Abandoned House in Ambridge, Pennsylvania - Public DomainThe Economic Collapse – by Michael Snyder

Their names are familiar to all of us: Cleveland, Flint, Youngstown, Saginaw, Gary, Toledo, Reading, Akron, Flint and Buffalo were all once booming manufacturing cities that were absolutely packed with thriving middle class families.  But now most of the manufacturing jobs are gone and all of those cities are just shadows of their former selves.  When you drive through many of these communities, you will notice that a lot of people have a really hollow look in their eyes.  Decades of slow, steady economic decline have really taken a toll, and even the architecture in these cities looks depressed.  But despite all of the decay, there is still evidence that there was once something truly great about these communities.  Will we be able to recapture that greatness before it is too late?   Continue reading “The Death Of The Rust Belt”

John Kerry.The Guardian – by Paul Lewis in Washington, Spencer Ackerman in New York and Saeed Kamali Dehghan in London

US and Iranian officials held talks over the advance of Islamist insurgents in Iraq on Monday, the first time the two nations have collaborated over a common security interest in more than a decade.

The discussions in Vienna took place on the sidelines of separate negotiations about Iran’s nuclear programme, as Barack Obama told Congress that the he was deploying up to 275 military personnel to Iraq.   Continue reading “US and Iran hold talks over Iraq crisis but rule out military alliance”

An image grab taken from a propaganda video released on March 17, 2014 by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)'s al-Furqan Media allegedly shows ISIL fighters driving on a street in the northern Syrian City of Homs. (AFP Photo)RT News

Terror alerts, 9/11-style bombings and murders of British citizens will soon come to London’s streets, according to chilling threats from UK citizens fighting alongside Islam’s most violent terrorist group operating in Syria and Iraq.

The threat comes from British nationals fighting for the Sunni militant group calling themselves the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS) in Syria. According to the Sunday Times, they promise that after they’re done there, Britain is next. The message comes from three such fighters, all youngsters in their teens and twenties.   Continue reading “‘Black flag of jihad will fly over London’: Alarm over UK-born Iraq fighters’ threat”

Gas pipeline explosionThe Guardian -by Shaun Walker

An explosion on a gas pipeline carrying Russian gas to Europe throughUkraine was described as a possible terrorist attack on Tuesday, as fighting in the east of Ukraine continued.

The explosion on a section of the pipeline in the Poltava region came a day after Russia‘s Gazprom monopoly said it would stop supplying Ukraine with gas for its own needs until the country paid a huge accumulated debt.   Continue reading “Ukraine investigates gas pipeline blast”

Two whole and one half of pomegranate isolated on white backgrouAlliance for Natural Health

Last week’s Supreme Court ruling shows how federal agencies harass small food and supplement companies on labeling and advertising, but let industry favorites ignore or stretch the same rules. Action Alert!

Last month, we told you about the POM Wonderful vs. Coca-Cola Supreme Court saga. Good news! POM Wonderful has had a resounding victory: in a ruling that spans the court’s ideological divide, the justices determined 8-0 (one justice recused himself from the case) that POM Wonderful can sue Coca-Cola over its deceptive labeling claims.   Continue reading “POM’s “David and Goliath” Victory over Coca-Cola”

Corsican cheeseAlliance for Natural Health

This time they try to save us from some of the most delicious and healthy cheeses.

A few weeks ago, we reported on the continuing ramifications of the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which gave the FDA unprecedented power over farms and food producers. We told you how the agency’s FSMA rulemaking on “spent grain” threatened the livelihood of small breweries and farmers by interfering with millennia-old practices.   Continue reading “What the FDA Doesn’t Know About Farming and Food Could Fill an Encyclopedia”

Mother comforting daughter in doctor’s officeAlliance for Natural Health

Be careful in seeking a second opinion about your child in a hospital. The hospital (through the government) may all too easily remove you as legal custodian.

Imagine your child is deathly ill. Doctors have a diagnosis and treatment plan. You, naturally, want a second opinion. When you mention the idea of moving your child to another facility, custody of your child is permanently revoked and handed to the state. You lose the ability to decide what drugs, surgeries, and treatments your son or daughter will receive.   Continue reading “A New Era of Medical Blackmail”

Liberty Under Fire – by Harold Pease, PH. D

We drove down a quiet country road, trees and green meadows in every direction. Mount Carmel, the famous Branch Davidian Compound, was a sharp turn to the right. Gone was the mailbox at the entrance with Branch Davidian Church clearly written on it in big black letters where the once 100-plus residents of a devout break-off of the Seventh-day Adventist Church received their mail.

Once on the grounds, we were met with two simple memorials each telling us that something very significant and violent had happened here; one to the four ATF agents killed in the February 28, government raid. A few feet away was a shrine of sorts with a name on a plague for each of the 76 Davidians (19 men, 34 women, 23 children) who lost their lives in the fiery furnace in their place of residence 21 years ago, April 19, 1993. Sympathetic visitors had left money on one of the shrines.   Continue reading “Branch Davidian Sacred Soil, 21 Years Later”

altGun Owners of America

We start with yesterday’s bad news.

The Supreme Court’s decision in the Abramski case was a lawless decree imposed by liberal judges who are way out of step with the American people — as nearly 75% of them agree that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own and sell guns.

Gun Owners of America filed two amicus briefs in support of James Abramski, a former police officer who was eligible to own firearms and who bought a handgun for his elderly uncle who was also eligible to own firearms.    Continue reading “Good News … and Some Bad News”

Abbott's first TV ad since primary in SpanishKHOU News

AUSTIN, (AP) – TITLE: “Contamos”
    
LENGTH: 30 seconds
    
AIRING: Univision and Spanish-language stations during the World Cup.
    
Spoken entirely in Spanish, the ad opens with Greg Abbott’s sister-in-law, Rosie Phalen, sitting in a kitchen and talking about first meeting the Republican nominee for governor more than 30 years ago. Abbott, who often mixes Spanish into campaign speeches but isn’t fluent, is filmed chatting and laughing at a picnic with the family of his wife, who’s the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants. “His values are our values. Faith, family and honesty,” Phalen says in Spanish. Continue reading “Abbott’s first TV ad since primary in Spanish”

Dallas News – by Christy Hoppe

AUSTIN — The attorney general’s office under Greg Abbott has approved more than $3 million in state contracts for a law firm that has been a generous political contributor — providing $200,000 to Abbott’s campaigns in the past 12 years.

Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson collects delinquent debts for several state agencies, including the North Texas Tollway Authority. The firm has also faced legal problems, with two partners facing criminal charges of trying to influence public officials in separate incidents.   Continue reading “Abbott has signed off on contracts for big campaign donor”

The Texas Attorney General says the TCEQ, the state's environmental regulator, was not responsible for killing 23 rare whooping cranes. State Impact – by MOSE BUCHELE

Ever since a fertilizer plant blew up last year and killed 15 people in West, Texas, many Texans have wanted to know where dangerous chemicals are stored in their area. Until recently, it was pretty easy to find out. They could simply ask the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). But a string of recent rulings from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott now says that information should be kept confidential.

It’s a trend that has open government advocates and some local officials worried.   Continue reading “Curious About Explosive Chemicals Near You? Texas Attorney General Says It’s Secret”

New York Times – by MARK LEIBOVICH

“Boys, I am going to bless this meal,” Rick Perry said, ducking his head and folding his hands under his chin. We were sitting at Nate ’n Al, the Jewish Deli in Beverly Hills, and the governor of Texas was looking every bit the regular customer in a tight black polo shirt and designer glasses. His face was nicely tanned; his hair, as ever, was coifed and TV-ready. He had just ordered a corned-beef Reuben (“I worked out this morning”) and a Diet Dr Pepper (“you got those critters?” he asked the waiter). But before diving in, Perry took a moment to appreciate his surroundings. “I’m more Jewish than you think I am,” he told me. “I read the part of the Bible that said the Jews are God’s chosen people.” He boasted that he has been going to Israel since 1992. Then Perry got down to business, thanking the Lord for His many blessings, and asking Him to be with “our men and women who defend our freedom, bring ’em home safe, be with the president, give him wisdom.”   Continue reading “Rick Perry’s ‘Groundhog Day’”

MAC24_SEA_STAR_GOO_CAROUSELMaclean’s – by Kate Lunau

From Alaska to Mexico—and all along the B.C. coast—an iconic animal is disappearing. For reasons that remain baffling to scientists, starfish are dying by the millions, in the grips of a mysterious wasting disease that dissolves their bodies into goo. “I’d do beach walks along a 50-m stretch of shoreline, and count 500 or 1,000 of them,” says Chris Harley, a marine ecologist at the University of British Columbia who’s been monitoring sea stars (as scientists call them) for nearly two decades at sites around Vancouver, West Vancouver and White Rock. Revisiting one of these sites recently, he found a single sea star.   Continue reading “B.C. starfish are dissolving into goo, and no one knows why”

ENE News

AP, June 11, 2014 (emphasis added): Scientists investigating a mysterious radiation leak at the federal government’s underground nuclear waste dump have identified five other potentially explosive containers of waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory that are being stored at a site in West Texas, New Mexico Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn told a legislative panel Tuesday. […] Asked if the public should be worried, Flynn said: “Every member of the community should be concerned. … But I don’t think they should be worried. I don’t think people should be panicked about another drum exploding because we required (the U.S. Department of Energy) to plan for that and have a system in place to protect the public.” […]   Continue reading “Officials: Leakage seen on “many” nuclear waste drums in WIPP underground”

Photo - Washington Examiner – by Paul Bedard

The Internal Revenue Service is about to get slapped with a harsh payback for messing around with conservative groups, blowing wads of tax dollars on employee conferences and helping implement Obamacare.

The House Appropriations Committee is set to OK an IRS budget of $10.9 billion, $1.5 billion under President Obama‘s request for fiscal year 2015, reducing the agency’s budget to 2008 levels.

The goal is to keep the tax agency focused on its “core duties,” and eliminate efforts to judge the political activities of tax-exempt groups and brake its implementation of Obamacare.   Continue reading “House budget punishes IRS with 15% cut, halts Obamacare enforcement”