From the Trenches World Report

RT News

Ten car bombs ripped through the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, killing at least 42 and wounding dozens more, officials said. A separate blast targeting soldiers in the northern city of Mosul reportedly killed 14 more, bringing Sunday’s death toll to 56.

Nine of the blasts targeted predominantly Shiite Muslim districts over the course of half an hour, police said.    Continue reading “56 killed in day of carnage as 11 car bombs rip through Iraq”

RT News

The world’s first bitcoin ATM will open in Vancouver, Canada, next week – dispensing Canadian dollars in exchange for the anonymous crypto-currency. But only if your palm scan matches the ATM’s records, that is.

The machine will be set up near downtown Vancouver coffee house Waves, is one of five ATMs bought by Canadian firm Bitcoiniacs from Nevada-based producer Robocoin.    Continue reading “Cash-for-bitcoins: World’s first palm scan-activated bitcoin ATM to open in Canada”

NBC News Philadelphia

Investigators are looking into whether mental illness played a role in the death of an off-duty eastern Pennsylvania deputy sheriff after he took his best friend — another off-duty officer — hostage at gunpoint before fatally shooting himself, police said.

State Police Cpl. Shawn Noonan said that investigators are trying to figure out what motivated Carbon County Deputy Sheriff David Midas and said they were interviewing co-workers and family members to see whether there were signs of mental illness.   Continue reading “Officer Kills Himself After Taking Best Friend Hostage”

Activist Post – by Stephanie Relfe

100,000 people in a town called Tecoma, in Victoria, Australia, are fighting a battle to keep McDonald’s away from their town, where McDonald’s wants one of its junkstores to be built near the school, naturally, because when you push food that addicts people like drugs do, you want to be where you can create customers for life. The people of the town have even taken the fight to Chicago. Their slogan is aptly named BurgerOff. Their website ishttp://www.burgeroff.org/.   Continue reading “Junk Food is Addicting and Killing People”

Press TV

Former US Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday that military action in Iran is likely unavoidable in order to stop Iran’s nuclear energy program.

Cheney, who served from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush, made the remarks after George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC’s ‘This Week’ program, asked him, “is military action against Iran inevitable?”    Continue reading “Cheney: Military action in Iran unavoidable”

Daily Mail

A beloved World War II veteran and pillar of his local community was brutally killed in a violent mugging by four teenagers on his driveway.

Terrance Morgan and Edward Johnson, both 19, and Leslie Litt and Geblonski Murray, both 18, have been arrested for the violent death of Lawrence E. ‘Shine’ Thornton of Greenville, Mississippi on October 18.   Continue reading “Beloved veteran, 87, killed by four teens during violent mugging”

Defense News – by DANIEL DE LUCE

WASHINGTON — The US military has invested billions in blimp-like aircraft to track militants planting roadside bombs but the spyship experiment is losing altitude because of technical failures and changing priorities.

The lighter-than-air projects were billed as an innovative revival of an old aircraft design to conduct “unblinking” surveillance on the battlefield — at a fraction of the cost of fuel-guzzling planes or helicopters.   Continue reading “US Military’s Airship Programs Lose Altitude”

Politico – by PAIGE WINFIELD CUNNINGHAM

Trying to sign up for Obamacare the old-fashioned way — paper, pen or telephone?

Good luck with that.

With the supposedly state-of-the-art $600 million HealthCare.gov portal malfunctioning, President Barack Obama is urging Americans to go ahead and try to get health coverage by mailing in a paper application, calling the helpline or seeking help from one of the trained “assisters.”   Continue reading “‘Glitches’ hit Obamacare paper, phone applications too”

Pat Dollard

Excerpted from Politico: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is medically “fit to serve” and is working to get his weight in check, his doctor said in a medical report released on Friday.

“He has no medical limitations and is fit to serve as the Governor of the state of New Jersey,” wrote Dr. Rachana Kulkarni, a cardiologist who has taken care of Christie since January 2012.   Continue reading “Doctor: Christie Not Too Fat To Serve”

Rolling Stone – by Jon Dolan

Lou Reed, a massively influential songwriter and guitarist who helped shape nearly fifty years of rock music, died today. The cause of his death has not yet been released, but Reed underwent a liver transplant in May.

Look back at Lou Reed’s remarkable career in photos

With the Velvet Underground in the late Sixties, Reed fused street-level urgency with elements of European avant-garde music, marrying beauty and noise, while bringing a whole new lyrical honesty to rock & roll poetry. As a restlessly inventive solo artist, from the Seventies into the 2010s, he was chameleonic, thorny and unpredictable, challenging his fans at every turn. Glam, punk and alternative rock are all unthinkable without his revelatory example. “One chord is fine,” he once said, alluding to his bare-bones guitar style. “Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you’re into jazz.”   Continue reading “Lou Reed, Velvet Underground Leader and Rock Pioneer, Dead at 71”

The Daily Caller – by Robby Soave

If you give U.S. tax dollars to a Mexican male prostitute, will he agree to stay disease-free? That’s what government-funded researchers at Brown University would like to know.

The study is called “Conditional Economic Incentives to Reduce HIV Risks: A Pilot in Mexico,” and uses a grant from the National Institute of Health to pay male prostitutes in Mexico City. The prostitutes were placed in different groups and tested for sexually transmitted diseases. For every six months that they remain clean, they receive a payment that is larger or smaller depending upon their group.   Continue reading “US government-funded study involves paying Mexican prostitutes”

AmmoLand

WASHINGTON –-(Ammoland.com)-Senate legislation introduced today that would increase hunting and angling access on public lands and bolster the nation’s outdoor recreation economy was welcomed by a broad coalition of influential sportsmen’s groups and outdoor interests.

The Hunt Unrestricted on National Treasures Act, or “HUNT Act,” introduced this afternoon by Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, directs federal agencies to inventory all public lands greater than 640 acres where hunting and fishing are legal but inaccessible with the goal of expanding access for members of the public. The legislation finances land acquisitions from willing sellers through a small percentage of Land and Water Conservation Fund monies. Heinrich introduced similar legislation in 2012, when he was a member of the House of Representatives.   Continue reading “New Bill Promoting Public Lands Access for Hunting, Angling Draws Praise from Outdoors Community”

Forbes – by J. Justin Wilson

You can tell him he doesn’t have the authority to levy soda taxes under New York State law. You can strike down his ridiculous ban on restaurant sodas. But you cannot run from the soon-to-be-ex-Mayor of New York City, Michael R. Bloomberg, and his imperial war on soft drinks and just about anything else we enjoy eating.

Under normal circumstances, if all else fails people can escape the invasive arm of the nanny state by moving. It is called “voting with your feet.” Unfortunately for consumers, Bloomberg is worth billions, and he is hellbent on going to the ends of the earth through his “charitable” arm, Bloomberg Philanthropies, to tax and ban sodas into submission in the name of fighting obesity.   Continue reading “You Can’t Run From Mayor Bloomberg, And Things He Doesn’t Like”

Forbes – by Bruce Japsen

While politicians and pundits alike inside the beltway beat up the White House over computer system glitches, health insurance companies still project robust revenue growth and profits from a boom in business from newly insured Americans under the Affordable Care Act.

Take this week’s third-quarter earnings report and financial projections of Wellpoint (WLP), one of the nation’s largest health insurers, which earlier this week raised its earnings guidance for thethird time this year.  Amid a flurry of stories about the troubled launch of the federal health insurance marketplace web site known as healthcare.gov, Wellpoint said its improved outlook is due in part to gains from the Affordable Care Act. On Friday, the Obama administration named a contractor to fix the site, saying it should be fixed by the end of November.   Continue reading “Despite Glitches, Obamacare Profit Windfall To Insurers Well Underway”

ABC News – by CHET BROKAW Associated Press

Joe Carley has nearly finished burying the cattle he lost in a freak early fall blizzard that killed tens of thousands of cattle in western South Dakota. Now, he’s figuring out how to dig himself out of the financial hole left after about a quarter of his cows and maybe a third of his calves died in the storm.

“There’s some sleepless nights. There’s a lot of worry. My brain’s always rolling. We’re pulling ourselves out of it, you know. We’re trying to figure things out and step forward,” Carley, 40, of Philip, said during a break from herding cattle at the local livestock sale barn, where he works to help make ends meet.   Continue reading “S. Dakota Ranchers Vow to Survive Cattle Disaster”

Atlantic Cities – by Sarah Goodyear

After nearly five years of planning, a large-scale attempt to turn a big chunk of Detroit into an urban forest is now underway. The purchase of more than 1,500 vacant city-owned lots on the city’s lower east side – a total of more than 140 acres – got final approval from Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder last week.

The buyer is Hantz Farms, and it’s a venture of financier John Hantz, who lives in the nearby Indian Village neighborhood. Indian Village is an affluent enclave of manor-scale historic homes, but much of the surrounding area is blighted. Hantz Farms will pay more than $500,000 for the land, which consists of non-contiguous parcels in an area where occupied homes are increasingly surrounding by abandoned properties.   Continue reading “A 140-Acre Forest Is About to Materialize in the Middle of Detroit”