From the Trenches World Report

The Weather Channel – by Stephen Neslage

It’s hard to image a city of 105,000 running out of water, but that’s the reality in Wichita Falls, Texas. A crippling four-year drought has taken this community to a place they’ve never been before.

“It’s been awful here. We’re entering our worst drought on record,” said Russell Schreiber, the city’s public works director, and the force behind one of the most controversial plans in Texas: The use of treated wastewater for public consumption. It’s a bold move — and a tough sell.   Continue reading “Texas Drought Forces Wichita Falls Residents to Take Desperate Measures to Keep Water Flowing”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

As we recently covered, Jim Ardis, the absurdly thin-skinned mayor of Peoria, IL, got the boys in blue to raid a house over a parody Twitter account that portrayed him as a.) a possible drug user, b.) a possible patron of the world’s oldest profession and c.) “trill as fuck.” Peoria’s Finest have never been finer, deploying seven plainclothes officers to nail a dangerous tweeter whose Ardis-mocking account had been shut down by Twitter weeks before. Bonus: drugs were discovered during the raid, which meant the cops could at least declare victory over marijuana use, if not the internet itself.    Continue reading “Mayor Ardis Defends Police Raid, Complains That Parody Twitter Account Used Up All The Free Speech”

MassPrivateI

Along with other humanitarian organizations and UN agencies, one key advocate and user of big data is the UN Global Pulse, launched in 2009 in recognition of the need for more timely information to track and monitor the impacts of global and local socio-economic crises. 

UN Global Pulse clearly identified the privacy concerns linked to their use of big data and the impact of privacy in “Big Data for Development: Challenges & Opportunities” and have adopted Privacy and Data Protection Principles. Given the increasingly complex web of actors concerned, the expanding scope of their work, the growing amount of data that can be collected on individuals, and the poor legal protections in place.   Continue reading “The U.N. is using ‘Global Pulse’ to spy on people in every country”

Infowars- by Paul Joseph Watson

Critics of the newly proposed ‘Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014′ have slammed the bill as a “dangerous” threat to free speech, warning that the legislation would hand an obscure federal agency “chilling” powers to restrict the First Amendment.

Introduced earlier this week by Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), the ‘Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014′ (S.2219), along with its companion bill in the House, H.R. 3878, would task the National Telecommunications and Information Administration with filing reports on Internet, radio and television content that seeks “to advocate and encourage violent acts and the commission of crimes of hate”.   Continue reading “‘Hate Crime Reporting Act’ a “Dangerous” Threat to Free Speech”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

Good news, Americans! The former “top watchdog” for the Department of Homeland Security, Charles K. Edwards, was an incredibly perverse blend of crooked and spineless and yet we still managed to avoid being terrorized to death during his run as Inspector General (2011-2013). That’s the resilience of the American public. Even while the agency was being bumblefucked into (even greater) uselessness, those who hate us for our way of life (which now includes drone strikes, neverending military ‘interventions’ and the constant watching of damn near everybody) were unable to find a way to maneuver around the “security” “provided” by the DHS.     Continue reading “Former DHS Watchdog, A Tyrant, Failure And Alleged Felon, ‘Punished’ With Transfer To Another Government Agency”

Yahoo News – by STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service has paid more than $2.8 million in bonuses to employees with recent disciplinary problems, including $1 million to workers who owed back taxes, a government investigator said Tuesday.

More than 2,800 workers got bonuses despite facing a disciplinary action in the previous year, including 1,150 who owed back taxes, said a report by J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration. The bonuses were awarded from October 2010 through December 2012.    Continue reading “IRS awards bonuses to 1,100 who owe back taxes”

Philly.com – by Serena Gordon, HealthDay News

RT News

Pictures presented by Washington and Kiev as evidence of Russia’s involvement in Ukraine, and published on Monday by the New York Times, were unverified and in fact contradicted the claims they were to support.

The US State department acknowledged the error and the New York Times back-tracked on its Monday story, which claimed “photographs and descriptions from eastern Ukraine endorsed by the Obama administration … suggest that many of the green men are indeed Russian military and intelligence forces”.   Continue reading “Unverified & exposed: NYT-State Dept ‘Russians in Ukraine’ image proof collapses”

The Daily Caller – by Robby Soave

Two students are suing the University of Hawaii for violating their First Amendment rights after administrator prevented them from distributing copies of the U.S. Constitution — demonstrating a frightening lack of knowledge about the very legal document they were attempting to censor.

Students Merritt Burch and Anthony Vizzone, members of the Young Americans for Liberty chapter at UH-Hilo, were prevented from handing out copies of the Constitution at a recruitment event in January. A week later, they were again informed by a censorship-minded administrator that their First Amendment-protected activities were in violation of school policy.   Continue reading “ANOTHER university stops students from handing out Constitution”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

There have been 13 senior financial services executives deaths around the world this year, but the most notable thing about the sad suicide of the 14th, a 52-year-old banker at France’s Bred-Banque-Populaire, is she is the first female. As Le Parisien reports, Lydia (no surname given) jumped from the bank’s Paris headquarter’s 14th floor shortly before 10am. FranceTV added that sources said “she questioned her superiors before jumping out the window,” but the bank denies it noting that she had been in therpapy for several years.   Continue reading “52 Year-Old French Banker Jumps To Her Death In Paris (After Questioning Her Superiors)”

It Ain’t Holy Water

New York Daily News – by ELI ROSENBERG , THOMAS TRACY , ROCCO PARASCANDOLA

A veteran NYPD detective was charged with driving while intoxicated after he accidentally shot his partner in the wrist during a game of drunken firearms show-and-tell early Thursday, cop sources said.

Detective Jay Poggi, a 31-year veteran, and his partner, Matthew Sullivan, had signed out of the 75th Precinct stationhouse in East New York, Brooklyn, saying they were headed to Far Rockaway on a robbery investigation, the sources said. During their travels, they went to a restaurant and a second establishment that serves alcohol, according to sources.   Continue reading “Drunken Brooklyn cop accidentally shoots partner in wrist: NYPD sources”

The Wire – by Eric Levenson

Spring 2014 has been a quiet tornado season thus far, but that’s about to change this weekend, if the predicted forecasts that meteorologists are looking at hold true. Weather experts say conditions are lining up for a series of powerful tornadoes to hit an area ranging between Tennessee and Texas from Saturday through Monday. The National Weather Service predicts a “significant multi-day severe event” in the South plains on Sunday, moving into the Mississippi Valley on Monday.   Continue reading “Forecasters Are Already Predicting a Massive Tornado Outbreak This Weekend”

LA Times – by Kate Mather

Two former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies have been charged with conspiracy, perjury and altering evidence in connection with planting guns inside a medical marijuana dispensary to justify two arrests in 2011, prosecutors said.

Julio Cesar Martinez, 39, and Anthony Manuel Paez, 32, were charged with one felony count each of conspiracy to obstruct justice and altering evidence as a peace officer, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. Martinez was also charged with two felony counts of perjury and one of filing a false report.   Continue reading “Ex-sheriff’s deputies charged with planting evidence at pot dispensary”