From the Trenches World Report

RT News

The US government made enough profit from student loans in the last year to provide full Pell Grants of over $5,600 to 7.3 million students. But, like many government financial issues, accounting methods complicate the story.

The $41.3 billion student-loan profit for the 2013 fiscal year – which ended on Sept. 30 – is actually down by $3.6 billion from 2012, but still enough to out-profit all but two global companies, Exxon Mobil and Apple.    Continue reading “US government “profits” from student loans in 2013 surpassed $41 billion”

RT News

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has become the first city in the United States to officially ban the use of 3D printers to manufacture firearms, only six months after a Texas-based company published digital blueprints for a homemade handgun.

The 10-member City Council announced last week that its members unanimously approved a first-of-its-kind measure that makes it illegal for anyone within the city to “use a three-dimensional printer to create any firearm, or any piece or part thereof, unless such person possesses a license to manufacture firearms under federal law.”   Continue reading “First ban in the country: 3D-printed guns now illegal in Philadelphia”

RT News

Two US military B-52 bombers flew over territorially-disputed islands in the East China Sea without informing China, while two of Japan’s largest airlines also refused to comply with the rules of Beijing’s newly set up air defense zone.

ANA Holdings and Japan Airlines said they made the decision following a Japanese government request, Reuters reports.   Continue reading “B-52 bombers over disputed islands as Japan and US snub Beijing’s new air defense zone”

Statesman – by Ciara O’Rourke

The parents of a Cedar Creek High student who is in a coma after he was shocked by a Taser at the school this week are fearful he could die, a lawyer for the family said Friday.

Adam Loewy, who is representing 17-year-old Noe Nino de Rivera’s family, said the teen has a traumatic brain injury as a result of falling and hitting his head after a Bastrop County sheriff’s deputy shocked him with a Taser during a fight at the school Wednesday.   Continue reading “Lawyer: Family of Cedar Creek student shocked by Taser worried he will die”

Wake Up World – by Lissa Rankin MD

You know that when you’re getting chased by a tiger, you’re almost in a car accident, your “to do” list is overflowing, and you’re burning the candle at both ends, your body’s “fight-or-flight” stress responses are going to get triggered. But you might not know what else will trigger stress responses in your body, and it’s important that you do!

As I explain in Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself, the body has natural self-repair mechanisms that can fight cancer, prevent infection, repair broken proteins, protect your coronary arteries, and retard aging. But whenever the nervous system is in “fight-or-flight,” the body’s natural self-repair mechanisms are disabled!   Continue reading “10 Surprising Things That Trigger “Fight-Or-Flight””

Video Rebel’s Blog

The 911 Consensus Project has developed a list of 37 questions that are designed to undo the lies the government and the media require us to believe to be admitted into polite society. Today I want to examine questions 29 thru 37. We begin with Mohamed Atta’s trip to Portland

29) Mohamed Atta’s Mysterious Trip to Portland   Continue reading “911 Consensus Points Contradict The Government Lies Part III”

The Daily Caller – by Caroline May

The bungled rollout of President Obama’s signature health care law might have kept the president away from Gettysburg, but it has not kept him off the links or away from the fundraising circuit.

Since the launch of the HealthCare.gov on October 1, Obama has gone golfing five times and attended ten fundraisers — with five more scheduled for the beginning of this week — while Obamacare’s favorability has hit all time lows.   Continue reading “Obama makes room for fundraisers, golf in his schedule despite Obamacare troubles”

Acquired?  Sounds more like the state stole the property.

BDN.com

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO. — Missouri’s park system has bought a Shannon County campground from the federal government that had been forfeited after its former owner was convicted on a drug charge.

Missouri State Parks bought the more than 300-acre property known as Camp Zoe at auction for $640,000 plus closing costs. The online auction began last month and ended Friday, said the park system’s director, Bill Bryan.   Continue reading “Missouri State Parks acquires Camp Zoe”

The Daily Caller – by Robby Soave

Annie Dookhan, a chemist for the Massachusetts police, was sentenced to three to five years in prison after committing a fraud so extensive that her crimes call into question the validity of over 40,000 convictions.

Dookhan worked in a laboratory examining evidence in drug cases. She was a go-to analyst for law enforcement and prosecutors, thanks to her rapid turnaround time and penchant for delivering much-needed drug evidence to score convictions.   Continue reading “In doubt: 40,000 convictions, thanks to police chemist’s unbelievable fraud”

MassPrivateI

A February 2012 document called ‘SIGINT Strategy 2012-2016’ outlines exactly what the NSA plans to “dominate” the world’s Internet and telecom networks.

1. Strong commercial encryption works — and the NSA is trying to destroy it. A major goal outlined in the blueprint is to “Counter the challenge of ubiquitous, strong, commercial network encryption.” One of the ways it plans to do so is by using human spies to influence and weaken encryption standards at tech companies. Or in NSA speak, it plans to “counter indigenous cryptographic programs by targeting their industrial bases with all available SIGINT and HUMINT capabilities.” (HUMINT means ‘human intelligence’, or spies.) Continue reading “The NSA’s plans to “dominate” the world’s Internet and telecom networks”

Washington Post – by Tim Craig and Karen DeYoung

KABUL — Efforts by the United States and Afghanistan to finalize a long-term security arrangement appeared on the brink of collapse Monday as Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a new set of demands, and the Obama administration said it would be forced to begin planning for a complete withdrawal of U.S. forces at the end of 2014.In a two-hour meeting here, Susan E. Rice, President Obama’s top national security adviser, told Karzai that if he failed to sign the bilateral security agreement by the end of this year, the United States would have “no choice” but to prepare for withdrawal, according to a statement by the National Security Council in Washington.   Continue reading “Karzai tells Susan Rice of more demands for accord extending U.S. troop presence”

MassPrivateI

The presentation lists license plate readers, facial recognition and field fingerprint scanning as potential uses of the Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications System Authority (BayRICS) network.

The East Bay Regional Communications System Authority (EBRCSA) was officially created on September 11, 2007 with the formation of a Joint Powers Authority (JPA).  In California State Statute, a JPA is viewed as an independent governmental agency with the same powers that accrue to one of the member agencies. Currently there are 43 member agencies consisting of both counties, 30 cities, 6 special districts, 3 Colleges, Dublin-San Ramon Services District and the California Department of Transportation serving a population of over 2.5 million people.  The Board of Directors is made up of 23 representatives consisting of Elected Officials, Police Chiefs, Fire Chiefs, and City Managers who will be responsible for the overall development, operations and funding of the system.   Continue reading “The San Francisco Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications Systems Authority (BayRICS) Facial Recognition Presentation”

New York Times – by KEN STERN

WASHINGTON — BY all outward indications, the U.S. Navy Veterans Association was a leader in the charitable community. Founded in 2002 to provide support to Navy veterans in need, the charity recorded astonishing financial success. In its first eight years, it raised around $100 million in charitable contributions, almost all of it through a direct marketing campaign. The organization, headed by Jack L. Nimitz, boasted of 41 state chapters and some 66,000 members.

This would be a great story of charitable success, except for the fact that virtually everything about the association turned out to be false: no state chapters, no members, no leader with the name redolent of naval history. Instead, there was one guy: a man calling himself Bobby Thompson who worked from a duplex across the street from the Cuesta-Rey cigar factory in the Ybor City neighborhood of Tampa.   Continue reading “The Charity Swindle”

RT News

In the early stages of the ‘War on Terror,’ CIA agents at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility turned detainees into double agents, helping the US to track and kill terrorists, according to US officials.

For some Gitmo detainees, held prisoner on a US military base in the middle of shark-infested waters, the promise of freedom in return for helping the CIA root out terrorists back home may have proven too much of a temptation.    Continue reading “Welcome to Penny Lane: CIA secret Gitmo camp for recruiting double agents”

Eric Peter’s Autos – by Eric

Every once in awhile, some good news.

Maybe.

The Environmental Protection Agency – usually strident, ideological and unreasonable – has suggested doing something reasonable: It has proposed reducing the total amount (and the percentage) of ethanol adulteration of gasoline.

Probably because it’s unavoidably necessary – to cover up a burgeoning debacle (think Obamacare and the delayed rollout of certain aspects of it).   Continue reading “The Corn Lobby Loses One . . . Maybe”

Gun Owners of America

Last Thursday, November 21, is a day that will live in infamy.

Harry Reid pulled the trigger on the “nuclear option” — a process whereby 52 Senate Democrats voted to change the Senate rules by brute force.  (See the vote here, where “YEA” was the pro-gun vote.)

He did this for the ostensible purpose of packing the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals with three anti-gun judges — one of which (Robert Wilkins) has held that the Second Amendment doesn’t protect the right to purchase firearms, just the right to possess them.   Continue reading “A Day That Will Live in Infamy”