From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
Do you know why I stand with and reflect?
The opinions of philosophers, physicians, and poets are to be alleged and received in causes {Auctoritates philosophorum, medicorum, et poetarum, sunt in causis allegandæ et tenendæ};
Many men know many things, no one knows every thing {Multi multa, nemo omnia novit; Coke, 4th Inst. 348}; Continue reading “Eloquence or oratory”
A durable plastic called PET is considered a major environmental hazard because it’s highly resistant to breakdown. But researchers have found a potential new match for this hardy plastic: a newly discovered microbe that is astonishingly good at eating it.
An estimated 342 million tons of plastic are produced annually worldwide, and currently, only about 14 percent is collected for recycling, according to the World Economic Forum. Continue reading “Plastic-eating bacteria could help make trash disappear”
Free Thought Project – by Justin Gardner
Greene County, MO – The epidemic of mass incarceration is coming back to bite authorities in one American city. Because the Greene County jail is completely full, Springfield (pop. 165,000) is unable to arrest more than 12,000 people accused of crimes such as traffic infractions and misdemeanor assaults.
Missouri’s third-largest city has lost almost half a million dollars in less than a year from unpaid fines and fees. These lost extortion fees are likely the biggest concern to city officials. Continue reading “City Had to Stop Arresting Actual Criminals Because They Filled Up Jail with Non-violent Offenders”
Boy that was quick. Stir up a bit of fear in the media about a disease that is not even proven to be dangerous and what do you get? Several vaccine projects and mutant mosquitoes programmed to mate with Zika-carrying mosquitoes to make them sterile. What could go wrong?
Biotech company Intrexon Corp announced today that its genetically modified mosquito has been deemed safe for the environment in preliminary findings by the FDA. Continue reading “FDA Claims New Genetically Modified Anti-Zika Mosquito Is Safe”
EASTPOINTE, MI – A judge who was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan has agreed to stop routinely using a “pay or stay” practice that throws poor defendants in jail simply because they can’t pay court fines and fees.
The Macomb County Circuit Court’s order Tuesday settles the case filed against 38th District Court Judge Carl F. Gerds III, Eastpointe’s only district court judge. Gerds has agreed to stop jailing poor defendants who can’t pay up, the ACLU said. Continue reading “Michigan Judge Told to Stop Jailing Poor People Who Can’t Pay Fees”
Back in early November we reported that in a shocking twist of events, Mikhail Lesin – a close ally of Putin and the man credited with “inspiring” the creation of Russia Today – was found dead on an upper floor in The Dupont Circle hotel in DC. Lesin was Russia’s Minister of Press, Television and Radio from 1999 to 2004 and also served as Putin’s media adviser. In 2013 he assumed a role as an executive at Gazprom-Media. Continue reading ““Blunt Force Injuries To The Head” – Putin’s Multi-Millionaire, Media Mogul Was Murdered In A Luxury DC Hotel”
Breitbart – by Ildefonso Ortiz
MCALLEN, Texas — Over a period of three days, three illegal aliens from El Salvador with criminal records as rapists are facing immigration charges after getting arrested near the Rio Grande Valley of the Texas border with Mexico.
The most recent arrest took place on Wednesday in the border city of Hidalgo when U.S. Border Patrol agents found 28-year-old Manuel Alexander Chicas Contreras. Details of how the arrest took place are not listed in the criminal complaint obtained by Breitbart Texas. Once in custody however, the agents requested a records check on Chicas and learned that he had previously been deported. Continue reading “Three Illegal Alien Convicted Rapists Arrested Sneaking Back into Texas”
San Francisco entrepreneurs Geoffrey Woo and Michael Brandt have come up with a revolutionary way for coffee lovers to get their early morning caffeine fix – chewable caffeine cubes. Each 35-calorie bite-sized ‘Go Cube’ is the equivalent of drinking roughly half a cup of coffee. So if you’re running late with no time to brew a fresh cuppa joe, just pop two cubes and you’re good to go. Continue reading “Chewable Coffee Cubes Offer a New Way to Kickstart Your Day”
BEND – Something didn’t seem right about the bullet hole in the top of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum’s white Dodge pickup.
Investigators from the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office could account for bullet holes in the left front hood, the driver’s side mirror and the front grille. They came from the AR-15 of a state trooper who had fired three times at the truck as Finicum raced at 70 mph toward a police roadblock on Jan. 26. Continue reading “Bullet hole on LaVoy Finicum’s truck traced to elite FBI team”
East Orlando Post – by Jacob Engels
While Ted Cruz proudly proclaims he is an Evangelical Christian, his campaign takes pains to hide the truth that Cruz and his pastor father, Rafael Cruz are Pentecostal Christians, a fact further hidden by having Ted and Heidi Cruz’s belong to the congregation of First Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist church in Houston, as their home church.
Both Cruz’s parents, his father Rafael a Cuban-born immigrant, and his mother Eleanor, born in Wilmington, Delaware, grew up in Catholic families. Both were among the millions of that left the Catholic Church since the 1960s to embrace Pentecostalism, a Christian movement estimated to make up 4.4 percent of the U.S. population, accounting for some 13 percent of evangelical churches in the United States. Continue reading “Ted Cruz: Closet Pentecostal”
Police officers may not hold a Florida driver’s license and demand to search a vehicle. That was the conclusion last month of a three-judge state Court of Appeal panel that ruled the search of Joey Villanueva’s van unconstitutional.
Lakeland Police Officer Bradley Dollison, a rookie, pulled Villanueva over, claiming he blew through a stop sign. The officer opened with the standard request for license and registration. Villanueva’s papers were in order, except a computer check noted that he was on probation. At trial, Officer Dollison admitted that once the check was complete he had completed everything he had to do except write the citation. The officer decided to ask more questions — why was Villanueva on probation? Did he have any weapons or anything illegal in the vehicle? Continue reading “Florida Court: Cops May Not Hold Licenses As Leverage To Search”
EFF recently received records in response to our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Justice for information on how the US Marshals—and perhaps other agencies—have been flying small, fixed-wing Cessna planes equipped with “dirtboxes”: IMSI catchers that imitate cell towers and are able to capture the locational data of tens of thousands of cell phones during a single flight. The records we received confirm the agencies were using these invasive surveillance tools with little oversight or legal guidance. Continue reading “New FOIA Documents Confirm FBI Used Dirtboxes on Planes Without Any Policies or Legal Guidance”
Courthouse News – by Jeff D. Gorman
The Ohio Supreme Court disbarred a former judge who was convicted of accepting bribes and who gave false testimony at his trial.
Steven Terry began to serve as a judge on the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas in 2007.
Four years later, he was convicted of federal conspiracy and mail-fraud charges after he provided judicial favors in exchange for campaign contributions. Continue reading “Ohio High Court Disbars Bribe-Taking Judge”
Dallas Morning News – by Lauren McGaughy
AUSTIN — President Barack Obama will visit Austin on Friday to help kick off South by Southwest. The same day, pro-gun protesters plan to march in the streets to show support for the state’s new open carry law.
This isn’t the first time protesters have openly carried guns during the nine-day festival. But it is the first time that SXSW organizers have brought in the president, who has repeatedly called for tightening gun laws in the wake of mass shootings nationwide. Continue reading “Open carry leader: Obama’s Austin visit during SXSW gun rally could ‘get interesting’”
The two top executives of Wounded Warrior Project were fired Thursday by the board of directors.
Americans donate hundreds of millions of dollars each year to the charity, expecting their money will help some of the 52,000 wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Continue reading “Wounded Warrior Project execs fired”
John Antoine, an 86-year-old Tasered by a police officer while cooking soup, has been cleared of charges, a court ruled. The elderly man’s apartment had been raided by officers searching for his granddaughter’s boyfriend, said to be suicidal after running out of medication.
The incident took place while Antoine was cooking soup at his Brooklyn home back in October. Standing in the kitchen with a knife in one hand and an onion in the other, little did he imagine that a group of five armed police officers was about to break into his apartment. Continue reading “86yo man Tasered by NYPD officer while cooking soup finally cleared of charges”
Laws requiring background checks for buyers of guns and ammunition, as well as requirements that firearms be traceable, could sharply reduce gun deaths in the United States, according to a study published on Thursday.
Many state-level gun regulations have little effect on the number of gun-related homicides and suicides. But “stand-your-ground” laws, which allow people to use deadly force in self-defense even if fleeing is an option, tend to raise the number of gun deaths, the study by Boston University researchers published in the Lancet medical journal found. Continue reading “Background checks for gun buyers could save lives, U.S. study finds”
Voters in a rural southeastern Oregon county have registered their opposition to proposals to expand federal protective status within 2.5 million acres of scenic canyonlands near the wildlife refuge recently occupied by anti-government militants.
The referendum follows calls by an environmental group to designate the area as a conservation zone, a move local ranchers and many others in the area perceive as a potential land grab by the federal government. Continue reading “Oregon residents vote ‘no’ on canyonlands conservation”
China said it won’t accept criticism of its human rights record from the US, which is itself guilty of the “rape and murder” of civilians, as well as other crimes committed across the globe.
“The US is notorious for prison abuse at Guantanamo prison, its gun violence is rampant, racism is its deep-rooted malaise,” Chinese diplomat Fu Cong said at the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday. Continue reading “China slams US for ‘rape, murder & kidnappings,’ defends own human rights record at UN”