Month: August 2017

New York Times – by Matthew Haag

The mayor of Houston imposed a curfew in his city on Tuesday, ordering nearly everyone off the streets from midnight to 5 a.m. in an effort to stop “small-scale looting” and other crimes following prodigious flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey. Houston has a population of 2.3 million people spread across nearly 670 square miles, making the curfew among the largest and most expansive in United States history.

In times of natural disasters or violent unrest, American cities have imposed curfews to try to bring order during chaos. The following curfews were some of the largest or most significant in the country’s history.

Continue reading “Houston Curfew Follows Many in Big Cities Facing Disaster or Unrest”

NPR – by James Doubek

Tens of thousands of German residents in Frankfurt are being told to evacuate by Sunday morning for authorities to defuse a World War II-era bomb.

A Frankfurt police spokesperson said as many as 70,000 people could be affected, according to The Local Germany, which would make it Germany’s largest evacuation since World War II.   Continue reading “Frankfurt Orders 70,000 To Evacuate To Defuse WWII Bomb”

app.com – by Russ Zimmer, June, 2015

Brad Kieserman, the point person for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s investigation into allegations that superstorm Sandy homeowners were cheated by their flood insurers, is stepping down.

Kieserman, who had been elevated to head of FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program earlier this year, is departing for an executive position with the Red Cross. A FEMA spokeswoman confirmed the impending exit to the Asbury Park Press. It was first reported by Newsday. Kieserman’s last day will be June 13.   Continue reading “FEMA losing head of Sandy insurance fraud probe”

NPR – by Richard Gonzales

As Americans are opening their wallets and donating to relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, one of the most prominent charities is the American Red Cross.

But donors might be surprised to learn the Red Cross won’t, or can’t say, what percentage of their dollars will go directly to helping the victims of the storm.

Dating back to 2014, NPR and Pro Publica have reported that the Red Cross misstated how donor dollars are spent.   Continue reading “Red Cross Exec Doesn’t Know What Portion Of Donations Go To Harvey Relief”

Tech Dirt – by Mike Masnik

Earlier this week, we wrote about Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions bringing back the Defense Department’s 1033 program, which helped militarize local police forces with surplus military equipment. We’ve been covering all sorts of problems with the 1033 program over the years, and people like Radley Balko have written entire books on the problem. And the previous ban on the 1033 only put a fairly narrow limit on the practice of militarizing police — but now even those modest limits are gone.

What’s truly incredible, however, is the complete nonsense being used to justify this. Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave a speech about this on Monday, in which he trotted out his standard misleading and out-of-context stats, falsely claiming that there’s some massive new crimewave across the country, when there’s really just been a tiny bump after decades of decline in crime rates (the use of percentages by Sessions shows the he likely knows the absolute numbers are so meaningless that he has to mislead with percentages working off a small base).   Continue reading “Attorney General Jeff Sessions: Hurricane Harvey Is Proof We Need To Militarize Our Police Forces”

Washington Free Beacon – by Joe Schoffstall

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a liberal, Alabama-based 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization that has gained prominence on the left for its “hate group” designations, pushes millions of dollars to offshore entities as part of its business dealings, records show.

Additionally, the nonprofit pays lucrative six-figure salaries to its top directors and key employees while spending little on legal services despite its stated intent of “fighting hate and bigotry” using litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy.   Continue reading “Southern Poverty Law Center Transfers Millions in Cash to Offshore Entities”

Top Secret Writers – by Gabrielle Pickard

Documents recently released by legal firms in the United States have revealed how the agricultural company Monsanto launched an attack on the International Agency for Research Cancer (IARC).

The attack followed the IARC’s announcement that glyphosate, which is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide known as Roundup, is likely to be a human pollutant.

A report in (1) Sustainable Pulse informs how Monsanto had written and edited an ‘independent’ Expert Panel Manuscript in order to rebut the IARC’s findings regarding the potential carcinogenic effects of Roundup. Continue reading “Monsanto Attacks International Cancer Agency for Warning Public”

Breitbart – by John Binder

A study by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s open borders organization revealed that if an Obama-created amnesty program for young illegal aliens is ended, it would open nearly 700,000 American jobs.

Zuckerberg’s FWD.us group – a pro-immigration lobbying group – released the study with the intention to show the hardships of ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, where more than 850,000 young illegal aliens have been given temporary amnesty would have on the American economy.   Continue reading “Zuckerberg Group: 700K American Job Openings If DACA Ends”

CNBC

Early Thursday morning, officials of Beaumont, Texas, announced the city lost both the primary and secondary sources for its water supply system.

“Due to rising waters of the Neches River caused by Tropical Storm Harvey, the City of Beaumont has lost service from the main pump station,” Beaumont fire rescue captain Brad Penisson said in a statement.

Located near the Louisiana border on the Gulf Coast, the city of nearly 120,000 residents will be without water until after floodwaters recede and officials can analyze the extent of the damage.   Continue reading “118,000 people and no drinking water: Flooded Beaumont cannot determine when it will restore water supply”

Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has told Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco and buildings in Washington and New York that house trade missions, the State Department said on Thursday, in retaliation for Moscow cutting the U.S. diplomatic presence in Russia.

The announcement was the latest in tit-for-tat measures between the two countries that have helped to drive relations to a new post-Cold War low, thwarting hopes on both sides that they might improve after U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January.   Continue reading “U.S. retaliates against Russia, orders closure of consulate, annexes”

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Gasoline futures surged 10 percent on Thursday as almost a quarter of U.S. refining capacity remained offline and traders scrambled to reroute millions of barrels of fuel, while oil prices rose nearly 3 percent.

U.S. gasoline futures RBc1 have rallied roughly 26 percent from the previous week to a two-year high above $2 a gallon, buoyed by fears of a fuel shortage days ahead of the Labor Day weekend that typically brings a surge in driving. Gasoline was up 21.03 cents, or 11.2 percent, at $2.0950 at 1:53 p.m. (1753 GMT).   Continue reading “Oil rises, gasoline jumps 10 percent as U.S. refineries reel”

Business Insider – by Dave Mosher

Over the past week, Hurricane Harvey and its stormy remnants have dumped more than four feet of rain on parts of Texas, breaking US rainfall records.

Thousands of people escaped to their rooftops to avoid drowning in the deadly floodwaters. Many were rescued in the days that followed, in some cases by journalists or good samaritanswith fishing boats. Tens of thousands of Texas residents, left with nowhere to go, have retreated to temporary shelters.   Continue reading “The crucial reason Houston officials didn’t order evacuations before Harvey made landfall”

Washington Times – by Andrea Noble

The country’s sheriffs are nearing an agreement with the federal Department of Homeland Security that would let them act as contractors to hold illegal immigrants in jail for pickup, hoping they have found a way to handle the increasingly tricky issue of immigration detention requests.

Rather than holding immigrants on their own authority, the sheriffs say, they would be acting on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which would pay to have detainees kept until federal officers can get them.   Continue reading “Sheriffs near agreement to act as contractors, hold illegal immigrants for feds”

AOL

Tropical Storm Harvey may be on the move — but its after-effects are just beginning to be realized.

In addition to slamming homes and hospitals, the storm struck the heart of Texas’ refining industry, where roughly a third of America’s oil is processed. In its wake, more than two million pounds of hazardous chemicals have been released into the air, according to filings reported with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and first reported by Politico.   Continue reading “Oil refineries have released 2 million pounds of chemicals in Harvey’s wake, and scientists are worried”

Republic Broadcasting – by Wayne Dupree

My first reaction at this was wow! My second reaction was anger. The Daily Wire wrote about this story after Linda Sarsour sent out these tweets.

Sarsour is the jihadist who has been leading the Democrat Women’s March movement along with calling for jihad against President Trump to a Muslim audience. Her defenders said she meant for the individuals she spoke to be enlightened but if you listen closely, she never used those words, and it sounded very angry.   Continue reading “Linda Sarsour Redirects Hurricane Relief Donations To Leftist Political Organization”