From the Trenches World Report

Time – by Alex Altman

For the 1,071 unaccompanied minors who have crossed the southwest border this year and ended up in Louisiana, the path to a future in the U.S. runs through a courtroom on the 24th floor of an office tower in the heart of New Orleans.

During the first six months of 2014, the court has taken on 450 juvenile immigration cases, according to government records obtained by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). That number puts the court on pace to shatter last year’s total of 540 cases. Three years ago, it had 71.   Continue reading “Influx of Child Immigrants Strains Courts in Louisiana”

Breitbart

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Looking to make inroads with the rising number of Hispanic voters, conservative activists are offering English classes, health checkups and courses to help Spanish-speakers earn high school diplomas. Picking up part of the tab: Charles and David Koch.

The billionaire industrialists are working to patch a gaping hole in the GOP coalition that could spell a generation of irrelevance if Republicans cannot build some credibility with Hispanic voters, who typically shun the GOP. The fast-growing group could have tremendous sway in American politics for years to come. Party elders have acknowledged their struggles to win over Hispanic voters, who as recently as 2004 were roughly split in party preference.   Continue reading “Koch brothers reach out to Hispanics”

New York Daily News – by John Marzulli

A Brooklyn judge ordered a suspected American militant who pledged allegiance to the terrorist leader of ISIS held without bail after he was arrested at Kennedy Airport, the Daily News has learned.

FBI agents nabbed Donald Ray Morgan, a 44-year-old ex-convict from North Carolina, on Aug. 2 when he returned to the United States after an eight-month stay in Lebanon, where his wife lives.   Continue reading “Yank ISIS wannabe held at JFK”

Cincinnati – by Jessica Brown

Lunch at Fort Thomas Independent Schools may include more French fries, fewer vegetables and larger portions this year. One thing that won’t be on the menu: federal dollars.

The Campbell County district is opting out of the federal school lunch program, forfeiting hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding.

The reason: Kids didn’t like their healthful lunches.   Continue reading “District drops federal lunch program”

Yahoo News

Beijing (AFP) – China will launch its first recoverable moon orbiter later this year, the government announced, in the latest step in its ambitious space programme.

The mission will be launched before the end of the year and will travel to the moon before returning to earth, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) said in a statement on Sunday.

Doing so will require withstanding the high temperatures that develop when a probe re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere.   Continue reading “China to send orbiter to moon and back”

Yahoo News – by Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York police have begun handing out fliers to tourists in Times Square telling them that tipping the costumed superheroes and children’s characters who pose for photographs is optional, and to call the 911 emergency number if they have complaints.

The fliers are part of an aggressive crackdown after a string of arrests of people dressed as characters who have gotten into confrontations with tourists or police, including one dressed as Spider-Man charged last month with punching a police officer who intervened in a tipping dispute.   Continue reading “New York police to Times Square tourists: call 911 if a superhero pesters you”

WTSP – by Tammie Fields

St. Petersburg, Florida – Michael Brown’s family has hired the same Florida civil rights attorney who currently represents Trayvon Martin’s family.

Brown,18, died Saturday after being shot multiple times by a suburban St. Louis police officer. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar says it all began when Brown physically assaulted the police officer, pushing him into the officer’s vehicle. He said there was a struggle inside the car, and at some point Brown reached for the officer’s weapon. One shot was fired inside the vehicle.   Continue reading “Trayvon Martin family attorney to represent slain Missouri teen”

RT

There is growing dissent in the EU over policies that led to a de fact trade war with Russia. Meanwhile the countries not toeing the line are reaping the benefits, irritating those who jumped on the sanctions bandwagon.

Greek members of the European Parliament demanded Sunday that the EU cancel sanctions against Russia. MEPs Kostantinos Papadakis and Sotiris Zarianopoulos said in a letter to some senior EU officials that Russia’s ban on food import from the EU, which was Moscow’s response to anti-Russian sanctions, was ruinous to Greek agriculture.   Continue reading “Sanctions bite-back: Bickering, EU infighting over Russia retaliation”

RT

Hillary Clinton criticized her former boss President Barack Obama in a new interview, citing the “failure” of his administration to contain the spread of Islamic jihadists in Syria who are now marching through Iraq.

Clinton told the Atlantic in an interview published Sunday that the administration – of which she was a part of as secretary of state during Obama’s first term – faltered when it did not do enough to actively lead in coordinating insurgent factions fighting Bashar Assad’s government in Syria. This power “vacuum,” she said, led to the rise of the extremist group Islamic State that has since splintered away from Al-Qaeda and is violently gaining territory in northern Iraq.   Continue reading “Hillary Clinton bashes Obama’s foreign policy for giving rise to Islamic State in Iraq”

RT

A grisly photograph showing a young boy, said to be the son of an ISIS rebel, holding the severed head of a slain Syrian soldier, proves the ‘hideous atrocities’ the terrorist group is capable of, said Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The picture, taken in the northern Syrian city of Raqa, was posted on the Twitter account of Khaled Sharrouf, an Australian citizen who traveled to Syria last year and is now an Islamic State fighter.    Continue reading “Photo of boy holding decapitated Syrian soldier’s head ‘barbaric’ – Australia PM”

Mail.com

SYDNEY (AP) — The Obama administration has begun directly providing weapons to Kurdish forces who have started to make gains against Islamic militants in northern Iraq, senior U.S. officials said Monday.

Previously, the U.S. had insisted on only selling arms to the Iraqi government in Baghdad, but the Kurdish peshmerga fighters had been losing ground to Islamic State militants in recent weeks. The officials wouldn’t say which U.S. agency is providing the arms or what weapons are being sent, but one official said it isn’t the Pentagon. The CIA has historically done similar quiet arming operations.   Continue reading “US sending arms to Kurds in Iraq”

Daily Mail

A mother is suing the city of Pierre, it’s former police chief and members of its police department, saying an officer used excessive force and violated her 8-year-old daughter’s rights when he shot her in the chest with a stun gun.

Dawn Stenstrom is seeking unspecified damages in the suit filed in federal court in late July.

Authorities say the officer shot the girl with the stun gun from 5 to 6 feet away because she was suicidal and brandished a knife.   Continue reading “Mother suing Baltimore police for using a Taser on her EIGHT-YEAR-OLD daughter but officers claim it saved the girl’s life”

Fellowship of the Minds

Daily Mail: A bridal shop in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania is causing outrage in their local community and online after they refused to sell wedding dresses to a lesbian homosexual couple.

One of the disturbed brides to be, who didn’t want to be identified, wrote a Facebook post about W-W Bridal’s unfair treatment toward them based solely on their sexual orientation.   Continue reading “Christian bridal shop under fire after refusing to help lesbian couple find dresses”

Fellowship of the Minds – by Dr. Eowyn

The Sandy Hook massacre hoax of December 14, 2012, unleashed a paroxysm of gun control legislation across the United States. (See here, here, and here.)

One response that received relatively scant notice was what a suburban New York City newspaper, The Journal News, did.   Continue reading “Texas just published a map of gunowners’ location!”