From the Trenches World Report

EFF

Washington, DC – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today asked the Supreme Court of the United States to weigh in on a long-standing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in which EFF sought to obtain a secret legal memo authorizing the FBI to obtain phone records without any legal process.

As part of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) issues opinions that provide the legal justification for a wide variety of executive branch activities, in ways that affect millions of Americans. The opinion sought by EFF appears to have authorized the federal government, specifically the FBI, to obtain call records without judicial approval and without citing an emergency to justify the data collection.   Continue reading “Public Deserves to See Secret Law Written by Office of Legal Counsel”

PBS News Hour – by Rebecca Jacobson

We bemoan our decisions when we get a bad deal or miss out. New research published in the journal Nature Neuroscience this week finds that regret may not be just a human emotion. It turns out rats also experience regret.

Researcher David Redish at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis set up a “restaurant row” for his lab rats. The “restaurants” consisted of four stops where the rat could receive one option of his favorite flavor foods — banana, cherry, chocolate and a fourth unflavored food. The rat stops at the entrance and presses a button, which made a sound. The pitch indicated how long the rat needed to wait for food, anywhere from one to 45 seconds. If the rat was impatient, it could walk to the next stop and try again. However, each rat had an hour to get through the course, so it needed to be efficient.   Continue reading “Rats regret their decisions, study finds”

SCMP

US President Barack Obama launched a heart-felt lament that gun attacks were “becoming the norm” after a gunman shot and killed a student at an Oregon high school on Tuesday, the latest in a spate of US shootings.

The gunman, said to be another student armed with a rifle, also died in the incident at Reynolds High School in the northwestern US state, taking his own life according to media reports.   Continue reading “Obama fears shootings are ‘becoming the norm’ after new school attack”

Bloomberg – by Corina Pons and Nathan Crooks

RT News 

American special operations units permanently deployed in Eastern Europe are no longer just on the Pentagon’s wish list. About 100 instructors are set to train spec ops teams in former Soviet bloc states to ‘message’ Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine.

The latest statements from the US European Command (EUCOM) once again prove that Washington is using the crisis in Ukraine to revitalize the NATO alliance and bolster its military presence in Europe in order to tie it to the US.   Continue reading “US commandos get permanent Eastern European foothold”

Guerrillamerica – by Samuel Culper III

This blog’s readership consists mostly of Patriots and Preppers.  This growing subsection of America is the entire reason this blog exists, and I’m here to advise and enable better security for your communities and homesteads.  If there were just three steps you could take this week to improve your intelligence and security, this is what I’d recommend.   Continue reading “Three Steps to Improving Prepper Intelligence”

Christian Mercenary – by T.L. Davis

Jared and Amanda Miller finally gave the feds the excuse they were looking for to put all of us “domestic terrorists” on notice. It was bound to happen wasn’t it? And now the post I made only yesterday asks the question of today. Do we have the ability, as a movement, to stomach the sort of thing the Millers did and still stand by our previous statements? Who knows if they were white supremacists, how can anyone know for sure? They draped the cops body with a Swastika, does that say something about them, or the cops? Who are the Nazis in this scenario? Continue reading “The Miller Dilemma”

My Fox Tampa Bay – by Evan Axelbank

TAMPA (FOX 13) – A civilian employee at MacDill Air Force Base involved with terrorism intelligence has been charged nine times after a road rage incident.

Andre Rivera faces weapons, assault and child neglect charges after Tampa police say he beat up a man on Kennedy Blvd., threatened to shoot five other people, and waved his gun out of his window as he drove from Armenia to Ybor City.

Continue reading “MacDill employee charged in rash of road rage incidents”

My Fox Tampa Bay

TAMPA (FOX 13) –A jury has found Sami Osmakac guilty of trying to use weapons of mass destruction, FOX 13’s Gloria Gomez tweeted.

He was also charged with possessing an unregistered automatic weapon. The jury found him guilty on both counts.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office released a statement Tuesday evening. Continue reading “Jury finds Osmakac guilty of plotting terror attacks”

Now the End Begins

Whether you are a fan of the motivational speaker from Texas or not, one thing is absolutely for certain. Joel and Victoria Osteen are, without a doubt, living their best life now.

In the days before Christianity became the Church of Laodicea prophesied in the 3rd chapter of the book of Revelation, there were mighty men of God, great, Holy Spirit filled preachers who traveled the world setting up tents and seeing souls get saved. Men like DL Moody and Billy Sunday who pounded the sawdust trail looking for lost sinners.   Continue reading “Joel Osteen Prosperity Gospel Revival Show Hits $850 For Top Ticket Price”

The Free Thought Project – by John Vibes

A police officer in Pennsylvania will not receive any charges after shooting and killing his pregnant wife.  The unborn baby was also killed.  There has been no mention of the officers name in any news reports, but the name of his deceased wife, Joan Miller has been released.

Miller was 34 years old at the time, and the unborn child was 22 weeks old.   Continue reading “Cop Shoots and Kills Pregnant Wife and Unborn Child Then Walks Free”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

An interesting — and possibly harmful — ruling on public records requests has just been issued by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. Although the ruling has a very limited jurisdiction, it could be used to push for similar legal activity elsewhere. Journalism student David Schick (who was last seen drawing the ire of Georgia State Attorney General Sam Olens over the release of public documents) has the story.

In a ruling earlier this month, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals set a precedent of allowing state officials to consider the purpose of a citizens’ public records request before handing over documents… Continue reading “Wisconsin Court Broadens FOI Exception, Allowing Government Agencies To Deny Requests Based On Perceived Motive”

Tech Dirt – by Mike Masnick

Not this again. We’ve noted many times in the past that the two popular “print on demand” t-shirt/merchandise operations online, CafePress and Zazzle, too frequently seem to quickly take down content based on bogus legal threats. Last year, after Zazzle caved in to threats from Homeland Security and the NSA over parody logos, a lawsuit was filed by Dan McCall, whose designs were taken down. The geniuses in the US government realized they were in trouble and admitted that there is no violation in parody logos. Continue reading “Hillary Clinton PAC Sends Bogus Takedowns Over Parodies On Zazzle And CafePress”

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UT San Diego

FORT DRUM, N.Y. (AP) — Military officials say a soldier with the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division based in northern New York has died while serving in Afghanistan.

Officials at Fort Drum say Wednesday that 34-year-old Spc. Terry Hurne of Merced, California died Monday from a non-combat-related incident in Logar province. No other details were provided.   Continue reading “Operation Enduring B.S”