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WASHINGTON (AP) — An American man who is marking four years in prison in Cuba has written a letter to President Barack Obama asking the president to get personally involved in securing his release.

Alan Gross was arrested four years ago Tuesday while working covertly in the Communist-run country to set up Internet access for the island’s small Jewish community, access that bypassed local restrictions. At the time, he was working as a subcontractor for the U.S. government’s U.S. Agency for International Development, which works to promote democracy on the island.   Continue reading “US man marks 4 years in Cuban prison, writes Obama”

Onyango Obama, President Barack Obama's Kenyan-born uncle, arrives at U.S. Immigration Court for a deportation hearing Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013 in Boston. He has lived in the United States since the 1960s, when he came here as a teenager to attend school. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)Yahoo News – by DENISE LAVOIE

BOSTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s Kenyan-born uncle, who ignored a deportation order more than two decades ago, on Tuesday was granted permission to stay in the United States.

Judge Leonard Shapiro made the decision after Onyango Obama, 69, testified that he had lived in the U.S. for 50 years, been a hard worker, paid income tax and been arrested only once.   Continue reading “Obama’s Kenyan-born uncle allowed to remain in US”

AccuWeather – by Michael Doll

A storm may evolve into an all-out blizzard, unleashing snow, high winds and reducing visibility across the northern tier of the U.S.

Treacherous travel conditions and dangerous cold are expected across the Rockies, northern Plains and Upper Midwest through midweek.   Continue reading “Wind-Driven Snow to Bury Central Rockies, Midwest”

4USA Watchdog – by Greg Hunter

Author/journalist Ellen Brown is constantly warning the public about the harm banks and corporations are causing.  Her latest warning involves GMO foods (Genetically Modified Organisms) laced with a weed killer.  Brown says, “We’re not allowed to know our food is GMO . . . Glyphosate inhibits your enzymes to digest food  . . . it’s been linked to 40 different diseases.”  Brown says GMO food and many other things are part of the latest trade agreement called the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP.  Brown says, “It is supposedly a free trade agreement, but it is not really free trade.  It is more like a restrictive trade agreement.  In other words, it is imposing corporate monopolies on other countries and on us.”     Continue reading “GMO Food Laced with Weed Killer and Bail-ins-Ellen Brown”

Opium field in AfghanistanCNS News – by Ali Meyer

After 12 years of occupation by U.S. military forces, Afghanistan set a record for growing opium poppies in 2013, according to newly released data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

“Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan reached a sobering record high in 2013,” said the UNODC. “According to the 2013 Afghanistan Opium Survey, cultivation amounted to some 209,000 hectares, outstripping the earlier record in 2007 of 193,000 hectares, and representing a 36 per cent increase over 2012.”   Continue reading “After 12 Yrs of U.S. Occupation, Afghanistan Sets Record for Growing Opium”

hot waxThe Daily Sheeple – by Lily Dane

A Dallas woman waxed a would-be thief who pulled a knife on her and demanded her bag and money.

Teresa Mendez was walking home on Sunday night when the man approached her. She told him she didn’t have any money or a purse with her, so he went for her bag.

Mendez is a beautician and the bag she was carrying was full of supplies from her salon.   Continue reading “Woman Uses Unlikely Weapon to Fight Off Thief”

The deadliest weapon in the Russian Marine’s arsenalIndrus – by Anton Valagin, Rossiyskaya Gazeta

The Russian Marines operate assault ships, which deliver the ‘Black Death (as the Marines are called)’ to the battlefield. These vessels have landing ramps at the bow and stern. Troops and military hardware are loaded onto the vessel via the stern ramp in port, while the forward ramp is used to disembark troops and equipment directly into the water, or even onto land given a suitable shore (the bow is ballasted down for this reason). The craft are able to land troops and equipment in a force four gale.  Continue reading “The deadliest weapon in the Russian Marine’s arsenal”

ARS Technica – by Casey Johnston

The company E2V has developed a prototype device that uses a radio-frequency pulse to shut down a car’s engine at range, according to a report from the BBC. While the range of the device is fairly short, it worked on a handful of cars and motorbikes and could also potentially be used on boats.

The product, named the RF Safe-stop, works by sending an RF pulse to a car at up to 50 meters (164 feet) away. The pulse “confuses” the car’s electronic systems, which the BBC said made the “dashboard warning lights and dial [behave] erratically.” The engine then stalls, and the car comes to a stop. How safely and quickly the vehicle would stop depends on the vehicle, and this technique would not work on older vehicles.   Continue reading “New product shuts car engines off with a radio pulse”

Technica – by Dan Goodin

Serial hacker Samy Kamkar has released all the hardware and software specifications that hobbyists need to build an aerial drone that seeks out other drones in the air, hacks them, and turns them into conscripted army of unmanned vehicles under the attacker’s control.

Dubbed SkyJack, the contraption uses a radio-controlled Parrot AR.Drone quadcopter carrying a Raspberry Pi circuit board, a small battery, and two wireless transmitters. The devices run a combination of custom software and off-the-shelf applications that seek out wireless signals of nearby Parrot drones, hijack the wireless connections used to control them, and commandeer the victims’ flight-control and camera systems. SkyJack will also run on land-based Linux devices and hack drones within radio range. At least 500,000 Parrot drones have been sold since the model was introduced in 2010.   Continue reading “Risk Assessment / Security & Hacktivism Flying hacker contraption hunts other drones, turns them into zombies”

hqdefaultMax Velocity Tactical

I recently posted about ‘More on the SWAT Threat‘. I am enjoying the fact that my posts are generating some really good comments from a generally high quality of commenter right now. I am beginning to see myself as just the initiator of a discussion: Pose a post, step back: “Discuss!”

However, the SWAT post generated a bit of doom and gloom and it was described as a realistic but gloomy post. Well, not one to give you problems without solutions, that is why I am writing today. Here is one comment that just came in, with my response:   Continue reading “Doom, Defeat & Solutions”

Landry ThompsonHuffington Post –  by David Moye

A dance student from Tulsa, Okla., on a trip to Houston was taken into custody on Saturday after she was discovered in her instructor’s car.

Landry Thompson, 13, was visiting Houston with her dance instructor, Emmanuel Hurd, to take a series of dance classes from top industry professionals.

On the way back to their hotel with Thompson and another dancer, Hurd, who also goes by the name Emmanuel Cross, stopped at a gas station to get his bearings.   Continue reading “Landry Thompson, 13, Taken Into Custody After Dozing Off In Dance Instructor’s Car”