From the Trenches World Report

Scientific American

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese authorities have given courts the powers to hand down the death penalty in serious pollution cases, state media said, as the government tries to assuage growing public anger at environmental desecration.

An increasingly affluent urban population has begun to object to China’s policy of growth at all costs, which has fuelled the economy for three decades, with the environment emerging as a focus of concern and protests.   Continue reading “China Threatens Death Penalty for Serious Polluters”

ACLU – by Nusrat Choudhury

The government does not have the unchecked authority to place individuals on a secret blacklist without providing them any meaningful opportunity to object, the ACLU argued in a brief filed last Friday with the federal district court in Oregon.

We made the filing in Latif v. Holder, our lawsuit asserting that the government violated the Fifth Amendment due process rights of 13 Americans, including four military veterans, by placing them on the No Fly List and refusing to give them any after-the-fact explanation or a hearing at which they can clear their names.   Continue reading “The Constitution Applies When the Government Bans Americans From the Skies”

CNN – by Bruce Schneier

Today, the United States is conducting offensive cyberwar actions around the world.

More than passively eavesdropping, we’re penetrating and damaging foreign networks for both espionage and to ready them for attack. We’re creating custom-designed Internet weapons, pre-targeted and ready to be “fired” against some piece of another country’s electronic infrastructure on a moment’s notice.   Continue reading “Has U.S. started an Internet war?”

Here is another suspicious death from 2011. According to the official story,  she was “acutely intoxicated” at 5am while leaving her house for an appointment.  After passing out, the headlights of her car ignited antifreeze from her radiator.  – so they claim.

The Washington Post – by Paul Duggan, Anne Kornblut and Theola Labbé-DeBose, 01/10/2011   Continue reading “Flashback: Ashley Turton, former Hill aide, dead in burning car”

Ria Novosti

MOSCOW, June 22 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow made a new attempt to dodge a $4-billion lawsuit from Tehran over a failed deal to supply S-300 missile systems by offering another type of air defense system to Iran, Kommersant daily said Saturday.

The new offer on the table is Antei-2500, aka S-300VM, or SA-23 Gladiator in NATO nomenclature, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources in the Russian arms trade industry. The missile defense system can simultaneously destroy up to 24 aircraft within the range a range of 200 kilometers or intercept up to 16 ballistic missiles.   Continue reading “Russia Offers Iran New Replacement for S-300 – Paper”

Wake Up America – by Susan Duclos

It isn’t often a far leftist liberal Democrat gets booed at the liberal annual conference the Netroots Nation, but it happened to Nancy Pelosi as she tried to defend Barack Obama’s domestic spying program.

Via Politico:   Continue reading “Pelosi Booed At Netroots Nation 2013 For Defending Obama’s Domestic Spying”

Marian’s Hunting Stories

Recently in Jamison City, PA, a young bear was rescued with his head stuck in a jar.  Four central Pennsylvania residents said they used only a rope and a flashlight during a wild chase to rescue a young bear whose head had been stuck in a plastic jar for at least 11 days.

The frightened but powerful bruin fell into a swimming pool at least twice during the ordeal.  But the group eventually yanked off the jar and set the animal free.   Continue reading “Stuck Bear Head-In-A-Jar”

Philosophers Stone

‘A large fleet named “Mol Comfort” carrying Arms for FSA from the U.S. has crashed in the Indian Ocean as it made its way from Singapore to Jeddah, on board were 4,500 containers loaded with arms for the Syrian rebels’

‘MOL Comfort sank due to yet unclear reasons, sailing from Singapore to Jeddah and after that to North Europe, leaving behind hundreds of drifting containers and a huge aftershock hitting liner sector and all of the maritime industry.   Continue reading “Container Ship Carrying Weapons for Syrian Rebels Splits in Half/Sinks”

News Observer – by David Ranii

RALEIGH — Heart-rending stories of lives cut short by guns fueled an impassioned rally in support of “common-sense” firearms laws Saturday in downtown’s Moore Square.

Passions ran equally high across the street, where supporters of the Second Amendment exercised their First Amendment rights by chanting slogans such as “Guns Save Lives!”   Continue reading “Gun regulation issue sparks passion on both sides in Raleigh”

Biz Pac – by Janeen Capizola

A conservative blogger has uncovered potentially explosive information that may cause big ethical and legal problems for New York City Mayor Michael Bloombergand his gun control group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

Blogger John Ekdahl from the conservative website Ace of Spades HQ recently discovered that the group’s website is registered to the city of New York and hosted on the city’s government servers.   Continue reading “New Yorkers cry foul, question ‘Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ use of city resources”

CBS New York

U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) on Saturday called on the city to waive water fees for Superstorm Sandy victims on Staten Island who have been billed despite using little or no water.

“All the city needs to do is take all the people who were deferred and check their status,” Grimm told WCBS 880. “If they are not in their homes and they haven’t been able to rebuild yet – for whatever reason – and they can look at the meter, there’s been no water usage whatsoever – then instead of deferring those payments, they should simply waive them.”   Continue reading “Rep. Grimm To City: Stop Billing Sandy Victims For Water They Can’t Use”

Cleveland.com – by Philip Morris

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Burt Saltzman, chairman of Dave’s Markets, knows as much as anyone about the way this town really eats.

The dean of Cleveland’s grocery business is 76 but can still be caught bagging groceries at the chain’s flagship store on Payne Avenue. He’s a throwback to a time when people knew their butchers and didn’t buy their groceries and electronics at the same store.   Continue reading “America’s mayors should stay out of poor people’s kitchens”

Human Events – by J Snyder

More than two dozen national and regional groups of American citizens over the weekend called for a federal investigation of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In a letter to Michael J. Sullivan, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the 26 organizations, through the auspices of the Liberty Coalition in Washington, D.C., called upon BATFE “to immediately investigate and prosecute New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his associates for conspiring to violate the federal Gun Control Act of 1968 as amended by the Brady Act of 1995.”   Continue reading “Bloomberg Under Fire From Gun Groups”

Red Orbit

The phone numbers and email addresses of nearly six million Facebook users were accidentally exposed as the result of a year-long data leak, officials from the social network confirmed on Friday.

Facebook officials blamed the release of the contact information, which started back in 2012, on a technical glitch in a system which allows individuals to upload contact lists or address books, Reuters and USA Today have reported.   Continue reading “Facebook Glitch Exposed Phone Numbers, Email Addresses Of Millions Of Users”

National Post

CALGARY — After watching Calgary and its neighbours struggle to cope with a catastrophic flood that has killed at least three people, communities downstream are bracing for their own crisis.

Water levels are rising in Medicine Hat, while officials with Saskatchewan’s Water Security Agency are preparing for the possibility of an evacuation order for the community of Cumberland House by Monday.   Continue reading “RCMP confirm three dead in Alberta floods that forced 100,000 to evacuate”