Month: February 2015

Union Leader – by KIMBERLY HOUGHTON

MERRIMACK — The local police department, fed up with the continuous snowstorms this winter, has issued an arrest warrant for Punxsutawney Phil.

On Tuesday, the Merrimack Police Department posted a photograph of the suspect, a famous rodent that lives in a Pennsylvania burrow and recently predicted another six weeks of winter. In an effort to make light of the countless inches of snow that have fallen in New Hampshire in the past two weeks, area police are attempting to make a few Facebook followers smile despite the hibernating cold.   Continue reading “Arrest warrant issued for Punxsutawney Phil”

Jon Rappoport

“Millions of people have become little news broadcasters and anchors, relaying pictures and text about their parties, picnics, family gatherings, updating their breaking stories, narrating the story lines of their lives. All they need for a complete imitation of the networks is sponsors.” (The Underground, Jon Rappoport)

It’s not only the content of news that is embraced, it’s the style, the manner of presentation—and in the long run, the presentation is far more corrosive, far more deadly than the content.   Continue reading “The elite television anchor: narrator of reality”

Free Thought Project – by John Vibes

Los Angeles, California – A police officer accidentally shot a 15-year-old child after he saw someone else pointing a toy gun. The boy that was injured was not the person holding toy gun and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The police then detained the group of children that were present, and blamed the entire situation on them.

Speaking to the media this week, Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Cmdr. Andrew Smith denied any responsibility on the part of the police, but instead blamed the children who were just playing with a toy gun.   Continue reading “Police Shoot Teenage Boy Because Someone Nearby Had A Toy Gun”

UPI – by Veronica Linares

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 12 (UPI) — Actor Charlie Sheen showed support for broadcaster Brian Williams Wednesday stating on Twitter the journalist will always be his hero.

Sheen’s Twitlonger post also slammed the NBC executives who decided to suspend the anchor for six months without pay following Williams recanting of a story that he had been in a helicopter that drew fire in Iraq in 2003.   Continue reading “Charlie Sheen calls Brian Williams a ‘hero,’ blasts NBC execs”

RT

A dozen states already use drug tests to screen those applying for financial assistance, but another 12 are also considering – and wishing to expand – the costly measure despite its limited results.

In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker (R) wants to go further and have state House Republicans mandate drug tests for unemployment insurance and a number of other state programs. He also wants permission from the Obama administration to drug test food stamp applicants. However, lawmakers haven’t introduced a bill yet.   Continue reading “Plans to drug test welfare applicants considered in a dozen states”

RT

The House of Representatives easily passed a measure approving the construction of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, setting up a showdown with President Barack Obama, who has promised to veto the bill.

In a 270-152 vote led primarily by Republicans, the House passed the same bill that the Senate itself approved last month. The pipeline was first proposed in 2008 and would carry oil 1,179 miles from Canada’s tar sands to Nebraska, where it would connect to an existing pipeline and continue traveling south.   Continue reading “House approves Keystone XL pipeline despite veto threat”

Mail.com

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The inflight tantrum dubbed “nut rage” culminated Thursday in a one year prison sentence for Korean Air heiress Cho Hyun-ah, a humiliating rebuke that only partially quelled public outrage at the excesses of South Korea’s business elite.

Cho, the daughter of Korean Air’s chairman, achieved worldwide notoriety after she ordered the chief flight attendant off a Dec. 5 flight, forcing it to return to the gate at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.   Continue reading “Court sentences Korean Air nut rage exec to 1 year in prison”

Mail.com

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — Authorities have wanted to nab Hugo Selenski on murder charges ever since they searched his northeastern Pennsylvania yard in 2003 and found the bodies of a missing pharmacist, the pharmacist’s girlfriend, and at least three other sets of human remains.

It took nearly a dozen years and one failed prosecution, but they finally got their man on Wednesday after a jury convicted the 41-year-old career criminal in the strangling deaths of pharmacist Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett.   Continue reading “Jury convicts Pennsylvania man with bodies in yard”

Occupy Corporatism – by Susanne Posel

In 2014, Jeff Michael, associate administrator for research and program development for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) told Congress that stoned drivers posed a threat to public safety on the roads and highways, but could not answer senators when asked “how many fatal crashes are caused by marijuana annually”.

Michael replied: “That’s difficult to say. We don’t have a precise estimate.”   Continue reading “NHTSA Study Confirms Driving Stoned Not Linked to Car Crashes”

KRQE 13 News – by Lysee Mitri

ESPANOLA, N.M. (KRQE) – A middle school principal said a student was misbehaving with his friends and took things too far. The student threw an American flag out a second-story classroom window. Now the principal says the 14-year-old needs to be held accountable, but some parents say the punishment is too harsh.

“I guess I can’t believe they’re going to take such extreme measures,” said Curtis Schattschneider.   Continue reading “Principal to contact FBI after student throws U.S. flag”

AlterNet – by Phillip Smith

At any given time, we face a limitless array of threats and possible harms. For instance, right now, we could worry about terrorism, climate change, gun violence, unemployment, immigration, food security or any number of other concerns. Yet public concern over these issues is neither constant nor necessarily linked with the actual level of threat.

What turns a potential threat or harm into a full-blown social problem? How does what the foreign-born work force is smoking become a national crisis, worthy of repressive action, as it has here repeatedly? And how does a few hundred thousand people smoking crack in the 1980s translate into a solid majority of Americans saying drugs were the number one problem in the country in the fall of 1989?   Continue reading “Four of the Major Fear Campaigns That Helped Create America’s Insane War on Drugs”

Ars Technica – by Cyrus Farivar

If you’ve ever filed a public records request with your local police department to learn more about how cell-site simulators are used in your community—chances are good that the FBI knows about it. And the FBI will attempt to “prevent disclosure” of such information.

Not only can these devices, commonly known as “stingrays,” be used to determine a phone’s location, but they can also intercept calls and text messages. During the act of locating a phone, stingrays also sweep up information about nearby phones. Last fall, Ars reported on how a handful of cities across America are currently upgrading to new hardware that can target 4G LTE phones.   Continue reading “FBI really doesn’t want anyone to know about “stingray” use by local cops”

Space War

The Obama administration announced creation of another federal intelligence center in the long list of law enforcement and spy services. This time its main task will be cyberintel.

The last year saw high-profile hacks into Sony Pictures, which set off a firestorm of controversy surrounding their film “The Interview.” But other security breaches, like cyberattacks on Home Depot, Target, and even the social media accounts of US Central Command, made President Obama to prioritize cybersecurity.   Continue reading “US Creates Cyber-CIA to Fight Hackers”