From the Trenches World Report

Washington’s Blog

Fraud Prosecution Stopped the S&L Crisis … But Government REFUSES to Prosecute Fraud Now

The top regulator and prosecutor during the S&L crisis – professor of law and economics, Bill Black – explained at a recent TED talk that 90% of all no-document loans were fraudulent and 90% of appraisals were fraudulently inflated at the insistence of the banks.

Government officials were informed about these fraudulent practices decades ago … and yet did nothing:   Continue reading “30,000 Criminal Referrals Led to 1,000+ Felony Convictions In Major Fraud Cases During the S&L Crisis … Not Even a SINGLE Prosecution Today, Even Though the 2008 Crisis Was 70 Times Bigger”

AlterNet – by Martha Rosenberg

Have you ever noticed how warnings about dangerous prescription drugs always seem to surface after the drug is no longer marketed and its patent has run out? Whether it’s an FDA advisory or a trial lawyer solicitation about harm that may have been done to you, the warnings are always belated and useless. If a drug you took four years ago may have given you liver damage, why didn’t the FDA tell you then? Why didn’t the FDA recall the drug or better yet, not approve it in the first place?   Continue reading “7 Drugs Whose Dangerous Risks Emerged Only After Big Pharma Made Its Money”

Before It’s News – by Mort Amsel

Translated:

Head of the Jewish rescue organization “Hatsala Ukraine” Rabbi Hillel Cohen was attacked in Kiev.

Nine Israeli channel reported on Friday citing N.Koena that the night before a rabbi was attacked by unknown when he was heading to the hospital to visit a patient. Rabbi beaten and shot in the leg with a sharp object. The attackers insulted him, calling, inter alia, “the Jew.”   Continue reading “Prominent Jewish Rabbi Beaten And Stabbed In Kiev”

Barista – by Georgette Gilmore

We know our children have lock-down drills. It’s a sad, unfortunate part of the world we live in. However Glen Ridge students had a lock-down drill supervised by Homeland Security!

On Thursday, March 6, a team comprised of ten officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, and the NJ Department of Education’s Safety and Security Task Forces visited Glen Ridge High School to conduct an unannounced school lock-down drill.  With the exception of Glen Ridge Superintendent Dr. John Mucciolo and Chief of Police Sheila Byron-Lagattutta, no Glen Ridge Public School personnel received advanced notice of the exercise.   Continue reading “Homeland Security Conducts Unannounced Lock-down Drill at New Jersey’s Glen Ridge High”

Continue reading “Cartoon Round Up”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are grappling with an election-year dilemma posed by the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Wealthy party donors are funding candidates who oppose the project — a high-profile symbol of the political debate over climate change. But some of the party’s most vulnerable incumbents are pipeline boosters, and whether Democrats retain control of the Senate after the 2014 midterm elections may hinge on them.   Continue reading “Dems grapple with dilemma on Keystone XL pipeline”

RT News

Unidentified hackers brought down the Russian presidency’s site and the Central Bank’s web page in a wave of online attacks. The website is now operational for most users.

“A powerful cyber-attack is underway on the [Kremlin] site,” a Kremlin spokeswoman said, adding they had been unable to discern who had carried out the attack.    Continue reading “Hackers down Russian presidential site in ‘powerful cyber-attack’”

Mail.com

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Hundreds of years after wealthy merchants began building the tall, narrow brick houses that have come to define Amsterdam’s skyline, Dutch architects are updating the process for the 21st century: fabricating pieces of a canal house out of plastic with a giant 3-D printer and slotting them together like oversized Lego blocks.

Hedwig Heinsman of architect bureau Dus says the goal of the demonstration project launched this month is not so much to print a functioning house — in fact, parts of the house will likely be built and re-built several times over the course of three years as 3-D printing technology develops.   Continue reading “Amsterdam canal house built with 3-D printer”

Mail.com

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Some passengers aboard a plane whose nose gear collapsed on a Philadelphia runway finally made it to South Florida early Friday.

Officials say US Airways Flight 1702 was heading for Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday when a tire on the front landing gear blew out, forcing the pilot to abort takeoff at Philadelphia International Airport.   Continue reading “Passengers from crippled Pa. plane arrive in Fla.”

Mail.com

PHOENIX (AP) — A man convicted after his third trial in the 1991 killings of nine people, including six monks, at a suburban Phoenix Buddhist temple is set for sentencing and faces life in prison.

Johnathan A. Doody was 17 when he was accused of participating in the slayings at the Wat Promkunaram temple. He was found guilty in 1993 and sentenced to 281 years in prison. But an appeals court threw out his conviction in 2011 after ruling that investigators improperly obtained his confession.   Continue reading “Sentencing set for man in Arizona temple slayings”

Mail.com

DADE CITY, Fla. (AP) — A former police officer accused of killing a man in a movie theater during a dispute over texting had used his own phone to send a message to his son minutes before the shooting, according to documents released Thursday by Florida prosecutors.

Curtis Reeves’ son, Matthew Reeves, told detectives that his father texted him at 1:04 p.m. Jan. 13, the documents show. Curtis Reeves told his son he was already seated inside the theater. Matthew Reeves, who is a Tampa police officer, made plans to meet his parents at the theater for the 1:20 p.m. showing of “Lone Survivor” but was late because he stopped to wash his truck, he told detectives.   Continue reading “Records: Man in theater shooting also was texting”

Veterans Today – by Stephen Lendman

On February 27, 2014, they announced their so-called “Ukrainian government of people’s trust.”

It includes a rogue’s gallery of societal misfits. Many are militant fascists. They’re thugs. They’re criminals.

They’re illegitimate putschists. They’re xenophobic, hate-mongering, ultranationalist anti-Semites. Combined they represent mob rule.   Continue reading “Meet Obama’s New Ukrainian Friends”

Yahoo News

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s largest bank says customers in the nation’s Crimean Peninsula are lining up to withdraw cash from their accounts as the region occupied by Russian troops prepares for Sunday’s referendum on joining Russia.

Lines of customers could be seen forming on Thursday outside Privat and other banks amid uncertainty over the peninsula’s future.   Continue reading “Jittery customers run on banks in Crimea”

NHS