From the Trenches World Report

Concealed Nation – by Brandon

This story is incredible. This story is amusing. This story shares life lessons.

Let’s begin with the situation. A man woke up early one morning to use the bathroom. When he did so, he heard someone moving around inside his home. After retrieving his firearm, he goes to investigate the noise and comes across 25-year-old Bryan Remley going through his belongings.   Continue reading “Home Intruder To Homeowner: If You Let Me Go, I’ll Mow Your Lawn; Also, See the Importance of a Backup Gun”

Reuters – by DAVID SCHWARTZ

A family friend was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of first-degree murder and kidnapping after the body of a missing 8-year-old girl was discovered in a shallow grave in northwest Arizona, police said.

Justin James Rector, 26, who was staying at the girl’s home, was booked into Mohave County jail for the murder of Isabella Grogan-Cannella, said Bullhead City Police Chief Brian Williamson.   Continue reading “Family friend arrested after missing girl found dead in Arizona”

Bloomberg – by Joshua Green

Former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell was going to emerge from his bribery and corruption trial as either a convicted felon or a clueless, neglectful husband who didn’t realize a rich political donor was lavishing expensive, illegal gifts on his out-of-control wife. Either way, his political future was doomed. This afternoon a jury decided it: convicted felon.

McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were convicted on multiple counts of “conspiracy to commit honest-services wire fraud, honest-services wire fraud, conspiracy to obtain property under color of official right, and obtaining the property under color of official right.” The five-week trial in U.S. District Court in Richmond found that the two traded political influence for loans and gifts from a dietary supplement magnate, Jonnie Williams, valued at more than $170,000.   Continue reading “Virginia’s Ex-Governor Is Now a Felon”

Reuters – by Kate Kelland

A World Health Organisation-commissioned review of e-cigarettes contains errors, misinterpretations and misrepresentations, meaning policymakers may miss their potential health benefits, a group of tobacco addiction experts said.

In a critique of the WHO’s background paper on e-cigarettes, which acted as a blueprint for a WHO report last month calling for more regulation of the devices, the experts said its evaluation of the evidence was inaccurate.   Continue reading “WHO report gives misleading view on e-cigarettes, experts argue”

Continue reading “Happy Camp Fire Pictures”

KPCC 89.3

Firefighters battling a blaze threatening hundreds of homes in a far Northern California forest are expecting another day of strong winds that could again imperil homes.

But they did get some help from the weather on Wednesday, when winds pushed parts of the Happy Camp Complex Fire in the Klamath National Forest back onto itself. Mandatory evacuation orders were lifted for some of the 270 homes they were affecting. The fire is threatening a total of about 750 homes in Siskiyou County.   Continue reading “Happy Camp Complex Fire: 77,000 acres burned, crews brace for gusty winds”

Fox News

Comedy legend Joan Rivers has died at the age of 81. She went into cardiac arrest on Aug. 28, and had been on life support at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital.

“It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my mother, Joan Rivers. She passed peacefully at 1:17 p.m. surrounded by family and close friends,” her daughter Melissa Rivers said. “My son and I would like to thank the doctors, nurses, and staff of Mount Sinai Hospital for the amazing care they provided for my mother.”    Continue reading “Joan Rivers dead at 81”

Austin Statesman – by Marty Toohey

The writer and sociologist Joel Garreau once divided North America into nine regions, each with a distinctive cultural character. One, called MexAmerica, stretched from Southern California along the U.S.-Mexico border to South Texas. Its northern reach stopped just short of Austin.

Gus Garcia chuckles when he thinks about that boundary. Garreau drew it in 1981. That was before Garcia became the first Hispanic elected mayor of Austin. That was before Hispanics had moved in large numbers beyond the East Austin barrio to become a majority in wide swaths of North and South Austin. That was before a burgeoning Hispanic middle class emerged in Austin of doctors, lawyers, engineers, entrepreneurs, even police chief.   Continue reading “One Austin, muchas comunidades”

Mail.com

ATLANTA (AP) — More than two months after his son’s death in a hot car, a Georgia man who prosecutors say sat in his office exchanging nude photos with women while his son languished for hours was charged with murder on Thursday.

A Cobb County grand jury indicted Justin Ross Harris on multiple charges, including malice murder, felony murder and cruelty to children. The malice murder charge indicates that prosecutors intend to prove Harris intentionally left his son Cooper in the hot car to die.   Continue reading “Dad in Georgia hot car death charged with murder”

The Organic Prepper

With September 11 fast approaching, so too does the risk of another terrorist attack on US soil.

They say this every year as the date approaches, but in 2014, it seems to carry a bit more weight than it has during other years.

I’m referring specifically to all of those beheadings and the crazy video threat that warned, “We will drown all of you in blood“.  I’d say that ISIS could either be behind a potential attack or be set up as the fear-flavor of the month and be blamed for such an attack.    Continue reading ““Grid Jihad”: What If You Had a Week to Prep for the End of the World?”

Common Dreams – by Amy Goodman, Truth Dig

Next Wednesday, Sept. 10, if your favorite website seems to load slowly, take a closer look: You might be experiencing the Battle for the Net’s “Internet Slowdown,” a global day of grass-roots action. Protesters won’t actually slow the Internet down, but will place on their websites animated “Loading” graphics (which organizers call “the proverbial ‘spinning wheel of death’”) to symbolize what the Internet might soon look like. As that wheel spins, the rules about how the internet works are being redrawn. Large Internet service providers, or ISPs, like Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T and Verizon are trying to change the rules that govern your online life.   Continue reading “Get Ready for the ‘Internet Slowdown’”

Mail.com

NEWPORT, Wales (AP) — NATO leaders grappled Thursday with whether the alliance has a role in containing a mounting militant threat in the Middle East, as heads of state converged in Wales for a high-stakes summit also focused on the crisis in Ukraine and next steps in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron declared that their nations would “not be cowed” by extremists from the Islamic State group who have claimed responsibility for killing two American journalists. They also challenged NATO to not turn inward in the face of the threat.   Continue reading “Leaders: US, UK will ‘not be cowed’ by militants”

RT

Fast food workers from around 150 cities across the United States went on strike early Thursday in an effort to secure higher wages and the right to join a union.

At least 19 demonstrators were arrested Thursday morning in New York City’s Times Square, police told the Daily News, with similar results being reported out of Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Las Vegas, Indianapolis and elsewhere as employees at eateries from coast-to-coast rally for an industry minimum wage of $15 and the ability to unionize.   Continue reading “Fast food worker strike begins with arrests nationwide”

Mail.com

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — After walking out of prison for the first time in three decades, former death row inmate Henry McCollum tried to climb into his father’s car but put his head through the loop of the seatbelt that is supposed to cross his chest. A TV cameraman showed him how it works.

The safety gear isn’t all that’s changed since the 50-year-old McCollum and his younger half brother were sent away for a 1983 rape and killing that new DNA evidence shows they likely did not commit. McCollum has never accessed the Internet or owned a cellphone. And he looked ill at ease Wednesday in a tie and white dress shirt, the collar at least an inch too large, shedding the red jumpsuit he wore in his cell. His relief was obvious, though.   Continue reading “NC inmate to adjust to life outside after 30 years”

Mail.com

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The intravenous line inserted into the groin of an Oklahoma inmate who writhed and groaned before dying 43 minutes after his execution began was not properly monitored, according to a state review released Thursday, which also recommended more training for prison officials and medical personnel.

Clayton Lockett’s troubled execution on April 29 prompted Gov. Mary Fallin to halt all upcoming executions until a review she’d ordered was completed. The review, released by the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, cited problems with Lockett’s IV line, which caused swelling the size of a golf ball.   Continue reading “Problems with IV line affected Okla. execution”