From the Trenches World Report

The New York Times – by JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG and MICHAEL CORKERY

The surprise departure of a top JPMorgan Chase executive for a giant private equity firm underscores how financial regulations are forcing a shift in the balance of power on Wall Street.

Considered a likely heir to Jamie Dimon, the bank’s 58-year-old chief executive, Michael J. Cavanagh announced on Tuesday that he would resign as JPMorgan’s co-head of investment banking to take on the role of co-chief operating officer of the Carlyle Group. Mr. Cavanagh’s decision to give up a chance at eventually running JPMorgan signals how running a large bank has become less attractive, considering the regulatory hurdles and heightened scrutiny that have dogged Wall Street since the aftermath of the financial crisis.   Continue reading “A Likely Heir Is Leaving JPMorgan Chase”

News of the Restless – by Sabina Becker

Who is this man, and why does the CIA fear him? Because they thought he was one of theirs, and it turns out he’s quite the opposite. And now he’s spilling the beans on them. Read on:

Raúl Capote is a Cuban. But not just any Cuban. In his youth, he was caught up by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). They offered him an infinite amount of money to conspire in Cuba. But then something unexpected for the US happened. Capote, in reality, was working for Cuban national security. From then on, he served as a double agent. Learn his story, by way of an exclusive interview with Chávez Vive, which he gave in Havana:   Continue reading “Ex-CIA agent reveals how Venezuelan “students” get putschist training”

Reader Supported News – by Steve Weissman

If the US State Department’s Victoria Nuland had not said “F#@k the EU,” few outsiders at the time would have heard of Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, the man on the other end of her famously bugged telephone call. But now Washington’s man in Kiev is gaining fame as the face of the CIA-style “destabilization campaign” that brought down Ukraine’s monumentally corrupt but legitimately elected President Viktor Yanukovych.

“Geoffrey Pyatt is one of these State Department high officials who does what he’s told and fancies himself as a kind of a CIA operator,” laughs Ray McGovern, who worked for 27 years as an intelligence analyst for the agency. “It used to be the CIA doing these things,” he tells Democracy Now. “I know that for a fact.” Now it’s the State Department, with its coat-and-tie diplomats, twitter and facebook accounts, and a trick bag of goodies to build support for American policy.   Continue reading “Meet the Americans Who Put Together the Coup in Kiev”

WBT News – by MITCH WEISS and TOM FOREMAN JR.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon, who has been in office less than six months, resigned Wednesday, just hours after he was arrested and accused of taking more than $48,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen who wanted to do work with North Carolina’s largest city.

Cannon submitted his resignation letter to city manager Ron Carlee and city attorney Bob Hagemann, Charlotte spokesman Keith Richardson said in an email. The 47-year-old Cannon is charged with bribery and public corruption. The Democrat took cash, airline tickets, a hotel room and the use of a luxury apartment as bribes and solicited more than $1 million more, according to a criminal complaint from the U.S. Attorney’s office.   Continue reading “Charlotte, NC, mayor resigns after being accused of taking bribes, charged with corruption”

Klamath Basin Water Crisis – by Tim Hearden March 14, 2014, Capital Press

FORT KLAMATH, Ore. ­— Many ranchers in Oregon’s Upper Klamath Basin appear to grudgingly accept a water-sharing settlement between irrigators and the Klamath Tribes that was finalized earlier this month.

Rancher Roger Nicholson, a harsh critic of water calls by the tribes and federal government that led to a shutoff of Upper Basin irrigation pumps last summer, says the deal is the best that ranchers could hope for and predicts it will be agreed to by a vast majority of affected landowners.   Continue reading “Ranchers grudgingly accept Klamath water-sharing pact”

California Political News – by Stephen Frank

Farmers in California may be the first citizens to totally lose their private property rights in the State.  Sacramento and Washington already control the water projects—and neither are giving a drop of water to farmers this year.  Some counties are studying the issue of groundwater, with the purpose of considering county control of the groundwater, for the “benefit” of the county.

Now the State of California is about consider taking over all groundwater and its use.  Should they do so, government will be able to control the mix of crops, row and tree, that are grown, where farming is allowed and the size of the farm.  Use of private property, through control of water, will be controlled by government.  Private property is gone.   Continue reading “Gov. Brown, Legislature push groundwater regulation–government control”

AOL

The state of Mississippi has moved to execute its first female death row prisoner in 70 years.

According to WXVT, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood requested earlier this week that Michelle Byrom be executed by lethal injection.

The state Supreme Court has the final say on executions, according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections, so if it confirms the date, Byrom will be the first woman to be put to death in Mississippi since 1944.   Continue reading “Woman to be executed for a murder that her son allegedly confessed to committing on four different occasions”

Sovereign Independent UK – by Sir Robert Malarky OBE CBE PIE

Without a sustained campaign of  deception, demonisation and propaganda there would be no support for wars. In point of fact there would  be public revulsion, rallied opposition and a reduction in conflict.

People that help start wars should be seen as criminals.

Never forget that the media branded “war on terror” is in fact a “war of terror” aimed primarily at our minds.   Continue reading “Media Whores Bringing Us Wars”

Sovereign Independent UK – by Sir Robin Malarky CBE PIE

Today we learn that following an incident involving a presumably partially sighted Lancashire copper tazering a 64 year  old  blind man after supposedly confusing his thin white cane with a curved samurai sword.  The unlikely tale that we are supposed to believe is that the copper responsible for this atrocity thought at the time that a blind man walking away from him posed a threat to the public.

If and it is a big if, he managed to confuse a samurai sword with a thin white cane carried by a blind old man the clearly his judgement is called into question as is his resort to potentially lethal force in short order. Minor by comparison but equally as abhorrent is handcuffing the gentleman for a period afterwards when it must clearly have become blindingly obvious that the chap did not have a large sword about his person.   Continue reading “Lancashire Cop Let Off After Tazering An Innocent Blind Man”

SOTT – by Michael Allen, Opposing Views

While the debate rages over medical marijuana in America, approximately 200 Americans die daily in U.S. hospitals, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC report found that preventable healthcare-associated infections in hospitals kill 75,000 patients per year, reports AFP.    Continue reading “Fatal infections: 200 people die daily in U.S. hospitals from preventable infections”

Sovereign Man – by Simon Black

By the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire had become a has-been power whose glory days as the world’s superpower were well behind them.

They had been supplanted the French, the British, and the Russian empires in all matters of economic, military, and diplomatic strength. Much of this was due to the Ottoman Empire’s massive debt burden.   Continue reading “US now spending 26% of available tax revenue just to pay interest”