000 total apprehensions of unaccompanied alien children during fiscal year 2013 and fiscal year 2014 through June. Information from the same time period provided toNational Review Online by the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Reviewshows 41,592 total receipts marked as juvenile in immigration courts. Kathryn Mattingly, spokesperson for EOIR, tells NRO the receipts refer to new Notices to Appear (NTA) — the document the Department of Homeland Security uses to charge an illegal immigrant with being removable from the United States.   Continue reading “Government Has No Receipts for Thousands of Unaccompanied Alien Children”

Yahoo News

REDWOOD CITY, California (AP) — Authorities in California say they’ve arrested a man who’s wanted in El Salvador for his alleged involvement with a gang that hijacked military and police arms shipments and used them to rob banks.

The U.S. Marshals Service says Gerardo Francisco Mejia Coto was taken into custody this week. He’s being held by immigration authorities and faces deportation.   Continue reading “El Salvador robbery suspect arrested in California”

Breitbart – by Matthew Boyle

Ebola could break into the United States through the unsecured U.S. border with Mexico, experts say.

“While we’ve seen no signs that Ebola virus has spread to our borders, it is very concerning,” Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) told Breitbart News. “The border has still not been secured, and the President continues to wave the sign that our borders are open. There is no telling what might eventually make its way into the heartland, which should be concerning to all.”   Continue reading “Experts: Ebola Could Cross Unsecured U.S. Border”