The Spokane Review – by Thomas Clouse

A federal prosecutor from Spokane has been named to handle the citation given to Ammon Bundy’s attorney, who was tackled and shocked with a Taser by U.S. Marshals in October after arguing with a judge in Portland.

Michael Ormsby, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, filed a notice of appearance Tuesday and assigned Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Ohms to represent the government in the case, which is scheduled to be heard at 9 a.m. Friday in Portland.
Continue reading “Spokane’s Michael Ormsby assigned to handle case against Ammon Bundy’s attorney”

Yahoo News

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says the Russian government’s interference with the United States election went far beyond the now highly publicized hacks of Democratic email accounts, which were merely one part of a multilayered campaign of propaganda and deception.

The intelligence leader outlined various methods wielded by Moscow to interfere with U.S. institutions during Thursday morning testimony on cyberattacks before the Senate Armed Services Committee.   Continue reading “Intelligence chief: Russia’s election interference went far beyond hacks”

The Register – by Iain Thomson

The US Department of Labor is suing Google for details of its staff’s wages – though the Chocolate Factory claims it’s bending over backwards to comply with the bureaucrats’ demands.

This is the same advertising giant that loves keeping tabs on hundreds of millions of netizens, and coughs up people’s private information to governments and state spies.   Continue reading “Google gives up YOUR private data to US govt – but won’t hand over its OWN staff personal info”

The Newspaper

Police in Idaho no longer need a warrant to take blood forcibly from a motorist — as long as a judge does not pick up the phone. The state Supreme Court on Friday upheld the involuntary extraction of blood from Daniel Chernobieff, who had been stopped around 11pm on September 11, 2013 for a routine traffic violation.

Idaho State Police Corporal Matthew Sly suspected Chernobieff of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI), but Chernobieff refused all field sobriety and breath tests. So Corporal Sly dialed the on-call deputy prosecutor to ask him to obtain a judicial warrant to take Chernobieff’s blood by force.   Continue reading “Idaho Supreme Court Creates Forced Blood Draw Exception”

Yahoo News

Washington (AFP) – The United States added Hamza bin Laden, son and would-be heir of the late global jihadist leader Osama bin Laden, to its terrorist blacklist on Thursday.

Hamza, who is in his mid-twenties, has become active as an Al-Qaeda propagandist since his father’s death at the hands of US special forces on May 2, 2011.

According to letters found in the Navy SEAL raid on Osama’s hideout in Pakistan, Hamza wrote to the Saudi-born Al-Qaeda leader asking to be trained to follow him.   Continue reading “US puts bin Laden’s son on terror blacklist”

Global Warming???

USA Today

A series of winter storms is forecast to continue hammering California with several feet of heavy snow and driving rain over the next few days and into the weekend, good news for the drought-plagued state and for ski areas, but potentially bad news for travelers and homeowners worried about floods and mudslides.

Meanwhile, a storm could also spread a stripe of snow across the South, all the way from Texas to Virginia, from late Thursday into Saturday.   Continue reading “10-15 feet of snow to bury California; wintry weather also targets South”

ABC 15 News

PHOENIX – Sheriff Paul Penzone was sworn in Wednesday as metro Phoenix’s new top law enforcer.

The retired police sergeant defeated six-term Sheriff Joe Arpaio in November.

“It’s an organization that’s had one form of leadership for 24 years, so being a new person coming into that, it can be challenging, or in some ways uncomfortable, getting to know each other, but that hasn’t been the case,” Penzone said.

Continue reading “New Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone takes oath in public ceremony”

Washington Post – by Dan Lamothe

QUANTICO, Va. — Drill instructors at the Marine Corps recruit center at Parris Island, S.C., drank alcohol on the job and repeatedly ordered recruits to do illegal calisthenics in a decrepit building called “the dungeon,” recruits testified here Thursday.

The allegation emerged as Staff Sgt. Antonio B. Burke, a Parris Island drill instructor, became the first Marine to face a hearing in a series of cases involving hazing and abuse allegations over the last couple of years. Burke is charged with cruelty and maltreatment, failure to obey a lawful general order and making a false official statement.   Continue reading “Marine drill instructors accused of using a ‘dungeon’ on recruits and drinking on the job”

Courthouse News – by Adam Klasfeld

MANHATTAN (CN) — For more than two years, a New Jersey high school has tried to fend off allegations that it overreacted to the doodle drawn by an autistic student days after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook.

A new ruling guarantees that federal litigation over the episode will continue into 2017.   Continue reading “Panic Post-Sandy Hook Dogs NJ School”

Free Thought Project – by Claire Bernish

According to a report, the FBI has never examined the servers of the Democratic National Committee — not even for the six months during which the bureau claimed to be investigating allegations of Russians compromising cyber networks.

In fact, according to unnamed officials who spoke to Buzzfeed News, “the bureau has still not requested access to the hacked servers, a DNC spokesman said. No US government entity has run an independent forensic analysis on the system.”   Continue reading “FBI Never Even Examined the DNC Servers Over Allegations of Russian Hacking”

Free Thought Project – by Claire Bernish

After the DEA moved to further constrain Americans’ access to medically miraculous CBD oil by classifying it alongside heroin and cocaine, Britain chose compassion and common sense — and just classified cannabidiol (CBD) as a medicine.

On Monday, Britain’s Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) decided CBD — which can treat illnesses and conditions from severe childhood epilepsy to autism to cancer — warranted the classification as a medicine based on credible evidence of its efficacy.   Continue reading “UK Reclassifies CBD Oil as Medicine Just as America Puts It in Class With Heroin”

Yahoo News

Vice President-elect Mike Pence says that the first priority of President-elect Donald Trump is to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. But Democrats say the incoming administration has nothing to replace it with, and that repealing the law will only lead to “chaos.”

“Obamacare has failed,” Pence said after a meeting with House Republicans on Wednesday. “Now is the time to keep our promises. Step one will be to repeal Obamacare.”  Continue reading “Pence: Trump will sign executive orders to begin repealing Obamacare on Day 1”

RT

A veteran Detroit Police Officer is being investigated for calling residents of the city ‘garbage‘ and for boasting about using physical violence against children.

Officer Daniel Wolff made the inflammatory statements on Facebook under an article published on the Motorcity Muckraker website which revealed that a record number of Detroit police now live outside of the city.   Continue reading “Detroit police officer calls citizens ‘garbage’, brags about hitting ‘kids’”

RT

A B-52 Stratofortress bomber lost one of its eight engines while conducting a training flight off Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.

“Earlier today, a B-52 dropped an engine while in flight,” a US Air Force spokesperson told Military.com in an email on Wednesday. “The aircraft landed safely with no injuries.”

The engine broke up and debris landed in an unpopulated area, the report said. No immediate information of injuries or damage on the ground was available.   Continue reading “B-52 loses engine over North Dakota”

Mail.com

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Days after Donald Trump won the White House vowing to deport millions of people in the country illegally and fortify the Mexican border, California farmer Kevin Herman ordered nearly $600,000 in new equipment, cutting the number of workers he’ll need starting with the next harvest.

Herman, who grows figs, persimmons and almonds in the nation’s most productive farming state, said Trump’s comments pushed him to make the purchase, larger than he would have otherwise. “No doubt about it,” Herman said. “I probably wouldn’t have spent as much or bought as much machinery as I did.”   Continue reading “Trump’s deportation vow spurs California farmers into action”

Mail.com

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Much of Northern California and the Sierra Nevada braced for potential flooding into the weekend as a winter storm that dumped more than 2 feet of snow around Lake Tahoe made its way toward Utah and the Rockies.

Stiff winds toppled a towering evergreen tree into an Oregon home, killing an 8-year-old girl, while blizzard conditions closed major highways and triggered a small avalanche in the Sierra on Wednesday as wet, windy storms pummeled much of the West.   Continue reading “Wet, winter storms pummel West; headed for Rockies”