From the Trenches World Report

Fox News

Justina Pelletier, the Connecticut teen taken from her family more than a year ago by Massachusetts officials after her parents took her to a hospital for help, made a tearful plea to the Bay State family court judge who holds her fate in his hands.

In the 45-second, videotaped plea, first posted on a Facebook page set up by supporters of the 15-year-old, Justina is seen sitting in a chair and pleading plaintively with Massachusetts juvenile court Judge Joseph Johnston.   Continue reading “Justina Pelletier makes tearful plea to judge, asking to go home”

Washington Post – by Mark Berman

Four months before a married couple shot and killed two Las Vegas police officers and a bystander, the police visited their home and determined that they didn’t pose any threat, authorities said Wednesday.

Detectives were dispatched to the home of Jerad Miller in February because the Southern Nevada Counter-Terrorism Center was alerted that he had made threatening remarks to a government agency in Indiana, Kevin C. McMahill, assistant sheriff of Clark County, said during a briefing with reporters.   Continue reading “Police visited Las Vegas shooters earlier this year and determined that they weren’t a threat”

Daily Mail – by JILL REILLY and KIERAN CORCORAN

The Iraq government teeters on the brink of collapse this evening as Islamic jihadists led by a warlord considered ‘more virulent and violent than Osama bin Laden’ took control of a second city in as many days.

In a spectacular blow to the Shiite-led government, the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (also known as Isis) and their allies seized oil-rich Mosul and surrounding Nineveh province followed by Tikrit where they freed hundreds of prisoners. There is now growing panic that Isis will move to take Baghdad, just 80 miles to the south.
Continue reading “Now Tikrit falls to Islamist terrorists”

CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A man was arrested in connection with a threat that terrified commuters and snarled traffic on the New Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel Tuesday evening, police said.

Donald Dangelo Wallace, 39, was arrested by Port Authority detectives at on 47th Street and 11th Avenue in Manhattan at around 11:50 p.m. Tuesday, Weehawken Police Detective Sgt. Thomas White said.   Continue reading “Police: Georgia Man Arrested For Making ‘Sniper’ Threat In Lincoln Tunnel Incident”

Wall Street Journal – by Reid J. Epstein

Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) voted against the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill last year, but on Wednesday he plans to “discuss the need for immigration reform.”

Mr. Paul will join former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Partnership for a New American Economy’s monthly series on immigration reform hosted by Grover Norquist.   Continue reading “Rand Paul to Discuss ‘Need for Immigration Reform’”

Breitbart – by JOEL B. POLLAK

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who lost his Republican congressional primary to Tea Party-backed Dave Brat in a shocking landslide Tuesday, is the highest-ranking Jew in the history of the U.S. Congress. As news of Cantor’s defeat spread, Jews on both sides of the aisle wrestled with what his defeat meant for American Jews in politics–and for Republican Jews in particular, who had long seen Cantor as a champion for their cause.   Continue reading “Jews Wrestle with Cantor Defeat”

RT News

In a scenario that could’ve been extremely devastating, the United States narrowly averted a nuclear disaster in 1961 when an atomic bomb nearly detonated after falling out of a B-52 bomber that broke up in the sky.

According to the Washington Post, the incident took place on January 21, 1961 – less than 20 years after nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – and is explained further in a recently declassified report published by the National Security Archives.   Continue reading “Nuclear bomb nearly detonated after falling on North Carolina – declassified report”

RT News

Two residents of Lafayette, Colorado are suing the state, Gov. John Hickenlooper, and energy trade group Colorado Oil and Gas Association for the enforcement of the city’s fracking ban, which was passed last fall in a city-wide vote.

The class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in Boulder County District Court comes in response to a separate suit filed by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) in December that seeks to negate Lafayette’s ban on new oil and gas extraction in the city. Sixty percent of Lafayette voters supported the measure to curb hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in November.  Continue reading “Colorado residents sue state, governor to enforce local fracking ban”

RT News

Microsoft is attempting to fend off a search warrant served by federal prosecutors in the United States because the tech giant says the government lacks the authority to compel the company for customer data that’s stored overseas.

Experts are already saying that Microsoft’s attempt to squash a search warrant served last December marks the first time that a major company has fought requests from the Justice Department for digital information held on overseas servers. If the Silicon Valley corporation fails to win, however, then a precedent could be established to ensure prosecutors in the US will in the future have little problem asking for digital files even if that data lacks all other ties to America.   Continue reading “Microsoft fights US warrant demanding information from overseas servers”

Las Vegas Review Journal – by Mike Blasky

A Henderson police officer was hospitalized Wednesday morning after he was shot or struck by shrapnel during a fatal officer-involved shooting.

Police spokeswoman Kathleen Richards said the officer was in good condition. The officer was struck during a shootout with a man near Horizon Ridge Parkway and Gibson Road about 4:30 a.m. It’s unclear if the officer was directly shot or struck by shrapnel, she said.   Continue reading “Henderson police officer wounded, suspect killed in morning shooting”

Bluegrass Pundit

With the flood headed to our borders because of Obama’s promise of defacto amnesty, the Border Patrol is going to need a big fleet of buses. 

Via Breitbart:

Illegal immigrants are reportedly signaling federal officials to detain them once they are near the U.S.-Mexico border, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have declared they may not pursue all illegal immigrants who do not show up for hearings after they enter the country.   Continue reading “Change: Illegals now flagging down Border Patrol to get a free ride into the United states”

Testosterone Pit

US Banks enjoyed more or less steadily climbing, or rather soaring, deposits by Russian institutions and individuals, having tripled in just two years to $21.6 billion by February, according to the US Treasury.

It may seem a bit counterintuitive that in times of ZIRP anyone would put any money in anyUS banks, and it may seem even more counterintuitive that Russians who have other opportunities with their money would voluntarily subject themselves to the Fed’s financial repression.   Continue reading “Giant Sucking Sound: Russian Money Yanked From US Banks”

Mint Press News – by Katie Rucke

The Senate’s draft of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2015 was written behind closed doors and kept secret for around 11 days, but the text of the bill was publicly released last week.

In response, Chris Anders, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington Legislative Office, wrote a blog post for the ACLU chronicling his concerns about the annual defense policy bill.   Continue reading “Senate’s Latest NDAA Draft Further Tramples Americans’ Rights”

Personal Liberty Digest – by Sam Rolley

President Barack Obama is looking for new ways to act “administratively, unilaterally using his executive authority” to enact new gun control legislation, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said during a press conference Tuesday.

The official was responding to a journalist’s questions about the President’s reaction to news of a shooting that occurred at an Oregon high school. Two people were killed, including the shooter.   Continue reading “White House: Obama Prepared To Act ‘Unilaterally’ Again Using ‘Executive Authority’ On Guns”

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”