From the Trenches World Report

CenturyLink

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A North Texas teen from an affluent family was sentenced to probation this week after he killed four pedestrians when he lost control of his speeding pickup truck while driving drunk, a punishment that outraged the victims’ families and left prosecutors disappointed.

The 16-year-old boy was sentenced Tuesday in a Fort Worth juvenile court to 10 years of probation after he confessed to intoxication manslaughter in the June 15 crash on a dark rural road.   Continue reading “Sentence in Texas teen’s fatal DWI wreck stirs ire”

The Daily Caller – by Ginni Thomas

Trust in the federal government is declining to record lows while the Obama administration uses overbearing, imperious authority to suppress political dissent and intimidate his opposition, says author Angelo Codevilla.

In 2003, former Secretary of Clinton Hillary Clinton said that dissent is patriotic.   Continue reading “Codevilla: Obama’s targeting of his political enemies erodes trust in government”

MassPrivateI

A report, published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, suggests that the caprice, carelessness, and downright incompetence that marked the disaster was no accident. In fact, that it is endemic in the ATF.

MassPrivateI

The failure of prosecutors to divulge exculpatory evidence in criminal cases has reached epidemic proportions, the 9th Circuit’s top judge wrote Tuesday.

Reacting to the federal appeals court’s refusal to reconsider the case of man convicted in 2003 for possessing Ricin with intent to use it as a weapon, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski stated that an absence of “professional discipline” and a lack of real consequences has loosed “an epidemic of Brady violations abroad in the land.”   Continue reading “Judge: The failure of prosecutors to divulge exculpatory evidence has reached epidemic proportions”

Policy Mic – by Raphaella Baek

You’d think that social welfare groups would promote, well, social welfare causes. When you hear the phrase “social welfare organization,” you might think of public advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union or the Human Rights Campaign.

In reality, a growing number of these nonprofit organizations are less focused on promoting social welfare and more interested in pumping millions of dollars worth of anonymous donations into politics.   Continue reading “Here’s the Shady Way So-called “Nonprofits” Are Funneling Millions Into Politics”

Policy Mic – by Nina Ippolito 

On Tuesday, conservative news outlets in the United States decided that the best way to commemorate the life of Nelson Mandela, and to report on the memorial services in his honor, was to manufacture a controversy about an AFP photo of President Barack Obama shooting a selfie with Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. According to Fox News, the “international incident” was so bad that, “The tsk-tisk-ing could be heard across continents.”   Continue reading “8 Photos You Didn’t See From Obama’s Trip to South Africa”

Mail.com

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Three years ago, a jury heard lurid testimony about a burned body and a brazen cover-up before convicting a former New Orleans police officer of fatally shooting a man without justification in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

But the officer, David Warren, was acquitted of the same charges Wednesday by a different panel of jurors who didn’t hear any talk about what happened to 31-year-old Henry Glover’s body or about falsified police reports on his shooting outside a strip mall less than a week after the 2005 storm.   Continue reading “Ex-cop acquitted in retrial over deadly shooting”

Mail.com

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — Missouri executed Allen Nicklasson on Wednesday night for killing a good Samaritan who stopped to help him and his friends after their car stalled on Interstate 70 in 1994.

It was the state’s second execution in three weeks. Nicklasson, 41, was pronounced dead at 10:52 p.m. Wednesday, eight minutes after the process began. His eyes remained closed throughout and he showed little reaction to the drug, only briefly breathing heavily about 2 minutes into the process. He offered no final words.   Continue reading “Missouri executes man in 1994 good Samaritan death”

RT News

The Washington, D.C. officer charged with producing child pornography while on duty has been declared dead after being pulled from the Potomac River Tuesday evening.

The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed on Wednesday that the body of the man pulled from Hains Point, between the Potomac and the Washington Channel, was that of 32-year-old officer Marc Washington. The officer was arrested last week and charged with taking nude photographs of a missing 15-year-old girl who’d recently returned to her apartment. If convicted, he faced up to 30 years in prison.   Continue reading “DC cop accused of producing child pornography found dead”

NBC News

State Police are investigating a crash involving a vehicle and an Amtrak train in Waverly.

Sgt. Michelle Anaya with the Virginia State Police said the crash occurred on Route 40 around 6 a.m. Anaya did not say if the train struck the vehicle or vice versa.   Continue reading “Amtrak Train Involved in Waverly, VA Crash”

NBC Connecticut

Five months after their friend was killed in a crash in Glastonbury, Conn., police have arrested three 17-year-old boys who are accused of letting her drive drunk.

Police said the boys knew Jane Modlesky, 17, of Glastonbury, was “highly intoxicated” when she got behind the wheel of an SUV early on the morning of Sunday, July 14 and hit a tree on Woodhaven Road.   Continue reading “Teens Arrested for Letting Friend Drive Drunk Before Fatal Crash”

Northeast Intelligence Network – by Douglas J. Hagmann

Loretta Fuddy, director of the Hawaii Department of Health, reportedly died due to injuries she received in the crash of a small commuter plane shortly before 4:00 p.m. local time Wednesday. Confirmation of her death occurred at approximately 8:00 p.m. local time (1:00 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday, December 12, 2013).   Continue reading “Hawaii Health Director Loretta Fuddy confirmed dead in plane crash”

WND – by Aaron Klein

President Obama’s new staff adviser, senior progressive strategist John Podesta, is a key player in an initiative seeking more government regulation of the oceans and the ceding of U.S. oceans to United Nations-based international law.

That background could inform Podesta’s agenda in the White House, where he is to serve for one year as a “counselor” to the president. The New York Times reported he will focus on executive orders and so-called climate change issues along with Obamacare.   Continue reading “New Obama adviser wants to cede U.S. oceans to U.N.”

Mail.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 60-year-old man fatally shot his dementia-stricken wife at their home and then walked into a convalescent home Wednesday and killed his sister, according to police, who described the shootings as apparent mercy killings.

Lance Holger Anderson of suburban Santa Clarita surrendered at the nursing home and was booked on suspicion of murder, shocking neighbors who described him as a chatty, friendly man who doted on his frail wife.   Continue reading “Los Angeles police: Man shoots ailing wife, sister”

The Telegraph

NASHUA – A federal program that helps more than 1,000 low-income families in New Hampshire pay energy bills is facing a $1.6 million reduction because of the budget-cutting sequester, after five years of reductions that have already cut its funding in half.

U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., and officials for the state and Southern New Hampshire Services in Nashua lamented these cuts during a public forum Monday. Kuster called on her Congressional colleagues to restore the heating assistance money, known as LIHEAP (Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program).   Continue reading “Heating assistance for low-income families facing more cuts”