Mail.com

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down the state’s widely criticized congressional map Monday, granting a major victory to Democrats who alleged the 18 districts were unconstitutionally gerrymandered to benefit Republicans and setting off a scramble to draw a new map.

In the Democratic-controlled court’s decision, the majority said the boundaries “clearly, plainly and palpably” violate the state’s constitution and blocked the boundaries from remaining in effect for the 2018 elections with just weeks until dozens of people file paperwork to run for Congress.   Continue reading “Pennsylvania court throws out congressional boundaries”

Mail.com

The gun industry is holding its biggest annual trade show this week just a few miles from where a gunman slaughtered 58 concertgoers outside his high-rise Las Vegas hotel room in October using a display case worth of weapons, many of them fitted with bump stocks that enabled them to mimic fully automatic fire.

What exactly will be among the thousands of products crammed into the exhibition spaces at the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s SHOT Show convention, running from Tuesday through Friday, will be a bit of a mystery, shielded from the public and, this year, members of the general-interest media.  Continue reading “Gun industry gathers just a few miles from mass shooting”

Mail.com

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 8.2 struck off Alaska’s Kodiak Island early Tuesday, prompting a tsunami warning for a large swath of coastal Alaska and Canada’s British Columbia while the remainder of the U.S. West Coast was under a watch.

The strong earthquake hit at 12:32 a.m. and was recorded about 175 miles southeast of Kodiak Island. Warnings from the National Weather Service sent to cellphones in Alaska warned: “Emergency Alert. Tsunami danger on the coast. Go to high ground or move inland.”   Continue reading “Alaska earthquake prompts tsunami warning; no wave reported”

After the Turkish Air Forces hit Kurdish positions in Syria’s Afrin, the General Staff of the Turkish armed forces on Saturday announced it launched ‘Operation Olive Branch’ against the PYD/PKK troops.The next day, the Turkish command reported that aircraft had hit 153 Kurdish militant targets, including “shelters and arsenals.” In addition, according to Hürriyet Daily News, the Turkish Air Force conducted massive air strikes on the Menagh Military Air Base, which the U.S. repeatedly had used to supply weapons and ammunition to Kurdish formations.  Continue reading “Turkish Olive Branch made the U.S. to Intensify Training of BSF”

Medium – by Caitlin Johnstone

Throughout the near entirety of human history, a population’s understanding of what’s going on in the world has been controlled by those in power. The men in charge controlled what the people were told about rival populations, the history of their tribe and its leadership, etc. When the written word was invented, men in charge dictated what books were permitted to be written and circulated, what ideas were allowed, what narratives the public would be granted access to.   Continue reading “Assange Keeps Warning Of AI Censorship, And It’s Time We Started Listening”

Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed a bill reopening the government late Monday, ending a 69-hour display of partisan dysfunction after Democrats reluctantly voted to temporarily pay for resumed operations. They relented in return for Republican assurances that the Senate will soon take up the plight of young immigrant “dreamers” and other contentious issues.

The vote set the stage for hundreds of thousands of federal workers to return on Tuesday, cutting short what could have become a messy and costly impasse. The House approved the measure shortly thereafter, and President Donald Trump later signed it behind closed doors at the White House.   Continue reading “Back to work: Government shutdown ends after Dems relent”

Common Cause

Today, Common Cause filed complaints with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that the payment of $130,000 to Stephanie Clifford (a.k.a. Stormy Daniels), through an LLC, was an unreported in-kind contribution to President Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign committee in violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act. The complaint also asks the agencies to determine whether the payment was made by the Trump Organization or some other corporation or individual, which would additionally make it an illegal in-kind contribution to the campaign. Corporations are prohibited from contributing to federal candidates and individual contributions are limited to $2,700.  Continue reading “DOJ & FEC Complaints Filed Against Trump Campaign for Failure to Report $130K Hush Money Payment”

Boing Boing – by Cory Doctorow

Millions of new cars sold in the US and Europe are “connected,” having some mechanism for exchanging data with their manufacturers after the cars are sold; these cars stream or batch-upload location data and other telemetry to their manufacturers, who argue that they are allowed to do virtually anything they want with this data, thanks to the “explicit consent” of the car owners — who signed a lengthy contract at purchase time that contained a vague and misleading clause deep in its fine-print.   Continue reading “Thanks to “consent” buried deep in sales agreements, car manufacturers are tracking tens of millions of US cars”

Information Liberation – by Chris Menahan

Women’s Marchers across America and in Canada left garbage all over the streets on Sunday.

Infowars reporter Millie Weaver found tons of soy lattes littering the streets at the Women’s March in Los Angeles, California.  Continue reading “Women’s Marchers Leave Garbage All Over The Streets”

Health Impact News – by Brian Shilhavy

On January 19, 2018, Dr. Suzanne Humphries and Polly Tommey (co-producer of the film VAXXED) went live on Facebook to expose a horrific death threat Dr. Humphries had received by email from an apparent cyber-stalker who claimed to be following her movements.   Continue reading “Medical Doctor Opposed to Mandatory Vaccines Has Life Threatened by Stalker”

National Post

This winter, Calgary has expanded its use of beet juice as a de-icing alternative to road salt. While slightly more expensive than salt, the mixture is more efficient, less toxic and less corrosive.

Nevertheless, despite a galaxy of relatively benign de-icing agents such as beet juice, this year cities across Canada will stubbornly continue to coat their roads with literal mountains of salt. Although salt remains the single cheapest way to keep snow and ice at bay, the economics make much less sense when considering the awesome scale of the damage wrought every year by the salt truck.   Continue reading “How Canada’s addiction to road salt is ruining everything”

Daily Mail

Artificially cooling Earth to counter global warming could destroy our planet if the process is abruptly stopped, according to new research.

Some scientists have suggested firing aerosols into the atmosphere to help combat global warming by imitating a natural side-effect of volcanic eruptions.

The aerosols, one of many ‘geoengineering’ techniques proposed as a way to deal with climate change, would cool Earth by blocking incoming solar radiation.   Continue reading “Artificially cooling the planet is a ‘risky strategy’”

Anti-War – by Jason Ditz

Over the weekend, reports have emerged suggesting that the Pentagon is in the process of considering another escalation of the Afghan War, with proposals pushing another 1,000 US ground troops being sent to the country soon.

The US had 8,500 troops in Afghanistan last August when President Trump announced his escalation, and has an estimated 14,000 there now. The US Army leadership is said to overwhelmingly back the proposal to add another 1,000, though Defense Secretary James Mattis hasn’t formally signed off on it.   Continue reading “Pentagon Considers Sending Another 1,000 US Troops to Afghanistan”