Year: 2015

Fox 19 – by Jennifer Baker, Dan Wells

CINCINNATI (FOX19) – The Hamilton County Courthouse will be shut down on Tuesday over a possible suspicious package inside a suitcase.

A woman going to a court appearance was stopped with the suitcase at a metal detector near the courthouse front doors just before 8:30 a.m., said Jim Knapp, chief of staff for the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.

The woman is undergoing questioning. She has not been identified or charged. Federal counter-terrorism officials also are on scene.   Continue reading “Suspicious suitcase shuts down courthouse”

MassPrivateI

In a NY Times article showing how police are being trained to de-escalate a situation two Seattle cops describe what’s really going on:

In the video a Seattle police trainer expresses sympathy when he is aggressively challenged by skeptical officers. “I agree. I agree. Don’t shoot the messenger. This is what the DOJ is saying, not me,” the trainer says, referring to new mandatory training to curb excessive use of force required in a 2012 consent decree between the city and U.S. Department of Justice.   Continue reading “Police officers describe what they really think about de-escalation training: They ‘put guns up peoples noses’”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Salaried workers who earn nearly $1,000 per week would become eligible for overtime pay under a proposal President Barack Obama unveiled Monday, lamenting that too many Americans are working too many hours for less pay than they deserve.

The long-awaited overtime rule from the Labor Department would more than double the threshold at which employers can avoid paying overtime, from the current $455 a week to $970 a week by next year. That would mean salaried employees earning less than $50,440 a year would be assured overtime if they work more than 40 hours per week, up from the current $23,660 a year.   Continue reading “Obama plans dramatic changes in overtime rules”

Mail.com

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma and Florida moved quickly to resume lethal injections after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of midazolam, a sedative that has been used in several problematic executions.

Attorneys general in both states asked courts Monday to allow executions to proceed, just hours after the high court voted 5-4 in a case from Oklahoma that midazolam can be used in executions without violating the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.   Continue reading “Oklahoma, Florida move quickly to resume lethal injections”

Mail.com

When Susannah Mushatt Jones and Emma Morano were born in 1899, there was not yet world war or penicillin, and electricity was still considered a marvel. The women are believed to be the last two in the world with birthdates in the 1800s.

The world has multiplied and changed drastically in their lifetimes. They have seen war destroy landmarks and cities and have seen them rebuilt. They witnessed the Gilded Age, a term coined by Mark Twain, and the dawn of civil rights, the rise and fall of the fascists and Benito Mussolini, the first polio vaccines and the first black president of the United States.   Continue reading “A world apart: 2 women with birthdates in 1800s still alive”

Mail.com

MEDAN, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian air force transport plane plowed into a residential neighborhood in the country’s third-largest city of Medan shortly after takeoff on Tuesday, killing dozens of people.

Television footage showed the mangled wreckage of the C-130 Hercules, a crumpled burning car and a shattered building that local media said was recently built and contained a spa, shops and homes. Smoke billowed from the site and several thousand people milled nearby. Rescue teams scrambled over the rubble, searching for any survivors.   Continue reading “Dozens feared dead in Indonesia plane crash”

Consumerist – by Chris Morran

While there is no official review process required for labeling a product as “Made in the U.S.A.,” a company can get into legal trouble for misusing that label, as doing so may constitute false advertising. A new report from an advertising watchdog group claims that Walmart’s website has more than 100 examples of products incorrectly marketed as made in America.

According to a letter [PDF] recently sent by the group Truth In Advertising to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, “Walmart’s website is mired in USA labeling errors.”   Continue reading “Report Finds 100+ Walmart.com Products Labeled “Made In U.S.A.” That Were Made Elsewhere”

Seattle Times – by Jennifer Sullivan

Citizens who curse at police and call them abusive names while they’re investigating a crime are protected from arrest by the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a case out of Seattle.

The justices threw out the juvenile obstruction conviction of a then-17-year-old boy who pelted Seattle police officers with obscenities and insults when they were called to his house to investigate a reported disturbance in 2011.   Continue reading “Court: First Amendment protects profanity against police”

Jon Rappoport

“Imagine this: you want to buy and own Product X, which is valued at $10,000. You’re in a rare position. You can make that product sell for $1. You can do that. Then you can buy it and own it. In fact, you can do that with lots of products. Now, instead of products, imagine you can do that with whole companies, with industrial sectors, and even with large chunks of nations. You can spend $1 instead of $10,000. But wait, there’s more. You can re-inflate what you just reduced to $1. You can make it worth $10,000 again and you still own it. You can go up and you can go down. You control both sides of the mountain, the upside and the downside. This is money-management, Globalism-style. This is day-in, day-out manipulation. It’s done with the same routine configurations as making and having breakfast. A few of these configurations are calledtrade treaties.” (The Underground, Jon Rappoport)   Continue reading “Big money: pump and dump as a way of life”

RT

New Yorkers may soon be unable to smoke in their own homes, as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is pressing landlords and developers to prohibit residents from lighting up inside apartments.

This comes as part of the de Blasio administration’s efforts to reduce smoking citywide. It recently released a “sustainability blueprint” that outlined the initiative, which involves paying four health advocacy groups $9,000 each to get apartment complexes to ban smoking, reported the New York Post.   Continue reading “Butting in: NYC mayor wants to stop smoking in private homes”

RT

New York State officially banned fracking for natural gas by issuing its final environmental impact statement, concluding a seven-year review. The environmental agency said fracking posed risks to land, water, natural resources and public health.

The release of the environmental impact statement on Monday concluded seven years of analysis by the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). It first issued a moratorium against fracking in 2008.   Continue reading “It’s official: New York bans fracking”

The Guardian – by Stephen Burgen

The United States is now the world’s second largest Spanish-speaking country after Mexico, according to a new study published by the prestigious Instituto Cervantes.

The report says there are 41 million native Spanish speakers in the US plus a further 11.6 million who are bilingual, mainly the children of Spanish-speaking immigrants. This puts the US ahead of Colombia (48 million) and Spain (46 million) and second only to Mexico (121 million).   Continue reading “US now has more Spanish speakers than Spain – only Mexico has more”

Foxtrot Alpha – by Tyler Rogoway

We’ve heard of significant shortcomings before with the fighter jet that’s supposed to be America’s future, but this is just as bad as it gets. The F-35 performed so dismally in a dogfight, that the test pilot remarked that the it had pretty much no place fighting other aircraft within visual range.

And it’s even worse than a mere maneuverability issue. At one point, the pilot’s helmet was so big he couldn’t even turn his head inside the cockpit.   Continue reading “The F-35 Can’t Beat The Plane It’s Replacing In A Dogfight: Report”

Sent to us by the author.

Poisoned Water – by Craig Nelms

At a family gathering during which the subject of conversation had travelled through spiritual and truther subjects, my Aunt turned to me and, in a whisper, said, “I’m not going to accept the mark!” I looked at her with sort of a ‘really?’ expression on my face and she looked at me and nodded. However I wasn’t surprised that she “wasn’t going to take the mark” but rather that she didn’t realize that she was already an integral part of The System of the Beast. I just kept my mouth shut, though, and the gathering continued on.   Continue reading “Finding the bars of your cage”

BATR

In the long and storied past, America prided itself on being a country based upon law. Once this was true! Today, the last vestige of a society built upon natural law and incontrovertible principles is dead. The legal system is now founded on whim, political pressure and sentiment. Under such a framework, the Supreme Court has forfeited the final semblance of legitimacy. The United States no longer can claim it is a constitutional republic. The tyranny of the judiciary in not new! However, the latest decisions on Obamacare and Same-Sex marriage effectively gut the credibility and the meaning of the constitution.   Continue reading “SCOTUScare from the Same-Sex Supreme Court”