From the Trenches World Report

WND – by AARON KLEIN

TEL AVIV – Under the interim deal between Iran and Western powers, Tehran’s economy could be flooded with untold billions in sanctions relief and other gains, far more than the widely reported amount of $6 to $7 billion.

In fact, the final text of the deal does not specify any dollar amount for sanctions relief. It leaves the U.S. and Europe open to unfreezing more funds and facilitating an unspecified amount in other transactions and sales.   Continue reading “Deal opens Iran economy to untold billions”

The Columbus Dispatch – by Patrick Temple-West and Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration proposed new rules yesterday to rein in tax-exempt groups that have transformed the political landscape by harnessing hundreds of millions of dollars in anonymous donations to influence elections.

The proposal would alter definitions in the tax code that allow limited campaign and fundraising activities by the tax-exempt groups, some of which have been at the center of allegations that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative tea party groups for extra scrutiny.   Continue reading “New rules proposed for some tax-exempt groups”

NBC 11 Alive News – by Rebecca Lindstrom

DECATUR, Ga. — A new online juror questionnaire offered by the DeKalb County Court listed “slave” as an occupational option.

Court Administrator Cathy McCumber told 11Alive, the questionnaire went online a month ago, but is based off an internal list that’s been used for 13 years.

She says the list is 62 pages long, so she’s not sure if the word slave has always been on it, or if it was added before the questionnaire went online.     Continue reading “DeKalb County, GA juror form lists “slave” as occupation”

MassPrivateI

Texas – The Fort Worth Police Dept. found itself on the receiving end of lots of criticism for its participation in a “voluntary” collection of blood and saliva samples for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) survey.

For one thing, having a squad of police officers flag you down and route you into a nearby parking space never feels “voluntary,” no matter how easy it is to opt out once you’re pulled over. For another, the paperwork signed by “volunteers” contained fine print that indicated consent had been assumed for the PD to “collect” information on the driver’s state of intoxication with passive alcohol sensors.    Continue reading “Police offer B/S apology for their assistance in DNA roadblock ‘survey’”

RT News

Tehran has strongly rejected Washington’s interpretation of the long-awaited interim nuclear agreement reached by the P5+1 nations in Geneva, as Iran’s Foreign Ministry labeled the factsheet released by the US a “one-sided interpretation.”

The agreement, reached over the weekend in Geneva, outlines a framework for continued negotiations with Tehran, including a deal which is yet to be finalized. However, Iran now claims that the American factsheet, posted a few hours after the deal was announced on the website of the White House, has omitted some key points and is misleading the public by adjusting the language of the original agreement.   Continue reading “Iran: White House gave false details of nuclear agreement”

The New American – by Bob Adelmann

When Jeff Klee was asked by a client if his travel agency,CheapAir.com, would accept Bitcoins, he admitted he didn’t even know what they were. He didn’t know that thousands of merchants were already accepting them in payment for services and products, such as WordPress, OKCupid, and even Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic on which Klee no doubt had already booked some of his clients.

Once he learned what they were, and found a digital “wallet” — Coinbase — to help him manage the transactions, he saw the marketing advantage: “We expect people to come to us especially because they can use Bitcoin.” Klee isn’t taking much of a risk as more than 14,000 merchants already use Coinbase, which has opened up nearly half a million Bitcoin wallets for its customers. Said Klee: “If you have a lot of people accepting it, it becomes a useful and legitimate form of payment.”   Continue reading “The Bitcoin Continues to Gain Credibility From Merchants and the Fed”

NBC Montana

HELENA, Mont. – A Montana judge is hitting an elusive political group with a $260,000 fine for failing to disclose campaign spending.
The civil penalty levied against American Tradition Partnership demonstrates that new campaign freedoms extended to corporations don’t make them immune to state disclosure laws.   Continue reading “Judge hits ‘dark money’ group with big penalty”

Lew Rockwell – by Hunter Lewis, Mises.org

This is an adaptation of chapter 10 from Hunter Lewis’s book Crony Capitalism in America: 2008-2012.

During the presidential campaign of 2012, an online commentator observed that President Obama had not met with his Jobs Council for six months. How could this be, the commentator asked, when jobs were foremost on the president’s agenda? The answer was not hard to discover.    Continue reading “General Electric’s Crony Capitalism”

ABC News – by PABLO GORONDI Associated Press

The price of oil dropped to near $93 a barrel on Monday as a deal between Iran and six world powers on the country’s nuclear program made it more likely that sanctions choking Iranian oil exports will be lifted.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark U.S. crude for January delivery was down $1.44 at $93.40 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, the contract fell 60 cents to close at $94.84.   Continue reading “Oil Prices Drop Sharply After Iran Nuclear Deal”

CNN – by Catherine E. Shoichet and Rafael Romo

Mexican authorities set free a former teen cartel hit man on Tuesday and sent him back to the United States.

The release of Edgar Jimenez Lugo, a U.S. citizen known as “El Ponchis” or “The Cloak,” comes less than three years after a Mexican court found him guilty of torturing and beheading at least four people and kidnapping three others as an operative for the South Pacific Cartel.   Continue reading “Mexico: Teen hit man freed, sent to U.S.”

The Courant – by Jenny Wilson

CNN – by Catherine E. Shoichet

Gail Sandidge rushed to help when screams rang out during a stabbing at a Texas medical center on Tuesday.

Horrified patients and family members watched as a man stabbed the nurse in the chest.

“She was just saying…’I’m hurt. He got me,'” witness Jana Jackson told CNN affiliate KLTV. “And that’s when we realized there was blood all on the front of her scrubs.”   Continue reading “Nurse dies protecting patients in Texas surgical center stabbing”

Dallas News – by Robert Wilonsky

One week after workers removed the X that marked the spot on Elm Street where President John Kennedy was gunned down on November 22, 1963, it has returned.

And, says 1500 Marilla spokesman Frank Librio, the city has no intention of removing this X or any other — at least, for the time being.   Continue reading “In Dealey Plaza, the X that marked the spot on Elm Street where Kennedy was killed has returned”

Fox News

Three teenage sisters have been rescued from an Arizona home after reportedly being held captive for two years.

Police tell TucsonNewsNow.com the girls, ages 12, 13 and 17, were discovered after the younger two escaped to a neighbor’s house and claimed their stepfather had threatened them with a knife.   Continue reading “3 teenage sisters reportedly held captive in Arizona home for 2 years”

American Free Press – by Keith Johnson

While the National Security Agency (NSA) spying scandal continues to grab national headlines, the equally egregious intelligence gathering on United States citizens by Israeli security firms has virtually flown under the radar.

A recent article in Rolling Stone magazine, entitled “Meet the Private Companies Helping Cops Spy on Protesters,” comes close to scratching the surface by identifying the four major security contractors that have been aggressively hawking their invasive surveillance products at various trade shows and police conferences throughout the nation. However, they fail to mention that at least two of those companies are owned and operated by members of a foreign nation with a long and notorious history of spying on the U.S. government and its citizens.   Continue reading “Israeli Data Spies Have Eyes Focused on U.S. Citizens”

Sydney Morning Herald

The Justice Department has all but concluded it will not bring charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for publishing classified documents because government lawyers said they could not do so without also prosecuting US news organisations and journalists, United States officials say.

The officials stressed that a formal decision has not been taken and a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks remains impanelled, but they said there is little possibility of bringing a case against the Australian, who has sought asylum in the Ecuadoran embassy in London, unless he is implicated in criminal activity other than releasing online top secret military and diplomatic documents.   Continue reading “Julian Assange unlikely to be charged in US”