Mail.com

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California voters’ decision to reduce penalties for drug and property crimes in 2014 contributed to a jump in car burglaries, shoplifting and other theft, researchers reported.

Larcenies increased about 9 percent by 2016, or about 135 more thefts per 100,000 residents than if tougher penalties had remained, according to results of a study by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California released Tuesday.  Continue reading “Thefts rise after California reduces criminal penalties”

Mail.com

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine Republicans and Democrats wrestled Tuesday with new ballots that let them rank some candidates for the first time. The ballots asked voters to fill in ovals to rank gubernatorial candidates and a few legislative and federal hopefuls from first to last.

Maine became the first state to adopt a system called ranked-choice voting, which made its statewide debut in the primary election. What will ranked-choice voting mean for Maine? Some of Maine’s 11 Democratic and Republican candidates hoping to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Paul LePage encouraged supporters to test the limits of the never-before-used statewide primary system.   Continue reading “AP EXPLAINS: What does ranked-choice voting mean for Maine?”

Common Dreams – by Jon Queally

After the international humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières on Monday announced that a newly constructed cholera treatment center in Yemen was bombed on Monday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)—who has led the fight in the U.S. Senate to end the U.S. military’s key role in assisting Saudi Arabia’s assault on its war-torn and poverty-stricken neighbor—lashed out in disgust and anger on social media.  Continue reading “Senator: “Let Me Repeat… The US Helped Bomb A DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS CHOLERA TREATMENT FACILITY””

Free Thought Project – by Jay Syrmopoulos

London, UK – Thousands marched in a protest in support of right-wing activist Tommy Robinson in Trafalgar Square over the weekend and called for his release as they held up placards, waved the Union Jack, and chanted “We want Tommy out” as they pledged their support to the English Defence League founder.

Robinson, 35, was arrested and jailed for contempt of court on May 25 outside Leeds Crown Court after broadcasting on Facebook Live, thereby ignoring reporting restrictions on a case involving a “pedophile grooming” trial purportedly involving 29 Muslim immigrants. He was arrested, brought before a judge, and given a 13-month prison sentence within five hours.   Continue reading “Massive Crowd Chases Down Police at Protest Over Man Arrested While Reporting on Pedophiles”

The Organic Prepper

After the meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump seemed to end on an optimistic note, one may have hoped that our fears of a nuclear attack would subside. Not so, according to The New Yorker, who published an article entitled, “This Is What a Nuclear Attack on New York Would Look LIke.”

While the timing may seem odd, it’s important to note that feelings are mixed about the North Korea-US summit.  Some are pleased and feel that a great deal was accomplished, while others are unhappy – even angry – that Trump made nice with a brutal dictator.  Continue reading “Here’s What Would Happen If a Nuclear Bomb Was Detonated on the Ground in NYC”

The Takeout – by Allison Shoemaker

Castoreum is a yellowish, strong-smelling secretion that comes from the castor sacs found near the base of a beaver’s tail. It’s an FDA-approved food additive, and hey, you can now get whiskey that’s flavored with the stuff.

That knowledge comes courtesy of this piece from Food & Wine’s Mike Pomranz, which spotlights a nice little beaver musk whiskey made by Tamworth Distilling of New Hampshire. Fear not, castoreum is an FDA-approved food additive. That’s actually how this spirit came about. Tamworth’s team was looking to develop a new spirit, and in hopes of securing a speedy all-clear from the Alcohol And Tobacco Tax And Trade Bureau, they went straight to the FDA’s list of ingredients that are already considered safe. Castoreum understandably caught their attention.   Continue reading “Great news, you can now buy whiskey flavored with beaver secretion”

Union Leader

CONCORD — A retired judge who was found having helped her husband hide money from the state is suing to try and get $400,000 in back retirement pay, health care and a permanent pension of nearly $90,000 a year.

Patricia Coffey stepped down in 2008 after the Supreme Court suspended her for three years without pay for helping her husband, ex-State Rep. John Coffey, to create a trust to hide assets while he was being disbarred for stealing money from an elderly Rye woman.  Continue reading “Retired judge sues in attempt to secure $90k pension”

Washington Post – by Eli Rosenberg

Raimundo Atesiano had a statistic to tout at a town council meeting in Biscayne Park, a village of 3,000 in the middle of Florida’s Miami-Dade County.

The Biscayne Park Police Department, where Atesiano was chief at the time, had a clearance rate of 100 percent for burglaries, he said at the July 2013 meeting, according to federal court documents.   Continue reading “Police framed a teen for four burglaries so chief could tout perfect clearance rate, prosecutors say”

Daily Mail

The creepy ways Facebook spies on its users have been detailed in a bumper document presented to Congress.

They include tracking mouse movements, logging battery levels and monitoring devices close to a user that are on the same network.

The 454-page report was created in response to questions Mark Zuckerberg was asked during his appearance before Congress in April.  Continue reading “The 18 things you may not realize Facebook knows about you”

Breitbart – by AWR Hawkins

Farmer Jeffrey Scott Kirschenmann tried to register an AR-15 with the state per California’s latest “assault weapons” ban requirements and ended up having his home raided, firearms confiscated, and faces 12 felony counts.

Kirschermann was trying to comply with the June 30, 2018, deadline to register all “assault weapons” in the state and became snared by the flurry of laws instituted by CA Democrats over the past few years.   Continue reading “Farmer’s Home Raided, Guns Confiscated After Trying to Comply With CA Gun Control”

Yahoo News

CHICAGO (AP) — With frustration mounting over lawmakers’ inaction on gun control, the American Medical Association on Tuesday pressed for a ban on assault weapons and came out against arming teachers as a way to fight what it calls a public health crisis.

At its annual policymaking meeting, the nation’s largest physicians group bowed to unprecedented demands from doctor-members to take a stronger stand on gun violence — a problem the organizations says is as menacing as a lethal infectious disease.  Continue reading “Frustrated AMA adopts sweeping policies to cut gun violence”

New York Post – by Marisa Schultz

WASHINGTON — Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia bought body armor. Rep. Gregg Harper hired armed security guards for events back home in Mississippi. And Rep. Dan Dovonan fortified his Brooklyn and Staten Island offices with security cameras and buzzer systems.

This is the new normal for members of Congress. One year after the horrific congressional baseball shooting that almost took the life of Rep. Steve Scalise and former Hill staffer Matt Mika, members are keenly aware that serving in public office has put a target on their backs.   Continue reading “Politicians fear for safety as threats against Congress skyrocket”

Fellowship of the Minds – by DCG

Another anti-Second Amendment company to add to your boycott list.

From NY Post: Several gun-related businesses were suddenly — and without warning — disrupted in recent weeks when Intuit stopped processing credit card payments because sales were gun-related, The Post has learned.  Continue reading “Intuit credit card service shuts down payments on all gun purchases”

Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist

America has a dark secret that no one wants to admit. Talk of this secret will get you labelled as a conspiracy theorist, fake news, and outlets who report on it will have their organic reach throttled by social media and Google alike. Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, many in the mainstream media and the government refuse to see this very real epidemic of child sex trafficking in the United States. What’s more, according to the government’s own data, the vast majority of a portion of these trafficked kids are coming from the country’s own foster care system.   Continue reading “Chilling NCMEC Report Shows 88% of Missing Sex Trafficked Kids Come from US Foster Care”

Breitbart – by John Binder

An amnesty plan being negotiated by Republicans in the House will likely allow illegal aliens who were brought to the U.S. by their illegal alien parents to bring those parents to the country.

According to insiders who spoke to Breitbart News, the plan by House Republicans, which House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) is attempting to fast track, would allow nearly 800,000 illegal aliens shielded from deportation by the President Obama-created Deferred Action for Childhood (DACA) program to bring their foreign parents to the U.S.  Continue reading “GOP Amnesty Plan Will Allow DACA Illegal Aliens to Bring Their Foreign Parents to U.S.”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

As was widely expected, a group of senators have successfully attached an amendment that would effectively kill the Trump administration’s deal with Chinese telecoms firm ZTE to a “must-pass” defense authorization bill, according to Axios– the latest sign that the movement to kill the deal is gaining momentum, even among Republicans who rarely oppose the president. The measure has found support among a bipartisan group of Senators who claim that the ZTE deal poses potential national security problems, according to Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who introduced the amendment alongside Republican Sen. Tom Cotton. In addition, Van Hollen maintains that the ZTE deal is “genuinely a bad deal” that must be overturned.  Continue reading “Senate Adds ZTE-Deal-Killing Amendment To “Must Pass” Defense Bill”

RT

Turkey didn’t acquire the Russian-built S-400 air defense systems for them to collect dust and may use them, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, adding the purchase was to reduce Ankara’s dependency on US arms supplies.

“We will not just buy the S-400s and place them in a storehouse. We will use them if need be,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, as quoted by Hurriyet daily. “This is a defense system. What are we going to do with it if not use this defense system?” he asked.   Continue reading “‘Will use if needed’: Erdogan says Turkey didn’t buy S-400 from Russia ‘to keep them in store’”