Year: 2016

Mail.com

BAGHDAD (AP) — Top Islamic State commander and feared ethnic Chechen jihadi fighter Omar al-Shishani has died of wounds suffered in a U.S. airstrike in Syria, a senior Iraqi intelligence official and the head of a Syrian activist group said Tuesday.

Al-Shishani, who was wounded in a U.S. airstrike earlier this month, died on Monday outside the Islamic State group’s main stronghold of Raqqa in Syria, the two told The Associated Press. There was no immediate confirmation of his death from the Islamic State group but the IS-affiliated Aamaq news agency denied he was killed, saying that the “he was not subjected to any injury.” The outlet quoted an unnamed “source” for the denial, without giving further details or evidence that al-Shishani was still alive.   Continue reading “IS leader al-Shishani dies of wounds from US strike in Syria”

Mail.com

HAVANA (AP) — The Obama administration punched a new series of holes in the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba on Tuesday, turning a ban on U.S. tourism to Cuba into an unenforceable honor system and paving the way for Cuban athletes to one day play Major League Baseball and other U.S. professional sports.

Five days ahead of the first presidential trip to Havana in nearly 90 years, the U.S. also eliminated a ban on Cuban access to the international banking system. The inability to send or receive payments that passed even momentarily through the U.S. banking system had crippled the country’s ability to trade with third countries and became a major hindrance to the U.S. attempt to normalize relations with Cuba.   Continue reading “Obama administration punches new holes in embargo on Cuba”

KTLA 5

A man who was shot and killed by a resident in Canyon Country on Friday night during an alleged attempted break-in was killed as the result of a “misunderstanding,” according to family members.

The resident called 911 about 9:10 p.m. Friday to report that he had shot someone trying to break into his unit, located in the 26000 block of Isabella Parkway, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.   Continue reading “Family Says Man Fatally Shot During Alleged Break-in Attempt Was Result of ‘Misunderstanding’”

The Daily Sheeple – by Joshua Krause

If you’re reading this, then I’m willing to bet that you’ve been called many different names throughout your life. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say they were names like kook, paranoid, conspiracy theorist, alarmist, insane, or gullible. And after this week, you can go by a new name: Vindicated.

I’m of course talking about recent revelations from the NSA. Long before Edward Snowden came along, it was no secret that the NSA was spying on everyone without good cause. Anyone who believed that fact was called a conspiracy theorist, but their fears were eventually validated.   Continue reading “It’s Official: NSA Data Will Soon Be Used By Domestic Law Enforcement”

BuzzFeed – by Stephanie M. Lee

Two days after Christmas 1977, police found Shelley H. dead in her apartment in Long Beach, California. The 17-year-old had been sexually assaulted and strangled: She waslying on the end of her bed, her feet touching the ground, with an electrical wire tied around her neck.

Vaginal swabs were taken during her autopsy, but at the time, there was no DNA testing. So the samples went into storage, and the case went cold for the next three decades.   Continue reading “People Are Going To Prison Thanks To DNA Software — But How It Works Is Secret”

Consumerist – by Chris Morran

If you don’t like your wireless company’s service, or your current rate plan, you’re free to change providers. But if you think your wireless provider is breaking the law, you can’t sue the company; and it doesn’t matter which of the four major carriers you have, because they all strip their customers’ of their legal rights.   Continue reading “Court Reminds Us All: You Have No Right To Sue Your Phone Company”

New York Times – by Matt Apuzzo

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Monday called on state judges across the country to root out unconstitutional policies that have locked poor people in a cycle of fines, debt and jail. It was the Obama administration’s latest effort to take its civil rights agenda to the states, which have become a frontier in the fight over the rights of the poor and the disabled, the transgender and the homeless.   Continue reading “Justice Dept. Condemns Profit-Minded Court Policies Targeting the Poor”

Sometimes it’s a good sign when the whining starts.

Atlanta Jewish Times

The following is the response released Tuesday, March 8, by the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust and the Museum of History and Holocaust Education at the Kennesaw State University to proposed revisions to Georgia’s social studies standards on the Holocaust.   Continue reading “Holocaust Commission ‘Deeply Troubled’”

Reuters

Three police officers are expected to survive gunshot wounds suffered in the chase of a suspect shot dead on Monday on Chicago’s West side, the police department said.

The officers were investigating possible narcotics activity at about 9:40 p.m. when they encountered two suspects and chased one of them into a dark gangway between two buildings, the Chicago Police Department said.   Continue reading “Three police officers shot in Chicago, suspect dead”

Washington Examiner – by Paul Bedard

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has revealed that 124 illegal immigrant criminals released from jail by the Obama administration since 2010 have been subsequently charged with murder.

A Center for Immigration Studies report on the data from ICE to the Senate Judiciary Committee added that the committee is not releasing the names of the murder suspects.   Continue reading “ICE: 124 illegal immigrants released from jail later charged in 138 murder cases”

Progressives Today

Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action thought it would be a good idea to post little cartoons of some of the things that pro gun advocates had to say at the hearing on Oregon’s HB 4147 last month, five weeks after the event took place.

The single-pane cartoon series was posted on the Moms Demand Action facebook page, but originated on Rebecca Cohen‘s twitter feed, @design_a_hole, and featured swipes at Christians and disabled people missing digits (not sure if her twitter handle is a reference to designing holes, or she’s calling herself an a-hole who designs).   Continue reading “Moms Demand Action Anti-Gun Groups Mock Christians & Disabled”