From the Trenches World Report

LA Times – by TONY PERRY, VERONICA ROCHA, JILL COWAN

Nutritional Anarchy – by Melissa Melton

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved Truvada, a pharmaceutical treatment that can cost up to $14,000 per year, to be marketed and prescribed as a preventative measure to protect against HIV.

That means this expensive drug will be prescribed to hundreds of thousands of Americans in high-risk groups, such as homosexual men and intravenous drug users, not because they actually have HIV, but to prevent them from getting it.   Continue reading “The FDA just approved Big Pharma marketing drug treatments to healthy people”

The Little Rebellion – by Hobie Ramin

It was an ethical dilemma straight from the textbooks: Imagine you and two of your friends find a small fortune of cash inside a crummy old couch you bought for cheap at a second-hand shop.  Would you trace the money back to its owner, or would you keep it to spend on your heart’s deepest desires? A SUNY New Paltz student and two friends dealt with this dilemma first hand early March 2014.

Third-year geology student Reese Werkhoven, Mount Holyoke College graduate Cally Guasti and SUNY New Paltz graduate Lara Russo were getting cozy on their new couch for the first time, when Werkhoven ruffled himself a plastic envelope from under the couch’s patchy arm.

Continue reading “New Paltz Students Find $40K in a Couch”

Thanks to Pepper.

Watertown Daily Times – by Ted Booker

Sydney Morning Herald – by Ryan Gallagher

A multinational security firm has secretly developed software capable of tracking people’s movements and predicting future behaviour by mining data from social networking websites.

A video obtained by the Guardian reveals how an “extreme-scale analytics” system created by Raytheon, the world’s fifth largest defence contractor, can gather vast amounts of information about people from websites including Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.   Continue reading “‘Google for spies’ draws ire from rights groups”

Washington Post – by Cecilia Kang

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted in favor of advancing a proposal that could dramatically reshape the way consumers experience the Internet, opening the possibility of Internet service providers charging Web sites for higher-quality delivery of their content to American consumers.

The plan, approved in a three-to-two vote along party lines, could unleash a new economy on the Web where an Internet service provider such as Verizon would charge a Web site such as Netflix for the guarantee of flawless video streaming.   Continue reading “FCC approves plan to consider paid priority on Internet”

RT News

A draft law submitted to the Russian parliament seeks to impose punishment up to criminal prosecution to producers of genetically-modified organisms harmful to health or the environment.

The draft legislation submitted on Wednesday amends Russia’s law regulating GMOs and some other laws and provides for disciplinary action against individuals and firms, which produce or distribute harmful biotech products and government officials who fail to properly control them.    Continue reading “GMO producers should be punished as terrorists, Russian MPs say”

Mail.com

STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — A senior Norwegian diplomat says his country’s former ambassador to the United States was given a verbal lashing by Barack Obama’s chief of staff when the president was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

Morten Wetland said Thursday the ambassador, Wegger Stroemmen, was approached by Rahm Emanuel, now Chicago’s mayor, who accused Norway of “fawning” to the newly elected U.S. leader. Wetland, the Norwegian ambassador to the United Nations at the time, told The Associated Press he did not witness the dressing down but said there was an air of embarrassment in Washington that Obama had been given the award so early in his presidency.   Continue reading “Norway diplomat: Obama aide irked by peace prize”

Mail.com

BOSTON (AP) — Prosecutors say former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez, who already faces a murder charge in a man’s shooting death last year, has been indicted on new murder charges in an unrelated 2012 double slaying in Boston.

The victims in that killing, Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, were shot to death as they sat in a car in Boston’s South End on July 16, 2012. Police have said they were shot by someone who drove up alongside in an SUV and opened fire.   Continue reading “Aaron Hernandez indicted in Boston double slaying”

Mail.com

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A video showing an aide to Turkey’s prime minister kicking a protester held on the ground by special forces police sparked outrage Thursday, tarnishing the Turkish leader’s image ahead of his expected run for president.

Turkish newspapers also published photographs showing the adviser kicking the protester and identified him as Yusuf Yerkel, a deputy chief of staff at Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office and adviser to the prime minister.   Continue reading “Turkey outraged as PM’s aide kicks protester”

Mail.com

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City minister who was the subject of an Associated Press investigation about misspent 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina charity funds has agreed to repay $1.2 million that he took from his congregation to buy an 18th-century farmhouse on seven acres in rural New Jersey.

The Rev. Carl Keyes and his wife, the Rev. Donna Keyes, who jointly led the Glad Tidings Tabernacle in Manhattan, signed a legal judgment Wednesday settling a probe by the New York attorney general into a series of questionable church financial transactions.   Continue reading “NYC minister to repay $1.2M after AP probe”

Lost in America

The Burger King national headquarters announced this month that they will be pulling their franchises from our military bases.  Soon to follow will be Popeye’s Chicken, Pizza franchises and the chain of barber and beauty shops which operates inside the gates of our military facilities.  Reason?  Obama’s mandate that all companies who do business with the federal government pay a $10.10 per hour minimum wage.    Continue reading “Burger King Fleeing Military Bases”

Eric Peter’s Autos

MILWAUKEE, WI — A young woman had her neck broken in four places after her vehicle was T-boned by a police officer who blew through a stop sign.  Even though she was completely sober, the police charged with drunk driving and tried to shift the blame onto her instead of the party at fault.  When evidence surfaced that showed her innocence, it was hidden and ignored.  The deputy responsible was never punished.   Continue reading “Wisconsin Hero Causes Wreck, Cripples Girl – And Charges Her With Fake “DUI””

The Black Sphere

Ok, we are all dying from the moment we are born, but I now believe there is something to Karl Rove’s supposed rumor of Hillary Clinton’s brain damage.

Understandably, anybody who remains a Liberal after age 30 is technically brain-damaged in my opinion, but Hillary has other issues.    Continue reading “It’s official: Hillary Clinton is dying”

21st Century Wire

Whenever a First Lady tries to astro-turf over a political event to boost White House approval ratings – it never ends well.

Michelle Obama made a big splash on Twitter and Facebook this week, but it only took a few days before the predictable blow-back to her PR stunt has turned into a storm of ridicule. 

Her detractors are right point out how her own husband has sanctioned the murders of thousands of innocents across central Asia and Africa, but is immune from giving any testimony, nor any prosecution as he claim Presidential privilege.
Continue reading “Michelle Obama’s Kony-style ‘Boko Haram’ PR Stunt Inspires Viral Anti-drone Campaign”

Harris County Commissioners hired Texas’ premiere appraisal expert to investigate whether Harris County Appraisal District is fairly assessing home owners and commercial properties.  Harris County Commissioners noticed a disturbing pattern of deep discounts in commercial properties they were purchasing at condemnation for right-of-way (or roads).  There was a perception that the assessed value set by Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD) was often only 35 to 65% of the purchase price when they were purchasing commercial property.  They hired appraisal expert Ted Whitmer to determine the market value of a number of large commercial properties in Harris County.   Continue reading “Harris County Commissioners Investigate HCAD”

Lew Rockwell – by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD

Modern medicine has spawned great things like open heart surgery and corneal transplants, but it also harms people when its practitioners follow treatment guidelines based on fallacious theories. My grandson became gravely ill when he was 2 months old after his heart and kidneys started to fail. Studies showed that he had an underdeveloped aortic arch that restricted blood flow to most of his body, known as hypoplasia of the transverse aortic arch. A surgeon (a colleague of mine at the University of Washington) operated on him, placing this 10-lb. infant on a heart-lung machine, cooling him to a low temperature and then draining out his blood. With the machine turned off and no blood circulating through the body—for 19 minutes—to obscure what he needed to do, the surgeon enlarged the aortic arch by stitching a (pericardial) patch onto it. Now, three years later, this fortunate child is a healthy, active little boy and is developing normally.   Continue reading “Fallacies in Modern Medicine: HIV/AIDS”