Tuesday, January 27, 2015
1/27/2015 January 27th 2015
THE 1% ELITE_________________________
Panicked super rich buying boltholes with private airstrips to escape if poor rise up
Super rich hedge fund managers are buying 'secret boltholes' where they can hideout in the event of civil uprising against growing inequality, it has been claimed.
Nervous financiers from across the globe have begun purchasing landing strips, homes and land in areas such as New Zealand so they can flee should people rise up.
With growing inequality and riots such as those in London in 2011 and in Ferguson and other parts of the USA last year, many financial leaders fear they could become targets for public fury.
Robert Johnson, president of the Institute of New Economic Thinking, told people at the World Economic Forum in Davos that many hedge fund managers were already planning their escapes.
(MIRROR, jan 26th)
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/panicked-super-rich-buying-boltholes-5044084
POLICE STATE AND JUSTICE____________________
VIDEO: POLICE SHOOTS MAN RUNNING AWAY FROM RANDOM PAT DOWN SEARCH
(VICE, jan 26th)
https://news.vice.com/article/graphic-body-cam-footage-shows-oklahoma-cop-shoot-and-kill-fleeing-suspect
VIDEO: POLICE BEAT AND TASE MAN WHO HONKS AT THEM FOR BLOCKING A DRIVEWAY
The Woman who filmed the incident has claimed that the officers became violent when the man honked his horn at them in a gesture to alert them he needed to drive through the route they were blocking. It seems that asking police in California not to block the road is now a violent and threatening action worthy of a forceful response.
(infowars, jan 26th)
http://www.infowars.com/video-cops-beat-and-taser-man-for-honking-car-horn/
VIDEO: A disturbing video obtained by WPXI News shows two officers approach an otherwise completely peaceful man and begin to brutally assault him.
The video starts with two male officers and one female officer, walking down the hallway of the Renewal Halfway House in Pittsburgh. A black male is seen standing in the doorway on his cell phone.
As officers approach the man there is seemingly no warning before the two uniformed brutes begin waylaying on a this non-threatening individual. While the video is silent we can assume that the two officers were yelling, “Quit resisting” the entire time they were delivering haymaker blow after haymaker blow, with their metal asps.
(Free thought project, jan 26th)
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/video-man-attacked-police-officers-standing-hallway/
A woman, whose identity was not released, came to the police department on Cotton Street at 6:28 p.m. Thursday and picked up the red phone to speak to dispatch, saying she needed an officer, police spokeswoman Kristie Brian said.
“When police arrived to assist her, that’s when she confronted them,” Brian said. “She did brandish a weapon. I don’t know what kind it was. She came at the officers and was shot.”
(news journal, jan 26)
http://www.news-journal.com/news/local/longview-police-shoot-kill-woman-at-station/article_d4ac665a-9713-59ce-b6c4-9cbeb56b5166.html
U.S. Spies on Millions of Drivers: DEA Uses License-Plate Readers to Build Database for Federal, Local Authorities
The Justice Department has been building a national database to track in real time the movement of vehicles around the U.S., a secret domestic intelligence-gathering program that scans and stores hundreds of millions of records about motorists, according to current and former officials and government documents.
(WSJ, jan 26th)
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-spies-on-millions-of-cars-1422314779
The TSA Wants To Read Your Facebook Posts And Check Out Your Purchases Before It Will Approve You For PreCheck
The TSA is disappointed that so few Americans have opted out of its bottle-tossing, package-groping screenings by signing up for its PreCheck program. For a few years now, the TSA has been selling travelers’ civil liberties back to them, most recently for $85 a head, but it’s now making a serious push to increase participation.
Here’s everything that’s open to inspection by PreCheck applicant screeners:
For purposes of this private sector enrollment initiative for the TSA Pre√® Application Program, “commercial data” includes: public record data, such as criminal history and real estate records produced by federal, state, and local governments; other publicly available information, such as directories, press reports, location data and information that individuals post on blogs and social media sites; and wide ranging data such as purchase information, customer lists from registration websites, and self-reported information provided by consumers that is obtained by commercial data sources such as data brokers
(techdirt, jan 26th)
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150123/09423229792/tsa-wants-to-read-your-facebook-posts-check-out-your-purchases-before-it-will-approve-you-precheck.shtml
U.S. GOVERNMENT COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL!!!!
Pentagon officials announced the creation of an essay competition Monday to honor recently deceased Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz. According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Defense, attendees of the National Defense University have been tasked with formulating a written tribute to the “life and leadership” of the “Saudi Arabian monarch.”
“The king, who died Jan. 23 at age 90, oversaw the modernization of his country’s military during the time he spent as commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard, a position he held from 1963 until he became king in 2005,” the press release states.
Headed up by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, the essay contest will focus on both Abdullah and the region as a whole.
“This is an important opportunity to honor the memory of the king, while also fostering scholarly research on the Arab-Muslim world, and I can think of no better home for such an initiative than NDU,” Dempsey said. “In my job to train and advise his military forces, and in our relationship since, I found the king to be a man of remarkable character and courage,” Dempsey said.
Marine Corps Major General and National Defense University President Frederick M. Padilla had no issue with praising the late King, calling the competition a unique research opportunity.
“This scholarly research competition presents NDU students with a unique opportunity to focus their research and writing efforts on relevant issues at the intersection of U.S. security interests and the Arab-Muslim world,” Padilla said.
Since Abdullah’s passing, members of the U.S. establishment have given endless praise to the former dictator, seemingly ignoring his barbaric rule and world-renowned brutality.
As noted by the Intercept’s Murtaza Hussain, prominent U.S. leaders such as John McCain, Joe Biden and John Kerry wasted no time in highlighting Abdullah’s alleged accomplishments following his death.
(Infowars, jan 26th)
http://www.infowars.com/pentagon-asks-college-to-honor-dead-saudi-king-in-essay-content/
Amateur historian John Greenewald has spent nearly two decades requesting declassified information from the US government regarding UFOs.
Recently, he posted more than 100,000 pages of documents on the US Air Force's internal UFO investigations to the internet. Here are the top five things to know from the open files of Project Blue Book....continued in the article
(BBC, jan 26th)
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30943827?ocid=socialflow_twitter
The U.S. military is looking at a new way of holding detainees in the field, according to government procurement records: small, prefabricated cells, designed for solitary custody and barely big enough to lie down in, that could be deployed to war zones.
The Army is looking for information from contractors who could design and build a “modular detainee shelter system,” according to an announcement on fbo.gov that was posted in November. Each “closed, box-like” shelter would be “a holding cell for one detainee during combat operations.”
These new cells, which would be collapsed for transportation, would have “tamperproof” interiors. The door to the cell could be padlocked shut from the outside, and would have a five-inch square window, also tamperproof. The door would also have two small access holes, one for passing food to the inmate, and the other for locking and unlocking handcuffs.
The cells, as described in a detailed sheet, would have an internal area of at least 40 square feet, and would stand eight feet with a width of about seven feet. They would have heat and air-conditioning and be able to hold their detainees in any environment, from the South Pole to the Sahara. The “operational temperature” of the cells would be from 40 degrees below zero to 120 degrees, and would be designed to resist not just “the effects of blowing sand,” but also a heavy load of snow, according to the specifications.
(Buzzfeed, jan 26th)
http://www.buzzfeed.com/aramroston/prefab-detention-cells-for-war-zones?bftw&utm_term=4ldqpgc#.toKXAEjXl
U.S. NOT AFRAID TO PROSECUTE WHISTLEBLOWERS:
Former CIA officer Jeffrey Alexander Sterling was found guilty on all nine counts of unlawful disclosure of classified information and related charges in federal court Monday.
Federal prosecutors charged Sterling with unlawful disclosure of classified information, retention and conveyance of classified documents, and obstruction of justice in relation to the exposure of a CIA mission to thwart the Iranian nuclear program.
Details of the mission were leaked to New York Times journalist James Risen, who published the information in his 2006 book “State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration.”
(courthouse news, jan 26th)
http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/01/26/ex-cia-agent-found-guilty-in-operation-merlin-leak-case.htm
Black Hawk helicopters and truck-sized X-ray machines that are typically deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border have been brought to the Super Bowl venue to assist with the security effort.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection showed off the technology Monday as it helps with Super Bowl security.
(AP, jan 26th)
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/border-protection-lends-hand-super-bowl-security-28495614
PRIVATE COMPANIES SPYING ON YOU______________
WikiLeaks on Monday criticized Google for failing to swiftly inform the secrets-spilling group about U.S. search warrants issued seeking emails and other personal information from three of its staff.
The warrants, issued in March 2012, required the Internet giant to hand over the phone numbers, IP addresses, credit card details, contents of all emails and other details for Google accounts used by Sarah Harrison, Kristinn Hrafnsson and Joseph Faerrell. The existence of the warrants, which cite an espionage, fraud and conspiracy investigation, was disclosed to WikiLeaks in December.
"We are astonished and disturbed that Google waited over two and a half years to notify its subscribers that a search warrant was issued for their records," WikiLeaks' lawyer Michael Ratner said in a letter to Google chairman Eric Schmidt that was published online Monday.
(AP, jan 26th)
http://news.yahoo.com/wikileaks-slams-google-over-delay-revealing-us-warrants-145651642.html
The fast-action, car-mounted camera can take more than 100 pictures of license plates every minute, sorting them against a database of cars slated for repossession. The technology, a staple in law enforcement, has become expected in his business. It makes a repo man's job of fishing for cars in a vast sea easier.
"Every repo company either has them or is considering them," Doody said. "The more plate readers there are out there, the better it is for the industry."
That's because the repo men share data with each other, for a fee, through a network. But the sharing doesn't stop there.
The largest database of license plate scans - 2 billion records and growing - is owned by a private company that boasts it has eyes in every city in the U.S.
The license plate pictures taken by an army of repo men across the country go into that commercial database. The data, including the license plate number and where the picture was taken, is then sold again to global information brokering companies. The same companies that offer credit checks and identity protection are also selling license plate scans showing where you've been, accompanied by records about what you own, where you live and who you know.
The data's life becomes endless in systems where license plate records are bundled with other personal information and sold, over and over.
The practical uses of the data are both infinite and chilling, said Jennifer Lynch, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
(Syracuse.com, jan 26th)
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2015/01/private_companies_know_where_youve_been_thanks_to_license_plate_cameras.html#incart_river#incart_hbx#incart_best-of
NEW COLD WAR___________________________
The Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Ukrainian army is “NATO’s foreign legion” and does not pursue Ukraine’s national interests.
“In essence, this is already not an army, but a foreign legion, in this case NATO’s foreign legion, that certainly does not pursue the goal of defending Ukraine’s national interests,” Putin said on Monday.
“It has quite different goals — geopolitical containing of Russia, which is absolutely inconsistent with the national interests of the Ukrainian people,” he added.
(Press TV, jan 26th)
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/01/26/394829/Putin-calls-Ukraine-army-NATO-legion
Ratings agency S&P cut Russia’s sovereign credit rating to below investment grade, or “junk” status, on Monday for the first time in a decade. The rouble fell after the news to 67.98 against the dollar , more than 5 percent lower than the previous close on the Moscow Exchange.
S&P said in a statement it had cut the rating from BBB- to BB+, with a negative outlook, and that Russia’s economic growth prospects – hit by low oil prices and Western sanctions in the Ukraine crisis – had weakened.
(Reuters, jan 26th)
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/01/26/russia-rating-downgrade-idINL6N0V53RT20150126
GREECE LOOKING TO JOIN WITH RUSSIA AGAINST THE EU AND US???
The new Syriza PM, Alexis Tsipras, has met with Russian ambassador Andrey Maslov. It was his first meeting with a foreign ambassador after taking office earlier today.
Russia is Greece’s largest trading partner. The value of the relationship was estimated at 9.3 billion euros ($12.5 billion) in 2013 and surpassed trading between Germany and Greece.
(Infowars, jan 26th)
http://www.infowars.com/greek-election-win-may-spell-trouble-for-us-eu-anti-russian-coalition/
The new Greece of Alexis Tsipras will run out of money by early March. It will then face a series of escalating crunch points that will end in default and a return to the drachma unless it can reach a deal with EU creditors.
Greece must repay €3.4bn to the International Monetary Fund in February and March. Tax revenues have collapsed as Greeks preempt what they hope will be a repeal of austerity taxes. “There is only €1.9bn left in the cash kitty, and the government has spending costs of $2.5bn coming up. Somebody needs to lend the country money soon,” said Megan Greene, from Manulife Asset Management.
(Telegraph, jan 26th)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11370960/Greek-coalition-braces-for-debt-showdown-as-Germany-rattles-sabre.html
GOP BEING TAKEN OVER BY TEA PARTY AND LIBERTARIANS
New GOP Caucus Could Set Stage for Leadership Coup
A group of 30-40 House Republicans — more than enough to prevent House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) from mustering 218 votes for anything — is organizing into a formal caucus and hiring staff.
(National review, jan 26th)
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/397221/new-gop-caucus-could-set-stage-leadership-coup-joel-gehrke
Boehner-McConnell retreat in Obama amnesty fight panics conservatives
Conservatives saw it as raising a white flag when Republican congressional leaders pledged not to withhold funding for the Department of Homeland Security in the fight over President Obama’s deportation amnesty, stoking fears that for the next two years House Speaker John A. Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will consistently surrender.
(washington times, jan 25th)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/25/boehner-mcconnell-retreat-in-obama-amnesty-funding/
WAR ON TERROR______________________________
Documents obtained Monday through a federal court order show State Department officials disseminated the false story that the 2012 Benghazi attack that killed a U.S. ambassador was nothing more than the violent escalation of a demonstration by Muslims against an insulting video, even though they knew it was a coordinated military-style assault.
Among the documents obtained by the Washington-based government watchdog Judicial Watch was a memo sent the day after the Sept. 11, 2012, attack to the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia, by the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Command Center titled “Emergency Message to U.S. Citizens: Demonstrations.”
The Diplomatic Security Command Center, or DSCC, was well aware that the attack was carried out by highly organized and armed Islamic militia, because the DSCC was the unit that monitored the attack in real time via video transmissions from a drone.
(WND, jan 26th)
http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/judicial-watch-obtains-smoking-gun-benghazi-documents/
Seven months after the military began an investigation into the disappearance of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and his capture by the Taliban, which held him for five years, a new report indicates Army officials have determined Bergdahl — for whom the administration traded five top Gitmo-held terrorists — will be charged as a deserter.
(WND, jan 26th)
http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/report-bergdahl-to-be-charged-with-desertion/
A terrorist attack on the Pakistani national grid plunged more than 140 million people into darkness before power was restored, prompting U.S. experts to warn that terrorist cells and “lone wolves” in the United States could cause similar damage to the vulnerable national electric-grid system.
The blackout in Pakistan affected more than 80 percent of the country’s population and all public services in all the major cities, including the capital, Islamabad.
A separatist group in the Naseerabad district of Baluchistan province in the country’s southwest caused the blackout by blowing up a major transmission line connected to the national grid.
It was the third such attack in two weeks.
(WND, jan 26th)
http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/terror-weapon-attack-plunges-140-million-into-darkness/
Kurdish forces have driven Islamic State (IS) militants from Kobane, activists say, ending a four-month battle for the northern Syrian town. Fighters from the Popular Protection Units (YPG) were said to have entered outlying areas in the east of the town after the jihadists retreated.
There were reports of people dancing in the streets and of celebratory gunfire. The battle for Kobane was seen as a major test of the US-led coalition’s strategy to combat IS with air strikes.
(bbc, jan 26th)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30991612?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_breaking&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_central
ECONOMY___________________________
It will cost the federal government – taxpayers, that is – $50,000 for every person who gets health insurance under the Obamacare law, the Congressional Budget Office revealed on Monday. The number comes from figures buried in a 15-page section of the nonpartisan organization’s new ten-year budget outlook.
(daily mail, jan 26th)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2927348/Obamacare-program-costs-50-000-American-gets-health-insurance-says-bombshell-budget-report.html
IBM Stock Disappointed That Company Isn’t Firing A Mindboggling 110,000
Over the weekend, in a repeat of rumors that were widespread last year, Forbes ‘reported’ about Project Chrome, a massive corporate reorganization for IBM that would see Big Blue cull over a quarter of its staff – in real terms that means over 110,000 employees, as early as next week. IBM stocks surged higher on this ‘great’ news… and then, disappointment started as “the largest corporate restructuring in history” was denied by the company…
(Zero hedge, jan 26th)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-26/ibm-stock-disappointed-company-isnt-firing-mindboggling-110000
So Far, The US Has The Worst-Performing Stock Market Of 2015
(Business Insider, jan 26th)
http://www.businessinsider.com/world-market-performance-through-jan-23-2015-1
Irresponsible lending might have been one of the many causes of the financial crisis -- but not just irresponsible lending to poor people, according to a new study.
"The large majority of mortgage dollars originated between 2002 and 2006 are obtained by middle- and high-income borrowers (not the poor)," the authors write. "In addition, borrowers in the middle and top of the distribution are the ones that contributed most significantly to the increase in mortgages in default after 2007." Rich people tend to take out larger mortgages, of course, but the fact is that the amount of money poor borrowers failed to pay back was just never that significant, as this chart from the paper shows. In case you have a hard time believing that so many larger mortgages could have gone into default, The Washington Post just published a series of stories on subprime, sometimes predatory lending in relatively affluent places such as Prince George's County, Md., outside Washington, D.C.
The findings undermine criticism of recent modest efforts by the Obama administration to make housing more affordable for low-income borrowers by loosening federal credit standards. It's important to lend responsibly, even for the federal government, but the risks in this case might be exaggerated.
(washington post, jan 27th)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/01/27/wonkbook-affordable-housing-didnt-cause-the-financial-crisis/
SNOWMEGGEDON 2015________________
Blame De Blasio and Cuomo and Christie for the Blizzard Snow Job. As politicians rushed to out-serious each other, New Yorkers were whipped into a fear frenzy.
Every modern event has a hashtag and this morning, as New York City takes stock of the #snowmageddon2015 that wasn’t, it’s turning to #snowperbole.
On Monday, as Governor Cuomo, Governor Christie, and Mayor de Blasio rushed to out-serious each other, New Yorkers were whipped into a fear frenzy. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare, photos of Whole Foods depleted of kale circulated, and people stocked up for what would likely be days (maybe weeks!) indoors.
Even as we were doing it, we acknowledged it didn’t make much sense. After all, we’re in New York City. Bodegas never close. Delivery guys on bicycles have been a constant through all previous winter storms. All New Yorkers have their stories. That time we ordered Chinese Food during the snowstorm of 1994. Swimming on Brighton Beach during Hurricane Gloria. Buying Poptarts at the corner bodega during Sandy. Driving from Manhattan to Brooklyn and back again during the blackout of 2003. Yes, those are all mine.
As we waited for the storm deemed “historic,” the only real history was made when the subway shut down for the first time ever in preparation for snow. The real insult came when it was reported later that the trains were indeed still running, empty, as trains needed to keep moving to clear the tracks. Citibike was shut down. Cars were banned from the roads and anyone who didn’t take heed risked being fined.
These are all symptoms of our infantilizing “do something!” culture. Everyone understands the pressure politicians feel to be seen as proactive. But this time they went way too far in the name of protecting us. It’s one thing to warn drivers that conditions are dangerous and that they go out at their own risk. It’s another to shut down all roads in the city that allegedly never sleeps.
(Time, jan 27th)
http://time.com/3684240/blame-de-blasio-and-cuomo-and-christie-for-the-blizzard-snow-job/
GROCERY STORES CLEARED OUT
(gothamist, jan 26th)
http://gothamist.com/2015/01/26/snowpocalypse_supermarket.php
Social Media Calling Blizzard Of 2015 A ‘Bust’
(CBS connecticut, jan 27th)
http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2015/01/27/social-media-calling-blizzard-of-2015-a-bust/
Meteorologist: 2010s officially the snowiest decade in the east coast in the NOAA record – surpassing the 1960s
Meteorologist Joe D'Aleo: 'We will have had 14 major impact storms this decade (only half over) beating out the 10 in the 1960s and 2000s.'
(climate depot, jan 26th)
http://www.climatedepot.com/2015/01/26/meteorologist-2010s-officially-the-snowiest-decade-in-the-east-coast-in-the-noaa-record-surpassing-the-1960s/
BIRD FLU IN NORTH AMERICA_________________________
The first North American human case of H7N9 bird flu has been confirmed in B.C.
Canadian health officials announced Monday that a woman in her 50’s from the Lower Mainland has tested positive for avian influenza A(H7N9), the potentially deadly virus that has infected hundreds of people in China since first emerging in humans in March 2013.
Another family member, a man, who travelled with the Lower Mainland woman to China is believed to have been infected as well. They only developed symptoms after returning home to Canada earlier this month.
(VANCOUVER, JAN 26TH)
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/traveller%20diagnosed%20with%20H7N9%20bird%20after%20returning%20from%20China/10761534/story.html
A California turkey farm has been quarantined after confirmation of the first case of an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza strain in the Pacific Northwest and in a commercial flock, the U.S. government said.
The news on Saturday came just weeks after China banned U.S. poultry after an outbreak of another strain of bird flu in the Pacific Northwest.
In the latest outbreak, Foster Farms said in a statement that it had informed the U.S. Department of Agriculture after detecting the H5N8 strain on a single turkey ranch in Stanislaus County following routine testing.
(Reuters, jan 26th)
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/california-turkey-farm-quarantined-bird-flu-detected-164323530.html
TECHNOLOGY_________________________
NASA engineers are working on a small helicopter that could “scout” the trail for future Mars rovers, Zee News reports.
If successful, the low-flying Mars helicopter would be lookout for the rover every day, helping engineers back on Earth plan the best driving route, the US space agency said in a statement.
(Design and trend, jan 26th)
http://www.designntrend.com/articles/36498/20150126/nasa-tests-mars-helicopter.htm
MISC. NEWS___________________________
SHOCK VIDEO: Beachgoers in San Diego blithely agreed that President Barack Obama should be given the power to completely repeal the Bill of Rights in the name of fighting ISIS in another disturbing insight into the unthinking malaise of many Americans.
(Infowars, jan 26th)
http://www.infowars.com/video-americans-want-obama-to-repeal-the-bill-of-rights/
RON PAUL INTERVIEWED BY INFOWARS REFUTES WASHINGTON POST CLAIM OF BEING A SECESSIONIST
The Washington Post tried to paint the former congressman as a secessionist for speaking at a Jan. 24 Mises Institute conference in Houston, Texas, which revolved around the issue of secession, but Dr. Paul’s interview with Infowars after the speech refutes the Post’s claim.
“…I’m not as interested in that stuff [secession] as [I am] the principles of government, of power and the understanding of true liberty,” Dr. Paul said. “…What I describe is in the mist of the crisis where people would have to take care of themselves and there will be a secession system.”
In other words, he was describing an apocalyptic scenario in which states and local communities would have to hold themselves together because the federal government collapsed.
(Infowars jan 26th)
http://www.infowars.com/ron-paul-interview-refutes-washington-posts-secessionist-claim/
A former employee of a Fox television station in Texas shot himself to death outside the company's New York headquarters Monday, shortly after handing out fliers saying the company had ended his career, police said.
Philip Perea, 41, shot himself in the chest at around 9 am. Monday outside the building near Radio City Music Hall that houses Fox News, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal. Perea left a suicide note, authorities said, and a weapon was recovered at the scene. No other injuries were reported.
He was pronounced dead shortly afterward at a hospital. Perea was employed as a producer at a Fox News station in Austin until June, according to Fox officials. He worked at the station FOX7-KTBC for 10 months, according to a statement from Jack Abernethy, CEO of Fox Television Stations, to employees.
(AP, jan 26th)
http://news.yahoo.com/man-apparently-commits-suicide-gun-midtown-manhattan-154605838.html
Monday, January 26, 2015
1/26/2015 January 26th 2015
GREEK ELECTION_____________________________
Greek Anti-EU Party Wins Election: Greek people vote to throw out the banksters
A coalition party comprised of independent politicians, including democratic socialists, left-wing populist and green left groups, in addition to Maoist, Trotskyist, eurocommunist and eurosceptic elements has won the general election in Greece.
(Infowars, jan 25th)
http://www.infowars.com/greek-anti-eu-party-wins-election/
Yanis Varoufakis is tipped to become finance minister of what may become Greece’s leading party after legislative elections on Sunday. He tells Britain’s Channel 4 what Syriza will do if it takes power.
Channel 4 economics editor Paul Mason asks Varoufakis, who teaches economics at the University of Athens, “what will you do to [Greece’s] oligarchy, concretely?”
Varoufakis responds, “We are going to destroy the basis upon which they have built, for decade after decade, a system, a network that viciously sucks of the energy and economic power from everybody else in society.”
(truthdig, jan 25th)
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/we_are_going_to_destroy_the_greek_oligarchy_system_20150125
Radical leftists have been catapulted to power in Greece, and that means that the European financial crisis has just entered a dangerous new phase. Syriza, which is actually an acronym for “Coalition of the Radical Left” in Greek, has 36 percent of the total vote with approximately 80 percent of the polling stations reporting.
(economic collapse blog, jan 26th)
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/radical-leftists-win-election-greece-future-eurozone-serious-jeopardy
UKRAINE CRISIS___________________________________
VIDEO: American Boots on the Ground in Ukraine: Video clearly shows soldiers with American accents in Mariupol
(Infowars, jan 25th)
http://www.infowars.com/american-boots-on-the-ground-in-ukraine/
VIDEO: Amid the devastation of yesterday’s Mariupol artillery strikes which killed or wounded dozens, which was promptly blamed by both sides on the “adversary” – and has been proclaimed by both ‘sides’ (more on that later) as more violent than before the truce – an ‘odd’ clip has emerged that appears to provide all the ‘proof’ a US intelligence officer would need to surmise that US military boots are on the ground in Ukraine. As the following clip shows, a Ukrainian journalist approaches what she thinks is a Ukrainian soldier (since he is wearing a Ukrainian military uniform and is carrying an AK) and asked him as they run through the battlezone, “tell me, what happened here?” His response, which requires no translation, speaks for itself.
(Zero Hedge, jan 25th)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-25/out-my-face-please-why-are-us-soldiers-mariupol
In 2015, the Army expects to rotate a full-sized, U.S.-based heavy brigade of some 3,000 troops and additional tanks and other armored vehicles through Europe in connection with the service’s Regionally Aligned Force initiative. Last year, the program kicked off on a smaller scale, bringing combat tanks back into Europe after a brief absence following the elimination of two Germany-based heavy brigades in 2013. Now, the regional concept is picking up steam, with plans for 220 armored vehicles in Europe
(Stars and Stripes, jan 25th)
http://www.stripes.com/army-looking-to-store-tanks-equipment-in-eastern-europe-1.325693
GLOBAL CONFLICTS___________________________
Students who survived Mexico’s night of bloody horror accuse army and police
Alonso survived the horrific attack on unarmed students by state and criminal forces last September in the southern state of Guerrero, which left six people dead, 25 injured and 43 trainee teachers forcibly disappeared.
“Five carloads of masked police surrounded our three buses, and as we got out to see what they wanted they started shooting. There were bullets flying everywhere, and people started running. I saw one of my classmates go down. He’d been shot in the head, everyone was crying and screaming, but I was really surprised how calm I was. I started calling friends at the school to help us.”
Alonso was among those who managed to hide as dozens of his classmates were forced into police trucks and driven away. “I thought they would beat them, but that we’d get them back the next day. We hadn’t done anything, we were just students going to a protest.”
(the guardian, jan 24th)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/24/survivors-mexico-student-attack-guerrero-accuse-army-and-police
White House going nuclear on Netanyahu....
....A front-page story in The Wall Street Journal is a stunner — for all the wrong reasons. Under the headline “US, Iraq Set Sights on Mosul Offensive,” it lays out plans for a summer attack against the Islamic State, including the locations and numbers of allied Kurdish fighters and which Iraqi units will lead the charge.
Most shocking, the source is Gen. Lloyd Austin, the top American commander in the Middle East. He told the Journal US ground troops might be involved and that the military “would do what it takes.”
What the hell is going on? Since when does the military give the public, and the enemy, advance notice of battle plans? Has Gen. Austin lost his mind?
(NY post, jan 24th)
http://nypost.com/2015/01/24/white-house-going-nuclear-on-netanyahu/
A British medical student who lived with and gained the trust of Islamic State militants has news for Americans: They’re planning a bigger splash than merely beheading kidnap victims.
Rather than worry about the U.S. bombing campaign, Rashidi said, Islamic State is “happy about it,” because the attention has elevated the group’s status to that of al-Qaida.
“They want to be more better than al-Qaida,” he said. “They want to do something more better than the World Trade Center.”
(Bizpac review, jan 25th)
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2015/01/25/prisoner-who-escaped-isis-captivity-tells-nbc-they-want-something-bigger-than-911-175418
King Salman, Saudi Arabia’s newly crowned monarch, has a controversial history of helping to fund radical terror groups and has maintained ties with several anti-Semitic Muslim clerics known for advocating radical positions, according to reports and regional experts.
(Free Beacon, jan 26th)
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/saudi-arabias-new-king-helped-fund-radical-terror-groups/
Border Surge Likely Again In 2015, Data Shows
The flow of Central American migrant families across the Texas border is continuing at almost the same level as a year ago, according to newly released federal data.
(Daily caller, jan 26th)
http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/26/border-surge-likely-again-in-2015-data-shows/
U.S. ECONOMY____________________________________
Union Membership Rate Falls to 100-Year Low
According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today, the union membership rate fell to 11.1 percent, with just 14.6 million wage and salaried workers maintaining membership.
(daily signal, jan 23rd)
http://dailysignal.com/2015/01/23/union-membership-rate-falls-100-year-low/
Obama seeks to put Alaska refuge off-limits to drilling.
President Obama plans to ask Congress to designate more than 12 million acres of Alaska's wildlife refuge as a protected wilderness area, seeking to block oil and gas production.
Alaska's Republican lawmakers immediately criticized the plan, saying it would damage their state's economy.
(USA today, jan 25th)
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/01/25/obama-alaksa-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-lisa-murkowski-dan-sullivan/22312741/
To Collect Debts, Nursing Homes Are Seizing Control Over Patients
Few people are aware that a nursing home can take such a step. Guardianship cases are difficult to gain access to and poorly tracked by New York State courts; cases are often closed from public view for confidentiality. But the Palermo case is no aberration. Interviews with veterans of the system and a review of guardianship court data conducted by researchers at Hunter College at the request of The New York Times show the practice has become routine, underscoring the growing power nursing homes wield over residents and families amid changes in the financing of long-term care.
(NYT, jan 26th)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/nyregion/to-collect-debts-nursing-home-seizing-control-over-patients.html?_r=0
NEW GLOBAL WARMING TAX NOT ENOUGH: CALIFORNIA MOVES TO TAX YOU BY THE MILE WITH BLACK BOXES IN YOUR CAR
Falling Gas Tax Revenue Has California Lawmakers Considering Mileage Tax Plan
(CBS san francisco, jan 25th)
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/01/25/low-gas-prices-falling-gas-tax-revenue-has-ca-lawmakers-considering-plan-to-impose-a-mileage-tax/
Rooftop solar is now cheaper than the grid in 42 American cities: Escalating utility rates lose out to solar’s fixed price
(Utility Dive, jan 14th)
http://www.utilitydive.com/news/rooftop-solar-is-now-cheaper-than-the-grid-in-42-american-cities/352799/
Leaked documents show how U.S. companies go overseas to pay less in taxes
Mylan, Heinz among U.S. companies using Luxembourg for tax reduction: More than 300 firms are said to funnel profits through the tiny nation
(Post Gazette, jan 25th)
http://www.post-gazette.com/business/2015/01/25/Leaked-documents-show-how-U-S-companies-use-overseas-to-pay-less-in-taxes/stories/201503110001
Nation's wealthiest majority-black county has seen reversal of fortunes [under obama].
(washington post, jan 24th)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/01/24/the-american-dream-shatters-in-prince-georges-county/
Why are so many college students failing to gain job skills before graduation?
Bosses, of course, have long complained that newly minted college grads are not ready for the world of work, but there is a growing body of evidence that what students learn — or more likely don’t learn — in college makes them ill-prepared for the global job market. Two studies in just the past few weeks show that the clear signal a college degree once sent to employers that someone is ready for a job increasingly has a lot of noise surrounding it.
(washington post, jan 26th)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/01/26/why-are-so-many-college-students-failing-to-gain-job-skills-before-graduation/?tid=sm_fb
HEALTH___________________________________
For the first time, the American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency reclassify marijuana so that more research can be conducted in the hopes of finding benefits for children. The influential medical society also proposes that marijuana should be made available on a compassionate use basis for children with debilitating or life-threatening illnesses.
(WSJ, jan 26th)
http://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-270B-1364
Insecticides are sprayed year-round in the Keys' charming and crowded neighborhoods. But Aedes aegypti, whose biting females spread these diseases, have evolved to resist four of the six insecticides used to kill them.
Enter Oxitec, a British biotech firm that patented a method of breeding Aedes aegypti with fragments of genes from the herpes simplex virus and E. coli bacteria as well as coral and cabbage. This synthetic DNA is commonly used in laboratory science and is thought to pose no significant risks to other animals, but it kills mosquito larvae.
Oxitec's lab workers manually remove modified females, aiming to release only males, which don't bite for blood like females do. The modified males then mate with wild females whose offspring die, reducing the population.
Company spokeswoman Chris Creese said the test will be similar in size to Oxitec's 2012 experiment in the Cayman Islands, where 3.3 million modified mosquitoes were released over six months, suppressing 96 percent of the targeted bugs. Oxitec says a later test in Brazil also was successful, and both countries now want larger-scale projects.
Creese says Oxitec has now released 70 million of its mosquitoes in several countries and received no reports of human impacts caused by bites or from the synthetic DNA, despite regulatory oversight that encourages people to report any problems. "We are confident of the safety of our mosquito, as there's no mechanism for any adverse effect on human health. The proteins are non-toxic and non-allergenic," she said.
(AP, jan 25th)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MODIFIED_MOSQUITOES_ABRIDGED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-01-25-11-57-58
POLICE STATE___________________________
Contrary to what you may have read recently, Attorney General Eric Holder did not put an end to civil forfeiture, a form of legalized theft in which the government takes property allegedly linked to crime without even charging the owner, let alone convicting him. Nor did Holder stop civil forfeiture by the federal government or by the Justice Department. He did not even eliminate the Justice Department's Equitable Sharing Program, which lets police dodge state limits on forfeiture. Instead Holder restricted part of that program: "adoption," where a state or local law enforcement agency seizes an asset and then asks the Justice Department to pursue forfeiture under federal law. Holder's reform was a step in the right direction, but not nearly as big a step as much of the press coverage implied.
In an order issued on January 16, Holder said adoption from now on will be limited to "property that directly relates to public safety concerns, including firearms, ammunition, explosives, and property associated with child pornography." Judging from the DOJ's new instructions to agencies seeking adoption, that list is exhaustive, and it notably does not include drug cases, which account for a large share of forfeitures. That is good news, since it means cops cannot seize cash or other property based on vague, unsubstantiated suspicions that it is somehow related to drug activity and then use adoption to keep up to 80% of the loot.
But cops still can do essentially the same thing if the seizure results from an investigation assisted by or coordinated with "federal authorities." That's a big loophole, especially since there are hundreds of federally subsidized drug task forces across the country, composed of local cops who are often deputized as federal agents. "As virtually every drug task force I know of has a federal liaison on call," says Eapen Thampy, executive director of Americans for Forfeiture Reform,
(Reason, jan 26th)
http://reason.com/archives/2015/01/26/cops-are-still-robbers
Sheriffs are campaigning to pressure Google Inc. to turn off a feature on its Waze traffic software that warns drivers when police are nearby. They say one of the technology industry's most popular mobile apps could put officers' lives in danger from would-be police killers who can find where their targets are parked.
Waze, which Google purchased for $966 million in 2013, is a combination of GPS navigation and social networking. Fifty million users in 200 countries turn to the free service for real-time traffic guidance and warnings about nearby congestion, car accidents, speed traps or traffic cameras, construction zones, potholes, stalled vehicles or unsafe weather conditions.
To Sergio Kopelev, a reserve deputy sheriff in Southern California, Waze is also a stalking app for law enforcement. There are no known connections between any attack on police and Waze, but law enforcers such as Kopelev are concerned it's only a matter of time.
(AP, jan 26th)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_POLICE_TRACKING_APP?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
CORRUPTION AND SCANDALS________________________
Charles Koch: We’re just getting started
Charles Koch on Saturday signaled to hundreds of donors, operatives and conservative leaders gathered in the California desert that the political operation he and his brother David created was just getting started.
“Americans have taken an important step in slowing down the march toward collectivism,” Charles Koch said in his speech, seemingly in reference to the Republican takeover of the Senate during the 2014 midterm elections.
“But as many of you know, we don’t rest on our laurels. We are already back at work and hard at it! In fact, the work never really ends. Because the struggle for freedom never ends,” Koch said, according to excerpts provided by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit outfit that oversees the vast political and policy network created by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers.
(Politico, jan 24th)
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/charles-koch-were-just-getting-started-114567.html#ixzz3PxWxtRc9
GOP leaders to grant Obama 'enormous' new power: Congress providing 'rubber stamp' on foreign policy
(WND, jan 22nd)
http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/gop-leaders-to-grant-obama-enormous-new-power/#x6p4iDxYmtl9CohT.99
The Obama administration has been using General David Petraeus’ legal predicament over an extramarital affair to keep him “on a leash” and prevent him from him from providing “devastating testimony” on Benghazi, charges Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.
“We’re not even getting to the people that really have the most direct information,” Gohmert said in a radio interview Sunday. “Have you not wondered about Petraeus being so silent all this time?”
(WND, jan 25th)
http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/obama-intimidating-benghazi-witness-into-silence/#JIHUsol3oUMlS7U0.99
Meet the Flight trainer who flunked 2 of the 9/11 hijackers: Training 'dumb and dumber' terrorists put Rick Garza in the history books
(UT San Diego, jan 25th)
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/jan/25/garza-flight-instructor-hijacker-september-11/?google_editors_picks=true
Anonymous calls for activists to help expose international paedophile networks with 'Operation DeathEaters'
(Independent, jan 23rd)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/anonymous-calls-for-activists-to-help-expose-international-paedophile-networks-with-operation-deatheaters-9998350.html
A 31-year-old woman who claims she was a teenage sex slave and forced to service high-profile clients such as Prince Andrew and attorney Alan Dershowitz has now repeated those claims under oath.
On Wednesday, the woman — referred to in court documents as Jane Doe No. 3 — made a declaration that was filed by her attorneys, including Paul Cassell, a University of Utah law professor and a former federal judge, in a Florida court.
(KSL, jan 22nd)
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=33188442
Ex-spies infiltrate Hollywood as espionage TV shows and movies multiply
(Washington post, jan 24th)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/ex-spies-infiltrate-hollywood-as-espionage-tv-shows-and-movies-multiply/2015/01/24/a50721a4-a183-11e4-b146-577832eafcb4_story.html
Greek Anti-EU Party Wins Election: Greek people vote to throw out the banksters
A coalition party comprised of independent politicians, including democratic socialists, left-wing populist and green left groups, in addition to Maoist, Trotskyist, eurocommunist and eurosceptic elements has won the general election in Greece.
(Infowars, jan 25th)
http://www.infowars.com/greek-anti-eu-party-wins-election/
Yanis Varoufakis is tipped to become finance minister of what may become Greece’s leading party after legislative elections on Sunday. He tells Britain’s Channel 4 what Syriza will do if it takes power.
Channel 4 economics editor Paul Mason asks Varoufakis, who teaches economics at the University of Athens, “what will you do to [Greece’s] oligarchy, concretely?”
Varoufakis responds, “We are going to destroy the basis upon which they have built, for decade after decade, a system, a network that viciously sucks of the energy and economic power from everybody else in society.”
(truthdig, jan 25th)
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/we_are_going_to_destroy_the_greek_oligarchy_system_20150125
Radical leftists have been catapulted to power in Greece, and that means that the European financial crisis has just entered a dangerous new phase. Syriza, which is actually an acronym for “Coalition of the Radical Left” in Greek, has 36 percent of the total vote with approximately 80 percent of the polling stations reporting.
(economic collapse blog, jan 26th)
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/radical-leftists-win-election-greece-future-eurozone-serious-jeopardy
UKRAINE CRISIS___________________________________
VIDEO: American Boots on the Ground in Ukraine: Video clearly shows soldiers with American accents in Mariupol
(Infowars, jan 25th)
http://www.infowars.com/american-boots-on-the-ground-in-ukraine/
VIDEO: Amid the devastation of yesterday’s Mariupol artillery strikes which killed or wounded dozens, which was promptly blamed by both sides on the “adversary” – and has been proclaimed by both ‘sides’ (more on that later) as more violent than before the truce – an ‘odd’ clip has emerged that appears to provide all the ‘proof’ a US intelligence officer would need to surmise that US military boots are on the ground in Ukraine. As the following clip shows, a Ukrainian journalist approaches what she thinks is a Ukrainian soldier (since he is wearing a Ukrainian military uniform and is carrying an AK) and asked him as they run through the battlezone, “tell me, what happened here?” His response, which requires no translation, speaks for itself.
(Zero Hedge, jan 25th)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-25/out-my-face-please-why-are-us-soldiers-mariupol
In 2015, the Army expects to rotate a full-sized, U.S.-based heavy brigade of some 3,000 troops and additional tanks and other armored vehicles through Europe in connection with the service’s Regionally Aligned Force initiative. Last year, the program kicked off on a smaller scale, bringing combat tanks back into Europe after a brief absence following the elimination of two Germany-based heavy brigades in 2013. Now, the regional concept is picking up steam, with plans for 220 armored vehicles in Europe
(Stars and Stripes, jan 25th)
http://www.stripes.com/army-looking-to-store-tanks-equipment-in-eastern-europe-1.325693
GLOBAL CONFLICTS___________________________
Students who survived Mexico’s night of bloody horror accuse army and police
Alonso survived the horrific attack on unarmed students by state and criminal forces last September in the southern state of Guerrero, which left six people dead, 25 injured and 43 trainee teachers forcibly disappeared.
“Five carloads of masked police surrounded our three buses, and as we got out to see what they wanted they started shooting. There were bullets flying everywhere, and people started running. I saw one of my classmates go down. He’d been shot in the head, everyone was crying and screaming, but I was really surprised how calm I was. I started calling friends at the school to help us.”
Alonso was among those who managed to hide as dozens of his classmates were forced into police trucks and driven away. “I thought they would beat them, but that we’d get them back the next day. We hadn’t done anything, we were just students going to a protest.”
(the guardian, jan 24th)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/24/survivors-mexico-student-attack-guerrero-accuse-army-and-police
White House going nuclear on Netanyahu....
....A front-page story in The Wall Street Journal is a stunner — for all the wrong reasons. Under the headline “US, Iraq Set Sights on Mosul Offensive,” it lays out plans for a summer attack against the Islamic State, including the locations and numbers of allied Kurdish fighters and which Iraqi units will lead the charge.
Most shocking, the source is Gen. Lloyd Austin, the top American commander in the Middle East. He told the Journal US ground troops might be involved and that the military “would do what it takes.”
What the hell is going on? Since when does the military give the public, and the enemy, advance notice of battle plans? Has Gen. Austin lost his mind?
(NY post, jan 24th)
http://nypost.com/2015/01/24/white-house-going-nuclear-on-netanyahu/
A British medical student who lived with and gained the trust of Islamic State militants has news for Americans: They’re planning a bigger splash than merely beheading kidnap victims.
Rather than worry about the U.S. bombing campaign, Rashidi said, Islamic State is “happy about it,” because the attention has elevated the group’s status to that of al-Qaida.
“They want to be more better than al-Qaida,” he said. “They want to do something more better than the World Trade Center.”
(Bizpac review, jan 25th)
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2015/01/25/prisoner-who-escaped-isis-captivity-tells-nbc-they-want-something-bigger-than-911-175418
King Salman, Saudi Arabia’s newly crowned monarch, has a controversial history of helping to fund radical terror groups and has maintained ties with several anti-Semitic Muslim clerics known for advocating radical positions, according to reports and regional experts.
(Free Beacon, jan 26th)
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/saudi-arabias-new-king-helped-fund-radical-terror-groups/
Border Surge Likely Again In 2015, Data Shows
The flow of Central American migrant families across the Texas border is continuing at almost the same level as a year ago, according to newly released federal data.
(Daily caller, jan 26th)
http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/26/border-surge-likely-again-in-2015-data-shows/
U.S. ECONOMY____________________________________
Union Membership Rate Falls to 100-Year Low
According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today, the union membership rate fell to 11.1 percent, with just 14.6 million wage and salaried workers maintaining membership.
(daily signal, jan 23rd)
http://dailysignal.com/2015/01/23/union-membership-rate-falls-100-year-low/
Obama seeks to put Alaska refuge off-limits to drilling.
President Obama plans to ask Congress to designate more than 12 million acres of Alaska's wildlife refuge as a protected wilderness area, seeking to block oil and gas production.
Alaska's Republican lawmakers immediately criticized the plan, saying it would damage their state's economy.
(USA today, jan 25th)
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/01/25/obama-alaksa-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-lisa-murkowski-dan-sullivan/22312741/
To Collect Debts, Nursing Homes Are Seizing Control Over Patients
Few people are aware that a nursing home can take such a step. Guardianship cases are difficult to gain access to and poorly tracked by New York State courts; cases are often closed from public view for confidentiality. But the Palermo case is no aberration. Interviews with veterans of the system and a review of guardianship court data conducted by researchers at Hunter College at the request of The New York Times show the practice has become routine, underscoring the growing power nursing homes wield over residents and families amid changes in the financing of long-term care.
(NYT, jan 26th)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/nyregion/to-collect-debts-nursing-home-seizing-control-over-patients.html?_r=0
NEW GLOBAL WARMING TAX NOT ENOUGH: CALIFORNIA MOVES TO TAX YOU BY THE MILE WITH BLACK BOXES IN YOUR CAR
Falling Gas Tax Revenue Has California Lawmakers Considering Mileage Tax Plan
(CBS san francisco, jan 25th)
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/01/25/low-gas-prices-falling-gas-tax-revenue-has-ca-lawmakers-considering-plan-to-impose-a-mileage-tax/
Rooftop solar is now cheaper than the grid in 42 American cities: Escalating utility rates lose out to solar’s fixed price
(Utility Dive, jan 14th)
http://www.utilitydive.com/news/rooftop-solar-is-now-cheaper-than-the-grid-in-42-american-cities/352799/
Leaked documents show how U.S. companies go overseas to pay less in taxes
Mylan, Heinz among U.S. companies using Luxembourg for tax reduction: More than 300 firms are said to funnel profits through the tiny nation
(Post Gazette, jan 25th)
http://www.post-gazette.com/business/2015/01/25/Leaked-documents-show-how-U-S-companies-use-overseas-to-pay-less-in-taxes/stories/201503110001
Nation's wealthiest majority-black county has seen reversal of fortunes [under obama].
(washington post, jan 24th)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/01/24/the-american-dream-shatters-in-prince-georges-county/
Why are so many college students failing to gain job skills before graduation?
Bosses, of course, have long complained that newly minted college grads are not ready for the world of work, but there is a growing body of evidence that what students learn — or more likely don’t learn — in college makes them ill-prepared for the global job market. Two studies in just the past few weeks show that the clear signal a college degree once sent to employers that someone is ready for a job increasingly has a lot of noise surrounding it.
(washington post, jan 26th)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/01/26/why-are-so-many-college-students-failing-to-gain-job-skills-before-graduation/?tid=sm_fb
HEALTH___________________________________
For the first time, the American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency reclassify marijuana so that more research can be conducted in the hopes of finding benefits for children. The influential medical society also proposes that marijuana should be made available on a compassionate use basis for children with debilitating or life-threatening illnesses.
(WSJ, jan 26th)
http://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-270B-1364
Insecticides are sprayed year-round in the Keys' charming and crowded neighborhoods. But Aedes aegypti, whose biting females spread these diseases, have evolved to resist four of the six insecticides used to kill them.
Enter Oxitec, a British biotech firm that patented a method of breeding Aedes aegypti with fragments of genes from the herpes simplex virus and E. coli bacteria as well as coral and cabbage. This synthetic DNA is commonly used in laboratory science and is thought to pose no significant risks to other animals, but it kills mosquito larvae.
Oxitec's lab workers manually remove modified females, aiming to release only males, which don't bite for blood like females do. The modified males then mate with wild females whose offspring die, reducing the population.
Company spokeswoman Chris Creese said the test will be similar in size to Oxitec's 2012 experiment in the Cayman Islands, where 3.3 million modified mosquitoes were released over six months, suppressing 96 percent of the targeted bugs. Oxitec says a later test in Brazil also was successful, and both countries now want larger-scale projects.
Creese says Oxitec has now released 70 million of its mosquitoes in several countries and received no reports of human impacts caused by bites or from the synthetic DNA, despite regulatory oversight that encourages people to report any problems. "We are confident of the safety of our mosquito, as there's no mechanism for any adverse effect on human health. The proteins are non-toxic and non-allergenic," she said.
(AP, jan 25th)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MODIFIED_MOSQUITOES_ABRIDGED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-01-25-11-57-58
POLICE STATE___________________________
Contrary to what you may have read recently, Attorney General Eric Holder did not put an end to civil forfeiture, a form of legalized theft in which the government takes property allegedly linked to crime without even charging the owner, let alone convicting him. Nor did Holder stop civil forfeiture by the federal government or by the Justice Department. He did not even eliminate the Justice Department's Equitable Sharing Program, which lets police dodge state limits on forfeiture. Instead Holder restricted part of that program: "adoption," where a state or local law enforcement agency seizes an asset and then asks the Justice Department to pursue forfeiture under federal law. Holder's reform was a step in the right direction, but not nearly as big a step as much of the press coverage implied.
In an order issued on January 16, Holder said adoption from now on will be limited to "property that directly relates to public safety concerns, including firearms, ammunition, explosives, and property associated with child pornography." Judging from the DOJ's new instructions to agencies seeking adoption, that list is exhaustive, and it notably does not include drug cases, which account for a large share of forfeitures. That is good news, since it means cops cannot seize cash or other property based on vague, unsubstantiated suspicions that it is somehow related to drug activity and then use adoption to keep up to 80% of the loot.
But cops still can do essentially the same thing if the seizure results from an investigation assisted by or coordinated with "federal authorities." That's a big loophole, especially since there are hundreds of federally subsidized drug task forces across the country, composed of local cops who are often deputized as federal agents. "As virtually every drug task force I know of has a federal liaison on call," says Eapen Thampy, executive director of Americans for Forfeiture Reform,
(Reason, jan 26th)
http://reason.com/archives/2015/01/26/cops-are-still-robbers
Sheriffs are campaigning to pressure Google Inc. to turn off a feature on its Waze traffic software that warns drivers when police are nearby. They say one of the technology industry's most popular mobile apps could put officers' lives in danger from would-be police killers who can find where their targets are parked.
Waze, which Google purchased for $966 million in 2013, is a combination of GPS navigation and social networking. Fifty million users in 200 countries turn to the free service for real-time traffic guidance and warnings about nearby congestion, car accidents, speed traps or traffic cameras, construction zones, potholes, stalled vehicles or unsafe weather conditions.
To Sergio Kopelev, a reserve deputy sheriff in Southern California, Waze is also a stalking app for law enforcement. There are no known connections between any attack on police and Waze, but law enforcers such as Kopelev are concerned it's only a matter of time.
(AP, jan 26th)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_POLICE_TRACKING_APP?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
CORRUPTION AND SCANDALS________________________
Charles Koch: We’re just getting started
Charles Koch on Saturday signaled to hundreds of donors, operatives and conservative leaders gathered in the California desert that the political operation he and his brother David created was just getting started.
“Americans have taken an important step in slowing down the march toward collectivism,” Charles Koch said in his speech, seemingly in reference to the Republican takeover of the Senate during the 2014 midterm elections.
“But as many of you know, we don’t rest on our laurels. We are already back at work and hard at it! In fact, the work never really ends. Because the struggle for freedom never ends,” Koch said, according to excerpts provided by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit outfit that oversees the vast political and policy network created by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers.
(Politico, jan 24th)
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/charles-koch-were-just-getting-started-114567.html#ixzz3PxWxtRc9
GOP leaders to grant Obama 'enormous' new power: Congress providing 'rubber stamp' on foreign policy
(WND, jan 22nd)
http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/gop-leaders-to-grant-obama-enormous-new-power/#x6p4iDxYmtl9CohT.99
The Obama administration has been using General David Petraeus’ legal predicament over an extramarital affair to keep him “on a leash” and prevent him from him from providing “devastating testimony” on Benghazi, charges Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.
“We’re not even getting to the people that really have the most direct information,” Gohmert said in a radio interview Sunday. “Have you not wondered about Petraeus being so silent all this time?”
(WND, jan 25th)
http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/obama-intimidating-benghazi-witness-into-silence/#JIHUsol3oUMlS7U0.99
Meet the Flight trainer who flunked 2 of the 9/11 hijackers: Training 'dumb and dumber' terrorists put Rick Garza in the history books
(UT San Diego, jan 25th)
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/jan/25/garza-flight-instructor-hijacker-september-11/?google_editors_picks=true
Anonymous calls for activists to help expose international paedophile networks with 'Operation DeathEaters'
(Independent, jan 23rd)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/anonymous-calls-for-activists-to-help-expose-international-paedophile-networks-with-operation-deatheaters-9998350.html
A 31-year-old woman who claims she was a teenage sex slave and forced to service high-profile clients such as Prince Andrew and attorney Alan Dershowitz has now repeated those claims under oath.
On Wednesday, the woman — referred to in court documents as Jane Doe No. 3 — made a declaration that was filed by her attorneys, including Paul Cassell, a University of Utah law professor and a former federal judge, in a Florida court.
(KSL, jan 22nd)
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=33188442
Ex-spies infiltrate Hollywood as espionage TV shows and movies multiply
(Washington post, jan 24th)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/ex-spies-infiltrate-hollywood-as-espionage-tv-shows-and-movies-multiply/2015/01/24/a50721a4-a183-11e4-b146-577832eafcb4_story.html
Sunday, January 25, 2015
1/25/2015 January 25th 2015
Obama and Boehner and Clinton__________________________
An Obama administration official wants to hire the Walt Disney Co. to teach children about climate change using the wildly popular animated franchise “Frozen.”
(jan 24th, the hill)
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/230540-obama-administration-wants-frozen-spin-off-on-climate-change
Obama calls homosexuality a ‘lifestyle choice’; Where’s media outrage?
(Twitchy, jan 24th)
http://twitchy.com/2015/01/23/president-gay-lo-calls-homosexuality-a-lifestyle-choice-wheres-media-outrage-video/
BOEHNER PLEADS AND WHINES:
He’ll tell the nation on “60 Minutes” Sunday his critics on the right are turning him into a “human piñata” so they can profit off their attacks.
“The issue with the tea party isn’t one of strategy,” he says. “It’s not one of different vision. It’s a disagreement over tactics, from time to time. Frankly, a lot is being driven by national groups here in Washington who have raised money and just beating the dickens out of me. It works. They raise money, put it in their pocket and pay themselves big salaries.”
(WND, jan 24th)
http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/boehner-im-a-human-pinata/
Former President Bill Clinton took a romantic jaunt in 2002 to convicted pedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein’s “orgy island” with “two young girls” from New York, according to a shocking new interview.
Virginia Roberts, who’s accused Epstein of turning her into a “sex slave” at age 17 and forcing her to sleep with his powerful friends, claimed Clinton stayed in one of the many villas on Epstein’s US Virgin Islands estate — where group sex was a “regular occurrence.”
(page six, jan 24th)
http://pagesix.com/2015/01/24/sex-slave-claims-bill-clinton-visited-epsteins-orgy-island/?_ga=1.232945239.815581636.1415422734
War on Terror___________________________
The latest video attributed to the Islamic State was produced in a studio with a green screen backdrop and not shot at an outdoor location, according to the Associated Press.
(Infowars, jan 24th)
http://www.infowars.com/corporate-media-says-islamic-state-ransom-video-studio-produced/
The Islamic State announced one Japanese hostage’s execution and offered a swap for the other who still remains in their hands, Reuters reports.
(Sputnik, jan 24th)
http://sputniknews.com/world/20150124/1017307266.html
19-year-old Colorado woman who planned to marry an Islamic State militant she had never met in person and join the terrorist group in Turkey was sentenced to four years in federal prison.
Shannon Maureen Conley, who pleaded guilty in September to one count of of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, said she never intended to hurt anyone, but instead hoped to defend Muslims. Following the prosecutor’s sentencing request, U.S. District Judge Raymond P. Moore said he wanted to send a warning to others considering the same thing.
“This is not a serious offense but an extremely serious offense. I need to send a message,” U.S. District Judge Raymond P. Moore said.
In April, Conley was arrested at Denver International Airport as she tried to board a plane for Turkey. She had planned to meet Yousr Mouelhi, a 32-year-old IS militant she had met online and who promised her marriage.
(UPI, jan 24th)
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2015/01/24/Colorado-woman-who-tried-to-join-IS-terrorists-gets-4-years/6581422098244/
Global Conflicts______________________________________
Kiev Government and Militia Trade Accusations on Shelling of Mariupol:
A spokesman for the Donetsk militia headquarters told RIA Novosti it is not responsible for the attack and has “no weapon systems near Mariupol that would be able to shell that region. Our positions are simply too far away.”
The deputy speaker of the DPR parliament, Denis Pushilin, characterized the incident as a provocation.
“It is all clear, who shelled Mariupol: from which regions they are, from which spot and where the artillery was located. As far as I know, [rockets were] fired by a Grad multiple rocket launcher. Our militia units don’t have artillery capable of reaching the location of the shelling,” Pushilin said.
The BBC and other news agencies, however, report militia leader Alexander Zakharchenko ordered the shelling.
(Infowars, jan 24th)
http://www.infowars.com/kiev-government-militia-trade-accusations-on-shelling-of-mariupol/
The new top general in the Marine Corps released a 16-page plan on Friday detailing his vision for the service, emphasizing a realignment of troops to meet demands in the Pacific and Africa, better coordination with Special Operations units, and new psychological testing to assess resiliency in recruits.
(washington post, jan 23rd)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/01/23/new-top-marine-corps-general-releases-plan-to-shake-up-the-service/
Tens of thousands of Yemenis marched in protest on Saturday against Shiite rebels who hold the capital, amid a power vacuum in a country that is home to what Washington describes as al-Qaida's most dangerous offshoot.
Some 20,000 hit the streets of the capital, Sanaa, where demonstrators converged on the house of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who resigned Thursday along with his Cabinet. It was the largest protest since the rebels, known as Houthis, swept into the capital in September.
(AP, Jan 24th)
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150124/ml--yemen-eab08041b4.html
Iran has threatened to attack Israel from the West Bank, in retaliation for an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria on Sunday that left 12 Iranian and Hezbollah operatives dead. The airstrike has been attributed to Israel and though Jerusalem has not officially confirmed it, anonymous government sources have admitted as much.
Deputy head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Lt.-Gen. Hossein Salami vowed Saturday to “open new fronts [against Israel] and change the balance of power.” In an excerpt of an interview with Salami, the IRGC’s number two said that Iran and Hezbollah would provide a “special reprisal” to the strike, according to the Tasnim News Agency, adding that opening a new front in the West Bank was in the works.
“Opening up a new front across the West Bank, which is a major section of our dear Palestine, will be certainly on the agenda, and this is part of a new reality that will gradually emerge,” Salami said in the inteview with Iran’s Arabic-language news channel al-Alam.
(times of israel, jan 24th)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-vows-to-attack-israel-from-west-bank/
Iran's parliament has started to draft a law that would allow the country's nuclear scientists to intensify their uranium enrichment, a step that could complicate ongoing talks with world powers.
The move, announced Saturday by parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, comes after U.S. lawmakers said they were planning legislation that could place new sanctions on Iran.
(naharnet, jan 24th)
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/164583-iran-lawmakers-drafting-law-on-nuclear-enrichment-hike
Faced with one of the biggest crises of her presidency, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has given her countrymen a confusing and sometimes contradictory view of how her most damaging accuser was found dead, at first seeming to accept the idea of suicide and later describing it as an elaborate murder plot to undermine her government.
Fernandez's response to what reads like a whodunit movie script - prosecutor Alberto Nisman is found dead with a bullet in his head hours before he was set to elaborate on explosive allegations against Fernandez - has deepened a political crisis with wide implications for the last year of her presidency and perhaps even for the future of the country beyond that.
For the first time in her presidency, Fernandez appears to have lost control.
(AP, jan 24th)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_ARGENTINA_PROSECUTOR_KILLED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-01-24-13-35-27
U.S. and World Economy________________________________
More homeless camps are appearing beyond downtown L.A.'s skid row
Over the last two years, street encampments have jumped their historic boundaries in downtown Los Angeles, lining freeways and filling underpasses from Echo Park to South Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a city-county agency, received 767 calls about street encampments in 2014, up 60% from the 479 in 2013.
Bound by court decisions, the city has largely quit breaking up homeless groups and confiscating their trash and belongings, leaving the camps to grow and multiply.
As many as 6,000 volunteers will go out Tuesday through Thursday searching for homeless people living in alleys, riverbeds, cars and RVs. For the first time, homeless people will be asked about their gender identity, domestic violence and prison histories, and years of military service — information that could better track where they came from and why.
(AP, jan 24th)
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-homeless-encampments-20150125-story.html
Rip up your euro forecasts: A day after the European Central Bank unveiled its bond-buying program, the single currency still was in free fall, blowing past analysts’ expectations for how low the euro can go.
Some investors now say the euro could fall to the point where it is on equal footing with the U.S. dollar for the first time since it climbed above the buck in late 2002.
“If you would have asked me a few months ago, I would’ve said that parity could be in the cards in the years ahead. Now, we can’t rule it out anymore even by the end of this year,” said Thomas Kressin, head of European foreign exchange at Pacific Investment Management Co., or Pimco, which has $1.68 trillion under management.
(WSJ, jan 24th)
http://www.wsj.com/articles/as-euro-slides-strategists-cut-forecasts-1422045084
How the European dream is dying, state by state:
As Greece prepares for an election which could decide the fate of Europe, find out how the EU project is slowly falling apart in the ten major member states and two cities which form its heart
(telegraph, jan 24th)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/11366613/How-the-European-dream-is-dying-state-by-state.html
Deputy governor at Iranian Central Bank stated that Iran no longer uses the US dollar in foreign trade transactions, replacing it with other currencies.
(Sputnik, jan 24th)
http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20150124/1017299147.html
Cable TV is about to get more expensive for millions of consumers because of a bidding war between networks and the country’s most powerful sports leagues.
Time Warner Cable, Cablevision and scores of rural cable providers are tacking on sports surcharges each month, the direct result of higher fees they are paying to ESPN and other sports networks to carry their channels. Beginning Feb. 5, DirecTV will raise fees by 5.7 percent.
The rise in cable prices is likely to test the patience of customers, who may already be tempted to cut their cords in exchange for streaming options that will soon be available to them. For providers and customers, the creeping prices amount to a test — at what point will viewers decide it isn’t worth paying for cable anymore?
(washington post, jan 23rd)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/bidding-war-between-networks-sports-leagues-will-increase-price-of-cable-tv/2015/01/23/d0cb19f4-9db8-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html
No need for speed: Cable industry opposes 25Mbps broadband definition. Normal people don't need 25Mbps down or 3Mbps up, cable lobby says.
The cable lobby is opposed to a Federal Communications Commission plan to define "broadband" as speeds of at least 25Mbps downstream and 3Mbps up.
Customers do just fine with lower speeds, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) wrote in an FCC filing Thursday (thanks to the Washington Post's Brian Fung for pointing it out). 25Mbps/3Mbps isn't necessary to meet the legal definition of "high-speed, switched, broadband telecommunications capability that enables users to originate and receive high-quality voice, data, graphics, and video telecommunications using any technology," the NCTA said.
(ars technica, jan 24th)
http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/01/no-need-for-speed-cable-industry-opposes-25mbps-broadband-definition/
Police State______________________________
Arkansas sheriff's deputies in Garland County have "stolen" seven homeschoolers from their parents in a home raid spurred by an anonymous caller who told authorities the family's house contained a "poisonous substance" — which turned out to be a mineral supplement/water purifier that isn't FDA-approved. It's been more than a week since the officers and the Department of Human Services (DHS) seized the seven homeschoolers. They remain in state custody.
Michelle Stanley, the mother of the seven children, is still in shock that the police and DHS have gotten away with abducting her children — taking them into custody under what she calls false pretenses.
"The DHS has come and stolen our kids from us under the guise of 'protecting our children," Stanley wrote in an email shortly after her home was raided by police and the DHS, according to Health Impact News.
(one news now, jan 20th)
http://www.onenewsnow.com/culture/2015/01/20/homeschooled-children-seized-by-authorities-still-in-state-custody#.VMUv9i70LIU
Earths Ecosystem_______________________________________
Mass Death of Seabirds in Western U.S. Is 'Unprecedented'.....Why are so many auklets, from California to Canada, starving?
The gruesome auklet deaths come just as scientists around the globe are seeing a significant uptick in mass-mortality events in the marine world, from sea urchins to fish and birds. Although there doesn't appear to be a link to the virus that killed tens of millions of sea stars along the same shores from California to Alaska over the past 18 months, some scientists suspect a factor in both cases may be uncharacteristically warm waters.
The U.S. Geological Survey and others have performed animal autopsies, called necropsies, on several of the emaciated Cassin's auklets. They've found no evidence of disease or trauma—no viruses or bacteria, no feathers coated with spilled oil. The birds appear simply to have starved to death.
(nat geo, jan 24th)
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150123-seabirds-mass-die-off-auklet-california-animals-environment/
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