From the Trenches World Report

Yahoo News – by CHRISTOPHER WEBER and FENIT NIRAPPIL

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Laura Whitney and her husband, Michael Korte, don’t know whether they’re being good citizens during a drought or scofflaws.

On the same day the state approved mandatory outdoor watering restrictions with the threat of $500 fines, the Southern California couple received a letter from their city threatening a $500 penalty for not watering their brown lawn.   Continue reading “California homeowners warned about brown lawns”

Yahoo News – by Arit John, The Wire

Puerto Rico is now the perfect place for people who think Obamacare is the worst thing since slavery, but would also like to be insured. Territories are now exempt from most of the requirements of Obamacare. Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands have high uninsured rates, but Puerto Rico has a pretty good publicly funded health care system.    Continue reading “Puerto Rico Is A Utopia for Those Who Hate Obamacare But Like Insurance”

Yahoo News

The Hague (AFP) – A young Dutchman apparently posted a picture of the downed Malaysian airliner on Facebook minutes before he boarded it, writing: “If it should disappear, this is what it looks like.”

Cor Pan, who appeared to be going on a beach holiday to Malaysia, posted the photo as a joking reference to another Malaysia Airlines flight that mysteriously disappeared over the Indian Ocean in March.   Continue reading “Passenger posted joke about plane disappearing as he boarded jet”

Yahoo News – by Dylan Stableford

On May 16, the eve of the 60th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision that outlawed racial segregation in America’s public schools, Michelle Obama traveled to Topeka, Kansas, to visit the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site.

As the first lady toured the site with Stephanie Kyriazis, its chief of interpretation and education, she posed for a striking photograph that serves as a stark reminder of the segregation era. The image, taken by White House photographer Chuck Kennedy, was posted to the White House Flickr feed this week.   Continue reading “Michelle Obama photograph a stark reminder of segregation era”

Daily Mail – by David Martosko

President Barack Obama provoked fury in the U.S. on Thursday by casually devoting less than a minute to the deaths of 295 people aboard a Malaysian airliner, as he began an often jokey 16-minute speech about the need to expand America’s transportation infrastructure.

There are no confirmed American dead and the White House issued a statement on Thursday evening which said they were still seeking any ‘information to determine whether there were any American citizens on board’.
Continue reading “‘It looks like it may be a terrible tragedy’: Obama goes AWOL again with just 40-second mention of Malaysian plane crash feared to have killed Americans before his jokey 16-minute transport speech”

Yahoo News – by Oliver Knox

President Barack Obama delivered an unmistakable warning to Russia and Moscow-backed Ukrainian separatists on Thursday not to tamper with the crash site of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet apparently shot down over rebel-controlled territory.

With no hope for the roughly 300 people board the Boeing 777, Obama discussed the tragedy with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko by telephone and offered “all possible assistance immediately” to figure out what happened, the White House said in a summary of the call.   Continue reading “Obama warns Russia, Ukrainian separatists over downed airliner”

Press TV, March 2, 2014

Israeli defense electronics company Elbit Systems has announced that its US subsidiary has been awarded a $145 million contract by the United States Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The contract calls for the deployment of border surveillance technology in southern Arizona. According to Reuters, the contract is “known as the Integrated Fixed Tower”. Continue reading “March 2014: Israeli company wins the US Department of Homeland Security contract”

Godfather of Politics – by Dave Jolly

In 2005, Kansas City Southern (KSC) purchased Mexican Railroad TFM, S.A. de C.V.. The purchase, which included all of the common stock held by the parent company, was done to create a NAFTA railroad. NAFTA or the North American Free Trade Agreement was a trade agreement signed by the US, Canada and Mexico to form a trilateral trade bloc designed to boost trade and the economy of the three North American countries.

KCS planned on using the railroad to link to the Mexican city of Lazaro Cardenas with the US. Lazaro Cardenas is a deep port city on the southern Pacific coast. Using the Mexican port to import products from China, KCS could bypass the expensive costs of using the ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach.   Continue reading “US Owned Mexican Railroad Transporting Thousands of Illegals to US Border Facing Charges in Mexico”

IB Times – by Catherine Dunn

Back in 1980, 28 million Americans lived in multi-generational households. Now, a study finds, that number has doubled: It hit a record of 56.8 million people in 2012 as more and more young adults, ages 25 to 34, bunked with their parents.

“By 2012, roughly one in four of these young adults (23.6 percent) lived in multi-generational households, up from 18.7 percent in 2007 and 11 percent in 1980,” according to the report from the Pew Research Center, which analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data.   Continue reading “Millennials Still Moving in with Mom and Dad”

Sacramento Bee

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Seismologists say a strong earthquake rattled a section of Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory.

The Alaska Earthquake Center says the 6.0 magnitude quake struck at 3:49 a.m. about 62 miles northwest of Yakutat. There are no immediate reports of damage.   Continue reading “Strong earthquake jolts Alaska near Canada border”

IntelNews – by JOSEPH FITSANAKIS

The government of the Russian Federation has reached an agreement with the authorities in Cuba to reopen an electronic communications listening base that was built by the Soviets during the Cold War. Russian newspaper Kommersant said on Wednesday that the agreement between the two nations was struck late last week during a visit to the communist-run island by Russian President Vladimir Putin.  

The agreement centers on the Lourdes signals intelligence (SIGINT) facility, located just outside Cuban capital Havana. Situated approximately 100 miles from the United States mainland, the facility was used throughout the last two decades of the Cold War to provide intelligence for Soviet military and civilian spy agencies, while also operating as an overseas communications hub for the Soviet Navy.    Continue reading “Russia to reopen electronic listening command post in Cuba”

Fox News

While Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi was living on a base and eating MREs in Afghanistan and earning a battlefield promotion, his paychecks from Uncle Sam were piling up in the bank.

He dreamed of returning to Weston, Fla., when his second tour of duty ended and buying a new truck, maybe getting a place of his own. At 26, and with a modest nest egg waiting, he had a future back home.   Continue reading “Mexican prison ordeal saps Marine Sgt. Tahmooressi’s life savings”

Press TV

Thousands of Turkish people took to the streets of Istanbul on Thursday to call for international action to stop the Israeli attacks.   Continue reading “Worldwide demos held against Israel’s atrocities”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

While there are various questions that have already emerged from what was supposed to be Ukraine’s “slam dunk” proof confirming Russian rebel involvement in today’s MH-17 tragedy, perhaps one just as gaping question emerges when one looks at what is clearly an outlier flight path in today’s final, and tragic, departure of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777.

Perhaps the best visualization of what the issue is, comes from Vagelis Karmiros who has collated all the recent MH-17 flight paths as tracked by Flightaware and shows that while all ten most recent paths pass safely well south of the Donetsk region, and cross the zone above the Sea of Azov, it was only today’s tragic flight that passed straight overhead Donetsk.   Continue reading “Was Flight MH-17 Diverted Over Restricted Airspace?”

Activist Post – by Heather Callaghan

It is widely believed that curcumin, a component of turmeric spice, is an effective anti-inflammatory agent and pain reducer. However, there is now documented evidence that curcumin is actually a cancer killer.

This is because in February 2012, an article was published in PLOSOne journal and entitled “Curcumin Induces Cell Death in Esophageal Cancer Cells through Modulating Notch Signaling” indicates that, by a process not fully understood by the researchers, curcumin actually causes the death of esophageal cancer cells. Continue reading “Study: Curcumin Kills Throat Cancer Cells”

Press TV

The director of Gaza’s al-Wafa hospital, where some patients are paralyzed or in comas, said the facility was targeted on Thursday.

“Israeli tanks are shelling the hospital, they have hit several of the floors, and several nurses have been injured,” AFP quoted Basman al- Ashi as saying.   Continue reading “Israeli tanks shell Gaza hospital, injure several”

WND – by Leo Hohmann

The Obama administration, in July 2013, quietly introduced a new regulation that critics say will dramatically increase Washington’s power over local zoning laws in every U.S. city and town that accepts federal block grants through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Some are calling it the “Common Core of local zoning” that has flown under the radar for nearly a year. Instead of the U.S. Department of Education dictating education standards to local school districts, this rule change would allow HUD to influence zoning laws from the biggest cities down to the tiniest towns.   Continue reading “New Obama rule could force cities to house illegals”