Month: December 2019

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

We knew the DHS would get to this point eventually. Since the beginning of its biometric scanning program rollout, the DHS has planned on adding US citizens to the list of people forced to trade their faces for air travel privileges. So far, the program has been limited to suspicious foreigners (which is all of them, including those here on visas), but a recent filing — caught by Zack Whittaker at TechCrunch — says flying in the United States would soon require adding yourself to the government’s facial recognition databases.  Continue reading “DHS Wanted To Add US Citizens To The Long List Of People Subjected To Mandatory Face Scans At Airports… But Has Backed Down For Now”

Breitbart – by Bob Price

Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended nine migrants after a human smuggler crashed his pickup truck through a Texas rancher’s gate. The driver managed to avoid arrest after fleeing into the brush.

Agents patrolling near Hebbronville, Texas, on November 28, received a notice about a human smuggling bailout on a ranch. Agents called for help from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations (AMO) helicopter aircrew, according to information obtained from Laredo Sector Border Patrol officials. The smuggler crashed his pickup truck through the rancher’s gate causing extensive property damage.  Continue reading “Smuggler Escapes After Crashing Migrant-Filled Truck Through Texas Ranch Gate”

KTRE

Continue reading “Police arrest Nacogdoches woman in connection with drugs given out at school”

Breitbart – by Frances Martel

The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, and the government’s CCTV broadcaster published images this week depicting Chinese people ransacking an inaccurate rendition of the White House, a call to violence in response to Washington supporting pro-democracy Hong Kong protesters.  Continue reading “Chinese Government Propaganda Urges Supporters to Burn Down White House”

101 Wins Radio

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — An NYPD officer is recovering after finding a razor blade in a sandwich he purchased in a Queens deli on Thursday.

Officials say the officer, at approximately 4:30, bought the sandwich at a Bon Appetit in located at 418 Beach 129 Street in Rockaway Park.  Continue reading “NYPD investigates after Queens deli serves officer sandwich with razor inside”

Grand Forks Herald

There is more corn still standing in North Dakota fields than there has been at this time since at least 2000.

The combination of a late, wet spring that delayed planting and excessive rains and snow this fall has meant farmers have been able to harvest only 1.26 million acres, or 36%, of North Dakota’s 3.5 million acres of corn, according to National Agricultural Statistics-North Dakota. Since 2000, the only time there has been that much corn left to harvest at this time of year was in 2009, when 40% was harvested at this time of year. On average, 95% of the state’s corn is harvested by Dec. 1, the statistics service said.

Continue reading “Historic amount of corn acres in North Dakota still in the field”

MSN

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court meets Friday to consider for the first time whether the Constitution gives homeless people a right to sleep on the sidewalk.

The justices are weighing an appeal of a much-disputed ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that held last year that it was cruel and unusual punishment to enforce criminal laws against homeless people who are living on the street if a city doesn’t offer enough shelters as an alternative. Continue reading “Supreme Court confronts homeless crisis and whether there’s a right to sleep on the sidewalk”

The Daily Sheeple – by Sean Walton

Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg unveiled a gun control policy on Thursday just steps from the site of one of Colorado’s worst mass shootings, calling for a ban on all ‘assault weapons’, mandatory permits for gun purchasers and a new position in the White House to coordinate gun violence prevention.  Continue reading “Bloomberg appears to be channeling Beto as he unveils his sweeping gun control plan in Aurora, CO”

Truth Theory – by Mayukh Saha

A startup based in Colorado is making an entry into the world of alternative meat – but they are doing it in a different way. In the past, there have been many companies that have developed alternative meat using plant-based products. There has been ‘Beyond Beef’ and ‘Impossible Burger’ produced a long time ago. Emergy Foods has developed a new brand which they called Meati Foods. Unlike the other two plant-based types of meat – Meati Foods provide fungi-based steaks.  Continue reading “The Worlds First “Fake-Meat Steaks” Made From Fungi Announced By Startup”

CNN

The suspected shooter, who was also killed, was a member of the Saudi Arabian military training at the station, according to five US defense officials and another person familiar with the investigation.  Continue reading “A Saudi national is the suspected gunman in deadly shooting at Pensacola Naval Air Station, sources say”

American Herald Tribune – by Alan MacLeod

For much of the world, donating blood is purely an act of solidarity; a civic duty that the healthy perform to aid others in need. The idea of being paid for such an action would be considered bizarre. But in the United States, it is big business. Indeed, in today’s wretched economy, where around 130 million Americans admit an inability to pay for basic needs like food, housing or healthcare, buying and selling blood is of the few booming industries America has left.  Continue reading “Harvesting the Blood of America’s Poor: The Latest Stage of Capitalism”

Yahoo News

Sometimes, you pick up a story at what used to be the back pages of a newspaper that nonetheless seems to carry the weight of ominous portent. Sometimes, these are medical stories—Ebola and whatnot. Increasingly, they have something to do with the climate crisis. And some of them start out simply weird but, the deeper you get into the story, both its darkness and its plausibility increase in tandem. This is one of those, from Vice. Continue reading “This Highly Organized Right-Wing Militia Is an Ominous Portent”

CNBC

The jobs market turned in a stellar performance in November, with nonfarm payrolls surging by 266,000 and the unemployment rate falling to 3.5%, according to Labor Department numbers released Friday.

Those totals easily beat the Wall Street consensus. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for solid job growth of 187,000 and saw the unemployment rate holding steady from October’s 3.6%. The decline in November’s jobless rate came amid a corresponding 0.1 percentage point drop in the labor force participation rate, to 63.2%. Continue reading “Jobs growth soars in November as payrolls surge by 266,000”

Anti-War – by Jason Ditz

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is keen to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, on the grounds that the US is going to let him do so. Israeli officials, particularly military officials, are warning against one of the primary targets, the Jordan Valley.

The Jordan Valley, which connects the West Bank to Jordan, is something the Israeli right has long wanted to annex, as it would mean the rest of the Palestinian West Bank would never have a border with any nation other than Israel.  Continue reading “Israeli Officials Warn Annexation May Lead Jordan to Take Drastic Steps”

Anti-War – by Jason Ditz

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met for an hour and 45 minutes on the specifics of a proposed US-Israel defense pact. The pact amounts to a more or less direct US intervention in Israeli politics, after two elections failed to end with a government formed.

The Trump Administration had made no bones about preferring Netanyahu over his primary political rival Benny Gantz, and the pact seems to be pandering to that fact, since Gantz is opposed to the deal. Continue reading “Netanyahu, Pompeo Push Forward With US-Israel Defense Pact”