From the Trenches World Report

The Hartford Courant – by SHAWN R. BEALS and DAVE ALTIMARI

9 News

NEW YORK (AP) – Rescuers working amid gusty winds, cold temperatures and billowing smoke pulled four additional bodies overnight from the rubble of two Manhattan apartment buildings, as the death toll rose Thursday to at least seven from a gas leak-triggered explosion that reduced the area to a pile of smashed bricks, splinters and mangled metal.

The explosion Wednesday morning in East Harlem injured more than 60 people, with searchers still trying to locate others a day later. Crews used generator-powered floodlights and thermal imaging cameras to identify heat spots – bodies or pockets of fire – at the site on Park Avenue and 116th Street. Police guarding the scene wore surgical masks and neighborhood residents covered faces with scarfs amid the thick, acrid air.   Continue reading “Searchers scour rubble after gas explosion kills 7”

Who What Why- by Russ Baker

In part I, we reported significant discrepancies in the story of the key witness in the Boston Marathon bombing-MIT police officer killing. These discrepancies cast doubt on his credibility—and therefore on the entire public narrative around those events.

We have been told that the witness was carjacked by the brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and that Tamerlan confessed to him their guilt in both crimes.   Continue reading “Something Dead Wrong Here: Investigating the mysterious and central character, “Danny”. Part 2 of 2”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

Wall Street bonuses (on average) in 2013 rose 15% to the highest since 2007. As OSC Tom DiNapoli notes, “Securities industry employees took home significantly higher bonuses on average… although profits were lower than the prior year.” In fact, as we noted earlier, profits at the banks fell 30%.   Continue reading “Wall Street Bonuses Soar 15% To Highest Since 2007”

Misguided Children – by Faye Higbee

New York: In a out-right bizarre twist, the Grand Island Senior High School Administration has decided to deny that Shane Kinney was suspended or even disciplined for  the NRA T-Shirt that reportedly violated their dress code. Now he is being called “insubordinate” for wearing the shirt, and the school has started to harass him.

This is the shirt Shane wore underneath a sweatshirt. At first they said this t-shirt was ok, but abruptly that changed.   Continue reading “New York: Teen Suspended for NRA T-shirt – School Denies, Attempts to Bully Him”

Daily Mail

He was said to be a known prankster – and Walter George Bruhl Jr. had one final laugh planned for his family following his death.

The 80-year-old, who died on Sunday, had secretly written his own obituary, which relatives found after he passed away.

His grandson Sam Bruhl posted the epic essay, which is both heartfelt and hilarious to Reddit on Monday, causing a stream of comments from users who were touched by Walter’s story.   Continue reading “Beloved grandfather, 80, surprises family after his death when they discover he secretly wrote his OWN heartfelt (and hilarious) obituary”

Sunlight Foundation – by Lee Drutman

In 2009, four years before the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was a widely-debated trade deal, few would have noticed a new issue popping up in a handful of lobbying reports. That year, 28 organizations filed 59 lobbying reports mentioning the then far-off trade agreement. Almost half of those organizations were pharmaceutical companies or associations.

It was an early clue as to which industry would take the most active role in trying to shape the trade agreement while it was still secret from the public. From 2009 until mid-2013 (the time during which the language of the agreement was still reasonably fluid), drug companies and associations mentioned the trade agreement in 251 separate lobbying reports – two and a half times more than the next most active industry (at least measured by lobbying reports).   Continue reading “How Big Pharma (and others) began lobbying on the Trans-Pacific Partnership before you ever heard of it”

Crimes Against Humanity – by Celeste

An eerie $9 billion dollar trench experiment is being conducted at the Salton Sea which could trigger a spasm resulting in the cataclysmic ‘Big One’.  As if describing Biblical prophecy, a Scripps geophysicist, discusses the project located in one of the most tectonically active places in North America, “Imagine you’re 9 months pregnant,” says Kent Graham and, “You’re somehow coming to the end of a process.”   Continue reading “Trench Warfare at the Salton Sea”

Information Liberation

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear the case of a Texas man whose home was subject to a no-knock, SWAT-team style forceful entry and raid based solely on the suspicion that there were legally-owned firearms in his household. In denying a petition for certiorari in Quinn v. Texas, the Court let stand a lower court ruling that essentially makes lawful gun ownership and possession grounds for police to evade the protections afforded by the Fourth Amendment and improperly penalizes and limits the Second Amendment right to bear arms. The Rutherford Institute had asked the Court to weigh in on the case and protect Americans against encroachments on their Second Amendment rights.   Continue reading “U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Appeal in Second Amendment Case, Refuses to Prohibit Police from Using Lawful Gun Ownership as a Trigger for “No-Knock” Police Raids”

Paw Nation

An elderly couple will reunite with their 13-year-old Dachshund, named Otto Wolfgang Maximus, after thinking he was too sick for them to care for. Otto’s owners could not afford a trip to the vet, nor could they stand to see their beloved dog in pain. The couple brought Otto to the Baldwin Park Animal Shelter in Baldwin Park, Calif., on March 6. They attached a note asking that Otto be “put to sleep.”   Continue reading “Abandoned dog to be reunited with owners”

Raw Story

A Chinese woman chopped off her former boyfriend’s penis with scissors and then killed him with a hammer after he raped her, a Hong Kong court heard, according to a report Tuesday.

Yeung Ki, 41, on trial in the city, has admitted killing 32-year-old piano teacher Zhou Hui on Boxing Day 2012 but denies murder, the South China Morning Post reported.   Continue reading “Chinese woman chops off alleged rapist’s penis and beats him to death with a hammer”

Intellihub – by John Vibes

FLORIDA (INTELLIHUB) — A two year old in a Florida apartment complex was given a traffic ticket by police for driving her battery powered toy car around the parking lot.  The police were responding to another call, but felt that training a toddler to a be a slave in adulthood was more important than whatever disturbance they were called to.

The child, named Za’Dariyah, got no support whatsoever from her parents, who for some reason praised the police officers for their actions.   Continue reading “Florida police give ‘ticket’ to 2 year old in battery powered toy car”

AOL

You might remember the voice of a once-homeless man named Ted Williams.

He hit the media spotlight three years ago and became known as the man with the golden voice. ‘When you’re listening to nothing but the oldies, you’re listening to Magic 98.9’

Well, he’s come a long way from standing on the side of the road doing his magical voice for a dollar. HLN has an update:   Continue reading “Man with the golden voice still going strong, alcohol-free”

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