From the Trenches World Report

Mail.com

GWER, Iraq (AP) — Misspelled graffiti on walls pockmarked by bullets and torn up propaganda stickers make up the few remaining traces of the Islamic State group in this northern Iraqi ghost town after Kurdish forces finally managed to free it from militant control.

Also missing are as many as 20,000 residents who once lived in the town and are now too scared to return after Kurdish peshmerga forces reclaimed Gwer from militants last month with the help of American airstrikes.   Continue reading “After Iraqi battles, residents choose displacement”

IMEMC News – by Celine Hagbard, Sept, 3, 2014

New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, the co-author of a July Resolution (Senate Resolution 498) that offered full and complete support for Israel’s actions in Gaza, was one of the targets of the protest.

The other was New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, the top recipient of campaign and other contributions from the Zionist lobbying group known as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Booker also faced protests when he traveled to Oregon last week to speak at a fundraising dinner for Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, also an unquestioning supporter of Israeli policies.   Continue reading “13 US Activists Arrested for Protesting US Senators’ Unquestioning Support of Israel”

American Everyman – by Scott Creighton

Would you like to know who owns the majority of  ISIS’s weapons? You do. The U.S. taxpayer.

A report is out this morning making the rounds on various news sites from Conflict Armament Research, an organization that tracks small arms and munitions through various conflict zones, which shows a good percentage of arms captured from “ISIS” fighters are actually the property of the U.S. government.   Continue reading “ISIS™ Weapons “Property of the U.S. Government””

Mail.com

LUHANSK, Ukraine (AP) — A convoy of more than 200 white trucks crossed the Russian border to deliver humanitarian aid to a battered Ukrainian city on Saturday, a move made without Kiev’s consent yet met with silence by Ukraine’s top leaders.

“Early in the morning, we entered Ukraine to bring aid to Luhansk,” said Yury Stepanov, a Russian who was overseeing the convoy. “We came in around 215 vehicles,” he added, as workers unloaded boxes into a local warehouse.   Continue reading “Ukraine government repels rebel attack on airport”

Mail.com

BRITAL, Lebanon (AP) — Syrian refugee Ibrahim Abbas Ali and his family awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of gunfire outside their tent in Lebanon, and for a second time they raced off into the fields, fleeing a war that now seems to have followed them across the border.

The gunmen who attacked the makeshift camp housing around 200 refugees set fire to several of the tents, including the two used by Ali, his two wives and 15 children, destroying the few belongings they had managed to bring with them from Syria, including their official documents and U.N. refugee cards.   Continue reading “Syrians attacked in Lebanon after soldiers killed”

KSBW 8 News – by Felix Cortez

SALINAS, Calif. —Ten cents for every minute I’m late to class! Janitorial bathroom duty for misbehaving? Twenty-five cents to borrow a pencil?

Alisal High School students in Salinas were shocked the moment their social studies teacher, Steven Munoz, passed out copies of a letter written by their principal on Thursday.

Principal Ernesto Garcia wrote, “Parents/Students, There have been some very severe cuts in the school budget due to the nationwide cuts in educational spending. All teachers have been directed by the principal to enforce the following rules.”   Continue reading “Alisal High students shocked in social studies class”

Contra Corner – by Wolf Richter

Stock market volume is a sadly drooping southward curve, interrupted by violent spikes. Volumes and turnover rates are now back to levels of the late 1990s. If high-frequency trades and ETF-arbitrage are taken out of the equation, turnover might well be back to where it was in the 1980s. So algorithmic trading – for example, an instant burst of computer-generated buy orders based on a headline that hit a fraction of a millisecond earlier – can have a big impact on the market overall.   Continue reading “When The Algos Hit The “Sell” Key: Look Out Below!”

Mail.com

BLACKSTONE, Mass. (AP) — A woman who lived in a squalid, vermin-infested home where the bodies of three infants were found was charged Friday with covering up the deaths, while neighbors said they wish they had acted themselves to call attention to the house with the foul smell and the shades that were always drawn.

Erika Murray, 31, was arraigned on charges including fetal death concealment, witness intimidation and permitting substantial injury to a child. But basic facts remain a mystery or aren’t being explained by authorities.   Continue reading “Charges in dead babies case; neighbors soul-search”

Yahoo News

BLOOMING GROVE, Pa. (AP) — Two troopers were ambushed outside a state police barracks in northeastern Pennsylvania during a late-night shift change, leaving one dead and another injured, and authorities were searching Saturday for the suspect or suspects, state police said.

One trooper was leaving the barracks in Pike County’s Blooming Grove and another was arrived when shots were fired just before 11 p.m. Friday, State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said. He confirmed that one trooper was killed and the other was injured and taken to Geisinger Medical Center in Scranton, where he was in stable condition.   Continue reading “State police: Trooper shot dead outside barracks”

My San Antonio – by Kolten Parker

SAN ANTONIO – Eight 55-foot balloons with military-grade surveillance cameras are providing U.S. Border Patrol agents an eye in the sky along the Texas-Mexico border.

The blimp-like aerostats, which fly about 3,500 feet above the ground and are tethered to the ground, have 360-degree, infrared surveillance capability that can read a license plate from miles away, according to the Valley Morning Star.   Continue reading “Surveillance balloons help agents along Texas-Mexico border”

The Hill – by Julian Hattem

With a surveillance reform bill stuck in the Senate, the federal court overseeing spy agencies on Friday reauthorized the National Security Agency’s controversial bulk collection of Americans’ phone records.

Reauthorization from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) allows the NSA to continue to warrantlessly collect “metadata” in bulk about people’s phone calls. The records contain information about which numbers people called, when and how long they talked, but not the actual content of their conversations.   Continue reading “Spy court renews NSA metadata program”

Natural News – by Mike Adams

In response to the severity of the global Ebola outbreak, we’ve just launched BioDefense.com, a site that exclusively hosts a FREE online audio course that shares lifesaving pandemic preparedness secrets. I’m the author of the multi-part audio course, and in it I share the most urgent and lifesaving information about pandemic preparedness that no government, conventional media outlet or health authority will dare discuss.   Continue reading “Health Ranger launches FREE online pandemic preparedness audio course at BioDefense.com – listen NOW”

New York Post – by Dana Sauchelli

New York’s Finest need to become New York’s funniest.

The NYPD’s new Twitter handbook urges top cops to channel their inner comedian in a set of out-of-touch instructions about how to use “humor” to gain followers, The Post has learned.

Top brass are turning to a “Do’s and Don’ts” section on Page 6 of the handbook — obtained exclusively by The Post — for advice on how to churn out knee slappers to promote a better image of cops.   Continue reading “NYPD teaches cops how to be Twitter comedians”

Vermont Watchdog – by Bruce Parker

It’s a best-seller at bake sales, a king of American confections, even a mandatory munchie of marijuana users. But the iconic chocolate brownie, that perfect blend of cake and cookie, is banned in Vermont schools.

In its place are new hoped-for kid favorites like fruit shish kebab, kale and even gluten-free paleo lemon bars.   Continue reading “Vermont bans brownies, turns kids on to kale, gluten-free paleo lemon bars”

Kotaku – by Brian Ashcroft

The black buns? We’ve seen those before. But why, Burger King, why black cheese? Why?

NariNari reports that Burger King Japan is rolling out another “Kuro Burger” (“Black Burger”), with buns made from bamboo charcoal, an onion and garlic sauce made with squid ink, beef patties made with black pepper, and black cheese, which is also apparently made with bamboo charcoal.

Continue reading “In Japan, Burger King Has a Black Cheese Burger”