NEWS FOR 2/2/2015 Monday February 2nd 2015

OBAMACARE A COMPLETE FAILURE MEANT TO DESTROY THE MIDDLE CLASS CONTINUES TO BE ADMITTED


Millions of middle class Americans will remain uninsured despite Obamacare

the good news from last week’s Congressional Budget Office report was that Obamacare will cost 20 percent less through 2019 than originally expected. That’s in  part because medical inflation has slowed more than the CBO anticipated back in 2010 when the law went into effect.

But the report had bad news too.  Fewer people are signing up for coverage than the government had hoped. In fact, the CBO estimates that 31 million of us will still be uninsured 10 years from now.

The Supreme Court bears some of the responsibility on that front.  It ruled in 2012 that even though Congress intended for all the states to expand their Medicaid programs to include more low-income individuals and families, states could opt out of that requirement. And many with Republican governors and legislatures did. .

The other main reason for the sobering estimate of uninsured 10 years down the road:  many people still can’t afford to buy health insurance, even with financial help from the government.

Back in 2010, the CBO predicted that 13 million people would have signed up for coverage by the end of this year through the Obamacare exchanges—which have been operating in every state and the District of Columbia since the fall of 2013.   The CBO revised its projection downward last week to 12 million, but the actual number very likely will be less than that. The Obama administration’s enrollment target for 2015 is just 9 million.

The CBO projects that health plan enrollment on the exchanges will jump to 21 million next year and that an additional 16 million previously uninsured Americans will be covered by either Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program by the end of 2016.

The vast majority of the people who have enrolled in exchange plans so far have had incomes so low they were eligible for federal subsidies to help them pay their premiums.

But millions of other people earn just a little too much to qualify for financial help from the government, and many of them are choosing to remain uninsured.

Although the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats who voted for the law don’t talk much about it, a significant percentage of the population will always be in a kind of no-man’s land. They earn too much to quality for either Medicaid or federal subsidies, but they also earn too little to be penalized for not buying it.

(YAHOO, feb 1st)

http://news.yahoo.com/millions-middle-class-americans-remain-100000368.html





US AND WORLD ECONOMY___________________



President Obama proposed $4 trillion federal budget would raise taxes $2.1 trillion, or $6,461 per person, but would spend $2.4 trillion more, drawing a “dead-in-the-water” reaction from members of Congress who will write the bill.

“The president is required by law to submit a budget proposal. It is a suggestion and a wish list, but the budget of Congress sets the outline of spending for the coming year,” said a statement released Monday by the House and Senate budget committees.

“We will work with our colleagues to make sure it is complete, on-time, and balanced within the next 10 years.”

The statement, from House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., described Obama’s plan as “unsustainable” and “failed.”

But it was Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who unleashed on the president.

“The president’s budget is a retread of the same top-down redistributive policies that have failed to lift hard-working American families and promote a strong and healthy economy. A $4 trillion government spending spree propped up by massive new tax hikes, this budget blueprint shamelessly panders to the Democratic base and does nothing to put our nation back on a sound fiscal footing,” he said.

“Rather than creating a simpler, fairer, more competitive tax system it adds complexity and confusion. It lacks fiscal responsibility, not ever reaching a balance, and does nothing to reform the greatest drivers of our debt – Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

“This budget is partisan, not practical. Even the White House has conceded it will be a nonstarter with Congress. It’s time for the president to move past political talking points and start working with Republicans and Democrats to find consensus on policies that will expand the economy, create more jobs and provide bigger paychecks and better opportunities for the American people.”

(WND, feb 2nd)

http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/obama-proposes-tax-hikes-of-6461-per-person/#xeY5FZeYipGKDvIo.9




A member of my staff caught an obscure resolution that was introduced in the US House of Representatives last week—Resolution no. 41. The fact that there was essentially no coverage of this Resolution really shows how the mainstream media is completely turning a blind eye to the true fiscal situation of the United States of America.

The entire point of the resolution is to say that the federal government is broke.

It can’t pay its own bills, and therefore is shouldn’t be responsible to pay anyone else’s either.

It doesn’t’ take a rocket scientists to figure out what a bankrupt government will do—just like any thief, they’ll go after easy targets first.

The easiest target of all is future generations.

They’re going to run up the debt as high as they can, which essentially means pulling future tax revenues into today. It’s the easiest tax of all, because unborn children do not vote.

The estate tax is another one to watch out for—because, like unborn children, dead people don’t vote either.

We had a great podcast yesterday about retirement savings, where there’s an easy $5 trillion treasure chest for them to raid.

And, of course, there’s the greatest tax of all, the inflation tax, which decreases the standard of living for most of the population as the cost of living rises much faster than incomes.

This Resolution is a pretty scary dose of honesty. But again, what’s even more concerning is that it was just ignored and has objectively a zero percent chance of passing.

I do encourage you to check it out though—even the government is admitting it’s finished.
(zero hedge, jan 31st)

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-31/heres-some-frightening-honesty-courtesy-us-congress





Drop In Gas Prices Nationwide Coming To End

All good things must come to an end. Experts say the steady drop in gas prices across the country is one of those things.

More than 120 straight days at the pump, the numbers kept going down. Drivers rejoiced.

While the national average for a gallon of regular should hit $2.00 this week, prices in some parts of the country made a slight uptick.

“We don’t expect the statewide average to continue to decline,” said Ragina Cooper Averella, AAA Mid Atlantic spokesperson.

But could the state see a return to $3.00 for a gallon of regular? AAA Mid Atlantic says not likely.

“Moving into the rest of 2015, we expect the average will remain below $3.00 a gallon,” Averella said.
(CBS baltimore, feb 1st)

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/02/01/drop-in-gas-prices-nationwide-coming-to-end-md-still-trending-down/



On Monday, eBay and PayPal began notifying employees who were losing their jobs as part of the cuts, multiple sources tell Re/code, as management looks to scale back initiatives that haven’t panned out ahead of the planned split of the two companies in the second half of this year.
(Recode, feb 2nd)

http://recode.net/2015/02/02/big-layoffs-begin-at-ebay-and-paypal/




The European Central Bank (ECB) finally pulled the QE trigger by committing to purchase 60 billion euros of government debt and other assets every month until September of 2016 or until inflation gets closer to 2 percent.

The made-up excuse for this legal counterfeiting is that Europe is dangerously close to having (a very flawed) index of consumer prices drop below zero; as though calamity would strike Europe if the index were to register a negative number. The ECB claims it needs to print money because lower oil prices and — previous to that — a stronger euro were causing average prices to deviate from its 2 percent inflation target. It’s like having your supermarket run a 50 percent off sale on steak one weekend, and then having the ECB try to make all other prices in the supermarket go up so your total bill at the cash register goes up.

The 2 percent inflation was never meant to be a target, but a ceiling. The problem has never been too little printing but too much printing. Deflation has never been a real problem (see here, here and here), but bouts of inflation have regularly led to chaos and social upheaval.

(Mises.org, feb 1st)

http://mises.org/library/europe-joins-qe-party





OBAMAS AMNESTY SCANDAL________________

 Federal bureaucrats handed out more than 5.5 million new work permits to aliens in the U.S. from 2009 to 2014 beyond the number of new green card and temporary worker admissions, according to a new report that accuses the Obama White House of setting up a shadow government program.

“This is a huge parallel immigrant work authorization system outside the limits set by Congress that inevitably impacts opportunities for U.S. workers, damages the integrity of the immigration system, and encourages illegal immigration,” said the report by Jessica M. Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies.

“A huge number of work permits, 1.7 million, were issued to aliens whose status was unknown, not recorded by the adjudicator, or not disclosed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that processes the applications,” the report said.

“This should be a concern; work permits are gateway documents to driver’s licenses and other benefits, and if the government agency issuing them does not know or will not disclose how the bearer arrived in the country how can others rely on the authenticity of an individual’s identity?

“It is equally disconcerting if the government does know and chooses not to disclose it,” the report said.

Obama has issued a series of presidential memos that defer deportation and offer privileges to several million illegal aliens, effectively granting them amnesty, according to his critics.

(WND, feb 2nd)

http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/obama-blasted-for-parallel-government/#QAwDLY4teJrM9opA.99





Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is calling for an investigation into the recently exposed “shadow” work authorization system, in which the Obama administration has allowed millions more immigrants than Congress mandated to obtain work permits.

“This massive increase in the labor supply has occurred simultaneously with a steep drop in family incomes and a sharp rise in the number of Americans pushed out of the workforce,” Sessions said in a statement Monday. “All jobs gains since the recession have gone to foreign workers, while the slack labor market has depressed median family incomes almost $5,000 in that time.”

Sessions was reacting to new data revealed in a Center for Immigration report, showing that since 2009 the Obama administration has issued 5.5 million new work permits, more than the 1.1 million legal immigrants and 700,000 guest workers allowed into the to the U.S. annually.

(Breitbart, feb 2nd)

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/02/02/sen-jeff-sessions-calls-for-investigation-into-shadow-work-authorization-system/




THE DRUG WAR__________



 Mexican farmers turn to opium poppies to meet surge in US heroin demand

In the mountains of Guerrero small villages with few economic alternatives mark the first link in the chain of Mexico’s multibillion-dollar opium trade

Mexican farmers from three villages interviewed by the Associated Press are feeding a growing addiction in the US, where heroin use has spread from back alleys to the cul-de-sacs of suburbia.

The heroin trade is a losing prospect for everyone except the Mexican cartels, who have found a new way to make money in the face of falling cocaine consumption and marijuana legalisation in the United States. Once smaller-scale producers of low-grade black tar, Mexican drug traffickers are now refining opium paste into high-grade white heroin and flooding the world’s largest market for illegal drugs, using the distribution routes they built for marijuana and cocaine.

It is a business that even the farmers don’t like. In a rare interview with reporters, the villagers told the Associated Press that it’s too difficult to ship farm products on roads so rough and close to the sky that cars are in constant danger of tumbling off the single-lane dirt roads that zigzag up to the fields. They say the small plastic-wrapped bricks of gummy opium paste are the only thing that will guarantee them a cash income.

According to the DEA’s 2014 National Drug Threat Assessment, Mexico produces nearly half of the heroin found in the United States, up from 39% in 2008.

Mexican government seizures of opium and eradication of poppy plantations have skyrocketed in recent years. The trends are consistent: opium paste seizures in Mexico were up 500% between 2013 and 2014; poppy field eradications were up 47%; and seizures of the processed drug increased 42%. Along the US border they are three times what they were in 2009.

(The guardian, feb 2nd)

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/02/mexican-farmers-opium-poppies-surge-us-heroin-demand-guerrero



WORLD CONFLICTS______________

The United States took an active part in the February 2014 coup in Ukraine, which installed pro-Western authorities, US President Obama told CNN Sunday.

“And since Mr. Putin made this decision around Crimea and Ukraine — not because of some grand strategy, but essentially because he was caught off-balance by the protests in the Maidan and [Ukraine's then-President Viktor] Yanukovych then fleeing after we had brokered a deal to transition power in Ukraine,” Obama said in an interview.

Yanukovych’s decision not to sign an association agreement with the European Union in late 2013 triggered a mass wave of protests across Ukraine, which culminated in the February coup. Following the February events and the rise of aggressive nationalism in the country, Crimea seceded from Ukraine and joined Russia in March 2014, following a referendum, in which 96 percent of voters were in favour of reunifying with Russia.

(Sputnik, feb 2nd)

http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150201/1017625288.html




Obama responds to Russian aggression with ... meter maids

President Obama says he is “deeply concerned” about escalated aggression by Russian-backed separatists and has pledged to “raise the costs” for Moscow’s annexation of territory in Ukraine.

One of the costs that Obama intends to impose upon Russians and Ukrainians alike will be the cost of parking a car in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

Obama, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, has developed a plan to help modernize the Ukrainian capital’s municipal parking infrastructure.

Currently the agency says, it is “burdened by outdated payment infrastructure, non-compliant drivers, unauthorized parking services and national and city-level legislation that hampers the enforcement of parking violations.”

U.S. taxpayers will help correct the inefficient system by subsidizing a contractor that will visit Ukraine for 84 days to “generate options to make reforms to the municipal parking situation so that the city can administer it more efficiently and cost-effectively,” according to planning documents WND located via database research.

Although the official parking authority, KievParkService, owns more than 18,000 lot- and curb-side parking spaces – which are operated by 350 parking attendants and 73 administrators – the parking bureaucracy by a large measure annually fails to meet its projected collection of fees and fines.

USAID acknowledges that part of the problem is corruption, as the parking system largely relies on cash transactions. Additional obstacles stem from a “shadow economy” of competing and often illegal parking-lot owners who operate with impunity in the face of lax enforcement.

(WND, feb 2nd)

http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/obama-responds-to-russian-aggression-with/#crEmXryWcCi5VS8M.99




Images or mentions of knives, ransom or blood — or anything else that can be seen alluding to the hostage crisis involving two Japanese in Syria — have been omitted. Some anime and other entertainment programs are altering, cancelling or postponing episodes violating those sensitivities — typical of the kind of self-restraint shown here to avoid controversy.

(AP, jan 31st)

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/no-mention-knife-ransom-blood-japan-media-self-060845988.html




The conspiracy theorists are right. Research shows nations really do go to war over oil.

Our research builds on a near-exhaustive sample of 69 countries which had a civil war between 1945 and 1999. About two-thirds of civil wars during the period saw third party intervention either by another country or outside organization.

We found that the decision to interfere was dominated by the interveners’ need for oil – over and above historical, geographical or ethnic ties.

(washington post, jan 28th)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/28/auto-draft/





POLICE STATE AND JUSTICE____________________

Fearing for his life, a New York cop pulled a gun on a group of teens having a snowball fight.

“Don’t fucking move, guys,” the New Rochelle police officer can be heard on video as he points his gun at the youths, who are down on their knees with their hands in the air.

The cop proceeds to pat each of the youths down with one hand while holding the gun, continually telling them not to move.

Once the officer realized the fear was all in his head, he released the teens with no charges.

The officer had initially responded to a “disturbance,” according to Raw Story.
(PINAC, feb 1st)

http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/01/new-york-cop-pulls-gun-teens-snowball-fight/




Fourth-grader says he has the One Ring, school suspends him for terrorist threat, dad says

Steward took his story to the Odessa (Texas) American on Friday, saying the boy had seen The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies the preceding weekend. He brought a ring to class and told another kid it would make him vanish.

When Steward confronted the school principal to ask what was going on, he said he was told that threatening another child's safety — whether the threats are magical or otherwise -—are not tolerated.

"I assure you my son lacks the magical powers necessary to threaten his friend's existence," Steward told the News. "If he did, I'm sure he'd bring him right back."

This isn't his son's first scrape with authority; the boy has been suspended three times already, once for calling a black classmate black, the other for bringing a book to school that had a drawing of a pregnant woman. The family moved to the school district six months ago.

(polygon, feb 1st)

http://www.polygon.com/2015/2/1/7960307/fourth-grader-suspended-lord-of-the-rings




U.S. judge quits commission to protest Justice Department forensic science policy

The sole federal judge on a commission appointed by President Obama to improve forensic science in the criminal justice system has resigned in protest, criticizing the U.S. Department of Justice for muzzling its work to benefit prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff of New York said he quit because the Justice Department had barred it from recommending an expansion of the exchange of pretrial information to include more evidence from forensic experts. Prosecutors routinely share evidence with defense lawyers. Rakoff said in his resignation letter that the ban contradicts the panel’s charter and voids months of work.

The proposed change would address a major criticism of the nation’s top scientific organization and many legal experts, who have warned in recent years that police and prosecutors exercise too much control over crime labs, which suffer from weak standards over research, testimony and examinations. The failings that have led to dozens of lab scandals and hundreds of exonerations over the past two decades.

(washington post, jan 29th)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/us-judge-quits-commission-to-protest-justice-department-forensic-science-policy/2015/01/29/cbed0a84-a7bb-11e4-a2b2-776095f393b2_story.html





TECHNOLOGY______________________


Google’s clandestine cutting-edge health research facility has created synthetic human skin as part of its innovative cancer detecting project that aims to prevent the disease before it develops, US media has revealed.

Google X laboratories, located in Mountain View, California, has been working on a wristband that can detect cancer cells and warn of impending heart attacks and other diseases transmitted through a person’s blood. The Atlantic visited the semi-secretive research center, which employs more than 100 doctors and scientists, and asked its head why Google is making human skin.

(Russia Today, feb 1st)

http://rt.com/news/228247-google-synthetic-skin-cancer/




Tom Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, says he’s keeping that question in mind as he pitches the biggest regulatory shake-up to the telecommunications industry since 1996, when people still used noisy modems and referred to the “information superhighway” as a fun way to buy books or check the weather.

Wheeler has not publicly released his plan yet, and might not for a few weeks. But he has suggested that Internet service has become as critical to people in the United States as water, electricity or phone service and should be regulated like any other public utility.

Wheeler told reporters this past week that he wants “yardsticks in place to determine what is in the best interest of consumers as opposed to what is in the best interest of the gatekeepers.”

The commissioners will vote Feb. 26. Wheeler expected to have the support of the other two Democratic commissioners. The two Republican commissioners have made clear that they do not support applying Title II.
(AP, feb 1st)

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150131/us--net_neutrality-news_guide-c235cbd2b9.html





HEALTH___________________



Minnesota’s largest school district is discussing screening high school students for depression and anxiety in the classroom.

As part of a state grant to improve mental health services, Anoka-Hennepin schools could offer a screening as soon as next fall.

Dr. Nita Kumar, a mental health consultant for the district, said Friday that the idea is to get students to talk about something they may hide from their parents or not even understand what is happening.

The school district is considering spending a $370,000 state grant on testing for depression in the classroom.

The form is the same one many doctors’ offices provide, the PHQ9 form.

Kumar said with parents’ permission, the patient health questionnaire would be given to 10th graders in health class.

Teachers would not score the questionnaire for privacy reasons. A health care professional would score them and make a recommendation based on the results.

“Developmentally, at that age kids are starting to take some more responsibility for their own health,” she said.

Kumar calls it a chance to pick up on something students may not be sharing at school or at home.

“We are able to make sure they get adequate care as early as possible,” Kumar said.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents in Minnesota after accidents.

Anoka-Hennepin schools garnered national attention after seven students took their own lives between September 2009 and May 2011.

(CBS minnesota, jan 30th)

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/01/30/anoka-hennepin-schools-may-start-depression-screenings/





The morning of the recommitment hearing, Alison Hymes sat in a small waiting area of a Virginia mental hospital in a navy blue sweatsuit, clutching a green composition book to her chest.

She’d scribbled down a list of arguments in favor of releasing her from Western State Hospital in Staunton, Va. They included: “Been here too long” and “Becoming institutionalized.”

“I don’t think they will listen to them,” she said.

Hymes had said similar things at the six other recommitment hearings she’d had over the previous 17 months, after a judge ruled that she was a danger to herself and involuntarily hospitalized her for the second time in three years. Her bipolar disorder had landed her in institutions multiple times over three decades, but never for this long.

The day before the hearing last May, she posted on Facebook: “Afraid I will be committed for two more months.”

Hymes was no ordinary patient. Before landing at Western, she spent years urging others with mental illness and their families not to let doctors, judges and social workers make decisions for them. She was part of a state task force charged with reforming civil commitment laws at the time of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, serving alongside doctors, academics, and law enforcement officials.

The daughter of a prominent University of Virginia linguist, Hymes argued vehemently — and unsuccessfully — against loosening the state’s commitment criteria.

Hymes, now 58, believed those changes made it easier for authorities to involuntarily commit her in 2011 and again in 2013.

(washington post, jan 31st)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/she-fought-for-patients-rights-then-she-was-put-in-a-hospital-against-her-will/2015/01/31/c306f01c-a1b0-11e4-903f-9f2faf7cd9fe_story.html




Oil companies in drought-ravaged California have, for years, pumped wastewater from their operations into aquifers that had been clean enough for people to drink.

They did it with explicit permission from state regulators, who were supposed to protect the increasingly strained groundwater supplies from contamination.

Instead, the state allowed companies to drill more than 170 waste-disposal wells into aquifers suitable for drinking or irrigation, according to data reviewed by The Chronicle. Hundreds more inject a blend of briny water, hydrocarbons and trace chemicals into lower-quality aquifers that could be used with more intense treatment.

Most of the waste-injection wells lie in California’s parched Central Valley, whose desperate residents are pumping so much groundwater to cope with the historic drought that the land has started to sink.
(SF GATE, feb 1st)

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/State-let-oil-companies-taint-drinkable-water-in-6054242.php






Chris Christie is not the only prospective presidential candidate who has called for a “balanced approach” to the vaccine debate triggered by a measles outbreak in many states in the United States.

While in the United Kingdom, the Governor of New Jersey commented on whether the government should be able to mandate vaccines that are widely accepted by the medical community.

“There has to be a balance, and it depends on what the vaccine is, what the disease type is, and all the rest,” Christie said. “Not every vaccine is created equal and not every disease type is as great a public health threat as others.”

The comments immediately put Christie on the defensive. Later Monday, Christie had to walk back his comments in a press release, saying “there is no question kids should be vaccinated.”

Chris Christie’s comments resemble the rhetoric Democrats used in 2008, however. On more than one occasion, Obama echoed common anti-vaccine arguments that vaccines, including ones based on long-retracted research that vaccines have a tie to autism.

“We’ve seen just a skyrocketing autism rate. Some people are suspicious that it’s connected to the vaccines. This person included. The science right now is inconclusive, but we have to research it,” then Sen. Obama said.

The president’s words contrast his current position that there is no reason not to get vaccinated. The president said over the weekend that the scientific evidence in support of vaccines is “overwhelming.”

“There are some people who are suspicious that it’s connected to vaccines and triggers. But the science right now is inconclusive,” Obama said.

Likely 2016 Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton had a similar statement while speaking to an anti-vaccine group on the campaign trail in 2008.

“I am committed to make investments to find the causes of autism, including possible environmental causes like vaccines,” said Clinton in a written response to the group.
(Free beacon, feb 2nd)

http://freebeacon.com/issues/flashback-when-hillary-and-obama-gave-credence-to-anti-vaccine-theories/





Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said that while “vaccines are one of the greatest medical breakthroughs that we had,” he claims he has heard of children who got mental disorders from vaccines on Monday’s “Closing Bell” on CNBC.

 “I’ll give you a good example, the Hepatitis B vaccine is now given to newborns. We sometimes give five and six vaccines all at one time. I chose to have my delayed. I don’t want my government telling me that I have to give my new newborn the Hepatitis B vaccine, which is transmitted by sexually transmitted disease and/or blood transfusions… so I had mine staggered over several months. I’ve heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines. I’m not arguing vaccines are a bad idea, I think they’re a good thing, but I think the parent should have some input. The state doesn’t own your children. Parents own the children and it is an issue of freedom.”

(Breitbart, feb 2nd)

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/02/02/rand-paul-im-a-big-fan-of-vaccines-but-they-can-cause-mental-disorders/




CHINA’s bachelors are in crisis. There just aren’t enough women to go around.

Figures released this month show that at the end of 2014, China had 701 million men and 667 million women — a shortfall of nearly 34 million.

With 120 men for every 100 women, China’s Bridget Joneses are now male, and increasingly desperate for a date.

In truth, the biggest problem has been the country’s one-child policy, which led parents to abandon girls or use sex-selective abortion to guarantee a male child. Chinese hospitals have been banned from revealing a baby’s sex to the parents since 1995, but families can secretly obtain black-market sonogram tests, where blood samples are carried over the border for testing.

The government is now pushing for all couples to have a second child, but the cultural shift has not yet happened. Chinese couples tend to marry fairly young and are focused on their careers by their thirties.

Single women over 30 don’t have it much easier than the men. Despite their shrinking number, they are commonly considered washed-up, and referred to as “bare branches” or “leftover ladies”. Wu Di, a Cosmopolitan contributor and author of I Know Why You’re Left, now offers these “sheng nu” women $200-per-hour romance counselling, Foreign Policy reports.

(news.com, feb 2nd)

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/shes-just-not-that-into-you-chinas-bachelors-in-crisis-thanks-to-shortage-of-women/story-fnet09y4-1227202892590





MISC. NEWS____________________
San Francisco gets no rain in January for first time in 165 years

(LA times, feb 1st)

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-san-francisco-no-rain-january-california-drought-20150201-story.html

NEWS FOR 2/1/2015 February 1st 2015

FAST AND FURIOUS WHISTLEBLOWER________


Federal judge blasts DOJ lawyers in case of ATF whistle-blower

Judge Francis Allegra, who was appointed to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in 1998 by President Bill Clinton, is presiding over a suit brought by former ATF agent Jay Dobyns against the government agency, which he claims retaliated against him and damaged his reputation. Dobyns infiltrated Hell's Angels and worked on cases involving the Aryan Brotherhood and MS-13 during his law enforcement career.

In a newly unsealed, Dec. 1, 2014, court ruling that legal experts said was highly unusual, Allegra accused seven Justice Department lawyers of "fraud upon the court, banned them from making any further filings in the case and took the unusual step of directly notifying Attorney General Eric Holder.

“In 40 years of legal practice, government and private, I've never seen that done,” said David Hardy, a constitutional law expert who formerly worked in the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office.

Allegra said the government attorneys may have intimidated a witness and charged that seven of them may have kept illegal behavior secret from the court.

The controversy began after someone burned down the home of Dobyns. Dobyns claimed the ATF failed to protect his family, but the agency claimed Dobyns burned down his own home, a charge he denied. Dobyns then sued the ATF in U.S. Federal Claims Court for damaging his reputation and retaliation.

That’s when Justice Department lawyers got involved. In the ruling from last month, Allegra found a key witness in the trial said he was threatened by another ATF agent – and that ATF lawyers told the threatened agent not to tell the judge about it.

US Court of Federal Claims Judge Francis Allegra basted Justice Department lawyers in a recently unsealed ruling made last month.

“[ATF lawyers] ordered the agent in question not to communicate the threat to the court and stated that there would be repercussions if the agent did not follow counsel’s instructions,” Judge Allegra said in his ruling.

(fox news, jan 29th)

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/29/federal-judge-blasts-doj-lawyers-in-case-fast-furious-whistleblower/?intcmp=latestnews




OBAMACARE__________________


 Obama administration officials and other supporters of the Affordable Care Act say they worry that the tax-filing season will generate new anger as uninsured consumers learn that they must pay tax penalties and as many people struggle with complex forms needed to justify tax credits they received in 2014 to pay for health insurance.

The White House has already granted some exemptions and is considering more to avoid a political firestorm.

Mark J. Mazur, the assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy, said up to six million taxpayers would have to “pay a fee this year because they made a choice not to obtain health care coverage that they could have afforded.”

(NYT, jan 31st)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/us/politics/white-house-seeks-to-limit-health-laws-tax-troubles.html?_r=0




2ND AMENDMENT__________________


Concealed carry on campuses made strong advances with bills in Wyoming and Florida passing out of committee and one bill in Texas gaining support. Indiana and Montana recently introduced similar bills, and North Dakota is reportedly considering such legislation.
   
(Free beacon, jan 31st)

http://freebeacon.com/issues/major-advances-for-concealed-carry-on-campuses-in-several-states/




POLICE STATE________________



One day after saying a newly-created police unit armed with machine guns would police protesters, the New York Police Department has backtracked, saying the unit will only work on counter-terror initiatives.

Chief of Department James O’Neill told the New York Daily News that the new counter-terror unit “will not be involved in handling protests and demonstrations. They’ll have no role in protests. Their response is single-fold. They’ll be doing counter-terror work. They’ll be assigned to different posts throughout the city.”

The reversal comes shortly after New York Police Department Commissioner William Bratton announced the new 350-strong unit – dubbed the Strategic Response Group – during a press conference at a Police Foundation event. The unit would be dedicated to “disorder control and counterterrorism protection capabilities,” with police citing attacks like the hostage situation in Sydney as examples where it would be deployed.

(Russia Today, feb 1st)

http://rt.com/usa/228091-nypd-armed-unit-protests/




A left-behind family of a man killed by cops has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against San Bernardino County for excessive force.

Dante Parker was electrocuted as many as 27 times as cops shot him repeatedly with a Taser gun, according to the lawsuit.

Dante’s five children and his wife were devastated when he died after the electrical shock.

The incident occurred when Dante dropped his children off at school.

After he left them in school, he went on a bike ride around 4 PM.

He was riding his bike down Luna Rd when he was stopped by Officer Irwin.

Officer Irwin claimed to be responding to a report about a suspicious black male who was attempting to break into houses.

It is presumed that at some point during the questioning, an argument ensued, though the lawsuit does not specify.

(filming cops, jan 31st)

http://filmingcops.com/cops-taser-family-man-again-and-again-up-to-27-times-until-he-went-limp-and-died/




Quebec woman suing cop who left her locked in back of police truck with man who ended up raping her

The lone police officer on duty on the night of Sept. 19 had her hands full. Fresh out of police school, she had been on the job less than a month and was not even authorized to carry a sidearm.

But as she apprehended a 17-year-old girl who had become heavily intoxicated, Const. Danielle Gallant made a decision that would come back to haunt her.

According to court documents, she handcuffed the girl and placed her in the back of her Kativik Regional Police Force vehicle truck. Already in the backseat for having caused a disturbance — but not handcuffed — was Joe Kritik, who at age 24 already had four convictions for sexual assault and was listed on the national sex offender registry

(National post, jan 29th)

http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/01/29/quebec-woman-suing-cop-who-left-her-locked-in-back-of-police-truck-with-man-who-ended-up-raping-her/




The 11 News I-Team has obtained video of a violent scuffle between a school police officer and three middle school girls, and it brings into question whether the officer's use of force was justified.

"She had six stitches. No, I'm sorry -- 10. Four on the inside and six on the outside," said Tashona Neals, the mother of 13-year-old Diamond. The girl's injuries came at the end of October inside Vanguard Middle School in northeast Baltimore.

What happened that day was captured on the school system's surveillance cameras. The altercation started when Diamond's cousin, Starr, had an encounter with the school police officer, who could be seen on the video looking up a stairway.

"Starr said they was changing classes," said Vanessa Ward, Starr's grandmother. "The officer was hollering at her and said, 'Little girl, get down here.' And so Starr said, 'My name is not little girl, it's Starr.' Starr came on down the steps, and Starr said that's when the officer grabbed her."

The video shows the officer push Starr against a wall. Starr's sister, who was also a student at the school, said she heard there was a fight.

"So she goes over there thinking it's another child, and she gets over there, and it's an officer. She went over there to try to stop her," Ward said.

Diamond arrived next in the video and appears to shove the officer, who then let go of Starr and gave chase, pulling a baton and using it. Diamond was hit at least twice it appeared, including the blow from the baton that put the gash in her head.

"I knew something had happened because I received a call from the paramedics," Neals said.

Neals said she heard nothing from the school.

"So your daughter is in the office bleeding, and they don't call you?" I-Team lead investigative reporter Jayne Miller asked.

"No," Neals replied.

All three girls were taken to a hospital: Diamond because of the head injury and her cousins because they were each sprayed with pepper spray. Miller reported that the same officer used the spray while another school employee tried to restrain the girls.

(Wbaltv, jan 30th)

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/girls-injured-suspended-after-fight-with-school-officer/31004666




Police in a Canadian town are asking residents to donate blood samples in efforts to crack a murder mystery that’s gone unsolved for more than a month.

Cops in Windsor, Ontario, are preparing to go door-to-door in a sweep that will seek the voluntary extraction of DNA from residents following the December 11 murder of 31-year-old Cassandra Kaake, a pregnant mother whose body was found inside her torched home.

Investigators say they’re going to rely on a technique known as “blooding” to hopefully formulate a list of suspects after weeks of research failed to produce a person of interest.

“They are asking what make of vehicle they drive, what their license plate is, how long they have lived there, whether they rent or own their home and who else lives in the house,” reports The National Post, adding that police’s final question asks if residents would be willing to submit a blood sample at a future time.

Police claim all but a “handful” of the town’s 500 residents have agreed to allow cops to probe their DNA.

“The response has been tremendous. We know the community is very co-operative and they obviously feel the same way we do,” Sergeant Matthew D’Asti told the Post, adding that “The entire community is very empathetic to the victim and her family.”

Civil rights activists, however, argue the warrantless, “guilty until proven innocent” tactic is a gross violation of personal privacy.

“The extraction of a DNA sample without a warrant is concerning. It is inherently coercive,” Executive Director and General Counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Sukanya Pillay, said.

“There is no guarantee that doing wide sweeps of DNA collection is going to produce the killer, but there is a guarantee it will create potential privacy violation and erosion of standards,” Pillay added.

(Infowars, jan 31st)

http://www.infowars.com/unable-to-solve-murder-canadian-police-to-collect-door-to-door-blood-samples/




Crews, a former law enforcement officer who had been at the helm of the state’s largest agency for close to three years, had been fielding calls from the governor’s office for weeks. Each message seemed more urgent than the last, with Gov. Rick Scott’s re-election campaign in full swing and civil rights groups calling for a U.S. Justice Department investigation into a series of questionable prison deaths.

“We need you to take a bullet for the governor,’’ Crews recalled being told by the governor’s chief of staff, Adam Hollingsworth, as he was driving home that afternoon from North Carolina, where and he and his wife had spent a few days decompressing.

The former prisons chief, in an exclusive interview with the Miami Herald, said the governor’s office asked him to fire people Crews didn’t believe should fired; it wrote press releases that said things he didn’t say, and orchestrated hastily arranged news conferences that were little more than smokescreens designed to distract from the real crisis that Crews was sounding the alarm on for years: Florida’s prisons were so rundown and understaffed that they had become dangerous.

(Miami herald, jan 31st)

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article8875121.html#storylink=cpy



WAR ON TERROR_________________



The French government has been ridiculed for producing a poster that is supposed to help identify potential jihadists – with one suggestion that giving up baguettes is a telltale sign.

They claim pointers that someone is being radicalised by Islamist fanatics include alarm bells such as losing interest in sports, rejecting members of their family and changing eating habits.

The poster was launched as part of a new £320million campaign to counter terrorism in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in early January, when 17 innocent people were killed over three days.

But the attempt to inform the public backfired, with many ridiculing it for some of the suggestions made in the Stop Jihadism poster.

(daily mail, jan 31st)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2933841/Your-child-jihadist-ve-stopped-eating-baguettes-Bizarre-French-government-infographic-shows-way-spot-radical-Islamists.html




Iraqi libraries ransacked by Islamic State group in Mosul

When Islamic State group militants invaded the Central Library of Mosul earlier this month, they were on a mission to destroy a familiar enemy: other people's ideas.

Residents say the extremists smashed the locks that had protected the biggest repository of learning in the northern Iraq town, and loaded around 2,000 books — including children's stories, poetry, philosophy and tomes on sports, health, culture and science — into six pickup trucks. They left only Islamic texts.

The rest?

"These books promote infidelity and call for disobeying Allah. So they will be burned," a bearded militant in traditional Afghani two-piece clothing told residents, according to one man living nearby who spoke to The Associated Press. The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation, said the Islamic State group official made his impromptu address as others stuffed books into empty flour bags.

(AP, jan 31st)

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150131/ml--iraq-libraries_in_danger-62581f4dca.html




HEALTH________________


Millennials are far more likely than their older counterparts to hold the disproven belief that vaccines can cause autism, according to a new poll.

Twenty-one percent of those polled under 30 say that vaccinations can cause autism, a new YouGov poll reports, compared to only three percent of those over 65.

Young people are also the only adult age cohort that says they’d prefer parents to make the decision on vaccinating children.

43 percent say parents should be able to decide whether to vaccinate their kids for childhood diseases, compared to 42 percent in favor of requiring the vaccines.

(washington examiner, jan 31st)

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/poll-millennials-are-the-generation-most-likely-to-believe-vaccines-can-cause-autism/article/2559613?custom_click=rss




Woman born with no womb gives birth to miracle twins

Hayley Haynes, who was born with no reproductive organs, has given birth to twins after specialist treatment to grow a womb

(telegraph, jan 31st)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11381463/Woman-born-with-no-womb-gives-birth-to-miracle-twins.html




EPA approves continued heavy spraying of neurotoxic pesticide that causes brain damage in children
(natural news, jan 30th)

http://www.naturalnews.com/048452_chlorpyrifos_EPA_neurological_damage.html#ixzz3QWCxxkvT




GLOBAL CONFLICTS________________



Talks aimed at striking a “binding” truce in Ukraine began in Minsk on Saturday afternoon as the number of soldiers and civilians killed continued to mount amid fierce fighting in several areas.

Representatives for the rebels, Russia, Ukraine and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe met in the Belarusian capital, but no details were immediately available.

Former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, the OSCE’s Heidi Tagliavini, and separatist representatives Denis Pushilin and Vladislav Deinego, as well as the Russian ambassador to Kiev, Mikhail Zurabov, were participating in the talks aimed at ending fighting that has left more than 5,000 people dead.

(guardian, jan 31st)

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/31/call-for-immediate-ceasefire-in-eastern-ukraine-as-fighting-intensifies




On Feb. 12, 2008, Imad Mughniyah, Hezbollah’s international operations chief, walked on a quiet nighttime street in Damascus after dinner at a nearby restaurant. Not far away, a team of CIA spotters in the Syrian capital was tracking his movements.

As Mughniyah approached a parked SUV, a bomb planted in a spare tire on the back of the vehicle exploded, sending a burst of shrapnel across a tight radius. He was killed instantly.

The device was triggered remotely from Tel Aviv by agents with Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service, who were in communication with the operatives on the ground in Damascus. “The way it was set up, the U.S. could object and call it off, but it could not execute,” said a former U.S. intelligence official.

The United States helped build the bomb, the former official said, and tested it repeatedly at a CIA facility in North Carolina to ensure the potential blast area was contained and would not result in collateral damage.

(washington post, jan 31st)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-and-mossad-killed-senior-hezbollah-figure-in-car-bombing/2015/01/30/ebb88682-968a-11e4-8005-1924ede3e54a_story.html




WORLD ECONOMY__________________________


The Obama administration’s illusionary job gains from the Trans-Pacific Partnership

Clearly, with the Peterson Institute refusing to play the game this time and cough up a jobs number, the administration decided to concoct its own. But, as we have shown, one cannot at the same time claim both a gain of $77 billion in income and a gain of 650,000 jobs; the same effects simply cannot happen at once.

Moreover, these are big numbers with virtually no context. It is pretty lame to use such huge numbers to tout what, in the context of the U.S. economy, amounts to minuscule changes in income —10 years from now.

Our advice remains: be wary whenever a politician claims a policy will yield bountiful jobs. In this case, the correct number is zero (in the long run), not 650,000, according to the very study used to calculate this number.

(washington post, jan 30th)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2015/01/30/the-obama-administrations-illusionary-job-gains-from-the-trans-pacific-partnership/




Anti-austerity anger sweeps from Greece to Spain as hundreds of thousands march through Madrid in support of fledgling radical leftist party

    -The streets of Madrid were today filled with activists supporting Spain's fledgling anti-establishment party Podemos
    -Supporters from across Spain gathered as they hoped to emulate the success of Greece's radical Syriza party
    -Polls show Podemos, which was formed last year, is in the lead to win Spain's general election later this year
    -It could shatter Spain's two-party system in what would be the country's largest political shake up since 1978

(daily mail, jan 31st)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2934527/Anti-austerity-anger-sweeps-Spain-hundreds-thousands-march-Madrid-support-fledgling-radical-leftist-party.html#ixzz3QW6c1Hpu




Four out of every ten Italians no longer want the euro, according to a survey released on Friday by the Institute of Political, Economic and Social Studies, Eurispes.

The percent of Italians who want Italy to leave the Eurozone has risen from 26% at the start of 2014 to 40.1% now, the polling agency says.

More than half of the Euroskeptics think the single currency is the chief cause of Italy’s economic woes, as it has deprived the country of the possibility of devaluating its currency at will.

Italy’s Euroskeptics want to return to the lira; 22.7 percent of respondents claim that only the richer EU members have benefited from the euro and 71.5 percent of the respondents claim that their purchasing power has declined significantly over the past year. More than half of the Italians polled (57%) said they can’t manage to pay for large expenses.

Nearly one of every two Italians, or 45%, would like to leave the country and live abroad. The poll also found that almost half of Italians, 47%, say they can’t make it financially to the end of the month, 16.4% more than last year.

(Sputnik, jan 31st)

http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150131/1017593561.html

1/31/2015 January 31st 2015

THE 1% ELITE____________


   The location and dates of the forthcoming 2015 gathering of secretive elites under the Bilderberg Group banner has been confirmed.

Local police have verified that the conference will take place at the opulent Interalpen Hotel, in the Austrian mountains near Telfs.

In a press release, the Austrian police revealed that security for the confab will be in operation from June 9th-14th. As is usually the custom with Bilderberg, the actual meeting of delegates will take place from the Thursday to the Sunday of that week, June 11th-14th.

The police press release notes that security at the Bilderberg meeting will be part of the same operation as security for the much more public G7 meeting, which is scheduled to take place at the beginning of the same week, 7th-8th June, at Schloss Elmau in Bavaria, Germany.

“The job of the police at the G7 and the Bilderberg conference is the protection of state guests, eminent persons and the general public,” the Minister of the Interior is quoted as saying. “The defense and prevention of attacks is a top priority. However, the police presence also ensures the protection of peaceful demonstrators, because freedom of assembly is one of the fundamental rights of our democracy.” the Minister is said to have added.

The statement also notes that in conjunction with German police, extra special police forces will be called in to operate security during the gatherings. Known as COBRA, the forces are Austria’s primary counter-terrorism special operations tactical unit. and are not part of the Austrian Federal Police but are directly under the control of the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior.

Major General Robert Strondl, Head of the Operations Department of the Interior Ministry noted that “For months we gather all the relevant information about both events and create risk assessments that are continuously updated and are the basis for all other plans.”

The statement also notes that police are considering “significant” traffic restrictions, and even a 30 mile no-fly zone around the Bilderberg meeting, to include paragliders and hang gliders.

Rumours over the venue for this year’s Bilderberg meeting, the Interalpen Hotel, were first touted back in August when enquiries to the hotel revealed that it was already fully booked on the first two weekends of June. The uncovering of Bilderberg came earlier than ever before, perhaps reflecting the intense scrutiny that the group has come under in recent years.

(Infowars, jan 30th)

http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2015-location-confirmed/




After 10 years, few payoffs from Gates' 'Grand Challenges'

Despite $1 billion investment, no significant contribution to saving lives, improving health

When he took the stage this fall to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his signature global health research initiative, Bill Gates used the word “naive” — four times — to describe himself and his charitable foundation.

It was a surprising admission coming from the world’s richest man.

But the Microsoft co-founder seemed humbled that, despite an investment of $1 billion, none of the projects funded under the Gates Foundation’s “Grand Challenges” banner has yet made a significant contribution to saving lives and improving health in the developing world.

“I was pretty naive about how long that process would take,” Gates told a gathering of nearly 1,000 people in Seattle.

(seattle times, jan 21st)

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2025279289_grandchallengesxml.html




JOE BIDEN CONFESSES________________



Biden: Democrats Have Made Tough Decisions That Are ‘Hard To Explain’

(CBS washington, jan 30th)

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2015/01/30/biden-democrats-have-made-tough-decisions-that-are-hard-to-explain/



Biden: 'The Past Six Years Have Been Really, Really Hard For This Country'

(weekly standard, jan 30th)

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/biden-past-six-years-have-been-really-really-hard-country_832112.html



NEW COLD WAR___________________



EU foreign ministers have decided to extend targeted sanctions against Russian officials and the militias in eastern Ukraine until September, according to Federica Mogherini, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs.

The first batch of sanctions, which was adopted last year and targeted specific individuals accused of fostering conflict in eastern Ukraine, was set to expire in March. The sanctions included travel bans and economic restrictions.

The EU Council has also requested that the European Commission expand the blacklist of individuals it blames for the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, Mogherini said after a meeting in Brussels on Thursday.

(Russia Today, jan 30th)

http://rt.com/business/227555-eu-russia-extend-sanctions/




Washington disagrees with former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev that the United States is in another Cold war with Russia, which might turn into a “hot” one, spokesperson for the US Department of State Jen Psaki told journalists.

“We disagree,” Psaki said Thursday about Gorbachev’s comments, stressing that the United States continues to work with Russia on various issues including Iran, Syria, and Ukrainian conflict. “We have discussions about a range of issues, even the tensions on the ground in the Middle East. That’s continuing.”

The spokesperson noted that Washington’s intention is to “bring an end to illegal actions that are happening in Ukraine.”

“That’s why we continue to work with the Europeans to put in place more consequences,” she said.

(Sputnik, jan 30th)

http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150130/1017532100.html





The Chief of Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, General Viktor Muzhenko, is saying, in that news-report, which is dated on Thursday January 29th, that the only Russian citizens who are fighting in the contested region, are residents in that region, or of Ukraine, and also some Russian citizens (and this does not deny that perhaps some of other countries’ citizens are fighting there, inasmuch as American mercenaries have already been noted to have been participating on the Ukrainian Government’s side), who “are members of illegal armed groups,” meaning fighters who are not paid by any government, but instead are just “individual citizens” (as opposed to foreign-government-paid ones). General Muzhenko also says, emphatically, that the “Ukrainian army is not fighting with the regular units of the Russian army.”

In other words: He is explicitly and clearly denying the very basis for the EU’s sanctions against Russia, and for the U.S.’s sanctions against Russia: all of the sanctions against Russia are based on the falsehood that Ukraine is fighting against “the regular units of the Russian army” — i.e., against the Russian-Government-controlled-and-trained fighting forces.

The allegation to the effect that Ukraine is instead fighting against “regular units of the Russian army” is the allegation that Vladimir Putin’s Russia has invaded Ukraine, and it is the entire basis for the economic sanctions that are in force against Russia.

(Infowars, jan 30th)

http://www.infowars.com/ukrainian-government-no-russian-troops-are-fighting-against-us/




Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn’t been one to back down in response to sanctions against his country and attacks on his economy. Rather, he has stepped up not only his rhetoric, but his military activities as well.

His latest move is yet another show of force to let the West know Russia is prepared to do whatever is necessary to protect its interests.

    The U.K.’s Royal Air Force scrambled fighter jets on Thursday after a pair of nuclear-capable Russian bombers flew across a busy civilian air traffic corridor above the English Channel. The bombers had their transponders turned off, British officials said, making them invisible to many air traffic control systems. The incident disrupted multiple flights – and ended with the U.K. government demanding the Russian ambassador appear at the Foreign Office to explain the actions.

This latest incident comes on the heels of similar flyovers by nuclear bombers along the west coast of the United States from Alaska all the way down to California. It has even been speculated that Russia may have tested a new weapon last year leading to a shut down of Los Angeles commercial air traffic control systems.

(Shtfplan, jan 30th)

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/putin-sends-nuclear-bombers-over-english-chanel-transponders-turned-off-invisible-to-air-traffic-control_01302015



ECONOMY________________




Economically, what we are experiencing right now are birth pangs of the coming Great Depression.  As we get closer to the crisis that is looming on the horizon, they will become even more powerful.  This week, we learned that the Baltic Dry Index has fallen to the lowest level that we have seen in 29 years.  The Baltic Dry Index also crashed during the financial collapse of 2008, but right now it is already lower than it was at any point during the last financial crisis.  In addition, “Dr. Copper” and other industrial commodities continue to plunge.  This almost always happens before we enter an economic downturn.  Meanwhile, as I mentioned the other day, orders for durable goods are declining.  This is also a traditional indicator that a recession is approaching.  The warning signs are there – we just have to be open to what they are telling us.

And of course there are so many more parallels between past economic downturns and what is happening right now.

For example, volatility has returned to the markets in a big way.  On Tuesday the Dow was down about 300 points, on Wednesday it was down another couple hundred points, and then on Thursday it was up a couple hundred points.

This is precisely how markets behave just before they crash.  When markets are calm, they tend to go up.  When markets get really choppy and start behaving erratically, that tells us that a big move down is usually coming.

At the same time, almost every major global currency is imploding.  For much more on this, see the amazing charts in this article.

In particular, I am greatly concerned about the collapse of the euro.  The Swiss would not have decoupled their currency from the euro if it was healthy.  And political events in Greece are certainly not going to help things either.  Economic conditions across Europe just continue to get worse, and the future of the eurozone itself is very much in doubt at this point.  And if the eurozone does break up, a European economic depression is almost virtually assured – at least in the short term.

And I haven’t even mentioned the oil crash yet.

There is only one other time in all of history when the price of oil collapsed by more than 60 dollars, and that was just prior to the horrific financial crisis of 2008.

(Economic Collapse blog, jan 30th)

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/birth-pangs-coming-great-depression




Government housing agencies seeking to entice more low-income homebuyers to purchase mortgages are engaged in a price war that could leave taxpayers on the hook if another housing meltdown occurs, according to experts.

Both the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, housing giants known as government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), have announced programs in recent weeks that reduce lending standards and mortgage costs to attract low-income buyers.

President Barack Obama touted the FHA’s plan, which lowers annual insurance premiums on government-backed mortgages, earlier this month. That program follows Fannie and Freddie’s resumption in December of low down payment mortgage loans for eligible first-time homebuyers.

The timing of the two measures is not a coincidence, some experts say. Edward Pinto, former chief credit officer of Fannie Mae and a co-director of the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) International Center on Housing Risk, wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the federal agencies also competed for homebuyers in the decades before the 2008 housing crisis.

“Fannie’s goal in 1994 and today is to take market share from the FHA, the main competitor for loans it and Freddie Mac need to meet mandates set by Congress since 1992 to increase loans to low- and moderate-income homeowners,” he said. “The weapons in this war are familiar—lower pricing and progressively looser credit as competing federal agencies fight over existing high-risk lending and seek to expand such lending.”

As the agencies reduce prices in a tit-for-tat fashion to lure homebuyers, more risky mortgage loans are injected into the housing market. Critics say the purchase of such loans by Fannie and Freddie, spurred by federal housing mandates, contributed significantly to the 2008 crisis. The GSEs required a taxpayer bailout of $188 billion to stay afloat after 2008.

Fannie and Freddie operate by buying mortgage loans from lenders, packaging them into securities, and then selling those securities to investors with backing from taxpayers. The FHA, by contrast, offers mortgage insurance on loans by certain approved lenders. In 2013, the agency drew $1.7 billion from the Treasury Department to cover losses on bad loans.

Fannie and Freddie, along with the FHA, underwrite a majority of loans in the housing market.

Mel Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)—which oversees the GSEs—said during a congressional hearing on Tuesday that his agency would decide on the “guarantee fees” that Fannie and Freddie charge lenders by the end of March.

If the fees—which account for the risk Fannie and Freddie assume by buying the mortgage loans—are reduced, it could be another sign that the GSEs will lower prices further to compete with FHA and attract homebuyers.

Another concern about the brewing price war between Fannie and Freddie and the FHA is their lack of capital. Under a 2012 agreement with Treasury, Fannie and Freddie must hand over all of their profits to the government and cannot retain capital. The FHA will not reach its required minimum capital level of 2 percent until at least 2016. Both agencies could thus leave taxpayers exposed if their loans default, and there is no capital to absorb the losses.
(free beacon, jan 29th)

http://freebeacon.com/issues/feds-price-war-on-housing-puts-taxpayers-at-risk/




The U.S. homeownership rate fell to the lowest in more than two decades in the fourth quarter as many would-be buyers stayed on the sidelines, giving the rental market a boost.

The share of Americans who own their homes was 64 percent in the fourth quarter, down from 64.4 percent in the previous three months, the Census Bureau said in a report. The rate was at the lowest since the second quarter of 1994, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Rising prices and a tight supply of lower-end listings have put homes out of reach for some entry-level buyers, who also face strict mortgage standards. The share of U.S. homebuyers making their first purchase dropped in 2014 to the lowest level in almost three decades, the National Association of Realtors reported last week.
(Bloomberg, jan 30th)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-29/u-s-homeownership-rate-falls-to-a-20-year-low




Nearly half of U.S. households — 47 percent — say they spend all of their income, go into debt or dip into savings to meet their annual expenses, according to an analysis of Fed survey data released Thursday by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

(Chicago tribune, jan 30th)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-households-exhaust-salaries-20150129-story.html



Rise of the robots at AOL lead to job cuts

(Usa today, jan 30th)

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/01/30/aol-programmatic-layoffs-ad-sales/22594973/



China draining global gold inventory

(WND, jan 31st)

http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/china-draining-global-gold-inventory/




PRIVACY AND THE SPY GRID_________________



This week’s report that U.S. government surveillance efforts have reached our roads appears to be just the latest troubling expansion of post-Sept. 11 domestic spying. Like so many of the online surveillance techniques that have been revealed in recent years, the newly uncovered Justice Department program — which scans license plates in order to track the movements of vehicles, creating a national database for law enforcement agencies — gathers huge amounts of data about the movements of innocent and guilty people alike. But, like the rise of government cybersurveillance, the rise of auto surveillance has happened so rapidly and completely that the public may only be waking up to it long after it has become an ineradicable fixture of modern American life.

According to the report, in addition to installing cameras on public roads, the Justice Department’s Drug Enforcement Administration taps into a massive and growing network of license plate scanners operated by various local law enforcement agencies. These plate reading programs, helped by grants from the Department of Homeland Security, are now operated by as many as 70 percent of local police departments, which see them as a “force multiplier” for overworked beat cops. With the ability to automatically scan more than 100,000 vehicles per day at an ever-lower cost, police say the devices simply make officers more efficient at their jobs.

(bloomberg, jan 30th)

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-01-29/big-brother-is-watching-you-run-errands




The Communications Security Establishment, CSA has joined the league of massive internet surveillance with its new program by the name Levitation. The new program is like the NSA surveillance system except that instead of looking at internet traffic it surveils downloads and uploads of pictures, videos and notes online.

(security gladiators, jan 29th)

http://securitygladiators.com/2015/01/29/canadian-surveillance-system-levitation/




Judge: Power Company Can Refuse Electricity to Family that Removed Smart Meter

A Detroit family that removed their home’s “Smart Meter” has been forced to rely on a generator after a local power company shut off their electricity.

(Infowars, jan 30th)

http://www.infowars.com/judge-power-company-can-refuse-electricity-to-family-that-removed-smart-meter/




A Year After Reform Push, NSA Still Collects Bulk Domestic Data, Still Lacks Way to Assess Value

(first look, jan 29th)

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/29/one-year-major-report-nsa-still-collecting-bulk-domestic-data-still-clueless-much-good-surveillance/




A high-tech office in Sweden is implanting its workers with computer chips under the skin in order for them to access the building, a move which ‘biohackers’ says is preparation for a dystopian future when governments and corporations adopt the same technology.

The Epicenter building in Stockholm, which hosts start-up companies as well as the likes of Google and Microsoft, utilizes microchip technology to allow staff to open doors, interact with smartphones, as well as operate equipment.

BBC reporter Rory Cellan-Jones volunteered to be microchipped for the story and had a chip injected into his hand.

According to Hannes Sjoblad, chief ‘disruption officer’ at the office development, the chip will also eventually be used to pay for food in the canteen and replace passwords to access computers.

Sjoblad said people should welcome the chip because it would make their lives “easier,” while also warning that one day governments and corporations could mandate that people be microchipped.

“We want to be able to understand this technology before big corporates and big government come to us and say everyone should get chipped — the tax authority chip, the Google or Facebook chip,” he said.

In a separate profile piece, Sjoblad seems more welcoming of the idea of everybody being chipped, commenting, “Years ago there was fear over vaccinations and now it seems perfectly normal to have cells injected into us. That is an early example of bio-hacking.”

“We’ve been putting chips in animals for 20 years,” he added.

People being implanted with microchips as a “convenient” way of getting access to secure areas is by no means a new technology.

In 2004, a BBC News reporter also got microchipped for a story about a nightclub in Barcelona where customers use the chip to access VIP areas and pay for drinks.

Also in 2004, Mexico’s attorney general and at least 160 employees in his office were injected with rice grain-sized chips in order to access secure areas of the building.

In January last year, Former DARPA director and now Google executive Regina Dugan promoted the idea of an edible “authentication microchip,” while Google engineering director Scott Huffman says that within five years people will have microphones attached to their ceilings and microchips embedded in their brains in order to perform quicker internet searches.

A 2012 CNN article which speculated about the future of transhumanism predicted that within 75 years, everyone on the planet would have a brain chip implant that would allow their behavior to be controlled by a third party.

The release of Apple’s new ‘Apple Pay’ system last year, which utilizes biometric fingerprints to allow users to make purchases, also prompted fears about the ‘mark of the beast’, a bible verse in Revelations which predicts that “no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark,” which many Christians ascribe to biometric payment technology and implantable microchips.

According to inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, an icon for transhumanists, smartphones will be implanted in the brain within 20 years.

By 2019, Kurzweil forecasts that wearable smartphones will be all the rage and that by 2029, computers and cellphones will be implanted in people’s eyes and ears, creating a “human underclass” who refuse the chip that will be viewed by others as backwards and unproductive because they refuse to acquiesce to the singularity.

(Infowars, jan 30th)

http://www.infowars.com/office-implants-microchips-under-employees-skin/




POLICE STATE_________________


FBI Lists Brother of US Citizen Challenging No Fly List as ‘Most Wanted Terrorist’ Day Before Major Hearing
   
In the Eastern District of Virginia, the Justice Department has been fighting a lawsuit brought by a US citizen, who claims his constitutional rights were violated when he was placed on the No Fly List.

The judge has not blindly accepted the government’s state secrets claims and left open the possibility that the government may fail to get the case thrown out. However, the day before a major hearing for summary judgment, the FBI put the US citizen’s brother on the Bureau’s list of “Most Wanted Terrorists.”

When Gulet Mohamed went to renew his Kuwaiti visitor’s visa on December 20, 2010, he was handcuffed and blindfolded by men in civilian clothes, who took him to a location approximately fifteen minutes from the airport [PDF]. He was kept in detention for over a week and suffered torture.

Interrogators transferred him to a deportation facility on December 28. As Kuwaiti officials tried to deport him, he found out he had been placed on a No Fly List. He remained in the deportation facility for a couple weeks and FBI agents visited him twice. Mohamed believes the agents did this to “pressure him to forgo his right to counsel, submit to invasive questioning and become an informant for the FBI upon returning to the United States.”

(Fire dog lake, jan 30th)

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2015/01/30/fbi-puts-brother-of-us-citizen-challenging-no-fly-list-on-most-wanted-terrorists-list-day-before-major-hearing/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed





Missoula police are seeking a quarter of a million dollar Homeland Security grant to help them spy on “extremist” organization The Rainbow Family, a loosely affiliated hippy group which stresses non-violence, peace and love.

The mayor signed off this week on a proposal that if approved would net the Missoula Police Department $254,930 from the DHS to purchase a mobile command unit that would be used to spy on The Rainbow Family, which is listed as an “extremist” organization in the proposal. The unit will also be used by other first responders during emergencies and natural disasters.

The mobile command units, offered to police departments by the DHS after 9/11, are designed to deal with hostage situations, active shooter calls and mass-casualty incidents.

The Rainbow Family “describes itself as a nonviolent group spreading the message of peace and love.” The group has only met twice in Montana in the last fifteen years, once in 2000 and once in 2013. The extent of the “threat” posed by the group is that one of its gatherings was described by the U.S. Forest Service as “rowdy”.

According to a description of the group’s activity, “All Rainbow Gatherings are held with an open invitation to people of all walks of life, and of all beliefs, to share experiences, love, dance, music, food, and learning.” After a gathering in Richmond, Virginia in 2005, Mayor Bob Henry Baber stated, “I never saw one bit of any activity that required any Forest Service legal intervention.”

Missoula Police Lt. Scott Brodie said that during its 2013 event, the group “created a mess that (needed) to be cleaned up”.

Citing a non-violent hippy group which stresses peace and love in order to justify the purchase of a vehicle that would normally be used to combat dangerous criminals or even terrorists is patently absurd and a shocking indication of how far the police state has progressed in America.

While large gatherings such as those staged by The Rainbow Family, during which crimes will inevitably occur, undoubtedly need to be properly policed, to describe the group as “extremist” is complete overkill.

The proposal is even more ludicrous than a 2013 application by the police chief in Concord, New Hampshire, who attempted to justify a DHS grant to buy a BearCat armored vehicle by citing the threat posed by libertarians and Occupy activists in the region.

(Infowars, jan 30th)

http://www.infowars.com/police-label-hippy-group-whose-message-is-peace-love-domestic-extremists/




Current and former federal air marshals allege that the Transportation Security Administration intentionally hid embarrassing  information about supervisors’ misconduct and targeted employees who sought to expose the truth.

The allegations revolve around TSA management’s overuse of an agency-specific designation called Sensitive Security Information (SSI). Though it is not classified, information deemed SSI is supposed to be kept from the public because it would harm transportation security. The marshals claim that the TSA has repeatedly abused the SSI classification, even going so far as to use it on fictitious information, in an effort to keep the public in the dark.

(national review, jan 30th)

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/397588/transportation-secrecy-administration-ryan-lovelace




The Transportation Security Agency will be on high alert closely scrutinizing travelers passing through Phoenix Sky Harbor, searching for prohibited items like air horns, BBQ sauce and flasks of all shapes and sizes, while blithely ignoring concerns brought to light by a security consultant who proved in 2013 that an array of makeshift weapons could be constructed using gift shop items found beyond TSA checkpoints.

“TSA will deploy nearly 90 additional Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) and supervisors as well as four Passenger Screening Canine teams,” a DHS press release states, adding that VIPR teams (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) will also be monitoring other mass transit hubs around the city.

The US Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agencies have the important task of protecting the NFL’s “intellectual property,” ostensibly “to ensure fans are getting official Super Bowl related memorabilia.”

The Secret Service, an agency which mainly works to protect national and visiting foreign leaders, will also get in on the act by scoping out your Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other social media.

“The U.S. Secret Service will support open-source social media monitoring for situational awareness and has been assisting with cyber security vulnerability assessments and mitigation,” the press release states.

FEMA prepared staffers and first responders by using “role players” to carry out simulated “mass casualty events” “in which ‘injured’ role players were triaged, transported and treated in the midst of a chaotic situation that was still unfolding.”

The North American Aerospace Command (NORAD), outside of the purview of the DHS, has also announced it will be patrolling Phoenix airways ahead of and during the Super Bowl, unlike during 9/11 when it was ordered to stand down.

But the scores of federal employees apparently aren’t enough. DHS, following the 1984 playbook, is again enlisting citizen snitches to be wary of their fellow football lovers.

Predictably, the bloated agency has resurrected its tired “See Something, Say Something” campaign, encouraging game patrons to look upon each other with fear, distrust and suspicion.

Residents and football fans visiting Phoenix over the weekend will be inundated with “See Something, Say Something” messages “at hotels, on buses, billboards, magazines and visitor guides.”

And, “For the first time ever, individuals in Arizona who are using their smart phones to play games using the Game Day and NFL Experience mobile applications may see campaign messaging throughout Super Bowl Weekend.”

(Infowars, jan 30th)

http://www.infowars.com/feds-to-unleash-hyper-orwellian-police-state-at-super-bowl-xlix/




After two hung juries, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office has decided not to retry the police officer who killed Aiyana Stanley-Jones in a raid gone horribly wrong four years ago.

Detroit police office Joseph Weekley, 38, shot and killed the sleeping 7-year-old with an MP5 submachine gun as he led a SWAT-like team into her home in search of a murder suspect.

SEE ALSO: Former Prison Chaplain Awarded $4M After Cop Breaks His Leg In Attack

Weekley was indicted more than a year later and has been tried twice before in Stanley-Jones’ death, both times resulting in mistrials. Prosecutors maintain that the officer was negligent and reckless and didn’t follow proper protocol in the May 16, 2010 operation, reports The Detroit Free Press.

They maintain that Weekley, who is part of the “elite” special response team, broke protocol in shooting little Aiyana, and officers from his unit testified to this in court (apparently, your finger is not supposed to be on the trigger of your gun unless you have identified and intend to fire at your target.)

(news one, jan 28th)

http://newsone.com/3086905/aiyana-stanley-jones-news/




The City of New York on Friday agreed to pay $3.9 million to the family of Ramarley Graham, a black Bronx teenager shot to death by a white police officer in 2012.

(CBS new york, jan 30th)

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/01/30/city-settles-for-3-9-million-in-case-of-ramarley-graham-bronx-teen-killed-by-cop-in-2012/




THE MEDIA AND FIRST AMENDMENT________________



Reporters covering the House Democrats’ retreat in Philadelphia this week are having a much different experience than when they’re on their home turf on Capitol Hill.

Reporters are being escorted to and from the restroom and lobby and are being barred from entering the hotel outside of scheduled events, even if they’ve been invited by a member of Congress.

During Vice President Joe Biden’s remarks at the retreat Friday, reporters were required to have a staff member, usually a junior member of the press team, escort them when going to the bathroom or to the lobby. The filing center for reporters was at a separate hotel from where the retreat was taking place, so access was limited to members of Congress specifically made available to the press.

(Politico, jan 30th)

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2015/01/at-retreat-dem-staffers-escort-reporters-to-restroom-201895.html



Critics Push Back After Broadcasting Board of Governors Characterizes Alternative Media as Terror
(Infowars, jan 30th)

http://www.infowars.com/critics-push-back-after-broadcasting-board-of-governors-characterizes-alternative-media-as-terror/



If Obama Gets His Way, Sharing This Story Will Soon Be a Felony

American bloggers and media companies would also be subject to felony cybercrime charges for disseminating hacked material. The statute would apply to normal Internet users too: If you, dear reader, saw the “bad passwords” article and passed it along to a friend over email, or posted the link to Reddit, or retweeted the article, or shared it on Facebook, then you too could face federal prosecution for “willfully” trafficking “in any password or similar information.”

Does that sound insane? Surely it does. Is it a real possibility? With Republicans and Democrats both backing the bill, it surely is.

(Policy mic, jan 30th)

http://mic.com/articles/109376/if-obama-gets-his-way-sharing-this-story-will-soon-be-a-felony




Saudi Arabia postponed Friday for a third week in a row the flogging of a blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam, his wife said.

(AFP, jan 30th)

http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-postpones-flogging-blogger-badawi-third-week-144823767.html;_ylt=AwrBEiIsu8tU3lYAYNbQtDMD




Former CBS investigative correspondent testifies at the confirmation hearing for Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch

SHARYL ATTKISSON: In 2013, Reporters Without Borders downgraded America’s standing in the global free press rankings, rating the Obama administration as worse than Bush’s. It matters not that when caught the government promises to dial back or that [FOX News'] James Rosen gets an apology. The message has already been received. If you cross this administration with perfectly accurate reporting they don’t like, you will be attacked and punished. You and your sources may be subjected to the kind of surveillance devised for enemies of the state.

(real clear politics, jan 29th)

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/01/29/sharyl_attkisson_if_you_cross_obama_admin_they_will_treat_you_like_enemies_of_the_state.html



Nearly two months after it went offline following a police raid in Sweden, torrent-indexing site The Pirate Bay is back online.

The comeback is hardly surprising. Following a period of complete unavailability, the site was resurrected in December, with an image of a phoenix replacing its standard pirate-ship logo. The Pirate Bay was not immediately functional, but it featured a timer indicating that the site would resume operations some time around Feb. 1.

See also: The Pirate Bay cofounder: I don't care if the site stays down

The Pirate Bay's current owners have not yet made an official announcement about its return. However, a Saturday report from TorrentFreak said there may be some friction between former and current staff members, with some even planning to launch another version of the site.

Currently, The Pirate Bay is back, and appears to have the same functionality as before, though there are few torrents newer than Dec. 9, when the site was shut down.

(mashable, jan 31st)

http://mashable.com/2015/01/31/the-pirate-bay-back/




WAR ON TERROR________________


Open Jihad Declared in Egypt Following State Dept. Meeting with Muslim Brotherhood-Aligned Leaders

The Muslim Brotherhood called for “a long, uncompromising jihad” in Egypt just days after a delegation of the Islamist group’s key leaders and allies met with the State Department, according to an official statement released this week.

Just days after a delegation that included two top Brotherhood leaders was hosted at the State Department, the organization released an official statement calling on its supporters to “prepare” for jihad, according to an independent translation of the statement first posted on Tuesday.

(free beacon, jan 30th)

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/open-jihad-declared-in-egypt-following-state-dept-meeting-with-muslim-brotherhood-aligned-leaders/




Security fears after Qatar buys BA stake: Critics slam deal as Middle Eastern country has links with Hamas, IS and Al Qaeda

    -Qatar has bought a £1.15billion share of IAG that owns BA and Iberia
    -10 per cent stake has been purchased by sovereign owned Qatar Airways
    -Critics say Qatar has links to terrorist groups Hamas, IS and Al Qaeda
    -They say Qatar 'does not share our values' and it funds terrorism
    -The state denies it supports terror organisations or funds them


(dailymail, jan 30th)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2933824/Security-fears-Qatar-buys-BA-stake-Critics-slam-deal-Middle-Eastern-country-links-Hamas-Al-Qaeda.html




IMMIGRATION____________



One thousand of the 36,000 illegal immigrant criminals the government released in 2013 have gone on to commit other crimes, including child sex abuse, hit-and-run and child cruelty, according to new data released Friday evening by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley.

The information, which the Homeland Security Department provided to Mr. Grassley, details all 1,000 convictions including dozens of drunk-driving convictions, drug offenses and weapons convictions. But the more serious crimes include domestic abuse, carjacking and aggravated assault.

(Washington times, jan 30th)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/30/illegal-immigrants-released-custody-committed-1000/#ixzz3QSqrC2J3




Some Motorists Wait Months For DMV Appointments After Immigrants Law Goes Into Effect

The Department of Motor Vehicles is so overwhelmed with requests for new driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations that it can take up to three months to get an appointment or a half-day wait in the lobby.

A DMV spokesman told KCAL9 Political Reporter Dave Bryan there has been a crush of applications for new licenses for undocumented immigrants, a program that began earlier this month. The spokesman said the DMV is working to address the problems, but some people are having to take a day off of work to handle a 15-minute transaction.

At the Hollywood DMV office, where they handle drivers license issues, the long lines outside and packed waiting areas inside are testimony to the long, grueling process that California drivers have to endure before getting service.

(CBS los angles, jan 29th)

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/01/29/only-on-9-some-dmv-customers-waiting-months-for-appointments/




HEALTH________________________



And while interest groups and advocates wage war in state legislatures, on ballots and in Congress over what should be disclosed on product labels, products certified as containing no genetically modified organisms are proliferating on grocery shelves without any nationwide mandatory regulations.

Moreover, many manufacturers are nodding to the public debate, adding the phrase “non-G.M.O.” to their packaging without a verification process.

“We’ve put it on our labels because it was something our customers wanted to know,” said Hitesh Hajarnavis, chief executive of Popcorn Indiana, which sells ready-to-eat popcorn.

So if more companies elect to put labels on their products stating that they are G.M.O.-free, whether verified or not, does that make the fierce policy debate increasingly moot?

“It’s an interesting question,” said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union, which lobbies for mandatory labeling.

(NYT, jan 31st)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/business/gmo-labels-for-food-are-in-high-demand-but-provide-little-certainty.html?_r=0




Their children have been sent home from school. Their families are barred from birthday parties and neighborhood play dates. Online, people call them negligent and criminal. And as officials in 14 states grapple to contain a spreading measles outbreak that began near here at Disneyland, the parents at the heart of America’s anti-vaccine movement are being blamed for incubating an otherwise preventable public-health crisis.

But here in California, anti-vaccine parents whose children have endured bouts of whooping cough and chickenpox largely defended their choice to raise their children on natural foods, essential oils and no vaccinations.

“There is absolutely no reason to get the shot,” said Crystal McDonald, whose 16-year-old daughter was one of 66 students sent home from Palm Desert High School for the next two weeks because they did not have full measles immunizations.

After researching the issue and reading information from a national anti-vaccine group, Ms. McDonald said she and her husband, a chiropractor, decided to raise their four children without vaccines. She said they ate well and had never been to the doctor, and she insisted that her daughter was healthier than many classmates. But when the school sent her home with a letter, Ms. McDonald’s daughter was so concerned about missing two weeks of Advanced Placement classes that she suggested simply getting a measles inoculation.

“I said, ‘No, absolutely not,’ “ Ms. McDonald said. “I said, ‘I’d rather you miss an entire semester than you get the shot.’ “

(NYT, jan 31st)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/us/vaccine-critics-turn-defensive-over-measles.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0




U.S. GOVERNMENT______________________



Senate GOP demands Obama turn over all communications with IRS

Senate Republicans on Thursday asked President Obama to turn over all communications he and his aides have had with the IRS since 2010, hoping to find out whether the tax collection agency shared private taxpayer information with political operatives at the White House.

(Washington times, jan 29th)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/29/senate-gop-to-obama-turn-over-communications-irs/#ixzz3QTW9P7Ou




Hillary Clinton’s ‘WMD’ moment: U.S. intelligence saw false narrative in Libya

The intelligence community gathered no specific evidence of an impending genocide in Libya in spring 2011, undercutting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s primary argument for using the U.S. military to remove Col. Moammar Gadhafi from power, an event that has left his country in chaos, according to officials with direct knowledge of the dispute.

(washington times, jan 29th)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/29/hillary-clinton-libya-war-genocide-narrative-rejec/#ixzz3QTWOPyQa




Obama Commits to Fight Obesity in India

President Obama committed to helping the India fight obesity during his recent trip to the country. A UNICEF survey found that over 30 percent of Indian children under the age of 5 were underweight, CNS News reports.

Obama addressed the “issue of obesity” in India after it was brought up in a question posed by a listener.

The president did not address the United Nation’s World Food Program ranking of India as one of the hungriest countries in the world.

(free beacon, jan 28th)

http://freebeacon.com/issues/obama-commits-to-fighting-obesity-in-india/




Big-money donors push Romney out for Bush

'Mitt's a great guy, but winning is everything in this business'

Well-placed whispers. Emails sent to deep-pocket donors. A silent, but swift campaign behind the scenes to swing support from the old establishment darling to the new.

The net result: Mitt Romney is out, and Jeb Bush is in.

According to a report in the New York Times, a coalition of wealthy and powerful Republican donors reached the decision early that Romney had his shot at being elected president, and it was time for new blood.

“Donors who supported [Romney] last time refused to commit to his campaign,” the Times summarized. “Key operatives were signing up with former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida. The Republican establishment that lifted Mr. Romney to the nomination in 2012 in the face of scrappy opposition had moved on.”

(WND, jan 31st)

http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/big-money-donors-push-romney-out-for-bush/#VUAsmZkVEz6vElHu.99




Pipeline not state-inspected before 3M-gallon saltwater leak

A pipeline that ruptured recently in North Dakota and spilled nearly 3 million gallons of saltwater produced during oil drilling wasn't inspected by the state before being installed, according to state regulators.

Alison Ritter, a spokeswoman for the North Dakota Industrial Commission, which oversees the state's oil and gas industry, said Wednesday that it's common for officials not to inspect such small gathering pipelines before they become operational.

North Dakota has struggled to find qualified installation inspectors because candidates are often drawn to lucrative jobs in the oil industry, Ritter said. Instead, the state has to rely on the word of companies, which are required to file an affidavit stating that they've followed state-mandated procedures when implementing the smaller pipelines, which typically run from one well pad to another.

(lancaster online, jan 28th)

http://lancasteronline.com/news/health/pipeline-not-state-inspected-before-m-gallon-saltwater-leak/article_b94a771b-3dbd-5fd3-bdf6-faaeb392fa15.html