From the Trenches World Report

Business Insider – by Danny Vinik

Last week, the Obama administration announced that anyone whose health plan was cancelled due to the Affordable Care Act and believe other plans offered are unaffordable will receive a ‘hardship waiver.’ This waiver exempts them from the individual mandate and allows them to purchase a cheaper catastrophic plan that was previously available only to those under the age of 30.

But losing your health insurance is not the only experience that qualifies a person for a waiver. In fact, there are 13 other ways that people qualify.   Continue reading “The 14 Ways You Can Get Out Of Being Forced To Have Health Insurance”

Op Ed News – by Eric Zuesse

A December 2013 academic article has documented how billionaires have made suckers of millions of people, to cause them to believe that global warming is a mere hoax, and to think that the oil companies’ line on this matter is honest.

This research, by Robert J. Brulle, was published in a leading climatological journal, Climate Change, and it reports that a small number of aristocrats have collectively spent, on average, a billion dollars a year, in order to fool the American public into thinking that climate change isn’t happening, and that, even if it is, it’s not caused by burning fossil fuels. Continue reading “Billion-Dollar-a-Year Program to Deceive Public About Global Warming Is Exposed”

Reuters – by Mari Saito and Antoni Slodkowski

SENDAI, Japan, Dec. 30 (Reuters) – Seiji Sasa hits the train station in this northern Japanese city before dawn most mornings to prowl for homeless men.

He isn’t a social worker. He’s a recruiter. The men in Sendai Station are potential laborers that Sasa can dispatch to contractors in Japan’s nuclear disaster zone for a bounty of $100 a head.   Continue reading “Japan’s homeless recruited for murky Fukushima clean-up”

New York Post – by S.A. Miller

WASHINGTON — The personal e-mail account of a State Department whis­tle­­blower was hacked, and four years worth of messages — some detailing alleged wrongdoing at the agency — were deleted, The Post has learned.

The computer attack targeted the Gmail account of Diplomatic Security Service criminal investigator Richard Higbie, his lawyer, Cary Schulman, confirmed.    Continue reading “State Dept. whistleblower has email hacked, deleted”

http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/ae_worship_20131230#.UsGxxaLVU5s.email

Hot Air – by Jazz Shaw

What was on your Christmas wish list? Some books or DVDs or a shiny new vuvuzela? How about a nice 16 gauge over under shotgun? If you’re a resident of Colorado, you may have gotten that last item under your tree, as gun sales have seen a considerable uptick at the end of the year. Our Townhall colleague, Michael Schaus, takes a very humorous look at an extremely serious subject.   Continue reading “Colorado seeing record Christmas gun sales”

Opposing Views – by Sarah Fruchtnicht

A Texas district judge was arrested on Saturday for allegedly dragging his girlfriend by her hair, choking her, leaning her over a balcony, and threatening to kill her.

The attorney for State District Judge Carlos Raul Cortez says he’s not guilty.

“The allegations made by the complainant are false,” said attorney Andy Korn. “If necessary, it will be shown in the proper forum that Judge Cortez actually saved her life.”   Continue reading “Texas Judge Accused Of Choking, Dangling Girlfriend Off Balcony Claims He ‘Actually Saved Her Life’”

Star Tribune – by KEVIN DIAZ

In the supersecret world of the nation’s spy agencies, an unassuming librarian like Kirsten Clark at the University of Minnesota might seem like an unlikely mark.

But recent revelations about National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance of phone and Internet traffic have raised concerns among librarians and put them in the front ranks of efforts to curb government bulk data collection operations.   Continue reading “Minnesota librarians push to curb NSA snooping”

MassPrivateI

North Carolina – Rental cops hired by the Lake Toxaway Community Association  (homeowners association) can conduct traffic stops that would be unconstitutional if performed by an actual police officer, according to a ruling handed down last week by the North Carolina Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel took up the case of Frederick Lloyd Weaver Jr, who was stopped on April 20, 2012 by an armed security guard employed by Metro Special Police and Security Services. The HOA for the Carleton Place townhomes near the University of North Carolina at Wilmington contracted with Metro for security services.   Continue reading “Security guards can arrest citizens for DUI”

MassPrivateI

A Senate committee report goes to great lengths to determine all of the things that data brokers, the companies that trade in consumer data, don’t want to talk about. The 35-page report describes some of the companies’ strategies for collecting and organizing data, but significant portions of the report discuss what the companies are unwilling to talk about: namely, where they get a lot of their data and where that data is going.

Companies covered in the report include well-known firms, like Datalogix and Acxiom, as well as credit reporting companies that also trade in consumer data, like Experian and TransUnion. In the report, the committee sets out to answer four questions: what data is collected, how specific it is, how it’s collected, and how it’s used. While the first two questions turned out to be reasonably easy to answer, the companies all but stonewalled the committee on substantial answers to the latter two.   Continue reading “Data brokers & private companies are spying on citizens who’re “frequent ‘text posters’””

Yahoo News – by RAPHAEL SATTER

LONDON (AP) — A German magazine lifted the lid on the operations of the National Security Agency’s hacking unit Sunday, reporting that American spies intercept computer deliveries, exploit hardware vulnerabilities, and even hijack Microsoft’s internal reporting system to spy on their targets.

Der Spiegel’s revelations relate to a division of the NSA known as Tailored Access Operations, or TAO, which is painted as an elite team of hackers specializing in stealing data from the toughest of targets.   Continue reading “Report: NSA intercepts computer deliveries”

Fox News

Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to the Middle East in the first week of the new year amid a flurry of reports in the Israeli press that he has said he would consider freeing convicted spy Jonathan Pollard.

Israel’s Channel 10 TV station first reported Friday that Kerry offered to free Pollard as part of an exchange for the release of a fourth group of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails as peace talks resume between the two sides. The third of four groups is scheduled to be released Monday, the Jerusalem Post reported.   Continue reading “Kerry reportedly says he will consider freeing Jonathan Pollard as part of prisoner swap”

The Mississippi Link

PHOENIX (AP) — A suspect killed by Phoenix police in a bank robbery attempt is believed to be the same man accused in the shooting death of a Mississippi police officer and the wounding of another, the FBI said Sunday.

The statement came hours after Phoenix police shot and killed a suspect after Saturday’s bank robbery attempt.   Continue reading “Man killed in Arizona bank robbery linked to shooting death of Tupelo police officer”

Fox News – by Adam Housley

Fifteen months after the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, the narrative of the attack continues to be shaped, and reshaped, by politicians and the press.

But a New York Times report published over the weekend has angered sources who were on the ground that night. Those sources, who continue to face threats of losing their jobs, sharply challenged the Times’ findings that there was no involvement from Al Qaeda or any other international terror group and that an anti-Islam film played a role in inciting the initial wave of attacks.   Continue reading “‘Completely false’: Sources on ground in Benghazi challenge NYT report”

Fox News

A German magazine, citing internal documents, claims the NSA’s hacking unit uses James Bond-style spy gear to obtain data, including intercepting computer deliveries and outfitting them with espionage software.

Der Spiegel’s revelations relate to a division of the NSA known as Tailored Access Operations, or TAO, which is painted as an elite team of hackers specializing in stealing data from the toughest of targets.   Continue reading “German magazine claims NSA hacking unit uses powerful methods to obtain data”