From the Trenches World Report

Mail.com

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Serious Fraud Office has charged a former trader with conspiracy to defraud in the rigging of a benchmark interest rate.

The UK’s official financial crimes investigator says Tom Hayes, a former trader at UBS and Citigroup, was charged Tuesday as part of the investigation into the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR.   Continue reading “Trader charged in manipulation of Libor rate”

Mail.com

Should he zero in on Illinois’ deep pool of political corruption with the resolve of his predecessor, who sent two governors to prison? Or should he devote even more resources to the gang- and drug-related violence that has claimed hundreds of lives, including in neighborhoods near President Barack Obama’s own house?

The urgency of the question was highlighted by a weekend of violence that left seven people dead and more than three dozen wounded. But it’s unclear what, if anything, U.S. attorneys can do to stem the bloodshed that has not already been tried.   Continue reading “Chicago’s next US attorney faces urgent dilemma”

Mail.com

OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The FBI saw enough merit in a reputed Mafia captain’s tip to once again break out the digging equipment to search for the remains of former Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa, last seen alive before a lunch meeting with two mobsters nearly 40 years ago.

Tony Zerilli told his lawyer that Hoffa was buried beneath a concrete slab in a barn in a field in suburban Detroit in 1975. The barn no longer exists, and a full day of digging Monday turned up no sign of Hoffa. Federal agents resumed the search Tuesday morning.   Continue reading “Reputed Mafioso tip triggers new Hoffa body search”

Max Velocity Tactical

I received the following question by email:

“Would you discuss terrain analysis? How to use terrain to your advantage in the offense and defense. Thank you. I have just enough knowledge to get myself into trouble.”   Continue reading “Tactical Use of Terrain/Ground”

Mail.com

DETROIT (AP) — In one of the biggest-ever showdowns between an automaker and the government, Chrysler on Tuesday is expected to file papers explaining its refusal to recall 2.7 million older Jeep SUVs that are at risk of catching fire in rear-end collisions.

The government says 51 people have suffered fiery deaths in Jeep Grand Cherokees and Libertys that were hit from behind. Regulators claim that the position of the gas tank, behind the rear axle, makes the Jeeps more susceptible to a fiery crash than similar models.   Continue reading “Chrysler expected to formally refuse Jeep recall”

Mail.com

SYDNEY (AP) — Airborne laser technology has uncovered a network of roadways and canals, illustrating a bustling ancient city linking Cambodia’s famed Angkor Wat temple complex.

The discovery was announced late Monday in a peer-reviewed paper released early by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The laser scanning revealed a previously undocumented formally planned urban landscape integrating the 1,200-year-old temples.   Continue reading “Airborne laser reveals lost city around Angkor Wat”

CenturyLink – by JENNIFER PELTZ – Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Mel Wymore is a typical city council candidate in many ways, campaigning as a community board appointee, ex-PTA chair and founder of a roster of local organizations. But Wymore’s community-leader resume has an unusual feature: He built much of it while he was a woman.

If he wins, Wymore would be the first openly transgender officeholder in the nation’s biggest city and one of only a handful ever in the U.S., though his campaign isn’t emphasizing his personal story — or sidestepping it.   Continue reading “Transgender candidate could become a first in NYC”

Yahoo News – by ANI, Jan 30, 2013

London, Jan 30 (ANI): The Obama administration gave green signal to a chemical weapons attack plan in Syria that could be blamed on President Bashar al Assad’s regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country, leaked documents have shown.

A new report, that contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence, showed a scheme ‘approved by Washington’.   Continue reading “Flashback: US ‘backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria, blame it on Assad govt’: Report”

Be Your Own Leader – by Dana Gabriel

Canada’s prime minister recently addressed the CFR, a globalist think tank who have been a driving force behind the push towards deeper North American integration. The U.S. and Canada are now further advancing this agenda through the Beyond the Border agreement. Both countries are increasing bilateral border transportation and infrastructure coordination. This includes a common approach to border management, security and control. They are also integrating an information sharing system that would be used to track everyone crossing the U.S.-Canada border and entering or leaving the continent. Without much fanfare and seemingly little resistance, Canada is being assimilated into a U.S. dominated North American security perimeter.   Continue reading “Canada Being Assimilated Into a U.S. Dominated North American Security Perimeter”

Breitbart – by WILLIAM BIGELOW

The IRS may insist that you pay you taxes on time or they’ll come after you, but the agency isn’t quite so harsh when it comes to their own. The Treasury Inspector General (IG) for Tax Administration has revealed that in fiscal years 2010 and 2011, not only were there more than 1,000 employees who misused their government charge cards; there were 325 bad checks written by employees to cover their debts, and guess what? In 30 cases examined by the IG as a sample of the group, more than half were given “overly lenient treatment.” The IG’s report stated:    Continue reading “Over 1,000 IRS Workers Misused Govt Charge Cards, 325 Bad Checks Written”

Council for the National Interest – by Alison Weir

Gold Silver Worlds – by Gary Christenson

The official gold holdings (rounded numbers) of the US Treasury Dept. are as follows (link is here):   Continue reading “US Treasury Gold – Is It There?”

Veterans News Now – by James Petras

Introduction: The exposure of the Obama regime’s use of the National Security Agency to secretly spy on the communications of hundreds of millions of US and overseas citizens has provoked world-wide denunciations.

In the United States, despite widespread mass media coverage and the opposition of civil liberties organizations, there has not been any mass protest. Congressional leaders from both the Republican and Democratic Parties, as well as top judges, approved of the unprecedented domestic spy program.   Continue reading “The Deeper Meaning of Mass Spying in America”

Breitbart – by MIKE FLYNN

Sen. Barbara Boxer is planning an amendment to the Senate’s immigration bill which would redirect funds committed to border security to reimburse state and local governments providing health care to newly legalized immigrants. Boxer plans to take $250 million, and likely much more, out of border security and use it to underwrite uninsured immigrants health care costs.    Continue reading “Boxer: Redirect Border Funds for Immigrant Health Care”

Breitbart – by BEN SHAPIRO

Even as reports break about the size and scope of the National Security Agency’s vast data storage center in Utah, new details are emerging about a second massive NSA center in San Antonio, Texas. According to the Houston Chronicle, “Satellite and aerial imagery show that massive air conditioning units and backup generators have been added to the facility, which is now ringed by barbed-wire fencing. City permits and property tax records show that the complex has been dramatically expanded.” According to sources, the plant will supposedly translate intercepted communications from the NSA; the communications are then forwarded to Maryland for processing.   Continue reading “Massive San Antonio NSA Data Center Raises Eyebrows”

Reuters – by Gabriela Baczynska

Russia, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, will not permit no-fly zones to be imposed over Syria, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Monday.

“I think we fundamentally will not allow this scenario,” Lukashevich told a news briefing, adding that calls for a no-fly zone showed disrespect for international law.   Continue reading “Russia says it will not allow Syria no-fly zones”

Wake Up America – by Susan Duclos

Take guns away from law abiding citizens and criminals are the ones that benefit. That is how gun control works and it worked exactly like that last weekend in Chicago, Illinois, a state and city with some of the toughest gun control laws in the nation. Those gun control laws work so well that Chicago saw 47 people shot last weekend with eight killed.   Continue reading “Gun Control Works In Chicago, Leaves 47 Shot , Eight Dead, Over Weekend”

Federal Observer

What becomes of the limitations of the constitution, if the will of the people, thus inofficially promulgated, forms, for the time being, the supreme law, and the supreme exposition of the law? –  Joseph Story (Commentaries on the Constitution (1822)

Currently, between the state Senate and Assembly, California has forty-seven pieces of pending legislation which will somehow affect California gun owners…FORTY SEVEN! For instance, AB 180 would establish an ammunition tax on top of the sales tax already applied; and then there is AB 760, another law which would impose a $.05 per round tax upon all ammo sales; AB 231 would require that gun owners obtain firearm liability insurance; AB 500 would extend the firearm purchase waiting period; and SB 108 would establish MANDATORY storage requirements for guns in the home. These are just a few of the laws currently making their way through the system in Sacramento, all of which are designed to further restrict our right to keep and bear arms.   Continue reading “Ross: Audacity”