From the Trenches World Report

Tampa Bay Times – by Stuart Leavenworth

LEHI, Utah — It markets its DNA kits with promises that tug at the heartstrings: Discover ancestors. Strengthen family ties. Understand your life.

Aided by venture capital and a flood of savvy marketing, Ancestry LLC has grown to become the world’s largest DNA testing conglomerate. Since 2012, it has lured more than 5 million people to spit into tubes and add their genetic code to the world’s largest private database of DNA. It has also banked away the world’s largest collection of human spittle, numbering in the hundreds of gallons.   Continue reading “DNA for Sale: Ancestry wants your spit, your DNA and your trust. Should you give them all 3?”

Legal Information Institute

Continue reading “Timbs v. Indiana”

VT Digger – by Lola Duffort

A new report from a nonprofit that advocates for parents argues that Vermont’s child protective system is fundamentally broken and too often removes children from families capable of parenting.

In “Bending the Curve to Improve Our Child Protection System,” a report out from the Vermont Parent Representation Center, the nonprofit uses an analysis of more than 70 cases it has worked on over the course of eight years and state data to make the case that the state reflexively removes children instead of supporting parents in need. The nonprofit does not serve parents in cases where child sexual abuse is alleged.   Continue reading “Parent advocates call for wholesale reform of child protective system”

Gateway Pundit – Joe Hoft

Yesterday’s Headline is today’s hoax. The illegal alien mother ‘fleeing’ from the border wall was all a lie. It was a setup.

After further review, yesterday’s ‘horrific’ picture of a woman with barefoot children running from the US border wall was a hoax. In the background of the picture a group of men are posing for one camera man and another is running towards another camera man. In other areas, people are just standing around. The woman with the children was just a photo-op:   Continue reading “Hoaxed: The ‘Illegal Alien Mom with Barefoot Kids’ Photo was a Setup – Another Staged #FakeNews Production”

BuzzFeed News – by Matt Stoller

Chinese journalist Liu Hu always knew he’d have trouble with the authorities; he had been exposing corruption and wrongdoing for years. He was used to being hassled with regular fines and forced apologies imposed by his authoritarian government. He nevertheless persisted in truth-telling. Continue reading “A Chinese-Style Digital Dystopia Isn’t As Far Away As We Think”

Breitbart

Thousands of additional migrants are expected to arrive in Tijuana, Mexico, to try to claim asylum at the U.S. border. The incoming migrants are in addition to the approximately 5,000 migrants who already arrived in this border city during recent days.

Jean Guerrero from KPBS first reported on the expected migrant arrivals after she spoke to a group who had just made their way to Tijuana, Baja California.   Continue reading “Thousands of Additional Migrants Headed to U.S. Border”

Yahoo News

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors will lay off 14,700 factory and white-collar workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure as it restructures to cut costs and focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles.

The reduction includes 8,100 white-collar workers, some of whom will take buyouts and others who will be laid off. Most of the affected factories build cars that won’t be sold in the U.S. after next year. They could close or they could get different vehicles to build. They will be part of contract talks with the United Auto Workers union next year.   Continue reading “GM to slash 14,700 jobs in North America”

The Organic Prepper

Sweden is rapidly turning into a cashless society, which seems like the utopian dream of many a government figure. What could possibly go wrong from the government’s point of view? Isn’t it ideal that they could soon digitally control every single person in the country?

Actually, quite a few things are going wrong. So much so that even members of the government are expressing concern.   Continue reading “Sweden Is on the Verge of Going Completely Cashless: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?”

Newser – by Rob Quinn

The family of a man used for medical practice by 11 fire department employees as his body lay on the station floor is suing the city of Bellingham, Wash., for more than $15 million.

The employees have admitted practicing intubation, the insertion and removal of breathing tubes, on the body of Bradley Ginn, the Bellingham Herald reports.   Continue reading “Family Sues for $15M After Body Used for Medical Practice”

Newser – by Rob Quinn

Major League Baseball no longer wants to play ball with the Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith campaign. The league, which made a $5,000 donation to the Republican’s US Senate campaign in Mississippi, asked for it back after it was publicized by the Popular Information blog, reports the New York Times.

“The contribution was made in connection with an event that MLB lobbyists were asked to attend,” a league spokesman said in a statement, adding that MLB has asked for the donation—which was of the maximum legal amount—to be returned.   Continue reading “MLB Wants Its Money Back From GOP Candidate”

BBC News

Russia has fired on and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels off the Crimean Peninsula in a major escalation of tensions between the two countries.

Two gunboats and a tug were captured by Russian forces. A number of Ukrainian crew members were injured.

Each country blames the other for the incident. On Monday Ukrainian MPs are due to vote on declaring martial law.   Continue reading “Tension escalates after Russia seizes Ukraine naval ships”

Strategic Culture – by Eric Zeusse

The Commission on National Defense Strategy for the US has just released to Congress its report “Providing for the Common Defense”, and it opens: “In the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017, Congress charged this Commission with providing an independent, nonpartisan review of the 2018 National Defense Strategy and issues of US defense strategy and policy more broadly.” The report’s co-chairs, Eric S. Edelman and Gary Roughead, say in their accompanying letter to Congress, that “the United States will soon face a national security emergency.” It doesn’t describe that “emergency,” but uses it to argue that ‘defense’ spending needs to soar and all other spending by the Government — especially for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other “entitlements” — needs to shrink, and/or recipient beneficiaries of those programs need to pay more, and taxes need to increase, so that this “emergency” can be dealt with. They say that the weapons-manufacturers and soldiers need more money, and that this military requirement is an “emergency” but other federal spending is not.   Continue reading “Congressionally Mandated New Report Urges Massive US Military Increases”

WPXI

EAST PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The East Pittsburgh Police Department will soon be no more.

The Allegheny County district attorney told Target 11 that the department will be disbanded.   Continue reading “East Pittsburgh Police Department will be disbanded, state police to take over patrols”

Yahoo News

Washington (AFP) – Democrats intend to probe US President Donald Trump’s financial ties to determine whether they are the “hidden hand” driving US foreign policy on Russia and Saudi Arabia, the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday.

Adam Schiff, currently the ranking Democrat on that committee, accused Trump of being “dishonest” about the role of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.   Continue reading “Democrats to probe Trump money ties to Russia, Saudis: lawmaker”