From the Trenches World Report

Common Dreams – by Jon Queally

Last week, more than 550 groups, representing tens of millions of individual members, signed a letter to members of Congress urging them to vote against a push by President Obama for ‘fast track’ authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a so-called “free trade” now under negotation between the U.S. and eleven other Pacific rim nations.

The week before that, another 50 groups launched an energized online campaign called StopFastTrack.com in order to kill the TPP agreement—dubbed “NAFTA on steroids”—that they say “threatens everything you care about: democracy, jobs, the environment, and the Internet.” Continue reading “As TPP Opposition Soars, Corporate Media Blackout Deafening”

The Guardian

The world’s No 2 lorry-maker Volvo will increase its job cuts to 4,400, more than double its original plan, after currency effects and the cost of launching new models muted a rise in quarterly earnings.

But Sweden‘s biggest private sector employer also unveiled a stronger-than-expected order intake in the fourth quarter on growth in North America.   Continue reading “Volvo doubles job cuts to 4,400”

Active Response Training – by Greg Ellifritz

Amazon has a tremendous number of FREE ebooks on their website.  On average, you can find approximately 7000 free kindle books on Amazon’s site every day!  These books can be downloaded to a Kindle reader or your personal computer.  Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can download a free Kindle reader for your computer or phone HERE.  You can also convert any book to any other format using the free program CALIBRE.   Continue reading “Free Books – Part 52”

WGME 13 News

AUGUSTA (WGME) – Safety and security at your schools is firing up debate at the Maine State House. A new bill would make it a crime for students to have fake guns on school property.

Maine State Senator Dawn Hill (D-District 1) proposed a new law that would prohibit non-firing, replica firearms, in other words, fake guns, from being on or near school property. Students who are caught with them could be sent to jail for six months and fined up to $1,000.   Continue reading “Fake firearm bill fires up debate in Maine”

RT News

Some of the most drought-ravaged areas of the US are also heavily targeted for oil and gas development using hydraulic fracturing – a practice that exacerbates water shortages – according to a new report.

Three-quarters of the nearly 40,000 oil and gas wells drilled in the US since 2011 were located in areas of the country facing water scarcity, according to research by the Ceres investor network. Over half of those new wells were in areas experiencing drought conditions.   Continue reading “Fracking is draining water from US areas suffering major shortages – report”

RT News

Marijuana advocates in Alaska have obtained more than enough signatures to ensure voters there will have the opportunity this year to weigh-in on a measure that could legalize recreational marijuana, state officials admitted this week.

As of Tuesday, a petition that would let residents of the forty-ninth state vote to make pot legal for adults surpassed a 30,169 signature threshold, all but clearing the way for the issue to appear in ballot booths during elections there on August 19.   Continue reading “Alaska to vote on pot legislation this August”

RT News

An alliance of Native American communities has promised to block construction of the northern leg of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which, if approved by President Barack Obama, would carry crude tar sands oil from western Canada through the US to Texas.

In a joint statement entitled ‘No Keystone XL pipeline will cross Lakota lands,’ Honor the Earth, the Oglala Sioux Nation, Owe Aku, and Protect the Sacred declared their support for resistance action against energy corporation TransCanada’s building of the parts of the pipeline planned to cut through Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska before meeting with a constructed line in Kansas. The existing line would then move the crude tar sands through Oklahoma and into Texas for refineries on the Gulf Coast.   Continue reading “‘You shall not pass!’ Native American groups vow to block Keystone XL pipeline”

Sonoma County Gazette

Legislation authored by Senators Kevin De León (D-Los Angeles) and Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) to regulate the appearance of toy, imitation or “copycat” guns passed out of its first policy committee with a 4-1 vote.  In an effort to stem a reoccurring tragedy involving toys being mistaken for real firearms Senate Bill 199, the Imitation Firearm Safety Act, would amend California law to define what an imitation firearm is and what those imitations must look like to differentiate real guns from fake guns.  Currently, toy guns such as airsoft and bb guns are not included in California’s legal definition of imitation weapons.    Continue reading “Bill to Regulate Toy Guns Advances in CA Senate”

RT News

The teenager who killed four people in a drunk-driving incident escaped jail for a second time and was sent to a rehabilitation center. His defense used the ‘affluenza’ strategy, insisting his privileged upbringing made the teen reckless.

‘Affluenza’, commonly viewed as selfish, immature behavior caused by a consumerist upbringing, is not recognized by the American Psychiatric Association as an official illness or diagnosis. The term – a portmanteau of ‘affluence’ and’ influenza’ – was coined in the 1970s and once again garnered attention in the mid-noughties, with psychologist Oliver James releasing a book on the subject.   Continue reading “Texas ‘affluenza’ teen who killed 4 in drunk driving avoids prison again”

Mail.com

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Wild West tradition of openly carrying your six-shooter on the street has long been banned in Texas under state law. But the next governor could change that.

Rising Democratic star and gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis has joined her top Republican rival in supporting a proposed “open carry” law. It would allow people with concealed handgun licenses to wear a pistol on their hip, in full view, while in public.   Continue reading “Next Texas governor supports open carry law”

Mail.com

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Chuck Herron heard the loud thud, then another and another. It sounded like someone was dropping big snowballs on the roof of his home.

The house is more than 100 years old and creaks, Herron said, but he had “never heard anything like that before.” As his neighbors in tiny Paris, Mo., huddled around televisions Sunday for the Super Bowl, many were startled by similar strange noises. Some even saw flashes of light and called 911.   Continue reading “Mysterious noises traced to rare ‘frost quakes’”

Mail.com

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Police say Judy Lynn Hayman’s luck ran out after 37 years on the run not because of an intense manhunt but rather two disparate factors: bad weather that kept an investigator at his desk and her distinctive eyes that had never changed since her mug shot was taken.

San Diego police arrested the 60-year-old woman Monday at her San Diego apartment after receiving a mug shot from Michigan, where an officer staying off icy roads sent fingerprint cards for all old escapees to the FBI.   Continue reading “Disparate factors led to fugitive’s arrest”

The Truth – by Michael Snyder

When a real terrorist attack happens, sometimes we don’t hear about it until months afterward (if we ever hear about it at all).  For example, did you know that a team of snipers shot up a power station in California?  The terrorists destroyed 17 transformers and did so much damage that the power station was shut down for a month.  And it only took them 19 minutes of shooting to do it.  Of course most Americans have absolutely no idea that this ever happened, because they get their news from the mainstream media.  The chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at that time says that this was “the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred”, and yet you won’t hear about it on the big news networks.  They are too busy covering the latest breaking news on the Justin Bieber scandal.   Continue reading “In 19 Minutes, A Team Of Snipers Destroyed 17 Transformers At A Power Station In California”

Bloomberg – by Joshua Brustein

Banks have been consistently uninterested in providing financial services to poorer Americans, but others are increasingly jumping at the chance to do so. The latest is the United States Postal Service (pdf), whose inspector general published a paper last week detailing how serving the so-called unbanked with savings accounts and small-scale loans could provide a valuable public service while shoring up the finances of the vulnerable agency.   Continue reading “Would the U.S. Postal Service Make a Better Banker for the Poor?”

The Blaze – by Jason Howerton

A former Republican lawmaker has contacted the FBI over allegations that Cover Oregon project managers misled the federal government about the progress of the state health insurance exchange in order to get millions of dollars in funding.

More specifically, KATU-TV reports that project managers allegedly “initiated the design of dummy web pages to convince the federal government the project was further along than it actually was.”   Continue reading “‘If It’s True, Someone’s Going to Prison’: Serious Allegations Hit Oregon’s State Health Insurance Exchange”

Small Thoughts for a Complex World – by C. Jeffery Small

Tick … Tick … Tick … Tick …   Continue reading “A Life of One’s Own? — Fugget About It!”

Breitbart – by WARNER TODD HUSTON

On February 3, news emerged that the city of Chicago, now run by former Obama right-hand man Rahm Emanuel, is issuing $900 million in bonds, $100 million of which is going directly to pay off plaintiffs of lawsuits against the city.

The city is attempting to issue the $900 million in bonds to lower some of its borrowing costs and to double its short-term credit line to $1 billion. But fully $100 million of that debt burden is going to pay off lawsuits, much of it to plaintiffs who won judgments against the city in police brutality cases.   Continue reading “Chicago Issues $100 Million in Bonds to Settle Police Brutality Cases”

MassPrivateI

FOIA request by Muclrock: DEA policies on “parallel construction”

Drug Enforcement Administration training documents released to MuckRock user C.J. Ciaramella show how the agency constructs two chains of evidence to hide surveillance programs from defense teams, prosecutors, and a public wary of domestic intelligence practices.   Continue reading “DEA manuals show how they train police to construct false chains of evidence”