From the Trenches World Report

Tech Dirt – by  Trevor Timm

The US State Department announced the launch of its third annual “Free the Press” campaign today, which will purportedly highlight “journalists or media outlets that are censored, attacked, threatened, or otherwise oppressed because of their reporting.” A noble mission for sure. But maybe they should kick off the campaign by criticizing their own Justice Department, which, on the very same day, has asked the Supreme Court to help them force Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times reporter James Risen into jail.   Continue reading “State Dept Launches ‘Free the Press’ Campaign Same Day DOJ Asks Supreme Court To Jail Reporter”

Prairie Village Post – by Jay Senter

A false reading by a license-plate scanner mounted on a Prairie Village police car led officers to stop an innocent motorist on 75th Street Monday — an incident that has the PV-based attorney questioning the department’s protocol for officers unholstering their weapons.

Mark Molner, whose law office is just north of the intersection of 75th Street and State Line Road, was driving back from a sonographer’s appointment with his wife around 5:15 p.m. Monday when a Prairie Village police car pulled up behind him.   Continue reading “Error from license plate scanner leads to police stop that startles PV-based attorney”

Fox News

New York Rep. Michael Grimm was arrested Monday morning, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to Fox News, as federal prosecutors prepare to announce charges against the Republican congressman.

Grimm was transported to FBI headquarters in Manhattan. He had been expected to turn himself in, after learning several days earlier that charges were forthcoming.    Continue reading “Rep. Grimm arrested in New York”

Reuters – by Yasmine Saleh

An Egyptian court sentenced the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and 682 supporters to death on Monday, intensifying a crackdown on the movement that could trigger protests and political violence ahead of an election next month.

In another case signaling growing intolerance of dissent by military-backed authorities, a pro-democracy movement that helped ignite the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 was banned by court order, judicial sources said.   Continue reading “Egyptian court seeks death sentence for Brotherhood leader, 682 supporters”

RT News

The mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov, Gennady Kernes, has been shot in the back by unidentified gunmen, the city council’s press service reports.

At about 11:30 am (8:30 GMT) local time Kernes was taken to the local hospital. The City Hall’s website says that doctors are fighting to save his life.

“They shot him in the back from the forest,” Kernes’s friend Yury Sapronov told Vesti Ukrainy news outlet.“The injury is serious. His lung is pierced and his liver pierced all the way through.”   Continue reading “Mayor of Kharkov, Ukraine shot in back, hospitalized – press service”

Watertown Daily Times

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — An organization representing the eight states and two Canadian provinces that surround the Great Lakes announced a partnership Friday with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to recruit foreign manufacturing investment to the region.

The Council of Great Lakes Governors and The Paulson Institute, based at the University of Chicago, will try to capitalize on the growing interest of China and other emerging economies in making “direct investments” in advanced nations. Such investments — which often involve buying or expanding plants and other assets — have greater potential to create jobs than bond holdings bought or sold through paper transactions, Paulson said.   Continue reading “Partnership to push Chinese investments in Great Lake”

Washington’s Blog

Banks Create Money Out of Thin Air … Conferring Enormous Windfall Profits At the Expense of the People

We’ve pointed out for 4 1/2 years that banks create money out of thin air.

Specifically, it has now been conclusively proven that loans come first … and then deposits FOLLOW.   Continue reading “The Biggest Secret About Banking Has Just Gone Mainstream”

Reuters – by MATT SPETALNICK AND THOMAS GROVE

U.S. President Barack Obama announced new sanctions against some Russians on Monday to stop President Vladimir Putin from fomenting the rebellion in eastern Ukraine, but said he was holding broader measures against Russia’s economy “in reserve.”

On the ground, pro-Moscow rebels showed no sign of curbing their uprising, seizing public buildings in another town in the east. Interfax news agency reported that the mayor of a further major eastern city, Kharkiv, had been shot and was undergoing an operation. It gave no details of the shooting.   Continue reading “Obama announces new U.S. sanctions on Russia over Ukraine”

Fox News

At least 18 people were killed Sunday by three separate tornadoes spawned by a powerful storm system that moved through the central and southern United States.

The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management confirmed early Monday that at least sixteen people had died after a tornado tore through central Arkansas, while an Oklahoma county sheriff’s dispatcher reported that one person had died in the town of Quapaw, near the state’s borders with Kansas and Missouri. Fox News has also confirmed that one person died when a tornado hit Keokuk County, Iowa.   Continue reading “Tornadoes kill at least 18 as storms pummel Plains, Midwest, and South”

By Wm Grommen

Have you ever wondered what information a stock market index actually gives? An index point is not a fixed unit in time and does not have any historical significance.

Two measurements during a marathon

Imagine the following two measurements:   Continue reading “All Stock Market Indices are Fata Morganas”

Huffington Post – by Meredith Davis and Theopolis Waters

CHICAGO, April 27 (Reuters) – John Goihl, a hog nutritionist in Shakopee, Minnesota, knows a farmer in his state who lost 7,500 piglets just after they were born. In Sampson County, North Carolina, 12,000 of Henry Moore’s piglets died in three weeks. Some 30,000 piglets perished at John Prestage’s Oklahoma operation in the fall of 2013.

The killer stalking U.S. hog farms is known as PEDv, a malady that in less than a year has wiped out more than 10 percent of the nation’s pig population and helped send retail pork prices to record highs. The highly contagious Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus is puzzling scientists searching for its origins and its cure and leaving farmers devastated in ways that go beyond financial losses.
Continue reading “Killer Pig Virus Wipes Out More Than 10 Percent Of Nation’s Hogs, Causing Spike In Pork Prices”

Reuters – by Nick Macfie

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged the army to develop to ensure it wins any confrontation with the United States, the reclusive country’s news agency said on Sunday, a day after U.S. President Barack Obama warned the North of its military might.

Kim led a meeting of the Central Military Commission and “set forth important tasks for further developing the Korean People’s Army and ways to do so”, KCNA news agency said.   Continue reading “North Korea says army must develop to be able to beat U.S.”