From the Trenches World Report

Raw Story – by George Chidi

A gun show held about once a month near Austin ends in January after county commissioners and the show management failed to come to terms over a county demand for federal background checks on all gun sales.

The Saxet Gun Shows in Travis County have been held in the county’s publicly-owned Exposition Center since 2010. Following the Sandy Hook shootings of 2012, commissioners stipulated that the gun show require all exhibitors and attendees to perform a free federal criminal background check, the Austin American-Statesman reported.   Continue reading “Texas county gun show shuts down rather than implement background checks”

Tenth Amendment Center

The state level campaign to turn off power and electricity to the NSA got a big boost Wednesday.

In a bipartisan effort, Washington became first state with a physical NSA location to consider the Fourth Amendment Protection Act, designed to make life extremely difficult for the massive spy agency.   Continue reading “Washington First State With NSA Facility to Consider Prohibiting Cooperation with the Agency”

Huffington Post

Like Precalculus and Newton’s laws, Shakespeare’s plays are among the most groaned-about high school topics, begetting the complaint: “When will I ever need to know about this in real life?” Turns out, pretty often. Shakespeare can be credited for the invention of thousands of words that are now an everyday part of the English language (including, but not limited to, “eyeball,” “fashionable,” and “manager.”)

In addition to his being a particularly clever wordsmith, Shakespeare’s word invention can be credited to the fact that the English language as a whole was in a major state of flux during the time that he was writing. Colonization and wars meant that English speakers were borrowing more and more words from other languages.   Continue reading “13 Words You Probably Didn’t Know Were Invented By Shakespeare”

Huffington Post

Get ready to take that habit outside, e-cigarette smokers.

The Chicago City Council on Wednesday moved to ban the smoking of e-cigarettes in most indoor public spaces — including restaurants and bars — in addition to anywhere within 15 feet of a building entrance, just as traditional cigarettes are regulated under the city’s existing indoor smoking ban.   Continue reading “Chicago E-Cigarette Ban: Major City Adds E-Cigs To Public Smoking Ban”

RT News

Biotech titan Monsanto has made significant advances in the development of herbicide-tolerant wheat, the company announced recently, and could have the first-of-its-kind crop ready for farming in just a few years’ time.

Genetically-modified wheat isn’t legally approved anywhere in the world, but the billion-dollar St. Louis, Missouri-based agriculture company has for years been determined to develop the first GMO variety of the cash crop. Now Monsanto’s chief technology officer thinks the company is on the right track with regards to research.   Continue reading “Monsanto readies first-ever GMO wheat”

RT News

Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a branch of Homeland Security, logged about 700 covert drone operations on behalf of federal, state and local police agencies from 2010 to 2012, according to a civil-liberties group.

Unmanned aerial vehicles from the CBS fleet – the largest outside of the US Pentagon – are being used by outside law enforcement agencies much more often than previously believed, according to the findings of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit initiated by the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF).   Continue reading “US police employing border-patrol drones – and the videos are ‘top secret’”

Yahoo News

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Three Russian servicemen and four gunmen were killed in a shootout in southern Russia on Wednesday during a sweep for militants before the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Russia’s National Anti-terrorism Committee (NAC) said the dead gunmen included a man accused of carrying out a car bomb attack in the city of Pyatigorsk late last year which killed three people.   Continue reading “Russian security forces battle militants before Olympics”

Before It’s News – by Deborah Dupre

Throughout Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, the entire Louisiana sinkhole area that is monitored with helicorders recorded even higher than usual seismic activity than it has been recording. Widespread seismic activity has been occurring all along the edge of the Laurentia, the North American Craton.

Following the Puerto Rico earthquake and coinciding with the California strong quake at 1:35 this morning, the Louisiana Sinkhole in Assumption Parish recorded higher than usual seismic activity all Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, according to the official USGS helicorders monitored by seismologists.   Continue reading “Entire Louisiana Sinkhole Area Shook All Night, Big Methane Gas Gathering Worries Officials”

Charleston Voice- by Misoir

My fellow Americans, what you are about to read is not taught in your history books, said on television, or even known by virtually any American. Until today it was not even known by me but after extensive research the facts are, to say the least; shocking.

If you know me, as most on ATS do, I do try not to ‘pump things up’ beyond where they belong. So when I declare something to be shocking, unless you are a devout cynic or skeptic, this will shock you too.    Continue reading “Absolutely shocking facts about the Republican Party – They Are Today What They’ve Always Been”

Yahoo News – by Rob Garver, The Fiscal Times

Between 2002 and 2012, federal agencies spent more than half a trillion dollars ($688 billion) on payments that should never have been made.

Every year, according to their own recordkeeping, the agencies that administer major federal programs are now paying out more than $100 billion dollars improperly, and even though they’re aware of the problem, they recover only a tiny fraction for taxpayers. This adds up to huge losses for the U.S. Treasury.   Continue reading “Feds Blow $100 Billion Annually on Incorrect Payments”

MassPrivateI

A federal judge who endorsed “suspicion-less” searches of laptops, cameras and cell phones at the border has set up a possible Supreme Court showdown challenging what critics call “Constitution-free zones” and the Obama administration’s dragnet approach to national security.

A decision by Judge Edward Korman upholding the federal government’s right to search travelers’ electronic devices at or near the border conflicts with a similar ruling in California. That ruling requires a “reasonable suspicion” of criminal activity before agents can confiscate and examine personal photos, laptops and files. Korman’s ruling does not.   Continue reading “Judge gives ok to ‘Constitution-free zones’ within 100 miles of border”

World Events and the Bible

WEB Notes: The dictator in chief has done enough to help. We are hearing and reading of people’s healthcare premiums double and triple in price to the point where people are having to go without. And since when did America’s businesses ever need the help of the government? Their help only breaks our bank accounts. Meanwhile, he talks about a recovery that is an illusion. Currently, there are 91,800,000 people in America not in the workforce out of 320,000,000 men, woman and children. You call that a recovery?   Continue reading “Dictator Obama On Executive Actions: ‘I’ve Got A Pen And I’ve Got A Phone’”

Front Page Mag – by Daniel Greenfield 

Obama sent 1,600 Americans to die in Afghanistan but never believed in it or cared about it. The only military issue he did care about was gays in the military. And that’s according to his own Secretary of Defense.

This is what a liberal at war looks like.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates sharply questions President Obama’s “passion” for military matters in his forthcoming memoir, and claims that practically the only time he saw that in the president was during his push to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.”   Continue reading “Secretary of Defense: Only Military Issue Obama Cared About was Gays”

Kadena Air Base

Pacific Air Forces Command public affairs

1/13/2014 – JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii — Approximately 12 F-22 Raptors and about 300 personnel from Langley Air Force Base, Va., are set to deploy to Kadena AB in mid-January, demonstrating continuing U.S. commitment to stability and security in the Asia-Pacific Region.   Continue reading “F-22 Raptors deploying to Kadena Air Base, Japan”

Fox News

The FBI has so far found no evidence that would warrant the Justice Department filing criminal charges in its investigation into the IRS targeting scandal, federal officials confirm to Fox News.

The findings, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal, could intensify the debate over the scandal, in which the IRS allegedly targeted Tea Party and other conservative groups applying for non-exempt tax status for special scrutiny.   Continue reading “Officials say no evidence criminal charges warranted so far in IRS targeting probe”