From the Trenches World Report

StratRisks – by QZ

Downtown Detroit has long been one of the nation’s worst housing markets. Home values have plummeted. Vacancies abound. And foreclosure numbers are through the roof. Not that that’s surprising; who’d want to live in a neighborhood with soaring unemployment and the highest rate of violent crime in the US?

The bad news for Detroiters is that the city’s bankruptcy will likely only deepen the decay of its downtown housing market.   Continue reading “Bottom Feeding: The latest Chinese investment craze, downtown Detroit housing”

Century Link

COLUMBUS, Ind. (AP) — A small, home-built plane piloted by an 81-year-old man crashed into a house Thursday in central Indiana, injuring the pilot and his passenger while a woman inside the home escaped unscathed before the aircraft’s wreckage burst into flames, authorities said.

The plane, piloted by Gerald H. Clayton of Columbus, crashed shortly after takeoff and plowed into the back of a house in a subdivision just south of Columbus Municipal Airport, said Columbus police Lt. Matt Myers.  Continue reading “Small plane crashes into house in central Indiana”

AmmoLand

Grand Junction, CO –(Ammoland.com)- Discharging a BB gun in the city limits of Grand Junction, Colorado (Pop. 50,000) is illegal.

In order to try to rid his area of an officially recognized invasive species, the Eurasian Dove which the State of Colorado allows to be hunted with no bag limit. James Shults requested a Discharge Permit to use a 30-year old Daisy BB gun to run the pest from his residence area and from neighbor’s areas with their permission.   Continue reading “CO Police Department Targets Local Resident After Applying for a BB Gun Permit”

Information Clearinghouse – by Jim Hightower

Even though Koch was raised rich and has now amassed a personal fortune of about $34 billion, he recently gave us a deeper sense of his true worth, measured not in dollars, but in values.

“We want to do a better job of raising up the disadvantaged and the poorest in this country,” he declared. Excellent thought — FDR couldn’t have put it better! Noting that a big problem for the poor is that the Powers That Be “keep throwing obstacles in their way,” Koch cut to the chase, saying, “We’ve got to clear those out.”   Continue reading “Blessed Are the Rich”

RT News

A military judge said early Thursday that she would not dismiss charges of theft against Army Private first class Bradley Manning. The soldier is expected to be sentenced next week for the largest intelligence leak in United States history.

Col. Denise Lind ruled from Ft. Meade, Maryland Thursday morning that she must reject the defense’s plea to acquit Pfc. Manning on five charges relating to the alleged robbery of government documents.   Continue reading “Judge refuses to acquit Manning on theft charges”

RT News

Following a surprisingly close vote on Capitol Hill Wednesday evening, the libertarian congressman who tried to stop the National Security Agency’s blanketing collection of domestic phone records vowed to further his fight against NSA surveillance.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Michigan) was unsuccessful with his attempt to tack an amendment on to an upcoming Pentagon appropriations bill Wednesday night that would have barred the NSA from using a PATRIOT Act provision to collect the phone records of all Americans. But despite being relatively new to DC politics, the 33-year-old lawmaker garnered support from both sides of the aisle before and after an evening of heated testimony that ended with a 205-217 vote that shut-down his amendment, co-sponsored by colleague Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan).   Continue reading “Amash vows to continue fighting against NSA surveillance”

Reuters – by David Jones and Jim Finkle

U.S. prosecutors charged six foreign nationals with hacking crimes, including credit and debit card thefts that authorities say cost U.S. and European companies more than $300 million in losses, and charged one of them with breaching Nasdaq computers.

Prosecutors said the indictments unsealed on Thursday for the payment card hacking were the biggest cyber fraud case filed in U.S. history.   Continue reading “U.S. charges five in biggest credit card hacking case”

Washington Post – by Jia Lynn Yang

Federal prosecutors unveiled criminal charges Thursday against SAC Capital, the famed hedge fund, citing “institutional practices” that encouraged a culture of using inside information to gain illegal profits.

The government charged SAC Capital with wire fraud and four counts of securities fraud. The indictment cites activity that spanned more than a decade from roughly 1999 to 2010, saying employees at the hedge fund engaged in a “pattern” of collecting nonpublic information about dozens of publicly traded companies.   Continue reading “U.S. files criminal fraud charges against SAC”

RT News

Portions of an airport in Miami, Florida were evacuated after depleted uranium was discovered early Thursday.

Firefighters cleared a 150-foot area of the Opa-locka Executive Airport in south Florida after a 55 gallon drum located either on or near part of a dismantled aircraft was discovered to be containing exposed, depleted uranium, NBC 6 South Florida reported.    Continue reading “Florida airport evacuated after depleted uranium discovered”

Political Outcast – by Philip Hodges

It’s been just over a year since James Holmes entered an Aurora, Colorado “gun-free” theater and shot up a bunch of defenseless movie-goers. Since then, gun control activists have capitalized off of the murder victims in their attempt to appeal to Americans’ emotions.

When that debate began to fizzle, Sandy Hook conveniently happened in a gun-free school, and since it involved more people and little kids, politicians were able to more effectively tug at America’s heartstrings to convince people that gun confiscation is really the most responsible thing to do to combat “gun violence.” But because of the evil gun lobby, even the “compromised” Manchin-Toomey bill failed in the Senate.   Continue reading “Pelosi: We Must Uphold Our Oath To The Constitution By Passing Gun Control”

SHTF Plan – by Tyler Durden

Presenting the full roll call breakdown of the Amash Amendment (as described previously) to shutter the NSA’s surveillance function.   Continue reading “These Are The 217 People Who Voted To Preserve NSA Surveillance”

The Common Sense Show – by Dave Hodges

Ed Snowden told us that we were being spied upon. Everyone, outside the sheep in this country already knew that. Therefore, it is child’s play to conclude that Snowden has damning information which could threaten the survival of the Obama administration. And the fact that Putin controls Snowden’s information release, is a threat to this President. In the years I have been investigating the antics of this criminal government, this is the easiest dot connecting exercise that I have ever seen.   Continue reading “Putin Controls the Chessboard, Obama’s In Deep Trouble”